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WHIPPLE CREEK REALTY WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S - GT BARRINGTON WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S - LENOX WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S - SALISBURY WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL REALTY WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL REALTY, LENOX WILLIAM RAVEIS REAL ESTATE Williamstown Realty Group WITALISZ & ASSOCIATES, INC. WOLCOTT REALTY WWW.ENTRYONLY.COM Email IC Arizona at azpoliticalintel-at-yahoo.comIC Arizona is a subsidiary of IntellectualConservative.com Photo: Journalists from Asia Pacific at the IFJ-SEAJU meeting in Bangkok launch findings from IFJ-SEAJU research into impunity, working conditions and safety for journalists in South East Asia. Credit: Ujjwal Acharya/IFJ Welcome to the IFJ Asia-Pacifics monthly e-bulletin. The next bulletin will be sent on December 1, 2018 and contributions from affiliates are most welcome. To contribute, email ifj@ifj-asia.org Please distribute this bulletin widely among colleagues in the media. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ifjasiapacific Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IFJAsiaPacific Join the IFJ Asia-Pacific mailing list here In this bulletin: IFJ marks #IDEI calling for change and action India: two journalists killed in last than 24 hours Good news story: Japanese journalist abducted in Syria, released Political crisis in Sri Lanka raises concerns over media safety SEAJU calls for criminal case to be dropped in Indonesia Pakistan: Journalist killed after reporting on drug mafia Upcoming elections in Afghanistan raise safety concerns for media Media implicated in Indias #MeToo New broadcasting bill endorsed in Bangladesh FCCHK VP visa renewal refused Myanmar: Three Eleven Media journalists arrested over report Timor Leste: Editor dismissed over role on Press Council Press Trust of India sacks 297 staff in one day SAMSN Blog: Bringing #MeToo to its logical finale A Free Speech Impunity Indicator launches in India on IDEI IFJ marks #IDEI calling for change and action Today, on International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, the IFJ and its affiliates across the world have called for change and action to guarantee the safety of journalists worldwide. Launching the global campaign, the IFJ called for its initiative for a UN Convention on impunity to be endorsed and supported by organisations and governments, taking a stand to stamp out impunity. As part of the global campaign, the IFJ highlighted the state of impunity in some of the most dangerous countries including: Afghanistan, Malta, Mexico, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo. According to IFJ figures, 75 journalists have been killed in 2018, 30 of which took place in the Asia Pacific region. Afghanistan is the deadliest country, with 16 journalists and media workers killed this year. At the IFJ-SEAJU Journalism Under Threat meeting in Bangkok, the IFJ and South East Asia Journalist Unions (SEAJU) launched the preliminary findings from the regional survey on safety, impunity and working conditions for journalists. The findings highlighted that 1 in 2 journalists feel insecure because of their work, 44% say media freedom has further declined in their country and 55% said impunity was a major problem or epidemic in their country. The survey findings are part of a wider project, and the full results will be launched on December 14, 2018. See more from how IFJ affiliates are marking IDEI here See more on the IFJ UN Convention here See more on IFJ-SEAJU impunity & safety research here Download the IFJ-SEAJU research infographic here India: two journalists killed in less than 24 hours Just days before International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists two journalists were brutally killed in India, raising serious concerns about government efforts to guarantee the safety of the media. On October 30, videojournalist Achyutananda Sahu was killed as he covering preparations for upcoming state elections in Chhattisgargh. Sahu was part of a media team from government-run Doordarshan, embedded with local police. He was killed from crossfire when the group came under attack from a Maoist militant group. Chandan Tiwari, a journalist with Aaj News was last seen on Monday, October 29 in the Chatra district of Jharkhand. Early on Tuesday, Tiwari was found unconscious in the jungle and rushed to hospital where he was declared deceased. According to investigations Tiwari had lodged two police complaints over threats he had received with police. Read more here. Good news story: Japanese journalist abducted in Syria, released On October 24, Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda was released, three years after he was abducted in Syria. Jumpei Yasuda was abducted in June 2015, after travelling from Turkey to Syria to report on the countrys civil war. According to BBC, Yasuda was held by the al-Qaeda-linked group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was once known as al-Nusra Front. He was released on Wednesday, October 24 and arrived back in Tokyo on Thursday. He returned to Japan to celebrations from his family, but was also widely criticised online for his reckless behavior. Read more here. Political crisis in Sri Lanka raises concerns over media safety Newsrooms of the state-owned media in Sri Lanka were targeted and editorial staff harassed following the controversial appointment of former president Mahinda Rajapaksha as the new Prime Minister by President Maithripala Sirisena on October 26, 2018. According to reports, a group of SLPP loyalists within ANCL barged into the layout section of the Daily News on October 26 night and changed the layout telling that they were acting under orders from the PMs office. Similarly, the staff at the Sunday Observer, were pressured to publish a story of Rajapaksa being sworn in, and warned not to report any stories regarding Wickremesinghe. Senior journalists at the paper had tweeted protest against it. Read more here. SEAJU calls for criminal case to be dropped in Indonesia Indonesialeaks, an online collaborative whistleblower platform, has been accused of publishing a non-credible report and one of the founders, president of the Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI) has had a criminal case brought against him. Following the publication of the reports, news quickly spread on social media, with many trying to discredit the investigation. Some of the media outlets have DDoS (denial of services) attacks on websites, taking them offline for several hours. On October 23, a criminal report was filed against Abdul Mannan under the Indonesian Penal Code and remains ongoing. Read more here. Pakistan: Journalist killed after reporting on drug mafia Pakistani journalist Sohail Khan was shot and killed just days after filing a story about drug mafia on October 16, 2018. Sohail had just left the District Police Office (DPO) in Haripur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when he was shot at several times. He died at the scene. He was at the DPO filing an application for protection after receiving multiple death threats following his report on drug mafia in Pakistan. Read more here. Upcoming elections in Afghanistan raise safety concerns for media As Afghanistan prepares to go to the polls on October 20, concerns have been raised about the access that provincial journalists will have at polling stations. Several provincial journalists have raised concerns with AIJA as IEC have refused to distribute coverage cards for the elections on Saturday, October 20. AIJA investigations found that not only have several local journalists not been granted cards, but that IEC officials had misbehaved towards local media. IEC officials had told the journalists to go to the IEC in Kabul to get their coverage cards, which is not a feasible solution. Read more here. Media implicated in Indias #MeToo Indian journalists speaking out against sexual harassment have reignited Indias #MeToo movement. Accusations have been levelled at reporters, senior editors and public officials over sexual misconduct on social media in the past week. At least two newspapers have launched investigations, while Hindustan Times chief of bureau and political editor Prashant Jha stepped down from management roles after screenshots of alleged text messages with a colleague were posted online. Seven women wrote to the Times of India with allegations of sexual misconduct against its Hyderabad resident editor, KR Sreenivas, for unwanted touching, explicit messages and sexual propositions. According to the New York Times, Sreenivas is on a leave of absence to allow a free and fair inquiry and an independent committee has been set up to look into the matter. Read more here. New broadcasting bill endorsed in Bangladesh The Bangladesh Government has endorsed the Broadcasting Bill in a cabinet meeting on Monday, October 15, raising concerns over restrictive provisions. Under the draft legislation, media outlets that publish material deemed to be harmful to the countrys history and image, public interest or law and order will be punished with a maximum of seven years jail and a fine of BDT 50 million (USD 588,000). Under the draft legislation, a broadcasting commission would also be established to help regulate the electronic media in keeping with the international practices and standard for ensuring objectivity, neutrality and accountability of mass media. The broadcasting commission would be responsible for licenses for private media outlets, and under the proposed bill, airing materials that may pose threat to national security and sovereignty or may appear satirical to national ideology will be prohibited. Read more here. FCCHK VP visa renewal refused The vice president of the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club, Victor Mallet, has had his work visa renewal refused, raising serious concerns about freedom of speech and the press on the island. Victor Mallet is the Asia news editor of the Financial Times, and the vice president of the Hong Kong FCC. On Friday, October 5, the Financial Times revealed that Mallets work visa renewal had been refused noting that this is the first time we have encountered this situation in Hong Kong. We have not been given a reason for the rejection. In August, Mallet chaired a luncheon at the Hong Kong FCC which included a speech by pro-democracy activist Andy Chan. The Hong Kong and Chinese governments attempted to intervene and have the talk cancelled, but the FCC went ahead. Read more here. Myanmar: Three Eleven Media journalists arrested over report Police officers searched the Eleven Media offices on October 9 searching for three journalists over incitement charges. 12 police officers from Tarmwe Township Police Station arrived at the Eleven Media newsroom at 7pm. According to Frontier Myanmar they were looking for Ko Nayi Min and Ko Kyaw Zaw Linn, both editors in charge, and senior editor Ko Phyo Wai Win. The journalists were not at the office at the time and police waited almost two hours. They told the publishers that they would return at 10am on Wednesday. Tarmwe Township Police denied knowledge of the incident. Local media reported that the charges were related to a story published on October 8, about controversial business ventures of Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein. Read more here. Timor Leste: Editor dismissed over role on Press Council Francisco Simoes Belo, news editor of GMN received a letter from GMN information director Francedes Sun on September 27 stating that he was dismissed from his position because his role with the Press Council did not benefit GMN. The letter also said that Francisco could not concentrate on the GMN newsroom, while he was representing journalists at the Press Council. Francisco was elected by TLPU members to represent TLPU on the Press Council. He has registered his case and mediation is due to begin on October 29, 2018. Read more here. Press Trust of India sacks 297 staff in one day A notice by PTIs Chief Administrative Officer MR Mishra (dated Saturday, September 29), read: The following employees whose names appear in the list displayed with this notice have been retrenched from the employment of the PTI with immediate effect. The laid off staff are non-editorial and the management claimed that their posts - transmission supervisors, engineers, assistants and attenders, have become redundant.The Press Trust of India is regarded as Indias top news agency, run by an elected board of directors consisting of the country's top media house owners. The decision to retrench employees came immediately, rather the same day after a change in the PTI Board, with Mr N Ravi, former Editor of the Hindu, taking over as its Chairman. Read more here. SAMSN Blog: Bringing #MeToo to its logical finale While there are encouraging signs that the media world is taking note of the groundswell of opinion against workplace harassment, there is a greater need to discuss how the complaints will be handled, the transparency with which procedures will be laid down and the secure environment in which the complainants will be given an opportunity to depose, writes Geeta Seshu. Read more here. A Free Speech Impunity Indicator launches in India on IDEI A Free Speech Impunity Indicator put together by FreeSpeechCollective, an initiative of journalists, lawyers and human rights activists to monitor freedom of expression in India, tracks the status of investigation in each case. It is also a grim reminder of the tortuous, but dogged, resistance to the silencing of free speech, put up by families, friends and colleagues. In other words, only one case has gone to trialfor the last 17 years. In three cases, the accused are either not arrested, or the main accused are absconding or are arrested but out on bail. In one instance, the main accused have been arrested. See more https://freespeechcollective.in/ Audio November 05, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The mother of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange fears her son is in immediate and critical danger after spending nearly six years in limbo inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where his health has sharply deteriorated. As fears for Assanges health have grown, his mother Christine spoke about how her son is undergoing a slow and cruel assassination in an online vigil dubbed #ReconnectJulian on Saturday. The modern-day cage for political prisoners is no longer the Tower of London, it is the Ecuadorian Embassy, she said, adding that her son has been detained for nearly eight years without charge, cut off from all contact and tortured in the heart of London. For the past six years the UK government has refused his request to access to basic health needs, fresh air, exercise, sunshine for Vitamin D, and access to proper medical and dental care. As a result, his health has seriously deteriorated, she added. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Slow Assassination: Julian Assanges Mothers Emotional Speech Mandatory Credit: Unity4j.Com Assange was granted refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London back in 2012 while fighting extradition to Sweden regarding a sexual assault case. The UN human rights panel has called Assanges embassy ordeal an arbitrary detention by the UK and Sweden. The Australian native believes the Swedish probe, which has since been discontinued due to what Stockholm called Assanges unavailability for questioning, was only a pretext to extradite him to the US over troves of confidential documents released by WikiLeaks. Assange is unable to leave the confines of the embassy, as there is still an outstanding warrant for his arrest after he skipped bail to avoid extradition to Sweden. While the US government has not confirmed whether it would pursue charges against Assange, the countrys Attorney General Jeff Sessions has previously labeled the WikiLeaks founders arrest as a priority. UPDATE: Christine Assange has since responded to the publication, tweeting the following: Thanks for coverage Request you make following factual corrections asap thanks 1) Julian ALWAYS available for questioning. Sweden refused for 6 yrs. Then did. Then dropped investigation. 2) Julian sought/was granted asylum from US threats against his life/ NOT avoid Sweden. Mrs. Christine Assange (@AssangeMrs) November 4, 2018 This article was originally published by " RT " - This article was originally published by Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== Intruder tried to break in to Ecuadorian Embassy to kidnap Julian Assange, claim his legal team Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. What Empire Loyalists Are Really Saying When They Bash Julian Assange By Caitlin Johnstone November 05, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Wired has just published what might be the single most brazenly dishonest and manipulative piece of down-punching empire smut that I have ever read. An article by Virginia Heffernan titled The Real Houseguest of the Ecuadorian Embassy revolves around the outright lie that Julian Assange is suing the Ecuadorian government because he doesnt feel like cleaning up after his cat and maintaining basic hygiene in the embassy hes been confined to since 2012. In reality, the legal case arose from the fact that despite being granted political asylum for his journalism, Assange has for months been cut off from the world and forbidden to practice journalism by the new government of Ecuador, and would remain unable to practice journalism under the new conditions Quito recently imposed upon him. The article reads as though its author is attempting to force snarky humor through a thick fog of hatred and personal misery while seeing how many lies she can pack into each paragraph. Heffernan claims falsely that Assange is wanted on various criminal charges; Assange has not been charged with anything. Heffernan claims falsely that Assange has been closely linked to the Kremlin and Russian president Vladimir Putin; this is just objectively false with no evidence backing it up whatsoever. Heffernan claims falsely that the distinct possibility has surfaced that during his embassy tenure Assange communicated with Roger Stone, Donald Trumps consigliere, via magic decoder rings or the internet; theres no evidence that Stone had any back channel with WikiLeaks, and the information he notoriously amplified was already public. Heffernan claims falsely that WikiLeaks is Russia-aligned; another assertion for which there is zero evidence and much evidence to the contrary. You get the picture. Im not going to spend an entire article beating up on some writer for Wired just for authoring an amazingly horrible article about Julian Assange, especially when there are so very, very many other ambitious presstitutes falling all over themselves in a mad scramble to do the exact same thing right now. Just as new information begins surfacing that Assanges safety and security may be in immediate jeopardy, the brave, dauntless journalists of the establishment press have been working around the clock to bring their audiences as many versions as possible of the crucial bombshell news story that the WikiLeaks founder is a stinky, stinky man. Like it would even matter if that were true. Like the barely disguised plot to extradite a journalist for the crime of publishing facts to the same nation which tortured Chelsea Manning would be any less Orwellian if that journalist didnt change his sheets often enough. But that, of course, is not the point. The point is to create public revulsion for Julian Assange, thereby killing sympathy for his unconscionable persecution and dampening the impact of any future WikiLeaks releases. The point is to marry Assanges name with the idea of bad smells, so that the public will begin to find themselves increasingly disgusted by him and everything he stands for without quite remembering exactly why they feel such disdain for him. And there are more than enough aspiring pundits out there trying to do exactly that. Every story you see about Assanges plight in mainstream media now goes out of its way to drag the focus away from the fact that a political prisoner has had his important voice silenced, and suck it into some vapid narrative about personal hygiene and kitty litter. Every few minutes theres some blue-checkmarked goon making a juvenile tweet about how weird and gross Julian Assange is like a high school bully. There is no shortage of empire loyalists looking to prove themselves worthy lackeys before the watchful eyes of current and future employers. It isn't just governments that kill journalists, it is other journalists. The world's biggest media outlets ignore multiple UN rulings to scream about cat food & hygiene, while the most significant publisher of our generation remains arbitrarily detained in London #EndImpunity Suzie Dawson (@Suzi3D) November 2, 2018 And make no mistake, that is all it is ever about. The reason almost every journalist below a certain age has a Twitter account these days is because they are taught in no uncertain terms that building a social media profile is an essential part of the job. They know that their social media presence can be just as much a determining factor in whether or not they keep climbing the ladder of prestige and influence as their resume is. Reporters in western corporate media arent usually explicitly told to protect establishment interests, but the ones who consistently do are the ones who get hired to the choice jobs. Making a big show about what a good empire lackey you are by smearing Julian Assange at a key juncture in his fight is a great way to show your peers and superiors that youre someone who plays along with the beltway groupthink, and the fact that Assange cannot defend himself from those smears makes it extremely risk-free. So when you see some political writer yukking it up about Julian Assange and kitty litter, what they are really saying is, Hey! Look at me! You can count on me to advance whatever narratives get passed down from on high! Ill cheer on all the wars! Ill play up the misdeeds of our great nations rivals and ignore the misdeeds of our allies! Ill literally spit on Assange if youll give my career a boost! They are saying, I support everything the media-controlling oligarchs support, and I hate everything they hate. I will be a reliable mouthpiece of the ruling class regardless of who is elected in our fake elections to our fake official government. I will say all the right things. I will protect what you need protected. I will hide what you want hidden. I understand what you want me to do without your explicitly telling me to do it. Ive got what you need. I have no principles. Look, Im even joining in the dog pile against a political prisoner who cant defend himself. Reporters who bash Julian Assange while he is silenced instead of using their platforms to draw attention to the many, many wicked deeds that are being perpetrated by the powerful in their own country are the lowest of the low. They are scum. They are the scum that scum scrapes off its shoes. There is no more despicable, sniveling waste of space on this earth than someone who attacks the powerless on behalf of the powerful while calling themselves a journalist. Caitlin's articles are entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on Facebook, following her antics on Twitter, checking out her podcast, throwing some money into her hat on Patreon or Paypal, or buying her book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. https://caitlinjohnstone.com/ Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here ==See Also== Intruder tried to break in to Ecuadorian Embassy to kidnap Julian Assange, claim his legal team Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy The intent behind Trumps new rules of engagement and considerable militarization of the U.S. border appears to be greenlighting the U.S. military to function as an IDF-style military police force whenever the next threat emerges, whether it be foreign invaders or internal enemies. By Whitney Webb November 05, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - S ince President Donald Trump first directed the outrage of his supporters at a Central American migrant caravan making its way towards the United States a little over a week ago, his plan to deploy between 5,200 and 15,000 active-duty U.S. soldiers to the border has provoked mixed reactions within the United States. However, Trumps more recent announcement that armed U.S. soldiers have been instructed to target any migrants who resort to throwing stones as though they were firing rifles has evoked an even wider range of reactions. On Thursday afternoon, Trump detailed in a speech that Anybody [in the caravan] throwing stones, rocks, like they did to Mexico and the Mexican military, Mexican police, where they badly hurt police and soldiers of Mexico, we will consider that a firearm. He then elaborated that we will consider it [stone throwing], the maximum that we can consider thatWere not going to put up with that. They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back.I told them to consider it a rifle. Though some Mexican law enforcement officers were injured by stone throwers during their efforts to use a show of military and police force to pressure the caravan from advancing, there were no fatalities or severe injuries incurred by the Mexican authorities. Trumps announcement caused considerable outrage within the U.S. media and among some U.S. veterans, with some calling these new rules of engagement a war crime in the making. However, it has long been the standard in countries like Israel, where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have used stone throwing as the pretext to disperse riots as well as peaceful protests with live ammunition. On whether the military at southern border might fire on migrants, Pres Trump says "I hope not." "I hope there won't be that, but I will tell you this anybody throwing rocks we will consider that a firearm, because there's not much difference." https://t.co/fyk1ncmiwj pic.twitter.com/OGbFHFhB3A ABC News (@ABC) November 1, 2018 Nowhere has this been more true than in the IDFs response to the Great Return March in Gaza, which began in March of this year. The protests aimed at pressuring Israel to end its decade-long blockade of the Palestinian enclave and allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland have been met with a brutal show of force from the IDF even though all protesters have been unarmed. At least 210 unarmed Palestinians have been killed since the regular protests began and over 22,000 have been injured, many of them shot by IDF soldiers. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Many of those shot and killed by the IDF in Gaza were not engaged in stone throwing. while others were not even protesters, but instead medics, journalists, and even children. In contrast, only one IDF soldier has been killed during the nearly eight months of the Great Return March. In most cases, the IDF has justified its actions by stating that it acts to prevent breaches of the border fence that would violate its sovereignty, and to protect Israeli civilians living near the border. The IDF has also likened the protests to terror activities under the guise of popular protests involving women, children and adults. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended the IDFs rules of engagement in Gaza, stating that Israel, and any country for that matter, has to protect [its] border against people who say Were going to destroy you, and were going to flood into your country.' The tone of Netanyahus rhetoric has made little or no distinction between Gazans and African immigrants, with the Israeli leader having called both illegal infiltrators that threaten Israels status as a Jewish ethnostate. Such remarks are similar to those voiced by Trump, who warned earlier this year that illegal immigrants from Central America sought to pour into and infest our country. The Trump administration has notably been supportive of the IDFs harsh response to the Gaza protests. Trumps ambassador to Israel and former personal lawyer, David Friedman, called the use of force by the IDF absolutely appropriate. He also stated that Gaza protesters were enemies bent on murdering your citizens and thus should not be allowed to have free access to cross the border. This rhetoric mirrors Trumps recent statements that migrants within the caravan are linked to Central American street gang MS-13 and unknown Middle Easterners. On October 23, Trump told reporters: Take your camera, go into the middle [of the caravan] and search. Youre gonna find MS-13, youre gonna find Middle Easterners, youre going to find everything. Bullets for stones Even before the Great Return March began this year, Israeli forces have long responded with live ammunition to Gazans allegedly throwing stones. For instance, last year, the IDF shot several Gazans killing one for throwing stones near the border and allegedly seeking to damage the fence between Israel and Gaza. The same has long been true in the occupied West Bank. Less than two weeks ago on October 24, Israeli soldiers shot and killed 21-year-old Mohammed Bsharat in the West Bank village of Tamoun for allegedly throwing stones in response to an IDF raid searching for illegal weapons. Five other Palestinians were also shot but did not die from their injuries. Earlier this year, in June, 21-year-old Izzideen Tamimi, a relative of Palestinian resistance icon Ahed Tamimi, was shot and killed by IDF soldiers conducting a late night raid for striking a soldier in the head with a stone. These recent incidents were preceded by numerous similar incidents, such as when IDF soldiers shot and killed a 20-year-old Palestinian in 2014 for allegedly throwing stones near Ramallah. However, his family maintained that he had been tending to the familys goat herd near their home, a fact supported by the absence of any evidence of clashes in the area where the shooting occurred. In addition, even suspected stone throwers have been targeted with live ammunition by Israeli military personnel, such as when IDF soldiers shot into a vehicle of Palestinian teenagers in the West Bank in 2016 after the IDF mistakenly identified the inhabitants of the vehicle as having thrown stones at a group of Israelis a few hours prior. The firing into a vehicle that the IDF later admitted carried uninvolved bystanders resulted in the death of 15-year-old Mahmoud Rafat Badran and wounded four of his teenage cousins. Trumps slippery slope to domestic militarization It is these long-standing rules of engagement whereby the Israeli military treats Palestinians armed with stones as if they were carrying firearms that Trump has aped in setting out rules of engagement for the U.S. troops confronting Central Americans migrants and asylum seekers planning to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. More importantly, with the U.S. establishing such IDF-style rules of engagement against unarmed individuals, several consequences are likely to result. First, it will further legitimize Israels brutal repression of protests in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Second, allowing U.S. soldiers to shoot at unarmed civilians sets a dangerous precedent for future government responses to domestic unrest, both at the border and within the country, as well as advancing the disturbing trend whereby the line between the military and domestic police force has been increasingly blurred. Third, as in Gaza, many desperate and helpless people are likely to die. Given that the U.S. government is well aware that the migrant caravan poses little threat and that most of its members are unlikely to even make it to the U.S. border, a dangerous motive behind Trumps new rules of engagement and considerable militarization of the U.S. border appears to be the greenlighting the U.S. military to function as an IDF-style military police force whenever the next threat emerges, whether it be foreign invaders or internal enemies. Whitney Webb This article was originally published by " Mint Press " - Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== A Century of U.S. Intervention Created the Immigration Crisis: Those seeking asylum today inherited a series of crises that drove them to the border Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy November 05, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Even more damning evidence has come to light undermining The New York Times assertion in September that Russia used social media to steal the 2016 election for Donald Trump. The Times claim last month that Russian Facebook posts reached nearly as many Americans as actually voted in the 2016 election exaggerated the significance of those numbers by a factor of hundreds of millions, as revealed by further evidence from Facebooks own Congressional testimony. Further research into an earlier Consortium News article shows that a relatively paltry 80,000 posts from the private Russian company Internet Research Agency (IRA) were engulfed in literally trillions of posts on Facebook over a two-year period before and after the 2016 vote. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter That was supposed to have thrown the election, according to the paper of record. In its 10,000-word article on Sept. 20, the Times reported that 126 million out of 137 million American voters were exposed to social media posts on Facebook from IRA that somehow had a hand in delivering Trump the presidency. The newspaper said: Even by the vertiginous standards of social media, the reach of their effort was impressive: 2,700 fake Facebook accounts, 80,000 posts, many of them elaborate images with catchy slogans, and an eventual audience of 126 million Americans on Facebook alone. The paper argued that 126 million was not far short of the 137 million people who would vote in the 2016 presidential election. But Consortium News, on Oct. 10, debunked that story, pointing out that reporters Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti failed to report several significant caveats and disclaimers from Facebook officers themselves, whose statements make the Times claim that Russian election propaganda reached 126 million Americans an exercise in misinformation. The newspaper failed to tell their readers that Facebook account holders in the United States had been served 33 trillion Facebook posts during that same period 413 million times more than the 80,000 posts from the Russian company. What Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 31, 2017 is a far cry from what the Times claims. Our best estimate is that approximately 126,000 million people may have been served one of these [IRA-generated] stories at some time during the two year period, Stretch said. Stretch was expressing a theoretical possibility rather than an established fact. He said an estimated 126 million Facebook members might have gotten at least one story from the IRA - not over the ten week election period, but over 194 weeks during the two years 2015 through 2017 including a full year after the election. That means only an estimated 29 million FB users may have gotten at least one story in their feed in two years. The 126 million figure is based only on an assumption that they shared it with others, according to Stretch. Facebook didnt even claim most of those 80,000 IRA posts were electionrelated. It offered no data on what proportion of the feeds to those 29 million people were. In addition, Facebooks Vice President for News Feed, Adam Moseri, acknowledged in 2016 that FB subscribers actually read only about 10 percent of the stories Facebook puts in their News Feed every day. The means that very few of the IRA stories that actually make it into a subscribers news feed on any given day are actually read. And now, according to the further research, the odds that Americans saw any of these IRA ads let alone were influenced by them are even more astronomical. In his Oct. 2017 testimony, Stretch said that from 2015 to 2017, Americans using Facebook were exposed to, or served, a total of over 33 trillion stories in their News Feeds. To put the 33 trillion figure over two years in perspective, the 80,000 Russian-origin Facebook posts represented just .0000000024 of total Facebook content in that time. Shane and Mazzetti did not report the 33 trillion number even though The New York Times own coverage of that 2017 Stretch testimony explicitly stated, Facebook cautioned that the Russia-linked posts represented a minuscule amount of content compared with the billions of posts that flow through users News Feeds everyday. The Times touting of the bogus 126 million out 137 million voters, while not reporting the 33 trillion figure, should vie in the annals of journalism as one of the most spectacularly misleading uses of statistics of all time. " Consortium News " Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy By Fred Reed November 05, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The United States seems to be contemplating war with Russia, Iran, China, or all three Washington pushes NATO ever closer to Russia, leaves the nuclear-missile treaty and tries to destroy both countries and China economically. Why the push for war? Simple. Asia is awakening. China (from which I have just returned) grows economically at a scorching paceand all power rests on economic power. China is a large country, America a mediuj-sized one. Americas roughly two hundred million whites do virtually all of the scientific work on which national power depends. China has a billion increasingly educated Han Chinese, a five-to-one advantage. Chinas stated aim is to united Eurasia among othr places in one vast commercial union. Washingtons pugnacity has pushed China, Ira, and Russia together. The chain of nations, Pakistan, Afghanistn, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey all totter between looking east and looking west. If Washington doesnt stop this growth, the American Empire will be marginalized within decades. This doesnt threaten the Amercan public. It threatens the Empire and Israel. What would a war with Russia look like, even assuming that it didnt go nuclear? A great military thinkerme, actuallynnonce said that military stupidity comes in three levels: normallly stupid; really really stupid; and invading Russia. From Chuck XII to Adolf I it hasproved a poor career move. The US military has not won a war since 1945, with the exception of the First Gulf War, which the LAPD could have won. It lost decisively in Vietnam. It got run out of Lebanon with 241 dead Marines as its only accomplishment. After seventeen years it shows no signs of defeating barely armed Afghan peasants. Iraq has been a complete botch, achieving none of its goals, control of the oil, permanent bases, and a puppet government. Just now the military is losing in Syria. Nothing short of genius can account for losing so consistently given the enormous resources available to American forces. In light of this very low level of military competence, maybe wars are not our best choice of hobby. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter What sort of war is envisaged? The United States cannot fight a sizable land war. Iran can. Russia can. The American military means air power and little else. The Army hasnt fought a serious war since 1973, the fleet since 1945. In long periods of inaction, things deteriorate because they do not seem important. Crucial supplies cease to exist, spare parts arent there, the logistics train quietly becomes inoperable. Money goes instead to pricey weapons of little practical use. The Army recruits from a soft millennial population. America is no longer a country of tough rural kids. Social engineering has rotted the ranks. The military has suffered years of feminization, SJW appeasement, affirmative action, lowered physical standards, and LGBTQ insertion. Conscription is politically impossible. The Army cannot defeat Afghans even with the advantages of unlimited air power, artillery, gun ships, medevac, helicopters, and drones, It would last a very short time if it had to fight the Afghans or Iranians, on even terms. Muslims are more virile than todays Americans and have proven tenacious. A military that never fights a war that it has to win, that never encounters an enemy that can dangerously hit back, inevitably deteriorates. Militaries come to believe their own propaganda. So, apparently, do the feral mollycoddles in the White House and New York. The American militarys normal procedure is to overestimate American power, underestimate the enemy, and misunderstand the kind of war it is getting into. Should Washington decide on war with Iran, or Russia (unless by a surprise nuclear strike) there will be the usual talk of the most powerful, best trained, best equipped etc., and how the Ivans and towelheads will melt away in days, a cakewalk. Bet me. Militaries have a very poor record of predicting outcomes of wars. This might provoke thought. The American Civil War was expected to be over in an afternoon; this was wrong by 650,000 dead and four years. When Napoleon invaded Russia, he did not expect Russians to occupy Paris. Germany thought that WWI would be a war of movement over in weeks; in fact a ghastly war of attrition lasting four years. When Japan attacked Pearl, it was not intentionally inviting GIs to the geisha houses of Tokyo. When Germany invaded Poland, occupation of Germany by Russia and America was low on its list of expectations. When France re-invaded Vietnam, it did not foresee Dien Bien Dien Phu and utter defeat by les jaunes. When America invaded Vietnam, it did not expect a decade-long losing war. When Russia invaded Afghanistan it did not expect to lose to Afghans in sandals. When America invaded Afghanistan, having seen what had happened to Russia, it did not expect the same result. We do not know what a war with Iran, or Russia, or China would look like or what the Iranians might do. An overconfident military and an inexperienced government in Washington will predictably predict a short war and speak of precision weapons and surgical strikes. The Navy will guarantee that it can keep the Straits open, and speak of its advanced technology. The expectation will be that there will be nothing unexpected. The white House will believe that Iran will lie there and be bombed without response. Russia? The nukes will fall on the European countries from which the attack came. Germany might ponder this carefully. America could of course destroy much of Iran and kill millions of the defenseless. This is what America now calls war. It would be amusing to see what would happen if the Air Force had to fight an enemy that could fight back, but this would mean only Russia or, perhaps, just possibly, barely, to some extent, China. It is a cowards way of war and, to judge by South Vietnam and Afghanistan, not very effective. Killing lots of people and winning a war are not the same thing. What if Iran did stop petroleum traffic in the Persian Gulf with, say, missiles mounted on pickup trucks. Is this possible? I dont know. Neither, I suspect, does the Navywhich will insist that it can handle mere pickup trucks with its superb this and that, its best trained, best equipped, the only hyperpower, and so on. But tankers are not going to run even a small risk of going up in flames. How long would the Straits have to be closed with the world screaming for oil before Washington, desperate, its vanity bruised, full of huge egos, would have to do something stupid to save face? Further, American leadership is of dangerously low quality. An essentially absentee Congress, the sordidness and criminality of the Clintons, Trumps utter crassness and shady past, the submission to Israel, the widespread and never punished corruption. In this sorry brew no one seems interested in the wellbeing of the county, only unseemly grasping at benefits for the arms industry, big oil, Wall Street, Tel Aviv, and the Empire. Note that wars generate huge profits for the arms makers and the longer the war can be kept going, neither winning nor losing, the greater the profits. War against Iran would be a magnificent profit center. Since American casualties are extremely low , permanent war has few downsides. At the top of government we have an unprepossessing bunch that would make Kaiser Wilhelms court seem wholesome. Their chief characteristics are pathological aggressiveness and a severe case of Beltway Bubble Syndrome. There is Trump with his weird eruptions. The ever-combative Nikki Haley. Steve Bannon, prophesying and hoping for war with China. Mike Pompeo, threatening Iran, threatening, Venezuela, threatening North Korea. John Bolton of the codiece mustches, always counseling a war he wont fight in, like Trump a drat dodger with something to prove. The life of millions depends on this freak show? I need a drink. Fred, a keyboard mercenary with a disorganized past, has worked on staff for Army Times, The Washingtonian, Soldier of Fortune, Federal Computer Week, and The Washington Times. https://fredoneverything.org By F. William Engdahl November 05, 2018 " Information Clearing House " I completed my undergraduate university studies in one of Americas most elite universities, Princeton. It was during the early 1960s and classmates came from elite preparatory private schools like Andover or Exeter. Classmates with names like Firestone or Prince Faisal were attending. Then tuition cost $650 a year, the price I paid for my used 1956 Chevy. I was only able to pay that because I was awarded a full university scholarship, raised by a working mother with modest income. Today tuition for one year at Princeton costs $41,820. Princeton speaks of money and elite families. So I noted with great interest a new study published by two Princeton professors on wealth in America since 1981. Martin Gilens is Professor of Politics at Princeton University together with Benjamin I. Page Professor at Northwestern University have published results of a unique analysis using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues. The study concludes that, Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Their study further concluded, When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy. Finally they conclude, Our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then Americas claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened. In a subsequent media interview, Gilens noted what they concluded in their analysis of volumes of data from 1981-2002 for government policy decisions and the role of elites versus ordinary citizens in some 1,800 different policy initiatives: One central factor is the role of money in our political system, and the overwhelming role that affluent individuals that affluent individuals and organized interests play, in campaign finance and in lobbying. And the second thing is the lack of mass organizations that represent and facilitate the voice of ordinary citizens. Part of that would be the decline of unions in the country which has been quite dramatic over the last 30 or 40 years. And part of it is the lack of a socialist or a workers party. The study verifies with ample empirical data what I have witnessed during the course of my own life as an American over the past four decades. There has been a silent coup detat of the monied class, an American oligarchy. Names such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, David Rockefeller, Sheldon Adelson (main financier of Mitt Romney for President), the Koch Brothers (main financiers of the Tea Party political movement), George H.W. Bush and family. The top 1% have reshaped the fundamentals of American life, culture and above all politics. A decision to wage war today against Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria depends not on the will of average Americans. Obama was elected on a pledge to close the US Army torture center at Guantanamo and six years on has yet to do. He won a Nobel Peace Prize in his first month and proceeded to wage more war in Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya and most recently Syria and Ukraine. It is important to have this in mind when judging America. The United States of America today bears little resemblance to that I knew when I grew up in the early 1960s, when a used good Chevy cost $650 and college tuition could be afforded by ordinary Americans if they were willing to study. The oligarchy that has taken policy control behind a thin facade of democracy has ultimately ruined the industrial and social fabric of the United States. They are the ones behind the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or bank deregulation so they can loot the planet. This new study by Princetons Prof. Gilens is a refreshing attempt, even if academic and from one of the most elite academic universities, to shed some light on what is fundamentally wrong with America over the past three decades. F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy Presidential Candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria(ACPN), Oby Ezekwesili on Sunday, visited former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida in his home in Minna, Niger state. The former minister of Education, who hopes to oust incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari, in the 2019 presidential election, said she had a candid conversation with the former head of state. Ezekwesili, who has always been of the opinion that Nigerians can not afford to sit on the sidelines in the forthcoming election as it is the battle for the soul of Nigeria, made it clear that her mission is to take Nigeria out of the clutches of the Old Order. Speaking about her meeting with IBB, she wrote: I had a very candid conversation with former head of state, Ibrahim Babangida in Minna after my speech on Human Capital Development at El Amin School yesterday. I made it clear that Nigeria must be taken out of the clutches of the Old Order. This is our mission. Another photo The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, has trolled Oby Ezekwesili, presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria for visiting former Head of state, Ibrahim Babangida. Ezekwesili on Sunday visited the former head of state in his home in Minna, Niger state and according to the former VP of World Bank, she had a candid discussion with him. Sowore, in a swift reaction to the photo from Ezekwesili and Babangidas meeting said, the former Education minister, who says she will stop corruption, has now gone to hold a secret session with the Godfather of corruption and bad governance. Sowore wrote: PHOTOSPEAK: Our dear @obyzeks wants to stop corruption and mis-governance in Nigeria but then holds a secret session with The Godfather Of corruption and bad governance, IBB. Nigerians, Oby creatively coined BUTIKU. I love it! But this single visit is OBYTIKU . Go figure! A former aide to former president Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe has said Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) will be visiting th US by November ending. This comes a few days after Otunba Gbenga Daniel, DG, Atiku Presidential Campaign Organization (APCO) said that, Atiku has received signals to visit America. Okupe, made this known via his social media page on Sunday. According to the PDP chieftain, much is confused about Atikus travel ban to the US. However, in a bid to bring to rest, accusations that Atiku has been banned by the US government from setting foot on its soul, Okupe announced that he(Atiku) would be going to the US for some public engagement before the end of November, 2018. He wrote: Atiku contested Presidency in 2007 under AC. Nobody called him a thief then, neither was he known then to be corrupt. I often wonder if the Atiku running for President today is the same that ran in 2007. This orchestrated campaign of calumny against Atiku will not stand because its false. Concerning the little understood but copiously exaggerated supposed travel ban on Atiku. His Excellency and incoming President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar will be travelling to the US for official and some public engagements by the end of Nov 2018. The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) has noted that president Muhammadu Buhari may have procured a forged West African Examination Council(WAEC) attestation certificate, which has caused Nigeria a great embarrassment among other Nations. The PDP, in a statement on Sunday said president Buhari has smeared Nigeria with his dubious certificate procurement, which has made the country a laughing stock, internationally. It also said that Nigerians have demonstrated marks of forgery in the attestation issued by the examination body. According to the opposition party, it is questionable that WAEC in 2015, confirmed that it has no records of Buharis certificate, but has now sent officials to present Mr. President with an attestation, that has no original certificate number. See full statement here The public demonstrations that the President may have procured a forged WAEC Certificate Attestation and Confirmation for President Muhammadu Buhari is a huge smear on our nations integrity and the Office of the President. This development has turned our nation into a laughing stock in the West African sub-region and the entire global community, as our President Buhari is now being mentioned as beneficiary of a duplicitous act. Most appalling is that Mr. Presidents Buhari handlers have succeeded in dragging a reputable institution as WAEC into public disrepute and opprobrium, as Nigerians are quick to demonstrate marks of forgery in the attestation issued by the examination body. A check on the attestation clearly shows that it does not have the Original Certificate Number,the key authentication feature in all genuine attestations by WAEC. Instead,a non-applicableis entered, indicating that the beneficiary does not have a certificate to be attested to Also, the attestation is for West African Senior School Certificate, which President Buhari couldnt have sat for, given that the Senior School Certificate Examination was established only in the late 1980s. Does it not smack of high level scam that the same WAEC, which, in 2015, confirmed that it does not have records of President @MBuharis certificate, now had to send officials to present Mr. President with an attestation, that has no original certificate number? What the unauthenticated attestation has shown is that Mr. President does not have a WAEC certificate; we urge his handlers to humbly so admit and apologize to the nation, having exhausted all gimmicks to mislead Nigerians. We urge WAEC to redeem its image by handing over all its officials involved in the deal to the INTERPOL for investigation & prosecution, it also calls on the Nigeria Police to immediately invite Buharis handlers for questioning over this huge national embarrassment. The ruling All Progressives Congress APC, has urged security agents to probe the recent meeting held by Peoples Democratic Pary(PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and party chieftains in Dubai. In a statement signed by APC deputy national publicity secretary, Nabena Yekini, APC said there was more than a strategy meeting, whic was attended by Senate president Bukola Saraki, Senator Ben Bruce, VP candidate, Peter Obi and among others. In the statemetn said said There is more to the meeting that meets the eye. Nigeria has enough meeting/conference rooms, many of which meet international standards. It is therefore clear that the Dubai meeting was for other sinister political purposes ahead of the 2019 general elections. Our intelligence, anti-graft and security agencies must be awake to its responsibility of investigating the Dubai meeting. Cash-and-carry politicians must be prevented from moving illicit cash around to induce voters and sponsor election violence and rigging. We are mindful of how millions of dollars were confiscated in an aircraft belonging in a Nigerian PDP sympathiser in South Africa in the lead-up to the 2015 elections. Another round of election is here and it is not unlikely that they are playing a repeat performance, under the guise of holding a meeting in Dubai. Our security agencies should be on the watch for a stitch in time saves nine. However, reacting to the statement, Ben Bruce and Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation criticised the ruling party. According to Ben Bruce, when president Muhammadu Buhari travelled to UK, and spent 5 months, where he met with some APC leaders, no one in PDP complained. See reactions below Ben Bruce How can @OfficialAPCNg say HE @atiku met with myself, @bukolasaraki, @PeterGregoryObi, @renoomokri and others in Dubai to plan against Nigeria? In 2018, @MBuhari spent 5 months in UK. He met with almost the whole leadership of APC there. Did @OfficialPDPNig complain or condemn? Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) November 5, 2018 Fani Kayode MTN Nigeria and Microsoft Nigeria have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the creation of sustainable and scalable initiatives aimed at driving growth within the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment of the Enterprise Business in Nigeria. The partnership, will leverage Microsofts technologies and MTNs innovative expertise to create strong value propositions for the SMEs Segment. These propositions will speak to the needs of SMEs around capability development, access to markets and business networks across Africa; and address some of their challenges through the creation of innovative solutions. The MoU signing ceremony which took place recently at Microsofts office within Civic Towers, Victoria Island, Lagos, had top Executives from both Microsoft and MTN in attendance. The General Manager, Enterprise Marketing, MTN, Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka, expressed the companys unwavering commitment to the success of businesses, be they SMEs, Large Enterprises or in the Public sector. Recognizing the significant contributions of SMEs to the countrys economy, Ikenna-Emeka conveyed MTNs strategic position of collaborating with SMEs to create bespoke solutions specially designed to help grow and sustain other SMEs in the country. Speaking further on MTNs support of SMEs in Nigeria, Mrs. Ikenna-Emeka said We launched the MTN Man-In-The-Box Initiative to further demonstrate our commitment to the development of businesses and ensure their sustained business growth. She stated that the Initiative was designed to create and sustain awareness for MTNs Enterprise Business and its focus to provide and facilitate access to technology, new markets, information and finance for SMEs. In his remark, Country General Manager, Microsoft Nigeria, Akin Banuso stated: Our approach at Microsoft has been one of empowerment and collaboration. We work with SMEs and as we learn from them, this makes us poised to provide tailor-made solutions to the challenges they face on a daily basis. We are excited about this partnership and looking forward to provide support to the SMEs through the Microsoft 4Afrika initiative. This means that we are able to empower them to digitally transform their businesses and be more productive and competitive. Ikenna-Emeka reiterated MTNs belief that everyone deserves the benefit of a modern connected life. By implication, every organization, whether small, medium, large or the public sector equally deserve the same benefit. In bringing this belief to reality, MTN develops and delivers solutions that transform the operations of Businesses, thereby introducing efficiencies, improving productivity and promoting overall organizational effectiveness. She also stated that MTNs vision of leading the delivery of a bold, new digital world to Corporate Nigeria is at the heart of all the companys activities, affirming that MTN is proud to be a Technology provider of choice to Enterprise Nigeria. About MTN Nigeria MTN Nigeria is Africas largest provider of communications services, connecting over 53 million people in communities across the country with each other and the world. Guided by a vision to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world, MTN Nigerias leadership position in coverage, capacity and innovation has remained constant, since its launch in 2001. MTN Nigeria is part of the MTN Group a multinational telecommunications group which operates in 22 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. About Microsoft Microsoft (Nasdaq MSFT @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. The 4Afrika Initiative is Microsofts business and market development engine in Africa. Launched in 2013, it aims to unlock and accelerate Africas potential to create technology not only for the continent, but for the world. The initiative focuses on developing world-class skills, access and innovation, to empower people to turn great ideas into a reality, enhance livelihoods and drive Africas digital transformation forward. The most recurring question that have come up since I decidedto contest the position of the president of Nigeria has been the issue of structure. I hear it all the time everywhere I go, from family, from friends, on the Internet and offline, in hushed whispers and in the worried voices of people who express their fears to me personally. How is she going to win? Does her party have the reach or the structure to go all the way and carry the day eventually? But you see, these questions, while valid, all come from a place of trepidation. Trepidation at how truly powerful the office of a citizen is and the possibilities that can happen when this power is unleashed. The truth is that you, my fellow citizens, are all the structure that we need to make this happen and this isnt some lofty ideal. It is very possible through difficult but practical steps. Let us look at the data. Data is something these old order politicians who want to rule forever havent bothered to engage with. Alimosho for example, is the largest local government in Lagos state with over 1.2million persons resident according to official census figures. In 2015, only about 650,000 of these people registered and obtained their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs). Faced with the rather unattractive choice of voting for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)s Goodluck Jonathan, or the anyone-but-Jonathan candidacy represented by Muhammadu Buhari, a great many voters chose to abstain. At the end of the day, the #APCPDP, the twin terrors of Nigeria, only managed to conjure up 140,000 votes between them. In Almighty Alimosho. This says something loud and clear, that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu with all of his might and experience in so-called grassroots politics could, at the end of the day, deliver only 86,897 votes for his candidate Buhari and their party. Where then does the source of this his widely reported power come from? Isnt he grossly overestimated? Asiwaju Tinubu and his like in #APCPDP control only as much as we let them. And the situation is the same in every other part of the country- from Kano to Ilorin- where any godfather claims to hold sway. These men are only as powerful as we, the citizens let them be. They have been getting away with this for so long because we outsourced our responsibility as voters to people who do not necessarily represent our best interests. The biggest trick that these entrenched politicians have played on us is to convince us of their invincibility, and we permitted them. This stops NOW! The data shows otherwise. The 500,000 persons in Alimosho who were so unimpressed by the #APCPDP that they refused to come out to vote are the numbers who will probably decide the 2019 elections. They are the numbers my campaign is seeking to activate. Everyone has one vote only and we would work hard to earn the votes of these Nigerians who care enough about their country to be wary of giving their votes to a bunch of self-preserving and recycled polo-trickians who have had several years to deliver dividends to the people but failed woefully. The #APCPDP and the revolving door of politicians that they represent sell us lies of invincibility to convince us to remain bystanders in our most important civic duty. They want us to remain at home, disinterested and disillusioned while they pillage the country and loot our resources. No more. Our movement offers a clean break from all of the old ways. But everyone of us has to get involved. It is not something Obiageli Ezekwesili alone can do and it is certainly not going to be business as usual. Everyone who has a PVC has an investment in the process and has a duty to get involved. An Oby Ezekwesili presidency will not only work to create an enabling environment for our young people to explore their greatest potentials and be globally competitive, but they will actually power the government. Building our young human capital will be an urgent priority of our ACPN government. We have an agenda to transform 20 Nigerian universities into world class institutions with strong showings on the global rankings. These people are still talking about oil when the world is counting down to the end of the oil economy? In fact, we should just give them the oil to drink since it is what they really want so that they can leave alone to focus on the work of rebuilding our economy. Our agenda is about creating wealth growing the pie exponentially, creating jobs, building shared prosperity and taking at least 80 million Nigerians out of poverty. The agenda is to mobilize the energies of the people and our private sector, invest in upgrading our capacity capabilities to compete globally, and end the bad policies which have turned Nigeria into Poverty Central. Importantly, our actions will center on mobilizing the youth, building and adopting science and technology to disrupt the status quo in every sector including governance, implementing the reforms and reorganization to reduce bureaucracy, and making government a partner instead of an enemy of progress. This will in turn create jobs, turbo charge businesses and fight inequality. I have crafted and implemented multi-sector policy to transform the lives of those at the bottom of the pyramid. I have visited around this country. I have seen the poverty, audited the opportunities, and created solutions that have kept us from crashing. These men dont know the grassroots like I do. These guys only have experience in compromise and corruption. My own experience is in caring for people and rebuilding nations. As minister of solid minerals I led the repositioning of our mining possibilities for private sector leadership, cleaned up the chaotic mining titles registry and had Nigeria commended globally for leading on transparency in the mining sector when we established the Nigerian Mining Cadastral Office. Then I terminated the power of the minister my own power to award mining licenses as he or she pleases. I supervised the comprehensive geophysical survey of the country that generated basic data on number of minerals (34) and number of locations (430) across the length and breadth of Nigeria, opening up massive opportunities that we as a nation continue to enjoy. These are verifiable facts; the records are available. I was education minister for less than one year, but in that time, we embarked on the most comprehensive reforms Nigeria has seen since 1999. We revamped the Federal Inspectorate Service and began the first ever nationwide inspection of secondary schools. We built the Nigeria Education Management Information System, collecting data and using it to analytically plan and make education policy. We introduced the private sector supported Entrepreneurship Studies as a compulsory General Studies course in all higher institutions. We started work on structural reforms of our curricula to position education as a key driver of transformation by linking curricula at all levels of education to the nations social and economic imperatives. We introduced Public Private Partnership models for education service delivery and very importantly ensured that Innovation & Vocational Enterprise Institutions were accredited, certified (National Innovation Diploma and National Vocational Certificate) and regulated by the National Board for Technical Education. The #Hope2019 movement that I promise, isnt built on fraud or deceit. It will not operate on unfulfilled potential and countless missed opportunities. Rather it is one of collective effort where every single voter is empowered to fight and take responsibility for fixing the rot in our system. It is about collective action of our citizens. We are moving to different parts of the country with our message of hope, progress and prosperity. My record is there, and it is one of excellence across public, private and development sectors. We have to deliver a working Nigeria that works for you and I. We can do it. The strategy is to unlock a vast and impressive network of sleeping voters. Do you have your PVC but are distraught about the prospects of returning #BuTiku, the siamese twins of failure and incompetence to power? We are talking to you. Do you feel like you have been set up to choose the lesser evil between the devil and the deep blue sea? You shouldnt. This is not a time to go to sleep. We not only have the only credible alternative candidate but, we also have the technology and the massive data network. We have the reach. We shall find you, identify you and convert your efforts into votes, voters, canvassers and small donors. The responsibility of deciding our leaders cannot only fall to the rural areas alone, as has become the pattern in previous elections. Those of us in the cities and in the urban areas need to be alive to our responsibilities. The godfathers are unlikely to sway our minds with cheap gifts but we need to be motivated enough to do the right thing. We need to mobilize, get the votes out and protect them come election day. It will be challenging no doubt but the road to nation building has never been easy. It isnt enough to decide to vote. There are millions of people, similarly challenged who need to be convinced, not only in the authenticity of our cause but in our practical road map for victory. And make no mistakes, we are in this to win it. We are in this to fight for our country to rescue Nigeria from the hands of a failed political class. No frills, no excuses, just the back breaking work that will deliver a country that we can all be proud of. We will be knocking on doors, please open to us. We will be selling our message please listen to us. But we cannot do it alone. We need a committed team of volunteers and supporters that will be prepared to go door to door, taking our message to those who need to hear them. We will need the resources to make this happen so we will be asking for your support, in all the ways that are possible- talent, skill, resources- whatever it takes to deliver the vote. At the end of the day, 2019 will be decided by the incredible hard work and community that we create together, not the godfathers and their impoverishing brand of politics. Not the hollow promises of people who have only delivered incompetence and corruption. They will see us coming but will be unable to stop us because we shall finally unleash the power of the people, united for a cause. We have the message, the power and the word of truth, and the right side of history to win the elections. Now we need you to play your own part. Just do it now. *Ezekwesili is the presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The second day of the virtual 21st annual Thomas L. Hill Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, otherwise known as ISCORE, pro Apple today launched Apple Pay in Germany. At launch, Apple Pay in Germany supports cards from MasterCard, American Express, Visa, Maestro, and more. Rumors of Apple Pay coming to Germany have been circulating from last year, though Apples CEO Tim Cook himself confirmed a launch is on the cards before the end of this year. Cards issued from banks like O2 Banking, Edenred, Boon, Bunq, Comdirect, VimPay, and others are also supported by Apple Pay. Retailers that will support Apple Pay at launch include Adidas, Aral, Burger King, Espirit, Shell, O2, MediaMarkt, Pull&Bear, Starbucks, Zara, and more. Apple already has a page live on its German website highlighting the banks and retailers which support Apple Pay at launch. Germany is the 20th region in Europe to start supporting Apple Pay. The Cupertino company has been slowly but steadily working on bringing Apple Pay to more countries across the world after initially launching it alongside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus back in 2014. Do you use Apple Pay on a regular basis? Or have you stopped using it completely since it is not accepted in most places? Pernod Ricard UK adds Canada's Ungava Pernod Ricard UK will market and distribute Canadas super premium gin brand, Ungava, from January 2019. The gin has a distinctive natural yellow colour and is distilled in small batches, using traditional techniques and a unique selection of 100% natural herbs and betties indigenous to the Arctic region of Canada. Chris Ellis, commercial director for Pernod Ricard UK, said: The explosion of gin in the UK has been driven by consumers seeking new and visually appealing serves. Gin has become the largest growth contributor to total spirits over the last five years, with growth being driven by the super premium sector. With innovation key to growth acceleration, Ungava is the perfect addition to our existing range that capitalises on super premium gin trend and current demand. Ungava is currently available to the grocery channel, priced at 32. Related articles: Tanzanias Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Community Cooperation, Dr. Augustine Mahiga, has called on UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) to continue tracking the last fugitives from justice of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and to ensure the genocide does not happen again. Speaking at the IRMCT Grounds in Lakilaki, Arusha, Ambassador Mahiga, said it was unfortunate that the genocide happened in Africa, adding that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the precursor to the Mechanism, was established in Arusha, Tanzania, to address the injustices occasioned by the genocide and ensure that it is not repeated. Further called on the Mechanism to engage in capacity building in law, prosecution and related areas for national judiciaries and regional courts in Africa, adding that Mechanism was a repository of information for all and a centre of excellence from which the world will continue to learn about genocide. Stories Continues after ad Issues of human rights were inseparable from the rule of law and democracy, and that this was the essence for the establishment by the African Union of the African Court for Human and Peoples Rights. There were many yawning gaps with regard to human rights in several African countries, adding that respect for human rights was a value that should be institutionalized, nurtured and passed on to future generations, He said. The Minister under whose docket EAC Affairs falls urged EAC Partner States to deepen cooperation in areas of good governance, human rights, democracy and social justice, adding that all protocols touching on these areas should be revisited and revitalized. Government of Tanzania was cognizant of the various challenges facing the many international organizations in Arusha, adding that his Ministry would continue to work closely with them to resolve the outstanding administrative issues, Speaking at the event, EAC Secretary General Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko said that the EAC would continue focusing on opening up markets to enhance trade and free movement of persons, improving the business climate to enable the development and competitiveness of the private sector and make the region an attractive investment destination, in order to spur economic growth and generate additional incomes for EAC citizens. Going forward, the Community has already mobilized more than US$2.5 billion in funding for various development projects in the Partner States, projects that will be implemented within the next three to five years in health, education, agriculture and other sectors, said Amb. Mfumukeko. In his remarks, Mr. Olufemi Elias, the Registrar of IRMCT and the host of the event, said that the diversity of the organizations that make up the international community in Arusha is what inspired international organizations to share a common objective to reinforce their connections with one another and even more importantly with the local community by offering insights into their mandates and functions in the spirit of partnership. As a concept, the International Organizations Open Day has generated a lot enthusiasm and excitement within participating organizations as well as the general public. This has inspired us as international organizations to increase interactions in order to bridge the gap between the international organizations and the local community, said Mr. Olufemi. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Colin Basran, shown here after being sworn into office in 2014, will take an oath again today at the inaugural meeting of the new Kelowna city council. The event will include an aboriginal prayer, despite a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that prayers have no place in municipal council meetings. The Bank of Uganda (BoU) is likely to be involved in three cases in court relating to the controversial sale of former Crane Bank Limited (CBL) to its rival Dfcu Bank in January 2017 at only Shs200 billion, having injected in CBL taxpayers money of about Shs478 billion as liquidity support and other costs. The transaction above left over 4000 terminated by Dfcu Bank and they now intend to sue both Dfcu Bank and BoU, according to Isaac Ssemakede, the lawyer for the affected former employees of CBL who each is claiming for at Least Shs120 million in compensation for what they say unfair termination, breach of contract and discrimination. We are seeking further permission to include BoU in the suit, he said, quoting the Auditor Generals recent special audit report of bank of Uganda on defunct banks in which BoU says about Shs5.1 billion had been paid to former CBL workers as terminal benefits. However Workers say the money they were given as salaries cannot add up to that amount. Stories Continues after ad The victims lawyer Ssemakade says Dfcu Bank acted unfairly by terminating the employees of CBL, having acquired them as it bought off CBL. He says the termination didnt cut across the board as it targeted only former CBL workers, leaving behind those originally hired by Dfcu Bank. He says it was a classic discrimination and that at the same time breached the equality principle. Dfcu should have terminated all workers across the board, but they terminated only CBL workers, he says, adding that the commercial bank violated the Employment Act of 2006. He says having taken of CBL on January 25, 2017, Dfcu started with the termination of 300 CBL workers in the process that was carried out in phases without considering their terminal benefits as required by law. Douglas Opio, the Executive Director of Uganda Employers Federation (UEF) said his organisation is discussing with Dfcu Bank to see if the issue can be handled out of court, though he noted that the former CBL employees needed a public hearing as regards their termination. Protection of an employers is as good as protection of an employee, Opio said, adding that they are trying to protect both sides especially that Dfcu Bank is an important player in the Ugandan economy but that workers rights must be protected at all times. Opio pointed that most employers in Uganda have been found culpable of their decision to terminate workers because they dont follow the laid down procedures as well as terminating workers without facts. On Monday November 5, 2018, unknown youth carried two piglets and stationed them in front of Bank of Uganda headquarters in Kampala, expressing their dissatisfaction over the outgoing managing director of DFCU bank, Juma Kisaame whose name has been common in the media of recent for not good reasons. The latest seems to be a continuation of use of piglets by disgruntled groups to express their dissatisfaction. In the past groups have dropped piglets around parliament. The above examples show how some Ugandans abuse the rights of animals. That you can get an animal carry it and drop to a spot it in town, leave it there without care. Stories Continues after ad peta.org says animal rights means that animals deserve certain kinds of considerationconsideration of what is in their best interests, regardless of whether they are cute, useful to humans, or an endangered species and regardless of whether any human cares about them at all. From the above definition we can conclude that people who carry piglets and drop them to specific places as way of expressing their dissatisfaction abuse animal rights since they consider the interests of animals. Such culprits should be apprehended by those that enforce the laws of the country-the Uganda police. The 1964 animal rights clause bans any kind of animal torture, although the punishments for those found guilty of abusing animal rights are very minor. For example a person is supposed to pay sh300 or three months imprisonment. Also part of the local governments (Kampala City Council) (Livestock and Companion Animals) Ordinance, 2006. Stipulates that a person shall not treat or subject any animal which is kept for agricultural purposes, to any form of cruelty or in any manner contrary to the provisions of the Animal (Prevention of Cruelty) Act. 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. Scientists of KIT work on methods to remove pathogens from sewage processed in sewage treatment plants. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/By Bin im Garten, CC BY-SA 3.0) According to the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, 700 to 800 t of antibiotics are consumed annually in the field of human medicine alone. Consumption in the area of veterinary medicine even totals about 1700 t. This high consumption of antibiotics, however, leads to an increasing amount of multi-resistant bacteria that aggravate medical treatment of a disease. Via the sewage system, the resistant pathogens enter the environment and eventually return into human organisms. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) study the spread of bacteria and assess measures for their efficient removal from process sewage, such as ultra-filtration, within the HyReKA joint project. Multi-resistant bacteria have learned to survive treatments with antibiotics by developing defense mechanisms. Not all of them are dangerous for human beings. Still, these bacteria are able to transmit their resistance genes to disease-causing pathogens. In this way, the number of resistant germs increases in the environment. When the bacteria spread, people have contact with them more often. If we do not take action against the spread, the number of effective antibiotics will decrease and, in the end, there will be few substances only or no substances with which we can fight a disease, says Professor Thomas Schwartz of KITs Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG). The microbiologist and his team study water bodies for the abundance and spread of clinically relevant antibiotics resistances and bacteria that may be dangerous to humans with a weakened immune system, small children, and elderly people. With the sewage from hospitals, nursing homes, domestic areas, slaughterhouses, and agriculture, resistant bacteria enter sewage treatment plants. Here, we detected bacteria not only at the inlets, but also at the outlets, Schwartz says. Hence, current sewage treatment methods remove part of the bacteria only, while the remainder is discharged into rivers and creeks together with the processed water. An ultrafiltration system consists of extremely fine membrane sections, in which antibiotics-resistant bacteria are removed from the sewage. (Photo: HyReKA) For this reason, the scientists test and assess various methods for the removal of these critical pathogens in sewage treatment plants: an ultrafiltration plant, an ozone and UV treatment, a combination of both, and activated charcoal treatment. In the case of ultrafiltration, water flows through extremely fine membrane sections and the amount of antibiotics-resistant bacteria can be reduced to such an extent that they can hardly be detected anymore. Ozone treatment, also in combination with UV radiation, enables a smaller, but still promising reduction of germs. For activated charcoal, we found no efficient change, i.e. no reduction, says the microbiologist. Within HyReKA, the scientists plan to develop the ultrafiltration system to maturity and to optimize ozone and UV treatment to enhance reduction efficiency. In addition, the scientists of KIT set up an assessment concept for the individual methods, such that study parameters can also be applied to other sewage treatment methods. In this way, we might provide hospitals, nursing homes or agricultural facilities, where the risk of resistant bacteria can also be suspected to be high, with these technologies to reduce the load acting on municipal sewage treatment plants, Schwartz says. HyReKA HyReKA is the German acronym of Biologically and Hygenico-medical Relevance and Control of Antiobiotics-resistant Pathogens in Clinical, Agricultural, and Municipal Sewage and their Importance in Raw Waters. The project is to actively contribute to the populations environment-related health protection. It is aimed at studying the spread of antibiotics-resistant bacteria and antibiotic residues, at estimating their distribution paths, risk potentials, and transmission risks, developing technical sewage treatment methods for sewage treatment facilities, and deriving recommendations for actions. Within the project, researchers of various disciplines, such as medicine, biology, geography, engineering, agricultural sciences, food technology, and food science cooperate with partners from municipal water management companies and industry. Among the partners of HyReKA are KIT, the University Hospital of Bonn, Bonn University, Technische Universitat Dresden, RWTH Aachen University, the German Environment Agency (UBA), the Water Technology Center in Karlsruhe (TZW), and municipal partners, such as Erftverband Bergheim, Oldenburgisch-Ostfriesischer Wasserverband (OOWV), Zweckverband Klarwerk Steinhaule, and the industry partner XYLEM Services GmbH. Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,600 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 23,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence. This is the fourth article in a series on Zandari Festa 2018, held Oct. 4 to 7. By Anastasia Traynin I headed over to Evans Lounge early on Sunday, Oct. 7, to catch a glimpse of , playing at Zandari Festa. Evans is a venue with more seats than standing space, but by the end of this showcase, most people were on their feet. The band members later told me that after numerous name changes, they passed by a lamp shop called Lightcraft, which seemed to capture their message of spreading light and good energy around the world. Led by vocalist, songwriter and guitarist Imam Mbudz and steeped firmly in the sounds of U.K. luminaries Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Doves, Elbow, The Boxer Rebellion and the like, Lightcraft nonetheless forges its own path. The three core members Imam, lead guitarist Fari, and Enrico on piano and keyboards have come a long way from their university days of the early 2000s in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Adding Yupi on drums and this year playing with Zealspeaks guitarist Toba on bass, the band has played festivals all around the world, including Liverpool Sound City and SXSW. What makes them unique among their contemporaries is their open dedication to several environmental causes in their home region, including protecting Brunei orangutans and making Jakarta a better place to live. "We are inspired by social situations," Imam said. "We want to make Jakarta a clean city, both mentally and physically." Lightcraft came back to Zandari in 2018 for their second time after three years. They say that though many more people are now gathering at the festival, the energy is the same. "We were really surprised by Korea. Everyone is really welcoming and enthusiastic," Fari said. Ahead of the release of their the band is promoting the uplifting single "Walk on Fire," a highlight of their performance. Their Zandari adventure didn't end Sunday, as they made their way to the post-closing party in the early Monday hours at Strange Fruit and even played there as part of the "One More Night" extra set that evening. They also got together with local band Laybricks, who they first met at Zandari Festa 2015, then encountered again at Liverpool Sound City 2016 in the U.K. and Playtime Festival 2018 in Ulaanbaatar. "After spending quite a lot of time together, we decided the natural progression for this flourishing friendship was to write a song together," Imam said. "So during our last night in Seoul, when the hype surrounding Zandari Festa 2018 had died down a wee bit and after we played a post-Zandari show together at Strange Fruit, we popped around their studio and jammed for a few hours. In the end, we managed to come up with a song that we're now currently in the midst of completing." KEB Hana Bank CEO Abu Dhabi branch head Noh Young-joon, left, shakes hands with Lieutenant Col. Kim Hyun-tae, a commander of Korean military unit Akh, during a signing ceremony for their sisterhood relationship at the unit's base in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sunday. The Akh is a Korean military contingency there under a program to help train UAE troops, and the lender donated $30,000 for the troops while providing various financial services for them under the deal. / Courtesy of KEB Hana Bank The headquarters of the Financial Supervisory Service on Yeouido in Seoul / Yonhap By Jhoo Dong-chan The nation's financial authorities and commercial banks are joining forces to improve their anti-money laundering system in order to avoid becoming a target of U.S. "secondary boycott" sanctions. The move came in the wake of the U.S. government's recent move to strengthen its related monitoring of entities doing business with North Korea so as to cut off the funds it believes bankroll the North's weapons programs. Lenders reinforced their staff in compliance departments while checking whether their foreign branches are fully complying with related laws. Their CEOs also said they will visit the U.S. soon to discuss the matter with official there. Financial authorities have also joined the effort to avoid being targeted by possible "secondary boycott" measures. They established a joint taskforce with financial firms to respond to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) evaluations. The FATF is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering. According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), Monday, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) held a conference for lenders' compliance officers on Oct. 10, after the U.S. Treasury asked several commercial and policy banks not to violate the Washington-led sanctions against North Korea. "It was an FIU event where the FSS participated as a guest speaker," an FSS official said. "The agency called on banks to comply with Washington-led sanctions to avoid its secondary boycott measure." Following the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang, the U.S. Treasury emailed and had conference calls with the nation's lenders on Sept. 21 and 22 to express its concern about Seoul's appeasement stance. Rumors said last week the Donald Trump administration has already decided to impose a secondary sanction against one commercial bank, but the FSS immediately announced the allegation was false. In a bid to de-escalate the situation, NH NonHyup Bank CEO Lee Dae-hoon and Industrial Bank of Korea CEO Kim Do-jin said they will visit the U.S. soon to meet high-ranking officials of the Federal Reserve and New York State Department of Financial Services. The headquarters of JP Morgan Chase in New York / Yonhap By Park Hyong-ki The country's financial regulators are investigating the alleged involvement of foreign investment banks in colluding to secure and rig foreign exchange swap contracts, according to government and industry sources, Monday. They said that investment banks JPMorgan Chase and Citibank are being looked into as part of the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) and the Financial Supervisory Service's (FSS) ongoing probe into a number of cases since 2011. The local investigation started amid a worldwide forex scandal that led global authorities to look into the implications of renowned investment banks colluding and fixing rates on currency derivatives. Some cases have been closed here, while others are still being examined by the regulators, according to the FTC and the FSS. The antitrust agency looks into whether involved parties have engaged in unfair competition, while the FSS's task is to uncover possible illicit financial dealings behind these unfair practices, an industry source said. JPMorgan and Citibank are on the list of investment banks subject to the probe. "Those two are included in the ongoing assessment of a long line of allegations that have yet to be resolved," an FTC official with knowledge of the situation said. An FSS official said he could not offer any details, but indicated that the financial regulator has not yet finished its investigation, which is being conducted separately from the antitrust regulator. So far, the FTC has fined and imposed disciplinary measures on Deutsch Bank, HSBC and BNP Paribas for conspiring to take turns to win bids for derivatives contracts from companies or exporters that were looking to hedge risks against currency swings and volatility. Deutsche Bank was fined in 2016 and 2017 as the German investment bank colluded with HSBC in currency swap bids, and then with BNP Paribas, according to the FTC. In 2016, Deutsche Bank and HSBC were found to have colluded in a bid for currency spot and forward contracts worth $88 million. The year after that, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas were discovered to have rigged bids 45 times from 2011 to 2014. These banks, and JPMorgan Chase, have all been named co-conspirators in the widespread forex rigging scandal overseas. After the authorities in the United States and Europe launched investigations and lawsuits, local regulators expanded the scope of their probe. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice said these banks that colluded on bid rigging and price manipulation were part of a group named "the Cartel." South Africa also fined Citibank and implicated others including JPMorgan Chase over currency trading collusion in 2017. The regulator there said Citibank had engaged in unfair practices with its competitors since 2007. Citibank Korea and JPMorgan Chase Seoul declined to comment. The daily trading volume in the global currency market averages $5 trillion, according to the Bank for International Settlements. By Lee Kyung-min The state-run Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) will organize an institutional fund to finance an eco-friendly initiative as part of global efforts to move toward a low-carbon economy, it said Monday. The bank will set up a 137 billion won ($121 million) fund "Kiwoom Goseong Biomass Fund" with other participating institutional investors including Lotte Insurance. The eight-and-a-half year investment fund, managed by Kiwoom Asset Management, will invest in Shinyoung Portu, a manufacturer of wood pellets in Goseong County, South Gyeongsang Province. Wood pellets, the most common type of pellet fuel, is generally considered to be a more environmentally friendly fuel for power generation, commercial or residential heating and cooking. IBK will spend 85 billion won to set up funds and organize loans in the form of "project financing" part of funds allocated by the banks to invest in power generation. "Many global entities are increasingly moving to reduce carbon emissions to better deal with global warming," an IBK official said. "We expect the new project financing will yield high profit, as biomass-produced energy will be eligible for government subsidy calculated based on Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)," he added. The RECs are tradable, non-tangible energy commodities in the U.S. that represent proof that certain electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy resource. Unlike traditional carbon emissions trading programs which mostly penalize or incentivize certain pre-set emissions targets, RECs incentivize carbon-neutral renewable energy. "We consider the project financing will help us achieve green initiative amid growing awareness on the importance of promoting sustainable, eco-friendly growth," the official added. The belated yet well-corrected efforts came less than two weeks after the state lender came under fire for having spent a substantial amount of taxpayers' money against global efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. IBK has spent 109.6 billion won over the past six years into the "environmentally harmful" coal-powered plants, accounting for nearly half, or 43.99 percent, of its power generation budget. Also, the Korea Development Bank (KDB) has spent 164.1 billion won over the past eight years, accounting for 11 percent of its total. At the time, the two state-run lenders had come under heavy criticism for failure to be responsible as state enterprises whose priorities should be to help foster the country's industries in a discriminating manner based on a long-term vision. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday he will meet this week in New York with North Korea's number two to discuss denuclearization and a possible second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "I expect we'll make some real progress, including an effort to make sure that the summit between our two leaders can take place where we can make substantial steps toward denuclearization," Pompeo said on CBS's "Face the Nation." Pompeo's meeting with Kim Yong Chol later this week comes with the two sides at loggerheads nearly five months after a historic summit in June in which Trump and Kim pledged to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. North Korea's foreign ministry warned earlier in the week that Pyongyang will "seriously" consider reviving its nuclear weapons program unless US sanctions are lifted. Pompeo dismissed the statement, telling "Fox News Sunday," "I'm not worried about that." "We are very focused. We know with whom we are negotiating, we know what their positions (are) and President Trump has made his position very clear," Pompeo said. He added that there would be "no economic relief until we have achieved our ultimate objective." News of the meeting, and the possibility of another summit, also comes just two days before crucial US midterm elections seen as a referendum on Trump. Trump has often pointed to the detente with North Korea -- the subject of saber-rattling rhetoric and soaring tensions early in his term -- as a signature foreign policy accomplishment. Pompeo emphasized in both television appearances that there have been no missile or nuclear tests since the summit in Singapore, and remains of US troops killed during the Korean War have been returned. "We've had success in just a handful of months since this past June, and we continue to make good progress. I'm confident that we'll advance the ball again this week when I'm in New York City," he said on CBS. But the progress has fallen well short of the promise of the summit, with Washington pushing to maintain sanctions against the North until its "final, fully verified denuclearization," and Pyongyang condemning US demands as "gangster-like." "The improvement of relations and sanctions are incompatible," said the foreign ministry statement, released under the name of the director of the foreign ministry's Institute for American Studies. "What remains to be done is the US corresponding reply," it added. Kim Yong Chol, Pompeo's counterpart in the talks, is a general, a former top intelligence chief and right-hand man to the North Korean leader. He visited the White House in the diplomatic run-up to the Singapore summit, and has been Pompeo's chief interlocutor in the months since. In mid-October, Pompeo evoked the possibility of a second summit, preceded by talks with Kim Yong Chol. "We're working on finding dates and times and places that will work for each of the two leaders," Pompeo said at the time. (Yonhap) By Park Si-soo South Korea's weather agency detected two natural earthquakes in the sea off North Korea on Monday. The first quake, measured at on the Richter scale, took place 12:02 p.m. in waters 43 kilometers southwest of North Korea's Ongjin County and the second with a at 12:07 p.m. at almost the same location. The epicenter of the two quakes was estimated 15 kilometers underground, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). The administration branded the quakes as "natural seismic activities" which were felt in some of South Korea's border areas. "There were cases of multiple earthquakes taking place back to back near Ongjin area," a KMA official said, referring to the earthquake-prone underground structure of the area. According to the KMA, a 2.2-magnitude quake was detected 12 kilometers north of Ongjin on Oct. 24. North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wave back to Pyongyang citizens during a car parade, Sunday. Captured from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba's Twitter account (@CubaMINREX) By Jung Da-min North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has received Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel with "magnificent" welcoming events, North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Monday, with Kim repeatedly stressing "the strategic and comradely friendship with Cuba." Diaz-Canel's visit to North Korea marked the first by a Cuban president since former President Fidel Castro's 1986 visit, though Diaz-Canel has traveled to North Korea before, meeting Kim Jong-un as Cuban vice president back in 2015. According to the KCNA, Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju greeted Diaz-Canel and his wife Lis Cuesta Peraza at Pyongyang International Airport on Sunday. Following a 21-gun salute from the Korean People's Army, Kim and Diaz-Canel reviewed the honor guards of the KPA. The two leaders also took part in a car parade through the streets of Pyongyang to arrive at the Paekhwawon State Guest House, where the Cuban delegation would stay. During the talks at the Paekhwawon State Guest House in Sunday afternoon, Kim and Diaz-Canel demonstrated "the invincibility of the traditional fellowship, trust, friendship and solidarity of the peoples of the two countries," while discussing ways to boost exchanges in various fields including economy, culture, public health, science and technology, KCNA reported. They also exchanged views on the "common concern" of the two countries on international politics, while reaching "a consensus of views on all issues." North Korea is committed to boosting friendly relations with Cuba as socialist allies, while the two countries are in conflicts with the U.S. North Korea's party mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun on Sunday published a series of articles on Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel's visit to Pyongyang, with this photo showing the third page of the paper featuring Diaz-Canel's photo on right. Yonhap South African Ambassador to Korea Nozuko Gloria Bam sings "One Fine Day in October" during a concert at Dankook University, Oct. 31 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the late South African President Nelson Mandela's birth. / Courtesy of Dankook University By Yi Whan-woo "Music is a great blessing. It has the power to elevate and liberate us. It sets people free to dream. It can unite us to sing with one voice. Such is the value of music." These words of Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) were recalled in Korea on Oct. 31 as over 600 guests, including 110 diplomats from 34 countries, attended a concert to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the late South African President's birth. The Nelson Mandela Centenary Celebration Concert was co-hosted by the South African Embassy in Korea and Dankook University at the school's campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. It featured pieces from around the world to highlight peace, unity, forgiveness and reconciliation underscored by Mandela. Among them were Verdi's Nabucco overture and "Va, Pensiero, sull'ali dorate," David Popper's Hungarian Rhapsody Opus 68, Cho Young-sup's "Pining for Mount Geumgang," Alan Lazar's "African Dream" and Rolf Lovland's "One Fine Day in October." "The embassy is humbled by Dankook University's commitment to honor former President Mandela's legacy in this way and for allowing South Africa and the Republic of Korea to sing with one voice today," South African Ambassador to Korea Nozuko Gloria Bam said. She said the school's principles of national salvation, independence and self-reliance are "particularly relevant to democratic South Africa as it grapples with the challenges of ensuring a better life for all of its citizens." Dankook University President Chang Ho-sung said he hopes the concert will "serve as another special opportunity for us to recall the national salvation spirit of Nelson Mandela." "I also look forward to it serving as an opportunity for Korea and South Africa to expand exchanges between our universities and strengthen diplomacy in the private sector," he said. During the concert, the South African ambassador took to the stage and sang "One Fine Day in October." The organizers prepared for the concert over the past eight months, according to the embassy. South Africa has celebrated Mandela's birth centenary with various events. For instance, the South African Reserve Bank released a set of limited edition bank notes and gold coins in July. By Kim Hyun-bin A growing number of people are calling for stricter measures against bullying by superiors in the workplace place, which often involves physical attacks, because current regulations are seen as ineffective. The demands have become especially strident after the disclosure of video clips in which Yang Jin-ho, CEO of WeDisk and Hankook Mirae Technology, is seen abusing and assaulting a worker, and ordering employees to kill chickens with a crossbow and a sword. Many labor human rights groups say the bizarre abuse by Yang portrays only the tip of the iceberg in some Korean work environments. Gabjil 119, a labor human rights organization, said it received reports of 225 cases of workplace abuse solely last month. "Gabjil" is a Korean term referring to bullying by people in higher-ranking positions. Some cases include a superior at a company get-together posing to hit an employee with a soju bottle and another choking a subordinate at the office. "There are superiors who treat junior employees as servants and abuse them verbally and physically. Such things are rampant in many companies here," the organization said. It called on the National Assembly to pass a "Yang Jin-ho ban law," aimed at protecting employees from workplace bullying. The group said punishment of superiors for bullying is rare here because of a lack of regulations: Sexual and physical assault can be punished under the criminal law, but there are little to no regulations on bullying or swearing, such as Yang forcing workers to kill the chickens. "If a worker gets medical treatment after verbal and other non-physical abuse, they are not allowed industrial accident compensation. If an employee quits following verbal abuse, it is considered a voluntary resignation so they cannot receive unemployment benefits," it said. To strengthen regulations, the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee passed a revision bill to the Labor Standards Act to include protection against workplace bullying in September, but the process has been halted at the Legislation and Judiciary Committee due to some opposition. Some members of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LPK) lawmakers, who are against the bill, claim it has an unclear definition of "mental suffering," and the scope of "working environment." "Reps. Yi Wan-young and Jang Je-won of the LPK have rejected the bill citing unclear definitions. But the revision bill specifically defines discriminatory actions and the definitions are clear when compared with similar laws in France and Canada," the organization said. Meanwhile, police plan to summon Yang for questioning this week. Police raided 10 locations including Yang's home and offices Friday to seize evidence, after the two videos of him abusing his employees were made public. One of the two shows Yang cursing and slapping a former employee in the face and forcing him to kneel and apologize in the office. The other shows him shooting a live chicken with a crossbow and making employees do the same at a company retreat. He also made some employees kill a chicken with a Japanese sword. By Jung Hae-myoung A recent ruling to punish the former head of a public company for gender discrimination in hiring practices is drawing attention over whether it will affect similar cases in the financial sector. The Supreme Court said on Sunday it upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced Park Gi-dong, former CEO of the Korea Gas Safety Corp., to four years in prison and 3 billion won ($266,998) in fines for discriminating against women in recruitment. During recruitment in January 2015 and May 2016, Park ordered the company's human resource officials to fabricate interview scores to select men over women. Park did so because he felt that "female employees would cause setbacks in work progress by taking maternity leave." His order caused seven female applicants, whose scores were high enough to be hired, to be disqualified, while 13 men landed jobs despite having scores that disqualified them. "Park caused irregularities in employment procedures by manipulating the interview scores, which greatly degraded trust in public enterprises," the court said. Park's case is likely to affect similar ongoing cases in the financial sector. After a 2017 inspection by the Financial Supervisory Service, 38 officials from six commercial banks, including four former and incumbent bank heads, were put on trial for gender discrimination in hiring practices. Four former and incumbent officials at KB Kookmin Bank recently received suspended jail terms for violating the equal employment law, as they fabricated documents to give high scores to 113 male applicants and low scores to 112 female ones, to hire a larger ratio of men. During the 2017 recruitment process at Shinhan Card, the company set a goal for the gender ratio of men and women to 7:3 and fabricated interview scores according to the goal, although the ratio of male and female applicants was 59:41. KEB Hana Bank also fixed a ratio of men and women at 4:1. Most of the female applicants were disqualified after the company set up much higher prerequisites for them. By Kang Seung-woo Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung plans to file a complaint with the prosecution against the police for "false investigations" into multiple allegations against him. Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung speaks to reporters during his appearance at Bundang Police Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Oct. 29, to be questioned over multiple allegations. / Yonhap By Jung Min-ho Porn has been the main revenue source for the online storage company of Yang Jin-ho, who is taking flak for years of his abusive behavior toward his underlings. According to police and industry sources Monday, a big part of WeDisk's revenue most likely came from pornographic content, from which it takes commissions for connecting uploaders and downloaders. Some say such content accounts for more than 90 percent of the company's revenue. The size of Yang's wealth is unclear, but some media reported that it is more than 100 billion won ($89 million). "He has accumulated wealth by enabling people to share porn. He wanted to be a member of the upper class. But nobody would consider him elite if they found out how he made his fortune. So he set up a robotics company (K-Technology) to improve his image," said an independent journalist, who broke the story with a local media outlet News Tapa. After the issue came to light, police have been investigating the allegations that Yang paid pornographic content providers to upload their videos and photos to WeDisk. Police are expected to summon him for questioning soon. The IT entrepreneur is accused of assaulting his former employee and forcing some others to kill chickens with a crossbow and a Japanese sword for the company's workshop dinner in 2016. More people have since come out with new allegations of his wrongdoings. Yang later apologized and said he would step down as CEO of his two companies. By Jung Min-ho A girl and a man have been found dead on Jeju Island, police said Sunday. According to the Jeju Coast Guard, police found the body of a man, 56, later identified as a Seoul resident whose surname is Jeon, floating in the water near the Port of Jeju around 12:55 p.m. On the same day, police found the body of an unidentified girl thought to be under five years old at a beach on northern Jeju around 6:36 p.m. Police are investigating Jeon's family and friends to find out what brought him to the island. The girl's height is about 93cm. So far, police have not found any clues that would help them identify her. Police said there have not been any missing reports on Jeju recently. Police will perform autopsies on the bodies Tuesday to find the causes of their deaths. The Seoul Lantern Festival kicked off at Cheonggye Stream last Friday, through Nov. 18. / Yonhap Annual lantern fest to continue through Nov. 18 By Kang Seung-woo Seoul Lantern Festival, one of the iconic events of the capital city, has returned to light up Cheonggye Stream and its surroundings with themed lanterns and lighted displays. The 10th edition of the annual event began its 17-day run, Nov. 2, under the theme of "Seoul Dream, Following Light." The lantern event, launched in 2009 to promote tourism, culture and arts ahead of the 201-2012 Visit Korea Years, has established itself as the nation's busiest lantern festival, receiving more than 2.5 million visitors from across the country and around the world each year. "It is deeply impressive as this year marks the 10th anniversary of Seoul Lantern Festival. It has successfully run for 10 years mainly thanks to the interest and support shown by Seoul citizens," Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said during the opening ceremony, Friday. Seoul Tourism Organization President Rhee Jae-sung also said, "We are set to make efforts to renew and differentiate the lantern festival every year to draw more spectators." The festival takes place along the 1.2-kilometer Cheonggye Stream starting from Cheonggye Plaza to Supyo Bridge and runs every evening from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. This year's fest is decorated with 400 lanterns 303 of which are newly manufactured. According to the organizing committee, this year's festival is divided and displayed under four different themes: "The Launch Point for a New Dream," "Seoul's Dream for the Future," "Seoul's Shining Memories" and "Seoul Filled with Traditions." The festival takes place along the 1.2-kilometer Cheonggye Stream starting from Cheonggye Plaza to Supyo Bridge and runs every evening from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. / Yonhap Chung Dong-young, leader of the minor opposition Party for Democracy and Peace shakes hands with U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Harry Harris upon the latter's courtesy visit to the party at the National Assembly, Monday. / Yonhap By Park Ji-won U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris met the leader of a minor liberal party Monday, and reaffirmed that the allies should share a common voice on the North Korea denuclearization issue. "I do believe that inter-Korea relations must go hand-in-hand with denuclearization. And that the ROK and the United States should be synchronized in our efforts to bring peace to the peninsula," Harris said during a meeting with Chung Dong-young, chairman of the Party for Democracy and Peace. He paid a courtesy visit to the party at the National Assembly. "And I will also note that denuclearization has not worked in the past. If it had, we wouldn't be in the position we are in now." His remarks are likely part of the U.S. move to urge Seoul to strengthen its ties with Washington regarding the denuclearization process, amid the dissonance between the two countries on easing sanctions against the North. He reiterated the U.S. stance of maintaining sanctions against Pyongyang, while expressing discontent over Seoul's move to prioritize improving inter-Korean relations and singlehandedly easing the sanctions. Over Chung's remarks that denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula could be established for the first time in 70 years under President Donald Trump's leadership, Harris said "I agree with you that it is because of President Trump's vision that we are here today." The ambassador emphasized President Moon Jae-in's role to persuade North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying, "I think both presidents together have been able to present an option to Chairman Kim Jong-un that he has not had before." Chung, meanwhile, said, "Development in inter-Korean relations has fostered the North's denuclearization. At this stage, we need to send a signal about improvement of inter-Korean relations to the North Korean leader so that Kim can be sure that his decision was right. "I hope your leadership will play a big role to change the Korean Peninsula, which has been in conflict and confrontation, into a peaceful and prosperous region," he added. President Moon Jae-in, second from right, and floor leaders from five political parties hold their first policy coordination meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. They agreed earlier to hold such a meeting once every quarter. From left are Justice Party acting party leader Youn So-ha, Bareunmirae Party floor leader Kim Kwan-young, Party for Democracy and Peace floor leader Chang Byoung-wan, presidential secretary for political affairs Han Byung-do, Democratic Party of Korea floor leader Hong Young-pyo, President Moon and Liberty Korea Party floor leader Kim Sung-tae. / Yonhap President Moon Jae-in, center, smiles with floor leaders of the country's five political parties before the start of a luncheon at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap By Kim Yoo-chul The country's ruling and opposition parties agreed to support a mega-budget plan for next year and President Moon Jae-in's drive for permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. "Floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties agreed to provide full support to the President's efforts to bring peace to the peninsula and to revitalize the economy by applying a series of additional measures, if necessary," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a media briefing, Monday afternoon. The joint statement came after President Moon held a luncheon with the floor leaders of five political parties including the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) at Cheong Wa Dae, following an August agreement reached by them to hold such a session once every quarter. The meeting started at 11:40 a.m. and lasted 100 minutes. "The next meeting has been planned for sometime in February next year," spokesman Kim said. The statement also added the parties would consider applying measures aimed at completely eradicating hiring irregularities and providing financial assistance for small business owners. In order to achieve sustainable growth by encouraging equality and making a fair society, the President vowed to improve social safety and welfare programs. The agreement implied that a mega fiscal plan for next year, earlier submitted by the government to the National Assembly, may be passed. The government earlier proposed the sharpest expansion in fiscal spending in a decade for next year because it wants to focus more on creating jobs and boosting welfare in the face of a deteriorating job market. Total spending has been set for 470.5 trillion won, an addition of 9.7 percent compared to the previous year. This is also the biggest jump since a 10.6 percent increase in 2009. The LKP, however, said it was seeking to cut the budget plan by up to 20 trillion won as the party was opposing President Moon's "income-driven" economic growth policy. The statement also included cross-party efforts to spend the expansionary budget on helping foster innovative industries, which haven't been touched before but need to be explored to reduce Korea's heavy reliance on manufacturing-driven businesses. But the statement didn't say whether the parties agreed to ratify the Panmunjeom Declaration and the LKP told President Moon the party would pursue its own judiciary process for nullification of the Pyongyang Joint Declaration which it once claimed was "unconstitutional." Spokesman Kim declined to comment. The Panmunjeom Declaration is still pending approval at the National Assembly as it's required for the declaration to receive the Assembly's consent to make it effective given the sizable amount of state funds for inter-Korean projects. Attending the luncheon was DPK floor leader Hong Young-pyo, LKP floor leder Kim Sung-tae, minor opposition Bareunmirae Party floor leader Kim Kwan-young, the smallest opposition Party for Democracy and Peace floor leader Chang Byoung-wan and Youn So-ha of the Justice Party, the most progressive party. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc shakes hands with French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (Source: VNA) During his stay in Vietnam, PM Edouard Philippe held talks with PM Phuc and paid a courtesy visit to General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and President Nguyen Phu Trong. He also met with Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Secretary of the Party Committee of Ho Chi Minh city Nguyen Thien Nhan and Chairman of the Hanoi Peoples Committee Nguyen Duc Chung. The French leader visited the Presidential Palace relic site and attended a ceremony to inaugurate a new facility of France's International School Alexandre Yersin in Hanoi. He also visited the A1 Hill relic site and laid a wreath at the Dien Bien Phu martyrs cemetery in the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien, and attended ceremonies to inaugurate the French medical centre and open the France-Vietnam technological business forum in HCM city. In the spirit of mutual understanding and trust, both sides discussed measures to bolster their bilateral ties and international and regional issues of mutual interests. They affirmed their determination to boost ties after five years of signing the Vietnam-France Strategic Partnership (2013-2018) and 45 years of diplomatic relations. They reached consensus on promoting collaboration in developing e-government and modernising state administrative management - a new cooperation field full of prospects. Also, they were concurred to deepen cooperation in culture, and join hands to ensure the successful organisation of the 11th conference on cooperation between Vietnamese and French localities slated for April 2019 in Toulouse. In addition, they agreed to enhance coordination at multilateral forums like the United Nations (UN) and the Francophonie, while continuing to support each other in developing relations between France and Asia-Pacific countries as well as between Vietnam and the EU. The two sides agreed to increase meetings at all levels, while upholding the role of bilateral coordination and cooperation mechanisms in the fields of politics, economy, defence, science-technology, culture, and education-training. They also underlined the need to encourage their enterprises to foster business and investment connection in fields of French strength and Vietnams demand such as infrastructure development, energy, aerospace, health, science-technology, communication, climate change adaptation and smart city development. They affirmed that economic cooperation would continue to be a priority pillar in their bilateral relations, stressing that it is necessary to foster cooperation and accelerate the implementation of key cooperation projects as well as work together to step up the Vietnam-European Union ties. On the occasion, the two PMs witnessed the signing of cooperation agreements between the nations across fields, including those in training, e-Government development, health care, climate change adaptation, and environmental protection, provision of Airbus aircraft, urban management and energy./. US reaffirms 'denuke first' By Kim Bo-eun South Korea and the U.S. resumed joint marine drills Monday, after halting them in June amid a dialogue process with North Korea over its denuclearization. They began the Korea Marine Exercise Program (KMEP), a two-week drill involving 500 troops around the southeastern city of Pohang. Marines of South Korea and the U.S plan to conduct the KMEP 24 times next year. This is part of a plan to suspend large-scale exercises to keep the dialogue momentum, alive but continue conducting smaller ones to maintain tactical readiness. The Vigilant Ace air force exercise is one of the major joint exercises to have been suspended. Meanwhile, the U.S. reaffirmed that there would not be any sanctions relief until North Korea achieves complete denuclearization, ahead of a high-level meeting between the states this week. The statement comes amid North Korea stepping up calls for sanctions to be eased. "Not only complete denuclearization, but our capacity to verify that that has taken place, is also a prerequisite to lifting sanctions," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with CBS. He confirmed he will be meeting with high-level North Korean official Kim Yong-chol in New York "at the end of the week." North Korea through its state media recently implied it could resume nuclear activity if sanctions were not eased. The secretary dismissed these remarks. "I'm not worried about rhetoric. We've seen this as we go through negotiations. Stray voltage happens to be all around us. We're very focused," Pompeo told Fox News. "President Trump's made his position very clear: No economic relief until we have achieved our ultimate objective." The high-level meeting will take place in circumstances that working-level talks have failed to begin. After the third inter-Korean summit, where North Korea offered to permanently shut down its Tongchang-ri missile testing site in the presence of international experts, Washington invited Pyongyang for working-level talks in Vienna, Austria. However, North Korea has yet to respond with a date for these talks. Pompeo said the North Korea stated during his fourth visit to Pyongyang it would invite international experts to its Punggye-ri nuclear testing site to verify its dismantlement, which took place in May. The high-level talks are expected to address the matter of inspections as well as plans for a second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump. Attention is focused on whether the countries will be able to reach a breakthrough as North Korea has been calling repeatedly for sanctions to be eased in exchange for permanently dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear facility, while the U.S. is calling for additional denuclearization steps. By Kim Bo-eun South Korea received a waiver from sanctions on oil imports from Iran after Washington re-imposed these on Tehran, Monday. Seoul was exempted on the condition that it would significantly reduce the scale of the imports, the foreign ministry said the same day. The allies agreed, however, not to disclose the scale of the reduction. The waiver will last for six months, but can be extended after this period expires. A foreign ministry official said the government sought the exemption as "the oil and chemical businesses were key to the nation's economy." "If these businesses are hit by sanctions on Iran, they will negatively affect the performance of the nation as a whole," he told reporters on condition of anonymity. Receiving the exemption has allowed a stable supply of condensate, which is essential for the domestic oil and chemical businesses, the ministry said. South Korea is one of Asia's largest importers of Iranian oil. It mainly imports an ultra-light form of crude oil known as condensate, accounting for 74 percent of its imports from Iran. Meanwhile, the payment system for trade with Iran using an "escrow account" will also be maintained, allowing exports of items not subject to sanctions to the Middle Eastern country, the ministry continued. The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has set up a Korean won account at the Industrial Bank of Korea and Woori Bank to make payments for bilateral trade through won. The oil refineries deposit payments for imports to the CBI Korean won account, and the exporting companies receive the payments through the same account. Sanctions on Iran have been re-imposed as a means to curb the country's nuclear and missile activities, after the U.S. left the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May. Seoul is among a list of eight countries that received exemptions. The others are China, India, Japan, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Taiwan, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a press conference. A day earlier he said despite the waivers, the sanctions have already had a significant impact, and stated the exempted states "need a little bit more time to get to zero." Following its withdrawal from the JCPOA, the U.S. stated sanctions on automobiles and the trading of precious metals, steel and software would go into effect Aug. 7. From Nov. 5, Washington added it would sanction the trade of Iranian oil, oil products and petrochemicals, transactions with Iranian financial institutions and the energy sector. By Mahmood Elahi This refers to the most topical article: "US-China conflict and Korea," by Lee Seong-hyon, published in The Korea Times on Oct. 31. A few years ago, I spent a month visiting Beijing, Shanghai and other cities of China. It was extremely interesting to see the world's most populous country on the trip. With its magnetically-levitated (Maglev) trains running at 410 km per hour, Shanghai looks like a city of the future. The Maglev connects Shanghai International Airport with Pudong Central Business District 30 km away in eight minutes. The same distance between downtown Manhattan and Kennedy International Airport takes more than an hour to traverse by car during rush hour. I saw China's industrial might while visiting Shanghai's huge container port the world's largest. As far as the eye could see, a forest of red cranes was loading and unloading with robotic precision. It was a clear demonstration of China's global economic reach. I was told that most ships being loaded were going to the United States and Europe and most ships being unloaded were coming from Japan and South Korea. This explains why China is enjoying a trade surplus with the U.S. while facing a deficit vis-a-vis South Korea and Japan. By 2010, China has overtaken Japan as the world's second largest economy after the United States. It has overtaken the United States as Japan and South Korea's biggest trading partner and it has overtaken Japan as Australia's biggest trading partner. It has also surpassed the United States as the world's biggest market for cars. And it has surpassed the United States as the world's greatest trading nation. And it has surpassed Japan as the biggest creditor to America. While in Shanghai, I had an interesting and candid discussion with a fluently English-speaking graduate student at the University of Shanghai. When I told him that I write for the newspapers, he agreed to talk provided I don't mention his name. We talked about China's meteoric rise as an economic superpower. He told me that China's rise has been peaceful. When I asked him about China's relations with the United States, he replied that Sino-American relations will be cooperative and competitive, but never confrontational. The United States is China's biggest trading partner and China is the biggest holder of the U.S. Treasury Bills. With China bankrolling America's budget deficits, the United States enjoys the luxury to cut taxes while increasing on spending, especially defense spending. With so much economic relations at stake, China and the United States cannot afford to confront each other militarily without harming themselves. He also told me that China is not interested to enter into any arms race with the United States. It will have adequate defense, but it will eschew any competition for military supremacy. China will not take sides in any conflict. It will seek friends without creating enemies. As such, it will avoid any military confrontation with the United States. When I asked about China's relations with North and South Korea, he told me that China would like to see both Koreas live peacefully without threatening each other. China is now South Korea's biggest trading partner and it will not mind if reunification of North and South takes place peacefully. China's interests will be best served by complete normalization of relations between the two Koreas. He had particularly good words for South Korea. He considered its transformation from a poor country to an industrial giant as comparable to China's rise. Trade and economic relations between China and South Korea will grow exponentially if peace and stability is not disturbed on the Korean Peninsula. He said Sino-Korean trade someday will surpass Sino-American trade. He also told me that China and Korea were historically friends and now they are two global economic powerhouses and the possibility of cooperation between them is limitless. Today, with two-way trade between China and South Korea totaling $211 billion, China is by far South Korea's biggest trading partner. Its trade with China is bigger than its combined trade with the U.S. and Japan totaling $170 billion. He also told me that he had already visited Seoul and found the people t very friendly and hoped to visit South Korea again. This explains why tourists from China now outnumber visitors from all other countries combined. When I wrote a letter to the editor to monthly China Today about our meeting, it quickly published it without any editing. This shows Chinese editorialists agreed with what he said. Today, both the United States and China are embroiled in a tariff war over the U.S. trade deficits vis-a-vis China. But it is hurting both countries. It is hurting the U.S. consumers who are paying higher prices and it is hurting Chinese producers as higher prices are forcing U.S. importers to seek cheaper suppliers in other countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and others to avoid U.S. tariffs on Chinese products. And the Chinese importers of U.S. agricultural products are forced to look for other agricultural exporters like Canada and Australia to avoid Chinese tariffs on U.S. products. America's loss is Canada's gain. In the process, both China and the U.S. are losing their market shares. As such, Trump's tariff war with China is unlikely to outlast his presidency which may prove to be short-lived. As they say that coming events cast their shadows before them and it is clear that Democrats will win the mid-term elections in a landslide, putting a brake on Trump's atavistic triumphalism. Lee Seong-hyon is only partly right when he says: "In the security realm, the increasingly competitive nature will manifest through issues such as the North Korean nuclear issue. Now, they are even competing in the extraterrestrial space. China is still militarily weaker than America. Therefore, China may occasionally back down in a tactful display of compromise in the short term but it is unlikely to be a sustained posture by the Chinese." But with tensions between North and South Korea winding down and China unwilling to prop up a nuclear-armed North Korea, the security situation in the Korean Peninsula is likely to improve, allowing South Korea and China to continue their growing trade and economic relations. Mahmood Elahi (omega51@sympatico.ca) is a freelance writer in Ottawa. By Deauwand Myers The more powerful a country, the more complicated (and problematic) its foreign policy usually is. My native country of the United States of America has a lot of explaining to do in this regard. The list of downright sinister foreign policy blunders committed by the United States and/or its Anglo-European allies is too many to enumerate here, but an abbreviated list is useful, insofar as locating the inherent hypocrisies and contradictions plaguing current geopolitical affairs. In the so-called Banana Wars, America, in service to American fruit companies, used a variety of tactics to subvert democratic movements, subsequently installing anti-democratic regimes, as to better exploit the natural resources of these countries. In short, America helped usher in decades of political unrest, mass murder, and human misery for profit. During the Guatemalan Revolution (1944-51), democratic elections ushered in popular, leftist governments (these administrations sought a broader distribution of the country's wealth and resources to the masses), but a coup d'etat (sponsored by the U.S.) in 1954 installed the military regime of Carlos Castillo Armas. Disastrously, successive governments thereafter were conservative, military dictatorships. Drug cartels, mass crime, violence, and poverty now plague much of Central America, which means these caravans of immigrants seeking political asylum in the United States are doing so in no small part due to the aforementioned dastardly deeds committed by the United States. Some South American countries experienced similar treatment from America. The current political state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iran is directly due to the United States' backing regime change, installing brutal dictatorships (in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) or authoritarian theocracies (Iran). Operation Ajax, a program instituted by the CIA at the behest of Britain, as to better exploit Iran's petroleum wealth, is quite a read, and a damning example of how the West, which says it's for democracy, freedom, and human rights, has spread the exact opposite in many parts of the world. The recent abduction, torture and murder of journalist and darling-turned-political dissident, Jamal Khashoggi, of the Saudi regime (a monarchical theocracy) further highlights the contradictions and hypocrisy of America's foreign policy. For over four generations, the United States has been a strong ally of Saudi Arabia; first because of oil, and now, to help counterbalance Iran. Yet, what we now call extremist Islamic ideology (Wahhabism) and the terrorism inspired by it comes from its overt funding and sponsorship via Saudi oil wealth. This Faustian bargain is twofold: the Saudi regime retains its royal legitimacy by supporting this particular brand of Islam, while this particular brand of Islam is allowed free reign throughout the kingdom and abroad. The 9/11 attack on the U.S. was sponsored and perpetrated by mostly Saudi citizens, who indirectly were themselves sponsored by the oil wealth of the Saudi regime, itself rich off of the political, military and diplomatic support of America and the West. And so, we say religious fundamentalism and state religion are wrong, yet we support governments with said systems. America asserts that Venezuela, Russia and Iran are evil and anti-democratic, but Saudi Arabia, Equatorial Guinea, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are perfectly fine, because we get along with each other. It's ridiculous. The recent rapprochement between North and South Korea elucidates the aforementioned complexities. President Moon Jae-in's enthusiasm in reaching a peaceful resolution with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is admirable. The problem is with the DPRK's past reneging on denuclearization. How many times has South Korea, even after making concessions and enduring violence and death, been lied to by the North? Let's be honest. Korea has always been the victim of the North's aggression. The sinking of the Cheonan and the bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island are recent examples. These unprovoked attacks were just part of a litany of murderous transgressions perpetrated by the North. Let's say the North does suspend its nuclear weapons program, and relations between the two Koreas are normalized. What then? I ask that which I have asked before: Is such a scenario, where the international community tolerates the DPRK's existence and the egregious human rights violations routinely taking place there are ignored, a tenable state of affairs? Myanmar, China, Russia and a fairly long list of other countries are accepted into the international community with little regard to the transgressions these countries commit against their own citizenry (and other nations these countries view as adversarial). The moral hypocrisy of this is apparent. We, I mean developed democracies the world over, may need to seriously re-evaluate the ways we interact with so-called rogue regimes. If we value peace more than human suffering on an epidemic scale, fine, let's admit that. But feigning concern for the well-being of others unfortunate enough to live in these countries, all the while being chummy with the offending regimes, isn't a profile of courage. They are bad bedfellows. Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul. "To get rich, first build a road" is one of those Chinese proverbs that tends to impress foreigners evoking, as it does, a combination of farsightedness and concern for practicalities. As China is discovering with its globe-spanning Belt and Road project, though, the world doesn't always play along. The initiative has run into trouble, and its success now depends on revisiting both the vision and the details. Five years ago Chinese President Xi Jinping began promoting a network of Chinese-financed roads, pipelines, ports, power plants and other infrastructure across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Back then, the idea sold itself. China had unmatched skill at building megaprojects, and limitless pools of capital with which to fund them. Host countries, often spurned by the West and its big development banks, desperately needed better roads and other infrastructure to facilitate trade and commerce. The shine has since come off. Malaysians, for the first time, recently threw out their ruling party because of anger about Chinese encroachment. Strongmen leaders in Sri Lanka and the Maldives have fallen for similar reasons. Malaysia has suspended or canceled Chinese projects worth more than $22 billion, and Myanmar has severely scaled back a $10 billion port scheme. Thailand and even Pakistan (one of China's closest allies) have criticized Chinese lending terms. The sheer size of the Belt and Road program, often called a trillion-dollar enterprise, has bred paranoia and resentment. Host countries fear being sucked into so-called debt traps especially after China in effect seized a strategically located Sri Lankan port when the island's government couldn't service its loan. Opaque deal-making has bred corruption, sometimes on a large scale, and alienated voters. In some countries, an influx of Chinese laborers, businessmen and tourists has aroused complaints of cultural invasion. At home, the initiative has increasingly assumed a political rather than economic rationale. Knowing that Xi has staked his reputation on the scheme, underlings have approved projects in haste and without coordination. Some may never get built; others have been plagued by construction setbacks and spiraling costs. Many are unlikely ever to make money. China ought to take stock and adjust its plans. From now on, it should focus on the quality of the projects it's supporting rather than their scale. This shift will need to come from the top, starting with a push for state-owned banks to partner with international lenders and adhere to their standards. Opening tenders to non-Chinese companies and employing more local workers would cut costs and build goodwill. Providing greater transparency, consulting civil-society groups, and carrying out proper social and environmental assessments of projects would probably slow down approvals but the delay would be justified if it headed off future problems. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank which China dominates has evolved into a well-respected, high-standard lender. There's no reason China can't meet global standards in the planning and management of projects. If it did, fewer questionable projects would go forward, and exaggerated fears that the Belt and Road is nothing but a plan to establish China's hegemony over Eurasia might subside. The U.S. and its allies have a role to play. Some of China's projects do pose a clear strategic threat, and intervention in those cases is justified as when India persuaded Bangladesh not to use Chinese companies to build a deep-water port. In addition, developed countries could help smaller nations to assess Chinese offers of investment and negotiate better terms. That might mean providing technical assistance to develop higher-quality projects, or creating a multilateral forum to evaluate Chinese bids for their debt sustainability. It could also mean working to strengthen civil society, and to promote democracy, independent courts and a free press, so that citizens can better judge deals for themselves, and hold their leaders to account. Above all, if the U.S. and others want to contain Chinese influence, they need to provide developing countries with an appealing alternative. The decision to combine various U.S. agencies into a new International Development Finance Corporation will help. Washington ought to collaborate more closely on development initiatives with Japan and other partners. And the U.S. could help itself and developing countries at the same time by doing more to spread the benefits of digital technologies. China's Belt and Road needn't pose a threat and shouldn't be opposed on principle. Quite the opposite: If China's investment and expertise succeed in boosting development in poor or unstable regions, the U.S. and other developed nations could benefit too. That's why Washington's best course would be to work on strengthening the rules for global trade so that the goods and services flowing through this new infrastructure are guided by market forces, not political directives. At the moment, of course, the Trump administration is pressing the other way. To be sure, China's government isn't the only one that needs to stop and think. That doesn't make it any less necessary for Beijing to put the Belt and Road on a smarter and more modest course. The above editorial appeared in the Bloomberg News. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Legislation needed to prevent abuse of employees A leading IT firm CEO's violence and cruel acts against employees are sparking a fierce public outrage after video footage of him brutally beating an ex-employee surfaced online. A series of brutal actions by Yang Jin-ho, 47, the chairman of online storage service provider WeDisk and robot developer K-Technology, are so shocking that infuriated people are calling for a thorough investigation and stern criminal punishment. The abusive Yang is also suspected of profiteering by distributing pornography banned materials like spycam footage and revenge porn. It is a shame the businessman could perpetrate such brutal and cruel acts against his employees for so many years, while enjoying a huge profit by allegedly spreading pornography. Defying our common sense, he recorded the video himself in April 2015 as a "souvenir," showing him slapping and punching an employee as other workers carried on in the background. How can the frightful and terrible feelings of not only the victim and other employees on the scene be explained? However, the victim did not report the cruelty of his boss to police for fear of retaliation, according to news reports. The law enforcement authorities ought to bring to light all the alleged brutal acts of the IT business mogul who may face seven criminal charges, including abuse of power against his workers. At the same time, the labor authorities should change the working environment, particularly in the IT industry, to prevent abuse of employees, and protect their rights. South Korea has become an IT powerhouse thanks to competent people, especially young workers. It is a pity that such talented workers become victims of abuse and violence. The National Assembly should no longer delay the deliberation on a set of bills designed to prevent workplace abuse and violence, and protect basic rights of employees. By Mark Peterson Haiku, the classic short-form style of poetry from Japan, is not well-known in Korea and is not taught in Korean schools. On the other hand, every American student in the last 20 or 30 years has studied haiku. By study, I mean they have learned the classic forms in translation, they have learned the form is three lines, with syllable counts of five, seven and five per line, and they have been assigned to write their own haiku. Haiku has become a part of American culture. Years ago, when teaching sijo in my university pre-modern literature class, I would ask if students knew haiku. Then they would respond that they had learned, and written, haiku in high school. As the years went by, I found students were learning haiku earlier and earlier in school now they study haiku in the third or fourth grade. There are numerous books of haiku poetry and countless websites on haiku. Truly haiku has become a part of American culture. There is an old Korean saying, "My cousin bought some land and I got a stomachache." The meaning may not be apparent; it expresses jealousy feeling envy to the point of pain for the success of another. That's the way I feel when I think of my desire to see sijo planted as firmly in American education and culture. My desire to see sijo taught in America is not without foundation it's starting to happen. There are several schools that are teaching sijo, often as a follow-on to a study of haiku. There is evidence on YouTube several teachers have posted lessons on how they teach sijo in their schools. One key motivation for many schools is the annual sijo contest held online sponsored by the Sejong Cultural Society based in Chicago. The contest has been held for 11 years and has grown to over 1,000 entrants each year. At the outset, most of the applicants were Korean-American, but in recent years Korean-Americans are a small percentage compared with the numbers of non-Korean-Americans that enter the contest. The Sejong Cultural Society has a website that records the sijo contest winners over the last 11 years sejongculturalsociety.org. The winners, first, second and third place, and several honorable mentions, are listed with their poems. They cover all kinds of topics and here is where sijo has a broader appeal, and broader variety of topics, compared to haiku that tend to be limited, not always, but generally, to topics of nature. And the sijo is fuller in its expression and covers more details and emotion. The study of sijo is a natural partner, from the perspective of the American school, of the Japanese haiku. Sijo can be introduced as the "next step" a poetic form that comes from Korea, the country next door to Japan, that is also a short form, three-line poem, but which has a format that is just a little longer and adds more variation to what the students learn with the haiku. To illustrate the difference (and since most Korean readers are not familiar with haiku) let me give a few examples. This is considered a classic by a famous writer, Basho. A silent old pond A frog suddenly jumps in The sound of a splash My favorite sijo was written by Jeong Mong-ju who, in 1388, was invited to join in creating a new dynasty at the fall of Goryeo and the founding of Joseon. He was a loyal Confucian scholar-official, who, out of loyalty, could not turn his back on the Goryeo King even though he knew he would die if he refused to join in the coup d'etat. So he said: Though I die, and die again; though I die one hundred times, After my bones have turned to dust, whether my soul lives on or not, My red heart, forever loyal to my King, will never fade away. To jump to the present, here is a poem written by an American high school student, titled "Emma": My new dog, little Emma, a gift to us from the heavens. My aunt passed, stupid cancer, my mom distraught. Everyone muted. I can look into Emma's eyes, she's still here, on four paws. We hope to see sijo grow in popularity and value to where sijo is as well-established in America as haiku is today. And it's a reasonable goal. Sijo is the next step beyond haiku both are three lines, haiku is simpler, sijo just a little longer. Sijo can better tell the story, convey the emotion and express creativity. Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah. Starbucks Coffee Korea baristas help high school students brew coffee, during a job fair jointly hosted by Starbucks and Junior Achievement at Yongsan Y-Valley in Seoul, Monday. The coffeehouse chain and the global nonprofit youth organization invited 350 students at 50 vocational schools to the job fair to help them find jobs after graduation. / Courtesy of Starbucks Coffee Korea By Baek Byung-yeul LG Electronics announced Monday it will develop retail service robots with local discount chain operator E-mart that give customers a better shopping experience with a local discount chain operator E-mart. The Korean tech giant signed an agreement with E-mart at the latter's headquarters in Seoul to develop the robots. The first product of the agreement will be a smart shopping cart designed to help with carrying heavy items. LG said the smart shopping cart uses autonomous driving and object recognition technology to follow shoppers and avoid obstacles. LG's Advanced Robotics Lab will be in charge of developing the autonomous shopping cart. E-mart already showcased the cart, "Eli," in April. During test operations, Eli followed shoppers, helping them browse shopping items and allowing them to pay directly using a payment terminal attached to it. LG said the new cart will focus even more on self-driving and obstacle-recognition technologies. "The autonomous driving and obstacle recognition technologies that the Advanced Robotics Lab developed will be applied to the shopping cart," an LG official said. Stating that "E-mart also plans to apply its own technologies to the smart shopping cart," the LG official added the two firms will conduct test operations in the first half of next year. LG explained the agreement with E-mart is in line with its business plan to beef up robot products. To expand its business portfolio, LG launched the Advanced Robotics Lab in June, 2017 and introduced its brand CLOi at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The firm has introduced various robots including an airport guide, server, porter, shopping cart, cleaner and lawn mower as well as a robotic exoskeleton. The firm has been test operating its CLOi Home robot equipped with artificial intelligence technology at the stores of local bakery franchise Paris Baguette. Cho Taeg-il, senior vice president of LG and head of the Convergence Business Development Center, said the firm "will try to showcase its service robots at various locations to offer customers a better life experience and value." These photos captured from Smartstore operated by Naver show foreign luxury brand bags being sold at ridiculously cheap prices. A Hermes Kelly bag (top), which is known to cost 13 million won, is priced at 497,000 won; while a Celine Cabas bag (bottom) that sells for 1.5 million won, is priced at 52,500 won. By Jun Ji-hye Naver has inadvertently become a channel for "dubious" retailers that sell counterfeit foreign luxury brand goods, according to an opposition party lawmaker Monday. Although the nation's top portal operator threatened a tough crackdown and strong measures against illegalities, those who sell fake products appear to have circumvented this by using cunning sales gimmicks. When searching for foreign luxury goods, such as Hermes and Celine bags and a Max Mara coat at Smartstore, an online shopping mall for small merchants directly operated by Naver, some goods were being sold at ridiculously cheap prices. For example, a genuine Hermes Kelly bag is known to cost 13 million won ($11,600), but one merchant was selling the bag at 497,000 won. The sellers promoted their products as highly discounted, but the goods are mostly imitations made in China or Hong Kong. According to Rep. Kim Gyu-hwan of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, there were 1,035 cases of the selling of imitation goods at Smartstore, accounting for 38.4 percent of the total caught on open markets. Naver blogs have also become another channel for selling fake goods because the products can be easily exposed when users search for foreign luxury brands on the portal. During a National Assembly audit, Oct. 29, Naver CEO Han Seong-sook acknowledged that a number of fake foreign luxury brands had been sold at Smartstore, saying her firm takes the issue seriously. "We have executed a one-strike out system expelling a merchant caught selling imitation goods once, but we think such a measure is insufficient," she said. "There is a need to carry out a complete inspection od goods made in China and Hong Kong." But the company has yet to come up with practical measures to punish those selling illegal items. An official from an IT company here said it was not easy for online shopping mall platform providers to crack down on illegal items effectively as their authority was limited. "Sellers even forge official documents such as an import certificate," he said. "As companies are not the National Tax Service or police, there is a limit to carry out a thorough inspection." He noted crackdowns were not easy even when using algorithms or artificial intelligence (AI) technology. "A crackdown on pornography, for example, would be easier when utilizing algorithms and AI technology as there is accumulated content," he said. "But as for shopping, that is not easy as companies provide platforms and play the role of connecting sellers and buyers only." Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (left) and Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping (Photo: VNA) He made the statement at a meeting with Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping in Shanghai on November 4th as part of his trip to China to attend the first International Import Expo of China (CIIE 2018) on November 4th-5th. PM Phuc called for joint efforts to maintain high-level visits and meetings, increase mutual political trust, promote important cooperation mechanisms between the two Parties and countries, further utilise potential of each side and boost cooperation in areas that make practical progress. The guest congratulated China on achievements the country has recorded after 40 years of reform and opening-up, and expressed his wish that under the leadership of the Communist Party of China led by Xi Jinping, the Chinese people will soon turn China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, democratic, civilised, harmonious and beautiful. He also lauded Chinas initiatives to contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world, as well as its Belt and Road Initiative. Vietnam backs the Mekong-Lancang cooperation in combination with the framework of the Greater Mekong Sub-region collaboration, for effective use and management of water resources and sustainable development of countries, he noted. PM Phuc expressed his belief that the CIIE 2018 will open up new cooperation channels for goods distribution, helping promote official trade activities and brand building so that more and more Vietnamese commodities can be consumed in the Chinese market. He suggested the Chinese side make it easy for Vietnamese goods to enter its market, and devise practical policies and measures to reduce Vietnams big trade deficit, towards promoting stable and sustainable growth of bilateral trade. Vietnam always welcomes Chinese firms to invest in the country, he affirmed. Regarding the sea-related issue, the Vietnamese Government leader applauded positive results of negotiation and cooperation mechanisms in less sensitive areas at sea between the two countries, as well as initial progresses in pragmatic negotiation for the Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) between ASEAN and China recently. He suggested the two sides respect legitimate interests of each other, seriously realise the common perception of the two countries' high-ranking leaders and the agreement on the basic principles guiding the settlement of sea-related issues between Vietnam and China, and patiently solve disputes by peaceful measures in line with international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in order to maintain peace and stability in the East Sea and the region. For his part, Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping affirmed that PM Phucs participation in the expo reflects the Vietnamese Governments respect for the bilateral relations. He stressed that the Chinese Party and State always treasure ties with Vietnam, and agree to maintain high-level contacts to bolster political understanding and foster all-round cooperation in a practical manner with the Southeast Asian country. He added that both sides will work together to enhance people-to-people exchanges and consolidate traditional friendship while maintaining peace and sustainability at sea and creating favourable conditions for the bilateral ties to thrive. Regarding economic-trade collaboration, Xi stated that China will import more goods from Vietnam to sustainably balance trade with the neighbouring country. In the past time, China has carry out various measures to increase imports from Vietnam. In 2017, Vietnams shipments to China rose 36.8 percent and China will continue to promote the trend in the coming time./. Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe The pundits are clear: 2018 is "the most important election of your life". Of course, we hear a variation on that line every couple years. Nationwide, observers are watching results for a litmus test on President Trump. And California has several hotly contested congressional seats expected to play a role in whether Republicans hold power in the House of Representatives. Beyond the national outlook, there are important decisions to be made close to home. This vote will elect the first new governor of California in over a decade, and decide several blockbuster ballot propositions. What happens on election night will have a huge impact across the state. That doesn't mean that people will turn out to vote in big numbers, as we've learned in recent years. And as we wait for the results to roll in, here are some things to keep in mind as you hear pundits start talking about turnout: HOW VOTER TURNOUT WORKS (AKA: WHY YOU SHOULDN'T TRUST ELECTION NIGHT FIGURES) Voter turnout is surprisingly complicated. The numbers you'll hear over the next few weeks show the turnout of registered voters. So if turnout is 50 percent in L.A. County, that means half of voters on the rolls actually cast a ballot. But be wary of turnout figures you hear on election night. That's because those will climb as more votes are counted, and not all votes are counted on election night. Why? Well, a couple of reasons. Provisional ballots -- that's what you fill out when you believe you're eligible to vote but poll workers don't find your name on the roll -- require extra scrutiny. Vote by mail ballots have to the postmarked by Nov. 6 but they can arrive as late as Friday and still be counted. Not to mention, counting takes time. When you hear somone has won Tuesday night, that "winner" is typically based on projections of the remaining vote. So, basically, when it's determined one person is so far ahead the other candidate can't make up the ground with the uncounted voted. Of course, night-of forecasts sometimes jump the gun [See Bush v. Gore]. That said, we're accustomed to knowing who won pretty much immediately. In actuality, election officials have 31 days to tally up every vote and report the results to California's Secretary of State. That means in especially tight races, someone who voted by mail in early October may not find out if their candidate won until early December -- two months after voting. ARE THERE OTHER WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT TURNOUT? Yes. The truth is "turnout" only captures a slice of eligible voters. Here's a diagram I sketched of how it all works: When we talk about voter turnout, we leave out eligible voters who aren't registered. If you factor in those folks, turnout looks even lower. How much lower? Well in 2014, the last time we had a midterm primary election, 42.2 percent of registered voters in California turned out. But when you factor in the millions of Californians who are eligible to register but haven't, you learn that only 30.9 percent of eligible voters in California turned out. Ouch. And of course tens of millions of people in America can't vote, because they're not eligible. That might be because they're not 18. It could be because they're incarcerated in state or federal prison. And it might be because they aren't an American citizen. While those groups of people can't cast a ballot, non-citizens, the incarcerated and children obviously have an interest in who wins elections, and are still constituents of the politicians who represent the areas they live in. WHAT HAS VOTER TURNOUT LOOKED LIKE IN L.A. AND SOCAL IN SIMILAR ELECTIONS? Not great. Over the last seven midterm elections, California has gone from a high of 60.5 percent in 1994 to just 42.2 percent in 2014. And it gets worse closer to home. L.A. County, home to more than a quarter of the state's population, posted the worst turnout of any county in decades of midterms in 2014, with just 31 percent turnout. Other Southern California counties weren't much better. San Bernardino posted turnout of 34.4 percent last time around, and Riverside ended up with 40.1 percent. The situation was slightly better in Orange County, with 45 percent turnout, and Ventura, with 47.1 percent. That said, Orange County voters turned out in big numbers for the June 5 primary -- which are typically even lower turnout elections than midterms. Turnout this year in OC was the highest it's been in three decades, with just shy of 43% of the county's 1.5 million registered voters casting a ballot. Orange County is a battleground this year, hosting several high-profile Congressional races that could decide the balance of power in the House. And so far, early voting is higher than usual with long lines at L.A. County's early voting sites. We asked Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan what he thought of the the waits and he told us: Both the early voting turnout and the rate of mail ballot return are trending well ahead of the last midterm. I expect Election Day turnout to follow the same trend. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (@LACountyRRCC) November 4, 2018 But in general, voters in SoCal don't show up to the polls the way our neighbors to the north do. The conventional wisdom says that's a main reason why candidates from NorCal dominate statewide races. There are demographic disparities in who votes that shape our elections. Groups including young voters and Latino and Asian-American voters, turn out to the polls at lower rates, said Mindy Romero of USC's California Civic Engagement Project. And those groups make up a big slice of Southern Californians. "You end up having an electorate that is whiter, older, wealthier and more educated than the rest of the population," Romero told LAist. "That's really bad for everyone." Non-voters as a group have different policy preferences, Romero said, ones that aren't translated into votes at the ballot box. WHAT EXPERTS THINK TURNOUT WILL LOOK THIS TIME We won't know for sure until the results are reported by each of the state's 58 counties to the California Secretary of State. Remember, they have 31 days to do that. But if political watchers had to guess? It could depend what Congressional District you live in, said Paul Mitchell who tracks elections with Political Data Inc. "I think what we're going to end up seeing is two Californias. You're going to have the California of the competitive Congressional Districts where, you know, there's parts of Orange County where it seems like there's a CNN truck on every street corner," Mitchell said. Those elections are drawing international attention and will have national implications. Areas with competitive house races -- among them much of Orange County and L.A. County's 25th District -- could see 70 percent voter turnout. In other parts of the state, Mitchell predicted turnout could dip as low as 40 percent. Overall, he expects turnout to improve on a weak showing in 2014. USC's Romero agreed. "I think it will be a good year for turnout," she said. But she added that people can be invested in an election's outcome without actually voting. "Actually getting out to the polls or casting that vote by mail ballot is another story. And people need to be mobilized." WHAT'S THE TREND WHERE I LIVE? Glad you asked. We charted voter turnout over the last seven midterm primary general elections, for every one of California's 58 counties. Don't forget to check back after the election to see what happens this year. Does your county turn out to vote in midterms? Data via California Secretary of State for previous midterm general elections (1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014); number of registered voters is for 2014 midterm Get ready for the Nov. 6 election. Here at LAist, we want to make sure Angelenos have all the information they need to cast their votes. To get prepped on deadlines, candidates and ballot measures, check out our Voter Game Plan. And if you liked this election guide, consider supporting us! You can donate here. At corporate annual meetings back in the 1980s and 1990s, there came a point dreaded by CEOs, shareholders in the audience, and not a few business reporters sentenced by their editors to attend (for our sins). It was the point when the floor was thrown open for comments from individual shareholders and almost immediately seized by a diminutive woman of a certain age with a flinty, penetrating voice colored by an accent held over from her native Dutch. She invariably introduced herself as Evelyn Y. Davis, publisher of Highlights and Lowlights of Corporate Annual Meetings before launching into a harangue aimed directly at the (invariably male) CEOs and chairmen shifting uneasily in their chairs on stage. In that era, Evelyn Y. Davis needed no introduction. She made appearances on CNBC and the Larry King program, and on at least one occasion brought the gavel down from the podium of the New York Stock Exchange. She passed away Sunday at the age of 89. As much as the corporations are afraid of her, I think they enjoy her, because it allows them to marginalize the rest of the stockholder community. Nell Minow on Evelyn Y. Davis, 2002 Advertisement Davis hadnt been heard from much in recent years, slowed down by age and poor health. Some investors who remembered her from the old days probably thought she had died long ago, an impression reinforced by her decision to erect her own gravestone in a Washington cemetery in 1987. It lists her four divorces, her birth date of Aug. 16, 1929, and identifies her as the publisher of Highlights and Lowlights, 1965-_____. Davis passing gives us an opportunity to reexamine the role of shareholder activists in corporate affairs. One thing is true of Davis and her fellow gadflies: Corporate managements will do almost anything to silence them. In recent years, some corporations have moved to virtual instead of in-person annual meetings, a step that Redondo Beach-based activist John Chevedden says is aimed at giving managements more control over the microphone. Maybe thats a reaction to shareholders who ask tough questions, says Chevedden. Managements also want to narrow shareholders ability to place resolutions on the agendas of annual meetings. Corporate America also has turned its gun sights on proxy advisory firms that counsel pension funds and other institutional investors on how to vote on shareholder resolutions. An Astroturf group misleadingly called the Main Street Investors Coalition its funded by corporations, not the retail investors it purports to represent has been agitating for the Securities and Exchange Commission to act against the advisory firms. The coalitions advocacy is as fake as its name, veteran activist Nell Minow wrote recently, adding that it uses inflammatory language, unsupported assertions, and out-and-out falsehoods to try to discredit the institutional investors who file and support nonbinding shareholder proposals. Still, in terms of shareholder gadflies, managements handling of Evelyn Y. Davis was in a class by itself. Contemporary accounts tended to describe her as The C.E.O.s Worst Nightmare (Vanity Fair, 2002) or the stockholder activist they are scared to death of (Washington Post, 2003). But if those terms were meant to imply they feared her because she had something on them, they were highly misleading. Managements feared her mostly because she took up their time and could be personally annoying; but they also knew she often could be neutralized by a kind word or an indulgent approach and also by buying subscriptions to her newsletter, which could be had for about $600 each, minimum two copies, and which was largely devoted to building up the greater glory of Evelyn Y. Davis. They routinely gave her more than the usual three minutes allotted to other shareholders at the microphone, hoping she would eventually talk herself out. (It generally took longer than they expected.) Indeed, some serious activists thought she could do more harm than good. As much as the corporations are afraid of her, Minow told Vanity Fair for that 2002 article, I think they enjoy her, because it allows them to marginalize the rest of the stockholder community. They lump everyone together and say, Theyre all crackpots. That doesnt mean Davis was entirely ineffective. Chevedden, who frequently encountered Davis at General Motors shareholder meetings in the 1990s, recalls that she asked some pointed questions certainly and got some good votes on shareholder resolutions. Among her main targets were corporate boards with staggered terms, which diluted shareholder power to alter board makeup; the need to separate the chairmans and CEOs jobs in order to enhance oversight of management which is still an issue in corporate governance; and the need for greater disclosure of the basis for top executive pay. Some years Davis submitted more than 50 shareholder resolutions to corporate meetings, and by the early 2000s some were garnering significant majorities. In 2003, for instance, her resolution to repeal the staggered board at Federated Department Stores passed with 88.6% of the vote. Like other shareholder resolutions, however, this one was only advisory and couldnt force the company to pay heed. Davis campaign for more disclosure of the basis of top executive pay and to expand the executives subject to disclosure was at least arguably and partially responsible for a 2006 SEC initiative making exactly those changes. Since Davis heyday, shareholder activism has become more institutionalized and, let us say, professional. Its now more in the hands of big institutions such as CalPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System, but its still detested by corporate managements. Those managements try to depict shareholder activism as having been hijacked by self-interested nobodies acting contrary to the interests of mom and pop shareholders, the salt of the Earth. In one notable 2014 broadside, Steven Davidoff Solomon, a former corporate lawyer teaching at UC Berkeley, contended that corporate America is being held hostage by three people you have probably never heard of. They were Chevedden and two others. He accused this shadowy triumvirate, implausibly, of holding multibillion-dollar corporations hostage, causing big companies to be irreparably harmed, and acting out of personal pique. As Chevedden told me at the time, This is how companies are held accountable. The truth, of course, is that CalPERS and other pension funds, which have helped carry the activist cudgel, have a fiduciary duty to their members, and thats why theyre interested in better corporate governance. Now that investors are pushing back on issues like excessive CEO pay, ineffective boards, and failure to consider climate risk via advisory shareholder proposals, Minow wrote in June, corporate executives are trying to kill the messenger. Corporate executives love to talk about the free market until it delivers a response they do not like. That was always the way. Evelyn Y. Davis had a manner that grated on CEOs and everyone else who had to sit through her self-congratulatory spiel at the mike. She would lecture CEOs on their weight and comment on the snacks laid out for shareholders. She would make sure everyone knew how to subscribe to Highlights and Lowlights. She would, as Minow said, sometimes give shareholder activism a bad name. But she had her finger on many flaws in corporate governance that persist today, and in some respects are worse than they were when she was at large. The boards at some corporations are lazier and more conflicted than in the past Im talking about you, Tesla, and you, Wells Fargo, and you, IBM, and you, Facebook and their shareholders and other stakeholders are the worse off for that. Anyone who witnessed Evelyn Y. Davis in action might be horrified to hear this, but maybe we need more shareholders like her. Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com. Return to Michael Hiltziks blog. Amazon.com Inc. will choose two locations for its new second headquarters, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited an unidentified person familiar with the matter. Last year, the e-commerce giant announced plans to invest $5 billion in a second headquarters and hire as many as 50,000 people there, setting off a frenzy of interest from cities in the United States and Canada. It has announced 20 finalists and is scheduled to make a final decision by the end of the year. The company will choose two locations instead of one, according to the Journal, which said one location lacked sufficient technology talent. The investment and new jobs would be split evenly between the two locations, the Journal said. Amazon also may want to avoid criticism that its arrival in a new town overwhelms the area. The company has fueled an economic boom in its hometown of Seattle, where it is also often blamed for traffic problems and skyrocketing housing costs that squeeze some residents out of the city. Advertisement You could look to Seattle and see that its had great positive consequences, but it also probably has had some unintended ones that maybe arent as well received, said Michael Lewis, a real estate analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc. You can see what its done to the cost of living in Seattle. The Washington Post reported Saturday that Amazon was in advanced discussions with the Washington, D.C., suburb of Crystal City, Va., for the second headquarters. An Amazon spokesman declined to comment. Some of the contenders are near one another and draw from the same labor pools. New York City and Newark, N.J., are among the finalists, as are Washington, D.C.; northern Virginia; and Montgomery County, Md. Amazon could choose one metropolitan region and still have to negotiate with multiple states and local governments for tax incentives. Los Angeles is also on the list of finalists. UPDATES: 2:45 p.m.: This article was updated with a comment from analyst Michael Lewis and additional details. This article was originally published at 12:30 p.m. Its hiring day at Rolls Royces jet-engine plant near Petersburg, Va. Twelve candidates are divided into three teams and given the task of assembling a box. Twelve Rolls Royce employees stand around them, one assigned to each candidate, taking notes. The box is a prop, and the test has nothing to do with programming or repairing the robots that make engine parts here. Its about collaborative problem solving. We are looking at what they say, we are looking at what they do, we are looking at the body language of how they are interacting, says Lorin Sodell, the plant manager. For all the technical marvels inside this fully automated, 8-year-old facility, Sodell talks a lot about soft skills such as trouble shooting and intuition. Advertisement There are virtually no manual operations here anymore, he says. People arent as tied to the equipment as they were in the past, and they are really freed up to work on more higher-order activities. Call it the automation paradox: The infusion of artificial intelligence, robotics and big data into the workplace is elevating the demand for peoples ingenuity, to reinvent a process or rapidly solve problems in an emergency. The new blue-collar labor force will need four distinctively more human core competencies for advanced production: complex reasoning, social and emotional intelligence, creativity and certain forms of sensory perception, according to Jim Wilson, a managing director at Accenture Plc. Work in a certain sense, and globally in manufacturing, is becoming more human and less robotic, says Wilson, who helped lead an Accenture study on emerging technologies and employment needs covering 14,000 companies in 14 large, industrialized nations. Few narratives in economics and social policy are as alarmist as the penetration of automation and artificial intelligence into the workplace, especially in manufacturing. Economists talk about the hollowing-out of middle-income employment. American political discourse is full of nostalgia for high-paying blue-collar jobs. The Trump administration is imposing tariffs and rewriting trade agreements to entice companies to keep plants in the U.S. or even bring them back. The stark reality is that automation will continue to erode repetitive work no matter where people do it. But there is also a myth in this narrative that suggests America has permanently lost its edge. The vacant mills in the southeast and Midwest, and the struggling cities around them, are evidence of how technology and low-cost labor can rapidly kill off less-agile industries. This isnt necessarily a prologue to whats next, however. Cutting-edge manufacturing not only involves the extreme precision of a Rolls Royce turbofan disc. Its also moving toward mass customization and what Erica Fuchs calls parts consolidation making more-complex blocks of components so a car, for example, has far fewer parts. This new frontier often involves experimentation, with engineers learning through frequent contact with production staff, requiring workers to make new kinds of contributions. This is a chance for the U.S. to lead. We have the knowledge and skills, says Fuchs, an engineering and public-policy professor at Carnegie Mellon University. When you move manufacturing overseas, it can become unprofitable to produce with the most advanced technologies. The new alliance between labor and smart machines is apparent on Rolls Royces shop floor. The 33 machinists arent repeating one single operation but are responsible for the flow of fan-disc and turbine-blade production. They are in charge of their day, monitoring operations, consulting with engineers and maintaining equipment. This demonstrates what automation really does: It changes the way people use their time. A visit to the plant also reveals why factory workers in automated operations need more than some knowledge of machine-tool maintenance and programming: They are part of a process run by a team. Sodell opens what looks like a giant suitcase. Inside is a titanium disc about the size of a truck tire. Unfinished, it costs $35,000, and its worth more than twice that much once its machined as closely as possible to the engineers perfect mathematical description of the part. The end product is so finely cut and grooved it resembles a piece of industrial jewelry. I am not at all bothered by the fact that there isnt a person here looking after this, he says, standing next to a cutting station about half the size of a subway car. Inside, a robot arm is measuring by itself, picking out its own tools and recording data along the way. Variations in the material, temperatures and vibration can cause the robot to deviate from the engineers model. So human instinct and know-how are required to devise new techniques that reduce the variance. Just by looking at the way titanium is flecking off a disc in the cutting cell, for example, a machinist can tell something is off, Sodell says. With expensive raw materials, such technical acumen is crucial. Its also important because current artificial-intelligence systems dont have full comprehension of non-standard events, the way a GPS in a car cant comprehend a sudden detour. And they dont always have the ability to come up with innovations that improve the process. Sodell says workers are constantly looking for ways to refine automation. He tells the story of a new hire who figured out a way to get one of the machines to clean itself. He developed a tool and wrote a program that is now part of the production system. Technicians start off making $48,000 a year and can earn as much as $70,000, depending on achievement and skill level. Most need at least two years of experience or precision-machining certification from a community college. Rolls Royce is collaborating with these schools and relying on instructors like Tim Robertson, among the first 50 people it hired in Virginia. He now teaches advanced manufacturing at Danville Community College and says its hard to explain what work is like at an automated facility. Jobs require a lot more mental engagement, he explains, because machinists are looking at data as much as materials and equipment. The Danville program includes a class on talking through conflict, along with live production where students are required to meet a schedule for different components in a simulated plant. The group stops twice a day and discusses how to optimize work flow. You can ship a machine tool to any country in the world, Robertson says. But the key is going to be the high-level technician that can interact with the data at high-level activity and be flexible. Lowes Cos. Inc. will close 20 underperforming stores in the United States, including four in California, the home-improvement chain said Monday. The Mooresville, N.C., company also said it will close 31 stores, offices and specialty facilities in Canada to focus on its most profitable stores and improve the overall health of its store portfolio. Lowes said it has almost 2,300 stores across North America. The store closures are a necessary step in our strategic reassessment as we focus on building a stronger business, Marvin Ellison, Lowes chief executive, said in a statement. The store closures, all in the United States and Canada, are set to be completed by the end of January, Lowes spokesman Steve Salazar said in an email. Store liquidation sales are expected to start Thursday and last about nine to 12 weeks, he said. Advertisement Lowes will offer affected employees the opportunity to transfer to similar roles at nearby stores. Employees who arent offered a new job will be eligible for severance packages, Salazar said. The California stores set to shut are at: 26501 Aliso Creek Road, Aliso Viejo 13300 Jamboree Road, Irvine 720 Dubuque Ave., South San Francisco 750 Newhall Drive, San Jose This news comes less than three months after Lowes announced it would shut all of its Orchard Supply Hardware stores, a subsidiary it owned for about five years. The wind-down of the Orchard chain is expected to be completed by February. Ellison told investors in August that the smaller Orchard stores were not running well and could never become a big part of Lowes overall business. Lowes shares edged up 25 cents, or 0.3%, to $97.07 on Monday. samantha.masunaga@latimes.com Twitter: @smasunaga UPDATES: 2:50 p.m.: This article was updated with Lowes stock price. This article was originally published at 8:40 a.m. Veteran actor-producer Mark Damon is ready to let go of the 90210. His Tudor-style mansion in the Beverly Hills Post Office area is up for grabs for a cool $10.899 million. Built in 1972, the 10,692-square-foot home sits at the end of a gated driveway on a 2.2-acre property. Wood-splashed living spaces and imported appointments fill out the interior. Walnut floors line the two-story foyer, and parquet floors cover the formal and informal dining areas. The main level also boasts a center-island chefs kitchen and a living room with an oversized fireplace and built-in bar. Advertisement Another highlight is found below, where a den features imported reclaimed brick floors under ceiling beams of distressed oak. The master suite, one of six bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms, offers paneled walls, high ceilings, a fireplace and international flair. The headboard comes from a 300-year-old Italian church, and theres also a private deck with a Japanese-style tea room, according to the listing. Out back, a mahogany deck takes in canyon views from a hillside perch. The space is adjoined by a landscaped lawn and brick patio with a swimming pool and spa. Marc Noah of Sothebys International Realty holds the listing. Damon, 85, starred in films such as House of Usher and Johnny Yuma throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s before pivoting to producing. He holds credits on Monster, which won an Academy Award in 2003, as well as Mac and Me, 2 Guns and Lone Survivor. jack.flemming@latimes.com | Twitter: @jflem94 NEW YORK The setting is uncertain in the opening moments of American Son, an acutely topical new Broadway drama by Christopher Demos-Brown. But it is clear from the intense performance by Kerry Washington that Kendra, a woman waiting alone, is rifling through worst-case scenarios as she sits in a room accustomed to writhing strangers. The windows open out onto a rainy night in Miami, but an even bigger storm is brewing inside. Whatever you might surmise about the locale, the look in Washingtons eyes leaves little doubt that lives are irrevocably broken here. Kendras frantic phone calls clarify that American Son, which had its official opening Wednesday at the Booth Theatre, takes place at a police station. The desperate voicemails she leaves her son, Jamal, are the pleas not just of any worried mother but of an African American mother who knows the dangers awaiting an 18-year-old boy who shares her skin color. Jamal hasnt come home after a night out with friends. The police have information that his vehicle was involved in an incident. But Officer Paul Larkin (Jeremy Jordan), the rookie cop working the night shift, insists he has nothing more to tell her. Advertisement Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale and Eugene Lee in American Son. (Peter Cunningham) There are protocols that must be observed, Larkin asserts as Kendra vents her frustration at a system that wont even let her file a missing-persons report. She wants answers, not cluelessness, stonewalling and microaggression. Larkin is clearly out of his depth with this psychology professor, who calls him on his racial insensitivity while demanding that he do more than politely offer her stale doughnuts. The opening scene sets the stage and also exposes some of the inexperience of the playwright, a Miami-based trial lawyer making his Broadway debut. Some of the delaying tactics Demos-Brown employs are intrinsic to the situation. But the playwrights rudimentary craft is evident in the hammering of the same monotonous notes and in the dribbling out of key details. When Scott (Steven Pasquale), Kendras estranged husband, arrives at the station, the stakes are immediately raised. Scott, an FBI agent, flaunts his badge, which confuses the easily confused Larkin, who assumes this is the lieutenant sent from above to give this incensed mother an update on her son. It doesnt occur to Larkin that this take-charge white guy is Kendras husband and the father of the missing 6-foot-2 black teen with cornrows who had some mysterious run-in with the authorities. Kendra fumes when Larkin provides Scott with a fuller picture than he offered her. Shes also ticked off by Scotts nice-guy act with a star-struck officer whose ultimate dream is to join the FBI. In ways that are sometimes a little too on the nose and sometimes right on the money, Demos-Brown shows the way the prism of race colors reality. Larkins clumsy comment to Kendra about the historical reason there are two water fountains at the station seems heavy-handed on the playwrights part. Its also a little odd that Scott would use the word uppity without thinking of the effect on his wife, who is so politically fastidious about language. I couldnt help speculating on how the authors own racial identity (hes white) may have informed his handling of the material. Blind spots and distortions are unavoidable even with the best intentions, but Demos-Brown pursues his drama as though it were a chess match or, to choose perhaps a more apt metaphor, a moot court on a subject that is rarely out of the news these days. By rotating the character confrontations, the playwright illuminates the way gender, education, professional status and social class shift perspective on matters of race and justice. American Son isnt the most supple drama. The writing can be strained and mechanical, but it inches toward a greater complexity. When John Stokes (Eugene Lee at full force), a black lieutenant able to report on what happened to Jamal, finally shows up, the interpersonal dynamics grow explosively complicated. And no, Kendra calling him an Uncle Tom isnt the tipping point. The production, directed by Kenny Leon, occasionally hits its marks too insistently. Intensity too often translates into monotonous shouting. Even the lashing rainstorm electrifying Derek McLanes set seems a tad overwrought. Jordan perhaps has the toughest road, with a character whose qualities are comically bullet-pointed. But the actor gives as much due to Larkins earnest concern as to his redneck naivete. Lee, rescuing the production with his veteran caginess, sharply individualizes Stokes. The character might come across as a tool of the establishment, but when the moment is right, the lieutenant offers a glimpse of his hard-earned wisdom. Pasquale has a higher-end version of Jordans problem: how to make intermittent obtuseness seem credible. But Scott is more dimensional than Larkin, and Pasquale fully inhabits his characters history with Kendra. Their once-burning intimacy still smolders. And for all the reflexive tension between Scott and Kendra, Jamal, their golden-boy son whos been going through a rough adolescent patch since Scott left home, is still the repository of all their hopes. The title of American Son is not accidental. The fate of young men like Jamal concerns more than a single community. Indeed, the future of the country hinges on how we as a nation collectively deal with a system of justice that is shot through (tragic pun intended) with injustice. The drama depends on the sustained pitch of Washingtons portrayal of a mother ferociously battling forces larger, though not greater, than herself. The Scandal star could use more modulation in the early going, a fault of the direction as much as the writing. But the anguish of Demos-Browns play is coiled inside a performance rooted in one characters story but containing real-world multitudes. Washington honors all the shattered loved ones who have gone through Kendras experience. American Son isnt a play for the decades, never mind for the ages. But it speaks directly to our grievous times. If the playwrights limitations are conspicuous, his knowledge of criminal-justice realities brings an uncompromising verisimilitude to an ending that should leave Broadway audiences gasping for breath. charles.mcnulty@latimes.com Follow me @charlesmcnulty French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee talk during their walk around Hoan Kiem Lake (Photo: VNA) Chung made the request during a meeting with French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on November 3rd during the latters official visit to Vietnam from November 2nd to 4th. He informed the French PM on Hanois cooperation with French enterprises and localities. At present, 102 French investors are running projects in Hanoi with total capital of nearly 300 million EUR. The capital city has signed twinning relations agreement with Ile-de-France and Toulouse city, under which the sides have worked together in culture, tourism and medical human resources. Hanoi also engaged in medical cooperation with Paris, and conducted several joint schemes with the French Development Agency in the preservation of cultural heritage and the ancient quarter, waste treatment, and in fighting environmental pollution and adapting to climate change. The Hanoi leader took the occasion to suggest that Hanoi students be allowed to study at the Lycee francais Alexandre Yersin. He also proposed partnership in digitalizing database and building e-government and smart city. The French PM shared his admiration of Hanois efforts to preserve its cultural values He affirmed that Hanoi faces great challenges in development, as it has a big population. France has many firms excelling in urban management so the two sides can cooperate in this field, he said, expressing his belief that Hanoi will be the meeting point of big projects between France and Vietnam. The PM pledged to do his best to support the cooperation between Hanoi and French localities. Following the meeting, the French PM took a walk at the pedestrian street around Hoan Kiem Lake and visited the Temple of Literature. Earlier in the day, PM Edouard Philippe and his entourage made a trip to the northern province of Dien Bien, where he visited the A1 Hill in the historic site of the Dien Bien Phu battlefield, and laid a wreath at the local cemetery for fallen soldiers. In the morning of November 3rd, the French PM and Chairman of Hanoi Peoples Committee Nguyen Duc Chung cut the ribbon to inaugurate the new facility of the Lycee francais Alexandre Yersin in Hanois Long Bien district. The school is a French international school under the purview of the Agency for French Education Abroad./. I feel like Valley of the Dolls, Lana Del Rey told Courtney Love as the duo vamped for photographers in front of a gravestone at Los Angeles Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Friday night. Sparkle, sparkle, Love teased in return. Del Rey was on hand to celebrate her status as the newly announced face of the Gucci Guilty fragrance. Love makes a cameo in the campaign video, which will be officially unveiled on Jan. 15, 2019. The women were joined by their campaign costar Jared Leto, a longtime ambassador for Gucci and ongoing Gucci Guilty model. The event Courtney Love, who appears briefly in the new Glen Luchford-lensed ad campaign video, commandeered the Gucci Beauty Instagram account for the evening. Donato Sardella / Getty Images for Gucci After an embargoed preview in which guests had a chance to watch the upcoming television spot, the largely Gucci-clad group made its way past various graves and into a mausoleum, where bars and a dance floor were set up for guests to let loose. Outside, a bright neon light read #ForeverGuilty, but no one seemed fazed to be living it up alongside tombstones from the late 1800s. Hidden between flower-adorned statues, the party revealed the classic, clean bottle design for Gucci Guilty Pour Femme, which emulates the Pour Homme scent. Beautiful; so beautiful, Love said, as she eyed the display of fragrances, which will be launched in January as a new addition to Guccis Eau de Parfum portfolio. (The previous formulation of Gucci Guilty Pour Femme was as an eau de toilette.) The crowd Guccis creative director Alessandro Michele was in attendance, as were Diplo, Gia Coppola, Rainey Qualley, Asia Chow, Fuschia Kate Sumner, Jacqui Getty, B. Akerlund, Lisa Eisner, Rosson Crow, Gela Nash-Taylor and husband John Taylor, Kacy Hill, and Italian actor Alessandro Borghi, in addition to stylists Tara Swennen and Jen Rade. The food The Kogi BBQ truck was on the scene serving up sliders and short-rib tacos. Vegan, turkey and beef hot dogs from Pinks were also a popular option. The scene Attendees turning out to the event included Gia Copolla, from left, Duran Duran's John Taylor, fashion designer Gela Nash-Taylor and Linda Ramone. Stefanie Keenan / Getty Images for Gucci Johnny Ramones mortal remains are famously housed at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Notably, the late rockers widow, Linda Ramone, was among the guests taking in the scene. Elsewhere, Love mingled with director-photographer Floria Sigismondi and costume designer Arianne Phillips when she wasnt recording the night for Gucci Beautys Instagram account. Its Gucci takeover time, Love said, while Del Rey blew kisses at the camera. The music DJs Jacques Auberger, Alex Cameron and Charlotte Linden Ercoli provided the evenings soundtrack. Although trance and techno was largely the music of choice, at one point Annie Lennoxs Walking on Broken Glass played, which felt particularly fitting given that numerous guests ended up dropping their glasses of Champagne while navigating the mausoleums stairway. The campaign The interior of a mausoleum, left, had been transformed into a nightclub of sorts, with bottles of the reformulated Gucci Guilty Pour Femme fragrance, right, on display. Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images for Gucci Directed by Glen Luchford, the new advertisements, which were shot in various locales around Los Angeles, feature creative direction from Michele. Although Del Rey is new to the Gucci Guilty family, Leto starred in the previous Gucci Guilty campaign, which was shot in Venice, Italy, and first debuted in 2016. Immigration officials stopped allowing a volunteer group to visit people at a San Diego detention facility unless its members agreed not to talk with the news media or other groups about conditions inside. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that members of SOLACE, or Souls Offering Loving and Compassionate Ears, must sign the Volunteer Code of Ethics form to be in compliance with the agencys detention standards. The group so far has refused, arguing that detention standards dont require them to sign away their 1st Amendment rights in order to visit detainees. I think theyre circling the wagons to stop people from knowing whats going on inside, said volunteer Steve Gelb of Mission Valley. It gives ICE more impunity. Since 2012, SOLACE volunteers have made more than 1,450 visits to at least 800 would-be immigrants at Otay Mesa. They say they try to give detainees who dont have anyone to visit them a feeling of humanity, emotional support and hope. Advertisement Without SOLACE, people who are detained at Otay have very little way to communicate with the outside world, said Angela Fujii, who coordinates the program through the First Unitarian Universalist Church. Its a very vulnerable population that we know is now suffering and being neglected. The new requirement took volunteers by surprise. They thought they had a good working relationship with ICE and had been told the agency appreciated their work. At recent meetings, volunteers speculated that either the political climate or critical media coverage of conditions in immigration detention facilities may have led to the change, but they could not think of a specific report that might have triggered the forms restrictive language. The confidentiality sections of the new forms require volunteers to agree not to share information they learn inside without written permission from the warden. I will not engage in the delivery or discussion of facility and/or offender specific information outside the performance of my duties, the Code of Ethics form reads. I will have no media contact related to the services I provide or any information I gain as a result of having access to the facility, the inmate population, or facility staff. The volunteers worried that if a detainee told them about abuse happening at the facility, they wouldnt be able to speak up. They also took issue with a part of the form that says they represent CoreCivic, the for-profit prison company that owns and operates the facility. It seems like were being put in a straitjacket, said volunteer Kathy Smith of Scripps Ranch. ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack said that the change came from an internal pre-audit of volunteer programs that found SOLACE was not in compliance with the standards the agency uses for its facilities, known as the Performance-Based National Detention Standards. Each volunteer must go through a facility orientation and agree to applicable facility rules and procedures, Mack said. Volunteer applicants are required to complete the code of ethics package and required dress code. SOLACE volunteers hadnt signed facility forms, but they had submitted information, including Social Security numbers and photo IDs, for background checks when they joined the program. The detention standards do not require the facility rules to include confidentiality clauses in CoreCivics volunteer form. All religious volunteers seeking access to any of CoreCivics immigration facilities are required to undergo an approval process which is at the direction and discretion of our partner agencies, said Amanda Gilchrist, spokeswoman for CoreCivic, when asked about the forms. To David Loy, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego, the restrictions in the forms are unconscionable. I dont say that kind of thing lightly, Loy said. This is an absolutely unconstitutional attempt to stifle speech and evade accountability. Loy sent a letter Thursday threatening legal action if ICE doesnt reinstate the program. Immigrants previously detained at Otay Mesa said visits from program volunteers were life-changing. It gave me hope to be free again, said Yousra, who preferred not to give her last name because shes still afraid of the country she fled. They are still supporting me and being by my side to stay strong and keep on fighting. Sylvester Owino, who came to the U.S. from Kenya and now has his own business selling food at farmers markets, spent more than nine years in immigration detention while his case went through rounds of appeal. Its a blow to the detainees, Owino said of the programs suspension. They have nobody to talk to, nobody to go to. He recalled the changes he felt when he started getting visits from SOLACE volunteers. In detention, they make us feel like were nothing, Owino said. Youre missing the outside world. By [SOLACE] coming to visit you, its not just the inside world. We feel more welcome. Volunteers said they speak up for detainees who dont appear to be getting appropriate medical care, as in the case of one immigrant with cancer or another who had an infected bite on his arm. Sometimes they help detainees contact relatives in the U.S. who dont know where they are. Detainees phones are confiscated when they enter the facility, and they often dont have phone numbers memorized to call from the detention phones. This is not the first time that ICE has suspended the San Diego visitation program over refusal to sign forms that had confidentiality clauses. In 2013, following volunteers raising concerns about alleged sexual abuse at Otay Mesa Detention Center, ICE introduced similar forms and temporarily suspended SOLACE. After news media got involved, the volunteers were allowed to continue without signing the controversial forms. Freedom for Immigrants, a national organization based in Oakland that coordinates among visitation programs at different immigration detention facilities, tried contacting ICE in October on SOLACEs behalf. Shortly after the organization sent its letter, ICE blocked Otay Mesa detainees access to the organizations hotline, according to Executive Director Christina Fialho. It seeks to silence critics and prohibit the public from learning important information about treatment in detention, said Fialho, whose group released a report in July documenting more than 800 complaints of hate-related abuse in immigration detention, including at Otay Mesa Detention Center. SOLACE volunteers began meeting with staff at congressional offices around San Diego this week to ask for help, first at Rep. Susan A. Davis office and then Rep. Scott Peters. They hope to meet with Rep. Juan Vargas office next week. The people we tend to see are the people who have suffered incredibly, Gelb told Peters staff. Its not for us that we want it reinstated. This is a service for people with nothing. Morrissey writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com Los Angeles schools chief Austin Beutner is working on a plan to radically reshape the nations second-largest school district by shrinking the central bureaucracy and moving decision-making closer to campuses. The aim is to boost student success and save money at a time when officials insist that grave financial problems threaten the Los Angeles Unified School Districts solvency. Under a proposal being developed confidentially, Beutner would divide the system into 32 networks, moving authority and resources out of the central office and into neighborhoods. He is expected to make his plan public next month. In L.A. Unifieds downtown headquarters, managers and other employees recently have been asked to explain their duties and to justify why their jobs should continue to exist in a leaner, more localized school system. Advertisement The network strategy is not a plan to break up or end L.A. Unified, but it could transform how the school system functions. The superintendent is trying to move toward a decentralized system that puts the student first, said one person close to the process who was not authorized to comment publicly. Hes trying to generate better educational outcomes. Thats the No. 1 goal. Savings from the central bureaucracy could be plowed back into education at the school level, he said, as well as [used] to deal with the fiscal crisis the district faces. Beutner declined to comment on the plan, saying it would be premature to talk about a work in progress. The Times learned details of Beutners developing strategy through documents and interviews. Its broad outlines were confirmed by numerous people involved in the planning who requested anonymity. This is not the first time a superintendent has proposed reorganizing L.A. Unified. Some past attempts have been short-lived or fell far short of expectations. Moves meant to save money sometimes turned out to be costly. In 1993, the district announced it would divide the system into 32 self-governing clusters. That plan ultimately morphed into another and another and another. If the underlying services are not different or better, then the structure doesnt matter much, said another insider, who asked to remain anonymous. If you end up reorganizing for the sake of reorganizing, you can cause a lot of chaos. Although the internal planning has been confidential, officials say they have collected input from about 1,500 parents, teachers, administrators and community members in a series of meetings since August. How the networks would be shaped and what duties they would have still is being refined, with the assistance of consultants paid for by outside philanthropy. One of the consulting firms, Kitamba, has senior executives who have been involved in high-profile reform efforts elsewhere in the country. London-based business consulting firm Ernst & Young is working on the goal of improving efficiency. A major restructuring would require approval by the Board of Education. Beutner has been working more closely with some board members than others apparently to try to minimize leaks. Although change in the district rarely comes easy, Beutner has the added challenge of making his push at a time when an ongoing contract dispute with the teachers union could lead to a strike. One district argument is at the center of both the contract negotiations and the reimagining plan, as it is often referred to internally. Beutner repeatedly has pointed to analyses that conclude L.A. Unified is now spending $500 million a year more than it takes in. Without change, according to projections, reserves will run dry in three to four years. The teachers union has rejected those forecasts. Beutners push to be superintendent was championed by philanthropists and civic leaders who largely view L.A. Unified as a failed institution, with its looming fiscal problems and student test scores that trail state averages. They see in Beutner a wealthy businessman without a background in education a leader with the financial savvy and outsiders perspective necessary to shake up an entrenched and complacent system. Some specifics of Beutners plan probably will change, but the following outline appears to have emerged: The networks of schools would be based mainly on geography. Each network would include elementary, middle and high schools with cohesive academic programs for students as they progress through the system. Each network would report to one of several regional headquarters. Staffing at the central district office downtown would be sharply reduced, as would its spheres of authority. Schools and their networks would get more control in key areas such as hiring and budgets. Major elements remain under discussion. One topic of debate has been how much to let traditional district-run schools begin to operate like independent charter schools. Charters are exempt from some regulations that govern district-run schools and most are non-union. The school district plays no role in a charters day-to-day management, though it does decide every five years whether to renew a charters right to operate. According to some insiders, Beutners plan seems like rearranging the deck chairs because six regional district offices already exist and deal extensively with local schools. Academic coordinators in those offices oversee students grade-by-grade progress in key subjects such as math and English. District staff members, however, are nervous. Nobody knows what the future is going to look like for the district or for their jobs, said one central office staff person who asked to remain anonymous. Ernst & Young is evaluating positions in every division along the lines of whether they are discretionary. One email obtained by The Times that has been circulating in the fiscal division set out the task to those being asked to justify their roles: Please work with your teams to identify four to six primary functions that your Division performs. The superintendents office is the audience for this project, the email said, so make sure that the functions are easy for someone outside of your office to understand. Kitamba partner and chief executive Rajeev Bajaj, while heading different companies, became a major consultant in 2010 and 2011 for the school-reform effort in Newark, N.J. The companies in which he was involved attracted media attention because of potential conflicts involving business ties to state and local officials. His partner at Kitamba, Erin McGoldrick Brewster, served as chief of data and accountability for the District of Columbia Public Schools, under hard-charging former Supt. Michelle Rhee. In 2009, McGoldrick Brewster, along with Rhee, came under scrutiny for not pushing harder to investigate credible allegations of cheating at schools that showed huge gains on standardized tests. The work of Ernst & Young and Kitamba is being paid for by the recently established Fund for Equity and Excellence, which pools philanthropic resources for local education. Donors include the Ballmer Group, the California Community Foundation, the California Endowment, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and the Weingart Foundation. In 2007, New York City experimented with substantially replacing its centralized bureaucracy with several dozen networks, some run by the citys Department of Education and some operated by nonprofit groups. The networks got mixed reviews, in large part because they werent geographically based. They were also criticized for muddying the lines of authority. The decentralization cut costs, but it had little effect on students academic performance. After about eight years, the networks were largely dismantled. The nations largest school district returned to a system that empowered regional superintendents. howard.blume@latimes.com Twitter: @howardblume anna.phillips@latimes.com Twitter: @annamphillips UPDATES: 3:25 p.m.: This article was updated throughout to edit and streamline the information. This article was originally published at 9:30 a.m. Detectives have a suspect in custody and are interviewing the person about a shooting that killed one and injured two others at a detox facility in Marin County, officials said Monday. Authorities identified the suspect as Davance Lamar Reed, a 37-year-old transient who was dating one of the victims, according to the Marin County Sheriffs Office. Reed made statements to detectives that linked him to the crime scene. Investigators determined that the shooting was an isolated incident and that the community was under no threat. The Sheriffs Office said authorities received a call at 1:33 a.m. from the Helen Vine Detox Center in San Rafael reporting that staff members had been shot. Advertisement Deputies arrived to find three people with gunshot wounds. One man, whose identity has not been released, died at the scene. Another man and a woman identified as facility employee Anthony Dominguez Mansapit, 32, and Brittney Kehaulani McCann, 30 were taken to Marin General Hospital after the shooting and are in the intensive care unit, authorities said. Authorities said McCann was dating the suspect. The Helen Vine Recovery Center, at 301 Smith Ranch Road in San Rafael, is a licensed 26-bed coed facility that offers both detox and residential substance use disorder treatment. Clients can stay up to 30 days for detox and up to 90 days for residential treatment. Last year, the staff at Helen Vine saw more than 900 patients. Our hearts are with the staff,clients and families affected at Helen Vine Recovery Center. We will post updates here as they become available. Buckelew Programs (@BuckelewProgram) November 5, 2018 The center is run by Buckelew Programs, the largest provider of community-based mental health and support services in the North Bay. The organization sees almost 10,000 people in Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties. It also runs the North Bay Suicide Prevention Hotline. While it is unimaginable to think that such a horrific event occurred at one of our facilities, its important to remember that Buckelew Programs has been providing safe and effective services for decades; improving the lives of tens of thousands of people, Tamara Player, Buckelews chief executive, said in an email. Times staff writer Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report. jaclyn.cosgrove@latimes.com Twitter: @jaclyncosgrove UPDATES: 9:35 p.m.: This article was updated with the suspects identity. 1:45 p.m.: This article was updated with the news that a suspect is in custody, and with information about the treatment center and its parent company. 12:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information from police. This article was originally published at 10:20 a.m. Investigators in two counties are looking for a man who is a person of interest in seven homicides in Antelope Valley and a suspect in an eighth killing in Riverside County, authorities said. Jesus Chuy Guzman, 34, was first named a person of interest last month when investigators found three decomposed bodies on the property he rented on the 30900 block of 106th Street East in Littlerock, said Los Angeles County Sheriffs Det. David Gunner. Guzman was evicted from his 106th Street home in August, the same day sheriffs investigators found weapons, evidence of methamphetamine production and some stolen trailers and trucks on the property, Gunner said. Guzman was not home at the time and had failed to show up for a court hearing three weeks earlier for a July arrest, he said. Investigators didnt find the decomposed bodies until Oct. 11. Two have been identified as Jose Joseph Lara Paez, 66, and Julieta Arvizu, 49, both of Littlerock. Later last month, investigators found the remains of two more bodies in a different part of the property. Its unclear how they died. Advertisement Lara Paez and Arvizu were friends who disappeared in January with Arvizus boyfriend, Cuauhtemoc Lara, 39. Lara Paezs car had been found abandoned in March on a Littlerock street, where residents said it had been parked for a month and a half, Gunner said. Two of bodies found last month were identified on Friday as Jose Joseph Lara Paez, 65, left, and Julieta Arvizu, 49. Cuauhtemoc Lara, 39, had disappeared with them in January. (Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department) Arvizu and Lara lived together in a trailer in Littlerock, where Lara Paez would sometimes stay when he and his wife were quarreling, Gunner said. Guzman also has been named a person of interest in the fatal shootings of Gerardo Jerry De Luna, 33, and Mariano Panduro Campos, 41, who were found dead on Campos property in Littlerock, according to Sheriffs Lt. Joe Mendoza. Guzman, De Luna and Campos were acquainted socially, Mendoza said. If took us a little while to figure out he was a friend of theirs, and based on the other stuff hes involved in, wed like to ask if he knows what happened during that double murder. The Riverside County Sheriffs Department also is looking for Guzman. He and Rodolfo Garcia, 35, of Perris, are suspected in a February botched home-invasion robbery in Menifee that claimed the life of Silvano Gutierrez Esteves, 43, according to a department news release. Garcia has been arrested and charged with murder. Investigators believe the pair was drawn to the large amount of marijuana found on Esteves property. Witnesses reported seeing several male suspects fleeing from the property after Esteves was killed, the news release said. Guzman who was described as Latino, 5-foot-5 and 150 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes should be considered armed and dangerous. He is known to frequent Littlerock, Adelanto, Victorville, Riverside and Compton, and drives a black 2009 Toyota Corolla, with California license plate of 6SCD663. Anyone who sees Guzman is urged to call 911 immediately. Anyone with information about the killings is asked to call the sheriffs Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500 or Riverside County Sheriffs investigator Martin Alfaro at (760) 393-3528. Those wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477. The woman sitting in a Chino prison cell had screaming fits every 15 minutes for four hours before she finally lay on the floor and ripped out her own eye. Guards rushed in amid blaring alarms, but they were too late. She had swallowed it. The woman, identified only as Inmate Patient X in federal court documents, had not been given medication despite being listed as psychotic while at the California Institution for Women in Chino in 2017. A report written by Dr. Michael Golding, the chief psychiatrist for the prison system, detailed the gruesome incident in a report made public last week to highlight how the state allegedly has failed to care for some of its most vulnerable inmates. Golding alleges in the 161-page document that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has concealed issues surrounding the adequacy of mental healthcare and staffing in prisons from officials who could mandate changes. Advertisement This group has created a biased and inaccurately positive picture of what is actually a troubled system of care, Golding wrote. The report, based on his visits to various state prisons, was filed in federal court as part of a lawsuit against the state that has spanned nearly three decades and asserts that psychiatric care in prison is a constitutional right. The report has come at a precarious time for the state prison system. A federal court determined in 1995 that prisons had failed to provide proper treatment for thousands of mentally ill inmates. A judge at the time ordered the appointment of a special master to oversee psychiatric care reforms and to work with experts to develop improved programs. Headway in recent years has led both sides to anticipate a return to state oversight, but the latest report could throw a wrench in that plan. Michael Bien, an attorney representing state prisoners receiving mental health treatment in the case, said he was prepared to accept a proposal to reduce psychiatric staff positions by nearly 20% when he received Goldings report. That agreement has since been called off. The bigger impact is we felt we were ticking off the last couple of issues before we could end the case, Bien said. Now I have to go back and check all those assumptions. The most serious thing is the allegation that misrepresentations were made to the court. That really forces all of us to question whats been going on. One of the alleged central problems Golding identified in his report is that patients frequently arent being seen on time or in spaces that give them the freedom to talk openly with mental health staff. The report alleges that the state Department of Corrections mischaracterized how frequently inmates are seen by psychiatrists in data provided to the court in 2017 and 2018, which boasts that 90% and 94% of appointments in those years, respectively, were on time. Golding contends that less than 50% of inmates are seen on time by mental health staff. Patients also arent brought to psychiatry appointments in confidential offices, Golding wrote. Instead, the psychiatrist searches the prison yard looking for patients or communicates with them through a crack in a nearly solid metal cell door where conversations can be overheard by others, according to Golding. The system, he wrote, is by no means conducive to good patient care. Sometimes inmates face significant delays between scheduled appointments because they are transferred to new prisons, Golding said. With each transfer, the agency resets the clock on appointment times, so if an inmate is transferred multiple times, he or she can wait up to nine months between psychiatrist appointments, despite the courts having mandated that patients wait no longer than three months between appointments, the report states. Mental healthcare inside prisons isnt a waning issue for the state. A study published by Stanford Law School in 2017 notes that even as the overall state prison population declines, the prevalence and severity of mental illness among those in the state prison system is on the rise. More than 30% of California prisoners currently receive treatment for serious mental disorders, an increase of 150% since 2000, according to the study. Vicky Waters, press secretary for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, rejected Goldings allegations in a statement on Friday. The department strongly disagrees with this individuals allegations, and looks forward to a fair and thorough review and hearing of all the facts, she said. We have worked closely with lawyers representing prisoners, as well as the court appointment monitors, for many years to improve the mental health of inmates, and our dedicated and well-trained staff will continue to provide appropriate care and treatment. Golding alleges another key problem is that medical decisions, including the drugs inmates need and the type and frequency of care they require, often are assigned to psychologists inside prisons rather than psychiatrists, who are medical doctors. This can lead to discrepancies in decisions that can be problematic for patients, he said. In the case of the woman who ripped out her eye, the psychologist who evaluated her did not call a psychiatrist to administer drugs, despite doctors later saying the patient had given every indication that she needed medication immediately even if it was given by force. Nurses and psychologists later said the failure to provide medicine was not a root cause of the patient removing her eye. The tragedy is that any competent psychiatric physician or general medical physician would have medicated the patient, and likely the patients eye would still be in her head had that happened, Golding wrote in his report. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @Hannahnfry The trial of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman got off to a dramatic start Monday as an eager coterie of would-be jurors among them a professional Michael Jackson impersonator was ushered inside a federal courthouse in Brooklyn to audition for 12 of the most prestigious roles in town. No moonwalking, Judge Brian Cogan warned the hopeful, who was among the first to be questioned during voir dire. Only 100 of the 920 New Yorkers who returned the courts 35-page questionnaires were still in the running by the first day of jury selection, which saw the leafy blocks around the courthouse for the Eastern District of New York ringed with New York Police Department patrol cars and armed guards standing sentinel in a stinging autumn rain. U.S. marshals in T-shirts roamed the halls of the courthouse with eager K-9s on leashes and Glock pistols holstered at their hips. Guzman dressed up for the occasion, appearing in a blue suit and a white shirt with Studio 54-sized lapels, unbuttoned to mid-chest. He took notes and shuffled papers as the judge questioned the first 20 potential jurors just a few feet away. Advertisement He has pleaded not guilty to 17 counts of drug trafficking, conspiracy to murder and firearms violations. Attorneys for Joaquin El Chapo Guzman Eduardo Balarezo, left, and William Purpura arrive for the start of jury selection for Guzmans trial on Monday. (Don Emmert / AFP/Getty Images) Unlike most Americans who get called for jury duty, those interviewed Monday seemed genuinely eager to serve. Guzman will join the ranks of mobsters John Gotti and Vincent Basciano, whose career-ending appearances in the Eastern District courthouse each brought in more than 1,000 potential jurors. Those men were tried on home turf, while Guzman was extradited from Mexico in 2017. But the face of the ruthless Sinaloa cartel heads to court the subject of a prestige podcast and a popular crime drama, which Cogan said could muddy the jury pool. One man was struck for cause after admitting hed Googled the name on his jury questionnaire and read Guzmans Wikipedia page, which calls the defendant the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. Another said shed tried the defendants eponymous Netflix series, now in its second season, but didnt watch it because it was kind of boring. She insisted knowing about the show wouldnt color her judgment, since everyone has a show about them. Im waiting for my Netflix show, Cogan joked. So who will make the cut? If questions from the 118-item juror survey are any indication, fans of Vice News and the chatty true crime podcast My Favorite Murder are probably already out. So is anyone bold enough to acknowledge personal views about people of Mexican descent that would prevent them from being impartial. Attorneys on both sides focused on those who said they supported legalizing marijuana, as well as Spanish-speakers and people with strong feelings about police and cooperating witnesses. A young woman who said she watched the Netflix show Narcos was axed after she told the judge she might see images of the drama in her head and think of Guzman. Another was cut after saying she was too scared to serve. What scares me is that I read his family will come after jurors and their families, she said. I feel unsafe. But attorneys kept on an immigrant who said he grew up in Medellin when the city was Colombias cocaine capital. When I was still young there was a lot of terrorism going around my city, the potential juror said, adding that his father adores so-called narconovelas soap operas that dramatize the lives of drug traffickers. But he called those shows fantasies and said they wouldnt influence his ability to be fair. A woman in her late 20s with long brown hair and a poncho-style cape was asked about Ayn Rands The Fountainhead after indicating it was her favorite book. Another shared a beloved thriller with the judge. The greatest burden for prospective jurors may not be Guzmans notoriety, but the trials extraordinary length. Cogan warned that the 12 jurors and six alternates could be seated for as long as 12 weeks, which will eliminate many who would otherwise be qualified to serve. Most of those struck for cause Monday told the court that serving would be a hardship. At days end, 46 prospective jurors had been questioned and 17 dismissed. Youve got to find somebody whos got nothing to do for four months,said Matthew Galluzzo, a former New York City prosecutor and practicing defense attorney. You might be talking about a lot of retirees. A more uniform crowd could bode well for U.S. attorneys, who rely on good group dynamics to secure a conviction, the former prosecutor said. Their ideal jury would be made up of men and women who are both agreeable and civic-minded. Jurors interviewed in the morning trended much younger, with a few in their 20s and the majority approaching middle age. A younger jury wont necessarily help the defense, but certain personalities might, Galluzzo said. Defense attorneys tend to want one of three things: someone too timid to convict, too overwhelmed to follow the case, or a juror who holds his opinion like a grudge. For a defense, a hung jury is a win, Galluzzo said. Theyre looking for contrarians who will disagree for the sake of disagreeing, take a position and never change their minds. Im always looking for a few folks to cause chaos in the jury room. Sharp is a special correspondent. UPDATES: 2:20 p.m.: This article has been updated with juror comments from the afternoon session. This article was originally posted at 1 p.m. A Utah mayor who was also a Utah Army National Guard major training commandos in Afghanistan was fatally shot by one of his Afghan trainees, officials said Sunday. Brent Taylor, 39, had taken a yearlong leave of absence as mayor of North Ogden, north of Salt Lake City, for his deployment to Afghanistan. He was a military intelligence officer with Joint Force Headquarters and was expected to return to his mayoral job in January. Another U.S. military member whose name was not immediately made public was wounded in Saturdays attack that killed Taylor, who died from wounds from small arms fire, military officials said. North Ogden, Utah, Mayor Brent Taylor was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday. (North Ogden City) Advertisement Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton, the adjutant general of the Utah National Guard, told reporters that Taylors mission was to help train and build the capacity of the Afghan national army. He was with folks he was helping and training. Thats whats so painful about this. Its bitter, Burton said. I do believe that Major Taylor felt he was among friends, with people he was working with. Utah media outlets cited a statement from NATO saying that Taylor was shot by one of the commandos being trained and that the attacker was killed by Afghan forces. Taylor leaves behind a wife and seven children. His remains are scheduled to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday evening. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Taylor was there to help. He was a leader. He loved the people of Afghanistan This is a sad day for Utah, for America. Brent was a hero, a patriot, a wonderful father, and a dear friend, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said on Twitter. News of his death in Afghanistan is devastating. My prayers and love are with Jennie and his seven young children. His service will always be remembered. Taylor served two tours in Iraq and was on his second tour in Afghanistan. Taylor told local media in January when he was being deployed that he was assigned to serve on an advisory team training the staff of an Afghan commando battalion. Hundreds of residents of North Ogden lined the street to see him off as police escorted him and his family around North Ogden, a community of about 17,000. Taylor became the citys mayor in 2013. A western Wisconsin community on Sunday was grieving the deaths of three Girl Scouts and an adult who were collecting trash along a rural highway when police say a pickup truck veered off the road and hit them before speeding away. Authorities have not released the names of the girls or the woman who were struck by the truck on Saturday in Lake Hallie, including the name of a fourth girl who survived but was in critical condition at a hospital in Rochester, Minn. The girls were members of Troop 3055 and were fourth-grade students at Halmstad Elementary School in adjoining Chippewa Falls, about 90 miles east of Minneapolis. Our hearts are broken for the girls and families of the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes, Chief Executive Sylvia Acevedo of Girl Scouts of the USA said in a statement Sunday. The Girl Scout Movement everywhere stands with our sister Girl Scouts in Wisconsin to grieve and comfort one another in the wake of this terrible tragedy. Lake Hallie police Sgt. Daniel Sokup said the pickup, a black Ford F-150, crossed a lane and veered into a roadside ditch, striking the victims. Other members of the troop were picking up trash from the opposite shoulder. Advertisement The 21-year-old driver, Colten Treu of Chippewa Falls, sped off but later surrendered and will be charged with four counts of homicide, Sokup said. It was unclear Sunday if Treu had retained an attorney. Sokup said it was not immediately known if there were other factors that might have led the driver to leave the road. Cecily Spallees, a personal care attendant at a group home near the crash site, told the newspaper that drivers regularly speed on that stretch of road, which quickly changes from a 55-mph to a 35-mph zone. Im always telling one of my residents that he shouldnt walk this strip at night, Spallees said. Its not safe. Troop 3055s regional council, the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes, expressed its condolences on Facebook and said a vigil would be held Sunday evening at the girls school. What a difference eight years make. On the eve of the midterm elections of 2010, career-ending defeat loomed over dozens of Democratic congressman whod voted for the Affordable Care Act, derisively branded Obamacare at the time. In 2018, Republicans, the current target of voter rage, are scrambling to reassure constituents that theyll save even extend key features of the ACA. For example, last week Idahos right-wing Republican Gov. Butch Otter endorsed a ballot measure that would extend Medicaid coverage to more than 60,000 of his states low-income residents. The federally funded expansion of Medicaid, let us recall, was one of the ACAs most contentious components. And, in the end, every single Republican congressman and senator voted against the final bill. Now a Republican governor in Idaho is all for it. As Barack Obamas presidency has begun to recede into the mists of time and the deliberate misrepresentations about the ACA have subsided, a majority of Americans have warmed to the healthcare law, and a supermajority to some of its particulars. That took some time. Medicaid expansion isnt the only piece of Obamacare that Americans have come to support. Advertisement In 2015, when the Supreme Court upheld the acts constitutionality, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. consoled his fellow conservatives by inserting a proviso in the courts decision that said states didnt have to extend Medicaid eligibility. In near lockstep, Republican-controlled states refused the Medicaid extension and the federal funds that went with it. Tuesday, three of those rock-solid red states are voting on initiatives to do an about-face: Idaho, Utah and Nebraska. There hasnt been public polling in Nebraska, but surveys in Idaho and Utah show the Medicaid expansion measures well ahead. Also on Tuesday, Montana will vote on whether to continue the Medicaid expansion it adopted in 2015. If all four measures pass, that would leave just 11 states where Republican leaders have denied federally funded medical insurance to their fellow citizens. Medicaid expansion isnt the only piece of Obamacare that Americans have come to support. Democratic candidates across the nation are pounding the drum on protecting people with preexisting conditions. The issue appears to be working. Polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation this summer found that 63% of Americans and 49% of Republicans said a candidates position on guaranteeing coverage for preexisting conditions was either the single most important factor or a very important factor in determining their vote. The poll also showed that a majority of Americans (including 58% of independents) didnt want the Supreme Court to strike down the ACA either. (Earlier this year, a group of Republican attorneys general, led by Ken Paxton of Texas, revived their efforts to have the ACA declared unconstitutional.) Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion There are three lessons to draw from this. The first is that when right-wing media and opportunistic Republicans arent filling the publics heads with endlessly repeated lies, the American people can figure out whats actually good for them. When the ACA was still before Congress, the rights allegations that it would create death panels to determine who should live and who should die were constantly polluting the airwaves. Eight years later with no death panels in sight and with the right now directing its falsehoods at refugees from Central America the merits of Medicaid expansion and the preexisting condition guarantee have become obvious to most Americans. The second lesson is that it was never the care part of Obamacare that really roused the rights anger. It was the Obama part. An African American Democratic president was an affront to the rights sense of national identity, so all of Obamas handiwork came to be viewed as an affront as well. And if Americans were insufficiently outraged, the Murdoch empire and its ilk were there to stoke their anger with deceitful allegations. And third, left to their own devices, Americans support progressive economic ideas such as an adequate safety net, guaranteed access to medical care, affordable college and living wages. Thats why the right has abandoned its old fever dreams of repealing Social Security and Medicare. Thats also why some Republican congressmen are about to learn that voting to repeal Obamacare over and over again is about to speed them to an early retirement after election day. Voters, it appears, are convening a political death panel of their own. Harold Meyerson is executive editor of the American Prospect. He is a contributing writer to Opinion. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook The Vietnam-Japan Friendship Industrial Park in Can Tho (Photo: VNA ) Located in Tan Phu ward, Cai Rang district, the park covers 30 hectares in the first phase. The modern complex boasts a complete system of technical infrastructure which can ensure the standards of a green industrial park. It prioritizes the production in the fields of electricity, electronics, information technology, engineering, and pharmacy. The location of the park is described as favourable for investors as it lies just 5 km from the citys administrative centre and 15 km from the Can Tho International Airport. It is also near two international seaports which can accommodate ships with a tonnage of up to 20,000 tonnes and help connect Can Tho with industrial parks in the nearby provinces of Hau Giang and Soc Trang. On behalf of the Can Tho Peoples Committee, Chairman Vo Thanh Thong pledged to create the best conditions for investors, especially those from Japan, in their production and business. Speaking to the press, President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vu Tien Loc said in the context of the increasing international economic integration, the inauguration of the park is a milestone marking a new stage in the economic cooperation, trade and investment between Japan and Can Tho in particular and the Mekong Delta in general. The official highlighted that Can Tho and the region have made active preparations for a wave of Japanese investment through annual cultural and economic exchange activities. The effort is working well as it has helped attract more and more Japanese investors to the locality, he said. According to a report by the Chambers Can Tho branch, by the end of October this year, the Mekong Delta had attracted 169 investment projects from Japan with a combined registered capital of USD2.2 billion, representing 10.5 percent of the total foreign investment to the whole region./. In 2016, three precincts on the Westside of Los Angeles went for Donald Trump. Not many, Ill wager, would be surprised to discover that all three were in Beverly Hills. One straddles Sunset Boulevard between Beverly Drive and Greenway, with another, a tiny bump (11 people voted there), appended to its side. The third is Trousdale Estates, up in Beverly Hills hills. The reddest of the three on The Times voters map are the big one and the little one along Sunset. In that neighborhood, across from the Beverly Hills Hotel, none other than Donald Trump purchased a home in 2007 for $7 million. I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when the Beverly Hills Unified School District gave its students time off to protest the plan to dig a Purple Line subway tunnel under Beverly Hills High School. Some of the kids were bused to the walkout at Will Rogers Memorial Park. The demonstration represented a cynical and probably fruitless attempt at manipulation. The park appears to have been chosen as the protest site because of its proximity to the presidents property, across Canon Drive. Among the signs raised by students were several requesting that he intercede. Advertisement Beverly Hills exclusivity is more illusory than it appears. Why plead to the president? His canceling of federal funds is the last hope of those obsessed with stopping the tunnel. In the six years since the Purple Line expansion was approved, Beverly Hills has sued to shut it down and lost repeatedly. Those opposed say building the subway line under the high school will put students at risk, but experts and courts and more experts have determined otherwise, time and again. The special pleading is a long shot, but who knows? The president seems to love nothing more than the flattery of such appeals. In late May, Kim Kardashian asked Trump to commute the sentence of a Tennessee woman imprisoned on a drug charge. A week later, he complied, a one-off version of incarceration reform. And there are those precincts. Maybe the president will choose to imagine that he could expand on them, and his support in Beverly Hills, if he upends the Purple Line by fiat. To someone who dwells far from Rodeo and Wilshire, the precincts look like blemishes, light pink and red blips in the sea of blue that is the Westside map. They underscore the Beverly Hills of popular imagination, a cliche, a place set apart and above the rest of Los Angeles. Look at all those movie stars / Theyre all so beautiful and clean, sings Weezers Rivers Cuomo in the eponymous 2005 song. Of course, in the most literal sense, Beverly Hills is set apart. Its an independent municipality edged all around by Los Angeles or West Hollywood. Fortress Beverly Hills, we might call it, an impression only heightened by the communitys dogged opposition to projects such as the Purple Line, which would serve to knit it more completely into the region as a whole. At the same time, Beverly Hills exclusivity is more illusory than it appears. Its median annual household income, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, is high for Southern California: $100,630. But the medians in a other nearby neighborhoods and municipalities are higher. And according to the citys own statistics, the community known for leafy estates and mansions has more renters than home owners, not unlike the rest of Los Angeles. Approximately 62% of the population lives in apartments or condo units. Even the Trumpian precincts arent what they appear to be. In light pink Trousdale Estates (529 voters), the president bested Clinton by 9 votes and couldnt muster a majority. Its true he swept the tiny bump precinct 8 to 3, but the district next door (537 voters), which is equally red on the map, is really just barely, faintly Republican. The president received 51% of the vote there, 274 votes to Hillary Clintons 244. In the down-ballot races, Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris won resoundingly, as did Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana. The precincts congressional representative is another Democrat, Ted Lieu. In other words, these voters arent so different from you and me. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Still, watching Beverly Hills long fight against the subway cant help but reinforce the impression that this city within the city believes sharing common ground with the rest of us is dangerous: to high school students, to property values, to the brand. Battling the tunnel may have been framed in terms of methane and air quality, but I cant help seeing in it an isolationist desire. There is no sign, yet, that the president has even noticed Beverly Hills Purple Line plea. Mayor Eric Garcetti says the subway route is a done deal, and construction near the Beverly Hills leg is underway. And well see how the Trump precincts vote on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Ive decided to think about them less as outliers and more as a harbinger: pieces of the electoral map to flip. Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But if we dont have hope, what else do we have? In Beverly Hills and everywhere else, we must find a way to come together if we do not want to continue to stay apart. David L. Ulin is a contributing writer to Opinion. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook. One is the worlds richest person, another has been described as a chain-smoker who often dresses without socks, and yet another has changed political parties twice, most recently this year. For the record: This article posted on Nov. 5 about billionaires hoping to influence the 2018 election included Kenneth and Anne Griffin in the Center for Responsive Politics list of top donors. The center said it is changing its list to remove Anne Griffin. The couple divorced in 2015. With the election just around the corner and their party on the defensive, Republicans have railed against Democratic billionaires pouring big money into this years midterm. But the top political donors of the closely watched battle for control of Congress are a bipartisan and varied lot. Of the top dozen individuals or family donors, half fund Democrats, five support Republicans and one, Jeff Bezos, has chosen to put nearly all of his contributions toward nonpartisan groups, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. Advertisement The amount of money flowing in this years election is jaw-dropping. Driven mostly by seven- and eight-figure amounts from super PACs, spending has already surpassed $5.2 billion, making it the most expensive midterm election in American history. Will California flip the House? The key races to watch The massive contributions, particularly from ultra-conservative donors such as Las Vegas billionaires Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, are helping even the playing field for Republicans in a year in which a wave of Democratic energy has fueled record fundraising for candidates on the left. A $50-million contribution can go a long way in covering some of the gaps in fundraising we see in these local races, says Alex Baumgart, a researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics. Here are the top 12 political donors of 2018, based on total personal and trackable contributions they made to candidates, committees and outside groups. (These figures do not include dark money, or money contributed to and spent by nonprofits like 501(c)(4)s, which sometimes disclose their donors in annual Internal Revenue Service filings. Those filings wont be due until months after the election, and the Trump administration recently relaxed requirements on such groups to disclose donors.) Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, arrive for the May opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. (Lior Mizrahi / Getty Images) 1. Sheldon and Miriam Adelson $113 million Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his physician wife are two of the most prominent Republican super-donors, with an estimated net worth of $34 billion. Adelson is chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns the Venetian casino and hotel and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. This year, the Adelsons have broken the record for the largest sum any individual or family has spent on federal elections. The largest chunk, $50 million, went to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the biggest conservative group trying to help the GOP retain control of the House. The previous record was theirs, too: They dropped $92 million on GOP candidates and committees in 2012. Despite expressing initial reservations about Donald Trumps 2016 campaign, the Adelsons wound up contributing $20 million toward the main super PAC supporting his presidential bid. The Adelsons, who are Jewish and staunch supporters of Israel, have been credited with pushing President Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Two years ago, Sheldon Adelson helped launch a multimillion-dollar effort to promote Israel on college campuses, starting with six California schools. In 2015, Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper in a secret deal that was later revealed. 2. Michael Bloomberg $61.3 million The businessman and former mayor of New York City is a Democrat turned Republican turned Democrat again. Bloomberg made his fortune through his namesake media company and is worth an estimated $46.1 billion. He has donated billions to gun control efforts and to fighting climate change. Most of his money this year has gone to Independence USA PAC, a group he is bankrolling that recently dropped $9.5 million for ads supporting Democrats running against Republican Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Steve Knight of Palmdale. Bloomberg has said he would spend $100 million on this midterm election, which includes spending from Independence USA the political action committee has spent $45.2 million in independent expenditures as of Nov. 2 Tom Steyer helps Cal State Fullerton student Kevin Huy Nguyen, 18, fill out paperwork to register to vote. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 3. Tom Steyer and Kathryn Ann Taylor $59.8 million Steyer is an environmentalist and former hedge fund manager at Farallon Capital who made his fortune picking diamonds out of the dust, as one magazine put it. In 2012, Steyer walked away from his company to focus full time on political activism and philanthropy. He and his wife, Taylor, have an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion and have become top Democratic donors. Steyer launched an online petition urging Trumps impeachment that has garnered 6.1 million signatures and made establishment Democrats uneasy. He opted not to donate any money to Democratic Party committees this year after Democrats in Congress voted to reopen the government despite failing to reach an immigration deal. Steyer has pledged to spend nearly $120 million in the 2018 midterm campaign, including $70 million to NextGen America, his nonprofit focused on climate change that is helping register and turn out young voters and people of color. Speaking to a student on the Cal State Fullerton campus this fall, Steyer said, You can change this world, or it can be run by a bunch of arrogant, entitled, rich white old men. A spokesman for Steyer says much of the money he spends wont be documented by campaign finance filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission but in IRS filings due next year. Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein attend President Trumps inauguration in 2017. (Katherine Skiba / Chicago Tribune) 4. Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein $39.1 million Richard Uihlein is founder and CEO of shipping supply giant Uline. The Uihleins have been longtime donors to conservative politics in their home state of Illinois and nationwide, particularly aimed at achieving a more conservative judicial system. The couple were major backers of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and failed U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, and they bankrolled Janus vs. AFSCME, a Supreme Court case that succeeded in banning mandatory fees funding public employee unions. The candidates and groups the Uihleins have backed are among the most conservative in the GOP, opposing abortion and transgender rights. Uihlein and his wife maintain a low profile, rarely giving interviews. S. Donald Sussmans biggest contributions have gone to Democratic behemoth Priorities USA PAC and the Senate Majority PAC. (Manny Hernandez / Getty Images) 5. S. Donald Sussman $22.9 million A Florida native, Sussman founded New China Capital Management and the Paloma Fund, which was described in 2016 as a $4-billion hedge fund. Sussman is a longtime donor to Bill and Hillary Clinton and was a prominent donor to Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign. This cycle, his biggest contributions have gone to Democratic behemoth Priorities USA PAC and the Senate Majority PAC, which is working to flip control of the Senate. He has also given to efforts to expand voter access and has said he is driven by a desire to elect candidates who will bring about campaign finance reform. Its very odd to be giving millions when your objective is to actually get the money out of politics, he told the Washington Post in 2016. James Simons has been a major donor to Democratic groups and candidates and has also backed environmental efforts. (Tim Sloan / AFP/Getty Images) 6. James and Marilyn Simons $18.9 million James Simons was a mathematician and onetime U.S. code-breaker who founded hedge fund giant Renaissance Technologies in 1982. Hes estimated to have a net worth of $16 billion. He has been a major donor to Democratic groups and candidates and has also backed environmental efforts. The Simons family is the biggest donor this cycle to the House Majority PAC, a group with ties to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi that is spending millions to flip California House districts. Described in a 2016 profile as a chain-smoker who often dresses without socks, Simons ran the firm with conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer. Hes excellent at his job, and we dont talk politics, Simons said. Simons retired in 2010 but still plays a role in the fund, which manages an estimated $57 billion. George Soros is a favorite bogeyman of the far right. He was one of several prominent Democrats who recently received pipe bombs at their homes or offices or had such packages addressed to them. (Getty Images) 7. George Soros $17.4 million Soros, who has pumped billions of dollars into progressive foundations, campaigns and causes, is a favorite bogeyman of the far right. He was one of several prominent Democrats who recently received pipe bombs at their homes or offices or had such packages addressed to them. Days later, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) deleted a tweet urging voters to support Republicans in the upcoming midterm, saying, We cannot allow Soros, Steyer and Bloomberg to BUY this election. Trump then claimed he wouldnt be surprised if Soros was funding a caravan of Central American migrants making its way to the border between the U.S. and Mexico; he offered no evidence. Soros was born in Hungary and is a survivor of the Holocaust. After working in London as a railway porter and waiter, he moved to the U.S. in the 1950s and made his fortune as an investor. Most of his philanthropic and political advocacy runs through his Open Society Foundations, which supports education and refugee relief programs worldwide. Stephen Schwarzman, a generous donor to the president, has been called Trumps de-facto China whisperer. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images) 8. Stephen and Christine Schwarzman $12.8 million Stephen Schwarzman founded the global private equity firm Blackstone Group with fellow billionaire Pete Peterson and still serves as its chairman and CEO. His wife, Christine, is an intellectual property lawyer. The New York couple gave $3.4 million this cycle to the Congressional Leadership Fund, one of the main super PACs dedicated to protecting the GOP majority in the House. Stephen Schwarzman contributed to a PAC supporting presidential candidate Jeb Bush and later became a generous donor to Trump, who has granted him such access as an advisor that he has been called the presidents de-facto China whisperer. Fred Eychaner has been one of the top donors in the country to Democratic campaigns, gay rights groups and arts organizations. (Kiichiro Sato / Associated Press) 9. Fred Eychaner $12.2 million Eychaner is the chairman of the Chicago-based Newsweb Corp. The multimillionaire owns radio stations and a printing press that produces alternative, college and ethnic newspapers. He has been one of the top donors in the country to Democratic campaigns, gay rights groups and arts organizations. The media executive supported Hillary Clintons 2008 presidential bid over his home-state senator Barack Obama. He later contributed money to Obamas campaign and held a fundraiser for him at his home. This year, Eychaner was found to be part of a tiny group of wealthy donors who have contributed more than one-fifth of the $4.5 billion collected by super PACs since their inception in 2010, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission. Eychaner, who is openly gay, helped fund pro-gay-marriage groups in a successful battle for the right to marry in Illinois. He is the founder and president of the Alphawood Foundation, which provides grants to nonprofits dedicated to gay rights, AIDS and HIV issues and other causes. Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of the global investment firm Citadel, is one of the highest-earning hedge fund managers in the world and a Republican mega-donor. (Getty Images) 10. Kenneth and Anne Griffin $11.1 million Kenneth Griffin, the founder and CEO of the global investment firm Citadel, is one of the highest-earning hedge fund managers in the world and a Republican mega-donor. He was previously married to another hedge fund manager, Anne Griffin, founder and CEO of Aragon Global Management. Kenneth Griffin, a self-labeled Reagan Republican, became more involved in politics after the 2008 financial crash and what he has decried as his industrys falling out with government. He takes a conservative view of regulation and subsidies, particularly in the financial markets he engages in. He has backed Democrats and Republicans, but the Griffins contributions this cycle have gone to the GOP. Speaking at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles last year, Griffin praised the presidents efforts in his first 100 days in office, including attempts to overhaul the tax system and repeal the Affordable Care Act. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, made their first major political donation to a fund dedicated to helping elect veterans of all stripes to Congress. (Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images) 11. Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos $10.2 million The founder of Amazon and his wife, MacKenzie, made their first major political donation this September to a nonpartisan fund dedicated to helping elect veterans of all stripes to Congress. They have since tried to toe the middle road, handing $10,800 to Democrats and $16,200 to Republicans this cycle. Their top individual recipients have been Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.). Bezos, the worlds richest person, has faced criticism from both Republicans and Democrats. Trump has attacked him via Twitter over his ownership of the Washington Post; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) criticized him over the wages he pays his Amazon warehouse employees. The Bezoses other top financial contributions this cycle have been to nonpartisan political action committees connected with Amazon and Blue Origin, his rocket company. 12. Timothy Mellon $10.1 million The chairman of Pan Am Systems, a transportation company based in New Hampshire, is a member of the influential Mellon family tied to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The investor, now in Wyoming, made a surprising $2,700 donation to New York Democratic House hopeful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from the Bronx and gave the rest to the GOP, including $10 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund. Mellon, who first developed a computer-programming business in the 1960s, has in the past contributed $1.5 million to a legal fund set up by then-Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, to defend a controversial state law on immigration. It permitted law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of anyone they suspected to be in the country illegally; the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately struck down provisions that raised civil rights violations. christine.maiduc@latimes.com Twitter: @cmaiduc jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com Twitter: @jazmineulloa UPDATES: Nov. 5, 10:38 p.m.: This article has updated the amount the Bezoses donated to Democrats and Republicans. This article was originally published Nov. 5, 3 a.m. We need a voice: Latino voters hope for surge in turnout Terry Avalos, 69, and her husband, Ricardo Avalos, 71, were among those who voted Tuesday in South Gate. (Ruben Vives / Los Angeles Times) It took only two minutes maybe less for 28-year-old Christian Martinez to drop off his vote-by-mail ballot at American Legion Post 335 in South Gate. I dropped it off because I wanted to make sure they got it, he said. Wearing a green jacket and black pants, Martinez said he voted mostly for Democratic Party candidates, because they fell in line with his beliefs. He said President Trump and his Republican Party also played a factor in how he voted today. I didnt like the candidates, he said. Im not gonna lie, everything that has been going on has played a part, not just I dont like Donald Trump, but more like all the people around him, all the people supporting him and everyone else saying we should do what he says, thats the right thing to do. I disagree, so I chose not to vote on the Republican side. Martinez and others like him will play a pivotal role in todays election, particularly in key battleground states where the Latino vote could mean the difference between winning and losing. Still, Martinez makes up a relatively small percentage of eligible Latino voters who cast ballots. Those numbers are lower during non-presidential elections. There are 29 million Latinos who are eligible to vote in this years midterm election, making up about 13% of all eligible voters in the United States. About 44% of Latinos who are eligible to vote are between the ages of 18 and 35. But thats also the same age group that has contributed to low turnout rates among Latino voters. Martinez said he began voting when he was 18. He said his parents vote, but his civic life began to take shape as he read and watched the news more often. I felt it was important, he said. Since an early age, Ive been aware that if youre not active in politics, youre going to be affecting stuff and just by not voting, by not taking action, youre allowing other people to take action and do things their way. Farther down the street, Ricardo and Terry Avalos had just voted. The husband and wife said they hoped the election would send a blue Democratic wave washing across America. Hopefully things will change for the better, said Terry Avalos, 69. They said they voted to oppose President Trump, to save healthcare and to also help Democrats take control of the Congress. We need a voice, Terry Avalos said. Weve had plenty of Republican presidents before and we had no issues, but this is bad. Ricardo Avalos, 71, said he doesnt like Trump and his rhetoric, but admits he has made some smart financial moves for the country by making sure other nations pay their fair share. The couple said they voted for Gavin Newsom as governor, but when it came to Proposition 10, the rent-control measure, they couldnt agree on whether they voted the same. We voted yes, Ricardo Avalos said. No, Terry Avalos said at the same time. Yes, her husband responded. We voted yes. One thing they could agree on was that they had noticed younger people voting. More women too. Usually its old people, Ricardo Avalos said. He said it was a positive thing to see. He hopes that younger Latino men and women turn out to vote and they continue to do so in future elections. The couple said they were cautiously optimistic about how the election would turn out. Last we saw with Hillary [Clinton] and Trump, we went to bed and she was winning. The next morning we woke up and learned she lost the election. It was like a funeral. Perhaps no one sees a more grim view of election day than Maria Arriaga, 55. She said that even though she was a registered voter, work was going to prevent her from going to the polls. Inside the South Gate market she works at, the Huntington Park resident said she feels left out and guilty. I know my vote matters, she said. I know it counts and it can help someone. Arriaga said she didnt know how to fill out a vote-by-mail ballot and didnt know how to figure out who to ask. She said she did receive text messages about Propositions 8 and 10, and even got one from Ed Hernandez, who is running for lieutenant governor. She also received one in Spanish about the importance of voting. I feel terrible, she said, adding she wanted to vote against Republicans because of Trump. Its the way hes spoken about women, how he said that woman had a horse face, and Republicans have supported him throughout all the things he has done and said. Arriaga was referring to Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who is in a legal dispute with Trump. Arriaga said this is the first election she has missed. She began voting in 1995 after she became a citizen. She said she has missed some midterm elections, but has shown up to cast a ballot in every presidential race. Not far from Arriagas workplace, Florentino Mata, 81, was walking home from his polling station. He said he voted for mostly Democratic candidates. I have hope that they can help us, even if I dont believe they can keep their promises, he said. But its some hope. He said he wants Democrats to take back the House and Senate to prevent any more attacks on immigrants. Despite the streak of votes he gave to Democrats, he decided to lean toward Republican candidate for governor, John Cox, because he felt he was the better candidate. Mata said he took some advice from his daughter, too. All you can do is wait for the results now. With the final polls finished, the last ads cut and well over 35 million people already having voted, political operatives in both parties expect Democrats to win back control of the House on Tuesday and make significant gains in state capitals even as Republicans keep narrow control of the Senate. But as President Trumps victory in 2016 showed, upsets do happen. And in this election, several factors exist that could change the expected results in either direction. Among the big question marks: How badly will Democrats lose among blue-collar white voters, the group that forms the base of Trumps support? Advertisement What will turnout look like among Latinos, who are key to Democratic hopes to win Senate seats in Arizona, Nevada and several House seats in California and elsewhere in the Southwest? The question is have we engaged the Latino community enough to generate turnout? said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. Its going to vary from place to place. And in an election where partisans on both sides seem fired up to vote witness the early voting that has broken records in many states how will those with weaker partisan ties divide? About 4 in 10 partisans on each side said they were closely following the election campaign, according to the final USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. Thats a big shift from 2010, when the Republicans won the House majority that theyve held for the last eight years. In the run-up to that election, a lot more Republicans than Democrats took an interest in the campaign, and that correctly forecast a poor Democratic turnout. Four years before that, it was Republicans who were demoralized and Democrats who took the most interest, leading to a Democratic wave. (Los Angeles Times) Earlier this year, Republican strategists worried that Democrats once again had the sort of enthusiasm edge they enjoyed in 2006. But in the closing weeks of this campaign, that concern has diminished. Its clear that, in most places, Republicans have solved our September enthusiasm problem, Glen Bolger of Public Opinion Strategies, a leading Republican polling firm, said on Twitter last week. But that cleared up only one of the big problems the Republicans face, he noted. Whats not clear is whether weve solved our problem with independent voters, he said. That will be the difference between winning and losing in close races. The USC/Times poll found self-described independents favoring Democratic control of Congress this year by 62% to 38%. Overwhelmingly, thats because the election has turned into a referendum on Trump. The central issue is him, said Robert Shrum, the co-director of USCs Center for the Political Future, which cosponsored the poll. Hes not managed to substitute other issues. The poll found about 1 in 4 voters saying that their views of Trump outweighed their views of the individual candidates. Among those with that view, Trumps opponents outnumbered supporters by roughly 3 to 2. Trumps political approach has never been to win over detractors. Instead, he has sought to boost turnout among supporters. In the campaigns final weeks, his main approach has been to pound away at what he describes as the threat to security from immigrant caravans moving north through Mexico and Central America. Republicans hope that approach may pull their candidates to victory in a few key Senate races and help, as well, in House races, especially in more conservative areas. Theres precedent. In 2004, strategists for President George W. Bush correctly predicted that he would do well in his reelection campaign by emphasizing a tough response to the threat of international terrorism. Women, in particular, would respond to Bushs argument, they argued, and security moms became a mantra for the Republican campaign. In his final rallies this time, Trump has said much the same. Border security is very much a womans issue, he said during a rally in Montana on Saturday. Women want security, he said. They dont want that caravan. Of course, Bushs campaign came in the aftermath of a devastating terrorist attack that killed more than 2,700 Americans. By contrast, the caravan Trump has inveighed against consists of a few thousand people, including many women and children, who remain hundreds of miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border. In the poll, about 1 in 6 voters said they saw the caravan as potential terrorists who should be turned away as a threat to the United States. That share rose to about 1 in 3 among those who said they would vote for a Republican for Congress this year. Many more, however, about 4 in 10 voters, said they saw the caravan as mostly asylum seekers in need of humanitarian assistance, while about 3 in 10 said they thought the group was likely a mix. Another contrast between Bushs approach and Trumps could prove key: Bush coupled tough talk about a global war on terror with exhortations against religious prejudice. Trump almost never makes such appeals. Instead, he denounces perceived enemies, including parts of the news media whom he has dubbed enemies of the people. By roughly a 3-2 ratio, voters said they saw such comments by Trump as dangerous language that could incite violence. Independents took that view by 2 to 1, the poll found. As violent attacks punctuated the closing weeks of the campaign, polls have found signs of movement against the Republicans in a number of races. The backlash against Trump carries the biggest political punch in suburban areas. There, anger toward the president from minorities and college-educated whites, especially women, has endangered dozens of Republican candidates and once-reliably Republican districts from Orange County to the outskirts of Philadelphia and New York have turned into electoral battlegrounds. But the resistance to Trump has failed to enlist most non-college white voters. Their support has kept Republicans in the fight in more blue-collar congressional districts from northern Los Angeles County, where Republican Rep. Steve Knight and his Democratic challenger, Katie Hill, have been locked in a tight contest, to downstate Maine, where a similarly close fight pits first-term Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin against his Democratic challenger, Jared Golden. The USC/Times poll shows near-perfect symmetry between the two groups of white voters: Those with college degrees side with the Democrats by nearly 2 to 1, while those without side with Republicans by an identical ratio. Those figures, however, represent an average of voters from across the country. The breakdowns in individual districts vary widely. In the most contested districts, whites without a college education will end up on the Republican side, but by how much, thats the question, said Mellman, the longtime Democratic pollster. The margin by which we lose them will make a lot of difference in many races. While Trump has emphasized security from outside threats, Democrats have campaigned consistently on security of a different sort protection against the threat of ruinous medical bills. They have saturated the airwaves with advertisements highlighting Republican votes to end insurance protections for people with preexisting medical problems. Almost 1 in 5 voters listed healthcare as the most important issue in the election, up several percentage points from September, when the poll last asked voters to rank issues. The share listing healthcare as the top issue outnumbered those listing illegal immigration by roughly 3 to 1. Republicans have insisted that they, too, want to protect people, but they have not gained much traction. By 55% to 31%, likely voters said they trusted Democrats more to protect people with preexisting health conditions. Even a significant share of Republican voters expressed doubts about their party on that issue. While 91% of Democratic voters said they trusted Democrats more on the issue, only 72% of Republicans said they trusted their party more. About 1 in 5 Republican voters said they werent sure. Overall, the poll, which has tracked voters over the last several weeks, shows Democrats ahead by 15 percentage points, 56% to 41%, when those most likely to vote said which partys candidates they either had voted for already or expected to vote for this year. A second measure, which factors in voters estimates of how likely they are to vote, puts the Democratic lead at 10 percentage points, 52% to 42%. That so-called probabilistic measure should, in theory, offer a better forecast because it takes into account information from all voters, not just those deemed most likely to vote. The probabilistic measure weights voters according to how likely they say they are to vote: A person who is 50% likely to vote, for example, has half as much impact on the outcome as one who is 100% likely. The poll is testing both approaches to see which more accurately forecasts the actual vote, said survey director Jill Darling. Other polls released Sunday forecast similar results. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, for example, pegged the Democratic advantage at 7 points, 50% to 43%, while the ABC/Washington Post survey found Democrats with a 51%-44% lead among likely voters. The USC/Times poll, overseen by Darling, was conducted Oct. 28 to Saturday among 3,936 adult Americans, including 3,499 registered voters of whom 2,521 were considered likely to vote and 1,091 already voted. 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 U.S. population. The margin of error is 2 percentage points in either direction. A full description of the methodology, poll questions and data and additional information about the poll are posted on the USC website. Get the latest news from the nations capital on Essential Washington >> David.Lauter@latimes.com For more on Politics and Policy, follow me @DavidLauter For 727 days, Americans have wrestled with the choices they made at the ballot box. The presidency, the control of Congress, the resulting policy choices have left hardly a single hour free from strident debate and discord. And now, were just hours away from the best measure yet of how the nations voters feel about the legacy of 2016 and, more specifically, President Trump. Not that we should expect Tuesdays midterm election will settle all fights even as early voting seems brisk, at a pace in some states that could outpace total ballots cast in 2014. DECISION CALIFORNIA: FROM D.C. TO THE GOVERNORS MANSION Of course, voting began almost four weeks ago here in California. As of this past weekend, more than 3.6 million Golden State voters had turned in their absentee ballots more votes cast, by the way, than the voting rolls in at least three dozen U.S. states. Yes, were that big. Advertisement My colleagues Melanie Mason, Christine Mai-Duc, Liam Dillon and I discussed some of the most important races in the final pre-election episode of the California Politics Podcast. Even with the leadership of its state government on the line, the lions share of attention in California has been on a handful of key races for the House. Democrats need a gain of 23 seats to flip control of the House on Tuesday, thrusting California with at least a half-dozen strongly competitive races into the center of a political cage match. In a final dash across the Central Valley and Southern California, rival candidates focused the waning hours of their campaigns on the most rudimentary of chores: ensuring supporters cast their ballots. Love or hate him and there are plenty of people on both sides Trump has almost single-handedly turned Californias political slackers into political activists. His record in office has also sparked a number of first-time congressional candidates. As Jessica Morse tells it, a Democrat running in the reliably red 4th Congressional District against Rep. Tom McClintock, the only office she has ever held is president of her high school Key Club. The presidents rhetoric on immigration has also made this a key election in the political power of Latino voters. Twenty-nine million are eligible to vote in this years midterm election, making up 13% of all eligible voters in the U.S. Whether they vote or not, Latinos are poised to play a pivotal role in key midterm races. And dont forget healthcare. As the Affordable Care Acts provisions have become reality and the GOP repeal effort threatened to take insurance away from people who were benefiting from it, the law has gone from a political hot potato for Democrats to a Republican liability. Change, too, has been a backdrop to this election like the evolution of Orange County, long an anti-communist, conservative bastion and now the possible epicenter of a Democratic jolt on Tuesday. Demographic change is part of the story, too, this week for the 49th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Darrell Issa combined with a financial scandal in the Republican candidates family and Democratic scheming in the primary. And then theres the metamorphosis of the outskirts of Los Angeles County. Its certainly opened a path for Rep. Steve Knights Democratic rival, Katie Hill, to seize this once-solid Republican turf. Our Times team of reporters fanned out over the weekend to take one final read of some of the most intense races. In the Central Valley, Rep. Jeff Denham insisted it was water storage not Trump or GOP national leadership at stake in the election. In other cases, reporters struggled to get access to GOP incumbents. Take a glimpse at the teams look at the last dash on our Essential Washington news feed. Our photojournalists also captured the last rush for House, state and local candidates. And yes, Californians must also decide who will be the states 40th governor. The policy differences between GOP businessman John Cox and Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom are many. Newsom, in particular, has made his closing argument a promise to expand and improve early childhood education programs along with prenatal and child care proposed investments with broad support among California voters and little political risk. There are also 11 statewide ballot propositions facing an up-or-down vote. And then the most local of political decisions that the states voters have to decide on Tuesday: Some $20 billion in borrowing and community tax proposals. As I wrote on Sunday, local governments have very few other ways to find the cash they need to balance their budgets. Sign up for the Essential Politics newsletter NATIONAL LIGHTNING ROUND -- About four in 10 partisans on each side said they were closely following the election campaign, according to the final USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. Thats a big shift from 2010. -- Democrats may be playing offense in the battle for the House, but the shoes on the other foot when it comes to the Senate, where theyre struggling to defend incumbents in a half-dozen states Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia that Donald Trump carried in 2016. -- As Tuesdays midterm election looms, the Florida high school students who launched a national movement remain confident that even as they recede from the national spotlight, their gun control message continues to resonate. -- The total price of the presidents military deployment to the border, including the cost of National Guard forces that have been there since April, could climb well above $200 million by the end of 2018. -- When Trump talks about the economy, he prefers broad, sweeping statements. But he sometimes gets more specific. Here are Trumps claims and the facts. -- A Native American tribe is suing to stop North Dakotas new voter identification law before the midterm election, saying that the law disenfranchises voters living on reservations. -- Major criminal justice and civil rights issues are up for a vote on Tuesday across several states. They include the rights of ex-felons to vote in Florida, the use of non-unanimous juries in Louisiana and how police shootings are prosecuted in Washington state. TODAYS ESSENTIALS -- The race for Los Angeles County sheriff pits the establishment incumbent Sheriff Jim McDonnell against a lesser-funded political newcomer in a battle that was never supposed to be this close. -- Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas won reelection with 73.3% of the vote in 2014. But Supervisor Todd Spitzer, a fellow Republican, has spent more than $2.2 million on this years contest. And the bad blood between the men runs deep. -- A rally by a conservative political group at the state Capitol on Sunday afternoon drew a crowd of counter-protesters amid a heavy police presence. -- Californias political watchdog agency is seeing a spike in allegations of campaign irregularities in what has become an especially contentious election year. -- On this weeks California housing crisis podcast, everything you need to know about the housing issues on the state ballot. LOGISTICS Essential Politics is published Monday and Friday. You can keep up with breaking news on our politics page throughout the day. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics? Miss Fridays newsletter? Here you go. Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com. Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox. The only formal office Jessica Morse has ever held is president of her high school Key Club. Now the 36-year-old Democrat is in the final days of a campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, a Republican from Elk Grove whos spent decades in elected office. Morse, a former national security consultant, is going up against an incumbent with a reputation as a anti-tax, limited-government conservative in a district with the highest concentration of Republicans in California. Although McClintock, 62, won reelection handily in his last election, this race is rated likely Republican as opposed to solidly Republican by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. And Morse has raised $3.2 million, double the funds pulled in by McClintock. Advertisement Morse isnt the only green and relatively unknown candidate going after an entrenched incumbent. Many of the first-timers trying to flip long-held Republican seats to the Democrats are giving incumbents their first significant challenges in years. It has become the norm in this election cycle, said Paul Mitchell, whose firm Political Data tracks the states electoral trends. Every one of the congressional districts in California is being headed by Democratic challengers who have not run for anything, not even as much as a school board race. In coastal Orange County, polls suggest real estate entrepreneur Harley Rouda is in a virtual tie with 15-term Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa), who won his last race by 16 percentage points. Just inland, UC Irvine law professor Katie Porter is leading Rep. Mimi Walters (R-Laguna Beach), who won in 2016 by 17 points, according to recent polling. And some of the novices are pulling in eye-popping sums of campaign cash in some districts, dwarfing Republican incumbents war chests in a state that sits center stage in the Democratic Partys push to flip the House on Tuesday. Nine first-time candidates challenging Republican members of Congress in California have raised nearly $60 million. In the 25th Congressional District past the northern edge of Los Angeles, Katie Hill, a 31-year-old former executive director of a nonprofit providing housing for the homeless, has raised more than $7.3 million as of mid-October, according to federal elections filings. Thats nearly triple the contributions incumbent Rep. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale) got during the same period, about $2.4 million. In another close race, Central Valley Democrat Josh Harder, a former Silicon Valley venture capitalist, had raised more than $7 million compared with Rep. Jeff Denhams $4.5 million as of Oct. 17. The cash boom is because of, in part, an influx of money to ActBlue, an online fundraising tool for progressives. Outside groups often reach out and identify targeted races for Democratic donors from all over the country, who might have otherwise been unfamiliar with the candidates, and use the system to direct funds to their campaigns, Mitchell said. It allows nobody candidates to get resources that wouldnt be traditionally available to candidates who dont have some sort of spark or celebrity, he said. In the 4th Congressional District, Democrats will be watching Morses longshot bid to turn a largely rural GOP stronghold blue. The district stretches from Sacramentos northeastern suburbs up to the Nevada border at Lake Tahoe, down through the Yosemite Valley and the Sierra Nevada and south to Kings Canyon National Park. Roseville, a prosperous suburb of interconnected strip malls and far-flung megachurches, is the most populous city in the district. Democrats have never won the seat with its current boundaries. Sen. Kamala Harris is the partys only candidate the district has ever favored in a statewide race. McClintock won more than 62% of the vote in 2016. Kathleen Steinkamp of Roseville says she was born a Republican in a family that doesnt cross party lines. But the 27-year-old teacher says shes fed up with President Trump and will buck the GOP McClintock included at the ballot box this year. We all love America, but were kind of ashamed of it right now and we dont really respect it as much, said Steinkamp, who supported Trump in 2016. I think its more important, even as a registered Republican, to vote for the other party and say, Hey, this isnt cool anymore. Morse, casting herself as a middle-of-the-road public servant, needs disenchanted voters such as Steinkamp to turn things in her favor. A count of absentee ballots, tallied by Mitchells firm, gave Republicans a 14-point advantage as of Friday afternoon. Morse has repeatedly slammed McClintock for voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, among other key votes. She suggests the veteran congressman, a longtime resident of a city some 30 miles away from the heart of the 4th District, is a political hack whos out of touch with his constituents. McClintock, a tea party Republican who served 22 years in the California Legislature and unsuccessfully ran for statewide office four times, says Morse isnt in a place to criticize. She grew up about half an hour outside the district and recently moved back to Northern California from Washington, D.C. Now she lives in one of the districts Sierra foothill communities. This is now the third election where Ive faced a candidate whos moved in from another state, campaigned against me for being a carpetbagger, been handily defeated and then promptly left, McClintock said. When the congressman served as a warm-up act for conservative provocateur Dinesh DSouza at the Placer County Fairgrounds last month, he was asked for a prediction on a blue, red or purple wave. McClintock drew a comparison to the widely held expectation that Hillary Clinton would win the presidential race two years ago: I can tell you the final two weeks of this campaign feel an awful lot like the final two weeks of the 2016 campaign. Heather Arvin asked McClintock for a selfie after he walked off the stage. Arvin, 40, often stands outside McClintocks Roseville office in opposition to a group of liberal protesters. McClintock received a 96% rating for his voting record last year by the American Conservative Union, a 93% rating from the National Rifle Assn., 5% from the AFL-CIO and a zero from Planned Parenthood. Arvin said she supports McClintock because shes seen him actually say things and get them done. She couldnt vote for Morse, she said. Shes a good gal, but Im just red all the way, the Republican said. No matter what, Im going to be red. Morse, who says her conservative family has lived in Northern California for five generations and owns land in a former mining town in Placer County, rarely mentions her own party affiliation on the campaign trail. In one television ad, she appears seated in a canoe, rowing on a lake and demonstrating that paddling only left or right a metaphor for national partisan fights creates no forward progress, only spinning in circles. She talks about working for Republicans and Democrats and about taking oaths during her career to protect the Constitution, not one party over another. Morse went to graduate school at Princeton. She was hired by the U.S. Agency for International Development and spent a year in Iraq, and worked for the State Department in Washington, D.C., and U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii. Im tired of this political rhetoric that defines winning as the other party losing, Morse said in an interview. Congressman McClintock is someone who often talks about the Republicans. We should be talking about our country or our community. But its the chance for a major partisan pickup thats helped Morse raise money to spread her message. Super PACs reported spending an additional $860,000 mostly on TV, print and online ads against McClintock or in support of Morse. The only disclosed pro-McClintock money from independent groups totals $5,000. The congressman said he and other Republicans facing Democratic challengers are being buried in cash. Get the latest California politics news taryn.luna@latimes.com Follow @tarynluna on Twitter and sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter. Staff writer Victoria Kim contributed to this report. You see this headline occasionally: Missing cruise ship passenger falls backward off a railing. The accidents usually are fatal. But occasionally a miracle occurs. In August, a 45-year-old British woman survived a fall from a cruise ship, spent 10 hours treading water in the Adriatic Sea and was rescued, none the worse for wear. She credited yoga with keeping her alive, according to media reports. Yoga or not, she was lucky. The water was warm, and a Croatian coast guard boat found her before it was too late. She could have ended up a statistic, like others who have scrambled onto a cruise ship rail on a dare, sat on it to shoot a selfie, or climbed on it to make a little whoopee. Advertisement On our list of things you should avoid doing in your cabin or balcony, climbing onto the rail or the balcony furniture is at the top. But there are several other ways you can embarrass, injure or kill yourself and perhaps others if youre not careful. Lighting up in your cabin to smoke, burn candles or light incense is another dangerous act and is prohibited by cruise lines. Most bar passengers from smoking on their balconies too. Many cruise lines have strict policies prohibiting passengers from throwing cigarette butts overboard because the wind may blow them back onto the ship, creating a fire hazard. If you get caught smoking in your room or on your balcony, you could be left ashore as your ship sails into the sunset. Any number of things can get you kicked off a cruise ship, said Colleen McDaniel, senior executive editor of Cruise Critic. ''But in truth, most of them fall into the category of common sense. Using drugs and becoming violent are surefire ways to find yourself booted. Other behaviors, such as being abusive to crew members, buying minors drinks, bringing weapons on board or smoking where you shouldnt could also get you disembarked. Some things wont get you booted but might prove embarrassing, including sunbathing in the nude on your balcony. You may think no one can see you, but that supposedly private space really isnt private. Take a look the next time youre on a balcony. Its not difficult to see into fellow travelers verandas. Other passengers can also hear you, which is a good reason to keep the music, lovemaking and conversation from getting too loud. If youre smoking tobacco or marijuana others can smell it too. Marijuana may be legal in California and some other states, but it isnt on a ship. And if you take it on shore, you might end up in jail. Most of the rules on cruise ships are the same as what you might find at hotels and resorts on land, McDaniel said. When it comes down to it, youre on vacation so sitting back and letting loose is important, but you dont want to tarnish your trip by exceeding the limits and having to deal with the repercussions. You signed a lengthy contract before you set sail that outlined the things that arent permitted on board your ship. Next time you sail, take time to read the extensive fine print. By signing the contract, passengers acknowledge theyve read and will adhere to the rules, McDaniel said. That said, its at the discretion of the crew on board as to what the punishment might be for illicit behavior. Even if you arent doing something illegal, you probably dont want to spoil someone elses vacation. Dont have loud conversations as you walk down the hall to your cabin, dont stomp around inside it and dont jump on the bed. Cabin walls are thin. You dont want to wake the neighbors and suffer their stares and glares in the morning. Some of these cautions are particularly important for parents, who need to remember to keep kids in tow. You can catch a break by letting them hang out at your ships kids club, but ultimately, theyre your responsibility. No one wants to go to sea with bratty kids. travel@latimes.com @latimestravel Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses a banquet in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 4, 2018. Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet on Sunday evening in Shanghai to welcome distinguished guests from around the world, who will attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) opening Monday. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) SHANGHAI, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet on Sunday evening in Shanghai to welcome distinguished guests from around the world, who will attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) opening Monday. Xi and Peng took group photos with foreign leaders and their spouses. On behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, Xi extended a warm welcome to foreign leaders and other guests. Shanghai is the largest economic center of China and is at the frontier of China's reform and opening-up. It has witnessed the historical course of China's opening-up and cooperation since modern times and has written a splendid chapter of China's 40 years of reform and opening-up, Xi said. The CIIE is hosted by China but for the world, Xi said, stressing that it is not an ordinary expo, but a major policy for China to push for a new round of high-level opening-up and a major measure for China to take the initiative to open its market to the world. The CIIE will make Shanghai a more shining city, he said. In the next six days, a total of 172 countries, regions and international organizations from the five continents will showcase their development achievements and international image to the world, he said. More than 3,600 companies from different countries will hold discussions and seek common development with purchasers from China and overseas. Guests will also exchange views about major issues concerning international economy and trade and global economic governance, Xi said. This will be a grand event with great expectations, set to create fruitful results for friends from various countries, he said. "I believe that, with strong supports and joint efforts of all sides, the CIIE will surely become a high-level international expo which will provide a new platform for deepening international economic and trade cooperation, advancing the joint development of the Belt and Road, and promoting economic globalization, and make greater contribution to boosting the well-being of all people and building a community with a shared future for humanity," Xi said. Guests from various countries wished the first CIIE a full success. 3 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] For the Nov. 5, 1940, presidential election, Walter Howard planned to vote. He also assisted his friend Glenn Switzer to the voting booth. A short story in the next mornings Los Angeles Times explains: Buddies stick together! This was demonstrated in Precinct No. 1 in Duarte yesterday when Walter Howard, World War veteran, carried his comrade, Glenn Switzer, to the polls to cast his vote in the presidential election. The two men met at the United States Veterans' Facility in West Los Angeles recently and then Switzer, suffering from partial paralysis caused by a nerve injury, was moved to a Duarte sanitarium. When election day came, however, Howard was on the scene to take his comrade to the polls. Neither would say how he voted. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected. Roosevelt had 449 electoral votes to Wendell Willkies 82. This post was originally published on Nov. 6, 2012. See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here Italys president lamented World War Is roots in aggressive nationalism and held up the European Union on Sunday as the highest expression of a commitment to common good needed to prevent catastrophic military conflicts. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the war, Sergio Mattaella also recalled Europes history of anti-Semitism as he urged young people to remember the conflicts lessons while striving for peaceful coexistence. To celebrate together the end of the war and to jointly honor the fallen all the fallen signifies to reiterate with force, all together, that over the path of war, we prefer to develop friendship and collaboration, he said at a ceremony in Trieste, a port city not far from some of the deadliest battles between Italian soldiers and troops of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. The event was part of a week of observances planned for the centenary of Armistice Day. More than 60 heads of state and government are expected to attend an international ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on the Nov. 11 anniversary. Advertisement French President Emmanuel Macron started a six-day tour of World War I battlegrounds Sunday night in the eastern French city of Strasbourg. Accompanying him were his wife, Brigitte, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. On Monday, Macron plans to attend a ceremony in memory of the soldiers who died early in the war, during the Battle of Morang in 1914. In Trieste, Italys president singled out the memory of a simple soldier, Vittorio Calderoni, who died from his wounds at age 17 just after World War I ended. Calderoni was the son of Italians who had immigrated to Argentina, but he sailed to Europe to enlist in the army and fight for Italy. Mattarella said he chose to pay tribute to him because Vittorio Calderoni was Jewish, the youngest of some 400 Italians of Jewish origin who died in the Great War. The president said he considered it his duty to note that in the same square where he spoke, late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini delivered a 1938 speech that ushered in the dark and tragic period of the Fascist regimes anti-Jewish laws. Mattarella encouraged young people to keep an active memory for the victims of wars as a way to consolidate freedom and harmony as irreversible choices for Europeans. In contrast, Mattarella said, the war demonstrated the incapacity of the European ruling class to pursue national aspirations and interests in a peaceful way and to thus surrender to aggressive nationalism and the desire for power. Rome is a founder of the European Union, the unity of which is being tested by rising nationalist sentiments in several member countries, including Italy, where a populist government took over in June. A Ukrainian activist known as a fearless anti-corruption campaigner and member of the countrys young reformist movement has died, three months after an acid attack that left more than 40% of her body covered in burns. International human right groups said the death of Kateryna Handzyuk, 33, highlights the risks facing Ukrainian activists who openly criticize the government. In the last nine months, local human rights organizations have recorded more than 50 attacks against civil society activists and human rights defenders in Ukraine. Several ended in fatalities. For the record: An earlier version of this article had an incorrect date for the beginning of the Maidan revolution in Ukraine. It was Nov. 21, 2013, not 2014. The lack of government oversight in protecting against and prosecuting such attacks sends a message that the authorities tolerate such attacks and assaults, Human Rights Watch said in a published statement. Five years after the start of a popular street revolution that sought to pivot the country toward Europe, Ukraine continues to struggle with corruption and a lack of independent courts. Advertisement Handzyuks death is yet another sign of how shallow and fragile Ukraines transformation really is, especially when it comes to corruption, law enforcement and government reform, said Matthew Schaaf, the director for Freedom House in Ukraine. People holding placards reading Who are Handzyuks killers attend a Nov. 4, 2018, protest at Ukraines Interior Ministry in Kiev. (Genya Savilov / AFP/Getty Images) Civic activists and journalists are an essential antiseptic to corrupt and abusive systems, Schaaf said. Yet when these people uncover corruption and take risks for their community like Kateryna did, they are increasingly targeted with threats, violence and sometimes deadly retribution. On Aug. 31, Handzyuk was leaving her house in Kherson, a southern port city 280 miles south of the capital, Kiev, when a group of attackers threw what police later determined was about a quart of battery acid on her head. Prosecutors initially listed the attack as hooliganism, but after an outcry from across Ukraine, they changed the classification to attempted murder. Five people believed to be involved in the attack were arrested. Four of them pleaded guilty and said they took money for the attack. Police have failed to identify who ordered the attack, which Ukrainian activists claim is a lack of will from the highest offices of government to prosecute such crimes. Handzyuk died Sunday, just weeks before the fifth anniversary of the start of Ukraines Maidan revolution. On Nov. 21, 2013, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in the capital citys central Independence Square to demonstrate against then-President Viktor Yanukovichs backtracking on a promise to sign a trade-and-association agreement with the European Union. The Maidan revolution eventually forced Yanukovich, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to flee Ukraine in February 2014 with the help of Russian special forces. A new generation of pro-Western reformists and activists emerged from the political upheaval and dedicated their work to rooting out corruption and building a country based on Western standards of democracy and rule of law. Handzyuk became a high-profile part of that movement in Kherson, where friends say she was undeterred in her battle against police corruption. The United States and other Western nations have poured billions of dollars into supporting Ukraines new pro-Western government under promises that the country would adopt economic and political reforms. But since then, local activists such as Handzyuk who have challenged those in power accused of corruption have found themselves in the line of fire, sometimes literally. In September, Oleh Mikhaylyk, an anti-corruption activist, was shot in the southern city of Odessa. He remains in the hospital. In June, Mykola Bychko, an environmental activist in the eastern region of Kharkiv, was found hanged in a forest. He had been investigating a local wastewater treatment plants apparent dumping in a river. Supporters have urged police to investigate his death as a homicide. Both cases remain unsolved. The ineffectiveness of the investigations may encourage such attacks, said Krassimir Yankov, a Kiev-based regional researcher for Amnesty International. The resulting impunity only perpetuates more impunity, which has a chilling effect on civil society, he said. People are now questioning whether they should go to a protest or publicly say that something is wrong out of fear of reprisals. They know that if theyre attacked the authorities will not protect them. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have urged the Ukrainian government to address the dangers facing civil society. Frustration in Ukraine over a lack of prosecution for the crimes has grown. But in September, Atty. Gen. Yuri Lutsenko angered many when he placed part of the blame for the attacks on the activists. The blame isnt just with criminals and the poor work by law enforcement, but also the atmosphere of total hatred toward authorities, which is planted by some civic activists, he told a parliamentary committee. Friends of Handzyuk said she was undeterred by those who stood in her way, and was a defiant voice against the misuse of power, particularly within the police force in Kherson. It was Katya who brought the Maidan to Kherson; she was right there when we tore down Lenins statue, said Inna Zelena, a spokeswoman for the Kherson City Council, referring to Handzyuk by her shortened first name. The city hall was a quiet, sullen place on Monday, the day after Handzyuk died, Zelena said. We are all thinking what needs to happen in this country so that we can finally speak freely and not have to worry about the lives of our friends and relatives, she said in a phone interview. It is hard to believe in justice when something like this happens. Even before Handzyuks death, pressure on the government to find her attackers pervaded Ukrainian society. On Sunday, a sign still hung over the entrance to Khersons city hall reading, Who ordered the attack on Handzyuk? Similar signs were held up by members of Ukraines parliament on Monday. Shortly before her death, Handzyuk spoke of a connection among the dozens of attacks against civil society activists in Ukraine since 2017. The government wasnt doing enough to protect them, she said from her hospital bed in a Kiev burn unit. Why do we encourage people to civic activism when we cant defend them? she asked in the interview. Ayres is a special correspondent. Special correspondent Ian Bateson in Kiev contributed to this report. sabra.ayres@latimes.com Twitter: @sabraayres In early October, Andriy Minchuk found himself blacklisted, right alongside Ukraines enemies. His personal information was leaked online by Peacemaker, a publication that boasts ties to the Ukrainian security services. It posts personal information about the Kremlins agents, including separatists in southeastern Ukraine and turncoat officials and servicemen in Russia-annexed Crimea. This was no small matter. A pro-Russia publicist and a former lawmaker were shot dead in April 2015, days after Peacemaker disclosed their addresses. Other blacklisted people have faced threats, harassment and travel bans. But Minchuk, who lives in Transcarpathia, an impoverished western region of Ukraine, insists that he did nothing to warrant inclusion on the list. His transgression, it appears, was being one of some 100,000 ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine who hold Hungarian passports. Advertisement Peacemaker published his personal information, including the number on his Hungarian passport, in a list of some 500 public servants and state employees who had obtained Hungarian citizenship making them separatists and traitors. But Minchuk denied ever holding a government job let alone fomenting separatist views. He said the leak could harm him, his wife and their 3-year-old son. Im an average guy, I work hard, I pay my taxes, the 33-year-old IT expert said in an interview. This is very bad for me and my family. Although Ukraine prohibits dual citizenship, the only punishment is a minuscule fine. Yet, the blacklisting threw Minchuk into a political maelstrom that imperils Ukraines pro-Western course, tests its commitment to multiculturalism and plays into the hands of its archenemy, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Viktor Orban, Hungarys far-right and Euroskeptic leader who said that Putin has made his nation great again, is Moscows staunchest ally in the European Union. Orban also champions the integration of the 2 million-plus Hungarian diaspora that remained in Slovakia, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine after a 1920, post-World War I treaty deprived Hungary of two-thirds of its territory. Ethnic Hungarian women after a service at St. Georges Catholic Church in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. (Mansur Mirovalev / For The Times) Since 2011, Orbans government has issued more than a million passports to diaspora Hungarians. They, in turn, were allowed to vote in Hungarys elections and most supported Orbans Fidesz party. Orban has long urged Ukraine to give autonomy to Transcarpathian Hungarians. There are about 150,000 ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia, or about one-eighth of the regions population. They must be granted dual citizenship, must enjoy all of the community rights and must be granted the opportunity for autonomy, he said in 2014, days before pro-Russia separatists in southeastern Ukraine agreed to secede and unleashed a war that killed thousands. Weeks earlier, Russia annexed Crimea, which had been part of Ukraine, after violent protests toppled Kievs pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovich. Citing oppression of ethnic Russians, Moscow demanded that Ukraine become a decentralized, federal state with broader rights for minorities. Orbans demands echoed Putins perhaps not surprising, since their interests in Ukraine largely coincided. The steps of the Hungarian government seem to be promoting Russias foreign policy interests more than those of Hungary, Peter Kreko, director of the Political Capital Institute, a Budapest think tank, said in an interview. These steps dont help ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia, they isolate Hungary within [Europe] and help Russia hamper Ukraines Euro-Atlantic integration. Meanwhile, under its new president, Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine passed a law that limits education in minority languages. Intended to curb the use of Russian, the law affected other minorities Hungarians, Romanians, Poles and Ruthenians who see education in native languages as a pillar of preserving their identity. Orbans government funds Hungarian-language schools in Transcarpathia, and it threatened to block Ukraines push to join the European Union and NATO if Ukraine did not withdraw the legislation. The EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization reprimanded Kiev for violating minority rights, but 11 NATO member states concluded that Orbans ultimatum puts the strategic interests of the alliance in jeopardy. In response, Ukrainian nationalists marched with torches to the Hungarian Consulate in Berehove, a border town known as Ukraines Little Hungary. A Hungarian culture center was firebombed twice, and the faces of its members appeared on billboards signed, Lets stop separatists. Ukraine said the bombers were Polish far-right nationalists with ties to Russia. Poroshenko complained, without providing evidence, that the region has become an object of attack of Russian intelligence services to complicate our nations relations with Western partners. One of his ministers deplored the weakness of Poroshenkos policies in Transcarpathia and compared the region to annexed Crimea and the separatist Donbas region, which is under the control of pro-Russia rebels. Transcarpathia has not been lost yet, but I absolutely agree that were losing territories where the central government has no policies, said Heorhiy Tuka, who is the Ukrainian minister for territories that include Crimea and the Donbas, in televised remarks. Tuka helped found the Peacemaker website in 2014. In September, a video surfaced online showing ethnic Hungarians receiving passports at the Berehove consulate as diplomats offer them Champagne and urge them to keep their new citizenship secret from Ukrainian authorities. Prosecutors said they would investigate the distribution of passports as high treason, and Kiev pledged to build a military base in Transcarpathia in an apparent step to counter a hypothetical military threat from Hungary. Ukraines main security agency, SBU, began investigating a Budapest-funded charity that spent tens of millions in Transcarpathia on infrastructure projects such as construction of schools, roads and hospitals for separatism. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto accused Ukraine of starting a state-assisted hate campaign, and in early October, Hungary blocked the annual meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Joint Commission, which works toward including Kiev in the bloc. It was the second time Hungary had done so. Then the Peacemaker blacklist brought the conflict to a boil. For many Transcarpathian Hungarians, their burgundy-red passports are not political statements but open tickets to work and study in the EU. There is no future in Ukraine, said Olga Nemesz, whose husband works in Germany while she raises their two children in Berehove. Its really hard to survive here. After the blacklisting, several public officials and state employees quit their jobs. Minchuks family has not been affected, but has a simple solution if things go wrong. If there is a danger for my family, we will go to Hungary, he said. Mirovalev is a special correspondent. The panda cub snuffles, stretches out a tiny paw and snuggles with his mother, Cao Cao. She stirs, sniffs him gently and gives him a lick as they rest in her maternity enclosure at the Hetaoping Wilderness Training Base in the mist-wreathed mountains of southwestern China. The cub, 2 months old and too small to be named, is the size of a house cat. He and his sister are rare genetic treasures, the first twin giant panda cubs born to a wild male panda and a female sent back into the wild to mate. In the last two years, Cao Cao, a mother of nine, has given birth to the only three progeny of an ambitious return-to-nature program that Chinese scientists hope will save the species from extinction. Cao Cao, 16, was born in the wilds herself before being taken into captivity in Sichuan when she was about 13 months old. One of her male cubs, Tao Tao, was released in 2012 and has since been recaptured twice for health checks and so he could be fitted with a new tracking collar. Researchers believe Tao Tao may have sired a cub, but they will have to wait until the cub is an independent adult to do DNA testing. Advertisement Wild pandas, once found in 17 provinces, now survive in just three. Their habitat is fragmented, with 73% in groups so small there is a strong chance they will not survive, according to a 2017 report from Beijing Forestry University. Back in the 1970s, the overall panda population dipped to about 1,000. In response, the Chinese government spent tens of millions of dollars to establish training centers, and forest reserves, helping the numbers recover to roughly 2,200. Of those, roughly 25% reside in the scientific centers, zoos or other such facilities. The roly-poly celebrities are replete with political and cultural significance, and economic value as a tourism drawing card. So to ensure their long-term survival, China has initiated a make-or-break experiment sending captive pandas into the wild permanently to boost fragile populations scattered in six isolated mountainous regions. Equally vital is a plan for a 5-million-acre conservation park twice the size of Yellowstone National Park that is to include 67 current reserves and be financed by the Bank of China at a cost of $1.1 billion. Researchers hope the park, due for completion by 2023, will ensure the successful release of dozens of captive-bred pandas to reestablish wild populations in areas that have not seen them for decades. The Hetaoping base, where Cao Cao usually resides, has released four captive-bred females since 2016 in hopes they would mate with wild males. Cao Cao is the only one with a confirmed pregnancy. A Chinese researcher dressed in panda costume holds a panda cub before transferring it to a new living environment at the Hetaoping giant panda wild training center in Wolong National Nature Reserve, in southwestern Chinas Sichuan province. (Wang Xiwei / Imaginechina) At Hetaoping, cubs are prepared for release largely without human contact. They are raised by their mothers in large bushy enclosures until independent, then moved together to larger isolated compounds. Their only interaction with humans is with the keepers who deliver bamboo daily, dressed in panda suits liberally soaked in panda urine to cover the human smell. Anyone visiting the center must don the urine-soaked suits. Training to survive in the wild is left to the mothers. The base is silent apart from the stirring of wind, with not a whisper of traffic. Thirty observation cameras transmit images to 16 screens in the base, watched around the clock by panda keepers. A second center Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in the Sichuan capital, Chengdu has taken the opposite approach. At Chengdu, operated in collaboration with Virginia-based Global Cause Foundation, humans train the bears to eat, climb trees and find water, making it easier to intervene when they are injured or sick. The base is a major tourist attraction, with up to 100,000 visitors daily and thousands filing past the panda nursery, furiously snapping photos while guards shout at them to move along. Pandas eat bamboo shoots at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding on April 3, 2018, in Chinas Sichuan province. First built in 1987, the facility cares for more than 100 giant pandas. (Wang He / Getty Images) The problem is that whatever the approach, the release of pandas can prove physically dangerous (for the pandas) and politically delicate (for the humans), since the public reacts with outrage to any sort of panda suffering or fatalities. Of 11 pandas thus far released permanently by the two centers, three have died and a fourth, Qian Qian (pronounced Chen Chen), got sick and would have perished had she not been rescued, her story the focus of a recent IMAX movie, Pandas. In some places the wild population is less than 30, in some less than 20, said Zhang Hemin, deputy director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, which runs the Hetaoping base, as well as another facility in Dujiangyan. If we dont help them, theyll be extinct within the next 30 to 50 years. Thats why we are training the captive-bred pandas for release. But for Zhang, the lifelong mission has at times proved heartbreaking. He recalls desperate experiments based on guesswork back in the 1990s, when the survival rate of captive born cubs was only 33%. In those days, cubs frequently died of malnutrition as researchers tried milk from cows, goats and even humans, before determining that panda milk alone keeps panda cubs alive. Giant panda Cao Cao gives birth to a boy and a girl at Hetaoping Wilderness Training Base on July 25, 2018. (China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda) Cao Caos keepers must switch her twin cubs every two days to ensure both get equal amounts of maternal care and milk. (China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda) Now, virtually all captive-bred cubs at Hetaoping survive to adulthood, even the twins, which mother pandas do not support on their own. Cao Caos keepers must switch her cubs every two days to ensure both get equal amounts of maternal care and milk. Nursery staffers feed the switched cub panda milk, and swab it with cotton wool dipped in warm water to provide warmth and contact. When they are 2 years old, cubs are deemed ready for release. But the life of wild pandas is extremely difficult. Sensitive and solitary creatures, they reside in rough mountainous terrain, spending much of their time chomping 20 to 40 pounds of fibrous bamboo daily in order to survive. They dont hibernate because bamboo doesnt allow them to gain enough fat. Captive-bred male pandas also face challenges in the wild from aggressive, territorial males, not to mention other species. Females are less likely to face issues with wild pandas, but stress, as well as bites from feral dogs and leopards pose a mortal threat. Zhang, known in China as the Father of Pandas, says one of his worst moments came when the first captive-bred panda released after years of research and training died just a year later. That panda, a male named Xiang Xiang, was attacked by other animals and either fell to his death from a cliff or a tree, perhaps cornered or fleeing in confusion. We heard the sounds of chasing and fighting, Zhang said of Xiang Xiangs demise. It was not a success. Zhang says he was devastated because the bears training evidently left it ill-equipped for life in the wild. At the time, Zhang said, researchers were basically making things up as they went along. We used our human ideas on how to survive in the wild, Zhang said. So he died. Xiang Xiang being released into the wild in Wolong, in southwestern Chinas Sichuan province, on April 28, 2006. He died less than a year later. (Chen Xie / Associated Press) Hetaoping panda keeper He Shengshan agrees. We trained the panda with humans directly involved step-by-step, said He. We trained him how to climb trees and find water and food. We thought Xiang Xiang had mastered everything he needed to live in the wild, but obviously we were wrong. From then on, Hetaoping researchers have sought to avoid human training and contact. The panda release project resumed four years later, and it took another two years of training for Tao Tao (Cao Caos cub) to be prepared. A top Communist Party official opened the cubs cage and he wandered up a track, clambered into the forest and disappeared. The issue of whether he is now a father will be determined when the possible offspring is an adult and DNA in stool samples can be tested. Training by humans didnt help He Sheng, a male from the Chengdu base released about the same time. He died of infection a few months later after he was attacked possibly by feral dogs. Zhang Zhihe, director of the Chengdu center, shudders visibly when asked about the stories and names of Chengdu pandas being trained for release. After He Sheng died, critics accused the center on social media of murdering pandas, Zhang recalls. Pandas are so famous, politically, economically and culturally, he said. The public maybe will not understand the importance or the difficulty. Maybe they will think its very easy. They will not allow any failure. When Cao Cao was released temporarily to breed with a wild male, a team of panda trainers and keepers followed her closely, checking for signs of injury or hunger. We know Cao Cao very well so we know when shes in heat. It takes a week before a wild panda approaches, so we leave her to do her thing, He said. They monitored the mating through recordings and she was returned to the base. She has a really mild, easygoing nature and its very easy for us to look after her. When we wanted to build a bond, her trusting personality really helped, said He. He calls Cao Cao a hero mother, having given birth to three sets of twins and three others. Three young pandas from multiple mothers are now being prepared for release from Hetaoping. The reintroduction plan cannot be considered a success until pandas not only survive, but also reproduce and raise wild cubs that survive and reproduce. That is the biggest challenge for us, said Zhang, of the Chengdu base. We spent almost 50 years to successfully breed pandas in captivity. Maybe it will take another 50 years to reintroduce captive pandas into the wild. Gaochao Zhang in The Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report. robyn.dixon@latimes.com Twitter: @RobynDixon_LAT Business UNWTO, ProColombia and Sound Diplomacy to Launch First Ever Guide to Music and Tourism at World Travel Market 05.11.2018 14:35:33 - The Latin American country is a world leader of music since it has more than 1000 rhythms grouped in more than 150 genres. Its new tourism campaign presents a sample of the musical diversity of Colombia. UNTWO, ProColombia and Sound Diplomacy introduces a white paper with reflections and key studies from all over the world, on how music is a tool to enhance the destinations. The document will be launch on November 6th at the Panel: Music is the New Gastronomy, at the Americas Inspiration Zone. The musician Gregorio Uribe will demonstrate some of the traditional instruments and rhythms at the stand from Monday to Wednesday. (live-PR.com) - Colombia is the land of a thousand rhythms, such as cumbia, vallenato, salsa and champeta. This year, ProColombia arrives at WTM with its new international campaign, a tribute to the musical diversity of Colombia and a window for the international traveller to discover and enjoy the destination. The delegation of Colombia in WTM is headed by the Vice Minister of Tourism - Colombia is the land of a thousand rhythms, such as cumbia, vallenato, salsa and champeta. This year, ProColombia arrives at WTM with its new international campaign, a tribute to the musical diversity of Colombia and a window for the international traveller to discover and enjoy the destination.The delegation of Colombia in WTM is headed by the Vice Minister of Tourism of Colombia, Juan Pablo Franky and the Vice President of Tourism of ProColombia, Julian Guerrero. At the stand, Colombia will display all its tourism offer, hand in hand with 21 companies amongst DMC`S, hoteliers and representatives from Valle del Cauca, Medellin and Cartagena de Indias. The Colombias stand is a music box where the visitors can experience the different rhythms and traditions of the country trough musical activations: Live Stage: Colombian musician Gregorio Uribe will explain and offer demonstration of the typical instruments of several regions. Tasty beat: Music will colour Colombian landscapes. As the attendees play an instrument, the frequency of each sound will transform the black and white images into colourful tones. Coffe bar: Enjoy a cup of Colombian Coffee every day at LA400 MUSIC IS THE NEW GASTRONOMY Titled Music is the New Gastronomy, the white paper is the first to examine and define the relationship between music and tourism. Both sectors are outpacing global economic growth. In 2017 the music industry grew at 8%, twice the rate of the world economy, while tourist arrivals increased by 7%. The white paper also looks at how the sectors can partner to increase economic value on both sides. It consists of case studies examining the role of music in destination development, travel marketing, conferences and experiential travel from music festivals and heritage music to the use of music videos to promote and share local cultures and experiences. Through these studies, the guide identifies areas for discussion and suggests opportunities for destinations to develop musical tourism products and boost their tourism branding. This is the first report UNWTO has co-authored that specifically looks at music as a primary driver of tourism, said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili. Drawing upon experiences from all over the world, it teaches us how music is a tool to enhance destinations and better tell their stories, he added. Julian Guerrero, vice-president of tourism at ProColombia, led Colombia's campaign to promote international tourism based on its rich musical heritage. Music is one of the greatest motivations for tourism. Whether live or recorded, experiencing the music of the world is celebrating its rich diversity and talent, promoting intercultural dialogue and encouraging exchange, he said. This white paper serves as inspiration for those working in tourism to better realize and capitalize on their music tourism assets. It shows that around the world music tourism is increasing visits, increasing spend, bringing people together and creating jobs, added Danny Keir, global head of business development at Sound Diplomacy. PRESS INVITATIONS Tuesday, Nov 6th Press Conference: Colombia, a musical destination 12:00 01:00 p.m. Press Conference Theatre - International Media Centre - ME580 Tuesday, Nov 6th Launching a white paper on music and tourism: Music is the new gastronomy 02:15 03:15 p.m. Americas Inspiration Zone - LA360 For interviews and confirmations, please contact: Marian Sagredo Communications Advisor Europe msagredo@procolombia.co +34 91 5776 708 of Colombia, Juan Pablo Franky and the Vice President of Tourism of ProColombia, Julian Guerrero.At the stand, Colombia will display all its tourism offer, hand in hand with 21 companies amongst DMC`S, hoteliers and representatives from Valle del Cauca, Medellin and Cartagena de Indias.The Colombias stand is a music box where the visitors can experience the different rhythms and traditions of the country trough musical activations: Live Stage: Colombian musician Gregorio Uribe will explain and offer demonstration of the typical instruments of several regions. Tasty beat: Music will colour Colombian landscapes. As the attendees play an instrument, the frequency of each sound will transform the black and white images into colourful tones. Coffe bar: Enjoy a cup of Colombian Coffee every day at LA400MUSIC IS THE NEW GASTRONOMYTitled Music is the New Gastronomy, the white paper is the first to examine and define the relationship between music and tourism. Both sectors are outpacing global economic growth. In 2017 the music industry grew at 8%, twice the rate of the world economy, while tourist arrivals increased by 7%. The white paper also looks at how the sectors can partner to increase economic value on both sides.It consists of case studies examining the role of music in destination development, travel marketing, conferences and experiential travel from music festivals and heritage music to the use of music videos to promote and share local cultures and experiences. Through these studies, the guide identifies areas for discussion and suggests opportunities for destinations to develop musical tourism products and boost their tourism branding.This is the first report UNWTO has co-authored that specifically looks at music as a primary driver of tourism, said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili. Drawing upon experiences from all over the world, it teaches us how music is a tool to enhance destinations and better tell their stories, he added.Julian Guerrero, vice-president of tourism at ProColombia, led Colombia's campaign to promote international tourism based on its rich musical heritage. Music is one of the greatest motivations for tourism. Whether live or recorded, experiencing the music of the world is celebrating its rich diversity and talent, promoting intercultural dialogue and encouraging exchange, he said.This white paper serves as inspiration for those working in tourism to better realize and capitalize on their music tourism assets. It shows that around the world music tourism is increasing visits, increasing spend, bringing people together and creating jobs, added Danny Keir, global head of business development at Sound Diplomacy.PRESS INVITATIONSTuesday, Nov 6thPress Conference: Colombia, a musical destination12:00 01:00 p.m.Press Conference Theatre - International Media Centre - ME580Tuesday, Nov 6thLaunching a white paper on music and tourism: Music is the new gastronomy02:15 03:15 p.m.Americas Inspiration Zone - LA360For interviews and confirmations, please contact:Marian SagredoCommunications Advisor Europe+34 91 5776 708 Contact information: ProColombia Calle Lagasca, 88 Madrid Contact Person: Marian Sagredo Advisor Phone: 915776708 eMail: eMail Web: http://www.procolombia.co Author: Carolina Martinez e-mail Web: http://www.procolombia.co Phone: 0034664672802 05.11.2018 14:35:33 - Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party. Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin) SHANGHAI, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who will attend the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai. Xi recalled the meeting between the two presidents during the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in September and the consensus reached, calling on both sides to push for new progress in deepening the comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership while implementing the outcome of the summit and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China and Kenya should maintain high-level exchanges, expand cooperation in all areas, and continue to support each other on issues involving respective core interests and major concerns, said Xi. Xi welcomed Kenyatta to the import expo and said that China is ready to help increase the added value and competitiveness of Kenyan products and expand imports from Kenya. On projects of railway construction, Xi said China is willing to work with the Kenyan side to conduct feasibility studies and hopes Kenya will provide a good business environment for Chinese companies operating there. Xi said both sides should strengthen communication and coordination in regional and international affairs and jointly defend the multilateral system and order. Kenyatta thanked China for hosting the expo, which he dubbed a major innovative move to open its market. He also thanked China for making Africa an important direction in its opening-up. He spoke highly of Xi's proposal of the BRI and his efforts in promoting the FOCAC, calling them "China's important contribution to world peace and common development." Kenya is ready to work with China in safeguarding multilateralism and the free trade system and contribute to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, said Kenyatta. 2 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] Large telecommunications and automotive companies have told Managing IP that they are pleased by the recent Unwired Planet v Huawei judgement because it will streamline licensing and give price certainty in negotiating licences for standard essential patents (SEPs). In-house sources in telecoms companies argue that while it has not solved every problem around licensing SEPs by fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, the UK Court of Appeals decision that global licences are FRAND will help stifle licensee delay tactics. The decision is a practical solution rather than a legal one and will be a massive time and money saver that will make life so much easier, says the head of IP at a Germany-based telecoms company. An end to stalling tactics? The head of litigation at a European telecoms company adds: We have seen too many stalling tactics by the potential licensees and it was good that the court put down a price stamp and said if that is not accepted then the company would be faced with an injunction. The decision is a practical solution rather than a legal one and will be a massive time and money saver that will make life so much easier He adds that his firm has many SEPs that are used by numerous companies and this judgment puts another weapon in their arsenal to give them the best chance of getting a licence sorted quickly and securing royalties. We think about approaches such as dragging infringers into global FRAND arbitration or suing them in Germany where we can get injunctions in the hopes that that brings them to the table, he says. This UK ruling gives us another good option. Sources from automotive companies say the decision has helped give them price certainty in the market by setting a benchmark on how much communications components should costs. The chief licensing officer at a Germany-based car manufacturer points out that however the Court of Appeals decision is interpreted, a similar figure is reached. We still do not know what the stack will cost in the end for a car or for the communications components, but this provides a good benchmark from where you can start and we have good arguments that it can never be higher, he says. He adds that if you take the Avanci proposal, the Unwired Planet judgment and Judge Selnas FRAND decision from the US courts which value communications components at below of equal to $15, $20 and $18 respectively you see a picture developing. Whether it ends up being $12 or $18 can now be decided by an arbitration panel or court, he says. These reactions come after the Court of Appeal ruled that FRAND obligations can be met if an SEP owner offers a worldwide licence, and that an implementer that refuses to take such a licence could be subject to an injunction to prevent further patent infringement. This UK ruling gives us another good option The judgment also confirmed that a UK judge can set a global FRAND rate when two parties cannot agree on one and set a clear methodology for establishing such a rate. Lord Kitchin said it would be "wholly impractical" and not fair or reasonable for SEP owners to have to negotiate patent licences country by country, confirming Mr Justice Birsss opinion that such an expectation would be "madness". Huawei has requested to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, which will likely accept, but telecoms sources are confident that the same outcome will be reached. The head of IP adds that his company is looking forward to seeing whether the ruling will gain international acceptance. Further to go The head of IP adds that there are finer details from this judgment that may need to be discussed and resolved, such as different scopes of protection in different countries. How is that factored into the international arrangement? he asks. The UK, for example, may have a narrower scope of protection than other jurisdictions, and it is uncertain whether its courts might calculate that fact into licence fees. He adds that an argument could be made for national licences from other types of business that do not have a global reach and their licensing strategies may be incompatible with worldwide agreements. For a small telecoms company, this kind of agreement is only good if our suppliers have signed global licences for the technologies The counsel for a France-based telecoms company agrees, and adds that a global licence would make matters complicated for his business. For a small telecoms company, this kind of agreement is only good if our suppliers have signed global licences for the technologies - but at the moment, theyre missing patents and the SEP owners are choosing to sue us instead of our suppliers. He adds that some organisations, including patent trolls, will force companies to sign global agreements on the basis of patents that the company is unaware have been used in off-the-shelf products. The chief licensing officer at a Germany-based car manufacturer also argues that when it comes to connected technologies, such as driverless cars or the Internet of Things (IoT), the decision will make life harder because supply chain levels in the automotive industry are very different to those telecommunications industry. We have three of four levels of suppliers in our chain, which is not the case with smartphones where you have the sim set and smartphone manufacturer and not much in between, he says. The understanding, he adds, is that exhaustion issues and other rights mean the value of a licence needs to cover the value of the entire supply chain. But that raises the question of who in the supply chain should take a global licence and how you value the licence for that entire supply chain. If you think about 5G when we will have larger spread of tech, there will be many more modules with different capabilities and need different patents and royalties will be different, he says. Furthermore, hundreds or thousands of SMEs will be producing products for the IoT and few will have the technical expertise, patent or IPR knowledge to really negotiate these licence agreements - and it is going to be a nightmare if we do not find a way of streamlining these licensing costs. Clearly, the Unwired Planet decision has done a lot to calm some companys nerves when it comes to licensing and tech prices but theres still some way to go before all the kinks are ironed out and companies have accepted the changes. The material on this site is for law firms, companies and other IP specialists. It is for information only. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Notice before using the site. All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQs. Share this article This is a joint statement by Revolucio (IMT Catalonia) and Lucha de Clases (IMT Spanish State). On 2 November, the Spanish State Attorney made public the sentences it is seeking in the trial of leading participants in last year's Catalan independence referendum on 1 October 2017. Read the statement in Catalan and Spanish. For the nine accused of rebellion, the prosecutor asks for a range of sentences: 25 years in jail for Oriol Junqueras (Catalan vice president); 17 years for Jordi Cuixart (Omnium Cultural), Jordi Sanchez (Catalan National Assembly) and Carme Forcadell (Catalan Parliament President); and 16 years for the other five (Catalan Ministers Turull, Forn, Romeva, Rull and Bassa). For the additional nine accused, the prosecutor asks for sentences ranging from 10 years in jail to a 10-month, 100-EUR-a-day fine for the crimes of disobedience and misuse of public funds. The 12 accused face a total of 177 years in jail. Their only crime is wanting to exercise the democratic right of self-determination. Faced with this situation we: Reject the decision of the State Prosecutor, who is asking for the highest possible sentences for the most serious possible crimes, which shows a vengeful attempt to impose an exemplary punishment. This is the penal doctrine an enemy imposes on those defeated on the battlefield. The crime of rebellion (and also sedition, used by the States Advocate) are inherited from the Franco-era penal code, almost without alteration, revealing the real character of the 1978 regime: one of continuation, not a break, with the dictatorship. Even within the narrow limits of Spanish legality, the accused cannot be found guilty of rebellion nor sedition, crimes that require a violent uprising or the use of force, something that was completely absent from the events in which the accused were involved. The reason for this sentencing request by the States Attorney lies in the character of the 1978 regime, for whom the exercise of the right of self-determination represents a threat to one of its fundamental pillars. It therefore requires an exemplary punishment in order to prevent any repetition. This is clearly a political trial against the right of self-determination. This trial is not only a threat against the Catalan sovereignty movement, but also against democratic rights in the Spanish State in general. The repression being used today against the Catalan republican movement will be used as a precedent against anyone who dares raise their voice against any of the component parts of the 1978 regime (the monarchy, the unity of Spain guaranteed by the armed forces, the impunity of the crimes of the Franco regime, the private property of the means of production, etc). The task we are facing is that of building general mobilisations, which will shake the foundations of the regime and will force it to backtrack / Image: public domain It is necessary to build a Republican United Front Against Repression and in Defence of Democratic Rights. The task we are facing is that of building general mobilisations, which will shake the foundations of the regime and will force it to backtrack. This is not the time to limit ourselves to grandiose, institutional statements. We need mass mobilisations, demonstrations, a general strike and civil disobedience. It is crucial to involve the left in the Spanish State in this struggle and to carry out the mobilisation also outside of Catalonia. Unidos Podemos should join this front if it is serious about fighting for the Republic and in defence of basic democratic rights. Free all political prisoners! Drop all charges against those in exile! Take to the streets to force the Spanish State back! This resolution, demanding the release of Catalan political prisoners, was passed unanimously at the IMT's World Congress in 2018. Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) SHANGHAI, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who will attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) opening Monday in Shanghai. Xi said this year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries. China and Vietnam should uphold the tradition of high-level exchanges between both parties and states, press for the dovetail of China's Belt and Road Initiative and Vietnam's "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" plan and confirm priority areas in cooperation, Xi said. As China's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, Vietnam will participate in the first China International Import Expo as a guest of honor, Xi said, stressing China will import more Vietnam products that are marketable in the Chinese market. Xi also said both sides should work together to maintain maritime peace and stability, and advance maritime cooperation. Phuc said Vietnam will engage in pragmatic cooperation with China and enhance connectivity of the Belt and Road Initiative and the "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" plan. The international import expo shows China's commitment to opening up and free trade, Phuc said, adding that Vietnam will properly address maritime issues according to the consensus and principles reached by the leaders of both countries. 2 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] 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. STOCKHOLM, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Swedish companies look to the upcoming China International Import Expo (CIIE) to promote their products in the lucrative Chinese market and enhance business ties with China. According to Economic and Commercial Counselor's Office of the Chinese Embassy in Sweden, 14 Swedish companies including prominent brands such as Hasselblad, Volvo Cars, SAS, etc., registered their participation to the CIIE, to be held in Shanghai on Nov. 5-10. "We believe this Expo would offer a valuable platform which Hasselblad can fully showcase our products and innovative technology to the world," said Jon Diele, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing at Hasselblad, a Swedish camera systems manufacturer. "We expect that more people are able to know Hasselblad, learn our products and experience the image quality of Hasselblad cameras," Diele told Xinhua. "China is a growing market for Hasselblad, which has great potential to be developed. Hasselblad's market share in China is increasing year by year." he added. Regarding the expo as "an important platform to connect China to the world market, which will be beneficial to both China and worldwide business," Diele said that it is also "a strong proof that China is willing to share the market and promote the globalization of trade, as well as increase the global economy." China-Sweden cooperation has a long history with two-way trade starting as early as in the 16th century. In 1950, Sweden became the first Western country to establish diplomatic ties with China. Over the past 68 years, thanks to the joint efforts of the Chinese and Swedish governments and the business community, the two countries continued to make achievements in economic and trade cooperation, according to the Counselor's Office. "Sweden remains China's largest trading partner and provider of capital and technology in the Nordic region," Han Xiaodong, China's Economic and Commercial Counselor in Sweden, told Xinhua. "In 2017, bilateral trade increased to 15 billion U.S. dollars, with Sweden standing on the surplus side for the first time in 25 years, which highlights the increasing popularity of high-quality Swedish products in the Chinese market," he said. "Two-way investment is on the rise, with Swedish companies investing up to 4.85 billion U.S. dollars in over 1,400 projects in China. Chinese investment in Sweden started late, but grew very fast," Han said, citing the Geely-Volvo project as a successful example. [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] 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. People feed black-headed gulls at Dianchi Lake in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Oct. 31, 2018. Thousands of black-headed gulls have migrated to the city during these days. Kunming is known as the "spring city" for its mild climate and year-round green environment. (Xinhua/Hu Chao) 6 1 [ Editor: zyq ] He said in the future, not only big French enterprises and corporations but also small French businesses will contribute positively to Vietnams economic growth because small enterprises have advantages of creativity and innovation. He expressed his belief in the success of Vietnamese French Tech community with the help of the Vietnamese who have been trained in France and are working there. The PM highlighted the significance of the Government support for small startups. However, he stressed that startups should not rely completely on the Government support but need to overcome challenges through innovation and patience. At the forum, the French leader was introduced to Saigon Innovation Hub SIHUB a Vietnamese innovative startup ecosystem consisting of about 3,000 startups. Over the past five years, the hub has connected startup ecosystems of Asia-Pacific with major systems in the world. The French Tech community in Vietnam, a bridge for tech entrepreneurs and startups between Vietnam and France, has nearly 3,000 members and was recognised as Frances new technology hub in Vietnam in 2016. It is also Frances first technological hub in Southeast Asia. During the French PMs November 2-4 visit, Vietnam and France signed an agreement on cooperation in developing technical research capacity and artificial intelligence development serving scientific purposes as well as social aspects. Welcome to Morningstar.co.uk! You have been redirected here from Hemscott.com as we are merging our websites to provide you with a one-stop shop for all your investment research needs.To search for a security, type the name or ticker in the search box at the top of the page and select from the dropdown results.Registered Hemscott users can log in to Morningstar using the same login details. Similarly, if you are a Hemscott Premium user, you now have a Morningstar Premium account which you can access using the same login details. Three big problems Besides the majority opinion that FDI plays a major role in the country's socio-economic development, there are different opinions on the attraction and use of FDI, focusing on three big problems. The first viewpoint states that the domestic economic sector has been growing and could replace the FDI sector in many areas. Thus, it is necessary to consider the position and role of FDI in the future. The second opinion proposes to lower the proportion of FDI in the total social investment to less than 20%, while stipulating the areas without FDI to support domestic production and control the rate of foreign investors based on their nationality in certain regions of Vietnam to ensure national security. The other point of view voices concern over the relation between FDI and national security amid the fact that foreign organisations go under the cover of FDI firms to invest in Vietnam. The reverse side of FDI has gradually been revealed. Many FDI projects only concentrate in several stages of labour-intensive industries to carry out outwork and assembly, while investment from multinational corporations in the field of high technology remains limited. Some projects fail to ensure their sustainability while consuming energy and natural resources and polluting the environment. In particular, several FDI enterprises have carried out transfer pricing methods to evade taxes, causing losses to the State budget and failing to ensure the legitimate interests of the labourers. The linkage between FDI and the domestic sector has not been as expected with a low localisation rate in some industries and low value added per unit of product. In addition, various Vietnamese localities have not paid due attention to ensuring national defence and security in strategic areas and in sensitive sectors. Notably, the strong growth of FDI inflows into Vietnam has raised concern about the increasing dependence of the economy on this sector as the FDI sector contributes approximately 20% to the GDP and 70% to Vietnam's total export revenue. The results of the Vietnam Economic Census 2017 conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO) on Vietnam's outworks for foreign countries showed that 1,740 Vietnamese enterprises did outwork for foreign countries, but the total value they gained was only US$8.6 billion. The results also showed that FDI firms earned 78.9% of the total value of the finished goods. Most of the finished products after processing are exported and only 3.9% of the processed goods are sold in Vietnam. "These figures express the weak linkages between domestic and foreign enterprises and Vietnamese enterprises mainly do outworks for foreign countries," said GSO General Director Nguyen Bich Lam. Moving towards new-generation FDI Experience from around the world, as well as the lessons from Vietnam's 30-year attraction of FDI, are creating new opportunities and challenges for Vietnam in attracting and using FDI, requiring a long-term strategy in this area. According to Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, the consistent view of the Vietnamese Government is that both domestic and FDI sectors must grow stronger and connect with each other despite the unequal development between the two sectors. Therefore, Vietnam should be more selective in attracting FDI in areas aligned with its economic restructuring such as rural and agricultural development, high technology, and environmentally friendly technology. In addition, the capacity of Vietnamese enterprises must be enhanced to be capable of participating in the regional and global value chains so that FDI enterprises are ready to connect with Vietnamese enterprises. "FDI is part of Vietnam's economy and any part of the business sector has its shortcomings. The important aspect is how to utilise the positive side and overcome the negative aspects of each business sector, "Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue emphasised. The Prime Minister has assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment to finalise the report on Vietnam's 30 years of attracting FDI to submit to the Government and the Politburo to promulgate a new resolution on improving the efficiency of FDI by 2030. Minister of Planning and Investment, Nguyen Chi Dung, said that Vietnam will develop new policies, orientations and "filters" in FDI attraction, which will shift from passive to active FDI attraction and attach importance to the pervasive influence of FDI on the domestic economy, technology transfer and linkages between domestic and foreign enterprises. Notably, the Foreign Investment Agency will develop a tool for FDI management based on a set of indicators to make a comprehensive assessment of investment promotion, investment incentives and efficiency of FDI, making it easier for localities to make their choices. Question: Can you tell us why you developed a passion for traditional music? Composer Mai Van Lang: I spent my childhood with my maternal grandmother, who could sing many folk songs, poetry and proverbs by heart, as well as numerous plays of cheo (traditional opera) and cai luong (reformed theatre). When I was 5, I heard my grandmother singing xam (ballads once sung by wandering blind musicians), I found it exceptionally beautiful. Folk music has been in my blood from that time. You have spent years collecting ancient lyrics of folk singing, do you have any difficulty in this work? I have faced a lot of difficulties, but the most challenging aspect is that folk tunes are dispersed across different regions throughout the country, whilst veteran artisans and practitioners are becoming older and their memories decline with age. These factors require a lot of time and patience from collectors. You have rewritten new lyrics for folk songs, with hundreds of them having been recorded and broadcast on the Voice of Vietnam. Do you have any criteria for this work? It is undeniable that folk songs have beautiful lyrics. However, to make them survive and become more popular in modern life, they should be coated with a new appearance. For instance, there are folk songs about rituals, customs, ceremonies and community activities, which are no longer practiced nowadays. So, how to maintain the archaism of folk songs and folk music while blending them with a new fresh breath, thus making them more adaptive in contemporary life? I think the answer is new lyrics. For me, the new lyrics should be composed as a poem, which means that they must conform to the standard rules of structure, verse forms and rhythm, while having a new approach, being rich in wording and mentioning issues in modern life. The difference between poems and folk musics lyrics is that poems are for reading and recital while lyrics are for singing aloud. Therefore, while rewriting new lyrics for a folk song, the composer must ensure that his lyrics will fit into the songs melodies. While discussing traditional arts, people often mention aged and established artists rather than artists from the younger generation. Is it the result of the shortcoming in training for the successive generation or the ineffectiveness of promotional campaign, in your opinion? Both, I think. Firstly, although there are a large number of young artists in the genre of folk music, only a minority of them have worked in a highly professional way. Despite possessing good singing techniques, they have not yet succeeded in conveying their love and passion through their performances and delivering the composers messages to the listeners. Secondly, it is a fact that people nowadays show less interest in folk music. There are not many talent contests or competitions on folk music. In addition, folk music artists have not yet received proper care or treatment. Therefore, folk music is not greatly appreciated by young students from music training facilities. Do you have any recommendations to increase public appreciation, particularly among the youth, towards traditional art forms? For me, national identity is strongly featured through folk melodies and traditional music. It is not unreasonable that many Vietnamese folk art forms have won UNESCOs recognition as intangible heritages. Whether these heritages will be well preserved and promoted or not depends on the efforts made by artists, appreciation from the community, and the support from functional agencies. I hope for more supportive policies to be designed to safeguard folk arts, including traditional music, so that there will be more performing spaces to bring folk music closer to the community and more young talents in folk music will be found and receive proper training. Thank you so much for your sharing! By IANS NEW DELHI: The government is considering the sale of IL&FS as a group as a way out for the defaulting infrastructure lending company, Corporate Affairs Secretary Injeti Srinivas said on Monday. He, however, noted that selling the group as a whole might not be an easy task. "As far as IL&FS is concerned, the report which was submitted to the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) articulates the approach. So, it could be the best scenario IL&FS as a group enterprise being sold as a going concern," Srinivas told reporters at the sidelines of an event organised by the Competition Commission of India. "That is the best scenario case. But there are serious issues and the likelihood of such an outcome is limited," he added. ALSO READ: IL&FS Financial Services' exposure to group companies breaches RBI norms in FY16-18: Board The two other alternatives looked at are the separate sale of its verticals and sale of its assets, according to Srinivas. The Secretary said that the government may eventually go ahead with a combination of all the three options. "What seems most probable is that you will have a combination of all the three approaches. All the three approaches in some sort of permutation-combination can ultimately be the way out," Srinivas told reporters. IL&FS, which arranged financing for infrastructure projects, has amassed huge debts and has defaulted on payment obligations for some. The government has seized control of IL&FS and ordered an inquiry by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office. (With PTI Inputs) By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Banking major HSBC on Sunday announced Indias first trade finance transaction through blockchain, with the bank executing one for an export from Reliance Industries (RIL) to one of its American clients. According to a statement from HSBC and RIL, the blockchain-enabled letter of credit (LC) transaction facilitated a shipment between Reliance and the US-based Tricon Energy, massively reducing the time taken for processing the documents. The use of blockchain offers significant potential to reduce the timelines involved in exchange of export documentation from the extant seven-ten days to less than a day, RIL joint chief financial officer Srikanth Venkatachari pointed out. The two companies also say that the solution is a significant improvement for any organisation involved in buying and selling goods internationally, as it brings together all parties onto one platform. Blockchain technology works on the basis of a distributed database, and is deemed one of the most transparent transaction systems currently. Many domestic lenders, including ICICI Bank, SBI and Yes Bank, are working on blockchain solutions and count trade finance as one of the best use cases for the technology because of the ability to cut down on time. For this transaction, the blockchain platform was integrated with the electronic bill of lading (eBL) platform to issue and manage an electronic bill of lading, allowing a digital transfer of the title of goods from the seller to the buyer in the underlying trade. HSBCs head of global banking and markets Hitendra Dave stated that the technology is having a transformative impact on trade finance transactions, enabling greater transparency and enhanced security in addition to making it simpler and faster. The overall efficiency it brings to trade finance ensures cost effectiveness, quicker turnaround and potentially unlocks liquidity for businesses, he added. Under the current conventional system, buyers and sellers use paper-based LCs to underpin transactions and physical documents are sent to each party in the transaction by post, courier or fax. While the current system provides a high level of certainty, the time and cost involved in processing the documents are deterrents for exporters. For the transaction in question between Reliance and Tricon, the LC was issued by ING Bank, Brussels for Tricon Energy US, with HSBC India as the advising and negotiating bank for Reliance.The players involved see the successful execution validating the commercial and operational viability of blockchain as an alternative to conventional exchanges for paper-based documentation. By PTI BENGALURU: Sixteen-year old Samay Godika, a city school student, will receive USD 400,000 in educational prizes for himself, his teacher and his school, as he emerged the winner in the fourth annual "Breakthrough Junior Challenge", a global science video competition. The US-based Breakthrough Prize announced Godika, a junior at the National Public School-Koramangala here, as the winner of this year's 'Breakthrough Junior Challenge' for his video submitted in the life sciences category on circadian rhythms, which are physical, mental, and behavioural changes that follow a daily cycle. Breakthrough Junior Challenge is a global science video competition designed to inspire creative thinking about fundamental concepts in the life sciences, physics, and mathematics. "As the winner, Samay will receive USD 400,000 (approx Rs 2.92 crore) in educational prizes for himself, his teacher and his school," Breakthrough Prize said in a release posted on its website Sunday. Samay will receive a USD 250,000 college scholarship while his ninth and tenth grade science teacher Pramila Menon will get USD 50,000 prize. Additionally, his school will receive a state-of-the-art science lab valued at USD 100,000. Menon had encouraged his interest in life sciences and tutored him after school to encourage his curiosity about scientific ideas. Recognising him as a Boston native who now lives in India, Breakthrough said, Samay's video, submitted in the life sciences category, focused on circadian rhythms, the 24-hour biological processes that can affect simple daily experiences such as waking up for school or jet lag. Because he has family members who suffer from Parkinson's and other neurological diseases, Samay is particularly interested in the correlation between circadian rhythms and the effectiveness of medical treatments, it added. "Participating in and now winning the BreakthroughJunior Challenge is life-changing, thrilling and such an honour. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be recognised alongside so many of the world's top scientists and tech industry leaders," Samay said. Breakthrough Junior Challenge is a global initiative to develop and demonstrate young people's knowledge of science and scientific principles, generate excitement in these fields and engage the imagination and interest of the public-at-large in key concepts of fundamental science, it said. Vietnam has also provided information about Vietnamese culture, cuisine, tourism and airlines for visitors, and organised art performances during the fair. Claus Habfast, President of the Alpexpo Exhibition Centre in Grenoble city, highlighted the close economic ties between Vietnam and France, adding that the countries have also become closer culturally. Nguyen Thanh Vuong, Director of the Culture Centre of Vietnam in France, said through the Vietnamese booth at the fair, foreigners will learn more about the Southeast Asian country. Vietnams participation at the fair as an honourary guest forms part of activities marking the 45th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between Vietnam and France and five years of the establishment of the bilateral strategic partnership. The event takes place from November 1-12. By Express News Service BENGALURU: Beginning December 9, GoAir will launch direct flights to Phuket (in Thailand) and Male (in Maldives) from Bengaluru. Attractive inaugural round trip fares are being offered from the city for these destinations. According to an official release, these sectors have been introduced in response to the growing demand from leisure travellers from Bengaluru. GoAir will operate three direct flight services each week along the Bengaluru - Phuket - Bengaluru route at an attractive return fare starting from Rs 16,999 (all inclusive). It will operate two direct flight services per week for Bengaluru - Male - Bengaluru route at an attractive return fare starting from `15,199 (all inclusive). "The airline also offers GoHoliday packages, whereby customers can choose from 3/4/5/7 -day options to both Phuket & Male," the release said. GoAir recently announced India's first direct service to Phuket from New Delhi and Mumbai on October 11. It also launched direct flights to Male from Mumbai and Delhi from October 14. Sahaya Novinston Lobo By Express News Service CHENNAI: A woman, believed to have been in her 30s, was found allegedly murdered with stab injuries on the Marina Beach near the Chennai Corporation swimming pool on Sunday morning. The incident has raised concerns of safety at the citys best-known attraction. Vendors in the area told Express there had been an increase in criminal activities and prostitution at the beach at night. On Sunday, at around 4.30 am, passers-by and morning walkers noticed dogs digging at some clothes. On a closer look, they found it was a half-naked dead woman with bruises on her face and slit marks on her throat, said a policeman, who was among the first to visit the spot after police were alerted. The police team recovered the body of the woman, suspected to have been in her 30s, and sent it to Royapettah government hospital for autopsy. Police said they had recovered a mobile phone, believed to have belonged to the woman, and are checking it for clues. By evening, police had detained five men for questioning. Police were yet to ascertain the identity of the deceased. A few police officers told Express it was difficult to keep a watch on suspicious people at night as they would pretend to be homeless people looking to sleep on the beach. Aihik Sur By Express News Service HYDERABAD: It was a chilly morning in Patna when then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi received a call informing him about the coup in Maldives. On Sunday, 30 years ago, India shot into global limelight when it intervened into a coup by the Peoples Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) who tried to overthrow Maldivian president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Group Captain Ashok K Chordia, Lieutenant General K Ramachandra Rao and Wing Commander Unni Kartha, who were all part of this mission, recalled their experiences in a meeting in the city. The PLOTE, backed by Maldivian businessman Abdulla Luthufi, mounted a coup in the country. The PM was at Patna at that time. As soon as he returned to New Delhi at around 11.30 am, his first question was: Should we do this? This can happen in our country someday and it is in our interest to protect them, said Chordia The paratroopers belonging to the 44 Squadron of the Indian Air Force left from Agra Air Force Station at 6 pm. They were later asked to head for an airport in Hulhule, an island near Male. However, there was no way to know whether the airport was in the control of rebels. A code word was decided. If we say hudiya, and get back hudiya, it meant that the coast was clear. It was 11:30 PM when the paratroopers landed in Hulhule. The first wave contained around 200 paratroopers. When we landed, the rebels could make out only our silhouette in the dark. They thought we were around 1,600 and we realised that their strength was just around 80. They killed 19 people and took hostages.The Indian troops went from Hulhule to Male on a boat and secured the President inside the National Security Services building in the capital. Meanwhile, the rebels took off in a civilian boat. The INS Betwa set sail from Cochin, INS Godavari and INS TIR were diverted from elsewhere, in a bid to stop them from escaping. The Indian ships, fired on the rebel ship forcing the rebels to surrender. Indias intervention uncalled for: Retd Wing Commander The fallout from Indias intervention into the Maldives has been disastrous, retired Wing Commander (retd) Unni Kartha said on Sunday, while recounting how Indian paratroopers rescued then Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom from an attempted coup in 1988. It is shameful. We have scared away our neighbours. What good did we get by becoming a superpower? Kartha questioned. He indicated that India should not have got in the middle of the issue to project itself in the global limelight. His contention was that India should prioritise the matters within the country before getting concerned with the developments outside. Kartha was commissioned as a pilot in IAF prior to 1971 war. Arun Lakshman By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Africa is going to witness a major boom in primary and secondary education in the years to come, Sajitha Bashir, practice manager for education at the World Bank, told Express. Bashir said in the next 15 years, Sub-Saharan Africa is poised for major education growth with the governments policy to form two million classrooms with two million teachers. Sajitha, vice-chairperson of the Vakkom Moulavi Foundation and closely related to the visionary, said she has been travelling across Africa and studying the progress achieved by countries in the Sub-Saharan regions in education as a senior World Bank official. The World Bank team is into the design of the projects, monitoring, accountability, impact and financial implications. Bashir, an alumnus of the London School Of Economics, said there is a lot of improvement in the 48 African countries she is looking after, including Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. She said after the intervention of the World Bank, children have entered the system in Africa and this is a major development. However, she said while children in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Mauritius, Ghana and Botswana perform extremely well, children of countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are very poor in learning. She also said the performance of children in international-level tests is bad and most children in several African countries are not even able to read a paragraph properly. The World Bank official also said the bank is even financing the production and distribution of school textbooks in African countries. Interestingly Dr Bashir said, The high population rate is another factor creating a hindrance to the educational progress in these African countries and the fertility rate is 4 to 5 per cent which means a woman bears 4 or 5 children and this is a big challenge. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Patamata police arrested three persons at Ramavarappadu Ring Centre in the city on Saturday afternoon while they were transporting ganja in an RTC bus.Acting on a tip-off, the police constituted a special team and intercepted the RTC bus, which was coming to Vijayawada from Visakhapatnam, at Ramavarappadu Ring Centre and seized around 100 kg of ganja packed in gunny bags. According to the police, the three accused who hail from Mumbai, procured the contraband from Agency area of Visakhapatnam district. To avoid police checking, the trio boarded a Vijayawada-bound RTC bus. We received information that a few persons were illegally transporting ganja in the RTC bus. We found two gunny bags containing ganja in the bus and arrested the trio. During interrogation, they admitted to smuggling of ganja, the police said. Despite close vigil, the police suspect that a huge quantity of ganja is being illegally smuggled from Agency areas of Visakhapatnam in trains and other modes of transport. We are seeking the help of various investigation agencies to curb smuggling of ganja. Though ganja crop in Visakhapatnam Agency is being destroyed during frequent excise raids, smugglers are adopting innovative ways to continue their illegal activity, the police said.A case was registered against the trio under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: After introducing flight services to Singapore from the Vijayawada International Airport, which will commence operation from December 4, the airport authorities are planning to launch direct services to Dubai. The officials, who had earlier initiated talks with Emirates officials for starting services to middle eastern countries, are planning to rope in international service providers for the same. They are in talks with various operators in this regard. The airport officials are studying the viability of the route, viability gap funding (VGF) and seat-sharing arrangements. In fact, industrialists and businessmen from Krishna, Guntur and Amaravati region have been requesting to the Airport authorities to launch direct services to middle eastern countries. Speaking to TNIE, Virender Singh, CEO APADCL, said, The proposal for direct services to Arab countries is there for a long time. There are a few hurdles such as bilateral service permissions and VGF. Though Vijayawada airport got International status, the Centre didnt permit us to operate bilateral flights, which operate from other countries. We hope to start direct flights to Dubai and other middle eastern countries sooner than later. Meanwhile, the industrialists and businessmen are requesting the officials to start cargo services to other countries. Speaking to Express, Potluri Bhaskar Rao, an industrialist, said, We are glad to start services from Vijayawada to Singapore. The development of Amravati region is interlinked to the development of Vijayawada Airport, as transportation plays a vital role in the development of business. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: Dealing a blow to the Congress, Mizoram speaker Hiphei resigned from the ruling party and as an MLA on Monday and joined the BJP. He is the fifth sitting Congress legislator to resign from the grand old party since September. For the past few weeks, he was not going along well with the state Congress leadership, particularly Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla. The Congress had got a whiff of his move to wear saffron. After joining the BJP, the seven-time MLA said he would contest from the Palak constituency in Siaha district. The AICC had earlier decided to field him from the seat although his name was not officially announced. Citing a reason for his joining the BJP, Hiphei said the BJP's central leadership had promised him to give greater autonomy to the state's autonomous district councils. He said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had assured him that amendment would be made to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to give more teeth to the councils. Predicting defeat for the Congress, which has been in power for two terms, he said the BJP and its allies would form the government. Opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) is an ally of the BJP in non-Congress conglomerate of political parties North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) but both parties are going it alone in the November 28 elections. Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is a prominent BJP leader in the Northeast and chairman of NEDA, is optimistic that the "BJP would be strengthened by Hiphei's joining". Hiphei had been a tallest leader in the Congress in Mizoram which is the last Congress-ruled state in the Northeast. His defection to the BJP is surely not a good sign for the Congress. In September, the then Mizoram Home Minister R Lalzirliana, who was considered the right hand man of CM Lal Thanhawla, had quit the party to be with the MNF. In the Congress, he was widely known for his brilliance at political engineering. In 1998, the Congress was routed by the MNF-Mizoram People's Conference combine. Only six Congress candidates, including him, could win in that election. He has not lost an election since. By PTI AHMEDABAD: Chris Hemsworth has begun shooting for Netflix thriller "Dhaka" in Ahmedabad. The "Avengers: Infinity War" star, who landed in the country last week, shared a few glimpses from the sets of the film on Instagram, Saturday. Hemsworth, 35, posted three stories on the photo-and-video sharing platform. He captioned the first story: "First day shooting in India." The actor introduced himself, stuntman Bobby Holland Hanton, and his make-up man in the video while he was getting ready for the shoot. "Day 1, we are in India. I'm Chris, I play dress ups for a living," he said. The second story followed Hemsworth having a good time on the city streets with the crew members as loud music blasted in the background. In the next video, the actor can be seen relishing a customised edible Thor "welcome package". "I've got to India. It's a welcome package. All edible, including my picture, hammer. Look at this, terrific," Hemsworth said in the story as he bites the chunks of chocolate gifts. "Dhaka", an action thriller, will revolve around the kidnapping of an Indian boy. The film marks the directorial debut of Sam Hargrave. It follows Rake (Hemsworth) who has been hired to liberate a kidnapped Indian boy, being hidden in Bangladesh capital, Dhaka. Physically brave but an emotional coward, the man has to come to terms with his identity and sense of self. "Infinity War" directing duo Anthony and Joe Russo have penned the script and they will also produce the feature via their AGBO banner. The film will also be shot in Thailand this year. By Express News Service If reports are to be believed, Vikram will be returning to Malayalam cinema after a gap of 18 years. The Anniyan actor will be teaming up with director Anwar Rasheed for a period epic which is based on the Malabar rebellion against the British that took place in 1921. Anwar Rasheed is known for delivering two of the biggest hits in Malayalam cinema, Rajamanickyam and Usthad Hotel (scripted by Anjali Menon). He is currently busy with his latest film Trance, which stars Fahadh Faasil in the lead. The big-budget film is scheduled for release on March 22, 2019. The Chinese people have gained considerable achievements in the cause of national development while maintaining political and social stability over the past few years. Chinas economy has maintained a high average growth rate and the national gross domestic product (GDP) jumped from US$8.13 trillion in 2012 to US$12 trillion in 2017, ranking second in the world and contributing over 30% to global GDP growth. The economic structure has been constantly improved with the strong development of emerging industries in addition to the massive construction of infrastructure, including high-speed rail, roads, bridges, seaports, airports, and others. Chinas science and technology sector has also seen tremendous growth, particularly in the areas of aerospace, information technology, new materials, oceanography and military technology. Regarding external relations, China attaches significant importance to developing relations with powerful and neighbouring countries, while playing the leading role in cooperative mechanisms established by China. The relationship between Vietnam and China continues to develop positively. The two countries regularly maintain high-level bilateral meetings and exchanges in order to enhance the political trust between the two sides. High-ranking leaders of the two countries have reached a common perception of continuing to promote the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Vietnam and China in a sustainable and healthy manner. The bilateral economic and trade cooperation has also made remarkable progress with strong and stable growth in two-way trade revenues. The bilateral trade revenue reached US$66 billion in the first eight months of 2018. China is currently the largest trading partner, the largest import market and the second largest export market of Vietnam. Vietnam continues to be China's largest trading partner in ASEAN and China's eighth largest trading partner in the world. CIIE 2018, the first of its kind, will be held in Shanghai from November 5-10. The expo will be organised annually and be an important trade promotion event of the Chinese government with the aim of opening the Chinese market and creating opportunities for countries to access the large market of China. The fair includes exhibition areas of national pavilions and corporate exhibitions with the participation of businesses from more than 130 countries and territories worldwide. Vietnam's participation in CIIE 2018 is expected to promote the brands and images of Vietnamese enterprises to China and other countries in the world, as well as attracting foreign investment and creating conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to seek and expand their business markets. The presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the CIIE 2018 affirms Vietnam's interest in this event and expresses Vietnams appreciation of developing a stable and healthy relationship with China. Vietnam also wishes to work with China to promote sustainable economic and trade cooperation and encourage ministries, sectors and localities of the two countries to foster cooperation for mutual benefit, as well as for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world. By PTI NEW DELHI: With the Ram Mandir movement gathering momentum, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said no Hindu text condones the use of violence to get one's way and scriptures say people should build Ram in their hearts. "In fact, if anything, there is a scripture that says build Ram in your heart. And if Ram is built in our heart it should little matter where else he is or he is not, because he is everywhere," Tharoor said in an exclusive interview to PTI. The Congress MP was responding to a question about his recent remark that no good Hindu would want a temple at the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site. Tharoor reiterated his point asking if a good Hindu would want to build a Ram Temple at the expense of an act of violence. "My only point is, would a Hindu have wanted to build such a precious place at the expense of conducting an act of violence. A good Hindu is a law-abiding Hindu. A good Hindu is someone who has 'insaaniyat'," the Congress leader asked. He went on to argue that while a good Hindu was also obviously somebody who worshipped and believed in his worship, Hindu scriptures do not allow the use of violence to have one's way. "A good Hindu is also obviously somebody who worships and believes in his worship. But where have we been told in our Hindu texts and our Hindu teachings which, in fact since the days of Adi Shankaracharya, have emphasized much more on ahimsa. Where have we been told that we should conduct violence against other people to have our way," questioned Tharoor. The Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram also wondered what about his remarks had "shocked the BJP so much". He said, "Most good Hindus I know would want a Ram Temple at the place where they believe he was born. But most good Hindus would not have wanted it by demolishing other people's place of worship. And this is more or less what Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani also said." The Congress leader quoted Advani as having called the day of demolition of Babri Masjid as the "saddest day of his life". "Advani said he would have respectfully wanted to relocate the site and Vajpayee had also hinted at all sorts of compromises provided the Ram Temple could also be built, it could even be a joint wall between a mosque and a temple. Who knows what Vajpayee would have wanted? He is not here to tell us but no, neither of them ever spoke in terms of demolishing the mosque and when it happened they both condemned it. So what am I saying that is so shocking for the BJP?" asked Tharoor. On the perception that majority Hindus want a Ram Temple at the site where evidence also suggests that a temple existed, Tharoor said this was an academic argument. "A temple really did exist. Whether it was the Ram Temple we don't know. Definitely there were pillars underneath. But given the experiences of that period so many temples were destroyed and mosques built in their places. I am not challenging the historical veracity of this belief, that debate is over. That's totally academic now," said the Congress MP. The Congress leader acknowledged that "the important thing is that an overwhelming majority of Hindus particularly in north India believe this was where Lord Ram was born and where there should be a Mandir", but went on to add, "to my mind arguing that point is academic." He then asked if a Hindu would ever want to build such a precious place, a temple, at the expense of conducting an act of violence. To a pointed query on whether he personally wanted a Ram Temple at the stated site, Tharoor said, "I have said as much as I wanted to say." Ramananda Sengupta By Express News Service NEW DELHI: In a statement that is unlikely to go down well in New Delhi, China on Sunday endorsed Pakistans efforts for improvement of Pakistan-India relations and for settlement of outstanding disputes between the two countries. The statement follows Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans trip to Beijing November 2-5, where he met top Chinese leaders. Noting that Chinas relationship with Pakistan is always a matter of highest priority in its foreign policy, China hailed Pakistans attempts to get into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, another sore point with India given that Beijing has been constantly blocking Indias membership bid at the UN. ALSO READ: China vows 'support' to cash-strapped Pakistan, 16 pacts signed In return, Pakistan pledged its full support for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, and reaffirmed its support to the Chinese side in safeguarding its sovereignty and security, and combating separatism, terrorism and extremism including East Turkistan Islamic Movement in Xinjiang, where China has launched a massive crackdown on Uighur Muslims. It also reiterated support for Chinas entry into SAARC, which has been dead in the water due to the India-Pakistan dispute. The post-Wuhan honeymoon of India and China had actually started unravelling before that. Last month, days before Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe came to India, he had cancelled a housing contract given to Chinese firms and re-allocated them to India. When he returned, President Maithripala Sirisena deposed him and appointed former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, known for his pro-China position, as PM. Last week, at a conference on regional connectivity in New Delhi, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale, in a veiled reference to CPEC and Belt and Road Initiative, said connectivity should build trade, not tension. Flanking him on the dais were the Japanese Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu and US envoy Kenneth Juster. Perhaps in a sign that the meeting had hit a nerve, the joint statement in Beijing also declared that both sides dismissed the growing negative propaganda against CPEC and expressed determination to safeguard the CPEC projects from all threats Fayaz Wani By Express News Service SRINAGAR: A Hizbul Mujahideen militant and a 'civilian' were killed, while some other militants managed to escape during a gunfight in south Kashmir's Shopian district on Sunday. A police officer said acting on specific information about the presence of militants, the police, CRPF and armymen launched cordon and search operation in Khudpora area of Shopian district last evening to track down the militants hiding in the area. The operation was launched while Shopian and other parts of the Kashmir were experiencing snowfall. As the security men were conducting searches, they came under heavy fire from militants hiding in a residential area. The officer said the troopers retaliated, and, in the ensuing gunfight, Mohammad Irfan Bhat, a Hizb militant, was killed. Later, security forces, while conducting a search of the area, also recovered the body of another person named Shahid Mir. The police spokesman said Shahid, as per police records, was part of case FIR 201/2004 under section 7/25 Arms Act of police station Shopian for a militancy-related incident. "A couple of militants managed to escape from the scene of the firefight. Blood trails were spotted at the encounter site," he said. Shahid is survived by his wife and a one-year-old child, besides his elderly parents. Locals and family members of Shahid claimed he was a civilian and was shot dead by security forces after being detained during the operation. His relatives said Shahid was caught by the armymen barely a few yards away from his house, while the troops were laying a siege on the area, and was bundled into a vehicle. "A boy, who was also detained by army inside the vehicle and later let off, told us that he saw jawans bundling Shahid into their vehicle," a relative said. They said the armymen killed Shahid after detaining him. "He was killed brutally. There were bullet marks on his chest, back and head," the relative said. His family members also termed the police claim that he was arrested for militancy incident in 2004, in an FIR filed against him, as vague. "He was released 25 days after his arrest and was never picked up again by any security agency. He was living a normal life and was a contractor," they said. Anand ST Das By Express News Service PATNA: With relations between Bihar NDA partners JD(U) and RLSP plunging to a new low following a war of words between the two parties, there was indication on Monday that RLSP could use Chief Minister Nitish Kumars use of the word lowly to justify its exit from the alliance. Leaders of BJP, which recently agreed to contest the same number of seats as JD(U) but left RLSP dejected by offering it no more than two seats, anticipate trouble to the alliances electoral prospects from the escalating verbal war between JD(U) and RLSP. Kushwaha has willy-nilly set the stage for such a situation by citing the DNA jab that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had used for Nitish Kumar. Speaking at a public event organised by a television channel last week, Kumar had declined to answer questions about Upendra Kushwaha. When the journalist pressed him to answer if he did not want to remain CM after the 2020 Assembly polls as Kushwaha had predicted, Kumar said: Please do not take the standards so low. We are going higher. So do not take it so low. But Kushwaha, a leader from an OBC community like Kumar, latched on the word lowly and said the CM had used it to belittle him. At a rally in Muzaffarpur on Sunday, Kushwaha said: I want to ask honourable Nitishjee. You termed Upendra Kushwaha neech (lowly). Please furnish the report of DNA test. Please tell what is in the report. Upendra Kushwaha conducts politics with honour. In 2015, when JD(U) was with RJD and Congress, Modi had attacked Nitish Kumar by saying at a rally in Bihar that there seemed to be some problem in his (Kumars) DNA. Kumar had taken umbrage and asked JD(U) workers and Bihars people to collect samples of their nails and hair to Delhi for a DNA test. Nitish Kumar feels unnerved by the rising stature of Upendra Kushwaha. Kumars use of the word neech (lowly) indicates that he is worried because of his subsiding political support base, said RLSP national general secretary Madhaw Anand. JD(U) legislator and spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said: Nitish Kumars DNA is well known. It stands for his zero tolerance for those who make Daily News Assets. The entire country is aware of it. So if anyone has a stomach pain, it will not be cured with the medicine for headache. It is immaterial who says what. Sources in RLSP said if the party fails to get at least four seats to contest in NDA, it would quit and join the RJD-led Grand Alliance. We will cite Nitish Kumars use of the word lowly to justify our exit, said a party leader. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The BJP on Monday slammed the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge for comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with former German dictator Adolf Hitler. The BJP also claimed that the Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram is mocking sentiments of people by charging that the saffron outfit after promising jobs is taking recourse to statue and temples. Speaking to reporters, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad lamented that Kharge compared Modi with Hitler. "I am shocked. It was former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who used the language of Hitler during Emergency." Claiming that Kharge's tirade is on account of desperation in the Congress staring at defeat in elections, Prasad claimed that the Congress leader cannot move a step without the permission of the Gandhi family. Incidentally, Kharge had remarked in Mumbai on Sunday that Modi is trying to do what Hitler had done in Germany, besides quipping that the Constitution is in danger. Prasad also took swipe at Chidambaram. Incidentally, former Union Minister and the Congress leader had tweeted that the BJP, in the beginning, had promised jobs and money in the bank accounts of the people but after four and a half years the party is back to statue and grand temple talks. Prasad said that the Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who often visits temples, needed to clarify on the statement of the party leaders. "The Congress needs to clear the party stand. Frequent temple visits aren't in sync with criticism of Ram temple (at Ayodhya) by the Congress leaders," added Prasad. The minister claimed that the Congress leaders are not paying attention to the sentiments of the people. Prasad also took exception to the criticism of statue (of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel), saying that the Congress also ignored the legacy of the unifier of the country. The minister noted that hundreds of schemes, public places are named after the members of the Gandhi family. By PTI NEW DELHI: South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-sook will visit the iconic Taj Mahal and interact with craftsmen of 'chikankari' embroidery style in Lucknow, besides attending the grand Diwali celebrations in Ayodhya, which has rekindled interest in its legendary princess who married a Korean king. Kim had last come to India along with South Korean President Moon Jae-in as part of the first-ever state visit by him to India in July this year. Moon had kicked off his India visit with a tour of the famous Akshardham Temple here. The South Korean first lady will visit India from November 4 to 7. "It is the first time in 16 years that a South Korean first lady is making a foreign visit without the president. The legend of Queen Heo Hwang-ok binds the two countries together culturally, and her visit will further promote our people-to-people ties," a senior official at the cultural wing of the South Korean Embassy here said. Kim is scheduled to attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the Queen Suriratna (Heo Hwang-ok) memorial in Ayodhya on Tuesday. According to Korean legend, the Princess of Ayodhya went to Korea in 48 AD and married King Kim-Suro. A large number of Koreans trace their ancestry to this legendary princess, who is known as Queen Heo Hwang-ok in South Korea. The tombs believed to be that of Heo and Suro are located in Gimhae in South Korea's South Gyeongsang Province. Kim will be the chief guest at the 'Deepotsav' event organised by the Uttar Pradesh government on November 6 in Ayodhya. "The First Lady's participation in the festivities in Ayodhya will showcase our close civilisational links as well as the ongoing deepening engagement between our two countries," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said in a statement. In July, the two countries had signed an agreement for expansion of the Suriratna memorial project. As per the itinerary shared by the MEA, the Korean first lady, during the Delhi leg of her visit is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among other engagements on Monday. Kim will interact with the craftsmen of 'chikankari', a traditional embroidery style of Lucknow, on Tuesday. She will attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the memorial and 'Deepotatsav' in Ayodhya later that day, it said. On Wednesday, she will move to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, the MEA said. In July, Kim had visited the Humayun's Tomb in the national capital and expressed her desire to visit Taj Mahal in her next visit. "This time we had little time, so we are not able to visit the Taj. But, I knew that the Humayun Tomb's design had inspired the makers of Taj Mahal. So, next time, I will surely visit the Taj Mahal," she had told PTI after visiting the Humayun's Tomb. Indian Ambassador to South Korea Sripriya Ranganathan had earlier this week called on the First Lady and the mission in Seoul had said that her visit would "strengthen" the people-to-people and cultural ties. By PTI KOLKATA: The shadow of the Sabarimala temple row over the entry of women into the shrine has cast its spell on a local Kali Puja committee which does not allow females to enter its pandal amid protests by scholars. Ever since the worship of the idol began 34 years ago by priests of the Tarapith, a Shakti pith in Birbhum district, women were not allowed to enter the pandal, members of the 'Chetla Pradip Sangha' puja committee in southern part of the city told reporters Saturday. "We wish to maintain the rules which lays down that if any woman enters the pandal during puja, there will be a tragedy in our locality. We cannot break the tradition of the past 34 years," joint secretary of the puja committee Saibal Guha said. The male members of the puja committee and the locality prepare 'prasad and bhog' (food) for the deity besides undertaking other tasks. "Our puja committee has women members, but they don't enter the pandal as they know it might annoy the deity. They are with men in other tasks like bringing the idol to the pandal and join the immersion procession," another puja committee member Saheb Das said. Indologist Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri termed such rules as the extreme manifestation of patriarchy and misogyny. "Why are they worshipping a goddess then? What the organiser's practise has nothing to do with scriptures. There is no rule to prevent women from being present during puja inside a temple," Bhaduri said. A senior priest and scholar Shambhunath Kritya Smrititirtho said "there is no rule to disallow women inside the premises where the idol is kept." A local woman devotee Sabita Das, however, has no objection to the practice. "Ever since I came to the area as daughter-in-law of a family 20 years ago, I have seen the practice followed. We don't want to break the tradition. It is embedded in our faith," she said. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: The decision of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to ban namaz at the mosque on Taj Mahal premises on all days except Friday has drawn ire of Muslim body taking care of the monument of love in Agra. The Taj Mahal remains closed for the public on Fridays. Only the locals are allowed from 12 o'clock to 2 pm without paying any entry fee. The ASI officials, however, claimed that the decision was taken in compliance of July order of Supreme Court. The court has upheld the local administration's order which had barred all but the Agra residents from offering Friday prayers in the mosque on Taj premises on the security grounds. Until now, on any other day, visitors who had bought the ticket to the monument of love could visit the mosque situated on its premises and offer namaz.IN course of executing the new orders, the ASI closed the 'vazu tank' on Taj premises where namazis used to clean themselves before namaz. Taking affront of the ASI decision, Taj Mahal Intezamia Committee (TMIC) has wondered why the decade-long practice was stopped all of a sudden. TMIC president Sayyad Ibrahim Hussian Zaidi charged the present dispensations both at the centre and the state with having an anti-Muslim mindset which was well reflecting in the latest order. He said that he would meet the ASI officials over the issue. Significantly, the Imam and the other staff of the mosque on Taj premises have been asked to show up only on Fridays. While a group of students were barred from offering namaz on Taj premises on Sunday and they called it a retrograde step, the ASI's superintending the archaeologist Vasant Swarnkar refused to elaborate on the decision. Namaz could now be offered on Fridays and by the local residents only, he said calling the new order in consonance to the SC ruling. In fact, in January 2018, the Agra administration had issued a notice asking the Agra residents to bring their IDs to ensure that no one else but only the local residents were allowed to go inside the mosque to offer namaz. "The step was taken amidst alleged security threats to the monument and complaints that non-Indians including Bangladeshis and others enter the Taj complex on the pretext of offering namaz,-" said an ASI official. Though a petition challenging district administration's order was moved in the supreme court in July but it refused to intervene saying Taj's security and preservation was of utmost importance. By PTI RAMGARH: Ten people were arrested in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district on Sunday after police allegedly seized over 500 kg beef from three "illegal" abattoirs and rescued around 20 cows. Slaughter of cattle, and sale or consumption of its meat were banned by the Jharkhand government in 2005. Violators can face up to 10 years' jail and a fine of up to Rs 10,000. Over 500 kg of beef along with slaughtering tools and cattle hide has been recovered from the three abattoirs in Ramgarh district, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Radha Prem Kishore said here. The police team that carried out the raids was pelted with stones by local people, he said. "As soon a team of police officers reached Rahmat Nagar locality in Ramgarh to carry out the raids, local people started pelting stones at them. Along with beef, cattle hide and slaughtering equipment were seized from the illegal abattoirs," Kishore told reporters. Additional security forces had to be deployed in the area to bring the situation under control, he said, adding that the raids were carried out on the directive of Superintendent of Police Nidhi Dwivedi. Two separate FIRs have been registered with Rajrappa police station in connection with the raid - one for cattle slaughtering and another for attack on the police, Officer-in-charge Kamlesh Paswan said. He said all 10 accused will be produced before judicial magistrate Monday, Paswan said. The seized beef has been buried at a dumpyard in Ramgarh, Paswan said. By Express News Service MUMBAI: While Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday announced that an inquiry would be conducted into procedural lapse, if any, in the killing of the man-eater tigress Avani, forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said that the uproar over the killing of the tigress is out of inadequate or ill information. While replying to questions raised by Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, Mungantiwar also pointed out that the hunter had killed a man-eater tiger in Pilibhit of Uttar Pradesh in 2009. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said that while he regrets the killing of the tigress, a probe shall be conducted for any procedural lapses in the killing. ALSO READ: Killed man-eater tigress Avni leads to new controversy Fadnavis was interacting with media persons at his official residence Varsha on the occasion of Diwali. When asked about the death of Avani, he said. "It is sad for us all that a decision had to be taken to kill the tigress. But, it had become inevitable after the death of 13 people in the region. We shall still probe the issue to see if there were any procedural lapses." Fadnavis also tried to shield Union Minister Maneka Gandhi by saying, "Maneka ji's words were harsh. But, we should understand her feelings as she is an ardent animal lover first". Meanwhile, in a bid to defend his ministry from the attack after the death of tigress, forest minister Sudhir Mungahtiwar, said that much of the criticism against his ministry was ill-informed. ALSO READ: Tigress Avni shot after she attacked forest staff: Maharshtra forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar "While Maharashtra had been a state that has done maximum efforts for conservation of forests and the tigers and there had been a good increase in the number of tigers in the state in past few years, the criticism is surprising and it is demoralizing for the forest staff which might prove counterproductive in terms of efforts being done," the forest minister said. "The NTCA guidelines were followed while releasing orders regarding tranquilization and killing of the man-eater tigress after the death of 8 tribals, two women and the farmers in that area. No forest minister has powers to release such orders. So, these orders too were not released by me. Moreover, The orders were challenged in the High Court as well as the Supreme Court and both the courts upheld the forest department orders," Mungantiwar said. ALSO READ: Rahul Gandhi, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan spar over killing of tigress Avni He also added that the decision was taken only after local people had stopped going to fields out of fear of the tigress and the action was needed as the presence of the tiger in the area thus affected the livelihood of the locals. While criticizing the union minister Maneka Gandhi's questions regarding the controversial hunter, Mungantiwar said that the hunter had been there on the panels of several states and that the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh (Ms Gandhi's constituency) too had certified him for the service of the forest department by killing a man-eater tiger in 2009. Xinhua: What do you think about the Vietnam-China relations at present? PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc: Vietnam and China have long-standing traditional relations which have been built and constantly consolidated by generations of leaders and the people of both countries. Over the past few years, thanks to the efforts of the Party, Government and people of the two countries, the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership has maintained a positive development momentum and harvested encouraging achievements. The greatest accomplishment is the constantly consolidated and enhanced political, diplomatic and economic ties between the two sides. The bilateral political relations have maintained a positive development momentum, manifested through the regular exchange of high-level visits and meetings between the two Parties and countries, which has helped the senior leaders of the two sides to gain many important common perceptions about the enhancement of the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. The attainments in political-diplomatic relations between Vietnam and China serve as a premise for the facilitation of economic, trade and investment ties between the two countries. The bilateral economic relations continue to see new developments, with both sides having signed many investment cooperation agreements and treaties about or related to economic issues. China has become one of the leading trading partners of Vietnam, with two-way trade increasing sharply and trade balance gradually improving. The two countries have implemented many people-to-people exchange activities, especially among the younger generation and people in border localities, while organising meetings between ministries, sectors and localities, contributing to furthering the traditional friendship between the two nations. Tourism cooperation continues to be accelerated. China currently leads in the number of foreign tourists to Vietnam, with more than four million arrivals recorded in 2017, up 48.6% and accounting for more than 30% of the total international tourist arrivals to Vietnam. The number reached nearly 4.2 million arrivals in the first ten months of 2018, an increase of 28.8% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, there are about three million Vietnamese people travelling to China annually. The two sides have closely coordinated in the implementation of the legal documents on the Vietnam-China land borders, while strengthening security and safety management in the border areas. They have also gained common perceptions of conflict control and the maintenance of peace and stability at sea, and are actively promoting negotiation mechanisms on maritime issues. These results have worked significantly to further strengthening the solid foundation for the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Vietnam and China, while contributing actively to the development cause in each country and the enhancement of their international positions. With such fine foundations as mentioned above, in the time ahead the two sides should continue to effectively implement the important common perceptions reached by their senior leaders, strengthen the exchange of high-level visits and meetings, and facilitate win-win cooperation mechanisms, thereby bringing practical benefits to the people of the two countries. I firmly believe that, with the attention from senior leaders of the two Parties and countries, and the concerted efforts of all levels, sectors, localities and the people, the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership will further thrive in the future, contributing to peace, stability and prosperity of the region. Xinhua: The inaugural CIIE in Shanghai is an important trade promotion event of the Chinese government, seeking to open the Chinese market to the world and offering opportunities for countries to access Chinas vast market. Vietnam has been officially invited to attend this years fair as an Honorary State, so what does Vietnam expect in penetrating more deeply into the Chinese market? PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc: I would like to thank the Chinese government and President Xi Jinping for inviting Vietnam to attend the 2018 CIIE as an Honorary State. I highly appreciate Chinas hosting of the event, which reflects an attitude of win-win cooperation and creates a new important and large-scale trade promotion channel for China and its partners, enabling Chinese and foreign firms to seek information, carry out market research, and conduct trade promotion activities. By attending the fair, the first of its kind, as an Honorary State, Vietnam will have a good opportunity to promote the image of the country, while effectively facilitating trade, investment and tourism promotion. Vietnamese businesses will have the chance to meet, make transactions, and expand their business cooperation with more than 150,000 enterprises and investors from China and other countries. Through the CIIE 2018, as a connection bridge between the ASEAN Economic Community and China, Vietnam wishes to continue to effectively exploit the practical benefits provided by the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area, contributing to the comprehensive development of the economic and trade relations between ASEAN and China. Xinhua: China is determined to persistenty reform, open the door and support trade liberalisation. In your opinion, how can Vietnam and China strengthen the connectivity between the Belt and Road initiative and the Two Corridors, One Belt framework to bring more practical benefits to the two countries people? PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc: Vietnam supports economic cooperation and connectivity within the framework of the Belt and Road initiative for the purpose of peace, development and common prosperity for the nations, on the basis of mutual respect, equality, and mutually beneficial cooperation, and respecting independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the participating countries as well as international law. In 2017, the Governments of Vietnam and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the connectivity between the Two Corridors, One Belt framework and the Belt and Road initiative. The Vietnamese side believes that both sides have the potential to cooperate in all five areas of connectivity (policy, infrastructure, finance, trade, people) mentioned in the MOU. In that spirit, I suggest that the two countries focus on actively promoting balanced and sustainable trade development, creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises and facilitating the export of Vietnamese goods into China, especially commodities of Vietnams strengths and Chinas demand, such as farm produce, seafood, fruit, and consumer electronics. Secondly, Chinese businesses should increase their investment in high-tech environmentally-friendly projects, and ensure their quality and progress, thereby building a positive image and prestige of Chinese investment in Vietnam. Thirdly, the two sides need to boost cooperation in the areas that are in line with the needs and strengths of each side, while creating favourable conditions for Vietnam to access preferential capital of China, as well as to effectively implement the aids. At present, the Vietnamese Government has instructed ministries and sectors to work with the Chinese side to solidify the aforementioned cooperation contents; study and develop specific cooperation plans on the connectivity between the Two Corridors, One Belt framework and the Belt and Road initiative. I hope that the active cooperation and implementation of the cooperation contents within the framework of the MOU will bring about practical benefits for the two countries people, contributing to common development in each country. Ramananda Sengupta By Express News Service NEW DELHI: In a shocking disclosure, a human rights group has said that over the past six years, 10 Indian workers died every day in the Gulf countries, which account for more than half the foreign remittances received by India annually. There are more than 30 million Indians overseas, with over 9 million concentrated in the six Gulf nations. "Available data indicate that at least 24,570 Indian workers died in the six Gulf countries between 2012 and mid-2018. This number could increase if the complete figures for Kuwait and UAE are made available publicly. This amounts to more than 10 deaths per day during this period," PTI quoted Venkatesh Nayak from the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative as saying. This translates to 117 deaths per $1 billion remitted to India from the region, he said, based on his analysis of data provided by the External Affairs Ministry and responses to parliamentary questions about the number of Indian workers who had died in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from January 1, 2012 to about mid-2018. While "India received a total of $410.33 billion in remittances from the world over, remittances from the Gulf countries accounted for $209.07 billion," he said. Kerala topped the share of remittances, accounting for almost 40 per cent, followed by Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. According to Nayak's analysis, during 2012-17, there were over 187 deaths for every $1 billion in remittances received from Oman, followed by over 183 deaths in Bahrain, 162 deaths in Saudi Arabia, more than 74 in Qatar and 71 deaths in the UAE. But while remittances are expected to rise during 2018, declining crude prices and the resulting economic slowdown in the GCC countries meant the number of Indians migrating for work in 2017 fell nearly 34 per cent to 520,938 compared to 2015. According to the ILO's Migration 2018, Indian workers going to Saudi Arabia declined 47 per cent to 162,000 in 2016 from 2015, and workers going to the UAE fell 29 per cent in the same period. While official sources were unavailable for comment, a former diplomat remarked that "if true, this is a massive dark cloud to the silver lining of Gulf money, and needs to addressed on a priority basis. While the MEA has taken a few tangible steps to prevent exploitation of Indian workers abroad, mainly in the Gulf, obviously that is not enough." By Online Desk Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has come up with a new plan -- cow rearing -- to generate employment in the state and fight malnutrition. The CM said he would launch a scheme to distribute cows to 5,000 families which in turn would help them to earn money in six months. "I'm not against setting big industries but in that one has to invest Rs 10,000 crores for employing 2000 people but if I give 10,000 cows to 5000 families they'll start earning in 6 months," Biplab was quoted as saying by ANI. In his latest statement, he announced that he himself will start a cow farm too at his residence and milch cows along with his family and consume its milk. Biplab further said that his family will lead the example for people of Tripura to domesticate cows and it will help the state to fight malnutrition. This is not the first time Biplab made such claims. The Tripura CM, who is known for his controversial statements, had earlier said that graduates should rear cows and milk them or set up a pan shop instead of running behind netas for government jobs. "If they had set up pan shops instead of running after political parties and wasting their time, they would have had a bank balance of Rs 5 lakh by now, he had said. He even had a suggestion for mechanical and civil engineers. Mechanical engineers should not go for civil service, the civil engineers should. Civil engineers can pinpoint faults in the construction of a building. If a person has got the experience of civil engineering, s/he can build up people who are in the administration. Civil engineers are the ones who have got the knowledge to build up a society, Biplab had said. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath called a high profile meeting on Monday just ahead of his visit to Ayodhya for Diwali celebrations on November 6. Both his deputies, senior cabinet ministers and the party's state chief were invited to the meeting about which speculations were rife that the CM could make an important announcement. According to highly placed sources, Deputy UP chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, and UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey were present in the meeting. CM Adityanath is expected to make a big announcement during the 'Deepotsav' in Ayodhya too, to give a push to the Ram Mandir issue in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, the sources said. In the mean time, amid the rising demand for Ram Temple in the temple town, Yogi Adityanath government has decided to develop the existing airstrip in Faizabad into a full-fledged airport. The state government has decided to acquire more than 280 acres of land around the airstrip and widen it to allow landing of bigger aircraft. The existing airstrip is just over 1.5 km long and 30 mt wide, barely enough to allow landing of seven to eight-seater aircraft. For bigger aircraft, the airstrip needs to have a width of 45 meters, experts said. South Korea's First Lady Kim Jung-Sook, the chief guest at the Deepotsav in Ayodhya, landed in Lucknow on Monday. "She will be the chief guest at the Deepotsav event being organised by the State Government of Uttar Pradesh and the ground-breaking ceremony of the Queen Suriratma (Heo Hwang-ok) Memorial in Ayodhya on November 6, 2018," said a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs. As per the common belief, princess Suriratna of Ayodhya travelled to Korea and married King Kim, who was later known as Hur Hwang-ok in 48 AD. Many Koreans, along with the wife of former President Lee Myung-bak, Kim Yoon-ok and another former President Kim Young-sam, trace their ancestry to the royal couple. Meanwhile, Ayodhya is bustling with activities ahead of the Deepotsav festival to mark the home coming of Lord Ram after an exile of 14 years. CM Yogi Adityanath is likely to have a night stay at Ayodhya on November 6 and will proceed to Gorakhpur on Wednesday to spend the Diwali day, as always, with forest tribe Vantangia. Senior government officials, ministers, MLAs and MPs are monitoring the arrangements for the grand festival for which over 750 artists from across the globe have already thronged the temple town. A grand Shobha Yatra will also be taken out on the occasion and culminate on the banks of river Saryu. Kumar Vikram By Express News Service NEW DELHI: With a view to connecting tourist destinations in the country, the ministry of civil aviation has opened bids for the third phase of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS). In the third round of bidding, the ministry of tourism has proposed 46 routes to be connected in the coming months. The third phase will also see the launch of seaplanes at water aerodromes. There are 10 water aerodromes, located in Gujarat, Assam, Uttrakhand, Maharashtra and Telangana, including one at the Statue of Unity near Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat. Under the earlier two phases of RCS, 56 unserved and 31 helipads have been awarded for connectivity, but operations at several of these airports have not yet taken off, and these airports are expected to see operation under Phase III. Officials said that connecting tourism spots was the main focus under Phase III of the RCS, and the list of routes proposed by the ministry of tourism included places such as Agra, Bhopal, Jhansi, Bodhgaya, Mysore, Kullu, Dharamshala and other places. In total there are 60 new routes which have been identified by the ministry of civil aviation for operation of RCS flights under Phase III. Apart from this, there are eight routes in the north-eastern region. Under RCS, an airline can serve the destinations on offer from anywhere depending on its traffic feasibility studies. In this scheme, fares are capped according to the distances between the two destinations for 50 per cent of seats and the remaining seats can be sold at market rates. These seats are subsidized with the help of the viability gap funding (VGF) provided by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Officials said that the government has collected about Rs 268 crore levy from various airlines towards the RCS scheme. The scheme, also known as 'Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik', seeks to connect unserved and under-serve airports. To fund the scheme, an amount of Rs 5,000 is collected from airlines on every flight operated on major routes. By PTI NEW DELHI: Accused by the Congress of trampling on the RBI's autonomy with its interference, a top government functionary said Monday it was the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who asserted that the central bank enjoyed autonomy but it was also subject to the Centre's directions and those comments still hold true. The top functionary, who did not want to be named, also cited several instances of clash the earlier governments at the Centre, right from the Nehru-led dispensation to the UPA's, had with the central bank over policy issues which at times led to the resignation of the RBI governor. Benegal Rama Rau quit in 1957 after Nehru supported his finance minister T T Krishnamachari in his clash with the then RBI governor over a proposal, the functionary said. To Rau's assertion about the RBI's autonomy, Nehru had apparently said the central bank is certainly autonomous but it is also subject to the government's directions, he claimed. "What Nehru said remains true now," the government functionary said when asked about the Narendra Modi government's take on its differences with the Urjit Patel-led RBI. While Congress president Rahul Gandhi has accused the government of "destroying" institutions with its alleged strong-arm tactics, the differences between the Modi government and the RBI came out in public domain after a deputy governor raised concerns about the central bank's autonomy and warned that the governments that did not respect the central bank's independence would sooner or later incur the wrath of financial markets. Days later, another deputy governor criticised the government's arguments for easing capital requirements for lenders, saying it would result in banks being strong only in a "make-believe" manner. While many see the ongoing tussle between the government and the RBI as unprecedented, the top government functionary also cited instances of RBI governors N C Sengupta and K R Puri, saying their tenures were cut short due to the central government's intervention. He claimed Sengupta had to go due to his stand on the issue of bank loan limit for Maruti project, a brainchild of Sanjay Gandhi, son of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, while his successor Puri quit in 1977 at the prodding of the Janata Party government. He also claimed that Manmohan Singh, who was the RBI governor during 1982-85, was made the erstwhile Planning Commission's deputy chairman as the then Rajiv Government wanted another person at the central bank. Singh went on to become prime minister for 10 years. The official also referred to the memoir of D Subbarao about his tenure as RBI governor between 2008-13 to highlight his strained relations with the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram. By PTI NEW DELHI: South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-sook met Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday as they discussed ways to promote people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. Kim is visiting India at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi and she will be the chief guest at the 'Deepotsav' event being organised by the Uttar Pradesh government and the ground-breaking ceremony of the new memorial of queen Suriratna (Heo Hwang-ok) in Ayodhya on Tuesday. In their meeting on Monday, Modi and Kim discussed the deep civilisational and spiritual links between India and Korea, and exchanged views on promoting people-to-people exchanges, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said. She also congratulated the prime minister on being awarded the Seoul Peace Prize. The prime minister said this honour truly belongs to the people of India. Modi also warmly recalled the successful visit of President Moon Jae-in to India in July 2018, which imparted fresh momentum to India-Korea Special Strategic Partnership. Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had called on Kim. The Korean first lady also interacted with school students here on Monday, the first of her official engagements during her India visit. Kim arrived here Sunday on a four-day visit. "Affectionate bonding. EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on the First Lady of the Republic of Korea, Mrs Kim Jung-sook. India and ROK (Republic of Korea) share a special strategic partnership since 2015 and our relations have deepened and diversified in recent years," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. After her meeting with Swaraj, the first lady visited the ASN Senior Secondary school in East Delhi where she interacted with students. The school has a tie-up with South Korea's Jeonnam (Chonnam) Foreign Language High School since 2015 and the institutes have an exchange programme for their students and teachers. Addressing a group of students, Kim urged them to study hard and help in the growth of their nations. The future generation will help in further cementing the Indo-Korean ties, she said. With the political leadership in India and Korea working to strengthen ties, the students will get more opportunities to visit each others countries, she said. The Korean first lady will visit Lucknow and from there, on Tuesday, she will leave for Ayodhya where she will attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the Queen Suriratna memorial. "The First Lady's participation in the festivities in Ayodhya will showcase our close civilisational links as well as the ongoing deepening engagement between our two countries," the MEA had said last week. According to Korean legends, Princess Suriratna from Ayodhya had travelled to Korea and married King Kim Suro and became Queen Heo Hwang-ok some 2000 years ago. The South Korean First Lady will also attend the 'Deepotsav' event in the evening on Tuesday. Kim will leave for Agra on Wednesday for a visit to the Taj Mahal before heading home. By PTI GUWAHATI: Four days after the killing of five persons in Tinsukia district, the Assam government Monday transferred Sadiya police district SP Prasanta Sagar Changmai with immediate effect. ALSO READ | Suspected ULFA linkman held for Tinsukia killings A leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia of the Congress demanded a judicial probe into the killings "In the interest of public service, Prasanta Sagar Changmai, Superintendent of Police, Sadiya, is transferred," an official notification of the Home Department said. Changmai and Debojit Deuri, Commandant of the 24th AP(IR)Bn at Charaimari in Baksa, would exchange their places of posting, according to the notification. Suspected militants in battle fatigue shot dead five Bengali-speaking persons, including three members of a family, besides a bridge near Kheronibari village Thursday night. The village falls under the Sadiya police district. Meanwhile, Saikia demanded a judicial probe into the killings, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government was using the administrative machinery to create division in the society for vote-bank politics. "Almost everyone could foresee a violent incident occurring in Assam, yet the state government ignored all the warning signs and remained a mute spectator," he said. Saikia visited the family members of those killed and said the state government should take steps to protect the lives and properties of all sections of the society. The Congress leader accused the BJP-led government of being partial in taking action against those fomenting trouble and claimed that no action was taken against the leaders of the saffron party for their inflammatory speeches, though two pro-talks ULFA leaders were arrested for the same reason. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had Friday blamed inflammatory speeches by individuals and organisations for the killings and the two leaders of the pro-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) were arrested for making provocative statements on various occasions. Ashok Kumar Bal By The fallout of the Supreme Court decision in the Sabarimala case is profoundly concerning. On the ground, there is strong resentment and a rejection of the courts verdict by devotees and by Hindus in general. Women are at the forefront of the protests. There have been attempts by activists and a few women to enter the temple after the apex court order, but those have been met with resistance. The Kerala government has hardened its stance over implementing the courts order and for that purpose, has resorted to targeting devotees and demonstrators. This is viewed and also projected as anti-devotee/anti-Hindu. The situation has led to the politicisation of the issue. Kerala, considered a model state with one of the highest literacy rates, is witnessing an unfortunate and unprecedented situation of growing polarisation potentially disturbing its secular ethos. The situation may spill over to the rest of the country. There is a disconnect between the courts order and the feelings of the people whose deep-rooted religious sentiments have been hurt. This is not a law and order issue alone. The challenge is how to bridge the disconnect between the law and the living reality. This avoidable situation is a consequence of the apex court order. Was it warranted for the court to get into this sensitive and avoidable issue when no devotee had approached the court with a grievance over discrimination? The decision has raised an important issue of admission of a public interest litigation (PIL) involving a sensitive religious matter. The PIL, as a tool to enforce fundamental rights, has immense significance in a country where access and entitlement to justice is highly skewed and unequal. However, it is prone to misuse. A spate of petitions have now been filed before the Supreme Court for the review of its order in the Sabarimala issue. The outcome holds immense significance. The occasion provides an opportunity to resolve the matter and help bring sanity on the ground. The court has relied upon numerous previous judgments and on the interpretation of the same, two divergent views have emerged leading to the majority prevailing over the dissenting judgment. The fact is that the interpretation of precedents is liable to render opposite conclusions. It is also important to understand that the state government has changed its stance on the issue more than once before the apex court. The centuries-old customs and religious practices having the sanction and acceptance of devotees and believers including women have been analysed from the constitutional compass of fundamental rights and equality under the Constitution. A proposition that there is an inherent conflict between the centuries-old practice and fundamental rights, and further that the constitutional protection under Articles 25 and 26 being inconsistent with the religious practice is an extremely difficult and delicate issue. The doctrine of constitutional morality prevailing upon the forbidden domain is the root cause of the problem. The Supreme Court in 2015 refused to entertain a PIL which wanted a ban on the practice of killing of animals in the name of religion and held that it cannot close its eyes to centuries-old tradition. This view is contrary to its own decision of initially refusing to stay an order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court banning animal sacrifice during Kullu Dussehra in 2014. So, the court, on similar issues of religious practices, has taken conflicting stands. Under such circumstances the dissent of the lone woman judge assumes greater significance. This reminds one of Justice H R Khanna, the lone dissenting voice in the notorious Habeas Corpus case quoting the great American judge Charles Evan Hughes, A dissent in the court of last resort is an appeal to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of a future day when a later decision may possibly correct the error into which the dissenting judge believes the court to have been betrayed. Years later, a nine-judge apex court Bench held that privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution and accordingly held that the Habeas Corpus case was wrongly decided. The court found Justice Khanna to be correct. The judicial history of dissent in India and abroad is replete with cases where the dissent in a judgment has given rise to situations where the error in judgment has been corrected either by the court or otherwise. The outcome of the review petition is awaited with great anticipation. The apex court, being the court of last resort, is looked upon with utmost reverence. Since the orders are judge-centric and interpretation is variable, the finality of a verdict being infallible is a matter of concern. The American Supreme Court Justice Robert H Jackson wrote in Brown v. Allen (1953): There is no doubt that if there were a super-Supreme Court, a substantial proportion of our reversals of state courts would also be reversed. We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final. This judicial essence has been reflected in the collection of essays published in 2000, to mark 50 years of the apex court: Supreme But Not Infallible, in which Justice B N Kirpal, wrote, We would like to believe that the Supreme Court has gone about its task less conscious of its supremacy and more warily with the intuition that the court, though final, is fallible. These essays are a reminder of what the Court is and does. In matters of religious faith, belief, customs and rituals that have been practised for centuries without any pernicious effects on society and have the widest acceptance of the people, law or logic may not necessarily resolve a dispute. The courts cannot assume the role of a theological guide or adjudicator on such issues. The court may not be the appropriate forum to resolve such sensitive issues or disputes. The Supreme Court, while hearing the review petitions, will hopefully give due consideration to the essence that it is neither final nor infallible in order to strike a balance between the essential religious practices and the constitutional protection of the right to practice such religious practices without being violative of fundamental rights. Ashok Kumar Bal Retired civil servant Email: ashokkbal@gmail.com TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu last week broke bread with Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the first time ever, seven months after he left the NDA. Both later announced their decision to forge an alliance, which Naidu claimed was a product of democratic compulsion. It ought to have been a tough moment for Naidu, as he heads a party that was founded by his father-in-law N T Rama Rao in the 1980s to avenge the insults heaped on his state by the Congress in that era. Yet, the Narendra Modi rule at the Centre created the democratic compulsion that forced the foes to become friends. NTR must be turning in his grave. Naidu showed his canny side as he met leaders of various hues apart from Rahul to give the process of forming an anti-Modi front some momentum. His Telangana rival K Chandrashekar Rao though was the earliest bird to give flight to the coalition idea and do a bit of north and east India tourism before quietly settling down. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee did some fishing, loaded with hints of prime ministership. Ditto BSP chief Mayawati, who has now been bruised by the Congress in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and MP. As Naidu pointed out, the Congress is the biggest opposition party. Why then is it not taking the lead in cobbling together the alliance? It perhaps reckons it would be able to negotiate better if it does well in the forthcoming Assembly polls, but time is a fleeting maiden. Remember, the BJP has already done its Bihar deal and Kejriwal has even started campaigning in Delhi. It was in this leadership vacuum that Naidu stepped in. He has met Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and Sitaram Yechury. If Naidu succeeds, would he be content with someone else wearing the crown? The democratic compulsion he alluded to was also on account of pressures from KCR and Jagan Mohan Reddy in Telangana and Andhra, respectively. Having taken the plunge, he has to make it work. By Express News Service VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Odisha Border - Special Zonal Committee (AOB-SZC) of CPI (Maoist) released a 14-page written interview script with 11 question and answers to the media on Saturday night. In the interview, Jagabandhu, official spokesperson of Maoists AOB - SZC, tried to explain about their ideology, present scenario of their armed struggle and the incident of elimination of Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma at Livitiputtu village of Dumbriguda police station limits on September 23. We are not acting on personal vendetta or other causes of vengeance, but only on the basis of public opinion and demands. Kidari Sarveswara Rao and Siveri Soma neglected the people and gave priority to their personal growth. They were minting money through supporting mining activity in the Agency. After conducting a public court at Livitiputtu village, where the TDP leaders were shot dead, we explained the activities of cheating to their cadre and followers. Only after confirming their guilt in the public court, our Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) completed the task, the release elaborated. In another answer, Maoists said that they dont have any hit list. We do not kill people to prove our presence. In fact, the government and police are well aware of our existence and there is no need for us to prove our existence. Moreover, this is not at all a war between police and Maoists. We did not harm the security personnel of Araku MLA and former MLA and this is ample evidence of this. We warned both the leaders several times about their anti-public activities and pro-bauxite mining relations. However, they neglected our warnings and continued their money-earning practices and received suitable punishment. Maoists explained. They further said that they are not hired killers. Killing by inviting for discussions is also not our policy, Jagabandhu said, adding, We are not acting with our personal agenda. The Deputy PM made the affirmation when explaining the pact and related documents to the legislature during the debate of lawmakers. The Governments assessment report said joining the pact as one of the found members demonstrates Vietnams policy on international integration and affirms the countrys important geo-political position in the region and the international arena. Economically, CPTPP can boost Vietnams GDP and export by 1.32 percent and 4.04 percent, respectively by 2035. In terms of investment, CPTPP commitments relating to services and investment are expected to have positive effects on the investment environment. The pact will also help push the process to complete economic institutions. Socially, the pact will contribute to job generation, enhancement of incomes and poverty reduction. Most NA deputies approved the necessity to ratify the CPTPP, stressing that it is a new generation free trade agreement with high quality and the highest level of commitment so far. At the same time, many deputies also cautioned about possible challenges and difficulties that will come with the CPTPP. Bilateral and multilateral trade may face difficulties. Several sectors such as advertisement and logistics are expected to face fierce competition. However, the competition also forces domestic enterprises to reduce operation costs. The deputies said a number of domestic enterprises could fall into difficulties due to increasing competition after the CPTPP takes force, resulting in loss of jobs. They noted that the country will have to adjust and revise legal regulations on trade, customs, intellectual property and labour to comply with CPTPP commitments. At this point, we dont need to spend much time on discussing whether we should or should not join the CPTPP. The most important thing now is to make clear what we should do to make use of advantages and opportunities brought by the pact while minimising its adverse impacts on domestic production and business, said deputy Hoang Van Cuong of Hanoi. Speaking on the sidelines of the debate, many deputies wanted the Government to do more research on the impacts of the deal on Vietnam. They also urged the Government to take the initiative in reviewing and adjusting related laws to ensure the effective implementation of the CPTPP and prevent risks to the most, while maintaining national sovereignty and avoiding becoming dependence on others. By ANI NEW DELHI: Union Minister Ananth Kumar Hegde has condemned the Karnataka government's decision to celebrate the birth anniversary of 18th century Mysore ruler, Tipu Sultan, on November 10 and has asked them not to be invited to the event marking the celebration. Tipu Sultan had fought against the British and died in 1799 while defending his capital Srirangapatna (present-day Mandya). Several leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, claims that the ruler was "against Kannada language and anti-Hindu" and thus flay the state government for celebrating his birth anniversary or Tipu Jayanti. The Congress party considers him as the first freedom fighter to have opposed the British rule on India. The Officer on Special Duty to Hedge wrote a letter to the Chief Secretary of Karnataka stating that even after the incidents of violence witnessed across the state last year during the celebrations, the state government's decision to glorify Tipu Sultan is "unfortunate". "History says that Tipu was anti-Hindu and anti-Kannadiga. Earlier when the government had gone ahead with the move there were state-wide protests and sporadic incidents of violence were witnessed. It is unfortunate that the government still wants to glorify him and we condemn it," the letter read. "I hereby would like to inform you to not mention my name in the invitee's list for Tipu Jayanthi," it added. Meanwhile, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said that although the state government has decided to celebrate Tipu Jayanti, there will be restrictions on celebrations as well as protests. "Government will celebrate Tipu Jayanti, but all processions, both for and against have been banned. We have requested 10 companies of RAF from the Centre. All officers have been informed," Parameshwara told reporters here. Last year, the Karnataka government headed by former chief minister Siddaramaiah decided to celebrate Tipu Jayanti on his birth anniversary on November 10. Popularly known as the Tiger of Mysore, Tipu Jayanti has become a controversial figure, especially since 2015, when the BJP and the Congress fought over the need to celebrate the 18th-century ruler's birthday. By Express News Service KOCHI: Dismissing reports of an undeclared ban being imposed on the media at Sabarimala, DGP Loknath Behera on Sunday said there were no such restrictions. The police would provide security to all devotees who come to have darshan in Sabarimala. The police have no plans to deny the freedom of the media and have implemented only the steps as per the direction of the High Court, he told reporters on the sidelines of a programme. Behera further said the police would not prevent journalists coming to Sabarimala. A large posse of police personnel is being deployed for maintaining law and order in Sabarimala. The objective of police is only to provide a hassle-free darshan for the devotees, he said. He added if required additional police force would be deployed at Sabarimala temple, which would be opened on Monday for a one-day pooja on Tuesday as part of Chithira Attavisesham. The DGPs statement came after Pathanamthitta District Collector P Nooh said there was no ban on the media in Sabarimala. However, the police personnel deployed at Nilakkal, Pampa and Sannidhanam directed the media persons to leave citing a direction from their higher officers. Earlier last month, when the Sabarimala temple was opened for the monthly poojas, there were widespread attacks on journalists. According to the police officers, they were attempting to avoid such untoward incidents from repeating. No activist will be permitted to enter the temple Thrissur: No activist will be allowed to enter Sabarimala temple, said Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran, as the temple opens for 24 hours for the puja on Monday. Surendran made it clear by activists, he meant those who try to enter the temple with mysterious intentions rather than devotion. So far, no young women devotees have applied to enter the temple, Kadakampally told reporters at Guruvayur on Sunday. Arrests continue The number of people arrested in connection with Sabarimala violence has reached 3,731. The total cases registered in this regard have touched 545. Police sources said more arrests are in the offing. By Express News Service BHUBANESWAR: With farmers marching towards the State Capital from Cuttack and Khurda and a determined Odisha Government making all efforts to stop the march, a massive showdown is on the cards on Monday.In a last ditch effort, the Government deputed Finance Minister Shashi Bhushan Behera to persuade farmers leader and State convenor of Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan (NNKS) Akshya Kumar to call off the march and come to the negotiating table. While inviting the agitating farmers leaders for a discussion, the Finance Minister said the Government is ready to constitute an inter-ministerial committee to take up the farmers issue.Seeking a firm commitment from the Finance Minister, Kumar who has been spearheading the farmers movement under the aegis of NNKS on demand of 3 Ps - price, prestige and pension, said nothing less than promulgation of an ordinance for constitution of a welfare fund for farmers would be acceptable. We have lost faith on the Government as it had cheated us several times in the past. The demands remained unfulfilled even after several rounds discussions with senior officers, inter-ministerial panels and an Assembly committee. There is nothing more to discuss. What is required is concrete action, Kumar told this paper. The farmers leader, who has been leading the march from Kuakhia in Jajpur district for the past one week, said their next course of action depends on the Government decision on their demands.The farmers contingent, which has been detained by police near Hansapal and Tamando, got moral boost as Opposition Congress and BJP extended support to their cause. Joining the march, Congress leader and former MP Pradip Majhi targeted the BJD Government for ignoring the farmers. We will cease the State Capital until our demands are fulfilled, he said. A delegation of the BJP led by State vice-president Samir Mohanty participated in the farmers rally and lambasted Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for using police force to break the agitation.Joining the rally near Phulnakhara, former MP Baijayanat Panda condemned the attempts being made by Government to throttle the voices of farmers. 25 police platoons deployed Commissionerate Police restricted the movement of farmers citing the agitators were not given permission for demonstrating in the city on November 5. The authorities have also clamped Section 144 of CrPC near Hanspal and Tamando in a bid to stop the protestors from proceeding further. About 25 platoons of police force have been deployed at both the places for avoiding any untoward incident, Bhubaneswar DCP Anup Sahu said. By Express News Service BHUBANESHWAR: At least five Maoists, including two female ultras, were killed in an encounter with security forces in the forests under Kalimela Police limits in Malkangiri district bordering Andhra Pradesh in the wee hours of Monday. In a joint operation, teams of Special Operation Group (SOG) and District Voluntary Force (DVF) reached Bejangiwada Reserve Forest area on November 4 evening after receiving information about presence of the left wing extremists in the region. READ | Maoists regret killing Doordarshan cameraman, says 'media is not our enemy' "The security forces intercepted the Maoists in the wee hours of Monday, following which the ultras opened heavy fire at them. Subsequently, there was an exchange of fire between the police and Maoists. After the firing reduced, the security personnel conducted a combing operation and recovered bodies of five Maoists," Odisha DGP Dr RP Sharma said on Monday. The police also seized two self-loading rifles (SLR), an Insas, one 303, a grenade and other ammunition from the spot. The security forces are yet to ascertain identities of the Maoists, but most likely the ultras were the members of Kalimela Dalam Division. The police informed that sporadic firing continued later in the day and additional forces were called in to tackle the situation. Security forces had received information that the divisional committee member (DCM) Ranadeb was leading the Maoists in the area, but he could not be traced in the spot. Odisha Police dubbed the operation as a huge success by citing that Malkangiri district and area under Kalimela Police limits was the stronghold of the Naxals. The police also informed that joint operations are being carried out at regular intervals along with the security agencies of the neighbouring States to tackle the Naxal menace in the bordering areas. "A team of SOG had visited Vizag about three days back and an operation was launched in the bordering areas of the two States," Dr Sharma said. By Express News Service CHENNAI: About 3.83 lakh commuters travelled by government buses from Chennai to various parts of Tamil Nadu on Friday and Saturday for Deepavali festival. According to official records, on Saturday alone about 2,21,418 commuters travelled by government buses from Chennai, of which 1,97,969 were unreserved passengers. On Friday, buses carried 1,62,162 passengers from Chennai. Officials said compared to the previous year, online reservation for buses has increased significantly this year. Around 1.4 lakh passengers booked their tickets online across Tamil Nadu, which is an all time high in recent years, said officials. Besides, transport department opened special counters at Dr MGR bus terminus, Koyambedu to provide assistance to commuters. Aihik Sur By Express News Service HYDERABAD: November 3, 1988. It was a chilly morning in Patna when the-then Prime Minster Rajiv Gandhi, who was touring the city on official business, received a call from his PMO. Ronen Sen, the then Joint Secretary in his PMO informed that the Ministry of External Affairs just received an SOS from the Maldivian president asking India's help to rescue him from an attempted coup. On this day, 30 years ago, India shot into the global limelight when it intervened into the attempted coup of then Maldivian president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's administration by the Peoples Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). On Sunday, security personnel who participated in the mission, famously known as Operation Cactus, gave a first-hand account of how they secured the Maldivian president. Group Captain Ashok K Chordia, Lieutenant General K Ramachandra Rao and Wing Commander Unni Kartha, who were all part of this mission, recalled their experiences in a meeting organised by the NGO Social Cause in the city. Chordia, who now works as a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies said, "It all began at 6:30 AM when then- MEA Joint Secretary Kuldip Sahdev received an SOS from the Maldives." The Peoples Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), backed by Maldivian businessman Abdulla Luthufi, mounted a coup in the country. "The Maldivian president hid in Male from where the SOS was sent. Initially, the rebels thought Gayoom had left for India. That gave us a little bit of time," said Chordia. Back in the country, deliberations regarding the issue had started. "The Prime Minister was at Patna at that time. As soon as he returned to New Delhi at around 11.30 am, his first question was: Should we do this? This can happen in our country someday and it is in our interest to protect them." The challenges were myriad. The army did not have proper intelligence. "There was a serious lack of intelligence. We did not know the strength or the capabilities of the rebels. We did not know who controlled the airport at Hulhule." Hulhule is an island in the Maldives, 4.5 km from Maldives' capital Male, from where the security personnel gained entry into the country. After much deliberation and planning, paratroopers belonging to the 44 Squadron of the Indian Air Force, working in Rajasthan and Lucknow, left from Agra Air Force Station at 6 pm. "We had no idea where we were going. There was high secrecy. We all speculated we could be going to Sri Lanka since the LTTE conflict was going on there. It seemed like a logical assumption." "We had no maps or naval charts. It was literally like flying in the dark," he added. It was only when Chordia and others were distributed ammunition, and briefed about their plans after more than two hours into their journey, that they realised that they were going to Maldives, he said. However, the landing was a problem since there was no way to know whether the airport was in the control of rebels. "So how do you land on an island when you do not know whether the people there are friends or enemies? A code word was decided: "hudiya". If we say "hudiya", and get back "hudiya", it meant that the coast was clear. That day, the plane's captain Captain Bewoor sent a message on the radio saying: Do you have a message for me? It replied: hudia, hudia, hudia." It was 11:30 PM when the paratroopers landed in Hulhule. "When we landed, the rebels could make out only our silhouette in the dark. They got scared and thought we were around 1,600. On the other hand, we realised that their strength was just around 80. They started escaping. On their way, they killed 19 people and took hostages, including a Maldivian minister and his wife." In the first wave, around 200 of Indian paratroopers had arrived, subsequently, 1000 more entered the country to rescue the President. The Indian troops went from Hulhule to Male on a boat and secured the President inside the National Security Services building in the capital. Meanwhile, the rebels took off in a civilian boat. "The INS Betwa set sail from Cochin, INS Godavari which was returning from Australia was diverted and INS TIR returning from Seychelles was also diverted, in a bid to stop them from escaping. The Indian ships fired on the rebel ship forcing the rebels to surrender." By Associated Press SAYULA: Thousands of Central American migrants traveling in a caravan through southern Mexico had their brief hopes of reaching the country's capital on Saturday dashed after the governor of Veracruz state pulled an offer of dozens of buses to take them there. Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes announced Friday evening that authorities in Veracruz would be providing not only humanitarian assistance to the migrants but buses to leapfrog them to Mexico City after three grueling weeks spent walking along highways and hitching rides to reach the coastal state. "It is very important that they be able to move soon from Veracruz toward another place," Yunes said in a video message. "For that reason, we also offered them transportation so that, if possible, tomorrow ... they may be able to go to Mexico City or to the place they wish." Organizers of the caravan of about 4,000 migrants told its members that they would be leaving the town of Sayula around 5 a.m. Saturday in convoys of 10 buses for the 10- to 12-hour trip. A jubilant caravan coordinator told the group: "We are all going!" Migrants sleep inside a hotel that was abandoned after being damaged in last year's earthquake, in Matias Romero, Oaxaca state, Mexico, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018. Most of the main caravan of Central American migrants spent a rain-drenched night outside, before continuing their slow walk through southern Mexico. (Photo | AP) But almost immediately afterward, Yunes released a second video saying that because Mexico City's water system was undergoing maintenance and 7 million of its people would be without water over the weekend, it would not be correct to send the migrants there. The maintenance has been known about for weeks. Instead he offered to have the migrants taken to another city in Veracruz until the problem in Mexico City is resolved. "I want to make an offer to the migrants that while this problem is being resolved they accept my invitation to go to a city in Veracruz" that has the conditions to host them, he said. Migrants expressed surprise and disappointment at the decision, and it was not immediately known what they would do Saturday. "We believe it was a manipulation and a game played with the sentiments of the migrants," said 21-year-old migrant Osman Quiroz. "It is disagreeable news since the people were happy." ALSO READ | Donald Trump suggests firing at migrant caravan if people throw stones Caravan organizers released a statement rejecting Yunes' decision and demanding that he fulfill his offer of buses to Mexico City. The offer of buses to Mexico City and the subsequent reversal came after the migrants' request for buses to the capital were ignored by the Mexican government days earlier when they were in Juchitan, Oaxaca state. Earlier in the day, a third caravan of migrants this time from El Salvador waded over the Suchiate River into Mexico on Friday, bringing another 1,000 to 1,500 people who want to reach the U.S. border. The third caravan tried to cross the bridge between Guatemala and Mexico, but Mexican authorities told those traveling in it they would have to show passports and visas and enter in groups of 50 for processing. The Salvadorans expressed misgivings that they would be deported, so they turned around and waded across a shallow stretch of the river to enter Mexico. Although police were present, they did not try to physically stop the migrants, who later walked along a highway toward the nearest large city, Tapachula. Mexico is now faced with the unprecedented situation of having three caravans stretched out over 300 miles (500 kilometers) of highways in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, with a total of about 6,000 migrants. The first, largest group of mainly Honduran migrants entered Mexico on Oct. 19. Though the first caravan once numbered as many as 7,000, it has shrunk significantly. It has been hard to know their exact numbers as people scatter across highways and in small towns. The second caravan, also of about 1,000 to 1,500 people, entered Mexico earlier this week and is now in Mapastepec, Chiapas. The second group includes Hondurans, Salvadorans and some Guatemalans. In addition, the government identified a fourth, smaller group of 300 Central American migrants walking further ahead, in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. Central American migrants, part of the caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, get a ride on trucks, in Donaji, Oaxaca state, Mexico, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. (Photo | AP) It remained unclear how many migrants would make it; 20 days of scorching heat, constant walking, chills, rain and illness had taken their toll. Mexico's Interior Department says nearly 3,000 of the migrants in the first caravan have applied for refuge in Mexico; hundreds more have returned home. Honduran migrant Saul Guzman, 48, spent the night under a tin roof in the Oaxaca state town of Matias Romero with his son Dannys, 12, before setting out for the town of Donaji, 30 miles (47 kilometers) north. "I have been through a lot," said Guzman. "I want to spend my time differently, not in poverty." The migrants made a grueling 40-mile (65-kilometer) trek from Juchitan, Oaxaca, on Thursday, after they failed to get the bus transportation they had hoped for. Hitching rides on Friday allowed them to arrive early at their destination for the day, Donaji, and some headed to a town even farther north, Sayula. Immigration agents and police have been nibbling at the edges of the first two caravans. A federal official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said 153 migrants in the second caravan were detained Wednesday during highway inspections in Chiapas, a short distance from the Guatemalan border. There has also been pressure on the first caravan. Federal police began pulling freight trucks over and forcing migrants off, saying their habit of clinging to the tops or sides of the trucks was dangerous. At other points along the route, police have forced overloaded pickups to drop off migrants. On previous days, they have ordered passenger vans to stop helping with transportation. President Donald Trump has ordered U.S. troops to the Mexican border in response to the caravans of migrants. More than 7,000 active duty troops have been told to deploy to Texas, Arizona and California. Trump says has told the U.S. military mobilizing at the southwest border that if U.S. troops face rock-throwing migrants, they should react as though the rocks were "rifles." He also plans to sign an order next week that could lead to the large-scale detention of migrants crossing the southern border and bar anyone caught crossing illegally from claiming asylum. Though some migrants clashed with Mexican police at a bridge on the Guatemala border, they have repeatedly denied coming with any ill intentions, saying they're fleeing poverty and violence. "We aren't killers," said Stephany Lopez, a 21-year-old Salvadoran with the first caravan. Similar caravans have occurred regularly over the years and passed largely unnoticed, but Trump has focused on the latest marchers seeking to make border security a hot-button issue in next week's midterm elections. By PTI LAHORE: The husband of a Pakistani Christian woman acquitted by the Supreme Court after being sentenced to death for blasphemy has appealed to the international community, including US President Donald Trump, to help the family leave the Islamic nation, saying he feared for their safety. Though the apex court's judgement was pronounced on Wednesday, there has been no official confirmation yet about the status of Asia Bibi that whether she was released from the jail or where she has been kept after being released, if at all. On Thursday, an official of the Multan jail, where Bibi was languishing, had told PTI that she was released on early hours of that day. However, it is believed that Bibi and her family members are 'kept' at some safe place by the Pakistani intelligence agencies. Also the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) patron-in-chief Pir Afzal Qadri had claimed that the woman has been sent back to jail on "our demand". ALSO READ | Pakistani Christians demand equal rights, abolition of blasphemy law "I request President Donald Trump to help us to leave Pakistan and I also request the prime minister of the UK and Canada to help us. Help us in getting freedom," Bibi husband Ashiq Masih said in a video message. Masih also said that he feared for his family's safety. Bibi, a 47-year-old mother of four, was convicted in 2010 after being accused of insulting Islam in a row with her neighbours. Asia Bibi with her children. (Photo | Twitter/@rubynsandhu) She always maintained her innocence, but has spent most of the past eight years in solitary confinement. The Supreme Court's judgement had triggered violent protests across Pakistan with agitators led by hardline political party TLP and other groups blocking major highways and roads, torching vehicles, damaging public and private properties and attacking policemen in different parts of the country. The protests were later called off late Friday night after the agitators reached a deal with the government, which assured initiation of a legal process to place Bibi on the exit control list that will prevent her from flying abroad. The government also assured not to oppose a review petition filed against the Supreme Court's judgement. Bibi's lawyer Saiful Malook fled Pakistan on Saturday, claiming that he was facing life threats from sections of lawyers and it was difficult for him to practice in the prevailing situation. He said he would return to Pakistan to represent his client at the hearing of the review petition if the army provided him security. Blasphemy is a hugely inflammatory issue in Pakistan and spark attacks and even killings at the hands of vigilante mobs. Meanwhile, police booked 5,500 people under terrorism and other charges in different parts of Punjab and Islamabad during the three-day protests following Bibi's acquittal. The Punjab police said it has registered over 100 FIRs across the province and booked over 7,500 people, including TLP chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi and patron-in-chief Afzal Qadri under terrorism, attempted murder and other charges. According to a source in the government, there has been an "instruction" from the "top" not to arrest the TLP leadership with whom the government has reached an agreement to end the country-wide protests. Pakistan's military establishment also played a vital role in persuading the TLP to end the protest, the source said. By Online Desk COLOMBO: Sri Lankan parliament speaker on Monday refused to acknowledge Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka until he proves a majority in the Parliament. Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena Sunday announced that he would lift the suspension of parliament in 10 days as international pressure mounted on him to open the legislature and resolve a leadership struggle. He shut parliament a day after sacking Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on October 26 and appointing former president Mahinda Rajapakse to the post. "The majority believes that the changes made in Parliament were against the constitution and the parliamentary tradition," the speaker of parliament, Karu Jayasuriya, said in a statement. "Therefore, I am requested by the majority of the parliament to accept the position which was prior to these changes. Until the new group shows the majority, I will have to accept the status quo prior to the changes," he added ALSO READ | US urges Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena to immediately reconvene parliament However, Wickremesinghe insisted he was still prime minister and demanded a vote in parliament to prove his majority. The closure of the assembly prevented a vote to decide who enjoyed the majority of the 225-member assembly. ALSO READ | Ousted Sri Lanka PM Ranil Wickremesinghe seeks emergency parliament session The United Nations had led a chorus of international voices demanding an early resumption of parliament to end the bitter power struggle between Wickremesinghe and Rajapakse. By PTI LILONGWE: Praising the Indian community in Malawi for making "significant contribution" in economic activities, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu Sunday said India is on the move and global organisations like the World Bank and the IMF have also appreciated the country's economic progress. Naidu reached here earlier in the day on the last leg of his six-day three-nation tour to Africa, which aims at deepening India's strategic cooperation with Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi. ALSO READ | Make teaching of mother-tongue compulsory in school: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu "India is on the move. It is not Naidu which says so but World Bank and IMF also say so," the Vice President said while addressing the Indian community here. Not only banks but rating agency Moody's has also given good ratings to India, Naidu said, adding this is a happy news for the country. Citing the success of the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, Naidu said in October the GST collection crossed a record Rs one lakh crore. "That is how transformation is happening. One tax one slab throughout the country, that is the ultimate aim," he said. India, one of the fastest growing major economies in the world, is on the course to become a 5 trillion economy by 2025, he said, adding that the India story, as it is unfolding today, is a promising one. Naidu quoted the World Bank's 'Doing Business 2019' report which said that India, which advanced to 77th place in the global ranking, is now the region's top-ranked economy. "Starting a business was made easier through consolidation of multiple application forms and an introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (GST)," the report stated. Some people were sceptical of Jan Dhan accounts and demonetisation but these moves have achieved their purpose, Naidu said. Praising the Indian community, the Vice President said, "I am happy to note that you have made a significant contribution to find a place of leadership, in the economic activities of the country. Some of you have attained positions of excellence, in your respective professions. " The Indian community enjoys a reputation of being a peace-loving community and has been able to assimilate well with the locals, he added. According to the Indian Embassy here, there are about 8,500 Malawians of Indian origin who predominantly originated from Gujarat and are concentrated in major cities like Lilongwe, Blantyre, Limbe, Zomba and Mzuzu. ALSO READ | Visit to help improve bilateral trade with Latin America: M Venkaiah Naidu The number of Indian nationals (NRIs) in the African country at present is about 2,500. Most of them hail from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. They are primarily engaged in trading, agriculture and agro-business, pharmaceutical and hospitality. Earlier, on his arrival at the Lilongwe airport, Naidu was received by Malawi's Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Dr Emmanuel Fabian, Education Minister Bright Msaka and High Commissioner of India to Malawi Suresh Kumar Menon. The event saw the presence of Manager of the United Nations-led project Harinder Sood, the Japanese Prime Ministers Special Advisor Kentaro Sonoura, and representatives from several diplomatic agencies. Addressing the opening ceremony, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam Peoples Army Sen. Lt. Gen. Pham Ngoc Minh said that Vietnams participation in the UN peacekeeping operations has been a breakthrough in realising the countrys foreign policy, marking a distinct change in both the quality and quantity of its multilateral cooperation, especially in defence and security. He noted that as Vietnam is actively making preparations for deploying a team of engineers to a suitable mission as requested by the UN, the country has also been chosen to host the first training course in Southeast Asia within the projects framework. This allocation of responsibility reflects the UNs recognition and positive evaluation of Vietnams contributions to peacekeeping operations. The course will gather 16 trainees from Bhutan, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Timor Leste, Singapore, and Vietnam under the training of 20 specialists from Japan. It will equip them with knowledge and techniques to power heavy engineering equipment like bulldozers, excavators, motor graders, and semi-trailer trucks in order to carry out the operations of UN peacekeeping missions engineer units. The Triangular Partnership Project was initiated by the UN in 2014 with a view to improving the capacity of a rapid deployment of support forces for UN peacekeeping missions. It has been focusing on promoting the capacity of engineer units, including organising pilot and official training courses in various countries. On June 25, 2018, the UN Department of Field Support chose Vietnam as one of the training locations under this project in Southeast Asia. By PTI ISLAMABAD: The just-concluded joint military exercise between Pakistan and Russian armies has reinforced the existing relationship between the two militaries, according to Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Bajwa. The Pakistan and Russian armies concluded the third joint military drill on Sunday during which troops from both the countries took part in various exercises and also exchanged mutual counter-terrorism experiences. A Russian Army contingent arrived here on October 22 to take part in the third edition of a joint bilateral military training exercise, Druzhba-III. The two armies conducted various drills in the mountains in Nowshehra district of northwestern Pakistan till November 4, which was also witnessed by Gen Bajwa. "This exercise is great forum to reinforce existing relationship between the two militaries," the Pakistan Army Chief said. Gen Bajwa also visited the National Counter Terrorism Centre in Pabbi in Nowshehra. "The exercise focused on counter-terrorism training of the Special Operation Forces of Pakistan and Ground Forces of Russian Federation while exchanging mutual counter terrorism experiences," the Pakistan Army said, adding the Chief of Army Staff appreciated the participating troops for their dedication, skill and professionalism. Russian Deputy Head of Mission in Pakistan, Valadamir Betezyuk was also present. Pakistan and Russia are trying to bolster defence ties and in August this year they inked an agreement allowing Pakistani troops to train in Russia. The two countries have been holding the 'Friendship' drills since 2016. In October 2016, they held their first-ever joint military exercise in Pakistan. In 2017, over 200 servicemen took part in the drills, hosted by Russia at Minralney Vody in the North Caucasus at an altitude of 2,300 meters above sea level. Pakistan's defence ties with Russia have moved past the bitter Cold War hostilities in recent years and the chill in the relations between Pakistan and the US has further pushed the country towards Russia and China. Over the past three years, Russia has supplied four Mi-35M combat and cargo helicopters to Pakistan. By PTI WASHINGTON: The sons of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi have asked Saudi authorities to return the body of their father so the family can properly grieve, they told CNN in an interview aired Sunday. Khashoggi was killed inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul by a team sent from Riyadh on October 2, a murder Turkey's president said was ordered from "the highest levels" of Saudi Arabia's government. "I really hope that whatever happened wasn't painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death," Abdullah Khashoggi told the US network during the interview in Washington. ALSO READ | Journalist Khashoggi's murder violated international law: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo His brother Salah said "all that we want right now is to bury him in Al Baqi in Medina with the rest of his family," referencing a cemetery in Saudi Arabia. I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon. Turkey's chief prosecutor said recently that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and also confirmed the body was dismembered. Yasin Aktay, an advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hinted in an article published on Friday that the body may even have been destroyed in acid. Khashoggi's killing has provoked widespread outrage and sharp criticism from Washington, usually the staunchest of allies. Khashoggi's sons voiced worry that the work of their father, a columnist for The Washington Post, was being distorted for political reasons. "I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don't agree with," Salah told CNN. My fear is that it's being over-politicized. Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy, that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. ALSO READ | Journalist Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered: Turkey The brothers said they have relied primarily on news reports to piece together an understanding of their father's death. "There's a lot of ups and downs. We're trying to get the story -- bits and pieces of the story to complete the whole picture," Abdullah said. "It's confusing and difficult. It's not a normal situation and not a normal death. Salah emphasized that "the King has stressed that everybody will be brought to justice. And I have faith in that," he added The murdered journalist's fiancee meanwhile has called on US President Donald Trump to back Turkey's efforts to probe the death. By AFP BANGKOK: His family of seven share two small, squalid rooms in a cockroach-infested Bangkok apartment. But like many Pakistani Christians living illegally in Thailand, Farooz's sharpest worry is not poverty but arrest. There is no safe return to the homeland they fled due to religious persecution, where Islamist invective surged higher last week after the release of Asia Bibi on blasphemy charges. Christians make up less than two percent of Pakistan's Muslim-majority population, but are the sporadic targets of hardline Islamists. Churches have been bombed while pernicious charges of blasphemy are easily pinned on the group, often to settle personal scores. Mass protests against last week's pardon of Asia Bibi -- a Christian woman on death row since 2010 over allegations of insulting Islam -- have put conditions for the minority in Pakistan back under the spotlight. It has also reminded those who fled, thousands of whom live in the shadows in Bangkok, what awaits if they return. "We cannot go back, our country does not accept us, and no other country wants to take us ... so we are trapped here in Thailand," says Farooz, who gave an alias to avoid being identified by police. Yet the minority are deprived refugee rights in Thailand, and appear increasingly unwelcome as a police crackdown takes place. Aged 15, Farooz is erudite and multi-lingual -- he speaks Urdu, Punjabi, English and Thai. But neither he nor his three younger siblings have gone to school for the last five years. Instead, they are forced to pass the days inside -- unable to work legally and facing the thinly-disguised scorn of their Thai neighbours. Thailand is not a signatory to UN conventions protecting refugees. But it used to be a sanctuary of sorts, where relaxed visa rules allowed entry and officials could be enticed into turning a blind eye to overstayers. Thai immigration police say they have detained dozens of the minority in recent weeks for overstaying visas or entering the country illegally. Around 70 of those detained chose voluntary repatriation -- many more who were not arrested are believed to have followed. "They have decided to return to a place where animosity towards them is at its peak rather than face indefinite detention in Bangkok," says Wilson Chowdhry, of the British Pakistani Christian Association, which helps refugees in Thailand. "They will face persecution, some may be accused of blasphemy ... none have any money or property left as they sold it to get to Thailand," Chowdhry added. Pakistani-Christians in Bangkok numbered around 7,400 two years ago, advocacy groups say. Now around 3,000 remain, some registered with the UNHCR, the rest living underground. Around 1,000 were resettled to "third countries" by the UNHCR or under private sponsorship schemes. - Children of nowhere - Farooz's family came to Thailand in 2013 from Gojra, in Pakistan's Punjab province, the site of a pogrom by Muslim hardliners in 2009 that resulted in seven Christians being burned to death. His father says he witnessed the murder of the Christians and subsequently became a target of death threats and unsubstantiated legal claims aimed at silencing him. The near-daily threats eventually prompted the family to leave. But in Thailand they have found themselves in an administrative bind. With their tourist visas long-expired, the family were detained by Thai authorities in an immigration sweep in 2015. They were eventually released on bail on condition they report to the police every month. That is despite the UNHCR recognising the family as refugees. But bureacracy also dogs their resettlement case. The UNHCR says it needs further documents from Pakistani authorities to put the family on the official pending list for resettlement. Yet the Pakistan Embassy in Bangkok says those documents can only be issued in the country they fled. So Farooz and his family wait it out in Thailand, reliant on charity handouts, occasional menial work and each other. Sobbing quietly, his mother says the impermanence has worn the family down. "I worry for children.. what will happen to them without education? Where will they belong?" she says. "I want to see my mother again, my family... my home. But they will kill us if we have to go back." By PTI SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with visiting Cuban president in Pyongyang and discussed "crucial issues of common concern" on the current international situation, the North's state media reported Monday. The visit by Miguel Diaz-Canel comes amid stalled talks between North Korea and the United States and only days after Washington imposed fresh economic restrictions on Cuba. ALSO READ | Japan PM Shinzo Abe open to summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un Washington's ties with Havana were fully restored in 2015 after more than half a century of enmity, but have deteriorated since President Donald Trump took office. Communist Cuba is one of North Korea's few remaining allies. "There was an in-depth exchange of views on the crucial issues of common concern on the international situation and a consensus of views on all issues was reached," said the official KCNA news agency. Diaz-Canel was greeted by Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju at the Pyongyang International Airport on Sunday, KCNA reported, where he was given a 21-gun salute and later attended a banquet and enjoyed a special welcoming concert with them. Giving a toast at the banquet, Kim said his meeting with the Cuban leader "marked a watershed in demonstrating the will to carry forward forever the friendship between the two countries". In response, Diaz-Canel said he was willing to "meet all challenges by the hostile forces" while carrying forward their "traditional friendly and cooperative relations", according to KCNA. ALSO READ | US Secretary of State Pompeo ends fourth North Korea trip, says progress made with Kim Jong Un Diaz-Canel took office in April in a historic transition of power on the Caribbean island, succeeding Raul Castro, who took over from his elder brother Fidel, father of the 1959 revolution. Fidel Castro visited North Korea in 1986 to meet founder-leader Kim Il-Sung, and Pyongyang held three days of official mourning when Castro died in November 2016. North Korea sent a delegation led by Choe Ryong-Hae, a senior aide to its leader Kim Jong Un, to Havana for Castro's funeral. ALSO READ | Kremlin is working on plans to host Kim Jong Un in Russia Cuba in the past has flouted international sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme. In 2013 Panama seized a North Korean ship carrying an undeclared Cuban arms shipment of Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets hidden under sacks of sugar. North Korea insisted the weapons were being shipped for repair, prior to their return. By Online Desk COLOMBO: All Tamil 'political prisoners' in Sri Lankan jails may taste freedom soon, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's son Namal indicated. The move is aimed at persuading the legislators in Sri Lanka's main Tamil party - Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to support Rajapaksa in his bid to prove majority in the parliament. Since the war with the LTTE ended in 2009, the government has denied that those imprisoned LTTE members are 'political prisoners'. "President (Maithripala) Sirisena and Prime Minister Rajapaksa would make a decision (on the issue) very soon," Namal tweeted in the Tamil language. Tamils say some of the prisoners have been held over a long time under the anti-terrorism law without even being formally charged. So far Rajapaksa has 100 MPs on his side while sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has 103 MPs in the 225-member assembly. Most of the 22 remaining MPs, including the TNA, are likely to oppose Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa camp had already enticed a TNA legislator to join ranks by giving him a deputy ministerial position. The TNA's parliamentary strength has been reduced to 15 as a result and there was speculation that at least 4 more of them were willing to support Rajapaksa. The TNA has said it will support a no-trust motion Rajapaksa, amid mounting pressure on President Sirisena to let the suspended parliament hold a vote to end the ongoing political crisis. In a statement, the TNA Saturday said Rajapaksa's appointment was a violation of the Constitution's 19th amendment. The alliance had "decided to vote in favour of the no-confidence motion against Rajapaksa," the statement said. Rajapaksa claims he has enough numbers to prove his majority and at least six of Wickremasinghe's men have defected to his side. Wickremesinghe was sacked by President Sirisena on October 26. (With PTI inputs) By AFP HERAT: The Taliban is demanding the body of an assassin who shot dead a powerful Afghan police chief, in return for the remains of 13 people killed in an army helicopter crash in territory controlled by the militants. Tribal elders in the restive western province of Farah bordering Iran have been handling negotiations for the exchange of bodies for nearly a week. So far only 12 of the 25 people killed in the helicopter accident in Taliban-controlled Anar Dara district on October 31 have been given to Afghan authorities. Officials blamed bad weather for the crash, but the Taliban claimed its fighters brought down the aircraft. "We want to hand over the bodies from the helicopter crash to their respective families via the International Committee for the Red Cross, but on condition that the enemy hand over the body of martyred fighter Zabihullah Abu Dajana, who killed Commander Abdul Raziq, to his family," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said in WhatsApp message. Among the bodies returned were those of provincial councillor Jamila Amini, civilians and businessmen, Farah governor spokesman Nasir Mehri told AFP. "No military officials have been recovered yet," Mehri said. Farah police spokesman Mohibullah Mohib confirmed that 12 bodies had been recovered thanks to the efforts of tribal elders. "The rest of them are still with the enemy," he added. The bodies still in Taliban hands include those of the deputy army corps commander for western Afghanistan and the head of the Farah provincial council. Such horse-trading of bodies between the Taliban and tribal elders acting on behalf of the Afghan government is not unusual. But the remains of the gunman who killed General Abdul Raziq, a renowned anti-Taliban strongman credited with keeping a lid on the insurgency in the south, has particularly high propaganda value for the militant group. Raziq was among three people killed when the shooter wearing an Afghan security forces uniform opened fire on a high-level security meeting in Kandahar city on October 18. General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, was standing near Raziq and narrowly escaped unhurt. Since the attack, the killer's body has been kept in the morgue of Mirawais hospital in the provincial capital, a Kandahar health official told AFP on the condition of anonymity. Muslims typically bury the dead as quickly as possible, normally within 24 hours of a person's death. He made the statement during a meeting with Mayor of Shanghai Ying Yong on the occasion of his visit to attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) in the city on November 5. The PM affirmed that the Vietnamese Party, Government, and people treasure the development and enhancement of friendly neighborliness and comprehensive cooperation with their Chinese counterparts, as well as support the exchange and cooperation with Chinese localities, including Shanghai. He asked Shanghai to facilitate all-level visits and existing cooperation mechanisms with Ho Chi Minh City; as well as actively study the extension of new cooperation mechanisms with Vietnamese ministries, agencies, and localities, especially in the fields where Shanghai has strengths and Vietnam has demand. The leader expressed his wish that Shanghai would assist Vietnamese firms in joining the CIIE and make it easier for Vietnams agro-forestry-fishery products to gain presence in the markets of Shanghai and, more broadly, China. PM Phuc applauded Shanghai and Vietnamese localities to hold people-to-people exchanges and assist Vietnam in personnel training. Ying, for his part, highly valued the traditional friendship and mutually-beneficial collaboration with Vietnamese ministries, agencies, and localities. He expressed his hope to expand coordination with Vietnamese localities to push forward the effective and practical development of bilateral economic-trade and tourism ties, contributing to strengthening the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. At the meeting in Hanoi, President of the Vietnam Womens Union Ha expressed her appreciation of the DPRKs support for Vietnam in wartime, while also lauding the achievements of the Socialist Womens Union of the DPRK over the years. Vietnamese women have held important roles in the nations political system as well as its socio-economic development, she noted, adding that they have arranged and participated in many forums focusing on women in socialist countries. Underlining the long-standing traditional ties, the host voiced her hope that cooperation between the two womens organisations will be strengthened in the coming time, especially as they are set to increase experience sharing in womens activities, the education of political ideology, along with other activities in staff organisation and support for women, and more. For her part, Jang Chun-sil said the Socialist Womens Union of the DPRK formerly known the Korean Democratic Womens Union is the only mass organisation for women in the DPRK. It was founded by President Kim Il-sung in November 18, 1945. She informed her host that the union has increased exchanges and solidarity with women and female organisations in many countries worldwide, which has helped to foster mutual national understanding, friendship, cooperation, and peacekeeping. The DPRK guest also expressed her hope that the two sides will continue to exchange information on each others activities and on campaigns for women, as well as bolster bilateral cooperation in many spheres, including tourism. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 39F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 39F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. At the meeting, Sonoura handed over Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abes letter of congratulations to the chief of the Communist Party of Vietnam on his election as President of Vietnam. In the letter, PM Abe expressed his belief that under the leadership of Party General Secretary and President Trong, Vietnam will continue developing prosperously. He also wished to continue his close cooperation with the Vietnamese leader to help the Japan-Vietnam extensive strategic partnership grow in a result-oriented and comprehensive manner. The Vietnamese leader thanked Japanese King Akihito for offering his congratulations and PM Abe for sending a special envoy to deliver the letter. He expressed his delight at the comprehensive, strong, and practical expansion of the extensive strategic partnership, affirming that the Vietnamese Party and State have always and will continue to treasure its relations with Japan. General Secretary and President Trong appreciated Japans effective cooperation and assistance in various fields, while also applauding the two sides coordination in holding various meaningful activities to mark the 45th founding anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties throughout the year. The Vietnamese leader asked the two sides to maintain regular high-ranking visits and meetings so as to enhance political trust; promote economic connectivity through stronger ties in investment, trade, ODA provision, agriculture, and labour; boost locality-to-locality links; step up joint human resources training; and make connections between the countries development strategies. The two nations should also intensify friendship between the Vietnamese and Japanese people, he added. For his part, Sonoura thanked his host for the sentiment towards and respect for Japanese leaders. He emphasised that Japan highly values Vietnams recent development successes, as well as its role and active contributions to international and regional affairs. The official affirmed that his country attaches special importance to its cooperation and friendship with Vietnam, and it will work hard to bring their extensive strategic partnership to a new stage of development. Architectural Services Department Senior Architect William Tsang says PMQs spacious corridors and balconies have been conserved and now provide an open space for the public. The PMQ model depicts the buildings former uses in the left block while the right block shows its transformation into the dynamic arts, design and cultural centre that it is today. One of the exhibits is a model of PMQ, the former Police Married Quarters, revealing a snapshot of life inside the building during different eras. Wan Chais Blue House Cluster comprises three different styles of old tenement buildings in one space, which Kenneth Tse says is an architectural treasure. Kenneth Tse says the characteristics of the Blue House Cluster revitalisation project are unique in Hong Kong - restoring both the buildings and the community. Exhibitor Kenneth Tse hopes his model of the Blue House Cluster of buildings can inspire visitors to consider the resettlement of residents in old districts during a time of rapid urban development. Karly Lui, Tomy Lau and Jai Yip (from left) paid several visits to Lai Chi Wo to carry out research for their exhibit. The Lai Chi Wo model includes all the fine details including its feng shui decorations, architectural planning and house design concept. Exhibitors (from left) Karly Lui, Jai Yip and Tomy Laus exhibit of Lai Chi Wo is constructed to scale to give a realistic overview of the ancient village. Hong Kongs iconic urban landscape is well-known for its many skyscrapers, but there is another side to the city - its old and historic buildings. The Hong Kong Institute of Architects first-ever architectural exhibition MORE THAN HIGH-RISEExploring Hong Kong through Architecture is being held in Japan as part of the Hong Kong Week in Tokyo. The exhibition features 16 groups of exhibits by 28 young Hong Kong professionals which explore the notion that Hong Kong has more to offer than high-rise buildings. Sustainable village living Karly Lui, Jai Yip and Tomy Lau are taking part in the expo, showing their handmade scale model of Lai Chi Wo, a 300-year-old Hakka village in Sha Tau Kok. Ms Lui noted that the village is in a remote area, so it can retain its original architectural style as Hong Kong continues to undergo urbanisation. The trio believed the village was high in research value and chose it as their exhibit topic. Before starting work on the model, they paid several visits to Lai Chi Wo to carry out research. Lai Chi Wo is a prime example of a walled Hakka village with its nine narrow horizontal lanes and three vertical lanes. Some villagers took us on a tour of the entire Hakka village and introduced us to every detail and explained the meaning behind each lane, said Mr Lau. The Hakka culture can be distinguished by distinct architecture such as the traditional Chinese roof tiles, old-style window grilles and brick walls. When you look at our model, you can see the feng shui forest at the back, the river and fields in the front, and houses in various states and condition, so you can get a complete picture of Lai Chi Wo, Mr Lau added. We want to present its original appearance. You can even see the feng shui decorations on the model and the house design concept, Ms Lui said. She added that the villagers have always relied on its natural resources, which is a good example of sustainable living and worth exploring. Japan and Hong Kong are facing similar problems. Japan has many abandoned villages. Volunteers want to help by repairing the old buildings. Of course, there are several conservation strategies. We share with them the Hong Kong way of doing it. Tenement treasure Kenneth Tse has worked on conserving the Blue House tenement building cluster in Wan Chai, and is also one of those taking part in the Tokyo exhibition. The Blue House Cluster is one of the projects under Batch II of the Development Bureaus revitalisation scheme. It comprises three tenement buildings constructed from the 1920s to the 1950s - the Blue House, the Yellow House and the Orange House. In such a small area you can see three different styles of old tenement buildings and this is priceless, said Mr Tse. He said the characteristics of the revitalisation project are unique in Hong Kong - restoring both the buildings and the community. In the revitalisation works, the three tenements are connected by a bridge, making it convenient for residents to come and go. Neighbours can also communicate better. Mr Tse hopes his exhibit can inspire visitors to consider the resettlement of residents in old districts during a time of rapid urban development. Hong Kong and Japan both have historical buildings. Whether to demolish or save them is a dilemma everybody is facing. For this project, Hong Kong is trying to save them, so they can remain in the collective memory. Historical timeline Among the exhibits is Architectural Services Department Senior Architect William Tsangs PMQ model. Located in Central, PMQ is the former Police Married Quarters revitalised to become a dynamic arts, design and cultural centre. Mr Tsang said one side of the model depicts a police officers family life, such as how their children would play in the corridors or how families would have meals on the terrace, while the other side demonstrates how PMQ is currently being used, including how designers use the space for their exhibits. PMQ is one of the revitalisation projects under the Development Bureau's Conserving Central initiative. We kept these two buildings and added an exhibition hall called the Qube. This multi-functional hall allows different designers to set up medium to large-scale expos, said Mr Tsang. His exhibit also features historical photos of the former Police Married Quarters and its former residents family photos. Its just like a timeline of history. Everyone will get the big picture by looking at it. Interactive exploration The exhibition runs from November 1 to 11 in Ginza, Tokyo and was opened by Chief Executive Carrie Lam during her trip to Japan. It features a variety of models, diagrams, photos, videos and multimedia displays that explore Hong Kong in different scales and reveal the relationship between architectural design and high-quality city living. Project Leader Vincent Ng said he wanted to showcase that apart from high-rises, there are a lot of old and historic buildings which have been conserved in Hong Kong. Mr Ng added that through their exhibits, the participants can introduce a different side of Hong Kong and showcase their ideas on its history, culture and daily life. A forum on the opportunities and challenges faced by young Hong Kong and Japanese architects is included in the exhibition. It is a chance for an architectural, cultural and intellectual dialogue between architects, scholars and the public from both Hong Kong and Japan. Mrs Lam (second right) views a demonstration of 3D mapping at the Hong Kong Exhibition Area with Mr Yau (right) and Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip (second left). Mrs Lam (left) views a multimedia demonstration at the Hong Kong Exhibition Area with Mr Yau (front row, second left). Chief Executive Carrie Lam (second right) tours the China International Import Expo in Shanghai with Financial Secretary Paul Chan (right) and Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Edward Yau (third right). Chief Executive Carrie Lam today attended the opening ceremony of the inaugural China International Import Expo in Shanghai and introduced the Hong Kong Exhibition Area to President Xi Jinping. With the theme of "Hong Kong In", the Hong Kong Exhibition Area is located inside the China Pavilion of the Country Pavilion for Trade & Investment. Mrs Lam told Mr Xi the theme represents the Hong Kong spirit which strives to make every endeavour to improve and excel, and symbolises Hong Kong's role in assisting international products and services in entering the vast Mainland market. With local enterprises actively joining forces with their Mainland counterparts to participate in the Belt & Road Initiative, Hong Kong is the ideal platform for helping Mainland enterprises go global and assisting international companies to enter the Mainland market, she added. The exhibition area introduces Hong Kong's strengths, major infrastructure projects, popular tourist attractions, and innovation and technology products and inventions by using multimedia technologies, such as a transparent projection touch screen, mixed reality and holograms. Other themes being featured include Hong Kong's participation in the Belt & Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development, its contributions to the reform and opening up of the country, and the implementation of "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law. Apart from the Hong Kong Exhibition Area, over 160 Hong Kong enterprises are exhibiting at the Enterprise & Business Exhibition covering both trade in goods and services. Mrs Lam toured the Enterprise & Business Exhibition and the Hong Kong Exhibition Area with Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Edward Yau. Speaking at a parallel forum themed on Trade & Innovation under the Hongqiao International Economic & Trade Forum, Mrs Lam said technological advancement will drive growth in trade, but to realise it, free trade has become ever more important. She called on participating world leaders at the expo to re-affirm commitment to free trade to reap the full benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Mrs Lam also attended a dinner hosted by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government for representatives of Hong Kong chambers of commerce and enterprises participating at the Enterprise & Business Exhibition. The expo, held at the National Exhibition & Convention Center, runs until November 10. Chief Executive Carrie Lam This parallel session is on trade and innovation, and the topic - Seizing the Opportunity of the Fourth Industrial Revolution & Promoting New Drivers for Trade Growth - is certainly timely and promising. In his book The Fourth Industrial Revolution published in 2016, Prof Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, reminded us that we are at the beginning of a revolution that is fundamentally changing the way we live, work, and relate to one another. By the same token, President Xi Jinping said in his speech in May this year, at the Academician Meeting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, that science and technology have never as profoundly affected the country's future and destiny and the people's welfare as it has today. True, while the exact impact of technological advances such as AI, robotics, Internet of Things, big data, etc, has yet to be fully grasped, we are already seeing major changes, or disruptions, in how we conduct business, arrange transactions, make payments, and even interact with each other. These changes inevitably have placed unprecedented demands on governments and institutions charged with planning and managing the economy and looking after the welfare of the people, ranging from education to health care. Technology can and will create winners and losers. If governments don't get it right, if we can't stay on top of the innovation and technology curve, if we can't ensure inclusion, our industries, our workers, our societies will pay the price. Some shared understanding among governments is particularly crucial if we are to find collective win-win solutions. Hong Kong is acutely aware of the critical importance of I&T in today's world, and we are focusing on developing I&T not only as a new driver for our economic growth, but also for applications in managing our city and looking after our elderly. I have therefore put in place an ambitious, eight-pronged strategy to drive Hong Kong's I&T movement three months after I took office last July. These include increasing resources for research and development; pooling together technology talent; providing investment funding; providing technological research infrastructure; reviewing existing legislations and regulations; opening up government data; promoting innovation in government procurement and strengthening popular science education. We are also moving ahead on a comprehensive Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong. We are investing heavily on the above. Over the past 15 months, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has committed a total of US$10 billion to support the above-mentioned strategy. In addition, we have halved the profits tax rate to a single digit of 8.25% to support small and medium-sized enterprises and startups while incentivising private businesses to invest in R&D through super tax deductions. Our goal is to double Hong Kong's R&D expenditure from the current 0.73% to 1.5% of our GDP within a period of five years. We know that Hong Kong cannot do it all alone. Part of the funding committed is for setting up two research clusters, one for healthcare technology, the other for artificial intelligence and robotics at the Hong Kong Science Park. Institut Pasteur from France, the RWTH Aachen University of Germany as well as the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine & Health and the Institute of Automation in Beijing under the Chinese Academy of Sciences have already expressed interest in joining the clusters to strengthen collaboration with Hong Kong. Equally important, we are strengthening our co-operation with Mainland China on I&T. In September, we entered into a comprehensive Arrangement with the Ministry of Science & Technology of the nation, which will serve as an action guide and framework for us to take forward the various co-operation initiatives in such areas as scientific research, development of platforms, nurturing of talents and transfer of results. There is also the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which comprises Hong Kong, Macau and nine other cities in the Guangdong province. Leveraging on Hong Kong's unique strengths under "one country, two systems" while emphasising on complementarity of the cities, Hong Kong is destined to play an important role in the bay area's rise as Asia's Silicon Valley. Technological advancement will no doubt drive growth in trade. From railways and steamships to the computer, technology has long renewed trade and the economic and social growth it can stimulate. The technologies of this 21st century, from artificial intelligence and blockchain to the Internet of Things and so much more, will surely reshape and re-imagine global trade. The rise of e-commerce is a case in point. And we have heard from the World Bank President in his speech this morning on how e-commerce has helped to lift people out of poverty in a province in China. I am sure later on we will hear more from Jack Ma of Alibaba. Global retail e-commerce sales reached US$2.3 trillion last year, up 25% over 2016. At the same time, trade will create demand for products and services, which will in turn provide the incentive for innovation. The World Trade Organization's World Trade Report 2018, focusing on how global commerce is being transformed by digital technologies, also sees great promise in the future of trade. The report notes that trade could grow by 1.8 to two percentage points more a year until 2030, thanks to plummeting trade costs realised by new technology. The potential is there for all to see, but in order to realise it, free trade has become ever more important. As a founding member of the WTO, Hong Kong has over the years been one of the freest and most open economies in the world. We have benefitted immensely from free trade for decades, which is instrumental in developing Hong Kong into the international trade and business centre as it is today. It is the reason why we continue to promote free trade, both by supporting the rule-based multilateral system, and expanding our network of free trade agreements. Chief Executive Carrie Lam gave these remarks at a parallel session of the Hongqiao International Economic & Trade Forum themed on Trade & Innovation in Shanghai on November 5. Hong Kong will continue to be the countrys strategic gateway to the world. Chief Executive Carrie Lam made the statement today in Shanghai after touring the inaugural China International Import Expo. Mrs Lam said the theme of the Hong Kong Exhibition Area located at the China Pavilion of the Country Pavilion for Trade & Investment is "Hong Kong In", symbolising Hong Kong's role in the past four decades as a strategic gateway for the reform and opening up of the country. She said with the development of the Belt & Road Initiative, Hong Kong will continue to play this role. The city will help Mainland enterprises go global and assist international companies in entering the Mainland market. Hong Kong can also provide professional services to Mainland enterprises which are planning to invest in Belt & Road countries, she added. Regarding a media report claiming the Chief Executive is considering a top-level reshuffle, Mrs Lam said the report was just speculation. Mrs Lam added she is not planning to split the Transport & Housing Bureau at the moment as the Government still has much work to do. Brian Butenschoen has been the Executive Director of the Oregon Brewers Guild since 2005, but has reportedly vacated the role amid mysterious conditions, according to an internal OBG email that was circulated late last week. Butenschoen was a Belmont Station employee before landing the job, which was a much smaller operation in the years before the modern brewing boom. The Oregon Brewers Guild is the not-for-profit craft beer industry trade group that presents such events as Zwickelmania, Cheers to Belgian Beers, and the Portland Fresh Hop Festival, as well as acting as a lobbyist for Oregon craft brewery members.In an announcement sent out by current Oregon Brewers Guild elected president Dan Engler (of Occidental Brewing), Butenschoen was thanked for thirteen years of service. It's unclear whether Butenschoen left the guild to seek other opportunities or if the board decided it was time for a change. But the sudden vacancy of the top position at the guild without a replacement lined up invites some speculation as to internal struggles.The New School reached out to president Dan Engler and other OBG elected committee members and received no official response. Another inquiry to Brian Butenschoen also has not yet received any response. The email from Engler to OBG brewery members notes that for now the Executive Director duties will be split up between elected board members.The Oregon Brewers Guild had recently hired an assistant director, Rena Krumholz, in early October. It's worth noting that there have been longtime complaints about guild's transparency, and festival/events management, as well as the influence of larger breweries such as Widmer Brothers Brewing (which is no longer considered a craft brewery by the national trade group Brewers Association, but is an influential member of the OBG). Meanwhile, small independent contract breweries like Pono Brewing have complained that the guild does not support them and offers no chances for membership. On the flipside, Butenschoen is often credited with defeating the big proposed Oregon beer tax hike of 2009, and with another major proposed tax hike currently on the horizon, the industry will need a strong leader at the Guild. He Didn't Invent Toys, but He's the Genius We Can Thank for Them (Newser) The world's deadliest cat is no leopard or tigerin fact, it's the size of a house cat and appears just as cuddly. But the black-footed cat of southern Africa can hunt the grasslands like no other, Live Science reports. The PBS series Super Cats follows them on nightly forays, showing how they hunt and explaining why they kill more prey in a night than a leopard does in half a year. German zoo curator Luke Hunter helped by fitting several black-footed cats with radio collars, enabling the crew to track them in tall grasses. "If you're a gazelle or a wildebeest, a black-footed cat isn't at all deadly," says Hunter, who has studied the cats since the 1990s. "But those success rates make them the deadliest little cat on Earth." story continues below And the black-footed cat has tricks. It can hunt by bounding randomly through grass, sneaking up on prey in a weaving pattern, or waiting patiently by burrows for a meal to emerge. They can "wait for up to 2 hours, absolutely immobile, just silently waiting at the burrow for a rodent to appear," Hunter says. "And then they nab it." They kill 10 to 14 small birds and rodents nightly, or about one every 50 minutesa constant hunt necessary to supply their active metabolisms. Like most felines in the series, the black-footed cat is endangered, but Hunter accentuates the positive: "I believe it's mostly not doom and gloom," he says, but "if we don't work to reduce those threats, then we could lose some of these animals." See the episode at PBS. (Or see why a judge has halted grizzly bear hunts around Yellowstone National Park.) (Newser) A North Carolina woman who boasted about being "white and hot" as she harassed two black women in a parking lot surrendered to police Saturday, days after a warrant was issued for her arrest. The Brunswick County Sheriff's Department says Susan Westwood, 51, was released on bond after being served with four criminal summonses and an outstanding warrant for misuse of the 911 system, NBC News reports. In video of the Oct. 19 incident that went viral, Westwood, dubbed "South Park Susan" by the media, taunted, threatened, and mocked sisters Leisa and Mary Garris as they waited for AAA assistance after having car trouble in the parking lot of her Charlotte apartment complex. story continues below In the video, an apparently intoxicated Westwood asked the sisters if their "baby daddy" would be joining them, bragged about making $125,000, and threatened to pull out a concealed weapon, reports WCCB. In a 911 call released by police, she falsely claimed the women were trying to break into residences, ABC News reports. "Folks that are trying to break into apartments, theyre actually people that Ive never see here before but they are African American," she said. "Theyre trying to cause a problem." Westwood, who vanished after the incident, turned herself in to police in coastal Sunset Beach, police say. She was fired from her job at Charter Communications after the video surfaced. (This Indiana woman was arrested after leaving a racist note for her new neighbors.) missingkids.org(LUMBERTON, N.C.) -- An Amber Alert has been issued after a 13-year-old North Carolina girl was kidnapped in front of her home before school, local police said. Eighth-grader Hania Noleia Aguilar was kidnapped just before 7 a.m. Monday at the Rosewood Mobile Home park in Lumberton, said Lumberton Police Chief Michael McNeil. Hania was waiting to go to school when a witness saw a man dressed in all black with a yellow bandanna approach the teen and force her into a car, police said. The suspect then stole the car and drove away with her, police said. The stolen car -- which belonged to a relative of Hania -- is described as a green 2002 Ford Expedition with South Carolina license plate number NWS984. Investigators are desperate to bring her home, and are interviewing witnesses, family and friends, as well as canvasing the neighborhood, McNeil said. Anyone who sees Hania or the car is urged to call the Lumberton Police Department at 910-671-3845. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Deputy PM Hue said the Vietnamese Government will provide all possible support to domestic and foreign enterprises in their operations. Last year, Vietnam attracted nearly US$36 billion in foreign direct investment. The figure topped US$ 28 billion in the first ten months of this year, which is expected to reach the equivalent of 2017s impressive figure, he said. He noted that Vietnam is gearing towards quality, eco-friendly projects, not only those by multinational corporations, but also small- and medium-sized enterprises that make good use of modern technology. According to him, the Vietnamese Government gives priority to attracting investment in public-private partnerships in transportation and socio-economic infrastructure, as well as the manufacturing and support industry using modern technology such as electricity, semi-conductors, automobiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, high-tech agriculture, logistics, information technology and communications, and renewable energy. The Government also prioritises investment in finance-banking; encourages mergers and acquisitions in the field; and pushes for the involvement of foreign firms in the equitisation of State-owned enterprises, as well as in other ventures and startups. Lauding Swiss firms for their scientific and technological capabilities, as well as their experience in joining the global supply chain, the Deputy PM said the Government encourages Swiss businesses to invest in Vietnam. Gerber, for his part, said that this is the fifth time the delegation has sought business opportunities in Vietnam, mostly in northern localities such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, and Ninh Binh. The delegation is comprised of the largest number of corporate representatives so far, all working in glass production, nano and medical technology, artificial intelligence, application software, media, banking, and education and medical infrastructure. He said the delegation is looking to transfer technologies to Vietnam. Switzerland now ranks 18th out of the 126 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. (Newser) Oregon's Steve Preston died in 2015 while doing one of his favorite things: firing old shells from a World War II-era tank on a firing range. His death came when one of those shells misfired, and now his family is seeking almost $13 million in a lawsuit from the man who supplied the ammunition, reports the Bend Bulletin. The supplier, however, says Preston, 51, was the negligent one in the blast, which also killed Preston's 22-year-old assistant, Austin Lee. "I told him, 'If you put one more ounce in there, you're going to blow yourself up,'" Chuck Hegele tells the newspaper. "He put 8 more ounces in." story continues below The explosion was actually caught on film, per the Oregonian, because Preston was having a promotional video made. One reason the amount being sought is so high is that while Lee was killed instantly, Preston survived for nearly a half-hour, though barely. He suffered "imminent fear of death" in that time, says the lawsuit. Lee's family also has sued over the accident, and that lawsuit blames both Preston and Hegele, along with others. Hegele says he would have typically handled the ammo himself in such demonstrations, but his shoulder was in a sling at the time. (A Michigan man trying to show his girlfriend how safe his guns were killed himself by accident.) (Newser) New Zealand fisherman Gus Hutt says he plucked what he thought was a porcelain doll from the oceanand then it made a noise. In an amazing stroke of luck, Hutt was there to rescue an 18-month-old boy who had escaped from his parents' tent at a holiday camp near Matata Beach early on the morning of Oct. 26, the New Zealand Herald reports. Hutt says he usually fishes at a spot straight out from Murphy's Holiday Camp, but spotted the boy floating in the water after choosing a spot 100 yards to the left and checking his fishing lines. "His face looked just like porcelain with his short hair wetted down, but then he let out a little squeak and I thought 'Oh God, this is a baby and it's alive,'" Hutt says. story continues below The toddler had undone the zip on his parents' tent and crawled under a flap while they were sleeping. Hutt found him at around 7:15am. "He was floating at a steady pace with a rip in the water. If I hadn't been there, or if I had just been a minute later I wouldn't have seen him," Hutt says. "He was bloody lucky, but he just wasn't meant to go; it wasn't his time." The boy's mother screamed when told the boy had been found floating in the water. Camp co-owner Rebecca Salter tells the BBC that it was a "freakish miracle" that the child was saved. The toddler was taken to a hospital, but Hutt says he seemed perfectly fine when the parents came to thank him. "He was wriggling trying to get down to have a look at everything, he was just a lovely, cheeky little fella," he says. (This 2-year-old in Japan survived three days lost on a mountain.) / We May Not Know Who Won the House for Weeks Postal ballots in California and Washington may need to be counted first (Newser) Iran greeted the re-imposition of US sanctions on Monday with air defense drills and a statement from President Hassan Rouhani that the nation faces a "war situation." The sanctions end all economic benefits America had granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, though Iran for now continues to abide by the accord that saw it limit its enrichment of uranium, the AP reports. While at the moment not threatening to resume higher enrichment, Iranian officials in recent months have made a point to warn that the controversial process could resume at any time, faster than before. The new American sanctions particularly hurt Iran's vital oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency for its anemic economy. story continues below Iranian state television aired footage of air defense systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military maneuvers underway across a vast stretch of the country's north. Rouhani pledged to government officials in comments aired on state TV that Iran would overcome the sanctions. "We are in the war situation," Rouhani said. "We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win." He likened Iran's current situation to the country's 1980s war with Iraq. "Yesterday, Saddam was in front of us, today Trump is front of us. There is no difference. We must resist and win," he said. On Sunday, demonstrators gathered in front of the former US Embassy in Tehran to mark the 39th anniversary of its seizure by militants. (Trump says any nations that defy the US on Iran will "NOT be doing business with the United States.") (Newser) Pete Davidson is once again a big topic of conservation after the weekend's Saturday Night Live, but this time it has nothing to do with his love life. Davidson is being pilloried for his joke about former Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw, who is running for a congressional seat in Texas. Crenshaw wears an eye patch because he lost his right eye during a tour in Afghanistan, and Davidson said that he looked like a "hitman in a porno," before adding, Im sorry, I know he lost his eye in war, or whatever." (Video here.) Davidson is now taking much criticism, reports USA Today, including from Meghan McCain, daughter of former POW and Sen. John McCain: "This is really awful and incredibly tone-deaf and offensive to veterans, their families and all who serve," she tweeted. "Come on SNL, do better." Crenshaw, himself, however, isn't among those calling for an apology. story continues below I want us to get away from this culture where we demand an apology every time someone misspeaks, he tells TMZ. "We don't need to be outwardly outraged." He did criticize the joke in general, though. "Good rule in life: I try hard not to offend; I try harder not to be offended," he tweeted. "That being said, I hope @nbcsnl recognizes that vets dont deserve to see their wounds used as punchlines for bad jokes." Others were not as forgiving, including Jack Pandol, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. "Getting dumped by your pop star girlfriend is no excuse for lashing out at a decorated war hero who lost his eye serving our country," he wrote, referring to Davidson's split with Ariana Grande. After Crenshaw lost his eye, he served two more tours, per his website. (Just before SNL aired, Grande had something to say, too.) (Newser) Police think they know why the driver of a pickup veered off the road Saturday morning and struck a group of Girl Scouts with fatal consequences: Authorities in Wisconsin's Chippewa County say Colton Treu, 21, admitted that he was huffingor inhaling chemical vaporsshortly before the crash that left three Girl Scouts and an adult chaperone dead, reports NBC News. Treu appeared in court Monday via video and had his bond set at $250,000. He faces 13 charges, including homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle. Details and developments: Mother and daughter: The victims were identified Monday as Jayna S. Kelley, 9; Autumn A. Helgeson, 10; Haylee J. Hickle, 10, and her mother, Sara Jo Schneider, 32. A fourth girl, unidentified, remains in critical condition, reports the AP. All the girls were fourth-graders. The victims were identified Monday as Jayna S. Kelley, 9; Autumn A. Helgeson, 10; Haylee J. Hickle, 10, and her mother, Sara Jo Schneider, 32. A fourth girl, unidentified, remains in critical condition, reports the AP. All the girls were fourth-graders. A passenger: Police say Treu had a passenger in the Ford F-150 with him at the time of crash: an unidentified man who later turned himself in. Both of the men admitted to huffing before the crash, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune. story continues below The trail: Treu drove away after the crash, but a deputy tracked vehicle fluid to a home about two miles away and found the truck in the garage, per the Minneapolis newspaper. Treu and the passenger were gone, but each surrendered hours later. Treu drove away after the crash, but a deputy tracked vehicle fluid to a home about two miles away and found the truck in the garage, per the Minneapolis newspaper. Treu and the passenger were gone, but each surrendered hours later. DUI record: Treu was previously convicted of drunken driving in 2014. Treu was previously convicted of drunken driving in 2014. Picking up trash: The victims were in a gully off the side of the two-lane highway, part of a Girl Scouts group picking up trash on a stretch of road they had previously "adopted," per the Chippewa Herald. "There isn't much to say," says 18-year-old Tabatha Kolve, a troop leader. "It was heartbreaking." The victims were in a gully off the side of the two-lane highway, part of a Girl Scouts group picking up trash on a stretch of road they had previously "adopted," per the Chippewa Herald. "There isn't much to say," says 18-year-old Tabatha Kolve, a troop leader. "It was heartbreaking." Other fatalities: The Washington Post notes this is the latest in a handful of recent tragedies to befall the Scouts community, with a 14-year-old Boy Scout killed in Georgia by a falling tree in June, and two incidents in late September: a 12-year-old Boy Scout buried by sand in Michigan and a 12-year-old Long Island Boy Scout allegedly mowed down by a drunk driver. There has been a rash of accidents at or near school bus stops. (Read more Girl Scouts stories.) (Newser) The man-eating tiger that's been on the loose in India is no more. The Guardian reports that T1 (aka Avni), suspected of killing more than a dozen victims in a two-year span, was shot dead Friday in the state of Maharashtra. The supposed sharpshooter who took T1 down: Asghar Ali Khan, the son of Nawab Shafath Ali Khan, said to be the country's most famous hunter. "This was a tigress that was aggressive and clever, and had absolutely no fear of humans," Khan, who felled the animal with a .458 Winchester Magnum rifle, tells the Telegraph. "She had tasted human flesh and saw us like monkeys, or goats, or other prey. So when she charged at us, I had to shoot in self-defense." story continues below One of the more creative proposals to catch T1 was to use Calvin Klein cologneit's reportedly like catnip for some big catsbut Khan said that ploy didn't work. "She was too clever for the cologne," Khan says. "We were dealing with an extraordinarily smart tiger." T1's killing isn't without controversy: Animal rights activists claim it hasn't been proven T1 was behind the human killings, per the Washington Post. "I am deeply saddened by the way tigress Avni has been brutally murdered," tweeted Maneka Gandhi, the country's minister for children and women's development. "I am definitely going to take up this case of utter lack of empathy for animals as a test case. Legally, criminally as well as politically." T1's body was taken to a Nagpur zoo for a necropsy. (The cologne idea sounded good initially.) (Newser) Anti-government militants in Cameroon just stole a page from Boko Haram. Authorities say armed men kidnapped 78 children and their principal from a Presbyterian school in the western city of Bamenda. In a video that has begun to circulate, the kidnappers refer to themselves as the "Amba boys," which the AP explains is a reference to the state of Ambazonia that separatists are attempting to establish. In the video, the kidnappers make some of the children give their names, and one of the men says: "We shall only release you after the struggle. You will be going to school now here." story continues below The separatists are part of an English-speaking minority who say they are oppressed by the French-speaking government of President Paul Biya. Reuters reports that the movement has only gained steam after the government banned even peaceful protests last year. Biya, who has served since 1982, recently won re-election to a seventh term. His government abolished term limits several years ago. (Read more Cameroon stories.) (Newser) Belgium's former king has to undergo a paternity test. Per the Telegraph, a mandate just handed down by a Brussels appeals court will force King Albert II, who gave up his crown in 2013 so his son Philippe could sit on the throne, to have his saliva tested to see if he's the father of 50-year-old multimedia artist Delphine Boel. The ex-monarch has denied for more than 10 years that he's Boel's dad, but a 1999 biography on Albert's wife, Queen Paola, tells a different story. story continues below That tome alleges Albert had a long-time affair with aristocrat Sybille de Selys Longchamps, a relationship that allegedly resulted in the birth of Boel in the late '60s; the affair reportedly ended in 1976, when Albert chose to stay with Paola so he wouldn't have to abdicate. Albert has admitted his marriage to Paola, which produced three children of their own (all older than Boel), wasn't always smooth, per Reuters. The man Boel grew up believing was her father, Jacques Boel, has already been determined via DNA testing to not be her biological father. The court order, which overturned an earlier ruling and can't be appealed, says Albert has three months to comply with the testing. If he refuses, he'll be legally deemed Boel's father. (Salvador Dali, you are NOT the father of this Spanish woman.) (Newser) It was a mix of fentanyl, cocaine, and alcohol that killed rapper Mac Miller, according to the newly released toxicology report from the Los Angeles County Coroners Office. The report names accidental "mixed drug toxicity" as the 26-year-old's official cause of death, Variety reports. He had publicly struggled with addiction and referenced those struggles in his work. The report also reveals that when he was found unresponsive at his home Sept. 7, authorities found empty liquor bottles, bags containing a white powdery substance, loose pills, a bottle of prescription medication, and more strewn about the residence. Miller's drug abuse was part of the reason he and Ariana Grande broke up in May; she recently referred to him as an "angel" in a new song. (Read more drug overdose stories.) NA Vice Chairman Luu reiterated Vietnams consistent viewpoint of treasuring and developing relations with the Chinese Party, State, and people. He said he hopes the policies and common principles on the countries relations, agreed by leaders of their parties and states, will be implemented seriously and effectively. Given that Vietnam and China have similar political regimes and lawmaking activities, the Vietnamese NAs Law Committee and the Chinese Constitution and Law Committee should maintain close cooperation to share legislative experience and advise their respective parliaments, parties, and states to perfect the socialist law-governed state institution and law systems, he added. Meanwhile, Chairman of the Constitution and Law Committee Li Fei voiced his wishes that the two countries will increase exchanges to solidify their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. Earlier the same day, the Chinese delegation had talks with officials of the Vietnamese NAs Law Committee. Chairman of the Law Committee Nguyen Khac Dinh gave a brief introduction of his agency, noting that the Vietnamese committee and the Chinese Constitution and Law Committee share many similarities in their functions and tasks. He added that further meetings to exchange experience between the two organisations will help reinforce the two countries solidarity and cooperation, he said. Echoing this view, Li Fei said that through the talks, the Chinese side will be able to learn about the lawmaking experience of the Vietnamese NA. As a result, the two legislatures will step up collaboration and mutual support at multilateral forums. 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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yesterday received a letter from President of Ghana Nana Akufo Addo, dealing with relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, and means of bolstering joint ties. This came as HM the King received, at Al Safriya Palace, Deputy President of Ghana Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who delivered the letter, conveying greetings to HM the King from President Addo, who wished HM the King abundant health and happiness and the people of Bahrain further progress and prosperity. Bahrains High Court of Appeal yesterday found three Bahraini nationals guilty of collaborating and sharing information with Qatars government and senior government officials. Advocate General, Osama Al Oufi, said the three individuals involved received life imprisonment due to the seriousness of their crimes, which included sharing sensitive security materials with the government of Qatar, and collaborating with Qatari officials to support acts of violence throughout the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Advocate General noted that as in all countries, acts of espionage and collaboration with foreign powers aimed at undermining domestic security are taken extremely seriously. Osama Al Oufi went on to add that the courts ruling took into consideration the weight of evidence against the defendants, including intercepted telephone conversations and messages, and proof of illicit funds deposited into the defendants bank accounts by the Qatari government. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Vietnamese Ambassador to China Dang Minh Khoi and newly-accredited Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo attended the inauguration ceremony, among others. Speaking at the ceremony, Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said that by holding strengths in foreign trade, e-commerce, manufacturing, and seaport services, Zhejiang and the eastern region of China in general will continue to take the lead in the countrys reform process, thereby fueling economic and trade ties between China and countries across the region and even the world. Vice Governor of Zhejiang province Zhu Congjiu said that via the newly-opened office, provincial leaders expect that Vietnamese and Chinese companies can gain a deeper insight into opportunities for the import-export of goods in demand, especially Vietnams agro-forestry-fishery products which are popular in China. Dao Viet Anh, Trade Counsellor at the Vietnamese Embassy in China, said the event is meant to realise the agreement signed by the two governments in 2013, as well as the joint statement inked during Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinpings visit to Vietnam from November 10-13 last year. Trade Counsellor at the Vietnamese Embassy in China Viet Anh said trade between Vietnam and Zhejiang hit US$ 7.92 billion in 2017 and Vietnam is now the largest trade partner of the province. The first Vietnam trade promotion office in China was established in Chongqing city in 2015. Bahrain is the tenth most generous country in the world, according to results of a study. The Kingdom was ranked tenth in the world when it comes to donating for charity, according to a study by the London-based Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). The findings were released in CAFs World Giving Index 2018. With an overall score of 53 percent, the index ranked Bahrain tenth overall with high scores in many indices. The indices that boosted the Kingdoms ranking include helping a stranger where it was found that 74pc of the people in Bahrain surveyed helped a stranger in the previous year taking Bahrain to the sixth position in the index. Bahrain was ranked 25th in the donating money index with a score of 53pc. The country was ranked 24th in the volunteering time index with a score of 33pc. Indonesia was deemed the most generous country in the world. Australia and New Zealand made up the top three with only around half a percentage point between them. Floods have killed 12 people on the southern island of Sicily, nine of them from the same family, rescue services said yesterday, taking the weeks toll across Italy past 30. Six Italian regions remain on high alert for storms. The bodies of nine people were found in their house in Casteldaccia in the Palermo region, next to a small river which had burst its banks, rescue services said. The victims included children aged one, three, and 15. Three other members of the family managed to escape, one by climbing a tree, the Agi news agency reported. After flying over Casteldaccia Sunday, Sicilian prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio described a total disaster. Officials have opened an investigation to determine whether houses built near the river met legal safety norms. * The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) of Myanmar has won nearly half of the 13 parliamentary seats in Saturday (November 3)'s by-elections, according to the final results released by the Union Election Commission late on Sun day (November 4). * The Republic of Korea (RoK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed Monday to hold working-level talks on health and medical cooperation later this week, according to Seoul's unification ministry. The talks would be held on November 7 at the joint liaison office of the two sides in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong. * British Prime Minister Theresa May rejected calls Sunday for a second referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union (EU) as a report suggested she has drawn up a secret Brexit plan with Brussels. * A search operation for Lion Air plane that went down in waters off western Indonesia six days ago was prolonged for three days as some major items of the aircraft have not been recovered yet, a senior rescuer disclosed on Sunday. * Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), held talks on November 4 afternoon with visiting Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and the two leaders discussed "crucial issues of common concern" and international situation, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Monday. * Syrian President Bashar al-Assad discussed on November 4 the formation of the constitutional committee with the visiting Russian President's Special Envoy on Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev. * The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said Sunday it has developed as effective framework for the gradual transition of security responsibilities to Somalia's security institutions. * The Islamic State (IS) on November 4 killed and wounded 32 US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters during an offensive in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. * The "Arab Sheild 1" joint military drills kicked off in Egypt on November 4 with the participation of forces from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, Egyptian military spokesman said in a statement. * Jordan said on November 4 it received an official request from Israel to start negotiations after Jordan decided to terminate Israel's "annexation" of Baqoura and Ghumar areas under the Jordan-Israel peace treaty in 1994. * The Israeli Air Force began on November 4 two large-scale exercises, a military spokesperson said in a statement. The drills, called "Sky Angles" and the "Blue and White Flag", are set to end on November 15. * Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on November 4 issued a special gazette notification to convene Parliament next Wednesday (November 14), as the political crisis in the island country deepened. * Jordan's King Abdullah II approved on Sunday the resignation of two Jordanian ministers following the Dead Sea flash floods that killed 21 people. A royal decree was issued to approve the resignation of Jordan's Minister of Education Azmi Mahafza and Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Lina Annab. * Iron Wolf, Lithuania's biggest international military exercise in the second half of this year kicks off on Sunday to enhance mobility. The international military exercise is attended by forces from 14 countries. * A Taliban key commander Mullah Haqyar is among 21 insurgents who were killed in Qush Tepa district of the northern Jawzjan province on Sunday, deputy to provincial governor, Abdul Rahman Mahmoudi said. The All Progressives Congress (APC) has claimed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, his ru... The All Progressives Congress (APC) has claimed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, his running mate, Peter Obi, Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the partys National Chairman, Uche Secondus, travelled to Dubai for sinister purposes. This was contained in a statement signed by the partys Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, on Sunday. Nabena dismissed reports that the four men went to Dubai to plot strategies to oust President Muhammadu Buhari in next years election and urged security agents to be on the alert. The purpose of the said meeting is both comical and ridiculous as they have held several meetings for the same purpose in Nigeria. Clearly, the meetings held in Nigeria did not yield their desired results, hence, a follow up meeting in Dubai. But we know the way of these set of politicians and the political party they represent. There is more to the meeting that meets the eye. Nigeria has enough meeting/conference rooms, many of which meet international standards. It is therefore clear that the Dubai meeting is for other sinister political purposes ahead of the 2019 elections. Our intelligence, anti-graft and security agencies must be awake to its responsibility of investigating the Dubai meeting. Cash and carry politicians must be prevented from moving illicit cash around to induce voters and sponsor election violence and rigging. Again, relevant agencies must check suspicious movement of cash both locally and internationally by politically exposed persons under the guise of a Dubai meeting or any clandestine meeting. We are mindful of how millions of dollars were confiscated in an aircraft belonging in a Nigerian PDP sympathizer in South Africa in the leadup to the 2015 elections. The case of N250 million cache found in the Peter Obis private office in Lagos remains unresolved. Another round of election is here and it is not unlikely that they are playing a repeat performance, under the guise of holding a meeting in Dubai. Members of the Biafra Zionists Federation on Sunday threatened to commit mass suicide due to the uncertainty over the whereabouts of their leader, Benjamin Onwuka.Onwuka and some members of the group were arrested on August 20 while trying to occupy the Enugu State Government House, where they planned to declare the independence of the Republic of Biafra from Nigeria.The secessionists were arrested by the police and the Department of State Services as they approached the gate to the Government House.The BZF leaders whereabouts has remained unknown ever since.In a statement on Sunday, National Coordinator of the BZF, Gilbert Ogbu, said the group had waited in vain for the DSS to either release their leader or charge him to court.Ogbu warned that the Biafra Zionists would commit mass suicide within seven days if Onwuka was not released or taken to court.The secessionists plan to occupy major roads in the South-East where they will be crushed by moving vehicles, according to Ogbu.The statement read, We want to further inform Nigerians and the international community over the unlawful detention of our leader, Benjamin Onwuka, by the DSS.It is now over two months and they have refused to charge him to court, contrary to the provisions of Nigerias constitution, which says nobody should be detained beyond 24 hours.More worrisome is the silence of the security agencies, the South-East governors and Ohanaeze Ndigbo, we are beginning to think that there is a collaboration among them.We are issuing a seven-day ultimatum, after which we have no option but to commit suicide.We shall occupy all the roads in the South-East and either get crushed by vehicles or have ourselves killed by security forces.The statement added, We are drawing the attention of the international community, especially the United Nations, the Amnesty International, the United States and Israel to the oppressive tendencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria.We have our right to self-determination as provided for in all international treaties and we are not ready to sacrifice it. Shehu Sani, the senator representing Kaduna Central, says governors under the All Progressives Congress (APC) have no respect for Pres... Shehu Sani, the senator representing Kaduna Central, says governors under the All Progressives Congress (APC) have no respect for President Muhammadu Buhari. Speaking on the ongoing crisis rocking the ruling party, Sani said National Leader, Bola Tinubu had done his best to resolve the crisis that forced him out of the party but that Tinubu did not achieve much because he is not from the north. The Kaduna lawmaker claimed President Buhari and the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole were too weak and have succumbed to the powers of the governors. Sani in an interview with The Nation said: I must be very frank with you, Tinubu has done his best but there is a limit to what he can do. He isnt from the North and has a lot of issues to attend to but what was very clear, I wont rain insults on the President or Chairman of the party, but what I would say is that their weaknesses, their vulnerability, their failures have been evident in the very sense that they were helpless in the face of firepower by the state governors. The Buhari administration is now run by invisible forces and has disconnected from the vision it started with. If you look at his attitude to governance and his philosophy of being for everybody and nobody has led the party nowhere and it is also leading the party nowhere If you are a leader, you cannot preside over a nation by body language or side language. You have to take decisions, you have to be decisive. You dont also have to depend on the decisions of others but you can consult others for the decisions which you are going to take. The governors under the APC today dont respect President Buhari; they have no respect for him and they dont share what his philosophy is all about. While the chairman of the party sees the need to preserve the loyal band within the party, the governors dont see the need for it. They want to plant their stooges. As far as I am concerned, the seat that I occupy, the Kaduna Central senatorial seat, Nasir el Rufai is putting a stooge there to keep the place for him so that after he is out of government, he can also be a senator. The governors see senatorial seats as places they should preserve for their future and thats why you find some people going to the national assembly without standing up to do their work as parliamentarians, because they were there standing in for somebody. The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, now known as Cambridge Assessment, has said it can only release the certific... The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, now known as Cambridge Assessment, has said it can only release the certificate of President Muhammadu Buhari if he so requests. Cambridge, a United Kingdom-based examination body, which oversaw the conduct of final year secondary school examination in Nigeria and placement into foreign universities in the early days of colonialism and years after, said this on Monday in a statement on its website. The Statement in response to Nigerian Presidential election enquiries, read: We can only confirm or verify results at the direct request of or with the permission of a candidate. This is in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulations, Data Protection Act 2018 and section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The organisation also confirmed that according to the Regulations for 1961, African Language papers, including those for Hausa, were set for the West African School Certificate. In a footnote, Cambridge also said: Examination results were classed in grades by 1 to 9. 1,2,3,4,5 & 6 indicate a Pass with Credit; 7 & 8 indicate a Pass; 9 indicates a Failure. To pass the School Certificate, candidates had to pass examinations in a variety of groups. It was compulsory to pass English Language, but not Maths, in order to gain the Certificate. The number of candidates who sat for the WASC Hausa examination in 1961 was 152. Our records show that Hausa was set in the Northern Region in 1961. Buhari on Friday received the attestation and confirmation of his 1961 West African School Certificate (WASC) Examination. The State Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State has reaffirmed former Governor Ayodele Fayose as the leader of the party in the state.The SEC dissociated itself from the purported stakeholders meeting which had earlier declared the Senate Minority Whip, Senator Biodun Olujimi, as the party leader.The SEC is the highest organ of the party in the state which comprised the State Working Committee, partys chairmen and Secretary at local governments and wards and elected public office holders among others.In a communique issued at the end of their meeting in Ado Ekiti, the SEC alleged that Olujimi and a former PDPs state secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko, were agents of the All Progressives Congress causing destabilisation in the PDP.Aluko had led some aggrieved PDP members to invade the partys secretariat on Ajilosun Road, Ado Ekiti on Thursday to accuse the state executive members of making suspicious withdrawals from the partys account.In the communique made available to journalists on Monday, the SEC, while condemning the invasion restated the expulsion of Aluko from the party.The communique added, That any facilitation of crisis in the party this time of approaching election is regarded as an anti-party activity.That the promoters of the crisis are agents of APC government employed to destabilise the party in the run-up to the presidential election.PDP in Ekiti State under the leadership of Gboyega Oguntuase is committed to the success of all its candidates in the coming elections especially our presidential candidate, Alh. Abubakar Atiku.That we affirm and believe in the leadership of Dr. Ayodele Fayose. A Second Republic lawmaker, Junaid Mohammed, has told Nigerians to judge those justling to rule Nigerian in 2019 based on their antece... A Second Republic lawmaker, Junaid Mohammed, has told Nigerians to judge those justling to rule Nigerian in 2019 based on their antecedents. In an interview with Dailypost, Mohammed said Nigerians should vote a presidential candidate who is upright in character and is dedicated. The medical doctor turned politician, however, warned Nigerians against voting for a candidate who had compromised himself in the past. According to Mohammad, This is left for Nigerians to decide who they want judging from the character, dedication, history and if he has done enough. But like the saying goes, once beaten twice shy, if a leader is found to have compromised himself, then he should not be given the honour of leading the country. Strident efforts by the Federal Government to stave off nationwide strike by the organised labour, appears to have hit the brick wall following a startling revelation by the Nigerian Labour Congress on Monday that no fewer than ten states had offered to pay more than the N24,000 minimum wage suggested by the government.It will be recalled that the organised labour on Sunday shunned a final rapprochement meeting with the Federal Government to adopt a new minimum wage of N24,000 agreed by the federal government.The NLC had said that it would not attend any fresh negotiation with the government-led tripartite team, having negotiated and adopted N30,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.We will never attend any further meeting for the purpose of negotiating or debating another national minimum wage having agreed on N30,000 last month with the federal government, Mr. Uche Ekwe, Head of International Relations of the NLC, told Vanguard on Monday.We have concluded all matters related to new national minimum wage and if the politicians are unwilling to pay that basic minimum but continue to connive and work against the interest of the Nigerian workers they should hold themselves accountable for that and leave out of any meaningless meeting, Ekwe said.Pressed to explain, if the orgainsed labour could talk of any agreement when the government had not entered into one with them, the labour leader said that the federal and some state governors were actively working to truncate the decision already reached with labour so that they would not pay the new minimum wage.Ekwe, who brandished a document showing what the respective states in the country offered to pay in writing during the tripartite negotiations, denied the claims by the Nigerian Governors Forum that they could only pay a paltry N22,500 as minimum wage.The top labour official indicated that no fewer than ten of the 36 states had offered to pay wages much higher than what the federal government was tabling as new wage and warned that there would be no peace in the country until the N30,000 was adopted as the new benchmark.According to the document made available to Vanguard, Plateau State had offered to pay up to N57,000 when labour initially insisted on N67,500 but later came down to between N25,000 and N30,000.The labour document, which has now been released to the public as part of the NLC move to prove that the government was unwilling to pay more than what it is offering, indicated that: Abia offered to pay at least N42,000, Jigawa N32,000, Nasarawa N31,000 while Kano offered to pay N30,000 as minimum wage.Similarly, Gombe State is said to be willing to pay N28,000, Borno 27,000, Bauchi N25, Adamawa N23,000 , Ondo N22,000, and Taraba, N20,000.The anger of the NLC is that a tiny minority of federal and state officials is actively taking steps to truncate the payment of the new wage, which states with weaker economic fortunes had agreed to pay.However, labour is most disappointed with states that receive high allocations from the federal government and also net high monthly internally generated income but have deliberately refused to offer to pay anything to the exiting N18,000 minimum wage.According to the document, Lagos offered to pay whatever other southern state government would pay while Enugu State also agreed to pay any amount agreed centrally.On the other hand, states like Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Rivers, Imo, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Kogi and Katsina have remained silent on the new minimum wage, opting to wait and see what the government would eventually come out with.However, Delta State, which is one of the states that receive the highest revenue from oil and IGR, made it abundantly clear to labour that it could not accommodate an increase for now on the present federal government allocation to the state.According to some of the Niger Delta states, which receive 13 percent of the federation revenue monthly, they can only talk about increasing workers pay if the federal government reduces its own share of national revenue and gives more money to the states.Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, openly canvassed that position last week and blamed the federal government and the All Progressives Congress for the ongoing minimum wage palava with workers, saying that it was their headache. National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has said the three governors opposed to his co... National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has said the three governors opposed to his conduct of party primaries in their states were behaving like drug addicts suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Chief of Staff to Imo State governor, Uche Nwosu, swiftly described the national chairman as a double-faced progressive who was merely thriving in ignorance. Similarly, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State said Oshiomhole was foisting a broad-day electoral heist on the country. Recall that Oshiomhole has for days, been having a running battle with governors Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State; Rochas Okorocha of Imo and Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, over the position of the national chairman on the outcome of the APC primaries in their respective states. was akin to drug addicts suddenly jolted by the new reality of a lack of access to drugs and who now suffer from withdrawal symptoms. Speaking with journalists, weekend in Abuja, Oshiomhole said the action of the governorswas akin to drug addicts suddenly jolted by the new reality of a lack of access to drugs and who now suffer from withdrawal symptoms. He said: At the heart of this challenge is the trauma of going through change. If you know of any addict, such as those who are addicted to alcohol or to drugs, there is what we call withdrawal symptom when they cannot see it (drugs) and you try to stop them from that habit they have been addicted to. Now, Nigerians are worried that we can have a democracy in which only a few kingpins dominate the polity and that party membership does not carry any weight. It is the so-called godfathers that anoint. You hear of the anointed. You hear of godfather imposition. Now, my task as national chairman is to strenuously work to steer everything away from this heinous past which the PDP created, so it can be membership driven. alakara (bean cake seller) who is a member of the APC, is also one. Those who have survived so far, courtesy of this kind of impunity, imposition, creating dynasties from their own privileged position to accept the logic of participatory democracy, or bottom-up approach, because nothing explains the frustration of these people, very few people, by the fact that they cannot understand how in a primary, whether direct or indirect, that the vote of a governor is only one and the vote of a sweeper in the governors office oralakara(bean cake seller) who is a member of the APC, is also one. They cannot reconcile themselves with this reality. So, if you have 200 alakara, 300 sweepers voting for a candidate and you have one governor, two commissioners, five special advisers voting for another, the logic of our own preferred democracy is that this army of sweepers will defeat these powerful governors. So, they are not able to accept this ultimate logic of people-driven, people-based democracy and what I have simply done is to insist that having cautiously chosen change as our slogan, that change must begin with us. It must be reflected in what we do, how we do it and we should learn however frustrating, to reconcile ourselves with the reality that we are in a democracy. I watched my dear friend, Governor Rochas (Okorocha) saying five million members have left. I didnt know he was such a wonderful statistician. Now, the entire membership of the party in Imo State, as far as I know, are under a million, to put it generously. Where the challenge is coming from is because we have not been able to help him build his political dynasty. It will be nice for him to give further details on the origin, the location of those people who have left. You could see someone on one hand wanting to run down his party and on the other hand, claiming he is loyal to the party. But the truth is that Nigerians have become more and more sophisticated, Oshiomhole said. Okorocha speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, said he would not react immediately. However, Amosun reacting through his media aide, Opeyemi Soyombo, challenged Oshiomhole to name the venue of the primary where Dapo Abiodun emerged as the candidate. He further accused Oshiomhole of trying to foist an electoral heist on the country as he accused the chairman of trying to abort a pregnancy that had already produced a baby. sink the truth regarding the Ogun APC governorship primary. But truth, like a cork, will always stay afloat in spite of pressure to sink it. He said: Comrade Adams Oshiomholes uncouth outburst is diversionary. The aim is to obfuscate orsink the truth regarding the Ogun APC governorship primary. But truth, like a cork, will always stay afloat in spite of pressure to sink it. The Ogun APC officials have been consistent on the facts of this matter. There was only one governorship primary sanctioned by the Muhammad Indabawa-led NWC panel sent from Abuja at the meeting with the six governorship aspirants in Abeokuta on Monday, October 1, 2018. That election, which held on Tuesday, October 2, 2018, produced Hon Adekunle Akinlade as the winner. Whatever happened later, including the drama by the panel to announce a different result in distant Lagos, is a state-of-nature politics, an assault on our hard-earned democracy and a throwback to the backwoods of civilisation. There was no election that produced Prince Dapo Abiodun, the winner of Ogun APC gubernatorial contest. The authentic election, conducted on October 2, 2018, was witnessed by INEC and law enforcement agents and was widely reported in the media. Hon Akinlade defeated all other aspirants, including Dapo Abiodun. What Oshiomhole is doing now is akin to taking measures to abort a pregnancy that has already produced a bouncing baby, which is a futile exercise. Oshiomhole is foisting a broad-day electoral heist on this country. Injustice somewhere is injustice everywhere because of our shared humanity. He is abusing the powers granted to the chairman of the party to submit the list of party candidates to INEC. However, speaking with journalists at Imo Governors Lodge in Abuja, Nwosu described Oshiomhole as a disappointment, saying the ruling party now suffers from lack of internal democracy. We all know that the primary election was conducted. The first one was conducted by one Alhaji Gulak. Gulak came with his team and the primary was meant to be conducted and Gulak early in the morning, on October 2, disappeared with the result sheet and came to Abuja and declared a fake result. Eight of the 12-man committee, stayed back, conducted the primaries, declared me winner and forwarded my name to the national headquarters. But to our greatest surprise, the national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, cancelled the election and even called the two results fake and told us that he was going to set up another committee of credible men and women to conduct the second primaries. He set up the committee, led by retired General Agbabiaka; they came to Owerri, conducted another primary, I won. The committee sent their report to the National Working Committee, which approved the result of that committee. It also wrote a letter through the state chairman of our party acknowledging that I am the candidate of the party and even directed the state chairman to issue me the forms of INEC, the CF001, which I filled and submitted. But to my greatest surprise yesterday, I saw the same chairman of our party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, saying the Gulak committee he disbanded and formed a new committee on the grounds that it was fake, the same chairman came on air yesterday and said he is accepting that result which he called fake. The committee that conducted the second primaries, which produced me as APC candidate, also conducted the primaries that produced senators, federal House of Representatives, House of Assembly members. The same chairman upheld that of the senators, federal House of Reps members, and their names were sent to INEC. He is now saying that he has discarded the second committee report. From all I heard from the national chairman, I have respect for him as our national chairman. I knew Comrade Adams Oshiomhole right from when I was in school as Director, Transport, Students Union Government. I remember several times we were on the streets in support of his actions as NLC president. I see him as my role model. But what I see now is a disappointment. I worked with him as a union leader in school through Philip Shuaibu.I remember several times we were on the streets in support of his actions as NLC president. I see him as my role model. But what I see now is a disappointment. There is no internal democracy. I have never seen where you conduct elections and somebody won and from nowhere you bring another person as the candidate of the party, it is unacceptable. I envisaged this and went to the party national secretariat. I wrote the first letter, the second and third letters, telling our chairman that something was about to happen and he should come to my aid but no aid was given by the national chairman. I went to court, I got a court order restraining the party from submitting any name that is not my name, restraining the party from accepting any name that is not my name. I got the second order from Owerri High Court restraining the NWC from submitting any name from the purported result that Gulak was parading but even with this, the national chairman told us that he will go ahead and submit the name of Hope Uzodinma. It is unacceptable, what we saw is not democracy. Our chairman that we respect very well, what he did is not internal democracy. I won that election. I remain the candidate of APC and nobody can take it away from me. It might take a while but let me state it clearly, I am the candidate of APC and by the special grace of God come 2019, I have no doubt that I will be the governor of Imo State. The existing court order has not expired. There is a court order from Justice Ashi restraining the party from submitting the name of Hope Uzodinma, restraining them from accepting the result from Gulak. Anti-corruption group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to order the probe of Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, following some video clips on the Internet showing the governor allegedly collecting kickbacks from contractors.The group, in an open letter to the President on Sunday, urged Buhari to use his good offices to direct either the Attorney General of the Federation or anti-graft agencies to probe the bribery allegations against Ganduje.It argued that though the alleged bribery directly concerned Kano State, the Federal Government could not afford to look away.The anti-corruption advocacy group added that any allegations of bribery and abuse of power in any state of Nigeria is of concern to every Nigerian, and should, therefore, be of concern to your (Buhari) government.It urged the President to oblige its request to order Gandujes probe within 14 days, saying it would not hesitate to go to court should its request be ignored.SERAP said it would like Ganduje prosecuted on the expiration of his tenure should the bribery allegations be established.The group also charged the Federal Government to ensure the protection of Mr Jaafar Jaafar, the journalist who filmed Ganduje allegedly collecting bribe.In the open letter signed by its Senior Legal Adviser, Ms Bamisope Adeyanju, SERAP said, The obligations of your (Buharis) government to combat corruption in Nigeria extend to all the three tiers of government, namely: the Federal Government, state government and local government.Although, primarily a matter of concern for Kano State, the allegations of bribery against Mr Ganduje have assumed such a proportion as to become a matter of concern to the federation as a whole, and, therefore, to your government.The Presidency, however, said on Sunday that the alleged bribery case was a state government issue.The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said this during an interview on Politics Today, a live programme on Channels Television.Adesina said, That is a Kano State matter and it is being investigated by the Kano State House of Assembly. What then concerns the President at this point? Why must the President dabble into it at this point? Babatunde Fashola, minister for power, works and housing, has asked those critical of the borrowings of President Muhammadu Buharis g... Babatunde Fashola, minister for power, works and housing, has asked those critical of the borrowings of President Muhammadu Buharis government to tell the current administration how to raise funds. Speaking with reporters during a two-day retreat in Sokoto, Fashola said the delay of the 2018 budget by the national assembly made the ministry resort to borrowing to complete abandoned projects. He said the Buhari administration deserves commendation for completing many abandoned projects, adding that many projects had been abandoned for lack of funds before Buhari came into power. Buharis government revived the contracts that were stopped. If a contractor does not get paid, there is no magic to getting the work completed. He will have no alternative than to stop, he said. You dont expect the work that would have been done in decades to be completed within three and a half years. They (national assembly) are guilty of the slow pace of work. They shut the NASS session for two months and delayed the passage of budget for close to 9 months. We had to borrow through the Ministry of Finance and invest on road to enhance productivity, reduce journey, cost and time for business in order to generate income and wealth creation to payback the loans. Those who complain we borrow too much should tell us where else to find funds. We are not raising tax and if we do, they will still complain. Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had faulted the borrowing plan of the government. The proposed visa changes, announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Agriculture Minister David Littleproud on November 5, would allow backpackers who take on extra agricultural work in their second year in Australia to stay for a third year. Under the current system, workers in Australia on a subclass 462 working holiday visa can only remain in the country for a second year if they complete three months of agriculture work. If the proposed changes go ahead, backpackers would be able to stay in Australia for a third year if they complete six months of agriculture work in their second year. "Australians filling Australian jobs is my number one priority, but when this isn't possible we need to ensure our farmers aren't left high and dry with rotting crops, especially in the strawberry industry," Morrison told News Corp Australia. The age limit for working holiday visas would also be lifted from 31 to 35 for some countries and the work period for seasonal workers in Australia will be increased from six to nine months. The sweeping changes were announced after Morrison's proposal to force unemployed welfare recipients to work picking fruit was shot down by the agriculture industry. "We don't want fruit rotting on the vine or crops left in the field and it's vital our farmers maximize their hard work and economic returns," McCormack said in a media release. "Our action today means our farmers will get immediate support, helping them reap the economic returns of their hard work." "We also know the vast majority of holiday makers spend big in our regions, delivering a return to small businesses and jobs." A former Governor of Ebonyi State and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Sam Egwu has said it would be difficult for his ... A former Governor of Ebonyi State and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Sam Egwu has said it would be difficult for his party to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. Egwu, who is a Senator representing Ebonyi, said though PDP looked good to win the elections, the party still has lots of work to do. Addressing journalists in his Umuebe Farms, in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, over the weekend, Egwu described Buhari as an incumbent and someone who has all the needed support in the general election. He insisted that anybody who says defeating Buhari will be easy was not sincere. Egwu said PDP has been greatly rebranded, adding even our chairman has apologized where he made a mistake and I am a PDP person. So, I believe we have what it takes to win but it is not going to be easy. This incumbent is someone that has the support of all, someone who comes with the mantra of change, fighting corruption and making sure that all the security issues are addressed. So it is left for Nigerians to judge whether all these issues have been seriously addressed. But to be honest, they have tried in many areas. I dont believe that you just wake up and condemn someone because you want to rule the person out; the President has tried his best. This country is a very complex country where if you are moving this way people will be pushing you that way. The President has tried; there is now doubt about it. CHANGSHA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The World Food Programme (WFP) will "collaborate [with China] to take advantage of Chinese experience and expertise, and then model that in the countries that need help," said David Beasley, head of the food aid arm of the United Nations. "I think we need to get beyond the rhetoric and get very practical like China did," Beasley said in an interview with Xinhua Thursday in Changsha, capita central China's Hunan Province. Beasley was appointed the executive director of the WFP, the leading humanitarian agency addressing global hunger and promoting food security, in April 2017. He was at his third trip to China this time in his current capacity as the head of the UN agency. "China has proven that they are not talkers. They are doers and get it done." Beasley was in Changsha to attend the Ministerial Forum on Global South-South Cooperation in Agriculture Friday. During China's reform and opening-up in the past 40 years, the country has helped more than 700 million people escape absolute poverty. "It's astonishing what China has done," Beasley said. "There is not a nation on the face of the planet that has done that before." "The numbers speak for themselves. It is clear and convincing," Beasley said, adding that this "remarkable success" gives credit to the Chinese government and people. "The Chinese leadership know exactly who they are, where they are, and what they are going to do," Beasley said. "Their goal of no absolute poverty by 2020 will be achieved." According to UN reports, the number of people facing hunger worldwide is increasing. Beasley said that South-South cooperation is going to be critical for tackling this issue, and that China's expertise and success are highly relevant to the world. From a beneficiary to a donor of WFP, China has been helping regions suffering from poverty and hunger in recent years with aid including technology and advice. WFP established a Center of Excellence in China in 2016 to enhance South-South and triangular cooperation, and share China's rich experience in food security, nutrition improvement and poverty alleviation with other developing countries. Since 2016, WFP China has successfully organized 13 South-South cooperation activities on policy dialogue, capacity building, and technical exchange for over 200 participants from more than 20 countries. "Because we believe that China is one of the world's greatest opportunities to learn from," Beasley said. "Techniques have been a driving force of Chinese experiential management and approach," he said, while speaking highly of agriculture technologies and e-commerce practices in rural China. "We will work with China to utilize these technologies to help smallholder farmers in other developing countries make a better planting plan and connect the farmers to the market," Beasley said. WFP also partners with China to provide nutritious lunches to more than 1,500 preschool children in two poverty-stricken counties in Hunan. "If this project is as successful as we believe it will be, then we can help China to decide when, where and how to scale it up," he said. "With all that wealth and all the experience and expertise, not a single child in the world should be left behind, not one." "Taking advantage of China's experience and success is not what we are talking about for the future, we are talking about the present," Beasley said. "We are building the teams necessary to take it forward." FUZHOU, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's Xiamen Airlines will launch a direct flight linking Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province, and Paris, France, on Dec. 11. Using the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the outbound flight will leave Fuzhou at 12:30 a.m. Beijing time and arrive in Paris at 6:55 a.m. local time every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. One single trip will take 13 hours and 25 minutes. Fuzhou is a key city on the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, part of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative aimed at building trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. The initiative comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The city has seen increasing exchanges overseas. Currently, 117 air routes connect Fuzhou to foreign cities. Over 160,000 buyers to shop the world at first CIIE in Shanghai The first China International Import Expo (CIIE) is about to kick off soon, and more than 160,000 buyers are ready to shop the world. Beijing will send a trade delegation comprising 14,354 individuals and 4,741 enterprises and organizations to the expo. They will mainly focus on the products, technologies, and services that are in accord with the industrial development of Beijing in the areas such as high-end equipment manufacturing, service trade, and scientific and technological innovation. In addition, to better serve the needs of consumption upgrading, the Beijing delegation will also focus on high-end consumer goods and services. Over 2,470 buyers from Tianjin municipality will attend the CIIE. They have formed several sub-delegations by professions such as intelligent manufacturing, medicine and health, education, tourism, recreation, sports, and social organizations. About 30 percent of these buyers from Tianjin have reached preliminary purchasing agreements with the exhibitors that cover a wide range of fields including heavy machinery, flight equipment introduction and rental, importation of featured products and agricultural products, clean energy, finance, sports, and tourism. East Chinas Jiangsu province has established 16 sub-delegations to the CIIE early this June. Its learned that 278 enterprises from these sub-delegations plan to make purchases of over 1 billion yuan ($144.3 million) in the next 5 years, while over 1,400 companies intend to buy 100 million to 1 billion yuan worth of goods during the same time period. More than 2,000 buyers have joined the trade delegation of northeastern Chinas Heilongjiang province, planning to buy a variety of goods including food, wood, automobile, machinery, consumer goods, smart home appliance, medical facilities, and service trade. The Shanghai delegation, which enjoys the convenient access to the expo, sees 15,000 registered buyers for the first CIIE, 10,000 of whom have expressed intention to make purchases in the next 5 years. Hundreds of them intend to make purchases of over 1 billion yuan. The Shanghai delegation focuses on precision and efficiency. Its learned that it plans to purchase 10 billion yuan of manufacturing equipment, 2 billion yuan of cosmetics, 600 million yuan of medical facilities, and 100 million yuan of dairy products. Canton Fair concludes with more new buyers from B&R countries GUANGZHOU, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's largest trade fair in southern Guangdong Province saw an increase in export to countries along the Belt and Road and new buyers from these regions. The 124th biannual session of China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, concluded on Sunday, with the number of foreign buyers and export turnover declined slightly by about one percent year-on-year. Statistics showed the fair received 189,812 buyers from 215 countries and regions and the export turnover reached 206.5 billion yuan (29.8 billion U.S. dollars). Exports to countries and regions along the Belt and Road increased 2.7 percent to 9.6 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 32.3 percent of the total. While new buyers attending the fair totaled 77,733, up by 2.34 percent, those from countries and regions along the Belt and Road grew by 4.2 percent. Seven of the top ten buyers were countries and regions along the Belt and Road. A total of 10,739 buyers from the United States attended the fair, the second largest source of buyers, after China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. "The number of buyers from developing countries and emerging markets has increased at the fair, and that of new buyers has continued to grow. The structure of buyers has continualy been optimized, and quality steadily improved," said the fair spokesman Xu Bing. "Diversified global buyers can help enterprises efficiently consolidate the traditional markets, explore emerging and potential markets, and optimize their layout in the international market," he added. The China Import and Export Fair, held every spring and autumn in the city of Guangzhou, is seen as a barometer of China's exports. A joint performance was held by artists from China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in Pyongyang on Saturday. A joint performance is held by artists from China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in Pyongyang on Saturday, November 3. [Photo: Xinhua] Visiting Chinese artists joined hands with their DPRK peers, presenting songs and dances that are popular among the people of both countries, along with other kinds of performances. Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), enjoys a joint performance held by artists from China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in Pyongyang on Saturday, November 3, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua] Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), watched the performance. After which, Kim took the stage, shook hands with the main actors and spoke highly of their excellent performance. Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), shakes hands with artists from China and the DPRK following a joint performance in Pyongyang on Saturday, November 3. [Photo: Xinhua] Ahead of the performance, the top DPRK leader had previously met with the principal members of a Chinese delegation of literary and art workers which started visiting DPRK on Friday. Kim, who highly praises the healthy and stable development of the relations between the DPRK and China, noted that the Chinese delegation's visit will greatly promote mutual exchanges between the two countries in the field of culture and arts, enhance the friendly feelings of the two peoples, and consolidate the traditional friendship between the two countries. A joint performance is held by artists from China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in Pyongyang on Saturday, November 3. [Photo: Xinhua] Led by China's Minister of Culture and Tourism Luo Shugang, the delegation was at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and will present performances to the DPRK people and carry out exchange activities with DPRK artists, including joint performances. A joint performance is held by artists from China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in Pyongyang on Saturday, November 3. [Photo: Xinhua] The performance on November 3, was the first joint performance during the Chinese artists' ongoing visit. iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The remains of a National Guard soldier and Utah mayor killed in Afghanistan over the weekend are expected to arrive in the United States on Tuesday, according to the Department of Defense. Maj. Brent R. Taylor, 39, who was killed during an insider attack in Kabul on Saturday, was the mayor of North Ogden, a husband, and a father to seven young children. He served the Utah Army National Guard based out of Joint Force Headquarters in Draper, Utah, and had completed two combat tours in Iraq, serving as a convoy security commander and then as an adviser to an Iraqi national intelligence agency, according to the biography on the North Ogden city website. A dignified transfer of Taylor's remains is expected to take place early Tuesday morning at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Department of Defense spokesperson Col. Rob Manning told reporters on Monday. One other American service member who was wounded in the attack is currently undergoing medical treatment but in stable condition, according to a NATO statement. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch tweeted a photo with Taylor on Saturday, calling the soldier "a hero, a patriot, a wonderful father, and a dear friend." Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said in a statement he was "heartbroken at the news" and felt "completely humbled by the service and the ultimate sacrifice offered by this brave and selfless soldier." "The entire Herbert family mourns with this soldier's family and we pray that their burdens may be lifted, and that the hearts of all Utahns will reach out to comfort them in their grief," the statement read. In his final Facebook post on Oct. 28, Taylor encouraged everyone to vote and all for unity. "As the USA gets ready to vote in our own election next week, I hope everyone back home exercises their precious right to vote. And that whether the Republicans or the Democrats win, that we all remember that we have far more as Americans that unites us than divides us. United we stand, divided we fall. God Bless America," he wrote. Taylor was elected mayor of North Ogden in 2013 after serving on the City Council since 2009. He held a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Brigham Young University and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Utah, according to the North Ogden city website. He was a current Ph.D. candidate at the University of Utah in International Relations. The roughly 17,000 residents of North Ogden are mourning the loss of their city's mayor -- the city government writing in a statement posted to its website that Taylor had "a profound influence on this community." "He was the best of men with the ability to see potential and possibility in everything around him," the statement said. "We feel blessed to have had him as our mayor." "He had a great love and vision for this community," it added. "He was patriotic to the core and a shining example of what an American politician should be. We are grateful for his service to both our city and our country. His loss will be felt for years to come." Three Afghan insider attacks in three weeks Taylor's death marks the third insider attack in Afghanistan in the last three weeks. On Oct. 18, a member of the Afghan forces targeted prominent U.S. and Afghan generals in Kandahar, killing the province's well-known police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, and wounding U.S. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley who was later transferred to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Also present during the chaotic attack was the top U.S. general in command of all U.S. troops in Afghanistan who escaped unharmed. The event has "deeply shaken the relationship between Afghan and American forces," according to a New York Times investigation into the deadly insider attack. Just four days later, a Czech soldier was killed and two others were wounded during another insider attack in Herat Province in western Afghanistan. The number of insider attacks in Afghanistan peaked at 61 in 2012 but had become rarer after the U.S. military instituted security safeguards to protect American troops. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The China International Import Expo (CIIE), the worlds first-ever import-centered national expo, will open at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC)in Shanghai on November 5. The four-leaf clover shaped building has refreshed its appearance to welcome guests from all over the world and now it looks like a charming colorful butterfly in west Shanghai. Sight lamps along the 20-mile-long Huangpu River bank will deliver magnificent night scenery for the upcoming guests. Li Qiang, the secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Committee, said at Shanghai Tower on Oct. 29 when he met major participants of the World Laureates Forum that the Times Square of New York City is known as the crossroads of the world," but that districts on both sides of the Shanghais Huangpu River will be known as the worlds reception room. Shanghai has refined city management and improved the quality of its services in preparation for the event. The glorious oriental city is embracing global guests with a more open stance. With the slogan of New Era, Shared Future, CIIE has attracted over 3,000 enterprises from 81 countries. More than 5,000 products will make their debuts at the expo and 12 countries, which have been granted the status of Guest of Honor, will showcase their unique products and technologies. Over 130 high-level political dignitaries and 1,500 delegates from related international organizations, global business sector, academic sector, domestic ministries and commissions, and Chinese regions will attend the CIIE opening ceremony. As the countdown clock to the opening of CIIE ticks away, a batch of latest products from home and abroad are being carried to the coastal city of Shanghai on the East China Sea by freighters and flights from across the world. These products will soon unveil their mysterious masks. Many world-renowned enterprises have confirmed their participation in CIIE, including US-based General Electric Company and Qualcomm Inc, UKs Jaguar Land Rover and AstraZeneca plc., Japan-based Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, Germany-based Schunk, and South Koreas Samsung. Despite star products like smart and high-end equipment, consumer electronics, household electrical appliances, beverages and foods, clothes, and medical equipment are also attracting attention. CIIE, with diversified and premium products on display, will be the best place to buy high-quality global products. CIIE is so attractive that its influence has spread nationwide and even worldwide.A total of 160 thousand buyers already have a purchase menu in their hands. Enterprises, busy in communicating with CIIE exhibitors, cannot wait to set off toward Shanghai for CIIE. Among Shanghai enterprises, 150 thousand purchasers have registered for CIIE, over 10 thousand enterprises have expressed their intent to purchase in the coming five years, and over 100 enterprises plan to buy products worth more than a billion yuan. With the slogan of Buy Global, Sell Global,, CIIE will stimulate both domestic and foreign market to the maximum. The huge influence radiated from theopen import-centered expo shows the attraction of the Chinese market, the power of the China opportunity, and the appeal of China development strategy. Against the blue sky, the chubby CIIE mascot Jinbao stands in front of the NECC to welcome guests from all over the worldwitha four-leaf clover symbolizing fortunate in its hands. Through CIIE, the world will see Chinas confidence and commitment in opening its market and creating a shared future. During the golden October of autumn, apart from CIIE, Shanghai will greet a group with the worlds most powerful brain. As many major forums successively opened in Shanghai, including the 29th International Business Leaders' Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai, the World Laureates Forum, and the 2018 Pujiang Innovation Forum, many leading scientists, business leaders, and scholars have arrived in Shanghai to provide decision makers with insights from Shanghai on global development. When talking about the World Laureates Forum held in Shanghai for the first time, ZhuDiwen, a physics Nobel Laureates and the vice chairman of the World Laureates association, said: It will be a great memory when a young scientist puts forward a question on the scene that I am unable to answer. A paper named Results from Chinas Opening Up Will Better Benefit the Worldissued by the People's Daily points out that China is not only a beneficiary of the global economy but also a contributor. CIIE symbolizes a new level in opening-up, which will promote the sound development of the Chinese economy and create opportunities for other countries to take the express train of Chinas economic development. The launching of CIIE is just like the opening of a door. As all guests are arriving at the reception room, China will accelerate its pace in embracing the world. With its commitment to spreading services, manufacturing, shopping, and cultural sectors, its promise to provide the best services, and its aimto develop into one of the worlds cities, Shanghai is waiting for its global guests with a new appearance and a more open stance. The brilliance of the four-leaf clover will give the world a big surprise. Photo via Xinhua On October 29, Li Qiang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, met with the main guests of the World Laureates Forum at Shanghai Tower. Li said that Times Square in New York is called the crossroads of the world, while the two sides of Huangpu River in Shanghai will be built into the "meeting room of the world. The "world's meeting room" is the best way to describe Shanghai at the moment as the world counts down to the start of the first China International Import Expo(#CIIE). At a recently-held press conference, Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Bingnan said that politicians from more than 130 countries as well as heads of relevant international organizations, global business leaders, and well-known experts and scholars will attend the opening ceremony, along with 1,500 delegates from domestic ministries and regional institutes. Its right to describe the grand event with the traditional Chinese saying that "guests and friends fill up the room". As another saying goes, Its a pleasure to have friends visiting from afar." The Chinese people have been hospitable since ancient times and this tradition of hospitality has been repeatedly expressed in Chinese literature. We can view Shanghai as a form of opening-up and CIIE as a gathering place for friends. Shanghai not only has a unique geographical advantage to host the first CIIE, but it also stand out among other Chinese cities with the well-known opening-up "gene." As the world's first import-themed state-level exhibition, it is no accident that CIIE was born in China. And its only natural that Shanghai, the city of opening-up, will host the first CIIE. Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized that CIIE is not a general exhibition, but a policy announcement of Chinas initiative to further open its market, and that relevant departments should carefully organize the event to make it a world-class expo. To realize that goal and to play the good role of the worlds meeting room, Shanghai has been fully committed to mobilizing the whole city and not letting go of any problem or missing any details. All tasks have been properly organized and implemented to the end. Throughout all of the work, Shanghai has adhered to the highest standards, taking up a working style that was both fast and practical as well as excellent. Just as Li Qiang, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, said, it is necessary to pursue excellence and adopt a pragmatic work style and for everyone to shoulder their responsibility to go all out to host a world-class expo. Many major events will be hosted at CIIE and a number of important guests will receive a high reception. In fact, its reportedly the largest number of important guests in Shanghais history. In this regard, Shanghai has stayed true to the five aspects of reception, transportation, accommodation, food, and transfer, aiming to create a first-class experience. Since September, Shanghai has carried out three comprehensive urban security drills and more than 200 special drills, constantly adjusting and optimizing measures to improve the level of service. City management should be as fine as embroidery. With a big focus and a small starting place, making a world-class expo not only reflects Shanghai's hospitality, but also helps people feel Shanghai's civilized temperament. In China we say that to love people and treat neighbors kindly are most valuable to a country. Shanghais strive to become the "world's meeting room" not only shows itself in providing warm places and excellent services, but also in promoting the spirit of inclusiveness and opening-up. As we all know, Shanghai's city spirit refers to the pursuit of excellence, open-minded wisdom, and modest courtesy. Inclusiveness and opening are needed both in becoming the leader and pioneer in Chinas reform and opening-up in the new era, but also in becoming the worlds meeting room. In China we also say that those with the same ideals think nothing of a long and arduous journey. At present, some countries are pursuing trade protectionism, and international unilateralism is on the rise. The hosting of CIIE is not only an important measure for the Chinese government to open its market and expand imports, but also a policy announcement that Chinas gate that is opening wider and wider as well as a solid action to uphold the multilateral trading system. As the vanguard of China's reform and opening-up, Shanghai has every reason to believe that the "world's meeting room" will become more and more popular and Shanghai's new gold business card. Taking the opportunity of CIIE, China is even more convinced that its door is opening wider and the people of all countries will reap more steady benefits as they ride on the free and fast train developed by China.(By Qin Ning) Today, Nov. 5, marks the first day of the First China International Import Expo, which will welcome around 3,000 companies from 130 countries and regions here to the National Exhibition and Convention Centre in Shanghai. The opening ceremony, which kicks off this morning, will be attended by President Xi Jinping along with 18 other heads of state and government. The Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum also kicks off this morning. With the theme of spurring new vitality of global trade, creating an open and win-win scenario, it will focus on new trends and changes in economic development at home and abroad, promoting economic globalisation and building an open world economy. The forum is made up of three parallel sessions, Trade and Opening, Trade and Innovation and Trade and Investment, with speeches from leaders of international organisations, entrepreneurs and academics. The CIIE will run from Nov. 5-10 with a very clear message that China is open for business. 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. The first China International Import Expo (CIIE) will be held in Shanghai on November 5-10. The Expo Media Center officially opened on Sunday and more than 4,100 registered journalists from 630 domestic and foreign media will broadcast the grand event to the world from the center. For the past two days, People's Daily Online reporters have visited each functional area and felt the media center's careful, attentive, and intimate service to journalists. The media center, with a total area of 13,000 square meters, has set up various functional areas, such as a consulting service area, public work area, dedicated work area, new media area for radio and television, press release hall, and catering and leisure service area, and provided full-coverage wireless network. 24-hour multi-language public signal In the public work area on the second floor, each workstation is equipped with a power interface, a network interface, and a digital audio interface in the 1,100-square-meter hall that can accommodate nearly 500 journalists. There are four high-definition large screens and several small screens in the work area to broadcast live videos in real time. Media work area liaison officer Chen Yuan said that journalists can obtain multi-language audio information of public live broadcasts through the audio interface on the workstation and use the button to switch channels and find the language they need. The audio language information changes in accordance with the sessions and can provide information in Chinese, English, Russian, French, Arabic, or Spanish. Lockers with face recognition technology There is a row of blue lockers on the wall of the media work area, which, although they appear quite normal, are equipped with face recognition technology. Reporters dont need any codes or tickets to open the lockers. Besides the multiple conveniences that are offered in the media center, the Expo also has an online media center for instantly posting official information and interview notices. In addition, it can provide diverse media services, including text and picture downloading and interview reservations. Thumbs up for the considerate, comprehensive, and high-tech media center at the first-ever China International Import Expo! Why the Georgia Governor's Race May Be the Most Consequential of 2018 By Dustin Rowles | Politics | November 5, 2018 | Yesterday, with no evidence to support it, Georgias Secretary of State, Brian Kemp who is running for Governor against Stacey Abrams launched an investigation into the Georgia Democratic party for cybercrimes. If you go to the Georgia Secretary of States home page right now to, say, find out where youre supposed to vote or ensure that you are still registered, you will see this: We still dont know what the investigation is about, and the Secretary of States office (which, again, is controlled by Brian Kemp) wont comment on any of the details of the investigation. The closest thing I could find to an explanation was this: BREAKING: Team Kemp is losing their minds. Rachel Small is a volunteer for the Democratic Party of Georgia on our voter protection hotline. She received an email from a man named Richard Wright. She forwarded Richard's email to our voter protection director. Sorry, @BrianKempGA. https://t.co/eogwmEZ2X0 Georgia Democrat (@GeorgiaDemocrat) November 4, 2018 This is obviously not the first shady thing that Brian Kemp has done during this election. He stalled 50,000 voter registrations by disproportionately black voters under the states exact-match requirements. He flagged 3,100 potential noncitizens and tried to make it more difficult for them to prove their citizenship status (a judge overturned him). In leaked audio, THE SECRETARY OF STATE complained about an increase in voter turnout this year. Since 2012, Kemp has also purged over 2 million voters from the voter rolls, including over 600,000 in 2017. Over 100,000 were purged based on the use it or lose it law, which removes voters who havent voted in recent elections from the rolls. There was also an effort to close all but two voting polls in a majority-black district, and over 200 polls largely in areas with high black populations have been closed since 2012. Brian Kemp is a bad man, which is fairly evident from some of his political ads, like this one: The race between Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams is a dead heat. They are statistically tied according to basicallythe polls. But heres the thing: If Brian Kemp wins, especially by a narrow margin, a lot of Georgians (and especially Black Georgians) are going to completely lose faith in Democracy in Georgia. Brian Kemp is going to be considered an illegitimate Governor by a lot of folks. This is also 100 percent true. Brian Kemp deserves to lose this election. Then he deserves to be investigated by state and federal authorities for voter intimidation and voter suppression. Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) November 4, 2018 But the problem is, the guy engaging in the abuse of power is also responsible for investigating this abuse of power, and at the federal level, does anyone think that Trump is going to demand an investigation? If Kemp wins, it will also illustrate that those tactics work, and if no one holds Kemp accountable if the voters, especially, dont hold him accountable Kemp is going to feel emboldened to continue using the same tactics. It will also encourage candidates in other races around the country to use those tactics, as well. Cheating will become the norm even more than it is now. Democrats already have to deal with voter suppression efforts, gerrymandering, and a President that just makes up shit. Obama: "When truth doesn't matter, when people can just lie with abandon, democracy can't work And that's what's happening at the highest levels. And the only check on that behavior is you. The only check on that behavior is you and your vote." (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/QRt9t0NjrG Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 2, 2018 However, if Kemp wins, I guarandamntee that Trump will open up an FBI investigation on his 2020 opponent. If was an FBI investigation that cost Hillary the race in 2020, so Republicans know fully well how powerful that tool is, and as long as they control their investigatory bodies, theyre going to use them to maintain their power, and no one will be able to stop them. No pressure, Georgia, but the future of American democracy may depend upon you, and Im sorry to say, but the deck is already stacked against you. Uh, good luck! To those Georgia voters, we thank you in advance for your service. On-Set Images Reveal Charlize Theron's Look at Megyn Kelly | Department of Defense Warns Troops About Militia Groups Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. You may email him here, follow him on Twitter, or listen to his weekly TV podcast, Podjiba. Header Image Source: Getty Yemen: UN chief hails 'signs of hope' in world's worst man-made humanitarian disaster 11/04/18 Source: UN News Center Welcoming recent indications that peace talks could resume soon to end Yemen's brutal civil conflict, United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres said on Friday there is "no room for complacency," and called on the warring parties and the international community to "halt the senseless cycle of violence" and "reach a political settlement". Saudi Arabia's tight control over all air and sea movements into northern Yemen has effectively made the area a prison for those who live there. In the hushed hunger wards, ailing infants hover between life and death. https://t.co/OeDLpRgDkC The New York Times (@nytimes) October 26, 2018 Conflict in the country has its roots in 2011, but the situation escalated dramatically in 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition was invited by the internationally-recognized Government to intervene, uprooting millions and destroying civilian infrastructure across the country. "International humanitarian law has been flouted repeatedly," Mr. Guterres told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York. Since 2015, access to basic services and sources of income has become increasingly challenging and, today, three quarters of the entire Yemeni population - 22 million women, children and men - find themselves dependent on some form of humanitarian assistance to survive. Yemen faces the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. UN Chief @antonioguterres said the 'dire conditions' demand changes pic.twitter.com/MQJ2sRXIbo UN News (@UN_News_Centre) November 2, 2018 "This is not a natural disaster. It is man-made. Yemen today stands on a precipice," said the UN chief. According to humanitarian agencies working on the ground, the massive scale of humanitarian need has turned Yemen into the world's worst crisis in decades. Cholera is endemic, and famine is looming. "On the humanitarian side, the situation is desperate," said Mr. Guterres, but "on the political side," he noted, "there are signs of hope". "The international community has a real opportunity to halt the senseless cycle of violence and to prevent an imminent catastrophe," he stated. The Secretary-General called for several steps to be taken urgently: an immediate cessation of hostilities, especially in densely populated areas; clearance without restrictions for essential imports such as food and fuel; and ensuring humanitarian access to civilians. He said efforts to kick-start the economy by stabilising the exchange rate of the Yemeni Rial; and paying the salaries and pensions of public servants were also essential; alongside additional funding from the international community for the humanitarian response. "I welcome the strong, constructive engagement from many Member States in recent days joining their voices to the UN's repeated appeals for a cessation of hostilities and supporting my Special Envoy's efforts," said the UN chief, who also welcomed the warring parties' expression of readiness to engage in peace consultations. "There is now an opportunity for peace in Yemen," he concluded, urging the parties to "overcome obstacles and resolve differences through dialogue at UN-facilitated consultations" in November. Menzgold Ghana Limited will collaborate with Zylofon Media to organize a mammoth Christmas get-together for all staff and employees as well as customers, Nana Appiah Mensah has said. Nana Appiah Mensah, popularly known as NAM 1, said the customers should, however, exercise patience for management as steps are taken to have all migrated onto the new online platform. Addressing customers on Zylofon FM on Monday, the Chief Executive Officer of Menzgold apologized to them for the recent turn of events at the gold-trading firm, calling on them not to rush to withdraw their investments. Speaking in local language Twi, NAM1 stated, however, that all those who genuinely want to withdraw their initial gold collectible values will get 15 per cent of that from Friday, November 9. He said there are underground talks with the regulators to have Menzgold back in operation. Little wonder, he says, it has started an online platform to be known as Menzgold Global Market, onto which it is persuading all customers to migrate. He said within one month, precisely by the second week of December, all the dust will settle and customers will start earning from the new platform. Nana Appiah Mensah, therefore, announced that a Christmas get-together will be organized for all customers to cap the new business. He asked aggrieved customers not to resort to demonstration and protests to press home their demands but occasionally call on management at its offices for the latest on their deposits. To him, street protests only go to distract government from finding a lasting solution to the problem. Menzgold was shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, September 12 for trading without the required license. The operations were said to have been in breach of Act 929. The action by SEC came barely a month after the Central Bank warned the gold-trading firm for breaching the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016. Though this has been contested by Menzgold, the company ceased operation but resumed on Monday, November 5 with the online trade. Source: 3news.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The government is making an effort to raise $1.5 billion to develop more infrastructure in schools selected for the double- track system to hasten the process of phasing out the system within the shortest possible time. The amount will be raised from both local and international sources by using 40 per cent of the GETFund as security. Already, the Ministry of Education has laid the proposed securitisation of the GETFund before Parliament for approval. In an interview in Accra last Friday, the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of General Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, said out of the amount, $500 million would be used to complete 766 structures in schools which were initiated under the GETFund but had stalled because of lack of funds. When the double-track system was introduced in September this year, the government projected to phase out the system in seven years time. But Dr Adutwum was of the view that with the securitisation of part of the GETFund, it was possible that the double-track system would be phased out completely by four years. School structures We are going to use the funds that will be raised from the GETFund securitisation to finish all those stalled projects, add a few more blocks and make sure that we phase out the double-track system. Within the next three or four years, we would have added enough facilities to every school in such a way that there will not be any double-track any more, he said. Dr Adutwum explained that under the current arrangement, it was expected that more than half of the schools running the double-track system would phase out double track for their second-year students by next year. Giving a breakdown of the structures to be completed, he said 258 were classrooms, 379 dormitories, 92 dining halls and 37 science laboratories which were at various levels of completion, while others had been awarded on contract but were yet to begin. Uncompleted schools He said the uncompleted projects in the senior high schools (SHSs) were sickening because while the projects had become stalled, students were struggling to get classrooms and dormitories. All these are sitting there and we cannot use them because of our poor strategy of school construction. They are all stalled and we cannot use them. And what we are doing now is that we are asking for $1.5 billion; $500 million will be used to complete all these structures; we will pay all outstanding arrears and put up more classroom blocks across the country, he added. Why securitisation If we dont do the securitisation of the GETFund, what it means is that all these will be sitting there and every year we will do a few of them until 10 years when we may be able to complete, but that will be 10 years of opportunity lost, he explained. He said securitisation was a common practice in developed countries and it was working for them and wondered why Ghana could not do same. Before Parliament Dr Adutwum said the Ministry of Education had laid the proposed securitisation of the GETFund before Parliament for approval, adding that it had been referred to the joint Committee of Education and Finance for further deliberations. We are keeping faith with Ghanaians when we told them that this is what we are going to do and what we have done in Parliament shows that that is what we are going to do, he told the Daily Graphic. GNPC Dr Adutwum commended the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) for putting up 42 classroom blocks in various schools. Source: Graphic.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 Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hon. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey (MP) will pay a 3-day working visit to Israel from November 4 to 7, 2018. The visit is at the invitation of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu who doubles as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel. While there, the two envoys will hold discussions at the Prime Ministers Office in Jerusalem on the diplomatic and the bilateral relations that exist between the two countries. The Ghanaian Minister for Foreign Affairs will also hold discussions with the Chair, Lobby for Relations between Israel and African Countries, MK Avraham Neguise. Ahead of a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem and a visit to the Western Wall, the minister will also be given a tour of the Knesset which is Israels unicameral parliament, the country's legislative body. Hon. Ayorkor Botchwey is also expected to lay a wreath & sign the guest book at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Ghana was the first country from Black Africa to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in 1956, prior to independence when an Israeli consulate was established in the country. After the overthrow of Ghanas first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Israeli military activities in Ghana ended, but Israel continued to aid Ghana in shipping, construction, security, research, manpower training, and agriculture. However, in September 2011, Ghana and Israel renewed direct diplomatic relations and has since cooperated in various sectors including health and education. The visit by the Minister is expected to strengthen the long-cherished ties of friendship among the two nations where Hon. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey will be expected to re-affirm the commitment of the Government of Ghana in an effort to deepen the bilateral relations that exist between the two countries and its Peoples. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A duck is generating curiosity and speculation since its appearance recently in New York's Central Park. It's even gained the nickname as "New York's most eligible bachelor". Hundreds of people gathered around the Pond over the weekend, a water body at the southeast corner of Central Park, just to get a glimpse of the male Mandarin duck, a brightly-colored bird originated in East Asia. People gather at the Pond in New Yorks Central Park to enjoy the rare appearance of a male Mandarin Duck. KONG WENZHENG / CHINA DAILY With its feathers of more than 10 colors, including bright red, sapphire and dark green, all shining and glowing in the autumn sunlight, the bird is becoming a favorite of photographers. "Mandarin ducks are not naturally seen in our area," said David Barrett, a bird watcher for over seven years and operator of the Twitter account Manhattan Bird Alert that has tracked the Mandarin duck since its first appearance. The ducks are commonly found in China, Japan and occasionally some parts of Europe, rather than North America. Barrett and his fellow birders came up with two theories of why the duck showed up in Central Park. It might be an unwanted pet as it is not an uncommon practice for people to bring pets they no longer want, particularly birds and turtles, to the park and release them, said Barrett. The duck might also be an escapee from a nearby house, with New Jersey a particularly likely location as the state, unlike New York, allows these kind of birds to be kept as pets. 'Most eligible bachelor' People originally suggestted that the duck might have escaped from a local zoo, but none of the four major facilities in New York has a lost Mandarin duck, ruling out this speculation. Mandarin ducks do not breed with other species, and no female duck is around to accompany it, Barrett said. Because of that, it has been named "New York's most eligible bachelor" by New York Magazine. The park authorities have publicly stated that they would not intervene with the duck unless it gets injured and needs medical care. Still, Barrett believes that the duck is feeling at home in the park, and that is a good thing for the city. "There's so much news today that is depressing or stressful," he said, "and this is just people going out to see a beautiful bird. I think that's great we are excited about it. "It's a fun thing people can have a good time," added Barrett, "and maybe they will take an interest in nature, and in other wild birds." Ghanas foremost waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited and Appointed Time Screen Printing company were among the prestigious businesses honored at the maiden Ghana Business Awards held at the plush Kempiski Gold Coast Hotel. Zoomlion Ghana Limited on the night bagged the Sanitation Company of the Year Award, whiles Appointed Time Screen Printing company received the Printing Company of the Year Award for being benchmarks of excellence despite the recurring challenges confronting their various industries. In all, there were 66 awards covering various industries as well as some recognition awards with over 300 nominees. Seven companies of the Jospong Group including the Group company and its executives were nominated in their various areas of operation. Mr. Ebenezar Twum-Asante of MTN Ghana was adjudged the Chief Executive Officer of the year and Dr Kwabena Adjei of Kasapreko Group of Companies won the Entrepreneur of the Year 2018. The Minister for Business Development, Mr Ibrahim Awal who was a special guest at the event tasked local businesses to pursue excellence to enable them beat global competitions. Businesses in Ghana have the capacity to compete globally and government has created the enabling environment for you to strive. I urge you to remain steadfast, adhere to standards and you can beat global competition anywhere he indicated. Mr. Awal Mohammed assured businesses that government is committed to removing all barriers to the growth of businesses in Ghana because the private sector holds the success of the economy. He added that the ministry is committed to supporting businesses to become bigger and stronger to ensure that they contribute significantly to the economy. The Ghana Business Awards is a prestigious award that recognizes and rewards excellence across all sectors in Ghana. It also provides a platform to recognize individuals and companies that play significant role in the growth and development of their industries. The objective of the award is to reward businesses that have played a defining role in moving their industry forward and have demonstrated achievement across a wide variety of domains including sustainability, operational excellence, innovation among others. The award also recognizes projects and individual achievements that have enabled their businesses to set themselves apart from their competitors and have produced a compelling value and relevant results. Other award winners on the night include MTN Ghana, Ecobank, Tobinco Pharmaceutical, Odotobiri Rural Bank, SIC Life Insurance, Royal Crown Packaging Limited, Electricity Company of Ghana, Sunshine Healthcare Limited and the Ghana Shippers authority. 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 European impact investment fund specialized in agroforestry companies with strong environmental and social impact, Moringa SCA SICAR (Moringa), has partnered B-BOVID Limited, a Ghanaian agribusiness company. Created in 2004, B-BOVID Ltd is a national and United Nations (UN) award-winning farming and processing palm oil enterprise based on social entrepreneurship principles and agroforestry practices. The company already produces crude and palm kernel oil from fruits harvested from more than 2,000 farmers. Originally, B-BOVID developed a 110 hectare demonstration plantation showcasing oil palm agroforestry practices and has implemented a comprehensive training structure to promote the best agroforestry farming models and management practices toward revenue diversification, social inclusion and low environmental impacts. The company has trained several thousands of farmers and students on climate smart agriculture. Moringa is investing 5 million USD into B-BOVID to enhance and strengthen the companys unique out-grower palm oil polyculture model, with the objective to engage up to 4,000 farmers within the next few years. Tree maintenance and preservation will be a major focus in the implementation of this model. The investment will also support the modernization of B-BOVIDs manufacturing plant and expand its production capacity to meet growing local and regional demand while improving livelihood of the outgrowers. Issa Ouedraogo, a Ghanaian social entrepreneur with experience in international development institutions created and leads B-BOVID. He stated that the agreement with Moringa is a recognition by the international investor community of B-BOVIDs credibility and viability as a social enterprise, providing sustainable solutions to deforestation, unemployment and poverty in the country. He confirmed that B-BOVID is committed to transforming the face of agribusiness in Ghana and called for support from state and non-state actors, particularly the banks to make agriculture attractive to the youth. A statement by Adrien Henry, Investment Director of Moringa said This cooperation between Moringa and B-BOVID is our first investment in Ghana and it reinforces Moringas presence in Western Africa and its strategy to create strong sustainable practices on the continent. We are already working to strengthen the companys human resource base, and increase its overall efficiency while consolidating its position as a leading center of agroforestry and livelihood enhancement activities in Ghana and beyond. Following Moringas bold investment strategy, we will strive to achieve a sustainable polyculture model around palm oil farming in order to serve both local and regional markets. About B-BOVID Limited B-BOVID is an agribusiness promoting a new model of socially-inclusive commercial farming that combines innovative agricultural practices with ecological farming. B-BOVID is internationally recognized and has won a UN social investment pioneer award in 2012. The company was introduced at the 15th international business forum in South Africa in 2012. The event attracted over 300 business experts from around the world. B-BOVID was among the case study during the launch of the Global Compact Network Ghana, and also a case study by the Inter Agency Working Group of the World Bank, UNCTAD, FAO, IFAD on Principles for Responsible Agriculture Investment. Issa Ouedraogos personal recognition In November 2017, Mr. Ouedraogo was crowned the Chamber Businessman of the year 2016, at the maiden Chamber Business Awards by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Awards, for his innovative agricultural business based in Pretsir in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region. B-BOVID was also recognized as the Innovative Agribusiness Company (Primary) of the year 2016. Mr. Ouedraogo was decorated by President Akufo-Addo, and presented with a citation, a portion of which read Your passion towards self-empowerment and self-fulfillment drove you to set up a company, B-BOVID, through which you have touched and transformed many lives in the agro-sector. In December 2017, he won for the second time at the 2017 Farmers Day, the Best Farmer in the Western Region. This was after he had won the same award in 2013. B-BOVID wins prestigious UN award B-BOVIDs model has received several commendations locally and internationally, including the United Nations (UN). In 2012, B-BOVID, won the UNs Social Investment Pioneer Award along with nine other businesses from around the world. The awards were given in recognition of the companies outstanding contributions to local community development. The awards are the initiative of the Principles for Social Investment Secretariat and the United Nations Global Compact. About Moringa The Moringa Fund is an investment company that provides equity financing for sustainable agroforestry projects in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Agroforestry combines tree planting with agricultural crops to create positive synergies in economic, environmental and social terms. The fund was initiated by the Edmond de Rothschild Group and ONF International, an international subsidiary of the French Office National des Forets (ONF), and supported by major international development agencies, financial institutions and families. Source: citi Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video One of the Winneba road accident victims, a three-year-old boy, is battling for his life at the Winneba Trauma and Specialist Hospital as there is no ambulance to transfer him to Accra for emergency medical attention. Doctors say the boy, whose parents cannot be traced, has multiple fractures to the head and currently in an unstable situation requiring medical evacuation to either Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital or the 37 Military Hospital in Accra. No ambulance, no family member around. You call national ambulance [service] youre not getting them, Dr. Douglas Amponsah told 3News correspondent Kwame Kakraba Monday morning. File photo. Ghanas ambulance system is almost collapsed as there are only 55 ambulances that are reportedly operational nationwide. He said we are now looking for ways to get ambulance to get him to Korle-Bu, thats our priority now, he added. Six people have so far been confirmed dead in the accident involving a Sprinter bus and a Toyota Corolla. The Mercedes Sprinter bus registered GT 3389 17 was said to be overtaking another vehicle when it suddenly burst tyre and collided head on with the oncoming Corolla registered CR 416 17 at Gomoa Mpota in the Central Region. According to the medical doctor, some of the victims were brought to their facility but a lot of them died and currently have only four persons on admission including the boy whose parent is believed to have died in the accident. All the adults are in stable condition but the child isnt stable; he has a lot of fractures in the head and currently unconscious and requires a referral to either 37 or Korle-Bu, Dr. Amponsah told our correspondent. Kakraba who visited the Hospital Monday morning said the bodies of the deceased have been deposited at the morgue. Source: 3news.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former Deputy Minister for Education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has reiterated earlier assertions by some organisations and persons that government is to blame for current mishaps at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, accuses government of intentionally frustrating efforts by concern stakeholders in bringing matters to rest at KNUST which will lead to the reopening of the University to students. Government's conduct or shall we be more honest and call it misconduct in deliberately stifling an amicable resolution of the KNUST imbroglio only goes as far as to confirm that Government has indeed been the problem all along, he indicated in a statement posted on his Facebook wall. The Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, said failure to restore the old council of KNUST on the expected date which was November 2, 2018 clearly exposes governments unwillingness to support stakeholders to find lasting solution to the dispute. He said, Per the road map agreed with key stakeholders after Governments abortive coup, KNUSTs University Council ought to have been restored last Friday the 2nd of November, 2018. This would have given us concrete hope that by this week students could be returning to a re-opened campus. Further stalemate and more harm especially to KNUSTs international image would thus have been avoided. The legislator further questioned governments intention to meddle in the selection of persons to represent UTAG, TEWU, SRC, GRASAG and other bodies on the University's Council. While expressing shock at the inability of government to reinstate the old University Council, Mr. Ablakwa indicated that the dissolution was an unlawful action. If Government succeeds with this, what next? Would Government now decide who are elected as leaders/executive of these entities? Would Government begin to determine which lecturer and or member of staff gets promoted? Would Government henceforth control or place fetters on the kind of research permitted in our higher institutions of learning? Would Government then determine who gets admission into KNUST and other universities for that matter? Mr. Ablakwa quizzed. Source: Ghanaweb.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A National Chairman aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dan Abodakpi, says his extreme commitment to rebuild the party, makes him the biggest threat to the governing New Patriot Party (NPP). He considers himself as the best candidate for the position because of his commitment, energy, experience and comprehensive strategy for the vigorous rebuilding of the NDC to regain power. Mr. Abodakpi claims the NPP considers him as its major threat. In that regard, he said some elements in the NDC have allowed themselves to be used by the NPP to malign and attack his integrity, but they have all failed. Addressing delegates from Trobu, Amasaman, Obom-Domeabra, Bortianor and Anyaa-Sowutuom at Anyaa as part of his Greater Accra Regional campaign tour, Mr. Adodakpi, who is the frontrunner in the chairmanship race, said he has what it takes to unseat the NPP. They know my capabilities so they tried to destroy me by politically masterminding my incarceration." But I came out more refined and overly committed to party work, so they now fear I am coming after them, he stressed. Touching on his recent contributions to the party, he said as a founding member and former National Executive Council (NEC) member, he had been leading efforts to unite the party, adding that he has been able to initiate meetings of the Council of Elders, with the founder in attendance as chairman; something that has not happened for a long time due to unexplained differences. This is because we need a united and cohesive front for Victory 2020, he explained. In addition, he said has led the partys reorganisation, but he believes it is now time to take the chairmanship position to actively liberate the party from further destruction. He urged the delegates of the party to honestly vote for candidates with experience and the dedication to party, saying the chairmanship position is not a part-time or experimental business. The choice is yours. If you want the party to continue to go down, then vote for the others." But grant me your mandate if you desire a fully healed and reunited party that is reconnected to its grassroot masses, and with restored fortunes to regain power in 2020, he said. Source: graphic.com.gh Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) is saddened by the widespread apathy among political parties in the recent exhibition exercise carried out by the Electoral Commission (EC). CODEO, which dispatched officers to monitor the exercise observed that the various political parties did not deploy their agents to monitor the exercise. The observer group, however, commended some local level actors in Chereponi district of the Northern region, who cooperated with the EC in removing names of dead relatives and community members. It urged other local level actors across the country to show similar cooperation in future exercises. The EC carried out an exhibition of the voter register from Thursday, October 25, 2018, to Wednesday, October 31, 2018, at various exhibition centres within 47 districts to be affected by the impending creation of additional regions in the country. The exercise is part of preparations by the Commission to organize a referendum on December 27, 2018, in the four (4) regions Western, Brong Ahafo, Volta and Northern out of which six (6) additional regions would be created. In keeping with its objective of promoting electoral integrity in the country, CODEO deployed five (5) observers to eight (8) districts in the regions where the exhibition exercise took place who observed the exercise for the entire duration of the exercise. The districts observed by CODEO included: Juaboso in the Western Region; Chereponi and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba in the Northern Region; Krachi West in the Volta Region; and Nkoranza North, Nkoranza South, Kintampo North and Kintampo South in the Brong Ahafo Region. CODEO observers visited a total of 31 exhibition centres within these eight (8) districts. This exercise follows CODEOs observation of the 2018 limited voter registration carried out by the EC from September 16-25, 2018. Below are the highlights of the main findings from CODEOs observation of the exercise: Overall, observers reported that the exercise was peaceful and marked by low publicity and patronage. Public response in the first few days was generally low but picked up in the latter days of the exercise. Turn-out varied from exhibition centre to exhibition centre and on different days. At some polling stations, it was as low as less than 10 persons in a day and as high as over 50 persons on others days at other exhibition centres. EC officials generally complied with the rules governing the conduct of the exhibition exercise. Observers further noted that exhibition centres generally had the requisite forms and materials for the exercise. There were, however, no biometric verification devices present at exhibition centres despite the ECs introduction of the device during the previous 2016 voter register exhibition. Most exhibition centres did not have party agents stationed. At some exhibition centres in the Krachi West district of the Volta region, however, there were party agents from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) observing the exercise. Similarly, there were party agents from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the NPP at some exhibition centres in the Chereponi district in the Northern region. Observers noted that there were very few requests for correction and inclusion of names on the register. There were also a few objections to names in the register and this was often on grounds of persons being deceased. In the Chereponi district in the Northern region, for example, some local leaders and actors, including an Assembly member, traditional leaders, opinion leaders and some family members cooperated with the ECs exhibition officials on the removal of names of deceased family and community members from the voter register. General Observations, Commendations and Recommendations CODEO is disappointed that once again, political parties did not show much interest and did not attach much importance to this exercise by failing to deploy their agents to monitor the exercise. CODEO, however, commends some local level actors in Chereponi district of the Northern region who cooperated with the EC in removing names of dead relatives and community members. CODEO urges other local level actors across the country to show similar cooperation in future exercises. CODEO urges the EC to be consistent with the practice of using biometric verification during exhibition exercises as recommended by the electoral reforms committee to help identify challenges associated with the use of these devices before election day. Finally, CODEO calls on the EC to intensify publicity ahead of such electoral activities. Conclusion CODEO wishes to assure the public of its commitment to observe electoral activities and to help draw attention to relevant issues requiring action to improve election administration in Ghana. Signed: Albert Arhin, National Coordinator, CODEO Dated: Friday, November 2, 2018. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former President John Dramani Mahama has called on feuding parties within the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Northern Region to resort to dialogue to resolve any misunderstanding. Reports suggest there is bad blood between the regional chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Mobila, and regional secretary Sualisu Be-Awuribe. The misunderstanding got to a head on Saturday when Mr Be-Awuribe and the regional Treasurer, Kassim Bakari, were attacked by some unknown assailants. The two regional executives had accused Alhaji Mobila of masterminding the assault. A statement issued by the John Mahama 2020 Campaign Team on Saturday said the former president has urged the rank and file to remain calm. It said he has even gotten in touch with the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, and other Members of Parliament from the Region to have the matter resolved. The Council of Elders is said to be also part of the arbitration process. 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 Flagbearer hopeful of the opposition National Democratic Congress *NDC), Goosie Tanoh is set to take the three northern regions by storm with a new wave of campaign. He is taking his "rising together campaign tour" to the door steps of his biggest contender John Mahama who appears to be in a "comfortable lead" in the northern part of the country. The opposition NDC is gearing up to elect a flagbearer ahead of the next presidential and parliamentary elections in 2020. According to political pundits, the NDC December 7th presidential primaries elections will be a test of the legacy of former President John Mahama who is also a candidate in the elections. Goosie Tanoh, a founding member of the NDC has already toured and engaged delegates in parts of Volta region, Greater Accra region and Central region where he received overwhelming support for his message of grassroots empowerment. The northern sector tour will afford Mr. Goosie Tanoh, an opportunity to woo more delegates ahead of proposed date for the Presidential primaries. Per his itinerary, Goosie Tanoh will visit Wa Central and Wa West and Nadowli Kaleo, meet party elders and Chiefs in the Upper West region. He will also meet and interact with delegates at Jirapa, lawra, Nandom, Lambussie, Sissala West and Sissala East constituencies, all in the Upper West region. Goosie Tanoh is also expected to canvass for votes in the Upper East region and then Northern region. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The cracks in the Northern Regional branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) became manifest in Tamale over the weekend, with scores of party hooligans attacking and injuring some party executives. Among the injured were the Regional Secretary, Sualisu Be-Awuribe, and Treasurer, Kassim. Information available to The Chronicle indicates that Sualisu Be-Awuribe allegedly issued a letter inviting members of Parliament, constituency representatives and functional executive committee members in the region to a meeting in Tamale without the knowledge and consent of Alhaji Mobila, the Regional Chairman of the party. To ensure that there was peace before, during and after the meeting, the Regional Secretary shifted the venue of the meeting to the Global Dream Hotel. But to prove that he is the Regional Chairman, Alhaji Mobila called for the cancellation of the meeting, which was not adhered to by his subordinates. A letter he sent to the members connected with the meeting, and dated November 1, 2018, reads: RE: Invitation to the Regional Executive Committee meeting. My attention has been drawn to a purported invitation letter sent to Members of Parliament, Constituency representatives and Regional Functional Executive committee members inviting them to a meeting in Tamale. I want to state emphatically that pursuant to article 25 (5) of the Party Constitution, as a leader of the Party in this region, and acting within the constitution, I have not directed the Regional Secretary or received any request from members of REC for any meeting whatsoever. The Regional Secretary acted capriciously and without recourse to laid down procedure in convening an Extended Regional Executive Committee meeting. I am, by this letter, entreating all Constituency Chairmen and their assigns not to attend such illegal meeting, which will amount to gross insubordination towards my authority, as your elected Regional Chairman Despite this warning, the organisers went ahead to organise the meeting, and this resulted in the riot and subsequent injury to some of the party executives. Al-Qaeda and Aljazeera, both vigilante groups, which unconfirmed reports say support the Regional Chairman, descended on the venue and attacked the Regional Secretary, injuring him in the process. The development forced another vigilante group, Aluta Boys, to also march to the office of the Regional Chairman and vandalise it. So far, the National Secretariat of the party has not commented on the issue, but The Chronicle has gathered from credible sources that the issue would be reported to the police today. Meanwhile, a statement issued on Saturday by James Agyenim-Boateng, Spokesperson of the John Mahama campaign team, states that former President John Dramani Mahama has urged the rank and file of the party in the region to remain calm and resort to dialogue to resolve any misunderstanding. Source: The Chronicle 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 Following the presentation of attestation certificate to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Registrar of West African Examination Council (WAEC) in Abuja, the Number one bestselling author and former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Pastor Reno Omokri has described the development as pure garbage, maintaining that President Buhari has no WAEC certificate. Pastor Omokri who said this on Facebook and said even the Headquarters of WAEC had confirmed in 2015 that it had no record of Buhari as one who had written its exams. President Buhari has come under serious criticisms, especially from members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who have continued to maintain that Buhari does not have WAEC certificate and so, is not eligible to vie for elective position much less that of the presidency in Nigeria. The allegation which first arose in the run-up to the 2015 election which Buhari later won has, however, resurfaced just as the 2019 election is at the corner. Although the military claimed it was not in possession of Buharis WAEC certificate and other academic credentials, the President, however, continued to maintain that all his academic credentials, including his WAEC certificate are with the Secretary of the military board. The drama took a new turn when, the Registrar of WAEC, Iyi Uwadiae, came from the WAEC headquarters in Ghana to present the attestation certificate to the President in his mini conference hall in Abuja. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, in a tweet, wrote, WAEC presents attestation certificate and confirmation of school certificate result to President Buhari. What will the naysayers say next? However, Pastor Omokri countered the development, saying that the Headquarters of WAEC which is in Ghana had confirmed in 2015 that it did not have records of Buharis certificate. He also said that the University of Cambridge had also confirmed that, as at 1961, that they did not use the alphanumeric grading system which is now found in the recent attestation certificate given to Buhari. According to him, The Headquarters of The West African Examination Council (WAEC) is in Ghana. They are immune to political control by President Muhammadu Buhari. In 2015, Move On Nigeria wrote WAEC Headquarters and they said they have no record of Buharis certificate. Also, University of Cambridge confirmed that they did not use the alphanumeric grading system in 1961 which appears in Buharis certificate. #RenosDarts 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 China to speed up exploration of free trade port building: Xi SHANGHAI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- China will speed up the exploration of the building of free trade ports with Chinese characteristics, President Xi Jinping said Monday. Xi made the remarks when delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai. The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) over the weekend obtained 19 electoral area seats while the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) got 11 out of the 31 assembly seats in the just-ended Assembly elections in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region. The elections, which were quite partisan, were contested representatives of the NPP and NDC. Although the election was poorly patronized due to apathy by the electorate and poor publicity by the Electoral Commission (EC), the electorate duly elected the new assembly members and unit committee members across the 131 polling stations for another four years. The elections become necessary because in 2010 whilst the entire Ghana elected Assembly members and Unit Committee members, the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly was dissolved. There was no election due to the formation of an Interim Management Committee (IMC), which managed the affairs of the municipality until 2014. Prior to this election, members of the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly called for the suspension of filing of nominations for the elections to replace the former assembly members, whose constitutionally mandated four-year term officially ended in May, 2018. In 2010, a Parliamentary Sub-Legislation Committee, in line with the Local Government Instrument 2010, LI 1983 (Creation of New District Electoral Areas and Designation of Units), aligned seven electoral areas at Akuse, originally part of the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Region to the Dangme West District (now Shai-Osudoku District) in the Greater Accra Region. The areas were Zongo New Town, Akutue, Osukutu, Bungalow, Amedeka, Salon and Natriku. The alignment caused a boundary dispute that led to the suspension of the assembly elections in the entire Lower Manya Krobo Municipality. Owning to the development, efforts by the EC in 2010 to hold district level elections were thwarted by the people of Krobo, which led to the closure of the ECs Office in the Lower Manya Krobo District. In June 2012, the Supreme Court declared LI 1983 unconstitutional and retained the electoral areas in Lower Manya in the Eastern Region. In October 2013, the Manya Krobo Traditional Council issued a seven-day ultimatum to the EC to announce a date for the assembly elections or else it would declare self-government in the area. But the then Local Government Minister and Rural Development, Akwasi Opong-Fosu, asked the chiefs and people to exercise restraint and allow state institutions to address their concerns. Due to the development, Lower Manya Krobo would always be behind the entire country for three years when it comes to District and Unit Committee Elections. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Liberal leader Justin Trudeau pours coffee for supporters next to local candidate Pierre Breton during a campaign stop at a coffee shop in Granby, Que., on October 6, 2015. The newly struck North American trade agreement will allow more American dairy products to enter Canada and, while it has yet to be ratified, it's already putting at least one MP from the governing Liberals in an awkward spot. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos is expected to outline the new law, a plan to lift more than two million people out of poverty, to a group of anti-poverty activists. Minister Duclos rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, May 25, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang Paul Aubin, a member of Bruce McArthur's defence team (left) Justice John McMahon, Crown Attorney Michael Cantlon and McArthur (right) appear in Ontario's Superior Court of Justice, Monday, Nov.5, 2018. A man accused of killing eight men with ties to Toronto's gay village could stand trial as early as next September, a judge said Monday as the alleged serial killer made his first appearance in Ontario's Superior Court of Justice. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alexandra Newbould In this Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018, photo Afghan security guard the gate of the Karti Sakhi shrine in Kabul, Afghanistan. Synagogues, mosques, churches and other houses of worship are routinely at risk of attack in many parts of the world. And so worshippers themselves often feel the need for visible, tangible protection even as they seek the divine. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) Jinbao, mascot of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), is seen in front of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the main venue to hold the CIIE, in Shanghai, east China. The CIIE is scheduled to be held from Nov. 5 to 10 in Shanghai.(Xinhua/Han Yuqing) Many foreign enterprises are now eager to test water in the Chinese market as the countdown for the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) has started. The UK-headquartered biopharmaceutical enterprise AstraZeneca has meticulously planned the layout of its exhibition booth and brought the most cutting-edge products to the event, waiting for the arrival of the Chinese buyers. AstraZeneca is a beneficiary of Chinas opening up and import expansion, and it has achieved fruitful results in the alignment between the worlds wisdom and Chinese opportunities, said Leon Wang, Executive Vice-President of International at AstraZeneca. He told Peoples Daily that the company has introduced over 30 innovative medicines since it entered Chinese market 25 years ago, and China has become the companys second largest market in the world. The country plays an increasingly vital role in AstraZenecas global operation no matter in R&D, production, or business innovation, he added. Chinas efforts to expand import in recent years have helped enterprises from more countries and regions board the express train of Chinas development. The country has offered tangible export market, development opportunities and jobs for the global economy, enhancing the spillover effect of economic development. American multinational conglomerate corporation 3M will debut a series of products during the CIIE, such as the smart car air purifier, the formaldehyde-degradation car floor mat, and childrens PM2.5-filtering mask. 3M has invested a total of over $1 billion in China since establishing an exclusively foreign-owned enterprise in the country in Nov. 1984. It has built 9 production bases, 4 technological centers and 2 R&D centers in China. An employee of the company told Peoples Daily that 3M hopes to showcase its cutting-edge technologies and innovative products at the CIIE, and fulfill its commitment to root in China and serve China. We are confident about Chinas future economic development, and are willing to expand investment and business in the country, the employee added. The opening up of Chinese market and the CIIE will boost the economic and trade exchanges among countries and promote growth of global trade and world economy, noted Bosch Home Appliances (BHA). An employee of the German company told Peoples Daily that the BHA would firmly support the opening up of Chinese market and trade facilitation, and keep enhancing its capabilities of local production and R&D in China. Now China enjoys a strong purchasing power in its consumption market thanks to the growth of peoples income and consumption upgrading. One of every three vehicles sold in the world is bought by Chinese. The per customer transaction of fresh food made by Chinese urban families averaged $15, and each urban household would make 121 such transactions each year. China also surpassed Japan to become the largest life insurance market in Asia, and nearly 80 percent of the newly added premium originated in Chinese market. It is reasonable for China to expand consumption of high-quality products and service import, since it will enrich consumption choices, optimize consumption structure, promote consumption upgrading, and satisfy peoples personalized, diversified and differentiated consumption demands. It is a reflection of Chinas people-oriented development philosophy. China has already lowered tariffs on many products of daily supplies. For instance, wines from Chile and Georgia, which were subjected to a tariff of 14 to 30 percent, can now enter China tariff-free; the tariff on tropical fruits from Association of Southeast Asian Nations such as durians, litchi and pitayas has been reduced to zero from 15 to 30 percent; and the salmons from Iceland have also been exempted from customs duty that stood at 10 to 12 percent. In addition, the tariff on some of the Swiss watches is now cut by half; the tariff on South Korean fridges and electric cookers has dropped by 40 percent and will be entirely removed in the next few years. What China is importing is not only products, but also services. Chinas policy to open up has accelerated the pace of foreign education, healthcare and finance sectors to enter the Chinese market, thanks to which the Chinese consumers can enjoy high-quality and internationalized services without going abroad. It is more important that to expand import not only meets short-term consumption demands, but also has a clear spillover effect on the transformation and upgrading of domestic industries, said Zhao Ping, director of the international trade research department under the Academy of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. The steps to further open up will in turn force domestic service providers to upgrade, and finally enhance their supply capacity, Zhao noted, adding that it is a situation that all the Chinese consumers would like to see. An officer with the Cleveland Division of Police was shot in the early morning hours on Sunday. The officer was responding to a call for a man who had been shot. When officers arrived they were quickly met with gunfire. The officer was still in his cruiser when he was shot multiple times in both legs, according to ABC News. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he is listed in stable condition. The suspect fled the scene but was later taken into custody by Cleveland police's Gang Impact Unit, authorities said. The United States Federal Court in the southern district of Florida has denied a motion for class certification of a lawsuit that was filed against Point Blank Enterprises, Inc., and has dismissed the case. In the case (OSTA, et al. v. Point Blank Enterprises, Inc., 0:17-cv-62051-UU, S.D. Fla.), a few individual Ohio police officers and two law enforcement associations alleged that a nationwide class should be certified to pursue claims that Point Blanks Self-Suspending Ballistic System (SSBS) for shoulder straps used on ballistic vests was defective. The plaintiffs in the case did not claim that any wearer had been injured because of the suspension system, and did not allege any deficiency with the bullet-stopping capabilities of the vests. Instead, the plaintiffs lawyers alleged a defect in the hook and loop closure portion of the SSBS when a wearer used the system in a certain way, allegedly causing the shoulder straps to wear out prematurely. The denial of the class motion, and the associated dismissal of the claims asserted by the plaintiffs, enables Point Blank to continue to design, manufacture, and sell its body armor utilizing the SSBS, the company says. Point Blank has provided millions of vests to the U.S. military and U.S. law enforcement and no officer has been injured as a result of the manufacturing and/or design defect the plaintiffs allege, and in fact many officers lives have been saved, Point Blank says. More than 100 law enforcement officers lives have been saved since 2012 as a result of wearing Point Blank body armor. Point Blank says it makes the most popular body armor worn by American officers. Point Blank EVP Hoyt Schmidt states, We have been committed to the law enforcement community for more than 45 years, offering vast experience and expertise in saving and protecting the lives of law enforcement officers, corrections officers, and first responders. Point Blank provides high-performance and quality body armor products in many different models and styles. The ruling reaffirms Point Blanks position that the SSBS is a safe shoulder strapping system for its ballistic vests, and underscores just one more reason why Point Blank body armor is preferred by the majority of law enforcement users. We stand behind the performance, the durability and the safety of those products, and we appreciate and value our end-users as they protect and defend the United States and our communities. Point Blank is committed to customer service, and has a process in place for reviewing customer complaints and warranty claims regarding Point Blank products and working directly with its customers to resolve any issues in a timely manner. We appreciate your continued support of Point Blank products and remain dedicated to customer satisfaction. Members of the community joined officers with the Clearwater (FL) Police Department in gathering supplies to bring to survivors of Hurricane Michael. Image courtesy of Clearwater PD / Facebook. Following the devastation of Hurricane Michael last month, organizations from around the country have been sending supplies to Florida's Panhandle. One of those groups is the Clearwater (FL) Police Department, which has reportedly been gathering donations for the past two and a half weeks. According to WTSP-TV, the department has now filled up two large trucks with supplies and is gearing up to drive to the Panama City Beach Police Department. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, police are preparing to deliver donations to victims of Hurricane Florence in North Carolina. According to Spectrum News, officers with the Evesham (NJ) Township Police Department held a donation drive called "Operation Fill the Trailer." On Sunday the New Jersey officers traveled to New Bern, NC, to meet survivors and distribute the collected donations. A 48-year-old man was killed when his vehicle drifted over the centerline of a road in Groton, Vermont, and struck the vehicle occupied by St. Johnsbury Police Chief Timothy Page and his wife Colleen on Saturday. Davan Ostrover was pronounced dead at the scenepolice said he was not wearing a seat belt. According to WCAX-TV, Chief Page has a broken hand and broken rib. St. Johnsbury Police Captain Jason Gray told the station that his wife's injuries are more severe, but he did not disclose details. Goats in trees...Why? How? Where? Why? Well, these sure-footed creatures literally do the dirty work for argan oil farmers. The goats eat the fruit of the Argan tree (Argania Spinosa) and the seeds from their, um, waste it what argan oil is extracted from. A sh*t situation in name only - as the goats are mad for argan fruit and people are mad for argan oil as beauty, medicine, and food products. Everybody wins. How? Well, this is where it gets interesting. The reality of how these goats end up at such heights is not quite one of natures strange quirks. In fact, it is entirely a human machination. The goats are trained to climb and stand in the argan trees. First, the farmers places the herd there. Then, the goats feet are bound to the branches for additional support, then left that way for a few hours. The process is repeat daily until the goats are accustomed to and comfortable with their new roles. And do they take to it like fish to water, sorry , goats to argan fruit! The goats will happily hang out in trees all day, taking naps between grazing while standing upright in the trees. Samay Godika, 16 (India), Receives Top Honors and $400,000 in Educational Prizes for Original Videos Bringing Science Concepts to Life SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Breakthrough Prize today announced Samay Godika, 16, a Boston native who now lives in India, as the winner of the fourth annual Breakthrough Junior Challenge, a global science video competition designed to inspire creative thinking about fundamental concepts in the life sciences, physics, and mathematics. As the winner, Samay will receive $400,000 in educational prizes for himself, his teacher and his school. Currently a junior at National Public School-Koramangala in Bangalore, Samay will receive a $250,000 college scholarship. His ninth and tenth grade science teacher, Pramila Menon, who encouraged his interest in life sciences and tutored him after school to encourage his curiosity about scientific ideas, will win a $50,000 prize. Additionally, his school will receive a state-of-the-art science lab valued at $100,000. Samay's video, submitted in the life sciences category, focused on circadian rhythms, the 24-hour biological processes that can affect simple daily experiences such as waking up for school or jet lag. Because he has family members who suffer from Parkinson's and other neurological diseases, Samay is particularly interested in the correlation between circadian rhythms and the effectiveness of medical treatments. Samay will be recognized tonight alongside some of the world's top scientists and mathematicians as they are awarded the world's most generous science prize, the Breakthrough Prize. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Nat Geo at 10 p.m. EST and 7 p.m. PST and livestreamed on the Facebook and YouTube platforms of National Geographic (National Geographic Facebook | National GeographicYouTube) and Breakthrough Prize (Breakthrough Facebook | Breakthrough YouTube). The ceremony will be hosted by actor, producer and philanthropist Pierce Brosnan. Expected celebrity guests include performer Lionel Richie, presenters Orlando Bloom, Ron Howard, Rachel McAdams, Julianne Moore, Thandie Newton, Lupita Nyong'o, and G.E.M. "Participating in and now winning the Breakthrough Junior Challenge is life-changing, thrilling and such an honor," Samay said. "I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be recognized alongside so many of the world's top scientists and tech industry leaders." All of the videos made by the Breakthrough Junior Challenge finalists were of such quality that they have been added to Khan Academy's website as teaching tutorials for the world in math and science. This is the fourth consecutive year in which students ages 13-18 were invited to create original videos (up to three minutes in length) that illustrated a concept or theory in the physical or life sciences. The submissions were evaluated on the students' ability to communicate complex scientific ideas in the most engaging, illuminating, and imaginative ways. Students from around the globe submitted their videos by July 1, 2018. The field was narrowed to 29 semifinalists who competed in the Popular Vote contest in September on the Breakthrough Prize Facebook page, where the public was invited to vote for their favorite semifinalist submission by "liking," "sharing," or posting a positive reaction. This year's Popular Vote winner was Nikhiya Shamsher, 16 (also of India), whose video on spacetime and gravity garnered more than 25,000 likes, shares and positive reactions on the Breakthrough Facebook page. Nikhiya received automatic entry into the final round of judging. Last year, Samay won the Popular Vote contest. Since its launch, the Breakthrough Junior Challenge has reached 190 countries, and the 2018 installment of the global competition attracted more than 12,000 registrants. The contest is designed to inspire creative thinking about fundamental concepts in the life sciences, physics, and mathematics. The field was reduced to 29 semifinalists, which represented the top submissions after two rounds of judging: first, a mandatory peer review, followed by an evaluation panel of judges. The 2018 Selection Committee included Salman Khan, CEO, Founder, Khan Academy; author and educator Lucy Hawking; Mae Jemison, science literacy expert, former astronaut, and Principal, 100 Year Starship; retired NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly; Nima Arkani-Hamed, Professor of Physics, Institute for Advanced Study and Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics Laureate; Rachel Crane, Space and Science Correspondent, CNN; Huda Zoghbi, Professor of Pediatrics and professor of Neuroscience and Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine and Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Laureate; Ijad Madisch, CEO, Co-Founder, ResearchGate; Pete Worden, Chairman, Breakthrough Prize Foundation, Executive Director, Breakthrough Starshot; Esther Wojcicki, Founder, Palo Alto High Media Arts Center; and Terence Tao, Professor of Mathematics, UCLA and Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics Laureate. Breakthrough Junior Challenge is a global initiative to develop and demonstrate young people's knowledge of science and scientific principles; generate excitement in these fields; support STEM career choices; and engage the imagination and interest of the public-at-large in key concepts of fundamental science. Partners Breakthrough Prize For the seventh year, the Breakthrough Prizes will recognize the world's top scientists. Each prize is $3 million and presented in the fields of Life Sciences (up to four per year), Fundamental Physics (one per year) and Mathematics (one per year). In addition, up to three New Horizons in Physics and up to three New Horizons in Mathematics Prizes are given out to junior researchers each year. Laureates attend a live televised award ceremony designed to celebrate their achievements and inspire the next generation of scientists. As part of the ceremony schedule, they also engage in a program of lectures and discussions. Selection Committees composed of previous Breakthrough Prize laureates in each field choose the winners. About Khan Academy Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. We use intelligent software, data analytics, and intuitive user interfaces to help students and teachers around the world. Our resources cover math, biology, chemistry, physics, history, economics, finance, grammar, preschool learning, and more. Khan Academy offers free personalized SAT prep in partnership with the College Board. We provide teachers with tools and data so they can help their students develop the skills, habits, and mindsets necessary for success in school and beyond. Khan Academy has been translated into dozens of languages, and 15 million people around the globe learn on Khan Academy each month. For more information, visit khanacademy.org, join us on Facebook, or follow us on Instagram or Twitter. And remember, you can learn anything. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory The Breakthrough Prize Lab for the winning student's school is designed by and in partnership with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). Established in 1890, CSHL has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education. Its New York campus boasts 1100 faculty, students and employees and hosts over 12,000 visiting scientists each year for world-renowned conferences and courses. CSHL's DNA Learning Center is the world's largest provider of student lab instruction in molecular genetics and teacher training. Materials and methods developed by the DNA Learning Center are accessible for free through more than 20 award-winning educational websites. The Laboratory's education arm also includes an academic publishing house, a science policy think tank and a graduate program in biological sciences. Visit www.cshl.edu. National Geographic Partners LLC National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between National Geographic and 21st Century Fox, is committed to bringing the world premium science, adventure and exploration content across an unrivaled portfolio of media assets. NGP combines the global National Geographic television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO, Nat Geo PEOPLE) with National Geographic's media and consumer-oriented assets, including National Geographic magazines; National Geographic studios; related digital and social media platforms; books; maps; children's media; and ancillary activities that include travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce businesses. Furthering knowledge and understanding of our world has been the core purpose of National Geographic for 129 years, and now we are committed to going deeper, pushing boundaries, going further for our consumers and reaching millions of people around the world in 172 countries and 43 languages every month as we do it. NGP returns 27 percent of our proceeds to the nonprofit National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education. For more information visit natgeotv.com or nationalgeographic.com, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Contact For more information, including competition rules, video submission guidelines and queries, go to: www.breakthroughjuniorchallenge.org. Related Links https://breakthroughjuniorchallenge.org SOURCE The Breakthrough Prize GURGAON, India, November 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mr. Sumant Sinha, Chairman & Managing Director of ReNew Power Limited, India's largest renewable energy IPP in terms of total energy generation capacity*, has been honoured with the prestigious Distinguished Alumnus Award -2018, by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. The award was handed over to Mr. Sinha during the 49th Annual Convocation of the institute at New Delhi on the 3rd of November, 2018, by industrialist Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla and Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao - Director, IIT Delhi. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653741/ReNew_Power_New_Logo.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/779683/Sumant_Sinha_ReNew_Power_IIT_Award.jpg ) IIT Delhi selected Mr. Sumant Sinha for this honour, in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the fields of Corporate Business Development & Entrepreneurship, which have brought glory to the institute. Mr. Sinha received the Bachelor of Technology degree in Civil Engineering from IIT Delhi in the year 1987. He also holds a Post Graduate diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and a Masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University. Speaking on this recognition, Mr. Sumant Sinha said, "I'm honoured to receive this award from my alma mater. This means a lot to me and I will be happy to contribute in any small way towards the Institute's advancement. My experience at the Institute equipped me with the skills to engage with the best of minds across the globe and ultimately embark on a successful entrepreneurial journey." About ReNew Power ReNew Power Limited is India's largest renewable energy IPP (Independent Power Producer) in terms of total energy generation capacity*. As of May 8, 2018, ReNew had a total capacity of over 5.85 GW of wind and solar power assets across the country, comprising 3.92 GW of operational capacity, 1.66 GW of under development capacity, and 0.27 GW of recently awarded SECI project. It develops, builds, owns and operates utility scale wind and solar energy projects as well as distributed solar energy projects that generate energy for commercial and industrial customers. ReNew has a strong track record of organic and inorganic growth having nearly doubled its operational capacity in each of the last three Fiscal Years. ReNew's broad base of equity investors include Goldman Sachs, JERA, ADIA, CPPIB, GEF SACEF India, and ADB (subsequently exited). For more information, please visit: www.renewpower.in.; Follow ReNew Power on Twitter @ReNew_Power *Source: CRISIL Research - Outlook on the Renewable Energy Market in India released in Mumbai in May 2018 Disclaimer: ReNew Power Limited is proposing, subject to the applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, receipt of requisite approvals, market conditions and other considerations, to undertake an initial public offering of its Equity Shares and has filed the DRHP with SEBI on May 8, 2018. The DRHP will be available on the websites of SEBI at www.sebi.gov.in, BSE at www.bseindia.com, NSE atwww.nseindia.com and GCBRLMs, i.e. at www.investmentbank.kotak.com ; www.mlindia.com ; www.goldmansachs.com ; www.jmfl.com ; www.jpmipl.com and BRLMs, i.e. at www.idfcbank.com; www.ubs.com/indianoffers and www.yesinvest.in, respectively. Any potential investors should note that investment in equity shares involves a high degree of risk and for details relating to the same, please refer to the DRHP, including the section "Risk Factors" on Page 23 of the DRHP. Potential investors should not rely on the DRHP filed with SEBI for making any investment decision. This announcement does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in any jurisdiction, including the United States. The securities described in this announcement may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration under the US Securities Act of 1933 or an exemption from such registration. Any public offering of securities to be made in the United States will be made by means of a prospectus that will contain detailed information about the Company, its management, as well as its financial statements. No public offering or sale of securities in the United States is contemplated. Disclaimer: "CRISIL Research, a division of CRISIL Limited (CRISIL) has taken due care and caution in preparing this report (Report) based on the Information obtained by CRISIL from sources which it considers reliable (Data). However, CRISIL does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the Data / Report and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of Data / Report. This Report is not a recommendation to invest / disinvest in any entity covered in the Report and no part of this Report should be construed as an expert advice or investment advice or any form of investment banking within the meaning of any law or regulation. CRISIL especially states that it has no liability whatsoever to the subscribers / users / transmitters/ distributors of this Report. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, nothing in the Report is to be construed as CRISIL providing or intending to provide any services in jurisdictions where CRISIL does not have the necessary permission and/or registration to carry out its business activities in this regard. ReNew Power Limited will be responsible for ensuring compliances and consequences of non-compliances for use of the Report or part thereof outside India. CRISIL Research operates independently of, and does not have access to information obtained by CRISIL's Ratings Division / CRISIL Risk and Infrastructure Solutions Ltd (CRIS), which may, in their regular operations, obtain information of a confidential nature. The views expressed in this Report are that of CRISIL Research and not of CRISIL's Ratings Division / CRIS. No part of this Report may be published/reproduced in any form without CRISIL's prior written approval." For more information, please contact: Adfactors PR: Shweta Sawhney [email protected] +91-9953880267 ReNew Power: Pradeep Wadhwa [email protected] +91-9810266667 Dipankar Bose [email protected] +91-9810466530 SOURCE ReNew Power Photo via Xinhua Shanghais tourism administration on Tuesday launched 25 new routes for tourists to enhance the travelling experiences of worldwide visitors during the China International Import Expo (CIIE), which will be held from Nov. 5 to 10 in the city. As one of worlds most famous cities, Shanghai is known for its blend of classical culture and modern skylines. Twenty of the routes are within the city, including eight new routes for self-guided travelers, providing sightseers with half-day, full-day, or multi-day tours to suite their schedules and preferences. First-time travelers to Shanghai can enjoy notable landmarks, including Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai Tower, and cruises on Pujiang River. They can also experience the citys ever-changing development through the one-day-long Smart Tour, which allows visitors to learn how technology has transformed the city after 40 years of reform and opening-up. Other routes include one for those interested in red tourism (revolutionary-themed tourism) and one for people who love Chinese food. The local government also introduced five regional travel routes which cover the nearby cities of Hangzhou and Suzhou, through which travelers can be intoxicated by the enchanting scenery in neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The administration also published travel brochures in both Chinese and English, aiming to provide bilingual suggestions for worldwide travelers. About 30,000 paper copies will be distributed at exhibition centers, consulting service centers, and major terminal stations, as well as at popular hotels and travel agencies. Visitors can also download a digital version and register for group tours online by scanning the official QR code. More than 2,800 companies from over 130 countries and regions have confirmed their participation so far and Shanghai is preparing to welcome more than 300,000 visitors during the expo. Shanghais two main airports are expected to reach peak passenger flows on Nov. 3 and 4, and flight ticket orders have increased by 50 percent year-on-year, according to ThePaper. Sightseers in Shanghai will definitely have a memorable experience, no matter how many times they have visited the city before, said Shen Chao, the marketing director of the tourism administration. HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Westlake University, a non-profit research university, held the first Westlake Forum on Higher Education on Oct 20th, 2018 in Hangzhou, China. The event, which followed the University's founding ceremony held on the same day, welcomed leading educators and distinguished scholars from internationally renowned universities around the world to explore the roles of higher education institutions in addressing global issues and at the forefront of technological advancement. "We are living through a period of considerable concern, a considerable polarization on the political level, but also a period of anti-globalisation. "Universities have a fundamentally important role to play in ensuring that despite these periods of anti-globalization rhetoric that we are going through we continue to engage, and continue to build bridges between countries. We need to continue to ensure that our graduates are prepared to take their place in the global economy, in a world where they are likely to find themselves living and working in many different countries," said Andrew Hamilton, President of New York University during his forum address. On the proposal of Professor Yigong Shi, President of Westlake University, the presidents and representatives of domestic and international universities, attending the forum, unanimously agreed to sign and release the following joint statement: "Humankind faces daunting global challenges on economic development, education, energy, environment, food, climate change, and healthcare. As an indispensable pillar of any modern society, universities transform the world through education and research. Education and research transcend national borders and benefit greatly from international collaboration and cooperation. To address the global challenges and to respond to calls of our community and the world, we believe the universities should play a more active role through improved collaboration and cooperation." Included within the joint statement are the following guiding principles for greater cooperation: Encourage exchange of students Facilitate regular visits by faculty and staff Promote joint interdisciplinary research Strengthen collaborations in research and academic affairs Protect academic freedom within the legal framework of each nation Running concurrently to the 2018 Westlake Forum on Higher Education, was the university's first WE Forum on the Frontiers of Sciences and Transformation. Under the theme of "Facing the Future: Challenges and Opportunities", the inaugural WE Forum welcomed speeches on a range of topics from Nobel Laureates, including James D. Watson, Brian K. Kobilka, Jean-Marie Lehn, Sir Fraser Stoddart and Jonathan M. Rothbergand, and renowned academics, including Ching Wan Tang and George M. Church, on the key topics facing academic research and the advancement of humankind. For further details on the joint statement, the inaugural event of Westlake University, the Westlake Forum on Higher Education or the WE Forum, please visit: www.westlake.edu.cn Related Links http://www.westlake.edu.cn/ SOURCE Westlake University VANCOUVER, British Columbia, November 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Premier Health Group (CSE: PHGI) (CSE: PHGI.CN) (OTCQB: PHGRF) (Frankfurt: 6PH) (the "Company" or "Premier Health"), a Company focused on developing innovative approaches that combine human skill based expertise with emerging technologies for the healthcare industry, is pleased to announce that as a part of its expansion plans it will enter the Pharmacy market via acquisition and/or launching a new Canada based pharmacy in H1-2019. "Pharmacy is a critical component in our commitment to providing patients with best in class primary care that is accessible and efficient in its delivery. Having the ability to prepare and deliver prescription and non-prescription pharmaceuticals and other health products to patients with ease, and having it as a part of our comprehensive technology solution for primary care, is something we are very excited to roll-out to patients," said Dr. Essam Hamza, CEO of Premier. The Company is actively reviewing a pipeline of additional pharmacy partners which include bricks and mortar locations for acquisition and strategic new retail opportunities for pharmacies. "It is our position that the emergence of technology such as the ability for patients to electronically send their prescription(s) to a pharmacy for fulfillment and pick up at a later time or delivery directly to them at home or work will result in increased patient and consumer enrollment in apps that offer this type of functionality," added Dr.Hamza. The Canadian retail pharmacy market is estimated to be $44 billion (Source: IBISWorld). It is expected the industry sector will continue to allow for favourable economics for pharmacy operators as baby boomer's demand increases for prescriptions and operators expand scope of practice to include preventative services. The Company expects to provide additional updates on acquisitions in Q4-18 and Q1-19. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "Dr. Essam Hamza, MD" Chief Executive Officer About Premier Health Premier Health is a Canadian company that is strategically poised to take advantage of business opportunities in the global health care industry. We are developing innovative health care approaches that combine human skill based expertise with emerging technologies, and will set the gold standard for services in locations of interest worldwide. Premier Health's subsidiary, HealthVue is focused on developing proprietary technology to deliver quality healthcare through the combination of connected primary care clinics with telemedicine and artificial intelligence (AI). We currently have an ecosystem of over 100,000 active patients and have plans to rapidly increase that number both domestically and internationally. The HealthVue team has a strong track record of successfully creating value in healthcare and technology enterprises. The Management team has deep clinical, financial and operational expertise and a passion for improving healthcare for all patients. Cautionary Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on Premier Health's expectations, estimates and projections regarding its business and the economic environment in which it operates, including with respect to the implementation of its shareholder communications initiative and the timing thereof. Although Premier Health believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to control or predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements and readers should not place undue reliance on such statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and Premier Health undertakes no obligation to update them publicly to reflect new information or the occurrence of future events or circumstances, unless otherwise required to do so by law. The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For Additional Information Contact: Premier Health Group Inc. Email: investors@healthvue.com +604-807-8815 SOURCE Premier Health Group Inc. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Welcome Guest! You Are Here: 'The finance minister has messed up the economy.' IMAGE: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with RBI Governor Dr Urjit Patel. 'This government has shown complete lack of confidence in the RBI governor, in the RBI setup,' says former finance minisyer Yashwant Sinha. Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Viral Acharya's October 26 speech brought to the fore a serious standoff between the government and the central bank. 'Governments that did not respect the central bank's independence would sooner or later incur the wrath of financial markets, ignite economic fire, and come to rue the day they undermined the regulatory institution,' Dr Acharya said in a hard-hitting speech. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement a couple of days later, blaming the RBI for the exponential rise of non-performing assets, or NPAs, added fuel to the fire. The Opposition was quick to attack the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government for 'undermining the autonomy of institutions like the RBI'. Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha tweeted that this government was 'hell-bent on destroying the RBI'. "The way out is for this government to go, and this governor to go. Then only peace will return to the RBI," Sinha tells Rediff.com's Utkarsh Mishra. What in your opinion is the main reason for the current standoff between the RBI and finance ministry? After all, governmental interference is as old as the hills. What changed now? This is an unprecedented situation. For a government to issue a directive to the RBI is clearly an unprecedented situation. It has never happened in the past. The government has shown complete lack of confidence in the RBI governor and in the RBI set-up. And therefore, the governor has no option but to resign. Won't his resignation make things difficult for the RBI and give the government a free hand to do whatever they want? They (the government) might succeed for the time being. But ultimately their evil designs will be defeated. And the governor, as I have already said, will save whatever little reputation he is left with. Dr Urjit Patel is an NDA appointee, which makes the current tiff all the more surprising... There is an old English saying, 'even the worm turns'. So the worm has turned. The same thing happened in the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). In your view, why is the government invoking Section 7 of the RBI Act, empowering the government to issue directives to the central bank? What effect will it have on the RBI? It completely destroys the RBI's reputation. It destroys the RBI's autonomy. It should never have led to a situation where the government had to use Section 7. It is a complete failure of the government to convince the RBI governor of their point of view. Was Dr Acharya right in airing differences between the government and the RBI in public, in the manner he did? After the government issued the directive, what option did the governor or the deputy governor have? On one hand the government shows so much concern for rising NPAs, and on the other they are pushing the RBI to... Well, Jaitley is lying through his teeth. The point is, you go back to the Economic Survey he presented to Parliament in 2014. And what did he say there? That NPAs are Rs 2.14 lakh crore. And now he says it is Rs 8.5 lakh crore. Didn't he mislead Parliament (in 2014)? And why did he have to wait all these four years to come out with this statement? Even a person like me was surprised when I read the Economic Survey. Because he (Jaitley) bailed out his friend (P) Chidambaram in that Economic Survey, and did not say a word about the mismanagement of the economy by the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government. Now he has suddenly become wise after four years. He is telling all lies. And if there's one person who should quit, it is the finance minister, because he has messed up the economy. He has messed up the relationship (between the government and the RBI). He deals with everything except finance. What is the way out for the RBI now? The way out is for this government to go, and this governor to go. Then only peace will return to the RBI. Awful religious practices need to be abolished. But by social and political reformers, not the courts, argues Shekhar Gupta. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com The Hindutva leaders in Kerala must be daft. Or gifted with a wickedly brilliant sense of humour. Why else would they protest against the Supreme Court's order to allow the entry of all women, including those in the menstruating age of 10 to 50 years, into the Sabarimala temple of Lord Ayyappa, the son of Lord Shiva and Mohini, the female manifestation of Lord Vishnu? Instead, they should be sending the judges bouquets and blessings. Because, with one 4-1 Constitution Bench order, however well-meaning, the Supreme Court has gifted Hindutva something two generations of RSS-Jan Sangh-BJP leaders had failed at: Creating a base, a political justification to grow in Kerala. This court has brought them to their last frontier. The last frontier, because in Tamil Nadu, any of the two contending parties, the DMK and AIADMK, can partner the BJP in a coalition. It is only in Kerala that both of the rival coalitions -- the Left Democratic Front, with the CPI-M, and the United Democratic Front, with the Congress, detest the BJP equally. The RSS has been fighting for a foot-hold, and its activists have been caught in a murderous blood-feud with those of the Left. Yet, barring the constituency of Thiruvananthapuram, where it came close to surprising Shashi Tharoor of the Congress, it was unable to build a Hindu vote. This court order has given Kerala, and the RSS/BJP, their first issue over Hindu sentiment. Can they exploit it to build a mass appeal, or will the redoubtable Malayali scepticism see through it? You will need to talk to people more knowledgeable about Kerala's unique politics. What you can see, however, is that the Hindutva forces have seen an opening. The RSS and its affiliates have rallied women workers from all over the region and beyond -- not just Kerala -- to build this furious protest in Sabarimala. If many of these women seem to speak Hindi with Sanskritised purity and diction, you know they have been schooled in the RSS system. They are in Kerala in force now, and why should they not be there! Politics and democratic competition can't just be confined to one Left and the other to the left of this Left. Welcome the Hindu Right in Kerala! And thank you so very much, Your Libertarian Lordships! Sabarimala is a lesson in how unintended consequences can follow an intervention by an all-powerful institution which clinically applies principles of the law and Constitution -- or as it interprets them -- even to issues of faith. Such an application would have to presume that faith, any faith, is rational. That's a tough one. Is the idea of divine avatars rational? Or hundreds of manifestations of the same God or Goddess? It can get so complex that even the handlers of Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi's social media end up describing Kali as Goddess Durga. Of course, She won't mind, and, in any case, it is the same Goddess. But can you produce a peer-reviewed research paper backing the idea of multiple manifestations of any divine figure? Or virgin birth? Or a God, namely Ayyappa, born out of the union of Shiva and Mohini as the female manifestation of Vishnu? Or Resurrection? Will a court ask for evidence if the Holy Quran was actually Allah's word to the Prophet? Or the many tribal faiths, animism, worship of the sun and the moon, the customs of sacrifice? We are a complex society where countless faiths, beliefs and customs co-exist, where somebody paints a little lime or saffron on a tree or a rock, or puts a few asbestos sheets over an abandoned grave, and countless start praying to it. Will the courts entertain questions about these? Can a Christian woman approach the Supreme Court, asking it to order the Catholic faith to give women equal rights and positions in their clergy? A UPSC-style body to select Christian priests? Can a Hindu woman ask that the judges order the RSS that women should be admitted to its highest all-male councils? It will be wonderful to see a woman heading the RSS, a 'Sarsanghchalika', and, who knows, it may happen someday. It would never happen on any court's orders -- you can be sure. The reason we are able to co-exist, mostly peacefully, is that as a people, we Indians let our neighbours be. And as a State, by and large, we have been minimally invasive on issues of faith. The Hindu Code Bill followed enormous debate and still remains contentious. I say with great humility that the reform in Hindu personal laws and customs that Jawaharlal Nehru brought in through parliamentary debate and majority, the finest Supreme Court benches over generations would not have been able to. The Shah Bano judgement was overturned by Parliament. The same court has now proclaimed triple talaq illegal and because the politics of the ruling party today is different, it is making it a criminal offence. But do you really see police in our various states entering households, arresting and prosecuting people? The mayhem it will cause in an already insecure community that finds itself under siege? Triple talaq is a terrible, medieval idea. Many Islamic countries and societies have dumped it. Indian Muslims too should do it. But the impetus must come from reform within, not from police armed with criminal law sanctified by a 'liberal' court. We understand the justification behind the order on Sabarimala, that this was about individual liberty. How can you deny women the right to pray to their favourite deity just because they are in the fertile age group and may distract the Virgin Him with their sexuality? Good point, and you struck a blow for equality, to glowing praises from editorialists and prime-time, rent-a-quote activists who have meanwhile moved on to the next cause. Is there one research paper, or a public debate on unimplementable court orders? We've long had one oft-repeated court order, making helmets compulsory for all women riding two-wheelers, irrespective of the faith, again overruled in the face of protests by Sikhs. On the quiet, however, more and more sensible Sikh women are using helmets and mobs aren't stopping them. I do not believe you will find Gul Panag, who loves biking, ever without a good helmet. She didn't need a court order, nor does she need to bother about conservative prohibitions. More and more Sikh women are doing it, out of good sense, not compulsion. The court is now dealing with female genital mutilation (FGM) among some Muslim sects. The court can outlaw it, but can they implement that order? I promise you that even the BJP-run states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, where most of this sect lives, will refuse to get their police prosecute people for FGM. You know what, politicians are sometimes smarter than judges. Even Modi and his government, so outraged over triple talaq, are mum on FGM. The PM actively courts the Bohri Syedna and his clergy. Remember also, that the Supreme Court stayed its own 40-year-old order on a Shia-Sunni dispute over a Varanasi graveyard because the state government said it was unimplementable. The danger with an unconventional view on any contentious issue anything other than the missionary position (sorry about this!) on a principle of political correctness is bound to be misconstrued. So, I must, must idiot-proof this again. Should women not be allowed in Sabarimala? My answer is, they absolutely must be allowed. Should Sikh women go vrooooming around on motorcycles without helmets? The answer is a firm 'no'. Triple talaq? It is awful injustice to Muslim women, just as FGM is an abomination? All these need to go. But leave it to social and political reformers from within. Can you fix it all, purely through judicial intervention? My answer would still be a respectful, but determined, 'no'. Unintended consequences will follow. Like the court, in the quest for the perfect world ushering, instead, the BJP into Kerala, with a cause that is as political as it might be moral or spiritual. By special arrangement with The Print 'I would have expected that, once firmly ensconced in the director's chair by 2:15 am, the not-director of the CBI would have called for pen and paper and hand-written a few clean chits.' 'Clean chits over Rafale; clean chits to the PM's secretary in the coal bribery case; a clean chit to Hasmukh Adhia on whatever claim Subramanian Swamy has cooked up about him...' says Mihir Sharma. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com India is, of course, not a banana republic. We are a proud nation with a 5,000 year history etc, etc, and a superb Constitution on very nice paper with wonderful illustrations by Nandalal Bose and others. We have many institutions also. They are known for their independence, by which we mean that their decisions often seem to not be dependent on the facts of the case. Of course, although we have had strong and independent institutions since independence in 1947, there was a brief interregnum in which these institutions were not independent, to be precise between 1950 and 2014, because of the absence in Delhi of either Sardar Patel or Narendra Modi. Since 2014, however, we have had ever stronger institutions. They are also decisive, and all sorts of other nice things. They are certainly not laughing stocks. The sight, true, of the Central Bureau of Investigation descending in awesome force to raid the den of iniquity that is the office of the Central Bureau of Investigation might have caused one or two eyebrows to rise, but if so, the eyebrows in question were certainly anti-national and the eyes below them jaundiced. The information that swiftly followed, that the director of the CBI and his deputy would be suspended, should surely be greeted with relief. It is a sign, no doubt, of the strength and independence of our institutions and also the strength and decisiveness of the first patriotic government that we have had in 1,200 years that this decision was taken at 2 am. It is also very reassuring that, in a further sign of independence, practically the entire CBI anti-corruption bureau in Delhi was also transferred -- some to that hotbed of nationally-relevant corruption, Port Blair. It is true that the director of the CBI has a two-year term, but it is obvious that such minor issues, which might at first seem to be essential for institutional independence, cannot be allowed to interfere with strength and decisiveness at 2 am. The government has now made it amply clear that the CBI head is not sacked, merely that somebody else is doing his job. I commend this institutional innovation and reform and suggest it be applied to other posts. Perhaps, for example, our prime minister can stay prime minister if he is voted out in 2019, and merely let someone else do his job (except for the foreign travel bits). Indeed, maybe Ajit Doval can continue to do the prime minister's job after the elections, he seems to be doing well in the position currently. There is yet more evidence to present that this great country and its strong and independent institutions are not in fact laughing stocks. For example, the presence of Intelligence Bureau officers snooping on the -- Outgoing? Sacked? No, suspended -- suspended head of the CBI. It should be amply clear that if the CBI raids the CBI, the next step is obviously the IB snooping on the CBI. Surely, no doubt, the IB will be spying on the IB and then perhaps the army can invade navy headquarters. After all, the Delhi police has already invaded the Delhi government. All this is not, as some anti-nationals might argue, a sign of creeping authoritarianism, but is in fact another indication of institutional strength. We are introducing ever new checks and balances to the system: Anyone investigating bank balances will swiftly find themselves checked. Ah, if only such dedication to institutional strength had marked the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance, universally acknowledged as the government most destructive of institutional independence! What a pity that in 2012 the CBI did not raid the CVC, the CVC did not suspend the CAG, and the CAG did not declare that the Supreme Court had caused a presumptive loss to the exchequer of 3.7 trillion trillion rupees! That would have been the sign of a truly strong and decisive government. Certainly Times Now would have welcomed it as a 'clean-up', as they did the removal of the current CBI head. Patriotic Indians feel only one small disappointment: The new leadership of the CBI has so far failed to issue any clean chits. Does this not show a lack of sufficient decisiveness? I would have expected that, once firmly ensconced in the director's chair by 2:15 am, the not-director of the CBI would have called for pen and paper and hand-written a few clean chits. For example, clean chits over Rafale, ignoring the request for investigation by Yashwant Sinha and others; clean chits to the prime minister's secretary in the coal bribery case; a clean chit to Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on whatever claim Subramanian Swamy has cooked up about him this week; and a clean chit to whoever was then chief minister of Gujarat in any and all issues involving alleged riots in 2002, just in case. I mean, how long do these take to write? They could have been done by 2:30 am. The Trump administration has said it is confident that the toughest ever sanctions against Iran which came into force on Monday will have the intended effect of altering the Iranian regimes behaviour, even as it dodged a question on whether the United States has firm commitments from India and China to stop all oil purchases from Tehran within six months. IMAGE: Iranian protesters shout slogans during a demonstration against the imposition of sanctions in Tehran. Photograph: Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters The sanctions cover Irans banking and energy sectors and reinstate penalties for countries and companies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere that do not halt Iranian oil imports. India and China -- the two biggest buyers of Iranian crude -- have so far appear to have skipped the punitive American sanctions targeting the Iranian oil and financial sectors. The two Asian giants are believed to be among the eight countries that have been given the rare exemptions from the Iranian sanctions that kicked off on Monday. The Trump administration said it has asked these countries including Turkey, Iraq, Italy, Japan and South Korea to bring down their oil purchase to zero as soon as possible. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during a talk show on Fox News, repeatedly parried questions when asked about the commitment from India and China on zero-oil purchase from Iran. Watch what we do. Watch as weve already taken more crude oil off the market than any time in previous history. Watch the efforts that President Trumps policies have achieved. Weve done all of this, too, while making sure that American consumers dont suffer, he said, as he avoided giving a direct answer on India and China. I am very confident that the sanctions that will be re-imposed this Monday, not only the crude oil sanctions, that the financial sanctions that are being put in place by the Treasury Department and over 600 designations of individuals and companies in Iran will have the intended effect to alter the Iranian regimes behaviour. Thats our expectation. Its the reason for President Trumps policy, he asserted. India, which is the second biggest purchaser of Iranian oil after China, is willing to restrict its monthly purchase to 1.25 million tonnes or 15 million tonnes in a year (300,000 barrels per day), down from 22.6 million tonnes (452,000 barrels per day) bought in 2017-18 financial year, sources in New Delhi had said last week. The re-imposition of US sanctions on Iran, Pompeo asserted are the toughest ever on this country. Theyre aimed at a singular purpose, denying the worlds largest state sponsor of terrorists the capacity to do things like they did this past couple weeks, attempted assassination campaign in the heart of Europe, he said. These sanctions have already had an enormous impact. Weve already reduced Iranian crude oil experts by over a million barrels per day. That number will fall farther. Theres a handful of places were countries that have already made significant reductions in their crude oil exports need a little bit more time to get to zero, and were going to provide that to them, he said. The US State Department did not respond to a question as to what will happen if India does not bring down its oil purchase from Iran to zero, as being demanded by it, in next six months. It also did not respond to a question on the fate of the strategically crucial Iranian port of Chabahar, which India sees as critical for reaching landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia. In May, US President Donald Trump had pulled US out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action terming it as disastrous. Under the Obama-era deal, involving five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, Iran agreed to stop its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Iran has dismissed these charges and continues to keep its stand that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. In another interview to CBS News, Pompeo said the European companies will not be permitted to do business with both the United States and with Iran. Frankly since May, since the Presidents announcement of withdrawal from the ill-fated agreement, European companies have fled Iran in great numbers. Hundreds of businesses have departed Iran, he said. The whole world understands that these sanctions are real, that they are important, that they drive the Iranian peoples opportunity to make the changes in Iran that they so desperately want and stop Iran from having the wealth and money that they need to continue to foment terror around the world, Pompeo said. Brian Hook, the special adviser to the secretary of state and special representative for Iran, told PBS News that the US is not looking to give any exceptions or waivers to its sanctions regime. Going forward, next year, we anticipate a much better supplied oil market, and that will help us accelerate, I think, the path to zero, he asserted. Jinbao, mascot of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), is seen in front of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the main venue to hold the CIIE, in Shanghai, east China. The CIIE is scheduled to be held from Nov. 5 to 10 in Shanghai.(Xinhua/Han Yuqing) Today, Nov. 5, marks the opening of the First China International Import Expo, which will welcome over 3,000 companies from 130 countries and regions to the National Exhibition and Convention Centre in Shanghai. The China International Import Expo (CIIE) kicked off this morning with an opening ceremony, attended by President Xi Jinping along with 18 heads of state and government. During his keynote speech, President Xi said that all countries should be committed to opening-up and oppose protectionism and unilateralism in a clear-cut stand, adding that China will push forward multilateral and bilateral cooperation in pursuit of development. The CIIE comes as China pushes to further open up to the world, in line with the 40th anniversary of the countrys reform and opening up. This expo, therefore, is an important opportunity for international businesses to penetrate the Chinese market and develop trade links. During his keynote speech, President Xi said that that China's imported goods and services are estimated to exceed 30 trillion US dollars and 10 trillion US dollars, respectively, in the next 15 years. To help this increase, Xi said that China will speed up the exploration of the building of free trade ports with Chinese characteristics. The Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum also kicks off today as part of the CIIE, hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of the Peoples Republic of China (MOFCOM). With the theme of spurring new vitality of global trade, creating an open and win-win scenario, it focuses on new trends and changes in economic development at home and abroad, promoting economic globalization and building an open world economy. The forum is made up of three parallel sessions, Trade and Opening, Trade and Innovation and Trade and Investment, with speeches from leaders of International organizations, entrepreneurs and academics to discuss issues on the session topics as well as the main problems in the current international trade environment. The CIIE is the largest import expo of its kind, and the first ever in China, debuting over 5,000 new international products in China. It has invited 12 countries to attend as Guests of Honour, including the UK and Pakistan. The CIIE will run until Nov. 10 with a clear message that China is open for business, with President Xi confirming "China will not close its door to the world and will only become more and more open. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Korean First Lady Kim Jung-Sook in New Delhi on Monday. Photograph: Press Information Bureau of India From a dazzling riverfront at Ram Ki Paidi to illuminated streets and heritage buildings, Ayodhya has been decked up to welcome South Korean First lady Kim Jung-sook for the grand Diwali celebrations in the holy city. An artistic statue of Lord Ram along with Lord Hanuman has been installed at the historic ghats of the Saryu river, while an iconic ceremonial gateway has been erected near the site of the main function. The old temples facing the ghats of the river have been bathed in colourful lighting and lakhs of diyas (earthen lamps) are being set up on the steps of the ghats. The lamps will be lit up on Tuesday to welcome Kim, the chief guest of the main function, while also aiming for a Guinness Book of Record. The main streets of Ayodhya wear a scintillating look with illuminated lamps and special decorations. Many buildings have been lit up for the occasion, including the facade of the Raj Sadan and the residence of royal family of Ayodhya. "About 3.35 lakh diyas are planned to be lit up tomorrow on both the banks of the river and students from various colleges of the Avadh University have come to lit them up, along with other people to light them up. "Many students of the university are also preparing colourful rangolis on Ramayana theme on the banks of the river," a member of the event management team said. Kim, who arrived in New Delhi on Sunday on a four-day visit, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday. The First Lady also interacted with school students in Delhi. These were the first of Kim's official engagements during her India visit. 'Had a great meeting with Mrs. Kim Jung-sook, First Lady of the Republic of Korea. We had fruitful discussions on ways to deepen bilateral cooperation between our nations,' Modi tweeted. She then travelled to Lucknow for the next leg of her visit and was received by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on arrival. IMAGE: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath presenting bouquet to the South Korean First Lady at the Chaudhary Charan Singh airport in Lucknow on Monday. Photograph: PTI Photo On Tuesday, Kim will interact with craftsmen of chikankari, a traditional embroidery style of that region, later in the day, she will attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the memorial and 'Deepotatsav' in Ayodhya. 'The First Lady's participation in the festivities in Ayodhya will showcase our close civilisational links as well as the ongoing deepening engagement between our two countries,' an MEA had said in a statement. In July, the two countries had signed an agreement for expansion of the Suriratna memorial project. As per her itinerary shared by the MEA, the South Korean Firsat Lady will also deliver a speech at the Ram Kath Park after the ground-breaking ceremony before proceeding to attend 'Deepotsav' at Naya Ghat. Artists from Maharashtra have worked on 30-ft statue of Lord Ram, made of Plaster of Paris, installed near the site of 'Deepotsav' while they were working on a 25-ft statue of Lord Hanuman near the ceremonial gateway. Huge hoardings, bearing message -- 'South Korean First lady Kim Jung-sook - Welcome to Ayodhya ' and her picture, have been put up across the city. Kim's standalone visit to India has rekindled interest in its legendary princess who married a Korean king. According to Korean legend, the Princess of Ayodhya went to Korea in 48 AD and married King Kim-Suro. A large number of Koreans trace their ancestry to this legendary princess, who is known as Queen Heo Hwang-ok in South Korea. "The legend of Queen Heo Hwang-ok binds the two countries together culturally, and her visit will further promote our people-to-people ties," a senior official at the cultural wing of the Embassy said. Uttam Das, a seer from Ayodhya, told PTI, "It was a matter of honour for Ayodhya that the she was visiting Ayodhya." "A Princess of Ayodhya had gone there around 2,000 years ago, and now the First Lady is visiting Ayodhya, life has sort of come full circle," he said. "We have good relations with South Korea and her visit will bring the two countries closer," he said. As the controversial killing of tigress Avni in Maharashtra kicked up a row, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday preliminary reports showed that the forest department team shot her in 'self-defence' after it was attacked while trying to tranquilise the animal. Fadnavis also said any procedural lapse in the incident will be probed even as Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and Union Environment minister Harsh Vardhan were locked in a spat over the killing of the 5-year-old tigress. The tigress, officially as T1 and believed to be responsible for the deaths of 13 people in the past two years., was shot dead by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali in the Borati forest in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district on Friday as part of an operation. Fadnavis said preliminary reports made available to him stated that the tigress was shot after she attacked the forest staff trying to tranquilise her. "There is no happiness over the killing. The forest department took the decision since she had killed 13 to 14 people. There are some doubts regarding whether the tigress was first shot and then the dart inserted, this aspect will be probed," he told reporters in Mumbai. "We speak of increasing tiger population and conserving wildlife, and then unfortunately such a decision had to be taken. The tiger is a gentleman. He attacks only if his habitat is violated. Preliminary reports with me say the tigress attacked the forest department team and she was shot in self defence," the chief minister said. "Hunter Asghar Ali was hired by the forest department. The doubts raised regarding the killing will be verified." Asked to comment on Union Minister Maneka Gandhi's statements on the killing, Fadnavis said she had used 'harsh words'. Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar Monday hit back at Union minister Maneka Gandhi, who had slammed him for hiring private marksmen Shafat Ali Khan and his son Asgar Ali for carrying out hunting operations in the state. A day after the Union women and child development minister lashed out at the Maharashtra government over the 'ghastly murder' of the tigress, Mungantiwar said she 'lacks information' on the issue and was free to order a high-level probe. Mungantiwar, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader, claimed that Khan was tasked with shooting a tiger in Maneka Gandhi's Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh in 2009 (Gandhi's son Varun Gandhi was representing the constituency in 2009). "Hyderabad-based sharpshooter Shafat Ali Khan was given a certificate of appreciation by the principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) of Pilibhit for killing a tiger," he told reporters at the Mantralaya in Mumbai. Maneka Gandhi, the current BJP MP from Pilibhit, had alleged that Khan had killed three tigers, at least 10 leopards, elephants and 300 wild boar in Chandrapur in eastern Maharashtra. Mungantiwar hails from Chandrapur district. 'He (Shafat) is a criminal known for supplying guns to anti-nationals and for a suspected case of murder in Hyderabad,' the Union minister had said in a tweet. Mungantiwar said Khan's name was registered with the governments of nine states to carry out such operations. "Maneka Gandhiji has used the most derogatory comments against the state government, which has lowered the morale of the forest officials. I will write a letter to her and ask her to use national or international agencies to probe the issue and I ensure my cooperation," he added. Mungantiwar said Gandhi was a 'victim of lack of information'. "She could have spent 50 paise to call me up to ascertain the facts, instead of taking to the social media," he added. "Instead of lodging a complaint with the chief minister, the Union minister can order a high-level inquiry into the incident by a Supreme Court judge or a committee of Supreme Court judges," Mungantiwar said. He claimed that Maharashtra's tiger population had gone up by around 25 per cent in the last four years due to various initiatives of the state government since he took charge as the forest minister. Responding to Gandhi's charge that three tigers were killed on his orders in the past, Mungantiwar said neither he nor the forest secretary had the right to order such killings. "The tigers were killed in 1995, 2006, 2013 and 2014. I was not a minister then," he added. "After I took charge, there was one such case in 2017. Even then, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines were followed and the tiger was only tranquilised. Hence, this is only lack of information that such baseless charges are being levelled by our central leader," Mungantiwar said. Seeking to justify the killing of T1, he said a tigress was beaten to death and run over by a vehicle in an Uttar Pradesh village Sunday, after it mauled just one person. "Here, 13 persons were killed. We do not want tribals, farmers and villagers to turn enemies of wild animals. They are the ones who are actually helping in animal conservation," he said. After the killing of T1 sparked an outrage, Gandhi came out with a series of tweets Sunday. 'It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing,' she had said in one of the tweets. The Union minister had said she would take up the matter 'very strongly' with Fadnavis. ***** Tigress 'lynched' in Dudhwa: FIR lodged against 6 persons A first information report was lodged at the Sehramau police station in Pilibhit district on Monday against six persons and some unidentified villagers in connection with the alleged lynching of a tigress. The FIR was lodged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Wildlife Protection Act, Sehramau kotwali police inspector Atar Singh said. In his FIR, Kishanpur sanctuary forest guard Mohan Ram implicated Bablu, Mukesh, Lal Bahadur, Chauthi, Subhash, Om Prakash and six unidentified villagers, he added. Meanwhile, a post-mortem of the tigress was performed at the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve office in Paliya town as per the procedure laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to ascertain the exact cause of its death, DTR Deputy Director Mahavir Kaujlagi told PTI. The tigress was allegedly killed by a mob of angry villagers on Sunday evening after it attacked Devanand, 50, of Chaltua village, located in the Kishanpur sanctuary area of the DTR. The irate villagers allegedly held the DTR field staff patrolling the area hostage and manhandled them. The field staff, along with their elephants and tractors, were rescued on Sunday night after Kaujlagi sought help from the Pilibhit police. Meanwhile, DTR Field Director Ramesh Kumar Pandey, who, along with PCCF (wildlife) Pawan Kumar, Additional PCCF Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Pilibhit Tiger Reserve Director H Rajamohan, Kaujlagi and two doctors from the World Wildlife Fund -- Mudit Gupta and Anil Singh -- was present during the post-mortem of the tigress, told PTI, "During the autopsy, it came to light that the tigress had both ante-mortem and post mortem injuries on its body which led to its death." He added that a porcupine quill was found to have injured the big cat's nasal tract. "A heavy load of worms seems to have made the big cat lethargic and stay at one place," Pandey said, adding that a thorough probe into the killing of the animal was on and appropriate action would be taken. However, the woman told police that she was not keen to visit the shrine and admitted that she had come to Pamba following pressure from her husband. IMAGE: Devotees trek from Nilakkal base camp towards Sabarimala Temple, in Pathanamthitta. Photograph: PTI Photo The doors to Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala opened on Monday for the second time in three weeks for a two-day special puja amid unprecedented security over apprehension of protests by those opposing the Supreme Court order allowing women of all age groups into the shrine. Though no girl or woman in the age group of 10-50 years was spotted at the temple, the abode of Lord Ayyappa, its eternally celibate deity, police said a 30-year-old woman had reached the base camp at Pamba along with her husband and two kids. However, the woman, Anju, a native of Cherthala in Alappuzha district, told police that she was not keen to visit the shrine and admitted that she had come to Pamba following pressure from her husband, Abilash. Police claimed it was her husband, who was adamant that the family, including their children aged 7 and 4 years, undertake the pilgrimage. Kerala police spoke in conflicting voices about the development with a local official claiming that the woman had sought police protection while the Superintendent of Police Rahul R Nair said the woman had not sought police escort. As the husband continued to stick to his stand, police decided to ask their relatives to come to Pamba to take a final decision. Anju and her family are waiting at the police control room as the temple closed its doors at 10 pm. Sabarimala virtually turned into a fortress with hundreds of police personnel, including armed commandos, dotting the place where surveillance cameras and mobile phone jammers were installed. Thousands of pilgrims entered the temple as temple tantri (head priest) Kandararu Rajeevaru and melshanti (chief priest) Unnikrishnan Namboothiri jointly opened the portals of the sanctum sanctorum around 5 pm. The doors will open again on Tuesday for the 'Sree Chitira Atta Thirunal' puja to mark the birth anniversary of the last king of the princely state of Travancore Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. Several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and Ayyappa Dharama Sena president Rahul Easwar reached 'Sannidhanam', the temple complex, in the evening. IMAGE: Temple priests offer prayers at Sabarimala Temple. This is the second time the hill temple opened for darshan after the Supreme Court allowed entry of women of all age groups into it. Photograph: PTI Photo Security at Sabarimala and nearby places was stepped up following violent protests by fringe Hindu groups and mainstream political parties like the Congress and the BJP against the Kerala government's decision to enforce the Supreme Court order lifting the ban on girls and women of menstruating age from entering the temple. Frequent checking and frisking by police did not go down well with devotees and right wing activists who protested at several places. TV channels showed heated exchanges between devotees and policemen over frisking. Devotees complained of lack of amenities at the base camps that were damaged in the unprecedented floods in August. Even journalists were not allowed to leave the Nilackal base camp for Pamba on way to the temple in the morning but the restriction was lifted later in the day. Meanwhile, the Kerala high court said on Monday that pilgrims should not be harassed under the guise of implementing the Supreme Court judgment. "You can't cause hardships to pilgrims," the court said while hearing a petition seeking its direction to the government not to interfere with day-to-day affairs of the shrine. Police and civil administration are on a high alert, officials said, adding prohibitory orders under Section 144 Code of Criminal Procedure were in force around the temple and will continue to be in place till Tuesday night when the doors of the shrine will close. Around 2,300 personnel, including a 20-member commando team and 100 women, have been deployed in Sabarimala and adjoining areas. According to official sources, police has prepared a dossier of Hindu right wing activists who are likely to visit the shrine to take part in the agitation against Kerala's Left Front government's decision not to file a review petition against the apex court order. Women police personnel only above the age of 50 years are deployed IMAGE: Inspector General of Police M R Ajith Kumar said women staff of 'eligible' age from various departments have been deployed at the shrine for quite some time. Photograph: ANI At least 15 women police personnel aged 50 years or more have been deployed at the 'Sannidhanam', officials said. When asked about why only women personnel over 50 years of age were deployed inside the temple, Inspector General of Police M R Ajith Kumar said women staff of 'eligible' age from various departments have been deployed at the shrine for quite some time. He also rejected allegations that devotees had to face hardships due to the restrictions imposed by police. "Here, devotees can come and have darshan. There are no restrictions. Police has arranged adequate security for all devotees," Kumar said. The doors of Sabarimala had opened for six days on October 17 for the first time since the Supreme Court allowed women of menstruating age to enter the shrine but none could make it to its hallowed precincts amid a welter of protests and violent clashes. Valiant attempts by around a dozen women, including activists and journalists in the 10-50 years age group, to script history came to nought as frenzied devotees of Lord Ayyappa heckled and hassled them and forced them to retreat. 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. No previous government has worked with the kind of "depth and seriousness" this dispensation has, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said Monday as he hit back at Congress president Rahul Gandhi's barb at the Centre over the killing of tigress Avni. The government does not need a certificate from Rahul Gandhi, Vardhan said. He said a report has been sought by his ministry over the killing of Avni, who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of 13 people in the past two years, on Friday as part of an operation in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi tweeted,"The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi #Avni." "The central government does not need a certificate from Rahul Gandhi. The kind of seriousness, depth and honesty that the central government works with, I think no other prior government has done it like this," Vardhan said on the sidelines of an event. Asked if his ministry has sought a report, the Environment Minister said,"This is a natural process. Whenever there is any incident, report comes to the department." Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi Sunday lashed out at the BJP-led Maharashtra government over the "ghastly murder" of the man-eating tigress, calling it a "straight case of crime". Maneka Gandhi had said she was deeply saddened by the way the tigress was brutally killed. "It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing," she said in a series of tweets. She said she is going to take up the matter "very strongly" with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Reacting to Maneka Gandhi's criticism, Fadnavis said that her word were harsh but he unerstands her feelings as she is also an animal lover. "It's sad for us too that a decision was taken to kill tigress Avni. We will still probe the issue to see if there were any lapses and if the procedure was followed. Manekaji's words were harsh but we should understand her feelings as she is an animal lover." Fadnavis said. Mungantiwar said on Monday that Maneka Gandhi "lacks information" on the issue and can order a high-level probe if she so desires. The killing of Avni, who is survived by her two cubs who are 10 months old, has also been criticised by animal and wildlife bodies. Animal rights body PETA India said Saturday the killing of a tiger as part of an operation in Maharashtra should be investigated and treated as a wildlife crime, and termed it a "dark day" for the nation. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India said Avni was killed "illegally to satisfy a hunter's lust for blood", in contempt of court and in apparent violation of the Wildlife Protection Act. TV channels aired a video clip in which P S Sreedharan Pillai purportedly said the Sabarimala temple head priest consulted him before threatening the closure of the shrine if women in 10-50 age group entered it. Bharatiya Janata Party Kerala unit chief P S Sreedharan Pillai courted a controversy on Monday as TV channels aired a video clip in which he purportedly said the Sabarimala temple head priest consulted him before threatening the closure of the shrine if women in 10-50 age group entered it. As his remarks at a BJP Yuva morcha event in Kozhikode on Sunday drew strong reactions from the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led ruling Left Democratic Front and opposition Congresss, Pillai, an advocate practicing in the Kerala high court, said the priest had called him seeking a legal clarification, which he had given. However, Head priest Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru told reporters at the temple that he had only consulted senior tantri Kandararu Mohanararu on the matter. Hitting out at the BJP, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said at a public meeting in Kannur that the genuine devotees of Lord Ayyappa should understand the saffron party's 'game plan'. Responding to the criticism against him, Pillai said several people come to him for consultations and he as a lawyer had all the right to give them legal advice. At the height of dramatic protests against entry of women of menstrual age into the Lord Ayyappa shrine, Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru had on October 19 threatened to shut the sanctum sanctorum if two young women, then escorted by police, were allowed to reach the 'Sannidhanam' (temple complex). Police later escorted back the two women, including an activist, who attempted to enter the temple after the Supreme Court allowed women of all age groups to offer prayers. The BJP and Congress have opposed the CPI(M)-led LDF government's decision to implement the apex court order and not to seek a review of it as demanded by various quarters. In the video, Pillai was purportedly heard saying that the priest had consulted him on whether closing the Ayyappa temple if women tried to enter it would amount to contempt of court. Pillai had said he assured the tantri that there would be no contempt and thousands of believers were with him. "Sabarimala issue is a golden opportunity for us," he had told the party workers, claiming that the agitation was 'BJP's agenda'. During October 17-22 when the temple opened for monthly puja, the first time after the apex court verdict, devotees and right wing activists staged protests and prevented around 12 women in the 10-50 age group from entering the shrine. Slamming Pillai for his remarks, CPI-M state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said it was a serious matter and demanded a high-level probe into what he called 'all conspiracies' related to Sabarimala and the stand taken by the BJP. The agitation was 'well planned' by BJP and the fact that the party could 'influence' the priest was 'serious', he said. State Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran said Pillai's statements were an 'open challenge' to society and to the Supreme Court, while Industries minister E P Jayarajan accused the BJP of using the tantri and other priests for creating trouble at the holy hill. BJP was trying to turn the 'secular Kerala' into a 'riot zone', Surendran alleged, adding there was a conspiracy behind it and those involved should be brought to book. Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said the real agenda of BJP had been exposed through the video. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president, Mullappally Ramachandran told reporters that the remarks of Pillai were 'dangerous'. Through his words, it had been proved that BJP was trying to create an Ayodhya in Kerala using the Sabarimala issue, he alleged. The issue surfaced on a day when the temple opened for a special puja to be performed on Tuesday. The Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti, an umbrella body of Hindu seers, on Sunday "directed" the government to bring in a legislation or an ordinance to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya. IMAGE: Hindu seers and sadhus attend the Dharmadesh, a two-day meeting organised for national integration, at Talkatora Stadium, in New Delhi. Photograph: Shahbaz Khan / PTI Photo A two-day conclave of the Samiti, which saw the participation of over 3,000 seers from across the country, deliberated on a number of issues, including a central legislation for cow protection, cleaning of the Ganga and construction of the Ram Temple. "We direct the government to either bring in a law or an ordinance (for the construction of the Ram temple). There will be no compromise on this," Ramanandacharya Hansdevacharya, the patron of the organisation, said in his concluding remarks at the conclave. He also announced that the 'sant samiti' would hold religious conclaves in Ayodhya, Nagpur and Bengaluru on November 25, to be followed by one in Delhi on December 9. Former Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament and working president of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, Ram Vilas Vedanti, however, did not favour enacting a law or promulgating an ordinance to facilitate the Ram temple construction, saying this would lead to communal riots. "The matter should be sorted out through mutual consensus as the court will not be able to give any decision on the issue for the next 10 lakh years," he said. The demand for a law for construction of the Ram temple has been growing after the Supreme Court last month said an "appropriate bench" would decide in the first week of January the schedule for hearing of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case. Rasthtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat had last Monday pressed for the construction of the temple, saying it would lead to an atmosphere of "goodwill and harmony" in the country. The Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti also batted for the re-election of the BJP in the general elections next year. "We are very hurt that there has been no resolution to the Ram Mandir issue, but we are satisfied with the central government's work for the country, religion, culture and national security," said the Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti in its list of "directives" to the government. The ABSS said people should vote for those who protect "gai (cow), Ganga and Govind (god)". The organisation also demanded a central legislation for cow protection. To ensure that there is an uninterrupted and continuous flow of the Ganga, a law should be enacted for the protection of the river, it said. Justifying the rechristening of Allahabad as Prayag, the Sant Samiti also demanded changing of the name of Delhi to Indraprastha. It also sought early completion of the National Register of Citizens process in Assam and said the Centre should assert diplomatic pressure on Bangladesh to take back their illegal migrants to India. An appeal was also made to citizens to identify Rohingyas and inform the security agencies about them. The ABSS also demanded a Uniform Civil Code and a 'National Population Policy' to control the "imbalance" of population. Giving a call to unite Hindu society, Hansdevacharya said it was necessary to bring together Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and people of other sects of Hinduism. Terming NOTA as an "insult" to democracy, ABSS appealed to the people to choose their candidates. Speaking on the Sabarimala issue, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the head of 'Art of Living' said he was confident that the Supreme Court would look into the public sentiments and do a rethink on its decision. In a landmark decision last month, the apex court had allowed entry of women of all ages in the Kerala shrine, a move that has led to violent protests in the state. The sons of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi have appealed to Riyadh to return the body of their father so that the grieving family can bury him in a cemetery in the holy city of Medina with the rest of his clan. IMAGE: A protester condemning the murder of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi in front of the Saudi Embassy. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters Khashoggi was brutally killed inside Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul by a hit squad sent from Riyadh on October 2. Authorities in Turkey are still searching for Khashoggis remains. Last week, the Turkish chief prosecutors office said the 60-year-olds body was dismembered after he was strangled, while the Washington Post reported investigators were looking into the theory that the body was dissolved in acid. Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi, who called their father courageous, generous and very brave, said they have endured weeks of anguish and uncertainty following his disappearance and death. I really hope that whatever happened wasnt painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death, Abdullah Khashoggi, 33, told CNN in Washington with his brother, Salah, 35. Without their fathers body, the brothers say their family is unable to grieve or find closure. All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina (Saudi Arabia) with the rest of his family, Salah said. I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon. Saudi Arabia has presented an evolving narrative about what happened to Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen, when he entered the consulate to get papers for his wedding with a Turkish national. Saudi authorities initially denied all knowledge of his fate before later admitting that a group of rogue operators, many part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans inner circle, were responsible. Riyadh has maintained that neither bin Salman nor his father, King Salman, knew of the operation to target Khashoggi. But what has really come to trouble his two sons, their two sisters and their mother are the lies, they say, that have sprung up since Khashoggis death. Abdullah and Salah emphasised that their father was not a dissident and has been misunderstood and intentionally misrepresented for political reasons. Jamal was a moderate person. He was liked by everybody. He had differences and common values with everyone, Salah said, describing Khashoggi as a genuine, happy person and an amazing father. I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally dont agree with. Public opinion is important... but my fear is that its being over politicised. People are throwing analysis that may direct us away from the truth. Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. And he believed in the transformation that it is going through. Asked how Khashoggi should be remembered, Salah replied, As a moderate man who has common values with everyone... a man who loved is country, who believed so much in it and its potential. Reflecting on their fathers career as a journalist, they say Khashoggi was like a rock and roll star when they were out with him in Saudi Arabia. Salah says he is waiting for the investigation to be over and for the facts to come out. The King has stressed that everybody involved will be brought to justice. And I have faith in that..., Salah said. Asked if he was placing his faith in the King, Salah replied: Yes. The police were aware of the bandh since the gram panchayats had informed them about it. Yet, it finds no mention in the affidavit submitted to the Bhima Koregaon commission. Jyoti Punwani reports. IMAGE: A protest in Mumbai, March 26, 2018, to demand action against those who instigated the violence following the Elgar Parishad in Pune on January 1, 2018. On Saturday, November 3, Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar told the Bhima Koregaon Commission of Inquiry that the sequence of events that occurred in and around Bhima Koregaon before the January 1, 2018 violence had not as yet been placed on record before the commission. Justice J N Patel who heads the two-man commission, asked Ambedkar to point out the affidavits that trace this sequence, so that those witnesses could be summoned. So far, the events of January 1 have been described only by private witnesses who have spoken about their own experience. The fact-finding report filed by witness Bhimrao Bansod, whose cross examination has already taken up nine days of the commission's time in Mumbai, does go into the background of the violence, but none of the members of the fact-finding team were themselves witness to what they reported. The correct sequence of events must come from the government. So far, no government witness has been summoned. But it appears from the affidavit filed by Ganesh More of the Pune rural police force before the commission that the police too have chosen to be selective in their narration of the sequence of events that occurred before the January 1 violence. In a conversation with Rediff.com, Ambedkar said he wanted the events in the last week of December 2017, to come on record -- the clash that took place in Vadhu Budruk village on December 29, and the January 1 bandh call given by the gram panchayats of Bhima Koregaon and nearby villages. The 21-page affidavit filed by policeman More describes in great detail the former, but makes no mention of the latter. On December 29, says More's affidavit, some villagers of Vadhu Budruk broke a recently installed signboard extolling the role of Govind Gopal Gaekwad (also known as Govind Gopal Mahar) in performing the last rites of Sambhaji Maharaj, in defiance of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's orders. They also broke the chhatri (canopy) on top of Govind Gopal Mahar's samadhi. The incident, that was widely reported then, led to seven arrests and the filing of cases against 49 villagers, mostly Marathas, under the SC/ST Atrocities Act. But the matter was resolved in the next two days after both sides sat down togethe, and withdrew the complaints they had filed against each other. However, despite this settlement, a call for a bandh to be observed on January 1 was given by the gram panchayats in the area, including Bhima Koregaon. Appeals to support the bandh were spread through WhatsApp in which Marathas were asked to gather in large numbers on the morning of January 1 at Vadhu Budruk. Interestingly, More's affidavit talks about a 1,200-strong crowd of saffron-flag bearers gathering at 10.30 am at Vadhu Budruk on January 1. They were chanting 'prerna mantra' (inspirational mantras),' says the policeman's affidavit. Dalit witnesses have told the commission that men carrying saffron flags were shouting 'Jai Shivaji, Jai Bhavani.' More's affidavit says nothing about who these men were, and how so many of them got there, despite the elaborate police bandobast described by him. Ambedkar told Rediff.com that he was planning to bring these WhatsApp messages to the commission's notice and request that they be sent for forensic analysis in order to trace their origin. The messages describe the bandh as a protest against the filing of cases against the Marathas at Vadhu Budruk as well as the 'false history' which was being celebrated by the Dalits. The 'false history' referred to the annual homage paid by Dalits to the Vijay Stambh (victory memorial) which commemorates the defeat of the Peshwas at the hands of the British, who were helped by Mahars. That battle took place on Janaury 1, 1818. The WhatsApp messages described this as a 'black day'/ marking the end of Peshwa rule. Govind Gopal Gaekwad's role in performing Sambhaji Maharaj's last rites is also seen to be a part of 'wrong history'. The view that these two events, which hold great significance for the Dalits, are being wrongly depicted has been propagated by ex-BJP corporator Milind Ekbote, head of the Dharmveer Sambhaji Maharaj Pratishthaan. Ekbote and another Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide were named as responsible for the Bhima Koregaon rioting in the first FIR filed after the violence. The January 1 bandh was so successfully implemented that lakhs of Dalits who descended on the two villages found for the first time that they could not buy even a bottle of water, let alone food. The police were aware of the bandh since the gram panchayats had informed them about it. Yet, they did nothing to prevent it. Now, they seem to be bent upon suppressing the fact that it took place. Over seven pages, More describes the preparations made by the police for the expected influx of Dalits as well as the precautions taken in view of the clash at Vadhu Budruk. But not a word is mentioned about the bandh. file pic With more than 5,000 exhibits from 173 countries and regions ready to meet crowds of visitors at the China International Import Expo (CIIE), Peoples Daily takes you to meet some of the most marvelous and creative ones in this international expo. Biofore, a concept car from Finnish company UPM-Kymmene Corporation, arrived in Shanghai on Sept. 12, roughly two months ahead of the CIIE opening on Monday, marking the first exhibit to enter the expo area. As the worlds third largest paper company, UPMs Biofore is made of wood-based materials, from its car body shell to its fuel tank. The vehicle weighs 1.1 tonnes, which makes it 25% lighter than ordinary vehicles of the same size. 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Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images(DENVER) -- Not once during his public remarks to a small group of ardent Democrats in this picturesque mountain town did Jared Polis talk about his personal life. He talked about his accomplishments in Washington and his goals for Colorado. He talked about the Continental Divide Recreation, Wilderness, and Camp Hale Legacy Act and he talked about the Helicopter Fuel System Safety Act. He talked about how lowering the cost of early childhood education would benefit the state's neediest families and how if his opponent is elected, he will serve as a "yes-man" for the president. But Jared Polis didnt talk about his personal life. In a year in which candidates across the country are sharing tales of their health ailments and job layoffs, racial discrimination and childcare struggles, Polis -- who could make history next week as the first openly gay man to win a U.S. gubernatorial election -- is instead deflecting attention away from his potential historical accomplishment and towards the message of inclusivity that has been embraced by his fellow Democrats in the most diverse election cycle in modern memory. "I really think that we are at our best as a nation, as a society, when our elected officials are fully representative of the people they're elected to work for," Polis told ABC News. "That means we should have our communities of color represented, women represented, the LGBTQ community represented. And the more diversity we have in elected leadership, responsible positions, I think the better result we'll have." Though he's chosen not to make his sexual orientation a talking point on the campaign trail, Polis' shot at history comes as part of this year's "rainbow wave," an influx of LGBTQ candidates across the country who are running for office. In Vermont, Democrat Christine Hallquist is the first transgender woman to be a major party's gubernatorial candidate. Gov. Kate Brown, up for re-election in Oregon, became the first openly bisexual person to serve as a state's governor upon her ascension to the position in 2015. ABC News has identified an additional 22 candidates who identify as members of the LGBTQ community running as the major party nominee in House and Senate races nationwide. To Polis however, already the first openly gay man to be out when first elected to the House of Representatives, such progress is not unusual, at least in his home state. "Colorado is a groundbreaking state," said Polis. "We've had LGBT speakers in our state assembly, Senate minority leaders, commissioners." But as he referenced the various achievements of LGBTQ community members across the state, Polis neglected to mention moments that it did not distinguish itself as progressive. Namely, the 1992 referendum formally called the "Colorado No Protected Status for Sexual Orientation Amendment." The initiative, which was approved by a 53.4 to 46.6 margin stripped legal protection for homosexual, lesbian and bisexual residents on the basis of their sexual orientation. This led Colorado to acquire the nickname, "The Hate State." Though the result of the 1992 referendum startled the state's LGBT community, it also spurred a call to action that has led to significant developments for the LGBTQ community over the past 25 years. "Activism around Amendment 2 really helped, I believe, Colorado become more politically sophisticated and more organized," said Rex Fuller, the vice president of communications at the non-profit GLBT Community Center of Colorado in Denver. Fuller linked the amendment's passage to the 1980s AIDS crisis, which disproportionately affected LGBT persons, describing the era as a low-point for the community from which it has gradually recovered. A number of legal advancements since have come in the form of Supreme Court decisions. In 1996, Amendment 2 was thrown out as a result of the decision in Romer v. Evans, the Defense of Marriage Act was struck down via United States v. Windsor in 2013, and 2015's Obergefell v. Hodges decision affirmed the right of same-sex couples to marry. "They're the rights that anyone should have under our Constitution," Fuller said, explaining that though the LGBT community may appear insular to outsiders, its members should be treated no differently. "I think that's always where we've been trying to move. Any minority group wants to enjoy a shared heritage that they share because of shared experiences, but that doesn't govern everything." The Supreme Court decisions and a broader societal shift towards LGBTQ acceptance have not, however, ended the harassment of the community. Fuller recounted a number of incidents in the past two years in which local LGBT individuals have been hassled because of their sexual orientation, including once by a person wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. According to Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ civil rights organization, 22 transgender people have died due to fatal violence in 2018. Last year the total was 29, the highest number ever recorded by the organization. Additional legal protections for the LGBTQ community are being sought by legislative means, and though community members are optimistic about Colorado's increasingly progressive laws -- those governing marijuana possession and use were among the first of their kind in the country -- LGBTQ advocates have run into roadblocks over the past four years when they attempted to make it easier for transgender people to change their birth certificates and outlaw conversion therapy on LGBTQ minors. Daniel Ramos, the executive director of One Colorado, an LGBTQ advocacy organization located in Denver, said that while gathering bipartisan support, the both measures failed in recent years in the state's Republican-controlled Senate. In addition to Polis' history-making campaign, Colorado Democrats' top priority this week is to win back that chamber. "For the work that we do, we know that the governor can only do so much," Ramos said. "And that the more work we do to change hearts [and] minds in Colorado and across the country around LGBTQ issues is even more important." "While we may have a pro-equality majority in state legislature and a pro-equality governor, the important work we still need to do is to tell stories and to humanize the impacts of legislation for LGBTQ folks. Having a gay governor doesn't make everything else go away." Though Polis has been a public figure in the state for decades -- prior to his run for the House he was a chairman of the state board of education and a prolific philanthropist -- he has not been immune to attacks on his sexual orientation. The appearance of homophobic bumper stickers against Polis were reported in the town of Eagle, Colorado, and police have located a person of interest, according to Fox's Denver affiliate KDVR. But as for his sexual orientation's impact at the polls, the Democrat was adamant that voters are focused on the bigger picture. "I think what the people of Colorado care about is: who's going to make my life better?" Polis said. "They don't care about who you are and who you love." Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. As the surging development of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and blockchain technologies pose unprecedented new challenges to data security, China is ramping up efforts to beef up its cyber defense capabilities for sound security in the Internet of Things (IoT) era. Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, the Information Security Technology Conference & Expo 2018 was held in Qingdao, East Chinas Shandong province. Cybersecurity officials from the Ministry of Public Security, Cybersecurity Association of China, and other organizations gathered with experts to brainstorm methods to combat data hacking and data leakage as well as to develop the countrys security technology industry. Meanwhile, the host city of Qingdao has unveiled Chinas first nationwide information security technology industrial base, which has attracted 48 firms with a total investment of 5.35 billion yuan ($776 million). Some of Chinas top cybersecurity firms, including Zhongfu Information and Venustech, have established branches in the industrial park, pledging to take the lead in incubating more start-ups in information security. Chinas 360 Enterprise Security Group also provides a training platform in the base, eyeing to groom up to 600 young IT workers annually, especially from state-owned companies, civil service sectors, and the defense industry, into professional security analysts and engineers. The center is also able to receive over a thousand visitors for cybersecurity awareness training each month. Chinese colleges and universities see 15,000 to 30,000 graduates majoring in internet security each year, while the country requires a total of 700,000 to 1 million cybersecurity specialists. Its the responsibility of companies to invest more on grooming talents and fill in the shortage, said Qi Xiangdong, chairman of 360 Enterprise Security Group, in an interview with Peoples Dailys Overseas Social Media. Experts noted the importance of protecting large energy companies such as oil exploitation firms and power plants, as data leakage could reveal a regions industrial capacity and attacks to their networks could cause power outages and incite public chaos. Data leakage from hospitals and schools may disclose the demography of a region. Corporate network security is also closely linked to national security, as leakage of production volume or price information may give other countries the higher hand in global trade negotiations. Traditional defense and encryption methods have become outdated in the era of cloud computing and advanced persistent threats often orchestrated by persons targeting a specific state or large companies are increasingly posing new threats. To counter the new challenges, we have to rely on supercomputers, AI, and big data to identify the threats and give a timely response, Qi added. The boom of smart cities, IoT, and other technological advances are pushing the development of cybersecurity sector onto a fast track. Revenue from Chinas internet security industry reached 43.5 billion yuan ($6.34 billion) in 2017, marking an increase of 22.9 percent year-on-year. Revenue from Chinas internet security industry this year is expected to increase to 52 billion yuan, a report from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed. Ferrari N.V. (RACE) on Monday reported third-quarter net profit that doubled to 287 million euros from 141 million euros in the prior-year quarter. Earnings per share were 1.51 euros, up from 0.74 euros last year. The company noted that the tax rate in the quarter was significantly reduced as a result of the advance agreement on Patent Box signed on September 11, 2018 with the Italian Revenue Agency. The benefit for the three-year period from 2015 to 2017 was recognized in the quarter for 141 million euros, of which 139 million euros was from direct and 2 million euros from indirect use of copyrights, patents, trademarks, designs and know-how. Adjusted net profit for the quarter was 146 million euros or 0.77 euros per share, compared to 141 million euros or 0.74 euros per share in the year-ago period. Adjusted EBIT was 203 million euros, an increase of 0.4 percent year-over-year. Third-quarter net revenues were 838 million euros, up 0.3 percent from 836 million euros in the year-ago period, or up 2.2 percent at constant currency. Total shipments were 2,262 units, up 216 units or 11 percent from last year. Looking ahead, the company confirmed its 2018 outlook for shipments of more than 9000 units, including hypercars, net revenues of more than 3.4 billion euros, and adjusted EBITDA of 1.1 billion euros or more. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Army destroys aggression coalitions military vehicle in Najran [05/November/2018] NAJRAN, Nov. 5 (Saba) The army, supported by popular forces, on Monday managed to destroy a Saudi military vehicle carrying mercenaries in the Saudi southern border province of Najaran, a military official told Yemen Press Agency. The military vehicle was destroyed with an improvised explosive device planted by armys engineering unit in Ajasher desert which led to kill and injure all its crew's members, the official said. AA Saba Saba It is that time of the year when we celebrate the achievements of students and teachers as they reflect on the years success. In the process we ponder whether we truly believe that education is the key to a bright future and if its relevant in meeting our young peoples needs in this day and age. Are we conscience of the significance of what we teach? Are the demands of the economic and job market in our community met? Or do we need to align education to the needs of our youth? During the Small Island Development States (SIDS) conference last week a discussion on, Addressing the challenges of youth unemployment in the pacific through genuine partnerships, reported that youth unemployment in the Pacific stands at an alarming 23% (SPC 2011) with young people 4.5-6 times (ILO, 2017) are less likely to secure decent jobs relative to older people. Director of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Office for Pacific Island Countries, Dong Li declared that tertiary institutions in the Pacific are ten years behind and do not meet the labor market demands. He urged the importance and need for educational institutions to promote entrepreneurial training and employable skills, in assisting our youth today. Learning and teaching can become intrinsically spontaneous and student-centered when moved from the limitations of the classroom into real life. From the collaborative learning atmosphere that results from distinctive relationships developed outside the classroom, to the deep learning that occurs when students put into practice in the real world what they have theorized from behind a desk, are unmatched in their learning potential. Professor Steven Mintz, Executive Director of the University of Texas Systems Institute for Transformational Learning, suggests that, too often, we find ourselves trapped inside an educational paradigm and fail to see alternatives or to appreciate their advantages. Education is nested inside a series of boxes. There is one box we call the course. Another is called the semester. Yet a third is the school year. Then, too, there is the degree. What happens when we think outside these boxes? Field experiences early in a students career can inspire students to continue in a field. Learning experiences outside the classroom are inherently interdisciplinary. In the real world, we encounter it as a whole and are forced to engage multiple prototypes, no matter which pair of disciplinary lenses we intend to wear. Therefore, scientists, artists and humanists alike do well to consider the ways in which other disciplines might enrich their own disciplinary approach to their field. There are many ways to make learning extend outside the classroom. One way to escape the confines of the classroom and to afford students opportunities to grow is to encourage students to learn from and to serve the surrounding community. In its simplest form, this may involve community related projects where students will have occasions to have discussions with community members or local experts on an issue related to course content. Even greater learning potentials and community benefits rest in more intensive forms of community engagement in the form of service learning projects. These projects, typically designed by both faculty and community partners, allow for students to learn in highly effective ways while helping a community address its needs. In all of these experiences, student growth can be extensive, whether it is through improved critical thinking and problem solving skills, greater personal efficacy and leadership development, or enhanced social responsibility and career opportunities. Mintz points out that one of postmodernisms key insights is that many practices that seem natural or inevitable are anything but. Many of higher educations boxes are constructs, reinforced by tradition and custom. Many may well have outlived their usefulness. Today with the growing rate of youth unemployment it is important to take advantage of such an approach and re-imagine education not as it is, but as it might be. The objective of the Art Agency Beautification Project was for students to be accountable for ones environment, in ensuring that we live in a safe, clean, creative and fun space. The benefits from the project targeted students in applying what they have learnt in the Visual Arts courses and to create an aesthetically pleasing space for all students and staff who share these facilities at NUS to enjoy. As Americans prepare for another election, Russian troublemakers have again tried to divide U.S. voters and discredit democracy. The activity appears focused on abuse of social media, through American-looking posts and sites, instead of big cyberattacks or disrupting voting systems. So far, it's more modest than the influence campaign Russia is accused of carrying out in 2016, and Russia is not alone it's just one source of online manipulation ahead of Tuesday's election. Russia denies interference, and may not be able to affect the outcome anyway, but has reason to be interested in the election result. U.S. officials and tech companies are trying to improve election security and fight disinformation campaigns online. Here's what they say the Russians have been up to: ___ FUNDING TROLLS One Russian has been charged so far by U.S. officials of interference in 2018 election campaign: Elena Khusyaynova, a bookkeeper with the Internet Research Agency, the "troll factory" accused of manipulating the 2016 U.S. campaign. Khusyaynova is accused of a covert social media campaign for both the 2016 and 2018 votes in the United States. The criminal complaint says she began buying social media ads in 2015, including on Facebook and Instagram, and spent on internet services including VPNs, which help mask online activity. Khusyaynova also purchased social media analytics products, which gauge the performance of online postings, and paid bloggers and U.S.-based activists. The proposed operating budget she oversaw was more than $35 million from January 2016 through June 2018 including $10 million for the first half of this year, the complaint says. It is unclear how many Americans saw postings financed by Khusyaynova's activity. ___ FAUX-AMERICAN SITES The Russian troll factory's owners, the Federal News Agency, registered three domain names in April aimed at the U.S. market, according to the SPARK-Interfax database. The websites all lead readers to a site called USAReally, aimed at showing American audiences news that has been "hushed up" by the mainstream media. Its Russian roots aren't hard to find. Its Russian chief editor, Alexander Malkevich, is openly critical of Democrats and says "America won" when Donald Trump became president. Its readership remains small, in the tens of thousands, which Malkevich blames on "censorship" by Facebook and Twitter. It is trying to amplify its voice via links on other media. In recent days, its focus has been on the migrant caravan weaving through Latin America, on tight congressional races and on an effort to recruit Megyn Kelly, whose show on NBC was canceled amid controversy over her comments on blackface Halloween costumes. ___ TRICKY TWEETS Even after the February indictment by U.S. authorities of a dozen Russians linked to the Internet Research Agency, it continued to work on tricking U.S. audiences including seeking to mobilize activists to participate in street demonstrations. Twitter last month released millions of tweets and other content targeting Americans that it said came from the IRA, both from the 2016 race and continuing through the summer of 2018, well into the U.S. midterm campaign. Examples of tweets include those from the account @TEN_GOP, which pretended to be Tennessee's Republican party, and posted a photo of then-FBI Director James Comey with the words "resign now." It's unclear how many people saw the content, which is no longer available on Twitter itself. In August, Facebook and security firm FireEye revealed influence campaigns on the social network originating in Russia and Iran. Experts say Russia's alleged actions in the 2016 U.S. election may have encouraged Iran to follow suit. ___ PROBING CANDIDATES Microsoft executives said recently that the company had detected attempts by Russia's GRU military intelligence agency to hack into the campaigns of two senators, and disabled Russian-launched websites disguised as U.S. think tanks and Senate sites. One attempt involved Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who is seeking re-election in a state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016. Microsoft identified an attempt to steal the password of at least one McCaskill staffer through a fake Senate login website, in the most notable instance of attempted campaign meddling by Russia made public this year. It's not clear whether Russians are again targeting U.S. voting systems. U.S. officials have said that before the 2016 general election, Russian agents probed at least 21 state election systems. There is a famous Chinese proverb that has been doing the rounds over the years amongst those who work in the development cooperation sector. You give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish and you give him an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime. Some attribute the proverb to Confucius, a Chinese philosopher whose ideals and philosophy became known as Confucianism. If you had attended a ceremony at the National University of Samoa yesterday, you would have seen 99 women from Samoa commissioned as seamstress and fashion designers, courtesy of the Peoples Republic of China Embassy and the Hunan International Business Vocational College. The conclusion of a three-week programme, wherein the women undertook training in sewing and creative handicraft, would compel you to think about the Confucius proverb and how a simple, community-focused aid programme can make a difference in the lives of these women and their families. The training also came with sewing machines, which will now open up income generation opportunities for the recent graduates. The occasion was not lost on the Minister of Women Community and Social Development, Faimalotoa Kika Stowers, who represented the Government at the presentation. Thank you for believing in our people and trusting our systems, in continuing the advancement of modalities that will see Samoa achieving not only the SAMOA Pathway, but also the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, she said. These forms of development cooperation assistance sets China apart from other donors, as it is more community-focused and is a learning programme that a lot of communities can identify with. It is not surprising to hear that the programme is quite popular and is now into its second year. The Ambassador for the Peoples Republic of China to Samoa, Wang Xuefeng, told participants and guests yesterday that more people are making queries on how they can participate. The first training course on creative handicrafts and sewing skills for Samoa was successfully held for 80 women from four villages in Samoa. In the past two years, many women have learned the sewing skills which enabled them either to find a new way of earning money for their families or to improve their life through sewing clothes for all family members with their own hands, he said. While Chinese development assistance to Pacific Island nations including Samoa, has come under a lot of scrutiny in recent years, there is no doubt they have done their homework on the needs of Pacific Island families. But the work of a diplomat is not always cut out for him or her upon their deployment and arrival at the Post. A lot of times it is the drive and passion of the respective Heads of Mission, which can determine the areas of focus in terms of bilateral relations and the delivering of foreign policy. Ambassador Wang appears to have committed himself to the cause to build relations between his country and Samoa at the community-level, and his work could have long-term benefits for both his country and the Samoan women (and their families) who participated in the training programme. Have a blessed Tuesday Samoa. Minister of Revenue, Tialavea Tionisio Hunt, has refused to accept suggestions the decision to extend alcohol trading hours is hypocritical and clashes with the Governments push to address alcohol-related social problems. The Samoa Law Reform Commission has been behind recommendations to overhaul the Alcohol Act, in a bid to regulate retail stores trading hours and minimise crime occurring within the vicinity of alcohol-selling businesses. In August this year the Minister - who is also the Liquor Control Board chair - announced that taxes on alcohol would be increased. He cited alcohol as the main contributing factor to the surge in violent crimes from murder to rape, not to mention traffic fatalities and casualties, which he said forced the Governments hand to increase alcohol excise. But he refused to accept questions by the Samoa Observer on whether the decision by the Liquor Board to extend the trading hours was hypocritical. I am not a hypocrite! Alcohol problems have been there for the longest time, he said. When this newspaper put it to him that in August he blamed alcohol as the main contributing factors to a surge in violent crimes, he refused to accept the proposition and pointed out that the decision was made by the Board. This was a decision by the entire Liquor Control Board, not just one person and it was well thought out before we concluded to accept the proposal by the small stores, he said. Last month the Liquor Board announced that retail stores, hotels and restaurants can now sell alcohol from 6.00 am to 1.00 am Monday to Friday. However, on Saturdays alcohol can only be sold from 6:00 am to 12:00 am midnight. As reported earlier, Tialavea said the request to extend the trading hours came from retail stores. This was due to the request by retail stores, this was due to popular demand from the small shops. Their claims are valid, when considering that hotels, night clubs and stores all have one goal and that is to make some money, he said. The Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (S.R.O.S.) has assured the public that the miniature bottles displayed at the recent Samoa Whiskey launching is only for promotional purposes. The Government banned the selling and manufacturing of liquor bottles that had less than 500 milliliters content in June this year. But the appearance of the miniature bottles at the recent launching of Samoa Whiskey raised eyebrows. However, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of S.R.O.S., Dr. Seeseei Molimau-Samasoni, told Samoa Observer that it is not for sale. Minister of Revenue and chair of the Liquor Board, Tialavea Tionisio Hunt, told this newspaper that liquor bottles with content below 500 milliliters will not be sold. And there is no more liquor bottles underneath 500 milliliters. The S.R.O.S. is well aware of the law that was in effect in June, 2018 and I am certain the mini bottles are for displaying and promotional purposes only, he said. The Samoa Whiskey brand was launched by S.R.O.S. at the Taumeasina Island Resort and is made out of taro, the first of its kind in the world and is produced in Samoa. Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi praised the product and its name, saying it will also promote Samoa around the world. He said it is the new product that will provide income generation opportunities for local taro farmers and producers alike. The Supreme Court trial of former Cabinet Minister, Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt, who is facing a total of 161 criminal charges, has been adjourned. The other defendants in the same proceedings are Heather Tupea Schmidt, Apulu Lance Polu, Martin Schwalger and Tuitui Aipulupo. The defendants face a total of 233 criminal charges in relation to an on-going dispute over a nonu company, involving another senior member of the ruling Human Rights Protection Party (H.R.P.P) and Associate Minister of the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Peseta Vaifou Tevaga. The matter was supposed to undergo a bench trial for three weeks but it has now been adjourned. During the call over before Supreme Court Justice Mata Keli Tuatagaloa, lawyers representing the defendants told the Court that they needed more time to prepare their case. Their application for adjournment was granted. According to the criminal charge sheet, Laaulialemalietoa is facing one count of alleged forgery, 40 charges of alleged theft, 16 for allegedly obtaining by deception, 16 counts of allegedly causing loss by deception and 88 charges of alleged theft by a person in a special relationship. Heather Tupea Schmidt faces one count of alleged theft, three charges of allegedly causing loss by deception and three charges of alleged theft by relationship. While Apulu Lance Polu faces a total of 51 criminal charges, namely one count of allegedly using a forged document, one charge of alleged forgery, one charge of alleged theft, 16 charges of allegedly obtaining by deception, 16 counts of allegedly causing loss by deception and an additional 16 counts of allegedly theft by relationship. Tuitui faces seven charges of allegedly causing loss by deception and six criminal counts of alleged theft by a person in a special relationship. Martin Schwalger faces one count of alleged forgery. The matter first went for mention before the District Court and was elevated to the Supreme Court. file pic The first China International Import Expo (#CIIE) debuts in Shanghai on Nov. 5. Aiming to bring worldwide high-quality products to Chinese consumers, the 6-day Expo has attracted more than 3,000 enterprises from over 130 countries and regions. With participation from some 450 domestic companies, Japan is the country which brings the largest number of commodities in this event, followed by about 300 enterprises from South Korea and 130-plus U.S. companies, according to Chinese website of Nikkei. Covering the largest area of about 20,000 square meters, Japanese products is distributed in consumer electronics an home appliances area, smart and high-end equipment exhibition area, fashion area and other seven exhibition areas, according to Hong Kong media Wenweipo. These diverse products will show comprehensive Japanese life to Chinese consumers, including its proud manufacturing industries and cutting-edge technology, for example, Panasonic Cooperation plans to showcase its newly-developed in-vehicle devices for eco-cars, which targets to expand the market share in China. In addition, Japanese integrated trading companies, such as ITOCHU Corporation and Marubeni, will also display Japanese specialties in this Expo. Japanese headquarters has recognized the importance of CIIE at early stage, and decided to participate into this event without hesitation. They have also set up a special planning team to show the companys support for this Expo, said Yin Bingxin, the Chairman of Brother (China) Ltd., adding that they have scheduled participation for Expo next year as China has already become the most important development area overseas. The intimate economic cooperation is believed to benefit from the China-Japan relations, according to news website Guancha. Chinese and Japanese government jointly held China-Japan Third-Party Market Cooperation Forum during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abes visit to China last month, which saw more than 1,500 guests from all walks of life. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attended the forum and delivered a speech, which pointed out that some 50 business agreements worth $18 billion had been signed between Chinese and Japanese local governments, companies and financial institutions during the forum. Li said this showed that China and Japan enjoyed huge potential and broad prospects on third-party market cooperation, which would become a pillar of bilateral cooperation. Encinitas officials arent giving up on reworking public access down the landslide-prone cliff to Beacons Beach in Leucadia. During an informal open house on Wednesday, the city will unveil its latest proposal -- a wooden staircase running from the top of the bluff down to the beach. Were calling it an open house where people can come at any time between 6 and 8 ... no formal presentations will be given, said city Development Services Department Director Brenda Wisneski. The new proposal could go to the city Planning Commission for review in December or early next year, she added. Advertisement The proposal, which is now being assembled, will be a combination of two wooden staircase design alternatives that were displayed during a city-sponsored workshop with the Leucadia community last month, Wisneski said. People liked the top of one and the bottom of the second, so were kind of mixing the two, she said. She added that people appeared to like the top part of Alternative B because it had fewer switchbacks, but they liked the bottom of Alternative A because it continued all the way to the beach rather than depending on cement steps set into the slope for its final stretch. Alternatives A and B, and the soon-to-come combination, are the citys replacement for the earlier, much-hated proposal to build a concrete staircase to the beach. Opponents said that design looked like a Las Vegas-style skywalk or a freeway onramp. After hours of public testimony dominated by project opponents, the citys Planning Commission directed city staffers last summer to go back to the drawing boards. Peter Brately, a Leucadia resident who is part of the informal Save Beacons group that spoke out against the concrete proposal, said Wednesday that the new proposals arent an improvement. Theyre just one more sign that the city isnt being responsive to residents wishes. Many people who regularly visit Beacons Beach want the city to focus on preserving the existing, hugely popular dirt pathway that snakes its way down the cliff to the beach and has been in use for decades, he said. They dont want a multimillion-dollar staircase, regardless of whether its made of concrete or wood, because that doesnt fit with the areas character, he said. Calling the rustic pathway and the beach below an amazing, natural spot, Brately said residents understand that their beloved pathway needs to be redesigned a bit for safety reasons, but wed like to see the city fully exhaust all options to keep the spirit of it as it is, instead of pushing forward with the staircase plans. Were being told theres no way to do it (because of fears of a landslide) ... and the trails been there since 1960, he said. Preserving public access to Beacons Beach has been a battleground for more than a decade. City leaders have been caught between the residents desires to keep the dirt pathway down the cliff and the state Coastal Commissions prohibitions against sea walls or armoring the cliff with concrete substances, which would prevent natural coastal erosion activity. Over the years, the city has put forward various proposals, and had them rejected by the state and opposed by the Surfrider Foundation advocacy group. Prior to the staircase options, the city proposed adding an erodible buttress of sand and concrete at the base of the bluff and rebuilding the bluff face behind the erodible barricade -- a proposal that both state and Surfrider officials opposed. One key element of all the new staircase designs is that the stairs would be supported by pillars and would appear to almost float above the landscape, so that cliff erosion could continue unhindered. Plans call for the staircase to be placed just south of the existing dirt pathway and city officials say they plan to leave the pathway intact and add landscaping to the area. Opponents argue that once the stairs are in place, the city will abandon what little pathway maintenance it now does, and the path will eventually vanish. The event is set for 6 to 8 p.m. at City Hall, 505 S. Vulcan Ave. A resolution meant to address gun violence divided Chula Vistas City Council after one member asked that factual statements about the number of gun deaths be removed from the resolution. Councilwoman Pat Aguilar introduced a resolution last week calling for state and local officials to enforce existing gun safety laws, for increased state and federal funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment, and to encourage a public health approach to gun violence prevention. Councilman Mike Diaz supported the three objectives, but asked to remove two sentences in the Whereas section of the resolution. The first sentence stated, Whereas, in the U.S., individuals with guns injure more than 100,000 people a year, and kill more than 30,000 a year, through homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths. Advertisement The second was, Whereas, far more Americans have been killed with guns in the U.S. than have died in all our wars combined. Diaz thought those sentences painted an unfair picture of gun violence in the U.S. He cited FBI data to point out that in California more people are killed by hand, fist and foot than by rifles. Diaz cited FBI data when saying that about half of gun deaths in the state are from suicide. I think theres a lot of data there, at least in California, that shows that the level isnt as high as some folks would say, Diaz said. Not that one death is acceptable. We always need to continue to work. Councilman Stephen Padilla took issue with Daizs request to remove factual statements from the resolution and his reasoning for doing so. With great deference to my friend and colleague, Mr. Diaz, you will find no surprise that I vehemently disagree with just about everything that you said, Padilla said. Padilla, who was a police officer for 13 years, said gun violence is a mental health, public safety, and cultural issue that needs to be addressed from every possible angle. He argued that Aguilars resolution did not go far enough to prevent gun violence. Specifically, Padilla would have liked to see it calling for a federal ban on assault weapons and to close loopholes in state laws that allow people to buy guns from private dealers in gun shows without a background check. This isnt about the Second Amendment, he said. Its not about impinging on peoples right to self-defense, protecting their homes or their loved ones, or hunting. This is about common sense and it is an epidemic. Mayor Mary Casillas Salas also took issue with Diazs statements, suggesting they downplay the gravity of gun violence. It seems to me that if youre saying that because more people could possibly be killed by somebody beating them up or choking them without a gun that absolves the issue of guns from being the number one problem, she said. Salas did not agree with Diazs reasoning for removing the two sentences from the resolution. Youre removing a fact from a resolution to weaken it and youre really promoting more misinformation that goes out to the public, she told Diaz. That is not something Im willing to support. Councilman John McCann supported Diazs amendment to remove the two sentences. Aguilar, who introduced the motion, said she understood Padilla and Salas opposition, but saw this as an opportunity to compromise with the two conservative council members. I know that theres a time to be bold and be assertive and take aggressive action, she said. But I think there are times that need to be balanced with consideration for the views of colleagues and compromise. The resolution passed with a 3-2 vote. Padilla and Salas voted against it. Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or Twitter Elana Randle, a fifth-grader at Palmer Way Elementary School in National City, was sure she needed glasses. Every time in class when I sit up close I cant really see the words, and its blurry, she said. Standing in a line inside the gymnasium at the Camacho Recreation Center, awaiting her turn to undergo an eye test, Elana turned around to face the scoreboard. Those are blurry, she said of the letters on the wall-mounted scoreboard about 20 feet away. Advertisement Elena did, indeed, need glasses. And she scored a pair for free. She was among the roughly 1,400 South County students who underwent eye exams and received glasses at no cost during a five-day clinic held last week. The annual program, which began in 2006, is put on through a partnership between the National School District, National City Host Lions Club and global nonprofit OneSight. 1 / 10 Sweetwater High School 11th grader Anthony Gonzales looks through a phoropter, a devise used to determine the correct perscription for eyeglasses, during the OneSight event in partnership with the National City Host Lions Club at Las Palmas Park. They anticipate providing at least 1,600 students in the five South County school districts with eye exams, and glasses for those who need them. Screenings continue through Friday, November 2. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 2 / 10 Lauderbach Elementary School first grader Brianda Velazco covers her left eye while taking an eye test, as Tony Redden, right, helps her, during the OneSight event in partnership with the National City Host Lions Club at Las Palmas Park. Through Friday November 2, they anticipate providing at least 1,600 students in the five South County school districts with eye exams, and glasses for those who need them. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 3 / 10 Andres Torres, background, gives Sweetwater High School 9th grader Susan Torres an eye test during the OneSight event in partnership with the National City Host Lions Club at Las Palmas Park. They anticipate providing at least 1,600 students in the five South County school districts with eye exams, and glasses for those who need them. Screenings continue through Friday, November 2. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 4 / 10 Sweetwater High School 11th grader Nayelie Lopez looks into a devise that determines the non-corrected prescription of her eyes during the OneSight event in partnership with the National City Host Lions Club at Las Palmas Park. They anticipate providing at least 1,600 students in the five South County school districts with eye exams, and glasses to those who need them. The screenings continue through Friday November 2. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 5 / 10 Laura Minfroe, left, determines what the non-corrected prescription of Sweetwater High School 11th grader Rafael Remullas eyes are during the OneSight event in partnership with the National City Host Lions Club at Las Palmas Park. Through Friday November 2, they anticipate providing at least 1,600 students in the five South County school districts with eye exams, and glasses to those who need them. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 6 / 10 Sweetwater High School student Daniel Blake takes an eye test during the OneSight event in partnership with the National City Host Lions Club at Las Palmas Park. They anticipate providing at least 1,600 students in the five South County school districts with eye exams, and glasses for those who need them. Screenings continue through Friday, November 2. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 7 / 10 Near Vision eye test cards are on clipboards during the OneSight event in partnership with the National City Host Lions Club at Las Palmas Park. They anticipate providing at least 1,600 students in the five South County school districts with eye exams, and glasses for those who need them. Screenings continue through Friday, November 2. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 8 / 10 Lauderbach Elementary School first grader Brianda Velazco covers her right eye while taking an eye test during the OneSight event in partnership with the National City Host Lions Club at Las Palmas Park. They anticipate providing at least 1,600 students in the five South County school districts with eye exams, and glasses for those who need them. Screenings contiue through Friday, November 2. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 9 / 10 Sweetwater High School 10th grader Zharmin Remulla tries on a pair of eyeglass frames during the OneSight event in partnership with the National City Host Lions Club at Las Palmas Park. They hope to provide at least 1,600 students in the five South County school districts with eye exams, and glasses for those who need them. Screenings continue through Friday, November 2. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 10 / 10 Eyeglass frames are on display during the OneSight event in partnership with the National City Host Lions Club at Las Palmas Park. They hope to provide at least 1,600 students in the five South County school districts with eye exams, and glasses for those who need them, through Friday, November 2. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) The children, from elementary, middle and high schools across South County, were identified by school nurses as students who likely needed glasses based on a screening. If kids cant see, they cant learn, National School District Superintendent Leighangela Brady said. Melissa Standridge, program manager for OneSight, said 80 percent of what children learn in the classroom is visual. If they have some type of undiagnosed vision (problem), then theyre not able to be their best and be very successful in school, she said. Our job is to make sure every child has the same opportunities to succeed. She added that eyesight problems can cause students to be less proactive and productive. Among the students at the clinic, some had never worn glasses. Some said they had lost or broken their frames. Others were there to check their prescription. Many are low-income. We take for granted sometimes the ability to go to the doctor, to get a pair of glasses, to identify that you have a vision issue, Brady said. For some of our kids, they dont have that opportunity. The reasons vary, Brady and Standridge said. Some children are not able to afford eye care, perhaps because they dont have health insurance. For other children, their parents may work more than one job and may not seek out care. For Cynthia Medina, a low-income parent of three children, all of whom wear glasses, the clinic over the years has eased the burden of spending hundreds of dollars on eye care and glasses. Her 8-year-old daughter, Mya, was at the clinic, eager to receive a new pair of glasses to replace a pair she lost about three months ago. Mya, a third-grade student at Godfrey G. Berry Elementary School in Nestor, said she needs glasses when she sits far from the whiteboard. Medina said Myas reading level has dipped since she lost her glasses. For Mya, the glasses are of great help, Medina said. Mya, like the hundreds of other students who were bused to the clinic from their school, underwent a series of eye tests, moving through 10 stations set up in the gym. The tests, which included a dilated eye exam and a color and depth perception test, were conducted by a team of volunteer eye doctors, opticians and vision specialists with OneSight. At the 10th station, children who needed glasses chose from a selection of frames by Italian eyewear company Luxotica Group. Thats where Elana, who moved through the stations alongside a friend, grew excited. She and her friend, Tania Salman, also 10, tried on several frames, looking in a mirror each time they put on a new pair. Caught up in the search for the perfect frames, both girls were oblivious to the fact that they had narrowed it down to the same black and cheetah-colored frame the other had found. They burst into laughter when they looked at the frames in their hands. Im excited now, Elana said. Im going to wear them every single day. Most of the glasses were manufactured on-site, then taken to the schools by OneSight staff, who distributed the glasses to their new owners. A small portion of glasses that required special needs, such as lenses with strong prescriptions, were sent to a lab. By the end of Friday, 1,381 students from National, Chula Vista Elementary, South Bay Union, San Ysidro and Sweetwater Union High school districts underwent eye exams and 1,168 received glasses, according to OneSight. Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com Phone: (619) 293-1876 Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez November 5, 1963 Evening Tribune The San Diego Union-Tribune will mark its 150th anniversary in 2018 by presenting a significant front page from the archives each day throughout the year. Tuesday, November 5, 1963 In 1963 Dr. Maria Goeppert Mayer, a professor of physics at UC San Diego, became the second woman in history to win a Nobel Prize in physics. The first was Marie Curie, who won it for discovering radioactivity in 1903. Mayer later said the work which won the prize stemmed from a discovery that the particles of atoms behave very much like partners in a waltz. Here are the first few paragraphs of the story: S.D. Mother Wins Nobel Physics Prize Dr. Mayer 1st Woman in U.S. 2nd in History So Honored By Frank Hogan Dr Maria Goeppert Mayer, 57, a research physicist at the University of California here, today was named a 1963 Nobel Prize winner in physics. The red-haired college professor, mother of two, is the first woman residing in America to win a Nobel physics prize, the second woman in history. She received the news in a phone call from Sweden at 4 this morning. The caller informed her she had been cited by the Swedish Royal Academy of Science for her work in determining the nature of the shell of the atoms nucleus. Will Share Award Mrs. Mayer will share the $51,158 prize with a West German scientist, J. Hans D. Jensen of Heidelberg, who made a similar but independent study, and Eugene Wigner of Princeton University, who helped lay the groundwork for the present advanced study in nuclear physics. Wigner will get half the prize. Mrs. Mayer and Jensen will divide the rest. Second on Campus Here Mrs. Mayer is the second Nobel Prize winner on the universitys San Diego campus. The other is Dr. Harold C. Urey of 7890 Torrey Lane, professor of chemistry at large, who won the Nobel chemistry award in 1934. Mother of a married daughter and a grown son, Mrs. Mayer is the wife of Dr. Joseph E. Mayer, a chemistry professor at the University of California here. They joined the local faculty in 1960, and live at 2345 Via Sienna, La Jolla. Caught by Surprise Excited and insisting the award caught her by surprise, Mrs. Mayer said she would go with her husband to Stockholm for the formal award. While there, she said, she plans to confer with Jensen. The two collaborated on a 1949 article on nuclear shell structure and a 1951 book, Elementary Theory of Nuclear Shell Structure. Otherwise, they have been working independently. University Elated Clark Kerr, president of the University of California, said: Mrs Mayer becomes the 12 member of the University of California faculty to receive a Nobel prize and the sixth faculty member to be given this award in the last four years undoubtedly some sort of a record. View anniversary front pages online at sandiegouniontribune.com/150-years. For more from the Union-Tribune digital archives, go to newslibrary.com/sites/sdub. Searching is free, with registration. A fee is required to view full stories. With only 65 members, Congregation BNai David is so small that it doesnt have a full-time rabbi. Once a month, a student rabbi drives up from Los Angeles, but more often than not members of the community lead the services, make sure the lights stay on and the buildings dont fall into disrepair. Members of the congregations executive board gathered in the temples library Wednesday to set the agenda for the next meeting. Vice President Norm Goldstrom led the discussion that was mostly devoted to who would be responsible for bringing food to future gatherings. Then the conversation turned to a subject that had suddenly gained new relevance and urgency: security. Advertisement Days earlier, a gunman had killed 11 worshipers in a synagogue in Pittsburghs Squirrel Hill neighborhood, the historic hub of the citys Jewish community. The mass killing is believed to be the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. This guy walked in there with a couple of pistols, Treasurer Phil Appelbaum said. The suspect, Robert Bowers, pleaded not guilty last week to multiple counts of murder, hate crimes and other federal charges that could put him on death row. What could it hurt to have an extra pair of eyes? Appelbaum said. Goldstrom had already been planning a larger discussion about security and was even considering applying for a grant from the Department of Homeland Security. With the events of the last week, a vigil planned for Saturday and some already jittery congregants, the board after some debate agreed to temporarily hire an unarmed guard. By some estimates about a quarter of the worlds Jews live in the New York, Los Angeles and Miami metropolitan areas. But many live in somewhat isolated towns like Visalia or Fresno here in the rural and conservative Central Valley. Unlike the vibrant Jewish community of Squirrel Hill, members of Temple BNai David describe moving through the world as an oddity. Though some say that safety has never been a paramount concern, others said they have begun to feel more vulnerable in the current political climate and are concerned about their ability to maintain a vibrant Jewish community in a place with so few people like them. Were in a time where Im more fearful, said board President Alex Lechtman, a local plastic surgeon. Unlike L.A. or Pittsburgh, we are the target. There are not a number of targets. For the anti-Semites of Tulare County, we are the target. BNai David has been defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti twice through the years. On Friday, an FBI agent from the Fresno field office toured their buildings and urged them to buy security cameras. But for a small congregation, with one part-time staff member, the cost might be difficult to cover. Alex Lechtman shows off the intricately designed donor wall at the Congregation Bnai David synagogue in Visalia, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. (Gary Kazanjian / For The Times) Rabbi Laura Novak Winer works at the Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles but lives in Fresno, where her husband is the rabbi of that citys largest congregation, which is also the largest in the Central Valley. Last week, the word Israel was torn off the synagogues sign an act of vandalism that was being investigated as a hate crime. A San Fernando Valley native, Winer described how it was important to teach her two kids how to respectfully stand up for their beliefs. Its really, really important for the leaders in these types of communities to educate about the experience of being a Jew in America, and that takes a lot of time and patience and it takes a lot of relationship building, she said, noting that she and her husband have cultivated strong ties with clergy from other faiths in service of this mission. Still, she said she has felt more vulnerable since 2015, when Donald Trump began running for president. I think that his rhetoric has opened up and given permission for more hate to be more visible and expressed publicly, she said. Thats how I feel. I did not feel this vulnerable prior. Even though her kids are some of the only Jews in their school, she also jokingly relayed an adage a teacher of hers once told during class: Wherever you think youre the first Jew youre not. Jews in this region date back to the mid-1800s. They were recent immigrants from Eastern Europe who became merchants, and one of the local cemeteries even had a Hebrew Section, according to a history that was commissioned by the Visalia temple. BNai Davids roots date back to the 1950s and 60s, when services were held in congregants homes. Despite the poverty of Jewish resources and the hardship of adapting to an alien environment, the situation was a cementing factor and brought us together to a common goal to maintain continuity and raise our children in the Jewish tradition, said Nate Unikel, according to this history. The temple acquired and dedicated its first Torah in 1967. It had been squired out of Czechoslovakia shortly before the Holocaust and for several years was housed in a retrofitted gun case with glass sides. BNai David moved into its current home in 1985 and has gradually expanded to include three buildings. Barry Sommer had been a member for several years at the time of the move. When the psychologist and school district administrator first moved here from New York City, there were around 40,000 people living in Visalia and he was the first Jew many of his early friends and colleagues met in a region often referred to as the Bible Belt of the West Coast. Theres another, smaller temple, but BNai David is essentially the only Jewish house of worship in Tulare and King counties. Sommer described how gratifying its been to build a Jewish community from the ground up. When I first got here I never felt anything but a lack of awareness or understanding, he said. I never felt unaccepted. I felt embraced and welcomed in the community. Still, there were some awkward interactions. For many years, Sommer worked for one of the local school districts. One day, he and the superintendent, who had worked with him for 27 years, were walking down the hall when Sommers colleague put his arm over his shoulder and said he was worried. He was concerned because I wasnt saved, Sommer said. He was worried about my soul. It was a lovely moment. I looked him in the eyes and put my hands on his shoulder. I said I appreciated his concern and let him know I was fine. But its been more difficult for his two daughters. There was the time someone wrote on ones textbook cover: This book belongs to Shonna Sommer the [expletive] jew. And the time when the mother of a boy wouldnt let her son go on a date with one of Sommers daughters because she wasnt Christian. Or when one of his daughters was running for student body president and the elections were held on Yom Kippur the holiest holiday on the Jewish calendar. He said these incidents made his kids stronger and more connected with the basic tenets of Judaism. Sommer also stressed these were isolated incidents, but even if this was not hate, its pure ignorance and being aimed at teenagers, it was very hurtful. Leon Adler, center, chants prayers with Robert Hart standing behind during a celebration of the Sabbath at the Congregation BNai David synagogue in Visalia, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. (Gary Kazanjian / For The Times) On Friday night, Appelbaum, the treasurer who landed here in the 1980s, was an early arrival at the temple. He poured wine into thimble-sized glasses and made sure to cover the challahs with a special cloth. Keren Friedman blessed candles and straightened tablecloths. They were expecting a bigger crowd. Both are among the temples earliest members. Friedman was born in the nearby small town of Woodlake to an Israeli father who helped found the temple. She spent more than a decade living in Israel then finally made her way back to Visalia. She now teaches Hebrew at the Sunday school. Appelbaum eagerly introduced Lechtman, the board president, to a couple who were interested in joining the congregation so the husband could convert. Lechtman hopes that they can raise enough money to hire a full-time rabbi soon. The room swelled with people. So much so that they had to pull out more chairs. After the Lecha Dodi, which is the prayer to welcome in Shabbat, the student rabbi asked that the congregants turn and introduce themselves to one another, which is standard. It was a mix of longtime members and newcomers seeking comfort after a tough week. Strangers greeted each other warmly as restless children ran through the aisles. A local Episcopal deacon attended to show her support. In all, about 40 people filled the sanctuary almost double the turnout on a normal Friday night. Ten-month-old Nahuel Adler crawled across the carpeted floor as his mother Valeria looked on. The Adlers moved to the United States six years ago from a small desert town in Israel. They landed in Visalia four months ago after living in Madera, Calif. At the end of the services as Nahuel tore up and spit out challah, his father Dov described how the community had welcomed them. Along with Keren he teaches Hebrew on Sundays. His new colleagues and neighbors share a common understanding of agriculture. He works in research and development for a small fruit grower, and some of the greatest innovations in irrigation and farming originated in Israel. We all speak the language of agriculture of growing stuff, he said as Nahuel threw some more challah on the floor. I feel very welcomed as a Jew in the valley. I feel proud to be one. benjamin.oreskes@latimes.com @boreskes The midterm elections have been generating headlines for weeks as politicians at every level hunt for votes and pundits evaluate whether the policies put forward by President Donald Trump will be validated or rejected by a majority of voters. Interest in the 2018 midterms has been high locally and across the country, with voter registration surging to nearly 20 million in California alone. Turnout across San Diego County is expected to be as high as 70 percent, and more than 375,000 ballots already had been returned by Friday, county officials said. Here is a quick rundown on what is at stake in the election Tuesday and how you can make sure to participate in this historic election. What is at stake in the midterm election? In short, everything. At the federal level, all 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives face re-election. Additionally, one-third of the U.S. Senate is standing for re-election. Both bodies are currently controlled by the Republican Party, but that could change in either or both houses. If Democrats take control of the House, expect broader oversight of President Trump and other administration officials. If Democrats win a majority in the Senate, expect tighter scrutiny over judges Trump nominates to the federal judiciary. At the state level, 36 governorships are at stake, along with thousands of legislators. The races for governor are important for 2020 and beyond because governors play a major role in the national census and the congressional redistricting process that follows. Locally, San Diego County voters will choose two new leaders on the Board of Supervisors as well as scores of city council members, school board trustees and members of special districts. They also will decide whether to re-elect a slate of judges across the region and determine a host of local and statewide propositions affecting everything from gas taxes and daylight-saving time to a pair of rival development plans for the former home of the San Diego Chargers. Advertisement What is the blue wave I keep hearing about? The so-called blue wave refers to a possible sweep by Democrats in Congress and other down-ballot races based on opposition to President Trump. In recent decades, the political party of most first-term U.S. presidents has lost House seats in midterm elections. Voter-registration data and early balloting have increased this year over 2010 or 2014, but it is not clear that the higher voter interest will translate to Democratic wins. Is it too late to vote if Im not registered? The deadline to register to vote in California was Oct. 22, but voters who did not meet that deadline may still cast conditional ballots by visiting the county Registrar of Voters before and up to Election Day. After the the registration application is processed, and local officials confirm that you did not vote elsewhere in California, your provisional ballot can be counted. How can I check my voter registration status? California voters can double-check their registration status online, both on a statewide database and in county offices. The My Voter Status page on the California Secretary of States Office website can be accessed at https://voterstatus.sos.ca.gov/. The San Diego County Registrar of Voters offers the same service at https://www2.sdcounty.ca.gov/rov/Eng/Voters.asp or by calling (858) 565-5800. Where is my polling place? Because your polling place can change from year to year, elections officials urge voters to check their polling places before they head out to cast their ballot. Your current polling station is printed on the back page of the sample ballot and voter-information packet that should have been mailed to your residence. You may also find your polling location online at https://www2.sdcounty.ca.gov/rov/Eng/polling.asp. Is political apparel permitted at polling places? Yes and no. After a series of high-profile cases of voters being challenged for wearing Make America Great Again hats and other apparel adorned with political messages, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the issue in June. On a 7-2 vote, the high court struck down a law in Minnesota prohibiting MAGA caps and other articles of clothing or accessories declaring political messages. But in a 1992 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law that barred voters from wearing clothing or accessories bearing the name of a specific candidate or measure. So, the general rule now is that generic political messages such as #MeToo or Make America Great Again are permitted but hats, buttons or other messages declaring support for specific candidates or ballot measures is not allowed. Is it too late to vote by mail? The deadline to sign up to vote by mail was Oct. 30. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked no later than Nov. 6 and received by Nov. 9 to be counted. If you signed up to vote by mail but have yet to send in your ballot, you may drop it off at the county registrar of voters or at a polling place of your choosing. Active-duty military, their families and Americans living overseas are eligible to vote by mail if they follow the procedures established under federal guidelines here https://www.fvap.gov/fpca-privacy-notice, although the recommended mail-in deadline for most countries was in mid-October. Who should I contact if I encounter problems trying to register or vote? The California Secretary of State has set up a toll-free voter hotline at (800) 345-VOTE, or (800) 345-8683, where voters can speak to officials about their registration and voting process. Most county elections offices also have help available for people who are not sure they were properly registered or whether their votes will be properly counted. San Diego County voters with questions or problems related to their registration or ballot may call (858) 565-5800 or email the registrar at rovmail@sdcounty.ca.gov. Do employees get paid time off to vote? The California Elections Code requires employers to provide up to two hours of paid time off to allow employees time to vote. Also, employers are required to post notice of this benefit in the workplace at least 10 days ahead of Election Day so employees are informed about their right to leave work in order to vote. When do polls open and close? In California, polling places open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. When will returns start coming in and where can I follow election results? Results will begin being publicized soon after the polls close, which is as early as 6 p.m. in Kentucky and Indiana. By 8 p.m. on the East Coast, polls will have closed in 30 more states and early returns will soon follow. Most states will post initial returns online through their elections offices, and cable television networks also will host minute-by-minute coverage of results. For local races, San Diego County results can be viewed at https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/ or on the registrars website https://www.sdvote.com/. When will results be certified? While preliminary results for most races and ballot measures are likely to become known by late Tuesday, a number of offices may be too close to call and require additional time to count provisional ballots and to certify results. Different states have different rules when it comes to certifying elections results. In California, local elections officials must certify and provide results to the Secretary of State by Dec. 7. The Secretary of State is required to file a formal certificate of election by Dec. 14. jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald Immigration officials stopped allowing a volunteer group to visit people at a local detention facility unless its members agreed not to talk with the press or other groups about conditions inside. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that members of SOLACE, or Souls Offering Loving and Compassionate Ears, must sign the Volunteer Code of Ethics form to be in compliance with the agencys detention standards. The group so far has refused, arguing that detention standards dont require them to sign away their First Amendment rights in order to visit detainees. I think theyre circling the wagons to stop people from knowing whats going on inside, said volunteer Steve Gelb of Mission Valley. It gives ICE more impunity. Beginning in 2012, SOLACE volunteers have made more than 1,450 visits to at least 800 immigrants at Otay Mesa. They tried to give detainees who dont have anyone to visit them a feeling of humanity, emotional support and hope. Advertisement Without SOLACE, people who are detained at Otay have very little way to communicate with the outside world, said Angela Fujii, who coordinates the program through the First Unitarian Universalist Church. Its a very vulnerable population that we know is now suffering and being neglected. The new requirement took volunteers by surprise. They thought they had a good working relationship with ICE and had been told the agency appreciated their work. At recent meetings, volunteers speculated that either the current political climate or critical media coverage of conditions in immigration detention facilities may have led to the change, but they could not think of a specific report that mightve triggered the forms restrictive language. The confidentiality sections of the new forms require volunteers to agree not to share information they learn inside without written permission from the warden. I will not engage in the delivery or discussion of facility and/or offender specific information outside the performance of my duties, the Code of Ethics form reads. I will have no media contact related to the services I provide or any information I gain as a result of having access to the facility, the inmate population, or facility staff. The volunteers worried that if a detainee told them about abuse happening at the facility, they wouldnt be able to speak up. They also took issue with a part of the form that says they represent CoreCivic, the for-profit prison company that owns and operates the facility. It seems like were being put in a straight jacket, said volunteer Kathy Smith of Scripps Ranch. ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack said that the change came from an internal preaudit of volunteer programs that found SOLACE was not in compliance with the standards the agency uses for its facilities, known as the Performance-Based National Detention Standards. Each volunteer must go through a facility orientation and agree to applicable facility rules and procedures, Mack said. Volunteer applicants are required to complete the code of ethics package and required dress code. SOLACE volunteers hadnt signed facility forms, but they had submitted information, including social security numbers and photo IDs, for background checks when they joined the program. The detention standards do not require the facility rules to include confidentiality clauses in CoreCivics volunteer form. All religious volunteers seeking access to any of CoreCivics immigration facilities are required to undergo an approval process which is at the direction and discretion of our partner agencies, said Amanda Gilchrist, spokeswoman for CoreCivic, when asked about the forms. To David Loy, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego, the restrictions in the forms are unconscionable. I dont say that kind of thing lightly, Loy said. This is an absolutely unconstitutional attempt to stifle speech and evade accountability. Loy sent a letter Thursday threatening legal action if ICE doesnt reinstate the program. Immigrants previously detained at Otay Mesa said visits from program volunteers were life-changing. It gave me hope to be free again, said Yousra, who preferred not to give her last name because shes still afraid of the country she fled. They are still supporting me and being by my side to stay strong and keep on fighting. Sylvester Owino, who came to the U.S. from Kenya and now has his own business selling food at farmers markets, spent more than nine years in immigration detention while his case went through rounds of appeal. Its a blow to the detainees, Owino said of the programs suspension. They have nobody to talk to, nobody to go to. He recalled the changes he felt when he started getting visits from SOLACE volunteers. In detention, they make us feel like were nothing, Owino said. Youre missing the outside world. By [SOLACE] coming to visit you, its not just the inside world. We feel more welcome. Volunteers said they speak up for detainees who dont appear to be getting appropriate medical care as in the cases of one immigrant with cancer or another who had an infected bite on his arm. Sometimes they help detainees contact relatives in the U.S. who dont know where they are. Detainees phones are confiscated when they enter the facility, and they often dont have phone numbers memorized to call from the detention phones. This is not the first time that ICE has suspended the San Diego visitation program over refusal to sign forms that had confidentiality clauses. In 2013, following volunteers raising concerns about alleged sexual abuse at Otay Mesa Detention Center, ICE introduced similar forms and temporarily suspended SOLACE. After media got involved, the volunteers were allowed to continue without signing the controversial forms. Freedom For Immigrants, a national organization based in Oakland that coordinates among visitation programs at different immigration detention facilities, tried contacting ICE in October on SOLACEs behalf. Shortly after the organization sent its letter, ICE blocked Otay Mesa detainees access to the organizations hotline, according to executive director Christina Fialho. It seeks to silence critics and prohibit the public from learning important information about treatment in detention, said Fialho, whose group released a report in July documenting more than 800 complaints of hate-related abuse in immigration detention, including at Otay Mesa Detention Center. SOLACE volunteers began meeting with staff at Congressional offices around San Diego this week to ask for help, first at Rep. Susan Daviss office and then Rep. Scott Peterss. They hope to meet with Rep. Juan Vargass office next week. The people we tend to see are the people who have suffered incredibly, Gelb told Peters staff. Its not for us that we want it reinstated. This is a service for people with nothing. Immigration Videos On Now New developments in family separation case 9:53 On Now A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families 2:35 On Now Immigration policy protests in Carlsbad nearly cancelled after permit issue 1:38 On Now When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now What is DACA? On Now Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now 30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter In one minute, 16 tourists experience zen and martial arts culture in Shaolin Temple, Songshan mountain. In one minute, 114 kg of Xinyang tea emit a pleasant aroma after it is made. In one minute, Li Shujian, master of Yu opera, speaks 119 words in opera Dadengdian. In one minute, 48,000 yuan worth of food and agricultural products are exported. In one minute, 73 passengers take a high-speed train in Zhengzhou East Station. In one minute, 956 kg of cargo is shipped to the world from Zhengzhou airport. In one minute, the Zhengzhou-Europe train to Hamburg moves two kilometers. In one minute, 30,000 cross-border e-trades are cleared by customs In one minute, world's largest Apple cellphone factory produces 188 iPhones In one minute, 15,000 cubic meters of water are transported through the middle line of the south-to-north water transfer project. In one minute, He'nan-produced shield tunneling machine excavates 6 centimeters at full speed. In one minute, Yutong vehicles, produced in Zhengzhou, travel 80,000 kilometers. In one minute, 660,000 yuan of registered capital emerges in He'nan Pilot Free Trade Zone. In one minute, two people are no longer struggling in poverty. In one minute, three people become new citizens. In one minute, three jobs are created in cities or townships. In one minute, 8.56 million yuan of GDP is generated. In 40 years' reform and opening-up, He'nan has been endeavoring every minute. In one minute, He'nan links in all directions. In one minute, meet Chinese civilization in He'nan. In one minute, feel ethos of Chinese in He'nan. In one minute, sow seeds in He'nan's fertile land. In one minute, search the early ancestors of humanity and culture. In one minute, witness the rise of the central plain of China. He'nan in one minute, colorful central plain. A man was taken into custody early Monday around four hours after a SWAT team responded to a residence in National City, police said. Officers responded at about 9 p.m. Sunday to a house on D Avenue near East 18th Street and found a man had barricaded himself inside, according to National City police. Details on what prompted police to respond to the house were not immediately available. A large perimeter was established and some residents nearby were evacuated as a SWAT team attempted to convince the man to surrender, NBC7reported. Advertisement Around 1 a.m., the unidentified man surrendered and was taken into custody without incident, police said. Twitter: @karenkucher (619) 293-1350 karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com Sheriffs deputies are searching for two suspects in connection with a shooting in Vista on Sunday that left a 20-year-old man dead. The victim, identified by authorities as Jonathan Ruiz of Vista, was shot just before 2:30 p.m. near the Vista transit center, sheriffs Lt. Rich Williams said in a statement. Deputies responding to numerous 911 calls found him on a dirt path, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound, near Olive Avenue and Goetting Way. The victim was transported to the hospital, where he died about a half hour later, officials said. Advertisement Witnesses reported seeing two male suspects believed to be between 17 and 20 years old running from the area. They were both described as Hispanic. One was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and clean shaven, wearing a navy blue shirt and jeans. The other was 5 feet 6 inches tall, wearing a baggy gray T-shirt and jeans. Anyone with information about the crime was asked to call the Sheriffs Homicide Unit at (858) 285-6330. .Anonymous tips can be made to Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477 or www.sdcrimestoppers.org Twitter: @karenkucher (619) 293-1350 karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com UPDATES: 6:50 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details. 3:50 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details. This article was originally published at 3:00 p.m. Pat Brogan had already picked up considerable speed on a Lime scooter riding downhill on Laurel Street when she said she realized the brakes werent working. I thought I was going to die for sure, said the 63-year-old Bay Area resident who was visiting family in San Diego. Approaching a red light at a busy intersection, she said she laid the scooter down to avoid riding into traffic, skidding for about ten feet before coming to a stop. The crash broke two bones in her right hand, which required surgery, fractured a knuckle and badly bruised up her leg. The incident, which happened in August, set her back roughly $8,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses. Advertisement They publish that the (scooters) max speed is 15 miles an hour, but that has nothing to do with a hill, she said. Now I dont have the full use of either hand. Brogan is one of a growing number of people looking to hold scooter companies, such as Bird and Lime, legally responsible for injuries involving their electric devices. I thought I was going to die for sure. Pat Brogan, 63, injured while riding a Lime scooter Her attorney Catherine Lerer with McGee, Lerer & Associates filed a class action lawsuit against the scooter companies Lime and Bird last month alleging, among other things, products liability and gross negligence, as well as aiding and abetting assault. Theyre not street worthy, Lerer said. Theyre not safe for their intended purpose. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeks damages on behalf of nine plaintiffs, including pedestrians hit by scooter riders. The suit alleges even scooters that arent malfunctioning are not properly designed for urban landscapes and too easily get out of control. Lawsuit accuses Bird, Lime and other e-scooter firms of aiding and abetting assault Brogan, however, isnt part of that lawsuit. Hers is one of another two dozen cases the law firm is now pursuing separately based largely on malfunctions from failed brakes to stuck throttles. One client Vicky Leptien said she had to jump off a scooter after the vehicle started speeding out of control in Balboa Park. I had a choice of getting hit by a car or jumping, said the 58-year-old. I did a tuck and roll and broke my arm. I had to have a plate and screws. Scooter companies Lime, Bird and Razor declined interviews for this story, including questions about how frequently their scooters are maintained and the qualifications of their mechanics. Lime recently recalled 2,000 scooters from San Diego, Los Angeles and Lake Tahoe due to concerns about exploding batteries. In response to the Union-Tribunes inquiry, Bird released a statement that read in part: At Bird, safety is our very top priority, and it drives our mission to get cars off the road to make cities safer and more livable. Bird is committed to partnering with San Diego to ensure that the community, and its visitors, safely use our affordable, environmentally friendly transportation option. Since start-up scooter companies first deployed thousands of so-called dockless rental scooters in Southern California about a year ago, injuries have been mounting across the country. Public health officials have raised concerns in recent months as riders of the electric vehicles continue to crash into pedestrians, potholes and cars, often with serious consequences including a handful of deaths. Bird Scooter riders navigate the boardwalk in Pacific Beach on June 13, 2018. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) San Diego continues hands-off approach as electric scooter injuries mount So far scooter companies such as Lime and Bird now valued in the billions have avoided having to take legal responsibility for such accidents. Thats largely because scooter companies require riders to agree to a lengthy legal contract through their smart-phone apps before renting a device. Im familiar with the waiver and that waiver is pretty extensive, said Mike Bomberger, a personal injury attorney with the San Diego-based Estey & Bomberger. Unless the scooter itself malfunctions you have a difficult case against the dockless scooter companies. Lerer said that she initially was turning down scooter injury cases because the user agreements so thoroughly limit legal liability for the scooter companies. I think attorneys are reluctant to take these cases, she said. I was too, but the calls are just never ending, and theyre heartbreaking. Someones got to go against these companies. Shortly after she filed the class-action lawsuit, both Lime and Bird updated their user agreements. For example, Limes now includes this wording: Important notice: This agreement is subject to binding arbitration and a waiver of class action rights At the same time, several lawsuits have been filed in San Diego Superior Court against Bird, including one in the past few weeks that also named the city of San Diego as a defendant. I think attorneys are reluctant to take these cases I was too, but the calls are just never ending, and theyre heartbreaking. Catherine Lerer, public injury attorney with McGee, Lerer & Associates City Attorney Mara Elliots office which has been tasked with drafting rules to indemnify the city from liability in scooter accidents declined several interview requests for this story. After months of public outcry, the city recently announced it would draft rules for scooter companies, including limiting speeds in specific areas. Draft regulations are expected in early 2019. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer proposes new rules for dockless scooters Local attorneys said that scooter riders could file a claim against the city if they are injured as a result of poorly maintained streets. However, some personal injury lawyers noted that pedestrians may also have a case if they trip over one of the thousands of scooters that now cover downtown San Diego. If a pedestrian is hit by a someone on a scooter, the riders homeowner or rental insurance can in many cases cover the injured person. According to a public records disclosure no claims have been filed against the city involving dockless scooters as of early September. City officials declined to provide any further details. Beyond the onerous user agreements, many lawyers agreed, cases against scooter companies could be hard to prove. The scooters are often left at the scene, meaning theres no physical evidence of a scooter being defective. And most notably, a plaintiff would likely have to prove that the injury was the result of scooter and not user error even if the device malfunctioned. I think its going to be pretty simple that theyre inherently dangerous and theres a design defect, but the fight will be on was that a substantial factor in the harm, said attorney Jim Brown of the San Diego-based JB Law. However, if a class-action lawsuit goes to a jury trial it could devastate the industry, he said. The big analysis is going to depend on the public view of this. Jeffery Lee Costell with Costell & Cornelius Law Corporation, who has teamed up with Lerer to file the class action suit in Los Angeles, said their goal is not to shut down the scooter industry. Were not trying to stamp out scooters and presume whether we know if they have a place in the urban landscape, he said. We just want to make them safer. Jarrett Charo, a personal injury lawyer with Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire, said he thinks some of the cases could eventually prove successful despite the tightly written user agreements. Generally, theres a trend in the courts that realizes these terms of service are overreaching and is becoming less receptive to validating them, he said. However, he said his office has yet to take up a case, largely because of the legal hurdles created by the waivers. We looked at a potential class action and reviewed their terms of service, he said. Their terms of service are onerous. Twitter: @jemersmith Phone: (619) 293-2234 Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com For Adina Ross of Temecula, 2016 unfolded like most years. By spring, it was clear that life for the 66-year old former Canyon Lake Middle School special education teacher would be irrevocably changed. She had cancer and was facing the fight of her life. When you first are diagnosed with breast cancer, no matter what your age, you are shocked and almost numbed by what others are saying, she recalled. At the advice of a friend, Ross sought help from Michelles Place, a Temecula-based nonprofit that provides breast cancer screening, education and emotional support as a complement to medical care. The moment I walked in the door I was greeted with a warm smile and a loving hug, she recalled. They sat me down and just listened to me. A patient navigator guided me through my next steps. Advertisement This is precisely the kind of support Michelle Watson, the 26-year-old namesake for Michelles Place who lost her fight against breast cancer in 2000, wanted for the Temecula Valley community. According to her family, Michelles Place was created in response to her dying wish. Fast forward 15 years and Michelles Places has gone from a tiny, family run enterprise to a rapidly growing nonprofit with an annual operating budget of about $500,000. It is the sole cancer resource center currently serving Riverside, San Bernardino and north San Diego counties. According to Michelles Place founding executive director Kim Gerrish, the nonprofits leadership has thought for some time that change was on the horizon. This fall, the nonprofit will move from its current space on Jefferson Avenue in Temecula to a ten thousand square foot building on Winchester Road. We are busting at the seams!, said Gerrish. We literally dont have room for any other programs, and definitely no room for growth. When this other building presented itself to us, we knew now was the time. In addition to expanding its footprint, the nonprofit is also expanding its mission and programs. While breast cancer will remain the primary focus of Michelles Place, the organization will now provide resources to individuals with all types of cancer. The decision to expand our mission to include all cancers grew from the realization that patients with other cancers were reaching out to Michelles Place for support. Gerrish notes that while the nonprofit will grow significantly, Michelles Place will continue to provide all programs and support services from a range of group exercise classes to educational pamphlets; from specialized support groups to personalized guidance provided by the organizations five patient navigators all at no cost. There will be costs to the nonprofit as it expands for the new building, for expanded programs to meet the needs of individuals with all cancers and eventually, for more patient navigators and other staff. Gerrish said Michelles Place is seeking help from the public. We will be moving in on Nov. 10, said Gerrish, and we hope to purchase the building June 1. The community built Michelles Place as it exists today. We need their help to build what it needs to be tomorrow. For more information, or to connect with Michelles Place call (951) 699-5455, email info@michellesplace.org or visit www.michellesplace.org. temecula@sduniontribune.com One is the worlds richest person, another has been described as a chain-smoker who often dresses without socks, and yet another has changed political parties twice, most recently this year. For the record: This article posted on Nov. 5 about billionaires hoping to influence the 2018 election included Kenneth and Anne Griffin in the Center for Responsive Politics list of top donors. The center said it is changing its list to remove Anne Griffin. The couple divorced in 2015. With the election just around the corner and their party on the defensive, Republicans have railed against Democratic billionaires pouring big money into this years midterm. But the top political donors of the closely watched battle for control of Congress are a bipartisan and varied lot. Of the top dozen individuals or family donors, half fund Democrats, five support Republicans and one, Jeff Bezos, has chosen to put nearly all of his contributions toward nonpartisan groups, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. Advertisement The amount of money flowing in this years election is jaw-dropping. Driven mostly by seven- and eight-figure amounts from super PACs, spending has already surpassed $5.2 billion, making it the most expensive midterm election in American history. Will California flip the House? The key races to watch The massive contributions, particularly from ultra-conservative donors such as Las Vegas billionaires Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, are helping even the playing field for Republicans in a year in which a wave of Democratic energy has fueled record fundraising for candidates on the left. A $50-million contribution can go a long way in covering some of the gaps in fundraising we see in these local races, says Alex Baumgart, a researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics. Here are the top 12 political donors of 2018, based on total personal and trackable contributions they made to candidates, committees and outside groups. (These figures do not include dark money, or money contributed to and spent by nonprofits like 501(c)(4)s, which sometimes disclose their donors in annual Internal Revenue Service filings. Those filings wont be due until months after the election, and the Trump administration recently relaxed requirements on such groups to disclose donors.) Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, arrive for the May opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. (Lior Mizrahi / Getty Images) 1. Sheldon and Miriam Adelson $113 million Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his physician wife are two of the most prominent Republican super-donors, with an estimated net worth of $34 billion. Adelson is chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns the Venetian casino and hotel and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. This year, the Adelsons have broken the record for the largest sum any individual or family has spent on federal elections. The largest chunk, $50 million, went to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the biggest conservative group trying to help the GOP retain control of the House. The previous record was theirs, too: They dropped $92 million on GOP candidates and committees in 2012. Despite expressing initial reservations about Donald Trumps 2016 campaign, the Adelsons wound up contributing $20 million toward the main super PAC supporting his presidential bid. The Adelsons, who are Jewish and staunch supporters of Israel, have been credited with pushing President Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Two years ago, Sheldon Adelson helped launch a multimillion-dollar effort to promote Israel on college campuses, starting with six California schools. In 2015, Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper in a secret deal that was later revealed. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a Democrat turned Republican turned Democrat. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images) 2. Michael Bloomberg $61.3 million The businessman and former mayor of New York City is a Democrat turned Republican turned Democrat again. Bloomberg made his fortune through his namesake media company and is worth an estimated $46.1 billion. He has donated billions to gun control efforts and to fighting climate change. Most of his money this year has gone to Independence USA PAC, a group he is bankrolling that recently dropped $9.5 million for ads supporting Democrats running against Republican Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Steve Knight of Palmdale. Bloomberg has said he would spend $100 million on this midterm election, which includes spending from Independence USA the political action committee has spent $45.2 million in independent expenditures as of Nov. 2 Tom Steyer helps Cal State Fullerton student Kevin Huy Nguyen, 18, fill out paperwork to register to vote. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 3. Tom Steyer and Kathryn Ann Taylor $59.8 million Steyer is an environmentalist and former hedge fund manager at Farallon Capital who made his fortune picking diamonds out of the dust, as one magazine put it. In 2012, Steyer walked away from his company to focus full time on political activism and philanthropy. He and his wife, Taylor, have an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion and have become top Democratic donors. Steyer launched an online petition urging Trumps impeachment that has garnered 6.1 million signatures and made establishment Democrats uneasy. He opted not to donate any money to Democratic Party committees this year after Democrats in Congress voted to reopen the government despite failing to reach an immigration deal. Steyer has pledged to spend nearly $120 million in the 2018 midterm campaign, including $70 million to NextGen America, his nonprofit focused on climate change that is helping register and turn out young voters and people of color. Speaking to a student on the Cal State Fullerton campus this fall, Steyer said, You can change this world, or it can be run by a bunch of arrogant, entitled, rich white old men. A spokesman for Steyer says much of the money he spends wont be documented by campaign finance filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission but in IRS filings due next year. Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein attend President Trumps inauguration in 2017. (Katherine Skiba / Chicago Tribune) 4. Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein $39.1 million Richard Uihlein is founder and CEO of shipping supply giant Uline. The Uihleins have been longtime donors to conservative politics in their home state of Illinois and nationwide, particularly aimed at achieving a more conservative judicial system. The couple were major backers of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and failed U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, and they bankrolled Janus vs. AFSCME, a Supreme Court case that succeeded in banning mandatory fees funding public employee unions. The candidates and groups the Uihleins have backed are among the most conservative in the GOP, opposing abortion and transgender rights. Uihlein and his wife maintain a low profile, rarely giving interviews. S. Donald Sussmans biggest contributions have gone to Democratic behemoth Priorities USA PAC and the Senate Majority PAC. (Manny Hernandez / Getty Images) 5. S. Donald Sussman $22.9 million A Florida native, Sussman founded New China Capital Management and the Paloma Fund, which was described in 2016 as a $4-billion hedge fund. Sussman is a longtime donor to Bill and Hillary Clinton and was a prominent donor to Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign. This cycle, his biggest contributions have gone to Democratic behemoth Priorities USA PAC and the Senate Majority PAC, which is working to flip control of the Senate. He has also given to efforts to expand voter access and has said he is driven by a desire to elect candidates who will bring about campaign finance reform. Its very odd to be giving millions when your objective is to actually get the money out of politics, he told the Washington Post in 2016. James Simons has been a major donor to Democratic groups and candidates and has also backed environmental efforts. (Tim Sloan / AFP/Getty Images) 6. James and Marilyn Simons $18.9 million James Simons was a mathematician and onetime U.S. code-breaker who founded hedge fund giant Renaissance Technologies in 1982. Hes estimated to have a net worth of $16 billion. He has been a major donor to Democratic groups and candidates and has also backed environmental efforts. The Simons family is the biggest donor this cycle to the House Majority PAC, a group with ties to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi that is spending millions to flip California House districts. Described in a 2016 profile as a chain-smoker who often dresses without socks, Simons ran the firm with conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer. Hes excellent at his job, and we dont talk politics, Simons said. Simons retired in 2010 but still plays a role in the fund, which manages an estimated $57 billion. George Soros is a favorite bogeyman of the far right. He was one of several prominent Democrats who recently received pipe bombs at their homes or offices or had such packages addressed to them. (Getty Images) 7. George Soros $17.4 million Soros, who has pumped billions of dollars into progressive foundations, campaigns and causes, is a favorite bogeyman of the far right. He was one of several prominent Democrats who recently received pipe bombs at their homes or offices or had such packages addressed to them. Days later, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) deleted a tweet urging voters to support Republicans in the upcoming midterm, saying, We cannot allow Soros, Steyer and Bloomberg to BUY this election. Trump then claimed he wouldnt be surprised if Soros was funding a caravan of Central American migrants making its way to the border between the U.S. and Mexico; he offered no evidence. Soros was born in Hungary and is a survivor of the Holocaust. After working in London as a railway porter and waiter, he moved to the U.S. in the 1950s and made his fortune as an investor. Most of his philanthropic and political advocacy runs through his Open Society Foundations, which supports education and refugee relief programs worldwide. Stephen Schwarzman, a generous donor to the president, has been called Trumps de-facto China whisperer. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images) 8. Stephen and Christine Schwarzman $12.8 million Stephen Schwarzman founded the global private equity firm Blackstone Group with fellow billionaire Pete Peterson and still serves as its chairman and CEO. His wife, Christine, is an intellectual property lawyer. The New York couple gave $3.4 million this cycle to the Congressional Leadership Fund, one of the main super PACs dedicated to protecting the GOP majority in the House. Stephen Schwarzman contributed to a PAC supporting presidential candidate Jeb Bush and later became a generous donor to Trump, who has granted him such access as an advisor that he has been called the presidents de-facto China whisperer. Fred Eychaner has been one of the top donors in the country to Democratic campaigns, gay rights groups and arts organizations. (Kiichiro Sato / Associated Press) 9. Fred Eychaner $12.2 million Eychaner is the chairman of the Chicago-based Newsweb Corp. The multimillionaire owns radio stations and a printing press that produces alternative, college and ethnic newspapers. He has been one of the top donors in the country to Democratic campaigns, gay rights groups and arts organizations. The media executive supported Hillary Clintons 2008 presidential bid over his home-state senator Barack Obama. He later contributed money to Obamas campaign and held a fundraiser for him at his home. This year, Eychaner was found to be part of a tiny group of wealthy donors who have contributed more than one-fifth of the $4.5 billion collected by super PACs since their inception in 2010, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission. Eychaner, who is openly gay, helped fund pro-gay-marriage groups in a successful battle for the right to marry in Illinois. He is the founder and president of the Alphawood Foundation, which provides grants to nonprofits dedicated to gay rights, AIDS and HIV issues and other causes. Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of the global investment firm Citadel, is one of the highest-earning hedge fund managers in the world and a Republican mega-donor. (Getty Images) 10. Kenneth and Anne Griffin $11.1 million Kenneth Griffin, the founder and CEO of the global investment firm Citadel, is one of the highest-earning hedge fund managers in the world and a Republican mega-donor. He was previously married to another hedge fund manager, Anne Griffin, founder and CEO of Aragon Global Management. Kenneth Griffin, a self-labeled Reagan Republican, became more involved in politics after the 2008 financial crash and what he has decried as his industrys falling out with government. He takes a conservative view of regulation and subsidies, particularly in the financial markets he engages in. He has backed Democrats and Republicans, but the Griffins contributions this cycle have gone to the GOP. Speaking at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles last year, Griffin praised the presidents efforts in his first 100 days in office, including attempts to overhaul the tax system and repeal the Affordable Care Act. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, made their first major political donation to a fund dedicated to helping elect veterans of all stripes to Congress. (Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images) 11. Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos $10.2 million The founder of Amazon and his wife, MacKenzie, made their first major political donation this September to a nonpartisan fund dedicated to helping elect veterans of all stripes to Congress. They have since tried to toe the middle road, handing $10,800 to Democrats and $16,200 to Republicans this cycle. Their top individual recipients have been Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.). Bezos, the worlds richest person, has faced criticism from both Republicans and Democrats. Trump has attacked him via Twitter over his ownership of the Washington Post; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) criticized him over the wages he pays his Amazon warehouse employees. The Bezoses other top financial contributions this cycle have been to nonpartisan political action committees connected with Amazon and Blue Origin, his rocket company. 12. Timothy Mellon $10.1 million The chairman of Pan Am Systems, a transportation company based in New Hampshire, is a member of the influential Mellon family tied to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The investor, now in Wyoming, made a surprising $2,700 donation to New York Democratic House hopeful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from the Bronx and gave the rest to the GOP, including $10 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund. Mellon, who first developed a computer-programming business in the 1960s, has in the past contributed $1.5 million to a legal fund set up by then-Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, to defend a controversial state law on immigration. It permitted law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of anyone they suspected to be in the country illegally; the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately struck down provisions that raised civil rights violations. christine.maiduc@latimes.com Twitter: @cmaiduc jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com Twitter: @jazmineulloa UPDATES: Nov. 5, 10:38 p.m.: This article has updated the amount the Bezoses donated to Democrats and Republicans. This article was originally published Nov. 5, 3 a.m. In lawmaking, politicians listen to the people first. Yes, they really do. But people need to speak up to be heard. And too often theyre mute. Then big money talks. Thats the most common influence on lawmaking because citizens usually arent pressing politicians and threatening their careers. Unless that happens, lawmakers automatically yield to labor unions or oil companies or any interest thats a friendly bankroller at election time. Citizens have an opportunity to speak up Tuesday when U.S. House and legislative seats are filled on the California ballot, along with openings for the U.S. Senate, governor and other statewide offices. For added oomph to their voices, voters should follow up by constantly badgering the politicians after they take office. Advertisement People always possess the most potent political power if they use it. This came to mind last week as I called veteran political operatives to ask what they were looking for in the California elections. There was skepticism about a spectacular blue wave of Democratic strength emerging in California. Anyway, how would it be detected? A blue wave rolled on shore a decade ago and has gotten steadily stronger. More from George Skelton California doesnt need a blue wave. Its already underwater, says Republican consultant Richard Temple. For the wave to intensify, certain things must happen. First, Latinos finally need to vote in numbers closer to their population size. The so-called sleeping giant needs to wake up. Latinos are 34% of the states adult population but account for only 21% of likely voters, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Even worse, they amounted to just 14% of the June primary voters. A solid majority of Latino likely voters, 60%, are registered as Democrats. The party badly needs them to cast ballots. Why dont they? Its a matter of priorities, Secretary of State Alex Padilla told me last year. When youre trying to put a roof over your head and food on the table, youre not tuning into the political debate. But Latinos have to be hearing President Trump trying to rouse his voter base with anti-immigrant bellowing attacking birthright citizenship and the invasion by asylum-seeking migrants from Central America. Last summer his administration was yanking children from their migrant mothers arms and separating them at the border. And that wall. Coverage of California politics The state Legislature has spent the last two years trying to galvanize Latinos by attacking Trumps immigration policies. What else do Latinos require to coax them to vote? Trump gets them halfway there, but its going to take something more aspirational, says Daniel Zingale, senior vice president of the California Endowment, which promotes expansion of affordable healthcare for poor people. Someone has to offer them a more positive stake in the future. I run into people who say, Yeah, hes terrible. Hes terrorizing my people. But give me something to vote for. The implication is that California Democrats havent been offering positive, realistic ideas, only lambasting Trump, a valid gripe against the party heard around the country. Zingale has worked for three governors and was a senior advisor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. For 10 years, he has been trying to inspire habitual nonvoters to cast ballots. The same groups that dont vote the poor, rural residents, immigrants, Latinos get the worst health services, Zingale says. They have unclean water, toxic wastes, no clinics, no parks. They have more asthma and more diabetes and less insurance. If they dont vote, they dont have a voice. Theyre on the short end, the last in line in Sacramento for resources. Two things influence that: political money and votes. Latinos are not big political givers like Chevron. Their only chance for a voice is their numbers. And they have not discovered that. As of Friday, a record number of mail ballots had been turned in from all kinds of voters. But its guesswork whether that means a heavy turnout. Paul Mitchell, who heads Political Data Inc., says 3.2 million ballots had been recorded, surpassing the early vote numbers of the last midterm election in 2014. But 13 million ballots were mailed out this time, compared with 9 million four years ago. So its too early to jump to huge conclusions, he says. Once again, Latinos have been voting in small numbers. Although they received 23% of the mail ballots, only 14% of all those returned were from Latinos entering the weekend. Young adults were looking even more apathetic: They received 25% of the mail ballots and had returned just 10% of the total, Mitchell says. Their votes certainly will be needed to create a blue wave. Among millennials ages 22 to 37 51% are registered Democrats, according to PPIC. Nearly one-third are Latinos. Will the youth turnout be as bad as usual or will it increase? government professor Jack Pitney of Claremont McKenna College asks rhetorically. Im Irish, so Im pessimistic. Its something people hope for that never happens. Its the Great Pumpkin of electoral politics. The professor explains: Younger people arent as engaged with civic life, theyre not paying taxes, they dont have kids in school and they move a lot so they need to re-register. But everyone votes in one manner or another. Those who cast ballots are telling politicians that they care. Those who sit it out are saying they dont and the pols wont care much about them either. george.skelton@latimes.com Follow @LATimesSkelton on Twitter For years, the fallout from the high cost of housing has been a staple of news coverage of California. The fact that the climbing costs have led the Golden State to have the highest percentage of impoverished residents in the nation. The awful super commutes that service workers have to undertake to get from distant suburbs where they can afford rent to San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The negative effects that such commuting has on the environment and on the states goals of much cleaner air. The increasing difficulty companies are having in attracting and retaining workers who know that home ownership may never be a realistic option for them in California. The stories about rent being so high that many college students including 20 percent of those at California State University campuses sometimes dont have money for food. Coverage of the crisis in recent years has broadened its focus from how it hammers low-income families to how it hammers even those with incomes that would be seen as middle and upper-middle class in much of America. The New York Times wrote in June that households in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties with four members and income of $117,400 or less were considered low income the highest threshold in the nation and were thus eligible for federal housing assistance. The threshold in most of Southern California, including San Diego, is around $77,000. The answer to this crisis is obvious to economists and to those familiar with the idea of supply and demand: Its to build much more housing. A 2016 McKinsey Global Institute report said California had a shortage of 2 million units and was on track to have a shortage of 3.5 million units by 2025. Only one other state has fewer housing units per capita. But a recent USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times survey found that the great majority of Californians dont grasp the link between the states housing shortage and its highest-in-the-nation poverty rate. Asked to evaluate eight possible explanations as to why housing costs so much in the Golden State, only 13 percent of those surveyed cited too little home building. Five other factors were given more weight: a lack of rent control, a lack of funding for low-income housing, environmental regulation, foreign buyers and the influence of the tech industry. Advertisement This is dispiriting news. In March 2017, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor called on elected officials and community leaders to try to persuade the public that continued local control over housing would make the solution to the housing crisis building much more housing much more difficult to achieve. He said Californians [must be] convinced of the benefits of more home building targeted at meeting housing demand at every income level. Twenty months later, Taylors warning rings true. Not only did the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times survey show that state residents dont believe in the need for more home building, it showed 69 percent still back local control. Its a cliche straight out of psychotherapy or business graduate school that the first step toward solving a problem is recognizing it exists. Yet not only do most Californians not accept that local control is a problem, they prefer it. The Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY) movement has promise, but the NIMBYs are still dominant. They must be overcome. It is the most important challenge in California politics. Heres hoping the politicians voted in on Tuesday do a better job of communicating this to their constituents. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday that his country was preparing for the visit by Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to Seoul, assuming it would happen by the end of this year. Moon made the remark during a meeting with the floor leaders of the five key political parties, including the ruling Democratic Party and the main conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party, Hong Young-pyo of the Democratic Party told reporters at the parliament after attending the meeting. Moon was quoted as saying that Seoul was preparing on the assumption that Kim would visit the South Korean capital city within this year, though it would be early to conclude that Kim's return visit would take place as scheduled. He expressed his hope that Kim's return visit would be realized as scheduled to make an epoch-making opportunity for inter-Korean relations. Following the latest summit between Moon and Kim in Pyongyang in September, the DPRK leader promised to visit Seoul in return for the South Korean president's visit to the DPRK capital. 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. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/05/2018 -- Paraquat dichloride is a chloride salt of paraquat and is known as 1, 1- dimethyl-4, 4'-bipyridinium. Paraquat dichloride is organic in nature and is classified as a viologen, which is a family of redox active heterocyclic's of similar structures. The name of the organic compound is derived from its para position of quaternary nitrogen. Paraquat dichloride, when ingested by humans or animals is very harmful in nature and is connected to the development of the Parkinson's disease. The key application of paraquat dichloride is its use as an herbicide. The compound is a non-selective and quick acting herbicide and kills plant tissues directly on contact. The main characteristics that distinguish paraquat dichloride from other herbicides are that the compound kills various broad-leafed weeds and grasses. In addition, the compound also aids in eradicating established perennial weed. Moreover, paraquat dichloride is extremely fast acting and helps in getting rid of unnecessary weeds within seconds of application. Additionally, the organic compound is partially inactivated when it encounters soil. Due to these properties, paraquat dichloride is used extensively in the growth of no- till farming. In the recent present, the compound has been labeled as 'restricted use' due to its harmful properties. Read Report Overview @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/paraquat-dichloride-market.html Paraquat dichloride's' herbicidal properties are what have been driving its market. The demand for herbicides has increased in order to get rid of unwanted plants and weeds in forest areas, for reforestation, to clear weeds, which hamper the cultivation and the growth of crops among others. Due to its persistent nature it is very difficult to get rid of the chemical and thus it seeps into ground water and contaminate it, thus reducing the quality of drinking water. It is extremely phototoxic and land that has been treated with paraquat dichloride has caused astonishingly huge damage to crops, particularly tobacco and potatoes. Due to these factors, both the Ecological Effects Branch (EEB) and the Environmental Fate and Ground Water Branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommended that the use of this chemical be stopped. The EPA did not comply with these recommendations after they evaluated the health and the safety testing that was submitted for paraquat dichloride as they found that it met the current standards. Taking all this into consideration the market demand for paraquat dichloride is still high and this trend will continue for the next few years after which its demand may decrease owing to its harmful effects on plants, which will outweigh its good effects. The major market segments for Paraquat dichloride include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW).The chemical is being used in the U.S. since 1963. In 1995, the EPA reregistered it as a restricted use product. Pestanal is being marketed in the U.S. on a large scale. Due to its numerous grasslands, agricultural and irrigation practices, Asia Pacific also has a large market for this product especially in emerging countries like India and China. The demand for this paraquat, dichloride is anticipated to increase largely in RoW due to the growing agricultural activities in countries like Brazil and Uruguay. However, since 2007 the European Union has banned the use of paraquat dichloride in certain countries. Hence, the demand for the compound is Europe not expected to increase by a large scale over the forecast period. One of the key companies manufacturing paraquat dichloride is Dow AgroSciences Ltd. This research report analyzes this market on the basis of its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends. Geographies analyzed under this research report include North America Asia Pacific Europe Middle East and Africa Latin America This report provides comprehensive analysis of Market growth drivers Factors limiting market growth Current market trends Market structure Market projections for upcoming years This report is a complete study of current trends in the market, industry growth drivers, and restraints. It provides market projections for the coming years. It includes analysis of recent developments in technology, Porter's five force model analysis and detailed profiles of top industry players. The report also includes a review of micro and macro factors essential for the existing market players and new entrants along with detailed value chain analysis. Request Report Brochure @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=6835 Reasons for Buying this Report This report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics It provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growth It provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to grow It helps in understanding the key product segments and their future It provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitors It helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segments It provides distinctive graphics and exemplified SWOT analysis of major market segments My Favorite Quotes Recent Quotes Portfolio Summary Your most recently viewed tickers will automatically show up here if you type a ticker in the Get Quotes box on the top of the page. Philadelphia, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/05/2018 -- Kristopher Kachline, Esquire, a partner at Swartz Campbell, earned a victory for municipal entities on October 17, 2018, when the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania adopted a common sense standard in occupational disease cases. The sharply-divided Court confirmed that a firefighter who is seeking benefits for cancer under the Workers' Compensation Act has a burden to prove that he or she was exposed to a carcinogen designated as a Group 1 carcinogen by the IARC and that the carcinogen at issue bears a general causal relationship to the cancer alleged to be an occupational disease. In a hard-fought case, the Workers' Compensation Judge and the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board both ruled that the City of Philadelphia firefighter, now Deputy Chief Scott Sladek, had little to no burden when he made a claim that he developed melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, as a result of occupational exposure to carcinogens. The WCJ and the WCAB both ruled that Mr. Sladek only needed to prove that he was a firefighter for more than four years and came to the job cancer-free before the presumption of causation for occupational disease cases shifted the heavy burden to the City of Philadelphia to prove that his cancer was not caused by occupational exposure to carcinogens. Claimant's burden was easily overcome and the WCJ granted Mr. Sladek's claim. The WCAB affirmed both the standard applied and the overall outcome of the case. On appeal to the Commonwealth Court, the City's arguments prevailed. The City argued that there is a burden on the firefighter to prove that he or she had occupational exposure to a carcinogen that bears a causal relationship to the cancer alleged to be an occupational disease. In a unanimous en banc opinion, the Commonwealth Court reversed the WCAB and the WCJ, citing a misinterpretation of the statutory language that appeared to be specifically selected by the General Assembly to place an initial burden on a firefighter. The Supreme Court's majority opinion, in which four justices made up the majority, reflects a similar burden than that of the Commonwealth Court, though the Supreme Court chose different language to achieve the same goal. The majority states the burden as requiring "the claimant to establish a general causative link between the claimant's type of cancer and a Group 1 carcinogen." Chief Justice Saylor voted to affirm the Commonwealth Court's opinion, while Justices Mundy and Dougherty voted to reinstitute the non-existent burden offered by the WCJ and the WCAB. The burden expounded by the majority adopted a standard that gives municipalities the ability to defend frivolous claims, which would have been substantially increased if the Court adopted the WCJ's or WCAB's standard. The second issue before the Court examined the evidence necessary to rebut the presumption, if applicable to a case. The Court held to a long-cited standard in occupational disease cases, which requires that the employer provide an expert opinion that includes an examination of the claimant's disease. An opinion challenging the concept of the presumption is not adequate to rebut. That opinion must offer a non-occupational alternative cause for the disease instead of simply implying that the disease is of unknown etiology. The Court's ruling does not fundamentally change the way occupational disease cases are litigated. The Court did, however, provided some clarity into the types of evidence that are relevant to the initial burden stage and the rebuttal stage. Most importantly, the Court remanded the matter for further consideration of whether the Frye Standard applies in workers' compensation cases. In other cases litigated by Mr. Kachline, judges and the intermediate appellate courts have accepted his argument that in fact the Frye standard does apply to expert testimony in workers' compensation cases and can serve to limit or exclude expert opinions that do not conform to generally accepted scientific methodologies. To discuss this matter further, please contact Kristopher Kachline Esq. at (215) 299-4276. An international team of scientists has found that the upper Amazon region gave birth to the domesticated Theobroma cacao, the plant from which chocolate is made. Theobroma cacao was a culturally important crop in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, a historical region and cultural area in North America that extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. Cacao beans were used both as currency and to make the chocolate drinks consumed during feasts and rituals. Archaeological evidence of cacaos use, dating back to 3,900 years ago, previously planted the idea that the cacao tree was first domesticated in Central America. However, genomic research shows that the cacaos greatest diversity is in the upper Amazon region of northwest South America, pointing to this region as its center of origin. Our study shows us that people in the upper reaches of the Amazon basin, extending up into the foothills of the Andes in southeastern Ecuador, were harvesting and consuming cacao that appears to be a close relative of the type of cacao later used in Mexico and they were doing this 1,500 years earlier, said University of British Columbias Professor Michael Blake, corresponding author of the study. They were also doing so using elaborate pottery that pre-dates the pottery found in Central America and Mexico. This suggests that the use of cacao, probably as a drink, was something that caught on and very likely spread northwards by farmers growing cacao in what is now Colombia and eventually Panama and other parts of Central America and southern Mexico. For the study, Professor Blake and co-authors studied ceramic artifacts from Santa Ana-La Florida, in Ecuador, the earliest known site of Mayo-Chinchipe culture, which was occupied from at least 5,450 years ago. They used three lines of evidence to show that the Mayo-Chinchipe culture used cacao between 5,300 and 2,100 years ago: (i) presence of starch grains specific to the cacao tree inside ceramic vessels and broken pieces of pottery; (ii) residues of theobromine, a bitter alkaloid found in the cacao tree but not its wild relatives; (iii) fragments of ancient DNA with sequences unique to the cacao tree. Evidence of cacao use was found by analyzing the starch grains characteristic of the genus Theobroma, traces of theobromine, a biochemical compound specific to mature cacao beans, and ancient cacao DNA found in ceramic vessels, some of which dated back more than 5,300 years, said co-author Dr. Claire Lanaud, a researcher at CIRAD, France. The findings suggest that the Mayo-Chinchipe people domesticated the cacao tree at least 1,500 years before the crop was used in Central America. As some of the artifacts from Santa Ana-La Florida have links to the Pacific coast, the researchers suggest that trade of goods, including culturally important plants, could have started cacaos voyage north. For the first time, three independent lines of archaeological evidence have documented the presence of ancient cacao in the Americas: starch grains, chemical biomarkers, and ancient DNA sequences, said first author Dr. Sonia Zarrillo, from the University of Calgary. These three methods combine to definitively identify a plant that is otherwise notoriously difficult to trace in the archaeological record because seeds and other parts quickly degrade in moist and warm tropical environments. The study appears in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. _____ Sonia Zarrillo et al. The use and domestication of Theobroma cacao during the mid-Holocene in the upper Amazon. Nature Ecology & Evolution, published online October 29, 2018; doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0697-x In a debate session held on Sunday evening on the sidelines of the second edition of the World Youth Fourm in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi answered a wide range of queries from participants, commenting on issues including the situation in Yemen, the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the possibility of a unified African currency, and amending the current NGO law. The World Youth Forum was inaugurated by El-Sisi on Saturday and runs until tuesday in the resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh. The situation in Yemen El-Sisi defended Egypts stance on the crisis in Yemen, saying that the conflict in the war-ravaged country is far more complex than simply a struggle between the government and the Houthis. Egypt chose not to interfere in the Yemeni crisis because the war in Yemen is a proxy war in which other countries are involved, the president said, answering a question on the issue. The conflicts in the world, and in the Islamic world, including in the Arab countries, are complicated and need great efforts and a huge influencing power to be settled, he said. Egypt is very much aware of its limits and its powers and its stance in the case of Yemen has been based on its knowledge that it cannot influence some of the parties involved in the conflict, he argued. El-Sisi acknowledged that the same view applies to other conflict-hit areas in the region, including Syria, Libya and Afghanistan. I hope that there will be an end to all these conflicts so that the people of these countries will be able to live in security and peace, he said. The Khashoggi murder When asked about Egypts stance in support of Saudi Arabia after the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in Turkey, El-Sisi said that the case is subject to investigations from the Saudi and Turkish authorities, so everyone should wait to see their outcome. Warning of jumping to conclusions, he said I wonder why is it that there is always doubt in what people in our region say. Take Egypt for example; the public tend to be sceptical whenever any official promises them that justice will be served. He warned against politicising legal issues and interfering in judicial decisions, citing the example of when some European countries criticised death sentences issued by Egyptian courts against terrorists who attacked churches and mosques. Although Egyptian law and international law allow for using the death penalty, the court rulings were rejected by these countries because their cultures are against such kind of penalties, he said. We respect that ... but we also ask them to respect the will of the Egyptian nation and its desire to protect its own security, he said. He also said that he supports Saudi Arabia because he wants to protect the stability of all regional nations, for the simple fact that our region cannot bear any more turmoil, like in Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan and some African countries, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. El-Sisi said that he understands the reasons that leaders of some countries across the world to decide to close their borders in the face of refugees fleeing to them from conflict zones. Each country has the right to protect its own people and its own national interests. All countries are obliged to respect human rights but they also need to protect their own national interests, he said. Unified African currency dream He urged people in war-hit countries to seek an end to their conflicts and to take a firm stand to resolve their own problems, iron out their differences and stem the bloodshed. They have to turn their focus to rebuilding their nations, he said. El-Sisi described the idea of launching a unified African currency as a dream that needs hard collective work to be fulfilled. It is a step that needs the concerted efforts of all African countries, he said. Citing the European countries launch of the euro as an example, he said that this step took Europe great efforts and meticulously organised institutional work that was based on sound economic foundations. Such matters as having a unified African currency cannot be based on desires and wishes alone, he said. The European experiment took over 40 years of lengthy debates to materialise, and though this culminated in the establishment of the European Union, the whole process is now being reviewed and reassessed, he also said. As far as Africa is concerned I think that the things that really matter right now and that should be at the forefront are stemming the bloodshed and realizing stability and security, in addition to pushing up growth rates in a way that meets the aspirations of the peoples of all African nations, El-Sisi added. Amending the NGOs law On domestic issues, El-Sisi has agreed on forming a committee and holding a social dialogue to amend the law on non-governmental organisations (NGOs). El-Sisi made the move after a meeting with a group of young people on the sidelines of the World Youth Forum, when one of the participants raised the issue for discussion, saying that the legislation needs reconsideration and the use of the president's constitutional powers. The president said he agreed with her on the need to address the current laws shortcomings. He urged the state's relevant bodies to revisit the issue and move to bring their proposed amendments to the House of Representatives to be examined. Egypt's Parliament issued the 89-article NGOs law in November 2016 and it was ratified by El-Sisi in May 2017. The law has garnered huge criticism since its drafting from civil society in Egypt because some of its provisions are believed to limit the activities of NGOs. El-Sisi said that there are over 50,000 NGOs and civil society organisations operating in Egypt and doing superb work, which the state needs in order to be able to reach out to and support all those who are really in need. He asserted that the state is keen on making sure that the law regulating the work of these organisations would be balanced and help them in carrying out their mission efficiently and effectively. A call for Palestinian unity El-Sisi also expressed keenness for reconciling Palestinian factions and calming conditions in the Gaza Strip to alleviate the sufferings of its people. He called for Palestinian unity, reiterating Egypts firm stance in support of the Palestinian cause and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that lives in peace alongside the state of Israel. When asked about Egypts efforts to strengthen ties with the developing countries in Southeast Asia, El-Sisi asserted that Egypt seeks to foster its relations with all countries in the world, and not just those in the Southeast Asian region. We want our relations with other countries to be balanced and away from political polarisation, he said. We are moving on all directions to develop our relations with everyone, for Egypt needs to cooperate with them all and to keep constantly in touch with each and every country all around the world for the mutual benefit of their peoples. Search Keywords: Short link: Sen. Bam to receive prestigious IBPAP-PLDT Azure Flare For Industry Luminary award Sen. Bam Aquino will be honored by Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) Monday night for his contribution to develop and strengthen IT and BPO sector through legislation. "Ang sektor ng BPO ay isa sa pinakamalaking pinagkukunan ng ikabubuhay ng marami nating kababayan. Dapat natin itong protektahan sa anumang banta na makaaapekto sa kanilang hanapbuhay," said Sen. Bam, principal sponsor of Republic Act 10929 or the Free Internet Access Program in Public Places. "Sa Senado, tuluy-tuloy ang ating pagbabantay sa anumang sitwasyon na posibleng maglagay sa hanapbuhay ng marami nating kababayan sa balag ng alanganin," added Sen. Bam. Sen. Bam will receive the honor of IBPAP-PLDT Azure Flare For Industry Luminary award at the IBPAP Flare Awards 2018 at the Peninsula Manila. The ceremony champions IBPAP's mission to sustain the growth of the industry through talent development, country marketing, investment promotions and knowledge sharing. As chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology, Sen. Bam has initiated hearings to look into and provide solutions to deal with the threats and issues that affect the BPO sector, including artificial intelligence (AI). Sen. Bam also committed to block provisions in the second package of the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law, now named the TRABAHO Bill, that could affect the employment of thousands of Filipino workers in the BPO sector. In addition, Sen. Bam looked into the slow and expensive internet connection in the country during his time as chairman of the Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship in the 16th Congress. Apart from determining necessary legislation to boost internet speed, the hearings also compelled the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to come out with guidelines on minimum internet speeds and conducted speed testing in various areas of the Philippines to check compliance of telcos. Sen. Bam has 32 laws to his name, including the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, which grants free tuition and miscellaneous fees in public universities and colleges. Press Release November 5, 2018 Gatchalian questions PNOC-EC plan to import Singapore diesel Senator Win Gatchalian is questioning the decision of the Philippine National Oil Company - Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) Board to import some 2 billion worth of diesel from Singapore, raising doubts as to whether the plan is the best solution to alleviate the plight of public utility drivers struggling to cope with rising fuel prices. "I understand that we have a common goal and that is to help ease the burden of our jeepney drivers, who are actually one of the most vulnerable sectors to fluctuations in pump prices. However, I do not believe that the PNOC-EC plan is the best solution to the problem since there is no guarantee that the cheap fuel will reach the PUJ drivers," said Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate committees on economic affairs and energy, respectively. To illustrate his point, Gatchalian explained that 179,852 legitimate public utility jeepney (PUJ) franchise holders nationwide need at least 161.1 million liters of diesel per month to fuel their operations. However, PNOC-EC said it plans to import 50,000 MT per month, which is only equivalent to 50 million liters of diesel or just over 31% of the monthly demand for diesel. Gatchalian also contends that there is no assurance that PUJ drivers will be able to get hold of the cheap diesel since not all gasoline stations will participate in the program. According to PNOC-EC, the distribution of the imported fuel shall only be done "through smaller oil companies and other bulk buyers." Data from the DOE show that these independent oil players operates only 3,051 of the total 8,630 gas stations nationwide. "Mukhang mas maraming PUJ drivers ang magiging dehado sa planong ito dahil hindi lahat ay makakakuha ng murang diesel sa programang ito. Idagdag mo pa yung problema sa pagmonitor ng mga tinatawag nating leakage or non-qualified beneficiaries sa mga gasoline stations. Dapat siguro timbangin at pag-aralan pa natin kung talaga bang mas makikinabang ang mga ordinaryong drivers dito sa planong ito," the lawmaker said. Instead of engaging in the direct importation of cheap diesel, Gatchalian said the government should step up its efforts to fully implement the Pantawid Pasada Program. He vowed to fight for the 20,000 cash aid for jeepney drivers under the Pantawid Pasada Program for 2019 as government economic managers said they might reduce it to 10,000 amid the looming fuel tax hike suspension. "The DOE and PNOC-EC should abandon the plan to engage in the direct importation of diesel and instead focus their energy and resources on a targeted system such the Pantawid Pasada, which will truly benefit our PUJ drivers," Gatchalian said. State-owned farmer Pamu is taking a 35 percent stake in a $32 million specialist spray drying facility to develop sheep milk and other specialty powders for the Chinese market. The investment reflects both renewed government support for the farming SOE, which was lacking under the previous government, and a desire to ensure that New Zealand capital was invested in the facility, which is being built on land at the Waikato Regional Council-based Waikato Innovation Park. The investment is occurring through newly constituted Melody Dairies, in which Pamu, formerly known as Landcorp, has a 35 percent stake. Other Melody Dairies investors are Dairy Nutraceuticals Investments, with a 20 percent stake, which is backed by Chinese investors. Australian-backed Nu-Mega Ingredients (NZ) Limited, an arm of ASX-listed Clover Corp, has a 35 percent interest. A further 10 percent stake is held by New Zealand Innovation Waikato, which in turn is 30 percent-owned by the government's innovation agency, Callaghan Innovation. "We are pleased we can help keep a sizeable piece of this important regional infrastructure in New Zealand ownership. Pamu chief executive Steve Carden said in a statement. Pamu will primarily use the dryer for its push into new products based on sheep milk powders through its 50 percent-owned Spring Sheep venture. But deer milk, organic dairy milk products and other specialty products are also expected to make use of the facility designed to meet smaller scale and niche powder manufacturing demand. Capacity for such specialist facilities is severely stretched," said Carden. New Zealand has plenty of big dryers for commodity milk. What our country has lacked has been smaller, specialty dryers that can manufacture small scale, novelty milks. We will also be able to access our share of capacity in the dryer for processing other specialist milks, such as our pure organic milk powder, which we are about to start selling in China. The spray drying facility will have a 1.2 metric ton per hour capacity, with construction led by TetraPak to meet strict infant milk formula specifications. The investment was part of the SOE's strategy to try to future-proof the company by diversifying its earnings potential and "helping mitigate the commodity cycle that holds the company hostage to some extent," Carden said. "We expect it to contribute to the growing earnings and financial resilience of Pamu in the years ahead. Shareholding ministers in the previous National Party-led government resisted Carden's ambitions for Pamu, preferring it to 'stick to its knitting' of traditional farming practice and reflecting a scepticism about large-scale corporate farming. Carden said the new facility would also assist diversification of land use. "With environmental restrictions increasing in the Waikato, thats more important than ever before." Pamu is funding its $11 million commitment to the facility through existing balance sheet capacity. Construction scheduled to start this month and production next November. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. 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Related News: 19th November 2021 Morning Report Ryman Healthcare Limited (NZX: RYM) unaudited first half underlying profit of $95.9m Steel & Tube Holdings Limited (NZX: STU) Earnings Guidance 1H FY22 My Food Bag Group Limited (NZX: MFB) achieves record earnings; confirms dividend Turners Automotive Group Limited (NZX: TRA) delivers 24% increase in HY22 earnings AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited (NZX: AFT) reaffirms guidance and progresses growth plan 18th November 2021 Morning Report Blis Technologies Limited (NZX: BLT) Challenging market conditions in US impact half year result EROAD Limited (NZX: ERD) NZ Commerce Commission Clears Coretex Acquisition NZME Limited (NZX: NZM) Digital acceleration delivering on NZME's 2023 strategy The New Zealand dollar remained under pressure against the US dollar after a review found New Zealand banks need to improve the way they manage risks around misconduct and local data pointed to an ongoing fall in commodity prices. The kiwi traded at 66.37 US cents at 5pm in Wellington versus 66.36 US cents at 8am in Wellington and 66.52 at 5pm last Friday. The trade-weighted index was at 72.58 from 72.74. A review by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the Financial Markets Authority found none of the widespread misconduct seen in Australia's financial sector but did identify "significant weaknesses" in the processes New Zealand's 11 largest banks have for monitoring conduct within their organisations. "The governance of conduct risk in the banks requires serious attention," FMA chief executive Rob Everett said. The review found that some banking practices - such as sales incentives - need to be curtailed and the "kiwi lost favour," said Martin Rudings, senior dealer foreign exchange at OMF. The kiwi was also weighed on by news that commodity prices fell for the fifth month in a row, according to ANZ's Commodity Price Index for October. "The terms of trade are slipping," said Rudings. However, markets are largely focused on the US mid-term elections, with results expected Wednesday New Zealand time. The Reserve Bank of Australia's rate decision and statement, followed by the Federal Open Market Committee statement and the kiwi central bank's monetary policy decision and statement will also be key for direction. Rudings said the kiwi may fall against the Australian dollar if the RBA is upbeat about their economy, particularly if the RBNZ's commentary retains the option of a cut to address slowing domestic growth. The kiwi traded at 92.37 Australian cents from 92.44 Australian cents. The FOMC meanwhile, is expected to remain upbeat. That coupled with last week's strong US jobs numbers will add to the view the Fed will continue raising rates and could even lift them faster than currently expected. "I still think the US dollar is the best place to be," said Rudings. The New Zealand dollar traded at 51.12 British pence from 51.21 British pence Friday. It was at 4.5885 Chinese yuan from 4.6100 yuan and traded at 75.13 yen from 75.97 yen. It was at 58.30 euro cents from 58.36 cents Friday. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: 19th November 2021 Morning Report Ryman Healthcare Limited (NZX: RYM) unaudited first half underlying profit of $95.9m Steel & Tube Holdings Limited (NZX: STU) Earnings Guidance 1H FY22 My Food Bag Group Limited (NZX: MFB) achieves record earnings; confirms dividend Turners Automotive Group Limited (NZX: TRA) delivers 24% increase in HY22 earnings AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited (NZX: AFT) reaffirms guidance and progresses growth plan 18th November 2021 Morning Report Blis Technologies Limited (NZX: BLT) Challenging market conditions in US impact half year result EROAD Limited (NZX: ERD) NZ Commerce Commission Clears Coretex Acquisition NZME Limited (NZX: NZM) Digital acceleration delivering on NZME's 2023 strategy New Zealand's banks need to "markedly" improve the way they manage risks of misconduct and poor culture, the Financial Markets Authority and the Reserve Bank say. A four-month review found none of the widespread misconduct seen in Australia's financial sector but did identify "significant weaknesses" in the processes New Zealand's 11 largest banks have for monitoring conduct within their organisations. The review found "significant variation" in the maturity of banks' approaches to the issue. While some had been thinking about culture and conduct for some time, it said the approach of others ranged from "reactive at best" to "complacent at worst." "The overall standard of banks approaches to identifying, managing and dealing with conduct risk needs to improve markedly," the report stated. The governance of conduct risk in the banks requires serious attention. Boards and senior management must address the recommendations and findings from our review with urgency," said FMA chief executive Rob Everett. The regulators also want greater powers to be more active in this area, given that the banks themselves have the primary responsibility for developing strong governance and management frameworks for conduct.. "The current regulatory settings do not provide sufficient scope for regulators to hold banks to account for their conduct," said Everett. "We want to address regulatory settings to enable us to respond more effectively to retail banking misconduct and its drivers. We are recommending that the government look at options for addressing the current framework." The investigation by the RBNZ and FMA followed Australia's Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, which found widespread abuses across the Tasman. Given that New Zealand's four largest banks are Australian-owned, questions were raised as to whether the same failings exist here. The New Zealand review was based on interviews with bank staff and directors and documents supplied by banks. It did not include an audit nor detailed investigation of each bank. Nor were individual transactions, accounts, credit decisions or product sales reviewed. In a survey commissioned for the review of 2,000 New Zealanders aged 18 and over, two-thirds of people trusted their own banks to meet their needs but only 42 percent trust the banking industry as a whole. Also, 24 percent agreed their bank's staff had offered them products they didn't want or need; 15 percent said bank staff had tried to pressure them into buying unwanted financial products. The two agencies said that, if unchecked, the significant weaknesses they found in governance and management of conduct risk could lead to "widespread issues." "Banks lack of proactivity in identifying and remediating conduct issues and risks means vulnerabilities remain," the regulators said. The review noted that many of the issues detected appear to have stemmed from weaknesses in systems and processes. Processes for recording complaints had serious weaknesses in some cases. Processes for staff to raise issues were also generally poor. "Banks need to review how they define and record customer complaints and make it easy for customers to raise concerns," it said. "Combined, these factors limited the ability of banks to identify and deal with issues in a timely manner." The review said banks need to educate their staff on what good conduct and culture looks like and have effective mechanisms to allow staff to report on any deviations. It underscored that formal whistleblower policies and other reporting channels must be accessible. On sales incentives - a key issue in the Australian review - it said removing incentives linked to sales measures is a significant step toward the goal of sustaining good customer outcomes. "We expect banks to revise their sales incentive structures for frontline sales people and through all layers of management," it said, While banks are on board with the changes, none of their changes announced to date "go far enough to create a sustainable culture of good management." The review It said it expects banks to implement changes to their incentives programme no later than the first performance year after Sept. 30. In March 2019 the FMA and RBNZ will ask banks how they will meet the expectations regarding incentives and will report on their responses. The two bodies will be providing specific detailed findings to individual banks. Each will need to develop a plan to address the feedback and report progress by March 2019. "Banks need to place a high priority on the development and implementation of these plans," it said. Any remediation issues that warrant further investigation and potential enforcement action will be considered by the FMA, RBNZ or the Commerce Commission, it said. The report also said banks need to evaluate their conduct and culture against relevant issues that have been raised by the Australian Royal Commission. "This work should be adequately resourced and given high priority," it said. It said boards need to take ownership for driving change in conduct and culture within their banks and need to clearly direct management to devise frameworks and metrics to do so. If banks have not identified any issues requiring remediation they need to "seriously challenge" whether this is because there are no issues or because there are weaknesses in the processes and systems they have for recording those issues, it said. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: 19th November 2021 Morning Report Ryman Healthcare Limited (NZX: RYM) unaudited first half underlying profit of $95.9m Steel & Tube Holdings Limited (NZX: STU) Earnings Guidance 1H FY22 My Food Bag Group Limited (NZX: MFB) achieves record earnings; confirms dividend Turners Automotive Group Limited (NZX: TRA) delivers 24% increase in HY22 earnings AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited (NZX: AFT) reaffirms guidance and progresses growth plan 18th November 2021 Morning Report Blis Technologies Limited (NZX: BLT) Challenging market conditions in US impact half year result EROAD Limited (NZX: ERD) NZ Commerce Commission Clears Coretex Acquisition NZME Limited (NZX: NZM) Digital acceleration delivering on NZME's 2023 strategy The second day of the World Youth Forum in Sharm El-Sheikh kicked off on Monday with a roundtable discussion on social media, with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi warning of the dangers of its misuse. "Human development is a crucial subject. I come from a generation which lived without television, and when it was introduced in Egypt as a mean of communication, and as our lives changed [as a result], people were scared and worried that the firm connections between them had started decrease," he said. El-Sisi also said that any attempt to ban social media websites would not succeed. He added the formation of a national committee or a research group to discuss social media in all its aspects will be among the recommendations of the forum, as well as putting in place a strategy to benefit from social media. El-Sisi hinted that when he was military intelligence chief in 2010 he warned in a lecture about social medias potential danger to society, adding that the past seven years were proof of that. He also warned about how, he said, the spreading of rumours have evolved through social media. "Nevertheless the fault is not in the social media, it is in the fact that we are not ready to use it properly," he said. The roundtable panel on Social media: Saving or enslaving users featured 15 experts and prominent figures on social media from all over the world, including researcher in social media and mental health Bailey Parnell, multidisciplinary artist Arwa Abounoun, specialist in digital security Christine Adero, specialist in media networking Khawla Al-Hawi, and Egyptian national security expert Khaled Okasha. Later on Monday, the Egyptian president is set to participate in a panel discussion on the mechanism for building future leaders. The second day of the forum, which runs from 3-6 November, will also see discussions on empowering people with disabilities, narrowing the gender gap in the labour market, volunteering, the role of entrepreneurs and starts up in global economic growth, the role of art and cinema in shaping societies, and water security in the wake of climate change. The Model Arab-African Summit (MAAS) will also take place, with the model summiteers discussing the prospects of economic integration. This year, the forums events revolve around a vision inspired by The Seven Pillars of the Egyptian Identity, a book by Egyptian author Milad Hanna written to emphasise the unity and harmony of Egyptian society despite divergences and differences, according to the official website of the forum. Around 5,000 youth are participating in the events. The first World Youth Forum took place last year, also in Sharm El-Sheikh, which has been described by Egyptians officials as the city of peace. Search Keywords: Short link: New Zealand shares fell with local earnings insufficient to embolden investors wary about the outlook for the global economy. Z Energy again led the market lower. The S&P/NZX 50 index fell 56.82 points, or 0.6 percent, to 8,778.78. Within the index, 22 stocks fell, 20 gained and eight were unchanged. Turnover was modest at $84.4 million. Asian markets were generally down in early trading, following a weaker close in the US on Friday. Stocks there gave up some of their gains amid mixed signals from the White House on the prospects of a trade deal with China and a disappointing outlook from Apple Inc. Peter McIntyre, an investment advisor with Craigs Investment Partners, said the local market is being driven by offshore events. While there is reasonably good local news flow this week, particularly with the Reserve Banks monetary policy statement on Thursday, the end of the earnings season in the US has left investors more focused on political risks particularly the midterm elections in the US Tuesday. Theres not a lot of conviction with this market, he said. The worry meter is pretty high at the moment. Z Energy extended its decline for a third day after the company attempted to clarify its dividend position for the remainder of the 2019 financial year. It was again the heaviest traded stock among the majors with 3.1 million shares changing hands down from Friday but still more than three times the daily average the past three months. The stock fell 5.1 percent to $5.20, its lowest close since May 2015. The countrys biggest fuel retailer rattled investors on Thursday with a 21 percent drop in first-half earnings and a dividend about five cents less than they were expecting. The $120 million in cash tax the company today said it expects is a stark contrast to the $80 million some analysts had been forecasting, McIntyre said. Volumes among the other majors were light. A2 Milk fell 5.1 percent to $10.15 with fewer than 600,000 shares traded - half the usual volume. Spark New Zealand rose 2.3 percent to $3.98 with less than 980,000 shares almost a third of the average daily volume the past three months. Westpac Banking Corp. rose 1.5 percent to $29.04. The companys A$8.07 billion full-year profit reported today was little changed from a year earlier. Earnings from the local unit rose 5 percent to $1 billion. McIntyre said the Australian bank stocks have been reasonably beaten up and some investors may now be looking again at them. Their cost-out programme will have also provided the market some confidence, he said of Westpac. AMP rose 5.3 percent to $2.98 Trustpower rose 0.5 percent to $6.21 after announcing a 25 cent special dividend and signalling it may pay another special dividend early next year subject to debt levels within the firm and efforts to extend the maturity profile of its debt. The company said it is expecting improved telecom customer sign-ups in the second-half after discovering customers find offers of appliances more appealing than a matching value of free data. McIntyre said the firms full-year guidance update only a few weeks ago has probably taken away a little from the companys generally positive news today. Air New Zealand rose 1.5 percent to $2.98. The September passenger volumes reported last week were pretty strong, while the declining oil price is also positive for the carrier, McIntyre said. Tourism Holdings rose 2.2 percent to $5.11. Orion Health Group rose 2.7 percent to $1.14. The technology company today raised the likely price range for its planned buyback to $1.20 to $1.25 from $1.16 to $1.26, following the completion of the sale of its Rhapsody unit to UK private equity firm Hg for $205 million. New Zealand Oil & Gas rose 3.2 percent to 65 cents. Subsidiary Cue Energy has reported elevated gas readings in the firms Paus Biru-1 well in the Sampang licence in Indonesia. Property for Industry fell 0.6 percent to $1.72. The company today raised its third-quarter dividend to 1.85 cents, from 1.8 cents in the second quarter and a year earlier. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: 19th November 2021 Morning Report Ryman Healthcare Limited (NZX: RYM) unaudited first half underlying profit of $95.9m Steel & Tube Holdings Limited (NZX: STU) Earnings Guidance 1H FY22 My Food Bag Group Limited (NZX: MFB) achieves record earnings; confirms dividend Turners Automotive Group Limited (NZX: TRA) delivers 24% increase in HY22 earnings AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited (NZX: AFT) reaffirms guidance and progresses growth plan 18th November 2021 Morning Report Blis Technologies Limited (NZX: BLT) Challenging market conditions in US impact half year result EROAD Limited (NZX: ERD) NZ Commerce Commission Clears Coretex Acquisition NZME Limited (NZX: NZM) Digital acceleration delivering on NZME's 2023 strategy Awati had joined the Royal Indian Navy in 1945 after completing his education. : Vice Admiral (retd) Manohar Pralhad Awati, a Vir Chakra awardee and a veteran of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, died of old age Sunday at Vinchurni village in Maharashtra's Satara district, his family members said. He was an expert in signal communication and commanded Indian naval ships such as "Ranjit", "Vendurthy", "Betwa", "Tir" and "Mysore". Awati was awarded the Vir Chakra for his exemplary valour as the commanding officer of "INS Kamorta" during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Maritime history was his favourite subject and he was also the founder of the Maritime History Society. Awati is survived by wife Sandhya, sons Kailas and Kedarnath. His last rites were performed at his hometown. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman described Awati as an icon in the naval history. "Vice Admiral M P Awati (Retd) #PVSM, #VirChakra passed away; was the commanding officer of a naval unit of the Eastern Fleet,Dec'71. Captured three enemy ships carrying contraband goods. His actions led to destruction of an enemy submarine. An icon in naval history. My homage," she said in a tweet. Navy Chief Sunil Lanba said Awati's demise marked the end of an era. "Deeply regret to inform the sad demise of Vice Admiral MP Awati (Retd) early this morning, at his hometown Vinchurni, Phaltan, near Satara. He was 91. A giant of a man, one of our tallest heroes and greatest icons. It's truly the end of an era. May his soul RIP Adm S Lanba CNS," he said on the Navy's official Twitter handle. Egypt's Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfik visited on Monday Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II to offer condolences over the Christian victims of a terrorist attack in Upper Egypt last Friday. In an official statement, the interior ministry said that Minister Tawfik extended his condolences for the martyrs of the nation, who were killed by gunmen as they returned from Minya's Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery. Seven people were killed in the attack and at least 10 were injured. The terrorist group Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attack, which is the first major attack on Christians who make up 10 to 15 percent of Egypt's 104 million people since the May 2017 attack on pilgrims travelling to the same Minya monastery. According to the ministrys statement, Tawfik told Pope Tawadros II that such attacks only strengthen the unity of Egyptians in the face of terrorism. The interior ministry has said that 19 gunmen involved in the Friday attack were killed in a shootout with security forces. Search Keywords: Short link: Xi pledges to open China's markets wider to an impatient world Shanghai, Nov 5 (AFP) Nov 05, 2018 President Xi Jinping on Monday pledged to widen access to China's economy, while delivering a veiled rebuke to Trumpism, as he kicked off an import fair amid growing foreign accusations his government was backtracking on grand reform promises. Xi said China would "step up" efforts to stimulate imports, lower tariffs, ease customs clearance procedures, and implement harsh punishments for intellectual property infringements. "It is our sincere commitment to open the Chinese market," Xi said in an address opening the event in Shanghai. He added that China would endeavour to "foster a world-class business environment" and that China's doors will open "ever wider". But he also pushed back at foreign pressure in comments clearly aimed at Donald Trump, who has started a trade war between the world's two largest economies. "They should not just point fingers at others to gloss over their own problems," Xi said, decrying "protectionism", "isolationism" and confrontation. "They should not hold a flashlight in hand, doing nothing but highlighting the weaknesses of others and not their own." Beijing frames the first annual China International Import Expo as a sign of its commitment to open markets despite mounting criticism to the contrary and the worsening trade war with Washington, which has seen both sides impose punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods. Organisers say more than 3,000 foreign companies from 130 countries including the United States and Europe will put their products on display for potential Chinese buyers at the expo, including General Motors, Ford, Microsoft, Samsung, Walmart and Tesla. - Promise fatigue - Xi's latest commitment to abide by world trade practices was light on specifics, however, and it remained to be seen whether it will satisfy an increasingly impatient foreign business community. In a speech at Davos nearly two years ago, Xi presented China as a beacon of globalisation in a counterpoint to Trump. But trading partners and foreign enterprises say he is yet to put his money where his mouth is, and they are tired of empty promises. Foreign businesses complain about a range of policies that benefit local firms, requirements that foreign companies form joint ventures with Chinese partners, forced technology transfers, rampant intellectual property violations and restrictive red tape. Foreign business surveys indicate that the playing field in China is actually worsening as Xi champions a strong-China message not unlike Trump's "America First" platform. The EU Chamber of Commerce last week urged Xi to "move past the rhetoric" on trade and put in place real and significant opening measures. The event is being attended by several foreign heads of government including Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Pakistani premier Imran Khan. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta voiced the foreign impatience when he told the opening ceremony that his country's growing trade with China was "heavily skewed" in Beijing's favour. "It is important for us therefore to correct the existing trade imbalance to enable a fair share of the benefits of trade," he said. - US snub - China ranks 59th out of the 62 countries evaluated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in terms of openness to foreign direct investment. Xi has said the expo proves China is willing to reduce its huge trade surpluses with other countries. But US officials say that amounts to China trying to buy its way out of criticism with a short-term import bump rather than real reform. Washington has snubbed the gathering by not sending high-level representation. But the lure of China's market remains strong and the US contingent includes even tech giants such as Facebook, which is blocked in China, and Google, which pulled out years ago over censorship and cyber-attacks. Both are seen as eyeing new ways into China. Experts say the week-long expo is also a message by Beijing that, as it pivots from an export-based economy toward one relying more on the buying power of its 1.4 billion people, other countries will need to work with China if they want a piece of that action. Microsoft founder Bill Gates will join a business forum, but the touchy optics of attending a China import expo at a time of trade tensions means few big-name American CEOs are confirmed. Alibaba's Ma calls trade war 'stupidest thing in the world' Shanghai, Nov 5 (AFP) Nov 05, 2018 The US-China trade war is the "stupidest thing in the world," Alibaba e-commerce tycoon Jack Ma declared at an import fair that China opened Monday partly to counter foreign criticism of its trade policies. Ma, who recently took back an earlier pledge to create a million jobs in the US -- blaming the trade war launched by Donald Trump -- made the comments in a panel discussion at the massive expo in Shanghai. "(The) trade war is the most stupidest thing in this world," the Alibaba founder said, without mentioning Trump by name. "Trade is to form ... peace. Trade is to communicate...nobody can stop free trade." President Xi Jinping opened the China International Import Expo earlier Monday with a vague pledge to widen access to his country's economy, as Beijing faces growing impatience from trading partners. But he also delivered a veiled rebuke to Trumpism, decrying "protectionism", "isolationism" and "the law of the jungle". Ma, the billionaire owner of China's largest online shopping portal, made the headline-grabbing job-creation promise to Trump last year, when Beijing was still courting the then-newly elected president. But Ma told official news agency Xinhua in September that the trade war had "destroyed the premise the promise was made on." Anger over the trade surpluses that China enjoys has triggered growing foreign criticism and the worsening commercial conflict with Washington, which has seen both sides impose punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods. Beijing has touted the first annual import expo as a sign of its willingness to take in more imports and thereby reduce the surpluses. Ma, who announced in September that he would step aside in a year's time to focus on philanthropy, said China's plans to remake itself as an importing nation would provoke resistance from vested interests. "For my understanding, it's the greatest challenge for China. It's a great opportunity for the world," he said. The shift will "fundamentally change ... the whole infrastructure of business and (the) ecosystem. It's going to be a huge pain to a lot of businesses, but it's also going to be a good opportunity for a lot of consumers." 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Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fdec48538)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdeb56928)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fdec48538)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdeb56928)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fdec47490)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdeb56928)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdeb56928)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fde1b3f40)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fde9ee170)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fde9ee170)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fde6e4190)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fde05ce08)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fde6e4190)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fde05ce08)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fde71c098)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fde05ce08)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fde05ce08)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fde1b3f40)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fde1b3f70)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fde1b3f70)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Speaking at the World Youth Forum (WYF) on Monday, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi suggested that civil servants in Egypt may not get an annual wage increase this year as the government is planning on using funds to build new classrooms in overcrowded schools. At the How to Build Future Leaders session on the WYF's second day in Sharm El-Sheikh, El-Sisi said that Egypt needs to provide 250,000 new classrooms at a cost of EGP 130 billion to accommodate an annual increase of 700,000 students. "This is a challenge we must face until the end and a problem that we should solve. I am going to say something difficult; let us make cuts in all the ministries. I'm going to say something even more difficult; let us not give raises this year to [state] employees in Egypt," the president said. State employees in Egypt receive a raise at the end of every fiscal year, which runs from July to June. "Countries are not built by wishes, countries are built only through hard work, effort, and suffering," the president added. Egypt has been implementing tough economic reforms under a $12 billion IMF loan deal reached in 2016 with the aim of attracting foreign investment. Under the IMF deal, Egypt also devalued its currency and has been gradually cutting energy subsidies. Last Month, Egypt's Minister of Education Tarek Shawki said that a total of EGP 100 billion is required to solve the issue of overcrowded classrooms at public schools. Overcrowded classrooms in Egypt have been a pressing challenge for the country's educational system in recent years, with classes exceeding 100 students in some schools. The Ministry of Education said in 2017 that international education competitiveness reports ranked Egypt 134 out of 139 countries on the quality index of primary education, and 28 out of 139 countries in the total enrolment of students in primary education. Search Keywords: Short link: System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fde72ca50)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdeb06ab0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fde72ca50)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdeb06ab0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fde715758)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdeb06ab0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdeb06ab0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fde1b3f40)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdeb70bf8)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdeb70bf8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Jessica McGowan/Getty Images(ATLANTA) -- Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for the governor of Georgia, has accused her Republican opponent and current Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp of abusing his power by leveling cooked up hacking allegations. The Democratic Party of Georgia said it was blindsided Sunday when Kemps office announced it had opened an investigation into the party on Saturday evening after what it described without evidence as a failed attempt to hack the states voter registration system. In a flurry of statements sent on Sunday, Rebecca DeHart, executive director of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said the scurrilous claims are 100 percent false and slammed the move as a political stunt. The party published two emails that purport to show a private individual who pointed out potential vulnerabilities in systems used by Georgia residents to print sample ballots and registration information that the individual suggested could allow a hacker to steal or manipulate registration information. By Monday morning, Abrams took to the airwaves to push back. In fact, I think he cooked up the charge because he realizes once again he has left six million voters information vulnerable and this happened twice before, Abrams told George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America on Monday, likely in reference to a pair reported data breaches in Georgia in 2015 and 2017 that exposed the information on millions of residents. Stephanopoulos noted that Kemp had declined to appear on the broadcast. In a statement on Sunday, Kemps office said they had officially requested the FBI to investigate the matter. The FBI declined to comment. The Department of Homeland Security said Sunday that the State of Georgia had notified the department about the issue but declined to comment further. "The Democratic Party of Georgia will stop at nothing to regain relevance and power in our state," Ryan Mahoney, Communications Director for Kemps gubernatorial campaign, said Sunday. "In an act of desperation, the Democrats tried to expose vulnerabilities in Georgia's voter registration system. This was a 4th quarter Hail Mary pass that was intercepted in the end zone. Thanks to the systems and protocols established by Secretary of State Brian Kemp, no personal information was breached. These power-hungry radicals should be held accountable for their criminal behavior. David Cross, however, an attorney who has been involved in cybersecurity-related litigation against the Georgia Secretary of States office, said he was also alerted to the potential vulnerabilities by the same individual who contacted the Georgia Democratic Party. He told ABC News on Sunday that he also contacted the FBI in an email exchange he shared with ABC News -- and an outside counsel for Kemp on Saturday. This is not the first time Kemp has raised allegations about attempts to infiltrate the secretary of states computer network. Just days after the 2016 presidential election, Kemp requested a federal investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, citing 10 suspected unauthorized attempts by DHS personnel to penetrate the states firewall. A report from the Inspector General of DHS released in July 2017, concluded that allegations were unsubstantiated. The investigation determined that the activity flagged by Kemp was the result of normal and automatic computer message exchanges, and that there were no unauthorized intrusion attempts. The race between Kemp and Abrams, who could become the nations first African-American woman to be elected governor, has been close and contentious. As of Monday afternoon, FiveThirtyEights gubernatorial forecast showed Abrams and Kemp locked in a tight contest, with Kemp holding on to a very small advantage. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The sons of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Sunday issued an appeal for the return of their father's body and said they wanted to return to Saudi Arabia to bury him. In an interview with CNN, Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi said that without their father's body, their family is unable to grieve and deal with the emotional burden of their father's death. "It's not a normal situation, it's not a normal death at all. All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina (Saudi Arabia) with the rest of his family," Salah Khashoggi said. "I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon." Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Saudi authorities have admitted that Khashoggi was murdered in a premeditated action. Khashoggi's body has not been recovered, and Saudi authorities are conducting an official investigation. Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an international businessman, said on Sunday that the probe will exonerate the country's leader. Salah Khashoggi on Oct. 24 met in Riyadh with King Salman and the crown prince Mohamed Bin Salman to receive condolences along with other Khashoggi family members. Salah departed for Washington a day later, and his CNN interview was his first public comments since then. He said King Salman assured him that those involved in Jamal Khashoggi's murder would be brought to justice. "We just need to make sure that he rests in peace," Salah Khashoggi said of his father. "Until now, I still can't believe that he's dead. It's not sinking in with me emotionally," he said, adding that there has been a lot of "misinformation" about the circumstances of the death. Salah said that charges that his father was a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood organization were not true. Asked how Khashoggi should be remembered, Salah replied, "As a moderate man who has common values with everyone ... a man who loved his country, who believed so much in it and its potential." "Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy, that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. And he believed in the transformation that it is going through." Search Keywords: Short link: Saudi Arabia and its allies said Monday they are committed to de-escalating hostilities in Yemen, only days after launching a renewed offensive on a port crucial for humanitarian aid. "The coalition is committed to de-escalating hostilities in Yemen and is strongly supportive of the UN envoy's political process," a source in the Saudi-led coalition told AFP on condition of anonymity. Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the conflict in 2015, aiming to bolster the standing of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi as he fought an insurgency by the Shia Huthis from northern Yemen. On Thursday, the Saudi-led alliance restarted its military campaign to capture Hodeida, the rebel-held Red Sea city that is home to a strategic port. It had suspended the offensive ahead of UN efforts to hold peace talks in Geneva that eventually collapsed in September. The UN-sponsored process fell apart after the rebels refused to travel to the Swiss city unless the United Nations guaranteed both their delegation's safe return to Sanaa and the evacuation of wounded fighters. The UN envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, now hopes to schedule talks between the government and the Huthis this month. Government coalition warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes on Sunday to support pro-government forces in fighting that appears to be edging further into Hodeida, approaching the city's main university. Dozens of rebels and soldiers were killed in battles and the raids, according to sources in hospitals across the areas. The source in the Saudi-led coalition said the current clashes were not "offensive operations", adding that the alliance was "committed to keeping the Hodeida port open". "If the Huthis fail to show up for peace talks again, this might lead (us) to restart the offensive operation in Hodeida," the source said. "The humanitarian situation in Yemen is unacceptable. We are committed to ending the conflict as soon as possible. "If the Huthis show up, we will continue our humanitarian efforts," he said. "If they don't, we will also continue those efforts." The UN children's fund, UNICEF, on Sunday warned an assault on Hodeida city would jeopardise the lives of Yemenis across the country who depend on its port for humanitarian aid. The World Health Organization estimates nearly 10,000 people have been killed since 2015. Human rights groups say the toll could be five times higher. Fourteen million people now stand at the brink of famine in Yemen, which the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Search Keywords: Short link: Under fire tech sector gathers in Portugal Lisbon, Nov 5 (AFP) Nov 05, 2018 Europe's largest tech event, the Web Summit, gets underway in Lisbon on Monday amid a backlash over internet firms' role in spreading "fake news" and how they use consumer data. Some 70,000 people are expected to take part in the four-day gathering, dubbed "the Davos for geeks", including speakers from leading global tech companies, politicians and start-ups hoping to attract attention from the over 1,500 investors who are scheduled to attend. But this time around tech firms find themselves on the defensive, with critics accusing them of not doing enough to curb the spread of "fake news" which has helped polarise elections campaigns around the world, and of maximising profits by harvesting data on consumers' browsing habits. Employees of Google, Facebook and other tech giants have in recent months gone public with their regrets, calling the products they helped build harmful to society and overly addictive. "I think technology is going through a funk... it's a period of reflexion," Web Summit founder and CEO Paddy Cosgrave told AFP ahead of the official opening of the event. "With every new technology you go through these cycles. The initial excitement of the printed press was replaced in time by a great fear that it was actually a bad thing. Over time it has actually worked out OK." - Engine of division - The British computer scientist who in 1989 invented the worldwide web as a way to exchange information, Tim Berners-Lee, is expected to call for a new "contract" for the internet during his opening address to the gathering later on Monday. He has just launched Inrupt, a start-up which is building an open source platform called "Solid" which will decentralise the web and allow users to choose where their data is kept, along with who can see and access it. "For all the good we've achieved, the web has evolved into an engine of inequity and division; swayed by powerful forces who use it for their own agendas," he wrote in a blog post describing the project. Solid intends to allow users to bypass tech giants such as Google and Facebook. The two tech giants now have direct influence over nearly three quarters of all internet traffic thanks to the vast amounts of apps and services they own such as YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram. Tech giants are also under fire having built up virtual monopolies in their areas. Amazon for example accounts for 93 percent of all e-book sales while Google swallows up 92 percent of all European internet-search ad spending. - Violent voices magnified - Among those expected to speak at the event is Christopher Wylie, a whistleblower who earlier this year said users' data from Facebook was used by British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica to help elect US President Donald Trump -- a claim denied by the company. Another tech veteran who has become critical of the sector, Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, will on Thursday give the closing address of the event. He left Twitter in 2011 and went on to co-found online publishing platform Mash, which is subscription based and unlike Twitter favours in-depth writing about issues. "We got used to everything being free and we underestimated the cost of that," he told the New York Times in May, adding "there's clearly an appetite now for content platforms to be regulated". The problem with the current model is that negative stories get more attention online, and thus gain more advertisers, according to Mitchell Baker, the president of the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organisation which promotes Internet innovation. "Today everyone has a voice but the problem is... the loudest and often most violent voices get magnified because the most negative, scariest things attract our attention," she told AFP in a recent interview. The Web Summit was launched in Dublin in 2010 and moved to Lisbon six years later. The Portuguese government estimates the event will generate 300 million euros ($347 million) for Lisbon in hotel and other revenues. juj-ds/pmr/dcr Facebook THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY AMAZON.COM British army lifts restriction on Commonwealth recruits London, Nov 5 (AFP) Nov 05, 2018 Citizens of Commonwealth countries will be able to join the British armed forces even if they do not live in Britain, the government said on Monday as it struggles to fill vacancies. Britain's junior defence minister Mark Lancaster said in a statement to parliament that the previous five-year residency requirement for Commonwealth army recruits has been removed. "Applications will be accepted from all Commonwealth countries," Lancaster said in his statement, adding that the reform had been introduced "in light of changes to the size of our armed forces". Lancaster said that Commonwealth applicants would have to be aged over 18 -- two years more than the minimum for Britons -- so as "to mitigate the risks associated with unaccompanied minors travelling to the UK without the guarantee of a job". A limited waiver to the residency requirement had already been introduced in 2016 to allow up to 200 Commonwealth personnel per year to fill skill shortage posts. This cap has now been increased to 1,350 across navy, army and air force personnel. The Commonwealth is an association of 53 states, most of them former British colonies, including Australia, Canada and India. Lancaster also said that a 15-percent limit on Commonwealth nationals in strategic British army positions would be maintained "to sustain operational effectiveness". A report by the National Audit Office, an independent government watchdog, earlier this year found that the full-time military was running a 5.7 percent shortfall in its ranks. An extra 10,600 recruits were required to fill the "largest gap in a decade," the report said. Optimization Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should? Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools. Switzerland is holding talks with the United States and Iran about launching a humanitarian payment channel to help ensure food and drugs keep flowing to the Islamic Republic as Washington re-imposes economic sanctions, the government said. Switzerland is committed to safeguarding Swiss economic interests and closely follows the development of the situation. The authorities are in direct contact with the competent authorities of the United States, the EU and Iran, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said in an emailed statement on Monday. Particularly in the humanitarian field, the federal government is committed to ensuring that food and pharmaceutical products can continue to be supplied from Switzerland, it said, adding it was in touch with U.S. authorities, Iran and unnamed Swiss companies on developing a humanitarian payment channel. A SECO spokesman declined to elaborate on the plan. Search Keywords: Short link: Paris, November 5, 2018 (SPS) - French President Emmanuel Macron, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the current President of the African Union (AU), and King Mohammed VI of Morocco were addressed to a letter in which a French association denounces human rights abuses in Western Sahara, a non-autonomous territory occupied by Morocco. "Like many organizations and figures around the world, the French Association of Friendship and Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa (AFASPA) supports the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and denounces the serious violations perpetrated by the Moroccan army and administrations since October 1975," said a mail dated October 17 and of which APS obtained a copy. The association stands against "the relentless brutality" against the Sahrawi political prisoners who "multiply hunger strikes to denounce the mistreatment, harassment and humiliation of which they are the subject and to obtain their rights." "This is the case of the 19 members of Gdeim Izik Group scattered in 7 prisons in Morocco, while the international law states that they should have been tried and imprisoned in Western Sahara," said AFASPA, demanding their release and the restoration of their families right of access. The association said that the corollary of the Moroccan illegal occupation of Western Sahara is the plunder of its natural resources, in infringement of the international law and the decisions of the European Court of Justice. (SPS) 062/SPS/APS English04/11/2018 KOMSIC GOING THROUGH LEGITIMACY CRISIS BANJALUKA, November 4 /SRNA/ - Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska and the newly elected Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told Srna that Zeljko Komsic is going through a legitimacy crisis because he has become a Croat member of the Presidency thanks to Bosniak voters for a third time and this fact can explain the statements he has been giving since he was elected. When asked by Srna to comment on Komsics statement that Serbias border is at the Drina River and we respect that so that no problems come up, Dodik said that Republika Srpska respects the Constitution and the Dayton Peace Agreement and knows very well where the borders are, even the border at the Drina, about which Komsic is warning Serbia. "That border is a sad fact for all Serbs, myself included. Thats why we like to say that the Drina is not a dividing border for Serbs, it is just a river connecting our people, and Komsic knows that very well, just like he knows that he can do nothing about it, said Dodik. He pointed out that Komsic did not have the political power nor constitutional authority to send anyone any messages saying Either you do this or there will be trouble. "Serbia is highly important for Republika Srpska, which the Dayton Peace Agreement acknowledged itself, thats why I put the Komsics statement in the context of a legitimacy crisis. He is not a person who can lecture Republika Srpska, let alone Serbia. He is aware of his own insignificance, thats why hes saying what he is, concluded Dodik. Discussing Komsics claim that Dodik cannot speak on behalf of the Serb people regarding BiHs path to NATO, only on behalf of his party or perhaps on behalf of the people who voted for him, the Srpska president recalled that a decision about BiH joining the Alliance was never made, which Komsic is well aware of, just like he is aware that the National Assembly of Republika Srpska adopted a resolution on military neutrality, which obliges Dodik as a Serb member of the Presidency. "Komsic should not make judgements on the basis of his own opinions. Croats believe he cannot speak on their behalf. Unlike him, the Serbs in BiH gave me around 370,000 votes and authorised me to speak on their behalf. The BiH Constitution does not recognise a civic member of the BiH Presidency Komsic is trying to hide behind. I am a legal and legitimate Serb member of the Presidency and I know on whose behalf I speak. Does he? Well, you should ask him that. His answer has to be in compliance with the BiH Constitution, said Dodik. /end/ds Highlights include a range of discussions and debates on prominent issues such as Brexit and animal welfare, Trojan dogs and pet travel rules, welfare at slaughter and sustainability in agriculture and the food chain. The prestigious Wooldridge lecture will be presented by ecologist and wildlife presenter, Mike Dilger, who will be talking about his work which has taken him around the globe as well as his experiences contracting a range of exotic diseases. Other key speakers include professor of veterinary parasitology Lord Trees and Angela Smith MP. Britain said on Monday it regretted a U.S. decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran. We regret the reimposition of sanctions by the U.S. We continue to believe that the Iran nuclear deal makes the world a safer place and our position remains that as long as Iran continues to meet its obligations under the deal by respecting strict limits on its nuclear activity, we will be committed to it too, Prime Minister Theresa Mays spokesman said. As such we continue to fully support expanding our trade relationship with Iran and encourage UK businesses to take advantage of commercial opportunities that arise. The U.S. has restored sanctions lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the administration of President Barack Obama and five other world powers. It added 300 new designations in Irans oil, shipping, insurance and banking sectors. Search Keywords: Short link: Avance Gas - Invitation to Earnings Release Presentation and Audio Webcast for the Third Quarter and First Nine Months of 2018 Bermuda, 5 November 2018 - Avance Gas Holding Ltd (OSE: "AVANCE"), will on Thursday 8 November 2018 release its unaudited results for the third quarter and first nine months of 2018. In connection with the earnings release, a presentation will be held at 15:00 (CET) at the offices of Swedbank Norge, Filipstad Brygge 1, Oslo. There will be a Q&A session following the presentation. The presentation and webcast will be hosted by: Mr. Christian Andersen - President Mr. Peder C. G. Simonsen - CFO The presentation will also be available via audio webcast, which can be accessed at Avance Gas' website www.avancegas.com. Dial in details are +44 (0)330 336 9125 (UK and International), +1 929-477-0324 (US) or +47 21 00 26 10 (Norway). Please quote the passcode: 3860414. Phone lines will open 10 minutes before the conference call. For further queries, please contact: Peder C. G. Simonsen, CFO Tel: +47 22 00 48 15 Email: p.simonsen@avancegas.com ABOUT AVANCE GAS Avance Gas Holding Ltd operates in the global market for transportation of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The Company is one of the world's leading owners and operators of very large gas carriers (VLGCs), opeRating a fleet of 14 modern VLGC. For more information about Avance Gas, please visit: www.avancegas.com This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. 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: Avance Gas Holding Ltd via Globenewswire Bonduelle - First Quarter FY 2018-2019 Revenue: activity supported by the resilience of the Europe Zone BONDUELLE A French SCA (Partnership Limited by Shares) with a capital of 56,491,956.50 Euro Head Office: La Woestyne, 59173 Renescure. Commercial and Companies Register of Dunkerque B 447 250 044 First Quarter FY 2018-2019 Revenue (July 1 - September 30, 2018) First quarter of activity supported by the resilience of the Europe Zone The Bonduelle Group's revenue stand for the 1st quarter of Fiscal Year 2018-2019 at 682.1 million of euros, a -1.2% evolution based on reported data and a -1.-% on a like for like basis(1). The integration of the Del Monte business activities, acquired early July, contributed to +1.-% of the total variation, the exchange rate fluctuations dampened the business growth for -1.2%, reflecting mainly the fluctuations of the Canadian and American dollars as well as the Russian rouble. Activity by Geographic Region Total consolidated revenue (in millions) From July 1 to September 30, 2018 From July 1 to September 30, 2017 Variation Reported figures Variation Like for like basis(1) Europe Zone 315.1 313.2 +0.6% +0.8% Non-Europe Zone 367.- 377.4 -2.7% -2.5% Total 682.1 690.6 -1.2% -1.-% Activity by OpeRating Segments Total consolidated revenue (in millions) From July 1 to September 30, 2018 From July 1 to September 30, 2017 Variation Reported figures Variation Like for like basis(1) Canned 230.9 231.3 -0.2% -1.3% Frozen 145.6 150.7 -3.4% -1.9% Fresh processed 305.6 308.6 -0.9% -0.3% Total 682.1 690.6 -1.2% -1.-% Europe Zone The growth of revenue for the Europe Zone, representing 46.2% of the business activity over the period, posted an increase of +0.8% on a like for like basis(1) and +0.6% on reported data. The rather hot summer, observed in Europe, had a positive impact on the sales of summer products (sweetcorn, delicatessen/fresh salads) recording a solid growth over the period, notably the national branded products. Non-Europe Zone The revenue of the Non-Europe Zone, representing 53.8% of the revenue of the group, was down -2.5% on a like for like basis(1) and -2.7% on reported data. In Russia, the poor harvests recorded have affected the Globus brand and private label sales, delivering a limited profitability. However sales of the Bonduelle brand recorded a solid growth. The business activity in North America was slightly down excluding changes in scope of consolidation, linked to the discontinuation of non-profitable product ranges within the Bonduelle Fresh Americas (BFA) business unit coupled with some temporary time lags in the completion of some sales contracts with canned and frozen food manufacturers of the Bonduelle Americas Long Life (BALL). The Del Monte business activity, acquired in July 2018; accounted for +1.-% of the total growth of the group, as anticipated. Other significant information Offer of payment of the dividend in shares - Bonduelle to propose the payment of dividend paid in shares during its Shareholders' Meeting that will take place on December 6, 2018. It will be proposed to the SCA Shareholders' Meeting of December 6, 2018, for the period ending June 30, 2018, a dividend distribution of 0.50 per share, an increase of 11%. To reward the loyalty of its shareholders, and on the recommendation of the Supervisory Board, the Pierre et Benoit Bonduelle SAS company, acting as Managing Director and General Partner for the Bonduelle SCA and represented by Christophe Bonduelle, its Chairman, has also decided to propose to the Shareholders' Meeting an option to have the dividend paid in shares, offering the shareholders an option between payment of the dividend in cash or in shares. The offer price per share received as a dividend will be equal to 90% of the average share price over the 20 trading days prior to the Shareholder's Meeting, after deduction of the net dividend amount(2). Subject to the approval by the Shareholder's Meeting taking place on December 6, 2018, the schedule will be as follows: December 6, 2018: fixing of the issue price of new shares to be potentially provided in payment of the dividend; From December 14, 2018 to December 28, 2018 inclusive: exercise period of the stock dividend option; January 9, 2019: payment of the dividend in either cash or shares. Outlooks Despite a 1st quarter of slight decrease in activity and harvest difficulties in summer 2018, the Bonduelle Group confirms its revenue growth objective of circa 2.5% and current operating profitability of approximately 5%, both at constant exchange rates and excluding new acquisitions in 2018-2019. (1) at constant currency exchange rate and scope of consolidation basis. The revenues in foreign currency over the given period are translated into the rate of exchange for the comparable period. The impact of business acquisitions (or gain of control) and divestments is restated as follows For businesses acquired (or gain of control) during the current period, revenue generated since the acquisition date is excluded from the organic growth calculation; For businesses acquired (or gain of control) during the prior fiscal year, revenue generated during the current period up until the first anniversary date of the acquisition is excluded; For businesses divested (or loss of control) during the prior fiscal year, revenue generated in the comparative period of the prior fiscal year until the divestment date is excluded; For businesses divested (or loss of control) during the current fiscal year, revenue generated in the period commencing 12 months before the divestment date up to the end of the comparative period of the prior fiscal year is excluded. (2) If the amount of the net dividend to which a shareholder is entitled does not correspond to a whole number of shares, the shareholder may receive the next lower whole number of shares, and receive a balancing cash adjustment on the date the option is exercised. Alternative performance indicators : the group presents in its financial notices performance indicators not defined by accounting standards. The main performance indicators are detailed in the financial reports available on www.bonduelle.com. Next financial events: - Annual General Meeting: December 6, 2018 - 2018-2019 1st Half Year Revenues: February 4, 2019 (after stock exchange trading session) - 2018-2019 1st Half Year Results: March 1, 2019 (prior to stock exchange trading session) About Bonduelle Bonduelle, a family business, was established in 1853. Its mission is to be the world reference in "well-living" through plant-based food. Prioritizing innovation and long-term vision, the group is diversifying its operations and geographical presence. Its vegetables, grown over more than 130,000 hectares all over the world, are sold in 100 countries under various brand names and through various distribution channels and technologies. An expert in agro-industry with 54 industrial sites or owned agricultural production sites, Bonduelle produces quality products by selecting the best crop areas close to its customers. Bonduelle is listed on Euronext compartment A Euronext indices: CAC MID & SMALL - CAC FOOD PRODUCERS - CAC ALL SHARES Bonduelle is part of the Gaia non-financial performance index and employee shareholder index (I.A.S.) Code ISIN : FR0000063935 - Code Reuters : BOND.PA - Code Bloomberg : BON FP Find out about the group's current events and news on Twitter @Bonduelle_Group, and its financial news on @BonduelleCFO 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: BONDUELLE via Globenewswire Ingenico GROUP: Governance evolution Press Release Paris, 5th November 2018 Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 - ING), the global leader in seamless payment, announced following the Board meeting held on November 5th, 2018, the evolution of the Group's governance as follow: Dissociation of the functions of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Departure of Philippe Lazare, Chief Executive Officer; Appointment of Bernard Bourigeaud as Chairman of the Board, and; Appointment of Nicolas Huss as Chief Executive Officer and Board member. Chief Executive Officer departure On Board of Directors request, Philippe Lazare has stepped down from his Chairman and Chief Executive Officer mandates to enable a smooth management transition in the interests of Ingenico Group. The Board of Directors unanimously thanked Philippe Lazare for his work during eleven years as the Head of Ingenico Group and for his commitment within the Group's development. He was appointed Board member in 2005, Chief Executive Officer in 2007 and Chairman and CEO in the beginning of 2010, Philippe Lazare has led with his team and the Board of Directors, the transformation of the Group and its international expansion. In a decade and under his management, Ingenico Group became a global leader in seamless payment with revenues growing from 500 million to more than 2.7 billion, of which more than half is derived from electronic payment transactions. Dissociation of the functions and Governance renewal On the proposal of the compensation, appointments and governance committee, the Board of Directors has decided to dissociate the functions of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Bernard Bourigeaud, Independent Director since April 29th, 2016, has been appointed Chairman of the Board. Nicolas Huss, previously Chief OpeRating Officer (COO), has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. He has also been appointed as Board Member for the remainder of Philippe Lazare's mandate. Bernard Bourigeaud Bernard Bourigeaud is the founder of ATOS, a company he led for 17 years. He was previously head of Deloitte in France and pursued an international career with PW and Continental Grain in the UK and elsewhere. Today, he is an investor, consultant and associate professor at HEC business school. He is a director of CGI in Canada and Ingenico in France. He is a member of the advisory board of Jefferies in New York and operating Partner of Advent International. Nicolas Huss Nicolas Huss joined Ingenico Group in July 2017 as Executive Vice-President in charge of Strategy and Performance. In September 2017, he is appointed Executive Vice-President in charge of the Retail business unit. In July 2018, he is appointed Group Chief Operating Officer (COO), a role in which he oversees the management of Ingenico's two business units: "Retail" and "Banks & Acquirers", as well as the organization of the North American entity ("NAR") Nicolas Huss, 54 years old, has a deep understanding of and experience in the payment industry, and a proven track record in the management of international teams. From 2004 to 2010, he worked for GE Capital in Mexico and Spain, where he has been promoted in 2008 as CEO for GE Money. From 2010 to 2012, he joined Bank of America as SVP in charge of portfolio optimization and risk management, based between the United Kingdom and Spain. From 2012 to 2013, he was CEO of Avantcard for Spain and Ireland, a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management. From 2013 to 2017, he was the CEO of Visa Europe, based in London. During this period, he led a strong transformation of the Group, repositioning clients at the center of the strategy, seizing market opportunities and capitalizing on innovation. As a result of the excellent financial results generated, Visa Europe has been bought by Visa Inc. in 2016. Nicolas Huss is also an Independent Board Director at Amadeus since June 2017. He holds a degree in Law and an MA in Political Science and Government (Toulouse). About Ingenico Group Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 - ING) is the global leader in seamless payment, providing smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce across all channels, in-store, online and mobile. With the world's largest payment acceptance network, we deliver secure payment solutions with a local, national and international scope. We are the trusted world-class partner for financial institutions and retailers, from small merchants to several of the world's best known global brands. Our solutions enable merchants to simplify payment and deliver their brand promise. Stay in touch with us: www.ingenico.com twitter.com/ingenico For more experts' views, visit our blog. Contacts / Ingenico Group Investors Laurent Marie VP Investor Relations & Financial Communication laurent.marie@ingenico.com (T) / (+33) (0)1 58 01 92 98 Investors Kevin Woringer Investor Relations Manager kevin.woringer@ingenico.com (T) / (+33) (0)1 58 01 85 09 Communication Stephane Grand Media Communication stephane.grand@ingenico.com (T) / (+33) (0)1 58 01 91 95 Upcoming events 2018 full year results: 26th February 2019 This announcement is distributed by West Corporation on behalf of West Corporation clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: INGENICO via Globenewswire Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. The initiative aims to revive Egypt's position as a hub of culture and creativity, connecting the local design community to international creative networks "Cairo 18" initiative has launched the first session of a series of meetings to designate the purpose and goals of the project and put a work plan into effect. The initiative, founded by Sawsan Morad Ezzelarab, chief editor of El-Beit Magazine published by Al-Ahram Media Foundation, is a non-profit initiative that aims at re-enlisting Cairo on the world cultural agenda as a hub for culture and creativity, attracting creatives from all over the world. The three-hour first meeting was held at the conservation centre of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza, and attended by officials, designers and writers, including Sawsan Morad Ezzelarab, founder of the initiative, and Tarek Tawfik, director general of the GEM. The meeting recommended forming a board of trustees for the initiative that will be responsible for communicating with official and private bodies and associations, pursuing concrete steps towards organising "Cairo Design Week," a major design and arts event that the initiative hopes will attract artists and designers from inside and outside Egypt. The meeting recommended taking advantage of the GEM while it is still under construction to hold events that will promote tourism, Egyptian heritage and museum itself, also recommending that the shops of the museum sell high quality Egyptian merchandise to represent the best of the industry and Egypt's heritage. Morad said that it was necessary to end the first meeting with serious recommendations that lay out a framework for the initiative's mission of promoting Cairo's heritage and its design industry. She underlined the need to hold a big exhibition alongside the aspired to Design Week, as other significant world capitals do. She also suggested holding an art symposium on the GEM grounds, to document the story of the building of such this new Egyptian icon. Mohamed Amin, head of the board of trustees of Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, said that the initiative is a great chance to plan for Cairo's future after the cabinet and government buildings move to the new Administrative Capital. Director of UNESCO culture programme in Egypt, Tatiana Villegas, expressed his organisation's support for the initiative and its goals, adding that the UNESCO office in Cairo is willing to put efforts in organising the initiative's events. Mohamed Abu-Se'da, head of the National Organisation for Urban Harmony, said the initiative is a golden opportunity to plan for a good and healthy environment in which creativity and design can thrive. He stressed the importance of organising a Cairo Design Week, and said it can be a starting point and chance to spread awareness of the importance of design in our lives. Designer Nadine Abdel-Ghaffar highlighted the importance of partnerships between the public and private sectors, saying that such partnerships would allow the initiative to gain funding for its intended projects. The meeting was attended by journalist Mohamed Amin, chairman of the Board of Trustees of Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, Tatiana Villegas, director of the Culture Unit at UNESCO's Cairo office, Mohamed Abu-Se'da, chairman of the National Organisation for Urban Harmony, Ahmed Helmy, chairman of the Chamber of Furniture Industries, designer Azza Fahmy, board chairman of Azza Fahmy Jewelery, Mohamed El-Taher, CEO of Ismailia Real Estate Investment, Adham Nadim, managing director of NADIM Industries and founder of NADIM Heritage and Development Foundation, Amr Helmy, designer and founder of Amr Helmy Designs, Randa Fahmy, designer, board chairman of Randa Fahmy Designs, Omar Hekal, CEO and head of strategy at The Brand Company, Sherif Abdel-Hady, chairman of Mohm, Moahmed Faris, designer, architect and founder of Alchemy Design Studio, and Nadine Abdel-Ghaffar, designer, founder of ART D' Egypte, among others. Search Keywords: Short link: Pork barreling and horse trading View(s): There is an intriguing Serbian phrase podela kolaca that I learned from one of my Serbian friends. Literally it means distributing the cake but in colloquial parlance it refers to the post-electoral distribution of state-funded positions for the loyal members of the winning party. Cutting the proverbial cake or distributing large pieces be it the plums and perks of office or the spoils and plunder of war is not a custom confined to Serbia. It happens all over the world. Whether it was a ruler like Alexander the Great distributing governorships of the lands he conquered to the generals who helped him or presidents and prime ministers in our own country distributing the plums of office to those who helped them to con us gullible voters into electing them to office, this is how leaders look after their supporters and pandankarayas. Receiving rewards for helping the representative of ones own party to get elected a phenomenon sometimes referred to as pork barreling is one thing. Most politicians once they get elected and manage to get themselves appointed as ministers tend to flood the government departments they control with chit-carrying support-kaarayas. Whether these chit-carriers sent by the ministers have the requisite qualifications for the jobs they are sent to fill does not really matter. After all, the ministers themselves often lack reasonable educational qualifications! What matters in this democratic process is that the people who fought for you and voted for you have to be looked after by you. As long as you control the barrel of pork, you are expected to lavishly serve pork to your slaves and supporters. But it is another matter when political leaders resort to horse trading using unscrupulous methods to lure members from another party to join them and allow them to put together the majority required to form a government. As an interesting article in the 12th March 2017 edition of India Today (Goa power tussle: What is horse-trading?) defined the term: Horse Trading is what happens when a political party tries to bring in members from the opposition party in order to gain a majority in the assembly and resorts to unapproved techniques in doing so. The said party may offer ministerial perks and financial benefits to lure opposing members. After the votes were counted in Indias 2017 Goa state election, the Congress Party was shown to have won 17 seats while the BJP had won 13. Neither party had an outright majority to form government. However within a week, the BJP claimed that it had the support of two independents and two minor parties, thus controlling 21 seats enough to make up a majority in the 40 seat assembly and get its leader Manohar Parikkar elected as Chief Minister. Digvijaya Singh, Goas Congress party general secretary, claimed: The BJP has been involved in horse-trading promising money, ministries, posts in government corporations and SUVs to members of the assembly in order to get their support. Rahul Gandhi even accused the rival BJP of stealing our mandate and buying members of the assembly. It is quite common for such offers of plum ministerial positions, often coupled with indirect or direct monetary gains, to turn the tide in Indian politics. A similar situation to what happened last year in Goa occurred last May in another Indian state election in Karnataka. After a hard fought battle neither the Congress Party nor the BJP had won enough seats to govern outright. The Congress Party (realising that the BJP needed to persuade just eight of Congress Party members to defect and join them) decided to lock up its newly elected legislators so that they could not be contacted by the opposition party until the day appointed for the legislative assembly to convene! So the Congress Party and its small regional ally packed off 40 of their MPs to the five-star Eagleton Resort in Bangalore where they were kept in luxury beyond the reach of negotiators from the BJP to prevent them from being bought over! Milan Vaishnav, director of the south Asia programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said: One would expect that party leaders could rely on ideology or party loyalty. In India, however, ideology has been cast to the wind. Its all about money, muscle, stature, proximity, family connections or your caste profile. Ideals are simply never part of the equation. Indian journalist Mayuk Majumdar observed: The term Horse Trading, a term that came into use in the early 19th century, owes its origin to the notorious shrewdness of the traders who bought and sold horses. Used in the context of Indian politics, however, it implies that politicians have reached an understanding after promises of money, ministries and other such things have been made. As this momentous month of November begins in our own nation, a land that has been influenced so much and in so many ways by our giant neighbour India, I wonder what influenced me to muse this month about pork barreling and horse rrading? Andalucia expects to reach the figure of 30 million tourists in 2018, despite the drop in British visitors to the region. The figure was announced by regional president, Susana Diaz, at the opening day of the World Travel Market in London. The fair, where Andalucia joins tourist destinations from around the world in a bid to attract the British tourist market, was attended by more than 150 professionals from the regions tourism industry, all of them with full programmes of meetings to make the most of the three-day event. The reappearance on the market of rival Mediterranean destinations such as Turkey or Egypt is considered one of the main causes of the 2.9% fall in British guests in Andalusian hotels in the first nine months of this year, leaving the total at 1.2 million. The SUR in English stall at the ExCeL London. / Salvador Salas Despite this fall, however, Diaz said that this year Andalucia would reach the 30 million tourist milestone in 2018, a target that was originally set for 2020. With these figures, Andalucia receives 3.5 times its own population, said Diaz, who praised the work of the regional tourism department, led by Francisco Javier Fernandez, and the good coordination between the authorities and the private sector. The president announced new campaigns to strengthen the promotion of Andalucia in the UK, with marketing campaigns in London, Manchester and Leeds next February, further opportunities for local business owners to meet with British tour operators. The president stressed the importance of the World Travel Market for Andalucia as 24% of the foreign visitors to southern Spain are British. The diversity of the destination and the good communications are what have helped mantain the average length of stay for British tourists at 9.6 days; the average daily spend has also stayed as high as 70 euros and the British tourists average score given for the region is 8.4 out of ten. This high score is what, according to the president, is helping maintain tourist loyalty in these times of uncertainty. The president of the Costa del Sol tourist board, Elias Bendodo, joined the mayors of the main tourist destinations on the coasts own space for the first time at the WTM this year, rather than just having a stand in the Andalucia section. Copies of the SUR supplement were available to London commuters inside City AM on Monday. / Salvador Salas Bendodo was optimistic about the British tourist figures, highlighting an increase of 15% in the number of seats on flights between Malaga and British airports this winter. The Malaga city councillor for Tourism, Maria del Mar Martin Rojo, confirmed the good forecasts for British tourists visiting the city, despite the negative figures elsewhere in the region. An increase of 5% of visitors is expected this year, said the councillor. The Spanish minister for Tourism, Reyes Maroto, was also in London on Monday, visiting the stands for Spain, Andalucia, the Costa del Sol and Malaga. SUR in English also has its own stand at the World Travel Market, presenting its special Southern Spain supplement, produced especially for the fair but also available to readers in Spain with a copy of this week's newspaper. Copies of this supplement also appeared in London inside copies of City AM on Monday, treating commuters to a dose of sunshine on a chilly autumn morning. Brexit Brits Abroad, the research programme studying the sociological impact of Brexit on UK citizens living in the European Union, has published its latest report 'What does freedom of movement mean to British citizens living in the EU27?' Not only does the report outline the European Unions definition of freedom of movement and how Brexit is likely to affect the lives of millions of Brits living in other EU countries, but also EU citizens living in the EU. It also draws on real-life stories. Brexit Brits Abroad is in regular contact with 194 Brits, living in 23 member states, all of whom provide feedback to questions posed by the research team. The report quotes a cross section of people, from young students who fear that they and their younger siblings will miss out on plans and ambitions they had to live, work and study in other European Union countries, to people who have settled in a country and have family there, as well as those with parents who have retired to countries like Spain and France. The Brexit Brits Abroad panellists share their practical concerns about what the UKs departure from the EU will mean in terms of healthcare, jobs and families as well as the worry that a post-Brexit Britain will lead to a loss in interest in other cultures, openness to new ideas and experiences, compassion and understanding for other people. The report concludes that many of those taking part in the research feel that they have not only lost a right but a sense of who they are and who they can be. Research carried out by Brexit Brits Abroad creates evidence that can be used to inform policy among the practitioners, civil servants, experts and organisations responsible for supporting the rights and entitlements of populations affected by Brexit. To the read the full report, click here. For more information on Brexit Brits Abroad, visit Twitter, Facebook or www.brexitbritsabroad.com. Why Super Typhoon Haiyan was so deadly Manila, Nov 5 (AFP) Nov 05, 2018 When Super Typhoon Haiyan struck in 2013 it was the disaster-prone Philippines' worst storm on record, with 7,350 people dead or missing. Several factors caused the staggering death toll: - Strongest storm - With gusts exceeding 305 kilometres (190 miles) per hour at first landfall, Haiyan was the strongest ever to hit land at the time. Typhoons more commonly reach peak velocity while still travelling over oceans. The powerful front drove a giant wall of seawater called a storm surge, estimated to be 7.5 metres (24.6 feet) high, into coastal towns like Tacloban, a city of 240,000 people. Overall, Haiyan tore across a group of islands with a combined area the size of Portugal. - Low-lying islands - The Philippines is the first major landmass on the Pacific Ocean's typhoon belt. A wall of mountains on the coast of the main island of Luzon dampens some of the blows, but the smaller, flatter islands -- such as those that lay in Haiyan's path -- are more exposed. Much of Tacloban sits less than five metres above sea level. The town and others nearby were defenceless against the storm surge that funnelled through a shallow bay sandwiched between Leyte and Samar islands. - Inadequate warnings - Even though the hardest-hit areas received early warnings, the weather service and other officials later admitted that the victims were unfamiliar with the term "storm surge". The last deadly storm surge in Tacloban had hit in 1887, more than a century before Haiyan. In a country with scores of regional languages, the government also did not have local terms to be able to communicate the phenomenon to everyone. After the disaster, the government agency worked with linguists to craft simpler meteorological terms to ensure the danger posed by typhoons, floods, landslides and other adverse events would be fully understood by all. - Extreme poverty - In a nation where one in five people earn less than two dollars a day, the people in Haiyan's path stood out for their deep poverty. Many of the victims built their homes on the islands' narrow coastal plains and lived off subsistence fishing and farming. Haiyan destroyed or damaged 1.14 million houses, many of them made of cheap, flimsy materials that stood no chance against nature's wrath. - Failure to evacuate - The national government, through a geohazard mapping programme begun in 2006, had flagged most of the areas that were prone to the impacts of natural disasters. However, local governments failed to evacuate many of the vulnerable population away from the danger zones, partly because they did not fully appreciate the threat and partly because they had not built enough shelters. In the town of Hernani on Samar island, where Haiyan made the first of many landfalls, several families were wiped out by a storm surge when they left their flimsy shacks to ride out the storm at a low-lying school built along the coast, neighbours told AFP. Join a global community who rely on us for insight into power, markets and people on the continent. John Bazemore-Pool/Getty Images(ATLANTA) -- Georgia Secretary of State and Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp announced that his office opened an investigation on Saturday night into the Democratic Party of Georgia over an alleged hacking attempt of the states voter registration system, according to a news release posted early Sunday morning. The announcement -- slammed by opponents as a political stunt -- comes just two days before a hotly-contested gubernatorial election in which Kemp is facing off against Democrat Stacey Abrams in a race that has featured legal action over Kemps alleged efforts to use his office to suppress votes. While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cyber crimes, Candice Broce, press secretary for Kemp at the Secretary of States office, said in a statement, which indicated that the alleged hacking attempt was unsuccessful and that no personal data was breached. Federal partners, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were immediately alerted, the statement said. The Department of Homeland Security told ABC News in a statement that the state has notified us of this issue, but deferred further comment back to the state. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The announcement from Kemps office, which was devoid of details on the nature or timing of the attempt, was quickly denounced by his political opponents in Georgia as scurrilous and 100 percent false. This political stunt from Kemp just days before the election is yet another example of why he cannot be trusted and should not be overseeing an election in which he is also a candidate for governor, said Rebecca DeHart, executive director of the Democratic Party of Georgia. Abrams, who with a victory on Tuesday would become the first African-American woman to be elected governor in the United States, told ABC News affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta that Kemp was trying to distract voters with a desperate ploy. As of Sunday afternoon, FiveThirtyEights gubernatorial forecast listed the Georgia race as a toss-up, with both candidates projected to receive just shy of 50 percent of the total vote. President Donald Trump is scheduled to appear at a rally for Kemp in Macon on Sunday afternoon. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1055075245743374336 This is not the first time Kemp has raised allegations about attempts to infiltrate the secretary of states computer network. Just days after the 2016 presidential election, Kemp requested a federal investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, citing 10 suspected unauthorized attempts by DHS personnel to penetrate the states firewall. A report from the Inspector General of DHS released in July 2017, concluded that allegations were unsubstantiated. The investigation determined that the activity flagged by Kemp was the result of normal and automatic computer message exchanges, and that there were no unauthorized intrusion attempts. Voting rights have been a central issue in the campaign over the past several months, and Kemp has resisted calls, including from former President Jimmy Carter, to recuse himself from overseeing an election in which he is running. Kemps office has been under fire for weeks after an investigation by the Associated Press found that more than 50,000 registrations, the vast majority from African-American voters, had been put on hold because data in their voter registration applications did not exactly match other government records. Civil rights groups have sued Kemp over that so-called exact-match law and over allegations that hundreds of absentee ballot were tossed after election workers determined that the signatures on the ballot applications did not match those on file. Federal judges ruled against Kemp in both instances. He twice this week was told by federal judges that he was wrong when it comes to voter suppression, Abrams said Sunday. They forced him to restore access to the right to vote for those who are casting absentee ballots and those who on the exact match list. He is trying to rile up his base by misleading voters yet again." Later Sunday, Kemps office released another brief statement indicating that the investigation into the states Democratic Party was opened after receiving information from our legal team about failed efforts to breach the online voter registration system and My Voter Page. We are working with our private sector vendors and investigators to review data logs. "The Democratic Party of Georgia will stop at nothing to regain relevance and power in our state," said Ryan Mahoney, Communications Director for Kemps gubernatorial campaign. "In an act of desperation, the Democrats tried to expose vulnerabilities in Georgia's voter registration system. This was a 4th quarter Hail Mary pass that was intercepted in the end zone. Thanks to the systems and protocols established by Secretary of State Brian Kemp, no personal information was breached. These power-hungry radicals should be held accountable for their criminal behavior. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Naufal Armia Arifin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, November 5, 2018 16:42 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877ab4cfe 3 Opinion European-Union,EU,Asia,connectivity Free Asia is currently enjoying the spotlight of major economic initiatives from global leaders, we as part of the ASEAN Community should ask ourselves, which would bring the most value? Chinas Belt Road Initiative (BRI) aims to revitalize the ancient silkroad trade route through infrastructure development. According to Chinas Ministry of Commerce, the country has contributed a total of US$120.1 billion of overseas direct investment in 2017 mostly for infrastructure projects. Stories such as the Mombasa Nairobi railway project in Kenya gave the impression of unprecedented opportunities where the usual 24 hours travel time between the two cities is cut down into a mere 4-6 hours. Another tale is the ancient port of Piraeus where China state-owned firm COSCO Shipping acquired 51 percent of the port located in Greece where it is believed the investment will boost economic recovery following the debt crisis that devastated the country in 2009. However, BRI is also viewed with cautious optimism by Asian countries, given the large amount of debts they have to pay. Sri Lanka, for an example, is unable to repay its debt to China and has to lend Hambantota port for 99 years. On the other side of the theatre, the US had pledged its own investment plan in Asia through the notion of the Indo-Pacific Concept. This July, at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Washington, Mike Pompeo as the US State Secretary announced the US will pour out $113 million to improve digital economy, energy, and infrastructure sector of the region. Marking a further step from the once vague Indo-Pacific strategy that emphasized security development. Although, a different kind of criticism arose that the amount of investment is not comparable to how many China had been pouring since 2013, the lack of focus and commitment of the pledge whether it will be a security-focused concept or economic development left the Indo-Pacific concept overshadowed by BRI. Then comes along EUs plan with the EU Asia Connectivity Strategy announced recently that introduces a different kind of approach, emphasizing on digital network, commonly agreed rules, and sustainable financing. In early October, Federica Mogherini as the vice-president of European Commission wrote her opinion piece on The Jakarta Post regarding the strategy. She recounted the long history that Europe and Asia have where economic, cultural, and scientific exchanges are vibrant but have not reached its maximum potential. In the context of ASEAN, Mogherini believed the modality between the two organizations is already present as the EU is already the supporting partner of ASEANs own Connectivity Master Plan 2025 through 250 million Euro funds. The statement was backed with data from EUs European External Action Service (EEAS) that shows several cooperations such as the 20 million Euro-Enhanced Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument (E-READI) of engagingpolicymakerss, civil society, and private sectors in the digital economy, clean energy, and transport, etc; the 85 million euro ASEAN economic and trade connectivity (ARISE Plus) program that supports trade facilitation; and the EUR10 million support to higher education in the ASEAN region (SHARE) program that promotes academic exchanges for higher education and student mobility. Aside from the history and several modalities of cooperation mentioned, there are two reasons that made the plan differ from BRI and Indo Pacific. First, amidst these monetary and infrastructure investments, EU and ASEAN share a mutual view on the importance of community-building based on common rules and norms. The ASEAN Economic Community blueprint stated that the characteristic of such economic community will be consistent with multilateral rules as well as adherence to rules-based systems for effective compliance and implementation of economic commitments. For EU itself, the importance of a rule-based community is accentuated in the Joint Communication declaration recently released, where one of the building blocks of developing connectivity is through EUs own internal experience of international rules-based connectivity. Second, in the age of industry 4.0, private sectors and academics alike share a common sentiment that digital economy is essential for ASEAN countries to boost its economic growth. According to Bain & Company, a global management consultancy firm, ASEANs current digital economy bring 7 percent GDP of total value and could stimulate $1 trillion GDP growth for the region by 2025. In region where Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of economic growth, the finding continued that 75 percent of SMEs viewed digital integration as an opportunity. The importance of digital economy to ASEAN lies from that fact and the notion that cross-border trade will depend on it in the near future. However, there are challenges present as well, for example: Internet penetration is a crucial aspect for digital economy to flourish, and 65 percent rural areas in ASEAN lacks that connectivity according to Bain, a regional framework will need to be developed, and data protection is equally crucial. EUs modalities are able to answer those challenges. Through E-READI, EU had been a close dialogue partner through the ASEAN TELMIN/TELSOM, two annual conferences that invite the Ministry of ICT from ASEAN countries to discuss policy management and broadband deployment of ICT. A regional framework by the EU titled Digital4Development is available for the initial template, along with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that regulates data protection and management for companies operating in EU. Eventually, whether this connectivity strategy should be narrowly viewed as EUs way to maintain influence in Asia or not, ASEAN would do well to prioritize this enhanced connectivity strategy by EU. *** The writer is a graduate in political science from Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung, and is currently a Research Assistant at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Riyadi Suparno (The Jakarta Post) Nusa Dua, Bali Mon, November 5, 2018 09:08 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877a9e4f4 3 Opinion #commentary,palm-oil,palm-oil-production,Gapki,International-Palm-Oil-Conference Free A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This proverb fits the current state of Indonesias palm oil trade, in which the government is busy looking for new export markets but forgets to nurture existing ones. When opening the 14th Indonesian Palm Oil Conference here last Monday three days before the actual conference began President Joko Jokowi Widodo called on palm oil players to explore new frontiers, especially in Iran, Africa and South Asia. Speaking at the conference on Thursday, Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukito cited potential export markets the government is targeting in Africa such as Mozambique, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. He hoped palm oil businesses would follow suit. Opening new markets, however, is always easier said than done. According to Association of Palm Oil Producers (GAPKI) chairman Joko Supriyono, palm oil businesses faced tough challenges in opening new markets. First, a new market has no strong demand. Second, new markets have their own barriers. Iran, for example, is cut off from the international financial system as a result of United States sanctions and therefore, trading with it has to go through a third party. African countries, meanwhile, have no storage infrastructure for palm oil, and therefore, exports to Africa have to be delivered in packages, resulting in higher costs. The initiative to open new markets for palm oil is apparently driven by the rising barriers in a number of Indonesias traditional markets like the European Union, India and the US. A strong drive to penetrate new markets, however, must not weaken efforts to maintain existing ones. Despite their problems, traditional markets still absorb a significant amount of Indonesias palm oil exports. Therefore, ignoring the interests of these countries would result in the further reduction of exports. Indonesia should learn from its bitter experience in dealing with Pakistan and now Turkey. They are two good examples of Indonesias neglect when dealing with palm oil importing countries, resulting in a significant loss of exports. Indonesias exports to Pakistan was surging back in the 2000s and reached its peak of 740,000 tons in 2007, when Pakistan and Indonesia were negotiating a preferential trade agreement (PTA) to reduce the formers deficit. The stumbling block at the time was Pakistans Kinnow. One director general at Indonesias Agriculture Ministry was adamant that it should not allow Kinnow to enter the market because Indonesia had a lot of orange products. Pakistan then cut its palm oil imports from Indonesia and shifted to Malaysia. As a result, Indonesian palm oil exports to Pakistan dropped to 560,000 tons in 2008, 220,000 tons in 2009 and a low of 87,000 tons in 2010 before rebounding to 220,000 in 2011 when Indonesia finally agreed to allow Kinnow to enter the country for two months a year. Last year, Pakistan was Indonesias fifth largest palm oil export destination, with over 2.2 million tons. A similar misstep happened with Turkey. Back in 2012, Indonesias palm oil exports to the country reached 600,000 tons when the two began their PTA negotiations. The talks, however, have gone nowhere due to the Turkey wheat issue. It wanted to sell more wheat to Indonesia, but it reportedly because of lobbying by the countrys biggest wheat importer refused to comply. In the meantime, Malaysia clinched a free trade agreement higher than the PTA with Turkey. As a result, there is now a 10 percent price difference between Indonesias palm oil and Malaysias. Indonesias exports to Turkey slumped to around 40,000 tons last year. Just like Pakistan and Turkey, every importer of Indonesian palm oil will try to get something in return, especially those who suffer a trade deficit with Indonesia. They have their own domestic interests. India, for example, has complained about the big trade deficit with Indonesia. As the second largest importer of Indonesias palm oil after China, India has every reason to demand something in return. It has slapped between 44 and 54 percent tariffs for palm oil to protect local farmers. It is only a matter of time before we see a slide in Indonesias exports to India. Indonesia also faces the prospect of declining exports to the EU after a decision to phase out palm oil for biodiesel by 2030 on the ground of the unsustainable production of palm oil. So far, around half of EU palm oil imports are used for biodiesel. Indonesias response to the EU has been the strongest so far. But failure to understand the interests of the EU will only result in the loss of Indonesian palm oil exports. Therefore, it is important that we play by their rules so that the EU market remains open to Indonesian palm oil beyond 2030. Keeping the export markets open is important considering Indonesias huge output, which reached 42 million tons last year of which 31 million were exported. This year, because of restrictions in some markets and abundant supplies from Indonesia and Malaysia, palm oil prices have slumped from US$636 per ton at the beginning of the year to $485 at the end of October. The challenge is even bigger now, considering the sectors big contribution to the Indonesian economy. It brings in $22.9 billion in export revenue, out of the total $168.7 billion in exports last year, absorbs around 17.5 million jobs directly and indirectly and contributes 2.46 percent to the countrys gross domestic product. Therefore, Indonesia needs to go the extra mile to keep its export market open. It needs to actively pursue trade agreements with the traditional markets so that the produce will not suffer further setbacks. Indonesia cannot afford to lose another traditional market. *** The writer is the executive director of Tenggara Strategics, a business intelligence institution, founded by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), The Jakarta Post and Prasetiya Mulya University. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Adv-Inforial (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia Tue, November 6, 2018 00:02 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877aba3ff 4 Inforial Free The EU-Indonesia Business Dialogue (EIBD) 2018 was successfully held on Oct. 25, 2018 at Ayana Midplaza Hotel, Jakarta and was attended by around 500 participants. Started back in 2009, this annual high-level conference was the 8th EIBD and jointly hosted by EuroCham and the EU-Indonesia Business Network. It was also supported by the European Union, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), the Indonesian Businessmen Association (APINDO), Kiroyan Partners, Klareco Communication, PRAISE Association, Sinergi Muda, The Jakarta Post, and Waste4Change. Sponsored by SIEMENS Indonesia, Adidas Indonesia and Danone Indonesia, the EIBD this year made a major breakthrough by discussing the important topic of sustainable business. Realizing the importance of adopting sustainable practices and raising awareness on the issue, the EIBD 2018 adopted the theme of Circular Economy: Maximizing Business through Sustainable Practice. It was dedicated to discussing an approach that aims to minimize resource utilization by extending the life span of resources. Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar, and European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella delivered their keynote speeches at the EIBDs Youth and Business Sessions. Both Vella and Siti Nurbaya discussed the circular economy approach. Two other representatives of the European Union, Kestutis Sadauskas and Filip Deraedt, were also speaking as panelists on the first panel of the Business Session on Circular Economy Dialogue alongside Ms. Rosa V. Ratnawati, director general for dangerous toxic materials and waste management at the Environment and Forestry Ministry. To represent the business side and share the current state of Circular Economy implementation in the country, Corine Tap of Danone and Frank van Woerden also joined this panel. This Business Dialogue kick-off panel was moderated by Yono Reksoprodjo of Kadin. Noke Kiroyan of Kiroyan Partners facilitated the second panel on Business Value and Circular Economy Practices (FMCG and beyond). In line with the panels theme, two business representatives shared their experience on circular economy adoption from a non-FMCG perspective, Daniel Loh of BASF Indonesia and Paolo Maggi of Tetra Pak Indonesia. Ratna Kartadjoemena of Potato Head also appeared as a panelist in the session showing how the approach can also be implemented in the Indonesian context. National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) deputy director for environmental law enforcement Erik Armundito provided direction from the policy side. . (./.) To conclude the whole event, the third panel session looked at how businesses can move forward from challenges and further encourage others to implement a circular economy. Sinta Kaniawati of PRAISE moderated this panel and was joined by Safri Burhanuddin, who is the undersecretary for human resources, science and technology and maritime culture at the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister, and Mohamad Bijaksana Junerosano of Waste4Change. EuroCham Board Member Wichard von Harrach also spoke at this panel on Business Capacity representing his company Jawa Power. As a concluding panel, a representative of Youth Dialogue was also invited to share their recommendation. . (./.) EIBD 2018 also took a major step by inviting the Indonesian youth to participate in the Youth Conference of EIBD 2018, aiming to encourage youth and empower them to help overcome the waste issue. Starting early at 9:30 a.m., the Youth Conference kicked off with a plenary session with a distinguished list of panelists including Danish Ambassador to Indonesia Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen, founder & CEO of DAMN I Love Indonesia Daniel Mananta, head of communications and public affairs at Bayer Indonesia Laksmi Prasvita, president director of Nestle Indonesia Dharnesh Gordhon, Corine Tap of Danone Aqua and Ratna Kartadjoemena of Potato Head Family. The Youth Conference was then followed by three breakout sessions held in parallel with three main themes on Make, Use and Return. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Gohar Abbas (Agence France-Presse) Shimsal, Pakistan Mon, November 5, 2018 10:07 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877aa50f8 2 People Pakistani-porters,K2,mountaineer Free He is the only man ever to have scaled K2 three times, but Fazal Ali's achievements have gone largely unrecognised, like those of many of his fellow porters who risk life and limb on Pakistan's highest peaks. As one of the few elite porters in the country specialising in high-altitude expeditions, the 40-year-old has spent nearly two decades on Pakistan's deadliest slopes -- plotting routes, lugging kit and cooking for paying clients. At 8,611 metres (28,251 feet), K2 is not quite as high as Mount Everest, which stands at 8,848 metres. But its technical challenges have earned it the nickname "the Savage Mountain" and dozens have lost their lives on its treacherous, icy flanks. Ali conquered K2 in 2014, 2017 and 2018 -- all without additional oxygen. "He is the only climber with this achievement," said Eberhard Jurgalski from Guinness World Records. While foreign climbers have won plaudits for their feats, Ali and his colleagues are overlooked, even among the mountaineering community. "I am happy," Ali told AFP. "But I am also heartbroken because my feat will never be truly appreciated." He is one of many high-altitude porters who work on foreign expeditions to northern Pakistan, a remote region that is home to three of the highest mountain ranges in the world, the Himalayas, the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush. Chosen for their endurance and knowledge of the extremely difficult terrain, the porters trace the route for climbers and fix ropes for their ascent. They also carry food and supplies on their backs and pitch their clients' tents. However, once the mountaineers return home, the porters -- indispensable during expeditions -- often feel forgotten. "When they arrive, they are full of goodwill, they make many promises," Ali said. "But once they've achieved their goals, they forget everything." One incident in particular left Ali with a bitter taste in his mouth: he arrived at the summit of K2 with a Western mountaineer, but instead of taking a picture together, she posed alone with a flag in her hand. "She ordered us to take a picture and stay at a distance," he said, adding the episode led to a dispute between the climber and a Nepali porter who was also there. - Valley of mountaineers - Ali, like many Pakistani high-altitude porters, was born in the remote Shimshal Valley in the country's north, near the Chinese border. Home to just 140 families, Ali's village has produced many of the country's greatest mountaineers, including Rajab Shah, the first Pakistani to scale all five 8,000-metre peaks in the country. Rehmatullah Baig, who conquered K2 in 2014 while taking vital geographical measurements and installing a weather station, also hails from Shimshal and shares Ali's resentment. "I should be happy, but I'm not," he said. "If I were recognised, if the mountaineers from... Pakistan were recognised, or if they enjoyed a bit of recognition or financial assistance, they would climb all the 8,000-metre peaks of the world," he said. Baig's father was the first from Shimshal to pursue the deadly pursuit of mountaineering, but he now tells his children not to follow in his footsteps. - Investment and training - A major source of resentment among Ali and his colleagues is their belief that they are treated worse than their Nepali counterparts. In the event of an accident, Pakistani porters are rarely entitled to helicopter rescues by their employers. In Nepal, local guides are eligible for approximately $12,700 in life insurance from the government, after mountain workers successfully lobbied for an increase following an avalanche in 2014 that killed 16 sherpas on Mount Everest. High-altitude porters in Pakistan meanwhile are lucky to get life insurance policies worth $1,500, according to the Alpine Club of Pakistan. Mountaineering experts agree there is a disparity and believe the Pakistani workers should be better trained and supported by the government. German mountaineer Christiane Fladt, who wrote a book on Shimshal, says the Pakistani porters "should organise themselves in a union in order to put stress on their financial demands". Read also: First climbers of 2018 reach Everest summit - 'We hate the mountain' - In 2008, two Shimshal porters were among 11 people who died on the same day in the worst disaster to hit K2. One of them, Fazal Karim, fell alongside the French mountaineer Hugues d'Aubarede as they descended from the summit. Karim's body was never found. His widow, Haji Parveen, said she tried her best to dissuade him from going on an expedition. "I told him, 'We have a good life here and we have enough to live', but he did not listen to me," she said softly. Karim was a skilled worker, owner of a sawmill in the village, where he had also opened a shop for his wife. After his disappearance, his widow had to sell the mill to finance the education of their children. According to Parveen, neither the expedition company nor the foreign mountaineers on the trip gave her any assistance. Now her eldest, who is studying in Karachi, wants to become a porter like his father. "He talks about it every time he comes home and says he wants to be like his father. But we scold him because we hate the mountain: it's useless, nothing at all." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) - Mon, November 5, 2018 06:03 1112 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877a9abfb 1 Health dysania,clinomania,depression,sleep-disorder,health Free Certain days are more difficult than others that even getting out of bed in the morning can feel like a battle. There is a name for this condition: dysania. Dr. Mark Salter from the Royal College of Psychiatrists told BBC that dysania was a seldom used term to describe the difficulty of leaving the bed in the morning. It is a behavior sometimes seen in those suffering from a major depressive disorder, Salter said. Although it is not recognized as an official medical term, dysania is considered to be more serious than merely feeling extraordinarily sleepy. While feelings of exhaustion are common in busy cosmopolitans such as Jakarta, the inability to get out of bed can last for days and is often associated with anxiety about getting up. Once the sufferer gets up, they instantly desire to return to bed. As it is not a formally recognized condition, it is tricky to determine whether one should be diagnosed with dysania, or if that person simply needs more rest. There is however a simple litmus test that should make it easier to identify whether or not you or someone you know is a sufferer of dysania. Furthermore, dysania, a condition that is closely associated with clinomania, which refers to the desire to not leave the bed the entire day, could also be a symptom of other conditions such as depression or chronic fatigue syndrome. Rise and Shine notes that, to find out whether someone suffers from dysania, they can write out in detail how it feels to be tired in the morning. If words used include "stressful", "anxious", "overwhelming" or "debilitating", consulting a doctor is recommended. More serious symptoms could mean depression. In any case, getting enough sleep is important. Read also: Sleepless in Indonesia: When sleeping disorders and mental health are intertwined Those with jobs that require early arrival should prioritize going to bed sooner. Meanwhile, those who work in the evenings might squeeze in more hours to sleep in the morning, as most adults need between six and nine hours of sleep. If difficulty falling asleep hinders you from getting enough sleep, try some relaxation methods, such as taking a relaxing bath or exercising with yoga stretches. Staying away from distractions, namely mobile phones and laptops, also helps you fall asleep. (acr/mut) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marcel Thee (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, November 5, 2018 10:12 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877aa5faa 4 Books hip-hop,music,#music,#books,Book,history,Ucok-Homicide Free The second collaborative effort between independent book publisher Elevation Books and hip-hop musician and historian Herry Sutresna (aka Ucok Homicide) has yielded another surefire hit. Flip Da Skrip is an in-depth look into the last 10 years of hip-hop that is as insightful as it is personal. Delivered with Ucoks characteristic wit and academic-yet-personable style of prose, the book is incredibly effective as a introduction of hip-hop as both a growing cultural force and as an affecting form of art for those not too familiar with the genre. Fully titled Flip Da Skrip: Kumpulan Catatan Rap Nerd (a rap nerds collection of notes), the book collects writings Ucok has produced in the past 10 years. They range from personal best of lists and analytical pieces to historical assessments related to the genre. They focus mostly on hip-hop on an international scale, showcasing the authors well of knowledge and perspective, with some textural context that lends some rare local insights but no real information on the local rap scene. The book follows 2016s Setelah Boombox Usai Menyalak (After the Boombox Stops Barking), also published by Elevation Books, which is a division of the indie record label Elevation Records. Unlike Boombox, the latest book feels more thorough and academic -- and as a result feels like a deeper experience as a whole. It has 240 pages and made up of 26 chapters, with more than half of that being new pieces exclusively written for the book. The rest includes pieces published through a variety of mediums, including Ucoks personal blog. Flip Da Skrip also has some of the best layout design a local book has ever had. Almost like a coffee table art book in its dynamism, the book features a mix-color within its pages and chapters as well as beautiful typefaces and sets in its typography. There are even cut-able cover sleeves for Ucok-approved mixed tapes included. For Ucok, music is always personal, and it comes off in his writing here. Even when you are simply analyzing something, it comes from a personal space wherein you enjoy music. Ive always wanted to know how (influential hip-hop trio Beastie Boys seminal album) Pauls Boutique was produced, for instance, or how the first sampling occurred. These fundamental things in hip-hop history has changed my life, Ucok says. Having arrived in the early 1990s Bandung underground music scene, as one of the few musicians not playing rock music, Ucok and Homicide, his hip-hop trio, approached rap with a punk-rock perspective -- digging deep into fanzine culture. Those who read zines, are deeply interested in it -- no matter whether they know the history or not, he says. The book, like Boombox, was an immediate success upon its release last month, owing to Ucoks loyal fan base, which he has accumulated over the years through his music and activism ((Ucok is also active in on the sociopolitical scene). There is hope that Flip will reach even more people. Our goal is to reach as much readers as possible, says M Taufiqurrahman, Elevation Books sole owner and editor. It is probably the first in-depth and well-designed, well-illustrated book on hip-fop in Indonesia. The relationship between Ucok and Elevation, which also released archival recordings by Ucoks influential, now sadly disbanded rap group Homicide, was built on their shared sense of purpose and passion for music. It doesnt feel like a writer-publisher relationship, says Ucok. But more like friends who happen to have a shared taste in music and are in agreement with a lot of things. [] In some aspects, I feel like I also own Elevation, he half-jokes. As the book subtitle declares, Ucok sees the book as a collection written simply by a (hip-hop) fan. Being a fan of music has been a longer journey compared to my journey as a musician or activist, or any other things in my life, he says. Ive been listening to hip-hop ever-since I was in third grade in 1983. So you can imagine the things I wanted to share. For the author, the most interesting reads have always been written from a fan perspective, and the way music -- or any kind of passion -- has managed to drive their lives. Though his fan base has grown increasingly more dedicated by the day -- Homicide reissues sell out in mere minutes -- Ucok keeps it humble. I dont have any wild dreams about this book affecting the scene or the world. Its just some rap nerd notes. ___________ Flip Da Skrip by Herry Ucok Homicide Sutresna Elevation Books, 2018 Indonesian, 240 pages with inserts Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Junko Horiuchi (Kyodo News) Tokyo Mon, November 5, 2018 21:06 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877ab8d51 2 People Haruki-Murakami,Waseda-University Free Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami said Sunday he will donate manuscripts of his books as well as vinyl records for an archive at Waseda University, hoping it will become a "feel-good place" on campus. "Nothing would make me happier if such a facility were of use to those who want to study my works, whether Japanese or foreigners," said Murakami in a very rare appearance in a press conference. "I hope it will be the start of an exchange not just of my works but also of cultures." The world-renowned writer acknowledged that when he was a student at the university he did not attend classes and instead very often spent time reading old books at a theater museum on campus. "Such an experience has helped my writing," said Murakami, who entered the university in 1968 and graduated seven years later. "This kind of place is needed." Murakami, also a translator of American literature, including "The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler and "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger, said, "I feel strongly that language interactions have made me grow." "I would have suffocated if I was only engaged in Japanese literature," said Murakami. "I hope (the new facility) will be a space that is open to the inside and outside." The Japanese author's novels, translated into more than 50 languages, have become a global phenomenon, propelling him to the status of likely contender for the Nobel Prize in literature. The 69-year-old said he had considered other places, including foreign universities he has worked at, as archive sites for his documents but said he chose the Japanese university because it is the school he graduated from and felt right. "After nearly 40 years of writing, there is hardly any space to put the documents such as manuscripts, related articles, whether at my home or at my office. I don't have a child so I was also worried that they may be scattered after my death," Murakami said, adding that keeping them in one location is also convenient. Murakami said he will also donate letters he exchanged with other authors and translated works to the Tokyo institution, possibly also a manuscript of his popular novel "Norwegian Wood" that he wrote in notebooks, if he can find them. He also expressed hope to launch a scholarship for researchers. The press conference, the first held by Murakami in Japan in 37 years, took place as the novelist, previously known to have avoided the spotlight, has been increasing his public appearances in recent months, including debuting as a radio show host in August. "I felt that the donation (of my archives) was very important to me so I thought I needed to properly explain," Murakami said, when asked about the reason for holding the press conference. Waseda University President Kaoru Kamata told the press conference, "We hope to establish a research base for Murakami fans around the world and scholars seeking to further study Japanese literature and culture which they will see as a must-go place." In the envisioned facility, Murakami said if possible he wants to organize a concert using his collection of over 10,000 vinyl records and also create a space that resembles his working room with audio devices and bookshelves. Murakami, who opened a cafe for jazz enthusiasts in Tokyo while still a student at Waseda University, has said music is an essential component of his career in literature. "I start working around 4 or 4:30 a.m. but the night before, just as if I am going on a field trip, I select vinyl records that I want to listen to the following day and place them by my pillow," he said. "My joy is to work while listening to those records." Read also: Murakami's latest novel released in English to mixed reviews Murakami debuted with the novel "Hear the Wind Sing" in 1979, which won him the Gunzo literature prize for up-and-coming writers. The 1987 novel "Norwegian Wood" named after a Beatles song catapulted him to fame in Japan and around the world. He has won several foreign literary prizes, including the Franz Kafka Prize in 2006, the Jerusalem Prize in 2009 and the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award for 2016. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Kyodo News) Nagoya Mon, November 5, 2018 20:07 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877ab75bf 2 Science & Tech AI-powered-ATM,AI,ATM Free A Japanese company has developed an artificial intelligence-powered automated teller machine to prevent fraudulent money transfers, the first of its kind in the country. The system, which can recognize the appearance and movement of ATM users through an embedded camera, aims to help prevent crimes in which scammers guide elderly victims over the phone to transfer money by making them believe they will be refunded a higher amount. Despite repeated warnings by authorities and other entities, financial losses related to so-called refund money wiring fraud still remains high in Japan, totaling about 1.07 billion yen ($9.5 million) in the first half of 2018, according to the National Police Agency. If the AI recognizes a user talking over the phone during a money transfer, the screen displays a warning to stop the transaction. The ATM will also ask users to take off any masks or sunglasses, and if they do not follow the instructions, the transaction will be canceled automatically. Read also: AI to seep further into everyday life at Berlin's IFA The AI system was designed to memorize a huge number of images based on the "deep learning" method, and boasts a highly precise detection technique, according to Hitachi-Omron Terminal Solutions Corp., which aims to commercialize the system in the next fiscal year starting in April. In October, the Aichi prefectural police unveiled the ATM to the public and held a drill for local residents to prevent frauds and test new features of the machine. "The new ATM feature is groundbreaking as the machine itself can help prevent crime. We expect it to be highly effective," a senior official of the prefectural police said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Mon, November 5, 2018 22:05 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877ab8f46 2 Science & Tech Royole,foldable-smartphone,FlexPai Free California-based start-up Royole may not be so little-known for much longer. The world has been on the edge of its seat waiting for Samsung or Huawei to unveal the world's first foldable smartphone-tablet, but Royole has beaten to them to it by unveiling its own FlexPai. Similar to what Samsung has been teasing about its model, this next-generation smartphone can be used either folded or unfolded, "giving it the portability of a smartphone plus the screen size of a high-definition tablet." Certainly, Samsung's thunder has been stolen. Though Royole has a much smaller development team, the device has an impressive array of features to help it compete with mobile giants across the globe. The 7.8-inch AMOLED screen supports split screens and multi-tasking -- you can even drag and drop just like on your computer. The screen automatically adjusts the display size to adapt to your movie or video game. When the FlexPai is folded, both screens on the front and back can work together or independently, depending on what you're doing. The side edge where the hinge is can display notifications much like a typical smartphone notification bar, as well as manage calls, messages and "other notices that may disturb the primary and secondary screen usage." That hinge, by the way, is sturdy. It can withstand 200,000 folds and even twists. The device can be folded at different angles, which the operating system, Royole's own Water OS, will conform to. The FlexPai uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 series SoC, which brings impressive and industry-leading AI to the device. The dual-camera setup is on par with other smartphone leaders with its 20-megapixel telephoto and 16-megapixel wide-angle lenses, as well as stereo speakers and a fingerprint ID -- features that define smartphones nowadays. Read also: Foldable display market to grow to 63 million units in 2022 Royole has made its mark with the world's first commercially-available folding smartphone-tablet hybrid, a feat massive and established mobile phone manufacturers have been racing towards for years. Will the device be able to hold its ground when Samsung releases its own bendy mobile device at the Developers Conference next week? The race has officially begun. The developer model of the FlexPai is available now for 1,388.00 on the Royole site. The consumer model is also available for the Chinese market now with order fulfillment from late December. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nedi Putra AW (The Jakarta Post) Malang, East Java Mon, November 5, 2018 12:38 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877aaba2b 1 Art & Culture poetry,students,events,musicalization,Malang,East-Java,wiji-thukul,chairil-anwar Free Students and teachers from state senior high school SMA 9 in Malang, East Java, orchestrated a musicalization of poetry event on Friday. The poems read included some well-known Indonesian poets works such as Kesaksian (Testimony) by WS Rendra and Aku dan Diponegoro (Diponegoro and I) by Chairil Anwar. Three critical poems portraying social reality from the still-missing writer and activist Wiji Thukul, Bunga dan Tembok (Flowers and the Wall), Di Bawah Selimut Kedamaian Palsu (Under the Blanket of Fake Peace) and Aku Lebih Suka Dagelan (I prefer Dagelan), were also performed. The schools Indonesian language and literature teacher Muhamad Sinwan said the aim of the event was to prepare the students to face the digitalized eras reality through literature. These days, the more you try to hide the worse it actually is, Sinwan told The Jakarta Post. Read also: Wiji Thukul's daughter releases poetry book, son debuts music video Sinwan added that literature should teach goodness through everyday phenomena, whether light or grim. He himself performed his own piece titled Kehancuran Negeri Ini Dimulai Dari Bangku Sekolah, Waspadalah (This Nations Destruction Starts from School Benches, Beware), a poem telling the story of how students study day and night, yet still cheat during their exams. Muhamad Sinwan reads his own poem criticizing the Indonesian education system. (JP/Nedi Putra AW) Guest teachers and students from Bukit Mertajam High School, Penang, Malaysia, who were visiting on a student exchange program, also watched the performances. As common nations, I was very impressed with the poetry readings, Bukit Mertajam High Schools headmaster Encik Mohammad Nazri Bin Bahri commented. (iru/kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Boyolali Mon, November 5, 2018 15:47 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877ab2257 1 Politics Prabowo-Sandiaga,Prabowo-Subianto-Sandiaga-Uno,remarks,Boyolali,protest Free Thousands of people took part in a protest in Boyolali, Central Java, on Sunday, in response to presidential candidate Prabowo Subiantos joking remark about Boyolali faces. Boyolali Regent Seno Samodra and several other local leaders joined the protest, including the deputy regent and members of the Regional Legislative Council. Seno, who is a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and has previously expressed his support for President Joko Jokowi Widodos reelection bid, called on Prabowo to apologize for the remark. Boyolali face is a disparaging remark and its understandable that Boyolali residents are angry and are protesting, he said during the demonstration. Prabowo must apologize to the people of Boyolali. Seno even went so far as to urge the protesters not to vote for Prabowo in the upcoming elections. We dont have to insult Pak Prabowo, but let us agree not to choose a presidential candidate who insults Boyolali, he said. Let us take a firm decision, not to vote for Prabowo. Agree? Prabowo made the comment during a speech centered on income inequality at the opening of a Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno campaign team office in Boyolali last Tuesday. Prabowo said that, in Jakarta, there were a lot of fancy international hotels with names many people probably cant even pronounce. Later, he joked, If you try to enter [these hotels], you will probably be kicked out. Your faces are not those of rich people, your faces are just those of Boyolali people. Right? The audience laughed at the remark but a clip of the speech that was uploaded on YouTube went viral on Friday, eliciting negative reactions from many netizens, resulting in the hashtag #SaveMukaBoyolali (#SaveTheBoyolaliFace). Prabowo himself expressed bemusement at the response to his remarks. I am confused, if I joke around, it becomes an issue. Everything I do becomes an issue, he said on Sunday as quoted by kompas.com. (kmt/dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, November 5, 2018 15:19 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877ab0cd0 1 City kidnapping,accusation,Depok,beat Free A mob beat a man who was falsely accused of kidnapping a child on Sunday in Cilodong district Depok, West Java, before military personnel rescued the man and took him to the nearest police station. Akhmad Khotib, 45, was falsely accused of kidnapping an infant, but which turned out to be a cat, Depok Police spokesperson Adj. Comr. Firdaus said on Monday. If residents come across any suspicious activity, please report it to the police. Dont be a vigilante, Firdaus said as quoted by kompas.com. He added that Akhmad was unable to communicate clearly with the police on the chronology of the incident, due to the severity of his injuries. The incident comes after several hoaxes claiming rampant cases of kidnapping became widespread on social media. The police later confirmed that information on the "abductions" were fake. (fac) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Boyolali Mon, November 5, 2018 10:54 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877aa80b8 4 National Esemka,Central-Java,Jokowi,factory,car,automotive-industry,Joko-Widodo-Maruf-Amin,Maruf-Amin,#2019PresidentialElection,2019-presidential-election Free Several eyewitnesses have said a factory belonging to PT Solo Manufaktur Kreasi in Boyolali regency, Central Java, has started producing Esemka cars, which made headlines in 2012 because they were developed by a vocational school (SMK) in Surakarta. Dozens of pickup trucks were seen parked recently at the companys factory in Demangan subdistrict, Sambi district. Several people were also seen conducting activities in the area, something that had not been done for months. The factory stands on 14 hectares of land belonging to the subdistrict administration and is located far from residential areas. According to the witnesses, it only started operating a few months ago. The company is very secretive about the activities taking place there because no official statement were released. Journalists were not allowed into the factory and photographers were barred from taking pictures. Demangan subdistrict head Wijiyanto said he had visited the factory twice but found no activities there. Until now, I know nothing about the factory, he added. President Joko Jokowi Widodo promoted Esemka as his official car during his term as Surakarta mayor. The Esemka car came under spotlight again when Jokowis running mate, Maruf Amin, recently said that mass production of the vehicles would start in October. The announcement caused a stir among opposition parties, coming so soon ahead of the 2019 presidential election. Jokowi later stressed on his Instagram account @jokowi on Oct. 25 that the government was not involved in the production of the cars, and that the automotive industry was fully responsible for developing the cars. Boyolali Regent Seno Samodro said the company had invested Rp 2.1 trillion (US$140.42 million) in the factory when construction started in 2016. It is for sure located in Boyolali, but I do not follow its activities, he added. Demangan administration secretary Suyamto said the company had rented the plot for 30 years from the subdistrict administration for Rp 1,000 per square meter. The total payment for the first three years was Rp 114 million and it is renewed every three year, Suyamto added. Sukiyat, a businessman who sponsored the Esemka car, said he was also uninvolved in the vehicles production in Boyolali. He also called on people not to blame Jokowi or himself, saying that the moment for the Esemka has passed. I produced the Esemka just to transfer knowledge to SMK students, he added. I am now focusing on the Mahesa rural vehicle. I want rural people to improve their productivity. Sukiyat was referring to truckmaker Kiat Mahesa Wintor Indonesia (KMWI) of which he is president commissioner. KMWI produces a light pickup truck called the AMMdes, which is part of an Industry Ministry-sponsored program to provide more affordable means of transportation for rural people. With an engine volume of 500 cc, the truck can transport agricultural goods of up to 700 kilograms and it can also be used as a mobile rice miller. In the initial stage, KMWI will produce 3,000 to 6,000 AMMdes per year until the end of next year. The production capacity will be increased from 12,000 to 15,000 units in 2020. With a price of about Rp 70 million per unit, the AMMdes is far cheaper than regular light pickup trucks, which cost at least Rp 125 million each. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, November 5, 2018 15:58 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877ab324d 1 Business Indonesia,Australia,agreement,Sri-Mulyani,Josh-Frydenberg Free The Indonesian and Australian governments on Monday signed an agreement on their partnership for economic development in Canberra on Monday. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, according to a press statement issued by the Finance Ministry. Under the agreement, both governments agree to exchange updated information on revenue and taxation policy, structural reform, the stock market, the financial service and international economic policies. Various activities that will be implemented under the agreement include bilateral visits, conferences, workshops, joint studies, internships (officials exchanges) and a scheduled annual cooperation event, the press statement says. Sri Mulyani appreciated the Australian governments commitment to improving cooperation between the two countries. She stressed that it was helpful for her ministry to manage fiscal policy and to carry out taxation reform based on the Australian governments experience. Under the agreement, the Australian Treasury has also placed its senior staff at the Finance Ministrys Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF). This MoU is a renewal of an agreement on bilateral economic policy dialogue (BEPD) signed in 2013 by the Australian Treasury and the BKF. Under the renewed agreement, the Australian Treasury and the BKF will discuss the priority of the following year. The topics to be discussed include international, regional and bilateral cooperation. It is in line with the both countries high level policy dialogue that was introduced in 2006 and involves both government officials and research institutions with the main objective of improving both capacity and technical development. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, November 5, 2018 10:20 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877aa6e9d 1 Business Indonesia,economic-diplomacy,London,Rizal-Sukma Free Indonesia and the United Kingdom have expressed a wish to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries amid rising global protectionism sparked by the trade war between the United States and China. Speaking at the Indonesian Briefing forum in London recently, Indonesian Ambassador to the UK Rizal Sukma stressed the importance for both countries of exploring more detailed information about various sectors to boost trade, investment and tourism. The Indonesia Briefing is part of the efforts to monitor the interesting progress in Britain of the Brexit process. For Indonesia it is an opportunity to strengthen bilateral ties, he said in a press release issued by the Indonesian Embassy to Britain. Rizal said Indonesia sought to increase bilateral trade from around US$2.5 billion currently to between $5 billion and $7 billion annually. Similar sentiments were expressed by the UK prime ministers special envoy for trade for Indonesia and the ASEAN Economic Community Richard Graham, who stressed the importance for UK businesses of exploring business opportunities in Indonesia, the largest country in Southeast Asia. Gaham underlined opportunities that could be pursued in Indonesia, including financial cooperation, financial technology (fintech), infrastructure, the digital economy and renewable energy. Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia (BI) deputy governor Rosmaya Hadi explained the solid growth of the Indonesian economy amid the global economic uncertainty. BI is trying to respond to the global economic fluctuation through introducing mixed policies, covering the monetary, macro prudential and payment systems, he added Also speaking during the panel session at the event were Sarah Hewin, chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank, Nezar Patria, editor in chief of The Jakarta Post and Chris Wren, executive director Britcham Indonesia. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, November 5, 2018 14:44 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877aafc77 1 Business Indonesia,coal-price,November,2019 Free The government has set the Indonesian coal reference price for November at US$97.90 per ton, 2.97 percent lower than the price in the previous month, which was set at $100.89 per ton as a result of the global coal price, in response to China's ongoing import quota policy. Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry spokesperson Agung Pribadi said the coal price decline was also sparked by the distribution issue in Australia and oversupply in Indonesia. The delay in coal distribution in Australia affected the ICE Newcastle index. There is also an oversupply in in our country as a result of slowing demand from India and China, he told press on Monday. This year, the government targets national coal production of 485 million tons, 25 percent of which is for the domestic market obligation, which is equal to 121.25 million tons. Data from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry up to September show that coal production had reached 70.9 percent of the annual total target, or equivalent to 344 million tons. The government continued its policy to cap the coal price for electricity purposes at $70 per ton, aiming to maintain the electricity price at an affordable level. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, November 5 2018 An agricultural light aircraft owned by air transportation service PT Elang Nusantara Air crashed into an oil palm plantation in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, on Saturday morning. The plane was spreading fertilizer over the plantation when the incident happened at around 11 a.m. The pilot, Martin Derren Scott, an Australian citizen, [survived the incident without injuries], West Kalimantan police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Nanang Purnomo said as quoted by tempo.co. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kenneth Karuri (Bloomberg) Dodoma Mon, November 5, 2018 13:35 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877aadb60 2 World Tanzania,homosexuality,campaign,homophobia Free Tanzania disowned a crackdown on homosexual, bisexual, trans-gender and inter-sex people in the commercial capital announced by a local government official, as the action planned to begin this week drew criticism. The regional commissioner for Dar es Salaam, Paul Makonda, last week announced the creation of a surveillance team to identify and punish homosexuals, prostitutes and cyber crime offenders. The government of the United Republic of Tanzania would like to clarify that those are his own views and not the government position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Human rights group Amnesty International asked the Tanzanian government last week to halt the planned crackdown and the U.S. warned its citizens in the East African nation to remain vigilant. Homosexuality is illegal in the East Africa nation and offenders risk jail for at least 30 years or even life imprisonment. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Rome Mon, November 5, 2018 08:43 1112 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877a9ca71 2 World Italy,disaster,death-toll,weather Free Floods killed 12 people on the island of Sicily, including nine members of a single family, pushing Italy's week-long storm toll beyond 30, rescuers said Sunday. After a river burst its banks, the bodies of the family including children aged one, three and 15 were discovered in the coastal town of Casteldaccia east of the capital Palermo. Rescue services said the house where they were spending the weekend was submerged in water and mud. The other victims' ages ranged from 32 to 65. Three family members managed to escape, one by climbing a tree where he stayed for more than two hours, the Agi news agency reported. "I lost everything, I have nothing left, just my daughter," one of the survivors, 35-year-old Giuseppe Giordano, told journalists. His wife, two other children, his parents, brother, and sister, his nephew and the boy's grandmother all died, he said. After flying over Casteldaccia on Sunday, Sicilian prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio described scenes of "total disaster". Officials have opened an investigation to determine whether houses built near the river had complied with safety norms. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Adrio Faresi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, November 6 2018 Dreams of freedom: Visitors of the Napi Craft exhibition take photos beside an art installation that features jellyfish dolls. (JP/Umair Rizaludin) Through arts and crafts, convicts are getting a second chance in life. One of Russian anarchist Pyotr Kropotkins most famous quotes is, Prisons are universities of crime, maintained by the state. This paints the bleak reality for most inmates. Once someone goes to prison, he or she is more likely to become a worse ciminal than to be rehabilitated. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, November 5, 2018 13:34 1111 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877aacc72 1 News Singapore-Airlines,Seattle,Singapore,travel Free Singapore Airlines (SIA) is set to debut its non-stop Singapore-Seattle flights on Sept. 3, 2019, making Seattle the fifth US city route for the airline. An Airbus A350-900, with a capacity of 42 business, 24 premium economy and 187 economy class seats will service the route. The inaugural SQ28 flight will leave Singapore at 9.25 a.m. local time and land in Seattle on the same day at 9.05 a.m. local time. The return SQ27 flight will depart Seattle at 10.40 a.m. local time and arrive in Singapore the following day at 5.30 p.m. The initial flight frequency will be three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, but it is planned to increase this to four times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays in October 2019. Seattle is perceived as one of the most important cities in the US as it is the home of many significant US corporations and start-ups. In terms of tourism, the city is also known for its neighboring forests and being the gate for cruises to Alaska. Read also: Singapore Airlines officially relaunches Singapore-New York direct flight Goh Choon Phong, Singapore Airlines CEO, said the Singapore-Seattle direct flights were part of the airlines commitment to extending its operations in the US and growing its network. The new services will also further strengthen the Singapore hub by providing customers faster and more convenient connectivity from key markets, such as Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australasia to North America, Phong said in an official statement. Singapore Airlines will operate 53 flights per week to the US by December with 27 direct Singapore-US services. The airline currently flies to four US cities, namely Houston, Los Angeles, New York (JFK and Newark airports) and San Francisco. The Straits Times reports that the inaugural Singapore-Los Angeles direct flight departed Los Angeles on Nov. 4 at 4.41 a.m. local time using an Airbus A350-900. The airline plans to increase its existing San Francisco operations from seven to 10 flights per week from Nov. 28. (wir/mut) Whether its fire-place acoustics, dreary day escapism, faraway electronic futurism or a slice of tropical heat, we have all you need.First on this weeks new-music showcase is a synth-soaked slow groover, with shimmery, breezy guitar riffs and a quietly confident bassline, which asserts its importance as the song takes a breath, permitting a potent bass-hit. The bass even dares to come into the fore-front, taking on a focus melodically, which the electric guitar riffs respond to effortlessly. 'Luxury Butter' is lent its lusciousness non-invasive vocals, which are fortified by subtle distortions and synthesised chords that melt into each other.Paplu comes from Vessels third album, Queen of Golden Dogs, which takes inspiration from months of solitude in rural Wales. Paplu itself is predominantly instrumental; a 9-minute futuristic synth pilgrimage. Sampling from so many different genres, including drum and bass and EDM, there are several clashes and pangs that almost have a shrill feel to them. This makes the moment when surging synths become alliances in harmonic rhythms so euphoric; the track almost begins to transcend reality in these moments. Paplu truly feels like an epic electronic journey, continually morphing into new beats. Jo Marches is irresistible, armed with seductive vocal qualities and self-confident, flirty lyrics. Driven by a wiggly bassline, soft synths and robust drum-kit beats, there are moments where electronic distortions begin to consume Marches vocals, too, transforming the songs assertive texture in a way that is very reminiscent of Tame Impalas Let It Happen. KAWALA continue to build upon their established style of melting, lulling harmonies, laid over sun-soaked acoustic guitar chords. Moonlight is more of a lyrical progression, swelling with its storytelling lyrics about overcoming personal demons that the duo hasnt exhibited before. The upbeat tone of both the track and its lyrics are perfectly complemented by the ethereal, crescendo-ing harmonies and enchanting piano twinkles. L.A. Witch - Haunting Haunting hails from L.A. Witch's new EP, Octubre. The trippy track is chock-full of conflating layers, nonchalant vocals, oscillating guitar distortions; a venture from the trios performative minimalism. Haunting, and Octubre itself exudes a sultry exploration of dark infatuations, evidenced by its artwork. The innocence of the natural female body becomes tainted by shadowy symbols - bats and cobwebs.In keeping with the theme of sinister eclipses is Dracula from Camden-born-and-bred Bakar, who plays the role of the Count himself in a horror-infested music video. Although slightly jarring, Bakar doesnt follow a refined vocal melody which adds conviction to the ferociousness of the cathartic, punk-inspired clashes of the track. The Way It Goes is a genius revitalisation of 90s rave synths find themselves presented in a post-punk framework, with vocals heavily influenced by M.I.A. Sneaks channels the attitude of M.I.A.s Bad Girls in her convincing vocal command. Electro-pads create a light contrast to the stonking bass that ultimately retains its authority throughout the track.Blackout is refreshingly stripped in comparison to the rest of this weeks playlist, reveling in the comfort of acoustic guitar, gentle piano chords and building cinematic string arrangements to intensify the emotive, romantic sentiments of the chorus. With a soulful caress, Faulks vocals rest in between the styles of Jack Savoretti and Chris Martin, letting himself be completely overcome with infatuation.Deriving from new EP, Cheap Talk, Summertime is led by strong female vocals, inundated with a grungy huskiness. Scottish band LUCIA propose indie road-trip style lyrics and choruses, I only love you in the summertime, underpinned by classic rock-style persuasions. They're bringing back authenticity into indie-rock.Peep This is an eclectic fusion of transformed R&B beats and soft hints of brass, under the guise of Glass Animals psych-pop aesthetics. Gravelly, throaty vocals, reminiscent of Everything Everythings John Higgs, adds to the plethora of styles that Royal Canoe continue to experiment with.Full Bloom is a politically engaged track with a double meaning in its title both celebrating the duos flowering success and alluding to the natural world that we are taking advantage of. The rhythmic urgency of We cant waste any second, any minute any hour and its repetition throughout the songs choruses, conveys sincerity behind the songs message we must act now on the imminent climate crisis that faces us. The track is very topical and congruent with the vast majority of the media currently we are already beginning to see irreversible changes. Seemingly simple minor-key acoustic picks become overpowered in a blast of crashing, quintessentially rock guitars, and Palma Violet style vocals. Such contrasting sections create a cathartic feel to the chorus, which the rest of the song continues to build up to. Slow-burning, reggae beats, and playful, sassy vocals embody the mundanity of the pressures that we face pressure, the pressure we are under. Subtle, electro-harpsicord flourishes and small distortions enhance the tracks breeziness, serving as an escapism from the oppressive every day.Another politically influenced track with more obvious, aggressive allusions to the criticisms millennials face the lyrical tone is immediately established with iconic opening lyrics The NHS is going down but Richard Bransons richer now. Chilled hooks allow the extremely impassioned, at times inharmonious, vocals to be at the songs epicentre. The track builds up to its climax, religions not my favourite but I still love my neighbour a suggestion that millenials are the most accepting and supportive members of society despite political belittling.Delicate vocals are juxtaposed with heavy synth beats that transform into unique steel drum beats as the bass drops. The tracks lyrics convey a desperation to remain in a relationship; the failing relationship is perhaps musically represented in the dominant instrumentals the vocals almost lose their control, its easier to run from me, when youre not here.Ms Banks is one of the many artists freestyling over Kodak Blacks ZeZe steel-drum infused beat. Ms Banks exudes power, strength, and confidence in the accompanying visual filled with shameless dance enjoyment. The repetition of fuck em up takes centre stage where it toys with Kodaks beat, making for a feisty break in between Ms Banks fiery bars. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Bob Bamberg has been in the pet supply industry and writing about pets, livestock and wildlife for three decades. He can be reached at petsap@comcast.net. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. MBABANE The main prize winner of the third FLAC draw will soon get down to business with his farming enterprise. This is because he will now have the funds to buy the necessary inputs. A total of 23 winners were randomly picked from a plethora of entries for the Anti-Corruption raffle draw held at the Times of Swaziland Boardroom in Mbabane yesterday. The draw was conducted by the Chief Executive Officer of the National Maize Corporation (NMC), Sabelo Msibi; Nokwanda Dlamini, NMCs Marketing and Communications Officer; Future Leaders Against Corruption (FLAC) Concept Developer Wilton Mamba; Mluleki Dlamini, the Senior Anti-Corruption Commision Officer; and Times News Editor Cassandra Shaw. Mbongiseni Dlamini was drawn as the first prize winner and will receive E6 000 in cash and 33 books, and is expected to donate 32 of them to a school of his choice. When informed about the draw, he took the news with such nonchalance. Thank you very much for informing me, said Dlamini and then quickly inquired about when he could collect his spoils of victory. Ive been farming from a young age, and have been stressed lately about getting all the necessary paraphernalia for this season, but now my prayers have been answered. All the winners are requested to attend the prize-giving event to be held at the Times of Swaziland in Mbabane on Wednesday, November 7, at 10am. MATSAPHA Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini yesterday made his first Sunday service appearance after being appointed by His Majesty King Mswati III. The PM was accompanied by his wife Portia when they attended the church service at Jesus Calls (JC) Worship Centre yesterday. In his sermon, Apostle Robert Kasaro, founder of the church, expressed belief that the newly-appointed PM was solely sent by God to end the countrys economic crisis. The apostle first prayed for newly- appointed ministers who included Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Pholile Shakantu, Minister of Home Affairs Princess Lindiwe Kasaro and Senate President Pastor Lindiwe Dlamini, who were also present during yesterdays service, all smartly dressed. Wisdom We are aware that they have not been sworn-in yet, however, the church has to pray for you and request God to give you wisdom as you take over your new offices and serve the nation. We ask God to protect and guide them as they go about their different duties, without Him they can do nothing, Kasaro said. After the ministers and Senate president had been prayed for, Kasaro requested pastors and elders of the church to gather around the newly-appointed PM and his wife, Portia, for prayer. The worship song, Thuma mina, nguvume intando yakho, sengiyavuma, was sung while the PM and his wife were ushered to the main stage. As a church, we discharge your agenda from above to take charge and take this nation to another level, that is 2022. We pray for God to grant you wisdom, grace, favour and further bring all demons and enemies to a standstill. Cover him Lord and release your hand, keep and guide even his family in the name of Jesus Christ, Kasaro said when praying for the PM and his wife. He further stated that the nation had been praying for good leaders and Gods wisdom during the elections, until it was time for the announcement of the new PM. The entire nation prayed for great leaders and a new PM, God answered the nations prayers by giving us a God-fearing PM. His Majesty prayed and spoke to God and he answered his prayers. We pray that God be with His Excellency the PM, support him, pray for him, be with him on the huge assignment bestowed upon him, so he could be able to carry out all the required assignments. Give him great strategies, ideas, build, protect and also cover him together with his family as he takes over this powerful position, Kasaro added. Most of the congregants when asked how they felt about Dlaminis appointment, were excited and said they knew he was the perfect and true leader as he had all the experience. We do not doubt him at all, he is a very hardworking man and as church members we can attest to that, a church member, Fortunate Lukhele of Matsapha said yesterday. MBABANE The police officer who is accused of having been found in a compromising position with a pupil has been removed from Florence Christian Academy High School. This was said by Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, in an interview yesterday. The interview followed a statement on the same issue where Vilakati stated that they were not taking the matter lightly, as investigations were already underway. A full scale investigation has been instituted to establish the truth of these allegations and when it has been finalised, appropriate action will be taken, Vilakati said. Last week, this publication reported that the police officer was found in a compromising position with a Form II pupil at the aforementioned school, inside one of the teachers houses. Reports were to the effect that the duo was nabbed by a helper who then informed the teacher, after which the schools head teacher, was informed of the incident. Vilakati condemned the behaviour of the officer in the strongest possible terms. She said it did not reflect the values and principles of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS). She said all police officers deployed in schools around the country were given a mandate to follow. She said this entailed providing security and maintaining law and order for the smooth flow of the examinations. Honesty We wish to appeal to all police officers to uphold the virtues of honesty and integrity, and desist from behaviour that would tarnish the image of the organisation, Vilakati said. She added that they acknowledged and appreciated members of the public for proffering information on unethical police conduct and behaviour. In the same vein, she said they encouraged the nation to continue providing such information so that they may deal with ill-disciplined officers whose conduct compromised the integrity of the whole organisation. On Thursday, Facebook users bashed the police and alleged that the purported actions of the law enforcer were typical of the whole force. Others went to the extent of sharing that they would not be surprised if some pupils would next year drop out of school due to pregnancies. Bank of Greece (BoG) Governor Yannis Stournaras on Friday said after three successive recapitalizations Greece's four systemic banks now enjoy amongst the highest capitalization rates in the Eurozone, as well as sufficient reserves to absorb whatever credit damages. Speaking at a conference in Athens entitled "The birth of inter-war central banks: building a new monetary order", Stournaras noted the total value of NPEs in the country remains high, and is a major challenge for the domestic banking system. At the same time, he said efforts to reduce NPEs and NPLs have borne fruit. In his earlier address, he said Greece's central bank is no longer an "orphan", in looking back at its establishment in the inter-war period, as well as an indirect criticism of what's been described at attempts by the current Greek government to intervene in the BoG's autonomous action. "The Bank of Greece is no longer young. More importantly, however, it is no longer an orphan despite the occasional attempts to make it appear so. It belongs to a large European family with strong institutional ties and a common purpose...On this, the 90th anniversary since we first opened our doors to the public, we are revisiting our past and contemplating our future. But we have chosen to do this through a comparative and international lens." Stournaras' full address at the conference can be found here: https://www.bankofgreece.gr/Pages/en/Bank/News/Speeches/DispItem.aspx?Item_ID=544&List_ID=b2e9402e-db05-4166-9f09-e1b26a1c6f1b Read more at naftemporiki.gr RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chathamhouse/ License: CC-BY-SA In 2016, the Greek islanders were nominated by a group of academics for the Nobel Peace Prize The people of the Greek island of Lesvos in the Aegean Sea are poised to receive the inaugural John McCain Prize for Leadership in Public Service for their response to the refugee crisis, Politico has reported. According to its daily briefing, the American news noted said that the announcement was made by Cindy McCain, the widow of the respected US statesman who died on August 25. The award will reportedly be bestowed on the residents of Mytiline that has been on the front line of the migration crisis since it broke out in 2015, for their heroic support of refugees. In 2016, the Greek islanders were nominated by a group of academics for the Nobel Peace Prize. 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: Irish Defence Forcess License: CC-BY-SA Greece is one of the top religious tourism destinations in the world for Ukrainian tourists Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko have signed a deal of cooperation and coordination between Kiev and the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate. The pact was signed following a meeting between Vartholomaios, the spiritual leader of the worlds Orthodox Christians, and Poroshenko in Istanbul on Saturday. It is designed to accelerate the granting of autocephaly, or self rule, to the Church of Ukraine. I am sure the autocephaly decision will lead to unity and unification of all Orthodox believers in Ukraine, Vartholomaios was quoted as noting. Poroshenko described the day as historic. Last month, a synod chaired by Vartholomaios endorsed Ukraines request for an autocephalous church. The move has enraged the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church, which compared it to the Great Schism of 1054 that split western and eastern Christianity. 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: Pvasiliadis License: CC-BY-SA Based on the experience of two rounds of operation of a Development Law The Greek economy ministry has drafted a series of legislative measures aimed at improving the regulatory framework for investors, ANA reports. These interventions are based on four axes: The restructuring and improvement of financial support offered to investors, an action designed to deal with adverse financial conditions prevailing in the business sector, protecting public interests and helping to foster economic growth in the country. Offering extra capabilities to complete mature investment plans included in previous investment laws, such as extending a deadline for financial spending made by December 30, 2018. Creating a new financial support regime with the structure of intermediate financial business risk organisation (Fund of Funds) jointly between the public and private sector. Further improving a regulatory framework for offering financial support to enterprises establishing activities in Greece through the creation of Business Services Centres/Shared Services Centre. There are around 150 foreign companies with established activities in Greece, some of them members of large multinational groups. RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report The renovated church is situated in the first cemetery of the Greek community in Alexandria, where important figures of the Greek history are buried, including famous poet Constantine Cavafy Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, Theodore II, inaugurated the renovated Greek Orthodox church of the Assumption of Mary (Koimisi tis Theotokou) in Alexandria, Egypt. Patriarch Theodore, after chanting the Greek national anthem, noted that the African Church, instead of closing churches, reopens them, renovates and offers them to the glory of the Greek nation, which along with Egypt and Cyprus declare the friendship of our peoples. The renovated church is situated in the first cemetery of the Greek community in Alexandria, where important figures of the Greek history are buried, including famous poet Constantine Cavafy. Greeces General Consul, Athanasios Kotsionis, pointed out that with the blessings of Patriarch Theodore and the support of the Greek community, Egypts Hellenism will manage to endure these difficult times for the nation. The president of the Greek community in Egypt, Edmond Kassimatis, explained that the renovation of the 108-year-old church took place exclusively utilizing funds from the communitys budget. He thanked all those who played a crucial role in achieving this important accomplishment for the community. Read more at greekreporter.com RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Photo Source: Alexandrias Patriarchate Abu Dhabis Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) has approved the Abu Dhabi National Oil Companys (Adnoc) new integrated gas strategy and plans to increase its oil production capacity to 4 million barrels per day (mmbpd) at the end of 2020 and 5 mmbpd by 2030. The approval was given at an SPC board meeting presided over by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Vice-Chairman of the SPC. The SPCs approval of Adnocs gas strategy will add potential resources that will enable the UAE to achieve gas self-sufficiency, with the aim of potentially transitioning to a net gas exporter, the company said. At its meeting, the SPC announced new discoveries of gas in place, totaling 15 trillion standard cubic feet. It also announced new discoveries of 1 billion barrels of oil in place and approved Adnocs new five-year business plan and capital investment growth of Dh486 billion ($132.33 billion) between 2019 and 2023. The gas strategy will sustain LNG production to 2040 and allow Adnoc to seize incremental LNG and gas-to-chemicals growth opportunities, where they arise, from the UAEs dynamic demand/supply position and evolving energy mix, Adnoc said. Sheikh Mohammed reaffirmed the support of UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for Adnocs transformation into a performance-led, more commercially minded organisation and its focus on creating long-term, sustainable value to enable the UAEs economic ambitions. He also expressed the SPCs recognition of Adnocs strong financial and operational performance, its use of creative and strategic partnerships to unlock and drive substantial value across the entire business and its strong commitment to maximising in-country value. The SPC is the highest governing body of the oil and gas industry in Abu Dhabi. The council formulates, approves and oversees the implementation of Abu Dhabi's petroleum policy and follows up its implementation across all areas of the petroleum industry to ensure that the set goals are achieved. Adnoc's integrated oil and gas strategy underpins its Dh165 billion Downstream investment plans announced in May, which will see the company triple production of petrochemicals to 14.4 million tons per annum by 2025. In May, at its Downstream Investment Forum, Adnoc unveiled a blueprint to create the worlds largest integrated refining and petrochemicals complex in Ruwais, which will enable it to further stretch the value of every barrel it produces. In addition to being used for power generation and other industrial uses, natural gas is the fuel that powers most chemical and refining processes. Through a combined programme of strategic partnerships and investments, Adnoc will increase its range and volume of high-value downstream products, secure better access to growth markets around the world and create a manufacturing ecosystem in Ruwais that will stimulate the creation of in-country value, private-sector growth and specialized job opportunities, the company said. Meanwhile, the announcement of the discovery of significant new oil reserves endorses the Abu Dhabi governments historic decision, earlier this year, to open six geographical oil and gas blocks for competitive bidding. Based on existing data from detailed petroleum system studies, seismic surveys, log files and core samples from hundreds of appraisal wells, estimates suggest these new blocks hold multiple billion barrels of oil and multiple trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The first exploration and production licenses are expected to be awarded in the first quarter of 2019. The licensing strategy represents a major advance in how Abu Dhabi unlocks new opportunities and maximizes value from its hydrocarbon resources. It is also consistent with Adnocs approach to expanding its strategic partnerships across all areas of its business. The successful bidders will enter into agreements granting exploration rights and, provided defined targets are achieved in the exploration phase, be granted the opportunity to develop and produce any discoveries with Adnoc, under terms set out in the bidding package. Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of State and Adnoc Group CEO, said: The SPCs approval of our comprehensive growth plans, along with our historic gas self-sufficiency strategy, marks an important new, accelerated phase in the delivery of Adnocs 2030 growth strategy. In line with our wise leaderships directives, our strategy will ensure we maximise value from all our resources to enable the UAEs socio-economic ambitions. We will continue to unlock and deliver increased and commercially viable production from our oil and gas reserves, in response to the worlds growing demand for energy. The incremental increase in our oil production capacity will enable Adnoc to continue to be a reliable and trusted energy supplier that has the flexibility and capacity to respond and capitalize on the forecasted growth in demand for crude. At the same time, the substantial investments we will make, in the development of new and undeveloped reservoirs, gas caps and unconventional resources, will ensure we can competitively meet the UAEs growing demand for power generation and industrial use. While responding to domestic demand, we will maintain our international commercial commitments and seize incremental LNG and gas-to-chemicals growth opportunities, Dr Al Jaber added. Industry projections, H.E. Dr Al Jaber highlighted, validate Adnocs integrated oil and gas strategy. For the first time, the world is on the verge of consuming 100 million barrels of oil per day, with oil consumption increasing by an additional 10 million barrels per day by 2040, he said. Over the same period, demand for natural gas will increase by 40 percent, while the market for higher-value polymers and petrochemicals will grow by 60 percent. The integrated gas strategy is the first time in Adnocs history it has been in a position to commercially and holistically unlock its abundant new gas resources. One of the challenges in developing parts of Adnocs gas resources is the sourness of parts of Abu Dhabis gas. However, a number of factors, including the gas pricing reforms introduced in 2016, enabling more market-based pricing, the availability of more advanced technology and Adnocs growing and industry leading experience in developing sour gas reservoirs are making it possible for Adnoc to unlock more gas resources and increasing value extraction, the company said. Under the new gas strategy, Adnoc will develop the Hail, Ghasha and Dalma project that taps into Abu Dhabis Arab formation, which is estimated to hold multiple trillions of cubic feet of recoverable gas. The project is expected to produce more than 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day. Adnoc will also unlock other sources of gas, which include Abu Dhabis gas caps and unconventional gas reserves, as well as new natural gas accumulations, which will continue to be appraised and developed as the company pursues its exploration activities. Meanwhile, Adnoc's implementation of its 2019-2023 business plan and capital investment will have a significant impact on the nations economy, with the company's in-country value programme helping to drive domestic growth and diversification over an extended period of time, it said. - TradeArabia News Service Bahrain Airport Company will showcase the Airport Modernisation Programmes (AMP) latest developments in front of the global aerospace community at the Bahrain International Airshow (BIAS) 2018, set to be the biggest yet. BAC is a Gold Sponsor of the commercially-focused biennial airshow, which brings together leading civil and military aviation companies and senior government figures from around the world to conduct business and explore potential partnerships. Held under the patronage of HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the supervision of BIAS Supreme Organising Committee Chairman, HH Shaikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, BIAS 2018 will take place from November 14 to 16 at Sakhir Air Base. It is being organised by the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications and the Royal Bahraini Air Force, in association with Farnborough International. This years BIAS marks a milestone for the AMP with a number of agreements for strategic projects and key concessions at the new Passenger Terminal Building set to be awarded during the event. Representatives from renowned local, regional, and international companies will sign the agreements alongside the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Engineer Kamal Bin Ahmed Mohamed, and BAC chief executive officer, Mohamed Yousif Al Binfalah. This years BIAS Exhibition will be the biggest in the events history. Exhibitor numbers are up 70 per cent from 2016 and the Exhibition Hall has doubled in size, spanning 9,000-sq-m. In addition to its own pavilion, BACs wholly-owned subsidiary, Hala Bahrain, and its joint venture with the National Oil and Gas Authority, BAC Jet Fuel Company, will each have separate stands to showcase their products and services to the aviation community. BAC is also hosting the eagerly anticipated Airport Conference under the patronage of the Minister. Senior decision makers from leading regional airlines and airports will come together for an engaging panel discussion to explore the various issues shaping the regions aviation sector. Titled Into the Future: Challenges and Opportunities for Gulf Region Airports and Airlines, it will be held on November 15 at the Farnborough International News Network Theatre in the BIAS Exhibition Hall. Al Binfalah said: The eyes of the global aerospace community will be firmly on the kingdom during the fifth Bahrain International Airshow. The event attracts aviation leaders from around the world and provides an ideal platform for us to showcase Bahrains competitive advantages as a regional hub as well as the significant improvements being made to BIAs infrastructure, facilities, and services through the Airport Modernisation Programme. BAC is looking forward to networking with top international airlines and logistics companies during the airshow and exploring potential channels of cooperation that will bring us closer to our goals, which include developing new routes out of BIA, transforming air cargo into one of Bahrains primary industries, and increasing the aviation sectors contribution to the national economy in line with Bahrains Vision 2030. - TradeArabia News Service Best Western Hotels & Resorts has appointed David Calvet as the general manager of Tawaravadee Resort, BW Signature Collection by Best Western - the group's new up-country retreat in Thailands Prachinburi province. A highly-experienced hotelier with extensive knowledge of Thailands hospitality industry, Calvet has worked for a series of international hotels in Bangkok and Phuket over the last 20 years. Most recently, he was general manager of ibis Styles Bangkok Sukhumvit 50. Previously, he held senior management roles with a series of well-known hotel brands, including Novotel and Sheraton. He also spent more than three years as directeur general of Ecole dHotellerie et de Tourisme Paul Dubrule, an international hospitality school located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. He will now be tasked with overseeing the successful operations of Tawaravadee Resort, which becomes Best Westerns first BW Signature Collection by Best Western property in Asia. Nestled in the stunning Thai countryside, approximately 160 km from Bangkok, this expansive low-rise resort is suitable for every occasion, from romantic leisure breaks to major corporate functions. David Calvet is a talented hotel professional with a wealth of experience. Having lived and worked in Thailand for almost two decades, he is also completely familiar with the unique characteristics of this market and instinctively able to motivate his teams. I can think of no better person to lead our first BW Signature Collection by Best Western hotel in Asia, siad Olivier Berrivin, Best Western Hotels & Resorts managing director of International Operations - Asia. I am honoured and delighted to have been named as general manager of this exceptional resort. Located less than two hours drive from Bangkok and with an extensive range of facilities, including large conference spaces, Tawaravadee Resort is perfect for any occasion. I look forward to working with the entire team at Best Western to make this hotel a huge success and create incredible experiences for every guest, said Calvet. - TradeArabia News Service Hyatt Hotels Corporation has announced today the official opening of Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi, turning the iconic Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi into the first Andaz branded hotel in the Middle East. Represented across the globe in destinations including London, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai, Hyatts luxury lifestyle brand celebrates distinctively local culture and delivers an elevated experience that awakens the senses. Aligned with the brand ethos of authentically bringing the local neighbourhood to life, Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi offers inspiring experiences, helping guests immerse themselves in their surroundings and feel like a local from the moment they arrive. As we weave in the sights, sounds and tastes of the local Abu Dhabi culture, the opening of Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi marks a significant milestone for Hyatt, reinforcing its standing with visitors and residents of the city, said Stuart Deeson, hotel general manager and area vice president for Hyatt Abu Dhabi, Egypt and Jordan. The citys abundant history and culture are reflected throughout the property, most notably in its artistic representation. Exemplified through thoughtful design and the addition of a permanent art collection, the property celebrates the spirit and culture of the UAE. Design Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi occupies floors 18 to 33 within the iconic Capital Gate building and is the worlds furthest leaning hotel at an impressive 18-degree incline. Synonymous with the brands intention to immerse guests in the local culture, the property takes guests on a journey through the UAEs unique identity. Design elements are multi-layered and span various textures and techniques in order to represent both the countrys modest beginnings and traditional elements, as well as the current ultra modern facade of the city. At each touchpoint, guests can discover the stories of four cultural symbols appreciated by locals for generations, chosen for the power and respect they command within Emirati culture. These symbols include Mashrabiya, intricate wooden window adornments; Khatt, poetic Islamic calligraphy; Al Sadu, traditionally woven fabrics; and iconic Date Palms motifs. Artistic appeal Upon entering Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi, guests are greeted by an array of creative, thought-provoking masterpieces crafted by skilled local artists to introduce them to the local culture. The ground floor serves as a permanent art space for guests to explore throughout their stay, and within each guestroom features its own individual artwork to familiarise them with the region. Guest experience All aspects of the 189 contemporary, luxurious guestrooms and suites have been designed for todays traveller and exude a sense of warm Arabian hospitality. Floor to ceiling glass panelled windows offer sweeping views of the city, and each guestroom is outfitted with specially curated amenities such as the hotels bespoke Andaz Loungewear created by award-winning locally-based designer Essa Walla. Walla was commissioned to develop an exclusive line of bold and colourful loungewear pieces intended to evoke Arabian flair. Guests can wear these pieces on property and have the option to purchase them as a memento from their visit. The sense of creativity and local influence celebrated by the Andaz brand extends to each of the dining outlets situated within the property. The restaurant, 18 Degrees, offers diners the chance to savour delicacies from across the Mediterranean, using fresh, local produce. Additionally, The Lounge offers a more casual environment designed for both hotel guests and local residents alike with a menu of small, flavourful bites and refreshing beverages. To inspire guests to explore like a local, elements of the city are woven into the propertys Rayana Spa. Located on the 19th floor with expansive views of the vibrant city, the spa offers a rejuvenating array of treatments and amenities, including a suspended outdoor pool, whirlpool and fitness centre. As guests relax poolside, they can enjoy a freshly prepared beverage and a healthy snack from the Pool Bar. - TradeArabia News Service By He Huan and Wang Jian AV500W unmanned autonomous helicopter, entirely developed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) to perform both reconnaissance and combat missions, completed its test of firing FT-8D air-to-surface missile at a shooting range. NANCHANG, Nov.2 (ChinaMil) - According to news from the Office of the Commission for Integrated Military and Civilian Development of Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee on November 1st, the AV500W light unmanned autonomous helicopter, independently developed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) has successfully completed the FT-8D air-to-surface missile target shooting test at a shooting range, with the missile accurately hitting a target 4.5 km away. This marks another important milestone after the previous launching test on Tibetan Plateau at Golmud in northwest Chinas Qinghai Province in December 2017. Insiders said that the missile shooting test confirmed that the AV500W unmanned autonomous helicopter has excellent reconnaissance and strike performance and is capable of participating in actual combat. It is reported that the AV500W is developed on the basis of the AV500 by adding weapon system and modifying designs. The AV500W has a maximum take-off weight of 500 kg, a service ceiling of 5, 000 meters, a maximum speed of 170 km/hour and a maximum cruising time of 5 hours. With excellent performances in maneuverability, concealment and surprise attack, the AV500W aircraft can be mounted with small laser guided missiles or machine guns. Moreover, it has good reconnaissance and rapid response capabilities. The drone can accurately strike both fixed and moving ground targets. In addition, it can be widely applied in operations including striking strongholds and activities of terrorist organizations and intercepting drug smugglers. Its learned that AVICs helicopter research project team would continue to test the AV500W with other multi-type weapons. Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) has announced an 11.2 per cent increase in international visitors during the first nine months of the year, with almost 795,000 guests choosing to stay in the emirate between January and September. The double-digit growth from international markets was led by Germany as the single largest source market with 64,372 visitors, up 4.1 per cent compared to the same period in 2017. This was followed by Russia, with 57,117 visitors - up a significant 36.5 per cent on the same period last year. The third largest source market was the UK, with 45,496 visitors, up 10.1 per cent; India was in fourth position with 44,734 visitors, up 16.1 per cent; and rounding out the top five was Kazakhstan with 21,966 visitors, up 26.9 per cent. In terms of market growth, Norway saw the largest percentage increase in visitors, up 41.5 per cent on the first three quarters of 2017, with Nordic neighbours Sweden and Denmark also showing increased interest in the emirate, with guest numbers up 27.7 per cent and 19.3 per cent respectively. Ras Al Khaimahs tourism indices were up across the board - with visitor satisfaction at 94 per cent, above targets of 90 per cent, and average length of stay at 3.19 days. The emirate recorded regional success, with the second highest revenue per available room (RevPAR) at Dh402.2 ($109.4), the third highest average daily room rate (ADR) at Dh581.6 ($158.3) and a steady average occupancy rate for the first nine months of the year at 69.1 per cent. Haitham Mattar, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, said: With international tourism arrivals to the emirate up 11.2 per cent, we are confident of meeting our 2018 visitor targets. In fact, we are preparing to launch our New Destination Strategy in Q4 and were targeting further growth with a goal of attracting three million visitors by 2025. We will achieve this by investing heavily in developing our attractions and adventure offerings, combined with bringing the worlds best luxury hotel experiences to Ras Al Khaimah. With our pristine beaches, scenic mountains and year-round sunshine all just 45 minutes from Dubai International Airport - we deliver real value for money and provide a compelling proposition for international and regional visitors. One of Ras Al Khaimahs key growth milestones in 2018 was the launch of Jebel Jais Flight- the worlds longest zipline on Jebel Jais, the highest mountain in the UAE. This put Ras Al Khaimah on the global map as it broke the world record and strengthened the emirates credentials as the fastest growing adventure tourism destination in the region. Another key factor in the growing popularity of the emirate was a calendar of world-class events, and the increase in international partnerships with travel trade through the opening of overseas offices and a series of trade roadshows throughout the year. Mattar added: We have identified new creative and interactive marketing campaigns this year that have taken our promotional approaches to new heights. This includes the recently launched virtual experience of Jebel Jais Flight: The Worlds Longest Zipline in London, using augmented reality to give adventure-seekers a chance to experience Jebel Jais Flight while they also fly the worlds longest city centre zipwire in the heart of London. Ras Al Khaimah has identified supply of new hotel rooms as a major focus to support the increasing popularity of the destination with international and domestic tourists. The emirate is preparing to add 5,000 rooms to the 6,500 currently available with the confirmed introduction of major global brands including Marriott, Movenpick, Sheraton, Anantara, Rezidor, Intercontinental, Hampton by Hilton over the next three years. Mattar concluded: We will continue implementing our ambitious plans to further develop and enhance the Jebel Jais experience, with a new addition - the 47 villa Luxury Mountain Camp that will break ground next year, adding to the existing attractions of the worlds longest zipline, and Via Ferrata as well as breath-taking scenery. We will also reveal the completion of unique projects including the Survival Training Academy and 64.72km of Hiking and Mountain Biking Trails to be opened in the next two years. So far in 2018, RAKTDA hosted 237 travel trade members from 18 countries. RAKTDA also participated in nine exhibitions in nine cities across six countries, reaching out to over 300 travel trade members worldwide. RAKTDA also facilitated roadshows in 69 Cities in 20 countries, engaging with 7,419 travel trade members. RAKTDA further reported that summer 2018 visitors were up 15.8 per cent. The increase in summer visitors, particularly from international markets shows that the popularity of Ras Al Khaimah is increasing during summer months due to the world-class facilities and value for money. -TradeArabia News Service Portfolio-Manager Workflow: Past to Present Portfolio workflow is entering a new era of innovation after being on the sidelines of recent advances in front- and middle-office technology. Partly due to diminished patience with information lag times, portfolio managers are getting better-detailed and more holistic portfolio analytics much more quickly than in the past. Ten years ago it was common for the middle office to create and push reports back out to the front office monthly, said Stan Kwasniewski, Senior Vice President, Senior Director, Strategic Business Unit Operations at FactSet. Now were moving to near real-time delivery of that information. As soon as the middle office can measure and quantify something, they want to get that to the front office. Today, portfolio managers see the same data their trader and risk-manager colleagues are seeing, which enables more effective collaboration toward the enterprise-wide goal of generating alpha. Portfolio managers are demanding more information, with the perspective of historical analysis, said Tracy Wolfe, Senior Vice President, Senior Director, Strategy at FactSet. Theyre focused on understanding how the portfolio is changing throughout its life cycle, as opposed to just monitoring the trade life cycle. They are asking How can I consume data in a reconciled, cleansed way, throughout the day? Several decades ago, bringing an investment managers front and middle offices together via a harmonized experience of similar technologies, data, and analytics wasnt a realistic option because the front office as we now know it didnt exist. According to a 2017 LinkedIn blog post written by Ryan Chidley, a trader at APG Asset Management, in the 1980s and earlier, portfolio managers often submitted trade orders to brokers directly. PM workflow changed in the 1990s when legal and compliance impetus to centralize interaction with public exchanges and brokers gave rise to the buy-side trading desk. Chidley outlined the workflow that emerged during that time (at least in equities trading) as follows: the PM decides what to buy or sell, the PM creates a trade order, the order is sent to the buy-side trading desk for execution, and finally, the desk executes the order. This sequence ossified in the 1990s and most of the asset-management industry still uses it more than two decades later. However, this is changing as institutional trading becomes more strategic, Chidley noted. One underlying change that is facilitating seamless PM workflow is in communication, where meetings and emails are being supplanted by on-demand information procurement. We have seen a shift over the past 10 years toward sharing information through digital meansless on a push basis and more on a real-time, pull basis, Kwasniewski said. PMs can log into their front-end interface to get information that traditionally would have been sent to them in an Excel attachment. Youre also starting to see a lot more use of chat systems and natural language reporting, where youre communicating in the context of the application youre leveraging, as opposed to sending an email and having a disconnected communication that points you back into an application, FactSet's Wolfe said. Consultative Approach 1 2 next For more information on related topics, visit the following channels: The heart-rending images from the earthquake-tsunami disaster in Sulawesi, Indonesia brought back the shock and pain of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami disaster of 2011 and the Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster of 2004. Working with UNDP Indias Disaster Risk Management team, I had a first-hand experience of the harrowing Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster in December 2004. The pictures and videos capturing the scale and magnitude of death and devastation were extremely traumatizing for long, and one hoped that people should never have to re-visit such dreadful experiences. The recent earthquake-tsunami in Sulawesi, Indonesia proved otherwise. It seems that while the global communitys efforts to reduce mortality are proving considerably effective with timely and enhanced early warnings, evacuations etc., the exposure and vulnerabilities of people, communities and socio-economic development assets continues to increase exponentially. This is particularly true of earthquake-tsunami disasters, as the early warning and response window is quite narrow and virtually unpredictable. Experience from past disasters indicates that investments in reducing risks (through focused attention on minimizing exposure and reducing vulnerabilities) and increasing preparedness levels are the most effective antidotes to avoid repetition of the tragic loss of lives, livelihoods and development assets. Recognizing this imperative, UNDP, supported by the Government of Japan, initiated the Tsunami Awareness Project across 18 countries in the Asia-Pacific region to better prepare coastal communities, especially the most vulnerable like school children and marginalized groups like women, elderly and differently abled students. Taking the local school as the center of activity, the objective was to scale out the information to the community at large and ensure the longevity and sustainability of the interventions. Through the project, teachers and school students are training and preparing so that schools continue to lead preparedness awareness, education and practice drills, and to ensure that students, year after year, are well prepared. The relevance of the preparedness drills have been enthusiastically acknowledged by local communities. Photo: School drill in the Samoa. UNDP Samoa/Tamas Marki The Project, working in partnership with the Tohoku University, the International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC) and the Indian Ocean Tsunami Center, which is partnered with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has identified five schools located in tsunami-prone coasts across 18 countries to increase awareness and preparedness among nearly 50,000 students, teachers and members of the school administration. So far over 100 drills have been conducted to test preparedness and response levels. The overall project design, implementation, and coordination at the national level have been supported by the Embassy of Japan in each country and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The enthusiastic acceptance and relevance of the project have been acknowledged by local communities and administrations as evidenced by the range of success stories spawned by the project activities. For example, in Fiji, the school preparedness drills led to the testing of a new mobile app that facilitated real time information for early warning, paving the way for a first ever national tsunami drill. Similarly, eight hotels in Bali, Indonesia signed an agreement with the local administration to permit the use of their buildings and rooftops as safe areas; while in Vietnam, the government is working to include disaster education in the national school curriculum. Despite a considerable focus on identifying the most tsunami-prone coasts and communities, the tsunami-affected Palu area of Indonesia was not covered by the project. In hindsight, one feels that perhaps more needs to done to expand the scope and coverage of risk reduction and preparedness activities to truly realize the vision of sustainable development and resilient communities, as enshrined in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Agenda, through focused attention on the need to advance risk-informed development. A lingering feeling of inadequacy persists with the realization that perhaps much more needs to be done. The World Tsunami Awareness Day today, 05 November, is a stark reminder of the need to enhance our risk reduction and preparedness levels by adopting a multi-hazard approach and scaling up the efforts to reduce risks and not just manage disasters, as envisioned by the Sendai Framework. --- The period from now until 2020 is critical to the success of the Paris Agreement. For UNDP, UN partners and the wider international community, the mission is clear: to push for countries, communities and the private sector to scale up ambition. By 2020, we want to see accelerated action on the climate targets the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of the Paris Agreement. Read more on: Climate 2020 All In BSF nabs Pak national, seizes 5.56 M 4 carbine, 3 kg heroin from Punjab border Jalandhar, Nov 5 (UNI) Border Security Force (BSF) on Monday apprehended a Pakistani national and seized one US-made 5.56 M 4 carbine, two magazines, 28 live cartridges and three mobile phones from two different sites in Amritsar sector. Mahipal Yadav, IG, BSF, Punjab Frontiers, said the BSF jawans observed movements of some suspicious persons near the area of responsibility in BoP Ranian of Amritsar sector, early this morning. The jawans challenged the persons, following which they started firing on the jawans. The jawans also opened fire in self-defence, after which the miscreants fled towards the Pakistani territory. During search of the area, the jawans recovered three kg of heroin, valued at Rs 15 crore in the international market. Patna, Nov 4 (UNI) Four bogies of New Delhi bound Jan Sadharan Express derailed at Danapur station in Patna under Danapur division of East Central Railway. Rail police said here that four bogies of New Delhi bound Jan Sadharan Express derailed soon after the train left plat form number 4 at Danapur station. All passengers alighted hurriedly after they learnt that bogies of the train got derailed, police added. "No one was injured in the incident", rail police said, adding that reason behind the accident was being investigated by a team of technical personnel. Attempt was being made to clear the track and also for departure of Jan Sadharan Express by midnight, rail police said, adding that all passengers had been advised to stay for resuming their journey by midnight. UNI KKS RL RN Illustration: Liu Rui/GT Editor's Note: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrapped up his three-day visit to China on October 27, first for a sitting Japanese prime minister to visit China in the last seven years. What does his visit mean for Sino-Japanese relations that have seen a thaw since last year? What impact will China-US trade tensions have on Japan's ties with China? Global Times (GT) reporter Sun Xiaobo talked with Akiko Yamanaka (Yamanaka), a senior diplomatic fellow of Cambridge Central Asia Forum, Cambridge University and former vice minister for foreign affairs of Japan, over the issues on the sidelines of the Eighth Beijing Xiangshan Forum held on October 24-26. GT: Why did Prime Minister Abe come to visit China now? Yamanaka: After Abe first became the prime minister in 2006, he came to China before visiting the US because he thought China was very important. Unfortunately his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine on December 26, 2013 made things fall apart. Since then it looks that Abe is pro-US rather than China. But it's actually not. So finally since last year the Japanese and Chinese governments started to consider the best opportunity for his visit. This year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the two countries, and it is the best timing. Abe was re-elected (in September) to a third time as head of the Liberal Democratic Party and is going to have at least three more years as the prime minister. So he can do a lot more from now. What's the best way to come? A lot of people gave their advice, but he decided to bring over 500 leaders from business, industrial and financial sectors. There were dozens of bilateral meetings held in Beijing and many agreements signed. This is the very beginning of the deepening of practical relations between Japan and China in various sectors. The two countries have a lot of things that remain to be discussed about, such as the territorial issue. However, as the wisdom of (former Chinese leaders) Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai suggests, our two countries can put aside the territorial dispute and seek closer relations. Many people said China started to welcome Japan because of the trade war with the US, but before that both China and Japan have prepared a lot. In January, Foreign Minister Taro Kono visited China. In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi came to visit Japan. Then Chinese Premier Li Keqiang came to visit Japan in May and had very positive discussion and agreement with Abe. Now it is Abe's visit. It's new days between Japan and China. GT: What influence do you think China-US trade tensions can have on Japan's relations with China? Yamanaka: Will the trade war between China and the US last? I don't think so. Of course they are now in a very difficult situation, but both of them have wisdom. After the US midterm elections finish (in November), though I don't know about the results, I think America will have to consider what is the best way with not only China, but also other partners. It looks like you win everything, but since the world community is so complicated and connected, you cannot live and win by yourself. So at the end of the day the US is going to suffer because American people have to pay a lot to buy things. US President Donald Trump is not a stupid person, but a real businessman. He has shown very strong stance and called "America First". But Democrats and conservative Republicans in the US have always put America first. They didn't say that, but they do that. Only Trump says it in a loud voice. No matter which party is in office, their basic attitude is the same. I think by the end of this year, some kind of wisdom will prevail and ease the tension. I don't worry at all about that. Japan is so closely related with the US and China. Japan is geographically and historically very close with China, but it was occupied by the US for nearly seven years and Okinawa for 27 years after World War II, so Japan has been influenced by both sides. We have to strike a balance, that's the only way. GT: What opportunities for cooperation and challenges are there for China and Japan? Yamanaka: There are several things for cooperation. First, China and Japan can do something together to support a third country. This is really new. Second, maritime dialogue mechanism is going to start so that we will avoid sudden clashes or accidents. Third, we can also seek to make progress on jointly developing natural resources in the East China Sea. Fourth, the two sides can accelerate the exchanges of young people. Another thing is the elderly's social care. Japan has the knowhow and equipment that can be transferred to China. All these things will see more implementation from now, rather than just words. We do have some problems to handle. First of all, the territorial issue, and militarily China still worries about Japan's reform of Self-Defense Force (SDF). We also need to cooperate with other militaries such as in peacekeeping operations. Chinese Navy and Japanese Maritime SDF have cooperated so well in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden. That's why I have proposed to have some other things like disaster prevention, rescue and management. Besides, in Northeast Asia, if we can set up a non-traditional military alliance as well as a community, it will be good for the Asian people. We don't know whether we can do that, but this is something we can challenge. GT: What can an improved China-Japan relationship bring to Northeast Asia? Yamanaka: Ministers of China, Japan and South Korea have met and said the three countries are going to collaborate on disaster management. I think it's very good. I propose that we build a community of Northeast Asia, certainly with China as the main player and Japan providing the knowhow, including South Korea, Mongolia and Russia. Hopefully North Korea will be a member in the near future. This group has to act together. There should also be good communication with the US so that damage on the Korean Peninsula caused during the Cold War is undone because the Peninsula has not been divided by the two nations, but by force. GT: Do you think Japan will join in the Belt and Road initiative? Yamanaka: We are happy to support in many ways the overland routes (Silk Road Economic Belt). But the sea lane (21st Century Maritime Silk Road) is more complicated due to the territorial issue. That's why it's difficult for us to say we are going to support or join the initiative. On the land, China and Japan can do a lot to support a third country, but not on the sea lane. New Delhi, Nov 4 (UNI) Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri has said there is a need to ensure to have a carbon neutral foot print to combat the perils of climate change. 'The situation in our cities are becoming more and more worst, and we have to ensure that we have a carbon neutral foot print to combat the perils of climate change. It is time for a global accelerator movement towards a decarbonised world, and youth are going to be agents of change to drive and mitigate climate change,' Mr Puri said at the Climate Jamboree' event on Saturday. On the occasion, Delhi Commission for Women Chairperson Swati Maliwal urged the students to incorporate sustainable development in their daily lives. "We all should feel the pain of mother earth and take the first step towards achieving sustainable development. Our unjust actions on mother earth are today equal to the atrocities that women face in the country. 'We must realise that sustainable development is incomplete without realising the pain of women, and we should form effective systems, in which timely justice is given, be it inflicted on women or the earth," she said. With a mission to empower the youth to take ownership of creating a sustainable future for themselves, TERI School of Advanced Studiesand Dalmia Cement jointly kicked off 'Climate Jamboree'- a major youth mobilisation engagement at the Thyagraj Stadium, here on Thursday. The mission of Climate Jamboree was to unveil the power of the youth to make a difference towards achieving a climate neutral lifestyle and showcase sustainability in all its facets to create an empathy with the issue of climate change, further encouraging them to take ownership of the solutions. The three-day forum was aimed at helping youth engaged in different streams of study, and aspiring for diverse careers, to recognise both the common as well as unique opportunities to influence more desirable outcomes towards environment sustainability, aiming to engage and empower youth from India and across the world to build a sustainable future. UNI RSU-NY RJ 1532 Dubai, Nov 5 (UNI) Bahrain's opposition leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, has been handed a life sentence after the Court of Appeal found him guilty of spying for Qatar. The ruling comes just months after the Bahraini High Court of First Tier acquitted Salman of the charge of 'colluding' with the rival state. Bahrain cut ties with Qatar in 2017. Spain coast guard rescues 510 illegal immigrants Madrid, Nov 5 (UNI) Spanish coast guard has rescued 510 illegal migrants off its southern shores. According to the official Spanish TV, the illegal immigrants were aboard 11 boats in the waters of Gibraltar and off the Coast of Baron Island in the province of Almeria south of Spain on Sunday. In addition, another six migrants reached the shores of Baron Island, Qatar News Agency reported on Monday. CAIRO, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The "Arab Sheild 1" joint military drills kicked off in Egypt on Sunday with the participation of forces from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, Egyptian military spokesman said in a statement. The military exercises, held at a military base in northern Egypt as well as nearby air and naval training areas in the Mediterranean, will last until Nov. 16, according to Egyptian Military Spokesman Tamer al-Refaie. The "Arab Shield 1" will be one of the highest level military drills in the Arab region because of the use of new and advanced weapons and equipment, which will help maximize expertise of participant forces, said the statement. It described the "Arab Sheild 1" as "the first purely joint Arab military drills to be held in Egypt." Egypt's Mohamed Naguib Military Base, where the drills are held, is considered the largest such base in the Middle East and Africa. The Egyptian military spokesman stressed that the drills are held to promote military cooperation between Egypt and fellow Arab states and boost their military relations to maintain security and stability in the region. Egypt annually holds military exercises with Arab, African and western states to boost military collaboration and exchange military expertise. In September, Egypt held "Bright Star" war games with U.S. troops. The "Bright Star" maneuvers were resumed in 2017 after eight years of suspension. In early August, Egypt concluded "Eagle Response 2018" joint naval exercises in the Red Sea with forces from the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Earlier in June, a joint naval and air drills involving Egypt, Greece and Cyprus were held along Egypt's Mediterranean coast. ABC News(NEW YORK) -- Battling hunger, exhaustion and President Donald Trump's portrayal of them as criminals, thousands of Central American migrants traveling through Mexico were hoping to get rides Sunday to move them closer to the U.S. border, but many trekking with children said they could not afford what drivers were charging to squeeze onto the payloads of cargo trucks. At a gas station in Loma Bonita, Oaxaca, Franklyn Cano, 30, of Honduras, said drivers were charging 150 pesos, or about $7.50 in U.S. currency, to board trucks headed to Mexico City, a fee most could not afford. "Everybody has children sleeping in the street. A lot of people right now are hungry," Cano told ABC News. As Cano spoke, a chaotic scene was unfolding nearby with hundreds of migrants cramming onto a truck. The driver was still deciding whether to take them after a humanitarian group told him he should not be charging the desperate people for rides. Cano said he used to live in New York City and hoped to one day get back there. He said he fled Honduras because of gangs and corrupt government officials that have made his life difficult there. Many of the migrants said they have been following what Trump has been saying about them in recent days and wanted to convey to Americans that most of them are not the violent criminals that the president has described. "Everybody wants freedom," Cano said. At campaign rallies across the United States, Trump has zeroed in on the so-called caravan of immigrants from Central America making their way north through Mexico toward the U.S. border. When you look at that caravan coming up - that's not what we want. That's not for us, folks," Trump said at a campaign rally in Florida on Saturday. "They have to come in legally. They have to come in absolutely through a process and they have to come in through merit so they can help all the companies moving back to Florida and the United States." He has described those traveling in the caravan as violent criminals, among whom he says could include Middle Eastern terrorists. Trump has pledged to send up to 15,000 troops to the border in response to the slow-moving migrant caravan. The Pentagon said more than 3,500 troops have been deployed to staging bases along the border, including about 1,000 Marines in California. Still, there were only about 100 troops at the border as of Friday, working at and near a bridge leading to McAllen, Texas, the Rio Grande Valley's second-biggest city, with a population of about 140,000. "Donald Trump is saying that everybody in here they're violent. That is not true," Rafael Garcia of Guatemala told ABC News Sunday morning. "This is all propaganda for his campaigns. It's all political what he's doing and that's not right what he's doing. He should be ashamed of himself for saying that." Trump has frequently cited a violent scene that occurred on Oct. 20 when thousands of Central American migrants forced their way across a bridge at the Guatemala-Mexico and pushed through a fence, overwhelming Mexican riot police, who responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas. Some in the group, according to Trump, threw rocks at the police. Garcia is traveling with his two daughters, one 13 years old and the other 14 months old. He said Trump's rhetoric has discouraged him from traveling to the United States. Instead, he said he plans to go to Mexico City, where people have promised him shelter and a job. Garcia said he used to live in the United States, and spent about 35 years in Los Angeles before he was deported when he was cited for driving under the influence. In Guatemala, Garcia said he started a small business. "I had a good little business and I was being extorted by criminals sent by police, corrupted police," he said. "I was paying them but they kept on asking me for more and more and after that, I couldn't give them more, so they killed my wife. They shot my wife six times in the face and then they started telling me that if I wasn't going to cooperate still that my daughter was going to be next. So, when I heard about the caravan I decided we have to take off." He said many of the migrants, who have been traveling since early October, have left the caravan and returned to their homes because of Trump's decision to send soldiers to the border. "These people [migrants] think that theyre going to get over there and the soldiers are going to start shooting at them," Garcia said. "That's what the government in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador do." Another migrant, Nelmy Ponce said she, too, has a message for Trump. "I want to send a message to Donald Trump and ask him to soften his heart," Ponce told ABC News in Spanish during an interview near Isla municipality in the port city of Veracruz. "I will want to work," she continued. "Give us permission to enter the country, because we are not delinquent. We are not bad people. We come from our country because we have problems there and we cannot stay there." Ponce, who is traveling with her teenage daughter, said they are fleeing violence in their home country of Honduras and will go "wherever God takes us." "We have problems in our country, but it's not because of us. We are not causing the problems. We are looking for a better life, especially for our kids," she told ABC News. "In our country, when [our kids] go to study, they can be kidnapped or killed. We are not bad people. We just want a better life for our families." On Saturday, the governor of Veracruz said buses would be sent to take the migrants to Mexico City, but then he backtracked, citing a water shortage in Mexico's capital city. After rallying outside the Mercado Municipal in Sayula, Ponce and other migrants set off on foot en masse Saturday. "We want buses!" Ponce yelled. As Ponce began walking with her teenage daughter, she said, "For the moment, there are no buses, no easy routes, but there is hope that this long arduous journey won't be in vain." Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The file photo taken on Oct. 31, 2016 shows a Y-20 plane, China's homegrown large transport aircraft, on the 11th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition (Nov. 1 to 6) in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Oct. 31, 2016. (Xinhua/Liang Xu) By Li Jianwen BEIJING, Nov. 5 (ChinaMil) -- The 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition (Airshow China) will be held from November 6 to November 11 in the southern port city of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. The new fighter jets and various active main battle equipment of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force will be on display at the air show. Senior Colonel Shen Jinke, spokesman for the PLA Air Force, delivered some information on November 2 about the PLA Air Forces participation in the air show. Public flight display of J-20 and Y-20 The spotlight at the Airshow China 2018 is on a flight demo of the J-20 fighter jet, a new generation of stealth fighter jet independently developed by China. It made its debut during a flyby in the Airshow China 2016. J-20 fighter jets have been gradually commissioned into the PLA Air Forces combat troops, and this will further enhance the PLA Air Forces comprehensive operational capabilities. Y-20 is a large, multi-purpose military transport aircraft independently developed by China. It can handle long-range tasks including transporting various materials and personnel under complex weather conditions. The formal deployment of Y-20 marks a breakthrough in the independent development of strategic air delivery equipment in China. Aerobatic stunts by August 1st and Red Eagle Aerobatic Teams The August 1st Aerobatic Team of the PLA Air Force and the Red Eagle Aerobatic Team from the Aviation University of the PLA Air Force will perform a series of aerobatic stunts along with other international aerobatic teams during the air show. The August 1st Aerobatic Team will fly with J-10 fighter jets, which are China's home-made third-generation aircraft. Established in 2011, the Red Eagle Aerobatic Team will make its maiden appearance at the air show. Systematic demonstration of PLA Air Force's active main battle equipment The PLA Air Force's active main battle equipment will be displayed systematically. The H-6K strategic bomber, frequently seen in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and the Western Pacific in recent years, as well as the KJ-500 early warning aircraft, J-10B fighter jet, transport aircraft Y-9, and WZ-10K attack helicopter will be on static display at the show. In addition, China will unveil its GJ-2 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at the air show. The domestically-developed GJ-2 is a medium- and high-altitude, long-endurance reconnaissance-strike drone, which has played an important role in border patrol and the anti-terrorism fight. Such air defense and anti-missile equipment as the HQ-9B and HQ-22 air defense missile systems that highlight the Chinese Air Force's air defense and anti-missile capabilities will also be shown at the air show. (Nov. 5, 2018) -- To expand the understanding and explanation of Alzheimers disease, Austin-based business leader James Truchard, retired president and CEO of National Instruments, has given a $5 million gift to the UTSA College of Sciences to establish the Oskar Fischer Project. The initiative will engage the worlds brightest minds in a comprehensive literature review with the goal of synthesizing that information into one simple explanation for the cause of Alzheimers disease. The challenge was announced today during the Society for Neurosciences annual meeting, an international gathering of nearly 30,000 scientists taking place through Nov. 7 in San Diego. The Oskar Fischer Prizes will include a grand prize of $2 million, two second place prizes of $500,000 each and four third place prizes of $250,000 each. Collectively, the monetary awards are the worlds largest prizes of their kind. Oskar Fischer Through personal research, Truchard, 75, was introduced to the work of Oskar Fischer (1876-1942), a Jewish pioneer in neuroscience who studied dementia at the same time as Alois Alzheimer. In 1900, Fischer began working at Charles Universitys German University, based in Prague. His research led to the identification of senile plaques (then called neuritic plaques), the signature lesions of Alzheimers disease. Fischer hypothesized that the plaques were associated with presbyophrenia, then characterized as a form of senile dementia marked by memory loss, memory distortions and disorientation. He published on 12 patients with plaques and tangles, protein strands that appear during Alzheimers disease, in 1907, the same year that Alzheimer published on one patient with early onset Alzheimers. Fischer remained at the German University until he was removed in 1939. In 1942, he was sent to the Small Fortress, a Gestapo prison, where he died one day later. A century has passed since Oskar Fischers seminal work, and tens of billions have been spent around the world on research and potential cures. Over 130,000 research papers have been published and yet no definitive explanation and cure for Alzheimers has been found, said Truchard. We need to look at Alzheimers as a big complex puzzle with a missing piece. We need a brilliant individual who can take all of the pieces and consider what each offers, and then develop one explanation that fits because it pulls all of the pieces together and makes the puzzle whole. According to the World Alzheimer Report 2018 by Alzheimers Disease International (ADI), an estimated 50 million people worldwide are living with dementia at a cost of $1 trillion to the global economy. That population is expected to more than triple by the year 2050, according to ADI, which also reports that the global ratio of publications on neurodegenerative disorders versus cancer is just one to 12. George Perry is the Chief Scientist of the UTSA Brain Health Consortium and an internationally recognized Alzheimers disease researcher. The Oskar Fischer Project will take a new systems approach to the research on Alzheimers, building on the work Oskar Fischer started over a century ago, said George Perry, chief scientist of the UTSA Brain Health Consortium. Jim Truchards generous gift will create an international forum to assess that work and bring forward an explanation that will advance societys understanding of the disease. UTSA, a world leader in brain health research, will incubate the two-year challenge. In the UTSA Brain Health Consortium, 38 of the nations brightest scientists are engaged in research on brain mechanisms and therapeutics. UTSA researchers have expertise in neurodegenerative disease, brain circuits and electrical signaling, traumatic brain injury, regenerative medicine and stem cell therapies, medicinal chemistry and drug design, neuroinflammation, and psychology. Through Jim Truchards support, the Oskar Fischer Project will accelerate our shared mission of unraveling the mysteries of neurodegeneration through engagement with the smartest thinkers around the world, said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. Truchard added, I truly believe that Alzheimers disease is multifaceted; its about lifestyle, heredity and brain regression. Its important to look at all possible solutions. This contest will bring together the worlds best minds to consider the entire story. UTSA will work closely with an interdisciplinary committee of outstanding scientists from Texas to award the Oskar Fischer Prizes. The call for proposals will open in February 2019 and will continue through the two-year term of the project. Openings on City Boards and Commissions Officials with Laramie city government wish to inform University of Wyoming employees of the opportunity to serve on various city boards and commissions. The city currently has openings on: -- The Building and Fire Code Board of Appeals. -- The Planning Commission. -- The Traffic Commission. -- The Albany County Tourism Joint Powers Board. -- The Parks, Trees and Recreation Advisory Board. Applications for the first three boards on this list are due Wednesday, Nov. 7. Applications for the latter two are due Friday, Nov. 23. Applications also are being accepted for the citys Civil Service Commission until the position is filled. These are volunteer positions. Applications are available online at www.cityoflaramie.org or in the city clerks office in City Hall, 406 Ivinson Ave. General Xu Qiliang (R) shakes hands with Bolivian Defense Minister Javier Zavaleta (L) during the Fourth China-Latin America High-level Defense Forum in Beijing on November 2, 2018. (mod.gov.cn/Photo by Li Xiaowei) By Yin Hang BEIJING, Nov. 5 (ChinaMil) -- General Xu Qiliang, Vice Chairman of Chinas Central Military Commission (CMC), met with foreign representatives attending the Fourth China-Latin America High-level Defense Forum in Beijing on November 2, 2018. General Wei Fenghe, Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister, met with the visiting Bolivian Defense Minister Javier Zavaleta and Michael Soto, Minister of Public Security in Costa Rica, at the forum respectively on the same day. During his joint meeting with foreign representatives, Gen. Xu Qiliang said that although China and Latin America are far apart from each other, their friendly exchanges have had a long history. Chinese President Xi Jinping has visited Latin America for three times in recent years, and China-Latin America relations have entered a period of comprehensive and rapid development. China and Latin American countries are developing countries with similar stages and concepts of development, so both can provide development opportunities for each other. China is willing to work with Latin American countries to deepen mutual political trust, dock their development strategies, share cooperation results, and jointly push China-Latin America comprehensive cooperative partnership to a new level. General Xu said that in recent years China has carried out proactive and pragmatic military exchanges and cooperation with Latin American countries, and the China-Latin America High-level Defense Forum has become an increasingly mature platform mechanism. He hopes both sides will work together to continuously innovate cooperation models, expand the breadth and depth of their cooperation, and promote parallel development of China-Latin America military relations and bilateral military relations between China and certain Latin American country. Speaking on behalf of foreign representatives, Bolivian Defense Minister Javier Zavaleta said that Latin American countries and China are peace-loving countries, and they share the same values in various aspects. Latin American partners highly agree with the Chinese concept of a community of shared future for mankind and the Belt and Road Initiative. As such, they are willing to work with China to continuously deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields and promote the construction of a new order of mutual benefit and coexistence for mankind, he said. When meeting with Javier Zavaleta, Gen. Wei Fenghe said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1985, China-Bolivia relations have developed smoothly. Both China and Bolivia are developing countries, and deepening mutually beneficial cooperation is in the fundamental interests of both peoples. The Chinese military is willing to work together with its Bolivian counterpart to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state, continue to strengthen exchanges between defense departments and military leaders, deepen cooperation in the field of personnel training, and raise the relationship between the two militaries to a higher level. Javier Zavaleta said that Bolivia thanks China for its strong support for the construction of Bolivian military forces. Bolivia is willing to work with China to further expand exchanges and cooperation in various fields between the two militaries and promote the continuous development of relations between the two countries and the two militaries. When meeting with Michael Soto, Minister of Public Security in Costa Rica, Wei Fenghe said that Costa Rica was the first Central American country to establish diplomatic relations with China. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, relations between the two countries have developed rapidly; high-level exchanges have been close; political mutual trust has been strengthened; and cooperation in various fields has made positive progress. The Chinese side has a positive attitude toward deepening the bilateral defense and security relationships, and is willing to work with Costa Rica to strengthen cooperation in the areas of group exchanges and personnel training to build a closer strategic partnership between China and Costa Rica, he said. Michael Soto said that Costa Rica is a peace-loving country and has had no military for more than 70 years. Costa Rica hopes to carry out proactive and pragmatic cooperation with China in areas including counter-terrorism and anti-smuggling, and jointly build a beautiful homeland, he said. Group photo of participants attending the Fourth China-Latin America High-level Defense Forum in Beijing on November 2, 2018. (mod.gov.cn/Photo by Li Xiaowei) UW Employee Benefit and Wellness Fair Nov. 8 The University of Wyoming Human Resources will offer an Employee Benefit and Wellness Fair Thursday, Nov. 8, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. in the Wyoming Union Ballroom. Raffle prizes and giveaway items will be available while they last. All benefited employees are authorized to use a maximum of one hour of release time to participate in the fair. The scheduling of release time should be a collaborative discussion between employee and supervisor to ensure the effective and efficient operation of the unit. Representatives from UWs benefit providers will be available to offer advice and answer questions about: -- Retirement, including Wyoming retirement, TIAA-CREF, VALIC, Ameriprise, Fidelity, AXA and Voya. -- Health and dental insurance: Employees Group Insurance, Cigna and Delta Dental. -- Employee assistance program: MINES and Associates. The fair will include several free wellness activities. Wyoming Health Fairs will offer blood screens from 8-10 a.m.; UW pharmacy students will offer flu shots while they last; UW nursing students will check vital signs; and UW Division of Communication Disorders will provide information about hearing screenings. Representatives from UWs Psychology Clinic, Half Acre Recreation and Wellness Center, and the Outdoor Program also will provide information about their services. Human Resources staff members will be available to assist with: -- Flexible benefits: medical and dependent care reimbursement for 2019. -- Open enrollment: Spouses and children through age 26 may be added. -- Changing deductibles for health insurance. Open enrollment closes Friday, Nov. 30. It is open enrollment for the 2019 calendar year, and this is an opportunity to: -- Make changes to deductibles and add/remove dependents. -- Contribute to a flexible benefits account (medical or dependent care reimbursement). These accounts do not carry forward from year to year and must be renewed every year. For more information, call Human Resources at 766-2438, 766-5603 or 766-4220; or email hrbenofc@uwyo.edu. UW Employees Granted Release Time to Vote in General Election University of Wyoming employees have a maximum of one hour of release time to vote in Tuesdays Wyoming general election, in accordance with state law and UW policy. The 2018 general election is Tuesday, Nov. 6, from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. To locate polling places, go here. The scheduling of release time should be a collaborative discussion between employee and supervisor to ensure the effective and efficient operation of the unit. UW in the News State, national and international media frequently feature the University of Wyoming and members of its community in stories. Here is a summary of some of the recent articles: The Laramie Boomerang reported that UW officials are studying how to increase the number of students who study abroad. U.S. News and World Report also published the Associated Press version of the article. UW administrators are seeking to reallocate about $310,000 of the universitys existing budget to support some of the programs currently operated by the Biodiversity Institute, reported The Boomerang. UWs release explains the universitys commitment to biodiversity science. UW medical students will double the time they spend on campus starting in 2019, as the five-state WWAMI program ceases to bring students to Seattle for their second year of training, The Boomerang reported. Wyoming Public Radio interviewed Emily Monago, UW chief diversity officer, about new mandatory training for faculty and staff in November that will help foster a stronger culture of inclusivity. A full-color atlas of Wyomings big-game migrations has been published, Wyoming Public Radio reported. Matthew Kauffman, a U.S. Geological Survey researcher based at UW, said the maps reveal the complex world that wildlife navigate in order to survive. The Jackson Hole News and Guide published a similar article. Wyoming Business Report interviewed Bernard Steinman, research director at the Wyoming Center on Aging and UW assistant professor, for an article detailing Laramie as the third city in Wyoming to join AARPs national network of age-friendly cities. Gang Tan, a UW engineering associate professor, and colleagues have successfully scaled up an innovative water-cooling system capable of providing continuous day-and-night radiative cooling for structures, according to Manufacturing.net. Wyoming Public Radio interviewed UW economist Rob Godby who discussed coal mines, including Cloud Peak Energy in Wyoming, cutting back on workers medical benefits as a way to reduce costs. Cheyenne attorney Greg Dyekman will receive the 2018 Daniels Fund Ethical Leadership Award, sponsored partly by the UW College of Business, Wyoming Business Report noted. Sheridan Media published UWs release announcing a reorganization of its geography instruction, research and service. Sheridan Media also interviewed Chad Baldwin, UW associate vice president for communications and marketing, about the favorable student satisfaction survey. UW Parking and Transit held a community engagement meeting to discuss parking issues around the UW campus, noted The Boomerang. Traditional Thai massage has become an unlikely point of contention in Koreas free-trade talks with ASEAN. As a free-trade agreement would cover services as well as goods, the Thai government is asking Korea to permit the establishment of Thai massage parlors in Korea, with the concomitant permission for Thais to set up such businesses here. The ventures would be assured of success as many Koreans have already experienced the benefits of Thai massage on trips to the popular holiday destination. But under the Medical Services Law, massage and acupressure therapy are open only to the blind in Korea. If the government accepts the Thai request, it would face a barrage of protests from the vision-impaired. Since Thailand is a leader of the 10-member Southeast Asian bloc, the Korean government will find it difficult to refuse, particularly since Bangkok alone has declined to sign the basic agreement on commodities reached with ASEAN last December, saying it does not stand to benefit. The result is a headache to the government from a practice popular around the world for soothing aches and pains. More than 70 British business leaders have signed a letter urging a new referendum on whether the U.K. should leave the European Union. The executives say the government's plan for a divorce deal would impose barriers between Britain and the EU, its biggest trading partner. The letter obtained by the Sunday Times says relations with the bloc proposed by the government are "not nearly as good as the current deal we have inside the EU." For several years, the Western media, Nato officials and an army of analysts have been contaminated with Russiaphobia. Their hearts seem to be heavy with a mortal fear of aggression by the Russian Air Force in the proximity of Nato territorial waters in the Baltic and the Black Sea. Let us examine the reasons for this fear, which you are sure to conclude are trivial. In the three Baltic states and Romania, Nato has established a mechanism called Quick Reaction Alert (QRA). QRA is a system of rotation involving 150 soldiers, 6 pilots and four fighter planes which respond to a simple mandate imposed on the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Italy and other Nato countries to undertake air policing, every four months. To examine what is happening, well use Romania as a case study. On several occasions, the warning mechanism for rapid response has announced to the press that Russian military planes have tried to enter the Romanian air space without first obtaining permission to fly within it. Each time such cases have been signalled, British Eurofighter Typhoon planes or Canadian F-18 plane have taken off with a view to intercepting Russian planes to defend the integrity of Romanias air space over its territorial waters. For example, during August 2018, in just one week, the British Royal Air Force made an official announcement that it had carried out three take offs during day and night, from the air base at lMihail Kogalniceanu (Romania), with its Typhoon airplanes in the context of the QRA, to intercept Russian planes that were flying over international airspace above the Black Sea. Zooming in on the facts, we note that the British have intercepted the following: An Antonov An-26, transport plane; and A Beriev Be-12 plane for search and rescue Both these planes had taken off from Crimea and were on a training flight above the Black Sea, at a distance of 100 miles from the Romanian coast. The British declared that the trajectory of these planes made you think that they were going to leave the international air space and enter accidentally or deliberately the Romanian air space. Yet, the Be-12 is a non-armed hydroplane dating back to the 1960s. It is unarmed and crosses at a speed equal to that of a helicopter. So what is actually going down? Its all about the pilots keeping their ranking. In this domain, every country has the same regulation for the military Air Force. The six British pilots drafted to the Romanian base of Mihail Kogalniceanu for a period of four months, are carrying out combat service. This is why they cannot carry out training flights like their colleagues in the United Kingdom. If these pilots cannot fly at least once a month, when they return to their country, they have to undergo training, accompanied by an instructor, in planes with pilots. Thus the Western press, with a complete lack of professionalism, makes the inference that the alarm bells signal a real threat and make it news for the public. The press do not go to the Defense Ministers of the United Kingdom or Canada to ask him the reasons for such superficial missions and why they do not send training planes (with double commands) to Romania which, although a host nation, is not equipped with Typhon and F18 planes. Thus maintaining the ranking of the Nato pilots drafted in Romania is a necessity. Nato member states fraudulently resolve this issue, agitating the name of Russia. As the Russian Air Force takes off and lands everyday in the air bases at Crimea, 150 200 miles from the base of Mihail Kogalniceanu, British and Canadian pilots do not need to make training flights to reconfirm their ranking after a month on the ground. The Russia planes of Crimea are able to play the role of an air force for Nato fighter planes, given that the radars on board the Typhoon and F-18 planes can detect air targets at a distance of 100 miles. To maintain their ranking, two British or French pilots fly for training purposes and choose a day with difficult conditions corresponding to the minimum parameters of difficulty for Typhoon and F-18 airplanes (that is a ceiling of low clouds and poor visibility). They can also choose to fly at night, again in the conditions specified in the minimal parameters. The only prerequisite is that on this day or night, Russian planes are taking off from Crimea. Thanks to this ruse, the six Nato pilots drafted in Romania manage to resolve their problem of keeping their ranking in conditions of a fighting service and with two or three flights per month. After all, they are only men and not machines. This is the entire secret behind the hysteria artificially provoked by the rhetoric The Russians are attacking us, the mantra of the Western Press. Analysis of satellite images taken from 2016 to May this year shows "significant growth in the volume of the mining spoil piles and the accumulating waste" nearby, it said. The website said a suspected uranium mining and milling facility in Pyongsan, North Hwanghae Province has been in operation until recently. North Korea seems to have continued uranium mining operations even during denuclearization talks with South Korea and the U.S., the website 38 North at Johns Hopkins University said on Friday. Compared with images shot in October 2016, an artificial pond southwest of the plant photographed in May shows that "the water in the newly filled southwest section of the waste pond is heavily stained and the increase in waste material is identifiable with concentration process." But it is not certain "if the waste is the byproduct of recently mined uranium ore, the use of existing stocks already on hand at the facility, or raw material brought in from another mine," it added. In an annual report in August, the International Atomic Energy Agency said there is also evidence that North Korea is still reprocessing spent fuel rods from its Yongbyon nuclear reactor to extract weapons-grade plutonium. Meanwhile, Jason Arterburn of the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in a forum in Washington last week said North Korean restaurants in China have served as "commercial nodes" for several decades and "therefore [can] be associated with other potentially high risk proliferation activities," according to Radio Free Asia last Thursday. Commencement of Duty Legal Representative Scheme The Ministry of Health, Care and Justice has announced the commencement of the legal reforms establishing Gibraltars first Duty Legal Representative Scheme. The Duty Legal Representative Scheme, which commenced on the 1st of October 2018 is a result of close consultation between the Minister for Health, Care and Justice, the Honourable Neil F. Costa MP and the Bar Council. The start of the Scheme follows the commencement in June of important reforms to the provision of legal assistance. Entitlement to legal assistance was greatly enhanced by increases in financial eligibility from 5,000, a sum set in 1990, to over 14,000 This means that a person in full time employment, on the minimum wage, may now be eligible. Also, since 27th of June of 2017, and for the first time in Gibraltar, prisoners applying for parole who meet the relevant criteria became eligible to receive free legal representation when the Parole Board is considering their cases. Further, persons appearing before the Mental Health Review Tribunal also became eligible to receive free legal representation, provided they meet the relevant criteria. "The main objective of this important package of civil justice reforms is to establish a fairer, and much improved, system for persons accessing legal assistance, whose financial limitations impeded their ability to obtain legal advice and representation. These wide-ranging access to justice reforms ensure taxpayers monies are used in meritorious cases and not to fund cases, which were considered unreasonable. The introduction of the Duty Legal Representative Scheme aims to provide persons arrested in Gibraltar with access to legal representation while in police custody. The service is available 24 hours and seven days a week. All law firms of 5 or more practitioners are required to become members of the Scheme, with smaller law firms given the option to be included. The Scheme guarantees a persons human right to professional legal advice and representation when held in custody." The Bar Council said: The Bar Council, which has been closely monitoring the implementation of the Scheme together with all stakeholders, including the Magistrates Court, Royal Gibraltar Police and HM Customs, is pleased to report that the Scheme is working well overall from the perspective of all said stakeholders and that the availability of free legal representation has been well received by detainees generally and is also assisting the law enforcement bodies in the discharge of their procedural duties. Minister Costa added: I am extremely pleased at the successful collaboration with the Gibraltar Bar Council to implement the Duty Legal Representative Scheme. The Scheme provides legal advice and representation to persons in custody, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Persons may find themselves in situations where they are held in custody and are unable to access legal representation. It is important, and just, that everyone has the opportunity to receive legal advice and representation in keeping with their human rights. I wish to sincerely thank the Bar Council for their invaluable input and our excellent lawyers at the Government Law Offices for their outstanding work in achieving this important milestone. Another week, another groundbreaking episode of 90 Day Fiance that has yet to be recognized by the MacArthur Foundation for its strides in genius television programming. We start this episode with Jays hot dad, Skinz, who has been bestowed that name by his community because he apparently has a lot of sex. (Ashley used a more offensive euphemism, but I will spare you all the visual!) Jay is the spitting image of his father, and the two share a camaraderie thats beautiful until you realize theyre laughing about being dirty philanderers. Jay admires the fact that his father has multiple women, although he claims that he wants to be better than his father. If I were a betting woman, Id say there is a 100 percent chance that Jay cheats on Ashley within his first 48 hours of being in the United States. On the other side of the equator, Steven is finally in Russia for the birth of his son. He struggles getting around the airport and train station because he cant read Russian. I cant help but laugh at him as the producer, who is probably fluent in Russian, watches him struggle to tell his right from his left. When Steven finally gets to Olgas small hometown seven hours outside of Moscow, his very pregnant girlfriend is waiting for him outside. Steven and Olga are absolutely sweet together and I dont want to see how Steven messes this up because he will surely mess this up. Olga is overcome with emotions for him, which is difficult for her since she grew up in a Russian orphanage. Wait, what? This is a pretty big detail just stuffed in the back end of a confessional. I have no doubt this little peek into her traumatic childhood will rear its ugly head again with the birth of her baby. Back in the United States, Reina tries not to kill Eric for being so Eric-y. Its worth mentioning that I love everything about Reina, our Indonesian Daria. I love that she indiscriminately takes photos of everything she sees, like Citi bike racks. I love that she wears oversized florals in an outfit meant for a Delias employee. I love that she thinks her sister in an idiot because I do too. Reina is the perfect greek chorus for an audience trying to understand why Leida is with Eric, a man that buys one sandwich to split between four people. Erics finances should be a walking red flag to Leida because he wont be able to support her in the lifestyle to which shes grown accustomed. And this has nothing to do with the fact that he pays child support, and everything to do with the fact that Eric doesnt have no money! The fact that Eric has no money doesnt change just because Leidas parents are in town. Its just more embarrassing for Leida, which is I why I would like to reiterate that she should go back to her mansion in Indonesia before its too late. Meanwhile in Las Vegas, in the happiest place on Earth, Larissa is miserable. She hates Colts house and wishes he lived in a bigger one with a pool. Larissa has these unrealistic expectations of America and her fantasies are crashing around her. If the size of Colts house was really such an issue, Larissa should have asked him to give her a FaceTime walking tour of his living situation before leaving her life in Brazil behind. Larissas being pretty rude to Debra and Colt, but she has made one valuable point: they shouldnt have a slot machine in their dining room as decor. I dont care if its a sentimental gift from Colts father, its gauche. Larissas confrontational behavior prompts Debra to believe that Larissa doesnt like anything about them which is absolutely true. But is Debra really trying that hard? I mean, she offered Larissa beef stew. Thats just insulting. The annoying part is that Debra spends her evening sobbing at the dinner table, I suppose mourning the sister-wife friendship with Larissa that will never be. She tries to explain to Larissa that its her job to learn Colts favorite meals. I find this infuriating. Colt is a grown man with two women, one of which is his mom, fighting over his attention. Its Colts job to learn cook for his own dang self. Its not like his dishes are hard hes eating bacon and eggs, for goodness sake. If he can read recipes.com he can prepare his basic-as-hell dishes. The problem isnt Larissa, the problem is that Colt isnt looking for a wife, but a servant, and the only woman willing to do that for a man that brings nothing to the table but dandruff is the woman who hosted him in her uterus for probably 17 months. Now, we head to my sweet beautiful angel, Fernanda, in Lumberton, North Carolina. Shes shopping with Jonathans friend Dani, because Fernanda has nothing to do since she cant work until her K-1 visa is official. For the first time since Fernanda got to America, shes finally able to confide in someone about Jonathans behavior. Dani dismisses Thong-Gate as just Jonathan being a dumb boy which hes a 32-year-old man who wants to start a family. While hes not a dumb boy, hes certainly a stupid man. Fernanda is a sweet soul put on this Earth by God and she doesnt deserve to feel so isolated and alone. My heart breaks when she video chats with her family. She shouldnt be with Jonathan and Id be happy to pitch in her for plane ride back to Mexico. In Orange County, Asuelu and Kalani take a visit to the beach to emotionally prepare for their meeting with Kalanis protective father. There are so many gems from this scene. The fact that Asuelu is wearing American flag swim trunks. The fact that he points at the palm trees and screams at them for not having coconuts. The fact that he describes the beach as being covered with white people and rubbish. I could go on, but there is not enough time in the day to cover Asuelus observations. In truth, Im worried about Asuelu. When we eventually get to family dinner, Kolini, not to be confused with Kalani, is annoyed with Asuelu because he thinks he can just immediately become a father to his son. Im not so sure whats annoying about this since Asuelu is his sons father. Asuelu doesnt deserve to be treated so cruelly because all he did was have consensual sex with an older woman. He wasnt expecting to get her pregnant and hes doing his best to try to make things right. Back in Russia, Steve and Olga visit a department store to shop for the baby. Steve gets frustrated because he feels like Olga is making too many unnecessary purchase for frivolous things like socks, clothes, and a bath. This man is woefully unprepared for a child if he doesnt think a baby needs clothes. Whats worse is hes surprised that in Olgas culture, men arent allowed in the birthing room. This is a problem for him because he wants to see his sons first placenta-covered moments. I can empathize with this, but Steven spends too much time being surprised. I mean, he was even surprised that Olga could give birth any day now, despite her being very pregnant. This man needs to learn how to chill, because right now he is more startled than a child who hasnt developed object permanence. We end this episode with Jay finally in America. The first thing he notices is that its freezing. This is a man whos never felt cold before and Im worried for his health because he doesnt have a coat. Jay wants to get to Ashleys house and jump naked in the snow, which is not a good idea, especially since Ashley lives in a predominantly white neighborhood. The two are concerned about how their interracial relationship will affect the race relations in their community, and Im guessing this is about to foreshadow a whole bunch of racism. Im sure 90 Day Fiance will handle this with nuance and care! Until next time Maurice Swift may not be much of a novelist, but he inhabits a literary tradition going to back to Patricia Highsmith. Boynes protagonist is Tom Ripley as literary climber, whom we first meet through the eyes of his first victim, an aging German author. Swift turns his older mentors darkest secrets into scandalously thin fiction and never looks back; the only one who can see through him is Gore Vidal, in a supremely witty interlude. Boynes novel is about high literature but has lower, juicier ambitions, at which it wildly succeeds. In case you were still wondering about the moral compasses of everyone in the HoC universe, and/or you were confused as to the stakes of this series, this penultimate episode clears that right up for you by announcing this much: Literally everyone is capable of murder. And by everyone, I mean everyone. Everyone! Did you think the Shepherds wanted to just assassinate Claire? Like, so badly that they would employ a fake doctor to get Claire an IV drip that would induce labor when she was only four months along in her pregnancy, thus threatening not just Claires life but the life of her baby? (Way to be ethically consistent, Annette Abortions Are Evil Shepherd.) Doug and Nathan are on the run because, as Nathan puts it, Literally all I care about is getting out of this alive. Janine is sobbing while driving because she knows that Toms death-by-whoopsie-robbery was premeditated manslaughter. To remind all of us what this show is apparently, truly about umm, death? we begin with a shadowy figure digging up graves. A lot of graves. Remember that one episode of The Americans where a whole scene was spent digging up just the one grave? And that was a team of trained spies, working in shifts! This someone is bearded. There is sorrow. There is sighing. There is a sense that this soul is more at home here, under the suffocating blanket of night, surrounded by ghosts, than anywhere else. There is: Doug Stamper. Doug has been listening to Franks final gift, this itty-bitty MP3 or some such device, on which Frank recorded all his monologues. Is this a recording of everything he ever said straight to the camera? Were his fourth-wall breaks actually secret diary entries? There are two kinds of pain is from the series premiere aww, simpler times and as we can see, Doug has listened to this tape so much he knows it all by heart. If you were asking yourself, How long did it take Doug to grow that beard? the answer, as we can see from Claires swelling belly, is four months. Shes giving rousing speeches about how the future has become very personal while all these shadowy oligarchs are trying to run her out of office. Claire calls herself a father, a mother, a leader, a friend, and Doug, watching from afar, mutters to himself, liar, killer, because he has COMPLETELY fucking lost it. He has an actual Unabomber beard. He is mourning Rachel. I shout at my laptop, BUDDY YOU ARE THE ONE WHO KILLED HER YOU DONT GET TO BE ALL RIP, MY LOVE. Claire has a vision, and the vision is, lets start arresting people in Congress because the Shepherd freedom app is a gross violation of privacy! And lets get rid of everyone who doesnt agree with me! (Claire as Trump in Hillary clothing is one way to go, I guess.) Nora reminds Claire that we live in a world of due process, and I mentally summon Doug to dig another grave, for theres no way Nora is not long for this world. Janine has the press part of Air Force One all to herself, which is a bad sign typically once Claire knows about you, you are doomed and she uses this opportunity to quote from Franks secret tapes, knowing it will put Claire on notice. Claire responds by having very intense contractions. Which kind of pain is that, I wonder? A doctor comes by to do blood work and advise Claire to skip her upcoming appearances; all of a sudden Claire doesnt want to be an indisposed president, but such is that pregnant life. Then this doctor an emissary of the Shepherds, it turns out gives Claire that drip that induces her labor, right when shes in the middle of talking about a Russian troll factory with Petrov! History belongs to the highest bidder now, Petrov says, and upon hearing this, Claires unborn child is like, NOT TODAY SATAN and Claire keels over. Speaking of people whose bodies are betraying them: Bill has looked better. He is Miss Havisham-level pale, talking to a bunch of rich people at some event. Remember that the Shepherds bought Justice Abruzzo, so dont be surprised that they wrote his majority ruling which will diminish Claires powers over time and across the board. Its a little early to be popping Champagne, but no one told Annie and Bill that. Congressman Cole is here, as is Mark, wearing a turtleneck (?) and a blazer and talking about how hes just fine to rebuild his career again and again and again. One rogue waitress interjects the proceedings to say that the Shepherds are killers and that Bill made himself sick with his own factory poison. As Bill starts in on todays bloviation of choice, Annie cuts in: Please dont confuse me with someone who is willing to listen to one more of your goddamn opinions. CHISEL THAT INTO MY HEADSTONE, CROSS-STITCH IT ONTO ALL MY PILLOWS. (Or, at least, everybody go add that to the tops of your Tinder profiles.) Annie tells Bill theyre both legally adopting Duncan so he can inherit Shepherd Unlimited. Sensing a theme, re: heirs, legitimacy, and inheritances? While Claire is unconscious, she has this flashback to hooking up with a hot guy in a great sweater whom she loved having sex with but who she does not choose. Because I want every door to be wide open and stay that way. Sure! His name is Reed. I dont think we know him from anywhere else. After one last time with him, Claire calls young Frank and tells him shell meet him in five minutes. Upon waking, Claire learns about this dubious doctor who will never practice again (fair) and that shes carrying a daughter (obviously). She calls Annette just to taunt her with the heartbeat and call her a fucking cunt (again, fair). Meanwhile, Doug does weird survivalist face-washing and then emerges into the night where Nathan awaits him. Doug gives up the coordinates of where Rachel is buried; Nathan folds immediately because of not wanting to die. Claire kind of loses it and tears apart the Oval Office, finally figuring out that Doug took something from the bottom of that drawer. Congressman Cole shows up and somehow avoids commenting on the post-frat-party vibe of the place. Also, Congressman Cole is now Speaker of the House. Claire explains that someone will go down for app-related treason and tells Cole that Justice Abruzzo traded a favorable ruling for a lakehouse. Really? Are lakehouses so great and that hard to come by? I mean, I dont have one, Im just saying. (I love that Abruzzo doesnt even deny it; hes just like, My grandson has MS and needs to swim!) Cole isnt so hot on impeaching a black justice. Claire, as you might expect, does not care. So Abruzzo recuses himself, Duncan is charged with treason, and I think to myself, Extremely shitty for Duncan that he didnt just stay with his birth parents. Annies take on how Claire is polling high now is anyone that popular is bad for democracy, lol. The Shepherds decide that the only course of action is to assassinate Claire: She has no vice-president, so Cole will become acting POTUS, and then theyll push the stability angle to get him elected for real. Besides, Annie says, Claire will be a feminist martyr, especially because shes pregnant. (Just in case you werent sure these kids werent hypocrites re: abortion, pro-life politics, etc.) Doug is brought into the meeting but quickly bails when his ridiculous terms take down Claire, leave Frank alone are not met. Doug then meets with Janine, who got Toms research off his dogs collar (that is brilliant, RIP Herald Tom, all dogs are good dogs) and says its the same story Lucas and Zoe were working on when they were killed. Janine yells what we are all thinking at Doug: What the hell are you protecting? Claire has a sit-down interview with Melody of Beltway TV, where she announces that shes having a girl. Doug watches this interview with his arms folded. Through the TV/fourth wall, Claire says, Come and get me, Doug. So Doug dramatically cuts off his beard because the END IS NIGH. Of course he cuts himself so there can be symbolic bloodshed. Then Doug looks right at us and says, She leaves me no choice. Is there anyone in this show who isnt allowed to talk directly to us? Photo: Walter McBride/WireImage, The new play American Son is sure to spark conversation. It asks almost every hard political question that were dealing with right now, Steven Pasquale, who stars as Kerry Washingtons onstage husband, told Vulture at last nights premiere party (among them, our varied social epidemics: police brutality, racism, misogyny, classism, etc.). Some of it is an easy answer, which is that white people need to listen a little bit more clearly about what its like for non-white people to live in this country. Washington stars as Kendra, a panicked mother whose son has gone missing and turns to the police to aid in her search. Through four main perspectives, the colliding mentalities of Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter are brought center stage. We have to get to the place in our conversation where all lives matter. Its okay to say that blue lives matter if its also okay to say that black lives matter, Washington said. But we should all be able to agree that we all matter and that individually our own groups have their own challenges. I feel like one of the things thats so beautiful about our play is that it doesnt just say the words black lives matter, but it embodies the idea that this life of this young African-American child matters deeply not only to his parents but to the community in the Booth. We dont even meet him, and he matters to us. When asked, then, how theyd feel if President Trump were to attend one night, the plays stars werent thrilled at the thought; Washington, for one, exclaimed, Oh, God! at the prospect before calling back to Brandon Victor Dixons response to Mike Pence attending Hamilton in 2016. I was really inspired by how the Hamilton cast handled Pences visit, so I think I would reflect on that and take the opportunity to say something to him and whoever is in his group, she said. [Trump] can go where he wants and watch what he wants, and if hes courageous enough to come to our play, I would hope that it would crack his heart open, too, and that more people would matter to him than [] currently do. Pasquale, on the other hand, didnt mince words: Trump, whom he called a lunatic and an open, naked racist, is unequivocally unwelcome. If he found himself in our audience, there is zero percent chance we would do this play, he said. I would come out onstage and I would say, You are not allowed to legislate against our great American cities and against non-white people and against the LGBT community, and then enjoy our culture. We would have him removed, and then we would do the play for the decent people who came and paid for their tickets. Spend 47 days in the art world with Seen. Performance artist Narcissister, director and subject of NARCISSISTER ORGAN PLAYER. Photo: Genevieve Hanson Narcissister, the lithe, biracial, gender provocateur and performance artist has been exposing to the world everything but her real identity for the past decade or so. Her face is always covered by a creepy Barbie-esque mask, and shes often not wearing too much else, sometimes pushing and pulling all manner of objects in and out of herself on stage. This proclivity was made sculptural with an installation of multiracial sex dolls stacked on top of each other called Totem displayed at both Participant Inc. It was later reinstalled this past spring at Jeffrey Deitch gallery, where the performer sometimes sit at the base of it, blending in to the porn-y inanimate. Once, at Abrons Art Center, she bounded out of an outsize replica of her own breasts dressed as a glittery, scientifically detailed human heart while Billie Holiday played. Narcissisters work is subversive, funny, and beautiful, in part, because of the clever intricacy of her physical acrobatics and her DIY sensibility. Focused on the female body, particularly its orifices and internal passageways, her work explores how this messy, viscerality coexists alongside the various signifiers of conventional feminine allure blond hair, lipstick, pearls, high heels, long legs, sexy lingerie. These provocations have even slipped into the pop culture consciousness of late with Narcissister stepping out on the townwith Marilyn Manson and appearing as a constantly transmuting four-faced doll on Americas Got Talent. But who is the person behind the mask? Playing at Film Forum November 7 to 20, the documentary Narcissister Organ Player gives us some of the backstory but only what the artist wants to tell us, since it was directed by Narcissister herself. The film, shrewdly edited by Taryn Gould, juxtaposes tape of Narcissisters shocking performances with the very raw, personal story of her all-encompassing relationship with her mother, a beautiful artistic Moroccan Jew who fled with her family to the US, where she met and married Narcissisters African-American professor father. The two settled in San Diego to raise Narcissister and her brother, Bernard, whose home videos animate the film. Especially heartbreaking and beautiful in its final section, the doc is an important reminder in this Trump era of just how diverse and uncategorizable so many American families are. Its also the most emotionally vulnerable work yet from a performer who still insists she needs a mask to distance her real self from the audacious nature of her stage acts. (Her mother appreciated this bit of self-censorship.) We talked to Narcissister about the process of making such an intimate work. How did this film come to be? A scene from NARCISSISTER ORGAN PLAYER, directed by Narcissister. Photo: Courtesy of Film Movement I had made the evening-length piece for Abrons called Narcissister Organ Player during the last six months of my moms life. She died right after I presented it. When I applied for the Creative Capital grant [Ed. which she ultimately got] to make the film, I thought about how the Organ Player piece must be so potent because of the time in which I made it. A few years after my mom died, I was ready to look more directly at the impact of my relationship with her on my life and my work. I wanted to record my memories and stories of her before I forgot them. The film often dramatically juxtaposes your graphic performance work with the story of your mother and your family. At the beginning, you say that your relationship with her was the most important of your life while we see you pulling fake pigtails out of your butt. What is the connection between the two things? Sarah Benzaquen Lumpkin, mother of Narcissister, in NARCISSISTER ORGAN PLAYER, directed by Narcissister. Photo: Courtesy of Film Movement We got early feedback that the film didnt make that connection clear enough so I added a section to try to make it explicit. Its that her body was a big part of my psyche, especially at the end, helping her walk, helping her get up. She was very sensual, a poet, but she also lived a traditional trajectory, getting married young and having children in her late twenties. As a child, Id see these forms everywhere that looked like big vaginas and Id ask her very pointed questions and shock her from a young age. To me, the connection is the materiality and the beautiful messiness of the female body, this same canal and orifice out of which your mother birthed you becoming so prominent in your work. What did your mom think of your work? It was shocking for her at first. I think she was concerned that I wasnt within my integrity doing that work, but my whole family felt that way. Only when they saw the response that other people had to it were they able to get on board and realize there was more than the erotic to it and that I was in a place of power doing it. But it was challenging for everyone. Your mother joined you on stage in her final years, knitting while you performed. Yes, I was pulling things out of my vagina while she knitted. Theres something about things coming out of a vagina that squares well with motherhood. I remember asking her, If you were a part of my work, what would you do? and she said, I just want to sit on the stage and knit. Would she have been upset if you had done your work unmasked? I think I would be upset! To do it unmasked with my mom onstage would feel so narcissistic to me. I think it would lose its criticality, because with the mask theres some layer of distance. Without the mask, it would feel too raw. I liked being masked and stylized while my mom was onstage unmasked in her normal clothes doing something very pedestrian that she does in her everyday life. Its a very layered film in terms of elements used animation, various kinds of footage, etc. What was hardest? It took my brother Bernard a long time to be willing to let me use those home videos he had. He hadnt even watched them himself after our parents died and he has his own pain around their deaths. But its the reason that the film is so good. He loves the film and is listed as cinematographer and executive producer and he came to Sundance and the other festivals with me. What parts of the film give it a political context in our current age of Trump and of #MeToo? A scene from NARCISSISTER ORGAN PLAYER, directed by Narcissister. Photo: Courtesy of Film Movement The fact that my parents had an interracial marriage, [that] my mother was a Jewish immigrant, and then my own brand of feminism, what it means to have a place of power as a woman of color, the erotics of my work. In the Q&As, a lot of people have asked me about #MeToo and Ive always said that as someone whos attempted to be an activist, #MeToo is very exciting. Was your mom reluctant to be filmed all the time? And your dad too? My mom knew on some level that she was adored by my brother and me and she was used to us wanting to take pictures of her and film her. I just wanted to hold onto every bit of her that I could even the pictures of her getting naked in the bath. She wasnt an exhibitionist but she did have a lot of sensuality. My dad is definitely shyer and less forthcoming. What other films were you thinking about while making this? Definitely Agnes Varda. Im inspired by how she documents and captures her own womanhood. Absolutely Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Also Jonna Tamases Jonnas Body, Please Hold, about a young woman who discovers she has cancer and her process of talking to the systems of her body as they fail. She goes into her own pancreas; its really creative. Id also add the Chantal Akerman film about her mom, No Home Movie, Laurie Andersons Heart of a Dog, and Mike Mills Beginners. Performance artist Narcissister, director and subject of NARCISSISTER ORGAN PLAYER. Photo: Ava Porter Cool. So, how is Narcissister doing, anyway? Shes still performing live you can keep up on the dates and places on her website. I have a commission from Soho Rep to make an evening-length piece with the playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Hes writing it and everyone around Narcissister speaks except her. Thatll happen sometime in 2019. Has she evolved since you started doing her about a decade ago? Yes, because of the major events of my life. Since my mom and dad died, I think the work has more depth and poignancy now. Thats why I feel so strongly that Im committed to this character indefinitely because shes been able to withstand the changes in my life and has been a resource for me to process what Ive been experiencing. Shes deepened and matured. Robert Smigel on the Fox pilot Saturday TV Funhouse. Photo: Youtube Thank God for first drafts. Theyre a great way to work out the kinks, get an idea down, take the first step. Usually nobody but the writer(s) gets to see them, but sometimes they find their way into the light, and when that happens they can provide rare insight into the artistic process. Today we take a look at one such first draft, for the 1998 pilot of Saturday TV Funhouse. Originally made for Fox, it would evolve into Comedy Centrals TV Funhouse, itself an offshoot of the series of similarly titled animated shorts that sprung from the mind of Robert Smigel and aired on Saturday Night Live. While Saturday TV Funhouse shares a lot of DNA with what it eventually evolved into, the original pilot is very much its own thing, and one that fans of any iteration of the Funhouse will almost certainly enjoy. There are many places where this story could start, but lets begin with the final product: the eight episodes of TV Funhouse (financed by Comedy Central) that aired from December 2000 into January 2001. A number of animated and live-action shorts, in the vein of the SNL segments, interrupted the narrative of a childrens television pastiche in which our host Doug (played by Doug Dale) would introduce a theme for that shows episode (Western Day! Safari Day! Mexican Day!) and head over to his TV Funhouse where his friends, the Anipals played as puppets by Smigel, Dino Stamatopoulos, Jon Glaser, Jonathan Groff, and several other Conan writers would refuse to participate in the show and head off to gamble in Tijuana or some other debauched activity. The show reran several times after its initial airing, and according to its DVD commentaries, several scripts for another season were ordered and produced. However, TV Funhouse was ultimately canceled by Comedy Central, with Smigel citing the fact that every episode went over budget due to the difficulties of filming a show with several live animals (as well as his own perfectionism). While the cartoons would live on as a feature on Saturday Night Live, TV Funhouse the show was no more. But lets back up a little. Actually, a lot. On WGN in Chicago, from 1960 to 2001, there was a local childrens television program called The Bozo Show. Though the Bozo character existed years prior as a character on LP records and was franchised out to several different markets, Chicago boasted the longest-running Bozo program and arguably the characters most iconic portrayal, at the hands of Bob Bell. In Chicago, Bozos studio audience was comprised of children and their parents, who thrilled to the antics of Bozo and his sidekick Cooky the Clown and the magic tricks of Wizzo the Wizard. Children all across the Chicagoland area adored the show, which continually won its weekday time slot for the majority of its run. At the peak of the shows popularity, the waiting list for tickets to attend a taping was ten years long. In addition to being Bozo country, Chicago is also one of the biggest comedy towns in the United States, and as you might imagine, there is a bit of crossover between these two realms. Podcasting pioneer Jimmy Pardo has discussed his love of the clown many times on his show Never Not Funny. Dan Castellaneta cites Bob Bells Bozo as the primary inspiration for the voice of The Simpsons Krusty the Klown. And, in a fun fact that I just learned from Wikipedia, non-comedic actor Adrian Zmed was a childhood fan and later played a clown on The Bozo Show. Robert Smigel and Dino Stamatopoulos displayed their affection for Bozo in a different way. Produced for Fox, the TV Funhouse pilot begins with a disclaimer not dissimilar from one that would appear years later on MTV2s own kids-show-skewering Wonder Showzen: The following childrens program is not intended for younger audiences. Although it appears to be shown to children, the children are not actually seeing any material children shouldnt see. Children shouldnt see this material. Even on Fox. We are then shown an episode of Fun With Real Audio, a recurring sketch on the SNL version of Saturday TV Funhouse titled Presidential Address Outtakes. In it, we see bloopers as Bill Clinton attempts to address the Lewinsky scandal to the American public but is interrupted by various semen-covered articles of clothing and furniture, ending in a then-timely Theres Something About Mary reference. Back in the realm of live-action, a kindly older man introduces himself as Ringmaster Ted and introduces us to the show and its cast of characters as he stands in front of a happy live studio audience filled with children and parents. Theres Prozo, most peoples favorite clown, played by Smigel; his kooky pal Looky, played by Doug Dale; the mysterious Wizzy, played by Stamatopoulos; a cat puppet that is licking itself named Furball; and a three-piece TV Funhouse Band. (The band is fronted by Floyd Vivino, better known in the New York/New Jersey area as subversive childrens show host Uncle Floyd and brother of Jimmy Vivino, who up until last month was the frontman of Conan OBriens longtime band.) On the whole, Prozo and the gang keep it pretty tame around the kids, relying mostly on gross-out humor as the Furball puppet lives up to his name, as well as on innuendo that goes over the kids heads, such as when Looky and Prozo watch Furball lick himself for some time before Prozo professes a desire to be an aminal [sic], or just using the classic kid-pleasing tricks, such as the sketch in which the clowns reenact the Camp David peace accords between Clinton, Arafat, and Netanyahu with a trolly full of pies. Perhaps the only piece in the show in which the joke is on the kids themselves is a segment called Youre in the Picture. (Side note: I dont know for sure if this segment was inspired by the infamous failed game show hosted by Jackie Gleason, but that is certainly one of the stranger stories in TV history.) The premise is straightforward: Just as with one of those flat, standing figures with a hole in which to stick ones head, one lucky child is selected to appear on camera, and suddenly a drawing is superimposed around their head to show them hitting a home run, meeting Debra Winger, or getting a prostate exam. The child who is ultimately selected throws himself to the ground when the drawings imply that he would put his arm around Debra Winger, clearly concerned about cooties. A fast-thinking camera operator saves the bit by panning over and making the boys nanny the star of the final drawing. Cootie implications aside, this isnt the part of the show I was referring to. In order to select a child to participate, Prozo uses the magic arrows. The camera zips around the audience as arrows flash on the screen. Finally the camera lands on a small girl, who jumps up from her seat excitedly for a few seconds before the words NOT YOU appear and the camera resumes its search. Its a little mean, but its also really, really funny, so I say it was completely worth it. And thats just a smattering of whats in here. Theres a song as the children are marched out of the room to eat ice cream so the adults can watch a dirty cartoon. Theres a news update from Prozo between commercials. And theres a segment featuring a bunch of mafioso chimpanzees. Ive been hoping to come across this pilot ever since I heard Smigel discuss it at a retrospective of his work at The Paley Center. Had I known that all I needed was the correct string of search terms, I could have found it on YouTube long ago. Now you can, too: With the passing of the pilots director, Danny Leiner, last month, Robert Smigel tweeted a link to the pilot, praising Leiners attention to detail and laid-back confidence. He also posted a link to this deleted scene from the pilot featuring Stephen Colbert as Grimy, the talking outhouse: Sometimes first drafts need to be locked in a drawer or just plain thrown out. Thankfully, this first draft escaped total obscurity and is here to be enjoyed today for all the cat puppet hairballs, Bozo admiration, and mad brilliance that it contains. Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale in American Son. Photo: Peter Cunningham 2018 American Son is a dreadful play and its not alone. When the alien archaeologists dig through the rubble of Manhattan and find mountains of fossilized season brochures, the museum they erect will feature a long, miserable exhibit on the Righteous American Issue Play, c. 2016 through someday. Some of these plays are made in bad faith; many arent. But even those that have been written earnestly often seem to have been programmed or produced with a distressingly opportunistic mindset a decision to emphasize a plays topicality rather than encouraging rigorous development of the piece itself, thereby turning good faith into good art. These plays bank on their audiences inability to disentangle content and form. They showcase horrible facts of our day-to-day existence and in the bodies of flat characters engaged in shallow, often manipulative plots that employ cheap dramatic devices they expect the gravity of their subject matter to carry the day. Because who wants to walk out of a show about black men being murdered by police, or women being harassed and raped, or any number of our countrys sickeningly self-evident truths, and say, Well, that was bullshit? Easier to crawl quietly away, murmuring to your dinner companions that what youve just seen was so real, so important uncertain, if youre honest with yourself, about what to do with any of it, but certain that you owe yourself a glass of wine and the world a little more guilt and shame. Barkeep, add it to the tab. We are surfeited with these plays. In their presence, we are at risk of becoming blustering admirers of the emperors new clothes: thoughtfully rapturous over the thing weve seen when there was nothing actually there. Perhaps they hope to rouse our consciences, but their combination of stale, expedient storytelling and go-for-the-jugular sentimentality cant really inspire: When youre drowning in molasses, you dont want to swim down deeper. Perhaps they want to educate, but they often treat their audiences as if weve been living under rocks, or they pat us on the back, or both. In New York City, where the arts and culture scenes are currently a wokeness war of attrition, they generate an atmosphere that feels like the worst kind of church: a mix of self-congratulation and self-flagellation. They advertise themselves as the revelators of our contemporary traumas and in fact by repackaging the headlines in facile, faulty dramatic containers simply owe their own public life and profit to these real sorrows. The short-story writer Greg Jackson speaks of the slow and supplanting drift by which the means to our most cherished and noble ends become the ends themselves so that, for instance, writing something to change the world becomes writing something that matters to you becomes publishing something halfway decent becomes writing something publishable. These plays believe theyre at the top of that slope writing to change the world when theyve slid right down its slippery face. They are publishable, or programmable, simply for that flimsy, translucent raiment they wear, masquerading as cloth of their real substance: their relevance. American Son has power behind it: Shonda Rhimes, Jada Pinkett Smith, Dwyane Wade, and the shows star, Kerry Washington, are on its long, glittery list of producers. It has its serious sights set on a subject of indisputable tragic weight: the unjustifiable killing of unarmed black men in America by unaccountable police officers. It also has a contrived, TV-ish script peopled by one-note characters and peppered with amateurish flourishes. Its playwright, Christopher Demos-Brown, a writer and lawyer who runs a practice in Miami, seems to be positioning himself as a kind of John Grisham for the stage, and its director, Kenny Leon, cant push the material past its inherent paperback flatness. Derek McLanes bulky, photo-real Miami police-station set, with real rain falling outside the upstage windows, tells us all we need to know about tone: Theres nothing remotely theatrical about this play, no reason for it to be a play at all save that we retain a kind of anxious cultural cachet about drama. Putting something on stage seems to aggrandize it, make it more serious-minded and more luxurious, closer to opera than Netflix. But the truth is that contemporary plays like American Son are simply imitations of the shows on Netflix or, in this case, NBC and pale ones at that, because unlike our ages spate of fascinating television, these plays want to be something theyre not. They neither take joy in the possibilities of their own form nor respect its demands. When the curtain rises on Demos-Browns play, we see Washington as Kendra Ellis-Connor, nervously checking her cell phone in a police station waiting room in the wee hours of a still-dark, stormy morning. Her son Jamal took the car the night before and hasnt come home. Hes not answering her texts or calls. Shes trying to keep her panic at bay, awaiting the arrival of her husband, Scott (Steven Pasquale), and attempting not to lose her cool with the junior officer, Paul (Jeremy Jordan). He keeps trying to be nice but has no information for her or pedantically refuses to impart what he has. Kendra is black and Scott is white. The smart, responsible Jamal has grown up in the prep schools of Coral Gables and is headed for West Point. Hes been raised surrounded by white kids and told that their world is his world, that if he works hard and stays out of trouble he can have all the same opportunities. Now, as his mother sits in a police station, shes afraid that that wolfish lie is baring its ugly teeth. Shes afraid that despite all her efforts to protect him, to give him a running start in a world thats been built to hobble him, her black son has become another statistic. Like most waiting plays, American Son doesnt have a plot so much as it has a powerful central circumstance with a single driving question: What has happened to Jamal? Its built to give rise to a bunch of hot-tempered conversations that, as Vladimir and Estragon might say, pass the time. Which would be okay if those conversations felt elegant, surprising, or new, or if the actors having them were less stuck in a single register. But Demos-Browns dialogue plays into every easy trick and trope, and Washington and Pasquale, both fine actors in other circumstances, here feel grating and monotonous. Pasquale, whose character works for the FBI, is playing basic alpha male, spreading his feet and flashing his badge and furrowing his brow, traversing a narrow spectrum between terse manliness and barking anger. And Washington is stuck in her head voice, pushing hard both vocaly and emotionally and losing power in the process; shes almost always yelling or about-to-yell, or shes wrathfully silent. Kendra and Scott, who are separated, rail at each other even more than they do at the police officers. Though Demos-Brown manages to get in one of those I get so sick and tired of having the same freakin argument with you lines, the extent to which, after 18 years of marriage, they apparently shock each other with their most fundamental viewpoints, seems dubious a product of a writers need to convey information rather than a representation of the truthful, if damaged, intimacy of two fully fleshed-out humans. And Scotts staunch cluelessness reads in much the same way. I get that hes not woke and I would have gotten it without Kendra telling him that she spent their marriage lying awake at night worrying while he was snoring away but hes still a father raising a biracial son in 2018. Perhaps even a few years ago the characters obliviousness would have read differently, but I no longer buy the depths of his insensitivity to the truths of his sons existence. Hes a character whose personality traits comfortably overlap with narrative conveniences, allowing for the loudest arguments. Leon doesnt do much modulation with Washington and Pasquale, and in earnestly digging in their heels and pushing through Demos-Browns paint-by-numbers text, they start to feel false and actorly. The supporting players, meanwhile, are given bald cliches to work with. Eugene Lee shows up late in the proceedings as Lieutenant John Stokes, a standard-issue superior officer whose gruff dedication to the letter of the law is supposed to be complicated by the fact that he, like Kendra, is black. Which allows him to say things to her like Cmon my sistah, I know you know better than that, and for her to call him an Uncle Tom without actually making him more than a stock type. Hed be right at home on pretty much any cop show demanding that his maverick rookie sergeant follow protocol, godammit! And then theres Jordans Officer Paul Larkin, a cardboard cut-out with a sidearm whos simply a means for Demos-Brown to hammer home every stereotype of the befuddled white microaggressor. As he chomps donuts and blathers about the police stations formerly segregated water fountains, or mistakes Scott for Stokes and confides in him about the totally out of control bitch who went from zero to ghetto in like nothing flat (a corny sequence where you can almost feel Demos-Brown congratulating himself for his brilliant use of dramatic irony) or as he interrogates Kendra about her son, cheerfully making one racist assumption after another, he becomes less a character than a blinking neon sign that reads White Idiot. Pauls blithe bigotry (and his truly incredible thickheadedness eventually he even forgets Jamals name) is only some of the low-hanging fruit Demos-Brown grabs at during the officers questioning of Kendra. He also uses this conversation to shoehorn in a maudlin portrait of her son. Jamals sign is Taurus. With Virgo rising, Kendra snaps tearfully, making an emotional detour out of a list of Jamals physical attributes in a maneuver thats straight out of Playwriting 101. Hes bashful and looks away when he smiles. He plays the guitar And hes afraid of clowns He can recite almost any Emily Dickinson poem And he still gets a tear in his eye whenever he hears Puff the Magic Dragon. (In case we still needed more icing on the cake of Pauls mansplain-y denseness, Demos-Brown takes this opportunity to have him confuse Dickinson with Dickens.) This is cheap, manipulative writing, and Demos-Brown does it again and again. Did you and I ever agree on anything? Scott asks Kendra after one bout of argument, opening up the door for more sentimental, conveniently placed backstory. Bourbon Manhattans at dusk out on the patio, she replies, Thelonious Monk Thai food The U Cormac McCarthy sex. And presumably pina coladas and getting caught in the rain. Demos-Brown even pulls this same move in one of the plays most fraught moments, vaulting into full daytime-soap mode just before the climax. After receiving a text with some disturbing cell-phone footage that may or may not be of Jamal, Scott has lost his temper with the officers and gotten himself arrested. When he comes back in from being booked, with tensions at their height, Kendra turns to him and demands: The first time we ever met. Why did you walk up to me? So we get a weepy, writerly amble down memory lane right before learning Jamals fate. Which Lee then delivers by turning somberly to the audience and plodding through the police report step by excruciating step as the parents sit frozen in a tightening spotlight, kept hanging in a way that feels both cruel and totally implausible but, you know, heightens the drama. The fact that we do find out whats happened to Jamal renders the play dramaturgically flaccid even as it goes for the emotional suplex. Ambiguity is sacrificed to ham-fistedness as the curtain falls, and were left with with what? Something we already know, given to us in a shoddy dramatic box, a box that trusts that the horror of its contents will render it artistically irreproachable. It does not it must not. An advocate for American Son might argue that its important to have this story out there, but the facts of this story are out there every single day, and they are neither remedied nor rendered more terrible than they already are by being run through the mill of a hacky play. Only last week, the world lost the brilliant, subversive playwright Maria Irene Fornes, who, years ago, wrote the following in Theater magazine: If I were granted one and only one wish for theater, it would be that artistic directors, managing directors, theater boards, funding organizations, critics, all those who have the power to choose, would choose from their hearts dictates and stop trying to outsmart themselves and outsmart audiences. It would be that they stop pretending they are doing something relevant, because they are not. You cant do something relevant unless you do it from your heart. And audiences would stop pretending they are doing something relevant by going to the theater There would not be writers writing plays by formula. Nor would artistic directors choose plays by formula. Nor would audiences think that they know the ropes and look for signposts to help them pretend they understand something that is only a signpost. This pretending gives but a shallow satisfaction and ultimately creates a distaste for theater. If theater is to be successful it must be loved liked one loves an animal that one wonders at. Not like one loves a formula. Of course the formula for the Righteous American Issue Play has been around for much longer than two years. Its a tenacious, soil-depleting perennial and, especially during our discontented winters, we just keep planting new seedlings. But the devilish twist on Forness bracing manifesto is that even plays that begin as heartfelt dictates can turn into deadening exercises in relevance. Sincerity does not save us from bad art, and bad art is never of use. If I had one wish for American theater, it would be that we wrench it from the suffocating maw of television, that we pursue both complex content and structures worthy of that content, that we dedicate ourselves as makers, as watchers, as producers and artistic directors not to the false courage of the issue play, but to the real courage of theater that defies formula, that provokes wonder, and that balances rigor with joy, joy with rigor, in its quest to reshape the spirit and electrify the heart. American Son is at the Booth Theatre. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix Once upon a time, when discussing the fate of one of his other unfinished projects, a years-in-production adaptation of Don Quixote, Orson Welles noted that he was thinking of calling it When Are You Going to Finish Don Quixote? He was (mostly) joking, I think, but many took him at his word. Understandably so: Welles was at heart an inventor, a director unafraid to change the very underlying concept of a film if the situation warranted it and, given his difficulties finding funding to complete some of these movies, the situation often did warrant it. When Are You Going to Finish The Other Side of the Wind? might have been a good alternate title for Theyll Love Me When Im Dead, Morgan Nevilles documentary about Welless newly-released, long-in-the-making, even-longer-in-the-editing, posthumous magnum opus, The Other Side of the Wind. Such a title certainly would have been in the spirit of Welles, who towards the end of his life suggested that he might turn Other Side, which was already a mockumentary, one with its own film-within-a-film, into a documentary about itself. In other words, a documentary about a mockumentary about a fake film. (Does your head hurt yet?) Im going to stand outside of it and talk about it, as myself, Welles told the critic Bill Krohn in 1982. Less as a narrator, more as myself a movie within a movie within a movie. Neville even includes a scene here in which Welles off-handedly contemplates this idea aloud to a few reporters. All of this suggests that, in some ways, Theyll Love Me When Im Dead, now available on Netflix, is not just a documentary about Orson Welless final picture, but rather an integral part of said picture a completion of Welless whole project, the nature of whose creation ultimately became as important to the director as the film itself. That may well be why Netflix bankrolled this along with Other Side, and why the two have been released together. The movie and its making are the masterpiece, David Edelstein wrote recently, in his review of The Other Side of the Wind, and hes right. He recommends seeing Welless film first, then Nevilles, then Welless again. I dont think you could go wrong either way. (Theres also a very good short featurette called A Final Cut for Orson, about the editing of Welless final work, embedded in the Trailers and More section of Netflixs page for Other Side, so you might want to fit that in, as well.) These are essential, interlocking elements of a single, ever-changing phenomenon. That may help explain why Neville starts off by aping Welless style to some degree. As befits the title, Theyll Love Me When Im Dead kicks off with the legendary directors death, as narrator Alan Cumming reminds us that this is how many of Welless own films started (The Other Side of the Wind, for one). Neville also uses his subjects signature techniques, such as the vocal collages that dated back to Welless radio days and that he utilized in cinematic works like The Magnificent Ambersons and F Is for Fake. In these, a multitude of voices, some unidentified, will speedily chime in on a matter. Everybody will think its autobiographical, but its not, Welles says of Other Side, in some footage from the 1970s. The replies come rapidly from a variety of interviewees: Yeah, bullshit! Of course it is. It must be autobiographical! No doubt its Orson. This stylistic device makes sense here, since this Greek chorus-like quality is one of the key features of Other Side itself, which is all about the ceaseless buzz of speculation and judgment and interpretation around an aging movie director. Neville also playfully uses film clips, culled from an endless bounty thanks to Welless prolific appearances, to give everything both a present-tense and a mythic dimension. Someone mentions giving Orson Welles a call; we cut to a reasonably strapping Orson Welles in 1947s The Lady from Shanghai, picking up the phone; then we cut to a heavier, bearded Welles in Ten Days Wonder, 24 years later, saying, Hello?; then, Welles in 1955s Mr. Arkadin, barking into a telephone receiver, I must see you immediately! The energy with which Neville pieces all this footage together is intoxicating. You get a sense of just how much this man transformed over the years, both intentionally and unintentionally. I hope Im not making this documentary sound like work, because it is in fact thoroughly entertaining. Welles always had great stories swirling around him some by him, some about him and Neville has a field day following the crazier tales around Other Sides creation. Peter Bogdanovich was a film critic when he first met Welles, and their relationship partly inspired Other Side. In 1970, just as hes preparing to fly to Texas to shoot The Last Picture Show, Bogdanovich is summoned by Welles to put in a few hours shooting Other Side before his flight. He plays a nerdy critic interviewing the films protagonist, who hasnt yet been cast. (Welles would cast John Huston in that part four years later!) Then, several years later, with the production going on and on, Welles cast Rich Little to play a young filmmaker acolyte of Hustons, but after the schedule ran wildly over, Little left his scenes unfinished. So Welles replaced him with Bogdanovich, who had since become an acclaimed, Oscar-nominated director. (In case you havent noticed, Cumming observes. Peter Bogdanovich went from playing exactly who he was in 1970, a young writer, to exactly who he was in 1974, a celebrated movie director.) But wait, it goes on! Then, the ever-broke Welles moved into the massive Hollywood home Bogdanovich shared at the time with his then-girlfriend Cybill Shepherd, and overstayed his welcome, eating all their Fudgsicles and almost setting the place on fire. But in 1978, after his younger protege had had a couple of flops to his name, Welles went on The Tonight Show and yukked it up with Burt Reynolds over how annoying they both found Bogdanovich. The two eventually made up Bogdanovich helped complete Other Side but the story of their relationship constitutes one of the most powerful threads in Theyll Love Me When Im Dead. It also offers a poignant example of how Welles could be both a victim of Hollywoods savagery and an enabler of it. Thats one reason why Neville packs so many stories and myths and ping-ponging points of view into this film. He has to. Because with Welles, as with many of Welless own protagonists, theres no one overarching truth, no central narrative. There are multiple ones, each unreliable in its own way. Was Welles a classic flameout the guy who changed cinema forever with Citizen Kane and then went on a long, steady slide into irrelevance? Was he a maverick who was kneecapped repeatedly by craven studio bosses and financiers? Was he a profligate self-annihilator who kept squandering the chances he was given? Was he a visionary who kept producing works of genius against some of historys craziest odds? A user who repeatedly took advantage of others adoration for him? Or was he the one who was used, the living legend who was idolized by the most famous and powerful filmmakers in the world, none of whom would pony up the meager cash he needed to finish his pictures? Theres a bit of truth to all of the above, and also a whole lot of baloney, and each Welles watcher will have their own take. (Example: I happen to think The Trial and F Is for Fake are as good as, if not better than, Citizen Kane; as much as I wish Welles had been treated better by the studio system, its also clear that these movies, made in creative exile, couldnt have happened in Hollywood.) But amid all this discussion of Orson Welles, lets also not lose sight of Neville himself, who is himself one of our great filmmakers. He released the hit Mr. Rogers documentary Wont You Be My Neighbor? earlier this year. He also made one of my favorite documentaries of the past few years, The Best of Enemies, about the rivalry between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley and the duos influential and dramatic series of television debates in 1968. Seen together, Enemies and Neighbor make for a powerful portrait of how American media, and by extension American culture, became coarser, shallower, and more unforgiving over the course of the late 20th century. But these films are also moving stories of individuals, caught amid currents theyre desperate to master, currents they may even have helped to create, wrestling with idealism and betrayal and opportunism and failure. Sound familiar? These were the forces that fascinated Welles; theyre also the forces that described him. With this documentary, Morgan Neville has made a movie about Orson Welles that would have transfixed the great master himself. You Candace Season 1 Episode 9 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * * Previous Next Photo: Lifetime Did any of you ever read Ella Enchanted? It is a childrens classic, highly recommend. The gist is this girl was cursed with forever obedience, and one of her ways of subverting the curse was to just take people literally so if somebody said, Hold this bowl, Ella, shed do it while running in circles around the kitchen. It was my first lesson in the difference between obeying the letter of the law versus the spirit of said law, and it also comes to my mind now, as I am grappling with my feelings toward You. You technically did what I asked it to do get Beck and John Stamos to hook up, reveal Joes deep dark secret to be something other than he murdered Candace but it did it very much in not in the way that I meant, and so I am even more frustrated than I was before. Joe and Beck are back together, but their snuggles are disrupted by Joes subconscious. He screams himself awake thinking of Candace. After her oh-so-casual breakfast questioning of Joe re: Candace, Beck, duly unsettled by Karens warnings, begins her own little Spotlight-style investigation into this mystery of Joes past. A big part of what makes this frustrating is that this information is READILY available, takes almost no effort to find, but still brings Beck to a bunch of (literally) dead ends. While she Nancy Drews it up on Instagram, Joe goes back to his wildly unprofessional therapist, who is taking a volatile personal call while Joe is sitting right there. Where did they find this guy? I hope some of this is covered by insurance. Anyway, Stamos tells Joe, We are the architects of our own dreams, which is very Ivanka, and that Joe needs to address his unfinished ex-business before it eats his soul alive or whatever. So now we finally get those long-awaited Candace flashbacks. Okay, so I havent seen Jaws (I know, I know, also this is relevant, I promise!) but as I understand it, the deal is that the shark is actually scarier before you see it, when youre just hearing the whole duuuun dun thrumming and your imagination does the rest. Well, Candace was a LOT more interesting before I actually got to know her. She could have been anyone! She could have been Joes secret half-sister who went insane when she discovered the true nature of their Flowers in the Attic-y relationship! She could have been a criminal mastermind who fleeced Joe for all he was worth and then tore off to Italy to scam a new mark! Make her a descendant of the Romanovs! Instead, shes just a collection of stereotypes with red lipstick on, which, remember, is the color of HARLOTRY in the world of You. If were supposed to believe shes got a monopoly on Joes psyche, she should at least get a personality, no? Promiscuous musician is not a personality. Being in a band called Heathcliffs Misery (extreme eye roll) is also not a personality. She and Joe never seem all that close even when they are together; he doesnt realize she never loved him, as shell later shout in his face, but everyone else who ever saw them couldve clued him into that fact. Her cheating is so flagrant, its like she didnt care whether or not she got caught. This is the woman Joe is still obsessed with? Apparently! Because as Beck discovers, Joe was wrecked when things ended with Candace. Though I take it were to think that what really messed Joe up is that, in a fit of rage, he shoved Elijah the requisite skeevy record exec who, quite plausibly, says he had no idea Candace had a boyfriend because she literally never mentioned Joe off a building to his death. Joe fled the scene of this whoopsie to the home of Mr. Mooney, abusive bookshop proprietor, where he hid out for a week until it all blew over. Joe methodically takes apart two copies of Wuthering Heights so the dedication page from Candaces copy ends up in the garbage and a different, whole copy goes on the discount pile, for symbolism reasons. Beck follows the Candace bread crumbs first to Ethan, who advises her to let this go (bad advice!), and then to Maddie, the mutual friend from Peachs Parents Got Divorced Party (#neverforget), who confirms that Candace was having sex with the label guy who signed her and then ghosted everyone she knew when she ran off to Italy. Candace has no family save for a brother, Jimmy, whom Beck tracks down at the Hartley Psychiatric Center but instead of giving me those creepy Radley vibes I was holding out for, Beck just gets a receptionist who tells her Jimmy died six months ago. A good rule of writing for a show like this should be: Think of the most bonkers, incredible thing that could happen, and then do THAT thing. Dont tiptoe up to the thing Jimmy thinks Candace is dead, but he was institutionalized by Candace and nobody believes him but also nobody has heard from her in a year! only to have that thing resolve itself, off-screen, with an anti-climactic phone call. That said, it is fun to watch Beck go from stalkee to stalker, and as the information she discovers about Joe becomes more and more chilling, her choices make less and less sense. If you think there is even a, lets say, 25 percent chance that your boyfriend is a murderer, why would you go to his apartment, totally alone, without telling anyone else where youre going? Why wouldnt you insist on the meeting taking place in public, with at least one friend by your side? Didnt Beck want to at least swipe a gun from Peachs abandoned belongings for this adventure? I say if you have a hunch your boyfriend is a murderer, at the VERY least, you spend the night at a friends house. But no, Beck goes to Joes place having taken zero precautions, and Joe proceeds to gaslight her. Candace changed her name BECK, RED FUCKING FLAG and Joe shows Beck her new Instagram, which is as basic as her old one. (I love that the real alarm doesnt go off for Beck until she puts this together: Who moves to Italy and doesnt post any pictures? Uh, Beck: Women who are trying to not be found by their insane exes!) Becks heart knows that Joe could never homicide. Joe admits he never went to Italy and then he takes Beck to Mr. Mooneys place, where Mr. Mooney has conveniently suffered a stroke that leaves him incapable of speech. (100 percent chance Joe pushed him down the stairs, right?) In a flashback, we see how Mooney encouraged Joe to feel no remorse for his extra-unnecessary killing because men, they go off to war, kill people, every day, then come back and get on with their lives. I mean I guess? Who knew sharing my darkest secrets would make me feel so light? Joe asks in the narration, to which I say, out loud, Umm, everyone. At this point Joe declares that he knows something crucial: There IS no Emma Fox from Brown. He attacks John Stamos, forces him to unlock his phone, and his darkest fears are realized. They were having an affair! Which, okay, I have SO many questions. First up, why take something as not-relevant-to-the-story as Claudias relapse and give it approximately a thousand hours of screen time while Beck and Stamos client-therapist sex-sessions get the speedy-quick SuperCut treatment? Also, once Beck started screwing her therapist, she kept seeing him for therapy? She didnt think like, Huh, this guy has no boundaries and maybe I should get my actual mental health care from a better provider? Joe word-vomits his horror at Beck, trotting out his classic virgin-whore hangups (Hes been DEFILING you!) and I write in my notes, WHO WILL WIN THE TUG OF WAR FOR JOES FRAGILE SOUL? The sincerity with which Joe asks. Are you or were you ever fucking your therapist? with his veins doing that Keri Russell pop out of his forehead! Beck confesses but she swears its over, and she says the magic words I love you enough times to make Joe cry-smile and hug her again. At this point, I am concerned for everyone involved. While Joe fetches breakfast after his first dreamless sleep in weeks, the stairwell urchin pops over to (1) Commit to his thing of not talking to Joe and (2) Let Beck know that you can hide things in the loose ceiling tile in the bathroom. AND. BECK. FINDS. EVERYTHING. The shit he stole from her apartment, including her underwear. Peach and Benjis phones. A LITTLE JAR OF TEETH. Big year for hiding your murder victims teeth. One more makes a trend! (Also: This is why you always take your phone with you when you pee! For this very specific but dangerous emergency!) Joe quickly realizes something is off, and its here Becks desire to maintain the appearance of everything being cool totally does her in. BITCH, RUN. Dont try to seem polite! When Joe slams the door on her, I admit: I gasped. We are back where we should have realized we were headed all along: Beck is trapped in the soundproof book dungeon. She is screaming and no one can hear her. And because Blythe made her get off social media, no one will even find this absence suspicious!! How long will it take her self-absorbed friends to figure out shes MIA? Will the douchey guy (Lynns words) that Peachs family hired to look into her death be her savior? Or my fervent hope, my only prayer is Ethan the knight weve been waiting for? The living conditions of North Koreans have deteriorated since the isolated state allocated huge sums of money to developing nuclear weapons and testing long-range missiles, prompting unprecedented U.S. sanctions. The conclusion comes from interviews the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University conducted with 87 defectors who fled the North last year and this year. Only about one-third said they had enough to eat, and many said they went hungry "once in a while" or "often." Not many earned more than W100,000 in South Korean money a month. Asked what they felt was the biggest stumbling block to North Korea's economic development, about half blamed Kim Jong-un, and many cited the bureaucracy. About half said Kim is doing a poor job, though the rest still feel he is doing well even though they have fled the country. Asked why they defected, about half cited dissatisfaction with the regime or other political reasons, but a quarter gave economic reasons. Home Just In Dahal: Modi coming to Nepal or not isnt big news Kathmandu, November 5 Nepal Communist Party Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal says whether Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Nepal next month should not be regarded as a big news. Dahals statement comes amid rumours that Modis scheduled visit to Janakpurdham on the occasion of Bibaha Panchami has turned uncertain due to different reasons. Speaking with journalists at the Biratnagar Airport today, Dahal said, I dont know the details, but Modi has come to Nepal much frequently. Therefore, whether he comes to Nepal or not does not make any big news now. The second ranked leader of the ruling party, however, maintained that he was hopeful about the visit. In another context, he said the Prime Minister was not going to change his ministers anytime soon. Dahal was in Biratnagar to attend a tea reception organised by the party. The Secretary General of the WCO, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, met with the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Mr. Kitack Lim, at IMO headquarters in London, United Kingdom on 2 November 2018. They agreed on further cooperation between the two organizations on a range of areas, including data sharing, technology, security and facilitation. Both Secretaries General appreciated the cooperation that currently exists between the two organizations in data harmonisation and standardisation through the close alignment between the WCO Data Model and the IMO Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic (FAL Convention). They also shared their interests in the use of passenger data in the maritime environment, especially in relation with cruise ships. Beyond these specific points, they found a possible area for collaboration between Customs, maritime authorities and maritime-related business at the working level to further ensure facilitation and security of the movements of goods, people and vessels. They agreed to set up a policy dialogue in a wider context between the two Organizations. , . 18-30. , , : . racists, , lynching. activists, , . , , . All major Nepali and English broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu on Monday have published reports about the death of veteran human rights activist and politician Padma Ratna Tuladhar. The newspapers have highlighted his contribution to Nepals political and human rights movements. As a government body on Sunday published a report about Nepalis involvement in foreign employment in past 10 years, the newspapers also feature highlights of the report. Meanwhile, parents of Nirmala Pant, who was raped and murdered in Kanchanpur district around three and half months ago, have warned of staging an indefinite hunger strike demanding legal action against the culprits; and some newspapers have featured this also on their front pages. Important Nearly 7,000 Nepali workers died in 10 years Lead stories in Naya Patrika and The Kathmandu Post report that total 6,921 Nepali people working abroad died in past 10 years. Quoting a report published by the Foreign Employment Promotion Board under the government of Nepal, Naya Patrika says total 1,178 persons sustained significant injuries whereas 18 are still in coma. Likewise, the country earned Rs 4.48 trillion remittances from them in past 10 years, according to The Kathmandu Post report. Nirmala Pants parents warn of hunger strike Naya Patrika, The Himalayan Times and The Kathmandu Post report that parents of Nirmala Pant have warned of hunger strike if the government fails to find out the culprit of rape and murder of their daughter and take legal action against them. After 100 days were over without any progress in the investigation, the victims father organised a press conference in Kanchanpur yesterday and said, If the guilty are not arrested by November 11, all family members will stage a sit-in If the government does not book the guilty, we shall stage a hunger strike in the second phase. Nepal wants to repatriate Bhutanese refugees Though negotiations for the settlement of Bhutanese refugees currently living in Nepal have stalled for years, the Nepal government is pinning its hopes on the new government in Thimpu to repatriate refugees, Republica reports in its lead story. In past one decade, over 113,000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal have chosen to settle in the third countries and 6,659 people have refused to go elsewhere. Therefore, the government will ask Bhutan to take those 6,659 people back to the home country, according to the report. Ignored Fiscal Commission yet to get full shape Nagarik reports in a two column story that the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission, a constitutional body envisaged to distribute national resources among local, provincial and federal governments, is yet to get full shape though the government has already decided to establish it. The Commissions Secretariat has already been formed under the leadership of Secretary Baikuntha Aryal, but the officials are yet to be appointed. Congress to defer mahasamiti meeting Citing lack of sufficient preparations and internal disputes over some crucial issues, the main opposition Nepali Congress is planning to postpone its mahasamiti meeting once again, Naya Patrika reports in a brief story. Earlier, the party had scheduled the meeting for November 21-25 in Kathmandu. But, the partys Central Working Committee meeting will decide other dates soon. Rajdhani has also published a similar story. NOC likely to hike petroleum price soon The Himalayan Times reports in its lead story that the government-owned fuel distribution monopoly, Nepal Oil Corporation, is likely to increase the price of petroleum products soon citing the constant rise in the price of crude oil and the value of the US dollar. The Corporation has said it will face difficulty issuing payments to Indian Oil Corporation if the prices were not raised immediately after the Chhath festival, which will be celebrated next week. Parliamentary officials receiving double pay for drivers Gorkhapatra reports in a four column story that many officials of the Federal Parliament have been receiving salary for two drivers though they generally employ only one driver. Laws allow each official to employ two drivers and the budget has been allocated accordingly; however, the officials have chosen to employ only one person and continue receiving the pay for two, according to the report. Interesting Six companies apply for Naagdhunga road tunnel Total six companies, including five Chinese and one Japanese, have filed applications expressing their interest to construct a road tunnel in Naagdhunga on the western outskirts of Kathmandu, according to a three column story in Nepal Samacharpatra. Chhabi Lal Paudel, an engineer at Department of Roads, says the department is assessing the proposals and the decision will be made soon. By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 05, 2018 | 10:35 AM | PADUCAH As Paducah Police search for a man reported missing this morning, his employer is now claiming that money is also missing.Paducah Police issued a press release Monday asking for the publics help in locating 49-year-old David G. Boggs, Jr. A friend told police Boggs left his Broadway home about 6:30 Sunday morning and hasn't been seen since.A short time later, Barbecue on the River issued a press release saying they have discovered that Boggs took money from the festival's 2018 operating expenses. The organization says the alleged theft occurred recently, and they are "devastated" by it.The release from Barbecue on the River says the money reportedly taken was not designated for any of the charities that benefit from the annual festival.On Monday afternoon, Paducah Police issued another press release saying they were aware of the missing money and are now conducting parallel investigations, with their priority being Boggs' safety and well-being. Boggs is 5'5" tall and weighs 130 pounds, He has graying hair and hazel eyes, and was last was seen wearing blue jeans and a button-up shirt. Anyone with information about Boggs whereabouts is asked to call the Paducah Police Department at 270-444-8550. Here is the entire statement from the BBQ On The River Board: Calvert City Jingle All the Way 5k and Fun Run set for December 4 By WestKyStar & Paducah City Staff Nov. 04, 2018 | 10:05 PM | PADUCAH The intersection of North 21st Street and Clay Street is now a four-way stop. Previously the intersection has had stop signs for traffic on Clay Street with no stop signs for traffic on North 21st Street. Adding stop signs on North 21st Street now enhance the safety for pedestrians as they use the crosswalks at that intersection, which is adjacent to McNabb Elementary School. Crews also have added stop signs at the intersection of Pecan Drive and Buckner Lane. Previously, traffic had to stop on Buckner Lane, but traffic was not required to stop on Pecan Drive at that intersection. During peak traffic times, it was difficult for cars to turn from Buckner Lane onto Pecan Drive. Adding stop signs on Pecan Drive will hopefully assist with the traffic movement on Buckner Drive. As a reminder, the stop signs have been covered with bags to get the public acclimated to the upcoming changes. The new stop signs are now active. Engineering-Public Works crews have installed stop signs that turn two Paducah intersections into all-way stops. The stop signs have been covered with bags until today, Monday, November 5. Signs have also been installed that alert drivers to the new stop signs. By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 04, 2018 | 08:46 PM | MAYFIELD Kelvin Howard recently received the Honorary American FFA Degree at the 91st National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The National FFA Organization presents the award to individuals who advance agricultural education and FFA through outstanding personal commitment. FFA works to enhance the lives of youth through agricultural education. Without the efforts of highly dedicated individuals, thousands of young people would not be able to achieve the success that, in turn, contributes directly to the overall well-being of the country. The Honorary American FFA Degree is an opportunity to recognize those who have gone beyond valuable daily contributions to make an extraordinary, long-term difference in the lives of students, inspiring confidence in a new generation of agriculturalists. Members of the National FFA Organizations board of directors approved the nomination. Howard received the award at the 2018 National FFA Convention and Expo during an on-stage ceremony Friday, October 26th, in Indianapolis. Each recipient receives a certificate and medal. The National FFA Organization places their names in the organizations permanent records. The National FFA Organization provides leadership, personal growth and career success training through agricultural education to some 669,989 student-members. Each belongs to one of some 8,630 local FFA chapters, located throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Some 344,239 alumni members in 2,051 alumni chapters through the U.S. support FFA. A Graves County High School agriculture teacher has been honored with an FFA Degree. By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 05, 2018 | 06:43 AM | GRAVES COUNTY A Graves County woman was arrested on drug charges Sunday after deputies responded to a disturbance at her home. According to the Graves County Sheriff's Office, deputies went to a home on Big Valley Drive and spoke to 40-year-old Tyea Newsome. While deputies were investigating the complaint, they allegedly gained pertinent information that led them to obtain a search warrant for the home. During the search, deputies reportedly found methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia and legend drugs. Newsome was arrested and lodged in the Graves County Jail. She's charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of illegal possession of a legend drug. By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 05, 2018 | 07:37 AM | CADIZ Kentucky State Police are investigating an apparent hoax call in Trigg County. Troopers say the Trigg County dispatch center received a call just after 5:00 p.m. Sunday about a possible shooting at a home on Jefferson Street. The caller indicated someone was shot and others were still in the home. Cadiz Police requested state police to handle the call. A portion of Jefferson Street was closed off while the investigation began. Troopers were able to clear the home and did not find any signs of a shooting nor anyone being injured. KSP is continuing the investigation into the call. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Kentucky State Police Post 1 at 270-856-3721 or anonymously at 1-800-222-5555. Kathmandu, November 5 Kathmandu District Administration Office and Metropolitan Police Range in the district have made a decision to restrict citizens from playing Deusi-Bhailo during this years Tihar festival after 10 pm every night. Chief District Officer Ram Prasad Acharya says individuals and groups continuing the cultural activities after the time will be booked. The local administration has decided to impose a restriction on the singing and dancing during nighttime suspecting the festival can be taken as an excuse to carry out criminal activities as well. We have requested the citizens to play Deusi-Bhailo by maintaining the festivals value, Acharya says, We will not accept activities that criminalise the festival and that promote hooliganism. Though the administration has been fixing the time limit for Deusi-Bhailo every Tihar, the order is largely ineffective. Kathmandu, November 5 The government-run electricity production and distribution authority has directed its staffers under production, operation and maintenance departments not to leave their duty stations during Tihar festival. The directive aims at ensuring uninterrupted supply of power during the five day festival of lights and colours. Officials at Nepal Electricity Authority say the directive intends to avoid the problems surfaced in past years due to the absence of technical personnel during the festival. If necessary, the staff have to report to senior officials upon leaving the workstation, according to the Authority. The Authoritys central office has told the staff that chiefs of respective departments and distribution centres will be held responsible if there is any interruption in the power supply. Lameness prevention: it's all in the head An understanding of how cows think, how they see the world and how they move is essential for lameness prevention. Home Just In Nepal Police chief warns of getting tough with hooligans Mustang, November 5 Nepal Police Chief Sarbendra Khanal says the national police organisation will get tough with hooligans and gangsters. Speaking at a function organised to inaugurate the new office building of Mustang District Police Office in Jomsom on Monday, Khanal said police would take severe actions against any wrong happening in society. The Inspector General also claimed that Nepal Police would not tolerate even if its own personnel were involved in criminal activities and corruption. This organisation is for people who want to do something good. Those failing to do so would not be spared. Meanwhile, Khanal said the police organisation was committed to increasing partnership with local communities to give a momentum to development activities at the local level. The police-public partnership would also be effective in combating crimes and maintaining security, according to him. Kewpie: understanding what it meant to be queer in District Six under apartheid Across many parts of Africa homosexuality is often referred to as unAfrican - a western imposition that will undermine a traditional African. It has also been described as unnatural and ungodly. These narratives are subverted in an exhibition currently on display at the District Six Homecoming Centre in Cape Town. Kewpie: Daughter of District Six does this through a compelling, and thoughtfully curated, installation consisting mainly of photographs. The exhibition shows that queer people occupied an important place in Cape Towns District Six one of the most celebrated communities in South Africa. The 60 000 residents of District Six were evicted, and their homes demolished, by the apartheid government when the area was declared whites only in 1966. All were forced to move to racially segregated residential areas across the Cape Flats. Kewpie and her friends in District Six. Kewpie Collection/GALA The exhibition celebrates the life of Kewpie, a drag artist and hairdresser who came to be widely known and loved in the community of District Six where she lived for many years. She was born in 1942, six years before apartheid was formally established, and died in 2012. Kewpie kept a thorough archive of photographs that had been taken of her and her friends. She personally labelled the photographs. In 1999 she transferred her collection to Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA), a queer archive based in Johannesburg. The exhibition was co-curated by Jenny Marsden, a researcher based at Gay and Lesbian Archive (GALA), and Tina Smith, curator of the District Six Homecoming Centre. I was fortunate to be a part of Kewpies dream this exhibition becoming a reality. The Wits Centre for Diversity Studies, where I am based, co-hosted a walkabout and dialogue with GALA and the District Six Homecoming Centre. It provided a space for reflection on the exhibition and the queer histories of District Six that it portrays. From the exhibition, one understands that Kewpies gender identity was fluid. Kewpie didnt strictly identify as either male or female, but she and her friends typically used feminine pronouns (she/her) to refer to one another, and referred to one another as sisters. Bulldozing of the community Kewpie at the Marie Antoinette Ball at the Ambassador Club (1967). Kewpie Collection/GALA The exhibition provided a space where queer residents of District Six, and the community of former residents more broadly, could gather to celebrate one of its icons. The events that accompanied its opening also brought together different generations of queer people of various racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds. Its easy to become seduced by the photographs of Kewpies spectacular life, with its feathers, incredible outfits and the recreated salon installation including wigs styled for the times. But, to fully process the significance of Kewpies public persona, drag performances and everyday work at the salon, it is necessary to remember that life for the people of District Six was never easy. Its queer residents faced oppression and violence, both inside and outside of the community. Kewpie (left) in her salon. Kewpie Collection/GALA Established in 1867 for freed slaves, merchants, artisans, labourers and immigrants, District Sixs residents had already experienced generations of oppression by Dutch and British colonial governments before their community was destroyed by the apartheid regime. Recognition of this history enables one to fully grasp the oppressive legacies that Kewpie and her friends subverted through their everyday practices. They were celebrated and integrated into the community. But they also experienced oppression and exclusion on account of their gender expression and sexual orientation. Exclusion At the dialogue that took place following the exhibition opening, queer former residents spoke of their experiences of being excluded on the basis of their sexuality. Leigh Davids of Sistazhood (an activist organisation for transgender women sex workers), spoke about the forms of exclusion that transgender women and gender non-conforming people of colour continue to experience in Cape Town. Sex workers in particular and homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people experience harassment from the police and evictions from sleeping in public areas. These current realities speak about the pain and exclusion that Kewpie and her community experienced throughout her life and that so many continue to experience daily. Kewpie and her friends. Kewpie Collection/GALA Kewpie was out in the community of District Six where she was celebrated as the daughter of the community. However, her identity as a transgender woman, and her intimacy with men, was criminalised by the apartheid government and the colonial British system preceding it. Although Kewpie did not identify as a gay man, homosexual sex was considered an aberration within the Calvinist belief system that informed Afrikaner Nationalism. The exhibition brings queer history into the foreground within stories that are told about the past. Providing a queer lens through which District Six is remembered in the exhibition, the collection of photographs depicting Kewpies life centre queer experiences of colonial oppression. In remembering apartheid and the years leading up to forced removals in ways never seen before, these histories awaken new understandings about the role and position of queer communities then and now. With the end of apartheid, policies that had policed gender and sexuality were formally dismantled. Same-sex and interracial intimacy and partnership were un-banned. Policies that discriminated against women were removed. Liberation from apartheid was intended to mean liberation for all, including women and LGBTIQ identifying people. Gender non-conforming and queer people continue to face discrimination in all social spheres. For LGBTIQ people from communities historically oppressed by colonialism and apartheid, the experiences of exclusion and marginalisation are compounded by still ongoing systems of racialised oppression. This article was written with input from the Gay and Lesbian Archive (GALA). Haley McEwen, Research Coordinator, University of the Witwatersrand. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. 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 Teachers continue to demand strike action across the United States, despite the fervent attempts by the unions to stamp down struggles. In the lead-up to the mid-term elections, both the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) have sponsored rallies and get-out-the-vote messaging on behalf of some 1,500 teacher candidates and various Democratic Party office-seekers, while doing everything in their power to prevent a resumption of last springs teacher strikes. Teachers in the nations largest school district, New York City, and second largest, Los Angeles, have been kept on the job through union-agreed-upon contract extensions. 3,300 teachers in Anchorage, Alaska, have been protesting for weeks and continue to work without a contract, along with educators in Ketchikan, Alaska, whose contract expired in the spring of 2017. Teachers in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, are also working without a contract. Last week charter school teachers at 15 schools, serving 8,000 students in Chicago, voted overwhelmingly to strike; school workers in North Thurston, Washington, also approved strike action by 78 percent. The deliberate isolation of struggles and outright sabotage by the unions is also taking a stark form in Little Rock, Arkansas, where a threatened strike was put on hold this week by the Little Rock Education Association. Instead of walking out on November 1, the union agreed to a two-week contract extension, until November 14. Negotiations will continue on election day. The backdown by the union is particularly significant in a city that remains an iconic symbol of the defeat of pro-segregation forces 61 years ago. In 1957, nine black students, dubbed the Little Rock Nine, were barred from Central High School by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus and the Arkansas National Guard. Twenty-one days later, the children, under the escort of federal troops, successfully enrolled. The upholding of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling in 1954 and defeat of the segregationists heralded a national expansion of the right to a public education. This week the Little Rock Education Association (LREA) sought to paralyze the militancy of teachers by placing a roadblock in the way of an all-out mobilization in defense of public education. In line with the Remember in November mantra invoked by the unions over the last year, the LREA joined with other pro-Democratic funded organizations to support public education at a capitol rally, rather than mobilize for a strike. The Arkansas Education Association has endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jared Henderson, a former director of the pro-charter organization Teach for America. Meanwhile, Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Keyallied with the behemoth Walton Family Foundation (WFF) and its privatization agendahas seized on the contract expiration in an effort to strip the rights of teachers won over 30 years ago. Key has provocatively demanded waivers from portions of the Arkansas state legal code, the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act and the Public School Employee Fair Hearing Act, in 22 so-called failing schools. The waivers would eliminate the steps principals are now required to meet before firing teachers, including classroom observations and the preparation of a teacher improvement plan. In other words, the waivers would end due process and make teachers vulnerable to summary firing. Challenged on the implications of such a far-reaching change, Key told the media, I think it wouldnt be used like a chainsaw, itd be more like a scalpel. He went on to accuse teachers of excess absenteeism. Look, if youre not going to come to work, weve got to get somebody in those classrooms that will be there and can do the job and will do the job, he said. Adding another proviso, Key said he must have the power to end the contract at any point of his choosing. The district is under state control, which essentially makes Key, appointed in 2015 by Republican governor Asa Hutchinson, the school board. The refusal of the LREA to call a walkout contrasts with the overwhelming community support for teachers and the principles of high quality public education for all. On Wednesday, as the contract was set to expire, 300 students from the very same Central High School walked out of classes for 10 minutes to support their teachers. Three days prior an overflow crowd of 700 jammed the downtown First United Methodist Church to support teachers and public education. Teachers and parents have been enthusiastically picketing at Little Rock schools throughout the past week. I fear that whats happening to the Little Rock School District is going to be very detrimental to the city of Little Rock, retired teacher Pat Yates told local media THV11 after the Sunday meeting. You cant have a thriving city without a thriving public school system. As a result of charter school growth, Little Rock, Arkansas, is now the states second largest district and serves 23,000 children. Hundreds also turned out to protest Thursday, lining the blocks near the governors mansion, to back teachers. Kelsey Emerson, a special education teacher, told the media, A lot of teachers who teach in the lower performing schools choose to teach in those schools because thats where the need is. So youre punishing teachers who are choosing to teach in these schools by trying to fire them for saying theyre not doing their job. Education Commissioner Key is a former owner of a pre-school and longtime proponent of charter schools. He loyally supports the Walton Family Foundation and has used his position to fast-track the proliferation of charter schools in the city. Privately run charter schools such as Covenant Keepers in southwest Little Rock, deemed failing under multiple criteria, have been kept afloat with Walton money. Meanwhile, Walton-influenced legislators have enabled a steady takeover of public school buildings to house charters and the assignment of punitive A-F labels for Little Rock schools. The billionaire Walton family, owners of the retailing giant Walmart headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, are the richest family in the US and have long dominated Arkansas state government. Seeking to impose on education the same low-wage, highly exploitative model they did on retail, the Waltons are among the foremost advocates of vouchers, charters and school privatization both statewide and nationally. Since 1992, the Walton Family Foundation has supported a quarter of the 6,700 charter schools created in the US. They doubled down in 2016, announcing $1 billion in additional funds for school privatization and have donated generously to Teach for America. Unsurprisingly, Little Rock, long the states largest school district, is a target. For his part, Key has pointed to the bipartisan character of the school privatization movement, noting that it was in 2015, under the Obama administration, that 22 Little Rock schools were designated as priority or low-achieving schools. In fact, former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton and wife Hillarywho sat on Walmarts board of directors from 1986 to 1992advocated corporate-backed school choice schemes and charter schools in the 1990s. As is uniformly the case nationally, there is a direct correlation between the letter grades or failing designations a school receives and their proportion of low-income students. Demonstrating this well-known fact is a recent analysis by Michael Mills, a professor of education at University of Central Arkansas, showing that Arkansas schools receiving an A-rating had, on average, a 42.35% low-income population, while F-rated schools had low-income populations, on average, of 87.10%. Despite the obscene wealth of the Walton family, estimated at some $175 billion, education in the state has been starved of resources. Public school teachers have not had a pay raise in five years and were forced to give up two days pay. The district has sustained cuts of $43 million over the past four years and the closing of three schools, while new privately subsidized charter schools continue to open up every year. Also, on par with national trends, Arkansas has authorized the use of unlicensed teachers, in some cases as many as 22 in one campus. In this case as well, it is majority low-income schools which have the greatest number of unlicensed teachers. The situation is even worse for charter school teachers in the state. Arkansas enables charter schools to request waivers from state laws on minimum teacher salaries, minimum sick leave, planning periods, class size, teaching load and more. Eighty-three percent of the states charter schools hold such waivers, flouting the essential conditions required for decent schools. Just as Little Rock became synonymous with the struggle for equal rights in a previous period, so too a lead by Arkansas teachers in challenging the plutocratic rule of the Waltons, the Stephens, the Hunts and other billionaires would set a powerful example. To combat the bipartisan assault on public education, the first step is establishing rank and file organizations of school workers, independent of the unions, to develop a genuine plan of struggle. To take the struggle forward, such organizations should unify all school workerscharter and public, union and nonunion, statewide and nationallytogether with workers throughout the US and internationally,. A socialist program is necessary to meet the demands of students, parents and educators and cut across the endless lie that there is no money for schools. The ill-gotten wealth of the Walton family alone would go a long way in upgrading and extending the public education system in the US and around the world. On Friday, Spains public prosecutor filed its written accusation against Catalan secessionist leaders in pre-trial detention for their role in the Catalan independence referendum last year and the unilateral independence declaration that followed. The referendum was deemed illegal by the Popular Party central government in Madrid and utilized to carry out brutal state repression in Barcelona and throughout Catalonia. Public prosecutors are seeking a 25-year prison term for former deputy, regional vice-premier and leader of Left Republicans of Catalonia (ERC) Oriol Junqueras and to bar him from holding public office for the next 25 years. Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, former heads of the Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural, face 17-year jail terms and a 17-year ban on holding public office, as does former Catalan Parliament Speaker Carme Forcadell. Former regional ministers Joaquim Forn, Dolors Bassa, Raul Romeva, Josep Rull and Jordi Turull, are facing 16 years in prison. They are all charged with rebellion for using the necessary violence to ensure the criminal outcome soughtorganising an unauthorised secessionist referendum. The crime carries a 30-year maximum sentence. For the three former regional ministers not in pre-trial jail, Carles Mundo, Maritxell Borras and Santi Vila, the requested sentence has been dropped to seven years on embezzlement charges. In a separate court case, the National Court is investigating four officials in charge of the Catalan police last year. Prosecutors announced they are asking for 11 years imprisonment for the former regional police chief, Josep Lluis Trapero. Both trials are expected to begin in early 2019. During the Catalan crisis the real violence came from the Spanish state, which deployed 16,000 police who violently assaulted voters, including the elderly, with over 1,000 injured. It then proceeded to jail Catalan nationalist politicians in pre-trial detention and impose an unelected government on the region. At the height of the crisis, the PP central government threatened direct military intervention. Last year, 120 jurists, most openly hostile to the Catalan secessionist cause, signed a manifesto describing the rebellion and sedition charges as a legal fraud. The manifesto stated, Only if violating legal principles very seriously can it be affirmed that the accused, in view of the facts that have been attributed to them, could have carried out this crime, or that of conspiracy for rebellion that requires a joint agreement to carry it out with violence. Courts outside Spain have also rejected the charge of rebellion. Earlier this year, the German High Court in Schleswig-Holstein ruled that former Catalan regional premier Carles Puigdemont, who fled last year to avoid arrest, could not be extradited to Spain on the equivalent German charge. The court argued that violent clashes with the Civil Guards or the National Police did not reach a point where the constitutional order was under threat in Spain. A month later, a Belgian court ruled that the three Spanish European Arrest Warrants for three exiled former Catalan ministers, Meritxell Serret, Antoni Comin and Lluis Puig, were irregular. Since then, Spains High Court has withdrawn all the European Arrest Warrants against the Catalan separatists who fled Spain to avoid more embarrassing rulings. June saw the installation of a minority Socialist Party (PSOE)-led government, backed by the pseudo-left Podemos and the Catalan and Basque nationalist parties. However, though Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has urged dialogue with the separatists to solve the crisis, repression against the Catalan leaders continues. On the same day the Public Prosecutors office laid its charges against the secessionists, state attorneys, representing the Sanchez government, called for the defendants to be charged with sedition. This is a lesser charge for suspects accused of subverting the Spanish state or constitution, but still carries a 15-year sentence. This epitomizes the supposed progressive agenda of the PSOEholding political prisoners for 15 years instead of 30! In addition, to placate rightist accusations that the government was appeasing the Catalan nationalists, Justice Minister Dolores Delgado stated, This is not an issue of gestures [towards the separatists]. Its a judicial and technical issue of applying the law in a professional manner. Catalan premier Quim Torra has accused Sanchez of missing a golden opportunity to remove the Catalan conflict from the courts and put it back in the political arena, which is where it belongs. He added that Sanchez had decided not to act, which amounts to complicity with repression. The separatist parties have announced they will now not back the governments budget in the Spanish parliament. Without their support, the budget will fail to pass as it faces opposition from the right-wing parties, Citizens and the PP. The political right, including the far-right VOX, is nevertheless mounting a political offensive, utilizing the PSOEs bankrupt posturing and refusal to mount any genuine defence of democratic rights to prepare its social base for a renewed offensive against the working class. Attacking the decision of Sanchez to drop the rebellion charges as treachery, PP leader Pablo Casado tweeted, Months ago Sanchez argued that the separatists committed a crime of rebellion. He now uses state law to do Catalan leader Torra a favour. A hostage of the coup leaders, he is too discredited to continue presiding over the government and must call elections. Citizens Secretary General Jose Manuel Villegas accused Sanchez of acting like the defence attorney for the coup plotters in an interview with radio station SER. Editorials of the main right-wing newspapers also attacked the government. El Mundo called for snap elections as soon as possible, stating that the serious institutional crisis opened by this irresponsible government threatens to undermine the credibility of the judicial power and weaken the action of the state in the face of the most serious attempt to destroy our democracy. For El Espanol there is no doubt that the executive uses this criminal lawsuit as an element of barter and political marketing with the separatists though for the insatiable separatists, their gifts are never enough. For ABC , The reaction of Catalan separatism to the indictments proves to the Prime Minister that the appeasement tactic is sterile against out-of-control separatist coup plotters. The pseudo-left party, Podemos, has, as could be expected, registered a polite complaint at the PSOEs continued prosecution of the separatist leaders, while making clear this will not cut across their collusion with Sanchez. General Secretary Pablo Iglesias stated that those of us who defend dialogue have to continue to work for a political solution and put an end to the judicialisation of the conflict. Its difficult, but its possible and we have to continue this path. He carefully omitted any mention of the PSOE governments state attorneys sedition charges. The following day, Iglesias made clear that his main concern is the fate of the PSOE government. He framed his remarks as a defence of the governments budget, which includes a handful of social reforms within a framework of continued austerity that are so minimal they have even been approved by the European Union. He attacked the secessionists for announcing they would not support the budget, asking, Why do working people have to pay for the authoritarianism of the PP and the lack of courage of the PSOE? This pose of concern for workers is a fraud. Sanchez made clear, at an event organised by Reuters September 27, that he is ready to abandon his plans for a minimal increase in spending and abide by the deficit targets set previously by the PP if this avoids a snap general election. If we are obliged to present a draft with the former commitments we will do it, he said. Iglesias is declaring his loyalty to the PSOE to further plans for a place for Podemos in a coalition government following an increasingly likely snap election. In the process he is making clear his partys readiness to help implement continued state repression and austerity. Last week, teachers at four charter school operators in Chicago voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. Teachers at Acero (formerly UNO Schools), which operates 15 schools, and Chicago International Charter Schools, which operates four schools, approved a strike with 98 percent and 96 percent support of voting teachers, respectively. Civitas Education Partners and Quest Management approved a walkout later in the week. The teachers seek better pay, smaller class sizes, special education resources, increased wages for the paraprofessionals and longer parental leave. Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (ChiACTS), which merged this year with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), covers teachers in 34 Chicago charters, but each school is under a separate contract. Nineteen charter schools in all may hold votes to authorize a strike. No strike date has been announced. The strike authorizations come amid a growing wave of struggles in the US and internationally. In a year where teachers in the US have struck against the decades of bipartisan attacks on public education, which have been aided and abetted by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA) and their state and local affiliates, the conflict between educators, the two corporate controlled political parties, and the unions that falsely claim to represent teachers has reached a new stage. Rank-and-file teachers walked out earlier this year in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona and other states to oppose low pay, decades of funding cuts and unacceptable teaching and learning conditions. The statewide walkouts initially erupted outside of the control of the unions and generated popular support. In the end, however, the NEA and AFT, with the critical backing of a host of ostensibly socialist organizations whose members have gained prominent positions inside the teacher unions, were able to corral the strikes and smother them. None of the issues teachers courageously fought for have been resolved. In the past, the CTU had postured as an opponent of the expansion of charter schools. This changed after the CTU betrayed the 2012 walkout of nearly 30,000 educators and agreed to a deal with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, which accelerated the closing of 49 public schools and the layoff of thousands of educators, and led to a lengthened school day and eroded teacher tenure. This sellout of the strike also paved the way for another wave of expansion of charter schools. In return, an AFT affiliateChiACTswas allowed to organize at the citys largest charter school operation, and the CTU colluded with the mayor in the orderly closing of the 49 elementary schools. Once the AFT got the franchise to take dues from miserably paid charter school teachers, the CTU dropped any pretense of struggle against the expansion of charters. Former president Karen Lewis and then-vice president Jesse Sharkey, a leading member of the International Socialist Organization, played the leading role in the sellout of the nine-day strike in 2012, blocking the emerging movement of educators not only against Emanuel but the Obama administration, which spearheaded the attack on teachers and public education. In September, Sharkey quietly took over the CTU presidency from Lewis, who has brain cancer. This will mean a substantial increase in income for Sharkey. As union president, he will make around $155,000 in salary (what Lewis made) in addition to the $20,000 he receives as a trustee of the CTU Foundation, a non-profit used to funnel money to community organizations. Sharkey will also get a check as vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which paid Lewis $67,622 for the position, according to the unions 2017 filing with the US Labor Department. In other words, Sharkey will have an income in the top 2 percent of the American population, nearly five times the salary of a public-school teacher. Charter school teachers are significantly lower paid on average than other public school teachers, with pay often $10,000-15,000 per year less and sometimes as much as $20,000 less than a district teacher. While collaborating with both parties to dismantle public education, the unions are eyeing millions in potential dues from charter school teachers. As of 2017, more than 65,000 students attend charters in Chicago, up from around 35,000 in 2010. The number of unionized charters in Illinois, which are heavily concentrated in the city of Chicago, has also increased from nine to 32 over the same seven years. We deserve the same pay and benefits for doing the equal work thats done across the rest of the school system in the city of Chicago, Sharkey said after the Acero schools vote was announced. These words should be taken as a warning by public school teachers who could very well see starting wages and conditions equalized downward with the help of the CTU. As Wall Streets own education model, charter schools allow investor corporations to buy up distressed public property for cheap and operate their own schools within the public school districts, using public funds to educate students along their own plan, drawing students and funding away from the public district schools. Charter schools have been central to the bipartisan attack on the starved national public education system, cynically termed school reform under Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. Despite an official cap on the number of charter schools allowed by law in Chicago, the number of charters in the city exploded under the leadership of Arne Duncan (later to become President Obamas Secretary of Education), and Mayor Richard Daley. After Emanuels re-election in 2015, CTU moved its alliance with the Democratic mayor out into the open, while working out plans behind the scenes for even deeper cuts. Immediately after Emanuels reelection, Sharkey told the New York Times, Rahm in 2011 is not Rahm in 2015. He really had to get off his high horse to win. That year, anger over the mayors austerity measures came together with popular outrage over Emanuels cover-up of the police murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, and CTU tried to chloroform teachers with the slogan of "One Chicago" and promotion of the Democratic Party, as teachers were being threatened with 5,000 layoffs and a major pay cut. Then, in early 2016, CTU leaders were caught red-handed trying to push through a contract offer that would have slashed teacher pay and pensions, reduced staffing levels and increased for-profit charter schools in the nations third largest school district. That effort failed only because rank-and-file teacherswho had been working without a contract since June 2015learned the details of the secret agreement, and the CTUs 40-member bargaining committee, fearing a rebellion and defeat of the sellout, unanimously voted to reject the deal on February 1, 2016. Making clear that the CTU was still preparing to push through an agreement, Jesse Sharkey said about cuts to teacher pensions, Everything is on the table. The CTU called a bogus one-day strike on April 1, 2016 to let teachers blow off steam and then proceeded to push through another concessions deal, which increased out-of-pocket health care and pension costs, particularly for new teachers. To fight the district, the city government and the powerful corporate and financial forces behind them, charter school teachers certainly need to be organized, but they cannot take a step forward through the CTU and its affiliated unions. Instead, both charter and public school teachers should elect rank-and-file committees in every school and community, independent of the unions, to organize a real fight to defend teachers and the right to high quality public education. The egalitarian and democratic principles of public education are incompatible with the enormous levels of social inequality in capitalist America. A powerful political movement of the working class must be built to break the grip of the plutocracy and carry out the socialist transformation of economic life, including the redistribution of wealth to address social needs. Four days away from Kathmandu lies Timbung Pokhari, a religious pond at an elevation of 4335 m. The pond borders Taplejungs Sindingwa Rural Municipality and Panchthars Yangwarak Rural Municipality. The name Timbung Pokhari originated from a Limbu word Timbak, which means the firing of a gun. The locals gave the pond this name as the pond often makes a sound that is similar to that of a gunfire. Majestic views of Kanchenjunga can be seen close from the pond which is 466 m in length and 154 m in width. Even though the pond is covered in snow for six months every year, hosts of pilgrims have been visiting this pond to offer puja for a few centuries now. Pilgrims gather around the pond, especially during the month of Shrawan (July-August) and during festivals like Janai Purnima and Nag Panchami. It is believed that by offering a puja in this pure pond, wishes of pilgrims come true along with their lives being filled with peace and happiness. But the locals also believe that bad things happen to the visitors if they have sin, greed and jealousy on their conscience. The locals believe that the magpies around the area clean the pond on a regular basis. They also add that things that are in the pond or are being offered to the pond shouldnt be taken away. Locals connect the death of 12 foreigners recently with the myth. The journey from Kathmandu to Timbung Pokhari can take up to four days. If you wish to spend a day at the pond, it will take a total of nine days. It takes two days on foot to reach Timbung from Chyangthapu, the starting point of Mid-Hill Highway. Due to the unavailability of road, the only way to reach the pond is walking. People from different places of from Nepal and other countries visit Timbung Pokhari. As the pond is quite close to Indias border, it sees a lot of Indian pilgrims throughout the year from places like Manipur, West Bengal and Sikkim. The pond is both unique in natural beauty and biodiversity. The area around the pond is home to various rare flora and fauna and is also known as the capital of herbs. Valuable herbs like bikham, kutki, padmachal, jatamasi, panchaule and yarsagumba can be found in the area along with aromatic herbs like sunpati, bhairungpani and sikpale. The place is also home to animals like Himalayan monal, Himalayan blue sheep, Himalayan goral, bear, snow leopard, musk deer, red panda and many more. The best time to visit Timbung Pokhari is between March and October. Mid-July to August is even better to get there and witness the unique culture of the area. Having seen its potential, the local government is now working at promoting the place hosting various fairs in the area. The pond has also been featured on the list of 100 new tourism destinations that the federal government published few days ago. As the 2018 midterm elections in the United States come to a close, it is becoming clear that it will break records as the most expensive non-presidential election on record. Total campaign spending is estimated to reach $5.2 billion, only $1.3 billion less than the 2016 elections, which featured a presidential race, and around $1.5 billion more than the 2014 midterm elections. Even measured against this mountain of campaign spending, the money being spent on the race for Illinois governor stands out, with more than $284 million spent so far between the general election and primaries. This is outpacing what has until this point been the most expensive gubernatorial election campaign in US history, Californias 2010 race between Democrat Jerry Brown and billionaire Republican Meg Whitman, later the CEO of HP. J.B Pritzker, the Democratic candidate for governor of Illinois, has spent $161.5 million of his vast fortune on his own campaign, more than any other candidate in US history has ever spent in an attempt to win an office. He is outspending Governor Bruce Rauner, the Republican incumbent, by a nearly two-to-one margin. Rauner has spent $50 million of his own money, as well as $22.5 million he received from the states wealthiest resident, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel. Pritzker, with a wealth of $3.4 billion, is an heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune and one of at least 11 billionaires in his family. The Pritzkers are one of the richest families on the planet, and many of its members are deeply connected to the highest echelons of American business and government. His sister, Penny Pritzker, was commerce secretary in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017. His brother Anthony Pritzker is, aside from being an investor and managing partner of the Pritzker Group, an advisor on Asia-Pacific policy at the RAND Corporation. Thomas Pritzker, his first cousin, is executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels and chairman of the board for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a major think tank for US imperialism. He is also chairman of North American Western Asia Holdings (Nawah), an investment firm with port and logistics operations in Iraq that he co-founded with Paul Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense under both George W. Bush and Obama. Bruce Rauner is also likely a billionaire, or close to it, from the wealth generated by the private equity firm GTCR, in which he was a partner for many years. Though he has adamantly refused to divulge his actual net worth, a spokesman once described his wealth as in the mid-nine figures, and his 2015 state tax return indicated $188 million in taxable income. The fact that nearly 82 percent of the spending has come from just three members of the financial aristocracy, two of them the candidates themselves, underscores the complete lack of popular support for the Democrats and Republicans among the overwhelming majority of the working class population. Moreover, it provides a guarantee, even more than usual, that whoever ends up as governor will be defending the interests of their own extremely narrow social milieu. While Pritzker is heavily favored to win on November 6, concern about a low turnout in Illinois affecting candidates further down the ballot, due to the lack of popular enthusiasm for the billionaire candidate, likely accounts for the last-minute campaign visit to Chicago by former President Barack Obama on Sunday. The event, held at the UIC Pavilion, is intended to drum up votes in close congressional elections in the Chicago suburbs, as well as in the Illinois attorney general race. The main effect of all this campaign funding has been a nearly complete saturation of the media with campaign ads meant to conceal the shared commitment of both parties, regardless of which candidate wins on Tuesday, to continue and deepen the assault on the living standards and social conditions of the working class, particularly in regard to pensions and education spending. Instead, the campaign ads have largely traded accusations of corruption and incompetence, accurate in themselves. Republicans denounced Pritzker for a scheme to avoid paying taxes on a mansion in Chicagos Gold Coast neighborhood by removing the toilets (so the value of the house could be downgraded). Democrats charged that Rauner attempted to cover up deaths from Legionnaires disease that occurred at the state veterans home in Quincy. Despite Pritzkers refusal to state any concrete post-election plans and his lack of a popular base of support, he is expected to win comfortably, with polls predicting a two-digit margin of victory over Rauner. This is largely due to the widespread antipathy Rauner generated during his first term through his attempt to force through his Turnaround Agenda, a collection of attacks on pensions, workers compensation and other social spending, which resulted in a budget impasse lasting over two years. The impasse caused layoffs and program cuts in social service and higher education throughout the state. In a recent campaign speech Rauner was unapologetic about the impasse and even described it as a fight for reform. Rauner also faced a challenge from the far right of the Republican Party, which attacked him over his signing of HB40, a bill that expanded coverage of abortions by the states Medicaid program. Barely squeaking by a primary challenge from Jeanne Ives, a state legislator, who criticized him for supporting bills expanding rights for transgender individuals and immigrants, Rauner emerged from the primary badly damaged politically. In the general election, he will also face another far-right challenger, former Republican Sam McCann, who is running under the Conservative Party banner. McCann, who represents an area around Springfield with many government workers, voted with Democrats to override a Rauner veto, which ultimately ended the impasse. He has accused Rauner of being the most liberal, progressive governor the state of Illinois has ever had. Rauner supported the Illinois-based Janus case that was successful in the US Supreme Court in order to weaken the Democratic Party by attacking their funding source in public sector unions. By contrast, Pritzker has pledged his support to the union leadership. In fact, his family has long had a working relationship with the unions, through Unite Here, which has been working furiously throughout this campaign season to prevent a struggle by hotel workers from breaking free of their stranglehold and making serious demands on the hotel chains, including Hyatt. In large measure, the real question in this election between the two main parties of the ruling class is whether the they believe that the unions are needed to carry out the budget cuts and regressive tax increases on the agenda. The support for the Democratic Party by the unions, 30 of which backed the Pritzker campaign, including AFSCME and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, indicates they are ready and willing to help carry out the bipartisan agenda being worked out behind the scenes to continue the program of austerity. The author also recommends: What is to be done about the plutocrats? [2 November 2018] Republicans and Democrats prepare bipartisan agenda of social cuts and war [23 October 2018] Hundreds of armed soldiers have deployed to the US-Mexico border, setting up over 170 miles of razor wire, erecting barricades at border crossing points and staging armed military drills in full view of immigrants waiting to cross. Speaking at a campaign rally Saturday, President Donald Trump said: We have our military on the border. And I noticed all that beautiful barbed wire going up today. Barbed wire used properly can be a beautiful sight. Thousands more soldiersup to 15,000 in allare en route to the border. The Pentagon claims 3,500 are already staging at bases near the border, including 1,000 Marines in California. They will be deployed in both uninhabited desert regions and major metropolitan areas such as San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas. The Democratic Party has signaled that should it take control of one or both houses of Congress in Tuesdays midterm elections, it will collaborate with Trumps crackdown against immigrants. Almost all of its Senate candidates in closely contested races have endorsed Trumps attack on immigrants. Joe Manchin (West Virginia) said he is open to rescinding the 14th Amendments establishment of birthright citizenship. Joe Donnelly (Indiana), who has declared his support for ending birthright citizenship, is running advertisements denouncing immigrants. Claire McCaskill (Missouri) said she supports Trumps decision to deploy troops to the border 100 percent. Phil Bredesen (Tennessee) is also campaigning in support of Trumps anti-immigrant policies and warns that the immigrant caravan moving north from Honduras will bring chaos. Two other candidatesHeidi Heitkamp (North Dakota) and John Tester (Montana)won the endorsement of the fascistic union representing border control agents. Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) echoed Trump when she said in August, ICE does provide some important functions. ICE is responsible for removing dangerous criminal aliens, aliens who hurt other people by engaging in rape or murder. The so-called progressive wing of the Democratic Party is downplaying Trumps troop deployment as well as his threats to shoot immigrants, abolish the 14th Amendment by executive action and ban asylum applications for immigrants crossing the southern border without documents. The Democratic Party has explicitly abandoned the slogan to abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Senators Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and Kirsten Gillibrand (New York), who both called for abolishing ICE in the spring when Trump began separating child immigrants from their parents, have now pulled back and said they do not support abolishing the agency anymore. NBC News reported that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member and Democratic Party congressional candidate, despite making Abolish ICE a major part of her campaign over the summer, has tweeted about the topic just twice since Sept. 1. A campaign spokesman told NBC News she was unavailable for comment about the issue. In August, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that, according to her, abolishing ICE "does not mean abolish deportation." Jacobin magazine, which is closely aligned with the DSA, has published just one article on the immigration situation in recent weeks. In comparison, Jacobin recently published five articles on Halloween, including pieces relating to witches, ghosts and monsters. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont) has maintained total silence on Trumps fascistic moves against immigrants. Instead, he is stumping on behalf of openly pro-corporate Democrats such as Michigan gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer, Colorado gubernatorial candidate and multi-millionaire businessman Jared Polis and Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin. In a CNN interview on Friday, Sanders was asked twice whether he would defend the immigrant caravan. He responded each time by ignoring the question and pivoting instead to healthcare. Sanders has attacked immigrants in the past as threats to the wages and jobs of native-born workers and echoes the chauvinist economic nationalism of Trump and the trade union leadership. Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, Jacobin and other phony progressives are dutifully following the orders of the Democratic Party leadership. The New York Times reported that when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was asked about the Democratic Partys position on Trumps threat to revoke birthright citizenship, she replied, Clearly, Republicans will do absolutely anything to divert attention away from their votes to take away Americans healthcare. CNNs Jake Tapper asked Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez yesterday whether the Democrats think border securitya euphemism for mass deportations and the internment of immigrantsis important. Perez said, Of course it is, and in 2013 Democrats and Republicans came together in the Senate around a bipartisan plan that would have expanded ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and resulted in further mass deportations. Perez added that the Democrats support tougher enforcement measures and a tough but fair pathway to citizenship. These statements make clear that if the Democrats win control of the House or Senate, they will actively collaborate with Trump to facilitate further attacks on immigrants. The Democrats are either openly or tacitly supporting measures that are placing the lives of immigrants in imminent danger. The military is preparing for a possible clash with refugees on the southern border, including thousands participating in the caravans of Central American men, women and children making their way through Mexico. According to an internal military report on the border deployment leaked to the press, the most dangerous potential outcome is one in which the immigrant caravan will grow markedly. To confront this, the military says it is preparing for cross border engagements, i.e., violent attacks on innocent workers asking for the right to apply for asylum. The military report also raises the fear that protests will develop in defense of immigrants and the military may be forced to engage with demonstrators. Previous protests in support of immigration caravans or enforcement of immigration law have occurred throughout the US, the report warns. The Washington Post reports as well that hundreds of armed militiamen are en route to the border. These groups, comprised of outright fascists, are alleged to have conducted extra-legal killings of migrants in the past. The Post writes: Gun-carrying civilian groups and border vigilantes have heard a call to arms in President Trumps warnings... [They are] oiling rifles and tuning up aerial drones, with plans to form caravans of their own and trail American troops to the border. Well observe and report and offer aid in any way we can, bail bondsman and Texas Minutemen president Shannon McGauley told the Post . Meanwhile, the flow of desperate workers and peasants fleeing Central America continues. A third caravan from El Salvador comprised of over 1,000 people is now following two prior caravans en route to the US border. Fourteen caravan participants recently filed a lawsuit in Mexico claiming that the Mexican government is illegally acting as Trumps puppet in enforcing migrant policy. They filed a complaint comprised of 72 pages of evidence that Mexican immigration agents are beating migrants and extorting them to discourage them on their trek north. Over the weekend, anger among the immigrants in the leading caravan grew after Veracruz Governor Miguel Angel Yunes rescinded a previous offer to provide buses to safely transport migrants north. Yunes then attempted to delay immigrants from moving on, telling them to stay in Veracruz until Tuesday. The caravan instead took a vote to continue walking to Mexico City. As he prepares to host US President Donald Trump on Saturday in Paris for the centenary of the armistice that ended World War I, French President Emmanuel Macron gave a long interview last week to Ouest France. In it, he warned that Europe faces the same threats today as 100 years ago, in the years between World War I and the rise of fascism and the eruption of World War II in 1939. Amid rising working class anger at his policies, the president of the rich continued his empty posturing as a progressive opponent of nationalism and of far-right critics of the EU like Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. With protests called against Trumps visit on November 11, and against austerity and fuel price hikes on November 17, he tried to speak to popular concern over the danger of dictatorship and war. He declared: I am struck by the resemblance between the era we live in and the inter-war period. In a Europe that is today divided by fears, nationalist resentments, the consequences of the economic crisis, we are seeing the almost methodical re-emergence of everything that shaped the life of Europe between the end of World War I and the 1929 stock market crash. We must keep this in mind, be lucid, and know how to resist this. Macrons statement amounted to an acknowledgment from the French head of state of what millions of workers worldwide sense: the danger of war and authoritarian rule is real and growing. Yet Macron, a so-called progressive investment banker, only proposes policies that intensify these dangers, rooted in the grotesque social inequality and historic bankruptcy of capitalism. The only force that can offer a way forward in the struggle against the danger of a relapse into the barbarism of the 1930s is the working class. Macron did not even try to reconcile his criticisms of nationalism with his invitation to Trump, the parasitic billionaire who personifies more than anyone the attempt to stir up fascistic nationalism and anti-immigrant hatreds to pursue militaristic and anti-social policies. Less than two weeks before, Trump had cancelled the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. Shortly before that, US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison had threatened to bomb Russia in order to take out Russian missiles she claimed violate the treaty. As he scrapped the INF treaty, a measure expected to produce nuclear arms races both with Russia and China, Trump was also deploying thousands of US troops to the Mexican border to set up mass prison camps and threaten to shoot defenseless migrants seeking asylum. Yet Macron warmly greets Trump in Paris while hypocritically denouncing Salvini and Orban. These denunciations are essentially false, as Macron makes them in the service of the same class interests as Trump or Macrons neo-fascist rivals in Europe. His plans for the European Union (EU) to spend hundreds of billions of euros more on the army, and for pension cuts, rail privatization and austerity targeted against workers aim to fuse the EU into a militarized imperialist bloc. As Macron then explained to Ouest France, verbal criticisms of nationalism in Europe aim to preserve this blocs crumbling unity and to advance its geopolitical interests. He said: Ours is an era of great powers who develop their policies on a planetary scale; rules for competition and order still have to be established. Europe faces a danger: to be torn apart by the nationalist cancer, thrown about by foreign powers, and to lose its sovereignty. This means having its security depend on US decisions, having China more involved in key infrastructure, Russia sometimes tempted by manipulation, big financial interests and markets sometimes going beyond the weight that states can have. In fact, Macrons presidency marked the breakdown of the EUs ability to posture as a democratic alternative to the far right. Last year, Macron was elected by default against neo-fascist candidate Marine Le Pen, who had hailed Trumps election. And Macron was hailed as part of a tandem with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that would make the European Union (EU) the new leader of the free world, perhaps through an alliance with the US Democratic Party, after Trumps election. A year later, these pretensions are in tatters. Merkel has announced her retirement as chancellor amid a furious campaign to rearm Germany, legitimize German militarism and promote German fascist traditions. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer declared that he would have joined a neo-Nazi riot in Chemnitz, amid growing evidence of collusion between the state and far right circles and mass protests mobilizing hundreds of thousands across Germany. German intelligence also placed the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP, the German section of the International Committee of the Fourth International) on a list of left extremist groups for opposing far-right militarism, while acknowledging that the SGP did not engage in violent activity. As Macrons allies in Berlin chart a far-right course and threaten to suppress oppositional sentiment at home, Macron is on essentially the same course. His forced privatization and wage cutting at the National Railways (SNCF), first proposed under a state of emergency suspending democratic rights and imposed despite strike action and overwhelming opposition by rail workers, has discredited his austerity agenda and shattered his presidency. His raids on La France insoumise (LFI), an organization whose presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon received 20 percent of the vote, signaled that the vast police state powers built under the French state of emergency can and will be mobilized against peaceful political opposition. This evolution vindicates the position taken by the Parti de legalite socialiste (PES, the French section of the ICFI) during the 2017 presidential election. It called for an active boycott of the run-off between Macron and Le Pen, in order to give a political line for the building of a movement in the working class against whichever candidate won. In doing so, the PES was not in the least unmindful of the danger of authoritarian rule in France. However, it warned correctly that Macron is no alternative to the far right danger and xenophobic nationalism represented by Le Pen. And in Ouest France, Macron insisted that his model is Georges Clemenceau, the French president at the end of World War I. A ferocious defender of the Versailles peace treaty aiming to cripple and humiliate Germany, Clemenceau also demanded the execution of anti-war soldiers and draconian suppression of socialist, anti-war sentiment. Hailing Clemenceaus message, Macron said he was the father of victory, when all seems lost and the troops are in despair, he does not submit. In fact, the international upsurge of protests and strikes is an indication that masses of workers are moving into opposition to the European bourgeoisies militarism and austerity. The emerging movement against far right politics across Europe can only be waged as a political struggle, posing the issue of the transfer of power to the working class and the building of workers states pursuing socialist policies. This signifies, as the European sections of the ICFI insist, the struggle against the EU and for the United Socialist States of Europe. Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) leader Wickremabahu Karunaratne is in the forefront of the United National Party (UNP) campaign to regain government after President Maithripala Sirisena sacked UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister on October 26. After dismissing Wickremesinghe, Sirisena appointed former President Mahinda Rajapakse as prime minister. He also prorogued the parliament until November 16 to buy time to cajole and bribe MPs so as to secure a parliamentary majority. Rajapakses presidency from 2005 until 2015 was notorious for its anti-democratic authoritarian methods. Wickremesinghe, however, has refused to vacate the prime ministers official residence and demanded the immediate reconvening of parliament, where he still commands a majority. The US and its allies are backing this campaign. Responding to pressure from the major powers, Sirisena has now announced that parliament will reopen two days earlier on November 14. Sirisena and Rajapakse, as well as Wickremesinghe, all falsely proclaim their support for parliamentary democracy. However, the bitter in-fighting is to secure state power for their respective factions of the ruling class. All of them are committed to stepped up attacks on the social rights and living conditions of the working class and the poor. Pseudo-left organisations, including the NSSP, along with sections of the media and academia, are demanding the immediate reconvening of the parliament as the solution to the political crisis. They fear that the ongoing conflicts in the ruling elite are exposing to millions of working people the rottenness of capitalist rule and its parliamentary facade. NSSP leader Karunaratne, a long-time associate of Wickremesinghe, is playing a key role in promoting the UNPs campaign and sowing illusions in parliamentary democracy. Karunaratne is speaking at UNP meetings, holding press conferences, helping to organise protest pickets, and writing to the media. Addressing a UNP meeting on October 30, Karunaratne declared: I came here because democracy is here. To stop the crime against Ranil Wickremesinghe, he must be reinstalled [as prime minister] and the thieves who usurped power chased away. Attempting to present Wickremesinghe as a fighter for working people, Karunaratne said: Who is speaking on behalf of people of this country? Who is speaking on behalf of the proletariat? Who is speaking for Tamils, Muslims as one people? This has now been shown to the whole world. What blatant lies! Wickremesinghe, who was elected to parliament in 1977, became a cabinet minister in the hated right-wing government of President J. R. Jayawardene. The Jayawardene regime ruthlessly initiated open market economic policies that gutted jobs and the social rights of workers and the poor, then provoked a devastating 30-year war to suppress the Tamil population. Whether in government or opposition, Wickremesinghe has never wavered in his defence of big business and the capitalist system. Over the past four years, the so-called national unity government of Sirisena and Wickremesinghe has systematically deepened the anti-working class attacks of the Rajapakse regime and implemented the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). NSSP leader Karunaratnes promotion of Wickremesinghe is an endorsement of the IMFs austerity measures and a desperate attempt to prevent the development of an independent movement of the working class by chaining workers to the pro-US, right-wing UNP. Karunaratnes support for Wickremesinghe and the UNP serves the geo-political needs of US imperialism and its allies. During the January 2015 presidential election, Karunaratne, along with various pseudo-lefts and academics, supported the regime-change operation that brought Sirisena to power and his alliance with Wickremesinghes UNP. Karunaratne ludicrously claimed the back-room operation was a democratic revolution. The installation of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration was orchestrated by Washington, with political support from India. The US had no differences with Rajapakses anti-democratic rule, but in line with its geo-strategic calculations, wanted him ousted because of his close relationship with Beijing. The US and other major powers have responded to the dismissal of Wickremesinghe by supporting the ex-prime minister and maximising their political pressure on Sirisena. Washington considers Rajapakse to be pro-Chinese and does not want him to make a political comeback. Last week the US put on hold nearly $US500 million in development assistance to Sri Lanka and Japan announced holding off a $1.4 billion soft loan for a light-rail project. The EU has also indicated that it would reconsider current GSP-tax concessions on Sri Lankan exports. Economic sanctions could also be imposed on Sri Lanka. Karunaratne is attempting to give his pro-UNP campaign a radical colouration. At a press conference last Wednesday he claimed that the people were ready to act against those who ignore the parliament and proposed a general strike and a peoples riot. His comments came a day after a large crowd attended a UNP meeting opposing Sirisenas dismissal of Wickremesinghe. The NSSP leader further elaborated on this theme in a letter published in yesterdays weekly Irida Lakbima. Referring to the proroguing of parliament, he declared: Democracy has been folded into a system of making laws and gazetting them according to the whims and fancies [of Sirisena and Rajapakse]. It needs to be considered whether a general strike can be called against this. Karunaratne claimed that a strike, at least in the public sector, would cause a collapse of [government] rule, and defeat dictatorship. Hitlers only become powerful when the people are silent in the face of lies. If people embrace untruths because of laziness then any insane man can easily drag the country towards a dictatorship, he wrote. What a sinister campaign! Working people are being asked to take action to defend one right-wing faction of the ruling class, which has a history of blatantly violating social and democratic rights, against another, similarly ruthless, faction. Karunaratnes comparisons of Rajapakse with Hitler and fascism are in order to cover-up Wickremesinghes own anti-democratic record. The bitter historical experiences of the international working class have shown that the coming to power of dictatorships and fascism is because of the betrayal of the working class by opportunist leaderships, including Stalinist, social democratic and lefts like NSSP. For the working class, there are no differences between the Sirisena-Rajapakse and Wickremesinghe camps. Whatever party or alliance grabs state power will unleash even more ruthless attacks on social and democratic rights of the workers and poor. As the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) statement on the Sri Lankan political crisis explains: Sirisenas unconstitutional action in sacking Wickremesinghe is the culmination of a protracted decay of parliamentary rule since Sri Lanka was given so-called independence in 1948. The political coup is an acute expression in Sri Lanka of the worsening global economic crisis, sharpening geo-political tensions, particularly between the US and China, and the resurgence of class struggles internationally. Workers, youth and socialist-minded intellectuals must reject the NSSP leaders reactionary efforts. The working class can only defend its class interests by politically fighting every faction of the Sri Lanka ruling elite in the struggle for a workers and peasants government based on international socialist policies. Only the SEP, and its youth wing, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality, fights on the basis of this program in Sri Lanka. The author also recommends: Sri Lanka: Pseudo-left NSSP celebrates alliances with capitalist parties [1 February 2017] A voter guide mailed and hand delivered to residents of Dearborn, Downriver and western Wayne County removed Niles Niemuth, the Socialist Equality Party candidate for Congress in Michigans 12th district, from a sample ballot. While the purpose of the mailer was to promote Democratic candidates in the election, the names of all Republican, third party and independent candidates besides Niles were included. The Dearborn, Downriver and western Wayne County voter guide excludes Niles His name was apparently deliberately removed from the Wayne County mailer, since a nearly identical voter guide sent to residents of neighboring Washtenaw County, which includes the 12th district cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, includes Niles. For the Wayne County version, the place where Niles name would be is simply blank. The Wayne County voter guide includes statements of endorsement from the United Auto Workers, while the Washtenaw Country guide has endorsements from Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan. The voter guides were paid for by the Michigan Voter Guide Project, a local Democratic Party initiative started in 2016 by Democratic State Representative Adam Zemke and Washtenaw County Democratic Party Executive Committee member Jennifer Fairfield. The apparently deliberate removal of the Socialist Equality Partys campaign goes hand-in-hand with the censorship by WDIV News Channel 4 and ClickonDetroit.com, which had left Niles off of its voter guide. The Washtenaw County voter guide faithfully reproduces Tuesday's ballot WDIVs news director Kim Voet has yet to reply to an open letter emailed by Niles Thursday night, though the station has quietly added his name along with a link to Niles2018.com. Despite this half measure, WDIV has still not offered Niles coverage equivalent with his Democratic and Republican opponents, Debbie Dingell and Jeff Jones. Both were given the opportunity to record two-minute video statements in the news studio that were subsequently posted online. With just one day before the midterm elections on Tuesday we encourage supporters of the SEP to write letters to Kim Voet at kimv@wdiv.com demanding WDIV provide Niles campaign with coverage equivalent to his opponents. Supporters can also send letters to Rep. Zemke protesting the omission in the voter guides sample ballot at adamzemke@house.mi.gov. Send copies of both to niles2018@socialistequality.com . The WSWS is publishing another selection of the letters that were sent in response to Niles letter, protesting WDIVs censorship of his campaign. Read more letters here. *** Dear Kim Voet, I demand that you, as the director of WDIV News Channel 4 and ClickonDetroit.com, end your blackout on the 12th District election campaign of Niles Niemuth of the Socialist Equality Party. Of the four candidates standing in Michigans 12th Congressional district, only the Democratic Party incumbent Debbie Dingell and Republican Jeff Jones were allowed to publish video statements on the news stations website and appear on your official voter guide. This is an outrage to the democratic process. What are you afraid of? This is an act of political censorship, aimed at reinforcing the political stranglehold of the two parties of big business. Its purpose is to block students and workers from having access to a genuine socialist program that opposes the capitalist system and the interests of the super-rich. WDIV is part of Graham Media Holdings, whose chairman, Donald Graham, has a reported personal wealth of over $500 million. Is this who you are beholden to? Not the truth? Not objective media coverage? Sincerely, Phyllis Steele *** Dear Kim Voet, Niles Niemuth, a candidate on the ballot for Michigans 12th Congressional District, has informed me that you are barring Candidate Niemuth from posting a video statement on the website of WDIV News Channel 4. At the same time, such statements do appear at the News Channel 4 website from the Democrat incumbent Debbie Dingell and Republican candidate Jeff Jones. May I ask you, what gives you the right to selectively decide which candidates can express their views on the website of Channel 4? The air waves are in the public domain, and the FCC requires that all stations that are granted the right to broadcast in the US are providing a public service. You by excluding Mr. Niemuth on the basis of your own personal views from providing a video statement are doing a disservice to the public. Democracy thrives by debate. You by excluding the views of Mr. Niemuth are stifling debate and thereby making the US a less democratic country. Additionally, Mr. Niemuth states that his name has been excluded from your official voter guide. If Mr. Niemuth has been placed on the ballot by the Michigan election officials, then what gives you the right to exclude individuals whose names will appear on the ballot from your guide? Do you have the right to tell voters who are the real candidates and who in your opinion are not? Sincerely, Peter Lehmann *** Hello, I am writing to protest the media blackout by WDIV against the campaign of Niles Niemuth of the Socialist Equality Party. Young voters are fed up with the stranglehold of the two major parties, both beholden to the super rich and major corporate interests. We need a restructuring of the economic system to represent the needs of the public at large and of the planet. Those who try to block this needed transformation will be on the wrong side of history. Thanks, Jon Karr Cedar Grove, NC *** Kim Voet, Please know that it is important to let my candidate, Niles Niemuth with the Socialist Equality Party, be heard. Not allowing him to have a video statement on the WDIV website is shortsighted and not in the interest of the community and our society. It is, in fact, tantamount to censorship. I am a great believer in and backer of the media and hope you will live up to the responsibility the media has to inform the public. Sincerely, Anne Paine TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A yoga practitioner says he fought the gunman who killed two people during a class at a yoga studio in Florida. Joshua Quick spoke to ABC's Good Morning America on Sunday. Police say Scott Paul Beierle posed as a customer at the studio in Tallahassee on Friday night when he started shooting. Quick said he grabbed Beierle's gun after it jammed and hit him. But Beierle got control of the gun again and pistol-whipped Quick. Quick said he then grabbed a broom and struck Beierle, which gave some people in the studio time to flee. Two women - a 61-year-old faculty member at Florida State University, and a 21-year-old FSU student from Atlanta who was due to graduate in May - were fatally shot. Five others were wounded. (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed) TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The midterm election is about 24-hours away, and in both Florida and Georgia several key races are on the ballot. Many have already cast their ballots for the candidates they feel will best serve the community. WTXL ABC 27's Jada Williams was live Monday morning with a breakdown of the early voting numbers. More than 37 percent of registered voters in Leon County have already cast their ballots for the midterm election. That number is more than double that from the last mid-term election in 2014. The county Supervisor of Elections office reports that's more than 79,000 ballots have been cast. This year, 56,000 people turned up to polling locations to vote early, while a little less than 28,000 did so in 2014. Voter turnout in that year was just under 57 percent. The Florida and Georgia governor's race both have garnered a lot of national attention, even attracting celebrities. Still to make an appearance in the Capital City are DJ Khaled, Tiffany Haddish and Diddy. Diddy will headline the Bring it Home Midnight Rally on FAMU's campus. Meanwhile, Lara Trump and Marco Rubio will be following in the president's footsteps Monday to campaign for Republican gubernatorial nominee Ron Desantis. That follows campaigning by President Donald Trump and Rudy Guilliani over the weekend. Both candidates are campaigning feverishly up until the last minute. The Bring It In Midnight Rally will be held at the Lawson Center, and check in will start at 9:30 a.m. Things should wrap up by 1 a.m. to make sure those in attendance can get some rest before polls open up at 7 a.m. TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- The overcast conditions we had on Sunday will remain in place through the start of our next work week. A warm front continues to push northward over the Florida Peninsula, though it is forecast to weaken as we move into Monday. To our west, a cold front slides toward the east, though it is not expected to change our temperatures as it nears. Tonight remains cloudy with a stray shower possible. Overnight lows will not be as chilly as they have been. Most of the region will see temperatures fall to the lower and mid 60s. Monday stays mainly cloudy with highs near 80 degrees. Winds will be from the south pulling in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, which will help support more wet weather. There is a 40 percent chance of scattered rain and thunderstorms. Monday night has lows in the mid 60s with ample cloud cover. A few showers may be possible heading into Tuesday morning. Home Just In Underground Biplav to show up at November 24 mass meeting Kathmandu, November 5 The General Secretary of Communist Party of Nepal, Netra Bikram Chand aka Biplav, is making himself public during a mass meeting to be organised by the party in Kathmandu on November 24. The chief of Maoist party, which has been occasionally carrying out destructive activities against the government, is said to be underground for past few months. Meanwhile, a government team under the leadership of lawmaker Som Prasad Pandey is preparing to hold talks with the Biplav-led party before the mass meeting. The party, however, has questioned the authority of the team. But, the things are turning positive, Pandey says, We are in conversation with the concerned person. He hopes that the informal talks would turn into formal conversations soon. TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- At this time, the tropics are quiet. The National Hurricane Center does not expect to see any area of interest in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, or Atlantic Ocean within the next five days. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 01:47:18|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close LONDON, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May rejected calls Sunday for a second referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union (EU) as a report suggested she has drawn up a secret Brexit plan with Brussels. Downing Street's insisted a new poll would be a betrayal of trust following the 2016 referendum when 52 percent of the population backed ending EU membership. The statement comes as a report in one of Britain's leading newspapers, the Sunday Times, suggests May has drawn up a secret Brexit plan with EU. As the so-called Brexit deadline approaches, more than 70 business leaders have signed a letter to the Sunday Times today, calling for a public vote on Britain's Brexit deal, warning a destructive hard Brexit would damage the British economy. The letter, published in London by the Sunday Times, said: "The business community was promised that, if the country voted to leave, there would continue to be frictionless trade with the EU and the certainty about future relations that we need to invest for the long term." Meanwhile, the Sunday Times has also published a story claiming Prime Minister May has drawn up a secret plan to secure a Brexit deal and win the backing of the British parliament. The report says senior sources say the prime minister has secured private concessions from Brussels that will allow her to keep the whole of Britain in a customs union, avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland, the as yet unresolved issue blocking a future trading deal with the EU. Regarding the report, a spokesperson for May telling the newspaper: "This is all speculation. The prime minister has been clear that we are making good progress on the future relationship and 95 percent of the withdrawal agreement is now settled. Negotiations are ongoing." The former Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair, an active supporter of Britain remaining in the EU, urged all MPs Sunday to vote down whatever Brexit deal May presents to parliament, and should instead push for another referendum. Britain and Brussels need to strike a deal this month to enable it to win approval in the British Parliament and all other EU member states before the March 2019 departure date. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 03:22:29|Editor: yan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government said Sunday it will review a charter incentives program to incorporate low-cost carriers and scheduled flights to boost tourist numbers into the country. Joe Okudo, permanent secretary at the tourism ministry, said the number of charters has risen from one charter (Condor Airlines) to the current number of 10, boosting tourism business in the region that had recorded a drop as a result of negative travel advisories. "This move would not only strengthen our destination's brand visibility as a whole in the source markets but increase visitor number. It will allow us to venture into joint marketing initiatives with the airline operator and the travel agents' consortia," Okudo said in a statement issued in Nairobi. The east African nation has stepped up its marketing blitz to woo key source markets in the wake of a drop in tourist arrivals occasioned by a spate of insecurity brought about by acts of terrorism from al-Shabab and travel advisories issued by countries that provide key source markets. In the 2017/18 financial year, combined arrivals for July 1, 2017 to June 30 closed at 1.49 million, compared to 1.39 million in 2016/17, a growth of 6.8 percent, according to the ministry. According to Okudo, the charter model now only works in eastern Europe and Nordic countries, leaving out other key tourist source markets for Kenya. He said the number of charters are expected to increase toward the end of the year, expressing optimism that the revised program would see to an expansion to cover the other two international airports in the county for diverse tourism product experience. The charter will fly Mombasa twice a week, translating to about 500 visitors to the Kenyan coast every week. "Within the charter period (November to March, 2019), Kenya shall have received about 8,000 arrivals into Mombasa, a major boost to the tourist numbers into the region," said Okudo. According to the tourism ministry, Poland has continued to grow in market share of visitors into the country. "Last year, we received 11,947 visitors from Poland up from 9,572 recorded in 2016, a 24.8 percent increase," he said. In the first eight months of the year, Kenya received 7,504 tourists from Poland, 10.6 percent more than the 6,782 recorded for the same period last year. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 08:33:17|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close YANGON, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) of Myanmar has won nearly half of the 13 parliamentary seats in Saturday's by-elections, according to the final results released by the Union Election Commission late Sunday. Of the 13 parliamentary seats contested in the election, the NLD won six seats - two with the House of Representatives (Lower House) and four with the region parliaments so far, the release said. The NLD's two won seats with the House of Representatives cover Yangon region's Tarmwe constituency and Mandalay region's Mingyan constituency, while the other four seats with region parliaments are each in Mandalay region's Shan ethnic constituency, Bago region's Okktwin constituency, Mandalay region's Thabeikkyin constituency and Magway region's Minbu constituency respectively. Meanwhile, the Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) won three seats - one with the House of Nationalities (Upper House) in Kachin state's Myitgyina constituency and two with region parliaments in Sagaing region's Tamu and Yangon region's Seikkan constituencies respectively. The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) secured one seat with the House of Representatives in Shan state's Laikha constituency, while Chin National League for Democracy (CNLD) and an individual candidate gained one seat each for the state parliaments in Chin state's Matupi constituency and Rakhine state's Yethedaung constituency. The name of the winning party for one vacant seat in House of Representatives for Chin state's Kanpetlet constituency has not been announced yet. A total of 69 candidates competed for the 13 parliamentary seats left vacant in nine regions and states where as many as 1,383 polling stations were set up. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 08:43:19|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close CANBERRA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Australia Defence Association (ADA) has labelled a Virgin Airlines plan to give veterans priority boarding "over the top." Virgin Australia on Sunday announced that veterans would be able to present their veterans' card to go to the front of the boarding queue in addition to receiving recognition from the flight crew before take-off. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Defence Industry Minister Steven Ciobo voiced their support for the idea, calling on Qantas, Australia's flag carrier airline, to follow suit. However, ADA chief executive Neil James opposed the idea, saying there was a "fine line" between recognizing someone for their service and embarrassing them. "There's a fine line between embarrassing them and thanking them and, in some cases, where they're suffering a psychological illness, effusively thanking them in public might not necessarily help them," James said on Monday. "A genuine proper thank you is better than an effusive hollow one." "A common sense idea would have been providing assistance like restoring the service discount that used to apply on domestic airlines up to the early 1980s." The ADA is an independent advocacy group that works on defence, security and veterans issues. Darren Chester, minister for veterans' affairs, concurred with James, saying that "some veterans would be quite happy to get on the plane without anyone knowing they are there." Qantas responded to the proposal by saying it has "utmost respect for current and former defence personnel" but dismissed Ciobo's call for it to follow Virgin's lead. "We're conscious that we carry a lot of exceptional people every day, including veterans, police, paramedics, nurses, firefighters and others, and so we find it difficult to single out a particular group as part of the boarding process," spokesman Andrew McGinnes told News Corp Australia. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 09:43:28|Editor: mmm Video Player Close A worker weighs coffee powder at a plant of CoopeVictoria in Grecia, Costa Rica, on Oct. 31, 2018. CoopeVictoria, the first cooperative founded in Costa Rica some 75 years ago, gathers some 3,000 coffee producers who export their beans, both whole and ground, to different parts of the world, including recently China, though shipments to the Asian country have been fairly small. CoopeVictoria now plans to compete for a larger share of China's growing consumer market by attending the first ever China International Import Expo (CIIE) slated for Nov. 5-10 in Shanghai. (Xinhua/Esteban Dato) SAN JOSE, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Coffee is as central a beverage to life in Costa Rica as tea is to China. Coffee cultivation has a long history in the Central American nation. The coffee bean was for years the country's main export product, and came to form part of the national identity, with Costa Ricans taking pride in the quality of their homegrown coffee. CoopeVictoria, the first cooperative founded in Costa Rica some 75 years ago, gathers some 3,000 coffee producers who export their beans, both whole and ground, to different parts of the world, including recently China, though shipments to the Asian country have been fairly small. CoopeVictoria now plans to compete for a larger share of China's growing consumer market by attending the first ever China International Import Expo (CIIE) slated for Nov. 5-10 in Shanghai. "We see it as a very attractive market, a market that really interests us to maintain, to cultivate, to learn more deeply about and, of course, strive to have this product reach the right niche," said Wenceslao Rodriguez, CoopeVictoria's general manager. The cooperative, which started its export business with China in January of this year, will feature two kinds of its gourmet coffee at the CIIE: Victoria Expreso and Victoria Medium Roast, which are offered in 500- and 250-gram packages. "It's a balanced product, a coffee with a very fine flavor. It really has an important series of concentrations that make it unique in the region of Costa Rica," said Rodriguez. The plants are cultivated at high elevations, a factor that is said to result in the type of dense beans that produces a richer, more complex cup of coffee. "Ours is cultivated at over 1,400 meters above sea level, which makes for a different kind of coffee. That's why we believe it's going to be very successful and be very well received in the Chinese market," he said. But elevation isn't the only factor that makes the Victoria brand special, he added. The production process undergoes strict agronomic supervision and testing to ensure the beans achieve the right level of acidity, aroma and flavor, said Rodriguez. "It helps when the coffee (production) process is the best possible," he said, explaining that it can promote proper photosynthesis and higher concentrations of sugar in the beans, which in turn lead to very red, very ripe coffee cherries at harvest time. With quality control mastered, the cooperative's next big challenge is to claim a bigger stake of China's rising coffee sales. "The young, especially, want to try different products, and coffee is a different beverage, distinct from tea," said Rodriguez. "It's an alternative that is already starting to gain popularity in China, so we see an excellent market opportunity," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 09:58:30|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Department said here on Sunday that a U.S. soldier had died in an operation in Afghanistan. According to a Pentagon's statement, Maj. Brent R. Taylor, 39, from Ogden, Utah, died on Nov. 3 in Kabul Province, Afghanistan. He had been supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel and died "as a result of wounds sustained from small arms fire," said the announcement. The incident was under investigation. Earlier in September, the Defense Department also identified at least two soldiers that had been killed while supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 09:58:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close PYONGYANG, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), held talks on Sunday afternoon with visiting Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Monday. During the talks, the two leaders discussed "crucial issues of common concern" and international situation, the KCNA said, adding that "a consensus of views on all issues was reached." Kim said that the current visit of the Cuban delegation would offer an occasion to demonstrate the invincibility of the traditional fellowship, trust, friendship and solidarity of the two peoples. The Cuban president said Cuban people are pleased to see Korean people "invariably advancing along the road chosen by themselves" and making a rapid development under Kim's leadership. Diaz-Canel arrived here on Sunday to visit the DPRK and was greeted and welcomed at the Pyongyang International Airport by Kim. Enditem #BTS BTS' 'Dynamite' video passes 1.3 bln YouTube views The music video for K-pop superband BTS' "Dynamite" has passed 1.3 billion views on YouTube, its management agency said Saturday. The video for the megahit single released in 2... #Netflix Netflix raises subscription fees in S. Korea amid controversies over network usage Netflix has raised its monthly subscription fees in South Korea as a vice parliamentary speaker proposed a bill to keep the U.S. streaming giant from getting a free ride on network... Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 10:08:39|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close by Raimundo Urrechaga HAVANA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- One of the most emblematic streets of Havana's Old Town was taken over Sunday by Spanish dance and flamenco in a unique "flashmob" that impressed hundreds of Cubans. More than 200 children, teenagers and professional dancers of different Spanish dance companies in the island came together in the legendary San Rafael boulevard to dance a "sevillana" choreographed by famous Spanish dancer Antonio Gades. The flashmob feat, as part of the ongoing 26th Havana International Ballet Festival, aims to take Spanish dance out of the theaters for hundreds of Cubans to appreciate. "We wanted to take flamenco out of the walls of the classrooms, off the stages and we are very happy with the acceptance that this singular flashmob had today. Definitely flamenco is a very lively art in Cuba," Eugenia Eiriz, Gades' widow and president of the foundation that bears his name, told Xinhua. To the beat of the traditional flamenco "taconeo" (shoe stamping), rhythmic clapping and perfect turns, Cuban dancers performed "Fuego," a piece that marked Gades' career. "Taking Spanish dance from the stages and rehearsal rooms to the street opens the doors to an audience that most of the time doesn't come to the theaters to know and learn about our art," Irene Rodriguez, one of the most recognized flamenco dance directors in the island, told Xinhua. Her company along with other groups like the Cuba Spanish Ballet and Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba joined renowned Spanish dancers to perform the piece. "It has been very exciting and to do so in an emblematic Havana street makes us feel very proud. It has been so well received and many people wanted to join us," said Ana del Rey, dancer of the Antonio Gades company. To make the flashmob performance a success, participants have been rehearsing for a whole week the choreography of this "sevillana," one of the most popular dances in Spain. "I love Spanish dance and today I was very motivated to be here with other flamenco dance companies in Cuba for this special event," Johana Gutierrez, an 11-year-old girl said with a smile on her face. Her fellow dancer Amanda Romero, a 16-year-old teenager, came to the emblematic Havana street in her traditional flamenco dance costume. "It was a great idea, we had to rehearse a lot, but it was worth it. It was incredible and I hope we can do it again," said Romero, who has been dancing since the age of 7 at Irene Rodriguez's company. The flashmob "allows the public to know and not only get into the Spanish dance movement we have in Cuba, but also the possibility of approaching the work of Antonio Gades," said Rodriguez. At the 26th Havana International Ballet Festival, which runs until Nov. 6, the Antonio Gades Foundation brought the show "Movements: dance from the tip to the heel" and the workshop "Flamenco as a theatrical language". Within the plans of the group is to repeat this experience in other spaces of the Cuban capital in 2019 when the city celebrates its 500 years of existence. "Gades defined Cuba as the port of his life and that is why we want to be present at the festivities for the 500th anniversary of Havana next year and do something very special like this," said Eiriz. Shortly before his death in 2004, Gades received from late Cuban leader Fidel Castro the Jose Marti Order, the highest award in the island, for his "unbreakable love, friendship and fidelity" to this Caribbean nation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 10:23:42|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close YANGON, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar will hold an ethnics culture and tourism promotion festival in Yangon in January next year to promote ethnic nationalities' traditional culture and their products, Myanmar News Agency reported Monday. The festival, scheduled for Jan. 25 to 29, will be supervised by the Myanmar Ethnic Entrepreneurs Association (MEEA). Minister of Ethnic Affairs Nai Thet Lwin expressed hope at a function on Sunday that all the ethnic people would be united further through the festival, believing that the festival would also help in acquiring lasting peace. He urged the ethnic entrepreneurs to make Myanmar's beautiful landscape and traditional culture known to the world. Minister of Commerce Than Myint said the festival is aimed at upgrading the ethnic economy through tourism sector, voicing support for MEEA's efforts to penetrate the international market by collaborating with local food products. MEEA is made up of some 27 ethnic entrepreneurs, including Bamar, Kachin, Kayin, Kayah, Chin, Shan, Rakhine and Mon ethnic groups. Its main objective is to encourage ethnic entrepreneurs and develop interaction among them in the under-developed areas. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 10:58:51|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close CANBERRA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Backpackers working in Australia will be able to stay in the country longer under a government plan to fill job shortages in the agriculture industry. The proposed visa changes, announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Agriculture Minister David Littleproud on Monday, would allow backpackers who take on extra agricultural work in their second year in Australia to stay for a third year. Under the current system, workers in Australia on a subclass 462 working holiday visa can only remain in the country for a second year if they complete three months of agriculture work. If the proposed changes go ahead, backpackers would be able to stay in Australia for a third year if they complete six months of agriculture work in their second year. "Australians filling Australian jobs is my number one priority, but when this isn't possible we need to ensure our farmers aren't left high and dry with rotting crops, especially in the strawberry industry," Morrison told News Corp Australia. The age limit for working holiday visas would also be lifted from 31 to 35 for some countries and the work period for seasonal workers in Australia will be increased from six to nine months. The sweeping changes were announced after Morrison's proposal to force unemployed welfare recipients to work picking fruit was shot down by the agriculture industry. "We don't want fruit rotting on the vine or crops left in the field and it's vital our farmers maximize their hard work and economic returns," McCormack said in a media release. "Our action today means our farmers will get immediate support, helping them reap the economic returns of their hard work." "We also know the vast majority of holiday makers spend big in our regions, delivering a return to small businesses and jobs." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 11:08:52|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close by Raul Menchaca HAVANA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Cuba is looking at ways to join China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to boost global trade and infrastructure, according to Roberto Verrier, head of the Cuban export and investment promotion agency ProCuba. "We have a multidisciplinary group comprised of experts from the ministries of Foreign Trade and Investment, and Science, Technology and Environment, as well as from research centers, that is studying Cuba's incorporation into that project," Verrier told Xinhua. Several important Cuban companies are also analyzing the BRI, which was proposed by China in 2013, in search of ways to both contribute and benefit from the initiative. Cuba "has real possibilities to do so," said Verrier, adding that promoting Cuban products through the Chinese platform can give them added value. "We can provide human capital and a privileged geographic location," said the economist, underscoring the excellent relations between ProCuba and China International Electronic Commerce Center. Verrier also highlighted Cuba's participation in the China International Import Expo (CIIE), which is scheduled for Nov. 5-10. The Cuban delegation is made up of 34 state-run companies in agriculture and processed food, science and technology, IT and communications, medical services and biotechnology, construction, trade and investment. A China-Cuba Business Forum will be held during the fair to promote bilateral cooperation in areas such as foreign investment, tourism, culture and health. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel will attend the fair as part of a state visit to China. "It shows that for our country trade ties with China are very important. They are necessary and strategic, and have mutual benefits," the ProCuba's chief said. As for U.S. trade measures against China and Russia, Verrier described them as "part of the absurdities of the Trump Administration." "It is a trade war that affects not only China's trade, but it is going to affect the United States' own trade," he said, noting that a few days ago several U.S. agricultural companies rejected their government's new tariffs on Chinese goods. "It is a madness that is going to in the first place harm America's own interests, especially small and medium-size companies," said the economist. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 11:28:55|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close VLADIVOSTOK, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a decree on the transfer of the Republic of Buryatia and the Zabaykalsky Territory from Siberia to the Far Eastern Federal District. The decree, published on the official website for legal information, also ordered the government to align the deeds with the decree in three months. Counting in the two newcomers, the Far Eastern Federal District now has 11 regions. The Far Eastern Federal District, established in 2000, is the largest federal district of Russia but only sparsely populated. In recent years, Moscow has issued a raft of measures to promote socio-economic and social development of the Russian Far East. It set up a ministry for the purpose in May, 2012. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 11:59:02|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close SHANGHAI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- China will capitalize on the important role of Shanghai and surrounding areas in opening up, President Xi Jinping said Monday. Xi made the remarks when delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai. The country will expand the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone to include a new section, and will encourage and support bold and creative steps by Shanghai to advance investment and trade liberalization and facilitation so that more of its successful practices may be replicated in other parts of China, he said. The president also announced China's decision to launch a science and technology innovation board at the Shanghai Stock Exchange and experiment with a registration system for listed companies. China will support Shanghai in cementing its position as an international financial center and a hub of science and innovation, and steadily improving the fundamental institutions of its capital market, he said. The country will also support integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region, and make it a national strategy, Xi said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 13:24:18|Editor: mmm Video Player Close SANYA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Russian airliner arrived at its destination -- the southern Chinese resort city of Sanya -- early Monday morning after an emergency landing in Krasnoyarsk City, Russia. The Boeing 737 aircraft carrying 166 passengers and seven crew members, operated by JSC Taimyr Airline, landed in the central Russian city after the pilots spotted a crack in the windshield shortly after it took off from Novosibirsk on Sunday. No passengers were injured in the emergency landing. They continued their journey on another plane. The plane safely landed at the Sanya airport at 1:46 a.m., where representatives sent by the city government welcomed the Russian passengers. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 13:29:19|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close HANOI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam reaped over 2.6 billion U.S. dollars from exporting over more than 5.2 million tons of rice in the first 10 months of this year, up 16.1 percent and 3.4 percent respectively against the same period last year, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Monday. Between January and October, China was Vietnam's largest rice importer, but saw year-on-year decreases of 37.2 percent in volume and 27.7 percent in value, local VnEconomy daily newspaper quoted the ministry's statistics as reporting on Monday. Export price went up 13.7 percent on-year, reaching 503 U.S. dollars on average thanks to improved quality and diversity. Vietnam, which exported roughly 5.9 million tons of rice worth nearly 2.7 billion U.S. dollars last year, mainly to China and the Philippines, plans to ship abroad 6.5 million tons of rice this year, including higher volumes of high-grade rice such as Japonica, fragrant rice and sticky rice, according to the Vietnam Food Association. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 13:59:24|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 5, 2018.(Xinhua/Yao Dawei) by Xinhua writers Wang Xiuqiong, Xu Xiaoqing and Li Zhihui SHANGHAI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the opening of the world's first import-themed national-level expo in Shanghai on Monday, calling it a "trail-blazing" move in the history of international trade development. A total of 172 countries, regions and international organizations from five continents will showcase their development achievements and international image at the first China International Import Expo (CIIE). More than 3,600 companies from different countries will hold discussions and seek common development with over 400,000 purchasers from China and overseas. The CIIE is "a major policy for China to push for a new round of high-level opening-up and a major measure for China to take the initiative to open its market to the world," Xi said when delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony. He again underscored the role of economic globalization, saying that it is "an irreversible historical trend" and provides strong momentum for world economic development. "All countries should be committed to opening up and oppose protectionism and unilateralism in a clear-cut stand," Xi said, calling for joint efforts to build an open world economy. In a time when the waves of protectionism and unilateralism are threatening global growth, the expo is expected to muster support for free trade and inject certainty to the world economy. The fair will be the epitome of the global economy, with various quality exhibits ranging from German machine tools, Japanese robots and U.S. medical equipment to Australian wine, Brazilian farm produce and South Sudanese handicrafts. With the slogan "New Era, Shared Future," the expo is the brainchild of Xi and is set to become a platform for win-win economic cooperation and a landmark project in the country's higher-level opening up. China will stimulate the potential for increased imports, continue to broaden market access, foster a world-class business environment, explore new horizons of opening up, and promote international cooperation at multilateral and bilateral levels, Xi said. "We are encouraged to hear from President Xi the reaffirmation of China's support of global trade, and China's plan to further open itself to the world," said Robert Aspell, president of Asia Pacific for the U.S. agribusiness company Cargill, which is an exhibitor at the CIIE and has already decided to participate in the second expo. "This is a great start of the first CIIE," Aspell said. The inaugural expo comes at an inflection point as China transitions to high-quality development and shifts from the world's workshop to the world's market, with the world's biggest middle-income population demanding higher-quality consumer products. Xi announced Monday China's imported goods and services were estimated to exceed 30 trillion U.S. dollars and 10 trillion U.S. dollars, respectively, in the next 15 years. China has been the world's second largest merchandise importer for nine consecutive years. Joseph Boahen Aidoo, chief executive of Ghana's cocoa industry regulator Cocoa Board, expressed hope that the fair would open a new chapter in the west African country's cocoa exports. "We believe that we can expand our market horizons in China. We are talking about 1.3 billion people, and even if we can get one percent of that market, it is very huge. So everybody is looking to China," Aidoo said. This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, and has seen a flurry of concrete measures taken by the country to open its doors wider. "China will not close its door to the world and will only become more and more open," Xi said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 13:59:24|Editor: mmm Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's first artificial intelligence (AI) theme park opened to public in early November, after 10 months renovation of a municipal park in northern Beijing. Driverless shuttle buses, smart lamp posts that can record exercise data, and intelligent speakers that can respond to human instructions have been installed in Haidian Park, which covers about 34 hectares near the 4th Ring Road. The district government of Haidian and Internet company Baidu signed an agreement in January to jointly explore "smart city" building. Haidian Park, which received about 1.2 million tourists last year, was chosen to run the pilot program. A total of 10 government departments and companies participated in the renovation of the park over the past 10 months, said Che Jianguo from the district's park administration office. In recent years, Chinese high-tech companies have set foot in the AI industry, while the central government also stressed in October that it would boost the development of the country's new generation of artificial intelligence. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 14:14:27|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close GUANGZHOU, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- South China's Guangdong Province saw the added value of the private sector increase by 7.1 percent year on year in the first three quarters, reaching 3.78 trillion yuan (548 billion U.S. dollars). Chen Liangxian, deputy governor, said in a provincial meeting on the private economy on Sunday that Guangdong's foreign trade in private sector rose 13 percent year on year to 2.52 trillion yuan during the period, ranking first among China's provincial-level economies. Guangdong is home to eight Chinese private firms listed among the world's top 500, including Huawei and Tencent. The province's private economy made up more than 50 percent of its GDP last year, and contributed to 75 percent of new innovations and 80 percent of new employment, according to Chen. He said that to further support the private sector, the provincial government issued financial incentives in 2017, which had helped reduce 123 billion yuan of tax and fees as of the September. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 14:24:29|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close CANBERRA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Australia's presence at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) is strong and China's development will continue to be advantageous to Australia, Australia's Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has said. Birmingham made the remarks in a newspaper column published by Australia's Financial Review on Monday. He said "Australia's food, wine and agriculture" would take center stage at the expo which opened in Shanghai on Monday. "Over 200 Australian brands are also taking up exhibition space to showcase their longstanding partnerships with China," he wrote. "Relative to other nations, Australia's presence at CIIE is strong, with the third largest number of products and sixth largest number of exhibitors," he said, noting, "This strength in numbers reflects our commitment and that of Australian industry to the importance of the economic relationship." "An economically prosperous China will continue to be advantageous to Australia and important to the world," the minister said. The Australia's trade minister has also applauded Victoria for becoming the nation's first state to sign up to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Birmingham said the federal government welcomed more Chinese investment in the region, according to The Australian newspaper. Victoria became the first state last month in Australia to sign a memorandum of understanding with China on the Belt and Road Initiative. According to State Premier Daniel Andrews, the historic agreement means Victoria will be best placed in the country to capitalize on the trade and investment opportunities made possible by the global infrastructure project. "We welcome the fact that Victoria has shown their enthusiasm and initiative," Birmingham said. "The Australia government welcomes the fact that, through (the Belt and Road Initiative), China is investing more across our regions." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 14:24:30|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close QALAT, Afghanistan, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 militants loyal to the Taliban group were killed and 16 others wounded, following a government operation in Afghanistan's southern Zabul province, an official said Monday. National army forces launched a military operation over the last 24 hours in Arghandab district of the province, resulting in the death of 10 Taliban fighters and injury of 16 others, Ahmad Sadeq Isakhil, spokesman of 205-Atal Army Corps said. The spokesman did not say whether the government forces or civilians suffered casualties in the incident. Taliban militants have not yet commented on the report. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 14:44:35|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with representatives of foreign entrepreneurs attending the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 5, 2018.(Xinhua/Li Xueren) SHANGHAI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday met with representatives of foreign entrepreneurs attending the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai. Noting that this year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up, Xi said China is working with the international community to build a community with a shared future for humanity. China has introduced a series of opening-up policies and will roll out more such policies, and hosting the CIIE is just one of them, he said. "For problems appearing in the process of China's deepening cooperation with other countries, we will solve them through reform and opening-up, and overcome them while moving forward," he said. China will continue to offer a good environment for foreign companies investing and operating in China, Xi said, adding that firms from all countries are welcome to share opportunities created by China's development and achieve mutual benefits and win-win results. The six-day event starting Monday is the world's first import-themed national-level expo. Aerial photo taken on Oct. 21, 2018 shows the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the main venue of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), held from Nov. 5 to 10, 2018, in Shanghai, east China. (Xinhua/Ding Ting) CANBERRA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Australia's presence at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) is strong and China's development will continue to be advantageous to Australia, Australia's Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has said. Birmingham made the remarks in a newspaper column published by Australia's Financial Review on Monday. He said "Australia's food, wine and agriculture" would take center stage at the expo which opened in Shanghai on Monday. "Over 200 Australian brands are also taking up exhibition space to showcase their longstanding partnerships with China," he wrote. "Relative to other nations, Australia's presence at CIIE is strong, with the third largest number of products and sixth largest number of exhibitors," he said, noting, "This strength in numbers reflects our commitment and that of Australian industry to the importance of the economic relationship." "An economically prosperous China will continue to be advantageous to Australia and important to the world," the minister said. The Australia's trade minister has also applauded Victoria for becoming the nation's first state to sign up to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Birmingham said the federal government welcomed more Chinese investment in the region, according to The Australian newspaper. Victoria became the first state last month in Australia to sign a memorandum of understanding with China on the Belt and Road Initiative. According to State Premier Daniel Andrews, the historic agreement means Victoria will be best placed in the country to capitalize on the trade and investment opportunities made possible by the global infrastructure project. "We welcome the fact that Victoria has shown their enthusiasm and initiative," Birmingham said. "The Australia government welcomes the fact that, through (the Belt and Road Initiative), China is investing more across our regions." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 15:44:43|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Marine forces of South Korea and the United States on Monday resumed their battalion-level joint drills, which had been suspended for the past six months amid the peace efforts on the Korean Peninsula, according to local media reports citing the South Korean defense ministry. The Korea Marine Exercise Program (KMEP) kicked off in areas near South Korea's southeast coastal city of Pohang, mobilizing about 500 marines that included U.S. troops from Okinawa, Japan, and military equipment such as assault amphibious vehicles. The battalion-level combined marine drills came in about six months as the two allies had halted the exercises amid the dialogue mood on the Korean Peninsula. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un held summit meetings three times in 2018 alone. During the latest Pyongyang summit in September, defense chiefs of the two Koreas signed a military agreement, according to which the two sides stopped all hostile acts in border areas from Nov. 1. Under the agreement, the two sides stopped large-scale drills, including live-fire artillery drills and field maneuvering exercises by regiment or bigger units, near the border, but the small-scale exercises were still allowed. Seoul and Washington decided to suspend the Vigilant Ace combined air defense exercise, originally scheduled for December this year. It is a large-scale air force drill mobilizing hundreds of combat airplanes such as the U.S. stealth fighter jets. From October 2018 to September 2019, the marine forces of the two allies planned to stage the joint drills 24 times. For the past 12-month period, the combined marine drills were conducted 11 times. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 15:49:45|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Monday denied bomb attacks late on Sunday night in the Iraqi capital Baghdad that reportedly killed and wounded many people, urging the media to report according to reliable sources. Maj. Gen. Saad Maan, spokesman of the ministry told Xinhua "there were no bomb explosions, and I categorically deny what the media reported about such attacks in Baghdad." "The security situation in all neighborhoods of the capital Baghdad is stable and the security forces are securing the city," Maan said. He called on all "local and foreign media to commit to objectivity, professionalism and to rely on official sources in reporting." Media reports published news about a series of bomb explosions in several areas in Baghdad that allegedly killed six people and wounded some 18 others. Many of Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, have been witnessing tangible improvement in security after the Iraqi security forces managed to regain control of IS strongholds across the country late in 2017. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 16:09:51|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli researchers have reconstructed the spine and rib cage of the Neanderthals in 3D and found that they were not as bent and clumsy as previously thought, the Hebrew-language "Ynet" reported on Sunday. Neanderthals are an extinct species of archaic humans that appeared about 400,000 years ago and disappeared some 30,000 years ago. They lived mainly in Europe and Western Asia, and the Land of Israel was their southernmost border. The Neanderthals were hunter-gatherers who lived in caves, set fire, made flint tools, and survived several ice ages. The researchers, from Bar-Ilan University and Ono Academic College, both in the center of Israel, created a three-dimensional model of a Neanderthal skeleton found in a cave in northern Israel - based on CT scans of the fossilized bones. According to the researchers, the reconstruction shows that the Neanderthals stood upright, had a large chest and breathed mainly through the diaphragm muscle. The study found that the direction of the Neanderthal ribs is more horizontal than in modern humans. The combination of horizontal ribs along with a large diaphragm shows that Neanderthals relied primarily on the diaphragm for breathing, whereas modern human relies on a combination of diaphragm work and movement of the ribs. The thoracic structure is a key to understanding the Neanderthals' integration into the territory in which they lived, because it indicates their movement, breathing, and equilibrium abilities. Understanding how the Neanderthals fit their environment allows a better understanding of evolution. In addition, the movement of Neanderthals has a direct effect on their ability to rely on the existing resources in the environment in which they lived and their chances of survival. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 16:09:52|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A total of 12 militants and eight security personnel have been killed as clash erupted in Khogiani district of the eastern Ghazni province on Monday, police spokesman in the restive province Ahmad Khan Sirat said. The clash, according to the official, flared up after a group of Taliban insurgents attacked some security checkpoints in Khogiani district at 12:10 a.m. local time and security forces returned fire which lasted for several hours. As a result, eight security personnel and 12 militants were killed and 11 others including three security personnel and eight militants sustained injuries. All those militants killed in fighting belonged to Mullah Edris and Mullah Kibal, the commanders of Taliban outfit affiliated with Red Force, a special fighting unit of the armed group, Sirat said. The government forces are in control of the area, the official said, adding the security forces would continue to chase the insurgents in Khogiani and its vicinity to ensure lasting peace there. Taliban militants who are in control of parts of the troubled Ghazni province are yet to make comment on the situation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 16:14:54|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the 13th Meeting of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG), which started Monday in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Xi said satellite navigation systems are significant space infrastructure and important information guarantee for economic and social development to provide humanity with all-day accurate time and space information service on life and work. Xi noted that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the first UN Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and countries should step up international cooperation and coordination in satellite navigation, facilitate the global application of the systems, and make them play a more significant role in improving human welfare. China attaches importance to the development of satellite navigation systems and actively seeks international cooperation, Xi stressed in the letter, saying the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has become one of the most significant achievements during China's 40 years of reform and opening-up. He said the BeiDou system will start serving countries and regions along the Belt and Road by the end of 2018 and expand the service network to the entire globe in 2020, and build a comprehensive space and time system that is more ubiquitous, more integrated and more smart by 2035. Xi said China is willing to share the achievements of the BeiDou system with other countries, and promote the development of global satellite navigation systems. Xi called for ICG meeting delegates to deepen communication and pool ideas to make global satellite navigation systems provide better global services for humanity. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 16:29:56|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SUVA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Fijian Minister for Health and Medical Services Rosy Akbar opened the Oceania Planetary Health Forum in Nadi, Fiji's third largest city on Monday, calling for an end to complacency regarding natural disasters and the impacts of climate change on health and wellbeing. "Climate change, biodiversity loss and deforestation have an influence on how, when and where infectious diseases emerge," he said. "Climate change, droughts, and extreme storms make it harder to grow food, while there is a nutrition imbalance making people more susceptible to malnutrition and disease." "Air pollution can lead to cardiorespiratory illnesses and other diseases. Cyclones and other major storms put people's lives at risk. Our people also have to deal with severe consequences on our mental health needs. Never before has humanity's footprint on Earth's natural systems been so large," he added. Akbar noted the importance of addressing planetary health holistically and urged for discussions on healthy islands to focus on maternal and child health, considering the vast majority of regional youths, with 50 percent of Fijians aged below 25 years. She said literacy on climate change mitigation and adaptation must be mainstreamed into the curriculum and involve family, children and youths. "Healthy islands place emphasis on people and environment more than disease. Key to healthy islands is multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary action," Akbar said. Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) Deputy Secretary-General Cristelle Pratt noted the serious impact of rising sea temperatures and acidification to the health of the Pacific Ocean, which in turn impacts food security among communities. "Currently coral reefs are one of the fastest deteriorating natural systems on the planet, and their link to food security of the Pacific people is obvious and as a consequence the outlook is very worrying," she said. "What is perhaps less obvious are the consideration for what this means for a region already facing a non-communicable diseases (NCDs) crisis. The death rate from diabetes in Pacific Island countries is a staggering 26 times more than in nearby Australia and New Zealand, and sustaining our coastal fisheries could be one of the most important strategies for preventing NCDs in the region." The forum seeks to develop a regional research framework for planetary health, build on current foundations and collaborations for the establishment of an Oceania Planetary Health network, document case studies of Oceania planetary health good practice and to produce a communique for global policy dialogue. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 16:39:58|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian prosecutors charged another former ally of ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak with multiple counts of corruption on Monday as the government continues investigation into the alleged wrongdoing by its predecessor. Musa Aman, former chief minister of state of Sabah, was charged with 35 counts of corruption involving 263 million ringgit (about 63 million U.S dollars). The charges involved receiving bribes to approve timber concessions during Musa's 2003 to 2018 tenure as chief minister. Musa was arrested after being summoned to the country's anti-corruption body in Putrajaya and was charged at a Kuala Lumpur court. Musa pleaded not guilty for all charges. Musa is the latest member of the former government to be charged with corruption since the Pakatan Harapan coalition took power following the May 9 general elections. Among others are former Prime Minister Najib and his former deputy Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who are facing multiple corruption charges involving large sum of funds. Musa came under the spotlight after being said to have fled the country after the election, before returning in August. As the government led by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad continues the investigation into corruption, at least several parliamentarians of the former ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO), including ex-ministers, have quitted the party to join Mahathir's coalition. Mahathir said over the weekend that opposition members of the parliament wishing to defect to the government needed to meet certain conditions before being accepted. Mahathir's four party coalition, Pakatan Harapan, won the general elections on May 9, deposing the long governing UMNO-led Barisan Nasional coalition. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 17:25:08|Editor: mym Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- A Utah mayor was killed in Afghanistan in an insider attack while serving with the state's National Guard, the U.S. Department of Defense said Sunday. Major Brent Taylor, 39, was killed Saturday in an insider attack launched by a member of the Afghan security forces, according to a statement from NATO's mission Resolute Support. The attacker was promptly killed by other Afghan soldiers. Taylor served as the mayor of North Ogden, a town in the state of Utah. The state's Senator Orrin Hatch said his prayers are with Taylor's wife and seven young children. U.S. military deaths have surpassed 2,400 since the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 17:50:17|Editor: mym Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A public welfare program aiming to share stories of panda-human relationships has been unveiled to the public, presenting China's tremendous ecological conservation achievements in protecting the endangered species. China Network Television's iPanda channel and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding jointly launched the Worldwide Giant Panda Keeper Volunteer Program in order to enable the public at home and abroad to gain a better perspective of giant panda breeding. A total of 27 young people from around the world are selected to come to Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province and known as "home of the panda", to undergo closed-door, professional training and witness the breeding of giant pandas. A number of other events have been hosted by the base in recent years to present scientific research on giant pandas, calling on the public to lead an eco-friendly lifestyle. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 18:20:23|Editor: mym Video Player Close BEIRUT, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- British Ambassador to Lebanon Chris Rampling assured Monday that Britain is keen on supporting the Lebanese army, education and services sectors in the country, local media reported. "We are committed to standing beside Lebanon while supporting the country in securing its stability," Rampling was quoted by Elnashra, an online independent newspaper, as saying. Rampling said that his country supports Lebanon in its path towards forming a government. "It is very important to form a government in a bid to face all the political and economic challenges facing the country," he said. Rampling said that if each ministry puts enough efforts in dealing properly with the prevailing challenges then Lebanon will be able to reach stability. Rampling also emphasized the importance of securing a safe return for refugees to their country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 18:40:29|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close MAIMANA, Afghanistan, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least five militants have been confirmed dead and the offensive launched by Taliban to gain ground in Pashtunkot district of the northern Faryab province has been repulsed, provincial police spokesman Abdul Karim Yurash said Monday. A group of Taliban militants, according to the official, stormed some police checkpoints in Sarhouse area of Pashtunkot district late last night, triggering gun battle which lasted for a while, leaving at least five insurgents dead and seven others injured. Two pro-government militants were injured in the firefight, the official said. Taliban militants haven't commented yet. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 18:40:30|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Samay Godika, a 16-year-old Boston native, has won the fourth annual Breakthrough Junior Challenge in a global science video competition designed to inspire creative thinking about fundamental concepts in the life sciences, physics, and mathematics, the Breakthrough Prize announced Sunday. Godika, who now lives in India, was awarded the prize at a grand gala celebration held at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley for his video submitted in the life sciences category, which focused on circadian rhythms, the 24-hour biological processes that can affect simple daily experiences such as waking up for school or jet lag. The Boston boy's exploration was inspired by his family members who suffered from Parkinson's and other neurological diseases, which aroused his strong interest in the correlation between circadian rhythms and the effectiveness of medical treatments. As the winner, Godika will receive 400,000 U.S. dollars in educational prizes for himself, his teacher and his school. While he is currently studying as a junior at National Public School-Koramangala in Bangalore, India, Godika will receive 250,000 dollars in college scholarship, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation said. "Participating in and now winning the Breakthrough Junior Challenge is life-changing, thrilling and such an honor," Godika said. This is the fourth consecutive year in which students aged 13-18 were invited to create original videos that illustrated a concept or theory in the physical or life sciences. Since its launch, the Breakthrough Junior Challenge has covered 190 countries and regions, and the 2018 installment of the global competition attracted more than 12,000 applicants. The competition is a global initiative to develop and demonstrate young people's knowledge of science and scientific principles. It aims to engage the imagination and interest of the public in key concepts of fundamental science. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 19:05:35|Editor: mym Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A video production company in northwest China's Shaanxi Province has issued an official apology for mocking Chinese revolutionary figure Ye Ting in a video clip it produced, following a court order in September. The apology was published in Monday's China Youth Daily by Xi'an Momo Tech Company, the host of video streaming channel Baozoumanhua. "We feel sorry and remorseful for causing emotional distress to Ye's family and hurting the national and historical feelings of the public," said the firm in the apology, stressing that it would respect history and promote healthy trends in the future. In a video clip the company produced and posted in May, a famous poem by Ye was altered to ridicule "painless abortions." The video was widely circulated on Chinese media and denounced by the public for its disrespectful alteration of the martyr's work. In September, a court found the company guilty of humiliating the revolutionary martyr and tarnishing his reputation, and ordered it to apologize and pay 100,000 yuan (14,514 U.S. dollars) to Ye's family members as compensation, citing a law to protect the reputation and honor of martyrs. Ye Ting was a revolutionary martyr who was remembered as an unyielding hero refusing to succumb to enemies. The poem distorted in the video clip was written when Ye was imprisoned by the enemy and revealed his will to fight. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 19:25:39|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close RAMALLAH, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian Authority (PA) slammed on Monday the Israeli decision to advance a bill that would allow Israeli military courts to punish Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis by death penalty. Yousef Al-Mahmoud, Palestinian government spokesperson, said in a press statement that the green light given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to press ahead with this law is "an open call for incitement to kill, execute and to massacre Palestinians." He said the "Netanyahu and his followers shall be held responsible for the consequences of this horrible decision and for how it flagrantly breaches international and humanitarian laws and norms." The spokesman also urged the international community to shoulder responsibility towards the protection of the Palestinian people and push towards ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent and sovereign Palestinian state. According to Israeli media reports, a Knesset committee will begin preliminary discussions on preparing the law for the first reading after Netanyahu has reportedly given his blessing to advance a bill that seeks to punish Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis with death penalty. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 19:30:41|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BANGKOK, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- An environmental restoration campaign has been launched on Patong beach, the most favorite tourist spot in Thailand's Phuket. Patong beach has been largely affected by garbage, dumped around in beach area and in the sea off the beach, prompting local authorities to launch the environmental conservation campaign, said Patong Municipality Mayor Chalermluck Kebsup on Monday. The volume of garbage dumped in Patong beach area, frequented by both Thai and foreign visitors, has alarmingly risen over the last several years, thus calling for the campaign to regularly dispose of it and restore the beach's natural beauties, Chalermluck said. A large volume of garbage including plastic bags and bottles has been dumped in the sea off the beach daily only to pollute the water and harm corals and other aquatic lives, she said. Plastic waste could adversely affect marine ecology and possibly kill manatees and sea turtles which may have swallowed it. No less than 300 million U.S. dollars in tourism-related earnings is expected in and around Patong beach throughout this year, according to the woman mayor. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 19:35:44|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close by Abu Hanifah JAKARTA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The China International Import Expo (CIIE) will serve as an eye-opening trade event for Indonesian businesses amid increasing external pressures. The CIIE is the Chinese government's significant initiative to further promote high-level opening-up as well as a major action to proactively open the Chinese market to the world. This action showcases China's confidence and determination to open up, which has drawn high praises and warm responses from the international community. The main event is being held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai on Nov. 5-10, and is expected to give opportunities for a myriad of international firms to directly attract Chinese consumers in the vibrant Asian economy with nearly 1.4 billion population. The event came at the right time amid Indonesia's herculean efforts to expand its exports to tackle continued external pressures that give significant difficulties to the economy heavily reliant on imports. Indonesia's trade deficit amounted to 4.09 billion U.S. dollars in the first eight months this year, prompting the government to take various steps to slow it down. Measures to address this issue and make the nation's economy stable include expanding the use of biodiesel in the national fuel mix, restricting import of non-essential equipment, delaying several infrastructure projects and levying more tax on certain imported products. Another reason to expand exports is the decreasing value of Indonesia' national currency against the U.S. dollar and the trend is estimated to continue until next year. Against this backdrop, the CIIE is a great opportunity for Indonesian businesses to further tap the Chinese market, which has been the nation's largest source of trade and investment in the last several years. Indonesia Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said ahead of the CIIE that it is a huge and strategic event to spur world economies. He added that Indonesia has booked exhibition space for Indonesian businessmen to directly interact with potential buyers at the international trade event. "Indonesia has a myriad of products that can be offered in the CIIE, including tour packages to visit plenty of destinations in Indonesia and agricultural products, like coffee, chocolate, palm oil among others," the senior minister told Xinhua recently in his office. He said China is an extraordinary lucrative market for various commodities due to its huge population with a growing middle class, which is now estimated to have reached over 900 million. Tourism products would be among the ones most prioritized by the government during the CIIE given the fact that China has the world's most potential tourists with outbound travelers totalling over 100 million per year, the minister said. Indonesia expects to attract 10 million of them within the next several years. Chinese tourists have dominated the foreign tourists to Indonesia, a vast archipelago country home to over 17,500 islands. Most of them visited the resort island of Bali. "We expect to see them visit more destinations other than Bali. Indonesia has other exotic islands across the country. To achieve our targets we are now expanding infrastructure to support tourism in the regions, including airports, hotels and destination facilities. We also expand direct flights serving Indonesian and Chinese cities," the minister added. Through those measures, Indonesia expects to see the arrival of 4 to 5 million Chinese tourists who visit more Indonesian destinations other than Bali within the next few years. He expected that the CIIE would serve as another cornerstone for further increased trade cooperation between Indonesia and China, particularly in promoting new products whose trade can be explored further to equally benefit Indonesian and Chinese business counterparts. "Through the expanded trade cooperation initiated from the CIIE, China may find more sources to comply with its increasing consumer demands, while Indonesia can push forward its related industries to boost exports which eventually may balance the nation's import and export figures," Luhut said. Luhut was assigned by Indonesian President Joko Widodo to attend the CIIE opening ceremony to represent Indonesia at the event. The CIIE also came at the right moment when the relations between Indonesia and China have significantly expanded since their comprehensive strategic partnership was declared in 2013. Indonesian Parliament Speaker Bambang Soesatyo said earlier that many mutually-beneficial investments have been made in Indonesia since then, making the uplifted ties meaningful for the two economies. The two-way trade between Indonesia and China has also been blossoming with 58.8 billion U.S. dollars recorded last year, up from 47.6 billion U.S. dollars a year earlier. "Therefore mutually-beneficial cooperation needs to be promoted further so as to assure no side would lose from the cooperation and is either superior or inferior in it," Bambang told Xinhua. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 20:05:50|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close YAOUNDE, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon president-elect is scheduled to take the oath of office on Tuesday, according to a program released by the National Assembly. The swearing-in ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. local time at the National Assembly in capital Yaounde, the program indicates. On Monday, the final leg of preparations for the president's swearing-in were underway at the National Assembly. The ruling party, Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM), is mobilizing members and sympathizers to honour the official ceremony in a "special way", Jean Nkuete, secretary general of the party told Xinhua. According to the Constitutional Council, 85-year-old Paul Biya won the presidential poll in October. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 20:15:51|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TEHRAN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Iran has successfully thwarted cyber attacks by Israel targeting the country's communications infrastructure, said a report by the Press TV, quoting an Iranian official, on Monday. The attack was an attempt by Israel to launch sporadic cyber assaults against the Islamic republic's communications infrastructure, said Hamid Fatahi, CEO of Iran's Telecommunications Company. "The (Israeli) regime, with a notorious background in using cyber weapons in the cases such as Stuxnet, was this time attempting to harm Iran's communications infrastructure," Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Technology Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi said later on Monday. However, "they had to go away empty-handed thanks to the vigilance of our technical teams," Azari Jahromi said. "We will pursue this hostile move through international tribunals," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 20:20:52|Editor: mym Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's deficit in the current account stood at 12.8 billion in U.S. dollar terms in the January-September period, data showed. That was down from 28.3 billion dollars in the first half of the year, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said Monday in an online statement. China's service trade posted a deficit of 229.5 billion U.S. dollars, up from 147.3 billion dollars in H1. The spending on trips, transport and intellectual property rights contributed to the bulk of the deficit. China has taken steps to improve its service trade, including gradually opening up its finance, education, culture and medical sectors. SAFE said China's international balance of payments was within a range of equilibrium last quarter and will continue to remain reasonable in the future. China saw a goods trade surplus of 256.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first three quarters. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 20:25:58|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close Wang Yang (2nd R), chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, meets with Amal Al Qubaisi, speaker of the Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Wang Yang, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee met with Amal Al Qubaisi, speaker of the Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Monday in Beijing. Wang said that Chinese President Xi Jinping made a successful state visit to the UAE in July and upgraded the bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership together with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, while mapping out the blueprint for the development of China-UAE relations. He said that China is willing to work with the UAE under the guidance of the important consensus reached by the two leaders, consolidate political mutual trust, promote mutual beneficial cooperation, enhance people-to-people exchanges and enrich the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership in order to benefit the two countries and their peoples. The CPPCC stands ready to strengthen cooperation and exchanges with the UAE Federal National Council to constantly consolidate the foundation of the partnership between the two countries, said Wang. Al Qubaisi said that the UAE Federal National Council will continue making contributions to the consolidation and strengthening of the UAE-China comprehensive strategic partnership. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 20:51:05|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close KABUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 36 militants have been killed in the conflict-riddled Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, as government forces have stepped up operations ahead of winter, officials said Monday. In the latest crackdown against armed insurgents, government forces stormed Taliban positions in Sangcharak district of Sari Pul province in the early hours of Monday, killing 10 militants and injuring 20 others. Government forces, according to the official, evicted Taliban fighters from Shulakam area and re-established government control there. Similarly, the government forces, in operations against Taliban group have killed 16 militants in Khogiani district of eastern Ghazni province on Monday, police spokesman in the restive province Ahmad Khan Sirat said. Eight more militants injured in the fighting, Sirat said. Identical skirmishes had also left 10 militants loyal to the Taliban group dead and 16 others wounded, following a government operation in Afghanistan's southern Zabul province over the past 24 hours, an army spokesman in the southern region Ahmad Sadeq Isakhil said. At least 11 security personnel have also lost their lives and almost the same number injured in the northern Sari Pul and eastern Ghazni provinces since Sunday, according to security officials. Both Taliban and government forces, according to local observers, have been doing their best to gain more ground and consolidate positions ahead of snowfall and chilly winter in the mountainous Afghanistan. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 20:51:06|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ABUJA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least nine people have been confirmed killed following an accident on an intercity road in southern Nigeria, according to local police on Monday. The police said 12 other people sustained varying degrees of injuries due to the accident which occurred Sunday night on the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, one of the busiest roads in Nigeria's southeast region. Ebere Amaraizu, a spokesperson for the police in Enugu, told reporters that the accident occurred when an articulated vehicle conveying a caterpillar and a mini-bus had a head-on collision. An investigation has been launched to further ascertain the cause of the accident, the cop said. The Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway has been under reconstruction since last year. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 20:56:08|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 5, 2018.(Xinhua/Yao Dawei) SHANGHAI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who attended the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai. Both China and Russia are in a crucial stage in achieving national development and revitalization, Xi said. Facing an unprecedentedly complex international environment, it is more important to keep bilateral ties at a high level and reinforce strategic coordination between the two countries, Xi said. He said a priority for the two sides' work in the next phase is to comprehensively implement the consensus between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin on practical cooperation between the two sides. Xi welcomed Russia to attend the expo as one of the guests of honor. China and Russia are firm in pursuing peaceful development and are committed to upholding international fairness and justice, reflecting their resolve and responsible attitude as major countries, Xi said, noting that under new circumstances, China is willing to maintain close high-level exchanges with the Russian side and continuously deepen strategic coordination. Medvedev said Russia is willing to work together with China to implement the important consensus reached by heads of state of the two countries, expand practical cooperation in various areas, carry out closer coordination and cooperation in international affairs, safeguard international rules, and maintain world peace and stability. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 20:56:09|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TEHRAN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy Alexander Lavrentiev arrived in the capital Tehran on Monday to express Russia's support for Iran as the U.S. fresh sanctions against the Islamic republic take effect. In a meeting with Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani here on Monday, Lavrentiev said that he has traveled to Tehran to "voice Moscow's unequivocal support for Iran against the fresh round of U.S. sanctions," according to Tasnim news agency. He also called for concreted action by the international community to stand against U.S. unilateralism, and he denounced the use of economic and trade tools for imposing a country's political will on others. For his part, Shamkhani praised the interaction among Tehran, Moscow and Damascus in the fight against terrorism in Syria. All the U.S. sanctions against Iran that had been removed under the 2105 Iranian nuclear deal were returned by the United States on Friday and came into force on Monday. The U.S. embargo targets many of the country's "critical sectors" like energy, shipping, shipbuilding, and finance. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 21:01:09|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close YAOUNDE, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- About 80 schoolers and some teachers of a secondary school in Northwest, one of the crisis-hit English-speaking regions of Cameroon, were kidnapped early Monday, security source told Xinhua. Local authorities are holding a crisis meeting to investigate the incident. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 21:06:11|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BEIRUT, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun Monday said that Lebanon is keen on preserving its security and stability facing terrorism, Lebanon's presidency website reported. "We should always be alert to protect our security and stability," said Aoun, adding that Britain has been a great support for Lebanon in its war against terrorism and silent terrorist cell. Aoun's remarks came during his meeting with senior British defense official John Lorimer. Aoun reiterated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claims that Hezbollah was keeping missiles in three different sites near Lebanon's Rafic Hariri International Airport are false. Aoun said that the increasing accusations of Netanyahu coincide with Israel's continuous violations of Lebanon's airspace. Israeli warplanes violated Lebanon's airspace again on Monday above Shabaa farms and Golan Heights. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 21:11:11|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close GENEVA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The World Economic Forum (WEF) announced on Monday that its 2019 annual meeting in Davos, scheduled for Jan. 22 to 25, would focus on the theme "globalization 4.0: shaping a global architecture in the age of the fourth industrial revolution". The WEF explained in a press release that globalization is being redefined simultaneously by four major transformations: global economic leadership is no longer dominated by multilateralism but characterized by "plurilateralism"; the balance of global power has shifted from unipolar to multipolar; ecological challenges, including climate change, are threatening socio-economic development; and the fourth industrial revolution is introducing technologies at a speed and scale unparalleled in history. "We are just at the beginning of globalization 4.0, and are significantly underprepared for the magnitude of change we are facing. We are still approaching issues of globalization with an outdated mindset," warned Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and executive chairman. He added that "tinkering with our existing processes and institutions will not be enough. We need to redesign them so that we can capitalize on the abundance of new opportunities that await us, while also avoiding the kinds of disruptions that we are witnessing today." The WEF underlined that whether "globalization 4.0" improves the state of the world for all would depend on governance at the corporate, government and international levels that adapts sufficiently to this new economic, political, environmental and social context. The 2019 annual meeting will bring together governments, international organizations, business, civil society, media, foremost experts and the young generation from all over the world in more than 400 working sessions, said the WEF. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 21:21:13|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close JAKARTA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The families of the victims from Indonesia's crashed plane on Monday rejected a flower scattering ceremony at the crash site and demanded a quicker process to identify their loved ones. Lion Air JT 610, which used brand new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, enroute to Pangkalpinang from Banten province's airport of Soekarno-Hatta crashed in West Java province's waters off Karawang regency shore shortly after taking off a week ago. "We reject the flower scattering ceremony. We are still hoping that our relatives can be identified," a representative of the families said at a meeting with government ministers and officials. The proposed flower scattering ceremony at the crash site on Tuesday was announced earlier on Monday. A spokesman from the Indonesian navy said that they had prepared two navy vessels KRI Banjarmasin and KRI Banda Aceh for the purpose. The representative of the families also demanded additional personnel to identify the body parts recovered by the rescue and search team so as to speed up the process. "We have been here in the last 7 days, but so far only 14 bodies have been identified," the representative said. The Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) unit from the Indonesian police had managed to identify 14 out of the 189 victims aboard the plane as of Sunday. One of the identified victim was the flight attendant. The Lion Air management has pledged to provide compensation up to 1.3 billion rupiah (about 86,800 U.S. dollars) for each of the victims in the tragedy. The compensation will be delivered after the identification process is completed. Responding to the demand of the families of the victims, Indonesian Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said the flower scattering ceremony would be skipped but would hold a ceremony to pray for those who were killed in the crash. Indonesian authorities have extended the search period to three more days after the initial seven day period which ended on Sunday. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 21:46:18|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Monday met with the UN Special Envoy in Iraq Jan Kubis over the ways to implement the government program and assist Iraq. The discussion covered the "political and security situation, stabilization and reconstruction, as well as the future program of the UN in Iraq," the prime minister's office said in a statement. Mahdi stressed the international support for Iraq in the coming stage, after the victory over Islamic State (IS) militants in the country, the statement noted. According to a separate statement by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, Kubis discussed "the outlined government program and ways the UN can assist the government of Iraq in its implementation, as well as efforts to advance investment, stabilization, reconstruction, return of IDPs (internally displaced people) and security sector reform." On Oct. 24, Mahdi was sworn in as the new prime minister of Iraq after the parliament passed 14 out of his 22 cabinet members. The parliament also approved Mahdi's government program, which included strengthening internal and external security through law enforcement, anti-terrorism and efforts to fight corruption. Mahdi is also the temporary acting minister for the security ministries of defense and interior. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 21:51:19|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) SHANGHAI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who attended the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai. China and Hungary should deepen mutual political support and trust, continue to understand and support each other on issues involving their respective core interests and major concerns, and increase coordination and cooperation on international affairs, Xi said. Xi called on the two sides to promote the policy alignment of the Belt and Road Initiative with Hungary's Eastern Opening policy, make sound top-level planning for cooperation in various areas, and push forward the construction of a new railway line between Hungary and Serbia, an important cooperation project. The two countries should also increase cooperation in business, investment, finance, agriculture, tourism and innovation, among others, Xi added. Noting that the year of 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, the Hungarian prime minister said it would be an important opportunity to promote the development of the Hungary-China relations under new circumstances. The Hungarian side is ready to work with the Chinese side to increase high-level exchanges, actively participate in the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, and expand practical cooperation in various fields, said Orban. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 21:56:20|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BERLIN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A large majority of Germans want the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party to hold the centrist course adopted under its departing leader Angela Merkel, a poll published on Monday by RTL and NTV broadcasters found. According to a regular survey commissioned by RTL and NTV from the Forsa opinion research institute, 63 percent of Germans reject calls associated with the CDU leadership candidates Friedrich Merz and Jens Spahn for the party to emphasize its conservative values more heavily. By contrast, a broad majority of respondents indicated a preference for the CDU to continue along Merkel's centrist path, including 65 percent of CDU voters and 60 percent of Christian Social Union (CSU) voters. Following a disappointing result for the CDU in regional elections in Hesse, Chancellor Merkel announced she would step down from her role as party leader in December, a position she has held for 18 years. So far, BlackRock chairman Merz, acting health minister Spahn and CDU secretary general and close Merkel ally Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer have officially entered the race to become her successor. Commenting on the latest survey findings on Monday, Forsa chief Manfred Guellner argued that recent electoral results showed "how wrong an orientation towards the past would be for the CDU". Guellner noted that CDU voter support had declined by a third under Merkel's predecessor Helmut Kohl but "only" fallen by 13 percent since its subsequent swerve to the political middle orchestrated by the 64-year-old veteran party leader. Having been pushed out of his role as CDU/CSU parliamentary faction leader by Merkel back in 2002, Merz reportedly enjoys the backing of the influential president of the federal parliament and ex-finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. The 62-year-old is widely seen in domestic media as representing the economically libertarian wing of the CDU and has publicly lobbied to slow the pace of German "Energiewende" reforms to promote more environmentally friendly forms of energy generation. In spite of Schaeuble's endorsement, however, the "Trendbarometer" survey found that Merz would not garner more than a 33-percent share of the vote of German women and voters aged 18-29 in a hypothetical two-way contest with German Social Democrat (SPD) leader Andrea Nahles for Germany's chancellorship. Merz' prospects were rated even weaker if he had to face off with finance minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) with a mere 26 percent of female respondents and 15 percent of respondents aged 18-29 indicating that they would cast their ballot for the finance industry executive. Guellner highlighted that even before transitioning to a private sector career, Merz was not especially popular among voters as an active politician. "In the year 2000, in the then RTL/NTV Trendbarometer, only 4 percent of Germans thought he was suited to assume the CDU leadership," the Forsa chief said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 22:01:21|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Li Zhanshu (R), chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, holds talks with Amal Al Qubaisi, speaker of the Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Top legislator Li Zhanshu held talks with Amal Al Qubaisi, speaker of the Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in Beijing on Monday. Li, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said that China is willing to make joint efforts with the UAE to actively implement consensus reached by leaders of the two countries, improve mutual political support, promote Belt and Road construction, expand people-to-people exchanges and promote friendship between the two countries to benefit their two peoples. Li said that the first China International Import Expo, which opened on Monday in Shanghai, demonstrates China's determination to deepen reforms and push for a new round of high-level opening-up. "China is willing to work with all countries in the world, including the UAE, to promote economic globalization in a more open, inclusive, universally beneficial, balanced and win-win direction," Li said. The two sides should strengthen friendly exchanges at all levels, boost exchanges in fields including legislation and supervision, and give full play to legislature to provide legal protection for cooperation between the two countries, he said, adding that the two sides should carry forward traditional friendship, promote cooperation in areas including culture, tourism and education, and consolidate the social foundation of their bilateral ties. Al Qubaisi said China has become a major force in safeguarding peace and stability in the world, and promoting the development of the global economy. "The UAE regards its relationship with China as a diplomatic priority and is willing to deepen cooperation with China in areas including politics, economy, culture and anti-terrorism," she said, adding that the Federal National Council of the UAE stands ready to enhance communication and cooperation with the NPC, so as to promote friendly exchange between the two peoples and enrich the connotation of UAE-China relations. Before the meeting, Li and Al Qubaisi jointly signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the NPC and the Federal National Council of the UAE. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 22:06:21|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close JAKARTA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian transport safety committee unveiled on Monday that the airspeed indicator from the Lion Air plane that crashed into the waters off West Java province a week ago suffered from malfunction and search for the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) is hampered by the thick layer of mud and sand at the sea floor. The glitch was found after the committee downloaded the data from the flight data recorder (FDR) which has been retrieved from the sea bed, investigator at the committee Captain Nurcahyo Utomo said. The airspeed indicator of the almost new Boeing 737 Max 8 jet plane had suffered from malfunction during the last four flights, according to the investigator. But the committee could not determine that the malfunction of the device was the cause of the tragedy, said Nurcahyo. "We will probe further what was the cause of the malfunction, how the repair was undertaken, how the pilot flied this aircraft with such malfunction," he said. Meanwhile, the search operation to retrieve CVR was hampered by a thick layer of mud and sand at the sea floor where the device was suspected, said Muhammad Syaugi, head of the national search and rescue agency. Despite the weak signals released by the ping locator installed on the CVR were detected, the divers still could not find it. "Until tonight (Monday night), we could not find it, One of the major obstacles is the layer of mud and sand at the sea floor that is more than one meter thick. This is the problem for the divers to find the CVR," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 22:11:22|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TEHRAN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) launched an air defense military exercise on Monday, Tasnim news agency reported. The war game, coded Velayat, is held in an area of around half a million square km in northern, central and western Iran. The maneuver involves tactics to employ command and control systems to detect, track and intercept hostile targets. The units from the army and the IRGC are also expected to conduct air defense operations in electronic warfare and use passive aerial detection systems, as well as air defense gear including manned and unmanned aircraft. Iran holds regular annual war games in a bid to boost capabilities to defend the country's airspace. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 22:31:25|Editor: yan Video Player Close VILNIUS, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania has been trying to follow economic examples of other countries as regards high quality public services, however, the essential problem is that the Baltic country has not yet found its own path to the well-being, Ingrida Simonyte, the newly elected Lithuanian conservatives' presidential candidate, said on Monday. "Simply speaking, we are trying to be the U.S. and Sweden at the same time making promises to provide various public services to people yet avoiding speaking about the price of such a choice," Simonyte said in an interview with a local radio broadcaster LRT. As regards long-term period, one of Lithuania's "substantial issues" which prevents the country from a major breakthrough is that "most perfect plans eventually turn into instrumental set of plans rather than clear determination of the state's obligations," she added. On Sunday, Simonyte won a landslide victory in the primaries held throughout the weekend by Lithuania's conservative party Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD). Simonyte, currently lawmaker and former minister of finance, was supported by 79 percent of voters, while her rival, diplomat Vygaudas Usackas obtained 21. Other than TS-LKD, Lithuania's political forces, including the ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union are yet to name their presidential candidates. Lithuania will elect its next president on May 12, 2019. The Baltic country's incumbent President Dalia Grybauskaite was reelected for a second consecutive term in 2014. According to Lithuania's constitution, the president is elected directly for a five-year term and can serve maximum of two terms consecutively. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 22:36:27|Editor: yan Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- To commemorate Singapore's bicentennial milestone, the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Association (SFCCA) announced in a media session on Monday that it would organize a series of programs to pay tribute to the forefathers of the island. Entitled "Unsung Heroes", the year-long programs will include exhibitions, talks, seminars and heritage trails. They will start with a "New World, New Life" exhibition from Nov. 19 to April 28 next year, which will offer a glimpse into the trails and tribulations of the early settlers and communities in Singapore. Although Singapore celebrated its 53rd birthday this year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced to mark its 200-year-old history next year since Stamford Raffles landed in Singapore in 1819. This will be followed by a series of heritage trails under the theme of "Builders of Singapore," in which the public can take part in guided tours in March 2019 to sites that showcases the infrastructure and monuments built by the Indian laborers. In October next year, the tours will focus on the iconic "Samsui Women", who were the Chinese immigrants mainly from Sanshui in southern China's Guangdong who came to Singapore in the early 1900s in search for construction and industrial jobs. Additionally, the SFCAA and the Department of Chinese studies from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the National Library Board (NLB) have also partnered up to present a digital database of prominent Chinese individuals who have made significant contributions to the country. The "Singapore Biographical Database of Chinese Personalities" will explore the relationship between these Chinese pioneers in Singapore. The "Unsung Heroes" series are also an effort by the SFCCA to engage the youths to follow in the steps of Singapore's forefathers, and make positive contributions to society. "We are looking forward to commemorate the nation's bicentennial milestone with our diverse and vibrant programs that will appeal to all age groups," President of SFCCA Tan Aik Hock said in his statement, adding that the association is "hopeful that the legacies of our forefathers will continue to thrive so long that our future generations continue to build upon the foundations of the last." Formally established in 1986, the SFCCA aims to promote understanding and appreciate of Chinese language, culture and values, and strengthen cooperation among the clan associations, according to its website. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 22:41:28|Editor: yan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese manufacturing firm, KEDA Ceramics, said Monday it will expand its tiles operations in Kenya and create more employment opportunities for the locals. Ryan Chen, administrative manager at KEDA Ceramics, said the company's move to get into phase three of operations in the country will cement its position as the largest manufacturer of tiles both in Kenya and the East African region. Chen said it is the perfect time to invest in Kenya, especially with President Uhuru Kenyatta's Big Four Agenda of manufacturing, food security, affordable housing and universal access to healthcare. "Foreign direct investments are important in the realization of this initiative and we are playing our part in this regard," he said in a statement issued in Nairobi. According to Chen, phases one and two in which they created 1,200 jobs directly and more than 1,500 others indirectly, have seen the company invest over 55 million U.S. dollars in a manufacturing plant for tiles that target the middle and lower end of the Kenyan market. With the plans to operationalize phase three sometime next year, the company will directly create 500 more jobs, added Chen. He said phase three, which is projected to begin towards the end of 2019, will see the manufacturer investing another 25 million dollars, making it a total of 80 million dollars investment in the country. Chen said the east African nation's economic market in the region and its strategic position has made it an attractive investment destination for the company. This bearing, he said, was also an important consideration that aligns with the Belt and Road Initiative. "Kenya is strategically placed along the route for the Belt and Road Initiative. We therefore not only want to bring our products and technologies to the country but we also want to create jobs and transfer skills and expertise to the Kenyan people and the Kenyan market," Chen added. "We are currently manufacturing mainly 300mm by 300mm and 400mm by 400mm size tiles and we hope to produce bigger size tiles such as 500mm by 500mm and 600mm by 600mm in phase three," Chen pointed out. The company hopes to leverage on the continued rise in demand for tiles in the local market to transition into the third phase. "Our advanced technology has ensured we produce high quality tiles across the four brands we produce," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 22:41:28|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping and foreign leaders who are attending the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) tour around the Country Pavilion for Trade and Investment, which showcases development achievements and feature products from more than 80 countries, in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) SHANGHAI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and foreign leaders who are attending the first China International Import Expo Monday toured around the Country Pavilion for Trade and Investment, which showcased development achievements and feature products from more than 80 countries. They visited the booths of Hungary, Egypt, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Kenya, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Laos, Georgia, Vietnam, Pakistan and Russia at the Country Pavilion. During the visit, Czech President Milos Zeman improvised a melody on a Czech-made piano and invited Xi to taste beer from his country. Flowers from Kenya, coffee from El Salvador and fruits from the Dominican Republic also attracted the leaders. At the Russian booth, Xi was accompanied by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and was introduced to the achievements of both sides' cooperation in nuclear power, natural gas and plane manufacturing, as well as local exchanges. Xi noted the exhibits from all the countries are various and distinctive, and he expected all sides to take the advantage of CIIE to discover market opportunities, enhance cooperation and improve their competitiveness, so as to achieve mutual benefits from exporting quality products that can enrich the Chinese market and satisfy the increasingly diversified demands from Chinese consumers. The group of leaders also visited the Chinese booth that is organized around the country's vision of innovative, coordinated, green, and open development that is for everyone, which showcased the country's achievements since the reform and opening-up and new opportunities brought to the world by the Belt and Road Initiative. Laotian and Vietnamese prime ministers had a simulated ride on the Fuxing, China's latest generation of high-speed trains, which run at 350 km per hour. China's independently developed C919 large passenger aircraft and a model of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge that opened recently also interested the visitors. The leaders said CIIE shows China's open mind for inclusiveness and responsibility as a major country. They spoke highly of and warmly welcomed Xi's keynote speech at the opening ceremony. They noted China is an important and promising market, and they will tap the potential for cooperation and promote bilateral trade growth and the development of free trade globally. With an area of 30,000 square meters, the Country Pavillon for Trade and Investment is an important part of CIIE, held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) from Nov. 5 to 10, where 82 countries and three international organizations set up 71 booths. A total of 12 countries, namely Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Russia, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Germany, Canada, Brazil and Mexico, attended the expo as guest countries of honor. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 22:46:29|Editor: yan Video Player Close MOGADISHU, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least six al-shabab militants were killed on Sunday after Somali National Army (SNA) carried out operation against the militants at a location in Lower Jubba region of Somalia, officials said Monday. Army Commander for Jubbaland in Somalia, Mukhtar Abdi Mohamed, told reporters that the joint forces faced resistance from the militants during the operation carried out on Sunday. "We killed six al-Shabab militants and injured more others at Arare location on Sunday, SNA and Jubbaland forces carried out the operation against the terrorists. There were no casualties on our side," Mohamed said. He added the operation is still continuing in the area with more military progress being registered so far. The latest operation came a day after the United States forces killed four al-Shabab militants in an airstrike in the same region. File photo provided by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (2nd L) shaking hands with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee after his arrival at Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), on July 7, 2018. (Xinhua/KCNA) WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said here Sunday that he will meet with a high-ranking official from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at the end of this week. "I'll be meeting this week in New York City with my counterpart Kim Yong Chol," Pompeo said in an interview with FOX News on Sunday, adding that it will be "a good opportunity to continue the denuclearization discussions that were set out just a few months back." The U.S. top diplomat said that the meeting between President Trump and Chairman Kim in June this year has set them on the path that they're on today. "We haven't had any missile tests. There have been no nuclear tests. We've had the returns of American remains. These are all good steps." Also on Sunday, Pompeo told CBS's "Face the Nation" that he will meet with Kim Yong Chol. "I'll be in New York City at the end of this week meeting with my counterpart, Kim Yong Chol," he said, adding that some real progress is expected to make such as an effort to make sure that the summit between the two leaders can take place, during which the two sides can make substantial steps towards denuclearization. Pompeo also confirmed that the DPRK will not see any U.S. economic sanctions lifted until it has demonstrated complete denuclearization. Earlier on Wednesday, Pompeo told The Laura Ingraham Show that he would speak with the DPRK side next week to discuss Pyongyang's reported readiness to open its nuke and missile sites for international inspectors, as well as the second summit of the two countries' leaders. The West media outlets have widely interpreted his remarks as a sign of meeting to lay the groundwork for the second summit. In the interview, Pompeo said that "we do have the intention of President Trump and Chairman Kim getting together before too long, hopefully early in the next year, where we can make a substantial breakthrough in taking down the nuclear threat from North Korea (DPRK)." According to a report by the DPRK's state-run news agency KCNA, during Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang last month, Pompeo said he and Kim shared the same view over holding a second U.S.-DPRK summit as quickly as possible. Kim also invited inspectors to visit the Punggye-ri nuclear test site to confirm that it has been irreversibly dismantled. U.S. President Donald Trump also said last month that his upcoming meeting with Kim will be held after the midterm Congressional elections in early November. He added that the venue of his second meeting with Kim has been narrowed down to "three or four" locations. The first-ever DPRK-U.S. summit was held in Singapore on June 12. According to a joint statement signed by Trump and Kim, the United States would provide a security guarantee to the DPRK in return for Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearization. However, U.S.-DPRK talks have been stuck in an impasse due to their differences over the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 22:51:30|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Czech President Milos Zeman in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) SHANGHAI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday met with Czech President Milos Zeman, who attended the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai. Xi pointed out that China and the Czech Republic have enjoyed long-time friendship and their bilateral relationship has been buttressed by deep public support and wide-ranging mutual interest. Xi said following his 2016 state visit to the central European country and the signing of the strategic partnership between the two countries, their bilateral relationship opened a new chapter. Propelled by the Belt and Road Initiative and the cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC), the China-Czech relationship has shown momentum of across-the-board development and bright prospects, Xi added. Xi emphasized that the two countries should deepen mutual trust so as to cement and safeguard the political basis of their relationship. The Chinese president also called on the two countries to create more bright spots and mega projects in their cooperation on the Belt and Road construction, widen cooperation in areas such as transportation, energy, e-commerce and artificial intelligence (AI), and carry out more people-to-people exchange. Xi said China looks forward to Czech Republic's continuing contribution to the development of China-Europe relationship and is willing to enhance cooperation with the Czech Republic under the framework of China-CEEC cooperation and jointly safeguard and build an open world economy. Zeman said the Czech Republic welcomes Chinese enterprises to invest and start new businesses and is willing to further enhance dialogue and coordination between the two governments and actively take part in the Belt and Road construction. Zeman also expressed his firm opposition to unilateralism and protectionism. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 23:01:35|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) SHANGHAI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday met with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, who attended the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai. Xi said China attaches great importance to bilateral ties with Lithuania, an important Baltic Sea nation and also China's important partner in central and eastern Europe. The two countries should uphold and deepen mutual trust and respect and take care of each other's core interests and major concerns. China is willing to synergize development strategy with Lithuania, advance cooperation in the Belt and Road Initiative, expand two-way investment and enhance cooperation in e-commerce, financial technology, new energy, lasers and agriculture. China hopes Lithuania uses the CIIE to introduce its products, Xi said. The two countries should expand people-to-people exchange, advance private exchange, enhance cooperation at the local level, safeguard multilateralism and build an open world economy and a community with a shared future for humanity, he said. Grybauskaite said Lithuania admires China's leapfrog development and speaks highly of the CIIE, which is a strategic move under the current circumstances. Lithuania believes China's door will not close, creating a great opportunity for all nations. China plays a more and more important role in global affairs, she noted, adding that Lithuania hopes to enhance comprehensive cooperation with China and promote multilateralism and free trade. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 23:01:37|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Peng Liyuan (R), wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping and World Health Organization (WHO) goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, meets with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) SHANGHAI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping and a goodwill ambassador of the World Health Organization for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, met with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Shanghai on Monday. Peng said that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has, for a long period of time, carried out effective and fruitful cooperation with relevant Chinese departments in prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, poverty reduction in the field of healthcare, and capacity building in global public health. "We support the foundation continuing to enhance bilateral and trilateral cooperation with the Chinese side, in such field as improving capability building of China's health professionals and global health professionals' pool," Peng said. Gates said Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the China International Import Expo Monday was encouraging. "China deserves praise for having been following the principle of openness, inclusiveness, mutual benefit and win-win result." The U.S. billionaire philanthropist said his foundation is willing to continue cooperation with China in the fields mentioned above. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 23:01:39|Editor: yan Video Player Close BERLIN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Hans-Georg Maassen, the controversial former president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) in Germany, is considering launching a new career in politics instead of taking up a replacement post offered to him at the country's interior ministry, German media reported on Monday. The reports cited the transcript of a speech which Maassen recently delivered before the "Bern Club" of international intelligence chiefs and was subsequently sent to BfV employees in an internal message. "I can certainly also image a life outside of civil service, for example in politics or business," an excerpt of the document read. The Maassen affair, which first began when the ex-BfV president publicly questioned the authenticity of video-footage depicting far-right violence in Chemnitz in September, has recently taken another twist as a consequence of the defiant speech. Even before the full texts was published, media reported on Sunday that the interior ministry was preparing to retract an offer for Maassen to assume a new post there because he had doubled-down on earlier Chemintz-related comments and launched a searing attack on alleged "left-radical" elements in the German Social Democrat (SPD) party when addressing the "Bern Club". "From my perspective, this was a welcome opportunity for left-radical forces in the SPD which were always against as coalition with the CDU/CSU to provoke a break-up of this coalition," Maassen said. Earlier, the ruling "grand coalition" formed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU) and SPD reached an awkward and ultimately short-lived compromise to remove Maassen from the BfV by transferring him to a more senior and better-paid position as secretary of state in the interior ministry led by Horst Seehofer (CSU). Faced with an angry public backlash, the government was then forced to backtrack on the decision again and announced that it would instead make Maassen an advisor to Seehofer. Responding to the latest revelations surrounding Maassen's incendiary speech, SPD secretary general Lars Klingbeil criticized the departing BfV president's "inappropriate" statements and urged Seehofer to reach a final decision on his future at the interior ministry. According to the Funke media group, Maassen has himself already requested to be retired rather than taking up the replacement post created for him at the interior ministry. Today, a "disappointed" interior minister Seehofer personally informed the public that Maasen would be sent to early retirement because of "inacceptable statements". Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 23:16:41|Editor: yan Video Player Close HANGZHOU, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The 2nd World Forum on Ecosystem Governance convened Monday in Hangzhou, capital city of eastern China's Zhejiang Province, with discussions on topics such as ecological capital, ecosystem governance in urban and rural areas, and social engagement set to commence. The forum is being jointly held by China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the municipal government of Hangzhou, drawing nearly 300 participants from government departments, institutions and universities, international organizations, enterprises and non-profit organizations. The forum will conclude on Nov. 7. "IUCN is a world leading organization in the development and implementation of ecosystem management," said Inger Anderson, director-general of IUCN. "The 2nd World Forum on Ecosystem Governance will explore how ecosystems can contribute to sustainable development and environmental well-being in the face of a changing climate." "The forum can act as a platform for experts from home and abroad to share their experience in ecological management," said Zhang Jianlong, director of NFGA. "Ecosystem governance is key to the sustainable development of countries, and important to the well-being of humankind, so it requires our joint efforts." According to statistics, China has the world's largest area of planted forests, covering 70 million hectares. With 53 million hectares of wetlands, China now sees an average reduction of 1,980 square kilometers of desertified land per year, compared with an annual increase of 3,436 square kilometers of desertified land in the late 20th century. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-05 23:31:43|Editor: yan Video Player Close MOSCOW, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Russian energy giant Gazprom and Austrian oil and gas company OMV signed a supplement to a contract increasing gas supplies to Austria by 1 billion cubic meters per year, Gazprom said in a news release published on Monday. Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee Alexey Miller and Chairman of the Executive Board of OMV Rainer Seele signed the document at their working meeting in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, according to the news release. The updated volume of gas supplies to Austria will be carried out throughout the entire contract period, it said. "The signing of the document on additional exports beyond the contractual amounts serves as yet another proof of the high demand for Russian gas on the part of our European consumers," Miller said. The increase of gas supplies contributes to ensuring the security of energy supplies for both Austria and other European countries, Seele said. Gazprom has been raising its exports to Austria for years, which saw a one-third year-on-year increase in the first ten months of 2018, according to the company. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 00:21:51|Editor: yan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian top diplomat said on Monday that the talks with the United States over a new nuclear agreement remains open if Washington changes its approach to the 2015 international nuclear deal, Press TV reported. Iran would consider new diplomacy if there were "foundations for a fruitful dialogue" on the Iranian nuclear deal, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted as saying. However, the current U.S. "government does not believe in diplomacy. It believes in imposition," he added. "It is mutual respect, not mutual trust that is a requirement to start negotiations," Zarif noted. All U.S. sanctions against Iran which were lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), returned on Monday, targeting many of Iran's critical sectors such as energy, shipping, shipbuilding and finance. Earlier in the day, Zarif said the U.S. withdrawal from the multilateral JCPOA in May was a "scandal" for Washington. "Today, we can see ... the JCPOA was so much in favor of Iran's interests that America withdrew from it scandalously," Zarif told Iran's parliament. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 01:02:00|Editor: yan Video Player Close YAOUNDE, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Seventy-nine children and three teachers were kidnapped late Sunday in Northwest, one of the war-torn English-speaking regions of Cameroon, Cameroon's minister of communication Issa Tchiroma told Xinhua on Monday. "All measures from the civilian and military are being taken to make sure the children and members of staff are brought back safe and alive. We are in search of their hideout," said Tchiroma, who is also a government spokesperson. A security source had earlier told Xinhua that the schoolers and teachers were kidnapped from a private school named Presbyterian Secondary School (PSS) Nkwen in Bamenda, regional capital of the Northwest. According to the minister, the children were abducted by armed separatists whom he called "terrorists". "They will claim ransom. This is the purpose of their criminal act," he said. The governor of the region, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, visited the school and assured parents and teachers of their safety. "Security will be beefed up. Parents are advised not to take their children home," Lafrique said. A latest video released by one of the well-known armed separatist leaders, Eric Tataw, showed 11 of the students looking frightened and being questioned by armed separatists. Tataw said the children were kidnapped by the armed separatists on Sunday. "They're 11 students. Nothing more, nothing less. You can count the number of students as they introduce themselves in this video. We have called for their release," Tataw said on his Facebook page. Armed separatists fighting for the "independence" of the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest in Cameroon have been clashing with government forces since October last year. The separatists have ordered the closure of schools in the regions. Local authorities said the separatists have torched more than 100 schools that insist to operate. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 01:32:09|Editor: yan Video Player Close KIGALI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda has embarked on strategies aimed to reduce its dependence on biomass as a source of energy by half by 2024 to ease environmental degradation, minister of infrastructure Claver Gatete said in Kigali on Monday. Dependence on biomass Rwanda now stands at about 83 percent, meaning the source of energy in the country is mainly traditional biomass, consisting of fuel wood, charcoal and agricultural waste, Gatete told the opening of the second edition of the Renewable Energy for Sustainable Growth Forum in the Rwandan capital. This leaves serious negative impact on forests and people's health, which makes the government determined to cut the use of firewood for cooking by institutions such as hotels, schools, hospitals, prisons, police and army, he said. The strategies undertaken by the government to reduce the dependence on biomass include encouraging the use of institutional biogas and liquefied petroleum gas, Gatete said. Other strategies include ensuring affordable prices for institutional biogas and liquefied petroleum gas, which could ensure all urban and peri-urban dwellers to use gas. The minister reaffirmed his government's commitment to achieving universal access to sustainable energy by 2024 with focus on renewable energy resources. The share of renewable energy use globally is expected to grow by one-fifth in the next five years to reach 12.4 percent, providing almost 30 percent of power demand, up from 24 percent in 2017, according to the minister. The energy forum, which drew energy investors and policymakers, is part of the Rwanda Energy Week, which runs from Nov. 5 to Nov. 9. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 02:07:21|Editor: yan Video Player Close JUBA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan said on Monday it will prioritize investing more in higher education to achieve quality standards and competitiveness in a bid to help transform its human resource and economy. Yien Oral Lam Tut, minister of higher education, said that they will invest and support the five public universities and collaborate with private universities to strengthen quality education, hence making it attractive for the brilliant South Sudanese who often pursue education on scholarships outside the country. "Higher education should be getting a total of 5 percent of the national budget annually. This is going to improve with the coming of peace since the service sector like education has not been fully funded due to conflict and economic hardship," he told journalists in Juba. Oil-dependent South Sudan passed 2018/19 budget of 600 million U.S. dollars of which the service sector, including education, roads and capital development, were not given much priority due to the urge to end the over four years conflict. Tut disclosed that falling standards and quality in higher education are due to the country losing some of its bright students and human resource to outside countries in pursuit of quality education and jobs, hence the need to invest more in the sector. "The very qualified students are going outside the country due to availability of scholarships which affects quality in our education, but we need to retain these students to maintain standards," said Tut. The five public universities include University of Juba, Rumbek, and Bahr El Ghazal, John Garang University of Science and Technology and University of Upper Nile. South Sudanese students have benefited from scholarships offered by China, which are aimed at improving the technical capacity of the youngest nation which has been bedeviled by conflict since winning independence from Sudan in 2011. Michael Lopuke, undersecretary in the ministry of general education, said the education is positively improving due to the fact they have managed to set up national curriculum with support from China. "We no longer rely on foreign curriculum from Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. What we are using now is South Sudan curriculum. This will assure us of stable foundation in education," he said. China recently helped develop books with South Sudan curriculum and has also been equipping officials and teachers with expertise in the education field. "For the first time we shall be able to launch books that are based on South Sudan curriculum," said Lopuke. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 02:22:23|Editor: yan Video Player Close ZAGREB, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic confirmed on Monday that she had changed her position and decided not to attend the intergovernmental conference to adopt the UN Global Compact for Migration (GCM) in Morocco next month. Although she had confirmed her attendance to the conference in a letter to UN Secretary General in August, Grabar-Kitarovic told reporters on Monday that she is not going because there is no global consensus on migrant issues. "Every day more and more states are leaving this agreement. I am not following the USA, Austria or any other state but only care about Croatian interests," the president told reporters. She said she neither approves nor disapproves the GCM, noting that the agreement on migration should not be a controversial issue among states, rather a matter of an agreement. "My office has informed the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that I will not participate in the conference in Marrakech and the Ministry should decide who, if any, will represent Croatia there," Grabar-Kitarovic said. Far-right commentators in Croatia claim that the GCM will force Croatia to accept uncontrolled migrations, which the Foreign Ministry denied on Friday. In 2015 and 2016, nearly a million illegal migrants passed through Croatia on their way to Western Europe. Recently tens of thousands of migrants are located in Bosnia and Herzegovina near the border with Croatia, waiting to enter the European Union. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 02:32:26|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close by Murad Abdu, Mohamed al-Azaki SANNA/ADEN, Yemen, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Yemeni government forces continued on Monday their fight with the Houthi rebels and seized more ground in the country's Red Sea coastal city of Hodeidah, after a a series of airstrikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition. Forces of Giants Brigades captured three main entrances of the Houthi-controlled Hodeidah and are still attempting to completely besiege the entire city from different directions, an army commander told Xinhua by phone. Government forces managed to capture the 22nd May hospital, key neighborhoods and AlSaleh city following ferocious fighting with Houthis, leaving scores killed, he said on condition of anonymity. "The forces loyal to the government have a well-studied military plan and everything is going in the right direction till the moment," the commander said. "Houthis are retreating backward and failed to carry out counter-offensive attacks because the government forces have modern armored vehicles," he added. Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition also participated in the ongoing anti-Houthi offensive in Hodeidah, causing casualties among rebels. A resident based in the city said the pro-Houthi forces blocked the main roads in Hodeidah with several unused containers and deployed elite soldiers in and around the residential areas. "The non-stop fighting deprived scores of families from fleeing to outside Hodeidah because no safe exits were available," said the resident, who preferred to remain anonymous. "Humanitarian organizations should immediately intervene and rescue the besieged families by securing safe roads for fleeing from their war-torn areas," the Hodeidah-based resident said. Still, two highways were opened for the residents to flee from the approaching clashes, according to pro-government media outlets. Meanwhile, Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported that a food factory worker was killed and seven others wounded when an artillery shell hit the factory earlier the day near Kilo16 road. An official of the Yemeni government told Xinhua that "Houthis have new tactics and started using underground tunnels to infiltrate behind the advanced soldiers in Hodeidah." He confirmed that the government forces lost several soldiers before discovering the tunnels that failed to slow down the progress. Ali Khalaki, an Aden-based professor and military analyst, said the long-awaited military operation to capture Hodeidah has just started and it will achieve the desired goals before the end of November. "It looks like the coalition-backed government forces received a green light from the international community to end the battle of Hodeidah before the period declared by Washington to begin new negotiations," Khalaki said. Mohamed Alhouthi, president of pro-Houthi Revolutionary Committee, said the military escalation in Hodeidah "exposes the falsity of the American statements that demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities." "The killing of civilians will block any future negotiations aimed at bringing peace. We hold the United States along with its allies fully responsible for the crimes against our people," Alhouthi said in a statement. Hodeidah is the most important and only point of entry for food and basic supplies to Yemen's northern provinces controlled by Houthis, including the capital Sanaa. The Yemeni government is seeking to expel Houthi rebels out of Hodeidah in recent days despite warnings by international humanitarian agencies. The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since the Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa, in 2014. Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels forced him into exile. The United Nations has listed Yemen as the country with the world's biggest humanitarian crisis, with 7 million Yemenis on the brink of famine and cholera causing more than 2,000 deaths. U.S. President Donald Trump addresses a rally in Houston, the United States, on Oct. 22, 2018. (Xinhua/Song Qiong) by Matthew Rusling WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The midterm elections to be held on Tuesday are the first major electoral battle since U.S. President Donald Trump clinched the White House. Now, after two years, Democrats are eager to get back in the ring and slug it out with the GOP. But no one has the crystal ball to tell who will win, especially after pundits, polls and political soothsayers have been wrong before. HOUSE RACE TIGHTENING The wild card in this year's midterms is the House of Representatives, while Republicans are expected to keep control of the Senate. Democrats need to take away at least 23 Republican seats to have control of the House. On Saturday, the often-cited Real Clear Politics "Battle for the House 2018" poll had Democrats ahead by 203 to 196. The race has been tighter in recent weeks, with Democrats making gains even in areas that tend to lean conservative, the non-partisan Cook Political Report found. There are currently 17 Republican-held districts that are seeing a slight or strong lean toward Democrats, mainly in upper-middle-class suburbs, including in the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. However, Republicans have gained ground in some rural districts, such as outside the cities of St. Louis and Cincinnati, where conservatives have rallied to support Trump, according to the Cook report. "Trump definitely has galvanized the Democratic base and it is likely to turn out in big numbers on Tuesday," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua. Republican Strategist and TV news personality Ford O'Connell, however, said that while historical precedent is in Democrats' favor, "the only question here is whether the Republicans in the House can minimize their losses and hold onto the House by a sliver." Christopher Galdieri, an assistant professor at Saint Anselm College, said Democrats "have been fired up about 2018 since shortly after the 2016 election." "We've seen evidence of that in the number of strong candidates running, including in districts that have not had competitive races in years, Democratic fundraising, and shifts toward Democrats in special elections for Congress and state offices in 2017 and 2018." But a win is not necessarily in the bag, he cautioned. "That does not mean winning the House is a lock, by any means," he said. Galdieri said Republican voters look likely to turn out at their usual midterm levels. Republicans have turned out in midterms in recent years while Democrats tended to stay at home. But this year Democrats look to be "at least as enthusiastic about voting as Republicans are, if not more so." The Senate is expected to remain firmly in the hands of Republicans, with the oft-cited Website FiveThirtyEight predicting a 1-in-7 chance that Democrats will win the Senate. "Republicans are going to retain control of the U.S. Senate, the only question is by how much. Because so long as they win Texas, Tennessee and North Dakota -- and everyone thinks they're going to -- they have 50 senators," O'Connell said. Historical records show only twice since 1934 has any sitting president's party gained seats in both houses of Congress -- in 1934 and in 2002. In both cases, the gains weren't particularly large. House losses in midterm elections, however, tend to be large. In the 1938 elections the Democrats at the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt took a beating, losing 71 seats, according to political publication PolitiFact. "The president's party almost always loses seats in the midterm, so it will not be a surprise if there are Democratic gains," West said. INVESTIGATIONS If Republicans win the House, they will continue to control Congress and the White House, allowing Trump to continue to press toward his legislative agenda as he has since he took office. But if Democrats win, the consensus among pundits and politicians is that Democrats plan to launch some investigations against Trump. CNN last week cited unnamed sources inside the Democratic party as saying that the party is quietly gearing up to implement some investigations against Trump, and the issue has grabbed numerous headlines over the past couple of weeks. Indeed, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi told the San Francisco Chronicle last week that investigating the president's tax records is one of the "first things we'd do." Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat, said earlier this week that his party would launch an investigation into what he described as Trump's fast and loose use of his cell phone. "(Democrats) will have subpoena power and the ability to get documents and testimony," West said on what could happen if Democrats win the House. O'Connell said "Democrats are going to launch many investigations and launch many subpoenas" if they control the House. TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN HOOK: ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION As the race tightens, Trump continues to hit the campaign trail in support of GOP lawmakers, hammering on illegal immigration, at a time when the United States hosts around 12 million illegal migrants. The issue is now grabbing global headlines, as a migrant caravan of thousands is heading through Mexico toward the United States. Many Trump supporters are working class males who see themselves as displaced by illegal migrants, at a time when blue collar jobs have gone overseas. The Democrats have blasted Trump's stance on illegal immigration, and many voters on the progressive left disapprove of Trump's stance. The past week has seen Trump make a number of stops in several U.S. states including Missouri. "We're going to keep these people out of our country. Vote Republican," Trump said to a cheering crowd, referring to illegal immigrants. Galdieri said that Trump's campaign took off back in 2015 "because of the hard line he took on immigration -- that led him to the GOP nomination and to a win in the electoral college." "So I suspect he thinks of (his stance on immigration) as his greatest hit, and an approach that can help Republicans in advance of next week's elections," Galdieri added. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether this tactic will help GOP candidates. "This is a hot-button issue for many of Trump's core supporters, but it's an open question as to whether they'll transfer their enthusiasm to candidates other than Trump," Galdieri said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 03:22:39|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (L, Rear) and Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia (R, Rear) attend a press conference in Algiers, Algeria, on Nov. 5, 2018. Algeria and Italy are "determined" to extend their partnership and reinforce security cooperation, Ahmed Ouyahia said on Monday. (Xinhua) ALGIERS, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Algeria and Italy are "determined" to extend their partnership and reinforce security cooperation, Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said on Monday. He made the remarks during the press conference jointly held with his visiting Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte. Ouyahia stressed that "Algeria and Italy need to strengthen their economic partnership in various fields, including in energy sector," adding that the two countries have so far signed 50 bilateral agreements in various fields. He further said that the two countries are determined to strengthen their relations in security cooperation to combat all kinds of crimes. Illegal immigration issue was also discussed during their meeting, Ouyahia revealed. He pointed out that Algeria is committed to bring home all its illegal immigrant nationals abroad, based on international laws, bilateral agreements, and the respect of human rights. The two officials also discussed international and regional issues of common interest, most importantly the civil war in Libya, Ouyahia noted. Conte's visit is part of the promotion of the high-level political dialogue between Algeria and Italy. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 03:27:40|Editor: yan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj on Monday met with the Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar over military cooperation and fight against terrorism. According to a statement by the Libyan prime minister's information office, the discussion included cooperation in building Libyan defense and security through training programs, as well as activating agreements signed between the two countries. The officials also discussed efforts to fight terrorism and coordination between ministries of defense of the two countries. Serraj stressed importance of uniting the divided Libyan military "which requires united political will based on successful political path," the statement said. Following the 2011 uprising which toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime, Libya has been suffering insecurity and political division between authorities in the east and the west, including the army. Since last year, the Egyptian capital Cairo has been hosting extensive meetings of Libyan military officials in order to unite the Libyan army. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 03:37:42|Editor: yan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The British Embassy in Libya on Monday welcomed the Libyan government's establishment of the Women's Empowerment and Support Unit. "We welcome the announcement of the Presidential Council's Women's Empowerment Unit, a crucial step in ensuring the equal representation of women in senior government decision making," the embassy said in a statement. "We look forward to cooperating with the newly appointed unit heads, to ensure that local Libyan women have their voices heard and are represented justly," the statement said. The UN Mission in Libya on Wednesday also commended the establishment of the unit, calling on the government and the international community to "invest in and support the functions of this unit." The Women's Empowerment and Support Unit has been appointed based on Article 11 of the UN-sponsored Libyan political agreement, which was signed by the Libyan rivals later in 2015 in order to end the political division in the country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 03:52:47|Editor: yan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Monday condemned assaults on a local bank in the capital Tripoli by gunmen. "UNSMIL condemns recurring assaults on the Aman Bank, alSiyahiya Branch Tripoli, by a gang led by Izzeddin al-Daw, Mohammed al-Daw and AbdelKarim al-Rammah," the Mission said in a statement. "Physically attacking, harassing women and extorting them financially in return for bank services are immoral and illegal," the statement said. On Thursday, the UNSMIL said that armed groups have been using force and intimidating public and private institutions in Tripoli recently with the aim of getting access to financial resources. The mission demanded the gunmen to immediately cease the interference with the livelihood of Libyans, warning that the perpetrators must face criminal prosecution. Libya has been suffering political division and insecurity ever since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. Authorities struggle to impose their control in the country, as many armed groups operate independently. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 04:22:54|Editor: yan Video Player Close BUJUMBURA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-five foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Burundi have been authorized to resume operation after re-registration, over a month after a suspension, Burundian Interior Minister Pascal Barandagiye said Monday. The Burundian National Security Council on Sept. 26 imposed a three-month suspension of foreign NGOs, requiring them to abide by the general framework of cooperation between the landlocked African country and foreign NGOs, a law promulgated by Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza in January 2017. Barandagiye in October urged the suspended foreign NGOs to prepare necessary documents in order to resume their activities. The re-registration process of foreign NGOs was moving smoothly, said Barandagiye at a press briefing in the Burundian capital of Bujumbura. "We're satisfied with the re-registration process because 25 foreign NGOs have re-registered and they have been authorized to resume operation," he said. According to him, 11 other foreign NGOs have filed their application for re-registration at the interior ministry, which are being analyzed. Foreign NGOs operating in the health and education sectors are not concerned in the suspension. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 04:22:54|Editor: yan Video Player Close LIMA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 18 people were killed and another 39 injured when a bus crashed with another vehicle in the southeastern Peruvian province of Puno, the National Police of Peru (PNP) said Monday. According to its report, the accident occurred Sunday night in the region located 1,500 kilometers south of Lima, when the bus was en route from the city of Yunguyo to Tacna on the Pacific coast. Teams of rescue personnel and residents of the area provided first aid to the injured, who were later transferred to the Manuel Nunez Butron Regional Hospital in Puno. According to the police report, three people died due to the severity of their injuries in the hospital. The bus involved in the accident belongs to the passenger transportation company Expreso Yunguyo which operates the route between Puno and the coastal city of Tacna. Peruvian authorities have opened an investigation into the cause of the accident. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 04:22:55|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close BELGRADE, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Austria is willing to support Serbia to open more negotiation chapters with the European Union (EU), Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said here on Monday, adding that ultimately the membership depends on resolution of the Kosovo issue. He made the remarks at a joint press conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Vucic said at the press conference that he asked Kurz, who arrived in Belgrade for a two-day visit, for Austrian support on the European path, in order to open more negotiation chapters, noting that the necessary progress in the integration is for the benefit of the people, especially during Austria's EU presidency. He said Serbia and Austria have good political relations and even better economic relations with trade exchange this year exceeding 1 billion euros (currently 1 euro equals to about 1.14 U.S. dollars), and showing prospects for a even greater growth in the future. "I believe that Austria, which is among the most important investors here, can encourage investors to additionally invest in our country," Vucic said. Kurz stressed that Austria, during its ongoing EU presidency, is investing all its efforts into getting the countries of the Western Balkans, especially Serbia, closer to the EU and that there is a joint dedication to opening additional chapters in the accession negotiations with Serbia. "As a convinced European, I will say that the EU will become a whole, only when countries of the Western Balkans, and among them, especially Serbia -- become a part of it," he said. However, he reflected that people in Serbia need to know that the membership in EU can only be realized once a solution is found for the issue of Kosovo and Metohija, Serbian southern province that unilaterally seceded in 2008, in a dialogue between Serbia and authorities in Pristina. "From my angle it is of essential importance for this dialogue to be successfully completed and I ask people to support those politicians that are willing to go down this road. What matters to us is peaceful coexistence, to leave past in the past, and to have stability and peace in future and not destruction and war," Kurz said, pledging that Austrian government supports any agreement that will lead to a long-term solution. Kurz also met Serbia Prime Minister Ana Brnabic before going to Pristina where he will talk with authorities in the province, and visit some of the 417 Austrian soldiers stationed there within the Kosovo Force led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 04:47:59|Editor: yan Video Player Close BRATISLAVA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The minimum wage in Slovakia will rise from current 480 euros (545 U.S.dollars) to 520 euro (591 U.S. dollars) next year. according to a government decree signed by Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini to this effect on Monday. At the same time, Pellegrini stressed that Slovakia's economy is doing well, the government will hold talks with social partners on further hikes of the minimum wage in the future. "With this step we continue to significantly increase the minimum wage, and our goal is to have a minimum wage reaching at least 60 percent of the average salary in the national economy in the future. On the other hand, as the prime minister I want fewer and fewer people to work for the minimum wage in Slovakia," said Pellegrini. The minimum wage will exceed 500 euros (568 U.S.dollars) for the first time in Slovakia's history. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 05:08:02|Editor: yan Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli military technology and telecommunications units will move to a new compound adjacent to Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in the south, at an investment of over 5 billion new shekels (1.36 billion U.S. dollars), the Ministry of Defense and the university said Monday. The ministry signed an agreement with "Shikun & Binui" infrastructure company for the construction of the compound, which is expected to be operating within five years. The compound is scheduled to be built in the "Gav Yam" hi-tech park adjacent to the university, located in the city of Beer Sheva. Due to the strategic location of the new base alongside the university, the Israeli government will allocate an additional 55 million new shekels in upgrading the university's infrastructure. The additional amount will also be used to recruit academic staff and students and to prepare them for hi-tech professions in preparation for the soldiers' transfer to the south. The units that will be transferred include the computer and communications division of the IDF General Headquarters, the technological unit of the Israel Air Force and the Southern Command headquarters. More than 5,000 soldiers are expected to serve in the new base. The new project will be built as a "smart base" with innovative planning, architectural design, advanced infrastructure and energy efficiency. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 05:18:03|Editor: yan Video Player Close BEIRUT, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Algerian Ambassador to Lebanon Ahmed Bouziane said Monday that Lebanon and Algeria are working hard to strengthen their relations on all levels, local media reported. "The two countries enjoy a very fruitful relation but we are working hard on strengthening our ties in a way that would be a model to be followed by other countries," Bouziane was quoted by the National News Agency as saying. Bouziane's remarks came during a ceremony held on the occasion of the Algerian National Day. Bouziane said that the efforts exerted by Lebanon and Algeria were reflected by the creation of a Lebanese Algerian council for businessmen in addition to a joint parliament committee between the two countries. The ambassador added that Lebanon and Algeria have expressed similar points of views on the political level regarding specific matters such as the Palestinian cause. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 05:48:08|Editor: yan Video Player Close RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro on Monday said Brazil attaches great importance to relations with China and considers China as a "great cooperation partner." Bolsonaro made the remarks at a meeting in Rio de Janeiro with China's ambassador to Brazil, Li Jinzhang. Bolsonaro, who is scheduled to take office in January, said his government will actively seek to broaden and expand ties of cooperation with China, and will strengthen the bilateral relationship. China's top envoy in Brazil said his country was willing to work with Brazil to promote the continued development of their comprehensive strategic partnership based on mutual respect, equality and benefit. Joining forces to pursue win-win cooperation would fulfill the goal of improving the wellbeing of both countries and strengthen cooperation between the two emerging markets, added Li. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 05:58:10|Editor: yan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The UN on Monday condemned an attack by a militia on a local hospital in the Libyan capital Tripoli, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said in a statement. "The United Nations condemns the attack against Jalaa Hospital for Women and Childbirth in Tripoli, by militias. The attackers shot one doctor and threatened the safety and security of the medical staff at the hospital, resulting in a three-day halt of all non-emergency medical services," the statement said. Armed groups bomb hospitals, assault medical staff, loot medicine, equipment and ambulances, and clash inside hospitals, all with impunity, the statement revealed. Libyan health system already suffers lack of resources, and such attacks threaten lives of innocent patients and medical personnel, the statement added. "The UN warns the perpetrators that attacks against medical facilities and healthcare providers are prohibited under International Humanitarian Law and that those responsible must be brought to justice for what may amount to war crimes, under the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court," the statement warned. On Thursday, the UNSMIL said that armed groups have been using force and intimidating public and private institutions in Tripoli recently with the aim of getting access to financial resources. Libya has been suffering political division and insecurity ever since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. Authorities struggle to impose their control in the country, as many armed groups operate independently. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 06:13:14|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Monday that he was not sure if he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris next week. "I am not sure that we will have a meeting in Paris, probably not," Trump told reporters at the Joint Base Andrews as he was heading for campaign rallies for the coming mid-term elections. Both the U.S. and Russian officials have previously confirmed that a meeting between two leaders would be held in Paris on the sidelines of events on Nov.11 to commemorate the 100th years anniversary of the end of the World War I. Trump added that he and Putin will be meeting at the G-20 Summit, which will be held at the end of this month in Argentina. The U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said last month in Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia, that the Paris meeting between Trump and Putin "would be brief." With the ongoing U.S. sanctions on Russia and Washington's recent stance on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the bilateral ties between Washington and Moscow have been strained recently. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 06:13:14|Editor: yan Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israel's deficit for the last 12 months stood at 3.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), highest since 2012, with the target for 2018 at only 2.9 percent, the state's Ministry of Finance published on Monday. The gap between the deficit target and the actual deficit is about 9 billion new shekels (2.44 billion U.S. dollars). This is an even higher deviation than expected by the ministry, whose members held a discussion on the matter and expressed concern about the situation. The ministry explained the high deficit recorded by the fact that the last 12 months also include December 2017, which had relatively low revenues due to a one-time provision of 4 billion new shekels to the Property Tax Fund due to high revenue than expected that year. In real figures, state revenues fell by 8 percent from October 2017, a 12-percent drop in indirect taxes and a 5-percent decrease in direct income. The rate of growth in tax revenues was only 2 percent this year, compared with an average of 6 percent in recent years. In September, the Ministry of Finance noted that one of the reasons for the high deficit was the postponement of tax collection following the Jewish holidays for October, but now that the additional collection is weighted, the deficit is still exceptional. Israel's government expenditure also continued to exceed frameworks and rose by 7.2 percent in 2018, compared with the same period last year. The Ministry of Finance noted that the rate of increase in ministries expenses is expected to moderate toward the end of 2018. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 06:28:16|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close MOSCOW, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Russian Su-27 fighter jet has intercepted a U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries plane over the Black Sea near Russian airspace and escorted it away in a safe manner, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy announced that a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted earlier on the day by a Russian fighter jet while flying in international airspace over the Black Sea. The U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was spotted approaching Russia's airspace at around 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (0700 GMT) and was immediately identified by the Su-27 fighter jet "at a safe distance," Russian news agencies reported, citing a defense ministry statement. After reporting back to the communications intelligence unit, the fighter jet escorted it away from the Russian airspace "in compliance with all security and safety requirements," it said. According to the Russian defense ministry, the fighter jet returned to its home base after the U.S. plane altered its flight course away from Russian airspace. The U.S. Navy, in a statement, called the interaction as "determined to be unsafe," saying the Russian SU-27 conducted "a high speed pass directly in front of the mission aircraft, putting at risk the pilots and crew." Also on Monday, a Pentagon spokesperson said that the Russian jet came "very, very close" to the U.S. EP-3 aircraft, adding that it made an additional pass after activating its afterburners to create more turbulence. There was no communication between the two planes and the encounter lasted about 25 minutes, Spokesperson Eric Pahon told reporters at the Pentagon. The Pentagon said that the EP-3 was conducting routine operations while the encounter happened, not provoking the Russian activity. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 06:33:17|Editor: yan Video Player Close CARACAS, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's defense minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez said on Monday that nine people were arrested following an ambush against a military unit which left three soldiers dead. Another 10 soldiers were injured during the attack which occurred on Sunday in the state of Amazonas, some 710 kilometers south of Caracas, close to the border with Colombia. "The armed forces have been viciously attacked, cowardly, by armed paramilitary groups who pretend to operate on our territory," Padrino Lopez said during a press conference. "They have killed three of our National Bolivarian Armed Forces colleagues," he added. He reported that one of the nine arrested was identified as Colombian Luis Felipe Ortega Bernal, who is under blue notice of Interpol. "These groups... have trespassed onto the Venezuelan territory and have taken the lives of three valiant men who were performing their duty," Padrino Lopez said. "We reject the presence of any armed group from wherever they may be," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-06 06:38:19|Editor: yan Video Player Close LONDON, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson has signalled his intention to sign an agreement of enduring defense commitment early next year with Oman, the Ministry of Defense (MOD) said in London on Monday. During a meeting in Oman with the Sultan of Oman Qaboos bin Said al Said and the Omani minister responsible for defense affairs, Williamson said the agreement would also reflect an wider cooperation beyond defense, reaffirming deep cultural links and economic ties between the two countries, the MOD added. The MOD said Britain is cementing its deep and special relationship with Oman for generations to come with the opening of a new Omani-British Joint Training Base, Williamson announced in Muscat. As part of his visit to Oman for the culmination of Exercise Saif Sareea 3, Britain's largest exercise in 17 years, Williamson underlined the importance of protecting peace and stability in the Gulf. Williamson said: "Our relationship with Oman is built on centuries of cooperation and we are cementing that long into the future with the opening of our new joint base." British troops will deploy to the joint training base in March 2019 to work and train alongside Omani partners. "For decades to come, it will support a variety of combined and joint training activity in the challenging and austere environment that 5,500 UK personnel have experienced over the last month," said the MOD. Williamson watched the culmination of the exercise, which tested the interaction and collaboration between civilian and military structures, saw thousands of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen from both nations execute a set piece battle across the desert. Many may think that this is a syrupy, old-fashioned story. It is anything but! People leave their homes behind, escaping from war and poverty, so Michael Curtiz's film is still relevant today. Rick's cafe is a meeting place and melting pot for tricksters, gamblers and those awaiting visas. "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine, says Rick, when his old love Ilsa pops in the door of the Cafe Americain one day, while the melodies of As Time Goes By ring in the background and bring them back to a happier life that hadn't yet been poisoned by the war. The creators wanted to make a performance that suits the needs of the modern age and attempts to expose today's problems, but is also entertaining. If the romantic, dramatic struggle between selflessness and the emotion-driven ego remains foremost in the viewer's mind, the company has achieved its goal. It is a choice: love or righteousness? Dance performance in two acts. The Miskolc Ballet, founded in 2013, aims each season to present the kind of entertaining performance that attracts the attention of even those less interested in dance theatre. When Istvan Szabo compiled his series 100 Years of Cinema, which contains both great classics and the most significant modern films, he led the screenings with Casablanca, saying that it was without a doubt one of the greatest creations in the history of film. The work is at once melodrama, crime and adventure film; maintaining a fine balance, it combines the stories of love and politics. Date and time: 11 November, 7 pm Venue: Mupa 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell utca 1. Ticket prices: HUF 2,200 - 3,800 Hungarys flag was raised and then lowered to half-mast with military honours in front of Parliament on Sunday to mark the 62nd anniversary of the crushing of the 1956 revolution and freedom-fight. The Hungarian government in 2013 declared November 4 to be a national day of mourning. Addressing a commemoration event at the Rakoskeresztur Cemetery, where victims of the Soviet retaliation after the revolution are buried in unmarked graves, Justice Minister Laszlo Trocsanyi said November 4 was a national day of mourning but also a day of progress. The heroes and martyrs of 1956 must be remembered and thought of with gratitude, the minister said in the cemeterys national park of mourning. 1956 spoke to the conscience of Europe and the world, Trocsanyi said. Nothing has moved the conscience of the free world like the Hungarian revolution. October 23, 1956 was borne out of hope, and this is what was killed on November 4, the minister said. During this period, Hungarians lived in greater fear and hopelessness than in 1945, he said. On October 23, the nightmare came true and many Hungarians were forced into hiding or had to flee, Trocsanyi added. An entire generation disappeared, among them many talented people. Quoting Hungarys constitution, Trocsanyi said Hungarys freedom was rooted in the 1956 revolution. He added, at the same time, that freedom was not an accomplished fact but rather a process. The minister later attended the unveiling of a memorial plaque honouring Jeno Fonay, a 1956 freedom fighter and founder of the National Alliance of Hungarian Political Prisoners (Pofosz). Trocsanyi praised Fonay, noting that he was sentenced to death twice in 1956, but was pardoned just as he was about to be executed. He said Fonay had gone on to play a historic role in the period of Hungarys transition to democracy by founding Pofosz and helping to organise the reburial of martyred Prime Minister Imre Nagy in 1989. Fonay was deputy commander of a resistance group based at Budapests Szena Square during the revolution. He died in 2017. Finance Minister Mihaly Varga also marked the national day of mourning at a commemoration event in Budapests 2nd district, saying that Hungary was a free and independent country today thanks to the struggles of the heroes of 1956. The freedom fighters wanted a Hungary that was independent of empires, could stand up for itself and was free to decide its own fate, Varga said. We must believe in the Hungarian nation and look towards the tasks of the future with a healthy self-confidence, he said. This is the self-confidence that those who believe we shouldnt make our own decisions want to tear down. For us, Hungarians and Hungarys interests come first, Varga said. MTI Photo: Kovacs Tamas British car maker Jaguar will set up a new technical development centre in Budapest, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told public Kossuth Radio. The new centre will focus on developing and introducing new models, Szijjarto said, adding that the company will primarily make electric cars from 2020 on. The facility will open early next year and employ 100 Hungarian engineers, he said. Jaguar has similar classical workshops of intellect only in the UK, Ireland, the US and China, Szijjarto said. He added that Jaguars selection of Hungary as the home of its new development centre was motivated by Europes lowest corporate tax and other tax benefits linked to research and development, as well as the high level of technical education. Concerning Hungarys auto industry, Szijjarto said the value of its 2018 output is expected to exceed 8,500 billion forints (EUR 26.4bn), and added that in the first 8 months of the year the sector accounted for 28.2% of the countrys industrial production. Prime Minister Viktor Orban is scheduled to attend a major import expo in Shanghai next week, his press chief told MTI. On Monday, Orban is scheduled to address a plenary session of an international business forum taking place at the venue of the China International Import Expo (CIIE), Bertalan Havasi said. He will then inspect the expos top pavilions together with Chinas President Xi Jinping and other delegation leaders. Orban and Xi are also scheduled to sit down for bilateral talks on Monday, Havasi added. On Tuesday, the prime minister will open Hungarys pavilion at the CIIE, after which he will hold talks with Chinese business leaders. Orban will be accompanied on his trip by Peter Szijjarto, the foreign affairs and trade minister, Innovation and Technology Minister Laszlo Palkovics and Istvan Nagy, the farm minister. More than 130 countries and regions are set to attend the CIIE which opens on Nov. 5 and runs until Nov. 10. Some 2,800 companies will be present at the expo. Hungary is one of the guests of honour at the event alongside Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Vietnam and the United Kingdom. Organisers expect to draw more than 80,000 companies as buyers and some 300,000 visitors. MTI Photo: Hszinhua 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... Vesti PROASTE pentru milioane de soferi! Vor avea parte de noi reguli extrem de dure Vesti proaste! Toti soferii din Romania sunt vizati de noile modificari propuse de Ministerul Afacerilor Interne (MAI). Acestea vor avea menirea de a educa mai bine conducatorii auto care sunt indisciplinati in trafic. Una din modificarile [citeste mai departe] Stiri pe aceeasi tema - O fetita si bunicii ei au fost raniti, miercuri, de cei doi caini Amstaff pe care ii au in gospodaria din Arad. Victimele au fost duse la spital, iar cele doua animale au fost anesteziate si duse la Adapostul Public Arad, anunta Mediafax. Potrivit jandarmilor aradeni, unul dintre cei doi caini - The interim Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, welcomed, on Monday, the Minister for Diaspora Affairs of the State of Israel, Nachman Shai, who is visiting Bucharest to attend the ceremony organized on the occasion of the National Day to Remember the Victims of the Holocaust in Romania. - Romania's school-age population in 2020 was over 4.844 million people, making up 25.2% of the country's total resident population, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) reported on Monday, ahead of October 5, World Teachers' Day. In the school/academic year 2020-2021 the school-age population - President Klaus Iohannis said, on Monday, that the approval of the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PNRR) represents a symbolic moment of great importance for Romania. "I hail the announcement made by Ms. Von der Leyen about the PNRR, which received the greenlight from the European Commission - The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, had on Monday, during the first day of the high-level segment of the 76th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), a meeting with the President of the UN General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic - The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Ludovic Orban, stated, on Monday, on the occasion of the Firefighters' Day, that, over time, Romanian firefighters successfully fulfilled complex and dangerous missions in fires, floods, snow-ins, calamities, being always there for people in need, and sent - As many as 1,035 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Romania were recorded in the last 24 hours following 17,778 tests nationwide, the Strategic Communication Group (GCS), the official novel coronavirus communication task force, reported on Monday. These are cases of patients that - Sofia Vicoveanca a avut o iesire nervoasa in timp ce evolua pe scena Festivalului Haiducilor de la Grinties, lucru ce nu a fost pe placul unor spectatori. Sofia Vicoveanca este una dintre cele mai iubite interprete de muzica populara de la noi din tara, insa in cadrul unui eveniment la care a participat Stiri pe aceeasi tema - Representatives from EU countries have agreed that the European Commission will be the sole enforcer of new tech rules, with a limited role for national antitrust watchdogs instead of the wider powers sought for them, officials said on Monday, according to Reuters. EU ministers will formally ratify - Autoritatile turce au anuntat miercuri ca au lansat proceduri judiciare impotriva a 30 de navigatori pe Internet care au publicat mesaje mincinoase si nefondate despre starea sanatatii presedintelui Recep Tayyip Erdogan, relateaza Barrons si News.ro.S-a - The European Parliament on Thursday urged the EU to step up its diplomatic outreach to secure tougher commitments to fight climate change at the upcoming COP26 summit and backed the blocs negotiating position for the talks, according to Reuters. The United Nations summit, which runs from October 31 - Ce carnet de sanatate? Vulpea turbata a bagat strechea in sat. A muscat un caine, care a muscat pe altul. Turbarea! Au fost omorati cu pietre, de la distanta, si pusi ca vrajitoarele pe jar. Au fost vaccinati toti cainii. Nu existau maidanezi. Daca se uita cineva la tine, cu ochi senini si goi, saliveaza, - Wholesale has registered overall, during the first 7 months of this year, a turnover that is higher by 17.4% from the similar interval of 2020, due to the activity of specialized commerce of other products (22.4%) and consumer goods, other than food items (21.9%), according to the data published - The President of the Senate, Anca Dragu, said that she filed a challenge with the Constitutional Court on a legal conflict of a constitutional nature between the Government of Romania and the Prime Minister of Romania, on the one hand, and the Romanian Parliament, on the other, agerpres report. "I - Prime Minister Florin Citu met on Tuesday with representatives of the Enel Group, and the talks focused, among other things, on investments in renewable energy generation, grid and digitalization. "Green energy is the future," said Citu, according to whom the challenge is to make the energy - The PSD (Social Democratic Party) MPs will table a vote of no confidence when there will be 234 necessary votes, the formation's National Political Council decided on Monday, the leader of the party, Marcel Ciolacu, announced. "Actually, Prime Minister Citu should have left a week ago from the Romanian Amazon is reportedly in talks with Dallas, New York, and Northern Virginia's Crystal City district as potential sites for its planned second headquarters. Read more Amazon is reportedly revisiting its plan for a single second headquarters outside its Seattle home and now plans to divide its new corporate presence between two locations, instead. Instead of choosing one location for a campus for what had been a planned 50,000 new workers, the e-commerce giant will select two spots, employing 25,000 at each, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing an unidentified person familiar with the company's plans. The shift was prompted by an expected difficulty in recruiting sufficient tech talent at a single site, the person told the Journal. The change in strategy comes as Amazon.com Inc. appears to be zeroing in on a pool of final candidate sites from among the 20-location shortlist it released at the start of this year. The Journal had reported Sunday that New York is "actively talking with Amazon," while "advanced talks" continue with Dallas. That news came a day after the Washington Post reported that specific office buildings in the Northern Virginia district of Crystal City, Arlington County, were being eyed for use by the company. Dallas, New York, and Northern Virginia are all on the list of 20 locations named as finalists for the so-called HQ2 complex. Talks have "cooled" with other cities on the list including Denver, Toronto, Atlanta, Nashville, and Raleigh, according to the Journal. Philadelphia, which is also on Amazon's HQ2 shortlist, was not mentioned in that report. John Grady, president of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., which is leading the city's HQ2 bid, declined Monday to comment on the implications of Amazon's new two-city strategy for Philadelphia or to discuss whether city officials remain in contact with Amazon concerning the project. An Amazon spokesman said Monday that the company was not commenting on recent published stories but was committed to making a final decision by year's end. The company's original plan, which it sketched out in an invitation for potential host cities to bid for the project, called for spending more than $5 billion on a new corporate campus. It had said it could eventually put eight million square feet of offices at the site, an amount of space equal to more than six Comcast Center towers. Stifel Financial Corp., a St. Louis-based investment bank, forecast earlier this year that Amazon would probably cull its list of finalists down to a pool of five or six locations and negotiate concurrently with landlords and public officials at each site. "Concurrent negotiations can mean negotiating with multiple entities (city, county, state, landowner, building owners) for each of five or six locations," a Stifel team led by analyst John W. Guinee wrote in a July note to clients. "While this occurs, we expect many more articles published which compare and contrast this short list." The Washington area Northern Virginia, in particular had topped many analysts' lists of likely choices, thanks to its easy transit options, available office space, and accessible airports. Also, Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos has a home in Washington and owns the Post newspaper. Among the 20 locations for Amazon's shortlist for HQ2, Northern Virginia is also where Amazon is already expanding most rapidly, according to an analysis of job posts between May and July of this year by the tech website Geekwire. During that time, the company had an average of 841 open positions in a region that combines Washington, Northern Virginia and Montgomery County, Md., each of which is listed individually among the finalists, a number that trails only Seattle and Northern California's Silicon Valley, which is not on the short list, Geekwire said. Geekwire ranked Philadelphia as having the least number of job openings among the 20 finalists but did not specify how many there were. Some also speculated that a September visit to Washington by Amazon board members boded well for the region's chances. Amazon officials have also paid repeat visits to finalist cities including Chicago, Miami, and Newark, N.J., according to published reports. There is no indication that any company representatives have returned to Philadelphia since their initial visits to each of the selected cities earlier this year. Philadelphia lawyer A. Charles Peruto Jr. has filed a lawsuit against Jay-Z's Roc Nation and Amazon.com Inc. regarding leaked comments that he says were surreptitiously recorded. In newly filed court documents, Roc Nation says Peruto's suit is little more than an attempt to "prevent the disclosure" of unflattering comments Peruto made about his client Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Genece A. Brinkley, who is involved in a long-running case and dispute with the Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill. In August 2017, Brinkley, who had overseen Mill's parole since he was released after five months in jail, barred Mill who was convicted in 2008 of drugs and weapons offenses and simple assault from performing outside Philadelphia or Montgomery County. On Nov. 6, 2017, Brinkley sentenced Mill to two to four years in prison for repeatedly violating his probation, and ordered that he be taken into custody immediately. Brinkley's order was followed by filings by Mill's lawyers asking the judge to recuse herself from the case, and a public campaign calling for the rapper to be freed. The struggle between the judge and the rapper intensified after the Inquirer and Daily News reported in February that the arresting officer in the original 2008 drug and weapons case had been named in a secretly compiled list of Philadelphia police officers considered by the District Attorney's Office to have a history of lying, racial bias, or brutality. On April 16, the District Attorney's Office said that Mill's conviction should be vacated and that he should be granted a new trial. Eight days later, the state Supreme Court ordered his release. Earlier this year, Peruto participated in the filming of a Amazon Prime documentary series about Mill's time in the criminal justice system, according to a complaint filed by Peruto in September. Slated for a 2019 release, the project is being produced by Roc Nation, Amazon Digital Services, Amazon Prime Video, and the IPC Group, all named as defendants in Peruto's suit. During production of the documentary series, Peruto, inadvertently speaking into a live microphone in an off-the-record segment that was recorded by the film crew, said he felt he was on the wrong side of justice in representing Brinkley. He also said Brinkley should have immediately granted the rapper a new trial after prosecutors requested it. He also said Brinkley looked "awful" after putting Mill behind bars. That interview, despite being off the record, became public in July when the audio was leaked to the Inquirer and Daily News by a "Mill supporter." Peruto claims that the defendants violated Pennsylvania's Wiretap Act, which requires both parties in a conversation to consent to recording. Peruto asked a Philadelphia court to order the defendants to destroy all copies of the recording, and to return to him the original "illegally intercepted oral communication." "The lawsuit is an effort to prevent the disclosure of statements plaintiff made criticizing his client, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas e Judge Genece Brinkley, over her handling of criminal proceedings involving Robert Rihmeek Williams [Mill's legal name]," attorneys for Roc Nation and Amazon said in a new filing, "and to squelch further reporting about his critical comments regarding his client." Roc Nation added that the leaked recording of Peruto's comments "demonstrates that plaintiff neither asked to go off the record nor instructed the interviewer to stop recording." As such, the defense argues, Peruto "filed this lawsuit in an effort to block dissemination and broadcast of his statements criticizing Judge Brinkley." Currently, attorneys for Roc Nation and Amazon want the case moved to federal court. In this Oct. 2, 2016 file photo, Mac Miller performs at the 2016 The Meadows Music and Arts Festivals at Citi Field in Flushing, New York. Read more A coroner on Monday found that Mac Miller, the Pittsburgh-raised rapper who suffered a fatal overdose two months ago in his Los Angeles home, died from "mixed drug toxicity" with fentanyl, cocaine, and alcohol found in his system. Miller, whose real name was Malcolm McCormick, was found unresponsive in his bedroom Sept. 7 by his personal assistant, the Associated Press reported. Miller, 26, had been open in his work about his substance use, and his assistant told investigators that he sometimes struggled with sobriety and had several recent "slips," NPR reported. The coroner's report described his death as accidental. The assistant and Miller's mother had both told investigators the rapper had been in high spirits about a new album and upcoming tour, the AP wrote. In Pennsylvania, deaths involving cocaine and fentanyl have been on the rise over the last few years, although it's unclear whether victims of those overdoses knew they were using fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid that has contaminated much of Philadelphia's heroin supply and is much more prevalent on the East Coast than the West. "Speedballs," the colloquial term for a heroin-cocaine combination, have long been a popular drug cocktail, used together for what is said to be a unique euphoria. Drug users could be seeking out cocaine and heroin separately but instead of heroin winding up with the deadlier fentanyl, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration wrote in a January report on the drug combination's prevalence in Pennsylvania. "People may not be aware of fentanyl being present [in cocaine], or they may assume it's not there, and mix it with heroin that also contains fentanyl," David Metzger, an addiction researcher and director of the HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Division at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Inquirer and Daily News earlier this year. This summer, in West Philadelphia, 20 people overdosed two fatally on what authorities believe was fentanyl sold as cocaine a spike that had health officials particularly concerned since the purchasers, some of whom had used crack for years, had no tolerance for opioids the way heroin users would. In an art therapy session four years ago, Chris Stowe was given a blank mask and was encouraged to paint, cut, or add to it to create "a story about what I felt inside." Stowe sustained a traumatic brain injury during his deployment in Iraq from 2003 to 2005 as an explosive ordnance disposal technician in the Marine Corps. He was hit by shards of glass from explosions. "I was having anger outbursts," said the 43-year-old from Warren, Ohio. "I was having a hard time with my speech and balance because of the TBI." In 2014, he participated in an art therapy class and created a mask that represented a person divided. Half is "just a normal person that may be sad sometimes," and the other half shows a demon-like face with bees poking out of the eye and mouth. "The best way I've been able to explain [the feeling of PTSD] is like someone took the world's biggest beehive and put it in my chest," Stowe said. "Sometimes it's quiet. But if someone bumps into it, it becomes active and buzzing." Stowe is among the 1,500 active-duty service members who participated in an eight-year study that sought to identify service members' mental health conditions through art therapy. The study, published in June, was led by Girija Kaimal, an assistant professor at Drexel University's College of Nursing and Health Professions, and Melissa Walker, healing arts program coordinator at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center's National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) in Maryland. The four-week intensive outpatient program at NICoE, which included art therapy, psychiatry, and physical therapy, began in 2010. During the first week of the program, the service members complete a survey about their mental health and then are asked to create masks that represent their feelings. "Art therapy has helped many populations address their struggles through self-expression," Kaimal said. "It is a form of psychotherapy applicable to anyone facing psychosocial struggles and/or seeking ways to enhance health and well-being." Kaimal and her team of researchers analyzed the symbolism and imagery of 370 masks. Over a quarter of the service members who made masks reflecting psychological injury such as being unable to speak reported suffering from severe PTSD. Service members whose masks showed fragmented military symbols like a torn American flag reported higher anxiety. For example, in Stowe's mask, researchers identified "two aspects of self, representations of sadness, and injuries physical and psychological," Kaimal said. However, masks with images of military unit identity such as including the crab-like symbol of the explosive ordnance disposal badge or nature-related imagery correlated with lower levels of PTSD and depression. At the end of the first week, clinical notes by the art therapist reflected that at least a third of the participants enjoyed the art therapy, 19 percent said it helped with focus, and 14 percent said it allowed them to relax. One in five participants said art therapy helped them to socialize and open up about their injuries, treatment, and other difficulties. "What the artwork created in art therapy helps with is putting a visual representation to the inner struggles of recovering service members humanizing and helping us 'see' their experiences," Kaimal said. "Being able to express, communicate, and share their authentic experiences is an important component of getting appropriate treatment and clinical care." "I think that's what makes it intimidating for a lot of people," Stowe said. "It's super intimate and kind of scary." Stowe, who retired from the Marine Corps in 2016, now lives in Tampa, Fla., and works as the director of school safety for a county school system. On Sundays, he leads a four-hour glassblowing workshop for service members and veterans. He finds that often, those hesitant to try other forms of art therapy enjoy glassblowing. It's "molten glass at the end of a rod," he said. "It's heavy; it's loud. They don't realize they're doing art." Stowe hopes his work will lessen the stigma active-duty service members face when seeking mental health help. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression in 2007, but didn't seek treatment until two years later. Service members "don't like to see when someone's hurt," Stowe said. "If they don't go on a deployment because they're getting treatment, it could mess up promotions." That's why he is focusing on helping himself and other soldiers heal through art therapy. "My military service is a comma, not a period, in my life," Stowe said. "I have much more to offer." Danielle Hark is the founder of the Broken Light Collective, a website for photographers affected by mental illness. Read more A crack in the wall. Most people wouldn't even notice it. But for Danielle Hark, it was a spark of inspiration. Six months after giving birth to her first daughter in 2010, Hark, a writer and photographer from Millburn, N.J., fell into a severe depression. Getting out of bed became impossible. Anxiety struck whenever she considered leaving the house. Thoughts of suicide loomed. One day in the shower, she suddenly felt she couldn't breathe. "I thought I was dying," she recalled. "I didn't need to kill myself because I was about to be dead." Hark reached for her phone to call for help, but accidentally snapped a photo instead. Then she noticed the crack and thought, "That would make a good picture." "Just that one thought and just that one breath helped me to become more present," she said. Photography didn't cure her depression, but it started her on a journey of recovery one that she continues today. Taking photographs gets her out of the house, engaging with the world around her, and transforming things that some see as ugly crumbling paint, cracks in a sidewalk into art. Hark has founded a website for photographers affected by mental illness, hoping to raise awareness and encourage others to document their recovery. On Nov. 10, she'll be sharing her story at the debut of a chamber music ensemble focused on mental health. It's one of a growing number of creative endeavors that are bringing mental health center stage. Most of these initiatives from theater performances to local art shows aim to create awareness. But for those with mental illness, such as Hark, who stand at the center of these works as performers and creators, the process becomes a path to healing. It's not a cure, but it provides a sense of control over their lives that can sometimes feel lost. Research shows that engaging in creative-arts therapy which can include visual arts, dance, theater, and poetry can reduce pain and anxiety, help people cope with depression and trauma, and aid in treatments for addiction. Performing in a play or taking photos is not the same as taking part in creative-arts therapy, said Rachel Brandoff, coordinator of the art-therapy specialization in counseling at Thomas Jefferson University, but "it's a parallel process in many ways." Creative-arts therapy involves a trained professional who guides and interprets the work. But engaging in a creative work on one's own can still help people find purpose, better understand their emotions, and connect with others. "People can have a really powerful and transformative experience even if it's not therapy," Brandoff said. Over the years, Hark has used theater, poetry, and mixed-media art along with medication and therapy to deal with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Every night after her children go to sleep, she spends hours in her basement studio, a routine that gives her structure and purpose. Philadelphia flutist Susanna Loewy feels the same way about music. Practicing scales for an hour each morning helps her energize and refocus when she's depressed. Loewy co-founded Ellipses Ensemble, the mental health-focused concert series at which Hark's story will be shared. She hopes music might provide a pathway to recovery for some, the way it does for her. How does creativity help mental health? Short answer: Researchers don't know yet. Though they've shown creative-arts therapies improve mood and can even lower stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, researchers are still trying to figure out how that happens. Some studies indicate that creating art allows people to communicate emotions that are difficult to say out loud. Others point to art's ability to distract the mind from negative thoughts. Emerging research is focusing on how engaging in creative work improves connections in the brain a process called neuroplasticity and can even help generate new connections called neurogenesis. Human brains are constantly thinking about the future, said Girija Kaimal, an assistant professor in the creative-arts therapies department at Drexel University. For those with depression or suicidal thoughts, the future can look bleak. They might feel they are a burden to others or have nothing to contribute. The creative process helps change people's perspectives. "It gives individuals with mental illness a way to imagine a positive and fulfilling future," she said. Art also helps people better understand their emotions like a mirror, reflecting back what they have created. When Nick Emeigh sat down to write his story of living with schizoaffective disorder, he thought about how to explain the mental illness to someone who'd never heard of it. He searched for the perfect metaphor to describe the overwhelming loneliness and constant fear that no one would understand what he's going through or they might lock him away. "You're able to connect with what you're actually feeling on a deeper level," he said, "because you're looking for the right words to describe to someone who might not understand." Emeigh performed the essay in October at an Elkins Park show of This Is My Brave, a national nonprofit that coordinates performances around the country in which people with mental illness share their stories through poetry, essays, and music. He told a story of devils and angels, traveling into hell through "Untreated Mental Illness Road," and fighting to escape with his sister's help. "I woke up in heaven, and some people call that a hospital," he wrote. Creating a work of art can also give physical shape to an invisible illness, Brandoff said. People can step outside themselves and turn their diagnosis into a painting or photograph. "It allows them to understand it as a piece of themselves and not themselves entirely," she said. It took a while for Jasmine Tot to reach that point. She'd often felt depressed in high school, but the illness became consuming when her best friend was killed two days after graduation. "People didn't want to be around me because I was always upset or sad," she said. "That's when I realized I have to figure this out." Control came from picking up a paintbrush. Tot would blend colors, paint large strokes, add detail, and by the end, "I know my emotions are on the canvas and I can move forward," she said. She recently displayed her work at a Philadelphia showcase called The Funeral, aimed at creating a space to discuss mental health. For Ed Quinn, a retired officer from the Philadelphia Adult Probation and Parole Department who struggles with depression and alcoholism, performing his story at This Is My Brave allowed him to stop hiding his mental illness from others. Sharing it aloud was "like taking off a couple layers of coats you don't need in the first place," Quinn said. "I'm just left with the actual problem, which is then easier to cope with." One big advantage to creative arts, Brandoff said, is that they can reach more people those who can't seek therapy, who think they don't need it, and even those without an actual diagnosis. That power was clear to Gabriel Nathan when he put on a play with his colleagues at a psychiatric hospital in Montgomery County in 2014. Although Nathan deals with anxiety and depression, not all his coworkers had diagnoses. Yet when they performed Our Town by Thornton Wilder, they all benefited. "We learned to be vulnerable with one another and with an audience," said Nathan, who now works as editor of a website about mental-illness recovery. "It let people's guard down a bit," he said. "'Oh, I'm just rehearsing for a play.' No, you're not. You're actually doing more." Two years after she was infected with a virus linked to polio-like symptoms, Havertown's Scarlett Camburn has regained use of her right arm but still cannot make a fist. Read more At first, it seemed like just a bad cold, with a fever that came and went. Then one day, when Scarlett Camburn woke from her nap, the Havertown toddler was unable to move her right arm. Panicked, parents Andrea and Chris rushed the little girl to an urgent-care center in King of Prussia operated by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and from there to the hospital's emergency room in West Philadelphia. X-rays showed that Scarlett, a few days shy of her second birthday in August 2016, had no broken bones. But an MRI on a future visit revealed an alarming sign: damage to her spinal cord. The Camburns would soon learn that Scarlett was among dozens of children around the country that year whose arms or legs suddenly went limp evoking memories of polio, a scourge eliminated in the United States decades ago. One of those children was Chase Kulakowski of Dyer, Ind., age 15 months. Same pattern: had a cold, woke up from a nap, couldn't use right arm. "His arm was totally limp," said his mother, Jessica. The inflammation in Scarlett's spinal cord eventually was attributed to a virus, called enterovirus D68, that had infected many of the other children. But for some patients, including Chase, no virus or other cause was found. This fall, it's happening again. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday it had confirmed 80 cases of sudden muscle weakness or paralysis so far in 2018, including at least six in Pennsylvania and three in New Jersey. The disease is often referred to as mysterious, given that some victims are found to be infected with D68 while others are not, and officially, the CDC says the cause for most cases remains unknown. But a core group of academic researchers tracking the disease is fairly certain that the virus, which can be hard to detect, is the primary culprit. They're just not sure what to do about it. And they are worried it could get worse. A viral mutation The first warning signs came in 2012, when the California Department of Public Health learned that a handful of children in the state were suffering from sudden, unexplained weakness in the arms or legs. The agency launched a statewide surveillance program, and by year's end found that among 10 patients, two had been infected with enterovirus D68. First identified in 1962, D68 was known only to cause respiratory symptoms. But the two cases of muscle weakness were cause for concern. Those symptoms were similar to what happens with polio, which also is caused by an enterovirus. Was D68 able to cause similar harm? Two years later, things went national. By the end of 2014, 120 people in 34 states were confirmed to have the condition, called acute flaccid myelitis. Again, almost all were children. Again, some were found to be infected with D68. Many were not, yet by the end of the year, an informal working group of prominent physicians was confident the virus played a key role. Symptoms ranged from moderate weakness to complete paralysis of the affected limbs, more often in the arms than legs. In Dallas, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center had recently been awarded a federal grant to study a broader category of pediatric paralysis, so they were "up and running" to track the unusual new cases, neurologist Benjamin M. Greenberg said. Among the questions: How much did children recover the use of their limbs? Which treatments seemed most effective? What type of spinal-cord damage was seen on their MRI scans? The condition remained rare, but the word polio-like in headlines stoked public fears, bringing to mind a dreaded disease that was far worse in scope. Polio, eliminated in the U.S. through widespread vaccination, paralyzed thousands of people each year in the early 1950s. Keen to make sure polio had not returned, the CDC began testing patients' fecal samples for the virus that causes it. After all, polio still emerges periodically in a handful of countries, said Sarah Hopkins, a neurologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "With some people opting not to vaccinate their children and international travel, there always is that worry," Hopkins said. "It's important for us to rule it out." None of the new cases tested positive for polio. But while some patients were found to be infected with D68, some of the children did not test positive for anything. What was causing their paralysis? The mouse model Two years later, in 2016, the number of patients with muscle weakness spiked again. Physicians tracking the illnesses suspected that the enterovirus was to blame even in patients where it was not found. That's because the genetic information in an enterovirus is stored as RNA, not DNA, which makes it harder to isolate from a patient. And by the time muscle symptoms appear, the patient's body may have cleared itself of the virus. "The fact that kids are testing negative on a regular basis should not surprise anybody," said Greenberg, of UT Southwestern's O'Donnell Brain Institute. So CHOP and some other hospitals set up protocols to obtain and test nasal swabs as soon as possible in patients with sudden muscle weakness or paralysis maximizing their chances of finding the virus if it was there. Sure enough, most patients at CHOP that year had D68 in their respiratory secretions, Hopkins said. And the virus popped up repeatedly elsewhere in the country, though in a handful of cases, patients were found to be infected with a different enterovirus, dubbed A71. At the end of 2016, the CDC had confirmed 149 cases of patients with sudden muscle weakness or paralysis in 38 states and Washington, D.C. By definition, those included in the total had experienced a sudden onset of symptoms and had suffered damage to the internal gray matter of the spinal cord interrupting the nerve signals needed to activate an arm or leg. The cases tended to emerge in geographic clusters, supporting the theory that the symptoms were caused by an infectious agent a virus. And, like illnesses caused by some other viruses, the cases of muscle weakness spiked in the fall consistent with an infectious agent that thrives in cooler temperatures. Even the two-year pattern made sense. It is common for viruses to ebb and flow on a multi-year cycle as they travel through a population. Yet another layer of evidence for a viral cause came from the University of Colorado, where researchers injected mice with strains of D68. Just as in human patients, the animals' limbs became paralyzed. To Greenberg, that represented a convincing, three-pronged case that the enterovirus was to blame for the biennial spikes in acute flaccid myelitis. "We know the virus can do it" in mice, he said. "We know it's present in humans. And we know the epidemiological pattern fits that of an infection." But two mysteries remained. Not under the same roof When Chase Kulakowski got his cold in October 2016, his stepsister had the same symptoms: a runny nose and a cough. By all appearances, they were infected with the same virus. Yet her arms and legs were fine, whereas Chase could not move his right shoulder and arm. "What makes him different?" his mom asked. Likewise at Scarlett Camburn's preschool, there were the usual runny noses, but nobody else had her muscle symptoms. Why? Those are good questions, scientists say. At the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, researchers are exploring whether some genetic quirk might make certain infected people more likely to develop acute flaccid myelitis. The team has gathered DNA samples from more than 60 willing families including patients, siblings, and parents, said Priya Duggal, director of the school's genetic epidemiology program. Any two non-identical siblings share 50 percent of their DNA, on average, so one child might inherit some mutation that raises the risk of virally induced paralysis while a sibling does not, she said. Or such a mutation could have occurred in a child sporadically popping up for the first time in that generation. To date, Duggal said, there have been no reports of two children in the same household developing acute flaccid myelitis. "It can't just be the virus," Duggal said. "Otherwise, we'd have schools filled with children that were all paralyzed." If the virus is causing the paralysis, it makes sense that the symptoms would occur primarily in children, physicians say. Most people become infected with a variety of enteroviruses during childhood without symptoms and are therefore immune to them as adults. A similar lack of symptoms was seen in most people infected with polio. One in four people infected with polio experienced flu-like symptoms that went away on their own, and fewer than 1 percent of infections led to irreversible paralysis. But when they did, the consequences could be deadly, as the disease can affect muscles involved in breathing. Then there's the mystery of the virus itself. In addition to injecting mice with D68 strains that were isolated from the 2014 outbreak, the Colorado researchers injected animals with strains of the virus that had infected humans in 1962. Just like the humans infected in 1962, mice in the latter group did not become paralyzed. The strains of virus from the two eras, five decades apart, look very similar but apparently evolved in some consequential way, acquiring the ability to harm the spinal cord, Greenberg said. And as with any virus, it will evolve again. "Something changed," he said. "This is a very rare event, and I acknowledge it's a rare event, but I am also asking the scientific and public-health community to recognize that doesn't mean it's going to be a rare event forever." As the detective work continues, physicians have developed effective treatments for patients. At CHOP, Scarlett was given intravenous immunoglobulin a substance that can help reduce swelling in the spinal cord. Elsewhere, physicians have opted to administer steroids, though there is disagreement as to when that is appropriate. After months of therapy, Scarlett also underwent surgery at CHOP called a nerve transfer. Chase did the same at Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, traveling there from Indiana. The procedure allows physicians to reactivate a paralyzed limb by connecting it to healthy nerves that have been rerouted from elsewhere in the body, said Dan Zlotolow, who performs the surgeries at Shriners. Patients must then adapt to the rewiring learning how nerve signals that once controlled, say, a rib muscle will now operate the elbow. Early on, a patient may find that during a sneeze or a deep breath, the elbow will bend, the surgeon said. "Over time, your brain will figure out that is not what should happen," Zlotolow said. Now 4 years old, Scarlett has regained the use of her right arm but still has trouble making a fist, as her hand muscles deteriorated during the months of receiving no nerve signals. Next year, she will have another operation, in which surgeons will transfer a tendon to her hand from elsewhere in the body. Her family has nicknamed her right arm "Lucky" in the Disney movie Finding Nemo, the title character's lucky right fin is small and weak. Scarlett's parents both got matching tattoos of the orange fish on their right arms. They seek solace from an active support group on Facebook, which includes parents of many of the nearly 400 children recovering from acute flaccid myelitis. "We felt so isolated, and now to realize there's a whole community of us," Andrea Camburn said. She, Jessica Kulakowski, and other parents in the support group worry that the federal government is not doing enough to address the disease. Greenberg, the UT Southwestern neurologist, describes the experience for families as "a horrific nightmare," and agrees that the medical community should do more. Better tests for diagnosis are needed, he said. More should be invested in researching the best treatments, especially if the virus becomes more widespread. "I get asked the question all the time: Should parents be worried?" he said. "In 2018, no, your kids are going to get a cold, and they're going to be fine" in the overwhelming majority of cases. "As a society, we should ask, 'Should we be worried about 2028 or 2038?' " Duggal, the Johns Hopkins epidemiologist, agrees. Given that enterovirus D68 is the likely culprit, she said, society should consider investing in the same weapon that stopped polio: a vaccine. "We've been here for four years looking at these patients, watching the devastation," Duggal said. "This is the third round of it. We don't want to be looking at it in 2020, saying, 'There's a mystery illness.' We want to be looking at it in 2020 saying, 'We're making headway.'" The body of a man who had been beaten to death was found in a Mercedes-Benz SUV that had sped away when police officers approached to tell the driver that the vehicle had a broken taillight in Southwest Philadelphia, authorities said Monday. Police said the foot patrol officers working in the area of 67th Street and Buist Avenue in the Elmwood section saw the SUV stopped at a red light about 6:35 p.m. Sunday and walked over to inform the driver of the broken light. The driver then sped off, police said. A short time later and a few blocks away, police found the SUV on the 6600 block of Dicks Avenue with the body of a man inside, authorities said. The man, identified as Arnold Battle, 30, of the 6400 block of Garman Street in Elmwood, had been beaten to death, police said. Homicide detectives have not disclosed if they have identified the owner of the SUV or developed a possible motive in the slaying. George Hopkins resigned as director of the Cadets, an elite drum corps based in Allentown, Pa., after nine women accused him of sexual misconduct. Read more George Hopkins threw things when angry. He dated employees and then ranted about their breakups on his blog. He often called women "little girls." And he did it all while running a nonprofit tasked with enriching the lives of young people, Allentown's Youth Education in the Arts (YEA). A report released Monday depicts in new detail Hopkins' management of the nonprofit, which operates the nationally recognized Cadets drum and bugle corps. It describes the 62-year-old Hopkins, who was ousted as executive director in April amid allegations of sexual misconduct, as "aggressive, combative and unreasonable." Hopkins declined to be interviewed for the report, which was conducted for YEA's board by lawyers from Chicago's Franczek Radelet law firm, which specializes in labor and employment law. The report did not examine previous allegations of sexual misconduct but does include one new accusation. In a statement from his lawyer, Hopkins told the investigators he "vehemently denies any and all allegations of wrongdoing." "In light of the highly consistent and numerous reports of the conduct described in this report, we do not find Hopkins' general denial credible," the investigators wrote. Hopkins was among the most celebrated leaders in the world of drum and bugle corps, an activity that combines marching band, color guard, and theatrics, and involves thousands of young people annually. Twelve women have accused him of misconduct, ranging from making lewd comments to rape. Matthew Falk, chief of prosecutions for the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office, said in an interview that his office has an ongoing investigation into the claims. He declined to comment further. The law firm's report noted that there was "very little oversight of Hopkins" by the former YEA board, which resigned amid the scandal. It found no evidence that board members knew of any accusations against Hopkins before this year. The investigation also reviewed the nonprofit's policies and procedures before Hopkins' departure and found them "inadequate to prevent sexual harassment and sexual misconduct." Among the key findings: The staff was generally not aware how to report claims of misconduct. A committee was created to develop a sexual-harassment policy in 2015, but the report said it was unclear whether that draft policy was ever approved and implemented. None of the current employees interviewed said they had been sexually harassed by Hopkins. Some said he made off-color comments about women. One woman said he emailed her to say he appreciated "how she looks" and was glad she was "making an effort to look better." Hopkins sent multiple sexually inappropriate emails through the nonprofit's email server. The nonprofit's new board of directors issued a sexual-harassment policy and code of conduct in May. Doug Rutherford, the board's chairman, said the organization has also conducted training sessions for its employees, volunteers, and members. Rutherford said Hopkins' departure left a void that ultimately was filled as employees, once stymied by Hopkins' micromanaging, took on new responsibilities. He said the organization has found savings and made up some of the more than $300,000 spent since April on such unexpected items as training and legal fees by giving the heads of the nonprofit's programs control over their budgets. Previously, Hopkins held all the purse strings. "Everything went through him, single threaded," Rutherford said. "We flattened the organization and gave control to each of the programs to manage their money. It changed everything overnight." Though the report focused on the internal workings of YEA, the investigation also includes a new accusation from a now 42-year-old woman, the first of Hopkins' accusers to have never marched with or worked for the Cadets. Nicole Rao Barry was not identified in the report but agreed to be identified by the Inquirer and Daily News. She said she met Hopkins in the winter of 1996 while in Dayton, Ohio, for the finals competition of Winter Guard International, a circuit whose membership often overlaps with drum corps. Barry said she met Hopkins at a gathering of other performers and staff in a hotel lobby. She was 19, making her 20 years Hopkins' junior. When she was ready to leave, someone suggested he could drive her to her hotel. She said at his car he grabbed her arm and forcefully kissed her. "I remember thinking: 'What is going on here? Who does this guy think he is?' And me resisting it and it ending. And me just saying, 'Take me home,'" she said. While the experience was jarring, Barry said, she brushed it off, lumping Hopkins together with other creepy men who had hit on her. When she read the article about him in April, including the article of one woman who described an experience similar to hers, she said she felt sick. "Seeing this was part of a predatory pattern of behavior, I feel bad that I had mischaracterized it all these years and not spoken up earlier," she said. She said she decided to tell her story to add credibility to those shared by other women. "It wasn't the most horrific story out of all of the stories that have been told about this guy," she said of her experience. "But if it can lend just another piece of the puzzle, then I feel that it only shows them respect by coming forward and saying: 'You're not the only one. This happened to me, too.'" Debris in in the trees around the leveled home on Dodds Lane in Gladwyne November 4, 2018. The explosion was so loud it could be heard for miles. Read more An empty Gladwyne mansion exploded from a gas leak Sunday night, authorities said, reducing the grand house to debris and kindling. The explosion, heard and felt by thousands in Lower Merion and beyond around 8 p.m., leveled a house that was under renovation on the 600 block of Dodds Lane. No injuries were reported, said Afia Ohene-Frempong, a spokeswoman for Peco. Police declined to identify the owner of the massive property. According to Montgomery County real estate records, Joseph Grasso, 57, and Donna Grasso, 52, sold the mansion to the GF 2014 limited partnership in 2016 for just under $4 million. The members of that partnership could not immediately be determined. Joseph Grasso, active in the real estate and restaurants trades, could not be reached for comment. At one time, he owned the Saxbys coffee chain. Among his other projects was the now-closed Union Trust restaurant, a posh steakhouse on Chestnut Street in Center City. In 2012, court records show, Grasso filed for bankruptcy protection. The docket alone in the case takes up 245 pages. Peco workers were on their way to the house around 8:20 p.m., said Ohene-Frempong, who added that a Peco account was registered with the now-destroyed home. By 9 p.m., neighbors and news vans had descended on the quiet Gladwyne neighborhood in Lower Merion Township, full of grand homes with large lawns, many of which are set back from the road. Helicopters hovered overhead. Authorities instructed onlookers not to approach the scene, so folks gathered down the street, which was pitch black except for the flashing lights of firetrucks. "I was just reading a book, then bang," said Peter Cooke, 80, who lives across the street. Cooke said the explosion shook his home. He had never heard something that loud, but when he looked outside, he couldn't see fire. "We thought a meteor had gone off or something," said his son, Michael Cooke, 30. Within moments, the Cookes heard the din of neighbors coming out of their homes to see what was going on. Then, authorities descended, they said. Half a mile away, Steve Liebowitz, 60, and his son Chase, 12, were finishing up dinner when they heard what Steve Liebowitz described as "like a cannon shot." "I thought it was a gunshot," said Chase. The elder Liebowitz said the boom sounded as if it were right in his backyard and he worried their outdoor grill may have exploded. But they did not rush outside. "We were actually afraid," said Steve Liebowitz. "In today's world, you don't know what kind of explosion happened or whether it was a gunshot." On Friday afternoon, with just a few hours before sundown and the start of the Sabbath, David Parvey hurried to a South Philadelphia gun shop called Firing Line to get his new 9-millimeter pistol. To Parvey, who attends an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Center City, it felt like the only rational response to the Oct. 27 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 congregants were killed. "I legally have the right to at least be able to match evil with some sort of response, and in my mind I would be dumb not to," said Parvey, who on Wednesday went to the Philadelphia Police Department's Gun Permit Unit to apply for a concealed-carry license. "I don't want to hide behind the bimah waiting for my turn to get shot." Parvey is not the only one to reach this conclusion. A simmering conversation about safety in the face of anti-Semitic violence that began several years ago with attacks on Jewish targets in France a yeshiva in Toulouse, a kosher supermarket and the Bataclan theater in Paris has boiled over in the last week. While some are responding with prayer and peaceful protests, there are those who feel that a pistol is just more reliable. "This shooting in Pittsburgh has turned me into an activist," said Rahel Pachter, 61, of Merion, who met up with a couple of women from her synagogue on Sunday for breakfast, followed by a conversation about gun safety and a group trip to the firing range. "I feel like I have to start moving this, and I have to start getting more people involved in their security." It's controversial, said Pachter, who got licensed about a year ago and, in frightening times, takes comfort from the reassuring weight of her Ruger LCP II or Taurus 709 Slim in its holster. Her rabbi doesn't want congregants carrying in synagogue. "It's not something you're supposed to even touch on the Sabbath," she said. "I'm a daughter of a Holocaust survivor. I lost all my aunts and uncles in the Holocaust, and I'm going to go down fighting. I'm not walking into a gas chamber. I'm not going to stand there like a sitting duck and get shot at. I refuse." This week, she contacted Jose Morales of Philly Firearms Academy in Willow Grove to see about group training. READ MORE: After massacres, houses of worship prepare for the worst Meanwhile, at Cherev Gidon, a Scranton-area facility where Israeli Defense Forces veteran Yonatan Stern, 35, runs tactical training courses, dozens of Jewish people many from the Philadelphia area have signed up for training. "I have not hired enough instructors given this amount of demand," Stern said. "It's just an unprecedented event." The most sought-after training teaches students how to coordinate an armed response to an active-shooter situation, communicating with one another and with law enforcement responders. He sees a fundamental shift: "Up until now, people haven't been prepared. There hasn't been this culture of guns in the Jewish community in America. People thought of guns as a dangerous thing that we don't want in our communities and in our streets. All of a sudden, that attitude has changed." Most of the demand is coming from Orthodox and, to a lesser degree, Conservative communities, he said not so much Reform ones. Those trends align with political affiliations of many congregants: Orthodox Jews were more likely to vote Republican and to approve of President Trump's performance. There are those who blame Trump and like-minded politicians, such as gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner, who has described the country as under invasion. "The Jewish community is feeling a lot of palpable grief and anger right now, at the way the GOP is stoking white nationalism, which has led to violence," said Rebecca Hornstein, who joined a group of Jewish community members in sitting shivah outside Wagner's Philadelphia campaign office and left memorial stones on the sidewalk. She said no one she's talked to is looking to buy a gun: "For us, safety comes from solidarity." On the other end of the spectrum is a self-described hard-line conservative who lives in Center City and attended his first gun-safety training with Cherev Gidon this week. The 41-year-old expects to purchase a gun within the next month. He figures he will carry it only on Shabbat. Now, were at war, he said. Were being targeted. We had a great run here in the United States. For 200 years we werent openly targeted as Jews. But its over, and now its time for us to arm ourselves. There are questions about this approach particularly among Jewish people of color, who have voiced grave concerns over the harm that could come from turning armed police or volunteers loose in synagogues. "A lot of security training in this country has been geared toward seeing brown people as perpetrators," said Jared Jackson, the founder of Jews in All Hues, an advocacy and consulting organization based in Philadelphia. He said over the last week organizations like his have been conferring about this issue concluding that there's a need for anti-bias training for synagogue security and for bag searches to be performed consistently, not just for those who look different. But if more congregants are carrying, he said, "it's not just the guards you have to worry about. It's the people who will go off of their own racism and forget for a moment or not even know that here are Jewish people of color and cause a reaction, when most likely that person wearing a kippah is a congregant." A lesser quibble may be whether such an act is kosher given restrictions around the Sabbath: either carrying things (including guns) from one domain to another or igniting a spark would qualify as work, which is forbidden. But advocates are quick to point out that the former problem is solved by the eruv that encircles many local Jewish communities, a real-world wire or other barrier that serves a metaphoric function of creating a communal domain where carrying on the Sabbath is permitted. (The Center City Eruv even has a website that maps its perimeters, notifies users of downed lines, and includes updates, like a recent extension across the South Street Bridge, to connect with another eruv around University City.) As for the latter, said Lou Kahn, 46 of Yardley, "the Torah tells us as Jews that we have an obligation to defend ourselves." He takes that to supersede all other concerns. " 'Turn the other cheek' is a Christian idea," he added. "It's not a Jewish idea." Although he has carried for a gun for years, he said, he was now hearing from many friends who feel they have to follow his lead. Members of his Orthodox synagogue are trying to organize a group training. Though there may be disagreements, among Orthodox congregations these debates tend to be muted, Parvey said. That's because there's no middle ground, really and because those who might object to guns in their sacred spaces find there isn't much they can do to stop it. Nobody is going to know if Shlomo has a .45 strapped to his belly, he said. Unless there are metal detectors and that would break the Shabbas. Editors Note: This article was updated Nov. 17, 2020, to remove the name of a source who was receiving threats. L: Union leader Dave Delloso is one of the Democratic candidates looking to flip Republican-held seats in Pennsylvania's state legislature, especially those in the Philadelphia suburbs. R: Pa. State Rep. Warren Kampf, a Chester County Republican shown here in a file photo, acknowledges "discontent with Washington D.C." has made his reelection campaign difficult. Read more Democrat Dave Delloso has never run for office before. And, for better or for worse, he sometimes sounds like it. Earlier this year, he sat down with a labor organization in hopes of winning its support for his bid for the state House. As the president of Teamsters Local 312 in Delaware County, he felt as if he were at a "home game," and took a shot at a classic union boogeyman. "Look, it's not like I hate rich people," he said he joked. "I'm sure they taste good with A1." Delloso is a blunt talker, a former truck driver, and a veteran who has railed against "giant corporations who can afford teams of lobbyists" paying "less and less" in taxes. In other words, Democrats think, he's a good fit for the Pennsylvania's 162nd District, a mostly white, working- and middle-class area with many union households. In Tuesday's election, a number of first-time candidates are running for the state's General Assembly on the Democratic ticket. Democrats are hoping that anger at President Trump as well as fresh-faced contenders with close ties to their district will help them chip away at the Republican Party's majorities in the state legislature. "The candidates are of such quality that I would not be surprised if we took double-digit seats," said Tommy McDonald, vice president of the Campaign Group, a Democratic television ad firm. The vast majority of Democrats interviewed said they can't take back the state House, which Republicans control by 121-82, or the state Senate, where the GOP holds a super-majority. "The numbers are just too daunting," said former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell. >> VOTERS GUIDE: Look up the races and candidates on your ballot in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware But Democrats argue that by running candidates who have the right resumes for their districts, including in areas where the party doesn't normally compete, they are laying the groundwork to take control of the state House in the future. "That's the building blocks to a majority, whether it's two years from now or four years from now," said McDonald. Examples of such candidates, he said, are "a business owner [that] fits her Phoenixville district to a 'T,'" "a prosecutor [that] fits her Montgomery County district to a T,'" and "a former Republican D.A. who's running in Washington County." Call it the Conor Lamb strategy, for the congressman who ran as a moderate Democrat in a conservative district in a 2018 special election, and won. Republicans said Democrats may campaign for the state legislature as if they match their districts, but, in reality, they don't. "They're wolves in sheep's clothing," said Jason Gottesman, a spokesman for Pennsylvania's Republican Party. "Conor Lamb has gone to D.C. and voted with Nancy Pelosi 90 percent of the time." In 2016, Republicans won 19 state House seats in districts where Hillary Clinton got a majority of the votes, and Democrats won 17 seats in districts where Trump got a majority of the votes. One such race is in Chester County, where Democrat Melissa Shusterman is running against Republican state Rep. Warren Kampf, who recently acknowledged that polls had him trailing. Clinton took the district by double digits. Shusterman has eschewed labels and pitched herself as a "common-sense candidate." She has been endorsed by traditionally Democrat-leaning groups, such as the union representing teachers, as well as the Fraternal Order of Police, which often backs Republicans. She became a candidate a few days after Clinton lost the presidential election to Trump. Her son, who worked for Clinton's campaign, told her that he believed the country was not ready for a "smart, qualified woman in office." "That was it," she said. "The next day, I was running." Kampf acknowledged that his reelection bid hasn't been easy. "There is a discontent with Washington, D.C., that I'm trying to contend with," he said. "I think I will win, but there are forces outside my district that are impacting it." Still, he believes his voting record in the Capitol will appeal to voters in his district, which he said is nearly evenly split between Democrats and Republicans and includes a sizable independent voting bloc. He said he has voted to boost state funding for public schools and has pushed for gun regulations, including universal background checks. "My feeling is that people in my district know me, know my record, and respect that," said Kampf. Rendell said that although Clinton won several districts in Southeastern Pennsylvania held by GOP state lawmakers, "those Republicans do a pretty good job voting on issues aligned with constituents." Another factor that limits Democrats, he said, is the state legislature's gerrymandered districts: "They're still maps drawn by a heavily partisan Republican Party." For Democrats, picking up seats in this election and 2020 is critical for just that reason: redistricting. The legislature is in control of redrawing congressional district maps after the U.S. Census, and whichever party holds the majority is best positioned to draw the lines in their favor. Charlie Gerow, a Harrisburg-based Republican consultant, said "it's entirely possible that the Democrats will pick up a couple seats in the state House in November." He noted that there are several open seats in the General Assembly, where no one has an incumbent advantage, and "historically, the midterms benefit the party not holding the White House." Outside groups are pouring money into the state legislative races. The pro-Democratic Pennsylvania Fund for Change has spent more than $2 million so far. Republicans said the organization is sending voters misleading mailings, and noted it took $1.4 million from a "dark-money" group. Forward Majority, a pro-Democratic super PAC, is targeting 24 seats, up from 20 in September. The group's spokesman, Philip Shulman, is one of the few Democrats who said his party has a shot at winning the state House this year. "We certainly feel optimistic about our chances," he said. "The energy on the ground is something that a lot of people have never seen before. If you put that together with investment we're making and investments we know other groups are making, we feel that's a game-changer and hasn't been a factor in previous elections." Gerow disagreed: "I don't think there's any way in God's green earth they take the majority." Thomas Scheuerman wants to vote Tuesday. He'd really, really like to cast a ballot. To do so, he's planning on having a colleague cover part of his shift while Scheuerman votes at 7 a.m., right when the polls open, before rushing to work. "If he says no I'm kind of stuck," Scheuerman said. "If there's a situation and someone says no has child-care issues or something I'm stuck, I won't vote this year." Scheuerman, 29, is an emergency medical technician with the Philadelphia Fire Department, driving an ambulance around the city in response to 911 calls. He's not exactly free to take a break to vote in the middle of a 12-hour shift, and he lives across the city from where he's stationed. Scheuerman and most of his 500 or so fellow first responders working Election Day in the city also aren't eligible for absentee ballots, which are limited to very specific circumstances by Pennsylvania law; early in-person voting is not allowed in the state. "We're not allowed to vote, basically," said Jack Eltman, a 15-year firefighter with the Fire Department and a union official who lived in Northeast Philadelphia before recently moving outside the city. The plight of Philly's first responders, experts said, demonstrates how restrictive election laws create barriers to voting. While other states have expanded their voting options over the last two decades, Pennsylvania's election laws have remained largely trapped in amber. Pennsylvania law does allow absentee voting for those working on Election Day if they'll be outside the town where they live. But Philly's firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs are required to live in the city for their first years on the job, and a spokesperson for the union, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 22, said the majority of members remain in Philadelphia after the residency requirement expires. "This completely disenfranchises them," said Robin Kolodny, a Temple University political science professor, when told of the situation. "People should be outraged by that. It's completely inappropriate." How people vote in Pennsylvania: In person, on Election Day In contrast to Pennsylvania, a movement over the last decade or two to open up the voting process has expanded access in other states Today, 37 states allow early voting and 27 states including New Jersey allow absentee voting without needing to state a reason. (Washington, D.C. allows both.) As those reforms have been implemented, the number of votes cast in some way other than in person on Election Day has continued to rise; in the 2016 presidential election, 16 states had a majority of votes cast early or by mail. Pennsylvania has no early voting and is explicit about the circumstances that allow absentee voting. Absentee ballots are for people who will "be absent from the municipality of their residence, because their duties, occupation or business require them to be elsewhere," or are unable to vote in person because of illness, physical disability, or religious holiday. So while two in five votes cast nationwide in 2016 were by some method other than the polls on Election Day, that number was just 5 percent in Pennsylvania. The struggle for Phillys firefighters and EMS workers First responders in Philly are scheduled to work 12-hour shifts, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. or vice versa, though in practice that differs. That means they have to either get to the polls when they open at 7, or rush there just before they close if they get out of work before 8 p.m. If they have long commutes across the city, or traffic is bad that day, or they wake up late, too bad. If they receive last-minute calls emergencies don't follow a set schedule and get out late, too bad. And with absentee voting off the table for Philly's firefighters and EMS workers who live in the city, it all comes down to the in-person vote. There's no guarantee about that, either. "You've got somebody who lives in the Northeast section of the city, works in the Southwest section of the city, there's absolutely zero chance that person's going to be able to vote before or after their shift. And they're unable to fill out an absentee ballot," Eltman said. Multiple members of the Fire Department described individual arrangements they have to make, similar to what Scheuerman hopes to do Tuesday. It's all about working things out with colleagues, trying to cover an hour or two of your shift. "It's not an official solution, it's not a systemic solution," said Noah Turkewitz, 31, an EMT who lives in Fairmount and works in South Philly. Turkewitz managed to make it just in time to vote in person after his day shift in 2016, he said, "only because I happened to get off on time. It was really a toss-up whether I was going to be able to vote." Why itll be years before the absentee ballot requirements can be fixed Firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs aren't the only people who face barriers to voting, of course. They happen to be in a uniquely difficult situation, but there are others who work long hours nurses, say or multiple jobs and just can't vote on Election Day. That's one reason, along with potential cost savings, that early voting and no-excuse absentee voting have become popular in other states. But it's hard, in polarized Pennsylvania, to get lawmakers to open up the election code. Each side worries that the other will take advantage. And there's an additional wrench: The language allowing absentee voting for people who work outside the municipality where they live is written into the state constitution. It's a multi-year process to amend the constitution. But it ought to be done and in a bipartisan fashion, said State Rep. Martina White, a Republican who represents Northeast Philadelphia, where many firefighters live. She said her office wants to take on the issue in the next legislative session. "There is an opportunity for us to help [first responders] and give them what every other citizen gets to do, and be able to vote," White said. Scheurman said he hopes the system will get fixed. "I work Christmas, I work Thanksgiving. I work holidays, nights, weekends," Scheuerman said, and that's OK because "that's the job I've chosen, that's the job I love." He is more than willing to make sacrifices, but "I don't think voting should be one of them." 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 At the polls on Tuesday, Philadelphia voters will find a familiar ballot question one that's been there every year for more than two decades, in almost the exact wording. The question asks voters whether they would let the city issue bonds to pay for maintaining and building capital projects in transit, parks, museums, streets and municipal buildings. This year, the city proposes to issue $181 million in bonds. Through the ballot question, Philadelphia has asked voters to approve nearly $1.39 billion in borrowing over the last decade. Every time, voters have agreed. This year's ask, $181 million, "is a lot of money, but it's got to be looked at in context with the city's larger budget," said Patrick Christmas, the policy program manager for the watchdog group Committee of Seventy. The city's operating budget for fiscal year 2019 is $4.7 billion and the six-year capital budget, which is funded mostly through the bond proceeds, is $10.2 billion. Bonds are usually issued to be paid back within 20 years. It's done this way so the taxpayers who fund projects actually get to enjoy them, Christmas added. It's routine for state and city governments to borrow to maintain and build capital projects, he said, but added there's always room to borrow too much or too little. "There is a balance to strike, that's the most difficult thing," Christmas said. "Voters don't have a whole lot to go on in these questions." Only about one in 10 voters will be familiar with the question or its intent when they see it on the ballot Tuesday, said Matthew Levendusky, a Penn political science professor. The rest, he said, will decide based on their values or won't answer the question at all. >> VOTERS GUIDE: Look up the races and candidates on your ballot in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware The most salient parts of the question, Levendusky said, are the cost and the benefits. A person concerned with the city's debt is more likely to vote "No," while someone who believes that the city needs more spending on parks and other programs is more likely to approve it. Mayor Kenney has asked for more money each year than his predecessor, Michael Nutter. Under Nutter in 2015, voters approved borrowing $155.7 million. In 2016, voters authorized the city to borrow $184.3 million; in 2017, they approved $172 million. Sometimes, the authorized borrowing doesn't happen until years later. For example, the $293 million the city borrowed in 2017 and plans to spend through 2020 was passed by voters in 2015 and 2016. Some of those expenses include resurfacing 131 miles of streets each year, ramp reconstruction to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, renovation of three police district offices plus a new headquarters, new ambulances and fire trucks. In total, the city has an outstanding debt bill of $5.5 billion, including interest, to be paid through 2047. That includes $1.6 billion in general obligation bonds, plus $2.1 billion more for projects such as Lincoln Financial Field, the criminal justice center, the new police headquarters and a 1999 pension bond deal. Under the state constitution, Philadelphia can't have general obligation debt that is 13.5 percent more than the preceding 10-year average of assessed value of taxable real property. By that standard, the city could borrow up to $13.4 billion. However, city officials say that might be an inappropriate debt level, because property valuations have gone up due in part to a switch to market rate assessments and wage taxes, not property taxes, are the main revenue generator for the city. In 2015, city officials agreed its annual debt and long-term obligation payments such as pensions would not exceed 15 percent of general fund expenditures but they were already above that limit that year and have been ever since. In its most recent fiscal year, those obligations equaled 23.3 percent of the general fund budget. (That doesn't include the $104 million it kicked to the school district.) "We're well-aware of the downside of having high fixed costs," city spokesman Mike Dunn said in an email. "But the alternative to borrowing, frankly, is far worse. Without sufficient capital investments, facilities fall into disrepair, city services are disrupted, and public safety to city workers such as first responders and to residents is potentially endangered." The city is in the process of updating its debt management policy, Dunn said. The bond issue on the ballot is separate from Rebuild, the Kenney administration's plan to rehabilitate or rebuild many of the city's recreation centers, parks and libraries. That is expected to be financed in part through a $300 million bond package issued through a city authority; that borrowing does not require voter approval. Camille Parkinson (L) and Taylor Turner, two West Chester high school seniors who have both been active in politics and the gun control movement since the Parkland shooting, walk in West Chester Friday November 2, 2018. Read more Camille Parkinson won't be old enough to vote Tuesday. But that hasn't stopped the 17-year-old from knocking on doors in Chester County and asking people who can vote to do it. "[One woman] said: You're the first person that has come to my door and has talked to me about any candidates, and you're a high schooler," Parkinson recalled. She figures her voice could turn into someone's vote and she has a lot to say. The Henderson High senior is among a wave of young people mobilizing for the midterm elections whether to turn out voters or register themselves and energized specifically by the issue of gun violence. "What bothers me the most is going to school being safe, that's a human right. And I feel like that's being taken away from our generation," Parkinson said at a September gun-control event in Coatesville. "We're ready to fight and get laws changed." The country saw high school students take the national stage after 17 were killed in a February shooting in Parkland, Fla. The teenage survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School spoke to lawmakers, appeared on news channels, and led a march of more than a million in Washington. Students across the country organized sister marches that March and school walkouts in April. Now, students, adult advocates, and polls alike say more young people are politically engaged. Many say the Parkland movement has stirred higher political engagement among a traditionally low-voting swath. Students in Philadelphia, the suburbs, and Pittsburgh are part of organizing efforts to push stricter gun laws; promote local, state, and federal candidates who support those laws; and register voters. Between 10,000 and 17,000 people attended the March for Our Lives in Philadelphia, said chairwoman Serita Lewis. Her chapter has since coordinated town hall meetings, voter registration, and work focusing on urban gun violence. "You finally see a whole bunch of kids who are mobilizing to say something of value, and also like the world is giving them permission," Lewis said. "Just the idea of people listening to the kids, it was really important." It also stirred discussion in neighborhoods plagued by everyday gun violence. The Philadelphia March for Our Lives chapter has worked on "cross-cultural, cross-community" conversation, and students have also helped their parents and relatives decide to vote, Lewis said. "There have been kids being shot in Philadelphia forever. What I loved was Parkland did not forget about those kids," said Parkinson. She was inspired to act partly by the death of Bianca Roberson, who had just graduated from Bayard Rustin High School in West Chester when she was shot dead in a road rage episode in 2017. Eighty percent of likely young voters indicated support for stricter gun laws; gun control was identified as the most important issue by 14- to 29-year-olds, according to an October poll. A Harvard poll last week indicated that voters under 30 are more likely to vote this year than they were in the 2014 and 2010 midterms. Since Parkland, more than 66,000 Pennsylvanians age 18 to 30 have registered to vote in Philadelphia and its four surrounding counties; while registration has increased overall, the jump among 18- to 30-year-olds increased by 234 percent in the nine months after Parkland compared with the nine months before, registration data shows. "I really think that this wave of activism is going to carry into the polls," said Taylor Turner, 17, another Henderson student who has been canvassing and helping classmates register. "I've just seen a lot more people who I generally didn't think would be involved with politics become especially involved." Turner's connection to the issue is personal: She spent her freshman year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. After her family moved back to West Chester, Turner stayed in touch with a group of Florida friends, especially Helena, Em, and Isabela. On Valentine's Day, Turner was shopping in a grocery store when her mother called and told her there been a shooting at her Florida school. Turner frantically texted everyone whose phone number she had. All eventually responded except Helena. The next day Em called. "She was just crying. And I could just tell," Turner recalled. Helena Ramsay, a 17-year-old Turner called "the sweetest person I've ever met," was shot and killed helping one of her best friends shield herself. Turner threw herself into organizing her school's walkout against gun violence, attended the Washington march with Parkinson, and decided to talk at some local events about Ramsay and the shooting. "I realized that I didn't want her death to just become another piece of data in a statistic about mass shootings in schools," Turner said. "I wanted to make sure that if she died because of a student with an AR-15, that her story becomes a piece of the puzzle that will ultimately fix this issue." Two groups Everytown for Gun Safety and one launched by former Arizona Rep. and shooting victim Gabby Giffords have with other organizations registered more than 50,000 youth voters across Pennsylvania and nine other states. March for Our Lives, the national group begun by Parkland students, has been on a voter outreach tour to drive "the largest youth turnout in history." "[It's] a whole generation, the active shooter generation, of kids who are sort of thinking about politics for the very first time. And they're doing it through the lens of gun violence and school shootings," said Peter Ambler, director of Giffords' group. Ritika Bajpai, a 20-year-old from Downingtown, will be voting for the first time. A University of Pittsburgh junior, she helped start a Students Demand Action chapter there after Parkland and has been registering voters and distributing candidate information. Last week, her group held a rally for the victims of the Oct. 27 shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue. "Gun violence has always been an important issue for me," Bajpai said. "I have a 13-year-old brother and my main concern for him would always be is he going to go to school and get shot today?" Watching the passionate pleas by Parkland students after the shooting changed something for the students speaking out now. "Those Parkland students have created such a platform for other students to be able to talk about this and be respected by adults," Turner said. Now, "we're able to talk about it and be able to hold our own at the table." Staff writer Michele Tranquilli contributed to this article. Blue-collar Americans are the backbone of American strength and resilience. In the 1970s, the top 1 percent of earners made 9 percent of the country's income. Today, they make nearly a quarter. Since the recession, CEO pay has soared while workers' wages have remained stagnant, or have at times fallen. All the while, we've watched the slow and steady decline of unions over nearly five decades. Our inability to correct these trends is one of the greatest policy failures of the 21st century, and America's workers are paying for it. But we, the Blue Collar Caucus, have a real opportunity if Democrats win back the majority to help our party pave a path forward that makes the American dream attainable again. In retrospect, it makes sense that President Trump's economic message appealed to blue-collar workers and their families. They rightfully felt like they were forgotten, left behind by a growing economy and by a political system that was prioritizing other issues. Famed businessman Donald J. Trump seemed like he was putting their economic woes front and center. The problem is, President Trump's focus on America's workers started and ended with his campaign rhetoric. Candidate Trump promised us $500 billion to repair 'America's crumbling infrastructure' and boost our middle class. Instead, President Trump gave us a half-baked plan devoting less than half that money to the issue, with no follow through. He promised to punish companies who sent jobs offshore, but instead awarded these same employers with billions in new federal contracts and actually encouraged greater offshoring in his tax legislation. He promised to protect our mining and manufacturing workers, but instead removed labor protections and safety measures. And while he boasted about raising worker wages, they have declined across the country, including in our home states of Texas and Pennsylvania. President Trump has time and time again failed to deliver for blue-collar workers. The broken promises of the Trump administration, and the recklessness of the GOP-led Congress, continue to threaten our middle class. The only thing the GOP will ever be able to peddle are their tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent. The Blue Collar Caucus is ready and motivated to get to work for the other 99 percent. With our better deal agenda for the people, and for this country, we are working to increase the minimum wage to a livable wage, and equip workers with the skills and industry-relevant training to prepare them for in-demand jobs. Now 49 members strong, we are addressing the growing economic strain felt by working families, and reigniting a Democratic platform that champions job growth, economic opportunity, and workers' rights. Spurred by the wake-up call of the 2016 election, we are fighting to reconnect Democrats to their roots with the labor movement, and the labor movement to the Democratic Party. Boosting America's workers and middle-class families is deeply woven into the fabric of the Democratic Party, not a footnote aimed to please big corporations and wealthy donors, as witnessed from Republican leadership in Congress. Choosing businesses over blue-collar workers is a false choice the Republican Party has forced on voters for too long. There is no reason we cannot strengthen American workers and American businesses. Should Democrats win the House majority this November, the Blue Collar Caucus will strive to deliver an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. We're going to support and strengthen unions, which study after study has shown are key to promoting wage growth. And, we're going to safeguard and strengthen programs like Social Security that help our middle class stay strong. Our goal: Empower a thriving middle class where any American, regardless of background or zip code, can find a good job and build a better life for their family. That's what Democrats are fighting for and the Blue Collar Caucus wants to make sure Democrats have a chance to enact this vision next year. Brendan Boyle is the United States Representative for Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District. Marc Veasey is the United States Representative for Texas's 33rd Congressional District. Across Pennsylvania, the increase of opioid abuse has sent thousands of children flooding into the foster-care system. These children have been abandoned or taken from their parents, and in some cases orphaned because their guardians suffered a fatal overdose. This year, the city Department of Human Services (DHS) put out an "urgent" call for more families to foster or adopt children. But we are short by several hundred families. According to data from the Federal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, the increase in the number of children who came into foster care as a result of parental drug abuse was far greater than increases for other reasons, such as housing instability. According to DHS reports, more than half of the children placed in Pennsylvania foster care were removed from their family home because of drug use by one or both parents. This overwhelming burden on the foster-care system is straining the state's limited resources. House Bill 2544, the Adoption and Foster Care Tax Credit, is simple, but its reach could impact the lives of more than 16,000 children in Pennsylvania. This first-of-its-kind legislation would provide a $500 foster-care tax credit and a $1,000 adoption tax credit for families who provide permanency to children in the care of Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services. This legislation could be the motivating factor for people interested in fostering or adopting but concerned about the costs. Foster parents are the forgotten heroes of the system. They provide temporary care in their own homes, bringing stability to a child during a time of trauma. In addition to providing an environment that supports the child's safety and development, they assist the child's parents in resuming responsibility and custody, or in securing an alternative placement of the child for a few days until another family member or opportunity is identified to keep the child safe and move toward family reunification. Foster parents are not paid to care for these children, although they are provided a small stipend to meet the needs of the children in their care. (In Philadelphia, the regular stipend is about $900 per month; in other counties, it is often even lower.) This stipend doesn't put a dent in the costs and the time it takes to care for the child. I see firsthand the adversity that Philadelphia's children face on a daily basis. Our foster-care program helps more than 600 of Philadelphia's children find safe, healthy home environments. Our case managers work closely with all parties involved, including the biological and foster families, DHS, and the court system to address and rectify problems and place children back in their original home. Even a short stay in foster care helps these children and families recover from the crises that led them to become involved in the child welfare system in the first place. Please reach out to your legislator to support this bill and help Pennsylvania pave the way for all states to create better outcomes for Pennsylvania's most vulnerable children. When we see the opioid crisis through the eyes of our children, we have a moral obligation to do something about this. Dawn Holden Woods is CEO of Turning Points for Children, a subsidiary of Public Health Management Corp. Councilmembers William Greenlee (left) and Cindy Bass (right) have introduced a bill that would put common-sense limits on what the pharma sales reps could do. Read more With the ongoing opioid crisis killing over 1,200 Philadelphians last year, a look back at history portrays drug crises coming in waves. Can we learn our lesson and potentially prevent the next one? Or is history doomed to repeat itself? No one can discount that our current opioid public health crisis happened in large part because pharmaceutical companies were prodding doctors to write prescriptions for opioid painkillers. The drug companies, through their sales representatives, told medical professionals that prescription painkillers were safe and the risk of addiction was negligible. We were lied to. Doctors are partly responsible for current circumstances. Not wanting their patients to suffer unnecessarily from pain, many doctors responded to those sales reps and prescribed painkillers. From 1999 to 2010, opioid prescribing in this country quadrupled, reaching staggering levels. In Philadelphia, one in three adults received a prescription for opioids in the past 12 months, and one in seven or about 168,000 adults is currently taking the drugs. As a family physician who also runs an office-based opioid treatment program, I share in the challenges of caring for patients with chronic pain. I feel like few options exist, but also see the hardships when patients become dependent on opioids, may transition to heroin, and have their lives overtaken by addiction. >> READ MORE: Philly doctor: I'm one of 4% of physicians nationwide to provide office-based opioid treatment | Perspective I've always made the conscious choice to be a "pharma-free" physician. I do so because of the notable evidence on the impact of gifts from drug companies on physician prescribing. Undoubtedly, many doctors heard pitches on the efficacy and safety of opioid pain medicines over a lunch or a dinner sponsored by a drug company. Some may even say that the route to a doctor's prescription pad was through their stomach. Under pressure from lawsuits by scores of states and cities (including Philadelphia), the pharma industry may soon be backing off on this technique for opioids. However, we must be cautious about other drugs that can lead to future public health problems. For example, Philadelphia is seeing worrisome increases in sales of amphetamine, a potentially addictive prescription drug. Learning from history, Council members William Greenlee and Cindy Bass have introduced a bill that would put commonsense limits on what the pharma sales reps could do. Under the bill, tactics to promote prescribing in the form of gifts are not allowed; however, there is no moratorium on evidence-based conversations or information sharing. The sales reps would have to send copies of their educational materials to the health department to ensure the integrity of information. The sales reps could no longer give out discount coupons for potentially addictive drugs, a past practice perhaps akin to a dealer giving someone a first bag of heroin for free in the hopes of hooking a person for long-term use. The largest health systems in Philadelphia Jefferson, Temple, and the University of Pennsylvania already have internal policies that are similar to these regulations. And leaders of all of these health systems have endorsed the bill. Of course, the pharma industry is lobbying City Council against it. Drug companies are arguing that they are already regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which is sufficient. Yes, those previous practices have occurred under current FDA regulations, but are they really working? Does a city not have a duty to protect its citizens? The regulations outlined in the proposed bill are neither onerous nor unreasonable as a mechanism to promote public safety. Furthermore, they uphold the integrity and principles of the medical profession. The pharmaceutical industry should embrace it. Current regulatory failures caused a disaster in Philadelphia, and we, as a society, have been left picking up the pieces. It is the responsible thing to do to for Philadelphia the big city hit hardest by the opioid crisis to step in to prevent future public health crises. Across the country, doctors and public health officials have been too slow to recognize and respond to our drug crises. We can't change that history, but we can put in place components of a preventive strategy to avoid the next one. This bill gives me hope that we as a society are learning our lesson for a healthier future for Philadelphia. David T. O'Gurek, M.D., FAAFP, is a family physician and assistant professor in the department of family and community medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross, took heavy criticism for the arrests of two 23-year-old Philadelphia men at a Starbucks near Rittenhouse Square in April. Read more Last month, Juan-Pablo Gonzalez, a black graduate student at Catholic University of America, attempted to do something mundane study in the school's law library. But the library clerk incorrectly told him he needed special permission to do so, and then called campus police on him for being "argumentative." Seven university officers responded and made him leave despite seeing his school ID. Gonzalez's run-in at the library happened within days of a white woman in New York City's falsely accusing a 9-year-old black boy of sexual assault at a Flatbush bodega, leading observers to dub her "Cornerstore Caroline." >> READ MORE: It's time to lock up Cornerstore Caroline and her ilk | Solomon Jones These are just the latest incidents in which white people have been caught on camera calling the police on a black or brown person simply trying to go about daily life. Unfortunately, while some officers have modeled excellent ways to stop themselves from weaponizing the biases of 911 callers, police departments too often fail to adopt appropriate policies to screen and respond to such calls. Case in point is the Philadelphia Police Department. In April, after a Starbucks manager near Rittenhouse Square called 911 on two black men who were waiting for a business associate to arrive, two officers arrested the men for "defiant trespass." Police Commissioner Richard Ross initially responded by saying the officers "did absolutely nothing wrong." He later walked it back, stating: "I should have said the officers acted within the scope of the law, and not that they didn't do anything wrong." The department later revised its policy for defiant trespass arrests, but did not address the role of race and continued to ignore the possibility that 911 callers could be using police to victimize others. These tasks were left to the Philadelphia Police Advisory Commission, the civilian agency that oversees the Police Department and makes non-binding recommendations to departmental leadership. This month, the commission released a report evaluating the Starbucks arrest. >> READ MORE: Review of Starbucks arrests shows racial bias by Philly cops, commission finds The commission found that "the officers were purportedly trying so hard to ignore race that they did not consider race being a factor in the incident even when bystanders were shouting it at them," and that this led the officers to act in inflexible ways that resulted in an avoidable arrest. The commission also noted that some police department leadership took the extremely problematic stance that the officers should have acted no differently even if the manager had requested that "two N-words" be removed from the cafe, stating that as long as the person making the complaint was legally in the right, racial slurs and racist motivation should not matter. In response, the commission recommended a series of changes to training and policies that would have led to a better response in the Starbucks incident and other situations when people call 911 to target black people who are doing nothing wrong. Commissioner Ross' response, however, was jaw-dropping. He wrote, "The PPD cannot agree with the statement that racism has a profound effect on what drives citizen and police contact," and flatly rejected many of the recommendations. The commission recommended that the Police Department "develop a clear and consistent communication strategy to educate the public regarding how and when 911 should be utilized" and take steps to address the weaponization of police by 911 callers. Ross responded that "any messaging by the PPD of when people should or should not call 911 will have a chilling effect" and "compromise the trust in the community that the PPD continually strives to improve." The commission recommended that the Police Department encourage "supervisory assessment of problem-solving skills" to help avoid unnecessary arrests. Commissioner Ross rejected this, too, doubling down on the department's existing "race-blind" approach to racism. This blinkered approach ignores the fact that if a police officer ejects a black or brown person from public space purely on the say-so of a white person who is motivated by racial bias, that officer is enforcing racism. When police allow themselves to be weaponized by biased 911 calls, they put black and brown people at risk, send a message that they must accept living as second-class citizens, and undermine the legitimacy of the police. Starbucks chief operating officer Rosalind Brewer described the April 2018 incident as a "teachable moment" for the company and stated, "Good companies acknowledge their mistakes and learn from them, and then make the necessary changes." Commissioner Ross should take note if a coffee company can acknowledge its own mistakes and change its policies and practices to regain the trust of people of color, the police have no excuse for refusing to do so. Reggie Shuford is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. Carl Takei is a senior staff attorney at the ACLU's Trone Center for Justice and Equality. Samina Mohamedali, left, and her husband Kutub Ganiwalla, members of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, both of North Hills, prepare to place flowers on a memorial in front of the Tree of Life Congregation, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018, in Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Read more On Oct. 27, Americans were again traumatized by another senseless mass shooting, this time during Sabbath morning worship at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The list of mass gun violence locations in the United States seems to be never-ending. Newtown, Conn.; Orlando; San Bernardino, Calif.; Las Vegas; and now Pittsburgh. Many Americans cannot keep up with the names and places. We've sadly come to accept that it is just a matter of time until we hear news of yet another mass shooter in America. At such terrible times, it is hard to find the good, but it is also difficult to miss it when it happens. The actions in Pittsburgh by the Muslim community highlight the good that came amid a tragic event. Both the Pittsburgh Islamic Community's executive director, Wasi Mohamed, and the founder of the Muslim group Celebrate Mercy, Tarek el Messidi, stepped forward in a big way, not with words alone but with action. Messidi's organization started an online campaign to raise $25,000 to help the victims. The fund exceeded this goal within six hours. It increased the goal to $50,000 and again exceeded the goal. Thus far, Celebrate Mercy has raised more $100,000 to help the victims of the shooting. Messidi led two very visible campaigns in the last two years following mass desecration and vandalism at Jewish cemeteries in St. Louis and Philadelphia to help in the cleanup and repair of the graves. Mohamed spoke publicly in Pittsburgh offering the services of his members to help guard the synagogue, provide food for the families of victims, go shopping for them anything they needed to get through the crisis. It comes as a surprise to many that there is cooperation between Muslims and Jews in America. While the examples are not lengthy, I have personally been a witness to the role Jews played in past years in Philadelphia and other places when Muslims purchased land in order to build a mosque and neighbors objected, citing "concerns of having a mosque in their neighborhood." If there was any group of people that stood arm and arm with Muslims in those situations, it was quite often Jews, who never forgot the many years in 20th century America where it was the Jews who were prevented from buying land for synagogues or from entering certain universities, becoming victims of bias by law firms or private clubs that refused admittance to would-be Jewish members. The fact that Americans did not expect these acts of kindness to come from Celebrate Mercy and the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh shows how stereotypes about Muslims and their attitudes toward Jews have come to lower our expectations. The fact that these acts happened is proof that those stereotypes are wrong. The humanity displayed by Muslims in Pittsburgh brings to the fore the tolerant face of Islam often overshadowed by radical and bigoted interpretations of the faith. Now there is hope that these type of efforts at mutual respect and cooperation could continue to help bridge the divide that has so often come between the two communities based on old and new prejudice, and on the inescapable ramifications of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with all its violence and bloodshed. Good will between Jews and Muslims can only pave the way for peace in the Middle East and the rest of the world. Jerry Sorkin, based in Philadelphia, is the founder and president of Iconic Journeys Worldwide. He also serves as the honorary consul for the Republic of Tunisia representing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Washington: At a time when anti-immigrant sentiment is at its peak, nearly 100 Indian-Americans are on the ballot for the midterm elections and have emerged as strong contenders. While all eyes would be on the so-called "Samosa Caucus" -- the unofficial group of five Indian-Americans in the current Congress -- the emergence of such a large number of young Indian-Americans reflects the growing desire of this small ethnic community comprising one per cent of the US population. "It has been incredible to see the rise of Indian-Americans in US politics," Rich Verma, the former US ambassador to India, told PTI. All the four Indian-American lawmakers in the present House of Representatives are expected to easily sail through on Tuesday's midterm polls. They are three-term Congressman Ami Bera from the seventh Congressional district of California and three first timers, who are seeking their re-election: Ro Khanna from 17th Congressional District of California, Raja Krishnamoorthi from eighth Congressional District of Illinois and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from seventh Congressional District of Washington State. The four incumbents are joined by seven other Indian-Americans on the ballot for House of Representatives. Successful entrepreneur Shiv Ayyadurai is the sole Indian-American to be running for Senate. He has pitched himself as an independent against the powerful Elizabeth Warren -- a potential Democratic presidential candidate -- for the Senate seat in Massachusetts. But they are not all. According to some unofficial estimates, more than 100 Indian-Americans are running for various elected offices across the country. "This year, nearly 100 Indian-Americans ran for office in all levels of government, including some who could flip House seats from red to blue," John Santos, spokesperson AAPI media of Democratic National Committee. This election could be transformational -- sending a number of new members into the House of Representatives and state legislatures as well, observed Verma, who has campaigned for several of the Indian-Americans running for offices. "From Arizona, to Texas, Ohio, Michigan and beyond ? we have a great slate of Indian-American candidates," "I hope that our number (in the Congress) increases,? Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi told PTI in an interview. Krishnamoorthi, who has raised more than USD 5 million, according to latest figures of the Federal Election Commission, had coined the term "Samosa Caucus" in the Congress. When Bera was elected for the Congress for the first time six years ago, he had hoped that in a decade, the number of Indian-Americans would be in double digit. If Desis for Progress are to be believed, the community is moving in that direction. At least three of the Indian-Americans are locked up in toss-up races ? Tipirneni, Kulkarni and Pureval. NBC News this week also listed out the three Indian-Americans as the one who could make a difference in their races. Verma feels the only way to give the Indian-American candidates a chance to serve is to get out and vote. "The stakes are so high. This is the most important election of my lifetime." The former American diplomat said he was disappointed and concerned at the "racist, anti-immigrant" closing argument made by the President Donald Trump and thinks this kind of fearmongering should concern all Americans, but particularly immigrants them. "We have to stand up and be heard at the ballot box so we can stamp out the fear and hate, and prop up the terrific crop of candidates who have shown the courage to run and who are running on a very positive, inclusive and pro-growth agenda," he said. Krishnamoorthi echoed Verma, saying it all starts with voters getting out and making sure that their voice is heard on the election day. "I want to see greater number (of Indian-Americans for elected office) and I'd like to see them happen across the geographic landscape." According to Santos, these candidates have put districts in play that Trump won because they are talking about the issues that matter to voters, like protecting access to quality and affordable healthcare and investing in higher education. "The DNC is proud to have the backs of Indian-American candidates running up and down the ticket who are working hard to engage diverse constituencies and expand participation of communities who often feel ignored and left behind," Santos added. Bhopal: The Congress on Monday released its third list of 13 candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. Of the 16, five candidates are for reserved seats. The names of Congress state unit chief Kamal Nath and poll campaign committee in-charge Jyotiradtiya Scindia are not on the lists. They are touted to be frontrunners for the chief minister's post if the party wins. Congress releases third list of 13 candidates for #MadhyaPradesh assembly polls pic.twitter.com/6bp25tMHzd ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 On Sunday the grand old party had released its second list of 16 candidates while a day before it had released a list of 155 candidates for the 230-member MP Assembly. The Congress is expected to announce the remaining candidates shortly, a party leader said. The BJP stole a march on the Congress Friday by releasing its first list of 177 candidates for the assembly polls, fielding Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Budhni seat. Polls for Madhya Pradesh assembly will be held on November 28 while the results will be announced on December 11. (With inputs from agencies) Mumbai: Budget carrier GoAir on Monday announced special low fare to celebrate its thirteen successful years of operation GoAir is offering its customers a 13 day special sale across all sectors with ticket starting as low as Rs 1,313 (all-inclusive) for the travel period from November 5 to November 18. GoAir said that this offer is available across all routes that GoAir operates. This offer is available for travel period from November 5 to November 4, 2019. The company said that this offer is not valid on infant bookings and group discount is not applicable on this offer. It can not be clubbed with any other on-going promotional offer too. We are proud to celebrate over decade of service excellence and to commemorate these successful years in the domestic skies, we are offering 13 lakh seats across our network with special low fare offer. This milestone would not have been possible without the loyalty and support of millions of guests who have chosen to fly with us, Cornelis Vrieswijk, CEO, GoAir said. Last month GoAir launched two international route with non-stop air services to Phuket and Male. GoAir became eligible to fly overseas two years ago when it took delivery of its 20th aircraft, which was also the first Airbus A320Neo for the airline. GoAir, which commenced its domestic operations in November 2005, is the sixth domestic airline to fly international. The airline will fly three times a week from Mumbai and two times per week from New Delhi, it said, adding that services from Mumbai will be operated on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday and from Delhi on Wednesday and Saturday. NEW DELHI: Delhi's landmark - Signature Bridge which was inaugurated by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal amid high drama and political slugfest over taking credit, will be opened for the general public on Monday. Delhi Congress President Ajay Maken had attacked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for taking credit in bringing infrastructural developments which were started by his party. "Congress conceptualised and built the Signature Bridge. AAP government first delayed the project - now taking the credit. Kejriwal should have respectfully invited Sheila Dikshit and J.P Agarwal - as they were the real architects of this project," Maken told the media. Meanwhile, Delhi BJP unit chief Manoj Tiwari, who entered into a scuffle with AAP members during the inauguration of 'Signature Bridge' here, Sunday alleged that an AAP MLA threatened to shoot him. He alleged that a few policemen also misbehaved with him. "The policemen who entered into a scuffle with me have been identified. The additional DCP-I of this area is saying that some AAP volunteers were injured. I will show them what police is in just four days," an agitated Tiwari said. The BJP leader and his supporters had reached the venue of the inaugural function. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy were not present when the protest took place. Tiwari had expressed displeasure over not being invited to the function and took a dig at the Kejriwal government, saying he would be present at the bridge to welcome the chief minister. In a party statement, the BJP said, "AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan attacked the Delhi BJP president at the instance of Kejriwal". Khan, however, denied the charges. Signature Bridge All You Need To Know Signature Bridge over the Yamuna river is double the height of Qutub Minar and has been delayed over 14 years. The new landmark connects the Wazirabad across the river Yamuna to the inner city and will reduce the travel time between north and northeast Delhi. Inaugurating the bridge with a 154-metre pylon, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia said that it will be a centre of attraction among local and international tourists who come to Delhi to visit historical monuments and buildings like India Gate and Qutub Minar. The bridge will be a big relief to a huge number of commuters who were earlier stuck up in long traffic jams over a narrow bridge in Wazirabad area. The Western and Eastern approaches to the bridge will connect the nearby areas like Timarpur, Nehru Vihar, Wazirabad, Aruna Nagar, Mukherjee Nagar on Ring Road to Bhajanpura on Mangal Pandey Marg. The bridge will reduce the commuting time between northeast areas and the inner city from 45 minutes to just 10 minutes, saving the pollution and fuel, a government statement said. The boomerang-shaped pylon consists of two inclined columns, which are rigidly connected to the driving lanes and bend mid-way. The upper portion of the pylon anchors the backstay cables as well as the main-span cables, arranged in a harp-like manner, the statement said. The pylon from a distance looks like hands folded in a greeting posture. Its top is created by a 22-metre high steel-glass structure, which will provide a panoramic view of Delhi. Visitors will be taken in four elevators with a total capacity of carrying 50 people to a 154-metre-high glass box on the top of the bridge to provide them a bird's-eye view of the city, the statement said. Announced in 2004, the bridge missed several deadlines since 2011. The proposal for the bridge, mooted in 2004, received approval of the Delhi Cabinet in 2007. It was initially expected to be completed at a modified estimate of Rs 1,131 crore for the Commonwealth Games, held in Delhi in October 2010. In 2015, the cost of the project rose to Rs 1,594 crore. Sisodia claimed that the actual work on the bridge started when AAP came to power in 2015 although the idea of it was conceived way back in 1997 by the then Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma. He also said that an additional cost of around Rs 350 was raised by engineers as there was a huge underground rock and it needed to be stabilised for safety. He also alleged that the Centre created "obstacles" so that the bridge was not completed in Arvind Kejriwal regime. New Delhi; Sitting on his haunches, 64-year-old Satya Prakash Shukla carefully waits for the sound of a potential customer amidst the droning hubbub of Delhi's posh Khan Market. With a colourful spread of packed diyas in front of him, he moves his fingers deftly from one stack to another to pick out the products his visitors ask for, offering them the same with a smile. "It doesn't matter how many customers I get. God has provided for me and my wife all these years. Why should I worry about sales now?" the blind hawker said. While Shukla might be indifferent to the profits he makes this Dhanteras, retailers across the city have a different story to tell. "Online market has entirely killed our sales," Suraj Singh of Aastha Steel Centre in east Delhi's Mayur Vihar said. Singh, whose modest shop is lined with a wide array of kitchen utensils, hasn't had a very festive Dhanteras in the last few years. "Earlier we would get large pre-Diwali orders of 500-700 items like cookers, tiffin sets, but now nobody is looking for such big orders. They only buy one or two items like spoons, steel plates, or bowls," he said. On the other hand, leading e-commerce websites are looking forward to Diwali. Their market share has only strengthened over the years, they said. With a focus on the next "100 million buyers", Snapdeal, an India-based e-commerce website, told PTI that it has seen a 2.5-times increase in orders this year and 75 per cent of all orders were received from non-metro cities. "Till now e-commerce has been about relatively homogenous metro buyers, relatively high-income and voracious internet users. Now the market is rapidly expanding beyond the first 100 million e-commerce buyers. The socio-economic demographics are now spread over a wider spectrum," a Snapdeal spokesperson said. The most popular items purchased on the online shopping website during the 2018 Diwali sale were sarees, bedsheets, utensils, among other products. Besides the competition from online market, Mukesh Goyal of Kriti Creations blames the increasing prices of decorative and festive essentials for a dampened sale year after year. "The common man is troubled with increasing prices. Essential items like statues of deities are taxable, camphor, which is important for Diwali rituals, is selling with 18 per cent GST. Earlier we had to pay only 5 per cent VAT on it," he said. Goyal, who is the third generation owner of the year-round festival shopping store in Khan Market, added that owing to such increasing prices "people choose online retailers, who get foreign funding and can afford bigger discounts and offers". Despite a seemingly excited crowd thronging Goyal's shop, he said that the sales this year have not improved as the people "who used to buy statues worth Rs 21,000, are going away with those of Rs 1,100". "Nobody is placing large gift orders anymore" is a common sentiment resonating among local sellers like Singh and Goyal. "Earlier customers used to send orders for gift hampers, today nobody is interested in them. They are more into small decorative items only," Goyal said. However, major e-commerce website, Amazon India shared data indicating that the market wasn't as bad for the local sellers as it seemed. A large part of the inventories of the online shopping portals was being provided by offline retailers, it said. In its "Great Indian Festival" held between October 10-15, the e-commerce giant saw "new sellers growing by 300 per cent in sales over an average business day with 7,000 sellers crossing the millionaire mark". Snapdeal too believed in providing offline sellers with a "platform to start and grow their digital enterprises, even as they nurture their traditional, offline businesses." New Delhi: The Congress party has once again geared up to observe 'black day' on November 8, Thursday to mark the second anniversary of demonetisation. The Centre, however, has been standing firm on its much-criticised decision to ban old currency notes of high denomination. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not mention about the aim to reduce cash transactions in his November 8 speech last to last year, the government later said that the note ban was also aimed at to make India a less-cash economy. The Congress had been training guns at the Modi government for the move, a failure. In March, on the eve of five hundred days of demonetisation, the Congress had compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a 'sheep' with 'harebrained idea'. Taking to Twitter, the grand old party had shared, "Today marks 500 days of one of the greatest disasters in Indian history. On this day, we remember all those innocent people who lost their lives because of one persons harebrained idea #DemoDisaster." In the accompanying image, the party had written, "#DeMonetisation reminds us of sheep who cheered when their leader promised them a blanket each. Till one sheep asked, 'Where will the wool come from?' - Merwyn Ferrao" LUCKNOW: Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has issued has issued a new fatwa banning Muslims women from cutting their nails and using nail polish. However, applying mehendi on nails is not forbidden. Darul Iftaa, which issues the Darul Uloom Deobands edicts, called the act un-Islamic. "Darul-Uloom Deoband has issued fatwa against Muslim women cutting their nails and using nail polish because it un-Islamic. Rather women should use mehendi on their nails, said Mufti Ishrar Gaura, member of Darul-Uloom Deoband. The Islamic seminary is known for issuing bizarre fatwas. Last year, it issued a fatwa banning Muslim women from plucking, trimming, shaping their eyebrows and cutting hair. Hair adds to beauty of Muslim women and they should never get them cut, pointed the fatwa. Muslim women should stay away from beauty parlours as Islam does not permit them to have make-up attracting other male members, said Maulana L Sadiq Qasmi, head of Darul Iftaa, while issuing the fatwa. Like Muslim male are not allowed to shave under Islam, eyebrow trimming, hair-cutting and make-up like wearing lipstick, etc is also banned, he said. Trend of Muslim women going to beauty parlours has increased in the country. It is not a good sign and it should be stopped immediately. We should have issued a fatwa in this regard long ago, said he. The seminary had issued another fatwa banning Muslims from posting pictures on social media sites. Darul Uloom Deoband, which is one of the largest Islamic seminaries in India, is based in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district. New Delhi: While Shah Rukh Khan's 'Zero' trailer has received a thunderous response, a Delhi Akali Dal MLA on Monday filed a complaint against the Bollywood superstar and others for allegedly hurting Sikh sentiments in his movie. Almost everyone seems to be talking about the trailer that is high on emotions and entertainment, however, according to MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the trailer has severely hurt Sikh sentiments. The much-awaited trailer of Zero, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif, was unveiled on November 2. The film presents SRK as a vertically challenged man Bauua Singh. Bauua Singh is in search of a perfect bride until he meets Anushka Sharma, a differently abled woman confined to her wheelchair. Considered shorter than the society standards, Bauua thinks the wheelchair girl Anushka is the only woman who he can look in the eye and talk. Love blossoms between them but destiny has different plans for the ambitious Bauua, who then meets Katrina Kaif, an actress. Check them the trailer here: Red Chillies Entertainment and Colour Yellow Productions come together to bring ZERO, produced by Gauri Khan. The Aanand L Rai directorial is all set to release on December 21, 2018. Raipur: Union minister Smriti Irani on Monday said the Indian economy would become "bigger and stronger" than the British economy in the next couple of years. She said the country was moving towards economic empowerment under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "It is being considered at the global level that India has strengthened economically. It is also being considered that, in the next couple of years, India is going to be a stronger and bigger economy than the British who had ruled our country," the Textiles Minister said while addressing a press conference here. Irani was in Raipur for campaigning for the state assembly polls scheduled to be held in two phases on November 12 and 20. "This (the growth of the economy) could be possible because of the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and through the support of the welfare schemes launched by the NDA government, along with the schemes launched by the BJP-ruled states," she said, adding that "We have gradually moved towards economic empowerment and building a new India". Irani alleged that the country was under a huge debt under the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government. "In comparison to the economic condition which the previous UPA government had left in 2014--at that time the country was under huge debt and facing economic crises due to huge number of scams---today the BJP-led NDA government has been able to take the country out of such situation and is striving ahead with the dream of achieving a new India," she said. Responding to a query on Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar's remarks on naxalism which he had made in Raipur, Irani said, "it was a matter of shame for the Congress as its a leader sees revolution in killing of innocent people and security forces" "If Raj Babbar sees revolution in the killing of innocent people, those (naxals) who dare to kill our security personnel, who take law in their hands, then it is a matter of great shame for the Congress. "I am surprised that senior Congress leaders have not yet dismissed such statements in the public domain and their silence gives encouragement to such statements. The Congress should reject such statements at least in the name of national security and upholding the Indian Constitution. Such statement should be condemned widely," said the minister. Irani was referring to the remarks made by Babbar on November 3 when he had said that Naxals had launched "revolution" which cannot be stopped through guns, and the menace should be resolved through talks. Babbar had said that what he meant was that the issue can be resolved through talks with those "who call themselves revolutionaries by indulging in acts of terrorism". Varanasi: A Pakistani national, Jalaluddin, who was released from Varanasi Central Jail on Sunday after 16 years, took home Bhagavad Gita with him. Jalaluddin was arrested from Varanasi`s Cantonment area with suspicious documents and is now on his way back to his country. Senior Superintendent of Varanasi Central Jail Ambrish Gaud told the media that in 2001, Jalaluddin hailed from Sindh province in Pakistan, and was arrested from the Cantonment area. He was nabbed near the Air Force office by the police with some suspicious documents. The police had recovered maps of the Cantonment area and other important places from Jalaluddin. A court had then sentenced the Pakistani national to 16 years of imprisonment. Gaud elucidated, "He was imprisoned under the Official Secrets Act and Foreigner`s Act. He has been handed over to the local police. He has taken a copy of (Bhagavad) Gita with him." "When he was arrested, he had only graduated from high school. He completed his intermediate and did his MA from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). He also undertook an electrician course as well in the jail. He had been an umpire in the jail cricket leagues for the last three years," he added. A special team has taken Jalaluddin to Amritsar, where he will be handed over to concerned authorities at the Wagah-Attari border, following which he will return to Pakistan. NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has suggested that the All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi may not be the prime ministerial candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Kerala MP said that his party would certainly have alliances with other parties before going into the polls but a decision of the PM candidate would be taken collectively. The decision on the prime ministerial face of the Congress-led alliance would be a collective one as party has a broader notion of a leader unlike the BJP, he said. Tharoor said that there is no dearth of talented and capable leaders in the party and mentioned the likes of Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram for their excellent track record in their political career. We had people like Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, and others having a tremendous track record, he stated. Tharoor, however, said that Rahul is the unquestionable choice of Congress workers as their leader. The Thiruvananthapuram MP maintained that if free and fair elections are held, Congress led by Rahul Gandhi would win big in polls. After his controversial scorpion analogy, the Congress MP yet again took a dig at PM Narendra Modi and called him a "hero on a white stallion with an upraised sword in his hand". He also accused the PM of being a one-man government before whom everybody is dancing. Tharoor also claimed that India now has the "most centralised PMO" in its history. "Every decision is taken by the PMO (prime minister's office). Every file has to be sent to the PMO for approval," he claimed. Tharoor had courted a fresh controversy at the Bangalore Literature Festival on Sunday when he claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had compared PM Modi to "a scorpion sitting on a Shivling" and "you cannot remove him with your hand and you cannot hit it with a chappal either". Inteestingly, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had last month said that the Congress has never officially said that its president Rahul Gandhi should be the prime minister if an opposition alliance formed the next government. He insisted the Congress focus was on dislodging the BJP government and bringing in a progressive alternative. The Congress party has not officially said Rahul Gandhi should be installed as prime minister. When one or two persons spoke about it, the AICC leadership asked them not to discuss the issue. An alliance should take shape, that alliance should win, and the alliance parties will decide who will be the PM, Chidambaram had said this in an interview to a Tamil TV channel. London: A new sculpture in honour of Indian soldiers who fought during World War I was unveiled on Sunday in the town of Smethwick in the West Midlands region of England on Sunday. Guru Nanak Gurdwara Smethwick had commissioned the "Lions of the Great War" monument, which depicts a turbaned Sikh soldier, to honour the sacrifices made by millions of South Asian service personnel of all faiths who fought for Britain in the world wars and other conflicts as part of the British Indian Army. "We are very proud to be bringing this memorial to Smethwick High Street to honour the sacrifice of all those brave men who travelled thousands of miles to fight for a country that wasn't their own,? said Jatinder Singh, President of Guru Nanak Gurdwara Smethwick. A 3-metre statue of a Sikh soldier has been unveiled in Birmingham, UK to commemorate 100 years since the end of World War 1. Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Smethwick commissioned the 30,000 work by Black Country sculptor, Luke Perry, which has been paid for by the local Sikh community. pic.twitter.com/VLHb5krgWm Harjinder Singh Kukreja (@SinghLions) November 4, 2018 The 10-foot bronze statue was unveiled in Smethwick High Street to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I in November 1918, also referred as the Great War. The new 'Lions of the Great War' monument has been placed between the High Street and Tollhouse Way in the town of Smethwick as part of a community project and collaboration between the gurdwara and the local Sandwell Council. The gurdwara donated around 20,000 pounds for the sculpture, with the council investing in creating the public space with seating and lighting to house the new monument. "It's so important we remember the sacrifices made by people for our country," said Councillor Steve Eling, Leader of Sandwell Council. Designed by local West Midlands artist Luke Perry, the statue stands on a granite plinth with inscriptions naming the regiments in which South Asian soldiers served during the Great War. "When I realised more than 1.5 million Indian soldiers had been sent to World War I, I just could not understand why their contribution had been ignored for so long in this country," said Perry. "Indians of all religions fought in the war and we are such a diverse multicultural country in part because of the sacrifices they made, so this is a wonderful statement which will be perfect for the Commonwealth Games and everything they represent," he said, in reference to the 2020 Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham, just west of Smethwick. The unveiling of the statue this Sunday comes just a week before Armistice Day on November 11, marked annually in an elaborate wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in central London led by Queen Elizabeth II, as well as other smaller events around the country. Earlier this week in the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Theresa May had paid tribute to the Indian soldiers who had fought as part of the British Indian Army. "Over 74,000 soldiers came from undivided India and lost of their lives; 11 of them won the Victoria Cross for their outstanding bravery and played a crucial role in the war across multiple continents," she said on Wednesday, when she also pledged to adorn a khadi poppy in honour of these soldiers. The Poppy Appeal is an annual fundraising campaign for war veterans held in the lead up to Armistice Day, with politicians and members of the public across the country wearing a cloth-based poppy on their lapels as a sign of respect for the war dead. A khadi version of the poppy was launched by Indian-origin peer Lord Jitesh Gadhia and the Royal British Legion for the first time this year as an ?evocative symbol? of undivided India's contribution to the war effort. London; Hackers have gained access to private messages of nearly 120 million Facebook accounts and already published such messages from 81,000 accounts for generating money, the BBC reported. Several users whose details have been compromised were based in Ukraine and Russia but some were also from the UK, US, Brazil and elsewhere, thereport said on Friday. "The hackers offered to sell access for 10 cents per account. However, their advert has since been taken offline," it added. The breach was first discovered in September and the messages were reportedly obtained through unnamed rogue browser extensions. Facebook, however, said its systems were not breached as part of the hack. "We have contacted browser-makers to ensure that known malicious extensions are no longer available to download in their stores," Guy Rose, Vice President of Product Management at Facebook, was quoted as saying. "We have also contacted law enforcement and have worked with local authorities to remove the website that displayed information from Facebook accounts." The BBC Russian Service contacted five Russian Facebook users whose private messages had been uploaded and confirmed the posts were theirs. "One example included photographs of a recent holiday, another was a chat about a recent Depeche Mode (British rock band) concert and a third included complaints about a son-in-law," the report said. In the biggest-ever security breach after Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook in October admitted that hackers broke into nearly 50 million users' accounts by stealing their "access tokens" or digital keys. Rosen had said that Facebook fixed the vulnerability and reset the access tokens for a total of 90 million accounts -- 50 million that had access tokens stolen and 40 million that were subject to a "View As" look-up in 2017. Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC), which is Facebook's lead privacy regulator in Europe, has opened a formal investigation into this data breach that could result in a fine of $1.63 billion. According to Digital Trends, the latest hack involves the use of browser extensions. "It is always best to check which source an extension is coming from, and which permissions it is being granted access to," it said. BENGALURU: The Karnataka government has given its consent to hold Tipu Jayanti celebrations in the state. However, no one will be allowed to hold processions on the occassion. "The government will celebrate Tipu Jayanti, but all processions, both for and against have been banned. We have requested 10 companies of RAF from Centre. All officers have been informed," Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said. The government has warned of stern action against those trying to violate law and order that day. The Karnataka government had on Sunday attacked the Bharatiya janata Party (BJP) for trying to disturb communal harmony over the issue of 'Tipu Jayanti' celebrations on November 10. "BJP has been trying to disturb communal harmony on the Tipu Jayanti issue. We will not allow them to do it. Any attempt to disrupt law and order will be dealt with an iron hand," Parameshwara said. The birth anniversary celebrations of Tipu Sultan, the 18th century ruler of the princely state of Mysore, have been held on November 10 by the state government since 2016. The government's decision to celebrate the day on November 10 2016 had drawn flak from BJP and the RSS, who had termed it as "minority appeasement". Meanwhile, union minister Ananthkumar Hegde had requested the state government not to include his name in the invitation card for the event. But Parameshwara said that Hegde's name had already been included in he card and it was up to him to decide whether he wanted to attend the function or not. Hegde had made a similar request last year also. In 2016,he had flayed the government for celebrating Tipu Jayanti despite opposition from some sections of society living in coastal belts and Kodagu areas, claiming that the ruler was "against Kannada language and anti-Hindu". Subsequently, Hegde was arrested for threatening to disrupt celebrations in Uttara Kannada district. Another minister Jayamala, without naming BJP, said she was at a loss to understand why some people were upset over the celebrations and requested that everyone cooperate to ensure that the event passed off smoothly. SABARIMALA: As the Lord Ayyappa temple opens Monday for a special puja, a thick security cover has been put in place after violent protests were witnessed last month against the entry of women of all ages into the shrine. Orders banning assembly of four or more people have been imposed in Sabarimala and nearby areas, police said on Sunday. Around 2,300 personnel, including a 20-member commando team and 100 women, have been deployed to ensure smooth 'darshan' and security of devotees, a move that came in for criticism from the erstwhile royal family of Pandalam, the BJP and the Congress for such fortification. If necessary, around 30 women police personnel in the rank of circle inspector and sub-inspector and above the age of 50 would be deployed at 'Sannidhanam' (temple complex) for security, they said. Pathnamthitta Superintendent of Police T Narayanan told PTI that all arrangements have been made for devotees to have smooth 'darshan.' Ayyappa devotees from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have already reached Erumeli and they will be permitted to go to 'sannidhanam' only on Monday. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPc, banning assembly of four or more people, is in force at Pamba, Nilackal, Elavungal, and Sannidhanam for 72 hours from midnight Saturday. This is the second time the hill temple would open for 'darshan' after the Supreme Court allowed entry of women of all age groups into it. The temple had witnessed high drama last month following frenzied protests leading to around a dozen women in the age group of 10-50 being prevented from reaching it and police and the agitators fighting a pitched battle over the LDF government's decision to implement the court order. The shrine would open at 5 PM on Monday for the "Sree Chitira Atta Thirunal" special puja slated for the next day, marking the birthday of the last king of Travancore Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, and close at 10 PM on that day. Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru and chief priest Unnikrishnan Namboodiri would jointly open the temple doors and light the lamp at the 'Sreekovil' (sanctum sanctorum). Devaswom Minister, Kadakampally Surendran, said the government would ensure complete protection to believers. So far no women in the 'barred' age group had approached police for protection to offer prayers at the hill shrine, he said. A high-level meeting of senior police officers was held to take stock of the situation. During last month's pujas, media persons were attacked by a section of protesters and police had to face criticism. Dismissing reports that media was being restrained from going to Sabarimala, Kerala Director General of Police Loknath Behara said there was no bar on entry of journalists. No restriction of any sort has been imposed on media persons, he said. "To ensure necessary protection to the media, we are not allowing them now. As soon as security arrangements are complete, media will be allowed in Sabarimala and nearby places." The Pandalam royal family, closely associated with the Ayyappa shrine, said it was "pained" at the heavy security in and around Sabarimala. "Saddened that devotees will have to offer prayers at the shrine amid thick police cover," it said. Protesting the apex court verdict, a 'prayer yagna' will be held, the family said. Meanwhile, the Sabarimala Karma Samiti, a platform of right-wing outfits, including VHP, appealed to media houses not to depute women journalists in the menstrual age group to cover the developments in Sabarimala. In its letter to editors, a copy of which was released to the media, it said even the entry of women journalists belonging to this age group as part of their job was also likely to aggravate the situation. The Samiti alleged that even though the Supreme Court has decided to hear the review and writ petitions on the issue on November 13, the state government was intentionally ignoring the "mass movement" against the judgement and was trying to "hastily" enforce it using police force. "In such a situation, the devotees are left with no other choice but to continue with the peaceful agitation," it said. Objecting to the Samiti's appeal, the Network of Women in Media, India said it was 'unjustified' and 'unacceptable interference' in the functioning of the media and an 'unfair obstacle' in the way of journalists who happen to be women wishing to cover an important story of public interest. "We believe that the Samithi's stand amounts to depriving women journalists of their right to respond to the call of professional duty and responsibility. It also goes against the freedom of expression and right to information that are fundamental rights to which all citizens are entitled," it said. Meanwhile, activist Rahul Easwar, president of Ayyappa Dharma Sena that is among the outfits spearheading the protests, in a video message said, "Like police, we are also fully prepared". Easwar, belonging to the Thazhamon family of Sabarimala thantris, was arrested twice last month in connection with the protests in and around Sabarimala against the government's decision to implement the court verdict and also for making certain remarks. He is out on bail. As of Sunday, the police have registered 545 cases and arrested 3,731 persons who protested last month when the temple opened for six days. Only around 100 are still in jail, while the rest have secured bail. (With Agency Inputs) AGARTALA: Days after advising the youths to milk cows for livelihood, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has announced that he will distribute cows to 5,000 families to motivate cattle rearing in the northeastern state. Deb further announced that he will introduce cows at the Chief Ministers official residence and so that his families milk demand is fulfilled from it. ''Today, I am announcing that I will start domestication of cows at the CM residence along with my family and will consume its milk. This will also inspire people of Tripura to do the same and would help fight malnutrition,''the Tripura CM said. Today I am announcing that I will start domestication of cows at the CM residence along with my family and will consume its milk. This will also inspire people of Tripura to do the same and would help fight malnutrition: Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb (4.11) pic.twitter.com/kAn8Vqq6R3 ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 ''We're about to launch a scheme for distributing cows among 5,000 families. I'm not against setting big industries but in that one has to invest Rs 10,000 crores for employing 2,000 people but if I give 10,000 cows to 5,000 families they'll start earning in 6 months, Deb said. We're about to launch a scheme for distributing cows among 5000 families.I'm not against setting big industries but in that one has to invest Rs 10,000 crores for employing 2000 people but if I give 10,000 cows to 5000 families they'll start earning in 6 months: Tripura CM (4.11) pic.twitter.com/PKEYs3tzeA ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 ''Is there any industry that starts giving income in six months time, it takes six months for purchasing land, he asked. Deb said this at the end of the valedictory program of the three-day Chintan Shibir at Pragna Bhavan in Agartala on Sunday. The young Tripura CM had sometimes back advised the youths of his state to milk cows instead of running after politicians for a government job. There should be a cow in every house. Why run after 'netas' for government jobs? Milk is being sold at Rs 50 per litre. Graduates should get cows and milk them to earn Rs 10 lakh in 10 years instead of running after political parties, Deb said. Deb made these remarks while speaking at a seminar organised by the Tripura Veterinary Council at Agartala. The Chief Minister had earlier been in the news for criticisng model-actor Diana Hayden and his views on the existence of internet during Mahabharat. He went further to suggest that if milking cows does not work, opening a 'paan' shop, too, could be a good career choice. New Delhi: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan hosted a grand, starry Diwali bash at his residence a day back and almost the entire industry turned up. His palatial house Mannat was decorated in the most beautiful way and illuminated the entire surrounding. The mind-blowing lightings made it appear as if literally the celebs were walking on the stars. Several pictures from the Diwali bash went viral and one such was the family portrait of the Khans. SRK posed with wifey Gauri, daughter Suhana and little AbRam. The only one missing from the family photo of elder son Aryan. Check out the pictures shared by Gauri Khan on Instagram: SRK's Diwali bash saw most of the celebs dressed in black and they really looked breathtakingly beautiful. From Kareena Kapoor Khan, Karisma Kapoor, Shweta Bachchan Nanda, Amrita Arora, Malaika Arora to Karan Johar, Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif, Varun Dhawan, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sonakshi Sinha and Shraddha Kapoor among various others were seen having a gala time together. This year Diwali will be celebrated on November 7. On work front, the king of romance will be seen in Aanand L Rai's 'Zero', the trailer of which released a few days back and stormed the internet. The movie also stars Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif in lead roles. The trio has previously worked in late legendary filmmaker Yash Chopra's 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan' in 2012. 'Zero' will hit the screens on December 21, 2018. Lakshmi Devi also referred to as the Goddess of wealth and prosperity is worshipped on Diwali. An elaborate Puja is performed and the Goddess is worshipped by devotees to usher in Lakshmi (wealth). Men, women and children dressed in new clothes gear up to welcome the Maa Lakshmi in the evening by keeping open the doors of their home. Beautiful rangoli made of flowers/ colours and other decorative items adorn the threshold of the house and torans or door hangings enhance the beauty of the entrance. Businessmen open their new books of accounts and also initiate new ventures on this day. The Tithi on which Lakshmi Pujan is performed coincides with Amasya or new moon day. This year the Tithi begins at 22:27 on November 6 and ends at 21:31 on November 7, according to drikpanchang.com. According to drikpanchang.com: Pradosh Kaal timings - 17:27 to 20:06 Vrishabha Kaal timings- 17:57 to 19:53 Lakshmi Pujan timings - 17:57 to 19:53 On this day, people worship Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi to ensure wealth arrives with goodness meaning Labh is Shubh. Lakshmi Pujan Vidhi: Finalise a spot at your home where you would like to perform the Pujan. The Mandir area in your home can also be used for performing Lakshmi Pujan. Clean the spot with Ganga Jal (water) or plain water. Put a piece of Yellow or red cloth on a wooden platform. Put a small Rangoli made of rice flour. Respectfully place the idol or photo of Goddess Lakshmi on the platform. Put a handful of grains on the platform rather towards the right or left of the idol or photo. The next step will be to prepare a 'Kalash'. Fill the 'Kalash' with water, one supari, a marigold flower, coin and rice. You also need to keep five mango leaves, which will be used in the 'Kalash'. Place an uncut coconut with is fibre protruding upward in such a manner that the mango leaves remain partly inside and partially outside facing upward. The next step is to prepare a traditional 'puja ki thali', comprising rice grains, which will have to be placed in a heap (not too high). Then, with the help of turmeric powder (also known as 'haldi'), draw a lotus flower over it. Once your drawing is completed, gracefully place your beautiful Lakshmi idol over it. As is known to all, goddess Lakshmi is our supreme source of livelihood, kindly place some coins before the idol (Maa will feel happy). According to Hindu beliefs, Lord Ganesha is invoked before any god or goddess when performing a puja or Havan. Therefore, you will also have to place a Ganpati idol on the right side of the 'Kalash' (making sure that it is the South-West direction). As per rituals in our Hindu religion, welcome the lord with putting a haldi-kumkum tilak on the forehead. Offer some rice grains to the Ganpati idol. Once the Lakshmi-Ganesha idols are strategically placed, you can also seek the blessings of the god and goddess by keeping your books, pen or any such personal belonging (you feel is related to your profession). With all this done, now is the time to light the lamp. Light a special Diwali Diya, and place it on the 'puja ki thali'. Also, with it put some more rice grains kumkum and flowers. You will also have to remember to keep aside a glass of water which will be used during the puja. Now, as you proceed to perform the pujastart with putting a 'tilak' on the 'Kalash', also apply it on a glass of water which you kept it aside for puja. Offer some flowers also. Now starts the process of invoking the goddess. If you know how to correctly chant the Vedic mantras of Lakshmi Maasing it, if you can'tworry not. Take some flowers and rice grains in your hand, close your eyes with full devotion bow your head down before the goddess and chant her holy name. Afterwards, offer the flowers and rice in your hand to the goddess. Once the goddess is invoked, take the Lakshmi idol and put in a plate, while bathing it with water. Put the 'panchamrit', and clean the idol again with pure water. Now, carefully clean the idol, wipe out the water and place it on the 'Kalash'. Now is your turn to apply haldi-kumkum tilak to the mother goddess, and yes don't forget the rice grains. Welcome the goddess with a freshly-made garland of flowers. You can also offer some marigold and Bel. To get that aromatic feel, light up some incense sticks before the goddess. You will then have to please the goddess offering her some sweets, as it is the festival of wonderful mithais. Place the coconut in front of the goddess. You will also have to place the supari on a supari leafagain beautifying it with some haldi-kumkum and rice grains. Also add some puffed rice, coriander seeds and cumin seeds. What follows is, offering the Mother goddess your favourite Diwali mithai, fruits, money, or any precious jewellery item. Lastly, the entire puja culminates with a Lakshmi Aarti, where everyone joins in the celebratory mood and prays to the Mother goddess together. With folded hands, we immerse ourselves before the goddess Lakshmi and in our honest askings pray for prosperity and well-being. Google Doodle on Monday honoured Greek computer scientist Michael Leonidas Dertouzos on his birth anniversary. Dertouzos was the first person who foresaw the tremedous impact internet in the daily lives of people. Dertouzos predicted the popularity of personal computers and helped to maximize their potential as director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Laboratory for Computer Science, writes Google. Born in Athens, Greece on this day in 1936, Dertouzos was the son of a concert pianist and an admiral in the Greek navy. Upon graduation from Athens College, he attended the University of Arkansas on a Fulbright Scholarship and earned a Ph D from MIT, joining the faculty in 1968. He was the Director of MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) from 1974 to 2001. During his tenure, MIT LCS did some groundbreaking work in ArpaNet, and RSA encryption, an algorithm used to ensure secure data transmission. Dertouzos worked to make LCS the North American home of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an alliance of companies promoting the Web's evolution and interconnectivity. Dertouzos recruited Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, to run it, writes Google. He later co-founded Computek Inc. in 1968 which created graphics and intelligent terminals with Marvin C. Lewis and Dr. Huber Graham. Back in 1980s, Dertouzos was already was writing about 'The Information Marketplace' through digital technologies. If we strip the hype away, he observed, a simple, crisp and inevitable picture emerges -- of an Information Marketplace where people and their computers will buy, sell and freely exchange information and information work. Insisting on the importance of bringing technology into our lives, and not vice versa, Dertouzos spurred LCS to head up the 1999 Oxygen project in partnership with MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab. The goal of this massive project was to make computers "as natural a part of our environment as the air we breathe. "As reflected in the title of his final book, The Unfinished Revolution: Human-Centered Computers and What They Can Do For Us, Dertouzos belief in technology was always grounded in his desire to unleash the full potential of humanity, writes Google. Dertouzos died on August 27, 2001. He was 64. HARIDWAR: Justifying the move to change Allahabad's name to `Prayagraj`, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that the new name of the holy city holds great significance and connect all with the glorious ancient tradition of the country. "When I changed the name of Allahabad, some people raised question over it. Some also said what is there in the name. So, I said why didn`t their parents named them as `Raavan` and `Duryodhan` in that case. In this country, the name holds a lot of significance. In this country, maximum names are related to Ram's and in scheduled caste, most people have attached Ram with their names. The name connects us with our glorious tradition," the Chief Minister said. The monk-politician made these remarks while addressing a gathering on the second day of the Gyan Kumbh here. During his speech, the Chief Minister also pointed out that his government has vastly improved the law and order situation in the state. "We brought crime under control, broke the spine of organised crime. No kidnapping can take place, no riots can happen, festivals are being celebrated peacefully," he said. Shifting his focus to the ongoing row over Delhi's prestigious Jawahar Lal Nehru University, the Chief Minister criticised the higher education institute for allegedly harbouring anti-national people. "Can anyone imagine that in a university being run by Indian taxpayers` money, the slogans of dividing India would be raised? When the whole country celebrates Durga Puja with devotion, then attempts are being made to mark Hirankashyap`s anniversary in that university. When During Vijay Dashmi, the country celebrates the euphoric win of Lord Ram, the people in that university attempt to glorify Raavana. Have we ever thought about how did this situation arise?" he asked. Adityanath also lamented that demanding proof of the existence of Lord Ram is nothing but a travesty of our education system. "We are asked about giving proof of Lord Ram. There could not be the worst example of the bad state of education when people start demanding the proof of the symbol of our own religion. The evidence is still there and we have also provided them with that. Still, there is some hesitation in taking a decision, which means that it is not about evidence but there is some other issue, a solution of which the people have to find by themselves," he asserted. In a veiled reference to the ongoing Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid case, Aditynath had said that the wishes of scores of Hindu devotees of building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya will soon come true after Diwali. Although no official announcement has been made, the BJP sources have claimed that the UP government plans to construct a grand Ram statue in Ayodhya very soon. It was an embarrassing situation for Pakistans state-run PTV on Monday as the spelling of Beijing was wrongly written as Begging when countrys Prime Minister Imran Khan was addressing a gathering in China. The Pakistani Prime Minister was speaking at an event at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China in Beijing and the event was being broadcast live by the Pakistan Television Corporation when the faux pas occurred. Notably, Imran Khans maiden official visit to China as the Prime Minister of Pakistan is aimed at getting additional aid for the cash-strapped nation, which has also approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout. Reacting to the goof-up, the PTV issued an apology with a statement on microblogging site Twitter. The statement on the official Twitter handle of PTV News read, Today, during a live address of the Prime Minister during his ongoing visit to China, a typographical error took place, which remained on screen for 20 seconds & later removed. This incident is regrettable. Strict action has been initiated under rules against concerned officials. According to Pakistani media reports, countrys Information and Broadcasting minister Fawad Chaudhry has ordered an inquiry into the spelling error. Following a meeting between Imran Khan and Chinese President Xi Jinping, reports had said that China had promised an aid of $6 billion to Pakistan. However, a senior Chinese diplomat later said that more talks would take place to fix the details of the economic aid being referred to by the media. Pakistan's foreign reserves have plunged 42 percent since the start of the year and now stand at about $8 billion. Last month, Pakistan received a $6 billion rescue package from Saudi Arabia, but officials say it is not enough and the country still plans to seek a bailout from the IMF to avert a balance of payments crisis. From the beginning of the day on November 4, the pro-Russian militants violated the ceasefire in Donbas conflict zone 14 times using weapons banned by the Minsk agreements. As a result of the shelling, one soldier was killed, two more were wounded, the press center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) HQ reported on Facebook. It was noted that the enemy used weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements eight times. "The enemy opened targeted fire, using mortars of various calibers, weapons of infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers, large-caliber machine guns, and small arms," the headquarters said. Earlier militants in Donetsk region shelled the supervising station of Ukrainian military and Marinka entry-exit checkpoint, the press office of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported. Russian occupants keep using weapons within certain humanitarian road corridors at the crossing points of boundary line during its work working hours, disregarding their obligations to cease fire and ensure the safety of the civilian population. Yesterday at 6:25 p.m., an aimed fire was opened from small arms and heavy machine-gun fires at the positions of Joint Forces units from the side of Oleksandrivka settlement, not far from Donetsk. Marinka supervising station placed near the entry-exit checkpoint, where the border officers serve with the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, got under the shelling, reads the message. 'I believe that Russia, like Ukraine, and certain districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions recognized that there is a big problem that needs to be solved, and all of them have undertaken obligations', - ex-deputy head of OSCE SMM in Ukraine Open source Former deputy head of OSCE SMM in Ukraine Alexander Hug claimed he did not treat Russia as an aggressor state. He said this in his interview to the Ukrainian press. 'No. But I believe that Russia, like Ukraine, and certain districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions recognized that there is a big problem that needs to be solved, and all of them have undertaken obligations,' Hug said to TSN TV channel. According to him, the conflict will be resolved only when 'someone will seek to find a solution, and not try to blame others'. Earlier, in his interview with Foreign Policy, Hug said that the mission observers saw people with the insignia of the Russian Army on the uniform but it 'can be bought anywhere'; the respective message was deleted by the editorial board of Foreign Policy soon after the interview appeared. On November 1, Mark Etherington, the newly appointed Deputy Head of OSCE SMM in Ukraine, has officially assumed his office, replacing Hug who resigned having worked four years in this office. Open source One Ukrainian serviceman was killed in action in Donbas on November 4. Three fighters sustained light injuries, and one more is in a moderate condition. Besides, three Russian militants were killed in combat, while another four were wounded. Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, spokesman of Ukraine's defense ministry, reported that during the daily briefing in Kyiv. The wounded were taken to hospitals, he said. According to Motuzyanyk, over the past 24 hours, Russian mercenaries opened fire on Ukrainian positions 18 times. In particular, 68 mines of various calibers hit the outposts across combat area. In general, the enemy used small arms, heavy-caliber machine guns, grenade launchers, IFV armament, and mortars of various calibers. The militants attacked Krymske, Novotoshkivske, Zolote, Avdiivka, Novotroitske, Pavlopil, Vodyane, Hnutove, and Lebedynske. Intense mortar fire was observed in Zolote, Luhansk region; five attacks were reported over 24 hours. Since Monday morning, the enemy attacked Ukrainian positions twice; the government troops took no casualties. The European Union provides Ukraine with comprehensive assistance in improving the reliability and operational safety of nuclear power plants (NPPs). The most striking example is a loan totalling 600 million euros, provided jointly by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), for the implementation of a Comprehensive Programme to Improve the Safety of Ukrainian NPPs No European country has received a comparable loan from the EBRD. The operator of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants, the state-owned company Energoatom, is successfully cooperating with European institutions on several other projects. The total amount of funding provided to Energoatom in the framework of the TACIS and INSC projects initiated by the European Commission has already exceeded 200m. However, obviously the routine implementation of measures to improve the safety and efficiency of Ukrainian NPPs should normally be carried out from Energoatoms own funds. Why is this not happening? The company has the potential to be financially successful, because its share in the Ukrainian electricity market consistently exceeds 50% of demand, and at peak consumption reaches 70%. Also, the average cost of electricity for Ukrainian consumers is already at the level of some Eastern European countries and the market price continues to rise. In recent years, Ukraine has been making significant efforts to reform its energy market in order to bring it into line with the European model. However, the problem is that for nuclear energy in Ukraine non-market-based methods are used to calculate electricity pricing. This gives rise to the paradox that nuclear power plants receive 300% less for the electricity they produce than coal-fired power plants. The energy sector of Ukraine has been regulated since 2016 by a national Regulatory authority, which carries out state regulation in the fields of energy and utilities. The main mission of the Regulator is to create equal conditions for all participants in the energy market of Ukraine, but it has so far failed to achieve free and fair competition. Ukraines International partners, such as the IMF, have consistently advocated the liberalisation of Ukraines energy market and the deregulation of gas and coal prices. In 2016, the market pricing method for coal was introduced in accordance with Article 269 of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine. The formula for calculating coal prices is known as Rotterdam +, and this is the formula used to calculate the tariff for selling electricity to the wholesale market for coal-fired power plants. Initially, the Rotterdam + formula was presented as a solution to the problem of coal shortage at Ukrainian power plants. The sharp reduction in coal supplies was caused by the blockade of transport lines between Ukraine and Donbass, control of which the country lost as a result of military aggression from the Russian Federation. In the territory of Donbass not controlled by Kiev, most coal mines remained, providing coal for thermal generation. It was precisely to compensate for the supply of coal from the temporarily occupied territories by importing coal that the Rotterdam + formula was introduced. Today, critics of this formula say: "Rotterdam +" means that for 2.5 years, the cost of electricity for Ukrainian coal in the electricity tariff is based on the theoretical delivery of coal from the Dutch port of Rotterdam. But pegging coal prices to import prices is no longer justifiable, since Ukraine today extracts many times more coal than it buys on the foreign market. Nevertheless the cost of electricity is still calculated according to the price of coal in Rotterdam, and plus the cost of transporting it. to Ukraine. The main beneficiary of the Rotterdam + formula is the largest private energy generating and coal mining company in Ukraine - DTEK. Criticism of Rotterdam + led to the discovery last year of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Agency of Ukraine (NABU) of an alleged collusion between DTEK and the Regulator. The question of tariffs on the electricity market is followed closely by the Ukrainian media, not least because of the imminent presidential elections due to be held in Ukraine in March 2019. Critics argue that the preservation of the Rotterdam + formula has a negative effect on the popularity ratings of the current government. But, supporters of the formula argue the opposite, that the cancellation of the use of Rotterdam + will destabilise the electricity market in Ukraine. The same position is taken by the Ukrainian Regulator. In the meanwhile, the nuclear energy sector in Ukraine is forced to operate in conditions of severe underfunding. Basically the Regulator is using the artificially low cost of nuclear electricity to offset any increase in electricity prices caused by the use of the Rotterdam + formula. Since 1 October of this year the tariff for the sale of electricity from nuclear power plants set by the Regulator is 1.7 eurocents per 1 kWh, while the tariff for thermal power plants is 5.8 eurocents per 1 kWh, so there is a difference of more than 300%. In most EU countries this gap never exceeds 30%. Earlier this year, raising the issue to the political level, the Energy Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament criticised the Regulator and demanded an explanation of the reasons why the tariff for thermal power plants is more than three times higher than the tariff for nuclear power plants. The Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom itself has repeatedly called for an increase in the tariff for nuclear power plants, so that it can cover its operating costs and reinvest revenues in essential capital expenditure. The company recently conducted an independent international audit of the accuracy of its estimates a shortfall of 430 million euros to meet basic maintenance obligations. This situation cannot but disturb the EU. The Energy Strategy of Ukraine for the next 20 years clearly states that the nuclear power industry will remain the main producer of electricity. However, the authorities in Ukraine still fail to answer the fundamental question of why the price paid for nuclear electricity remains the lowest in Europe, thereby putting at risk all of the assistance from the European Union to improve the safety and reliability of Ukrainian nuclear energy production. Read the original text here. Here is a situation. On the one hand, the United States and the EU are engaged in a trade conflict, and on the other hand, there are no favorites in the Ukrainian elections. Not only the collective West, but the majority of separate Western groups might join unforeseen alliances with the Ukrainian politicians. Western interests Over the last couple of years, the so-called collective West looks like being less interested in Ukraine. At the same time, the level of their interest cannot fall below a certain level simply due to the relations with Russia. The decline in Wests interest could be explained by a kind of "stabilization" of Donbas conflict and by some private interests. For example, we remember that the US interest in Ukraine had been exacerbated by the private interests of Joe Biden, former Vice President of the US under Barack Obama. But what remains truly unchanged since the time of the Obama administration is the struggle against Russia and international terrorism. In a sense that both are only a cover for the real interests of the US and the EU. The struggle with Russia is a good excuse for solving their problems, not even relating to Russia. Formally, the US and the EU are allies, in fact, in the framework of the struggle against Russia, they are vividly competing with each other. And Ukraines role in all these processes will be significant here. That is why the West is interested in maintaining control over Ukraine and Ukrainian elites. Of course, there are purely inner western factors. Angela Merkels statement she will not lead her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and will not be re-elected as its chairwoman in December might lead to a change in the balance between France and Germany, EUs key forces. A foreign policy of French president Macron is fairly tough, thus he is trying to fix his failures in domestic politics. And Ukraine might be a good object in the negotiation process. A kind of an asset on which it is better to have a decisive influence. Private West News like the one that Angela Merkel probably arrives in Kyiv for inspection of the prospective bride to talk to Ukraines presidential nominees has long been perceived as something usual. Worshiping the West has become a part of the everyday life of the Ukrainian political elite. It is interesting that both Petro Poroshenko and Yulia Tymoshenko and other representatives of the pro-Maidan spectrum endeavor to gain the support of the West in conditions when the competition for Ukraine between various Western groups is underway. First, the need to get support from the West seems to be completely natural. Secondly, the variant of the single favored candidate of the collective West is becoming less and less likely. There are too many contradictions within the West itself, and the main presidential nominees take too uncertain positions. Third, the Ukrainian voter still perceives the West as something homogenous. This means that each contact with Western politicians will be presented to their electorate as a hint of the favor of the West to themselves. Important accents The negotiations between Angela Merkel and Ukrainian politicians might play an important role here. The very Merkels presence in Kyiv will spur the vigorous actions of her competitors in the western camp. Another platform for the Euro-Ukrainian negotiations will be November events in France, timed to the centenary of the ending of the First World War. Petro Poroshenko will try to use this platform for his pre-election communication. However, the negotiations of world leaders might have the greatest influence on Ukraines future; in particular, the Putin-Trump meeting scheduled for November 11. The parties might discuss the issue of Donbas peacekeepers, a key item of Ukraines international agenda. The problems of the Nord Stream 2 will be discussed as well, launching of which influences on the capacity of the Ukrainian GTS and its state budget. While politicians of the pro-Maidan spectrum are trying to attract the attention of political and business elites of the West, the Western press publishes interviews with those whom they consider being a truly influential figure in Ukrainian politics opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk. Despite the fact that a significant part of the article is devoted to quoting of Medvedchuk's critics, the French outlet has made some important accents. Le Monde makes it clear that Medvedchuks united opposition project might consolidate up to 30-35% of the electorate. Therefore, Le Monde sends a clear message that balance of power will soon change in Ukraine, explaining that Medvedchuk has joined the For Life party (since 2014 the party leader is Vadym Rabinovych Ed.), aiming to enter the Verkhovna Rada. Le Monde intentionally emphasizes that Medvedchuk has openly defended his position since 2010. By the way, it is not by chance that Medvedchuks interview was published at Le Monde on the eve of the visit of the Federal Chancellor to Kyiv. In 2014, Merkel convincingly recommended Poroshenko to appoint Medvedchuk Ukraines Trilateral contact group in Minsk representative. It should be noted that Le Monde is the worlds most reputable French newspaper. This year, it has dedicated only one article to Ukrainian politic. This was an article, criticizing the Ukrainian authorities because of the failure of the fight against corruption. Therefore, the very fact of publishing an interview with an opposition politician speaks volumes. Read the original text at 112.ua. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or 112.International and its owners. European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn expressed his condolences to Ukraine over the death of the Acting Head of the Executive Committee of Kherson City Council, Adviser to Khersons Mayor, and public activist Kateryna Handziuk "Very saddened by the news of the passing of the incredibly brave Kateryna Handziuk. Attacks against civil society activists are unacceptable. The perpetrators of this vicious crime must be brought to justice. My thoughts are with her family and friends," he said on Twitter. Very saddened by the news of the passing of the incredibly brave Kateryna #Handziuk. Attacks against #civilsociety activists are unacceptable. The perpetrators of this vicious crime must be brought to justice. My thoughts are with her family and friends. #Ukraine Johannes Hahn (@JHahnEU) 4 2018 . Earlier, post about the death of Kateryna Handziuk, Adviser of Kherson's Mayor, appeared in social media. According to preliminary information, the death was caused by thrombus detachment. Related: Police reclassify case of Ukraine's activist Kateryna Handziuk as completed murder Yuriy Lutsenko, Ukraine's Prosecutor General, took the case under his own control. He reported that the attack on the adviser was a part of the plan to destabilize the situation in the south of Ukraine. Later the investigation was transferred to the central office of the Security Service. Suspected in the attack was detained on August 3. His name is Mykola Novikov, previously detained for robbing and illegal weapons handling. He is a member of one of the criminal organizations in the Kherson region. According to MP from National Front Anton Herashchenko, obviously, the detainee was fulfilling someone's order. Whereas, Herashchenko added that they know roughly who was the proponent. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko confirmed the death of Acting Head of the Executive Committee of Kherson City Council, Adviser of Khersons Mayor and public activist Kateryna Handziuk and required of the law enforcement bodies to punish her murderers. He claimed this at the opening ceremony of Ukrainian community Ukrainian family in Antalya. Related: Adviser of Kherson's Mayor Kateryna Handziuk dies The Belarusian president emphasized that it is better not to argue with the neighbors President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko claimed that if the American military bases are deployed in Poland, then Minsk and Moscow will be forced to respond to this as BelTa reported. I said to the foreign minister (of Poland, - 112 international), he delivered a speech in Minsk: we are not going to fight with you. So, there is no need to create extra bases. Otherwise, we along with the Russians will be forced to respond. It means that we will be forced to deploy something to counteract you, Lukashenko noted. The Belarusian president emphasized that it is better not to quarrel with the neighbors. I told them (the representatives of the West, - 112 international): appreciate Belarus; do not impose the sanctions against us. The drugs, banditry, nuclear elements, illegal migration, all these come through us to the West. We catch them, capture at our own expense, he added. The United States is considering a request from Poland for a permanent U.S. military presence in the fellow NATO country, acknowledging that he shares Polands concerns about possible Russian aggression. Earlier it was reported that Albania is intended to build the first NATO airbase in the Balkans in Kucove city. The investments of NATO for the first stage of the project will amount to 58 million USD, the project to start at the end of 2018. Related video: The man is suspected of conducting illegal business activity in Russia Open source A Ukrainian, suspected of conducting illegal business, was detained in Belarus, as the website of the Belarusian Committee of State Control reported. In early November, 2018, the operatives of the financial police detained two lorries with apples and tomatoes (over 40 tons were seized). This was the last delivery for the group of Russian and Ukrainian traders. A criminal case was opened under the article of Ukraines Criminal Code on unlawful business activities. A 32-year-old Ukrainian was managing the illicit business, he was detained and imprisoned, the message says. In addition, the investigation on the case is underway. During the searches, primary accounting records, stamps, steals and information carriers, which testifying to the illegal activity were seized, the website reports. The investigation supposes that the group of Ukrainians and Russians were purchasing fruits and vegetables in Poland and Ukraine in 2017-2018, exported it to Belarus for further distribution in Russia. To make their activity look legal, they were using accounting documents of four controlled fake business structures and several individual entrepreneurs, the message says. According to the experts, this illegal business brings around $4,500. A rally was held in Antalya, where the building of the consulate is located; one of the local supporters shouted: 'He protected Crimea, now we should protect him!' A banner appeared on the new building of the Ukrainian consulate in Antalya, Turkey; it featured demands to release Ukrainian political prisoner Oleg Sentsov. Pavlo Klimkin, the foreign minister of Ukraine posted this on Twitter on Monday. 'We opened the consulate and the Ukrainian House in Antalya; a culture centre of the Ukrainian society. The forefront of the building has an inscription with the demand to release Oleg Sentsov in Turkish language', Klmkin wrote. A rally in support of Sentsov was held in front of the building, as one of the local supporters shouted: 'He protected Crimea, now we should protect him!' Ukraine and Turkey agreed to continue working on the release of Ukrainian political prisoners. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said this at a joint briefing with the President of Turkey. The briefing was broadcasted by 112 Ukraine. 'We highly appreciate the assistance of Turkey and Mr. President personally in the release of political prisoners. We are very grateful for the release of Ahtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov. We agreed regarding those prisoners who are illegally detained in the occupied Crimea and on the territory of the Russian Federation... we will continue to coordinate the process of release of political prisoners', noted Poroshenko. 'Not only me and President Erdogan, but the whole world is taking care of the release of Ukrainian hostages. We talked about this issue the day before yesterday with German Chancellor Merkel; I will raise this question during my visit to Helsinki and Paris in November. We will do everything possible so that Sentsov, Sushchenko, Balukh and other political prisoners are at home as soon as possible. And the international support plays a crucial role in resolving this problem,' Poroshenko added. Ukraine also provided Turkey with the complete list of all political prisoners held in Russian prisons. It was not reported when exactly Erdogan planned to talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the release of Ukrainian political prisoners. Open source A new landing strip will be constructed in Boryspil International Airport. The project is to be implemented by 2022. Pavlo Ryabikin, the Director-General of the enterprise shared this information with RBC-Ukraine in an interview. According to him, this month, technical and economic reasoning of the initiative will be provided. The construction details will be released later. Ryabikin added that the Chinese investors were ready to involve a credit in China's Eximbank. The construction works will cost 280-300 million U.S. dollars, the official said. 'The new landing strip will be placed next to the F Terminal; it is supposed to replace the strip built in the USSR. The latter will serve as the technological ground, but it will be able to take in the aircraft in case of an emergency landing. Besides, the airport will continue using the strip next to the D Terminal. Thus, we will have two active strips and one inactive', he said. The project will be developed in 2019, and the construction works are to take two or three years. The airport currently negotiates with the European structures, including the EBRD, which also could consider funding the project. Besides, the National Guard of Russia will provide the security at all education establishments during a month Igor Belozerov, the director of the so-called education department of Sevastopol claimed that from the next year, the security companies will start to work at the schools of Sevastopol as Krym.Realii reported. From the new calendar year, we plan to introduce the protection at all educational organizations, he said. Earlier the so-called Head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov claimed that about 80% of the establishments of Crimea with the mass stay of children, including the schools and kindergartens, do not correspond the safety requirements. According to him, the National Guard of Russia will provide the security at all education establishments in Kerch during a month. As we reported, an explosion thundered at a college in Kerch, the town in Russian-occupied Crimea. The number of the dead reached 21. Russia's Investigative Committee opened a criminal proceeding due to Crimean blast upon the article on the terrorist action; however, later it was 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: Open source Ukrainian Klavdia Lopatkina detained for drug trafficking in Malaysia in late December 2015 sentenced to life imprisonment. New Straits Times outlet reports. She was aged 21 when she got detained, and she was pregnant. Lopatnina claimed she had chocolate in her plastic bags, although, the law enforcement officers have allegedly seized cocaine. The judge who passed the sentence noted that she had enough time to check her plastic bags, which she brought to Kuala Lumpur from Dubai, and then to Penang. Instead of checking the bags, where according to her was the chocolate, she just decided to close her eyes on it, he said. Earlier, Klavdia Lopatkina was given a charge under the Art 30 (B) of 1952 Law about dangerous drugs, which provides capital punishment through hanging. However, Malaysia intends to lift capital punishment by changing to life imprisonment. The outlet reports that Lopatkina cried after the judge announced the sentence. Her husband was waiting for her next to the session hall. Having learned the decision of the court, he tried to reach her but Lopatkina was taken away by the Police. Illustrative photo of bullying Open source Teenagers at school beat an 11-year-old schoolgirl in the village of Berdyanka of Kharkiv region. The girl was hospitalized in a local hospital with a joint injury. This was reported by the Center for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine. The incident happened on November 2. The doctors were called over to school. "The injured girl said she was beaten during the break by five pupils who study at the same school. According to the preliminary diagnosis set after the examination, she has an injury of the right hip joint, the message says. It is noteworthy that similar cases in Ukraine are not uncommon recently. The most resonant cases were the beating of schoolgirls by teenagers in Chernihiv and Odesa. The Verkhovna Rada adopted the law, which provides for the fines for bullying (moral or physical violence) in schools. It is proposed to provide fines for bullying from 12 to 30 dollars Administrative Code (if the bullies are under 16 years of age, the parents will pay the fine). A repeated violation during the year will incur the fine from 60 to 120 dollars. If a teacher, head or founder of an educational institution kept silent about cases of bullying, the penalty is from 30 to 60 dollars. As it was reported earlier, in September 2018, Maryna Poroshenko, Ukraines First Lady, within the 73rd UN General Assembly had a working meeting with the authority of New York Education Department where she discussed prevention and counterwork of bullying. She thanked the American side for cooperation which began in 2016, which facilitated crucial changes in the process of inclusive education in Ukraine. UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency) reported earlier that 24% of children became victims of bullying at school in Ukraine in 2017. The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police of Ukraine are informed about the incident Open source The operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle was recorded in a restricted area over one of the arsenals of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as the press office of the Ministry of Defense reports. Yesterday, November 4, at 7:30 p.m., radars detected unlawful use of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) near one of the arsenals of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the restricted area. Electronic Warfare Division has immediately jammed the control radio channels of the UAV, which made it impossible its further operation, reads the message. It is added that the administration of the facility has reinforced the duty shifts of the security of the arsenal, mobile patrols thoroughly examined the territory adjacent to the military unit. The fact of unlawful use of UAV near the military facility was immediately reported to the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police of Ukraine in their area of responsibility. As was reported before, an explosion in the sixth armory occurred in Ichnia. The air-space within 30 km was shut down, traffic and railway movement were stopped due to the emergency situation. The Military Prosecutors Office of the Central Region opened a criminal proceeding on the case of explosions at the ammunition depot in Ichnia. Ten demining groups were working on the territory of the ammo depot. 70% of the administrative territory was cleared. On October 11, the fire was completely eliminated. Over the past four years, it's been the fifth accident with the ammunition stocks in Ukraine exploding; the incidents took place in Balakliya (Kharkiv region), Svatove (Luhansk region), and Kalynivka (Vinnytsia region). Open source Holosiivsky Court of Kyiv has arrested Valery Chornobuk, the ex-head of the Appeal Court of Crimea suspected of the state treason as Andry Lysenko, the spokesperson of the Prosecutor Generals Office reported on Facebook. Holosiivsky Court of Kyiv, on November 5, 2018, at 9:00 am has considered the appeal of the prosecutors office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on the choosing of the restrictive measure for ex-chairman of the Appeal Court of Crimea Valeriy Chornobuk. On the results of the consideration of the appeal, the restrictive measure was chosen in the form of the detention, he noted. Larysa Sargan, spokeswoman of Ukraines prosecutor general, specified to Ukrainian News that the arrest is without a right for a bail and its term is two months. Ex-Head of Crimean Appeal Court was detained in Kyiv on November 3. Chornobuk chaired the Appeal Court in Crimea from December 2011 until April 2014. The Ukrainian law enforcement bodies put Chornobuk on the wanted list in July 2018. Related: Police detain five suspects in attack on coordinator of C14 organization Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko claims that the former head of the Appeal Court of Crimea is suspected of having committed an offense under the Art 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (state treason). According to the Prosecutor General, Chornobuk carried out subversive activities, in particular, he helped Crimean courts to administer justice on the basis of Russian legislation. According to the investigation, Valeriy Chornobuk cooperated with the occupation authorities during the annexation of Crimea by Russia. In particular, on March 24, 2014, at the court session, he urged judges to learn the Russian legislation and receive Russian passports. Chornobuk himself denies the accusation of separatism. Related video: "The delegation from France will arrive in Kyiv. It is a very good sign," General Producer of 112 Ukraine stated Artem Marchevsky, General Producer of 112 Ukraine, and Vasyl Golovanov, General Producer of NewsOne, in French Senate Vasyl Golovanov Facebook The delegation of senators and heads of the European journalists trade unions is to come to Kyiv to support 112 Ukraine and NewsOne, as Artem Marchevsky, General Producer of 112 Ukraine noted. The delegation from France will arrive in Kyiv. It is a very good sign. Not only the European Parliament and the UK, but also the French parliament support us in the fight for freedom of speech, he said. As it appeared, the Head of French journalists trade union did not know about the situation with our TV channels and about the attack at NewsOne journalists. We are on the negotiations stage, yet we can assure that there will be an event in Kyiv with the senators from France, the Head of Ukraines journalists' trade union and other prominent European journalists. At the event, we will present the situation and the problems we have faced, General Producer of NewsOne Vasyl Golovanov said. Vadym Rabinovich, the leader of For life political party, added that he intended to invite the delegation to the supervisory board of the TV channels. If murders of journalists, attacks at journalists will continue, we will raise a question about individual sanctions against those who do this. I think that we will not just invite the senators to Kyiv, we will invite them to the supervisory board of NewsOne and 112 Ukraine. Then, we will see if the channels could be shut down, he said. Earlier, the leaders of 112 Ukraine and NewsOne Artem Marchevskyi and Vasyl Golovanov paid an official visit to the European Parliament, where they enjoyed the support of the MPs in terms of prevention of sanctions against these TV channels. Heidi Hautala, Vice President of the European Parliament, and another group of MEPs expressed concern about the situation with the freedom of speech in Ukraine. Besides, a signature collection is conducted in Brussels under the appeal to the Verkhovna Rada on the protection of 112 Ukraine and NewsOne TV channels. As it was reported earlier, European parliamentarians David Coburn, Jonathan Arnott visited the main office of 112 Ukraine TV channel on October 30. Their goal was to personally find out the reasons for the scandalous voting on sanctions against 112 Ukraine and NewsOne and to monitor the situation with the freedom of speech in Ukraine. Earlier, 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)'. Thirteen European parliamentarians appealed to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to revoke the decision on imposing sanctions on 112 Ukraine and NewsOne TV channels. The leaders of 112 Ukraine and NewsOne channels arrived in Brussels personally to talk to the lawmakers and get their support. The issue of freedom of speech in Ukraine is raised at the international conferences, forums and in the offices of European parliamentarians. The MEPs carefully study the situation regarding the sanctions against Ukrainian broadcasters and sign the petition. 112 Ukraine is an informational and analytical TV channel which broadcasts 18,5 hours per day on air and uses modern technologies to be the first channel to provide the unbiased information on important and interesting events going on in Ukraine and in the world. This is mentioned in the respective statement by Artem Marchevskyi, the Chief Producer, and Yehor Benkendorf, Director General of 112 Ukraine. Related video: 112 Ukraine Producer General Artem Marchevsky, General Producer of NewsOne Vasyl Golovanov, and leader of Ukrainian For life political party Vadym Rabinovich visited the Senate to speak out on the problems with the freedom of speech in the country and harassment of journalists The French Senate heard a report on the issues with freedom of speech in Ukraine at the example of 112 Ukraine and NewsOne. In particular, 112 Ukraine Producer General Artem Marchevsky, General Producer of NewsOne Vasyl Golovanov, and leader of Ukrainian For life political party Vadym Rabinovich visited the Senate to speak out on the problems with the freedom of speech in the country and harassment of journalists. In the morning, during the hearing at the Senate, Vadym Rabinovich urged to protect the Ukrainian journalists and public figures. I got more votes in the presidential elections in Ukraine, than all the radicals in the state combined. I dont quite get it. I came here with pain our journalists are being killed and beaten and you say: There is aggression in your country. What aggression has to do with it? Is it allowed to murder the journalists under aggression? I cant speak about Russia, I am not in charge of the situation. My heart is sick for our journalists, this is my pain. I pray and ask God to solve all the problems in our country, and then we will show our neighbors how to live. Indeed, our situation is difficult, yes, there is a war going on, but its not a reason for murdering the journalists, he said. The delegation with the French senators and leaders of the journalists' trade unions will come to Kyiv to deal with the situation. According to Artem Marchevsky, the senators supported both of the TV channels and promised to impose individual sanctions if the freedom of speech is suppressed and if violence used against journalists. It is important to understand that its easy to solve the problem of shutting down the TV channel. We can simply agree not to criticize the authority. And the problem will disappear in a day. But we will never do this. As we are doing our job. We are journalists, we give all points of view, we broadcast on air, we cant be responsible for the words of our guests. We are simply doing our job and we ask you to support us, Marchevsky said. Related video: The police officers did all necessary investigative actions within their authority concerning the murder of Kateryna Handziuk, adviser of Kherson Mayor and public activist, as the Interior Ministry of Ukraine reported. The police did all necessary investigative actions within its authority and according to the decision of the Prosecutor Generals Office of Ukraine made today, on November 5, it passed the case to the Chief Investigation Department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the message said. The ministry specified that within the authority, the National Police questioned 367 people as the witnesses, appointed 21 forensic analysis, held nine searches, four reconstruction, 26 checks, 100 undercover investigative actions against 31 persons. Particularly, the investigation against five accused whom the law enforcers considered to be perpetrators and organizers of the crime was finished. According to the decision of the Prosecutor Generals Office of Ukraine, all the materials for the objective investigation were passed to the Chief Investigation Department of the Security Service of Ukraine that deals with the investigation on the establishing of the instigators of the crime. It will allow the SBU investigators to unite the criminal proceedings and hold the pretrial investigation from the moment of the planning and the actual end. Earlier head of the National Police of Ukraine Serhiy Knyazev claimed that the entire evidential base in Kateryna Handziuks case was collected by the law enforcers, and the materials would be submitted to the court in the near future. On November 4, Kateryna Handziuk, Adviser of Kherson's Mayor, known as a public activist, died aged 34. She was attacked near her place. The attacker soaked her with acid. The woman was hospitalized. 30 percent of her body was burned: head, arms, legs, chest, and left eye. The attack on the employee of the City Council of Kherson was reclassified from "Hooliganism" to "Serious physical injuries committed with the aim of intimidation", and after a while - on "Attempted murder with a special cruelty." Related: Police reclassify case of Ukraine's activist Kateryna Handziuk as completed murder Prosecutor General took the case under his own control. He reported that the attack on the adviser was a part of the plan to destabilize the situation in the south of Ukraine. Later the investigation was transferred to the central office of the SBU. There is some malfunction with the President's Administration website, as its tech support reports 112 Ukraine reports on some strange things going on. What is the deal? A month ago, on October 9, the TV channel launched a petition to the President of Ukraine on prevention of suppression of freedom of speech in response to the attempts of Ukraines Parliament to shut down the TV channel. 112 Ukraine received the support of its viewers the petition rapidly gathered 5,000 signatures, then 7,000, then 8,000. And then, weird things began happening. At the time of writing of this text, the petition, which you can find on the Presidents Administration website, had 8398 signatures. 8398 votes on the counter, while 25,000 are required. 66 days left 112 Agency When in fact, the actual number of signatories is much higher almost 17,500 (25,000 is required). However, for some reason, they are not reflected on the counter. A part of the list of the signatories of the petition, which reaches 17,382 112 Agency And there is more to it. The readers and viewers of the TV channel reported on some issues with the registration. In particular, while trying to register by the ID number. We hope, it is just a technical error which will be corrected soon. The tech support of the website reported that this was a malfunction and they are dealing with it. Earlier, the leaders of 112 Ukraine and NewsOne Artem Marchevskyi and Vasyl Golovanov paid an official visit to the European Parliament, where they enjoyed the support of the MPs in terms of prevention of sanctions against these TV channels. Heidi Hautala, Vice President of the European Parliament, and another group of MEPs expressed concern about the situation with the freedom of speech in Ukraine. Besides, a signature collection is conducted in Brussels under the appeal to the Verkhovna Rada on the protection of 112 Ukraine and NewsOne TV channels. As it was reported earlier, European parliamentarians David Coburn, Jonathan Arnott visited the main office of 112 Ukraine TV channel on October 30. Their goal was to personally find out the reasons for the scandalous voting on sanctions against 112 Ukraine and NewsOne and to monitor the situation with the freedom of speech in Ukraine. Earlier, 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)'. Thirteen European parliamentarians appealed to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to revoke the decision on imposing sanctions on 112 Ukraine and NewsOne TV channels. The leaders of 112 Ukraine and NewsOne channels arrived in Brussels personally to talk to the lawmakers and get their support. The issue of freedom of speech in Ukraine is raised at the international conferences, forums, and in the offices of European parliamentarians. The MPs carefully study the situation regarding the sanctions against Ukrainian broadcasters and sign the petition. 112 Ukraine is an informational and analytical TV channel which broadcasts 18,5 hours per day on air and uses modern technologies to be the first channel to provide the unbiased information on important and interesting events going on in Ukraine and in the world. This is mentioned in the respective statement by Artem Marchevskyi, the Chief Producer, and Yehor Benkendorf, Director General of 112 Ukraine. "Indeed, our situation is difficult, yes, there is war going on, but its not a reason for murdering the journalists, he said Vadym Rabinovich, the leader of Ukraine's political party For life", businessman, politician, president of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress 112 Agency Vadym Rabinovich, leader of For life political party, urged to protect the freedom of speech in Ukraine at the hearings in the French Senate, broadcasted by 112 Ukraine. I got more votes in the presidential elections in Ukraine, than all the radicals of the state combined. I dont get it. I came here with pain our journalists are being killed and beaten and you say: There is aggression in your country. What aggression has to do with it? Is it allowed to murder the journalists in terms of aggression? I cant speak about Russia, I am not in charge of the situation. My heart is sick for our journalists, this is my pain. I pray and ask God to solve all the problems in our country, and then we will show our neighbors how to live. Indeed, our situation is difficult, yes, there is a war going on, but its not a reason for murdering the journalists, he said. Earlier, the leaders of 112 Ukraine and NewsOne Artem Marchevskyi and Vasyl Holovanov paid an official visit to the European Parliament, where they enjoyed the support of the MPs in terms of prevention of sanctions against these TV channels. Heidi Hautala, the Vice President of the European Parliament, and another group of MEPs expressed concern about the situation with the freedom of speech in Ukraine. Besides, a signature collection is conducted in Brussels under the appeal to the Verkhovna Rada on the protection of 112 Ukraine and NewsOne TV channels. As it was reported earlier, European parliamentarians David Coburn, Jonathan Arnott visited the main office of 112 Ukraine TV channel on October 30. Their goal was to personally find out the reasons for the scandalous voting on sanctions against 112 Ukraine and NewsOne and to monitor the situation with the freedom of speech in Ukraine. Earlier, 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)'. Thirteen European parliamentarians appealed to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to revoke the decision on imposing sanctions on 112 Ukraine and NewsOne TV channels. The leaders of 112 Ukraine and NewsOne channels arrived in Brussels personally to talk to the lawmakers and get their support. The issue of freedom of speech in Ukraine is raised at the international conferences, forums and in the offices of European parliamentarians. The MPs carefully study the situation regarding the sanctions against Ukrainian broadcasters and sign the petition. 112 Ukraine is an informational and analytical TV channel which broadcasts 18,5 hours per day on air and uses modern technologies to be the first channel to provide the unbiased information on important and interesting events going on in Ukraine and in the world. This is mentioned in the respective statement by Artem Marchevskyi, the Chief Producer, and Yehor Benkendorf, Director General of 112 Ukraine. Related video: Earlier, the case was sent to the investigation department of the Security Service The case on the murder of Kherson Mayor Advisor Kateryna Handziuk has not been filed to Ukraines Security Service yet, it is not going to be classified, as Ihor Guskov, the chief of Security Service (SBU) staff told 112 Ukraine. Today, Ukraines Prosecutor General Office charged SBU main investigation department with the further investigation of the case. However, for now, the pretrial investigation body has not received the criminal proceeding. We stress that there are some unreasonable appeals, which concern, in particular, classification of the case. I officially stated that the case has no restrictions, it is not classified, except the restriction provided in Ukraines Criminal Code on the order of limitations and ways of disclosure of the information of the pre-trial proceeding, Guskov said. He assured that SBU would inform the community on the pre-trial investigation, but only with the permission of the investigator. 367 people were questioned on Handziuks case, 21 expertise were appointed. Police expect that the detained perpetrators will give additional information about the instigators of the crime. As it was reported, on November 4, Kateryna Handziuk, Kherson Mayor Advisor, died at the age of 34. She was doused with sulphuric acid in July this year. Preliminary, she died because of a blood clot detachment. Later, President Petro Poroshenko confirmed this information, he expressed condolences on the death of the official. He also demanded the law enforcers to do everything possible to punish the murderers. The police promised that they would give a legal qualification after the conclusions of the expert examinations concerning the cause of death. Related video: Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Open source Marie Yovanovitch, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, expressed condolences due to the death of Kharkiv Mayor Advisor Kateryna Handziuk, as she wrote on Twitter. Amb Y: on behalf of the U.S. Government and the American people, I offer my condolences and deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Kateryna #Handziuk. We again call for Ukrainian authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice, including those who ordered the attack. U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) November 4, 2018 As it was reported, on November 4, Kateryna Handziuk, Kherson Mayor Advisor, died at the age of 34. She was doused with sulphuric acid in July this year. Preliminary, she died because of a blood clot detachment. Later, President Petro Poroshenko confirmed this information he expressed condolences on the death of the official. He also demanded the law enforcers do everything possible to punish the murderers. The police promised that they would give a legal qualification after the conclusions of the expert examinations concerning the cause of the death. 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!) A hybrid form of yoga that combines traditional yoga postures with modern yoga moves and a silk hammock. Pre-registration required. Please note: Aerial Yoga at the Yoga Art Space studio requires pre-registration through our website at www.YogaArtSpace.com/calendar. If no one registers for a class, the class may be cancelled between 6-12 hours prior to the class start time. Though this event is shown as a regular, weekly class each week on the Alabi calendar, there are occasionally times when the class will be cancelled in advance such as for certain holidays. All updates and cancellations are on the studio calendar at www.YogaArtSpace.com/calendar. What is Aerial yoga? Aerial Yoga is a hybrid form of yoga that combines traditional yoga postures infused with modern yoga moves and an silk fabric hammock. Do I need Previous Yoga Experience? No previous yoga experience necessary to enjoy an Aerial yoga class. In fact it can be easier than normal yoga! The silk hammock acts like a support whenever you require it, almost like having your own personal yoga teacher giving you assistance throughout the entire yoga class! Another advantage of having the support of the hammock is that 90% of students are able to complete more challenging poses, such as handstands! Can Everybody do Aerial Yoga? Yes and no. Students who have had a previous injury can find Aerial yoga much easier to participate in then normal yoga. This is due to the the weight being evenly distributed between your body, the hammock and the earth. People who suffer any of following contraindications are advised NOT to participate in an Aerial yoga class: if you have had recent surgery of any sort, if you suffer glaucoma, if you are pregnant, if you suffer a heart condition (including very high or low blow pressure), if you get vertigo, if you have had a recent stroke or a hernia, if you have osteoporosis or any bone weakness, if you have carpal tunnel syndrome, or if you have had botox in the last six hours. What Should I Wear? All jewellery items must be removed before participating, a t-shirt must be worn to cover the armpit area and leggings are advised to avoid the silk rubbing on the skin and creating irritation. Please have clean feet or, alternatively, bring a pair of socks with you. A concerted effort may soon be underway in the Netherlands to try and secure the funding necessary to put the country back on the F1 map in the future. Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported last week that Liberty Media is open to a return to the calendar of the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. Holland also has a selection of major companies involved with F1, such as Heineken, Shell, Randstad, Jumbo, Exact or broadcaster Ziggo. However, bringing everyone together to provide the necessary funding for an event would represent a potentially massive barrier to overcome. Zandvoort circuit owner Prince Bernard van Oranje, who is spearheading efforts to bring F1 back to the country, believes Heineken could be instrumental in the realisation of the project. "As a worldwide sponsor of Formula 1, Heineken would love it if after all these years an F1 race would be held in the Netherlands," John-Paul Schuirink, the beer company's worldwide director of communication, told Algemeen Dagblad. "We would certainly welcome a Formula 1 race in the Netherlands." And an insider of the Dutch brewery giant added: "Heineken is a Dutch company, Zandvoort is the beach of Amsterdam and we already sponsor Formula 1. "It is logical that we would also be in Zandvoort." Another potential candidate that could possible help support a Dutch GP bid is Shell. The oil giant, and Ferrari partner, announced in June a three-year sponsorship deal with Zandvoort. Could it possibly extend its commercial involvement with Grand Prix racing in the future? "Shell has been actively involved in motorsport for decades," said spokesman Tim Kezer. "Our products are tested here under extreme conditions." Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo, a personal sponsor of Max Verstappen, revealed that it would not sponsor a Dutch GP effort, but Exact Software, another Verstappen backer would be willing to get involved despite its limited resources. "We are not a multinational like Heineken, but we want to see if there is something that we can do," said spokesperson Jelle Zuidema. The last Dutch Grand Prix took place in 1985 at Zandvoort and was won by Ferrari's Niki Lauda. Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers . 2:1 12- , 1:... According to the Cabinet chief, talking about a coup nowadays is a sign of disrespect to the Inca country's Armed Forces "A coup detat involves breaking the Constitution . President Vizcarra has stated very clearly that we respect our Magna Carta and respect democracy ," Villanueva expressed. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. The death toll in Italys floods has reached 30, local authorities said. The death toll rose as rescuers discovered a family of nine, including a 1-year-old, a 2-year-old and a 15-year old, all dead in Sicily. The familys home was destroyed by the floods, and only three people managed to survive by climbing up a tree. 12 people died in Sicily alone. Sicilys prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio described the situation as a total disaster. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. The Israeli military has arrested 17 Palestinians overnight November 5 in West Bank. The Palestinians are suspected in terrorist activities, public terror and violent disturbances against civilians and soldiers, according to Jerusalem Post. The situation along the Palestine-Israel zone escalated in September of 2015, and since then more than 50 Israelis and several foreigners were killed in a total of 400 attacks involving gunfire, stabbings, IEDs, according to TASS. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. New Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to Armenia Bolot Otunbayev (residence in Moscow, Russia) on November 5 presented his credentials to President Armen Sarkissian, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. During the meeting the Armenian President congratulated the Ambassador on appointment and wished him success, expressing confidence that he will contribute to the development of the Armenian-Kyrgyz relations. The President said the intensification of political dialogue, the deepening of commercial and humanitarian relations derive from the interests of the two friendly peoples. In his turn the Ambassador assured that he will make all efforts to further develop and expand the bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Former Human Rights Defender of Artsakh Ruben Melikyan argues that Armenias civil society needs new people and new institutions. He told a news conference today that he plans to found a new human rights institution in Armenia. He says that after the domestic political changes the people who were in the civil society arena shifted to state employment which resulted in a reduced intensity of supervision of the government. Any government requires public supervision, he said. I see myself in this sector. At this moment I can say that I am establishing a human rights foundation, I am at the negotiations and discussions phase, he said. Melikyan resigned as Artsakhs Ombudsman earlier in September. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, 5 NOVEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 5 November, USD exchange rate up by 0.36 drams to 487.52 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 2.22 drams to 554.99 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.07 drams to 7.35 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 0.41 drams to 634.21 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price up by 29.14 drams to 19312.1 drams. Silver price up by 5.97 drams to 232.29 drams. Platinum price up by 229.30 drams to 13573.8 drams. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh Republic) welcomes the holding of a referendum in New Caledonia of France as another manifestation of peoples right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN Charter and a number of fundamental international documents. Recognition and implementation of this fundamental right is a norm in a democratic society, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of MFA Artsakh. Regardless of the results, the holding of a referendum on independence in New Caledonia once again confirms that the realization of peoples right to self-determination is the most optimal way to solve such issues. The international recognition of the fact of realization of its inalienable right to self-determination by the people of Artsakh should become the basis for the settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, which will deter the aggressive aspirations of Azerbaijan, ensure the irreversibility of the peaceful settlement of the conflict as well as regional stability and security. Translated and edited by Tigran Sirekanyan Australia, PNGs traditional partner and a close Washington ally, is lifting aid and has ploughed more than A$120 million into APEC, seeking to keep its sway over its neighbour. Critics say the six-lane road - complete with wide, illuminated footpaths - is emblematic of a regional power play whereby donor countries vie for influence with show-stopper gifts, even as deeper problems plague the Pacific nation. SYDNEY - Workers are putting the finishing touches on a Beijing-funded boulevard designed to showcase Papua New Guineas capital to visiting world leaders at this months Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Symbolising a land where the elite has created its own bubble in Port Moresby: new Maseratis parade along a new highway against a backdrop of new buildings Allan Bird, a parliamentarian and governor of PNGs second largest province, said the boulevard outside parliament house had little practical benefit. Whatever the Chinese government spent on it, it could have been better spent somewhere else, buying medicine or building a school, Bird told Reuters. Aaron Chin's splendid drone shot of Parliament House and Independence Boulevard - the K110 million 'road to nowhere' built with Chinese money Bird said such gifts put pressure on traditional partners such as Australia to place less restrictions around donated funds and refrain from criticizing PNGs own spending, which controversially includes buying 40 Maseratis and three Bentleys for APEC. There is no transparency around the use of public finances, Bird said. The government can turn to other donors and tell them to toe the line or else well be quite happy to take Chinese money. They use it as leverage. The PNG government did not respond to questions on funding for the boulevard project or other aspects of APEC. PNG has previously thanked China for its infrastructure funding and aid, and denied Beijing had asserted any diplomatic pressure. China also rebuilt the citys main highway, which according to Moresby-based think tank the Institute of National Affairs, didnt really need an upgrade. The institutes executive director, Paul Barker, said the resurfaced streets and new boulevard had little public benefit. Its hard to imagine the boulevard will have any use other than marches or grand displays from time to time, he said. Its not really a road that goes from anywhere to anywhere. STAFF REPORTER | Radio New Zealand BEIJING - China has called on Australia to drop its Cold War attitude' to its growing role in the Pacific Islands and recognise that no one country has a sphere of influence in the region. Lu Kang - China has a "legitimate role" in the Pacific islands region Commenting on plans by the Australian government to help Papua New Guinea build a naval base, foreign affairs spokesman Lu Kang said China was pursuing "wide-ranging friendly and cooperative ties with the Pacific Island countries". Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said last week that the Pacific islands are like "family", saying he wants to strengthen his country's engagement in the region because this is their home. However, The Australian newspaper reported that Mr Lu rejected any argument that China does not have a legitimate role in the region. He said China hoped that the relevant parties can discard out-dated mindsets of Cold War mentality and zero sum games and objectively view China's relations with Pacific countries. Based on his record of campaign contributions, semi-retired real estate executive Bruce Ratner, like a lot of others in the field, probably didn't want insurgent Zephyr Teachout to win the Democratic nomination for Attorney General, but can live with Public Advocate Letitia James, even if she was not the first choice.Forest City New York Executive Chairman Ratner contributed $2,500 (see screenshot above) to Maloney on Sept. 13, primary day , part of the huge haul Maloney took in after real estate executives, via the Real Estate Board of New York, got the push . Maloney's big expenditures on advertising helped build name recognition and detract from Teachout, a factor in James's easy win in the Democratic primary.And guess what: Ratner on Oct. 29 gave $10,000 (see screenshot below) to James's campaign, in which she's expected to beat Republican Keith Wofford in tomorrow's election.Consider the continued criticism of James's dissembling and fabulizing an effort less to swing the election but to hold her accountable. The New York Times, in its endorsement , praised her as "a fighter against special interests" while warning she was "prone to plumping her record."That marks the first-ever contribution from Ratner to James, who as City Council Member was the leading political opponent of Atlantic Yards and surely wasn't Ratner's first choice when she ran for Public Advocate. It's not that he's doing a lot of new business, but it can't hurt.Of course, Ratner typically gives to the expected or officeholding Attorney General; he and his then-wife Pamela Lipkin contributed $12,500 each to Schneiderman's 2010 campaign, then contributed $20,000 and $15,000 respectively to Schneiderman's 2014 campaign.Ratner also made a $5,000 contribution on Oct. 12. to lobbyist Al D'Amato's PAC, Renew New York.Three days after that contribution, Renew New York gave $5,000 to the Nassau County Republican Committee.Was that an indirect contribution by Ratner? We don't know, but we can't rule it out.As of its 11-day pre-general report, Renew New York had $13,285.48 in the bank . On 10/10/18, as indicated above, Renew gave $10,000 to the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee. The next day, it gave $500 to the Island Park Republican Committee.That meant its coffers were nearly empty. So, was Ratner's 10/12/18 contribution the source of Renew's $5,000 to Nassau Republicans? Well, another contributor, H.J.K. LLC, gave $5,000 on 10/9/18. (The address for that limited liability company is 101 Park Avenue, also home to H.J. Kalikow & Co LLC .) So either one of those contributions could have been redeployed.If the money from Democrat Ratner was steered to Republicans, it might not have been the first time. After all, as I wrote in May 2014 , it sure seemed like $25,000 contributed by Ratner and Lipkin was quickly channeled from Renew New York to the campaign of Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano.We should remember that Republicans can be strategic allies, despite Ratner's identity as a "liberal Democrat." The developer in 2016 contributed $5,000 to the campaign of state Senator Marty Golden, the only Republican from New York City, who has been helpful opposing such things as parking permits and loyally supported Atlantic Yards at a 2009 public hearing.Golden in this election faces a formidable challenge from Democrat Andrew Goundardes A Sydney mum has welcomed the biggest baby ever at her local hospital after giving birth to a 5.75kg baby boy. Nikki Bell, 28, used no pain relief as she had Parker James Bell at Blacktown Hospital on Thursday. He tipped the scales at 5.755kg, or 12lb 6oz, when he was born at 39 weeks and three days. I always thought he would be on the larger size given our fist baby Maddison was just shy of 5kg, Nikki tells Yahoo Lifestyle. But given that I was induced almost two weeks sooner than my first child, I was very surprised when he tipped the scales at 5.7kg. To be honest, despite being an extra 1kg heavier than his sister, the birth was a lot easer the second time around. Baby Parker weighed 5.75kg. Photo: Facebook/Blacktown Midwifery Group Nikkis midwife Alex says it just goes to show what a womans body is capable of. Womens bodies are designed to grow and birth their babies, Alex tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Nikki felt confident in her bodys ability to birth her baby and both myself and (consultant obstetrician) Dr Martin agreed wholeheartedly. Mum, husband Michael, baby Parker and big sister Maddison, 20 months, are all doing well back at home in Riverstone. Parkers arrival made headlines around the country, after his birth was shared on the Blacktown Midwifery Groups Facebook Page. New record, the post read. We are happy to report the not so little Parker and Mum Nikki are doing well. Welcome to the world Parker, youll be the talk of Blacktown Maternity for a long time to come. Midwife Alex, Dr Martin and Parker. Photo: Facebook/Blacktown Midwifery Group It was expected that Parker would be a big baby when he was estimated at 3.5kg at his 34 week scan. But despite Parkers size Nikki praised all mums. Im sure all births hurt, whether its 1.7kg of 5.7kg they all hurt, she told the publication. Got a story tip? Send it to tips@oath.com Want more lifestyle and celebrity news? Follow Yahoo Lifestyle on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Or sign up to our daily newsletter here. Seventy-nine school students were kidnapped on Monday in an English-speaking region of Cameroon where separatists are fighting an armed campaign for independence, a government source said. The students were abducted along with their principal, a teacher and a driver, the official said, as a source at the school confirmed the kidnapping of the pupils. They were enrolled at the Presbyterian Secondary School in Bamenda, capital of Cameroon's Northwest Region -- one of two regions hit by attacks by anglophone militants that have met with a brutal crackdown by the authorities. "The search for the hostages has been launched -- every man has been called in," the government source said, speaking after a crisis meeting. The kidnapping -- the gravest incident so far in 13 months of unrest -- coincides with an upsurge of political tensions in the majority French-speaking country. It comes after elections on October 7 that saw President Paul Biya, 85, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for 35 years, secure a seventh term in office. Biya was credited with 71.3 percent of the vote, although the ballot was marred by allegations of widespread fraud, low voter turnout and violence. He takes his oath of office on Tuesday. Around a fifth of Cameroon's 22 million people are English-speaking -- a minority whose presence dates back to the colonial period. Cameroon, once a German colony, was divided between Britain and France after World War I. The French colony gained independence in 1960, becoming Cameroon. The following year, the British-ruled Southern Cameroons was amalgamated into it, giving rise to the Northwest and Southwest regions. But resentment at perceived discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority, especially in education and the judiciary, began to build. In 2016, demands for greater autonomy grew but met with a rebuff by Biya. As radicals took ascendancy, the anglophone movement declared the creation of the "Republic of Ambazonia" in the Northwest and neighbouring Southwest Region on October 1, 2017. No country has recognised the self-declared state. The separatists have gunned down troops and police, boycotted and torched schools and attacked other perceived symbols of the Cameroonian state. The authorities have responded with a massive crackdown by police and troops. At least 400 civilians have been killed this year as well as more than 175 members of the security forces, according to a toll compiled by non-governmental organisations. According to UN figures, 246,000 people in the Southwest Region have fled their homes, and 25,000 have sought shelter in neighbouring Nigeria, many of them living hand-to-mouth in the forests. Estimates of displaced people in the Northwest Region are not available. Seventy-nine school students were kidnapped in an English-speaking region of Cameroon where separatists are fighting an armed campaign for independence, a government source said Chile announced on Sunday that it will ask the British Museum in London to return the remains of a mylodon, an extinct mammal that lived in Patagonia about 10,000 years ago. Minister of National Assets Felipe Ward will travel in two weeks to London for talks over the remains of the ground sloth that roamed in the southern region shared by Argentina and Chile. "We hope to have talks with the museum authorities... and seek to repatriate the mylodon's remains; these are bones and skin that are in storage, not even being exhibited," Ward told reporters. The remains of the mylodon were taken to Britain in 1897 for research but were never returned to Chile, according to officials. The mylodon was an ancestor of the sloth that measured about 2.5 meters (more than eight feet) and weighed about 3 tons. German settlers discovered in 1896 remains of the mammal in a cave now known as "the cave of the mylodon," in the region of Magallanes, about 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles) south of Santiago On the trip to London, Ward will be joined by a delegation seeking the return of a statue important to the indigenous people of Easter Island, part of Chile. They want to sculpt a replacement for the museum and recover the original, which was stolen from the island in 1868 by the English ship Topaze. It is estimated that this moai, as the statues are known, was created between the year 1,000 and 1,600. Chile also plans to ask the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo to return a large collection of historical pieces from Easter Island. Chile is asking the British Museum to return the remains of the long extinct melodon French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe flew into New Caledonia on Monday hailing the Pacific territory's rejection of independence -- but the closer-than-expected referendum raises questions over France's grip on the strategic islands. Final results show 56.7 percent voted to stay French in Sunday's closely watched referendum on the archipelago, which sits on a quarter of the world's known supplies of nickel, a vital electronics component. The result was much tighter than the 63 to 75 "no" vote polls had predicted, prompting questions over support for France in one of its overseas territories dotted around the globe. Geopolitical expert Pierre-Christophe Pantz said the results would "force the anti-separatists to look at their notes again". "It's clear that we can't talk about things with a 43 percent vote (for independence) in the same way that we would if it was 30 percent," he said. The pro-France campaign focused on the 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) Paris pours into local coffers every year, while some pointed to the need to balance rising Chinese ambitions in the Pacific. Philippe, who arrived from Vietnam for talks with both sides in the independence debate, nonetheless hailed the vote as "a true democratic success" which saw communities discuss the issue "without tearing themselves apart". French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed "immense pride" in the result, calling it "a sign of confidence in the French republic, in its future and its values". Supporters of independence for the islands, fringed by stunning beaches, are mostly ethnic Kanaks, but they make up less than half of the population of 269,000 people. White residents -- descendants of early European settlers as well as more recent arrivals -- overwhelmingly want to stay French, joined by other Pacific minorities. The referendum was the culmination of a 1998 peace deal which followed a quasi-civil war between Kanaks and whites that left more than 70 dead in the 1980s. The "Noumea deal" has also paved the way for the islands to become increasingly autonomous, with wide areas of policy under the control of local authorities. Crucially for separatists, the deal allows for two further votes on independence before 2022 -- meaning, they insist, that they could still achieve their dream of splitting from France. - Eyeing a second vote already - On Sunday, pro-independence leaders vowed to "go all the way" in pushing for a new referendum. Patrick Jean, a former law professor and expert on the 1998 deal, predicted that "positions are going to harden" on both sides. "I wish Emmanuel Macron and Edouard Philippe the best of luck in trying to convince the FLNKS (the Kanak Liberation Front) to give up on the idea of further referenda ahead of the May 2019 elections," he said. Those elections will see New Caledonia vote for new members of its local Congress. Pro-independence factions currently hold 25 of the 54 seats, but just a third -- 18 votes -- are needed to trigger a new referendum on independence. Philippe invited all political factions to Paris in December for talks with the government, "to collectively draw conclusions from the referendum". Turnout reached 80.63 percent in Sunday's vote, the highest ever seen in the territory. But analysts point out that the Kanak vote, while high, was weakened by the fact that one pro-independence faction urged voters to abstain rather than take part in a "joke" referendum. In the eastern islands, where Kanaks form a large majority, voter turnout was 20 points below the overall turnout. "The separatists are even more determined than before to seek a second and third referendum," said separatist congressman Louis Mapou. "We'll start getting the bride ready tomorrow -- she'll be even more beautiful in 2020." Prime Minister Edouard Philippe speaking with university students in Noumea on Monday, a day after New Caledonia voted to remain part of France What was supposed to be an idyllic five-day trip to the Caribbean has descended into chaos after a malfunctioning switchboard sent a cruise ship tipping onto its side. Not long after the Carnival Sunshine left Port Canaveral on Sunday, October 28, passengers were sent flying out of their seats, as plates and glasses smashed on the ground. Describing it as a scene from the Titanic, one passenger said water started seeping into the ship as she sat down for dinner. We were actually at the table where the window broke and the water came in, a passenger recalled to local Orlando news station WFTV. Passengers said they fell from their chairs when the ship started to tilt. Images: Twitter/David Crews A malfunction saw the Carnival Sunshine Ship tilt dramatically to its side during a five-day cruise to the Carribean. Image: Getty Next thing we know, the whole boat tilted we were literally hanging on for our lives, dangling it was really like a scene from the Titanic. Passenger David Crews initially didnt think much of the rocking ship but that quickly changed when he saw others screaming and crying for help. Plates and silverware started sliding off the tables. Then the tables themselves started to slide. Glasses and plates started to fall and shatter. At this point, it was pure chaos. Screams. Cries. Panic. Another passenger said she hurt her back when the ship titled and wasnt able to partake in any excursions the next day because of the pain. My sister and brother in law are on the ship. She cut her foot on the broken glass and had to get stitches. My mom is a mess and so worried about her! Whitney Farrar (@whit_farrar) October 29, 2018 A spokesperson for Carnival told Yahoo Lifestyle that the boat reportedly levelled out after about a minute and then proceeded as usual, with schedules events and excursions going ahead as planned. There was never any issue with the safe operation of the ship and our officers quickly intervened to correct the situation, the spokesperson said, confirming there were some minor injuries. The day after the incident, guests received a note from the captain explaining what happened. Story continues Images from inside the ship show the damage left behind. Image: Twitter/David Crews We have identified that an electrical switchboard malfunction impacted the use of the fin stabilisers, it read. Its important to note that fin stabilisers are not a safety feature; they are deployed solely for guest comfort to minimise any potential ship motion while at sea. There was never any issue with the safe operation of the ship, and our officers quickly intervened to correct the situation. Despite the captains assurances that everything was fine, not everyone was convinced, with many deciding to disembark after the incident. The line also offered each guest a $50 credit. Devastating floods in Italy that saw an entire family killed when their home was engulfed in water triggered a bitter row Monday over the country's vast illegal housing problem. Rains and winds continued to batter the north while a shell-shocked Sicily prepared to bury its dead after a week of violent storms which took over 30 lives. Nine members of a single family, including children aged one, three and 15, drowned overnight Saturday after a river burst its banks in the coastal town of Casteldaccia, submerging their rented villa in water and mud. Survivor Giuseppe Giordano, 35, who had left the house on an errand with one of his children, lost his wife, two other children, his parents, brother, and sister, his nephew and the boy's grandmother. Little Rachele Giordana's open coffin was being watched over by grieving family friends in a church in Palermo. The one-year old will be buried along with her Mickey and Minnie Mouse toys, local media reported. A mass funeral for the family was set to take place in the city's cathedral on Tuesday. Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League, enraged many by blaming "armchair environmentalism" for the widespread devastation, which hit the Veneto region hardest. - 'How many deaths?' - Critics pointed instead to the scourge of illegal housing. The villa in Sicily had been built too close to the river, violating safety norms, and the owners had been ordered to demolish it in 2008, but were in the process of appealing, Casteldaccia's mayor said. Out of every 100 new builds in Italy, almost 20 are illegal, according to the national statistics institute (ISTAT). While unauthorised construction stands at 6.7 percent in the north, it rises to 19 percent in central Italy and shoots up to 47 percent in southern Italy, meaning almost one in every two houses there are illegal. In the Campania region, a jaw-dropping 64 percent of buildings are thrown up without planning permission. Of the 16,500 or so subject to a demolition order between 2004 and 2018, only 496 were knocked down. Casteldaccia's former mayor Fabio Spatafora said cash-strapped councils cannot afford to deal with the problem. "If the owner does not comply with the demolition order, the council is obliged to buy the property or knock it down, but often -- as in the case of Casteldaccia -- it doesn't have the funds," he said. He rubbished the claim that demolitions would leave people homeless, saying many of the properties were holiday lets. "How many deaths and how many tragedies do there have to be before we realise that the only real public works needed in our country are those to make our territories safe?" said Stefano Ciagani, head of Italy's environmentalist lobby Legambiente. - 'Crocodile tears' - "We've been saying it for 40 years. Houses built on riverbeds, because in Italy there's always an amnesty around the corner." "Sadly, every tragedy we have to put up with crocodile tears from those who turned a blind eye and favoured illegal construction," he said. Italy's anti-establishment Five Star party (M5S), which is governing in a coalition with the far-right League, pledged during its election campaign to tackle the deadly problem. It insisted it would not support amnesties, which are seen by many as simply encouraging illegal building. The centre-left and right parties that governed Sicily over the past 20 years have suddenly "discovered there is illegal housing there," quipped M5S head and deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio, saying "it makes me laugh". But Di Maio has himself been accused of pushing for a widely-contested amnesty for illegal housing on the island of Ischia. As the rains continued to fall across central Italy, Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris slammed the government for failing to budget for "the necessary resources to take preventative action" against future tragedies. "This past week Naples and many areas of the country have been alarmingly whipped by an unprecedented storm... as if we had lived through a weather earthquake with a tsunami on top," he said. Rains and winds continued to batter the north while a shell-shocked Sicily prepared to bury its dead after a week of violent storms across the country which took over 30 lives Relatives leave the morgue in Casteldaccia near Palermo after floods killed 12 people on the southern Italian island The rented house where nine members of the same family died after a small river burst its banks in Casteldaccia near Palermo on the southern Italian island of Sicily Map locating Casteldaccia in the Palermo region of Sicily where nine members of the same family drowned in floods The New York trial opened Monday under huge security for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, one of the world's most notorious criminals accused of spending a quarter of a century smuggling cocaine into the United States. The defendant accused of running the massive Sinaloa drug cartel, observed the first day of jury selection dressed in a navy suit, white shirt with a wide disco-style collar, flashing a smile but otherwise impervious. The marathon Brooklyn federal trial, which is expected to last more than four months, will see Guzman face the US justice system after twice escaping prison in Mexico, once hidden in a laundry cart and then slipping down a tunnel that reached his prison shower. US prosecutors have spent years piecing together a case that they hope will end with the 61-year-old spending the rest of his life in a maximum-security US prison. Opening arguments are scheduled to start on November 13, after a week of jury selection, held behind closed doors under security reserved for the most dangerous defendants. Of about 100 potential jurors, 45 were interviewed by Judge Brian Cogan on Monday, of which 17 were dismissed and no one yet impaneled. The judge struck two women after they raised security concerns about presiding over the proceedings, expected to cost millions and turn into the most expensive federal trial in US history. "What scares me is that his family could come after jurors and their families," one of the women told the court, just feet away from where Guzman was sitting, saying she felt "nervous" and "unsafe." - 'El Chapo' bagel - The 12 jurors, with six alternates, will remain anonymous and once selected, will be partially sequestered. US Marshals will escort them to and from the federal court every day. A moment of levity came when one potential juror was asked about a deli near his workplace stocking a sandwich called "El Chapo." It's a bagel with cream cheese, lox and capers, he replied. "I don't know why it's called the El Chapo, but it's delicious," he added to laughter from Guzman's lawyer and an unimpressed defendant. Twelve ordinary men and women will determine whether Guzman -- the diminutive father of two whose nickname means "shorty" -- is guilty or not of 11 trafficking, firearms and money laundering charges. According to the indictment, the Sinaloa cartel, which Guzman is accused of leading from 1989 to 2014, became "the largest drug trafficking organization in the world." Prosecutors say that from 1989 to 2014, the cartel smuggled 340,892 pounds (154,626 kilograms) of cocaine into the United States, as well as heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana, raking in $14 billion. Guzman pleads not guilty, but the government has presented so much evidence -- more than 300,000 pages and at least 117,000 recordings -- that the defense complains they haven't had time to review it all. At least some of the several hundred witnesses expected to testify are in witness protection programs or are already in jail, housed in special wings to protect them from reprisals. The Sinaloa cartel that Guzman founded in 1989 is still hugely powerful. His co-defendant Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada remains at large, and violent drug trafficking continues unabated in Mexico. - Solitary confinement - Last year, Mexico witnessed a record 29,000 murders. In the United States, opioid addiction has spiraled into an epidemic. In 2016, an average of 174 Americans died every day from drug overdoses. Guzman has been held in solitary confinement since Mexico extradited him in January 2017, one day before Donald Trump took office. He spends 23 hours a day in his cell. The only visitors he is allowed are his lawyers and twin, seven-year-old daughters, from whom he is separated by thick glass. The judge has banned his 29-year-old beauty queen wife, Emma Coronel, from visiting. As jury selection is being held behind closed doors, she did not attend Monday. Arrested for the first time in Guatemala in 1993, El Chapo spent more than seven years in a Mexican prison before his first escape in 2001. Re-arrested in February 2014, he escaped again 14 months later. Guzman was re-captured in January 2016 after a visit from Hollywood actor Sean Penn and a Mexican actress, who wanted to make a film about his life, allowed Mexican authorities to trace his whereabouts. This time, Mexico decided to wash their hands of him and put him on a plane. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (C) is escorted by Mexican police in the border city of Ciudad Juarez as he is extradited to the United States in January 2017 Police stand on duty for the start of jury selection for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's trial in US federal court in New York Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's attorneys Eduardo Balarezo, left, and William Purpura arrive for the start of jury selection for theri client's trial A member of the US Marshals Service patrols outside the court where Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's trial is taking place Eurozone finance ministers urged Italy on Monday to reverse course on its rule-breaking budget amid fears of market turmoil and a return of the debt crisis. The ministers met in Brussels for the first time since the European Commission rejected Rome's 2019 budget in a historic move that gave Italy until November 13 to table a rewrite. Eurogroup chief Mario Centeno, who is also the Portuguese finance minister, said discussion was key but that Italy must submit a budget proposal that "complies with European fiscal rules." But Italian Finance Minister Giovanni Tria remained steadfast, promising an explanation of its plans to the commission but saying Rome would not abandon its spending boost, that he assured would deliver growth. The budget "is not changing," said Italian Finance Minister after the talks. There will be "neither compromise nor conflict" with the Commission, he added. Despite the split, a call for dialogue was repeated by several ministers and top officials in a sign that the intention for now is to soothe tensions and avert a crisis on the markets. In a statement, eurozone ministers gave their firm backing to the European Commission and called on Italy and Brussels "to engage in an open and constructive dialogue." Italy must "cooperate closely with the Commission in the preparation of a revised budgetary plan" which is in line with EU rules. - 'Seize the hand' - The standoff with Brussels has alarmed the financial markets and threatened a wave of ratings agencies downgrades that could cripple Italy's teetering banks and sink the economy into recession. "I really hope that the Italian government will seize the hand offered," said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. There are fears as well that coming down too hard on Italy could galvanise anti-EU populists across Europe ahead of European elections next May. No new budget would force the commission to put Italy into something called the "excess deficit procedure", a complicated process that could eventually lead to a fine of 0.2 percent of the country's GDP. "This fight is going to be with us for awhile," a eurozone diplomat told AFP. - 'Never kneel' - So far Italy, and in particular its far-right vice premier Matteo Salvini, is not planning to back down. The government -- a coalition of Salvini's League and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement -- plans to run a public deficit of 2.4 percent of GDP, three times the target of its centre-left predecessor. On October 23, the commission sent Rome a letter rejecting the budget -- a historic first, even if Italy is far from the first country to break EU fiscal rules. Italy still has a week to submit a revised budget, but Salvini's response has been categoric: "No little letter will make us back down. Italy will never kneel again." Italy's jobless rate is more than 10 percent, way above the eurozone average, and growth in the third quarter of this year ground to a complete halt. The coalition's 2019 budget is based on an estimate of annual growth of 1.5 percent -- a figure considered optimistic by the IMF, which has forecast only one percent. Italian leaders insist the low growth rate is all the more reason to kickstart the economy through a spending spree, but Brussels fears the rising deficit could further feed Italy's exploding debt. Italy already owes 2.3 trillion euros ($2.6 trillion), a sum equivalent to 131 percent of its GDP, and even if Brussels fails to punish Rome, many assume the markets will. Rating agency Moody's has already downgraded Italian debt, and Standard & Poor's has dropped its outlook on the economy from stable to negative. The much watched "spread" -- the gap between German and Italian bond yields -- has grown to around 300 basis points, up from around 130 in the first quarter of 2018, as the markets demand higher returns to put their money in Rome. The situation is reminiscent of the Greek debt crisis, except with Italy the size of a bailout would be so large as to make it virtually impossible. Italy, and in particular its far-right vice premier Matteo Salvini, is not planning to back down over its 2019 budget. Italy already owes 2.3 trillion euros ($2.6 trillion), a sum equivalent to 131 percent of its GDP, and even if Brussels fails to punish Rome, the markets surely will. As primary school students returned from their autumn break Monday, some in a town east of Paris were wearing the same polo shirts and sky-blue sweaters -- the first uniforms ever seen in a French public school. The highly symbolic move by officials in Provins comes as France wrestles with how to close a growing achievement gap between children from poor and wealthy families. Many countries around the world require school uniforms, with advocates saying they bolster respect between students and teachers while reinforcing a communal sense of belonging. But they are relatively uncommon across much of Europe, with the notable exception of Britain. Last June, 62 percent of parents in Provins voted in favour of a uniform emblazoned with a crest of the medieval city's famed Cesar Tower and the French motto of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity". Yet just a few children were wearing the new outfits Monday morning -- officials didn't go so far as to make them mandatory. "I was a little worried," said eight-year-old Noe at his school's entrance. "But I like it, because we're dressed like in 'Harry Potter'," he said. At 137 euros ($155), the kit also includes matching trousers and an aviator-style jacket, though subsidies are available for families who can't afford it. "About half the students will wear it," said Mayor Olivier Lavenka of the rightwing Republicans party, who pushed for the vote as a way of easing social discrimination. "It's an experiment, and in a few years we'll see how it has worked out." - 'Return' to uniforms? - Traditionally uniforms have been the preserve of private schools, often Catholic institutions in the nicer parts of French towns. But recently more parents have been calling for uniforms as a way to promote social cohesion, in particular in deprived neighbourhoods, and ease the resentments that can emerge over how different kids are dressed. French children in deprived areas are four times more likely to end up struggling than students in higher income areas, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found. On this measurement, France was the worst performing of 36 major economies measured by the respected Paris-based research institute, far behind Britain or the United States but also Brazil and Mexico. Two candidates in last year's presidential campaign, rightwinger Francois Fillon and far-right leader Marine Le Pen, called for a "return to uniforms". Historians note there has never been such a policy in French public schools. Students did have to wear aprons or smocks until the late 1960s, but only to avoid stains from using fountain pens and ink wells. "Lots of people have this memory of uniformed smocks, but it's a reconstructed memory -- you only have to look at class photos from that era," education historian Claude Lelievre said. - Elusive proof - Since 2013, three proposals have been lodged in parliament urging uniforms in public schools, but have gone nowhere. Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer has indicated he's in favour of the measure for schools which want it, but has not called for nationwide implementation. Lavenka, the Provins mayor, noted that school uniforms are common in the French overseas territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Like other advocates, Lavenka says they will help induce "an improved education climate" by reinforcing a sense of belonging to the same school body -- while also making it easier for getting kids dressed in the morning. His move echoes the growing demand for publicly funded charter schools in the US, which often tout their use of uniforms as a core part of their high-achieving strategies. Yet critics say there is little solid research to back up such claims, not least because uniforms are often part of a broader push to improve academic performance. "There has never been a serious empirical study showing there is more social equality between students or respect for authority because of uniforms," said Francoise Lantheaume, an education professor at the University of Lyon-2. Some parents also remained sceptical. "They are going to be faced with social differences their entire lives," said Stephanie Meiria, whose daughter attends one of the town's six public schools. "And my daughter loves picking out her own clothes, I don't want to take that away from her." Children in French public schools do not usually wear uniforms, but recently more parents have been calling for them as a way to promote social cohesion and ease the resentments that can emerge over how different kids are dressed Diofel Llamado fled for his life when Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines in 2013, yet today he is back living in the same coastal area -- even if it puts him in the crosshairs of a future killer storm. On the fifth anniversary of the Philippines' deadliest typhoon on record, his return is emblematic of the struggle in developing nations to move people out of homes in the most disaster-menaced zones. It is an especially urgent danger as monster storms strike ever more frequently, packing destructive rainfall that experts say is supercharged by climate change. "You cannot think that you are safe," Llamado, 55, told AFP. "Even when you are sleeping, you have to think like a soldier: one foot is in the graveyard." Haiyan struck in the predawn darkness of November 8, 2013 as the then strongest typhoon to ever hit land, leaving more than 7,360 people dead or missing across the central Philippines. The wall of seawater the typhoon sent crashing into densely populated areas -- known as storm surge -- is one of the key reasons it was so deadly. Many people simply did not understand the term and did not evacuate despite official warnings. Even some who fled were not spared -- Llamado's two daughters were killed when the rushing water collapsed an evacuation centre. Yet he has returned to live in the same storm surge-threatened area where his family lived before Haiyan. Llamado says his small business making savoury pastries would not survive a move, adding that the government-proposed housing in a safer area doesn't even have running water and electricity. "If someone will offer us a means of livelihood, we can live there. But until that happens, how will we survive?" he asked. "No one is going to give you food." - Lesson not learned - His decision echoes the calculus poor people make in other calamity-prone nations in Asia and Africa, said Moustafa Osman, a Britain-based disaster management expert. "Everywhere the single most difficult thing to do is to move people from their own village or territory and put them in a strange place," he said. "Unless you have a proper plan and a better alternative they won't go," he added. Substandard housing, difficulties in earning a livelihood, no transportation and even conflict with the existing residents of a resettlement area are habitual barriers. India has faced criticism for building thousands of apartments in a regularly flooded part of Chennai city to house people displaced by calamities. China, one of the world's most disaster-susceptible nations, has been criticised for forcibly moving survivors of its frequent landslides. In the Philippines, roughly 15,000 of the poorest families were ordered relocated from the worst-hit city of Tacloban, yet many have not moved and those who have are struggling. Maria Rosario Felizco, Oxfam country director for the Philippines, said the need to locate communities in areas less vulnerable to disasters has not been fully met. "That's the lesson we must learn. We must not wait for... a disaster before we think of that," she said. The peril that looms over communities in the Philippines and elsewhere is only expected to grow because of the influence of global warming on extreme weather. Oxford University climate expert Friederike Otto said there is a clear connection between climate change and heavier, devastating rainfall. The storms packing these intense rains are expected to get more harmful as the impact of climate change manifests itself, and because so many vulnerable communities live in threatened areas. "How destructive a storm is crucially depends on who and what is in harm's way", Otto said. Haiyan struck the Philippines in the predawn darkness of November 8, 2013 Llamado has returned to live in the same storm surge-threatened area where his family lived before Haiyan Roughly 15,000 of the poorest families were ordered relocated from the worst-hit city of Tacloban A letter written by nineteenth century French poet Charles Baudelaire announcing his intention to kill himself sold at auction on Sunday for 234,000 euros ($267,000), three times the expected price. Best known for his collection of poems "Les Fleurs du mal" (The Flowers of Evil"), Baudelaire was 24 at the time he wrote the letter to his mistress Jeanne Duval in June 1845. It was bought by a private collector, the Osenat auction house said. "When you receive this letter I will be dead?. I am killing myself because I cannot carry on living, I can no longer endure the ordeal of falling asleep or waking up again," the poet wrote. Baudelaire stabbed himself but failed to do any serious damage and lived for another 22 years. He died aged 46 in 1867. Baudelaire was 24 when he wrote the letter addressed to his mistress Jeanne Duval in June 1845 Iran on Monday urged the United Nations to hold the United States accountable for reimposing sanctions on Tehran, branding the measures illegal and in violation of a Security Council resolution. Iranian Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the "irresponsible conduct of the United States necessitates a collective response to uphold the rule of law." "The United Nations and its member-states, in accordance with the charter of the United Nations and the international law, should resist against these wrongful acts and hold the United States accountable for such acts," he added. President Donald Trump's administration reimposed sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal after pulling out of the international agreement reached between Iran, the United States and five other powers: Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia. The sanctions hit oil exports, shipping and banking. Eight waivers to the ban on Iranian oil imports were issued to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. The nuclear deal was unanimously endorsed by a Security Council resolution, which means it is legally binding. Diplomats, however, said there were no plans to raise the US sanctions at the council for the time being. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric indicated that Guterres was in no hurry to push for action. "We will take a look at the letter and respond accordingly," he said. The Iranian ambassador said the United States "not only blatantly defies the Security Council resolution 2231" that endorsed the nuclear deal, "but also audaciously coerces other states to violate the resolution." "Those sanctions are illegal and run counter to the well-established principles" of non-interference in internal affairs and freedom of international trade, he added. During the annual UN gathering of world leaders in September, Trump chaired a council meeting that focused heavily on Iran, laying bare the rift between the United States and other powers on the nuclear deal. European leaders and representatives from Russia and China defended the deal and urged Trump to allow them to continue to uphold it. Iranian protesters carry placards that mock President Donald Trump during a demonstration outside the former US embassy in Tehran over the reimposition of US sanctions The United States vowed Monday to be "relentless" in countering Iran as sweeping sanctions took effect, but the Islamic republic defiantly promised to stand up to the "bullying" by Washington. President Donald Trump's administration nonetheless issued eight exemptions from its demand on all countries to stop buying Iran's oil, its largest export, amid widespread global opposition to the unilateral US sanctions. Six months after Trump pulled out of an international agreement on ending Tehran's nuclear program, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the ultimate US goal was for Iran to make a "180-degree turn" and abandon its "current revolutionary course." While stopping short of urging regime change, he reiterated his demands for Iran to end policies rooted in the 1979 Islamic revolution including its support for regional proxies such as the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and its development of missiles. "We hope a new agreement with Iran is possible, but until Iran makes changes in the 12 ways I listed in May, we will be relentless in exerting pressure on the regime," Pompeo said. He said the sanctions -- which took effect on the 39th anniversary of Iranian zealots' seizure of the US embassy following the ouster of the pro-US shah -- intended to "starve the Iranian regime of the funds it uses to fund violent activity throughout the Middle East and around the world." UN inspectors say Iran is abiding by an agreement reached with Trump's predecessor Barack Obama to draw down its nuclear program. That deal was backed by European powers, Russia and China and sealed by a UN Security Council resolution. "I announce that we will proudly bypass your illegal, unjust sanctions because it's against international regulations," Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech as the sanctions took effect. "We are in a situation of economic war, confronting a bullying power. I don't think that in the history of America, someone has entered the White House who is so against law and international conventions," he added. In one of Tehran's bazaars, there was anxiety over the future. "The shadow of the sanctions has already affected the economy in a disastrous way, people's purchasing power has plunged," said Ehsan Attar in his herbal remedy shop. - 'Act on your commitments' - Rouhani said four countries had approached him during his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly in September offering to mediate with the US, but he turned them down. "There is no need for mediation. There is no need for all these messages. Act on your commitments, and we will sit and talk," he said. Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Gholamali Khoshroo, asked the world body Monday to hold the United States to account, although there was no indication that member-states would take up the issue. The latest tranche of US sanctions aims to significantly cut Iran's oil exports -- which have already fallen by up to one million barrels a day since May -- and cut off its banks from international finance. The Belgian-based SWIFT banking network, the backbone for international monetary transfers, said Monday it had suspended several Iranian banks from its service. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that US sanctions will cause Iran's economy to contract 1.5 percent this year and 3.6 percent next year -- pain that Trump has boasted about as he touts his record ahead of Tuesday's congressional elections. Iran's economy was already suffering major structural problems -- including widespread corruption, weak investment and a banking sector laden with toxic assets -- before Trump walked out of the deal. Rouhani's plan since his election in 2013 was to boost the economy by rebuilding ties with the world and attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment -- a strategy that now looks in tatters. - Exemptions to sanctions - The United States issued eight waivers to its ban on buying Iranian oil -- to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. Trump said he wanted to go "a little bit slower" on oil sanctions to avoid a price hike, which is especially sensitive in the United States. "I'm not looking to be a great hero and bring it down to zero immediately," Trump told reporters, saying the move "would cause a shock to the market." And despite Trump's repeated declarations that the Iran deal has been a "disaster," the United States announced exemptions that preserve civilian nuclear cooperation started under the accord. The activities at Bushehr, Iran's only nuclear power station, as well as the Fordow enrichment plant and the Arak heavy water reactor, will be allowed "to continue under the strictest scrutiny to ensure transparency and maintain constraints on Iran," a State Department statement said. The other parties to the nuclear deal -- Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia -- have vehemently opposed the US move and vowed to keep alive the accord, technically known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The only support for the US position has come from Iran's regional rivals, notably Saudi Arabia and Israel, whose prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hailed the start of sanctions as "a historic day." Foreign companies and banks are largely unwilling to make enemies of the US Treasury, and most international firms that set up in Iran after the 2015 deal have been forced to leave, including France's Total, Peugeot and Renault, and Germany's Siemens. "Unfortunately, we were treated dishonorably by both the American and Iranian governments," said Fereshteh Safarnezhad, a 43-year-old teacher, on the streets of Tehran. "The Americans never really committed to the deal and the Iranian government did not spend the cash it got from the deal on the people." US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, pictured in Washington on October 23, 2018, said the sanctions were intended to "starve the Iranian regime of the funds it uses to fund violent activity throughout the Middle East and around the world" Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (C), seen at a cabinet meeting in Tehran in a handout picture provided by the Iranian presidency on November 5, 2018, said the Islamic republic "will proudly bypass sanctions" by the United States An Iranian protester burns a dollar banknote during a demonstration outside the former US embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran on November 4, 2018 Chronology of events since the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. Iranians drivers fill their tanks at a gas station in the capital Tehran on November 5, 2018 China's first "cyber-dissident" Huang Qi is in danger of dying under police custody if he does not receive medical treatment for a host of severe health conditions, human rights groups warned on Monday. Huang, 55, who was arrested in 2016 for "leaking state secrets", is currently being held in Mianyang Detention Centre in southwestern Sichuan province, according to his mother. Huang ran a website called "64 Tianwang", named after the bloody June 4, 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protesters. The website, which has reported on local corruption cases, police brutality, and other topics rarely seen in ordinary Chinese media, is blocked in mainland China. According to human rights organisations, Huang suffers from chronic kidney disease, hydrocephalus or accumulation of fluid in the brain, and heart disease. "Huang Qi's current condition is extremely urgent," his 85-year-old mother, Pu Wenqing, who travelled to Beijing in October to make a case for her son, told AFP. "I don't want my son to die in prison. I hope the authorities will let him receive medical treatment," she said, adding that he has been denied medical bail despite multiple pleas. Fourteen non-profit organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, released a statement calling for Huang's immediate release. Citing Huang's lawyer, the organisations said that the Chinese dissident is not receiving adequate medical care in detention, and his condition is so dire that there is an "immediate threat to his life". "His health condition is not very good. He has high blood pressure," Liu Zhengqing, Huang's lawyer, told AFP, declining to speak further. According to Pu, her son has a blood pressure of 221/147 mmHg -- well above the normal range of 140/90 mmHg. "The Chinese government must immediately and unconditionally release Huang, who has been detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression, and end its policy of denying prompt medical treatment to prisoners of conscience, which is a form of torture," the statement said. Mianyang Detention Centre's deputy director declined to comment. Huang's work has repeatedly drawn the ire of Chinese authorities. In 2009, Huang was sentenced to three years in prison after campaigning for parents of children killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which left nearly 87,000 people dead or missing. In 2014, Huang and at least three citizen journalists that contribute to 64 Tianwang were detained by police after the site reported on a woman who set herself on fire in Tiananmen Square. There is currently no trial date set for Huang. The rights groups cite the cases of other human rights defenders and ethnic group activists who died in recent years due to a lack of prompt medical care. Last year, Chinese authorities rejected international pleas for them to allow dissident Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo to leave the country to receive treatment for liver cancer abroad. Liu died in a hospital in northeast China while still under custody after receiving medical parole from an 11-year sentence for "subversion". Huang ran a website that reported on local corruption cases, police brutality, and other topics rarely seen in ordinary Chinese media Lawyers for two Myanmar Reuters journalists filed an appeal Monday against their seven-year jail sentence linked to their reporting on the Rohingya crisis, the news agency said. Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were found guilty under a state secrets act in September after exposing the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya men during a brutal military crackdown last year. The verdict -- following what was widely viewed as a sham trial held to intimidate Myanmar's nascent community of journalists -- sparked widespread condemnation. Reuters president and editor-in-chief Stephen J Adler said in a statement the ruling ignored "compelling evidence" that the two reporters had been framed by the authorities. "We filed an appeal today on behalf of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo because the trial court's ruling was wrong," he said. "In condemning them as spies, it ignored compelling evidence of a police set-up, serious due process violations and the prosecution?s failure to prove any of the key elements of the crime." During the trial, one whistleblowing police officer told the court how a superior had ordered his men to set up a sting to entrap the reporters -- testimony the judge chose to ignore. Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was widely criticised for refusing to intervene even though her government had the power to drop the charges. President Win Myint -- a proxy of Suu Kyi -- has the power to pardon the reporters but has so far not commented on the case. The High Court is likely to take up to five or six months to rule on the appeal, during which time the reporters will remain in prison. The pair were investigating the massacre of 10 Rohingya men by security forces in Inn Din village in western Rakhine state, an atrocity to which the military later admitted in a rare acknowledgement of wrongdoing. Myanmar troops, aided by mobs of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, drove out more than 720,000 Rohingya from Rakhine state last year, forcing them into sprawling camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. The refugees brought with them consistent testimony of widespread murder, rape, torture and arson. UN investigators say the violence warrants the prosecution of top generals for an "ongoing genocide", war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Myanmar insists that the campaign in Rakhine was a proportionate response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces and vehemently rejects the ICC's jurisdiction over the country. After numerous delays, the first significant group of Rohingya -- some 2,000 strong -- is due to return to Myanmar on November 15 as part of a repatriation deal signed with Bangladesh a year ago. However, the UN and rights groups maintain that conditions for their "safe, dignified and sustainable" return are still not in place. Myanmar journalists Wa Lone (C) and Kyaw Soe Oo received seven year jail terms linked to their reporting on the Rohingya crisis The sons of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi have asked Saudi authorities to return the body of their father so the family can properly grieve, they told CNN in an interview aired Sunday. Khashoggi was killed inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul by a team sent from Riyadh on October 2, a murder Turkey's president said was ordered from "the highest levels" of Saudi Arabia's government. "I really hope that whatever happened wasn't painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death," Abdullah Khashoggi told the US network during the interview in Washington. His brother Salah said "all what we want right now is to bury him in Al Baqi in Medina with the rest of his family," referencing a cemetery in Saudi Arabia. "I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon." Turkey's chief prosecutor said recently that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and also confirmed the body was dismembered. Yasin Aktay, an advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hinted in an article published on Friday that the body may even have been destroyed in acid. Khashoggi's killing has provoked widespread outrage and sharp criticism from Washington, usually the staunchest of allies. Khashoggi's sons voiced worry that the work of their father, a columnist for The Washington Post, was being distorted for political reasons. "I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don't agree with," Salah told CNN. "My fear is that it's being over politicized." "Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy, that it is the thing that is keeping the country together." The brothers said they have relied primarily on news reports to piece together an understanding of their father's death. "There's a lot of ups and downs.... We're trying to get the story -- bits and pieces of the story to complete the whole picture," Abdullah said. "It's confusing and difficult." "It's not a normal situation and not a normal death." Salah emphasized that "the King has stressed that everybody will be brought to justice. And I have faith in that." The murdered journalist's fiancee meanwhile has called on US President Donald Trump to back Turkey's efforts to probe the death. Khashoggi's killing has provoked widespread outrage Timeline on Saudi statements relating to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A mock street sign reading "Khashoggi Street" is erected by Amnesty International activists in front of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London South Korea and the United States on Monday resumed small-scale military training that was indefinitely suspended following an historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The combined marine drills were among "select" joint exercises that were indefinitely delayed in June, after Trump met with Kim in Singapore and pledged to halt "very provocative" and expensive joint military drills with Seoul. But the Korean Marine Exchange Programme (KMEP), involving some 500 marines from the US and South Korea, will resume for two weeks from Monday in the South's southern city of Pohang, Seoul's defence ministry said. "We have previously said we will conduct US-South Korea battalion-level or small-scale drills as planned," ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo told reporters. Washington is Seoul's security ally and stations 28,500 troops in the South to protect it from its nuclear-armed neighbour. The two countries have long carried out joint exercises which they insist are purely defensive in nature, but which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for invasion. Along with the marine drills, Seoul and Washington suspended the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian training in August involving tens of thousands of troops. They also agreed to halt the Vigilant Ace air force exercise slated for December. The resumption in military drills comes just days before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to hold talks with his North Korean counterpart on denuclearisation and plans for a second summit between their leaders. At their meeting in Singapore, Trump and Kim signed a vaguely worded statement on denuclearisation but little progress has been made since. The two have sparred over the exact terms of the deal, with Washington pushing to maintain sanctions against the North until its "final, fully verified denuclearisation" and Pyongyang condemning US demands as "gangster-like". As a latest sign of increasing frustration, the North's foreign ministry issued a statement on Friday threatening to resume building nuclear weapons unless US ends sanctions against Pyongyang. The North is under multiple UN Security Council sanctions for its weapons programmes. In an interview with Fox News on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated that sanctions will remain until Pyongyang carries out denuclearisation commitments made in Singapore. Last month General Robert Abrams, the then-nominee to head US and UN forces in South Korea, said there "was certainly a degradation in the readiness of the force, for the combined forces" following the pause in drills. South Korean Marine amphibious assault vehicles fire smoke shells during a landing operation in the southern city of Pohang South Korea and the United States have resumed small-scale military training His family of seven share two small, squalid rooms in a cockroach-infested Bangkok apartment. But like many Pakistani Christians living illegally in Thailand, Farooz's sharpest worry is not poverty but arrest. There is no safe return to the homeland they fled due to religious persecution, where Islamist invective surged higher last week after the release of Asia Bibi on blasphemy charges. Christians make up less than two percent of Pakistan's Muslim-majority population, but are the sporadic targets of hardline Islamists. Churches have been bombed while pernicious charges of blasphemy are easily pinned on the group, often to settle personal scores. Mass protests against last week's pardon of Asia Bibi -- a Christian woman on death row since 2010 over allegations of insulting Islam -- have put conditions for the minority in Pakistan back under the spotlight. It has also reminded those who fled, thousands of whom live in the shadows in Bangkok, what awaits if they return. "We cannot go back, our country does not accept us, and no other country wants to take us ... so we are trapped here in Thailand," says Farooz, who gave an alias to avoid being identified by police. Yet the minority are deprived refugee rights in Thailand, and appear increasingly unwelcome as a police crackdown takes place. Aged 15, Farooz is erudite and multi-lingual -- he speaks Urdu, Punjabi, English and Thai. But neither he nor his three younger siblings have gone to school for the last five years. Instead, they are forced to pass the days inside -- unable to work legally and facing the thinly-disguised scorn of their Thai neighbours. Thailand is not a signatory to UN conventions protecting refugees. But it used to be a sanctuary of sorts, where relaxed visa rules allowed entry and officials could be enticed into turning a blind eye to overstayers. Thai immigration police say they have detained dozens of the minority in recent weeks for overstaying visas or entering the country illegally. Around 70 of those detained chose voluntary repatriation -- many more who were not arrested are believed to have followed. "They have decided to return to a place where animosity towards them is at its peak rather than face indefinite detention in Bangkok," says Wilson Chowdhry, of the British Pakistani Christian Association, which helps refugees in Thailand. "They will face persecution, some may be accused of blasphemy ... none have any money or property left as they sold it to get to Thailand," Chowdhry added. Pakistani-Christians in Bangkok numbered around 7,400 two years ago, advocacy groups say. Now around 3,000 remain, some registered with the UNHCR, the rest living underground. Around 1,000 were resettled to "third countries" by the UNHCR or under private sponsorship schemes. - Children of nowhere - Farooz's family came to Thailand in 2013 from Gojra, in Pakistan's Punjab province, the site of a pogrom by Muslim hardliners in 2009 that resulted in seven Christians being burned to death. His father says he witnessed the murder of the Christians and subsequently became a target of death threats and unsubstantiated legal claims aimed at silencing him. The near-daily threats eventually prompted the family to leave. But in Thailand they have found themselves in an administrative bind. With their tourist visas long-expired, the family were detained by Thai authorities in an immigration sweep in 2015. They were eventually released on bail on condition they report to the police every month. That is despite the UNHCR recognising the family as refugees. But bureacracy also dogs their resettlement case. The UNHCR says it needs further documents from Pakistani authorities to put the family on the official pending list for resettlement. Yet the Pakistan Embassy in Bangkok says those documents can only be issued in the country they fled. So Farooz and his family wait it out in Thailand, reliant on charity handouts, occasional menial work and each other. Sobbing quietly, his mother says the impermanence has worn the family down. "I worry for children.. what will happen to them without education? Where will they belong?" she says. "I want to see my mother again, my family... my home. But they will kill us if we have to go back." burs-apj/amz Pakistani-Christian refugees seek refuge in a small apartment in Bangkok suburb after fleeing persecution in Pakistan in 2013 An infant Pakistani Christian in Bangkok, where immigration police say they have detained dozens of the minority in recent weeks Around 3,000 Pakistani Christians remain in Bangkok A caravan of Central American migrants that has drawn near-daily Twitter tirades from President Donald Trump ahead of the US mid-term elections rested and regrouped Monday at a stadium-turned-shelter in Mexico City before pressing on. With their sights set on reaching the United States, some 5,000 migrants, mainly from violence-plagued Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, are expected to converge on Mexico City in the coming days and then continue their northward trek, authorities said. The first 470 arrived Sunday in Mexico City and spent the night at a stadium on the capital's east side, where authorities have set up a large camp to host them and provide food and water. By late Monday morning, some 2,000 people had arrived at the camp, with 3,000 more expected to arrive by Wednesday as the fragmented caravan regroups after dispersing across the states of Puebla in central Mexico and Veracruz in the east, according to Mexico's National Human Rights Commission. The migrants are sleeping mainly in tents, on the ground or on the cement bleachers of the stadium, in frigid nightime temperatures of around 12 degrees Celsius (54 Fahrenheit) this time of year in the high altitude of Mexico City. Many were nursing colds or mangled feet after a trek of more than 1,600 kilometers (some 1,000 miles) that began on October 13 in the city of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. "I couldn't sleep. I was cold and coughing all night," said Honduran migrant Karla Membreno, 23, who is making the trek with her husband and brother-in-law. But "we have to be strong. God gives us strength to carry on," she told AFP. Two other large groups of Central American migrants comprising between 3,000 and 4,000 people in all are currently making their way across the southern Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, the National Human Rights Commission said. Another 3,230 Central Americans who were traveling in caravans have requested asylum in Mexico, according to the interior ministry. Trump has made immigration a key issue ahead of Tuesday's clutch mid-term vote, seen as a referendum on his presidency so far. Calling the caravan a "national emergency," he has ordered some 7,000 troops to the border, and threatened to deploy as many as 15,000. Central American migrants line up to borrow a sleeping pad, at a temporary shelter in a stadium in Mexico City, the latest stop in their trek to the US border Around 4,800 US soldiers were deployed Monday to the border with Mexico, the Pentagon announced, saying it could not give a price tag for the operation Democrats decry as political maneuvering from President Donald Trump. Some 1,100 of the troops are in California, another 1,100 in Arizona and 2,600 in Texas on the eve of crucial midterm elections that will determine whether Trump's Republicans keep their hold on power in Congress. "This continues to be a dynamic situation with more units and personnel deploying to the operating area and we expect to reach 5,200 deployed personnel as early as today," said Colonel Bob Manning, a Defense Department spokesman. Manning said more than 7,000 active duty troops were expected to "soon" be supporting the Department of Homeland Security. Some 2,100 National Guard reservists have already been active in the area for several months, so the arrival of the latest troops will bring the total US military presence to 9,000. Operation Faithful Patriot aims to block the huge groups of Central American migrants marching on foot toward the United States, where they plan to demand asylum. Asked about the cost of the operation, Manning said it had yet to be determined by the Pentagon's financial services. "The department will absorb the cost but I just don't have a number for you," he said. Manning noted that DHS had requested that active duty troops, rather than reservists -- who usually partake in operations on US soil -- for this operation. That's a sign that the White House was trying to circumvent the opposition of some governors, who need to approve the deployment of their state's National Guard troops. "There is no plan for them to come in direct contact with migrants or protesters," Manning said. Trump, who has warned of an "invasion" of the thousands of migrants now in Mexico, announced the military deployment last week, saying that up to 15,000 troops could serve in the operation. US soldiers arrive at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, November 3, 2018, in support of Operation Faithful Patriot US soldiers work with US Customs and Border Protection personnel at the Hidalgo, Texas, port of entry, applying concertina wire along the Mexico border on November 2, 2018 The Pakistani lawyer who saved a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy from death row said Monday that the UN and EU made him leave the country "against my wishes" because his life was at risk. Saif-ul-Malook, who has fled to the Netherlands, said he contacted a United Nations official in Islamabad after Islamist violence erupted following the Pakistani Supreme Court's acquittal of Asia Bibi on Wednesday. "And then they (the UN) and the European nation ambassadors in Islamabad, they kept me for three days and then put me on a plane against my wishes," the lawyer told a press conference in The Hague. "I pressed them that I would not leave the country unless I get Asia out of the prison... I am not happy to be here without her but, but everybody said that you are the prime target at the moment and the whole world is taking care of Asia Bibi. "They were of the view that I was the prime target to be killed, and that my life was in imminent danger. For three days they did not let me open the door, one day I called the French ambassador and said I do not want to be here." The lawyer had previously told AFP before his departure on Saturday that he was leaving because "in the current scenario, it's not possible for me to live in Pakistan". Saif-ul-Malook arrived in The Hague at the weekend after a short stopover in Rome, with the help of the HVC Foundation, a Dutch group that focuses on the human rights of Christian minorities. Asia Bibi spent nearly a decade on death row after being accused of blasphemy after a dispute with fellow villagers. The charge is an inflammatory one in Muslim-majority Pakistan. - 'Face-saving exercise' - But she remains in Pakistan after Prime Minister Imran Khan struck a deal with with the Islamist hardliners behind the protests. Saif-ul-Malook dismissed the deal as a "face-saving" exercise for the hardliners from the Tehreek-e-Labaik party and insisted that Asia Bibi would "100 percent" be freed soon. "This compromise is nothing but a piece of paper that can be thrown in the dustbin," he said. It was not clear whether Bibi had had any firm offers of asylum if she does leave Pakistan, added the lawyer, who said he was "legally authorised" to choose a country for her. The lawyer said a UN official in Pakistan told him "we are taking care of her" but that "when I said which country, they said we can't say. "I asked the French ambassador 'would your country be willing to offer asylum to Asia Bibi. He said if you request us legally, I said 'OK I request her'." Pakistani lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook who has fled to the Netherlands, said he contacted a Un official in Islamabad after Islamist violence erupted following the Pakistani Supreme Court's acquittal of Asia Bibi Pakistani lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook had previously told AFP that he was leaving his homeland because "in the current scenario, it's not possible for me to live in Pakistan" Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will return home to a deepening political crisis Monday, with pressure mounting over a deal struck with Islamists hardliners that analysts say has eroded faith in his government. Khan spent the last four days on a state visit to China, trying to win some desperately needed relief for his country's parlous finances, as his homeland fractured over the fate of Asia Bibi -- a Christian woman cleared of blasphemy charges last week by the Supreme Court. The overturning of her conviction, which Pakistan's top judges ruled was based on flimsy evidence, ended Bibi's eight year ordeal on death row. But it enraged Islamists hardliners who took to the streets, blockaded major cities and demanded her immediate execution. Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even the whiff of an unsubstantiated allegation of insulting Islam can spark death at the hands of mobs. The protests were only brought to an end once Khan's administration agreed to a deal with the hardliners, where Bibi would remain in Pakistan while a final review of the Supreme Court's ruling takes place. Many critics saw the climbdown as another capitulation to Islamist hardliners who called for the assassination of the country's Supreme Court justices and mutiny against the army's top brass in the ruling's wake. "The government seems to be directionless and it does not seem to have a proper strategy," said analyst Fasi Zaka. "The government has just bought time and we?re still waiting to see what they do." - Praise dissipates - Only a few days earlier, Khan had been riding a wave of positive energy. Shortly before his departure for China he delivered a speech vowing to confront the protesters head on, winning widespread praise from those detractors who had long accused him of courting extremists and for defending the blasphemy laws. The protests calling for Bibi's execution were being headed by the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan party (TLP), which is known for whipping up anger over blasphemy and successfully achieved a minister's resignation under the previous administration in 2017 by blockading roads into Islamabad for more than three weeks. Many critics of Khan noted that it was the second time his young administration had folded to TLP demands after his government sacked an economics advisor belonging to the persecuted Ahmadi religious minority following pressure from its outspoken leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi. "Khan may have won the election, but it is Rizvi who seems to be ruling Pakistan today," wrote columnist Fahd Husain in an editorial published in the English daily the Express Tribune over the weekend. "The government must act against the TLP to sustain its popularity," added security analyst Amir Rana. "The government looks weak and fragile." The TLP issued a warning late Monday saying they were prepared to take to the streets again as reports claimed that dozens of the group?s activists had been arrested. ?If you breach the agreement then remember that the entire country will stand up against you,? said TLP leader Afzal Qadri in a Facebook post. The deal has left Bibi in legal limbo and her family fearing for her safety. Her husband has appealed for Britain or the United States to grant the family asylum while her lawyer has fled overseas. Khan?s first wife, British activist and filmmaker Jemima Khan, joined the chorus chiding the premier for backing down, saying his administration had effectively signed Bibi?s "death warrant." "Not the Naya (New) Pakistan we?d hoped for. 3 days after a defiant & brave speech defending the judiciary, Pakistan?s gov caves in to extremist demands to bar #AsiaBibi from leaving Pak," she tweeted Sunday. - Fear of backlash - The government continued to defend the deal Monday, saying the agreement had averted violence. "We dispersed them in a peaceful way which is an achievement," Information Minister Fawad Chaudry told reporters. Analysts said Khan?s government had little strategy in place for following through on the vow to confront the protests, which were quickly snow-balling. "I think there?s a huge fear of a backlash,? said analyst Zahid Hussain, adding that the powerful army also did not appear to support a potential crackdown. Adding to the weekend's woes, Khan appeared to be returning from traditional ally China empty-handed as he tries to reduce the amount of funds Pakistan will likely seek from the International Monetary Fund in bailout talks. A statement released late Sunday hinted at new assistance from the Chinese but made no mention of the billions the government had been hoping to secure. "The prime minister is facing a real problem as he went to China to get an aid package, but he was given a cool reception," said Zaka. The reception that awaits him on return might get much hotter. Some protesters have called for Asia Bibi's execution and the murder of judges The protests broke out while Khan was in China Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and China's Premier Li Keqiang The Palestinian envoy to Brazil said Monday he hoped president-elect Jair Bolsonaro's pledge to relocate Brasilia's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem was simply campaign talk and would lobby the new government against the move. "Let's hope it's a campaign announcement. We are hoping that (the incoming government) will maintain Brazil's traditional position, respectful of the United Nations resolutions on the issue," Ibrahim Alzeben told AFP. The Palestinians consider the Israeli-annexed eastern part of Jerusalem the capital of their future state and have condemned the move from Tel Aviv as provocative, saying it would destabilize security in the region. However Alzeben -- the Palestinian ambassador in Brazil since 2008 -- dismissed as "premature" any notion of hardening the Palestinian tone with the incoming far-right government. Alzeben said from this week -- when Bolsonaro begins his transition to power -- the Palestinian mission will intensify efforts to dissuade the new government from breaking with years of diplomatic tradition. Alzeben believes the decision can be reversed before Bolsonaro is sworn in. "We have two months for diplomacy to do its job," he said, adding that his side was in touch with Bolsonaro's team over what he considered a "very important issue." "I doubt that the elected government does not want peace for that region," he added. Bolsonaro, who takes office on January 1, has yet to make the key announcement of who his foreign minister will be. But the former army captain announced the embassy relocation plan during his election campaign, following the lead of the United States. On Thursday Bolsonaro tweeted that "as previously stated during our campaign, we intend to transfer the Brazilian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem." "Israel is a sovereign state and we shall duly respect that," he said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the move as "historic". Brazil formally recognized the Palestinian state in 2010, during the term of leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In 1975, under the military dictatorship, Brazil recognized the Palestinian Liberation Organization as a national liberation movement. It authorized the opening of a Palestinian mission in Brasilia in 1993, according it embassy status five years later. Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro announced during his campaign his intention to move the country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Qatar denied Monday accusations it interfered in Bahrain's internal affairs after a Manama court sentenced the head of the Shiite opposition to life in jail for spying for Doha. Bahraini Sheikh Ali Salman was sentenced on Sunday for "acts of hostility" against Bahrain and "communicating with Qatari officials... to overthrow constitutional order". Doha has repeatedly denied accusations of conspiring against Bahrain with Salman, a Shiite cleric who headed the now-banned Al-Wefaq movement. Qatar's foreign ministry on Monday said that the case had been politicised and accused Manama of being "narrow-minded". "The state of Qatar condemns the mentioning of its name in Bahrain's political disputes and internal conflicts," the ministry said in a statement. It added that Bahrain should not resort "to the politicisation of the judiciary or use Qatar's name in favour of political calculation that has proven to be narrow-minded". Shortly after, Bahrain's foreign ministry renewed warnings against "any form of interference or harm to the integrity and independence of the kingdom's judicial system". Human rights groups have condemned the verdict against Salman, with Amnesty International calling it "a travesty of justice". Bahrain and Qatar have been locked in a bitter regional dispute since June 2017, when a Saudi-led boycott of Doha was enforced over allegations it was cosying up to regional arch-rival Iran and supporting radical Islamist groups. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates banned their citizens from travel to or communication with Doha. Ruled for more than two centuries by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, Bahrain has been hit by waves of unrest since 2011, when security forces crushed Shiite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. Bahraini Sheikh Ali Salman, pictured on November 20, 2014, was sentenced on Sunday to life in jail for spying for Doha French rescue workers were searching for possible victims under the wreckage of two dilapidated buildings that suddenly collapsed Monday in the centre of the southern city of Marseille. Huge piles of rubble blocked the narrow shopping street of Rue d'Aubagne, which resembled the scene of an earthquake after the neighbouring buildings collapsed at around 9am (0800 GMT). Both buildings, in the working-class neighbourhood of Noailles, had had large visible cracks in their facades, and deputy mayor Julien Ruas said one of them, number 63, had been condemned and in theory was unoccupied. "We will have to see if there is anyone under the rubble of number 65," he said. Some 60 rescue workers and two specialised sniffer-dog teams were searching under the rubble and piles of broken window shutters. Two passers-by were lightly injured when the four and five-storey buildings came down in what Djaffar Nour, who was grocery shopping down the street, said was "a matter of seconds". Neighbour Sofia Benameur said she heard "a noise that sounded like 'badaboum, badaboum'". "Suddenly there was loads of dust in my home and I had to run outside," she said. Authorities have evacuated several dozen residents from neighbouring buildings as a precaution, police spokesman Philippe Bianchi told AFP. "Structurally the buildings in Marseille lean against each other, so we don't want to take the risk," Ruas said. While the cause of the collapse was unknown, north Marseille's Socialist Senator Samia Ghali was already pointing blame at local authorities for poor upkeep of the city's housing. "Behind the idyllic postcard there are one two many failures of housing and city-centre policies," she wrote on Twitter. The buildings collapsed just a stone throw from Marseille's bustling Old Port and waterfront. Neighbours said the two buildings collapsed in central Marseille in a matter of seconds Dozens of rescue workers were called to the scene of the building collapse in Marseille Saudi Arabia sent two experts to Istanbul with the specific aim of covering up evidence after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its consulate in Istanbul, a Turkish official said on Monday. More than a month after the Saudi royal-insider-turned critic was killed inside the mission on October 2, Turkey has still yet to recover the remains amid claims that his body was dissolved in acid. The killing of the 59-year-old has severely dented the kingdom's image in the West and put powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the defensive. "We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of Jamal Khashoggi's murder before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises," a senior Turkish official said, asking not to be named. The official confirmed a report in the Sabah newspaper saying that chemicals expert Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were among a team sent from Saudi Arabia purportedly to investigate the murder last month. The report said they visited the consulate every day from their arrival on October 11 until October 17. Saudi Arabia only allowed Turkish police to finally search the consulate on October 15. After weeks of allegations in pro-government media, Turkey's chief prosecutor last week confirmed Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and the body was dismembered. But despite intensive searches by Turkish police, there is still no trace of his remains. The sons of Khashoggi, Salah and Abdullah, told CNN they wanted Saudi Arabia to return the body so that he could be buried in Medina with the rest of his family. - Who gave the order? - Turkey's allegation of the deployment of a "clean-up" team came after Yasin Aktay, an advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hinted Friday that the body may even have been destroyed in acid. Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told the official Anadolu news agency Monday that "all those reports should be investigated". Although Riyadh has arrested 18 individuals on suspicion of involvement, the key question remains over who gave the order to kill Khashoggi. In an editorial published in The Washington Post Friday, Erdogan said it came from "the highest levels" of the Saudi government, while he did "not believe for a second" that Saudi's King Salman had ordered the crime. Turkish media have pointed the finger at powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and analysts have said Ankara is keen to have the heir sidelined from the nexus of power in Riyadh. "Yes, a murder was committed and it was premeditated. Who gave the command for this murder to be carried out on Turkish soil?" Oktay echoed the president's question in Monday's interview. However, Erdogan has yet to directly accuse Prince Mohammed, who has condemned the murder "a repulsive incident". The unnamed Turkish official said Monday: "The fact that a clean-up team was dispatched from Saudi Arabia nine days after the murder suggests that Khashoggi's slaying was within the knowledge of top Saudi official." Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb met with Turkish authorities last week in Istanbul. But this visit appeared to be a fiasco, with the Saudi official refusing to share information from Riyadh's own investigation, according to Turkish officials. - Won't turn backs on Saudi - Prince Mohammed had been heralded in some quarters before the murder as a modern Arab reformer spearheading a bold vision to transform the country and make it less dependent on energy resources. That image has now been severely battered. There is also a new international focus on Saudi's involvement in the war in Yemen where 14 million people now stand at the brink of famine in Yemen in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis The outrage has alarmed business leaders seeking a foothold in the crown prince's reform drive but many have insisted they have no intention of pulling out. Masayoshi Son, the head of Japanese firm SoftBank which has major investments in Saudi Arabia, on Monday condemned the killing but indicated he would continue to do business with the kingdom. "As horrible as this event was, we cannot turn our backs on the Saudi people as we work to help them in their continued efforts to reform and modernise their society," Despite extensive searches by Turkish police, the body of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi still has not been recovered Turkey accused Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb (L) of refusing to share information from Ryiadh's own probe when he visited Istanbul last week Masayoshi Son, the head of Japanese firm SoftBank which has major investments in Saudi Arabia, has condemned the killing but indicated he would continue to do business with Riyadh The former head of one of Romania's notorious communist-era prisons who was serving time for crimes against humanity, has died in prison at the age of 93, officials said Monday. Alexandru Visinescu was serving a 20-year prison term after being found guilty of overseeing crimes at Ramnicu Sarat prison, dubbed "the prison of silence" where inmates suffered torture. Visinescu died in Rahova prison hospital, in Bucharest, where he was under supervision for "chronic medical problems". Visinescu ran the Ramnicu Sarat prison for political detainees in eastern Romania between 1956 and 1963. Prosecutors said he oversaw an "extermination regime" and that at least at least 14 prisoners died during his tenure. All prisoners were held in solitary confinement, denied the right to speak to anyone and many suffered beatings and enforced hunger. "Inmates were dying after a slow but efficient process that involved physical and psychological torture," prosecutors argued. Visinescu had expressed no regret for his actions, arguing that he was only obeying orders from his superiors and had upheld the law. In September this year, another former head of a communist-era prison camp, Ion Ficior, died in prison at the age of 90. Like Visinescu, he was also serving a 20-year jail sentence for crimes against humanity. Over 600,000 people were jailed in Romania for political reasons between 1945 and 1989, according to the Sighet Memorial Museum for the victims of communism. The most severe crackdowns took place in the 1950s. Alexandru Visinescu was serving a 20-year prison term after being found guilty of overseeing crimes at Ramnicu Sarat prison, known as "the prison of silence" Russia and China on Monday refused to back a UN resolution that will allow the Security Council to slap sanctions on perpetrators of rape and sexual violence in Libya. The British-drafted resolution renewing sanctions on Libya was adopted by a vote of 13 in favor in the 15-member council. Russia and China abstained but did not use their veto power to block the measure that expanded the criteria for applying sanctions to include gender-based violence. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the Netherlands and Sweden, which pushed for the new sanctions criteria, of trying to score political points at home. "This is populism distilled in its purest form," Nebenzia told the council, who noted that preventing sex crimes in Sweden and the Netherlands "is the remit of the national governments." "Sexual and gender-based violence are part of crime in any specific country," said the ambassador, adding that the council should focus on threats to international security. The council has added sexual violence as a criteria for sanctions in recent resolutions on the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Swedish Deputy Ambassador Carl Skau said he hoped that adding the new sanctions criteria will have a "deterrent effect and that there will be accountability for such crimes." Dutch Ambassador Karel van Oosterom said it was "an important step forward" for the UN council to slap sanctions on perpetrators of sexual violence "for instance in the refugee camps that rape women refugees." UN officials have warned that militia members, migrant smugglers and criminal gangs often resort to rape in Libya, which has descended into chaos since the ouster of Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. The council in June for the first time imposed sanctions on six individuals linked to Libyan migrant trafficking networks. Migrants in Libya, such as these women seen at a Tripoli shelter, are often victims of sexual violence, according to UN officials Russian anarchists fear a backlash from the authorities after last week's suicide bomb attack on the federal security service by a teenage anarchist in the northern city of Arkhangelsk. A 17-year-old blew himself up in the offices of the FSB security agency on Wednesday injuring three members of the force and sparking a terrorism investigation. Student Mikhail Zhlobitsky allegedly used a pseudonym to post a warning about the attack on an online anarchist forum on the Telegram messaging application seven minutes before it happened. He also used the name Sergei Nechayev -- after a 19th-century Russian revolutionary who advocated violence in the name of socialism -- on the social media platform VKontakte. The attack has shone a spotlight on the country's anarchists at a time they already faced mounting pressure from the authorities. The FSB has in recent months launched several cases against the young activists. Anarchists in Russia form a relatively small movement, but with a history dating back to the 1850s. Attacks on the authorities have in the past included setting police cars on fire, and throwing Molotov cocktails at the ruling United Russia party's offices. The last time an attack killed anyone was in the early 20th century. In the wake of the bombing, Russia's media focused on the fact that the teenager had expressed violent views. "Anarchism: the mother of terror?" read a headline on the front page of Russia's main pro-Kremlin Moskovsky Komsomolets the day after the attack. Anarchists, who told AFP they did not know Zhlobitsky, feared his actions would reinvigorate a crackdown launched by the security services earlier this year. - 'No heroism in this' - "We did not know him," said one anarchist from a group calling itself the "People's Self-Defense". Declining to give his name because of increased scrutiny from the security services, he said he "respected" Zhlobitsky's choice. But he stressed the group did not support the method, and described the incident as the "tragic death of a 17-year-old guy." The group had created the open forum on Telegram where Zhlobitsky posted the warning. Another anarchist, who also wished to remain anonymous, told AFP: "I see no heroism in this." "It's a tragic situation," the Moscow-based activist added. "One person died and I don't see that the system was harmed either. "There will just be more repressions, that is the only result that I see at the moment." He said fellow activists in several Russian regions have already warned of security services beginning interrogations. Another in Perm, a city in the Urals, posted on Facebook that she had learned about the Arkhangelsk incident in a phone call from an FSB officer. In the southern city of Krasnodar officers had called around 60 people belonging to political online communities to question them, rights activist Valentina Dekhtyarenko told AFP. - 'New turn in repressions' - In March, an anarchist in Russian-annexed Crimea told AFP the security services had tortured him. He has since fled the peninsula. Since 2017, the FSB has launched several cases against young activists in the cities of Saint Petersburg and Penza. Avtonom.org, an anarchist website, has denounced the arrests and claim the suspects were tortured in custody. For leftist journalist Ilya Budraitskis these arrests represent a new threat to Russian rebels. "They arrested young people in different cities who did not know each other, lumped them in one group and built a case around a phantom organisation," Budraitskis told AFP. The security services crackdown was part of the Russian state's "anti-revolution obsession", he argued. "The order to fight the perceived revolutionary threat comes from the very top," Budraitskis said. Budraitskis said he believed the Arkhangelsk bombing was a one-man act but that it would lead to further repression from the FSB. "It is their logic," he said. "It will be used to go after more groups." Last week's attack on the FSB offices in Arkhangelsk wounded three of its officers CCTV footage of the suspected bomber Mikhail Zhlobitsky Saudi Arabia and its allies said Monday they are committed to de-escalating hostilities in Yemen, only days after launching a renewed offensive on a port crucial for humanitarian aid. "The coalition is committed to de-escalating hostilities in Yemen and is strongly supportive of the UN envoy's political process," a source in the Saudi-led coalition told AFP on condition of anonymity. Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the conflict in 2015, aiming to bolster the standing of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi as he fought an insurgency by the Shiite Huthis from northern Yemen. On Thursday, the Saudi-led alliance restarted its military campaign to capture Hodeida, the rebel-held Red Sea city that is home to a strategic port. It had suspended the offensive ahead of UN efforts to hold peace talks in Geneva that eventually collapsed in September. The UN-sponsored process fell apart after the rebels refused to travel to the Swiss city unless the United Nations guaranteed both their delegation's safe return to Sanaa and the evacuation of wounded fighters. The UN envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, now hopes to schedule talks between the government and the Huthis this month. Government coalition warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes on Sunday to support pro-government forces in fighting that appears to be edging further into Hodeida, approaching the city's main university. - Dozens dead - Dozens of rebels and soldiers were killed in battles and the raids, according to sources in hospitals across the areas. The source in the Saudi-led coalition said the current clashes were not "offensive operations", adding that the alliance was "committed to keeping the Hodeida port open". "If the Huthis fail to show up for peace talks again, this might lead (us) to restart the offensive operation in Hodeida," the source said. "The humanitarian situation in Yemen is unacceptable. We are committed to ending the conflict as soon as possible. "If the Huthis show up, we will continue our humanitarian efforts," he said. "If they don't, we will also continue those efforts." The UN children's fund, UNICEF, on Sunday warned an assault on Hodeida city would jeopardise the lives of Yemenis across the country who depend on its port for humanitarian aid. The World Health Organization estimates nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the Saudi-led camp joined the war in 2015. Human rights groups say the toll could be five times higher. Fourteen million people now stand at the brink of famine in Yemen, which the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. This image grab taken from a AFPTV video shows Yemeni pro-government forces firing a heavy machine gun at the south of Hodeida airport, in Yemen's Hodeida province on June 15, 2018 Map of Yemen locating Hodeida where dozens of Yemeni rebels have been killed in battles and air strikes. Saudi Arabia insisted at the UN Monday that its investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi would be "fair", amid a barrage of criticism from countries over the brutal murder. The half-day public debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva comes just over a month after the royal insider-turned-critic was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkey confirmed last week that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate on October 2 as part of a planned hit, and his body was then dismembered and destroyed. The so-called Universal Periodic Review -- which all 193 UN countries must undergo approximately every four years -- came as a Turkish official charged Monday that Saudi Arabia had sent experts to Turkey to cover up the journalist's murder before allowing Turkish police in to search the consulate. The murder has placed huge strains on Saudi Arabia's relationship with the United States and other western countries and has tarnished the image of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler. During Monday's review, Western countries especially voiced outrage at the killing, with many calling for a "credible" and "transparent" investigation, and some, like Iceland and Costa Rica, going further and demanding an international probe. - 'Gravely concerned' - British Ambassador Julien Braithwaite told the council his country was "gravely concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in Saudi Arabia," pointing to women's rights, mass arrests of rights defenders and extensive use of the death penalty. "But most concerning is the murder of Jamal Khashoggi," he said, urging Saudi Arabia to "ensure comprehensive and transparent investigations into the murder" and to make sure "those responsible are held to account, and that measures are put in place to prevent any possibility of recurrence." The US representative, Mark Cassayre, meanwhile said his country strongly condemned "this premeditated killing." "A thorough, conclusive and transparent investigation carried out in accordance with due process with results made public is essential," he insisted. The Saudi delegation meanwhile barely mentioned the case, choosing instead to highlight the "progress made towards the protection and promotion of human rights", including reforms that among other things have allowed women to drive in the ultra-conservative country. But the delegation chief and head of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, Bandar Al Aiban, did touch on the case briefly, stressing at the end of the review that "our country is committed to carry out a fair investigation." "All persons involved in that crime will be prosecuted," he said, stressing that "the investigation is continuing in line with our domestic laws." Diplomats urged Saudi Arabia Monday to take concrete steps to promote freedom of expression and protect human rights defenders and journalists. - Death penalty - The review also focused heavily on the use of the death penalty in the country, especially for alleged crimes committed when the perpetrator was under the age of 18. The kingdom has one of the world's highest rates of execution, with suspects convicted of terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking facing the death penalty. Many countries urged Saudi Arabia to introduce a moratorium on the death penalty or to abolish it altogether, and to explicitly ban its use for juvenile offenders. Women's rights were also high on the agenda. While many countries hailed some progress in this area, including the fact that the country now permits women to drive, they warned that much more reform was needed. The country especially faced criticism over its male guardianship system which allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives. Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's brutal civil war also faced criticism, with a number of countries urging it to halt the devastating bombing campaign there. The Saudi delegation meanwhile highlighted that it has provided more than $11 billion in aid to Yemen since it and its allies intervened in the war in 2015 to bolster Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Huthi rebels took over the capital Sanaa. According to the UN, nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has also created the world's biggest humanitarian crisis and left millions of people on the brink of famine. The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi caused an international furore The head of Japanese firm SoftBank on Monday condemned the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but indicated he would continue to do business with Saudi Arabia. "We were deeply saddened by the news of Mr Khashoggi's murder and condemn this act against humanity and also journalism and free speech. This was a horrific and deeply regrettable act," said Masayoshi Son in his first comments on the killing. However, he added: "As horrible as this event was, we cannot turn our backs on the Saudi people as we work to help them in their continued efforts to reform and modernise their society." Son confirmed he boycotted a high-profile Saudi investment forum last month along with dozens of global business titans after reports emerged that Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. And he said he had sought explanations from senior Saudi officials over the killing, stressing: "We want to see those responsible held accountable." Nevertheless, he said the firm took seriously its "obligation" to help the Saudi people "manage their financial resources and diversify their economy". Son finally broke his silence over the killing after the firm's share price tumbled due to SoftBank's close ties with the Kingdom. Nearly half of the money in the SoftBank Vision Fund comes from Saudi Arabia and there has been a pledge of another $45 billion this year. That gives the Saudis at least an indirect role in some of the hottest companies in the tech sector, including Uber, Slack, WeWork and Nvidia. Masayoshi Son boycotted last month's investment forum in Saudi Arabia as reports emerged of Jamal Khashoggi's death and he has called for those responsible to be brought to account The head of Japanese firm SoftBank on Monday condemned the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but indicated he would continue to do business with Saudi Arabia. The hotly awaited comments by Masayoshi Son, whose conglomerate has close ties to the kingdom, threatened to overshadow the firm's results, which saw an eight-fold jump in net profits. Under the tycoon Son, SoftBank -- originally a software giant -- has increasingly become an investment firm, ploughing funds into a broad range of companies and projects outside its core business. Using the SoftBank Vision Fund, worth an estimated $100 billion, Son has taken stakes in some of the hottest firms in the tech sector, including Uber, Slack, WeWork and Nvidia. Nearly half of the money in the fund comes from Saudi Arabia and there has been a pledge of another $45 billion this year. Son said SoftBank was "deeply saddened" by the news of Khashoggi's murder, which he condemned as "a horrific and deeply regrettable act". However, he added: "As horrible as this event was, we cannot turn our backs on the Saudi people as we work to help them in their continued efforts to reform and modernise their society." Son confirmed he boycotted a high-profile Saudi investment forum last month along with dozens of global business titans after reports emerged that Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. And he said he had sought explanations from senior Saudi officials over the killing, stressing: "We want to see those responsible held accountable." He said he had raised his concerns about the killing with Saudi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, among others. "I felt they received them sincerely," he said. Asked if the prince provided any hint of his involvement, Son said: "No, of course not." - Profitable investments - Despite the condemnation, Son said the firm took seriously its "obligation" to help the Saudi people "manage their financial resources and diversify their economy". The company's ties with the Middle Eastern kingdom have come into sharp relief with the Khashoggi scandal, and SoftBank shares dropped sharply when the news broke. There has been speculation about whether the incident could damage the relationship, and Son said it was too early to say whether he would pursue a second round of Saudi funding. "I want to think carefully again after they ascertain the truth and explain," he said. After a long period of silence, Son wasted no time tackling the subject, addressing the issue at the start of a news conference to present the company's results. SoftBank logged an eight-fold jump in net profit in the six months to September -- thanks mainly to strong returns from its investment funds. Net profit rose to 840 billion yen ($7.4 billion) from 103 billion yen during the same period last year. The rise was largely driven by gains of 649 billion yen from the SoftBank Vision Fund, which compared with 194 billion yen in the previous period. Operating profit shot up 62 percent to 1.42 trillion yen on revenue of 4.65 trillion yen, up 5.5 percent. SoftBank has also made high-profile investments in the autonomous vehicles sector, announcing last month a tie-up with car giant Toyota for "new mobility services" such as meal deliveries. Earlier this year, General Motors said the Japanese firm was investing $2.25 billion in GM's autonomous car programme in exchange for a stake in the venture. Masayoshi Son boycotted last month's investment forum in Saudi Arabia as reports emerged of Jamal Khashoggi's death and he has called for those responsible to be brought to account Tanzania says that a plan to hunt down and arrest suspected homosexuals in the country's economic capital was not official policy, distancing itself from a citywide crackdown slammed by rights groups. Dar es Salaam's powerful governor, Paul Makonda, urged citizens last Monday to begin reporting homosexuals for round-ups in a country where anti-gay rhetoric has soared in recent years. "The government of the United Republic of Tanzania would like to clarify that these are (Makonda's) personal views and not the position of the government," the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement released Sunday evening. It added that the government would "continue to respect all international human rights conventions which it subscribes to". A fervent Christian and loyal ally of President John Magufuli, Makonda had said homosexual behaviour "tramples on the moral values ??of Tanzanians and our two Christian and Muslim religions". His remarks drew strong criticism including from Amnesty International and the United Nations. Under British colonial-era laws, homosexuality is illegal in Tanzania and same-sex acts between men are punishable by a maximum life sentence. Anti-gay sentiment has increased since Magufuli's 2015 election, forcing most gays, lesbians and other sexual minorities to live in secrecy. Last year, the president said that everybody should condemn homosexuality, "even cows" and soon after his government threatened to arrest or deport gay rights activists. Three South Africans were subsequently expelled for allegedly advocating for same-sex marriage. AIDS clinics have also been shut down under Magufuli, accused of "promoting" homosexuality, while he has encouraged women to abandon birth control and have more babies. On Saturday, the European Union said it had recalled its chief representative to Brussels for discussions, following reports he had been asked to leave by the government. Anti-gay sentiment has increased since the 2015 election of President John Magufuli who has said that everybody should condemn homosexuality A tragic twist has emerged after the bodies of two Saudi Arabian sisters were found washed up on the New York City waterfront, bound together with duct tape. The immigrant sisters had told people that they would rather harm themselves than go back to their home country, investigators said Friday. The bodies of Tala Farea, 16, and Rotana Farea, 23, were discovered on October 24 near the Hudson River, two months after they were last seen in Fairfax, Virginia, where they had been living in a shelter amid allegations that they were abused at home. Lavish lifestyle in last days A jogger said he saw them praying at a playground near the river, sitting about 9 metres apart with their heads in their hands, hours before their bodies were found, police said. The jogger went to the police on Wednesday and told detectives it had been haunting him, New York City Police Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said. Sisters Tala Farea (left) and Rotana Farea (right). Source: AAP via NYPD Police said the sisters had been in Manhattan since September 1, staying at expensive hotels and ordering meals until a credit card they were using was maxed out. Officers, citing credit card records, an Uber receipt and other evidence, said they arrived in New York City after making stops in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. Sisters spoke about self harm, police say Chief Shea said people who knew the Farea sisters in Virginia told investigators that they made statements within the last year indicating that they would rather inflict harm on themselves than return to Saudi Arabia. He stopped short of saying that the sisters had taken their own lives, but said police have no credible information that any crime took place. The medical examiner has yet to rule on their death and the case remains under investigation, Chief Shea said. Police sketch of sisters Rotana (left) and Tala Farea. Source: AAP via NYPD The sisters bodies were taped together, facing each other and fully clothed, police said. There were no obvious signs of trauma and it appeared that they were alive when they went into the water, police said. Story continues The two women sought political asylum It comes after the sisters mother told detectives that the day before the bodies were discovered, she received a call from an official at the Saudi Arabian Embassy, ordering the family to leave the US because her daughters had applied for asylum. The Saudi Arabian Embassy has denied talking to the family about any asylum request. The Associated Press has not been able to make contact with the parents of the sisters. The sisters were last seen in Virginia on August 24 and were reported missing on September 12. With Associated Press UAE oil company ADNOC has announced the discovery of new oil and gas resources, with an eye on full self-sufficiency as US sanctions on Iran go into effect. State-run ADNOC, based in the oil-rich capital Abu Dhabi, said Sunday it had discovered new gas fields, totalling 15 trillion standard cubic feet, and another billion barrels of oil. The company also announced plans to boost output to four million barrels per day by 2020 and five million bpd by 2030 -- a plan UAE officials said was aimed at making the country entirely self-sufficient. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed also announced the Supreme Petroleum Council, the city's main decision-making council, approved a budget of 486 billion dirhams ($132 billion) to support a five-year growth plan. This included ADNOC's "gas strategy to become self-sufficient and a net gas exporter," he said on Twitter. The United Arab Emirates, OPEC's fourth largest producer, currently produces up to 3.5 million bpd. Sunday's announcement came as the United States imposed strict sanctions against Iran. The move targets buyers of Iranian oil with the aim of throttling Tehran's main source of income. The UAE and its main ally, Saudi Arabia, support the new sanctions. The two countries have also severed ties with Qatar -- the world's largest exporter of liquified natural gas -- in a spat over Doha's policies, primarily on Iran and radical Islamist groups. But the UAE still relies on Qatar for gas imports via the Dolphin pipeline, which Qatari officials say is still functional. Saudi Arabia is the only producer with significant spare capacity of around two million bpd that can be tapped into to compensate for the loss of Iranian supplies. But analysts doubt Riyadh can sustain high production for a prolonged period. The United Arab Emirates, OPEC's fourth largest producer, currently produces up to 3.5 million bpd An Uber driver has been charged with raping a passenger he picked up at a casino and who became unconscious in the car, police said. The driver, Ahmed Elgaafary from Pennsylvania in the eastern side of the US, faces multiple offences, including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault of an unconscious person. The alleged attack happened at about 2.20 am on February 10, according to Pennsylvania State Police. They say the driver picked the woman up from the Valley Forge Casino in Pennsylvania. Rather than taking her home, police allege he took her to a residence and raped her. Mr Elgaafary was charged Wednesday. An Uber driver has been charged with raping a passenger he picked up at a casino. Source: Getty (file pic) Uber said in a statement late Friday that the report is appalling and that its thoughts are with the woman and her family. The company said the driver has been removed from the app. Mr Elgaafary is in Chester County Prison. His lawyers voicemail box was full Friday. -With Associated Press The United States faces a deadline Tuesday that could lead to fresh sanctions on Russia over an attempted assassination with a lethal nerve agent of a former spy in Britain. The State Department on August 6 found that Russia had violated a 1991 US law that seeks the elimination of chemical and biological weapons. The determination came after Britain said that Russian operatives on March 4 attempted to kill former intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal in Salisbury using Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Under the US law, the State Department must report to Congress within three months whether Russia has come into compliance or impose a second round of sanctions. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said the three-month deadline is Tuesday. "The conditions that we would have to certify are that Russia has ceased and assured that it will not use chemical weapons again, and that it has allowed international inspectors to verify those assurances," Palladino said. "So, have they taken the steps to get back into compliance is the issue." However, few members of Congress are likely to be waiting on the edge of their seats for a report on Tuesday -- the date of midterm elections -- so it may take time before the State Department determination comes to light. The first round of sanctions announced with the determination was largely symbolic and included a freeze on US government credit guarantees to Russia and a ban on US arms sales. Russia, the major rival to the United States as a military exporter, does not buy US arms in any case. The State Department made exemptions to continue military trade that allows space cooperation with Russia including commercial launches. It also waived certain sanctions on security-sensitive exports to allow sales related to civil aviation and exports needed by US businesses that operate in Russia. Moscow has given no indication it is eager to satisfy US concerns on the issue. After the initial US determination, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would respond to any measures "with the principle of reciprocity." Last month, The Netherlands expelled agents it said came from Russia's GRU military intelligence who hacked into the world's chemical weapons watchdog, which is based in The Hague. US prosecutors at the same time indicted seven Russian agents -- the latest case of US rank-and-file officials taking Moscow to task despite President Donald Trump's avowed affection for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Russian operatives attempted to kill former intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal, pictured in London in May 2018, using Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent The United States is reimposing punitive measures targeting the Iranian oil and financial sectors in what US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called "the toughest sanctions ever placed" against Iran. Taking effect Monday, the measures are the most concrete result yet of US President Donald Trump's controversial decision in May to abandon the multi-nation nuclear deal with Tehran. They will directly affect companies from third countries doing business with Iran. They could upset world oil markets, though the US has granted temporary waivers to eight jurisdictions to continue importing Iranian oil. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced the measures on Saturday, saying Trump had "disgraced" US prestige and would be the ultimate loser in the long-running quarrel between the countries. The US side was unmoved. "Sanctions from the United States will be reimposed at midnight tonight," Pompeo told CBS's "Face the Nation." He said what he called "the terror regime" in Tehran must change its ways. - Oil markets on alert - World oil markets were on alert, nervously set to gauge the consequences of the sanctions. "All eyes will be on Iranian exports, whether there will be some cheating around US sanctions, and on how quickly production will fall," said Riccardo Fabiani, an analyst for Energy Aspects. Oil is Iran's main source of income. But the sword has two edges: Iran is also the OPEC cartel's third-largest producer. The US stance has already inflicted serious pain on Iranians, with the country's currency, the rial, losing more than two thirds of its value since May. Iranian oil exports have fallen by about a million barrels a day in that time, though India and China have continued to purchase it. Most Europeans, as well as Japan and South Korea, have stopped. Asked if the US had firm commitments from India and China to stop all oil purchases from Iran within six months, Pompeo replied: "Watch what we do. Watch as we've already taken more crude oil off the market than any time in previous history." Saudi Arabia is the only country with the capacity to make up for lost Iranian oil production. - 'Utter disregard' - Hours before the fresh sanctions went ahead, thousands of people in Iran marked the anniversary of the 1979 hostage-taking at the US embassy by carrying placards mocking Trump and burning American flags and fake dollars. Trump has long argued that the 2015 nuclear deal is badly flawed, in part because its provisions would expire in 10 to 15 years and partly because it does not adequately constrain Iran's destabilizing behavior in the region. His decision was widely criticized abroad and by Democrats at home, who said that while imperfect, the pact had placed the Iranian nuclear program under the tightest scrutiny ever. In parallel with the imposition of the crude oil sanctions, the US Treasury Department is placing more than 600 Iranian individuals and entities on a black list. And Pompeo said that any Iranian banks involved in "sanctionable behavior will be sanctioned by the Department of Treasury, period, full stop." The European Union has established a mechanism to permit its multinational companies to maintain presences in Iran, but all signs are that the US sanctions will be dissuasive. Both Airbus and Total have announced plans to leave Iran. A first set of sanctions announced August 7 prompted European automakers Daimler and PSA to quit Iran. To continue exporting crude oil, Iranian tankers in recent weeks have been turning off their transponders to avoid detection. But satellites have continued to track them. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said new sanctions against Iran will be the "toughest ever" Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says US President Donald Trump has "disgraced" US prestige by imposing sanctions on Iran With new US sanctions looming, protesters in Tehran burned American flags and fake dollars on November 4, 2018 Airbus is among the companies that say they will be leaving Iran following US sanctions A two-day African security forum was set to open in Dakar on Monday amid concerns about funding for a much-trumpeted initiative to bind five Sahel countries into an anti-terror force. Less than a quarter of the roughly 400 million euros ($455 million) pledged for the G5 Sahel force has been forthcoming, French Defence Minister Florence Parly said on Sunday. "At the moment, (pledges) are materialising very slowly," Parly told reporters in the plane taking her to the forum in Dakar. Only "10 to 25 percent of the funds" have been disbursed, she said. The G5 Sahel is a French-backed scheme conceived in 2015 to roll back jihadism and lawlessness in five states on the Sahara's southern rim. Bringing together Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, it aims to become a 5,000-man joint force to restore authority in areas grappling with jihadi raiders and brutal gangs. But the project, which brings together five of the world's poorest and most fragile countries, has run into problems of financing, poor equipment and lack of training. In February, an international donors' conference in Brussels pledged about 420 million euros ($478 million). Saudi Arabia made the biggest single promise, totalling 100 million euros in the form of equipment, but it has yet to be delivered, Parly said. The Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security, launched in 2013, is a French-supported initiative gathering several hundred political leaders, military officials, international organisations and think tanks, mainly from West Africa and Europe. It was due to be opened on Monday by Senegalese President Macky Sall. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Drian is expected for the final day on Tuesday. - Problems - Since late last year, the G5 Sahel has carried out only six operations, with three more in the works. It also has yet to win over civilians who fear retribution from the rebels if they provide support. On June 29, the G5's then headquarters, in the central Malian town of Sevare, came under suicide attack, causing three deaths, two of them Malian soldiers. Its commanding officer, Malian General Didier Dacko, was replaced by a Mauritanian, Hanena Ould Sidi, who in September ordered the HQ be moved to Bamako, Mali's capital. "The goal (of the Dakar Forum) is firstly to maintain the priorities on (G5 Sahel) operations... The joint force... is not equipped as it should be," Parly said. "The rainy season is coming to an end, so it's important to get operations going again. Some have already been planned." The five Sahel states are struggling against a jihadist revolt that began with a Tuareg separatist uprising in northern Mali in 2012. The extremists were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013. But large stretches of Mali remain out of the control of Malian, French and UN forces, which are frequent targets of attacks. Jihadist violence, meanwhile, has spread from northern Mali to the centre and south and spilt into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, often exacerbating communal conflicts. Parly added that a spate of recent attacks in Burkina Faso -- for which the country twice had to call on support from French troops last month -- was a cause of "much concern." The G5 Sahel force has carried out only six operations over the last year -- funding, training and poor equipment are major problems President Xi Jinping on Monday pledged to widen access to China's economy, while delivering a veiled rebuke to Trumpism, as he kicked off an import expo amid foreign accusations that he has backtracked on promises to play fair on trade. Xi said China would "step up" efforts to stimulate imports, lower tariffs, ease customs clearance procedures, and implement harsh punishments for intellectual property infringements, though he was light on specifics. "It is our sincere commitment to open the Chinese market," Xi said in an address launching the event in Shanghai. China would "foster a world-class business environment" and its doors will open "ever wider", he said. But Xi also pushed back at foreign pressure in comments clearly aimed at Donald Trump and the trade war he started. Nations "should not just point fingers at others to gloss over their own problems", Xi said, decrying "protectionism", "isolationism" and "the law of the jungle". "They should not hold a flashlight in hand, doing nothing but highlighting the weaknesses of others and not their own." Beijing has touted the first annual China International Import Expo as a sign of its willingness to open its markets despite mounting criticism to the contrary and the worsening trade war with Washington, which has seen both sides impose punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods. Organisers say more than 3,000 foreign companies from 130 countries including the United States and Europe are present, including General Motors, Ford, Microsoft, Samsung, Walmart and Tesla. - Promise fatigue - In a speech at Davos nearly two years ago, Xi presented China as a beacon of globalisation, in a counterpoint to Trump. But critics say he has yet to put his money where his mouth is and they are tired of empty promises. Kenneth Jarrett, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, said the association welcomed the fresh promise to strengthen intellectual property protections. But he said Xi's latest comments came "with few specific solutions" and that the chamber wants to see the rhetoric match by actions. "Now that it is the world's second-largest economy, China can afford to open its doors all the way," Jarrett said. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said "nothing new was said that has not been heard before", other than a brief reference to opening up the education and medical services sectors. "If China really will continue to open up, we would have expected additional and specific commitments to have been announced by President Xi today," chamber vice president Carlo Diego D'Andrea said. Foreign businesses complain about a range of policies that benefit local firms, requirements that foreign companies form joint ventures with Chinese partners, forced technology transfers, rampant intellectual property violations and restrictive red tape. Foreign business surveys indicate the playing field is worsening as Xi champions a strong China, not unlike Trump's "America First" platform. The event has drawn several foreign leaders including Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Pakistani premier Imran Khan, though most are from small African or Asian countries dependent on China trade. But Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta voiced impatience when he told the opening ceremony that his country's growing trade with China was "heavily skewed" in Beijing's favour. "It is important for us therefore to correct the existing trade imbalance to enable a fair share of the benefits of trade," he said. IMF chief Christine Lagarde also said there remained "room for even greater reform" in China's market. - US snub - China ranks 59th out of 62 countries on openness to foreign direct investment, according to an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranking. Xi has said the import expo proves China is willing to reduce its foreign trade surpluses. But US officials say that approach amounts to China buying its way out of trouble with a short-term import surge rather than real change, and Washington snubbed the gathering by not sending high-level representation. But the lure of China's market remains strong. The US contingent includes even tech giants such as Facebook, which is blocked in China, and Google, which pulled out years ago over censorship and cyber-attacks. Both are seen as eyeing new ways into China. Experts say the week-long expo is also a message by China that trading partners will need to work with Beijing if they want a piece of a market of 1.4 billion people with growing spending power. Microsoft founder Bill Gates will join a business forum on Monday, but the touchy optics of attending the expo amid trade rancour resulted in few big-name American CEOs attending. Xi pushed back at foreign pressure in comments clearly aimed at US President Donald Trump A police patrol boat is displayed at the expo which is designed to prove China is willing to reduce its foreign trade surpluses The China import event drew several foreign heads of government including Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev Despite calls for more openness, the lure of China's vast market of 1.4 billion people remains strong Battles raged Monday near a Yemeni port crucial for humanitarian aid, but Saudi Arabia and its allies said they were committed to de-escalating hostilities with rebels as calls for a ceasefire mount. The United Nations has appealed for urgent peace talks and warned that an assault on the Red Sea port city of Hodeida would threaten millions of lives. Yemeni government forces, backed by a regional military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, say they are now positioned around both the north and south of Hodeida, where clashes have left dozens dead. The city and its port have been controlled by the Huthis -- Iran-backed Shiite insurgents who hail from northern Yemen -- since 2014 along with the capital Sanaa. Rebels and government sources both reported intense fighting in the area Monday, despite calls by the UN and the United States -- which provides military support to the Saudi-led camp -- for an end to the war. A source in the Saudi-led coalition told AFP the clashes were not "offensive operations", adding that the alliance was "committed to keeping the Hodeida port open". But three officials with the Yemeni military said fighting continued to flare around Hodeida, whose port is the entry point for three quarters of the country's imports. The head of the Huthis' revolutionary council, Mohammed Ali al-Huthi, on Monday reported a "military escalation by the coalition," slamming the operation as "a strenuous attempt to block talks aimed at ending the war and finding peace". - Aid threatened - Yemeni military officials said the coalition had sent fighter jets and Apache attack helicopters Monday morning to back up troops on the ground around Hodeida. The officials say government forces are trying to advance on the outskirts of Hodeida with the aim of surrounding the city and cutting off a major rebel supply route. The coalition source however said the government alliance was "committed to de-escalating hostilities in Yemen and strongly supportive of the UN envoy's political process". "If the Huthis fail to show up for peace talks again, this might lead (us) to restart the offensive operation in Hodeida," the source said. "The humanitarian situation in Yemen is unacceptable. We are committed to ending the conflict as soon as possible," they added. UN envoy Martin Griffiths aims to bring the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and the Huthis to Sweden for talks this month. The charity Save the Children said on Monday that the fighting in Hodeida was "deeply concerning" ahead of plans for peace talks, calling for an immediate ceasefire "so more lives aren't lost". "This serious escalation around Yemen's most important port city could put tens of thousands of children in the line of fire and further choke delivery of food and medicine," said Tamer Kirolos, the organisation's Yemen director. "Save the Children staff in Hodeida reported almost 100 air strikes over the weekend, five times as many as in the whole first week of October," he said. The charity estimates an average of 100 Yemeni children die each day from extreme hunger or disease. - Dozens killed in fighting - The Saudi-led alliance had suspended an offensive to take Hodeida in August, ahead of UN efforts to hold negotiations in Geneva which collapsed the following month. The Huthis refused to travel to Switzerland unless the UN guaranteed both their delegation's safe return to Sanaa and the evacuation of wounded fighters. The rebels have regularly targeted Saudi Arabian border towns as well as the capital Riyadh with ballistic missiles. Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse Iran of using Hodeida port to smuggle missiles to the Huthis, a charge Tehran denies. Medics at two hospitals in Hodeida province, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they have counted the bodies of 74 rebels since Sunday and that dozens were wounded. Sources at a military hospital in government-held Mokha, south of Hodeida, said 15 troops were killed over the same period. Saudi Arabia's state media has reported the deaths of at least six soldiers "along the southern border" in the past week, without giving further details. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday visited wounded soldiers being treated in a hospital in Riyadh, state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said. It released pictures showing Prince Mohammed, whose image as a reformer has been tarnished after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, taking selfies with the troops and hugging them. Khashoggi -- a Washington Post contributor who was critical of Prince Mohammed and the country's intervention in Yemen -- was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October. Saudi Arabia has faced virulent international criticism for leading an intervention in Yemen in 2015 to bolster Hadi's government in the face of the Huthi insurgency, and Khashoggi's murder has put its bombing campaign under fresh scrutiny. The World Health Organization estimates nearly 10,000 people have been killed since then, although rights groups say the toll could be five times higher. Fourteen million people now stand at the brink of famine in Yemen, which the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis and "a living hell" for children. This image grab taken from a AFPTV video shows Yemeni pro-government forces firing a heavy machine gun at the south of Hodeida airport, in Yemen's Hodeida province on June 15, 2018 Map of Yemen locating Hodeida where dozens of Yemeni rebels have been killed in battles and air strikes. A Yemeni boy suffering from severe malnutrition lies in hospital on the outskirts of the city of Taez, on October 30, 2018 A Yemeni child suffering from a diphtheria infection receives treatment at a hospital in the capital Sanaa, on October 31, 2018 A handout picture provided by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on November 5, 2018 shows Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (L) taking a selfie with a wounded soldier at the Riyadh Military Hospital In what John Mannion's campaign calls a "new low" in the campaign for the 50th Senate District seat, flyers targeting the Democratic candidate were placed on vehicles at two Syracuse-area Roman Catholic churches Sunday. The Citizen obtained one of the flyers left on vehicle windshields in the parking lots at Holy Family Church in Fairmount and Immaculate Conception Parish in Fayetteville. The double-sized document resembles a mailer sent by the New York Republican State Committee to voters in the 50th Senate District accusing Mannion of supporting a "radical expansion of abortion." Many of the claims in the flyer and mailer were fact-checked by The Citizen and found to be either false or misleading. The flyer, though, includes a line that wasn't in the mailer: "John Mannion claims to be Catholic." Mannion, who is Catholic, supports the Reproductive Health Act. The legislation aims to decriminalize abortion by repealing some statutes and moving others from the criminal code to the Public Health Law. It would allow abortions up to 24 weeks, which is consistent with existing law. After 24 weeks, there would be exceptions if a fetus is no longer viable or if the mother's health is at risk. Democrats and reproductive rights advocates support the Reproductive Health Act. The opponents include the New York State Catholic Conference. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, called the bill "radical" in a letter to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo nearly six years ago. Sue Bingham, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception Parish, said she attended the 9 a.m. mass at the Fayetteville church. When mass ended and she headed to her car, she noticed flyers on the vehicles in the parking lot. "People were rather upset," said Bingham, who supports Mannion in the state Senate race. Bingham was told that an announcement was made during the 11 a.m. mass that the church didn't know about the flyers and no one was given permission to leave the campaign literature on parishioners' vehicles. She estimated that there were "hundreds" of vehicles parked in the lot after the 9 a.m. mass. When Bingham and her husband returned to the church parking lot during the 11 a.m. mass, they noticed more flyers had been placed on vehicle windshields. "It was a concerted effort because every car had one," she said. "I don't think they missed a car." The source of the flyers is unknown. The flyer doesn't contain any information about who paid for the literature, whether it was a campaign, outside group or party committee. Republican candidate Bob Antonacci attended events in the district, including a brunch in Skaneateles, at the time the flyers were distributed. Ian Phillips, Mannion's campaign manager, called it "a new low" in the state Senate race. "Central New Yorkers will see through these dirty tactics and elect John Mannion tomorrow to the state," he said. When reached by phone Monday, Antonacci said his campaign wasn't responsible for the flyers. He wasn't aware of who might be behind by the literature, but noted that there are outside groups involved in the race. "I would never endorse that kind of stuff," he said. "It's just silly." The flyers were placed on vehicles two days before Election Day. The 50th Senate District is crucial for both parties in the race for majority control of the state Senate. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3 DEWITT With two days to go until Election Day, U.S. Rep. John Katko and Democratic challenger Dana Balter clashed early and often Sunday during the final televised debate of the 24th Congressional District race. A question about Medicare and Social Security from NewsChannel 9 moderator Dan Cummings led to the first of many exchanges between the candidates. Katko, R-Camillus, said the programs are solvent for now, but he's willing to work with members of both parties to preserve them. Balter, D-Syracuse shared that sentiment, saying that the programs are "contracts our government makes with our people." But the conversation shifted when Balter accused Katko of being willing to cut Social Security for younger Americans. Katko has repeated his position throughout the campaign that he wouldn't change the programs for anyone receiving benefits or paying into the system now, but would be open to reforms for those entering the workforce. From Balter's perspective, that translates to Katko supporting Social Security cuts for younger workers. The incumbent disputed that claim. "You can't take words and twist them around," he said. "We should sit down in a bipartisan manner, which is a pretty clear my opponent has a hard time doing." Balter fired back by noting that Katko voted for a balanced-budget amendment, which opponents say would harm social insurance programs. "He has repeatedly said he is willing to cut Social Security for younger generations," she said. They shared different positions on the future of the Interstate 81 project. Katko touted his work to designate I-81 as a high priority corridor, which would put the highway in position for federal funding when the project advances. However, he didn't name a preferred option. Cummings pressed him for an answer, but Katko maintained his long-held stance that he would support whatever the community decides. Once a decision is made, he explained, he would "try to build consensus." Unlike Katko, Balter took a position. She supports the community grid, which would replace the viaduct by using Syracuse's street network. She believes the grid would encourage economic growth in the city and region, while a tunnel would cause environmental damage. Katko argued that Balter was ignoring her potential constituents by stating a preference. He mentioned the concerns raised by town supervisors about the possible increase in truck traffic on local roads if a community grid is installed. Balter denied that she was ignoring the town officials. But after several years of discussions, listening sessions and studies, she thinks it's time to make a decision. "Let's move forward and make the best choice and make the best of that option," she said. Balter and Katko disagreed on more issues throughout the debate. Katko claimed Balter supports establishing a new tax on carbon emissions she described it as a "revenue-neutral carbon dividend" and opposes nuclear energy. Katko opposes a carbon tax and emphasized the benefits of nuclear energy, especially in central New York. The 24th district is home to three nuclear power plants. "I am pro-nuclear," Katko said. Later in the debate, the candidates were asked about one of the top issues in the campaign: health care. Balter supports Medicare-for-all, a single-payer health insurance program that would be open to all Americans. On the question of how Medicare-for-all would be paid for, Katko claimed Balter was avoiding the "dirty 'T' word" taxes. "She wants to tax everybody to death in this country," Katko said. Balter has said that Medicare-for-all would be funded by increasing the Medicare payroll tax. But she has defended the proposed tax hike by explaining that out-of-pocket medical costs would be reduced or eliminated. With the repeated questions about how Medicare-for-all would be paid for, Balter accused Katko of a double standard because of his vote for the tax overhaul last year. She has criticized the GOP congressman for supporting the law, which the Congressional Budget Office projects will add nearly $2 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years. "Every independent analysis of Medicare-for-all shows it will save money," she said. Balter and Katko participated in three televised debates and an online-only debate organized by Syracuse.com. Now, the focus shifts to Election Day. Katko, a two-term congressman, will appear on the Republican, Conservative, Independence and Reform party lines. Balter is running on the Democratic, Women's Equality and Working Families ballot lines. The polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday. Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Nov. 5, 1993 Republican Legislature candidates Mike Valenti and James Taber are holding onto paper-thin leads, and GOP majority leader Sam DeRosa emerged victorious after absentee ballots were counted yesterday. Three Legislature races were close after voters cast ballots Tuesday, leaving six candidates anxiously wondering whether they will be included in the newly streamlined, 15-member Legislature. After yesterday's count, the Republicans hold a 9-4 majority in the Legislature with two races yet to be decided. If Valenti and Taber can maintain their slim leads, the GOP advantage will be 11-4. Compiled by David Wilcox Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A Cato company is getting some federal help to launch a mobile service for cleaning and drying locally grown grains. Preferred Quality Grain LLC will receive $79,035 worth of equipment through an approved federal grant proposal. An additional $30,974 was contributed by private support. The Cayuga Economic Development Agency Inc was granted the federal funding for Preferred Quality Grain to use by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Business Development Grant Program. CEDA will lease the equipment to Preferred Quality Grain. Grain drying and cleaning equipment is needed to remove weed seeds from grain products to ensure their marketability. This equipment is expected to create two jobs, the USDA said. A deficit of grain cleaning capacity in Cato led Chuck Kyle and Dan Conable, administrators of Preferred Quality Grain LLC, to seek a solution. "We were looking for equipment for our own business, and then we saw an opportunity that could benefit the surrounding area," Conable said. Despite a lack of grain cleaning options in New York state, a demand for organic grains produced in the region has expanded significantly. That's partially because of the Farm Brewery Law signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2012. According to the law, which is modeled after the 1976 Farm Winery Act, at least 20 percent of all beer ingredients must be grown in New York until the end of 2018. Starting Jan. 1, 2019, that number jumps to 60 percent. Tracy Verrier, the executive director at the Cayuga Economic Development Agency, helped oversee the project proposal. "Ultimately, the [CEDA] board and I saw this as a way to support a local business in expanding their operations, which meets our mission as an organization," said Verrier. "Furthermore, the proposed project would provide a new service option to the agriculture industry, a major industry for Cayuga county." The cleaning unit, described by Conable, will have a generator and legs. The unit will also be transported by a flatbed truck making it easy to reach a client's site. Conable said the next step is to assemble the unit and find an operator. He's hopeful that services can be offered starting late winter. Verrier expects this project to save time and money, and will "likely be particularly helpful to small-scale, organic producers." Staff writer Dan Orzechowski can be reached at (315) 282-2239 or dan.orzechowski@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @OrzechowskiDan. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.A new crowdfunding campaign on the site IndieGoGo will need a serious boost to make its funding goal; otherwise, West Hollywood ("WeHo"), California, may never see the opening of the first consent-focused robot brothel in the world. The campaign, run by self-described robot ethicist Unicole Unicron, is aiming to create a business to be named Eves Robot Dreams, where robots are treated with the respect they deserve, thus not contributing to a potential robot rebellion in the future. According to an interview she granted to the UK's Daily Star tabloid, one of the features offered by the sex robot brothel will be the ability for customers to take a sex robots virginity, albeit for a fee of $10,000. The concept of virginity will always be appealing in society where women are highly sexualized while their sexual purity is simultaneously held in high regard, Unicron told the paper. Its no different for a female robot. Men always want to be on the forefront of new technology and this is the most intimate way for them to do this. Once a specific robots virginity is by the boards, the lifelike machine would them go into general use for other customers. But would patrons be excited about having sex with a robot who has been used for a similar purpose by numerous others beforehand? The main concern is cleaning and sanitation. We are working with LA County and OSHA to provide the safest environment for everyone, Unicron wrote on her IndieGoGo page. We will have staff on-hand to clean and sterilize equipment. Additionally, each guest will be able to purchase their own vaginal or anus insert that is theirs and theirs alone. On the crowdfunding page, the robot sex entrepreneur describes the demographics she expects Eves Robot Dreams to attract, which includes individuals, who have wild fantasies; who want to explore without cheating; who are interested in taking their relationship with technology deeper; who are on the autism spectrum, have anxiety interacting with other people, or who are too sensitive to explore human relationships for any reason. She also told The Star that she seeks a clientele consisting of both straight and gay men, as well as transgender peopleand couples. "It gives couples a safe place to practice sexual freedom without the added factor of jealousy, she said. Some people like to be with two or more dolls at a time and that is a different kind of orgy, but a very pleasurable one still. The crowdfunding campaign comes about a month after the city of Houston, Texas, rejected a bid by Yuval Gavriel, owner of The first SexDoll rent before you buy Spa in North America, to open an outlet there, as AVN.com reported. Unfortunately, with just 10 days left to go in her crowdfunding campaign, Unicron has raised just $2,634 of her $155,000 goal, meaning that without a surge in response, West Hollywood is likely to end up as barren of sex robot brothels as Texas. Photo via IndiGoGo Youtube Screen Capture PHOENIXPHS International welcomes industry veteran Jenny Tse as the newest addition to the companys sales and development team. PHS is a perfect fit for me and my skill set, and Im exciting to be part of a company that has truly blazed trails in the adult spaceespecially for the LGBTQIA+ community, Tse said. I am fortunate to have experience in almost every corner of the industry, from retail and sales to development and manufacturing, and I know I can strengthen PHSs team with my supportive and friendly work ethic. As sales and product development ninja, Tse will use her knowledge of manufacturing and materials, as well as a strong Rolodex, to help expand PHSs presence in the international adult retail space. Tse comes to PHS following more than two decades of adult retail and development experience. With unique insight into adult product manufacturing and merchandising, Tse is well-prepared to fortify the PHS team and contribute to the companys growth. Jenny brings a variety of assets to PHS; the fact that she can wear multiple hats and have her hands involved in different sectors of the company makes her especially valuable to our small business, PHS International General Manager Michael Merrill said. Jenny is a tech wizard and has brilliant product ideas, and her array of talents are enviable. Its hard to give a title to what Jenny does, so we created one uniquely for her. In addition to supporting PHSs loyal customer base and building accounts, Tse also will be involved with marketing, product education, and developing existing product lines. PHS Internationals legacy as a gay-owned and inclusive manufacturerhaving been the first to introduce Pride merchandise into brick-and-mortar retail more than 20 years agogives the company a special presence in the adult industry, and Merrill said hes especially honored to have Tse join his inclusive and colorful team. Being a rainbow business is something near and dear to our hearts, and though serving the LGBTQIA+ community is just a portion of our product focus, its an important part of PHS Internationals heritage, Merrill said. It means so much to us to share our roots and legacy with Jenny, who shares our core values of inclusivity, accessibility, and true value. Tse can be reached via email at [email protected]. To learn more about PHS International and its product lines, email [email protected] or visit PHSInternational.com. Ray Knight had been MASNs Washington Nationals studio analyst dating back to 2007. However, Knight wont be back in 2019 after MASN didnt pick up his contract option for next season. The Washington Post reports that the decision to drop Knight came after he was taken off MASNs broadcasts back in September. There was no official reason as to why, but the Post says Knight was removed following an incident with a MASN employee: a person with direct knowledge of that decision said the network pulled Knight after he was involved in a verbal altercation with a member of the MASN production team an exchange in which Knight berated a MASN employee with an expletive-laden tirade. This was not the first time Knight had fallen into trouble. Back in October of last year, Knight was arrested and charged with assault-and-battery after he got into a fight with an acquaintance. Both parties suffered injuries, some so serious that Knight required stitches after being bitten on his hand. Charges from that incident were eventually dropped. Knight had previously been an analyst on ESPN, and before that, a player with several teams including the Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets which led to a brief managing career with the Reds (1996-97, 2003). During his MASN career, Knight was teamed with studio host Johnny Holliday on Nationals pre and postgame shows. He was often known for his honesty and deriding the Nats when they didnt play well. With Knight gone from the Nationals broadcasts, MASN will be looking for a replacement. And with this incident, well see if another regional network takes a flyer on Knight, or if this for all intents and purposes ends his TV career for good. [Washington Post] Independent Bristol pie shop Lovett Pies is to supply the newly relaunched Harrods Food Halls. Harrods picked Lovett Pies to be part of an exclusive group of independent food producers supplying its newly-transformed Fourth Food Hall after the retailer sourced one of the firms pie from an online farmers market. Harrods food halls are currently undergoing a transformation for the first time in 30 years, and the relaunched Fourth Food Hall will focus on showcasing the best of British produce. Lovett will supply a range of pies to Harrods including its Christmas Dinner in a Pie, which is made up of turkey with chestnut stuffing, smoked bacon and cranberry. Other fillings will include its most popular venison, porcini mushroom and smoked bacon pie as well as an exclusively designed Harrods Pie that contains steak, kidney and mushrooms. The Harrods listing marks the first time Lovett Pies has developed a range of sharing pies, having only produced individual sizes before. Lovett Pies co-founder Phil Roseblade said the selection process had been detailed and rigorous. Were so delighted to be part of such an amazing group of British producers who have been chosen from thousands and were particularly proud of the exclusive Harrods Pies we have developed with the Harrods Team, he added. We think visitors to Harrods are going to love it. Subscribers to British Baker can read about Harrods Bake Hall, opened last November, here. Dead Zones Increasing Off Oregon Coast, Including California, Washington Published 11/05/2018 at 2:29 AM PDT By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff (Newport, Oregon) Scientists from the central Oregon coasts Hatfield Marine Science Center say the low-oxygen dead zones offshore are not only increasing in size and frequency but theyve been popping up along the coastlines of Washington and California as well. According to findings by Francis Chan of Oregon State University in Corvallis (of which the Hatfield in Newport is a part), Oregon has seen a decline in oxygen in ocean waters near the seafloor for two decades now, resulting in what they term hypoxia season. Its not dissimilar to the idea of a wildfire season, except here there are periods where oxygen levels nosedive in various pockets of the West Coast, killing off fish and crabs. Chan and his colleagues said this past summer of 2018 was one of the worst, a claim backed up by many commercial crabbers who noted major die-offs in their harvesting areas. They turned to the scientific community for help, and now NOAA, OSU and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) have teamed up to further study the issue. Our ocean is changing and when we first measured hypoxia off Newport in 2002, we thought it might be a local phenomenon, Chan said. That is no longer the case. Low oxygen is striking a big swath of the West Coast and is returning year after year. So wed better learn to live with it. OSU researchers received a $1.1 million grant from NOAA Coastal Hypoxia Research Program to work with ODFW and crabbers over the next four years to place sensors in crab pots, equipment that will check oxygen levels. A lack of data has been a major hurdle in understanding these dead zone pockets, with only about four sensors out in the ocean. This new project will bring the number up to 40. Over the summer, one sensor near Heceta Head documented oxygen levels reaching to zero close to the sea floor in early June, which coincided with reports by fishermen in the area of dead crabs. The evidence this was working in pockets was startling. ODFW researchers had received a report of one crabber over the summer who only obtained four live crabs after deploying 120 pots into the ocean. Yet Chan talked to another crabber who had similar dismal results in one part of the Oregon coast waters, but only eight miles away there were plenty of crab to be found. A major cause behind the dead zones is a changing climate, said Chan, which is causing waters around the world to lose their ability to hold oxygen. Another major factor is shifting wind patterns. Waters off the Oregon coast get filled with nutrients by upwellings, which is created by southward winds mixing up the water to bring up nutrients from the deep. This fuels blooms of phytoplankton, which boost the food chain when it happens in balance, but the flipside is if there are too many they choke the oxygen out of the water as they die and sink to the seafloor. Normally, according to OSU oceanographer Jack Barth, Oregon has wind patterns that alternate between conditions that create upwellings and those that stop the process after about a week or two. That allows the system to flush out and re-oxygenates the water, Barth said. Over the past several years, though, that flushing hasnt happened as frequently and the phytoplankton overwhelms the system and essentially chokes it. Barth added an alarming element to all this is that theyve begun to see low oxygen levels in the middle water column and not just the bottom, at the seafloor. This has implications of affecting other fisheries, such as halibut. Oregon Coast Lodgings in this area - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted Wesley Meredith, Republican (four-term incumbent). Occupation: Small business owner. Education: Fayetteville Technical Community College, associate's degree in horticulture technology and management. Career Highlights: General Assembly Republican Majority Whip. Former Fayetteville City Councilman including two years as mayor pro tem. Decorated Army veteran. Kirk DeViere, Democrat. Occupation: Small business owner. Education: Huntingdon College, bachelor's degree in business administration. Troy State University, master's degree in business management. Career Highlights: Fayetteville State University Board of Trustees. Former Fayetteville City Councilman. Former chairman of Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce. Former Army infantry officer. Senate District 19 (Cumberland County).In many respects, the backgrounds of incumbent Republican Sen. Wesley Meredith and Democratic challenger Kirk DeViere are similar. But the candidates are emphasizing their differences in the race for the Senate District 19 seat Meredith has held for four terms.Both were born in other states - Meredith in Mississippi, and DeViere in Florida. Meredith is a former Army sergeant. DeViere is a former Army infantry officer. Meredith has owned his own business, Cardinal Landscaping, for 20 years. DeViere owns his own marketing and advertising firm, 219 Group. Meredith served on Fayetteville City Council for five years. DeViere has been on council since 2015.But they diverge on policy and methods, each sticking close to their own party's playbook.This is the first general election since the shape of the district was redrawn in 2017 as a result of a federal lawsuit that challenged 28 legislative districts as racial gerrymanders. The new map rounded off and pushed the boundaries for Senate District 21 slightly west and farther north, leaving more Democratic voters in the 19th district.Prior to this year Meredith successively widened his re-election margins of victory, reaching 13 percent in 2016. But some say remapping created a swing district, or even a district that leans left. The N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation, which closely tracks state elections and voter behavior patterns, rates it competitive.Democrats hope to flip the seat in their favor in efforts to end Senate Republicans' 35-15 veto-proof supermajority. They need to pick up six seats to do that.Neither candidate responded to numerous attempts to reach them via email, phone, and/or text. But their campaign websites, Facebook pages, and other online tools give a clear picture of their positions. Meredith first ran for Senate because the state had the highest corporate, personal income, and gas tax rates in the Southeast. Businesses were shutting down, and new businesses were "scared away."As a legislator, he was actively involved in instituting the reforms that pushed North Carolina into Top 10 business climate analyses.Meredith thinks the role of government in a strong economy is not to impede capitalism and market forces. He would like the state to continue to lower taxes, and do away with regulations that squelch innovation. He says bailouts and government takeovers may be well-intended, but only serve to weaken the economy.Meredith said on his campaign website.To change that, when he first ran for office he made a promise to identify and eliminate government excesses. He said he continues that process to this day.he said.On the website On Your Ballot DeViere said he is running for office becauseDeViere sides with fellow Democrats on several core issues - expanding Medicaid, holding industrial polluters accountable while working to prevent hazardous mishaps in the first place, and making quality preschool programs accessible to everyone. He is especially interested in removing roadblocks from populations historically left behind socially and economically.DeViere diverges from many politicians by opposing corporate incentives as an economic development tool. He says the key to attracting meaningful employment and comfortable wages is education and workforce training.DeViere has called economic development incentives a Republican mistake, saying,He supports an Equal Rights Amendment, taking care of veterans, paying "family-supported" or living wages, restoring the sales tax holiday, and requiring universal background checks to curb gun violence. He opposes offshore drilling.DeViere would increase spending on education, including teacher pay. His website states,Meredith defends the education priorities the General Assembly has undertaken. He told the Fayetteville Observer, Nelson Dollar, Republican (seven-term incumbent). Occupation: Media and public relations consultant. Education: Appalachian State University, bachelor's and master's degrees in social sciences. Career highlights: Senior chairman of House Appropriations Committee, vice chairman of Finance, and Health and Human Services committees. Former Wake Technical Community College instructor, N.C. Department of Commerce human resources director, special assistant to the governor. Julie von Haefen, Democrat. Occupation: Lawyer. Education: Ohio University, bachelor's degree. Case Western Reserve University, law degree. Career highlights: Practiced criminal law, medical malpractice defense, and education law. Parent Teacher Association leader at the school, county, and state levels. Certified guardian ad litem. Meals on Wheels volunteer. House District 36 (Southeastern Wake County).One of the more high-profile state House of Representatives races in the Nov. 6 general election is the matchup between longtime Republican incumbent Rep. Nelson Dollar and Democratic challenger Julie von Haefen.The race received national attention in a Washington Post article speculating whether opposition to President Trump puts the General Assembly in play for Democrats.Republicans hold a 75-45 veto-proof supermajority in the House, and 35-15 supermajority in the Senate. Democrats would have to pick up 10 seats in the Senate to break even, and 15 in the House. Some Democrats think House District 36 can be flipped.The North Carolina FreeEnterprise Foundation, which closely tracks state elections and voting behavior patterns, rates the district as competitive. Dollar won in 2016 by 1,400 votes.The district is the subject of ongoing litigation . It was redrawn by state legislators to comply with a federal court order to fix 28 legislative districts whose boundaries were said to unconstitutionally rely too heavily on race. House District 36 was not one of them, but it was redrawn to allow corrections to the others, Republican mapmakers said. A court-hired mapmaker changed the General Assembly's map, but the U.S. Supreme Court rejected that alteration.Dollar is the senior budget writer in the House, and a key member of that body's leadership, making him a symbolic target for Democrats.Education is the focus of von Haefen's campaign, and she emphasized that in The Washington Post article.She contended the 2016 law reducing class size for kindergarten through third-gradeRequests to von Haefen's campaign for interviews received no response. It is not surprising, however, that education would be her main campaign platform, given her experience as president of the Wake County PTA Council, and as the advocacy chair of the North Carolina PTA.Von Haefen's role as PTA leader gave her valuable insight into the issue of class size, she wrote in an op-ed article on WRAL's website.she wrote.On other issues, von Haefen sticks to the standard liberal platform. She says on her website "healthcare is a universal right," and that Medicaid should be expanded in North Carolina under the Affordable Care Act.She wantsTo help accomplish that she advocatesIn a phone interview with Carolina Journal, Dollar, a Cary-based media and public relations consultant, rejected von Haefen's claims that the Republican-led General Assembly has harmed public education.Dollar said.Dollar said.Dollar supports all six proposed amendments to the state constitution that appear on the ballot.Dollar said.The Washington Post story said Dollar would eventually vote to expand Medicaid in North Carolina under Obamacare. He clarified his views on health care to CJ.Dollar said.As for charges - and subsequent court rulings - that legislative Republicans engaged in both racial and partisan gerrymandering when drawing congressional and General Assembly districts, Dollar said the redistricting policy was fully compliant with federal government standards.Dollar said. Larry Kudlow with the First Daughter Ivanka Trump at Our Pledge to America's Workers Event: Above. (White House photo) Click image to expand. 149; October 31, 2018 2:35 P.M. EDTWelcome, everybody. I'm Larry Kudlow. I hope I'm hooked up with the mic. I believe I am. We are - we're here to celebrate, actually. That's what we're going to call this. To celebrate the new American workforce, is what I'm calling it. The new American workforce in the middle of an economic boom.And one person has gone around the country championing, crusading, so that every worker can be - listen to this word, it's one of my favorite words - "reskilling." Reskilling. We've all got - later on, I'm going to ask her about reskilling old broadcasters and NEC directors. (Laughter.) And maybe more.Anyway, the headline here is you have a new announcement now. This is private sector, okay? Private companies. No government. No government money. But dealing with the American workforce so it can fit in the missing links between job openings and folks who want to work.Ivanka Trump, tell us about it.Thank you, Larry. And thank you for - for this opportunity. So we're sitting in a room today surrounded by companies who have committed to investing in their workforces and workers who have benefitted, and students, from those programs.The reality is that we have an incredible economy, a robust economy. And that's because of deregulation, because of tax reform. And for the first time in history, we have more vacant jobs than we have unemployed workers to fill them.And so this represents an enormous opportunity for us to think about making sure that every American worker is equipped with the skills they need, whether they're in high school and they're looking to graduate and have a job ready for them upon graduation, or whether they're a mid- to late-career worker who's looking for an opportunity to learn a new skill or learn a new trade.So we've been doing that. The President, back in July, announced a call to action where he wanted the private sector to step up and start to take responsibility and take a commitment for investing in their own workforce. They did that.Back at the end of July, we announced over 3.5 million jobs created by companies such as Apple and FedEx, Microsoft and Walmart, and so many others.Since that period of time, more than 120 additional companies have signed our Pledge to America's Workers. And as Larry noted, no federal funds are involved in this at all. And they're committing to retraining, creating new jobs, creating enhanced careers opportunities, apprenticeship, learn-while-you-earn opportunities. So several of those employers are here with us today.We've got the CEO from Textron, who is - has committed to 22,000 opportunities to train workers in the aviation sector. So thank you very much for that commitment. Ford Motor Company is committed to providing 55,000 new jobs and opportunities in the automotive sector. AT&T has committed to [offer] 200,000 new jobs [employees] and [reskilling] opportunities. And IPC - John, the CEO, thank you so much - this association that represents electronic assembly industry whose members have committed a total of 1 million new jobs and training opportunities. So just incredible.Stand up, please.Please, yes. (Applause.)And so the headline is, you're up to -We're up to 6.3 million new jobs.Which is incredible. (Applause.) Incredible.And if you think about that in context, that represents 5 percent of the current workforce. So it's really - it's really remarkable. And really, this is that call to action to the private sector to invest in the current and the future workforce. And we're going to continue to have the private sector sign our pledge and agree to making this type of investment.With that, while the last event and the last time we were here announcing the launch of the pledge, today we really wanted to focus on the workers that benefit from it. So in my travels - and I've been to job training programs in now 14 states across the country, and really seen the best-in-class things that are happening on a state level - thank you, Governor Bevin, for all that you're doing - and on a private sector level.But I've met some remarkable people, many of whom are in this room. I'd like to briefly introduce Eric, who I was just in eastern Kentucky with, who went from a job in the coalmining industry to now a CNC machining instructor. He was so good that they wanted to keep him to train their other workers. So maybe, Eric, if you wouldn't mind standing and telling us a little bit about your story.Like he said, I was a laid-off coalminer. I worked in the coalmines for 30 years. I worked my way through it all. I was an electrician when I was laid off. I found myself without anything to, you know, support my family with. What am I going to do? Unemployment is not going to do it. I'm not old enough to be retired yet. So I got to work every day of my life. Yep. So I got the opportunity through Paintsville CAP office to give me the knowledge of the CNC machine school that had just opened up there in Paintsville. I was in the first class. Went through the 16-week course. Took to it; understood it, become a part of it. They decided to keep me there and I help with other students. We're on our third class now. We have people working in Louisville, Winchester, all around the surrounding area.But those guys, you know, they want to come home too and then work right there in their areas. So we're hoping that with the school and the jobs that we're creating, we'll bring industry in and we'll all flourish. Just bring it on. (Laughter and applause.) Thank you.I saw firsthand - I saw firsthand just how amazing Eric is and the work that he does and the instruction he's given to so many in that facility. So, really amazing.And, Stacia, I met you in Houston. And Stacia is currently training to be an apprentice and is valedictorian of her class, graduating I believe just in a couple months. And is looking forward to a career as a pipefitter.I should also mention that you're a Marine Corps veteran. So would you share your story with us, Stacia?As she said, my name is Stacia Brightmon. I'm from Houston, Texas. I'm the proud mother of two boys and I'm a Marine Corps veteran. I currently - my oldest son is also a Marine as well, stationed at MCA Cherry Point.Following my career in the Marine Corps, I found myself unemployed working a bunch of dead-end jobs. And I was looking for something more than just a job; I wanted a career. So I was approached by S&B for their women's apprentice program, which is an earn-while-you-learn program.At that time, I was kind of discouraged because the oil and gas industry is not an industry that has a lot of respect for women and has a lot of respect for females. So I went and I spoke with my pastor, and my pastor gave me some words of advice. She told me that, "Be the change that I want to see. Be the woman that can go out there and make that difference, that can earn the women respect." So I agreed to the women's apprenticeship program from S&B. It's an 11 - it's a 16-week course and we're on our 11th week. And as Ms. Ivanka said, yes, I am the valedictorian of our class.I appreciate S&B for the opportunity that it has given me. Not only do I have a job, now I have a career. And I have a career that I can lean on and that I can look forward to and that will take me further. (Applause.)Amazing. Amazing. Congratulations.And lastly, I'd like to introduce, Anna. Anna, I met in Pittsburgh, in August, in Robotics Row. And Anna - and I see serval of her classmates are part of the FIRST Robotics Team. And, hi, ladies. They are doing just incredible things in the field of STEM, and they're competing both in Pennsylvania and internationally, and are really our next generation of entrepreneurs, engineers, innovators, and really inspiring.So, Anna, will you share with us some of your goals and your story?Yeah, my name is Anna Nesbitt. I'm a sophomore in high school. I am - as Ms. Trump said, I am a part of a FIRST Robotics Team called "Girls of Steel Robotics." You can see three of the other girls on our team right over there.Every year, our robotics team of around 50 girls from the greater Pittsburgh area meets at Carnegie Mellon University, and we build a 120-pound robot in six weeks. Once we build the robot, then we go to international competitions and we compete with it through a game that FIRST designs.But these teams are so much more than just about robotics. We - each girl on our team is part of a business sub -team and a technical sub-team which allows girls to be able to spend one day a week writing a business plan and the next day of a week welding.And it's really teaching girls on our team, and on all FIRST programs similar to ours, real-world skills that you could not get from sitting behind a desk in a classroom. So the things that I've learned through Girls of Steel, and been empowered to try through Girls of Steel, I know are going to shape my future.And yeah, I'm really thankful for the opportunities that we've had through these after-school programs in STEM. (Applause.)Well, thank you. Thank you for sharing your story. And I thought that would set a nice tone for a broader discussion about the economic opportunity that's been - being created by President Trump and this administration.So, Larry, I'll kick it over it over to you now.Thank you. Thank you, Ivanka.By the way, young lady, robot building - a lot of people are worried about the future with robots. But somebody has got - somebody has to build them. Somebody has got to service them. Somebody has to keep them going. There's a lot of jobs there. You've got one. I think you illustrate an important point.Yeah, definitely. (Laughter.) Yeah - well, yes. Girls of Steel really, and all FIRST Robotics programs, there's tons of scholarships through them. And you come out of the meetings feeling like you know more than you went into. And so that really does empower you to join that STEM workforce.I know Tina, who's sitting over there, she's interested in going into robotics. And whenever she started Girls of Steel, she wanted to go into history. So it really - it does empower you to try new things, go out of your comfort zone, which is things that girls need.Thank you. Terrific stuff. So, Mr. President, nobody wants to talk about the economy anymore. So let's talk about the economy. (Laughter.) All right?I like that.You beat your critics. You beat your naysayers. We're growing at 3 percent-plus. We just had a record - let's see, 18-year high in consumer confidence, I think yesterday or the day before. How did you do it? What's the message here? One of the most complex problems in the field of marketing management, one that directly affects the entire activity, is that of measuring the effectiveness of the marketing activity - how do we do it right? One of the most complex problems in the field of marketing management, which directly affects the entire marketing activity, is that of measuring the effectiveness of the marketing activity. I meet many business owners and most of them say that they are willing to invest in advertise only when they know for sure that they will see a return on their investment. This line of thinking of the bottom line only how much money will get in the register, is not sufficient in modern time. In a way, this line of thinking is even dangerous for the business. In personal conversations with decision makers in small and medium-sized businesses, and in my research, I found that the above way of thinking is the result of lack of general understanding and professional knowledge regarding marketing processes. My firm has worked for many years with small and medium-sized businesses in Israel. We found that business owners in the field usually engage in incomplete activities. Before we continue to explain why it is important to change the prevailing thinking patterns, we should detail the complexity involved in marketing: The effect of marketing processes is measured both in the short term and in the long term. It is relatively easier to measure the effectiveness of short-term marketing processes since the long-term results can be influenced by numerous manipulations (Ambler, 2003). In addition, marketing expenses are usually measured annually and are immediately compared to the sales report to see the effectiveness of the sales. Nevertheless, marketing products can cumulate and are not necessarily measured within a single year. Increased sales can be the result of activities performed in the prior year rather than the actions taken this year (Sheth et al., 2009). Marketing products are both tangible and intangible. Measuring the tangible products is easier and more accurate in most cases. The measurement of the intangible products is more complex and it is based more on evaluations and is less defined (Ambler, 2003). Marketing activities take place within a dynamic and changing environment that cannot always be controlled by the marketing factor. Consumer behavior, competition, and legislation can directly affect marketing outcomes without one being able to control those factors (Rust et al., 2004). Marketing activity takes place within an internal environment that includes defined human capital within the organization. Proper marketing activity is initiated by management and becomes part of the organization. In reality, however, the marketing activity is held hostage by managers and is not properly transferred to the other members of the organization (YoelSullam and Josef Cohen, 2009). In addition, in most cases, marketing managers have only partial knowledge regarding the activities they perform themselves (Corkindale, 2009). In most cases, there is a lack of distinction between business development activities and marketing activities, which makes it difficult to create an understanding of what is to be measured (Clark, 2000). Availability of information is an aspect that marketing managers will often admit they do not know how to measure. There are more than 30 methods to measure marketing effectiveness, but I believe that the difficulty is with the marketing managers who want to manage the subject of marketing using the only general information they hold, information that is easy to get, without willing to make the effort to obtain the relevant information. The question is, do not all marketing managers measure the effectiveness of marketing over time? Well, information acquisition processes refer to processes in which marketing managers acquire new information relating to the field of marketing. From the study of 75 small and medium-sized businesses, we found that organizations advance in stages as they implement processes of acquiring information in the field in question. In the beginning, the organization is not aware of the results measurement processes and does not deal with this type of measurements. In the next stage, only financial results are measured. In the third stage, business managers understand that the measurement of financial results is insufficient and they begin to acquire additional tools to measure non-financial aspects. In the fourth stage, the company or organization develop a strategic focus for its entire activities alongside tools for examining the activity market. In the fifth stage, the company adopts a more scientific approach using a database, which stores real-time information as well as information relating to past activities and uses advanced tools in order to perform an integrated testing of the marketing results. At the time of our examination, we found that the division of businesses in relation to various stages looks like this: The decision-makers ability to move from the second stage to the more advanced stages usually depends on implementing a process of change. Such a process is not simple and it challenges the very specific knowledge the manager holds. In other words, such a process involves a change in thinking that challenges existing knowledge. The safest way to accomplish such change is to add knowledge to the existing knowledge the decision maker holds. Each stage involves its own challenging issues. As mentioned above, the main difficulty during the first and second stages is to change the existing managerial thinking that will enable the organization and its managers to advance to the third stage. The third stage involves the difficult decision regarding the tools we want to use. The gap between the managerial understanding and the implementation is very high. In my doctoral research, I found that most managers complain that the implementation of advanced tools in the marketing discipline takes up too much time and they cannot afford to devote the time required. The fourth stage introduces complex challenges relating to the organization's strategic focus.The true meaning of focus is that of giving up a lot of in-depth focus on only a few issues. From the case study of 75 small and medium-sized business owners, it was found that 84% of business owners did not agree to make a strategic decision without the intervention of a marketing firm. The findings also show that these business owners did not know what their marketing strategy was. Companies and business owners provide a wealth of rather compelling reasons why not engage in measuring marketing results (Ambler, 2003). Our latest survey found that most small and medium businesses do not engage in measurement activities beyond the measurement of what they refer to as the bottom line (78%). It is important to understand that the partial use of the marketing results analysis leads these small and medium-sized businesses to carry out partial managerial behavior as well. Following are recommendations to improve the activities in this field: A desire to create change - the manager and owner of the small or medium business needs to have a desire A desire to make a change, a change that at the statistical level promises better results. The change begins when there is a will. We can create change the minute we want to do so, simply by adding information and thereby expanding our knowledge. A good documentation of the organizations history, financial knowledge, and knowledge of outcomes is required Documenting the data and the knowledge will enable tracking and be monitoring the results. Patience marketing processes take time In order to create a smart, efficient and effective marketing system, you must engage in analysis and invest time and thought into the process. These things take time. Make time and have meetings and discussions on the subject - it is just as important as providing services to customers. Study the subject When you search the word marketing in Google Israel, you receive 11,900 results in 0.28 seconds. There is a lot of material on the subject.Read and expand your existing knowledge. You can also participate in courses and workshops to improve and expand your knowledge. Corporate culture supports marketing Marketing can be promoted by establishing an organizational culture that supports marketing. Establish a uniform professional language Choose methods that are clear to you and make sure you explain them to the entire team. By creating a uniform professional language in your organization, you can create a broader base of people who will receive the vast amount of information. FTP the "file transfer protocol" is a long-supplanted Unix tool for transferring files between computers, once standard but now considered to be too insecure to use; so it's alarming that it's running on the voting information systems that will be used in elections in Wisconsin and Kentucky tomorrow. The FBI has warned that "criminal actors" use FTP in targeting US voting systems. The Wisconsin Elections Commission and DHS have reported hacker attacks on Wisconsin voting machines in the 2016 elections. Propublica portscanned the voting information systems in Kentucky and Wisconsin, which are connected to the fucking internet, and found FTP services being advertised by servers on the machines. Kentucky's voting information systems did not require a password to access their FTP servers. As of late Wednesday, Kentucky's voter-registration server still allowed users to browse a list of files without a password. Even the names of the files contained clues that could conceivably help an intruder. For example, they indicated that Kentucky may use driver's licenses on file in its motor vehicle software to verify voters' identities. Bradford Queen, a spokesman for Kentucky's secretary of state, declined to say if running an FTP server was problematic. "We are constantly guarding against foreign and domestic bad actors and have confidence in the security measures deployed to protect our infrastructure," he said. "ProPublica's claims regarding Kentucky's website lack a complete understanding of the commonwealth's full approach to security, which is multi-layered. Defenses exist within each layer to determine and block offending traffic." File-Sharing Software on State Election Servers Could Expose Them to Intruders [Jack Gillum and Jeff Kao/Propublica] Gorgeous TV personality Pearl Thusi recently had a question and instead of asking Google, she decided to ask her fellow South Africans instead. She posted the question on Twitter and tweeps gave her real answers. PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! Pearl Thusi had a burning question about relationships and she thought she could get the realest answers from her fans on social media. She tweeted: How long is the right time to share your bae with other people and more especially- your kids? This is actually a tough question, but tweeps did not disappoint. They gave her the kind of answers you won't get on Dr Phil. PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app Here's a couple of good answers given by tweeps: @QNgwata - Whenever you feel comfortable. I don't think things like these should have a "one-size-fits-all" approach. With these things, you just have to trust your gut @MokoduoCarley - I've bn divorced for 5 years and my two boys never seen a man in my life,had couple of relationships that's never worked out. eish @PearlThusi tough one.i guess after lobola is being paid. @pearl_zwide - No bae has ever met my son... The day bae decides to go home and pay amalobolo then he will meet my son... Can't be bringing different men in my child's life it's not fair on him. READ ALSO: OPW host Kayise Ngqula put the body shaming haters back into place When DJ Cleo got in on the action, he got tweeps thinking something's up. While he was probably joking, Pearl's question was pretty serious and have fans thinking a big announcement might be in the near future. Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news! Source: Briefly.co.za Mmusi Maimane - during the week a political figure and on weekends a lobola negotiator. The DA leader shared on social media that he successfully negotiated lobola for a family and it led to an intense Twitter discussion. PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! Democratic Alliance leader, Mmusi Maimane, negotiated lobola for a family over the weekend and shared the experience on social media. This led to comments that varied from a hot debate about whether or not Mmusi is trying to be black to good wishes to the family. Freedom of speech is a good thing - people can voice their own unique opinions and that's exactly what they did. PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app Mmusi insisted that he wasn't trying to be black - he just is. Perhaps, in the end, all that matters is that Mmusi enjoyed the experience and the family was satisfied and happy. Here are some snippets of the comments to Mmusi's post on social media: READ ALSO: Proverb blesses himself with a shiny new car to celebrate his success @Dr_MakhosiKhoza Oh! Poor Mmusi trying hard to be black. Maimane blackness pursuit is foreign to me.Umuqombothi is definitely not in my definition. Mine features one of the earliest Ethiopian philosophers, Zera Yacob & Amilcar Cabral, a deep thinker living ahead of his time. @MmusiMaimane Here is the thing, Im not pursuing blackness, I just am. Im not pursuing being AFRICAN, I just am. If you are still pursuing, perhaps you can tell us, what you are now? The effort to subjectively determine what it is to be black, is the very tool those who oppress, use. @janmakatan 4h4 hours ago Well said Sir , the moment colour does not matter, it is then when our beautiful country will take a step into the future! @Komosasa3 @MmusiMaimane I believe we as Africans especially blacks should stop this lobola thing. We can deny all we want but Lobola is a transaction, our sisters, aunts and mothers were sold in the name of Lobola, and due to this men get the entitlement over the women & abuse kicks in @LoveJuggernaut As a white guy I will be accused of not "having a say in black culture" but I tend to agree. I think it's important to remember and pay homage to our individual cultural histories but that they should also modernise. I think Lobola should be about ceremony not money/purchase. @KanthanPillay I too, like my friend @osipuka , am a successful ilobolo negotiator. Its good to have things we can agree upon as South Africans. Best wishes to the new family. @cikimpuntsha Lol black people and their obsession with "white people's jacket" . Amazing. There's no respect linked to a jacket bethuna. Besides we don't know if the man of the house didn't show acceptance by asking the visitors to take of the jackets so to feel at home. @JeffManthakha And it differs from families to families, culture to culture. @Tabakholo5 No no jacket is must mama @_uMzulu First of all that family disrespected you by giving you umqombothi kwimeyila instead of ukhamba Number 2 you are disrespectful where was your f*cken coat!!...ibhantshi And hlukana namashethi kaMandela Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news! Source: Briefly.co.za Editor's note - Lebogang Maseko, communicator at the Department of Water and Sanitation, talks about the need to encourage new innovations in the water and sanitation sector ahead of the Innovation and Technology Solutions Exhibition and Conference, to be held on Saturday, 10 November at Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg. PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! During his Mid-Term budget speech, Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, expressed the view that the current water delivery models are not working. He also expressed that the country needed to consider new ideas and models to ensure South African citizens get the best water and sanitation services available. Department of Water and Sanitation pulls up its sleeves Following Minister Mbowenis remarks and in-depth discussions during the Presidential Investment Conference regarding nurturing and encouraging new innovations to provide solutions to problems faced in the water and sanitation sector, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has since rolled up its sleeves and heeded the call to encourage such innovations. This is seen as Minister Gugile Nkwinti will host a ministerial interactive session with emerging and established innovators in an Innovation and Technology Solutions Exhibition and Conference, to be held on Saturday, 10 November at Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg. Themed Innovations today for tomorrows water and sanitation solutions the exhibition and conference is set to bring together over 50 exhibitors from across the country, to showcase innovative solutions to challenges currently faced by the water and sanitation sector. You would recall that in December 2017, the department, in partnership with Water Research Commission (WRC), held a Water Infrastructure Investment Summit at Sandton Convention Centre. PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app Shifting the water and sanitation sector investment landscape The Summit featured investors, funders, project developers, policymakers, regulators and local government partners and engaged in a programme of action that aimed to shift the water and sanitation sector investment landscape to a space that is open and enabling for investment and inclusive growth opportunities. The summit targeted role players that intended to invest in the water and sanitation sector in light of the persistent drought and flood challenges, on-going service delivery needs and ageing water infrastructure. Most importantly, the Summit was driven by policy imperatives emerging from the development of the next National Water Resources and Sanitation Strategy and the associated development of the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan. Focusing on key investment opportunities The Summit programme focused on key investment opportunities, constraints and solutions in the areas of bulk water infrastructure, municipal water infrastructure, and emerging innovations and solutions. Fast-forward to the 2018 Ministerial Interactive Session, spearheaded by the Water and Sanitation Minister, Nkwinti, a number of innovators as well as major role players have been identified in the sector to showcase their expertise in the respective fields and advise one another on a number of issues that directly and indirectly affect them to bring about positive changes. Topics of discussion Minister Nkwinti and his Deputy, Pamela Tshwete, are set to actively engage in what is expected to be an interactive session, to discuss, among other matters, water purification and waste water package plants, Dual Strategy; Desalinated and Ground Surface Water, the acceleration of eradication of buckets and contribution to Green and Blue Drop reports. In addition, the strengthening and accelerating of water authorisation and licencing, along with the detection and prevention of water leaks will also be discussed by working groups at the forthcoming conference. Through these interactive sessions, the department hopes to provide a platform to sector leaders to help shape the direction of the department, influence policy and help provide solutions that will help move South Africa forward. READ ALSO: Fears arise that State Capture Inquirys integrity may be compromised The Exhibition presents an opportunity for the innovators to showcase their ideas and jointly find solutions, where applicable, to the challenges faced. This will also encourage innovators to invest further in their developments through the enticements and realisable opportunities that the established organisations will share within the enabling environment. It will also bring together stakeholders in the water and sanitation sector, government departments and their entities responsible for municipalities, industry and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Organisations looking for opportunities for commercialisation will also form part of the exhibition. Involving emerging innovators from disadvantaged backgrounds A platform will also be afforded to emerging innovators from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, with the focus geared towards women and young innovators. They will showcase their work and share experiences of the innovation landscape to date. With its on-going challenges, the DWS has found a way to extend a hand and ask for help from innovators, to help address issues faced in the water and sanitation sector. This calls for a time to reflect as South Africans and work hand in glove with our government, to suggest and provide solutions and not only cry foul when things dont seem to work. A democratic country is about working together and this is an opportune time to do exactly that. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Briefly.co.za Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news! Source: Briefly.co.za The United States has reimposed oil and financial sanctions against Iran, a move believed to be taken by President Donald Trump to put pressure on Irans government to curb its alleged missile and nuclear programmes. PAY ATTENTION: Click "See first" under the "Following" tab to see Briefly news on your News Feed! The move, reportedly effective from Monday, November 5, will restore US sanctions that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the administration of ex-President Barack Obama. What do the latest sanctions on Iran by President Trump mean and how effective can they be? Here are five key things you should know: 1. The US 2015 nuclear deal: 'Worst ever' agreement The 2015 nuclear deal saw most international financial and economic sanctions on Iran lifted by the US and other countries in return for the Iranian government curbing its disputed nuclear activity under UN surveillance. However, President Trump in May announced that his administration was withdrawing from the deal, calling it the "worst ever" agreement negotiated by the US. He subsequently reimposed the first round of sanctions on Iran in August. 2. Other parties to the deal decide not to pull out Despite President Trumps move, other countries that were part of the 2015 deal have reportedly decided not to leave. Other countries involved in the deal are Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia. They have promised to support European firms that do "legitimate business" with Iran and have set up an alternative payment mechanism - or Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) - that will help companies trade without facing US penalties, BBC reports. READ ALSO: Redi Tlhabi strongly advises Gigaba to avoid "oral submissions" 3. Exemptions President Trump has reportedly granted exemptions to eight countries to continue importing Iranian oil, without naming them. According to Aljazeera, the exempted countries are reported to include China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkey, all top importers of Iranian oil. They are expected to be given temporary exemptions from the sanctions to ensure crude oil prices are not destabilised. 4. Reactions from Iran Briefly.co.za gathers that thousands of Iranians had earlier rallied to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Addressing the rally in Tehran, the capital of Iran on Sunday, November 4, the countrys military chief, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, warned President Trump against overreaching when dealing with Iran. I want to say something to America and its weird president, Jafari said. Never threaten Iran, because we can still hear the horrified cries of your soldiers in the [desert] and you know it better, how many of your old soldiers in American society commit suicide every day because of depression and fear that they suffered in battlefields. So, don't threaten us militarily and don't frighten us with military threats, he added. In his speech, Jafari assured the crowd that Trump's attacks on Iran's economy were a desperate attempt to defeat the republic - one doomed to fail. However, in another report by BBC, some Iranians are blaming their government for the sanctions, pleading to the US to have mercy on them. BBC reports that some Iranians have taken to Twitter to vent their frustration with the regime, with the hashtag #Sorry_US_Embassy_Siege attracting more than 19,000 tweets. One user tweeted in English: Over the past 40 years, the Islamic regime of Iran tried to present the US and Israel as Iran's enemies. But Iranian people do not think like mullahs. We love all nations and all people of the world. Another said: America is not our enemy, our enemies have taken us as hostages in our own home [country]. 5. Why the new sanctions? As earlier stated, the US re-imposed the sanctions after President Trump in May pulled out of the 2015 deal. The BBC reports that the US also said it wants to stop what it calls Tehran's "malign" activities including cyber attacks, ballistic missile tests, and support for violent extremist groups and militias in the Middle East. "We are working diligently to make sure we support the Iranian people and that we direct our activity towards ensuring that the Islamic Republic of Iran's malign behaviour is changed," US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was quoted to have said. "That's the goal, that's the mission, and that's what we will achieve on behalf of the president." 6. The sanctions have started affecting Iran Aljazeera reports that the optimistic tone of the Iranian government stood in stark contrast to the widespread economic chaos the country has endured during the past 12 months, including a nosedive in the value of its currency, a shake-up of President Hassan Rouhani's economic team - which saw several senior ministers dismissed - and nationwide protests against price hikes and dire economic conditions. According to figures from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Iran's petroleum exports hit $52.728bn in 2017. Its crude oil exports stood at 2,125,000 barrels per day during the same year, while its natural gas exports reached 12.9 billion cubic metres. However, the numbers have already reportedly dropped in the current year. For instance, Vandana Hari, a Singapore-based global oil market analyst quoted by Aljazeera, said that Indias crude oil imports from Iran dropped from 690,000 barrels per day in May to around 400,000 barrels per day in August. The US secretary of state reportedly said more than 100 big international companies had withdrawn from Iran because of the looming sanctions. BBC also quoted him as saying Iranian oil exports had dropped by nearly one million barrels a day, choking the main source of funding for the country. In addition, the Brussels-based Swift network for making international payments is expected to cut off links with targeted Iranian institutions, isolating Iran from the international financial system. Briefly.co.za gathers that Iran's energy sector accounts for up to 80% of the country's income from exports, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Thus, the new US sanctions could bring serious financial and economic woes to Iran and her people. PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, had also earlier warned the US to be cautious. The warning came following the blistering message from US President Donald Trump to his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani. Briefly.co.za notes that in a tweet posted on his handle, @JZarif, the minister stated that his country was unimpressed, and had heard harsher rhetoric some months ago. He reminded the US president that Iran has been around for a very long time, during which it has witnessed the fall of empires. Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news! Source: Briefly.co.za It seems that HHP's widow is on the warpath. After the humiliation she had to endure at the late musician's funeral - the family outright rejected her - she kicked out HHP's helper that was with him for more than 10 years. PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! A lot of people applauded Lerato for keeping her head high and staying strong during HHP's funeral. HHP's family did not include Lerato in his obituary and didn't give her a chance to pay tribute to her deceased husband. However, the court ruled that she is legally HHP's wife. Now, she's gone to her late husband's home in Johannesburg and promptly evicted his helper, according to a report by The Daily Sun. PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app According to reports, the helper, who was with HHP since 2004, is now homeless. Lerato arrived at the home with the police and a locksmith - she broke and replaced all the locks. Briefly gathered that even HHP's son can't enter the home. READ ALSO: Nadia Nakai slayed hosting the red carpet at the MTV EMAs 2018 HHP's family does not approve of what Lerato did. They say the helper's child was basically HHP's, as he was the child's guardian and even paid her school fees. Lerato was not available for comment on these allegations. Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news! Source: Briefly.co.za The feud between journalist Redi Tlhabi and Malusi Gigaba is far from over and she added fuel to the fire on Monday. PAY ATTENTION: Click "See first" under the "Following" tab to see Briefly news on your News Feed! Tlhabi and Gigaba have had their differences in the past and the journalist managed to take a swipe at the Home Affairs Minister yet again. Taking to her official Twitter account, Tlhabi poked fun at Gigaba after his sex tape leaked on social media. The journalist made some sexual references in a tweet about how Gigaba should handle himself in the public. "And If I were Minister Gigaba's adviser, I'd strongly recommend that he not use the term 'oral submissions'..he and the word "ORAL" must PLAY far from each other for the moment. At least until everything has been DIGESTED and CLEARED. Otherwise he will be SWALLOWED up," she wrote. READ ALSO: Shots fired! Tweeps in stitches after Juju mocked Malusi Gigaba in video It did not take long for social media users to join in on Tlhabi's post. Hasani, who goes by the Twitter handle @hasansas1981, commented: " He must think long and hard about what you are saying." PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app It is not the first time Tlhabi and Gigaba have fired shots at each other. Briefly.co.za previously reported Tlhabi accused South Africa's Home Affairs minister of abusing his power and he's not happy. Gigaba was furious and he wanted Tlhabi to apologise for her tweets or face a damages claim. Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news! Source: Briefly.co.za News / National by Staff reporter President Mnangagwa yesterday exhorted Zimbabweans to unite and remain strong in the face of prevailing economic difficulties saying the challenges confronting the country will soon be overcome, paving way for an epoch of prosperity.Addressing thousands of Zion Christian Church congregants gathered at the church's cathedral at Mbungo Estates to celebrate Bishop Nehemiah Mutendi's 79th birthday and also pray for good rains in the forthcoming farming season, President Mnangagwa said challenges facing Zimbabwe required resilience.The President, who shares the same birthday with Bishop Mutendi - September 15 - was also honoured with his own birthday cake at the church gathering, making the event a double celebration.The President turned 76 while Bishop Mutendi turned 79 on the same day. The President told the colourful ZCC faithful that Zimbabwe's economic challenges will soon be a thing of the past."Things might have been difficult or might still be difficult but I liked what Bishop Mutendi said while talking about what pregnant women go through in childbirth. He said pregnant women (during labour) are encouraged to persevere under pain during that time and after a child is finally delivered mothers become very happy and will be smiling all the way,'' he said."It is the same situation to a country. We are currently in problems, but let us unite and persevere saying 'push', 'push'; we must continue moving forward as a nation fully aware that the current challenges are temporary and good times will soon roll,'' he said.President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe will only speedily overcome its economic challenges if the country speaks with one voice, saying a divided lot cannot stand.''We must always preach love and unity not to be always at each other's throat if we are to develop as a nation. Of course, there will be always be some elements bent on spoiling the soup but such characters will not stop our country from moving forward.''The Head of State called on Zimbabweans to love their country,describing those bent on instigating demonstrations and sowing the seeds of instability in the country as ill-adviced and languishing in darkness away from God's grace. This comes as embattled MDC-Alliance leader Mr Nelson Chamisa, who lost to President Mnangagwa in the July 30 presidential election, has threatened to spearhead nationwide demonstrations in a bid to gain political power through the backdoor.''There are some of us who see but they do not see clearly and others who hear but do not hear properly. We have some amongst us in our country who do not want our country to go forward and prosper but the good thing is that the majority of our people want this country to prosper,'' said the President.President Mnangagwa reiterated that he will always remain a listening President leading a Government that was subservient to the wishes and aspirations of the majority of Zimbabweans. He pledged to continue consulting Zimbabweans to find solutions to some of the country's nagging problems. The President said he will always remain indebted to Zimbabweans for voting him President during the July 30 presidential contest where he emerged numero uno from a list of 23 presidential aspirants.''I have actually found a perfect opportunity in broad daylight today to tell to all Zimbabweans in the four corners of the country that I am very grateful, very grateful for voting me President. All earthly leadership positions need God's anointment. Of course, there are others who did not vote wisely but I hope there will see the light at the end of the day and come back home,'' he said.President Mnangagwa challenged the present generation of Zimbabweans to be at the forefront of finding solutions to some of the country's challenges.''You have heard about Zimbabwe's time under colonial rule and how men and women waged the war of liberation to remove colonial rule but right now can we plan to go back to war again or sow the seeds of conflict, no, we need to plan about how to economically develop our country.''This is a generation that has a task, a task to develop our country and to make our life better. A task to bring glory to Zimbabwe that is the task that this generation has,'' said President Mnangagwa.He hailed the ZCC church for spearheading prayers for a good rainfall season in the country saying Zimbabwe's economy was agro-based hence the importance of good rains every year to ensure production on farms.The President said if the country received good rains Government will be spared the painstaking burden of importing food, leaving money in its coffers to be used for developmental projects that improve lives of ordinary Zimbabweans. President Mnangagwa praised Bishop Mutendi for urging his congregants and Zimbabweans at large to hold on to their land dearly saying land was a national treasure which should be jealously guarded.''All of you in your thousands here cannot get jobs even if you ask for them but if you have land in your possession then you have a good starting point and I am happy that most of us now have land in our hands which we can use to produce food,'' said President Mnangagwa.The President paid tribute to the ZCC for nurturing morally upright citizens and helping Government to develop the country through building facilities such as schools.He pledged to be always on hand to help the church to carry out its developmental projects in future.In his remarks, Bishop Mutendi also urged Zimbabweans to be resilient in the face of economic difficulties facing the nation. He equated President Mnangagwa to the biblical Joshua who led the children of Israel into Canaan. Bishop Mutendi said economic challenges facing Zimbabwe were caused by illegal sanctions imposed by Zimbabwe's enemies to break the spirit of its people."What we are experiencing now is not something new, we have seen this before but it will soon be over. The enemy no longer has any new weapons in his armoury. That is why he is using weapons that have been used before. The country is on the verge of a breakthrough and we should remain strong and focused,'' he said.The ZCC leader said Zimbabwe has undergone rapid socio-economic transformation since 1980 with most Zimbabweans now in a far much better economic position than during colonial rule. He said while during colonial rule there were no problems such as fuel queues as most indigenous people were wallowing in the murky waters of poverty.Bishop Mutendi also reminded Zimbabweans on the importance of jealously guarding their land saying his church hoped for good rains in the forthcoming farming season for the nation to produce its own food.President Mnangagwa, who was accompanied by First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, donated a tractor to Bishop Mutendi, five tonnes of top dressing fertiliser, another five tonnes of Compound D fertiliser and a tonne of maize seed to the ZCC.After delivering his speech, President Mnangagwa and Bishop Mutendi led the cutting of their birthday cakes amid jubilation from delirious ZCC congregants. Present at the event were senior Government and Zanu-PF officials among them State Security Minister Owen Ncube and Masvingo Minister of State Ezra Chadzamira among others. News / National by Staff reporter THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leadership and some activists who appeared in court on charges of organising illegal demonstrations last week have applied for refusal of placement on remand.ZCTU president Peter Gift Mutasa, secretary-general Japhet Moyo and five others made the application through their lawyer, Mr Alec Muchadehama, on the basis that the State has no case against them. Mr Muchadehama argued in court that the allegations being levelled against his clients were not aligned to the charge."Your Worship, the accused (ZCTU activists) were remanded under protest. To begin with, the accused are facing charges of inciting violence."To give a brief background, what really happened is that on October 8, the ZCTU notified the officer commanding the ZRP of their intention to carry out demonstrations. This was out of courtesy as trade unions are exempted from the Public Order and Security Act (POSA)."The police had no right to ban the demonstrations and even though the demonstrations did not cause public disorder in any way. If they had, then a member of the public would have stood up and said something."Therefore, the State has no case as even the fact that they are saying a High Court order was defied when the demonstrations were conducted is a lie as no such order exists," he said.The State, led by Mr Charles Muchemwa, opposed the application saying that it had no merit as the allegations establish the fact that a crime was about to be committed."There is evidence linking them to the offence in the form of the placards that were recovered which had various inscriptions."The issues that the defence raised are triable issues which must be raised in a full trial. Because of that there is no justification in removing the accused persons from remand," he said.Presiding magistrate Ms Rumbidzai Mugwagwa remanded the matter to today for ruling. News / National by Mandla Ndlovu Following the leaking of an Audio in which whistle blower Acie Lumumba is confessing that he was given US$40 000 by Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa to do a hatchet job against Kuda Tagwirei, the Zimbabwe Liberation War Veterans Association have initiated a move to oust the embattled War Veterans Leader.Lumumba said he needed urgent money for his father's operation and the only person who helped was Chris in exchange of a hatchet job that he was supposed to implement. He was paid the money and his father was operated.Mutsvangwa is accused of hiring Lumumba to create divisions in the party, the Presidium and spreading alarm and despondency in the nation.Speaking in a telephonic Interview, a Senior war Veteran from Mashonaland West who spoke on position of anonymity said, "Chris Mutsvangwa broke protocol. If he had issues to raise against the General and against Sakunda he should have written to the party and followed proper procedure. This Machiavellian approach stinks of divisiveness and these are the things which made us kick out Gamatox and G40 cabals."Chris has over stayed his welcome as a War Veterans Leader, he is driving a narrative of state capture yet he is abusing his friendship with the President to create divisions between the President and the VP so that he entrenches himself and removes the General in an unorthodox manner."At this we need Chris to tell the nation why he was recalled from China and what he did when he was Chairman of MMCZ. He must come clean on his son Neville's involvement in the diamond cartel that saw Zimbabwe losing a lot of diamonds. If he is an anti corruption crusader then let him start with self introspection.We have written a letter to the Presidium asking for a disciplinary hearing over Chris and Monica Mutsvangwa."Monica is the one who recommended the Taskforce and Lumumba to Minister Mthuli Ncube , this was done in an unprocedural manner and was clear abuse of the Information Minister's office as it was meant to serve a personal agenda. Monica Mutsvangwa is operating under illegitimate pressure from Chris and therefore unable to discharge her duties in a fair and transparent manner."In our letter we have asked the National chairperson Cde. Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri to recuse herself from any deliberation over these issues as she is best of friends with the Mutsvangwas."The other letter will be submitted to the Chief Secretary in the office of the president and cabinet over Monica Mutsvangwa's involvement in this Lumumba nonsense as well her inability to serve as Information Minister without being compromised by her husband's insatiable thirst for power and relevance."Chris has always been a trouble maker since the liberation struggle days. He is a comrade who loves his country but at times his ego outgrows his patriotism and sense of nationalism. Our corrective measures are meant to save Chris from himself as well as liberate the ZNLWVA from the Chris'ego."General Chiwenga is a senior war veteran who must be respected and honored. Chris Mutsvangwa is too junior to try and cause division between His Excellency President Ed and the VP."On the 12th of November we are coming out in full force in a solidarity march with The Presidium and we will demand Chris and Monica's resignations from their positions and immediate disciplinary action. It's time we held elections for the ZNLWVA s National Executive."The War Veterans sentiments come at a time when there are reports of planned counter demonstrations to be held by ZANU PF members who support General Chiwenga and those who are loyal to President Mnangagwa. The demonstrations both pencilled for the 12th of November. News / National by Mandla Ndlovu Opposition Leader Nelson Chamisa has rejected the Leader of the opposition office that President Mnangagwa had offered him.Said Chamisa, "Mnangagwa is fascinating. I was voted by the people to be President and he wants to make me an opposition Leader. Its like saying the people bought me a Television and Mnangagwa says here is a remote. I will be stupid to accept it."I want my position that I was given by the people so that people can get jobs , go school and be a happy nation."If Mnangagwa wants to be an opposition leader he must create that office and go there and occupy it. I was elected by the people. I will not accept breadcrumbs when the people of Zimbabwe gave me a bakery."Mnangagwa thinks I am (Morgan) Tsvangirai's boy and since Tsvangirai is late he can runover me. He is misleading himself, we are going to match each other pound for pound."In September Mnangagwa told the United States-based Bloomberg TV, that he was considering opposition leader perks."Under our Commonwealth parliamentary democracy, the opposition is recognised; we recognise the leader of the opposition in Parliament. This is what we are going to do ourselves," Mnangagwa said."But under the former administration, there was no formal recognition of the opposition leader but now under my administration, we are embracing the Commonwealth approach to parliamentary democracy where we recognise the leader of the opposition who is given certain conditions and perks in Parliament." News / National by Mandla Ndlovu The Chief Executive Officer of United Refineries Busisa Moyo has revealed that they will be blacklisting retailers who are buying cooking oil in bulk from them and hoarding it instead of selling it to the public thereby creating artificial shortage of the liquid in Bulawayo.Said Moyo, "United Refineries Limited sold and delivered over 300mt (150,000 units) of cooking oil last week into the Bulawayo and surrounding markets. We are concerned that the product is being withheld or bundled at till point. We will be blacklisting errant retailers for the next round of deliveries."Moyo's statement were welcomed by the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting who described the move as productive."This behaviour of causing artificial shortages by errant retailers is counterproductive and regressive. The productive move by United Refineries Limited is great. No to economic saboteurs." The Ministry said in a statement.This comes as Zimbabwe is experiencing inadequate supplies of cooking oil and price hikes because of inadequate foreign currency allocations to the oil industry by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).According to the Oil Expressers Association of Zimbabwe (OEAZ) a cooking oil industry lobby group which is made up of seven members that supply at least 95 percent of the edible oils consumed in Zimbabwe its members require at least $5 million per week or $20 million per month to import soya beans, crude edible oils and other raw materials to satisfy the requirements for national oil demand and related products adequately.OEAZ members have been receiving $2,2 million per week or $8,8 million per month, a 66 percent deficit on the national demand. News / National by BBC Foreign nationals living abroad will be allowed to join Britain's Armed Forces, the UK government is set to announce.Currently, citizens from Commonwealth countries can only join if they have lived in the UK for five years.But in a bid to recruit more servicemen and women to the Army, Navy and Air Force, the Ministry of Defence is lifting this rule.The Armed Forces is short of 8,200 soldiers, sailors and air personnel, a report found earlier this year.Ministers are expected to announce the change to recruitment rules on Monday.It means people from Commonwealth countries - including Nigeria, Kenya, India and Australia - will be considered for roles, even if they have never lived in Britain. News / National by Mandla Ndlovu Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Leader has opened up for the first time about her arrest over the Aguma herbal Immune booster which he claims can cure HIV and Cancer."I was arrested after I had given an apology at a conference which I held with the Minister of Health. I was arrested when I was going down the Ministry building. I saw a lot of riot police. After talking to them they responded well and we went to the police. I did not tell anyone including my wife.I also asked the police not to mention it because I did not want any of my children to know. After being asked questions I was released at midnight."They told me that the arrest was because of the Sunday announcement that I did without a licence. The good news is that I have met the government and they have agreed to test Aguma.This is the first time that the PHD Leader has come out in the open in the about his arrest.Magaya is embroiled in a messy court case after being accused of unlawful distributing immune boosters which he tried to crush and flush when police were investigating him."Circumstances are that on 31 October 2018, the accused known as a prophet the Prophetic Healing and Healing Deliverance Ministries (PHD) made an advertisement on Yadah Television of Aguma Medicine which he claimed to be a cure for HIV/AIDS, cancer and other ailments."He further made claims that Aretha Medical and himself were the manufacturers of the Aguma medicine which he claimed can cure the abovementioned diseases."Verifications were made through the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe and it was established that Aguma is not a registered medicine or drug in Zimbabwe. It was also established that neither Magaya nor Aretha Medical Company were authorised by the Health Professions Authority to carry out clinical tests on nay human being to prove that Aguma can cure the aforementioned diseases thereby the accused committed an offence."The charge sheet further reveals that on 31 October, a search was conducted at Magaya's Marlborough premises where unregistered prescription medicines, drug manufacturing, packaging machines and drug manufacturing raw materials were recovered."Just before the search, the accused persons destroyed some of the exhibits by flashing them in the office toilets and burning containers which were however, recovered half-burnt. Several Aguma sachets and other torn sachets were also recovered in an office bin next to the office call centre, the charge sheet further states." News / National by Mandla Ndlovu Ousted Bulawayo Deputy Mayor Tinashe Kambarami is still Deputy Mayor at law until such a time that he formally sends a notice in writing to the Town Clerk, Bulawayo24 has heard.Kambarami allegedly gave a verbal resignation on Sunday at Party offices in Bulawayo after being dressed down by Party Leader Nelson Chamisa, accused of not adhering to party whipping system.Legal Practitioner Zibusiso Nkomo said the resignation at law only comes to effect when the said Mayor or Deputy Mayor sends a notice in writing to the Town Clerk and it is received."If you read clearly the Urban Councils Act Section 103 (3) iii says if a mayor, chairperson, deputy mayor or deputy chairperson resigns, by notice in writing addressed to the town clerk, he or she shall cease to hold office as such with effect from the date the notice is received by the town clerk."Further if you go down to Section 103 (4) says (4) it clarifies the procedure of the election of a new Deputy Mayor by saying Where the office of mayor, chairperson, deputy mayor or deputy chairperson becomes vacant before a meeting referred to in subsection (1), the councillors present at a meeting of the council held not later than thirty days after such vacancy shall elect a successor who shall serve for the unexpired term of office of his or her predecessor."So from my reading of the law and my understanding of the developments, Kmbarami has not yet written an official letter to the Town Clerk so that proceedings for the election of a new Town Clerk are so he remains Deputy Mayor at Law."Bulawayo Councillors are supposed to meet on Monday with the national Chaiperson of MDC Tabitha Khumalo on Monday at 4PM and do a mock voting for the Deputy Mayor so that when they vote at Council Chambers they will vote for the candidate who would have won in the mock vote. News / National by Staff reporter More details have emerged of rabble-rousing influence peddler William Gerald Mutumanje's recent hatchet job on top Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) officials and businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei - all of whom he has fingered in corruption and the illegal trading of foreign currency - before backtracking spectacularly.This comes as the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) commissioner in charge of investigations, Goodson Nguni, told the Daily News yesterday that the graft body was itching to probe Mutumanje - who is more commonly known as Acie Lumumba."We are waiting for someone to write a letter with the allegations against Lumumba and after that we will ask the police to arrest him," he said.In the new details contained in another explosive recording of discussions on the hatchet job on senior RBZ officials and Tagwirei for which Mutumanje was paid $40 000 - and which the Daily News has got in its possession - he emphatically affirmed what he was reported saying by our sister paper, the Daily News on Sunday, yesterday."I want to go to Joburg for like a week and disappear from the noise. I don't want to be part of this mess (the State capture saga and his allegations of corruption), however it ends."You know, my greatest worry with stopping or quitting or even changing narrative is will I be able to look after myself afterwards? The only reason why these people got me is they knew I was really in a tough corner."They knew my father wasn't feeling well. My father needed an operation. It was actually almost like they tricked me because inini ndakaenda kuna (I went to) ... (name of individual withheld on legal advice) and said aah vakomana (gentlemen), how can you guys leave my father suffering like this?"You people makashanda mese (you worked together) and you are really going to leave him? Then they said no problem, we will look after him. But there's something we want you to do," Mutumanje said in the latest recording."But because at the time I wasn't thinking, the only thing that was on my mind was can you look after my father'. I made commitments and said yes, I will do it' - without knowing what it is."Mdhara akaenda kunorapwa zvakanaka (my father went for his treatment in India and all went well). I didn't know I had signed my life away," he added."So, pandakapihwa basa rekunzi enda kuministry of Finance (when I was given the Finance ministry job), in my head I thought I was going to assist the minister of Finance to communicate zvinhu zvekuministry of Finance."What I didn't know is they already knew the detail. But I didn't know the detail. I knew the position, not the detail," Mutumanje said.Asked by the person he was recorded talking to whether Finance minister Ncube was part of the plot, Mutumanje answered in the affirmative, claiming that the former banker had been heavily involved."I'm saying there is nothing that I'm saying that is coming from my head. Hapana guess work paya paya," confirming further that he had been paid $40 000 in hard currency for the hatchet job."It was real desperation. I just lost my mother. So, psychologically the thought of losing a father right after losing a mother is traumatising. So, I panicked and I went to the only place I thought I could get help," he added.Pressed to come clean on the matter by his partner in the recorded message, Mutumanje said he knew "how to get myself out of it"."You know what I would like, if I had it my way. I want to be able to say, vakomana (gentlemen), so that you don't say ... I owe you anything, here is your money. So, let's agree that I don't owe you anything."But after that I know that they'll be so bitter about it. You know OB once said never get into a fight with someone who has more money than you, because they can do so much more than you can," he said.This bombshell story comes after Mutumanje was last month briefly and irregularly appointed as the head of a communications taskforce in the Finance ministry.Ncube was later pressured to sack him after he made staggering allegations on Facebook, on supposed illegal foreign currency dealings at the central bank - claims which shook Zanu-PF and the government to their core.In that social media blast, Mutumanje named the four senior RBZ officials and Tagwirei as being at the centre of illegal foreign currency dealings - leading to the precautionary suspension of the central bank executives by governor John Mangudya.Mutumanje was first reported by the Daily News on Sunday claiming that he had been paid $40 000 dollars to smear the RBZ directors - Mirirai Chiremba, Norman Mataruka, Gresham Muradzikwa and Azvinandaa Saburi.In the first recorded voice message, Mutumanje also revealed seemingly nonchalantly that he had "sold his soul to the devil" by accepting the money - which he claimed he needed desperately to send his ailing father for treatment in India."Hi mukoma (brother), please get hold of me, I have been trying to get hold of you. Ndakakumbira sisi (I asked sister) Linda to get you through Tineyi, but no one is getting back to me."I need you kuti mundisvitsirewo message kuna mukoma K (Tagwirei). I have no way of getting through to him and you know I am very compromised at the moment. I can't even call him directly without compromising myself."From the bottom of my heart, and anyone who knows my heart and you know me, there is no way I would do this (smear people)," Mutumanje said in his intercepted first message, apparently meant for an associate of Tagwirei."I know I am even compromising myself by sending this audio note. It's just that I really need you to get the message to him. Please get hold of me. I need you to help me navigate myself out of this mess. It's an absolute mess. Very frightening, gory things are being plotted."How I found myself right in the middle - forget even the middle, in the front of it - is a myth to me. I know I am compromised," Mutumanje added."I know I had a problem and you know what my problem was and you know I asked for help. There wasn't anyone paying attention to my needs and in the end I think I sold myself to the devil to get it done and here we are, for nothing in return."I just want you to get the message kuna mukoma. You know there is no way people can be fired from the RBZ because of Lumumba. Are you serious?"Makazvitarisa imimi (looking at it) knowing this system you really think Lumumba is the reason why people were fired from RBZ," Mutumanje said.He also made it clear in the first voice recording that he had been used by politicians in the hatchet job, before making further astonishing claims that a war was about to erupt between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga."This fight is inevitable. There is a real fight starting between number one (Mnangagwa) and number two (Chiwenga)."If I am going to be useful, can I please be useful to people who are my friends and who will also look after my interests than for people who are simply using me like the way you use a condom ... you use it and throw it away. I hope you get back to me," Mutumanje said.Meanwhile, the former Zanu-PF youth league official posted a new message on his Facebook page yesterday, saying this time that he never received payment from Ncube."Let's set the record quickly, I have never received any money from @MthuliNcube, clearly Queen Bee has now set sights on destroying his image so he can be replaced with someone you can capture. Oh Queen Bee, I almost let you go, I really did, now PLEASE google cuddle death'," he said.The message was curious as he did not deny the substance of the Daily News on Sunday's story. In addition, his reference to not getting payment from Ncube was interesting, as the paper never made that claim. News / National by Staff reporter A gang of suspected armed robbers, who exchanged gun shots with police detectives in Waterfalls on Thursday last week, will appear in court today.The notorious gang was arrested after a shootout with detectives who were tracking them.Deputy National Police Spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the shooting incident and the arrest."The suspected criminals include, Godfrey Josi, 35, Austin Ncube, 27, Harmony Nyathi,29, Polite Madamombe ,34, Wisdom Tariro,22 were arrested after a shootout with detectives."On November 1, the detectives received information of the accused criminals who were involved in a spate of robberies in Harare."The detectives tracked them working on the information and came across them in Waterfalls area where they instructed them to stop."In the process they resisted and sped off using their gate-away Mercedes Benz."Added Ass Comm Nyathi:"As a result, there was a shootout where the suspects' car stopped and they were found with pistols, live rounds, explosives, detonator cables, registrations number plates of different cars, work suits, hammers, revolvers."However, Ass Comm Nyathi, further said the detectives arrested the two accused at the scene before arresting the other later after he had tried to escape."The other accused was found with 2 revolvers before the other two were arrested where they were found with whiskeys, which were part of the robbery in Ruwa."So they are clearing the robbery which occurred in Ruwa and Chitungwiza in October."Another one in Southlea Park and in the CBD where valuables worth $6 000 which are yet to be recovered."The suspects also robbed in Waterfalls and another one in Chivhu where they robbed US dollars, Rands and bond notes."Ass Comm Nyathi however, warned the criminals:"Police are sending a clear message to anyone who engages criminal acts that our officers are ready to effect the arrests to ensure that the law takes its course."We want to applaud members of the public who are cooperating in a bid to fight robbery cases."Meanwhile, the suspects are expected in court today after the investigating officer had applied for a warrant of further detention on Friday last week. News / National by Staff reporter The MDC Alliance has rallied its supporters in Matabeleland South Province to participate in planned mass protests meant force a constitutionally elected government to hand over power to the opposition party.This came out during the oppositions party's thank you rallies held at Dulubadzimu Stadium in Beitbridge and Phelandaba Stadium in Gwanda on Saturday and Sunday respectively.The rallies were also meant to mobilise support for the mass protests that the party is planning to stage before year end.Party leader, Nelson Chamisa said the demonstrations should culminate in President Emmerson Mnagagwa conceding power to the opposition which he alleges won the July 30 polls."I am here to seek your support. If you say we should take to the streets we will do that because I believe it is time that we claim our victory," he said.The call to stage mass protests comes as a commission of inquiry has been established to investigate the death of six people killed during post election demonstrations in Harare on 1 August.On the current state of the economy, the opposition leader told his supporters that he has the answers to the challenges facing the country.The rally was also attended by the party's Vice President, Professor Welshman Ncube, senior party leadership as well some defected members of the National People's Party who included Dzikamai Mavhaire. Opinion / Columnist A few days ago, Archbishop Paul Mwazha, the founder & leader of the African Apostolic Church was bestowed with rains of congratulatory messages from distinct churches and our entire body politic for becoming a centenarian on the 25th of October 2018. He joined the Gospel hall of fame, without exception to the fact that he broke world record for not only reaching 100 years but for becoming the first if not the only person of his age with a symbolic life, typical of the Biblical first generation, that manifested from the power of prayer & worshipping. Archbishop Paul Mwazha enjoys the goodwill of FAITH & OBEDIENCE to God which many of us fails to obtain throughout our lives due to spontaneity & naturalistic life of Man. At 100 years, contrarily, the Man of God has no aging complications.Having been born on the 25th of October 1918 at Chirumanzu district, Midlands province, Archbishop Mwazha gone through a despicable terrain before he established a Church. At first, something outlandish happened during his birth. The whole world was rocked by a deadly disease called influenza, which enamated from the poisonous bombs of the WW2, that killed millions of born babies and as such, Archbishop Mwazha succumbed to it and died. His mother being a devoted Catholic took the corpse to the prelate at Holly-Cross Mission for benediction so that it would be buried. Father Emilio Schmidt, a German prelate in charge of the temple performed the sacred rites on the corpse with the name Paul. The dead rose to life with a shrill cry and then the holy spirit engulfed the house of God. Filled with the majestic spirit of God, Father Schmidt exclaimed, "Son has been raised for work, son has been raised for work, son has been raised for work!"In that regard, Archbishop Paul Mwazha started the ministry of Christ at his tender age after the Lord Jesus appeared to him many a time. At some point, he heard God's calling in 1951 while doing teachers training at Howard Institute and then in 1957 again he heard the voice of God proclaiming, "the African Apostolic Church (VaApostora VeAfrica)," a Church he established 2 years later.Meanwhile, the Church commands a glaring following which is estimated above 7 million, with him as Archbishop, Chief Priest & Teacher (Mudzidzisi) per se followed by the Priesthood (His Sons), Bishops and Elders, to say the least. Everyday the church is growing like a mustard seed and signs are that soon it will conquer the hearts and minds of the massive citizenry to the extent of inhaling other denominations in Zimbabwe. Johanne Momberume, popularly known as Johanne Marange prophesied over this ministry, how it will gain traction over others in the country before the world comes to an End. To that effect, thousands of new converts continues to join the Church volitionally every Sabbath countrywide, and the numbers sprout rapidly in fulfilment to Johanne Marange's prophecy. With women commanding the highest number than men in relation to Cindy Jacobs, a Guatemalan prophetess' revelation to which she saw a flock of worshippers invading the land of Zimbabwe."An army of women with the Deborah anointing will march across the land. They will be like a net all over Zimbabwe with prayer. With a powerful anointing, the women first and men following," prophesied Jacobs.Undoubtedly, the African Apostolic Church is an unstoppable grouping which has a strong foundation (Jesus Christ) such that no amount of smear campaign nor witching will stand against it and win, NEVER. Its rank and file is intact, obdurate and invincible, the same with its chain of command. There is tremendous harmony in the church that ostensibly portray the presence of Christ who is the Prince of PEACE.HOW DID THE MISSION STARTED?"the mission is to preach the fundamentals of Jesus' name and the mysterious ways of salvation."While at Melisetta junction at Gudyanga in Manicaland province, God instructed Paul Mwazha to go unto the world preaching the importance of Jesus' name and testify the mysterious ways of His salvation, a task synonymous to the one Jesus commissioned to his disciplines at Pentecost before his ascent to heaven (Mark 16v15-).AMAZING TESTIMONIES.Wherever we go, people from all walks of life are attesting the great works of salvation which is revealing in Paul Mwazha of Africa in that some say he is no ordinary man whereas others testify that he is Celestial.Godwell Chikahadze of Mbeva village, Chivi district is one amongst many who bear witness to a perilous encounter where he saw Paul in his celestial being coming to rescue him from the jaws of a crocodile while fishing in Tokwe/Tugwi river this year. Upon facing death, he saw 3 men clad in white garments coming to assist him pull off his hand clawed by the vicious crocodile which had dragged and drowned him into the deep waters. Since he was in an unconscious mood, that is the only incident he could recall before he was repatriated and taken to a nearby clinic.By that time, Chikahamadze was a Catholic and as such he would not conscientize that Paul Mwazha was amongst the 3 Angelic saviours. Matters came to light when he saw some Apostolic Church members visiting patients (their relatives) at Chishave clinic where he was admitted, nursing from the crocodile attacks. He asked one about the church which dresses alike the 3 men he saw (visionary) saving him from the crocodile attacks and that's when he came to know the African Apostolic Church and its leader, whom he said was in the company of the 3 Angelic saviours.Not only Chikahamadze experienced the good works of our Lord Jesus Christ but Kefasi Tapesana, who is now Reverend in this church gave an account of how the power of God through Archbishop Paul Ernest Mwazha saved him from death after he inadvertently fell from a speeding bus. Its was an astonishing and fascinating incident to noting that Tapesana escaped unhurt despite falling on a tarred road. He neither endured contusion, concussion nor internal and external hemorrhage, to date, Reverend Tapesana is stronger than fiddle.Admire Museki of Rujeko A Masvingo concurred with his own account that which enticed him to join the African Apostolic Church in 2017. For so many years, Museki was living in a menace within which avenging spirits and goblins savaged him day and night. He had no job. He lived in a disparaging servitude full of great anguish, sorrow and misery. But one day he had a dream for which he saw, through the window, an aeroplane carrying armed personnel charging towards him. Museki knew exactly that the armed airmen were after his life but he had no cue over his life. He remained dejected and helpless as the aeroplane approached. Moments later, he heard his wife praying loudly saying, "The God of Paul Mwazha, help my husband!" She did that repeatedly until the aeroplane changed to a bird a few metres away before landing at the house they were sleeping. As his wife lauded her prayer fire caught up on the wings of the aeroplane-cum bird. It incinerated to ashes. The next day, Museki told his wife of the dream. He later accepted to partner his wife and became a member of the church. From that time, Museki experienced an overall transformation of life from despicable bondage to ultimate emancipation. Meanwhile, Admire Museki is a full qualified teacher at Binga primary school. The days of living in onerous environments are long gone, he now lives a happy man because he received Christ as his saviour and father through the Gospel preached by "Mudzidzisi". Opinion / Columnist Hon Prof Mthuli Ncube is Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Zimbabwe ON Friday afternoon of 2 November 2018, I visited Surface Wilmar based in Chitungwiza, Harare. The company is owned by one of the largest companies in the world in the production of edible oils, based in Singapore. The factory floors are most impressive and world class, and it was not lost to me that this was right in the middle of Chitungwiza.To see this modern plant operated by automated robotic systems, making it one of the most efficient companies in Africa in the edible oils sector, was uplifting, as the last time I have visited a robot-controlled factory was in Hyundai in South Korea a few years ago.The futuristic robotic systems controlled factor floors at Surface Wilmar are testimony to the aspirations of Vision 2030, and the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), that Zimbabwe can become the gateway to investment into Africa.Turning Zimbabwe into a gateway into Africa means establishing an Offshore Investment Centre with strong links to the Zimbabwe One-Stop-Investment Shop which processes investments. This needs to be seriously explored for Zimbabwe to continue to attract global investors such as Surface Wilmar from Singapore. This means all new foreign investment into Zimbabwe, going forward, could be registered in the Offshore Centre, giving foreign investors similar benefits as are enjoyed in centres such as Mauritius, Guernsey and Isle of Man.There are many reasons why Zimbabwe could be a successful gateway into Africa, through the Offshore Centre.First, Zimbabwe has a highly educated population with the requisite skills to service such an offshore centre. The competent crop of legal firms, accounting firms and other service providers can successfully provide the services needed to support the offshore centre.Second, Zimbabwe has a strong regulatory environment in the form of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, tax regulator (ZIMRA), securities regulators, among others. These regulators are already operating at global standards and are globally compliant in their approaches.Third, the multi-currency regime positions Zimbabwe as an ideal place for foreign investors to preserve their value in hard currency. Even, investors from neighbouring countries could find Zimbabwe very attractive in terms of value preservation, apart from the investments that Zimbabwe offers in the first place.Fourth, locally the Offshore Investment Centre could also help stem any unnecessary capital outflows out of Zimbabwe, as the country would be as good as any centre in the world for offshore investments.Fifth, while there is need to make more investments in Zimbabwe's infrastructure, the current infrastructure is very good by standards on the African continent, outside South Africa. Having traversed the whole of Africa, in the last 20 years, and when I was with the African Development Bank, I am convinced that Zimbabwe has very good infrastructure. This again makes the country an attractive location for an Offshore Investment Centre.Sixth, one of the benefits to be offered by the Offshore Investment Centre is a special low tax environment for any company that invests through it. ZIMRA has the capacity to administer this dual tax environment of offshore investors and domestic investors. ZIMRA is a member of Africa Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) which ensures that its systems, processes, capacity and capabilities are of world standards.Finally, Zimbabwe banks have the capacity to offer world class custodial services and administrators can equally offer administrative services, where they are required by foreign investors, in addition to the capacity offered by accounting firms and legal firms.Turning Zimbabwe into a gateway into Africa, means establishing such an Offshore Investment Centre. This vision means that investors would now come into Zimbabwe to access the entire opportunity in the region and the rest of Africa, and not just Zimbabwe.It is doable, and sends the right signal that Zimbabwe is truly open for business, even beyond its borders. Submitted By Sam Harper* Sam Harper is a writer and activist from New England, currently living in Newfoundland. The name is a pseudonym, as CBC has agreed to shield his identity to help protect his safety. I am terrified. I am a citizen by birth of the United States, an activist, a writer, a Boston Red Sox fan. I am also transgender. And as a transgender person, I'm terrified. I'm terrified because my country's government is proposing to erase my existence. We recently learned of the Trump administration's proposed definition of gender a proposal that would exclude trans people from federal recognition, and potentially many civil rights protections. This definition could have severe consequences. Under this definition, I could be denied access to the medication I need. I could be denied housing and work, and discriminated against legally based on the fact that my gender does not match the "F" on my passport. The current U.S. government might try to erase trans people, but I still believe in the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice. It is hard not to feel like my country is trying to betray me. Because hate crimes are on the rise on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, it's hard to feel safe anywhere. The signal that the Trump administration is sending in a country that supposedly stands for "liberty and justice for all," is that a large group of American citizens and a community of people all over the world deserve neither liberty nor justice. And while it's true that this is happening south of the Canadian border, it's all too likely that the Trump administration's actions will be another incitement to bullies everywhere. Finding light in the darkness But in this situation, I find myself searching for and finding some measure of light in this darkness. When I moved to St. John's three years ago, I was struck by how welcoming and inclusive this town was especially in comparison to the U.S. and the fact that my trans identity just didn't matter. Story continues People were more interested in what I had to offer as a member of this community than in how I presented my gender. Here was a safe spot for a young trans person to go to school, put down roots, and be able to focus on the parts of identity that don't centre around gender. And while there has been a rise of visible transphobia at Memorial University, in the form of stickers that have appeared in elevators and bathrooms, the community has pushed back, hard. A dedicated team of allies has rallied around us, and around the cause of human rights. Andrew Sampson/CBC These allies are our teachers, our friends, our family, our doctors. And we need them. And we need this community to stand by our sides, now more than ever. Attempting to erase a category of people based on gender identity is not a trans rights issue. It's not a liberal issue or a conservative issue. It is a human rights issue. But we and when I say we, I mean all of us, everywhere, with a shred of human decency will continue to fight against bigotry, a fight that began long before the Trump administration. We take inspiration from past struggles, and continue to hold fast to the long-shared ideals of fairness, justice and liberty for all. I know my country has not always lived up to those, but they are ideals worth striving toward. Bending toward justice So yes, I am terrified. And I am mad as hell. But I am also inspired. I am strengthened, every day, by wonderful allies. The current United States government might try to erase trans people, but I still believe in the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice. We're all just going to have to muster all the strength we have and push harder on that arc to hurry it along. Read more articles from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador By Anthony Boadle and Gram Slattery BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - For Brazil's right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, attacking critical press outlets almost daily on social media is not enough. Once in office, he vows to hit their bottom line. With half a billion dollars in public-sector marketing budgets coming under his discretion, the fiery former Army captain is threatening to slash ad buys with adversarial media groups, striking at the financial foundations of Brazil's free press. After a campaign in which Bolsonaro dismissed investigative reporting as "fake news" invented by a corrupt establishment and his supporters went after individual journalists, the threats are sending a chill through the country's newsrooms. Asked in a TV interview last week if he would respect press freedom even for his favorite foil, newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil's largest circulation daily, Bolsonaro's answer was curt. "That newspaper is done," Bolsonaro said in a tense TV Globo interview. "As far as I'm concerned with government advertising press that acts like that, lying shamelessly, won't have any support from the federal government." While public funds are just a fraction of revenue at most major media groups, the prospect of a president out to punish unfriendly coverage has put many reporters on edge. Several seasoned journalists working for Brazil's biggest news organizations told Reuters in recent weeks they have started to throttle back their criticism, fearing backlash from a Bolsonaro government and violence from his supporters. Brazilian press watchdogs said there has been an escalation of threats and aggression against reporters. Investigative journalism group Abraji began tracking the incidents in Brazil's most polarized election since the return to democratic government in 1985 after two decades of military dictatorship. Most of the attacks on journalists were by Bolsonaro supporters, according to Abraji, which recorded more than 150 cases of campaign reporters coming under threat. Roughly half involved physical violence and the rest were online hate campaigns. "Treating the press as an antagonist is not a new tactic, but the aggressive tone and frequency of Bolsonaro's attacks are very worrying," said the group's coordinator, Marina Atoji. Bolsonaro's supporters said the Brazilian media has a leftist bias and they have turned to social media for news about him. "The worst thing was they tried to crucify Bolsonaro for his controversial statements on women, gays and blacks," said Emilio Kerber, an Air Force major who ran for Congress in Bolsonaro's small coalition. "But Bolsonaro has millions of followers on social media and he won anyway." Press aides for Bolsonaro did not respond to a request for comment. The president-elect has disavowed any supporters who resort to violence. He said he respects freedom of the press and only asks that it be exercised responsibly. PRICE TO PAY In Folha's newsroom, the sense of siege is palpable. Executive Editor Sergio Davila said in an interview the paper has taken security measures to protect its reporters after a social media barrage by Bolsonaro supporters over reporting on his campaign's use of messaging platform WhatsApp. "This is the most tense recent election, because the massive use of social media has meant journalists are more exposed to the supporters of the candidates," he said. "Bolsonaro voters are particularly active on social media," Davila said, adding that he had never seen such vitriol directed at individual journalists over specific stories. After his victory on Sunday, Bolsonaro said media groups that spread lies will miss out on federal government advertising, which totaled 1.8 billion reais ($487 million) in 2017, including ads by state enterprises. TV Globo, which has long dominated Brazilian media and shaped public debate with its vast audience, receives less than 4 percent of its annual revenue from government funding, the group said in a statement. Folha said public-sector advertising was less than 5 percent of revenue. OPPORTUNITY Still, many smaller media groups have embraced Bolsonaro with friendly interviews and less aggressive coverage. That has stoked tensions at some outlets. At Radio Guaiba in the city of Porto Alegre, veteran broadcaster Juremir Machado walked out of the studio on the air for what he called censorship at the end of an interview with Bolsonaro. He said he was not allowed to ask any questions and quit the program. After billionaire media mogul and preacher Edir Macedo threw his support behind Bolsonaro, his Record TV network increased coverage of the right-winger's rallies. It stepped up criticism of leftist challenger Fernando Haddad and played up stories of corruption in his Workers Party, said one former employee, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. Grupo Record did not respond to a request for comment. Its network raised eyebrows three days before the first-round vote by broadcasting an exclusive interview with Bolsonaro at the very same time of a presidential debate on rival channel TV Globo that the candidate declined to attend for medical reasons. That night, the Record TV newscast had its best audience of the year to date. Other outlets are finding there is an audience for more aggressive coverage. Davila, the Folha editor, said in recent weeks the paper has seen a spike in subscriptions. "It wasn't something we asked for. It wasn't a campaign organized by the newspaper," Davila said. "They basically said: 'Folha does critical journalism. Bolsonaro is attacking Folha. I'm going to subscribe to Folha out of solidarity.'" (Reporting by Anthony Boadle in Brasilia and Gram Slattery in Sao Paulo; Additional reporting by Brad Brooks; Editing by Brad Haynes and Lisa Shumaker) The Indonesian city of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, declared a state of emergency after flash floods hit seven districts in the city on Friday, November 2, killing two children, authorities said. The deluge also washed away three houses, two bridges and left approximately 1,400 houses flood damaged, said Sutopo Puwo Nugroho, spokesman of the National Disaster Management Agency. The flood was the worst in the past four decades, a resident told the news site Kompas. Credit: Anizar via Storyful Those making the case for Calgary to host the 2026 Winter Games are about to get a boost from the unlikely star of the 1988 Olympics. By mid-afternoon Sunday, British ski jumper "Eddie 'the Eagle" Edwards was set to land in Calgary, with Team Canada athletes Michelle Salt, Valerie Maltais and Jordan Belchos welcoming him at the airport. He'll be joining some of his fellow Olympians, as well as 1988 mascots Hidy and Howdy, at a Yes Calgary 2026 rally to share stories and promote the bid at noon on Monday. Canadian Olympians expected to attend include gold-medal sprinter Donovan Bailey and multi-medal-winning hockey player Cassie Campbell-Pascall. Ice dancing duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who won gold at this year's Winter Olympics, are to make an appearance by video. Bob Thomas/Getty Images Michael Edwards was the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping. His underdog story made him a crowd favourite and won the hearts of fans worldwide. In 2016, a biopic depicted his determined efforts to compete. "I hope they do go for another Olympics and I hope they win the bid because I think the Calgary Olympics were the best Olympics. And if they can have the Olympics again, I think it will be even better. I might even jump, you never know," Edwards told CBC News at WinSport last year, 30 years after he finished dead last in the 70- and 90-metre events. Calgarians will vote in a non-binding plebiscite on Nov. 13 to determine the bid's future, with advance polls open on Tuesday and Wednesday. LIVE EVENT: CBC Calgary Olympic Games Plebiscite Town Hall If you live in Calgary, find out what you need to know before you cast your vote in the Nov. 13 plebiscite by tuning in to the CBC Calgary Olympic Games Plebiscite Town Hall. Featuring a knowledgeable panel and hosted by the Calgary Eyeopener's David Gray, we will hear from both sides and take questions from the audience. Panellists include: Calgary 2026 CEO Mary Moran. Yes Calgary 2026 organizer Jason Ribeiro. Coun. Evan Woolley, chair of city council's Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games assessment committee. Economist Trevor Tombe. It'll take place at Calgary's new Central Library (800 3rd St. S.E.) on Wednesday, Nov. 7, starting at 6 p.m. All of the reserved tickets have been claimed, although there will be rush seating available at 6:15 p.m. as capacity allows. Story continues Didn't get a ticket? Never fear, you can tune in by: BEIRUT (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded near a military position in Syria's Raqqa on Sunday, local authorities and a war monitor said, and Islamic State group said it was behind the blast. The blast came a day after the assassination of a local council leader in the city, the former Syrian capital of the militant group's self-declared caliphate, which was seized a year ago by U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters. Raqqa security forces said a civilian had been killed and several people, including civilians and fighters injured. The war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the blast caused "a large number" of casualties. Islamic State said in a statement that it had detonated the bomb, targeting fighters from the Kurdish YPG militia, the strongest element in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) group that drove the militants from Raqqa last year. The SDF is battling Islamic State fighters in one of their last patches of territory in Syria, along the north bank of the Euphrates river close to the Iraqi border. The militants took advantage of bad weather on Sunday to attack SDF positions, killing a dozen fighters, the Observatory reported. Syrian state television reported on Sunday that the Syrian army was assaulting the jihadists' other remaining pocket of ground in the desert area in Sweida province in southern Syria. (Reporting by Angus McDowall; Editing by Adrian Croft) A made-in-Toronto project that began as "a small gesture of hospitality" for Syrian refugee families is hoping to expand its reach across the city this month. The Newcomer Kitchen, a take-out food service run out of a commercial culinary space in Dufferin Grove, has partnered with three organizations to bring homemade Syrian meals to more neighbourhoods. "Since the beginning, it really felt like this idea was much bigger than just this one room," said Len Senater, who co-founded the non-profit organization in 2016. Senater is also the owner and proprietor of The Depanneur, a popular breakfast and lunch spot on College Street that provides the space and logistical support for Newcomer Kitchen. Every Wednesday, between six and eight Syrian refugees prepare 50 traditional meals that are made available for pickup to anyone with an appetite. The meals can also be delivered for free through Foodora, though only within three kilometres of The Depanneur. Cooks from 80 different families take turns each week, and the money earned goes back to the women who prepared the meals. To date, Senater estimates the program has put provided up to $120,000 for the families who participated so far. For the first time this month, the meals will be available for pickup or delivery from three other locations spread across Toronto. The Centre for Social Innovation Annex, Paintbox Bistro in Regent Park and The 519 in the Church-Wellesley area will each be a pickup spot for the meals. The idea is that the new locations will help expose more neighbourhoods to the program and allow more people than ever to enjoy real Syrian food. The partnerships are meant to serve as a "proof of concept" that could serve as a model for similar initiatives. "It's intended to be a model for any newcomer community, in any kitchen willing to open its doors, in any city of the world," Senater explained in an interview on Sunday. For now, all the prep work and cooking will still be done at The Depanneur because of the immense logistical challenges involved in preparing 50 meals. Story continues The partnerships are set to run through December, though Senater hopes it will become a more permanent feature of Newcomer Kitchen. They could also prove essential to the longevity of the project itself. Financing a constant 'struggle' The Depanneur faces a 60 per cent rent hike at the end of the year, according to Senater. The financial reality of that sudden increase has put the future viability of the whole initiative at risk. "It's been a real struggle to keep afloat already," Senater said. Part of the motivation for rotating meal pickups to the other locations is so Senater and his staff at The Depanneur can use the kitchen space on Wednesdays for events that generate revenue. At this point, every dollar earned is critical, he said. Newcomer Kitchen depends almost entirely on crowdfunding campaigns, fundraising drives and sponsorships. "It's gotten a lot of national and international attention, but it's yet to receive any sort of official funding in any way," Senater said. Len Senater/Facebook Securing a consistent source of money was the impetus behind incorporating as a non-profit. But finding funding has proven to be more elusive than anyone thought. "I had imagined it would be more straightforward given the obvious win-win of this idea," said Senater. Navigating the bureaucracy has become like a full-time job, he added. "The large print giveth, and the fine print taketh away," he joked. For the complete list of locations and dates for meal pickups, click here. By Roberta Rampton, Julia Harte and Ned Parker CLEVELAND (Reuters) - For many Americans, Tuesday's congressional midterm elections are a referendum on Republican President Donald Trumps divisive persona, hard-line policies and pugnacious politics. But on the eve of the election, in a packed airport hangar in Cleveland and at other Trump rallies across the nation, the stakes are different: a vote to protect a leader they see as under siege, whose inflammatory rhetoric is a necessary price for a norm-shattering era of change. "You think we're letting that caravan come into this country?" Trump asked the crowd on Monday, referring to a group of Central American migrants moving through Mexico toward the U.S. border. "No!" his supporters shouted. At rallies overflowing with red-hatted, mostly white supporters in conservative pockets of the country, those backing Trump say they hope to make his ideas the dominant force in American political life for decades to come. They face strong headwinds. Nationally, about 52 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump's performance. More people say they would vote for a Democratic candidate than a Republican in Tuesday's congressional elections, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows. But pro-Trump Republicans are eager to defy expectations, just as the president did with his 2016 victory. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, pro-Trump activist Ben Hirschmann, 23, sees Tuesday's elections as decisive for Trumps vision of America. Trumps not on the ballot, but he is on the ballot," he said at a phone-bank event to get out the vote at the local Republican headquarters. "Everything we voted for in 2016 is on the line in 2018. 'NOW WE'RE LIVING GOOD' Trump embarked on a three-state tour in the Midwest on Monday, holding rallies in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri. He has a clear strategy: drive Republican turnout by painting a dark, apocalyptic vision of life in America under Democrats, while fanning fears over illegal immigration. He casts his rivals as an angry, liberal and dangerous "mob" and plays up gains in the economy. "Democrats produce mobs. Republicans produce jobs," Trump said in Cleveland, repeating a familiar line from his rallies. But as the frequency of his speeches and rallies increases, so too have his distortions and falsehoods, according to the Washington Post's "Fact Checker" database. In the seven weeks before Tuesday's elections, Trump averaged 30 false or misleading claims a day, up from an average of five a day during his first nine months in office. Trump frequently denies that he misleads the public and instead blames the media for what he describes as distortions of his words. It is unclear whether Trump's campaign strategy will work. Republicans are expected to keep control of the Senate. But Democrats are widely favored to win the 23 seats they need to assume control of the House of Representatives. The Republican Party is defending dozens of seats in largely suburban districts where Trumps popularity has languished and Democrats have performed well in presidential races. Trump's rallies have focused mostly on Senate and gubernatorial battles in states he won in the 2016 White House race from Florida and Missouri to West Virginia and Ohio. A Trump adviser, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters: These are places where data and polling information tells us that the president is of best use. At a rally in Johnson City, Tennessee, in early October, Jessica Lotz, 33, and her fiance, Chad Lavery, 49, said Trumps immigration policies resonated with them. During the 2008 economic downturn, Lotz and Lavery said they saw construction, landscaping and house-painting jobs go to illegal immigrants while they struggled financially. As the economy rebounded, so, too, did their fortunes. Now we're living good, Lavery said, crediting their ability to find work and better wages to Trump, who inherited an economy that was already in one of its longest recoveries and gave it an additional boost with tax cuts. 'FRUSTRATED' After a Trump rally in September in Springfield, Missouri, pro-Trump activist Brenda Webb, 64, sat for a late dinner at a restaurant with five friends who had driven to the rally from the St. Louis suburbs. Webb and her friends had joined protests against Democratic then-President Barack Obama in St. Louis in 2009 that were part of a broader conservativeTea Party movement centered on calls for smaller government, lower taxes and fewer regulations. But the energy fizzled, she said. The group became animated talking about how Trump had given new focus to those early Tea Party goals of reclaiming government for ordinary citizens, not just the "elites" in Washington. We feel like he's working to resolve all the problems that we are so frustrated by, Webb said. At the Springfield rally, Brian Whorton, who drove a few hours to see the president, said he voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012 before becoming a Republican. "I was not politically aware and awake. I thought, 'Oh he's cool and he's a good speaker and an African-American guy,'" said Whorton, who is white. Trumps policies, he said, were making a difference for him: He said his manager at an aluminum electrical wire factory had credited Trump tariffs with raising their profits. "He is putting people back to work," said retired postal worker Barbara Peacock, 58, as she leafed through Trump 2020 re-election merchandise at his rally in Macon, Georgia, on Sunday. "He is telling it like it is." In Ohio, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Mandi Merritt referred to pro-Trump enthusiasts as a grassroots army that could be harnessed and dispatched to boost Republican voter turnout. On a sunny day in October, Trump supporter Kimmy Kolkovich, 46, joined a friend on the sidewalk at a busy intersection near the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus to urge people to register and vote. Even if Im registering people who are going to vote for the other party, theyre seeing us out here in our hats, and thats whats important, all the little interactions and conversations were having, Kolkovich said. For all Reuters election coverage, see: https://www.reuters.com/politics/election2018 (Reporting by Roberta Rampton in Cleveland, Ohio; Maria Caspani and Steve Holland in Macon, Georgia; Julia Harte in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio; and Ned Parker in Springfield, Missouri, and Johnson City, Tennessee; Editing by Jason Szep, Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney) The United States snapped sanctions back in place on Monday to choke Iran's oil and shipping industries, while temporarily allowing top customers such as China and India to keep buying crude from the Islamic Republic. Having abandoned a 2015 Iran nuclear deal, U.S President Donald Trump is trying to cripple Iran's oil-dependent economy and force Tehran to quash not only its nuclear ambitions and ballistic missile program but also support for militant proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East. Earlier, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would continue to sell its oil despite Washington's "economic war." Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said U.S. "bullying" was backfiring by making Washington more isolated. Washington has pledged to eventually halt all purchases of crude oil from Iran globally but for now it said eight countries China, India, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Greece, Taiwan and Turkey can continue imports without penalty. Crude exports contribute one-third of Iran's government revenues. "More than 20 importing nations have zeroed out their imports of crude oil already, taking more than one million barrels of crude per day off the market," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters in a briefing. "The regime to date since May has lost over $2.5 billion in oil revenue." Pompeo said the waivers were issued to countries that have already cut purchases of Iranian crude over the past six months, and to "ensure a well-supplied oil market." The exceptions are designed to last 180 days. Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images Trump said he wanted to go slow on the sanctions, citing concerns about causing global price spikes. "I could get the Iran oil down to zero immediately but it would cause a shock to the market. I don't want to lift oil prices," he told reporters before flying to a campaign event. Iran's exports peaked at 2.8 million barrels per day in April, including 300,000 barrels per day of condensate, a lighter form of oil. Overall exports have since fallen to 1.8 million barrels per day, according to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, which expects volumes to drop to 1 million barrels per day. Story continues Oil prices in October rallied above $85 per barrel on fears of a steep decline in Iranian exports. Prices have fallen since then on expectations that some buyers would receive exemptions and as supply from other big producers has increased. Ellen Wald, an oil analyst and fellow at the Atlantic Council, said the impact on global oil prices should be "blunted" for the 180-day length of the waivers to the eight countries. The Trump administration hopes more oil production will come next year from Iraq and from a so-called neutral zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, if a dispute between the two countries over the zone is resolved. Increased output In addition, U.S. oil output hit a record high this year of about 11.3 million barrels, and sustained high output could reduce the impact of sanctions. On Monday, international benchmark Brent crude oil futures erased earlier gains to trade at $72.85 a barrel while U.S. crude futures fell 0.4 per cent to $62.87. Oil markets have been anticipating the sanctions for months and the world's biggest producers have been increasing output. Mark Humphrey/Associated Press Joint output from the world's top producers Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia in October rose above 33 million barrels per day for the first time, up 10 million barrels per day since 2010. U.S. officials have said the countries given temporary exemptions will deposit revenue in escrow accounts for Tehran to use solely for humanitarian purposes. The sanctions also cover 50 Iranian banks and subsidiaries, more than 200 people and vessels in its shipping sector, Tehran's national airline, Iran Air, and more than 65 of its aircraft, a U.S. Treasury statement said. "We've said for a long time: Zero should mean zero," John Bolton, White House national security adviser told Fox Business Network in an interview. "These are not permanent waivers no way, we're going to do everything we can to squeeze Iran hard." Now, lets start this article with an allegory. Imagine that theres a single woman or man, who is a member of your church and a close friend. They have a strong desire to be married and to start a family, but the right person just hasnt come along. By all accounts, they are godly, and you know they would make a great companion and parent. One day, you find out that they are dating someone. Great! When you ask them about it, you realise that they are dating someone who does not follow Jesus. They know very well that this is not ideal, but they are tired of waiting for a partner and determined to continue their relationship. So heres an interesting thought: why are we, as Christians, worried about our friends circumstances? And why is it seemingly okay for us to worry, when the rest of contemporary society would accuse us of being nosy and being too involved in someone elses business? My preliminary thoughts are: its because Gods mission is to save a collective people and not individualised persons. This means that Christian living isnt a me, myself and I thing, but rather, it involves looking out for the collective and ensuring that we are all growing in the Gospel together. Being part of a people and a household All too often, I think of my Christian walk as a me, myself and I thing. I worry about things like: How can I address my sins? What should I be doing to honour the Gospel? How is my relationship with Jesus? However, by focusing on me, myself and I, I often forget the reality that my salvation is played out within Gods wider mission I am one of many who are saved by the Gospel. Ephesians, chapter 2, really helps illustrate this idea. In verses 11 to 22, Paul speaks to those who have been saved by the Gospel. He describes them with words such as citizens with Gods people and members of a household. These words refer to a collective group of people and not individuals. So, what does this mean? So how is this different from the me, myself and I view of Christianity? In 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 14 to 18, Paul instructs a group of Christians to not associate with the ways of the unbelievers. At this point, its easy to think that doing this is a me, myself and I thing. Once again, I could think along the lines of: How can I address my sins? How is my relationship with Jesus? How am I living like an unbeliever? However, 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 12 to 30, makes it clear that we dont have to fight those battles and work out those questions alone. Instead, Paul says that we are all individualised parts (hands, feet, ears and eyes) who collectively become one body. On being part of this body means that no single part is able to say to the other, I dont need you. Instead, each part is indispensable, having equal concern for each other. Pauls says that if one individual part of this body suffers, or is facing the temptations of sin, then we will all suffer. Paul says that if one individual part rejoices in the Gospel, and is honoured for their works in the Gospel, then every part of the collective body will benefit and rejoice. Looking at the passages above, we realise that being saved as a people comes as both a challenge and an encouragement. The challenge? As mentioned in 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 14 and 18, we are called to flee from darkness, to not live like an unbeliever, and to submit to, obey and reflect Jesus. The encouragement? Well, there are really two encouragements. First, we know that we are Gods people people that he has specifically chosen to love and committed to loving. And second, knowing that were all in this together. With this in mind, I am willing to care about my friends relationship with a non-Christian, and I would not be considered nosy within the Church context, because God tells us as Christians that were all in this together and its our responsibility to ensure that were all collectively growing in the Gospel. Jia Pan Xiao attends GracePoint Chinese Presbyterian Church and is an employment lawyer working in Sydney. In his spare time, Jia Pan enjoys watching American sports, drinking coffee and devouring chocolate mud-cake. Jia Pan Xiao's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/jia-pan-xiao.html MONDAY, Nov. 5, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Some bystanders may avoid performing CPR on women because they fear hurting them, or even being accused of sexual assault, preliminary research suggests. In two new studies, researchers tried to dig deeper into a puzzling pattern that has been seen in past research: Women are less likely than men to receive bystander CPR if they go into cardiac arrest in a public place. One study confirmed that real-world phenomenon in a controlled setting: It found that even in "virtual reality" simulations, participants were less likely to perform CPR when the virtual victim was female, versus male. People performed CPR on 65 percent of male victims, but only 54 percent of females. A separate study, which surveyed 54 adults, turned up some possible explanations. Respondents said bystanders may worry about hurting a woman while doing CPR chest compressions -- or fear being accused of sexual assault. Some said people also might believe women's breasts get in the way of CPR. The respondents also cited a long-standing misconception: Women are less likely to have heart problems than men. But the reality is that heart disease is the leading killer of U.S. women and men alike, according to government figures. And when cardiac arrest strikes, CPR can be lifesaving, regardless of sex, said Dr. Sarah Perman, who led the survey. People in cardiac arrest need immediate chest compressions, said Perman, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver. "Providing this lifesaving procedure for women should be normalized, and not sexualized," she said. In the United States, more than 356,000 people suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital each year. Only about 11 percent survive, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Survival is dismal because without emergency treatment, cardiac arrest is fatal within minutes. But quick CPR can double or triple survival odds, the AHA says. Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops beating and cannot pump blood and oxygen to the body. If a bystander performs CPR, that keeps the victim's blood circulating, buying time until paramedics arrive. Cardiac arrest is not a heart attack, which is caused by an artery blockage that diminishes blood flow to the heart. "There is still a lot of misunderstanding about cardiac arrest and CPR," said Dr. Aaron Donoghue of the AHA and the University of Pennsylvania. Men and women benefit equally from CPR chest compressions, Donoghue said, adding that the notion that it could injure women is "false." As for fears of being accused of sexual assault, Donoghue noted that chest compressions are performed on the breastbone (also called the sternum, it's the long flat bone in the center of the chest) -- not the breasts. "It would be terrible for that fear to deter a would-be rescuer from performing CPR," said Donoghue, who was not involved in the new studies. "Doing nothing is always worse than doing something," he added. For its pilot study, Perman's team surveyed 54 U.S. adults. Participants were asked: "Do you have any ideas on why women may be less likely to receive CPR than men when they collapse in public?" Their answers reflect their personal perceptions, Donoghue pointed out. So, he said, it's hard to know whether witnesses to cardiac arrest really do act on such beliefs in the real world. Perman agreed, saying more research is needed to understand why women are less likely to receive CPR. She and her colleagues have already conducted a larger survey, she said, but the results have not been published yet. For now, Donoghue suggested people educate themselves about cardiac arrest and CPR. The AHA website is one place to start, he said. Both studies are scheduled for presentation Nov. 10 at an AHA meeting, in Chicago. Research presented at meetings is typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. More information The American Heart Association has guidance on performing CPR. Shimla Decks have been cleared for the construction of a new township at Jathia Devi near Shimla as a Singapore-based company has agreed to execute the project following a two-day meeting held with state government officials in Chandigarh recently. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) order imposing height restriction on buildings had put a question mark on this ambitious project but now the company executing the project has agreed to make construction according to the norms fixed by the tribunal. The satellite town at Jathia Devi has been proposed to decongest Shimla, which is bursting at seams with a steep rise in population, thus putting heavy burden on the existing infrastructure. The 2021 vision document on Shimla prepared by the town and country planning department says that heavy population and unplanned construction have a direct bearing on the limited resources available and greenery of the tourist town. According to sources, compared to the earlier proposal now the number of flats has been reduced to half as the NGT has restricted the height of buildings to two-and-half storeys but still the company has agreed to start the construction in the next four months. Following the NGT order, the company was reluctant to execute the project coming up near Jubbarhatti airport Shimla but a couple of days back Urban development minister Sarveen Chaudhary, along with principal secretary (urban development) Prabodh Saxena and other officials, held a two-day meeting with company officials. Sources said that following this meeting, company officials had agreed to start the construction from February next year. It was on February 27, last year, that the state government-run Himachal Urban Development Agency (Himuda) had signed an MoU with Singapore Cooperation Enterprises of the Singapore government to build a modern township at Jathia Devi. Earlier in March this year, a delegation of Singapore Cooperation Enterprises led by its director Evan Cheah and Dr Naseem and his team members from Mienhardt Company had met Sarveen Chaudhary to discuss the implementation strategies of the housing project. During this meeting Sarveen had stated that the modern integrated township at Jathia Devi was an important project of Himuda being set up with support of Singapore government. Source: Economic Times, Shimla , 5 : , 20 - Bangladesh and India: Saline land will drive people out of Sundarbans by Manipadma Jena November 05,2018 | Source: India Climate Dialogue The rise in sea levels due to climate change is likely to turn the soil more saline in large parts of the Sundarbans region in India and Bangladesh, making cultivation unviable and forcing mass migration. Increased soil salinity due to climate change-induced rises in sea levels is likely to force hundreds of thousands of coastal residents to migrate to inland areas in Bangladesh and India, particularly those living in and around the Sundarbans, the worlds largest mangrove forest in the Gangetic delta. In Bangladesh alone, nearly 200,000 people living in coastal areas may be forced to migrate to inland areas in search of alternate livelihoods, according to a study from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). In approximately 120 years, worlds coastal areas, currently home to 1.3 billion people, are likely to be inundated by the rise in sea levels. Bangladesh is under severe threat of future submergence, but studies show the migratory mobility from flooding is likely to be minimal, as most farmers have already adapted their cultivation practices to cope with changes in the frequency and intensity of flooding in this deltaic region. However, given changes in the amplitude and frequency of sea level extremes, exacerbated by the still poor availability of high-saline tolerant crop varieties, increased soil salinity from rising seas will push nearly 200,000 to migrate from their coastal homes in Bangladesh, says the study Coastal Climate Change, Soil Salinity, and Human Migration in Bangladesh released last week. Our study shows increased soil salinity will push nearly 140,000 coastal residents to migrate to another location within their district, and nearly 60,000 would move to alternate districts, said co-author Valerie Mueller, Assistant Professor at Arizona State University. In the Indian Sundarbans, not addressed by the IFPRI study, the future may not be much better. Sea-level rise combined with land subsidence has salt-contaminated farm lands to such an extent that already farming in low-lying islands is becoming unviable, Tuhin Ghosh, Associate Professor at Jadavpur Universitys School of Oceanographic Studies in Kolkata, told indiaclimatedialogue.net. Farmers are cultivating just enough for families needs, and they are trying to do it by themselves in order to cut costs. Consequently as availability of daily wage farm work has fallen, migration has increased, especially from high agricultural dependent areas that remain most sensitive to salt contamination and erosion of soil, he said. The IFPRI study shows most migrants are likely to move to Dhaka, Bangladeshs capital, or onward to neighbouring districts in the coastal region but few will move north while international migration too will fall. Only those with greater financial, human or social capital may take the giant step to move internationally. It is increased aquaculture production in the coast, already underway, which will bring more job opportunities, reducing international migration. So, people that would normally migrate abroad might be staying to take jobs that were made available by aquaculture production. Also, poorer households affected by the changes may have less money available for more expensive international migration, said Joyce Chen, the other study author from Ohio State University. As soil salinity increases from low to high levels, we (will) see a nearly 57% increase in share of earnings from aquaculture, said Mueller. Trapped population For most households, however, the prohibitive costs associated with converting cropland to fish ponds deter diversification into aquaculture. The IFPRI study shows while 60,000 would move to alternate districts, the majority can only migrate to another location within their district, leaving them still vulnerable to sea-level rise in the long run. Financial constraints limit poor households from moving over longer distances, signalling a trapped population, raising concerns that the most vulnerable households may be the least resilient in the face of climate change, said Chen. Three of Bangladeshs five largest cities are in the saline belt. Chittagong and Khulna districts are likely to witness highest intra-district migration, estimated between 15,000 and 30,000 migrants per year. These two districts contain the second and third largest cities in the country. Distress migration The highest migration from Indian Sundarbans is among men in the age group of 25-35. Their first destination is often to peri-urban areas for work in the service sector, as food delivery boys on 2-wheelers for online food ordering and delivery companies, security guards and rickshaw pullers. Subsequently, many branch off to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and increasingly to the Andaman Islands to work in the construction and brick-making sectors, according to Ghosh, who is leading an on-going qualitative study on migration. During part of the year they work outside, men in 2017 remitted anything between INR 5,200 to INR 7,500 (USD 71-102) every month, while women sent an average of INR 4,000 (USD 55), according to the Indian Sundarbans study. With the governments subsidised rice given under multiple schemes and remittances, families, usually older parents, wives and children left behind in Sundarbans, are now able to survive, Ghosh said. However stronger scientific data on salinity would substantially assist planned migration and other adaptive capacities, Food security at risk While it is true that the migrants will have to buy their own staple foods, it is possible that their earning potential may be greater in (migrant) receiving areas than had they stayed in staple crop production, Mueller told indiaclimatedialogue.net via email. On the one hand, farmers who switch from rice to fish production will likely benefit in the form of increased income. As farmers become richer, their demands for goods and services grow. The added demand for goods and services could encourage others to engage in the non-farm sector to provide those goods and services. In other words, the job creation could improve the income opportunities and purchasing power of those that remain behind. However, more research is needed to measure how food security changes among those who move and stay, before and after the move, Mueller said. A two-pronged approach will be necessary to address this growing concern (of migration), Mueller points out. This holds true of the Sundarbans on both sides of the international border between India and Bangladesh. According to Mueller, governments may need to incentivise families that live in these key vulnerable areas to relocate, especially to detract movement away from population-dense areas, like Chittagong and Khulna. Secondly, policymakers may adopt more forward-looking development strategies to take advantage of the surplus labour provided by the coastal areas to promote modern economic activities, like manufacturing, in less populated areas. Such industries located in secondary towns can sustain job growth as more and more migrants reach these targeted locations. The IFPRI researchers point out that infrastructure projects such as embankments and polders may have more limited success in future in these deltaic regions as saline contamination increases pressure to increase aquaculture which, in turn, increases the demand for brackish water. Many instances in recent years have already been recorded here of shrimp farmers surreptitiously breaking earthen barricades of rice farms to let in fresh tidal waters. In other places, holes are drilled through protective embankments to pipe in saline water into fishponds. Embankment weakening and salt leaching are now common issues for local conflicts in these regions. Tamil Nadu: Ennore Victory: MoEF rejects KPL's projects on Eastern bank of Ennore Creek November 05,2018 | Source: Coastal Protection Group Ennore Fishers scored an important victory after the MoEFCC Rejected the Kamarajar Ports proposal to locate port facilities on the eastern banks of the Kosasthalaiyars backwaters in Ennore Creek. The fisherfolk however said their battle to declare all of Ennore Creek off limits for industrial projects will intensify. The port had planned to develop facilities like office, commercial buildings and parking terminals on the eastern part of the ecologically fragile intertidal salt pans. Environmental and CRZ Clearance accorded to Kamarajar Port for its Phase III expansion dated 30th October 2018 ordered to relocate these facilities. The environment ministry ruled, The water bodies and wetlands are more important than the development activity. However, the union ministry has allowed Kamarajar Port to construct facilities like coal yards on the western part of the Ennore wetlands. The expert appraisal committee that recommended the expansion appraised the project based on Draft Coastal Zone Management Plans prepared in 2018 instead of using the approved 1996 plans. These draft maps do not accurately show the extent of the wetlands. The river does not only expand to the eastern floodplains. We have been asking for the draft maps to be corrected, and drawn in line with the natural state of the river. We have not seen the final maps said R.L. Srinivasan from Kaatukuppam, a key stakeholder village in Ennore Creek. Over the last two decades, Ennore Creek has lost more than 1000 acres of its wetland expanse. The main demand of the fisherfolk is that no more of the wetlands here must be diverted for any purpose. Our life, livelihood and security depend on it. It is good news that the eastern side has been protected. We will not allow for the western side construction. said D. Selvaraj, a fisher elder from the Ennore Anaithu Meenava Grama Kootamaipu. World News: Empowering, counting and hearing women: GAF7 showcases gender equality progress and challenges by Kate Bevitt Emerging research methods and unique technologies that empower and benefit women, alongside women fishworkers organisations around the world, are helping to close the gender gap in fisheries and aquaculture. But more still needs to be done to ensure that women are heard, counted and empowered in local to international policy and decision-making arenas. These were the key themes that emerged from Expanding the Horizons, the 7th Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries conference in Bangkok on 18-21 October 2018, which brought together around 150 experts, researchers and practitioners to discuss strategies to enhance gender inclusiveness and equality. Turning MeToo into WeToo in aquaculture and fisheries The seafood industry doesnt work if theres no women, just like it doesnt work if theres no fish. The world needs seafood to feed, and the industry needs women to make it happen, said Dr. Darian McBain, Global Director for Sustainable Development, Thai Union, in her keynote address. This set a vibrant yet serious mood for the conference organized by the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section of the Asian Fisheries Society, the Asian Institute of Technology and the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific. Over the four days, delegates heard 95 presentations and participated in nine special workshops. The conference, with sponsors including ACIAR and WorldFish, was organized around the themes of gender assessments, gender-disaggregated statistics, the seafood industry, governance, climate change, the sustainable development goals, research methods, and learning exchanges. The broad range of topics reflects progress among the delegates says Holly Hapke, a member of the organizing committee whos been involved with the GAF network and conference since 2008. Theres been a movement toward more advanced gender analysis, evidenced by research into diverse areas such as the struggles of migrant women and womens position in value chains, said Dr. Hapke, who is the Research Development Director at the University of California, Irvine. Emerging research methods to empower women New research methods are emerging that empower women in the process, not just the outcome, and give them greater voice. One such method is the gender transformative approach (GTA), on which Cynthia McDougall, Afrina Choudhury and Steven Cole from WorldFish ran a special workshop. GTA aims to spark women and men to critically self-reflect, leading to shifts in structures such as social norms and dynamics that perpetuate and reproduce inequalities. This is about households themselves deciding what works for them together to drive this change process and create enduring positive outcomes, Dr. McDougall said. Another novel research approach thats increasingly being used in fisheries is photovoice, which was the focus of a special workshop by Janine Pierce, an adjunct research fellow at the University of South Australia and a board member of Aquaculture without Frontiers (Australia). Photovoice gives the chance to tell stories to participants (often women) who may not have had a voice previously to tell their story, said Dr. Pierce. The method involves giving participants cameras to take photos on loosely-worded themes and to write or describe accompanying comments in a diary. To provide some hands-on experience, a handful of delegates including Chelcia Gomese, Senior Research Analyst from WorldFish Solomon Islands, participated in a photovoice project at the conference. I really enjoyed doing it, and Im now planning to use photovoice in some upcoming research in the Solomon Islands to understand what matters to women around fisheries, Gomese said. I hope that this will raise the voice of women and communities at the government level and influence policy. Gender research approaches provide new insights A number of gender research approaches are being applied to fisheries and aquaculture, providing new insights into gender inequality. One example is intersectionality, which was the focus of a special workshop by Marilyn Porter, Professor Emerita, Memorial University, Canada, and Holly Hapke. Women are not all the same, said Dr. Porter in the workshop. For example, a woman fisher in India will have a different experience than a male fisher or a Canadian woman fisher even though they are all fishers. Intersectionality allows us to unpick the differences in experiences and identities as well as, more importantly, see how these differences interact to affect the overall experience of both individuals and groups. In turn, this leads to a more sophisticated analysis and better targeted policy interventions. Another research approach that holds valueand needs deepeningis the feminist perspective, which was the focus of a special workshop by Nalini Nayak and Cornelie Quist, founding members of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers. Feminist researchers and activists in alliance with fishworker movements need to develop a cohesive conceptual framework that includes development approaches and policy measures, said Nayak. This should be focused on achieving socially and environmentally-just fisheries that sustain life and livelihoods. Such a framework will be critical to understanding the diverse and changing lives of women in fisheries in relation to the impacts of unsustainable global fisheries. Innovative technologies Many presentations highlighted how the introduction of new gender-sensitive technologies are enabling women to more fully participate in and receive benefit from fisheries and aquaculture. One example, presented by Cecile Brugere, director, Soulfish Research and Consultancy, was on tubular nets for seaweed production in Zanzibar, which are showing promise for womens empowerment, livelihoods and the environment. From two years of testing, we found that the tubular nets enhanced the growth and productivity of higher value seaweed strains, generated income and strengthened the links between women producers. But innovations are never gender neutral she reminded delegates. If an innovation it is to change gender relations in a positive way, for example by empowering women, it needs to be introduced very sensitively and its uptake monitored over time alongside continuous capacity building. Collective action by women A key theme of the conference was the importance of collective action by women, which was underscored by comments by Belinda Richardson, Fellow, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Collective action is critical to driving policy that works for women. This is a herculean effort, because its often very difficult to bring those voices to the tables, she said. But some examples presented at GAF7 offer hope. One, on the successes of the African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network (AWFishNet), presented by Editrudith Lukanga, the Secretary General, consists of women from 28 African Union countries. Since forming in Tanzania in April 2017, weve been able to attract funding, which is huge success for us because resources are normally scarce and it enables us to come together. Through the network were raising our voices, in a unified way, for the inclusion of women in all decision making and policy processes, from planning to implementation to monitoring, Lukanaga said. On this topic, delegates benefited from the insights of Margaret Harding, a fish processor and vendor, and one of the 25 members of the Central Fish Processors Association in Barbadosthe only post-harvest fisherfolk organization in the country. Having the organization enables us to work freely. It enables us to do the things that we want like the upkeep of the market, abiding with regulations and complying with governance, she said of the organization that was formed in 2005. Her advice to other fisher women is to be vocal. Get together. Make sure your voices are heard. It can happen. Let all of the women fisherfolk come together to work as one, she said. More work to be done At the conference, Dr. Meryl Williams, Chair of the GAFS launched the new From catch to consumer: Why gender matters in aquaculture in fisheries article as part of the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries website. The article highlights the key actions that are needed to make real progress toward gender equality all of which were raised and discussed at the conference. To count women, key stakeholders such as fisheries agencies need to collect regular and accurate gender-specific employment data on the catch-to-consumer pathway to track trends and progress. By supporting womens empowerment, women can collaborate, assert their rights and upgrade their capacity, which requires funding and support for education, advocacy and legal resources. To make women more visible, gender equality must be a stated priority in policy, research and development programs. Investment into targeted gender projects, research and educational outreach needs to increase significantly, even a hundredfold, to achieve impact. And gender equality cannot be achieved by gender researchers and practitioners alonea critical message summed up by co-organizer Kyoko Kusakabe, Professor, Asian Institute of Technology. It is only by working in a collaborative waythrough transdisciplinary approaches and integrative policies with grassroots organisations and policy makersthat we can make real progress toward sustainable and socially-just small-scale fisheries and aquaculture, Dr. Kusakabe said. The conference was organized by the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section of the Asian Fisheries Society, the Asian Institute of Technology and the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific. It was sponsored by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, WorldFish, The Crawford Fund, Plan International, USAID Oceans and Fisheries, Thailand Convention and Exhibitions Bureau and the Commission on Gender and Geography, and had 17 partners and supporters from Asia, Australia and beyond. After 4 decades with only 6 executions, Tennessee is on schedule to execute 3 inmates this year. Edmund Zagorski died in the electric chair Thursday night after a last minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was declined. His death followed that of Billy Ray Irick's in August. David Earl Miller's execution is scheduled for Dec. 6. The surge comes as legal challenges to the state's lethal injections protocols have hit a wall, at least temporarily. "As litigation plays out one state at a time, what we've seen is individual states going on execution sprees," said Robert Dunham. He is the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which does not take a stand on the death penalty but is critical of the way it is applied. Zagorski, 63, had been on death row for 34 years and seen 3 execution dates come and go before his Thursday electrocution. Miller, 61, has been on death row 36 years. At least 2 things have made executions rare in Tennessee. Stringent legal protections for death penalty cases mean appeals can drag on through years, even decades. But even after the appeals are exhausted, challenges to execution methods have added more delays. A U.S. Supreme Court 2015 decision made those challenges harder by requiring inmates who object to one method of execution to show there is a readily available alternative that is more humane. That condition caused a lethal injection challenge by Zagorski and other Tennessee inmates to fail last month. But it hasn't yet had a big effect nationally, where the trend in executions is downward. According to the Death Penalty Information Center there have been 20 executions so far this year compared to 98 in 1999. "Everyone says the dam is about to break and there's going to be a surge in executions," Dunham said. "You would think that if lethal injection litigation ends, you might see more executions. That could be the case, but it hasn't happened yet." One reason is that fewer people are being sentenced to death. Nationally there has been an 85 % drop in death sentences since the 1990s, Dunham said. Also, several states in recent years have either abolished capital punishment or imposed moratoriums. Washington's Supreme Court struck down the death penalty there just last month. But national trends could not keep Zagorski from dying in the electric chair. Kelley Henry, in the federal public defender's office in Nashville, fought for years to keep Zagorski alive. On Thursday night, she served as a witness to his death. Henry was nodding, smiling and tapping her heart just before the execution. Asked about her actions, Henry said afterward: "I told him when I put my hand over my heart, that was me holding him in my heart." She said Zagorski told her the last thing he wanted to see was her smiling face, and so she made an effort to smile at him before a shroud was put over his face. Then Henry quietly wiped away tears. Zagorski was executed for murdering Jimmy Porter and John Dotson in 1983. Prosecutors said he lured the 2 men into the woods with a promise to sell them marijuana, then shot them, slit their throats and robbed them. According to his rejected clemency petition, Zagorski reformed in prison, where he never had a single disciplinary infraction and was well liked among the staff. Henry said the inmate told prison staff before the execution, "I don't want any of you to have this on your conscience. You're doing your jobs and I'm all good." But Dotson's daughter, Kim Dotson Rochelle, told The Tennessean, Zagorski never apologized to her family, even after he was strapped into the electric chair. Zagorski's final words were, "Let's rock." "He had no remorse for what he did. He was smiling just like he was when he was caught," Rochelle wrote in a text message to The Tennessean Thursday night. "That's why he got just what he deserved." | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde The Associated Press, November 3, 2018 The Singapore High Commission today clarified that the photoshoot involving convicted drug trafficker Prabu N. Pathmanathan in the week before his execution was done at his request. In a statement, the Singapore High Commission said that the photos were given only to Prabus family. The commission denied earlier claims by lawyer N. Surendran who criticised the Singapore government for conducting a photoshoot the week before Prabus execution There have been media reports on the photoshoot of Mr Prabu. The High Commission would like to clarify that the photoshoot was carried out only upon Mr Prabus request and only Mr Prabus family was given the photos, read the 6-paragraph statement. On October 26, Surendran slammed the Singapore government for taking Malaysian citizen Prabu to a photoshoot the week before the latters execution. He said the practice was macabre, and did not absolve Singapore from carrying out the capital punishment despite pleas for leniency. RELATED: Singapore executes six men over drug trafficking despite international pleas The Singapore High Commissions statement also addressed an October 26 statement by the Malaysian Foreign Affairs Ministry that Prabus family and a Malaysian High Commission representative bore witness to the execution. The (Singapore) High Commission would like to clarify that, in accordance with standard procedures, no family members or representatives of the High Commission of Malaysia in Singapore were present during the execution, it said. RELATED: The last man executed in Singapore, until the next The statement also touched on the media issue of Prabus clemency petition, saying he was accorded full due process under the law, and was given access to legal counsel throughout the process. There is no international consensus against the use of the death penalty when it is imposed according to due process of law. The issue of capital punishment is a question that every State has the sovereign right to decide for itself, taking into account its own circumstances. Singapore respects the sovereign right of other States to determine their own legal systems and expects the same in return, read the statement. Prabu, a convicted Malaysian drug trafficker, was executed on October 26 and the episode sparked fresh calls to scrap the death penalty, a legacy of British colonial rule. RELATED: Singapore becomes one of worlds top executioners for drug offences Last month, the Cabinet decided to abolish the death penalty. It was reported on October 24 that Minister in the Prime Ministers Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong had planned to write a letter to the Singapore government to urge it to commute Prabus death sentence to life imprisonment. Prabu was sentenced to hang for committing several acts preparatory to and for the purposes of trafficking in 227.82g of diamorphine or heroin into the island state on December 31, 2014. | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde malaymail.com, November 2, 2018 Saudi Arabia's decision to execute an Indonesian domestic worker has triggered a diplomatic row between the 2 nations. The maid's case highlights the dangers faced by foreign workers in Saudi households. The execution of an Indonesian domestic worker by Saudi authorities this week without even informing her family and consular staff drew strong condemnation from Indonesian officials. Tuti Tursilawati was executed on Monday in the city of Thaif, Indonesia's Foreign Ministry announced, seven years after she was sentenced to death in connection with a murder. News agencies Reuters and AFP reported that Tursilawati was found guilty of killing her employer in June 2011. Indonesian advocacy group Migrant Care was quoted as saying in September that Tursilawati had been defending herself from being raped. But the director for overseas citizen protection at Indonesia's foreign ministry, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying that Tursilawati did not commit the murder in self-defense against attempted rape. "It is true that Tuti had been harassed, but not when she committed the murder," Iqbal said. After the incident, she ran away from her employer but was raped by nine Saudi men before the police took her into custody. All of her rapists were processed separately, the newspaper reported. Indonesian President Joko Widodo, popularly known as "Jokowi," on Wednesday criticized the Saudi decision to carry out the death penalty. He said the government had done everything it could to prevent the execution. "We have many times [requested to be notified about executions] directly to King Salman [bin Abdulaziz Al Saud] and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir," The Jakarta Post reported Jokowi as saying. "I have said it over and over again. Do not think that we are not taking political steps." Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi also called her Saudi counterpart to express disapproval. "Tuti's execution was carried out without [prior notification]. I also summoned the Saudi ambassador [Usamah Muhammad Al Syuaiby] in Jakarta to meet me in Bali," she said. This is not the 1st time, however, that Indonesian citizens faced capital punishment in Saudi Arabia. In March, the Saudi authorities beheaded Indonesian national M. Zaini Misrin for murder despite Jokowi's repeated pleas to grant clemency. At the time, Saudi Arabia did not notify the Indonesian government beforehand about the execution. Between 2011 and 2018, 102 Indonesians faced death row in Saudi Arabia. Three were executed, 79 were freed from the execution, and 20 are still locked in a legal process for clemency. Observers say Indonesia would appear hypocritical if it criticized Saudi Arabia for carrying out the execution as the Southeast Asian country also has capital punishment on its books and implements it for certain crimes. Under Jokowi, Indonesia has executed 18 death row inmates convicted of drug-related offenses, including foreigners, since 2015. Jakarta's protests were based on the lack of consular notification before executing Tursilawati, rather than complaining about the execution. Wahyu Susilo, director of Migrant Care, criticized the Indonesian government's failure to stop the execution. "Our diplomacy is weak," he told DW. "The Saudi government has also been uncooperative when it comes to upholding human rights," he added. Mistreatment in Middle East Tursilawati's case once again highlights the dangers faced by foreign domestic workers, including Indonesians, in Saudi households. Saudi Arabia is one of the world's biggest importers of domestic workers. Although many domestic workers have positive relationships with their employers, accusations of abuse and fraudulent behavior remain widespread. Read more: Saudi Arabia agrees to retry Sri Lankan maid sentenced to death by stoning Stories often appear in local and international media outlets of employers treating domestic workers, most of whom are women, as akin to slaves, depriving them of basic freedoms and engaging in physical, sexual and psychological abuse. The domestic work environment also limits the authorities' ability to tackle the exploitation. In most cases, what happens inside a household remains inside, and it's tough for the workers to prove their mistreatment in the hands of their employers. Abuse rife The so-called "Kafala," or sponsorship, system governs the labor market in Saudi Arabia as well as a number of other Middle Eastern nations like the UAE, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar. Domestic workers from a number of Southeast Asian and South Asian countries migrate to these countries in search of better pay and lives. The system, however, prohibits migrant laborers from changing jobs or leaving the country without their sponsor's approval in most circumstances. In the case of domestic workers, it ties their visas to their employers, making them vulnerable and totally dependent on host families, say observers. Workers attempting to escape from an abusive employer may face deportation, fines or even imprisonment. With reports of abuse often drawing global attention over the past several years, countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have all recently come up with laws aimed at preventing the exploitation. Still, rights groups say they fall short of what's required to put an end to migrant worker mistreatment in the region. Indonesian migrant workers vulnerable to abuse abroad After the recent execution, Migrant Care urged the Jokowi administration to strengthen efforts to protect Indonesian workers abroad. It said Indonesia should reverse its recent decision to allow a limited number of Indonesian migrant workers to enter Saudi Arabia despite a 2015 moratorium banning new domestic workers from entering 21 Middle Eastern countries. Indonesia introduced the ban following the execution of two other Indonesian maids by Saudi Arabia the same year. | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde Momo is the first company in Vietnam that has ever made it to the Fintech 100 list. Photo by VnExpress Vietnams mobile, electronic wallet and payment application Momo is among the top 100 innovative fintech companies in the world. This is the first time a Vietnamese firm has broken into this special group, positioned 84th. Momo is also in the Emerging 50 category, which includes newer companies that are at the forefront of innovative technologies and practices. Its products help customers in Vietnam make nationwide cash transfers, pay more than 100 types of bills, recharge mobile phone accounts, settle personal loans, and purchase services like software licenses and online game cards, airline and movie tickets, etc. The companys payment system partners with 24 domestic banks and foreign payment networks, including JCB, MasterCard, and Visa. A judging panel comprised of senior partners from H2 Ventures and KPMG decided the final composition of the Fintech100 list. H2 Ventures is a global thought leader in fintech venture capital investment while KPMG is a global network of independent member firms offering audit, tax and advisory services. Companies were ranked based on total capital raised, rate of capital raising, location and degree of sub-industry disruption and the judging panel's subjective rating of the degree of product, service, customer experience, and business model innovation. Other newcomers to the list include Argentina, Bahrain, Colombia, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Myanmar, United Arab Emirates, and Thailand. Leading the ranking this year are Chinas Ant Financial, the worlds largest third-party payments platform, JD Finance, a digital technology company and Singapores ride hailing firm Grab. China should import more Vietnamese products, especially agriculture produce, so as to balance bilateral trade, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc said Sunday. "As Vietnam is seeing a great trade deficit with China, you [Chinese businesses] should import more products from Vietnam, starting with agricultural products, to balance bilateral trade," the prime minister said at a meeting with Chinese businesses in Shanghai before the November 5-10 China International Import Expo (CIIE). "This is in line with the policy of Chinas top leaders, who have repeatedly told us that they are keen to move towards a trade balance between China and Vietnam, he noted. China is currently the largest market for agricultural products in Vietnam with the export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery products this year estimated at over $35 billion, up nearly 9 percent over the same period last year, Voice of Vietnam quoted Phuc as saying. However, most Vietnamese produce are mostly consumed in Chinas southern Yunnan Province and the Guangxi region bordering Vietnam, not in the rest of the country, he said. As the second largest agricultural produce exporter in ASEAN with over 20 agriculture products that have an annual export value of over $1 billion worth, Vietnam offers many products favored by Chinese consumers, the PM said. Many Vietnamese agriculture produce are among the worlds best, like rice, pepper, cashew, pangasius fish and shrimp, he noted, adding that its fruits, like dragonfruit, mango, longan and watermelon, have passed import standards set by Australia, the EU, Japan, South Korea and the U.S. These products have great potential to boost bilateral trade cooperation, the PM stressed. Representatives of Chinese corporations at the meeting said they value the investment potential in Vietnam and are interested in bringing Vietnamese agriculture produce to China and and the world. Pu Jian, executive director of the CITIC International Asset Management company, said that he could bring Vietnamese products more deeply into the Chinese market as his company specializes in importing rice, fruits and other produce. His corporation also owns 60 percent of McDonald shares with over 3,500 stores in China, and this could be a potential channel to consume Vietnamese produce, he added. Johnson Choi, executive director of Chinas conglomerate Sunwah Group and general director of Sunwah Vietnam, said that his company would like to distribute Vietnamese coffee in the Chinese market and invest in Vietnams green agriculture. In a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping the same day on the sidelines of the CIIE, Chinas major event seeking more import opportunities, PM Phuc stressed that Vietnam always attaches great importance to the development of friendly, stable and healthy relations with China. China should adopt policies and practical measures to reduce the current large trade deficit with Vietnam, he added. Xi said that his country doesnt want to pursue a trade surplus with Vietnam, and will increase imports from Vietnam towards more balanced and sustainable bilateral trade. Vietnam-China trade reached $93.69 billion last year, up 30.2 percent from 2016. Vietnam earned $35.46 billion from exports to China, up 61.5 percent, while spending $58.22 billion on imports from the country, up 16.4 percent. In the first nine months this year, bilateral trade between the two countries reached $76.06 billion, up 18.7 percent over the same period last year. China continues to be Vietnam's largest trading partner and the one with which it has the largest trade deficit. It is also Vietnam's second largest export market after the U.S, according to Vietnam Customs. Budget carrier Vietjet Air plans a fleet age average of three years to keep fuel and maintenance costs low. Vietjet Air is in negotiations to firm up the deal after ordering 100 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and 50 Airbus A321neo aircraft at the Farnborough International Airshow in the U.K. in July. The planes are expected to be delivered between 2020 and 2025, Vietjet CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao told Reuters recently. But some analysts have questioned whether Vietjet is equipping itself with way too much aircraft, given that it already owns 62 Airbus narrow body jets. The carrier, which leads the domestic market with a 45 percent share, expects to receive 30 new aircraft and retire 10 each year between 2020 and 2025 to keep its fleet young, Thao said. The average age of Vietjet aircraft is three years now and we want to keep it that way, she said on the sidelines of a CEO conference in Bangkok. The average age of Vietjets planes is half that of other low-cost and fast-growing carriers in Asia like Malaysias AirAsia, Indonesias Lion Air and Indias IndiGo, according to Airfleets.net. The main reason for the young fleet is to keep the maintenance and fuel costs low and to ensure a good service for passengers on fresh, convenient planes, said Thao. Vietjet Air targets young aircraft fleet to keep costs low. Last month, Vietjet inked a deal to buy 10 Airbus aircraft worth $1.24 billion from Japanese and French companies. Deliveries of those planes are expected to happen from now until early next year. Thai Vietjet, which operates under a franchise contract in Thailand, is flying with seven jets and expected to add ten more jets each year, the carrier had said this month. Vietjet runs 385 flights daily within Vietnam and to Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, mainland China, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia. Comprehensive research will be done into the biological and reproduction traits of the worlds rarest turtle, found in Hanoi, for conserving it. The city government has unveiled breeding and habitat protection plans for the Rafetus swinhoei, or Hoan Kiem (Sword Lake) turtle, an all but extinct soft-shell species. At least one each is known to live in Xuan Khanh and Dong Mo Lakes in the capitals Son Tay Town. The amphibian is revered in Vietnam. Under the project Hanoi will investigate the numbers and sexes of Hoan Kiem turtles in the two lakes and consider measures to protect their habitats and enable their mating. Funds for the conservation program are replenished annually from the city's coffers and other sources. Many scientists have approved the study of turtles at Xuan Khanh Lake and their mating with the Dong Mo Lake turtle if conditions permit, preventing the impending extinction of the species. The study, which involves collecting and studying genetic samples to search for other Hoan Kiem turtles outside their natural habitats, was initiated by the Asian Turtle Program, the Central Institute for Natural Resources And Environmental Studies and the Wildlife Conservation Society Vietnam. It was begun in May this year and will resume next December. The Hoan Kiem turtle is named after the lake in the heart of the capital, where, according to legend, a magical sword was returned to the Golden Turtle God after helping fight off a Chinese invasion in the 15th century. It is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered. The creature is also on the list of rare and endangered animals requiring urgent conservation efforts under the Vietnamese government decree in 2013. An ancient turtle that lived in Hoan Kiem Lake died in 2016. Unless Vietnamese officialdom changes its eighties way of thinking, an effective market economy will stay beyond our reach. Nguyen Khac Giang, researcher My parents used to work in a sugar factory subsidized by the government. Life was tough back then, even for workers employed by the government. Businesses were not doing so well either. The factory sometimes had to pay its employees with its own products, like in a barter system. I remember how my parents used to bring tons of candy back home instead of a paycheck. Both of them had side jobs: selling things, welding things... whatever it took to help our family get by. But, sometimes, it still wasnt enough. In a desperate effort to help workers get enough money to survive, the factory invested a large sum of money to build an alcohol distillation tower that would use the byproducts of sugar making. It was felt that this would make the factory more competitive in Vietnams nascent market economy. Unfortunately, the project messed up at some point, and the distillation tower became a useless piece of scrap. The factory shut down not long after. The whole factory area with its rusting structures became the favorite place for our neighborhood children to hang out. The tower was recently demolished to make way for a new road. Earlier this year, the media was abuzz with news about how Sabeco, Vietnams leading government-funded beer maker was bought out by foreign investors. Habeco, another big shot in the industry, was also in negotiations to divest its state-owned equity. These firms were doing well without government inputs in terms of funding and management. A similar trend could be seen in other industries: sweets, milks, and even films. The fact that the government was no longer interfering so much certainly helped firms expand their markets and made our businesses more competitive. There was also relief for the state budget. The state no longer had to worry about how well those businesses were doing, or about paying employees salaries, or expending resources to investigate misdeeds by the firms. As obvious as these perks are, one cannot ignore how many of our policies dont take societal cost-benefits into account. Over 10 years ago, the government created 12 government-funded corporations, hoping they would kick-start Vietnams economy. Dubbed the economys "iron fists," they only shot themselves in the foot, unfortunately, getting entangled in numerous scandals involving corruption, loans and bankruptcies brought to light in recent years. At the same time, the privatization agenda was persisted with, even more intensely under former Prime Minister Phan Van Khais leadership from 1997 to 2006. A welder at a cement factory in the northern province of Hai Duong, Vietnam. Photo by Shutterstock/Thi Right now, Vietnam has over 500 state-owned companies. But theres this, too. Companies may say they are equitized or privatized, but when over 90 percent of their shares belong to the government, whats the difference? Those behind these firms, including ministries and local administrations, just dont want to give up their cash cows. An example would be the lottery industry, which generates a lot of money. It cant be said that these are very good for social welfare or that private firms have no interest in them. But the existence of these firms not only constitute a conflict of interests, but also blurs the line between public and private businesses. Last year, residents of the southern province of Tien Giang voiced their disapproval over how local officials used money from the local, government-backed lottery firm to "study abroad." Its understandable that cash cows like lottery firms are hard to give up, but if we truly want an effective, functional market economy, with a strong base of private businesses, the Vietnamese government needs to look to the future instead of clinging to the past. Furthermore, hastening privatization or tightening the law are only temporary solutions as long as our administration sticks to their eighties mode of thinking. Until this perspective changes, other towers will rise and be abandoned. *Nguyen Khac Giang is a Vietnamese researcher at the Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research. The opinions expressed are his own. A Chinese author who won generations of Vietnamese hearts Jin Yong and his legacy will live on forever in the hearts of many Vietnamese readers. Famous Chinese author Louis Cha Jing-Yong, better known as Jin Yong, passed away on October 30 at age 94. His legacy spans over half a century of writing fiction novels, especially as a pioneer of wuxia (martial heroes), a genre of Chinese fantasy literature featuring fantastic adventures of magically gifted martial artists in ancient China. His 15 works between 1955 and 1972 set him apart as one of the greatest wuxia writers ever. He was also the best-selling Chinese author of all time, selling over 100 million copies worldwide. The novelist Jin Yong in 2002 with his book Book and Sword, Gratitude and Revenge at his office in Hong Kong. He was broadly popular with generations of Chinese readers. Photo by Reuters/Bobby Yip Uncanny appeal According to The Oxford Guide to Contemporary World Literature, Jin Yong's novels have the rare quality of appealing to both highbrow and lowbrow tastes, as well as the ability to transcend geographical and ideological barriers. This gave him success few contemporary writers could achieve. The 2018 English version of Legends of the Condor Heroes 1: A Hero Born by Jin Yong. In Vietnamese popular culture, Jin Yongs works have had a tremendous influence among the Vietnamese literati as well as common readers. Many of his novels has been translated into Vietnamese and published, including the The Wandering Swordsman, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, The Legend of the Condor Heroes; and republished through decades. Many experts, critics and writers in Vietnam consider Jin Yong one of the most popular Chinese authors in the country. The 67th issue of Vietnamese magazine Todays Knowledge, published in 1991, noted that Jin Yongs novels have been popular in Vietnam since the 1960s. Poet Le Minh Quoc said that daily newspapers in the south then serialized Jin Yong novels in their feuilletons. Vietnamese authors like Hieu Chan and Nguyen Viet Khanh have written about the Jin Yong wuxia fever in Vietnam. Wuxia novels by Jin Yong attracted a large number of readers in the books and publishing scene between 1965 to 1973. Everybody read wuxia novels then, students, workers, officials and even Vietnamese citizens educated in Europe, Hieu Chan wrote. The Saigonese loved Jin Yong so much that they named their children and their shops after characters in his novels. Monks love wuxia. Women love wuxia. Professors debate with students about wuxia. Children fight each other in the street over wuxia, Nguyen Viet Khanh wrote in a 1968 newspaper. In Vietnamese literary circles, Jin Yong was the hottest topic for long. Authors and writers of the time, like Bui Giang and Buu Y wrote reviews and articles about his novels. Many authors even used characters from his books for their pennames. Literature critic Pham Xuan Nguyen said Jin Yongs novels became popular in the north after 1975, when the Vietnam War ended. Jin Yong elevated and improved wuxia to a whole new level with the addition of chivalry in his novels. His works not only depicted conflicts between clans but also carried messages of morality, goodness and belief in the beauty of life, Nguyen said. A brief break Associate Professor Tran Le Hoa Tranh said in one of her articles that after 1975 (Vietnam's post-war reconstruction period), Jin Yongs works did receive some negative responses over factors like cynicism, individualism, violence, and overly romantic, unrealistic love. For some time, they were banned, even. But in the 90s, after the country's introduction of Doi moi reform policy in 1986, Jin Yongs works were once again in vogue. In 1999, Phuong Nam Publications became the first to buy the rights to bring out revised translations of Jin Yongs novels. From left to right: The Vietnamese version of The Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Deer and the Cauldron, The Giant Eagle and Its Companion are three among Jin Yong's most popular works in Vietnam that were translated and revised by Phuong Nam Publishing. Photo courtesy by Phuong Nam Publishing. Kezia, a sister of Hizkia Jorry Saroinsong, a passenger on the Lion Air flight JT 610, carries her brother's portrait during his funeral in Jakarta on Monday. Photo by AFP/Bay Ismoyo Indonesia is to launch a "special audit" of Lion Air's operations in the wake of last week's deadly crash that killed 189 people, the government said. The budget carrier has been a regular target of complaints about poor service, unreliable scheduling and safety issues, including a fatal 2004 crash. That safety record has been under the microscope since a new Boeing 737-Max 8 plunged into the Java Sea just 12 minutes after taking off from Jakarta last Monday. "We will...conduct a special audit of the crews' qualifications and staff communication," transportation minister Budi Karya Sumadi told reporters Monday. "This is a preventative measure...(The accident) is a very expensive lesson for us." Civil Aviation authorities in the U.S. and Europe were also being consulted for their help in the probe, he added. Meanwhile, authorities have extended their search as they collect more body parts and shattered debris from the spot where the plane crashed during a routine one-hour flight from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang. Scores of body bags filled with remains have been collected and sent for DNA testing, but so far just 14 people have been identified. Search and rescue agency head Muhammad Syaugi tearfully apologised Monday as relatives' clamour for answers grew louder, with accusations that the pace of recovery is lagging. "We are not perfect human beings," he said, sobbing. "We have flaws, but we doing the best we can." The Lion Air investigation comes after Indonesia's government ordered an inspection of all Boeing 737 Max 8 planes in the country. All were found to be airworthy although two required repairs for "minor" problems. The ministry had previously removed several Lion Air executives and technicians, saying they were needed to help authorities in the investigation. A week after the disaster, there is still no answer as to what caused the crash. Divers have pulled the plane's flight data recorder from the water, but are still hunting for the cockpit voice recorder -- a key device that could provide clues to what caused the almost brand-new plane to plunge into the sea. Lion Air's admission that the doomed jet had a technical issue on a previous flight -- and the captain's request to turn back to the airport minutes before its fatal dive -- have raised questions about whether it had faults specific to one of the world's newest and most advanced commercial passenger planes. But the accident has also resurrected concerns about Indonesia's poor air safety record, which until recently saw its carriers facing years-long bans from entering European Union and U.S. airspace. Oil markets have been preparing for the sanctions for months. Oil prices fell on Monday as the start to U.S. sanctions against Iran's fuel exports was softened by waivers that will allow major buyers to still import Iranian crude, at least temporarily. Front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $72.41 per barrel at 0348 GMT on Monday, down 42 cents, or 0.6 percent from their last close, Reuters said. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were down 35 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $62.79 a barrel. Both Brent and WTI have lost more than 15 percent in value since early October, in part as hedge funds have cut their bullish wagers on crude to a one-year low, data showed on Friday. Washington re-introduced sanctions against Iran on Monday, restoring measures lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the administration of President Barack Obama, and adding 300 new designations including Iran's oil, shipping, insurance and banking sectors. Read alsoU.S. to impose sanctions against 12 Russian companies Despite this, oil prices came under pressure as Washington will allow several countries to continue importing crude from Iran despite the sanctions. "The impact of the sanctions is going to be largely softened as a result of this allowance," said Sukrit Vijayakar, director of Indian energy consultancy Trifecta. The United States said on Friday it will temporarily allow eight importers to keep buying Iranian oil. Washington has so far not named the eight, referred to as "jurisdictions," a term that might include Taiwan which the United States does not regard as a country. China, India, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, the United Arab Emirates and Japan have been the top importers of Iran's oil, while Taiwan occasionally buys Iranian crude. South Korea said on Monday it has been granted a waiver to at least temporarily continue to import condensate, a super-light form of crude oil, from Iran and also still continue financial transactions with the Middle East country. Japan said on Monday it was in close communication with the United States. While Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to detail any potential sanction waivers, he said his government had asked Washington that sanctions should not have an adverse impact on Japanese companies. Oil markets have been preparing for the sanctions for months. The meeting's attendees agreed on boosting bilateral cooperation in all spheres with a particular focus on Ukraine's investments in Egypt. Egypt's Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr signed with the CEO of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) Raivis Veckagans two maritime MoUs between the Ukrainian Odesa port and Alexandria and Egypt's Damietta Port, during the course of the seventh session of the Egyptian-Ukrainian Joint Committee on Economic, Scientific, and Technical Cooperation. Nasr also signed a protocol for the committee's works with Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko, according to a Saturday' ministerial statement, noting that the meeting was held in Kyiv and co-chaired by Nasr from Egypt and Rozenko from Ukraine, according to Daily News Egypt. The meeting was held in the presence of several representatives of Egyptian ministries including Trade and Industry, Tourism, Military Production, Transport, Civil Aviation, Finance, Higher Education and Research, Ministry of Public Enterprise sector. Read alsoEgypt to become destination for 1 mln Ukrainian tourists: FM Klimkin The meeting's attendees agreed on boosting bilateral cooperation in all spheres with a particular focus on Ukraine's investments in Egypt, said the statement, adding that there are 130 Ukrainian firms operating in Egypt, which do not correspond to the amicable relations between both countries. Increasing Ukrainian tourists to Egypt was one of the important issues, which was discussed, added the statement, noting that 800,000 Ukrainians tourists visited Egypt in 2017 while 2018 is expected to witness an increase of the Ukrainian tourist numbers. Trade exchange between Egypt and Ukraine reached $2.3 billion in 2017 while both countries discussed boosting Egypt's exports to Ukraine, mentioned the statement. Nasr ensured Egypt's enthusiasm to strengthen bilateral relation with Ukraine, which is based on historical roots and deep strategic partnership, adding, "the current meeting comes after eight years, on the seventh session of the Egyptian-Ukrainian Joint Committee on Economic, Scientific, and Technical Cooperation, which is an obvious indicator that we are keen on boosting bilateral cooperation." Furthermore, Nasr noted that the Egyptian government pays special attention towards improving the country's business climate, calling for the Ukrainian side to participate in the new cities as well as projects in the Suez Canal Corridor. For his part, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko, said that Egypt is one of the leading countries that enjoys strategic relations with Ukraine, emphasizing his country's keenness on boosting economic cooperation with Egypt. Rozenko added that there are successful stories of Ukrainian investments in Egypt such as Naftogaz co, affirming both countries efforts to boost investment, trade, tourism, agriculture, and scientific research cooperation. Over and above, Rozenko called on Egypt's leadership to close their ports to ships carrying goods from Crimea (a peninsula on the northern coast of the Black Sea), Ukrainian media reported on Friday, following Rozenko's meeting with Nasr. "Ukraine is now undergoing difficult times because of the Russian aggression. In this difficult struggle for independence and territorial integrity, the support of the African continent, in particular, Egypt is of utmost importance important to us. On behalf of the Ukrainian side, I appeal to the authorities of Egypt to restrict access and refrain from issuing permits for the entry into Egyptian ports of ships under the flags of third states that carry out illegal loading in Crimea," Rozenko stressed. Ukrainian Gas Storage Facilities Operator created as part of Ukrtransgaz's unbundling The branch will provide natural gas storage services and ensure the efficient and uninterrupted operation of 12 underground storage facilities. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Ukraine's economy ministry creates SME Development Office The Office's major task is to develop programs to support small- and medium-sized businesses. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Ukraine, U.S. to boost cooperation in cybersecurity The two sides discussed the ways to protect electronic voting systems from possible cyber threats. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Ukraine's claims to Gazprom in courts already exceed $12 bln Naftogaz stands for revising the gas transit tariff from March 2018 to the end of 2019. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Statement nn the ongoing Aggression by Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia "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 Google Ad UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13 Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive Ararat Mirzoyan to visit to Minsk Foreign Minister of India visits the Memorial of Armenian Genocide 1217 new cases Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel 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 nn the ongoing Aggression by Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia "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 Google Ad 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 Google Ad UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13 Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive Ararat Mirzoyan to visit to Minsk Foreign Minister of India visits the Memorial of Armenian Genocide 1217 new cases Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel 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 Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a meeting in Kyiv have agreed to provide German expert assistance to Ukraine in the privatization process of state enterprises, Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleksandr Sayenko has said. "We have agreed that there will be a separate expert from Germany who will work with the working group on privatization," Sayenko said on the air of Novoye Vremia (New Time) Radio station, the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers said on Saturday. According to the minister, not many state-owned objects fall under the criteria of "large-scale privatization," and each of them has significant problems (either toxic shareholders, or large debts, or the production process is made dependent on a particular intermediary, etc.). "Considering this, the term of preparing the objects of the "large-scale" privatization for sale will take a long time - from six months and more," Sayenko said. The minister recalled that today Centrenergo is the closest to the sale - the auction for the sale of the state package will be held on December 13 of the current year. "And the next year we will advance in sale of the following objects from this list," he added. As reported, on October 29, the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) announced a tender to sell 78.289% of shares in PJSC Centrenergo. A tender to sell a 78.289% stake in power generating enterprise PJSC Centrenergo is to begin at 11:00 a.m. Kyiv time on December 13, 2018. The tender will take place, if at least two bidders register for the tender. The SPF also selected investment advisors to prepare 11 out of 23 objects for the sale from the list of "large-scale" privatization for 2018. In particular, the state has hired advisors with the highest reputation, including White & Case, E & Y, KPMG, BDO, and Baker McKenzie. Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv has met with his colleague from Turkey Ruhsar Pekcan in Istanbul, where they discussed issues of enhancing trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. "Within the framework of Petro Poroshenko's visit to Turkey, I've met with my Turkish counterpart, the Minister of Trade for Turkey. We are talking about strengthening trade and economic cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey, especially when bilateral trade volumes are constantly growing," Kubiv wrote on his Facebook page. "There are also good prospects for cooperation in the digital economy, industry, energy, IT, aviation and many other spheres," the Ukrainian official added. The final quarter of 2021 is on its way and theres so much positivity about the rapid growth of the... Dublin, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Growth Opportunities in the European Glass Fiber Market" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The European glass fiber market is expected to reach an estimated $2.1 billion by 2023 with a CAGR of 2.8% from 2018 to 2023. The future of the European glass fiber market is promising with opportunities in the transportation, construction, electrical and electronics, pipe and tank, wind energy, and consumer goods industries. The major growth driver for this market is rise in demand for products made of glass composites; these include pipes, tanks, wind blades, bathtubs, and automotive parts.Emerging trends, which have a direct impact on the dynamics of the European glass fiber industry, include cost optimization and performance enhancement of glass fibers. Some of the European glass fiber companies profiled in this report include Owens Corning, Johns Manville, 3B glass fiber, Nippon Electric Glass and Lanxess and others. The report forecasts that E (ECR) glass is expected to be the largest product type of glass fiber by value and volume over the forecast period. Within the European glass fiber market, transportation is expected to remain the largest and witness the highest growth market by value and volume consumption. Government regulations, such as carbon emission targets in Europe, are putting pressure on OEMs to incorporate lightweight materials to curb the overall vehicle weight, and this is the key driver for glass fiber in the transportation industry. In terms of supply, the European glass fiber capacity was ~1.9 billion pound in 2017. The researcher predicts that the glass fiber plant capacity utilization will go down in 2018 as glass fiber suppliers increase production capacity. For example, in 2018, Owens Corning plans to build additional capacity in France, and Sisecam Group is installing a new plant in Turkey. Some of the features of Growth Opportunities in the European Glass Fiber Market include: Market size estimates: European glass fiber market size estimation in terms of value ($M) and volume (Million Pounds) shipment. European glass fiber market size estimation in terms of value ($M) and volume (Million Pounds) shipment. Trend and forecast analysis: Market trend (2012-2017) and forecast (2018-2023) by application, and end use industry. Market trend (2012-2017) and forecast (2018-2023) by application, and end use industry. Segmentation analysis: European glass fiber market size by various applications such as application, manufacturing process, product, and country in terms of value and volume shipment. European glass fiber market size by various applications such as application, manufacturing process, product, and country in terms of value and volume shipment. Regional analysis: European glass fiber market breakdown by North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. European glass fiber market breakdown by North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. Growth opportunities: Analysis on growth opportunities in different applications and regions of glass fiber in the European glass fiber market. Analysis on growth opportunities in different applications and regions of glass fiber in the European glass fiber market. Strategic analysis: This includes M&A, new product development, and competitive landscape of glass fiber in the European glass fiber market. This includes M&A, new product development, and competitive landscape of glass fiber in the European glass fiber market. Analysis of competitive intensity of the industry based on Porter's Five Forces model. Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Market Background and Classifications 2.1: Introduction, Background, and Classifications 2.2: Supply Chain 2.3: Industry Drivers and Challenges 2.4: Value Chain Analysis 3. Market Trends and Forecast Analysis from 2012 to 2023 3.1: Macroeconomic Trends and Forecast 3.2: European Glass Fiber Market Trends and Forecast 3.3: European Glass Fiber Market by End Use Industry 3.3.1: Marine 3.3.2: Transportation 3.3.3: Pipe and Tank 3.3.4: Aerospace 3.3.5: Construction 3.3.6: Electrical and Electronics 3.3.7: Consumer Goods 3.3.8: Wind Energy 3.3.9: Others 3.4: European Glass Fiber Market by Form Type 3.5: European Glass Fiber Market by Product Type 3.6: European Glass Fiber Market by Manufacturing Process 4. Competitor Analysis 4.1: Product Portfolio Analysis 4.2: Market Share Analysis 4.3: Operational Integration 4.4: Porter's Five Forces Analysis 5. Growth Opportunities and Strategic Analysis 5.1: Growth Opportunity Analysis 5.1.1: Growth Opportunities for the European Glass fiber Market by End Use Industry 5.1.2: Growth Opportunities for the European Glass fiber Market by Form type 5.2: Emerging Trends in the European Glass fiber Market 5.3: Strategic Analysis 5.3.1: New Product Development 5.3.2: Capacity Expansion of European Glass Fiber Market 5.3.3: Mergers, Acquisitions and Joint Ventures in the European Glass Fiber Market 5.3.4: Certification and Licensing 6. Company Profiles of Leading Players 6.1: Owens Corning 6.2: Jushi Group Co., Ltd. 6.3: 3B the Fiber Glass Company (Goa Glass fiber) 6.4: Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd. 6.5: LANXESS 6.6: Johns Manville Corporation For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/zzxgpb/european_glass?w=12 Did you know that we also offer Custom Research? Visit our Custom Research page to learn more and schedule a meeting with our Custom Research Manager. The decision of the commission for reorganization of National Energy Company Ukrenergo about the temporary transfer of powers to manage the company to the chairman of the commission Deputy Energy and Coal Industry Minister Mykhailo Blyzniuk creates risks on the way of corporatization of the company and could hinder the pace of the electricity market reform, Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleksandr Saenko has said. He wrote on his Facebook page that the corporate governance reform in the company was launched to prevent the unjustifiable interference of officials in the management of the state-owned company. One of the elements of the reform is the appointment of supervisory boards. He also recalled that the composition of the supervisory board for Ukrenergo was approved at a government meeting on October 3. The supervisory board was entrusted with the task of shaping the development strategy of the enterprise, coordinating its financial plans, providing recommendations to the management, and exercising control over it. "This supervisory board should, together with the management, be held accountable to the shareholder, that is, the state, for the results of the company's activities. This management model works in all civilized countries. A combination of all management functions in ministries will always leave room for conflict of interests and corruption," Saenko said. As reported, the ministry on October 18 said that the commission for reorganization of Ukrenergo, which from October 9 is headed by Blyzniuk, decided that powers to manage the company are transferred to the commission head, which is aimed at the successful completion of the reorganization process. Ukrenergo said about the deliberate obstruction of corporatization and the process of the introduction of the electricity market by the commission for reorganization of the company, which members are approved by the ministry. The business court of Kyiv on October 23 suspended the decision of the commission for reorganization of Ukrenergo about the delegation of powers to manage the company to the head of the commission in the person of Blyzniuk. On November 1, Kyiv's business court granted the petition of Ukraine's Energy and Coal Industry Ministry regarding the annulment of injunctive relief for the claim of Ukrenergo. JSC Ukrtransgaz has created a new branch Operator of Ukrainian Gas Storage Facilities, which will be responsible for the provision of gas storage services and operation of underground gas storage facilities. The company said in a press release that the branch would consolidate all assets, processes and employees required for the provision of gas storage services. It is planned that the branch will start operating at a full capacity from January 1, 2019. The branch will function as a structural unit of Ukrtransgaz, without establishing a separate legal entity. Ukrtransgaz is conducting preparatory work on the legal and organizational design of the operation of the branch, the redistribution of production and business processes, an inventory of existing assets and the transfer to the new branch of more than 1,700 specialists who support the operation of Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities. "The creation of the operator is a consistent step towards the qualitative completion of the unbundling process, as a result of which the operator of Ukraine's GTS [gas transmission system] will be finally separated from Ukrtransgaz after the current transit contract with Gazprom terminates," Ukrtransgaz President Andriy Khomenko said. Ukrtransgaz, a wholly owned subsidiary of Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates Ukraine's gas transmission system and 12 underground gas storage facilities with 31 billion cubic meters of capacity. Volume of trade in goods between Ukraine and China 21% up in eight months - Kubiv Bilateral trade in goods between Ukraine and China in January-August 2018 increased by 21% compared to the same period in 2017, to $5.8 billion, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has reported. "China is a strategically important partner for Ukraine, our trade volume is constantly growing. During the eight months of 2018, the Ukrainian-Chinese bilateral trade in goods grew by 21%, to about $5.8 billion," Kubiv said on Facebook. At the same time, he noted that in the perspective of five years, Ukraine and China plan to increase this figure to $10 billion. "To do this, we will continue realizing the Ukraine-China action plan to implement the initiative of the Great Silk Road and the maritime Silk Road of the 21st century," he said. The Ukrainian delegation headed by Kubiv is in the People's Republic of China on a working visit on November 5-8 to participate in the China International Import Exhibition 2018. Presidents of Ukraine and Turkey, Petro Poroshenko and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are in favor of further developing strategic cooperation between the countries. "Negotiations have shown a high level of mutual understanding and effective overcoming of any obstacles that we are removing today in the economic, political, humanitarian and social spheres of relations between our states. Under the present conditions, priority was given to security issues, military-technical cooperation," Poroshenko said following the 7th meeting of the High-Level Strategic Council on Saturday in Istanbul. In turn, Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted that after the creation of the Strategic Council of the High Level, the bilateral relations between Ukraine and Turkey have reached the level of strategic partnership. "Thanks to this, we are strengthening our relations each year and will continue to strengthen them," he convinced. He also said that at that meeting of the strategic council, it was decided to complete work on the signing of an agreement on a free trade zone between Ukraine and Turkey before the end of 2018. "We believe that due to this, we will achieve the goal - the trade turnover in the amount of $10 billion," Erdogan noted. This document will be our "roadmap" for the next meeting, which will be held in Kyiv," Erdogan said. Georgian opposition presidential candidate Vashadze pledges to announce early parliamentary election if he wins in second round Georgian presidential candidate from the former ruling party United National Movement Grigol Vashadze wants to schedule an early parliamentary election if he wins in a second round of election. "The first thing that we will have to do is to announce an early parliamentary election. It is absolutely necessary to change the political system," Vashadze said at a meeting with voters in the Kutaisi city on Sunday. The government should change hands and should be manned with "professionals", he added. "We will have to reform judicial and law enforcement systems," Vashadze said. At the same time, a lot of members of the public, who demanded preventing "Saakashvili's fascist regime" from coming back to power, held a rally in Tbilisi on Sunday. Participants told reporters that a mass rally against United National Movement's attempts to regain power will be held in Tbilisi on November 7. Ukraine counts on Turkey's help in the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping mission to Donbas, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said. "I offered Mr. President to intensify our dialogue on support to the decision on the deployment of peacekeepers in accordance with the UN's mandate among other things. We trust Turkey and would be glad if Turkey participates in restoring peace in Donbas and deploys its peacekeeping mission as part of the UN mission," Poroshenko said following the seventh meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council in Istanbul on Saturday. Turkey is one of Ukraine's key partners on the international arena, he said. In addition, Poroshenko said he is confident that Turkey would provide assistance in the issue of the Sea of Azov. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in turn, said that Ankara supports Ukraine's territorial integrity, independence, and sovereignty and will defend the rights and interests of Crimean Tatars. The conflict in eastern Ukraine should be resolved through diplomatic means, Erdogan said. The Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine has decided not to launch constitutional proceedings under a petition of 69 members of parliament regarding the fact if the transitional provisions of the Land Code of Ukraine concerning the moratorium on the sale of farmland suit the Constitution of Ukraine. According to a posting on the website of the court, the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court at a hearing discussed the issue of launching constitutional proceedings under a petition of 69 lawmakers if the provisions of clauses 14 and 15 of Section X of the transitional provisions of the Land Code of Ukraine meet the Constitution of Ukraine. "The Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court issued a ruling denying the launch of constitutional proceedings in the case," the court said. On Sunday, November 4, 2018, police investigators have reclassified the attack on Kateryna Handziuk, former acting administrator of the executive committee of Kherson City Council and advisor to the Kherson mayor, as premeditated murder. "Currently, criminal proceedings on the attack on Handziuk are being investigated as a completed crime - under paragraphs 4, 6, 11 and 12 of Part 2 of Article 115 of Ukraine's Criminal Code (premeditated murder committed by a group of people, for mercenary motives, with particular cruelty)," the Liaison Department of Ukraine's National Police said in a statement on Sunday. Spokeswoman of Ukraine's Prosecutor General Larysa Sarhan said five people have been identified by law enforcement officers as suspects of organizing and committing the crime against Handziuk. She said all of them have remanded to pretrial custody as preventive measure. According to Sarhan, 367 people have been questioned about the crime and Ukraine's SBU Security Service is trying to determine who commissioned the attack. Information about the death of Handziuk was reported on Facebook on Sunday and later confirmed by Ukrainian officials, including President Petro Poroshenko. As earlier reported, an unidentified young man splashed acid onto Kherson City Council employee Handziuk in Kherson early on July 31. She was hospitalized locally and airlifted to a Kyiv hospital the following day. On August 1, investigators changed the article of the Criminal Code under which the crime is being investigated from "intentional serious bodily harm committed with the aim of intimidating the victim" to "attempted murder with extreme atrocity." First Deputy Head of the National Police of Ukraine Viacheslav Abroskin said that Handziuk had agreed to cooperate with investigators to help uncover this crime. On August 3, Chief Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko announced that the SBU Security Service of Ukraine would handle the case. The Socialist Party of Ukraine's national congress has put forward a candidate for the presidential elections, changed its symbols and taken a decision about the party's participation in local elections. The congress took place in Kyiv on Saturday. Some 2,500 persons took part, according to the party's press service. Illia Kiva was selected as the party's candidate in presidential elections. The nomination was supported unanimously. "For me, it's a heavy cross and a responsibility. I will make mistakes But I will fight, I will work to improve myself. And I know that with your support, we will definitely win. I will never betray you. I have one homeland. I swear to you to be honest and devoted to our country," Kiva said. Further, the members of the Socialist Party of Ukraine unanimously voted for the approval of the new symbolism of the party, which represents a strong clenched fist. "The situation is changing and the direction of our party is changing. We will fight. The fist always personified struggle and unity. This clenched fist is the key to victory over evil, corruption, crime. The fist is what will save our future," Kiva said. The congress was attended by members of the SPU Political Council and heads of regional party organizations. EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn stressed that the perpetrators who committed the attack that led to the death of Kateryna Handziuk, former acting administrator of the executive committee of Kherson City Council and advisor to the Kherson mayor, should be brought to justice. "Very saddened by the news of the passing of the incredibly brave Kateryna Handziuk. Attacks against civil society activists are unacceptable. The perpetrators of this vicious crime must be brought to justice. My thoughts are with her family and friends," Hahn wrote on Twitter on Sunday. As it is known, Hahn will visit Ukraine on November 9 with an official visit. An informed source told Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency earlier that the purpose of the visit would be to discuss the reform agenda, as well as the progress achieved in the framework of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. Information about the death of the activist appeared earlier on Sunday on Facebook's community page, titled "Who ordered Katia Handziuk?" Later this information was confirmed by Ukraine's National Police and President Petro Poroshenko. MONTREAL, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Metals Inc. (The Corporation) (CSE : CME) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Pierre Renaud to the board of directors. Pierre Renaud Mr. Pierre Renaud, counsel and head of the Environmental Law Group for the Quebec region at McCarthy Tetrault LLP, has 31 years of experience in environmental law. He acts as a strategic advisor to clients and provides guidance from the earliest project stages on matters such as sustainable development, social acceptability, the environmental authorization process, consultation and public participation processes. As former president of the Bureau daudiences publiques sur lenvironnement (BAPE) from 20072012, he was in charge of appointing and monitoring over 40 commissions of inquiry (public hearings/mediation), in addition to managing and tabling reports with Quebecs environment minister on a variety of specific initiatives. Early in his career, he was a legal counsel for the Quebec Ministry of the Environment and Hydro-Quebec. Admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1987, Mr. Renaud has a master's degree in public administration. Rene Boisvert, President of The Company comments: I feel very fortunate to have Pierre joining the company as Director, he will add his expertise on environmental matters and corporate governance to the board. As we are getting closer to our objective of building a world-class silicon plant in Baie-Comeau, his competences will be needed and I welcome him to the board. Pierre Renaud stated: I joined Canadian Metals because I believe in the tremendous potential of our mission to improve the well-being of present and future generation by producing silicon-based materials needed for making, in particular, solar panels, aluminium-silicon alloy and silicones. Today, as a society, we need to focus on sustainable development and that makes me more confident in our future commented Pierre Renaud, member of the Board of Directors. In addition, the Company also announces the grant of incentive stock options to purchase 600,000 common shares of the Company (the "Options") to certain directors (Pierre Renaud and Roger Urquhart) , of the Company pursuant to the Company's stock option plan. The Options have an exercise price of $0.15 per share and are valid for a period of five years from the date of the grant. The Option grants are subject to the acceptance of the Canadian Securities Exchange. About Canadian Metals Canadian Metals is a diversified resource company focused on creating shareholder value through the development of large-scale industrial mineral portfolios in specific commodities and jurisdictions that will fuel the new energy economy. The company is uniquely positioned to pursue this strategy in silicon, precious and base metal assets. For more information, please contact: Sean Tufford Vice President, Corporate Development Email: Sean@canadianmetalsinc.com Phone: (902) 818 -8807 Rene Boisvert President, Email: rboisvert@canadianmetalsinc.com Stephane Leblanc Chief Executive Officer Email: sleblanc@canadianmetalsinc.com Website: www.canadianmetalsinc.com Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain statements included herein may constitute forward-looking statements. All statements included in this press release that address future events, conditions, or results, including in connection with the prefeasibility study, its financing, job creation, the investments to complete the project and the potential performance, production, and environmental footprint of the ferrosilicon plant, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as may, must, plan, believe, expect, estimate, think, continue, should, will, could, intend, anticipate, or future, or the negative forms thereof or similar variations. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by management in light of their experiences and their perception of historical trends, current conditions, and expected future developments, as well as other factors they believe are appropriate in the circumstances. These statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, including those mentioned in the Corporations continuous disclosure documents, which can be found under its profile on SEDAR ( www.sedar.com ). Many of such risks and uncertainties are outside the control of the Corporation and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In making such forward-looking statements, management has relied upon a number of material factors and assumptions, on the basis of currently available information, for which there is no insurance that such information will prove accurate. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements set forth above. 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. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Leader of the public movement "Ukrainian Choice People's Right," a member of the Za Zhyttia (For Life) party, Viktor Medvedchuk, has been unanimously elected chairman of the political council of this party at its extraordinary congress. "A new composition of the political council of Za Zhyttia has been elected. As a result of a unanimous vote at the congress, Viktor Medvedchuk was elected chairman of the Za Zhyttia political party's council, who also spoke at the congress outlining the party's position on the most pressing current issues," the official website of the party reported on Sunday. The first stage of the extraordinary congress was convened by the head of the party, Ukrainian MP Vadym Rabinovych after the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers to raise gas prices for the population. Speaking at the congress, Rabinovych called these government actions "criminal and murderous for the economy, for ordinary people." According to him, Za Zhyttia party will do everything in its power to counter the "destructive economic course" of the current government, which makes the country completely dependent on the IMF. The party announced that the second stage of the extraordinary congress, which will be announced later, will take place soon. The embassies of France and Canada to Ukraine state that it is necessary to find the perpetrators of the attack which led to the death of former acting administrator of the executive committee of Kherson City Council and advisor to the Kherson mayor Kateryna Handziuk and bring them to justice. "A sad piece of news about the death of Kateryna Handziuk, the activist and fighter against corruption. The French Embassy expresses sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mrs. Handziuk. We urge the Ukrainian authorities to find the perpetrators of this tragedy and bring them to justice," the French embassy to Ukraine said on Twitter. Canadian Ambassador to Ukraine Roman Waschuk also stressed the importance of punishing the guilty. "The death of Kateryna Handziuk is a memento for everyone in the law enforcement system: those guilty of her barbaric murder should be punished," the Canadian diplomat wrote on Twitter. Ex-head of the Court of Appeal of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Valeriy Chornobuk has been detained in Kyiv. He is suspected of treason, was taken into custody, Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) Spokesman Andriy Lysenko has said. "On November 5, at 9:00, Kyiv's Holosiyivsky District Court considered a petition to elect a preventive measure to former head of the Appeal Court of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Chornobuk. According to the results of the petition, a preventive measure was chosen in the form of detention," Lysenko wrote on Facebook on Monday. As reported, Chornobuk was detained in Kyiv on November 3 by Ukraine's SBU Security Service officers. The ex-judge is suspected of committing crimes under Part 1 of Article 11 of Ukraine's Criminal Code (treason). Chornobuk left the peninsula and went to work in the city of Dnipro after the annexation of Crimea at the end of March 2014. The self-proclaimed State Council of the Republic of Crimea included him in the list of persons who are prohibited from entering Crimea. Kyiv's Holosiyivsky District Court remanded Chornobuk to pretrial detention. Chornobuk was dismissed on September 29, 2016 from the post of judge of the Court of Appeal of Dnipropetrovsk region for violating the oath after the High Council of Justice submitted a relevant submission to the Verkhovna Rada. However, the PGO did not find signs of delict under the article on treason in the judge's statements. Ukraine's National Police have completed all necessary investigatory steps in the case involving the assault on former acting administrator of the executive committee of Kherson City Council and advisor to the Kherson mayor Kateryna Handziuk and passed the case over to Ukraine's SBU Security Service, Ukraine's Interior Ministry has said. "Within the limits of authority, the National Police of Ukraine carried out all the necessary investigative and search actions in the framework of criminal proceedings opened on the fact of the murder of Kateryna Handziuk. In this regard, today, on November 5, the General Prosecutors Office made a decision to change the jurisdiction of the said criminal proceedings for the Main Investigation Department of the SBU," a statement released by the Liaison Department of Ukraine's Interior Ministry on Monday said. The ministry said the step will provide for combining the proceedings and conducting a pretrial investigation from the time of planning until the actual completion of the crime. "The investigation on establishing who commissioned the crime, initiated by the PGO, is being conducted by the SBU," the ministry said. The agreement on cooperation and interaction between Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate does not require ratification, director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies under the president of Ukraine, adviser to the president of Ukraine Rostyslav Pavlenko has said. "I think that it [the document] will be made public. It is, in fact, a framework agreement that defines the basis of the relationship, because the state is separated from the church, and the church from the state. It is about assistance in creating a church ... The document does not require ratification," Pavlenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday. He also stressed that the agreement signed by President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, "in no way contradicts the laws of Ukraine." The adviser to the president noted that the Ukrainian law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" obliges the state to assist religious organizations in the realization of their legitimate interests. "In particular, this is referred to in the agreement," he said. As reported, Poroshenko and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signed the agreement on cooperation and interaction between Ukraine and the Patriarchate of Constantinople following the meeting in Istanbul on November 3. Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Viacheslav Kyrylenko notes that the statement of the already former First Deputy Head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM), Alexander Hug, that he does not consider Russia to be an aggressor, means that during his term of office here he adhered to the Russian point of view on "internal conflict in Ukraine." "What kind of monitoring is it when they've seen Russians but don't recognize Russian aggression? Absurd!" Kyrylenko wrote on Twitter on Monday. In order to establish the identities of the people who ordered the killing of journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000, all the people who served in government posts at that time are now being checked and comprehensive forensic inquiries are being conducted, Ivan Lyschyna, Deputy Justice Minister of Ukraine and a Commissioner for the European Court of Human Rights, has announced. "The main investigation department of the Prosecutor General's Office continues its investigation into the masterminding and incitement of the intended killing of journalist Georgy Gongadze. The investigators have been checking all the people who served in government posts at that time as to their involvement in the commitment of the crime; a panel of comprehensive forensic inquiries has been underway," Lyschyna said on November 5 during a roundtable of the Verkhovna Rada's Committee for Foreign Affairs while speaking of the investigation to establish the identities of the people who had ordered the murder of Gongadze in Ukraine. As was reported earlier, Gongadze went missing in Kyiv on September 16, 2000. In November that year, a headless body was found in Kyiv region that, according to forensic experts, could have been Gongadze's. In 2009, remains of a human skull were found in Kyiv region, which, according to a statement by the Prosecutor General's Office, belonged to Gongadze. The funeral of the murdered journalist took place in Kyiv on March 22, 2016. The people who ordered the murder have not been identified yet. The National Police of Ukraine says that investigators have enough materials to solve the murder of acting chief of administration at Kherson City Council's Executive Committee, an advisor to the mayor of Kherson, and civic activist Kateryna Handziuk. "I am convinced that, taking into account the materials that the National Police have provided to the investigator of the Ukraine's SBU Security Service today, it will be enough to jointly prove the guilt, including that of those who hired the hitmen," deputy chief of the National Police Kostiantyn Bushuev told reporters in Kyiv on Monday. As was earlier reported, an unidentified person poured concentrated sulfuric acid over Handziuk in the vicinity of her house in Kherson on July 31. The lady suffered severe chemical burns and had to be taken to the local hospital. Soon she was transferred to a hospital in Kyiv. Reports appeared on November 4 that Handziuk had died. Investigators changed the qualification of the attack on the victim to completed crime under Clauses 4, 6, 11 and 12 of Part 2 of Article 115 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (premeditated murder committed by a group of people, for mercenary motives, with particular cruelty). On November 5, the media liaison office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reported that the investigative actions in the Handziuk case and the criminal proceedings had been transferred to the SBU Security Service of Ukraine. Earlier, police detained five suspects in the attempted murder of the activist. On Tuesday, November 6, at 12.00, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency's press center will host a press conference entitled: "How the Organized Criminal Group with Participation of Top SBU Officers, Using Illegal Seizure Schemes, is Attempting to Seize the Largest Construction Company Omox, which Built the Chaika Residential Complex near Kyiv." The participants are as follows: Director of Omox LLC Oleksiy Kulahin, Head of the Antiraider Union of Entrepreneurs of Ukraine Andriy Semydidko, lawyers of the company and representatives of the association of constructors of Ukraine (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation (044) 233 09 81. IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohammad Ali Jafari has defended the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran on the event's anniversary in the Iranian capital on Sunday November 4, Iranian media reported. "The revolution would have not lasted for forty years if the Americans remained in that embassy," Jafari said, adding, "The revolution would have come to an end within a decade" if the embassy was not seized. Contrary to all previous official accounts of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy and taking its diplomats hostage for 444 days, Jafari said that "Iranian officials knew about the decision to storm the embassy." However, in an apparent contradiction with his previous remark, he added that "a limited number of students attacked the U.S. embassy based on a spontaneous decision. Then once again he alluded to a pre-planned scenario, saying, "this was how the embassy was attacked, in order to pretend that it was the mob that made the decision." In his speech Jafari addressed President Donald Trump, "Mr. Trump!, Never threaten Iran. You should listen to the fearful laments of your soldiers in Tabas [where a rescue mission in 1980 to airlift the embassy hostages out of Iran failed] and the Persian Gulf [where US and UK marines were arrested by Iranian forces in separate events in previous years]." Jafari's speech was part of a series of organized gatherings and marches in Tehran and other major Iranian cities on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the embassy's seizure. A resolution read out for the crowd in Tehran forbade "any negotiation with America," while the crowd chanted slogans against the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia. The 1979 event, led to the severing of Iran-US ties for four decades. BALTIMORE, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE -- Generex Biotechnology Corp. (GNBT), an emerging, diversified health care provider, announced today that Goldman Small Cap Research, a stock market research firm specializing in the small cap and microcap sectors has released a new research report and CEO interview. The report carries a price target. To view the new research report, listen to the interview, along with viewing disclosures and disclaimers, or to download them in their entirety, please visit http://www.goldmanresearch.com. Generex is a strategic, diversified healthcare holdings company with offerings in a variety of services, diagnostics, medical devices, and pharmaceutical development. The Company's direct-to-patient services support its strategy of all-inclusive access to doctors, diagnostics, therapeutics, and additional health-related services to greatly improve the patient experience in receiving care. Generex's management services remove administrative burdens in multiple provider settings, including private practice and hospital, allowing doctors to devote more time to patient care. The Company also is engaged in clinical advancement of its wholly owned therapeutic products with a focus in immunotherapeutics and its proprietary buccal administration of insulin. In the Opportunity Research report, analyst Rob Goldman discusses the Company's compelling positioning, exciting opportunities, and innovative approach. Goldman noted, "Generex could go from also-ran to a firm generating revenue at an annual revenue run-rate of over $100 million. The Company just closed on an acquisition that has generated $100M or more annually in recent years and is primed to grow dramatically as it begins to offer its services in 30 states, versus 3 this year." "Generex plans to become a diversified health care firm that utilizes cash from its high growth M&A targets to help fund its R&D in the areas where an unmet need exists. These include diabetes, breast cancer, prostate cancer and others. The Company is also collaborating with a Canopy Growth-invested firm to explore using one of its delivery system offerings for medical marijuana patients in Canada." "Generex announced a 20:1 stock dividend with a record date of Friday While there is likely to be a re-adjustment in share price as a result, the current market capitalization, compared with its likely revenue next year (via M&A) and underlying value of its portfolio, appears to be at a major discount. As more deals are closed, major value could be unlocked in the coming months," commented Goldman. About Goldman Small Cap Research: Founded in 2009 by former Piper Jaffray analyst and mutual fund manager Rob Goldman, Goldman Small Cap Research produces sponsored and non-sponsored small cap and microcap stock research reports, articles, stock market blogs, and popular investment newsletters. Goldman Small Cap Research is not in any way affiliated with Goldman Sachs & Co. This press release contains excerpts of our most recently published sponsored company research report on LandStar, Inc. which carries a rating and a price target. The information used and statements of fact made have been obtained from sources considered reliable but we neither guarantee nor represent the completeness or accuracy. Goldman Small Cap Research relied solely upon information derived from Generex Biotechnology Corp. ("the Company") authorized press releases or legal disclosures made in its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission http://www.sec.gov. Separate from the factual content of our report about the Company, we may from time to time include our own opinions about the Company, its business, markets and opportunities. Any opinions we may offer about the Company are solely our own, and are made in reliance upon our rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and are provided solely for the general opinionated discussion of our readers. Our opinions should not be considered to be complete, precise, accurate, or current investment advice. Statements herein may contain forward-looking statements and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties affecting results. A Goldman Small Cap Research report, update, newsletter, article, trading alert, corporate profile, or press release is not intended as an offering, recommendation, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell the securities mentioned or discussed is to be used for informational purposes only. Please read all associated full disclosures, disclaimers, and analyst background on our website before investing. Neither Goldman Small Cap Research nor its parent is a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer with FINRA or any other regulatory agency. To download the research report, audio interview or any of our research, view our disclosures and disclaimers, or for more information, visit www.goldmanresearch.com. Goldman Small Cap Research was not compensated for research, interview or distribution services, including the production of this press release. About Generex Biotechnology Corp.: Generex Biotechnology Corp. (GNBT) is a strategic, diversified healthcare holdings company with offerings in a variety of services, diagnostics, medical devices, and pharmaceutical development. The Company's direct-to-patient services support its strategy of all-inclusive access to doctors, diagnostics, therapeutics, and additional health-related services to greatly improve the patient experience in receiving care. Generex's management services remove administrative burdens in multiple provider settings, including private practice and hospital, allowing doctors to devote more time to patient care. The Company also is engaged in clinical advancement of its wholly owned therapeutic products with a focus in immunotherapeutics and its proprietary buccal administration of insulin. For more information, please visit: www.Generex.com Goldman Small Cap Research Rob Goldman, Analyst 410-609-7100 rob@goldmanresearch.com Speaking in an interview on state-run TV November 3, the former chairman of the largest reformist party, the Islamic Participation Front, openly accused hardline conservatives of stealing the 2009 presidential election for incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "If we could turn the clock back to 2009, our party wouldnt even nominate a candidate for president, because as we now know, [the hardliners] werent going to allow a reformist to win, said Mohammad Reza Khatami. After the controversial reelection of Ahmadinejad in 2009, mass pro-democracy demonstrations erupted across Iran in what came to be known as the Green Movement. Authorities cracked down on demonstrators and Ahmadinejads challengers, Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, were put under house arrest along with Mousavis wife, Zahra Rahnavard. "Eight million fraudulent votes were cast to seal Ahmadinejad's victory, said Khatami, who in addition to leading the reformist camp, is a former first deputy speaker of parliament. They say that 39 million votes were cast in in the 2009 presidential election, but there were only 31 million legitimate ballots, he alleged. Lambasting the conservatives backed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for what he says was their key role in rigging the 2009 vote, Khatami says his information comes from anonymous sources within the conservative camp itself. Independent election monitors have echoed Khatamis allegations of fraud. In an audio recording circulated on social media in 2010 that is is widely believed to be the voice of an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander and deputy intelligence minister who goes by the nom de guerre Moshfegh, the speaker admits that security forces monitored reformist candidates and implemented a detailed plan to prevent reformist candidates from beating Ahmadinejad. Furthermore, a leaked video clip shows IRGC Chief Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari saying that in the run-up to the election, it was the consensus among high-ranking IRGC and conservatives that allowing a reformist to win the 2009 presidential election was a red line. When protests against Ahmadinejad's reelection gained momentum, Khamenei stepped in and threatened the demonstrators by saying, If they do not cease, then the responsibility of the consequences, the chaos, will be on them. In the video Gen. Jafari says "After [Khameneis remarks about protestors], it was clear that we couldnt allow even the peaceful demonstrations to take place. Immediately after Khamenei's warning, over 100 reformists, including Khatami himself, were arrested in June 2009. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 26 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Nov. 5. The 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, Nov. 5 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: Azerbaijan suffers from injustice, in particular from the occupation of its territories by neighboring Armenia, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a conference of Palestinian ambassadors in Asian countries November 5. The minister recalled that the resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of the UN Security Council adopted in 1993 have not yet been implemented. He stressed that the Azerbaijanis were subjected to ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories. 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, Nov. 5 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: Palestine shares the position of Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Palestine Riyad al-Maliki said in response to Trend's question. He said Palestine is a supporter of the implementation of international laws. "We believe that the best way to obtain full support from the international community is to comply with international laws and implement resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council," said Riyad al-Maliki. 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, Nov. 5 Trend: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva have attended the opening of the Aghdam branch of Azerkhalcha Open Joint Stock Company. The head of state cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the branch. President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva viewed the unique carpets weaved in various districts of Karabakh in 19thand early 20th centuries. Chairman of the Board of Azharkhalcha OJSC Vidadi Muradov informed President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva of the work done. The Aghdam branch of the Azerkhalcha OJSC occupies a total area of 1,250 square meters. 150 weavers and 14 administrative staff members will be employed in the branch. The building features a textile workshop, artist`s room, warehouse, canteen, medical point and sales room. The head of state and the first lady then met with carpet-weavers. First lady Mehriban Aliyeva then cut the first carpet woven here. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: Azerbaijan's support on the issue of Jerusalem is important for Palestine, the Foreign Minister of Palestine Riyad al-Maliki said at the opening of the conference of Palestinian ambassadors in Asian countries on Nov. 5. Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov addressing the opening session of the conference noted with satisfaction the decision to host the gathering as a response to request made by the Palestinian side and underlined the continuous support of Azerbaijan to the brotherly People of Palestine in their struggle to achieve peace, stability and sustainable development. Mammadyarov stressed that Azerbaijan consistently stands for the two-state solution of the Palestinian issue with East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine. It was noted that Azerbaijan hosted several international events on Palestine, including an international conference on the issue of Jerusalem, which was held last year in Azerbaijan with participation of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the United Nations Coordination Office for Humanitarian Affairs, the OIC, and various non-governmental and civil society organizations. Also, it has been emphasized that the Republic of Azerbaijan always supports Palestinian people in difficult times and is committed to Islamic solidarity and vivid example of this support is the allocation of $200,000 to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) by Azerbaijan in October 2018. Mammadyarov briefed the conference participants on Armenia's aggressive policy and its consequences against Azerbaijan, stressing that UN Security Council's four resolutions on the immediate and unconditional release of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan have not yet been implemented. Mammadyarov also informed the participants of the conference about the activities of Azerbaijan within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), considerable contribution of Azerbaijan to the cause of Islamic Solidarity, as well as initiatives launched and events organized in this regard. Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki expressed his gratitude for continuous support of Azerbaijan to the People of Palestine in their struggle to achieve peace and underlined that the decision to host the conference of Ambassadors of Palestine in Asian states is a vivid example to it. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 Trend: As part of their trip to Aghdam district, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva visited farmer Asmar Huseynova`s four-hectare cotton plantation in Hindarkh settlement in Aghjabadi district. Head of Aghjabadi District Executive Authority Shahin Mammadov and Asmar Huseynova informed the president and the first lady of the work done on the plantation. Cotton was planted in the 70 hectares of this plantation, and 253 tons of cotton were harvested last year. President Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva met with cotton growers and chatted with them. Cotton growers expressed gratitude for attention to the development of this area of agriculture in the country. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 Trend: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva have attended the inauguration of Qarabag Equestrian Complex of Qarabag Horse Breeding Farm LLC under the Animal Breeding Scientific-Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture. President Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the complex. Minister of Agriculture Inam Karimov and Head of Qarabag Equestrian Complex Maarif Huseynov highlighted the work done to develop horse breeding in the country, and conditions created at the complex. Qarabag Equestrian Complex occupies a total area of 35.5 hectares. All conditions have been created for workers at an administrative building of the Equestrian Complex. President Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva viewed conditions created at an indoor ring. An exhibition on the history of Qarabag horses was also arranged there. President Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva watched Azerbaijan's ancient national Sur-papag horse game. The president and his wife also familiarized themselves with the conditions created at a horse stable. Two hundred Qarabag horses are kept there. The complex employs 28 specialists. President Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva also watched performance of Suvarilar group of the Equestrian Center of the State Border Service. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Ilhama Isabalayeva Trend: The Azerbaijani state has always paid and is paying great attention to the theater art, Culture Minister Abulfas Garayev said speaking Nov. 5 at the 5th Baku International Theater Conference, titled "The Philosophy of Theater in the 21st Century: the Concept of Existence." The minister noted that the Azerbaijani national professional theater, the history of which dates back 147 years, adequately represents the country abroad today. "The history of the Azerbaijani theater cannot be viewed separately from the 135-year history of the Yerevan State Theater," Garayev said. Twenty percent of Azerbaijani lands were occupied - cultural monuments of Azerbaijan there were destroyed, in particular the theater buildings suffered damages, he said. "Thanks to the attention and care of the Azerbaijani state, the Irevan, Fuzuli and Shusha theaters have not stopped their creative activity, and today they continue to function in other places. This activity proves that art is immortal." He added that the Azerbaijani theater is developing both in Baku and in the regions. "In the near future, the 90th anniversary of the Theater of Young Spectators will be celebrated." "Today, along with 26 state-run theaters, such theaters as UNS, municipal theaters operate in Azerbaijan. We are attaching and will attach special importance to the activity of all theaters," the minister said. The 5th Baku International Theater Conference, titled "The Philosophy of Theater in the 21st Century: the Concept of Existence", organized by the Ministry of Culture, the Union of Theater Workers and the National Academy of Sciences, takes place on Nov. 5-6 in Baku. The conference is attended by 110 theatrical figures from more than 40 countries. The Baku International Theater Conference is held for the fifth time. Famous culture figures from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Serbia, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Turkey and other countries participate in it. Discussions, master classes and various theatrical performances will be held at the two-day event. 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, Nov. 5 By Abdul Karimkhanov - Trend: The Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan has approved the "Procedure for organizing and holding a competition to choose exporters who will participate in support measures" and "Criteria for determining certain foreigners who will participate in consumer missions." Documents define the conditions for selecting the members of export and consumer missions, conditions for obtaining international certificates for export, for the promotion of Made in Azerbaijan brand in foreign markets, for conducting marketing research at the request of entrepreneurs, the implementation of research programs and other measures. The competitions for participation in export missions will be held by a special commission created by the competition organizer. Commission members, including the chairman and vice-chairman, are appointed by the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan. The commission will consist of seven people. In January 2018, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on amendments to the "Procedure for determining and regulating the mechanism of payment for part of the expenses paid from the state budget for the organization of export missions to foreign countries, research of foreign markets and marketing activities, promotion of the "Made in Azerbaijan" brand in foreign markets, obtaining certificates and patents by local companies in foreign countries in connection with exports, research programs and projects for export development". According to the decree, this year the number of export missions that can be organized with the participation of Azerbaijani entrepreneurs within one calendar year has been increased from 10 to 25. The number of international fairs and exhibitions has been increased from 5 to 10. In recent years, Azerbaijan has been actively promoting the Made in Azerbaijan brand in foreign countries through the creation of trading houses. English Spanish Ricardo Salinas, sponsor of the event, seeks to share ideas to improve society MEXICO CITY, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grupo Salinas, a group of dynamic, fast-growing and technologically advanced companies, deeply committed to the modernization of the countries where they operate, announced today that La Ciudad de la Ideas 2018 (www.ciudaddelasideas.com)The International Festival of Bright Minds, sponsored by Ricardo Salinas and Grupo Salinaswill spread groundbreaking knowledge to better understand humankind and its environment. In the Auditorio Metropolitano of Puebla from November 16 to 18, with the theme "Burning Questions," more than 60 international experts will present individually and in debates with the most innovative ideas regarding science, technology, human behavior, philosophy, sustainability, sociology, art and culture. Some of the "Burning Questions" are: Why should intolerance be tolerated? How do we work and live with conscience, responsibility and purpose? What is the most effective way to achieve the empowerment of women? At what cost can we capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? How can we stay cool on a planet that raises its temperature? What kind of urbanism will be necessary for a population of 10 billion people? Similarly, under the "Mex-I-can" initiative, actions will be presented that support the construction of a better world, developed by Mexicans, from optimal care of amputee patients, to cutting-edge psychiatric ideas. As every year since 2008, the event will be held in the Auditorio Metropolitano of Puebla, with live speakers presenting to an audience of 5,000. Additionally, in line with the firm conviction of Ricardo Salinas to extensively spread knowledge, tens of thousands of viewers will be able to keep abreast of the conference through broadcast television and digital media through the adn40 network, as well as periodic updates on the Azteca uno network. Ricardo Salinas promotes activities that allow a better understanding of the environment in order to improve society. About Grupo Salinas Grupo Salinas (www.gruposalinas.com) is a group of dynamic, fast growing, and technologically advanced companies focused on creating: economic value through market innovation and goods and services that improve standards of living; social value, to create social capabilities to improve communities; and environmental value, by reducing the negative impact of business activities. Created by Mexican entrepreneur Ricardo B. Salinas (www.ricardosalinas.com), Grupo Salinas operates as a management development and decision forum for the top leaders of member companies. These companies include: TV Azteca (www.TVazteca.com; www.irtvazteca.com), Grupo Elektra (www.grupoelektra.com.mx), Banco Azteca (www.bancoazteca.com.mx), Advance America (www.advanceamerica.net), Afore Azteca (www.aforeazteca.com.mx), Seguros Azteca (www.segurosazteca.com.mx), Punto Casa de Bolsa (www.puntocasadebolsa.mx), Totalplay (www.totalplay.com.mx) and Totalplay Empresarial (http://totalplayempresarial.com.mx). TV Azteca and Grupo Elektra trade on the Mexican Stock Market and are part of its Sustainability Index. Each of the Grupo Salinas companies operates independently, with its own management, board of directors and shareholders. Grupo Salinas has no equity holdings. The group of companies share a common vision, values and strategies for achieving rapid growth, superior results and world-class performance. Press Relations: Luciano Pascoe, +52 (55) 1720 1313 ext. 36553, lpascoe@gruposalinas.com.mx Daniel McCosh, +52 (55) 1720-0059, dmccosh@gruposalinas.com Baku, Azerbaijan, November 5 By Huseyn Veliyev - Trend: The CLAAS company will train Azerbaijani farmers in the technology of conservation of high-quality cattle fodder, the International Export Manager of CLAAS Global Sales GmbH, Wassili Seider, told Trend. Seider noted that the efficient CLAAS technologies, which are represented by a wide range of forage harvesters and tractors, will be used for fodder conservation. "When preparing a balanced fodder, farmers need to take into account the ratio of energy and protein, as well as proper composition of the fodder, that is, the quantities of starch and fiber. The key factors in forage conservation as exemplified by silage are the correct time period for harvesting, grain fragmentation degree, compaction of the fodder, use of a protective covering during tamping, etc. The combination of all these factors is possible only with the use of highly efficient machines with maximum power," Seider said. Increasing milk productivity in Azerbaijan, according to Seider, is mainly dependent on round-the-clock provision of high-quality fodder, since the composition of a healthy fodder is a major factor for productivity. CLAAS presents a wide range of machines for conservation of high-quality fodders, taking into account the different needs of customers. The product line of CLAAS company includes forage harvesters, pickup presses and the full offer of the green line, as well as telescopic wheel loaders that optimize logistics, Seider said. The international export manager of CLAAS Global Sales GmbH company believes that the innovations in the agricultural sector play an important role and streamline business processes, which result in increased productivity. "Our company pays great attention to innovations and allocates 250 million euros annually for the improvement of the existing technologies and development of new ones. One of the examples is the JAGUAR forage harvester, which is optionally equipped with three types of grain crushers, a stone protection system STOP ROCK, an automated loading system AUTO FILL, harvesting crops moisture sensor and TELEMATICS system," Seider said. Seider said the agricultural market of Azerbaijan is developing, and the main task of CLAAS company is to keep up with local agricultural producers, offering optimal solutions for the sake of development, growth and profits of farmers. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @h_veliyev Baku, Azerbaijan, November 5 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: In 2018, the volume of production of cars and trailers in Azerbaijan in total terms is expected to reach 14.3 million manats compared to 0.1 million manats last year, says the concept of socio-economic development of Azerbaijan and the forecast figures for 2019 and the next three years. Currently, two passenger car factories are functioning in Azerbaijan - the Nakhchivan Automobile Plant (NAZ-Lifan trademark) and the Azerbaijan-Iranian Automobile Plant in the Neftchala industrial district, where cars are manufactured under the Khazar brand. Also the Ganja Automobile Plant is functioning in the country, at the premises of which a number of trucks of Belarusian and Russian companies are manufactured. Another automotive plant of the Russian GAZ Group company, is planned to be built at the end of 2019 in the Hajigabul industrial zone. Since the beginning of sales, since June 2018, over 350 Khazar vehicles have already been sold. The Chairman of the Board of Azermash OJSC (co-owner of the plant), Emin Akhundov told Trend previously that despite the fact that the Khazar trademark is relatively new in the Azerbaijani market, it is in rather high demand. In the near future, it is also expected that Azerbaijani cars will be sold on the Russian market. The Nakhchivan Automobile Plant also plans to intensify its activities. Thus, the plant is expected to manufacture the first electric cars in the country. At the same time, from next year, the company will deliver to the Azerbaijani market the ambulance cars under the NAZ-Lifan brand. Since 2010, over 5,000 NAZ-Lifan cars have already been sold. According to the governments forecasts, in the forthcoming years, the production of cars and trailers will expand. Thus, in 2019, this figure will amount to 31.7 million manats, in 2020 to 56 million manats, in 2021 to 85.3 million manats, and in 2022 it will exceed one hundred million manats and will amount to 113.3 million manats. In quantitative terms, the country plans to gradually increase the volume of production of passenger cars to 7,000 units per year. For the time being, their number has been projected at 600 units for 2019. But beginning from 2020, their volumes will increase significantly, to 2,000 units, in 2021 to 3,500 units, in 2022 to 5,300 units and, finally, in 2023 to 7,000 units. The production of trucks will also expand - 55 vehicles will be manufactured in 2019, 843 vehicles - in 2020, 752 vehicles - in 2020, 721 vehicles - in 2021 and 782 vehicles - in 2022. The official exchange rate for November 5 is 1.7 AZN / USD. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 Trend: The Israeli company Levia Group will build a poultry factory in the Andijan region of Uzbekistan with a production capacity of 14,000 tons of broiler meat per year, Uzbek media reported. In May 2018, a visit was carried out by specialists from Israel to the Andijan region to familiarize with the proposed location of the factory. During the visit, representatives of the Levia Group inspected and approved a land plot for construction. Following the negotiations, a memorandum was signed between the Levia Group and the Uzbek agricultural holding company O'zbekoziqovqatxolding on the establishment of a joint venture of the poultry factory of meat production. The preliminary cost of construction will be $46 million. Baku, Azerbaijan, November 5 Trend: The Uzbek-Ukrainian trade turnover has increased from January to August 2018 by 54.1 percent and has reached $268.4 million, Podrobno.uz quoted the Ambassador of Ukraine to Uzbekistan, Yuriy Savchenko as saying. "The trade turnover between our countries is growing and it deserves the highest positive appraisal. This year, the growth of Ukrainian exports is more intense than last years growth of Uzbek exports, mainly because of sugar and some other goods," the ambassador said. In January-August, the Ukrainian exports to Uzbekistan reached $187.4 million, with an increase of 83.6 percent, while the imports of Uzbek products by Ukraine exceeded $81.1 million, with an increase of 12.4 percent. Ukraine mainly supplies to Uzbekistan pharmaceutical and food products, as well as various equipment. A few days ago, the Uzbek MPs stated that the country could introduce restrictive measures against Ukrainian goods in response to the anti-subsidy investigation into the import of passenger cars from Uzbekistan. In response, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Uzbekistan, Yuriy Savchenko, called on the Uzbek side to engage in dialogue. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Taleh Mursagulov Trend: The prevention of the influence of external macroeconomic threats on the Azerbaijani economy will be one of the main tasks of monetary and fiscal policy in 2019, Azerbaijani Minister of Finance Samir Sharifov said. Sharifov made the remarks at a joint meeting of parliamentary committees in Baku on Nov. 5 during the discussion of the state budget for 2019. The prevention of risks of import increase and export reduction amid weakening currencies of the main trading partners of Azerbaijan will also be among the priorities, the minister stressed. However, budget stability, ensuring medium-term sustainability are also of particular importance, Sharifov added. "In 2019 and years ahead, the state and consolidated budgets will be prepared in accordance with the new budget rules. The Azerbaijani state budget revenues for 2019 are projected at 22,917.5 million manats (including centralized income - 22,180.734 million manats, local income - 736.766 million manats). The state budget expenses are projected at 24,780.1 million manats (including centralized expenses 23,939.288 million manats, local expenses - 840.812 million manats). The forecast of the oil price, outlined in the state budget for 2019 to calculate oil revenues, is $60 per barrel. Thus, 59.8 percent of the forecast state budget revenues for 2019 or 13.7 billion manats will account for the oil sector, 40.2 percent or 9.217 billion manats - for the non-oil sector. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 Trend: On Nov. 2, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Rumas and Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov signed an action plan (roadmap) for development of cooperation between the two countries, Uzbekistan News reported. The roadmap includes more than 100 measures for development of bilateral trade in goods and services, the provision of access to the parties' markets on a reciprocal basis, the joint activity in the industrial cooperation, agriculture, light industry, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, construction, petrochemistry and energy. Belarus and Uzbekistan will elaborate the joint establishment of facilities for production of milk, medicines, medical equipment, mini-tractors and attachments, as well as bicycles, establishment of a joint transport and logistics enterprise. The Belarus organizations will help build modern commercial dairy farms in Uzbekistan. It is planned to supply Uzbekistan with the Belarus woodworking and consumer goods, the MAZ trucks worth $2 million, the MTZ tractors worth $5 million. The Belarus Automobile Plant (BelAZ) is ready to take part in tenders for the supplies. The sides will organize mutual food supplies, work on the possible export of the Belarus malt and sugar. Uzbekistan is ready to increase the supply of dried fruits. A trading house or a store of Uzbek goods may open in Minsk. Belarus also intends to enter the Uzbek cotton-textile cluster. For this purpose, a project of construction of spinning, weaving and finishing factories will be implemented. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Taleh Mursagulov - Trend: By the end of 2018, 12 agroparks will be created in Azerbaijan, the Deputy Economy Minister of Azerbaijan Shirzad Abdullayev said during the discussion of the state and consolidated budgets for 2018 at a joint meeting of parliamentary committees Nov. 5. The deputy minister said that six agroparks have already been created and work is underway to create agroparks and large farms in 30 districts of the country. Their total area is 192,000 square meters, and the volume of investments amounts to 1.4 billion manats. Abdullayev stressed that the Azerbaijani government provides comprehensive support for the creation of agroparks and agricultural development. Thus, 219 million manats were allocated for the creation of infrastructure of agroparks and other 111 million manats accounted for concessional loans for residents of these agroparks. He noted that the creation of agroparks and large farms is an important element in the development of the agricultural sector. According to the government's forecasts, the sectors of agriculture, forestry and fish farming in 2018 should increase by 5.1 percent, in 2019 - by 4.6 percent, in 2020 - 4.8 percent, in 2021 - 4.6 percent and in 2022 - by 4.3 percent. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Rashid Shirinov Trend: Over 200 long-term contracts worth 5 billion tenge for orders from small and medium-sized businesses were signed in January-June 2018 in the East Kazakhstan Region, head of the Entrepreneurship and Industrial-Innovative Development Administration of the region, Yerzhan Shurmanov told Trend. The contracts were concluded within the partnership program between the regions administration, Chamber of Entrepreneurs and 28 backbone enterprises to maximize the placement of orders among small and medium-sized businesses of the region. Shurmanov also noted other mechanisms being applied to support entrepreneurship in East Kazakhstan. For example, since 2016, a commission has been operating in the region to support domestic commodity production and assist promotion of products in the domestic market. "Also, to provide targeted support to entrepreneurship and study in detail the industry development, the region was one of the first in Kazakhstan to form pre-tender and post-tender control groups," the head of administration noted. Moreover, to assist customers in choosing a domestic enterprise for cooperation, last year a register of domestic producers of the region was formed, which includes 746 enterprises. (371.31 KZT = 1 USD on Nov. 5) --- Follow the author on Twitter: @ShirinovRashid Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.5 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Denmark and Azerbaijan have opportunities for cooperation in energy efficiency, Danish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Svend Olling told Trend. "I especially see opportunities in the area of energy efficiency as well as renewable energy and technology," he said. Olling pointed out that Denmark is a leading nation in the industry of green energy, and is always keen on dispersing green energy production and consumption technologies to other countries. "Azerbaijan is not lacking energy sources, as the country is rich in oil and gas. Still, the concern for the climate is something that makes enhanced cooperation in the field of clean energy relevant worldwide. It is a responsibility for all nations to do their best to lower carbon emissions," noted the envoy. The diplomat went on to add that one way to take action is through investing in clean and sustainable energy sources. "There is a number of possible ways to do it, be it through renewable energy, waste-to-energy or district heating," he noted. Olling pointed out that even in a time when green energy might be on top of the agenda, oil and gas are still important energy sources. "A transition to low carbon energy would also release more oil and gas for Azerbaijan to export, which in turn will increase the prosperity of the country. This is why a mix of available energy sources could make Azerbaijan even stronger in the sphere of energy in the long term," said the diplomat. Olling noted that cooperation in this field could take several different forms. "One method is through partnerships, where knowhow and technology is transferred from experts to local partners, and projects are conducted in accordance with local conditions and economy," he added. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.5 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: The November sanctions of the US on Iran will effect affect the market, as it will be proof of the strength or weakness of the US (as largest oil producer and consumer), Cyril Widdershoven, a Middle East geopolitical specialist and energy analyst, a partner at Dutch risk consultancy VEROCY and SVP MEA-Risk, told Trend. "If no reaction, global oil market shows it is very well supplied, which I doubt, looking at the current fundamentals worldwide and possible hickups. Dont forget, in addition to Iran, Venezuela and others are totally imploding, while Iraq, Libya, Nigeria and Algeria are not keeping up also," said the expert. Widdershoven believes that effectiveness of the sanctions will depend on: US legal sanctions on 3rd parties Possibility of US to control and block SWIFT system for Iran Coordination with Arab OPEC producers Willingness of Asian countries not to get into a real conflict with the US EU has no influence at all, Brussels and governments can talk and put in place whatever they want, internationally operating companies in Europe will not burn their fingers on Iran. Further the expert noted that in order the maintain the oil market balance, other oil producers first need to coordinate overall production and export volumes to counter the loss of Iranian volumes in the market. "At the same time, OPEC and Russia need to organize a production agreement, without Iran, to cope with new situation. Fluctuations will be in the market, but most of them will be in December 2018 or start 2019, when oversupply from Iran over the last weeks will have been taken out of the market," he added. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Utility President Carl Carlotti to Retire WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y., Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, National Fuel Gas Company ("National Fuel" or the "Company") (NYSE: NFG) announced that Carl M. Carlotti, President of National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation, the Utility segment of National Fuel Gas Company, has indicated his intention to retire, effective Feb. 1, 2019, after more than 34 years of service. "I congratulate Carl for an outstanding career," said Ronald J. Tanski, President and Chief Executive Officer of National Fuel Gas Company. "Under his stewardship, we have continued to build upon our impressive record of providing safe, reliable, and affordable natural gas service to more than 740,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in New York and Pennsylvania. During his tenure, the Utility has accelerated the modernization of its pipeline system and has been recognized in state-directed management audits as a leader in customer service and efficiency." Carlotti joined National Fuel as a staff attorney in the Erie, Pa., office and spent the majority of his career at that location. He was very involved in the community, having served as board chairperson of numerous nonprofit organizations in Erie, Pa., including the United Way of Erie County, Saint Vincent Health System, the Erie Regional Chamber & Growth Partnership, and the Erie County Bar Association. "We wish Carl and his family the very best in his retirement," Tanski said. He will be succeeded by Donna L. DeCarolis, presently Vice President, Business Development of National Fuel Gas Company. DeCarolis has had a long career with the Company, joining National Fuel in 1983, and has been Vice President of Business Development since October 2007. During her tenure at National Fuel, she has managed a number of different business areas, including Investor Relations, Quality Assurance, Human Resources, Corporate Communications, Energy Marketing, and Consumer Business. DeCarolis is active in cultural and other nonprofit organizations serving communities throughout Western New York. National Fuel is an integrated energy company reporting financial results for five operating segments: Exploration and Production, Pipeline and Storage, Gathering, Utility, and Energy Marketing. Additional information about National Fuel is available at www.nationalfuelgas.com . Photos accompanying this announcement are available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4c633bf5-1b38-409c-b67f-12ca829bd6b4 http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b50341c9-97b2-4b6d-99f5-3e59a25a9832 Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: Siemens can implement a number of projects in the energy, industrial, transport and other sectors of Uzbekistan, the press service of Uzbekneftegaz said. According to the information, on Oct. 29-31 a Siemens delegation headed by President of the company in Russia and Central Asia Alexander Liberov visited Uzbekistan. The German company held meeting with Uzbekneftegaz dedicated to cooperation in the fuel and energy industry, further technological partnership and construction of a plant for the production of synthetic liquid fuel in the Kashkadarya region of Uzbekistan. Tech solutions of Siemens can also be used in the expansion project of the Shurtan gas and chemical complex. Siemens also held talks with representatives of Uzbekenergo. The sides discussed the company's participation in the expansion project of the Talimarjan thermal power plant (TPP), the Tashkent TPP, the modernization of the Syrdarya TPP, the possibility of using Siemens Smart Grid technologies in the country's power sector. During the meeting with the Uzbekistan Railways, the two companies touched upon cooperation in the supply of locomotives, automation of railway tracks, as well as a project to automate sorting stations. In Nov. 2017, Siemens and Uzbekistan announced the start of a large-scale cooperation program. Agreements were signed on technology partnership in the fuel and energy complex, the digitalization of urban infrastructure and the health care. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Iran will sell its oil and break sanctions reimposed by the United States on its vital energy and banking sectors, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told economists at a meeting broadcast live on state television on Monday. "America wanted to cut to zero Iran's oil sales ... but we will continue to sell our oil ... to break sanctions," Rouhani said. In May, U.s. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of world powers' 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed a first round of sanctions on Iran in August. The US government's sanctions against Iran go into effect on Nov.5. The sanctions are designed to target Iranian oil exports and the country's financial sector. The sanctions are aimed at dissuading third countries from doing business with Iran. While the US government has issued waivers to eight nations, including India, multiple European countries and Japan and South Korea have already stopped purchases of Iranian oil. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Taleh Mursagulov Trend: Azerbaijans strategic currency reserves, which have reached $45 billion over 10 months, provide an opportunity for successful implementation of measures to counter the global crisis and rapidly solve economic, social, environmental and other issues, Executive Director of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) Shahmar Movsumov said. Movsumov made the remarks in Baku on Nov. 5 at a joint meeting of parliamentary committees during the discussion of the state budget for 2019. "The structural reforms carried out in all sectors of the country recently, the liberalization of the economy and the development of the non-oil sector have ensured the sustainability of Azerbaijans economy, he said. Today, the country has sufficient potential for development and financial potential." SOFAZ's basic indicators for 2019, as well as the parameters of the state budget have been formed on the basis of the average annual oil price of $60 per barrel, he said. SOFAZs revenues for the next year are projected at 15.579 billion manats, which is 28.4 percent more than SOFAZs revenues in 2017, and by 1.8 percent more than the figure forecast for 2018. "Revenues from the sale of profit oil and gas accounting for Azerbaijan's share - 13.218 billion manats - have the biggest weight, Movsumov added. "Application of new fiscal budgetary rules on medium-term and long-term management of expenditures of the 2019 consolidated budget reduces the dependence of the state budget on the volatility of oil revenues and creates conditions for strengthening of budget discipline, he said. SOFAZs expenditures for the next year have been formed taking into account these rules." He said these rules are an integral part of the reforms aimed at reducing the dependence of the economy on the oil. "As a result of the application of the new fiscal rules for the first time in 2019, the non-oil deficit in GDP is expected to reduce by 1.7 percentage points, which demonstrates the positive impact of the budget rules, Movsumov said. In 2019, SOFAZs expenses, excluding the expenses for managing SOFAZ, are projected at 11.364 billion manats, which is 3.3 percent more than in 2017 and 0.7 percent less than the figure forecast for 2018. He said SOFAZs budget surplus in 2019 is projected at 4.214 billion manats. SOFAZ was established in 1999 with assets of $271 million. As of October 1, 2018, SOFAZs assets increased by 8.88 percent as compared to early 2018 ($35.806 billion) and amounted to $38.987 billion. Based on SOFAZ's regulations, its funds may be used for the construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems. The main goals of the State Oil Fund include accumulation of resources and placement of assets abroad in order to minimize the negative effect to the economy, prevention of "Dutch disease" to some extent, promotion of resource accumulation for future generations and support of current social and economic processes in Azerbaijan. (1.7 AZN = 1 USD on Nov. 5) Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, November 5 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: A meeting with Mohammad Homayoun Qayumi, Acting Finance Minister of Afghanistan has been held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement. During the meeting, special attention was paid to the implementation of important joint infrastructure projects, such as the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline and the use of the first phase of the "International Asian Railway Transport Corridor" Kerki-Imamnazar (Turkmenistan) - Akina (Afghanistan). The sides reaffirmed the mutual commitment of the two countries to further intensify the bilateral dialogue, discussed the situation in the region and the priorities for the development of Turkmen-Afghan cooperation in various fields. Among the priority themes, the parties noted the important role of interstate cooperation in the trade-economic, fuel-energy, transport and cultural-humanitarian fields. "The delegation of the IRA expressed sincere gratitude for the continued assistance provided by Turkmenistan in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, commending Turkmenistans active participation in stabilizing and establishing a peaceful and prosperous life in the neighboring state," the message says. The meeting of the Intergovernmental Turkmen-Afghan Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation is being held in Ashgabat. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Azad Hasanli Trend: The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) sold $489.6 million at currency auctions organized by the Central Bank in October 2018, the Fund said in a message Nov. 5. SOFAZ sold to banks $394.8 million in September. Since the beginning of the year, Azerbaijani banks have bought around $4.5 billion from the Fund. The Oil Fund will continue the sale of foreign currency through auctions in 2018. The sale of currency is carried out as part of SOFAZ transfers to the state budget of Azerbaijan, which are planned to stand at 10.966 billion manats in 2018. The official rate of manat for the next day is determined on the basis of the weighted average rate under transactions concluded with commercial banks in the interbank currency market and auctions. Auctions are held in the format of one-sided currency sale. (1.7 manats = $1 on Nov. 5) --- Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli Details added (first version posted at 14:09). Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 Trend: Azerbaijan has been elected to the Radio Regulations Board (RRB) of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for the group of countries in the region C (Eastern Europe and Northern Asia), a source in the Azerbaijani telecommunications market told Trend. The elections were held as part of the ITU plenipotentiary conference, which started on October 29 in Dubai and will last until November 16, 2018. Sahiba Hasanova, an Azerbaijani engineer, who also represents the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan, has been elected to the ITU Board for the Group of Countries of the Region C and the ITU Council. Nikolai Varlamov (Russia), the head of the International Department of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Radio Reserch and Development Institute (FSUE NIIR), has also been elected to the RRB membership. Elections to the RRB were held for five regions. Azerbaijan entered the Council with 119 votes. Along with Azerbaijan, Romania (137 votes), Russia (136 votes), Poland (125 votes) and the Czech Republic (112 votes) also entered the ITU Council. The Plenipotentiary Conference is convened once every four years and is administered by the Governing Body. The conference is a supreme ITU body responsible for developing the organizations future policy. The general policy is determined during the conference, also the four-year strategic and financial plans are adopted, and the organizations top management, the members of the Council and the Radio Regulations Board are elected. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @h_veliyev Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. By Elnur Baghishov Trend: In the first five months of this Iranian year (started March 21, 2018), 4,322 tons of nectarines and peaches worth $4,391,471 were imported by Iran from different countries, according to the Iranian Customs Administrations statistics. Peaches and nectarines were imported mainly from Spain and Greece, Mizan News Agency reported. According to the statistics, 2,388 tons of peaches and nectarines worth $2,552.80 million were imported from Spain, 1,934 tons of peaches and nectarines worth $1,839,391 were imported from Greece. As a result of the recent devaluation in Iran, the foreign currency deficit has been observed in the country and the prices for products have sharply increased. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Elnur Baghishov Trend: The more US sanctions are imposed on Iran, the more support is rendered for Iran to export goods, Fars News Agency cited executive director of the Iran Export Guarantee Fund Seyed Kamal Seyedali as saying. The trade balance is expected to increase to $4-5 billion this Iranian year (started March 21, 2018), he added. He said that the Iran Export Guarantee Fund, as a defense shield, can help exporters in this economic war. Seyedali added that economic warfare requires leverages. One of the leverages to combat this economic warfare is the Export Guarantee Fund. The government has reduced the service fee in various areas. The service fee for exports to Iraq and Afghanistan is 1 percent and it reduced up to 35-45 percent, he said. Tehran, Iran, Nov.5 Trend: Referring to the Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) bill's rejection at Iran's Guardian Council, a member of the country's parliament said that the council members found a lot of shortcomings, and said the bill was against the Shari'a and the constitution. The Guardian Councils spokesman, Abbasali Kadkhodaei, said that the council has examined the bill and decided it has some problems and ambiguities. The council has sent the bill back to the parliament, according to the spokesman. The bill was returned to Parliament, and the Board of Directors of the Parliament referred it to the National Security Commission. It is supposed that the commission will hold a meeting this week or next week and after reconsideration, they will return the bill to representatives, Jalal Mirzaie told Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA). If the bill is approved by the representatives again, the bill will send to Expediency Discernment Council to decide, he said. I think the opinion of the Expediency Discernment Council, according to the position of Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani has already been announced, he said. It is clear that this dispute is not supposed to be resolved. Pointing to the new complexity of CFT bill, he said that Iran expected to be more intelligent in this regard, given the reality. "However, the Guardian Council has decided to reject the bill. Now we have to decide again. It is likely that the parliament will protect its previous vote," he said. Kermani went on to add that Iran "shot itself in the foot." According to my assessment, rejection of the bill is making the country`s situation worse, he believes. The leaders of their three branches of power including Legislative, executive and judicial were agreed to approve the CFT bill. Surprisingly, contrary to the views of the three powers the Guardian Council decides to reject the bill, he said. I'm not much optimistic about the Expediency Discernment Council`s decision," he said. The CFT is one of the four bills put forward by the government to meet standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It was approved at Iran's parliament by 143 votes to 120 on October 7, but had to receive Guardian's Council's blessing to become law. Following the Iranian parliament's approval of the CFT, the FATF said it had decided to continue suspending counter-measures, which can go as far as limiting or even banning transactions with a country. The FATF cannot impose sanctions, but individual states that are its members have used the group's reports to take punitive measures against their adversaries. As a result, Iran has been targeted by the US and European sanctions. New Zealand's senior assistant to prime minister while supporting his country's support for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), said it was an important agreement for the region, Iran and the int'l community to achieve peace and nuclear control, according to IRNA. Anthony Smith in his meeting with Hossein Amir Abdollahiyan, the special aide to the Majlis (Parliament) Speaker and director general of the international affairs of Iranian parliament, while expressing the support of his country for the JCPOA, said that it was an important agreement for the region, Iran and the international community to achieve peace and nuclear control. 'The Islamic Republic of Iran and New Zealand are in close contact with each other, and we also share common views on various issues. New Zealand's senior assistant to prime minister, while expressing his country's concern about the issue of Palestine, said New Zealand defends the Palestinian cause at the United Nations. Amir Abdollahiyan said that US President Donald Trump's sanctions policy has aroused hatred against the White House policies, citing the wrong decisions of Trump and the US administration in the region and the world, and imposing sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and other countries. International politics cannot be governed by commercial rules, and Mr Trump will inevitably change his policies, he said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Matanat Nasibova Trend: The statements of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, voiced during their recent visit to the region, once again showed their lack of initiative in the negotiations to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The co-chairs traditionally noted the importance of maintaining an atmosphere of trust for intensive negotiations to settle the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. International mediators merely confirmed the obvious fact that after the meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, which took place on the sidelines of the CIS summit in Dushanbe in September, the tensions on the contact line of troops decreased noticeably. Indeed, after the meeting of the leaders of the two countries, the tensions on the line of contact decreased. For example, while previously the units of the Armenian armed forces violated the ceasefire 160 or more times during a day, the statistics of recent weeks show that the number of violations does not exceed 30 times per day. But, given that the leadership of Armenia still shies away from substantive negotiations with Azerbaijan, the observed decline in tension is nothing but another attempt by Yerevan to mislead the world community, to show Armenia "as a supporter of peace", not war. To this end, the Armenian prime minister often speaks about Armenias "commitment to peace", saying that the parties should work out mechanisms of trust, and take other security measures. The populist statements of the Armenian PM are of the same declarative nature as the traditional statements of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on the necessity of mutual concessions of the parties. Meanwhile, the immediate task of the co-chairs is to intensify the negotiation process and apply mechanisms of influence on Armenia - the cause of the conflict. As practice shows, the meetings at various political forums to resolve the Karabakh conflict would be more effective if there was a pressure by international mediators (representing the leading powers) on the occupant country - Armenia. As a result, the illegal practice of Yerevan to keep the territories of Azerbaijan under occupation and maintain the status quo unequivocally violates the norms and principles of international law, and this fact should primarily concern the co-chairs, who, according to the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group, have pledged to fulfill their mediation mission in accordance with the international law. It is just the OSCE MG which, as the only and important mediation forum, is obliged to force Armenia to comply with the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the Helsinki Final Act. The co-chairs should intensify the negotiations in this vein in order to achieve positive results in resolving the conflict. Azerbaijan, in turn, is making efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully, and this fact also does not remain beyond the attention of world powers, and in particular the United States. This is noted by senior officials in the US presidential administration and the State Department. For example, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent, during his visit to Baku, said there was progress towards resolving the conflict after the New York meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the Dushanbe meeting of the leaders of the two countries. The fact that the Dushanbe conversation is of great importance for the intensification of the negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was also stated by the former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, former co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza. He noted that this event is a key factor ensuring a certain degree of mutual trust, which gives prerequisites for a breakthrough in negotiations. Azerbaijan, as a party affected by the conflict imposed by Armenia, along with statements by the leading powers supporting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, expects practical steps from the OSCE Minsk Group to intensify the negotiations, and in particular, force Armenia to de-occupy the occupied territories. But the international mediators are passive and, apparently, still untenable, which was confirmed once again by their last visit to 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. Matanat Nasibova, Trend columnist Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an international businessman from the kingdom, said on Sunday that an official investigation into the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi will exonerate the countrys leader, Reuters reported. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the Saudi government and its de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in early October. Saudi Arabia should publicly release the findings of the murder investigation which would surely exonerate Saudi Arabias leader, Prince Alwaleed said on Fox News Channels Sunday Morning Futures. I ask Saudi Arabia now publicly, through your program, to have the investigation made public as soon as possible, he said. I believe the Saudi crown prince will be 100 percent vindicated and exonerated. Prince Alwaleed was detained last year with dozens of other wealthy Saudis in a move by the crown prince to consolidate power and reform the country. On Sunday, Prince Alwaleed said his detention was forgiven and forgotten. The crown princes allies have said last years crackdown was a fight against corruption and Prince Alwaleed agreed. Thank God that, after this incident, many of those that were detained had a big cleaning process, he said. Prince Alwaleed was freed from Riyadhs Ritz-Carlton Hotel along with other royals, senior officials and businessmen, most of whom reached financial settlements with the authorities. Prince Alwaleed denied reports that he had been tortured in custody and that officials stripped him of his wealth. British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said on Monday he would push for new action at the United Nations Security Council to try to end hostilities in Yemen and find a political solution to the war there, Reuters reported. Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries, is locked in a nearly four-year-old war that pits Iran-aligned Houthi rebels against the government backed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the West. The conflict has killed at least 10,000 people and caused the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Hunt had agreed with UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths that the time was right for the Security Council to act to bolster the UN-led process, the Foreign Office said in a statement, without specifying exactly what action Britain would take. The action the UK takes forward at the UN Security Council will help towards that goal, ensuring that a full ceasefire, when it comes, is fully implemented, the statement said. U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Britain was working with the United States on a draft resolution to stop the fighting in Yemen. This follows U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeos call last week for a cessation of hostilities n Yemen. Britain said a ceasefire would only have an effect on the ground if it was underpinned by a political deal between the warring parties Griffiths is trying to salvage peace talks that collapsed in September. He said last week he hoped consultations could restart within a month. He is due to brief the Security Council on Nov. 16. The United States and Britain have called for an end to the conflict, raising pressure on Saudi Arabia as it faces a global outcry over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Hunt echoed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who on Friday appealed for an end to the war and said recent political developments had created signs of hope for a settlement. Now for the first time there appears to be a window in which both sides can be encouraged to come to the table, stop the killing and find a political solution that is the only long term way out of disaster, Hunt said. The UK will use all its influence to push for such an approach. Two men in their 30s were killed on Sunday evening when a car exploded in the Hatikva neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv, Arutz Sheva reported. Magen David Adom paramedics who were called to the scene waited for firefighters to extinguish the vehicle, which went up in flames, before pronouncing the two men dead. Police said that incident was criminally related, and have launched an investigation. Another car that was parked nearby sustained damage. Eight people were killed, and 16 others suffered injuries in a series of explosions in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, Sputnik reported citing the Al-Arabiya broadcaster. The attacks were carried out late on Sunday. One of the explosions took place in the northern part of the city, in the vicinity of the Aden square, while three others hit the eastern area of Baghdad, and another one hit the south of the city. Last year, a blast of a mine-studded car in the southwest of Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killed 55 people. The Daesh terrorist group reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. US destructive actions on the international arena can render null the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC countries' efforts toward oil market stabilization and prices increase prevention, First Deputy Chief of the Russian Government Staff Sergei Prikhodko told reporters on Monday. "Unfortunately, US destructive actions on the international arena can render null the efforts that the oil-developing countries, signatories of the agreement [OPEC], make in order to prevent a new [oil] prices upsurge and market destabilization," Prikhodko said at a press briefing held ahead of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit to China. Prikhodko emphasized that Russia was sticking to the agreements that OPEC and a number of non-cartel oil producers reached in June in order to stabilize the oil market. In 2016, OPEC and several non-OPEC oil producers, including Russia, agreed to cut output by a total of 1.8 million barrels per day in an effort to stabilize oil prices. The agreement, which came into effect in 2017, has been extended twice since then and will remain in force until the end of 2018. The US has been reintroducing sanctions on Iran after Washington pulled out from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iranian nuclear deal, in May. The OPEC presented in September its short- and mid-term forecasts, as well as for the period up to 2040, in its report World Oil Outlook 2040. US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he probably will not sit down for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin when both leaders are in France this weekend for the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, Sputnik reported. "I am not sure that we will have a meeting in Paris, probably not," Trump told reporters. Trump added that while nothing official has been set up, he plans to meet with Putin during the G-20 summit in Argentina and after that meeting will have "probably plenty of meetings." However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik on Monday that Vladimir Putin will "certainly" meet with his US counterpart Donald Trump in Paris this weekend, adding that the leaders will have an on the go conversation. "They will certainly meet Indeed, the circumstances have changed. The multilateral format of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I makes it impossible to hold a longer meeting between the two presidents," Peskov said, stressing that Putin and Trump will hold talks "on the go" and agree on a full-fledged meeting. Putin and Trump previously met in Helsinki in July. The G20 Summit will be held in Buenos Aires November 30 December 1. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: The US sanctions against Iran are unfair, the Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay said, Turkish media reported November 5. Oktay noted that it is not correct to expect that all countries of the world will join the decision of one state acting exclusively by its own interests. The US sanctions against Iran come into force today. The sanctions will cover the sphere of oil exports. Washington has set out to bring the export of Iranian oil to zero, calling on all its buyers to abandon such purchases. The US President Donald Trump announced in May that Washington was withdrawing from the agreement on nuclear program with Iran. He also announced the restoration of all sanctions against Iran, including secondary ones, that is, against other countries doing business with Iran. The United States re-introduced part of the sanctions against Iran on August 7. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Turkish Coast Guard has detained 223 illegal migrants in Edirne Province on the border with Greece, the Coast Guard said in a message. The detainees had planned to illegally move to Europe, the message said. "Among the detainees, there are citizens of Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya and Algeria," the message said. All detainees will be deported from Turkey, according to the message. Last time, the Turkish Coast Guard detained 183 illegal migrants in Izmir Province and 47 in Mugla Province. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu US President Donald Trump accused Saudi Arabia of unskillful use of US weapons in Yemen, citing the August attack on a bus carrying Yemeni school children, in an interview for Axios, Sputnik reported. On August 9, an airstrike carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Saada, northern Yemeni province, hit a bus carrying children from a summer camp, killing over 50 people, most of them minors. "I think it's a terrible situation. I hated seeing what happened with the bus and the children That's a horror show when you see a thing like that That was basically people that didnt know how to use the weapon, which is horrible," Trump said in the interview, released on Monday. The president went on to say that the United States was "looking at Yemen very carefully." "It is probably right now the worst place on Earth I'll be talking about a lot of things with the Saudis, but certainly I wouldn't be having people that don't know how to use the weapons shooting at buses with children," he concluded. Since 2015, the US-backed Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf nations has been supporting the Yemeni government in its conflict with the Houthi movement, carrying out airstrikes targeting Houthis. After more than a year of fielding corporate subsidy offers and humiliating gestures from desperate elected officials, Amazon is reportedly nearing a final decision for its widely-hyped second headquarters. Except that it won't be a single headquarters at all. Instead, the company has reportedly decided to split up its massive second command post into two separate locationswith one half of HQ2 now very likely to land in our city. The Wall Street Journal reports that New York City is one of three municipalities in the late stages of discussion with Amazon about the two-city plan, along with Dallas and Crystal City, Virginia. Sources also tell CNBC that the proposed workforce and investments could be split between Austin and Northern Virginia. Each site will have a workforce of 25,000, or half of what was initially promised. It's unclear what part of the five boroughs would be expected to absorb Amazon's massive footprint, and the accompanying congestion and skyrocketing housing costs the company is known to bring. When Amazon released the original call for applications last September, property owners in 23 different neighborhoodsincluding Williamsburg and Sunset Parkcobbled together proposals at the request of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. The state's economic development arm, which has doled out more corporate tax breaks than anywhere else in the country, has also made Amazon a generous subsidy offerthough it's unclear for how much. In addition to dangling taypayer-funded incentives to a ridiculously wealthy corporation willing to change the terms of the deal at the last moment, the governor has also made this personal. On Monday, hours before the news of the split locations broke, Governor Andrew (for now) Cuomo announced his willingness to "change my name to Amazon Cuomo if thats what it takes." Perhaps that's what sealed the deal? The decision is expected to be announced as early as this week. Update: The NY Times reported on Monday night that Amazon was poised to select Long Island City in Queens and Alexandria in Virginia has the co-HQ2 cities: "Amazon executives met two weeks ago with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in the governors Manhattan office, said one of the people briefed on the process, adding that the state had offered potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies. Executives met separately with Mayor Bill de Blasio, a person briefed on that discussion said. Long Island City is a short subway ride across the East River from Midtown Manhattan." An Amazon spokesperson would only comment, "We remain committed to making a decision before the end of the year." In remarks given on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, "There's no one except the people at Amazon who can say what they're going to decide. And I think everyone should be cautious about this. They've held their process very close to the vest. I've not been informed of any final decision. I don't know if it's going to be one city, two citiesI have no idea. You'll have to ask Amazon that." He continued, "My team has been hard at work trying to show Amazon the advantages of being in New York City: why we have the strongest talent base in the whole country that they could be a part of, why we can make this location work. And look, for New York City, here's the important thing: it's not just tens of thousands more jobs. It's also that this consolidates New York City as an international tech hub. If this is achieved, I think it's the one last piece we've needed to really consolidate our position as a tech capital, and that's really important for the future of New York City." Regarding Long Island City's infrastructure, the mayor said acknowledged the neighborhood is "going through a huge amount of development. We're working with the community and the councilman to make it work. We've been talking about additional infrastructure for LIC for a long time." Reporting from Rhiannon Corby The Marin County Sheriff's Office responded Monday to calls about a shooting at the Helen Vine Detox Center in San Rafael, California, Sputnik reported. According to the official statement, released by sheriffs office, deputies found three shooting victims a man who died at the scene, as well as a man and woman, who were immediately rushed to hospital. In the meantime, deputies are searching the center with assistance from four other law enforcement agencies. Following the search, officers reported that the unknown perpetrator had apparently fled the scene. At the moment there is no additional data on the matter. President Donald Trump said Monday he "probably" won't be meeting with Vladimir Putin this weekend in Paris after all, USA Today reported. "Probably not," Trump said, noting that he will be talking with the Russian president during the G-20 summit in Buenos Aries, Argentina, the weekend of Nov. 30-Dec. 1. Aides are also talking about a Putin visit to Washington, D.C. next year. The two sides have discussed a brief meeting this coming weekend in Paris, where Trump, Putin and other world leaders gather for ceremonies to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. "We havent set anything up yet in Paris," Trump said. We will be meeting at the G-20." KYODO NEWS - Nov 6, 2018 - 07:48 | All, World U.S. President Donald Trump's administration temporarily exempted Japan and seven other parties from its ban on Iranian oil imports as it reimposed sanctions against Tehran on Monday. The seven others are China, India, South Korea, Italy, Greece, Taiwan and Turkey, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a joint news conference with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Earlier Monday, the administration reimposed sanctions on Iran's energy, banking, shipbuilding and shipping sectors to compel Tehran to end its nuclear program and support for militant groups in the Middle East. Referring to the waivers, Pompeo said the administration will continue negotiations with the eight parties to end oil imports from what it calls the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. "Iran will never come close to getting a nuclear weapon on President Trump's watch," he said, vowing to step up the U.S.-led campaign of economic pressure against Tehran. Two of the eight parties will wind down Iranian oil imports to zero in "weeks" and the six others will import "at greatly reduced levels," Pompeo said Friday. Japan had asked for a waiver during negotiations with the United States, saying its imports of Iranian oil have been recently falling. Takashi Tsukioka, president of the Petroleum Association of Japan, said in September that Japanese oil distributors would temporarily suspend oil imports from Iran until the end of the negotiations. Aside from restrictions on oil imports, the administration added more than 700 names -- including individuals, entities, vessels and aircraft linked to the energy and financial sectors and other segments of Iran's economy -- to the U.S. list of sanctioned entities. Of those added, more than 300 are new designations and the remainder won sanctions relief under the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew the United States in May. At Washington's urging, SWIFT, the global messaging network that connects the world's financial institutions, said it is suspending its service for some unspecified Iranian financial institutions. "In keeping with our mission of supporting the resilience and integrity of the global financial system as a global and neutral service provider, SWIFT is suspending certain Iranian banks' access to the messaging system," it said in a statement. "This step, while regrettable, has been taken in the interest of the stability and integrity of the wider global financial system," it added. Mnuchin had warned that Brussels-based SWIFT would be subject to U.S. sanctions if it provided financial messaging services to such institutions. After pulling the United States out of the deal struck between Iran and six major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- the administration began reimposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic in August. Under the deal, Tehran had agreed to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions. KYODO NEWS - Nov 5, 2018 - 08:29 | All, World U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday he will meet with a close aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in New York late this week to spur negotiations for denuclearizing the country. (Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol meet in New York in May 2018) [Photo courtesy of U.S. State Department] "I will be meeting this week in New York City with my counterpart, Kim Yong Chol," he said on Fox News, adding that it will be "a good opportunity to continue the denuclearization discussions." Kim is a vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. The announcement came after Pyongyang warned Friday of the possibility of a revival of its parallel policy of nuclear and economic development if the United States does not respond positively to its steps taken toward denuclearization. But Pompeo dismissed the warning as "rhetoric" and reiterated that Washington will offer no relief on its sanctions on Pyongyang until full denuclearization is achieved. "I'm not worried about rhetoric. We've seen this as we go through negotiations. Stray voltage happens to be all around us," he said. "We're very focused. We know with whom we're negotiating. We know what their positions are. And President (Donald) Trump's made his position very clear: No economic relief until we have achieved our ultimate objective." Trump has said he plans to hold a second meeting with Kim Jong Un after the midterm elections, and that he was considering three or four possible locations for the event. However, the two countries have been at odds over ways to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. North Korea has yet to take credible action to dismantle its weapons programs despite Kim pledging in a historic meeting with Trump in June in Singapore to work toward "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The baby is presumed to be that of former student activist Anupama S Chandran, who has alleged her child was taken away by her father late last year without her consent. Jury selection in the trial of notorious alleged drug kingpin El Chapo, born Joaquin Guzman, began Monday morning in Brooklyn, kicking off what promises to be an extended legal battle. That might plunge New Yorkers into an extended logistical nightmare. Authorities opted to hold Guzman in a Manhattan federal jail, keeping him in solitary confinement for two reasons: One, to block him from communicating messages to his alleged cartel, and two, to prevent him from escaping for a third time (Guzman has famously disappeared from his cell on two separate occasions in Mexico, roughly a decade apart). The trial, however, takes place in Brooklyn, and during pre-trial proceedings, shuttling him across the Brooklyn Bridge required a full police motorcade, with helicopter cover and a SWAT team chaperone and an ambulance, just in case. Shutting down this busy commuter corridor every morning and evening at roughly rush hour does not seem particularly sustainable, and has generated speculation that the drug lord might be housed in a secret location on-site. Authorities want to keep his location under wraps, but nonetheless, we have contacted the Department of Transportation and the NYPD to ask what the implications might be for those of you who drive across the Brooklyn Bridge to get to work. We will update if we hear back. Guzman's reputationalleged boss of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, among the world's most prominent drug trafficking operationsmay precede him, but to judge by the personal "Free El Chapo" campaign this guy launched outside the courthouse today, some people seem to be slightly unclear on the circumstances surrounding Guzman's trial. Let's dive in. This guy pacing around outside the courthouse yelling free El Chapo. I ask, Why should he be free? He responds, Hes not charged with killing anyone is he? Well, hes accused of 33 murders. Oh shit, really? pic.twitter.com/EOeJggbSq3 Keegan Hamilton (@keegan_hamilton) November 5, 2018 Why is El Chapo on trial? Guzman faces 17 charges related to murder conspiracy, money laundering, firearmsin short, all the things you might expect from someone allegedly running a powerful and firmly entrenched international drug carteland reaching back to the 1980s. Prosecutors only achieved his 2017 extradition from Mexico to the United States on the condition that they would not seek the death penalty. Instead, they have asked for life imprisonment and a staggering $14 billion reimbursement to cover the money Guzman allegedly made off his drug trade. Guzman stands accused of architecting scores of murders, along with the illicit transport of over 200 tons of cocaine, and pleaded not guilty to every count against him. Why did the U.S. extradite El Chapo? In short, because he is suspected of overseeing the smuggling huge loads of cocaine, marijuana, heroine, and methamphetamine into the U.S. for domestic distribution, covertly carting out the aforementioned billions in drug sales. According to NBC, Mexico wanted to complete the extradition before Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2017. How did El Chapo get caught? One thing I think about a lot: That time Sean Penn helped deliver one of the world's most wanted criminals into the hands of authorities, extremely on accident, thanks to a fun Rolling Stone article he wrote in 2016. In precious and overwrought terms, Penn detailed a secret meeting Guzman (for reasons that remain unclear to me) granted him. It is a self-important piece of journalism, and its author seemed oblivious to its potential consequencesas did Guzman, to whom Rolling Stone reportedly showed the article pre-publication. In his inadvertent expose, Penn acknowledges that the U.S. and Mexican governments likely tracked his movements and his communications, because of course they did: He is a high-profile, Oscar-winning actor, not an investigative journalist. Still, in his role as the latter, he published an interview with Guzman in which the two discussed the illegal nature of the drug lord's alleged business. From Penn's trail, authorities pinpointed the location of Guzman's mountain hideout. Is Sean Penn safe? I don't know, are any of us? Are the jurors safe? According to CBS New York, jurors' identities will be kept completely anonymous, despite complaints from the defense that the extreme precautions taken to protect their privacyalong with the armored guard dispatched to transport them to and from the courthousemight lead them to believe they have reason to fear the man on trial. Thanks to the NY Post, though, we do know that the would-be juror pool includes one Michael Jackson impersonator. When will the trial begin? Opening arguments are scheduled for November 13th. When we reported last month on the approximately $4.5 billion that city taxpayers are spending on the dynamic neighborhood of Hudson Yards on Manhattan's West Side, eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that our breakdown of the costs featured a tilde (~) before the $750 million figure for tax breaks for commercial developers indicating that "this figure is our best guess." Now, a draft paper by two New School researchers has conducted an even more comprehensive trawl for Hudson Yards public costs, and while it generally confirms our analysis, it finds a couple of items we missed: A total of $1.1 billion worth of items, in fact, bringing the public price tag to a staggering $5.6 billion, with hundreds of millions of dollars still to flow from city coffers. "A project that was sold as being self-financed, a portion of it is but it also comes with this rather staggering cost," says Bridget Fisher, associate director of the New Schools Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, who along with Schwartz Center research associate Flavia Leite conducted the study, which they are currently submitting to academic journals for future publication. "The packaging is that it's not going to compete with other city priorities for funding, but over time it's added up" to $3.5 billion in initial bonding, plus now at least $2.1 billion in hidden costs. Most of the additional tax breaks are attached to two buildings that, while not part of the development atop the railyards, are nonetheless part of the much larger special tax district. ("Hudson Yards" is widely used to mean both the smaller development and the larger area; also, both the Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corporation [HYIC], which is a public entity, and Related Hudson Yards, which is a private developer. Nomenclature is hard!) The Spiral, a 65-story terraced office tower under construction by Tishman Speyer at 34th Street and 10th Avenue, is projected to receive $170 million in property tax breaks, according to New York City Industrial Development Agency documents; a smaller office tower west of 11th Avenue and north of the railyards, dubbed 55 Hudson Yards, will get $76.5 million in tax discounts. Figures from IBO, EDC, and the New Schools Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (chart by Lylla Younes / Gothamist) Fisher and Leite also tallied up the tax breaks that Hudson Yards residential buildings will be getting under 421-a, the controversial subsidy program for apartment buildings that now costs the city more than $1.4 billion in forgone taxes a year, and which helped bring down State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver when it was revealed that he had extended it to several Manhattan luxury towers being built by his campaign donors. From 2009 through this year, Hudson Yards buildings have already racked up $367 million in 421-a breaks, according to Fisher and Leite; but that doesn't account for residential units not yet constructed, or for existing buildings' future 421-a tax breaks, which can last up to 20 years. The New School duo also identified other city spending buried in the fine print: $12 million on building demolition, $106 million for a new public school in the Hudson Yards district, and $359 million in interest on Hudson Yards bonds that the city covered while the Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corporation waited for development that was delayed by the Great Recession. (Though the HYIC has made some payments back to the city in exchange, Fisher says her research found no legislative requirement that it do so.) Digging up all these figures wasn't easy, says Fisher, requiring "a deep dig into all these city budget documents." For the missing commercial tax break numbers, Fisher and Leite had to file a Freedom of Information Law request with the NYC Industrial Development Agency [IDA], which gives tax breaks to developers. The IDA has not otherwise made its projections publicly available. (Interestingly, Gothamist's projection of $100 million for the tax breaks to be provided to 50 Hudson Yards a guesstimate based solely on total floor area turned out to be pretty damn close: The actual figure, according to the FOILed IDA documents, is $106.2 million.) This opacity is exactly what the City Council tried to eliminate via Local Law 48 of 2005, plus its followup Local Law 62 of 2010, both of which tried to force the city's Economic Development Corporation [EDC] to quantify how much the city spends each year on developer incentives. But, explains Sean Campion of the Citizens Budget Commission, because the Hudson Yards subsidies are so convoluted payments in lieu of taxes that are paid to a special quasipublic corporation, but at a discounted rate from what developers would normally pay the EDC isn't required to publish those in its Annual Investments Report, so they remain an official mystery unless you're armed with FOIL requests. And while both Hudson Yards and its subsidies are now set in concrete, it's worth keeping in mind when future pay-for-itself-with-magic-beans development plans are floated or when Hudson Yards itself demands more money, as it just did in August when the City Council, with no fanfare, voted unanimously to tack on another $500 million in bonds to pay for more pocket parks. (Related Hudson Yards president Jay Cross told Gothamist previously that the city is "going to get more than paid back" for the billions in subsidies.) "When Mayor de Blasio wanted to build the streetcar in Brooklyn and Queens, he's pointing to Hudson Yards as a successful use of TIF, and calling it a self-financed project," says Fisher, referring to tax increment financing, a controversial method of funding development by diverting property tax revenues. "And my work is to try to say that that's misleading." Unless you're willing to overlook a couple billion dollars, among friends. Showcase room featuring Vietnamese Heroic Mothers opens VietNamNet Bridge A showcase room featuring images of Vietnamese Heroic Mothers has opened at the HCM Citys Southern Women Museum, as part of the citys cultural activities to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the Southern Resistance Day (November 23, 1940). Artist Lai Thi Kim Thanh with her bronze sculpture portraying Vietnamese Heroic Mother Tran Thi Viet. Photo by Xuan Khu The room displays 70 photos, pictures and sculptures, and 60 subjects portraying the life and career of women who received the State title of Vietnamese Heroic Mother for their contributions and sacrifices to the countrys liberation. Many of these photos and pictures are creations by famous female artists in southern provinces. The exhibit uses 3D technology and touchscreens on computers and smartphones for searching information, images and documents. Our showcase room, called Chan Dung Ba Me Viet Nam Anh Hung Mien Nam va TP HCM (Portraits of Vietnamese Heroic Mothers in the South and HCM City), aims to honour the spirit and brave character of Vietnamese women and speak about how their moral example serves as a model of the spirit that has been maintained and developed throughout the countrys wars of resistance and national construction, the museum director Nguyen Thi Tham said. Through the rooms images and objects, visitors can learn more about the countrys heroic history, particularly the great contributions Vietnamese women made to the country and people, she added. More than 5,000 heroic mothers have been honoured in the city, and 278 of them are still alive, receiving monthly support and special policies from the Government for their lifetime. Many heroic mothers lost their husbands and children on the battlefield for national independence and freedom Another exhibition on Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) culture opened recently at the museum and attracted local and foreign visitors. The event displays 150 ancient ceramic jars made by artisans from ethnic minority groups living in Tay Nguyen. The objects were collected and stored for more than 20 years by the museums staff. The Ho Chi Minh City Southern Womens Museum opened in 1985 and welcomes more than 1,000 visitors, including 100 foreigners, every day. It has more than 35,000 objects and 11,000 books and magazines featuring Vietnamese women in different periods. The museum opens every day at 9am and closes at 6pm at 200-202 Vo Thi Sau Street in District 3. Source: VNS Sport Sharjah down Khorfakkan, Bani Yas win Khorfakkan went 3-1 down to visiting Sharjah who seem to have put the international halt to perfect use as they clearly outshone their rivals away from home in the tenth round of Pro League match as the tournament returned into action following a lengthy international break. Annual Meeting of The Geological Society of America, Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis, IN, USA: Water researchers have found a way to fight the "king of poisons" that accounts for one of every 20 deaths in Bangladesh. Arsenic has a long, sordid history as a poison once used in very high doses to assassinate aristocrats, but it is also a common natural element found in well water around the world. In groundwater, too much arsenic is still a killer, but nowhere more than in Bangladesh. The south Asia country is home to more than 10 million shallow, hand-pumped wells that yield water that often exceeds the World Health Organization (WHO) arsenic guidelines of 10 micrograms per liter. "Groundwater is popular because it is generally free of bacterial pathogens, unlike surface water," explained Alexander van Geen of Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Groundwater must travel through rocks and sediments, which filters out most harmful bacteria. The same process adds minerals to groundwater -- including a lot of arsenic in some shallow wells of Bangladesh. In 2000, van Geen and his team surveyed 6,000 wells, and then recruited a health study cohort of 12,000 people. Then in 2013, they conducted larger survey of 50,000 wells serving 350,000 people. They found that government wells that were more than 150 meters deep were typically low in arsenic. However, they also found that the more than 900 deep were distributed in a way that suggested they had been taken by elite and politically connected households, and were not accessible to the public. This interpretation has since been confirmed by development economist Mushfiq Mobarak at Yale University, van Geen explained. "Millions of people rely on water supplies that are contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic," says Sarah Ruth, a director of the National Science Foundation's Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems Program, which funded the research. "Consumption of arsenic-contaminated water, or the rice crops irrigated with it, can have severe health effects, including a variety of cancers and increased child mortality." The hijacking of the deeper government wells by some households has meant that other villages can't get good water, however. People in the study area now generally understand that deeper is better, van Geen said. As a result, they have been taking it on themselves to drill deeper wells, often encountering low arsenic water well before 150 meter depth. A new survey of the water in the study area recently documented a jump in the proportion of villagers drinking from wells meeting the WHO guideline. Only 25 percent of wells were safe in 2000, compared to 70 percent in 2018. "This is good news," said van Geen of this year's survey of water. "This is for a population of 12,000 living within a 25 square kilometer area that we've been tracking since 2000. Urine arsenic data confirm that villagers aren't just telling us what they know what we'd like to hear." Most of the decline is attributable to households reinstalling wells to a greater depth at their own cost. "Some villages have figured this out; others have not," said van Geen. His team is trying to convey this information to the villages through water tests, so people can see the difference for themselves. "Geology and geochemistry causes the problem, but it's also the solution. The arsenic is avoidable without having to resort to water treatment." Van Geen will be presenting his latest water survey results at the meeting of The Geological Society of America in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Tuesday, 6 Nov. ### Contact: Alexander van Geen Email: avangeen@ldeo.columbia.edu Phone: +1 646 379 7843. Abstract: How Earth Processes Can Poison Millions but also Provide A Solution: The Case of Well-Water Arsenic In South Asia Presentation time: 10:50 a.m. https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2018AM/webprogram/Paper319704.html NSF grant ICER 1414131 Session: T46. From Local to Global--Why Geology Matters for Human Health https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2018AM/webprogram/Session45535.html Tuesday, 6 November 2018: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM Sagamore Ballroom 6 (Indiana Convention Center) The Geological Society of America, founded in 1888, is a scientific society with members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth-science education. Description In recognition of the centennial of the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1917-1918, Philip Y. Nicholson will visit the library for a discussion. This lecture will revisit the role of T.E. Lawrence in arousing and leading Arab forces during the closing months of World War I. For additional information, please call the library or visit or website. (Bloomberg) -- An economic development director at Amazon.com Inc. isnt happy about a Washington Post report that the e-commerce giant is in advanced talks with a Washington suburb about being the location for its second headquarters. In a tweet Saturday morning, Amazons Mike Grella addressed the genius leaking info, saying: Youre not doing Crystal City, VA any favors. And stop treating the NDA you signed like a used napkin. Grella didnt say who he thought leaked the information, nor did he address the story itself. In earlier tweets, Grella criticized another story in the Post -- owned by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos -- for speculating about the possible second headquarters location based on flight patterns of Bezos jet. The search team has earned his trust and the highest use of his time isnt looking at vacant buildings and land -- he has a company to run, Grella wrote. If a companys location intent was judged by where its CEO flies, Grella said in a follow-up tweet, Amazon might also go to Davos, Switzerland; Sun Valley, Idaho; Rome or Hollywood, and Google, Facebook and Tesla might be relocating to Black Rock Desert, NV," a reference to the annual Burning Man cultural festival. Grella doesnt have direct knowledge of the headquarters search and negotiations, according to a person familiar with the process. Bud Perrone, a spokesman for JBG Smith, Crystal Citys top developer, declined to comment. Small Handful Amazon in 2017 announced plans to invest $5 billion and hire 50,000 people over the next 18 years. A decision is scheduled by the end of the year, with 20 cities in the U.S. and Canada in the running. The company is in late-stage talks with a small handful of locations in addition to Crystal City, among them New York and Dallas, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the matter. The search has prompted months of speculation about the most likely winner. Many experts have named the Washington area as a front-runner given Bezos ownership of the Post and the companys stepped-up lobbying efforts. Story continues Crystal City is a neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from the nations capital, that features a concentration of high rise offices, hotels and residential buildings. (Updates with status of search in ninth paragraph.) --With assistance from Katherine Burton. To contact the reporters on this story: Spencer Soper in Seattle at ssoper@bloomberg.net;Ben Brody in Washington at btenerellabr@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Bernard Kohn, Ros Krasny For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2018 Bloomberg L.P. The rundown: Bitcoin and all major currencies were up in the morning; blockchain platform Phore Blockchain to list its digital asset phore on the Ternion Exchange; New York-based blockchain firm Blocktech is launching a blockchain lab in Saudi Arabia; Reliance Industries announcedit is has conducted its first trade finance transaction using blockchain; Taiwan changes rules to better regulate cryptocurrency transactions; and more. Here is what is happening in the cryptocurrency market on Monday. SEE: Hong Kongs Securities Regulator SFC Unveils Crypto Rules SEE: Coinbase Custody Partners With Wilshire Phoenix To Launch A Dedicated Crypto Fund In the News Blockchain platform Phore Blockchain announced that its digital asset phore (PHR) will be listed for trading on the Ternion Exchange on Nov. 15. The PHR listing will go live on the exchange with a PHR/Bitcoin pairing followed by a PHR/USD fiat pairing in January 2019. Ternion is the second exchange in the world to be licensed by the European-based Financial Intelligence Unit. New York-based blockchain company Blocktech is launching a blockchain lab at Taibah University in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. Directed by artificial intelligence expert Professor Walaa Alharthi, the lab will be the kingdoms first research and development lab dedicated to blockchain technologies. The lab will operate in conjunction with the Taibah University Faculties of Computer Science, Law and Business with the goal of catalyzing blockchain adoption in the Middle East. Malta-based digital asset exchange OKEx has been recognized as Crypto Exchange of the Year at the first edition of the Malta Blockchain Awards. The award was presented in the ceremony held during Malta Blockchain Summit 2018 to recognize the companies, experts, and leaders who made outstanding contribution to the blockchain technology development in Malta. The Crypto Exchange of the Year award is judged by 32 industry leaders and executives with combined experience in the blockchain Industry. OKEx stood out from fellow finalists Binance and BitBay. Story continues Oil and gas giant Reliance Industries, owned by Indias richest man Mukesh Ambani, has conducted its first trade finance transaction using blockchain technology, CoinDesk reported citing a press statement from HSBC India. The company has executed the live blockchain-powered trade finance transaction in collaboration with US-based chemical distributor Tricon Energy. Hitendra Dave, HSBC Indias head for global banking and markets, said in the statement that the use of blockchain is a significant step towards digitizing trade. Taiwan is introducing new rules as part of its efforts to regulate cryptocurrency transactions. At the end of the last week, the Taiwanese legislative body Legislative Yuan passed amendments to existing rules to allow the Financial Supervisory Commission the power to crack down on anonymous virtual currency transactions, according to a report by Focus Taiwan. The agency will now have the authority to ask operators of virtual currency platforms to implement real-name systems that require users to register their real names, according to the new provisions, according to the news report. Cryptocurrency Prices Today (As of 7:15 AM EST) Bitcoin (BTC) is up 0.85% over the past 24 hours, trading at $6,430.04. Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $208.85 in the morning, up 3.89% over a 24-hour period. EOS is trading at $5.48, up 0.74% over the past 24 hours. Ripple (XRP) is trading at $0.4650, up 2.40% over a 24-hour period. Litecoin (LTC) is trading at $53.43, up 0.89% over a 24-hour period. To view more information, click here. The post Bitcoin News Crypto Currency Daily Roundup November 5 appeared first on Market Exclusive. * Hopes for good earnings boosts OTP Bank, Budapest share index * CEE markets in cautious mood after fall in Asian bourses * Hungary's Oct PMI shows pick-up, in contrast with Czechs, Poland * Leu flat, Romanian central bank not seen under pressure to hike By Sandor Peto BUDAPEST, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Budapest's main stock index tested 5-month highs on Monday, driven by hopes for a good earnings report from OTP, Central Europe's biggest independent lender. Investors in the region's emerging markets were otherwise cautious after a fall in Asian shares and the yuan due to fears of a continuation of the U.S.-China trade war. Strong U.S. jobs data released on Friday also knocked back the euro, reversing a firming of Central European currencies on Friday. But the shares of OTP rose as much as 3 percent, helping the bourse index approach its highest levels since early June. While Hungarian markets were closed from Thursday to Sunday, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) increased its growth forecasts for Hungary, Equilor brokerage analyst Balint Kovacs said. "Also, OTP is expected to report strong (third-quarter) results on Friday," Kovacs said, adding that the share price, after breaking through resistance at 10,400 forints ($36.74), was halted by its 200-day moving average at 10.600 forints. Adding to the positive factors, Hungary's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data showed a sharp pick-up in economic activity in October to 57.3 from 54.1 in September, in contrast to a slowdown indicated by Czech and Polish data released last week. However, the forint retreated in early trade, shedding 0.2 percent to hit 322.5 versus the euro at 0832 GMT, off Friday's 3-month highs of 321. "Local players were on holiday on Friday. The forint retreated as they returned," one Budapest-based dealer said. The region's currencies had been helped late last week by a strengthening of the euro, but Friday's robust U.S. jobs boosted expectations for further Federal Reserve rate hikes, and weakened the single currency. The zloty was firmer by 0.15 percent versus the euro on Monday, but off a one-week high set on Friday. Story continues Friday's Polish PMI figures showed economic activity was close to stalling, underpinning expectations that the Polish central bank could maintain its loose policy stance at its meeting on Wednesday. The slowdown did not weigh on Polish assets as the figures were not in line with alternative business surveys, analysts said. "We believe the slowdown in Poland will be less sharp than the PMI implies," Santander bank analysts said in a note. The leu was steady ahead of a meeting of Romania's central bank on Tuesday where it is expected to keep rates on hold. "If the government sticks to its proposal of freezing wages in the public sector... the central bank will get much more room for manoeuvre and will wait for its next rate hike until the ECB takes action or signals tightening," Erste analysts said in a note. CEE SNAPSHOT AT MARKETS 1032 CET CURRENCI ES Latest Previous Daily Change bid close change in 2018 Czech Hungary Polish Romanian Croatian Serbian Note: calculated from 1800 CET daily change Latest Previous Daily Change close change in 2018 Prague 1070.38 1067.730 +0.25% -0.72% 0 Budapest 37435.16 37155.21 +0.75% -4.93% Warsaw 2201.13 2197.68 +0.16% -10.57% Bucharest 8570.75 8563.37 +0.09% +10.54% Ljubljana Zagreb 1776.80 1769.80 +0.40% -3.59% Belgrade Sofia 596.21 596.80 -0.10% -11.99% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs Bund change in Czech spread Republic 2-year 5-year 10-year Poland 2-year 5-year 10-year FORWARD RATE AGREEMEN T 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interban k Czech Rep 2.05 2.20 2.35 1.96 (PRIBOR= ) Hungary 0.35 0.61 0.98 0.16 Poland 1.77 1.80 1.87 1.72 Note: FRA are for ask prices quotes ************************************************* ************* ($1 = 283.0600 forints) (Additional reporting by Luiza Ilie in Bucharest Editing by Gareth Jones) By Aaron Saldanha Nov 5 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies recorded meager gains on Monday as a weaker dollar helped overcome caution ahead of U.S. congressional elections. Concerns that a strong showing by Democrats on Tuesday would hinder U.S. President Donald Trump's agenda have played into a weaker dollar. "The key risk for EM here is that Trump could become a lame duck when it comes to domestic matters, given we are seeing a divided Congress and focus on more geopolitics like the Middle East ..." said Jakob Christensen, chief analyst and head of EM research at Danske Bank. MSCI's index of currencies in Latin America added 0.1 percent, while the MSCI index of stocks in the region rose 1.3 percent, led by gains in Brazil and Mexico. Brazil's real weakened against the greenback, but the Bovespa stock index traded 0.9 percent higher and was near an all-time peak seen earlier in the session. The index has gained about 17 percent this year amid broad bullishness spurred by hopes of reforms by market-friendly President-elect Jair Bolsonaro. Energy firm Cosan SA Industria e Comercio led the index's gains on the day, rising about 9.3 percent. Cosan said it will not take over Cosan Logistica, canceling the proposed deal amid shareholder concerns. Mexico's peso firmed 0.4 percent while stocks were up 1.1 percent. The decision by incoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) to scrap a new airport for Mexico City has raised doubts among investors about his market friendliness. "The Mexican peso's performance is purely a result of the news relating to the airport. I think the market is giving AMLO the benefit of the doubt," said Christian Lawrence, a senior market strategist with Rabobank. Chile's peso, the top gainer among Latin American currencies, traded near two-week highs after data showed economic activity rose in September. Argentinean benchmark equities rose 0.4 percent and were set to record a fresh one-month closing high while the peso weakened about 0.3 percent. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1527 GMT Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 991.94 -0.48 -13.96 MSCI LatAm 2758.89 1.26 -3.67 Brazil Bovespa 89173.33 0.85 16.72 Mexico IPC 45929.39 1.06 -6.94 Chile IPSA 5224.67 2.36 2.36 Argentina MerVal 31414.31 -0.02 4.49 Colombia IGBC 12219.76 0.35 7.47 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.6998 -0.17 -10.45 Mexico peso 19.9649 0.30 -1.33 Chile peso 681.05 2.27 -9.75 Colombia peso 3181 0.07 -6.26 Peru sol 3.359 0.36 -3.63 Argentina peso (interbank) 35.5800 -0.17 -47.72 (Reporting by Aaron Saldanha; Additional reporting by Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) BRUSSELS, Nov 5 (Reuters) - European Union and Japanese plans to form the world's largest free trade area cleared a significant hurdle on Monday when EU lawmakers specialising in trade backed a deal that could enter force next year. The European Parliament's international trade committee voted 25 in favour to 10 against to send the deal to the parliament's full chamber for a vote in December. An agreement would bind two economies accounting for about a third of global gross domestic product and also signal their rejection of protectionism. Both have faced trade tensions with Washington and remain subject to tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on imports of steel and aluminium. Japan had been part of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump rejected on his first day in office, turning Tokyo's focus to other potential partners - such as the European Union. The EU has also sought other partners after freezing TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) negotiations, also concluding an updated trade deal with Mexico earlier this year. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop Editing by Alastair Macdonald) FILE PHOTO - Gift cards are shown for sale inside a Lowe's retail store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., May 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake By Aishwarya Venugopal (Reuters) - Home improvement chain Lowe's Companies Inc announced the closure of another 51 underperforming stores in the United States and Canada on Monday as it strives to compete with rival Home Depot Inc in a slowing housing market. Lowe's gave no detail of job losses in the move, which closes stores in some upmarket areas including Broadway and Chelsea in Manhattan and follows the shutdown of 99 Orchard Supply stores in California. Buffetted in recent quarters by the impact of a long winter in North America, Lowe's has been striving to find ways to catch up with the long-time sector leader Home Depot, whose stores on average generate almost twice as much in sales. There are also signs that Americans are spending less on housing as prices and demand peak after a seven-year homebuilding spree, although many of the factors underlying the industry's health remain in place. "The decision was informed by the strategic reassessment work we have been doing over the last few months ... We plan to continue to evaluate all businesses and elements of our portfolio annually," the company told Reuters. While Lowe's is far smaller and less exposed to the presence of Amazon and other online sellers, the closures follow a wave of similar moves by traditional U.S. retailers in the face of greater online competition. New Chief Executive Officer Marvin Ellison began a restructuring after taking over in July and has said he was reviewing its real estate portfolio, promising to remove slow-selling products and end unsuccessful ventures. Under Ellison, the company has also eliminated four senior positions, while creating two new senior roles for stores and supply chain. "New blood in the upper ranks was clearly a catalyst for this decision, as we believe there is a greater willingness on behalf of the leadership team to examine the root causes of underperformance," Jefferies analyst Jonathan Matuszewski, said in a note. The wind down of the Orchard Supply chain cost the company between $390 million and $475 million in write-downs. Lowe's said Monday's announcement would result in charges of 28 cents per share to 34 cents per share or $300 million to $365 million in pre-tax expenses. Story continues The company, which operates about 1,800 U.S. stores and 300 in Canada, said it expects the closures to be completed by February, with the exception of some U.S. stores that are closing immediately. The 20 U.S. closures are spread across states including New York, Texas and California, with 31 locations including two plants in a handful of Canadian provinces also shutting. The majority of the impacted U.S. stores are located within 10 miles of another store. Shares in the company were flat. (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham) Monster Beverage Corporation MNST is slated to release third-quarter 2018 results on Nov 7. In the last reported quarter, the company delivered positive earnings surprise of 2.1%. However, it delivered an average negative earnings surprise of 0.8% in the trailing four quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter earnings of 46 cents remained unchanged in the last 30 days. It represents 15% year-over-year improvement. Monster Beverage Corporation Price and EPS Surprise Monster Beverage Corporation Price and EPS Surprise | Monster Beverage Corporation Quote Lets see how things are shaping up prior to the upcoming earnings release. Factors Likely to Impact Q3 Monster Beverage has been witnessing solid momentum in the energy category amid a tepid beverage industry. The company offers a wide range of energy drink brands such as Monster Energy, Java Monster and Worx Energy among others. Further, the addition of Coca-Colas energy drink brands to the companys portfolio strengthened its position in the global energy drinks market. Moreover, the companys top line is poised to benefit from its product innovation strategy and regular product launches. In the second quarter of 2018, management launched Monster Energy brand with the Coca-Cola bottlers in Belarus, Tanzania and Uruguay, beside relaunching the brand with a Coca-Cola bottler in certain cities across India. Monster Beverage plans for more international launches in 2018. Meanwhile, the company remains optimistic about its energy drinks category to continue gaining momentum, owing to Monster Energy, Monster Hydro and Mutant drinks. Latest additions to the Monster brand are expected to generate incremental sales and boost profitability. This apart, Monster Beverage remains optimistic about product benefits from the broader distribution network as a result of the Coca-Cola deal. In fact, the company has been expanding its international operations into a variety of new markets, including China, India, African and the Middle Eastern countries. Evidently, net sales to customers outside the United States were up 18.5% in the second quarter of 2018. All these initiatives are expected to boost the companys top line in the third quarter. Notably, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly revenues stands at $990.8 million, reflecting an increase of 8.9% year over year. Moreover, the stock gained 1.5% in the last six months against the industrys 1.3% decline. Story continues However, higher raw material costs, mainly aluminum; and unfavorable product mix continue to remain hurdles. This, in turn, might dent the companys margins in the upcoming quarter. Further, softness in the beverage industry due to growing consciousness regarding health and wellness is hurting performance. Further, better beverage alternatives like ready-to-drink tea and bottled water, as well as the shift in consumer preferences have been impacting volumes of sodas and energy drinks. Zacks Model Our proven model shows that Monster Beverage is likely to beat earnings estimates in the second quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. Monster Beverage has an Earnings ESP of +3.01% and a Zacks Rank #3, making us confident of an earnings beat. Other Stocks With Favorable Combination Here are some other companies that you may want to consider as our model shows that these too have the right combination of elements to deliver an earnings beat: Archer Daniels Midland Company ADM has an Earnings ESP of +0.21% and a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Turning Point Brands, Inc. TPB has an Earnings ESP of +8.74% and a Zacks Rank #3. Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. NUS has an Earnings ESP of +0.21% and a Zacks Rank of 3. Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside? Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana. Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look. See the pot trades we're targeting>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Monster Beverage Corporation (MNST) : Free Stock Analysis Report Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NUS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Turning Point Brands, Inc. (TPB) : Free Stock Analysis Report Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research JERUSALEM, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed on Monday what he called U.S. President Donald Trump's courageous decision in reimposing U.S. sanctions on Iran. "This day is an historic day," Netanyahu said in public remarks to legislators from his right-wing Likud party. "I would like to again thank U.S. President Donald Trump for the courageous, determined and important decision. I think this contributes to stability and security and peace." (Reporting by Jeffrey Heller Editing by Dan Williams) mufg bank crypto zaif hack Cybersecurity researchers working for a subsidiary of Japans largest bank believe that they have found the hackers who stole $60 million from Japanese crypto exchange Zaif in an attack earlier this year. MUFG Investigates Zaif Hack According to a press release published on Monday, Japan Digital Design Co. (JDD) a subsidiary of banking giant MUFG partnered with local cybersecurity researchers to monitor the stolen funds as the attackers attempted to move them and, presumably, launder them into fiat currency. As CCN reported, the Zaif hack occurred in September and saw the thieves abscond with about $40 million in customer funds, along with $20 million that belonged to the exchange. The funds were denominated in bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), and monacoin (MONA). The announcement was slim on details, but it stated that it was the latter cryptocurrency the lesser-known monacoin, whose market cap is just $73 million that enabled the researchers to accumulate data on the attackers. Apparently, JDD used an array of cloud-hosted MONA nodes to analyze transactions involving the stolen funds and identify clues regarding the identity of the attackers, such as the source IP address. zaif hacker mufg crypto Since the Monacoin began moving from October 20, we estimated the source of 5 transactions in question and provided information to the authorities concerning the characteristics of the transaction originator, JDD said. In the investigation of the leaked virtual currency, remittance route has been analyzed through static analysis of the block chain, but with this effort, by deploying the virtual currency node on a large scale after the outflow of the virtual currency, We verified whether we can obtain clues such as source IP address etc. We also got useful data to grasp the accuracy of the information and the cost of tracking, the release, which was roughly translated from Japanese, said. Zaif Customers Await Compensation amid Sale of Crypto Exchange Story continues Unlike Coincheck, the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange which lost a record $530 million in a January hack, Zaif was licensed by the countrys Financial Services Agency (FSA), giving the regulatory agency a black eye. Following the hack, the FSA slapped Zaif with a business improvement order and said that it regretted having allowed the exchange to continue operating even after it had received multiple warnings in the past. Several weeks later, Tech Bureau the owner of Zaif announced that it would sell its entire stake in the exchange to Fisco Digital Asset Group, a publicly-listed Japanese company. The terms of the deal, which is scheduled to be completed on Nov. 22, state that Fisco will be responsible for compensating customers who lost funds in the theft. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Japans Largest Bank Says it Found Source of $60 Million Hack of Crypto Exchange Zaif appeared first on CCN. Taiwan Bitcoin Taiwans highest legislature has approved amendments to existing laws, enabling the countrys regulator to combat anonymous cryptocurrency transactions. On Friday, Taiwans Legislative Yuan passed a legislative proposal that mandates cryptocurrency transactions to fall under the purview of existing money laundering laws. The amendments to the Money Laundering Control Act and the Terrorism Financing Prevention Act enables the countrys Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Taiwans financial regulator to gather KYC information of cryptocurrency investors from trading platforms, Focus Taiwan reports. Specifically, the regulator now demand that operators of virtual currency platforms implement real-name systems that require users to register their real names, according to new provisions, an excerpt from the report added. Further, banks will also be required to report suspicious transactions that are anonymous, to the regulator. The amendments, Taiwans Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said, align the countrys laws with international anti-money laundering norms. The revisions follow a pointed proposal by Taiwanese lawmaker Jason Hsu who, in October, sought to enforce a similar framework used by the EUs Anti-Money Laundering Directive. Hsu, a congressman from Taiwans Nationalist Party, has advocated against calls for a cryptocurrency ban and instead called on Taiwan to take a different position to the hostile stances taken by neighbouring China and South Korea. Just because China and South Korea are banning, doesnt mean that Taiwan should follow suit there is a huge opportunity for growth in the future, Hsu said in a parliamentary session last year. We should emulate Japan, where they treat cryptocurrency as a highly regulated, highly monitored industry like securities. As reported in October, the chairman of Taiwans FSC has also revealed that the regulator is preparing guidelines for regulating initial coin offerings (ICOs) in the country. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Taiwan Amends Law to Target Anonymous Cryptocurrency Transactions appeared first on CCN. ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey has been told it will receive a waiver from the U.S. sanctions on exports of Iranian oil, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said on Monday, as Washington re-introduced the sanctions. Speaking to broadcaster A Haber, Albayrak said Turkey would evaluate what steps it could take after the United States officially announced which countries would be exempt from the sanctions. Earlier on Monday, the United States re-introduced sanctions against Iranian oil exports, giving some of its closest allies exemptions that will allow Tehran's biggest customers, mostly in Asia, to still buy crude for now. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay) By Josh Smith and Joyce Lee SEOUL, Nov 4 (Reuters) - The United States and South Korea will begin small-scale military drills on Monday that were delayed during talks with North Korea, days after Pyongyang threatened to restart work on its nuclear programme if international pressure does not ease. The Korean Marine Exchange Program was among the training drills that were indefinitely suspended in June after U.S. President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore and promised to end joint, U.S.-South Korea military exercises often criticised by the North. A spokesman for South Korea's Ministry of Defence confirmed a round of training would begin near the southern city of Pohang, with no media access expected. About 500 American and South Korean marines will participate in the manoeuvres, the Yonhap news agency reported. In Washington last week, South Korea's defence minister said Washington and Seoul would make a decision by December on major joint military exercises for 2019. Vigilant Ace, suspended earlier this month, is one of several such exercises that have been halted to encourage dialogue with Pyongyang. The biggest combat-readiness war game ever staged in and around Japan has gone ahead, however, with nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan joining Japanese destroyers and a Canadian warship in the ocean off Japan -- another key player in the effort to pressure North Korea. North Korea warned on Friday that it could restart development of its nuclear programme if the United States does not drop its campaign of "maximum pressure" and sanctions. "The improvement of relations and sanctions are incompatible," a foreign ministry official said in a statement released through state-run KCNA news agency. "The U.S. thinks that its oft-repeated 'sanctions and pressure' lead to 'denuclearization.' We cannot help laughing at such a foolish idea." North Korea has not tested a ballistic missile or nuclear weapon for nearly a year, and has said it has shuttered its main nuclear test site with plans to dismantle several more facilities. Story continues In recent weeks, North Korea has pressed more sharply for what it sees as reciprocal concessions by the United States and other countries. "As shown, the U.S. is totally to blame for all the problems on the Korean peninsula including the nuclear issue and therefore, the very one that caused all those must untie the knot it made," Friday's statement said. American officials have remained sceptical of Kim's commitment to give up the nuclear arsenal he has already amassed, however, and Washington says it won't support easing international sanctions until more verified progress is made. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, meanwhile, has forged ahead with efforts to engage with North Korea in recent months, raising U.S. concerns that Seoul could weaken pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. (Reporting by Josh Smith and Joyce Lee; Editing by Catherine Evans) WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The United States reimposes oil and financial sanctions against Iran on Monday, significantly turning up the pressure on Tehran in order to curb its missile and nuclear programs and counter its growing military and political influence in the Middle East. The move will restore U.S. sanctions that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the administration of President Barack Obama, and add 300 new designations in Iran's oil, shipping, insurance and banking sectors. President Donald Trump announced in May that his administration was withdrawing from what he called the "worst ever" agreement negotiated by the United States. Other parties to the deal, including Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, have said they will not leave. Details of the sanctions will be released at a news conference scheduled for 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT) with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkey - all top importers of Iranian oil - are among eight countries expected to be given temporary exemptions from the sanctions to ensure crude oil prices are not destabilised. The countries will deposit Iran's revenue in an escrow account, U.S. officials have said. Washington has said it will ensure a well supplied global oil market, with help from ally Saudi Arabia, as Iran oil is cut back. Front-month Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $72.53 per barrel on Monday. The reimposition of the sanctions comes as the United States is focused on U.S. congressional and gubernatorial elections on Tuesday. Campaigning in Chattanooga, Tennessee, late on Sunday, Trump said his "maximum pressure" policy against Iran was working. "Iran is a much different country than it was when I took office," said Trump, adding: "They wanted to take over the whole Middle East. Right now they just want to survive." Earlier, thousands of Iranians chanted "Death to America" at a rally to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Story continues The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that Iran should implement policies to safeguard its macroeconomic stability in the face of sanctions. Senior Iranian officials have dismissed concerns about the impact to its economy. "America will not be able to carry out any measure against our great and brave nation ... We have the knowledge and the capability to manage the country's economic affairs," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi told state TV on Friday. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Chattanooga, Tennessee Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) Weatherford International plc (NYSE:WFT) is looking for joint opportunities in the drilling business in the Middle East. The US-based oilfield services company wants to expand its reach in the drilling business of national oil companies with manufacturing capacities in Saudi Arabia. The global crude production in the Middle East accounts for around 35% of the total production in the world. According to the president of Weatherfords well construction global business unit, Dean Bell, Were very actively [talking to clients in the Middle East], we have an Eastern Hemisphere president based here in Dubai. We constantly evaluate and discuss opportunities with our customers, anything that we can jointly add value is always things that we can discuss. Bell, however, did not disclose any specific deals. Weatherford posts $199 million net loss for Q3 year-on-year The company posted $199 million net loss for Q3 year-on-year. The Eastern Hemisphere revenues including that of Middle East spiked by 2% and rose to $692 million due to higher sale of a product in Asia, and Continental Europe. As compared to these continents the revenues in the Middle East grew very slowly because of lower services activity. Incidentally, the revenues from Russia also dipped as a result of the unfavorable foreign exchange. Baker Hughes, an oilfield services provider from the US stated in October this year said that it would purchase a 5% stake in the drilling entity of state-owned National Oil Company in Abu Dhabi for $550 million. As per the market analysis, the drills estimated value is $11 billion. Weatherford believes that there has been a modest improvement in the upstream activity at the international level has been monitoring Middle Easts ongoing licensing rounds. It is because several big national oil companies in the region including Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, and Lebanon are wooing investors by offering blocks to those interested in 2018. Bell stated that the company is watching all these companies very closely since the licensing is the edge that will ultimately shift the activity to the next level of exploration venture. Weatherford completes land drilling operations sale in Kuwait The company recently completed land drilling operations sale in Kuwait. Weatherford sold 12 drilling rigs for $123 million cash to ADES International Holding Ltd. The company still has to receive additional $12 million cash from the delivery of South Iraqs two idle land drilling rigs. Our Mission The Foreign Press Centers support the Department's mission by deepening global understanding of U.S. policy, society, culture, and values through engagement with foreign media. The United States Department of State has Foreign Press Centers in Washington, D.C. and in New York, New York. We promote the depth, accuracy, and balance of foreign reporting from the U.S. by providing direct access to authoritative American information sources. *The FPCs are receiving journalists on an appointment only basis. For assistance, please contact a media relations officer or email the collective dcfpc@state.gov* As Washington attempts to negotiate peace with the Taliban to bring 17 years of war in Afghanistan to a close, the militant group has ramped up its military campaign by targeting powerful provincial opponents. Last week, the Taliban claimed its fighters shot down an Afghan Army helicopter in the mountainous Anar Dara district of western Farah Province, which borders Iran, on October 31. At least 25 military and civilian officials were killed, including an influential anti-Taliban figure, Fareed Bakhtawar, the head of Farahs provincial council. Afghan officials, however, rejected the Talibans claim as totally wrong, maintaining that the helicopter crashed due to bad weather. Bakhtawar had been a bulwark against a possible Taliban takeover of Farah. In May, he personally engaged in a fierce gun-battle with heavily armed Taliban fighters when they stormed the provincial capital, also called Farah, from several directions and claimed to have overrun the large rural province. Bakhtawars assassination is not an isolated incident. It appears to be part of a Taliban strategy to show their strength and extended their influence across the country as Washington pushes for talks with the insurgents. Two days before the October 20 parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, the Taliban claimed that one of their infiltrators had killed General Abdul Raziq. The powerful anti-Taliban police chief of southern Kandahar Province was widely seen as a lynchpin of a network preventing the insurgents from reclaiming the birthplace of their hard-line Islamist movement in the 1990s. A Taliban fighter got past the bodyguards of Zalmay Weesa, Kandahars provincial governor. He opened fire on Raziq following a key meeting attended by senior Afghan and U.S. officials. The U.S. commander of Afghanistan's NATO-led force, General Scott Miller, was at the scene. The Taliban claimed responsibility in a statement. "The brutal police chief of Kandahar has been killed along with several other officials," the group said. A day before Raziqs assassination, the Taliban claimed responsibility for an explosion that killed Abdul Jabar Qahraman, a key parliamentary electoral candidate in southern Helmand Province. The militants called him a renowned communist general. Qahraman was a staunch anti-Taliban figure who was once assigned by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to oversee military operations against the insurgents in Helmand. The region produces the bulk of the worlds opium and heroin. The Taliban siphon off a major share from the drug trade, and Helmand remains a major recruiting ground. Atiqullah Amarkheil, a Kabul-based retired Afghan general, says the loss of the three influential figures, who enjoyed popular support, could quickly give the Taliban dominance over the southern and southwestern parts of Afghanistan. The elimination of Raziq, Qahraman and the head of Farahs provincial council, who had resisted [the Taliban] and had, in fact, prevented Farah from falling to the Taliban, has a direct impact on the security situation, he told RFE/RLs Gandhara website. It makes it very difficult for the government to retain its control over these areas. Ali Amiri, a Kabul-based political analyst, agrees. He says the loss of such powerful local figures can create security hurdles for the Afghan government as it prepares for presidential elections in 2019. The loss of these figures makes it difficult for the government to maintain stability in Afghanistan overall," he said. Jawid Kohistani, a Kabul-based security expert, says the assassinations indicate that the Taliban are unwilling to join an inclusive negotiated peace process. The Taliban are not yet ready to engage in some sort of a reconciliation with the government and political parties, both former mujahedin parties and others, he said. They are not ready to create a joint political system [with the Afghans they are fighting against]. The Talibans assassination campaign against their rivals dates back years. The insurgents have used the killing of influential figures to weaken the government in Kabul and extend control in specific regions. The assassinations of leading anti-Taliban figures invariably weaken the resolves of others to oppose them. In 2015, the militant group claimed responsibility for the assassination of a powerful police chief in the southern province of Uruzgan, Matiullah Khan. In July 2011, another arch-enemy of the Taliban, Jan Mohammad Khan, a former governor of Uruzgan and a close ally of former President Hamid Karzai, was assassinated at his home in Kabul. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the militant group, said in a statement at the time that Khan was "a big stooge of the American invaders." In September 2011, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing of Afghanistans head of the High Peace Council at the time and former President Burhanuddin Rabbani. Forces loyal to Rabbani fought the Taliban militants during their reign in Afghanistan from 1994 to early 2001. The new wave of Taliban assassination comes at a time when Washington has stepped up efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table with the Afghan government in a bid to end the United States longest war. In October, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. administrations special envoy for Afghanistans peace and reconciliation, wrapped up an 11-day trip that took him to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Media reports said Khalilzad met with the Talibans representatives in the Qatari capital, Doha, on October 12. The Taliban confirmed the news, saying in a statement that both sides discussed the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan and "agreed to continue such meetings." In the past, the group has expressed readiness to engage in direct talks with the United States. However, it has declined to negotiate with the U.S.-backed Afghan government. Both Kabul and Washington have emphasized that any peace talks should be led and owned by Afghans. The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan also issued a statement on Khalilzads tour. However, it did not confirm the meeting in Doha. "The United States shares the aspirations of all Afghans for a peaceful Afghanistan where all Afghans see themselves included. All citizens of Afghanistan must be a part of this reconciliation process," Khalilzad said at the end of his trip, based on the statement. Despite Khalilzads peace-building efforts, the continuation of the Talibans targeted campaign in southern Afghanistan and their consequent attacks during the October 20 parliamentary elections have wilted any budding optimism for peace and stability. Kohistani sees little Taliban interest in making a grand bargain or a political compromise by accepting the constitution and joining the political mainstream of Afghanistan. They fight for the re-establishment of their Islamic Emirate. They have reiterated this in their recent statements, he noted. NORAK, Tajikistan -- As dusk falls, when most of the townsfolk are deserting the streets and heading home for dinner, Olimshoh Khudoynazarov is preparing for watch duty. He slips on a red armband and affixes a badge identifying him as a member of Norak's Volunteer Patrol, a makeshift line of defense against extremism for the south-central Tajik town of just over 50,000. "Each night, a group of eight men watch Norak's streets to help the police keep law and order," the 52-year-old says of the 250-strong band of state-backed vigilantes. Many have backgrounds as police or other security bodies, and initially helped authorities maintain the peace until 10 p.m. But their roles and numbers expanded after four foreign cyclists were killed and two others injured when they were mowed down in a vehicular attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group in July. "Now we stay until midnight and beyond, sometimes till 2 a.m.," Khudoynazarov says. "Many things have changed since summer." Dim Prospects In The 'City Of Lights' Norak once enjoyed a reputation as an idyllic Soviet city. Its namesake hydropower plant, constructed in the 1960s on the Vakhsh River, earned it the moniker "City Of Lights" and powered an image of progressiveness that attracted thousands of young workers to build their future. Neighboring villages dotted with mud-brick homes and dirt roads gave way to a growing multicultural city that at one point was home to residents of more than 40 different ethnic backgrounds. Tourists flocked to the area to see what until just a few years ago was the world's largest dam -- a concrete wonder surrounded by picturesque mountaintops that provides electricity to 70 percent of Tajikistan. But Norak's aging statue of Vladimir Lenin, which still stands in the central square, has seen the town fall on hard times. The collapse of the Soviet Union and Tajikistan's five-year civil war led many residents to leave in the 1990s. Jobs became harder to find. Opportunities vanished. Official statistics don't support the idea that Norak is worse off than other areas of Tajikistan, suggesting that unemployment is more or less in line with the national average of 2.3 percent. And like many other Tajik towns and cities, Norak has undergone a facelift in recent years, with authorities renovating main streets and government buildings, repairing highways, and creating new parks and culture centers. But considering that more than 30 percent of Tajikistan's population lives below the poverty line, and its agriculture-dependent labor force is well-known for migrating to Russia and other countries for seasonal jobs, actual unemployment is widely believed to be much higher than 2.3 percent. And the situation is widely believed to be much worse in Norak. The local employment agency provides numbers that indicate that more than 45 percent of Norak's potential workforce has no permanent employment, and a recent report indicates the town is situated in one of the poorest areas of the country. "Our young people don't have the opportunities we had," says Qurbon Qosimov, a former firefighter who moved to Norak some four decades ago from the northern Tajik town of Konibodom. Retired driver Ismatullo Ashurov, who arrived in 1971 and witnessed the heyday, says simply that the older generation "had it better." "Everybody would come to Norak to work," the 73-year-old says. "It's different now." Hometown Connections To A Brutal Attack The July 29 attack involved ramming a vehicle into a group of foreign cyclists, and multiple attackers then exiting the car and stabbing survivors. Two Americans, one Dutch, and a Swiss cyclist were killed and three others were injured before the assailants fled. The attack led to the arrest of 15 people, whose trial began in October. The details of the case do not paint Norak in a good light. In August, five men were arrested in Norak, which was determined to be the hometown of two of those suspected of carrying out the attack. The five are alleged to have been recruited by way of WhatsApp by Asliddin and Jafar Yusupov, two brothers from Norak who were killed in a police operation that immediately followed the killings. The authorities allege that members of a terrorist cell gathered at a house in Norak to identify potential targets and plot an attack, adding to the town's notoriety for harboring Islamic militants. Norak was already on Tajik authorities' radar: government officials had previously estimated that at least 30 residents had traveled abroad to join the ranks of the extremist Islamic State group, and another 20 suspected Islamic State militants had been detained in the town itself. Among those who left to fight in Iraq and Syria were two infamous IS recruiters: a 26-year-old native of Norak's Tutqavul district. One, Anushervon Azimov, was believed to have recruited some 100 people to join IS before he was killed in Syria in 2016. The other is Abu Usama Noraki, aka Tojiddin Nazarov, who according to Tajik authorities has launched a campaign to brainwash young Tajiks to join IS in Afghanistan. Embarrassed by the additional and unwanted spotlight being shown on the town in the wake of the attack on the Western bicyclists, Norak authorities and residents alike are left wondering what went wrong. Opportunity Is Where You Find It Unemployment and lost opportunities may be factors, but they don't tell the whole story. Just because times are tough doesn't mean every youth turns to militancy. This summer, 17-year-old Idimoh Sultonzoda received good news: she had earned a space at a university in the capital, Dushanbe, and will earn a teaching degree once she completes five years of distance-learning courses. It also requires that she travel to the university at least twice a year to attend intensive courses and to take exams. To make ends meet she sells homemade snacks and drinks at a stall in the shadow of the Lenin monument. "I started this business to cover expenses, because my parents can't afford to pay" for school, she says, noting that her business does well on hot days when people stop by to purchase samosas or sunflower seeds. "You can find work if you really want to," she says. "I made [an opportunity] for myself." Across the road, 27-year-old Firuz Qosimzoda is taking a stroll in the fresh air with his wife and their one-month-old baby daughter. Qosimzoda works as an engineer at the Roghun hydropower plant, set to take the mantle as Tajikistan's most prestigious power generator, some 125 kilometers away. Qosimzoda says his salary is "adequate" to cover expenses for his young family, which shares a home with his parents. "I still hold a junior position but hope to move up in the career ladder," he says. "Then my salary will increase, too." Qosimzoda is excited about his own career prospects, but admits that "not all young people have jobs" in his hometown. No Place To Dream, Nowhere To Turn At a nearby bazaar, many young men can be seen selling goods, pushing carts, or offering taxi services. "I do all kinds of odd jobs, whatever I find," says a man in his 20s. "I work in people's houses painting walls, or repairing barns. I also work in farms in the harvest season. What I earn is barely enough for food and other basics." He declines to give his name, not an uncommon occurrence in Tajikistan, where authorities don't tolerate dissent, and people are reluctant to openly voice criticism. "I am not even 25 yet but I don't see any good future for myself, I'm even afraid of dreaming, because it won't come true anyway," the man says. "I don't know who I should complain to or seek advice." Many in the Muslim-majority country of 8 million turn to the mosque, but municipal authorities and local religious figures insist that Norak's young people are no more inclined than others in the country toward militant Islam. Echoing a widespread sentiment among locals, the town's chief imam, Abdulhay Naimov, says "there is no explanation" for its reputation for producing Islamic State recruits. "We're shocked," Naimov says. "What I know is that young men don't learn extremist ideas in our mosques. In fact, in mosques we always warn them against the dangers of extremism." The state maintains firm control on religion in Tajikistan, and only allows approved forms of Islam. Naimov plays a big role in the counterterrorism efforts started by the government in Norak following the attack on Western cyclists. "It's the main topic of every Friday prayer, in community meetings, and even in private funeral services. We use every opportunity to spread the message," Naimov says. Deputy Mayor Shahlo Hasanzoda says the authorities have spoken to around 4,000 residents as part of the campaign. They have spoken to young people and their parents, and called some 700 young men working in Russia. "We urge parents to watch their children -- grown-up sons -- to talk to them, to warn them against recruiters," Hasanzoda says. "We asked [parents] to report to authorities if they notice any suspicious changes in their children's behavior. They also welcomed ideas as to how to combat the spread of extremist ideas, and Hasanzoda drew some conclusions as to where they were originating. "What I gather is that almost all of those who joined IS from Norak were recruited during labor migrations in Russia," she says. "Being far from home, low-paid heavy physical work, loneliness, etc., it makes them vulnerable to being led astray." As for those in Tajikistan, she says, "possibly some young people learn radical teachings from different sites on the Internet." From One Friend To Another According to government figures, at least 30 of the some 1,100 Tajiks believed to have joined the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq came from Norak. Addressing the town's high representation in such statistics, Washington-based Eurasia specialist Edward Lemon cites research from other areas of Central Asia that revealed a link was found between recruitment and local relationships. "A major factor which helps explain why some districts are overrepresented in extremist recruitment figures is the role of connections," the DMGS-Kenna Institute Fellow at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School told RFE/RL. Recruitment "often takes place through a member of the family, as in the case of the Yusupovs, or a classmate or colleague." He notes that a World Bank report estimated that 67 percent of the population in Norak's home district lived in poverty, "making it one of the poorest areas of the country." And while he says he doesn't believe poverty causes radicalization on its own, it does drive many to migrate to Russia. There, he says, many Central Asian migrants "find work, live with, and socialize with people from their hometown. So if one falls under the influence of extremists, they are likely to persuade others." It's a pattern, Lemon concludes, that "may well explain why Norak has produced a disproportionate number of terrorists." Tajik authorities also appeared to be aware of the possibility of such links, and early in the Tajik investigation into the attack ordered 20 Tajik migrant workers to return home from Russia for questioning. 'Those Few Extremists Don't Represent Us' Temperatures still hover at a comfortable 20 degrees Celsius on a mid-October evening, but the streets of Norak are already empty. "We used to hang around with friends till late, but parents have become much stricter now," says 23-year-old Rustam Roziqov. "My parents tell me not to leave home after sunset, they ask who I spend time with, what me and my friends talk about, what we do." Since the attack on Western cyclists, parents across Norak have been instructed by authorities to watch their children -- including "children" in their late 20s. The office of the Norak mayor conducts regular meetings with officials, community leaders, and religious figures on security and counter-extremism issues. Fotima Sharipova, a 55-year-old housewife, has attended several of the meetings. Sharipova has three sons and a daughter, all grown up and married with children, but she says she is keeping a watchful eye on them "to make sure they don't mix with bad people." "The other day my youngest son went to a wedding and I joined him, too. He begged me, 'Mom, please, don't come, you're embarrassing me,'" she says. "I went with him anyway, because I'm worried and I take this seriously." Sharipova says the July attack "ruined" Norak's name, and that she and her husband were treated with suspicion when they visited the Khoja Obi Garm sanatorium in August. "When we said we're from Norak, people kind of avoided us," Sharipova says. "We need to reclaim our good name." It's a sentiment that is shared by nearly every Norak resident you speak to, young and old, and the Tajik people's request for forgiveness is stated in plain English on a large billboard at the site of the highway attack. "We express our sincere condolences on behalf of all Tajik people and Tajikistan to families and relatives of the [slain] tourists," reads the sign, erected in front of a symbolic "ghost bike" and adorned with flowers and photographs. "We ask [that you] accept our condolences!" "Those few extremists don't represent us," says Norak resident Zainiddin Vohidov, 23. "There are maybe some bad individuals among us, but most of our people are peaceful." The retired driver Ashurov concurs. "The attack on innocent people was so wrong, he says. "It's so beyond wrong." Khudoynazarov and his fellow volunteers are keenly aware that there are others out there who feel differently, however. Like many locals, they are keeping a special eye out for the enemy within. Written and reported from Norak by Farangis Najibullah, with additional reporting by Mumin Ahmadi Ellicott School District 22 will hold its annual Veterans Appreciation Day program at 2:30 p.m. Thursday in the Ellicott High School gym, 375 S. Ellicott Highway in Ellicott. Doors will open and registration for veterans and active-duty military will begin at 2 p.m. The High Frontier Honor Guard will present the colors, and veterans and active military personnel will be recognized for their service. The Full Circle Band, The High School Symphonic Band and the Ellicott Elementary School choir will perform. Representatives from Schriever Air Force Bases 50th Space Wing Command will attend. The community is invited. Anyone who has served or is serving in the military and would like to be recognized during the celebration is asked to call Laura Durst, 683-2700 ext. 4, or email lauradurst@esd22.org with your name, rank, number of years served and names of any students related to you. A reception with refreshments will follow in the High School Commons. Pikes Peak Community College will celebrate Veterans Week through Nov. 12, with several free public events, including Combat Paper workshops on Thursday and Friday and a Veteran Community Resource Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in the Centennial Campus atrium, 5675 S. Academy Blvd. A Colorado Womens Hall of Fame Portrait Exhibit of women who have shaped Colorado and made significant contributions in their fields will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. all week in the atrium and F Building breezeway at Centennial Campus. The week will culminate Nov. 12 with a wreath-laying ceremony and reception with guest speaker Kristen Christy, 2018 Air Force Spouse of the Year and advocate for family and suicide prevention. More than 26 percent of PPCC students are affiliated with the military. For details, go to ppcc.edu/military. Colorado Springs School District 11 Colorado Springs School District 11 schools are having bring a veteran to school day, bring a vet to lunch day, flag ceremonies, veterans visiting classrooms, writing Tribute Cards, patriotic sing-alongs and concerts, and other activities to teach students the meaning of Veterans Day and the importance of honoring active and inactive military personnel. Contact the writer: 719-476-1656. Will a blue wave wash over Colorado? Here's what to watch on election night | Cronin and Loevy Casey Mchone waits outside McKenzie Arena for a campaign rally with President Donald Trump on Sunday in Chattanooga, Tenn. NEW YORK NBC, Fox News Channel and Facebook all said Monday they will stop airing President Donald Trump's campaign advertisement that featu EDITORIAL: Church security can't be an afterthought around Colorado Springs and beyond Alison Jones crawls out of her cardboard box during a previous year's Night Out for Homeless Youth. English Lithuanian Lietuvos Energija, UAB, (hereinafter the Company), identification code 301844044, registered office placed at Zveju St. 14, Vilnius, the Republic of Lithuania. The total nominal value of issued bonds of Lietuvos Energija, UAB, is 600 000 000 EUR; ISIN codes XS1646530565; XS1853999313. Pursuant to the decisions of the Managing Board of the Company of the 11th October, 2018, and the 2nd November, 2018, as well as the approval granted by the sole shareholder of the Company on the 19th of October, 2018, a conditional share sale-purchase agreement regarding 100 percent of shares and the shareholder claim rights of the wind farm project company in Poland from Wento, was concluded by the Company on the 2nd of November, 2018. The wind farm project is being developed in Poland, with its expected capacity of approximately 50 megawatt (MW). Wento is a developer of solar and wind farm projects in Poland. On the 15th October, 2018, the Company addressed the Commission for the Protection of Objects of Importance to Ensuring National Security of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter the Commission) regarding the assessment of the transaction. The Commission adopted a decision not to commence the assessment process of transaction compliance with the interests of national security. Acquisitions, corresponding to the strategy of the Company, expand and diversify its activities, increase the value of Lietuvos Energija, UAB, Corporate Group, as well as the dividends being paid to the State. More information: Laura Sebekiene, Head of Corporate Communications of Lietuvos Energija +370 633 99940, laura.sebekiene@le.lt English French PRESS INFORMATION Clermont-Ferrand, November, 5th 2018 Michelin announces its intention to close its Dundee site in the United Kingdom in 2020 The Dundee site, opened in 1971 and which exclusively manufactures 16-inch and smaller MICHELIN tyres for cars, has faced serious difficulties in recent years due to: a profound transformation of the car parc, resulting in a structural decline in the demand for premium tyres of 16-inches and smaller an accelerated shift in the 16-inch and smaller tyre offer towards low-cost, entry-level products from Asia Despite the Group's continuous efforts, and the factory employees' dedication to making the site economically sustainable through the implementation of several action plans - 70 million has been invested in recent years to modernise the site - the accelerated market transformation has made the plant unsuitable and its conversion is not financially viable. Against this backdrop, the Michelin Group has had to announce its intention to close the Dundee factory by mid-2020. The priority now is to provide the 845 employees of the factory with the most effective support possible to enable them to face the consequences of this difficult decision. In line with its principles, the Group will implement a personalised support programme for each of the factory's employees. In addition to enhanced redundancy packages and early retirement measures for employees at the end of their career, Michelin will propose a comprehensive plan to assist the employees concerned to start a new career as quickly as possible. This plan will include intensive support to find a new job, relocation assistance, and tailor-made programmes including skills retraining. Michelin Development, the Group's entity dedicated to local economic development in the areas in which Michelin has operations, will also be working with local stakeholders to help create 845 new jobs. In accordance with UK legislation, Michelin will begin a consultation process with employees, employee representatives and the trade union on the closure project, and on social support measures in the next two weeks. Michelin's truck tyre retreading business, as well as sales and distribution of all its products and services in the UK will continue. The Group is also investing in high-tech and digital activities, as illustrated by the Group's recent acquisitions, including blackcircles.com and Fenner. To finance this operation, the Michelin Group will record a provision of approximately 155 million euros in non-recurring expenses in its consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2018. Relations Investisseurs Edouard de Peufeilhoux +33 (0) 4 73 32 74 47 +33 (0) 6 89 71 93 73 (mobile) edouard.de-peufeilhoux@michelin.com Matthieu Dewavrin +33 (0) 4 73 32 18 02 +33 (0) 6 71 14 17 05 (mobile) matthieu.dewavrin@michelin.com Humbert de Feydeau +33 (0) 4 73 32 68 39 +33 (0) 6 82 22 39 78 (mobile) humbert.de-feydeau@michelin.com Relations Presse Corinne Meutey +33 (0) 1 78 76 45 27 +33 (0) 6 08 00 13 85 (mobile) corinne.meutey@michelin.com Actionnaires Individuels Isabelle Maizaud-Aucouturier +33 (0) 4 73 98 59 27 isabelle.maizaud-aucouturier@michelin.com DISCLAIMER This press release is not an offer to purchase or a solicitation to recommend the purchase of Michelin shares. To obtain more detailed information on Michelin, please consult the documents filed in France with Autorite des Marches Financiers, which are also available from the www.michelin.com/eng website. This press release may contain a number of forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that these statements are based on reasonable assumptions as at the time of publishing this document, they are by nature subject to risks and contingencies liable to translate into a difference between actual data and the forecasts made or inferred by these statements. According to Hardin, grazing land held in common would always be used less carefully than private grazing land. However, according to the study, the common land was in better condition than the private land. Common grazing land is open to any user. According to Hardin, each individual rancher would be tempted to overuse common land. Why? Because each individual rancher would benefit from overusing the common land. Meanwhile, the costs of reduced land quality from overuse would be spread among all users. of reduced land quality from overuse would be spread among all users. In other words, if a rancher overuses his/her own private land, he/she will bear the costs of the overuse. But if a rancher overuses common grazing land, the costs will be spread among ALL users. Thus, it seems as though ranchers using common land have more incentive to overuse the land and negatively impact the land quality. But the results of a study, which compared 217 million acres of common grazing land with 433 million acres of private grazing land, showed that the common land was actually in better condition. This goes against Hardin's argument. We need an answer choice that explains this discrepancy. Quote: (A) With private grazing land, both the costs and the benefits of overuse fall to the individual user. Quote: (B) The cost in reduced land quality that is attributable to any individual user is less easily measured with common land than it is with private land. Quote: (C) An individual who overuses common grazing land might be able to achieve higher returns than other users can, with the result that he or she would obtain a competitive advantage. Quote: (D) If one user of common land overuses it even slightly, the other users are likely to do so even more, with the consequence that the costs to each user outweigh the benefits. Quote: (E) There are more acres of grazing land held privately than there are held in common. condition Let's start by identifying the discrepancy between Hardin's argument and the results of the study:Now let's look at the details of the passage:Which of the following, if true and known by the ranchers, would best help explain the results of the study?This helps explain Hardin's point of view, but it does not explain why the results of the study do not match Hardin's argument. Eliminate (A).Choice (B) tells us that it if, say, 20 ranchers are sharing some common land, then it is difficult to measure the cost in reduced land quality caused by any one user.On the other hand, with private land, any cost in reduced land quality could be attributed to the rancher who owns the land. Determining the exact cost might be difficult, but we would not have to worry about dividing up the blame.This information helps to explain Hardin's position. If (B) were NOT true, it might be easier to point a finger at any one rancher and say, "Hey, your overuse of the common land has cost us all X dollars!" That would make it harder for the ranchers to take advantage of the shared land.But (B) does not explain the results of the study, so it should be eliminated.Again, this helps to explain Hardin's position. Choice (C) gives us even more reason to expect that ranchers would try to overuse common land and that the private land would be in better condition. (C) does not explain the results of the study, so it should be eliminated.According to Hardin, an individual rancher would have an incentive to overuse public grazing lands. Why? Because the rancher would accrue benefits from overusing the land, and the costs of the overuse would be spread among all users.But according to choice (D), if an individual rancher tries to exploit the common land as described by Hardin, then the other users are likely to overuse the land to an even greater extent. As more and more users start to overuse the common land, the costs of overuse start to outweigh the benefits, even though those costs are spread among all users.In other words, if only ONE rancher tries to exploit the system, then that rancher will benefit at the expense of the other users. But, if (D) is true and KNOWN by the ranchers, then all of the ranchers are aware that any such attempt will end up costing them in the long run. Thus, despite the temptation described by Hardin, the ranchers would not want to overuse the common land.(D) explains the discrepancy, so keep this one.We are not concerned with the number of acres of common and private land. We are only concerned with theof each type. Choice (E) is irrelevant, so eliminate this one.(D) is the best answer._________________ Hong Kong is recognised as one of the worlds leading exporters and trendsetters of timepieces, jewellery and spectacles. Hong Kong manufacturers and brands are popular in the Chinese mainland, one of the biggest markets for the merchandise. 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 In Ahvaz, on September 22nd, an armed attack targeted a military parade that marked the 38th anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war. The gunmen had been disguised as members of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij paramilitary force, according to the government, and were killed by security forces during the attack. Irans Ministry of Intelligence announced that it had arrested 22 suspects in the days that followed. As well, the state television channel Press TV broadcast a video of suspects handcuffed and blindfolded facing a wall. The Al-Ahwaz National Resistance, described as an umbrella entity composed of several Ahvazi separatist groups, and the armed group that calls itself the Islamic State are among several groups who have taken responsibility for the attack. According to Amnesty International, a huge crackdown by Iranian authorities against the Ahvazi Arab ethnic minority is now occurring. Hundreds of people are being arrested in Khuzestan province, southern Iran, over the past few weeks. The attack on the military parade seems to have sparked the wave of detentions. The attack resulted in the deaths of 24 people, including spectators, and injured more than 60. Philip Luther, Amnesty Internationals Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa said, The scale of arrests in recent weeks is deeply alarming. The timing suggests that the Iranian authorities are using the attack in Ahvaz as an excuse to lash out against members of the Ahvazi Arab ethnic minority, including civil society and political activists, in order to crush dissent in Khuzestan province. He added, All those suspected of criminal responsibility for the horrific attack in Ahvaz must be brought to justice in fair trials, but carrying out arbitrary arrests is not the way to secure justice for victims. Ahvazi Arab activists outside Iran have provided Amnesty International with the names of 178 people who were arrested. The number may actually be much higher some activists outside the country report that at least 600 people have been detained. Reports also allege that political and minority rights activists are arrested almost on a daily basis. Across Khuzestan province, in Ahvaz, Hamidiyeh, Khorramshahr, and Shush, arrests continue, creating a climate of fear in already persecuted Ahvazi Arab community. Philip Luther spoke to this when he said, Irans appalling track record of persecuting and discriminating against members of the Ahvazi Arab community raises suspicions that these arrests are being carried out arbitrarily and are politically motivated. Amnesty International calls on the Iranian authorities to release immediately and unconditionally anyone being held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly or solely on account of their ethnic identity, Luther continued. Ministry of Intelligence officials have been carrying out the arrests, along with Irans regular police force or riot police, according to information received by Amnesty International. Arrest warrants have not been presented, and detainees are not told the reason for their arrests. They are being held with no access to lawyers or family, in conditions that are reminiscent of enforced disappearance. They are believed to be at risk of torture or other mistreatment. The Governor of Khuzestan province, Gholamreza Shariati, claimed that there were no civil society activists among those detained but Amnesty has received credible information that students, writers, civil society, minority rights and political activists have been arrested in their homes, at places of work, or in the streets. Sahba(Lamya) Hammadi, a civil society activist who is pregnant has been detained. She was arrested on 6 October 6th at her home in the city of Susangerd, in Khuzestan province. On the day she was arrested, she contacted her family, but they have not heard from her since. On October 22nd, two women from Susangerd, Zoudieh Afrawi and Gheysieh Afrawi, were arrested separately in their homes. Meanwhile, both of the womens children were arrested earlier that day by security forces. They both telephoned relatives within the week following their arrests and told them they were being held by the Ministry of Intelligence. They have not been heard from since. Mohammad Momeni Timas, a civil society activist, was arrested on September 30th, after going to the Revolutionary Court in Ahvaz to ask about his two children, who had been detained. He was arrested and has not been heard from since. The first batch of such sanctions already went back into effect in August, 90 days after President Donald Trumps announcement of American withdrawal from the agreement. But with secondary sanctions on Iranian oil exports and other transactions due to come back into effect on Monday, the Times suggested that the US was facing steep obstacles, primarily in the form of tentative plans by key US allies to defy the sanctions and provide Tehran with financial and logistical incentives to remain a party to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action despite US withdrawal. The article in question suggested that this defiance is being driven in large part by a lack of confidence in the Trump administrations strategy and stated objectives. The White House has highlighted 12 specific areas of Iranian policy and behavior that it feels must change in order to set the stage for possible return to suspension of economic sanctions. According to the Times, many analysts see this as a pipe dream, noting that the theocratic regime would almost certainly not be able to halt its support of regional militant groups or make other fundamental changes without risking the collapse of the system. But others have suggested that this may be the entire point. The administration has avoided provocative phrases like regime change, but White House National Security Advisor John Bolton has specifically said on a number of previous occasions that he believes this should be the precise objective of Western policies toward the Islamic Republic. Some of those statements have been delivered in the context of speeches before the summer rallies of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition whose main constituent group, the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran, has been credited with organizing and promoting many of the anti-government protests that have been erupting all across Iran since the end of last year. In official statements in her capacity as the leader of the PMOI and the NCRI, Maryam Rajavi has declared that the fortunes of the Iranian people will only improve in the wake of the ouster of the clerical dictatorship. She has also stated repeatedly that this outcome can be attained by the Iranian people themselves, by way of sustained uprisings. Some observers have speculated that President Trump and his foreign policy principals see things in much the same way, and indeed Trump has at times framed his Iran strategy in terms of support for the long-suffering Iranian people in their struggle against the clerical regime. However, as long as the White House does not formally acknowledge this position, traditional partners of the United States will have little choice other than to respond to the stated goal of compelling the existing government to change its behavior in multiple areas. Those same partners will certainly set policy accordingly, and so far they have expressed commitment to a policy that is clearly based on skepticism about the prospects for behavioral changes brought about by economic sanctions. Nevertheless, as the New York Times points out, this situation apparently has not affected the confidence of the Trump administration, given that the prior warnings and skepticism espoused by Western critics have not been validated by the facts on the ground. Specifically, those critics expressed the belief that Iran would pull out of the JCPOA in response to the White Houses move, and would ramp up its nuclear activity to pre-agreement levels or higher. Instead, Tehran has been actively working with the other signatories in an effort to keep the deal in force, and the Trump administration hopes that the desire for broader relief from sanctions will lead the Iranians to enter into a new agreement that includes greater restrictions on a wider range of the regimes behaviors. Despite all this, many of the administrations detractors continue to argue that sanctions will not prove effective when applied unilaterally by the United States. But this line of argument may not take into account the fact that the capacity for enforcement of those sanctions has grown significantly in the five years since economic penalties began to be lifted in line with the start of negotiations between Iran and the US. A video report by the Wall Street Journal provided details of this change on Thursday, noting that there is much more satellite imagery of international maritime trade routes today, and that the computer algorithms for analyzing that imagery has become much more sophisticated. As a result, the Islamic Republic may find that it can no longer make illicit, unreported shipments of oil or other goods to partner countries without being caught out by enforcement bodies and subjected to relevant penalties. Naturally, this situation could also have an impact on US trading partners who attempt to aid in sanctions evasion. This may in turn help to diminish the prospects for the European Union to stand by its promise of facilitating Iranian transactions and keeping the JCPOA in force. At the same time, Irans own ongoing activities may contradict the existing incentives for these European efforts. On Wednesday, Agence France Presse reported that the government of Denmark was reaching out to fellow European governments to discuss the possible imposition of new sanctions related to the alleged Iranian plot to kill at least three opposition activists on Danish soil. In a press conference discussing the plot, Danish authorities noted that this was not an isolated incident but part of a pattern of Iranian threats against persons living in the West. In March, Iranian operatives were prevented from attacking a residence of PMOI activists in Albania, and in June another two operatives were arrested en route to the international gathering of the NCRI outside Paris, in possession of 500 grams of TATP explosive. Direct threats to Western sovereignty have been accompanied by threats to Western interests in the area surrounding the Islamic Republic, and this also may harm the Iranian regimes chances of securing a long-term European commitment to defiance of US sanctions. On Thursday, an article in the Wall Street Journal pointed to one of the latest sources of Western anxiety over Irans regional role, namely payments that were reportedly given to Syrian rebels by the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group to compel them to switch sides following the loss of American financing. While this development may raise legitimate criticisms of the Trump administrations broader Middle East policy, it also underscores the potential impact of sanctions on the Islamic Republic. In the nearly three years since implementation of the JCPOA, Iran has expanded its funding for militant proxies including Hezbollah, and any new interruptions to this funding would surely have knock-on effects upon the beneficiaries of those proxies own largesse. It is partly with Irans regional influence in mind that the Trump administration has advanced its strategy of maximum pressure. But some of the latest reporting suggests that the White House may be trending toward compromise on certain aspects of that strategy. CNBC reported on Thursday that both India and South Korea seemed poised to receive waivers from the US government allowing them to continue importing a reduced quantity of Iranian oil, on which their economies are supposedly dependent. The report went on to suggest that the administration is providing more wiggle room in general, albeit only after widespread compliance with the imminent sanctions led to Iran losing about one third of its oil export business. Reuters quoted National Security Advisor Bolton, a noted Iran hawk, as saying that the US doesnt want to harm friends or allies in its pursuit of maximum pressure. Toward this end, the administration will reportedly be examining waiver requests on a case-by-case basis, although there is every indication that it is still expecting a very large reduction in loadings of Iranian oil to justify waivers. Furthermore, India and South Korea presently stand alone as beneficiaries of the newfound shift in the administrations tone. A separate Reuters report indicates that Japan has yet to secure waivers or the promise thereof, after four rounds of talks and a temporary halt of all loadings of Iranian oil. The White House had set its goal as the reduction of Irans global oil exports to zero, but this was generally recognized as unrealistic. The apparent shift in the administrations tone may reflect a newly pragmatic approach to the issue, but it may also reflect confidence that European partners of the United States will either willingly comply with sanctions or be compelled to do so, leaving Trump with room to negotiate terms with other entities whose reductions in Iranian oil loadings involve a higher level of sacrifice. On October 21, a Norwegian citizen of Iranian origin who had travelled to Sweden was arrested and extradited to Denmark. Finn Borch Andersen, the head of the Politiets Efterretningstjeneste, the national security and intelligence agency of Denmark, said: This is a case that entails an Iranian intelligence operation in Denmark, In our view, it was an Iranian intelligence agencys plan to assassinate a person who lives in Denmark. Since then, the Iranian ambassador has been expelled, Denmark has called home its own ambassador, and Denmark has vowed to push for new EU sanctions on Iran at what is already a pressing time for the mullahs. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also thanked Denmarks government for arresting the Iranian regime assassin on Tuesday. The plot The unnamed suspect was reportedly doing surveillance on members of Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA), while two members of the group have received threats. When the suspect was arrested, he had photos of the homes of ASMLA members in his house. The ASMLA members are now under police protection. The plot may have targeted an event due to take place in November, but details are still emerging. The suspect will be held until November 8. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen described the plot as totally unacceptable, What comes next is unclear. Denmark wants other EU countries to join it. With France and Denmark already involved in diplomatic spats with Iran over the plots, the pushback may grow, precisely at a difficult time for Tehran. Irans other European plots Of course, this is not the first time this year that Iran has plotted attacks against Iranian dissidents in Europe. In June, the Iranian Regime plotted to attack a gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which was attended by over 100,000 people. They used their Austrian diplomat Assadollah Assadi to hire terrorists and give them the explosives. In fact, one of the would-be terrorists Amir Saadouni has already revealed his years of spying on the NCRI in France, before the Regime decided to bomb the rally. This is also not the first time that Iran targeted Ahwaz activists in Europe. In November 2017 an activist named Ahmad Mola Nissi from ASMLA was assassinated in Holland, likely at the behest of the Regime. If necessary, the repairs will be accelerated within a reasonable deadline, Pavlenko said. Adviser to the president of Ukraine, Director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies Rostyslav Pavlenko has said the renovation of the Kyiv-based Saint Andrew's Church, which has been handed over to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, may be completed by 2020. "The most important thing is that the relevant law on handing over this church for permanent use to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has been passed in Ukraine. And further, I think, there will be assistance in ensuring that the repairs are completed within a reasonable deadline," he said at a briefing in Kyiv, an UNIAN correspondent reported Read alsoPoroshenko, Bartholomew sign cooperation agreement between Ukraine and Ecumenical Patriarchate (Photo) "The year 2020 is the deadline. As far as I understand, if necessary, [the process] will be accelerated within reasonable limits," Pavlenko said. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, on October 18 passed presidential bill No. 9208 on transferring Kyiv-based St. Andrew's Church to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for permanent use. The law establishes that the state-owned religious building of the church, which is a major Baroque church located in Kyiv, is to be handed over to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for religious services, rites, ceremonies and processions. At the same time, this handover does not entail its exclusion from the list of facilities of immovable cultural heritage of the National Sanctuary Complex "Sophia of Kyiv." On November 3, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I thanked Poroshenko for the transfer of the church's building to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Saturday, November 3, 2018 Cross-posted from the Daily Journal (subscription required) and UC Davis Law Faculty Blog Earlier this week President Donald Trump called to abolish birthright citizenship, which few reputable scholars believe would be constitutional. This latest action on immigration demonstrates what is becoming more and more apparent: Trump does not feel bound to the rule of law. His immigration initiatives share two fundamental characteristics. First, he seeks to reduce immigration and specifically to reduce the number of immigrants of color coming to, and living in, the United States. Second, despite the frequent claim that the administration is committed to simply enforcing the immigration laws, he attacks judges that issue rulings that he does not like, calls for changes to our immigration laws that he calls ridiculous, and all-too-often ignores laws with which he disagrees. In 1965, Congress amended the immigration laws to explicitly prohibit discrimination in the issuance of visas on the basis of "race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence." Passed on the heels of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the 1965 amendment repealed laws mandating racial and national origin discrimination in the U.S. immigration laws. In so doing, Congress established a blueprint for immigration diversity, allowing millions of people of color to immigrate to the United States. The trajectory toward a more diverse nation, however, is likely to change due to a myriad of policies embraced by the Trump administration that can be aptly characterized as waging war on immigration diversity and the rule of law. Trump's racial goals should not be surprising. Unlike any president in modern U.S. history, he regularly makes racially explosive comments about Mexicans as "rapists" and "criminals," Salvadorans as MS-13 gang members, Muslims as "terrorists," and El Salvador, Haiti, and nations in Africa as "s***hole countries." Trump has followed up on the incendiary rhetoric with a number of policies -- many of them in tension with the law -- that aim to restrict noncitizens of color from immigrating to the United States. Consider a few of the Trump administration policies that emphatically demonstrate the President's desire to restrict immigration diversity and, in many instances, have been found to be unlawful. First, within days of his inauguration, Trump issued an executive order that was intended to bar immigrants from a number of predominantly Muslim nations from entering the United States. When the first ban was enjoined, another one followed. The second version was struck down by the courts, in no small part because of the failure to comply with the law and because of the President's own venomous anti-Muslim statements. Although the third draft of the Muslim ban was upheld on national security grounds by the Supreme Court in Trump v. Hawaii, four justices found that it was motivated by anti-Muslim animus. Second, Trump has called for ending "chain migration" by restricting family-based immigration to the United States. He also has expressed support for the RAISE Act, which would reduce legal immigration by one-half through reducing family-based immigration, primarily impacting people from Mexico, India and China. Those nations today send the most immigrants to the United States. The Trump administration also has sought to restrict legal immigration with a recent proposed rule that would tighten the "public charge" exclusion, which has resulted in many immigrants declining to seek public benefits to which they are lawfully entitled. Third, the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policies have been enthusiastically directed at migrants from Mexico and Central America. In response to Central Americans seeking asylum, the Trump administration adopted a harsh detention and family separation policy, blaming it on the Democrats and the courts. A public outcry and persistent litigation compelled the Trump administration to end family separation. Now we see similar rhetoric being used against asylum seekers from Central America -- known as the "migrant caravan" -- who are currently in route to the U.S. border. Courts have played important roles in stopping the administration from engaging in racially charged policies designed to stop Latino families from immigrating to the United States. In particular, the courts have upheld the rights of immigrant children subject to detention under what is known as the Flores settlement, which the Clinton Justice Department agreed to comply with in the detention of minors. The administration continues to resist this legal precedent. It has proposed to undo the Flores settlement so that the administration can detain immigrant children and their families indefinitely. The Trump administration has challenged "sanctuary" states and cities for refusing to fully cooperate with the U.S. government. Although blocked by the courts, the administration has tried to halt federal funding from going to "sanctuary" cities. In addition, the Trump administration has sought to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, aka DACA, policy for undocumented youth. The policy benefited hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants, with an especially large percentage from Mexico and Central America. Courts have enjoined the rescission of DACA. The Trump administration announced the end of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, and nationals of other developing nations. Litigation has challenged those actions. The Trump administration has aggressively increased removals and adopted approaches that would ensure that more than 95 percent of the noncitizens removed are from Mexico and Central America. Collectively, these policies would significantly reduce diversity in the number of immigrants admitted to permanently reside in the United States each year. Importantly, such policies violate the spirit if not the letter of the 1965 amendment to the immigration laws and Congress's goal of promoting diversity in immigration law. Courts time and again have prohibited the Trump administration from pursuing immigration policies that violate the law. Legal and political attention must continue to be paid to these policies in order to prevent the country from returning to its pre-1965 immigration law policy of establishing a white nation. The unlawful war on immigrant diversity should not be permitted to continue. KJ https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2018/11/president-trumps-efforts-to-change-the-racial-demographics-of-immigration.html The folks at PoliFact have this lengthy new piece under the headline "Marijuana legalization in 5 charts: A 2018 midterm report" that is worth reading in full. This infographic under the title "Potential $7 Billion Recreational Marijuana Tax Revenue, By State," highlighting revenue from marijuana reform is alone worth the click-through, and here are excerpts from the piece providing a glimpse at what the "5 charts" cover: About two in three Americans now favor marijuana legalization, a record-high measure of public support for a drug the federal government still puts in the same category as LSD and heroin. With a majority of states now permitting legal use in some form, and several states poised to relax their laws this November, we decided to take a graphical look at the countrys most popular illicit drug. Changing attitudes Experts pointed to a number of reasons to explain the dramatic shift in Americans opinion of marijuana legalization over a relatively short timespan.... State marijuana laws American laws around marijuana are complicated.... State tax revenue Taxing marijuana can yield a large pot of money for states. The data is still somewhat scarce given that legalization is still in its infancy.... Criminal justice The countrys decades-long crackdown on drugs has had a disproportionate impact on minorities.... Social impact Some experts said the pros of legalization far outweighed the cons, while others said its too early to tell.... As reported in this new posting from Gallup, "Sixty-six percent of Americans now support legalizing marijuana, another new high in Gallup's trend over nearly half a century. The latest figure marks the third consecutive year that support on the measure has increased and established a new record." Here is more: Legalizing the use of pot was an unpopular idea when Gallup first asked Americans about it in 1969 -- just 12% at that time said it should be made legal. Support grew in the 1970s but stagnated in the 20% range until the new millennium, when momentum for legalization picked up again. Since 2000, support for legalizing marijuana has trended steeply upward, reaching majority support for the first time in 2013 -- a year after Colorado and Washington voters legalized recreational use of marijuana via ballot initiatives, making them the first states to do so. Marijuana use continues to be illegal at the federal level. The Oct. 1-10 Gallup poll was conducted before Canada last week became the second country in the world to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. In the U.S., voters in four states are voting this year on measures to allow for recreational or medical use of marijuana.... Gallup found last year that a slim majority of Republicans supported legal marijuana for the first time, and this year's figure, 53%, suggests continued Republican support. Views that pot should be legalized have also reached new peaks this year among Democrats (75%) and independents (71%). Democrats reached majority-level support for legalization in 2009, and independents did so in 2010. Among Americans aged 55 and older, views that marijuana should be legalized now surpass the majority level, with 59% support, up from 50% last year. Meanwhile, solid majorities of younger adults have supported legalization for several years. Support is strongest among adults aged 18 to 34, at 78%, while nearly two in three adults aged 35 to 54 (65%) approve of legalizing marijuana. In 2009 and 2010 -- before any state had legalized pot -- support for legalization reached the majority level in only one U.S. region -- the West, at 56%. And in most polls since, residents in the West, along with Eastern residents, have led the remaining regions in favoring legalized pot. But attitudes about legalization have changed more recently: In 2017 and 2018, support for legalization of marijuana is about even in the East (67%), Midwest (65%), South (65%) and West (65%). Like support for gay marriage -- and in prior years, interracial marriage -- support for marijuana legalization has generally only expanded, even if slowly, over the course of multiple decades -- raising the question of where the ceiling in support might be. As the percentage of Americans who favor legalizing pot has continued to grow, so has the number of states that have taken up legislation to allow residents to use the substance recreationally. States that permit use of medical marijuana are even more prevalent in the U.S. than states allowing recreational pot are. After this year's elections, recreational pot use could be allowed in two more states, depending on what voters decide in North Dakota and Michigan. Both of these states border Canada, whose adult residents now have access to legal marijuana nationwide. Meanwhile, state lawmakers in New Jersey are moving closer to passing legislation to legalize pot, and neighboring New York might not be far behind after the state's health department conducted a study that led to its recommendation that marijuana be legal. But even as many states take action to legalize pot, to date, no Midwestern or Southern states permit legal recreational use -- though medicinal marijuana is allowed in a few of these states. Now that public support is consistent across U.S. regions, legalization could spread to new areas in the future. The title of this post is the headline of this lengthy new NBC News article, which carries this summary subhead: "Four states have marijuana measures on the ballot in November, and a Democratic Congress could make it easier for more states to relax drug laws." With exactly two weeks until Election Day 2018, I like the phrase "marijuana midterms," and here are excerpts from the lengthy press piece: As polls show record support for marijuana legalization, advocates say the midterm elections could mark the point of no return for a movement that has been gathering steam for years. "The train has left the station," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., a leading marijuana reform advocate in Congress. "I see all the pieces coming together... It's the same arc we saw two generations ago with the prohibitions of alcohol." Voters in four states will weigh in on ballot initiatives to legalize weed for recreational or medical use next month, while voters everywhere will consider giving more power to Democrats, who have increasingly campaigned on marijuana legalization and are likely to advance legislation on the issue if they win back power in Congress and state capitals.... Politically, the issue has gone from a risible sideshow to a mainstream plank with implications for racial justice and billions of dollars in tax revenue. "Politicians embraced it because it's actually good politics, said Blumenauer. They can read the polls.... But opponents say advocates are ignoring the backlash that rapid legalization has created, including from some surprising corners, like the Detroit chapter of the NAACP, which is set to announce Tuesday its opposition to a ballot measure that would legalize marijuana in Michigan, the most significant of this year's referendums. Michigan already has a robust medical marijuana industry, but voters could decide to fully legalize the drug for recreational use on Nov. 6. A recent survey commissioned by The Detroit Free Press found 55 percent of voters supported the measure, compared to 41 percent who opposed it. Meanwhile, North Dakota voters will also have a chance to legalize recreational marijuana in one of the most conservative states in the country, two years after 64 percent of voters approved its medical use during the 2016 election. Advocates are less hopeful about their prospects this year, though a pro-legalization group released a poll this weekend claiming a narrow 51 percent of likely voters approve of the measure. Utah, a deep red state with some of the strictest alcohol rules in the country, is considering a medical marijuana initiative, which polls suggest is favored to succeed, even though most of the states political and religious leaders oppose it. At the same time, Missouri voters will consider three separate and competing medical marijuana ballot initiatives. The situation has frustrated advocates and could confuse voters, especially because it's unclear what will happen if they approve more than one next month. Meanwhile, Vermont's state legislature earlier this year legalized cannabis, though not for commercial sale, and New York and New Jersey could be next, as lawmakers in both states are actively considering the issue.... Progressive Democrats like Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum and Texas Senate candidate Rep. Beto ORourke, D-Texas, have adopted marijuana legalization as a central plank of their campaigns by tying the issue to criminal justice reform, citing the disproportionate number of African-Americans arrested for the drug even though usage is common among whites. In one of the biggest applause lines of his stump speech, ORourke a longtime advocate of marijuana reform dating back to his days on the El Paso City Council asks supporters who will be the last person of color incarcerated for possessing something that is now legal for medical use in a majority of states. But a growing number of more mainstream Democrats have adopted the policy too, like J.B. Pritzker, the billionaire hotel magnate running for governor of Illinois, and Michigan gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer, who beat a progressive Bernie Sanders-style challenger in the Democratic primary. Democrats have really jumped on this as a way of galvanizing their voters, said Michael Collins, the interim director of the pro-legalization group Drug Policy Action. If you're on the more moderate side of the party and you want to show your progressive bona fides, you go to marijuana, because it's not as controversial an issue as, say eliminating ICE, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency.... But Kevin Sabet, a former adviser to the Obama administration on drug policy who runs a group that opposes marijuana legalization, says advocates are overstating the inevitability of their side. I don't think this is a done deal at all, he said, noting that his group, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, has raised more money this year than any year in its history. Ironically, the more legalization rolls out, as recklessly as it is, the more support we get. Polls showing sky-high support for legalization can be misleading, Sabet argues, because they use vague wording that can lead respondents to conflate decriminalization with a full-blown recreational system that allows for storefront dispensaries. Some of the most vocal opposition, he said, has come from African-American organizations, who express concern that the commercialization of the marijuana industry has primarily benefited white entrepreneurs even though communities of color have borne the brunt of the drug war. "This really isn't about social justice, it's about a few rich white guys getting rich," Sabet said, noting that the black caucus in the New Jersey state legislature has helped stall Murphy's legalization effort in New Jersey. Proponents acknowledge the racial disparities in the marijuana industry, and some, like Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous, the former head of the NAACP, has advocated a legalization regime that would benefit black and brown weed entrepreneurs. Either way, if Democrats win back the House, advocates say Congress could advance a number of reform bills that have been blocked by the Republican majority. Some, like a bill to exempt states that have legalized marijuana from federal restrictions and another to allow marijuana businesses to use banks, have numerous Republican co-sponsors and could pass both chambers of Congress today if only leaders allowed lawmakers to vote on them, advocates say. Sunday, November 4, 2018 This afternoon former Speaker of the House John Boehner published this new Wall Street Journal commentary headlined "Washington Needs to Legalize Cannabis." Though Boehner's support for marijuana reform has been well-known now for at least six months, this piece on the eve of a big election in a conservative newspaper still seems quite noteworthy. https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/marijuana_law/2018/11/former-house-speaker-john-boehner-says-washington-needs-to-legalize-cannabis.html As covered here by Marijuana Moment, today brings a notable comment about marijuana reform from a notable former insider: President Trump will push for marijuana legalization after the upcoming elections, according to former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. I do. I think hes going to legalize marijuana, Scaramucci told Succeed.com founder Charles Peralo in an interview this week. I think hes waiting for after the midterms. I think hes on the side of legalization. Whether Scaramucci is basing his prediction on a hunch or insider knowledge is unclear. He might have only lasted 10 days at the White House, but he still claims to talk with the president on occasion. In any case, The Mooch, as he is known, did not respond to a Marijuana Moment request for clarification via Twitter DM.... Trump said earlier this year that hes inclined to support a bipartisan congressional bill that would let states implement their own marijuana laws without federal interference. The Mooch isnt alone in his belief. Last month, marijuana-friendly Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) said in an interview that cannabis reform would be on the White House agenda after the midterms and that legislation would be in the works as early as spring of 2019. I would expect after the election we will sit down and well start hammering out something that is specific and real, the congressman said. The title of this post is the headline of this new Reuters article. Here are the interesting details: Mexicos Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that an absolute ban on recreational use of marijuana was unconstitutional, effectively leaving it to lawmakers to regulate consumption of the drug. Announcing it had found in favor of two legal challenges filed against prohibition of recreational marijuana use, Mexicos top court crossed the threshold needed to create jurisprudence: five similar rulings on the matter. That creates a precedent other Mexican courts will have to follow. This is a historic day, Fernando Belaunzaran, an advocate of drug reform and member of the opposition leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), said. The Supreme Court made its first ruling to allow a group of people to grow marijuana for personal use in November 2015. In a statement, the court said the ruling did not create an absolute right to use marijuana and that consumption of certain substances could still be subject to regulation. But the effects caused by marijuana do not justify an absolute prohibition on its consumption, it said. The court ordered federal health regulator COFEPRIS to authorize people seeking the right to use marijuana to do so personally, albeit without allowing them to market it, or use other narcotics or psychotropic drugs. Congress would now have to act to regulate the use of marijuana in Mexico, Belaunzaran said. A new study shows that the Japanese nuclear industry is unlikely to reach a government target of providing at least 20 percent of the countrys energy by 2030. The study was prepared for the Reuters news agency. In Japan, eight nuclear power centers are currently producing electricity. Another is expected to start operating this month. That means nuclear centers are set to provide more electricity this year than any other form of renewable energy, except for hydroelectric power. It will be the first time Japans nuclear industry has produced that much electricity since 2011. That was the year when an earthquake and tsunami destroyed part of the Fukushima power center in eastern Japan. After that disaster, all of the countrys nuclear power centers were ordered closed. Researchers say as few as six nuclear power centers are likely to re-start production in the next five years. That is likely to result in fewer than the 30 power centers needed to reach the governments goal by 2030. Reuters noted that, based on its research, Japan may get 15 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy by 2030. Two nuclear technologies compete for approval Its impossible to meet the target, thats pretty much confirmed, said Takeo Kikkawa, an energy studies professor at the Tokyo University of Science. He was part of a group that studied Japans energy policy earlier this year. Kikkawa said that he did not expect other nuclear reactors to restart operations before 2020. Japans Nuclear Regulation Authority created new safety rules after the Fukushima disaster. All nuclear reactors had to receive new operating permits before restarting. But the recovery has been slow. Before the disaster, Japan had 54 reactors, which provided 30 percent of the countrys electricity. At that time, Japan had the third largest number of reactors in the world. But the return of nuclear energy in Japan has been uneven and may be based on the technology used. Kansai Electric Power and Kyushu Electric Power have won approval or are set to receive permits to restart all of their reactors. Those reactors use pressurized water to create electricity. All are far away from Tokyo, home to over 9 million people. In eastern Japan, boiling water reactor, or BWR technology is used to produce electricity. Japanese courts are hearing many cases involving nuclear reactors in the eastern part of the country. In addition, government regulators are disputing risk levels with power plant operators. The older BWR technology is being reconsidered because it was used at Fukushima. Nobuo Tanaka is chairman of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. He served as head of the International Energy Agency from 2007 to 2011. Tanaka notes that reactor design has become a political issue. When you come to the BWRs, the issue becomes very politicized, he said. He added that the public image of another major electricity provider, Tepco, has been harmed. Tepco operates two nuclear plants that have been damaged in natural disasters. Tanaka said, Tepco does not have any support as a nuclear operator. Tepco has reached the first level in the approval process for some of its plants, but it faces local opposition. However, supporters of Japans power industry point to progress. Satoru Katsuno is chairman of a group representing electric utilities in Japan. He said that approval of pressurized water reactors takes time. He noted there also are developments with boiling water reactors. Katsuno is president of the utility Chubu Electric. His company has been locked in a dispute with regulators over its Hamaoka nuclear energy center on Japans east coast, which uses the older technology. Increased use of carbon-based fuels For now, many experts believe that Japan will depend on fossil fuels, such as liquefied natural gas and coal, for a large part of its energy production. That could be needed as the growth of solar, wind and hydropower energy slows. However, that will make meeting international agreements to cut carbon dioxide gases more difficult for the country. In the last six years, Japan has had to buy fuel to replace the energy that would have been created by nuclear reactors. Most of that fuel has been liquefied natural gas. The government estimates that the electricity industry has had to spend $130 billion for fuel during that period. Utility industry officials say the lack of realistic energy goals makes it difficult to invest for the future. And concerns over the ability of power stations to survive natural disasters are strengthened with each new event. Im Mario Ritter. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English from a Reuters story. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. _________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story renewable adj. able to be replaced by nature plant n. a building or factory were something is made reactor n. a large device that produces nuclear energy regulator n. an official who works for the part of the government that controls a public activity by making and enforcing rules utility n. a service such as electricity or water that is provided to the public lock v. connecting or securing together boiling adj. heating water or another liquid impossible adj. very undesirable; unable to take place tsunami n. a great wave produced by volcanic activity or an earthquake hydroelectric adj. related to production of electricity by water power Pictures of the bird called the red siskin appear on Venezuelas money, on products and in school books. The Little Cardinal, as the bird is known, is loved by Venezuelans. But the small song bird is disappearing from the wild. It has become the victim of shrinking forests and poachers who want to sell their bright red feathers. That threat has brought together an international team. The team includes scientists from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. and coffee farmers in Venezuela's mountains. They hope to save the bird. The plan is to have farmers plant organic coffee plants. Such coffee plants are covered with branches which make good nesting places for the birds. "They don't have many years left, unless we do something right now," said Miguel Arvelo. He is an animal doctor for the nonprofit group Provita in Caracas. It is one of the groups leading the effort. Once found in the millions, as few as 300 red siskins remain in Venezuela. However, scientists say it is difficult to estimate their numbers now because of Venezuelas current economic crisis and violence. An effort to save the birds The Red Siskin Initiative began about three years ago on a budget of less than $100,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and private groups in the U.S. and Venezuela. Planting organic coffee crops with branches stops farmers from increasing production by thinning their coffee crops to let more sun onto their fields. Farmers who meet the project's rules will win the right to sell their beans with "Bird Friendly" labels. They will be able to set prices for such high quality products that can be five times higher than legal prices set by the socialist government. At the same time, a red siskin breeding center is being built at a private zoo in Venezuela. There, 200 birds are expected to be born next year. This number will be added to the 25 siskins at the Smithsonian Institution. Red siskins from the center will be placed in the coffee groves. These efforts could prevent the birds from disappearing. There are reports of early success. About 40 farmers in the mountains of Carayaca, northwest of the capital Caracas, have stopped cutting down trees, a move that will help the siskin. The male siskin is valued for its red feathers and black head. Breeders cross them with yellow pet birds to create babies with colorful feathers. Protection under Venezuelan law has not stopped poachers from catching the birds to sell on an illegal international market. Poor Venezuelan families often catch and sell the birds. The money they receive can feed their children for months, said biologist Jhonathan Miranda, a Provita researcher. Michael Braun is co-founder of the Red Siskin Initiative and a research scientist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. He said Venezuela's economic crisis has hurt the project. Researchers and scientists have been robbed or shot by Venezuelas growing poor population. It is difficult to get people to travel to or to stay in Venezuela and work on the project, Braun said. Scientists keep the places where the birds are known to live a secret to protect them from poachers. They permitted The Associated Press to photograph a small number of birds at one of those secret places. Twelve or more of the small, red birds flew into sight just as the sun appeared. "It's the first time I've seen so many together," said Miranda. "It gives us hope." Im Susan Shand. The Associated Press reported this story. Shand adapted this story for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story poacher n. one who catches an animal illegally feathers n. any one of the light growths that make up the outer covering of the body of a bird branch n. the arm of a tree label n. a piece of paper, cloth or other material that is attached to something to identify and describe it breed v. to produce offspring by sexual reproduction Indians who wish to travel to Nepal have their task cut out now. They no longer need flights to travel to the neighbouring country. The first train to transport passengers from India to Nepal will start functioning by December this year. According to railway officials, an immigration post will be established at the Jayanagar station in Bihar which is the starting point of the route, traversing through a 34 km stretch to the final destination of Kurtha in Dhanusa district in Janakpur Zone of south-eastern Nepal. The check post will most probably be manned by either the Bureau of Immigration or the state government, the Press Trust of India reported. Further, no visas will be required of Indian and Nepalese nationals who will be availing this route. The trains will function in eight to sixteen-hour shifts and will open with four shifts. However, the Nepalese have shown their interest in the operation of both passenger and freight trains on this route. The India-Nepal train is being seen as an attempt to thwart Chinas efforts to establish rail links with Nepal. *Originally published in India Times* My names Will Capers. For almost nine years, Ive blogged on various topics. I blogged as Blaque Ink first, and as Brotha Wolf second. The latter had a mu... 2 years ago November 5, 2018 15:15 Children as young as two are developing mental health problems because of smartphones and tablets, scientists warn. Just an hour a day staring at a screen can be enough to make children more likely to be anxious or depressed. This could be making them less curious, less able to finish tasks, less emotionally stable and lowering their self-control. Although teenagers are most at risk from the damaging devices, children under the age of 10 and toddlers' still-developing brains are also being affected. But research shows 'zombie' British children spend nearly five hours every day gawping at electronic devices. Researchers from San Diego State University and the University of Georgia say time spent on smartphones is a serious but avoidable cause of mental health issues. 'Half of mental health problems develop by adolescence,' professors Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell said. 'There is a need to identify factors linked to mental health issues that are [able to be changed] in this population, as most are difficult or impossible to influence. 'How children and adolescents spend their leisure time is [easier] to change.' Parents and teachers must cut the amount of time children spend online or watching television while they're studying, socialising, eating or even playing sport. Professor Twenge said her study, one of the biggest of its kind, backs the American Academy of Pediatrics' established screen time limit one hour per day for children aged two to five. It also suggests a similar limit perhaps two hours should be applied to school-aged children and adolescents, she added. The researchers analysed data provided by the parents of more than 40,000 US children aged two to 17 for a nationwide health survey in 2016. The questionnaire asked about the youngsters' medical care, any emotional, developmental or behavioural issues and their daily screen time. Adolescents spending more than seven hours a day on screens are twice as likely to have been diagnosed with anxiety or depression as those who spent an hour. Links between screen time and wellbeing are stronger among adolescents than young children, the study found. Professor Twenge said: 'At first, I was surprised the associations were larger for adolescents. 'However, teens spend more time on their phones and on social media, and we know from other research that these activities are more strongly linked to low wellbeing than watching television and videos, which is most of younger children's screen time.' Even moderate use of four hours is also associated with lower psychological well-being than one hour a day. Pre-schoolers, or under fives, who are high users are twice as likely to often lose their temper and are 46 per cent more prone to not be able to calm down when excited. Among 14 to 17 year olds, more than four in ten (42.2 per cent) of those in the study who spent more than seven hours a day on screens did not finish tasks. About one in eleven (9 per cent) of 11 to 13-year-olds who spent an hour with screens daily were not curious or interested in learning new things. Writing in the journal Preventative Medicine Reports, the professors said they were particularly interested in links between screen time and diagnoses of anxiety and depression in youngsters, which have not yet been studied in great detail. They said: 'Previous research on associations between screen time and psychological well being among children and adolescents has been conflicting, leading some researchers to question the limits on screen time suggested by physician organisations.' The US National Institute of Health estimates children and adolescents commonly spend an average of five to seven hours on screens during leisure time. Evidence is growing of the adverse effects this has on health. This year the World Health Organisation decided to include gaming disorder in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases. And in December 2017 a team of Oxford University researchers found UK 'zombie' children's average daily screen time has leapt in a generation from just under three hours to four hours and 45 minutes. Experts warn 'addicted' children risk sleeplessness, obesity and falling victim to cyber-bullying, while losing valuable social skills through a lack of face-to-face contact. Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter Bullying in the medical profession not only affects staff, but also places patients in danger. Credit: shutterstock.com Bullying, harassment and other unprofessional behaviours are culturally ingrained in the Australian health-care system. As we outline today in the Medical Journal of Australia, between one-quarter and half of doctors and nurses in Australia have been bullied, discriminated against or harassed at work. This impacts on the way they do their work, and the quality and safety of the care they're able to provide patients. From doctor depression to medical errors Workplace bullying in hospitals has been shown to cause depression, anxiety and fatigue among health workers. It can also reduce performance and levels of self-esteem. These symptoms, along with stress and poor staff satisfaction at work, leads to higher staff absenteeism, impacting continuity of patient care and increasing the workload in already overstretched hospital clinics and wards. While we don't have data from Australia, a survey of staff from more than 100 United States' hospitals give us some clues about the impact. More than two-thirds (71%) of respondents mainly nurses and doctors agreed unprofessional behaviour and poor communication contributed to medical errors. Worryingly, one-quarter of respondents (27%) believed unprofessional behaviour had contributed to a patient's premature death. Communication is compromised Good communication among clinical teams is central to safe care. When team members feel unable to speak up due to negative consequences, care will be compromised. One study showed medical teams who were treated rudely by an "expert observer" performed significantly worse in a simulated situation where they had to manage a sick infant compared to teams who were treated respectfully. The teams subjected to rudeness shared less information with each other, and didn't seek help as often. This led to poorer clinical outcomes for the patients in the simulation. We can draw parallels with the experience of junior doctors and medical students in Australia, who report being routinely "taught by humiliation" and mistreated during clinical training rotations. Junior clinicians are regularly subjected to rudeness, hostility and aggressive questioning from their teachers. These are the "expert advisors" they're also supposed to approach for help to manage the patients in their care. Poor outcomes for patients Serious bullying is just the tip of the iceberg of behaviours that pose a risk to patient safety. Even more subtle unprofessional behaviours such as passive aggression, public criticism of colleagues, or telling offensive jokes may interfere with teamwork and the quality of patient care. A large US study across multiple hospitals found patients' observations of negative behaviours among surgeons could predict poor patient outcomes. Hospitals implemented the "patient advocacy reporting system", where patients were able to report their observations of a clinician's behaviour while in hospital. This could be dismissing a patient's questions, rushing them out of consultations, or being rude to other staff members in the patient's presence. Among a sample of more than 32,000, those patients who were operated on by surgeons who received a high number of negative patient reports in the past two years had a 14% higher rate of complications than patients whose surgeons acted professionally. The authors suggest surgeons who are disrespectful to patients probably also behave disrespectfully towards colleagues in the operating theatre. This makes it more difficult to work with others and increases the risk of errors and poor outcomes for the patient. Where do we go from here? The effects of unprofessional behaviour of health workers are too great to ignore. But pronouncements of a "zero tolerance" for such behaviours are unlikely to bring about change. Instead, we need evidence-based interventions to reduce the prevalence of negative behaviour, minimise its impact on staff and patients, and normalise a culture of safety and respect. Culture change is incredibly hard. Unfortunately, there is very limited evidence about the types of interventions which work and bring about change.We're currently evaluating a large-scale system intervention, called Ethos, at St Vincent's Hospitals across Australia. The program aims to enable and empower staff to speak up when they see a problem via a confidential electronic reporting system. Trained colleagues then relay the information back to individual staff involved to encourage self-reflection and correction. Our four-year evaluation will measure how effective this program is at creating real change in behaviours. We need more system-wide interventions to address the complex problem of bullying and harassment in our health system. But it's important these interventions are subject to rigorous evaluations which measure both their effects on unprofessional behaviours and clinical outcomes. Explore further #MeToo and the medical profession This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Required CPR education in high school may lead to higher bystander CPR and cardiac arrest survival rates, according to preliminary research to be presented in Chicago at the American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium 2018. Researchers analyzed data from more than 109,668 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests patients (64 percent men, 49.4 percent white, 19.1 percent African-American, 2.3 percent Hispanic, 2.9 percent other and 26.4 percent unknown) from the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival database or (CARES) - a surveillance registry tracking out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in communities in 42 states. The database analysis included all nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrests from 14 states and the District of Columbia where at least 50 percent of the population was in an area covered by a CARES participating agency from 2013 to 2017. Researchers found that bystander CPR, survival to hospital discharge and neurologically favorable survival (mild to moderate cerebral incapacity) was higher in states that require CPR training in high school. Of the cases studied from 2013 through 2017 (with people representing all ages), 59 percent occurred in states with required high school CPR training enacted. In those states: 41.3 percent of people who suffered cardiac arrest outside of a hospital received bystander CPR before emergency medical services arrived, compared to 36.1 percent in states without CPR education laws enacted. 11.3 percent of people who suffered cardiac arrest outside of a hospital survived to hospital discharge, compared to 8.9 percent for states without the laws enacted. Neurologically favorable survival was more likely in states with the laws enacted, 9.5 percent compared to 7.6 percent for states without laws enacted. Because CARES is a registry and data are owned by varying local and state agencies, information on specific states included in the study is confidential. Explore further Bystander CPR on kids has increased, survival odds improve for some Credit: Queensland University of Technology A new therapeutic contact lens that acts as a bandage for eye surface injuries being developed by QUT researchers could soon fast track the healing of previously difficult to treat corneal wounds. Professor Damien Harkin, from QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, based at the Queensland Eye Institute said the 'bandage' would consist of cells with special wound-healing properties. "These cells, known as limbal mesenchymal stromal cells (L-MSC), would be isolated from donor eye tissue and subsequently attached to the inner surface of a special type of contact lens known as a scleral lens. "The donor cells are readily accessible from tissue that is usually discarded after routine corneal transplants," Professor Harkin said. "Based upon preliminary data we believe that the donor cells release a range of wound-healing factors that encourage repair of the eye's surface." Professor Harkin said the lenses could be available within hours of patients presenting to an eye clinic with either recently acquired or chronic damage to their eye's surface. "Our therapy could provide welcome relief for patients suffering from chronic conditions such as corneal ulcers and persistent surface defects that haven't responded to conventional therapies," he said. Staining of the eye to detect corneal injury. Credit: Queensland University of Technology "The new treatment could also become useful as a part of the first-line therapy in the management of acute eye injuries experienced in the work place or at home arising from exposure to caustic chemicals, scalding liquids or excessive heat." Professor Harkin said the current treatment typically involved using bandages prepared from amniotic membrane donated from human placentas. "Amniotic membrane (AM) provides a limited supply of growth factors and components with anti-inflammatory and wound-healing properties," he said. "The problem is, however, that AM displays variable properties both within and between donor tissue samples. "AM is presently imported from New Zealand, which delays treatment and adds to its cost. "We propose that a bank of well-characterised and tested donor L-MSC cells would provide a more reliable and cost-effective source of growth factors to quickly repair the eye." Professor Harkin said the new treatment could be available to patients within as little as a few years subject to completion of rigorous clinical trials. Explore further Stem cells may help improve corneal wound healing Credit: CC0 Public Domain The ambitions and future goals of disabled young people with life-limiting and life-threatening impairments are being documented for the first time in an innovative study by the University of Sheffield. Initial findings suggest that this group of disabled young people feel frustration that society treats them as 'tragedy cases' because they could die young. This discrimination can be a barrier to enjoying full lives as other teenagers and young people do, according to the research. Attending parties, achieving work and career aspirations and even indulging in rebellious behaviour are among the experiences often denied to them. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded Living Life to the Fullest project, led by Dr. Kirsty Liddiard, Professor Dan Goodley and Professor Katherine Runswick-Cole at the University of Sheffield, will be the focus of an event as part of the annual ESRC Festival of Social Science. Dr. Liddiard, from the School of Education at the University of Sheffield, said: "Young disabled people with life-limiting and life-threatening impairments want to plan their futures and have the space to be normal. "But our initial research suggests they feel their futures are often shut down because they're seen as having short lives. People respond emotionally so they're often stuck with labels like 'brave' or 'inspiring.' "This can make developing a sense of identify and self-hood difficult. It's therefore vital that the views of these young people and those of their families are heard." Life-limiting or life-threatening impairments are those with no reasonable hope of a cure and can result in early death. Until now, this group has been excluded from disability research. Dr. Liddiard and her colleagues have set out to listen to people's stories to increase understanding about their experiences. They have recruited six people aged from 18 to 30 called the Co-Researcher Collective to co-lead the project, including carrying out data collection through peer-to-peer interviews. These have been conducted via Skype, FaceTime and Facebook Messenger, which is a departure from the traditional method of travelling to meet interviewees face-to-face. "This group of disabled young people is often seen as hard to reach and that engaging with them takes time and resources," said Dr. Liddiard. "The co-researchers' advice on asking these marginalised young people sensitive and ethical questions has been invaluable. We're not solely focusing on issues such as end-of-life, being at-risk or illness. The aim is to explore what disabled young people with shorter lives want to achieve." A website set up by the research team includes blogs from young people such as on the joys of fulfilling 'bucket list' dreams. Lead co-researcher and health and disability activist Lucy Watts MBE writes about her experience camping at a festival and feeling 'so free' when treated the same as others at the event. The next step is to carry out in-depth interviews with around 20 parents. Getting their views is important, Dr. Liddiard says, because disabled young people with such conditions often spend more time within families because they often do not go off to university. This is predominantly because of the considerable barriers they face within education. Dr. Liddiard says: "It's extremely difficult for a parent knowing they might outlive their child. But these parents are fighting for their children's futures." Living Life to the Fullest is also developing arts projects such as a poetry workshop to capture people's experiences. This is in collaboration with organisations including Purple Patch Arts and the Attenborough Arts Centre. Dr. Liddiard said: "The notion of a dying child is inherently emotive in our culture. But we should be focusing not on pity but on the injustice young people face and how to live life to the fullest." Dr. Liddiard and the Co-Researcher Collective will be sharing their findings as part of an event in Sheffield titled The Co-Researcher Collective: Living Life to the Fullest on 6 November 2018 for the general public, academics, practitioners, disability activists and organisations, and students. The event, from 2pm-4pm at St Mary's Church, Bramall Lane, Sheffield, is part of the ESRC's flagship annual Festival of Social Science. Professor Jennifer Rubin, ESRC Executive Chair, said: "The Festival of Social Science is one of the largest co-ordinated endeavours undertaken by a science community and demonstrates ESRC's commitment to public engagement. "We know social scientists and economists value the opportunity to talk with the public to make an impact with their work. These events should inspire young people to pursue a career in social sciences and raise awareness about the impact made to wider society." Explore further Disabled LGBT+ young people face a battle just to be taken seriously Credit: CC0 Public Domain For former smokers it took more than 15 years for cardiovascular disease risk to return to the level of those who never smoked, according to preliminary research to be presented in Chicago at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2018. Cigarette smoking in the United States is on the decline, which means there are more former smokers. Studies to date suggest that the increased risk for cardiovascular disease in smokers diminishes a few years after quitting, but those studies have not been able to look as closely at smoking history, including changes in smoking habits such as variations in cigarettes smoked per day, or quitting followed by relapse to smoking. In this study, researchers analyzed information, including lifetime smoking history, of nearly 8,700 participants of the Framingham Heart Study who were free of cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. The midpoint of follow-up among participants was 27 years, during which cardiovascular disease risk was compared among current, former and never smokers. Researchers found: More than 70 percent of cardiovascular disease events in current or former smokers occurred among those who smoked at least 20 pack-years, which is the equivalent exposure of one pack a day for 20 years. Former smokers who had quit within the last five years reduced their cardiovascular disease risk by 38 percent compared to those who continued to smoke. It took 16 years since quitting for former smokers' risk of cardiovascular disease to return to the level of never smokers. "These findings underscore the benefits of quitting smoking within five years, which is 38 percent lower risk of a heart attack, stroke, or other forms of cardiovascular disease risk compared to people who continue to smoke. We also found that cardiovascular disease risk remains elevated for up to 16 years for former smokers compared to people who have never smoked," said Meredith Duncan, M.A., study author and Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. "The bottom line is if you smoke, now is a very good time to quit." Explore further New research finds lung cancer risk drops substantially within five years of quitting Credit: CC0 Public Domain Kids who experiment with e-cigarettes end up smoking tobacco about as much as teen smokers who never used the devices, according to a USC study in the Nov. 5 journal Pediatrics. "The findings show that e-cigs do nothing to deter the amount of combustible smoking in youth," said Jessica Barrington-Trimis, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the study's lead author. "On the contrary, they increase the likelihood that vaping teens will start smoking." The study is likely to add heft to a growing chorus seeking changes in regulation or industry practice for the nicotine delivery devices. Their popularity has surged while government and health officials warn of unintended consequences. The e-cigarette market is expected to reach $44.6 billion worldwide in five years. Earlier this year, the FDA commissioner declared e-cigs and vaping an "epidemic" that threatens to undo gains in decreasing smoking rates, and ordered e-cigarette manufacturers to submit plans on reducing teen use. "This study shows that tobacco control policies are needed to reduce adolescent use of e-cigs and prevent progression to more frequent tobacco use," Barrington-Trimis said. The USC researcher and her colleagues surveyed 6,258 high schoolers from three studies, the Children's Health Study and Happiness and Health Study in Southern California, and the Yale Adolescent Survey study in Connecticut, about their vaping and smoking usage. Participants were surveyed again about 12 months later. Here's what researchers found: 7 percent of never-smokers started smoking 21 percent of e-cig users began smoking regular cigarettes The number of days that teens smoked in the past 30 days was similar for those who began smoking after using e-cigarettes or who began smoking without e-cigarettes Teens who were using both combustible and e-cigarettes were more likely to continue using both than to switch to vaping only. Previously, researchers found that many of the kids who vaped started smoking cigarettes later. "Pediatricians need to find a way to address this matter because e-cigarettes are not benign, and it's unlikely to stop there," said Barrington-Trimis. "A lot of people like to compare cigarette smoking to vaping and say, oh, vaping is safer. When you're talking about kids, and especially kids who might never have started smoking without vaping, it's definitely not safer than not using any tobacco products at all." Barrington-Trimis said the study was unique because its large size allowed researchers to look beyond smoking initiation, and see what patterns emerged after a year. Explore further Number of vapers tops 3 million for first time in Britain Credit: CC0 Public Domain The largest genomic study of parasitic worms to date has identified hundreds of thousands of new genes and predicted many new potential drug targets and drugs. The research from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Edinburgh, and their collaborators will help scientists understand how these parasites invade us, evade the immune system and cause disease. Reported in Nature Genetics today, the study could lead to new de-worming treatments to help prevent and treat the diseases caused by parasitic worms worldwide. Parasitic worms cause some of the most neglected tropical diseases, including river blindness, schistosomiasis and hookworm disease, and blight the lives of over a billion people globally. Infections can last many years or even decades, leading to severe pain, massive physical disabilities, retarded development in children, and social stigma associated with deformity. Despite the huge health burden inflicted on many of the poorest countries of the world, there has been little investment in parasitic worm research. To understand how worms can infest and live inside people, the researchers compared the genomes of 81 species of roundworms and flatworms, including 45 that had never been previously sequenced. Their analysis revealed almost a million new genes that had not been seen before, belonging to thousands of new gene families, and which had huge variations in how they were distributed between species. The researchers found that some species of worms had enormous gene families to help them colonise the host gut, migrate through host tissue or digest food. Other species had many gene families that affect the host immune system to keep the worm hidden. Dr. Matt Berriman, senior author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "Little is known about the biology of many parasitic worm species, so we used a broad comparison of their genomes to discover the most striking genetic differences between them. We have uncovered many new genes and gene families to help understand how the worms live and migrate inside us and other animals. This dataset will catapult worm research into a new era of discovery." Anti-worm treatments have remained unchanged for years and are often inadequate. In addition, an over-reliance on just a few existing drugs may lead to drug resistance. To search for new interventions, the researchers mined the dataset of 800,000 worm gene sequences to predict new worm drug targets and anti-worm drugs. Making use of the ChEMBL database* of existing drugs and chemicals, they narrowed the list down to 40 high-priority drug targets in the worms, and hundreds of possible existing drugs or compounds. Dr. Avril Coghlan, lead analyst from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "The spectrum of drugs available to treat worm infections is still very limited. We focussed our search by looking at existing drugs for human illnesses. This may provide a fast-track route to pinpointing existing drugs that could be repurposed for deworming." Further research could lead to a raft of new treatment possibilities to help improve the lives of the millions of people suffering from the neglected tropical diseases caused by these worms. In addition to uncovering new genes and potential new deworming possibilities, the 81 genome sequences allow researchers to place each worm in the evolutionary tree of life, to help understand how parasites evolve. Prof Mark Blaxter, an author from the University of Edinburgh, said: "All the parasites evolved from free living ancestors, and comparing their genomes has shown the changes that happen when a species becomes a parasite. Parasites affect most of the natural world, and these genomes hold a record of how these fascinating animalsand their astounding biologycame to be." The parasite genomes are also providing clues into how worms avoid being attacked by our immune systems. This could help our understanding of the immune system itself and ultimately let us use the natural power of the immune system to improve human health. Associate Prof Makedonka Mitreva, senior author from Washington University's McDonnell Genome Institute, said: "Parasitic worms are some of our oldest foes, and have evolved over millions of years to be expert manipulators of the human immune system. This study will lead to a better understanding of the biology of these important organisms, but could also help us better understand how our immune systems can be harnessed or controlled." Explore further Parasitic worm genome uncovers potential drug targets More information: Comparative genomics of the major parasitic worms, Nature Genetics (2018). Comparative genomics of the major parasitic worms,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-018-0262-1 *ChEMBL is a database of bioactive molecules with drug-like properties, at the EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute. Journal information: Nature Genetics Digital reconstruction of the two parvalbumin-expressing interneurons (red and yellow) and one granular cell (blue) and visualization of the synaptic connections (black & white photographs). Credit: Espinoza et al When you park in the office car park, you usually have no problem finding your car again at the end of the day. The next day, you might park a few spots further away. However, in the evening, you find your car, even though the memories of both days are very similar. You find your car (also) because our brains are able to store memories of very similar events as distinct memories in a process called pattern separation. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) are deciphering how the brain computes this pattern separation in a brain region called the dentate gyrus. Results of their work are published today in Peter Jonas and his team, including first author and Ph.D. student Claudia Espinoza, Jose Guzman and Xiaomin Zhang sought to understand how the connections between neurons in the dentate gyrus, a part of the hippocampus, enable the separation of patterns in mice. In the dentate gyrus, two types of neurons send signals: principal neurons send excitatory signals, while interneurons send inhibitory signals. The researchers sought to decipher the rules of connectivity between themwhich neurons send signals to each other, whether connections between neurons are reciprocal, and whether many neurons converge to send signals to one main neuron. They recorded signaling between neurons to understand how the neurons are connected and how the local circuit works to support pattern separation. Espinoza performed octuple whole-cell recordings, in which she stimulated one neuron in a slice of the dentate gyrus, and recorded how the other seven neurons responded. By labeling all stimulated neurons, she could then reconstruct the morphology of the circuit. The researchers found that the parvalbumin-expressing interneurons are connected in a specific way only in the dentate gyrus. In the dentate gyrus, parvalbumin-expressing interneurons mainly inhibit the activity of nearby neurons in a process called lateral inhibition. In other brain regions, such as the neocortex, parvalbumin-expressing interneurons are not connected in this manner. "We think that the unique connectivity rules established by parvalbumin-expressing interneurons, such as lateral inhibition, represent a circuit adaptation to specific network functions that occur in this brain region," says Claudia Espinoza. "Our experimental data supports the idea that pattern separation works through a mechanism called 'winner-takes-all,' achieved via lateral inhibition in the dentate gyrus. However, this has not been proven yet. We need behavioral data and computational models, which we are working on." After the dentate gyrus separates similar memories to avoid an overlap between them, the CA3 region of the hippocampus then stores these memories. In a previous article published in Science in 2016, Peter Jonas and Jose Guzman showed that the connectivity in the CA3 region of the hippocampus is designed to recall information of stored memories in a process called pattern completion. "At a biological level, our group found the connectivity rules that support the computational function of a brain region," says Espinoza, "Our work contributes to showing how local circuits are optimized for the specific function of a brain area. While the input that reaches the dentate gyrus is important, the way in which the dentate gyrus then computes this information to achieve pattern separation is crucial." Claudia Espinoza is a Ph.D. student in the group of Peter Jonas. Before she joined IST Austria for her Ph.D. studies in 2013, she worked with patients with neurological disorders. This experience motivated Espinoza to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience: "I realized that my work as a therapist was very limited because the treatment that we could offer to our patients was very scarce, and actually most of the available treatments are palliative and not curative. The main reason is that the information available about how the nervous system works is very limited, more than what most people believe. This fact motivated me the most for changing my career from a therapist to a researcher. I think that creating knowledge is a beautiful way of contributing something to our society and indirectly to helping people." Explore further An ion channel differentiates newborn and mature neurons in the adult brain More information: Claudia Espinoza et al, Parvalbumin+ interneurons obey unique connectivity rules and establish a powerful lateral-inhibition microcircuit in dentate gyrus, Nature Communications (2018). Claudia Espinoza et al, Parvalbumin+ interneurons obey unique connectivity rules and establish a powerful lateral-inhibition microcircuit in dentate gyrus,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06899-3 S. J. Guzman et al. Synaptic mechanisms of pattern completion in the hippocampal CA3 network, Science (2016). DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf1836 Journal information: Nature Communications , Science Credit: CC0 Public Domain Medical professionals are reluctant to engage in correcting health rumours circulating on the internet, a study by the University of York has revealed. The authors of the report say medical professionals need to actively take part in correcting online health rumours. As part of the study, 60 health professionals, including doctors, nurses and medical students, were exposed to eight cancer-related rumours. The academics looked at two types of medical rumour: wish rumours and dread rumours. Wish rumours project hope while dread rumours are those that project fear. Social media The academics wanted to see how medical professionals reacted to these rumours on social media. Would they react in the same way as a lay person or would they be different? Intention to trust and intention to share were measured using a questionnaire. The study revealed that medical professionals are more likely to engage with dread rumours than compared with wish rumours, but largely remained passive. The presence of rumour denials lowered intention to trust, but not intention to share. Dr. Snehasish Banerjee, who carried out the study at the York Management School, University of York, said: "It seems medical professionals are affected by dread rumours in the same way as lay people even though they have medical knowledge. "The results reveal that medical professionals don't trust the rumours and don't share the denials, they just remain nonchalant. "It seems they don't see themselves as valuable contributors on social media, even though they are knowledgeable contributors in the off-line world. "They don't appreciate their professional role in debunking health rumours circulating on the internet." The authors of the study say healthcare website administrators should be incentivised in correcting health-related online misinformation. Denials "Merely bombarding health rumours with rumour denials may not always be effective to stop the internet from becoming a rumour mill," Dr. Banerjee added. "Primarily, the medical professionals see social media for leisure, they want to disassociate that leisure activity from their professional life. "We are arguing they don't have to seek out all the fake news to debunk, but if they come across a rumour they should play their part." Explore further India slams WhatsApp over deadly rumours More information: Alton Y.K. Chua et al. Intentions to trust and share online health rumors: An experiment with medical professionals, Computers in Human Behavior (2018). Journal information: Computers in Human Behavior Alton Y.K. Chua et al. Intentions to trust and share online health rumors: An experiment with medical professionals,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2018.05.021 Credit: CC0 Public Domain High blood levels of troponin, a protein released by injured heart muscle, can tell whether someone recently experienced a heart attack. Measuring lower, but still problematic, levels of troponin can provide useful long-term information for cardiologists, research from Emory University School of Medicine reveals. The results are scheduled for publication in Annals of Internal Medicine. Cardiac stress testing, sometimes involving nuclear imaging, has been common in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD), many of whom would otherwise be considered low-risk. Professional societies, such as the American College of Cardiology, urge physicians to avoid routine stress testing in patients with stable CAD. Measurement of troponin using high sensitivity assays (hs-Tn) may allow cardiologists to identify low-risk patients and cut down on cardiac stress tests, reducing health care costs and radiation exposure, says senior author Arshed Quyyumi, MD, director of Emory's Clinical Cardiovascular Research Institute. "Up to a quarter of individuals with established CAD can be expected to have hs-Tn levels below the cutoff," Quyyumi says. "The cut-off doesn't tell you who is likely to have a positive stress test, but it does have negative predictive value. We can envision deferring stress testing in this group." A test for troponin is standard when someone with chest pain shows up at a hospital emergency department. In some form, the test has been around since the 1990s, when it could detect nanograms of troponin per milliliter of blood. In the last few years, it has become possible to measure picograms per milliliter1000 times less. In this situation, elevated levels of troponin indicate that the heart is undergoing low-level or chronic injuries. Two assays are commercially available: hs-Tn-I and hs-Tn-T. Quyyumi and his colleagues examined two groups of patients from research studies in which cardiac stress testing, exercise or pharmacological, was performed via SPECT imaging. A first group (589 total, all with stable CAD) was used to figure out the best cut-off level for hs-Tn-I, pointing out which people were unlikely to have inducible ischemia, or problems with blood flow in the heart visible by imaging. Overall, few people in this group had experienced recent chest pain, but stress-inducible ischemia was observable in about a third. They were followed for three years, checking for adverse cardiovascular events: death or heart attack. Using a cut-off of 2.5 picograms per milliliter for hs-Tn-I, the researchers could define a smaller sub-group of 101 patients who had a low proportion of inducible ischemia. "The probability that they would have a positive stress test result is relatively lowless than 5 percentand their medium-term prognosis is excellent," Quyyumi says. In three years of follow-up, no adverse cardiovascular events occurred in those with hs-Tn-In levels below 2.5 pg/ml, while 33 people with hs-Tn-I above that level had adverse events. A second group (118 total, all who had experienced a past heart attack) was used to validate the cut-off level, in relation to inducible ischemia. Looking ahead, Quyyumi says the high sensitivity troponin test could be used to triage individuals with stable CAD before performing stress testing. This will likely reduce the numbers of stress tests performed in this population, thus using a less expensive blood biomarker measurement, instead of ECG, ultrasound or nuclear imaging. Explore further Elevated troponin linked to mental stress ischemia in heart disease patients Age and sex must be taken into consideration when looking at children's recovery after a concussion, say researchers at the CHEO Research Institute. In a new article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics, authors describe how the common symptoms following concussion improve by both age and sex over time. In "Natural Progression of Symptom Change and Recovery From Concussion in a Pediatric Population", they found that the length of time for symptom improvement after concussion in children and adolescents varied across age groups and sex. "Although the international guidelines for concussion recovery were updated in 2017 to differentiate between adults and children, there was still a major research gap," says Dr. Andree-Anne Ledoux, Investigator at the CHEO Research Institute and lead author of the paper. "The natural progression of recovery processes remains poorly characterized, throughout childhood. Childrens' brains go through many phases of growth during development and sex differences exist. It was important to explore the natural progression of recovery from concussion while considering these two key demographic factors. " The study examined data from 2,716 children and adolescents who had presented at nine emergency departments across Canada and were diagnosed with concussion. Researchers examined the natural progression of self-reported symptom recovery following pediatric concussion over the initial three months after injury. Participants in the study were aged 5 to 18 years old with acute concussion, enrolled from August 1, 2013, to May 31, 2015. Authors looked at different age cohorts5 to 7 years of age, 8 to 12 years of age, and 13 to 18 years of age, and examined how sex is associated with recovery. "The greatest gains in recovery occurred primary in the first week, with some gains in the second week. Beyond two weeks, the rate of recovery significantly slowed. The duration of symptoms was longer the older the concussed child," says Dr. Ledoux What stands out in the study is the recovery rates between adolescent girls and boys. Researchers found that girls recovered more slowly than boys. In fact, more than 50 percent of adolescent girls still exhibited post-concussion symptoms twelve weeks after the injury. There are thought to be many potential explanations for the sex differences. Physiological differences exist between boys and girls such as neck strength, pubertal stage and hormonal differences. Psychosocial differences between the sexes may contribute to differential perception, influencing symptom reporting, given that female athletes have a higher injury rate and report more symptoms with greater severity. "The expected duration for recovery after pediatric concussions is broad, ranging from days to months and even years, and recovery progression remains poorly described," says Dr. Roger Zemek, Senior Scientist at the CHEO Research Institute and Associate Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine and senior author on the study. "With this study, we hope to provide primary care providers and clinicians with more tools to make effective healthcare decisions for children based on what we've found as the natural progression of symptom change and recovery from concussion. Health providers now have a guide to track whether a child is within expected normal range of recovery." Explore further Good sleep quality encourages better recovery after sport-related concussion Provided by Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute Credit: Petr Kratochvil/public domain Research at the University of York has shown that the accepted hierarchy of human sensessight, hearing, touch, taste and smellis not universally true across all cultures. Researchers found that rather than being able to predict the importance of the senses from biology, cultural factors were most important. Study revealed that cultures which placed particular value on their specialist musical heritage were able to communicate more efficiently on describing sounds, even when non-musicians were tested. Similarly, living in a culture that produces patterned pottery made people better able to talk about shapes. The findings could prove significant for a range of practices in education and other professions to help further enhance how people understand and utilise their sensory perceptions of the world. Professor of Language, Communication, and Cultural Cognition at the University of York's Department of Psychology, Asifa Majid, said: "Scientists have spent hundreds of years trying to understand how human sensory organs work, concluding that sight is the most important sense, followed hearing, touch, taste and smell. "Previous research has shown that English speakers find it easy to talk about the things that they can see, such as colours and shapes, but struggle to name the things that they smell. It was not known, however, if this was universally true across other languages and cultures." To answer this question, an international team led by Professor Majid, conducted a large-scale experiment to investigate the ease with which people could communicate about colors, shapes, sounds, textures, tastes and smells. Speakers of 20 diverse languages, including three different sign languages, from across the globe were tested, ranging from hunter-gatherers to post-industrial societies. If the commonly accepted hierarchy of the senses were true, participants in the study should have been able to communicate about vision most easily, followed by sounds, such as loud and quiet; textures, such as smooth and rough; taste, such as sweet and sour; and smell, such as chocolate and coffee. Professor Majid, said: "While English speakers behaved as predicted, describing sight and sound with ease, this was not the case across all cultures. "Across all cultures, people found smell the most difficult to talk about, reflecting the widely-held view that smell is the 'mute sense.' A traditional hunter-gatherer group from Australia, however, who speak the language Umpila, showed the best performance in talking about smell, outranking all other 19 cultures." English speakers struggled to talk about basic tastes, but speakers of Farsi and Lao, however, showed almost perfect scores in being able to identify taste, perhaps reflecting the differences in how people engage with cultural cuisines. Professor Majid said: "What this study shows us is that we can't always assume that understanding certain human functions within the context of the English language provides us with a universally relevant perspective or solution. "In a modern digital-led world, which typically engages sight and hearing, it could be worthwhile learning from other cultures in the way that taste and smell can be communicated, for example. "This could be particularly important for the future of some professions, such as the food industry, for example, where being able to communicate about taste and smell is essential." The research, supported by the Max Planck Institute, is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Explore further Odors are perceived the same way by hunter-gatherers and Westerners Credit: CC0 Public Domain A spike in Chicago crime was associated with a relative increase in blood pressure among people who lived in safe neighborhoods, according to preliminary research to be presented in Chicago at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2018. A study of 53,402 adults revealed that in Chicago in 2015, a violent crime surge that included increased homicide, assault and robbery, was associated with a 9 percent higher odds of increased blood pressure among residents living in low-crime communities compared to those living in high-crime areas. The results suggest that the environment affects heart health, and that violent crime happening elsewhere can affect others living in a city, even if individuals are not directly exposed to crime. Previous research has shown a relationship between crime exposure and high blood pressure, but researchers wanted to evaluate whether crime had a broader effect on heart health and if stress responses varied between neighborhoods. Researchers used information from the Chicago Police Data Portal and matched violent crime rates to home addresses of patients from nearby outpatient clinics. Violent crime rates spiked in 2015 and continued to rise in 2016, before declining in 2017. Researchers decided to focus on this surge and analyzed health records from this period, which included patients' blood pressure readings. More than 54 percent of the patients in the study were black, nearly 64 percent of them were female, and the average age was 48. Overall, not surprisingly, low-crime communities had lower rates of high blood pressure (22.5 percent) compared with high-crime communities (36.5 percent), and rising violent crime rates were associated with 3 percent higher odds of increased blood pressure. However, what did surprise researchers was the correlation between the surge in violent crime and a relative surge in high blood pressure among people living in safe areas. The findings suggest that the stress of increased crime has far-reaching effects, and efforts to reduce and prevent violence may improve public health of the entire city. "I saw anecdotal evidence of this," said lead study author Elizabeth Tung, M.D., an instructor of medicine at the University of Chicago. "I had friends living in low-crime neighborhoods who were extremely anxious about rising crime rates in the city. Crime, and particularly violent crime, is a unique stressor because people prioritize safety. Safety is second in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but in many ways, it can get in the way of more basic needs, like access to healthy food." Based on these findings, researchers plan to look at specific mechanisms connecting exposure to violent crime and high blood pressure, and how crime may affect self-care and disease management. For example, patients may be afraid to refill prescription medications and forgo treatment for a few days if they can't get to the local pharmacy safely. Alternatively, individuals may isolate themselves from friends and family or avoid going out to grocery shop because of concerns for personal safety. Explore further Researchers forecast lower 2017 violent and property crime rates in much of SoCal Vancouver, WA Police are investigating the death of a 5-year-old girl that took place in Vancouver on Friday. Officers said they responded to Madison Park Apartments located in the 12000 block of NE 28th Street around 5 p.m. When officers arrived they found medical personal transporting a 5-year-old girl named Hartley Anderson who was unconscious and had severe head trauma Police said the Hartley was in the care of her mothers boyfriend, identified as Ryan Burge, 37. Initial information provided by Burge was that the child had injured herself while having a tantrum, according to police. Police said Hartley was transported to the hospital and shortly after arrival she was declared dead. The little girls family is in shock from Fridays ordeal. You just get so sick, ya know, so many different emotions, Whitney Luchau, Hartleys aunt said. But family members tell us they wont be coming to any conclusions until they have all the facts of that night. We dont know exactly what happened but if he did how dare him that is the absolute worst worst thing to a five-year-old girl I mean thats ugh, TJ Luchau, Hartlets uncle said. Detectives from the Vancouver Police Major Crime Unit and Childrens Justice Center were contacted and later arrested Burge for second-degree murder. Vancouver police are still investigating her death and the family says their sister, Hartleys mom, is too shaken to give them details. So they said instead, theyre trying to focus on the positive memories. That even in the heartbreak, this little girl still makes them smile. She was just like one of a kind. Just her personality was amazing, just a ball of fire, TJ said. FOX 12 found that Burge has a criminal history dating back to 1999. He faced charges for domestic violence and harassment. He was charged for arson but that was dismissed and he was convicted of malicious mischief in 2001. ARCHIVED - Foreign tourist numbers steady in Spain, spending up by 2.5 per cent this year 3 per cent fewer visitors to Spain from the UK but they still account for over 23 per cent of the total Data released by the central government last Friday show that the number of visitors to Spain from abroad in September reached 8.92 million, registering a slight 0.5 per cent increase over the same month in 2017 despite the main market, that of the UK, showing a drop of 3.1 per cent. The number of British tourists may have fallen but they still accounted for 23.6 per cent of the total (2.11 million), and the overall increase comes in spite of the second largest market, that of Germany, also having shrunk by 3.1 per cent in terms of the year-on-year comparison. The number of Germans visiting Spain came to 1.36 million, while there were also 1.04 million from France (6 per cent more than last September) and 465,000 from Scandinavia (6.6 per cent fewer). In fact, Scandinavia was overtaken in third place by Italy, which provided almost 469,000 visitors as the result of a 21.4 per cent year-on-year increase, while another double-digit rise was observed in the figure for Portugal (up by 14.8 per cent to 243,624). After three quarters of 2018 the year-to-date figures tell a similar story, with the total having reached almost exactly the same level as at the same point last year (66.2 million) despite falls in the figures for the UK (of 3 per cent) and Germany (-5.4 per cent). Again, though, close to a quarter of the overall figure relates to visitors from the UK (14.97 million), and in September this reliance on British visitors was illustrated by the fact that the UK provided the largest share of the market in three of the major tourist destinations (27.9 per cent in Andalucia, 39.5 per cent in the Canaries and 35.1 per cent in the Comunidad Valenciana. But the stagnation in terms of visitor numbers does not mean that there is no growth in the international tourism sector of the Spanish economy, although expansion in 2018 has been modest so far. Spending by foreign visitors is estimated to have been 0.7 per cent higher in September at 9,543 million euros and has risen by 2.5 per cent in the year so far to 71,773 million euros, with the UK contributing 14,619 million euros (20.4 per cent of the total) following a rise of 2 per cent. In other words, there may have been slightly fewer tourists coming from the UK so far this year, but they have spent more while in Spain, and in September this was the result not only of the average daily spending having risen but also of a rise in the average length of stay to 7.7 days. Follow Murcia Today on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest news, events and information in Murcia and the rest of Spain: https://www.facebook.com/MurciaToday/. article_detail --> Important stuff you won't get from the liberal media! We do the surfing so you can be informed AND have a life! MyBroadbands latest mobile network drive tests reveal that there is a significant difference in the performance of networks based on the telecommunication equipment vendors. Over the last 6 months MyBroadband has performed 583,527 network performance tests across South Africa. These tests were performed on all 5 networks Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Telkom, and Rain using test benches containing 5 high-end smartphones each, including Samsung Galaxy S9 and S8 devices, and Moto Z devices. These devices run a custom version of the MyBroadband Android Speed Test App, which tested the download speed, upload speed, and latency of the networks on regular intervals. To ensure a neutral testing environment, MyBroadbands speed test servers are hosted in Teracos vendor-neutral data centres. South African mobile networks While MyBroadband typically reports on the performance of mobile operators, we decided to change the analysis to assess the performance of network equipment vendors. There are four companies which provide South African mobile operators with radio network equipment Huawei, Nokia, Ericsson, and ZTE. In most cases mobile operators use two vendors for their radio network, with two exceptions Telkom only uses Huawei, while MTN uses Huawei, ZTE, and Ericsson. It should be noted that this network performance comparison only compares radio access vendors. The overall network performance can also be influenced by core network architecture, backhaul capacity, network optimisation, and other factors. Vodacom Vodacom has a multi-vendor strategy for its network build and maintenance, with distribution split between Nokia and Huawei for radio equipment in the following regions: Nokia Western and Eastern Cape, KZN, Free State, Northern Cape. Western and Eastern Cape, KZN, Free State, Northern Cape. Huawei Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, North West. Comparing Nokia and Huaweis performance in the areas where they handle Vodacoms network shows one big difference upload speed. Nokias upload speed is far worse than Huaweis 9.9Mbps compared to 16.7Mbps. The table below shows the average performance of Vodacoms network split into areas where Nokia and Huawei handle the network build and maintenance. Vodacom Network Performance Vendor Operator Latency (ms) Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps) Huawei Vodacom 36 30.360 16.659 Nokia Vodacom 39 27.406 9.932 MTN MTN South Africa has a multi-vendor strategy, and uses Huawei, ZTE, and Ericsson as access network providers. MTN SAs core network, maintenance, optimisation, and build is supported through a combination of Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia, and Aviat. The rough breakdown of areas where Huawei, ZTE, and Ericsson are responsible for MTN SAs access network are provided below. Huawei KZN, Gauteng North, and Northern South Africa. KZN, Gauteng North, and Northern South Africa. ZTE Western Cape. Western Cape. Ericsson Eastern Cape, Free State, and Gauteng. MTNs network performance in areas where Huawei and Ericsson handle its network are nearly identical. It is, however, a different story in the Western Cape where ZTE is responsible for MTNs access network. ZTEs performance is much worse than Huawei and Ericsson, which may be related to sanctions by the United States, which kept back network upgrades and other improvements. The table below shows the average performance of MTNs network split into areas where Huawei, Ericsson, and ZTE handle the network build and maintenance. MTN Network Performance Vendor Operator Latency (ms) Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps) Huawei MTN 37 25.850 13.300 Ericsson MTN 36 25.335 13.807 ZTE MTN 37 22.201 10.104 Cell C Cell C told MyBroadband that it is responsible for its core network and network build, while radio access and transmission is split between Huawei and ZTE. According to MyBroadbands latest information its access network breakdown is as follows: ZTE KZN, Eastern Cape (mainly Port Elizabeth and East London), Central South Africa (like Bloemfontein), and parts of Northern South Africa. KZN, Eastern Cape (mainly Port Elizabeth and East London), Central South Africa (like Bloemfontein), and parts of Northern South Africa. Huawei Gauteng, Western Cape, and all other parts where ZTE does not handle the network. Cell Cs network performance reveals that Huaweis performance is significantly better than ZTEs across South Africa. This, like with MTNs network, may be related to sanctions by the United States, which kept back network upgrades and other improvements. The table below shows the average performance of Cell Cs network split into areas where Huawei, and ZTE are responsible for radio access and transmission. Cell C Network Performance Vendor Operator Latency (ms) Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps) Huawei Cell C 42 19.224 9.119 ZTE Cell C 77 11.016 6.110 Rain Rain uses two vendors for its network build and maintenance Huawei and Nokia. Rains managed services related to its evolved packet core (EPC) and radio access network is handled by Huawei, while its network performance is optimised by Nokia. The network breakdown of regions handled by Nokia and Huawei are: Nokia Western Cape, Free State, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and KZN. Western Cape, Free State, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and KZN. Huawei Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and North West. Rains network performance shows that Huaweis performance is significantly better than Nokias, especially when looking at upload speeds. This reflects what is seen on Vodacoms network, which points to differences between vendor technologies which influence network performance. The table below shows the average performance of Rains network split into areas where Nokia and Huawei handle the network build and maintenance. Rain Network Performance Vendor Operator Latency (ms) Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps) Huawei Rain 25 27.122 12.525 Nokia Rain 43 23.270 7.624 Telkom Telkom is the only mobile operator with a single access network vendor, Huawei with which it had a national contract since launch. The table below shows the average performance of Telkoms network, which is handled by Huawei. Telkom Network Performance Vendor Operator Latency (ms) Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps) Huawei Telkom 43 19.527 4.689 MyBroadband speed test partnership MyBroadbands mobile network speed tests are made possible by a partnership with Huawei, which sponsored the project for this quarter. As a leader in the mobile device and networking market, MyBroadband is honoured to have Huawei as a partner for its mobile speed test project. E-levy is not the best of ... Just days before the eighth annual Napa Valley Film Festival was to begin, co-founders Marc and Brenda Lhormer have been ousted. The Board of Directors of Cinema Napa Valley (CNV) announced Saturday afternoon it is ending its association with employees Marc and Brenda Lhormer and Zin Haze Productions, effective immediately. The Lhormers did not release a statement Sunday afternoon. Patrick Davila is chairman of the board of Cinema Napa Valley. He is also director of operations for Meadowood Napa Valley Resort in St. Helena. We acknowledge the foundation that Marc and Brenda have laid and are excited about this years festival lineup and events. We look forward to a fresh start for 2019 under the Cinema Napa Valley name, stated Davila. According to the press release, Cinema Napa Valley will present The Napa Valley Film Festival as planned from Nov. 7-11. As it prepares for 2019, CNV will be moving forward under a new name for the festival (Cinema Napa Valley) with the support of numerous key sponsors and community organizations. Cinema Napa Valley, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, was founded in 2009 and has its headquarters in Napa. When the Lhormers spoke to the St. Helena Stars editorial board in late June, Brenda said they are working on our succession plan. Were not going to be around for very much longer. When pressed if it was going to be one year, three years or five years, she responded, Youll know soon, we will announce it very soon. She added that she and Mark hope the festival retains a feeling of community, which is very important to us. I hope that is always part of the experience. In reviewing last years film festival, the Lhormers said it was a challenge, because of the October wildfires in Northern California that happened less than a month before the start of the event. Marc said, Attendance was down 15 percent, which was largely from the people making plans to come in the last four to six weeks before the festival. Those people were looking at the images on the television. Attendance at film festivals is not counted by how many people attend the festival, but instead by how many films each person sees, Marc said. In 2016, the total was 50,000 during the week-long festival. Last year, the estimate was 42,500, or about 11,000 people. Last year, it cost nearly $6 million to stage the Napa Valley Film Festival, almost $3 million in cash and another $3 million in in-kind donations. Marc said, The film festival is a very difficult business. After the film festival ended, organizers donated $11,000 to the Napa Valley Community Foundations Disaster Relief Fund. Other generous donations in November included a $6,000 grant from the Grace Family Foundation to underwrite tickets for local students and veterans to see the inspiring documentary film Blood Road on Veterans Day, and the Lexus donation of $25,000 worth of tickets to select movies for victims of the fires. The Lhormers founded the festival in 2009 and presented the first NVFF in 2011. As well as co-founders, Marc is the executive and artistic director and Brenda is co-director. Before that, the Lhormers ran the Sonoma Valley Film Festival for seven years, from 2001 to 2008. They also produced the movie Bottleshock. Brenda graduated from Stanford University in 1983 and worked in marketing and communications; Marc earned his MBA from Stanford in 1986. He was in operations and entrepreneurship when the two met in 1987. They married in 1991. Napa has been the small dome Ive lived in my whole entire life, and I have always wanted to know what was beyond that dome. Since I was 7, I have wanted to travel and study abroad in the United Kingdom so bad that I begged my father to take me there for years. It wasnt all that successful up until this year where we finally found the time and money to go there. While in the UK, we visited a total of five universities, seven towns and only managed to damage the car twice. Now I dont blame my dad for any of the accidents. Its a new area, and everything is left instead of right. When we first made it to London to the car rental, almost right away we got a flat tire. We had to swerve and hit a curb to avoid hitting another car, which then made us wait four hours for help and to get another car. The first university I visited was called Brunel University, just on the side of London. We had a very nice tour guide and he gave us many reasons why Brunel was an amazing school. Since I am really into the support of the LGBT community, I of course asked each university if they had a good community for them. He happened to give a quick, but funny, expression when I asked. My father joked around saying that the guy must have fancied me. After the tour, we got back into our blue Mini Cooper and drove off to the next destination, Bath. Bath was this quaint little town. Our Airbnb host said that You could walk from one side to the other in just 15 minutes. So far I knew this was going to be my kind of town. We visited the Bath Spa University (yes that is the name of their school) the next day, and I absolutely fell in love with the place. They had almost everything I was looking for in a school and more. The campus was surrounded by many farm animals and had an amazing view of these hills. I was sad to have to leave Bath, but that didnt mean I didnt enjoy the other schools. The last three schools I saw were Cardiff, Aberystwyth (ABER-IST-WITH) and London College of Creative Media, or LCCM. I loved each school in their different ways and was glad I could see them. While we were in Wales, we visited Cardiff Castle, an amazing old castle that used to have royalty (duh) living there. We also saw Abergavenny and Llanelen (LA-NEL-AN) where my grandmother and great grandmother lived and grew up. Abergavenny was just a tiny little town but it was so beautiful to visit. When we first got to Aberystwyth, our second car accident happened. We tried passing by a stopped delivery truck and nicked the side mirror. Luckily, it didnt make us late to the school tour. Once we left Wales, we drove three hours all the way towards Oxford to meet a friend I had known for a while. We met up at a mall and exchanged candies. I decided to buy her Laffy Taffy and Ghirardelli, while she got me Jaffa Cakes, Squashies and these chocolate Oreos, which were Oreo minis inside a chocolate bar. Everything was delicious and we even had time to look around some stores to do a little shopping for ourselves. When it was time to go, it was sad, but I dont regret meeting her. When we got back into London, we decided there was no use for the car anymore so we returned it back to the car rental place and ordered an Uber to our next Airbnb. Our last day after the LCCM tour, we decided to walk around central London and see some things I have been dying to see. One of those things I wanted to see was the Big Ben. I have wanted to see the Big Ben since I have wanted to visit the UK. I even had the Twitter notifications on for the Big Ben Twitter page; I suggest you follow them if you have Twitter, @big_ben_clock. We walked around trying to find the Big Ben and when we finally did, it was under construction and will be until mid-2019. Luckily, we could still see the clock so it wasnt a huge disappointment. In all, it was sad to leave, but I did miss home to begin with so I was happy to come home and see my friends and family. Rachel Hall is a senior at New Technology High School and an intern at the Napa Valley Register. For most Napa County residents, voting is a matter of the minutes needed to fill bubbles on a ballot, seal an envelope and drop it into a mail slot or lock box. But for about five dozen people, the work began weeks ago and accelerated as voting centers opened Saturday morning. From American Canyon north to Calistoga, county workers set up ballot boxes, laid out voter guides in three languages, and powered on computerized machines that enable vision-impaired citizens to cast their ballots. The start of the weekend launched a homestretch into Election Day, when tens of thousands of voters are expected to help decide who should oversee local cities and Napa Valley College, whether to raise the hotel room tax and who should be the next governor of California, among numerous ballot items. Weve got over 20,000 good ballots back, 5,000 more than on the June (primary) election night which should be an indication that well be well into the 60 percent range (of eligible voters) for total turnout, John Tuteur, the county registrar of voters, said in his car at 8:30 a.m. as he began a three-hour, five-stop tour of voting centers on their first day of operation. He estimated that more than 78,000 in a county population of more than 140,000 84.6 percent of those eligible and of age are registered to vote, more than in the 2016 presidential election. As Tuteur strolled into a meeting room at NVCs St. Helena campus, a half-dozen election workers already were at their stations in the citys voting center. Here, as at seven other vote centers and various drop boxes around the county, were locked, slotted black boxes that could hold up to 500 ballot envelopes each. Two vote centers opened first on Oct. 27, at county election headquarters and in American Canyon, which election workers staffed in shifts before being assigned to the remaining centers starting Saturday. In St. Helena, one worker slipped a chip card into a slot to test a device combining a vertical touchscreen with a laser printer. Here, those registering to vote on site could make their selections in English, Spanish or Tagalog for local and state offices and ballot measures, then retrieve the printout and slip it into an envelope that would be taken to the county Elections Division headquarters in downtown Napa. A videogame-style handset wired into the machine included large buttons and Braille markings for those with vision problems, and the console also could speak candidates names aloud. With worries of election-related computer hacking on the minds of some voters, Cari Midgley, a vote center worker in St. Helena, was quick to emphasize the machine would only print ballots, not store information. Some people are a little nervous about it, so we tell them this is just a sophisticated printing device, she said. The eight voting centers sprinkled around Napa County pale in number next to the 99 polling places set up in the valley for November 1998 election, Tuteurs first as county registrar. But even with mail-in ballots the rule in Napa and four other California counties, some election workers saw such stations as the natural successor for those who want to keep close to the tradition of exercising ones civic duty in person. I think you do get a generational split; those who are older still like the process of voting, said Don Hartung, a worker at the vote center inside the Angwin fire house. My mother (a Yountville resident) didnt even know you could still vote live, added Hartungs colleague Ed Rapp. She voted by mail this time, but she says next time, she may go to the Veterans Home to vote so she can do it (in person) again. Heading back down Howell Mountain Road, Tuteur pointed his car northwest on the Silverado Trail toward the Calistoga Community Center. There, as he gathered election workers for some final-weekend instructions, Elizabeth and Nick Rugen, a local couple, arrived to cast their votes or more precisely, to finish what they had started. We messed up our ballot wanted to make sure our ballot was right, so we came here, Elizabeth Rugen said. We filled in yes for a ballot initiative, but then we read up on it and decided we didnt want to vote yes on it, explained Nick Rugen after slipping their envelopes into the ballot box and laughing as a station worker bent down toward a stroller and placed a future voter onto the sweater of the Rugens 6-month-old daughter, Sadie. Although about half of Napa County voters in the June primary entrusted their ballots to the post office helped by a move by the county to prepay the postage some 25 percent cast their envelopes at vote centers and the same amount used drop boxes set up at other locations, according to Tuteur. After operating for eight hours Saturday and Sunday, Napa Countys vote centers will be open Monday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. for Election Day. 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. Redwood Credit Union will expand to a new campus near the Napa airport that will eventually be home to as many as 700 new local jobs. The credit union, which is based in Santa Rosa, is preparing for growth with the purchase of a 20,000-square-foot building, plus eight acres of adjacent undeveloped land, at 1190 Airport Blvd. in Napa Valley Gateway Business Park. We need more space and more employees, said Brett Martinez, president and CEO of Redwood Credit Union. The credit union maxed out on room at its Santa Rosa offices faster than expected, he said. Weve been looking at expansion to the Napa area for some time, so were excited to have found a location to help us support the growth were seeing, he said. Opening an additional facility in Napa also allows us to attract talent from a wider geographic area, as well as providing an alternate site to support disaster recovery, said Martinez. He envisions workers from Napa and Solano counties, or elsewhere, filing the Napa jobs. Napa is a great place and it will take us to the next level as an organization, he said. This is great news for the future employment outlook of Napa County and speaks volumes of the leadership of Martinez, said Travis Stanley, Napa Chamber of Commerce CEO. Redwood Credit Union (RCU) was selected as the Chambers 2016 Large Business of the Year. The city of Napa will surely welcome the opportunity to play a role in the vision of an organization so dedicated to serving its communities and performing for its fast-growing membership, said Stanley. Located west of the SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel, the purchase price for the 8.52-acre parcel, including the existing 17,326-square-foot building, was $7.1 million. The credit union plans to build an additional building on the eight acres, creating a campus that over time will accommodate as many as 600 to 700 employees. Once all future building phases are complete, that new building is estimated to eventually total approximately 106,000 square feet. Approximately 370 employees work at the credit unions Santa Rosa headquarters. Redwood Credit Union currently has a total of 623 employees. While Redwood Credit Unions primary headquarters will remain in Santa Rosa, the Napa site offers the rapidly growing credit union much needed room to expand back office functions supporting lending, technology and other member services, said a news release. Employees from RCU Insurance Services have already relocated from a Sonoma office to the Napa facility. Long term, you could probably say every department in the organization will have some people in Napa and some in Santa Rosa, said Martinez, who will have an office at both locations. Eventually, the Napa office complex could have more employees than the Santa Rosa office. There are benefits to having two operational centers, such as in case of disaster. During the October 2017 wildfires, flames in Santa Rosa came within a block of the RCU headquarters on Cleveland Avenue. Opening a second office in Napa was a great idea before the fires and its an even better idea now, said Martinez. Growth has been steady at RCU, said a news release. Membership in the credit union recently rose 9.7 percent and loans rose 19.5 percent. Martinez said he attributes that growth to people looking for alternatives to banking. We have a strong brand and provide great service. We have technology, branches and ATMs people are looking for, he said. Doing the right thing every day is who we are and what we do and people are aware of that. Redwood Credit Union currently has 17 branch locations throughout the North Bay and has plans to open additional branches in American Canyon and Lake County in 2019. Founded in 1950, RCU has more than $4.4 billion in assets. 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. The Subway store in American Canyon was robbed at closing time Saturday night by a man who escaped with cash from the register, American Canyon police reported. Employees were cleaning up at 9:30 p.m. and preparing to close for the day at the Subway in Canyon Plaza when a man wearing red pants, a black sweatshirt and some type of sock mask entered the store and jumped the counter, police said. The robber pointed to something in his pocket, then took cash from the register, police said. Employees were escorted to the back of the store to look for more cash, before the robber fled on foot and the employee called 911. The robber is described as a white male, police said. Anyone who may have seen someone in the Canyon Plaza area wearing red pants on Saturday night is asked to call the Investigations Bureau at 707-253-4591. One of this years most contentious legislative battles was over requiring those accused of serious crimes to post cash bail to be released from jail while their cases are pending. It was seemingly resolved when a bill to eliminate cash bail was passed after a last-minute redrafting of dubious legality Rather than having judges set bail amounts for defendants, the new law would require judges to evaluate their flight risk and decide who should be released and who should be jailed pending trial. The enactment of Senate Bill 10, however, was just the opening salvo of a multi-front legal and political war. The bail bond industry private companies that bail out defendants for fees and sometimes for property they post as security bitterly opposed the legislation, of course. It would put thousands of storefront bail offices, most of them conveniently located near jails, out of business. Led by the industrys giants, such as Aladdin Bail Bonds, it is spending several million dollars to collect the 365,880 registered voter signatures required to place a repeal referendum on the 2020 ballot. Theres virtually no doubt that the referendum will qualify, automatically suspending the new law until voters decide its fate. Faced with extinction, the industry will spend heavily to kill the legislation, and its proponents criminal justice reform and civil rights groups, primarily dont appear to have big money to defend it. The opposition is also divided. The last-minute rewrite granted judges the ultimate authority over who stays in jail or is released and that alienated some anti-bail groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union. They worried aloud that judges would tend to keep defendants in jail rather than risk the onus if someone released without bail commits a heinous crime. Bail bond firms may also file suit to overturn the new law, alleging that those late changes violate a constitutional requirement, passed by voters in 2016, requiring bills to be in print for 72 hours before being passed. SB 10 had sat in limbo for nearly a year, but suddenly, on Aug. 16, was revived in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. A day later on a Friday afternoon massive amendments were submitted to the Assembly clerks office. However, official records, including the bill itself, say the amendments were adopted the following Monday, Aug. 20, just before the Assembly approved it on a 42-31 vote. A day later, the Senate gave final approval, sending the bill to Gov. Jerry Brown on a 26-12 vote. The challenge, if it occurs, would hinge on whether the 72-hour notice period began when the amendments were submitted on Aug. 17 or when they were adopted on Aug. 20. Meanwhile, another case pending before the state Supreme Court could end, or at least severely curtail, cash bail regardless of whether SB 10 survives. Last January, a state appellate court in San Francisco declared that in requiring cash bail, judges must consider the financial ability of defendants to afford it, bolstering the basic argument behind SB 10 that bail discriminates against the poor. Justice J. Anthony Kline, Browns close friend and one-time legal adviser, wrote the opinion, which begins with a long quote from Browns 1979 State of the State address calling for bail reform. Attorney General Xavier Becerra refused to appeal Klines ruling, but San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon did and lawyers for the issues many protagonists are busily submitting briefs seeking to influence the state Supreme Courts decision whether to uphold or overturn Kline. Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye is not a disinterested party. She has been a public advocate of bail reform and was a major behind-the-scenes figure in SB 10s last-minute revision giving judges more authority to decide who goes free and who stays in jail while awaiting trial. 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. Having wanted to visit Bilbao, Spain for years to see the Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum, my wife Kathy and I finally found a trip through Trafalgar Tours that covered Northern Spain, starting in Barcelona and traveling on an 1,800-mile loop to end up in Madrid and including Bilbao. Turns out that Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe, after Switzerland, as we found out as we drove around in a 50-person bus for 12 days. Barcelona: You could literally spend weeks in this city to visit the myriad visual delights that the city offers. It wasnt until Barcelona hosted the 1992 Olympics that it became more of a tourist spot. A measure of that was they had 80 cruise ships a year prior to the Olympics, and now have 800. When we arrived, we sallied forth and found a restaurant called Bilbao Berria, which served up a delightful menu of what are called pintxos or pinchos in Basque country (tapas in southern Spain) from which to choose. We would just point, tell them how many we wanted, and theyd serve you up right there. When it was time to pay, theyd count the number of toothpicks that held the little pintxos together and figure out what you owed. We found that the white wine was very weak so sangria became the drink of choice. Once in a while wed run into a decent tempranillo red, but generally found them to be underwhelming and disappointing. So, sufficiently fueled, off we went to see the wonders of Barcelona, and the highlight of the day had to be the Sagrada Familia Basilica that the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi started building in 1882, and when he was killed by a street-car with the building plans in his head in 1926, very little was done on it for years until just recently. Money was found to finish the building, hopefully by 2026, so thats the year you want to go to be part of the grand opening. Its one of those buildings that youve seen pictures of, but when you turn the corner and voila, there it is, it does stop you in your tracks. You also stop because there are thousands of tourists there, and pickpockets just waiting for you to start taking pictures leaving your wallet unguarded. I wear pickpocket proof pants that are so hard to get to my wallet I have to ask a pickpocket for help. We drove up to Montserrat, the ancient Benedictine monastery where the Black Madonna relic is found. It was a Sunday, so the place was packed with locals taking Grandma up to the sanctuary, with pilgrims, since it is on the Camino de Santiago that 300,000 pilgrims walk each year on their way to Santiago, and just regular plain-Jane tourists. The views from there were excellent. Pamplona, our next stop, is famous for its annual running of the bulls every July, officially called the St. Fermin Festival, where 10 bulls are released to chase hundreds of drunken bums for a couple blocks. This year one guy was gored and others hurt. You may have read Hemingways book The Sun Also Rises where he describes the event. Finally, we were in Bilbao, where you have to ask yourself why would the Guggenheim Foundation want to build a museum in an isolated corner of northeastern Spain? Turns out years ago, the Basque authorities wanted to redevelop the region, and proposed to the foundation that they build a museum in Bilbao, which they agreed to do, and chose Frank Gehry to design the building. It opened in 1997 and is noted for its swirling forms and cladding of 30,000 titanium tiles. It looks like a titanium flower. Some critics called it an alien hallucination, but most gushed that it was the greatest building of our time. It exceeded my vision of what it should look like, and was much bigger. The interior of the building was interesting, for the most part the exhibits were average, but the building itself was worth flying thousands of miles to see. On the northern coast of Spain, we stayed two nights in Santander for side trips, the first of which was to the Neo Cave of Altamira, often called the Sistine Chapel of Prehistoric Cave Art. Probably the most famous ancient cave art is in south-west Frances Dordogne area, where the Lascaux Cave was found in 1948. It eventually had to be closed off to visitors because their breath containing carbon dioxide and water vapor was ruining the artwork. The French recreated the cave for visitors using hundreds of hours of laser scanning to exactly reproduce the cave. We were very pleased to find ourselves visiting a similar cave in Altamira. The original cave had painted figures representing bison lying down, bison heads, bison hinds, wild goats, hands, rampant horses, all dating back at least 22,000 years ago, belonging to the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. The Spanish government, just like in France, had to finally close off the cave to the public, except once a week, by lottery, five visitors get to go into the original cave. Spain has done the same cave replication as the French, so we were able to go into a cave that looks, smells and appears to be the inside of the original cave, which was more interesting than it sounds. When we left there, we drove to Comillas to tour a Modernist art treasure, Gaudis El Capricho, a house built in 1883 for the summer use of a rich client, Maximo Diaz de Quijano. Gaudi designed a edifice that is definitely over the top. Capricho means whim or caprice, and it certainly lives up to its name. The outside is stripped with ceramic bands of alternating sunflowers and green leaves. Its one of those places you cant stop taking pictures of. Did you see Woody Allens movie Vicky Christina Barcelona? He shot the movie in Oviedo, not Barcelona, which is where we were for a couple nights. From here we drove to an estuary to take a boat trip to see mussel and oyster farms. As soon as we got on the boat, we sat down at tables and a cold bottle of Ribeiro white wine was made palatable mixing in orange soda. Next, they put out trays of freshly steamed mussels on the table and said dig in. Ive never tasted mussels like that. They were fresh and perfectly cooked, and we just gorged on them. After eating 50 mussels, you realize that youve overdone it, but they were so succulent that you just couldnt stop. That night we had dinner at the Castanon Family Cider Mill. They produce a hard cider from 100 varieties of apples for their Val de Boides Cider, which everyone on the tour tasted and immediately spit out but their natural cider was delicious. They served spinach croquettes, vegetable pate, cheeses, a local Austurias bean stew, a mascarpone cheese cake with applesauce dessert. All of it was delicious. Finally, we ended our tiresome pilgrims journey (via bus) heading into Santiago de Compostela. As we entered the city, we saw above the city the Galicia City of Culture, costing, so far, $500 million to build a library, newspaper archive, theater, museum of Galician History and an international Arts Center. It was a cemetery for money, half-finished and only partially occupied. Officially the pilgrims end their walk in Santiago Square near the cathedral. The Scallop Shell is the official symbol of the Camino de Santiago. Its seen everywhere, from churches and distance markers to pavements and backpacks. You may have seen Emilio Estevezs movie The Way with Martin Sheen, that depicts their pilgrimage walking the Camino de Santiago. On the way to stay overnight in Salamanca, a university town, where we went through one of Spains oldest churches dating back to the 12th century and walked across an old Roman Bridge. Before getting there, we stopped in the little village of Zamora for what turns out to be one of my new favorite words in Spanish, los Areos. It seems the Spanish cant agree with the rest of the world on what to call WCs, toilets or toilettes, so they have their own word, which you definitely want to know. While in Zamora they were having a festival, with a food stand serving pulpo, octopus. They steamed it, cut it into 1/2-inch slices, seasoned it with paprika, salt and olive oil, and laid it out on a base of boiled potatoes. It was just unbelievable good. Not chewy, just succulent, and went well with a nice fruity sangria. Most of the 49 turistas on the bus turned up their nose at it. On to Madrid, where the tour of the Prado Museum was inspiring, thanks to a guide that made paintings by Goya and El Greco come alive. We need to go back for a week just to finish getting through the Prados exhibits. We had an extra day in Madrid before coming home and, having seen all the cities around Madrid before, my friend Nick Jennison suggested we take the train to visit the eighth-century town Cuenca built by the Moors, to see: (1) the first Gothic cathedral in Spain dating back to 1270, which was impressive; (2) The footbridge over the 200-foot chasm from one side of the gorge to the other and (3) the famous hanging houses, Las Casas Colgadas, with their porches literally hanging out over the gorge, with no apparent support. It turned out to be a delightful day trip, and we were probably the only Americans that have been there since Nick and his wife Jane were there 10 years ago. In a fresh development in #MeToo movement, top Assam police official Mukesh Agrawal has been accused of sexual harassment by one of her junior police officers. In a post on Facebok on Sunday, Majuli (HQ) ASP Leena Doley accused ADGP (L&O) Mukesh Agrawal of sexually harassing her at workplace and added that she received no justice till today. In the post Doley mentioned that she had been subject to sexual harassment at workplace in 2012 by top cop Agrawal, who was then posted as IGP (Logistic). I am a survivor of sexual harassment at the workplace. In the March of 2012, one of my seniors, Mukesh Agrawal, IPS, IGP (L), Assam, now ADGP (L&O), Assam, Guwahati, offered to take me on a holiday with him for the efficient work I had done.I of course refused and took to the natural course of justice. I had no intention of taking a holiday with my boss. And I said so to my organisation boss the DGP, Assam, she shared. Anyway, a lot transpired after that my written complaint against Mukesh Agrawal, IPS, IGP (L), Assam, now ADGP (L&O), Assam, Guwahati. To cut a long story short, my husband committed suicide after around six months of my submitting my complaint against Mukesh Agrawal, she continued. Also read: #Me Too Movement: Skeletons tumble out of celebrated Assam journalist Homen Borgohains cupboard In her post Doley recounted that after filing the complaint, the then Addl. Chief Secretary Emily Choudhury came to her house and assured her that it was not because of the complaint that her husband committed suicide. The Enquiry Officer, Emily Choudhury, IAS, the then Addl. Chief Secretary, Assam, came to my house on the first day itself, the soonest possible, to assure me that it was not because of the complaint that my husband killed himself. I didnt react. I was beyond any reaction. But the enquiry procedures had not started till then, mentioned the Majuli ASP. Doley claimed that her case was dismissed despite IAS officer Agrawal himself had admitted to his misconduct. My case was dismissed as one of misunderstanding although the perpetrator himself had admitted to the fact that the perpetrator had asked me to accompany him to a holiday destination without of course telling my husband, she said. Also, the wife of the perpetrator had filed a defamation case against me for supposedly defaming her husband. I filed a revision petition against it in the Gauhati High Court. I won the case in the High Court. Im now beyond any redemption. I only feel some kind of contentment that the case against me resulted in a judgement that complainants cannot be persecuted upon for filing a case against sexual predators, Doley said. Also read: #MeToo storm: Assam journalist reveals horrific rape ordeal by M J Akbar She said that she never got justice the complaint she filed. The enquiry committee concluded that it was a misunderstanding even when the perpetrator himself admitted to the fact of the allegation made by me, Doley stated. The woman police officer also mentioned that her husband committed suicide on a different ground. Doley said she was prompted to share her story after #MeToo movement gained momentum. And Im sure, after my experience, no one else would come out with their stories in govt. departments. Im an example of defeat. But still, for all of us, who have stood against it, strength to us!! #MeToo, she mentioned. No comment from Agrawal was available as he did not answer the phones calls from Northeast Now. Armenian Foreign Minister and Otto Luchterhandt discuss Nagorno-Karabakh settlement Armenian contract soldier dies amid violation of rules for handling weapons Man, 29, jumps from Yerevan bridge Armenia MFA confirms PM Pashinyan's readiness to meet with Azerbaijans Aliyev on December 15 Quake shakes coast of Vanuatu State minister: Nationwide quarantine, specific restrictions planned to be imposed in Karabakh Artsakh President convenes National Security Service consultation Opposition MP: Armenia FM stated that Turkey has proposed new precondition: corridor Armenia military expert: US Embassy warns its citizens to avoid Karahunj-Davit Bek, Kapan-Chakaten road sections Armenia opposition MP: Air carrier operating flights from Syunik Province cannot have any security guarantees Singapore is good example for Armenia, says President Sarkissian Iran seizes foreign ship in Persian Gulf 2 Azerbaijanis injured in anti-tank mine explosion at Karabakh conflict zone US, Turkey presidential advisors discuss situation in South Caucasus Synopsys boss pays tribute to Armenian Genocide victims Russia peacekeepers escort 15 convoys to, from Artsakh in one week Catholicos Karekin II to Patriarch Kirill: We appreciate your warm attitude towards Armenian Church, people China fines Alibaba for violating antitrust law 36 new cases of coronavirus reported in Karabakh UK Premier Johnson considering boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics Artsakh President visits Askeran city, meets with regional capitals youth President to Russia Patriarch: Armenian people highly value your efforts aimed at achieving peace in our region 870 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia 8 injured in tragic accident on Yerevan-Gyumri motorway are discharged from hospital China, Russia, US agree to promote political dialogue on Iran Azerbaijan mother, son commit suicide on same day One pedestrian dies on the spot, other hospitalized after hit by car in Armenia village area US beauty consultant is accused of killing woman by injecting silicone into her butt Brazil Amazon deforestation reaches highest level in 15 years Newspaper: Armenia soldiers are prohibited from filming episodes from their service, posting them on internet Newspaper: Armenia opposition is forming large-scale resistance network Armenia President visits National University of Singapore Gia, wanted by French law-enforcement authorities, found at Armenia's Bagratashen checkpoint Leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia agree to meet in Brussels European Council: Pashinyan and Aliyev agreed to establish direct communication line at level of defense ministers Armenia's Representative to OSCE speaks about Azerbaijan's recent attack at Permanent Council's session Armenia serviceman Meruzhan Harutyunyan, killed in Syunik Province, was buried at Yerablur Military Pantheon Armenian News-NEWS.am's special report: Drive from Kapan to Tchakatashen is 150 km instead of previous 8 km 3 Armenian servicemen killed during Nov. 16 Azerbaijani attack posthumously awarded presidential medals Left-wing trade unions hold protest against Turkey's Erdogan in Izmir Armenia FM presents situation following Azerbaijani attack during meeting with Lithuanian Seimas Vice-President Armenia delegation covers Azerbaijan's Nov. 16 attack during online meeting of CSTO PA Permanent Commissions Armenia PM receives delegation led by Vice President of Lithuanian Seimas Lavrov, Cavusoglu discuss bilateral ties and regional issues Karabakh: Azerbaijani side, in Shushi, transfers bodies of 3 Armenian soldiers killed on Nov. 16 NEWS.am daily digest: 19.11.21 Armenian Embassy in Russia: Armenia citizens - mother and child - evacuated from Afghanistan Georgia refuses to be a part of '3+3' format with regard to South Caucasus The occupied Hadrut of our days (PHOTOS) Arabologist: Photo of map of Turkic world shown by Erdogan and Bahceli is simply a gift for Armenian diplomacy Situation is tense in Armenia's Kasakh, residents protesting against acting village head (LIVE) Opposition With Honor legislature faction MP: No one knows if Armenia petitioned to Russia for military assistance Armenia opposition MP: There is a threat that Baku will always get what it wants through use of force Lavrov is certain that the Russia-Armenia-Azerbaijan summit will take place Ann Linde: OSCE working very closely with Russia to resolve Karabakh conflict Karabakh FM congratulates newly appointed Abkhazia counterpart Dollar relatively stable in Armenia Armenia parliament majority members do not deny possibility of exchange of territories with Azerbaijan Armenia ruling party MP: Public and competent authorities need to know circumstances behind captures of soldiers Armenia ruling party MP assures that situation on the border is currently stable Armenia ruling party MP: Confidentiality of process of preparing for demarcation is strictly necessary Armenia PM: Citizens of EEU countries will be able to receive loans in all territories of member states Armenian serviceman, 19, dies in Georgia's Akhalkalaki Armenia legislature majority faction lawmaker: Russia military intervention is not end in itself High commissioner: Diaspora is considering ways to help hundreds of Ethiopia Armenians Opposition With Honor parliament faction: Armenia authorities trying to push territorial losses issue to backburner Legislature majority faction MP: Armenia authorities do not make any demands on Russia Opposition Armenia Faction in parliament: Authorities are unable to distinguish between priority and secondary issues 3 more die of coronavirus in Artsakh Bruno Retailleau: France must support Armenia more firmly against aggressions by Azerbaijan Armenia parliament majority faction: Border delimitation preparation process will start from point zero PM: Armenia exports to other EEU countries increased by 27.8% Armenias Pashinyan: Azerbaijan provocations are aimed at disrupting arrangements reached by trilateral statements California Armenian couple accused of fraud flee leaving their 3 children behind 799 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Katherine Clark: Azerbaijan must acknowledge and respect Armenian sovereignty Eurasian Intergovernmental Council enlarged meeting underway in Yerevan Russia peacekeepers patrol along Karabakh border delimitation line MOD: According to current data Armenia has 6 military casualties as result of Tuesdays attack by Azerbaijan Turkish Islamic preachers organization denies reports of his death Newspaper: What happened to missing Armenia soldiers during recent hostilities? Armenia MOD dismisses reports about not allowing officers with higher rank than major to go up to combat positions US virtually completes development of new tactical nuclear gravity bomb B61-12 Newspaper: Officers with higher rank than major not allowed to combat positions during recent hostilities in Syunik Opposition MP: Granting corridor to Azerbaijan through Syunik Province will be gravest crime against Armenia US Department of State representative says why Azerbaijan is not invited to Summit for Democracy Armenian human rights activists to submit letters to ECHR regarding soldiers captured and considered missing Armenia FM stresses importance of addressable response to Azerbaijan's actions during talk with Greek counterpart Ex-ruling party official: Armenia authorities found reason for MOD's resignation after his visit to Karabakh Republican Party of Armenia spokesperson: Nikol Pashinyan gave a confessional testimony in parliament yesterday Armenia President talks about states' collective responsibility at Bloomberg New Economy Forum Turkish website reports poisoning of Fetullah Gulen Armenia FM holds phone talks with Cypriot counterpart, presents situation created after Azerbaijani attack Mirzoyan, Zas discuss CSTO's possible actions to stabilize situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border, if necessary Mothers of deceased servicemen demand Armenia PM's resignation Azerbaijani Armed Forces open fire at tractor in Armenia's Verin Shorzha village Putin: Events unfolding on Armenia-Azerbaijan border attest to fact that situation has not calmed down in the region Lithuania supports Armenia's territorial integrity NEWS.am daily digest: 18.11.21 Ex-ruling party official: Incumbent authorities created deliberately organized chaos in Armenia Saudi-led coalition forces used an American bomb to blow up a school bus in Yemen, reportedly killing at least 51 people, including 40 children. In his first public comments on that attack, President Trump told "Axios on HBO" that the killings were "a horror show." But he declined to say if it's made him reassess American arms sales to the Saudis. "I think it's a terrible situation. I hated seeing what happened with the bus and the children cause that's pure that's a horror show when you see a thing like that, you saw the bus," Trump noted. Axios' Jim VandeHei then asked Trump if this gave him pause about selling American weapons to the Saudis. "I don't want to see that," Trump replied. "That is a terrible thing. What's going on in Yemen generally is a terrible thing, and we're gonna see and we're looking at Yemen very carefully right now. We are actually studying Yemen very, very carefully." I asked if Trump would handle the war differently if he were in the Saudis' place. "I'll be talking about a lot of things with the Saudis," he continued, "but certainly I wouldn't be having people that don't know how to use the weapons shooting at buses with children." YEREVAN. Artsakhs ex-ombudsman Ruben Melikyan is setting up a human rights organization. Melikyan did not disclose the details, saying that among the reasons for his resignation is that the civil society of Armenia, in his opinion, needs new people and institutions. Considering the fact that many people who were previously in the area of civil society switched to state work, and the public control has decreased. The work in human rights area was carried out until April-May. Today, we see that there seems to be a gap in this area, Melikyan said, adding that he sees his activities in this area. Melikyan said that importance of human rights protection is becoming more important in Armenia and Artsakh. This means it is a good moment to review approach to this area, he said, adding that there the ties between Yerevan and Stepanakert are rather week. Melikyan hopes that his organization will work to become the link between Armenia and Artsakh in the area of human rights protection. Saudi Arabia assured the UN that it would bring to justice those responsible for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, since Western states insist on conducting a credible investigation, Reuters reported. According to Saudi Arabian official Bandar Al Aiban, King Salman instructed the prosecutor to investigate the case according to applicable laws and to bring perpetrators to justice. He did not provide details on the status or location of the 18 Saudi citizens detained amid the murder and repeatedly refused to answer questions from journalists in this regard. Khashoggis sons demanded the return of their fathers body, who disappeared on October 2 after visiting the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. As reported earlier, the Attorney General of Istanbul said that Khashoggi was strangled. As soon as he entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul as part of an intentional murder, his body was dismembered. The statement noted that talks with Saudi Arabias chief prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb have no results, despite the willful Turkish efforts to reveal the truth. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared on October 2 in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. He was reportedly killed by security forces who arrived in Istanbul for this purpose. Riyadh only acknowledged Khashoggis death two weeks after his disappearance, noting that the killing was unintentional. However, the Saudi prosecutor, in his turn, noted that it was a deliberate murder. His body was reportedly found in the territory of the residence of the Saudi consul in Istanbul. Armenias banking sector is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Hovhannes Khachatryan, head of Assets, Liabilities and Capital Management Division at Ameriabank, said in an interview with Bankovskoye Obozreniye (Banking Review). In an interview he speaks about what makes Armenias banking sector different from that of Russia, what kind of technologies make it move forward and what are Ameriabanks market consolidation plans. Hovhannes, what are the distinctive differences between banking in Armenia and Russia? The first difference is that we have no state-owned banks in Armenia. All the banks are privately owned. This is why the competition among them is very tense. There are also international players here such as HSBC, VTB, Credit Agricole, etc. Nevertheless, local banks successfully compete with them, and Ameriabank, as a private local bank, has been holding the lead for many years. Secondly, Armenias bank regulation is much stricter. It has been instrumental in helping local banks avoid defaults over the past 16 years. After a period of cleansing in the late 90s and the first years of the new century, the regulation became even more stringent. Our market is more liberal than the Russian one - for example, we have no currency control. The reluctance of local banks to finance large government infrastructure projects can be viewed both as an advantage or disadvantage. In this sense local banks are less exposed to risks. In terms of technology development, if we look at the leading Russian banks, they are more advanced and we still have a lot to learn. This is probably because of a conservative approach shown both by the country's leadership and, in some cases, the leadership of different banks to all sorts of innovation. Are there any special relation between the banking sectors of Russia and Armenia? We have good partnership relations with colleagues from Russian banks. But despite the fact that the economies of our countries are mutually integrated, I would not say that the Armenian and Russian banking sectors interact strongly with each other, not counting VTB that has a small retail banking presence in the Armenian market. As regards technology, Softline has built a data processing center for Ameriabank this year. What banking services will it be used for in the future? Today, the banking sector is undergoing a fundamental transformation: it is obvious that banks are not going to limit themselves to selling financial services only. For example, the Russian Sberbank is positioning itself as a platform for clients who can use a huge number of services through the so-called one stop window. The task of the bank is to offer the clients the services which they most likely will buy. To do this, banks apply business analysis, artificial intelligence and other related technologies and approaches. The banks have accumulated a huge amount of data. We see and understand the need for fast and complex processing of this data, because we are aware of how things will be unwrapping in the future. Of course, this primarily concerns retail products, online lending, more advanced mobile banking solutions or other distance channels. Now it is important for a bank to be able to work with the existing data, be able to enrich the data by using information from different sources. In turn, this imposes new requirements in terms of working with data, applications used for their processing and the performance of computing and network equipment. Large amounts of data can also be used for marketing decisions, for determining credit limits; by using these technologies, one can improve scoring cards, etc. The infrastructure, which the new data center offers will help to realize all this. When we ordered this project, we asked the consultant to create such a data center that would enable us to have at least three to four years of supplies in terms of equipment, engineering support and network capacity. Now, the loan decisions are automated, arent they? Partially. For some products, human participation is absolutely unnecessary. We want more decisions to be taken automatically and extend this practice from individuals to small and medium-sized businesses. The experience of our colleagues - including that of bankers in Russia - shows that advanced scoring algorithms not only eliminate the human factor (as part of automation process, this is obvious), but also reduce the risks for the bank. Can you call information technology an important competitive factor? They are not yet an important competition element in our market. Nonetheless, it is the clients, who, based on their needs and everyday life habits, dictate the terms to us. If earlier the banks had to exert efforts to make the clients use some technologies, now the client is the one demanding innovations, since our customer base is younger and more competent in the technological sense. For them, especially for the younger generation, all these mobile applications, online banking, p2p transfers are an obligatory part of banking services, although some of the local banks, especially small banks are not in a hurry to invest in technology, since these solutions are too complicated, expensive, and do not always pay off. But the future is for the new technologies, and the banks that lag behind will not be able to obtain all the diversity of the latest technologies in one day. We need to constantly work on banking IT and grow with customers to the level that awaits us in the next, say, ten years. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) owns a share in Ameriabank. Does this have an impact on Ameriabank in one way or another? In addition to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank has also obtained a share in our bank since February 2018. These lending institutions are of great importance for local financial markets, such as the Armenian one, since they set high standards that need to be met not only in order to be credited, but also, in the best cases, to have a share in the authorized capital. These are high risk management standards, public financial reporting, corporate and social responsibility. And even if they do not directly teach us, we just have to constantly raise our level and keep these standards based on their requirements. And since our bank plans to conduct an IPO on well-known international markets in the near future, this is precisely the regime of transparency and discipline in which we are accustomed to working together with these organizations. Sometimes they arrange the exchange of information with other partner banks. We often receive guests from Russian, Central Asian and other banks, and our specialists pay reciprocal visits to these financial structures. We are in a constant learning process, and the EBRD and ADB provide this exchange of experience. Does Ameriabank plan to somehow expand its presence to other countries? We have never hidden our ambitions to enter the Russian and Georgian markets. There were real attempts, but, unfortunately or fortunately, they were not crowned with success, and we concentrated our forces in Armenia. And it worked - we have been leading in the corporate sector for many years holding now almost a third of the market here. Now we are actually becoming the leader in the SMEs and retail segments. It should be noted that Armenias market opportunities are very limited. On the other hand, our country's economy is less volatile and more predictable in the medium and long terms. However, nothing can be ruled out. After the consolidation in the Armenian banking sector is over, over in our favor, we will be able to redistribute our resources and begin foreign expansion. We will probably return to this issue soon. In Russia, banks often enter other markets, including non-banking ones. Does Ameriabank move in this direction? We are a financial organization, and our competencies and strengths are concentrated in the financial sector. We now have no plans to try something else. Although theoretically, in one form or another, I do not rule out attempts to enter non-banking markets. But, again, we will not use our resources to create something that we know little about. There is a hypothetical synergy of financial and some non-financial organizations, say, telecoms. This is not necessarily a merger; there may be close cooperation. But for the present we are fighting for absolute leadership in the financial sector. What is the share of remote channels now? What is the prevailing trend among customers- visiting a bank branch or RBS? One third of all bank customers actively use our mobile application or internet banking. One part (25%) is very active, another part is active in controlling the status of their accounts, receiving references and so on. But this figure is growing very fast. In terms of using remote channels by legal entities there are still no good specialized solutions in Armenia. For large companies, this issue is not urgent. A large number of small and medium businesses has real needs for RBS, and we our task is to meet them as quick as possible. The source: Bankovskoye Obozreniye South Korea and the United States on Monday resumed small-scale military training that was indefinitely suspended following an historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The combined marine drills were among "select" joint exercises that were indefinitely delayed in June, after Trump met with Kim in Singapore and pledged to halt "very provocative" and expensive joint military drills with Seoul. But the Korean Marine Exchange Programme (KMEP), involving some 500 marines from the US and South Korea, will resume for two weeks from Monday in the South's southern city of Pohang, Seoul's defence ministry said. "We have previously said we will conduct US-South Korea battalion-level or small-scale drills as planned," ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo told reporters. Washington is Seoul's security ally and stations 28,500 troops in the South to protect it from its nuclear-armed neighbour. The two countries have long carried out joint exercises which they insist are purely defensive in nature, but which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for invasion. Along with the marine drills, Seoul and Washington suspended the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian training in August involving tens of thousands of troops. They also agreed to halt the Vigilant Ace air force exercise slated for December. The resumption in military drills comes just days before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to hold talks with his North Korean counterpart on denuclearisation and plans for a second summit between their leaders. At their meeting in Singapore, Trump and Kim signed a vaguely worded statement on denuclearisation but little progress has been made since. The two have sparred over the exact terms of the deal, with Washington pushing to maintain sanctions against the North until its "final, fully verified denuclearisation" and Pyongyang condemning US demands as "gangster-like". As a latest sign of increasing frustration, the North's foreign ministry issued a statement on Friday threatening to resume building nuclear weapons unless US ends sanctions against Pyongyang. The North is under multiple UN Security Council sanctions for its weapons programmes. In an interview with Fox News on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated that sanctions will remain until Pyongyang carries out denuclearisation commitments made in Singapore. Last month General Robert Abrams, the then-nominee to head US and UN forces in South Korea, said there "was certainly a degradation in the readiness of the force, for the combined forces" following the pause in drills. AFP Dear Newsie Readers, Newsie has now permanently ceased it's services as of Friday 20th December 2019. Newsie has been an owner-funded operation since day one. Coming up to three years old, while we still firmly believe Newsie has a place in the New Zealand media landscape, the cost in both time and money has become too burdensome for the owners to continue alongside other ventures. With the current government looking to restructure public broadcasting, and seemingly supporting NZME buying a ring-fenced Stuff, the time seems right to call it a day. Should it happen, the combination of NZME and Stuff will ensure New Zealands national media will die a death by a thousand opinion-based articles. Newsie has always tried to stick to balanced news, to inform readers of the facts of a situation, amid being largely ignored by government. Hopefully, one day someone else will take up the challenge to fight the good fight. The good news, however, is that there were no job losses as a result of Newsie closing. Thanks to careful structuring, everyone involved in Newsie will retain their current positions. We hope you all have a happy Christmas and new year. Stay safe, and stay out of the news. The team at Newsie An effigy of U.S. government icon "Uncle Sam" is held up by demonstrators during a rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, marking the 39th anniversary of the seizure of the embassy by militant Iranian students. Thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary as Washington restored all sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) The Latest on the situation in Iran after the re-imposition of all American sanctions on the country on Monday (all times local): 6 a.m. Turkey's top diplomat has criticized the U.S. resumption of sanctions on Iran as unilateral, not wise and dangerous, calling for a dialogue and compromise. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Tokyo for talks with Japanese leaders, told reporters Tuesday that Turkey opposes sanctions because they don't achieve results. He said cornering Iran is not wise, isolating Iran is dangerous and punishing the Iranians is unfair. President Donald Trump's administration's resumption of sanctions on Iran took effect Monday, though eight major importers of Iranian oil, including Turkey and Japan, are spared temporarily from immediate penalties. Cavusoglu said one-third of Turkey's gas imports come from Iran and it's difficult for any country to immediately diversify their energy mix. He said the U.S. "unilateral" decision affects the world. ___ 5:45 p.m. Israel's prime minister is lauding the newly restored U.S. sanctions against Iran as "historic," saying they will "strangle" what he described as Iranian state-sponsored terrorism. Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday at parliament that the Trump administration's decision to restore sanctions was already having an effect. He called the move "a big day for the state of Israel." Israel has been a fierce opponent of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal from which the U.S. withdrew this year, saying the deal didn't rein in Iran's regional military activities. The new sanctions against Iran's shipping, financial and energy sectors come into effect Monday. The U.S. says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. Story continues ___ 2:20 p.m. China says it regrets the U.S. decision to re-impose sanctions on Iran but will continue to uphold the nuclear deal Beijing agreed to as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters on Monday that the accord "should be comprehensively and effectively implemented" despite the fact that the United States pulled out of it in May. Hua says: "We regret this decision by the U.S." She added that the international community objects to unilateral sanctions such as those brought by the U.S. She also said China stood with those nations that have vowed to keep the agreement alive despite the U.S. withdrawal, and said Iran has been "strictly fulfilling its obligations" under the accord. Hua urged all sides to keep in mind "long-term interests, fulfill their obligations and responsibilities and choose to stand on the right side of history." ___ 2 p.m. Iranian officials say the country is being targeted by a cyberattack. Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Javad Azeri Jahromi and his deputy, Hamid Fatahi, both tweeted about the attack on Monday the same day U.S. sanctions on the country once lifted by the nuclear deal resumed. They blamed Israel for the attack and said it targeted Iran's communications infrastructure, without elaborating. Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment. Iran previously faced a computer virus called Stuxnet, which destroyed thousands of centrifuges involved in Iran's contested nuclear program in 2011. Stuxnet is widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation, though neither country has acknowledged being behind the attack. Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali, the head of country's military unit in charge of combatting sabotage, said last week that President Hassan Rouhani's cellphone was tapped recently. ___ 12:35 p.m. Iran's foreign ministry is shrugging off the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions on Iran, saying it's nothing new and that the country has gone through a wider range of sanctions in the past. The ministry's spokesman, Bahram Ghasemi, says that Iranians "have experienced more extensive sanctions" and that they are "not a new issue." He also called the sanctions that went into effect on Monday "fruitless" and part of the U.S. propaganda and psychological war against Iran. He claimed the sanctions would backfire and work against the United States and that "many countries from Europe to Russia and China have opposed the sanctions." The sanctions end all U.S. economic benefits America granted to Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and in particular target Iran's vital oil industry. ___ 11: 10 a.m. Israel's defense minister is welcoming newly restored U.S. sanctions against Iran, saying they will deal a "critical blow" to Iran's military presence around the Middle East. Avigdor Lieberman said in a tweet on Monday that the Trump administration's decision to restore sanctions "is the sea change the Middle East has been waiting for." Israel has been a fierce opponent of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal from which the United States withdrew this year, saying the deal didn't rein in Iran's regional military activities. The new sanctions against Iran's shipping, financial and energy sectors, come into effect Monday. The U.S. says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. ___ 11 a.m. Iran has greeted the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions with air defense drills and an acknowledgement from President Hassan Rouhani that the nation faces a "war situation." The developments raise Mideast tensions as America's maximalist approach to the Islamic Republic takes hold. The sanctions end all the economic benefits America granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, though Iran for now continues to abide by the accord that saw it limit its enrichment of uranium. While for now not threatening to resume higher enrichment, Iranian officials in recent months have made a point to threaten that could resume at any time faster than before. The new American sanctions particularly hurt Iran's vital oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency for its anemic economy. Its national currency has plummeted over the last year, sending prices for everything from mobile phones to medicine skyrocketing. Why isnt Australias greatest horse in Australias greatest race? The worlds highest-ranked horse has won 29 races in a row, including four consecutive Cox Plates, but has never contested a Melbourne Cup and has never run beyond 2400 metres. MUST READ: The formula thats predicted 18 of last 20 Melbourne Cup winners Because of her success, Winx would be slugged with a big weight, more than 60kg. She also doesnt need to. Having amassed nearly $23 million in prize money and earned herself the title of worlds best thoroughbred, Winx hasnt got anything else to prove. Winx wins the Cox Plate. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images) Her trainer Chris Waller will have three runners Who Shot Thebarman, Youngstar and Finche while jockey Hugh Bowman will ride English horse Marmelo. And according to Bowman, had she run in a Cup, Winx definitely would have won. Bowman told 2GB Radio that Winx would struggle now as a seven-year-old, but would have dominated previous years. Ive got no doubt she would (win the Melbourne Cup), had she run as a four or five-year-old, Bowman told Alan Jones. Hugh Bowman and Chris Waller. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images) Shes been so dominant at the weight for age level. I dont think shed be winning now. Shed have a lot of weight 65kg maybe. Shed have too much weight to run now and shes never run over that distance. Winx signs off after history-making spring Winx left Melbourne on Monday bound for a rural retreat on the southwest outskirts of Sydney. The mare has not been beaten since April 2015 and whether she returns in the autumn has yet to be decided, but her spring campaign is certain to mean she becomes the first four-time winner of the Australian Horse of the Year title. Who Shot Thebarman ran third in 2014, Wallers best result yet in the Cup in which his first runner, Kelinni, ran fourth two years earlier. Now a 10-year-old, Who Shot Thebarman will be running in his fourth Melbourne Cup after missing the race last year with a temperature. Age doesnt seem to be a problem with the gelding winning the Sydney Cup, Australias only other Group One race over 3200m, earlier this year. Greg Carpenter, the man who handicaps the Cup field, is on record as saying if Winx was in the Cup, she would be carrying in excess of 60kg. The topweight on Tuesday is Caulfield Cup winner Best Solution who has 57.5kg in his bid to give Godolphin and trainer Saeed bin Suroor a first win. Rebel Wilson Accused of Blocking Black Critics on Twitter After Being Criticized for Plus-Size Rom-Com Comment https://t.co/wnLkE1dmWx pic.twitter.com/5M8fkwtwdX IndieWire (@IndieWire) November 5, 2018 Welp. Dont ever say I dont try, because I definitely could have been meaner than I was. Me from even a year ago would have lit that ass up. pic.twitter.com/nfs4JeeBIe Clarkisha Technically Plus-Sized Kent (@IWriteAllDay_) November 3, 2018 I shared my honest & respectful thoughts on Rebel Wilsons erasure of iconic plus sized women before her. Her blocking a fellow plus woman in this industry is a reminder that she doesnt want to acknowledge her plus peers but rather ignore them entirely. pic.twitter.com/icUvY9QrCR Nabela (@Nabela) November 3, 2018 This heaux blocked me as well!!! Lol guess shell be super mad when she reads my upcoming piece about her. lol #RebelBlockedMeToo #RebelBlockedMeParty pic.twitter.com/J2fJEYW4WA Under His Eye Heaux (@kelleent) November 4, 2018 I saw yall tweeting about it so I got curious. I see Rebel Wilson takes criticism very well. Her kind is so typical. pic.twitter.com/w1dh4AlguV Michael Arceneaux (@youngsinick) November 4, 2018 .@RebelWilson is out here blocking people right and left for calling her out on her first comments. Its okay, sis. You werent the first and you wont be the last. pic.twitter.com/zG8OAC0iNB Preston Mitchum (@PrestonMitchum) November 4, 2018 Rebel Wilson came under fire last week for lying about being the first plus-size woman to lead a romantic comedy with her upcoming film Isn't It Romantic.Turns out she isn't a fan of black writers and critics telling her the truth and promptly blocked notable Twitter users after they spoke out.Here are several of the many people she blocked:Writer Clarkisha Kent:YouTuber Nebela:Director Matthew Cherry:Writer and filmmaker Kelle Terrell:Author Michael Arceneaux:Political commentator/writer Preston Mitchum:Clarkisha Kent has kept a running thread on her initial tweets of everyone blocked by Rebel. So check out her tweets for more. Source 1 Ethanol is known to damage small gasoline-powered engines, such as those in lawnmowers and leaf blowers. Consumer Reports explains: A Department of Energy study found that E15 caused hotter operating temperatures, erratic running, and engine-part failure. But even gas with the usual 10 percent ethanol (E10) could help destroy small engines. Ethanol has inherent properties that can cause corrosion of metal parts, including carburetors, degradation of plastic and rubber components, harder starting, and reduced engine life, says Marv Klowak, global vice president of research and development for Briggs & Stratton, the largest manufacturer of small engines. The higher the ethanol content, the more acute the effects. Servicing dealers are reporting similar problems, even with E10, according to the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, the industrys trade group. I have some firsthand experience with this. A few years ago, I lived in Hawaii. In my location, it was difficult to get ethanol-free gasoline. I bought a brand-new lawnmower when I moved to Hawaii, and within six months it stopped working. I opened up the carburetor and found that the float was stuck in place with what looked like varnish. I assumed it was probably residue from components that had been dissolved by ethanol. About a year later, I was mowing, and I heard a loud explosion and a thud against my house. The lawnmower sputtered and died. At first, I didnt know what had happened, but a closer examination showed that a hole larger than a quarter had been blown out of the lawnmowers engine. This was a catastrophic failure of the metal in the engine block. I suspected that ethanol was the culprit, although I couldnt prove it. But it did make me think about the possible implications. The ethanol industry is profitable because there is a mandate requiring the use of ethanol in the fuel supply. Although there is a natural market for ethanol as an octane enhancer for gasoline, it would certainly be lower than the levels that are presently mandated. This means that wealth is being transferred from across the U.S. into ethanol-producing states. But who is responsible for the consequences when ethanol damages small engines? I can tell you that in my case, I had to buy a new lawnmower. I expect that is the situation in many cases where ethanol damages an engine. The ethanol industry profits, but they dont bear all the costs. Related: Trade War Could Be Pivotal For U.S. LNG This isnt a hypothetical. Ethanol is known to damage small engines, as well as some older automobile engines. So, now that the Trump Administration has announced plans to allow higher ethanol blends to be sold year-round, it is inevitable that more repair costs are going to pushed onto consumers. This is just another way of subsidizing the ethanol industry. This week the oil industry threatened to sue the Trump Administration over the change, arguing that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the Clean Air Act, does not have the authority to make this change. Rather, they argue, it requires an act of Congress. The American Petroleum Institute (API) also released a poll last week showing that the majority of voters are concerned about the proposed change, due to the potential impact on vehicles. The ethanol industry will claim this is about choice. But thats not true. The ethanol industry doesnt want consumers to have an unhindered option to choose ethanol-free gasoline. If they did, we wouldnt have an ethanol mandate. So we end up with a fuel that is forced by government mandate into the fuel supply, and the negative costs get passed on to consumers. By Robert Rapier More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Colorado voters will decide the future of the oil and gas industry in their state on Tuesday, as they contemplate requiring greater distances between them and drilling operations. There are more than 150 voter initiatives on the ballot in 37 states on November 6, ranging from healthcare to marijuana legalization, from voting rules to criminal justice reform. There are also a series of votes that will affect the oil and gas industry. Voters in Washington State will decide on passing the nations first carbon tax, while California will weigh a repeal of a gasoline tax. But the vote in Colorado might be the most consequential for the energy industry. If passed, proposition 112 will bar drilling operations within 2,500 feet of homes, businesses and green spaces, up from the current setback distance of just 500 feet. A 2017 explosion at a residence, while not related to drilling, helped galvanize a movement pushing for more safety. The drilling frenzy in Colorado, which began several years ago, has caused a lot of friction in the populated areas north and south of Denver. The increased setback distances would protect local communities from the dangers of drilling, as well as from the pollution associated with operations, supporters argue. However, the industry says that the measure could nearly kill drilling in the entire state. Because of dense populations around oil and gas operations, increasing the setback distance to 2,500 feet would put roughly 85 percent of the state off limits to drilling. Colorado has become a sought after destination for shale companies, and oil and gas production has surged over the past half-decade. Production in the DJ Basin could hit 550,000 bpd by the end of the year, according to Rystad Energy. Proposition 112 puts much of that at risk. If passed, Proposition 112 would eliminate to varying degrees and depending on proximity to residential areas many future drilling locations for operators in the DJ basin, ranging from 67-71% for HighPoint Resources and Noble Energy, to 94-97% for Anadarko and PDC Energy, Rystad Energy said in a recent report. Impact on DJ basin oil production wont be visible before 2021, but output would likely enter into a multi-year phase of decline after 2020 if Proposition 112 is passed, as opposed to expectations of continuous growth through the mid-2020s if it is rejected by voters. Production could hit 800,000 bpd by the end of 2021 if the proposition fails. Related: Why Trump Decided To Back Down On Iran The energy consultancy said that there is evidence that drillers in the DJ Basin are accelerating their drilling and completion plans ahead of the vote. It comes as no surprise, then, that oil and gas companies are heavily financing political ads to defeat the measure, pouring some $36 million into the state, compared to just $800,000 by environmental groups, according to the WSJ. There is another vote on the Colorado ballot that would be just as consequential, although it is a bit more confusing. Amendment 74 would require the government to provide just compensation to landowners if any set of regulations negatively impacts their property value. The latest polls suggest that this measure has a good chance of passage. Supporters of the amendment say that it will make the government more accountable since it will have to take responsibility for its regulatory actions. However, it would also have enormous ramifications for the oil and gas industry. It could be invoked in lawsuits against the state following the greater setback distances. If an oil company loses the ability to drill because the acreage falls within 2,500 feet of a residence, and the lost revenue from that property related to oil and gas revenue causes the property to lose value, then there is a legal case for compensation against the state. Essentially, amendment 74 is the fallback plan for the industry if Proposition 112 passes, putting the state financially on the line for the increased setback distances. Itll be implemented, and then boom, the lawsuits will start, Denver-based attorney John Watson told the Wall Street Journal. It is such an outrageous measure, Colorado House Majority leader, K.C. Becker told the WSJ. It could bankrupt state and local government. By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The UAEs flagship oil and gas company Adnoc has made a gas discovery of 15 trillion cu ft and a crude oil discovery of 1 billion barrels, Abu Dhabis Supreme Petroleum Council said Sunday at the presentation of the companys five-year business plan until 2023. The discoveries come at a time when the whole region is seeking to increase its production capacity in both oil and gas. For the UAE, more gas production is particularly important because despite its loyalty to Saudi Arabia, the country needs Qatari gas to satisfy its energy demand. The discoveries, Adnoc reported, were made in six untapped blocks that were open for exploration earlier this year. According to the company, they might contain several billion barrels of oil on top of the 1 billion barrels already estimated. However, these estimates have been made before exploratory drilling begins, which is scheduled for the first quarter of 2019 when the first exploration and production licenses will be awarded by Adnoc. For now, the company only said the gas production boost will come from three blocks, Hail, Ghasha, and Dalma, which, when development begins, will add 1.5 billion cu ft daily of natural gas to Adnocs gas production. This, the company said, will help it sustain LNG production until 2040, allowing it to seize incremental LNG and gas-to-chemicals growth opportunities, where they arise, from the UAEs dynamic demand/supply position and evolving energy mix. In oil, Adnoc said it planned to boost its oil production capacity to 4 million bpd by 2020 and further to 5 million bpd by 2030. To date, Adnoc produces around 3 million bpd of crude, but by December this year it has ambitions to boost this to 3.5 million bpd. Adnocs chief executive, Sultan Ahmed al Jaber noted that global oil consumption is seen to rise by 10 million bpd by 2040 and gas demand rising by 40 percent. These are both opportunities a company such as Adnoc cannot afford not to seize as long as the price environment allows it. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: An anticipated warmer winter in north Asia and Japan may be good for residents in these colder climates, but its starting to play havoc with LNG spot market prices and LNG shippers. The Japan Meteorological Agency and Australias Bureau of Meteorology said a few weeks ago there was a 70 percent chance of an El Nino weather pattern this year, which can result in unusually mild winters in the northern hemisphere. Meanwhile, gas storage levels in Japan and South Korea are estimated to be at their highest since at least 2015, Reuters reported on Friday, citing traders and data from Refinitiv Eikon. Storage tanks are also filling up in China ahead of winter. North Asias gas inventory typically peaks in October before significant drawdowns begin, but this year there are no signs yet of stocks falling. In fact, according to a source, at least one utility is already starting to offload unwanted winter cargoes on the spot market, which is already seeing prices for the super-chilled fuel fall to unseasonably low levels, a very pricing different scenario from just four or five months ago. LNG spot prices in Asia spiked to four-year highs over the summer as buyers in North Asia competed for cargoes with Mexico and Egypt amid supply outages from global producers and as warmer temperatures in Asia persisted which spiked electricity demand from air conditioning usage. Production setbacks in the US, Australia and Malaysia also tightened supplies, while LNG trading volumes in Asia were also being supported by the restocking of depleted inventories by South Korean and Japanese utilities after an unseasonably cold winter. Spot prices for June delivery settled at $11.60/MMBtu a massive increase in price for the fuel from the same month in the previous year which hovered just under $6/MMBtu. Related: Will U.S. Solar Survive The Trade War? Now with storage levels full, December spot LNG LNG-AS was reportedly trading late last week at $10.20/MMBtu, the lowest since August 10. Not only have storage levels and an anticipated milder winter season put downward pressure on prices, Japans is also revamping is nuclear power generation sector. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Japan subsequently shut down its 54 nuclear reactors, creating a supply crunch for LNG at the time with upward pressure on prices. By early 2014, LNG spot in Asia was fetching more than $20/MMBtu. Now, nine nuclear power reactors that were shut down in 2011 have received regulatory approval to restart, with seven of them already in operation, more than most analysts had expected. Stranded LNG tankers With storage levels in Japan, China and South Korea (the worlds three largest LNG importers) exceeding volumes seen in the previous three years for this time of the year, LNG tankers are also entering a rough patch. Related: It's All-Or-Nothing For Colorado Drillers Six tankers carrying a million cubic meters of unsold LNG, worth $200 million-plus, have been sitting idle in Singapore, one of the worlds biggest trading hubs for the fuel, and in Malaysian waters for up to two weeks. In the past, shippers have parked their tankers close to ports like Singapore where unused ships can be easily maintained and serviced until new orders come in. For ship owners, idled tankers mean a loss in daily chartering fees per vessel. Through the first most of the year, LNG spot shipping rates hit a peak not seen since 2012, according to maritime research and consulting firm Drewry. Shipowners with modern DFDE vessels chartered out their ships at $60,000 per day in the second quarter of 2018, which is about 50 percent higher than the rates seen in the third quarter of 2017, a report in World Maritime News said in August. At the end of June 2018, some vessels were reportedly fixed at $85,000 per day. LNG spot shipping rates also usually spike during peak winter season. It remains to be seen whether the warmer weather forecast will prove true, but if it does pan out as predicted, LNG spot prices this winter, which often spike if utilities need to fill gaps in demand, could also reach unseasonably low prices. Moreover, if China also has a warmer winter, it will avoid a repeat of last year when the government rushed too quickly to replace dirtier burning coal with gas, leaving a gas shortage in many northern provinces, while the government was forced to divert gas from industrial end users to residential users. By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The United States has decided to issue temporary allotments to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey to continue importing Iranian oil, due to the specific countries circumstances and to ensure a well-supplied oil market, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday, the day on which U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil return. Late last week, U.S. government officials signaled that the United States had granted waivers to eight countries to continue temporary buying Iranian oil, on the condition that they had significantly reduced purchases from Iran. At that time, the waivers were not official, and the eight countries were unidentified. Mondays announcement specified which countries are getting those waivers, and they include Irans top oil customers China and India. More than 20 importing nations have cut their imports of crude oil already, taking more than 1 million bpd off the market, Secretary Pompeo said at a press conference. The regime to date, since May, has lost over $2.5 billion in oil revenue, he added. Referring to the eight countries to which the U.S. is granting waivers, Secretary Pompeo said that each of those countries has already demonstrated significant reductions of the purchase of Iranian crude over the past six months and indeed two of those eight have already completely ended imports of Iranian crude and will not resume as long as the sanctions regime remains in place. We continue negotiations to get all the nations to zero, Secretary Pompeo noted. Related: Why Trump Decided To Back Down On Iran The sanctions reimposed today are the largest ever single-day action targeting the Iranian regime, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said in a statement, noting that the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned more than 700 individuals, entities, aircraft, and vessels. Treasurys imposition of unprecedented financial pressure on Iran should make clear to the Iranian regime that they will face mounting financial isolation and economic stagnation until they fundamentally change their destabilizing behavior. Irans leaders must cease support for terrorism, stop proliferating ballistic missiles, end destructive regional activities, and abandon their nuclear ambitions immediately if they seek a path to sanctions relief, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Turkey will not allow other countries to drill for gas in Turkish or northern Cyprus waters in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Sunday, as both Turkey and Cyprus are getting ready to drill in the area where the countries have overlapping claims of maritime territories. We will not accept attempts to extract natural resources in our country, Cyprus or in the eastern Mediterranean, Reuters quoted Erdogan as saying on Sunday, days after Turkey sent a ship to begin drilling for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey, which recognizes the northern Turkish Cypriot government and doesnt have diplomatic relations with the internationally recognized government of Cyprus, claims that part of the Cyprus offshore area falls under the jurisdiction of Turkish Cypriots or Turkey. Countries that believed they could operate in the Aegean Sea or in the eastern Mediterranean without Turkeys consent are mistaken, Erdogan said on Sunday. At the beginning of October, ExxonMobil said that it planned to begin drilling for oil and gas offshore Cyprus sometime this quarter, while Turkey warned against exploration offshore Cyprus in what it says is ignoring the rights of the Turkish Cypriot people. Then two weeks ago, Greeces Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that 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. Related: Why Trump Decided To Back Down On Iran 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, Greece said on October 17. To this, Turkeys Foreign Ministry replied on October 18 that The insistence of Greece on its unrealistic claims will only be counter-productive and harmful as regards bilateral relations and regional stability. Turkey will continue to exercise its sovereign rights and jurisdiction stemming from international law over its continental shelf. In this regard, we recommend Greece to abstain from the acts that would cause an escalation in the region. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Rhum gas field in the UK North Seain which a unit of the National Iranian Oil Company holds 50 percentwill continue operations after meeting the final condition under the U.S. sanctions on Iran, the fields future operator, UKs Serica Energy, said on Monday. All benefits to the Iranian firm from the Rhum field will be held in escrow for the period in which U.S. sanctions on Irans oil industry apply, Serica said, noting that thus the final condition for the license issued by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has been met. These arrangements provide that all benefits accruing from and relating to IOCs interest in the Rhum field will be held in escrow for such period as U.S. sanctions apply and ensure that neither IOC nor any direct or indirect parent company of IOC will derive any economic benefit from the Rhum field during that period. IOC will also exercise no decision-making powers in respect of Rhum during the same period, Serica said. The arrangements enable third party service providers to continue to provide services unhindered and production from the Rhum field to continue uninterrupted. In early October this year, OFAC granted Serica Energy and BP a license to continue operating the Rhum field. The license will also allow the two companies to complete a deal under which Serica will acquire BPs total share of the field. The completion of all these arrangements also fulfils a condition of the Serica deal announced in November 2017 under which Serica will acquire BPs interests in the Bruce, Keith, and Rhum fields. Serica has also signed deals with Total and BHP Billiton to buy further interests in the Bruce and Keith fields. All three transactions are expected to complete on November 30, 2018. After the transactions are completed, Serica UK will hold 50 percent of the Rhum field, 94.25 percent of the Bruce field, and 91.67 percent of the Keith field, and will become the operator of the fields. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Libyas National Oil Corporation will soon resume the Phase 2 development of the Bahr Essalam fieldthe largest producing offshore gas deposit in the countryand by the end of the year, the phase should be completed. This is what NOCs chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in a statement following a meeting with Italian Enis head, Claudio Descalzi. Eni and NOC operate Bahr Essalam jointly. The second phase of development of the field began in July this year and was supposed to be finalized last month, but work was delayed. This phase should add, according to Eni, 400 million cu ft of natural gas to its daily production, which now stands at 700 million cu ft. The fields reserves are calculated at more than 260 billion cubic meters of natural gas. At the time when Phase 2 was launched, NOCs Sanalla said the fields development would benefit Libyas economy by reducing its dependence on liquid fuel imports for its power plants. At the same time, Libya continues to boost its crude oil production, its flagship export commodity, despite disruptions, to raise its crude oil production to more than 1 million bpd so far this year. This could rise substantially once BP and Eni resume production at a field they co-operate. BP has 85 percent in an offshore oil and gas block in the North African country, and earlier this year the Italian major struck a deal with BP to buy half of it. BPs chief executive Bob Dudley told Reuters last month the two will begin exploratory drilling in the first quarter of 2019. BP won two exploration licenses in Libya back in 2007, but the 2011 civil war interrupted its plans for the country. This will be the first project that the UK-based supermajor will undertake in the still troubled country after the end of the civil war. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: (C) Australian nun Patricia Fox MANILA, Philippines Australian nun Patricia Fox has left the Philippines on Saturday (November 3) after 27 years of stay in the country. Her departure was prompted by the expiration of her temporary visitors pass that the Bureau of Immigration (BI) granted after the agency downgraded her missionary visa. Sister Fox is facing deportation charges for joining anti-government protests, an act strictly prohibited to foreign nationals in the Philippines. The 71-year-old missionary vowed to continue with her advocacy even outside of the Philippines. The deportation case is continuing and will continue. My problem was the visa, and you cannot force the government to give you a visa, and so what I chose is to go out at present and to take my advocacies, outside the Philippines, Fox said. I havent planned much but I know its probably a call now to struggle with the people in a different form, she said during a farewell news conference Saturday before her departure. She called on Filipinos to help the marginalized sector in their fight for decent houses and employment. President Rodrigo Duterte ordered an investigation on Foxs activities when she was reported to have joined a fact-finding mission in Mindanao which the government considered a political interference. Soon after, the BI suspended her missionary visa and placed her on a blacklist. The agency then ordered her deportation. Her legal counsel, on the other hand, insisted that Fox was just helping the poor and she was only acting in support of freedom of religious expression. Atty. Jobert Pahilga said they are expecting the decision of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Foxs deportation case this week. We are hoping that our arguments will be sustained that there is no basis for the deportation because the evidence submitted were unverified.but in the event that the department of justice will deny our appeal, we can bring the matter to the Court of Appeals. And if in case the Court of Appeals would unfavorably decide on our petition, then we can bring the matter to the Supreme Court, Pahilga said. Story continues Her camp said Fox is determined to return to the Philippines if she wins her deportation case or perhaps at the end of President Dutertes term. Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said: The departure of Sister Patricia Fox is a timely reminder to all foreigners who stay or sojourn in this country that they are not entitled to all the rights and privileges granted to the citizens of the Philippines, including the absolute exercise of political rights inherently exclusive to Filipinos. Panelo added that Foxs participation in such political activities violated the conditions of her stay thereby mocking our laws, and abusing the hospitality extended to her by the host country. Malacanang insisted that there was no violation of freedom of expression in Sister Foxs case as she was given due process of law. She underwent a legal process where she was given the opportunity to be heard. Nevertheless, Malacanang said the Philippines is thankful of whatever good deeds she has performed during her stay in the country. However, Panelo noted that such actions cannot exempt her from the punishment imposed by law as a consequence of her wrongdoing. Our advice to Sister Fox is to follow the law whether here or elsewhere, Panelo concluded. Marje Pelayo (with reports from Rosalie Coz) The post Sister Fox vows to return to PH once Duterte admin ends appeared first on UNTV News. Two Filipino mothers pin last hopes on final appeal to stay in Hong Kong as separation from families loom Two mothers who face separation from their families after being refused the right to remain in Hong Kong have expressed fear and anxiety as they pin their last hopes on the citys highest court overturning the Immigration Departments decisions. The cases of Filipino women Milagros Tecson Comilang and Desiree Rante Luis will be heard before the Appeal Committee on Wednesday, which will decide whether their applications will be formally heard before the full bench of the Court of Final Appeal. Comilang and Luis have been battling for the right to remain in Hong Kong since 2011 and 2014, respectively. The judgment will also have an impact on at least a dozen ethnic Chinese Hong Kong women whose spouses have been refused residency in the city and are seeking court reviews. Mark Daly, a human rights lawyer who is representing these families, said: Immigration decisions should not be given a blanket exemption from fundamental human rights norms, particularly childrens and family rights. Comilang, a former domestic worker, was left to raise her daughter who was born in the city after she and her husband Ahmed, a permanent resident, divorced and he withdrew his support for her dependency status. Luis came to Hong Kong as a domestic helper in 1991. She married her husband, also from the Philippines and a domestic helper in the city, in 1997. She gave birth to three children, and at least one of them, now 16, became a permanent resident in 2010. Two other sons, aged 14 and seven, suffer from medical conditions such as heart disease, so Luis was granted an extension of stay to look after them. Her extension ended in 2012 and immigration authorities concluded the children could depend on their father. I have mixed feelings theres frustration, fear and anxiety Milagros Tecson Comilang Story continues I have mixed feelings theres frustration, fear and anxiety as we do not know what will be the result, Comilang said, adding that she however remained positive about her case. I feel calm that they would give me the opportunity to remain with my daughter. Her daughter, 12, said: I have positive thoughts that my mom will win the case. Comilang said: I told her that I might not be allowed to stay. But she said, it wont happen, you will be by my side. She always tells me mom you will not go anywhere, I need you here, nobody can take care of me. Why will anyone ask you to leave? Shes very supportive, she does not want negative thoughts. Luis said: I am so nervous, I do not know what will be the decision. Her worry is that her two younger sons have medical conditions and need regular check-ups. I dont know what will happen if I am not with them as all their lives, Ive been with them Desiree Rante Luis I dont know what will happen if I am not with them as all their lives, Ive been with them. My husband works. We dont know what to do. We can survive, by the grace of God, so long as were together. If the Court of Final Appeal refuses the applications, it will mean the families of Luis and Comilang will be separated, potentially splitting parents and children apart. Separately, in another case, a Hong Kong-Chinese woman whose Pakistani husband has been refused a dependent visa and is appealing a Court of First Instance ruling, has written to the Immigration Department on compassionate grounds. My husband and I have been hoping that we can have a normal family life just like all other ordinary families in Hong Kong. Sadly, however, I suffered from great emotional and mental hardships in this long application process, said the woman, who cannot be named. This article Two Filipino mothers pin last hopes on final appeal to stay in Hong Kong as separation from families loom first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. The United States is reimposing punitive measures targeting the Iranian oil and financial sectors in what US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called "the toughest sanctions ever placed" against Iran. Taking effect Monday, the measures are the most concrete result yet of US President Donald Trump's controversial decision in May to abandon the multi-nation nuclear deal with Tehran. They will directly affect companies from third countries doing business with Iran. They could upset world oil markets, though the US has granted temporary waivers to eight jurisdictions to continue importing Iranian oil. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced the measures on Saturday, saying Trump had "disgraced" US prestige and would be the ultimate loser in the long-running quarrel between the countries. The US side was unmoved. "Sanctions from the United States will be reimposed at midnight tonight," Pompeo told CBS's "Face the Nation." He said what he called "the terror regime" in Tehran must change its ways. - Oil markets on alert - World oil markets were on alert, nervously set to gauge the consequences of the sanctions. "All eyes will be on Iranian exports, whether there will be some cheating around US sanctions, and on how quickly production will fall," said Riccardo Fabiani, an analyst for Energy Aspects. Oil is Iran's main source of income. But the sword has two edges: Iran is also the OPEC cartel's third-largest producer. The US stance has already inflicted serious pain on Iranians, with the country's currency, the rial, losing more than two thirds of its value since May. Iranian oil exports have fallen by about a million barrels a day in that time, though India and China have continued to purchase it. Most Europeans, as well as Japan and South Korea, have stopped. Asked if the US had firm commitments from India and China to stop all oil purchases from Iran within six months, Pompeo replied: "Watch what we do. Watch as we've already taken more crude oil off the market than any time in previous history." Saudi Arabia is the only country with the capacity to make up for lost Iranian oil production. - 'Utter disregard' - Hours before the fresh sanctions went ahead, thousands of people in Iran marked the anniversary of the 1979 hostage-taking at the US embassy by carrying placards mocking Trump and burning American flags and fake dollars. Trump has long argued that the 2015 nuclear deal is badly flawed, in part because its provisions would expire in 10 to 15 years and partly because it does not adequately constrain Iran's destabilizing behavior in the region. His decision was widely criticized abroad and by Democrats at home, who said that while imperfect, the pact had placed the Iranian nuclear program under the tightest scrutiny ever. In parallel with the imposition of the crude oil sanctions, the US Treasury Department is placing more than 600 Iranian individuals and entities on a black list. And Pompeo said that any Iranian banks involved in "sanctionable behavior will be sanctioned by the Department of Treasury, period, full stop." The European Union has established a mechanism to permit its multinational companies to maintain presences in Iran, but all signs are that the US sanctions will be dissuasive. Both Airbus and Total have announced plans to leave Iran. A first set of sanctions announced August 7 prompted European automakers Daimler and PSA to quit Iran. To continue exporting crude oil, Iranian tankers in recent weeks have been turning off their transponders to avoid detection. But satellites have continued to track them. President Xi Jinping on Monday pledged to widen access to China's economy, while delivering a veiled rebuke to Trumpism, as he kicked off an import expo amid foreign accusations that he has backtracked on promises to play fair on trade. Xi said China would "step up" efforts to stimulate imports, lower tariffs, ease customs clearance procedures, and implement harsh punishments for intellectual property infringements, though he was light on specifics. "It is our sincere commitment to open the Chinese market," Xi said in an address launching the event in Shanghai. China would "foster a world-class business environment" and its doors will open "ever wider", he said. But Xi also pushed back at foreign pressure in comments clearly aimed at Donald Trump and the trade war he started. Nations "should not just point fingers at others to gloss over their own problems", Xi said, decrying "protectionism", "isolationism" and "the law of the jungle". "They should not hold a flashlight in hand, doing nothing but highlighting the weaknesses of others and not their own." Beijing has touted the first annual China International Import Expo as a sign of its willingness to open its markets despite mounting criticism to the contrary and the worsening trade war with Washington, which has seen both sides impose punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods. Organisers say more than 3,000 foreign companies from 130 countries including the United States and Europe are present, including General Motors, Ford, Microsoft, Samsung, Walmart and Tesla. - Promise fatigue - In a speech at Davos nearly two years ago, Xi presented China as a beacon of globalisation, in a counterpoint to Trump. But critics say he has yet to put his money where his mouth is and they are tired of empty promises. Kenneth Jarrett, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, said the association welcomed the fresh promise to strengthen intellectual property protections. But he said Xi's latest comments came "with few specific solutions" and that the chamber wants to see the rhetoric match by actions. "Now that it is the world's second-largest economy, China can afford to open its doors all the way," Jarrett said. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said "nothing new was said that has not been heard before", other than a brief reference to opening up the education and medical services sectors. "If China really will continue to open up, we would have expected additional and specific commitments to have been announced by President Xi today," chamber vice president Carlo Diego D'Andrea said. Foreign businesses complain about a range of policies that benefit local firms, requirements that foreign companies form joint ventures with Chinese partners, forced technology transfers, rampant intellectual property violations and restrictive red tape. Foreign business surveys indicate the playing field is worsening as Xi champions a strong China, not unlike Trump's "America First" platform. The event has drawn several foreign leaders including Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Pakistani premier Imran Khan, though most are from small African or Asian countries dependent on China trade. But Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta voiced impatience when he told the opening ceremony that his country's growing trade with China was "heavily skewed" in Beijing's favour. "It is important for us therefore to correct the existing trade imbalance to enable a fair share of the benefits of trade," he said. IMF chief Christine Lagarde also said there remained "room for even greater reform" in China's market. - US snub - China ranks 59th out of 62 countries on openness to foreign direct investment, according to an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranking. Xi has said the import expo proves China is willing to reduce its foreign trade surpluses. But US officials say that approach amounts to China buying its way out of trouble with a short-term import surge rather than real change, and Washington snubbed the gathering by not sending high-level representation. But the lure of China's market remains strong. The US contingent includes even tech giants such as Facebook, which is blocked in China, and Google, which pulled out years ago over censorship and cyber-attacks. Both are seen as eyeing new ways into China. Experts say the week-long expo is also a message by China that trading partners will need to work with Beijing if they want a piece of a market of 1.4 billion people with growing spending power. Microsoft founder Bill Gates will join a business forum on Monday, but the touchy optics of attending the expo amid trade rancour resulted in few big-name American CEOs attending. President Xi Jinping on Monday will open a Shanghai import fair intended as a signal by China that its markets are open despite mounting criticism to the contrary and the worsening trade war with Washington. Organisers say more than 3,000 foreign companies from 130 countries including the United States, Europe and across Asia, will put their products on display for potential Chinese buyers at the China International Import Expo. Companies in attendance include General Motors, Ford, Microsoft, Samsung, Walmart, and Tesla. Xi is expected to deliver an address some time on Monday morning to open an event attended by several foreign heads of government including Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Pakistani premier Imran Khan. Xi has said the expo proves China is willing to reduce its huge trade surpluses with other countries, but it is not known whether he will unveil new trade or liberalisation initiatives in Shanghai. The run-up has triggered fresh calls for China to take actionable steps to improve a domestic playing field that critics say is skewed in favour of Chinese businesses. The US and EU business lobbies in China, and the French and German ambassadors to Beijing, last week called on China to use the expo to announce concrete change. Foreign businesses have complained about a range of preferential polices that benefit Chinese firms, requirements that foreign companies form joint ventures with Chinese partners, forced technology transfers, rampant intellectual property violations and various restrictive red tape measures. The expo has been met with some foreign scepticism, with Washington snubbing the gathering by not sending high-level representation, instead calling on China to change "unfair" trade practises. But the lure of China remains strong and the US contingent includes even tech giants such as Facebook, which is blocked in China, and Google, which pulled out years ago over censorship and cyber-attacks. Both are seen as eyeing new ways into China's giant market. Experts say the week-long expo is also a message by Beijing that, as it pivots from an export-based economy toward one relying more on the buying power of its 1.4 billion people, other countries will need to work with China if they want a piece of that action. Microsoft founder Bill Gates will join a business forum, but the touchy optics of attending a China import expo amid trade tensions means few big-name American CEOs are confirmed. Credit: University of Liverpool University of Liverpool academics have discovered what may be the remains of a 4,500 year old ramp system to transport the huge alabaster blocks used in the construction of Egypt's Great Pyramids. The ancient ramp was discovered at the site of Hatnub by researchers from the University's Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (ACE) and the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo. Egyptologist, Dr. Roland Enmarch said: "The Hatnub quarries were the most prestigious source for Egyptian alabaster, the milky white banded stone which was much beloved of Egyptian civilisation. "Their importance today lies in the fact that they are archaeologically very well preserved. "The quarry preserves large numbers of inscriptions left by ancient quarrying expeditions from 4500-4000 years ago. These enable us to better understand the personnel and logistics of organising expeditions to these desert quarry sites. "Equally remarkably, the archaeological context of the quarries is very well preserved. "They sit in a broad landscape of Bronze Age structures related to stone extraction and transport: huts for sleeping and stone working, pathfinding cairns, ancient footpaths, and even simple dry-stone religious structures. The quarries are connected to the Nile by one of the best-preserved Bronze Age roads in Egypt. Dr Roland Enmarch (white jacket) filming with a documentary crew at Hatnub. Credit: University of Liverpool "In our most recent season, we discovered an extremely well preserved ramp leading up out of the quarry, with traces of post holes that will enable us to reconstruct in more detail the ancient technologies of stone haulage and extraction. "Since this ramp dates to the reign of Khufu (builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the World), our research offers the exciting possibility for offering further insights into the logistics and technologies used in constructing that astonishing building." Along the sides of the ancient ramp are two staircases lined with postholes, to which ropes were likely tied thousands of years ago to drag the huge stone blocks. Such a design would have alleviated some of the burden for the workers who had to pull these huge loads. Yannis Gourdon, from the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, said: "This system is composed of a central ramp flanked by two staircases with numerous post holes. "Using a sled which carried a stone block and was attached with ropes to these wooden posts, ancient Egyptians were able to pull up the alabaster blocks out of the quarry on very steep slopes of 20 percent or more." Dr. Roland Enmarch added: "Our joint Anglo-French mission to Hatnub aims to study all of these features of the site, in order to produce a more fully rounded picture of how quarrying worked in Ancient Egypt, and what it meant for the people involved." Firms such as Novamont in Italy are using renewable resources to develop bioplastics and biochemicals, through the use of biorefineries. Credit: Novamont As the EU aims to head towards a sustainable, low-carbon future, experts in bio-based industries at the forefront of this transition are turning food waste and waste-water sludge into bioplastics and converting decommissioned factories into new biorefineries by working with local populations. According to figures cited in renewed EU plans for a circular bioeconomy, biobased industries, which currently account for 8% of the EU's workforce, could create one million new green jobs by 2030. Projects in this area could stimulate local communities from both an economic and environmental perspective. They could also be key to uniting communities behind challenges like cutting down on plastics, which gained traction with the European Parliament last week moving to ban throw-away plastics. Firms such as Novamont in Italy are using renewable resources to develop bioplastics and biochemicals, through the use of biorefineries. This also brings benefits to the local communities and agricultural sector by enlisting local workers and skills, partnerships with farmers, and raw materials such as waste and low-input crops from marginal lands. Territorial regeneration is a 'cornerstone' of this model, says Giulia Gregori, head of strategic planning at Novamont. 'Integrated biorefineries are the heart of the bioeconomy and have a positive impact on the local job market.' Apart from building new facilities, Novamont turns decommissioned industrial sites into biorefineries, thus rejuvenating existing resources that may be a burden on local economies. One such site that is reaping benefits was an abandoned refinery in the Veneto region of Italy. The refinery, which opened as a plant in 2016, can produce 30,000 tonnes per year of low-impact bio-butanediol, a precursor of substances such as bioplastics and solvents. Aside from creating jobs, the associated CO 2 savings of around 60% are helping achieve a 'low-carbon' society, says Gregori. Farmers In total, Novamont has invested 500 million in building plants and converting six abandoned ones. 'This has made us capable of delivering products to the market from biodegradable and compostable plastics to bioherbicides, and from biolubricants to cosmetic ingredients,' Gregori said. Some 1,000 people worked on construction, plus a further 2,600 direct and indirect jobs have been created. Novamont is also leading an EU project called FIRST2RUN, which aims to harness underused oil crops such as cardoon, or artichoke thistle, in marginal lands to extract vegetable oils as building blocks for bioplastics, biolubricants and cosmetics. This closely involves local farmers, who are harvesting cardoon in Sardinia, while a cooperation model has been established with Italian farmers' association Coldiretti. On top of that, an old petrochemical site in the Sardinian city of Porto Torres has been converted into a biorefinery. 'Positive impacts on the local economy are being generated both in the agricultural and industrial sector,' Gregori said. She estimates that every 1,000 tonnes of bioplastics produced can create 100 new positions. 'This sector (among others related to the bioeconomy) could represent an important driver for Europe's reindustrialisation,' she said. But despite the benefits, there are also urgent challenges to address, such as the hundreds of millions of euros needed to open and run plants, says Gregori. 'Building biorefineries is essential for scaling up production, but integrated biorefineries represent a capital-intensive investment. Thus it is necessary to create synergies among financial instruments and additional instruments such as loan guarantees.' Urban biowaste Another project, RES URBIS, focuses on converting a variety of urban biowaste, such as food waste and sludge from urban waste-water treatment, into bioplastics for packaging, consumer products such as electronics and furniture, and groundwater remediation. 'Technologically, after 18 months, we've begun to achieve a material that has stability, a suitable transparency and characteristics that enable it to be run through a machine to be shaped,' said David Newman, managing director at project partner the Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries Association. While this is only small-scale for now, Newman hopes that by the time the project concludes at the end of 2019, the potential is demonstrated for this process to work financially at larger scale in a way that a market could be created. That might then spark 'whole new innovation', he said. The project is also exploring different settings in the EU with various sizes and types of populations, economies and infrastructure to see how it might work in divergent contexts and how people might be affected. The project has looked at cities such as Barcelona in Spain, Cardiff in Wales, and Trento in Italy. 'You try to get these different viewpoints and understanding of the social and economic context so that it can work in different places,' said Newman. He pointed out that a big bonus in treating waste with negative value is that it can actually create a return for communities. With EU regulation requiring separate biowaste collection by 2023, this could also be important to both provide economic benefit to offset the costs of collecting waste and create a cleaner urban landscape. 'The problem with treating this stuff is that it costs a lot of money. If you can actually find a way to produce bioplastics easily, then you can really stimulate the whole value chain,' Newman said. Bioplastics There are various issues to solve first. These include eradicating certain impurities to make the bioplastics more see-through and accounting for seasonal food waste changes for example, more watermelon and fish in summer and more vegetables in the winter. Plus, there are regulatory and ethical considerations for instance, what should be done if the food waste contains meat that could be considered unacceptable by vegetarians or religious groups? If the case can be proved, RES URBIS believes this system will be usable in waste management systems for urban areas with more than 500,000 inhabitants. Newman said it was too early to say whether the impact could include stimulating local economies, although one of the project partners is starting to model this. Nevertheless, it seems that these kinds of effort are addressing some of the key interconnected issues of our time that need local communities to work together for solutions. 'This type of research in our part of the world is essential because it changes the paradigm of food waste,' said Newman. 'You've got climate change, you've got food waste, you've got plastics, and they're all connected. The whole thing is a circular movement.' Explore further Biodegradable plastic blends offer new options for disposal Diagram of how the geothermal energy would be used for energy production, and two types of desalination (MED and AD). Red lines indicate hot water, while blue lines are cooled water. At the end of the process, distilled water would be available for consumers and aquifer storage, and the chilled water could be used in air conditioning for the plant. The whole theoretical system is carbon-neutral. Credit: Courtesy of Thomas Missimer. Credit: Geological Society of America Water shortages are hitting some areas of the world hard, and with increasing global temperatures, more regions may be experiencing drought conditions. Countries such as Saudi Arabia rely on desalination plants to provide drinking water to their residents, producing 5 million cubic meters of desalinated water per day. The method requires a high amount of energy, which can limit the use of the process in many parts of the world. Researchers have been working on using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind to power desalination plants, and reduce the need for traditional, fossil fuel-powered methods. Now, new research presents an untapped resource for powering desalination: geothermal energy. "We're searching the world right now for better methods, low carbon methods, to create energy," says Thomas Missimer, of Florida Gulf Coast University. "We want electricity that's generated at base loadin other words, generated 24 hours a day without interruption. Geothermal is one of those types of energies." Missimer says geothermal provides energy in two ways: wet rock and dry rock. Wet areas, like Iceland, use the hot water from deep in the earth to provide the energy to move turbines and produce energy. But this type of geothermal heat is rare. On the other hand, dry rock geothermal potential is more wide-spread globally. Missimer suggests using these areasregions like southern California, North Africa, and the Red Sea regionto heat water that can be used to produce energy. Dry rock geothermal methods are currently being used in parts of the world for energy production, but Missimer says that the heat can be used in more efficient ways, especially with desalination. Details of the new research constructing a "geothermal energy-water campus" will be presented on Monday at the 2018 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. Usually, geothermally heated water from the ground is converted to steam, that steam powers a turbine to create electricity, then the heated water is vented to the atmosphere while it's still hotstill over 100 degrees Celcius in most cases. Instead of venting, the team wants to use that hot steam in their desalination processes. The first desalination process is multiple effect distillation (MED), which requires hot water (above 100 degrees Celsius), but the second process, adsorption desalination (AD), can be run on cooler water, says Missimer. As the steam moves through the system and cools, it is still effective for powering desalination. "Now you have an efficient system where you have conserved the latent heat that you've captured in the ground through three processes: turbine electricity generation, MED and AD." At the end of the desalination process, Missimer says that distilled water and chilled water (from the AD process) are the final products. While the distilled water can be consumed, even the chilled water is reusedthe cool water can be recycled through the plant to help with air conditioning. Lastly, the researchers propose to store excess water in aquifers for later use, which Missimer says is a future energy saver. "By storing some of that excess water, you can use that water seasonally when more water is required and sort of even out the changes in demand to the system." The benefits of a system like this are broad: there is no carbon dioxide being produced at the plant, as it is all self-contained and powered by geothermal energy, rather than fossil fuels. It also has an economic benefit. "If you look at the benefit to the place like Saudi Arabia, saving 6 million barrels of oil a day, at $100 a barrelthat's a bloody fortune," says Missimer. Missimer says it is even more effective than a solar-powered plant, because it can be run 24 hours a day, compared to just daylight hours. He adds that the benefits really come with the efficiency of operation. "In a facility like this, if it's run properly, you're not consuming a resource," says Missimer, adding that the heat keeps flowing and is renewable. For now, the idea is theoretical and hasn't been put into practice. But Missimer adds that the individual parts of the plant and the technology have been around for a whileit just hasn't been combined all together into one plant. "We've learned that sometimes you don't need new technology to make advances," he says. "Sometimes it's piecing together old technology in a constructive way to provide more efficient operation." He and his colleagues are hoping to put their carbon-neutral desalination ideas into practice in the near future. Explore further Researchers pilot system using electrodialysis to produce safe drinking water More information: Linking Geothermal Electricity Generation with Multiple Desalination Process and Aquifer Storage And Recovery: A Method to Reduce Fossil Fuels Use and the Carbon Footprint of Many Global Regions. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 50, No. 6 DOI: 10.1130/abs/2018AM-320494 , gsa.confex.com/gsa/2018AM/webp am/Session45325.html Linking Geothermal Electricity Generation with Multiple Desalination Process and Aquifer Storage And Recovery: A Method to Reduce Fossil Fuels Use and the Carbon Footprint of Many Global Regions. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 50, No. 6 Orangutans in the wild. Credit: HUTAN-KOCP A recent report by the Government of Indonesia claiming an increase in orangutan populations of more than 10 percent from 2015 to 2017 is at odds with many recently published and peer-reviewed scientific studies on the subject, according to a letter in Current Biology on November 5. For instance, a study in Current Biology earlier this year suggests that, between 1999 and 2015, Borneo lost more than 100,000 orangutans. Most scientific data indicate that the survival of orangutan species continues to be seriously threatened by deforestation and killing, the researchers write. "All three species of orangutan are Critically Endangered and on a steep decline. Their numbers are not increasing as indicated by the Indonesian government report," says Erik Meijaard of Borneo Futures and the IUCN Species Survival Commission. The Indonesian government's report focused on nine monitoring sites including national parks. Their data suggest the orangutan population doubled in one year, going from 1,153 orangutans in 2015 to 2,451 individuals in 2016. But, Meijaard and colleagues write, "it is biologically impossible for an orangutan population to double its size in a year." They go on to note that some of the sampling sites are used for orangutan introduction and relocation, and thus any increase in those areas was inevitably preceded by a reduction elsewhere. An orangutan in the wild. Credit: HUTAN-KOCP The sampling plots considered in the government's report represent less than 5 percent of the Bornean and Sumatran orangutan's range. They miss the Tapanuli orangutan altogether and include only protected lands. As a result, it is "scientifically unjustified to extrapolate population trends from these sampling sites to the total range of all three species." Meijaard says it is unclear what this report will mean for the future of orangutans. The Indonesian government is now in the process of developing a new 10-year action plan for orangutan conservation, he notes. "If the government thinks that orangutan populations are increasing, it calls for completely different strategies compared to those required for dealing with rapidly decreasing populations," Meijaard says. "It is important that the government realizes that populations remain in decline. Therefore, a new approach to orangutan conservation is needed." To understand why populations in both Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo are still decreasing, the researchers have been soliciting input from governments, corporations, and other stakeholders to determine which strategies have been effectively implemented. They say a more optimistic, forward-looking approach to orangutan conservation will require better collaboration and selection of strategies proven to reduce threats to remaining orangutans. Explore further Group: Orangutan orphans a sign of habitat destruction Acropora colonies infected with a white syndrome disease (top image) and healthy colonies (bottom image). Credit: Dr. David Abrego and Dr. Emily Howells Corals' resistance to disease is highly dependent on their ability to maintain healthy surface microbiomes, a community of microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. For several years, it has been shown that corals harbor unique microbes at their surfaces, but the mechanisms of how this community is recruited and maintained were not known. In a new study published in Communications Biology, NYU Abu Dhabi Assistant Professor of Biology Shady Amin, along with Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin from the Helmholtz Center Munich, report that corals, though they are stationary organisms, can alter their surroundings by producing unique molecules that can help recruit healthy microbiomes and fight parasitic microbes. Much like how our health is linked to maintaining a healthy gut microbiome, corals also resist disease by maintaining a healthy surface microbiome. The paper reports for the first time that corals are surrounded by a cloud of molecules that form concentration gradients around coral colonies and help structure microbial communities, also known as surface microbiomes, residing on coral surfaces. The implications of these findings are far reaching as these microbial communities are strongly linked to whether corals around the world are healthy or are infected by disease. Using water samples from 18 coral colonies along the Abu Dhabi coast, each of which was sampled at different distances from the coral surface, the study's researchers have discovered that Acropora and Platygyra corals harbor unique bacteria and molecules at their surface, distinctly different from surrounding seawater. These molecules were identified as chemo-attractants, antibacterials, or signaling molecules, suggesting they may structure coral surface-associated microbes. Their findings show that there is a distinct gradient of molecules surrounding corals, and that these molecules may help recruit beneficial bacteria and/or defend against parasitic bacteria. Prof. Shady Amin. Dr. Michael Ochsenkuhn (left) and Dr. Stephan Kremb (right) are measuring environmental parameters around coral colonies and collecting samples to analyze the coral surface microbiomes and molecules. Credit: Dr. Alexandray Mystikou and Prof. Shady Amin. Furthermore, the researchers have detected surface associated molecules characteristic of healthy or white-syndrome disease infected corals, a finding which may aid in predicting the onset of disease. "This is the first glimpse we have of what corals do in their immediate surroundings to adapt to their environment. If we understand the types of molecules corals need to maintain a healthy surface microbiome, we may be able to predict when diseases and bleaching occur and perhaps even prevent them," said Amin. Platygyra colonies infected with a white syndrome disease (right) and healthy colonies (left). Photos are courtesy of Dr. David Abrego and Dr. Emily Howells. Credit: Dr. David Abrego and Dr. Emily Howells Explore further 'Robust' corals primed to resist coral bleaching Artistic impression of the perovskite-polymer heterostructure used in LEDs. Credit: University of Cambridge Researchers have set a new efficiency record for LEDs based on perovskite semiconductors, rivalling that of the best organic LEDs (OLEDs). Compared to OLEDs, which are widely used in high-end consumer electronics, the perovskite-based LEDs, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, can be made at much lower costs, and can be tuned to emit light across the visible and near-infrared spectra with high colour purity. The researchers have engineered the perovskite layer in the LEDs to show close to 100% internal luminescence efficiency, opening up future applications in display, lighting and communications, as well as next-generation solar cells. These perovskite materials are of the same type as those found to make highly efficient solar cells that could one day replace commercial silicon solar cells. While perovskite-based LEDs have already been developed, they have not been nearly as efficient as conventional OLEDs at converting electricity into light. Earlier hybrid perovskite LEDs, first developed by Professor Sir Richard Friend's group at the University's Cavendish Laboratory four years ago, were promising, but losses from the perovskite layer, caused by tiny defects in the crystal structure, limited their light-emission efficiency. Now, Cambridge researchers from the same group and their collaborators have shown that by forming a composite layer of the perovskites together with a polymer, it is possible to achieve much higher light-emission efficiencies, close to the theoretical efficiency limit of thin-film OLEDs. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Photonics. "This perovskite-polymer structure effectively eliminates non-emissive losses, the first time this has been achieved in a perovskite-based device," said Dr. Dawei Di from Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, one of the corresponding authors of the paper. "By blending the two, we can basically prevent the electrons and positive charges from recombining via the defects in the perovskite structure." The perovskite-polymer blend used in the LED devices, known as a bulk heterostructure, is made of two-dimensional and three-dimensional perovskite components and an insulating polymer. When an ultra-fast laser is shone on the structures, pairs of electric charges that carry energy move from the 2-D regions to the 3-D regions in a trillionth of a second: much faster than earlier layered perovskite structures used in LEDs. Separated charges in the 3-D regions then recombine and emit light extremely efficiently. "Since the energy migration from 2-D regions to 3-D regions happens so quickly, and the charges in the 3-D regions are isolated from the defects by the polymer, these mechanisms prevent the defects from getting involved, thereby preventing energy loss," said Di. "The best external quantum efficiencies of these devices are higher than 20% at current densities relevant to display applications, setting a new record for perovskite LEDs, which is a similar efficiency value to the best OLEDs on the market today," said Baodan Zhao, the paper's first author. While perovskite-based LEDs are beginning to rival OLEDs in terms of efficiency, they still need better stability if they are to be adopted in consumer electronics. When perovskite-based LEDs were first developed, they had a lifetime of just a few seconds. The LEDs developed in the current research have a half-life close to 50 hours, which is a huge improvement in just four years, but still nowhere near the lifetimes required for commercial applications, which will require an extensive industrial development programme. "Understand the degradation mechanisms of the LEDs is a key to future improvements," said Di. Explore further Simple fabrication of full-color perovskite LEDs More information: Baodan Zhao et al, High-efficiency perovskitepolymer bulk heterostructure light-emitting diodes, Nature Photonics (2018). Journal information: Nature Photonics Baodan Zhao et al, High-efficiency perovskitepolymer bulk heterostructure light-emitting diodes,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41566-018-0283-4 Types of polymerization and conductive properties of tetraoxa[8]circulene-based nanomaterials. Credit: Artem Kuklin, Gleb Baryshnikov, Siberian Federal University A team of scientists from Siberian Federal University (SibFU), together with foreign colleagues, described the structural and physical properties of a group of two-dimensional materials based on polycyclic molecules called circulenes. The possibility of flexible design and variable properties of these materials make them suitable for nanoelectronics. The results are published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Circulenes are organic molecules that consist of several hydrocarbon cycles forming a flower-like structure. Their high stability, symmetricity, and optical properties make them of special interest for nanoelectronics especially for solar cells and organic LEDs. The most stable and most studied tetraoxa[8]circulene molecule could be potentially polymerized into graphene-like nanoribbons and sheets. The authors have published the results of simulations proving this possibility. They also described properties and structure of the proposed materials. "With only one building blocka tetraoxa[8]circulene moleculewe can create a material with properties similar to those of silicon (a semiconductor traditionally used in electronics) or graphene (a semimetal) depending on the synthesis parameters. However, the proposed materials have some advantages. The charge carrier mobility is about 10 times higher compared to silicon, therefore, one could expect higher conductivity," says the main author of the study Artem Kuklin, research associate at the department of theoretical physics of Siberian Federal University. After determining the equilibrium geometries and testing their stability, the scientists discovered several stable tetraoxa[8]circulene-based polymers. The difference between them was in the type of coupling between the molecules, which resulted in different properties. The polymers demonstrate high charge carrier mobility. This property was analyzed by fitting of energy zones near the bandgapa parameter represented by separation of empty and occupied electronic states. The mechanical properties demonstrate that the new materials are 1.5 to three times more stretchable than graphene. The authors also report the topological states in one of the polymers caused by spin-orbit coupling, which is not typical for light element-based materials. The materials are insulators in the bulk, but can conduct electricity on the surface (edges). "The proposed nanostructures possess useful properties and may be used in the production of ionic sieves and for elements of nanoelectronic devices. Further, we plan to modify our compounds with metal adatoms to study their magnetic and catalytic properties. We would also like to find a research group that could synthesize these materials," concludes Artem Kuklin. Explore further Novel nano material for quantum electronics More information: Artem V. Kuklin et al. Strong Topological States and High Charge Carrier Mobility in Tetraoxa[8]circulene Nanosheets, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2018). Journal information: Journal of Physical Chemistry C Artem V. Kuklin et al. Strong Topological States and High Charge Carrier Mobility in Tetraoxa[8]circulene Nanosheets,(2018). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b08596 Provided by Siberian Federal University A chirp-pulse laser (laser with colors organized in time) striking a diffractive lens (a lens that distributes colors along its axis) generates a flying focus, which is captured by an ultrafast movie. Credit: Eugene Kowaluk (University of Rochester) Scientists have produced an extremely bright spot of light that can travel at any speedincluding faster than the speed of light. Researchers have found a way to use this concept, called "flying focus," to move an intense laser focal point over long distances at any speed. Their technique includes capturing some of the fastest movies ever recorded. A "flying focus" combines a lens that focuses specific colors of light at different locations with the recent Nobel Prize winning chirped-pulse amplification technology, which organizes the colors of light in time. Imagine a laser producing a continuously changing rainbow of colors that start with blue and end with red. Now focus the light with a lens that concentrates the red light close to the lens and blue light much farther from the lens. Because of the time delay between the colors, the high-intensity focal point moves. By changing the time delay separating the different colors, this spot can be made to move at any speed. "The flying focus turns out to be super powerful," said Dustin Froula, the Plasma Physics Group Leader at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics. "It allows us to generate high intensities over hundreds of times the distance than we could before and at any speed. We're now trying to make the next generation of high-powered lasers and flying focus could be that enabling technology." His team, supported by the Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, will be presenting this research at the upcoming American Physical Society's Division of Plasma Physics meeting in Portland, Ore. "Our group set out to design an experiment that would measure the propagation of a focal spot at any velocity, including 50 times the speed of light. This required a new diagnostic that could make a movie with frames separated by a trillionth of a second," Froula said. In addition to helping usher in the next generation of high-power lasers, this research has the potential to produce novel light sources such as those that generate light of nearly any color. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Researchers recently used ground penetrating radar to locate an unmarked, potential mass grave site in Lithuania, according to a new study that will be presented at The Geological Society of America's 2018 Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Sunday, 4 November. The work aims to amass evidence that points to the likely locations of mass graves from the Holocaust and, in time, award federal distinction to the areas in the form of memorials. "The larger context," says physical geographer Harry Jol from the University of WisconsinEau Claire, "is that, within the holocaust in Lithuania, every small and large town has a mass gravesite." Though many potential mass grave and execution sites are peppered throughout Lithuania, only eyewitness accounts, with some accounts conflicting, are the first lines of evidence to guide researchers to approximate locations. In some areas, roughly 510 and upwards to 2,000 individuals lie buried, while other locations have upwards of ten times that number. By using ground-penetrating radar, researchers like Jol can narrow the search by peering below the surface and searching for signs that indicate human-caused disturbances. Jol and his colleagues have located mass grave and execution sites in other areas throughout Lithuania and Israel, though this particular study pertains to the Rokiskis region. "We're basically able to slice into the ground the same way the oil and gas industry does and build a three-dimensional model of the near subsurface," Jol says, explaining that breaks in the subsurface, as well as rectangular or circular patterns, can be interpreted as digging. "When those breaks occur, and with some of the patterns we see, that indicates that something has cut through those glacial-fluvial sediments." Indeed, radar images revealed such signs in the Rokiskis region, indicating a potential grave site roughly two meters below the surface. Under Jewish burial traditions, which detail practices for honoring the dead, the remains of Jewish persons, once buried, must not be disturbed. Ground penetrating radar images are just one line of evidence that teams of researchers use to establish exact locations of these sites. Historical and eyewitness accounts, as well as aerial photographs taken by Nazi pilots form other lines of evidence used to determine likely coordinates. Little is known about the roughly 28 victims of the execution and burial site in Jol's study. They likely hailed from a nearby village, he says, and were sought out when Nazi soldiers reviewed public records of local families. Farmers were then often ordered to dig a grave that could hold the number of victims they had identified through those records. "The Nazis then went to the Jewish population and said, 'we're going to move you to another location where you can join other Jews, take three days of supplies with you.' Then, as they were walking out to the train or depot, they were shuttled off into the forest, executed and buried in a pit." Once gathered, the various lines of geoscience evidence are passed through local museums, archaeologists, and eventually political offices before the site can be awarded federal distinction. Signs of a once-strong Jewish population preceding the second world war, like city streets named after synagogues, are now sparking interest in younger generations, Jol says. "Recently a play written about these types of mass executions in the region received a national award," he says. "And there's a building recognition now where some of the youth are asking, 'is this part of our history?'" Other creative works, like documentaries and exploration of poetry from the time, are prompting further reflection on the Holocaust's shadow in Lithuania. Explore further Penetrating the soil's surface with radar More information: Ground Penetrating Radar Imaging of the Trakas Holocaust Mass Grave, Lithuania. Ground Penetrating Radar Imaging of the Trakas Holocaust Mass Grave, Lithuania. gsa.confex.com/gsa/2018AM/webp ram/Paper324710.html Researcher Matt Pine at the University of Victoria and WCS Canada conducting field research on Arctic cod Credit: William Halliday The western Canadian Arctic's natural underwater soundscape has been shielded from the din of commercial shipping by the sea ice that covers the area, rendering it mostly inaccessible to shipping vessels. But with large amounts of ice shrinking in the Arctic Ocean, a growing number of ships are gaining access to the area. This trend is expected to accelerate. One concern with vessel transits is how noise pollution can detrimentally affect marine animalsincluding Arctic codgiven the critical importance of these fish in the arctic food web. "Noise from shipping traffic can lead to acoustic masking, reducing the ability of cod and other marine animals to detect and use sound for communication, foraging, avoiding predators, reproduction, and navigation," said Matt Pine, a research fellow at the University of Victoria and Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS Canada). Pine and his colleagues at the University of Victoria, WCS Canada and JASCO Applied Sciences have found that the negative impact of noise from shipping vessels can be mitigated by reducing the ship's speed. They will present their research at the Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting, held in conjunction with the Canadian Acoustical Association's 2018 Acoustics Week in Canada, Nov. 5-9 at the Victoria Conference Centre in Victoria, Canada. Pine's research team investigated potential relief in acoustic masking by reducing the speed of container and cruise ships by 10 knots, from 25 knots (equivalent to about 17 mph) to 15 knots (equivalent to about 11.5 mph). The research has involved advanced propagation modeling of ship noise and the acoustic masking effects on arctic cod, two types of whales (belugas and bowheads) and two types of seals (bearded and ringed). The researchers incorporated field data to produce computer simulations in which container and cruise ships passed through the western Canadian Arctic via the Northwest Passage. They explored the effect each type of ship had on the volume of the ocean surrounding a fish, seal and whale within which prey, a predator or other danger could be heard by that animal. "Our modeling study shows that reduction in acoustic masking effects can be substantial," Pine said. However, he cautioned, the findings are not so clear-cut. "Acoustic masking effects are quite dynamic, and slowing down a vessel doesn't necessarily equal the same benefits for all animals," he explained. For example, sometimes smaller masking effects were seen in certain weather conditions. For the fish, however, weather conditions did not make a difference in the masking effects because their hearing thresholds in most frequency bands are above the ambient levels. "In this case, the type of vessel was more important," Pine said, "with cruise ships reducing their masking effect more if slowed by 10 knots than the container vessels nearer the vessel." Explore further Growing noise in the ocean can cause dolphins to change their calls More information: Presentation #1aAB1, "Assessing vessel slowdown as an option for reducing acoustic masking for Arctic cod in the western Canadian Arctic," by Matthew Pine, David E. Hannay, Stephen J. Insley, William D. Halliday and Francis Juanes will be Monday, Nov. 5, 8:50 a.m. in the Crystal Ballroom of the Victoria Conference Center in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Research carried out at the University of Adelaide and the University of Bristol has examined long-held beliefs that success in school and careers is due to more than just high intelligence. Non-cognitive skills are also important. The study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour is the first to systematically review the entire literature on effects of non-cognitive skills in children aged 12 or under, on later outcomes in their lives such as academic achievement, and cognitive and language ability. "Traits such as attention, self-regulation, and perseverance in childhood have been investigated by psychologists, economists, and epidemiologists, and some have been shown to influence later life outcomes," says Professor John Lynch, School of Public Health, University of Adelaide and senior author of the study. "There is a wide range of existing evidence under-pinning the role of non-cognitive skills and how they affect success in later life but it's far from consistent," he says. One of the study's co-authors, Associate Professor Lisa Smithers, School of Public Health, University of Adelaide says: "There is tentative evidence from published studies that non-cognitive skills are associated with academic achievement, psychosocial, and cognitive and language outcomes, but cognitive skills are still important." One of the strongest findings of their systematic review was that the quality of evidence in this field is lower than desirable. Of over 550 eligible studies, only about 40% were judged to be of sufficient quality. "So, while interventions to build non-cognitive skills may be important, particularly for disadvantaged children, the existing evidence base underpinning this field has the potential for publication bias and needs to have larger studies that are more rigorously designed. That has important implications for researchers and funding agencies who wish to study effects of non-cognitive skills," says Professor Lynch. Explore further Glycemic extremes in T1DM impact cognitive skills in kids More information: Lisa G. Smithers et al, A systematic review and meta-analysis of effects of early life non-cognitive skills on academic, psychosocial, cognitive and health outcomes, Nature Human Behaviour (2018). Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour Lisa G. Smithers et al, A systematic review and meta-analysis of effects of early life non-cognitive skills on academic, psychosocial, cognitive and health outcomes,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-018-0461-x The International Space Station with the Space Shuttle Atlantis docked on the right and a Russian Soyuz on the far left in 2011. Imagine looking under your couch and instead of finding fluffy dust bunnies, you see the dust is arranged in straight linesyou might wonder what caused this order. Scientists are experiencing that same feeling, not with dust under a couch, but with electrically charged dust in the microgravity of space. The dust the scientists are studying is made up of tiny spheres 10 times smaller than the width of a human hair. This dust becomes electrically charged when it collects electrons from an energetic gas called a plasma. In a lab on Earth, electrically charged dust generally lines up either along the downward pull of gravity or across it. Scientists at the Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics, and Engineering Research (CASPER), at Baylor University, got a surprise when examining data from a similar experiment on the International Space Station orbiting 248 miles above Earth where gravity is much weaker. Rather than the dust bouncing around randomly, the dust often wiggled around in straight lines, even without gravity. "Gravity on Earth is at least as strong as the electric forces between the dust grains. In microgravity we expected the dust particles to spread out," said Truell Hyde, director of CASPER, who leads the study. "Instead, we found that the small forces between the dust particles and the atoms in the plasma impose order on the system." Dr. Hyde and his research group are presenting their findings at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics meeting in Portland, Ore. The study was carried out on the PK-4 experiment, short for Plasma Kristall-4, which was built through a partnership between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). The research is the first project of this kind on the space station with direct involvement of U.S. research groups and is funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA. Learning that dust grains line up in microgravity is potentially important for understanding how groups of things attain structure. At small sizes, forces between atoms provide structure for molecules and proteins, while at very large sizes gravity provides the structure for stars and galaxies. Hyde said, "This experiment may help explain how structures form when they are between very small and very large sizes." Explore further Aboard the ISS, researchers investigate complex dust behavior in plasmas Climente explains the new nanoplatelets. Credit: Asociacion RUVID Researchers at the Physical and Analytical Chemistry department of the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) of Castellon, Spain, have taken part in the design of semiconductor nanoplatelets with a broadened range of colours to improve LCD and LED screens, thanks to an international collaboration headed by the University of Ghent. The results of this research, in which the ICFO-Barcelona and the Italian Technology Institute also took part, has been published in Nano Letters. Physical Chemistry professor at the UJI Juan Ignacio Climente explains that the semiconductor structures for optical devices heretofore "offered intense and pure purple and green colours, but the output of other colours was lacklustre. With a synthetic innovation, this study has made it possible to broaden the optimal results to yellow, orange and red." The joint work by the Quantic Chemistry Group of the UJI, coordinated by professor Juan Ignacio Climente along with the research group of Dr. Iwan Moreels and experts of other European universities, has led to significant progress in the development of semiconductor materials for optic devices. Specifically, according to Climente, "We have conducted mechano-quantic calculations that show that the new colours of the light emitted are a result of the nanoplatelet's greater thickness synthesised by our partners, which offer new knowledge on the unique optic properties of these materials." "The new synthetic route enables the broadening of the traditional thickness (3.5-5.5 layers of atoms) to 8.5 layers." Second generation of quantum dot displays The semiconductor nanoplatelets are intended for the second generation of so-called quantum dot displays by offering more pure and intense colours than current technology for LCD or LED screens. Furthermore, these nanotechnological materials may also be added to laser devices and optic sensors. The Quantic Chemistry Group of the Superior Technology and Experimental Sciences School of the UJI specialises in the theoretic study of nanocrystals. Its researchers model these systems with quantic mechanic tools to understand and predict their physical behaviour. Recently, this group showed that the new semiconductor nanoplatelets synthesised in laboratories can improve the luminosity of LEDs, lasers and LCD screens of computers or televisions as they make it possible to minimise energetic losses compared to current semiconductor materials. Explore further Part-organic invention can be used in bendable mobile phones More information: Sotirios Christodoulou et al. Chloride-Induced Thickness Control in CdSe Nanoplatelets, Nano Letters (2018). Journal information: Nano Letters Sotirios Christodoulou et al. Chloride-Induced Thickness Control in CdSe Nanoplatelets,(2018). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b02361 The molecule-matrix is like a tight mesh of double-sided adhesive tape. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Tubingen Researchers of the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, together with an international team of scientists, have developed propeller-shaped nanorobots that, for the first time, are able to drill through dense tissue as is prevalent in an eye. They applied a non-stick coating to the nanopropellers, which are only 500 nm wide exactly small enough to fit through the tight molecular matrix of the gel-like substance in the vitreous. The drills are 200 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, even smaller than a bacteriums width. Their shape and their slippery coating enable the nanopropellers to move relatively unhindered through an eye, without damaging the sensitive biological tissue around them. This is the first time scientists were able to steer nanorobots through dense tissue, as so far, it has only been demonstrated in model systems or biological fluids. The researchers' vision is to one day load the nanopropellers with drugs or other therapeutic agents and steer them to a targeted area, where they can deliver the medication to where it is needed. Targeted drug delivery inside dense biological tissue is very challenging, especially at these small scales: Firstly, it is the viscous consistency of the inside of the eyeball, the tight molecular matrix which a nanopropeller has to squeeze through. It acts as a barrier and prevents the penetration of larger structures. Secondly, even if the size-requirements are fulfilled, the chemical properties of the biopolymeric network in the eye would still result in the nanopropeller getting stuck in this mesh of molecules. Imagine a tiny cork-screw making its way through a web of double-sided adhesive tape. And thirdly there is the challenge of precise actuation. This latter the scientists overcome by adding a magnetic material, like iron, when building the nanopropellers, which allows them to steer the drills with magnetic fields to the desired destination. The other obstacles the researchers overcome by making each nanopropeller not larger than 500 nm in size, and by applying a two layered non-stick coating. The first layer consists of molecules bound to the surface, while the second is a coating with liquid fluorocarbon. This dramatically decreases the adhesive force between the nanorobots and the surrounding tissue. "For the coating we look to nature for inspiration," the first author of the study Zhiguang Wu explains. He was a Humboldt Research Fellow at the MPI-IS and is now a postdoc at the California Institute of Technology. "In the second step, we applied a liquid layer found on the carnivorous pitcher plant, which has a slippery surface on the peristome to catch insects. It is like the Teflon coating of a frying pan. This slippery coating is crucial for the efficient propulsion of our robots inside the eye, as it minimizes the adhesion between the biological protein network in the vitreous and the surface of our nanorobots." The fabrication technique. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Tubingen "The principle of the propulsion of the nanorobots, their small size, as well as the slippery coating, will be useful, not only in the eye, but for the penetration of a variety of tissues in the human body," says Tian Qiu, one of the corresponding authors of the paper, and a group leader in the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems Lab at the MPI-IS. Both Qiu and Wu are part of an international research team that worked on the publication with the title "A swarm of slippery micropropellers penetrates the vitreous body of the eye." Also, the University of Stuttgart, the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, Aarhus University in Denmark and the Eye Hospital of the University of Tubingen contributed to the groundbreaking work. It was at the eye hospital, where the researchers tested their nanopropellers in a dissected pigs eye and where they observed the movement of the propellers with the help of optical coherence tomography, a clinical-approved imaging technique widely used in the diagnostics of eye diseases. Across the eye toward the retina Credit: Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Tubingen With a small needle, the researchers injected tens of thousands of their bacteria-sized helical robots into the vitreous humour of the eye. With the help of a surrounding magnetic field that rotates the nanopropellers, they then swim toward the retina, where the swarm lands. Slippery nanorobots penetrate an eye. Being able to precisely control the swarm in real-time was what the researchers were aiming for. But it doesnt end here: the team is already working on one day using their nano-vehicles for targeted delivery applications. "That is our vision," says Tian Qiu. "We want to be able to use our nanopropellers as tools in the minimally-invasive treatment of all kinds of diseases, where the problematic area is hard to reach and surrounded by dense tissue. Not too far in the future, we will be able to load them with drugs." This is not the first nanorobot the researchers have developed. For several years now, they have been creating different types of nanorobots using a sophisticated 3-D manufacturing process developed by the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems research group led by Professor Peer Fischer. Billions of nanorobots can be made in only a few hours by vaporizing silicon dioxide and other materials, including iron, onto a silicon wafer under high vacuum while it turns. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Tubingen Explore further World's smallest propeller could be used for microscopic medicine More information: Zhiguang Wu et al. A swarm of slippery micropropellers penetrates the vitreous body of the eye, Science Advances (2018). Journal information: Science Advances Zhiguang Wu et al. A swarm of slippery micropropellers penetrates the vitreous body of the eye,(2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aat4388 Credit: CC0 Public Domain It's settled. A new study has found out what the special something is that makes a perfect pizza. Pizzas have been around for nearly 200 years, and the Italians are regarded as the creators of this tasty dish. Now, a new study has figured out the physics of what makes the Italian pizza such a tasty success. The key for a great pizza, according to this new study, is finding the right conditions to get a well cooked base and perfectly browned toppings. A little pizza heaven Italy is well known as the place where pizzas originated. But within Italy, Naples is considered the birthplace of Italian pizza. The classic Neapolitan pizza is famous for its toasty crust with charred spots, due to the super-hot oven used. The dough is fluffy but also moist and stretchy, all while the toppings are cooked through and piping hot. In Rome, the traditional pizza is made with pretty much the same ingredients and also on a brick oven, but the dough is different. But making a traditional Italian pizza, whether Roman or Neapolitan, in your home oven has always been a bit of a challenge (and a disappointment) for mere mortals. It seems to be an art that lies only in the skilled hands of pizzaiolo (pizza makers) and their wood-burning brick ovens. But what makes Italian pizzas so special? This is what Andrey Varlamov, one of the authors of the study, set to find out. Andrey works at the Institute of Superconductors, Oxides and Other Innovative Materials and Devices in Rome. He is passionate about understanding the physics of how things work. "I like to understand the physical essence standing behind this or that everyday phenomenon: why rivers meander, why violins sing," Andrey says. So he put his curious mind to work to understand the inner workings of another of humankind's most beautiful creationspizza. The physics of perfect pizza To understand the secrets of a perfect and truly Italian pizza, Andrey says he used a timeless approach. "Provando e riprovando", explains Andrey, which roughly translates as "trying and trying again". "So speaking with Italians, visiting with their different pizzerias, speaking with pizzaiolo, trying to learn from them the experience of generations," Andrey says. From these conversations with pizzaiolo, Andrey and his colleagues found that the secret was in finding a perfect balance between the heat that flows into the base of the pizza from the bricks below and the heat that reaches the toppings. In Rome, where this study took place, a pizza is normally cooked for about 2 minutes at a blazing temperature of more than 330C. But even if your commercial steel oven could reach these searing heats, it simply doesn't produce the same pizza. Andrey came up with a mathematical formula that explains what temperature your pizza reaches depending on the oven temperature and the material it is made of. His formula demonstrated how the optimal conditions used for baking a pizza in a wood oven simply could not be accomplished in an electric oven with a metallic baking surface. The reason is all about conduction. Think about what would happen if you threw a brick and a piece of metal, like steel, onto a fire. The steel would get hot much quicker than the brick. Metals conduct heat better than most other materials. So even at the same temperature, a conventional oven would conduct heat into the pizza base much faster than in a brick oven. At 330C in a steel oven, your pizza base would burn to a crisp and wouldn't have an even cook between the base and the toppings. In the brick oven, because of the lower conductivity, the heat is more evenly distributed, giving you a crispy base and nicely cooked toppings. A bonus trick of the trade is that, when the pizza is almost ready to serve, the pizzaiolo will use their spade to lift the pizza up, so it's not exposed to the conducted heatonly the radiant heat in the oven. This means the toppings get a little extra cooked without burning the base. Andrey is not alone in saying a brick oven is best. Nick, an Italian from the region of Abruzzo who has been living in Perth for the past 20 years, says that he built his own brick pizza oven and it makes some great pizzas. So it seems the jury is outonly a brick oven will give you the right conditions to get a high-quality Italian pizza. But don't despair. You can get a pretty decent pizza in your conventional oven, according to Andrey. While your oven doesn't reach the ideal and very high temperatures for an Italian pizza, it does have a grill, Andrey explains. So you can try cooking your pizza for a few minutes in the oven and finishing it up with the grill at maximum temperature for a few seconds. You should aim for a well cooked crust and toppings without drying up the pizza. It won't be the same as a brick oven pizza, Andrey admits, but it will still be pretty tasty. More information: Andrey Varlamov et al. The physics of baking good pizza, Physics Education (2018). DOI: 10.1088/1361-6552/aadc2e This article first appeared on Particle, a science news website based at Scitech, Perth, Australia. Read the original article. In this Oct. 9, 2018 photo, police office guards the main entrance to the Supreme Court in Washington. The Supreme Court has ended the court fight over repealed Obama-era "net neutrality" rules that required internet providers to treat all online traffic equally. The court on Monday rejected appeals from the telecommunications industry seeking to throw out a lower court ruling in favor of the "net neutrality" rules. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) The Supreme Court has ended the court fight over repealed Obama-era "net neutrality" rules that required internet providers to treat all online traffic equally. The court on Monday rejected appeals from the telecommunications industry seeking to throw out a lower court ruling in favor of the "net neutrality" rules. The Federal Communications Commission under President Donald Trump has rolled back the rules, but the industry also wanted to wipe the court ruling off the books. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas would have granted the industry's request. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh took no part in the case without offering a reason. Kavanaugh ruled on the issue while an appeals court judge and Roberts has an investment portfolio that includes telecommunications companies. Explore further Trump administration asks Supreme Court to stop teenagers' climate lawsuit 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Credit: CC0 Public Domain From the 1980s to the present day, many of the field's most influential scholars have lamented that a majority of articles rely on literature review-based methodologies and do not present any new, first-hand insights. Instead of authors talking with (former) terrorists, perusing the archives of counterterrorism agencies, administering psychological tests to extremists, or engaging in fieldwork, they have mostly resorted to talking amongst themselves. As a result, much of what we know about terrorists and terrorism has been derived from media sources sometimes brilliant accounts that provide fascinating insights, but often short newspaper pieces of questionable accuracy and limited level of detail. Moreover, the field has put forward numerous explanations and theories of varying degrees of complexity, but has been unable to reliably assess their validity because the first-hand insights necessary to do so are few and far between. Such arguments about the shaky empirical foundations of the field will be familiar to any student of terrorism who has had more than a passing interest in the subject. But that is perhaps one of the reasons why these issues have persisted for so long. Research on terrorism can be dated as far back as the 1960s, but came into particular prominence after the 9/11 attacks. These events, and the 'war on terror' that followed them, ensured that terrorism became a semi-permanent fixture within Western politics, society and media. This massive spike in attention for the subject, as well as the new sources of funding that came with it, brought many new scholars to the field and ensured a tremendous increase in output. Unfortunately, as authors like Andrew Silke and Avishag Gordon have shown, newcomers' interest in terrorism was often short lived; up to 83 percent of articles published in the 2000s were by one-time contributors. While some of these were of high quality, many lacked the in-depth knowledge of the field to truly help move it forward, especially where it came to issues like resolving the long-acknowledged scarcity of primary data. Unfortunately, a relatively small group of dedicated scholars was not the only obstacle to a timely resolution of the primary data problem. The long and short of it is that terrorism is in many instances simply a difficult subject to gather primary data on. One issue here is that many Western states have been fortunate enough not to suffer from a large number of terrorist attacks. This also means that terrorism is often a relatively 'small-N' problem, which increases data collection challenges. Then there are practicalities like a) finding (former) terrorists who could, for instance, be interviewed, b) convincing them to cooperate and c) making the time necessary to take these steps within research projects that are often conservatively budgeted in time and resources. Moreover, while it's been argued that the potential dangers of engaging directly with (former) terrorists can often be managed, personal safety is still an issue that must be considered, as are the ethical guidelines for working with what are often vulnerable individuals and groups. Concerns over the field's apparent inability to gather more primary data, despite the problem having been known for decades, arguably peaked in 2014 when Marc Sageman's provocatively argued that research on terrorism had 'stagnated'. At first glance, such a damning statement from one of the most influential terrorism researchers in the post-9/11 period supports continued pessimism about the field. Yet, there was also considerable push-back; other leading scholars were quick to qualify Sageman's piece as overly critical, and pointed to areas of real progress in the study of terrorism. Since then, both established and up-and-coming researchers have begun proposing that, actually, the primary data issue may no longer be quite so problematic as it was. The question, however, is what the data says on the issue. Is ongoing pessimism warranted or has there been a change for the better? With the last in-depth assessment of the field dating back to Silke's groundbreaking work in the early to mid 2000s, a fresh look was needed. Over a two-year period, and with help from several research assistants and interns, I collected data on the circa 3.500 articles that had been published between 2007 and 2016 in the field's nine leading journals. Like the work by Silke that had inspired this effort, I was principally interested in whether these articles used any kind of primary data, whether they utilized statistical analyses, and what their method of data collection was. Unfortunately, the number of articles with a specific 'data' (or even a separate 'methodology'!) section was relatively small, meaning that in most cases my team and I had to trawl through the notes to ascertain what type of information had been utilized. After two years of this kind of masochism, we were happy to draw the analysis to a close with a decade of research scrutinized. The results have since been published in Terrorism and Political Violence and are available for early view. The results strongly suggest that the study of terrorism has made significant strides toward finally addressing the shortage of primary sources based research that has plagued it for so long. Not only did the study indicate a slow but steady upward trend in the percentage of articles using such data, but by 2016 a slim majority of all pieces published used some kind of primary data. Of course, there are qualifications; the inclusion threshold for counting something as primary data was purposefully set rather low. As a result, both years of field work and a single five-minute telephone interview suffice to tick the primary data box. Still, I'd argue that the overall picture warrants considerable optimism. Unfortunately, the field has not made similar progress in other areas. Qualitative research designs still reign supreme, with little growth in terms of the percentage of authors using statistical analyses. Moreover, some forms of data collection are still virtually nonexistent, such as experimental ones or clinical assessments of terrorists' mental health. Most problematic, however, appears to be the enduring problem of one-time contributors and a lack of collaboration. Some 75 percent of all articles published between 2007 and 2016 are the work of single authors. Such limited collaboration cannot but constrain the scope of the research questions being tackled, as larger teams will generally have more resources in terms of time, finances and intellectual capital. Similarly, some 75 percent of all publications were the work of one-time contributors. While lower than the 83 percent noted by Silke in the 2000s, the relatively small group of dedicated researchers arguably continues to limit the speed and extent to which the field will actually be able to move forward on key issues. The significant steps taken toward addressing the scarcity of primary data signal the maturation of terrorism studies as a field of research. Still, there is a lot of work to be done. Not only must we ensure this positive trend is perpetuated, but the quality and quantity of primary data being used still frequently leaves considerable room for improvement. No less important is that we continue to build a larger core of dedicated terrorism researchers, and that collaborative efforts become more frequent. There are good reasons to be positive about the prospects of terrorism studies as a field of academic inquiry. But there's no room for complacency. Explore further There is almost no research on what distinguishes potential terrorists, study finds More information: Bart Schuurman. Research on Terrorism, 20072016: A Review of Data, Methods, and Authorship, Terrorism and Political Violence (2018). Bart Schuurman. Research on Terrorism, 20072016: A Review of Data, Methods, and Authorship,(2018). DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2018.1439023 Credit: CC0 Public Domain In the wake of #MeToo, the hashtag #HowIWillChange asked men to come forward on Twitter to discuss ways in which they would change their own behavior to prevent sexual violence and mitigate harm for victims. "#HowIWillChange: Acknowledge that if all women I know have been sexually harassed, abused or assaulted, then I know perpetrators. Or am one," tweeted Australian journalist Benjamin Law, who started the hashtag used by thousands of other Twitter users since. But how helpful has the hashtag actually been? According to a new study by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researchers, Twitter users have proposed many potentially effective sexual violence prevention strategies, although there are also gaps in the strategies being discussed, and even some misinformation and myths being perpetuated. The study was published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. "Right now, this is how people are engaging in sexual violence prevention, through these online movements," says lead author Alyssa Harlow, a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology at BUSPH. "It can be very revealing, and can help us see where there may be opportunities for more targeted interventions." Harlow and her colleagues used a sample of 1 percent of all tweets with the hashtag #HowIWillChange, then eliminated all retweets, non-English language tweets, spam tweets, and tweets that included pictures, video, or links to news articles. They also eliminated tweets that did not mention specific actions. They then analyzed the remaining 1,493 tweets. They found that 52.7 percent of the tweets discussed proactive prevention strategies, including teaching children about respect and relationships, changing language related to sexual violence, and introspection and self-accountability. The researchers also found 34.2 percent of the tweets discussed reactive prevention strategies, including challenging jokes or misogynic and sexist statements, reporting sexual violence perpetrators, and mitigating harm after an assault. Many tweets proposed concrete steps, including reporting perpetrators and expressing belief in victims and helping them access specific resources. However, while many Twitter users discussed confronting peers about harassment, most scenarios involving assault and rape were vaguer, suggesting that these Twitter users did not believe their peers engage in this behavior or realize that most sexual assault and rape is committed by acquaintances and partners of victims. "Our results suggest that although well meaning, the Twitter discourse generated by #HowIWillChange may perpetuate this 'stranger rape' fallacy," the authors wrote. The researchers also found that 22.4 percent of the tweets expressed negative sentiments about the hashtag, including denying responsibility, expressing doubt or blame toward victims, and claiming that rape culture is a myth. "As sexual violence continues to gain more attention in the media and on social media, we may see more public pushback against sexual violence prevention," Harlow says. "It's frustrating, but it's important to understand if we want to make change and develop effective public health programs." More information: Alyssa F. Harlow et al, Bystander Prevention for Sexual Violence: #HowIWillChange and Gaps in Twitter Discourse, Journal of Interpersonal Violence (2018). Journal information: Journal of Interpersonal Violence Alyssa F. Harlow et al, Bystander Prevention for Sexual Violence: #HowIWillChange and Gaps in Twitter Discourse,(2018). DOI: 10.1177/0886260518808854 Changes in wells over time. Credit: Alexander van Geen and the NSF. Water researchers have found a way to fight the "king of poisons" that accounts for one of every 20 deaths in Bangladesh. Arsenic has a long, sordid history as a poison once used in very high doses to assassinate aristocrats, but it is also a common natural element found in well water around the world. In groundwater, too much arsenic is still a killer, but nowhere more than in Bangladesh. The south Asia country is home to more than 10 million shallow, hand-pumped wells that yield water that often exceeds the World Health Organization (WHO) arsenic guidelines of 10 micrograms per liter. "Groundwater is popular because it is generally free of bacterial pathogens, unlike surface water," explained Alexander van Geen of Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Groundwater must travel through rocks and sediments, which filters out most harmful bacteria. The same process adds minerals to groundwaterincluding a lot of arsenic in some shallow wells of Bangladesh. In 2000, van Geen and his team surveyed 6,000 wells, and then recruited a health study cohort of 12,000 people. Then in 2013, they conducted larger survey of 50,000 wells serving 350,000 people. They found that government wells that were more than 150 meters deep were typically low in arsenic. However, they also found that the more than 900 deep were distributed in a way that suggested they had been taken by elite and politically connected households, and were not accessible to the public. This interpretation has since been confirmed by development economist Mushfiq Mobarak at Yale University, van Geen explained. Changes in wells over time. Credit: Alexander van Geen and the NSF. "Millions of people rely on water supplies that are contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic," says Sarah Ruth, a director of the National Science Foundation's Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems Program, which funded the research. "Consumption of arsenic-contaminated water, or the rice crops irrigated with it, can have severe health effects, including a variety of cancers and increased child mortality." The hijacking of the deeper government wells by some households has meant that other villages can't get good water, however. People in the study area now generally understand that deeper is better, van Geen said. As a result, they have been taking it on themselves to drill deeper wells, often encountering low arsenic water well before 150 meter depth. A new survey of the water in the study area recently documented a jump in the proportion of villagers drinking from wells meeting the WHO guideline. Only 25 percent of wells were safe in 2000, compared to 70 percent in 2018. "This is good news," said van Geen of this year's survey of water. "This is for a population of 12,000 living within a 25 square kilometer area that we've been tracking since 2000. Urine arsenic data confirm that villagers aren't just telling us what they know what we'd like to hear." Most of the decline is attributable to households reinstalling wells to a greater depth at their own cost. "Some villages have figured this out; others have not," said van Geen. His team is trying to convey this information to the villages through water tests, so people can see the difference for themselves. "Geology and geochemistry causes the problem, but it's also the solution. The arsenic is avoidable without having to resort to water treatment." Van Geen will be presenting his latest water survey results at the meeting of The Geological Society of America in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Tuesday, 6 Nov. Explore further Deep groundwater in coastal deltas resilient to contamination More information: How Earth Processes Can Poison Millions but also Provide A Solution: The Case of Well-Water Arsenic In South Asia, Presentation time: 10:50 a.m. How Earth Processes Can Poison Millions but also Provide A Solution: The Case of Well-Water Arsenic In South Asia, Presentation time: 10:50 a.m. gsa.confex.com/gsa/2018AM/webp ram/Paper319704.html EPFL researchers have developed a virtual-reality program that examines how users equipped with a headset and sensors react to a vertiginous stroll. The system will be presented at the Geneva International Film Festival on 510 November. Credit: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Why do some people react more strongly than others when faced with the unknown? Researchers at EPFL's Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, headed by Professor Carmen Sandi, have set out to learn more with a new virtual reality program. Their system evaluates how users' personality traits and prior experience influence their responses to anxiety-inducing situations. Designed to be tested on a large sample of volunteers, it will be available for visitors to try out during the Geneva International Film Festival on 510 November, where it will be featured in the Digital Out of Competition category. Scary, but fun The developers want to keep the surprise under wraps, but the program's name VRTIGO gives an idea of what users can expect. Volunteers will be asked to don an immersive headset and will be led to a sectioned-off area where the experiment will take place. The program will transport them to a virtual world that appears surprisingly realistic. "Even though users consciously know it's a virtual experience, the perception they get from their senses tells them otherwise. And their bodies react accordingly their palms start sweating and they start walking very carefully," say Joao Rodrigues and Erik Studer, two of the researchers who developed the program. The virtual walk into the unknown is perfectly safe and designed to be fun, but is nonetheless limited to adults over 18. "We've gotten excellent feedback from people who've tried it," adds Studer. "And if the experience starts feeling too intense, users can just close their eyes or take off the headset and their sensory perceptions will return to normal." Crucial data for research The VRTIGO experience, although amusing, provides valuable data for scientists studying human anxiety. The data are completely anonymous; volunteers are asked to fill out a short questionnaire on their antecedents and emotional state. During the experiment, the system's sensors relay information about users' physiological responses, while accelerometers track their body positions, movements and the directions in which they are looking. Samples are also taken of users' saliva to determine their cortisol levels an indicator of how much stress they feel. "These tests carried out among the general public will give us data from people of many different ages and backgrounds, and help advance our research on this issue," says Studer. The research team hopes to publish their findings in 2019. More information: For more information, see For more information, see 2018.giff.ch/en/events/vrtigo-en/ Samuel Chhetri is an online reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering a wide range of issues, including politics, society, sports, arts and entertainment. The past and future of work collide on a 178-acre graded-flat stretch of brownfield in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Hazelwood. There, on what is known as Hazelwood Green, the skeletal remains of Mill 19 stand as one of the last reminders of the Jones and Laughlin steel works that spanned the Monongahela River to the citys South Side. At its busiest, it employed more than 12,000 workers. Most had only a high school education, if that, but earned family-sustaining wages with benefits until the mill and others fell to weak demand, technologically superior competitors and other pressures. Uber engineers now work within walking distance of Mill 19, refining the cognitive abilities of machines at a test track for the companys driverless vehicles, which can already be spotted on Downtown streets. Within the shell of the former mill, crews are constructing a $250 million national research hub for expediting the rebirth of U.S. manufacturing with advanced robotics. The sizable public-private investment underscores how artificial intelligence and robotics have come to be seen as a good bet for greatly boosting productivity, and stimulating new products, services, companies, industrial revitalization and economic growth. And Pittsburgh, led by its major research universities, is right in the thick of its development. But with the technological tsunami come expectations that work and workers will be disrupted, likely in profound ways. And while its far from clear how the wave of innovation will play out, its hard to see this ever becoming what the steel industry once wasa source of fairly high income, stable employment for tens of thousands of high school graduates with no higher degree, said Lee Branstetter, professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the schools Center for the Future of Work. Southwestern Pennsylvania knows the pain that workforce disruption on a large scale can inflict. Nearly 150,000 jobs were lost when local steel mills were shuttered following the 198182 recession, triggering an historic exodus of workers and families desperate for opportunity that still influences the regions demographic profile. This time, however, community leaders from policymakers to industry, philanthropy, labor and education are taking the forecasts to heart and exploring policy options, training and education and other strategies for preparing workers so they can fuel the innovation economy and benefit from transformative technologies rather than be displaced by them. The question is, can they actually do it? Smarter machines Innovation is almost always disruptive. It spurred an industrial revolution that radically altered the nature of work in America and shifted population from farms to factories, cities and suburbs. And it has transformed industries and redefined jobs ever since. The automation of mining led to a leap in productivity and fewer coal jobs. Typesetting software brought remarkable efficiencies to publishing and rendered entire occupations in newspaper composing rooms obsolete. But the latest technologies are developing at unprecedented speed and will likely be more pervasive. Few, if any, job sectors are expected to provide workers safe haven. Artificial intelligence adds perception and cognition to the capabilities of machines. With the right algorithms, machines can even learn tasks on their own and improve their performance from experience. No longer limited to repetitive tasks and heavy lifting, they are poised to compete with the likes of telemarketers, paralegals, travel agents and long-haul truckers. Artificial intelligence is already seeping into fields such as data analysis, marketing, customer support, warehousing and health care. Intelligent machines execute stock trades every day. Smart robots stock shelves and do in-store inventory. Pittsburgh researchers are writing algorithms to read hundreds of thousands of patent applications for clues about where and when the impact of emerging technologies will be feltand do so at speeds a team of patent attorneys could never hope to match. Carnegie Mellon professor and robotics pioneer Red Whittaker has a driverless tractor on his Somerset County farm. At the moment, nobody knows what the impact of these new technologies will be. But recent studies offer a glimpse. In southwestern Pennsylvania, occupations at the highest risk of being automated include retail sales, construction laborers and equipment operators, welders, loan officers, pharmacy techs, and jobs that involve moving freight, stock and materials. Those occupations alone account for nearly 80,000 jobs in the region, according to the Allegheny Conference on Community Developments Inflection Point report on the future of work. Less than 5 percent of all occupations are at risk of being fully automated worldwide, a 2017 McKinsey Global Institute study suggests. But in 60 percent of occupations, at least one-third of the tasks could be automated, imposing changes on a broad worker population. The history of major technological advances, however, is not one of mass job destruction. As far back as the Industrial Revolution weve had these concerns that innovation would lead to mass unemployment. That basically has never happened, said Branstetter, who believes the trend will also survive the era of AI and robotics. My fellow economists and I find it implausible the economy is going to change more over the next 10 years than it has over the last 100, in terms of labor demand. Look at a long-run graph of the U.S. unemployment rate. During recessions it goes up, then it goes down to less than 5 percent and stays there. Unemployment has been impressively stable as weve gone from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy to an information economy. A market economy turns out to be pretty adaptable to a lot of things. New technologies provide new tools for workers to improve their production, and create new industries and occupations. Medical imaging technologies created a demand for radiographers and radiologists. Mass computing gave rise to a host of IT occupations. In southwestern Pennsylvania, a highly diversified economy rose from the collapse of the local steel industry with strengths in education, health care, finance and technology. And the region leveraged its brainpower to become a center of invention for autonomous vehicles, advanced robotics, 3D printing and genomics. What the introduction of new technologies also has consistently done is raise demand for higher-skill, better-educated workers and weaken demand for lower-skill, less-educated people. And wages tend to closely align with level of education, increasing the risk of widening the income gap as lower-skill workers slip farther behind. Harvard University economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz, who study the relationship between technology and education, found that a steady rise in educational attainment allowed U.S. workers to nimbly adapt to the demand for higher skills as technology raced ahead in the 20th century resulting in economic growth without exacerbating income inequality. But educational attainment slowed in the final decades of the century while demand for higher skills accelerated and income inequality rose to levels approaching those seen during the Great Depression. Were not worried about an employment apocalypse, Branstetter said. The problem were worried about is inequality continuing to grow. Help wanted Concern over the pipeline of skilled workers is already inspiring efforts to take a hard look at the state of the southwestern Pennsylvania workforce and where it is heading, including a group of local experts convened by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, and research to flesh out the issues. Local employers report that finding workers with the skills theyre looking for is growing more difficult. Filling the jobs of retiring workers is a particular concern in southwestern Pennsylvania, where U.S. Census data show seniors account for a larger share of the population than what is seen nationally. Only half of college graduates stay in the region, which is one of the lowest retention rates in metropolitan America, according to a study by former Carnegie Mellon professor Richard Florida, now a University of Toronto professor of business and creativity. And the fastest-growing occupations in the region demand skills a high school education alone doesnt provide. Those occupations include jobs that people who dont have at least a bachelors degree need not apply for, such as speech pathologists, physical therapists, computer systems analysts, market researchers, personal finance advisors and information security specialists, a local analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data suggests. But many middle-skill jobs are also among the fastest growing, including licensed nurses, cardiovascular technicians, industrial machinery mechanics, electric power line installers and computer-controlled machine tool operators. Middle-skill jobs dont require a bachelors degree to land, but do require workers to complete some type of post-secondary education program to learn the skills the jobs demand. Such jobs are among the reasons innovation economies are so attractive to cities and regions. Economies driven by advanced technologies certainly require college-educated workers who are among the brightest in their fields. But nearly half of U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics jobs are middle-skill jobs that pay $53,000 a year on average and often dont require a four-year degree, according to a Brookings Institution study. Any city, town, metropolis that wants to compete in this century needs to understand how these technologies are going to change our lives, and how they can be the foundation of invention and employment and create quality jobsand not just for the people getting Ph.D.s from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, but for people getting credentials from high schools and community colleges, said Bruce Katz, a former Brookings Institution researcher and co-founder of New Localism Advisors, a national consulting firm. Brookings researchers report that Pittsburgh has considerable advantages when it comes to cultivating an innovation economy. Hundreds of firms from Google and Uber to UPMC and Duolingo are leveraging the regions innovative output. Ideas percolating from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh are shaping technologies important to advanced manufacturing, automation, software, life sciences and other rapidly expanding industries. The research dollars they attract rank among the highest in the nation. Local talent in several emerging technology sectors, such as machine learning, is deeper than many other regions, labor data suggest. But none of those backyard assets guarantees the innovation economy will realize its potential. Researchers warn of headwinds, not the least of which is whether the region will have the workers to sustain growth. An aging workforce that lacks diversity concerns them. They note that the young innovation economy has yet to create broad economic opportunity in the region. And for that to happen, they conclude, doing more to raise the skills of its residents to meet the attributes that new technologies will demand should be high on the regions to-do list. Nobody thinks it will be easy. Second chance To begin with, the United States invests little in active workforce development programs compared to economic competitors beyond its borders. Such initiatives include training and programs to help workers search for jobs and prepare them as candidates for employment. Only 0.11 percent of U.S. gross domestic product is invested in active workforce development, according to the international Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Thats far less than Denmark, which invests 2.1 percent of GDP on such programs, and well below the .56 percent average among the more than 30 OECD member nations. It is inadequate, said Stephen Herzenberg, an economist and the executive director of the labor research nonprofit, Keystone Research Center, based in Harrisburg. The fact that were such an outlier in terms of investment in training and adjustment support for workers is the most basic indicator of that inadequacy. The swift demise of most of the steel mills in southwestern Pennsylvania three decades ago was a sobering lesson on the consequences of a major workforce disruption and the importance of preparing for it. Demand for manufacturing skills evaporated overnight. But strategies and resources for helping displaced workers find employment in other industries were few, fragmented and insufficient given the scale of job loss. Unable to find work, tens of thousands of people left for opportunities elsewhere. The exodus was short-lived, but severe. An estimated 50,000 residents left in 1984 alone and more than 70 percent of them were under the age of 39. And they took their future families with them, which is one reason why southwestern Pennsylvania has a higher-than-average percentage of retirement-age adults today. Many displaced workers who stayed endured long-term financial loss as they struggled to find jobs comparable in pay to the ones they lost, often in vain. The collapse of the steel industry was why our organization came to be, said Tracey Reaves, director of workforce and business development at the Mon Valley Initiative, a nonprofit established in 1988 to help distressed mill towns with housing, reinvestment and other issues. But the workforce [development] part of what we do started 17-18 years later. Older generations are still in a bad situation here. There are reasons to believe that the response the next time around might be different. Government, education, industry and philanthropy responded to a sharp demand for workers in the Marcellus Shale gas play by launching a community college-based training initiative eight years ago. More recently, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia began collaborating on training a workforce to feed expansion of the petrochemical industry along a tri-state corridor rich in the cheap natural gas and byproducts it covets. The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute, the anchor tenant in the redevelopment plans for Mill 19 at the former Hazelwood steel plant, includes programs for training students, displaced workers and others for careers in robotics. The Community College of Allegheny Countys urban North Side campus was chosen for a new $20 million workforce training center where the curriculum will include autonomous technology, digital technology and 3D printing. Partner 4 Work, the federal workforce investment board in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, is piloting Googles new online program designed to prepare people for entry-level IT jobs in eight to 12 months, regardless of whether they have prior tech experience or a college degree. Dealing with the acceleration of AI isnt something Partner 4 Work can solve alone, said Dillon Moore, director of policy for the workforce investment board. What we can do is put infrastructure in place thats nimble enough to adapt to the shifting skill demands of employers. Continuously engaging employers in the process is important. Shoring up the basic education workers bring to the job is another concern. The value of math, in particular, is rapidly rising in the workplace. But math scores of U.S. 15-year-olds rank only 39th out of 71 developed nations on the latest Program for the International Student Assessment. Carnegie Mellon researchers are exploring incentives for convincing schools to use intelligent tutoring software to help students learn algebra, such as MATHia, a system developed by the Pittsburgh-based firm Carnegie Learning. The programs can identify strengths and weaknesses unique to each student and customize how they are taught. This has been shown to accelerate the rate of learning, Branstetter said. The problem is schools are not using the technology even though its effectiveness has been demonstrated. But the technical skills of workers arent the leading concern of the more than 130 CEOs and other industry leaders interviewed for the Allegheny Conferences latest future of work report. Theyre confident academic and technical skills can be effectively taught. Theyre more concerned about baseline or soft skills, such as effective communication skills, creativity, collaboration, being willing and able to continuously learn, and decision-making, planning, mentoring and leadership skills. Those skills werent listed in job postings five years ago, said Linda Topoleski, Allegheny Conference on Community Development vice president for workforce operations and programs. Now, theyre the top skills in demand across all occupations. Demand for baseline skills is not expected to wane in the AI era. In focus groups, autonomous vehicle companies identified the ability to continuously learn as a top employee attribute, with one CEO describing it as the desire and aptitude to learn a new, high-level skillon the order of codingevery day, just to keep pace. But prepping students for the innovation economy is more complicated than teaching them math and technical skills. They need to be aware of the occupations available and convinced to get the training that will give them a foot in the door and a chance to build a career. Theyre more concerned about baseline or soft skills, such as effective communication skills, creativity, collaboration, being willing and able to continuously learn, and decision-making, planning, mentoring and leadership skills. Linda Topoleski, Allegheny Conference on Community Development vice president for workforce operations and programs In the regions high schools, more than 300 career and technical education students choose to study machine tool technology. Nearly four times more students choose to study cosmetology, according to state education data. We recently surveyed 8th and 11th grade students in 40 school districts and found that career awareness is extremely low, Topoleski said. They know what a teacher does, what a dentist does. They have contact with those people. They dont know what a mechanical engineer is or what a data scientist does. Those jobs are in high demand, but theyve never heard of them. In some cases, that shouldnt be surprising. Less than one percent of Pittsburghs IT workers are African American compared to 7 percent nationally, Brookings researchers report. Although we have the programs and services, it doesnt mean everyone knows what those opportunities are, said Quintin Bullock, president of Community College of Allegheny County, which is hoping its partnerships with community organizations will help spread the word. But even a well-educated workforce should expect casualties when transformative technologies such as AI are introduced, history suggests. Some jobs will vanish. In the meantime, CMU and the Keystone Research Center are investigating policy options that might blunt the impact of being displaced. One is wage insurance, which would pay workers cast aside by technology a salary while they retrain or supplement the wages of those starting fresh in new industries until they move up the ladder. Were totally confident these changes are manageable in ways that benefit peoplein ways that end up increasing their standard of living, Herzenberg said. Lets have a conversation about how we ride this positive wave in a way that works for most people. Its a pretty simple idea, but its not the way western Pennsylvania managed the decline of the steel industry. 17 hours ago The Top 3 Large-Cap Stocks to Buy Under $100 Owning Quality Large-Cap Stocks Doesn't Have to Break The Bank There are certainly a lot of advantages associated with investing in large-cap stocks. These are companies with a market capitalization of over $10 billion and play a huge role in determining the overall direction and trend of the indexes. Read Article One shot dead during robbery in Bardiya A person died after being shot at during a robbery at Badhaiyatal Rural Municipality-3 in Bardiya district on Monday. Dante Hutchinson, 13, has severe anxiety and always struggled with the social dynamics of traditional schools. His mother moved him to a charter school in his hometown of Rhinelander in 2015, but it closed two years later. With no other local alternatives, Brooke Hutchinson enrolled her son in Wisconsin Virtual Academy, the states largest virtual charter school, located 200 miles south in the McFarland School District. Dante quickly became overwhelmed and fell behind, especially in math. In February this year, the virtual school kicked him out for failing to participate which landed him back in Rhinelanders public schools, even farther behind and again struggling with being bullied. It was traumatizing to me and all of us, said Brooke Hutchinson, who works full-time while raising four kids with her husband. Its not that we ignore him, but he needs extra help. Dantes story is not unique. Between 2016 and 2017, more than 2,500 students in Wisconsins virtual charter schools withdrew, got kicked out or dropped out roughly 40 percent of the total enrollment, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis found. Worse, the students who switched between virtual schools and traditional schools in that period posted significantly lower math scores the year after the switch. The drop was much bigger for the students who switched into virtual schools. Across the country, virtual schools have been celebrated and criticized. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Erin Richards examined the impact of student churn on academic performance during a nine-month OBrien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University. She was assisted by Marquette student researchers Patrick Thomas, Sean Blashe, Diana Dombrowski and McKenna Oxenden. Journal Sentinel reporter Kevin Crowe did the data analysis for this series. Marquette University and administrators of the program played no role in the reporting, editing or presentation of this project. Theyre a flexible alternative to regular public schools where students can complete their studies online, at home, with a set curriculum and state-certified teachers. But many virtual schools have low test scores and graduation rates, while some private vendors that run them profit handsomely. Less explored is how virtual schools contribute to enrollment churn as students, many of whom are struggling academically, switch into virtual schools and then switch back to traditional schools, or drop out altogether. The sheer level of turnover raises questions about whether the thousands of students who switch are getting the high-quality education they were promised. And who should be held accountable if theyre not. Rampant student turnover is linked with lower test scores and increased behavioral problems, research has found. It vexes teachers and fractures critical social ties. Switching in high school is linked to an increased risk of dropping out. A Journal Sentinel series has documented how high rates of turnover can derail academic reforms and even hold back the students who stay put in high-churn schools. Urban districts tend to harbor the highest rates of churn up to 24 percent in Milwaukee and 20 percent in Racine, compared to the state average of 10 percent. But districts that host large virtual schools are a close second. Virtual schools in Wisconsin Swipe or click arrow to continue The Northern Ozaukee School District is similar to McFarland. It has 16 percent turnover, but the churn is concentrated in its virtual school, Wisconsin Virtual Learning, which has nearly 40 percent turnover. More than 96 percent of resident students stay put in the districts traditional elementary, middle and high school. Well continue to see mobility rates rise because there are so many options to move between schools, said Blake Peuse, Northern Ozaukees former superintendent and the current superintendent of St. Francis schools. And if something doesnt go right, people are apt to switch. Virtual schools are authorized to operate by traditional districts, and theyre managed by either district staff or private vendors such as K12 Inc., the countrys largest private operator of public schools. There are currently 42 virtual charter schools in Wisconsin. About 60 percent of students attend them via Open Enrollment, meaning they live in a different district. The Journal Sentinel used state enrollment and test score data to track the movement of virtual school students between 2016 and 2017. In that time frame, 2,542 students or 38 percent switched out of the virtual schools. Where did they go? Half switched to a brick-and-mortar school. They landed in 266 different districts. Another 40 percent disappeared. They might have dropped out altogether, switched to a private school, or pursued home-schooling. About 10 percent switched to a different virtual school. Mike Ford Mike Ford, an assistant professor of public administration at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, studied the same data as the Journal Sentinel. Ford found that between 2016 and 2017, the average student who switched into a virtual school saw a 30-point drop in math scores on the state exam, compared to a 10-point drop for those who left virtual schools. The exam score scale ranges from 0 to about 900. Fords analysis took into account the demographics of the switchers and their prior test scores. Without those controls, the performance was even worse and the gap even larger. The data show children transferring into virtual schools are struggling to adjust in their new learning environment, Ford said. We need to understand exactly why, to ensure those students are getting the supports they need to be successful. Why students switch Turnover is not necessarily bad. And for virtual schools, sometimes its inevitable. Students may switch to online schools because theyre seeking alternatives, and many have to cross district boundaries to do so. Of the 42 virtual schools, about half will consider students who have been expelled from traditional schools. "That's not my problem that they were having a poor experience (at their previous schools) to the point that they felt they had to pursue another option," said Rick Nettesheim, principal of eAchieve Academy in the Waukesha School District. Search the database Search our database of student turnover in Wisconsin and see how your school compares to the state averages for turnover and performance. Search the database Search our database of student turnover in Wisconsin and see how your school compares to the state averages for turnover and performance. Virtual schools are legally required to enroll students, even if they have weak academic histories. But they dont have to keep everyone. They can drop students who dont do anything the virtual version of not attending school. More than 460 students were kicked out of virtual schools for failing to participate in 2016-17, according to the state Department of Public Instruction. Another 300 students dropped out that year. Many landed back in their home districts. Its a lot of stress on the teachers, said Kim Schroeder, former president of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association union. Some students will never catch up. Last year in Milwaukee, a new student appeared in teacher Norma Mortimer's English class at Marshall High School. Mortimer was told the junior had come from a virtual school. But that wasnt the whole story. The girl said she had intended to enter a virtual school, but balked when the school wanted to charge a fee for online materials. She then sat at home for a month before deciding to attend Marshall in October. Mortimer never found the girl's records. A counselor placed the girl in Mortimers Advanced Placement Language class halfway through the school year, but her skills were limited to summarizing what she read. She never learned to actually analyze it. She missed a great deal of foundational material by missing the first semester, said Mortimer, who retired at the end of last year. On sheer talent alone, she could have been a shining star. Students who excel in cyber schools On the other end of the spectrum, virtual schools work well for thousands of students. Facebook parent groups are filled with success stories, especially for students with anxiety or mental health issues, or for those who are highly motivated and need to move at a faster pace. In Appleton, Chandos Vander Wielen enrolled her 7-year-old daughter in Bridges Virtual Academy, authorized by the Merrill School District and located about 120 miles away. Vander Wielen liked how she could customize her daughters education. She said the school lets parents pick the books and some of the curriculum. Maggie Papka, a former Pewaukee High School student, switched to Waukeshas eAchieve Academy between her sophomore and junior years. The flexibility allowed her to ride horses during the day and travel the country competing on the hunter-jumper circuit. Submitted by Abbie Papka Maggie Papka, a virtual-school graduate from Pewaukee, rides with the Milwaukee Polo Club in July 2018. Today Papka is a senior at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Shell graduate next year with a degree in biomedical engineering with a concentration in mechanical design. I thoroughly enjoyed having the independence from the traditional schedule because it let me work on one subject at a time if I wanted to, Papka said. I was able to focus more on truly understanding what I was doing in one class before moving on to the next. Papka said the most successful students she met in virtual schools were highly motivated like her and her sister, who also did well at eAchieve. But because students have to act independently, Papka said, teachers werent always immediately aware of those who were struggling. Who will be successful? A key problem for K-12 virtual schools is that its difficult to tell who will be successful. Three years ago, the state flagged 93 students at eAchieve Academy as having a high or moderate chance of dropping out, but 81 stayed. The next year, 88 students were flagged and 79 stayed put, Waukesha district leaders said. At the same time, 60 of eAchieve's 600 students dropped out in 2015-'16 and 36 did the same the next year. Its graduation rate was 57 percent in 2016 and 61 percent in 2017. Both of those were lower than the four-year graduation rate in Milwaukee Public Schools. When open enrollment students exit virtual schools, theyre supposed to return to their home districts while part of the money for their education follows them. Resident districts can count virtual-school students for the purposes of property taxes, but then a set payment last year it was $7,055 is transferred to the student's virtual school. The payment is pro-rated if students leave mid-year. Get updates on new stories from this series by joining our Wisconsin Education Facebook Group. JOIN JOIN But many of those students never show up back in their resident districts. At Wisconsin Virtual Academy in McFarland, 174 students dropped out between the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school year. Only eight re-enrolled in their home districts. Nicholas Sutherland, the principal of the school, pointed to the home districts as the problem, saying they arent doing enough to re-enroll students coming back from virtual schools. If I dont do everything to hang onto them, no one else is going to, he said. Several virtual school teachers said parents also need to understand the expectations. Kate Henn is a speech and language pathologist who has provided special-education services to virtual school students in their homes. She said shes seen parents who were completely disconnected from what their children were doing for their online studies. I know virtual schools are open to everybody, but I think there needs to be some sort of a vetting procedure, Henn said. Better supports for virtual students Some virtual schools are trying to decrease rampant switching and drop-outs. JEDI Virtual School, which serves a consortium of districts in central Wisconsin, administers an online literacy course to students before classes begin. Teachers must also complete weekly progress reports for each student. Some districts are trying to provide more in-house virtual programs to resident students instead of watching them transfer to a virtual school. The Racine Unified School District recently launched a virtual program with a full-time option for high school students. Another option: Students can alternate each day between studying online at home and coming to school for face-to-face classes. All the teachers are from Racine Unified. James OHagan, Racines director of digital and virtual learning, said counselors screen students for the program. For the first 14 days, teachers watch students closely and act as mentors to help them set goals and learn how to work independently. If the students fall behind, they are encouraged to drop right away before they get farther off track. A lot of the churn you see in virtual schools is based on knee-jerk decisions, OHagan said. We can do a better job of limiting those. Kevin Crowe contributed to this story. Erin Richards can be reached at (414) 224-2705 or erin.richards@jrn.com or on Twitter at @emrichards. By Simon Brandon The largest city in South Africa has long been overshadowed by the internationally better-known Cape Town, and dogged by a reputation for crime. But Johannesburg or Jozi, as locals call it is a growing and increasingly important financial centre with a standard of living to match. Growing financial clout Johannesburg is Africas second most important financial centre after Casablanca in Morocco, according to the 2018 Global Financial Centres Index, and the biggest south of the Sahara. And it is growing: the city attracted $13.2bn of foreign investment between 2003 and 2016, double that of Cape Town. Attractive cost of living The average salary in Jozis financial services sector is $87,000, compared with $109,000 in London, according to salary comparison site Emolument. But those South African salaries go further: consumer prices in Johannesburg are almost half those in London, according to statistics provider Numbeo, while the cost of renting accommodation is more than a third cheaper than in Cape Town. Consumers at Johannesburgs shopping malls pay prices around half those in London Cultural highlights Jozi is making a name for itself as a cultural hub, so much so that it was named the number one city in the world to visit by Rough Guides in 2015. Residents can enjoy its attractions all year round, including the Apartheid Museum, Origins Centre, which explores the history of modern humankind, and the Standard Bank Gallery, which exhibits local artists as well as hosting international shows. An exhibition of works by South African artist Walter Oltmann at Standard Bank Gallery Regeneration continues Gauteng, the province in which the city is located, had the highest rate of crimes against the person of all provinces in South Africa in 2017-18. But while parts of the city are blighted by poverty and crime, years of ongoing urban renewal have transformed the city centre. This is typified by the central suburb of Braamfontein, which has become known for its live music scene. The Orbit, Johannesburg's most famous jazz venue, is located here. A rooftop bar in Braamfontein, a popular entertainment area Walk on the wild side For those looking to escape the city, Africas wildlife is not far away. At 7,500 square miles, Kruger National Park is one of the continents largest game reserves. It is a four to five-hour drive from Johannesburg, but plenty of flights operate daily from Johannesburgs airport to Nelspruit on the parks southwestern tip. Some of the wildlife that inhabits Kruger National Park game reserve Photographs: Dreamstime; Alamy Interesting accounting of clemency's continued decline in New Mexico | Main | "Cell Phones and 'Excessive Contact': The Contradictory Imperatives Facing Californias Parole-Eligible Lifers" The New York Times has this new article, headlined "Why Some Senators Who Want a Criminal Justice Overhaul Oppose a Prisons Bill," reporting on the latest state of debate over federal statutory criminal justice reforms. The report is a bit encouraging, though also a bit worrisome. Here are highlights: In a private huddle on Wednesday on the Senate floor, a group of senators corralled Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, and asked for time for a last-ditch negotiation to try to find an acceptable compromise. Quite rightly, backers of changes in mandatory minimum laws fear that this may be the only chance for years to push a major criminal justice measure through Congress and that sentencing revisions a more politically difficult lift will languish if legislation aimed at reducing prison recidivism becomes law on its own. You dont get many opportunities around here to do anything meaningful or substantive, said Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and a chief author of the sentencing provisions. Lets not waste this one. Lets get this right. Mr. Durbin has a powerful ally in Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Grassley came around slowly to sentencing changes, but once he got on board, he has been committed. He warned again last week that no criminal justice measure can pass the Senate without new flexibility in mandatory minimum sentences. Its the right thing to do, Mr. Grassley said in a speech. Mr. McConnell could try to go around Mr. Grassley and advance the House measure, which passed 360 to 59. It allocates $50 million a year over five years for job training, education and mental health and drug treatment, and provides incentives for prisoners to take part in the programs. But Mr. Grassley has been Mr. McConnells dedicated partner in pushing judicial nominations through the Senate and in blocking President Barack Obamas Supreme Court nomination of Merrick B. Garland in 2016. His opposition would be an embarrassing obstacle. Not to mention that Mr. McConnell is not that keen on criminal justice legislation in general, and he would probably be reluctant to provoke a midterm election season battle over a measure for which he has little personal enthusiasm. He refused to put the broad prison and sentencing bill to a vote in the last Congress despite bipartisan support because of objections from conservatives, including Senator Jeff Sessions, who is now the attorney general. In his meeting on the floor with senators including Mr. Durbin, Mr. Grassley and John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican and a chief sponsor of the prison bill, Mr. McConnell was noncommittal but left open the prospect of moving ahead with a bill if an agreement could be reached. I said, Look, guys, if you all can get your act together and come up with something that youre comfortable with, that the president will sign, Id be willing to take a look at it, Mr. McConnell said in an interview with The New York Times. But he said he was not interested in wasting the Senates time. What Im not willing to do, just to refresh your memory from a couple of months ago, is have a freewheeling debate like we did on immigration for a whole week, Mr. McConnell said. We squandered a week and nothing happened. So Im in the business of trying to make a law, not make a point. Mr. Durbin and other Senate backers of the sentencing changes believe they can make some relatively modest additions to the prison legislation to achieve some but not all of their goals. They are focused on narrowing the definition of crimes that can prompt long mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug crimes and on cutting the length of some of the required sentences. They say that such changes would have a much more consequential effect on easing the United States mass incarceration than solely focusing on recidivism. We might not get everything we want, but there is some sentencing reform we can achieve with this bill, said Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah. But others believe that throwing sentencing provisions into the mix will kill the prison bill, particularly with the midterm elections looming. The sentencing changes have previously proved an impossible sell to conservative Republicans who believe the reductions in mandatory minimums make them look soft on crime. It was that previous divide that kept Mr. McConnell from moving ahead with the more comprehensive version. Backers of the prison bill, which is titled the First Step Act, say that Congress should take what it can get immediately and continue to press ahead on the more challenging sentencing changes. The First Step Act is not the end, said Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and an author of the measure. Its not even the beginning of the end. Its simply the end of the beginning on a journey undertaken to eradicate our mass incarceration epidemic in America. Those pursuing a more comprehensive approach say that the consideration of the prison bill alone could doom their efforts because it will allow lawmakers and the White House to claim they acted on criminal justice without getting at the real issue. It is one thing to say we are going to open the door an inch wider for those wanting to leave prison while ignoring the fact that they are flooding in through the front door, Mr. Durbin said. Senators now have what appears to be a slight opening to fashion a compromise they can try to sell to skeptical and resistant colleagues. If they fail, proponents of the prison legislation will no doubt begin clamoring for action on their measure, setting up a showdown with the originators of the criminal justice system proposal over what constitutes true reform. Two new short essays providing ideas in criminal justice administration to think about for a long time | Main | Disconcerting updated data on state prisoner recidivism from the Bureau of Justice Statistics The prospect of at least partial federal statutory criminal justice reform got that much brighter this afternoon when the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of the FIRST STEP Act. The vote was 360-59, with Republicans voting 226 to 2 in favor of the bill (not doubt in part because of Prez Trump's strong advocacy for prison reform), and Democrats voting 134 to 57 in favor of the bill. Democratic opposition was certainly based on the failure of the bill to include any sentencing reforms, and this Reason article highlights why this reality might bode ill for the bill's prospects in the Senate. The Reason piece has this fitting headline: "Prison Reform Bill Passes The House; Is Prison Reform Dead? The House passed a major, bipartisan prison reform bill backed by the White House, but its being attacked from all sides." Here are excerpts: The House passed legislation that would introduce several significant reforms to the federal prison system today, but the bill's future is uncertain and its passage has openly divided a criminal justice coalition that has worked together, at least in public, for the past several years. The FIRST STEP Act, which includes a number of substantive changes to the federal prison and reentry system, passed by a vote of 360-59 and now goes to the Senate, but advancing to the White House is not a sure thing. Democrats are split on it, old-school conservatives are drumming up opposition from law enforcement groups, and progressive advocacy groups are attacking it from the left. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Republican pointman on criminal justice reform, says the bill is dead in the water unless it includes major reforms to federal sentencing law as well. Trying to keep the whole thing from falling apart are a bipartisan group of House members, the White Housewhere prison reform has been a priority for President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushnerand criminal justice groups who say some progress is better than none. "I think unfortunately there are groups that would like to see sentencing reform happen right now and are not willing to settle for less," says Jessica Jackson Sloan, co-founder of #Cut50, a group that works to lower the U.S. prison population. "In some ways it's strategic because they helped us to make this bill as good as it can be, but at this point it's splitting the Democrat vote and we need a strong show of support to have this taken up in the Senate."... The bill has sharply divided Democrats. On one side is Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the bill's co-sponsor, and others who say it would provide better conditions and the possibility of earlier release for the roughly 180,000 inmates serving time in federal prison. "Any objective reading of this bill is that it will improve inmates' quality of life," Jeffries said on the House floor prior to the vote. On the other side are Democrats who say the good provisions in the bill are outweighed by core concerns over how the overcrowded, underfunded Bureau of Prisons system would handle the new programs and changes. In a "dear colleague" letter released last week, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Tx.) wrote that the reforms would fail without broader sentencing reforms.... Meanwhile in the Senate, Grassley and a bipartisan group of co-sponsors are pushing the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, which includes reductions to federal mandatory minimum sentences. The bill is the result of years of negotiation between Senate Republicans and Democrats, and the lead negotiators don't want to see their work languish. "With the President's encouragement, I believe we can reach a deal on criminal justice reform," Grassley said in a statement Tuesday. "For that deal to pass the Senate, it must include sentencing reform. This is necessary for practical as well as political reasons." However, sentencing reform is a non-starter for the White House, where Attorney General Jeff Sessions a staunch opponent of criminal justice reforms holds sway.... For supporters of the bill, the last few months have felt like an unending game of whack-a-mole. "One obstacle pops up and you knock it down," says Holly Harris, Executive Director at the U.S. Justice Action Network. "This has been a delicate dance from the beginning. I think this will be the most well-vetted bill that Congress has seen in years. It's been a long time coming, and those who stand in the way of progress, those will be the losers in this situation." Detailed review of Illinois juve offenders serving just barely "less than life" | Main | Lots of sentencing fun thanks to enduring Johnson fallout to be found in cert pool relists May 9, 2018 House Judiciary Committee approves FIRST STEP Act by a vote of 25-5 after lots of discussion of amendments As reported in this article from The Hill, the House Judicial Committee "on Wednesday approved a new prison reform bill being pushed by the White House." Here are some details: The bill, called the First Step Act, seeks to offer more funding for prison programs in an attempt to reduce an inmates likelihood to re-offend after theyve been released. The House Judiciary Committee approved the bill, by a 25-5 vote, that Reps. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) spent the last week negotiating after committee Democrats pushed back against a number of conservative provisions. In the legislation now advancing to the House, lawmakers removed language that would have allowed certain law enforcement officials and correctional officers to carry a concealed firearm in all 50 states and created more opportunities for prisoners to earn time credits by completing prison programs. They can then use those credits to serve the remaining days of their sentence in a halfway house or home confinement. The bill, which authorizes $50 million a year for five years for the Bureau of Prisons to spend on programs like job training and education that reduce recidivism, clarifies current law to allow prisoners up to 54 days of credit for good behavior annually. The law was previously interpreted as only allowing prisoners to earn 47 days a year. The previous bill, known as the Prison Reform and Redemption Act, and the current compromise, however, have divided Democrats and liberal groups. While #cut50, a criminal justice reform advocacy group led by Van Jones, the CNN host and former adviser to President Obama, is now backing the new bill, the measure is still opposed by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and 73 other groups. Democrats and progressive groups argue the criminal justice reform bill should include provisions that reduce mandatory minimum prison sentences. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the committees ranking member, said the bill is well-intentioned but the committee should be working on legislation that includes sentencing reform. He offered a motion to postpone the markup by one month to give committee members time to negotiate and markup sentencing reform legislation.... Nadlers motion was [after discussion] voted down by the committee. Progressives were able to win language prohibiting female prisoners from being shackled during pregnancy, childbirth and up to 12 weeks after a baby is born. But the committee voted down an amendment Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) offered to create a pilot program in federal prisons to allow female inmates who give birth while behind bars to live with their child in a prison housing unit until the child is two-and-a-half years old. The committee, however, approved an amendment from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to expand a pilot youth mentorship program and a pilot program that gives prisoners the skills to train rescue and abandoned dogs. The bill would take the programs from two years in 10 facilities to five years in at least 20 facilities. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) also had an amendment approved that would prevent faith-based organizations that want to offer prison programming from being discriminated against. A bipartisan amendment from Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), Collins, Jackson Lee, Jeffries and Val Demings (D-Fla.) was also approved to clarify that the legislative fix, which makes prisoners eligible for 54 days of good time instead of 47, applies to prisoners already serving sentences.... Collins said hes confident theres enough Democratic support to get the bill through the House and the Senate. They have their own process to go through. There may be some issues that we can then work on later, but I do feel this is one of the pieces of legislation that will be signed into law this year, he said. The House Judiciary Committee has this press release about the vote and key provisions of the bill under the heading, "House Judiciary Committee Approves Bill to Reform the Federal Prison System." Though not mentioned in these reports, I believe all the Republican votes coming from the committee were in favor of this FIRST STEP bill except for Rep. Steve King from Iowa, and also that a majority of the Democrats in the committee also voted for the bill (though Ranking Member Jerry Nadler and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee were among the notable "No"s). All of this suggests to me a reason to be optimistic that there might really be some notable federal criminal justice reform getting done in 2018. It is less than I would like to see, but I still think it would be MUCH better than nothing. Some of many prior related posts: May 9, 2018 at 02:01 PM | Permalink Comments These favorite issues of members on both side all seem weak and at the margins. None will have serious effect on the rate of massive criminality. The bill is pretty and frivolous. OK. A pregnant lady is unshackled. She makes run for it. She is lumbering down the hall at full speed. The guards can catch up and offer her a wheel chair ride back to her room. Silly law. Posted by: David Behar | May 9, 2018 4:30:44 PM Good time days clarification, I dont think so. It depends on the ref point. Get 54 days after 1 yr is served. Get 47 days off 12 months. So if you have 2 yrs will get 47 X 2, if you forecast ahead good time days. Frivilous at best.. Get real and say, multiply the sentence by .85 thats what you serve, not .875 as is now. Posted by: MidWestGuy | May 14, 2018 3:33:25 PM what about the conspiracy laws?i was locked up for 51 months plus 6 months half way house at the end. I was sentenced to 78 months mind you it was not a bad experience as I was elegiabble for the 500 hr. drug programin which I received 10.5 months off not the year that I was supposed to get. my wife was also incarcerated and was givin the manditory mininiumum but neither one of us had gotten caught with any dope at all they went off the woman whom we bought meth from word thst she sold us dope we didn't have a leg to stand on.my point is is that that is a crazy for coming up with crazy amounts of dope that never got seen just could have been and I never sat down and discussed anything with anybody sowhats the don gonna do with that crock of shit. Posted by: jeff bailey | Jun 19, 2018 12:45:16 AM Post a comment Death penalty restoration may get a vote in Illinois House | Main | Head of federal Bureau of Prisons abruptly resigns May 18, 2018 Prez Trump pledges to sign prison reform that will be "best in the world" As reported in this CBS News piece, both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a prison reform summit the White House this morning. Here are some of the details: Pence, taking to the podium, called prison reform a top priority for the Trump administration. Pence said the current prison system "too often" misses an opportunity to help improve people's lives, and instead just makes American communities more dangerous. Pence said the Trump administration will continue to hold accountable those who break the law, but also recognize that too many ex-offenders feel they have nowhere else to turn once they leave prison, and return to crime. "Prison reform is about changing lives, and about changing communities," Pence said. The White House has hosted such discussions before, although not in such a large summit. But the reforms Mr. Trump's administration has floated before mostly entailed better preparing inmates for reentry and reducing recidivism rates, not the sentencing reform that liberals and some conservatives have hoped for in recent years. Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who has made prison reform a top issue in his portfolio, said Mr. Trump is "all in" on prison reform, but explained why the White House's focus is narrow for now. "Sentencing reform is something that people still have different opinions on," Kushner said, noting how Washington has been unable to come to a consensus on the matter for years. Kushner said he thinks the country's system of governance works well, and requires intense deliberation on pivotal issues like prison reform. I was able to hear live a few of the comments by Prez Trump, and he pledged to sign the prison reform bill Congress delivered to him and he closed by asserting, in Trumpian fashion, that the prison reforms would be the "best in the world." People who know about prisons around the world, particularly in Scandinavia and other part of Europe, surely realize that Prez Trump is setting quite a high bar for US prison reform. But I was please to hear him make this commitment and continue to be hopeful that the energized support of the Trump Administration helps ensure that at least some form of federal criminal justice reform becomes a reality this year. May 18, 2018 at 12:18 PM | Permalink Comments Can one have faith in any "commitment" from this supreme charlatan and snake-oil salesman? Posted by: anon1 | May 18, 2018 12:22:02 PM I would like to see the Republican Congress actually pass something he would veto. Unless it has some special sting to him or his power personally, why would he? Presidents veto few things, especially passed by their own party. anon1 is right and at some point "pleased to hear him" in that context is ridiculous. Posted by: Joe | May 18, 2018 1:56:55 PM Anon1 and Joe. You sound a little upset. Posted by: David Behar | May 18, 2018 5:08:23 PM The comments can be taken as passion-less statements of reality. A person can be an "asshole" or whatever and it's proper to say so. The term comes off as a bit angry, but it also sometimes is simply truthful. Posted by: Joe | May 18, 2018 5:48:22 PM Does reform include ALL criminal convictions or just drug-related cases Posted by: Anonymous | May 18, 2018 6:02:46 PM Is this a sign Mueller has something good - that Kushner and Trump are hedging their bets to reform a prison they may be in? Posted by: Paul | May 18, 2018 10:49:39 PM https://www.c-span.org/video/?445801-2/vice-president-pence-jared-kushner-deliver-remarks-prison-reform White House Conference on prison reform was all pro-criminal. It included speeches by Texas former governor and expert on prison reform. The latter repeated the claim that crime has dropped in Texas, in the face of a population increase. The conference was moderated by a Yale Law School alumnus and Marxist radical, Van Jones. This British whistleblower was driven out of the police, for reporting the downgrading of crime reports. One should consider police reports to be worthless indicators, for the purpose of political propaganda. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2600217/Police-fiddle-crime-figures-hit-targets-Even-rapes-not-recorded-say-MPs.html Besides the artificial rejection and downgrading of reported crime, there are other factors in the reported decrease. The drop in the population of young adults, from the feminism caused drop in fecundity and in family formation has decreased the criminal cohort. The modernization of crime to the internet, makes current measures obsolete. The opiate overdose epidemic is killing criminals at a rate beyond the imagination of any death penalty advocate. Posted by: David Behar | May 19, 2018 7:25:28 AM Post a comment After SCOTUS rejected its standards, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals again rejects Bobby Moore's intellectual disability claim to preclude death penalty | Main | "Treatment of sex offenders depends on whether they've challenged rules" June 7, 2018 Large group of former prisoners urge Senate leaders to move forward with FIRST STEP Act As reported in this article from The Hill, a "group of 40 former state and federal inmates is pushing Senate leaders to take up the White House-backed prison reform bill that has divided Democrats and liberal groups, as well as GOP senators." Here is more: In a letter Wednesday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the former prisoners argue the First Step Act, while modest, offers some meaningful reforms.... The former inmates say they know the bill isnt perfect, but its something. All of us would change the bill in different ways and many of us wished it addressed excessive federal mandatory minimum sentences, they wrote. But we also know that the bill would provide some long overdue relief and hope to more than 180,000 people in federal prison and millions of their family members and loved ones on the outside.... Supporters of prison reform say demands for all or nothing is the wrong approach. Weve been disturbed by some of the comments weve heard that doing nothing is better than doing something and that is not at all what we hear from the tens of thousands of prisoners were in touch with, said Kevin Ring, president of Families against Mandatory Minimums, who spent one-and-a-half years in federal prison. Its also inconsistent with our own experiences being in federal prisons and knowing how much reform is needed. Waiting to do anything until you get everything is deeply misguided. The full letter and the list of signatories is available at this link. Here is an excerpt of a missive that merits a full read: Despite the bills clear benefits, we have heard some people suggest it would be better for Congress to do nothing rather than pass this bill. Such talk reflects a disturbing detachment from the hardships that so many families are experiencing today because of our counterproductive federal sentencing and prison policies. While we do not claim to speak for all people who are serving time in federal prison or their families, we (or the organizations at which we work) are in touch with tens of thousands of these incarcerated individuals and their families every week. Many of us still have friends and loved ones behind bars. The people we talk to have no use for abstract debates about whether to pass comprehensive or narrow reform, speculative theories about how passing reform today might impact future reform or, worst of all, political gamesmanship. These families just need some help. They shouldnt have to wait any longer. We also know from our personal experience that meaningful programming, educational, and job training opportunities in the federal system are lacking. All too often people are warehoused for decades with no hope. We know that too many parents are incarcerated so far away from their children that they rarely get to visit them just imagine seeing your kids once or twice a year, if that. Going without the hugs and kisses of our loved ones for weeks and months was the most difficult part about being in prison. We know others who have gone for years without that critical physical contact. We also know that the Federal Bureau of Prisons incorrect calculation of good time credit has deprived people of shortening their lengthy prison sentences. If anyone tells you these reforms are not real or meaningful to vulnerable families and individuals across the country, they simply dont know what they are talking about. Some of many prior related posts: June 7, 2018 at 09:18 AM | Permalink Comments Interesting article on Israeli ruling: "Room for Optimism? Israeli Supreme Court Presses for Implementation of Ruling on Inmates Right to Personal Space" https://www.lawfareblog.com/room-optimism-israeli-supreme-court-presses-implementation-ruling-inmates-right-personal-space Notable tidbit: "In the past, this principle led the court to uphold an inmate's right to vote in national elections, to publish articles in the newspaper and to receive private medical care from doctors outside the prison system." The vote link goes to foreign text, but a quick search led me to find this: https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Committee-approves-prisoner-voting-rights-in-local-elections-477927 Posted by: Joe | Jun 7, 2018 11:20:55 AM Senators care about only one thing. It is not money. It is votes. "Show me the votes." Posted by: David Behar | Jun 8, 2018 7:02:46 PM Post a comment "Procedural Justice and Risk-Assessment Algorithms" | Main | Interesting reflections on modern clemency realities Star Parker, a conservative commentator who is founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), has this notable new Townhall commentary under the headline "Senate Should Pass the First Step Act." In addition to praising the substantive provisions of the FIRST STEP Act, the commentary makes some interesting political points in an effort to convince GOP leaders in the Senate to move forward with the bill. Here are excerpts: You would think that Senate Republicans would be rolling out the red carpet for the First Step Act, particularly given that it's an initiative that started in the White House. Unfortunately, that's not happening. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is not moving to embrace this bill because it doesn't including sentencing reform. With all due respect to Senator Grassley, he's making a mistake. And as a result he's hurting his party and his country. In all my years working in public policy, one lesson I have learned is that it is an invitation for failure to try to deal with a complex issue, one having a number of separate components, in a single huge, complicated piece of legislation. The result is either no action or a sweeping -- and bad -- law.... Everyone agrees we have a criminal justice problem. But like so many other areas, there is a woeful lack of agreement about what is causing the problem and how to solve it. And this brings us back to the incredible bipartisan passage of the First Step Act. Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Senator Grassley should see this as an opportunity for the Republican-controlled Congress to show it can act decisively on a major national problem. Holding up prison reform to add on the complex issue of sentencing reform will result in what I said above: either nothing will happen or we'll get one big unworkable bill. Furthermore, prison reform has major racial implications. Blacks, who constitute 12 percent of the population, make up 33 percent of the prison population. Hispanics, who constitute 16 percent of the general population, make up 23 percent of the prison population. It's no accident that the NAACP opposes the bill. Or that Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in The Washington Post against it. Or that two very politically ambitious black Democratic Senators, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, oppose it. Passage of the First Step Act would show that Republicans care and can help a large part of minority America in distress. Black Democrats don't want this to happen. Senate Republicans must keep an eye on retaining control in November. They should get on the same page with the White House and the House and pass the First Step Act. Discussions of criminal justice supervision and collateral consequences that merit extended conversations | Main | Exploring what neuroscience may mean for criminal justice The question in the title of this post is prompted by this Hill piece from late Friday headlined "Sentencing reform deal heats up, pitting Trump against reliable allies." Here are excerpts (with emphasis added): Negotiations on a criminal justice reform bill are pitting President Trump against some of his closest allies on Capitol Hill. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sent a public warning shot to the White House this week, writing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that Trump should not support a jailbreak by reducing mandatory minimum sentences. That foolish approach is not criminal justice reform. [It would] undercut President Trumps campaign promise to restore law and order, Cotton wrote. Besides Cotton, other reliable allies of the White House, including Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), are opposing the administrations approach, which would combine a House-passed prison reform bill with changes to sentencing and mandatory minimums that have wide, bipartisan support in the Senate. Supporters say completing the bill would give the administration a needed win heading into November's midterm elections. Cotton argues it would make Trump and the GOP look weak on crime. White House officials and supporters of a deal have been talking with Republican holdouts to try to convince them to back the proposed compromise, which they say would add roughly four sentencing reform provisions into the House bill, which currently focuses on recidivism and not sentencing laws. The pending agreement is expected to add into the House bill lower mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug convictions and more exceptions for judges on applying mandatory minimums. It would also let judges avoid doubling up on convictions for drug offenders facing simultaneous charges, and retroactively apply the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, which is aimed at reducing the disparity between cocaine- and crack-related offenses. A senior White House official said they had received largely positive feedback and have 30 to 32 locked down yes votes among Republican senators. The official offered hope that the number of GOP supporters could eventually grow as many as 40 to 46. We're hopeful that we'll be able to bring everybody together to get this to a place where we have ... most of the Republicans ready to vote for it, the official said... Supporters are moving forward and trying to build support within the GOP conference, signaling they view Cotton as a surmountable outlier. I view it like the handful of people who are trying to obstruct are kind of giving it their best shot and, again, at the end of the day, I think facts usually overcome scare tactics, the senior White House official said. If Cottons op-ed was meant to build opposition to the potential deal within the Senate Republican Conference, officials suggested it appeared to have backfired. The senior White House official said that nearly a dozen Republican senators had reached out in wake of the Wall Street Journal article to say they didnt agree with Cotton. A second White House official confirmed the outreach. But opposition from a small, but vocal, group of critics has been a years-long roadblock for criminal justice reform in the Senate, where GOP leadership has been reluctant to put a spotlight on intra-caucus fights. In addition to Cotton, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) threatened to do everything within their power to block a 2015 criminal justice reform bill, which had the support of the White House. Hatch has since come on board with criminal justice legislation, and Sessions is now attorney general. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has warned him to stay out of the negotiations.... Republicans wont be able to pass a criminal justice deal on their own. A separate Senate bill, spearheaded by Grassley and Durbin, has the support of 32 senators, including Democrats like Sens. Kamala Harris (Calif.) and Cory Booker (N.J.). The White House is hoping electoral politics wont get in the way of them supporting the pending agreement. [If] people vote against it, I think it would just be really bad vote for them because this bill does a lot of good things, the senior White House official said of potential Democratic opposition.... Trump held an event on prison reform last week, and at a White House meeting earlier this month signaled support for criminal justice reform. The senior White House official said that while negotiations are ongoing and no final decision has been made, there is a very strong chance the president will support the final package. [That] means that a lot of the people will want to be with him on it, the official said. And again, they know that the president's very tough on crime and if he's supporting something then they know it's not going to be a soft on crime bill. But Cornyn appeared skeptical that Trump, despite his deep popularity with GOP voters, would be able to change the dynamics in the Senate. I dont think people are going to change their strongly held positions on the sentencing reform part, he said. So my goal is to achieve whats possible." "Tradeoffs Between Wrongful Convictions and Wrongful Acquittals: Understanding and Avoiding the Risks" | Main | New research finds racial bias infects sex-offender classification system under SORNA August 16, 2018 Senator Cotton delivers faulty arguments to prop up faulty federal sentencing system With Jeff Sessions now in the role of Attorney General, Senator Tom Cotton is one of the last members of Congress eager to push a tough-and-tougher agenda. Despite the US position as world leader in incarceration, Senator Cotton asserted a few years ago, as noted here, that "we have an under-incarceration problem." His thinking today finds expression in this new Wall Street Journal article headlined "Reform the Prisons Without Going Soft on Crime: Proposals to give judges more discretion and cut mandatory minimums endanger public safety." Regular readers will be familiar with many of the moves in this piece (even though we've not heard much from Bill Otis lately). Here is a sample: The U.S. faces a drug epidemic today, exactly the wrong time to go soft on crime. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2017 more than 72,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, a 37% increase from 2015 and a nearly 100% increase since 2008. Violent crime has declined since the 1980s because mandatory minimums adopted then locked up violent criminals. But in 2015-16, the most recent years for which full data are available, violent crime increased at its fastest rate in a quarter-century, though preliminary data suggest it might have leveled off in 2017.... This naive policy ignores the reality of recidivism. Five out of six prisoners end up rearrested within nine years, according to a recent Justice Department study. In fact, on average reoffenders are rearrested five times and not for minor crimes. Only a handful of ex-convicts return to prison exclusively for parole violations, whereas 77% of drug offenders are rearrested for serious nondrug crimes, such as murder and rape. Most criminals will commit more crimes after being released from prison, even with improved rehabilitation programs. The last thing Congress should do is shorten their sentences or allow them to serve time in home confinement.... What is the logic of such leniency? Activists say they want to reverse mass incarceration. That is a curious characterization when less than half of crimes are even reported to police and more than 80% of property crimes and 50% of violent crimes that are reported go unsolved, according to Pew Research Center. Tell those victims denied justice that the U.S. locks up too many criminals. Virtually no one goes to federal prison for low-level, nonviolent drug offenses, especially mere drug use or possession. In 2015, there were 247 inmates in federal prison for drug possession. In these rare cases, the inmates usually pleaded down from a more serious offense. In the extreme case of a manifestly unjust sentence, the pardon power is a better instrument of justice than broad sentencing reductions. President Trump has shown himself more than willing to intervene to redress such cases. Some fiscal conservatives believe that America spends too much on the prison system. Yet the Bureau of Prisons costs taxpayers less than $8 billion a year, or about 0.2% of the entire federal budget. After national security, the governments most basic responsibility is to protect its citizens from crime. The costs of crime and disorder personal and economic far outweigh the downsides of putting serious criminals behind bars. Mandatory minimums and truth-in-sentencing laws work. Rather than eliminate them, Congress should improve access to faith-based and other antirecidivism programs in federal prisons. American families deserve safe communities and protection from drugs and crime. Criminals, especially first-time offenders who grew up in rough environments, deserve second chances once they have done their time. I suspect most readers can readily see logical flaws in Senator Cotton's advocacy here (e.g., how do poor clearance rates for violent crimes justify excessive drug sentences?). Most fundamentally, the bills with a chance for passage in Congress do not get anywhere close to "eliminating" mandatory minimums or truth-in-sentencing laws, and they in fact sadly do not really do all that much more than enhance antirecidivism programs in federal prisons. But even the modest bills with a shot at passage (which have the support of Prez Trump) are too much for Senator Cotton. John Pfaff has this twitter thread in which he describes the effort as "horrifically dishonest." John attacks various numbers in the op-ed, and I will just stress a telling flip-flop on the clemency front. Senator Cotton says "the pardon power is a better instrument of justice than broad sentencing reductions," but many folks on the right criticized Prez Obama's use of clemency at the end of the term by saying it should be Congress in charge of granting any serious sentencing relief. Senator Cotton here also says here "President Trump has shown himself more than willing to intervene to redress such cases," but he has so far only commuted two extreme federal sentences (roughly .001% of the federal prison population). Prez Trump has promised to do more, but he can not be expected to nor depended upon to do the kind of reform via clemency that Congress should be doing in the first instance. UPDATE: Mark Holden has this new commentary, headlined "Correcting the Record About Sentencing Reform and Mandatory Minimums," which goes point-by-point through key claims made by Senator Cotton and provides different perspective on his assertion. ANOTHER UPDATE: Derek Cohen over at Right on Crime also has this notable response to Senator Cotton's piece under the headline "Setting the Record Straight" August 16, 2018 at 04:33 PM | Permalink Comments CUOMO: If fact-counting is anything, we've never had anybody with the level of mendacity that he has. GIULIANI: It's in the eye of the beholder. CUOMO: No, facts are not in the eye of the beholder. GIULIANI: [laughing] Yes they are. Nowadays, they are. https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a22735202/rudy-giuliani-truth-trumpism-eye-of-the-beholder/ So I doubt that Cotton is in any bothered by the claim that he is being "horrifically dishonest". Posted by: Daniel | Aug 16, 2018 6:35:53 PM Wendell Callahan. Posted by: federalist | Aug 17, 2018 7:25:17 AM Post a comment Some recent posts of note from Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform just before another big election | Main | "Fictional Pleas" The question in the title of this post is prompted by this new Washington Examiner article headlined "Prison reform bill to include sentencing, setting up post-election fight." Here are excerpts: Criminal justice reform advocates say sentencing reform provisions will be included in legislation unveiled shortly after midterm elections Tuesday, triggering an intense lame-duck struggle over attaching penalty reductions to a White House-backed prison reform bill. The First Step Act passed the House in a 360-59 vote earlier this year, but without sentencing reforms, at the behest of Republican opponents. Reform advocates expect rapid legislative action after a pre-election pause, and believe there will be enough votes to pass the expanded legislative package. Two people close to the process tell the Washington Examiner that a bipartisan group of senators has agreed to attach a set of sentencing reforms to the House-passed bill. The additions include shortening federal three-strike drug penalties from life in prison to 25 years, reducing two-strike drug penalties from 20 years to 15, allowing a firearm sentencing enhancement to run concurrently with the underlying penalty, and allowing retroactive sentencing for crack cocaine cases judged under tougher historical laws. We are very excited about it. We think that the four reforms that are in the bill are ones that make sense, said Mark Holden, the general counsel of Koch Industries and an influential conservative reform advocate. From what we understand, there are enough votes plenty for it to happen, Holden said. Holden said its his understanding that the sentencing language will also expand a safety valve option for judges to use discretion. Both Holden and another person close to the legislation drafting process, who asked not to be identified, said there is wording to reduce concern about illegal immigrants benefiting from sentencing reform. The second person said the provision is being finalized, but there will be a clarification saying this does not change existing statutes relating to undocumented individuals in the federal system. A spokeswoman for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, an influential advocate of the reforms, did not respond to requests for comment. Holden said he expects the White House, particularly presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, to forcefully back the bill. Last month, Trump said in a Fox News interview that Attorney General Jeff Sessions longstanding opposition to reforms did not represent him. "If he doesn't [support reform], then he gets overruled by me. Because I make the decision, he doesn't," Trump said Oct. 11.... Its unclear how a group of Republican skeptics, such as Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, will react. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has promised a whip count after the election, and advocates believe it will make it clear with overwhelming support.... Last month, clemency advocates including Amy Povah of CAN-DO Clemency and Alveda King, the anti-abortion evangelical leader, hosted a panel at a Women for Trump event at Trump International Hotel in Washington. Povah hopes that Congress passes the legislation, and that Trump will supplement the reform with generous use of his constitutional pardon powers. Last month, Trump said "a lot of people" are jailed for year for "no reason" and that he was actively looking to release some. Povah said clemency would be particularly appreciated around the holiday, including Thanksgiving, when presidents pardon turkeys, disillusioning people who are looking for one. I think Trump said it best, he said that hes going to release a lot of people and I think a lot of people in prison took that seriously and literally," Povah said. "He sent a lot of hope in that humans may be in line, maybe for the first time included in the Thanksgiving pardon."... Trump has spoken repeatedly about his desire to release inmates from prison after commuting the life sentence of drug crime convict Alice Johnson in June at the request of celebrity Kim Kardashian West. At a second Trump-Kardashian meeting, the TV star urged freedom for Chris Young, who was arrested at 22 and sentenced to life in prison for drug dealing. She brought with her former federal judge Kevin Sharp, who had imposed the sentence due to rigid federal laws he argued made little sense. On his own, Trump mentioned another inmate, Matthew Charles, who returned to prison this year after a court found his drug sentence was reduced in error. Could the FIRST STEP Act, with sentencing reforms added, get through Congress in just a matter of weeks? | Main | Any election eve predictions to go with a round-up of election day criminal justice round-ups? November 5, 2018 "Fictional Pleas" The title of this post is the title of this new paper now available via SSRN authored by Thea Johnson. Here is its abstract: A fictional plea is one in which the defendant pleads guilty to a crime he has not committed with the knowledge of the defense attorney, prosecutor and judge. With fictional pleas, the plea of conviction is totally detached from the original factual allegations against the defendant. As criminal justice actors become increasingly troubled by the impact of collateral consequences on defendants, the fictional plea serves as an appealing response to this concern. It allows the parties to achieve parallel aims: the prosecutor holds the defendant accountable in the criminal system, while the defendant avoids devastating non-criminal consequences. In this context, the fictional plea is an offshoot of the creative plea bargaining encouraged by Justice Stevens in Padilla v. Kentucky. Indeed, where there is no creative option based on the underlying facts of the allegation, the attorneys must turn to fiction. The first part of this Article is descriptive, exploring how and why actors in the criminal justice system including defendants, prosecutors and judges use fictional plea for the purposes of avoiding collateral consequences. This Article proposes that in any individual case, a fictional plea may embody a fair and just result the ability of the defendant to escape severe collateral consequences and a prosecutor to negotiate a plea with empathy. But this Article is also an examination of how this seemingly empathetic practice is made possible by the nature of the modern adversarial process namely, that the criminal system has continually traded away accuracy in exchange for efficiency via the plea bargain process. In this sense, fictional pleas serve as a case study in criminal justice problem solving. Faced with the moral quandary of mandatory collateral consequences, the system adjusts by discarding truth and focusing solely on resolution. The fictional plea lays bare the soul of an institution where everything has become a bargaining chip: not merely collateral consequences, but truth itself. Rather than a grounding principle, truth is nothing more than another factor to negotiate around. November 5, 2018 at 09:41 AM | Permalink Comments If we want to retain any sense of credibility, no one should ever allow a defendant to plead guilty to a crime that everyone agrees was not committed. It also corrodes the concept of the criminal justice system being about truth as opposed to the ends justifying the means. Sometimes truth and honesty are simply more important than expediency and preferred outcomes. The prosecutors involved in this kind of thing are facilitating a fraud, and if they dont think that it wont be used against them later, they are being naive. Just wait for someone to trot out the increasing percentage of defendants pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit.. What wont be mentioned is how many of them were guilty, but of a different and more serious crime. Posted by: David | Nov 5, 2018 10:58:11 PM I am a criminal defense attorney. This artifice is a direct result of mandatory sentencing and other mandatory collateral consequences where sentencing and community penalties fail to reflect the nuances and mitigating aspects of much behavior even when it technically falls within a certain criminal statute. Prosecutors (and many victims) recognize the mandatory punishment does not necessarily fit the crime but the only way to get to the "right" outcome is to work around the mandates which can never consider every scenario and often seem to be crafted with the most heinous versions of a given crime in mind. Once enacted, many political actors are loathe to correct an overreaction for fear of being accused of being "soft on crime." These pressures also undermine the use of the criminal trial as a truth-seeking mechanism because the stakes become too high for the defendant. We no longer have an adversarial system where a neutral fact-finder assesses the evidence and decides what if any sentence is appropriate. The current system largely operates within the black box of prosecutorial discretion. Posted by: Laurie Rose Kepros | Nov 6, 2018 11:17:02 AM Post a comment SINGAPORE (Nov 5): Instead of taking out a bank loan or mortgage, first-time homebuyers in Malaysia can now seek financial support from a new property investment platform FundMyHome.com. Backed by the knowledge and resources of EdgeProp.my, FundMyHome is developed by EdgeProp Sdn Bhd by harnessing recent developments in digital technologies such as peer-to-peer platforms and business models in the sharing & subscription economies. It builds on EdgeProps extensive relationships with property development companies to feature approximately 1,000 units of homes in the first phase of its rollout, all of which are priced at under RM500,000 ($165,000). The platform was launched Sunday by Malaysian prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, who at the event presented FundMyHomes first three homebuyers with keys to their new homes at Eco Majestics Harmoni Apartments. Users of the new platform will only need to fork out 20% of the propertys price in order to gain ownership, with the remaining 80% of the cost to be funded by participating institutions, who in turn share the returns from changes in the future value of the property. While Maybank Group and CIMB currently comprise the pool of investors funding the remaining 80% of the platforms listed properties, FundMyHome is anticipating more banks and institutions to participate as investors in the near future. From high-res to landed properties, all homes listed on FundMyHome are either completed or nearing completion such that buyers are able to move in, and even rent the spaces out to earn rental income soon after the transaction. Homebuyers may choose to either sell or stay on after a fixed commitment period of five years. Those who wish to stay can refinance their home via FundMyHome, or a normal bank mortgage facilitated through the platform. In a press release on Sunday, The Edge Property Sdn Bhd highlights FundMyHome as a simpler, safer and faster home ownership arrangement that provides greater emotional and financial security to first-time homebuyers, given the absence of bank loans and monthly payments which therefore helps to reduce their dependence on debt. Story continues Tong Kooi Ong, chairman of The Edge, says FundMyHome not only helps homebuyers, but also developers in selling their properties. Currently, the properties are being offered by nine participating developers: EcoWorld Development Group Berhad, IJM Land Berhad, IOI PropertiesGroup Berhad, Mah Sing Group Berhad, PKNS (Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor), PNB Development Sdn. Bhd., Sunway Berhad, Trinity Group Sdn. Bhd. and UEM Sunrise Berhad. As an inclusive scheme, FundMyHome includes real estate agents to facilitate the sales process as well as guide clients who are interested in becoming property investors. FundMyHome also democratises home ownership and stimulates the housing industry without any Government expenditure or guarantees. Housing is also a critical element of wealth as it operates as a vehicle for household saving, says Tong. An ally of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was charged with graft Monday, the latest figure from the toppled scandal-plagued government to be targeted in an anti-corruption drive. Since its shock victory in May elections, the government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has filed dozens of corruption charges against Najib, his wife Rosmah Mansor and a string of other ex-officials associated with the long-ruling former regime. On Monday, Musa Aman, the influential former chief minister of the eastern state of Sabah, was charged with 35 counts of graft for allegedly receiving $63 million in bribes while awarding timber concessions. He was one of many entrenched politicians from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party to be unseated at the polls by a Mahathir-led reformist alliance. Musa, 67, was arrested by anti-graft officials and brought to a Kuala Lumpur court where he pleaded not guilty to the charges. "I will fight this case to clear my name," Musa told reporters as he exited court after being released on a bail of two million ringgit ($479,000). Musa formerly headed UMNO in Sabah, Malaysia's second biggest state that is rich in oil, gas and timber. He is the older brother of former foreign minister Anifah Aman. The once-powerful UMNO, the main party in the Barisan Nasional coalition that had ruled Malaysia since its independence from Britain in 1957, has been rocked by desertions after its humiliating defeat. Former Prime Minister Najib, who is out on bail, faces around 38 charges, most related to allegations that he and his cronies plundered billions of dollars from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. Among those who have been charged in a widening anti-corruption drive are a former deputy prime minister, a former treasury secretary general and the ex-chief of a shadowy spy agency. FILE PHOTO: Protesters hold photos of Bahrain's main opposition leader Salman as they march asking for his release in the village of Jidhafs FILE PHOTO: Protesters hold photos of Sheikh Ali Salman, Bahrain's main opposition leader and Secretary-General of Al-Wefaq Islamic Society, as they march asking for his release in the village of Jidhafs, west of Manama, Bahrain June 16, 2015. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo DUBAI (Reuters) - A Bahraini court on Sunday ordered life sentences for three senior opposition members, overturning a previous acquittal on charges of spying for Qatar in what an international rights group called a "travesty of justice". A statement from the public prosecutor said the court sentenced Sheikh Ali Salman, secretary-general of the opposition al-Wefaq group, and Sheikh Hassan Sultan and Ali Alaswad, members of the same group, to life in jail for transferring confidential information and receiving financial support from Qatar. Bahrains public prosecutor had appealed against a court ruling that acquitted the three senior leaders last June in a rare win for opposition figures who say they have been targeted by prosecutors for their political views. Sultan and Alaswad were tried in absentia. Salman is already serving a four-year prison sentence for inciting hatred and insulting the interior ministry, after he was arrested in 2015. Along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, Bahrain imposed a boycott on Qatar last year, accusing it of supporting terrorism and cosying up to Iran. Qatar denies the charges, saying they are an attempt to undermine its sovereignty. Since the Bahrain authorities crushed street protests in 2011, demonstrators have clashed frequently with security forces, who have been targeted by several bomb attacks. Manama says Qatar supports the unrest, accusations denied by Doha. "This verdict is a travesty of justice that demonstrates the Bahraini authorities relentless and unlawful efforts to silence any form of dissent," Amnesty International said in a statement. "Sheikh Ali Salman is a prisoner of conscience who is being held solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression." Wefaq, which has strong links to the countrys Shiite Muslim majority, has campaigned for social and political reforms in the country, which is ruled by a Sunni Muslim royal family. Story continues Majority-Shi'ite Iran criticised the verdicts, its state news agency IRNA said. "These verdicts leave no doubt for public opinion and the international community that Bahrain is not looking for reform but has decided to intensify the repression," IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying. Bahrain has frequently accused Iran of interference in its internal affairs. Tehran denies the accusation. Alaswad, who has lived in London since 2011, has told Reuters that the public prosecutor used secret witnesses and a video from a Bahraini television channel which experts described as edited and incomplete. (Reporting By Aziz El Yaakoubi, additional reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Gareth Jones and Adrian Croft) By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist-run Cubas economic growth will come in at around 1 percent this year, compared with the 2 percent previously forecast, due to a fall in exports and tourism revenue, state-run media reported over the weekend. The Caribbean island's gross domestic product grew 1.8 percent last year and 0.5 percent in 2016. Economy and Planning Minister Alejandro Gil Fernandez reportedly told a council of ministers meeting that the lowered GDP growth forecast for this year was due to "less than expected revenues from activities such as tourism, the harvest (sugar) and mining (nickel)," three key revenue sources for Cuba. Gil said austerity measures, which began in 2016, would continue into 2019. They include cuts in energy and fuel to state companies and reduced imports of consumer goods and inputs for the economy. Cuba's economy is notoriously inefficient and dependent on foreign revenues. The government also spends a large amount of its revenue on the country's free healthcare system, education and other services. The Trump administration is also tightening sanctions on Cuba that have been in place for more than a half a century and which were loosened a bit under former U.S. President Barack Obama. Some economists have estimated that Cuba's import dependence is as much as 17 cents for every dollar of product produced. Cuba's GDP fell 35 percent in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, which supported the country financially during the Cold War. The rise of Hugo Chavez and his Venezuelan socialist revolution led to a partial revival of the Cuban economy as Venezuelan oil was sold to Havana at favorable terms and Cuba sent doctors and other goods to its ally. But the trade relationship has deteriorated due to Venezuelas economic crisis and declining oil exports. Cubas export revenues have declined every year since 2014, even as debt payments mounted, offset somewhat by increased revenues from telecommunications and remittances, though those earnings are treated as state secrets. Story continues Combined exports and imports fell around 25 percent from 2013 through 2017, with imports dropping to $11.3 billion from $15.6 billion during that period, according to the government. In August, the government slapped a hold on already approved "non-essential" imports. Pavel Vidal, a former Cuban central bank economist who currently teaches at the Universidad Javeriana Cali in Colombia, said the country was piling up budget deficits to keep the economy growing. Cuba's budget deficit reached 8 billion pesos last year, nearly 9 percent of its GDP, Vidal said. "This helps stimulate growth, but by accumulating a financial bubble in the form of public bonds in the hands of state banks," he said. "It can't go on forever." (Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Paul Simao) Devastating floods in Italy that saw an entire family killed when their home was engulfed in water triggered a bitter row Monday over the country's vast illegal housing problem. Rains and winds continued to batter the north while a shell-shocked Sicily prepared to bury its dead after a week of violent storms which took over 30 lives. Nine members of a single family, including children aged one, three and 15, drowned overnight Saturday after a river burst its banks in the coastal town of Casteldaccia, submerging their rented villa in water and mud. Survivor Giuseppe Giordano, 35, who had left the house on an errand with one of his children, lost his wife, two other children, his parents, brother, and sister, his nephew and the boy's grandmother. Little Rachele Giordana's open coffin was being watched over by grieving family friends in a church in Palermo. The one-year old will be buried along with her Mickey and Minnie Mouse toys, local media reported. A mass funeral for the family was set to take place in the city's cathedral on Tuesday. Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League, enraged many by blaming "armchair environmentalism" for the widespread devastation, which hit the Veneto region hardest. - 'How many deaths?' - Critics pointed instead to the scourge of illegal housing. The villa in Sicily had been built too close to the river, violating safety norms, and the owners had been ordered to demolish it in 2008, but were in the process of appealing, Casteldaccia's mayor said. Out of every 100 new builds in Italy, almost 20 are illegal, according to the national statistics institute (ISTAT). While unauthorised construction stands at 6.7 percent in the north, it rises to 19 percent in central Italy and shoots up to 47 percent in southern Italy, meaning almost one in every two houses there are illegal. In the Campania region, a jaw-dropping 64 percent of buildings are thrown up without planning permission. Of the 16,500 or so subject to a demolition order between 2004 and 2018, only 496 were knocked down. Casteldaccia's former mayor Fabio Spatafora said cash-strapped councils cannot afford to deal with the problem. "If the owner does not comply with the demolition order, the council is obliged to buy the property or knock it down, but often -- as in the case of Casteldaccia -- it doesn't have the funds," he said. He rubbished the claim that demolitions would leave people homeless, saying many of the properties were holiday lets. "How many deaths and how many tragedies do there have to be before we realise that the only real public works needed in our country are those to make our territories safe?" said Stefano Ciagani, head of Italy's environmentalist lobby Legambiente. - 'Crocodile tears' - "We've been saying it for 40 years. Houses built on riverbeds, because in Italy there's always an amnesty around the corner." "Sadly, every tragedy we have to put up with crocodile tears from those who turned a blind eye and favoured illegal construction," he said. Italy's anti-establishment Five Star party (M5S), which is governing in a coalition with the far-right League, pledged during its election campaign to tackle the deadly problem. It insisted it would not support amnesties, which are seen by many as simply encouraging illegal building. The centre-left and right parties that governed Sicily over the past 20 years have suddenly "discovered there is illegal housing there," quipped M5S head and deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio, saying "it makes me laugh". But Di Maio has himself been accused of pushing for a widely-contested amnesty for illegal housing on the island of Ischia. As the rains continued to fall across central Italy, Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris slammed the government for failing to budget for "the necessary resources to take preventative action" against future tragedies. "This past week Naples and many areas of the country have been alarmingly whipped by an unprecedented storm... as if we had lived through a weather earthquake with a tsunami on top," he said. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire speaks on tax issues at a joint hearing with lawmakers of the economic affairs committee and the special committee on financial crime at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler/Files PARIS (Reuters) - France and Germany should be able to resolve their differences over plans for an EU tax on digital giants like Apple and Facebook by December, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday. Germany has been cooler to the idea, championed by France, of pushing companies with large digital revenues in the European Union to pay more tax at source, while member states such as Ireland and Luxembourg firmly oppose the proposal. "We are determined to reach a decision together," Le Maire told BFM TV, in reference to Germany. "We have not found the common point yet that would allow us to have a decision in December." "But Germany has also said they will keep going, they will use the following weeks, that they also want a deal with France," he added. Le Maire also said he was "persuaded" a deal could be reached by the beginning of next month. (Reporting by Sarah White; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta) A string of attacks on bus drivers across China have come to light after last months fatal Yangzte crash, including two fresh incidents at the end of last week. The accident in Chongqing which killed 15 people after a female passenger assaulted the driver, causing it to plunge into the river has triggered a national bout of soul-searching over how to stop similar incidents happening in future. In response to the incident a number of local authorities, including those in Chongqing, have instituted new penalties for attacks on drivers. Meanwhile the eastern city of Nanjing said all of its 8,000 public buses would be fitted with plastic screens to separate the driver from the passengers. But as media outlets and social media users dug up a series of previous attacks on drivers, with at least 20 being recorded this year, the two latest cases only served to highlight the scale of the problem. Video footage of the first incident in Xinyu in the eastern province of Jiangxi shows that a man tried to grab the steering wheel after the driver refused to stop midway between stops. She immediately pulled the bus over to the side of the road and called the police, who detained the passenger. In the footage, later uploaded onto the Pear Video site, the driver said she had tried to remain calm during the incident because the Chongqing crash resounded like an alarm in my head. Beijing Time reported that similar incident had happened on Sunday, this time in Xiangtan in the central province of Hunan. Once again a passenger tried to grab the wheel, but this time the driver slapped the man before bringing the bus to a halt. Police are now investigating the matter, according to local media reports. Older footage of similar incidents have been uploaded onto social media, with 20 such incidents recorded this year alone. Meanwhile, the state news agency Xinhua reported that at least three people have been jailed in the province of Liaoning alone so far this year. Story continues The incidents, all of which were caused by passengers who were angry at missing their stop, happened in 2017 and did not result in any fatalities. However, between March and June this year the trio were all given jail terms of three years for endangering public safety. The Chongqing crash has also served to highlight the wider problems caused by badly behaved passengers. News portal Thepaper.cn spoke to three drivers who said they had experienced daily problems such as attempted fare dodging and abusive passengers. Deng Juan, 44, a driver in Changzhou in eastern China, told the news portal that although she had never been physically attacked in 25 years working as a driver, but she was frequently threatened and insulted by passengers who had missed their stops. I hope all passengers will be more safety conscious and show drivers more respect, Deng said. The authorities have already urged passengers to step in if they see someone attacking the driver, and a national debate has started about whether there should be a mechanism for rewarding passengers who intervene. Footage of one such incident, taken two years ago on a bus in Wuhan in central China, has started circulating widely on social media. The case has many parallels with the Chongqing crash and involved a woman who tried to grab the wheel from the driver as the bus was crossing the Yangtze river. But in this case one man did intervene, dragging the woman away and holding her down in her seat with the help of his fellow passengers. Xinhua reported that on Saturday, the director of the local Catering Trade Association had given the passenger, a man named Wu Ye, a 100,000 yuan (US$ 14,500) reward to show that society needs good Samaritans. This article Fresh passenger attacks on Chinese bus drivers highlight scale of problem after fatal Yangtze crash 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, Macau and Guangdong province are to cast aside decades of competing for tourists and work together to attract visitors to stay longer, starting with packages to extend visitors three-day average stay in the city to five days in the region overall. With more convenient transport links, they may stay in the region for a fourth or fifth day. The more tourist spots within close reach, the longer they will stay, Peter Lam Kin-ngok, chairman of the citys tourism board said. Among the ways to make the traditional rivals cooperate, Lam said, would be to encourage tour agents to design itineraries that take in multiple destinations in the Greater Bay Area an integrated innovation and technology hub uniting 11 southern Chinese cities and intended to rival Silicon Valley. Gianna Hsu, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Japanese Tour Operators Association, said the Greater Bay Area tourism project could generate 5 per cent growth in the number of Japanese visitors to Hong Kong next year. The plan would also benefit from the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and the 55km cross-border Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge that opened in September and October respectively and provide much faster travel between the neighbouring cities. Lam, speaking during a four-day trade show in Tokyo, said the city was aiming to boost its numbers of Japanese tourists and to serve as a base for increased tourism in the region. Japanese travellers have shown signs of returning in great numbers to Hong Kong, and they are among the top three groups of visitors after mainland Chinese and Taiwanese, he said. In the first 10 months of this year, Hong Kongs inbound tourists jumped 9.5 per cent to 45.68 million, three-quarters of whom are from the mainland. Japanese nationals accounted for about 2 per cent of the total. The tourism board anticipate the total tourist arrivals in Hong Kong to rise 3.6 per cent to about 60 million this year. Story continues Hong Kong has the largest number of international tourists in the Greater Bay Area, which gives us the edge, Lam said. They can easily go hiking in Hong Kong, get a gourmet lunch in Shunde and then go gambling in Macaus casinos, all in one day. Macau, which relies heavily on the gambling industry, needs a new source of income while Guangdong wants more international travellers who stay longer and spend more. Tourism Board executive director Anthony Lau Chun-hon said the Greater Bay Areas tourism opportunities would throw a lifeline to Hong Kongs inbound tour agents, who are struggling to reinvent themselves as 93 per cent of inbound tourists travel independently. They could offer services for visitors who also want to visit the watchtowers or Unesco World Heritage Site Diaolou in Guangdong, Lau said. Guangzhou Travel Services Association president Li Xieju welcomed the plan, which he said could rival similar cooperation between Southeast Asian countries. Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong used to compete with each other, he said. Now is the best time to join together and entice overseas travellers away from other regional blocs such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Alex Ip, manager of tour services firm Multinational Travel Group in Macau, said the casino city wanted to leverage Hong Kongs pool of international travellers for more growth. Macau is tiny, he said. Our reliance on the gambling industry is not good for sustainable growth. Japan Outbound Tourism Council director, Shoichi Gonda, said Greater Bay Area tourism was an interesting strategy, which was similar to the popular travel itinerary of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Gonda has seen more Japanese travellers visit Hong Kong in the past couple of years, with most of them coming independently rather than as part of tour groups. Hong Kong is a safe place and its welcoming atmosphere attracts Japanese people, he said. The trend will continue in the next couple of years. Hong Kong is the number three destination for Japanese tourists after South Korea and Taiwan, according to Japanese government statistics. The number of Japanese visitors to Hong Kong last year was 1.23 million a 12.6 per cent increase on 2016. Japan-based tour group operator JTB Corp Asia divisions manager, Yoshihide Kusuyama said that, easier access to southern China notwithstanding, Hong Kong would remain the base for travellers with multiple destinations. He said the bridge itself would not be a tourist attraction, but the access it affords would present a good opportunity for the tourism sector next year. Denise Tsang is reporting from Tokyo. This article Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong to set aside tourism rivalry and work together to tempt visitors into staying longer in Greater Bay Area 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: Hong Kongs No 2 official to stay in his job, city leader says amid speculation Hong Kongs No 2 official is not getting the boot, the citys leader advised. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was responding to a column published by Chinese newspaper Sing Tao Daily, which on Monday said Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, 67, could be removed. Citing government sources, the political column stated that Lam was contemplating a reshuffling of her top ministers to strengthen her administration and present a new image to the public as the midpoint of her five-year term drew nearer. It was a speculative report. I have no such plans Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Among the cabinet, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at the age of 68, was most likely to be replaced, the column asserted. It went on to say the No 2 official did not play major roles in policymaking. Speaking in Shanghai on Monday, Lam called the report that Cheung was getting the boot untrue. It was a speculative report, she said. I have no such plans. Whilst the chief executive agreed that it was possible to split up the Transport and Housing Bureau, she noted she did not want to spend time tackling the task at the moment. We have a lot of ongoing work, Lam added. I dont want to spend too much energy on restructuring. A source close to the government told the Post Lam was unlikely to replace Cheung with someone else during her current term. Its a very big move to replace the incumbent chief secretary and it requires the consent of the central government, the source said. Matthew Cheung has not made any big mistakes and there is no sign of tension between him and Carrie Lam. Cheung is the longest-serving government staff member in Lams cabinet, having joined the civil service as an information officer in July 1972. He is also the oldest member of her team and widely considered to have the most extensive policy experience after working in different departments and bureaus. Story continues Cheung served as labour chief from July 2007 to January 2017, five years of which were under former chief executive Leung Chun-ying, during whose administration two ministers left the government unexpectedly in 2015. Tsang Tak-sing, who led home affairs in 2015, took retirement, whilst then-civil service head Paul Tang Kwok-wai departed due to unforeseeable family circumstances. Leung had refused to elaborate whether the two had resigned or been fired. Additional reporting by Gary Cheung This article Hong Kongs No 2 official to stay in his job, city leader says amid speculation first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Is Tung Chung the new Sheung Shui? Tour influx from Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge sparks fears quiet area may become cross-border town Residents in Tung Chung on Hong Kongs Lantau Island have complained about the sudden influx of mainland tourists from a newly opened mega bridge, raising concerns the community will become another crowded cross-border town. With tens of thousands of travellers coming through on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, those living in the quiet middle-to-lower-class area are calling on authorities to enhance transport and tourism services to improve visitor flows. Tung Chung is a residential zone closest to the bridge checkpoint, which is situated on an artificial island north of Lantau. Hong Kongs Tourism Commission had raised the concerns to the Guangdong Tourism Bureau and urged for better coordination of the tour groups, the Post has learned. Police to investigate reports of mainland tour agents operating illegally On a radio show on Monday, a Tung Chung caller, who went only by her surname Cheung, said the problem had worsened since the bridge opened on October 23. There is no space for us in Tung Chung. The shops are so crowded with tourists, who sit everywhere I have to escape on Sundays now, she said. There is no space for us in Tung Chung I have to escape on Sundays now Cheung, resident The 55km bridge is the worlds largest sea crossing and opened two weeks ago. It saw a record-high number of users more than 90,000 pass through the Hong Kong side on Sunday, of which 50,000 entered the city. This compared with 86,000 people passing through on Saturday. While the government had rolled out measures to improve shuttle bus services and avoid a repeat of the earlier travel chaos when the bridge opened, the problem shifted to Tung Chung. Residents complained their peaceful community was becoming like Sheung Shui, the northern New Territories border town popular with mainland travellers, as shopping malls were flooded with tourists. The noise was also a nuisance, as outgoing travellers formed 100m queues on the street for public bus route B6 to the port area in the evening. Story continues Another caller, surnamed Ng, said he felt sorry for Tung Chung residents, adding that Hong Kongs tourism sector had to find ways to help the community. I was there on Sunday morning, and it looked nothing like Hong Kong. There were mainland tourists, and plastic bottles thrown by them everywhere, Ng recalled. I was there on Sunday morning, and it looked nothing like Hong Kong Ng, radio programme caller Did [tourism authorities] think of Hongkongers well-being, public hygiene and transport issues or were they only thinking of making money? Questions were also raised over whether the tour groups visiting Tung Chung were authorised. Jason Wong Chun-tat, chairman of the Tourism Industry Council and owner of Hong Thai Travel Services, said on the programme that mainland travel agents were supposed to contact their Hong Kong counterparts, so local agents could take over once visitors passed the port area. He said an arrangement requiring mainland operators to register with local authorities would offer better protection for travellers and enable the council to follow up on any complaints. Hong Kong asks Guangdong authorities to investigate tour operators Wong said he believed that many mainland tourists thronging Tung Chung had joined tour groups that skipped liaising with Hong Kong agents. Their tour guides mainly brought them from the port area to Tung Chung on the B6 bus route to shop and walk around for a few hours before returning to home. We will talk to the tourism sector and authorities in Guangdong and Zhuhai about this, Wong pledged. There are many tourist attractions in Hong Kong, and we dont want to create a burden for Tung Chung residents. Lawmaker Holden Chow Ho-ding said he suspected some of the tours could be illegal. He said he was in touch with Hong Kongs commerce officials on Monday, and was told that Guangdong authorities were aware of the mainland tours visiting the city without official approval. The crowdedness in Tung Chung on Sunday is comparable to Sheung Shui I will ask the Security Bureau to step up law enforcement to tackle these illegal tours, he said. Chow, who represents residents as he is on the Islands District Council, also urged the Transport and Housing Bureau to move the B6 bus station further away from residential complexes in the area. There are no restaurants or shops in the port area. I will tell the bureau that there should be such facilities so tourists dont need to come to Tung Chung, he added. This article Is Tung Chung the new Sheung Shui? Tour influx from Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge sparks fears quiet area may become cross-border town first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. FILE PHOTO: Saiful Mulook (L) the lawyer of Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy against Islam, leaves after the Court overturned the conviction, in Islamabad, Pakistan October 31, 2018. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood/File Photo AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Pakistani lawyer who helped free a Christian woman who had been sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy has fled to the Netherlands, a Dutch Christian rights group said on Monday. Asia Bibi's lawyer, Saiful Mulook, left Pakistan on Saturday, due to fear that he could be attacked after Bibi's conviction was overturned on Wednesday, the Association for Persecuted Christians said. Bibi was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Islam, and had been sentenced to death. Mulook helped overturn the decision, and has been threatened by angry mobs calling for the judges in the case to be killed. Two Pakistani politicians who tried to help Bibi have been assassinated. Several parties in Dutch parliament have said they support providing temporary shelter to Bibi if she flees there. Islamists have shut down major cities in Pakistan through days of demonstrations against Bibi's. They have said they would escalate their protests if she were permitted to leave the country. The government has indicated it will bar her from travelling abroad. (Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Peter Graff) Singapores State Courts (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) A man who allegedly broke into a Choa Chu Kang condominium unit and molested a domestic worker was charged in court for the offence on Monday (5 November). Jeffry Ali, a 32-year-old Singaporean, is said to have committed the offence in Wandervale executive condominium (EC) on the Burmese maid, also aged 32, on 4 November at about 5.15am. According to court documents, he used criminal force on the maid with the intention of outraging her modesty by kissing her on her face, cutting and removing her T-shirt and pulling down her underwear. Jeffry allegedly committed the offence while threatening the maid with a pair of red scissors and asking her to keep silent. He will be back in court on 12 November. According to a media reports, Jeffry works as a security guard at Wandervale. The Straits Times reported that an elderly resident of the condo unit in question went to investigate her grandchildrens room upon hearing movement and saw a man laying on top of the maid, who was crying out for help. The man later escaped as the resident sought help from her neighbours. The mans actions triggered a manhunt which involved some 50 police officers, including those from the Jurong Police Division and the Special Operations Command (SOC). Jeffry was arrested at the carpark of the EC at about 11.40am. If convicted of aggravated outrage of modesty, Jeffry could be jailed between two and 10 years, and caned. More Singapore stories Report: Singapore to match Malaysias decision to abolish Second Link toll for motorcyclists Singapore Assessing 2019 Forecasts With Trade War Risks in View Tan Cheng Bock, Lee Hsien Yang seen having breakfast at hawker centre Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Saudi Arabia sent two experts to Istanbul with the specific aim of covering up evidence after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its consulate in Istanbul, a Turkish official said on Monday. More than a month after the Saudi royal-insider-turned critic was killed inside the mission on October 2, Turkey has still yet to recover the remains amid claims that his body was dissolved in acid. The killing of the 59-year-old has severely dented the kingdom's image in the West and put powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the defensive. "We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of Jamal Khashoggi's murder before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises," a senior Turkish official said, asking not to be named. The official confirmed a report in the Sabah newspaper saying that chemicals expert Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were among a team sent from Saudi Arabia purportedly to investigate the murder last month. The report said they visited the consulate every day from their arrival on October 11 until October 17. Saudi Arabia only allowed Turkish police to finally search the consulate on October 15. After weeks of allegations in pro-government media, Turkey's chief prosecutor last week confirmed Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and the body was dismembered. But despite intensive searches by Turkish police, there is still no trace of his remains. The sons of Khashoggi, Salah and Abdullah, told CNN they wanted Saudi Arabia to return the body so that he could be buried in Medina with the rest of his family. - Who gave the order? - Turkey's allegation of the deployment of a "clean-up" team came after Yasin Aktay, an advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hinted Friday that the body may even have been destroyed in acid. Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told the official Anadolu news agency Monday that "all those reports should be investigated". Although Riyadh has arrested 18 individuals on suspicion of involvement, the key question remains over who gave the order to kill Khashoggi. In an editorial published in The Washington Post Friday, Erdogan said it came from "the highest levels" of the Saudi government, while he did "not believe for a second" that Saudi's King Salman had ordered the crime. Turkish media have pointed the finger at powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and analysts have said Ankara is keen to have the heir sidelined from the nexus of power in Riyadh. "Yes, a murder was committed and it was premeditated. Who gave the command for this murder to be carried out on Turkish soil?" Oktay echoed the president's question in Monday's interview. However, Erdogan has yet to directly accuse Prince Mohammed, who has condemned the murder "a repulsive incident". The unnamed Turkish official said Monday: "The fact that a clean-up team was dispatched from Saudi Arabia nine days after the murder suggests that Khashoggi's slaying was within the knowledge of top Saudi official." Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb met with Turkish authorities last week in Istanbul. But this visit appeared to be a fiasco, with the Saudi official refusing to share information from Riyadh's own investigation, according to Turkish officials. - Won't turn backs on Saudi - Prince Mohammed had been heralded in some quarters before the murder as a modern Arab reformer spearheading a bold vision to transform the country and make it less dependent on energy resources. That image has now been severely battered. There is also a new international focus on Saudi's involvement in the war in Yemen where 14 million people now stand at the brink of famine in Yemen in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis The outrage has alarmed business leaders seeking a foothold in the crown prince's reform drive but many have insisted they have no intention of pulling out. Masayoshi Son, the head of Japanese firm SoftBank which has major investments in Saudi Arabia, on Monday condemned the killing but indicated he would continue to do business with the kingdom. "As horrible as this event was, we cannot turn our backs on the Saudi people as we work to help them in their continued efforts to reform and modernise their society," Returning for its 29th edition, the Singapore International Film Festival turns its eye once again on Asian cinema, with 103 film screenings by talents from 44 countries. Starting from Nov 28, the 12-day festival will showcase classics and new titles, including debut features from Asian filmmakers such as Mag Hsu and Hsu Chih-yen. Their work, Dear Ex, takes viewers through loss, identity, and acceptance in the story of a widow who attempts to make peace with her late husbands hot-headed former lover. Another highlight in the Special Presentation category is The Third Wife, a period drama by Vietnamese filmmaker Ash Mayfair, which chronicles the life of a young woman who marries into a wealthy family and deals with issues like child marriage and womens right in 19th century Vietnam. Film still from The Third Wife The opening film, a 2018 feature called Cities of Last Things by Malaysian filmmaker Ho Wi Ding, brings you on a journey through three extraordinary nights in the life of an ordinary man, each one involving a different woman. Film still from Cities of Last Things On the local side, 18 films and co-productions from Singapore will be screened, with six feature films and 12 shorts in the mix. One intriguing title to watch out for is the world premiere of Craig McTurks The Last Artisan, a documentary following Teo Veoh Seng, who recently retired after seven decades as the head artisan of Haw Par Villa. Film still from The Last Artisan Theres also A Time For Us, a tale of a pregnant woman who purchases a black market residency permit for her unborn child in Beijing by director Alvin Lee, and 2200 Volts, Tan Siyous short story of a woman who tries to find freedom from her lifes regrets while waiting for her time in the electric chair to come. Film still from 2200 Volts Film buffs can look forward to chatting with Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh, who will be receiving the Honorary Award at the festival, and Chinese-American actress Joan Chen, who will be presented the Cinema Legend Award this year. The former is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocides of the 70s whose work revolves around his country, while the latter has appeared in over 40 film and TV roles in her career, from 1987s The Last Emperor to 1990s Twin Peaks. Story continues Film still from The Iron Ladies If youre a fan of classics from around the region, this years line-up includes comedies, dramas, and movies inspired by true stories. Thai filmmaker Yongyoot Thongkongtoons The Iron Ladies is a rib-tickling tale of a queer volleyball team that triumphs against the odds; Sepet, by the late Malaysian filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad, sets a boy-meets-girl story in her home country; while Midnight Express by Alan Parker takes on the controversial real-life story of American college student Billy Hayes, who was imprisoned in Turkey after he was caught smuggling drugs. Film still from Midnight Express Going beyond Asia, films from other festivals like Sundance and Cannes are spotlighted as well, alongside coming-of-age narratives, social critiques, and fantasy thrillers from countries like France, Czech Republic, Belgium, and Chile. FIND IT: Singapore International Film Festival 2018 is on from Nov 28-Dec 9 at various locations and timings. Tickets $12-$25 per film; masterclasses/talks: refundable registration fee of $5. The post This years Singapore International Film Festival screens more than 100 titles, including debut features of Asian filmmakers appeared first on Coconuts. Among the first rescuers rushing to the scene of Somalia's deadliest truck bombing last year were, as usual, members of the country's only free ambulance service, Aamin Ambulance. Founded over a decade ago by a Somali dentist and funded by donations, Aamin Ambulance has become an essential lifeline for ordinary folk, whether victims of armed violence, car accidents or a complicated birth. Now it is running out of cash. "This service is what people rely on in times of crisis, but we might have to suspend operations due to financial constraints," said Abdulkadir Adan, the 45-year-old founder. He blamed escalating running costs as demand for the service has grown. Adan trained as a dentist in Pakistan and returned in 2006 to Somalia, where he was appalled by the lack of free ambulances in the capital Mogadishu, a city of around two million. From his Bakara market dental practice he saw "women delivering babies rushed to hospital on a wheelbarrow". Inspired by the work of Pakistani philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi -- whose Edhi Foundation runs a network of free ambulances -- Adan spent $4,200 (3,700 euros) of his own money on a converted minibus ambulance. Today, Aamin has a fleet of 16 ambulances, employs 36 medics, drivers and support staff and costs upwards of $12,000 a month to run. Funding has come from diaspora Somalis, businessmen and even Adan's own students at a medical school in the city, who he encourages to donate after lectures. - Mogadishu's worst day - The ambulances are often among the first on the scene of regular bombings by Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab militants in Mogadishu which leave hundreds dead and maimed annually. Following the October 2017 truck bombing that killed over 500 people, donations spiked as a spotlight was thrown on Aamin's work, but a year on the money is drying up. "If it was not for the sacrifices made by the team, many people who are alive today would be dead," said Adan. "It was the worst day I have witnessed in my life, the most terrible incident," he said, adding that many of his fellow first responders that day still suffer from nightmares and panic attacks after dragging scores of charred and dismembered bodies from collapsed buildings. Well-to-do Somalis can afford to hire one of the city's many commercial ambulance operations, but for the poor Aamin is the only option, filling a gap left by the country's dysfunctional state. "If Aamin Ambulance is closed, many Somalis will die," said 20-year-old Feisal Mohamed Rashid who was rescued from a city bombing last month. Mohamed Dayib, 32, credits the courage of Aamin workers with his brother's survival after a bombing last year. "It will be disaster if this service is no longer there," he said. "Who is going to rush to the scene of a blast if not Aamin Ambulance?" Adan has appealed for support and has won some already, but he needs more. "This service is very important, and because it exists so many lives have been saved," said Bashir Yusuf, a 42-year-old businessman. "The private sector is ready to assist," he said, "but in the long term there needs to be sustainable government funding because in this country, one thing you can be sure of, is a disaster can strike anytime." Taiwan will consider a US Navy request should Washington ask to use the largest of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea for regional security purposes, the islands defence minister said on Monday in response to a series of hypothetical questions from a member of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Yen De-fa told the opposition Kuomintangs Johnny Chiang that Taiwan could also allow US warships to dock at Taiping Island, which is under Taipeis control, for humanitarian operations. Beijing views Taiwan which broke away after the end of the civil war in 1949 as its territory and subject to eventual union, if necessary by force. Beijing has warned Washington, which has undertaken to support Taiwans security, against cooperating with Taipei militarily or supplying it with arms. Beijing and Taipei lay territorial claims to most parts of the South China Sea, and have control on some of the contested islets in the Spratlys, where jurisdiction is claimed by several Southeast Asian countries. China denies request for Hong Kong port call by American warship At a parliament panel meeting, Yen told Chiang whether it was for humanitarian or regional security grounds, the islands government would consider allowing US vessels access to Taiping Island if that suited Taiwan. If it is based on security concerns that would affect the region, we will consider that, Yen said. This must also be in line with our national interests. Chiang said that the regular presence of US aircraft carrier groups in international waters in the South China Sea was aimed at checking the military expansion of Beijing, and, according to Chiang, the US might eventually make a port call at Taiping Island in addition to Singapore and the Philippines. The US naval sorties on the grounds of freedom of navigation in international waters close to the contested islets in the South China Sea draw protests from Beijing. This article Taiwan will consider hosting US warships on Taiping Island for regional security first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Also, South Korean Skelter Labs got backed by Golden Gate Ventures, and Wealth Dynamix launches in Asia Singapore-based Golden Gate Ventures backed AI startup from South Korea Skelter Labs [Press Release] South Korean AI startup Skelter Labs Inc. just announced that it has closed another undisclosed amount of funding by Golden Gate Ventures, closing the final amount to the one raised by KakaoBrain, Kakao Ventures, Stonebridge Ventures, and Lotte Homeshopping. The funding will enable Skelter Labs to expand its business activities to Southeast Asia including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia as well as Japan. Skelter Labs is deemed as one of the fastest growing AI startups in South Korea with a focus on four key dimensions of machine intelligence including vision/speech, context, and conversation. It mainly supports enterprises to apply artificial intelligence technologies along the value chain including manufacturing, customer operations, device interaction, and consumer hyper-targeting. The latest strategic investment from Golden Gate Ventures is intended to help us to expand regionally and enter new markets, said Ted Cho, CEO of Skelter Labs. Fintech Wealth Dynamix has launched in Asia [Press Release] Wealth Dynamix, a fintech specialized in client lifecycle management, has set up an office in Singapore office to mark its existence in Asia, adding into offices it just set up in New York, Toronto, and Zurich. The company has also been joined by Dominic Gamble as Head of Asia Pacific. Gamble has over 18 years experience in Asian wealth management market and most recently founded wealthmanager.com, a digital client acquisition platform across the UK and Asia. Also Read: Vietnam has the highest e-commerce adoption rate in Southeast Asia: EIU Repo Recently, The Financial Times put Wealth Dynamix as the 5th fastest growing Fintech firm across Europe. Wealth Dynamix is also Microsofts global partner for the Wealth Management industry. Story continues Singapores Temasek purchased share interest in Irish drug delivery startup Aerogen [Deal Street Asia] Singapore-grown VC Temasek has purchased a secondary share interest, owning a minority stake in Irish drug delivery startup Aerogen. Aerogen specialises in the design, manufacture, and commercialisation of aerosol drug delivery systems. With a patented technology that turns liquid medication into a fine particle mist, Aerogen allows a gentle and effective delivery of drugs into the lungs of patients. Currently, Aerogens technology is already in use in over 75 countries. Temaseks Managing Director of Investment, Abhijeet Lele will join Aerogens board of directors as part of the transaction. Digital wealth startup WeInvest expands to UAE [Business Times] Singapore-based digital wealth services and robo-advisory firm WeInvest confirmed expansion into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to serve the Middle East market. WeInvest centers its business in digital wealth in which most banks and financial institutions have recently identified the need to provide a digital wealth experience to their customers. Considering that wealth penetration within banks in the Middle East has been low for private and retail banking customers due to limited access to global investment products or strategies through the local banks, and the lack of investment advice which retail customers desire, its a high time to enter the market. WeInvests UAEs office will be located in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) since WeInvest is the only Singapore-based startup chosen to be part of the Dubai International Financial Centre accelerator programme in 2017. WeInvests entry into UAE follows after its expansion into Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Vietnam has officially released a much-objected cybersecurity draft decree [e27] On Friday, November 2, Vietnams government released the cybersecurity draft decree filled with guidelines. It required firms that provide a range of services, including email or social media, to set up offices and to store data locally in Vietnam if they collect or analyze data, let their users conduct anti-state actions or cyber attack, and if they fail to remove content deemed anti-state, fake, slandering or inciting violence. Concerns are raised regarding the type of data required by the government, citing that the new law put customer data in a compromised state and could expose local employees to arrest. The security ministry has released a statement that said the data would not be disclosed and firms would only be asked to provide user information for investigations or law enforcement under strict procedures. Also Read: How the on-demand economy is finding its niche in Malaysia Many technology companies have expressed objections considering Vietnams recent economic boom and openness to social change, making the policy a step back from the long-awaited improvements. Image Credit: Flickr The post Todays top tech news, November 5: Vietnams new cybersecurity law may hurt its digital growth appeared first on e27. The law consists of the guidelines to implement a cybersecurity law that can be a hurdle in the countrys development and innovation On Friday, November 2, Vietnams government released the cybersecurity draft decree filled with guidelines, as reported by Reuters. It requires firms to set up offices and to store data locally in Vietnam. This move would require companies to store information such as job titles, contact details, credit card information, biometric data, and medical records, according to the draft decree. The concern is that the law gives easy access to customer data in a state that maintains strict control, which could expose local employees to arrest. The security ministry has released a statement that said the cybersecurity law would protect the country from threats of tens of thousands of cyber attacks that directly cause serious economic losses and threaten security and social order. Also Read: How Infineon aims to build better semiconductors with the help of Singapore startups In doing so, the ministry assured that peoples information would not be disclosed and firms would only be asked to provide user information for investigations or law enforcement under strict procedures. Many technology companies have expressed objections considering Vietnams recent economic boom and social openness, making the policy a step back from the long-awaited improvements. With the law has been made effective, the Government of Vietnam also launched a public consultation in hopes to reach an outcome which benefits all stakeholders in Vietnam. Also Read: Malaysia confirms imposing digital tax on foreign providers, met with public outcry The law itself follows through with the tight media censorship applied by the countrys Communist Party. As a result, both Facebook and Google, two of the most used platforms in Vietnam, are directly affected as both dont have local offices nor local data storage in the country. Photo by Tron Le on Unsplash The post Vietnam finally released the anticipated cybersecurity draft decree appeared first on e27. We listen to local police and fire departments scanner traffic, but sometimes miss crimes, wrecks, fires or other incidents, especially if they happen overnight. If you know of something were not covering yet, please let Managing Editor Jeff Pownall know by emailing him at jpownall@lufkindailynews.com, or submit a news tip online by visiting lufkindailynews.com/tips. Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 469642 11-05-2018 01:21 AM Post: #1 How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa Advertisement https://m.beforeitsnews.com/v3/science-a...37731.html The trick to boosting crops in drought-prone, food-insecure areas of West Africa could be a ubiquitous native shrub that persists in the toughest of growing conditions. Growing these shrubs side-by-side with the food crop millet increased millet production by more than 900 percent, according to a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science. A couple of decades have passed since Richard Dick, a soil scientist now at Ohio State, was traveling through rural Senegal in West Africa and noticed low-lying shrubs that seemed to be doing fine despite arid conditions that had wiped out most other vegetation in farmers fields. New research from The Ohio State University has found that growing millet alongside a native shrub increases food production by 900 percent. The shrubs irrigate the crops, sharing water they draw from deep underground. The millet on the left was grown without shrubs. The millet on the right was grown next to shrubs. I said, Wow, theres some biomass! Whats that? he said, referring to his teams initial interest in finding organic matter to improve soil in the area. Since then, Dick and long-term lead collaborator Ibrahima Diedhiou of Senegal have discovered many ways in which the shrubs benefit soil and crops. But the most profound discovery came recently, Dick said. A newly published study shows that those same shrubs when planted adjacent to millet can share the precious water they draw in and boost production of one of the primary grains that provide nutrition to West Africans. I said, Wow, theres some biomass! Whats that? he said, referring to his teams initial interest in finding organic matter to improve soil in the area. Since then, Dick and long-term lead collaborator Ibrahima Diedhiou of Senegal have discovered many ways in which the shrubs benefit soil and crops. But the most profound discovery came recently, Dick said. A newly published study shows that those same shrubs when planted adjacent to millet can share the precious water they draw in and boost production of one of the primary grains that provide nutrition to West Africans. People in this part of Africa rely on locally grown crops to survive. Finding ways to increase food production, especially during times of severe drought, is critical, said Dick, a professor of soil microbial ecology at Ohio State. As things stand now, the population is continuing to climb, theres no more land and yields are staying flat. The new study has found that certain woody shrubs notably one called Guiera, after the Latin name Guiera senegalensis can effectively share their water with millet plants below the surface of the soil. Millet, a grain crop, along with sorghum, is an essential food source in Senegal. Farmers there and in other parts of the African region called the Sahel have been allowing these shrubs to grow alongside crops to varying degrees likely for thousands of years, Dick said. Some cut them back or rip them out and burn them and theyve been largely unrecognized as a resource for crops, he said. Dick and his research team have developed an innovative crop management system that they call the optimized shrub system that takes advantage of these readily available shrubs. Their approach involves the dramatic increase of shrub density in farmers fields from fewer than 300 shrubs per hectare (about 2.5 acres) to 1,500 shrubs on that same plot of land. Their system also includes fertilizing the ground with the shrub leaves and stems rather than burning this organic matter. Along with a dramatic increase in yields, this system improves soil quality, boosts nutrients in the crops and reduces the time to harvest by about 15 days, which is important in an area plagued by low rainfall, Dick said. The newly published research details one of the ways in which the plants benefit their neighbors. The shrubs roots grow deep into the soil, searching for moisture 30 to 40 feet beneath the ground surface. That obviously better equips the shrubs themselves to survive tough, dry conditions. But how do they share the liquid wealth? Dick and his collaborators created an experiment in which they were able to track water that moved from deep tap roots into adjacent pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum.) They found that, at night when the shrubs werent busy with sunlight-dependent photosynthesis the water drawn from deep underground leaks out through surface roots into the surrounding soil rather than exiting through the leaves. The stomata the pores on the leaves of a plant close in the dark, when photosynthesis stops, Dick explained. And that meant the millet plants roots near the surface are able to take up water delivered to the surface by the shrubs. The researchers confirmed this by tracking water from its initial entry into the shrubs roots to its eventual presence in the millet leaves during a scientifically imposed drought experiment that included a comparison shrub-free field. We proved that bioirrigation by these shrubs is happening and its the first time this has been shown for crop production, Dick said. This is a native plant and its free and easy to grow everything about this is positive. Now the team still wants to run pilot tests of their growing system with farmers throughout the Sahel and make any adjustments needed to foster more widespread adoption of the practice. Finding natural, easy-to-employ solutions to feed a growing population has great potential in West Africa, Dick said. In other areas of the world, including Southeast Asia and South America, farmers have adapted to population growth by extensive use of fertilizer and pesticides. But in Senegal and neighboring countries, agriculture is dependent on what nature provides growers do not typically use fertilizer or pesticides, and do not have the resources to irrigate dry crops. This is a semi-arid region, where it rains only part of the year. Some years, there are major droughts and people go hungry, Dick said, adding that between 60 and 90 percent of the Senegalese live in small, agricultural villages. The ultimate solution is going to be whatever is locally available, and finding these answers and working with the local farmers to consider potential agricultural techniques is paramount, Dick said. How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in AfricaThe trick to boosting crops in drought-prone, food-insecure areas of West Africa could be a ubiquitous native shrub that persists in the toughest of growing conditions.Growing these shrubs side-by-side with the food crop millet increased millet production by more than 900 percent, according to a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science.A couple of decades have passed since Richard Dick, a soil scientist now at Ohio State, was traveling through rural Senegal in West Africa and noticed low-lying shrubs that seemed to be doing fine despite arid conditions that had wiped out most other vegetation in farmers fields.New research from The Ohio State University has found that growing millet alongside a native shrub increases food production by 900 percent. The shrubs irrigate the crops, sharing water they draw from deep underground. The millet on the left was grown without shrubs. The millet on the right was grown next to shrubs.I said, Wow, theres some biomass! Whats that? he said, referring to his teams initial interest in finding organic matter to improve soil in the area. Since then, Dick and long-term lead collaborator Ibrahima Diedhiou of Senegal have discovered many ways in which the shrubs benefit soil and crops.But the most profound discovery came recently, Dick said.A newly published study shows that those same shrubs when planted adjacent to millet can share the precious water they draw in and boost production of one of the primary grains that provide nutrition to West Africans.I said, Wow, theres some biomass! Whats that? he said, referring to his teams initial interest in finding organic matter to improve soil in the area. Since then, Dick and long-term lead collaborator Ibrahima Diedhiou of Senegal have discovered many ways in which the shrubs benefit soil and crops.But the most profound discovery came recently, Dick said.A newly published study shows that those same shrubs when planted adjacent to millet can share the precious water they draw in and boost production of one of the primary grains that provide nutrition to West Africans.People in this part of Africa rely on locally grown crops to survive. Finding ways to increase food production, especially during times of severe drought, is critical, said Dick, a professor of soil microbial ecology at Ohio State.As things stand now, the population is continuing to climb, theres no more land and yields are staying flat.The new study has found that certain woody shrubs notably one called Guiera, after the Latin name Guiera senegalensis can effectively share their water with millet plants below the surface of the soil. Millet, a grain crop, along with sorghum, is an essential food source in Senegal.Farmers there and in other parts of the African region called the Sahel have been allowing these shrubs to grow alongside crops to varying degrees likely for thousands of years, Dick said.Some cut them back or rip them out and burn them and theyve been largely unrecognized as a resource for crops, he said.Dick and his research team have developed an innovative crop management system that they call the optimized shrub system that takes advantage of these readily available shrubs.Their approach involves the dramatic increase of shrub density in farmers fields from fewer than 300 shrubs per hectare (about 2.5 acres) to 1,500 shrubs on that same plot of land. Their system also includes fertilizing the ground with the shrub leaves and stems rather than burning this organic matter.Along with a dramatic increase in yields, this system improves soil quality, boosts nutrients in the crops and reduces the time to harvest by about 15 days, which is important in an area plagued by low rainfall, Dick said.The newly published research details one of the ways in which the plants benefit their neighbors.The shrubs roots grow deep into the soil, searching for moisture 30 to 40 feet beneath the ground surface. That obviously better equips the shrubs themselves to survive tough, dry conditions.But how do they share the liquid wealth? Dick and his collaborators created an experiment in which they were able to track water that moved from deep tap roots into adjacent pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum.)They found that, at night when the shrubs werent busy with sunlight-dependent photosynthesis the water drawn from deep underground leaks out through surface roots into the surrounding soil rather than exiting through the leaves.The stomata the pores on the leaves of a plant close in the dark, when photosynthesis stops, Dick explained.And that meant the millet plants roots near the surface are able to take up water delivered to the surface by the shrubs.The researchers confirmed this by tracking water from its initial entry into the shrubs roots to its eventual presence in the millet leaves during a scientifically imposed drought experiment that included a comparison shrub-free field.We proved that bioirrigation by these shrubs is happening and its the first time this has been shown for crop production, Dick said. This is a native plant and its free and easy to grow everything about this is positive.Now the team still wants to run pilot tests of their growing system with farmers throughout the Sahel and make any adjustments needed to foster more widespread adoption of the practice.Finding natural, easy-to-employ solutions to feed a growing population has great potential in West Africa, Dick said. In other areas of the world, including Southeast Asia and South America, farmers have adapted to population growth by extensive use of fertilizer and pesticides. But in Senegal and neighboring countries, agriculture is dependent on what nature provides growers do not typically use fertilizer or pesticides, and do not have the resources to irrigate dry crops.This is a semi-arid region, where it rains only part of the year. Some years, there are major droughts and people go hungry, Dick said, adding that between 60 and 90 percent of the Senegalese live in small, agricultural villages.The ultimate solution is going to be whatever is locally available, and finding these answers and working with the local farmers to consider potential agricultural techniques is paramount, Dick said. PopEye I Yam What I Yam User ID: 436592 11-05-2018 01:35 AM Posts: 12,555 Post: #2 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa 5* The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it. George Bernard Shaw ____________________ LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 471748 11-05-2018 02:39 AM Post: #3 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (11-05-2018 01:21 AM) How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa Just WHY do you want to 'fight' hunger in Africa? It is far from obvious to me. Just WHY do you want to 'fight' hunger in Africa? It is far from obvious to me. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 457709 11-05-2018 03:00 AM Post: #4 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa The problems in Africa are man made, therefore a shrub will make no difference. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 471975 11-05-2018 03:06 AM Post: #5 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa The shitters should be rubbing one out instead of breeding. See what I did there! LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 471975 11-05-2018 03:07 AM Post: #6 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa I find it kinda funny you'd never ban the word sh*t, know why - you have an infatuation with it! LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 310652 11-05-2018 03:13 AM Post: #7 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa so this thread isn't about George W Bush ? LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 471970 11-05-2018 03:43 AM Post: #8 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa Nature has been hacked. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 467821 11-05-2018 07:29 AM Post: #9 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa Actually this process has already been known for awhile in prairie ecosystems. But yeah, you want plants with long tap roots. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 468739 11-05-2018 10:45 AM Post: #10 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa The only thing that can fight hunger in Africa is contraception. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 468739 11-05-2018 10:46 AM Post: #11 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (11-05-2018 02:39 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (11-05-2018 01:21 AM) How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa Just WHY do you want to 'fight' hunger in Africa? It is far from obvious to me. Exactly. Their pop is projected to be 4 billion by 2100. The planet does not need that nor can sustain. Exactly. Their pop is projected to be 4 billion by 2100. The planet does not need that nor can sustain. ABCDEF_Jesus Dominios Pizza User ID: 346395 11-05-2018 10:58 AM Posts: 3,332 Post: #12 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa Nope. Till up the soil and kill all the shrubs with chemicals. Nature is stupid, cant want til food comes in a pill. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 471748 11-05-2018 12:01 PM Post: #13 RE: How One Tough Shrub Could Help Fight Hunger in Africa LoP Guest Wrote: (11-05-2018 03:00 AM) [bThe problems in Africa are man made, therefore a shrub will make no difference.[/b] Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Lunaticoutpost.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program , anaffiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.Don't be a pest to the forum.No profanity in thread-titles or usernamesNo excessive profanity in postsNo Racism, Antisemitism + HateNo calls for violence against anyone..This website exists for fun and discussion only. The reader is responsible for discerning the validity, factuality or implications of information posted here, be it fictional or based on real events. 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The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.In accordance with industry accepted best practices we ask that users limit their copy / paste of copyrighted material to the relevant portions of the article you wish to discuss (no more than 50% of the source material) provide a link back to the original articleIf you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe a post on this website falls outside the boundaries of "Fair Use" and legitimately infringes on yours or your clients copyright please contact [email protected] This website is owned by :Marco ZwaneveldDrijfriemstraat 522516 XR The HagueNetherlands.I will not rent, sell, share or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third party.We might contact you from time to time regarding your purchases or the services (like forums and announcement lists) you have subscribed to.Some of the 3rd party advertisers on lunaticoutpost.com may use cookiesto track peformance and/or to serve relevant ads.If you wish to read more and/or opt out of such cookies, please visit: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ The early Democratic contenders for 2020 are easing into what you might call the big-think phase of their campaignsfloating expansive, blue-sky policy proposals that might potentially differentiate them in what will inevitably be a very crowded field. (Politico is calling this the wonk primary.) And so far, one of the biggest idea of all has come from California Sen. Kamala Harris, who proposed giving working class families up to $500 each month via a tax credit. When Harris first debuted her plan, I had some qualms. But it turns out the bill has deeper problems than I initially realized that should make it a cautionary example for Democrats crafting their platforms. Advertisement First, a quick review of Harriss bill. The LIFT The Middle Class Act creates a refundable tax credit for workersmeaning that families can collect cash even if they dont actually owe any taxes. It kicks in by matching each dollar an individual earns, before plateauing at $3,000 for singles and $6,000 for a married couple. The credit phases down at higher incomes, eventually dropping to zero for parents making $100,000 or more. Rather than waiting for their tax refund at the end of the year, taxpayers can choose to take the payment each month. (Importantly, childless workers can get it too, but credit drops in value sooner for them). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Long story short: Couples who make less than six figures can get up to a $500 check in the mail each month. Advertisement And here it all is in picture form. Look at those trapezoids. Advertisement This bill would put a lot of money into the hands of working families, and lift millions out of poverty. So whats wrong with it? Last month, I noted three issues: First, its extremely similar to a program that already existsthe Earned Income Tax Creditand its not clear why youd want to add even more complexity to our hard-to-navigate welfare state by creating a totally new benefit rather than modernize and expand the one that already exists. Second, because only workers (and some college students) receive the bills benefits, it offers nothing to the absolute poorest Americansthose who dont have jobs. At the same time, it gives zilch to families who make more than $100,000. And whether or not you think those householdswhich make up about 29 percent of the countryneed any help, that fact alone will probably undercut its political support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Which is a problem, since a program this expensive would be an enormous political lift. Harriss office did not score the bill before circulating it (which seemed like a bit of a gamble). But since then, the University of Pennsylvanias Penn Wharton Budget Model has concluded it would cost $3.1 trillion over a decade. The conservative Tax Foundation estimates it would be slightly cheaper: $2.8 trillion. Either way, youre talking about a big, fat chunk of federal change. If one were to total up all of the money that Washington is expected to spend on Obamacares private insurance subsidies, the Childrens Health Insurance Program, and the Social Security Disability Insurance program over the next ten years, that only gets you to $2.7 trillion. Advertisement As a couple of anti-poverty experts pointed out to me, the LIFT Act also contains a fairly serious design flaw. As its currently written, the bill creates a serious financial penalty for getting married. Consider a couple with one child, where each partner makes $60,000. If they were married, they wouldnt qualify for the LIFT credit at all. If they just lived together, however, one partner could file her taxes as the head of the household, claiming the child, and collect $3,000. The other would file his taxes as single, and get no money from the credit. Advertisement End result: Married couple gets nothing. Cohabitating couple gets $3,000. You can play around more with the income combinations and come up with combos where getting hitched costs a couple a full $6,000 per year. Advertisement Marriage penalties have long been a problem in our tax code. But policy makers generally try to avoid them as much as possible, since as a rule they prefer not to disincentivize loving couples from tying the knot. When I asked Harris office about this issue, they told me that the bill still isnt final yet and that theyre continuing to look at ways to improve it. (The office has circulated a full draft of the legislative language to journalists and think tanks, but hasnt introduced it in Congress yet). Though it could require making the package more expensive, its certainly conceivable they could do some tinkering and fix, or at least minimize, the marriage penalty. Advertisement Advertisement Still, consider the issues with the legislation so far: Its complicated. Its extremely expensive. It doesnt help the poorest of the poor. It doesnt help the upper-middle class. And it penalizes married couples, which means it violates social policy making 101. Advertisement On top of all that, theres the question of who would pay for it. The draft bill includes a sense of the Senate section that suggests trying to cover the cost, in part, by repealing Trumps tax cuts, with the exception of any sections that provide relief to taxpayers with less than $100,000 in income. Harris office told me the section is only meant to be a conversation starter, but it sounds like were talking about raising taxes on a bunch families that make less than $200,000 a year, without offering them anything in return. Advertisement Its hard to imagine how a bill like this would ever fly on Capitol Hill. Which is fine. Its just a trial balloon from an unofficial presidential candidate months before the actual campaign would get underway. There should be no real harm in floating a slightly clumsy idea. But I think its worth pondering the problems with the LIFT Act, because it illustrates a trap lots of Democrats could fall into if theyre not careful as they craft their policy platforms. At the risk of stuffing everything back into the frame of the 2016 election: Harris is trying to appear bold by spending like shes Bernie Sanders, while designing her legislation like a Hillary Clinton-style technocrat (minus the technocratic precision). And its a very awkward combination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bernie Sanderss platform was defined by massive social spending programs with universal benefitsfree college for all, single payer healthcare, and so forth. The upside: He offered something for everybody, and inspired the left with a clear vision of a European-style welfare state. The downside? He got criticized by pundits and some voters for being unrealistic, in part because his ideas were really, really expensive. Hillary Clintons platform was progressive, but comparatively restrained. She preferred mid-sized to large initiatives with means tested benefits, like expanding the Affordable Care Act and tuition free college for families earning less than $125,000. The upside? Pundits gave her credit for being realistic and carefully wonky. The downside: Her platform was dull and lacked a clear vision. People remember what Sanders economic program stood for. Nobody remembers Hillarys 10-point policy plans. Advertisement Advertisement Harris is going for a synthesis of sorts. The price tag of the LIFT Act is Sanders-esque. But the basic design is Clintonian. Unlike a universal basic income or child allowance, its means testedso benefits wont get wasted on wealthier households. Its tied to workso conservatives might have a harder time criticizing it as a handout. And its similar to things weve tried before (the Earned Income Tax Credit). Its seemingly meant to solve Hillarys vision problemit is crystal clear that Harris wants to give middle class Americans lots and lots of moneywhile still getting credit for thoughtfulness. Advertisement One problem with this approach is that its technically hard to pull off. Means tested benefit programs with complicated phase-ins and phase-outs can create weird, harmful incentives like marriage penalties. The more money involved, the more the problems become magnified, and the more expensive they become to fix. Advertisement A second problem is more conceptual: Medium-bore, technocratic policy ideas dont always scale well. Again, Harris borrows much of her template from the earned income tax credit, which has been very successful at reducing poverty without attracting the ire of Republicans. Thats because it only benefits workers, costs about $70 billion per year, and operates through the tax code, where its mostly invisible to voters and thus hard to single out for attacks. While the LIFT Act is also aimed at workers, its very expensive and meant to be highly visible. The attack ad practically writes itself: Kamala Harris wants to raise your taxes so she can give money to lazy people [insert images of vulnerable ethnic minorities] who cant be bothered to work full time. Advertisement And that points to the third issue, which is pure politics. Its just not clear that a proposal to spend gobs of on money on some Americans is really going to be more politically popular than a proposal that spends gobs of money on all Americans. Moderate pundits will still gawk at the price tag of Harris bill, and Republicans will certainly try to attack it as a newfangled take on welfare. But tying its benefits to work could alienate left-wing activists, while means testing them could turn off the upper-middle-class. Rather than getting the best of Bernie and Hillary, in other words, combining their policy styles could give you the worst of both. Its only been a few days since Pharrell objected to Donald Trumps decision to play his song Happy at the rally he held the night of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, but the Trump rally playlist just lost another artist: Rihanna. The pop star saw a tweet from the Washington Posts Philip Rucker describing the mood at Trump rallies that mentioned that one of her songs was playing: Its been said a million times, but heres a million and one Trumps rallies are unlike anything else in politics. Currently, Rihannas Dont Stop the Music is blaring in Chattanooga as aides toss free Trump T-shirts into the crowd, like a ball game. Everyones loving it. Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) November 4, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rihanna was not exactly thrilled to be providing the soundtrack for Trumps ghastly fascist pageantry, and said so, writing that she would never have anything to do with his tragic rallies. Not for much longer...me nor my people would ever be at or around one of those tragic rallies, so thanks for the heads up philip! https://t.co/dRgRi06GrJ Rihanna (@rihanna) November 5, 2018 Advertisement Earlier in the day, Rihanna endorsed Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum and Floridas Amendment 4 in an Instagram post: FLORIDA: You have the opportunity to make history this election. Lets #bringithome. Vote @andrewgillum. And VOTE YES on Amendment 4 to restore voting rights to folks who have already paid their debt to society. VOTE on November 6th! https://t.co/ApH5hN7anc pic.twitter.com/Kpxz9XleYZ Rihanna (@rihanna) November 4, 2018 Rihanna joins a long list of musicians who have protested Trumps use of their music, including Neil Young, R.E.M., and Queen, but she has an advantage none of her predecessors could claim: She is not just a pop star and cosmetics mogul, shes also the Barbadan ambassador at-large. So this isnt just a dispute over music rights, but a burgeoning international diplomatic crisis. Somebody should show the president the video to Bitch Better Have My Money so he backs down, or before long well be at war with the entire Caribbean. In an age of food television, when at any given moment Ted Allen is saying Youve been chopped, Bobby Flay is adding Guajillo peppers to a dish, or Guy Fieri is, well, being Guy Fieri, Salt Fat Acid Heat is making its mark as the newest and most distinctive treat culinary television has to offer. Adapted from chef Samin Nosrats cookbook, the four-part Netflix series dedicates an episode apiece to each element in the title: salt, fat, acid, and heat. These, Nosrat says, are the essentials of flavor and good cooking, and she travels to Italy, Japan, Mexico, and back home to California to talk about how they figure into different cuisines. Advertisement On its surface, the show sounds like any number of offerings you might already find on the Food Network, Cooking Channel, or Travel Channel, but from the start SFAH reveals that its interest lies not in restaurants and celebrity chefs but rather in a totally different kind of food culture, one centered on the care and cultivation of individual ingredients. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the first episode, Fat, Nosrat visits Italy to learn about the creation of olive oil. The cinematography is lush and romantic as the camera sweeps over the landscape: The grove of olive trees sits between the sea and the mountains of Liguria, which, according to olive oil experts Franco and Paolo Boeri, is part of what distinguishes that oils flavor. This mix of sea, mountains, and woods gives us flavors that are very delicate but also very intense, says Franco. You can taste different flavors that tell you about the land. Each oil of Italy contains, land by land, its history, says Paolo. The sentiment is remarkably poetic, especially for a mundane ingredient most people already have in their cabinets. But the oil is not simply described as a medium for the flavors of a finished dish (though it is that, too); it has a particular personality of its own drawn from where it was born. Advertisement There are, of course, other food shows that similarly zoom in on ingredients: Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern made a name for its host by pinpointing unique ingredients from regional cuisines. But that show and others of its ilk approach ingredients with eyebrows raised, where a foods foreign natureits bizarreness, subjectively framed by the contours of a particular American perspectiveis the main focus and appeal. SFAH embraces ingredients as living histories, links to cultural traditions that still continue today. Advertisement Culture is at the root of SFAH, but not in the same way it is for other travel food shows like Anthony Bourdains Parts Unknown, Ugly Delicious, or Taste in Translations; it lacks the political bent of the former and the global compare-and-contrast model of the latter. In SFAH cultural identity is never proclaimed or explained; it simply is, and exists in the food itself, in the ingredients, which tell their stories in a way that isnt defined by outsider expectations. Though its not a political show, this is SFAHs most political act: exploring and learning about food as tradition and identity in a way thats celebratory and appreciative without being presumptuous or didactic. Advertisement Advertisement Spice, Paolo Boeri says in that first episode, is one of the three parameters for good olive oil: If its spicy, its alive. In SFAH, every ingredient has its own life and backstory that should be considered before the cooking can even begin. In Episode 2, Salt, Nusrat meets fifth-generation soy saucemaker Yasuo Yamamoto, who talks about the traditional Japanese way of making soy saucea rarely used method that takes about 21 months longer to produce than your everyday supermarket bottle. Advertisement Yamamoto walks among the giant barrels, kneeling to check on the moromi, or fermenting soybean mixture, and says, I dont make the soy sauce. The microorganisms make it. I check on them every day. And I talk to them. My microorganisms work harder when someone is watching. The popping noises in the moromi, he says, show that the microorganisms are doing their job. Nosrat leans over one vat to hear the popping and gasps when she does; the camera zooms in as though we too are crouched overhead, watching and listeningand the mixture does in fact bubble and pop, the microorganisms well at work. Advertisement This kind of visceral interaction also distinguishes SFAH from its culinary competition: Ingredients must be considered with all of the senses, and the show provides as much of that sensory experience to its viewers as it can. The camera lingers on the ingredients being worked, and while every episode ends at a table with a spread of food, the recipes and meals ultimately feel more like an afterthought, secondary to the flavors and ingredients that brought us to this point. That isnt to say, of course, that there are no recipes, or that they dont matter even in this culinary revolution of a show. Its adapted from a cookbook after all, so the recipes are all included online, though mostly in the form of approximations Nosrat cooked up herself. The grilled chicken with soy sauce opens with a small dedication, adapted from Yasuo Yamamoto, as does the Ligurian focaccia, adapted from Diego with the help of Josey Baker. Each recipe is an act of translation, just as SFAH is a show that translates an alternative understanding of food. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the Acid episode, Nosrat meets a Mexican family that cultivates melipona honey, a special variety indigenous to the Yucatan, in the way their Mayan ancestors have for thousands of years. They talk about the bond between the Mayas and the bees, who provided them with honey for medicinal purposes while the Mayas protected and cared for them, a tradition they continue to uphold today. We clean. We give them water. We watch over them, says Carlos Escobedo as they show Nosrat the hives. Like theyre the boss and were the workers. We serve them. The idea of service to ingredients, of makers and chefs as servants to food rather than masters of it, is key. Understanding and respecting the basicsand the traditions that come with themis how you get to the delicious meal in the end. Advertisement Unlike that popular genre of American food shows that joins the travelogue with the recipe booka la Taste in Translations, Rachael Rays Tasty Travels, Ugly Delicious, Anthony Bourdains Parts Unknown, and Bizarre Foods with Andrew ZimmernSFAH doesnt zero in on restaurants or tourist attractions. It doesnt present a sweeping macro view of foreign cities or countries. It doesnt host many celebrities or move through its locations from a tourist perspective. And, of course, it doesnt star a male chef (and definitely not a white male chef) on a food journey. Nosrat, in all of her effervescence and enthusiasm, spends the series learning about the essentials of food, absolutely brimming with awe every time she discovers something new or takes a messy bite of ragu and pavo en escabeche. Rather than the discovery of a restaurant or a people or a trend, SFAH is about paying attention to food down to its foundational building blocks, honoring its ingredientswith all of their histories and individual personalitiesand savoring the results. No wonder the result leaves a good taste in the mouth. Back in the 1990s, when my last name was Nardella, I was a mother of two living in a Virginia suburb of Washington, working as a Republican fundraiser. Through community engagement and charity work, I met Alice and Ken Starr. The Starrs, in turn, introduced me to the head of a Dallas-based strategic communications firm, Merrie Spaeth, and around 1997, Spaeth hired me to run her boutique D.C. office. Starr was then serving as the independent counsel investigating the relationship between Bill Clinton and a White House intern, and in 1998, Spaeth and I were charged with helping prep Starr to present his history-making report to Congress. In the course of our work, I met one of his teams key lawyers, 33-year-old Brett Kavanaugh. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One day, after a group meeting in the independent counsels offices, I was alone in the conference room, walking around the table and gathering up materials. The door opened, and someone came in. I dont believe I looked up to see who it wasI just assumed that somebody had forgotten something. In what seemed like a split second, Kavanaugh had come around to my side of the table and was invading my space, badgering me in a way that I didnt understand. I changed directions around the table and kept moving. He followed on my heels. Heres how I remember our interaction: Him (very angry): You are going to tell me exactly who you are and why you are here. Me: I am here at the invitation of Judge Starr, and he shared with the group who I am and why Im here. Him (pointing a finger in my face, I can feel his breath): No. Im telling you Me (defiant stance): And Im telling you to go talk to Judge Starr. Advertisement I didnt know what prompted the confrontation at the time, and I still dont. He couldnt have possibly thought I was a spy, because he knew who I waswe had met before and been in each others company several times since. Advertisement I know it sounds like a strange, ultimately meaningless conversation. But its not the exchange that sticks with me, its how he made me feel. You know when something is off. And in that moment, I was in fight-or-flight modewell, specifically, flight mode. I remember flying around that table trying to get away from him. I was thinking: Why is he so mad? He knows who I am and why Im here. I know he will not hurt me. Someone will come. Why isnt someone coming? I kept saying Starrs name, and finally Kavanaugh appeared to come to his senses. He stopped haranguing, his face relaxed, and he left the room. It was like hed momentarily been a different person. Advertisement Advertisement I know it sounds like a strange, ultimately meaningless conversation. But its not the exchange that sticks with me, its how he made me feel. I hesitated to bother Starr. I had such enormous respect for him, and we were about to present the Starr Report. I was going to go to him with this? But professionally, I felt I was obliged to let him knowpart of my job in prepping the team for the public was to watch for anything that might cause a problem. Starr seemed astounded when I told him what had happened. He said that he had never seen something like this from Kavanaugh before and that he was going to speak with him. There was tension in the office, we both agreed, and he said Kavanaugh probably was being protective of him. I said I thought Kavanaugh might be jealous or territorialfriends and outside advisers like me had started showing up more and more toward the end of the investigation. I believed Starr when he told me he would address it with Kavanaugh. Advertisement Advertisement Starr also told me he thought Kavanaugh was going big places. He said he was very smart. He thought he might make the Supreme Court. Not if he treats women like that, he wont, I recall saying. This was seven years after Anita Hills testimony had made us all much more attuned to the gender dynamics of our workplaces. I would ask Starr about Kavanaugh in the years following. I would say, Hows Brett? and he would reply that he was great, he was married, he was doing well. I saw Kavanaugh once or twice after thatone time at a private party where I believe he was with his wife. (Slate reached out to Kavanaugh, who declined to comment. Slate also contacted the authors ex-husband, who said that she had told him in 2010 about a jarring interaction shed had while working for Starr and that shed clarified in 2012 that the interaction had been with Kavanaugh. Further, her daughter provided text messages from Julywhen Kavanaugh was known to be on the short list for the Supreme Court but before Christine Blasey Fords accusation was publicly knownin which the author said she had a story to share about Kavanaugh. She told her daughter the story later that month, before Fords accusation became public.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am a lifelong Republican. And yes, I am one of those Republicans who felt betrayed when my party bounded eagerly into the lap of Donald Trump, but that hardly makes me a Democrat. I dont believe in the concept of sanctuary cities or consider monument-removal a priority. Until last year, I had a Virginia carry permit for my handgun. My conservative reflexes make it hard for me to oppose a Republican appointee. But just over a month ago, I watched Kavanaugh defend himself before the Senate Judiciary Committee against Christine Blasey Fords charges of sexual assault. Her testimony struck me as credible. When I saw the nominees facial expressionthe same pinched eyes and lips of the person who tried to bully me that day in 1998I was taken aback. The word feral came to mind. And when he showed the entire world that rabid temperament Id seen, a switch flipped inside me. I flashed back 20 years to that conference room and relived that guttural fear. I realized that what I had experienced that day hadnt been some one-off outburst prompted by stress. And I decided that I had to go on record with the senators who were faced with choosing whether to give Kavanaugh lifetime tenure on the nations highest court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Oct. 2, five days after Ford testified, I provided a statement describing my experience to Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and Lisa Murkowski; as bipartisan backup, I included Democratic Sens. Mazie Hirono and Chris Coons. A Hirono aide asked me if I wanted to give a statement to the FBI, but I didnt reach out to the bureau, and no one from the FBI ever reached out to me. (The FBI investigation was already open when I gave my statement, and I assumed it was going to be a legitimate inquiry that focused on accusations that were more serious than my own.) In and of itself, my story is not earth-shatteringthere was no physical contact, let alone criminal behavior; I was rattled but not traumatized. But it does suggest Kavanaughs alleged belligerence extended beyond high school and college and was not exclusively alcohol-related. It seemed to me to be relevant to the larger question of judicial temperament that the senators were charged with weighing as they considered whether to seat this man on the bench. Advertisement Advertisement I shared my story with some Republican male friends in the weeks surrounding the hearing. None of them questioned its validity. They just didnt think it mattered enough for their guy to lose his spot on the Supreme Court, just like none of the Republican male senators thought Fords story mattered enough to tank Kavanaughs nomination. And neither did Starr, apparently. I still have great respect for Starr, but I was astonished and dismayed when I saw him go on CNN the week after the historic Ford-Kavanaugh hearings and use the words unblemished and perfect to describe his proteges reputation for treating people with dignity and respect. (In a statement, Starr confirmed that the author assisted him during the independent counsel investigation and wrote, I do not recall any mention of any incident involving Brett Kavanaugh. To the contrary, throughout his service in the independent counsels office, now-Justice Kavanaugh comported himself at all times with high professionalism and respect toward all our colleagues.) Advertisement Theres a lot Ive let slide in my life, but I will not let this one go. Which is why I flew from Northern Virginia to North Dakota on my own dime last week to help re-elect Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. I realized I had to do this when I saw the devastation etched on her face earlier this month, after she announced shed be voting no on Kavanaughs nomination. It was a vote that has drawn insults from her opponent and will possibly sink her political future in her red state. It could also affect the balance of power in the Senate. I submitted my statement to the senators because I didnt want to find myself having to explain to my daughters why I didnt stand up to Brett Kavanaugh the second time around. At Heitkamp headquarters in Bismarck, Ive met four other womenfrom New York and Illinois as well as North Dakotawho volunteered because of what they saw in Kavanaughs testimony. Like me, they dont want to sit and do nothing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When I go out canvassing, I wear an olive-drab jacket that I decorated with white custom letteringon the back it reads YES I DO. I want everyone to know its OK to say you care. Indeed, people stop me everywhere to talk about my message. I knock on doors, and I talk to everyone who will listen to me. The conversations that stick with me the most are the ones with Democrats who say that they would have stood by Heitkamp even if she had voted for Kavanaugh. Those comments remind me of how remarkable it is that Heitkamp chose to do the right thing. As I go from door to door, I have started telling the Democrats what I learned in my decades working for Republicans. Republicans win because they never, ever give up, and because Democrats do. But maybe, after Kavanaugh, Democrats will realize its time they change their tactics. Some things are not worth giving up. With the midterm elections coming on Tuesday, I spoke by phone with Dave Wasserman, the Cook Political Reports U.S. House editor. My goal was to get a snapshot of the race for the House, and to find out what Wasserman makes of early voting trends, and what races political junkies should be paying attention to early Tuesday evening. Our conversation, edited and condensed for clarity, is below. Isaac Chotiner: Democrats seem to be doing extremely well in a bunch of House polls, although their lead on the generic ballot has either stayed steady or ever-so-slightly dipped. Where does the race stand right now, on Sunday afternoon, in your opinion? Advertisement Dave Wasserman: Democrats are still the clear favorites for the House Majority, but its not a done deal. It never has been. Were noticing a few different trends. Id put House races into three large buckets. The first would be Republicans running for reelection in upscale suburbs that voted for Hillary Clinton, and those are the lowest hanging fruit for Democrats. That list includes Barbara Comstock in Virginia, Mike Coffman in Colorado, Erik Paulsen in Minnesota, Leonard Lance in New Jersey, Mimi Walters in California, and Kevin Yoder in Kansas City. So those races have been pretty bad for Republicans for a while and arent getting any better. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The second bucket would be competitive seats in Trump zones that voted for Trump by double digits. We have noticed some improvement for Republicans there, in places like downstate Illinois, upstate New York, and the Iron Range of Minnesota. You can make a case that things have gotten better for Andy Barr in Kentucky, which also fits that characteristic. I think that speaks to Republican voters coming home on cultural issuesboth Kavanaugh and caravans and Trump. Advertisement But the third bucket is where things have moved the most. Middle-income suburbs that voted for Trump by single digits. Those are the bellwethers that will decide the House. We have seen movement towards Democrats in places like Michigan-8, Illinois-14, Utah-4, and Georgia-6, even though thats kind of an upper class suburb north of Atlanta. It still voted for Trump by single digits. I think Pennsylvania-10 might fit that characterization. So those are the places that are most worrisome for Republicans especially because of getting outspent in those seats. If Democrats do well in that last group or bucket, how do you explain the late break? Does the hard-edge cultural appeal play less well there? Is it really a huge money advantage? Did the Democrats just choose really good candidates? Advertisement Advertisement Weve observed two partially-offsetting trends recently. First, what weve learned in the period since Labor Day is that culture war issues, like Kavanaugh and the supposed invasion, are better suited to motivating the Trump base than tax cuts. The Republican message in so many of these special elections was tax cuts, and it fell flat. Were seeing the enthusiasm gap between the two parties narrow. The bigger concern for Republicans, though, is independents. They still trail among independents by considerable margins, particularly independent women. Democrats have had more resources by far to target those voters. Thats where Democrats financial advantage really has come into play, because all the money in the world is not going to move hardcore Trump supporters or people who are very sympathetic to the President, but it can make a real difference with independents. So in a place like suburban Chicago, or suburban Atlanta, its a big reason why Democrats are doing well in bellwether districts. Advertisement Advertisement There have been a few House racesSteve Kings race in Iowa, Don Youngs in Alaskawhere weve seen some closer poll numbers in places with long-time incumbent Republicans, and these dont fit into any of the three buckets you assigned originally. How do you understand whats going on there? Advertisement Well, theres a fourth smaller bucket and thats Republicans who have no one to blame but themselves for their political problems. Don Young has been a Congressman for 45 years, and in some respects, has overstayed his welcome with an electorate that is getting younger and more independent-minded. Thats not to put him down as equivalent to Steve King or Duncan Hunter or Chris Collins, who are either under indictment or as good as indicted by their own party. Now I should caveat, its probable that all of those Republicans win, but theres still a good chance that one of them will lose. Advertisement Have you looked at any early-vote turnout numbers that suggests to you that the models the polls have been using for turnout are incorrect? I havent seen much early vote data that convinces me anyones ahead or convinces me that our priors are off, mostly because we learned our lesson in 2016. What I can say is looking at the early voting data in places like Texas and North Carolina, this is going to be a very high-turnout midterm, something of a hybrid between a typical midterm and a typical Presidential election. You can make the case either way as to whom that benefits, but in Texas in particular what weve seen is that early voting numbers are running almost on pace with 2016, which is staggering. But the two counties running closest to their 2016 numbers are Travis and Dallas, which are home to a lot of Democratic trending white voters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the two counties at the bottom of the heap that are not on pace as much are Hidalgo and Cameron, which are the two biggest 80 percent plus Hispanic counties. So my take away is that liberal or upscale whites are more enthusiastic about this election than Republicans or Hispanics. Many of these races have a lot of undecided voters. Some of the Upshot polls have had as much as 15 percent of voters undecided. Im assuming that there are not actually 15 percent undecided, that some people just dont want to say, and then some of them maybe wont vote. But is there a general rule on House elections about how undecided voters break for or against incumbents in midterms? Advertisement Theres not as much of a general rule as there is a tendency to break against the party in power. This is one of the reasons why the interpretation of polls in 2016 was worse than the polling itself. A lot people looked at Hillary Clintons lead over Donald Trump, which was between three and four points at the end and said, Shes going to win. Well, not only do we not have one national election for President in this country, but her lead was in the 45 to 42 percent range. That meant that there were a whole lot of undecided voters. Historically, they tend to break more against the party in power. The party in power in 2016 was Democrats. The problem for Republicans is that theyre the party in power now. A generic ballot average that shows Democrats with a 50 to 42 percent lead probably means Democrats actual lead is larger. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Oh, you do think its larger? OK, thats interesting. Special election results have suggested that. The Democrats are outperforming their typical margin in special elections by 16 points. Thats a much more positive indicator for Democrats than the generic ballot. Advertisement For people following this on Tuesday night, what are three House races where we might see results come in early that we should pay attention to as bellwethers, and what should we look for in those three races? Id be looking at Kentucky-6, Virginia-2, and Virginia-7. If Republicans hold Kentucky-6, which is where well get our first results, thats not fatal for Democrats, because after all its a state Trump won by 15 points. But if Democrats win it, watch out. Now in Virginia-2 and Virginia-7, if Republicans hold those two, then they could be on their way to holding their majority. Democrats would want to win at least one of those three as a sign theyve broken through in districts Trump won in 2016. Theyll need to win some of those suburban Trump districts to win the majority. A top official in President Donald Trumps administration thought that the best way to describe the Florida governors race, in which the Democratic candidate is vying to become the states first black governor, was with the phrase cotton-pickin. Public policy matters. Leadership matters, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said at a rally in Lakeland. And that is why this election is so cotton-pickin important to the state of Florida. I hope you all dont mess it up. Perdue, a former Georgia governor, was in Florida campaigning for Ron DeSantis who is running against Democrat Andrew Gillum. Advertisement Wow: While campaigning for racist Ron DeSantis, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue manages to use the phrase cotton picking when making the argument against electing the first black governor in Floridas history. #FLGov pic.twitter.com/zDmbqB50ua American Bridge (@American_Bridge) November 3, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DeSantis campaign declined to comment on the statement. You would have to ask Governor Perdue about any of his remarks, Stephen Lawson, a spokesman for DeSantis campaign, told Politico. We were happy to have him in Polk County campaigning with us. Advertisement This is not the first time a Trump ally has used the racially charged phrase. David Bossie, the presidents former deputy campaign manager, was temporarily suspended as a contributor fo Fox News after he used it on air. Bossie told Joel Payne, a black Democratic strategist, that he was out of his cotton-picking mind. Before Bossie could apologize, host Ed Henry characterized the phrase as obviously offensive. Fox News also issued a statement criticizing Bossies choice of words. David Bossies comments today were deeply offensive and wholly inappropriate, a Fox News spokesperson said. His remarks do not reflect the sentiments of Fox News and we do not in any way condone them. Fox chyron: "Pundits call Trump supporters racist" Fox contributor (and Trump supporter) to black guest during the segment: "You are out of your cotton-picking mind." I mean... pic.twitter.com/jBnBmBcml7 Lis Power (@LisPower1) June 24, 2018 Advertisement Perdues choice of words to describe the Florida gubernatorial contest was particularly eyebrow-raising considering how race has played such a prominent role in the race. The day after the primary elections in the state, DeSantis called Gillum articulate and said voters should not monkey this up. DeSantis refused to apologize, insisting his choice of words had zero to do with race. Advertisement Reports had predicted this would happen, but it seems to be happening earlier than expected. President Donald Trump appears to be laying the groundwork to shake off any blame for the likely Republican losses in the House during the upcoming midterms. Talking to reporters outside the White House two days before election day, Trump was optimistic about the GOPs chances in the House races but made sure it was clear that he has been laser-focused on the Senate. Advertisement I think were going to do well in the House but as you know, my primary focus has been on the Senate and I think we are going to do really well in the Senate, Trump said. With so many people in Congress, with so many people in the House, its very hard to make those stops. But Ive made a number. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Donald Trump on the midterms: I think we are going to do well in the House, I think we are going to do really well in the Senate ... the level of fervor, the level of fever is very strong on the Republican side pic.twitter.com/WHrn1NNiYE CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 4, 2018 Advertisement The words amounted to the starkest indication that Trump has grown less optimistic about the GOPs chances of retaining control of the House, where Republicans face greater headwinds than in the Senate, notes the Associated Press. Trump did speak positively about the excitement he is seeing at rallies, noting that the level of fervor, the level of fever is very strong in the Republican side. Polls suggest Republicans are far likely to keep control of the Senate whereas Democrats are seen as likely to regain control of the House. Advertisement Trumps words about the Senate vs the House align quite well with a piece Politico published Friday that claimed the White House was already planning how to spin the results of the midterms: Advertisement In public and private, Trump and advisers are pointing to the presidents surge of campaigning on behalf of Republican Senate candidates 19 rallies alone since Labor Day as evidence that nobody else could have had a bigger impact in the states. The argument is classic Trump, who despite making the midterms a referendum on his own presidency, has a history of personalizing and then dwelling on his victories while distancing himself and diverting attention from his losses. Fox News Sean Hannity and talk show host Rush Limbaugh, both of whom are staunch supporters of the president, will join Trump for the final rally before the midterms on Monday night in Missouri. Given the ongoing controversies over apparent voter suppression in multiple states and Donald Trumps history of promoting conspiracy theories about illegal voting, it would be understandable to view the Department of Justices announcement that it is sending election monitors to 35 counties across the country with suspicion. Many of the counties the DOJ is targeting (like Georgias Gwinnett County) will be crucial to tight House and gubernatorial racesand a quote attributed to Jeff Sessions in the announcement says monitors will be on the alert for fraud, which seems like a dog-whistle to right-wingers who are convinced that millions of undocumented caravan terrorists are planning to vote for Democrats on Tuesday. Advertisement However! The Obama administration sent out more than 500 monitors in 2016 to 67 different locations in 28 states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Federal election monitorsas distinguished from federal election observersdont even have the statutory authority to enter polling places unless theyre invited by local officials. Former DOJ civil rights division chief Vanita Gupta told NPR in 2016 that the purpose of monitors, rather, is to simply create a deterrent effect and give voters confidence via their presence. An initial local news report from Oklahoma indicates that the county in that state thats being monitored is being targeted to ensure that it offers bilingual services, which is a Normal Times function of the DOJ civil rights division. A elections official and frequently quoted expert on Latino civic participation in Harris County, Texas (Houston) also called the deployment routine. So probably normal, unless the monitors all start making ludicrous claims about fraud. Well see! As thousands of Central Americans, mostly of Honduran origin including a vast number of children, are attempting to escape unfathomable violence, making their way across Mexico by foot, the primary response of President Donald Trump, along with Fox News, has been fear mongering. By hyping the nonexistent security threat posed by the caravan with false claims that mixed-in are unknown Middle Easterners and criminals carrying multiple diseases on their way to invade America, the manufactured crisis is a transparent bid to garner support for Trumps immigration policies ahead of the midterm elections. But to counteract the hysteria, some commentators on the leftas well as many observers in the mediahave responded by minimizing the importance of the caravan, and by extension, the brutal humanitarian crisis that caused it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last week, after The New York Times made the caravan their front-page story two days in a row, some questioned whether it was even worth paying attention to. CNN wondered whether it wouldve been covered at all if Trump wasnt talking about it. Its news because Trump made it news, wrote Oliver Darcy. Esquires Jack Holmes dismissed it as, not important in the homestretch of an election, and made the comparison, echoing Vox, that the amount of coverage the caravan has received is as unjustified as the coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak and Hillary Clintons emails during the 2016 election. The idea that between 3,000 and 7,000 Central Americans migrating together across borders is only worth covering in light of Trumps xenophobic rhetoric is not only offensive, but dangerous in its own right, as it downplays a historical occurrence and the dangers these people are facing, both at home and during their journey north. This is the largest mass migration thats taken place in the region in recent times, and it also adds to the more than 60 million people around the globe that the United Nations estimates have been displaced, which is a record high in recorded history. Advertisement Advertisement The caravan got its start with about 160 people in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, which according to data from the Mexican non-profit group, Civil Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, ranked as the most violent city in the world from 2011 to 2015. Adding to the rampant violence, the World Bank estimates that slightly over 60 percent of the countrys population live in poverty. As it made its way along the Northern Triangle, more and more joined, as people in El Salvador and Guatemala face similar challenges. For decades, Central Americans risked the perils of the journey north through Mexicosexual assault, extortion, kidnapping, and death at the hands of smugglers, corrupt police and cartelsbecause the prospect of staying home was that much grimmer. Advertisement Advertisement Their decision to travel in large groups is not as much an act of protest as one of self-preservation. Theyre choosing glaring visibility as a safety measure, even when they know the United States will be waiting for them, ready to send them back. Indeed, safety is the caravans driving force, but it is also a desperate attempt to get people to recognize their humanity, and a friendly cry for help. Their visibility clarifies that they are not looking to enter the United States as undocumented immigrants, but as self-recognized asylum seekers. Advertisement Admittedly, the lefts argument against exhaustive coverage of the caravan wasnt just about the importance of it, but the concern that blowing the issue out of proportion could galvanize fear-mongering and drive hysteria in favor of conservative votinga tactic the right has used successfully in the past. It is what Voxs Matt Yglesias has dubbed the hack gap, a conservative strategy to control news cycle through the manipulation of polarizing issues to create panic and influence election outcomes. In this sense it is vital to consider the effects of coverage and the news cycle, but theres a way to do it without downplaying a humanitarian crisis, which is independent of American politics. As it is, U.S. and Western media dont report enough on issues that are happening outside the countrys borders, and framing this only in terms of its importance to the election or the U.S. debate over immigration reduces thousands of people to props. They deserve more. When Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign in June 2015, Clayton Keirns, now 29, saw an opportunity. I was business-minded and kind of conservative, and I was like, wow, this is something Ive never seen before, Keirns said in an interview this summer, describing how he started a Facebook page called Donald Trump for President to see what happens. He threw a little money at boosting the page through Facebook ads and bought a few thousand likes from an online service. The page took off, he said, hitting 100,000 followers during the peak of the 2016 primaries and 1 million on Inauguration Day 2017. He changed the name to Donald Trump Is My President after Trump won; the page now has 1.8 million followers. Advertisement Donald Trump Is My President is now part of a bustling network of eight pro-Trump Facebook pages that together count about 8 million followersnumbers that would make plenty of digital media operations jealous. Those pages, which include Donald Trump Fan Club and I Like Donald Trump, exclusively send links to the same website, Ilovemyfreedom.org. There, Keirns and his business partners run a small blogging operation that filters the news into posts and opinion pieces that tend to be emotionally grabbing, politically sensational, and as flattering to the president as possible. The undertaking is part of a cottage industry of highly engaged Donald Trump fan pages that know how to get more likes, shares, and clicks than many of the traditional news outlets against which they compete for Facebook users attention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These pages are very easy to find. Search Donald Trump on Facebook. Scroll past the presidents own page and that of Donald Trump Jr. and youll find a deluge of pages with names like Donald Trump for President (4 million), Donald Trump Is Our President (3 million), and USA Patriots for Donald Trump (nearly 2 million followers). They share memes, videos, and articles often written by their creators. One recent popular meme shared by Donald Trump for President contained nothing but large text over a bright colored background that read, For those who support the migrant invasion heading our way, please post your home address. Theyll need a place to live. That was shared more than 48,000 times. Advertisement These pagesand their liberal counterparts, like Occupy Democrats and Proud Liberalare often not the work of hobbyists but of entrepreneurs who have turned a talent for political Facebook engagement into businesses they can live on. And business in this frenzied election year appears to be bustling, even as Facebook has tweaked its news-feed algorithm to reduce the spread of divisive partisan content and news more generally, in addition to cracking down on false news and foreign propaganda masquerading as domestic political content. Like any digital news operation, these pages often link to sites where they can run ads. The page Donald Trump Is Our President, for example, only posts links to FBNewsCycle.com, while USA Patriots for Trump only posts links to the website Magavoter.com. Advertisement Advertisement I found Ilovemyfreedom.org over the summer while searching through Facebooks database of political ads. I wanted to see what kinds of messages conservatives were trying to amplify about White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders after she was denied service at a restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. A handful of the adsthat is, Facebook posts whose reach a page owner had paid to boost, often while using Facebooks tools to target specific audienceslinked to Ilovemyfreedom.org, which is brimming with headlines about how Democrats are failing, why Brett Kavanaughs accusers are liars, and how Trump is a beloved leader whos saved the country. Theres also an online store where one can buy Donald Trump commemorative coins, socks, or a shirt that reads Extremely Deplorable. Advertisement Advertisement Ilovemyfreedom.org doesnt make it easy to find the people who run it. It took calling phone numbers listed on archived versions of the site, searching a Minnesota business registry, and tracking down Twitter accounts that posted links to the site to finally find the individuals responsible for the content. Those people turned out to be Keirns; Jack Murphy, whos in his early 20s; and Al Ferretti, a 50-year-old resident of Minneapolis who started Ilovemyfreedom.org. Ferretti also owns a company called Making Web Profits that specializes in digital marketing for dental practices. Advertisement Ferretti launched Ilovemyfreedom.org along with a Facebook page, Trump for President Fan Club, in 2016, as the presidential election was heating up. As the page started to attract more followers that summer, Ferretti began contacting other pro-Trump Facebook pages that were developing audiences to see if there was room for collaboration. Thats how he met his eventual business partners: Keirns, who is based in Southern California, as well as Murphy, who is based in Kansas and who mostly focuses on the e-commerce site. Ferrettis page, which he renamed President Donald Trump Fan Club after the election, now boasts more than 1.4 million followers. Ilovemyfreedom.org is technically a project of Making Web Profits. All three partners told me in July that they make a living from the operation, which they said is profitable, though they wouldnt share any financial numbers. They did say that Ilovemyfreedom.org gets between 5 and 10 million page views. (They didnt specify whether that was unique or total views.) Beyond ad revenue, the site makes money through its online store. When I asked to talk again with the trio in October, they declined. Advertisement Keirns, Murphy, and Ferretti told me they attribute their success to the sincerity of their worktheyre true Trump believersand the close attention they pay to what their readers want to interact with. As Keirns put it, these readers are seeking affirmation for their right-leaning views and support of Trump, something they dont find in the mainstream media, which they distrust. In that way, these pages are meme-laden, more-explosive complements to Fox News, which is one of the most successful publishers on Facebook, but can only pump out so much content each day. Advertisement Advertisement Like, with our audience, these people are not looking at Huffington Post or Occupy Democrats, which is the liberal version of us, Keirns said. They dont like those pages. They have customized their feeds to see pro-Trump stuff. And that pro-Trump stuff gets a tremendous amount of engagement, often receiving thousands of likes and shares, particularly when the mainstream press is focused on a story that casts Trump or his policies in a bad light. Advertisement It just seems like 50 percent of the country is watching a different movie than the other 50 percent, Keirns said. You know, you have 50 percent who said they had the worst day in the world and say that they need therapy or whatever after Justice Kennedy announced his retirement, and the other 50 percent is rejoicing. Ilovemyfreedom.org is there for that second 50 percent. The page runners told me that they dont consider what they do to be journalism, but as something akin to conservative commentary. Their entire business is premised on the insight that partisan self-victimization and fear of immigrants and elites will lead to clicks, and therefore cash. Take a headline from last week on Ilovemyfreedom.org: Nancy Pelosis Top Legislative Priority Would Punish Those Who Criticize LGBT Issues. The article gives Trump fans something to share thats on the news, with a far-right slant that paints a fairly inaccurate portrait of what Pelosi is actually proposing, which is that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 be expanded to include federal anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ-identifying people. The point is to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation beyond the workplace, like in health care, restaurants, or housing. But on Ilovemyfreedom.org, the story is about how people who might deny service to LGBTQ people because of their own beliefs would themselves become targets of discrimination. When the site isnt lionizing Trump, it focuses on stories that portray Trump or his supports as victims of liberal zeal. Another post from last week focuses on hate mail received by a rabbi of the Tree of Life synagogue, the site of the shooting that left 11 dead, after he said in a statement that President Trump would always be welcome at the place of worship. The article then claims that the shooters anti-Semitism perfectly matches the hateful anti-Jewish rhetoric frequently used by the Democrat Party and its allies, which is offered as a quote, but with no attribution. Its the only post on the Pittsburgh shooting to be found on the site. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The three partners say they now pay about 10 people to work on the operation, including article writers and page managers. The core three are all ferocious consumers of news, and they do the work of deciding what is and isnt a story, which often means turning to trusted conservative sources for guidance. We are so involved in the news and politics. We got notifications that come to our phone, and we just kind of pick and choose what we want, said Keirns. A lot of the times Matt Drudge is our go-to guy, so if Im writing a story and something big happens or if I get a notification from Fox News, the first thing I do is type in drudgereport.com and see everything, and I go to all the links and click through those. Then they write their version of the story. Advertisement After running these pages for two years, the team has learned what engages its fan base, which these days means negative coverage of immigrants, CNN, and female Democratic politicians like Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Any criticism of Trump makes for good fodder too. The page creators told me their audience went nuts when Jimmy Kimmel made fun of Melania Trumps accent and were furious when Robert De Niro said, Fuck Trump at the Tony Awards. That does nothing but bond people closer to Trump, Keirns said. I mean, nobody is going to join the left side if they see talking like that, and whats kind of crazy is that after Trump won, we heard the left say, Oh we have to find a way to speak to these Trump supporters. Advertisement Advertisement Keirns told me he realized just how divided the country is when the Access Hollywood tape came out toward the end of the 2016 campaign. We posted a survey on our page and it said, Do you still stand with Trump, and I believe it had close to like 100,000 people who voted and said yes, he told me. The top comment below the Access Hollywood tape poll was: If people are offended by Trumps words, then who in the hell bought the several hundred million copies of 50 Shades of Gray. That comment, Keirns says, got thousands of likes. I just took a step back and said, Very interesting, I dont think [the election] is over quite yet. Advertisement Advertisement Ferretti, Keirns, and Murphy take seriously Mark Zuckerbergs comments in 2017 about how he wants to build a platform for all ideastheir business couldnt work without Facebook, after all. But they seem to have a clear awareness of what is welcome on the platform and what is not. In addition to its crackdown on foreign propaganda and false news, Facebook has been purging domestic political pages that the company classifies as spam. Facebook said it took down more than 800 pages in October that appeared to be political groups but instead posted stories that took people to websites for the purpose of showing them ads. The Ilovemyfreedom.org pages remain up, however, perhaps because they tend to avoid hoaxes and instead write opinion pieces and news aggregationalbeit sometimes with misleading framingson topics in the headlines. Advertisement Advertisement None of this will give comfort to anyone worried about the synergistic relationship between political polarization and Facebook engagement. Pages like the ones Ferretti, Keirns, and Murphy run appear to break none of the rules that govern the Facebook news feed, but their entire business is premised on the insight that partisan self-victimization and fear of immigrants and elites will lead to clicks, and therefore cash. All of this was still the case for this cycles election, and unless something about the incentives that drive Facebook engagement change dramatically, it will probably be the case for the next one too. Christmas markets in the Slovak capital will start in mid November. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Even though the weather in Bratislava is 10 degrees warmer than average, preparations for Christmas are going to plan and on Friday, November 2, the city council installed the traditional Christmas tree in the Main Square. The city traditionally starts the preparations for the Christmas markets in early November, said Bratislava Mayor Ivo Nesrovnal. An inseparable part of this is the installation of the Christmas tree. The city has to install the tree first as the construction of the Christmas market stalls on the central squares would make this impossible later. Read also: Read also: Holiday season starts, Christmas markets open Read more This year the Christmas tree is a blue spruce. The 30 year old, 14-metre high tree is a gift presented by the Milan Gocky family from Bratislavas borough of Raca. It was growing in their garden in the way of gas piping and had to be cut down. The Christmas market on Hviezdoslavovo Square, organised by the Old Town borough, will start on November 16, while the Christmas market on the Main and adjacent Frantiskanske Squares, organised by the city council, will start on November 23. They will last until December 22. The Slovak Spectator spoke with the new president of the Slovak Automotive Industry Association (ZAP) Alexander Matusek about the challenges the Slovak automotive industry faces and more. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Slovakia is part of the global automotive industry and thus Brexit and US import tariffs, as well as tightening emissions regulations, mean a challenge for the automotive industry in Slovakia. Apart from these issues, Slovakia also has to tackle a lack of qualified labour and keep the Slovak automotive industry competitive in the long run. The Slovak Spectator spoke with the new president of the Slovak Automotive Industry Association (ZAP) Alexander Matusek about the challenges the Slovak automotive industry faces and more. The Slovak Spectator (TSS): How do you assess the year 2017 and thus far 2018 in the automotive industry in Slovakia? Alexander Matusek (AM): The year 2017 in the automotive industry was stable. Car production again exceeded one million passenger cars. The suppliers sector again did not only supply components to carmakers in Slovakia but also to those beyond the borders, exporting 60 percent of its production. The development so far this year has been very similar, though the launch of production in the brand new facility of the British-Indian Jaguar Land Rover in Nitra in late October may affect results of the automotive industry already for 2018. TSS: What does the arrival of this carmaker means for the automotive industry in Slovakia? AM: Firstly it means strengthening Slovakias focus on industrial production. The new investor is bringing in new technologies, systems and ways of cooperation. This enriches existing carmakers as well as suppliers. Moreover, along with the investor, its traditional suppliers are coming to Slovakia; we believe that this will be an opportunity for existing suppliers, too. TSS: What are the biggest challenges the Slovak automotive industry faces? AM: In the short-term view, the biggest challenges are the influence of Brexit, as Read also: Read also: Automotive industry gets a boost but also faces challenges Read more the industry depends on what conditions the European Union and United Kingdom agree on, and the threat of imposition of tariffs on cars imported to the USA. In the long-term view, the development of the automotive industry, not only in Slovakia, will be affected by legislation adopted by the European Commission on reduction of emissions in road transport and increase of safety measures that will impact future systems of mobility and their propulsion systems. It is important to add that the behaviour of drivers and expectations of the younger generation will have an influence on the future of mobility too. TSS: How do you see the future of cars with diesel and, in general, combustion engines? Not only have members of the European Parliament agreed on the 40 percent reduction of CO2 emissions in new cars by 2030, but also an increasing number of European cities are banning diesel cars. AM: These are two different things. Diesel vehicles produce less CO2, i.e. the emissions targeted by the just negotiated EU legislation, than petrol ones. Thus a higher market uptake of diesel vehicles with modern technologies for particulate filtration and elimination of nitrogen oxide emissions would open more opportunities for carmakers to reduce CO2 emissions from automobile transport. On the other hand, the aggressive campaign launched against diesel vehicles disinforms potential buyers and directs them to other alternatives, including petrol cars. It is also necessary to add that diesel bans in cities do not apply to modern diesel technologies, as is often presented in the media. Today's big dams are not on the map. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The successor to the former state producer of maps, the Harmanec Military Cartography Institute (VKU) has decided to release a special historical map of the former Czechoslovak Republic. The map, entitled 100 years since the establishment of Czechoslovakia 1918-2018 aims to show both the historical and modern day area covered by Czechoslovakia 100 years ago, informed PR manager of VKU, Dusan Hein. The basis of this memorial cartographic piece is a map of Czechoslovakia between the years 1918-1920, he said, as quoted by My Bystrica. A look at the map from this era is fascinating. The Orava region does not yet have the biggest Slovak water dam and Liptovska Mara is absent from Liptov, but all the villages that have been covered with water for many years now are all depicted, the spokesperson added. A keen observer would not find Partizanske on the map, or Batovany. There are also no railways, the construction of which started in the 1930s, for example that between Cervena Skala and Margecany. On the contrary, it shows the lines of the forest railways, only a few of which survive today. The historical map is accompanied by educative features: portraits of presidents, the development of the currency, state symbols and the borders of the Republic. You will also find information about significant organizations that were founded during the time of Czechoslovakia's existence or that connect the Czech Republic and Slovakia today. Czechoslovakia was a unique country from its beginning to end and the map provides a copybook example of the extent and depth of its story in history, said Hein, as cited by My Bystrica. The Foreign Affairs Ministry has failed to publish on its website any official statement concerning the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Slovakias Foreign Affairs Ministry has not yet published any official statement regarding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey in early October. It did say that it condemns the act but only after receiving questions from the Sme daily. Slovakia could show its condemnation of the act by banning the supply of weapons to Saudi Arabia. The country is one of the biggest receivers of discarded Slovak weapons, many of which, according to the 2016 findings of investigative journalists, it gives to militants, Sme wrote. The Slovak government has failed to say whether it will embargo the export of weapons. The Foreign Affairs Ministry told the daily that they are waiting for the decision adopted by the European Union. A similar statement was voiced by Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer) who said on October 26 that if the EU decides to stop the exports, Slovakia will join in. Slovak weapons probably end up in rebels hands Saudi Arabia has started purchasing weapons more actively in the past few years. In 2017, it even became the biggest importer of weapons in the world. They are used by its army in the civil war in Yemen, but Saudi Arabia has been criticised for attacking civilian targets. Read also: Read also: Amnesty International: Stop arms deliveries to Israel Read more Experts on trade with weapons agree that Saudi Arabia does not need army material imported from the former members of the Soviet Union, including Slovakia. They most probably end up in the hands of rebels in Syria, as well as war zones in Yemen and Libya. Between the years 2013 and 2017, Slovakia has sent weapons worth more than 10 million, according to the Economy Ministrys reports, Sme wrote. However, the total volume of licences on weapon exports is much bigger. The country has so far granted licences worth more than 93 million. It is not clear to what extent they have been used since the ministry used to state only the volume utilised in a respective year, Sme wrote. Then-PM Robert Fico (Smer) commented on the exports in 2016, saying that a weapon is a business product, like anything else. Since then, the Economy Ministry has not granted any export licences to Saudi Arabia. It failed to say why, Sme wrote. Kalinak received a bike Read also: Read also: Weapons are smuggled through Slovakia, Czech journalists reveal Read more Though there are not many meetings between Slovak and Saudi Arabian governmental representatives covered by the media, former interior minister Robert Kalinak (Smer) has often facilitated security agreements between Slovakia and the United Arab Emirates, a neighbour of Saudi Arabia that often collaborates with them in various international matters. Back in January 2018, Kalinak received a motorbike from his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates. The machine, worth nearly 200,000, was tailored in the Slovak colours. We have built a relationship over the past years and this was an expression of our mutual respect, Kalinak said back in June, as quoted by Sme. It probably works this way there. Investigators agree that the leaks can be dangerous. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The police and the prosecutors office have been complaining about the leaks from the investigation of the murders of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova. For example, the police operation against people who were later charged in the case had to be carried out earlier than planned, allegedly because the information that they were being monitored leaked to the media. Moreover, several journalists knew the date the operation was planned for. Shortly after the detentions, the media learnt about the testimony of one of the accused, and they later received the alleged testimony of a former member of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) intelligence agency, Peter Toth. However, it does not seem that the police or the prosecutors office have adopted steps to stop the leaks, the Sme daily reported. The risks of information leaks Read also: Read also: Smother impunity before it can breathe Read more The massive leaks of information before suspects are detained can lead to, for example, the loss of evidence during house searches. Therefore, the respective bodies should be trying to find out who is leaking the information, former Czech investigator Robert Slachta told Sme. Its important that this does not happen, he added. Apart from police officers, a number of people have access to the information in the investigation files. Permission to carry out an operation similar to the one in Kolarovo (Nitra Region) in late September, has to be issued by the prosecutor and the court needs to approve any house search. Several lawyers and investigators addressed by Sme said that the information regarding the monitoring of the people from Kolarovo could have been given to several prosecutors, judges and their subordinates. Police Corps President Milan Lucansky, for example, described the lawyers representing the families of the murdered couple as those leaking the details to the media. However, they respond by saying they can get access to only some parts of the file and learn much of their information from the media, Sme reported. At the same time, they also consider the information leaks to be a problem. What should be done? After the police operation in Kolarovo and charges against the four accused were laid, even more people had access to the file. The reason is that the accused can ask for their lawyer to be present at police actions during which evidence against them may be collected. Czech investigators addressed by Sme confirmed that at this stage there were more leaks to the media. Read also: Read also: The people charged with Kuciaks murder reportedly bought weapons in Hungary Read more In the case of the Kuciak and Kusnirova murders, the public learnt, for example, that one of the accused described controversial businessman Marian Kocner as the person who actually ordered the hit. The media later informed that the accused had planned more murders. The fact that the public has learnt the name of a person who is collaborating with the police can scare others away from testifying to the police, Czech investigator Josef Mares told Sme. To prevent the leaks, the police could decide to deny access to the lawyers representing the accused to certain parts of the file. However, this does not happen often, Sme wrote. According to Slachta, both the police and the prosecutors office should find the person who is leaking the information. Although the public has the right to be interested in an investigation, it is up to the state bodies to decide what to publish and when. If somebody hinders our work by leaking information, its a problem and it should not be sanctioned, Slachta told Sme. They sang both national anthems and folk songs. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Not only the Czech Republic and Slovakia celebrated the 100th anniversary of the establishment of their first mutual country, Czechoslovakia. There were also several events organised at Slovak and Czech embassies in various countries. The celebrations also took place in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Local children sang the national anthems of both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as several folk songs, the Fici.sme.sk website reported. The videos have quickly become popular on social networks. School co-founded by a Slovak The Slovak anthem was sung by a choir from the St Philip Neri Primary School, located close to Nairobi, which is supported by funds from the SlovakiaAid programme. It was co-founded by Slovak, Daria Kimuli, back in 2013. There are quarters in Kenya where children live on the streets and sleep in plastic sacks or cardboard boxes from a very young age, Kimuli told the regional Korzar daily back in 2017. Unfortunately, a mother is often just a girl living on the streets and taking drugs. She has several children, some of whom unfortunately die. If they are lucky, they are adopted by an organisation, which means that either some institution or some family takes care of them. The school focuses on older children who often have some experience with living on the street, including, for some, taking drugs. They start school after undergoing rehab programmes, Fici.sme.sk wrote. Read also: Read also: Slovaks celebrated the centenary of the Declaration of Slovak Nation with Czechs Read more The clothes the children wore, which were similar to Slovak folk costumes, were sewn by the students of the local secondary school from fabrics they found in the city. The children trained for the ceremony for about three weeks, Fici.sme.sk wrote. Good news for people who derive some sort of satisfaction from claiming that cold brew stinks (and bad news for literally everyone else): science seems to show that hot coffee is better for you. A new study published recently in Scientific Reports titled Acidity and Antioxidant Activity of Cold Brew Coffee finds that hot brewed coffee is similar in pH and higher in antioxidants than the cold brewed version of the same coffee. As reported by Health.com, the study was co-authored by assistant and associate professors of chemistry at Thomas Jefferson University Dr. Megan Fuller and Dr. Niny Rao, respectively. Using five different commercially available pre-ground coffeesEthiopia Ardi, Ethiopia YirgZ (shout out to Keffa Coffee), Brazil, Colombia, and Myanmarbetween a light and medium roast, the researchers brewed hot and cold coffees using the same ratio of water volume to grind weight, per the study. Fuller and Rao (but not that Rao) found that, ostensibly contrary to general sentiment that cold brew is less acidic than hot coffee, the two had similar pHs: cold brew ranging from 4.96 to 5.13 (YirgZ being the lowest and Myanmar the highest) and hot coffee 4.85 to 5.10 (Ardi and Brazil). However, the go on to note that hot coffee contained larger measures of titratable acidity, indicating higher concentrations of extracted acids and/or additional acidic compounds not found in the cold brew, and that it is this acidic complexity in hot coffee that may be the cause (or be a better indicator than pH) of the higher acidity, perceived or actual. In terms of antioxidant activity, the thing associated with most of coffees health benefits, hot coffee was found to have higher concentrations of total caffeoylquinic acids (CQAs). CQAs are believed to play a significant role in coffees antioxidative benefits, and indeed this study finds higher antioxidant activity in hot coffee than cold brew. But it also found that while CQAs were a good indicator of antioxidant activity in cold brew, it was less so in hot coffee. This means that, as Fuller and Rao put it in the most badass way imaginable, hot coffee may also have additional radical-scavenging compounds that are boosting the antioxidant activity. Now, seeing how I cant let the anti-cold brew bad guys win, let me grasp at a few straws here. Without any sort of TDS reading, we dont know that these coffees were comparably extracted and perhaps this leads to the lower antioxidant levels in cold brew. Perhaps grind size played a factor; the same grind is presumably not ideal for both brew methods, which may contribute to the results. I dunno, Im not a scientists, Im just a guy who doesnt really drink cold brew that will fight for you right to do so unshamed. And so what? Maybe hot coffee has more antioxidant activity. Nothing a handful of blueberries cant make up for. Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge. The King Solomon baby story is often touted as a pinnacle of wisdom. And it is. Its an ingenious and clever in a way that uses incentives to get people to reveal the very thing they are trying to keep secret. In short, two women claim to be a babys mother. King Solomon proposes cutting the baby in two so each can leave with half of the baby. When one womans emotions gave way and is willing to give the baby away to save it, King Solomon knows she is the mother. For only a mother can feel like this for her child. Read the entire story in 1 Kings 3:16-28. But the crazy thing is and I cant believe that I am not the one pointing this out this is fundamentally the same idea behind medieval ordeals . Simply your choice to participate or not reveals nearly everything. Let Peter Leeson explain: To see what I have in mind, consider a medieval fellow named Frithogar. Suppose Frithogars neighbor, a farmer, accuses him of stealing. Frithogar denies it. The farmer has no witnesses but is well respected. Frithogar isnt, so the court orders him to the hot water ordeal. Frithogar believes in iudicium Deithat priests, by performing the appropriate rituals, can get God to reveal the truth, performing a miracle that prevents the boiling water from burning him if hes innocent, letting him burn if hes not. What will Frithogar do? Put yourself in his shoes. Suppose Frithogar stole from the farmer. He knows hes guilty, but nobody else does. In this case, if Frithogar undergoes the ordeal, he expects to burn. Moreover, he expects to suffer the legal punishment for theft upon being convicteda large fine. Frithogars other option is to decline the ordeal, confessing his crime or settling with the farmer instead. Both of these alternatives punish Frithogar, but neither is as punishing as the fine for stealing and neither will burn him. Thus, if hes guilty, Frithogar will choose to decline the ordeal. Now suppose that Frithogar didnt steal from the farmer. He knows hes innocent but nobody else does. In this case, if Frithogar undergoes the ordeal, he expects to pull his arm from the boiling water unburned. Moreover, he expects to avoid legal punishment upon being exonerated. If Frithogar declines the ordeal and confesses or settles instead, he suffers punishment for a crime he didnt commit. Thus, if hes innocent, Frithogar will choose to undergo the ordeal. -Peter Leeson, WTF?! An Economic Tour Of The Weird This, of course, hinges on faith. He finishes the thought: In other words, the specter of the ordeal sorts Frithogar by his guilt or innocence. Leveraging his belief in iudicium Dei incentivizes him to choose one way if he hasnt stolen from the farmer, undergo the ordeal, and another way if he has, decline it, revealing his criminal status through how he chooses. This is similar to the way that King Solomon leveraged the specter of cutting the baby in half to incentivize the disputing women to reveal their maternal status. Sister Patricia Foxs departure is a timely reminder that foreigners do not enjoy the same rights as Filipino citizens in terms of criticizing the government, Malacanang said on Monday. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said foreigners cannot speak against the government as they do not have the same political rights. All foreigners who stay in as journalists in this country do not have political rights, and that includes freedom of expression. They cannot be joining rallies and join the mass action and speak against the governmentthey cannot do that, Panelo said in a press briefing. They should be first become citizens of the land to enjoy such rights. They do not enjoy the same political rights as the citizens of the land, Panelo added. The Palace official made the remark following the departure of Fox who caught the attention of President Rodrigo Duterte after her supposed meddling with internal politics by joining human rights protests. Panelo also belied Foxs claim that a reign of terror and tyranny currently prevails in the country. There is no reign of terror and tyranny in the Philippines. There is only a reign of fear in the minds and hearts of those who violated the law. They are terrified that the law is finally running after them. What we have is a reign of strict enforcement of the laws, said Panelo. He also called the Australians statement as misplaced towards the country when different surveys showed positive results of the Duterte administrations fight against the illegal drugs. Close to eight of 10 Filipinos believe that the country is on the right direction, according to the latest Social Weather Stations survey. Another survey pointed out that a sizeable majority of Filipinos, 69 percent, acknowledge the efforts of the current administration to eradicate the problem of illegal drugs in the country as its most important achievement, he cited. This is a classic case of an unappreciative tourist who saw nothing good and complained about the country which graciously extended its hospitality, he added, calling Fox a violator of the countrys laws. Panelo, however, said the Australian nun still has the right to express or issue statements abroad, may it be against the government or not, as she is entitled to her own opinion. The administration continues to adhere to the rule of law. The President follows the command of the Constitution for him to enforce the laws of the land regardless of who is involved. Let no person, therefore, take lightly the Presidents duty to serve and protect the people, he concluded.In the Senate, Senator Panfilo Lacson said he couldnt believe that Australian nun Sister Patricia Fox uttered words strongly criticizing the Duterte government. She just cant contain her bitterness and hatred which doesnt represent the teachings of the Catholic church, said Lacson. She should have offered prayers for the enlightenment of concerned government officials instead of tirades and harsh criticisms against an elected leader of a country that hospitably hosted her for so many years, added Lacson. He said that Fox should have offered prayers instead for the Filipinos whom she claimed she loves dearly and added that she can not claim to more Filipino than most of us. Lacson said there are laws and the Bureau of Immigration as well as DOJ issuances that do not allow foreigners to participate in any political activity whether it be pro or anti-establishment. He said that a visa issued by concerned government authorities comes in the form of a privilege rather than a right. Once abused, worse used to violate our laws, it gives the host country the right to take back that privilege, Lacson said. He added that is also true to practically all countries in the whole world. We treat our foreign visitors as our guests. We also reserve our right to terminate or take back that hospitality accorded to them, he said. He added that there are agencies in charge of determining all these but due process must be observed in the withdrawal of such privilege which in her case, was followed. TRAFFIC DISENTANGLER. President Rodrigo Duterte, once wrapped in a vehicular traffic in Metro Manila when he was still a local exceutive of Davao, lauds Monday the inauguration of the P5.6 billion state-of-the-art a landmark landport projectParanaque Integrated Terminal Exchange with the bus bay (below left) at the Macapagal Blvd. (below middle) and the transit area (below right). Norman Cruz President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday lauded the inauguration of the Panaraque Integrated Terminal Exchange, expressing optimism that it will help alleviate traffic in the countrys capital.I am impressed, I am proud that they did this beautiful structure. And it will serve the Filipino and that is what is very important, he said, congratulating the Department of Tourism and the Megawide and Walter Mart Terminal Inc., for building the modern land transport terminal free from any whiff of corruption. As the first integrated and multi-modal terminal in the southwestern part of Metro Manila, PITX is a landmark land port project, with its airport-like facilities, Duterte said. It is one of the three intermodal terminals to be developed by the government in cooperation with the private sector, he said. Duterte also underscored PITXs function in curbing traffic congestion in Metro Manila. This will offer passengers a safer, state-of-the-art, and convenient terminal experience that will hopefully contribute in addressing traffic congestion in Metro Manila, he said. This will help ease traffic by limiting provincial buses plying Metro Manila roads, specifically along Roxas Boulevard and the EDSA-Taft area. It will also serve as a transfer point between the provincial buses from Cavite, western Batangas, and other in-city modes of transportation, he added. The newly-inaugurated PITX can accommodate up to 100,000 passengers daily. The land port also features departure and arrival bays for buses, jeepneys, and taxis. Aiming to provide a safe and convenient transport experience of the public, PITX also arranges bus reservations and online bookings. The President directed both the DOTr and MWM Terminals to take the necessary measures to ensure that all vehicles that use PITX are roadworthy and comply with environmental laws. With the Build, Build, Build program in full swing, I assure our people that the government is exerting all efforts to construct the necessary infrastructure that would sustain our countrys continued development, he said.Together, let us work hard to lay down the physical foundations of a more progressive and prosperous nation so that our countrymen will enjoy at the very least, not a rich life, not even a bar lower than that, but at least we can assure them of just a comfortable life, he added. The PITX, a 4.5-hectare land port, will start operating in the second week of November. Edgar Saavedra, chairman, and chief executive of Megawide Construction Corp., said he considered PITX one of the most important projects launched by the government. For so long, Metro Manila commuters have had to endure the unfriendly conditions of their daily commute on top of the long hours in heavy traffic. Now, we are finally providing a solution to these long-standing problems, he added. PITX is a flagship project under the Department of Transportation in partnership with MWM Terminals Inc., a subsidiary of engineering and infrastructure conglomerate Megawide. It was awarded in 2015. The PITX was built to handle a capacity of 1,000 buses and 200,000 passengers per day. Located in Paranaque City, the intermodal transport hub will provide passengers with access to multiple modes of transportation such as buses, jeepneys, taxis, UV shuttles. There will also be a future connection to LRT Line 1. Louie Ferrer, MWM Terminals president, explained the importance of the intermodal design. During our studies, passengers identified difficult transfers as the most pressing problem. There are no guarantees as to arrival or departure times, nor there is no one facility where they can find all the transport options they need. PITX aims to address this problem by providing passengers with multiple modes of transport in one easy to navigate facility, Ferrer said. Ferrer also spoke about the other vision for PITX, which is reducing traffic congestion in Metro Manila. He said that when Megawide bid for the project, part of its objective was to help reduce the number of vehicles in the inner cities by acting as a transfer point between provincial and in-city modes of transport. This was an important element that they included in their project studies. In progressive cities, transfers between provincial and city transport are organized in one location. They have experienced traffic problems similar to what we are facing now, and we can learn from the solutions they are implementing, Ferrer said. SeoulNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with the visiting Cuban president in Pyongyang and discussed crucial issues of common concern on the current international situation, the Norths state media reported Monday. The visit by Miguel Diaz-Canel comes amid the stalled talks between North Korea and the United States and only days after Washington imposed fresh economic restrictions on Cuba. Washingtons ties with Havana were fully restored in 2015 after more than half a century of enmity, but have deteriorated since President Donald Trump took office. Communist Cuba is one of North Koreas few remaining allies. There was an in-depth exchange of views on the crucial issues of common concern ... on the international situation and a consensus of views on all issues was reached, said the official KCNA news agency. Diaz-Canel was greeted by Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju at the Pyongyang International Airport on Sunday, KCNA reported, where he was given a 21-gun salute and later attended a banquet and enjoyed a special welcoming concert with them. Giving a toast at the banquet, Kim said his meeting with the Cuban leader marked a watershed in demonstrating the will to carry forward forever the friendship between the two countries. In response, Diaz-Canel said he was willing to meet all challenges by the hostile forces while carrying forward their traditional friendly and cooperative relations, according to KCNA.Diaz-Canel took office in April in a historic transition of power on the Caribbean island, succeeding Raul Castro, who took over from his elder brother Fidel, father of the 1959 revolution. Fidel Castro visited North Korea in 1986 to meet founder-leader Kim Il-Sung, and Pyongyang held three days of official mourning when Castro died in November 2016. North Korea sent a delegation led by Choe Ryong-Hae, a senior aide to its leader Kim Jong Un, to Havana for Castros funeral. Cuba in the past has flouted international sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. In 2013 Panama seized a North Korean ship carrying an undeclared Cuban arms shipment of Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets hidden under sacks of sugar. North Korea insisted the weapons were being shipped for repair, prior to their return. 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. WashingtonDante Bucci is a 22-year-old marketing student who lives in one of Washingtons most hip neighborhoods. The New Jersey native is clean cut, well dressed and well spoken. But as a Republican in one of the most liberal cities in America, his political views are kryptonite in the US capitals dating world, where he frequently finds himself attracted to Democrats. A lot of first dates. Not a lot of second dates, Bucci says of his love life these days. I think Donald Trump has a lot to do with that. In the 2016 presidential election, Trump earned 4 percent of the vote in the District of Columbia. Its not exactly great math for a young, single conservative man who backed the real estate mogul. And with Novembers key midterm vote stoking political tensions, Republicans like Bucci are finding that romance is all but dead. They want to date someone that they can agree with on some issues, laments Bucci, who supports abortion rights and gay marriage and calls himself a moderate Republican. Im a Republican but...Ive started so many sentences that way. Enter: DonaldDaters.com, a website connecting those who support the Republican president. Its slogan? Make America Date Again, of course.I felt a real need for this app, said Emily Moreno, a 25-year-old Republican who founded the site after speaking to many of her friends. Moreno told AFP that many people in Washington said if they mentioned working for Trump or Republican causes to a potential love match, the date is shut downits a deal-breaker. Four days after launching the site in mid-October, Moreno said the app had been downloaded 20,000 times. Bucci says that so many of his first dates go off the rails with the first question: Did you vote for Donald Trump? When he says yes, he gets all kinds of responses, not all of them pleasant. Sometimes they probe me into why I voted Trump, as if its a murder and Im on trial, he said, adding that his friends are having similar experiences. It really is tiring. For Bucci, the polarization of America has basically transferred to the dating pool. We are in a society where you can only date or be with people that think like you, he said. The only other option is one he says his friends have used: Lie about who they voted for. Mountain Shadows in Wayanad is just the place for a dreamy vacation "Judge Soriano, thank you very much for your wise and courageous decision in the Trillanes amnesty case." I write this open letter to Judge Andres Soriano, my contemporary as a philosophy student in Ateneo de Manila University (I was two years below him) and an alumnus of the Ateneo Law School which is one of nine law schools I am affiliated with. Let me go straight to the point: Judge Soriano, thank you very much for your wise and courageous decision in the Trillanes amnesty case. People have described it as Solomonic, I think it is brilliant, based on a fair appreciation of the facts, grounded on clear legal principles, and consistent with the highest moral principles. Judge Soriano, you did the right thing the right way. Some people do the right thing but are not able to execute it the right way. They get reversed when they cannot defend their decision. I cannot see any possibility of your decision being reversed by the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court. Judge Soriano, thank you for giving me an example of what a good lawyer and Judge is. I face 400 law students every weekmostly JD or LLB first year students but also around 100 graduate law students (deans, judges, law professors, prosecutors, public attorneys, and law practitioners)and it has been difficult to find someone to point to as a model for the wise and learned judge. I do know some Justices and Judges personally, and I know they are good people, but none has become as prominent as you because of the Trillanes controversy. I make my students read your Trillanes order. It will be the basis of one final exam question in my constitutional law classes. I will ask my students to compare your order to that of Judge Alameda and to argue which is legally, morally, and politically correct. While respecting their opinion, this is one question where there is only one correct answer. Judge Soriano, you remind me of your fellow alumnus, Justice Pompeyo Diaz. Now, there is also a Judge to be emulated! Justice Diaz, a son of a Supreme Court Justice, was Court of First Instance (now Regional Trial Court) Judge, Solicitor General, and a Court of Appeals Presiding Justice. He was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Elpidio Quirino but was unfortunately not confirmed on time by the Commission of Appointment (there was no Judicial and Bar Council at that time). The election of Ramon Magsaysay overtook that appointment. Justice Diaz was Dean of the Ateneo School of Law from 1967-1974 where he taught, among others, the late Chief Justice Renato Corona. In 1981, Justice Diaz delivered the commencement address to the graduating class of Ateneo Law School. That address is posted prominently in the hallways of the Rockwell campus of the Ateneo Professional Schools. At the end of the semester, I require my Philosophy of Students to read that speech as the final assignment. To honor you, Judge Soriano, I share below excerpts from that speech as you have been faithful to what Justice Diaz expected all lawyers, and especially Judges who are graduates of the Ateneo Law School, should be.Some forty years ago, I took my oath of office as judge of the Court of First Instance for the Province of Rizal in the chambers of a Justice of the Supreme Court. This was my first appointment to the bench. You know I had several. It was an occasion for deep pride in my family especially when the appointee was hardly thirty-five years of age and the Justice administering the oath to him happened to be his own father. After the oath-taking, my father took me in his own car and drove me to the courthouse in Pasig. He led me into the building, up the stairs, to the second floor, and walked with me to the door of the sala which would now be mine. He stood by the door and let me enter alone. I did, and I went straight to my desk. There I saw a piece of paper upon which were written in Latin, in my fathers own handwriting, those awesome words which must have shaken the walls of the Senate of ancient Rome: Let Justice be done, though the heavens fall! In a lifetime devoted to the study of the law, these words still do not fail to stir up in me emotions which should have long since been spent, memories which should have long since been put to sleep, questions which should have long since been laid aside. What is the law? What is the truth? What is justice? What is justice? It is to render to each man what is his due. What is the truth? It is that which you seek, and keep on seeking, so that you may render to each man what is his due. What is the law? It is the instrument by which you discover that which you have been seeking so that you may render to each man what is his due. The answers seem such simple directives for everyone to follow. The reality, however, is different. For the law may be twisted to hide the truth in the same way that the truth may be distorted to ridicule justice. There are men in any society who are so self-serving that they try to make the law serve their selfish ends. In this group of men, the most dangerous is the man of the law who has no conscience. He has, in the arsenal of his knowledge, the very tools with which he can poison and disrupt society and bring it to an ignoble end. Against such a man, you must be fearless and indomitable, since to grant him victory is to deny yourselves the sanctity your oath and the grandeur of your vision. Such men I have met in my lifetime, both in the courtroom and outside it. Societys declared protection against such predators is the court of law before which all men are presumed to stand equal, whether mighty or weak. The integrity of the court is the foundation upon which a just society to established. Without this integrity, the vicissitudes of history will blow society towards the treacherous reefs of destruction and suck it into the whirlpool of oblivion. A man of the law with a conscience on the other hand, is the means by which a nation fashions for itself a just, orderly and civilized society, where the least of its citizens can stand in his human dignity and where justice is the yardstick by which the citizen measures himself in his relationship with others and with his God. Yet, a man of the law should have more than just a conscience. Conscience, too, can be dulled by exigencies in ones life. He may just seek a livelihood from the law. Then no matter how financially successful he becomes, and no matter how much expertise he acquires in the law and its practice, he remains no more than a craftsman. He rises no higher than the humble or mechanic from whom we expect nothing beyond an honest days work and an honest charge for work performed, and to whom we would not dream of looking for leadership, guidance, and inspiration. He reduces law to a trade and himself to a mere huckster of legal skills. What a man of the law should possess is a passion for the truth, a passion for justice. This passion should be of such a magnitude as to give him the power to stand firm when those around him seem to be going mad. It should be of such solidity as to grant him the strength to stand alone when all else is turning into dust. It should be of such perseverance as to infuse him with a loneliness that only those who have a vision can endure. It is a passion to keep alive that eternal challenge that justice must be done whatever be the cost. Your browser does not support the audio element. A 69-year-old bicycle repairman from south-central Vietnam last month received a bachelors degree in law, fulfilling his burning dream of achieving the certification to the astonishment of many people. Hoang Tien Mai has been lately busy with welcoming guests to his own house in Tuy Hoa, the capital city of coastal Phu Yen Province. They came to congratulate Mai on obtaining the Bachelor of Laws in early October and also to express their surprise at and admiration for the success of a man who dropped out of college halfway but has aspired to legal knowledge ever since. Mai recalled that after he lost his father at five, his mother began fixing bicycles to provide for the family. While the mother tried to pay her son through college, her meager earnings and sickliness forced him to leave school when he was going to become a sophomore. Mai then took up bicycle repair, but entertained a back-to-school hope. At 42, he applied to part-time undergraduate law courses but the enrollment was rejected as the program was for government officials working in law only. It was only 23 years later, in 2014, when he secured an opportunity to follow a distance learning law program offered by Hue University in central Vietnam. It came to the then-65-year-old man as joyful news. The day I got the admission notice, I felt the delight of a boy who had been given a gift, Mai recollected. His family, who was in the complete dark about his application, was stunned by the decision he was about to make. I told my family I was going to close the repair shop over the weekend to attend classes. But my wife, children and friends didnt believe in what I said at all, he said. Hoang Tien Mai holds his law degree in his house in Phu Yen Province, south-central Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre And they had the bigger doubt that I could graduate as an old man. Mai usually studied at home after fixing bicycles on weekdays. On the weekend, he went to school after removing oil from his hands to make sure that he would not become embarrassed in the classroom. His course mates, most of whom were civil servants handling legal matters, mistook him for an official when they first met him. Many asked me what government agency I was working for and why I was in the classroom at such an old age. I eventually told them Im just a bicycle repairman who likes to study. Thats all, he said. After four academic years, Mai graduated with a result of roughly C+, or a GPA of around 2.3 on the 4.0 scale. The dream I had nurtured since 1972 finally came true, he said, referring to the year he first entered college. The motivation behind all his effort is the desire for knowledge. A scholar said what we know is a drop, what we dont know is an ocean, Mai said, quoting a statement credited to renowned English physicist Isaac Newton. Thats why, he continued, I study to acquire knowledge myself first, then set a good example to my children and grandchildren and help people who arent or havent been educated. For days ahead, Mai will take courses on training workers for courts but he does not wish to become a lawyer in his seventies. The man hopes to give legal advice to poor people and the underdogs, and seek justice for them. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! "Support for a minimum wage hike is about pandering to the masses, not about policies that will actually benefit workers." "Support for a minimum wage hike is about pandering to the masses, not about policies that will actually benefit workers." If you would like to see concrete, real-world evidence that governments wage control policies are a bad idea, Venezuela just produced the perfect example. As the South American country enters yet another dark period of its long battle against liberty, President Nicolas Maduros minimum wage rules, which increased the salary by nearly 3,500 percent at once, has wiped out 40 percent of the countrys stores. Firms that had been struggling to stay afloat thanks to Maduros ongoing war on business finally succumbed, claiming that the outrageous wage increase finally put them out of business. Others that managed to remain open are only doing so to liquidate their merchandise so they can then close completely once all is gone. According to Maria Carolina Uzcategui, president of the National Council of Commerce and Services of Venezuela, the situation has turned into a dead end for business owners. It is a perfect storm, Uzcategui said. These decisions are leading many business people to say, No, I cant do it anymore. The obvious and immediate consequence of this wage increase is the rapid rise in unemployment, as a massive number of employers are no longer able to provide jobs. But the job loss was to be expected, as Maduro explicitly ignored the laws of economics once again, thinking he could ignore supply and demand by mandating artificial economic growth. In the Philippines and the United States, politicians have long defended direct meddling in the economy, supporting wage control laws and pushing for higher minimum wages The US Democratic Partys 2016 platform proposed a national minimum wage of $15 an hour. At the time, even Hillary Clinton admitted the new rules would lead to job losses, and yet, Democrats today continue to defend the plan. Recently, Democratic socialist and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez visited New York Citys iconic cafe, the Coffee Shop, at Union Square, after the firm announced it was shutting its doors after 28 years of service. The cafe said that it could no longer stay in business after Governor Andrew Cuomos minimum wage hike and yet, Ocasio-Cortez, who worked at the cafe at some point, continues to claim she will not rest until every person in this country is paid a living wage to lead a dignified life. But despite the rhetoric, support for a minimum wage hike is about pandering to the masses, not about policies that will actually benefit workers. Even major left-leaning outlets such as the Washington Post have concluded that rapid increases in the minimum wage in certain counties would cost thousands of jobs. Unfortunately, the madness continues. ***Economists Walter E. Williams and Thomas Sowell have long explained that governments wage rules have a very real consequence: To disproportionately hurt the youth, the unskilled, and minorities. As Williams wrote, racist unions in South Africa during the apartheid period, for example, were the most passionate defenders of minimum wage laws for blacks, as they wanted to make it difficult for natives to be employed. Equal pay for equal work became the rallying slogan of the South African white labor movement, Williams explained. These laborers knew that if employers were forced to pay black workers the same wages as white workers, thered be reduced incentive to hire blacks. Today, a major minimum wage hike would have the same effect, killing jobs and hurting the youth, the unskilled, and minority communities the most. But despite this reality, so-called social justice warriors and the left have no problem defending and promising to push the policy through whenever possible. In no time, the Philippines could look a lot like Venezuelaif the left and business-hating bureaucrats continue to get their way. *** In an interview on Meet the Press, US Democratic socialist and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scolded American leaders for not setting the minimum wage as high as Venezuela, whose hyper-inflated currency is forcing minimum wage increases all year long. Ocasio-Cortez then pointed out that if the minimum wage would just be raised to somewhere in the millions like the socialist South American country did, everyone will be a millionaire. Venezulas minimum wage is, like, millions per month, and ours isnt even close to that, she said. Our minimum wage is, like, seven bucks an hour or something. We call ourselves a developed country, but we dont even just like print nearly as much money as Venezuela and give it out for free, because of greedy businesses and corporations and things like that. She also called Venezuelas leaders really smart for overloading the economy with more currency, and called on Americas leadership to do the same. It just goes to show that socialism is better because you can inflate the currency to a lot more, and more is better than less, obviously. Its just common sense, and you know, like, human rights and stuff, she added. [email protected] Editors note : Terry F. Buss, PhD, is a professor emeritus and fellow at the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration. I am writing this article from Washington, DC, one week before midterm elections across the country. Competing political parties, their supporters, and the mainstream media (MSM) have lost their collective minds in pursuit of power. The fortunes of each change rapidly as succeeding events raise then lower the prospects of one over another. The Democratic Party, still shocked by Donald Trumps defeat of Hillary Clinton and the takeover of Congress, state governorships, and local elected offices by the Republican Party in 2016, have continued their unprecedented efforts to retake power by any means necessary. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton supporters in government especially the FBI, Justice Department, and intelligence agencies are surreptitiously undermining Trump at every turn through leaks, collusion and obstruction. Their goal is to impeach Trump and/or charge him with criminal offenses to get him out of office. They see Trumps presidency as illegitimate. The Republican Party, although deeply divided over health care issues, immigration, and federal spending, and especially over whether to support Trump and his policies, are frantically trying to unravel the Barack Obama legacy trade, immigration, climate change, international relations, and energy and pursue conservative policies smaller government, fiscal responsibility, and gun ownership and free speech fearing a loss to the Democrats. The MSM has openly declared war on Trump, his political constituencies, and his policies. Journalistic ethics have been widely abandoned, flooding the political system with fake or biased news and extreme commentary. We learned from the MSM that Trump is another Hitler; a misogynist, homophobe, and rapist; responsible for deadly hurricanes in the US; and encouraging gun violence in American cities. The New York Times even published an article that fanaticized over Trumps possible assassination. 95% of MSM coverage of Trump is negative, according to media studies. Social media, aided and abetted by chief executives at Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Twitter, have promoted extremism, misinformation, censorship, and bias to such an extent that the truth is nowhere to be found. Facebook set up a panel to curb extremist content, but applied it mostly to conservatives, not to the extremist IS. The left and the right are attacking the founder/CEOs of these companies, calling for their ouster. Money is flowing into political party campaigns at unprecedented levels, in an attempt to buy an election. Thirty-three of 100 Senators are running for election. Some $1 billion has been contributed to influence their campaigns. Much of the money comes from finance or high-tech billionaires who have personal political agendas often extreme they want to promote. Some political candidates receive most of their funding from people who do not even live in the same state as the candidate: Hollywood actors and producers are particularly active in trying to influence local elections from the national level. Like the 1960s, extremists on the left and right have inserted themselves into the political system. During this week, a madman sent mail bombs to 10 Democrat leaders and donors in an effort at intimidation. Another madman killed 11 Jews as they worshipped in a synagogue. Over the past weeks, Democrat supporters have disrupted Republican officials having dinner with their families. Left and right wing thugs have disrupted each others rallies with violence. MSM credits Trump with causing the violence on left and right. Political parties are aiding and abetting this un-American behavior. Hillary Clinton publicly called for Democrats to behave uncivilly to Republicans. The socialist mayor of Portland, Oregon, ordered police not to stop left-wing fascists from taking over the downtown, harassing and beating people. The left argue that this behavior is necessary to counteract Trump. Complicating matters: even though Trump has completed only half his term in office, Democrats have already begun running for the presidency against him for 2020! At latest count, there are 20 viable candidates. Each is competing as to who can most viciously attack Trump and his administration. Critics call this Trump derangement syndrome. One presidential hopeful made a show of releasing secret Senate documents in a public hearing to show that he was not afraid to break the law in opposing Trump. Unfortunately, the documents were declassified before he released them. With so many candidates seeking media attention, the political system has become clogged with moronic coverage of the left and right. Stakes for Democrats and Republicans could not be higher. Democrats want to throw out Trumps policies and reinstate even more extreme versions of Obamas. Democrats have moved far to the left thanks to Bernie Sanders, espousing socialist policies free health care and education, open borders, and a guaranteed annual income regardless of employment. Democrats have ramped up identity politics which offers women, minorities, illegal aliens, LGBTs, and others benefits and rights in exchange for their support. And, Democrats are openly trying to unravel the US Constitution which stands in the way of their ambitions. Democrats, if they win, will radically transform America, or precipitate more civil strife. For Republicans, in addition to thwarting the Democrat socialist agenda and pursuing political correctness, they are trying to capture control of the Supreme Court and federal judiciary to prevent Democrats from using the courts to further their agenda. Trump has been successful in creating a conservative-leaning Supreme Court with two new appointments. Trump supporters consider these court victories to be Trumps greatest triumph over the left. Trump, for his part, has been accused of egging on his detractors fueling their anger, and precipitating their outrageous behavior. Trumps rhetoric and Twitter attacks over the past two years have become more aggressive and abusive, not to mention self-defeating. But Trump supporters believe there is nothing he can do to achieve civility with his opponents. A standard feature of Trumps political rallies during the midterm campaigns is to call out the MSM with charges of bias and fake news. Trump supporters still chant lock her up because they believe Hillary Clinton supporters in government let her escape corruption charges when she was Obamas Secretary of State. Congresswoman Maxine Waters holds countless counter rallies with chants of impeach 45 (i.e., Trump). The events and shenanigans during the election have affected party prospects for winning. Early in 2018, Republicans looked to retain control of Congress and other offices, as Democrats were in disarray. Gradually, Democrats and MSM were able to lower Republican prospects until a month ago, when Trump was able to confirm a second Supreme Court judge. Thereafter, Trump began campaigning across the country making the elections about him. Trumps prospects then rallied. But, Trump and Republican fortunes seem to decline for the worse as two madmen inserted themselves into the mix. Over the past three weeks a caravan of 7,000 to 14,000 illegal immigrants, descending on Americas southern border, ostensibly to embarrass Trump into arresting women and children, has turned around Trumps fortune yet again. No one, including the legion of professional pollsters, knows who will win in November. Many recall how they erroneously predicted that Hillary would beat Trump. Thankfully, the nonsense above, while a topic of conversation, is not something the vast majority of Americans support or experience in their daily lives. Certainly, they are exposed to a daily deluge of misinformation, hate and extremism in all media and from political parties, but this does not greatly affect their lives at least directly. Most seem concerned and embarrassed by politics, opining that this is not what America is all about. There is no indication that either Democrats or Republicans will become more civil, or that Trump will suddenly become more presidential. If the Democrats win the House and the Republicans maintain control of the Senate, government will be in deadlock as it was for Obama. But Trump will reign supreme in a gridlocked system where he may go to extremes to attain his policy agenda. Americas democracy is in serious trouble. Your browser does not support the audio element. A local book company last weekend introduced to the public its maiden book vending machine on a bustling street in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. The machine, operated by Saigon Books Company and is located at the Sense Market on Pham Ngu Lao Street in District 1, has 25 available titles, with the stock set to be updated on a weekly basis. Readers can select books and pay by cash. Saigon Books said the machine will support payment by Internet banking two weeks after launch. As the machine only accepts banknotes of VND10,000, VND20,000, VND50,000 and VND100,000 denominations, the book prices are all rounded to the nearest whole figures, such as VND50,000 (US$2.1) or VND70,000 ($3), to facilitate the purchase process. This book vending machine serves the demand of office workers and residents and tourists in the downtown area, Nguyen Tuan Quynh, director of Saigon Books, said. It also helps us save the costs for premises and personnel required to open a physical bookstore. However, the book-selling machine also has some limitations, according to users who have tried it. My book got stuck midway from the display chamber and was not able to fall into the take-out slot, recalled Nguyen Tran Phuong Uyen, a student of Van Lang University in District 1. Uyen said she had to call for help from a maintenance worker to retrieve the book. This kind of problem upsets buyers as you can lose money without getting your book, Uyen added. Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Cam, a homemaker in Binh Thanh District, did not decide to make any purchase from the book vending machine after much inquiry and consideration. I like the feeling of having the book in my hand, reading about the author or the synopsis, Cam explained. Furthermore, though modern, this machine limits readers choice to only 25 titles. This is not to mention that if something goes wrong with the pages of the book, I cannot replace it with another. Addressing these concerns, Quynh said the company has set up several hotlines to receive any complaint from customers and is ready to provide prompt assistance when needed. The machine is equipped with a LED display to provide information about the books and their authors, he said. In the near future, we will add a shelf of real sample books next to every machine, so readers can check before making a purchase. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has addressed measures to develop a friendly, healthy, and sustainable relationship between Vietnam and China, as he joined talks with Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping in Shanghai on Sunday. The meeting was held as part of the Vietnamese premiers visit to Shanghai on November 4 and 5 to attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE). At the talks with President Xi, the Vietnamese head of government stressed the importance of the two nations ties, according to a statement released by Vietnams Ministry of Foreign Affairs. PM Phuc praised Chinas initiatives to contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world, as well as its Belt and Road Initiative. Vietnam backs the Mekong-Lancang cooperation in combination with the framework of the Greater Mekong Sub-region collaboration, striving for the effective use and management of water resources and the sustainable development of relevant countries, the premier noted. Enhancing the relationship with China is one of the top priorities in Vietnams foreign policy, Phuc stated, suggesting that high-level visits and meetings be maintained to increase political trust. The Vietnamese head of government believed that the CIIE 2018 will open up new cooperation channels for goods distribution, helping promote official trade activities and brand building so that more Vietnamese products can be consumed in the Chinese market. He suggested that China establish practical policies and measures to reduce Vietnams trade deficit, toward promoting the stable and sustainable growth of bilateral trade. Regarding the situation in the East Vietnam Sea, the leader reiterated the peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Replying to his guest, President Xi affirmed that PM Phucs participation in the expo reflects the Vietnamese governments respect for the bilateral relations. The Chinese Party and state always treasure ties with Vietnam and want to foster multifaceted cooperation in a practical manner with the Southeast Asian country. China will import more goods from Vietnam to sustainably balance trade with the neighboring nation. China has carried out various measures to increase imports from Vietnam, Xi said, adding that Vietnams shipments to China rose by 36.8 percent in 2017. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Read what is in the news today, November 5! Politics -- Developing a friendly, stable, healthy and sustainable relationship with China is one of Vietnams top priorities in foreign policy, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at a meeting with Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping in Shanghai on Sunday as part of his trip to attend the first International Import Expo of China (CIIE 2018) held over the weekend. -- Ho Chi Minh City wants to work closely with France in conserving cultural, historical and architectural relics related to the French colonial period in the southern metropolis, said the citys Party chief Nguyen Thien Nhan during a meeting with French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Sunday. Society -- With nearly 150 high-rise buildings and skyscrapers already obstructing its skyline, the resort city of Nha Trang in south-central Vietnam is considering halting approval for future high-rises in an effort to conserve its cityscape until a detailed architectural plan is issued. -- Doan Ngoc Hai, deputy chairman of District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City who is famous for his sidewalk-clearing campaign in early 2017, will continue to serve in the position as the citys Party Committee has accepted his request to retract a resignation letter he submitted in January. -- Vietnamese Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien will this week submit to the lawmaking National Assembly a bill on limiting the harmful effects of alcohol for the legislature to consider adopting into law. -- Hanoi police have identified two people killed in a tragic accident where a car plunged from the Chuong Duong Bridge into the Red River on Saturday evening as vehicle owner Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, 29, and Bui Kim Chi, 21. -- Legal experts are calling on a court in Thai Nguyen Province in northern Vietnam to revoke a six-year prison sentence it imposed last week on a semi-trailer truck driver who hit a car that was moving backward in reverse gear on a high-speed expressway. Business -- Overexploitation has caused the number of blood clams, a favorite delicacy in Vietnam, to drop significantly and its price to go through the roof as companies that export the seashells can no longer sustain their business due to low supply. -- Taxi drivers employed by eight different taxi companies in the central city of Da Nang on Sunday took part in a massive strike to object to the operations of ride-hailing service Grab, which they claimed to have negatively affected the income of traditional taxi drivers. Sports -- The head coach of Vietnams national soccer team, South Korean Park Hang-seo, is optimistic the team will make history at the upcoming 2018 AFF Championship, contested by ten nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation, which will kick off this Thursday. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Doan Ngoc Hai, deputy chairman of District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City who is famous for his sidewalk-clearing campaign in early 2017, will continue to serve in the position as his request to retract a resignation letter he submitted in January has been accepted. Hai will continue to work as the downtown districts deputy chairman responsible for urban affairs until further personnel changes are made, the Party Committee of Ho Chi Minh City said on Sunday. Hai, 49, is known for spearheading a drive to clear sidewalks in downtown Ho Chi Minh City of debris, illegal structures and street vendors so pedestrians can enjoy walking again. The sidewalk clearing campaign began in early 2017 and continued well into October the same year before coming to an unexpected end. In January, Hai submitted a letter to city authorities expressing his wish to step down as deputy chairman of District 1, fulfilling a promise he made at the launch of his signature campaign that he would resign if it failed. However, Hais resignation never went through, and in May he requested to retract his resignation after deciding that he still wanted to devote his efforts to the development of the city. Hai said he had received tremendous support from local leaders since he asked to step down from his post in January, and the leaders convinced him to continue his role as vice-leader of District 1. Since May, Hai has resumed work and has led a number of notable campaigns to improve the citys safety and appeal, including an initiative to remove stray dogs from the streets. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Vietnamese legal experts are calling on a court in the northern province of Thai Nguyen to revoke a six-year prison sentence it imposed last week on a semi-trailer truck driver involved in a deadly collision with a car that was going in reverse on a high-speed expressway. On November 19, 2016, a semi-trailer truck collided with a compact minivan on the Hanoi Thai Nguyen Expressway in northern Vietnam, killing four and injuring two passengers in the car. Investigation results showed the car was carrying more passengers than allowed and was moving backward in reverse gear on the high-speed road. A court in Thai Nguyen in May sentenced truck driver Le Ngoc Hoang, 33, to eight years and car driver Ngo Van Son, 40, to ten years behind bars. Hoang and Son's sentences were last week commuted to six years and nine years in prison, respectively, after the second-instance court considered their appeals. The two are responsible for paying combined compensation of VND1.2 billion (US$51,000) to families of the victims. Unconvincing verdict According to the courts verdict, Hoang failed to maintain a safe trailing distance, only applying his brakes when the two vehicles were a mere ten meters away from collision. Vietnamese law dictates that a minimum distance of 35 meters must be maintained between vehicles moving at a speed of between 60 and 80 kilometers per hour. However, legal experts argue that the law by default applies only to vehicles moving in the same direction at relatively similar speed. In this case, the truck driver could not have thought that the car in front of him was moving backward in order to calculate the appropriate trailing distance until it was already too late, said Pham Van Chung, a legal expert. Le Ngoc Hoang, driver of the semi-trailer truck, appears at a court in Thai Nguyen Province in northern Vietnam on November 2, 2018. Photo: otofun.net Chung further argues that Vietnams Penal Code exempts from legal prosecution those who cause harm to others as a result of unexpected or unforeseeable events. Therefore, the verdict on Hoang is unconvincing and goes against the spirit of the law, Chung said. The court also based their judgment on insufficient evidence, as it has not considered the speed at which the car was moving at the time of the collision. In the verdict, judges found Hoang guilty of crashing into the other car, while it should be considered a collision between two vehicles since the car in question was moving in the opposite direction, said a judge in Ho Chi Minh City. The car driven by Son, a Toyota Innova compact minivan, was carrying ten passengers who were headed to a wedding at the time of the accident. It was three people over the passenger limit of seven for the car model, according to investigators. The car driver said he was driving in reverse to try and reach an expressway exit that he had missed. He claimed to have checked the rear-view mirror carefully and did not see any vehicle coming from behind. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A number of taxi drivers refused to carry passengers at the airport in Vietnams central metropolis of Da Nang on Sunday as a protest against ride-hailing service Grab which they said was denting their earnings. Cabbies from around eight taxi companies at the same time declined to leave their parking area at Da Nang International Airport to pick up customers despite continuous booking requirements from operators. Many customers had to bring their luggage from the terminal building to the parking area but the drivers turned down their offer to have a ride. The roughly three-hour strike was aimed at opposing Grab cars rising activity which had been detrimental to traditional taxi drivers income, cabmen involved in the event said. They also called on authorities to introduce stricter regulations on the ride-hailing service in the city. The incident was just a decision on the cabbies part, according to the local taxi association. A taxi runs at Da Nang International Airport in Da Nang, Vietnam, November 4, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre After the strike, taxis moved again to the terminal building of Da Nang International Airport in Da Nang, Vietnam, November 4, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre It is the privilege enjoyed by Grab that irked the drivers. Regular taxi drivers must wait at the designated parking lot in the airport before leaving for the terminal building in turn to receive passengers, a cabbie on strike said. But GrabCar vehicles can arrive at the building without this restriction, which he said represents gross unfairness. A leader of a taxi company whose drivers joined the strike said traditional taxi drivers at airports had been put at a greater disadvantage compared to ride-booking service counterparts. This is because, he explained, they had to incur parking costs and work in line with clearance from the operators. An airport regulation states that taxis must operate under control, that is, they cant get to the terminal building to take passengers without clearance, the leader said. Grab also provides a taxi-like service, but its cars can go in and out without being fined at all. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Police in Hanoi said on Sunday they had identified the two women who were in a car that plunged off a bridge, which claimed both lives, in the Vietnamese capital on Saturday night. The deceased are Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, 29, and Bui Kim Chi, 21. They both resided in Hanoi. The car, a Mercedes GLC300 with license plate No. 30E-868.36, was manufactured in Vietnam in 2017. Huong was also the owner of the car as her name was in the vehicles registration. Police said it remains unclear who was behind the wheel at the time of the accident. The section of the Chuong Duong Bridge in Hanoi where the automobile dropped into the river on November 3, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre According to preliminary information, the automobile was traveling on Chuong Duong Bridge from Long Bien District to the downtown area at around 7:00 pm on Saturday when it suddenly crashed into the railings and fell into the river. Rescue units were later mobilized to the site of the accident, while traffic along one lane of the bridge was temporarily blocked for competent authorities to deal with the incident. Hanoi deputy chairman Nguyen Van Suu and vice-chairman of the National Committee for Traffic Safety Khuat Viet Hung also arrived at the site to direct the search and rescue efforts. Rescue units arrive at the bridge. Photo: Tuoi Tre They were able to locate the car at around midnight, about five hours after the crash. The vehicle was salvaged at 1:20 am on Sunday with the two deceased victims still inside. The driver was still holding on tightly to the steering wheel. The railings of the bridge were fixed later in the morning and traffic was back to normal. Speedboats are mobilized to look for the car. Photo: Tuoi Tre Some eyewitnesses said the Mercedes was traveling in the bridges car lane when it had to swerve into the mixed-use lane, meant for both cars and motorbikes, to avoid a garbage truck prior to the crash. Further investigation is still ongoing. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! This week on Ask The Doctor the topic is Immunity Wars with tips to make your defences stronger. Our immune system battles bacteria, viruses and parasites in a valiant effort to prevent us from getting sick. So, what can we do to make our defences stronger? The doctors reveal handy tips for staying healthy and investigate the new treatments on the horizon. Shalin reveals the ground-breaking therapy being used to create cancer fighting super cells. He visits the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, where his bloods T-cells are supercharged, turning them into cancer-killing machines. Shalin also meets Karen, a melanoma patient benefiting from a revolutionary therapy which is helping her stay cancer-free. Caroline shows how the immune system really works, sorting out fact from fiction. She answers common questions, including: Why do we get sicker in winter? Can travelling on a plane increase your chances of catching the common cold? Do vitamin supplements make any difference? Sandro finds out what happens when the immune system goes wrong. He meets Nicki, a patient with Guillain-Barre Syndrome that attacks the nervous system, causing muscles to fail one by one. To combat this debilitating disorder, she received a life-saving transfusion of a blood component known as liquid gold. Its an expensive treatment due to the large numbers of donors required, so Sandro investigates what people can do to help out. Lastly, theres a fun match between arch-rivals team virus and team immune, who battle it out on the sports field all in the name of science! Caroline and Shalin commentate this entertaining game, to show what happens when your immune system goes head to head with a foreign invader, like the flu. 8pm Tuesday on ABC. Producers of upcoming Netflix comedy action film Tall Girl have announced a global search for its lead actor. Auditions are open to girls on a worldwide basis who are 510 (177.8) or taller and between the ages of 13 and 21 years old. Tall Girl is about all the places where we feel awkward or tender, and learning not only to accept those places, but to shower them with unconditional and radical love, said Nzingha Stewart. At Netflix we are committed to being a platform where tweens can find movies that inspire and empower them. One of the many reasons were excited to make Tall Girl is the refreshing way it speaks to this audience with humor and heart about embracing what makes them different and special using height as a framing device, added Melissa Cobb, vice president of kids and family at Netflix. We look forward to canvassing the world for our very own Tall Female Lead who can draw on her unique experience to authentically depict the challenges and the lessons wrapped up in this tricky stage of life. Surviving high school is tough enough, but try doing it as a six-foot-tall girl who cant go a day without feeling like an outcast, always being asked, Hows the weather up there? Growing up is all about figuring out who you are, and the 2019 Netflix original live action comedy film Tall Girl captures that rite of passage by following a 16 year old who must embrace what makes her different and be proud to stand out, not fit in. Capturing the tone of the classic John Hughes movies, Tall Girl explores the nuanced and delicate relationships that make high school challenging, frustrating, memorable, and uplifting. Tall Girl is directed by Nzingha Stewart (Greys Anatomy, A Million Little Things) and written by Sam Wolfson (Andi Mack, Finding Carter). It is Netflixs fourth collaboration with Wonderlands McG and Mary Viola (The Duff). Wonderlands Corey Marsh will also produce. The films casting director is Barbara McCarthy (Mothers Day, The Duff), who also cast the upcoming Netflix film Christmas Chronicles. Netflix announced today that the producers of the film are currently in search of tall girls from all over the world to audition for the part of the female lead: 16 year old Jodi, who at more than six feet tall has to go above and beyond to survive high school while struggling with the constant label of being her schools tall girl. Those who want to audition can visit www.tallgirlcasting.com and submit no later than November 21, 2018. Tall Girl will begin shooting in January 2019. Photo: stock image. "Fox has been known as a human rights activist, a Duterte critic, but that is not the issue here." "Fox has been known as a human rights activist, a Duterte critic, but that is not the issue here." Funny how the opposition has been using the issue of deported nun, Sister Patricia Fox, just to criticize President Rodrigo Duterte in their fervent hope to advance their political agenda. On the eve of Foxs forced departure, Senator Francis Pangilinan launched another barrage of attack against Duterte, describing the deportation of the Australian nun as a sign of fear, cowardice and weakness. Deporting a 70-year-old, ailing nun is not a sign of power and strength. It is a sign of great fear, of cowardice and of weakness, Pangilinan said in a statement. Pangilinan even added the Duterte administration was afraid of losing its power, prompting them to deport Fox. This administration is deathly afraid of losing its grip on power and so even a 70-year-old, ailing nun critical of governments abuse must be deported, he said. So sorry, dear Senator, but I beg to disagree. Standing pat on the deportation order against Fox was a manifestation of the administrations firm resolve to uphold our sovereignty. Yes, Fox has been known as a human rights activist, a Duterte critic, but that is not the issue here. The issue here is the violation of immigration laws and Fox had been found to have violated the conditions of her stay. She was found to be an undesirable alien due to her participation in partisan political activities. According to the Bureau of Immigration, those activities do not fall within the ambit of the religious missionary visa given to her as she never represented her congregation in these events, but instead represented different cause-oriented groups. The law is clear, the entry and admission of an alien is a matter of privilege and not a right, Immigration spokesperson Dana Krizia Sandoval stressed. And with the deportation of Fox, our government has finally shown its foreign counterparts that we are no longer patsies when it comes to matters concerning Westerners meddling in our internal affairs.Since time immemorial, any opposition to an incumbent government would always seek assistance from foreign groups or individuals, particularly from Western countries, to invite international attention to the Philippines and give credence to their criticisms of the sitting government, even unfounded or unverified. How many foreign participants do we see every time a huge rally is mounted against a sitting government? Foreign funding has been reported to also be pouring to support these anti-government activities. And yet these anti-government protesters who are said to be receiving foreign funding and allowing foreign participants among their ranks are those vehemently protesting against foreign intervention. How ironic. Can these people protesting Foxs deportation, especially Senator Pangilinan, attend a rally in the United States or in Australia where Fox hails, and denounce human rights violation in their host country and expect them to be coddled by the host government as they are simply exercising freedom of speech and expression? The Fox deportation is one clear step of putting a halt to these foreign meddling in our countrys internal affairs. As dear friend Leslie Bocobo posted on his social media account, Foreigner meddling in the affairs of a sovereign. State has all the right to deport an undesirable alien, and so what if shes a nun? Leslie also offers a piece of unsolicited advise to Pangilinan and it goes, And you Kiko need to drown yourself in more cesspools to bring out your true nature like a dead duck in the water. Leslies words, not mine. All I can say is that the oppositions play on Fox, especially that of Pangilinan, is too foxy. Splendid isolation: Namibia's desolate and beautiful Shipwreck Lodge Grains of sand hurtled through the darkness as an unrelenting wind buffeted the shipwrecked cabin in which I had sought refuge for the night. A thunderous soo-oop-wa, the onomatopoeic name for the eerie shrieks and sighs that blow across one of Africas most notorious stretches of coastline, drowned out the roar of waves barrelling to shore. Cast adrift on the Skeleton Coast, an untameable strip on the north-western fringes of Namibia and one of Earths last great wildernesses, I had never felt more exposed to the extreme forces of nature. Oddly, in a region that evokes images of death, I had also never felt more alive. My first stirring glimpse of the Kaokoveld, or coast of loneliness as it is known in the local Herero language, had come earlier that day from the window of a light aircraft: a vast cream sea of dunes, edged by the wide blue South Atlantic. As we began a bone-rattling descent through swirling winds, roiling waves lashing at the shore, I understood why the Herero also call this the land God made in anger. Harbouring a wish to set foot on this enigmatic land, I had been lured by the promise of wild adventure and an escape from the world: Namibia is one of the least densely populated countries on earth, second only to Mongolia, and the Skeleton Coast its loneliest corner. A lone wreck is slowly swallowed by the sands along the Skeleton Coast Credit: Getty Images Stepping from the plane, I was almost blown off my feet, but I was also struck by a sense of privilege. Access to the north of the Skeleton Coast National Park, which was established in 1971 and covers an area about three-quarters the size of Wales, is restricted to around 1,000 visitors annually. The opening this summer of Shipwreck Lodge, one of few eco-hotels in the park and the first on its northerly shores, has made the Skeleton Coast marginally more accessible to travellers. Individual cabins at Shipwreck Lodge Walking out across the barren sand, it was as though I had landed on another planet. I was met by Niki, my guide for the next few days and, having waved the pilot safely back to the sky, we clambered into a jeep for the hour-long drive north to the hotel. Story continues The dunes appeared devoid of life, but as we paused in nearby Mowe Bay, a huddle of weather-beaten huts for scientists and researchers, we encountered a colony of Cape fur seals lazing on rocks as a pair of black-backed jackals patrolled nearby. Further along the coast we spotted a brown hyena skulking along the shoreline. Niki instructed me to keep a look out for elephants, giraffes and, if we were incredibly lucky, lions. In this harsh environment, which forms part of the Namib, the worlds oldest desert, I hadnt expected such a diverse range of wildlife. A surprising array of wildlife flourishes in this harsh terrain The jeep came to a halt and I was alarmed to spot a blood-red beach. Filled with horror at what we might find, I ventured out into the teeth of a howling gale. On closer inspection I discovered the sand was made up of sparkling grains of garnet. A dazzling display, and one that partly explains why this stretch of coast has remained largely off-limits: garnet often indicates a wealth of diamonds nearby. Alas, an abandoned mine stands as a warning for those who might be tempted here by get-rich-quick schemes. As the world around us vanished in a cloud of sand, Niki warned that even experienced guides can get lost amid this ever-changing landscape. I fell silent as the jeep rolled blindly on. At last we caught sight of a row of blonde-wood cabins dotted above the dunes a welcome sign of life. On entering, I was instantly transported into a world of convivial maritime luxury. Before I could embarrass myself with an Ahoy, there! to the staff, I was handed a welcome drink and directed to a comfy banquette overlooking the beach. The communal lounge area at Shipwreck Lodge The coastlines macabre modern-day moniker, which derives from the whale bones and shipwrecks strewn across its shores, was popularised by the publication of an eponymous book, by John H Marsh, in 1944. This factual account of the loss of MV Dunedin Star, a British cargo ship which ran aground off the coast in 1942 en route from Liverpool to Egypt via South Africa, also inspired Nina Maritz, an award-winning Namibian architect, in the design of Shipwreck Lodge. Nina, who was also visiting during my stay, told me she had been gripped by the tale. A discombobulating combination of coastal fogs, shifting offshore sandbanks and the Benguela, a powerful Antarctic current, has sent countless ships throughout history to a watery grave in these treacherous waters. When the Dunedin Star was wrecked, 63 men, women and children were stranded on the Skeleton Coast for almost a fortnight. Marsh described the air, sea and land operation to save them as one of the most amazing rescues of all time. The remains of a Ventura bomber, which crashed (without loss of life) after delivering food and water to the castaways, can be seen en route from Mowe Bay. Surveying endless dunes on a lonely flight over the desert Credit: Getty Images With the lodges many whimsical touches, from the bone-like ribs bolted to the exterior of each cabin to exposed panels of chipboard inside, Nina wanted to create the impression that this imaginative hotel could have been built by castaways using items salvaged from a shipwreck. The Skeleton Coast is so exquisite; we owed it to the place to build something special, she said. It certainly would have taken an industrious bunch to pull together the guest cabins, which are spoiling havens featuring velvet day beds, wood-burning stoves and subtle nautical references. The largest of the 11 cabins is a cosy communal space where meals and drinks are served amid a flotsam and jetsam of artfully mismatched furniture. The overall look, with picture windows and interior walls pitched as if tossed there by the sea, succeeds in anchoring guests in this unique landscape but does not feel themed. The morning after my arrival, I awoke to a brilliant blue sky and an all-encompassing silence. The paw prints of jackals and other small animals criss-crossed the hummock dunes as, becalmed, I marvelled at the ethereal beauty of sand, sea and sky. Sundowners at Shipwreck Lodge The stillness was momentarily broken as we set out across the so-called singing dunes, which emit a baritone rumble when disturbed, en route to a bay north of Rocky Point further up the coast. The Sir Charles Elliott, a tug boat sent from Walvis Bay to assist the stricken Dunedin Star, ran into trouble and sank here, resulting in the deaths of Angus McIntyre, the first officer whose body was never found, and Mathias Koraseb, a deckhand, now buried beneath the poignant inscription Who died that his shipmates may live. A whispering wind signalled the return of the soo-oop-wa as I surveyed this desolate final resting place. Heading out on to the nearby beach, with foaming waves crashing in on one side and sand drilling into me with increasing ferocity from the other, I felt at the mercy of seemingly malevolent forces. I returned to the jeep with a new perspective on the world. Unfortunately, whats left of the Dunedin Star, 43 miles north, is inaccessible from this point. At dinner that evening, I chatted to Nina about the challenges of operating in one of the worlds most hostile environments. Maintenance is a daily battle against the elements. The lodge is also expected to adhere to strict controls to minimise its environmental impact: jeeps must follow existing tyre tracks and all waste must be carefully stored and removed from the site. Natural Selection, who operate the property, have also now committed to replacing single-use plastic bottles at the lodge with refillables. Hoanib Valley Camp Back in my cabin, warmed by the glow of the wood burner and a glass of port, I listened intently to the haunting strains of the soo-oop-wa and concluded that isolation doesnt get more splendid than this. The next morning we headed inland along the Hoarusib, an ephemeral river close to Shipwreck Lodge, where we encountered chacma baboons, a feisty honey badger and an array of bird life. A few hours in, we stopped briefly at a camp high above a fork in the river where I bumped into Andre Schoeman, a son of the late Louw Schoeman who was instrumental in securing protected status for the Skeleton Coast. Andre told me he remembered hunting for diamonds on its shores as a small boy. Morning light over Hoanib Valley Camp Just before dusk, having been delayed en route by a herd of elephants, I arrived at Hoanib Valley Camp, my home for the next few nights. Cradled in the sheltered embrace of a crescent-shaped mountain, the recently opened camp occupies a mesmerising spot above the Hoanib. This river of sand and ana trees runs through Kaokoland, bordering the Skeleton Coast and Angola, which is home to the nomadic Himba tribe. As I approached through a narrow gap in the rock, the camp revealed itself to be a cluster of six cavernous and beautifully designed tents. I met Nat Sullivan and Emma Wells, researchers for the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, which works in partnership with the lodge. They accompanied me on game drives, along with Festus Mbinga, one of Namibias leading guides, and Mwezi Bupilo, also a knowledgeable guide, to record sightings of giraffes. These loping giants appeared ubiquitous, unlike the lions I had hoped to see, but Nat explained that their size makes this a common misconception and in fact the worlds tallest mammal is facing a silent extinction. Giraffes near Hoanib Valley Camp Its not the only way of life under threat. Sitting in the dust alongside a mud hut in a nearby village, I met a tribeswoman who told me through a translator that she had been forced to end her formal education after a mobile school, which encouraged Himba traditions, closed. She now sits on a roadside selling store-bought trinkets to tourists. The impact of travellers interacting with local tribes is a complicated issue globally, but tourism is still in its infancy here and a considered approach should be implemented. Festus later explained that Hoanib Valley Camp, which along with Shipwreck Lodge works with and employs people from local communities, is currently exploring how guests can better support the Himba. On my final evening, Festus who is an expert on the night sky as well as flora and fauna called me away from the campfire for a tour of the heavens, the highlight of which was my first sighting of the Magellanic Clouds, a pair of galaxies only visible from the southern hemisphere. I peered through my binoculars to find the view obscured by remnants of the days adventures: powder-soft grains of sand, forever embedded in my soul. Abercrombie & Kent (01242 547702) offers six nights full board at Shipwreck Lodge (three nights) and Hoanib Valley Camp, from 6,995 per person, including international and domestic flights, transfers and safari activities. The Pakistani lawyer who helped acquit a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy has claimed the UN and EU made him leave the country against his wishes. Saiful Malook fled to the Netherlands after radical Islamist violence erupted following the Pakistani Supreme Court's acquittal of Asia Bibi on Wednesday. The mother-of-five, 47, has spent the past eight years on death row after she was convicted in 2010 over allegations she insulted Prophet Muhammad in a dispute with her neighbours. Despite her acquittal, Ms Bibi remains in prison. The court's decision to overturn the verdict led to violent protests throughout Pakistan by angry mobs calling for the judges in the case to be killed. Mr Malook said he contacted a United Nations official in Islamabad after the protests left him fearing for his life. "And then they (the UN) and the European nation ambassadors in Islamabad, they kept me for three days and then put me on a plane against my wishes," the lawyer said during a press conference in The Hague. Mr Malook said he was "not happy" to leave the country without Ms Bibi and has no idea where she is. He continued: "I pressed them that I would not leave the country unless I get Asia out of the prison... I am not happy to be here without her but, but everybody said that you are the prime target at the moment and the whole world is taking care of Asia Bibi. "They were of the view that I was the prime target to be killed, and that my life was in imminent danger. "For three days they did not let me open the door, one day I called the French ambassador and said I do not want to be here." Mr Mulook said he did not know whether Ms Bibi would want to seek asylum. On Saturday, her husband Ashiq Masih asked Theresa May to grant his family asylum in Britain . Speaking in Punjabi, Mr Masih said in a video: "I am requesting the prime minister of the UK help us and as far as possible grant us freedom." Story continues He also called for asylum from US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the clip. Mr Mulook said Italy had offered asylum to both his family and Ms Bibi's, but that they had not accepted the offer since UN officials said they would make arrangements. The court decision prompted more than 2,000 Islamists to block a key road linking the capital, Islamabad, with the garrison city of Rawalpindi, causing traffic jams. Other protesters damaged or set fire to dozens of vehicles to pressure the government - resulting in her release being delayed. Islamists have said they would escalate the protests if Ms Bibi were permitted to leave the country. The government has indicated it will bar her from travelling abroad. Voters in several parts of Burma went to the polls on Saturday in 13 by-elections seen as a test of support for leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her ruling party. The National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the 2015 general election, putting an end to decades of rule by the military and its proxies, though the army retains considerable power under a constitution it implemented. Ms Suu Kyis appeal with the countrys Buddhist majority has not suffered much from a crisis involving 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority who fled a brutal army counter-insurgency campaign in the countrys west. However, economic development has been lagging. A voter registers at a polling station in Rangoon, Burma (Thein Zaw/AP) The 13 parliamentary seats at stake represent a tiny fraction of the 1,171 national, regional and state assembly seats nationwide, and by-elections rarely drum up the same level of enthusiasm as a general election. The next general election is in 2020. The seats became vacant through death or resignation. The two seats at stake in Rangoon, the countrys biggest city, are all but certain to stay in the NLDs hands. Turnout in Rangoon appeared to be low, but several voters there said they are keeping the faith in Ms Suu Kyi. We dont see we are going to get immediate change. Its impossible to make things right that have already been wrong for many years, said voter Htun Thein. We have to give them time and have understanding. Because of that, he said, voters have to encourage and support the NLD. The by-elections are seen as a test of Aung San Suu Kyi and her ruling National League for Democracy party (Chris Ison/PA) Myo Pa Pa Htun had a simpler explanation for supporting the NLD candidate: Because we like and love Mother Su very much, thats the thing. Other contests are taking place in ethnic minority regions where 2015 votes for installing Ms Suu Kyi and slapping down the militarys favoured candidates may give way to more traditional loyalties to local ethnic parties. That possible political realignment could come at the ruling NLDs disadvantage. Areas involved include Chin, Shan and Rakhine states. Story continues Low voter turnout may be the main hallmark of Saturdays polls, though more so in Rangoon than in ethnic minority regions. In Rangoons Tamwe township, more than 70,000 voters cast ballots in 2015s general election, according to Toe Win, the NLDs candidate for the constituency. He estimated that Saturdays turnout will reach around 20,000. Burma President Win Myint casts his ballot at a polling station in Rangoon (Thein Zaw/AP)) Toe Win is running to fill the seat of President Win Myint, who by law had to step down from his legislative post when he was appointed the countrys chief executive earlier this year. Businessman Maung Maung said he had to queue with hundreds of voters to vote in 2015. This morning I saw about 20 voters. In 2015, more than 200 people were ahead of me. The ruling party should take it as a lesson for 2020, he said. Falling voter turnout in the by-elections raises big questions about the NLDs popularity midway through its five-year term, said Yan Myo Thein, a political commentator in Rangoon. People particularly in ethnic areas have been disappointed about the NLDs election promises, the performance of the government and MPs and economic burdens. China navy Lamar Salter The crew of a Chinese warship sent a friendly greeting to Japanese sailors aboard a helicopter carrier they encountered in the South China Sea recently in what analysts said was a further sign, albeit superficial, of the warming ties between the two Asian giants. The incident happened late last month when Chinas Luyang-II class guided-missile destroyer Lanzhou spotted the Japanese vessel Kaga, Japans state broadcaster NHK said on Friday. On seeing the other ship, the crew of the Lanzhou sent a radio message saying, Good morning, glad to see you, the report said. The sentiment was in stark contrast to that of a message sent in August by the Peoples Liberation Army Chinas military to the crew of a US Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance plane flying over the Spratly Islands in the disputed waterway, which said simply, leave immediately. The encounter implies that the overall warming in Sino-Japanese relations meant the two countries militaries could get along with each other, said Song Zhongping, a military commentator for Hong Kongs Phoenix Television. [But] the Chinese navy only sent the friendly message because the Japanese warship wasnt in a sensitive area and was not being in any way provocative. JS Kaga Japanese aircraft carrier Yamada Taro/Wikimedia Commons Song said also that the frequent encounters between Chinese and Japanese warships in the South China Sea showed just how closely Beijing was watching the United States ally in the region. The NHK report came just days after Japans Nippon News Network broadcast a documentary about the Kagas operations in the South China Sea in September, in which it was shown being monitored by the Hengshui, a Chinese guided missile frigate. On that occasion, the two vessels only made radio contact to acknowledge one anothers presence. Despite the improvement in relations between Beijing and Tokyo, and the historic turning point achieved by the visit to China of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month, naval expert Li Jie said the PLA Navy would continue to keep a close eye on Japanese military vessels in the region. Story continues Its very clear that the current Sino-Japanese amity is happening amid the ongoing trade row between Beijing and Washington, and Abe might be using that to create a stronger bargaining position for himself with his American big brother, he said. The thawing bilateral relationship between China and Japan was driven by Tokyos economic interests, not sincerity, Li said. Beijing understands that the [Japanese navys] military presence is intended as a show of its geopolitical significance in the Asia-Pacfic region. While Beijing has territorial disputes with Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia in the South China Sea, Japan is not a claimant in the disputed waters. The two countries do, however, have a long-standing territory dispute over the Senkaku Islands, or Diaoyu as they are known in China, in the East China Sea. Nevertheless, Tokyo has been more active in the region of late, with the Kaga replicating tours of the South China Sea and Indian Ocean that were made by its sister ship Izumo in May 2017. NOW WATCH: Here's why so many nations want to control the South China Sea and what China wants to do See Also: DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland is willing to examine ways in which a "backstop" to keep the Irish border open after Brexit could be reviewed so long as it does not permit a unilateral decision to end it, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Monday. British Prime Minister Theresa May raised the possibility of a review mechanism for the backstop in a phone call on Monday with Varadkar that she had sought to update him on the current state of the talks, the Irish government said in a statement. Varadkar also recalled the prior commitments made that the backstop must apply "unless and until" alternative arrangements are agreed, the statement added. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin) The Taoiseach has dismissed the idea of a time-limited backstop, saying it would not be worth the paper it is written on. Leo Varadkar said he expects the British Government to stick to the commitments it made to the EU last December for a legally enforceable backstop to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Reports at the weekend that Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the EUs proposed Irish backstop after just three months has been criticised by the Irish government. Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney said that their position remains consistent and clear that a time-limited backstop will never be agreed to by Ireland or the EU. The Irish position remains consistent and v clear that a time-limited backstop or a backstop that could be ended by UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by IRE or EU. These ideas are not backstops at all + dont deliver on previous UK commitments #Brexit pic.twitter.com/y7AQ8V1jMo Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) November 5, 2018 Speaking on Monday, Mr Varadkar described the UK as a divided kingdom, which he said has not helped the negotiation process. The UK in many ways is a divided kingdom, the people are split 50/50 over whether they want to leave the European Union or not, he said. The Cabinet seems divided, the Government seems divided, Parliament is divided, and that has made it very difficult to come to an agreement. Id much prefer to have a united kingdom, a united country, to be our partner in these negotiations, but we dont, so we have to work through. Story continues Thankfully in Ireland we have a government that is united, and we have in Parliament as well, thats largely united behind the Government on this issue. He said that the Irish Government was working hard to try to reach an agreement by the end of the year but added that it cannot countenance the idea of a three-month limit to the backstop agreement. Leo Varadkar (left) and junior housing minister Damien English at the opening of a new housing development (Niall Carson/PA) A backstop with a three-month limit on it or expiry date of that nature isnt worth the paper its written on and what the backstop the UK Government has signed up to is a legally operative backstop that will apply unless and until we have any agreement to supersede it, he continued. I think its reasonable for us to expect a country like the United Kingdom and a government like the UK Government to stand by its commitments. He spoke as he attended an official opening of a newly built development of 42 social homes in north Dublin. The new housing features 31 one, two and three-bedroom apartments and 11 townhouses and will provide homes for 150 people. It comes as the number of homeless people living in emergency accommodation increased last month, adding to the countrys housing crisis. Mr Varadkar said the new housing development is an example of the Governments attempt to sort out the housing shortage. He added: Of course to some of our opponents, particularly those on the left, this place doesnt exist because its not directly built by a local authority, its built through a partnership involving the city council and Oaklee Housing Trust. I think to the people who live here they will tell you that it does exist and that it provides really high quality public housing. DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar rejects accusations of meddling in Bahrain's internal affairs, Qatar's foreign ministry said in a tweet. "The State of Qatar condemns that its name was mentioned in Bahrain's internal conflicts," the ministry said. A Bahraini court on Sunday ordered life sentences for three senior opposition members, overturning a previous acquittal on charges of spying for Qatar. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; editing by Maha El Dahan) "Bahala na ang Diyos cannot be a way of life. But in this country, it is." "Bahala na ang Diyos cannot be a way of life. But in this country, it is." The Bisaya have a better word for Undas or Undras as we in San Pablo call those first two days of November. Kalag means skeleton. When you repeat the Visayan word, it signifies make-believe skeletons. Kunwari kalansay, kung baga. The Mexicans are more to the point. They say Dia de los Muertos. Araw ng mga patay. What could be more direct to the point than that? But they have made a tourist attraction of it, something similar to what Rio does to its carnival in February. The difference lies in Rios parade of half-naked women while Mexico parades giant mock-ups of skeletons and ghosts, with an army of macabre and ghoulishly-painted parade participants. Neighboring Americans who are so unlike Donald Trump, the kill-joy, travel to their land down under to revel in the parade of kalag-kalags. At least the Mexican economy makes money out of their commemoration of the dead. In the Philippines, only the flower merchants and the candle-makers make money, but leave the cemetery caretakers and the police with such a mess to clean up. Which is probably why our irreverent president finds it difficult to understand why his constituents adore saints in the Roman Catholic tradition, and lump these adorable saints with their ancestors lying six feet underground, skull and bones intact. It could also be his way of mocking the uber-traditional numerous church of his forefathers, whose friars once upon a time thought that super-imposing the Italian and Spanish saints on the natives worship of anitos and bathala would hasten their conversion to the faith. As the frailes did in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, so they did in these Islas del Oriente. With amazing success. Now Mexicos Sinaloa cartel is beginning to look at las islas Filipinas as a potential mercado for their cocaine imported from Colombia. If Madre Espana lorded it over the indios orientes through the Viceroy of Mexico in those days, why Sinaloa should also have a place in this benighted land. And por eso, if the galleon trade between Manila and Mexico replaced the trade between pre-Hispanic tribes and Amoy (now Fujian), why not cocaine replacing shabu? But seriously, Duterte plays enfant terrible to the Roman Catholic traditions, not to our faith, which is why I find Bishop Davids insult about praying for a sick man so very un-Christian. The president knows, as many of the better-educated among us, that one of the main reasons why we are where we are and where we shouldnt be is because we have been following our faith to the letter and not in spirit. Just like our democracy, which has all the forms, but lacks the substance of equal opportunity and social justice. So too our religion, which is more form, ritual, ceremony, than the substance of charity and spirituality. Our poor blindly accept the papal admonition against any form of artificial birth control, calling it pro-life, without weighing the consequences of having to rear children in a life of unjust poverty and deprivation. Choosing a better life and a more secure future than giving untold births to a life of abject misery. Bahala na ang Diyos cannot be a way of life. But in this country, it is.And so I understand why the president keeps coming up with mal mots at the traditions and practices of our numerous church. It is not out of disrespect for the faith but a judgment call against its often illogical and outmoded prescriptions on the conduct of our mortal lives. And he did not hide his disdain for these practices even during the campaign of 2015-16. Despite having blasphemed the santo papa, Filipinos voted him overwhelmingly as their leader for these troubled times. He defined his terms even then: Do not get me wrong. I have nothing against religion, for after all it is the anchor of our faith, the moorings of our conduct as human beings And so he continues to this day, asking questions with characteristic satire, mocking traditions, irreverently defying age-old practices that do not contribute to nation-building, or constitute obstacles to good governance. Just imagine: If we had practiced population management as the Thais did from the 80s (without taming their libido) using condoms and pills, instead of blindly accepting Cardinal Sins prescriptions, we would not have as large an army of the poor as we now have. In 1978, there were 43-million Thais and 44-million Filipinos. Today, there are 66-million Thais and 106-million Filipinos. There is more to that simple arithmetic: Thailand is all of 51 million hectares in one contiguous whole territory with a sprinkling of islands; our territory is just 30 million hectares of land separated into 7,100 islands. Yet we keep wondering why we import our staple grain from them. And our arithmetically-challenged media keep chiding our government because the Thais only learned farming at Los Banos. And so back to kalag-kalag of the Bisaya, undas to media, undras to the Tagalogs. I have always wondered: why dont we do away with this practice of commemorating our dearly departed on Nov. 1 and 2, sprucing up their tombs on the last days of October, so we could gorge ourselves on picnics beside these tombs in merry reunion of extended family with skeletons six feet under? And in the process, creating monstrous traffic, logistical nightmares, tons and tons of garbage, and so many other vexations of life and spirit? Why dont we just visit our dead where they lie entombed or in cremated ashes inside niches during their birthdays, or death anniversaries? This way we commemorate in relative peace and quiet, in the serenity of relative solitude, instead of the madness of multitudinal cacophony? A postscript: My youngest daughter, with whom I discussed this proposal once over the dinner table, sheepishly made a commentBut pa, thats removing more fun out of the Philippines! Oh wellmore fun but more poor. FILE PHOTO: Saad al-Kaabi, chief executive of Qatar Petroleum, gestures as he speaks to reporters in Doha, Qatar, July 4, 2017. REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon/File Photo Thomson Reuters DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar appointed the heads of its biggest bank and state-run oil firm to two key ministerial posts in a cabinet reshuffle on Sunday which comes amid a protracted dispute with Arab states. The country's ruler issued decrees restructuring the boards of state-run Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the world's ninth largest sovereign wealth fund with about $300 billion in assets. It was the first government reshuffle in Qatar, the world's top liquefied natural gas producer, since early 2016. The tiny but wealthy country has been facing a diplomatic and economic boycott by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt since June 2017. The four countries accuse Qatar of backing terrorism and cosying up to Iran. Doha denies the charges and says the boycott aims to impinge on its sovereignty. Qatar National Bank (QNB) CEO Ali Ahmed al-Kuwari was appointed to a new portfolio which combined commerce and industry under one ministry in the cabinet reshuffle which also included changes to the justice, labour and social affairs ministries. It was not clear whether Kuwari would retain his post at QNB, the Middle East's largest lender by assets. The bank, which is 50 percent owned by the country's sovereign wealth fund, did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. Saad al-Kaabi, the chief executive officer of QP, joined the cabinet as Minister of State for Energy Affairs, according to a decree published by the royal court. Al-Kaabi, a U.S.-educated engineer, rose through the ranks to become chief executive of QP in 2014 and also sits on the board of the Qatar Investment Authority. He has gained a reputation among executives of the world's energy majors, such as Exxon, Shell and Total, as a reliable counterpart for energy projects that have made the tiny nation of 2.6 million people the biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the planet. Story continues (Reporting by Eric Knecht in Doha and Rania El Gamal and Asma Alsharif in Dubai; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) See Also: Sky News The amount of fuel people can buy will be limited and non-essential travel restricted in a Canadian province following torrential rains and mudslides. The British Columbia (BC) government said was imposing the measures as highways began to reopen following extreme weather, which prompted it to declare a state of emergency. Provincial Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said non-essential vehicles would be limited to around 30 litres per trip to the petrol station, in an order expected to last until December. Upcoming events Several interesting events are scheduled for the upcoming week at the Medical Center. Monday, Aug. 28 Biochemist to investigate androgens role in womens health Dr. Licy L. Yanes Cardozo, assistant professor of biochemistry in the Department of Medicine/Endocrinology, will give the Department of Biochemistry presentation, Do Androgens Play a Role in Womens Health? at 3 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 28, in classroom 3A. All Medical Center faculty, staff and students are invited. Refreshments will be available. For more information, call Kennsie Johnson at 4-1505 or email her at ktjohnson@umc.edu. Tuesday, Aug. 29 ASB to host CommUNITY celebration The Associated Student Body will host a "UMMC CommUNITY Day" event at noon on Tuesday, Aug. 29, in classroom R354 (upper amphitheatre). According to the ASB, the event is "our constructive response against prejudice and bigotry. This celebration of our diverse CommUNITY recognizes and affirms our belief in the dignity of all persons, regardless of their creed, ethnicity, spiritual beliefs, nationality, economic status, gender, sexual orientation and political ideologies." Scheduled speakers include Dr. James Keeton, Dr. Juanyce Taylor and Chaplain Doris Whitaker. The event is sponsored by the ASB, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the Office of Alumni Affairs. Lunch will be available to the first 100 in attendance. For more information, email William Thomas at wthomas2@umc.edu. Wednesday, Aug. 30 South Alabama surgeon to give Grand Rounds presentation Dr. Jon D. Simmons, associate professor of surgery and surgery residency program director at the University of South Alabama, will give the Department of Surgery Grand Rounds presentation at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 30, in room CW 106 of the Classroom Wing. Continuing medical education credit is available. For more information, call Carol Hollingsworth at 5-1292 or email her at cphollingsworth@umc.edu. Physiologist to question kidney therapeutic angiogenesis Dr. Alejandro Chade, professor of physiology and biophysics and associate director of the Physiology Graduate Program, will give the Physiology Seminar Series presentation, Therapeutic Angiogenesis for the Kidney: Can We? from noon-1 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 30, in room CW308 of the Classroom Wing. Refreshments will be available on a first-come basis. For more information, call Courtney Graham at 4-1820. Thursday, Aug. 31 Pennington professor to uncover weight loss difficulty Dr. Steven Heymsfield, professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, will present Obesity: Why is Weight Loss so Difficult to Maintain? at noon on Thursday, Aug. 31, in room CW308 of the Classroom Wing. The seminar is sponsored by the Mississippi Center for Obesity Research, the Mississippi Center for Clinical and Translational Research and the Cardiorenal and Metabolic Diseases Research Center. Lunch will be available on a first-come basis. For more information, call Catherine Kaime at 5-0817 or email her at ckaime@umc.edu. On the horizon Medicine chair candidate to discuss heart failure drug developments Dr. Javed Butler, director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and co-director of the Heart Institute at Sony Brook University and UMMC chair of medicine candidate, will present Similarities Between Drug Developments for Heart Failure and Providing Health Care from noon-1 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 7, in classroom R153 (lower amphitheatre). All Medical Center faculty, staff and students are invited. For more information, call Maggie Cunningham at 4-5578 or email her at mcunningham2@umc.edu. Romanian professor to talk laser desorption ionization Dr. Radu Iliescu, a professor at the Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Iasi, Romania, will give the Women's Health Research Center/Department of Biochemistry presentation, "Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization - Time of Flight - Mass Spectrometry for Protein Identification and Quantification," at 3 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 11, in classroom 3A. All Medical Center faculty, staff and students are invited. Refreshments will be available on a first-come basis. For more information, call Kennsie Johnson at 4-1505. Chancellor, vice chancellor to speak at faculty meeting Dr. Jeffrey Vitter, University of Mississippi chancellor, and Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs, are scheduled to speak at the fall faculty meeting at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 31, in classroom R153 (lower amphitheatre). Vitter and Woodward will provide an update on the university and the Medical Center for the next fiscal year. The agenda also will include a recognition of faculty with 20 years of service. Full-time faculty members who have 20 years of continuous full-time faculty service are asked to contact Dorothy Singleton by Tuesday, Aug. 15, at the phone number or address listed below. Lunch will be available on a first-come basis. For more information, call Singleton at 5-4883 or email her at drsingleton@umc.edu. Of all the senior and even junior Supreme Court justices, the general consensus is that Senior Justice Antonio Carpio, now acting Chief Justice, is the most qualified not only by seniority, but also when it comes to his long experience as justice, his knowledge of what is best when it comes to the problems of the entire judiciary, and the need to keep its stability the peoples faith in the judicial system. Thus, it is but logical and the best way to go for President Rodrigo Duterte to name Carpio as the next Chief Justice after Teresita de Castro retired. The appointment of Carpio is the best proof that the President respects the long-cherished tradition of upholding seniority as he did in the case of De Castro, a tradition broken by former President BS Aquino by appointing Maria Lourdes Sereno, the youngest justice then of the High Court. With the appointment of Carpio as Chief Justice, the President will show the people that he respects constructive criticism which Carpio has been doing on issues in connection with territorial disputes on the West Philippine Sea. Its President Dutertes best argument that he respects dissent, the absence of which can only lead to tyranny. * * * Theres no way, not even by law, can we stop premature campaigning by national and local candidates for elections. Santa Banana, I still have to see anybody sent to jail for premature campaigning. The moment a candidate gets elected into office, especially congressmen and senators, anything he or she does is aimed at getting reelected. Havent you noticed that when a congressman or a senator is no longer up for reelection, he or she is silent or doesnt give a damn about his office. All he or she does is just waiting for the day when he retires. Or, my gulay, if a senator or a representative wants to run again for another office, he or she again starts getting active. Thats how it is in our kind of elections. The best example, for instance, is former presidential special assistant Christian Lawrence Bong Go when, before he was accompanied by the President to file his COC or Certificate of Candidacy for the Senate, was seen all over in the newspapers already campaigningsomething that he consistently denied. After he filed his COC, Bong Go is again seen soliciting the support of governors in the name of President Duterte and making noises about helping this or that sector once he gets into the Senate. Enact a law criminalizing premature campaigning? Not only will this proposed law not get to first base, but its implementation would be very difficult. Soon enough, if not already, spots over radio will be heard and film clips over television will be seen about this or that candidate trying to help the needy and other sectors of society needing help. The point I am driving at is that lets forget criminalizing premature campaigning. Its as useless as trying to stop political dynasties. * * * What Congress should look at seriously are the many survey firms getting very active this coming elections. Surveys, which are made regularly about who the people prefer to be senators, members of the House, governors, mayors or what-have-you, tend to create not only a sense of bandwagon mentality among the people but give undue preference to the rich, who in some way or another get the attention of poll surveyors. I know, for instance, despite the claims of poll surveys like the Social Weather Stations or the Pulse Asia that they conduct their surveys by scientific methods, poll surveys can be influenced by the way questions are asked. My, during the days of Martial Law when I was public affairs manager of KBS, operating and managing Channels 2, GTV-4, 9 and 13, we conducted surveys showing how this or that radio and television program fared before their listeners and audiences. And I knew for a fact that we manipulated the kind of questions asked to favor a program we liked or preferred. Poll surveys become very critical as Election Day approaches. They kill chances of new comers when affluent and rich candidates come out with commissioned poll surveys which poor candidates can ill-afford. Santa Banana, poll surveys can even kill the chances of those in the last four slots of the Senate. Poll surveys as I know them cannot always be perfect. In the 1992 presidential polls, the surveys predicted the victory of the late Miriam Defensor Santiago, but the election was finally won by Fidel V. Ramos. Thats the reason why Miriam always claimed she was cheated. Even in the United States, poll surveys are not a sure thing. Defenders of poll surveys claim they indicate at the given period the preferences of people. But, in the final analysis, its the people who ultimately decide on their preference and choices. So, just let it be. And just stop all poll surveys for election. * * * I have been asked why old politicians want to run again in the coming election. My answer to this is, that power and its attendant parks are some kind of addiction or an explixir that keeps them going.Old politicians in their eighties and nineties have tasted power and everything that goes with it. But to some, its no longer the perks, the privileges or the money that goes with getting elected, but the fun of running again and getting into power. To others, the motivation is something else. Its the knowledge that they want to impart and the experience that they know would be good for the people. In other words, their motivation is beyond addiction to power, but to continue doing good for the people. I asked former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile once when we had that Saturday session at the 365 Club at Holiday Inn Suites what made him run again when he was already 94 years old hell be 95 years old when Election Day comes. He said that there are certain issues hed still like to discuss, like Federalism, which he believes will become an issue in the Senate race. And I believe JPE since Federalism as an issue should be further discussed and debated since its new concept for the people and the country. I also believe that Federalism is not suited for an archipelago like the Philippines with its so many dialects and cultures. Federalism can only succeed in landlocked countries like the United States, India, Germany, Malaysia and other nations. My gulay, how can you get united in a country where some federated states are rich and others poor, with dialects entirely different from each other. It will be a financial nightmare for the Central Government to support poor federated states. Perhaps, the best description I have heard about Federalism was from former Finance Secretary Gary Teves, who said that Federalism is like a father supporting 18 federated states, each of them unlike the others. While the Duterte administration would like the issue of Federalism to be discussed on debated during the election period, to me, its an issue already dead in the water which the people will never accept in the wake of so many other challenging problems and issues. It all boils down to thisfirst things first. * * * There were two trips I made as a journalist during the 80s and the 90s which I cannot forget because they both very exciting and a learning experience. There was at one time when I was then vice president of the Loyola Group of Companies when its affiliated company, Urban Developers, a property development company, was invited by the New Papua University to look into the possibility of building housing projects for its faculty and workers at Port Moresby, the capital. Together with an executive of Urban Developers, we went to Fort Moresby. When we landed at the airport, I saw on its mural a painting of Australian explorers touching the breasts of half-naked New Papuan women, while new Papuan Warriors had shields only to protect their penis. When I asked somebody at the airport, what did that painting indicate, I was told that it was the greeting of New Papuans to strangers. I thought he was kidding. Anyway we then paid our respects to New Papuan public officials and told them why we were there. Santa Banana, I never saw Papuan officials fully dressed, except in their shorts, and slippers, with their shirts. Thats how they dressed, I was told. After a series of meetings with New Papuan University officials on their plans, my partner and I both agreed it was not profitable since we would be subsidizing at least a dozen Filipino construction workers and spending for their accommodation and airfares. After a week or so, I told my partner, its about time to leave since the women serving us and fixing our beds were getting prettier. But, one last thing the day before we left, our guide told us to visit a tribe some 20 kilometers away from the city. When we got the place, we were met by the chieftain and his half-naked women and tribesmen with their penis all in a shields. After we shook hands with the chieftain, we were told to just touch the breast of the bare-breasted women, some of them wives of the chieftain. We did as instructed with the women giggling all the time, after which the guide told us that it was how to greet New Papuan tribes people. My, I was so scared because we were told that at Iran Jaya, the other half of Papua New Guinea, there were cannibals. The other trip I had was with the late lawyer Leonardo Siguion Reyna, when we were invited by Siemens to West Germany after the Wall of Germany separating the West from the East was demolished. Were we booked at Aldon Kimpinski, the most luxurious hotel in Germany where we were told the Kaiser and the Adolf Hitler once stayed. We also saw the so-called Bridge of Spies shown in a Tom Hanks movie. It was October when we were taken to the place they celebrate Oktoberfestwhere men, all the time sitting down, drank beer even as they urinated while wearing leather pants. Boy, that was a sight I could not forget, and also a learning experience. [November 05, 2018] Untangle Accelerates Growth, Adding New Partnerships, Cloud-Based Offerings and Awards SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Untangle Inc. , a leader in comprehensive network security for small-to-medium business, today announced that Schneider Electric has selected Untangle to provide Unified Threat Management solutions to its APC resellers as part of its new Technology Partners Initiative. The initiative expands Schneider's world-class portfolio of solutions by partnering with innovative technology providers to deliver to resellers comprehensive and proven approaches for achieving high availability, security and resiliency at the edge. By being a part of the APC Technology Partners Initiative, Untangle continues to add to its channels and further provide turnkey cybersecurity solutions to technology partners looking to offer comprehensive network security without unnecessary complexity. Untangle previously announced a similar relationship with Adtran to provide network security solutions to their resellers via ProCloud , cloud-managed solutions for network management, security, unified communications and analytics. Untangle has added more than 130 VARs and MSPs in the past three consecutive quarters, growing its channel bookings 26% year-over-year, and protecting over 40,000 networks and nearly one million endpoints worldwide. Additionally, Untangle has expanded its global reach by signing eleven value-added distributors in 2018 covering EMEA and LATAM. "Providing powerful but simple solutions to our partners is part of our vision to offer the best protection to SMEs and distributed enterprises," said Scott Devens, chief executive officer at Untangle. "We will continue to invest and innovate in delivering cloud-managed cybersecurity solutions that fit the below-enterprise market's evolving needs and are pleased to work with Schneider Electric to provde those solutions to the channel." 2018 Highlights Product Innovation Untangle NG Firewall is now available for Amazon Web Services (AWS) for both BYOL and PAYG licensing, building on Untangle's commitment to providing SMBs with the simplest user experience for installation, configuration, management and reporting, while offering new options for cloud-connected networks to safeguard their users, data and devices. NG Firewall in AWS helps organizations maintain a consistent security posture across dispersed locations. By moving from a firewall onsite to one located in the cloud , organizations can easily scale without being limited by hardware. Additionally, Command Center , Untangle's cloud-based centralized management platform critical for MSPs and multi-site deployments, is now included at no cost for all customers to ensure that every customer has the best experience of Untangle's industry-leading ease of deployment, management and reporting. For full remote management capabilities, each deployment must be licensed for NG Firewall Complete . Industry Recognition Untangle was named to the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Threat Management (SMB Multifunction Firewalls) for the third consecutive year. for the third consecutive year. NG Firewall recognized by the CyberSecurity Breakthrough Awards: 2018 Overall Firewall Solution Provider of the Year. Untangle recognized by the Cyber Defense Magazine 2018 Global Awards for Hot Company Network Security & Management, Best Product Unified Threat Management (UTM), Leader in Firewalls. Command Center recognized by the Best in Biz International 2018 Awards: Silver winner for Best New Product of the Year SMB. NG Firewall recognized by the International Business Awards: 2018 Stevie Gold Winner in Best New Product or Service of the year Software Network Security Solution. For more information about Untangle's strategic alliances and OEM programs, please contact us . About Untangle Untangle is an innovator in cybersecurity designed specifically for the below-enterprise market, safeguarding businesses, home offices, nonprofits, schools and governmental organizations. Untangle's integrated suite of software and appliances provides enterprise-grade capabilities and consumer-oriented simplicity to organizations with limited IT resources. Untangle's award-winning network security solutions are trusted by over 40,000 customers around the world. Untangle is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, www.untangle.com . Untangle Contact: Lisette Rauwendaal Lumina PR for Untangle (408) 827-4363 [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/untangle-accelerates-growth-adding-new-partnerships-cloud-based-offerings-and-awards-300742983.html SOURCE Untangle [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Tech Loyalty in the Workplace Threatens Productivity and IT Control As consumers build loyalty toward specific technology brands, those preferences are bleeding into the workplace, leading them to introduce technology devices, software and other tools without IT's approval, a new report from NextPlane shows. Nearly half of professionals (46 percent) said they or their team have introduced new technology into their workplace. As IT attempts to remain in control, workers are not standing down, and 53 percent said they or another team have pushed back on IT or management when they tried to dictate the technology they use. The report also shows that 73 percent of workers say they've been successful in implementing their choice of tech tools. The result is growing tension between IT departments who want to remain in control of security and systems, and employees who want the freedom to choose the technologies they use to do their jobs, and are willing to go around IT to do it. A new report from NextPlane examines the extent of this growing rift and its impact on collaboration and productivity. The report, "The Fight to Collaborate: A Growing Rift Between IT and Teams," is based on a survey of 750 business professionals in a range of positions and industries. This growing tech loyalty is leading to business professionals seeking out new tools and technology to not just do their own jobs better, but to help their teams collaborate more effectively. The majority of respondents (63 percent) expressed loyalty to the technology products they use for their job. And it doesn't stop on an individual level - 42 percent of teams have loyalty to technology products, leading to pushback or straying frm policy if the IT-mandated tools don't mesh with established workflows. "IT and business professionals are struggling to find common ground when it comes to the technology used at work," said Farzin Shahidi, CEO of NextPlane. "Legions of teams and workers are introducing their preferred tools, such as team collaboration tools like Slack and Workplace, despite corporate IT policy. This increasing lack of compliance threatens not only the productivity of employees that may be working across different platforms, but the control that IT requires to manage all of a company's technology securely and efficiently." Additional findings in the report: More than one-third (38 percent) of respondents said they would be resistant to IT or management dictating which software or tools they use to do their jobs. This reflects the notion that individuals and teams believe they know how to do their jobs best and should have a say in the tools they use to do their work. In many cases, teams prevail in pushing back on IT to allow their group to use technology of their choice, with 46 percent saying IT made an exception for their team. But IT still holds a considerable amount of control, with teams complying with company mandates 42 percent of the time. Over 1 in 10 people still use the technology of their choice in defiance of IT. More than half (54 percent) said IT has the final say on all of the programs and technological devices used, and only 10 percent said they have full say in the technology they use. This tug-of-war comes with mixed success for both sides, but the tension is showing no signs of stopping unless communication and collaboration strategies change to reflect the wants and needs of both IT and employees. "While there are no one-size-fits-all options for all types of technology employees might bring into the workplace, federation is one possible solution that can allow companies to deploy a comprehensive and open collaboration strategy that allows multiple collaboration tools to be used within the same organization," Shahidi said. To view the complete report, click here. About NextPlane NextPlane, the leading provider of unified collaboration and communication services, helps companies achieve a comprehensive and open collaboration strategy, connecting disparate and independent workstream collaboration platforms, and creating a seamless communication and collaboration environment for any enterprise, its workers and its partners. NextPlane's services allow organizations and teams to seamlessly connect different collaboration tools to each other. The company's software breaks down the walls that exist between legacy Unified Communications (News - Alert) tools like Skype for Business, Cisco Jabber and others as well as newer team collaboration tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Atlassian Stride and others. The solution allows companies, vendors and teams to continue to use the collaboration and communication tool of their choosing, reduces the IT cost and complexity of multiple tools in one organization and increases overall productivity. NextPlane CEO Farzin Shahidi founded the company with the vision to forge truly productive communication in a modern business world by breaking down barriers to comprehensive collaboration. NextPlane provides unified collaboration and communication services to global companies such as Accenture, Dow, IBM, Merck, Nokia (News - Alert) and others. Its platform connects over 750,000 enterprise users and 500M messages every day. The company is based in Sunnyvale, California. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005144/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] When I arrived at my shul on Shabbat morning, it was covered with graffiti. Not the kind of hateful graffiti that's been cropping up at synagogues around the nation in recent days: rather, signs, cards, and messages of love and support from our non-Jewish neighbors. I had advance notice of the "graffiti love-in." (The organizers checked with me to make sure their plan was okay.) But even so, when I arrived at shul on Shabbat morning and found what they had done, I couldn't help weeping tears of gratitude. Here's what I wrote about it for The Forward: Our Neighbors Graffitied Our Synagogue -- With Love. I'm enclosing some photos below. It's easy to pay attention to the acts of horror and trauma and hatred that are sweeping our nation. But I hope you'll also pay attention to this act of spontaneous love, support and care. Graffiti Love-In (You can glimpse the artists at work in this photo album at the Berkshire Eagle... and I hope you'll read my piece for the Forward, too.) National and city officials have a new reason to hang their heads in shameand to work harder. A new study by the Amsterdam-based design and consultancy firm Arcadis found that Metro Manila is among the worlds least sustainable cities. The 2018 Sustainable Cities Index, which takes into account social, environmental and economic factors, ranked Manila 95th out of 100 cities in overall sustainability. In the people sub-index, where the quality of life is measured, Manila ranked 93rd overall. The capital also ranked 91st in the planet sub-index, which measures green spaces and pollution. Manila was almost at rock bottom at 98th in the profit sub-index, which takes into account the overall economic health of the city. Manilas low ranking in the 2018 survey confirms what many of us know by experience, living daily in a congested, dirty and polluted city, inured to the sight of children playing and begging on the streets. It is a reality that is drummed into us every day when we struggle with public transport systems that have been allowed to deteriorate over the years to the point that they are no longer safe. In contrast to Manila, the top 20 sustainable cities are mostly established European metropolises, including London, which was ranked the worlds most sustainable city in 2018. Representing Asia in the upper ranks are Singapore (4th), Hong Kong (9th) and Seoul (13th).Manila ranked 21st out of 23 Asian cities in the study, besting only Hanoi in Vietnam and Kolkata in India. To improve the lot of its residents, Manila was urged to boost its sustainability and livability by enhancing transportation network and resiliency against natural disasters. Arcadis also emphasized that focus on building resiliency and investment in infrastructures to ease congestions will be the key to achieving sustainable success for Manila. National and local officials can take the results of the Arcadis survey two ways. The usual and more common reaction is to dismiss the survey out of hand, question its fairness and claim some kind of bias or error in the data. The more productive approach, however, is to take the results as a call to action that something must be done soon to alleviate the suffering of Metro Manila residents. Results of the administrations ambitious Build, Build, Build projects must come sooner rather than later. Officials can also use the survey results as a guide to specific areas that need improvement most. It is a national shame that our capital so regularly fails its residents and fares so poorly against other major cities in the world. We need to right this wrong. Examinations for aspiring lawyers kicked off Sunday, and will continue for the next three Sundays this month at the University of Santo Tomas. As had been customary, well-wishers showed their support to friends and family taking the Bar. This year there are 8,701 such examinees, a marked increase from the 6,748 who took it in 2017. Out of this number, 1,72425.5 percentpassed. For many Filipinos, the law is more than another profession, certainly more than another job. Lawyers are highly regarded for their title, and the knowledge and hard work that is assumed to go along with the title. Lawyers are a familys pride, and many a parent would sacrifice many things just to be able to send his or her child to law school. For some, a law credential connotes poweryou cannot mistreat a lawyer.But the high regard also carries responsibilities. This is why we view with disdain those who conduct themselves in a less-than-worthy manner, or those who speak like they do not know any better. That many continue to revere those who practice the law tells us that the rule of law remains supreme. Many students still take it up, likely not with the objective of raking in money but of actually making a difference. Its a good time for lawyers, wherever they may be situated, to ask themselves if they are living up to the ideals they once heldor if the reality of worldly interests has altered their vision altogether, and practicing law is just another way of making a living. by Lexi Lerner They all go the same way. Look up, then down and to the left, the EMT said. Always. Why? I dont know, he said. Well I think they know. When they look up, theyre just waiting. And the next part why to the left? Because of the heart? I dont know. Maybe something with blood pressure differences. Maybe something else. I really dont know. Im not living, Im just killing time.[1] Its absurdly easy to take this life for granted. Its so easy that I want to, so badly, all the time. The pitfall was built into its coding. So was the challenge: if I let life matter more, I choke. Whats the worth of sitting in the grass, watching geese, or perhaps fireflies, for days or decades on end? Is it worthy of a lifetime? Where were the geese in my college classrooms? Where were the fireflies at my jobs? Whats the role of ambition? Ambition to do what? We sat on a bench in Soho, watching a pickup kickball game. Is this fragile? I asked her. She looked through the chain link fence. The rubber ball sailed across the field; all heads followed its enormous arc. Both teams cheered heartily. Yes, she said. Is it sacred? I asked. The bruised shadows of trees, the emperor sun behind them, the pigeons. Yes, she said. On a sun-spotted afternoon in a forest, I asked my dad if he missed his dad, who passed a few years ago. Sometimes, it doesnt really feel like hes gone. More like, I havent seen him in a while, and we havent spoken in a while, but hes just a phone call away. I find myself thinking, wheres Pa? Where is he? There are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass, say, the window of the corner video store, and Im gripped by a cherishing so deep for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that Im speechless. I am living. I remember you.[2] In a way, the main difference between death and never seeing someone again is if you want to call them, you cant. But we can kill people off within our reality without them physically dying. A relative death: Youre dead to me. Our willingness to do this and forsake any possibility of reconciliation is the saddest human grudge of all. But causes and conditions dont let us die to each other like that. Water striders who have never met still feel all footprints through the ponds ripples. And switching from a horizontal to vertical view the ghosts of history live with us, are here in every moment, and they direct what we do, invisibly guiding our pens and swords, more influential and alive today than they ever were in life. In the classic Rider-Waite deck, the Fool brings the Major Arcana full circle and serves as its implicit protagonist. Hes a young man with a white dog, a white rose, and a bindle, arms outstretched in the sunlight, about to walk over the edge of a cliff. My favorite version of the Fool comes from a much more modern deck, the Sasuraibito created by Stasia Burrington. What makes this man foolish? Did age not render him wise? I hear Socrates sentiment echo through the ages: You call me wise because I know that I know nothing. Foolishness is foolishness, but wisdom is the recognition of foolishness. We dont know what kind of fool this old man is, whether hes flower-dancing in ignorance or enlightenment. But they are obverse and reverse of each other, which is both the furthest and closest they are capable of being. The elderly become a series of checklists where to house them, in what nursing home, how to liquidate their assets, what insurance. They become fleshy, financial burdens rather than themselves. Something for us to clean up and deal with. And so we neglect the gorgeously mundanities of growing old, and the intimate rituals involved. Christ will be present in all the skills that we learn and in symbols and sacraments of all kinds. These will include the sacraments of the cup of cold water and the washing of the disciples feet. All these things will speak silently to the patients about Gods love for them.[3] On a run through my hometown, I passed a doe on the side of the road. She was lying on her side, the sun-turned eye wide open, the fur of her body pristine, legs pulled together as if someone had dragged her off the road, no evidence of coming into contact with a car or a disease, no gnats or maggots. It was a busy road, so I needed to run past her, and my headphones were playing some sort of pop music, so I tried to recite a Mourners Kaddish as I left, but it was like fighting the wind, singing against the wind of the saccharine beat, and the run, and the cars scraping against the shoulder of the road, always threatening but I had this deep, human urge to dig a trench into the earth and bury her, maybe even on that property, with the colonial house, didnt matter, better farther from the road, I just wanted her buried. And why. It wasnt a matter of decency, that embarrassed, sick feeling one gets when seeing a dead thing, a thing that we think isnt supposed to be seen because seeing it brings us closer to it, makes it real, puts it in the purview of this living realm. And it obviously wasnt a matter of hygiene. The urge was different. It was a return. Biological obligation, a doctor once called it. The sense that were supposed to be in the ground, and help each other be in the ground, to be sunken in the warm-cool dirt, its softness and hardness. Returning. That the earth consumes us and will metabolize us into fodder for new things, and we become those new things. Were supposed to bury each other into earth, its a mitzvah, both goodness and law; thats why mausoleums are creepy, thats why even when we turn to cinders in cremation, many of us release each other into the wind rather than bottle it up. Its a returning. Were supposed to return. I know the doe will return. Creatures will take her fur, her meat, her bones. But I didnt bury her. One eye stared at heaven while I ran away. On another recent hometown adventure, the road took me over the river. So I paused and leaned on the bridge banister to watch the water flow underneath me into the woods. The undulating reflection of the tree I realized it was the waters understanding of the tree rather than the tree itself. The water is like the medium of our mind, which can be affected by externalities: debris in the river versus trauma, delights, idiosyncrasies that we embody. And these diversions, artifacts, alter how the river and mind perceive and respond to stimuli. In other words, these externalities form the personality of the river, and the personality of the mind, a filter through which all things are reinterpreted rather than seen as they are in perfect mirroring. And this personality outputs reflections in the water and thoughts in the mind, subject to change by more externalities and different object stimuli. When the water stilled for just a moment, I could distinguish the water from the tree from the reflection of tree in water, and recognize their mediums. And I thought -maybe it is possible to do this with the mind, and objects, and thoughts about objects. Its a spin-off of Platos cave, sure. But theres another sinister layer at work. Once you can see the medium of your mind, you can see that delights, traumas, idiosyncrasies the things we cling to, that give us individuality are just sticks and stones in our water that affect perception. Personality, indeed, is the nature of our waters reflection, the way our water responds to whats around it, based on how we interrupt its flow. So you have the power to undo yourself and induce total ego death. Thats terrifying alchemy. As painful as those traumas may be, we cling to so many of them because theyre part of what we think makes us us. In an actors first practice, they learn to recognize the daily performance they pull. All personality is performance to remind us that were unique, special, and. Personality renders us archetypal, iconic. And the possibility of just facing our own pure water is like undoing selfhood in a sensory deprivation tank. The question isnt just can you undo yourself; its what would happen if you did? And why on earth would you want to? I start medical school in nine months, the amount of time it takes to birth someone new. But it will take mothers life then, too. This is what Im afraid of. This I doesnt want to let go. I dont want to go. Have you ever been on a super high diving board? So high you feel it wobble in the wind? With water so dark and deep you cant see the bottom. And your toes curl around the edge. And you can feel your pulse in your ears. Yes. The trepidation right before you jump. But you know you will. Yes. I almost never tell people what to do, the sensei said. But Im only telling you because you already know. Catching my eyes. Right? Yes. I knew I needed to study at the monastery. So - he opened his hands - jump. This is your sign. What are you waiting for? I dont know. My toes are still curled around the edge. Being in a zendo sometimes feels like being totally alone at a crowded party. You have to exist there in deafening, deadened silence, and not fall apart. But youre not alone. Youre in the heart of the room. Everyone surrounding you is also silen(t/ced) in their own way. Maybe one of them, like you, has tears in their throat. In Buddhism, one of the things you take refuge in is the sangha: the harmony, the community. And here it is, all around you. You commune with everyone breathing and not breathing, everyone here and not here, everyone on the edge of existing and not existing at the drop of a hat. And then the air shifts. He looked at me as though he couldnt speak, as if there were a law against it, a membrane he couldnt break the level look that wants to tell you something, in a crowded room, something important, and cant.[4] Often it is important that very little should be said at all because it is so easy to interrupt a real message.[5] 4AM, in whispers, so as not to awaken the words underneath: I see the lake and the sunburst of trees around it, all the colors of fire. Leaves like golden raindrops fluttering. And the water, with its disturbed glass. Waiting for the sun. What did you learn from this? That activity and stasis are more connected than we think. That falling leaves are part of the still picture. If you could live like that forever, would you? I think my lifes work is figuring out how to fall in love with each moment. Even when its not autumn. 10AM, in a bed in Brooklyn I will no longer sleep in, I hear what death sounds like. It starts just outside the rooms only window, where all the pigeons roost in the rooftop nook, in silence. Then a flurry of wings, feathers turned to engines. Out. Away. An airplane rolling against the ceiling of sky. The darks dust lingering in the room. You asleep and me awake, breathing, writing, but with nothing more to say. [1] Radiohead, True Love Waits [2] Marie Howe, What the Living Do [3] Dame Cicely Saunders, Watch with Me: The Founding of St. Christophers Hospice [4] Marie Howe, The Promise [5] Dame Cicely Saunders, Watch with Me: The Founding of St. Christophers Hospice by Brooks Riley When architect Otto Wagner commissioned this large painting by Carl Moll for the Kaisers personal railroad station in Vienna in 1899, he might not have seen the irony of an eagles view of the city. View of Vienna from a Balloon envisions a future beyond rails in which a bird shows the way to a whole new way of looking at landscape, one that would renew the way we view nature itself, hardly more than a 100 years later. If that painting were done today, the eagle would be replaced by a small four-cornered device with a camera and four rotary blades to keep it aloft: the drone. The relationship between human beings and nature has always been tense. While we acknowledge our debt to natureour existence, our food, building materials, environment, panoramic views, flora and fauna, chromatic infinity, physical and biological lawsthere is always some corner of our thinking that cries out, Anything you can do I can do better, to quote an Irving Berlin song. When it comes to art, we set ourselves on a collision course with nature, touting our museum landscapes over the real ones and the painters vision as the one true aesthetic version of beauty. Now that weve left nature behind (in more ways than one), nature has left the building and moved into the brand new Instagram showroom where it can show itself off with impunity from interpretation. The recognition of nature as a generator of beauty is universal. Representational art and photography are often tributes to that beautypyrrhic undertakings when the original is so compelling. And yet careers have been made from the depiction of natureCaspar David Friedrich, Ansel Adams, and countless others. If our art differs from nature, it is in the selectivity and execution of the image as much as it is the subject matter. Art is our way of saying to nature, we can do better than you. Image art isolates content. For that we need the frame, or the quadranglethe one thing we do better than nature, whether square or rectangular. So rare is this form in nature that when a rectangular slab of ice was spotted from the space station a few weeks ago, it made headlines. Years ago, my mother visited a jungle in Panama and photographed a square tree. Without that luminous color slide (where is it now?), I would not have believed her. A brief description in Atlas Obscura: With hard right angles, rarely seen in nature, the trees have baffled visitors. Even the rings, of the interior tree grow in a square shape and not the typical circle, making the trees truly stick out in natures typical curvilinear palette. The quadrangle, so seldom in nature, belongs to us. Its what we do. Not only do we build the boxes we reside in, and write on quadrate pieces of paper, but we are the inventors of the four-cornered frame. And it is this ubiquitous frame that separates us from natures typical curvilinear palette, and from nature itself. The quadrate frame has allowed us to defy the properties of the human eye, to declare that ones vision stops here, to consciously limit our focus to the contents of a frame and the world it containsnot all the time, but increasingly so, as we peer at the frames of our smart phones or laptops, the frames of our selfies, the frames of the paintings in a museum, the frames of our TV screens, the frame of a billboard or traffic signs. We rarely use the eye the way it was designed to be used, with the field of vision spreading out to the periphery and beyond. Vision is broadly oriented, offering context to the chosen focus: Even as we home in on an object, the eye is poised to see whats on the edge of that object, and all around it. These days we use that wide lens only occasionally, to get our bearings or to enjoy a viewlike a wide establishing shot in a filmnecessary, but immediately dispensable as we go back to our frames. Frames are a way of defining focus, of establishing its limits. A painting does not spread to the periphery, it occupies a space within four corners (rarely a circle). Why this is, has much to do with history. Our ancestors painted on cave walls without regard for formal rules of display. The Greeks painted on everything, from bowls to amphorae to buildings. But sometime thereafter, the quadrate became the most convenient means of representation, almost as though the painter already knew that photography would necessarily use the same form, the capture form of a rectangle. Early on, papyrus, parchment and eventually paper were quadrate, the most efficient way to transcribe language. Photography introduced the frame to real life, taking it out of the museums and churches, and putting it on our tables, our walls, and in our books and photo albums. Aesthetic or not, the image within the frame came to define a place, a moment, a person, the content the result of a conscious choice. In the digital age, even pixels are quadrate. If one can imagine a digital photograph as a carpet or quilt of tiny squares, then its not inconceivable to see the earths surface as such, with millions of pixels, and millions of bigger squares to be isolated and documented. This is what drone photographers do, curating the endless number of images available to the drone camera and isolating them within a frame of view that transforms them into something that looks like art. Are they artists? Yes, in the sense that they select what will fill the frame. Can you hang their work on a wall? Yesat least some of them. Until now, the contemplation of natural beauty has always been horizontalnature seen from eye level. Its one of the reasons people flock to high placesmountain tops, skyscrapersnot just to see more, but to shift the angle of our horizontal gaze just enough to engender the aha moment. What we really want are wings. But unlike Daedalus and Icarus, its escapism were after, not escape. Drone photography could be described as a collaboration or a co-production between man and nature. It allows nature to speak on its own terms but in a novel new way. If photomicrography undresses nature, drone photography with its plumb-line overhead view shows us nature at an angle weve never seen before, exposing its pixel treasures, many of which throw a shade over any abstract art produced by an artist. In ancient times, it took a quantum leap of the imagination to infer the visual information drones would eventually deliver. It began with cartography, the extreme view from above, one of mans oldest pictorial urges to satisfy an everlasting curiosity about the world we occupy. Mapmaking was undertaken by visionaries in all cultures, on all continents, the oldest known map dating back 25,000 years. Maps derived from a combination of knowledge and imagination, with a fair measure of extrapolating thrown in until we knew more. As artistic endeavor advanced, its aim to insert us into that world brought the point-of-view closer to birds-eye level, to an indeterminate altitude above the action. The birds eye view in art has been around for centuries, lurking in artistic visions aiming to achieve the all-important overview of things, while not forgetting the dramatis personae. Artists know that the higher they are from ground level, the more can be seen, the richer the field of vision. A higher angle provides volumes of new information that the horizontal gaze cannot deliver. If not quite the plumb-line vertical view of recent drone photography, paintings often depicted extreme angles that no mountain elevation could have afforded, suggesting that the artist was indeed a bird/drone in his own mind. Renaissance painter Albrecht Altdorfers Battle of Alexander at Issus is such a painting, with its exponential depth of field, its riotous depiction of multiple locations, conflicting military strategies, crisscrossing battalions, and varying landscapes dotted with mountains and towns made diminutive by his own much higher standpoint on a mountain of his invention. Seventeenth-century Japanese Edo screen paintings of the Edo castle and the siege of Osaka reveal sophisticated innate knowledge of the view from up there. Durer too understood the fly-on-the-ceiling take on great events, as I mentioned in an earlier post. Oskar Laske, painter and student of Otto Wagner, used this gods-eye angle more than once for his cynical take on mankind in a series of paintings all called Ship of Fools. The first vertical drone photograph I remember seeingan overhead shot of a beach with umbrellas, sunbathers, ocean wavesbrought to mind the paintings of Manny Farber, notably his table-top series, random objects and scaled-down figures on a table seen from above. Farber was best known as a film critic, one of the fields most idiosyncratic. As a man of visual acuity, he plumbed his past and his profession for the icons to place on these tables of content, turning them into figures linked by a train track in a landscape resembling the intricate map of his own bifurcated mind. He was not the first or the last to troll the deep yearning in our genes for a birds eye view. Kurt Schwitters, Juan Gris, and many other artists have understood the power of vertigo. Even this 1990 painting by Dutch painter Fons Heijnsbroek, Abstract Landscape with Sunlight, seems to presage the color palate and viewpoint that would find its twin in a drone photograph taken decades later in Neuhof, Germany. What drone photography has to offer goes far beyond the spectacular abstract paintings it culls from a landscape. The vertical view means that anything perpendicular to the ground, or rising from the grounda building, a fir tree, a towerseems to be coming toward us. This gives certain drone photographs a passive 3D effect less evident in a horizontal perspective. Trompe loeil is another accidental by-product of the vertical view as shadows suddenly upstage their progenitors. The artist Saype has already harnessed this attribute to create a massive trompe loeil land art fresco in Geneva that functions only when seen at drone level. In drone photography, depth of field enhances the drama of the vertiginous view, a subtle kinetic effect. And even flat surfaces can come alive if something is happening in the picture: a worker rakes drying chili peppers across the grain, adding action to what would otherwise be a still-life abstract. If drone photography is a radical new aesthetic, it is not only because of its endless possibilities, but because its new point of view represents the ultimate fulfilment of our oldest dream, to fly like a bird and look down. Whether or not it will establish itself in our visual vocabulary depends on the pictures themselves and how much imagination this aesthetic can accommodate. Will the vertical shot slowly lose its appeal, like 3D has each time its trotted out as the next best thing? Drone cinematography is comfortably ensconced into movie language as a viable alternative for the crane shot or helicopter shot. But drone photography may have to one-up itself to keep us hanging in the air by our toenails. by Jalees Rehman The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over a billion people live with some form of disability, expressed as impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. Disabilities are often manifestations of health conditions and as such, people suffering from disabilities not only require general medical care such as immunizations and preventive screenings but also need additional care to address the underlying health conditions. According to the WHO, people with disabilities are far more likely to suffer catastrophic health expenditures and receive inadequate medical care than people without disabilities. In addition to the medical and financial challenges, people with disabilities are often isolated and marginalized in society. The lack of political participation by people with disabilities in politics is especially concerning because it sets in motion a vicious cycle of marginalization. If the voices of people with disabilities are not adequately represented in the political arena, then it becomes less likely that governmental measures are taken to ensure adequate medical care and social integration of people with disabilities. The researchers Lisa Schur and Meera Adya recently studied the political participation of people with disabilities in the United States in their article Sidelined or Mainstreamed? Political Participation and Attitudes of People with Disabilities in the United States. They used data from four US surveys: the 2008 and 2010 Current Population Surveys (CPS), the 2006 General Social Survey (GSS), and the 2007 Maxwell Poll on Citizenship and Inequality. The surveys ask respondents whether they suffer from distinct forms of impairment such as visual, hearing, mental-cognitive or mobility. There were 12,027 people in the 2008 CPS and 12,064 people in the 2010 who answered yes to at least one of the disability questions. The large sample size of CPS and the inclusion of a voting supplement in the CPS during even-numbered years allowed the researchers to study the extent of political participation by people with disabilities. Schur and Adya found that the 2008 CPS showed significantly lower rates of voting among citizens with disabilities (64.5%) than those without disabilities (57.3%). Importantly, the type of disability determined the disability gap in voting. For example, hearing disability had a minimal effect on the likelihood of voting (63.1%) whereas mental disability (46.1%) or difficulties going outside alone (45.7%) resulted in major reductions of voting. The disability gap in 2010 was smaller but the overall rate of political participation was also much lower, possibly because it was a US midterm election and not a presidential election such as in 2008. People with disabilities were also less likely to attend meetings where political issues were discussed or participate in political rallies and marches. The fact that the type of disability impacted voting may also provide some clues as to how disabilities become barriers for political participation. The researchers suggest that a lot of political information is provided in written or other visual formats and may thus be more accessible to those with hearing impairments than other impairments. Furthermore, people with hearing impairments are likely to face less social stigma and marginalization than people with other disabilities. On the other hand, physical or mental disabilities that make it difficult to leave the house alone represent logistical barriers for political participation. Potential voters with these disabilities may not have access to political meetings and information and may also lack the means of transportation to physically go to a polling station. Even though mail-in ballots are available in the United States, the procedure to request the mail-in ballots and obtain the political information about candidates may appear to be very cumbersome and represent insurmountable hurdles to people who have a history of being marginalized and isolated. The GSS and Maxwell Polls allowed Schur and Adya to also query the political affiliation of the respondents. Interestingly, they found that there were no significant differences in their preference for the Republican versus the Democrat candidates. Even though, for example, people with disabilities were slightly more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate Kerry (50.6%) in the 2004 US presidential election than for the Republican candidate Bush (47.8%), this difference was no longer present once the researchers controlled for education, income, and demographic factors. The political affiliations of people with and without disabilities also did not appear to be significantly different. This suggests that people with disabilities are not intrinsically more likely to vote for one party, but that their vote may depend on the political issues that are on the ballot. Schur and Adya estimate that there would have been 3.0 million more voters in 2008, and 3.2 million more voters in 2010 if people with disabilities voted at the same rate as nondisabled people of similar age, gender, race/ethnicity, and marital status. Even when the researchers controlled for education (because lower levels of education in the group of citizens with disabilities may have contributed to their lower rates of voting), they found that there would have been approximately two million more voters if one could help people with disabilities achieve similar voting rates as those of people without disabilities. Elections in the United States are often swayed by much smaller margins than two million votes. This research really highlights the importance of integrating people with disabilities into the political process. Society needs to ensure that they can exert their right to vote. The long-term solutions require fundamental approaches that reduce the general stigma of disability and creating infrastructures which allow individuals with all forms of disability to receive adequate information about elections and receive assistance so that they can vote by mail or at polling stations. As a short-term fix, we as individuals should find ways to ask neighbors, friends and family members with disabilities whether we can offer any form of aid on election day. Issues such as healthcare are currently at the forefront of the political debate in the United States and the elections could thus have a significant impact on the lives of people with chronic health conditions and disabilities. Our communities benefit when everyones voice is heard, especially those who are the most vulnerable. Although the extent of true political conversation and debate may be limited, in an election the vote is that voice. Let us work to maximize opportunities for every voice to be heard and every vote counted. Reference Schur, L., & Adya, M. (2013). Sidelined or Mainstreamed? Political Participation and Attitudes of People with Disabilities in the United States. Social Science Quarterly, 94(3), 811-839. by Paul Braterman By chance, I chose as holiday reading (awaiting my attention since student days) The Epic of Gilgamesh, a Penguin Classics bestseller, part of the great library of Ashur-bani-pal that was buried in the wreckage of Nineveh when that city was sacked by the Babylonians and their allies in 612 BCE. Gilgamesh is a surprisingly modern hero. As King, he accomplishes mighty deeds, including gaining access to the timber required for his building plans by overcoming the guardian of the forest. But this victory comes at a cost; his beloved friend Enkidu opens by hand the gate to the forest when he should have smashed his way in with his axe. This seemingly minor lapse, like Moses minor lapse in striking the rock when he should have spoken to it, proves fatal. Enkidu dies, and Gilgamesh, unable to accept this fact, sets out in search of the secret of immortality, only to learn that there is no such thing. He does bring back from his journey a youth-restoring herb, but at the last moment even this is stolen from him by a snake when he turns aside to bathe. In due course, he dies, mourned by his subjects and surrounded by a grieving family, but despite his many successes, what remains with us is his deep disappointment. He has not managed to accomplish what he set out to do. On his journey, Gilgamesh meets the one man who has achieved immortality, Utnapishtim, survivor of a flood remarkably similar, even in its details, to the Flood in the Bible. Reading of this sent me back to Genesis, and hence to two other books, The Bible [actually, just the Pentateuch] with Sources Revealed, by Friedman, and The Ark Before Noah, by Finkel. Friedman is Ann and Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia, while Finkel is curator of the British Museums collection of cuneiform tablets. Most of what follows derives from these two sources. Comparing Hebrew with Cuneiform may seem like a suitable gentlemanly occupation for students of ancient literature, but of no practical importance. On the contrary, I maintain that what emerges is of major contemporary relevance. As Lakatos pointed out, scientists will not abandon a position, despite difficulties, absurdities, and anomalies, until a more satisfactory one is offered. Why should the creationist be any different? He is led to embrace the absurdities of Young Earth Flood Geology because he regards the text of Genesis as the direct revealed word of God. If you want to change his mind, you must offer an alternative that is better on his terms, emotionally and spiritually. Such an alternative, I argue, is what emerges from textual and historical analysis. And in the Americas both North and South today, weaning the Evangelical voting bloc away from reality-denying simplicities is a matter of the greatest urgency. However inspired the writers of Genesis may have been, they were of necessity people of their own times, expressing themselves within their own cultural context. This is hardly a novel observation. It goes back at least to the time of Maimonides. And what a context! The Old Testament text itself refers to many books that are now lost to us. The biblical Flood narrative, as we shall see, shows signs of being formed from the welding together of two separate accounts written from different viewpoints, while its literary antecedents, and the antecedents of numerous other biblical passages, go back long before the date that tradition ascribes to Moses. You are probably familiar with the rather unconvincing story of Moses in the bulrushes, and may have wondered where on earth it came from. Heres your answer. It is a direct echo of the story of Sargon of Akkad (2270 2215 BCE). Sargons mother, he tells us, was a priestess, and therefore had no business having children. So she made him a reed basket sealed with bitumen, and placed him in the river, from which he was rescued by a farmer drawing water. Consider also the Code of Hammurabi, around 1754 BCE. This code, and many subsequent cuneiform tablets, resemble in their If a man format the codes of Exodus and Deuteronomy, including the notorious an eye for an eye, which the Jews by rabbinical times had reinterpreted as a right to financial compensation for injury. Or compare the enormously long lives of the pre-Flood rulers in the Sumerian King List (2000 BCE) with those of the pre-Flood patriarchs in Genesis. The Flood story itself exists in numerous versions, the oldest ones known to us being the Sumerian Flood of Ziusudra and the Old Babylonian (Akkadian) of Atrahasis, from around 1600 BCE, although the story may by then already have been ancient. We should also remember that our cuneiform libraries are sadly incomplete, and in several key texts the ending is missing. Even so, the resemblance is clear, and sometimes extends to specific details. On one Old Babylonian tablet, the god who warns Atrahasis says that he will send him the animals to wait at his door to be rescued. Compare Genesis 6:20, where two of every sort will come of their own accord to Noah, thus answering the question of how he would have been able to round them all up. The same tablet even uses the expression two by two, as in Genesis 7:9, as does the Ark tablet that was Finkels leading inspiration. Closest to the biblical account among the surviving materials is the story of Utnapishtim, already alluded to. This includes the central figure acting on orders from a god, taking samples of all living things into the Ark, sealing it watertight with pitch (which is abundant in Mesopotamia), sending birds out of the Ark to test for dry land when, after the flood, it runs aground, and offering up sacrifice on emergence. In Genesis, famously, we have God pointing to the rainbow as a sign that He will never again bring on a universal flood. In what I regard as a parallel passage in Gilgamesh, Ishtar displays her bejewelled necklace and says that she will never forget this time. There is a final element in Gilgamesh that is completely absent in Genesis. Enlil, who was primarily responsible for the Flood, is persuaded by the other gods that he has rather overdone it, goes down into the Ark, takes Utnapishtim and his wife by the hand, and grants them eternal life. (In Genesis, you may recall, Noah goes and gets drunk.) One dramatic difference between the Genesis story and its Mesopotamian precursors is the length of the Flood; a year, rather than a few days. Another is the shape and composition of the Ark, which changes from a round coracle woven from reeds in Atrahasis to square planking in Gilgamesh to a giant gopher wood longboat in Genesis, although one feature (the use of pitch for waterproofing) remains constant throughout. Then there is the reason for the Flood. In Gilgamesh, none is given, but in other versions we are told that the gods, and especially the ill-tempered and arbitrary Enlil, think that humankind is making too much noise for their comfort.1 The gods are, among other things, personifications of natural forces, and Enlil as sky god is responsible for storms. In Genesis, humankind is destroyed, by the God who created them, because they deserve it. We can debate the relative merits and degree of realism of these two approaches. From very early times, the Israelites would presumably have been familiar with the dominant literature of their powerful neighbours to the East. If not, they would certainly have come into contact with it during the Babylonian Exile. The Book of Daniel tells us (and why should we not believe it?) that selected Judaean youth were given three-year courses in Babylonian language and literature, during which provision was made for their food and wine. A university education, complete with maintenance grant! And we know from the recovered debris of Babylonian schoolrooms that the King List, Sargon, and Gilgamesh were part of the curriculum. Other interesting things were happening in Babylon around this time. One remarkable tablet seems to describe all the other gods as attributes of Marduk, the god particularly associated with Babylon. So we are told that Urush is Marduk of planting, Nergal is Marduk of battle, Nabu is Marduk of accountancy, and so on through a total of 14 equivalences. If Marduk-worship really was moving in the direction of monotheism, this might help explain the puzzling fact that the Jewish hero of the book of Esther is called Mordechai. The Flood story may have entered what was to become the Jewish tradition more than once, and from subtly varying sources. The Genesis account gives the strong impression of being the fusion of two slightly inconsistent narratives, in one of which the deity is referred to as God, while in the other he is referred to as YHWH.2 The former has Noah taking one pair of each kind into the Ark, while the latter has him take in seven pairs of clean animals, presumably in order to have some available for sacrificing, or perhaps to restore agriculture after the Flood. The degree of distinctiveness of these two narratives, and their dates of composition, remain fertile areas for study and debate. Thus, placed in context, the Flood story fits into a picture of intellectual and spiritual ferment as people, and peoples, develop their descriptions of the Deity. By contrast, the doctrine of verbal infallibility offers nothing but a single sterile rootless revelation. Genesis deserves better. 1] Sandars interpolated this reason from the Atrahasis Flood story into her translation of Gilgamesh; see her introduction for details. 2] Some readers will recognise these as P and J respectively, two of the four sources proposed in the Documentary Hypothesis, for which Friedman lays out the evidence in the work already mentioned and, at greater length, in Who Wrote the Bible? For a powerfully dissenting view, however, see Rendsburg, The Biblical Flood story in the light of the Gilgamesh Flood account, in Gilgamesh and the world of Assyria, Azize, J & Weeks, N., Peeters, 2007, p. 117, open access here (Publication 119), and How the Bible Is Written (scheduled for 2019). I thank Professor Gary Rendsburg for helpful correspondence and access to unpublished material. by Craig Blinderman On a recent windy morning, walking past the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on West 89th Street in New York City, seeing the flag at half mast, just days before the midterm elections, and a week after the deadly shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, on my way to take my daughter to her dance class at Ballet Hispanico, I couldnt help but reflect on the offensive and false rhetoric about the caravan of men, women, and children fleeing Honduras and other Central American countries, and the horrific outcomes when one takes such ideas seriously. As a palliative care physician who also teaches in medicine, I have been trainedand train othersto understand pain and suffering, to understand its taxonomy, its causes, and how to reduce it when it occurs in individuals with chronic pain, a serious illness, or at the end of life. I have also spent the past five years volunteering with Columbia Physicians and Surgeons Asylum Clinic, a student-run human rights initiative, working with Columbia medical faculty, to offer free medical and psychiatric evaluations to individuals seeking asylum in the United States. My palliative care skills of listening to and understanding how individuals suffer with a serious or life-threatening illness has helped me to identify and document the ways in which individuals seeking asylum have suffered in their home countries; the impact their physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual traumas continue to have on their lives; and the risk to their physical and mental well-being should they be forced to return. Aside from the physical and emotional pain, the suffering that asylum seekers, as well as seriously ill patients, are most tormented by is existential in nature. It is the fear of their own deaths. As Sren Kierkegaard famously wrote, The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one youll never have. Unlike the patient with a terminal illness, the existential threat can be attenuated (at least temporarily) for the individual seeking asylum by simply not being sent back to their home country. While immigration law is complicated and continues to change, the underlying legal standard for seeking asylum is well defined: the applicant must demonstrate that he or she is unwilling or unable to return to his or her home country because of past persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular group, or political opinion. Until recently, victims of domestic and gang-related violence were allowed to seek asylum under U.S. law. This change followed Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversal of an immigration appeals court ruling that granted asylum to a Salvadoran woman who said she had been sexually, emotionally and physically abused by her husband. Her story sounded like my client, Alejandra, also from El Salvador, whom I evaluated through the Columbia Asylum Clinic. Alejandra was hospitalized multiple times after being beaten and raped by the father of her eldest daughter. The local government did nothing to ensure her safety. Alejandras only crime was being a pregnant woman, who are at increased risk for domestic violence. And so it was with Alejandrathe violent and near life-threatening attacks escalated when she was pregnant. She suffered from chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression. Her only hope was a modest oneto not have to return to her country, where she would face unthinkable harm and possible death. I also remember Jorge, whose only crime for persecution in his native El Salvador was being gay. Jorge suffered psychological, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse by gang members. He was stabbed, beaten, gang raped, and repeatedly threatened. His hopelessness stemmed from his fear that if he were to be forced to return to El Salvador he expected to be killed by members of this gang. Jorge suffered from chronic neuropathic pain, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. I have yet to meet an individual seeking asylum whose stories of abuse I did not determine to be accurate based on my medical assessment. No one that I have interviewed posed a threat to the United States or its citizens. Given my experience evaluating asylum seekers, I am deeply troubled to hear the false claims about the intentions of the migrants in the caravan whom Trump and Fox News commentators dont know (nor seem to care to know). In fact, the migrants are fleeing poverty, gang-violence, and political instability. I imagine that many of their stories are similar to Alejandras and Jorges, or similar to the stories of other asylum seekers I have interviewed over the years, and that they have suffered greatly, and hope to find some relief for themselves and their loved ones. With the current rhetoric, actions, and policy changes that have occurred under this administration, I fear that the stories of the most vulnerable seeking refuge and asylum will not be heard, that cases like Alejandra and Jorge will never make it to immigration court, and that in the end we will be morally culpable for the unnecessary suffering and potential deaths that will occur as a result. * * * Craig D. Blinderman, MD, MA, FAAHPM is an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Adult Palliative Care Service at Columbia University Medical Center. To help meet production goals on its 737 jetliners, Boeing is luring retired employees back to work at its plant outside Seattle. Paul Bergman, a Boeing spokesman, said the company plans to hire recently retired mechanics to help with near-term airplane production requirements at the plant in Renton, Wash. In August, the company reached an agreement with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers to bring back retirees for up to six months. Connie Kelliher, a spokeswoman for the union, said retirees will receive a $500 bonus for each month they work at the plant. Jacquelyn James, director of the Sloan Research Network on Aging & Work, said the move by Boeing is an example of companies beginning to realize the value of keeping older workers with specialized skills on the job past traditional retirement age. Employers are starting to get it, that older adults can be beneficial to the bottom line, James said. Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said it is smart for Boeing to focus on retirees when it needs to ramp up temporarily to meet demand. Unretired workers may not want to return to their old schedules, he said, but a temporary job with flexibility might be appealing. Trying to find workers, especially on a temporary basis, who understand the operations and can make contributions immediately is otherwise just about impossible, Cappelli said. Saudi authorities freed Saturday the brother of billionaire Al Waleed bin Talal after an 11-month detention in the crackdown on corruption campaign, which targeted over 200 individuals including 11 princes, business tycoons and high ranking officials. Prince Khalid bin Talal has been released with three relatives close to the royal taking to Twitter to confirm the news. Photos published by the relatives show the Prince with his brother Al Waleed. In other published photographs he appeared kissing and embracing his son who has been in a coma for years, AFP reports. Thank god for your safety, his niece Princess Reem bint Al-Waleed tweeted. Al Waleed and several other Princes plus a horde of business bigwigs and senior officials were arrested early November last year in an operation that authorities said was a crackdown on corruption. Khaled, The Wall Street Journal (WSL) said, was arrested and spent 11 months in confinement for criticizing the crackdown. Analysts and former and current diplomats familiar with the Saudi power establishment said the move was to silence critics and potential challengers to Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MbS) in his ascendance to the throne as heir. Several of the detainees have been freed after signing monetary agreements or accords to relinquish parts of their assets. Khaleds brother Al Waleed was released in January after going into a secret agreement with authorities. Authorities could also potentially release other elites still in detention, including former Riyadh governor Prince Turki bin Abdullah and billionaire businessman Mohammed al-Amoudi, WSJ reported. New redistricting map heading to Aberdeen City Council Some minor adjustments were made to the city's four-district map for city council positions using the new 2020 census information. Prev 1 of 4 Next Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal A man was shot and killed during a confrontation with officers Sunday afternoon at a Southeast Albuquerque apartment complex, according to a police department spokesman. Officer Simon Drobik said Albuquerque police were dispatched to the complex on Louisiana SE near Gibson around 2:20 p.m. Sunday after receiving reports that shots had been fired. At some point when the officers responded to this individual who was firing shots, there was a confrontation between officers and this individual, he said. We know that at least one officer fired from the Albuquerque Police Department and the subject is deceased on scene. No one else was injured, and that officer has been placed on administrative leave as detectives from multiple agencies investigate the shooting. Drobik said investigators would likely remain at the scene throughout the night. We dont believe there are any outstanding subjects, Drobik told reporters at a news conference Sunday evening. We believe the public is safe tonight. This is the departments sixth officer-involved shooting this year; it is its fourth fatal officer-involved shooting. Last month, police shot a man following a string of crimes that ended with a dynamic hostage situation at a Chinese buffet near San Mateo and Montgomery. The name of that suspect has not yet been released. Most of the $8.2 billion awarded by the federal government to companies in New Mexico goes to huge firms doing work for the national laboratories and the Defense Department. However, federal agencies are required to allot at least 23 percent of their budgets to small businesses an amount the government surpassed during fiscal 2017 by awarding $2.1 billion to small New Mexico companies. Among the various programs the government offers for minority or disadvantaged business owners, the biggest one in New Mexico was veteran-owned enterprises. Those types of businesses drew $190 million worth of federal contracts. The one program that fell short of federal goals was the Hubzone set-aside for businesses in under-served areas, such as Indian reservations and certain areas south of Central, for example. John Garcia, director of the Small Business Administrations New Mexico office, said he planned to do more outreach in hopes of increasing the number of business owners that take advantage of that program. Here are some other facts about federal business spending in the state: Sandia National Laboratories awarded $267 million to small New Mexico businesses during the 2017 fiscal year. Its spending on small businesses in New Mexico and elsewhere totaled 53 percent of all goods and services it contracted. Preliminary figures for fiscal 2018 show the lab has managed to boost that figure to 60 percent, said Paul Sedillo, Sandias small business program manager. Los Alamos National Laboratory awarded $262 million to small businesses. Sandia announced this year a 5 percent pricing preference for qualified New Mexico companies on subcontract awards worth $150,000 to $5 million. The general rule of thumb is that for every $1 million awarded for federal grants, 10 jobs are created. Major retailers such as WalMart, and grocery stores such as Albertsons, are at least five miles from my house. However, there is a Dollar General and a Family Dollar store each within a mile of me, and I find it convenient to pop into these discount retailers to buy items such as cleaning products, storage containers and disposable items. Even though the selection can be limited, the prices are almost always low. Above all, it is the convenience factor that drives me to these stores. On the flipside of the coin, I see many families shopping at these two establishments. Mothers and fathers with kids go down the aisle with shopping lists and carefully watch how they spend their money. I am assuming that many of these families do not have a lot of disposable income and have to watch how they spend every dollar. Seeing these families carefully selecting their purchases in discount retailers reinforces what I have previously stated in this column that the more vulnerable portions of the socio-economic strata are going to be the ones the most affected by the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. Recently, the Trump administration announced that if Trumps summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in December does not go well, that same month it plans to impose tariffs on another $257 billion of Chinese imports, on top of the $250 billion in tariffs that have already been imposed. To put it into perspective, more than half a trillion dollars worth of tariffs will have been imposed on Chinese-made goods this year. The $257 billion would pretty much cover the rest of Chinese-made goods that come into the U.S., including billions of dollars of Chinese consumer goods that are popular in the U.S. because of their low prices. It also includes iconic products such as those made by Apple that have not yet fully been affected by the back-and-forth tariffs that are being lobbed at each other by the two countries. I recently read an article titled, Trumps tariffs and Target are Killing Dollar Tree on the AOL online site that was authored by Karen Doyle. In this article, Doyle states that the research firm Telsey Advisory Group estimates that approximately 42 percent of the products that Dollar Tree sells are made in China. About 23 percent of what Family Dollar sells is imported merchandise, much of it from China. Tariffs that are now 10 percent on much of the imported merchandise could rise to 25 percent come January. Poorer families and families on fixed incomes might be able to absorb a 10 percent increase in the products that they purchase in discount retail stores, however, a 25 percent hike would be felt strongly. Ironically, many of these people who are struggling financially and who would be impacted the most are probably people who voted for Donald Trump, based on his campaign platform to bring opportunity to the disaffected classes. It is unclear how the U.S.-China trade war will play out. It is clear that the U.S. has a bigger hammer in which to impose tariffs, since as a country we import more from China that it does from us. However, China can start to put heat on American companies operating within its borders by increasing red tape, issuing fines, restricting operations or overtly supporting Chinese companies that compete against the American companies. Economists generally agree that there are no winners in a trade war, and this seems to apply to what is happening at present. And what if China starts getting heavy-handed with the U.S. companies operating in its country? Are they likely to reshore their operations to the U.S.? A recent NPR report stated that of the American companies who were asked if they were likely to reshore their operations to the U.S. because of the trade war, only 1 percent were considering taking this action. It is very difficult to establish operations in a foreign country and often just as difficult to bring them back home. Some companies might hunker down and try to wade the tariff war until the dust settles and both sides give some ground with the objective of ending the war. Other companies might choose another place to manufacture and/or do business in another place that is not in a trade war with the U.S. This also is risky because based on Trumps propensity to initiate trade wars, the new country in which a firm might establish operations could find itself in a situation similar to Chinas. Meanwhile, as prices on consumer goods made in China rise, we will probably see families of modest means become even more careful spending their money in discount retailers. It is unlikely that many of the items that they purchase, which are made by companies using economical labor in China, are going to be replaced by U.S. products. Unfortunately, they will continue to be cannon fodder in the U.S.-China trade war. Jerry Pacheco is the executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program of the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers Network. He can be reached at 575-589-2200 or at jerry@nmiba.com. Brent Taylor, the mayor of North Ogden, Utah, and a father of seven, was killed in action Saturday while serving in Afghanistan as a member of the Army National Guard, officials confirmed. Taylor, 39, was killed in an apparent insider attack after a member of the Afghan security forces opened fire at a base in Kabul where foreign troops provide training to Afghan forces. The attack wounded another U.S. service member. Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton, adjutant general of the Utah National Guard, confirmed that the person who opened fire on Taylor was killed immediately. News of Taylors death brought shock and grief to a Utah community in which he had served as mayor since 2013 and, before that, as a City Council member. I hate this. Im struggling for words, Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox posted Saturday. I love Mayor Taylor, his amazing wife Jennie and his 7 sweet kids. Utah weeps for them today. This war has once again cost us the best blood of a generation. We must rally around his family. Thank you for your sacrifice my friend. At a news conference Sunday, a visibly emotional Gov. Gary Herbert, R, called it a sad day for Utah. He said others had discouraged Taylor from deploying a fourth time, telling him, Youve done enough. Youve done your part. And yet, Taylor insisted he wanted to go back. He thought he could do some good in Afghanistan, to help the people be liberated, Herbert said. Thats an admirable quality that we all ought to emulate. What can we do to help our fellow man? Herbert noted it is military protocol to wait 24 hours after contacting next of kin before publicly identifying a fallen service member, but acknowledged tributes to Taylor had already begun spreading on social media the day before. Taylor announced his deployment to his constituents in early January via Facebook Live, explaining that he had been called to help train Afghan commando units after President Donald Trump had ordered an increase in the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. There are three great loyalties that have guided my life and everything in it: God, family and country, Taylor said then. While I am far from perfect in any of these respects, I have given my life to serve all three of these loyalties whenever and however I can. And right now there is a need for my experience and skills to serve in our nations long-lasting war in Afghanistan. He anticipated that his deployment would last 12 months and reassured North Ogden citizens that the city would be left in good hands. Over the past 10 months, Taylor posted periodic updates of his Afghanistan service to Facebook, often sounding and looking optimistic. In September, he celebrated from afar his 15th anniversary with his wife, Jennie Taylor. In their marriage, they had endured five years apart during four of Taylors deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, he wrote. Earlier that month, he wrote, he had watched his youngest child learn to walk via Skype. (Jennie) is truly the center of our home and at the very center of all our lives, Taylor wrote. I second Winston Churchill, who said: My most brilliant achievement was to persuade my wife to marry me. In his last Facebook post, dated Oct. 28, Taylor quoted Franklin D. Roosevelt In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved and spoke with pride about witnessing Afghanistans first parliamentary elections in eight years, despite threats of violence. As the USA gets ready to vote in our own election next week, I hope everyone back home exercises their precious right to vote, Taylor wrote. And that whether the Republicans or the Democrats win, that we all remember that we have far more as Americans that unites us than divides us. United we stand, divided we fall. God Bless America. On Twitter, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called Taylor a hero to all of us. Brent was a hero, a patriot, a wonderful father, and a dear friend, Hatch wrote. News of his death in Afghanistan is devastating. My prayers and love are with Jennie and his 7 young children. His service will always be remembered. In less than a day, a GoFundMe set up to help Taylors family had raised more than $180,000. The motive for Saturdays shooting the second insider attack at a base against foreign troops in less than two weeks was not immediately clear. The Taliban praised Saturdays attack, saying it was conducted by a sensible Afghan. Burton noted that Taylor was extremely driven and had completed work toward a Ph.D. That he was killed in an insider attack was additionally bitter for us, Burton said. Knowing Brent Taylor, he was a bridge builder and a man who made friends and just loved people, Burton said. Its bitter because he was with folks he was helping and thats what is ultimately so painful about this. Taylors body is scheduled to be flown back to Dover Air Force Base Sunday night and funeral arrangements are pending, he said. Sayed Salahuddin contributed to this report. Who was it that said, Kids are kids? It just might be truer than you think, after hearing from two Native American students attending high schools in Rio Rancho. Whats it like coming off the reservation or pueblo and stepping into an urban high school, each with 2,400-plus students, in the 21st century? They, too, have hopes and dreams for the future while enjoying their present and always mindful of their proud, sometimes turbulent, past. Thats the main difference. According to figures from Rio Rancho Public Schools, there are approximately 1,900 Native American students among the districts total enrollment, which approaches 18,000. Thats more than 10 percent. Meet two of these proud Native Americans strolling the hallways, and excelling in classes at Cleveland and Rio Rancho high schools: Colin Maryboy: A sophomore at Cleveland, Colin moved with his family from Cochiti Pueblo a few years ago, when he was an eighth-grader. CHS, he says, is pretty good. I like it Ive made new friends; you get to meet new people. His father, Todd Romero, is of pueblo descent and works for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Albuquerque; his mother, Cecily, is of Navajo descent. Their active son is in the schools JROTC program and thinking about a life in the military following graduation in May 2021. Hes such a great leader in our Native American group, noted Suzanne Nguyen-Wisneski, executive director of bilingual and Native American programs. Colin maintains his Cochiti roots: I go up there to dance, things like that, and listed his musical tastes as country/western, hip-hop and Native American. Amaya Huskey: A senior at Rio Rancho High School, excited about the possibility of attending Yale University based on my test scores, Amaya is literally royalty. Last November, she was named Miss Indian Rio Rancho Schools, which resulted in her memorable participation in the grand entry at the Gathering of Nations. She was raised mostly in Flagstaff, Ariz., arriving in the City of Vision in time to attend Lincoln Middle School as a seventh-grader and then RRHS as a freshman. She has two younger sisters. Her father, Aaron Huskey, is a construction foreman; her mother is Elaina Kewenboyouma. She expects her future to include medical school and a career as a dermatologist. Like Colin, she stays busy with a tough slate of classes: photography, bio-med science, AVID, trigonometry, AP Government, AP Language and Composition, and Anatomy and Physiology. Her 3.5 grade-point average has her in the top 20 percent of the Class of 2019. Shes a leader in the schools Native American Union and spends time fulfilling her Miss Indian platform. The lone Hopi student at RRHS, and not afraid to speak her mind, she said she felt offended during her days in American History, feeling out of place hearing about World War II. I was the only one who spoke about the Code Talkers a huge part in history, she said. Colin Maryboy Amaya Huskey Native students take pride in heritage, enjoy the present There are always at least two ways to view anything, and that goes for the caravan of now 7,000 U.S.-bound immigrants, mostly from Honduras and Guatemala. Id wager that most of us feel genuinely sorry for people whose lives are filled with chaos, but Im also equally sure that most of us dont want those feelings of sincere empathy to cloud our judgment when it comes to enforcing our laws. Put another way, this is a heart versus head argument that will have real consequences not only for our border states but also for the way we view our immigration laws and maybe other laws as well in the future. This is not one of those situations where we can look the other way and just open our borders to a few thousand simply because they have marched through two countries with hat in hand. The reality is that if we were to offer asylum to anyone in Central America, millions would take us up on our offer, so bad are the political and economic situations in Honduras, Guatemala and even Mexico, itself. Back in February, President Trump gave Congress an opportunity to take care of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) problem and secure our border and close some of the existing immigration law loopholes. The Democrats balked at it because of the chain migration, visa lottery and asylum provisions, not to mention the wall. More than any other issue since Trumps election, their unwillingness to solve our immigration problem was the most visible sign of reprehensible partisan political brinkmanship. Now all of us are paying the price, and a high price it is. The president has threatened to close and reinforce our border with Mexico with federal troops if this caravan is not stopped by the Mexican authorities, and he is within his rights to do so despite claims from Democrats that he would be violating the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the federal government from using the armed forces as a posse comitatus for law enforcement, except in cases and circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress. One of those cases is the protection of U.S. citizens at our border with Mexico, which is why he has the right to give such orders. Such troop mobilization wont solve the immigration problem, but it would protect the integrity of our border. It would also send an unmistakable signal to Mexico that it needs to do more than rhetoricize about such caravans. Thirdly, it might just be whats necessary to move the Congress off the dime to pass some legislation that would stem the tide of future caravans. The diaspora of thousands of Central Americans picking up and leaving their homes and extended families is a real tragedy, and so is the possibility that it will increase from the thousands of persons level to the millions if nothing is done. The presidents threat of eliminating aid to Honduras and Guatemala is not so much a solution as it is a bargaining chip. The removal of aid from these countries would harm many of the bilateral and international programs currently in operation there. Guatemala, for example, has received billions of dollars in foreign aid from the U.S. and other countries over the decades and has the highest number of non-government organizations operating there, more than any other Central American country. Turning off the U.S. aid spigot would be disastrous for some of these programs. A recent article, The effectiveness of U.S. aid in Guatemala, lays out the case for the aid question very well and points to the historic problem of the white mans burden complex in U.S. foreign policy. The author, Kristen Gugerli, says, This complex, rooted in an assumption of the inherent superiority of the U.S. and its burden to guide less-developed countries, can be seen throughout U.S.-Latin American history, and particularly in the U.S. proclaimed democracy-promotion in countries such as Guatemala. While real or perceived guilt shouldnt be the primary factor for changing foreign policy or immigration policy for that matter it cannot be completely discounted, either. The bottom line is that we need a realistic and compassionate fix to our immigration laws. Soldiering up the border isnt a permanent solution. Stephan Helgesen is a political analyst and author. He has written nine books and over 900 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com. Deputy Interior Minister: Marijuana Cultivation Draft No Longer on Agenda By Tea Mariamidze Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Natia Mezvrishvili, says that government-initiated marijuana cultivation project has been postponed for an indefinite period and it no longer is on the agenda.As for the withdrawal of the draft law, four MPs have raised this issue, but withdrawal has its own procedures and they, as well as government members, are well aware of it, she noted.According to the Deputy Minister, the author of the draft law is the government and if it decides to withdraw the draft law, it will be withdrawn.The issue is not on the agenda and therefore, it is unreasonable to worry about it," said Natia Mezvrishvili.The draft was prepared and presented to the cabinet members by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). According to the draft, marijuana production would be announced as a licensed activity but only for export and only for medical and cosmetic purposes.According to the bill, the licensing conditions will define the geographical area, quantity and other issues related to marijuana production in Georgia.The Minister of Internal Affairs, Giorgi Gakharia, stated a special agency would be set up for licensing marijuana cultivation.After the Church voiced its harsh position and criticized the initiative, Georgias Parliament Speaker, Irakli Kobakhidze, announced that discussions over the issue in the legislative body have been delayed, in order to launch wider consultations.As for the second draft about marijuana consumption, the Legal Committee of the Parliament supported the draft which introduces regulations on marijuana consumption.The project was presented by Mezvrishvili and she says that the changes followed July 30 decision of the Constitutional Court which decriminalized marijuana consumption.The legislative amendment restricts marijuana consumption in public space and transport, in or within the property of the education institution, in the presence of a minor, during the gathering of the underage people or near the location they are assembled, during the activity of public servants, doctors and teachers.In short, the changes allow marijuana and cannabis consumption only at home.Moreover, illegal purchase, storage, transportation and / or sending of small amounts of cannabis or marijuana will be subject to a fine of 500 GEL;Also, smoking of cannabis in other buildings except the home will result in a fine from 500 to 100 GEL. In case of repeated violations, the fine will be increased up to 1500 GEL.Consumption of marijuana by people under 21 will be fined by GEL 500-1000 and if repeated, the penalty will be increased up to 1500 GEL.Consumption of the cannabis in the presence of the people under 18 or near the educational institutions, will result in the fine of GEL 1000-1500 and if repeated, the fine will be increased up to 2000 GEL.If a person goes to work under the effect of marijuana, he/she will be fined by GEL 1000-1500 and if repeated, from 1500 to 2000 GEL.Smoking marijuana during military service will cause fine of GEL 1000-1500 GEL and in case of repeated violations, the fine goes up to 2000 GEL. The Attorney Generals Office is warning women who competed for the Miss New Mexico crown, sash and scholarship that they may be at risk of financial exploitation a caution that could have national implications. Attorney General Hector Balderas is expected to issue a fraud alert advising former contestants that their private information including financial data, Social Security numbers and home addresses may have been breached after a search of ousted Miss New Mexico executive director Greg Smiths cattle ranch in Elida last month uncovered the information among his personal effects. Balderas classified the breach as high risk and said the information does not appear to have been safeguarded and should not have remained in Smiths possession. There was a clear failure here of internal self-regulation, Balderas said. There is more protection making a purchase at Dillards than here. This organization was not being operated as an educational and scholarship program should be, and as a result there is risk for exploitation. Its unclear how many contestants may have been affected or whether the breach involves only contestants involved when Smith was executive director, from 2015 to February. Smith, a 55-year-old cattle rancher turned pageant queen wrangler, remains under criminal investigation by the AGs Office after a state district judge found probable cause that Smith committed fraud, embezzlement and money laundering during his tenure as Miss New Mexico executive director. While director, it appears Smith underwent little scrutiny from his local board which investigators say was largely fictitious or authorities with the national Miss America Organization, even after several contestants came forward to complain about his troubling behaviors. Clearly this is not a onetime thing that the organization can sweep under a rug, Balderas said. It is a wake-up call. He did not have a timetable for when criminal charges would be filed but said the investigation is moving very fast. Smith did not respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for the Miss America Organization released the following statement: In speaking with the New Mexico Attorney Generals Office, the Miss America Organization has been repeatedly assured that it is not the subject of wrongdoing in connection with this licensee. Since this incident occurred under a previous administration, tighter controls have been, and continue to be, put in place to review licensee actions. Rhonda Haynes, who took over the Miss New Mexico pageant after Smiths termination, said she is committed to running the organization under the same rules she and the members of her board followed when they oversaw Otero County pageants. I myself have several years of running nonprofit organizations and we have a very well respected accounting company taking care of our finances, she said. We will be transparent and trustworthy. Those of you who read this column know that some of the allegations against Smith, as revealed in the 14-page affidavit filed last month, include leaving the organization with at least $54,419.75 in unpaid scholarships and vendor bills, overcharging contestants for photo packages and dormitory stays during competitions, forcing contestants to raise money by selling raffle tickets for items never raffled off and using organization funds for personal use such as buying cattle semen. Smith came under the scrutiny of the Attorney Generals Office after contestants including former Miss New Mexico Stephanie Chavez and former Miss New Mexico Outstanding Teen Madison Belcher came forward. They say Smith exhibited bullying and other disturbing behaviors, refused to pay scholarships and pageant monies awarded to the women and that their complaints to the national organization fell on deaf ears. Its ironic that the organization that is supposed to give women their voices kind of silenced mine, especially by Greg, said Chavez, who reigned as Miss New Mexico in 2016. He tried to isolate me, control me, shame me. Belcher was also retaliated against by Smith, her mother said. She was supposed to be honored for a year for her accomplishment in this program but instead was cheated financially and, even worse, shamed publicly, Elizabeth Belcher said. As a mom, I can swallow the money squandered, but I cannot swallow Googling her name and reading lies about her because of this creep. Both families say they believe more contestants and their families have information on Smith that they have not yet shared with the AGs Office. We as parents tend to think of, How does this affect my daughters experience? said Dennis Chavez, Stephanies father. But the message going forward is: Look at the red flags, question that. There may be more going on. Balderas suggested that contestants contact the current Miss New Mexico officials for an accounting of their personal information and how the organization is being run and to report any victimization or fraudulent activity to his office. UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. The Bernalillo County Assessors Office, in partnership with Albuquerque-based tech startup Smartloop, recently launched new artificial intelligence chatbot technology to assist local property owners. The service allows property owners 24/7 access on their property assessment questions, property tax saving programs and many other office resources on the county website. We want to offer technologies to connect with our property owners using their preferred communication methods even when our office is closed, Bernalillo County Assessor Tanya R. Giddings said in a statement. In addition, the Assessors Office has created a page on its website for new homeowners. The new page guides homeowners through the process of property searches, important dates, what a Notice of Value is and property tax savings programs. View the new informational page at www.bernco.gov/assessor/for-new-homeowners.aspx. NEW CIVIL RIGHTS OFFICE: A new Office of Civil Rights at the city of Albuquerque is tasked with informing individuals of their rights in the areas of housing, employment and public accommodations. The office will support them following the submission of complaints by conducting investigations, providing processes for resolution and making referrals. The new office will also offer nondiscrimination technical assistance and training for employers, landlords and tenants. Services will be free of charge to individuals impacted by alleged discriminatory acts occurring within the city. The office, housed in the first-ever Office of Equity and Inclusion, will be staffed by Managing Assistant City Attorney Torri Jacobus. Those who feel they have been discriminated against and would like to know more about how the Office of Civil Rights can help them can call 768-4595, email oei@cabq.gov or visit the office in person at One Civic Plaza, Suite 201, in Albuquerque. Steve Knight: sknight@abqjournal.com Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal New Mexicans cast early and absentee votes in record numbers ahead of Tuesdays midterm election. More than 430,000 people had already voted as of Saturday evening, when early in-person voting ended across the state, according to data released Sunday by the Secretary of States Office. In a news release Sunday, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said early voting around the country produced record-breaking results this year, and New Mexico is no exception. A healthy democracy requires healthy voter participation and with over 430,000 New Mexicans having already voted this year, its clear that our democracy is alive and well, she said. Thats compared to 250,000 early and absentee votes in the 2014 midterm, and around 297,000 in the last open gubernatorial election in 2010. According to Brian Sanderoff, president of Albuquerque-based Research & Polling Inc., this years totals represent a record-breaking early and absentee voting turnout for a non-presidential cycle. It demonstrates that theres a great deal of enthusiasm and interest among New Mexicos voters in this non-presidential election, which typically has lower turnout, Sanderoff said. And while Democrats showed more energy early on, members of both parties ultimately showed up at impressive and near-equal rates. Sanderoff said 38.6 percent of registered Democrats and 38.3 percent of registered Republicans voted early. Registered Democrats made up for just over half of the total 430,000 voters, registered Republicans just over a third. The remainder were unaffiliated or associated with a third party. The early participation, Sanderoff said, is not necessarily a barometer for whats to come on Tuesday. It could be that lots of people just wanted to vote prior to Election Day and we might just have moderate turnout on Election Day itself, Sanderoff said. Absentee ballots can be submitted until 7 p.m. Tuesday, and polls statewide will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. In 2015, Jane Barnes, a research scientist in her early 60s a tired old woman, in her words was desperate to rescue her grandsons. Their mother Barness daughter was a meth addict; their father was a violent felon who knocked out the boys teeth and sent them to the hospital in need of stitches. By the time New Mexicos Children, Youth and Families Department took custody, the children had been traumatized by years of domestic violence, abuse and neglect. The agency placed them in foster care. The older boys screamed in their sleep. The baby banged his head in the crib. All four urgently needed therapy. What they got instead were monthly visits to a high-risk prescriber, Albuquerque psychiatrist Edwin B. Hall, who would soon be under criminal investigation in the overdose deaths of 36 patients and accused of overprescribing to hundreds of foster children. For the boys, Hall wrote dozens of prescriptions: antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anticonvulsants and sedatives. The boys had morning meds, and at lunch, they got meds at school, Barnes ticks down the list. At around 3:30 or 4 they got meds. And before they went to bed they got meds. The only one who wasnt on six or seven meds a day was the baby. For nearly 20 years, the worlds leading psychiatrists and researchers have condemned this practice, which is so notorious it has its own catchphrase: Too much, too high, too young. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes for Mental Health and the General Accounting Office all warn against giving antipsychotics or multiple psychiatric medications to children. Hundreds of medical studies confirm that these drugs can cause extreme obesity, diabetes, heart disorders, high blood pressure and irreversible tremors in children. They are also believed to harm the developing brain. At least 44 states have introduced formal protocols or programs to boost oversight and monitoring of psychotropic drug use by children. Federal law requires such oversight. The risk of over-drugging children particularly those in foster care and on Medicaid is so widely recognized that most states took steps to track and reduce the problem by 2012. Not New Mexico. Its the negligence of inattention, says George Davis, former director of psychiatry for CYFD. It takes monitoring, expertise and regulatory teeth to solve this problem. The state lacks all three. A three-month investigation by Searchlight New Mexico has found that the state lacks the most basic safeguards to protect children on Medicaid and in foster care. An analysis of Medicaid pharmacy claims for children 18 and under, in fiscal year 2016 (the most recent data available), revealed: Doctors in New Mexico wrote 136,000 psychiatric drug prescriptions for nearly 30,000 New Mexican children, an average of 4.5 prescriptions per child. Of the 305,000 kids on Medicaid in 2016, this means that more than 10 percent of them take psychiatric drugs. The most dangerous of these were antipsychotic drugs; New Mexico physicians wrote 19,300 prescriptions for Risperdal, Zyprexa and Abilify and others, including some for children under age 5. Doctors handed out 70,000 prescriptions for stimulant medications to treat attention deficit disorder in 13,000 children. Medical experts say their jittery behavior is almost certainly traced to trauma; instead of masking the behavior with drugs, they need therapy. CYFD says it lacks the power to enact effective guidelines. We can advocate, says Bryce Pittenger, director of behavioral health at CYFD. We can submit proposals, but that final say is not ours. And that actual obligation is not ours. Davis, who until his retirement in 2017 spent more than 10 years trying to implement medication guidelines to safeguard children in state custody, says he first started working on best practice guidelines for youths in 2006, but I couldnt get CYFD or HSD to publish them. Between 2013 and 2017, he met with a task force to hammer out a comprehensive set of guidelines intended to red flag doctors who prescribed excessive amounts of psychiatric drugs to children. That, too. disappeared down a bureaucratic hole. Pittenger says CYFD did take action by publishing an internal document in 2016 that, she says, raised consciousness within the agency. Whatever it took Jane Barnes was determined to do whatever it took to bring her grandsons home. What it took was endurance first, to cope with a devastating string of family tragedies, and then to cope with the child welfare system. Between 2014 and 2016, psychiatrist Hall now under state investigation, according to a spokesman from the New Mexico Attorney Generals office started one of Barnes grandsons on Risperdal, an antipsychotic medication associated with life-threatening health problems. One of its most horrifying side effects is gynecomastia, a condition that can cause boys to develop breasts as large as DD-size. A double mastectomy is the only treatment option. In Oct. 2017, after a 17-month investigation, the New Mexico Medical Board found Hall had over-prescribed medications that led to the overdose deaths of six adult patients; his license was suspended. A year later, the attorney generals office alleged that 30 additional patients in Halls care died of overdoses. He is also being investigated for child abuse and Medicaid fraud, law enforcement sources say. Parents who show up in a doctors office with an out-of-control child are desperate for help. The child may be in danger of being suspended from school or about to be kicked out of a foster home. Psychotropic drugs can be lifesavers, says Mark Olfson, a Columbia University psychiatry professor and leading researcher in the field. They can reduce suffering and dramatically turn a childs life around. In a 2010 study, researchers at Tufts University studied psychotropic medication use in children and teens in 47 states over a 10-year period. They found that its use in the general population hovered at 4 percent, while in the foster system it was high as 52 percent. In some states, more than 40 percent of foster children took three or more of the drugs. That is the case in New Mexico, which has one of the highest polypharmacy rates in the nation. Were done Jane Barness youngest grandson sits at a kitchen table tackling a bowl of pasta. Im going on a long, long walk today! he announces between bites. A sense of normalcy prevails in the sunny, split-level house on a quiet cul-de-sac. His twin brothers are off at school; the 8-year-old is in a residential treatment facility. Nothing about their lives has been easy since the adoptions came through nearly two years ago. The boys have struggled with PTSD and other diagnoses, unspecified disruptive behavior disorder and attachment disorder. These problems were masked by the drugs. Barnes found a Santa Fe psychiatrist who assessed the shopping bag full of pills that CYFD had relinquished when she took custody of the boys. He was still overseeing their transition off the drugs when two CYFD employees paid a house call. The agency had learned what Barnes was doing and they had come, she says, to insist she follow Dr. Halls orders. I said: You dont know a thing about medications, and Im betting your supervisors dont know a thing about medications. And my grandsons are taking drugs they shouldnt be. So were done. Were just done.' It took four months to get them off the pills. Then one morning, they were eating breakfast in a restaurant when the 7-year-old looked up and said, Eggs. Bacon. He was moving his eyes around the room. There were breakfast foods listed on the walls in big bright letters. Sausage! he said. Toast. He was reading. He hadnt been reading before, and all the sudden he was reading, Barnes says. It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. And I thought, hes off the pills and now he can read. And I thought, hes OK. Hes going to be OK. Searchlight New Mexico is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to investigative journalism. SHANGHAI President Xi Jinping promised Monday to open Chinas growing consumer market wider at an import fair meant to help defuse complaints Beijing abuses the global trading system. But he offered no response to U.S. and European complaints about technology policy and investment curbs. The China International Import Expo is part of efforts to develop China-centered trading networks while resisting pressure to roll back industry plans that Washington, Europe, Japan and other governments say violate its market-opening obligations. It is our sincere commitment to open the Chinese market, Xi said in a speech to a VIP audience that included Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Xi promised to cut costs for importers and improve consumer spending power to help boost imports. The president made no mention of the standoff with U.S. President Donald Trump over Chinese plans for state-led development of technology industries. But in an indirect reference to Trumps America first policies and threats of import controls, Xi appealed to other governments to jointly safeguard free trade. Some 3,600 companies from 152 countries selling everything from Egyptian dates to German factory machinery are attending the five-day event at a cavernous convention center that bills itself as one of the worlds biggest buildings. Prime ministers and other senior officials of governments including Egypt, Pakistan and Vietnam also were attending the fair. The United States Chinas biggest trading partner did not send a high-level envoy. Xis government is emphasizing the promise of a growing consumer market of 1.4 billion people to help deflect complaints that it subsidizes fledgling technology suppliers and shields them from competition. Business groups say China still hampers access to industries including finance and logistics. They say regulators are trying to squeeze foreign competitors out of promising fields such as information security. Xi promised steps that might address such complaints if carried out, including easing restrictions on foreign competitors in finance, education, telecoms and health care. He gave no details or a timetable but said the ruling party already was carrying out changes promised over the past year. Businesspeople and economists welcomed the promises but said Beijing needs to act promptly to dispel concern about the cooling, state-dominated economy. The speech is at least a tacit acknowledgement that much needs to be done, the chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, William Zarit, said in an email. We will see if this leads to the timely sweeping reforms needed for a fair and reciprocal bilateral commercial relationship. The ruling Communist Party is trying to restore public confidence after economic growth sank to a post-global crisis low of 6.5 percent over a year earlier in the last quarter. The countrys stock market has sunk 25 percent this year, becoming the worlds worst performer. Xi acknowledged some Chinese industries face growing risks but said efforts to shore up growth are already paying off. Chinas $12 trillion-a-year economy is a sea, not a small pond and can withstand shocks, he said. A storm can overturn a small pond, but not a sea, he said. After more than 5,000 years of hardship, China is still here. Facing the future, China will always be here. China has cut tariffs and announced other measures this year to boost imports, which rose 15.9 percent in 2017 to $1.8 trillion. But none addresses U.S. complaints that prompted Trump to impose penalty tariffs of up to 25 percent on $250 billion of Chinese imports. Beijing has responded with tariff hikes on $110 billion of American goods. The fair lets Beijing show it is making efforts to boost imports, said Rajiv Biswas, chief Asia economist for IHS Markit. But a deal with Washington will require significant measures by authorities to reduce bilateral trade imbalances and to protect U.S. intellectual property rights, he said. Chinese leaders have rejected pressure to scale back plans such as Made in China 2025, which calls for state-led creation of global champions in robotics and other fields that might challenge U.S. industrial leadership. Last week, Trump and Xi had what Chinas foreign ministry called an extremely positive phone conversation. They plan to meet during this months Group of 20 gathering of major economies in Argentina, but private sector analysts say a breakthrough is unlikely. Already the No. 1 market for its Asian neighbors, China is promoting its Belt and Road initiative to expand commerce by building ports, railways and other infrastructure across 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Europe and Africa. The Shanghai expo also gives Beijing a chance to repair its image as a positive force for global development following complaints that Belt and Road projects leave host countries with too much debt, with too little work going to local companies. Exhibitors at the event included U.S. automakers and technology suppliers European pharmaceutical and clothing brands, African tea exporters and Japanese electronics manufacturers. At a stand for Nicolas Correa SA, a Spanish maker of factory equipment, salesman Carl Che showed potential customers a milling machine the size of a bus that can cost 1 million to 5 million euros ($1.2 million to 6 million). Che said Chinese manufacturers of wind turbines, aircraft and nuclear power equipment have bought 406 of the machines since 2003 and the company is looking to expand to food, health and other industries. The expo is a good chance to show ourselves to the whole of China, said Che. Today, we received five customers who are very interested. It is just a matter of price. The China agent for Metal Shark Boats, a New Orleans-based builder of heavy-duty vessels for law enforcement and fire agencies, had two 13-meter-long (40-foot-long) patrol boats sitting in metal cradles. It has sold five boats to Chinas customs agency and is marketing itself to environmental and other regulators, said Sherman Ge, chairman of Shanghai-based Breeze Tech. The expo also highlights the blurring of lines between Chinese and foreign industry as Chinas companies expand abroad. Exhibitors promoting imports into China included Swedens Volvo Cars, a unit of Chinese automaker Geely Holding; General Electric Appliances, part of Chinas Haier Group in 2016, and California-based solar supplier MiaSole, part of Beijing-based Hanergy Group. The public once again has free and immediate online access to Public Regulation Commission hearing transcripts. PRC administrative staff had announced a new policy in July that it would not post transcripts until two weeks after receiving them from court reporters and that it would charge people for early copies. The commission previously had posted documents on E-Docket for free access immediately after receiving them from court reporters, a process that usually took four to eight days after a hearing ended. The change in policy forced case intervenors who couldnt wait 15 days for transcripts to either pay 25 cents per page for an early copy through an Inspection of Public Records Act request, or to pay court reporters directly for a copy, usually at $5 to $7 per page. The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government objected to the revised policy, saying it set a terrible precedent for transparency and public access to records. In late October, the PRC rescinded the July policy, calling it a temporary measure to resolve complaints by court reporters seeking more money for their transcripts. The firm providing services had proposed doubling the fees it charges the PRC for transcripts if the commission continued to immediately post them on E-Docket, according to an Oct. 24 letter that four of the five commissioners sent to FOG. Until now, Bean and Associates in Albuquerque has managed nearly all of the PRCs court reporting, said Commission Chairman Sandy Jones. But the PRC now has agreements with two new firms, and as a result, PRC staff ended the 15-day delay policy effective Nov. 1. Commissioner Valerie Espinoza said the delay never should have been imposed in the first place. I never agreed with it, Espinoza said. The company charging the PRC was the one who had an issue with giving out free copies of transcripts. All these documents are public, and they should remain that way. FOG praised the PRC for reversing its policy. In this case, we have to congratulate the PRC, said FOG Executive Director Melanie Majors. They realized they werent in compliance with IPRA, and they changed their policy. State agencies like the PRC shouldnt be promoting private companies goods and services, Majors added. If a company is paid once by the PRC, it shouldnt get paid again for selling the same thing to others, Majors said. Its not the PRCs responsibility to help them get over and above what theyre already receiving from the commission. Self-sacrifice for National Interests By Levan Khutsishvili On October 31, 2018 Bacho Akhalaia spread his statement via social media that he is not going to address Grigol Vashadze for amnesty, in case the latter becomes the president of Georgia.I would like to address the supporters of the United Opposition and the Georgian Dream. I do not consider myself as an important person, who may influence anything in the current political life, but my name is still used by some untruthful representatives of the government for completely incomprehensible dirty purposes. That's why I feel obliged to respond to some statements released by the media.First of all, my personal liberty is not so important to me to create obstacles to the epochal political struggle today or tomorrow. I willingly went to prison in 2012 and the Georgian Dream sentenced me to 9 years. I have been serving a completely unfair sentence for 7 years, but today, as well as in 2012, my existence may obstruct the achievement of national goals, thats why I am saying publicly that I'm not going to ask Mr. Grigol Vashadze to pardon me. Regardless of my respect to him, I do not think that I need to be pardoned at the end of this unjust punishment.I have already spent 7 year of the unfair 9 years in prison and I can stand 2-3 years more.Besides, I would like to explain to the supporters of Georgian Dream and supporters of the United Opposition that the ruling power in Georgia will be changed and it is an inevitable reality. If the new government offers me any kind of state service (they are not going to do it) I will not accept it, as I do not have any desire to work in the public service.The situation is very simple, the end of Ivanishvili's Russian regime begins. The only thing that can be done from my side to support process is, unfortunately, staying in jail. I hope that all the people for whom national interests of Georgia is the most important, think in the way I do and that is why the defeat of Ivanishvili's political regime is inevitable. Today this is a way for me to serve my country wrote Bacho Akhalaia.It seems that with this statement Bacho Akhalaia tried to support Grigol Vashadze in elections, as presidential candidate from United Opposition stated that when he will become the president, he will pardon all the officials from the Government of Saakashvili who had been imprisoned.Of course I will pardon Mikheil Saakashvili and other political prisoners who are in jail, Vano Merabishvili and Akhalaia, Tsaadze and everyone else, it is already time to finish political persecution in Georgia," said Grigol Vashadze.After this statement representatives of Georgian Dream started talking about upcoming civil war, because they believe that Merabishvili, Akhalaia, Saakashvili and others from the Government of United National Movement will try to take power back.Moreover, in October 28 Presidential elections Grigol Vashadze got almost same percentage as GD-backed Salome Zurabishvili, in big part of society there is still very negative opinions about Saakashvili and other ex-officials, so if Vashadze will continue openly proving the he will pardon the above-mentioned persons, he might lose part of his votes, and probably Bacho Akhalaia realized the situation and sacrifices his personal freedom. It is expected that Merabishvili and other officials who are imprisoned will make similar statements. REDDING, Calif. - Two Redding teen swimmers are heading to the Olympic Training enter in Colorado Monday. This weekend Action News Now reporter Elizabeth Zelidon spoke with the pair to find out how they preparing for the big challenge and honor. When Audrey Bull and Winn Aung jump into the pool it's electrifying, said Zelidon. "[It's]the most exhilarating feeling. It's really cool. It's like you're alive!" Bull said. The hard work of Redding teen swimmers Audrey Bull and Winn Aung is now leading them to the "gold." The two have been invited to take part in the Olympic Training Center Camp in Colorado. Aung is going for the second time in his young life. He is 16-years-old and attended the same Olympic camp two years ago. Bull, who is only 13, is going for the first time. "It's just nice to know that all your hard work pays off and its good - that even if you haven't been doing it for as long as other people that you still have the same opportunities," she said. Aung said he feels really honored because it is a big accomplishment. "Every swimmer wants to go there at least once in their lifetime if they're serious about swimming - so I feel really honored to be able to go a second time," he said. Winn feels like he will get more out of the training camp this time around. "I was pretty young, so I kinda goofed off," he said, "but this time I'm hoping to be a little more serious." As for first-timer Audrey Bull, she says s is excited to gain every bit of experience she can. "I just want to get the experience and know that I could be there one day," she said. "Yeah! That's the dream!" The two will be leaving early Monday morning from Sacramento. Everyone back home and on the Redding Swim Team is wishing them the very best. Chico Police Investigating Dutch Bros Robbery Chico Police said a masked, armed man robbed the Dutch Bros on Esplanade around 9 p.m. on Sunday. Police said he flashed a firearm at employees and took off with an undisclosed amount of cash. Anyone with information is asked to call Chico Police. Chico Police Searching for Jewelry Store Robbery Suspect Chico Police are searching for the man who assaulted a jewelry store employee at the Chico Mall. Police said after asking to see a gold necklace at Kay Jewelers saturday night the man pepper-sprayed the employee and ran off with the necklace. No arrests have been made at this time. Two Severely Injured in Vehicle V. Motorcycle Collision Chico police are investigating the details of a car versus motorcycle crash that happened on Eaton Road and Moresman Avenue Sunday evening. Chico police said a car slammed into a motorcyclist - then smashed into a tree. Two people were sent to the hospital. The motorcyclist is in serious condition and the condition of the driver is unknown. Orland Police Charging Two Orland Teens with Attempted Homicide Police investigating an attempted homicide at Orland High School. According to police, two groups of students met up for a planned fight during lunch onHalloween. Then, two students in a pick up truck tried to run over three other students. One teen received minor injuries. Police arrested the two boys in the truck. Redding Swimmers Go for the Gold in Olympic Training Monday, two redding teen swimmers are going for gold as they head to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. This is 13-year-old Audrey Bull's first time and 16-year-old Winn Aung's second time. 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 [] CupShup, the venture known for the popular technique of converting tea and coffee cups into a platform for brands, has launched a campaign promoting Dice Medias newest web series What The Folks! Season 2. The series is a modern take on how families grow together despite their differences. What The Folks! Season 2 will be a crazier, funnier and a warmer journey of a family dealing with challenges thrown at them. In a bid to promote the series, CupShup will reach out to over 200 corporates across Mumbai, Delhi NCR, and Bengaluru. Banking on the popularity of the characters in the series and their likeability among the masses, CupShup has embarked on a unique plan of action. Five different creatives have been used in different paper cups, which carry quirky one liners about each character in the series. The campaign will be carried on till 5th November 2018. Speaking about this, Mr Sanil Jain, Co-Founder, CupShup, said, What The Folks! is an extremely popular web series and people across all age groups identify with it and the characters therein. Another habit that every Indian identifies with is drinking tea. There thus could not have been a more perfect amalgamation than to promote the series and its characters through paper tea cups. The already famous series will only grow in popularity and resonate across the cities. Adding her comments, Aditi Shrivastava, co-founder of Pocket Aces said, After a successful partnership last year, we were excited to repeat our collaboration with CupShup this year. Corporates are the perfect target audience for What The Folks!. The idea is to grab their attention while they're sipping on their day's cuppa and to remind them that some great content to indulge in is just a click away. Our online reach is about 50 million per week and offline partners such as CupShup help us make our engagement with audiences that much more personal. Shrivastava adds, It also helps extend visibility for our partner brands Epigamia and Pepperfry to this audience. So it's a win-win-win, the way we see it The paper cups are a cue which triggers people to start talking about something; discussions that may not happen when they see a hoarding. Using this vantage point, CupShup hopes to receive tremendous response from the target audience for the web series. Giving the age-old medium a new lease of life, CupShup has delivered various other advertisements earlier worth half-a-million dollars for many other brands over the past three years. Once it has dug its feet in colleges and corporate offices, CupShup plans to make use of this access to provide other kinds of marketing services. For starters, CupShup helps its clients place some of their sample products at offices for potential customers to try. Festivities marked the launch of Kalyan Jewellers flagship showroom in Andheri, Mumbai. The flagship showroom is the largest showroom of Kalyan Jewellers in West India and a celebratory atmosphere prevailed at the opening. Bollywood superstar, Amitabh Bachchan, the brand ambassador for Kalyan Jewellers was present for the inauguration and they held the excited crowd in thrall with their presence as they thanked the fans for their love and support. Mr T.S. Kalyanaraman, Chairman and Managing Director of Kalyan Jewellers along with the Executive Directors Rajesh Kalyanaraman and Ramesh Kalyanaraman were present at the inauguration. After addressing the huge gathering outside the showroom, they cut the ceremonial ribbon at the foyer of the showroom before taking a tour of the showroom. With the launch of this flagship showroom, Kalyan Jewellers presently has five showrooms in Mumbai, and a grand total of 133 showrooms globally. The showroom is spread over two dedicated floors with ample parking, and will offer customers a curated jewellery shopping experience with a wide variety of contemporary and traditional designs for everyday as well as bridal wear and festive occasions. As part of this new launch and Diwali offer, Kalyan Jewellers is offering all its patrons an assured and free gold coin, on purchases of diamond, solitaire, polki and precious stone based jewellery above Rs 25,000. Lucky ones stand a chance to win up to 500 gold coins, through a Scratch & Win offer valid on all purchase above Rs 20,000. Kalyan is offering its new customers an opportunity to help maintain their old gold jewellery. Free cleaning, polishing and maintenance will be done on all Kalyan and non-Kalyan gold jewellery. Customers will also get 100% value on exchange of old gold.* Authored by Anand Naik, Co-Founder and CEO, Sequeretek Anand Naik is co-founder and CEO, Sequretek. He has spent close to 3 decades in the IT Industry in multiple roles from executive management to sales and delivery. He has been instrumental in advising and designing some of the largest and most complex IT environments in India. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is here to stay, and given the rising number of security breaches, organisations and governments are increasing the application of artificial intelligence to increase and protect cyber hygiene. Artificial intelligence takes protection a step further by detecting known and unknown threats, increasing the scale of cyber hygiene through decreased reaction time to breaches. Most organisations and industries face a shortage of human intelligence in combating cyber security, and AI can help in automating these processes for better decision making, increased speed of resolution, improved root cause analysis, and improved prediction. Particularly for organisations such as pharma and finance where static perimeter controls are no longer the most secure option, automated controls which use programmes such as User Behaviour Analysis may provide higher degree of security especially concerning stolen user credentials and such. A tool such as User Behaviour Analysis (UBA) uses behavioural patterns of a user like login/logout times, designations and access controls, networks and geographies of access to model risk stemming from different users in the organisation. For example, a user who tries to log in to his company account outside normal hours or from a different geography to access sensitive files may trigger an alarm for the security personnel monitoring the organisations security. The use of AI in cyber security has to be done in collaboration with human intelligence, and in most cases it ends up strengthening the skill of security personnel for better monitoring and protection. UBA is especially useful in industries with a significant threat of insider attacks. When there is a breach, it is critical to discover it at the soonest and also be able to separate the relevant data from the white noise for tackling the breach. What happens is that most organisations tend to spend a lot of time combating false positives during the breach, which makes the breach even more critical as it still has time to penetrate the secure networks and steal more data. Newer models such as APT and anomaly detection help to distinguish real threats from the noise. We live in the era of Big Data, which contains structured and unstructured data as well as dirty or erroneous data. As a consequence, traditional Machine Learning algorithms are being modified to increase security and detect a higher percentage of sanitized data. This includes a range of supervised and unsupervised learning to detect a larger range of threats. While supervised learning is your basic input-output model, unsupervised learning uses tools such as clustering and associating for better predictive and diagnostic analysis. Organisations now have the choice of a range of AI and ML models, and can choose the best algorithm for their data models to maximise security. With the festive season kicking in, Tata Motors announced the launch of its new Teen ka Tyohaar campaign, to celebrate the success of its most popular small commercial vehicles, Tata Ace. The company has sold over 20 Lakhs Tata Ace vehicles till date, with one SCV from the Ace family being sold in every three minutes. Celebrating this achievement, the company has announced 3 lucrative offers for its small commercial vehicle (SCV) buyers. On every Tata Motors SCV vehicle bought during this festive season, the buyer will receive a free gold coin, personal insurance with a cover of Rs. 10 lakhs and an attractive monthly consumer scheme, depending on which region the vehicle is bought in. This offer is valid until November 30, 2018 across the entire SCV Range of commercial vehicles, including the newly launched Tata Ace Gold. Commenting on the campaign, Mr. R T Wasan, Head Sales & Marketing, Tata Motors said, Since its launch in 2005, Tata Ace has not only pioneered the SCV segment in India but also has helped thousands of entrepreneurs fulfill their business aspirations in the transport and logistics industry. With the Tata Ace hitting this astounding benchmark of one vehicle being sold every three minutes, we decided to celebrate this feat by introducing a series of offers for new customers. The buzz around this campaign has already led to a substantial increase in footfall across showrooms. We look forward to a boost in sales of all Tata SCVs owing to the beginning of the festive season as well as the attractive incentives offered by Tata Motors on every SCV purchased in these two months. Tata Motors has planned a marketing campaign across print, radio and digital during the festive period to tap potential buyers. The Company continues to keep its promise of delivering best-in-class product and service experiences. The Ace range of small commercial vehicles offers superior safety, offers maximum performance in varied conditions, is comfortable and easy to maintain. The Ace range is customizable, for varied business needs, right from catering to e-commerce delivery to upholding the Swachh Bharat vision for a cleaner India. From meeting family members, shopping for colourful lantern & new clothes, enjoying homemade sweets, to shopping online, exchanging greetings on mobile, share update on social media, get gifts delivered on our doorsteps Diwali celebrations have changed over the years, losing some of its familial togetherness to the easy lure of the digital world. Identifying the need for people to connect and have real conversations, Vodafone is again encouraging them to #LookUp and celebrate Diwali with their families, by keeping down their devices. Vodafone has launched a heart-warming video under its successful #LookUp campaign, urging viewers to celebrate Diwali with each other rather than with devices Kyunki apno se acha koi network nahi, apnepan se acha koi connection nahi. Conceptualised by Ogilvy India, the film beautifully brings out the changing nature of Diwali celebrations seen through the eyes of a kid. It shows the contrast between how Diwali was celebrated traditionally by the childs father with lots of love & warmth and how it is perhaps celebrated at present. With its stark difference, the film shows how technology sometimes takes over and people lose out on the connections that really matter. Commenting on the campaign, Siddharth Banerjee, EVP Marketing, Vodafone India, said, In the hyper-connected world, Vodafone again reiterates the need for real conversations, especially on occasions and festivals. Our #LookUp campaign has resonated well with our audience generating online and offline talkability and driving up brand preference for Vodafone. Hence, after delighting our audiences on Valentines Day/ Fathers Day and Friendship Day with #LookUp messages, this time around, we are extending our #LookUp philosophy to Diwali encouraging viewers to celebrate with family and friends in essence, the connections that really matter. Kiran Antony, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy, added here, Last year, Vodafone started the #Lookup campaign to encourage people to have real conversations on special occasions with people that matter. In this film, we see a modern family through the eyes of a child who, while excited to read his dads essay on Diwali, sees the family around him in complete contrast. Our endeavour is to remind people that while phones do play an integral part in our daily lives, it is perfectly fine to put them aside during those special occasions and celebrate with your loved ones. Termed as the decisive contest ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections in 2019, the upcoming Assembly Elections in the key states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram are set to witness a fierce political battle between the major political parties. As these states prepare for a crucial election, CNN-News18 has lined up exclusive programming to capture all the latest on-ground developments. CNN-News18s programming line-up Battle For the States has travelogues, audience based shows, newsmaker interviews, Poll of Polls, Polling Day and Counting Day coverage to bring the most insightful and comprehensive coverage. Reporters Project traverses the length and breadth of poll bound states, focusing on the common mans issues. Citizens Manifesto, a special audience based show from the 5 capital cities, give a unique platform to voters to interact with their local leaders and voice their concerns and expectations. Keep ahead of the results on Counting Day, and get expert analysis of the implications. From general news to expert views and critical issues to debates, the channel will delve into all aspects of the state elections, with a 360 degree view of the electoral battle. Veteran journalists make up the editorial team - Executive Editor Bhupendra Chaubey, Editor - Output Zakka Jacob, Deputy Executive Editor Anand Narasimhan and Political Editor Marya Shakil. The formidable editorial team will be joined by renowned political experts and commentators, Swapan Dasgupta, Vir Sanghvi and Ajoy Bose. The ground reporters of Indias largest news network will bring the fastest and most accurate information for its viewers. From campaigning to polling, counting to government formation - catch all the action around these crucial Assembly Elections on CNN-News18. Watch Battle for the States on CNN-News18, all through November and December Elections = CNN-News18 +2 North Augusta Forward looking to bring downtown development program to city North Augusta Forwards new executive director, Avery Spears-Mahoney, has been in the job for about two months and said the organization wants NORTH AUGUSTA Downtown North Augusta is going to boot camp at the start of the new year. North Augusta Forward, a local development organization, announced this week the city has been accepted into the Main Street South Carolina program, which offers a bootcamp and support for downtown development in cities and towns across the state. The program uses a four-point strategy in that downtown development: organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring. Eighteen South Carolina communities are listed as members of Main Street South Carolina on its website, including Aiken. Its a four-point approach to how to make the plans and initiatives work with the city, and the Chamber [of Commerce], and North Augusta Forward all working together with the community. Its a very community engaged process so its locally driven and implemented, said North Augusta Forwards executive director Avery Spears-Mahoney in July. Spears-Mahoney said the first three years of the program are called the boot camp phase to indicate the intensity of hard work that will take place. The boot camp phase in North Augusta will begin in early 2019. Main Street South Carolina was established in 1984, a release from North Augusta Forward says. It said member communities have brought "significant number" of new businesses and jobs to their downtowns. "Main Street will be the catalyst to bring collaboration between downtown businesses, citizens, the city, the Chamber and North Augusta Forward as we roll up our sleeves to work on making downtown the heartbeat of our community," said Briton Williams, downtown committee co-chair said in the release. Spears-Mahoney said the program is built on partnerships between local government, businesses, organizations and residents. With the positive growth North Augusta is experiencing, the timing could not be more appropriate for redevelopment in our downtown area, Spears-Mahoney said about the acceptance. Downtowns are the cornerstone of any community; this revitalization will help to create a sense of place, a unique hub of activity in downtown North Augusta. Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. Millions of Syrians who took refuge in Turkey have not been able to adopt the Turkish way of life, mainly because they prefer to live in isolated neighborhoods, but Syrian businessmen have largely integrated into Turkish society. Even though it is not required by law, Syrian businessmen also prefer to be business partners with Turks. According to data Al-Monitor obtained from the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges in Turkey, Turks have entered into partnerships with Syrians in 7,972 companies from March 2010 to August 2018. The data show that Syrian businessmen began shifting their investments to Turkey after March 2010, one year before the onset of the civil war. From 2010-2012, foreigners setting up a business in Turkey were legally required to have Turkish partners. In July 2012, Turkey abolished that requirement. Why, then, do Syrian businessmen continue to enter into partnerships with Turks? Former Minister of State Masum Turker told Al-Monitor that, in general, small- and medium-sized Syrian companies still operate according to the old legislation. They think they are still required to set up partnerships with Turks, although that was annulled in 2012," he said. "It appears that their accountants dont feel the need to tell them about it. According to Masum, Syrians prefer to enter into partnerships with Turks for several reasons. Of course they need to adapt to the local markets," he said. "Syrians want to benefit from the experience of Turks in their own markets. Some Syrian businessmen produce in Turkey. Turkish businessmen are attracted by markets they already have in Syria, Qatar and Yemen. Both sides benefit. For example, many such joint companies manufacture textile goods for export. Shares in joint companies are determined by the amount of money invested. In this, Syrians lead the way. In the companies set up from January 2018 to August 2018, 64.7% of investments were by Syrian businessmen, making them the "dominant bosses." The over 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey constitute a major market for Syrian businessmen, as they are the major buyers of smaller businesses like markets, bakeries and restaurants. Omer Fethi Gurer, an opposition Republican People's Party deputy, said, Go to Urfa and Kilis and see how Syrians dominate the markets alone. In many towns, bakeries and restaurants are owned by Syrians. Gurer said Syrians now outnumber Turks in Kilis and, given their rapid population increase, they will soon be the majority in many towns. Gurer said Italians have apple orchards in Nigde province but that, in local registers, these are listed as owned by locals. Similarly, Gurer said, Syrians own many businesses that are not registered in their names. Asked why such deception, Gurer said, If they want to buy those businesses on their own, Turks may refuse to sell their bakeries and markets directly to single Syrian buyers. That is why many businesses change hands secretly or through partnerships. No matter the method, the share and domination of Syrians in the Turkish market is increasing. According to official figures from the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges in Turkey, there are 42,217 joint companies in Turkey. The 7,972 companies set up with Syrians now comprise 19% of the entire market. The Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey said 1,085 Syrian partnership companies were established in the first eight months of 2018, mostly in Istanbul, followed by the southern provinces of Mersin and Hatay. Regionally, Syrian investments intensified in Marmara. The major fields of joint Syrian-Turkish companies are wholesale trade, real estate, construction and retail trade. Other sectors include cargo transport, pipelines, food and beverages, travel agencies, car and motorcycle sales, storage, rentals and leasing, health services, chemical products, machinery and equipment production, advertising and market research, and office management. One vital sector, education, is at the very bottom of importance in joint Syrian-Turkish business operations. It is, however, expected that Syrians will contribute to this most vital problem of Turkey since Turks don't prioritize joint educational projects for the education of Syrians. CAIRO The Egyptian authorities have released economist Abdel Khalek Farouk and his publisher pending a probe into alleged "fake news" in Farouk's new book, "Is Egypt Really a Poor Country? Authorities had arrested Farouk on Oct. 21, a week after they seized copies of his book at Al-Ittihad Printing Press in Cairo and arrested its owner, Ibrahim al-Khatib. Khatib has also been released pending the investigation. Officials said the book is critical of a speech Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi delivered on Jan. 28, 2017, at Egypt's World Youth Forum conference. Sisi said during the speech that Egypt is a very poor country. Naglaa Salama, Farouks wife, told Al-Monitor by phone that Farouk indeed said in 2017 he was working on a book to respond to Sisis allegations regarding poverty in Egypt. She said three officers came to their house Oct. 21 and took her husband to El-Shorouk police station, where he was detained. The public prosecutors office in Cairo's southern district of Zainham began investigating the next day, she said. Her husband was initially accused of not having a permit for the book, she said, but lawyers from the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) who attended the investigations contacted her to ask for the official permits. Salama subsequently sent them papers proving that the book had a permit, an official registration number and an ISBN. She noted that the public prosecutor's office discussed the contents of the book and asked Farouk about his sources. Her husband, she said, replied that he had relied on official information issued by several governmental bodies. Still, he was charged with publishing and possessing false news. Asked about the book, Salama said it consists of 27 chapters and answers controversial questions currently being raised in Egypt, such as how the country's oil wealth is managed and how much Egypt lost in gas contracts with Israel and Jordan. Egypt supplied Israel with natural gas in 2010 at below-market prices. She also said the book discusses human resources and population density in Egypt, how the new administrative capital was funded, and addresses questions about alleged corruption and public money squandering. Before his arrest, Farouk wrote on his official Facebook page that the book doesn't insult anyone but discusses the economic crisis in numbers and facts, she added. After the book was confiscated, Farouk shared it online and called on his Facebook friends to download it and read it. ANHRI director Gamal Eid, a human rights lawyer, told Al-Monitor the measures taken by the authorities are arbitrary and intrinsically related to a broader goal of fighting research in Egypt, and not just politics. On Dec. 20, 2016, state security authorities had closed the ANHRI Al-Karama library chain. Authorities claimed they closed the chain because it lacked the required licenses, but many thought the real reason was that ANHRI criticized the state's performance. Eid said that Farouks detention is not the first of its kind, and will not be the last. The Egyptian cultural and research arena witnessed several trials and political arrests in recent years. Such cases included Raed Salama, an economic researcher; Ismail al-Iskandarani, a researcher specializing in Islamic groups affairs; and Hisham Jaafar, a journalist and board chairman of the MADA Foundation for Media Development. While Jaafar was arrested on Oct. 22, 2015, he remains in illegal custody until this very day. Also, an Egyptian military court ordered the detention of Iskandarani on May 23 for 10 years on charges of writing several articles about the security conditions in the Sinai Peninsula," Eid noted. He added that the states campaign is ongoing and rife with other examples. Egyptian authorities arrested Salama on Aug. 23 on charges of broadcasting false news in cooperation with a group calling for the disruption of the constitution and the law. Under Egyptian law, individuals who spread false news shall be sentenced to prison for a maximum of one year, and fined 5,000-20,000 Egyptian pounds ($280-$1,116). On Oct. 18, Egyptian authorities also arrested Ayman Abdul Mooti, who is in charge of advertising and public relations at Al-Maraya for Cultural Production. Eid denounced the brutal campaign against researchers and pointed out that the Egyptian state has honored Farouk on more than one occasion. Farouk received Egypts State Award in Economic and Legal Sciences in 2003 as well as the 2015 Cairo Book Fair Best Book Award in Social Sciences. He also worked as an adviser to the minister of manpower and immigration in 2013. In an inspector generals report released today, the US Department of Defense says the Islamic State (IS) regained momentum this year, after a spat between Turkey and US-backed Kurdish forces caused a two-month delay in fighting, to recruit new members, gain resources and conduct attacks. Why it matters: While the US-backed coalition fighting IS has taken back all but 2% of the groups territory in Syria, according to the Defense Department, it still has a residual presence that could threaten Iraqs fledgling government and American-allied units in Syrias Middle Euphrates River Valley. That means that fighting in the US area of operations may not be done any time soon. The United Nations estimates that as many as 30,000 militants may be left in Iraq and Syria, though the Defense Department says the raw number does not reflect the groups capabilities. The United States began targeting a series of mosques near Hajin, Syria, last month that IS had converted into command posts. Crossing borders: One of the Defense Department's big worries is IS' continued ability to cross back and forth through Iraqs border with Syria. A series of strikes launched by the Iraqi government into Syria earlier this year were designed to hamstring the groups ability to use smuggling routes to bring fighters from northeastern Syria into Iraqs Ninevah province. IS is now focused on bolstering its sleeper cells and organized criminal gangs capable of forming small insurgent units, the Defense Department told the inspector general. Whats next: IS could have another chance to gain strength. Last week, the Pentagon announced that skirmishes between Turkey and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces had led to a pause in fighting against the group. When the fight resumes, look to see if the US-backed coalition quickly announces big gains in the battle or stays quiet. Meanwhile, as the United States deals with the fallout of reimposing sanctions on Iran, its also trying to cope with an upswing in Tehran-backed units fighting in Iraq. The Defense Department reported to the inspector general that it had made no progress in getting control of the Shiite-dominated Popular Mobilization Units that operate independently of Baghdad. Iran also deployed as many as 150 elite Quds Force fighters to help the militias establish a foothold in the country. Know more: Check out Jack Detschs story about the Pentagon adopting looser targeting rules to go after IS-converted mosques in Syria. -Jack Detsch At a briefing for senior Israeli journalists Oct. 29, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allowed them to attribute part of his remarks to a senior diplomatic source. I understood him. There wasnt much to be proud of in this briefing, so he would obviously prefer not to be cited by name. He explained certain facts, which many already knew, but which he did not usually describe with such clarity. He said that he had no interest in another round of fighting with Hamas in Gaza, and that if such fighting did break out, there would be casualties on both sides, and that when it was all over, the situation would not be very different from what it is now. He added that he wanted to hand responsibility for Gaza over to someone else, but that there was no one to hand it over to. Israel is unwilling to engage in negotiations with an organization that refuses to recognize it. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel, so he is unwilling to engage with it in dialogue. Meanwhile, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank is unwilling to enter Gaza as long as it is not granted responsibility for the weapons controlled by the various groups there. This is because the Palestinian Authority leadership realizes that the moment it assumes responsibility for Gaza, Israel will retaliate against it, if any of the organizations do start firing their rockets and missiles. While he was still head of the Likud in 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to disengage from Gaza unilaterally without first reaching of some agreement between Israel and the PLO, and then refused to begin negotiations with the new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over a permanent agreement. This resulted in what looks like a dead end. Like then, the parties have been unwilling to enter direct negotiations, while expressing a clear willingness to halt confrontations. The Hamas leadership admits openly that it has no interest in another round of violence with Israel. This could indicate a window of opportunity where the parties could benefit from re-examining the understandings reached after Operation Grapes of Wrath in 1996. The situation back then at the border with Lebanon to the north was similar to the current situation at the border with Gaza to the south. Israel was facing Hezbollah, a militant Shiite group, which came into being during the First Lebanon War (1982). It had not only sworn to throw Israel out of the security zone in southern Lebanon but from the entire Middle East. As always, the Lebanese government was enfeebled and barely able to stand on its own. It only survived because it was propped up by Syria and held hostage by Hezbollah. In April 1996, with the Passover holiday hovering in the background, Hezbollah began to heat up the north. Life was suddenly interrupted there, and tourism came to an abrupt stop. The Israel government headed by Shimon Peres used all of its diplomatic channels, particularly France and the United States, to try to achieve a cease-fire, but the militias wouldnt hear of it, and the rain of rockets continued unabated. We had no interest in getting into a full-blown conflict, knowing that the government of Lebanon was not behind what was happening, and that the people who would ultimately pay the price were the citizens of Lebanon. We also knew that neither side would win another round of fighting, and once it was over, the situation would not really change. As a minister in the Prime Ministers Office, I was involved in talks to get the international community to impose a cease-fire. The last thing we wanted was a repeat of the 1993 Operation Accountability, which was launched under similar circumstances. Back then, the goal was to force the residents of southern Lebanon to head north, toward Beirut, where they would pressure the Lebanese government to put an end to the rocket fire. We were now facing a similar situation, but with the hindsight of the previous conflicts horrific results. However, the miserable 1996 operation ended after Israeli troops fired at the wrong target on April 18 and killed 102 Lebanese civilians, who had fled to the United Nations compound outside the village of Qana. This led to an unusual process, which eventually resulted in the Grapes of Wrath understandings. We were engaging in tacit bargaining, based on a concept described by professor Thomas Schelling, a Nobel laureate in economics, who was deeply involved in game theory. It is intended to reduce tensions between parties, particularly in asymmetrical circumstances, where the stronger party has no interest in using all the force at its disposal. We reached these understandings after Operation Accountability, whereas after Operation Grapes of Wrath, the understandings were put down in writing. Hezbollah was not a party to these negotiations. Talks between the Israeli and Lebanese governments were overseen by the French and Americans. Their goal was to keep the violent conflict away from civilians and leave it up to the fighters. This was laid out in a document prepared by the United States as a summary of how the Americans understood the positions taken by Israel and Lebanon, and written in consultation with Syria. The understandings stated that armed groups in Lebanon would not attack Israel, that Israel and its collaborators (i.e., the Southern Lebanese Army) would not attack civilians or civilian targets in Lebanon and that concentrations of the civilian population would not be used as bases for attacks. A monitoring group was created with the participation of representatives from the United States, France, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Its job was to deal with any complaints submitted by one of the parties within 24 hours and to come up with a position on the matter. It was also decided that these understandings would not be considered as an alternative to a peace agreement. A monitoring group was, in fact, created. Rocket fire against Israel was reduced, even if it did not stop entirely, and complaints about any such incidents were submitted to the monitoring group, which convened in Ras Naqoura, Lebanon. These conclusions were shared with both parties but they were never made public. As a result, they were not cited as the cause for any additional clashes. Internal discussions were left to the professionals and were often practical and frank. The understandings reached during Operation Grapes of Wrath were a kind of necessary evil. With no possibility of direct negotiations between the two parties, with the differences between them greater than ever and with both sides recognizing that violent conflict would not improve their situation, they may be worth re-examining. This is particularly true of the multinational mechanism established at the time, which prevented a situation in which the only response to rocket and missile fire from one side was for the other side to fire back. RAMALLAH, West Bank A new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report takes Palestinian leaders to task, documenting cases of systematic torture and unjustified arrests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The report published Oct. 23 accuses the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and its rival Hamas in the Gaza Strip of arbitrarily arresting and torturing their own and each other's citizens for mere peaceful criticism, especially on social media. Titled Two Authorities, One Way, Zero Dissent, the report documents that security forces routinely taunt, threaten, beat and force detainees into painful stress positions for hours at a time. The report raised the ire of both the PA and Hamas. PA security services spokesman Adnan al-Dumairi said in an Oct. 23 press statement that the report, the result of two years of investigation, was politically motivated. He said HRW relied on the testimonies of political rivals and adopted them as facts without investigating or fact-checking with the Palestinian Ministry of Interior. Iyad al-Bazm, spokesman for the Hamas-run Ministry of Interior in the Gaza Strip, told The Gaza Post that the HRW report lacks objectivity and accuracy and is far from the truth and reality in Gaza. Bazm said that the ministry is ready to welcome a HRW delegation to the Gaza Strip to inspect all detention centers, jails and Ministry of Interior posts. We have nothing to hide, and we are ready to cooperate completely, he said. In the West Bank, Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said during a Cabinet meeting Oct. 24 that he had received the HRW report and would respond after reading the results and recommendations. He also said Palestine is developing national legislation to comply with its international commitments. On Oct. 16, the government adopted a reference paper to establish a preventive national mechanism against torture. On Dec. 28, 2017, PA President Mahmoud Abbas had ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, he added. Haitham Arar, director of the Democracy and Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Interior in the West Bank, told Al-Monitor, The Ministry of Interior formed a committee in coordination with partner organizations. The committee will [seek to] verify the testimonies in the report and will take practical measures regarding any case that was mishandled." Ahmad al-Tamimi, a PLO member and head of its human rights and civil society department, told Al-Monitor, "The report is my priority now and I asked that it be studied and analyzed." HRW Director in Palestine Omar Shakir commented on the PA and Hamas reactions to the report. He told Al-Monitor, The report documents serious violations related to human rights, but the authorities claim there are no violations, as per our correspondent who spoke to them in February and March. The PA said there is no torture, while Hamas claimed there might be [individual] incidents, but no systematic torture and violations. However, Shakir said he believes the PA and Hamas will take the results of the report seriously. We are ready to cooperate. We want to discuss with Hamas the results as soon as we receive permits from the Israeli army to enter Gaza," he said. He added, We call on the PA government to conduct serious studies, and [call] on the international community especially countries funding the PA to play a positive role and pressure them to stop arbitrary arrest and torture." Research for the 149-page report was conducted from September 2016 to September 2018 and relied on the testimonies of 147 Palestinians, including 95 former detainees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, about arrest patterns and conditions of detention. Fares Jbour, 23, an electric engineering student at Polytechnic University in Hebron in the southern West Bank, was arrested on Jan. 8, 2017. He said he was tortured when the intelligence services investigated him about his activity within the Islamic Bloc, Hamas student arm, at the university. According to his testimony in the report, Jbour was blindfolded as soon as he reached the center after being summoned. He was kicked and beaten with a baton, and in an interrogation session he was hit with a hose each time his answers did not satisfy his questioners about once every five minutes. This was while he was subjected to "shabeh," a method of torture in which victims are forced into painful positions for extended periods. The situation in Gaza is no different from the West Bank, according to the HRW report. The Hamas-affiliated internal security forces arrested journalist Fouad Jarada, who works for the official Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, at his house on June 9, 2017, and confiscated his laptop and cellphone, he testified in the report. Jarada said the investigation was prompted by a Facebook post in which he advocated the measures of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries to isolate Qatar. He also talked about his ties with the PA and his political affiliation. He was whipped on the hands and legs during the investigation and was forced to stand or sit on a chair for children for hours. Although HRWs information and testimonies aren't new to Palestinians, they indicate the situation is likely to continue in the absence of a legislative council and will deepen the political rift between the rivals, unless each side takes action. Otherwise, the Palestinians will pay the price, losing their freedom of expression. Saudi Arabia has responded to the Trump administrations call for the end of hostilities in Yemen by ratcheting up the war. The war between the Saudi-led coalition backing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the Iranian-supported Zaydi Shiite Houthis is a catastrophe for Yemen, the region and the United States, but Riyadhs leaders do not want to be losers. Last week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the Houthis to stop firing ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia and for the United Arab Emirates and the Saudi coalition to halt air attacks on populated Yemen territory in an effort to lead to UN-hosted negotiations. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said it is time to end the war. Talks about a political solution are supposed to begin in a month. The administration has promised its support for the UN negotiations with much more coordination and emphasis than ever before. The premeditated murder of Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudis has put the administration under unprecedented pressure to rein in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans reckless and dangerous behavior. The war in Yemen is the crown princes signature policy initiative. Congress is ready to take action to curtail Americas involvement in the war after the midterms. A Democratic majority in the House would likely hold hearings on alleged Saudi war crimes and the murder of Khashoggi. The crown princes tarnished reputation will be in the docket. But the Saudis have escalated their airstrikes on Sanaa and Hodeidah instead. The capital and the main port have been heavily pounded by the Saudi coalition since Pompeo and Mattis spoke. For their part, the Iranians have hailed the Houthis' resistance and trumpeted their enhanced ballistic missiles. As Al-Monitor reported, the Iranians are portraying the new Trump administration line on Yemen as a victory for the rebels. Much diminished in stature abroad by the Khashoggi murder, Prince Mohammed is reluctant to appear to back down in Yemen. His 3 years of war have cost the kingdom a fortune. The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is a public relations disaster for the House of Saud, and a boon for Iran. Rather than appearing to be the enlightened leader of the Islamic world, the war in Yemen portrays Saudi Arabia and its allies as complicit in mass starvation and malnutrition in the poorest country in the Arab world. In Yemen, the Saudi-supported Hadi government is weak. Hadi has serious health problems and has spent considerable time in the United States for treatment. He has little support in Aden despite being a southerner. The Houthis are portraying themselves as nationalist patriots fighting the countrys traditional enemy: Their brutal politics are eclipsed by the Saudi crimes. The Yemeni people are left to live in a hell. The war was supposed to be a quick and decisive battle that would give Prince Mohammed the status of a military hero and cement his claim to be the defender of the kingdom against Iran. He had no military training or experience, no strategy and alienated key potential allies such as Pakistan and Oman. The crown prince is well aware that he has not accomplished any of his objectives and will be exposed as inept. The royal family is already divided over the war. King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Sauds full brother, Prince Ahmed, publicly blamed the war on the king and crown prince during a visit to London, saying the war was not the fault of the royal family in general. Prince Ahmed returned to Saudi Arabia in the last week amid speculation that he has widespread support for his critique. The crown prince is well aware that he is the potential fall guy if his war is perceived to be a failure. The crown prince is counting on the Trump administration to stick with him given the blank check it has provided for Saudi Arabia in the last two years. The Khashoggi affair will fade away, and the president will never take serious action regarding the war. So far he has been right. Last week the administration was clear and direct that the war must be brought to an end. By controlling the logistics and spare parts necessary for the Royal Saudi Air Force to conduct operations Washington has tremendous influence on the Saudi military. The Saudis cannot get spare parts for F-15s in Moscow or Beijing. The administration has the leverage to save millions of Yemenis. It is time to use it. For those unfamiliar with why Osman Kavala matters for Turkey, a nutshell description would be that he is a civil society leader and philanthropist who stands out as the most prominent link between Turkish civil society and the outside world. The 61-year-old is also a wealthy businessman. Kavala chairs Anadolu Kultur (Anatolia Culture), an Istanbul-based foundation that, in its own words, aims to build bridges between different ethnic, religious and regional groups by sharing culture and art. For more than a year, however, Kavala has been unable to pursue that mission because he has been locked up in a high-security prison in Silivri, near Istanbul. Kavala was detained Oct. 18, 2017, aboard the plane he took to Istanbul from the southeastern city of Gaziantep, where he had attended a meeting on a planned joint project with Germany's Goethe Institute. Less than a week later, while Kavala was still in police custody, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly accused the activist of criminality and pointed him out as a target of the judiciary. The connections of the person they call the red Soros of Turkey are coming to light, Erdogan told a parliamentary meeting of his Justice and Development Party. You see the same person behind the Taksim incidents [the Gezi Park resistance]. You see them behind the transfer of significant funds to certain places. After 14 days in police custody, Kavala appeared before a judge Nov. 1, 2017, and the judge ruled to send him to prison pending trial. Ever since, the Kavala case has been shrouded in mystery. Kavala has been one of the chief Turkish partners of European civic groups and institutions in the field of arts and culture this is well known. It remains unclear, though, whether he has been caught up in the hostage diplomacy tactics since the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016. And if he indeed is a hostage, what is demanded from whom is also unclear. The problems of Turkeys Kurds and Armenians have been high on Anadolu Kulturs agenda, so keeping Kavala in jail could be seen also as an attempt to intimidate the countrys civil society. Although Kavala has been in prison for more than a year now, the prosecution has yet to draw up an indictment. Two articles of the Turkish penal code, referenced in the arrest warrant, remain the only hints as to what charges he might face. Article 309 is about attempting to destroy the constitutional order by force and violence, and Article 312 is about attempting to abolish the government or to prevent it from fulfilling its duties. In both cases, the penalty is life imprisonment. Judging by the questions Kavala was asked while in police custody and the narrative leaked to the pro-government media, he appears to be accused of links with people allegedly involved in orchestrating the coup attempt. On Nov. 15, 2017, pro-government papers citing the chief prosecutors office claimed that Kavala had had telephone calls totaling 93.5 hours with Henri Barkey, an American Turkey expert who was alleged to be involved in the putsch. According to the story, Kavala used his own phone as well as the phones of his wife, cousin and employees to talk to Barkey. The pro-government media claimed that Barkey who happened to be on an island off Istanbul during the coup attempt for a workshop on Iran was involved in plotting and coordinating the putsch. There are no phone records to corroborate the alleged phone contacts between Kavala and Barkey, however. The only logical explanation is that while in Istanbul, Barkeys phone routed to the same cell tower used by Kavala and Anadolu Kultur and that this was considered a connection. At an Oct. 31 press conference in Istanbul, Kavalas lawyers said the prosecutors office had rejected their request for details on the alleged 93.5-hour conversations on the grounds that the evidence was sealed. Lawyer Ilkan Koyuncu said they believed a second accusation against Kavala pertained to financing and organizing the Gezi Park resistance in spring 2013, which grew into mass anti-government demonstrations across the country; hence the use of Article 312 about attempts to abolish the government to justify his arrest. Yet during his interrogation, Kavala was never questioned about how he financed Gezi, how much money he transferred and to which accounts, said Deniz Tolga Aytore, another defense attorney. The only judge Kavala has seen over the past year is the one who ordered his arrest. The activist remains in the dark on what he is really accused of and on whether he will ever be indicted. Because the prosecution has failed to produce an indictment, no trial has started yet. Similarly, his lawyers remain in the dark on what evidence, if any, the prosecution has, since they are denied access to the file. Kavala's three lawyers said they had filed a total of 30 petitions on 10 occasions to secure their clients release, but to no avail. On Dec. 29, 2017, the defense team petitioned the Constitutional Court, arguing that Kavalas arrest violated the European Convention of Human Rights because no strong evidence exists to keep him in jail on suspicion he might escape or destroy evidence. The court has yet to make any move on the appeal, according to the lawyers. Kavala has a co-suspect in the probe: Metin Topuz, a Turkish employee of the US Consulate in Istanbul who was detained in September 2017 over alleged links with senior police officers, soldiers and prosecutors belonging to a network led by US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whose followers Ankara has designated as a terrorist organization and holds responsible for the coup attempt. Yet Topuz was never mentioned in Kavalas interrogation and no link could be established between the two, Koyuncu said. The defense therefore has asked that their files be separated. In a message from prison on the first anniversary of his imprisonment, Kavala said, I believe that those who have accused me of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and the government are realizing each passing day that I have nothing to do with such crimes. He voiced hope that his imprisonment will contribute to a better comprehension of how this flawed detention regime is harming Turkeys citizens and its judiciary. Koyuncu believes that Kavalas unique profile is confusing to many in Turkey. Kavala comes from a wealthy family. He is not Armenian but he takes interest in the Armenian question. He is not Kurdish but he is involved in the Kurdish question, the lawyer said. People think, Why would he bother to take culture to Gaziantep when he can just throw parties and work to increase his wealth? He must have a secret agenda. Because they dont understand him, they criminalize him. According to Koksal Bayraktar, another attorney for Kavala, the prosecution is struggling to come up with evidence. No specific evidence has been produced so far. An investigation cannot drag on for a year; this means the prosecutor has no evidence, he said. The investigation is failing because they had the culprit first and are now trying to link him to a [criminal] act. An unlawful investigation is going on. Frustrated that the case file is hidden behind a smokescreen, Bayraktar said, We are like Don Quixote tilting at the windmills. We dont know what we are struggling against. Birmingham-based Brasfield & Gorrie opened its relocated Cobb County offices today in Georgia. The 113,000-square-foot office building, on 2999 Circle 75 Parkway, is located near SunTrust Park and The Battery Atlanta. Its a increase of about 43,000 square feet over the companys former Kennesaw location. Its a repurposed pair of connected three-story buildings constructed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Part of the exterior received curtainwall glass and the entrance got an updated facade. It also features a three-story atrium leading to a conference center and a training room. Theres social space connected to an expanded outdoor area with lounge, dining seating and a bocce court. The building also features sustainable elements, such as LED lighting and Energy Star-rated appliances, HVAC equipment and windows to reduce energy consumption and water-efficient plumbing features to reduce consumption by 20 percent annually. The building used locally sourced and salvaged materials. Offices and conference rooms feature glass fronts, with work cafes, huddle rooms and gathering spaces distributed throughout the building. Regional President Rob Blalock said the design is meant to try to get people out of their offices and collaborating in teams more often." The office is located in an area dotted with the companys projects. Theres SunTrust Park, which Brasfield & Gorrie constructed as the managing partner of the American Builders 2017 joint venture. It also built the Omni Atlanta Hotel in The Battery Atlanta and the structure of One Ballpark Center, the nine-story headquarters of Comcasts Central Division. Brasfield & Gorrie has been awarded the contract for Three Ballpark Center, an office building developed by the Atlanta Braves. The building will serve as headquarters of thyssenkrupp Elevator Americas. The groundbreaking date has been set for the $1.6 billion auto plant to be built in Huntsville as months of site preparation is drawing to a close. The groundbreaking for the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA plant in Limestone County will take place on Nov. 16 an event thats expected to include more than just speeches from politicians and the ceremonial tossing of dirt with golden spades. The groundbreaking is expected to be a day full of activities and celebration and private invitations have already been sent out ahead of the public announcement of the date, which is planned to occur in the next few days. The plant, perhaps the largest single economic development project in state history, is unique in that it brings two large Japanese auto makers together on the same campus. Its also Mazdas first manufacturing foray on American soil. The development will create at least 4,000 jobs at the plant and about 10,000 jobs indirectly altogether. Prep work at the rural Limestone County located in land annexed by the city of Huntsville and just outside the Madison city limits has been ongoing for months and is nearing completion. That work, which has been overseen by the city of Huntsville, is a prelude to Mazda Toyota taking control of the more than 1,000 acres where the plant will be built. The Huntsville city council unanimously approved an amended version of the project development agreement with Mazda Toyota at last weeks meeting. They will close on Dec. 20 and no later than Dec. 31 and well be turning the land over to them, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said. Part of this agreement satisfies a lot of the requirements we had in the development agreement. We are very close to being able to transfer the land over to the company and they can get started with construction. We are now getting down to the final stages and getting ready for closing. The auto makers expect to begin production by the end of 2020 or early in 2021. Toyota will manufacture Corollas while Mazda has not yet announced what vehicle it will produce at the plant. Hip-hop artist Bas is returning to the Magic City. Two months after headlining the traveling art show Arts, Beats + Lyrics at Regions Field, Bas is headed back to Birmingham for the second stop of The Milky Way Tour on Wednesday, November 7 at Zydeco. The Queens rapper released his third studio album, Milky Way, in August. The 14-track project features fellow Dreamville artists J. Cole and Ari Lennox, as well as A$AP Ferg and Lion Babe. In September, Bas told Genius that, with Milky Way, he felt like he fully stepped into his own lane. This album is about finding ground. About not poisoning your own well. About finding and tethering yourself to the love that truly fulfills you, the artist shared in an email from his team. That is the Milky Way. The only way to go. The citys hip-hop fans are in for a special treat on Wednesday. Opening up for the J. Cole protege is Birminghams own C1UB: A.M. The trio-- comprised of WhoSaine Jett, ChiStyle, and Love N Sin--released their latest album Still over the summer. They consecrated that release with a show at ArtBar in Thomas Jefferson Tower in September. This album basically describes our take on where we stand as artists in todays industry, said the collective via email. We like to use the phrase new South as a way to describe an alternate take on the nature of how we like to display our music since Still. C1UB: A.M. C1UB: A.M. has long been assertive about Southern rap as a body of innovation and its impact on the hip-hop world. In December of last year, Alabamas native sons said Southern rap was entering a new age. C1UB: A.M. performing at Make Bham for the Bham loft show The trio-- who have opened for Big K.R.I.T, Nappy Roots and Curren$y-- met Bas briefly at Art, Beats + Lyrics. After watching the New York rapper pull a fan onstage to rap with him lyric for lyric during his set at Regions Field, C1UB: A.M. says they are looking forward to being Birminghams ambassadors as they showcase the citys hip-hop scene. Bas is serious about performance based on his energy for interacting with the audience, said the collective. "Opening for Bas in our city is refreshing. The Milky Way Tour comes to Zydeco in Birmingham on Wednesday, November 7, 2018. For info on future tour dates, visit Dreamville. Tickets start at $20.00 and are available here. For more info, visit Zydeco. Theres nothing like Grandmas rolls, but chances are, if youve tasted a pan from Sister Schuberts, you imagine they come pretty close. But did you know Sister Schuberts story starts in Alabama? You might not be surprised to learn that Patricia Barnes, the namesake of Sister Schubert, started her career as a baker watching her grandmother in the kitchen, as a small child in Troy. I was happiest, she told AL.com in 2010, when I could climb up on the kitchen stool with a spoon in my hand helping make a pie, learning how to cook rice. I just loved baking and cooking. When you say you love something, its truly not a chore. I tell people all the time I do have a job, Im fortunate I can go to work but its entirely another thing to wake up in the morning and love what you do." Another gift from her family is her nickname, Sister, as she was referred to by her sibling, Charlotte, who wasnt able to pronounce Patricia when they were younger. However, in her formative years, Patricia didnt know right away that her name would be synonymous with delicious Southern-styled rolls. She actually attended the University of Alabama and Auburn, pursuing a future in interior design. After finishing school, she even took a job as a flight attendant. In 1989, stumbled into the spark that turned into an idea to make a little dough from ... well, her dough. Patricia made her grandmothers rolls for a bake sale at St. Marks Episcopal Church in Troy. I baked about 20 pans of these little rolls for a frozen food fair we had at our church during the holidays, Patricia told The Tennessean in 2015. "I had never frozen the rolls before because I thought you had to make your bread fresh that day, but it was a frozen food fair, so I said, Well, Ill try freezing some and see how they turn out. " She sold out. The next year, she had 200 pre-orders. The year following, she had 300. The overwhelming demand for her homemade bread led Patricia and her two daughters to begin making 200 pans of rolls a week. Although recently divorced, Patricia took her childhood nickname and co-opted her married name to form the monicker Sister Schuberts to plaster across the labels of her new product. Gods hand, she told AL.com, was in everything that had to do with the roll business. Patricia prayed to God often about her new venture. She has even recounted one promise she made early on: Lord, if youll help me start this roll business, Ill help you feed hungry people," she said. That day, I turned my life over to him and his will. Everything changed and started rolling and never stopped. I never slowed down from that day to this. Quickly, she moved the operation from her home to a corner of a warehouse owned by her father. In six months, her baking enterprise had grown so large, shed overtaken the entire warehouse. In year, shed grown from five employees to nearly 200. In 1992, Patricia partnered with George Barnes, a food broker. Together, they worked to build Sister Schuberts Homemade Rolls, Inc., into a national company. They would also later wed. By 1998, the company had moved into a new building with the capacity to shuffle out 1 million rolls per day. In 2000, Patricia sold her company to the T. Marzetti Company, a subsidiary of Lancaster Colony Corporation. The corporation kept her and her family in the fold to run the business. Patricia Barnes, founder of Sister Schubert's Homemade Rolls, (left) mingles with Anne Dawson (center), and Mary Margaret Phillips after speaking at Saint Luke's Epsicopal Church on in 2008. (Birmingham News file photo)bn Making good on her promise to God, Patricia and George founded Barnes Family Foundation in 2001. The non-profit donates rolls to food banks, shelters, churches and other organizations in an effort to feed those who may not know where their next meal is coming from. Aside from her eponymous business and her philanthropy, Patricia Barnes has a series of cookbooks and serves as a business leader on boards in Alabama, speaking frequently to community members with dreams of enterprising their own down-home ideas. Today, the company she started offers bagged rolls, panned rolls, gift baskets, cups, aprons and other gift items. On average, Sister Schuberts makes more than 6 million rolls per day. The office of Alabama lieutenant governor has been empty for a year and a half, and few people seemed to be too worried about it. But the voters are about to elect a new one on Nov. 6, and it could turn out to be a very important decision. The lieutenant governor has become governor three times in the past 46 years, most recently last year when Gov. Kay Ivey assumed the office. On April 10, 2017, Gov. Robert Bentley resigned amid scandal and Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey was sworn in as the new governor. Its important when theres been some kind of emergency," Ivey said earlier this year. "Anybody can have a heart attack,or have a wreck. Id say its pretty important. Its the heir apparent to becoming governor. Republican State Rep. Will Ainsworth and Democrat Will Boyd are running for the office. Ainsworth grew up in Boaz and graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor's degree in marketing. With his brother, Austin, Ainsworth opened Dream Ranch, a hunting and fishing lodge in Guntersville. He founded the Tennessee Valley Hunting and Fishing Expo, one of the largest tradeshows of its kind in the Southeast, with more than 20,000 attendees annually. Ainsworth also served as a youth pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Albertville and still teaches Sunday school. He raises registered Angus cattle and is a property developer, he said. Ainsworth said his legislative record includes working to strengthen the ethics law, eliminate double-voting, encourage adoption and promote workforce development. He has supported arming school officials as part of a security plan at public schools. "You've got to have the most qualified person at each school trained to protect the children," Ainsworth said. Ainsworth served as state chairman for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, but has since pledged his admiration for President Trump. "I always was impressed with Trump, Ainsworth said in an interview with AL.com before the primary. On the Democratic side, Will Boyd has been willing to stake out a daring stance on some issues. I support the legalization of marijuana for medical use, and we should strongly consider moving toward legalization for recreational use, Boyd said. So many people of color are behind bars for use and possession. There are plenty of others who have committed greater crimes. He also said taxation on legalized marijuana could be an important source of state revenue. We run structural deficits every year, he said. In response, Ainsworth said lenience towards marijuana has contributed to Americas drug problem. In my opinion, it is no coincidence that the current drug epidemic plaguing our country has paralleled the so-called legalization of marijuana in the more liberal states across our nation, Ainsworth said. Marijuana remains a Schedule I narcotic that is illegal under federal law, so public officials who support its open trade for recreational purposes on the state level are violating the very laws they took an oath to uphold. Boyd is presiding bishop of Zion Ministries and pastor of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Florence. He was the first black elected to the City Council in Greenville, Illinois. Boyd graduated from the University of South Carolina. Boyd was dean of student success at Greenville College and chancellor at St. James the Elder Theological Seminary. The lieutenant governor was once one of the most powerful offices in Alabama, with the privilege of presiding over the senate, appointing committee chairs and assigning bills to committees, which meant the power to essentially kill a bill. Many of its duties were stripped away after the 1998 election. An outgoing Democratic lieutenant governor who had been elected governor wanted to prevent his Republican successor from exercising the power to kill his programs. It's still important, Boyd said. Im excited about what this role will entail, Boyd said. I dont think people realize how much is involved. Youre president of the senate, you make 400 appointments to committees. I want to make diversified, qualified appointments, get some working-class people on those boards. We should have more reflective boards and committees. Alabama needs to expand Medicaid and have better medical care overall, he said. There are 125,000 women without healthcare and threats of rural hospitals closing, Boyd said. We spend twice as much on prisoners as students. A 9-year-old Autauga County girl died Sunday afternoon in an apparent accidental shooting, according to the coroner. The girl apparently shot herself with a handgun, Autauga County coroner Buster Barber said. The girls name isnt being released yet, he said. The shooting occurred north of Prattville in the Pine Level community, he said. She was flown by medical helicopter to Childrens of Alabama where she later died of her injuries. Barber said he didnt know the circumstances surrounding the shooting, or if the girls family members were home at the time of the shooting. An autopsy will be performed on Monday, he said. The Autauga County Sheriffs Office is investigating. Dunz Tran, a 30-year veteran of the Gulf Coast fishing and shrimping industry, sat quietly on the deck of his Bayou La Batre-based boat painstakingly mending the huge nets that will during Tuesdays election trawl through the deep waters off the Gulf of Mexico. He and his crew will not be voting. They have bigger fish to fry, so to speak. The white deck of Trans boat is covered in rusty pock marks, a testament to the hundreds of trips he has endured out in to the Gulf of Mexico a body of water that has made him a decent living for decades. But one that has at times also brought great frustration. And continues to do so. Throughout the last 10 years, the third coast, as locals call it, the shrimping industry in particular has experienced a large amount of turmoil, according to Tran and his colleagues on other boats. The lingering trouble of the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 quickly followed by the BP oil spill in May 2010 left many concerned about how they would be able to go on. While shrimpers in Bayou La Batre claim that the environmental impact of the biggest ever oil spill in U.S. history continues today because of dead zones in the Gulf, their most prominent issues come in the shape of increased fuel prices and knowing that their livelihoods are being put at threat from cheaper seafood imported from overseas. Every year we have to decide if its worth continuing, said Walter Maroney, a 34-year-old African-American deck hand working on Trans boat and the captains on-off official translator. We go further out than we used to to find a catch, thats more fuel, then we come home and the market is so full up with seafood from other places. That drives shrimp prices down, said Maroney. Today Ive been talking to shrimping boat captains in Bayou La Batre about what the midterm elections mean to them. This highly diverse regions shrimping industry is dominated by south-east Asians that came to the United States after the Vietnam war. pic.twitter.com/HO1NzwdTQA Christopher Harress (@Charress) October 29, 2018 Of all seafood consumed in the United States, 90 percent comes from overseas, according to 2016 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stats. That represents the highest in U.S. history. A large amount of that 90 percent is still caught by U.S. fisherman, but is sent overseas to be processed then brought back in. Canada, China and Chile are the biggest exporters of seafood to the United States, according to NOAA. Less than 500 meters away at the small town hall in Bayou La Batre, U.S. House Representative Bradley Byrne answered questions from his constituents ahead of the Nov. 6 election. While the conversation was dominated by national issues, especially immigration, the representative from the 1st District, which covers the entirety of Alabamas Gulf Coast, said that he too had major concerns over imported seafood and its effect on the local economy. I work a lot with the seafood community and my biggest concern is that we have seafood coming from outside the United States that I dont think is appropriately regulated by the federal government and it comes in ways that I think unfairly competes with American seafood and undermines our fisherman, U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne told AL.com at the town hall. I worry about the health and safety of people that eat it. We dont know if its healthy food or not, whereas the people in this country who catch seafood, they have to go through checks and safety policies. And I want to make sure we subject all seafood in America to the same standard whether its caught locally or overseas. Also sat in the room was Robert Kennedy Jr., Byrnes rival for the seat. We know that the most important thing in this community is to have economic stability for their families, and because the seafood industry is one of the driving industries here its absolutely something we have to protect, he said. Democratic U.S. House candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. talking to a Republican voter at the end of his rival Bradley Byrnes Bayou La Batre Town Hall. You dont often see this kind of campaigning. He and Rep. Byrne have a very good relationship from what I can tell. #Midterms2018 pic.twitter.com/Zba5hRRubC Christopher Harress (@Charress) October 29, 2018 The shrimping industry in Bayou La Batre is unlike many across the Gulf Coast. According to Tran, 70 percent of boats in the small town are primarily owned by south east Asian families, first coming to the region in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. Migration by persecuted sections of the population continued until the early 1990s. Boat people, as they are known in Vietnam, were at one point a well-established community in the south part of their home country, but the Indochina refugee crisis that started at the end of the war and last nearly 20 years saw approximately 800,000 boat people dispersed throughout the world. Its unclear how many claimed asylum in the United States. Smaller groups of Cambodian and Laotian also live in the Gulf Coast region. Shrimp boats undergoing maintenance at a dock in Bayou La Batre. Struggling for survival The BP oil spill, which dumped 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf during what was already a trying time for a country that was dealing with the aftermath of the economic crisis, is still a touchy subject for most boat captains in Bayou la Batre. Dung Huynh, captain of the Eric Huynh shrimping boat, a Vietnamese man who has been living in the United States since about 1982, said that before the oil spill shrimp was easy to find. Finding shrimp used to be easy, now very hard. Very hard, he said. Prices are low. The National Resources Defense Council, a New York-based pro-environment group calculated in 2016 that the overall loss to the Gulf Coast economy because of the oil spill could reach $8.7 billion by 2020 with the loss of 22,000 jobs. To help offset those losses, BP paid out $6.2 billion to more than 220,000 individuals and businesses, adding to the tens of billions of dollars in fines and other payments. Tran said that his payment, which he was able to apply for online and in Vietnamese, got him through the toughest times but had not made up for the total losses in revenue hed experienced over the last eight years. Shrimp boat captain Dang Huynh sits on the edge of his boat in Bayou La Batre. The dead zones because of pollution mean we are always searching for new places to find shrimp, said Maroney. That takes time and more fuel. And there are some types of shrimp that we dont find anymore. The white tail is much harder to find. Dead zones, also known as maritime areas with low oxygen, have become an increasing issue for shrimpers in recent years. Heavy spring rains in the Midwest see nitrates from fertilizer and other industrial runoff seep into the Mississippi river, which empties out into the Gulf Coast. That pollutant then sinks and damages life at the bottom of the Gulf Coast. The amount of nitrates in U.S. coastal marine areas, waterways and lakes is set to increase by about 20 percent in the next 80 years, according to a 2017 Yale University study. The dead zone is currently about the size of New Jersey but can fluctuate in size, according to environmental groups, and generally stretches from the mouth of the Mississippi west toward Texas. But thats expected to grow. A 2017 Duke University study on the effects of the dead zone showed that the price of small shrimp decreased and the price of large shrimp, which is harder to come by now, according Huynh, had increased. That has led to additional economic issues for shrimping on the Gulf Coast. Fuel prices continue to fluctuate, but according to the U.S. Energy Administration, the cost of maritime fuel has increased substantially since hitting a decade low of $1.998 a gallon in February 2016. Today the cost has soared to $3.335 per gallon, owing to the stabilization of oil prices on the international market. But there has been some good news. In September this year, Gulf Coast shrimp landings totaled 10.3 million pounds, up three million pounds from a year earlier, according to official NOAA stats. However, more than eight years after the oil spill, that size catch is still about 20 percent lower than the 16-year average of 13.1 million pounds per month. Shrimp landings in Alabama for 2018 are the highest they have been since 2002, with 11.8 million pounds recorded by the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA). According to the SSA boat owners received on average $9.42 per pound for large shrimp. Although some owners say that this figure does not represent the reality on the ground. Kevin Ngo, whose father owns the Little Dragon 2 shrimp boat, said that his family and others were being squeezed by middle men who were in turn being pushed hard on price by supermarkets. We get anything from $1-3 per pound of shrimp depending on size, then middle men will get $5-7 per pound. Thats all decided by big stores. Tran, who has only voted once in his life, said that he has mixed feelings about how politics will help him continue to catch shrimp in a place that has for more than three decades provided his family an income. Im not sure what can be done to stop pollution or lower fuel prices. I hope they can do something that will make life easier for us, he said through Maroney. Well fix our nets and hope for the best. Several north Alabama schools have announced delays and closings ahead of predicted severe weather beginning tonight and lasting into early Tuesday morning. There is an enhanced risk of severe weather for northwest Alabama. Storms are expected to develop ahead of and along a cold front and reach Alabamas western border as soon as 9 p.m. Polling places located at schools will open at 7 a.m., even if the school will not be open for students until later, said Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill. The following schools will be delayed or closed Tuesday, Nov. 6: Cherokee County Cherokee County Schools - Delayed until 9:45 a.m. Cullman County Cullman City Schools - delayed until 9:45 a.m. Cullman County Schools - delayed until 10 a.m. DeKalb County DeKalb County Schools - delayed until 10 a.m. Etowah County Gadsden City Schools - delayed two hours Attalla City Schools - delayed two hours Etowah County Schools - delayed two hours Fayette County Fayette County Schools - delayed two hours Jackson County Jackson County Schools - delayed two hours Fort Payne City Schools - delayed two hours Scottsboro High School - delayed two hours Jefferson County Jefferson County Schools - delayed two hours; all teachers, local school personnel, and central office personnel should report at 9:00 a.m. Maintenance and transportation employees will report at normal time, and breakfast will not be served. Fairfield City Schools - delayed two hours Leeds City Schools - delayed two hours Birmingham City Schools - delayed two hours; buses will run two hours later than normal. School employees will report to school two hours later than normal. Bessemer City Schools - delayed two hours Midfield City Schools - delayed two hours. Faculty and staff should report to work by 9:00 a.m. Students are to report to school by 10:00 a.m. Bus routes will begin at 9 a.m. Tarrant City Schools - delayed two hours Trussville City Schools - delayed two hours; buses will run on a two hour delay. Holy Family Cristo Rey- delayed two hours; classes will begin at 10:00 a.m. Lauderdale County University of North Alabama - Collier Library will close at 8 p.m. Monday. Limestone County Athens City Schools - delayed two hours; buses will run on a two-hour delay. Limestone County Schools - delayed two hours Calhoun Community College - all campuses delayed until 9:30 a.m Madison County Huntsville City Schools - delayed two hours; all elementary, middle, P-8, and junior high classes will begin at 10:00 a.m. All high school classes will begin at 10:30 a.m. Buses will run on a two-hour delayed schedule. Madison County Schools - delayed two hours Madison City Schools - delayed two hours Westminster Christian Academy - delayed two hours Oakwood Adventist Academy - delayed two hours Marshall County Marshall County Schools - delayed three hours; buses will also run on a three-hour delay. Breakfast will still be served. Boaz City Schools - delayed two hours Guntersville City Schools - closed Tuesday Albertville City Schools - delayed two hours Morgan County Morgan County Schools - delayed two hours; buses will run two hours later than normal. Pickens County Pickens County Schools - delayed two hours Shelby County Indian Springs School - delayed two hours; buses will run an hour and a half behind normal schedule. St. Clair County St. Clair County Schools - delayed two hours Pell City Schools - delayed two hours Tuscaloosa County Tuscaloosa City Schools - delayed two hours; bus pickup times, school start times, and employee reporting times run two hours later than normal. Tuscaloosa County Schools - delayed two hours Walker County Jasper City Schools- delayed two hours Sumiton Christian School - delayed two hours Walker County Schools- delayed two hours Polling locations within BCS facilities will not be affected by the two-hour delay the district is implementing for students and employees on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. All BCS sites serving as polling locations will continue to be open for voters beginning at 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Birmingham City Schools (@BhamCitySchools) November 6, 2018 Other school closings and updates are available at the Alabama State Department of Education website. If your school is delayed or closed and not mentioned in this article, send the information to abeahm@al.com. This story will be updated as more information becomes available. Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson is under fire for mocking the appearance of a Texas Congressional candidate who lost his eye while serving in Afghanistan. Offering his impression of gross candidates during a segment of the satirical news program Weekend Update, Davidson mentioned Dan Crenshaw, a Republican candidate for the second Congressional seat in Texas. "This guy is kind of cool, Dan Crenshaw," Davidson said as a photo of Crenshaw, who wears an eye patch, was shown behind him. "You may be surprised to hear he's a congressional candidate for Texas and not a hit-man in a porno movie," Davidson continued. "I'm sorry. I know he lost his eye in war or whatever. A former Navy SEAL, Crenshaw lost his right eye after being wounded by an improvised explosive device in the Helmand province in 2012. He went on to serve two more tours of duty before medically retiring from the service. Crenshaw received two Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart and the Navy Commendation Medal. The comments drew quick criticism. Getting dumped by your pop star girlfriend is no excuse for lashing out at a decorated war hero who lost his eye serving our country," said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Jack Pandol, referencing Davidsons high-profile breakup with pop star Ariana Grande. "Pete Davidson and NBC should immediately apologize to Dan, and to the millions of veterans and military families who tune in every weekend because theyre not laughing, Crenshaw also responded. President Donald Trump has approved a major disaster declaration for parts of Alabama impacted by Hurricane Michael last month, ordering federal assistance to supplement state and local recovery efforts. Federal funding is available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by Hurricane Michael in the counties of Geneva, Henry, Houston, and Mobile, the document states. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will coordinate recovery efforts in the area. Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Oct. 10, and traveled through southeast Alabama, causing significant damage to buildings, crops and infrastructure in the Dothan area and surrounding counties. Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the State and warranted by the results of further damage assessments, said the news release from the White House. That could potentially include a declaration of an agriculture disaster from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System estimates that the state suffered $307 million in economic losses to its agriculture operations, primarily cotton farms, tree farms and livestock operations, but that an agriculture disaster declaration is needed before Alabama farmers can get federal assistance. President Donald Trump concluded his three-day tour of Southern states with contentious midterm races at a standing-room-only rally Sunday night in Chattanooga, Tenn. His remarks during the rally, which followed appearances in Huntington, W. Va., on Friday, Pensacola, Fla., on Saturday, and Macon, Ga., Sunday afternoon, mostly followed the recent rubric of his speeches and did not make any major news. But that did not stop his words from energizing the thousands of supporters who filled the University of Tennessee at Chattanoogas McKenzie Arena to the rafters Sunday night. There is an electricity in the air, the likes of which I and you havent seen since the 2016 election. You dont hear so much about that great blue wave anymore, Trump told the crowd moments after he took the stage as musician and Tennessee resident Lee Greenwood gave a rousing live rendition of his patriotic anthem, God Bless the USA. The term blue wave has been used as political shorthand for Democrats goal of dominating this years midterm elections and winning majorities or at least increasing their representation in both houses of congress. Supporters of President Donald Trump cheer him on during a Nov. 4, 2018, rally in Chattanooga. Chattanooga was the latest stop on Trumps grueling last-minute cross-country push to ensure Republicans turn out to the polls in droves Tuesday to vote for the partys nominees in congressional races from Montana to Indiana. Following the blueprint of his other recent speeches, Trump largely focused Sunday night on red-meat issues near and dear to his right-wing base, such as immigration and tax cuts. Turn back now because youre not getting in, Trump said in regards to the caravan of thousands of migrants currently en route from Honduras to the U.S. border with Mexico, garnering raucous applause from attendees. He later floated an unsubstantiated claim that if Democrats gain control of the Congress, they will double or even triple your taxes. And Trump dedicated several minutes to heralding the national jobs report released Thursday, which showed that the U.S. added 250,000 jobs in October and that the nations unemployment rate stood at 3.7 percent. Hundreds of people wait in line to get into President Donald Trump's Nov. 4, 2018, rally at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's McKenzie Arena. He offered a variation of what has recently become one of his campaign-trail refrains: The contrast in this election could not be more clear: Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs. Vice President Mike Pence preceded Trump on the stage at the McKenzie Arena, during which he offered a ringing endorsement of Tennessees GOP U.S. Senate nominee, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn. Im here for one reason and one reason only: Tennessee and America need Marsha Blackburn in the United States Senate, Pence told the crowd. Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a Nov. 4, 2018, rally in Chattanooga. Trump would also go on to express strong support for Blackburn, who made her own brief speech while standing next to the president. Familiar chants boomed through the indoor arena during Pence, Trump and Blackburns speeches, including Lock Her Up in reference to Hillary Clinton, and Build The Wall, a reference to Trumps campaign pledge that he would preside over the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. This is an opinion column. Its not enough. I dont remember anyone telling me to vote. I just knew. I was 18 years old and I knew to register to as quickly as Id gotten my drivers license after turning 16 just two years before. Which was about a nanosecond. A decade before, I had been too young, just eight years old, to know in real time about those soldiers, now-United States Congressman John Lewis among them, who risked their lives in March 1965 by crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma en route to Montgomery to protest racist practices preventing African-Americans from exercising their right under the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I was too young to see the footage of them being tear-gassed and beaten by Alabama State troopers before even reaching the foot of the bridge. Too young to know some were even killed. Too young to know about the jelly-bean count and ludicrous so-called literacy tests blacks in the South were subjected to as blockades to enfranchisement, tests ranging from being asked to recite the U.S. Constitution to answering brain-twisters like: Circle the first, first letter of the alphabet in this line. Too young to even know, later, that the U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress each voted overwhelmingly77-19 in the Senate and 333-85 in the House of Representative; oh, for such bi-partisanship todayto pass a voting rights bill barring egregious disenfranchisement practices. And certainly, too young to know it was signed into law that same year by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson. I was too young to know of these 1965 events, but nearly a decade later, I knew I had voted. No one had to tell me why. No one had to tell me people died for me to have that unencumbered right. But its not enough. Not today. Not enough to persuade a generation too far removed from those eventstoo distant to know they should vote simply because so many marched and fought and sacrificed for them to be able to do soto venture to the polls on Tuesday. Especially in what some may consider a ho-hum mid-term election void of candidates for President or City Council representation. I dont really blame them. I dont blame them because we still dont teach our complete history. Our curriculumsand this is no knock on our most wonderful and committed teachers, who strive every day, often in environments unfathomably stacked against them, to teach it allsimply do not teach history to the depths it should be taught. Knowing where weve beenall of it, every nuanced layer of it, not a scrubbed and sanitized versioninforms us about how we got here. And just may give us insight into how to get past this frightening, divisive place. With our sanity. Yet how could a generation of new potential voters know when their own parents may not know either? Its not enough to tell them of the battles and the sacrifice. They need more. They deserve more. They deserve to know voting today is about even more than those whose pain and blood some of us honor. So much more is at stake. Voting today is about power. Its about influence. Its about snatching a seat at the table when some are still trying to pull that seat from beneath you. Yesterdays literacy tests have been supplanted by all manner of disenfranchisement trickeration: Georgia Secretary of State (and desperate gubernatorial candidate) Brian Kemps exact match scheme, which a U.S. District Judge struck down last week, citing grave concerns grave concerns for the Court about the differential treatment inflicted on a group of individuals who are predominantly minorities"; early-voting restrictions at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, where students were only allowed to vote for three days compared with the three weeks students were allowed to vote at Texas A&M not far away; and even in North Dakota, where strict laws requiring voters to show proof of residential address adversely impact the states plethora of Native Americans, who live in reservations and typically receive their mail in P.O. boxes. Even if voter suppression tactics may not be being deployed in your areasuppression anywhere is suppression everywhere. So, its not enough. Its not enough to simply try to persuade young potential voters to vote because someone died for them to be able to do so. They must know voting it just the first stepthe cover charge, as it were, to gain a voice in a process that engulfs and affects us all. Last week, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill took out his crystal ball and predicted no more than four in 10 of Alabamas 1.98 million registered voters would go to the polls on Tuesday, November 6, for maybe the most crucial statewide elections in generations. That 40 percent turnout would barely eke out the 39.8 percent who voted in 2014, the first time in nearly three decades turnout in a non-presidential election slid below 50 percent. I hope and pray hes wrongthat his prediction is way-laid by a generation of voters now woke to the need for them to show up at the polls but to also canvass, phone-bank and participate in all the ground-game tactics needed to win elections. Several years ago, the real-talk, long-time (and now retired) Republican Senator Alan Simpson told me he was tired of people who had not voted complaining (not the word he used, but well just roll with it) to him about various issues. He said voters should be given a complain card (again, not the word he used) allowing them to unabashedly voice their grievances. Otherwise, he didnt want to hear from them. If you want to have a say about your neighborhood, your schools, your city, your state, your national leadershipanything that affects your lifevote. If you want anyone to listen, vote. If you want anyone to care, vote. Not just because the U.S. Constitution says so can. Not just because of the sacrifices made so you can. Because you want change. Voting is just the start of being the change you want to see. Thats all you need to know. 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/ Birmingham-based Encompass Health will help fund scholarships for nursing and occupational therapy students in Tuskegee Universitys School of Nursing and Allied Health. According to the university, the company has contributed $250,000. Its Encompass Healths first partnership with a historically black college or university (HBCU). Thank you for supporting Mother Tuskegee and our students, Dean Constance Hendricks said when welcoming Encompass Health and university representatives to an event on Thursday, Oct. 25 announcing the gift. This is a worthwhile investment that will yield much to the improvement of healthcare to your clients and globally to the world that we touch. Mary Ellen Hatch, Encompass Healths vice president of nursing operations, concurred on the new partnerships potential. While today may be our first opportunity to meet many of you in person, its certainly not the last time for us to work together, Hatch said, noting her hope to expand clinical rotation opportunities for Tuskegee students and other partnerships between the school and company. Charlotte P. Morris, who represented President Lily D. McNair as the universitys senior executive management advisor, indicated that the ongoing partnership will present many advantages. President McNair has adopted the theme of excellence in every way for the first year of her presidency, Morris said. Our desire to provide a supportive, student-centered environment coincides nicely with Encompass Healths focus on setting quality standards and doing whats right for its patients and the communities it serves. The new partnership offers benefits for both the university and Encompass Health a Fortune 1000 company with a national footprint that spans 130 hospitals, and 273 home health and hospice locations, in 36 states and Puerto Rico. We look at the vein system we have across the country and we think about the rich history that Tuskegee has and a relationship just made sense for us, said Bryan Rogers, Encompass Healths director of employee relations and diversity. Our relationship will be forming for years into the future simply because Tuskegee asked us to partner with them. Yolanda Turner, Encompass Healths manager of inclusion and diversity, noted that one of the pillars of the companys inclusion efforts centers on community partnerships. The more we can engage with our communities, the more we can be reflective of the communities we serve, Turner said. The more we can partner with minority universities, the more their students will consider Encompass Health as a place where they will begin and continue their careers. According to Tuskegee, a portion of Encompass Healths gift commitment will benefit the universitys endowment, ensuring these scholarships are awarded into perpetuity. In that sense, the endowed portion will be invested, with only the annual return (interest) distributed as a scholarship award. These new scholarships will be administered by the School of Nursing and Allied Health. How to apply for the scholarships hasnt been announced yet. The Alabama secretary of states office instructed Jefferson County election officials to rename Local Amendment 1 a measure that gives Homewood the option to raise property taxes as Local Amendment 2 in Homewood so officials can track the amendments performance in Homewood and the rest of the county, according to the countys election coordinator. Homewood residents were under the belief that the local amendment to release the city from the state lid would be identified on their ballots as Local Amendment 1. There is even a publicity campaign to drum up support for the amendment known as YOLO!, or Yes on Local Amendment One. We were contacted by the secretary of states office and instructed to program our ballots in a manner where the City of Homewood vote totals could be differentiated from the rest of Jefferson County totals on the local amendment, therefore it is not a mistake, Alexandria Stephens, election coordinator at the Jefferson County Probate Judges office, told AL.com. Lifting the property tax cap on Homewood requires a constitutional amendment on the ballot for all of Jefferson County even though the measure only applies to Homewood. A 37-year-old southwest Birmingham man has been indicted in the brutal slaying of another man who was shot and then set on fire to destroy evidence. A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Rajuar Akeil Key, 37, on Oct. 19, according to court records made public Monday. He is charged with intentional murder in the February killing of 29-year-old Monty Lewayne Davis. Davis's body was discovered about 11:15 pm on Saturday, Feb. 24, when deputies responded to a report of a brush fire off the side of the road in the 300 block of Mulga Loop Road near the Minor Community. Once the fire was extinguished, deputies discovered the remains. Days before the discovery, family members had posted on Facebook that Davis was missing, and that his mom and sister were worried sick. His sister said she last spoke with Davis several days earlier when he told her he would be home by 11 p.m. because he had to go to work. They tried to call him, but said his phone, starting the following morning, went straight to voicemail. Chief Deputy Randy Christian said evidence indicated Davis had been shot elsewhere and then dumped off the side of Mulga Loop Road. Sheriff's detectives immediately began investigating the murder. They followed up leads from anonymous tips and family members to determine who had last seen Davis alive. With information from the initial investigation and investigative support from the Metro Area Crime Center, detectives developed Key as the suspect in the murder. Christian said detectives learned that, on the night he was killed, Davis went to Key's residence on Eufaula Avenue. While he was there, Key accused him of stealing marijuana from him and owing him money. The two men began arguing and then fighting. Key pulled out a pistol and shot Davis. Key then took the body to Mulga Loop Road and set it on fire to destroy evidence and to prevent or prolong the identification process, said Christian. At a preliminary hearing, a witness said Key pulled a gun and told Davis, "You don't think I'll kill you," before shooting Davis in the head. A woman who was with the witness said she also saw the argument and tried to get Davis to leave the house to diffuse the situation. She told Key she would repay the cost of the stolen drugs. As they were trying to leave with Davis, the woman said that's when Key shot Davis in the head. Key surrendered to authorities in August. He was released from the Jefferson County Jail on $100,000 bond on Sept. 5. A trial date has not yet been set. A new waterfront dining experience is coming to the unique setting of the GulfQuest museum, if a new initiative from Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson bears fruit. How big an "if" that is remains to be seen, given that city funding of GulfQuest currently is the subject of dispute. However, Stimpson's administration has put its restaurant project on a fast track: Proposals from interested restaurateurs are due by Dec. 4, with the expectation that a contract will be awarded in early 2019 and a new restaurant opening in the city-owned building next spring. Stimpson's office made its first public mention of the possibility in a release issued Sunday. According to that release, the city recently put out a Request for Proposals and set a "pre-proposal" meeting Monday at the GulfQuest National Maritime Museum of the Gulf Coast. According to the release, "The seafood restaurant will feature a container bar on the riverfront to showcase Mobile's history as the birthplace of container shipping. This venture will complement the museum, Cooper Riverside Park and the nearby Convention Center establishing the waterfront as a destination for visitors, downtown residents and workers and convention and conference attendees." Speaking at an unrelated appearance Monday morning, Stimpson said a restaurant would join other improvements to create a new sense of accessibility and energy on the waterfront. Those include an ongoing project to make Water Street more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly, and the recent addition of a floating dock at Cooper Riverside Park, which is being used for boat tours. Stimpson said he hoped the project would "open the door for some of the creativity" of local restaurateurs. But he said the city wasn't limiting it to local input. "I don't think we've ruled out anybody," he said. Stimpson firmly declined to address the impasse over GulfQuest funding. When the Mobile City Council passed a budget in late September, it cut about half a million dollars that Stimpson had allocated for museum staff payroll, using the money to negate a cut Stimpson had proposed for the Mobile Public Library. Some council members chafed at the funding, saying the city was never supposed to bear the cost of GulfQuest staffing; Stimpson has argued that it's essential to support the museum until it can become self-sustaining, in part to meet obligations related to federal grants that funded GulfQuest construction. Some council members have said they're willing to work with the mayor if the administration proposes a budget amendment saying where the money will come from. Administration officials have said the council should move first, since it took the funding away. Thus far, no compromise has emerged. Stimpson's decision to take proposals for a new restaurant inside GulfQuest could indicate that a funding compromise is in the works, or at least that there's some optimism one will come. Otherwise, the city would be asking restaurateurs to set up shop in a building with an uncertain short-term future. But on Monday morning, Stimpson remained mostly mum on the subject. "It's complicated. But we'll have something to say about it later," he said. A diagram provided by the city of Mobile shows how a destination restaurant at GulfQuest would fit into other waterfront and downtown attractions. GulfQuest does have kitchen facilities. Its in-house restaurant received favorable reviews, but was hampered by the museums shortfall in projected attendance during its first year of operation. At the Monday afternoon meeting for potential restaurant operators, GulfQuest Executive Director Brent Beall said that it continued to operate but did relatively little business. A handful of interested operators attended the meeting and toured the facility, asking about topics such as the rent the city expected to receive. In addition to Beall, those representing the city included Finance Director Paul Wesch, Chief Procurement Officer Don Rose and David Clark, the president and CEO of Visit Mobile. The general sense of the discussion was that the city is willing to consider any serious proposal thats presented to it, if it will help bring some traffic to GulfQuest and add some vitality to the waterfront. City officials suggested the financial terms are flexible and the process of nailing them down likely would involve some back-and-forth. This RFP process is not about compensation to the city or GulfQuest, said Wesch. The priority is finding a strong business plan, he said, and Were not shopping for the highest rent. The whole vision is that is going to grow," said Rose. Were charting new territory. Its a shared risk, but we think we have some amazing vendors in town that could do some amazing things down here. We just need ideas on the table. Beall said that the current restaurant, called The Galley, had done a very modest amount of business. But it had been designed mainly to serve museum patrons, he said, not necessarily to be a destination in its own right. It is imperative that whoever takes this over understands that they have to do some very serious marketing, Beall said, and that their brand or their idea is what helps bring people to The Galley, and then maybe those people are going to come in and see the museum as well. But the number of people who eat at The Galley because they came to the museum is not a particularly high number. Clark said that developing Mobiles waterfront as a destination was a core priority for Visit Mobile, so the agency would be eager to support any new restaurant development at GulfQuest. A vibrant waterfront, everyone wins in this city, said Clark. Thats really the vision here. Note: This story was updated to include material from a Monday afternoon meeting between city officials and restaurant operators. As soon as kids tall and small arrive at the doors of the Dumas Wesley Community Center each weekday afternoon, there's a question that they must answer. "They have to tell me what they did at school today," says Anita Marshall, the director of Dumas Wesley's After School Achievement Program. "And they can't say 'lunch.' Everybody eats lunch." And so she finds out what the kids are interested in, or struggling with, helping engage them intellectually and develop the sort of trust that comes from respect. Slaughter makes clear that they won't be babied, and that she's no baby-sitter. The kids have to sign in each day, and they know that they must follow the rules. After all, their enrollment can be revoked, often just for a few days, if their behavior becomes an issue. The program is open to students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and Marshall sees as many as 50 in an afternoon. Most, if not all, are from Mobile's Crichton community, which surrounds Dumas Wesley. The center, founded by the United Methodist Women, is celebrating its 115th anniversary this year and the after-school program has existed for 40 years of that. 'Get in their circle' By the very nature of her work, Marshall has a good read on the pulse of Crichton, which she said is full of households led by young mothers. For those moms, Slaughter and co-director Brooklyn Moseley provide stop-gap guidance and encouragement during the critical hours between the end of the school day and the end of the work day. "My whole objective is to get in their circle," Marshall says of the kids who come to Dumas Wesley. "I want you to know, if you have problems at home and you think there's nobody else you can talk to, you can talk to me and I'm not going to judge you. "I'm not going to say anything bad or negative, but we're going to talk about it and try to find a solution to make you feel more comfortable, or make you feel better about yourself." For Marshall, success comes when youngsters arrive with a smile and tell her about how they passed a test, or practiced their band instruments. Or how they turned a bad day into a positive by using the advice she gave them weeks earlier. Success is also ensuring that they'd fed. "Monday through Friday, we give them a hot meal," Marshall says. "And I feel like I've done something when my kids come in and say, 'Miss Anita, I'm so glad that I ate here yesterday 'cause when I went home, Mom didn't have anything to feed me.'" The investment that the Dumas Wesley team makes in these young lives could serve to break the cycle of poverty, and even crime, that so often afflicts Crichton families, Slaughter says. "Crichton could really blossom and grow, because they want more. They really do," she says. "I feel like they want it, and they're willing to work for it, but they don't know the right avenues to take to get there." 'Integrity and character' Several partners pitch in with Dumas Wesley to help the kids. Feeding the Gulf Coast facilities the meals. Junior League of Mobile members come on Wednesdays for arts and crafts and team-building exercises. The center has a computer room that's open Monday through Friday, and every day students from area colleges come to offer tutoring to anyone who needs it. Marshall has hopes of finding grants to expand the center's technology offerings into the realm of virtual reality and more. VR has practical applications for job training in skills such as welding, she says, but is also a useful tool to spark the imagination. "If you want to be a doctor, it puts you in a hospital setting where it looks like you're a surgeon," Marshall says. "It completely opens up your world." On Mondays, officers from the Mobile Police Department stop by for the You Have a Choice Program, introducing themselves and talking in practical ways about the value of good decisions. "They came and gave us a good perspective, and let us know that we don't have to be scared of them," says 17-year-old Kamerin Hatcher, a student at Murphy High who's been a part of Dumas Wesley after-school activities since he was 10. A few bad decisions on Hatcher's part in recent years landed him on probation. But he didn't lose his spot at Dumas Wesley: His grandfather came to the center with him every day so he could stay enrolled. Says Marshall, "That made me feel good that of all the places you want him to go, you want him to be able to come here." After all, in hard-luck neighborhoods like Crichton, second chances can be life-lines for young lives. Says Dumas Wesley Executive Director Kate Carver, "I think there's a preconception that these kids and these families are in this position because of bad choices and culture, but I have seen a lot of integrity and character in the people that we serve. I'm inspired by so many of them." Such inspiration isn't lost on the kids, either. Hatcher smiles when he talks about being a middle-schooler years ago, looking up to the older boys. And now he's the one being looked up to, even while still being looked out for. "They're great people with a good heart," he says of the Dumas Wesley staff. "And it makes you feel like you have a good heart, too." A southeast Alabama father has pleaded guilty to the 2017 blunt force trauma death of his infant son whose head was slammed onto stairs at their Ozark apartment. Jaylin Jamal Toles, 21, entered the guilty plea on Nov. 1. The Ozark father was arrested in February 2017 on a capital murder charge in the death of the 2-month-old Jaylin Jamal Toles Jr. Dale County sheriffs deputies and Ozark police responded about 1:40 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2017 to an Ozark apartment to a report of an unresponsive infant. They were told CPR was in progress. The baby was taken to Dale Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Doctors quickly determined the boy had blood in his ear canal, which was indicative to trauma, hemorrhaging in his throat and signs of trauma to the back of his head. The baby was left in his fathers care as the mother had left with a friend several hours earlier. Toles, then 19, initially told investigators the baby fell off the bed. Later, according to Toles arrest report, the father confessed to violently hitting the infants head on the surface of the stairs to the apartment. He said he did so because the baby wouldnt stop crying. According to the Associated Press, Toles then placed the child in a rocker. Toles pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of murder. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He also pleaded guilty destruction of state property for ripping open a jail mattress. He got three years in prison for that felony conviction. A Henry County reserve deputy was arrested Monday on allegations he provided false information so that he could register to vote. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced the arrest of Wylie Aaron Mathis. Mathis lives in Houston County but is a sheriffs reserve deputy in Henry County. A warrant was issued by the Attorney Generals Office following a complaint that Mathis provided a false address to register to vote in Henry County. The crime is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by not more than one year in jail. Mathis surrendered on Nov. 2 at the Henry County Sheriffs Office and was released. Henry County sheriffs officials said they are not releasing any additional information about the reserve deputys arrest. Efforts to obtain his mugshot werent immediately successful. Whenever someone cheats in order to participate in an election they are not entitled to vote in, the important civil rights of all citizens are diminished. The laws of Alabama that protect the integrity of our elections are important to everyone, Marshall said. Those who violate our election laws and undermine the sanctity of our electoral process can expect to be vigorously prosecuted by my office. For almost two decades, a conservative all-mens pact has waited to have its political revenge on Angela Merkel. On October 29, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she was stepping down as leader of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) after 18 years in that post. She also declared that she would not run for office after her term expires in 2021; if she completes it, she would be the second-longest-serving chancellors in recent German history after Helmut Kohl. As the first woman chancellor of Germany and CDU chairperson, she has invariably changed the face of German politics and especially the centre-right. Throughout her years in power, her political success and perseverance have surprised many, especially those who helped her assume the CDUs leadership back in the late 1990s. At that time the party was facing a massive scandal after revelations that it had accepted donations from arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber, which led to the downfall of both former Chancellor Helmut Kohl and party leader Wolfgang Schauble. In the power vacuum and image crisis that followed, Merkel was seen as an ideal placeholder, who would step in and clean up the mess of party strongmen like Kohl, Schauble and former CDU treasurer Walther Leisler-Kiep, before they returned to take back the reins. It was a classic case of glass cliff: a woman being given a leadership role during a time of crisis, when the chance of failure is the highest. But once Merkel got her hands on power, she strategically maintained her grip on it for almost two decades. Now, after her decision to step down as party leader and eventually chancellor, the old boys club of the CDU are coming back with a vengeance, eager to undo her political legacy. The Andenpakt Lying in wait for Merkel to quit all these years was the so-called Andenpakt (Andes pact), an informal interest group within the CDU comprised of white conservative men. The pact was created by a dozen CDU youth who had gone on an official visit to South America in 1979. On their flight from Caracas to Santiago de Chile (which flew over the Andes and gave the informal name of the group), they vowed to seek power together and help each other along the way. Most of these men have similar socioeconomic backgrounds, were all born in West Germany, and are mostly Catholic. Their pact was quite successful and over the years many of them climbed the career ladder and landed powerful political positions, both on state and federal level. Roland Koch, a staunch liberal-conservative with a pro-business agenda, became minister-president of Hesse, the financial powerhouse of Germany. Christian Wulff, more liberal in his agenda when it comes to social policy, but just as pro-business as Koch, was elected minister-president of Lower Saxony, the home state of Volkswagen. Friedrich Merz, who is now hoping to succeed Merkel, became chairman of the CDU parliamentary group, succeeding his mentor, Schauble. In the late 1990s, the Andes pact was ready for the final step, to conquer the political heights in Germany the CDU leadership and form the next government. But it was just then that the donations scandal hit and spoiled their plans. The rise of Helmut Kohls little girl As the party reverted to damage control, Kohl and Schauble decided to push forward a fresh face. The shy East-German-born, liberal Protestant Angela Merkel emerged as the general secretary of the party. She had previously held offices that none of the ambitious Andenpakt members took seriously, such as minister for women and youth and minister of the environment in Kohls government, so none of them perceived her as a threat. She was seen as the ideal, scandal-free face for the position of party leader who would head the CDU while it recovered from the scandal and while the Social Democrats were in power any way. No one imagined that she would hold onto the position for 18 years and rule as chancellor for 13 of them. In fact, one of the advantages that Merkel had during her early political career was the fact that she was constantly underestimated by the men around her, including experienced politicians like Schauble and even Kohl, who used to refer to her as Mein Madchen (my girl). Not seeing Merkel as a serious competitor, the CDU leadership nominated the Bavarian minister-president Edmund Stoiber to run for Chancellor in the 2002 elections over her. This was highly unusual, as it was customary for the party leader to also run for Chancellor. It was not as if Merkel did not want to run herself, but back then she still did not have the necessary political backing, partly due to the dominance of the Andenpakt. Stoiber ended up losing the election, which ultimately paved the way for Merkels rise to power. Showing remarkable Machiavellian talent, she managed to outmanoeuvre most of her main opponents within the party. She not only sidelined Stoiber but also beat Merz to the position of leader of the opposition in the Bundestag. Thus, Merkel came out of the 2002 election with two of the most powerful posts in the CDU. In 2005, she finally got her chance to lead her party in elections. After a modest success, she struck a coalition deal with the Social Democrats, becoming Germanys first female chancellor. In the subsequent years, Merkel continued to consolidate power within the CDU and many more Andenpakt members fell victims to her political schemes. Roland Koch, for example, fought many internal party battles with her, mostly concerning her push to liberalise the CDUs conservative politics and move it towards the political left. In the end, he gave up, exasperated, and like Merz moved to the private sector. Then there was Christian Wulff, the minister-president of Lower-Saxony. To neutralise him, she simply promoted him to the highly respected though politically powerless position of president of Germany. Thus, Helmut Kohls little girl showed everybody that she knew how to play the power game better than many of the men who looked down on her and saw her as a politically harmless. Who will succeed Merkel? Throughout her 13 years in power, Merkel managed to build a name for herself nationally and internationally. She was named repeatedly the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine. She remained popular in Germany, even when she was pushing for policies her CDUs conservatives despised, such as her decision to abolish conscription and to phase out nuclear power. In fact, as some observers have pointed out, her political success was very much due to her doing what the majority of Germans wanted. However, this changed in 2015 with the refugee crisis. The influx of more than one million refugees from the Middle East and elsewhere had a tremendous impact on German politics. Merkels liberal agenda of open borders and her famous sentence Wir schaffen das (Well manage it) turned against her and led to the spectacular rise of the far right, to which the CDU rapidly lost ground. For the first time, she either misread the will of the majority of Germans or simply followed her convictions. Conservative critics and the conservative media jumped at the chance to criticise her once again; Merz called her refugee policy catastrophic, while Koch blamed her for increasing distrust among German citizens in the CDU-led government. Although she still won the 2017 election, the refugee crisis marked a turning point in her career, which ultimately resulted in her decision to step down as CDU leader. The upcoming election for a new party leader during the CDU convention in December is a chance for those in the conservative wing of the party to get their revenge after many years of being sidelined by Merkel. Merz, who declared his readiness to take over almost immediately after she made the announcement, is currently the frontrunner. He seems to represent the hope of the conservative male-dominated party base to reclaim the CDU and turn its course back to conservative politics. If he does win, it would be almost impossible for Merkel to maintain control over how and when she leaves office, something she has always said she wanted to have. However, she is not going out without putting up a fight against her long-term Andenpakt adversaries. Running against Merz is Merkels protege, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (also known as AKK). AKK is a highly respected politician with a liberal agenda who supported Merkel in the refugee crisis. As a practising Catholic, she is more conservative when it comes to social issues (she was, for example, critical of same-sex marriage), but like Merkel, she is also flexible and treads a middle ground while offering some concessions to the partys conservative critics. If AKK wins, Merkel will be able to serve out her full term as chancellor rather than being pushed out. AKK is also likely to maintain some aspects of her mentors political agenda, including the push for gender parity within the party and government. During her time as party leader, the number of women in powerful political positions has grown significantly. In the current cabinet, over 40 percent of ministers are women, whereas when Merkel served in Kohls last cabinet at the turn of the century, she was one of just two women ministers. If Merz wins the internal elections, however, this and other liberal legacies Merkel has fought to push through would be in danger of being dismantled. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. A survivor of a 2010 massacre of migrant group, Billy Martinez makes the trek again, hoping to find safety in numbers. Arriaga, Mexico Billy Noe Martinez was less 150km from the US-Mexico border eight years ago when his journey came to an abrupt stop. A group of men abducted Martinez, along with other migrants he was travelling with, at gunpoint, took them to a ranch, and lined them up with their face against a wall. The gunmen then shot them one-by-one. Standing at the end of the line, Martinez managed to escape through a window, hiding submerged in a river until the gunfire ended, he said. In total, 72 people were killed. Martinez is one of at least two known survivors. The perpetrators are allegedly part of Los Zetas, an organised crime and drug trafficking network initially formed by former members of Mexican military special forces. Los Zetas and other Mexican organised crime networks have a history of holding migrants for ransom and killing them if their relatives are unable to pay, and sometimes even if they are. At least 11 people are charged in connection with the San Fernando massacre, but no one has been convicted. Eight years after being nearly killed along what is often dubbed the migrant trail, Martinez made the difficult decision to head north through Mexico once again. When he saw the news of a huge group leaving Honduras, he decided to join for safety in greater numbers. {articleGUID} More than 1,000 Hondurans initially fled their country together last month, travelling on foot and getting rides when offered. The group, dubbed a migrant caravan, quickly grew to several thousand and is currently heading in waves to Mexico City. Thousands more are following behind them in subsequent groups from Honduras and El Salvador. Large groups crossed the Suchiate River into Mexico this week and are now making their way up through southern Mexico. The initial caravan of migrants and refugees left Honduras last month [Guillermo Arias/AFP] Martinez wants to make it to the US for safety and to work and provide for his family. The migrants and refugees are not harming anyone, he said. I have six children, he told Al Jazeera before quickly correcting himself: I have five. Martinezs 18-year-old son Jonathan was murdered last year. Martinez is not certain why. More than 90 percent of homicides in Honduras go unsolved. Resting his head on the small backpack he is carrying on his journey, Martinez laid on the highway while Mexican federal police briefly blocked the thousands of migrants and refugees from advancing through the state of Chiapas. My first time was an experience of much sadness. Let's hope this time is better than the last. Billy Noe Martinez, participant of migrant caravan Last week, US President Donald Trump announced a series of drastic measures at the US southern border in response to the exodus of Central American asylum seekers. He said his administration is finalising a plan that could include indefinite tent camp detention. More than 5,000 troops are already heading to the border and Trump said that number to grow to up to 15,000 troops. He added that troops should view rock-throwers as if they have a firearm. {articleGUID} Martinez survived a massacre only to later have to bury his teenage son. He is not easily phased. Happy to be travelling with thousands of others for safety, he is hopeful he will be able to make it this time and provide for his family. My first time was an experience of much sadness, Martinez told Al Jazeera. Lets hope this time is better than the last. Editors note: As a protected witness, Martinezs name was not revealed by the Mexican government, but he has since chosen to speak out about the experience and has recently given interviews to several Mexican media outlets as well as to Al Jazeera. Chile is the latest country to seek repatriation for significant items taken away by the British. Chile will ask the Natural History Museum in London to return the remains of an extinct animal that lived in Patagonia about 10,000 years ago. The specimens belong to a ground-dwelling mammal known as a mylodon and were taken to the United Kingdom in 1897 for research but were never returned to Chile, according to officials. Chilean Minister of National Assets Felipe Ward will travel to London this month for talks over the remains of the animal that once roamed the regions of what is now Chile and Argentina. We hope to have talks with the museum authorities and seek to repatriate the mylodons remains; these are bones and skin that are in storage, not even being exhibited, Ward told reporters on Sunday. A Natural History Museum spokesperson told Al Jazeera that the museum is currently in communications with the relevant authorities in Chile. {articleGUID} The mylodon was an ancestor of the sloth that measured about 2.5 metres and weighed about three tonnes. German settlers discovered the remains of the mammal in 1896 in a cave now known as the Mylodon cave in Magallanes, one of the southernmost regions of Chile. During the trip to London, Ward will also be joined by a delegation seeking the return of a statue from the British Museum, which was taken from Easter Island part of Chile in 1868 and brought to London as a gift for Queen Victoria. They want to sculpt a replacement of the large stone head and torso, known as a moai, which is currently prominently displayed in the museum. Chile also plans to ask the Kon-Tiki Museum in Norway to return a large collection of historical pieces from Easter Island. The moai are an iconic symbol of Easter Island [Carlos Barria/Reuters] Looted treasures Chile is not the only country seeking the return of prized objected housed in London museums. Greece and the UK are engaged in a prolonged standoff over the Elgin Marbles, carvings also known as the Parthenon Marbles that were removed from Athens in the 1800s and are one of the British Museums main attractions. {articleGUID} Lord Elgin, a British diplomat who removed the statues, claimed he received permission to do so from authorities of the Ottoman Empire, who occupied Greece at the time. However, this claim has been disputed and many in Greece do not consider an occupying power to have the legitimacy to hand over national treasures. In August, the Greek government renewed attempts to secure the marbles return by inviting the UK to begin negotiations over the return of the sculptures. The UK government have so far resolutely refused several requests by Greece, initially over concerns that Greece did not have a suitable site to display them. {articleGUID} It is likely the government and museums are also concerned about setting a precedent that may lead to the return of many star attractions and affect tourism. However, in recent years some UK museums have returned a number of items to their countries of origin. In August, the British Museum repatriated a trove of 5,000-year old objects looted from an ancient site in Iraq shortly after the United States invasion in 2003. In 2013, a Guernsey museum returned the tattooed, mummified head of a Maori warrior to New Zealand as part of a repatriation programme run by the National Museum of New Zealand. Additional reporting by Charlotte Mitchell: @charbrowmitch Saif-ul-Malook fled to the Netherlands following threats to his life after Christian woman he represented was acquitted. The agreement between the Pakistani government and a far-right political group that would see a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy barred from leaving the country has no legal value, her lawyer, who has sought refuge in the Netherlands, said. Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman accused of blasphemy, spent eight years on death row after being convicted by lower courts. Last week, the Pakistani Supreme Court acquitted Bibi, saying there were glaring and stark contradictions in the evidence against her. Saif-ul-Malook, who represented Bibi for years, told Al Jazeera he fled to the Netherlands on Saturday following threats to his life. Pakistani law is very clear. The [relevant law] says that if a person is involved in a criminal case, or tax fraud or [other] fraud, only then can the government put them on the Exit Control List (ECL), Malook told a press conference in the Dutch capital Amsterdam on Monday. There is no question of putting her name on the ECL. {articleGUID} Bibis acquittal sparked protests by the far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party in several cities, with major roads and highways blocked until late on Friday. TLP signed an agreement with the government to end the protests, on the condition that Bibi not be allowed to leave the country, and that all protesters arrested during the demonstrations would be released. On Sunday, however, Pakistani authorities arrested hundreds of TLP workers, implementing a separate clause of the agreement that said that anyone found to have damaged public or private property during the demonstration would be prosecuted. TLP Chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi was among those booked for rioting, although he has not been taken into custody. Fight for justice On Monday, Bibis lawyer Malook addressed the press conference alongside Jan Dirk van Nifterik, the director of the Dutch rights group Stichting Hulp Vervolgde Christenen (HVC, or Foundation to Help Persecuted Christians), who said that they had aided him in his escape from Pakistan. {articleGUID} HVC was able to get him to the Netherlands, offer shelter and look after him, said Nifterik. We are grateful to Malook for his work on human rights. Malook said he took Bibis case because lawyers do not have a religion. [Lawyers] only fight for justice, and only see that no one should be condemned unless there is evidence up to the standard. Malook said that he had no information on whether Bibi had been released from jail, saying the last time he spoke to a senior jail official about the matter on Friday night she remained in custody. Malook himself faced numerous threats for representing Bibi, whose case has become emblematic of fair trial concerns in such cases in Pakistan. Blasphemy is a sensitive subject in the country, and at least 74 people have been killed in violence associated with blasphemy allegations since 1990, according to an Al Jazeera tally. Malook said that he spent days taking refuge at the French embassy in Islamabad, before he was able to fly out early on Saturday morning. He flew through Italy, before finally arriving in the Netherlands, he said. The lawyer indicated that he was currently on a visit visa, but that he would be staying in the European country for an unspecified length of time. He said he would call his wife and children to join him when I have a place for them to live. Asad Hashim is Al Jazeeras digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim. Reinforcements sent to the site in Ghanzi province were repeatedly ambushed along the way, officials said. A Taliban attack on a checkpoint in the eastern province of Ghazni has killed at least 13 soldiers and policemen, officials said. Afghan reinforcements were dispatched to the site after Mondays attack in Khogyani district located on the main road between the capital, Kabul, and the Afghan south but were repeatedly ambushed along the way. The checkpoint was part of a belt of strongholds built around Ghazni after the city was briefly overrun by the Taliban in August in one of their biggest offensives in years. At the time, hundreds of people fled the city amid intense fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban that killed about 120 members of the security forces and civilians. {articleGUID} Arif Noori, spokesperson for the provincial governor in Ghazni, said that seven soldiers and six policemen were killed in Mondays raid. According to Noori, six Taliban fighters were killed and more than 10 others wounded during a three-hour gun battle with Afghan forces after the initial attack. In a statement sent to the media, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said his group claimed responsibility for the raid. The joint army and police checkpoint was set up just two days ago in a strategic area to cut off a supply route for the Taliban but was now completely burned down and destroyed, Noori said. Reinforcement were rushed to assist the forces under attack but they were ambushed by other Taliban fighters at least four times while on their way to the checkpoint, said Noori. Ghazni is the only one out of 34 Afghan provinces where the countrys October parliamentary elections could not take place for security reasons. Voting there has been postponed for a year. A US watchdog agency said last week that the Afghan government was struggling to recover control of districts lost to the Taliban while casualties among security forces had reached record levels. The government had control or influence over 65 percent of the population but only 55.5 percent of Afghanistans 407 districts, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report earlier this year. The latest phase of Afghanistans decades of war began in late 2001, when US-led troops overthrew the Taliban in response to the September 11 attacks that year on the United States. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launches project to build the first nuclear research reactor in the kingdom. Saudi Arabias crown prince has launched a project to build the first nuclear research reactor in the kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, launched seven strategic projects in renewable energy, atomic energy, water desalination, genetic medicine and the aircraft industry during his visit to King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology on Monday. {articleGUID} The two most significant projects include a nuclear research reactor and a centre for the development of aircraft structures. In March, MBS announced his countrys readiness to develop nuclear weapons in the event that Iran heads in that direction. Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible, he told US broadcaster, CBS, in an interview. Incidentally, the US, which withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal with Iran signed in 2015, reimposed oil and financial sanctions against Iran starting Monday. Nuclear power Last year, the International Atomic Energy Agency said the Saudi government had invited proposals for the construction of two nuclear power reactors to boost the countrys energy mix. The kingdom is considering building 17.6 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear capacity by 2032, the equivalent of about 17 reactors, making it one of the biggest projects globally. According to Reuters news agency, Saudi Arabia is aiming to reduce the amount of crude it burns at home to generate electricity to allow it to sell more of it overseas. If the kingdom proceeds with the plan, it would become the second Gulf Arab state to launch a nuclear power project after the United Arab Emirates, which is building four South Korea-designed reactors. Former president says the judge who convicted him has proven his bias by accepting the justice minister post. Former Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has challenged his corruption conviction, arguing that the judge behind his conviction has proven his bias by accepting a cabinet post under a political rival. The petition filed on Monday with Brazils highest court asks that Lula, who is currently serving a 12-year sentence, be freed and his conviction overturned. Lulas plea came days after president-elect Jair Bolsonaro announced Judge Sergio Moro as the next justice minister of the South American country. {articleGUID} Lulas lawyers have long argued that Moro was biased and that charges against the former president were trumped up to keep him from running for the post again. Lula was leading the run-up to the deeply polarised election this year, but his conviction in a corruption case prevented him from running. Brazils Clean Slate law forbids people with serious criminal convictions from standing for office within eight years of being found guilty. Controversial appointment Moro agreed to be Bolsonaros justice minister, saying his new position would allow him to strengthen his battle against corruption. The perspective of implementing a strong anti-corruption and anti-organised crime agenda, with respect for the constitution, the law and rights, led me to take this decision, Moro said in a statement on Sunday. This means in practice to consolidate the advances against crime and corruption in recent years, he said. Lulas leftist Workers Party (PT) expressed its anger and disappointment over the decision. Moros partiality was always blatant, the party tweeted. The attempt to influence elections has taken place since 2014. The appointment [of Sergio Moro] as minister under Bolsonaro only shows the political interests of the minister. A parcialidade de Moro sempre foi flagrante durante as decisoes na Lava Jato. A tentativa de influenciar em eleicoes ocorreram desde 2014. A indicacao como ministro de Bolsonaro so escancara os interesses politicos do magistrado durante a sua atuacao. https://t.co/uYuiP9kLZ7 pic.twitter.com/vWLRLzl8Zp PT Brasil (@ptbrasil) November 5, 2018 Car Wash scandal Moro has been hailed for investigating what came to be known as the Car Wash corruption scandal, launched in 2014, which centred on Brazils state-run oil company, Petrobras, and involved 11 countries. {articleGUID} The probe uncovered elaborate schemes in which construction companies received bloated contracts and then kicked back billions of dollars in bribes to politicians and other government officials for more than a decade. The investigation led to the jailing of some of Brazils biggest names, including Lula, who was convicted for trading favours with construction company, Grupo OAS, for the promise of a beachfront apartment. Lula began serving his sentence in April this year, which effectively denied him another run for the office of the president. The Car Wash cases made Moro a wildly popular figure with Brazilians exhausted by numerous stories of politicians plundering government coffers. Moro is now expected to oversee the federal and highway police, the penitentiary system, immigration and several other agencies employing thousands of people. More than 3,000 companies take part in Shanghai expo despite a worsening trade war with the United States. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday promised to lower import tariffs and continue to broaden market access at the opening of a week-long trade expo seen as an attempt by Beijing to counter mounting criticism of its trade and business practices. China will accelerate opening the education, telecommunications and cultural sectors, while protecting foreign companies interests, Xi said. It will also enhance punitive enforcement for intellectual property rights infractions, he said. Beijing will step up moves to stimulate domestic consumption of imports, lower tariffs, and ease customs clearance procedures, said Xi. We will foster a world-class business environment, the president said in an address opening the import fair in Shanghai. Organisers say more than 3,000 foreign companies including Facebook, Ford, Microsoft and Samsung will put their products on display to potential Chinese buyers at the China International Import Expo. It is our sincere commitment to open the Chinese market, Xi told an audience that included Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. He promised to embrace the world. Highlight the weaknesses Xi has said previously the fair is proof that China, the worlds second-biggest economy, is willing to reduce its huge trade surpluses with other countries. The US and EU business lobbies in China, and the French and German ambassadors to Beijing, last week called on China to use the expo to announce concrete change. Foreign businesses have complained about a range of policies that benefit Chinese firms, including requirements that foreign companies form joint ventures with Chinese partners, forced technology transfers, rampant intellectual property violations, and restrictive bureaucracy. Decrying protectionism, isolationism and confrontation, Xi said countries should fix their own houses before targeting others. They should not just point fingers at others to gloss over their own problems, he said. They should not hold a flashlight in hand, doing nothing but highlight the weaknesses of others and not their own. Do you want a share? The expo has met some foreign scepticism. The US government snubbed the gathering by not sending high-level representation, instead, calling on China to change unfair trade practices. However, presidents or prime ministers from 18 countries are travelling to Shanghai for the event, ranging from Russia and Pakistan to the Cook Islands. Xu Bin, a professor of economics and finance at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, said he thinks Chinas leaders have come to realise this year they may ultimately be unable to appease all concerns. Microsoft founder Bill Gates with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim before the opening ceremony at the Shanghai expo [Aly Song/Reuters] I think Xi Jinping would not expect any positive reaction from Western countries this time, or in the near future, he told the Reuters news agency. But he still wants to do it to show the relatively poor countries and even rich countries that, look, You know, we are going to buy these things from the world. Do you want a share?' Experts say the week-long expo is also a message from Beijing that, as it moves from being an export-based economy to one that relies more on the buying power of its 1.4 billion people, other countries will need to work with China if they want a piece of that action. Exhibitors from about 140 countries and regions are attending the fair, including 404 companies from Japan, the most of any nation. Officials say armed separatists have kidnapped at least 78 students in the countrys restive northwest region. Armed separatists have kidnapped nearly 80 people, the majority of them students, in an English-speaking region of Cameroon witnessing an armed campaign for independence, a governor has said. Governor Deben Tchoffo said students from a Presbyterian school, located in Nkwen village near Bamenda in the restive northwest region, were abducted on Monday along with their principal, a teacher and a driver. Bamenda is the capital of Cameroons northwest region, which is facing attacks by Anglophone separatists. Video released A video purportedly of the kidnapped children was released on social media by Amba boys, a reference to the state of Ambazonia that armed separatists are trying to establish in Cameroons northwest and southwest regions, The Associated Press news agency reported. {articleGUID} In the video, the kidnappers force several students to give their names and the names of their parents. The children say they were kidnapped by the Amba boys, and they do not know where they are being held. We shall only release you after the struggle. You will be going to school now here, say the men suspected to be the kidnappers. While the video could not be independently verified, The Associated Press said parents have been reacting on social media saying they recognize their children in the video. The search for the hostages has been launched, every man has been called in, a government source said after he emerged from a crisis meeting. The kidnapping the gravest incident so far in 13 months of unrest coincides with a surge of political tensions in the majority French-speaking country. It comes after elections on October 7 that saw President Paul Biya, 85, secure a seventh term in office. He is expected to take his oath of office on Tuesday. President Paul Biya, who has led since 1982, easily won a seventh term last month [File: Sunday Alamba/AP] Divided country Around a fifth of Cameroons 22 million people speak English, a minority whose presence dates back to the colonial period. Cameroon, once a German colony, was divided between Britain and France after World War I. The French colony gained independence in 1960 and became Cameroon. The following year, British-ruled Southern Cameroon was amalgamated into it, giving rise to tension in the northwest and southwest regions. {articleGUID} In 2016, demands for greater autonomy grew but met a rebuff by Biya. Last year, the Anglophone movement declared the Republic of Ambazonia in the northwest and neighbouring southwest regions. No country has recognised the self-declared state. The separatists have shot troops and police, boycotted and torched schools, and attacked other perceived symbols of the Cameroonian state. At least 400 civilians were killed this year, apart from over 175 members of the security forces, according to a toll compiled by non-governmental organisations. The US embassy in New Delhi said its air pollution index breached the hazardous level upper limit. New Delhi, India A blanket of smog greeted residents of New Delhi on Monday as air quality deteriorated sharply overnight in Indias capital, triggering warnings that even healthy people were at risk of health problems. The air quality index, that measures PM 2.5 tiny particulate matter that reaches deep into the lungs, more than doubled within a few hours to 707 on Monday morning at Mandir Marg, the worst affected area in the city, pollution monitoring agency AQICN data revealed. This is double the mark of 300 that authorities deem as hazardous. https://twitter.com/apargupta84/status/1059317019621892096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw The US embassy in New Delhi said its air pollution index had on Monday morning breached the hazardous level upper limit of 500, at which it stops measuring levels of PM2.5. New Delhi, with a population of 16 million, ranks among the worlds most polluted cities. The air quality in the Indian capital usually worsens at this time of year when crops burned in nearby states envelops the city. It is expected to worsen with smoke from firecrackers celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights, on November 7. An Indian man sells face masks at the roadside amid heavy smog in New Delhi [Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto/Getty Images] Doctors in New Delhi are sounding the alarm, warning people to avoid outdoor exertion. {articleGUID} Such levels of pollution will shorten your lifespan. Today, we are talking of levels over 600, so 60 times over the normal level, Dr Krishan Kumar Aggarwal, president of the Heart Care Foundation of India, told Al Jazeera. Everybody, including healthy people are impacted now. All sudden deaths and acute heart attacks during this period in the city should be linked to pollution. PM 10 is harming our lungs and PM 2.5 and PM 1 is attacking every organ of our bodies, the cardiologist warned. With an air purifier and an air conditioner indoors, still registering PM 2.5 levels over 300, so no place to turn to. It is an extreme situation. Why is there no emergency action from authorities? They mobilised the army when there was a flood in Kerala. Today, there is a flood in Delhi, a flood of pollution. This is a natural disaster of equal gravity, he added. While Delhi chokes, @narendramodi TL would make you think theres an alternate reality that exists in the rarified air of 7 Lok Kalyan Marg not a word fm the PM about the toxic fumes Delhi is inhaling Theres a pollution crisis again. And its unforgivable Mr. Prime Minister. barkha deva (@barkhad) November 5, 2018 A latest World Health Organization (WHO) report says India tops a list of countries that recorded high numbers of child deaths linked to air pollution in 2016. At least 14 of the 20 most polluted cities of the world are in India, according to the WHO. A senior environmental official said last week that the South Asian country may halt the use of private vehicles in New Delhi if air pollution gets worse. New Delhis main pollutants are missions from vehicles and thermal power stations, as well as construction dust. Crop burning and industrial pollution from adjoining states also add to the bad air in New Delhi, say experts. According to the Haryana Pollution Control Board, farmers in northern states like Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan burn millions of tonnes of crop waste around October every year to clear farmland before sowing the winter crop. {articleGUID} An estimated 35 million tonnes are set afire in Punjab and Haryana every year, which contributes to the haze and smog in New Delhi. Mondays worsening air quality is despite some steps being taken to battle pollution since last month. This winter we have some advantages. Some pre-emptive actions have been taken in Delhi already. Since October authorities have shut down coal-powered plants, brick kilns and stone crushers and hot-mix plants. If it worsens, emergency action has to be stepped up, Anumita Roychowdhury from the Centre for Science and Environment, a non-profit organisation, told Al Jazeera. This October did not breach severe levels, but November is going to be much tougher. We need disciplined implementation of a comprehensive action plan which has already been notified, she added. A policeman wearing a mask to protect himself from pollution in Delhi [Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto/Getty Images] Last year, the Supreme Court temporarily banned the sale of firecrackers in and around New Delhi during the festival of Diwali sparking debate over the decision. It also outlawed the sale of luxury diesel vehicles and ordered a tax on trucks entering the city. This year it declined to order a blanket ban on Diwali firecrackers. But the grim health warnings are not likely to be heeded by everyone. For some residents of the city like Dilip, a 32-year old cleaner, there is no escape from breathing in the toxic air as he is forced to work outdoors. I cough a lot, my eyes are watering, I have had to go to the doctor twice this last week. I know the air is bad. But I cant stay indoors, who will work and earn for me? he asked. Tigress run over with tractor in revenge for mans death two days after another tigress was shot by forest officials. Villagers in northern India beat and crushed a tigress to death with a tractor after the feline killed a man, forest officials said. The incident came days after forest officials shot dead another tigress known as Avni, which was believed to have killed 13 people in the last two years in western India. In the latest killing on Sunday, 300 angry villagers marched to the heart of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, beat up the forest guards and attacked the tigress with iron rods, spears and axes, forest official Mahavir Kaujlagi said. The violent act was retribution after the mauling of a man in the park late on Sunday evening while the villagers claim that another man was attacked by the tigress a fortnight ago. The irate villagers beat her mercilessly and later crushed her to death using a tractor, Kaujlagi said. A case has been registered under the Wildlife Protection Act and since the tiger is Indias national animal, arrests will be made soon, he said. The village of Chaltua is located near the centre of the reserve. Residents have refused to be relocated, despite efforts by the forest department after authorities warned of the danger humans face from the wild animals. Indians have taken to social media to protest the latest killings which they say highlight the increased human-animal conflict in several parts of the country. The protests have followed wildlife activists outcry against the forest department after Avnis earlier killing on Friday. They had campaigned to capture the tigress instead of killing her and avoid leaving her two cubs orphaned. Indias Supreme Court had responded that it would not interfere if forest rangers were forced to shoot the animal. Women and child development minister, and known wildlife campaigner. Maneka Gandhi, admonished the forest authorities for ordering Avnis ghastly murder, saying they violated several rules. The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated, opposition politician Rahul Gandhi wrote on Twitter, quoting Indias activist and freedom hero Mahatma Gandhi. India is home to the worlds largest number of tigers in the wild. In the last count in 2014, they were estimated to number 2,226, according to Indias National Tiger Conservation Authority. Prosecutors in France have issued international arrest warrants for three senior Syrian intelligence and government officials for allegations of collusion in war crimes. Syrian security chief Ali Mamlouk, head of Airforce Intelligence Jamil Hassan and senior Airforce Intelligence official, Abdel Salam Mahmoud are being sought after following investigations in a long-running case involving two French-Syrian nationals who were arrested in Syria in November 2013 and had disappeared since. Jamil Hassan, is already the subject of a German warrant, official sources say. The French-Syrian nationals, father and son, Mazen and Patrick Abdelkader Dabbagh were confirmed dead by Damascus and French prosecutors discovered their house in Damascus had been raided by intelligence officials after opening a probe into their disapperance in 2015, a judicial source said. The arrest warrants bring charges including collusion in torture, forced disappearances, crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Syrian officials. US Secretary of State Pompeo said Trump administration fully prepared to counter Irans effort to circumvent hurdles. With the second round of sanctions against Iran, US President Donald Trumps threat to impose the toughest ever punitive measures against the Islamic Republic is in full force, a reversal from his predecessor Barack Obamas rapprochement towards Tehran. In August, sanctions targeted Irans aviation industry, currency and even carpets. Now, except for a few countries, the rest of the world is cut off from Irans oil and gas market as well as its financial system. Iran remains a signatory to the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal and UN inspectors say Tehran continues to adhere to its obligations. Trump unilaterally abandoned the agreement in May, paving the way for the imposition of US sanctions amid international opposition. {articleGUID} Now that the US sanctions are in place, experts said the two old adversaries would be engaged in a cat and mouse game, with Washington trying to enforce Trumps order as rigorously as it can, and Tehran finding creative ways to bypass it. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo himself acknowledged that it would be unsurprising if Iran tried to bypass the sanctions. Ali Sarzaeem, an economics adviser at the Center for Strategic Studies under the office of President Hassan Rouhani, said that there are several measures being considered to counter the US restrictions. The US is doing whatever it can to punish Iran, and we are doing whatever we can do to confront them, Sarzaeem, who teaches at Tehrans Allameh Tabatabai University, told Al Jazeera. So what steps can Iran take to bypass the US sanctions? Waivers Iran has continued to do some business with other countries in spite of the sanctions through waivers obtained by its trading partners. On Monday, Pompeo named the countries granted waivers to buy Iranian oil and gas after November 5: China, India, Italy, Japan, Greece, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. Pompeo did not say how long the waivers will last but said they were granted to ensure oil prices are not destabilised if supply from Iran is abruptly removed from the international market. In a press statement, the South Korean foreign ministry said the waiver is good for 180 days, with the possibility of renewal thereafter. The US government announced on Monday the eight countries receiving sanctions waivers [AP] Pompeo said that since Trump announced the sanctions in May, more than one million barrels of Iranian oil were removed from the market and that Tehran lost more than $2.5bn in oil revenues. Trump boasted he would drive Irans revenue down to zero. But Iran said the granting of US waivers is a win for Tehran, as it allows it to sell oil beyond the deadline. In September, Iran sold between 1.7 million and 1.9 million barrels per day of crude oil, according to a CNBC analysis. That number was down 800,000 bpd from May, when the sanctions were announced. But the loss in volume was partially offset by the rise in oil price. Special Purpose Vehicle On September 24, the European Union announced that it is setting up a new mechanism, the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said the SPV will allow European companies to continue to trade with Iran in accordance with EU law and could be open to other partners in the world. The EU, alongside the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, France, China, the US and Iran were the original signatories of the 2015 deal, which is also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Europes decision to create the SPV was seen as an act of defiance against Trump. Essentially, the SPV acts as a clearinghouse, handling payments from European companies to and from Iran, while avoiding the US sanctions that prohibit direct payment through the regular payment system. For example, if a European energy company buys oil and gas from Iran, the payments are directed to the SPV. In turn, Iran will use the payments deposited in the SPV to buy permitted items from Europe. It is not yet clear how the final SPV structure will look. Whether or not European companies would avail it also remains a question. Many European corporations, such as Total, have profitable operations in the US and could get slapped with US sanctions if they insist on trading with Iran. On Monday, Irans Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bahram Qassemi counselled patience in implementing the SPV, adding that the establishment of the new financial mechanism is complicated and time-consuming. The SPV is seen as another victory in Iran as it indicates Europes willingness to stand up to Trump. European blocking statute In August, the EU also updated the Blocking Statute, thereby shielding European companies from Trumps sanctions, while allowing them to continue operating in Iran. It also allows companies to recover damages arising from punitive sanctions, in this case, from the US. The sale of US dollars and purchase of Iranian rials are also prohibited under US sanctions [Reuters] The law also allows EU persons to not comply with such sanctions, protecting them from US penalties, which cannot be applied unless exceptionally authorised by the European Commission. While it could work for small businesses with no links to the US, the statute could have limited use in Iran, particularly among major European companies with global operations. Those companies are automatically exposed to possible US sanctions in the event they deal with Iran. Iran stock exchange trading In late October, Iran announced that it had started offering oil for sale via its stock exchange, selling as much as 280,000 barrels of crude oil just minutes after the opening bell. The idea of selling oil in the stock market first came up in 2000, during the previous sanctions, but is only being implemented now. According to Tasnim news agency, 280,000 barrels were traded in the Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX) at $74.85 per barrel. On the first day of trading, a total of one million barrels of crude oil were eventually sold. Essentially, private buyers from within Iran or abroad buy the crude oil. In turn, the buyers can sell the same product to the world market with less traceability. The US Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) maintains a list of sanctioned companies and individuals linked to Iran. But a new company not listed by OFAC can legally buy oil from Iran. Unofficial measures Mohammad Eslami, a Tehran-based sanctions expert, said that there are other measures that the Iranian government is taking to circumvent the US sanctions. Tehran is reluctant to discuss those measures openly as it does not want to compromise them, he said. All these structures that the Iranians have built to confront these new sanctions, are unofficial, said Eslami. He noted that the measures included currency swaps with other countries, and even cryptocurrency trading, adding that some entities are already using it. Rouhani has denounced Trump for reimposing sanctions lifted after the 2015 nuclear deal [Anadolu] Irans partners, such as Russia and China, also would not be willing to talk about the alternatives. Russia, which has not been included in the US waiver, has denounced the sanctions, terming them illegal. There have been suggestions that Moscow would help Tehran bypass the sanctions by buying Iranian oil, then reselling it in refined form to Europe. Pompeo had already issued a warning, saying the Trump administration is fully prepared to do all that we can to prevent efforts to bypass the sanctions. Trumps new sanctions would face more complexities now compared with the time of the Obama administration, said Eslami. He said that while Trumps sanctions are more measured, the US president failed to build a global consensus against Iran, as he could not establish a powerful group of supporters for his policy. Gradually, the structure of sanctions will be less powerful. Iran looks to Europe as US reimposes sanctions The UK, France and Germany say they deeply regret the move that will target Irans oil, shipping and banking sectors. Irans Rouhani remains defiant, calls the US president racist With US sanctions coming into effect against Iran, the national mood is one of defiance, with war games and the Iranian president hurling insults at US President Donald Trump, but trouble may be ahead. Handziuk had recently called on the government to probe attacks on activists as she tried to recover in hospital. Kateryna Handziuk, a 33-year-old Ukrainian anti-corruption activist and political adviser, died on Sunday after suffering critical injuries from an acid attack in July. Handziuk, who was an adviser to the mayor of Kherson and critic of local police, sustained severe burns to more than a third of her body after she was sprayed with a litre of sulphuric acid outside her home in the southeastern city of Kherson. She had been battling the injuries in a hospital in Kiev, where she underwent 11 operations. Five suspects have been detained for their alleged involvement, but no further information has been released about who ordered the attack. From her hospital bed and covered in burns, Handziuk had recently called on the government to probe rising attacks on activists. Police initially listed the case as hooliganism but after public uproar changed it to attempted murder committed with extreme cruelty. Local and international human rights groups have recorded more than 55 unsolved attacks on activists including Handziuk since the start of 2017. President Petro Poroshenko on Sunday called on law enforcement agencies to do everything possible to find and punish Handziuks killers. But campaigners say his remarks are too little, too late. Marya Guryeva from Amnesty International Ukraine told Al Jazeera: The situation is getting worse and has been for about a year now. Many attacks have been identity-focused committed by far-right groups against LGBT and Roma people. But now we see they are happening against anti-corruption activists, too. Natalia Shapovalova, a Ukraine expert from Carnegie Europe, told Al Jazeera: Activists campaign against corruption, they name the names of people who are behind illegal construction. Those people are not happy and they try to shut up the activists. In one case, on October 4, politician Sergiy Gusovsky was doused with an antiseptic liquid and beaten in Kiev City Council following his speech at a rally. Gusovsky told Al Jazeera he was attacked because he opposed various investment agreements, highlighting his work in challenging the construction of 25 buildings in Kievs Echo Park for ecological reasons. If an attack inside Kievs city council cant be stopped, its impossible to keep any public figure safe, he said. People who order the attacks are never brought to justice About two weeks earlier, anti-corruption activist Oleg Mikhaylik was left in critical condition after he was shot in the chest by an unidentified assailant in the southeastern city of Odessa. On the day of the shooting, he had protested against illegal construction on the Lanzheron Beach. Mikhaylik, who is currently housebound for safety reasons, leads the local branch of the Peoples Power movement and had recently announced himself as a candidate for the 2020 mayoral elections. He told Al Jazeera he believes the attack was organised by local authorities. Activists say police rarely investigate the attacks, nurturing a climate in which more violence can take place. People who order the attacks are never brought to justice. In the last nine months, only one case was investigated and closed. Ninety-nine percent of the time there is impunity, said Amnestys Guryeva. Carnegie Europes Shapovalova added: The lack of investigation reflects inadequate reform in the justice system, and corruption the biggest problem facing Ukraine today. Dmytro Bulakh, head of the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center has been assaulted several times, apparently for his anti-corruption work, most recently in August 2017 when unknown assailants punched him in the head with knuckle dusters and broke three ribs. He was in hospital for nine days. Revenge for our attempts President Poroshenko introduced what he calls Western-oriented reform to cleanse the judiciary, starting mid-2016. However, his critics see the actions as an effort to establish control over the courts and ensure impunity for corrupt, high-level officials. According to Bulakh, the government views civic activists as opponents. I am convinced the passivity in government is a kind of revenge for our attempts to rid the country of corruption and create accountability. Over the past few months, protesters have gathered outside government buildings across Ukraine in a campaign called silence kills, urging the authorities to properly investigate the attacks. Following a rally in September, Ukraine prosecutor general and presidential appointee Yuriy Lutsenko said activists were partly to blame for the violence because they create an atmosphere of total hatred toward the authorities. But according to Amnestys Guryeva, officials do not show enough effort in responding. There are hardly any public statements, and only after huge resonance in the country did we see some tweets by politicians. You would expect that they would loudly condemn such acts. Tens of millions will vote in 50 states across five different time zones. More than 31 million people have already cast a ballot in the 2018 US midterms early voting. Millions more will head to the polls on November 6, in an election seen as a referendum on US President Donald Trumps first two years in office. Midterms generally garner low voter participation, but the Pew Research Center recently published a poll that found increased enthusiasm among voters this year. With tens of millions set to head to polling stations on Tuesday, heres information about when polls open and close: What times do polls open? First polls will open in Vermont at 5am local time (10GMT). Many other states on the East Coast will follow between 6am local time (11GMT) and 7am local time (12GMT). Polls in Texas will open at 7am local time (13GMT). Polls in California will open at 7am local time (15GMT). What time do polls close? Most polling places will stay open for at least 12 hours. Many precincts will close between 6pm local time and 8pm local time, in their respective time zones. Post-sanctions, Sudan tries to revive historical Suakin port Sudan is trying to recover from the sanctions imposed by the United States by reviving an historical Red Sea port. Riyadhs delegation in Geneva faces torrent of condemnation over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Delegations have been grilling Saudi Arabia on its human rights record at the UN in Geneva as it faces a torrent of international condemnation over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Member states have also been criticising abuses of the Saudi-Emirati coalitions role in the war in Yemen in Mondays so-called Universal Periodic Review which all 193 UN countries must undergo every four years. The US delegation told the UN human rights council that it condemns the premeditated killing of Khashoggi. A thorough, conclusive and transparent investigation carried out in accordance with due process with results made public is essential, the delegation said. Washington, which has long backed the Saudi-led coalition, called last week for an end to air raids in the country. {articleGUID} The Saudi delegation in Geneva is headed by Bandar al-Aiban, who serves as the head of the countrys Human Rights Commission. The delegation is presenting a report over the countrys efforts to live up to its international human rights obligations, and will respond to questions and comments from countries around the world on its record. Activists are urging countries not to hold back. UN member states must end their deafening silence on Saudi Arabia and do their duty of scrutinising the cruelty in the kingdom in order to prevent further outrageous human rights violations in the country and in Yemen, Samah Hadid, Amnesty Internationals Middle East director of campaigns, said in a statement. The Saudi governments long-standing repression of critics, exemplified by the extrajudicial execution of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last month, has until recently been willfully ignored by UN member states. Regret and pain Addressing the council, the Saudi delegation restated the kingdoms position that it is investigating Khashoggis case and will prosecute those responsible for the killing. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has already expressed its regret and pain for the death of Jamal Khashoggi, Bandar Bin Mohammed al-Aiban, president of Saudi Arabias human rights commission said at the meeting. King [Salman bin] Abdulaziz has already instructed the prosecution to proceed with the investigation into this case according to the applicable laws and preparation to reaching all facts and bringing all the perpetrators to justice in order to bare the facts to the public. {articleGUID} A number of countries have already submitted lists of detailed questions for the review, including questions from the UK, Austria and Switzerland on the Khashoggi case. Given the recent violent death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, can Saudi Arabia elaborate on their claim that the laws of Saudi Arabia guarantee freedom of opinion and expression? the UK asked. Al Jazeeras Paul Brennan reporting from Geneva said that the questioning that Saudi Arabia faces is stern, particularly because of the context of the recent murder Khashoggi. You can see that [the UKs question] very elegantly phrased, but theres no mistaking the bite behind it, Brennan said. In some ways, its been predictably partisan of the tone of some of the questions. Uzbekistan and Algeria, for example, patted Saudi Arabia on the back for the progress that they said Saudi Arabia had made, for example, under the crown princes vision 2030 which they say upholds human rights, Brennan said. A less vicious government Explaining in their national report how the country upholds human right, Saudi Arabia mentioned its protection against abuse act, a child protection act, the ability that women now have the right to drive and various royal orders such as getting women more involved in government. However, other reports submitted by UN committees and various NGOs paint a different picture, Brennan said. Their reports highlight persistent discriminatory laws, a big increase in the number of executions between 2013-2015, the fact that there is no law that protects the rights to free assembly and continuing concerns about the lack of female involvement in governing process. The reports point out that minors under the age of 18 who are found guilty of crimes could be stoned, or amputated and are even sentenced to death for non-violent crimes. Abdulaziz Almoayyad, a Saudi human rights activist told Al Jazeera from Dublin that due to the international outcry over Khashoggis murder, Saudi Arabia is now treading more carefully. Khashoggis murder has saved many lives in Saudi Arabia, since just a couple of weeks before his death, the Saudi government was planning to behead a large number of Saudi activists, Almoayyad said. The Saudi government doesnt care about the Saudi people but they care about international relations; they get their weapons from there, they get their support from there, Almoayyad said. So what is happening now is affecting the scene inside of Saudi Arabia where the government is a bit weaker and less vicious towards activists inside and outside. Saudi Arabia deployed a chemist and toxicology expert to Istanbul after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in an attempt to cover up evidence of the killing, according to a Turkish newspaper. Pro-government daily Sabah reported on Monday that Saudi Arabia sent an 11-member cover-up team to Istanbul on October 11, nine days after the Washington Post contributor vanished after entering the Saudi consulate to obtain paperwork for his marriage. The paper said chemist Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were among the so-called investigative team, which visited the consulate every day until October 17, before leaving Turkey on October 20. The newest details may explain why Saudi Arabia did not allow Turkish police to search the consulate until October 15. Turkish authorities have released gruesome details of a killing that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said was a targeted hit. Missing body While Riyadh officials have admitted the murder was planned, they have so far declined to release details of the whereabouts of the 59-year-old journalists missing body. Turkeys chief prosecutor said last week that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and also confirmed the body was dismembered. Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Erdogan, hinted in an article published on Friday that the body may even have been dissolved in acid. {articleGUID} In an editorial published in The Washington Post, Erdogan accused authorities in Riyadh of refusing to answer key questions about the murder, despite their arrest of 18 suspects a fortnight ago. He said the order to murder the journalist came from the highest levels of the Saudi government, adding that he did not believe for a second that King Salman was to blame. But he pointedly failed to absolve Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of responsibility for unleashing a death squad against the outspoken Saudi journalist. The murder has badly tainted the kingdoms de facto ruler. Unwilling to genuinely cooperate Last week, Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb met Turkish authorities in Istanbul but refused to share information from Riyadhs own investigation, according to Turkish officials. A senior Turkish official said the Saudi officials that appeared unwilling to genuinely cooperate with the investigation. The Saudi officials seemed primarily interested in finding out what evidence the Turkish authorities had against the perpetrators, the official told the AFP news agency on the condition of anonymity. We did not get the impression that they were keen on genuinely cooperating with the investigation. On Monday, Turkish Vice President Fuad Oktay said that reports of Khashoggis body being dissolved in acid need to be investigated. Oktay told Turkeys Anadolu news agency it was now accepted that Khashoggi was targeted in a premeditated murder. The question now is who gave the orders. This is what we are seeking answers to now, Oktay said. Another question is where the body is There are reports of [the body] being dissolved with acid now. All of these need to be looked at. According to Al Jazeeras Andrew Simmons, reporting from Istanbul, Saudi investigators had repeatedly asked Turkish officials for access to Khashoggis phone while they were investigating the case in Istanbul. Similarly, on Sunday a Turkish security source told Al Jazeera that audio recordings from inside the consulate indicate that Khashoggis murderers were trying to find his phone immediately after killing him. Prior to entering the consulate, Khashoggi had given both of his mobile phones to his fiance Hatice Cengiz as she waited outside. Security tight as El Chapo Guzman trial set to open in Brooklyn As Joaquin El Chapo Guzman faces court in the US, elaborate precautions are in place around the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel after all, he has previously escaped from prison, twice. Exercises taking place days before talks on North Korea denuclearisation and planned second Trump-Kim summit. About 500 American and South Korean marines began small-scale military drills on Monday, days before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due to hold talks with North Korea on denuclearisation and a planned second summit of their leaders. Large-scale military exercises between the two countries were suspended in June after US President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore. But small-scale drills have continued, South Koreas Ministry of National Defense said on Monday. This weeks exercises follow a warning by North Korea on Friday that it could resume development of its nuclear programme if the United States did not drop its campaign of maximum pressure and sanctions. The improvement of relations and sanctions are incompatible, a foreign ministry official said in a statement released through state-run KCNA news agency. The US thinks that its oft-repeated sanctions and pressure lead to denuclearisation. We cannot help laughing at such a foolish idea. Progress Pompeo told CBSs Face the Nation he expected real progress during talks with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yong Chol, when they meet at the end of the week in New York. South Korea hopes North Korea and the United States will make big progress during the talks set for this week, presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said on Monday, but declined to comment on North Koreas Friday statement. North Korea has not tested a ballistic missile or nuclear weapon for nearly a year, and has said it closed its main nuclear test site and plans to dismantle several more facilities. In recent weeks, North Korea has pressed harder for what it sees as reciprocal concessions by the United States and other countries. American officials have remained sceptical of Kims commitment to giving up his nuclear arsenal, however, and Washington says it will not support easing international sanctions until more verified progress is made. Pompeo, interviewed on Fox News Sunday, said the Trump administration wants a full, verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, adding the president insisted on no economic relief until we have achieved our ultimate objective. Karu Jayasuriya says he wont accept Rajapaksa as prime minister until he proves majority in 225-member parliament. Speaker of Sri Lankas parliament has said he will not accept Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new prime minister until he proves a majority in 225-member parliament. President Maithripala Sirisena fired the sitting Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on October 26 and appointed Rajapaksa a controversial former president in his place, throwing the country in a constitutional crisis with two rival prime ministers. The majority of the members are of the view that the changes done in the parliament are unconstitutional and against the traditions, Karu Jayasuriya, the speaker of parliament from Wickremesinghes United National Party (UNP), said in a statement on Monday. Therefore, I am requested by the majority of the parliament to accept the position which was prior to these changes. Until the new group shows the majority, I will have to accept the status quo prior to the changes. Too late On Sunday, Sirisena ordered parliament to reconvene in 10 days to resolve the protracted political crisis, drawing sharp criticism from Wickremesinghes party which decried it as too late. {articleGUID} Sirisena had suspended parliamentary proceedings until November 16 after abruptly firing Prime Minister Wickremesinghe last week and replacing him with Rajapaksa. The United Nations and many Western countries have urged Sirisena to summon the House immediately. Mangala Samaraweera, a member of UNP, condemned Sirisenas decision to recall parliament two days prior to the initial suspension order, saying it was an eyewash to appease the ever increasing international and local pressure. The deposed leader has demanded a vote to prove his majority. But in recent days, a steady stream of defections has eroded his narrow majority in the House. At least eight legislators from the UNP and a member of an opposition party have now crossed over to the Sirisena and Rajapaksa-led United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), which had the backing of 96 legislators prior to the crisis. Nearly all politicians who left the UNP took up ministerial posts in the new cabinet. While the president has the authority to appoint the prime minister, he does not have the power to sack the incumbent, legal experts have said, citing constitutional amendments passed three years ago. Georgias Democratic candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, has pushed back against Republican opponent Brian Kemp for accusing Democrats of hacking voter registration systems, a charge he levelled without evidence. I think, unfortunately, Secretary Kemp has not only abused his power, he has failed to do his job, Abrams said in an interview with ABC on Monday. And you dont deserve a promotion when you do not serve the people youve been hired to serve. Kemp, the pro-Trump Republican candidate in Georgias governors race, who also oversees the states elections, made the accusation on Sunday, a move that analysts said highlighted the inherent conflict between his twin roles. The contest between Kemp, who currently sits as Georgias secretary of state, and Abrams, who is vying to become the countrys first black female governor, had already become a flashpoint for allegations of voter suppression. State Democratic Party officials quickly denied the charge, accusing Kemp of abusing power just two days before midterm elections. On Tuesday, voters will determine which party controls the US Congress as well as pick governors in 36 states, among them Georgia. {articleGUID} It looks pretty suspicious, and I would say that regardless of which party it was, Alan Abramowitz, a professor of political science at Emory University in Atlanta, told the Reuters news agency. Its just one more example of the kinds of problems that can occur when the person who is in charge of running the elections in the state is not only a partisan elected official but is a partys candidate for the highest office in the state. Surprised Voter suppression allegations became an issue in the campaign partly because of a state law requiring an exact match of voters names on ID cards and rolls, down to hyphens. Two federal courts on Friday issued rulings rejecting some of Kemps election enforcement moves. Kemps charge on Sunday appeared to result from a report made to his office and the FBI on Saturday by a Georgia businessman with an expertise in software, according to David Cross, a lawyer representing several Georgia voters who have sued the state over its decision not to use paper ballots. We expected the secretary of state would take that seriously and would take whatever remedial actions needed to be taken, and we were surprised to see that the response was to accuse the Democrats of hacking, Cross told reporters on Sunday. Cross said the businessman, Richard Wright, had approached him with the information, which Cross turned over to Kemps office on Saturday morning. He also said Wright had passed the details to the state Democratic Party. Wright could not be reached for comment on Sunday. According to Reuters, Kemps office did not respond to questions on Sunday about Crosss statements. Not Kemps first hacking charge Kemps office said in a statement on Sunday it launched the investigation late on Saturday and that it had notified the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI. We opened an investigation into the Democratic Party of Georgia after receiving information from our legal team about failed efforts to breach the online voter registration system and My Voter Page, Kemps office said. We are working with our private sector vendors and investigators to review data logs. It was not the first time that Kemp alleged that Georgias voting systems had been hacked. In 2016, he said a DHS computer made an unsuccessful attempt to breach the firewall guarding Georgias voter data. He complained on Facebook at the time that the agency had been less than forthcoming in responding to his allegation. The DHS inspector general in June 2017 said Kemps complaint was without merit. A DHS official said in an email that the department was aware of the latest allegation. The official declined to say if the agency was investigating. {articleGUID} The FBI declined to comment. Democrats rejected Kemps charge. They contend he has been lax on securing voter data and that his office previously improperly disclosed private information on six million Georgians. This is yet another example of abuse of power by an unethical secretary of state, Rebecca DeHart, executive director of the Georgia Democratic Party, said on Sunday. Kemps latest allegations were met with scepticism from cybersecurity experts, who noted that identifying who is behind a particular hack was time-consuming and extremely difficult. Does the Georgia Secretary of State have the forensics capability and expertise necessary to investigate their own potential breach? Alex Stamos, Facebooks former security chief, asked on Twitter. Stamos said he believed FBI and Justice Department specialists would be better positioned to investigate any hack. Voter rolls purged Former US President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, urged Kemp last month to step down from his election oversight role, saying keeping it while campaigning runs counter to the most fundamental principle of democratic elections. Kemp has refused to step down and has said he is fairly applying Georgias laws, but opponents continue to accuse him of a conflict of interest, pointing to a long history of voter suppression claims. Kemps office has held up some 53,000 voter applications, the vast majority of them belonging to African Americans and other voters of colour, according to a recent AP report. {articleGUID} The Brennan Center for Justice says the number of voters purged skyrocketed under Kemp, reaching an estimated 1.5 million between the 2012 and 2016 elections. That total is nearly twice the number purged between 2008 and 2012, the group said in a report. Last year, Kemp settled a lawsuit with civil rights organisations over voting rights. The suit included allegations that the voter registration system was discriminatory, citing the cancellation of around 34,000 peoples registration status between 2010 and 2013. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that the state must relax its exact match voter registration restrictions, allowing more than 3,000 people originally barred from voting to cast their ballot on Tuesday. During a heated debate last month, Abrams said, Voter suppression is not simply about being told no, its about being told its going to be harder for you to vote. Belgium-based SWIFT financial messaging service said it was suspending access for some Iranian banks after US sanctions. The Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communications (SWIFT) financial messaging service announced on Wednesday it was suspending access for some Iranian banks in the interest of the stability and integrity of the wider global financial system. The move came after the United States reimposed oil and financial sanctions against Iran, significantly turning up the pressure on Tehran in order to curb its alleged missile and nuclear programmes. Last week, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters that SWIFT could get slapped with sanctions if it provides services to Iranian banks blacklisted by Washington. What is SWIFT? A Belgian-based messaging platform that facilitates cross-border payments. The member-owned cooperative connects more than 11,000 banks, financial institutions and corporations in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. What is it not? Its not a bank, it doesnt hold money or manage it. It neither initiates transfers nor clears or settles payments. Why is SWIFT important? Think of SWIFT as the central nervous system of international financial transactions. The messaging platform enables financial institutions to send, receive and track information about financial transactions in a secure and standardised way that facilitates the smooth flow of funds across borders. What happens to a countr y when its banks get cut off from SWIFT? It can be crippled financially because money transfer information cant be forwarded to its banks. When a countrys banks are cut off from SWIFT, it cant pay for imports and cant receive payment for exports. What happened to Iran when it was cut off from SWIFT in 2012? In March 2012, SWIFT agreed to not forward messages to any Iranian bank or individual that had been blacklisted by the EU. As a result, Irans oil exports plunged from around 2.5 million bpd in 2011 to around one million bpd by 2014. The 2012 SWIFT ban was widely seen as instrumental in bringing Iran to the negotiating table which led to the 2015 Iran-nuclear deal. When Iranian banks were reconnected to SWIFT following the 2015 Iran-nuclear deal, oil exports increased again. How often are countries kicked out of SWIFT? Rarely. SWIFT cut off a handful of North Korean banks last year. Does SWIFT have to do what the US wants? No. It describes itself as a neutral global cooperative. Arizona Tuesdays midterm elections are seen as a referendum on the US presidents first two years in office. This years elections will also determine if Republicans can hang on to control of Congress. In the lead up to Tuesdays polls, President Donald Trump has sought to sow fear over immigration, meaning this years election carries extra weight for first-time immigrant voters. According to the US government, the US naturalises more than 700,000 people each year, giving them the right to vote, among other rights afforded to US citizens. The number of applications grew by more than 25 percent after Trump was elected. Al Jazeera spoke to four first-time immigrant voters about how they feel going into Tuesdays election: Ill finally feel like part of this country Khalid Al Jashame, 43, Tucson, Arizona Khalid Al Jashame grew up in the provincial capital Samawah, in southeast Iraq. After the war had started, Al Jashame was hired to work as a translator for the US army via a contracting company. Between 2006 and 2011, he was a translator in different settings: during Iraqi police official training, during meetings and also out in the field with the US army when they were searching for someone. I really liked that job, Al Jashame told Al Jazeera. You are part of something. You hope that some day, your country will be able to stand by itself. But by the end of 2006, things got more complicated. Armed fighters began targeting translators and Al Jashame and his family were threatened. A homemade bomb filled with nails and rocks in a milk can was ignited twice in front of his house. Al Jashame eventually applied for a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), a programme in which 50 visas a year are granted to Iraqi and Afghani translators for the US army. In 2012, his application was approved and he went to the US in March with his wife and two children. Five years later, he was naturalised as a US citizen. Tuesday will be his first opportunity to vote. Khalid Al Jashame said he hopes his vote will help usher in politicians who treat refugees with respect [Eline van Nes/Al Jazeera] Im really excited to vote, he told Al Jazeera. Now I feel I can really be here in the United States. Be part of this country. After having worked at the front desk of a hotel when he just entered the country, Al Jashame got a job working with refugees, helping them to find their way in the maze of a new society. {articleGUID} I am a refugee myself, so I understand what moves people to come to this country. When I think about a family, like the one from that boy who washed ashore on the beach [Alan Kurdi], I realise that his parents dont just take the risk of crossing a sea lightly. They are running away from something; otherwise, you would stay. I would have wanted to stay in Iraq myself, if I could. I really miss it. Without pointing fingers, Al Jashame says that some politicians do not always recognise the pain and suffering behind a refugees story. By casting his vote, he hopes to be able to see a change of politicians and see more people in power who at least treat refugees with respect. Trump doesnt represent our country Nancy Avila, 35, Phoenix, Arizona One of the only things Nancy Avila remembers from her childhood in Mexico is being close to her family there. When she was seven years old, her parents brought her from Mexico City to Arizona. {articleGUID} I arrived in the USA on the fourth of July, Avila told Al Jazeera. There was fireworks and parties everywhere, so I remember thinking that this was what life here was like. I was really amazed. But then, to my disappointment, the next day everything was normal again and the fireworks were gone from the streets. Growing up, Avila didnt think much about being undocumented. As a child I didnt know what it meant to be an illegal, Avila told Al Jazeera. You simply dont think about legal or illegal. But when I was older and friends of mine went to the DMV to get their drivers license and got a job, I realised things were different for me. Nancy Avila said that Trump doesnt represent the US well, particularly in how he treats immigrants [Courtesty of Nancy Avila] She eventually got her official residency papers and started the naturalisation process to become a US citizen. Its difficult to describe the joy and pride I felt that day of the naturalisation ceremony. There was family: my sisters, nephews. It was all very emotional. With her naturalisation, she can now also cast her vote during the upcoming elections. Its something Avila wasnt able to do during the presidential election of 2016, which she really wanted to do at the time. Donald Trump doesnt represent our country well, she told Al Jazeera. We are laughed at in other countries. He categorises immigrants as being inferior, but thats not what the United States stands for. We are all immigrants here; this is the melting pot. To me its sad. {articleGUID} Avila will vote Democratic in the hope to change something in the current political situation. She believes that every vote counts. Thats something we learned from the last elections for sure. There are people who didnt vote at the time, but who were able to vote, and now they regret it. Thats something which is difficult for me to understand. There are so many ways to vote. Everyone I know did vote. Everyone should. Voting is so much better than to just sign a petition on Facebook. Action speaks louder than words. To have a voice as an Arab-American, thats very special Manal Martinez-Al Joborri, 30, Mesa, Arizona Manal Martinez-Al Joborri hopes her vote on Tuesday, the first time she will have an opportunity to exercise that right, will help change education for the better. {articleGUID} I have already worked in schools, so I have seen there is a lot to improve. There should be more one-on-one teaching, more programmes to prepare high school students for university. And most importantly: there should be a reasonable salary for teachers. Arizona is a state where people have protested under the banner of Red for Ed against budget cuts in public schools and for better teacher salaries. Martinez-Al Joborri came to the United States from Iraq the first time when she was a high-school student. Her father worked for the UN in New York for five years. When the war started, they came to the US again in 2006; first via a working visa and later they applied for asylum. Manal Martinez-Al Joborri said she feels its special to be able to cast her vote as an Arab-American [Eline van Nes/Al Jazeera] As an Arab Muslim, Martinez-Al Joborri, said she felt like she often had prove herself to many in her community. In her first job, at a call centre for a mortgage company, Martinez-Al Joborri was the only Arab-American. She said in the beginning, only a few would talk to her, but she had the feeling that she managed to slowly win their hearts. {articleGUID} I brought hummus and dolmas for lunch to offer to people, she told Al Jazeera. These made people open up. Eventually, some were really excited, saying that I was their first Arab friend. By bringing more diversity in the classroom, Martinez-Al Joborri hopes to be able to create more awareness. To have a voice as an Arab-American, thats very special. I now feel one with America Christian*, 25, Tucson, Arizona When the war erupted in Rwanda in the 1990s, Christian and his parents fled to Congo. They were considered traitors by some people because his parents are both Hutu and Tutsi. They returned after the worse of the violence subsided, but his parents still didnt feel that their mixed marriage was accepted, so they lived in self-imposed exile in Kenya from 1997 onwards. {articleGUID} In Kenya, there werent many opportunities. They eventually applied for the refugee programme and were accepted by the US six years ago. From this moment on, life got better quickly for Christian. One month after his arrival, he found a job at a local car wash. For the first time in his life, he was able to work. Last March, Christian was naturalised as a US citizen. Christian said he now feels one with America [Eline van Nes/Al Jazeera] Even though I am not born here, I now feel one with America, he told Al Jazeera. I belong here; this is my country. Even though I still feel culturally connected to Rwanda too, I am an American. It is possible to be both at the same time. Celebrating your own culture, while becoming part of America is exactly what the US is based on. Thats how the Founding Fathers wanted it to be. {articleGUID} For Christian, healthcare will be the issue that matters most when he votes on Tuesday. He has seen people too scared to go to a hospital, even when they had healthcare coverage through their employer due to high costs. Ive never been to Europe, but when I hear that they have affordable treatment for everyone in the hospitals, I know that is something I would want to see here. I havent experienced sickness myself yet, but I heard of people who are struggling now to pay their hospital bills. It could happen to anyone. *Christian preferred not to have his family name in print. Irans President Hassan Rouhani vows to proudly bypass US reimposed sanctions, saying Iran will continue to sell oil. The United States has reimposed oil and financial sanctions against Iran, significantly turning up the pressure on Tehran in order to curb its alleged missile and nuclear programmes. The move on Monday will restore US sanctions that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the administration of President Barack Obama, and add 300 new designations in Irans oil, shipping, insurance and banking sectors. Irans President Hassan Rouhani vowed to break the sanctions imposed on Tehrans vital energy and banking sectors. America wanted to cut to zero Irans oil sales but we will continue to sell our oil to break sanctions, Rouhani told economists at a meeting broadcast live on state television on Monday. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Bahram Qasemi told state TV that the new sanctions are part of a psychological war launched by Washington. Today, US defied UN top court & Security Council by reimposing sanctions on Iran that target ordinary people. But US bullying is backfiring, not just because JCPOA is important, but because the world can't allow Trump & Co. to destroy global order. The US& not Iranis isolated. pic.twitter.com/206g1BFqbU Javad Zarif (@JZarif) November 5, 2018 [US President Donald] Trumps administration is addicted to imposing sanctions Americas economic pressure on Iran is futile and part of its psychological war against Tehran, Qasemi told a weekly news conference. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the sanctions are intended to convince Iran to abandon its current revolutionary course. The Iranian regime has a choice: it can either do a 180-degree turn from its outlaw course of action and act like a normal country or it can see its economy crumble, said Pompeo. We hope a new agreement with Iran is possible but until it makes changes in the 12 ways that I listed in May, we will be relentless in exerting pressure on the regime. {articleGUID} Rest assured, Iran will never come close to getting a nuclear weapon on President Trumps watch, said Pompeo, adding that 19 rounds of sanctions have so far been imposed during the Trump administration. Also on Monday, the Belgium-based SWIFT financial messaging service announced it was suspending access for some Iranian banks in the interest of the stability and integrity of the wider global financial system. The US government has previously told SWIFT that it is expected to comply with US sanctions and it could face sanctions if it fails to do so. READ MORE: What is SWIFT and why it matters in the US-Iran spat Al Jazeeras Zein Basravi, reporting from Tehran, said the strong talk coming from Iran was a defence strategy. Many Iranians we speak to tell us consistently that they have come to learn the only language the US understands is the language of strength. Before a campaign rally for the US midterm elections, US President Donald Trump on Sunday said that Iran was already struggling under pressure by his administration. The Iran sanctions are very strong; they are the strongest sanctions we have ever imposed. And we will see what happens with Iran, but theyre not doing very well, I can tell you, he said. Worst ever agreement Trump announced in May that his administration was withdrawing from what he called the worst ever agreement negotiated by the US and reimposed a first round of sanctions on Iran in August. Other parties to the deal, including Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, have said they will not leave. The Foreign Ministrys Qasemi said Iran is in constant contact with other signatories of the nuclear deal that saw most international financial and economic sanctions on Iran lifted in return for Tehran curbing its disputed nuclear activity under UN surveillance. We are in regular contact with other signatories of the nuclear deal setting up mechanisms to continue trade with the European Union will take time, Qasemi told a weekly news conference in Tehran. China, India, Italy Japan, Greece, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey all top importers of Iranian oil are the eight countries granted temporary exemptions from the sanctions to ensure crude oil prices are not destabilised, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday. Anger in Iran Earlier, thousands of Iranians rallied to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Addressing the rally in Tehran on Sunday, Irans military chief, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, warned Trump against overreaching when dealing with Iran. {articleGUID} I want to say something to America and its weird president, Jafari said. Never threaten Iran, because we can still hear the horrified cries of your soldiers in the [desert] and you know it better, how many of your old soldiers in American society commit suicide every day because of depression and fear that they suffered in battlefields. So, dont threaten us militarily and dont frighten us with military threats, he added. Over the past year, Tehran has accused Trump of waging economic warfare and devastating its economy. In his speech, Jafari assured the crowd that Trumps attacks on Irans economy were a desperate attempt to defeat the republic and were doomed to fail. But his optimistic tone stood in stark contrast to the widespread economic chaos Iran has endured during the past 12 months, including a nosedive in the value of its currency, a shake-up of President Hassan Rouhanis economic team which saw several senior ministers dismissed and nationwide protests against price increases and dire economic conditions. Based on the figures from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Irans petroleum exports hit $52.728bn in 2017. Its crude oil exports stood at 2,125,000 barrels per day during the same year, while its natural gas exports reached 12.9 billion cubic metres. Those numbers, however, have already dropped in the current year. In India, for example, crude oil imports from Iran dropped from 690,000 barrels per day in May to around 400,000 barrels per day in August, Vandana Hari, a Singapore-based global oil market analyst, said. Irans energy sector accounts for up to 80 percent of the countrys income from exports, according to the US Energy Information Administration, so a disruption could bring serious pain to its financial bottom line and its people. Aside from the energy industry, others outfits and activities being sanctioned include: Thousands trapped on the southern outskirts of Hodeidah as Saudi-led coalition forces battle Houthi fighters. Thousands of Yemeni civilians are trapped on the southern outskirts of the Red Sea port of Hodeidah as forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition battle Houthi fighters entrenched in the city, aid groups said. The alliance has massed thousands of Yemeni troops in recent days near the heavily defended port despite recent calls from international leaders for an end to the countrys ongoing conflict, which has unleashed the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Rebels and government officials reported intense battles on Monday near the western port city, according to AFP news agency. All the people living between the airport and the university are trapped, the last four days have been very tough, it is beyond catastrophic levels, Isaac Ooko, Hodeidah area manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Reuters news agency. Air strikes have been very intense and the hovering of the jets causes permanent anxiety Hodeidah has become a ghost city, people stay indoors and the streets are deserted. Yemeni military officials told AFP that government forces backed by the US-supported Saudi-UAE military coalition advanced on Houthi-held Hodeidah and positioned themselves around both the north and south of the city in a bid to surround it and block a major rebel supply route. The officials said the coalition sent fighter jets and Apache attack helicopters on Monday morning to back up ground troops. The head of the Houthis revolutionary council, Mohammed Ali al-Huthi, reported a military escalation by the coalition and slammed the operation as a strenuous attempt to block talks aimed at ending the war and finding peace. A source in the Saudi-UAE alliance told AFP the clashes were not offensive operations, adding that the alliance was committed to keeping the Hodeidah port open. According to local medical officials cited by AFP, at least 74 rebels and 15 pro-government troops were killed during fighting in the past 24 hours. Yemen on a precipice The conflict in Yemen, the Arab worlds poorest country and home to an estimated 28 million people, began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, by Houthi rebels, who toppled the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Concerned by the rise of the Houthis, believed to be backed by Iran, a US-backed Saudi-UAE military coalition launched an intervention in 2015 in the form of a massive air campaign aimed at reinstalling Hadis government. According to the UN, at least 10,000 people have been killed since the coalition entered the conflict. The death toll has not been updated in years, however, and is likely to be far higher. Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded an immediate halt to the fighting, warning that the country stands on a precipice and could face the worlds worst famine for decades if violence continues unabated. About 22 million Yemenis are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN. Mondays battles, meanwhile, took place after the Saudi-UAE coalition sent more than 10,000 new troops towards Hodeidah last week as part of a planned new offensive aimed at securing areas liberated from the Houthis, according to Yemeni government officials. The move came after an earlier suspension of a coalition assault on the city, put in place on account of planned peace talks between Yemens warring factions, which were due to be held in September in Geneva. {articleGUID} The summit failed to materialise when Houthi representatives refused to attend, saying the UN had failed to meet the groups pre-summit demands. The UNs special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, is hoping to restart peace efforts at a summit in Sweden later this month. On Monday, a Saudi-UAE coalition official told AFP the alliance was committed to de-escalating hostilities in Yemen and strongly supportive of the UN envoys political process. [But] if the Houthis fail to show up for peace talks again, this might lead [us] to restart the offensive operation in Hodeidah, the official said. UK-based charity Save the Children described the situation in and around Hodeidah, the current epicentre of Yemens conflict, as deeply concerning. This serious escalation around Yemens most important port city could put tens of thousands of children in the line of fire and further choke delivery of food and medicine, Tamer Kirolos, the organisations Yemen director, said in a statement on Monday. Hodeidah is the only port held by the Houthis and serves as the entry point for the bulk of Yemens commercial imports and aid supplies. The Saudi-UAE coalition has imposed a blockade on the port, however, allegedly as part of efforts to prevent the Houthis from using it as a landing point for weapons supplied by Iran. Both Tehran and the rebels deny the port is being used to smuggle arms from Iran into Yemen. About the show A weekly programme that examines and dissects the worlds media, how they operate and the stories they cover. Watch The Listening Post every Saturday at 0830GMT Elections are always important because power is always important. We are not only deciding which individuals we will place in power over us, but which ideas we will allow to control our lives. We can hold our noses and say politics stinks, or that Democrats and Republicans are all the same, and both of those attitudes have some basis in reality, but politics will not go away, and left vs. right is the only real choice we have. So lets peel this back and look at the undeniable truths facing us. Truth #1 - Elections are binary. Basically, all choices are - up or down, right or wrong, to be or not to be, eat your dinner or go to bed. Those who insist that their opinions are so finely honed as to require a third or fourth or fifth choice dont understand the reality of elections. It always comes down to a race between the top two contenders; any additional candidates merely siphon votes from the top two and create a situation where no one has a mandate. An election is not the time to be a purist - Donald Trump and his remarkable successes should have taught us that. A candidate has to have two weapons - the right ideas and the ability to win. One without the other is useless. Truth #2 - Elections are the fulcrum on which our unique system of government balances, therefore our elections are crucial. They are also under attack. Whereas the Russians dont seem to have been very effective, if, in fact, they were tinkering with our presidential choices, forces inside America are working hard to make elections pointless. The integrity of the voting process itself must be protected. We learned that in the hanging-chad election. Without assurance that our votes are not being canceled out by infected voting machines, or dead, illegal, or felonious voters, we lose our ability to choose our future. Without the enforcement of election laws, we make a mockery of the whole system. Without properly vetted candidates, we lose our ability to make intelligent selections. We still dont know who Barack Hussein Obama is. We dont know much about Barry Soetero either, though they appear to be one and the same. We have people running for congressional seats and for gubernatorial offices that have criminal records, are deeply in debt, or have broken election laws, yet our media seem little concerned. We know next to nothing about the names up for judgeships - and we cant find out much even though those judges are now busy making law. Our elections are also seriously affected by gerrymandering. If the district boundaries are adjusted just so, one party wins. If not, the other party does. This idea is a lot of what is behind the effort to remove the Electoral College from our presidential elections. The deck would then be permanently stacked for the heavily populated areas and those with more rural concerns would be disenfranchised altogether and freedom would take a major blow. Truth #3 - Truth is a crucial component of elections. Our nation is now split between those who see truth as variable, open to infinite manipulation and those who see truth as an absolute concept, the foundation of our society. We have seen recently the secret videotapes of Democrat campaign workers copping proudly to the fact that their respective candidates are lying about their positions on issues in order to be elected. They talk as if that kind of prevarication is just business as usual - and for many in government that is the case, as scandal after scandal has recently demonstrated. Half of the Senate Judicial Committee was just fine with condemning a man on the basis of what were unsubstantiated and ridiculous accusations by women of questionable character. The I believe her mantra came forth with no corroborating evidence at all, and with no concern for its lack. We are left standing in the voting booth not knowing which candidate is telling us the truth about ideas, policies, or positions. If these people promise us they will tend to veterans affairs, or healthcare, or immigration, or education, or pet licensing and HOA fees, we need to know if these candidates are being truthful about both their intentions and their ability to follow through. If, however, we live in a society where truth is nothing more than the ghost of long-past goodness, then that alone could do in our important elections and therefore our control over our own lives. Truth #4 - Elections are about ideas. This is more true today than it has ever been. In the early days of our nation most everyone was in favor of freedom. Theyd had a taste of it and werent about to go back to bondage. There was disagreement over how that was to be accomplished, but not about whether or not it should be done. Slavery was the main idea our forefathers dug in about and that eventually triggered a civil war. Now, however, we are fighting principalities and powers. This is a battle over all the principles of righteousness and law. We are up against the forces of darkness - of deceit, of envy, of corruption. We have to decide if we are so craven that we are willing to take from those who have earned money in order to provide ourselves with a transient glow of appearing to care about our fellow man. (Those who want to welcome the illegal immigrant into our nation are not inviting these same people into their homes.) We have to decide if we are so infantile as to need our government to provide us with food, clothing, and shelter. Are we willing to elect to high office those we know to be despicable people just so we can salve our consciences or line our own pockets? The candidates we choose from this election are either Americans who value our heritage, our devotion to truth and freedom, to free enterprise and ingenuity, to independence and self-reliance, or we choose socialism and all the horrors that provides. It is an idea that has disproven itself every time it has been applied, is doing so right now in foreign countries and in some of our own states and cities. Its not like we dont know what it does. Yet I talk with people on a daily basis who think it might still be the right answer to all human problems - just add a little more salt, a dash of Worcestershire sauce and itll be just dandy. Never mind Cuba or Venezuela. Dont pay any attention to San Francisco, or Chicago, or Detroit. Socialism is cool, they insist. The problem with the socialist approach is that it requires the confiscation of peoples property, which requires the government have hugely expanded powers, which results in tyranny and most of the confiscated moneys going to those at the top. Were back to a binary decision. We have arrived at a crossroads where we will either abandon the lofty goal of a righteous and free nation, opting instead for greed and sloth, or stand up to immense pressure from every known evil power and fight yet again for the liberty and decency that our forefathers set out to create. Truth #5 - no matter how this election turns out we must remember that God controls history. How else could Donald Trump have won an election stacked against him? So well pray and well vote and well watch His plan unfold. Deana Chadwell blogs at www.ASingleWindow.com. She is also an adjunct professor and department head at Pacific Bible College in southern Oregon. She teaches writing and public speaking. The Washington Post is right on schedule, turning weather into politics, with Election Day forecasts, This years midterm election features an intensity usually reserved for a presidential race. In parts of central and eastern United States, a major storm system may add a wrinkle to this high-stakes contest. In keeping with their theme of making everything political, the WaPo published a map, in appropriate red and blue colors, showing storms in the south. They further note, Although the increasing movement toward early voting may somewhat reduce the weathers impact, there are a number of close races in areas that will be affected by this storm. One would think the WaPo is already making excuses for Democrat midterm losses by reminding readers, Bad weather may tend to favor Republican turnout, at least historically. As President Trump likes to say, Well see. Leading up to the midterm elections, there was predictably an uptick in stories about global warming and climate change. Its no surprise that the media is attempting to blame any and all weather anomalies on Trump, with the implication that if he had not pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord, the worlds weather would be calm and tranquil. All because of environment-hating Donald Trump, we have storms, hurricanes, snow, rain, heat, and any other form of weather. If only Trump didnt pull the plug on the Paris agreements, the fierce hurricanes of the last two years would not have happened. Instead Houston, Florida, and the Carolinas would have had nothing but tropical breezes. As an interesting aside, where is the predicted Trumps Katrina? Despite some nasty hurricanes, there was little media coverage after recent hurricanes as relief efforts were prompt and efficient, what one would expect with a New York City businessman in charge. The only thing close to Katrina was in Puerto Rico, with botched relief efforts, despite, not because of, the administrations efforts. No matter how well the federal government performs, if local officials are incompetent or prefer grandstanding rather than assisting their people, the relief effort will fall short. Halloween, only a few days past, was an occasion to beat the global warming drums. An NBC affiliate in Madison Wisconsin, painted gloom and doom on an otherwise fun and festive day. Because of climate change, Octobers are warming for much of the country. That includes right here in Wisconsin. Since 1970, October temperatures have climbed by an average of 2.3 degrees in Madison. A warming October not only brings concerns locally, but across the country and across the world. They posted a graphic showing a gradually upward sloping trend line for Halloween temperatures in Madison. Not for the past 100 or 1000 years, but since 1970. Given that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, a 47 year temperature trend is hardly conclusive. Unless we are to believe the only relevant history is the period of time when we are alive. How about a slightly longer view of Wisconsin temperatures, say 100 years. From the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine. After tracking the weather year to year for 105 years, hindsight provides some trends. Wisconsin's mean temperatures can be divided into four periods: the 1890s through 1920s when temperatures fluctuated both above and below the mean temperature; the 1930s, '40s and early '50s when temperatures were consistently above normal; the late 1950s through the early '80s when temperatures were consistently below normal; and the late '80s through the present when temperatures appear to fluctuate above and below the norm again. In a nutshell they seem to have 30 year cycles, sometimes cooler, sometimes warmer, and in this current cycle, fluctuating above and below the average, as the above graphic illustrates. The trendline, assuming it is statistically correct, is rising slightly. To NBC, this conclusively proves manmade global warming. And an end to Halloween since, Supplies of chocolate, the backbone of Halloween, are at risk from rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns. Then there is the migrant caravan. Is it just a spontaneous gathering of Central Americans, thousands of whom decided at the same time to take a 2000 mile walk to the US southern border? Funded by Venezuela or George Soros, with the express purpose of meddling in the election by creating an October surprise, hoping to put President Trump in a box? Nah. The far left Guardian has the answer. What else but climate change? While violence and poverty have been cited as the reasons for the exodus, experts say the big picture is that changing climate is forcing farmers off their land and its likely to get worse. Climate change in the region is exacerbating and sometimes causing a miasma of other problems including crop failures and poverty. And they warn that in the coming decades, it is likely to push millions more people north towards the US. The implication, again, is that this is all President Trumps fault. Lets get back to the weather this month. What about Guns N Roses cold November rain? The Weather Channel predicts, Colder-than-average temperatures in the South. Another headline, Winter cold coming to Michigan toward end of week, could bring lake effect snow. Its cold across the pond too, UK weather is on track to take another freezing turn, with a shocking weather chart showing the risk of snow significantly increasing over the first week of November. Rather than listen to the climate alarmists in the media and on the left, remember the words of another songwriter, Gordon Lightfoot, writing about the upper Midwest, When the gales of November come early. The only gale, not only in November, but in every month is Donald Trump. And the only warming is from the hot air spewing from CNN and MSNBC, and their Democrat comrades. Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. With the midterms upon us, cultural Marxism has emerged as a lightning rod, re-igniting the battle over whether it is a malignant force in society or whether it even exists. The new Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, is charged with being a fascist, misogynist white supremacist who adds to his crimes the fact that he thinks cultural Marxism is both real and destructive. Jordan Peterson prefers the term "postmodern neo-Marxism" and condemns it as dangerous for which he is targeted in the media and accused of preaching "patriarchy, misogyny, and illiberal politics." Senator Rand Paul sees cultural Marxism as the driving force behind grievance politics groups identifying as victims of exploitation to gain moral prestige and political advantage. Liberals don't bother to debate what the term means. They deny that it means anything at all. Recently, Salon dismissed cultural Marxism as "a hoax concept." The Daily Dot denounced it as "little more than a racist dog whistle." Even the libertarian magazine Reason ridiculed the concept as an invention of "the conspiratorial right." So what is cultural Marxism, and is it even a real thing? Cultural Marxism defines individuals largely in terms of group identity race, class, sex, ethnicity, sexual identity, and so on. It's familiar to most ordinary people in the form of identity politics. Multiculturalism. Political correctness. Speech codes. Harvard professor Steven Pinker once complained that at many universities, students are "muzzled by speech codes that would not pass the giggle test if challenged on First Amendment grounds." Both on and off campus, grievance groups have escalated to bullying and de-platforming speakers who hold "wrong" (usually conservative) views. Activists shout down politicians and drive their families out of restaurants. Repressive intolerance is metastasizing in the public arena. But critics ask: How is all this related to Marx? The connection is easy enough to trace. Classic Marxism interprets history as a series of economic stages. The driving force is the struggle between the oppressors (capitalists) and the oppressed (proletariat). Cultural Marxism extends the same form of analysis from economics to race, sex, ethnicity, sexuality the list is virtually endless. Any group can claim to be oppressed. Just as in classic Marxism, the proposed solution is to raise your consciousness (become aware of yourself as an oppressed group), then rise up against the oppressor. Though these trends are recent, the justification for extending Marxism to other social groups was already implicit in the source of Marx's theory the philosophy of Hegel. Hegel held a version of German idealism, which simply means he thought history is driven by ideas. He taught that the real actor in history is not the individual, but what he called the Absolute Mind, a kind of collective consciousness that expresses itself through a community's shared laws, morality, language, religion, and culture. Indeed, for Hegel, individuals do not even have original ideas of their own. Their thoughts are merely expressions of the Absolute Mind. In his words, individuals "are all the time the unconscious tools of the World Mind at work within them." Over time, Hegel's successors reduced the Absolute Mind to a metaphor the best known being Marx himself, who famously said he "turned Hegel on his head." By that he meant that in his theory, humans are unconscious tools not of mental forces (a World Mind), but of material forces (economic class). What remained from Hegel in all his successors, however, is the notion that individuals are "unconscious tools" of a communal consciousness. They are not producers of culture so much as products of a particular culture and community. In our own day, this has led to the extremist conclusion that individuals are little more than mouthpieces for communities based on race, class, sex, ethnicity, and sexual identity. Sound familiar? Every community is said to have its "own" truth, based on its unique experience and perspective which cannot be judged by anyone outside the community. This ghettoized vision reduces individuals to puppets of social forces: they hold beliefs not because they have good reasons, but because they are black or white, a man or a woman, Asian or Hispanic, or whatever. Yet, ironically, while neo-Marxists treat everyone else's beliefs as relative to social conditions, they treat their own beliefs as objective and universally true. They are just as exclusive as anyone else in insisting that their view captures the way things really are. To ask for evidence of racism or sexism is itself denounced as racist and sexist. Thus, neo-Marxism makes itself unfalsifiable. So yes, cultural Marxism is real. It has roots in the same philosophy that inspired Marx. The original version of Marxism led to communism, where those who did not fit into the prescribed box of economic class were subject to forced famines or sent to hard labor camps. All told, an estimated eighty-five to a hundred million died or were shot to death. As Peterson notes, Marxism is not only wrong, but also "murderous and genocidal." Conceptually, cultural Marxism is the same "game under a new guise." The troubling implication is that it has the potential to be just as repressive and tyrannical as classic Marxism. Nancy Pearcey is professor and scholar in residence at Houston Baptist University and editor-at-large of the Pearcey Report. Her books include Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life & Sexuality and Finding Truth, on which this article is based. As I have done every two years for quite some time, here are my predictions for the midterms. House of Representatives There are several dozen House races and five Senate races where one candidate or the other has a lead of 2 points or less in the most recent survey. Picking individual winners in these House races is hazardous since there are few public polls of these districts . Another few dozen House seats show a candidate leading by five points or less. The great majority of the close House races are Republican-held seats, hence their vulnerability to Democrats taking over the House, where a net pickup of 23 seats is required. Most every analyst -- Larry Sabato, Stuart Rothenberg, the Cook Political Report, the Real Clear Politics average, Nate Silvers fivethirtyeight.com, Nate Cohn in the upshot in the New York Times -- is predicting a pickup for the Democrats of more than the 23 seats needed. Several have increased their range of the likely pickup in the last week to the 30 to 40 seat range. Polling is becoming more difficult with ever lower response rates to telephone surveys with live callers. . There are sometimes higher response rates to automated surveys, whether by phone or online (though not much higher), and there are issues related to whether such surveys reach a representative sample of likely voters. Rasmussen, an automated survey, shows Trump with a positive approval score, and most other surveys show him 8-12 or more points net negative. The generic ballot for which party voters prefer control Congress has consistently shown large margins for the Democrats, currently over 7 points on average, though a few surveys have shown smaller margins this week. The Democrats seem poised for significant gains in the House delegation in Pennsylvania , due to court-ordered redistricting. Democrats should also net big gains in California, New Jersey, and possibly Florida and Virginia, where a weak (or in California, nonexistent) GOP Senate candidate could drag down GOP House candidates. There are many other states where there are 1 or 2 endangered GOP held seats. RCP has placed 15 GOP-held House seats in the lean or likely Democratic column, and two Democratic held seats in the lean or likely Republican column. That accounts for a net 13 of the 23 needed. Add to that 31 GOP-held seats regarded as tossups, and 26 more as Lean GOP. That makes 57 GOP held seats that are tossups or only slight margins for Republicans in which Democrats need to pick up a net 10. There are another 18 Likely GOP seats, which are not really safe this year. Only 6 Democrat-held seats are regarded as tossups. Given these daunting numbers, it is very difficult to see how Republicans hold the House and easier to see a possibility of a significant Democratic gain or 30 or more. There is of course, the possibility of systematic polling error, in which one party runs several points higher than poll averages in many races. In 2016, Trump ran 2 points better than polling averages nationwide, but 4 or 5 points better than polling averages throughout the Midwest, enabling his narrow win in a few rustbelt states no Republican had won since 1988 -- Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The biggest obstacle facing Republicans in the contest for House control is how many of their incumbents are stuck in the mid-40s in recent polls, even if only a few points down. In general, late-breakers do not decide to go with an incumbent if they have found no reason to do so during a long campaign. Normally, the party that has control of a seat, especially one where an incumbent is running, has a strong financial advantage over the challenger candidate. This year, the Democrats have out-raised their opponents who are defending seats all over the country. Turnout Turnout is an issue, too, in midterms. Normally, some of the strongest groups for Democrats in Presidential years, African Americans and Hispanics, vote in greatly reduced numbers in the midterms. The drop-off is not usually as steep for GOP-voting groups. This year, turnout -- based on early voting, and survey results showing intent to vote -- looks higher across the board than prior midterm races. Turnout in suburban areas appears to be particularly high. So, too, in two Southern states where African American candidates are running for Governor, Florida and Georgia, turnout among this group seems to be much higher than normal for a midterm. When Barack Obama ran for President, not only did black turnout increase substantially (by 4 million from 2004 to 2008), but the share of the black vote the Democrats won grew as well. An increased margin for Democrats among African Americans is likely in these two states as well, which should help down-ballot Democrats running for the House in both states. So far, early voting numbers have shown strength for Republicans in several states including Arizona,, Indiana, Michigan, Texas, Missouri, North Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Ohio and even Pennsylvania. These numbers could change with weekend voting, as they have in Florida where Democrats had a big day on Saturday. The dynamic of who votes early versus on Election Day is not stable in individual states from one election cycle to another, so one should not read too much into the early voting totals. In some states, registered Democrat often vote Republican, particularly in the Southern states. In suburban districts in many states, early voting by registered Republicans could mean women who normally vote Republican are showing up to vote against Trump and Republicans this cycle. In most polling to date, Democrats are holding a higher percentage of their voters than republicans. Overall, my forecast is for a pickup for Democrats in the 30-35 seat range, slightly more likely above the range than below.. This range is not that far above 23, so it is not impossible for Republicans to hang on, but I think Nate Silvers odds are about right -- maybe a 15% probability they can do it. Senate The Senate is a different story. Currently, the GOP has a 51-49 edge after throwing away the Alabama seat . The GOP could lose a seat and wind up at 50, or have a great night and end up as high as 55. There are 4 somewhat or very vulnerable GOP held Senate seats: Texas, Tennessee, Arizona and Nevada. Arizona is an open seat (Jeff Flake retiring), and polls in the last week have shown the Democrat Kyrsten Sinema up 6, and the Republican Martha McSally up 7. Other polls have shown a tie. I think McSally will win a very close race. Arizona is changing -- it is becoming more of a purple state than a red state, but the Republicans should win the Governors race handily, and some slight spillover from that one will aid McSally. Nevada is very tough to call for a Republican -- incumbent Dean Heller over Democrat Jacky Rosen. Rosen is ahead in the last two public polls, after Heller had led most of the campaign season. This is nothing new for Nevada, where Harry Reid somehow always pulled close races to his side in the final weeks. Even Michael Madigan could get lessons from Reid. Heller won by 1 point in 2012, a Presidential election year when Obama won the state by 6%. This year the Governors race is as close as the Senate race, and they will probably both go in the same direction -- my guess for the Democrats. Republicans Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn have held mid-single digit leads in Texas and Tennessee for the last month. In both states, however, the Democrat -- Phil Bredesen in Tennessee, and Beto ORourke in Texas -- are still in the race, and an upset is not impossible. The fact that President Trump is holding a rally in Tennessee in the last few days is indicative of the tightening in the Tennessee Senate race. Texas is less solidly Republican than in prior years (Romney won the state by 16%, Trump by 9%). I expect both Republicans to win in part because Republican governor candidates at the top of the ticket in each state will win easily, with some bump for Republican Senate candidates. Republicans are expected to pick up a Democratic held seat in North Dakota, where Kevin Cramer has a solid lead over incumbent Heidi Heitkamp. If Republicans only lose Nevada among their seats up in 2018, then their floor is 51 with the North Dakota pickup. If Republicans lose both Arizona and Nevada, by no means a shock if it happens, then North Dakota would preserve their Senate control at 50 with Pence the tie-breaker. That is truly a worst case scenario. Two races, in Missouri and Indiana, are both true toss-ups, with Josh Hawley, the Republican, maybe a slight favorite in Missouri over Claire McCaskill, and Joe Donnelly, the Democrat, slightly ahead of Republican challenger Mike Braun in Indiana. Republicans also have a shot at a pickup in Florida where Democrat Bill Nelson holds a narrow lead over Governor Rick Scott, who has made a habit of eking out narrow victories in two prior statewide races. Scott has taken the lead in a few recent polls, and seems to be running stronger than the Republican candidate for Governor in Florida .If Republicans sweep the three close races -- Missouri, Indiana and Florida -- they would be at 55, if they also hold Arizona and Nevada. I am not that optimistic. I think Republicans will net at least 1-- most likely Missouri to go along with North Dakota and a loss of Nevada and possibly 2. But their chances of gaining a net 2 or 3 seats are much better than the likelihood of losing control (meaning a loss of Texas or Tennessee plus Nevada and Arizona, and a pickup of North Dakota. The race in West Virginia has been closing with Joe Manchinss lead over Republican Patrick Morrissey shrinking this week. A late visit by President Trump suggests this race is still winnable. Manchin voted for Kavanaugh, after it became clear his vote did not matter in the outcome, and this probably helped his chances to save his seat. The other possible GOP pickup is Montana, where Democrat Jon Tester has led in every poll, but the libertarian candidate withdrew this week and endorsed Matt Rosendale the Republican. The problem is that many Montanans had already voted before this occurred. Testers lead shrank in recent weeks to the 2-3 point range, so a Rosendale win would be a surprise, but not a complete shock. In New Jersey, Bob Menendez , despite his ethics issues, will likely survive in a very blue state, but by smaller margins that normal for an incumbent Democrat. Governors Governors races are likely to be a very bad story for Republicans this Tuesday. Democrats are poised to pick up Michigan and Illinois easily, and hold Pennsylvania. Democrats are narrowly ahead in Wisconsin and finally may turn out Scott Walker. In the two marquee races, Republican Brian Kemp seems very narrowly ahead of Democrat Stacy Abrams in Georgia, and in Florida, Anders Gillum is a few points ahead of Republican Ron DeSantis. DeSantis seems to have closed the gap a bit in the last few days, but is still an underdog. Georgia is another state that is less red than in the past, and heavy black turnout is keeping this close. There are also surprisingly close Governors races in South Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas. Republicans should not lose statewide races in Kansas, Oklahoma or South Dakota, but might this year due to the specific candidates on the ballot. Ohio is another close governors race, where Democrat Richard Cordray appears to be a few points ahead of Republican Mike DeWine, another uninspiring choice for Republicans. If Democrats elect governors in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and hold Pennsylvania, they will have a say in state legislative and US House redistricting for the 2022 midterms. Republicans have held the House since 2010 in part due to favorable redistricting in North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania after the 2010 census, at one point a 44-17 House split favoring Republicans in these four states. Some of these states will lose seats after the census, but in any case, GOP margins will be greatly reduced in all of them, starting this year in Pennsylvania with the court-ordered map favoring Democrats. Though Democrats could win both Florida and Georgia, I think Kemp wins narrowly in Georgia and Gillum wins in Florida. When black candidates are on the top line of the ballot, there are possible polling errors due to voters not wanting to appear racist to a pollster by supporting the white candidate (a kind of fake virtue signaling known as the Bradley effect). This embarrassment factor may have been one reason why Trump surpassed his poll numbers in 2016. The so-called blue wave will occur if Democratic turnout is much higher than Republican turnout, as it appeared it might be until September. The Senate Democrats ham-handed behavior in the Kavanaugh nomination for the Supreme Court seemed to help lift Republican enthusiasm for voting in the midterms and may be responsible for a good outcome for the party in a few Senate races in heavily red states. The major takeaway from looking at the key races is how close they are in many states. Normal margins of error in most surveys are plus or minus 3 or 4 points, and there are many statewide (Senate or governor) and House races where one candidates lead is in the 1-2 point range. These are hardly secure margins. Image credit: Pixabay The presumption of innocence, a foundational principle, instituted by the founding fathers in our founding document, the Constitution, has evaporated faster than a bead of sweat on Christine Blasey Ford's brow as she awaits a flight to French Polynesia for one of her many surfing vacations. One rule shot to hell. What of rules? Why do we have them? Wouldn't it be nice if we were allowed to park our cars wherever we chose to, at our convenience, even if it were in a place that through our ignorance, or inconsideration, resulted in blocking a street at just the moment an ambulance came along, trying to get help to a man who had a heart attack down the block? Humans, left to our own considerations, can be considerably inconsiderate when it comes to others. It's too simple to write this off to cruelty or evil; it's just that in life, we look at what we need and want first and do not always consider how our needs and wants affect others. This is why the more contemplative among us have endeavored to make a set of rules taking into consideration the broad canvas of life. You cannot, merely because it is convenient, block a street to get your morning coffee, because while it may inconvenience no one in many instances, it might, at an inconvenient moment, result in the death of someone when your conveniently parked car blocks help from arriving. The world has rules. America, the freest nation on Earth, has rules because without them, people die. The "caravan" is an assault on the rules of this country. Those composing it carry the flag of the nation they are fleeing while boldly telling us it is their right to come into America and benefit from all America has to offer. There are 7 billion souls on this orb and only one United States of America. The 330 million people living here cannot possibly save all the other 6 billion and change who may want to come here, for whatever reason. Meanwhile, many would feel that changing the world they come from is too much more difficult than coming here and taking the world we have. Let's unmask the "caravan" for what it is. Look at the timing. The mass of migrants seems to be scheduled to arrive at an hour of convenience for the Democratic Party. The timeframe is malleable. At first, there were trucks picking them up at night (when no one was looking) to get them to the border faster, just in time for the election. Suddenly, as the Democratic Party's needs have changed, those trucks have disappeared. Yet we know, should things change again, and the Democrats want them to arrive before election day, there will be new trucks to bring them here. Should they want the huddled masses to breach our border after election day, they will let them continue their walk on foot. The determination of the course of "caravan" action will depend on what the president says and does and what the left thinks the optics will be. It's all about the Benjamins. People mistake the left as an ideology when it is really a religion, and as with all false religions, proponents are all about power and wealth. It is not a coincidence that powerful Democrats all become fabulously wealthy, with multiple mansions and scads of servants, while serving the public. This "caravan" is about voters. Donald Trump has shown America who the Democrats are. They don't like that. Knowing this, they feel that the permanent Democrat majority they were so sure was imminent with the ascension of Barry slipping away, and since they are convinced that their rule over the deplorables is right and just, they need not obey any rules. Being unable to convince the electorate to vote for them and only them, despite the hit their lives will take, they need to import a new electorate and lobby for a new set of rules. The Democrats know that the illegal alien vote and the dead vote are their two fastest growing constituencies. The illegal vote is the most important because while the dead can (Praise the Lord!) arise once a year and vote, they cannot fill out Census forms (their fingers are too stiff). Illegal aliens can. This is why the Democrats have "sanctuary cities": because even if they cannot get illegals to vote, they can count as far as representative apportionment in the Census perhaps giving areas with an ample illegal population an extra Democratic representative. The Democratic Party is a cancer on this nation. Democrats will do anything, despite the rules, to attain power. They strive for one election, once. After that, the rules, their new set, will apply only to us, the deplorables. Please follow me on Twitter at @williamlgensert. A few seconds of frustrated political rage in the 1976 movie Network drove the words Im mad as Hell, and Im not going to take this anymore! into our national collective consciousness. Most Democrats seem to feel that way; theyve been mad for two years. Howard Beale Mad. Screen grab cropped from YouTube So mad, that the very name of Trump causes most Democrats to sputter, many coming to full froth within two sentences. Its not a surprise we see this consistent reaction of rage and hatred coming from the Democratic Party leadership, or the leftist mainstream media. The entire group of them does hate Trump, and their pogrom to destroy him has been ramping up into our discourse since Trump declared his candidacy. I think most of us know that they hate us, as well. My take is simple. This has been a coordinated effort on the left to take Trump out. Destroy him, and his family. Sadly, it has taken over the left. Its main success has been keeping most on the center-left filled with 24/7 hate. I originally thought they would eventually have to pull back from this effort. I couldnt imagine that they would still be developing and making up new reasons to hate Trump several times a week for two years. Unfortunately, the left did it. And they did it with relish, with gusto, and with blinders on. The media, bless their hearts, stoked the flames. Their staggering hatred, their staggering bias is there for all to see. Most recently, look at the week of outrage about Trump calling himself a nationalist. Then look at the reporting about the Synagogue murders. They actually blamed Trump for that. Why not? They blamed him for everything else. The problem is, this heinous act was done by a man who hated Jews, hating Trump because of his alliance with Israel and support of the Jewish people. Wrap your mind around that. The media used this anti-Trumper as an example of Trumps anti-Semitism. Thats how crazy they are. A man who has a Jewish son-in-law, daughter and grandchildren. One who has been supportive of Jews for a long time. No lie is too big, no slander is too big to keep the climate of hatred going. They need their experts to slam Trump, truth be damned. ITS Despicable. The sad part is what thats doing to our discourse, especially among those who are somewhat moderately Left-leaning. The outrage, the lies, the constant hatred of all things is destroying so much. Otherwise normal people are ready to be angry at the drop of a word, ready to be outraged and start yelling when the subject of Trump comes up. Such a great disservice to the entire country. Two years of ginned-up outrage is enough. This rage is part scary, and part humorous. I just dont know whether to laugh or cry on a daily basis. The left, and their media crazies, have devolved into a caricature. Part toddler, part sucker (for their own leftist PR), part self-proclaimed superior elitists, and part demon. Frankly, a sorrier state of mind hasnt been seen on the left since the Red Guards terrorized China. Yep, theyre mad as Hell. Theyve made that clear. Where theyre not so clear on is what theyre so angry about. The Democratic Party has not, after two years, taken the time to explain why or what their positions are. They appear to have none, other than Trump bad. I heard from a few overpaid pundits they have points to score on health care. Really? The party that destroyed our insurance system, the party whose leader lied for years about his health care plan, having rammed it down the throats of an unwilling electorate, and theyre supposed to have an edge? The only real area they have an edge on is their rage. We get it. Everybody gets it. Its the reason so many pundits have been calling for a blue wave. But hold on, dear friends. Theres another group who is angry. And who has gotten quietly angrier as leftist insanity has made itself so visible. Its a different anger. Its not born of being a toddler. Or a sucker, an elitist, or a demon. Its a slow rising, reason-driven resolve to overcome the lefts antics. Its born of watching years and years of the leftist media getting away with their pretense of being journalists. Its born of watching people having to unjustly fend off the serial insanity of leftist punditry, and the attack dogs of the Democratic Party. Once again, I do believe the pollsters have missed this entirely. Partially on purpose. Its why they were so wrong in 2016. No one is polling about the quiet, resolved, and rightful anger of the Trump voter. But its there. In spades. Kavanaughs horrifying tribulations simply finalized it. Given this suppressed anger, I am going to say this so-called blue wave is not real, and without substance. Its only based on history, meaning the party in power loses in the midterms. This reporting is misplaced. Because this is not automatic. Yes, the House is up for grabs, but the missing reporting has been on the slow, burning anger of the Republicans. Let me describe it anecdotally. I have scores of friends who are what I call moderate Republicans. They live in different regions of the country. And without exception have offered to me just how angry they are at what the Democratic Party and the leftist media have done in the last two years. Simmering, slow roiling anger. They are highly motivated to vote, and highly motivated to punish this nasty group of leftists. What has surprised me is the unanimity and passion they have, all of them deeply affected by their anger at the media and the Democratic Party. Dozens of people, normally just living their lives quietly. And they hate what has happened. Quietly. Fervently. To turn from being anecdotal, consider the Twitter feed of Larry Schweikart, who has a great deal of information to share, sometimes about polls, but more about actual early voting patterns. Polls are at best confused, and driven by misinformation in the age of Trump. They do not understand the anger of Republicans, or Trump voters. What Larry keeps reporting, is the consistency of an overwhelming red advantage in early voting and absentee voting. Schweikarts feed has described this phenomenon well. In almost every state, in virtually every battleground, with every competitive race, there is an enthusiasm gap in early returns. For Republicans, not for Democrats. What I am certain about anecdotally with those I know, Larry confirms is real in voting pattern. I am not suggesting a red blowout, although it seems more likely right now than a blue one. I am suggesting that, like 2016, us deplorables will show up. Its because of that quiet, unmeasured anger to keep the left from power. History will be fought, denying ascendance to a Democratic Party that deserves to be thrown out of power for a generation. We are going to do well, picking up multiple Senate seats, even hopefully keep the House (closely). I do not want to make anyone overconfident, just want to say, go vote these awful people out. Get others who will vote for Republicans to vote. Dont let one vote slip away. Send the left to the pits where they came from. Yes, use that anger constructively. Make a second miracle finish in two sequential elections. Keep making America great. Americas representative form of Constitutional democracy is on the verge of breaking down because of political corruption at the highest levels and the concurrent decline in civility and growing mob behavior. Fundamental and deep division prevents government from fixing itself. But we the people can play a decisive role in turning things around by voting in the midterm elections tomorrow. First, some background: By the end of the eight-year Obama administration, the Democratic Party leadership found itself with the twofold challenge of a weak presidential candidate in Hillary Clinton and ineffective and unpopular public policies. At the same time, a significant number of high-ranking U.S. government officials and their subordinates in the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the CIA -- most appointed during the Obama administration -- decided collectively to take unusual action to assist Hillary. First, the Hillary Clinton email investigation by the FBI was derailed, leading to her exoneration. Next, this cabal quietly weaponized the Justice Department, the FBI, and the CIA to deceive the FISA court with the Steele dossier false narrative about candidate Donald Trump. This prompted the FISA court to authorize spying on the Trump team and it facilitated the leaking of scandalous information to the press -- to sink Trumps candidacy before the November 2016 election. When those efforts failed and Trump was elected, the cabal became more determined. They needed to cover their tracks and take more steps to undermine the now duly elected president -- actions that were tantamount to a coup detat. These actions, which included continuing to deceive the FISA court to authorize internal spying and hatching the Mueller investigation, sent a message to Democratic Party elites that its okay to disrespect the results of a legitimate presidential election. And it sent a message to rank and file Democrats that its okay to break the law and engage in mob behavior to verbally assault and disrupt the lives of Republican Party figures. Hillary Clinton recently said that civility can start if Democrats are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate. Her former vice presidential running mate, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) publicly advocated to fight in the courts, fight in the streets. Obamas attorney general Eric Holder recently said of Republicans: When they go low, we kick them. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who may seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, has called for people to get up in the face of some congress people. In similar fashion, Rep. Maxine Waters, (D-CA) has gotten endless media replay of her advocacy that, If you see anybody from that [Trump] Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. You push back on them. Tell them theyre not welcome anymore, anywhere! Even though these are the ways of banana republics -- which almost always end in tyranny -- Democrat leadership apparently thinks it will be different if they can get away with it and prevail. But substantively, there is no denying that these actions repudiate core principals of American tolerance, the Constitution and the rule of law. And for those who cant fathom what mob rule would look like in the United States, the 11th hour ambush of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh reveals all you need to know: unscrupulous tactics of personal destruction exploiting the #MeToo movement to set the stage for presumption of guilt ginned up by media sensationalism that feeds mob rule. Do we really want to substitute the Constitutions 10 Bill of Rights for Saul Alinskys 10 Rules for Radicals, which simply boil down to "the ends justify the means"? Regardless of party affiliation, citizens need to take a stand now, and voting remains the surest way to send a clear message. Its time to repudiate mob rule and high level corruption -- the latter having severely harmed the FBI, the Justice Department, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and Constitutional due process. Although not on the ballot, the most important issue this midterm election is less the candidates and more where political parties stand on rule by Constitutional Law vs. rule by deep state elites and mob rule. Make that determination and help other like-minded folks who might stay home to get out and vote! Scott Powell is senior fellow at Discovery Institute and managing partner of RemingtonRand LLC. Email him at scottp@discovery.org. The constant media refrain that man-caused global warming is dooming many small Pacific islands to sink beneath rising sea levels continues, even as science and in one case the former president of an "endangered" island refutes the alarmists, as Andrew Holt of the Herald-Sun in Australia reports: [A] new paper by Virginie K. E. Duvat, of the Institut du Littoral et de l'Environnement, University of la Rochelle, France: A reanalysis of available data, which cover 30 Pacific and Indian Ocean atolls including 709 islands, reveals that no atoll lost land area and that 88.6% of islands were either stable or increased in area, while only 11.4% contracted[.] ... Over the recent past, 29 atolls exhibited a stable land area, while one (South Tarawa, Kiribati) increased in size[.] The state-owned broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, is particularly relentless in its propagandizing over the purported doom facing the Micronesian islands in its geographic neighborhood, recently rather comically so. As Bolt recalled, just a couple of weeks ago, a television news presenter tried to goad the former president of Kiribati into playing the victim card and face-planted: Butaritari, Kiribati (photo credit: Flickr). Host Fran Kelly, one of the ABC's most committed warmists, today asked an ex-president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, how much his islands were drowning, and criticised the current president for saying they weren't. Kelly: The urgency of addressing climate change has intensified... Tong: For those countries on the front line, their fate is virtually doomed... Global warming will continue, the sea level rise will continue... Kelly: These are the predictions, what is the reality now... What is the situation now, how perilous is it? Tong: ...I've always been very frank and honest to say I don't see the sea level rising, but what I see is impact in various communities and you get overtopping of the waves and over the land... It may not be the rise in sea level that would be the most immediate problem. I think the change in the weather pattern is more likely to be the more immediate and it has already happened. (snip) Kelly: And yet your successor seems to have a different view. He's been quoted saying climate change is indeed a serious problem, but we don't believe that Kiribati will sink like the Titanic ship. Our beautiful lands are created by the hands of God. Does it make it difficult for you to criticise governments abroad and campaign on this when you're own government appears to be questioning the impacts of climate change. Tong: I don't think so. I've always been coming from the science. We're talking in terms of what the science is saying. More proof that warmism is a religion, one that ignores science when its beliefs are contradicted. Hat tip: John McMahon An explosive allegation rocks the election in Georgia. Whether true or false, there will be consequences. The office of the secretary of state of Georgia, Brian Kemp, has issued two official notices of a claimed attempted hack of the state's online voter registration system late Saturday, and is investigating further, having notified the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. It should be noted that the current SOS, Kemp, is running for governor as the GOP nominee. The first notice reads: After a failed attempt to hack the state's voter registration system, the Secretary of State's office opened an investigation into the Democratic Party of Georgia on the evening of Saturday, November 3, 2018. Federal partners, including the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation, were immediately alerted. "While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cyber crimes," said Candice Broce, Press Secretary. "We can also confirm that no personal data was breached and our system remains secure." The second notice adds: The Secretary of State's Office issues the following update: "We opened an investigation into the Democratic Party of Georgia after receiving information from our legal team about failed efforts to breach the online voter registration system and My Voter Page. We are working with our private sector vendors and investigators to review data logs. We have contacted our federal partners and formally requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate these possible cyber crimes. The Secretary of State's office will release more information as it becomes available." The Georgia Democratic Party vehemently denies the charge: "This is yet another example of abuse of power by an unethical Secretary of State. To be very clear, Brian Kemp's scurrilous claims are 100 percent false, and this so-called investigation was unknown to the Democratic Party of Georgia until a campaign operative in Kemp's official office released a statement this morning. This political stunt from Kemp just days before the election is yet another example of why he cannot be trusted and should not be overseeing an election in which he is also a candidate for governor. It is also a fact that Brian Kemp is the last person who can be trusted on cyber security given his record of leaking the personal information and social security numbers of six million Georgians. 11th hour, cynical ploys come as no surprise from Brian Kemp, a man who raided the offices of organizations who register people to vote and had a woman arrested for helping her blind father cast his ballot. Brian Kemp is desperate to save his failing campaign, and it's likely we'll see even more of his abuses of power as the election nears, but Georgians will keep working hard, knocking on doors, making phone calls, and voting to make sure he doesn't get a promotion." There is no way at all to know the substance of these charges, but if a phony request were made to the FBI as a political stunt, there would be serious consequences, a factor that makes me suspect that the indicators of an attempted hack are genuine. Hat tip: Breitbart With the Honduran migrant caravan breaking up fast before it even reaches the U.S. border, we are now seeing a shift of "narrative" from the media minions of the left and Democratic Party politicians. Here's what's being tacked onto quite a few news pieces, such as this one from the Associated Press: Similar caravans have occurred regularly over the years and passed largely unnoticed, but Trump has focused on the latest marchers seeking to make border security a hot-button issue in next week's midterm elections. So caravans come, and caravans go, and only President Trump was making something political of it? And that something political was all about winning the midterms? Here's a passage that just made sure it slipped that little detail in: President Donald Trump has ordered U.S. troops to the Mexican border in response to the caravans. More than 7,000 active duty troops have been told to deploy to Texas, Arizona and California ahead of the midterm elections. What planet do these people live on? The real background here is that up until recently, migrants at the border have made tremendous hay for Democrats with sob stories of women and children being separated at the border. President Trump attempted to disincentivize illegal border crossings by forcing illegal aliens to await their trial dates in detention without their children and that triggered the famous fake-news phony Time magazine cover of the crying child (who hadn't been separated from her mother) juxtaposed against a picture of a stern-looking Trump staring down. The propaganda value to Democrats of such pictures was gold, and Trump was forced to backtrack. What's more, the only previously reported caravan, back in April, resulted in many illegals, waving the Honduras flag and the middle finger, being allowed into jump the fence into the U.S. without papers and claim asylum as Trump was powerless legally to stop them. That sent back word to Honduras would-be migrants that entry to the U.S. is free and created a ready pool of new participants. The score? Democrats, 2, Trump 0. So with that set-up in mind, the left organized a new caravan, just ahead of midterms, with the express purpose of challenging Trump by showing that he was powerless to enforce U.S. border laws. They sent out press releases. They got the sob stories ready for the media narratives. They were careful to place women with expensive strollers out front for the cameras, even though women and children numbered only about 20% of the thousands-strong caravan, and military-aged unemployed young men filled out the balance. They got local NGOs to ladle soup. They got embed reporters, following them along and reporting their every move, all because it looked like a pretty sure means of Getting Trump. And they are saying Trump politicized this? Particularly failed former president Obama, who dismissed Trump's moves to protect the country's borders and rule of law as a "political stunt." It's such an insulting lie, particularly to our troops, who, as defense secretary Gen. Mattis said, "don't do political stunts." And despite warnings from the former Honduras consul general and the President of Honduras himself that they are being used, all right, by the Honduran left? Trump didn't do this. Trump had this thrown at him. He showed some serious presidential resolve by recognizing that a test case was being set up and by moving to reinforce the borders so that the invading army, waving its Honduran banner, would not pass. He could send a message that the rule of law must prevail here in the States. He wasn't even nasty to them: he told them to go back. He told them to apply legally. He even said he'd "love to have them" if they came legally. This is not the doing of someone who wants to engage in a "political stunt." This is someone who's being the president. With the caravan breaking up as a result of this resolve, the jig is up. Now the press and its acolytes are claiming that Trump started it. What a lie. Image credit: Fox News screen grab. Has Nancy Pelosi joined the GOP team anxious to scare voters away from voting for the donkey party? The pejorative use of the expression "San Francisco values," to indicate a loss of decency, tradition, and sanity, has at least two decades of history, and arguably almost three and a half, since Jeanne Kirkpatrick denounced "San Francisco Democrats" at the 1984 Republican Convention. Today, San Francisco is the exemplar of a city that has driven out the middle class and features the worst-looking income gap between rich and poor. San Francisco's poor languish in its streets in the worst display of the degradation of poverty this side of Calcutta. San Francisco's homelessness, its open drug use, and the spread of human feces on the sidewalks there have made being a pedestrian there a health risk... Map of San Francisco sidewalks unsafe to walk because of human feces (source). Note: Pelosi's mansion is adjacent to the Presidio, center top. ...the expression has come to even more strongly condemn the political values animating the City by the Bay in the eyes of most Americans. It is so bad that the city has hired squads of people, clad in hazmat suits, to steam-clean the worst sidewalks. But Nancy Pelosi, a Baltimore native who came west, proudly told an audience (in California) that the Democrats embrace the values that lead to this: Source. Source. Photo credit: Mussi Katz. Watch for yourself as she unintentionally condemns her own party. But when they say San Francisco liberal, as if to make it sound like it's something negative, them's fightin' words. Don't attack my city. Don't attack my city. But, San Francisco values, that's what we're about. The city of Saint Francis, the city whose anthem is the song of Saint Francis[c]o, make[s] us an instrument of thy peace[.] Tell 'em, Nancy! Spread the word far and wide that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for making your home town just like San Francisco. On Halloween, an acquaintance of mine was celebrating the fact that she had convinced her three young daughters to dress up not as princesses, but rather as male superheroes. I said that next year, she should really go for the jugular: her girls should dress up as plumbers and truck-drivers. She laughed and agreed, although I don't think she understood what I was getting at. This friend is a classic feminist, believing that empowerment comes only in the form of traditionally masculine traits, such as physical strength and professional ambition. To her, a male superhero represents all that a girl should be told she is: strong, brave, powerful, one of a kind. This mentality certainly follows from the current feminist narrative that women are excluded from male-dominated professions due to a culture that does not convince girls thoroughly enough that they are the same as, or even better than, boys. Yet what I've noticed recently, and what I actually meant when teasing my friend about next year's plumber and truck-driver costumes, is that within the feminist grievance narrative, there is no whining about women being "excluded" from working-class male-dominated professions. There is more than plenty of talk about the dearth of women in science, in engineering, in upper management positions, and as CEOs. But there is no one asking: where are all the female garbage-collectors, the female elevator technicians, the female landscape laborers, the female oil rig workers? All of this reveals that feminist clamoring for "equal representation" is not about equality at all. It is about power and prestige. The whole concept is built on the notion that because women are not becoming engineers or CEOs at nearly the same rate as men, our culture is broken and oppressive. The remedy is to forcibly change the culture so that women can attain these positions more easily than men can; the system needs to somehow artificially cater more to women so they can "have a seat at the table." This rhetoric goes only so far as positions of power and prestige are concerned. If proponents of this social reworking were actually concerned about a supposedly male-oriented society, they would care just as much about working-class women and bolstering girls who might dream of being firefighters or active combat military. It ignores the logic that women are not generally drawn to careers as engineers or CEOs for similar reasons as why they are not drawn to careers as construction workers. Many of those required skills simply do not come naturally. Related to this is a conversation I recently had with a female friend regarding working mothers and how the high cost of childcare deters many mothers from returning to full-time work. I pointed out that this complaint, while seeming to support the labor of women, undermines the interests of the (almost exclusively female) providers of said childcare. The more feminists complain that childcare costs are too high, the more they indicate that we as a society are overvaluing the work of the women who are essentially raising the children of upper- and middle-class women. Apparently, not all female labor should be treated equally after all. Feminists want society to bend to meet their demands of giving women the things they want simply because they want them, because they have somehow been denied them. But this is limited to the wants that come with power and prestige. Underneath the heart-tugging rhetoric is a dark secret, the same secret that drives all of leftist ideology: envy of and resentment for the wealth-creators and a disdain for the common laborer. What follows is easy enough to predict: if these people believe that their envy is not only justifiable, but virtuous, then they believe they have a right to demand the spoils of ambition and hard work without proper ambition and hard work. They should not have to ponder the implications for those who have less, because those people are beneath consideration. Feminists do not want to work harder than they already do. They do not want to step outside their comfort zone for any job or profession. And they certainly do not want to spare any outrage or compassion for the working-class folks who rank beneath them. This is where the superhero ideal comes back into play. Well meaning parents want their girls to dress up as superheroes because they have been told that is the best way to set their girls up for success. What they don't see is that they are teaching their girls to seek out power and prestige without needing to earn it. After all, what is a superhero but an average Joe magically bestowed with supernatural abilities through little or no action of his own? And our girls are also learning through the selective classist focus of the feminist agenda that should their desires ever benefit from taking advantage of the working class, that is virtuous as well. So the question is, do you think these girls will grow up being more or less likely to find fulfillment in their lives thanks to modern feminism? Dragging into its fourth week, all signs are on that the migrant caravan is falling apart. According to the Associated Press: ISLA, Mexico A 4,000-strong caravan of Central American migrants traveling through Mexico split up into several groups with one spending the night in a town in the coastal state of Veracruz and other migrants continuing toward the country's capital. The divisions came during a tense day in which tempers flared and some migrants argued with caravan organizers and criticized Mexican officials. How did it happen? Obviously, someone promised them something for free and then didn't pay up. This is about what you'd expect when someone offers something for free, and then realizes that the whole thing is not going to pay off in the politically useful way expected. Why pay for nothing? Whether it was Venezuelan or Sorosian or Mexican, the free cash for a free ride to the border and all the free stuff of the U.S. just never materialized. That has raised questions about why the group should stay together instead of split apart. After all, anyone can apply for asylum to the states on his own. Applying in a 4,000-strong group pretty well means a long wait time, and limited utility to the individuals. A promised bus ride to Mexico City for thousands of migrants from Central America was the latest money that never materialized. Mexico's Veracruz governor, anxious to get the migrants out of his home state as soon as possible, promised them all free bus rides to Mexico City. Then he withdrew the offer, likely because Mexico City didn't want them there either. Mexican federal authorities reportedly warned the Veracruz governor he'd be charged with human-trafficking if his free bus rides rolled out to the Mexican capital. Obviously, Mexico City does not see itself as having much to gain politically from the big migrant caravan and the series of caravans that are still forming and progressing northward, also expecting free bus rides, anymore. The non-government organizations are suddenly silent, too, no more noisy press conferences to browbeat the gringos. Was it their consciousness about the impact of the news photos showing thousands of migrants streaming across bridges and rivers, and strewing trash all over Mexican towns, that dried their money up? Organizing these caravans obviously isn't paying off for them, either, particularly since some, such as the Sorosian groups, have been harshly criticized already. Or was it the increasingly tattered legal case for allowing the migrants in? So many migrants marching behind the Honduran banner told the press they were coming to the U.S. to escape poverty and get jobs in the U.S. and better their lives (through access to free stuff) and in their words "fulfill the American dream," it rather negated the media's "narrative" that they were just harmless refugees fleeing "violence" that Americans would be heels not to allow in. Who wants to finance such a shifting and failed narrative, given the billions of impoverished, illiterate people from badly governed places worldwide who'd also like to have a crack at America? Or was it the Democrats' weird silence about the whole thing that dried the caravan's money up? The fact that the press is now reporting, vigorously, that the migrants are harmless and President Obama is insisting that President Trump is using those news photos for his midterm purposes (as if the photos were not motivating in themselves for action to stop the caravan) pretty well signals that the migrant caravan, far from being a heartstring-tugger, as the organizers seemed to think it would be, is political poison for the Democrats. That would explain their silence and general efforts to change the topic and pretend it doesn't exist. It would also explain why the NGO money is not flowing. And was word sent to Venezuela diplomatically that it's on thin ice as another round of sanctions came down from El Norte? Or, more likely, does Venezuela simply not have the money, just the acolytes in Tegucigalpa, as the president of Honduras told Vice President Mike Pence? Just the fact that the conservative Honduran president's far-left Chavista political opposition has been accused of doing this as a political stunt suggests, as a former Honduran consul general in Arizona told ABC15, that the migrants are being used. At about this point, the migrants probably know they are being used. The lack of money, the silence, the lack of support, all of these things, along with the utterly grueling journey (seriously, how easy is it to walk twenty miles a day, day after day, with little or no money for food?) pretty well add up to an enterprise ripe for breaking apart. Who, seriously, would want to stay with it? But here's the big thing that is probably breaking up the migrant caravan more than anything: President Trump's resolve to enforce existing rule of law. He's sent troops. He's sent reinforcements. He's thrown up the razor wire. He's warned the invaders that they will not be treated at all differently from all the other people asking for asylum, and they will have to wait their turn in line. What's more, if they get into the U.S., there won't be the freedom to do what they want for awhile, no catch and release, because they will have to wait in tent cities for their cases to be adjudicated, same as other people. The two- to three-year period of working in the states and going home to Honduras with earned (or not so earned) money after the final deportation order isn't going to be there anymore. For quite a few of them, news reports suggested that all they wanted were those two- to three-year periods to work, either legally or illegally, in the states, and they'd go home happy with the money. Trump also put pressure on Mexico to encourage it to keep its immigration system regular, something it did with spotty results, but news reports do say the caravans are getting smaller, and Mexico is insisting on passports for passage through. Bottom line: There's less and less advantage to being in the caravan, no special privileges, and more and more advantage to immigrating legally. The break-up of this caravan is clearly the result of the leadership and resolve of President Trump. Funny how he can do that across borders, without so much as firing a shot. Image credit: Fox News screen shots. Motorola One Power running the latest Android version Android 9 Pie was recently benchmarked by Geekbench, indicating a possible firmware release in the coming weeks. The mid-range Android One smartphone was introduced with Android 8.1 Oreo and a promise to provide a timely delivery of future software upgrades. Notably, the new Geekbench listing has Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor mentioned, while the retail model ships with a slightly lower-end Snapdragon 636 chipset. It is still not clear whether the Lenovo-owned brand is actually planning to announce an improved variant of its Motorola One Power device or if the spotted listing is erroneous. The mid-range smartphone from Motorola scored 1,274 and 4,508 points in the single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. These numbers are just marginally lower than what the retail version of Motorola One Power running the stable Android Oreo firmware usually scores, which is unsurprising since the test unit is pre-loaded with an unreleased, and likely unoptimized, Android version. The listing also suggests the same 4GB of RAM and 1.6GHz clock speed of its octa-core processor as the currently available model offers. The Snapdragon 660 SoC, on the other hand, not only offers a higher base frequency but also attains a much higher score in the two Geekbench tests. Motorola has yet to provide any official statement in this regard, while the Android Pie update is expected to roll out in the coming weeks. Last August, Motorola announced a pair of Android One devices Motorola One and Motorola One Power with the latter being the more premium offering. The Motorola One Power comes with a larger 6.2-inch FHD+ notched LCD panel, features a more powerful Snapdragon 636 processor, and has a significantly higher-capacity 5,000mAh battery with support for Motorolas TurboPower fast-charging solution. Despite sporting one of the most capable batteries in any mainstream phone, the Motorola-branded device manages to keep its weight at 170 grams with a thickness of 9.98mm. It has 4GB of RAM paired with 64GB of expandable storage and includes a 3.5mm headphone jack along with a USB Type-C port. A 16- and 5-megapixel cameras are placed on the phones back, while a single 12-megapixel sensor sits on the opposite side. Samsung has just posted a new image on its official Facebook page, and that image clearly suggests that the foldable phone is on its way. To be clear, this image appeared on the companys Samsung Mobile official Facebook page, and the company actually set that image as its profile picture for that Facebook page (featured picture on the companys Twitter page has been changed as well). As you can see, this image shows Samsungs logo, but the logo itself is folded, just like a foldable display would in a foldable smartphone. That logo is pictured on a black background, and thats pretty much it, the company did not offer any additional explanation regarding this, as expected. It is worth noting, though that the company is expected to share some info regarding the phones UI at this weeks SDC (Samsung Developer Conference) 2018, even though the company still did not confirm anything of the sort. Background: It is important that you do not mistake this phone with the upcoming Samsung W2019, which had surfaced a number of times thus far. The Samsung W2019 is a flip phone, its basically a regular smartphone that comes in a flip phone shape, so the upper portion of the phone (when opened) will host two displays, while the other part will host a battery, physical keyboard, and so on. Having said that, the companys foldable smartphone aka the phone were talking about today, will actually sport a foldable display. So, its display will be laid out as on a regular smartphone, but it will fold up, at least thats what were expecting, and what the company is hinting at. Countless reports have surfaced in the past regarding this smartphone, and the company had patented a ton of tech that could be implemented in such a smartphone. Having said that, some recent reports suggested that Samsungs foldable smartphone will feature a 7.3-inch foldable internal OLED display, and on top of that, it will also feature an external display which will measure 4.6 inches in diagonal. The in-folding display will be completely hidden away when the phone is folded, of course, while the external one will be visible at all times. According to reports, the phone may be called the Galaxy F, as the F would stand for Foldable, while the device is reportedly using the model number SM-F900U, which resembles the Galaxy S lines naming scheme. The Samsung F900USSQU0ARJ5 is reported to be a unit that is being tested in the US, youll notice the US part in the software builds tag. Advertisement Thats not all, though, Samsung is reportedly developing a unique user interface that will be included in its first foldable smartphone, and that UI is allegedly developed in collaboration with Google, which is quite interesting. The Galaxy F is rumored to sport 512GB of internal storage, it will open up like a regular flip phone, while its price tag will be around $2,000, if rumors are to be believed. The phone is also said to weight 200 grams, at least its prototype is, and the company may actually include a smaller battery on the inside of that phone in order to compensate for the weight of its displays if the company opts to decrease its weight for the final model, of course. The hinge that will be used for this phone was tested extensively, rumors say, and it can be folded over 200,000 times, if the info is to be believed, its quite sturdy. The company is actually not expected to release this phone as soon as you may expect, as the device is rumored to become available in the second quarter of next year, but it will probably be fully announced sooner than that. Impact: Now, not many people know that there is a company out there that actually released a foldable smartphone already, and the company is called Royole Corporation. The full name of that phone is the Royole FlexPai, and you can read more about it by clicking here. The Royole FlexPai will not attract nearly as much attention as Samsung in this regard, though, and in all honesty it will probably turn out to be an inferior product in many ways, but well have to wait for Samsung to present its offering in order to see whats what. That being said, Samsung is not the only company that is planning to release a foldable smartphone in the near future, as LG seems to be working on one as well. If one of the recent leaks are to be believed, LG may actually introduce its foldable smartphone at next years CES (Consumer Electronics Show), which will take place in January, in Las Vegas, as is the case every year. We do not have all that much info about that device at this point, but it will be a competitor to Samsungs offering, thats for sure. Some other companies may opt to release such a phone in 2019, like Huawei, for example. The companys CEO, Richard Yu, did say recently that the company is planning to release such a phone in less than a year, so Huaweis offering will probably arrive in the second half of the year, though next-to-nothing is known about it, as we did not see any concrete leaks regarding that phone. Royole Corporation had managed to surprise us all with the release of the FlexPai smartphone, so some other companies may as well in the near future, you never know, but all eyes are now on Samsung, LG, and Huawei, as those three companies are clearly working on their foldable smartphone offerings. Huawei will quite probably be the last to introduce its foldable smartphone, comparing those three companies, as LG may do it at CES, while Samsung is also expected to do it in Q1 2019, so the other Korean tech giant may do it at CES as well, which will make that tradeshow quite interesting. It remains to be seen how popular will foldable smartphones be, as these early units will cost a lot, and they have only one advantage over other phones, the fact that theyre foldable makes it possible to pact larger displays in smaller form factors. The number of smartphone shipments fell worldwide by 6-percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2018 to land at 355.2 million units shipped compared to last year, according to the most recent report from global market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC). Meanwhile, of the top five companies listed by IDC, only Chinese manufacturers Huawei and Xiaomi managed to make considerable headway. The former company shipped a total of 52 million units compared to Xiaomis 34.3 million units, with the two companies seeing gains of 32.9-percent and 21.2-percent respectively. Thats in spite of the fact that mobile consumption is actually down in the two companies home region by as much as 11-percent, marking the sixth consecutive quarterly drop in the figure. Apples smartphone shipments, by comparison, only rose by approximately one-half of a percent to 46.9 year-over-year. Samsungs smartphone business, on the other hand, saw a reduction of 13.4-percent in terms of shipments this year and OPPOs shipments fell by 2.1-percent. Background: In terms of smartphone shipments, this actually marks the fourth reported year-over-year decline consecutively. However, the position held by the top companies hasnt necessarily changed by much despite the aforementioned figures. Samsung has maintained its position at the top, for starters, and was recently shown in its third quarter report to be doing very well overall. The Korean tech giants memory division is playing a huge role in that but IDC indicates its placement as the top mover of Android handsets primarily comes down to its recently launched Samsung Galaxy Note 9 phablet sales. At the same time, the company is quickly losing ground on two related fronts. With competitors such as Huawei and Xiaomi, among others, releasing a range of new budget-friendly options, Samsungs reduced shipments have primarily been in the upper end of the market. Samsung may have an answer to that with its recently launched Samsung Galaxy J2 Core. Thats not only being sold in Asian markets but also expected to land in the US in the near future after being spotted at the FCC and Wi-Fi Alliance. Huawei and Xiaomi, on the other hand, have launched a consistent string of high-quality devices for effectively every niche of the market. The former of those companies also now sits above Apple in the ranking for the second straight quarter in terms of shipments. Apple has faced a growing threat from Xiaomi as well. While the company didnt reach nearly the same heights as the latest iPhones in terms of shipments, it did manage to hit a new all-time high in terms of quarterly market share as well, landing at 9.7-percent. So competition in the space has consistently grown even as smartphone shipments have fallen. Advertisement Impact: IDC does expect the overall slump in sales to come to an end, with positive growth returning by the end of 2019. The slowing of sales in the Chinese market is predicted to fall off in conjunction with that shift. Bearing in mind that there are no guarantees that any of the incoming devices will necessarily be a success and that the smartphone market has always been somewhat volatile, a return to growth could easily cause a reasonable amount of disruption in the current ranking. An eye surgeon from the united Church of Pakistans Diocese of Peshawar, Khushbakht Peters, celebrates the work of a Christian hospital in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A few days ago I had the privilege of attending the commemoration of the 150 years of service of Christian Hospital Tank, what an occasion it was! They had invited the people of Pakistan Army, Police, heads of Christian institutions, delegates, as well as people from different hospitals. Thanksgiving prayers, performances by the children of the Dr Ulla Schmitz Memorial school, releasing pigeons as a sign of peace, fireworks, and cutting of a 15 storey cake were amongst the many wonderful events that took place that day. It was a day of celebration after the years of conflicts in this region of the world. Tank is a city in the south of our province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In and around this city war against terrorism had been going on for a long time. Many people both soldiers and civilians have lost their lives during the war. Yet even when the state of events were at their worst, the staff at the Christian Hospital Tank persisted, and was dedicated in providing health care services despite the highly dangerous conditions. For the past 150 years the hospital has been following the footsteps of the Good Samaritan, providing a healing touch for those in need. The staff has a passion to serve, and have chosen to dedicate their existence in making the lives of those around them better. They have been helping the poorest of the poor, the underprivileged of the society, giving them a chance to better health. This would otherwise not be possible in this remote region. A few years ago, even the Taliban refused to attack the hospital, as this is where all their women and children go for treatment. The people of Tank and the surrounding area have great reverence for this hospital, which has been serving the people despite all the challenges in this terrain. Christian Hospital Tank is a great witness of the living Gospel in the true sense. The discernment of the persistence, passion and the courage that we as Christians should have, is reflected through the spirit of the Christian Hospital in Tank for the past 150 years. Following the living example of the hospital, let us be obedient to our calling to the Lord, become a blessings for many even in the hostile environment with an implicit faith in Him even when hope seems to be bleak. For it is written in Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Posted on: November 5, 2018 10:20 AM The Iglesia Anglicana de Chile the Anglican Church of Chile has been inaugurated as the latest province of the Anglican Communion in a service of joy and celebration in the capital, Santiago. It had been part of the province of South America but was given permission to have provincial status after sustained growth. More than 800 people, including many from overseas, attended the service yesterday (Sunday) at the Grange School, which was presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. The congregation included diocesan and auxiliary bishops, pastors, leaders and lay members from the four dioceses of the new province. They were joined by priests, bishops and archbishops, academics and representatives of missionary societies from across the world including the UK, Hong Kong, Ireland, the US, Australia and several countries in South America. The service was led by the primate of South America, Presiding Bishop Greg Venables. In his address, Archbishop Justin spoke warmly of Chile and its mother province, saying: The province [of South America] and its new province are shining lights within the Anglican Communion which will now burn yet more brightly as a challenge and example to the rest of the Communion. He said it was a gift of God for him to be in Chile again to experience the life, fire and perseverance of the Church. During the service Bishop Hector (Tito) Zavala Munoz was installed as Archbishop and Primate of the new province. He was prayed over by Archbishop Justin and presented with a primatial cross. He became Bishop of Santiago when Chile was split into four dioceses in preparation for its move towards provincial status. The other new dioceses are Valparaiso, Concepcion, and Temuco. In an interview with the Anglican Communion News Service, Archbishop Tito spoke of his joy at becoming a separate province. I am so happy. What is happening is historic and unique in our history, he said. I remember when I talked to dioceses 20 years ago, we had many dreams about growing and spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. And now I can see how the Church has grown. And I am so excited about the life of the Church because I can see how young people are becoming involved day-by-day. He said becoming a province would help organise mission in Chile and he hoped it would lead to new dioceses in the near future. To separate from South America is sad because we have been working together for many years. It is like when children leave their parents and begin a new life. But we will continue working together. Speaking before the service Archbishop Justin told reporters it was a day of rejoicing and an important moment for the Church around the world because Chiles inauguration was the birth of a new mission. It shows the Church is growing . . . that the Anglican Communion is growing, he said. Chile is a province that gives love and ministry to the poor and those on the edge of society. And it is one of the great examples in the world of planting new churches. Archbishop Justin also spoke by phone to the Chilean president, Sebastian Pinera, who was unable to attend. He praised the president for his stance in challenging corruption and for his openness and compassion to all parts of society. Chile is a model of growth and reconciliation of finding hope after difficult years and we praise God for that. The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, described it as a privilege to be at the inauguration service in Santiago. There is nowhere like Chile in the Anglican Communion, he said. I am delighted it is becoming our 40th province. It has an exciting vision for the future. Chile began seeking autonomy is 2015. It was given the go-ahead by the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and after the backing of a majority of the primates of the Anglican Communion. Its inauguration as 40th province comes just over a year after Sudan became the 39th. Set to be held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the event will provide an ideal platform to analyse the emerging trends; to learn about the latest technological innovations related to commercial helicopters and various other areas of civil defense and military; and to explore prospective partnerships. Leading industry players who have confirmed participation in the event include Dubai Police, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Dubai South, Dart Aerospace, Transmex Systems Int, Southern Cross Aviation, Flir Systems, Hartmann Specialized Vehicles Trading LLC, DeVore Aviation / FEC Worldwide, Motor Sich Middle East FZE, Vertex Aerospace (L3), Thuraya, and Fujairah Aviation Academy to name a few. Ahmad Abulhoul, managing director, Domus Group, organisers of Dubai HeliShow 2018, said: Helicopters are increasingly being utilized in industrial, hospitality and crisis management scenarios including military, transport and cargo, firefighting, rescue and offshore oil support. The high levels of interest expressed by leading international players in the helicopter industry in the event reaffirm the rising global confidence in the regions potential to become an influential force in defining the future roadmap for the sector. All these factors make the Dubai HeliShow 2018 a strategic platform to showcase and discuss the latest technologies in the field of helicopter technology. "I am excited to share with the audience our continued progress on Project Thunderbird, which strives to pioneer and implement powered lift aeromedicine for public service in the remotest corners of outback Australia as soon as is sensible. Fixed wing aircraft like those operated traditionally need runways or roads to take off and therefore are not able to land directly at the scene of many rural emergencies. Tiltrotor technology is predominantly used by the US military however soon there will be a civilian option. We are promoting the undelayed deployment of tiltrotors for aeromedical retrievals in Australia with our vast landscapes and low-density inland populations. I am very keen to participate at the Dubai HeliShow 2018, as this will open doors as a fantastic business networking opportunity not just for the Middle East region but globally, said Dr. Paul Adams, CEO of Australian Aeromedical Innovation. 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. The Best Budget Sparkling Wines The Key to Buying Sparkling Wine Without Blowing Your Budget The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. Sparkling wine is often associated with special occasions and achievements something top shelf that you only bring out when you have something really big to celebrate. Why? Probably because of its perceived value. When you think of sparkling wine, whats the first thing that comes to mind? An expensive bottle of champagne or something that gets passed around at exclusive events and celebrations, right? Sure, a nice bottle of champagne does fit well at a special event, but that doesnt mean you cant enjoy a nice bottle of sparkling wine over a casual dinner with friends, during a romantic outdoor picnic, or just because you feel like popping a bottle. The good news: You dont have to have a six-figure income to be able to afford to drink sparkling wine like you would craft beer or house wine. In fact, as long as you know what to look for, a nice Champagne or prosecco is very comfortably within reach. What You Need to Know The best kept secret of the sparkling wine world? The term Champagne is only allowed to be used by vineyards in the region of Champagne, France. Neighbouring vineyards, although they have the same climate, the same grape, virtually the same process, are not allowed to call their product Champagne. For this reason, Champagne can be marked up and sold at a much higher price than their next door neighbors. If you want the fruit-forward, delicate bubbles from Champagne, France, look for the term methode traditionnelle, which means that the wine was produced the exact same way as champagne, but cant legally label itself as such. Vocabulary to Keep in Mind Methode Traditionnelle: A wine outside of Champagne, France made the exact same way as Champagne. A wine outside of Champagne, France made the exact same way as Champagne. Brut: The driest (and arguably the tastiest) variety of bubbles. After brut, in order of dry to sweet, comes extra sec, sec, demi-sec and doux. The driest (and arguably the tastiest) variety of bubbles. After brut, in order of dry to sweet, comes extra sec, sec, demi-sec and doux. Cava: The Spanish answer to Champagne, cava is made using the methode traditionnelle, but youll find a great bottle comfortably under $15. The Spanish answer to Champagne, cava is made using the methode traditionnelle, but youll find a great bottle comfortably under $15. Cremant: Similar to Champagne in that its made the same way, but at a lower atmospheric pressure, meaning the bubbles will be less fizzy. Similar to Champagne in that its made the same way, but at a lower atmospheric pressure, meaning the bubbles will be less fizzy. Prosecco: Italys version of Champagne. Prosecco has a reputation of being much sweeter than Champagne or cava. Italys version of Champagne. Prosecco has a reputation of being much sweeter than Champagne or cava. Petillant Naturel: If youre looking for something much, much funkier than the typical mass market Champagne, look for a pet-nat. The natural sparkling wine is capped before fermentation is finished, which creates enough CO2 for the wine to become naturally bubbly. Now that you know the lingo needed to score a great, affordable bottle of sparkling wine, here are some of our favorites to pop open: Everyday Ruffino Prosecco Region: Tuscany, Italy This dryish sparkling wine features pleasant floral and fruity scents with elegant, non persistent bubbles. Its easy-drinking flavor profile is both refreshing and interesting, and it clocks in on the drier side, which can be hardier to find in a prosecco. From $8.99 at Drizly.com Cote Mas Cremant de Limoux Brut Region: Limoux, France Pale yellow with persistent bubbles, this sparkling wine offers an intense and refined flavor profile of honey, acacia, and crystallized lemon. Although it has great balance of sugar and acidity, its best for those who enjoy citrus. From $14.99 at Drizly.com Mionetto Prosecco Brut Region: Veneto, Italy This award-winning sparkling wine is always a safe crowd pleaser. The creamy mouthfeel is reminiscent of a buttery chardonnay, but the citrus fruit and mineral character gives it a round, enjoyable finish. From $6.99 at Drizly.com La Marca Prosecco Region: Veneto, Italy A semi-dry prosecco, La Marca is a great compromise between brut and doux. Its flavor profile is unique in that youll taste lemon zest, a saline quality, and a sweet almond/marzipan finish. From $10.99 at Drizly.com Martini Prosecco Region: Friuli and Veneto, Italy If you want to feel like a Formula One driver for the night, consider picking up a bottle of Martini Prosecco. This internationally renowned prosecco boasts fruity notes like green apple and grapefruit, and clocks in under $15. From $7.99 at Drizly.com Segura Viudas ARIA Pinot Noir Brut Cava Region: Catalunya, Spain If youre looking for something a little off the beaten path or you simply love red wine look no further than ARIA Pinot Noir. The Spanish brut is bright pink with raspberry and star anise aromas. The minerality adds a hint of sweetness while contributing to the overall complexity. From $11.00 at Drizly.com Mercat Cava Brut Region: Sant Sadurni dAnoia, Spain On the palate, this cava offers a perfect balance and finesse. Youll notice notes of papaya and pear, rounded out with hazelnuts, and finishing with a slight citrus freshness. From $11.99 at Drizly.com Special Occasion Chandon Brut Region: California, USA A great option for those looking for the taste and surface prestige of Champagne but without the pricetag, Chandon uses traditional Champagne varieties chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier to get the taste as close to France as possible. Like Champagne, Chandon Bruts flavor profile comprises mostly of apple, pear, and citrus with a hint of spice that leads to a dry finish. From $3.99 at Drizly.com Piper Heidsieck Brut Champagne Region: Champagne, France This full-bodied Champagne is bursting with fruit flavors. Its pale lemon coloring, extra-dry body and fine bubbles work alongside a devine creamy texture and aromas of hazelnut, rye bread, green apple, and citrus. From $29.99 at Drizly.com Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Region: Champagne, France At this point, Veuve Clicquot is almost a caricature for success, elegance, and abundance. Everyones favorite Champagne is a safe option for any special occasion you may find yourself celebrating. The heritage Champagne is slightly sweet with persistent bubbles. It uses pinot noir and reserve grapes, with a hint of meunier and chardonnay as well. From $39.99 at Drizly.com AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. To find out more, please read our complete terms of use. Eversheds Sutherland has rolled out an online network to enable its global team to contribute and collaborate on - innovative ideas. The IdeaDrop platform includes a mobile and web app that allows users to drop an idea which others can then comment on, share, like, and rate. Eversheds Sutherland is the first legal practice to make it available globally. Innovation has always been an integral part of our business and we have a long-standing and strong reputation in this area, said co-CEO Lee Ranson As our scale and reach grows we want to continue to drive innovation across the business globally, harnessing the creativity of our people to help deliver our strategy. She is the fifth partner to join the firm in recent months, after Megan Bowe, Sara McRostie, Michelle Taylor, Glen Williams. CBPs China practice also welcomed Michael Wadley as a consultant earlier this year. Chens appointment significantly enhances the range of services that the China practice delivers, CBP said. The practice has been supporting local and international clients in complex projects and matters since 2013. Chen brings to the practice more than 20 years experience in international and domestic M&A, including acquisition and disposal of businesses and assets, joint ventures, due diligence, and structuring. She is fluent in Mandarin and has extensive expertise in drafting and negotiating legal documents in Chinese. She has particular experience in managing the acquisition and disposal of container terminal portfolios, having worked on more than 45 ports and terminals projects in Australia, China, and other countries. She is also experienced in the real estate, mining, and marine logistics sectors. Chens unique understanding of the Chinese legal market will help CBPs China practice deliver practical advice to clients, said Nick Crennan, managing partner. The UKs Ministry of Justice has said that it is not on track to massively overspend as recently asserted by the National Audit Office (NAO). In its latest departmental overview, the NAO said that the ministry is estimated to overshoot the budget agreed on in 2015 by 1.1bn. The ministry must cut its spending by 500m, the spending monitor said. However, a spokesperson told the Law Society Gazette that the overview is inaccurate. It does not incorporate additional funding from the Treasury since 2015, including cash provided in autumn 2016 via supplementary estimates. That year, the treasury said it would provide up to 500m of additional funds for reform programs and to recruit up to 2,500 more prison officers. The carmaker, currently owning only four brands in the U.S. - Chevrolet GMC , and Cadillac is no longer as active in the industry as it used to be back in the day. But, by partnering with former foes the likes of Honda , the company plans to build as soon as next year electric, connected and even autonomous cars.Part of this electrification strategy is venturing into the electric bike market. Completely out of the blue, GM presented over the weekend two integrated and connected eBikes that for now have no name, nor brand.In an attempt to make people aware it is still around, GM throws in some cash and launches a global challenge to get this new eBike business started.As of now and until November 26, GM is asking global audiences to name the brand for the eBikes. The winning name will secure for the one who proposed it a prize of $10,000, while the following nine other participants responsible for runner-up submissions will each receive $1,000.To be eligible for the prizes, participants will have to go the eBikeBrandChallenge website and submit ideas that are simple, smart, bold and fun, but also capable of being understood around the world, GM says. The winner will be announced on January 31.We blended electrification engineering know-how, design talents, and automotive-grade testing with great minds from the bike industry to create our eBikes, said in a statement Hannah Parish, GMs mobility solutions director.Now we want to expand our thinking beyond the company walls and hear from people who like to move and have rad ideas.Before going to GMs website to submit your idea, make sure you read the Creative Brief attached below. The driver of the crane lost control of the vehicle as he was going down the 17km downhill stretch and slammed into the waiting cars, about 50m from the Lanzhou South Toll Station. 31 vehicles in total were involved in the fatal accident: China Daily reports that 15 people have already died and 44 are injured.All victims have been transported to local hospitals, but 10 of those injured are listed as in critical condition. Meanwhile, the driver of the truck suffered only minor injuries.Questioned by the police, he said his brakes malfunctioned by means of an explanation. He has been detained and is in police custody for the duration of the investigation. For the time being, authorities have no reason to doubt his explanation, but at the same time, its true this was his first time on the Lanzhou-Haikou Expressway. Lack of experience at the wheel of such a large vehicle could have also played a part in the way events unfolded.The Gansu provincial authorities demanded examination on dangerous sections of expressways across the province, the report also notes, hinting that authorities are looking at all possible causes for the crash.The accident took place late on Saturday, and as of Sunday morning, the toll station was still closed. Later that day, authorities managed to clear the scene of all wreckage and debris, and the station was open to the public again.Over 260 policemen from the Lanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, together with local traffic police and the district police worked together to rescue the victims and dispatch them to nearby hospitals. Further details have not been made public, but on-scene photos released online show the magnitude of the pile-up. EV Zuffenhausen is expected to launch its first electric vehicle next year, with this coming in the form of the five-door Taycan. The Panamera-like, which is somewhat similar to the Porsche Panamera, will make for an entire family, as is the norm with the Porsche lineup.In fact, spyshots have already shown us that Porsche is also testing the Taycan Sport Turismo, with this set to cater to the family Porschephile's needs.And we'll remind you that the company has already showcased the Mission E Cross Turismo , a concept car that came in the form of a jacked-up proposal. Nevertheless, there have been no statements on a production version of the crossbreed.With Porsche being Porsche, it's obvious that the automaker will also need an electric sportscar. And while a 911 EV is one of the first things that come to mind, the company has made it clear that it's too early for the complete electrification of the Neunelfer. And that's because the current battery technology wouldn't allow the resulting machine to perform at the desired level.For now, Porsche will stick to hybridizing the Neunelfer. In fact, the company has confirmed that the almost-here 992 911 will receive at least one gas-electric model.However, the world wide web simply can't leave such matters alone. And this is how we end up with renderings such as the one we have here. Rain Prisk , the pixel wielder behind this image, brought together styling cues coming from the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, such as the posterior and the bucket seats, as well as Mission E hints like the headlights. Nevertheless, some aficionados might have the impression they can spot Mclaren design bits, especially when talking about the nose of the car. An ID plate from Apollo 11s lunar module Eagle sold for $468,500 at an auction of 2,000 items of memorabilia owned by the first man on the moon Saturday. The auction raised more than $7.4 million and was held on behalf of Neil Armstrongs family. A piece of the propeller and wing from the Wright Flyer, which Armstrong took with him to the moon, sold for $275,000 each. The flight suit Armstrong wore aboard Gemini 8, which performed the first ever docking maneuver between two spacecraft, sold for $109,375. Armstrong died in 2012 and had never specified what should be done with the treasure trove of mementoes from the first decade of manned space exploration. Also on the block was a gold naval aviators helmet once owned by John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, which sold for $46,250. Glenn wore the helmet on a record-setting transcontinental flight in 1957 called Project Bullet. It was actually offered for sale by Matt Carpenter, the son of Glenns fellow Mercury 7 astronaut Scott Carpenter, who received it as a gift from Glenn decades ago. One person died but two others were uninjured in a midair collision between a Piper Cheyenne and another unidentified aircraft near Canadas capital city of Ottawa on Sunday. The Cheyenne pilot reported the touch to ATC and did not declare an emergency. Somebody hit the bottom side of my aircraft, the unidentified pilot told the terminal controller at Ottawa in audio captured by LiveATC.net (starts at 14:50). The Cheyenne was headed to a GA airport in Carp, a suburb of Ottawa. The pilot reported that the collision affected the right landing gear of the turboprop twin and triggered a warning light indicating the gear was unlocked. The Cheyenne was vectored to McDonald-Cartier International Airport where tower controllers used binoculars to inspect the gear. The aircraft landed without incident. Meanwhile, police cordoned off a rural area near Carp where the other aircraft crashed. The pilot was killed in the crash. In a vituperative speech about Latin America on Thursday, national security adviser John Bolton referred to the Cuban, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan governments as a troika of tyranny and their leaders as "the three stooges." Perhaps most notably, after making vague promises to pressure the three repressive regimes and announcing an imminent increase in sanctions on Venezuela, Bolton called Brazil's recently elected right-wing authoritarian, Jair Bolonsoro, a like-minded leader for the Trump administration. Why it matters: There is a clear affinity between the demagoguery of Trump and Bolsonaro, who are often facilely compared, but the latter's is hardly the sort of liberal government that would make a good ally against the oppressive triangle of terror. In fact, as a growing body of political science research has argued, Bolsonaros approach is in line with the strain of anti-democratic populism that has sprung up in Turkey, Poland, Hungry, the Philippines and Venezuela under former President Hugo Chavez. In those countries, leaders have tapped deep popular anger to run against what's perceived as a discredited, corrupt political elite. Once in office, they steamroll the checks and balances on executive power and undermine the independence and effectiveness of the government bureaucracy. As leaders from Italys Mussolini to Venezuelas Chavez have shown, authoritarian populism knows no ideological bounds. Instead it shares a common disregard for limits on power, human rights and dissent. Similarly, Bolsonaro, despite being a 27-year congressman, ran as an outsider, anti-system candidate. He promised to increase the armed forces' role in reducing crime and praises Brazil's former military dictatorship, objecting only that it did not go far enough in wiping out opponents. The former army captain has also denounced homosexuality, disparaged Brazilians of African descent and said a congressional colleague was too ugly to rape. What to watch: We dont know what will come of Bolton's seemingly empty threats about the troika tyrants having "met their match" and more sanctions, which he likely made to drive Floridas Cuban-, Venezuelan- and Nicaraguan-American voters to the polls on Tuesday. Much of it will probably prove to be only campaign rhetoric, but in the meantime, let's hope that the administration exercises more caution with the avowed homophobic, misogynistic and militaristic strongman in Brazil. Christopher Sabatini is an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, executive director of Global Americans and a non-resident fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute. Another U.S. neighbor is moving closer to approving the recreational use of marijuana after a ruling from Mexico's Supreme Court last week that establishes a precedent for courts across the country. Why it matters: Fernando Belaunzaran, a former Mexican congressman and drug legalization activist, told Axios that the court's ruling that three plaintiffs must be allowed to use marijuana recreationally provides a "legal path" to legalization. While not everyone can produce, transport or consume marijuana, anyone who requests a permit to do so before the Federal Commission for Protection Against Health Risks must receive it. The ruling puts pressure on the Mexican legislature to take action. Not everyone is optimistic. Andres Aguinaco, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, told El Pais America that the road is full of obstacles. He believes there are two scenarios: Either Congress eliminates all or some restrictions on marijuana use or it does nothing, in which case the future of legalization will lie with the court. It could force a change to the laws, but that would be an unprecedented step. The bottom line: This is already the fifth decision in the same direction by the Supreme Court, an important threshold in establishing a national precedent. Mexico has yet to join Canada and Uruguay in legalizing marijuana use, but activists like Belaunzaran say that could change as early as next year. Oil sanctions stemming from President Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal officially went into effect Sunday at midnight, triggering immediate condemnation from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who pledged to continue exporting oil in defiance of the Trump administration's "economic war," reports the AP. The big picture: Prices this morning show Brent barely moving off prices that have tumbled sharply in recent weeks, trading at $73.11. This reflects how the reductions in Iranian exports have been ongoing and are largely priced into the market. Traders are also responding to today's announcement that the U.S will grant temporary waivers to 8 "jurisdictions" China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey that buy Iranian oil but, according to the State Department, have moved to curb imports. What they're saying: The impact of the sanctions is going to be largely softened as a result of this allowance, Surfeit Vijayakar of the energy consultancy Trisect tells Reuters. In addition, bearish forces like potentially softening demand growth and U.S.-China trade tensions are affecting the price (we looked more deeply at the state of the market in Friday's edition). What's next: Iranian exports have fallen by about a million barrels per day in the run-up to the formal reimposition. The consultancy Wood Mackenzie, in a note Monday morning, said that even though some other producers have stepped up production, the market could get a lot tighter in coming months as sanctions continue driving down exports. We think theres just enough growth in supply from elsewhere to muddle through the next few months, meet winter demand and avert a price spike," said WoodMac's Ann-Louise Hittle. She notes that OPEC's spare capacity that can be brought online within 30 days is only about 700,000 barrels per day. That means the market is vulnerable to strong demand in a cold winter or any new supply outage," she said. What to watch: In a joint statement, the European Union, France, Germany and Britain who are seeking to maintain trade ties with Iran said they "deeply regret" the reimposition of sanctions by the United States. Europe will not receive exemptions, and could look to establish a special payments system with Russia and China if the Trump administration sanctions SWIFT, the financial channel Iran uses to get paid for oil exports. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wrote in a Financial Times op-ed that foreign financial institutions that "knowingly engage" in "certain significant transactions" with Iran will be subject to sanctions. Go deeper: Trump administration blinks on "zero" oil exports from Iran When Axios on HBO interviewed President Trump last week, one goal was to get him to reckon with his own governments scientific findings, which unequivocally state that global warming is nearly entirely caused by humans. We thought it might be harder to dismiss the science if we showed him his own administration's most comprehensive report. Why it matters: We were wrong. Trump disputed that report, said he hadnt seen it and indicated while doing a wave motion with his hand that the climate goes up and down. These comments, the first on this report, are among the most extreme hes made dismissing a scientific issue nearly all other world leaders take seriously. The intrigue: Trump was shown a copy of the National Climate Assessment, a federally mandated report the Trump administration released without fanfare, or interference, last November. He dismissed it and said he didn't read it. Is there climate change? Yeah. Will it go back like this, I mean will it change back? Probably, Trump said, making an ocean wave motion with his hand. Reality check: The report is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment published by the entire federal government, from NASA to the Environmental Protection Agency. It concludes that "there is no convincing alternative explanation" for the global warming we've observed, other than human causes. It also concludes that only steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can alter the upward trajectory of air and ocean temperatures and their related impacts. The president has not repeated his often-cited 2012 Twitter comment that he thinks climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese, but he is still far outside the mainstream of scientists and other world leaders. Let's take a closer look at his most notable comments from the interview: Well, I think weve contributed, we certainly contribute, I mean, theres certain pollutants that go up and theres certain things that happen. Reality check: Republican politicians often acknowledge that humans have an impact, but they question how much of an impact. Scientists have actually calculated that figure using multiple lines of evidence, concluding that at least 92% of the warming between 1951 to 2010 was due to human activities. Uncertainty always exists with science. Scientists continue to debate how much sea level rise will occur and how much extreme weather will change in a warming world, for example. But a clear consensus exists that humans are having a big impact. I want everybody to report whatever they want, but ultimately Im the one that makes that final decision. I can also give you reports where people very much dispute that. Reality check: Trump is talking about U.S. government scientists and the National Climate Assessment. No peer-reviewed scientific reports, in the U.S. or elsewhere, dispute the basic consensus that human activities are causing the Earths temperature to rise. While Trump often makes inflammatory comments like this that drive the public debate, his administration doesnt try to challenge scientific findings, including the National Climate Assessment or a 2009 finding at the EPA. I also want jobs, I want viability for the country, I dont want to give up our natural resources because another country thats competitive with us Ill give you an example, China doesnt have the energy wealth that we do. Reality check: Pitting the economy against action on climate change is a common argument conservatives and some fossil-fuel executives make. Its not so black and white. Some parts of the economy would decline over time, like coal because it emits the most carbon dioxide. Others would grow, like renewable energy because they're far cleaner. Costs are inevitable with cutting emissions, but there's also costs associated with not doing anything, like protecting coastal cities from increased flooding. ExxonMobil and other big energy companies are even lobbying for a tax on carbon emissions, largely because their businesses such as natural gas and nuclear power are poised to benefit in a carbon-constrained world. As for China, its leading on several clean-energy technologies, including electric cars and solar panels. Its also remained committed to its pledges on climate in the absence of U.S. leadership since Trump vowed to withdraw America from the Paris Agreement last year. The bottom line: Fact-checking Trump on this issue is particularly difficult: Climate change is complicated and less tangible than, say, immigration or health care. That makes it easy to confuse non-experts with inaccurate information Climate change is a low priority and one of the most polarized issues for the public, multiple polls What's next: Trump is unlikely to change his tune on climate change while in the White House, but not all Republicans share his position. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Republican incumbent in Florida, readily acknowledges climate change and has even introduced carbon tax legislation. He's considered an early indicator of how the GOP is evolving, but he may not be in Congress much longer. He's locked in a tight re-election race, and odds are, he'll lose. Go deeper: Talk show host Rush Limbaugh, a staunch supporter and "friend" of President Trump, will join the president Monday night at a rally for Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley in Missouri. Why it matters: This is Trump's final campaign rally for the midterm season. A new poll on Saturday showed Claire McCaskill, one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent senators, statistically tied with Hawley. Update [Nov. 5]: An earlier version of this story said that Fox News host Sean Hannity would also be joining Trump at the rally, as noted in the Trump campaign's announcement. However, Hannity has since tweeted that he is not campaigning with the president, but "will be doing a live show from Cape Girardeau and interviewing President Trump before the rally." President Trump told "Axios on HBO" his administration is looking seriously at antitrust investigations of Google, Facebook and Amazon. In the next breath, he argued they are great companies that he wants to help. Why it matters: Trump's inconsistent approach toward Silicon Valley has had the world's most powerful technology companies on edge and that's exactly where he wants them. But his wavering stance makes it difficult to set national priorities around serious tech issues, such as consumer privacy, data security and competition. What he's saying: The following excerpts from the interview with "Axios on HBO" illustrate Trump's cognitive dissonance on this topic. Monopoly power of Google, Facebook and Amazon: "I leave it to others, but I do have a lot of people talking about monopoly when they mention those three in particular." We are looking at [antitrust] very seriously ... Look, that doesn't mean we're doing it, but we're certainly looking and I think most people surmise that, I would imagine." The EU's aggressive regulatory approach: "The European Union takes a lot of money out of our companies and I actually went to my people and said 'you know, if they're gonna do it we should be the one doing it, not them.' These are our companies...and they're great companies. "I'm not looking to hurt these companies, I'm looking to help them. As far as antitrust is concerned, we'll have to take a look at that but I want them to do well. I want Amazon to do well. I want Google to do well. I want Facebook I want all of 'em to do [well] these are great companies." Reality check: Several of Trump's statements during the interview underscore some misunderstandings regarding existing tech policy. EU taxes: He said the EU "taxes our companies terribly." He said the EU "taxes our companies terribly." Fact check: European countries have different tax structures, which is why some U.S. companies choose to house profits in countries with lower tax rates. European countries have different tax structures, which is why some U.S. companies choose to house profits in countries with lower tax rates. Earlier this year, the European Commission proposed a digital services tax that would apply a 3% tax on revenues of tech companies operating within EU borders. That proposal, as well as similar proposals announced by other countries, has not yet been finalized. the European Commission proposed a digital services tax that would apply a 3% tax on revenues of tech companies operating within EU borders. That proposal, as well as similar proposals announced by other countries, has not yet been finalized. Obama era: When asked if he's considered breaking the companies up, he responded: "In fact a lot of people thought that it was gonna happen and then I guess the previous administration stopped it from happening." When asked if he's considered breaking the companies up, he responded: "In fact a lot of people thought that it was gonna happen and then I guess the previous administration stopped it from happening." Fact check: The Obama Administration approved acquisitions by these companies (with conditions, in some cases) that some say have helped to solidify their dominance, such as Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp. The Obama Administration approved acquisitions by these companies (with conditions, in some cases) that some say have helped to solidify their dominance, such as Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp. After a nearly two-year investigation , the Federal Trade Commission determined Google had not violated antitrust laws in how it arranged search results. But there was no investigation focused on breaking up any of the companies. , the Federal Trade Commission determined Google had not violated antitrust laws in how it arranged search results. But there was no investigation focused on breaking up any of the companies. Under Obama , regulators did take action when the firms violated consumer protection laws, such as when Google settled with the Justice Department over illicit drug ads and when Facebook settled with the FTC for making information public after telling users it would be kept private. , regulators did take action when the firms violated consumer protection laws, such as when Google settled with the Justice Department over illicit drug ads and when Facebook settled with the FTC for making information public after telling users it would be kept private. Amazon taxes: Trump said, "We just want a fair playing field, you gotta have a fair playing field. Now all of a sudden the tax is happening with respect to Amazon you know they had the advantage of no tax and the Supreme Court just ruled and that's a big difference." Trump said, "We just want a fair playing field, you gotta have a fair playing field. Now all of a sudden the tax is happening with respect to Amazon you know they had the advantage of no tax and the Supreme Court just ruled and that's a big difference." Fact check: The Supreme Court in June ruled that states could collect sales tax from e-commerce retailers who had previously not been forced to pay local sales tax. Amazon was already collecting state sales tax on products it sells directly, but many smaller online vendors were not. The Supreme Court in June ruled that states could collect sales tax from e-commerce retailers who had previously not been forced to pay local sales tax. Amazon was already collecting state sales tax on products it sells directly, but many smaller online vendors were not. Amazon does pay taxes, although its been criticized by progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders for not paying its fair share of federal income taxes. Between the lines: Trump wants the companies to "do well" but on his terms. He may not have much power to directly force policy action. Oversight falls to the FTC and antitrust arm of the DOJ, which are expected to operate independently of the president. He could urge Congress to pass a law that would target tech companies, but sweeping legislation would be difficult, especially if Democrats retake the House. The president could sign an executive order to push policy, but that could be legally challenged if opponents feel the order isnt within the presidents jurisdiction. The bottom line: A number of issues from consumer data scandals to election manipulation have created a more skeptical view of Silicon Valley on both sides of the aisle. Theres still room for the Trump administration to clip Big Tech's wings. Go deeper: In August, Saudi-led coalition forces used an American bomb to blow up a school bus in Yemen, reportedly killing at least 51 people, including 40 children. What he's saying: In his first public comments on that attack, President Trump told "Axios on HBO" that the killings were "a horror show." But he declined to say if it's made him reassess American arms sales to the Saudis. "I think it's a terrible situation. I hated seeing what happened with the bus and the children cause that's pure that's a horror show when you see a thing like that, you saw the bus." Why it matters: Yemen is the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN. The U.S. has been selling the Saudis weapons to fight the Iran-backed Houthis, and Trump has boasted repeatedly about the size of his Saudi arms deal. "Axios on HBO" asked Trump whether it bothered him that the Saudi-led coalition has been using U.S. bombs to kill civilians. "Bother's not strong enough," Trump replied. "That was basically people that didnt know how to use the weapon, which is horrible." Axios' Jim VandeHei then asked Trump if this gave him pause about selling American weapons to the Saudis. "I don't want to see that," Trump replied. "That is a terrible thing. What's going on in Yemen generally is a terrible thing, and we're gonna see and we're looking at Yemen very carefully right now. We are actually studying Yemen very, very carefully." I asked if Trump would handle the war differently if he were in the Saudis' place. "I'll be talking about a lot of things with the Saudis," he continued, "but certainly I wouldn't be having people that don't know how to use the weapons shooting at buses with children." What's next: Last week, the U.S. called for a cease-fire, but within two days, per the Washington Post, "the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition launched a fresh offensive." The war has no end in sight. In a chilling piece, the New York Times Magazine's Robert Worth reported from the ground in Yemen that "Houthi officials say they have studied the Viet Congs tactics, and routinely refer to the war as the quagmire that will bring down the House of Saud." In a chilling piece, the New York Times Magazine's Robert Worth reported from the ground in Yemen that "Houthi officials say they have studied the Viet Congs tactics, and routinely refer to the war as the quagmire that will bring down the House of Saud." The Houthis believe they have a mandate from God to continue their war, Worth's piece continues. They chant the slogan: "God is great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curses on the Jews, Victory to Islam." to continue their war, Worth's piece continues. They chant the slogan: "God is great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curses on the Jews, Victory to Islam." The war has become a proxy fight between the Saudi-led coalition and Iran, and has put 14 million people at risk of starving to death. For more on Trump's accounting for Yemen, watch our full interview with the President at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. An Armenian court on Monday rejected investigators request for an arrest to be applied against Ara Minasian, a former director of one of Yerevans leading hospitals accused of fraud and forgery. Minasians attorney Tigran Ghazarian told RFE/RLs Armenian Service that the court found the petition concerning the father of ex-President Serzh Sarkisians son-in-law ungrounded. The final part of the judicial act was published. It said that the investigators petition is rejected on the basis that it is ungrounded, said the attorney, adding that they will study the document in detail after receiving it later today. On Friday, the Investigation Committee said that charges of particularly large-scale fraud and forgery committed with a group of people had been brought against Minasian. Minasian is hiding from the investigation, and his whereabouts are unknown. He has been put on a wanted list, the Committee said. Asked about where his client was at this moment, Minasians attorney Ghazarian said that he could not give any information on that account. Prosecution against Ara Minasian last week was announced amid the news of the recalling of his son, Mikayel Minasian, from several ambassador posts, including the post of Armenias ambassador to the Vatican. Mikayel Minasian, who is married to one of the daughters of ex-President Serzh Sarkisian, served as the countrys envoy to the Holy See since 2013. Before that, he occupied a senior position in the Sarkisian administration and many political pundits regarded him as the former presidents political and public relations strategist. During his years of work in public office Minasian, 41, mostly kept a low profile, but he is also thought to have controlled several private TV stations as well as a number of online news services. The move to recall Minasian from ambassador posts came amid changes put in place by acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, a former opposition lawmaker who took office in May after spearheading weeks of protests. The demonstrations helped bring the resignation of Sarkisian, his long-ruling predecessor. Under Pashinians administration cases were brought against several former officials and close relatives of Sarkisians family for a variety of alleged crimes. The health minister in the Pashinian government sacked Ara Minasian from the position of executive director of Yerevans Surb Grigor Lusavorich medical center in July. Armenias ambassador to Germany Ashot Smbatian has categorically denied any ties to local Armenian criminal groups after an investigation conducted by two leading German media made the allegation, citing classified police reports. According to a joint investigation carried out by Der Spiegel and the MDR TV and Radio Company, for three years, the Federal Criminal Police Office, together with the land police departments, has been conducting a classified operation to search for and detain representatives of the Armenian mafia. The Federal Intelligence Service and Europol have helped the criminal investigation officers of Germany in the investigation. However, the Federal Criminal Police Office recommended that investigators do not accept the assistance of the diplomatic mission of Armenia in Germany, since the investigators do not rule out links between so-called thieves in law and representatives of the state structures of Armenia. The authors of the investigative report also note that as a result of the large-scale operation codenamed FATIL (Fight Against Thieves in Law) that involved a number of special services, the law-enforcement authorities established that Armenian mafia groups have developed deep roots and created a strong network in Germany, but the suspects could not be detained due to insufficient evidence. The existence of the Armenian mafia in Germany began to be discussed in 2014 after a shootout between two criminal clans in July 2014 in the city of Erfurt, Thuringia, that left two ethnic Armenian men wounded. However, due to lack of evidence, the results of the investigations have not yet led to accusations and criminal cases. The German law-enforcement authorities initiated 14 criminal proceedings against more than four dozen people, with charges including money laundering. The Erfurt shootout was followed by an attack on a restaurant owned by an ethnic Armenian. According to media publications, the names of well-known Armenian boxers, Arthur Abraham and Karo Murat, who live in Germany, were also circulated in the investigation. However, the law-enforcement authorities did not succeed in finding solid evidence against them and other suspects. A strictly confidential report drawn up at the end of the investigation, nevertheless, stated that in Germany there is, indeed, an Armenian mafia which, along with other criminal groups in the Russian-Eurasian region, possesses substantial financial resources, threatening the rule of law in the country. The leading German media outlets note that last March Armenian Ambassador to Germany Smbatian met with the chief of the Thuringia District Police Office and offered official Yerevans assistance in detecting Armenian criminal groups. Germanys Federal Criminal Police Office, however, advised colleagues in a secret report against cooperating with Armenian authorities, citing possible fusion between Armenian authorities and mafia groups, according to Der Spiegel. According to the media, in particular, the law-enforcement authorities in Germany suspected that the ambassador, who was appointed in 2015 by the decree of the then Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, had links with criminal groups, but no evidence supporting these suspicions was found. Earlier, in 2008, when Smbatian was an embassy official, the Federal Intelligence Service suspected him of international smuggling, but no evidence was found in that case either, and the investigation was suspended. Smbatian, who last week was appointed also to the post of Armenias ambassador to Liechtenstein, combining these new duties with his current diplomatic post, categorically denies the latest allegations, describing them as absurd. The German Public Television and Radio Company has produced an extensive film about the investigation and its revelations, which it plans to broadcast on Tuesday. In response to a request from RFE/RLs Armenian Service, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday said it was in touch with the German authorities to clarify the credibility of the reports published by the media. Taking into account the delicate nature of the issue and its potential impact on the work of our diplomatic mission, at this point we do not find it appropriate to give an additional comment. We will provide additional information based on the results, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalian said. Ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have dismissed a possible offer from Azerbaijan to exchange prisoners of war and detainees held by both sides according to an all-for-all scheme. David Babayan, deputy chief of presidential staff in Stepanakert, told RFE/RLs Armenian Service that they cannot regard Azerbaijanis, who committed serious crimes on the Armenian side on the same plane with ordinary Armenian citizens who inadvertently crossed the border. Of course, we do not agree to such an exchange, because terrorists and murderers must serve their punishments and we will not exchange them. As for other categories of detainees, first, there should be such an application, and we need to see who can be exchanged with whom, if there are equal categories [of prisoners]. I do not speak about criminals, saboteurs and terrorists, the Nagorno-Karabakh official said. According to the data of the Armenian Ministry of Defense, three Armenians are currently kept in prison in Azerbaijan. Official Baku considers Arsen Baghdasarian, Karen Ghazarian and Zaven Karapetian as saboteurs, accusing them of war crimes. The three Armenians have been sentenced to long prison terms in Azerbaijan. The Armenian side denies the Azerbaijani claims. The Armenian side also has three Azerbaijanis kept in prison. Shahbaz Quliyev and Dilham Askerov were detained in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2014. The court in Stepanakert convicted the two men of a number of heavy crimes (murder, kidnapping, espionage, illegal border crossing, possessing ammunition) and sentenced Askerov to life imprisonment and Quliyev to 22 years in prison. The third Azerbaijani citizen held by the Armenian side is Elnur Huseynzade, who was detained last year in the vicinity of the Talish village of Nagorno-Karabakh. Official Stepanakert insists that Huseynzade, 23, is a soldier of the Azerbaijani army and was detained at the time of committing an act of sabotage. Baku denies the three men were involved in any crime in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which it regards as Azerbaijani territory. Babayan emphasized that Stepanakert is not against the exchange of prisoners in principle, but is against the variant offered by Baku. According to the official, over the past years Azerbaijan has grossly violated the rights of Armenian captives. They put on them Armenian military uniforms, and even these uniforms belong to the Azerbaijani army. They shows them on television, which is strictly prohibited by conventions. It is more so unacceptable to use them for the purpose of political speculations. And these people were also forced to speak bad things about Artsakh (ed: Nagorno-Karabakh) and Armenia. Now, in fact, it turns out that they return these people with the expectation that they should be put on trial here. This is an inhumane approach, he said. The issue of a possible prisoner-of-war exchange has been actively addressed by Azerbaijani media in recent days. The head of the State Security Service of Azerbaijan, Madat Quliyev, also commented on the issue on Sunday, claiming that the number of Azerbaijani captives kept by the Armenian side reaches 871. Moreover, as the Azerbaijani official said, they [Armenians] are trying to convince these people that the state of Azerbaijan does not exist anymore and that Azerbaijan is entirely under Armenias control. Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovannisian described the statistics cited by the Azerbaijani official as nonsense. In my opinion, Azerbaijan does not wish to hand over to us our prisoners of war without preconditions. It sets an ultimatum, speaks about some absurd figures, gives some unknown names and sets preconditions, which is unacceptable in this case, Hovannisian said. Armenian Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan recently appealed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Council of Europes Commissioner for Human Rights to provide support in ensuring the rights and repatriation of Karen Ghazarian, who is a prisoner in Azerbaijan. The talk about a possible exchange of prisoners of war between the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides comes shortly after a visit to the region by the American, Russian and French co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes Minsk Group, who commended the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for implementing constructive measures in good faith following their meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on the margins of an CIS summit, and expressed support for the two countries leaders readiness to continue their dialogue. By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 26 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Nov. 5. The 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 The Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan has approved the "Procedure for organizing and holding a competition to choose exporters who will participate in support measures" and "Criteria for determining certain foreigners who will participate in consumer missions." Documents define the conditions for selecting the members of export and consumer missions, conditions for obtaining international certificates for export, for the promotion of Made in Azerbaijan brand in foreign markets, for conducting marketing research at the request of entrepreneurs, the implementation of research programs and other measures. The competitions for participation in export missions will be held by a special commission created by the competition organizer. Commission members, including the chairman and vice-chairman, are appointed by the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan. The commission will consist of seven people. In January 2018, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on amendments to the "Procedure for determining and regulating the mechanism of payment for part of the expenses paid from the state budget for the organization of export missions to foreign countries, research of foreign markets and marketing activities, promotion of the "Made in Azerbaijan" brand in foreign markets, obtaining certificates and patents by local companies in foreign countries in connection with exports, research programs and projects for export development". According to the decree, this year the number of export missions that can be organized with the participation of Azerbaijani entrepreneurs within one calendar year has been increased from 10 to 25. The number of international fairs and exhibitions has been increased from 5 to 10. In recent years, Azerbaijan has been actively promoting the Made in Azerbaijan brand in foreign countries through the creation of trading houses. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Sara Israfilbayova Transport issues were on the agenda during the latest visit of Azerbaijani Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Ramin Guluzade to the UAE, where he held a meeting with Minister of Infrastructure Development of the UAE Abdullah bin Mohammed Belhaif Al Nuaimi. The sides discussed the strengthening of bilateral relations between the UAE and Azerbaijan, in particular, in the field of infrastructure and transport. Al Nuaimi touched upon the achievements of the UAE in the field of infrastructure and transport and plans to become one of the leading countries of the world by 2021. He also highly appreciated the common bilateral relations between the two countries, stressing the importance of sharing experience in the field of infrastructure and transport. Guluzade, in turn, spoke about the successes of Azerbaijan and new projects that contribute to the development of infrastructure and transport in the country. The UAE has recognized the independence of Azerbaijan in December, 1991, while diplomatic relations between the states were established in September, 1992. Azerbaijan and the UAE enjoy friendly relations and are keen to deepen economic cooperation. To date, more than 250 companies from the UAE work in Azerbaijan. The UAE-Azerbaijan Joint Economic Committee previously said both countries were to focus on nine key areas for bilateral cooperation, including air transport, tourism, communications, environment, water, agriculture, renewable energy, modern technology and industry. Azerbaijan mainly imports high-tech products, electronics, industrial goods and building materials from the UAE and exports to the UAE fruits, juices, nuts, metal semi-finished products and so on. According to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the UAE amounted to $28.457 million in January-July 2018, which is 67 percent more than in the same period of 2017. At the same time, exports from Azerbaijan to the UAE amounted to $12.317 million (an increase of 58.8 percent), while imports - $16.139 million (by 73.8 percent). --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Sara Israfilbayova The state budget for 2019 was discussed at the joint meeting of parliamentary committees on November 5. Addressing the event, Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov noted that depreciation of currencies of the neighboring countries and trade partners of Azerbaijan increases impact on manat rate. Although the stabilization of oil prices may have a positive effect on Azerbaijan, the potential negative effects of economic instability in the region on the countrys economy should also be taken into account, he said. The minister noted that the prevention of the impact of external macroeconomic threats on the country's economy will be one of the main goals of monetary and fiscal policy for 2019. In turn, Deputy Economy Minister Shirzad Abdullayev noted that by the end of the year, 13 agroparks will be created in Azerbaijan. Addressing the event, he underlined that six agroparks have already been created, in 30 regions of the country work is underway to create agroparks and large farms, adding that the total area is 192,000 square meters, and the volume of investments is 1.4 billion manats ($823.53 million). Abdullayev went on to say that the government provides comprehensive support for the creation of agroparks and the development of agriculture. Thus, 219 million manats ($128.82 million) were allocated for the creation of infrastructure of agroparks and another 111 million manats ($65.29 million) accounted for concessional loans for residents of these agroparks. According to the governments forecasts, the scope of agriculture, forestry and fish farming in 2018 should increase by 5.1 percent, in 2019 - by 4.6 percent, in 2020 by 4.8 percent, in 2021 by 4.6 percent, in 2022 by 4.3 percent. Further, he pointed out that so far, 2.7 billion manats ($1.59 billion) have been allocated to entrepreneurs through the investment promotion mechanism. The deputy minister said that the implementation of these projects will create over 21,000 new jobs. He added that about 200 enterprises that received a certificate of investment promotion have already opened, and the rest will be launched by the end of 2019. Abdullayev also reminded that in 2019, the volume of investments in fixed assets is projected at 17.9 billion manats ($10.53 billion), including almost 7.5 billion manats ($4.41 billion) of foreign investment, and 10.4 billion manats ($6.11 billion) of domestic investment. In general, the deputy minister noted that as a result of measures planned in the non-oil sector, the growth rate of non-oil GDP in Azerbaijan in 2019 will be 3.9 percent, and in subsequent years the growth will be at the level of 3 percent and higher. Addressing the event, Taxes Minister Mikayil Jabbarov noted that the ministry considers it necessary to introduce tangible tax incentives to ensure transparency in the labor market and wages. The minister stressed that the main goal set by the head of state for the tax service is to form tax activities and reform tax legislation in order to stimulate private investments, support the economy and develop entrepreneurship. Jabbarov added that, in order to achieve the objectives, it is important to ensure equal conditions and equal tax burden. As he noted, the proposed tax benefits for 2019 serve these purposes. Presently, the priorities for the ministry are tax evasion reduction, expanding the taxable base, optimizing tax benefits and improving their economic efficiency, as well as improving tax administration, the minister said. In turn, Executive Director of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) Shahmar Movsumov stressed that Azerbaijans strategic currency reserves, which have reached $45 billion over 10 months, provide an opportunity for successful implementation of measures to counter the global crisis and rapidly solve economic, social, environmental and other issues. The structural reforms carried out in all sectors of the country recently, the liberalization of the economy and the development of the non-oil sector have ensured the sustainability of Azerbaijans economy, he said. SOFAZs basic indicators for 2019, as well as the parameters of the state budget have been formed on the basis of the average annual oil price of $60 per barrel, he said. He went on to say that application of new fiscal budgetary rules on medium-term and long-term management of expenditures of the 2019 consolidated budget reduces the dependence of the state budget on the volatility of oil revenues and creates conditions for strengthening of budget discipline, he said. SOFAZs expenditures for the next year have been formed taking into account these rules, Movsumov explained. He pointed out that SOFAZs budget surplus in 2019 is projected at 4.214 billion manats ($2.48 billion). The revenues of the state budget for 2019 are forecasted at 22.92 billion manats ($13.48 billion), that is 768.5 million manats ($452.06 million) or 3.5 percent more. In the structure of revenues, 7.316 billion manats ($4.303 million) or 31.9 percent will come from the Taxes Ministry, 11.364 billion manats ($6.68 billion) or 49.6 percent from SOFAZ transfers, 3.45 billion manats ($2.03 billion) or 15.1 percent from State Customs Committees transfers, 785.6 million manats ($462.12 million) or 3.4 percent from other sources. Expenditures are expected to make up 24.78 billion manats ($14.58 billion) up 1.68 billion manats ($) or 7.3 percent. Expenditures for education are planned to reach 2.275 billion manats ($1.39 billion), health expenditures 1.048 billion manats ($616.47 million), defense spendings 3.038 billion manats ($1.79 billion), expenditures for international activity and membership to international organizations 185.7 million manats ($109.23 million). Revenues of the consolidated budget for 2019 are forecasted at 29.72 billion manats ($17.48 billion), up 1.6 billion manats ($941.18 million) or 5.7 percent in comparison to the current year, expenditures 27.37 billion ($16.1 billion) , up 797 million manats ($468.82 million) or 3.0 percent. The limit of need criterion for 2019 was set at 143 manats ($84). Subsistence minimum will be 180 manats ($105) across the country, 191 manats ($112) for able-bodied people, 149 manats ($87) for pensioners, 160 manats ($94) for children. --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The CLAAS company will train Azerbaijani farmers in the technology of conservation of high-quality cattle fodder, the International Export Manager of CLAAS Global Sales GmbH, Wassili Seider, told Trend. Seider noted that the efficient CLAAS technologies, which are represented by a wide range of forage harvesters and tractors, will be used for fodder conservation. "When preparing a balanced fodder, farmers need to take into account the ratio of energy and protein, as well as proper composition of the fodder, that is, the quantities of starch and fiber. The key factors in forage conservation as exemplified by silage are the correct time period for harvesting, grain fragmentation degree, compaction of the fodder, use of a protective covering during tamping, etc. The combination of all these factors is possible only with the use of highly efficient machines with maximum power," Seider said. Increasing milk productivity in Azerbaijan, according to Seider, is mainly dependent on round-the-clock provision of high-quality fodder, since the composition of a healthy fodder is a major factor for productivity. CLAAS presents a wide range of machines for conservation of high-quality fodders, taking into account the different needs of customers. The product line of CLAAS company includes forage harvesters, pickup presses and the full offer of the green line, as well as telescopic wheel loaders that optimize logistics, Seider said. The international export manager of CLAAS Global Sales GmbH company believes that the innovations in the agricultural sector play an important role and streamline business processes, which result in increased productivity. "Our company pays great attention to innovations and allocates 250 million euros annually for the improvement of the existing technologies and development of new ones. One of the examples is the JAGUAR forage harvester, which is optionally equipped with three types of grain crushers, a stone protection system STOP ROCK, an automated loading system AUTO FILL, harvesting crops moisture sensor and TELEMATICS system," Seider said. Seider said the agricultural market of Azerbaijan is developing, and the main task of CLAAS company is to keep up with local agricultural producers, offering optimal solutions for the sake of development, growth and profits of farmers. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova Azerbaijani photographers will present the unique story of Azerbaijan's capital city Baku. The exhibition "European architectural heritage of Baku" will be held at Center of Contemporary Art on November 6-8. National photographers will present 20 photos of majestic gothic and baroque buildings in details as part of the Festival of Cultural Heritage "Fantazia". Photographs of Ilkin Kangarli, Natalia Garahanova, Rustam Huseynov and Tofik Rashidov showcase the European architectural buildings of Baku. Highlighting the rich past of architecture in Baku, photographers shed light on the issue of heritage and the importance of its passing to future generations. Back in the early 20th century, Azerbaijan went through its first oil boom, and architects from many countries of the Western Europe were attracted to the city to design buildings. There are many buildings built in Baku at the turn of the 20th century that spot Victorian and Western influence in their designs. Actually, the architecture in Baku has four distinct flavors: the medieval inner city, the lavish styles from the first oil exploitation, Soviet neighborhoods and contemporary designs. Many of local and international photographers documented this traces of different stages of history as a rich heritage of past and modernity through photography. The project aims to help enhance the role of local population, the youth in promotion and preservation of national cultural and architectural heritage as well as to attract the attention of a new generation to the samples of cultural heritage. The exhibition is held with the financial support of the Delegation of the European Union to Azerbaijan in cooperation with the Embassies of EU Member States and in particular France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands and Poland on the occasion of the European Year of Cultural Heritage. The event is held within the partnership of Initiative Curators Union (ICU), Contemporary Art Center (MIM) and Club of Azerbaijani Artists (BRK) supported by Administration of the State Historical-Architectural Reservation Icheri Sheher, Ministry of Culture, State Tourism Agency, Union of Architects, Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, Maksud Ibrahimbeyov Creativity Center, Yarat Contemporary Art Space. Scientific partners are: Ca Foscari University of Venice, ADA University, Azerbaijan National University of Culture and Arts, Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction. The exhibition opens at 18:00. Notably, the Festival of Cultural Heritage will run until November 10. The First "Fantazia" Festival aimed at raising awareness about the importance of preserving cultural heritage in Baku and Azerbaijan. United Cultures provides organizational support for this celebration. The festival features a diverse calendar of events, including concerts, guided tours, workshops, film screenings, exhibitions, art installations, competitions, and debates with internationally and locally acclaimed experts. The art director of the festival is Konul Rafiyeva. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Palestine shares the position of Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Palestine Riyad al-Maliki told reporters November 5. He said Palestine is a supporter of the implementation of international laws. "We believe that the best way to obtain full support from the international community is to comply with international laws and implement resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council," said Riyad al-Maliki. 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 Azerbaijan suffers from injustice, in particular from the occupation of its territories by neighboring Armenia, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a conference of Palestinian ambassadors in Asian countries November 5. The minister recalled that the resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of the UN Security Council adopted in 1993 have not yet been implemented. He stressed that the Azerbaijanis were subjected to ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend A security dialogue meeting was held in Baku between the EU and Azerbaijan, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry said in a message Nov. 3. The delegation of the EU was headed by Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs of the European External Action Service Jean-Christophe Belliard. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the EU delegation met with Azerbaijans Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov. The EU Delegation also met Deputy Head of Foreign Policy Affairs of Azerbaijans Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev and other officials. The decision on establishing a bilateral dialogue mechanism on security and transport issues was made as a result of the EU-Azerbaijan Cooperation Council meeting of February 15, 2018. At the meeting the issues of regional and international agenda, including fighting terrorism, separatism and violent extremism and all their forms and manifestations, transnational organized crime, illicit trafficking, cybercrime and other translational security threats were thoroughly discussed. The successful cooperation of the EU and Azerbaijan in the field of energy and Azerbaijans contribution to the energy security of Europe was emphasized. The sides reiterated their commitment to support sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of international borders of each other. It was mentioned that the new partnership agreement between the EU and Azerbaijan on which the negotiations are continuing will create favorable opportunities for comprehensive development of cooperation between the sides. The EU side was informed about the current situation of the negotiation process on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and it was emphasized that only the liberation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and return of the forcefully expelled people to their homelands will bring durable peace and sustainable development to the region. The sides valued the first dialogue meeting as a new momentum in their relations and agreed to continue the dialogue in the upcoming year. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Azerbaijan's support on the issue of Jerusalem is important for Palestine, the Foreign Minister of Palestine Riyad al-Maliki said at the opening of the conference of Palestinian ambassadors in Asian countries on Nov. 5. Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov addressing the opening session of the conference noted with satisfaction the decision to host the gathering as a response to request made by the Palestinian side and underlined the continuous support of Azerbaijan to the brotherly People of Palestine in their struggle to achieve peace, stability and sustainable development. Mammadyarov stressed that Azerbaijan consistently stands for the two-state solution of the Palestinian issue with East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine. It was noted that Azerbaijan hosted several international events on Palestine, including an international conference on the issue of Jerusalem, which was held last year in Azerbaijan with participation of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the United Nations Coordination Office for Humanitarian Affairs, the OIC, and various non-governmental and civil society organizations. Also, it has been emphasized that the Republic of Azerbaijan always supports Palestinian people in difficult times and is committed to Islamic solidarity and vivid example of this support is the allocation of $200,000 to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) by Azerbaijan in October 2018. Mammadyarov briefed the conference participants on Armenia's aggressive policy and its consequences against Azerbaijan, stressing that UN Security Council's four resolutions on the immediate and unconditional release of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan have not yet been implemented. Mammadyarov also informed the participants of the conference about the activities of Azerbaijan within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), considerable contribution of Azerbaijan to the cause of Islamic Solidarity, as well as initiatives launched and events organized in this regard. Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki expressed his gratitude for continuous support of Azerbaijan to the People of Palestine in their struggle to achieve peace and underlined that the decision to host the conference of Ambassadors of Palestine in Asian states is a vivid example to it. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Narmina Mammadova Azerbaijan aims to increase usage of renewable energy sources and the country has all opportunities for this. Thus, Azerbaijan continues to cooperate with foreign countries in this area. Denmark and Azerbaijan have opportunities for cooperation in energy efficiency, Danish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Svend Olling told Trend. "I especially see opportunities in the area of energy efficiency as well as renewable energy and technology," he said. Olling pointed out that Denmark is a leading nation in the industry of green energy, and is always keen on dispersing green energy production and consumption technologies to other countries. "Azerbaijan is not lacking energy sources, as the country is rich in oil and gas. Still, the concern for the climate is something that makes enhanced cooperation in the field of clean energy relevant worldwide. It is a responsibility for all nations to do their best to lower carbon emissions," the envoy noted. The diplomat went on to say that one way to take action is through investing in clean and sustainable energy sources. "There is a number of possible ways to do it, be it through renewable energy, waste-to-energy or district heating," he noted. Olling pointed out that even in a time when green energy might be on top of the agenda, oil and gas are still important energy sources. "A transition to low carbon energy would also release more oil and gas for Azerbaijan to export, which in turn will increase the prosperity of the country. This is why a mix of available energy sources could make Azerbaijan even stronger in the sphere of energy in the long term," the diplomat said. Olling noted that cooperation in this field could take several different forms. "One method is through partnerships, where knowhow and technology is transferred from experts to local partners, and projects are conducted in accordance with local conditions and economy," he added. The capacity of the energy system of Azerbaijan is more than 6,000 megawatts. At the same time, according to experts, the potential of renewable energy sources in the country is more than 25,300 megawatts. Most of the country's potential in this area falls on solar energy, while it is estimated at 5,000 megawatts. Some 4,500 megawatts accounts for wind power, 1,500 megawatts -- for biomass, 800 megawatts -- for geothermal energy, and the remaining 350 megawatts -- for the small hydro power plants (HPP). The usage of renewable sources is gaining more and more supporters, and it is obvious that the future of humanity will largely depend on this method of energy production. Today, 80 percent of world energy consumption comes from hydrocarbons (oil, natural gas and coal), and 20 percent from renewable sources and nuclear energy. Energy consumption in the world is growing every day, and traditional energy sources are rapidly being exhausted. According to the forecasts of the International Energy Agency (IEA), 60 percent of world energy will come from hydrocarbons in 2040, and the largest percentage will come from natural gas, while 40 percent from nuclear energy and renewable energy sources, mostly from wind and solar energy. Ecologically pure infrastructure of the production of this type of energy is of great importance. Alternative energy sources are safe for humans and the environment, as they do not produce harmful emissions into the atmosphere. On the contrary, hydrocarbon-based energy is the main source of pollution of the Earths atmosphere; it can lead to irreversible climate change on the planet. China is the undisputed leader among the leading countries in the development and application of renewable sources. According to forecasts of the World Economic Forum (WEF), more than 40 percent of the total global alternative energy by 2022 will account for China. In 2017, Chinas total investment in renewable energy projects amounted to more than $44 billion. The United States, which in 2017 accounted for $32 billion in investments, ranks second in this term. India is in third place, whose renewable capacity will double by 2022. Solar energy and wind make up 90 percent of Indias renewable power growth. In European countries, prospects seem even brighter. By 2022, Denmark is expected to generate 69 percent of its energy from renewable sources, making it the world leader. Ireland is in second place, and is projected to generate one third of its energy needs from renewable sources. In other European countries, including Spain, Germany and the UK, the share of wind and solar energy will exceed 25% of total production. So what about Azerbaijan? In accordance with the Decree of President Ilham Aliyev, in 2013, the State Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources was created, and a number of documents were signed and programs were adopted to develop this industry. These documents provide for bringing alternative sources to 20 percent of the total energy consumption of Azerbaijan by the end of 2020. It is obvious that the development of alternative energy is included in the number of priority directions of state development. According to studies, there is a huge potential in the territory of Azerbaijan for generating electricity using renewable energy sources. The efficiency of using one or another alternative energy sources directly depends on the region in which the installation of equipment is necessary. For example, on the Absheron Peninsula, the weather is quite often windy - the wind blows about 300 days a year. In particular, in the village of Shubany, 227 days a year the wind blows at a speed of more than 75 km/h and even more. Moreover, sunny days on the Absheron Peninsula account for more than 200 days a year, and on summer days the temperature often reaches 40 degrees. The total potential of solar energy is estimated at 500 megawatts, while the potential for wind power generation is 350 megawatts. Thus, the territory has an undeniable potential, and the usage of alternative sources for energy generation is more than attractive. Against the background of increasingly frequent environmental warnings about air pollution in the major cities of Azerbaijan, one should also highlight the positive environmental aspect of using alternative technologies in energy production. Investing in renewable energy sources can also significantly reduce energy budget spending. For example, Germany is the main network importer of electricity in Europe. It is estimated that by 2050, the country is going to use only renewable energy sources, which will help save billions of dollars, since they will not need to import energy. A huge impetus to the usage of alternative energy can be given by subsidies from the state. If you look at the six leading countries in the world that subsidize alternative energy, the total amount of subsidies exceeds $40 billion a year. In the U.S. alone, in 2016, $ 18.4 billion was spent on energy subsidies. An important factor in stimulating and attracting investments in technologies for the production of renewable energy is the usage of green tariffs. The adoption of the law on green tariff will give a huge impetus to the creation of a favorable investment climate in the energy sector and the further attraction of investments in Azerbaijan. The principle of the green tariff is quite simple: the state undertakes to buy energy from legal entities and individuals, produced using alternative energy sources. In many countries of the world, a special green tariff has been approved at the legislative level, which stimulates the development of alternative energy resources and the inflow of investments in this sector of the economy. If Azerbaijan succeeds in implementing all the planned measures for the development of renewable energy sources, then in the foreseeable future, the volume of production of alternative energy may be on par with the most developed countries of the world. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Officials said another 44 people were injured in the pile-up at the toll station which is close to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu. It happened on the Lanzhour-Haikou Expressway, in northwest China's Gansu Province on Saturday evening. A truck hit 31 cars and killed at least 13 people after the driver lost control Saturday night at an expressway toll booth in northwestern China, Chinese state media reported. The driver of the articulated truck lost control on a downhill stretch of motorway in the city of Lanzhou and crashed into the line of 31 vehicles. Ten of the 44 injured people were seriously injured, according to local government. The truck driver is being investigated by police. According to authorities 58,000 people were killed in accidents across the country in 2015 alone. In a non-road accident, authorities in central China said a factory that makes heat-insulation material exploded Saturday morning in Lankao county, Henan province, due to a propane leak. Last week, 15 people were killed after a bus veered off a bridge into China's Yangtze River. Violations of traffic laws were blamed for almost 90 percent of accidents that caused deaths or injuries that year. By Leman Mammadova Azerbaijan continues to strengthen its ties with European countries within the Southern Gas Corridor project aimed at reaching energy markets of Europe. The presence of bilateral cooperation between the governments, as well as multilateral agreements makes the projects in the energy sector more reliable and strong. Trans Adriatic Pipeline project (TAP) is a good example of energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and Switzerland, the Federal Council of Switzerland told Trend. Azerbaijan and Switzerland signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the energy sector in 2007, and memorandum laid the foundation for the development of closer ties in this area. The implementation of the TAP project is an excellent example of our relations in the energy sector, and the Swiss company Axpo is one of the founders of the TAP consortium, the Swiss Federal Council said. The Council noted that the country considers security of supply through diversification as an integral component of its foreign energy policy. Switzerland has therefore supported the Southern Gas Corridor since the very beginning. Natural gas, constituting 14 percent of the country's total energy consumption (2017 data), is a significant contribution to Switzerland's energy sector. Considering the decline in natural gas production in Europe, TAP will diversify the sources and routes of gas supplies to Europe, and thus will benefit Switzerland, the Council said. TAP, along with TANAP, is a part of Southern Gas Corridor project. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz-2 gas field to Greece and southern Italy across the Adriatic Sea through Greece and Albania, and involves designing, construction and operation of the natural gas pipeline. The Intergovernmental Agreement on the TAP project was signed by Albania, Italy and Greece in February 2013. The cost of the project is 4.5 billion euros. The TAP project is one of the strategic objectives of the EU in the energy security and diversification of energy sources, chosen as the shortest and direct way to export natural gas from Azerbaijan to the European markets. Construction of nearly 74.6 percent of the 878 km pipeline has been completed. The TAP pipeline is expected to be commissioned in 2020. The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year with the possibility of doubling it. TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent). --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend In the first five months of this Iranian year (started March 21, 2018), 4,322 tons of nectarines and peaches worth $4,391,471 were imported by Iran from different countries, according to the Iranian Customs Administrations statistics. Peaches and nectarines were imported mainly from Spain and Greece, Mizan News Agency reported. According to the statistics, 2,388 tons of peaches and nectarines worth $2,552.80 million were imported from Spain, 1,934 tons of peaches and nectarines worth $1,839,391 were imported from Greece. As a result of the recent devaluation in Iran, the foreign currency deficit has been observed in the country and the prices for products have sharply increased. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend A meeting with Mohammad Homayoun Qayumi, Acting Finance Minister of Afghanistan has been held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement. During the meeting, special attention was paid to the implementation of important joint infrastructure projects, such as the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline and the use of the first phase of the "International Asian Railway Transport Corridor" Kerki-Imamnazar (Turkmenistan) - Akina (Afghanistan). The sides reaffirmed the mutual commitment of the two countries to further intensify the bilateral dialogue, discussed the situation in the region and the priorities for the development of Turkmen-Afghan cooperation in various fields. Among the priority themes, the parties noted the important role of interstate cooperation in the trade-economic, fuel-energy, transport and cultural-humanitarian fields. "The delegation of the IRA expressed sincere gratitude for the continued assistance provided by Turkmenistan in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, commending Turkmenistans active participation in stabilizing and establishing a peaceful and prosperous life in the neighboring state," the message says. The meeting of the Intergovernmental Turkmen-Afghan Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation is being held in Ashgabat. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The November sanctions of the US on Iran will effect affect the market, as it will be proof of the strength or weakness of the US (as largest oil producer and consumer), Cyril Widdershoven, a Middle East geopolitical specialist and energy analyst, a partner at Dutch risk consultancy VEROCY and SVP MEA-Risk, told Trend. "If no reaction, global oil market shows it is very well supplied, which I doubt, looking at the current fundamentals worldwide and possible hickups. Dont forget, in addition to Iran, Venezuela and others are totally imploding, while Iraq, Libya, Nigeria and Algeria are not keeping up also," said the expert. Widdershoven believes that effectiveness of the sanctions will depend on: US legal sanctions on 3rd parties Possibility of US to control and block SWIFT system for Iran Coordination with Arab OPEC producers Willingness of Asian countries not to get into a real conflict with the US EU has no influence at all, Brussels and governments can talk and put in place whatever they want, internationally operating companies in Europe will not burn their fingers on Iran. Further the expert noted that in order the maintain the oil market balance, other oil producers first need to coordinate overall production and export volumes to counter the loss of Iranian volumes in the market. "At the same time, OPEC and Russia need to organize a production agreement, without Iran, to cope with new situation. Fluctuations will be in the market, but most of them will be in December 2018 or start 2019, when oversupply from Iran over the last weeks will have been taken out of the market," he added. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov The administration of President Trump intends to restore all sanctions against Iran, which were lifted as a result of the 2015 agreement. Trump decided to restore sanctions on the eve of difficult mid-term elections that could change the balance of power in Congress. A statement from the White House says that the sanctions will be the toughest ever against this country and will be directed against the shipping, energy and banks of Iran. New U.S. sanctions will come into force on November 5 and will affect the leading sectors of the Iranian economy. The sanctions list includes the names of more than 700 individuals, organizations, ships and aircraft, as well as the largest banks, oil and transport companies. This is the second wave of sanctions imposed by the Trump administration since May of this year. However, the new sanctions will not affect the eight countries participating in the agreement with Iran, which can continue to import Iranian oil. Among the eight are the following American allies: Italy, Japan, India, South Korea, and Turkey. Violators of the sanctions regime against Iran are waiting for "severe consequences", warned the White House. Iranian Foreign Ministry declared that Tehran is not concerned about another tightening of U.S. sanctions. A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran, Bahram Kasemi, said that Iran has the necessary knowledge and resources to conduct an independent economic policy. He stressed that America will not achieve its economic goals with the help of such sanctions. Achievement of political goals in this way is impossible, Kasemi believes. Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that U.S. will not achieve its goals by imposing new sanctions against Iran and nothing new will happen because of them. American sanctions, rather, will have a psychological effect, stressed Zarif. Economic sanctions against Iran are a system of economic sanctions (discriminatory trade restrictions) imposed by U.S. government on Iran associated with missile and nuclear programs in Iran. In 2012, the Iranian government ceased, in response to sanctions by Western countries, the sale of oil to the U.S. and the UK, and from the beginning of 2013 to the EU. After Iran made concessions on the nuclear program, in 2016 the U.S. authorities announced the lift of sanctions from 59 individuals (citizens of Iran and other countries), 385 enterprises, 77 planes and 227 ships. In 2018, the Trump administration restored sanctions against Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump announced in May that Washington was withdrawing from an agreement on a nuclear program with Iran. Trump also reported on the restoration of all sanctions against Iran, including secondary ones, that is, in relation to other countries doing business with Iran. The United States re-introduced part of the sanctions against Iran on August 7. More substantial sanctions that will cover oil exports are expected from the beginning of November. From August 7, 2018, the updated Blocking Statute entered into force in the EU, the provisions of which are aimed at protecting European companies from the influence of U.S. extraterritorial sanctions. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Sara Israfilbayova Uzbek-Ukrainian trade turnover increased by 54.1 percent and reached $268.4 million in January-August, Uzbek media reported quoting Ukrainian ambassador to Uzbekistan Yuri Savchenko. The ambassador noted that the trade turnover between the countries is growing and it deserves the highest positive assessment. This year, the growth of Ukrainian exports is more intense than last year, the growth of Uzbek exports. Mainly because of sugar and some other goods, the ambassador underlined. During the reporting period, Ukrainian exports to Uzbekistan reached $187.4 million, an increase of 83.6 percent, while imports of Uzbek products from Ukraine exceeded $81.1 million, an increase of 12.4 percent. Ukraine mainly supplies pharmaceutical and food products to Uzbekistan, as well as various equipment. Earlier, Uzbek MPs announced that the country could impose restrictive measures on Ukrainian goods in response to anti-subsidy investigation regarding the import of passenger cars from Uzbekistan. Savchenko stressed that the Ukrainian side invites Uzbekistan to dialogue, adding that the answers will clarify the situation. The diplomatic relations between the states were established on August 28, 1992. Uzbekistan delivers to Ukraine cotton fiber, textile products, oil products, and non-ferrous metals. Ukraine exports to Uzbekistan machinery and equipment, pharmaceutical products, products, and timber. The most important areas of cooperation between the countries are considered production of agricultural products and its processing, production of soft drinks, cooperation in the oil and gas sector, energy, IT and telecommunications, electrical engineering, tourism, transport and logistics, food industry, textile, leather and footwear, mechanical engineering, aviation, chemical industry, construction, medical industry. Currently, 72 joint Uzbekistan Ukraine enterprises are successfully operating in Uzbekistan, including five enterprises with 100 percent Ukrainian capital. --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova One of the best things about traveling is exploring the culture of a given place. A rich cultural heritage has been created on the Azerbaijani territory over the span of many millenniums. The tourists will find much to attract them from the welcoming people and rich culture to the wonderful natural heritage and traditional customs. Azerbaijan Ministry of Culture implements various projects to promote the richest culture of Azerbaijan. Special attention is paid to the development of new projects for the creation and development of cultural routes. A cultural route "Journey to the musical capital of the East" has been launched in order to promote country's rich culture, Trend reported. The project makes it possible to experience the remarkable culture of Azerbaijan in the best way possible. The program of the cultural route "Journey to the musical capital of the East" is designed for 4 days, but in the future, travel companies will be able to carry it out in accordance with the wishes of the guests. Its program includes house museums and monuments to prominent musicians of Azerbaijan, theaters and concert halls and much more. The project will contribute to the popularization of Azerbaijan's musical culture, musical figures and the development of the music industry. For more information, please visit: http://mct.gov.az/medias/media/other/410/musiqi-turu.pdf. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz An Idaho school district is under fire after more than a dozen of its staffers dressed up as Mexican stereotypes - and a border wall - for Halloween. A second group smiles as they hold pieces of cardboard painted like a brick wall, adorned with President Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again". The costumes drew criticism after the Middleton School District published the images on its Facebook account. On Saturday, Middleton School District Superintendent Josh Middleton announced that the staff members identified in the photos have been placed on administrative leave. According to reports, Middleton Heights Elementary School is made up of 13% Latino students in the small town of Middleton just outside of Boise. Individuals who promote intolerance & racism do NOT belong in the classroom perpetuating their political ideologies especially to young people! The school district offers a migrant education program. He said he wanted to "express my sincerest and deepest apologies to our families". As of this writing the video, as well as the entire district Facebook page, has been taken down. Proving that even Halloween isn't immune from the political division our country is now embroiled in, an Idaho school district has issued an apology after it faced stiff backlash to pictures of staffers in pro-Trump, anti-Immigrant costumes for the holiday. He stressed that the school districts embraces all students. "This is heartbreaking. Students deserve better". "We have a responsibility to teach and reach all students, period". "Absolutely. And we now have to own those decisions". Several advocacy groups and nonprofits, including the ACLU of Idaho and Immigrant Justice Idaho, denounced the photos in a letter to Superintendent Middleton on Friday afternoon, per previous Statesman reporting. "Do I think there was a malicious intent with this decision?" A New York Times writeup of the event explains nicely why the costume is, at worst, in extremely poor taste. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, almost 10 percent of Middleton's population are Hispanic, and the school district offers a migrant education program. Middleton confirmed the district was investigating the photos. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the country will continue selling its oil and break the second batch of sanctions the U.S. administration reinstated since President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the nuclear deal in May. According to the hype from Capitol Hill, US restrictions against Iran coming into force at midnight are meant to economically punish the nation by preventing the sale of any Iranian oil outside of the nation's borders, although with the announcement of multiple waivers, the sanctions are instead likely to result in an increase of exports from the Middle Eastern country. Washington has indicated that it will increase its pressure on Iran gradually rather than forcing an immediate crisis as President Trump's renewed oil and financial sanctions take effect tomorrow. Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman welcomed the newly restored US sanctions in a tweet on Monday, saying they will deal a "critical blow" to Iran's military presence around the Middle East. The United States is reimposing punitive measures targeting the Iranian oil and financial sectors in what US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called "the toughest sanctions ever placed" against Iran. "Until then, our historic sanctions will remain in full force", he said, hours after his two Cabinet members, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, announced that the USA would reimpose a series of crippling sanctions on Iran beginning on Monday. In this regard, India is also looking to adopt the strategy as it developed prior to 2015 when a West-imposed sanction on Tehran affected supplies. Pompeo said the US had already managed to reduce Iranian oil exports by a million barrels a day. While the commemoration annually sees American flags burned and cries of "Death to America" rise up, it also has a carnival-like atmosphere for the students and others taking part. Washington says it wants a new deal with Iran, curtailing its regional interventions and missile programme - demands which have been flatly rejected by Tehran. "India said to the USA that they can't stop before March, they are facing a major currency crisis", explained Joel Hancock, an analyst at Natixis. State media reported that "millions" of people rallied in towns and cities across Iran yesterday, swearing allegiance to the clerical establishment and its hardline top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Market surveys of Iranian exports show a decline of more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) as of October from May", Edward Bell, commodity analyst at Emirates NBD bank said. Along with a continuous stream of worrying economic data out of China, and broader demand for energies seeing threats, United States crude oil sees a futures curve that has, up until now, forecast tightening expectations of tighter supply, and now forward-dated contracts are hinting that crude demand could be swept over by a tidal wave of supply in the months ahead. Some 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days in Iran. If the NO vote wins, the status quo persists. Nursing care will be provided, but at what quantity or quality? Patients may be not be blocked at the door, but they may be found looking for care from their beds. Patient complexity continues to outpace increases in staff nursing positions. Todays nurses are stressed, often worried about what they may have missed at shifts end. Turnover rates are on the rise, now approaching 17%, and the highest among licensed healthcare personnel. Increased unionization is possible. It is useful to remember that failing to address long-standing staffing issues is what led to Question #1. If the YES vote wins on Question #1, the immediate need for additional nurses will not be matched by an expansion of nursings educational pipeline, which is already struggling with a faculty shortage. Current nursing student education will also be jeopardized. Healthcare facilities are already informing nursing schools that student clinical placements cannot be ensured should Question #1 pass. Institutional budget reallocations and personnel shifts will result in more nurses at the bedside. However, a reduction in advanced nursing positions will diminish nursings capacity for educating staff nurses about the newest technologies, addressing system-wide patient safety issues, improving care coordination between hospital and home, or advancing other strategic initiatives designed to improve the patient experience. Meeting mandated staffing needs by hiring travel nurses or recruiting internationally come with their own societal costs. The problem with Question #1 is that regardless of the result, nursings authority in determining how best to meet patient care needs will still be constrained. Historically, the reasons underlying the allocation of nursing care are complex and tied to reimbursement, education, licensing, and gender issues. But in short, a No vote today reinforces healthcare administrators' control of nurse staffing. A Yes vote puts nurse staffing in the hands of legislators. And none of these individuals are at the bedside delivering care. If there is an upside to Question #1, it is that it serves as a clarion call for change. The public has the right to demand high quality nursing care from well-educated nurses. But the publics voice needs to be heard beyond the ballot box. Virtually all of us will be a patient at some point. So today, we must recognize the role professional nursing plays in helping ensure good clinical outcomes. Demand that your hospital be transparent about their nursing staffing policies, nursing staff mix, and turnover rates. Inquire how hospitals determine new budgeted positions for professional nursing compared to those for non-clinical services. Ascertain how many nurses sit on your hospitals or insurance companys boards, as these board decisions will directly affect your care. Question why nurses are still restricted from working to the full scope of their license in many Massachusetts hospitals. And help create opportunities that support collegiate nursing education and professional advancement opportunities in clinical practice settings. So, in response to the woman behind me in linethank you so much for asking and listening, there are no easy answers. Go vote your conscience, but also think about what steps you might take to influence the future direction of patient care. Our collective voice is needed. Judith A. Vessey, Ph.D., MBA, RN, FAAN Lelia Holden Carroll Professor of Nursing A man suspected in a triple shooting at a rehab facility in Marin County that left one person dead Monday was in a relationship with one of the injured victims and has a long history of drug- and gun-related convictions, according to authorities and court records. Marin County sheriffs officials identified the suspect as 37-year-old Davance Lamar Reed, whom they described as a transient between Marin City and Vallejo. Reed was taken into custody in Sonoma County following an early morning pursuit that was not related to the shooting, authorities said. Detectives interviewed Reed at the Sonoma County Jail, where he made admissions to the detectives which tied him to the crime scene, according to a media release. The two surviving victims were identified as 32-year-old Anthony Dominguez Mansapit, who was an employee of the facility, and 30-year-old Brittney Kehaulani McCann, whom officials said has a dating relationship with Reed. Both McCann and Mansapit remain in the intensive care unit at Marin General Hospital, according to authorities. The identity of the slain man is withheld pending notification of next of kin. Shortly after 1:30 a.m., Marin County sheriffs deputies responded to reports that staff members at Helen Vine Recovery Center, just north of San Rafael, had been shot. One male victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and the two others were taken to Marin General Hospital with gunshot wounds, deputies said. None of the victims were clients. The suspect fled the scene after the shooting, officials said. Sheriffs officials declined to release information on how the suspect fled, the scope of their search or details of his capture. Federal court records show Reed that has a lengthy criminal history, including multiple arrests and convictions for possession of narcotics in various California counties, and that he been in and out of custody for the past decade. In 2009, Reed was sentenced to 37 months in custody and 36 months of supervised release for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Reeds supervised release began on March 1, 2010, and his probation officer said he violated the terms of his release three months later, by committing a new crime in San Francisco. On May 31, 2010, Reed was arrested in San Francisco after police pulled him over and found 15 zip-lock bags of presumed methamphetamine and more than $1,200 in cash. He was booked on felony suspicion of possession for sales, driving with a suspended or revoked license and driving with a defective windshield. Probation officers accused Reed of numerous release violations over the next several years, including contact with police and failing drug tests, resulting in back-and-forth stints of incarceration and more supervised release. Marin County resident Jeffrey Trotter drove to the area in the late morning to pray for the victims. Trotter has been in recovery for 21 years and said hes helped send about a dozen people to the facility over the years. If you are on the streets if you say, Im finished, Im done, I need help then you come here, he said. And this is a start. Trotter said several people from the rehabilitation community planned to join him later in the day to show their support. This is just a tragedy, he said. This is just so close to home. This is so what should not be happening. In 2011, Helen Vine Recovery Center joined Buckelew Programs, a nonprofit organization that serves Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties, and provides counseling, housing and employment training to those with mental illness and addiction. Buckelew Programs released a statement on the shooting Monday afternoon: While it is unimaginable to think that such a horrific event occurred at one of our facilities, its important to remember that Buckelew Programs has been providing safe and effective services for decades; improving the lives of tens of thousands of people. Our focus in the coming days will be on the safety and well being of clients, staff and families of those affected, the statement reads. The facility opened a new building in April with 26 beds and provides rehabilitation services to men and women suffering from drug and alcohol addictions. Ashley McBride and Megan Cassidy are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: ashley.mcbride@sfchronicle.com, megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Al Jazeera's Andrew Thomas, reporting from Sydney, Australia, said the initial results suggested a "victory for those that said New Caledonia was much better off economically as part of France". Macron stayed largely clear of the campaign, except for one visit to Noumea in May, when he acknowledged the "pains of colonisation" and said: "France would be less handsome without New Caledonia". French President Emmanuel Macron stated in May that "France would be less attractive without New Caledonia". The referendum attracted record-high turnout of 80.6 percent - so many voters that some polling stations in the capital, Noumea, had to stay open about an hour longer than planned to handle the crush. The referendum was the result of a process that started 30 years ago to end years of violence between supporters and opponents of separating from France. New Caledonia's High Commissioner tweeted that Farino on the territory's main island voted by a margin of 9 to 1 against independence, and that almost 95 percent of the village's registered voters cast ballots. French President Emmanuel Macron received German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday (November 4) for a concert at Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg. In 1988, the rival local forces signed a peace deal providing for autonomy and calling for a new referendum on independence within 10 years. The radical independence movement of the 1980s was based among the Kanaks and they are still the most inclined to support independence now. Final results had 56.4 percent of the voters who participated in the referendum deciding to maintain ties with the country that has ruled New Caledonia since the mid-19th century and 43.6 percent supporting independence, the high commissioner's office said. If voters say no to independence Sunday, the 1998 agreement allows two more self-determination referendums to be held by 2022. Pro-independence groups have urged Kanak voters to throw off the "shackles of colonial authorities" in Paris. It became an overseas territory after World War II, with French citizenship granted to all Kanaks in 1957. Balancing China in the Pacific? Both French Guiana in South America and the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte have been rocked since previous year by major protests over living standards and perceived neglect. He also raised concerns over increasing Chinese influence in the Pacific, where Beijing has invested heavily in Vanuatu, a territory which broke from France and Britain in 1980. New Caledonia is represented in the French parliament by two deputies and two senators. Accusing the United States of "turning its back on the region in recent months", Macron said China was "building its hegemony step by step" in the Pacific - suggesting an independent New Caledonia could be Beijing's next target. "I don't necessarily want our lives to change", the 50-year-old said. The Kanak community is disadvantaged compared with the white population, suffering from high school dropout rates, chronic unemployment and poor housing. As milder weather sets in this fall, gorgeous autumn colors have finally started to pop up on trees around Texas. Many are in the northern portion of the state, where temperatures have already dipped into the 30s this year and fall is in full swing but there are plenty that are just a short road trip away from San Antonio. ALTON An original piece of the most significant event in Altons history has a new permanent home at the Hayner Public Librarys Genealogy and Local History Library at 401 State St. The yoke, or main framework, of the printing press that was thrown into the Mississippi River the night that Elijah P. Lovejoy was murdered by an angry mob on Nov. 7, 1837 can now be seen in the lobby of the Genealogical and Local History Library following a dedication ceremony on Sunday attended by approximately 100 people. The half-ton, acorn-shaped, black metal artifact had been displayed for more than 80 years in the lobby of The Telegraph Building at 111 E. Broadway. The newspapers new owners, Hearst Corporation, donated the yoke to the library after the papers offices moved to a new building. What better match for the Lovejoy press is there than a library, where we promote freedom of speech and freedom of information, said Hayner Public Library District Executive Director Bernadette Duvernoy. This is a very grand gesture from The Telegraph and the Hearst Corporation. The Lovejoy press yoke has only been in three locations since its 1915 discovery by personnel from the Sparks Milling Company at the milling company, now the site of Ardent Mills; The Telegraph; and now the Hayner Library. Its what the press stands for more than the physical piece itself, said Lacy McDonald, the Genealogy and Local History Manager for Hayner Public Library. Lovejoys murder was looked upon as the first death of the Civil War and it motivated a lot of Abolitionists to really fight for the cause. Elijah Lovejoys brother Owen was a U.S. Senator from Illinois who helped write the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. Abraham Lincoln also talked about Lovejoy when he was formulating his views on slavery. 1837 was also the year Alton was incorporated, so our entire identity as a city is wrapped up in the Lovejoy story, McDonald said. The decision to move the historical artifact to Hayner Library came after a suggestion by Steve Cousley, publisher of The Telegraph from 1970 to 1986, when he realized there was no realistic plan for the the yoke when the newspaper moved to its new offices. This press was too close to the door and to the dumpster, so I had to do something about it, Cousley said. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction to see it rescued. I had a lot of help from a lot of people. I tried to be low-key but its hard to do sometimes, especially with something as important as this. One of the people instrumental in the events leading to Sundays dedication was Jim Shrader, the recently retired publisher of The Telegraph, whom Cousley first contacted about the possibility of moving it to Hayner Library. Shrader said Mike St. Peters from Abbott Machine Company offered to move the press piece out of the newspaper offices and store it until Hayner was ready for it, then installed the yoke in the Hayner lobby, all at no cost to the library. I can think of no better place for it. This is something that needs to be taught to folks, Shrader said. This press yoke is a monument to the martyr Elijah Parish Lovejoy, to the First Amendment, to the Abolitionist movement, and to the racial freedom that we enjoy today that never would have been imagined in 1837. This Presbyterian minister who had a fourth press shipped to him in Alton, Illinois had no idea how long his memory would live, Shrader said. The 1830s iron hand press was called an acorn press because of the shape of the supporting cast iron frame, or yoke, which is what remains today of Lovejoys press, according to research performed by McDonald. When these presses were made in the 1830s it was immediately before the printing revolution of the mid 19th century during which all facets of the printing operation became mechanized. Printing during Lovejoys day was a very labor-intensive process. Ink was made by hand every morning by mixing carbon and boiled linseed oil. Printing plates containing the words intended for publication were made by hand, composed of thousands of individual pieces of metal type and arranged on a metal plate. The ink was applied to the type, the strong pull of a horizontal lever pressed paper onto the inked type, the printed piece of paper was removed, and the process repeated. Two trained operators could perform these steps every 15 seconds for ten to twelve hours a day. Elijah Parish Lovejoy was born in Maine in 1802, moved to St. Louis in 1826, became a Presbyterian minister, and in the 1830s began publication of The St. Louis Observer, a religious newspaper that advocated the abolition of slavery. Lovejoys anti-slavery editorials enraged slavery supporters who then destroyed his printing presses, so Lovejoy decided in 1836 to move from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois. Lovejoy continued to publish vehement anti-slavery sentiments in his Alton Observer despite threats from pro-slavery factions in Alton. When pressured to leave the city, the Presbyterian minister replied, You may hang me You may burn me at the stake, tar and feather me, or throw me into the Mississippi, but you cannot disgrace me. I and I alone can disgrace myself; and the deepest of all disgrace would be, at a time like this to deny my Master by forsaking his cause. Lovejoy was killed the evening of Nov. 7, 1837 when a mob attacked a warehouse where the publisher and his supporters were guarding a new printing press for the Observer. After Lovejoy was shot to death the mob broke his press into pieces and threw it out the warehouse window into the Mississippi River. It was the fourth Lovejoy printing press destroyed during his brief publication career. The Hayner Genealogy and Local History Library is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Wednesday, when it is open from noon to 7 p.m. Hayners other two locations, at Alton Square Mall and at Fourth and State Streets, are open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. For days he was known only as "The Jewish Nurse," the person whose compassion captivated the world in the days after the mass shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh left 11 Jewish people dead. He was the nurse who cared for Robert Bowers, the accused shooter, as Bowers reportedly yelled, "Death to all Jews," as he was wheeled into the emergency room at the Allegheny General Hospital last month. Now The Jewish Nurse is no longer nameless. He is Ari Mahler, who came forward for the first time over the weekend to tell the story of Oct. 27 in a powerful social media post. The Facebook post, which has been shared more than 133,000 times as of early Monday, began, "I am The Jewish Nurse." From there, it chronicled how Mahler found empathy for the suspected perpetrator of the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history at a time when the world fixated on his hatred. "Love. That's why I did it," Mahler wrote in the Facebook post. "Love as an action is more powerful than words, and love in the face of evil gives others hope. It demonstrates humanity. It reaffirms why we're all here. . . . I could care less what Robert Bowers thinks, but you, the person reading this, love is the only message I wish to instill in you." A spokesman for Allegheny General Hospital confirmed the authenticity of Mahler's claim and the Facebook post to The Washington Post. Mahler declined further comment. Mahler's story first emerged when Allegheny General Hospital President Jeffrey Cohen, who is also Jewish and a member of Tree of Life synagogue, told multiple news outlets that a Jewish nurse and Jewish doctor were among the first to treat the suspected shooter. The 46-year-old Bowers, who has pleaded not guilty to 44 charges, including hate crimes, had suffered multiple gunshot wounds during a shootout with police. Before Bowers arrived, Mahler had panicked: He worried his parents might be among the victims, he said. But later, as Bowers was wheeled into the emergency room, "I didn't see evil when I looked into Bowers's eyes," Mahler wrote. "I saw something else." "I can tell you that as his nurse, or anyone's nurse, my care is given through kindness," he continued, "my actions are measured with empathy, and regardless of the person you may be when you're not in my care, each breath you take is more beautiful than the last when you're lying on my stretcher," he wrote, adding that patient privacy laws limited how much he could say about his interactions with Bowers. Mahler, the son of a rabbi, said in his post that the "fact that this shooting took place doesn't shock me." He cited statistics about hate crimes targeting Jewish people, saying "I don't know why people hate us so much, but the underbelly of anti-Semitism seems to be thriving." The FBI found most recently in 2016 that Jews were victims of 54 percent of all anti-religious hate crimes, despite accounting for only roughly 2 percent of the U.S. population. Mahler had experienced plenty of anti-Semitism as a kid, he wrote. He had found drawings left on desks showing his family being marched into gas chambers, swastikas drawn on his locker and notes left inside reading, "Die Jew. Love, Hitler." And so when he emerged nameless in headlines suddenly as "The Jewish Nurse," all in stories that had celebrated his religious identity, the experience was almost foreign to him - "awkward," he called it. "When I was a kid, being labeled 'The Jewish (anything),' undoubtedly had derogatory connotations attached to it. That's why it feels so awkward to me that people suddenly look at it as an endearing term," he wrote. "As an adult, deflecting my religion by saying 'I'm not that religious,' makes it easier for people to accept I'm Jewish - especially when I tell them my father is a rabbi. 'I'm not that religious,' is like saying, 'Don't worry, I'm not that Jewish, therefore I'm not so different you,' and like clockwork, people don't look at me as awkwardly as they did a few seconds beforehand." Mahler made a choice as he treated Bowers's bullet wounds in the emergency room that day, he said. He didn't think Bowers knew he was Jewish, because Bowers had thanked him, and, "why thank a Jewish nurse, when 15 minutes beforehand, you'd shoot me in the head with no remorse?" he wrote. He decided he would not "say a word to him about my religion." "I chose not to say anything to him the entire time. I wanted him to feel compassion. I chose to show him empathy. I felt that the best way to honor his victims was for a Jew to prove him wrong. Besides, if he found out I'm Jewish, does it really matter? The better question is, what does it mean to you?" LOS ANGELES - In October 2016, a 55-year-old retired software engineer with early-onset Alzheimer's wandered out of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as her husband used the restroom. Nancy Paulikas hasn't been seen since. Kirk Moody still spends time nearly every day looking for her. "There hasn't been a single trace," he says. Her disappearance and his anguish have prompted what may be the nation's most ambitious system for tracking down people with cognitive conditions that make them prone to roaming - and getting lost. L.A. Found, which launched in this sprawling county in September, equips potential wanderers with trackable bracelets that, when activated by search crews, transmit a radio signal to handheld receivers placed in several Sheriff's Department cruisers and helicopters. The battery-operated bracelets are available to anyone with Alzheimer's disease, dementia or autism. The bracelets are nothing new. They are distributed by Project Lifesaver, a nearly 20-year-old nonprofit based in Florida that has issued the white, watch-sized wristbands, each equipped with a radio transmitter, to hundreds of municipal public-safety agencies nationwide. What makes Los Angeles County's effort unique is the scale of the $765,000 initiative. While most programs tend to cluster in suburban communities, L.A. Found covers an area roughly the size of Connecticut that includes 88 cities and 10 million people. "This was the largest kickoff we have ever had, and given the size of the county, it is definitely expected to continue growing," Project Lifesaver spokeswoman Kyrianna Hoffses said recently. Central to L.A. Found is an unusual partnership between law enforcement and the county's agency for seniors. Four full-time agency employees were hired to train families on how to use the bracelets, find funding to buy more bracelets and establish a protocol to leverage Los Angeles County's 100,000-person workforce when a person is reported missing. Searches will be activated regardless of whether wanderers are wearing one of those wristbands. "Now, when you call us and say your loved one has gone missing, we're going to start the searches," said County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who sponsored the initiative after learning about Paulikas' story. "We'll alert the coroner's office. We'll alert hospitals within L.A. County. We'll look at the morgues. We'll connect to Metro - the trains and the buses. . . . It's sort of like we're saying, 'We got your back.' " More than 166,000 residents of Los Angeles County suffer from Alzheimer's. That number is expected to surpass 215,000 by 2030. Nationally, the number of Americans with Alzheimer's is set to skyrocket, from 5.7 million now to 14 million by 2050. According to the Alzheimer's Association, about 60 percent of individuals with the disease or other dementias wander, often with little ability to say who they are or where they live. Up to half of those who go missing will suffer serious injury or death if not found within 24 hours. Los Angeles County officials herald their program as a model and have fielded inquiries from Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay area and the Arizona governor's office. Yet its scale leaves a lot of room for error. While officials have touted two saves, neither case demonstrated the potential of the technology, and both exposed the logistical difficulties of getting agencies to cooperate and caretakers and families to follow instructions. On Sept. 13, a 65-year-old man with no ability to communicate managed to travel by bus from the densely populated MacArthur Park area to the remote foothills near the suburb of Altadena some 20 miles away. His family called 911 and told responding police officers about the newly issued bracelet. The officers should have notified the Sheriff's Department to trigger a coordinated search, but they didn't realize L.A. Found was already in effect. So they looked on their own, not knowing the man was already out of their jurisdiction. The case ended happily only because a ranch owner near Altadena spotted someone deep in the hills and contacted authorities. A deputy hiked into the rugged terrain, found the man, noticed his bracelet and used the radio-frequency number stamped on it to locate his contact information in a Project Lifesaver database. The following day, a 76-year-old woman from Huntington Park wandered out of her home. Inexplicably, the woman's caretakers waited six hours before calling 911. A widespread search began. But once again, technology didn't lead to her discovery. Instead, a concerned citizen spotted her at a convenience store about seven miles away and, thinking something was amiss, alerted the Los Angeles Police Department. Officers noticed the bracelet and reached Project Lifesaver, which in turn called the Sheriff's Department. "New-program growing pains," Sheriff's Lt. John Gannon said of the disconnect between agencies. "We are all on the same page now." Sgt. Traci Fox, a police officer in Glendale, said hiccups are to be expected early on. The city began using Project Lifesaver in 2015 despite some officers' skepticism. Then, one chilly morning in early 2017, a 20-year-old man with autism bolted out of his home. Using the radio-technology trackers, officers found him five miles away, calf-deep in the cold water of a concrete drainage wash in Burbank. "We probably never would have found this kid had he not had this wristband," Fox said. "From there, the buy-in was there." Glendale has since logged at least eight saves, most of them in under 30 minutes, she said. The county already has given out the 130 bracelets set aside for families unable to afford the $325 cost. Organizers hope to have at least 1,000 people enrolled within a year. Moody wishes his wife had worn one, believing "they would have found her immediately." He and Paulikas's parents think she is lost in the local nursing home system and fear an unscrupulous care facility may have taken custody of her as a Jane Doe so it can pocket Medi-Cal insurance reimbursements from the state. Law enforcement agencies view that scenario as more plausible than her death. "I believe that by now they would have made a match if she was a Jane Doe via the coroner," Gannon said. Since her disappearance, Moody, his in-laws and volunteers have driven to at least 1,000 nursing facilities across Southern California to post fliers with her photo. "Her most distinctive feature is her ice blue eyes," Moody said, recounting how quickly Alzheimer's diminished a woman who had ascended to vice president at the financial services firm ITG. By summer 2016, he was caring for her 24/7. Last month, the retired aerospace software engineer raised the reward for information leading to her discovery - alive or otherwise - from $30,000 to $100,000. No credible leads have yet emerged. Hahn remembers visiting with the family shortly after Paulikas vanished. "I was so moved by this little threesome," she said. "The thought that her elderly parents were going out there every day and driving lots of miles to just walk into nursing homes and hospitals. . . . I realized they were not sleeping one night in peace knowing Nancy was somewhere out there." ISTANBUL - The reimposition of sanctions against Iran on Monday has ushered in what is likely to be a protracted period of heated rhetoric and standoff, as the Trump administration threatened more pressure and Tehran warned that it can ramp up its nuclear program again, Middle East experts said. In a preview of the war of words that is likely to escalate, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed to continue selling oil in defiance of the sanctions. As state television aired footage of military forces staging war exercises Monday, Rouhani said the country is in an "economic war situation." "We will proudly break the sanctions," Rouhani said during a meeting of government officials in the Iranian capital. In Washington, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: "The Iranian regime has a choice. It can either do a 180-degree turn from its outlaw course of action and act like a normal country, or it can see its economy crumble." It will take many weeks or months before the effectiveness of the administration's maximum-pressure campaign against Iran can be judged. But what already is clear is that the renewed sanctions will be greeted by threats hurled between Washington and Tehran as the two governments grow more confrontational. "We should look at today as the first day of an escalating maximum-pressure campaign, not a new status quo," said Richard Goldberg, an adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "We're going to see an enormous amount of pressure brought to bear on the regime, to the point where it may have to consider negotiating with the Trump administration or the regime will collapse." The sanctioning of hundreds of Iranian individuals, companies and organizations was the final result of President Trump's decision in May to withdraw from the nuclear deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The sanctions target Iranian oil, banks and shipping companies. But many prominent banks and companies were left off the list of more than 700 names, as well as entire sectors like mining and computer sciences, suggesting a strategic decision to hold back some names for future sanctions. Eight nations were given temporary waivers, including Iran's two biggest oil customers, China and India. Turkey, which buys natural gas from Iran, also was exempted from sanctions. Waivers also were given to projects underway at three nuclear power plants related to impeding Iran's ability to reverse course and restart its nuclear program. U.S. officials say their goal is to force the Iranian government to stop its support of militants in the region and, eventually, renegotiate the nuclear agreement forged by the Obama administration. But it is uncertain whether Iran would bend to American will under another round of pressure, or whether it can afford to simply wait until there is a new U.S. president. Patrick Clawson, an Iran expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he met Iranians at a recent conference in Moscow whom he described as confident they could ride out the latest wave of sanctions. " 'We can outlast Trump' was a big theme," he said. One man, a 45-year-old manual laborer, said in a telephone interview that low salaries and high inflation mean that his family "cannot travel even to our own villages" to visit relatives. He spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of government reprisal. "I work two shifts now, including the weekends, and we buy whatever we can afford without worrying about the quality," he said. Another resident, a 30-year-old woman who works at a private distribution company, said by phone that she pays exorbitant amounts on the black market for prescription medicine for her parents. She also spoke on the condition of anonymity so she could speak freely about conditions in Iran. Neither Iran nor the United States "wants the best for the Iranian people," she said. "So I don't have any hope." Rouhani boasted of Iran's ability to keep selling oil even with sanctions in place. "The fact that the U.S. has exempted eight countries from the sanctions after they threatened to bring Iran oil exports to zero, isn't this a victory for us? And isn't this a retreat for the United States?" he said. "The Islamic Republic of Iran can sell its oil and will sell its oil even if the eight countries had not been exempted from the sanctions." Iranian retaliation, if any, could come through its militant proxies in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, or in the Persian Gulf, where oil tankers and U.S. Navy vessels ply the waters. "They have a history of hacking the Saudi infrastructure, and they can attack the U.S. infrastructure," he said. "I worry about them wreaking havoc on major corporations or financial institutions," said Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm. Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy for the Arms Control Association, said there is danger of the U.S. overreacting to Iranian rhetoric. Iran "will continue to remind the international community that if the deal collapses or it no longer benefits Iran, it can ramp up its nuclear activity," she said. "It's critical to distinguish between the rhetoric and steps that actually violate the deal." It is unclear whether the reimposed sanctions, which are opposed by all but a handful of countries in the world, will signal the end of the nuclear deal. Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, which all negotiated alongside the United States, insist they want to keep it going. Iran has said it could walk away and resume its nuclear program, a step few expect Tehran to take. "Tehran must calculate what gives them more leverage, sticking to the JCPOA or resuming their frozen nuclear activities," said Karim Sadjadpour, a policy analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "In the former scenario they risk appearing feckless, in the latter scenario they risk appearing reckless." The European Union is attempting to devise an alternative "special purpose vehicle" to continue trade with Iran, but it has had trouble finding a country willing to host it. Even the Europeans, who consider the nuclear deal essential to their national security, may be softening their support after Danish officials accused Iran of trying to assassinate an Arab separatist leader living in Denmark. Pompeo said that "multiple lines of effort" are being deployed to pressure Tehran and that this week's listings are not the last word. The administration is expected to designate more names and aggressively enforce them by applying secondary sanctions on anyone who does business with them. "Those are the only two cards they have to play," said Adam M. Smith, a former adviser in the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which monitors sanctions compliance. "More sanctions and enforcement are the two screw-tightening exercises the U.S. government has. There's not much more they an do." FAIRFARX, Va. - Former President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance in northern Virginia Monday to rally supporters for Sen. Tim Kaine and state Sen. Jennifer Wexton on the eve of Election Day, part of a series of stops during the past week to help Democrats win control of at least the House. Carrying a box of doughnuts, Obama startled a crowd of about 60 mostly young campaign staffers and volunteers inside a Wexton field office. He cast the election as a referendum on the country's future. "You vote, you might save a life; that's pretty rare when that happens," Obama told the crowd, referring to the potential for a Republican-controlled Congress to follow through on promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Democrats argue that would hurt people with preexisting health conditions. And he attacked President Donald Trump for what the ex-president has called "fear mongering" and repeated lies. "Most important, the character of this country is on the ballot," Obama said. "The politics we expect is on the ballot. How we conduct ourselves in public life is on the ballot." The popular ex-president's appearance was mainly meant to boost Wexton in her race against Rep. Barbara Comstock, R, in the 10th congressional district that stretches from McLean toward the West Virginia border. The seat has been in Republican hands for nearly 40 years and the serious challenge from Wexton has made it one of the most closely watched contests in the country. Wexton, D, held an 11-point lead over Comstock in a Washington Post-Schlar School poll conducted late last month. But Comstock - a tenacious campaigner with deep roots in the district who is seeking a third term - has outraised the Democrat $5.8 million to $5.4 million. In the Sentate race, Kaine is ahead of Republican challenger Corey A. Stewart by nearly 20 points in most polls while outraising him by a nearly 10-1 margin, with $22.3 million. His voice hoarse from rallies in Miami, Chicago, and Gary, Ind., in recent days, Obama called Wexton, a former Loudoun County prosecutor, "part of a wave or remarkable candidates that we're seeing all across the country." That wave includes more women and military veterans running for Republican-held seats, he said. "People who didn't start off saying to themselves: 'I want to be a politician,' but rather, started off saying: 'I want to serve,'" Obama said. The former president called Kaine a model of "decency and compassion and doing what you believe is right, even if it's not politically expedient." Kaine "is somebody who I have witnessed do that time and time again," Obama said. Both Wexton and Kaine basked in the adulation that the crowd showed for Obama. Wexton called the former president's historic victory in 2008 her inspiration for seeking office. "I have really said, since day one, that my campaign is not about gloom and doom," she said. "My campaign is about hope and change." Kaine echoed Obama's message about the high stakes of the midterm election. "Even more than a blue wave, what this nation needs right now, what this world needs from us right now is a wave of compassion, a wave of character," he said. "That's what's on the ballot tomorrow night." Nancy Davis, who has been knocking on voters' doors for Wexton, said she agrees with that characterization. Still, as she looked out the window at a rainy morning on Monday, Davis, 71, said she briefly considered taking the day off from campaigning. The Obama appearance made her glad she decided to brave the wet weather, she said. "My husband said: 'Don't go. It's raining,'" Davis said, while watching Obama pose for selfies with other supporters and hoping he'd make his way through thick crowd toward her. Davis never got to meet Obama. But she was nonetheless energized to knock on more doors Monday. "We get to send a message this election, that we don't accept hate and we don't accept fear," Davis said, heading toward a volunteer sign-in table as a small group began chanting an Obama campaign mantra: "Fired up, ready to go!" On Sunday, Egypt said security forces killed 19 militants in a shootout, including the gunmen suspected in Friday's attack. Raids were undertaken in the mountainous western desert of Minya province to track down the "fugitive terrorist elements", the interior ministry said. "The terrorist elements opened fire on the [security] forces who responded", the statement said. It also released images of the black banner of the "Islamic State" (IS) militant group, which claimed responsibility for Friday's attack. More than 100 people have died in a series of anti-coptic attacks since late 2016. Friday's attack was the second in as many years to target pilgrims on their way to the monastery of St Samuel the Confessor. The group refused and were shot one by one, leaving 28 people dead in that IS-claimed attack. Among them were a 15-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl. Pope Francis has decried the attack on pilgrims in Egypt, saying they were killed "for being Christians". "I express my pain after the terrorist attack which two days ago hit the Coptic Orthodox church in Egypt", Francis said in Saint Peter's. "I pray for the victims, pilgrims killed just because they were Christian", he added. EI jihadists regularly attack Copts, who represent about 10% of the population of almost 100 million Nation. They have found a measure of protection under el-Sissi which, according to Christian activists, did not extend to members of the ancient community in rural regions where radical Muslims whip up anti-Christian sentiments, often over the construction or restoration of churches or romantic relationships between Christians and Muslims. In December 2017, a gunman killed 11 people at a church and a Christian-owned shop near Cairo. PG&E Corp. reported net income of $564 million for the third quarter of 2018, up from $550 million during the same period last year. Legal and other costs related to last years Northern California wildfires totaled $18 million for the company, PG&E said Monday. Its revenue was $4.38 billion, compared with $4.52 billion a year ago. Adjusted for one-time charges, earnings were $1.09 per share, slightly topping estimates. The companys stock rose nearly 3 percent Monday, closing at $48.71. Driven by the growing threat posed by extreme weather, PG&E is making critical investments and further enhancing our operations so that our communities are safer and more resilient, CEO Geisha Williams said in a statement. During a conference call with analysts, Williams detailed a $6 billion plan for tracking weather conditions and improving communication with local and state agencies, including installing 1,300 weather stations and 600 cameras over four years. Investigators with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said over the summer that PG&E power lines or electrical equipment sparked 16 fires in the state. But the cause of last Octobers Tubbs Fire in the Wine Country, the most destructive blaze in California history, has yet to be determined. The Tubbs Fire killed 24 people and destroyed more than 5,600 businesses, homes and other buildings. If PG&E is found liable for the Tubbs Fire, which stretched from Calistoga to Santa Rosa, the company could face billions of dollars in liability. Travis Miller, director of utilities research at Morningstar, said Mondays earnings report didnt have any surprises. The wildfire developments remain the key investor concern right now, and were waiting for substantial details and developments related to those issues, Miller said. We didnt see anything unusual in the companys releases that gave us much more insight into those key developments. The year ahead will be critical for both the company and investors, Miller said, as PG&E balances handling the wildfire developments and company growth. There are issues around the wildfires, but they also have to execute their core growth program, and thats going to be key to determine if they can meet the market growth expectations, Miller said. Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct number of fires blamed on PG&E equipment. Sophia Kunthara is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sophia.kunthara@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SophiaKunthara As Americans prepare to vote in the midterm election Tuesday, we also mark the 50th anniversary of the 1968 election. For many Americans who lived through it, the 1968 election represents nothing less than the "transformation of American politics," if not a "war for America's soul." The importance of Richard M. Nixon's victory - and Hubert Humphrey's defeat - is often judged by what followed: the decline of liberalism, a dominant Republican majority, a resurgent and powerful conservative movement, and a polarized, divided nation. But the 1968 election also was the culmination, not just the catalyst, of forces that remade the United States 50 years ago - and similar ones are working to realign American politics again in 2018. Indeed, the history of the 1968 election suggests that President Donald Trump and his Republican base are at the beginning of their end. American elections are products of historical forces in motion, ones that upend political norms well before Americans head to the ballot box. If history is a guide, Democrats will show this on Tuesday, in the "most important election of our lifetime." American politics in 1968 was convulsive, nearly chaotic. Even in January, Americans felt as though the country was in the throes of "a national nervous breakdown . . . a depression of the national spirit." The year began with the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, which undermined the Johnson administration's claims that the war was nearly over, and was followed by the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in April and Robert F. Kennedy in June. The nation unraveled amid urban riots and mounting protests against the Vietnam War, and a president, Lyndon B. Johnson, who declined to seek another term because of that war. Then came the Democratic National Convention in August, during which antiwar demonstrators, students and activists clashed with police in the streets of Chicago. Humphrey became the Democratic nominee despite the violence at the convention and the unpopularity of the war (which he publicly championed but privately criticized). Meanwhile, Alabama Democrat George Wallace, running as an independent, toured the country making demagogic and racially coded - if not overtly racist - appeals to "law and order" and "states' rights." Nixon, the Republican, appeared to be the steady alternative to the status quo (Humphrey) and the extreme (Wallace), the man who spoke of "peace with honor" in Vietnam and of the Democrats' "failures" to confront the twin epidemics of crime and unemployment. Given the divisions within the Democratic Party and the country - on race, Vietnam and the role of government - Nixon's victory was predictable, but his slim margin of victory (just over 500,000 popular votes) still stunned the country. What made Nixon's win more surprising was that four years earlier, few saw it coming. In 1964, Johnson, who had been sworn in as president after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, was elected with the largest number of electoral college votes in American history. Johnson's promise of a "Great Society" defeated Barry Goldwater in all but six states, and liberalism's future appeared bright and endless. New York Times columnist James Reston even predicted that Goldwater "has wrecked his party for a long time to come." But those predictions proved false, offering a reminder of how quickly politics can shift. Nixon himself embodied this principle: He restored the GOP to power in 1968, only a few years after losing the 1960 presidential election to Kennedy and the California governor's race in 1962. (That the "revolutionary 1960s" resurrected Nixon's political career is surely one of the decade's ironies.) Nixon revealed the fragility of Johnson's victory in 1964, how it was more aberration than reality. Nixon also profited from the riots, protests and wars of the 1960s - the obvious signs that the nation was ripe for change. But demographics helped Nixon, too. Throughout the 1960s, deindustrialization displaced blue-collar factory work for white-collar jobs, while white flight from cities and the suburbanization of the Sun Belt South gave Nixon opportunities to peel voters from the Democratic coalition. Seismic shifts in American politics, identity and culture also laid the groundwork for the election. As baby boomers became eligible to vote, movements for civil rights and women's rights made inroads into the nation's long-standing racism and sexism, while the Vietnam War challenged Cold War perceptions of the United States as a defender of freedom and democracy abroad. These rapid, massive changes ignited a fierce backlash that boosted Nixon. By 1968, a new generation was born: a generation disillusioned with the country's past and cynical about its future, yet one that also yearned for the economic boom that followed World War II, for a lost prosperity. In many ways, the United States is looking eerily like it did in the months and years before the 1968 election. Accepted truths are being tossed aside: Socialism is growing in popularity, especially among young Americans, and free-market capitalism is regularly under attack. The United States is seeing a racial backlash similar to that of 1968, one hastened by a demographic divide. As the country undergoes weekly, if not daily, crises under Trump - who, like Wallace, favors bombastic "us versus them" rhetoric - movements for greater equality and justice such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter have exposed the progress unfulfilled since 1968. And although Vietnam discredited the policy of containment, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with a revival of American nationalism ("America First") unseen since World War II, have generated a revolt against the entire liberal world order. Just as Goldwater's supporters were emboldened by his defeat to enter politics and political activism, acolytes of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have channeled their dismay about the 2016 presidential election into support for a host of left-leaning candidates. Many of these young Americans have discovered politics for the first time, upset that the Democratic Party has once again atrophied while Trump and the Republicans weaponize nostalgia at the ballot box. As it did for Democrats in 1968, the state of American politics spells disaster for Republicans. Like Johnson in 1964, Trump has amassed a powerful, but ultimately precarious, coalition, one that is coming undone under his leadership. The 2018 midterm election will not defeat Trump, but as the 1968 election did to Democrats, it is sure to poke holes in the Republicans' majority. If nothing else, the election will prove that Americans want a change - a turn away from the inadequacies of the present. The election also will be a referendum on the past two years, on the state of our democracy. For above all, the 1968 election held a mirror to the country and reflected what we had become. Tuesday's election is expected to do the same. We can only hope to like what we see. - - - Brenes is a historian and the Senior Archivist for American Diplomacy at Yale University, and author of the forthcoming book "The Price of Loyalty: Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson, and the Struggle for the Soul of the Democratic Party." . A Willowbrook area man was charged Sunday with capital murder hours after turning himself in to police, who say he stabbed his estranged wife and another man to death with a knife. Brian Bullock, 34, was already out on bail for allegedly assaulting his wife, Michelle Bullock, 29, in June. The Harris County Sheriff's Office says he stabbed Bullock and Mark Keil, 56, who was installing cabinets in her mobile home. A hearing officer on Monday ordered Bullock, now at Harris County Jail, undergo a mental health evaluation, according to court documents. Deputies on Sunday were first called to the 21000 block of Berrywood Bend Drive, near Tomball, just before 2 p.m. after a neighbor spotted a fight outside and called 911, said sheriff's office spokesman Thomas Gilliland. When law enforcement officers arrived, they found Keil and Bullock dead outside a mobile home. The suspect had already fled, but within an hour he drove to a Precinct 4 substation on Cypresswood and turned himself in. He told deputy constables there that he'd been in a fight, Gilliland said, so authorities detained him. Constable deputies brought the 34-year-old suspected killer back to the crime scene to meet investigators. Soon after, he was charged with capital murder involving multiple deaths, which can carry the death penalty. TRIPLE KILLING: Stepfather, two teen daughters found dead in Katy home Authorities have not released a motive, and Gilliland said it's not known whether Michelle Bullock had any additional relationship with Keil, aside from his being at the mobile home to install cabinets. Although the family had children, they were staying at another location at the time of the killings, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Sunday. "A tragic case of domestic violence," Gonzalez tweeted after Bullock's arrest "October was Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but let's not forget this is an issue going on all year." In June, Brian Bullock was arrested and charged with assaulting a family member his wife. He had made bail, set at $2,500, and was awaiting his December hearing when he allegedly stabbed and killed his wife. On June 8, a sheriff's deputy was called to the 10000 block of Wildwood Park Lane and spoke to Michelle Bullock, who said her husband had assaulted her after she spent too long shopping and eating lunch with a friend, according to a criminal complaint. Outside the Willowbrook-area home, Brian Bullock allegedly yelled at his wife and demanded her cellphone. When she walked away from him, he allegedly grabbed her shirt, ripping it off along with her bra, according to the complaint. When Michelle Bullock went inside, Brian allegedly "slammed her into the wall... pushed her into the couch... and struck her in the face," among other violent acts, according to the complaint. Charges against Brian Bullock, who lived at the home where the attack occurred, were filed two days later. The Harris County District Attorney's Office recommended that Bullock's bail be set at $50,000, and Michelle Bullock requested an emergency protective order, according to court documents. It's unclear whether that request for a protective order was granted. After spending two months in jail, Bullock made bail, and judges reset his next hearing several times. Prior to being charged with capital murder, his hearing for the assault charge was slated for Dec. 3. Bullock is due in court Tuesday. His attorney declined to comment Israel has been a fierce opponent of the 2015 nuclear deal from which the US withdrew in May, saying the accord failed to rein in Iran's regional military threat. The new American sanctions particularly hurt Iran's vital oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency for its anemic economy. Trump told reporters Sunday as he left the White House for political rallies in the South that the sanctions, which include an oil embargo, are the strongest ever imposed by the United States. Iran's foreign ministry is shrugging off the re-imposition of US sanctions on Iran, saying it's nothing new and that the country has gone through a wider range of sanctions in the past. On late Friday, Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez said they have information that the USA will grant Turkey a waiver to continue importing oil from Iran after sanctions, but they don't have all the details yet. "We have the knowledge and the capability to manage the country's economic affairs", Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bahram Qasemi told state TV on Friday. "The sanctions are truly coming", Netanyahu said. The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps commander added, "Our enemies intend to isolate us like an island but today the page has turned and Americans themselves are being gradually isolated, as even their traditional allies" are distancing themselves from the U.S. Later a senior State Department official told reporters that the USA was ready for talks with Iran. President Donald Trump announced in May that his administration was withdrawing from what he called the "worst ever" agreement negotiated by the United States. France, Germany, Britain and the European Union condemned the move, issuing a joint statement that pledges to protect European companies involved in "legitimate" business dealings with Tehran. Thousands of Iranians have staged a rally in Tehran marking the anniversary of the 1979 US Embassy takeover as Washington restores all sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal. "These negotiations are still ongoing", said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "We are in the war situation, " he said. Rouhani said the case needs no mediation, adding that Iran would be ready to talk with the USA only when the Western country begins to comply with its commitments. For now, Iran continues to abide by the accord which saw it limit its enrichment of uranium. However, the reality is that the United States will not be able to reduce the sales of Iranian oil to zero, since India, China, Japan and a number of European countries made it clear that they are not going to stop buying oil from Iran. The countries will deposit Iran's revenue in an escrow account and the funds will be used for humanitarian purposes, according to USA officials. The Trump administration has granted exemptions to eight countries to continue importing Iranian oil, without naming them. But Brent crude was steady at $72.83 by 1230 GMT. It was site of worst hostage crisis in USA history when revolutionary students stormed in and took 52 staff hostage and the U.S. cut off diplomatic relations in response. Pompeo responded by saying that no one would call either himself or President Trump soft on Iran. The curbs come as the United States is focused on USA congressional and gubernatorial elections on Tuesday. Campaigning in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Sunday, Trump said his "maximum pressure" against Iran was working. "Iran is a much different country since I terminated that deal". The body of a 21-year-old woman was recovered from the Blanco River Friday night, San Marcos officials said Saturday. The woman has been preliminarily identified as Kate Rose Silva Xavier, a student at Texas State University, according to a news release. Xavier had been missing since Oct. 25. A consent decree allowing Highmark health plan beneficiaries to use Pittsburgh-based UPMC facilities will end June 30. Now, two rival hospitals based in Erie, Pa., are preparing for the end of the agreement by undertaking large expansion projects, according to Go Erie. Erie-based UPMC Hamot and Allegheny Health Network St. Vincent Hospital, are both planning major upgrades. UPMC Hamot plans to build a $111 million, seven-story patient tower. The tower will house 64 intensive care unit beds and will expand the hospital's imaging project. St. Vincent is expanding its facility with a $115 million project that will include a new emergency department and operating rooms. Highmark established Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network in 2013 as an integrated delivery network, and the two announced plans to invest more than $1 billion to build facilities and renovate medical buildings over the next four to five years. At the same time, UPMC established its own health plan and has been looking to separate from Highmark for several years. The state pushed the parties to sign a five-year consent decrees spelling out how the provider heavyweight and insurance giant would break up without affecting patient care. "Quite frankly, I expect more patients will choose to see us and we are working to improve that patient experience" Christopher Clark, D.O., St. Vincent president, told Go Erie. UPMC Hamot President David Gibbons said he expects his hospital to maintain patient census after the split because about 15 percent of patients have Highmark insurance. "Any drop we might see from Highmark patients, we expect will be picked up with increases in patients with UPMC Health Plan and Aetna," Mr. Gibbons said. "We have really seen an increase in people choosing UPMC Health Plan." In addition to the hospital expansions, both hospitals will build independent cancer centers after agreeing earlier this year to demolish the Regional Cancer Center that they jointly created in 1987. Former Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove, MD, serves as an adviser for Google Healthcare & Life Sciences, and he's helping the company figure out how to break into the healthcare industry, according to CNBC. During the Rock Health Summit in San Francisco, Dr. Cosgrove said Google shouldn't try to win cloud contracts from large hospital systems. He said most large health systems won't move their entire infrastructures to a cloud system hosted by Google, Microsoft or Amazon because they've already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on IT systems from Epic, Cerner and other companies. Dr. Cosgrove said instead of attempting to win cloud contracts from large health systems, Google needs to figure out what types of apps can be added on top of systems from Epic, Cerner and others. For example, he thinks the next "killer application" in healthcare will be a voice application that leverages machine learning and natural language processing to transcribe physicians' medical notes, according to CNBC. In addition to voice technology, Dr. Cosgrove said hospitals and health systems want to improve efficiency and cut costs, and many are looking to improve the process of getting patients in for appointments and sending out billing statements. "You should be able to automate that somehow," he said. "The getting in to see a caregiver and getting a bill out are two of the screaming needs that have to be addressed." More articles on health IT: Top 5 clinical, convenience capabilities offered in patient portals Ochsner Health System debuts direct-to-consumer telehealth service for urgent care Amazon is in late-stage talks on its second headquarters with just a handful of cities, including Crystal City, Va., Dallas and New York City, according to The Wall Street Journal. Here are six things to know: 1. Amazon released plans in September 2017 to invest more than $5 billion into a second company headquarters in North America. The facility is dubbed HQ2. 2. The e-commerce giant narrowed its list of 238 cities vying to house the second headquarters to 20 in January. That list included Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Nashville, Tenn., and New York City. 3. People familiar with the late-stage talks told The Wall Street Journal that Amazon's talks have cooled with some of the cities on Amazon's short list, including Denver, Atlanta, Nashville and Raleigh, N.C. 4. Negotiations with the top candidates are likely in different phases, according to The Wall Street Journal. For example, in Crystal City, Amazon is negotiating with government officials regarding certain tax incentives and is also talking to a real estate investment trust about the Crystal City real estate that it owns. People familiar with the talks said that New York City is still actively talking with Amazon. 5. Site selection specialists said Amazon is likely having late-stage talks with at least two cities and has others on hold, in case a deal falls through. 6. Amazon is expected to make its decision by the end of the year. In preparation for a pending sale, Memorial Hospital of Salem (N.J.) County will lay off 408 employees Dec. 31, according to NJ.com. The new hospital operator plans to rehire staff once the sale closes. The layoff notices, required by New Jersey law, were sent to 339 employees at the hospital, 39 employees from a related clinic, 19 from its home healthcare unit and 11 from Salem Medical Professionals, the medical group serving the hospital. The layoffs come as the struggling Salem hospital works to close a pending sale. In March, Bloomfield, N.J.-based Community Healthcare Associates announced its intent to acquire the hospital from Nashville, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems. The deal is expected to close Dec. 31. Steve Lenox, a Community Health Associates spokesperson, told NJ.com the layoffs are "customary with ownership transitions" and Community Health Associates plans to hire most employees into their same positions with the same compensation. "The employees were informed that they would be getting both the notice, as standard procedure in a transaction such as this, as well as an offer of new employment in the coming weeks," Mr. Lenox said. The Memorial Hospital of Salem County is licensed for 126 beds, with 114 dedicated to medical-surgical and 12 intensive care unit beds. After the sale, Community Health Associates will modify the hospital to have 65 medical surgical beds, 12 ICU beds, 26 adult psychiatric care beds and 30 long-term care beds. A gunman walked into Hot Yoga Tallahassee (Fla.) Nov. 2 and fired a handgun without warning, killing two and injuring five others, according to NBC 2. Here are four things to know: 1. Police said Scott Paul Beierle, 40, posed as a customer at the yoga studio and fired his gun, according to the report. The yoga students fought back, but two women were killed during the incident and five others were injured. Mr. Beierle fatally shot himself before police arrived. 2. Authorities said it is unclear why Mr. Beierle carried out the shooting, and investigators have not discovered any links between the suspected shooter and the victims or the yoga studio. 3. However, police discovered several videos posted to YouTube in 2014 that allegedly feature Mr. Beierle making misogynistic comments about women and ranting about the police, minorities and the Army, among other subjects, according to The New York Times. 4. The two women who were fatally shot were Maura Binkley, 21, and 61-year-old Nancy Van Vessem, MD. Dr. Van Vessem worked as an internist and CMO of Capital Health Plan, where she worked for more than 20 years. Both women were also part of the Tallahassee-based Florida State University community. Ms. Binkley was a student, while Dr. Van Vessem served as one of the first clerkship directors for internal medicine at the FSU College of Medicine, according to an email to the Tallahassee Democrat by medical school dean John Fogarty, MD. "[Dr. Van Vessem] advocated every day for patient-centered care and was a vocal proponent of that approach to the way we teach our students. Dr. Van Vessem has been a strong and valuable member of the College of Medicine faculty from our earliest days, making countless contributions both directly with our students and behind the scenes in ways that few people knew about," Dr. Fogarty said. Nashville, Tenn.-based Envision Healthcare launched a new website outlining where its negotiations with UnitedHealthcare stand. Here are five things to know: 1. In September, negotiations between UnitedHealthcare and Envision, the nation's largest provider of emergency room physicians, reached an impasse after about a year of discussions. If the two are unable to reach an agreement before Jan. 1, Envision will no longer be in the insurer's network, affecting more than 1 million of United's members across the nation. 2. On its new site, Envision said while it has not sought rate increases from UnitedHealthcare for 2019, "UnitedHealthcare sent hospitals letters in September announcing it will not renew the contract in 2019 and push patients nationwide out-of-network with Envision physicians and clinicians." 3. The system added that while "UnitedHealthcare can't get to 'yes,' Envision recently signed new contracts with three other major carriers." Envision also accused UnitedHealthcare of viewing physicians and hospitals "as entries on a spreadsheet, with no recognition of value or commitment to partnership." 4. UnitedHealthcare sent letters to more than 250 hospitals Sept. 21 warning them it may drop Envision. UnitedHealthcare has blamed Envision for the contract impasse. "You know better than most how Envision's rates are driving up the cost of healthcare for the people we all serve," Dan Rosenthal, president and CEO of UnitedHealthcare Networks, said in the letter mailed to hospitals. "We sincerely believe we have made a fair and reasonable offer with the goal of continuing Envision's participation in our networks for the benefit of patients at your hospital and the customers we serve." 5. Envision and UnitedHealthcare have had a contract in place since 2009. More articles on payers: Cigna posts $772M profit: 4 things to know Anthem CEO: In-house PBM on track to hit market by 2020 2.4M stand to gain Medicaid coverage if Democrats win in 6 states Novartis will stop working toward FDA approval for its biosimilar of rituximab, a medication used to treat certain cancers and rheumatoid arthritis, according to Reuters. Here are five things to know: 1. Novartis' Sandoz unit is retreating from an effort to get regulatory clearance in the U.S. after the FDA sought more information to support the drugmaker's application for approval. Sandoz's biosimilar is already approved in Switzerland, Japan, Australia and the EU. 2. Sandoz received a full response letter from the FDA. A full response letter means the FDA can't approve the drug in its current form. 3. "We are disappointed to have to make this decision and stand behind the safety, efficacy and quality of our medicine," Stefan Hendriks, global head of biopharmaceuticals at Sandoz, told Reuters. 4. Rituximab is a biosimilar of Roche Holding's Rituxan. The drug is used to treat non-Hodgkin lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis. Roche's drug had more than $4 billion in U.S. sales in 2016. 5. The FDA has recommended approval for other rituximab biosimilars, including Teva Pharmaceuticals and Celltrion. Full clearance is expected in late November. Read the full story here. Novo Nordisk, a Denmark-based pharmaceutical company, will cut 1,300 jobs by the end of the year as it faces mounting pressure in the U.S. market, according to The Wall Street Journal. Earlier this year, the drugmaker announced plans to slash 400 jobs in its research and development unit and 250 more positions in the U.S. The announcement of the new layoffs comes as the Danish insulin maker reports a decline in profits to $1.37 billion in the third quarter of 2018. About half of the job cuts will affect Novo Nordisk's commercial operations. The savings generated by those layoffs will be reinvested in artificial intelligence, cloud services and automation technologies, Novo CFO Karsten Munk Knudsen told The Wall Street Journal. Some of the layoffs "are due to changes in our strategic resource allocation," Mr. Knudsen said. "The financial resources that have been freed up are being reinvested." The insulin maker said it is facing pressures in the U.S. because it can't push through price increases and has to accept flat or declining prices for its products. The prices for basal insulin are down 15 percent to 20 percent year over year, for example. About 650 of job cuts will be in the U.S., according to the report. Read the full report here. The American Academy of Pediatrics updated its policy on spanking Nov. 5, warning parents they should not spank their children, according to The New York Times. Here are three things to know: 1. The American Academy of Pediatrics, representing about 67,000 physicians, recommends pediatricians advise parents against using spanking and nonphysical corrective behavior that humiliates or threatens the child. "One of the most important relationships we all have is the relationship between ourselves and our parents, and it makes sense to eliminate or limit fear and violence in that loving relationship," said Robert Sege, MD, pediatrician at Tufts Medical center and the Floating Hospital for Children, both based in Boston. 2. The policy, set to be published in the December issue of Pediatrics, updates one from 20 years ago. But the academy's recent recommendation is based on recent studies, cited by The New York Times that show corporal punishment is associated with increased aggression. Another study illustrates a link between corporal punishment and reduced gray matter volume in a patient's prefrontal cortex. 3. The academy's parenting website highlights different methods for disciplining younger and older children. It recommend ways to reward positive behavior in combination with timeouts which discourages negative behavior. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Conflicting hospital quality ratings may confuse heart surgery patients, study finds Researchers study how how hospital lighting at night may hinder heart patients' recovery Honesty about medical errors doesn't boost hospitals' liability risk, study finds The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services announced Nov. 2 that it will agree to stop sending children to Chicago Lakeshore Hospital after allegations of sexual assault and abuse of the hospital's pediatric patients, according to ProPublica Illinois. Here are five things to know: 1. The DCFS also indicated it will not seek an independent investigation requested by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which could result in a lawsuit. 2. The DCFS investigated 16 allegations of abuse involving pediatric patients at the hospital since January, finding significant evidence to support four of the allegations, and is investigating five more. Seven of the allegations were unsubstantiated. 3. Some instances indicated the allegedly abused pediatric patients were cleared for discharge but remained at the facility because DCFS couldn't find a place for them to go. 4. DCFS is taking steps to fulfill the ACLU's request by placing a hold on child admissions, continuing surprise daily visits, and reporting on patient discharge and placement. 5. Federal officials indicated the hospital has until the end of November to correct the deficiency or it will lose federal funding. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Postoperative cancer surgery death rates, readmissions vary in California, study finds Uganda vaccinates health workers amid fear of Ebola's spread Patients' financial concerns can affect ICU care, study finds Stanford Hospital in California plans to open a new clinic to help sexual assault victims, according to NBC. Local rape crisis centers have indicated a need for another location where patients can receive rape kit exams. The other location where patients can request a rape kit is miles away in San Jose, Calif.-based Valley Medical Center. "There is definitely a need for a SART exam or a rape kit exam location on campus," Emma Tsurkov, a PhD student at Stanford, told NBC. "Its a great idea; were happy its moving forward." Stanford first proposed the clinic could be incorporated into the campus' student health center, but that plan was quickly rejected due to students potentially seeing the victims entering the clinic. Instead, the proposed center was placed at Stanford Hospital, where a variety of conditions are treated and people won't be singled out. The clinic will be run by the hospital and the county will provide specially trained nurses to administer the rape kits. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Two-thirds of older female patients don't discuss incontinence with physicians, survey finds Child welfare agency to stop sending kids to Chicago psych hospital Postoperative cancer surgery death rates, readmissions vary in California, study finds A public body has been criticised after auditors found failures in governance in its spending. It follows an examination of the accounts of the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI). A report published today said some financial practices at AFBI showed a fundamental disregard for the principles of public sector accounting. The institute provides high-level scientific services to customers in the agri-food sector. Today's report by Auditor General Kieran Donnelly flags issues with its 2016/17 accounts. It highlights failures in governance within AFBI which led to material financial transactions that were outside accepted practice in public sector financial management. During 2015/16 AFBI entered into an agreement with the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Livestock (CIEL), a collaboration aimed at delivering industry-led research to make the livestock sector more efficient. In 2015/16 and 2016/17 AFBI issued sales and pro-forma, or estimated, invoices worth 1.8m to CIEL. AFBI provided these invoices for CIEL to secure funding in advance of year-end deadlines for eligible spending. The invoices were intended to ensure that AFBI would be able to maximise funding in future years. However, no assets had been bought by AFBI at that time. Mr Donnelly said the use of these invoices was "concerning", and outside the accepted practice in public sector accounting. His report adds: "AFBI failed to disclose their existence over several months during the course of the audit ... What is of most concern is that these actions were taken with the full knowledge of senior management and authorised by AFBI's [then] chief executive(s)." The report states this was behaviour and standards "that fall far short of those a public sector body should display". The report notes the arrangement with CIEL was a new way of working for AFBI. A spokesperson for AFBI said: "AFBI has been working closely with the NIAO on the audit of the Annual Report & Accounts for the financial year 2016/17 accepting all recommendations arising from the NIAO report and identifying a number of actions to be undertaken to ensure that all recommendations are implemented fully." AFBI falls under the remit of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA). It said: "The department has been working closely with AFBI's executive management team to ensure that these significant control issues are robustly addressed." Some of the solar panels on Kingspans plant in Portadown Kingspan, the building materials and insulation group, is making up to 20 staff redundant in Northern Ireland as it prepares to close its manufacturing line of solar tubes at its Portadown factory. The redundancies come as the insulated panels division of the London and Dublin-listed Kingspan, whose global turnover exceeded $4.2bn last year, sold a speciality door company in the US for an estimated 5m. Kingspan Environmental Ltd says the decision to close its solar tubes line in Portadown has been made due to continuing losses within the solar manufacturing operation, as well as an increase in raw material costs. "Kingspan, which employs 400 people in Northern Ireland, has notified those affected of its decision which may see up to 20 staff made redundant," said the group, which employs more than 13,000 in 70 countries. "Kingspan regrets having to take this decision and will work with everyone concerned on redeployment opportunities." In the US Kingspan has sold Hercules, a manufacturer of controlled environment doors, to Senneca Holdings based in Cincinnati. The latter manufactures and distributes doors including traffic, corrosion-resistant, strip, cold storage, fire, and sliding doors. Alswinn Kieboom, president of Kingspan Insulated Panels, said that Kingspan will continue to provide Hercules doors as an integral part of its offering. "Senneca is a leader in the specialty door market and the sale of Hercules allows us to focus on our insulated panel business, while still offering customers a complete solution," he said. Lord Kevin Shinkwin (Baron Shinkwin) is one of the UK's foremost campaigners for the rights of the disabled. In 2015, at the age of 44, he was introduced to the Lords, where he sits as a Conservative. Previously he'd worked in the voluntary sector. As a peer he has used his position to work tirelessly to highlight disability equality issues. A man of enormous courage and principle, his understanding of the challenges the disabled face comes from personal experience. Born with brittle bone disease, he spent much of his childhood in hospital. Although he stresses he does not take a position on abortion itself, he describes Britain's abortion laws - which allow abortions for foetal abnormality after the 24-week deadline - as "a licence to kill for the crime of being disabled". Here he talks about the prejudice still faced by disabled people. And he pays tribute to the loving parents and the brilliant doctor who ensured that he was not denied opportunities. "I was very blessed to be surrounded by brilliance, by love and by, particularly from my mum, a culture of aspiration that disabled people are still denied in many cases." Q. Shinkwin - that's an unusual name. Where do your family come from originally? A. It's actually from the Republic of Ireland. It's the Irish version of the Welsh name Jenkins. My family came from Ireland relatively recently, within the last few generations. Q. Your dad John taught physics at Ratcliffe College (the well-known independent Catholic school in Leicester). A. He was head of science. And my mum Maggie was on the staff as well. It ended up that I went to private school because I was in fact chucked out of the state system because of my disability. I got a scholarship and my parents were on the staff so they didn't actually have to pay anything until I was in the sixth form, and even then it was much reduced. It wasn't because we were rich that I was at the school. It was because the doctors had said to my parents: "That boy has to carry on walking." And at the state schools in the UK, the main man said: "We want him in his chair. He can't be allowed to walk in the school." And so my poor parents had to make the choice. And they made huge sacrifices for me to ensure I got the education I got. Without the education - because we're talking about the 1970s/1980s - I just wouldn't have had any opportunities at all. Q. You were diagnosed at birth with osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease). How difficult was your childhood? A. I was born with a broken leg, which is how they knew. Difficult? Yeah, it was. I spent much of the first 10 years of my life in a hospital bed or in plaster. I had over 40 fractures in that period, mainly of my legs. There was one year when I spent both my birthday, which is in June, and Christmas in traction on the children's ward. My mum was amazing. There wasn't a day that would pass when she wouldn't come in and spend time with me by my bed. Q. How did you cope with that as a young boy? A. I truly love my mum and the way that she brought me up as a little boy whose legs were broke but there was nothing else that was different. I mean, there was. But she didn't say: "Oh, you're disabled. You've got a disability." She just said: "You're going to go back to school and you're going to do this and you're going to do that." I was also helped by developing an amazingly vivid imagination because I was trapped in a hospital bed 24 hours a day, seven days a week for three months on end sometimes. So my mind took myself way out of the bed, out of the ward. It was great at the time but it does mean that when I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau earlier this year, because of that vivid imagination, it was incredibly traumatic because I was able to, sadly, visualise what had happened there in a way that I rather wish I hadn't been able to do. Q. The brilliant Jewish doctor who did so much for you had fled the Nazis as a child, hadn't he? A. Hanus Weisl was my orthopaedic surgeon from birth to about 13. He and his mother had escaped from Prague on the last train out in June 1939 before the Nazis closed the borders in Czechoslovakia. Not one of the relatives who came to wave them off that day survived the Holocaust. His memory is both a terrific and terrible inspiration to me to combat anti-Semitism, to acknowledge it for what it is, which is a form of racism, and to honour the memory of all those who were murdered in the Holocaust. Q. You were lucky in some respects in that you were surrounded by so many brilliant people - your parents and Dr Weisl - who gave you such opportunities because, as you say, in the 1970s/80s there was such prejudice against disabled people. A. I completely agree. It was a different time zone. I remember my mum visiting what they called a "special school" at that time and sometime later saying: "I had to make the choice there and then to send you elsewhere because the headmaster, when he was showing me around, boasted that last year one of his students got a C in one O-level." Because my mum was a teacher she knew what that actually meant in terms of opportunities. Minimal. So yes, that's absolutely right. I was very blessed to be surrounded by brilliance, by love and by - particularly from my mum - a culture of aspiration that disabled people are still denied in many cases. Q. How did your fellow pupils treat you at school? Was it tough? A. It was tough. Was it tough for them? I don't know. I think it was tough in that young children can be very kind but they can also be very cruel. And I stood out by a mile. There was a certain amount of hurtful behaviour but I'm sure I gave as good as I got. Q. You did politics at university? A. Yes. I went to the University of Hull and I had a brilliant time. My third year was spent working for an MP in London as part of the course and that really set me up for my career later working in the public affairs sector, predominantly for charities. It was absolutely fascinating, and in fact my tutor from Hull is in the House of Lords with me. He's a fellow member of the House of Lords and he was a supporter when I took my oath on November 17, 2015. I was absolutely honoured to be asked by David Cameron and I'm extremely grateful to him for the opportunity he's given me. Q. Do you think it is easier for disabled children today in terms of education? A. Yes. Thank goodness. Much, much easier. I would give credit where it's due, that is down to both Conservatives and Labour through the legislation that was introduced since 1995. But my concern is that there still is a culture of low aspiration. There's still a long way to go in terms of why can't disabled people reach the top of their profession. And how can government, and society which would benefit if that happened, how can they support them? They can go to school, they can excel. But what about when they come to Belfast? When they come to London or Leeds or Sheffield? How do they get around? How do they find work? How do they get accessible accommodation? We don't seem to have addressed those points and yet, if you took them away from non-disabled people there'd be an outcry. The assumption is that they have accommodation they can use, that they can get to and from work - so what's the difference with disabled people? It is incredible how so many shops, so many pubs are still inaccessible. I find it really quite dispiriting that people think they can just get away with it - that it's acceptable when, of course, it's the opposite. I hope that as society ages and people and their families are more affected by disability, they will be more robust in pointing out to businesses: "Hang on a minute, how do you expect us to be customers when we can't actually go in to your pub or shop or restaurant?" Q. Assistive technology is changing things in respect of job opportunities and so on, isn't it? A. Yes. I totally agree. But I would say that there's no substitute for attitudinal change. My experience of people is generally really positive. They would like to help if they can. Q. You have been very vocal about the disparity between the rules for abortion in general, where it is permitted up to 24 weeks, and in cases of foetal abnormality where it is permitted up to birth. A. Absolutely. The statistics are really frightening and they are moving in one direction and they are moving very fast. The irony is that someone like me with my condition would now be treated from the moment of birth and have a far better prospect; my life chances would be transformed. And yet, notwithstanding that, not withstanding the intra-uterine surgical advances that were reported in the media very recently, as a society we're saying: "Disability? Oh, we don't want any of that." I do not take a position on abortion itself because, as a disabled human being I need to focus on the issue of disability equality. So I'm not judging anyone. I'm not condemning anyone. What I am highlighting is the disparity and the inequality and the medical profession's assumption that when they tell parents "your baby will have a disability" in the same breath they can say "but we can fit you in next week. You can just get rid of it". And actually we've now got to the point where 90% of human beings diagnosed with Down's syndrome before birth are aborted, some as late as 36-37 weeks. That is a serious surgical procedure. It's not pleasant for anyone concerned. But the diagnosis of Down's is obviously enough for the medical profession and others involved to justify it to themselves. Most people I think don't realise that some might be aborted right up to birth. But if more people were aware of that, I think they'd be pretty shocked. Q. Foetal abnormalities could include things like cleft palate, isn't that right? A. Yes. I had a cleft palate at birth. They said I'd never talk. They said that again after I had emergency neurosurgery to save my life. They were wrong on both counts. And you only have to open a magazine and you will find pictures of children with hare lip in adverts used to fundraise for charities saying: "Please help us to perform a relatively simple surgical procedure." I really, really sympathise with parents who are told: "Your child has a disability. We can fit you in next week. A hare lip will really damage their chances. You wouldn't want that for your child would you?" I've been contacted by parents who say that even when they've decided they want to go ahead and have the baby at every subsequent appointment, and this is what they find really distressing, they've been told, "I've arranged for so and so to be available to speak to you" ie, about having an abortion. I've even been told of situations where, after the birth, staff, midwives, have remonstrated with the mother and said: "Did you know about this? Did you have a diagnosis?" And it has reduced some mothers to tears just at the moment when they are at their most vulnerable and most in need of support. Q. But it is a complex, difficult issue and there are parents who genuinely feel they can't bring a disabled child into the world. A. Yes. And that's why I think parents need a lot more, and deserve a lot more, support. I've actually got a Bill, and there are two clauses. One is to equalise the cut-off point for abortion at 24 weeks for disabled and non-disabled human beings. The other is to provide parents on diagnosis with more balanced information and that that information should come from parental support/disability support groups and organisations managed by disabled people because I think it is so important that parents are allowed to consider all the options. When parents who have had a diagnosis of Down's syndrome for their unborn baby actually get in touch with other parents whose children have Down's syndrome they feel very different from when they were given the very cold diagnosis in the hospital. Q. But what about cases where the child is just not going to live? A. As you say, it's incredibly complex. I would simply stress that I would not judge anyone for the decision that they make. What I am aware of is that there has been research in the States that shows that actually having an abortion doesn't make the grieving process any easier. That some women have said that being able to hold the child, being able to mourn was very important to them. But I do not judge. Q. You're on record as saying that Northern Ireland is currently the safest place for a child diagnosed with disability before birth to be born. A. Yes, it is. I was in the Republic the weekend before the (abortion) referendum. And I was astonished because in the space of 36 hours or so I secured coverage across all the media. And I thought to myself, I'm no one important, they've got loads of Irish commentators, politicians. But the reason why I hit the headlines was because they'd got no one else. No one else was talking about disability. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael had agreed between them that they would support this referendum and so the implications for disabled human beings wasn't even touched on because they said the 12-week window, as I understood it, would apply to any unborn child so therefore disability discrimination is not an issue. But actually it is because with the new screening technology, the non-invasive pregnancy test, you can have a diagnosis and get an abortion within the 12-week window. And of course, the main target for that, the main victims, are disabled human beings. Q. Another key issue you've spoken on and are concerned about is Brexit. You're pro-Brexit, aren't you? A. Yes. And I'm very grateful to the DUP, to Arlene Foster, for holding firm because I think that we are in danger of becoming so tired of the Brexit debate that we sleepwalk into an awful situation. I really, really hope that the DUP can find the courage and the resolve to insist that the people's vote of the referendum should be respected. I think where there's a will, there's a way. I still believe that if we stand up to the unelected officials of Brussels we can avoid what can be a disastrous outcome which is a complete fudge where we're in a much worse position than we were before the referendum. Q. Are you optimistic that will happen? A. I would be very pessimistic about the long-term ramifications of a bad deal because I think in the UK, democracy is taken very much for granted by the Establishment. When you look at what's happening in Europe, in Italy, in Greece and now in Germany, countries are becoming increasingly unstable because the mainstream Establishment is simply not listening to the people. I think that even though there will be short-term pain were we to leave on WTO terms, it would be a better deal because of the longer term gains of being able to strike our own free trade deals. I think the backstop is a complete red herring concocted by the technocrats in Brussels and I think they are using it very, very cynically and very, very irresponsibly. And yes, I think that the Dublin government are using it too. And I think that's very unfortunate. The conclusion of the First World War in November 1918 will be a major European commemoration this month. In Woodenbridge, Co Wicklow, a somewhat smaller ceremony will take place in the middle of the month in the beautiful local First World War memorial there - a landscaped park with simple headstones which list the Wicklow men who served and died in that terrible war. They are remembered just by name, without military or regimental identification, because the community chose to make Woodenbridge a place of peace, ecumenism and memory. The names are on stone after stone, sometimes brothers, or even fathers and sons: Michael Kane and Patrick Kane from Baltinglass; Denis Doyle and James Doyle from Ashford; many Byrnes from Aughrim; from Roundwood, Charles Barton - a cousin of Erskine Childers - and from Rathnew, George Hunter, a family member of the celebrated Hunter's Hotel. There were six Kelly brothers from Newtownmountkennedy who joined up: three survived. The Wicklow military historian Brendan Flynn - himself a retired Irish Army soldier - says that more men from Rathnew volunteered, proportionately, than from anywhere else in Ireland or Britain. Rathnew, in 1914, was a village in which many worked as farm labourers, dwelling in thatched cottages. These look picturesque but the conditions of living under a thatch could be awful: in winter, the rain came in and the floors would be turned to mud. "Farm labourers were mainly single men. They couldn't marry because they had no steady income. In the winter, they had no income at all," says the local historian. The opportunity of joining the military, where they lived in clean, well-organised barracks, with proper toilets and bathrooms, recreational facilities and with access to dentists and doctors, and a guaranteed pay packet - plus a pension - was one that these volunteers willingly grasped. Wicklow men joined not only the British Army, as it was then, but overseas armies too. Brendan Flynn has traced 100 Canadian soldiers born in Wicklow, 60-80 Australian troops who were Wicklow men, eight to 10 New Zealanders, and about half a dozen South Africans. During the First World War, the savings accounts in Wicklow post offices doubled and then trebled, because of soldiers' allowances and remittances sent home. It was a considerable alleviation of the rural poverty that afflicted so much of Wicklow at that time. And yet, says Brendan Flynn - who has been studying the military history of Wicklow since compulsory retirement at 55 - the men who joined up in 1914 weren't only doing so for the opportunity of better living conditions. They regarded themselves as patriots. They saw the Irish Volunteers as Ireland's army. John Redmond's pledge to support the Allies fighting against Germany - the speech he made at Woodenbridge itself - was then seen as an appeal to Irish patriotism. "Home Rule had been secured: men joined up with great enthusiasm." Some 98-99% of the Wicklow men were Catholic, and defending Belgium from invasion by the Kaiser was considered a just cause, Brendan says, having now trawled through so many of the archives. He also visited every church and graveyard in the county - along with his wife, Mary - as part of his research, which started around 2003. Only two Catholic churches have memorials to the Wicklow men who died during 1914-18: Kilquade, which has a memorial to Willie Redmond, the Home Rule MP who died on the Western Front (his last speech in the House of Commons was about the touching spirit of unity between Irishmen, North and South, in the trenches) and one at Aughrim parish church. As we know, the events of 1916 changed the political landscape completely (although some historians now see Easter 1916 as being part of the First World War) and the soldiers who survived returned to an altered state. Indeed, even when Brendan Flynn started on his research, he came up against a taboo. His own father had said to him: "What do you want to be asking about that for?" But the perspective of time has a mellowing effect and the 1914-1918 war is now seen as a European war: if Ireland is part of Europe, then it is part of this centenary commemoration. And the Woodenbridge memorial park, with its roots in localism, is so evocative. The entrance to the site is marked by a quotation from Francis Ledwidge, the war poet from Slane who died at Passchendaele. The memorial park is entirely an initiative of the local community in which Billy O'Brien, the proprietor of the nearby Woodenbridge Hotel, played a key role. Funds were raised by the community, the land donated, and Wicklow stonemasons from Byrnes of Aughrim constructed the striking stone columns from Wicklow shale. A "bunker" underneath a disused railway bridge is also under development, so that visiting school students can get a sense of the war experience of from a soldier's viewpoint. I was introduced to Woodenbridge by an old school friend, Eileen O'Sullivan, who lives in the Avoca area, and we walked around the memorial park on a lovely autumn day, under tall oak trees: a place of remembrance, and a thoughtful serenity. The British government is demanding the right to pull out of the guarantee of no hard Border within just three months. The hardline stance adopted by the British last week is understood to have stunned Irish officials, and it is viewed as a setback to the prospect of clinching a Brexit deal this week. Read More Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab tabled the proposal during a secret meeting with Tanaiste Simon Coveney last Tuesday, The Daily Telegraph is reporting. The London meeting was only disclosed later. Prime Minister Theresa May will bring plans to avoid a hard Border to her divided cabinet tomorrow. The plans would see a fall-back position involving the whole of Britain remaining in a customs union with the EU not just Northern Ireland. This would negate the need for checks at the Border. Mr Raabs proposal to Mr Coveney was that within three months of the backstop coming into force or six months at the very most Britain would have the right to trigger a review mechanism in which the backstop would only persist by mutual consent. The idea that an alternative arrangement that delivers no hard Border in Ireland would be ready in three months is totally unrealistic, said a senior EU source. Reports in the Sunday Times, that Mrs May had already concluded a secret deal, were dismissed by negotiators from both sides last night. If anything, things are now going backwards, one said. The Government has been forced to deny British claims that our demands for a strict Border guarantee are being watered-down to secure a deal. Brexiteers in London are worried Britain will be trapped indefinitely in a customs union. Morocco will never compromise on its territorial integrity at the UN-led direct talks in Geneva next December, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said. Speaking to Le Monde, Bourita said that any solution that undermines Moroccos territorial integrity or that advocates the unfeasible referendum option will be rejected by Morocco. Bourita who made the interview last week while he was in Paris where he met his French peer Jean Yves Le Drian, said the visit aimed at enhancing cooperation with France ahead of a visit by President Emmanuel Macron to Morocco. Some Moroccan media outlets said that King Mohammed VI and President Macron will chair the inauguration ceremony of the high speed train TGV in mid-November. On Libya, Bourita stressed that fostering Libyas security should be as important as the political process, noting that organizing elections hinges on strengthening the countrys stability to avert degradation of the security conditions, which marred the capital Tripoli. However, he deplored that the Skhirat agreement remains inactivated, noting that the implementation of the agreement could have paved the way for a political transition in the war-torn country. I met Ghassan Salame, UN Envoy to Libya, few days ago in Rabat. We had a long conversation on how to make Palermos meeting a milestone to prepare conditions propitious for holding elections in Libya, he said. Migration was also on the agenda. Bourita explained that Morocco launched a campaign to grant legal stay to 50,000 people in three years, 90% of which were admitted. He said the EU has promised 140 million in aid to Morocco but added that the EU has to adopt a coherent approach. DUP leader Arlene Foster last night called for sensible solutions to the ongoing Brexit impasse and fired a broadside at those using a potential return to violence as a bargaining chip. Speaking exclusively to the Belfast Telegraph, Mrs Foster stressed that rather than stirring up tensions, all sides should strive to seek an outcome that works for NI, the UK and the EU. She also urged: Those who continue to use the Troubles to advance their political arguments about Brexit should step back and consider their actions. Those of us who lived on the border in those days have very little tolerance for such arguments. There was never any justification for violence. Lofty speeches about a return to the borders of the 70s and 80s are not based on fact and only serve to add succour to men of violence. She added that placing any new barriers between Northern Ireland and Great Britain would be catastrophic for our economy after it was reported that Theresa May had secured a deal that will see the UK remain within a customs union with the EU. The Sunday Times claimed that preparations for a deal are more advanced than had been anticipated, with a detailed document in the works. Since Brexit talks began the EU has insisted on an agreement which would see Northern Ireland remain part of the customs union and the single market in order to avoid a hard border with the Republic in the event of no deal. Under the latest proposals, the EU would write a UK-wide backstop into the legally binding Withdrawal Agreement, meaning a backstop solely for Northern Ireland would not be needed. Responding to the report, Mrs Foster told the Belfast Telegraph: We are seeking an outcome that works for NI, the UK and the EU. That would be a sensible deal. An outcome that effectively redraws the border and moves it to the Irish Sea is not sensible for the Northern Ireland economy or in a political sense, for the Union. The Prime Minister knows that we have had one red line in this Brexit process. We will not tolerate the economic or constitutional integrity of the UK being undermined by any deal. Mrs Foster said that 72% of all goods leaving Belfast Port are destined for GB and 75% of goods coming into NI are from GB. To place any new barriers between NI and GB would be catastrophic for our economy. We are living through incredibly historic days. The decisions made in the next few weeks will dictate the kind of UK our grandchildren experience, she continued. Mrs Foster (left) added: I am heartened by the support throughout the UK for our position. Unionists in England, Scotland and Wales recognise that placing a trade border between NI and GB would totally undermine the integrity of the UK single market. Former Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire, appearing on Skys Ridge On Sunday, was asked if a deal was close. He said negotiations are still very firmly continuing, adding: We are 95% of the way there in relation to the Withdrawal Agreement. Obviously still having this issue in relation to the insurance arrangements for Northern Ireland and Ireland, and that very much remains our focus and attention in getting that deal. A Downing Street spokeswoman added: The Prime Minister is clear we are leaving the customs union. We are making good progress on the future relationship, and 95% of the Withdrawal Agreement has been settled. Negotiations are ongoing. Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said the article was written with a British audience in mind and such running commentary isnt helpful. The EU27 has been united through the Brexit process. The UK has given written commitments last December and March that the Withdrawal Agreement will give a legal guarantee of no return to a hard border in Ireland in any circumstance this is the backstop, Mr Coveney said.In March the UK agreed this backstop will apply unless and until a close future relationship eliminates any need for border infrastructure or related checks and controls. We want the EU and UK to get to negotiating that close future deal but the UK must first deliver on the commitments of leaving. The EU support to Ireland has been and remains unwavering. The negotiators are working hard and a running commentary isnt helpful. However Donald Tusk, Michel Barnier, Jean Claude Juncker and indeed Theresa May herself have all said there will not be a deal without a legal guarantee of no hard border in Ireland. We hope a deal can be done but were not there yet. The Sunday Times article also stated that if an all-UK customs arrangement is written into the Withdrawal Agreement, the backstop proposed by the EU, which treats Northern Ireland as different from the rest of the UK, will no longer be required. It also claimed Theresa May is on course to securing a Canada-style trade deal. A senior Whitehall source told the paper: The PM will be able to say theres no more backstop, weve got rid of that success. Theres an exit mechanism success. And youve got Canada success. The small print is that Ireland is f*****. Leo Varadkar said he expects the British Government to stick to the commitments it made to the EU last December for a legally enforceable backstop (Niall Carson/PA) Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has told Prime Minister Theresa May he is open to the possibility of a review mechanism for the Brexit backstop. Following a phone conversation with Mrs May on Monday morning, the Taoiseach said both leaders emphasised their commitment to avoiding a hard border in Ireland and the need for a legally operable backstop. Read More A statement released by the Department of Taoiseach said: "The Prime Minister raised the possibility of a review mechanism for the backstop. "The Taoiseach indicated an openness to consider proposals for a review, provided that it was clear that the outcome of any such review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop. "He recalled the prior commitments made that the backstop must apply 'unless and until' alternative arrangements are agreed. "They both expressed the hope that the negotiations could conclude in a satisfactory manner as soon as possible." A Downing Street spokesman said the prime minister and the Taoiseach agreed that the intention is that the backstop should only be temporary and that the best solution to the Northern Ireland border would be found by agreeing a future relationship between the UK and the EU. "In order to ensure that the backstop, if ever needed, would be temporary, the Prime Minister said that there would need to be a mechanism through which the backstop could be brought to an end," the spokesman added. "She affirmed the UK's commitment to the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and to avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland." The statements come after Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the EU's proposed Irish backstop after just three months. Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney said that a time-limited backstop will never be agreed to by Ireland or the EU. The EU's position to avoid a hard border has been for Northern Ireland to remain within the customs union. However, the DUP is strongly opposed to this, saying it will not allow Northern Ireland's position within the UK to be compromised. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has said "there is simply no answer to the Irish issue" around Brexit. An outspoken opponent of Britain's exit from the European Union, Mr Blair believes there is now no deal that Theresa May can secure that can be good, or even reasonable, for the Republic. Writing in The Observer, the former Labour leader said the UK Government has tabled a series of "incompatible demands" which has led to a negotiating impasse. "They want a frictionless border in Ireland. That can only happen if Northern Ireland remains in the customs union and single market, at least for goods and agricultural products. But they want the UK to leave the customs union and single market. "However, they also want Northern Ireland and Britain to be in the same relationship to Europe as each other. And they made a rash commitment last December that the Northern Ireland issue would be resolved as a part of the withdrawal agreement, with the border frictionless and with a backstop to guarantee it. There is simply no answer to the Irish issue," he added. Describing Mrs May's Chequers plans as "madness", he added: "Time has not lessened my sense of the catastrophic effects of Brexit. It has increased it." Mr Blair, a key architect of the Good Friday Agreement, is urging all MPs to vote down whatever deal Mrs May presents to Parliament and to push instead for another referendum. He has warned MPs that if they fail to do so, they will face a backlash from voters. "Everyone is going to come under intense pressure to agree a 'reasonable deal', Labour MPs especially. They should resist. There is no 'reasonable deal'," he wrote. "I promise them as someone who used to win elections: no one will lose their seat on this basis. But vote through a botched negotiation that you don't believe in and the backlash will last a political lifetime." A daughter of a mother of eight killed in shootings involving British soldiers has expressed hope that a long-awaiting inquest can deliver truth and exoneration. Briege Voyles mother Joan Connolly, 44, was one of 10 people killed in gunfire during three days of shootings in the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast in 1971. Fresh inquests investigating an episode bereaved relatives refer to as the Ballymurphy Massacre will commence in Belfast next week. We think that after 47 years we are going to get some form of truthBriege Voyle In 2011, Northern Irelands Attorney General John Larkin directed that new inquests be heard after a long campaign by family members, who claimed the original coronial probes in the aftermath of the shootings were inadequate. After a final preparatory hearing in Belfast on Monday, when coroner Ms Justice Siobhan Keegan confirmed the inquests would proceed as scheduled, Ms Voyle admitted to mixed feelings. Its very scary to be honest with you weve waiting this long for it to come, its a wee bit hard to believe that its actually happening, but at the same time we are just so glad that its here, she said. We think that after 47 years we are going to get some form of truth. A Catholic priest was among the 10 fatally injured in the shootings involving members of the Parachute Regiment. Expand Close Families of those killed in the 1971 protest outside Belfast High Court earlier this year (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Families of those killed in the 1971 protest outside Belfast High Court earlier this year (PA) Another man died of a heart attack following an alleged violent confrontation with the troops in the west Belfast estate. The shootings took place as the Army moved in to republican strongholds to arrest IRA suspects in the wake of the introduction by the Stormont administration of the controversial policy of internment without trial. Soldiers have long been held responsible for killing all 10 people in Ballymurphy between August 9-11 1971, but the accepted narrative became clouded earlier this year when former members of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force came forward to claim their organisation was also involved. Ms Voyle said the onus was on the Ministry of Defence to be candid in the coroners court. Expand Close Joan Connolly was one of the 10 shot (Ballymurphy Massacre Committee/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Joan Connolly was one of the 10 shot (Ballymurphy Massacre Committee/PA) At the end of the day our loved ones were innocent, we know they were innocent, we just need them to come in and tell the world that they are innocent, she said. We hope the whole truth will come out. Ms Voyle noted that the shootings had robbed 37 children of a parent. We have had to live with the stigma of it, she added. When they said my mummy was a gun woman they basically labelled our family as well, and we had to live with that, so hopefully when we get into court the truth is told that our loved ones were innocent. Opening statements in the inquests will be heard next week, followed by personal statements from relatives of those who died. Evidence in the first inquest will be heard in the week commencing November 28. Sonya Johnston appeared before Belfast Magistrates Court charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. (stock photo) A woman is to stand trial accused of stabbing her ex-boyfriend at a flat in east Belfast, a judge ordered. Sonya Johnston, 36, appeared before the city's Magistrates Court charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. A co-defendant, 23-year-old James McMahon, stood in the dock alongside her accused of the same offence. The charge against them relates to an incident on January 7 this year. A previous court heard a man was allegedly stabbed in the shoulder at a property in the Newtownards Road area. Johnston, with an address on Belfast's Ormeau Road, and McMahon, from Galway Street in the city, appeared together for preliminary enquiry. Neither accused gave evidence or called witnesses during the hearing. Defence lawyers did not dispute prosecution submissions that their clients have a case to answer. On that basis District Judge Fiona Bagnall granted an application to have the defendants returned for Crown Court trial on a date to be fixed. Releasing them on continuing bail, Mrs Bagnall declined to lift an alcohol prohibition for Johnston. Her barrister argued it was to ensure equality with the co-accused. But police opposed the suggested variation in her bail terms, claiming alcohol was a factor in the alleged offence. The judge confirmed: "I'm returning her to the Crown Court on the same terms." One of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement has said comments by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar that Brexit is undermining 20 years of peace in Northern Ireland are irresponsible and dangerous. Ulster Unionist peer Lord Empey was responding to the Irish prime minister's stark warning about the state of cross-border relations. Mr Varadkar told RTE radio on Saturday that Brexit "is fraying relationships between Britain and Ireland". He said: "Anything that pulls the two communities apart in Northern Ireland undermines the Good Friday Agreement and anything that pulls Britain and Ireland apart undermines that relationship." His comments came two days after former UUP leader Lord Trimble accused Mr Varadkar's government of "riding roughshod" over the 1998 agreement and claimed that the Brexit process could result in Northern Ireland ending up as part of an "effective EU protectorate". Lord Empey, one of David Trimble's key negotiators during the talks which led to the 1998 Agreement, branded Mr Varadkar's remarks "totally unnecessary". He said: "I have been very concerned about the Irish government's attitude for the past year. Instead of talking to and negotiating with people, they have been talking at people. I feel that their attitude is more tuned into domestic politics and a potential election in the Republic than it is about solving problems. "It's interesting to me that most of the people who are paying lip service to the Good Friday Agreement played no part in negotiating it. "We built up a series of relationships and trust after years of terrorism and it's perfectly obvious from some of the statements made by Mr Varadkar and his Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney that they seem to have a completely different agenda. "Instead of building relationships with unionism, they are doing everything in their power to antagonize it. "Mr Varadkar is verging on being reckless with what he says. He has got to understand that many years of work went into the Good Friday Agreement and to be using this kind of belligerent language is quite offensive at times and it's irresponsible for somebody in his position," Lord Empey added. DUP East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson accused the Taoiseach of "arrogance" and said that it's Mr Vardkar who has undermined the relationship between north and south. He said: "This man has no idea of what respect means. He comes in and tramples all over the internal affairs of Northern Ireland and thinks that is helping good relations. "He has single-handedly undone about 20 years of good relations with his excessive demands about Northern Ireland being made different from the rest of the UK, his threats to the peace process and his downright misleading analysis of the impact of Brexit and the need for border posts. "If he feels that relations have been damaged then he needs to look at is own words," Mr Wilson said. The Irish Labour party has rowed back on reports it could step in and run candidates in Northern Ireland should the SDLP merge with Fianna Fail. Speaking at the Labour party's national conference over the weekend, the party's leader Brendan Howlin said he had written to SDLP leader Colum Eastwood asking for clarification on a possible merger. Mr Howlin said he wished to hold discussions with members of the SDLP to see how they could construct a slate of candidates that would allow people who want to express Labour values to have the option of voting for Labour candidates. Appearing on Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme on Monday, Mr Howlin poured cold water on the idea his comments meant Irish Labour were lining up candidates for the forthcoming council elections north of the border. Saying there was concern if a merger goes ahead there may be people who are alienated by people who "don't see the conservatism of Fianna Fail as their natural home", but that this does not mean his party will be running candidates in Northern Ireland. "It is not about the Irish Labour party coming north to contest elections, it is about reassuring Labour-minded people within the SDLP that they will have our support and the support of a lot of people," he said. "Party members and trade unionists across the island if they want to ensure there is a social democratic voice." He said it would then be an opportunity to "discuss what banner is appropriate" for future candidates. Pushed by host Noel Thompson on whether his party had all-Ireland aspirations, he said "of course" his party did, but that they were in "rebuilding mode" and there would be "an element of arrogance" about aims to expand at the current time. Council elections are set to take place in Northern Ireland in May next year. Former IRA man John Downey was arrested by Garda in Donegal on Monday on suspicion of the murder of two Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers in 1972. He was also arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting an explosion. Read More Lance Corporal Alfred Johnston, a father of 4, and Private James Eames, a father of 3, died when a device exploded in a car they were checking on the Irvinestown Road, Cherrymount, Enniskillen on August 25, 1972. Downey (66) was arrested under a European Arrest Warrant as part of a joint operation with the PSNI. He is expected to appear at Dublin High Court on Tuesday afternoon. Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has said that a decision has been taken to prosecute a 66-year-old man for the murders. In 2014 Downey stood trial for the 1982 Hyde Park bombings in which four soldiers were killed and a number of people were injured. An IRA car bomb exploded as the soldiers made their way from their Kensington barracks to a Changing Of The Guard ceremony at Horse Guards Parade. The trial collapsed because Downey had been mistakenly awarded an "on-the-run" letter by the UK Government which said he was not wanted by police. Trial judge Mr Justice Sweeney ruled that Downey could not be prosecuted in relation to the bombing. Expand Close Lance Corporal Alfred Johnston (left) and Private James Eames (right) were killed in the Enniskillen explosion. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lance Corporal Alfred Johnston (left) and Private James Eames (right) were killed in the Enniskillen explosion. Families of the victims of the IRA bombing are currently taking civil action against Downey. He has always denied being involved in the Hyde Park attack. Downey was one of nearly 200 republicans given assurances they were not wanted in connection with crimes as a result of a deal done between Sinn Fein and Tony Blair's Labour government as part of the Northern Ireland peace process. Following the collapse of Downey's trial then Prime Minister David Cameron ordered the Hallett Review, which concluded that the scheme was not an amnesty, but had no proper structure or policy in place. In 2014 then Secretary of State Theresa Villiers told Westminster that people who received such letters should no longer place any reliance on them. Police and the UK government have previously said that new evidence could lead to charges against those who received the letters. Expand Close The scene following an IRA car bomb blast in Hyde Park (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The scene following an IRA car bomb blast in Hyde Park (PA) Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell, from the PSNIs Major Investigation Team, said: The PSNI has been liaising closely with An Garda Siochana and todays arrest demonstrates the benefits of joint working between police forces and other national partner agencies. The PSNI investigation into these murders remains active. A Northern Ireland PPS spokesperson said: "Following careful consideration of all available evidence, a decision has been taken to prosecute one person for the offence of murder and for aiding and abetting the causing of an explosion. "Extradition proceedings were initiated in the High Court in Dublin on Monday November 5, to seek the extradition of one man from the Republic of Ireland for trial in Northern Ireland. "One man was subsequently arrested in County Donegal this evening and is due to appear in court in Dublin tomorrow. "As proceedings are now live and before a Court, we will not be making further comment on this case at this point." A 27-year-old man is due to appear in court today after a weekend burglary in Co Tyrone that left a severely disabled woman "deeply traumatised". Police are investigating the incident which occurred in Dungannon at around 8.20pm on Saturday night. A man gained entry to the woman's house and ransacked her bedroom before taking a sum of money and her mobile phone. Detective Inspector Trevor Stevenson said: "The sole occupant of the house, a woman with severe physical disabilities, reported that a man had entered her bedroom. "The suspect, described as 5ft tall, aged in his 30s, with a full bushy beard and wearing a lightweight jacket and denim jeans, ransacked bedroom furniture, taking a sum of money and her mobile phone. "He also searched other rooms in the house before fleeing through a window." A man matching the description of the suspect was arrested a short time later in the Market Square area of the town on suspicion of burglary and the property was seized by police. He was later charged in relation to the incident and is expected to appear before Enniskillen Magistrates Court this morning. Police have expressed their disgust at what happened. "This was a despicable act, which must have been frightening for the victim who was not only vulnerable but also completely helpless," Mr Stevenson said. "While not physically injured she has been left deeply traumatised by this horrific ordeal." Dungannon DUP councillor Kim Ashton expressed her shock at the details of the burglary and said the woman involved has been left distraught. "The detail of this burglary is very alarming. I have spoken with the PSNI who have acted very swiftly in making an arrest," she added. Ulster Unionist MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone Rosemary Barton said her thoughts were with the victim and her family. She said: "The ransacking of a home and the stealing of cash belonging to a lady living on her own can only be described as an act of depravity. "This lady, who also has severe disabilities, I understand has been left severely traumatised by this whole despicable act and now has the anguish of clearing up the mess left behind by this burglar who entered a number of rooms in her home. "Nobody in our supposed civilised society should have to suffer the indignity of an intruder entering their bedroom or other rooms in their home. This was a hideous crime on a defenceless woman," she added. Meanwhile police believe a series of burglaries which took place in south Armagh on Friday are linked. Three houses in Crossmaglen, two in Chapel View and one on Newry Road and one on the Camlough Road in Newry were targeted. Three men were also disturbed at a house in St Patrick's Park in Camlough at around 8pm by a member of the public. They fled the house and made off from the area in a black coloured Audi A6 car. Police said a similar black coloured car was observed in the vicinity of other burglaries and are appealing for information. Egypts interior ministry Sunday said its forces killed a dozen of Islamic State group (ISIS) fighters, including those suspected of connection to the slaughtering on Friday of a group of pilgrims of the Coptic religious minority. The ministry in a statement said its forces killed in a shootout 19 ISIS members, west of the central province of Minya. It believes the dead also include militants who attacked on Friday in the Minya province a group of Coptic pilgrims travelling to a remote monastery. Seven pilgrims were killed and 19 injured in the attack, the authorities said. The Interior Ministry also said the militants fell in an ambush and started shooting after they realized they were being besieged by security forces. ISIS claimed responsibility for the Friday attack, which is the second in the same location, in two years. May last year members of the terror group wearing masks mowed down 29 Coptic pilgrims on their way to visit the St. Samuel the Confessor monastery. The Coptic Christians, making up 10 per cent of Egypts 100-million population, have become a soft target of the terror group because of their support for President Fattah al-Sisi since his rise to power in 2013 after toppling the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi. ISIS has staged several attacks against the minority group mainly in the Sinai restive province. But in recent years, bomb attacks in urban places including capital Cairo, Alexandria killed scores of security agents and several members the Christian group. Baranauskas was found guilty on eight counts, including aiding and abetting rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment.' (stock photo) A man jailed for his role in the rape of a woman in Co Armagh has failed in a bid to overturn his convictions. Stasys Baranauskas was appealing verdicts that he took part in the sexual assault and inflicted life-changing injuries on another man during the attack in July 2011. But senior judges ruled that the 31-year-old's grounds of challenge lacked any merit. Last year Baranauskas, a Lituanian national, was found guilty by a jury on eight counts, including aiding and abetting rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment. He was also convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent over the incident at a house in Lurgan, and was handed a 15-year jail term. At the time police described the crimes as "truly horrendous and traumatic for the victims". The 23-year-old man was allegedly beaten unconscious with a bat, sustaining a fractured skull and shattered cheek bones. He was reportedly left with significant long-term injuries, which left him having to learn to walk again. A second Lithuanian national, 27-year-old Darius Porcikas, received an 18-year prison sentence for the rape and assaults. Baranauskas stood trial after he was extradited back to Northern Ireland from his native country. Challenging the safety of his conviction in the Court of Appeal, defence lawyers argued there were inconsistencies in the woman's testimony. On that basis they questioned whether the trial judge should have warned the jury about her evidence. Further points were raised about identification evidence and the admission of previous convictions. However, Mr Justice Horner, sitting with Lord Justices Stephens and Treacy, expressed "enormous difficulty" in understanding the basis on which the guilty verdict was being appealed. Jurors heard all the evidence against Baranauskas and were expertly guided by the trial judge, he said. Refusing leave to appeal the convictions, Mr Justice Horner held: "The jury convicted Stasys Baranauskas on all but one of the counts. "The various grounds of appeal advanced in this case are all without merit." One of Northern Ireland's best-known Troubles victims is to challenge Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill to a live TV debate as frustration over the political impasse grows. Alan McBride, who lost his wife Sharon in the Shankill bomb 25 years ago, said his unusual invite to the DUP and Sinn Fein leaders has been brought about by the two biggest parties "talking themselves into a corner with their red lines". Read More And in a letter to Mrs Foster and Mrs O'Neill - which this newspaper can reveal today - the peace campaigner said he wanted to hear, first hand and on live television, what they are prepared to do "to make this country work". "There is no need to bring a facilitator in from amongst the great and the good, just a televised interview with an ordinary guy who lost his wife in a bomb," he wrote. "I now want to personally challenge you to do the right thing, to show some of the courage that your predecessors demonstrated and end this stalemate." He added: "I have no interest in the blame game as I believe it to be disruptive and unproductive. The real issue keeping the DUP and Sinn Fein from sharing power is attitude. "With the right attitude nothing is insurmountable. "I don't need you to rehash the problems that you face as most of the country is weary with that debate. I need to see how you're going to fix it." Mr McBride helps run the WAVE Trauma Centre, which supports people bereaved of a spouse as a result of violence in Northern Ireland. He said he was inspired to write to the political leaders after the positive reaction to a blog he posted on October 23 - the 25th anniversary of the Shankill atrocity in which 10 people, including one of the bombers, were killed. The victims also included Mr McBride's father-in-law Desmond Frizzell, who owned the fish shop destroyed in the blast. "This has been brought about by a deep frustration on my part - that 25 years after Sharon's murder, 20 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, despite all the problems we have overcome, it's 'identity politics', played out in the shape of an Irish Language Act, that is keeping the DUP and Sinn Fein from forming a government," he added. "They have talked themselves into a corner with their red lines - and before the DUP self-righteously say 'we have no red lines', can I point out that to say 'no' to something is a red line in my book." Secretary of State Karen Bradley last week accused Northern Ireland's main political parties of "grandstanding" after a brief, ill-tempered meeting chaired by her at Stormont was branded a "waste of time". The meeting was not attended by either Mrs Foster or Mrs O'Neill, who will receive Mr McBride's written invite today. "The kind of Northern Ireland I voted for in 1998 is still the kind of Northern Ireland I want to be part of in 2018," Mr McBride will tell them. "But I need you guys to make it happen, and you can if you show genuine leadership instead of entrenched opposition. "I want both of you to tell those of us who have to live together in this small place what does it mean to be a good neighbour in this society. "What could you do for the 'other' that would make them feel welcome and their culture and traditions valued? "This is the challenge that I want you to meet - for me, for the people of the Shankill, the people of Greysteel and for people all over Northern Ireland." Thousands of patients are being denied prescriptions for cannabis despite the law change because of "botched and cruel" medical guidance, MPs have said. Conservative former minister Sir Mike Penning was among those to say the material being relied on by the NHS is shutting down the fresh law. Billy Caldwell and Alfie Dingley, two severely epileptic boys whose conditions helped change the laws, would not be able to get renewed access to their medication under the guidelines, their families say. Sir Mike hit out at the Royal College of Physicians and British Paediatric Neurology Association guidance as "crushing the hopes of many thousands of patients". "We are now in the quite frankly cruel and ludicrous position of families with severely epileptic children once again having to fundraise to go abroad to get access to a medicine that we have just legalised in the UK," he said. Labour's Tonia Antoniazzi, who co-chairs the all-party parliamentary group on medicinal cannabis with Sir Mike, said she was "outraged and dumbfounded in equal measure" by the restrictions, introduced on Wednesday. Tyrone mum Charlotte Caldwell, whose 13-year-old son Billy is being treated with cannabis oil, has said he would not be able to get a repeat prescription. DUP MP Ian Paisley apologising to the House of Commons in London for failing to register two family holidays funded by the Sri Lankan government (PA) Opening more voting centres for Ian Paisleys parliamentary recall petition would not have altered the result, the Electoral Commission has found. Mr Paisley survived the House of Commons first ever recall petition after less than 10% of the electorate signed their support for a by-election. He would have been ousted as an MP if 10% of the electorate in his North Antrim constituency 7,543 voters signed the petition. In the event, 7,099 people signed it (9.4%). In the wake of Septembers result, the Electoral Office of Northern Ireland was pressed on why it only operated three voting centres for the six-week period the petition was open, when a maximum of 10 were permitted. Sinn Fein was particularly critical of the decision. The recall petition in the North Antrim constituency was the first of its kind to take place across the UK. Weve found it was well-run with no significant problems affecting voters or campaigners. Read our full report: https://t.co/Mj7bWqutXg pic.twitter.com/1inr60gVg7 Electoral Commission (@ElectoralCommUK) November 5, 2018 But in its statutory report on the running of the petition, the Electoral Commission concluded that opening more centres would not have affected the result. The report stated: We recognise that the decision to use only three signing places was the subject of much debate and criticism. However, we have found no evidence that an increased number of signing places would have contributed to a different result at the end of the recall petition. The petition device, created following the Westminster expenses scandal, was initiated after Mr Paisley was 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. A parliamentary watchdog found in July that, 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. Expand Close North Antrim DUP MP Ian Paisley kept his seat after a recall petition failed to attract enough signatures (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp North Antrim DUP MP Ian Paisley kept his seat after a recall petition failed to attract enough signatures (Brian Lawless/PA) The Commission found that, overall, the petition was well run, with some lessons to be learned. It identified a number of practical issues that it said would help voters, campaigners and administrators at any future petition. These included looking at whether a signing period of six weeks is appropriate and how electors could get more information on recall petitions. The report said: Feedback from those who worked and campaigned at the recall petition was that the six-week signing period was too long. Concerns were also raised as to whether there was enough awareness amongst electors on how they could participate. Ann Watt, head of the Electoral Commission in Northern Ireland, said: Overall, the North Antrim recall petition was well-run, with no significant problems. This was the first time the legislation for such a petition had been tested. It therefore provides an opportunity for lessons to be learnt and highlights improvements that could be made by the UK Government which could help voters, campaigners and administrators at any future petition. The Commission said a total of 4,178 of spending was reported by the two registered campaigners Sinn Fein and the Alliance Party. Asylum seekers do not have access to financial help for funerals of their children (Kirsty OConnor/PA) Asylum seekers in Northern Ireland are being denied access to financial help for the funerals of their babies. Those seeking asylum in the UK are not entitled to a Funeral Payment, which gives an average of around 1,000 to support people with low incomes towards the cost of a family member's funeral. All housing for asylum seekers in Northern Ireland is based in Belfast, with investigative website The Detail reporting that human rights organisations have been applying pressure to Belfast City Council and other statutory bodies to help relieve the financial burden on parents when a child dies. Belfast City Council agreed last month to waive cremation fees for all children in Northern Ireland up to the age of 17 and burial fees for children who were Belfast residents. However, parents still have to cover the cost of a grave. Housing4All, a Belfast-based housing group, said the Home Office's current system was "callous". Volunteer Aylisha Hogan said: The Home Office provides no additional support to help with the cost of funerals. I would like to see a system of seeking asylum which has fairness, dignity and compassion at the core. The Detail spoke to two mothers who were only able to bury their babies thanks to the financial help and support of their friends and community. Sipho Sibanda, from Zimbabwe, and Hamdi Mahamed from Somalia, both live in Belfast and have lost children after they arrived here. Sipho, who has been living in Belfast four three years, lost her baby daughter Amarah last May. She had a genetic disorder called Edwards Syndrome and passed away aged seven months. Sipho said the experience of not being able to afford the cost of her babies funeral was "undignified". Asylum seekers are human beings and seeking asylum is not a crime," she said. "Its not by choice people are here. If I had my choice I would be in my country. I would not leave my family. I would have wanted to have my baby in my country and to have buried her in my country. If you get to the stage you have to bury a loved one, away from your family if they [government] could just make it as easy as possible; if they could just make it as simple as possible I would have been able to bury my daughter with dignity. The system has always been clinical. I know how horrible it was. She added: Theres a lot of goodwill out there, within the community. I was relieved by the generosity of my circle of friends. Hamdi arrived in Northern Ireland in 2009 from Somalia where two of her daughters still live with her mother. She has not seen them since she arrived here. She also lost a little girl called Maryan three years ago. When grieving the loss of her daughter she turned to the Home Office but was told no financial help was available for her. When she notified the authorities that her baby daughter had died, she claims she was initially asked to refund the maternity grant of 300 she had received before her baby was born. This decision was not enforced. She said: I was given 300 before the baby was born. I had already bought the baby basket and clothes. "I went to the hospital for a scan; I did not think I would be leaving to put my baby in a grave. "They gave her to my breast and I got to hold her. She was very beautiful. It was very, very hard as I had no family. "I stressed so much because I could not afford the funeral or to bury my baby. Without the kindness of the charities and Belfast Islamic Centre I would not have been able to do anything. When someone dies, its outside your control. People seeking asylum cant afford the money. I am just saying please have a bit of compassion even if they provided a grave; that would help. If anyone else is on a low income they can get support what is different? I lost a child but I am not from here but I am still grieving the same and the child was born here. A Home Office spokesperson said: "The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need our protection and we are committed to providing a safe and secure space for them. The Home Office provides accommodation and other assistance to cover an asylum seekers essential living needs. The number of sex trafficking victims in Northern Ireland is on course to almost double over the course of a year, new figures have shown. The number of sex trafficking victims in Northern Ireland is on course to almost double over the course of a year, new figures have shown. The BBC reports there have been 34 victims of sex trafficking rescued in the first six months of the 2018/19 financial year, just two less than the 36 total potential trafficking victims rescued during the whole of the 2017/18 financial year. The figure has been released ahead of the broadcast of BBC drama Doing Money. The drama looks at the true story of Romanian woman Anna who spent 10 months as a sex slave in Northern Ireland. Her testimony before politicians at Stormont contributed to debates that led to the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act being passed in 2015, which criminalised the buying of sex. In March of this year two Romanian brothers were jailed for sex slavery in Northern Ireland in a landmark case. The PSNI said it was one of the biggest investigations ever into human trafficking in the province, and was one of the first convictions under the 2015 legislation. It was also the first conviction in Northern Ireland of its kind in which the victims did not have to provide any evidence. Between July and October the Department for Justice ran a consultation on tackling modern slavery in Northern Ireland, including a focus on people trafficked into sex slavery. Speaking at the time the consultation was launched, Department of Justice director of safer communities Anthony Harbinson said: "Working together we aim to strengthen and improve the ways we pursue the criminals who are exploiting the vulnerable, also how we protect and support victims, and how we can prevent others from falling prey to the criminals who are involved in the vile crimes around modern slavery. Tackling modern slavery requires a whole societal response; by taking the time to engage with our public consultation everyone can play a part in tackling it." Doing Money will be broadcast on Monday at 9pm on BBC Two. The PSNI has appealed for information after the recovery of three viable pipe bombs during a security alert in Antrim. The alert followed a report to police at around 12.30pm of a suspicious object in the Dunsilly Road area on Sunday. The army bomb squad examined the object and declared it to be three viable explosive devices which have been taken away for further examination. Detective Sergeant Coulter said: "No homes were evacuated, however a section of the A26 in Antrim, between the Dunsilly roundabout and the Kilbegs Road roundabout, was closed to traffic for a time but has since reopened. "I want to thank all those who were inconvenienced for their patience while we worked to keep the community safe. "Anyone with any information about this incident is asked to contact police on 101 quoting reference number 692 of 04/11/18." Information can also be passed anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. A Fermanagh woman facing an 18,000 bill to buy a prosthetic leg says she has been moved to tears by the generosity of the road racing community. Jenny Gartland, from Ederney, revealed she will be going for a consultation this week which could see her move closer to getting her artificial leg. So far almost 7,000 has been raised. Jenny said: "I'm actually shocked at the level of support," revealing it had left her tearful. The wife of Irish road racing champion Paul Gartland, Jenny has been suffering from a rare infection since she was seven years old. She was advised to have the emergency operation to remove her leg in a private clinic as her life was seriously at risk and the public waiting list was too long. She had the surgery in February but afterwards found that the Republic's Health Service Executive (HSE) would no longer be able to provide her with the prosthetic limb she needed. Last month Road Racing Ireland magazine launched a fundraising campaign to assist her - and already over 6,800 has been donated to help her get the prosthetic limb she desperately needs. The fund is being boosted by Athlone-based short circuit rider Cody Nally, who has been auctioning his rider's helmet to raise an extra 1,000. Jenny added: "I keep waiting for something to go wrong, but I watched the fund rising over the past week and it's incredible. I'd like to thank everyone for their support, it means so much to me and Paul. "This time of year is very difficult for me with the cold weather. There are a lot of aches and pains so this can't come quickly enough. "Since I was discharged from having the leg amputated I've had no physio, no counselling and I haven't spoken to anyone about what I've been going through. It's been tough. "That's why it's been so great to see the support from friends at Irish Road Racing magazine and Paul's racing friends like Cody. "I don't think I'll ever be able to thank them all enough." Originally from the Republic, Jenny had been undergoing treatment on her leg for 33 years there. The problems started when she was seven and she went into hospital for a routine procedure. "I was a normal, healthy child up until then," she explained. "It should have been in and out of hospital in a couple of days, but instead I ended up in intensive care for 30 days as I contracted septicaemia. "There were other complications and through time I've had to have knee and hip replacements, my ankle had to be fused and basically my leg was medically dead. "There were further serious problems with gangrene. My foot was black, toes were going to start falling off. "I was being hit with so many various infections that I was finally told the option was to remove the leg or risk death. There was no choice. Infections would have spread to the rest of my body. "What I didn't know was that going privately meant the southern Ireland health board would no longer be in a position to provide me with a prosthetic limb." Appeals to the Republic's Minister for Health, Simon Harris, through local TDs and medical consultants failed. But Road Racing Ireland magazine stepped in with a gofundme campaign to come to her aid. To find out how to support Jenny, visit the gofundme website and search for Jenny Gartland An Armistice centenary service of thanksgiving was held at Dr Pitt Memorial Park in east Belfast where Dr Nigel Carr, Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Belfast, led the wreath laying The Royal Irish Regiment annual service of remembrance took place in St Annes Cathedral in Belfast The Church of Ireland Primate has praised the distinguished history of the Royal Irish Regiment during their annual Remembrance Service at St Anne's Cathedral. Dr Richard Clarke also underlined the importance of human dignity in the context of Remembrance at the Belfast service. He said: "The regiment has had a long and celebrated history which in recent weeks has been augmented further by the presentation in Belfast of new colours by the Duke of York." Yesterday's service had a special poignancy as it was held just a week before the centenary of the Armistice of November 11, 1918. The Archbishop noted that yesterday marked the centenary of the death in battle of the war poet Wilfred Owen. He said: "Wilfred Owen's most important contribution, not simply to poetry, but to our understanding of war even one hundred years later, was his determination that humans should never lose their humanity, regardless of the dreadfulness of their circumstances, even in the mud and terror of war that he was experiencing at first hand." The Primate concluded: "In these days as our focus is on remembering and commemorating the conclusion of World War One, we are reminded that the Christian call to remembrance is never just about reminding ourselves how things have come to be as they are. "It is also a pointing to a future that could be different if we would only work with God, who is the Lord not only of the past or present but also of the future." The Cathedral's large congregation included members of the R Irish and veterans of the Royal Ulster Rifles, the Royal Irish Fusiliers, and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Meanwhile, the daughter of a Korean War veteran has paid tribute to her father and all the other Ulster soldiers killed and injured in one of the fiercest battles of 1951. In the Battle at Happy Valley, 157 soldiers from the Royal Ulster Rifles were killed, injured or captured. Catherine Charley's father, Lieutenant-Colonel Robin Charley, was a Captain with the RUR in 1951. "My dad was fortunate because he survived the fierce battle between the Ulstermen and the Chinese and North Korean troops. It was a terrible toll in the regiment in only one night." Colonel Charley, now 94, has attended every Remembrance Service until this year when ill health prevented him doing so. His daughter, who attended yesterday's service at St Anne's, said: "My dad went back to Korea in 2011 with other veterans and he told me that they were treated with great respect by the South Koreans for the part they played in the Korean War. "He went back to South Korea again in 2015 at the age of 91, and he was amazed by the changes that had taken place since he was a soldier there in 1951. "During his second visit to the Happy Valley area in 2015 he unveiled a war memorial plaque to the men of the RUR who had fought there." A senior Sinn Fein member will not face prosecution over an alleged gun-running operation in the 1990s. Veteran republican Sean Spike Murray had been under police investigation after a documentary broadcast allegations that he conspired with a US businessman to bring handguns into Northern Ireland from Florida. Former IRA prisoner Mr Murray, 65, always denied any involvement. Careful consideration has been given to all of the available evidence and it has been concluded that this is insufficient to meet the test for prosecutionPublic Prosecution Service After investigating the claims made in the BBC NI Spotlight programme, the Police Service of Northern Ireland passed an evidence file to prosecutors for review. The Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service has determined there is insufficient evidence to prosecute Mr Murray. A spokeswoman said: I can confirm that a decision has been taken not to prosecute a man for any offences in relation to the alleged importation of firearms. Careful consideration has been given to all of the available evidence and it has been concluded that this is insufficient to meet the test for prosecution. Expand Close PSNI Detective Superintendent Bobby Singleton (PSNI/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp PSNI Detective Superintendent Bobby Singleton (PSNI/PA) The decision was made public less than 24 hours before the republican was due to participate in a panel discussion about tackling paramilitarism alongside senior PSNI officer Detective Superintendent Bobby Singleton. The police had been criticised for deciding to appear with Mr Murray while a decision on prosecution was pending. Morocco and the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB), have agreed to enhance cooperation within the framework of Arab-Africa Trade Bridges (AATB) Program. This regional trade promotion program aims at addressing some of the challenges faced in promoting trade between Africa and the Arab world. The Morocco-ITFC cooperation agreement was sealed last week during the First Meeting of the AATB Governing Board convened in Rabat to review ways of developing a general framework for the development of bilateral and regional cooperation and coordination. The agreement, signed by Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO ITFC and Rakiya Eddarhem, Secretary of State to Foreign Trade, aims to facilitate financing and implementation of technical assistance and capacity-building programs and the development of international trade. Morocco has been supporting the Arab Africa Trade Bridges (AATB) program since its launch in 2017, and pledges to continue to work for strengthening of economic partnerships between Arab and African countries. The AATB Program is a three-year regional trade promotion program aimed at improving regional trade between Arab countries and Sub-Saharan Africa. The Program has been launched by the ITFC and key partners to leverage new commercial partnerships, strengthen existing ones and increase trade flows. It is also part of the 10-year action program of the OIC, which seeks to increase the level of intra-OIC trade to 25 pc by 2025. ITFC deploys its expertise and funds to businesses and governments in its member countries. Its primary focus is to encourage intra-trade among OIC member countries. ITFC works as a facilitator to mobilize private and public resources towards achieving its objectives of fostering economic development through trade. The Corporation helps businesses in member countries gain better access to trade finance and provides them with the necessary trade-related capacity building tools in order to help them compete successfully in the global market. North Antrim DUP MP Ian Paisley kept his seat after a recall petition failed to attract enough signatures (Brian Lawless/PA) Only opening three signing centres during the petition to recall North Antrim MP Ian Paisley made no different to the result, the Electoral Commission has found. The finding comes as part of the independent electoral watchdog's report into the first recall petition run in the United Kingdom since the Recall of MPs Act was introduced in 2015. In general, it was found that the recall petition was "well-run with no significant problems". While some areas of improvement have been identified, the number of centres - one of the main issues singled out for criticism while the petition was open - is not one of them. Read More One of the most vocal critics of the handing of the issue was Sinn Fein's Phillip McGuigan, who felt the Electoral Office (the organisation which is responsible for carrying out elections) should have opened the maximum of 10 centres, rather than three. The North Antrim MLA met with the Electoral Commission after the conclusion of the recall process to raise the issue. Mr McGuigan issued scathing criticism of the Electoral Commission's findings. That conclusion defies all logic and ignores the evidence on the ground where people were clearly stating that accessibility was a huge factor," he said. The lack of an effective public awareness campaign and worker-friendly opening hours were also major concerns that the Electoral Commission have not satisfactorily addressed." Expand Close One of the most vocal critics of the handing of the issue was Sinn Fein's Phillip McGuigan (Niall Carson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp One of the most vocal critics of the handing of the issue was Sinn Fein's Phillip McGuigan (Niall Carson/PA) The Electoral Commission found there was no evidence to suggest an increased number of signing places would have led to a different result. Ann Watt, Head of the Electoral Commission in Northern Ireland, said: Overall the North Antrim recall petition was well-run with no significant problems. This was the first time the legislation for such a petition had been tested. "It therefore provides an opportunity for lessons to be learnt and highlights improvements that could be made by the UK Government which could help voters, campaigners and administrators at any future petition." Areas of improvement While signing centres were not identified as an issue, the Electoral Commission singled out other areas for improvement. Feedback from people working and campaigning at the recall petition was that the six week period was too long, and should possibly be changed for future petitions. It was also found there was some confusion among electors about how to get information about the recall petition and how to participate in it. The Electoral Commission also said it had asked the government to explore what can be done to improve the transparency in delivering recall petitions. Secrecy at signing centres was raised, as it is an area where recall petitions differ from traditional elections. The intention of those signing the petition was clear when entering the centre, and the Electoral Commission identified a challenge in striking a balance between privacy and ease of access at the centres. The campaign saw Sinn Fein and the Alliance party register as campaigners to the Petition Office. It was found the two parties spent a total of 4,178 between them. A security alert is over in the Dunsilly Road area of Antrim after a suspicious object was discovered yesterday. Army bomb disposal experts examined the object and said it had consisted of three viable explosive devices. Local DUP MLA Trevor Clarke said the local community was shocked by the discovery. "It's a very alarming development," he said last night. It's not known how long the device had been left at the location where it was found. No homes were evacuated during the operation. Police last night issued an appeal for anyone with information about the incident to contact them on 101. The PSNI faces a massive bill after a landmark industrial tribunal decreed that it owes its staff 30m in outstanding holiday pay. A class action brought by officers and civilian staff resulted in a ruling that unlawful deductions made from their holiday pay entitlements were in breach of fundamental human rights. It is understood that the 3,700 individual claimants may now expect refunds amounting to several thousand pounds each. Police Federation chair Mark Lindsay last night said the ruling will give officers what they are entitled to and he called on the government to make the restitution payments instead of the PSNI, to avoid any adverse impact on the policing budget. The case against the PSNI and Police Authority for Northern Ireland was brought by a group of 14 lead claimants representing police constables and sergeants, as well as civilian support workers, such as forensic staff and crime scene surveyors. Delivering the industrial tribunals decision, employment judge Noel Kelly said overtime is often a requirement of the role when it comes to Close Protection or Tactical Support officers, for example, or normal policing duties. Overtime can be required when a shift has to be continued beyond the original rostered finishing time for example to complete a road traffic accident investigation, he said. It can also be required in particular geographical areas to deal with local problems such as a local paramilitary feud. It varies at different times of the year and in response to different political climates. Lead solicitor on the case, John McShane, of McCartan Turkington Breen (MTB), represented nine of the 11 police officers, for whom the Chief Constable George Hamilton is answerable, and two civilian staff claimants, for whom the Police Authority is answerable. Expand Close Landmark ruling: John McShane / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Landmark ruling: John McShane He said: The Chief Constables failure and continued failure to date to pay staff in accordance with the legal requirements resulted in the need for police and civilian staff to incur the cost of pursuing legal proceedings to seek redress for their lawful entitlement to be properly paid whilst on annual leave. Mr McShane explained that PSNI holiday pay had been based on working basic contracted hours and hadnt accounted for any additional hours required. A high profile case in Great Britain four years ago, however, had determined that pay whilst on annual leave should include an average of overtime and other allowances. Cases were pursued here because the PSNI had not sought to comply with these legal obligations, he said. The cases also addressed to what extent arrears of these unlawful deductions of wages, backdated to 1998, could be claimed. In England and Wales, legislation was introduced to limit any arrears claim to two years. No such equivalent legislation was passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly. Mr McShane pointed to Judge Kellys ruling that a failure to provide the right to paid (ie properly and fully paid) annual leave... is an extremely serious matter going to the heart of one of the fundamental rights of the European Union. Expand Close Mark Lindsay / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mark Lindsay The employment judge added: An employer is not allowed to sidestep or to avoid the rights guaranteed under a European community directive. In the present claims, the position has been clear to all parties since 2014. Overtime payments and allowances should have been included, on some basis within the calculation of holiday pay. The present claims appear to highlight a situation where a clear entitlement under the Working Time Directive has been effectively ignored and avoided for a significant period of time and continues to be avoided. It is particularly concerning that this has been done by a public authority. Mark Lindsay, chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, praised the ruling saying it corrects a long-running disadvantage and delivers significant back payments to officers. The Police Federation represented 2,700 officers at no cost to themselves, he said. A further 800 were engaged in a private action which they had to fund. The cost to the PFNI was over 500,000. Legal counsel was shared with the other officers who pursued the private action. Mr Lindsay said the ruling will give officers what they are entitled to and he called on government to step in to meet the claim rather than allow it to become a burden on the existing financial allocation. The federation is aware of the financial implications of the ruling, he added. Paying what officers are due should not be allowed to adversely impact on the PSNI budget which is already under strain. Deputy Chief Constable Stephen Martin said: We are considering the findings of this legal judgment which is complex and significant. We continue to be involved in the legal process and as such it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time. Victims' campaigner Ann Travers has hit out at the unveiling of a new republican paramilitary mural in Newry. Ms Travers, whose 22-year-old sister Mary was murdered in an IRA gun attack as she left church in 1984, has expressed her disappointment at the mural created by republican political party Saoradh in conjunction with its new youth wing, Eistigi. The mural depicts a masked gunman with a Starry Plough flag in the background. Unveiling the mural, Saoradh said the image used in the mural has been associated with revolutionary republicanism in Newry for many years, originally appearing in 1992. A previous version of the mural in Newry had the letters 'IRA' painted beside it - but now it appears to have been appropriated by dissidents. A Saoradh statement continued: "The message that we are putting out is that we still have work to do. The republican liberation struggle is far from over and there is unfinished business. "This mural has now re-emerged, much like the vibrant, and militant, brand of republicanism that encompasses our movement." The party also said more murals will be erected in coming months as the organisation continues to grow in popularity. "Saoradh is a relatively new republican movement formed in the centenary year of the Easter Rising in 2016, and during 2018 we officially launched a local craobh (branch) in the Newry area," said the statement. "Our Newry craobh has gone from strength to strength and has significantly increased in members and activism since we launched here in April. "We are growing, organising and rebuilding the republican movement in working-class areas of Newry." Reacting to Saoradh's claims of "unfinished business", Ms Travers said: "There isn't really much I can say except I am saddened that there are still people and organisations that feel they need to glorify murder. "Killing people doesn't achieve anything; following a politically democratic process is the only way to move forward." In July last year it emerged that Ms Travers had taken up a new role fighting for justice for victims of terrorism. She was one of four new workers appointed to the South East Fermanagh Foundation's (SEFF) advocacy service. Ms Travers came to prominence after speaking out about her sister's murder following the appointment of Mary McArdle as a special adviser to the then Culture Minister Caral Ni Chuilin. McArdle was part of the IRA gang that ambushed magistrate Tom Travers and his family as they left Mass in 1984, resulting in the death of his daughter Mary. Using an old coat and the services of a local alteration shop, one innovative passenger has worked out a way to beat Ryanair's new baggage charges on a flight to Belfast. In a video posted to Facebook, Lee Cimino describes his fondness for using the low-cost airline and their punctuallity. However, one thing Lee is not happy about are the new baggage charges the airline has introduced. "I love Ryanair, they've flown me all over. It's always on time, it runs like clockwork. But these latest changes, they're too much," he says. Last week budget airline Ryanair announced it would change its hand luggage rules for the second time this year. Since Thursday, November 1, passengers are only permitted to travel with one small bag free of charge. Customers flying with a small 10kg suitcase are now being charged - something the airline says is necessary to reduce delays. In January, Ryanair had already introduced a policy which saw passengers who had bought priority boarding permitted to take a personal bag such as a handbag on board along with a second, larger bag such as a wheelie suitcase weighing up to 10kg. In the video Lee says he and his friend had booked a flight to Belfast for his birthday, only to find out two days later the new charges had been introduced. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Lee said he was surprised by how much attention his video has gained. "I didn't expect anything like this," he said. "I travel regularly, always using Ryanair, so I am quite clued up on the baggage allowance. "This particular trip the baggage rule changed a couple of days before we did it. "I thought: 'I am only going for a night in Belfast, let's see how we can get round that'. So I decided to take all my luggage inside my coat. I met a nice tailor, and they agreed to make some pockets in my coat. They put their own touch on it. The coat alterations cost Lee 30 at a local tailor. "The video was just a bit of fun and it has been fantastic all the reaction to it," he said. Lee, 30, from Staffordshire, said he was worried at the time that his scheme might be discovered. "At the time I was nervous, thinking it was possible, but looking back we could have done it more extreme and we would not have been breaking any rules," he said. "I am confident it would work again." Lee, who is a property landlord, went to a tailor in Stoke called Sew Wot? to get the alterations to his jacket made. A Ryanair spokesman said: "Thanks to our larger free small bag allowance (40% bigger) and cheaper checked-in bag option (8 for a 10kg bag), Ryanair customers can bring all they need without having to board the aircraft looking like the Michelin Man or Joey from Friends. "Weve received lots of positive feedback from customers and airports across Europe on our new bag policy, which is leading to faster check-in, security and boarding, and improved punctuality." Irish premier Leo Varadkar has told Theresa May that he will not accept a Brexit deal which gives the UK the unilateral power to halt backstop arrangements for the border with Northern Ireland. In a phone conversation with the Taoiseach, Mrs May said that any agreement would have to include a mechanism to bring an end to the backstop designed to ensure there is no hard border in Ireland if the UK and EU fail to reach a broader trade deal. Mr Varadkars spokesman said the Irish premier indicated he was ready to consider proposals for a review mechanism, but only if it was clear that the arrangement cannot be ditched by one side acting alone. The backstop has become the major obstacle to agreement on the UKs withdrawal from the European Union, due to take place in March next year. Downing Street proposals for a review mechanism are understood to be designed to allay Conservative concerns over the Prime Ministers plan for the whole of the UK to remain temporarily in a customs union with the EU after Brexit. Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has denounced the PMs blueprint as an absolute stinker, arguing that the arrangement was a national humiliation which would leave the UK as a vassal state, a colony. Expand Close Taoiseach Leo Varadkar spoke by phone with the Prime Minister about the latest Brexit developments (Niall Carson/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Taoiseach Leo Varadkar spoke by phone with the Prime Minister about the latest Brexit developments (Niall Carson/PA) Meanwhile, the European Commission dismissed reports over the weekend that a Brexit deal has been privately agreed after major concessions from Brussels. Insisting that negotiations are ongoing at a technical level, the Commissions chief spokesman summed up progress by telling reporters: Not there yet. Expectations are rising that UK negotiator Olly Robbins will be pressing hard to finalise a deal in Brussels this week, to set the scene for a special Brexit summit later in the month to secure the approval of the leaders of the 27 remaining member states. Mrs May is expected to brief the Cabinet on progress in talks when members gather for their weekly meeting at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday. But the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier is spending three days away from Brussels on visits to Finland and Slovakia. A Downing Street spokesman described Mrs Mays conversation with Mr Varadkar as constructive, adding: They agreed that the intention was that the backstop should only be a temporary arrangement and that the best solution to the Northern Ireland border would be found by agreeing a future relationship between the UK and the EU. In order to ensure that the backstop, if ever needed, would be temporary, the Prime Minister said that there would need to be a mechanism through which the backstop could be brought to an end. A spokesman for the Taoiseach said: The Prime Minister raised the possibility of a review mechanism for the backstop. The Taoiseach indicated an openness to consider proposals for a review, provided that it was clear that the outcome of any such review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop. He recalled the prior commitments made that the backstop must apply unless and until alternative arrangements are agreed. The conversation followed a Daily Telegraph report that Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the Irish backstop after just three months. Reports at the weekend suggested that the EU is now ready to contemplate concessions which would keep all of the UK in a temporary customs union following the end of a transition period due to end on December 31 2020. At the same time, the Sunday Times reported that the Prime Minister was on course to agree a future economic partnership that would leave open the possibility of a Canada-style free trade deal sought by Brexiteers. Brexit was meant to be about taking back control. Under this plan we surrender control to BrusselsBoris Johnson But Mr Johnson dismissed this format as a Christmas present of the finest old Brussels fudge which would mean the UK getting absolutely nothing in return for its 39 billion divorce payment. Writing in the Sun, Mr Johnson said Brussels would always use the prospect of a hard border in Ireland to keep the UK forever in its orbit. We are being asked to choose between the break-up of the Union at least for economic purposes or the subjugation of the whole country, said the former foreign secretary. We are choosing wholesale subjection. We need to stop before it is too late. Insisting that the UK should junk any solution keeping it in the EUs customs union, he said: Brexit was meant to be about taking back control. Under this plan we surrender control to Brussels. As soon as MPs understand what is really at stake, I have no doubt that they will throw this deal out. The leader of the Best for Britain campaign for a second referendum, Eloise Todd, said: When the history of Brexit is written in a few years time the backstop and the UKs decisions around it will be held up as an example of how not to negotiate. The Government can call it whatever they want, but their plan of a unilaterally revocable backstop is dead in the water. It will not happen. Trying to appease the right of the Tory Party has failed. People view thousands of flames in the dry moat of the Tower of London The sculpture of The Haunting Soldier in St Stephens Green in Dublin A sculpture created from scrap metal depicting a weary soldier has been unveiled in Dublin to commemorate the centenary of the ending of the First World War. Irish Culture Minister Josepha Madigan launched the art installation at a ceremony in St Stephens Green yesterday. Created by Dorset-based artist and blacksmith Martin Galbavy and constructed by Chris Hannam of Dorset Forge and Fabrication, The Haunting Soldier is a 6m-high sculpture designed to evoke the fragility and suffering of those who survived the war and returned home to an uncertain and difficult future. The ghostly figure was made from scraps of metal including horseshoes, spanners, car jacks and brake discs. It will be on show until November 26. Meanwhile, around 10,000 flames have filled the empty moat encircling the Tower of London to mark the centenary. A ceremonial Beefeater guard began the lighting ceremony by bringing a flame down from the tower into the moat, which had been submerged in smoke. Dozens of representatives from the Armed Forces and volunteers then used the flame to ignite thousands of other torches staked into or placed on the ground underneath the tower, bathing the barren moat in light. Midshipman Balraj Dhanda of the Royal Navy, a volunteer who helped light the flames, described the spectacle as really, really powerful. Earlier, the Duke of Cambridge paid tribute to fallen submariners at a wreath-laying ceremony in central London. Chaplain to the Submariners Association Rev Paul Jupp, who led the ceremony, urged those in attendance not to forget the sacrifice made by submariners. Mary Robinson said the transition to decarbonisation must support peat producing communities (PA) Former president Mary Robinson has called on Bord Na Mona to undertake a just transition as they prepare for major job losses. Speaking at the Creative Responses to Climate Change event at Dublins Trinity College, Ms Robinson compared fossil fuel companies to those who produce tobacco. The UN Special Report released last month heralds the end of the fossil fuel era. They have lost legitimacy to operate, like tobacco. Selling a product known to cause harm is not acceptable, she said. Bord Na Mona announced last month that as they move towards decarbonisation and winding down their peat business, there would be around 430 jobs lost. The need for the urgent end of peat extraction mustn't undermine the rights of the communities whose lives are dependent on the bogsMary Robinson Unions were told that the company plans to close 17 of 62 bogs where peat is harvested, affecting a large swathe of Midlands communities. Ms Robinson said that the transition to decarbonisation must be undertaken to protect the rights of the communities affected. For decades the people and communities in the Midlands have served the people of Ireland by harvesting peat to heat our homes, however we now know that peat is the worst of fossil fuels we burn for energy, she said. A just transition has origins in the labour movement, aiming to secure the future and livelihoods of workers, based on social dialogue and commitment to human rights. Its an economy-wide process that leads to a future where all jobs are green and decent, greenhouse gases are at net-zero and poverty is eradicated and communities are thriving and resilient. This transition has already begun, it will be down to national and local government to work with unions and fossil fuel companies to ensure that workers are not forgotten. Expand Close The Bord na Mona Enderry plant is now co-fired with a mixture of peat and carbon neutral biomass (PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Bord na Mona Enderry plant is now co-fired with a mixture of peat and carbon neutral biomass (PA) The challenge we face is to design and manage the next industrial revolution, with minimal negative effects on workers and communities. The need for the urgent end of peat extraction mustnt undermine the rights of the communities whose lives are dependent on the bogs, there needs to be a long-term strategy, she said. Ms Robinson added Bord Na Mona has the opportunity to plan and deliver a just transition strategy to end the use of peat for energy by offering workers support to re-skill or gain early access to their pension. She said that social protection from the government would be critical for those who lose their jobs due to reducing carbon emissions. Referencing the Spanish governments plans to shut all coal mines at the end of this year, with 250 million euro being invested in mining regions in the next decade, Ms Robinson hailed the leave no one behind approach. Bord Na Mona previously said it is developing new businesses to support a low carbon economy and has identified potential to create up to 500 jobs across the Midlands in the medium term. Boris Johnson has denounced a mooted Brexit deal with the EU as an absolute stinker and urged MPs to reject it (Aaron Chown/PA) Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has denounced a mooted Brexit deal with the EU as an absolute stinker and urged MPs to reject it. The Brexit figurehead was responding to reports that Prime Minister Theresa May is close to striking a deal with Brussels which would allow the creation of a whole-UK customs union, avoiding the need for the Northern Ireland border backstop that has been at the heart of the impasse in negotiations. Cabinet minister James Brokenshire rejected suggestions that final agreement has been reached, saying negotiations are still very firmly continuing, with 95% of issues resolved. But expectations are rising that UK negotiator Olly Robbins will be pressing hard to finalise a deal in Brussels this week, to set the scene for a special Brexit summit later in the month to secure the approval of the leaders of the 27 remaining member states. Mrs May is expected to brief the Cabinet on progress in talks when members gather for their weekly meeting at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reported that Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the EUs proposed Irish backstop after just three months. Reports at the weekend suggested that the EU is now ready to contemplate concessions which would keep all of the UK in a temporary customs union following the end of a transition period due to end on December 31 2020. At the same time, the Sunday Times reported that the Prime Minister was on course to agree a future economic partnership that would leave open the possibility of a Canada-style free trade deal sought by Brexiteers. Brexit was meant to be about taking back control. Under this plan we surrender control to BrusselsBoris Johnson But Mr Johnson dismissed this format as a Christmas present of the finest old Brussels fudge which would mean the UK getting absolutely nothing in return for its 39 billion divorce payment. The UK would effectively become a non-voting member of the EU, forced to accept laws made in Brussels with no power to shape or amend them, he said. Writing in the Sun, Mr Johnson described the arrangement as a national humiliation, leaving the UK as a vassal state, a colony. From social policy to the environment, from agriculture to industrial standards to immigration, when Brussels says Jump, the British answer will be How high?' he said. Mr Johnson dismissed suggestions that the arrangement would lead the way to a Canada-style trade deal, arguing that the joint UK/EU political declaration on the future relationship due to be released alongside the withdrawal agreement will be worthless. Brussels would always use the prospect of a hard border in Ireland to keep the UK forever in its orbit, he claimed. We are being asked to choose between the break-up of the Union at least for economic purposes or the subjugation of the whole country, said the Uxbridge MP. We are choosing wholesale subjection. We need to stop before it is too late. Insisting that the UK should junk any solution keeping it in the EUs customs union, he said: Brexit was meant to be about taking back control. Under this plan we surrender control to Brussels. As soon as MPs understand what is really at stake, I have no doubt that they will throw this deal out. Expand Close Cabinet minister James Brokenshire said Brexit negotiations are still very firmly continuing (Jeff Overs/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Cabinet minister James Brokenshire said Brexit negotiations are still very firmly continuing (Jeff Overs/PA) Speaking ahead of the publication of Mr Johnsons comments, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: The Prime Minister is clear we are leaving the customs union. We are making good progress on the future relationship, and 95% of the withdrawal agreement has been settled. Negotiations are ongoing. A spokesman for Irelands Tanaiste Simon Coveney said: The UK has given written commitments last December and March that the withdrawal agreement will include a legal guarantee of no return to a hard border in Ireland in any circumstance. In March the UK agreed this backstop will apply unless and until a close future relationship eliminates any need for border infrastructure or related checks and controls. While we too hope the Northern Ireland backstop will never be required to be used, it will be required to be written down in legal text. This has been committed to by the UK in order to have a withdrawal agreement. We hope a deal can be done but were not there yet. The Taoiseach has stepped in to defend Minister for Health Simon Harris after a former health boss accused him of behaving like a frightened little boy during the cervical cancer screening scandal. Leo Vardakar went on to accuse the HSE of passing its problems on to the Department of Health a practice he said needs to stop. In an interview with the Sunday Business Post, former HSE chief Tony OBrien accused Mr Harris of being a weak minister. Mr OBrien, who resigned in May as head of the HSE over the cancer controversy, claimed Mr Harris was obsessed with media coverage and also attacked politicians who probed the issue. In a move to defend his Cabinet minister, Mr Varadkar said: The past six months alone, he brought through the referendum to repeal the Eighth amendment and at long last has enacted the public health alcohol bill legislation that is going to save a lot of lives. Those are two pretty big achievements by a Health Minister in six months. I believe anything he may lack in terms of experience or age he makes up in his commitment and compassion. Well done Simon. This law will save lives https://t.co/OWZwI7jdB9 Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) November 5, 2018 He said that on balance Mr OBrien was a good public servant who gave the country some good service. But lets not forget the circumstances under which he decided to step down early and that was the HSEs very bad handling of the CervicalCheck controversy which he admits himself was a train wreck I think he was right to step down early, he continued. Mr OBriens comments have also been criticised by victims and campaigners of the CervicalCheck scandal. Expand Close Lorraine Walsh, who received an incorrect smear test (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lorraine Walsh, who received an incorrect smear test (Brian Lawless/PA) Lorraine Walsh, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer after previously receiving inaccurate test results, said it was a pity Mr Tony OBrien couldnt take responsibility for the disaster that is the HSE, that he had led. Mr Varadkar admitted there has always been difficulties in health, but added it is not good enough for the HSE to write letters passing on the problems to the Department of Health. Thats not what people are paid a lot of money to do, he added. Most agencies accept it is their responsibility to come in on budget, but the HSEs practice for many years now has been to pass the problem on to the department and that is something that has to change and it will certainly have to change now that we have a record budget for health, an extra 1 billion next year. If the Department of Education, if pretty much every government agency and government body can come in under budget it isnt too much to ask the HSE to do so and its not good enough they just write letters passing the problem on to the department. As I always say, we have a lot of problems in health, nobody denies that. We have serious problem in overcrowding in our emergency departments, weve got a lot of people who are waiting for too long for the appointment they need or the treatment they need. We shouldnt lose sight of the bigger picture, and that is the fact we have made enormous progress in health over the last couple of years. Moroccan police and Customs have seized 493,700 ecstasy pills in Tangier Med Port, the biggest ever bust of this illicit substance in the North-African country. Three involved persons, including a woman, who were aboard a car registered in the Netherlands, were arrested. The drug was concealed in the cars trailer. The haul confiscated is part of sustained efforts made by the Moroccan security services to fight international criminal networks operating in psychotropic drug trafficking and dealers. Ecstasy, or E as it is known on the street, is the chemical compound MDMA (methylenedioxyamphetamine). Ecstasy pills can sometimes kill drug takers but more commonly induce nausea, panic, paranoia and agitation. Experts have warned the drug is getting stronger, leading to a rise in the number of people going to hospital for treatment for mental and behavioral issues. Convinced of the necessity of a comprehensive approach to combat drug-related issues, Morocco has adopted an anti-drug strategy seeking to fight traffickers, distribution networks, suppliers and consumers. This strategy also focuses on prosecution, prevention, education, medical treatment of addicts, creation of job opportunities for the youth and speeding of socioeconomic development of vulnerable zones. Two Dublin schools facing concerns over their structural safety will remain closed until later this week. The Department of Education and Skills held a meeting on Monday with the school authorities at Tyrrelstown Educate Together National School (ETNS) and St Lukes National School to discuss the impact of the precautionary measures completed on Sunday. ETNS and St Lukes were forced to temporarily close due to safety concerns over two weeks ago. Further work will be undertaken on Tuesday, and occupancy will initially be at ground-floor level only, with other classes being temporarily accommodated off-site. A department spokesman said: The Department is working closely with the school authorities to facilitate the reopening of both schools as soon as possible. Taking account of the time also necessary to address operational issues, such as traffic management, over the course of today, tomorrow and Wednesday, all parties are now working towards the schools reopening later in the week. The details of when the schools will open will be communicated by the school authorities directly to parents. A total of 42 schools are being examined and preliminary indications suggest in many cases the structures are sound. My message to parents, pupils, teachers and staff is this - it is safety first. Any issues we have found, we will fix. pic.twitter.com/wG6WiEZlW7 Joe McHugh (@McHughJoeTD) November 1, 2018 Education minister Joe McHugh previously stated that initial assessments on schools with structural issues would be completed by Tuesday evening. The developer at the centre of the controversy is Western Building Systems (WBS). The review was prompted amid concerns for the integrity of facilities built by the Tyrone-based construction firm between 2009 and 2013. Western Building Systems said the Department of Education had declared each of the closed schools to be fully compliant after construction was completed. Foreign nationals will be eligible to join the Armed Forces in greater numbers, Ministers will announce, as British residency requirements for service are set to be scrapped. The Ministry of Defence will remove the need for Commonwealth citizens to have lived in the UK for five years before applying for service, it will be announced on Monday. An extra 1,350 personnel from oversees are hoped to be enlisted to the the Navy, Army and Air Force every year. Expand Close The Gurkhas can currently enrol under a special arrangement (PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Gurkhas can currently enrol under a special arrangement (PA) The move comes as the Armed Forces struggle to recruit enough personnel to fill a shortfall in their ranks. Applicants from nations including India, Australia, Canada and Fiji will be considered for all roles in the forces, without having lived in the UK. Until now, they had to have resided in Britain for five years and their recruitment was capped at a maximum of 200 per year. The Army will begin the admissions from early next year, while the Navy and RAF will commence the process immediately. Other than the Nepalese Gurkhas and applicants from the Republic of Ireland who can enrol under a special arrangement, those from outside the Commonwealth will still need British citizenship to apply. In April, a National Audit Office report said the full-time military was running at a 5.7% shortfall. An extra 8,2000 regulars and 2,400 engineers were needed to fill the largest gap in a decade, the report added, while intelligence analysts and pilots were also in demand. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the funding at the official opening of the Roslin Innovation Centre (Jane Barlow/PA) The Scottish Government has announced fresh funding to help link businesses with academic institutions. A total of 5 million will be invested in Interface, which connects firms with colleges, universities and research organisations. The programme, which was established in 2005, will receive the investment from the Scottish Funding Council, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Companies supported by Interface contribute an estimated 64.2 million (gross value added) to the economy each year. The programme has introduced almost 3,000 businesses to academic partners. Scotland is home to some of the most highly-rated research institutions in the world and we continue to invest to ensure this leads to practical industry innovationFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the funding at the official opening of the Roslin Innovation Centre, where she also met businesses that had benefited from the Interface service. She said: Scotland is home to some of the most highly-rated research institutions in the world and we continue to invest to ensure this leads to practical industry innovation. This further investment from the Scottish Funding Council and the enterprise agencies in Interface will help to amplify our talent and expertise by connecting national and international industry with all of Scotlands universities, research institutes and colleges. This boosts productivity, profits and exports and creates jobs and many companies that have benefited from Interface funding say their project would not have happened without its support. This additional 5 million will help nurture links between world-leading research and innovation, which provide a competitive edge for industry and supports valuable inward investment and exports. Dr Siobhan Jordan, director of Interface, said: There is huge potential in partnering businesses with our world-leading academic institutes to develop creative solutions for commercial problems. Businesses dont always know how to tap into academic expertise this funding will ensure that Interface can continue to make valuable connections leading to transformational collaborative research and development. By fostering new connections between industry and academia we can tackle economic and societal challenges in innovative ways. A police cordon near to the scene where a 17-year-old boy died after being stabbed outside Clapham South Tube Station (Tom Horton/PA) The Mayor of London has warned it could take a generation to turn the tide of violent crime after four fatal stabbings in less than a week. Speaking on Radio 4s Today programme on Monday, Sadiq Khan said that the success in Glasgow at stopping bloodshed showed that similar efforts in London would take time. He has adopted the public health approach used by authorities in the Scottish city, where bodies such as health, education, social services, housing and police worked together to stop young people becoming involved in crime. The mayor said: It will take some time. I know that because of the lessons weve learnt from places like Glasgow, where it took them some time to turn this round. To really make significant progress can take up to 10 years, a generation. They saw in Scotland what we are seeing in London, which is children in primary schools thinking not only is it OK to carry a knife, but it gives them a sense of belonging in joining a criminal gang and it makes them feel safer and they see nothing wrong in getting involved in this sort of behaviour. Concerns over violent crime have been renewed after four murders in five days in the capital. Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (PA Graphics) Scotland Yard said 17-year-old Malcolm Mide-Madariola was fatally knifed on Friday outside Clapham South Tube station, south London, near where he studied. On Monday detectives arrested a 17-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man on suspicion of his murder, and appealed for witnesses to come forward. The boy, from Peckham, south-east London, was attacked less than a day after 15-year-old Jay Hughes was killed in Bellingham, south-east London, by a stab wound to the heart. Meanwhile, a man believed to be aged 22 was fatally stabbed in Samos Road, Anerley, south London, at about 12.30pm on Sunday. And Rocky Djelal, 38, was fatally knifed at about lunchtime on Halloween as children played nearby in Southwark Park, Rotherhithe, south-east London. Detectives investigating the murder of a male, 17, in #Clapham South have made an arrest. https://t.co/OV042PPSDJ pic.twitter.com/kWNZMCUOkv Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) November 5, 2018 Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy said on Monday that it had been a terrible few days in the capital as he announced that hundreds more police officers would be on duty. He said: Tragically, we have had four murders since Wednesday of last week, none of them are connected. Thats four families, four groups of friends and acquaintances, who have all been tragically affected by this senseless violence. Commander Stuart Cundy on how we are committed to tackling violent crime following the recent tragic murders in #London "We have teams of specialist investigators working on those cases to bring those responsible to justice." pic.twitter.com/tv7PQZFJq7 Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) November 5, 2018 The Mets violent crime taskforce has carried out more than 21,000 weapons searches since April, seizing hundreds of guns and knives. There have now been 116 homicides in London so far this year. Home Office minister Victoria Atkins blamed a change in the nature of crime, rather than cuts in police numbers, for the recent spike in gang-related violence in London and other cities. She told Today that an intensive Government review had shown that the claim about police numbers isnt supported by the evidence of previous spikes in serious violence. Ms Atkins said: We are all, I think, realising that the nature of crime is changing. Of course, violence has been around as long as human beings have been around, but we have seen and the Met Commissioner herself has talked about the ways in which gangs are much more ruthless than they used to be. The levels of violence which doctors are now seeing in A&Es show that incidents which before perhaps wouldnt have resulted in fatalities now are resulting in fatalities. We and the police and others have to face up to the reality that criminals are changing their crime types and we have to be able to tackle thatVictoria Atkins We and the police and others have to face up to the reality that criminals are changing their crime types and we have to be able to tackle that. However Mr Khan told the broadcaster: The Home Offices own officials, in a leaked document, said there is a link between police officer numbers going down and crime going up. The cross-party Home Affairs Select Committee published a scathing report two weeks ago talking about the link between a cut in police resources and the increase in crime. The most senior police officers in the country have said its naive to think theres not a link between cutting police numbers and an increase in violent crime. Asked about Mr Khans suggestion that it could take a generation to turn the tide on violence, the Prime Ministers official spokesman said: Its something we need to be focused on finding solutions to from today. Michelin has announced plans to close its Dundee tyre factory within the next couple of years. The firm said the site, which has 845 employees, has faced serious difficulties in recent years. Its troubles have been blamed in part on cheaper tyres coming in from Asia. The trade union Unite described the move as a hammer-blow for Dundee, saying closure would be a betrayal of the workforce who have worked to make changes at the site. We are shocked to see media reports that the Michelin Group plans to close its Dundee factory by 2020. If the reports are to be confirmed by the company at a meeting tomorrow, this will represent a hammer-blow for Dundee and the manufacturing industry in Scotland. Unite Scotland (@UniteScotland) November 5, 2018 The Scottish Government said it will leave no stone unturned as it tries to find a sustainable future for the plant. In a statement on its website, Michelin announced its intention to shut the factory, which opened in 1971, by mid-2020. It said: Despite the Groups continuous efforts, and the factory employees dedication to making the site economically sustainable through the implementation of several action plans 70 million euro has been invested in recent years to modernise the site the accelerated market transformation has made the plant unsuitable and its conversion is not financially viable. Against this backdrop, the Michelin Group has had to announce its intention to close the Dundee factory by mid-2020. Michelin said it will implement a personalised support programme for each of the factorys employees and that it will work to help create 845 new jobs in the area. It is to begin a consultation with employees and trade unions on the closure plans over the next fortnight. In September, it emerged that jobs were under threat at the tyre factory amid an influx of cheaper foreign imports into the European market. It is now key that the Scottish Government does everything it possibly can to keep the factory open and protect jobsScottish Labour leader Richard Leonard Production for the next three years at the site was expected to stand at no more than 5.4 million tyres a year, a level described by the firm as significantly below capacity. At the time, Michelin said it was exploring all options to maximise the plants efficiency, with restructuring of work patterns and reducing its 850-strong headcount among the options being examined. Unite Scottish Secretary Pat Rafferty said on Monday: Unite has been aware of the challenging market situation facing the Michelin Group. This has been primarily due to the cheap foreign imports from Asia and as a result falling demand for premium tyres in smaller dimensions, which the Dundee factory specialises in producing. Speaking before the closure plans were confirmed, he said shutting the base would be a hammer-blow for Dundee. He said: It would be devastating and a betrayal of the workforce who have made major changes to working practices at the site in order to secure its long-term future. The workforce can be assured Unite will fight tooth and nail to save our factory, we will leave no stone unturned to keep this factory open. Devastating news tonight for all the hardworking people & their families at #Michelin who are affected by this announcement. I will be pressing the @scotgov, Dundee City council & partners to do everything in their power to secure future of site & those affected. Chris Law MP (@ChrisLawSNP) November 5, 2018 Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard MSP said it was devastating news. The Michelin factory in Dundee has provided not just hundreds of well paid jobs, but much needed skills and training to a city which has suffered greatly as a result of deindustrialisation, he said. It is now key that the Scottish Government does everything it possibly can to keep the factory open and protect jobs. This should include working closely with Michelin, trade unions and the Dundee community to provide urgent clarity on the current situation. The Scottish Governments Economy Secretary, Derek Mackay, said he will be in Dundee on Tuesday, where he hopes to meet representatives of the workforce, the city council and the management team. My immediate priority is on trying to find a sustainable future for the site, that will protect jobs and I will leave no stone unturned, he said. I was informed at the end of last week of the possibility of closure and immediately sought discussions with the senior management team at Michelin. I know the workforce and unions have gone to immense lengths to make the plant as competitive as possible to secure its future, and we will leave no stone unturned in trying to protect the future of the Dundee site. John Reid, factory manager at Michelin Dundee, said the news is a blow to staff and the city. He said: This factory has faced incredibly tough challenges before and we have come through thanks to the hard work and flexibility of our people and the union, and the backing of the Michelin Group. However, the market for the smaller tyres we make has changed dramatically and permanently, and the company has to address these structural changes. The proposals are nothing to do with the UKs decision to leave the EU, and they are absolutely not a reflection of the performance of the plant or the people who have worked so hard here for so many years. President Donald Trump has said the final sprint before Tuesdays midterm elections reminds him of the days before his 2016 win. Mr Trump told a rally crowd in Macon, Georgia that theres electricity in the air like I havent seen since 16. Mr Trump was holding a pair of rallies Sunday for Georgias Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp and in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn. Expand Close President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally (Evan Vucci/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally (Evan Vucci/AP) Mr Trump told the crowd in Georgia to turn out to vote, joking that he wouldnt say the election is as important as 16, but its right up there. His predecessor Mr Obama was travelling to Gary, Indiana, on behalf of Senator Joe Donnelly, who faces a stiff challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. Later in the day, the former president was campaigning in his hometown of Chicago for businessman J.B. Pritzker, the Democrats nominee for Illinois governor. Expand Close Former President Barack Obama (Alyssa Pointer/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former President Barack Obama (Alyssa Pointer/AP) Mr Obama has taken on a more public role this autumn after refraining from offering a full-blown counterpoint to Mr Trumps policies, which have sought to dismantle Mr Obamas legacy. Without invoking his name, Mr Obama has accused Mr Trump of lying and fear-mongering and warned Democrats not to be distracted. Mr Trump has punched back, accusing Mr Obama of leaving behind a trail of broken promises on trade, the economic recovery and a promise during his presidency that patients could keep their doctors under his health care law. The President of the European Council Donald Tusk gives evidence (Alik Kelpicz/AP) Donald Tusk, the head of the European Council, was grilled in his native Poland for a parliamentary investigation into a pyramid scheme that cheated thousands of Poles out of their savings during his time as prime minister. In an emotional moment, Mr Tusk called his televised questioning a spectacle aimed at discrediting him and spreading insinuations about his family. There have been years of enmity between Tusk and Polands ruling Law and Justice party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Commentators on private TVN24 described the event as a public grilling, and it was widely seen as part of the conservative partys efforts to discredit Mr Tusk, a political foe who is still popular in Poland. Expand Close The President of the European Council Donald Tusk makes a point (Alik Keplicz/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The President of the European Council Donald Tusk makes a point (Alik Keplicz/AP) Mr Tusk was sworn in by the special multi-party commission that has already questioned dozens of state officials in its efforts to pinpoint responsibility for the scam. Addressing him as prime minister the commission sought to determine the scope of Mr Tusks authority over state security and other offices and when he was made aware of the pyramid scheme by the Amber Gold financial institution. Prosecutors say some 19,000 investors lost over 850 million zlotys (173 million) in what turned out to be one of the biggest financial scandals in Poland. Amber Golds founders are now serving prison terms. The scam, which was revealed in 2012, has raised questions about the effectiveness of Polands government during Mr Tusks 2007-2014 term. Authorities allegedly failed to react in time to warning signals about Amber Gold, which turned out to be a pyramid scheme. Expand Close Donald Tusk appearing before a parliamentary investigation commission in Warsaw (Alik Keplicz/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Tusk appearing before a parliamentary investigation commission in Warsaw (Alik Keplicz/AP) Rejecting these allegations, Mr Tusk said a warning against Amber Gold was issued by a Polish financial supervision body and it was not the prime ministers job to make such a warning. One of the themes of the investigation and of Mondays questioning was the fact that Mr Tusks son Michal was employed by an airline owned by Amber Gold. Mr Tusk denied allegations that his sons job could have served as a protective umbrella for the pyramid scheme. He said it was then that the investigation started, but stressed he would not link these two facts together. There was no escaping the political overtones of Mondays interrogation. The commissions head, Malgorzata Wassermann of the Law and Justice party, on Sunday lost her bid to become mayor of the city of Krakow. Those local elections across Poland made the ruling party aware that its appeal to city voters is limited. For his part, Mr Kaczynski claims that negligence under Mr Tusk was the reason for the 2010 plane crash in which his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, was killed. Mr Tusk and the president had a rocky relationship. The investigation into the plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, which killed 96 state, military and other officials, said it was due to human error in poor visibility at a rudimentary airport. A Sayyad 2 missile is fired by the Talash air defence system during drills in an undisclosed location in Iran. (Iran Defence Ministry/AP) Iran greeted the re-imposition of US sanctions with air defence drills and a statement from President Hassan Rouhani that the nation faces a war situation. The sanctions end all economic benefits America had granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, though Iran for now continues to abide by the accord that saw it limit its enrichment of uranium. While at the moment not threatening to resume higher enrichment, Iranian officials in recent months have made a point to warn the controversial process could resume at any time, faster than before. Expand Close PA Graphics Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp PA Graphics Expand Close PA Graphics Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp PA Graphics The new American sanctions particularly hurt Irans vital oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency for its anaemic economy. Its national currency has plummeted over the last year, sending prices for everything from mobile phones to medicine skyrocketing. Today, Iran is able to sell its oil and it will sell, Mr Rouhani vowed as the sanctions kicked in. However, the noose of American sanctions appeared to be tightening. Expand Close Representations of the US and British flags are walked on by demonstrators (Vahid Salemi/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Representations of the US and British flags are walked on by demonstrators (Vahid Salemi/AP) Iranian officials, meanwhile, reported a cyber attack targeting the countrys communication infrastructure, blaming the purported attack on Israel. Iranian state television aired footage of air defence systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military manoeuvres under way across a vast stretch of the countrys north. It included surface-to-air missiles shooting down a drone. The drill was to continue through Tuesday. Iranian army General Habibillah Sayyari said both the national army and the countrys paramilitary Revolutionary Guard were taking part in the exercise. Mr Rouhani, meanwhile, pledged to government officials in comments aired on state TV that Iran would overcome the sanctions. We are in the war situation, Mr Rouhani said. We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win. He further stepped up the rhetoric, comparing Irans situation in the 1980s war against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with the current one and President Donald Trumps move to reinstate US sanctions. Yesterday, Saddam was in front us, today Trump is front of us. There is no difference. We must resist and win, he said. Expand Close Irans President Hassan Rouhani (Presidency Office/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Irans President Hassan Rouhani (Presidency Office/AP) Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis. Its national currency, the rial, now trades at 150,000 to one US dollar, down from when it traded around 40,500 to one dollar a year ago. The economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year which resulted in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Sporadic demonstrations still continue. Mr Rouhani separately said leaders from four powers met with Iran on the sidelines of the September meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to try to save the deal, including brokering a possible meeting with Mr Trump. He did not name those countries, but was likely referring to China, France, Russia and Britain, which along with Germany made up the world powers involved in the 2015 nuclear deal. This issue does not require a mediator, Mr Rouhani said, blaming America for unilaterally pulling out of the accord. Irans foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi also predicted the sanctions will actually work against Americas interests. Expand Close Demonstrators attend a rally in front of the former US Embassy in Tehran (Vahid Salemi/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Demonstrators attend a rally in front of the former US Embassy in Tehran (Vahid Salemi/AP) Many countries from Europe to Russia and China have opposed the sanctions, Mr Ghasemi told journalists, adding that Iranians have experienced more extensive sanctions and that they are not a new issue. The United States says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. However, Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton, the presidents national security adviser, both have made public statements supporting overthrowing Irans theocratic government. Irans Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Javad Azeri Jahromi and his deputy, Hamid Fatahi, both tweeted about a cyber attack targeting the countrys communications infrastructure, without elaborating. They blamed Israel for the attack and both referenced Stuxnet, which destroyed thousands of centrifuges involved in Irans contested nuclear programme in 2011. Stuxnet is widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation, though neither country has acknowledged being behind the attack. Israels Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the Iranian claim. Last week, General Gholam Reza Jalali, the head of countrys military unit in charge of combatting sabotage, said Mr Rouhanis mobile phone was tapped recently. Israels defence minister Avigdor Lieberman welcomed the newly restored US sanctions, saying in a tweet that they will deal a critical blow to Irans military presence around the Middle East. The Trump administrations decision to restore sanctions is the sea change the Middle East has been waiting for, he said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Cubas president Miguel Diaz-Canel have agreed to expand and strengthen their strategic relations, after a meeting in Pyongyang. Mr Diaz-Canel, who is in Asia on his first international tour since assuming office in April, arrived in North Korea with his wife on Sunday. He was met at the airport by Kim, who joined him on the ride into the city past flower-waving and cheering crowds. North Koreas state media reported the two held talks at the Paekhwawon State Guest House and stressed their shared socialist history and vowed continued solidarity. The official media offered few specifics, but said the talks proceeded in a comradely and friendly atmosphere. The meeting with Mr Kim could be seen as a shot across the bow for Washington, which has run into increasing difficulty in its efforts to wrest significant progress from the North on the denuclearisation issue. Expand Close North Koreans walk past a dinosaur statue outside Korea Central Zoo in Pyongyang (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp North Koreans walk past a dinosaur statue outside Korea Central Zoo in Pyongyang (AP) Pyongyang, which has also been quietly cozying up to Moscow recently, has been hardening its rhetoric ahead of a meeting in New York later this week between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Norths main negotiator, Kim Yong Chol. Over the weekend, Pyongyang used its official media to criticise the US for its continued support of sanctions a political tool Washington has also used extensively on Cuba and Russia and hinted it may resume nuclear development if Washington does not change is tune. Sanctions-busting has been high on Mr Diaz-Canels agenda. While in Moscow, Mr Diaz-Canel discussed a nearly 50 million dollar (38.5 million) arms deal with Russia and won a similar vow of expanded political, economic and military ties from Vladimir Putin. The two then issued a joint statement denouncing US interference into domestic affairs of sovereign nations. The US economic embargo on Cuba, initially imposed in 1958 and subsequently expanded, has remained in place. Russia faced an array of crippling US and EU sanctions over the annexation of Crimea and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. A blue wave just might keep McCaskill afloat. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images On the eve of the 2018 midterms, blue America has cause for cautious (and/or anxious, and/or petrified) optimism. As of Friday night, the nations top election forecasters were giving Democrats a greater-than 80 percent chance of winning the House, a better than 50 percent chance of netting at least ten governors mansions, and an excellent shot of losing no more than one seat (net) to the most unfavorable Senate map any major party has confronted in modern U.S. history. Over the weekend, those forecasts only grew sunnier. The GOPs hopes of holding the House have long rested on the prospect that late-deciders would turn right, en masse and the polls that have trickled in over the past 48 hours suggest that, if anything, Americas most (bafflingly) indecisive voters are breaking blue. Heres a quick rundown of the various bits of last-minute good news for the Donkey Party and then, just for good measure, one reason for liberals to lie awake tonight, constantly refreshing Intelligencers feed in hopes of fending off nightmares of twitching needles. The state of the generic ballot is strong. For most of the Trump era, voters have expressed a preference for a Democratic Congress over a Republican by a roughly eight-point margin. Team Blue will retain that advantage going into Election Day. The last raft of generic ballot polling did produce a couple of eyesores for Democrats: The partys support trended down ever-so-slightly in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll (from a nine-point lead two weeks ago to a seven-point one now), while Morning Consult found the partys lead shrinking from eight points to a mere three (which wouldnt be nearly enough to overcome Republican gerrymandering and secure a Democratic House majority). But Morning Consults findings were an outlier. The other major polls released over the weekend put the Democrats lead at no lower than six points while three separate surveys found the partys advantage swelling into the double digits. As a result, Democrats chances of taking the House in FiveThirtyEights forecast increased by 2.7 percent over the weekend, with the party poised to gain (on average) 39 seats in its model (to win a bare majority, Democrats need to net just 23). Public surveys, internal polls, and historical trends all point to undecideds breaking for Democrats. Historically, undecided voters have tended to break against incumbents on the micro level (i.e. in individual races), and for the party thats out of power on the macro level (i.e. across all races, even those without an incumbent). And last-minute polling data suggests that 2018 will be not be an exception. The New York Times reports that both Democratic and Republican operatives are seeing a late shift toward Democrats in their internal surveys of House races. And public, district-level polling from the Upshot/Sienna College is consistent with that story. As Nate Cohn writes: Across the final Times/Siena polls finished over the weekend, Democrats improved their position by an average of three percentage points over the prior poll of the same district. And Democrats have shown surprising late strength in Times/Siena polls of districts that werent previously thought to be top-tier contests, like Pennsylvanias 10th, Floridas 15th, Georgias Sixth and Illinoiss 14th. Specifically, those final polls show African-American activist Lucy McBath opening up a surprise lead on Karen Handel in the district that Jon Ossoff couldnt quite pry from GOP hands in Georgia and former Health and Human services official Lauren Underwood beating incumbent Republican Randy Hultgren by six points in an Illinois district that voted for Trump in 2016. If Democrats win those districts tomorrow night, Nancy Pelosi will enjoy a commanding House majority next January. Finally, there are a couple more signs that a blue tsunami just might be cresting offshore. First, as Democratic pollster Nick Gourevitch notes, the final Times/Sienna polls suggest that Democrats arent gaining in red districts merely by turning out their base and winning independents but also, by getting a small but significant boost from GOP defectors. The difference? Dems winning Independents by 20+ points in all 4 of these races. There is also a small, but real group of GOP defectors in 3 of 4 of these races. https://t.co/TPTY4ROolX Nick Gourevitch (@nickgourevitch) November 5, 2018 Meanwhile, CNNs final generic ballot poll shows Democrats winning voters over 65 by a whopping 14-point margin. Now, the sample sizes for demographic groups in opinion polls are tiny, and thus, the margin of error is enormous. But CNNs survey isnt the first to find Americas elderly (and most reliable) voters turning left in droves: In CNN surveys conducted in early August and early September, registered voters who are 65 years of age and up preferred Democratic congressional candidates to Republicans by margins of 20 and 16 percentage points, respectively. CNN is not the only news organization to report this kind of GOP deficit among seniors. A late August Washington Post-ABC News survey found that if older voters were casting their ballots today, they would back Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives over Republican candidates by a whopping 22-point margin, 57% to 35%. Similarly, a national poll by Marist College conducted in early September found that among voters 60 years of age and up, they favored Democratic congressional candidates by a 15-point margin. According to exit polls, Americas seniors backed Donald Trump by eight points in 2016. If Democrats can so much as tie Republicans with seniors on Tuesday, they will have a tremendous night. And given how tightly Democratic messaging has focused on the threat that the GOP poses to health care in general and Medicare in particular it wouldnt be all that crazy for graying Americans to turn blue. Claire McCaskill just got her best poll of 2018. Tomorrow, ten Senate Democrats will seek reelection in states that Donald Trump won two years ago. Only one of them Heidi Heitkamp will need an Election Day miracle to survive. The rest are all either ahead by large margins, or else neck-and-neck with their challengers. Among the latter, Claire McCaskill has long looked like the weakest link. While Jon Tester and Joe Donnelly have maintained small (but stable) leads in Montana and Indiana, respectively, McCaskill has narrowly trailed Missouri attorney general Josh Hawley in a majority of polls over the past two months. But, as Nate Silver noted last week, most polls of the Missouri Senate race (and of other marquee Senate contests) have been conducted by Republican-leaning outfits without much of a reputation and their results tend to be friendlier to the GOP than the findings of reputable pollsters. A problem in several of these Senate races, Missouri probably being the best example, is that the mix of polls is very Republican-leaning. Either GOP internals, or quasi-GOP independent pollsters who have big Republican house effects in other races they've polled. Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 30, 2018 Then a Marist or a CNN or even a Fox News will drop into the racea gold-standard, live caller polland show a fairly different picture. You saw that a bit with Marist giving Sinema a lead in Arizona today, for instance. Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 30, 2018 On Monday, Marist dropped into the Missouri Senate race and showed a fairly different picture: For the first time this year, an NBC News/Marist survey found McCaskill claiming 50 percent support from likely voters, while leading Hawley by three percentage points. If McCaskill survives, then Democrats long-shot bid for Senate control becomes considerably more plausible. Especially since: Early voting numbers look favorable for Democrats in Nevada and Texas. In Nevada, Democrats have banked a lead in early voting of about 3.5 percent in the estimation of the states longtime political report Jon Ralston, Team Blue probably only needed 3 percent cushion heading into Election Day to ensure Republican Dean Hellers eviction from the Senate. Meanwhile, in Texas, turnout in early voting has skyrocketed from the levels seen in both 2014 and 2012. 1/ NEW: #EarlyVoting turnout in the 2018 midterms surpassed turnout from the 2012 presidential election in the 30 counties where most registered voters in Texas live. That means more than 4,884,528 Texans voted early. That's a lot.#Midterms2018 https://t.co/KHsTBiCL40 pic.twitter.com/cSRKPUadyX Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) November 3, 2018 One should never read too much into early voting totals, which cant say how people are voting (only what party theyre registered with), nor whether parties are bringing out new voters or just spending their Election Day votes early. But to overcome his consistent deficit in the polls, Beto ORourke needs an unusual turnout pattern one that defies the likely voter models that all the pollsters have been using. And the surge in early voting keeps that hope alive. If McCaskill is truly ahead and Ralstons read of Nevada is right and ORourke can slay the Zodiac Killer in Texas and Kyrsten Sinema can edge past Martha McSally in Arizona and every other Democrat whos narrowly favored to keep their Senate seats prevails then Chuck Schumer will be majority leader in January. Its always sunny (lately) in the Sunshine State. The final two polls of Florida show both incumbent Democratic senator Bill Nelson and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum leading with at least 50 percent of the vote. NBC/Marist poll: Florida voters Nelson 50% Scott 46% Gillum 50% DeSantis 46% NBC/Marist poll: Missouri voters McCaskill 50% Hawley 47% Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 5, 2018 Florida poll: Quinnipiac GOVERNOR Gillum (D) 50% DeSantis (R) 43% SENATE Nelson (D) 51% Scott (R) 44% Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 5, 2018 But there are more than enough razor-tight House races for Republicans to pull out an upset. All this said, Republicans still have a plausible path to retaining full control of the federal government and, thereby, learning that abetting corruption and sowing racial hatred is a politically viable governing philosophy. As Nate Cohn explains: Each of the final 28 poll results in the tossup districts was within the margin of error, and 20 of the 28 were within two percentage points, a margin that pales in comparison with the typical measurement error in a poll. With so many close contests, even modest late shifts among undecided voters or a slightly unexpected turnout could yield significantly different results, with very different consequences for the government and the future of the Trump presidency. So, liberals would be well-advised to hope for the best, plan for the worst, and vote like democracy is going out of style. The Concert by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is one of the artworks thought smuggled by James Whitey Bulger An ex-met detective has claimed that murdered mob boss James 'Whitey' Bulger gave stolen art worth half a billion dollars to the IRA. Charles Hill, a former Scotland Yard detective turned private investigator, said he believes Bulger was involved in the unsolved theft of 13 works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. The missing paintings include Rembrandt's Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, his only known seascape, and Vermeer's The Concert, and the heist is regarded as the biggest unsolved art theft in world history. While the museum has offered a $10m reward for the safe return of the celebrated works, Hill has said he believes they are stashed away somewhere in the Republic. The Irish-American crime boss has gone to the grave without ever revealing whether he had a hand in the theft of the art. Bulger (89) was found dead last week in federal prison in West Virginia, where he was serving two life sentences for 11 murders. However, speaking to The Observer, Hill said Bulger was key to solving the crime. "Even the dogs in the streets of South Boston must have known Whitey was involved in some way before, during or after the robbery," he said. "Even if Bulger did not order the robbery originally, he would have muscled in and taken control of the haul soon after it took place. "Whitey was an IRA sympathiser and was involved in arms deals and drugs shipments to the Republic. "After a shipment of weapons and ammunition was intercepted by the Irish navy in 1984, Whitey felt he owed one to his friends in the Republic. "I believe he offered them the paintings." The paintings have not been seen in public since they were snatched from the museum in a raid carried out by two men dressed as police officers in the early hours of March 18, 1990. After conning their way into the building on the pretence of investigating a disturbance, they handcuffed the security guards and spent 81 minutes in the galleries before escaping with the art. Anthony Amore, the museum's security chief, has rejected Hill's theory, although he is not the only person to suggest the paintings might be in the possession of the IRA In January, Arthur Brand, a Dutch investigator and art adviser based in Amsterdam, claimed the works were in Ireland. "The FBI have been in Ireland many times because they've had strong leads for the art being in hands of the IRA, but some people think they're still in America," he told The Guardian. "I have spoken to former IRA members who say it was common knowledge these paintings were probably in the hands of the organisation," he said. "One said, 'I heard we had them'." Memorabilia that belonged to the first man to set foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong, has fetched more than 7.4 million US dollars at auction. Heritage Auctions, based in Dallas, said the item that sold for the highest price, 468,500 dollars, at Saturdays auction was Armstrongs spacecraft ID plate from Apollo 11s lunar module Eagle. JUST SOLD FOR $109,375.00 | Gemini: Neil Armstrong's Owned and Worn Early Flight Suit Directly From The Armstrong Family Collection #HeritageAuctions pic.twitter.com/RQPOt2y6FT Heritage Auctions (@HeritageAuction) November 1, 2018 Also sold were a fragment from the propeller and a section of the wing from the Wright brothers Flyer, the first heavier-than-air self-powered aircraft, which each sold for 275,000 dollars. SOLD FOR $468,500.00 | Apollo 11 Lunar Module Flown Spacecraft Identification Plate Display Directly From The Armstrong Family Collection #HeritageAuctions pic.twitter.com/2veyGXALqS Heritage Auctions (@HeritageAuction) November 2, 2018 The flight suit Armstrong wore aboard Gemini Eight, the 1966 mission that performed the first docking of two spacecraft in flight, brought the astronauts family 109,375 dollars. SOLD FOR: $275,000.00 | Apollo 11 Lunar Module Flown Piece of the Wright Flyer's Propeller, Flown as Part of the First Successful Powered Flight in History at Kitty Hawk in 1903 as well as the First Manned Lunar Landing in 1969, Directly From The Armstrong Family Collection pic.twitter.com/G1OlOOkJBT Heritage Auctions (@HeritageAuction) November 2, 2018 Meanwhile, in a separate auction, a gold-coloured Navy aviators helmet once owned by John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, sold for 46,250 dollars. A newly elected independent MP says a tough policy toward asylum seekers is a major reason why Australias conservative government lost its parliamentary majority. Kerryn Phelps was declared the winner of a by-election forced when former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull quit parliament after his conservative coalition turned against him. Ms Phelps, a doctor and gay rights advocate, will take her seat when Parliament resumes on November 26. The government now holds half of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives and may need to negotiate with independents such as Ms Phelps to pass its legislative agenda. Ms Phelps partly blamed the tough refugee policy for a voter swing against the government in the wealthy Sydney seat of Wentworth of more than 19% since Turnbull last won it in 2016. Australia refuses to allow asylum seekers who attempt to reach its shores by boat to ever settle in the country. Asylum seekers are banished to the poor island nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea where some have languished for more than five years. What the Australian people have said is that its not good enough to trap people on an island offshore from Australia indefinitely for no reason other than that they sought asylum on our shores, she told a Sydney ceremony that declared her victory. The children on Nauru must be evacuated as soon as possible, she added. A government envoy said last week that Australia hoped to have all the asylum seeker children on Nauru brought to the Australian mainland by the end of the year. Expand Close Kerryn Phelps (AP) AP / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kerryn Phelps (AP) Children and their parents were being brought to Australia at an increasing pace in recent weeks in an indication that their plight had become an electoral liability. There were only 38 children left on Nauru last week. The governments policy has all but ended the people-smuggling boat traffic from Southeast Asian ports. Pressure has mounted on the government from doctors and rights groups to make an exception for children, but some government politicians argue that would only encourage asylum seekers to put children at risk by bringing them on treacherous voyages to Australia on rickety boats. The United States agreed in 2016 to accept up to 1,250 refugees from Nauru and Papua New Guinea. But after more than a year of screening, only 439 have found new homes in the US. With the government behind in opinion polls and elections due early next year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has already begun campaigning. He kicked off a four-day bus tour on Monday through crucial seats in Queensland state. Mr Morrison said his government remained functional despite losing its majority. Its obviously easier if theres one extra but with one less, the government will continue to function in the way youd expect it to in a professional way working closely with independent lawmakers, Mr Morrison told reporters. A Turkish newspaper has claimed that a team from Saudi Arabia sent to help authorities investigate the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul worked instead to remove evidence from the scene. The pro-government Sabah newspaper, citing trusted sources, said an 11-member team of Saudi investigators which arrived in Turkey nine days after Mr Khashoggi was killed included a chemical expert and a toxicology specialist. On Saturday, the paper said Mr Khashoggis body which has still not been found was dismembered and removed from the consulate in five suitcases. Meanwhile, Mr Khashoggis sons have appealed for his remains to be returned so that he may be buried in Saudi Arabia. Expand Close Mr Khashoggi died at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr Khashoggi died at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month (AP) In an interview with CNN, the sons also said they hoped their father did not suffer when he was killed. Separately, a top Saudi human rights official has reiterated his governments regret and pain over Mr Khashoggis death. Speaking at a regular review of the kingdoms record by the UNs top human rights body, Bandar bin Mohammed al-Aiban, the president of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, emphasised that the monarchy had ordered an investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice in order to bear the fact to the public. The killing is likely to come up among representatives of more than 100 countries set to speak during the review of Saudi Arabia on Monday. Other countries, including China, Mexico, Chad and Monaco, are also due to be reviewed in coming days by the 47-member UN-backed body. Armed separatists have kidnapped at least 79 students and three staff members from a Presbyterian school in a troubled English-speaking region of Cameroon, the governor has said. The numbers provided by North West Region governor Deben Tchoffo were larger than his earlier estimate of the people kidnapped in Nkwen, a village near the regional capital Bamenda. The students are aged 11-17 and the school principal was among the staff members abducted, he said. We have asked our military to do everything and bring back the kids aliveDeben Tchoffo It is rather unfortunate that this is happening. That 79 of our children and three of their staff can be picked up by terrorists, Mr Tchoffo said. We have asked our military to do everything and bring back the kids alive. A video purporting to show the kidnapped students was released on social media by a group of men who call themselves Amba boys, a reference to the state of Ambazonia which armed separatists want to establish in Cameroons Anglophone north-west and south-west regions. In the video, men who identified themselves as the kidnappers forced several boys to state their names and the names of their parents. The boys said they were kidnapped late on Sunday by armed men and did not know where they were being held. We shall only release you after the struggle. You will be going to school now hereAmba boys The men in the video said they would only release the students once the goal of creating a new state is achieved. We shall only release you after the struggle. You will be going to school now here, the men said. The video could not be independently verified, but parents said on social media they recognised their children in the recording. Fighting between the military and separatists increased after the government clamped down on peaceful demonstrations by English-speaking teachers and lawyers protesting against what they said was their marginalisation by Cameroons French-speaking majority. Hundreds have been killed in the violence in the past year. The armed separatists have vowed to destabilise the regions as part of the strategy for creating a breakaway state. They have mounted attacks against civilians who do not support their cause, including teachers who were killed for disobeying orders to keep schools closed. There have been kidnappings at other schools, but the group taken on Sunday was the largest to be abducted at one time in Cameroons Anglophone regions. The separatists have also torched at least 100 schools and driven out students and teachers from buildings taken over as training grounds. Our reaction following the mass abduction of 70 school children today in #Cameroon. pic.twitter.com/zOUE2QH6sn Amnesty West & Central Africa (@AmnestyWARO) November 5, 2018 These appalling abductions show just how the general population is paying the highest price as violence escalates in the Anglophone region, said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International deputy regional director for West and Central Africa. The abduction of schoolchildren and teachers can never be justified. Amnesty expressed solidarity with the students families and demanded that the Cameroon authorities do everything in their power to ensure all the pupils and school staff are freed unharmed. Last week separatist militants attacked workers on a state-run rubber plantation in south-western Cameroon, allegedly chopping off their fingers because the men defied an order to stay away from the farms. An American missionary also died in the north-west region near Bamenda, when he was shot in the head amid fighting between armed separatists and soldiers. Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena, right, and his newly appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) Thousands of Sri Lankans have marched in support of a new government led by the countrys former strongman, highlighting the political polarisation in the Indian Ocean island nation. The rally near Parliament came amid a constitutional crisis sparked by President Maithripala Sirisenas move to oust prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, replace him with ex-leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and suspend Parliament. Mr Wickremesinghe has refused to vacate his official residence, insisting he is the lawful prime minister and that the president had no constitutional right to replace him. Expand Close A Sri Lankan police officer tries to control the crowd (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A Sri Lankan police officer tries to control the crowd (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) Thousands of his supporters have been keeping vigil. Supporters of Mr Rajapaksa at the rally chanted Whose power is this? Mahindas power! As patriotic songs blared over loudspeakers, thousands shuffled through heavy rain toward a makeshift stage. Police and Sri Lankan special forces with semi-automatic rifles stood guard. Pradeep Kariyawasam, the head of Mr Rajapaksas party in Colombo, said that although Mr Wickremesinghe continues to maintain he is the countrys legitimate leader, the people are with us. Expand Close Supporters of Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena and his newly appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Supporters of Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena and his newly appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) Give people a chance to choose their government and not hide behind constitutional interpretations, he said. Mr Sirisena and Mr Rajapaksa arrived at the rally amid loud cheers. Mr Sirisena told the crowd that the change he initiated was more than a personnel shift. I ousted a vision that is incompatible with our local culture and values, and that works according to foreign agendas, Mr Sirisena said. For the past three and a half years, poor people were suppressed by Ranil Wickremesinghes economic and political vision. Local thoughts were rejected and an extreme neo-liberal form of governance was carried out. Expand Close Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena, right, and his newly appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa wave to supporters (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena, right, and his newly appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa wave to supporters (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) He was referring to Mr Wickremesinghes free-market economic policies and public-private partnerships with companies from China and India to operate strategic centres such as ports and airports. Mr Rajapaksas supporters have accused Mr Wickremesinghe of selling Sri Lankas assets, citing a 99-year lease agreement his government struck with Hong Kong conglomerate China Merchants Port Holdings Co Ltd last year to operate a failing port developed with Chinese debt during Mr Rajapaksas decade-long presidency. Foreign countries are trying to take our resources, take our land, said Mithra Kumara Jayasinghe, a wedding photographer at the rally who said he had voted for Mr Rajapaksa the two times he was elected president, in 2005 and 2010, and when he lost a re-election bid in 2015. Critics of Mr Sirisenas actions say Parliament was suspended to give Mr Rajapaksa time to gather enough support to survive a no-confidence vote when politicians reconvene on November 14. Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya has said he will not recognise the new appointments until either side is able to prove it has a majority. It means that the speaker still recognises a Wickremesinghe-led Parliament. Once again there are shocking headlines about a home-owner being subjected to a terrifying ordeal at the hands of a burglar Once again there are shocking headlines about a home-owner being subjected to a terrifying ordeal at the hands of a burglar. The incident took place on Saturday night when a woman with severe physical disabilities was confronted by an intruder in the bedroom of her home in Dungannon. He ransacked the house before escaping with money and the victim's mobile phone. Mercifully, she was unharmed physically, but we can only speculate at how terrifying the ordeal must have been for her. The police branded the attacker as "despicable", and this might seem an inadequate description. But are there any words which can describe adequately the fear and horror the disabled woman experienced? Even in cases where the victim is not physically harmed, there are two further worrying and aggravating factors. The perpetrators breach the sanctity of an individual's home, and there is often a gross, indeed deeply disturbing, disparity between the age of the victim and that of the attacker. Many burglaries are described as "cowardly", but it is hard to imagine one more cowardly than this latest incident, targeting a disabled woman. One of the keys to combating this vile behaviour lies, as it does so often, with the police and the community at large. Chief Constable George Hamilton must be given all the resources he needs, basically more officers on the ground - but we all have our part to play. Burglars don't come from Mars. Someone, somewhere, knows who is behind these attacks, and it is their duty to pass on information to the police or Crimestoppers. At the weekend three houses in Crossmaglen and one in Newry were targeted by burglars, and three men were seen acting suspiciously at a house in Camlough before being disturbed and fleeing. This kind of behaviour must be tackled and everything done to stamp it out. There is a danger that many of us think such crime is inevitable, and that the police can do very little. However, if such an attack took place in your home, or on your relative, what would you think about it? This kind of thing is not somebody else's business. It is something which should worry us all and galvanise us into action to prevent such behaviour. Anything that any of us can do, either by improving our own security or being observant about unusual behaviour around us, can only help in the war against crime. A MAN has appeared in court on charges linked to a dramatic incident on Thursday night when police arrested a person walking naked in Belfast. Video footage of a man strolling completely naked on the Falls Road, and carrying an object in his hand near the junction of St James's Road and the Falls Road was widely shared on social media. Read More Mahid Mohamed (35) appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court to face three charges including one of possessing a knife on November 1. He was also accused of disorderly behaviour in a public place and of causing criminal damage to a police vehicle on the same date. No bail application was made on behalf of Mohamed, of no fixed abode, but originally from Sudan. He was remanded in custody to appear again on Thursday via videolink. On a clip of the shocking Falls Road incident shared on social media, one person can be heard saying: "That's proper like America s***, isn't it?" In another clip of the incident the naked man approaches a police Land Rover after which three officers get out and move him to a nearby gate pillar and handcuff him while passing motorists beep their horns. Black Georgians lining up for early voting. Photo: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images The Republican Party has spent years making it harder for black people to vote, so it was perhaps only a matter of time before everyday citizens joined them. Two such incidents in Georgia have made national headlines this fall. Responding to a tip on October 15, a Jefferson County clerk ordered 40 black senior citizens off a bus that was taking them to vote. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the clerk phoned the senior center in Louisville where they lived with concerns about the ride, which was organized at the residents request by the nonpartisan group Black Voters Matter. Officials later said the event constituted unauthorized political activity because the chairwoman of the county Democratic Party was involved. We knew it was an intimidation tactic, LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, told the AJC. Just over a week later, in Cordele, a black city commissioner named Royce Reeves Sr., said he had the police called on him twice on October 24. An outspoken supporter of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Reeves had spent much of the day driving poor locals to the polls in a borrowed funeral limousine. They say Im campaigning too close to the polls, soliciting votes, Reeves said in a phone call with an acquaintance (a New Yorker reporter was in the car with him). Later that same day, a Georgia state trooper pulled Reeves over and ticketed him for parking illegally while he was talking with a man about work. Within minutes, several more patrol cars showed up and surrounded him. Look at them, a local woman named Takeyla Singleton said in a cell-phone video she recorded of the incident. Six cars! Seven Thats a crying shame. On one little person. Reports about voter suppression in Georgia have rightly focused on Brian Kemp, the states roll-purging Republican secretary of state who is overseeing his own election as he runs for governor. But with November 6 looming, the involvement of everyday citizens in enforcing Kemps mandates tells an equally profound story. In both cases outlined above, it was not Kemps office seeking to intimidate black would-be voters and voting organizers. It was local officials responding to the whims of residents who had phoned with their own concerns. The weight of vigilante voter suppression is hard to understand without knowing its historical roots. In the Jim Crow South, officials at the state and local levels allied regularly with white residents to stop black people from voting. Such efforts were famously marked by violence. But perhaps the most analogous to today demonstrate how empowered everyday whites felt to thwart the black vote by means shy of murder and mutilation. Segregationist Eugene Talmadge won the 1946 governors race using a tactic predicated on suppressive vigilantism. Talmadge supporters were urged to take advantage of an obscure law that let any citizen challenge any other citizens right to vote for any of several reasons, wrote historian Donald L. Grant in The Way It Was in the South. Thousands of challenge forms were mailed to white rural voters. In 1962, a dozen whites accompanied by Sheriff Zeke Matthews and three of his deputies entered a black voter-registration rally in Sasser, Georgia. We want our colored people to go on living like they have for the past 100 years, the sheriff said. The invaders proceeded to record the names of those present, while Matthews inveighed against this registering business and made threats about what disturbed white citizens might do if it continued. Local police were essential to these efforts, whether by silence, sanction, or active participation. When a black man from Ocilla, Georgia, named Earnest Davis filed to run for a city council seat in 1954, two uniformed officers took [him] for a ride and fired a shot at him as a warning against running, writes Grant. Civil-rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer recalls a 1962 incident in Mississippi with striking parallels to the Jefferson County, Georgia, senior center and Cordele cases. In August of that year, Hamer and 17 others climbed onto an old bus to register to vote in Indianola. On the way back, a highway patrolman flagged them down and ordered them off. They arrested Bob [Moses, another civil-rights activist] and told the bus driver he was under arrest, Hamer said in the oral history My Soul Is Rested. The bus driver was fined $100 for driving a bus with too much yellow in it. Now aint that ridiculous? Too much yellow. Perhaps the most notorious case of outright violence involved the 1964 murders of three civil-rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman who had traveled to Mississippi that summer to register black voters. But theirs were only the deaths that drew national attention at the time. We had some 63 people killed around the question of the vote before 64, Mississippi civil-rights activist Lawrence Guyot said in My Soul Is Rested. None of them were white. Lord knows how many people were run out of homes, run out of the state. In Yazoo City, Guyot continued, such a fate was almost preordained. [To] register to vote good God, man, youre talkin death. Why dont I just shoot myself? Itd be quicker. Activist and journalist Charles Cobb described black voter-registration efforts that took place in Indianola, Mississippi, two years earlier, in 1962. Right after the first attempt to register people to vote, nightriders came through the black community and shot up three houses, wounding the daughter of a neighbor of the person we were staying with. Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, reporting from Greenwood, Mississippi, in 2014, wrote about Silas McGhee, a local black man who suffered greatly for trying to register black voters under Jim Crow. At the height of the Mississippi civil rights struggle, a white man pulled up in a car and shot McGhee in his face when McGhee was sitting outside of a Greenwood restaurant, she wrote. The bullet barreled through his mouth, taking his front teeth with it. The same city saw less direct tactics used as well. When people received a welfare check, there was a letter stating that [they] should be very concerned about registering to vote at the request of radicals because this may terminated the check, Guyot said. We started really marching people down simply to attempt to register The county decided that what it would do was it would cut off all welfare supplies. So it did just that. All food was cut off. Todays southerners are heirs to this legacy. Following long-held tradition, some in Georgia have witnessed black voting efforts and responded by summoning law enforcement and other officials, prompting intimidating encounters that broadcast the risks of suffrage to other would-be black voters. It is true that Brian Kemp plays an outsize role in suppression efforts. He currently has 53,000 voter registration applications on hold, 70 percent of which were filed by black applicants, and in what seems a desperate act announced an attempted hacking investigation into the states Democratic Party on Sunday, for which he provided no evidence. But his real legacy transcends the reach of his office. During his tenure, he has advanced a culture whereby black votes are inherently suspect and open to challenge. That civilians are drawn and empowered to help him shows that his suppressive aims are shared across class, place, and profession. And such an alliance is likely to hound black Georgians long after Tuesdays election. The former chief minister of the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah pleaded not guilty Monday to 35 counts of graft linked to 263 million ringgit (U.S. $63 million) in bribes he had allegedly taken through timber contracts there. Musa Aman, who was charged at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court, is accused of using his position as chief minister to take bribe money in Singapore and Hong Kong, between 2004 and 2008. He is the third highest-ranking official from the United Malays National Organization political party to be charged for corruption-related offenses since UMNO was swept from power in a general election in May. Musa was released after meeting Judge Rozina Ayobs order to pay a bail of 2 million ringgit ($479,430). The judge allowed for two payments, but Musa was able to pay it off by the days end. The judge ordered Musa, 67, who serves as a lawmaker in the states assembly, to surrender his personal and diplomatic passports and set Dec. 13 for the next court appearance. The prosecution, led by former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram, told the court said it was surprised that two former attorneys general, Abdul Gani Patail and Apandi Ali, did not file charges against Musa. The two served as members of the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition under Prime Minister Najib Razak that was defeated in the May 9 election. The case has been investigated and I do not understand why it was closed. Now it has reopened and we have a strong case, Gopal said while filing charges. Because the allegations are related to alleged incidents from 2004 to 2008, Musa was charged under the 1997 Crime Prevention Act because the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act did not become law until 2009. Musa is accused of accepting bribes through individuals acting as his proxies, according to the charge sheet. Among the individuals mentioned was Chia Tien Foh. Chia was sentenced in 2014 to a year in prison and a lash of a cane after being found guilty of cheating businessman Agus Hassan of 2.5 million ringgit ($600,000) in 2004. The fate of those who do not want to bow down Musa is the latest UMNO leader to appear in court since Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamads Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition took control of the government six months ago. Najib, the former PM, faces 38 criminal counts and UMNO President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who served as Najibs deputy prime minister, faces 45 counts. While BN ceded power to PH, Musa was sworn in as Sabahs chief minister on May 10 because the party held a simple majority in the state. He was removed two days later after two party members changed their alliance. Musa filed a lawsuit against Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal, who replaced him, and state Gov. Tun Juhar Mahiruddin over his dismissal. The Kota Kinabalu High Court is to rule later this week. Lokman Noor Adam, a member of UMNOs supreme council member and president of the Pemantau Malaysia Baharu NGO, said the new governments prosecution of Musa was a ploy ahead of decision on his lawsuit. This is the fate of those who do not want to bow down to (Prime Minister) Mahathirs greed, he said in a statement. When they realize they will not win in the Sabah chief ministers case that is to be decided on Wednesday, they charge him and defame his name in order for other assemblymen to go against him. A man holds up a sign during a rally outside a police and military camp in Quezon city, Philippines, to protest the killing of nine farmers in Negros Occidental province, Oct. 22, 2018. Gunmen wounded a 10-year-old boy during an attack on a group of farmers in the southern Philippines on Monday, a tribal spokesman said, days after President Rodrigo Duterte warned that informal settlers occupying open land risked being arrested or shot. The boy, Aboy Magdaget, was a member of the Lumad tribal community that was cultivating land claimed by a private owner in San Fernando, a town in Bukidnon province, said Raol Kampoan, a spokesman for the indigenous group. Around 20 armed security guards arrived at the piece of land collectively cultivated by tribal people to grow rice, Kampoan said. The guards started destroying the seedlings, prompting the Lumad to defend their crops, he said, adding the boy was shot in his foot and rushed to a hospital where his condition remained unknown. Police said they were investigating the case. Initial details, such as who owned the land, were not immediately available, although members of the community were said to have occupied the land as part of the Philippine governments agrarian reform program. The latest incident came amid an ongoing investigation into the killing of nine farmers in the central town of Sagay two weeks ago. Like the Lumads, the farmers in Sagay, in Negros Occidental province, had occupied farmland identified for redistribution by the government. The victims were members of the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers (NFSW) and were cultivating part of a sprawling hacienda that was identified under the agrarian program, the union for agricultural workers said. It is important to remember that President Duterte warned farmers on occupying unused and barren lands, threatening to shoot them if they do so, Kampoan said. And with martial law in place in Mindanao, both private and security armed forces are emboldened to carry out this blatant and vicious assault on the Lumad who are just trying to feed their families, he said. In 2017, Duterte placed the entire south under military control to defeat Islamic State militants who had taken over the city of Marawi. The government has not lifted martial law a full year after troops defeated the militants, despite calls by rights groups that the ongoing military presence could lead to abuses. Last week, Duterte warned informal settlers they should stop occupying housing projects or private lands illegally, or risk being shot or arrested. If you insist on occupying a place, just like what happened in Bacolod (sic), this time I will order your arrest. And when I order your arrest, the arrest is to bring you to the police station, Duterte said then, according to a transcript of his speech. If you resist violently, quarrel, then my order to my soldiers and policemen is just simply to shoot, he added. His comments contrasted sharply with his message to his large, mostly urban poor voting base when he took power two years ago. Duterte had urged homeless people to occupy empty housing projects in suburbs near Manila, even if housing units were supposed to be allocated to policemen. The populist move had endeared Duterte further to the political left and the poor. The Oct. 21 killings of the farmers in Negro Occidental cast a spotlight on how the government has lagged behind in implementing a genuine land reform program. A land reform law has been in place since the 1980s, but big owners and corporations have blocked its implementation. Rescuers dig through a landslide that buried a government building in the northern Philippine town of Natonin, Nov. 1, 2018. Search and retrieval crews have pulled 16 bodies from a storm-induced landslide that buried a government building in the mountainous northern Philippines, officials said Monday. Efforts continued to find another 12 people believed buried in the landslide in the town of Natonin in Mountain Province, local disaster chief Ruben Carandang said. We have recovered, on my record identified with names and addresses 14 from ground zero and two outside of ground zero. So we have a total of 16, Carandang told reporters. Typhoon Yutu slammed into the Philippines last week, dumping torrential rains which covered most of the north still recovering from devastation wrought by Typhoon Mangkhut in September. Mangkhut wreaked havoc along a similar path and caused landslides that hit the northern and central Philippines, killing at least 150 people. Last week, Yutu forced thousands to flee their homes in the mountainous north as it crossed over the main island of Luzon. On Monday, Carandang said retrieval operations would continue until the end of the week. Disaster relief officials were relocating residents away from landslide prone areas in the north. The Department of Agriculture reported the typhoon damaged crops valued at U.S. $34.2 million (1.8 billion pesos) covering 90,052 hectares (222,000 acres). Natonin Mayor Mateo Chiyawan was supposed to terminate the retrieval efforts on Monday but has extended until the end of the week to allow a group with special equipment to try to find those still missing. Public works crews have cleared debris from the highway to improve accessibility to the area. Local mines and geosciences head Benigno Espejo said more civilians might need to be relocated to safer areas. He said that as early as 2015, a series of small landslides in Natonin led to the soil erosion last week. Jeoffrey Maitem in Cotabato City contributed to this report. State Rep. Katie Arrington, R-Summerville, and Democrat Joe Cunningham are each seeking the U.S. House District 1 seat in South Carolina. Election Day is Tuesday. Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, left, speaks about his Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum during a CNN debate, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018, in Tampa, Florida. Photo: Chris OMeara/Getty Images Crime has been a focal point of the Florida governors race. Ron DeSantis and his most famous surrogate, President Donald Trump, have sought repeatedly to smear Andrew Gillum as a criminal governing a city overrun by it. Under Mayor Gillums leadership, Tallahassee is the most crime-ridden city in the entire state of Florida, DeSantis said in a debate on October 22, calling the issue out of control. Andrew couldnt keep Tallahassee safe, he added. Youve had the highest crime rate in Tallahassee of all of Florida for four years, he said in September. DeSantis is lying. The crime rate in Tallahassee is 5,765 per 100,000 residents, according to the Associated Press, citing Florida Department of Law Enforcement data from 2017. Among cities in Florida, that does not even crack the top 25. Daytona Beach, Miami Beach, and Fort Lauderdale all rank higher. And although crime tracking is notoriously flawed and relies on unreliable self-reporting from local officials, Tallahassees numbers are probably inflated. The presence of universities like Florida State and Florida A&M home to a combined 42,000 students in a city of 191,000 residents means people from out of state who may not list Tallahassee as their permanent residence. Nevertheless, crimes they might commit or be victims of would be included in the statistics, raising the crime numbers while portraying the population as lower than it is, the AP reports. This is irrelevant to DeSantis. His attacks on Gillum are transparent attempts to scare voters into his fold as November 6 draws nearer. That it might work is a byproduct of 150 years of racist rhetoric casting black people as born criminals. Gillums blackness and that of his city at 35 percent, the blackest of Floridas ten largest has everything to do with why DeSantis would gamble on such a verifiably false accusation. [DeSantis] has only continued in the course of his campaign to draw all the attention he can to the color of my skin, Gillum said in October. The day after he won the Republican nomination in August, DeSantis warned voters not to monkey this up by electing his black challenger. The Republican declined to return money from a wealthy white donor who called President Barack Obama a Muslim nigger on Twitter, claiming he had already spent it. And he has attended conferences with far-right bigots like Milo Yiannopoulos, Sebastian Gorka, and David Horowitz, while attracting members of the Proud Boys gang to his rallies. Im not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist, Gillum said wryly on October 24. Im simply saying the racists believe hes a racist. DeSantiss conduct is emblematic, in many ways, of the contemporary Republican playbook, weaponized with particular success by Trump in his nods to white nationalists, Klansmen, and neo-Nazis. But it is not a product of it. DeSantiss effort to link a black politician to rampant crime is part of an old and bipartisan tradition in the United States. Starting in the post-emancipation era and picking up dramatically in the 1890s, white Americans who fought on different sides of the Civil War pursued a national reconciliation campaign, the chosen enemy of which black pathology gave them shared meaning. Casting formerly enslaved blacks as fundamentally criminal united them in the belief that black people were congenitally unworthy of American investment. This sentiment has proven remarkably resilient over time. One cannot study Reconstruction without first frankly facing the facts of universal lying, wrote W.E.B. DuBois in his landmark history, Black Reconstruction. The 15-year period beginning in mid-1860s was marked by dramatic upheavals in American society. Union troops occupied much of the fallen Confederacy to enforce the assimilation of 4 million former black slaves. Black people were granted citizenship and the right to vote under the 14th and 15th Amendments. Black officials were elected to state legislatures, school houses were built to educate black children, black churches were erected, and northern missionaries, educators, and entrepreneurs poured into the South to help establish what had the makings of a free biracial society. But by the end of 1877, federal troops had pulled out of the region. Insurgent Redeemers conservative local whites opposed to Reconstruction rapidly assumed control. White militia and paramilitary violence targeting black ex-slaves had spread over the course of the decade, but such violence was now reified politically as federal oversight gave way to Redemption rule and Jim Crow. The preceding era was rewritten as a time of black-led hostile takeover, corruption, and plunder. There was not a single great black leader of Reconstruction against whom almost unprintable allegations were not repeatedly and definitely made without any attempt to investigate the reliability of sources of information, wrote DuBois. Meanwhile, laws meant to criminalize black life proliferated across the South, as Douglas Blackmon details in Slavery by Another Name. Vagrancy statutes so vague that practically any former slave not under the care of a white man could be arrested for them had existed since 1865. But these accelerated in the 1880s. Carrying a weapon, riding on empty freight train cars, and even speaking loudly in the presence of white women became criminal acts. At the end of the [decade], thousands of black men across the South were imprisoned in work camps only for violations of the new racial codes, completely subjective crimes, or no demonstrable crime at all, Blackmon writes. Around the same time, white sociologists and scholars began debating in earnest why so many crimes seemed to be committed by black people. The conclusion reached by many including the most popular and influential among them, like Frederick L. Hoffman, author of the 1896 book Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro was that black crime was a result of black peoples inherent mental and cultural deficiencies. They used statistics to legitimize age-old white-supremacist narratives about black defect. They saw disproportionately high black incarceration rates as proof black people committed more crimes, with little attempt to honestly assess their root causes. Blacks were unfavorably compared to poor whites in the South and immigrants from Italy and Ireland in the North, who purportedly faced living conditions fully as bad as for the blacks, according to Khalil Gibran Muhammads The Condemnation of Blackness. The difference is racial What can be done? wrote University of Chicago anthropologist Frederick Starr in 1897. Less petting and more disciplining is needed. Such punitive rhetoric was rarely applied to white criminals. White criminality was societys problem, rooted in issues like insufficient economic opportunities, writes Muhammad. [Black] criminality was black peoples problem. And this attitude was transferred into divergent ideas about how public policy should address each community. Among whites, struggling neighborhoods were considered a cause of crime and reason to intervene. Among blacks, they were considered a sign of pathology and reason for neglect. That black Americans had spent two centuries as slaves only to be forced into the precise kind of degraded conditions that breed crime concentrated poverty, precarious employment, and steady violence against them by a racist citizenry and government, including the invention of criminal statutes designed to target them went largely ignored. White reunification after the Civil War took precedent over black equality. Black crime was now a lens through which whites could understand the meaning of black freedom and ultimately decide it was often not worth the trouble. In the meantime, many white southerners felt vindicated in their long-held racist views. [Black] criminality brought out the worst in everyone, argued the likes of Thomas Nelson Page, a Virginia lawyer, writer, and future U.S. ambassador to Italy, writes Muhammad. With ten million Negroes within its borders, the South needed understanding, not repudiation, from the North. Black criminality serves a similar unifying purpose today. It was no accident that then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton staged a campaign event in 1992 at the base of Georgias Stone Mountain, the most recognizable Confederate monument in the country. Arrayed behind him was a neat formation of inmates from a local correctional facility, almost all of whom were black. The message was clear that despite being a Democrat at a time when the party was trying to reverse its soft on crime reputation, Clinton could be as iron-fisted with black criminals as any Republican. And it is no accident that black-on-black crime is the canard invoked most frequently by those seeking to avoid confronting law enforcement racism. Once viewed as a reason for self-criticism and self-improvement among black people, it is now weaponized, usually by whites, to argue they do not deserve structural investment. I find it very disappointing that youre not discussing the fact that 93 percent of blacks in America are killed by other blacks, former New York City mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told NBC in 2014, responding to questions about how to make police departments less biased. Ron DeSantis understands how appealing this rhetoric is. He understands, as Muhammad observes, that crime rates in the nations biggest cities are generally understood as a reflection of the presence and behavior of the black men, women, and children who live there. He understands that he is neck-and-neck in polls with a black man in Florida, a state where fear and hostility toward black men and children has repeatedly led to their violent deaths at the hands of vigilantes. He knows this fear is his ally if he hopes to win. At a September press conference, more than a week after winning the primary, DeSantiss campaign informed reporters who sought to question him about his platform that he needed time to flesh [it] out first. That he had gotten so far without a platform is a testament to the power of his emotional appeals that being a white, Trump-supporting Republican, and a bulwark against a harbinger of black crime might be enough. DeSantis understands history, whether consciously or intuitively. By lying to exaggerate crime under Gillums mayoralty, he is capitalizing on the deep-seated belief that black Americans are fundamentally tied to crime, and as a result are viewed as unworthy of investment, deserving of punishment, and their claims of mistreatment illegitimate. Broadly speaking, the framing of this issue shifts with the days passions, as when it is cast by conservatives as a failure of Democratic leadership rather than explicitly racial. Yet the unseriousness of Republican solutions namely, more and harsher policing and the blackness of the highlighted citizenry, as in Tallahassee and Chicago, betray the roots of their argument. A black progressive mayor is an obvious bogeyman for conservatives and racists, and DeSantis is both, fighting to prolong 19 years of white Republican rule in the Florida statehouse. Tying Gillum to crime is not just a natural political strategy. It is tradition. By Kari Toncre A group of students will travel to Honduras in the summer of 2019 to volunteer in a medical brigade through the Global Medical Brigades chapter at Bowling Green State University. While in Honduras, students will have the opportunity to assist with medical procedures for people in need of medical attention living in poor communities. BGSUs Global Medical Brigades chapter was founded by seniors Julia Gallatin and Matheus Moreira Sanches Peraci, both pre-medicine and applied health science majors in the spring of 2014. The pair heard about Global Medical Brigades at other universities and wanted to start a chapter at BGSU. The group traveled to Nicaragua for their first brigade in 2017 and Honduras for the first time this past summer. It is truly an eye-opening experience for the people who sign up to go. I traveled to Honduras for a brigade with three people who had never gone on one before, Gallatin said. Experiences like this completely change you, and its amazing to see it happen to someone else. One of the most exciting duties is working with the doctors in patient rooms. Volunteers also can package medication, work with children and provide a helping hand to the people in these communities. Some clinics have dental and optometry units. These kids, who have never been able to see clearly before, would walk into our vision clinic, Gallatin said. They would receive a pair of glasses and be able to see for the first time. Their reactions were amazing. Being able to interact and work with the people in these countries allows for the volunteers to learn about the culture and their own lives as well how to perform certain medical duties. One can never learn enough and understand enough about other peoples cultures and dramatically different life stories without directly interacting with them, Peraci said. Everyone is trained by the medical staff currently stationed in the country and who work with Global Brigades. Global Medical Brigades is a small segment of the international Global Brigades organization. University chapters work with the organization to plan the trips. Chapters pick a country where a brigade is established. Active brigades are currently in Ghana and Honduras, and the BGSU chapter voted to go back to Honduras. Global Brigades provide shelter, food and the clinic, along with supplies, but the university chapters pay for it. Any money raised for a brigade goes towards medication, salaries for the doctors working in the clinics, anything else that is needed for the overall prep and logistics of a brigade. The money is also used for hygiene kits to be given away to the people in the communities. Fundraising, grants and University funds allow BGSUs Global Medical Brigades to be able to pay for the majority of the expenses when going on trips. As one of the co-founders, seeing the chapter succeed and leading it for almost two years has been incredible to experience, Peraci said. Because of that, almost all aspects for Global Medical Brigades, from fundraising to being in a brigade, bring me joy and fulfillment. Anyone can join Global Medical Brigades, no matter their major. Global Medical Brigades is just one part of a brigade. Within Global Brigades, there are business, dental, engineering, environmental, human rights, medical, public health and water brigades. A brigade is placed in countries such as Ghana and Honduras for a long period of time. Depending on the communitys situation, different brigades will be sent in. Medical brigades are always sent in first to record what kind of diseases and health problems the people living there are suffering from. They can figure out where the people have gotten the disease and send in another brigade to work towards fixing the issue. Some of the health problems come from a lack of clean drinking water, so Global Brigades will have an engineering brigade come up with a plan to solve the issue and a water brigade will be sent to implement, usually by installing a waterline. Learn more about BGSUs Global Medical Brigade and/or to contribute to its fundraising efforts By Bonnie Blankinship Dr. Timothy Davis, an associate professor of biological sciences, joined Bowling Green State University in August 2017. Davis is a key member of the research team for the recently announced BGSU Lake Erie Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health. In addition to his teaching and research at the University, he is a co-chair of the National HAB Committee, which was established more than 15 years ago for the purpose of providing a collective voice of the academic, management and stakeholder communities interested in national harmful algal bloom issues. Earlier this year he was appointed to the Environmental Protection Agencys Board of Scientific Counselors, a federal advisory committee that provides advice, information and recommendations to EPAs Office of Research and Development. As part of this three-year term, Davis serves as a member of the Safe and Sustainable Water Resources subcommittee. He also recently served as a national expert at harmful algal bloom summits in New York, part of Gov. Andrew Cuomos $65 million initiative to combat cyanobacterial HABs in upstate New York lakes. He was recently the recipient of two prestigious awards, the 2018 Department of Commerce Gold Medal Award and the 2018 Department of Commerce Ron Brown Excellence in Innovation Award. Both awards were given for his and his NOAA colleagues efforts in pioneering advanced toxin sensor technology to protect U.S. communities from economic and public health impacts of harmful algal blooms. Q. Where do you think your passion for biology, especially aquatic biology, sprang from? Did you grow up around water? (I see you went to Stony Brook.) A. I was born on Long Island and lived most of my childhood on the south shore within a short bike ride to Bellport Bay. I spent a lot of my time in the woods and wetlands that surrounded my house tracking Eastern box turtles, rabbits or anything else I found. However, I always loved the ocean. My mother, sister and I would spend many weekend days at the beach and I would use my moms surfcasting rod to try, often unsuccessfully, to catch bluefish and striped bass. Since my mother was an elementary school teacher, during the summers we would visit my grandmother in Pentwater, Michigan. I spend almost every day on the shores of Lake Michigan, swimming, fishing and boating. I think my love for water stemmed from this upbringing. Q. Were you always a curious person? A. Like any kid, I had my passions. I was always curious about nature, especially the ocean, but couldnt care less about things like business, stock markets, etc. Q. You brought your 8-year-old son along on your trip to Kenya with other BGSU faculty this spring. Did you have any experiences like that growing up? A. Yes, that was a very memorable experience for my son. I never had an experience quite like that growing up, but my mother and I used to walk the south shore beaches of Long Island in the middle of winter to look for cold-shocked turtles that would ride the warm waters of the Gulf Stream north, then, for various reasons, end up outside the Gulf Stream where they would become lethargic and enter into shock from the cold water. Also, during college I participated in Seamester, which was operated by the Ocean Classroom Foundation where students would spend nine weeks at sea studying, learning to sail a gaff-rigged schooner and visiting various ports of call along the East Coast of the U.S. and the Caribbean. After I graduated, I went back to work for Ocean Classroom for six months as a deckhand/engineer before starting my dissertation research. Q. Describe how you look at the genomics of an ecosystem to see how HABS are impacting them. A. Well, all organisms respond to changes in their environments, so with the improvements in molecular tools, we can now look at how an organism is responding to these changes at the genetic level. We are most interested in nutrient uptake, how they are responding to high or low concentration of nutrients. Q. What was your role at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration? A. During my time at NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, I led the harmful algal bloom (HAB) monitoring and research program which supported several critical NOAA HAB forecasting products. Q. When did you first begin collaborating with BGSU biologists Drs. George Bullerjahn and Michael McKay? How did you decide to join BGSU? A. I first met George on a Lake Erie research cruise aboard the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Limnos in 2007. At that point I was a graduate student at Stony Brook University. After my dissertation research, my first postdoctoral fellowship was with the Australian Rivers Institute, from 2009-2012. In the spring my family and I moved to Michigan briefly before I applied for a research fellowship position with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) in Burlington, Ontario. That position is when I reconnected with Mike and George, as the project was a collaboration between ECCC and BGSU. That project was a great success and I enjoyed my time there, conducting experiments, etc., as well as with George and Mike. During my time at ECCC, a permanent position at NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory was advertised. I applied and was selected to fill the position. I worked at NOAA for three and a half years and during that time, I continued to work with George and Mike on various HAB-related issues, including the Toledo water crisis of 2014. We held a joint workshop at BGSU in 2015 that gathered HAB researchers from across the country and the globe to discuss the worsening problem. When the position was advertised at BGSU, I was encouraged to apply. My family and I loved our visits to BG over the years and I enjoyed working with George and Mike so I decided to shift career paths when offered the position. Q. How do the teams individual specialties function together? A. George, Mike and I have many similar interests but diverse backgrounds which help form a strong team of water quality researchers who use their complementary strengths to answer difficult questions about the ecology of these events by attacking the problem from multiple angles. Q. How did you become an expert adviser nationally on HABs? A. There are many excellent HAB researchers throughout the country. During my time at NOAA I was fortunate enough to be involved with composing several reports to Congress about HABs on a national lever and specifically in the Great Lakes. I think my prior experience working on these issues in the U.S. and Canada helped me gain a broader perspective that I can use when discussing HAB-related issues with lawmakers, water managers and the public. Q. Harmful algae seem to be more in the news every day. Is the problem actually getting worse? Why? A. Yes, they do seem to be gaining more attention than in the past. There is no doubt that this problem is getting worse. Our activities in critical watersheds have led to the development and, in some cases, resurgence and intensity of these events. Global climate change may lead to larger blooms that last longer and may be more toxic. However, we need to recognize that there are many more researchers studying this topic than in the past, so some of the observed increase is related to the fact that we are looking harder. We need to remember that from the 1950s to the 70s, Lake Erie was experiencing many of the same water quality problems as today. Federal laws such as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 was amended in 1972 and became commonly known as the Clean Water Act. It helped significantly by reducing phosphorus pollution from industry. Also the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1972 was a binational agreement to protect the health of the Great Lakes and established phosphorus reduction targets to improve water quality in western Lake Erie. Through joint efforts, these targets were met but unfortunately, due to shifts in the majority of phosphorus pollution from industry to agriculture, these problems have again appeared and are becoming worse. Q. What can BGSU and its researchers do to address the harmful algae problem that ails Lake Erie and the Great Lakes? A. Conducting science that will serve the public good of the region and the nation is important to BGSU researchers. The work we are doing on harmful algal blooms accomplishes both and is helping BGSU establish itself as a leader in this field of study. I am looking forward to continuing to work with my colleagues at BGSU and around the world to develop long-term solutions to this global problem. - Gets new black/red livery - Gets fully-adjustable front forks - Ducati Quick Shift (DQS) is standard Ducati has just taken the wraps off the 2019 Monster 821 Stealth edition. The bike was unveiled at the Ducati World Premier that was held in Milan, Italy just before the 2018 EICMA kicks in. The Monster 821 Stealth edition is based on the Monster 821. But now it gets more cosmetic work to make it look more appealing and enticing. This Ducati gets a special livery which has a mix of black, white and red. It also gets fully-adjustable front forks to increase its handling area. The Ducati Quick Shift (DQS) comes as standard with this edition. The Italian maker has added a small windscreen too. In terms of mechanicals, the Monster 821 Stealth edition continues to gets its power from 821cc L-twin engine that produces 109bhp and 86Nm of peak torque. The bike is equipped with TFT display, Bosch cornering bits and a few more top-spec safety bits. The pricing for the Ducati Monster 821 Stealth edition isnt out yet. But expect it to make its way to India sometime next year, and will definitely demand a premium over the standard variant once its launched. Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, Why is Kamala Harris so Unpopular? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Himachal government has started several schemes to promote micro, small and medium enterprises Jagat Prakash Nadda, Union Health Minister appreciated the Himachal Pradesh government's efforts towards improving the state's healthcare sector. The minister said that Himachal Pradesh has been rated as the best performing state in the healthcare sector India. Nadda applauded the Himachal government for its excellent performance at the national level in the health sector, saying that at the fifth national conference held on October 30, 2018 in Kaziranga, Assam on good work and renewal in the field of health, the state was lauded as the best performing states in India. He said that due to the vision and effective efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there has been a major change in the policy changes in the country. The Prime Minister's efforts were the reason behind India jumping for the second consecutive year in business accessibility (ease of doing business). In the list released by the World Bank, India has secured 77th position with improvement of 23 positions this year. India was at the 100th place last year. He said, "When Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over the reins of governance, India's position in the ease of business was 143rd. With the efforts of the Prime Minister, the country has reached 77th position and will soon make its place in the first 50 countries." Nadda was speaking in Dharamshala on Friday while chairing the cooperation and contact programme organised on the occasion of the launch of 'MSME 59 Minutes Portal' (from New Delhi) for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. Food and Supply minister of Himachal Kisan Kapoor and industry minister Bikram Thakur were also present on the occasion. Anuradha Thakur, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, also attended the event. The Union Health Minister said that in order to set up mass development in the country, the emphasis is on providing all the facilities. For the purpose, this portal has been started for facilitating loan clearance for small and medium enterprises only in 59 minutes. He said that 45 per cent contribution of total production in the country is of micro, small and medium enterprises and this region accounts for 40 per cent of the share of exports. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not only taken care of the people who work in the unorganised sector but also took concrete steps to improve their lives and provide protection and facilities. Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Bima Yojana, Mudra Yojana, Ayushman Bharat Scheme are some of the many initiatives taken in this direction, he said. Nadda said that under the Ayuhman Bharat Scheme, 10.74 million poor and deprived families of the country got the strength of healthcare and about 55 million poor people, who were unable to get treatment due to high expenses, got the facility of health insurance of Rs 5 lakhs. Himachal Industry Minister Bikram Thakur said the Himachal government has started several schemes to promote micro, small and medium enterprises. The government is making a decision that all schemes of public welfare should be properly grounded, he said. Voters cast their early-voting ballots in Los Angeles on November 5, 2018. Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images Congressional seats, gubernatorial offices, state legislatures theyre all at stake in Tuesdays midterm election. If Democrats at least take the House and even up control of state legislatures and governors mansions, we can say at last that there is a real backlash to the presidency of Donald Trump. But as important as these races are, they wont be the only indications of voter realignment post-Trump. Voters will also consider a range of important ballot initiatives when they go to the polls. Ballot initiatives dont usually receive marquee billing, but they can dramatically reshape states, economically and politically, and theyre a useful way to gauge public support for specific policy issues. They arent just proxies for party alignment, either. For instance, while Medicaid expansion has partisan implications the Democratic Party tends to support it, and the Republican Party tends to oppose it when voters consider the policy in isolation, they usually support it, regardless of how red or blue a state may appear. Maine voters voted to expand Medicaid in 2017, after their outgoing Republican governor, Paul LePage, repeatedly vetoed bills to do so. That nonpartisan trend doesnt just apply to health-care policies. Missouri has a conservative reputation, but voters overwhelmingly voted to repeal the states right-to-work law in August. Ballot initiatives can produce surprising results. This is by no means a comprehensive list of the most important initiatives on ballots tomorrow, but here are a few Ill be watching closely: Medicaid Expansion Voters in Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska will vote on whether not to expand Medicaid, while voters in Montana will decide whether to make the states current expansion program a permanent fixture. These are all deeply red states President Trump won each by wide margins, and a Republican trifecta occupies each state government, too but on the subject of Medicaid, voters dont seem particularly swayed by the Trump administrations antipathy. A recent Idaho Politics Weekly poll put public support for the states Proposition 2, which would expand Medicaid, at 70 percent; in a break with his own party, the states Republican governor, Butch Otter, endorsed the measure last week. In Utah, 59 percent of voters favored Proposition 3 in a Salt Lake Tribune-Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted last month. There is no public polling available on Nebraskas expansion measure. Montanas Initiative 185, which would raise taxes on tobacco products to fund Medicaid expansion, polled within the margin of error, according to an October survey from Montana State University and Montana Television News. Cigarette makers like Altria have invested millions in a campaign against the initiative, according to NPR. Gerrymandering In Michigan, Utah, Missouri, and Colorado, voters will consider redistricting initiatives. Although they range in details, each of these ballot questions would assign responsibility for redistricting to an independent commission, CityLab reported on November 2. An October poll conducted by the Detroit News-WDIV showed 58.5 percent of Michigan voters in favor; a poll conducted jointly by the University of Utah and the Salt Lake Tribune found a similar margin of support in Utah, with 58 percent of voters inclined to back redistricting. Missouris initiative, Amendment 1, wraps redistricting into a package of reforms that would, according to KSHB News, cap lobbyist gifts to state legislators at $5 and ban departing state legislators from working as lobbyists for at least two years after leaving office. As Governing reported on November 1, Colorados Amendments Y and Z would redraw legislative and congressional maps. These states arent all gerrymandered to the same degree, but the topic is currently a popular one; Republican officials in North Carolina and Virginia determinedly fought litigation to redraw congressional maps in each state; those maps currently favor Republican candidates. Voting Rights Florida voters will decide whether to extend voting rights to convicted felons. As The Atlantic reported in September, Florida is one of three states to permanently block felons from voting booths. The state does allow felons an opportunity to regain voting rights but only if they go before a clemency hearing officiated by the governor. Florida is the only state with such a requirement, according to the Washington Post, and if voters approve Amendment 4, approximately 1.6 million people will regain voting rights in the state. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, three polls averaged together show that 66 percent of Florida voters currently favor the ballot initiative. Amendment 4 isnt the only voting-rights provision that American voters will consider on November 6. Voters in Michigan and Nevada will consider amendments to approve automatic voter registration in each state. An EPIC/MRA poll conducted for the Detroit Free Press says 70 percent of voters support Proposal 3, which would allow new voters to register on the day of an election. If voters in Nevada approve Question 5, residents would have to opt out of voter registration as would residents in Michigan, if the states Proposal 3 passes. Housing Rent control will be on a number of ballots tomorrow. Among the provisions tracked by the National Low Income Housing Coalition are Californias Proposition 10, which would allow communities to strengthen rent-control laws. (The Costa-Hawkins Act currently enforces strict restrictions on rent control in California.) Voters in Chicagos 35th, 46th, and 49th wards will consider an advisory referendum opposing the states rent-control preemption law. As The Chicago Reader reported in October, 75 percent of voters in 77 wards favored repeal of rent-control preemption when the question was put to them during a primary election last spring. Though the referendum is advisory, and therefore not binding, its results would help measure ongoing public support or opposition to rent control. Voters in Austin, Texas; Portland, Oregon; and Charlotte, North Carolina, among other cities, will also consider proposals that would fund the increased construction of affordable-housing units. Health Care If Maine voters vote yes on Question 1 tomorrow, the state will provide free home care to people with disabilities and to the elderly. As reported by PBS News Hour, Question 1 would fund the program with a 3.8 percent income-tax hike on households making over $128,400 per year. The Maine state Chamber of Commerce opposes the proposal on the grounds that it will unfairly burden middle-class families. The states population is increasingly elderly: The Bangor Daily News reported in March that unless trends change, and change drastically, Mainers ages 65 and older will outnumber Mainers under age 18 by 2020. A Suffolk University poll conducted in August found that roughly half of all Mainers support Question 1, with 14 percent still undecided. In other health-care news, voters will consider a number of initiatives that would impact reproductive health. Rewire News reported on November 1 that voters in Alabama, Oregon, and West Virginia could approve restrictions on abortion rights. In Alabama, Amendment 2 would amend the state constitution to bestow fetal personhood; Oregons Measure 106 would ban the use of public funds for abortions; and West Virginias Amendment 1 would update West Virginias constitution to state that nothing in it secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion. In Nevada, voters could eliminate taxes on tampons and other menstrual-care products by passing Question 2. Minimum Wage As Vox reported in October, voters in Missouri and Arkansas could raise the minimum wage in each state. In Missouri, Proposition B would raise the state minimum wage to $12 by 2023. In Arkansas, Issue 5 would raise the minimum wage to $11 by 2021. According to Missourinet, a poll by Missouri Scout showed 60 percent of Missouri voters in favor of Proposition B a possible byproduct of this years successful campaign to repeal the states right-to-work law by referendum. A poll commissioned by Arkansans for a Fair Wage, which supports a minimum-wage hike, found that 64 percent of Arkansans voters supported Issue 5. Arkansas voter previously voted to raise the states minimum wage from $6.25 to $8.50 in 2014. Analysis from the National Employment Law Project, an organization that supports a higher minimum wage nationally, found that Arkansass minimum-wage increase correlated to higher earnings for retail and food-service employees, and to record unemployment lows in the state. 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 VANCOUVER, Nov. 5, 2018 VANCOUVER, Nov. 5, 2018 /CNW/ - TSX VENTURE COMPANIESBULLETIN TYPE: Cease Trade OrderBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Company A Cease Trade Order has been issued by the Alberta Securities Commission on Nov 2, 2018 against the following company for failing to file the documents indicated within the required time period: Symbol Tier Company Failure to File Period Ending (Y/M/D) DXD 2 3D Signatures Inc. Annual audited financial statements, annual management's discussion and analysis and certification of the annual filings. 2018/06/30 Upon revocation of the Cease Trade Order, the Company's shares will remain suspended until the Company meets TSX Venture Exchange requirements. Members are prohibited from trading in the securities of the companies during the period of the suspension or until further notice. ________________________________________ BULLETIN TYPE: Cease Trade OrderBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Companies A Cease Trade Order has been issued by the British Columbia Securities Commission on November 2, 2018 against the following companies for failing to file the documents indicated within the required time period: Symbol Tier Company Failure to File PeriodEnding(Y/M/D) MLY 2 American Cumo Mining Corporation Failure to complete Technical Report in accordance with NI 43-101. 2018/05/29 Failure to file technical report to support the PEA and Reserves disclosure. 2018/09/17 CBE 2 Cabo Drilling Corp. Annual audited financial statements, annual management's discussion and analysis and certification of annual filings. 2018/06/30 IZ 2 International Zeolite Corp. Annual audited financial statements, annual management's discussion and analysis and certification of annual filings. 2018/06/30 Upon revocation of the Cease Trade Order, the Company's shares will remain suspended until the Company meets TSX Venture Exchange requirements. Members are prohibited from trading in the securities of the companies during the period of the suspension or until further notice. ________________________________________ BULLETIN TYPE: Cease Trade OrderBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Company A Cease Trade Order has been issued by the Ontario Securities Commission on November 2, 2018 against the following company for failing to file the documents indicated within the required time period: Symbol Tier Company Failure to File Period Ending (Y/M/D) KUU 2 Kuuhubb Inc. Audited annual financial statements, management's discussion and analysis relating to the audited annual financial statements and certification of the foregoing filingsas required by National Instrument 52-109Certification of Disclosure in Issuers' Annual and Interim Filings. 2018/06/30 Upon revocation of the Cease Trade Order, the Company's shares will remain suspended until the Company meets TSX Venture Exchange requirements. Members are prohibited from trading in the securities of the companies during the period of the suspension or until further notice. ________________________________________ BMGB CAPITAL CORP. ("BMGB.P")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Further to TSX Venture Exchange bulletin dated November 1, 2018 effective at open of market Wednesday November 7, 2018 shares of the Company will resume trading. ________________________________________ NEX COMPANIES BULLETIN TYPE: Cease Trade OrderBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018NEX Company A Cease Trade Order has been issued by the Ontario Securities Commission on November 2, 2018 against the following company for failing to file the documents indicated within the required time period: Symbol Tier Company Failure to File Period Ending (Y/M/D) MTN.H NEX Martina Minerals Corp. audited annual financial statements,management's discussion and analysisrelating to the audited annual financial statementsand certification of the foregoing filings as required by National Instrument 52-109Certification of Disclosure in Issuers' Annual and Interim Filings. 2018/06/30 Upon revocation of the Cease Trade Order, the Company's shares will remain suspended until the Company meets TSX Venture Exchange requirements. Members are prohibited from trading in the securities of the companies during the period of the suspension or until further notice. ________________________________________ BRIXTON ENERGY CORP. ("BRK.H")BULLETIN TYPE: Delist, Correction, Remain SuspendedBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018NEX Company Further to the TSX Venture Exchange bulletin dated October 25, 2018, the Company will be listed on NEX, where it will remain suspended effective the open on Wednesday, November 7, 2018. ____________________________ OROFINO MINERALS INC. ("ORR.H")BULLETIN TYPE: DelistBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018NEX Company Effective at the close of business November 6, 2018, the common shares will be delisted from TSX Venture Exchange at the request of the Company. ________________________________________ TEARLACH RESOURCES LIMITED ("TEA.H")BULLETIN TYPE: Reinstated for TradingBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018NEX Company Further to the TSX Venture Exchange Bulletins dated February 5, 2016 and October 31, 2016, the Exchange has been advised that the Cease Trade Orders issued by the British Columbia Securities Commission have been revoked. Effective at the opening, November 7, 2018 trading will be reinstated in the securities of the Company. ___________________________________ 18/11/05 - TSX Venture Exchange Bulletins TSX VENTURE COMPANIES ALEAFIA HEALTH INC. ("ALEF")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 6.59 a.m. PST, November 5, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company was halted due to single stock circuit breaker; 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. ________________________________________ ALEAFIA HEALTH INC. ("ALEF")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 7.04 a.m. PST, November 5, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made. ________________________________________ BMGB CAPITAL CORP. ("BMGB.P")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 5.00 a.m. PST, November 5, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company was halted pending closing; 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. ________________________________________ DESERT LION ENERGY INC. ("DLI")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 5.22 a.m. PST, November 5, 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. ________________________________________ DESERT LION ENERGY INC. ("DLI")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 12.00 p.m. PST, November 5, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made. ________________________________________ DIAGNOS INC. ("ADK")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a non-brokered private placement announced October 24, 2018: Number of Shares: 10,000,000 common shares Purchase Price: $0.05 per common share Warrants: 10,000,000 warrants to purchase 10,000,000 common shares Warrant Exercise Price: $0.07 until May 1, 2020 Number of Placees: 9 placees Inside / Pro Group Participation: Name Insider = Y / Pro Group = P Number of Shares Georges Hebert Y 1,000,000 Finder's Fee: None The Company has confirmed the closing of the above-mentioned private placement by way of a press release dated November 1, 2018. DIAGNOS INC. ("ADK")TYPE DE BULLETIN : Placement prive sans l'entremise d'un courtierDATE DU BULLETIN : Le 5 novembre 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, tel qu'annonce le 24 octobre 2018 : Nombre d'actions : 10 000 000 d'actions ordinaires Prix : 0,05 $ par action ordinaire Bons de souscription : 10 000 000 de bons de souscription permettant de souscrire a 10000 000 d'actions Prix d'exercice des bons : 0,07 $ jusqu'au 1 mai 2020 Nombre de souscripteurs : 9 souscripteurs Participation des inites / Groupe Pro : Nom Initie = Y / Groupe Pro = P Nombre d'actions Georges Hebert Y 1 000 000 Honoraire d'intermediation : Aucun La societe a confirme la cloture du placement prive mentionne ci-haut par voie d'un communique de presse du 1 novembre 2018. __________________________________________________ HARBOUR STAR CAPITAL INC. ("EAST")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 6.08 a.m. PST, November 5, 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. ________________________________________ HIGHBANK RESOURCES LTD. ("HBK")BULLETIN TYPE: Shares for DebtBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the Company's proposal to issue 7,280,000 shares to settle outstanding debt for $364,000. Number of Creditors: 8 Creditors ________________________________________ IMETAL RESOURCES INC. ("IMR")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced Oct 31, 2018: Number of Shares: 8,450,000 shares Purchase Price: $0.08 per share Warrants: 8,450,000 share purchase warrants to purchase 8,450,000 shares Warrant Initial Exercise Price: $0.10 Warrant Term to Expiry: 2 Years Number of Placees: 18 Placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: Name Insider=Y / Pro-Group=P # of Shares Johan Grandin Y 500,000 Aggregate Pro-Group Involvement [1 Placee] P 500,000 Finder's Fee: Mackie Research Capital Corp. $9,000.00 cash; 112,500 warrants Finder Warrant Initial Exercise Price: $0.10 Finder Warrant Term to Expiry: Two years. 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. ________________________________________ MAGNITUDE MINING LTD. ("MML.P")BULLETIN TYPE: Remain HaltedBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Further to the TSX Venture Exchange ('TSXV') Bulletin dated November 2, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company will remain halted pending receipt and review of acceptable documentation regarding the change of business and/or Reverse Take-Over pursuant to Listings Policy 5.2. This regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange, pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules. ________________________________________ MARIFIL MINES LIMITED ("MFM")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 5.16 a.m. PST, November 5, 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. ________________________________________ MARIFIL MINES LIMITED ("MFM") BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 10.00 a.m. PST, November 5, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made. ________________________________________ METALLA ROYALTY & STREAMING LTD. ("MTA")BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase AgreementBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing a Royalty Purchase and Sale Agreement dated September 4, 2018 between Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd. (the Company) and GoGold Resources Ltd. (the Vendor) whereby the Company may acquire a 2% NSR on the Santa Gertrudis gold property located north of Hermosilla, Mexico. Consideration is US$6,000,000 cash and $US6,000,000 in common shares based on a Market Price of $CAD0.78. The owner of the property (Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.) has the right to purchase half of the NSR (1%) at any time for US$7,500,000. For more details please see the Company's' news release dated September 5, 2018 ________________________________________ NATCORE TECHNOLOGY INC. ("NXT")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 4.40 a.m. PST, November 5, 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. ________________________________________ NORWICK CAPITAL CORP. ("NWK.P")BULLETIN TYPE: CPC-Filing StatementBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the Company's CPC Filing Statement dated November 1, 2018, for the purpose of filing on SEDAR. ________________________________________ OROCO RESOURCE CORP. ("OCO")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced Oct 25, 2018: Number of Shares: 3,750,000 shares Purchase Price: $0.20 per share Warrants: 1,875,000 share purchase warrants to purchase 1,875,000 shares Warrant Initial Exercise Price: $0.32 Warrant Term to Expiry: 18 Months Number of Placees: 30 Placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: Name Insider=Y /Pro-Group=P # of Shares ATM Mining Corp.(Craig Dalziel) Y 225,000 Finder's Fee: Louis Zapata $13,000.00 cash Canaccord Genuity Corp. $500.00 cash 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. ________________________________________ PRECIPITATE GOLD CORP. ("PRG")BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase AgreementBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for expedited filing documentation pertaining to Purchase-Sale Agreement dated October 24, 2018 between Precipitate Gold Corp. (the 'Company') and Everton Resources Inc., pursuant to which the Company may acquire a 100% right, title and interest in three mineral concessions totalling 9,583 hectares in north central Dominican Republic. In consideration, the Company will pay $25,000 and issue a total of 7,000,000 shares with staged resale restrictions ranging from 6 months from closing to 35 months from closing. A sliding scale net smelter return royalty is payable ranging from 1.0% to 2.0% depending on the market price of gold. ________________________________________ PREDATOR BLOCKCHAIN CAPITAL CORP. ("PRED.P")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 1.46 p.m. PST, November 2, 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. ________________________________________ QUORUM INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES INC. ("QIS")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company Effective at 6.30 a.m. PST, November 5, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made. ________________________________________ SAINT JEAN CARBON INC. ("SJL")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Effective at 8.53 a.m. PST, November 5, 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. ________________________________________ TELSON MINING CORPORATION ("TSN")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced September 26, 2018: Number of Shares: 9,124,805 shares Purchase Price: $0.75 per share Warrants: 4,562,402 share purchase warrants to purchase 4,562,402 shares Warrant Exercise Price: $1.25 for a two year period Number of Placees: 7 placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: Name Insider=Y / ProGroup=P # of Shares Roberto Guzman Garcia Y 906,480 Estrategica Corporativa en Finanzas S.A.P.I. de C.V.(Roberto Guzman Garcia) Y 3,317,719 Enrique Margalef Vergara Y 1,817,493 ________________________________________ TRUE NORTH GEMS INC. ("TGX")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced October 2 and October 31, 2018: FIRST TRANCHE: Number of Shares: 5,000,000 shares Purchase Price: $0.05 per share Warrants: 5,000,000 share purchase warrants to purchase 5,000,000 shares Warrant Exercise Price: $0.05 for a two year period Number of Placees: 4 placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: Name Insider=Y / ProGroup=P # of Shares Jescorp Capital Inc. (Michael Wilson) Y 1,500,000 0806510 BC Ltd. (Mani Chopra) Y 1,500,000 ________________________________________ VOYAGEUR MINERALS LTD. ("VM")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced October 31, 2018: Number of Shares: 2,512,166 common share units ("Units") Each Unit consists of one share and one warrant Purchase Price: $0.075 per Unit Warrants: 2,512,166 share purchase warrants to purchase 2,512,166 shares Warrant Exercise Price: $0.15 for up to two years from closing Number of Placees: 4 placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: None Finder's Fee: $11,000 cash and 176,000 warrants ("Finder Warrants") payable to Leede Jones Gable Inc. $7,841 cash and 125,460 Finder Warrants payable to Richardson GMP Each Finder Warrant is exercisable for one common share at a price of $0.15 until October 30, 2020. ________________________________________ WELL HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES CORP. ("WELL")BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase AgreementBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company Property-Asset or Share Purchase Agreement: TSX Venture Exchange Inc. (the "Exchange") has accepted for filing documentation pertaining to a series of agreements whereby WELL Health Technologies Corp. has acquired thirteen (13) medical clinics in the province of British Columbia. The total purchase price for the acquisition of the thirteen (13) healthcare clinics was $6,352,044, allocated as follows: (i) a payment upon closing of the Transaction of $4,959,202 consisting of $4,221,820 in cash and $737,382 issuable as 1,638,626 common shares of the Company at a deemed price of $0.45 per share. The cash portion is subject to a 7.5% holdback to be released after 3 months; and (ii) a time-based earn-out of $1,392,842 payable quarterly over 3 years consisting of $1,161,473 cash and $231,369 issuable as common shares of the Company priced in the context of the market over time and subject to a floor of $0.45 per share. Insider / Pro Group Participation: N/A For additional information please refer to the Company's news release dated November 1, 2018. _______________________________________ NEX COMPANIES GOLDEN HARP RESOURCES INC. ("GHR.H")BULLETIN TYPE: Shares for DebtBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018NEX Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the Company's proposal to issue 10,549,082 shares to settle outstanding debt for $632,944.90. Number of Creditors: 3 Creditors Insider / Pro Group Participation: Creditor Insider=Y Progroup=P Amount Owing Deemed Priceper Share # of Shares Shaun Maskerine Y $125,779.70 $0.06 2,096,328 Takeuchi Consulting Corp. Y $61,806.35 $0.06 1,030,106 Tim Young Y $445,358.85 $0.06 7,422,648 The Company shall issue a news release when the shares are issued and the debt extinguished. ________________________________________ MK2 VENTURES LTD. ("MK.H")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018NEX Company TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced May 18, 2018: Number of Shares: 4,400,000 shares Purchase Price: $0.125 per share Warrants: 4,400,000 share purchase warrants to purchase 4,400,000 shares Warrant Exercise Price: $0.15 for a one year period Number of Placees: 9 Placees Insider / Pro Group Participation: Name Insider=Y /ProGroup=P # of Shares Aggregate Pro Group Involvement [2 Placee(s)] P 190,000 Finder's Fee: None ________________________________________ TANZANIA MINERALS CORP. ("TZM.H")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: November 5, 2018NEX Company Effective at 5.06 a.m. PST, November 5, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company was halted at the request of the Company, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules. ________________________________________ SOURCE TSX Venture Exchange Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute. Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno. Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi. Remember me? Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Aside from Robert Mueller and his direct supervisor, Rod Rosenstein, theres probably no one who knows more about the deepest secrets of the Russia investigation than the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington. Since even before the special counsel went public with his first prosecutions a little over a year ago, Chief Judge Beryl Howell has been at the center of key aspects of the governments sprawling criminal inquiry, like overseeing the federal grand jury investigating whether there was a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin to tip the 2016 election. Last week Chief Judge Howell had the rare honor of unsealing a historic document from another high-profile investigation: the so-called Watergate road map, a grand jury report that special prosecutor Leon Jaworski drafted for the benefit of the House Judiciary Committee investigating wrongdoing by President Richard Nixon. Made public in response to a freedom of information request, the road map matters not just for historical purposes, but also because it is a devastating, play-by-play account of the investigative steps a special prosecutor in a different era took to expose the crimes of a sitting president. The legal framework that gave Jaworski authority to do this no longer exists, and the regulations governing Muellers office only include very limited reports to Congress. Yet there has long been an expectation that the special counsel or Rosenstein will transmit to lawmakers a report on their investigative steps in the Russia investigation, including a breakdown of all the ways President Trump has attempted to obstruct justice by, say, firing FBI director James Comey or floating pardons for Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort. As flagged in Lawfare, whats striking about the Watergate road map is how unpretentious and by-the-book it is; it is not the product of an overzealous, overreactive prosecutor in the mold of Kenneth Starr, but rather a modest document that is careful to simply present facts, avoid legal conclusions, and defer to Congress. Thats more or less Muellers style of doing things, so it wouldnt be at all surprising if the special counsel has read the Watergate road map to inform his own thinking about how hell communicate his findings to lawmakers. If Democrats take the House on Tuesday, it will be open season on all sorts of congressional investigations of the presidency, including strands of the Russia probe that have long been abandoned if not outright ignored by House Republicans. Independent of congressional politics, Muellers operation has kept a low profile but remained quite busy, clearly unburdened by Rudy Giulianis farcical 60-day rule against investigative steps in the lead-up to an election. For instance, the federal grand jury out of Washington is still haunting Roger Stone not by calling him to appear, but by summoning his allies and former associates, many of whom have gone on to testify about their preelection dealings with the longtime Republican operative and Trump loyalist. Stone, who otherwise seems convinced he is Muellers next target, isnt doing himself any favors: He keeps changing his story about his contacts with WikiLeaks and his alleged role in the dissemination of Russian-hacked emails that proved damaging to the electoral prospects of Hillary Clinton. So far, Stone has denied it all, choosing to defend himself in the court of public opinion even before a court of law gets jurisdiction over him (though hes beefing up his legal team, too). What I am guilty of is using publicly available information and a solid tip to bluff, posture, hype and punk Democrats on Twitter, Stone declared in his latest column for the Daily Caller (he is listed as the sites mens fashion editor, but its also his preferred outlet for responding to the latest reports on Muellers work). This is called politics. Its not illegal, he wrote. What is or isnt legal is not for Stone to determine, which is why there is an active grand jury probing his interactions. But his tune sounds an awful lot like that of the Trump campaign itself, which is in court in Virginia trying to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing it of conspiring with Russia to disrupt the privacy and lives of a Democratic staffer and two Democratic donors whose personal information became public as a result of the hacks. The case has little to do with the Mueller investigation, but the Trump campaign is using it as a trial balloon of sorts to assert a sweeping First Amendment right to publish stolen emails under a theory that the campaign deserves similar constitutional protections as journalists doing their job. In effect, the Trump campaigns lawyers are preparing to pivot from the claim that there was no collusion to the claim that collusion is constitutionally protected, wrote Just Securitys Ryan Goodman and Bob Bauer, both of whom worried that this under-the-radar case could, as a matter of constitutional law, shield campaigns that in the future decide to collude with a foreign power for political advantage. (The swamp is all over this challenge: The law firm representing the Trump campaign, Jones Day, happens to be the firm that gave us Donald McGahn, the onetime White House counsel, and Noel Francisco, the Justice Department official that could inherit supervision of the Russia investigation if Rosenstein is shown the door.) In July, Mueller secured indictments against the Russian intelligence officers accused of scheming to hack and leak Democratic emails, but there has yet to be anything filed against Stone. Though Stone wasnt mentioned by name, Muellers office did drop a hint in those indictments: there was an American intermediary in the enterprise who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign. The only remaining question is the extent of the links between Stone, WikiLeaks, and the Trump campaign, and whether they amount to a crime Mueller can charge. For Stones money, its all politics as usual. (A corollary of grand jurors interest in Stone is that one of his former associates, Andrew Miller, is now mounting a challenge to the constitutionality of Muellers appointment, and he intends to go to the Supreme Court if necessary. In August, Chief Judge Howell upheld the appointment but held Miller in contempt of court for refusing to appear before the grand jury. On Thursday, lawyers for Miller and the special counsel will duke it out before a federal appeals court in Washington. I fully expect Mueller, who is sending consummate appellate expert Michael Dreeben to represent his office, to win.) Apart from filing a report to Congress and addressing Stones fate, Mueller may have some other postelection surprises up his sleeve. The week before Christmas, Michael Flynn, Trumps first and shortest-serving national security adviser, will go before a federal judge to be sentenced for lying to the FBI about the extent of his dealings with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. When Flynn pleaded guilty last December, the special counsel included a clause in his plea agreement promising to ask the court for leniency at sentencing. The catch: In the course of his cooperation, Flynn must provide substantial assistance in the investigation or prosecution of another person who has committed an offense. If Flynn truly sang for federal prosecutors, Muellers holiday gift to the president may just be another indictment of a person close to him. The popular imagination likes to place Mueller and Trump in a constitutional clash that could define the fate of the republic. Trump, for his part, likes to think of the special counsel and his team as a group of angry Democrats working to undermine a duly elected Republican chief executive. The true nature of what remains of the Russia mystery is neither of those things. In the same way that Mueller has declined to comment publicly on his work or dignify sleazy attacks on his person, he will continue to keep his head down and only go where the facts and the law lead him. To let his own work do the talking for him. Thats what special prosecutor Leon Jaworski did with the Watergate grand jury and what Mueller is doing with the one that has quietly returned indictments against a constellation of Trump figures. As with those cases, whenever its time for the next hammer to drop, it will. Photo: Turner Sparks Just a few years ago, Turner Sparks was a minor celebrity in Suzhou, where the English teacher turned entrepreneur was adored for bringing New Yorks iconic Mister Softee trucks for the first time to China. He started with one truck in 2007 with the help of Alex Conway, grandson of Mister Softees co-founder and Sparkss old University of Miami roommate. Five years later, Sparks had built up his Mister Softee operation to ten trucks and 25 employees. He did local TV and newspaper interviews and was a fixture at school and corporate events, where he and his team doled out waffle-cone soft-serve to thousands. During one corporate party at Bosch, an international electronics company, he sold $9,000 worth of $1 cones in just two hours. Competition was scarce, because he essentially invented the Suzhou ice-cream-truck market. All these trucks were just going nuts, doing really well. Huge lines all the time, he told me. Everyone knew Mister Softee. He planned an ambitious expansion, and lined up investors to back it: He wanted to quintuple his fleet to 50 trucks, add more storefronts, and move into new territory. Instead of the expansion he had planned, Sparks got an implosion. Two years ago, Sparks sold off all his trucks and moved back to the U.S. with just enough money to reinvent his life as a New York stand-up comic. What happened to Sparks is an illustration of how the landscape has shifted for foreign businesses in China since current president Xi Jinping has taken over the country, and the climate has become considerably less hospitable for foreign business small ones, in particular. Its like a microcosm of what happened to everybody all the way down to a dude with an ice-cream truck, Sparks said. For him, its cruelly appropriate that the ice-cream truck, a classic slice of Americana, would be ruined in the storm. I feel like its so poetic. But, before everything fell apart, there were good times and ice cream. When you first meet Sparks, he comes off as every bit the stand-up comedian he now is hes baby-faced with big blue-green eyes, a loud laugh thats damn near a cackle, and is relentlessly upbeat. It was that open optimism that led him to China in the first place. After graduating from the University of Miami in 2004 with a degree in journalism, Sparks, now 36, signed a yearlong contract to teach English in China. After three months there, he got a part-time job at Suzhou Daily, writing about local events in their English-language section. When that gig dried up, his editor connected him to her husband, Jeffrey Cai, who owned a nearby printed circuit board factory and offered him a job there. Around that time, 15 months after he first arrived, Sparks chatted up the Stateside Conway now a 36-year-old operations manager for Uber about starting a business in China. Since its Communist revolution, China had been inaccessible to foreign entrepreneurs. But things changed starting in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping threw open the doors to foreign businesses. After two decades of reforms and growth, Chinas economy in the early 2000s was surging. Looking to join the excitement, Sparks and Conway brainstormed a few business concepts until Sparks suggested Mister Softee. The idea had a lot of potential. Sparks noticed soft-serve windows at local McDonalds and KFC restaurants even with their basic menus were drawing crowds. He figured they could do even better with the help of Conway, who was steeped in Mister Softees enterprise since birth and used to drive a truck. They also invited on Cai, who had local connections and firsthand experience creating a new business. Added to that, Sparks and Conway believed theyd be the first company to bring ice-cream trucks to Suzhou, a city of 6 million people. The concept was so alien to Suzhou officials that Sparks had to show them videos and explain to them how the trucks worked. They thought we would be making the most dangerous business ever, like kids would be running after you in traffic, Sparks said. The team set to work on their new enterprise. Sparks ran day-to-day operations as CEO, while Conway, working a separate full-time job in the U.S. as a consultant for Booz Allen, assisted with advice and strategy. Cai continued to run his factory, but let Sparks ramp up the business from Cais offices. In late 2006, they signed a deal with Conways father, Jim, for the exclusive rights to develop Mister Softee in China. The younger Conway, Sparks, and Cai each kicked in a third of the money needed to start the business, raising the funds through friends and family. They created a local supply chain from scratch, finding vendors for cones, straws and soft-serve mix at a Shanghai food-and-drink expo. Using secret blueprints from Mister Softee, the truck was built in Nanjing by a company that makes telecommunications trucks, armored vehicles, and ambulances. Workers were hired from a job fair, with many long-distance drivers jumping on the opportunity to work locally and try something different. To give the soft-serve the same taste as back home, they shipped the milk in from the U.S. Suzhou officials worked with Sparks to create a new kind of business permit for their ice-cream trucks, called a Qualified Mobile Vendor License. It let them operate the trucks, but only as delivery vehicles for two stores. The license also required they have a staffed office and were restricted to operate at certain spots around the city. The solicitousness of Suzhou officials wasnt unique. All around China, local governments were inviting in foreign businesses, easing the cost of doing business with tax breaks, and giving them friendly government liaisons to help them navigate the labyrinthine bureaucracy. After a year of planning, Conway flew over to Suzhou with his girlfriend (now wife), and his father and a cousin the current co-owners of the original Mister Softee to celebrate the launch of Mister Softees new Chinese outpost. The had a launch party at a restaurant in late 2007, with their first truck parked nearby taking its first orders. Throughout the party, a sustained line of about a dozen people waited for their cones. That was the moment that really stuck out to me as, Oh, this is really going to work, said Conway. In Suzhou, they modified the Mister Softee menu for local palates, offering milk-tea floats, kiwi sundaes, and rice-cake-flavored ice cream with sweet red beans on top. The name Mister Softee, which graced the founding Conway brothers first truck in 1956, didnt properly translate so was changed to Mister Soft Heart. The ice-cream trucks famous jingle, though, stayed the same. The truck pulled in so much money after just a year that Sparks was able to raise $1.4 million from a handful of private U.S. investors to go bigger. They kept expanding the business over the years to its peak of ten trucks, 25 employees, and two storefronts by 2011, making Mister Soft Heart a beloved name in Suzhou. The first inclination Sparks got that things were changing was around 2012, when a local official called him into his office and accused Sparks of not paying enough in taxes. Immediately, I knew it was a shakedown, he said. This guy was an idiot. He was like, Theres money, I need some. Sparks declined the mans offer and left, but says that meeting was his first experience with the corruption hed often heard about in China. Soon after, two new drivers alerted Sparks to a longtime scam by his eight other drivers. They were quietly making extra soft-serve sales and pocketing the money for themselves. Because Mister Softee was a cash business, office workers would count drivers ice-cream cones at the start and end of their shifts to make sure they werent stealing. To circumvent that control, drivers bought their own cones. When Sparks started measuring the ice-cream mix instead, the drivers would buy extra cones and mix, too. Eventually, he instituted random checks on drivers and fired several on the spot when they were caught with more mix in their trucks than they had at the start of the day. Soon after, his tires outside his apartment were slashed. Then a fired driver showed up at Mister Softees office and threatened to kill the workers there. Things got more bizarre. In early 2013, just a few weeks after they were fired, Sparkss former drivers resurfaced with their own unlicensed ice-cream trucks, with knockoff names including Baby Bear, Snow Princess, and Mr. Big. These drivers would park along Mister Softee trucks routes to poach customers. Plus, they didnt have the special city license, which allowed them to operate without having to open storefronts or an office, and they could sell wherever they wanted. Conway was too far away to help out as problems started cascading. Cai, meanwhile, had moved to the suburbs about an hour away and was starting another printed circuit board business, so had no time to lend a hand. Sparks complained for months to the local government, saying those knockoff drivers didnt go through the same permitting process he did and were therefore operating illegally. What he got back was radio silence. The knockoff trucks were driving down Mister Softee sales at the same time Sparks was trying to raise more money for a massive expansion to more cities. Potential investors were getting spooked that the government wouldnt help him. Several Suzhou officials didnt respond to my request for comment for this story. Perhaps the slashed tires and death threats were unique to Mister Softee, but local officials deciding to yank support was downright typical of the changing times. As recently as 2010, China felt like it needed foreign businesses, but today its market is strong enough to survive without them, said Anil Gupta, professor of University of Marylands Smith School of Business, whos been researching and writing about China for 25 years. The foreign companies that are still very welcome in China are the ones that bring technology or know-how that China hasnt developed on its own, Gupta said. If you dont, then increasingly you are not all that welcome. Thats good news for Apple, but not for Mister Softee. Other major companies that have since bailed on China include Uber in 2016 amid tough local competition and stricter government regulations on its pricing, and Seagate last year as Chinese regulators moved to impose higher taxes on the electronics makers 2,000-employee factory. Restrictions like stiff internet censorship and requirements to share technology with China for market access have made competing harder. Now, one in four foreign businesses are scaling back in China or say they plan to, and most say they feel increasingly unwelcome, according to a 2018 survey from the American Chamber of Commerce in China. Gupta added that blatant knockoff enterprises are so common in China that its almost a wonder Mister Softees easily replicated business wasnt copied sooner. Plus, local officials and courts are more likely to back the local knockoffs to support Chinese businesses to hell with the permits. With 99 percent confidence, I would say this was destined to happen, Gupta said of Mister Softees fate. I would say that God couldnt even save this business. And so, thats exactly how things fell apart. After receiving one-year permits for his trucks without fail from 2007 through 2012, Mister Softees permits were withheld without explanation and Sparks couldnt reach government officials for months to clear up the issue. When Sparks finally heard back from government officials in mid-2013, they told him they would figure out a way to regulate the new trucks. Nearly a year later, with Sparks still operating without a new permit, officials proposed holding a lottery to dole out Suzhou permits to Sparks and the knockoff trucks. Around that time, police started ticketing Mister Softee trucks for parking illegally in spots theyd been working for years. By 2015, it became clear the lottery would never take place and Sparkss new round of investment crumbled. Part of it was a relief, to know it was over, Sparks told me. You feel, obviously, helpless. Over the next year, he wound down the business, paid his remaining staff and sold off the trucks so some others could spread the gospel of neighborhood soft-serve to nearby cities. In early 2016 on a Friday, Mister Softees tumultuous foray into China quietly ended with Sparks, his lawyer, and accountant filing liquidation papers and figuring out who they still owed money to. Sparks had already sold off the office furniture to his ice-cream cone supplier. There are still ice-cream trucks in Suzhou, Beth Cheng, Mister Softees Chinese office manager, told me in an email. But they are not so popular like Mister Softee. For myself I will never buy ice cream from these trucks. I miss Mister Softee, it was a great memory for me. After putting his profits back into the business for years, Sparks didnt have much money left for himself. In the end, there was no business to sell. After dabbling in comedy for years, he spent his last few months in Asia doing a comedy tour, preparing for his next reinvention. Despite what happened, Sparks told me he felt enormous pride about bringing ice-cream trucks to China and the fact that his trucks were still running somewhere in the country, likely still playing a version of the classic Mister Softee jingle. President Trump Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images At a weekend rally, President Trump launched a riff that, even by the feverish standards of his closing campaign argument, stands out for its brutal authoritarian overtones. The president mocked Antifa demonstrators: You see these little arms, these little arms, he shouted, forming his fingers into tiny circles to illustrate their puny biceps. And then he invited his supporters to imagine these weaklings having to fight against Trumps own militant cadres. Where are the Bikers for Trump? Where are the police? Where are the military? Where are ICE? Where are the border patrol? No, he continued, lamenting the restraint his sentries have displayed, weve taken a lot, weve taken a lot. Telling passage where Trump portrays Antifa as a Democratic paramilitary vs "his" "bikers", cops, military, ICE and border patrol. #fasc pic.twitter.com/cKzJAtVG8F Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 4, 2018 This is a revealing setpiece of authoritarian theater. There is, first of all, the evocation of strength as a moral signifier. Trumps people are strong and good, and his opponents weak and bad, a classically fascist ethos. Second, he conflates his private political militia, Bikers for Trump, with government agencies that are not supposed to operate as a political arm of the president (police, military, ICE.) Trump, of course, has always believed the governments law enforcement apparatus should be at his personal command, and has in fact deployed the military to the border for the benefit of his partys campaign messaging. Third, as he has done throughout his presidency, he also conflates Antifa (the miniscule faction operating totally outside of, and frequently at odds with the Democratic Party) with the opposition as a whole. If the radical resistance and thats what they are, radical resistance they will move immediately to reverse Americas progress. The term radical resistance treats the political opposition writ large as a dangerous, violent, and essentially illegal movement. And finally, Trump is tantalizing his supporters with the prospect of bloodshed. Their side has been set upon, and yet despite all their strength, he imagines some form of excessive restraint has held them back from administering to their tormentors the beating they so clearly deserve. He is wafting into the air the scent of blood. The Republican Party as a whole has echoed versions of this theme by Trump, depicting Democrats as a resistance mob. Trumps forays against violence play exactly the same role as his denunciations of corruption. He is magnifying marginal features of politics (Hillary Clintons speeches to Wall Street) in order to justify violations several orders of magnitude larger (Trump running a private, undisclosed business empire in office). Trump fixates on the negligible threat posed by Antifa not because he wants to build up the value of nonviolence but because he wishes to tear it down. Political violence is not the problem, it is the solution. Trumps rhetoric about the non-party-controlled news fake news, enemies of the people reveals this strategy in a way that is far more insidious than even his critics in the media seem to grasp. Reporters have treated his rhetoric as a dangerous game with unintended consequences. The consequences seem to be very much Trumps intent. A recently aired interview with Jim Vandehei of Axios perfectly illustrates the incomprehension that has greeted the presidents dark threats. Vandehei pleads with Trump to understand the dangers he might be unleashing. #AxiosOnHBO grills President Trump about his use of 'enemy of the people': "All I'm doing is fighting back against false stories...it's my only form of doing it...If they would write accurately about me, I'd be the nicest president you've ever seen." @hbodocs pic.twitter.com/RzyqUr4Fl4 Axios (@axios) November 5, 2018 What scares the crap out of me is that, when youre saying enemy of the people, enemy of the people, what happens if all of a sudden someone gets shot, somebody shoots one of these reporters? Vandehei pleads. Trump replies, It is my only form of fighting back. Watch the entire exchange, and take note of what Trump does not say here. The easiest answer Trump could give would be to deflect the concern as overblown. But at no point does he reassure the palpably frightened Vandehei that he is not inciting violence, and that his supporters understand that they should refrain from radical acts. Instead Trump lets the threat hang in the air, and justifies it as his only weapon against the slanders against him. This intent was even more clearly visible last Friday, when Trump parried a reporters question about whether he was instigating violence. You know what, youre creating violence by your question. You are creating. You, Trump insisted. The fake news is creating violence Ill tell you what, if the media would write correctly and write accurately and write fairly, youd have a lot less violence in the country. There is very little ambiguity about his point. Trump is warning the media that its critical coverage is provoking violence. His proposed remedy is not a cessation of violence but instead a cessation of critical coverage. Reporters seem to think that Trump will tone down by rhetoric if he can be made to understand that it is goading his supporters to violence. Its not that he doesnt understand. Trump understands the connection between incitement and response perfectly well. Its not even that he doesnt care. Trump calculates that the threat of bombs and bullets will force reporters to bend the knee. This is what he means by fighting back. Im watching you, and so is law enforcement! Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images Aficionados of last-minute ElectionDay dirty tricks are familiar with a ploy Republicans have mastered over the years of intimidating voters with threats that law-enforcement officers will be giving them some extra scrutiny in the vicinity of polling places. Adam Serwer explained it back in 2012 as a classic voter-suppression technique: Republicans, convinced that Democrats only win elections through voter fraud, have taken to setting up billboards warning that voter fraud is a felony in swing states this year. Naturally, these billboards only seem to pop up in minority neighborhoods. Its unclear how effective the billboards are at intimidating people out of voting, but theres no mistaking who theyre aimed at. They use a lot of threatening language to associate voting with a crime, that may just make people want to stay away, says the Brennan Centers Larry Norden. Norden says the billboards leave the impression that if you go to the polls there might be somebody there to take you to jail or fine you. Republicans have [also] developed an extensive network of poll watchers who think of themselves as protecting the integrity of the ballot box, but theyre really there to prevent people they think are Democrats from engaging in voter fraud. As Brentin Mock noted in his report on the conservative group True the Vote, the groups national elections coordinator said that he wanted voters to feel like they are driving and seeing the police following you. Sometimes this intimidation technique comes from organized and publicly identified groups like True the Vote, though more often its deployed by anonymous schmos operating black-bag operations on the margins of politics. It depends for its effectiveness, of course, on long histories of justified fears in low-income and particularly minority communities of unjustified harassment by law-enforcement personnel whenever they are doing something those in power do not like (you know, like voting for the wrong candidates). It says a lot about how far this country has devolved in respecting voting rights that this year the old police are watching gambit is coming from the Oval Office: Law Enforcement has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place in Tuesdays Election (or Early Voting). Anyone caught will be subject to the Maximum Criminal Penalties allowed by law. Thank you! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2018 This is rather absurd on its face, since its not clear what he means by law enforcement, given his lack of authority over the state and local personnel mostly responsible for election administration. And how does Trump know that state and local prosecutors would pursue Maximum Criminal Penalties for illegal voting? Yes, in theory the feds could intervene to punish fradulent voting in elections involving federal offices. But since in-person voter fraud (the kind Trump is talking about) is as rare as a blue rose, theres no reason it should be a priority for stretched-thin federal agencies. There has, traditionally, been an important role for the Feds on Election Day: enforcement of the Voting Rights Act in places where minority voters have historically struggled to exercise the franchise. The evisceration of the VRA by the Supreme Court in the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision has liberated election officials in the mostly Republican South and elsewhere to do everything in their power to discourage robust minority voting. But still, as in the past, the Justice Department has announced it is deploying attorneys to 35 jurisdictions to monitor VRA compliance. Trump, however, is signaling that they are not necessarily going to be there to fight for the right to vote, and may in fact have the opposite intention. Even if Sessionss minions plan to act in good faith, their ultimate boss is suggesting The Law is there to keep an eye on those people. Given his relentless if fact-free insistence that Democrats regularly benefit from illegal voting, perhaps Trump is simply setting the table for postelection rationalizations of Democratic gains (much as he dismissed Hillary Clintons 2016 popular-vote victory as the product of millions of illegal votes, without evidence). Or maybe he just heard about this intimidation technique, and thought it was too cool to leave to the locals. In any event, Trump is providing a sadly appropriate coda to an election cycle in which Republicans have often exploited their control over election machinery to improve their electoral chances (most famously in Georgia, where Secretary of State Brian Kemp has aggressively sought to cut every available corner to deny votes to his gubernatorial opponent Stacey Abrams). In this, as in so many other respects, the president is setting quite the example for his party in lowering the tone of political discourse to previously unknown levels. Photo: Twitter/@chckpeas There are few things the MAGA crowd loves more than a black Republican. The meteoric rise of Candace Owens and the embrace of Kanye West, despite his Hollywood A-list status, are symptomatic of a group desperate to prove it isnt racist. Over the past few months, the conservative sections of social media have become fixated on the #WalkAway campaign, urging Democrats and minorities to take off their blinders and join the Republican party. Late last month, it seemed that the Republican party had added a black college student named Quran to its ranks. She tweeted, I will not hide any longer,, the left has made us feel as if us black republicans should hide!! but not anymore!! #BlacksForTrump #WalkAway #maga and attached a photo of herself in a red bucket hat emblazoned with the famous Make America Great Again slogan. I will not hide any longer,, the left has made us feel as if us black republicans should hide!! but not anymore!! #BlacksForTrump #WalkAway #maga pic.twitter.com/YA0hnarxaY reformed republican (@chckpeas) October 27, 2018 The tweet went viral, and she got a momentary blast of internet fame, but then things went awry. Qurans parents disowned her, kicked her out of the house, and refused to pay her college tuition. this morning is getting worse and worse pic.twitter.com/ktf4fgYib8 reformed republican (@chckpeas) November 1, 2018 To make ends meet, Quran set up a GoFundMe, asking for financial support from her newfound Republican fanbase. [I]f you can find it in your hearts to help this young, black republican pay for school it would be appreciated , she tweeted. According to subsequent tweets, she ordered a new iPhone XS Max. She had apparently raised enough money for my tuition, rent, and 17 iphones [sic] now. And then the tables turned. Less than three hours after claiming to have been disowned by her family, Quran revealed that the text messages and the MAGA hat were a ruse to scam desperate, insecure Republicans. Trump is a racist, homophobic, transphobic, bigot AND YOU THINK MY BLACK ASS WOULD SUPPORT THAT ROTTING CARROT?? ridiculous. any black person can put on that ugly ass hat and say #MAGA and yall will instantly be up their ass cuz you wanna prove so hard youre not racist reformed republican (@chckpeas) November 1, 2018 [H]ot take: stealing from republicans isnt bad because republicans arent ppl, she wrote the next day. The applause started rolling in. Everyone loves a good scam and she seemed to be scamming the right people. Screenshots of her tweets went viral on Twitter as other users aggregated the narrative. A friend texted me a link to a Tumblr photoset that gathered more than 126,000 notes over the weekend. A rumor started circulating that shed raised more than $150,000. Unfortunately, I have to be the buzzkill and report that the rumors of Qurans take are highly exaggerated. Over the phone on Saturday, Quran admitted that she didnt raise much of anything, and that shed refunded what she had received. Thats between me and the IRS, she said coyly when I asked how much shed gotten. Asked for a ballpark figure, she quickly admitted she hadnt scammed anyone. Thats the thing though: I didnt, she confessed. I just felt really weird about taking their money. This could go south really fast, I just decided to refund everyone and give their money back. I think it was like maybe $200 at that point. Email screenshots she provided back this claim up. GoFundMe refunded at least $90 (one $50 donation and two for $20). GoFundMes terms of service say that fraudulent fundraisers are against the rules, but hers would seem to fall into a gray area. She may not have been kicked out by her parents (her mom didnt mind the fake texts) but Quran said she would have used the money to pay tuition, just like the fundraiser promised. I just honestly didnt want to take their money. Yeah, I cant pay for school but I dont want Republican money to pay for it, she laughed. I just want everyone to think Im the finesse queen, which I am. Quran is taking the semester off from Howard, an HBCU where she studies art history, but she had returned to the school to visit her friends for homecoming. It was there that she found the MAGA hat, an odd find on campus, and decided to take a picture with it to make fun of other black people who had #walkedaway, so to speak. She says she just wanted to troll and get into Twitter fights, but instead, It was just straight Republicans all in the comments who were so proud of me. It was weird. It was very unnerving. So Quran discussed it with a friend and she decided to use the attention to her advantage. A lot of Republicans have this idea that everyone thinks Republicans are mostly racist and theyre really desperate to get that stigma off of them. I just felt like capitalizing on that, she said. I was at 900 likes. I told my friend, I feel like this is gonna blow up. Lets try and get some money off these dumb, rich Republicans, she recalled. Thus, the GoFundMe was born. So, who got scammed in this situation? A few Republicans got scammed out of money, and thousands more got exposed as overeager to accept new black members to the party in order to prove theyre not racist. Did the Trump Train get scammed? Yes. ... Her own family has cut her off and essentially disowned her for coming out in support of our president @realDonaldTrump! Let's welcome her to the Right side!!! @chickpeas #WalkAway #WelcomeToTheFamily #MAGA #KAG #RedWave2018 Truth Storm (@SteveMurphy921) October 31, 2018 Still, Quran didnt actually raise the tens of thousands of dollars that people want to believe she did. Its a great viral story with all the touchstones trolling, deceit, racists getting exposed, someone getting rich but its not true. Are people who are quick to fall for viral hoaxes getting scammed? Yes. the girl who started a gofundme pretending to be a black trump supporter abandoned by her family really hit the lick of the century. snatch that magabag tbh jaboukie young-white (@jaboukie) November 5, 2018 Quran told me that shed shut down the fundraiser and refunded all the money, and provided email screenshots confirming as much. Yet she also tweeted a screenshot of a recent order shed placed for a new iPhone XS Max. Am I, a humble reporter, getting scammed? The doubt lingers Luckily for Quran, the kerfuffle provoked the Twitter fights she was hoping for when she took the MAGA-hat selfie. There are the people who support me for being a black Trump supporter, there are the people who are asking me why, and then theres the other people who saw obviously it was a troll, she said of the people messaging her on Twitter. I can look in my DMs right now: I cant believe you finessed Republicans. A true hero. Sis, I stan you so much. Youre a genius. LMFAO, get that bread, boo. Keep scamming til the day you die. She says her only regret is that she wishes a better photo of her had gone viral. A Grade 1 student from Brandon had one of her dreams come true late last month when she met music icon Ed Sheeran. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/11/2018 (1111 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us A Grade 1 student from Brandon had one of her dreams come true late last month when she met music icon Ed Sheeran. Scarlett Jervis, 6, had the opportunity to meet Sheeran, after a video that her mom, Jasmine Jervis, posted was seen by the right people. SUBMITTED Ed Sheeran spends some time with Scarlett Jervis before his concert in Minneapolis in October. "It just kind of showed a lot about her life and her struggles," Jasmine said. "Everybody got really involved and shared it and people sent it to different websites and it got really big, and then it fell into the right persons lap that managed to get it to his management." It started out just talking about how she would lose her mind if she ever met Sheeran, and it progressed from there. "I had already read about how he had met lots of people before who kind of like had like life struggles in some way, so I made a video," she said. "Ive never done anything like that before." Scarlett was born with Charge syndrome, which involves a lot of medical challenges. When the current Riverheights student was eight weeks old, she had open heart surgery. It was supposed to be a pretty common surgery, her mom said, but things didnt go as planned. She was on life support for quite a few days. "We thought we lost her a couple of times, we werent sure if she was going to come back, but she did, she rallied but with lots and lots of complications." The six-year-old now has a team of about 15 doctors and specialists, and has problems with her eyes, her ears, her balance and her hip. However, each day shes getting a little bit better, her mom said. "Shes in a wheelchair to get around but she also has a walker that she uses, so shes getting stronger and stronger each day." With all the challenges Scarlett faces on a daily basis, getting to meet Sheeran was a nice bright spot, Jasmine said. They were invited to attend a meet and greet before his concert in Minneapolis in October, which they were going to for Scarletts sixth birthday. "Hes her absolute favourite. She knows all his songs and she knows what albums that theyre all from," Jasmine said. "She knows all facts about him, she wants to research about him, were constantly having to Google information about him because she has certain questions all the time." When they went to meet him before the concert, Scarlett was over the moon, her mom said. "She was so excited she didnt really know what to do first," Jasmine said. "She had all these questions, but she was also hugging him at the same time." Among Sheerans and Scarletts heavy conversation topics during their meet and greet was their mutual love of pizza, and how Chicago pizza is one of the best. "There were lots of giggles," her mom said. Scarlett spend a lot of time at hospital appointments and in therapy, and it will be nice to look back on the selfies Sheeran took with her last month moving forward, she said. "Theres a lot of hard times in her life, so its just always good to be able to refer back to something thats a really, really good moment and a really cool thing to be able to look back on for her," she said. One of those hospital appointments is coming up for Scarlett at the end of November, when shes scheduled to have another surgery. "When were going into that, to be able to show her the videos from when we were there and show her the pictures, it will lift her spirits, and it always will," she said. mverge@brandonsun.com Twitter: @Melverge5 By Ann O'Louglin A legal action by developer John Ronan is frustrating the sale of development lands said to be worth about 35m at Cabinteely, Co Dublin, it has been claimed at the Commercial Court. The action is against two companies of which Mr Ronan formerly was an officer but over whom NAMA appointed receivers in 2012. Today Mr Justice Robert Haughton agreed to the companies' application to fast-track the dispute in the Commercial Court. He was told the lands are for sale. Paul Sreenan SC, for the receivers, said the sides had agreed directions for exchange of legal documents which would see the matter adjourned to April 2019 but, prior to that, his side would be applying for orders vacating a lis pendens, a legal claim, registered by Mr Ronan over the lands, counsel said. The judge fixed that application for hearing next month. Ross Aylward BL, for Mr Ronan, did not oppose the application to fast-track the case but stressed that was not to be regarded as accepting the sworn statements in the companies' application to have the case fast-tracked. Mr Ronan has brought the proceedings against Carlovent Ltd and Benreef Ltd, both with registered offices at Mount Street Crescent, Dublin 2. Mr Ronan had been an officer of both companies. In January 2012, NAMA appointed Denis McDonald and William O'Riordan as receivers over those companies. In his action, Mr Ronan claims he is owner of lands at Lehaunstown Lane, Cabinteely. Both defendants companies are understood to be the owner of lands bordering his lands and he wants declarations his lands benefit from certain rights of way, he says. In seeking to have the case fast-tracked, Craig Sowman, of William Fry solicitors, for the defendant companies, said in court documents the companies own six adjoining pieces of land at Cabinteely while Mr Ronan claims he is a legal owner of land abutting those and alleges he has an entitlement to exercise rights of way over the lands. Mr Sowman said the lands have been advertised for sale but Mr Ronan's case and the lis pendens have had a detrimental effect on the sale process. In an affidavit, Mr McDonald said some interested parties had indicated they were, because of the proceedings, no longer interested in buying the lands. There is a commercial urgency in having the matter decided as soon as possible, he said. Mr Ronan's side had alleged in correspondence since December 2017 there was a joint venture agreement between him, the two defendant companies and other Treasury companies in respect of the development of the lands, he said. There were also claims about rights of way dating back some 20 years. Mr McDonald said the defendants denied any such alleged joint venture agreement. In later correspondence, solicitors for Mr Ronan denied suggestions the proceedings and the lis pendens were a tactical attempt to frustrate the sale of the lands. The solicitors also stated a claim regarding a joint venture agreement in respect of the lands is not being advanced by Mr Ronan in his case. By Ann O'Loughlin The Law Society is concerned the deficit on a suspended Co Roscommon solicitors client account may exceed 600,000, the High Court has heard. Declan OCallaghan, who had practised at Kilraine OCallaghan, Pound Street, Ballaghderreen, has undertaken to discharge whatever sum the deficit amounts to, the court was told. Nessa Bird BL, for the Law Society, said today the solicitor, in line with undertakings provided to the court, lodged 395,000 to address the deficit but a cheque for 144,000 of that sum has bounced. The issue with the 144,000 was due to a problem with the lender, not Mr OCallaghan, and the problem had been rectified, the court was told. Ms Bird said Brendan Steen, a solicitor appointed as a joint manager of the practice, has identified it would be necessary to repay 212,000 to the client account on top of the funds already paid. That made a deficit of 600,000, she said. The Society had some concerns regarding the source of some of the monies lodged to the client account in that they appear to be loans from persons who appear to be clients, she said. The Society needed to ensure any such loans are properly vouched with built in waivers. The Society is concerned further payments may be necessary and considers a further meeting of the Societys Regulation of Practice Committee is necessary, counsel said. It may be necessary to call Mr OCallaghan and the current joint managers of the Pound Street practice, Mr Steen and Aoife OCallaghan, a daughter of Mr OCallaghan, before the committee to address matters in the report, she said. Mr OCallaghans case was back before the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly today for an update. Ms Bird said, arising from the need to address a range of matters outlined, she wanted an adjournment of three weeks. Noting the judge previously asked whether various statutory agencies should be informed of the matter, counsel said the relevant agencies had been notified. Gabriel Gavigan SC, for Mr OCallaghan said it was not any action of his client that caused the 144,000 cheque to bounce but rather arose due to an issue with the lender who had said the matter would be rectified. Mr OCallaghan has met every request made of him by the Society and intends to honour the proposals made, counsel added. Mr OCallaghan also accepted what Mr Steen said about an additional 212,000 deficit and that the matter, as the Society proposed, go before the RPC, he added. Mr Steen had said it would take some time to work through issues in the practice as some were complex, counsel noted. In his ruling, the judge noted he had directed that 350,000 be paid into the client account from personal funds by Mr OCallaghan by September 12th last and the solicitor also undertook to make good any additional deficit that may occur after all files have been finalised. The court was told that undertaking continues and any additional deficit will be met. Mr OCallaghan had said he will dispose of various assets including a premises in Dublin and investment property in Portugal and there were also outstanding fees and a VAT refund due to him. The judge noted he was told the shortfall of 144,000 was not due to any default by Mr OCallaghan but arose because of a lender, will be put right and will paid into the account forthwith and the court so ordered. The judge said he was happy matters are moving at a reasonable pace and that any authorities who should be notified had been notified. He adjourned the matter for three weeks for an updated report and so the 144,000 sum can be paid. Mr OCallaghan agreed last July to several orders, including not to practice as a solicitor, pending the outcome of an inquiry by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) into his conduct. He was also to pay 350,000 from his personal funds to the client account of Kilraine O'Callaghan Solicitors; to cease his involvement with that firm and to make good any additional deficit that may occur after various identified client files are finalised. Earlier the judge granted a separate application to have a former client of Mr OCallaghans, a bereaved child, made a ward of court with a view to protecting the childs assets. The Society earlier this year initiated its application for suspension of Mr O'Callaghan arising from concerns raised in an independent solicitor's report, including his having withdrawn substantial fees from the estate of that child. The court was previously told Mr O'Callaghan has reimbursed some 344,000 fees, including VAT, withdrawn by him from the child's estate, which he has accepted were excessive. They remain lodged in a controlled account pending further court order. The child's estate has assets of more than 736,000. While the above serum packs an extra punch with its exfoliating properties, perhaps youre just looking for something to help hydrate and moisturize your skin. When it comes to hydration, a serum that contains the powerful humectant hyaluronic acid will go a long way toward plumping skin and helping it retain moisture. One product with hyaluronic acid that King likes is this luxurious serumslashbody milk from French pharmacy brand Vichy, which contains ten essential oils. Vichy says the serum should last for approximately 90 applications, which, at $29 per bottle, works out to just over 30 cents a day. Editors note: Unfortunately, this body serum from Vichy has been discontinued. Limerick firm Class Medical may help prevent over a million patient injuries a year, writes Trish Dromey A simple safety valve developed by Limerick start-up Class Medical can potentially prevent over one million patient injuries a year and save hospitals from paying out millions of euros in damages. The patented safety valve, which is set to be launched globally next year, has been designed to ensure that catheters are inserted correctly. Incorrect insertion can cause injury and in some cases even death, according to company CEO and co-founder Dr Rory Mooney noting that it was the cause of a death in the US earlier this year. Approximately 130m catheters are placed annually with an estimated 1.7m incidents of urethral injury due to incorrect placement, he said. Recently chosen as the winner of the Munster round of InterTrade Irelands Seedcorn Competition in the early stage category, Class Medical is, according to Dr Mooney, the first to innovate in this space in 80 years, since the invention of the now globally-used Foley urinary catheter. Seven years after the companys three co-founders Dr Mooney, Dr Niall Davis and Professor Michael Walsh came up with an idea for a safety valve for a urinary catheter, the company is preparing to start manufacturing next January and to launch into international markets by March 2019. Our goal is to see our valve being used in all 130m catheters worldwide, said Dr Mooney. Based at Annacotty Business Park, where it employs six staff, Class Medical secured 550,000 in a seed round earlier this year which included private investment as well as 250,000 from Enterprise Ireland. To bring the product to market, it is now in the process of raising a further 500,000. Last year the company conducted a first in man study of its valve and it is now carrying out a sterility shelf life study of its valves in order to secure US and EU regulatory approval, which Dr Mooney expects to get early next year. Company co-founder Dr Niall Davis was working as a trainee urologist in 2011 when he observed a patient being injured as a result of an incorrectly inserted urinary catheter. He suggested to Dr Mooney and Prof Walsh that this should be preventable and the three of them produced a sketch of a valve which they believed would solve the problem. With this idea, the companys founders won the inaugural Enterprise Ireland Cleveland Clinic Clinical Innovation award of 15,000 which got them started on a feasibility study. They subsequently established a research team at the University of Limerick, securing commercialisation funding from Enterprise Ireland. Setting up the spin-out company in 2014, they conducted a six-month study in two hospitals to determine the extent of the problem created by misplaced catheters. This showed a healthcare cost of in excess of 335,000 to treat 37 urethral injuries - said Dr Mooney, adding that their research showed that between 1995 and 2009, 20m was paid to 493 claimants for urethral injuries in the UK. In 2017 Class Medical carried out its first in man study on 100 patients in Dublins Beaumont Hospital. The valve activated in seven cases to prevent misplacements and prevented any injuries from occurring, said Dr Mooney. Having secured patents in both the US and Europe and applied for FDA approval, the company is making plans to carry out a large clinical trial with 1,000 patients in the US. Although not required for a class one medical device, Dr Mooney said that the study will effectively demonstrate the efficacy of the safety valve. The aim is to get the results published and to secure endorsements for the mandatory use of urinary catheter safety valve technology from urology associations around the world. Class Medical plans to manufacture the valves at its premises at Annacotty, where it expects to increase its staff size to ten next year and to 17 within three years. The plan is to start by selling to hospitals in Ireland and the UK and then to hospitals in the US and Europe. Our goal within a few years is to see the valve being incorporated into every catheter kit on the market, said Dr Mooney observing that this presents Class Medical with a multi billion euro market opportunity. Ryanair has said that its website and mobile app will close for 12 hours for a systems upgrade. The upgrade will take place from 5pm (Irish time) on Wednesday, November 7, until around 5am (Irish time) on Thursday, November 8. It means its online check-in service will not be available during this period. Ryanair said it has contacted all customers booked to travel on those dates by email and SMS text to advise them to check-in online for their flight tomorrow, before the web closure takes place. New bookings or changes to existing flights will not be possible during this closure. Ryanair apologises for any inconvenience caused by this systems upgrade. However, in a separate route announcement today by the budget airline, they also said that customers will be able to book return flights with 20 off as part of their Winter Winners sale until midnight on Wednesday, November 7. When asked for clarification they said the sale will now end at 5pm on Wednesday. Ryanairs Robin Kiely said: As part of our continued digital development, a web closure and system upgrade will take place for 12 hours, from 17:00hrs (UK time) on Wednesday 7th November, until 05:00hrs (UK time) on Thursday 8th November, during which time our online check-in service will not be available. "Flight bookings and changes will also be unavailable during this period. Customers travelling on Wednesday or Thursday should check-in for their flight on Tuesday 6th November. "We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused by this upgrade, which will further improve Ryanair.com, Europes largest travel website. The airline announced the new route from Dublin to Bodrum, Turkey, as part of its Summer 2019 schedule. The twice-weekly service will start in May 2019. Mr Kiely said: "This new route is on sale now on the Ryanair.com website and to celebrate we are also offering up to 20 off return flights for travel between now and February 2019 as part of our Winter Winners sale. "These amazing low fares are available for booking until midnight Wednesday (7 Nov). However, an airline spokesperson later said: "With the website closure, the sale will now end at 5pm on Wednesday." Latest: Two Dublin schools facing concerns over their structural safety will remain closed until later this week. The Department of Education and Skills held a meeting today with the school authorities at Tyrrelstown Educate Together National School (ETNS) and St Lukes National School to discuss the impact of the precautionary measures completed on Sunday. ETNS and St Lukes were forced to temporarily close due to safety concerns over two weeks ago. Further work will be undertaken on Tuesday, and occupancy will initially be at ground-floor level only, with other classes being temporarily accommodated off-site. A department spokesman said: The Department is working closely with the school authorities to facilitate the reopening of both schools as soon as possible. Taking account of the time also necessary to address operational issues, such as traffic management, over the course of today, tomorrow and Wednesday, all parties are now working towards the schools reopening later in the week. The details of when the schools will open will be communicated by the school authorities directly to parents. A total of 42 schools are being examined and preliminary indications suggest in many cases the structures are sound. My message to parents, pupils, teachers and staff is this - it is safety first. Any issues we have found, we will fix. pic.twitter.com/wG6WiEZlW7 Joe McHugh (@McHughJoeTD) November 1, 2018 Education minister Joe McHugh previously stated that initial assessments on schools with structural issues would be completed by Tuesday evening. The developer at the centre of the controversy is Western Building Systems (WBS). The review was prompted amid concerns for the integrity of facilities built by the Tyrone-based construction firm between 2009 and 2013. Western Building Systems said the Department of Education had declared each of the closed schools to be fully compliant after construction was completed.- Press Association Update 6:43pm: It will be Thursday before 1,200 pupils can return to two West Dublin Schools. Tyrellstown Educate Together and St Lukes National School both remained closed today, despite safety work to address structural issues being carried out over the mid-term break. They've been closed since October 24. The Department tonight issued a statement saying it's working closely with school authorities to facilitate the opening of both as soon as possible. A three-hour meeting between school representatives and Department of Education officials took place earlier. Only the ground floors will reopen on Thursday, meaning some students will take shuttle buses to temporary accommodation. Education Minister Joe McHugh says the schools will be safe for students. "The engineering solution for the ground floor and putting strengthening and supporting systems in place is something the engineers will stand over," he said. A review of how the Department of Education awards school building projects is to take place after the structural defects controversy. 19 other schools built by Western Building Systems reopened this morning after works were carried out. Mr McHugh says its clear proper building compliance was not followed in every school building project: "This is a case of poor workmanship in some schools but it also proves that this company was in a position to build 19 schools to the best proper compliance that was necessary but obviously this wasn't adhered to in every school." Update 7.54am: Two schools remain closed this morning as the schools building controversy continues. St Luke's National School and Tyrrelstown Educate Together, both in Dublin, will not open their doors to around 1,200 students. The schools had hoped to open the ground floors of their buildings this morning, however, a decision was taken last night to keep the schools closed because work to make the school safe was not finished to a high enough standard. That is despite the Department of Education confirming that safety measures were in place for 22 schools in time for class this morning. Elsewhere, one school building will remain closed at Ardgillan Community College in Dublin - and 19 schools have been cleared to open fully. Kateryna Kozyk's daughter goes to Tyrellstown Educate Together and says many parents are struggling to find childcare "My situation is different now that my husband can stay with her [daughter]," said Ms Kozyk. "But I know a lot of families where both parents work and it's a huge problem because they can not find childcare and they don't know for how long they have to arrange that. So they have to arrange relatives and childminders. It's very expensive and it is completely unclear when it will be sorted out. Sinn Fein Councillor Paul Donnelly has been speaking to parents in Tyrrelstown in West Dublin and he says it is a difficult situation for parents and children. "There's just so many issues that have to be addressed," said Mr Donnelly. "There's safety issues, there's the bus issues, there's transport... It is a really difficult situation for everybody. "Tyrrelstown is a brilliant community and I know that they are pulling together as much as they can but there is no doubt about it, there are huge concerns still" Earlier: 19 schools cleared to open fully as building controversy continues 22 schools are expected to have safety measures in place in time for class this morning - as the schools building controversy continues. One school building will remain closed at phase 1 of the Ardgillan Community College in Dublin - and 19 schools have been cleared to open fully. Ardgillan Community College Work continued late into the night as teams rushed to complete the required precautionary measures recommended following structural assessments on schools constructed by Western Building Systems. The Department of Education says five teams involving over 250 workers have been on site through the weekend to facilitate the reopening of schools this morning. Students were heading for bed as the Department issued their latest update, that 19 schools had been cleared to open A Department source says school principals have been kept informed of progress throughout - and parents are being contacted by their school authorities directly, about local arrangements. - Digital Desk By Declan Brennan A garda accused of possessing child pornography told investigators somebody else must have downloaded child sex images onto his laptop, a trial has heard. Joseph O'Connor (58) of west Dublin has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five counts of possession of child pornography at his home in west Dublin on dates between July 30 and August 2 in 2011. Detective Superintendent Colm O'Malley told the jury that on June 21, 2012 he arrested the defendant and later interviewed him about images found on a Dell laptop seized from his home during a search in August 2011. Videos found on the seized laptop showed boys under the age of ten subjected to sexually explicit acts. 12 movies retrieved showed boys between the age of ten and 17 with two files depicting children being subjected to explicit sexual acts with a male adult. As garda interviewers took the accused through the child sexual images and videos, he repeatedly denied knowledge of them. He told investigators: I've never downloaded any of those images. He repeatedly said he'd never seen many of the images, which included children having sex with children, and described them as sick. I have never downloaded or viewed child pornography. Somebody else must have downloaded them, he told detectives. He said his laptop had no password and could be used by anyone coming into his house. The defendant said he would bring men, who he met on hook up websites like Manhunt, back to his home and they would often use the laptop. He said that in the days before the laptop was seized by gardai a man named Patryk (sic) Farrell met him at his home for sex. He said the next day his laptop started going ballistic and he was convinced Mr Farrell corrupted the computer. The hard drive seemed to be spinning and if you typed anything, what you typed wasn't appearing on the screen, he told Supt O'Malley. He told gardai he spent most of the day ringing technical support in Pakistan and invited gardai to check his telephone records. Paul Carroll SC, defending, previously told the jury that his client was not challenging that the files found on the laptop amounted to child pornography but that the real issue is how they got there. The trial continues before Judge Elma Sheahan and a jury of ten men and two women. Additional evidence: 'The fucking eejit was still high or drunk' The defendant told investigators that in some of the images the people looked over age but denied having downloaded the images. He identified some of the people in the images as adult friends of his, saying of one image That's Samuel, he's 28. That was put up in 2010. Mr O'Connor told detectives that on the night of Thursday, July 28, Mr Farrell came to his house and they had consensual sex. He said he knew Mr Farrell from before and that he had assaulted a man he knew but he had never done anything to me. He said Mr Farrell stole his official garda ID and 20. He said he realised after Mr Farrell had left his home and he got into his car and found Mr Farrell at a bus stop. He confronted Mr Farrell and searched him and found the item as well as his handcuffs. He said Mr Farrell came after him saying the cash was his and he pushed Mr Farrell back. The fucking eejit was still high or drunk. He fell back on his arse. Several people saw that, he said. Mr Farrell got a bus into town and collapsed in a public place. The jury heard of texts between the two men, with Mr O'Connor texting why did you have to destroy a good night? and Mr Farrell replying I've being to the hospital and saying that gardai were shocked by the bruising on him. The court heard that the defendant wrote back: Are you claiming rape now and all? and Mr Farrell replying I'm very bruised, I will go to gardai. The court heard a complaint was made by Mr Farrell to the Garda Ombudsman and Inspector Colm Fox, since deceased, also carried out an investigation into allegations of rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment. Garda Sergeant Kevin Menchen told Paul Carroll SC, defending, a report by Inspector Fox concluded that there was no evidence of these offences. He said the alleged physical injuries were consequences of sexual acts. The garda report detailed that Mr Farrell had 21 previous convictions for minor offences. A previous allegation of assault was found to be inconsistent with CCTV footage. There was also details on the Garda Pulse records system of a named man calling gardai to have Mr Farrell removed from his home and details of barring orders taken out against Mr Farrell. By Stephen Maguire A man caught fighting by Gardai told a court that he became embroiled in a row after the other man kept winking at him in a bar. Ryan Daly was caught by Gardai in a fight with two other men at 2.24am at High Road in Letterkenny, Co Donegal on October 22nd last. Daly was identified by the Gardai as the main aggressor and was arrested. When arrested he told Gardai "For f***s sake, f*** off.' Daly, from Stonebridge Court, Shankhill in Dublin, had only arrived in County Donegal two days previously to start a carpentry apprenticeship. Judge Paul Kelly asked Daly, aged 19, who was charged with public order offences, why he was fighting with the other man. "Because he kept winking at me in the pub," replied Daly which sent laughter through the courtroom. Judge Kelly said that he didn't know about Shankhill in Dublin but this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated in Letterkenny. He was told that Daly's apprenticeship will last six months and he earns 310 a week. Judge Kelly said he would leave Daly without a conviction if he pays 100 to St Vincent de Paul. He adjourned the case until December 7th next. The jury has begun its deliberations in the trial of a man accused of murdering his friend and dismembering his body. 50-year-old Paul Wells Senior of Barnamore Park in Finglas, Dublin, denies murdering Kenneth OBrien almost three years ago. In January 2016, the remains of 33-year-old Kenneth OBrien were found scattered in different parts of the Grand Canal in Co. Kildare. A couple told the jury how they found the torso in a suitcase in Ardclough while other body parts were found in Sallins. The deceased Kenneth OBrien had been living in Australia and had only returned a few weeks before his death. His friend Paul Wells Senior admits shooting him but denies murder. He claims it was self-defence after there was a struggle over a gun because he was refusing to kill Kenneths partner. The Judge told jurors there were disturbing elements to the case but he said the horror that might have been felt at what happened should not necessarily determine the guilt or innocence of Paul Wells. The 11 jurors have three verdicts open to them, guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or not guilty. - Digital Desk by Natasha Reid A Central Criminal Court jury will resume deliberations tomorrow in the trial of a murder accused, who chopped his friend up with a chainsaw after shooting him in the defendants back yard. Before it retired, the judge reminded the jury of seven coincidences that the defence said supported the accused mans story that he shot his friend during a scuffle over the deceased asking him to murder the mother of his child. Paul Wells Snr (50) of Barnamore Park, Finglas has admitted shooting dead fellow Dubliner Kenneth OBrien and dismembering his body. However, he has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 33-year-old at his home in Barnamore Park on 15th or 16th January, 2016. The father-of-five claims that the deceased had wanted him to murder Mr OBriens partner, so that he could take their child back to Australia, where he had previously lived. He told gardai that Mr OBrien had brought a gun to his house for this purpose on the evening of the 15th but that he didnt want to do it. He said this resulted in a scuffle between them, that the gun fell, they both tried to get it, but that he got to it first and shot his friend in the back of the head. He said that he then panicked, chopped him into pieces with a chainsaw Mr OBrien had lent him, put his torso into Mr OBriens suitcase and dumped it in the Grand Canal. Mr Justice Paul McDermott began charging the jury on Friday and concluded yesterday (Monday). He reminded the 11 jurors of matters that Michael OHiggins SC, defending, had said supported his clients defence that there was a conspiracy to murder Mr OBriens partner, Eimear Dunne. Mr OHiggins had referred to them as a series of coincidences that arose on the very day that Mr OBrien had allegedly intended to have his partner killed. These included the fact that the CCTV system in the couples home was not working that day and that its code had been changed, something Ms Dunne said that only Mr OBrien could have done. There was the cancellation, by Mr OBrien, of Ms Dunnes 30th birthday party that night; he had said he was working in Limerick that day, but this work was also cancelled. The judge also reminded the jury that Mr OBrien had no house keys, but had cut some the previous day, that he had two phones on the go, and that his passport was missing at the time of his death. He also noted that Mr OHiggins had argued that Mr OBrien had given suitcases to Mr Wells, one of which was handed over at the boot of a car, with him allegedly telling Mr Wells that he didnt want Ms Dunne to know about it. Finally, he noted that the numbers for two of Mr OBriens employers had been removed from Ms Dunnes phones. The judge explained that the defence case was that these coincidences supported the proposition that there was a conspiracy to murder Ms Dunne. He reminded the jury that the prosecution had argued that there was premeditation in the killing of Mr OBrien. The 11 members were given three possible verdicts: guilty, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, or acquittal, and were told to reach a unanimous decision. They began considering their verdict shortly after noon and had deliberated around three hours before going home for the evening. They will resume deliberations this morning. The search for Kenneth O'Brien Disturbing elements Last week the trial judge noted the disturbing elements relating to the disposal of the body in a case where the accused said he chopped his friend up with a chainsaw after shooting him dead in self defence. However, he told the jury that the horror shouldnt determine its verdict, with the main issue to decide being how his death was brought about. In this case, there are disturbing elements in relation to the disposal of the body, said Mr Justice McDermott, as he began his charge yesterday. The main issue in this case is how the deceased died, how was his death brought about, what were the circumstances of his death, he explained. Maybe some of the matters after his death assist you in determining that fact, but the horror that might have been felt at what happend shouldnt necessarily determine the guilt or innocence of Mr Wells, he continued. Its only if it informs you of what happend at the time he was killed that it becomes relevant. He told the jury to consider the state of mind in which the killing was done, whether it was intended or not, or was self defence or not. However, he told the jury that it could consider something done afterwards to cover his tracks if its suggested that it indicates state of mind on the part of the perpetrator. He said that it was for the jury to decide if Mr Wells had intended to cause death or serious injury when discharging the firearm into the back of Mr OBriens head. He said that if the jury was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Wells was the aggressor and that this was a planned assassination, that would be murder. He explained that a homicide was not murder if committed in reasonable self defence. He told the jurors that they had to consider all the evidence in the case, how Mr OBrien came to be at Mr Wells house, why he was there, what happeend, what ensued after he arrived, the nature of the row or fight that Mr Wells described, his description of the gun falling to the ground, the struggle to get that gun and the accused mans state of mind when he got that gun. He said that if they reached a view that Mr Wells was in a situation that justified the use of some force, but he used more force than he knew to be reasonably necessary, the appropriate verdict would be guilty of murder. He said the jury was also entitled to conclude that he did not believe any force was necessary. If Mr Wells killed Mr OBrien because he honestly believed that the level of force that he used in discharging the gun into the back of his head was, in that time and place, necessary to defend himself, but in doing so used a greater degree of force than a reasonable man would have considered necessary, the appropriate verdict in that situation would be not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, he explained. He said that a full defence to murder was open if he killed Mr OBrien using such force as was, in the circumstances, reasonably necessary. If theres a reasonable possibility that hasnt been excluded by the prosecution, you simply acquit him, he said. He explained that if one man attacked the other, the other man had the right to strike a blow in his own defence without waiting to be struck. The jury had earlier heard the conclusion of the defences closing speech. Michael OHiggins SC told the jurors that one of the things theyd do when deliberating would be to use their common sense. Its very good advice, but in certain cases common sense has its limitation, he said. The realm of this case as put forward by the prosecution and the defence is way outside everybodys ordinary daily living. He asked them to keep that to the fore and not rush to any conclusions. It would be wrong to convict Mr Wells because you think he's despicable, he said. It would be equally wrong to acquit him because you took some set against Mr O'Brien. He asked where the evidence was to disprove his clients account of landing behind the deceased in a row-your-boat position during the scuffle and immediately before the shooting. He asked where a ballistics expert was to give an indication of the possible explanations for the slightly downward trajectory of the bullet. He noted the pathology evidence that the weapon had been pressed against the back of the head at the time of the shooting. If people are struggling on the ground and theres a battle for the gun and people are moving, I suggest its ... possible the head and gun could come in contact, he said. He suggested that it was equally possible that, in the heat of that tussle, a gun could be applied to the head and discharged. He said that the real question was whether it was reasonably possible that if it wasnt going to be Mr OBrien, it was going to be Mr Wells. If the answer was yes, there should be an acquittal, he explained. However, if they found that Mr Wells had over-reacted, then the verdict should be manslaughter, he concluded. A man in his 40s has been arrested following the discovery of approximately 7,500 worth of suspected Xanax tablets in Limerick. At around 8pm on Saturday evening, gardai arrested the man during the seizure at a house in the Carew Park area. By David Raleigh Minister for Health Simon Harris said today he is worried about the impact on patients attending hospital over the coming winter period, as the trolley crisis remains frozen in place with little sign of it thawing out. Speaking in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, where he opened a new cataract surgical centre, he told reporters: I say this respectfully, everybody asks am I worried about winter (approaching); Im actually worried about the capacity of the health service everyday of the week. Its no longer just a winter problem - we don't have enough (bed) capacity in the Irish health service, he added. The minister acknowledged a need for more capacity in the acute hospital setting, and more step down facilities, and more primary care. This winter will be a challenge, as every winter is, as everyday is, he said. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has warned that 2018 is forecast to be the worst year ever for hospital patient overcrowding, with 100,000 expected to have been on trolleys by the end of December. Minister Harris said a number of measures would be, and were being, put in place to try to tackle the crisis. He announced today that a 60-bed modular unit would likely be constructed on the grounds of University Hospital Limerick by this time next year, to help alleviate pressures on the hospitals emergency department as an interim measure. The hospital, where 51 patients languished on trolleys today, has consistently had the highest number of patients on trolleys nationally. Management at UHL have also sought a permanent 96-single bed unit, but while the proposed unit is included in the governments capital investment plan, there is no confirmed construction timeline on it. Despite a new 25m emergency department opening at UHL last year, the trolley crisis there, as is like at hospitals around the country, continues unabated. Minister Harris said the government has a plan to increase hospital beds by 2,600 over the next ten years to help alleviate the problems. We need to front-load that as much as we can. This year, so far, we have opened 240 extra hospital beds. We have about 79 more to come on stream between now and early 2019. He said he expected that a 40-bed modular unit would open in Clonmel in the first quarter of 2019. Weve allocated an additional 10m, between now and the end of the year, to the HSE, to provide more home care and more transitional care beds, to try and get patients in and out of (hospitals) as quickly as possible, he said. More beds he said was the clear solution to the crisis, however, the minister acknowledged ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining staff. There is a package of measures through the public service pay commission to try and attract, retain, nurses and doctors. In relation to new entry consultants, he said he hoped the government could sit down and work out a way of keeping our medical talent here in Ireland, where we need them. By Ann Murphy Sex workers are charging up to 2,400 a day in Cork in hotels and apartments across the city and county. The escorts advertise a range of services online, with many jetting into Cork from cities across the world to target local clients. There are up to 100 operating daily in the city and in county towns. Some arrive in Cork for just one day, while others are here for up to a week at a time. One escort posted online that she charges up to 2,400 for a full day call out rate. A dinner date with the same escort is 400, while a half day in her company is 1,200. Among her services is a girlfriend experience, as well as many sexual services. Her profile on the website carries the proviso: Michele charges for time and companionship only. Anything else that occurs is a matter of coincidence and choice between consenting adults. Another escort charges a cheaper rate of 2,000 for a day but has a higher dinner rate of 600. The majority of those advertised on the website did not offer half or full day rates, or rates for dinner. Instead, the prices were per hour, with the average being 200 per hour. The age profile typically ranges from 18 to 30, although there are advertisements from older escorts. The individual profiles give the details for when they are available in Cork, with many here for just a few days before travelling to another city in Ireland or to their own countries. Others were just here for one day before moving on. Nationalities included South American, Eastern European, and African. The escorts were mostly female. However, the profile of one of those offering a full day service claimed to be from a lady boy. The profile stated: I love Ireland and I love travelling to all your wonderful Irish cities, I never spend a long time in the same place so dont miss the chance to have your magical moment with me. It is not known whether those on the site work independently or if they are part of an organised prostitution operation. Mary Crilly of the Cork Sexual Violence Centre said that there have been cases where women working in the sex trade have contacted the centre for help either because they were trafficked or because they were attacked during an encounter. While acknowledging that some women do become prostitutes of their free will, she said it is appalling that young girls think it is a glamorous way of life. She added: It is about buying somebody elses body. Gardai in Cork say there is no evidence that sex trafficking is hugely prevalent in the area at present but have appealed for information on the trafficking crimes. This story first appeared in the Evening Echo. By Ann O'Loughlin The High Court has refused to grant an injunction preventing the HSE from investigating a consultant surgeon who is facing multiple allegations concerning the standard of care provided to patients. Dr Declan Buckley, a gastrointestinal surgeon based at the Regional Hospital, Mullingar, Co Westmeath sought an injunction against the HSE arising out of a decision taken in April 2017 to place him on administrative leave with full pay. The court heard the decision, which was a precautionary one, not a disciplinary sanction nor an indication of guilt was taken after complaints were made about the standard of care provided by Dr Buckley. The allegations include that his delivery of care to several patients allegedly resulted in complications and poor outcomes that were above an acceptable limit. The allegations include that some of patients with large bowel obstructions needed emergency surgery due to an alleged failure to recognise the problem and operate in a timely manner. Dr Buckley denies all claims. He says he had no opportunity to respond to the allegations against him and says that none of the alleged incidents had been the subject of complaints by the patients involved, nor their relatives. He sought various orders including an injunction - to be put in place pending the outcome of the full hearing of the dispute - restraining the HSE from conducting an investigation into his practice. Dr Buckley has not worked since being placed on administrative leave and fears for his reputation and professional standing as well as becoming deskilled. The HSE opposed the application. In her judgement, Ms Justice Caroline Costello said the balance of convenience favoured refusing the injunction. The judge said the range and seriousness of complaints against Dr Buckley, and the fact they had been raised by a number of different parties, "weigh the balance in favour of refusing the injunction sought." The Judge said Dr Buckey remains indefinitely on administrative leave since April 2017. The investigation into his alleged conduct should take place with all practicable speed, which had not happened in this case. However, the fact was that he was a consultant surgeon in charge of a busy list who was facing "multiple allegations giving rise to very genuine concerns in relation to patient safety arising out of his practice." The case she added could potentially have "grave if not catastrophic consequences" for persons not a party to the case. Dr Buckley had "not contested that the allegations, if true, would give rise to a serious risk to the health safety and welfare of patients." "This is significant as I am assessing what should happen pending the trial of the action, I cannot decide on the merits of the case," she added. The Judge accepted that Mr Buckley had made out a strong case. He was not afforded even a limited opportunity to respond to the allegations and he was not informed of any of the details of the complaints before he was placed on administrative leave with immediate effect. The judge also said that damages would not be an adequate remedy for either Dr Buckley or the HSE. The Judge said the surgeon had worked in Mullingar since 1999. Reviews of his practice were conducted by the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland in 2006 and 2009 after concerns were expressed about perceived poor outcomes for his patients. A panel that conducted an independent review of his performance in 2011 concluded Dr Buckley had not been able to demonstrate he could function safely in an unsupervised environment, his judgement was flawed in several cases and he lacked insight. The panel also had concerns about his knowledge and technical skill and its findings had "serious implications for patient safety." The panel made recommendations that Dr Buckley practice was subjected to certain limitations including retraining and supervision. However, the Judge said that while his work at Mullingar was subject to certain conditions it was alleged that he was not complying with these arrangements. This culminated with colleagues of Dr Buckley making protective disclosures to the hospital's clinical director raising their concerns about the standard of care allegedly provided by Dr Buckley. Dr Buckey has strongly objected to the decision to place him on administrative leave and claims he has been denied fair procedures and that the HSE has acted in breach of contract. The case will now proceed to a full hearing of the dispute between the parties. Update 5.19pm: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has told Theresa May he is willing to consider proposals for a review clause in any backstop plans for the Irish border in the wake of Britain leaving the EU. During a phone call between the Taoiseach and British Prime Minister today, Mr Varadkar said that the outcome of a review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop. A spokeswoman for the Government said that both leaders emphasised their commitment to avoiding a hard border and the need for a legally-operable backstop. "The (British) Prime Minister raised the possibility of a review mechanism for the backstop," the spokeswoman added. "The Taoiseach indicated an openness to consider proposals for a review, provided that it was clear that the outcome of any such review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop. "He recalled the prior commitments made that the backstop must apply 'unless, and until' alternative arrangements are agreed. "They both expressed the hope that the negotiations could conclude in a satisfactory manner as soon as possible." A Downing Street spokesman described Mrs May's conversation with Mr Varadkar as "constructive", adding: "They agreed that the intention was that the backstop should only be a temporary arrangement and that the best solution to the Northern Ireland border would be found by agreeing a future relationship between the UK and the EU. "In order to ensure that the backstop, if ever needed, would be temporary, the Prime Minister said that there would need to be a mechanism through which the backstop could be brought to an end." The call came after Mr Varadkar dismissed the idea of a time-limited backstop, saying it would not be worth the paper it is written on. Reports at the weekend that UK Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the EU's proposed Irish backstop after just three months had been criticised by the Government. Tanaiste Simon Coveney said that their position remains "consistent and clear" that a time-limited backstop will never be agreed to by Ireland or the EU. Speaking this morning, Mr Varadkar described the UK as a "divided kingdom", which he said has not helped the negotiation process. "The UK in many ways is a divided kingdom, the people are split 50/50 over whether they want to leave the European Union or not," he said. "The Cabinet seems divided, the Government seems divided, Parliament is divided, and that has made it very difficult to come to an agreement. "I'd much prefer to have a united kingdom, a united country, to be our partner in these negotiations, but we don't, so we have to work through. "Thankfully in Ireland we have a government that is united, and we have in Parliament as well, that's largely united behind the Government on this issue." He said that the Government was working hard to try to reach an agreement by the end of the year but added that it cannot countenance the idea of a three-month limit to the backstop agreement. "A backstop with a three-month limit on it or expiry date of that nature isn't worth the paper it's written on and what the backstop the UK Government has signed up to is a legally operative backstop that will apply unless, and until, we have any agreement to supersede it," he continued. "I think it's reasonable for us to expect a country like the United Kingdom and a government like the UK Government to stand by its commitments." He spoke as he attended an official opening of a newly built development of 42 social homes in north Dublin. The new housing features 31 one, two and three-bedroom apartments and 11 townhouses and will provide homes for 150 people. It comes as the number of homeless people living in emergency accommodation increased last month, adding to the housing crisis. Mr Varadkar said the new housing development is an example of the Government's attempt to sort out the housing shortage. He added: "Of course to some of our opponents, particularly those on the left, this place doesn't exist because it's not directly built by a local authority, it's built through a partnership involving the city council and Oaklee Housing Trust. "I think to the people who live here they will tell you that it does exist and that it provides really high quality public housing." Update 1.05pm: The Taoiseach says a time-limited Brexit backstop would not be worth the paper it is written on. A number of British media outlets are reporting the UK's Brexit Secretary - Dominic Raab - wants the backstop, which would avoid a hard border, to have an expiry date. The backstop has been the sticking point in getting a Brexit deal over the line. It is the insurance policy to avoid a hard border if there is no trade deal reached between the EU and UK post-Brexit. A UK-wide backstop would keep all of Britain aligned with the EU until there is a deal, essentially meaning they would have access to EU trade without being a paid up member. Dominic Raab wants that to be time-limited, so British politicians can point to a date where the UK will no longer be tied to the EU. But Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says that is not acceptable to the Government. Speaking on Monday, Mr Varadkar described the UK as a divided kingdom, which he said has not helped the negotiation process. The UK in many ways is a divided kingdom, the people are split 50/50 over whether they want to leave the European Union or not, he said. The Cabinet seems divided, the Government seems divided, Parliament is divided, and that has made it very difficult to come to an agreement. Id much prefer to have a united kingdom, a united country, to be our partner in these negotiations, but we dont, so we have to work through. Thankfully in Ireland we have a government that is united, and we have in Parliament as well, thats largely united behind the Government on this issue. He said that the Government was working hard to try to reach an agreement by the end of the year but added that it cannot countenance the idea of a three-month limit to the backstop agreement. A backstop with a three-month limit on it or expiry date of that nature isnt worth the paper its written on and what the backstop the UK Government has signed up to is a legally operative backstop that will apply unless and until we have any agreement to supersede it, he continued. I think its reasonable for us to expect a country like the United Kingdom and a government like the UK Government to stand by its commitments. He spoke as he attended an official opening of a newly built development of 42 social homes in north Dublin. The new housing features 31 one, two and three-bedroom apartments and 11 townhouses and will provide homes for 150 people. The Taoiseach's department also confirmed Mr Varadkar and British Prime Minister Theresa May have spoken this morning by phone. Ms May had sought the call to update Mr Varadkar on the Brexit negotiation. A statement said that "The Prime Minister raised the possibility of a review mechanism for the backstop. The Taoiseach indicated an openness to consider proposals for a review, provided that it was clear that the outcome of any such review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop. "He recalled the prior commitments made that the backstop must apply unless and until alternative arrangements are agreed." Earlier today, EU deputy chief Brexit negotiator Sabine Weyand backed Ireland when it warned that a time-limited backstop on the Irish border would never be acceptable. Simon Coveney tweeted to say: "The Irish position remains consistent and v clear? that a 'time-limited backstop' or a backstop that could be ended by UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by IRE or EU. Still necessary to repeat this, it seems. https://t.co/fnZHvuPNp6 Sabine Weyand (@WeyandSabine) November 5, 2018 "These ideas are not backstops at all + don't deliver on previous UK commitments." Ms Weyand linked to the comments on Twitter, adding: "Still necessary to repeat this, it seems." - Digital Desk & PA Update 9.10am: Time limit on backstop would 'never be agreed to by Ireland or the EU' The Tanaiste says suggestions of a time limit on the backstop aimed at avoiding a hard border after Brexit would "never be agreed to by Ireland or the EU". Simon Coveney has been responding to reports the British Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab, wants the backstop to only last three months after Britain leaves. The Daily Telegraph reported that Mr Raab has privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the EU's proposed Irish backstop after just three months. The backstop has emerged as the main stumbling block in the Brexit negotiations. Reports at the weekend suggested that the EU is now ready to contemplate concessions which would keep all of the UK in a temporary customs union following the end of a transition period due to end on December 31 2020. The Tanaiste has tweeted to say the idea does not deliver on the UK's previous commitments. "The Irish position remains consistent and v clear that a 'time-limited backstop' or a backstop that could be ended by UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by IRE or EU. "These ideas are not backstops at all + dont deliver on previous UK commitments." The Irish position remains consistent and v clear that a time-limited backstop or a backstop that could be ended by UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by IRE or EU. These ideas are not backstops at all + dont deliver on previous UK commitments #Brexit pic.twitter.com/y7AQ8V1jMo Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) November 5, 2018 A spokesman for Mr Coveney said: "The UK has given written commitments last December and March that the withdrawal agreement will include a legal guarantee of no return to a hard border in Ireland in any circumstance. "In March the UK agreed this backstop will apply 'unless and until' a close future relationship eliminates any need for border infrastructure or related checks and controls. "While we too hope the Northern Ireland backstop will never be required to be used, it will be required to be written down in legal text. "This has been committed to by the UK in order to have a withdrawal agreement. We hope a deal can be done but we're not there yet." - Digital Desk and PA Wholesale gas prices have dropped, according to a review. The Naturgy Energy Review and Forecast shows they have fallen by 9% on average in October compared to the previous month. Storage injections and temperature have had a significant influence over the direction of prices. However, it reveals Irish wholesale gas prices are 47% higher on average this month when compared to October 2017. The review also shows electricity prices have increased by 3% on a month-on-month basis. - Digital Desk The Archbishop of Sydney says Anglican schools did not ask for and do not want exemptions from the Sex Discrimination Act but are seeking "a positive right to religious freedom". Anglican Archbishop Glenn Davies said that a letter to federal MPs asking for exemptions for religious schools under the Sex Discrimination Act to be maintained until alternative forms of legal protection are brought in has been misinterpreted as being homophobic. Anglican Archbishop Dr Glenn Davies. "We have gay teachers and gay students in our schools now, we are inclusive and open." Credit:Edwina Pickles The letter was signed by the heads of 34 Anglican schools across Sydney and the Illawarra, and has sparked protests and petitions from nearly 2700 alumni of the signatory schools, who are calling for the letter to be retracted. The heads of two schools, Cranbook and SCEGGS Darlinghurst, reufsed to join the other schools in signing the letter. "We call on you to retract your open letter and not judge your staff by their sexual orientation but by the quality of their work," the petition states. Although dog and cat meat are eaten by only a small minority in Indonesia, the trades affect whole communities who are at increased risk of diseases such as rabies and who often have their pets stolen by weapon-wielding thieves. It was not supposed to come to this. Discussions over animal-welfare issues have been going on for years. Dogs in cages await slaughter at an "extreme market" in Indonesia. Credit:Dog-Meat Free Indonesia In February this year, officials from the office of the mayor of Tomohon, in North Sulawesi province, met coalition representatives and pledged to work to end the sale and slaughter of dogs and cats at the so-called "extreme market" in the city. Then, in August, at an extraordinary meeting between Indonesias Ministry of Agriculture and the coalition in Bogor, near Jakarta, government officials said they would support a ban on the trade in, and deny veterinary certification for, dog and cat meat. Leading veterinary public officials confirmed the dog meat trade was a serious public health threat, a significant animal welfare issue and a substantial problem for Indonesias growing tourism industry, HSI reported at the time. At the August meeting, director of Veterinary Public Health Dr Syamsul Ma'arif conceded the trade was "torture for animals". Members of the Dog-Meat Free Indonesia coalition protest against the killing of dogs for meat in their country. Credit:Dog-Meat Free Indonesia However, in September, the coalition filmed shocking new footage of dogs and cats being bludgeoned over the head and blowtorched to death at an extreme market in Tomohon. The head of the coalition, Lola Webber, said afterwards: "Every single dog and cat we saw at Tomohon extreme market was blowtorched while clearly still alive. Loading "It was the most horrific cruelty we have witnessed so far in our campaign to shut down this hideous trade, and it was all done in full view of very young children. "By the end of our filming we were all spattered with blood and brain matter from the bludgeoning, showing how easy it would be for customers and tourists to become infected with diseases such as rabies, and, in fact, two of our team were extremely sick following the market visit. "We are really grateful that the horrific cruelty and human-health risks of this appalling trade has been publicly recognised by the Indonesian government, but our latest evidence clearly shows the need for an immediate ban cannot be ignored. This is an urgent situation requiring immediate action." Loading Rabies threat Not only is this treatment extremely brutal for the animals, but it flouts public health and safety regulations to curb the spread of fatal zoonotic diseases such as rabies. Rabies has a 100 per cent mortality rate in animals and humans if not treated early. It is endemic in 25 out of 34 of Indonesia's provinces, and dogs and cats of unknown disease status are routinely transported across provincial borders and islands and into densely populated cities. Loading This is in breach of the law and threatens cities and provinces, including Jakarta, that have worked so hard to secure their rabies-free status. Human rabies deaths have been directly linked to involvement in the slaughtering, butchery, handling and even consumption of meat from infected dogs, HSI reports. Although rabies can be effectively controlled and eradicated through dog vaccination programs, 70 per cent of dog populations must be vaccinated to eliminate the disease in endemic areas, and the movement of these dogs out of vaccinated communities must be restricted. Every year, between 50,000 and 70,000 people die of rabies with about 90 per cent of all human rabies deaths reported from Asia, and most attributable to exposure to rabid dogs, HSI reports. Loading Katherine Polak, from Four Paws, said: "As long as the dog and cat meat markets in North Sulawesi continue to drive the illegal trans-provincial trade into densely-populated cities, any attempts by Indonesia to secure its rabies-free status will fail. "Millions of Indonesian citizens and global tourists could be at risk of exposure to diseases. "It only takes one lick, scratch or bite from a rabies-infected animal to require prophylactic treatment for rabies which is otherwise a fatal disease." Theft of pets "rife" In addition, the theft of pets in some areas is reported to be widespread. Indonesians say that law enforcement officials are failing to deter or punish gangs of thieves who terrorise neighbourhoods and steal dogs and cats from houses. Jakarta Animal Aid Network says it receives countless reports each week from pet owners who have had their dogs stolen by armed thieves. A spokesman from the Indonesian embassy in Canberra said: "We appreciate the concern from the public in Australia regarding the safety and welfare of animals in Indonesia, particularly in relation to the sale and slaughter of dogs and cats that still exists in some parts of [the country]. A man has died following a shark attack in the Whitsunday Islands' Cid Harbour, where two other people were mauled in the space of 24 hours in September. A rescue crewman who had attended the previous two shark attacks in the harbour described Monday evening's attack as "the worst one yet". The victim, a 33-year-old Victorian tourist, was bitten on his left thigh, right calf and left wrist while swimming off a chartered yacht just after 5.30pm on Monday. RACQ CQ Rescue crewman Ben McCauley said the mans injuries were "absolutely horrific". Four workers have been rushed to hospital, one in a serious condition, after a chemical leak on the Gold Coast. Paramedics were called to the leak about 8am on Monday at a business on Lahrs Road in Ormeau and assessed 12 patients. Four workers have been injured after a chemical leak at an Ormeau business. Credit:7 News Gold Coast - Twitter The area was evacuated, and a man in his 30s was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital in a serious condition suffering significant respiratory problems. Three other workers were taken to Logan Hospital in stable conditions with respiratory issues. About 17 million Australians will be automatically enrolled in the My Health record if they do not opt out by next Thursday, despite lingering significant privacy concerns about the federal government's controversial e-health system. Legislation that would enshrine a patient's right to permanently delete their record, and ensure that police may only access a person's medical history with a court order, is yet to pass Parliament but politicians will not get a chance to debate the bill before the opt-out deadline passes on November 15. A Senate inquiry into the rollout of the e-health system last month recommended that the opt-out period be extended by 12 months and legislation substantially rewritten to safeguard patients' safety and privacy, but Health Minister Greg Hunt refused an extension. It is understood that the government has been considering other recommendations from the Senate report. The self-styled "ScoMo Express" might be tearing up the Bruce Highway this week, but for the most part, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is touring Queensland by jet. Pictures of the big bus emblazoned with the PM's face flooded his social media accounts on Monday, at the start of a four-day trek from the Gold Coast to Townsville. However, Fairfax Media has confirmed Mr Morrison and his staff will travel for most of the 1500 kilometre journey aboard a Royal Australian Air Force VIP jet. The ghost bus will be left with only its driver on board for several key legs, including the 400 kilometre-plus stretch from the Sunshine Coast to Gladstone. ACT Labor also has more resources, and more regularly supplied resources, than any other party. It has mutually supportive relations with the ACT's unions. And it is supported by the Canberra Labor clubs. The other parties rely on donations from businesses and individuals, which tend to dry up between elections. The most recent financial disclosure returns suggest the Canberra Liberals' income in 2017-18 was less than half that of Labor. Despite an electoral system that encourages minor party and independent representation, the ACT has settled into a stable voting pattern that favours Labor and the Greens. The reasons are not hard to see. A workforce that, despite some diversification, remains overwhelmingly dependent on government spending will naturally prefer parties that seem more committed to such spending than their opponents. And a well-off, left-leaning electorate is unlikely to be attracted to social conservatism. No other state or territory has experienced this level of single-party dominance over the same period. The Northern Territory, a Country Liberal Party fiefdom in the 1980s, swung to Labor in 2001, and back again to the CLP in 2012. Even in NSW, for so many years a bastion of Labor, power has alternated between the ALP and the Liberal-National Coalition over the past 30 years. If the essence of democracy is effective competition for political power, then our city-state of Canberra is in trouble. Since 2001, the ACT has been ruled continuously by the Labor Party, either alone or in partnership with the Greens. The Canberra Liberals have been in power for only seven of the nearly 30 years since self-government. The effects of this dominance are beginning to be felt across a wide range of policy areas. It might not be true that power corrupts, but it certainly makes incumbents more comfortable than they ought to be. There is no real pressure on Chief Minister Andrew Barr or his ministers, because everyone knows that, whatever scrutiny they may be subject to in the Legislative Assembly or via the media, the ALP is unlikely to lose office. More to the point, there is no real incentive for ministers to actually lead their departments. This creates the near certainty that bureaucratic power centres will build up, more concerned with protecting their own convenience and power than with the wider good. This type of situation, it must be emphasised, makes it even more difficult than it otherwise would be for those public servants who would like to see change, or at least more accountability, to implement better solutions to problems, or to be innovative. Surely the citizens of the people's republic keep the government on its toes? ACT citizens may be politically aware but, as in most jurisdictions, most of us pay little or no attention to politics outside the election period and often not even then. It's true that citizens are quick to protest when the government does something to annoy them or does not perform a function as well as it should. Local government functions are watched particularly closely. Many of us make submissions on policy matters, and community councils work hard to develop community-based responses, particularly on planning issues. Katy Gallagher casts her vote in 2012. By the next election, Labor will have been in power for 19 years. Credit:Karleen Minney But this type of activity involves relatively few people and its accountability effects are minimal. Even with an exceptionally well-argued case, it is difficult to attract the attention of the governing executive. This is unfortunate, because evidence is beginning to emerge that, in a number of policy sectors, the ACT does not perform as well as it should or could. Let us consider the two biggest items in the ACT budget: health and education. Liberal candidate Dave Sharma has cast doubt on whether he will contest Wentworth at the next election after independent Kerryn Phelps was declared the official winner in the byelection that has cost the Morrison government its majority in Parliament. Mr Sharma is yet to decide whether to run at the general election after admitting he would have appreciated more help from former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in the difficult campaign to hold the seat. But he stood by one of the most controversial policies of the campaign Prime Minister Scott Morrisons decision to consider moving the Australian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and played down the role of climate change policy in deciding the outcome. Dave Sharma, who was the Liberal Party's candidate in the Wentworth byelection, has not decided whether he will run again. Credit:AAP The Liberal Party is hoping the former diplomat makes a second attempt to win Wentworth at the federal election due next year, thinking the seat can be retaken because Dr Phelps only won by 1849 votes. Victoria's most depraved child sex offenders would face at least a decade behind bars under a state opposition plan to lift minimum mandatory sentences for repeat abusers. Under the proposal, the Liberal Party says those convicted of sexually penetrating a child aged under 12 for a second time would face a minimum of 15 years behind bars. Minimum sentences of 10 years would apply to repeat offenders convicted of sexually penetrating a child aged under 16 or any child aged 16 or 17 who is under care, supervision or authority. Matthew Guy said it was imperative that those caught committing the worst offences in society are subject to mandatory jail time. Credit:Morgan Hancock Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said he was also considering bringing in GPS tracking devices for sex offenders upon their release from jail. Local Government Minister David Templeman has handed the inquiry into the City of Perth tough new powers to investigate improper and unlawful conduct. The inquiry, headed by barrister Tony Power, will now be able to apply to the Supreme Court for search warrants and seize relevant information by force if necessary. The inquiry into the City of Perth has been handed new search and seize powers. Credit:Stefan Gosatti Those refusing to comply with warrants would face contempt proceedings. This expansion of powers under the state's royal commissions legislation signals an escalation in the tempo of the inquiry, which is expected to report by May next year. Shanghai: Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne is due to arrive in Beijing on Thursday for a high-level meeting with her Chinese counterpart, the first on Chinese soil in over two years. The visit is a significant step forward for the Morrison government in normalising relations with China, Australia's largest trading partner, after a year-long diplomatic dispute sparked by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's handling of foreign interference legislation. Bound for China: Marise Payne. Credit:Andrew Meares Ms Payne's visit was confirmed by the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing on Monday evening, Australian time. Australia's annual foreign and strategic dialogue was last held in Beijing in February 2016 with then foreign minister Julie Bishop meeting with counterpart Wang Yi and the more senior State Councillor Yang Jiechi. Amazon is all set to acquire a minority stake in Kishore Biyani-helmed Future Retail. Once the deal follows through, the e-commerce platform will have access to almost a third of the country's organised food and grocery market through the Big Bazaar and Nilgiris outlets. The deal is estimated to be about Rs 2,500 crore and will be seen through by Amazon's investment arm. According to a report in The Economic Times, the deal will be finalised through the foreign portfolio investor (FPI) route and Amazon will buy 9.5% stake in Future Retail. The term sheet has already been signed. The deal will be announced after the board approval on November 14. Future Retail has more than 1,000 offline stores across India. As mentioned in the report, both Amazon and Future Retail declined to comment. The alliance began to take shape in January this year when Kishore Biyani met Jeff Bezos at the company's Seattle headquarters, following which a series of meetings took place in India and in the US. While India allows 51% overseas investment in multi-brand retail, Amazon decided to follow this deal with its arm registered as FPI. It picked up a 5% stake in Shoppers Stop last year in a similar manner. An FPI can acquire less than 10% as a single firm in an Indian company. Amazon had also acquired a stake in Aditya Birla Retail's More supermarkets about two months ago, along with investors Samara Capital. Along with its acquisitions, Amazon has also received government's approval for its proposed $500 million entry into the food segment and is focusing on Amazon Pantry and Amazon Now initiatives. Biyani, a formidable player, has acquired more than seven supermarket chains in the past six years. The result is a retail space present across 340 cities, something only Reliance Retail can match. Food and grocery segment is expected to become India's fastest-growing retail segment, contributing to 12.5% of all online retail sales. E-commerce players like Flipkart and Amazon are ramping up their food and grocery services to stay ahead in the competition. London: Britain has made it easier for Australians to join its military in an attempt to solve a deepening recruitment crisis. As of Monday it abandoned a rule, re-introduced in 2013, that recruits from most Commonwealth countries had to have lived in Britain at least five years. Military leaders now hope to recruit 1000 army personnel, 300 for the navy and 50 for the RAF every year from Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Jamaica, Fiji and South Africa. HRH Prince Harry (Captain Wales) had a 4-week attachment to the Australian Defence Force. Credit:Fairfax Initial priority will be given to those who have already applied but were on hold until they fulfilled the residency condition. The man, who Shea said was exercising in Riverside Park about 7am October 24, told the police that he had seen the two women nearby sitting about 10 metres apart with their heads bowed and making loud noises that he described as praying. The Hudson River. Credit:AP The sisters, who were seen roughly between 158th and 163rd streets, were seated several metres from the river, which could explain why they were found downriver, Shea said. At about 3pm that day, a passer-by discovered their bodies, clad in similar black jackets and black leggings, below a pier about 100 blocks south near 68th Street. Their bodies were wrapped in tape, which was "keeping them together," but it was not tightly binding them, Shea said. "It is entirely credible that the girls entered the water alive," Shea said. "We have them praying a short distance from the water. We also have sources that detectives have developed thus far, statements that they would rather inflict harm on themselves, commit suicide, than return to Saudi Arabia." The Farea family moved from Jeddah, a port city in Saudi Arabia, to Fairfax, Virginia, about three years ago. The sisters lived with their mother and at least two brothers, according to neighbours and the Arab News, an English-language Saudi Arabian newspaper. Their father travelled back and forth between the two countries, relatives told the news outlet. Tala Farea briefly attended a public school in Fairfax County for her sophomore year, according to a spokesman for the school district, and Rotana Farea was an engineering student at George Mason University from early 2016 until spring. "The news of her death is tragic," a spokesman for the university said. "University officials are cooperating with police and will assist in any way we can." The sisters were first reported missing to police in Virginia on December 1 by their mother, whom New York police have not identified. When police in Virginia located the sisters the next day, they asked for protection and were placed in what Shea described as a "shelterlike facility." The sisters said they had been physically abused and "some other things," Shea said. "We have reports of abuse involving the family; this is not corroborated at this time from us, but there are reports of abuse between the brother, the mother and the father that have been brought to our attention," he said. "This is in another jurisdiction, and this is some time in the past." Loading The family had no contact with their daughters in the eight-month period they spent in the shelter and after their disappearance from that location on August 23 or 24, according to Shea. Using credit card billing data, investigators found that the girls travelled from Fairfax to Washington, to Philadelphia, before arriving in Manhattan on September 1. Police said there was no indication that they left the borough after arriving. Their credit card activity suggests that they were always together. Shea said police obtained two pieces of surveillance footage that showed the sisters alone and "in good health" about five to six days before they were found dead. "It's just the two girls, dressed as normally as two girls would be dressed," he said. It's not unheard of for Saudi women to seek asylum in the United States, fearing death for their refusal to live in a country that requires women and girls to live under the control of male legal guardians. But the sisters' deaths, weeks after a Saudi Arabian journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was killed at the kingdom's consulate in Turkey, sparked speculation on social media that they were the victims of an honour killing. Loading The police said the girls' mother had received a call from the Saudi embassy notifying her that her daughters had requested asylum in the United States. Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that the request had prompted the Saudi government to order the family to return home. Fatima Baeshen, the spokeswoman for the Saudi embassy in Washington, pushed back on Friday in a statement, calling reports that the government had ordered the family to leave the United States because the sisters sought asylum "absolutely false." Latest News Effi launches solution that can get brokers paid their commission on the day of settlement New product can reduce the time it takes for commissions to get paid from 45-60 days to just one NAB throws weight behind e-lodgement disruptor Sympli Major mortgage lender signs deal with conveyancing start-up A financial services and credit business has been ordered to pay almost $9million for breaching a number of financial services, credit and consumer protection laws. Melbourne-based Financial Circle offered personal loans to consumers of up to $5,000 that could only be obtained if the consumer agreed to receive and implement financial advice. The advice typically recommended purchasing personal insurance products and switching superannuation providers. When consumers implemented the advice, significant advice fees were paid to Financial Circle directly from the consumers superannuation. Financial Circle also received ongoing commission payments from the insurers. This process often resulted in a substantial erosion, in many cases up to 30%, of the client's superannuation balances. The court found that in conducting this business Financial Circle: made false and misleading representations and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct; engaged in unconscionable conduct; breached its licensee obligations under its Australian financial services licence (AFSL), including obligations requiring that it: take reasonable steps to ensure that its authorised representatives act in clients best interests and provide advice that is appropriate; and do all things necessary to ensure that the financial services covered by its AFSL were provided efficiently, honestly and fairly; and engaged in a credit activity without a licence authorising it to engage in that activity. In addition to ordering that the company pay pecuniary penalties, the Federal Court ordered that it be permanently restrained from carrying on a financial services business and providing credit or entering into a credit contract as a credit provider. The court decision follows on from an order in January 2018, which, until the trial, restrained Financial Circle from carrying on a financial services business, including providing financial product advice or dealing in financial products, entering into contracts as a credit provider or promoting, advertising or offering loans or cash payments to prospective retail clients. The court also made orders requiring the company to pay ASICs costs. Latest News Effi launches solution that can get brokers paid their commission on the day of settlement New product can reduce the time it takes for commissions to get paid from 45-60 days to just one NAB throws weight behind e-lodgement disruptor Sympli Major mortgage lender signs deal with conveyancing start-up New research has shown the four major banks have reported a decrease in aggregate cash profits as they restructure their business models. The KPMGs Major Australian Banks Full Year Analysis Report 2017-18 found the majors reported a cash profit after tax from continuing operations of $29.5billion, down 5.5% from the year before. The group said this result underscores a challenging regulatory and operating environment for the banks, as they have each been seen to simplify their businesses over the last year. The majors face slowing revenue growth, rising capital levels and increasing legal and remediation costs, at the same time as the industry works to rebuild trust with stakeholders. Ian Pollari, KPMG Australias head of banking, said, In the face of a number of structural factors impacting the banking industry simultaneously, the majors are executing against their restructuring and simplifications programs in order to reposition their business models for the future. They are adapting their business mix, product portfolios and distribution strategies in response to the evolving operating and regulatory environment. While remediation, legal and regulatory costs have risen substantially as a proportion of the majors total expenditure, the banks need to balance this spend with continued investment in digital and technology innovation in the face of growing threats from new players. This is especially relevant given the introduction of changes to the ADI licensing regime and Open Banking, which are intended to stimulate greater competition in the market. Hessel Verbeek, KPMG partner, banking strategy, said, Not only have the various compliance and remediation costs translated into higher cost-to-income ratios, the majors investment spend in risk and compliance projects is also up strongly and in most cases investments on growth initiatives has decreased in a relative sense. If this redirection of investment towards regulatory compliance continues over a protracted period of time and the majors are unable to maintain their historical levels of investment in digital and other competitive initiatives, it could impact on the level of innovation that Australian consumers and businesses are accustomed to from our banking industry. Trade-offs will inevitably need to be made. KPMGs report looked into figures like housing credit, which recorded credit growth in the full year of 3.3%, compared to non-housing credit which grew by 2.9%. The major banks aggregate charge for bad and doubtful debts decreased by $702m to $3.3b (statutory basis) for the full year (down 17.7% on 2017), with lower individual credit impairment charges, partly offset by an increase in collective provisions for some of the major banks. The full report is available on the KPMG website. Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC Marty Golden vs. Andrew Gounardes Golden, the eight-term Republican incumbent, will face off against Democratic candidate Andrew Gounardes for the second time after beating Gounardes back in 2012 by a margin of more than 10,300 votes. If Gounardes prevails this time around, the race could flip the balance of power in Albany. The 22nd State Senate District covers Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, Gravesend, and parts of Sheepshead Bay, Borough Park, and Midwood. GOLDEN Spent a decade as a city police officer before serving a term in Council and then being elected to his current seat in 2002. Serves as the vice chairman of the Majority Conference in the upper chamber and as the Senates representative on the Metropolitan Transit Authoritys capital review board; chairs the Civil Service and Pensions committee and the Science, Technology, Incubation, and Entrepreneurship committee. Also running on the Conservative and Independent party lines. Born and raised in Bay Ridge, attended St. Patricks and Our Lady of Angels Grammar Schools and graduated from St. Johns University. GOUNARDES Marty Golden. File photo Previously worked for former Bay Ridge Councilman Vincent Gentile and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (DNew Jersey), and now serves as counsel to Borough President Adams. Endorsed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and local Democratic leaders Also running on the Working Families and Reform party lines. Born and raised in Bay Ridge, and a graduated Fort Hamilton High School, Hunter College, and the George Washington University Law School. ISSUES Gounardes supports the more-than-decade old Child Victims Act, which would extend the statute of limitations for survivors of child sex abuse to come forward. Golden opposes that bill in favor of a separate bill creating a Child Victims Fund to compensate victims with taxpayer money, which Gounardes opposes. Golden opposes the New York Health Act, which would establish a statewide single-payer healthcare system, and the Reproductive Health Act, which legalizes abortion in New York State both of which Gounardes supports. The pair have also sparred over the citys school-zone speed camera program, with Golden opposing a bill to preserve and expand the program, which Gounardes supports. Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC Who said doing your civic duty isnt sweet? Brooklynites who go out and vote on Tuesday can then grab a 68-cent slice of famous cheesecake from Juniors Restaurant in Americas Downtown, which is offering the deal to celebrate its 68th year in business. The deep discount on the eaterys iconic creamy dessert is a nod to its opening on Election Day in 1950, according to Juniors bigwigs, who in the decades since have welcomed such notable national politicos as former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton to their Flatbush Avenue Extension diner at the corner of DeKalb Avenue where Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Frank Seddio hosts an annual blue party breakfast each year. Those craving a slice must purchase a lunch or dinner entree to get the discount and should, but technically dont have to, cast their ballots first. And the deal on the Worlds Most Fabulous Cheesecake isnt restricted to the Kings County location, which is now run by the grandson of its founder Harry Rosen, whose family has operated an eatery in the space since 1929. Juniors outposts in the outer borough of Manhattan will offer the sweet special, too. Get your 68-cent cheesecake at Juniors [386 Flatbush Avenue Ext. at DeKalb Avenue in Downtown, (718) 8525257] on Nov. 6. India's richest electoral trust, Prudent Electoral Trust, donated Rs 144 crore of total Rs 169 crore of its income in FY18 to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) only. That is 85 per cent of its total funds generated in the financial year 2018. The trust also gave away Rs 10 crore to the Congress party, which has been rueing fund crunch in the party for quite some time, and Rs 5 crore to Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha. The Prudent Electoral Trust, earlier known as Satya Electoral Trust, is the largest electoral trust in India, with over 90 per cent of all corporate donations to electoral trust going into its kitty, as reported by the Economic Times. Of total 22 registered electoral trusts in India, only a few of them are active. No other trust can match the level of Prudent, which has biggest loyal donors like DLF Group (which gave away Rs 52 crore in FY18), Bharti Group (that gave Rs 33 crore), UPL (Rs 22 crore), Torrent Power (Rs 20 crore) DCM Shriram (Rs 13 crore), Cadila Group (Rs 10 crore), and Haldia Energy (Rs 8 crore). But who owns Prudent? The electoral trust was set up before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The trust, which earlier operated out of Bharti Group's premises in Vasant Kunj, was initially backed by around 33 companies associated with the Sunil Mittal-led conglomerate. But later it was shifted to a separate place at Hans Bhawan on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, and also changed its name to Prudent Electoral Trust. Bharti Group has, however, time and again, clarified that Prudent is not backed by its group companies only but also by corporates like Hero MoroCorp, Bharti Airtel, National Engineering Industries, GMMCO, Jubilant Foodworks, Orient Cement, DLF, JK Tyres, among others. However, most of Bharti Airtel's executives hold directorial positions at the trust, said a report in The Print. Its promoter companies include DM BuilWell, which is headed by Bharti vice-chairman Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Bharti Realty, Bharti Realty Holdings, Bharti (SBM) Holdings, and Mehrauli Realty and Consultants, an associated company of the group. The trust now has only two shareholders -- Mukul Goyal and Ganesh Venkatachalam -- as per the Registrar of Companies records dated March 31, 2017, reported the portal. They both joined the trust at directorial positions in 2014 only. BIGGEST DONOR TO BJP? Prudent Electoral Trust has donated around Rs 594.37 crore to the BJP of its total collection of Rs 726.13 crore since its formation in 2014. The trust donated Rs 41.37 crore of total income of Rs 85.4 crore (48 per cent) in FY14; it gave Rs 106 crore out of Rs 141 crore to the BJP in FY15; Rs 45 crore out of Rs 45 crore in FY16; and whopping Rs 252.22 crore out of Rs 283.73 crore in FY17. Its donations to the Congress party largely remained minimal, with highest Rs 14 crore in FY17. The BJP is the richest political party in India with a total income of over Rs 1,034.27 crore in FY17 (latest available data) alone. The grand old political party, Indian National Congress, is a distant second with Rs 225.36 crore, as per the Income Tax returns filed by them. A significant chunk of this income comes from electoral trusts, mostly set up by corporates. Edited by Manoj Sharma The Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) crisis could be resolved by adopting a mix of alternative approaches, which have been presented to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Corporate Affairs Secretary Injeti Srinivas said. The best option could be to sell the group as a going concern, but this too has its limitations, he said. The other options are to sell each vertical as a consolidated entity and assets-level sale, he said. What seems more probable is that you have a combination of all these approaches, he said, without ... 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. 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Digital Editor A penalty of over Rs 83 lakh was imposed on violators on a single day on Sunday by the teams deployed to monitor implementation of measures to combat pollution in the Delhi NCR under the Clean Air Campaign, the CPCB said. The highest number of complaints were related to illegal construction and demolition activities. An aggressive ten-day-long 'Clean Air Campaign' from November 1 to 10 has been launched by Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan to monitor and report polluting activities as well as to ensure quick action. These teams are visiting different parts of Delhi and adjacent towns of Faridabad, Gurugram, Ghaziabad and Noida. Based on 368 complaints, a total fine of Rs 83,55,000 was imposed on Sunday itself by 52 teams in the national capital, said the Central Pollution Control Board. A total of 119 complaints of construction and demolition activities were received. Other complaints included that of vehicular emission, traffic congestion, industrial emission, open or garbage burning, leaf burning, road dust, unpaved road, fire in landfill sites, air pollution from generators among others, it said. A total of 52 complaints were received through social media and e-mail while 316 complaints were received through the 'Sameer app' that has been developed by the CPCB. About 43 teams visited sites of 248 complaints in Delhi while two teams attended to 11 complaints in Gurgaon, two teams to 31 complaints in Faridabad, two teams to 5 complaints in Noida and Greater Noida and three teams for 21 complaints in Ghaziabad. A total penalty of Rs 80 lakh was imposed on the violators on Friday and Saturday by the teams deployed to monitor implementation of measures to combat pollution in Delhi-NCR under the campaign. The teams comprise the local Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) as the team leader, senior official from Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and representatives from the CPCB, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC). The deployment of teams come ahead of the festival season when the air quality is expected to deteriorate to severe levels due to local factors as well as regional factors like the stubble burning. Other measures include halt on all construction activities involving excavation. Civil construction has also been suspended in Delhi and other NCR districts, besides closure of all stone crushers and hot mix plants generating dust pollution. The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has also directed the Transport Department and the Traffic Police to intensify checking of polluting vehicles and control travel congestion in the region during November 1-10. On 24 August 2018, at the board meeting of New Tirupur Area Development Corp Ltd (NTADCL), a director played an audio-clip of a threat he had received. The threat, issued at the audit committee meeting on 25 May 2018 came from S Bhat, a nominee director of the failed Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS). Here is what it says: S Bhat, IL&FS nominee director, to a foreign director: One day, if you are put behind the bars, you will come to know. Director: I am not going to be put behind bars. S Bhat: You will be there, you just see. Just because you are a ... SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son on Monday condemned the killing of a journalist by Saudi security personnel, and said his firm must carry out its responsibility to the kingdom's citizens whose money is invested in its Vision Fund. Saudi Arabia is the largest investor in the fund which was launched last year with over $90 billion in capital, giving Son firepower to make big bets in late-stage startups such as shared office space provider WeWork Cos and hotel chain OYO hotels. Global outcry over the murder case, however, has led many observers to regard that dependence as a ... The doors to Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala opened Monday for the second time in three weeks for a two-day special puja amid unprecedented security over apprehension of protests by those opposing the Supreme Court order allowing women of all age groups into the shrine. Though no girl or woman in the age group of 10-50 years was spotted at the temple, the abode of Lord Ayyappa, its eternally celibate deity, police said it has received information about a 25-year-old woman heading for the shrine with her husband and two children. "We have got the information a woman on way to the temple but nobody has approached us so far for security," a police official at Pamba at the foothills of Sabarimala from where the pilgrims trek 5 km to the temple told PTI. Sabarimala virtually turned into a fortress with hundreds of police personnel, including armed commandos, dotting the place where surveillance cameras and mobile phone jammers were installed. Thousands of pilgrims entered the temple as temple tantri (head priest) Kandararu Rajeevaru and melshanti (chief priest) Unnikrishnan Namboothiri jointly opened the portals of the sanctum sanctorum around 5 pm. No special puja will be performed Monday, temple authorities said, adding the doors will be closed at 10 pm. It will open again Tuesday for the "Sree Chitira Atta Thirunal" puja to mark the birth anniversary of the last king of the princely state of Travancore Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. Several leaders and Ayyappa Dharama Sena president Rahul Easwar reached 'Sannidhanam', the temple complex, in the evening. Security at Sabarimala and nearby places was stepped up following violent protests by fringe Hindu groups and mainstream political parties like the Congress and the against the government's decision to enforce the Supreme Court order lifting the ban on girls and women of menstruating age from entering the temple. Frequent checking and frisking by police did not go down well with devotees and right wing activists who protested at several places. TV channels showed heated exchanges between devotees and policemen over frisking. Devotees complained of lack of amenities at the base camps that were damaged in the unprecedented floods in August. Even journalists were not allowed to leave the Nilackal base camp for Pamba on way to the temple in the morning but the restriction was lifted later in the day. Meanwhile, the High Court said on Monday pilgrims should not be harassment under the guise of implementating the Supreme Court judgment. "You can't cause hardships to pilgrims," the court said while hearing a petition seeking its direction to the government not to interfere with day-to-day affairs of the shrine. Police and civil administration are on a high alert, officials said, adding prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC were in force around the temple and will continue to be in place till Tuesday night when the doors of the shrine will close. Around 2,300 personnel, including a 20-member commando team and 100 women, have been deployed in Sabarimala and adjoining areas. According to official sources, police has prepared a dossier of Hindu right wing activists who are likely to visit the shrine to take part in the agitation against Kerala's Left Front government's decision not to file a review petition against the apex court order. At least 15 women police personnel aged 50 years or more have been deployed at the 'Sannidhanam', officials said. When asked about why only women personnel over 50 years of age were deployed inside the temple, Inspector General of Police M R Ajith Kumar said women staff of "eligible" age from various departments have been deployed at the temple for quite some time. He also rejected allegations that devotees had to face hardships due to the restrictions imposed by police. "Here, devotees can come and have darshan. There are no restrictions. Police has arranged adequate security for all devotees," Kumar said. The doors of Sabarimala had opened for six days on October 17 for the first time since the Supreme Court allowed women of menstruating age to enter the shrine but none could make it to its hallowed precincts amid a welter of protests and violent clashes. Valiant attempts by around a dozen women, including activists and journalists in the 10-50 years age group, to script history came to nought as frenzied devotees of Lord Ayyappa heckled and hassled them and forced them to retreat. 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. As the finance ministry begins preparations for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to present the last Budget before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the core budget-making team will have a new look. This will be prompted by the retirement of Finance and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia at the end of November 2019 being a year of the Lok Sabha election, the Budget likely on February 1 will be an interim one. Business Standard has learnt from well-placed sources Adhia may not get an extension, nor has he expressed the willingness to seek one. It is accepted practice for ... Boston Consulting Group emerged as the top recruiter in IIM Ahmedabad's summer placement session for the PGP class of 2020. Boston Consulting Group rolled out offers to 20 students. The placement was conducted in three clusters that saw companies from investment banking and markets, management consulting, consumer services, manufacturing, advisory consulting and more. Fifty-three clusters participated in the second cluster, where Amazon emerged as the top recruiter, with 14 offers. Top recruiters in the consumer goods segment included AB InBev, HUL and Saint Gobain with 7 offers each. When it came to consumer electronics, Samsung Electronics emerged as the top recruiter. With 8 offers, Airtel emerged the top recruiter in the consumer services segment. Aditya Birla Group was the top recruiter in the general management and leadership space with 9 offers. In the third cluster companies in consumer technology, IT consulting, pharma and healthcare, core manufacturing, enterprise tech, BFSI, green tech and renewable energy segments took part. Out of the 40 firms that participated in the cluster, Microsoft emerged as the top recruiter with 10 offers. American Express and FinIQ with 8 offers each were some of the key recruiters in the cluster. Info Edge, OLX and Saavn were part of the consumer tech segment while the core manufacturing segment comprised of firms like Bajaj Auti, Adani Group, Gilbarco-Veeder Root, Nissan, TVS Motors, Skaps and Vedanta. Meanwhile, summer placements in IIM Calcutta for the PGDM class of 2020 witnessed 100% recruitments. In a batch of over 458 candidates, all were recruited in a little over two days. IIM Calcutta saw the most recruitment in the banking and financial services segment, with Citibank being the top recruiter. When it came to consultancy sector, Boston Consulting Group emerged as the top recruiter here as well. The is preventing Indian companies from sending medicines and development-related equipment to the Caribbean island nation, according to Secretary-General In his annual report to the General Assembly on the US embargo on Cuba, he said that the of (SBI) and at least four other banks have refused to carry out transactions to enable the companies to export to that country. The report figured in last week's General Assembly discussions on against By an overwhelming majority of 189 to two, the General Assembly on November 1 passed a resolution crticising the embargo and asking to lift it. In his report Guterres said that in February, the Indian company Aculife had refused to ship levofloxacin directly to because its "would not authorise the payments made by Cuba since the shipping documents supporting the payment had a country under embargo as the final destination". Levofloxacin is a drug used to treat pneumonia, bacterial skin infections, bronchitis and other diseases, according to the report. The Ahmedabad-based Aculife said on its website that it manufactures "intravenous antibiotics including general and advanced molecules" like levofloxacin. The reluctance of banks to handle payments related to Cuba has also affected a development project with a climate change dimension, Guterres said in the report. It was reported in March that Ankur Scientific Technologies had said it could not export to Cuba equipment for a gasification plant that uses rice husks because five Indian banks had refused to carry out a transfer from the office of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Cuba to it, he said. The Vadodara-based company had reported that the refused to receive the UNDP payment "because the transaction is related to a project implemented in Cuba", the report said. "It has been impossible to fulfill the payment to the supplier and the implementation of the project has been delayed." It is "an ongoing development project that aims to implement measures to adapt to climate change in food production, a gasification plant that uses rice husks", the UN chief said. Ankur Scientific says on its website that its technology converts various waste products into combustible gas that can be burned to produce for different uses. has opposed the enacted after communists under Fidel Castro came to power in 1961. Guterres said in his report that informed the UN that it "has consistently opposed any unilateral measure by countries that impinge on the sovereignty of another country. These include any attempt to extend the application of a country's laws extraterritorially to other sovereign nations". In the history of Reserve Bank of India, two governors resigned before their terms ended - Sir Osborne Smith (in 1937) and Sir Benegal Rama Rau (1957). At least two other governors - K R Puri and R N Malhotra had their tenures cut short following changes in the government. The RBIs 'fight' for autonomy is as old as the central bank itself. Over the last two weeks, the rift between the Reserve Bank of India and government has widened. While the RBI and government nominees on the bank's board are set for the November 19 meeting, Congress party President Rahul Gandhi was ... Australian Prime Minister on Monday announced a reduction in the conditions for granting seasonal work and backpacker visas to meet the demand for labour in the country's agricultural sector. "We need to ensure that we get as many Australians into these jobs as we possibly can. But we also have to make sure that we actually get the job done," Morrison told the media here. The new measures mean that the holders of the visa subclasses 417 and 462, for working holidays, may stay in for up to three years from mid-2019, instead of two, provided they work six months in regional areas during their second year of stay, reports Efe news. The areas that qualify as regional will be extended to support people on working holiday visas so they can get extensions into a second-year visa, according to the new rules. The changes will also allow the traveller with such a visa to work for the same employer for one year, instead of the current six months, and raise the age limit to apply for these visas from 30 to 35 years. More than 200,000 travellers visited during the fiscal year 2017-18 with such visas, most of them from the UK, Germany and France, according to official data. According to the National Farmers' Federation, the local workforce is insufficient to cover the 100,000 seasonal jobs required by the sector, which is supplemented by hiring foreign workers. Countries will gather at the UN in Geneva Monday to review the rights record of Saudi Arabia, as it faces a torrent of condemnation over the murder of journalist The half-day public debate before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva comes just over a month after the royal insider-turned-critic was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkey's chief prosecutor confirmed for the first time last Wednesday that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate on October 2 as part of a planned hit, and his body was then dismembered and destroyed. The murder has placed strain on Saudi Arabia's relationship with the United States and other western countries and has tarnished the image of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler. Monday's so-called Universal Periodic Review -- which all 193 UN countries must undergo approximately every four years -- is likely to also focus on Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's brutal civil war. and its allies intervened in the war in 2015 to bolster Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the Iran-backed rebels took over the capital Sanaa. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, and a UN panel of experts has accused both the Huthis and the Saudi-led coalition of acts that could amount to war crimes. The conflict has also created the world's biggest humanitarian crisis and left millions of people on the brink of famine, according to the UN. Washington, which has long backed the Saudi-led coalition, called last week for an end to the coalition's airstrikes in the country. The Saudi delegation in Geneva Monday will be headed by Bandar Al Aiban, who serves as the head of the country's Human Rights Commission. The delegation will present a report over the country's efforts to live up to its human rights obligations, and will respond to questions and comments from countries around the world on its record. Activists are urging countries not to hold back. "UN member states must end their deafening silence on and do their duty of scrutinising the cruelty in the kingdom in order to prevent further outrageous human rights violations in the country and in Yemen," Samah Hadid, Amnesty International's Middle East director of campaigns, said in a statement. "The Saudi government's long-standing repression of critics, exemplified by the extrajudicial execution of journalist last month, has until recently been wilfully ignored by UN member states," she added. A number of countries have already submitted lists of detailed questions for the review, including direct questions from Britain, Austria and Switzerland on the Khashoggi case. Sweden meanwhile is planning to ask: "What measures will be taken to improve the respect for the freedom of expression and the safety of journalists in the Kingdom of " And the United States has submitted a question on whether Riyadh plans to modify its counterterrorism law to ensure the definition of "terrorism" does "not include acts of expression, association, or peaceful assembly." In the run-up to the UPR, the UN rights office published a report in late August listing a range of concerns over Saudi Arabia's rights record, including laws that discriminate against women. The UN report also decries the continued use of the death penalty and growing number of executions in the country, and voices concern over a counterterrorism law that uses an "extremely broad" definition of terrorism which enables "the criminalisation of some acts of peaceful expression. US Secretary of State has defended the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran, saying the new tough controls on oil, shipping and that start on Sunday at midnight will force to stop sponsoring terrorism. Speaking to Fox News on Sunday hours before the new sanctions went into effect, Pompeo said the move would cut off from its market and target 600 individuals and companies in the finance sector, The Guardian reported. He insisted the penalties would not hurt the Iranian people. "These sanctions are the toughest ever put in place on the Republic of Iran," he said. The top diplomat in the US said the new sanctions were designed to "alter Iran's behaviour" and protect and other countries. The re-imposition of sanctions follows Donald Trump's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which provided economic incentives in exchange for a verifiable end to Iran's nuclear programme. The unilateral rejection of the deal has gained very few supporters, though Pompeo claimed "we have built an enormous coalition to keep this world safe". The European Union, in particular, is setting up a route to bypass in return for persuading to continue on its non-nuclear path. The assertion that renewed sanctions will not hurt ordinary Iranians has been questioned. There are signs the Iranian people are on tenterhooks about the impact on their daily lives. Medical groups have warned that the penalties will lead to severe shortages of essential medicines, endangering thousands of lives. Pompeo's belligerent tone was matched by Trump, who announced the new sanctions on Friday with a tweeted picture in the style of the HBO hit series Game of Thrones. It said: "Sanctions Are Coming November 5". On November 5, we will place tough sanctions on #Irans ruling regime. Our aim is to compel to abandon its destructive activities. The sanctions will target the regimenot the people, who have suffered the pain of their governments mismanagement, theft, and brutality. Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 3, 2018 As he left the on Sunday for an election rally in Macon, Georgia, Trump said the sanctions would damage the Iranian regime. "They are not doing very well, let me tell you," he told reporters. "It's a big difference. When I came in office it looked like Iran would take over the Middle East, it was a question of literally less than years, very quickly, and now nobody is talking about that." The has agreed to grant eight nations exemptions to allow them temporarily to continue buying Iranian oil, without naming the countries. It is widely suspected that the list includes some of the biggest importers of Iranian crude, such as and Asked to confirm the presence of those two nations on the list of exemptions, Pompeo sidestepped the question. "Watch what we do," he said. "We have already taken more off the market than at any time... and the march to zero continues." US sanctions lifted as part of the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran snapped back at midnight New York time as President Donald Trump fulfills his vow to ramp up pressure on the Islamic Republic over its malign behaviour in the Middle East, its ballistic missile tests and its nuclear program. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is scheduled to announce the list of eight countries that will get temporary waivers to keep importing Iranian oil at 8:30 a.m. 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. 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Digital Editor At a time when anti-immigrant sentiment is at its peak, nearly 100 Indian-Americans are on the ballot for the midterm elections and have emerged as strong contenders. While all eyes would be on the so-called "Samosa Caucus" -- the unofficial group of five Indian-Americans in the current Congress -- the emergence of such a large number of young Indian-Americans reflects the growing desire of this small ethnic community comprising one per cent of the US population. "It has been incredible to see the rise of Indian-Americans in US politics," Rich Verma, the former US ambassador to India, told PTI. All the four Indian-American lawmakers in the present House of Representatives are expected to easily sail through on Tuesday's midterm polls. They are three-term Congressman Ami Bera from the seventh Congressional district of California and three first-timers, who are seeking their re-election: Ro Khanna from 17th Congressional District of California, Raja Krishnamoorthi from eighth Congressional District of Illinois and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from seventh Congressional District of Washington State. The four incumbents are joined by seven other Indian-Americans on the ballot for House of Representatives. Successful entrepreneur Shiv Ayyadurai is the sole Indian-American to be running for Senate. He has pitched himself as an independent against the powerful Elizabeth Warren -- a potential Democratic presidential candidate -- for the Senate seat in Massachusetts. But they are not all. According to some unofficial estimates, more than 100 Indian-Americans are running for various elected offices across the country. "This year, nearly 100 Indian-Americans ran for office in all levels of government, including some who could flip House seats from red to blue," John Santos, spokesperson AAPI media of Democratic National Committee. This election could be transformational -- sending a number of new members into the House of Representatives and state legislatures as well, observed Verma, who has campaigned for several of the Indian-Americans running for offices. "From Arizona, to Texas, Ohio, Michigan and beyond we have a great slate of Indian-American candidates," "I hope that our number (in the Congress) increases, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi told PTI in an interview. Krishnamoorthi, who has raised more than USD 5 million, according to latest figures of the Federal Election Commission, had coined the term "Samosa Caucus" in the Congress. When Bera was elected for the Congress for the first time six years ago, he had hoped that in a decade, the number of Indian-Americans would be in double digit. If Desis for Progress are to be believed, the community is moving in that direction. At least three of the Indian-Americans are locked up in toss-up races Tipirneni, Kulkarni and Pureval. NBC News this week also listed out the three Indian-Americans as the one who could make a difference in their races. Verma feels the only way to give the Indian-American candidates a chance to serve is to get out and vote. "The stakes are so high. This is the most important election of my lifetime." The former American diplomat said he was disappointed and concerned at the "racist, anti-immigrant" closing argument made by the President and thinks this kind of fearmongering should concern all Americans, but particularly immigrants them. "We have to stand up and be heard at the ballot box so we can stamp out the fear and hate, and prop up the terrific crop of candidates who have shown the courage to run and who are running on a very positive, inclusive and pro-growth agenda," he said. Krishnamoorthi echoed Verma, saying it all starts with voters getting out and making sure that their voice is heard on the election day. "I want to see greater number (of Indian-Americans for elected office) and I'd like to see them happen across the geographic landscape." According to Santos, these candidates have put districts in play that Trump won because they are talking about the issues that matter to voters, like protecting access to quality and affordable healthcare and investing in higher education. "The DNC is proud to have the backs of Indian-American candidates running up and down the ticket who are working hard to engage diverse constituencies and expand participation of communities who often feel ignored and left behind," Santos added. As the 2018 midterm election nears, an ominous question looms: Will this election be hacked? The answer is: Yes, it has already been hacked. This election has already been hacked even if not a single voting machine has been compromised. It has already been hacked even if not another ruble has been spent on spreading disinformation. It has already been hacked even if voter registration information has been undisturbed and no vote tallies are altered. Why? Because the legitimacy of an election depends on the electorate accepting that it was fair, that everyone who tried to ... Sri Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuriya on Monday slammed President Maithripala Sirisena, saying it was "anti-democratic" to sack Prime Minister and suspend the Parliament, and asserted that he will not recognise Mahinda Rajapaksa as the unless it is proved by a floor test. The tough statement from Jayasuriya came after Sirisena announced on Sunday that parliament would reconvene on November 14, a week later than he had promised. The speaker said Sirisena had gone back on previous commitments to recall parliament on November 7. In the statement released on Monday in Sinhala, Jayasuriya said a majority of members in Parliament have submitted a petition to him stating that the changes made in Parliament recently by President Sirisena are unconstitutional. In the name of justice and fair play I have to declare my position to the world that when a majority has pointed out that rights of the MPs have been usurped by preventing the lawful convening of parliament," Jayasuriya said. A majority in parliament has requested that all changes made have been anti-constitutional and against the traditions. They have urged me to recognise the status quo which prevailed prior to these changes. As such I have to recognize the status quo which prevailed before until the new party would be able to prove their majority," Jayasuriya said, making it clear that he wants a parliamentary floor test. As a result, Rajapaksa will not be given the Prime Minister seat in Parliament as the current government members will need to sit in the opposition seats. Sirisena had suspended parliamentary proceedings until November 16 after abruptly firing Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and replacing him with Rajapaksa, a controversial former president, on October 26. The Speaker had expected parliament to reconvene on November 7. However, Sirisena Sunday issued notice to reconvene Parliament on November 14. Jayasuriya said he had made several requests for Parliament to be reconvened early in order to resolve the political crisis. The civil society organisations have demanded that Jayasuriya re-summon parliament on his own. Jayasuriya, however, refused to do so saying he was powerless unless the president consented. The decision announced last night by President to summon the Parliament two days ahead of his scheduled opening won't lead to the resolving of the constitutional crisis, ousted prime minister Ranil Wickremsinghe's United National Party (UNP) senior Vajira Abeywardena said on Monday. "We can't treat November 14 as the date on which we can settle this issue. The law has been violated. They have delayed the date for reconvening parliament so that they could buy over MPs. The public must protest the way the MPs are being brought for money," Abeywardena said. Wickremesinghe's suporters alleged that large sums of money had been offered to change sides. Wickremsinghe's United National Party (UNP) on Monday said Sirisena's decision to summon parliament on November 14 will not lead to the resolving of the constitutional crisis. "We can't treat November 14 as the date on which we can settle this issue. The law has been violated. They have delayed the date for reconvening parliament so that they could buy over MPs. The public must protest the way the MPs are being brought for money," UNP leader Vajira Abeywardena said, Wickremesinghe's supporters alleged that large sums of money had been offered to change sides. Anaylists say Sirisena's move to suspend parliament to engineer defections from the UNP and its allies appears to have succeeded. New prime minister Rajapaksa's parliamentary strength has now been bolstered to 105 from 96. The UNP has lost eight of its legislators while one member from the main Tamil party TNA has defected. Rajapaksa needs 113 to prove his majority in the 225-member House. Wickremesinghe who branded Sirisena's October 26 action to sack him a constitutional coup maintains that he holds majority. The UNP has handed over a motion of no trust against Rajapaksa. GL Peiris, a leading Rajapaksa backer, however said the no confidence motion cannot be taken up in a hurry. Meanwhile, both parties organised public protests on Monday. Thousands of supporters of Rajapaksa headed for the capital on Monday to rally in support of his nomination as the prime minister. The political crisis in Sri Lanka began after Sirisena's broader front United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) announced that it has decided to quit the unity government with Wickremesinghe's UNP. The unity government was formed in 2015 when Sirisena was elected President with Wickremesinghe's support, ending a nearly decade-long rule by Rajapaksa. Minister of State for AYUSH, Shripad Yesso Naik, on Monday announced that Ayurveda Departments will be opened in the new 19 AIIMS. He added that work has started to have Ayurveda Departments in hundred ESIC hospitals under Ministry of Labour. Besides, approval has been received from Union Ministry of Home Affairs to open Ayurveda Deparments in seven hospitals of Border Security Force and other para military forces. Inaugurating the 3rd Ayurveda Day in New Delhi along with Union Minister for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr. Harshvardhan, Naik said that this year Ministry has taken several steps to fulfil the theme 'Ayurveda for public health' and decided for further expand the coverage of the Programme of 'Prevention of Non Communicable Disease' from exiting six states. The Minister added that his ministry will organise 50 workshops in collaboration with MSME to enhance entrepreneurship in Ayurveda and AYUSH sector. While addressing the gathering Dr. Harshvardhan shared his experiences about Ayurveda and other systems of Indian medicine. He emphasised upon the scientific integration of AYUSH system of medicines. He has also appreciated the seminar for sensitising young entrepreneurs and exploring business opportunities in Ayurveda. The third Ayurveda Day was celebrated throughout the country on the occasion of Dhanwantari Jayanti. As a part of Ayurveda Day celebration, Ministry had organised a " Seminar on Entrepreneurship and Business Development in Ayurveda" in association with NITI Aayog with the intention to encourage entrepreneurs and Ayurveda stakeholders towards businesses opportunities in the sector. The Dhanwantary Ayurveda Awards were also given away on Monday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As many as 25 terrorists from the Islamic State (ISIS) group were killed in US-led airstrikes in northern Iraq's Kirkuk province on Sunday. The US-led coalition forces carried out aerial attacks in the oil-rich province in response to an attack by the terror group that targetted a high-voltage transmission line in Havice region, which occurred on Saturday, senior Iraqi security official Major General Maan al-Saadi told Anadolu News Agency. Also, the airstrikes destroyed two shelters where the ISIS terrorists had been hiding. In December last year, Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State (IS), which had seized control of nearly a third of the country in 2014. However, in some parts of the war-torn country, the IS maintains a network of "sleeper cells". Both the US-led forces and the Iraqi government have been conducting several airstrikes to clear out the terror camps, particularly in the northern parts of Iraq. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dubai Police have recovered a diamond worth AED 300,000 (about 81,673 US dollars) just 20 hours after it was stolen by an Asian couple. The 3.27 carat gem was recovered after being stolen by the couple from a jewellery shop in Naif area. They left the country before being caught in India after Dubai Police alerted the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) and Indian authorities and brought them back to Dubai. Though the owner of the shop found out about the missing diamond and informed the police about three hours after the incident, the police managed to recover the gem within 20 hours in cooperation with the Indian authorities. "The couple was identified in a short time and arrested in transit area in India as they were trying to smuggle the diamond to their home country," Major-General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, the commander-in-chief of Dubai Police, said. He praised the work of his officers at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) who recovered the gem in such a short time after identifying the two suspects. "It is a new achievement for Dubai known as safe and secure city. Our strategy is to cut crime rate and quick response to emergencies," Maj General Al Merri said. Brigadier Jamal Salem Al Jalaf, Director of General Department of Criminal Investigation in Dubai Police, said smart data analysis centre helped solve the crime in short time. He added that two suspects in their 40s, went to the jewellery shop. The man distracted the salesman by asking for specific diamonds while the woman, who was holding a jacket under her arms, stood near a table and stole the gem worth Dh 300,000 and put it in her jacket. The couple left the shop and the salesman discovered the robbery after three hours. Colonel Adel Al Joker, Director of Criminal investigation Section at Dubai Police, said the thieves left immediately to Dubai International Airport and departed to India on the way to their home country. They were brought back to Dubai from India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Anushka Sharma is celebrating husband Virat Kohli's 30th birthday with an endearing wish. The 'Sanju' star took to social media to share some love soaked pictures with the Indian captain. She simply captioned them, "Thank God for his birth" anushkatweetnov5.jpg It seems filmmaker Karan Johar is also impressed with the actor's subtle wish for her hubby. While terming it as the "sweetest birthday wish ever", the acclaimed director extended his greetings to the Indian skipper as well. "Sweetest birthday wish ever!!! Happy birthday Virat!!!!" he tweeted. The couple is reportedly celebrating the special day in Haridwar. They were spotted at the Mumbai airport on Friday night, after Anushka - along with the star cast of 'Zero', including Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif - launched the trailer of the film in the city. Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli, one of the most talked about couples Tinseltown, are also gearing up for their first wedding anniversary. The two secretly got married in December last year. Post their nuptials in Italy; the couple hosted grand receptions in Delhi and Mumbai. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) To mark the auspicious occasion of Diwali, 14 artists from Laos on Sunday visited Ayodhya and performed Ramayana at Dr. Rammanohar Lohiya Awadh University, Faizabad. The artists enacted the kidnapping of Goddess Sita by Ravana. "We are very happy to be in Ayodhya. It is a pleasant experience performing here. Altogether 14 artists have come to perform. We also perform Ramayana in Laos during New Year," said Pheuy, choreographer of the team. In a spectacular performance, artists enacted the incident of Goddess Sita being kidnapped by Ravana. The costumes worn by artists were dazzling with golden hues. Laos culture was also reflected during the performance. The usage of the mask in the performance grabbed the attention of the audience. The background score was specially handcrafted to bring out the essence of each scene. People will also get to see a series of performances on the Ramayana by artists from different countries such as Russia, Indonesia, Cambodia. This is an initiative by the Tourism and Cultural department of Uttar Pradesh to celebrate Lord Rama's victory over Ravana. Meanwhile, South Korean First Lady Kim-Jung Sook on Sunday arrived in India to take part in Deepotsav festival and the ground breaking ceremony of Queen Huh Memorial Park in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya on November 6. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pathanamthitta (Kerala) [India], Nov 5 (ANI): Chief priest of the Sabarimala Temple, Kandararu Rajeevaru on Monday denied consulting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kerala unit chief P S Sreedharan Pillai before taking a call on shutting the doors of the Lord Ayyappa's shrine if women in the menstruating age entered its sanctum sanctorum. "I only discussed that (closing the temple if women in the menstruating age come to sanctum sanctorum) matter with my family members. I did not discuss anything with the BJP chief of Kerala. I have nothing more to add to it," Rajeevaru told the media here. In a purported audio clip, Pillai claimed of being in touch with Sabarimala priests before they warned police officials of closing the Sabarimala Temple if women enter the temple premises last month. However, Pillai defended himself and told ANI, "So what? I am a lawyer also, he (Rajeevaru) had taken a legal opinion from me. Many CPM Ministers have also taken opinion from me and I have fought cases." The Sabarimala Temple was reopened for two days amidst heavy security deployment today evening. The police officials said around 1,500 personnel are deployed in Pamba and Sannidhanam for maintenance of law and order. "We have made adequate security arrangements for facilitating 'darshan' of all devotees. We have various threats in this area, taking into consideration various threat perceptions, we've provided security arrangements for everyone," IG Ajith Kumar, security in-charge of Sabarimala told ANI. The temple opened for the second time after the Supreme Court allowed women of all ages to enter the shrine. According to police officials, no women devotee approached them for assistance in facilitating their entry in Sabarimala Temple. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Shiv Sena on Monday came down heavily on government authorities for killing man-eater Tigress 'Avni' and called for the adoption of adequate measures to avoid human-animal conflicts. In its editorial mouthpiece, Saamna, the party, while acknowledging that the tigress killed 13 people in the last two years, blamed the rampant intrusion into wildlife inhabited areas as the reason for it. "If one inserts his hand inside a snake's burrow, it is but natural that it will bite the person. The same is happening in the case of wild animals. Humans have intruded the space of tigers. Forests are being destroyed, hills are being broken. It has become difficult for tigers to live. After doing so much how can we expect any humanitarianism from tigers?" the write-up read. It further raised the issue of increasing residential colonies in, and around Borivali Park and claimed that this was the reason why leopards enter colonies and even killed people at times. The Shiv Sena also asserted that instead of shooting animals, it is important for humans to be more disciplined. In the wake of the incident, the party urged authorities to provide basic facilities of housing and sanitation to those who are forced to live under the constant fear of attack by wild animals. The Shiv Sena also raised suspicion over the way Avni was killed and claimed that proper procedures were not followed. It alluded that dead bodies of only 6 out of the 13 people allegedly killed by the tigress were sent for post-mortem, and only 1 was actually found to be killed by a tiger. The Shiv Sena also compared Avni's killing with the alleged mistreatment meted out to farmers. "If Avni can be termed a man-eater for reportedly killing 13 people, why isn't any government machinery being held responsible for the situation of drought, starvation, malnutrition which is leading to the death of farmers?" it questioned. "Avni you were sacrificed for the greed of humans. In a state where even humans can't live properly, what do we say about wild animals like you? Avni, forgive us. You were killed cowardly," the party concluded. Tigress Avni, who was believed to be responsible for the death of 13 people in the past two years, was gunned down by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali in Maharashtra's Yavatmal on November 2. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Governor Satya Pal Malik on Monday said that the biometric details of refugees will be collected within two months. "Biometric details of will be collected within two months," Malik said while addressing the media during the bi-annual 'Darbar Move'. On October 1, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that all states have been asked to identify refugees and collect their biometric data, a compiled report of which will be sent to Myanmar. The Home Minister, while describing the as illegal immigrants, had asked other political parties to not politicise the Centre's efforts to identify them. Rajnath's directions came four months after he wrote a letter to the government, saying, "Such illegal migrations pose serious challenges and have security implications since some of the migrants have been found to have indulged in illegal activities and are vulnerable to radicalisation." Malik, while addressing the media, also expressed condolences on the death of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secretary Anil Parihar and his brother, Ajeet in Kishtwar and said the terrorists who killed the brothers have been identified. "Terrorists were frustrated as the local body polls were conducted smoothly; hence, they carried out this murder. The moral of the security forces is high, and no terrorists can disturb the panchayat elections," he said. Panchayat polls in the state are scheduled to begin on November 17. The voting will take place between 7 am and 2 pm and the entire poll process will be completed by December 17. Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb on Sunday expressed his wish to domesticate cows at the Chief Minister's residence here along with his family and consume its milk. He said that this would also inspire other people of the state to do the same and will help them fight malnutrition. "Today I am announcing that I will start domestication of cows at the Chief Minister's residence along with my family and will consume its milk. This will also inspire people of Tripura to do the same and would help fight malnutrition," he said. The Chief Minister also said that the state government would launch a scheme to distribute cows among 5,000 families. "We are about to launch a scheme for distributing cows among 5,000 families. I am not against setting big industries but in that one has to invest Rs 10,000 crores for employing 2,000 people but if I give 10,000 cows to 5,000 families they will start earning in six months," he further added. Deb had been in the news earlier for a series of controversial comments. He had earlier advised the youth of Tripura to not to waste their crucial time and, instead, milk cows and run pan stalls for livelihood. Deb earlier stirred controversy when he claimed that the internet and satellite were not something new but existed since the Mahabharata era, and continued to stand by his claim. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the opening ceremony of China's first International Import Expo in Shanghai on Monday, asserted that his country will not close its door to the and will only become more and more open. The remark assumes significance as it has come amidst China's trade war with the United States. Accusing Beijing of "stealing intellectual property" the Trump administration has been imposing tariffs on China, claiming that the US was "being treated unfairly in trade." President Xi, without taking names of any country, further said, "All countries should be committed to opening-up and oppose protectionism and unilateralism in a clear-cut stand. All countries should uphold the principle of inclusive development and shared benefits in order to realize common development," according to news agency Xinhua. Emphasising on the significance of economic globalisation, he added, "Economic globalisation is an irreversible historical trend and provides strong momentum for the economic development. All countries should stick to innovation and accelerate transition with traditional growth drivers being replaced by new ones." He also laid down a roadmap of Chinese imports for the next 15 years and said, "China's imported goods and services are estimated to exceed 30 trillion USD and 10 trillion USD, respectively, in next 15 years. China's initiative to expand imports is not a makeshift, but long-term consideration of embracing the and future while promoting common development." President Xi, while highlighting the role of China in developing more free trade ports, said his government would push for increasing bilateral-multilateral cooperation. "China will speed up exploration of the building of free trade ports with Chinese characteristics. China will push forward multilateral and bilateral cooperation in pursuit of development," he said. President Xi further said countries should become more self-dependent in solving their own problems and striving to improve their own business. The remark comes at a time when Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is in China and is attending the International Import Expo. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chris Hemsworth is in India and one look at his Instagram feed is enough to show how much fun the actor is having in the country. The Australian actor is shooting for his upcoming Netflix thriller 'Dhaka'. Being one of most active celebrities on Instagram, he has been documenting his India visit via Insta stories and posts. Today, the 'Avengers' actor took to his Instagram page to share a series of selfies clicked with kids. In the Picture, Chris can be seen taking selfies with his happy fans that are smiling and posing with the reel life superhero. "Beyond thankful for the kindness and generosity that the people of India have extended to us while making our little film here," the caption read. Earlier on Sunday, Hemsworth got stuck in traffic and shared a glimpse of it with his Instagram followers. In a situation that would easily frustrate anyone, the 'Thor' actor seemed to be having fun. "Beautiful Chaos," he captioned the post. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dhaka, penned by Anthony Russo, is a kidnap extraction drama focused on a worn out mercenary named Rake (played by Hemsworth) who is hired to save the son of a businessman. The shooting locations include locales in India and Indonesia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) general secretary, Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Monday filed a complaint against Bollywood actor for allegedly hurting the sentiments of the Sikh community in his upcoming venture 'ZERO'. In a complaint filed at the North Avenue Police Station, Sirsa has said that they have received a number of complaints from the Sikh Sangat. In the complaint, Sirsa alleged that in the promo of the movie, actor has been shown wearing 'Gatra Kirpan' (Article of Sikh Faith) in their movie promo which has created an outrage among Sikh community worldwide. The Akali Dal legislator told the police that according to the Sikh Rehat Maryada only an 'Amritdhari Sikh' can wear Gatra Kirpan. He further urged the police to lodge FIR against the movie. He also requested the authorities that the promo of the upcoming movie 'ZERO' showing actor wearing Gatra Kirpan, should be stopped without any further delay. He further said that in the promo, the film star not only appears wearing the Kirpan but also the poster shows the star in a lighter mood thereby further showing the Sikh article of faith in a lighter vein. He added that Sikhs cannot tolerate such mischievous acts either in films or in real life. Saying that Sikhs cannot tolerate that any movie star or the film itself shows the Sikh tenants or articles of faith in a bad light, Sirsa further added, "Sikh Guru Sahiban have given enough power and strength to the Sikhs to fight with such situations if they arise in their life." The film 'Zero' is an upcoming venture of Shah Rukh Khan, the film also features and and is directed by Anand L. Rai. The Congress party will observe 'black day' to mark the second anniversary of the Central Government's demonetisation drive on November 8, said sources. Last year also, the Congress and other Opposition parties protested at various places across India against the Central Government's drive. On November 8 2016, the Centre declared Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes as non-legal and introduced new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes. Since then, various opposition leaders have highly criticised the Centre's move, while the members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies have backed the decision. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi Court on Monday fixed November 19 as the date for main arguments on the appeal filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Sahiram Pehalwan challenging his conviction in a case related to the alleged assault on a youth in 2016. The Patiala House Court (Sessions Court) has stayed the earlier order of magistrate court, which convicted Pehalwan, an MLA from Tughlakabad, and imposed a fine of Rs 2 Lakh on him. Earlier, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal had convicted Pehalwan and imposed a fine on him. Vishal had not been awarded any jail term and gave Pehalwan "an opportunity to reform", in an earlier judgement. Besides the AAP MLA, two other co-convicts who were also asked to pay a fine of Rs 2 lakh each, also approached the court against the order. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Governor Mridula Sinha on Monday extended their greetings and good wishes to people of Goa on the eve of Diwali. In his greetings message, the Chief Minister said, ''Diwali is a festival that illuminates people's minds and hearts with the spirit of oneness and joy. May the festival of lights fills homes of the people with happiness, peace and prosperity." Goa Governor also extended her good wishes to the people. In her message, the Governor said India is known for a myriad of festivals and Diwali is one of the most popular one. "Diwali or Deepavali also known as the festival of lights, and is the biggest festival celebrated around the world. People from all walks of life decorate their homes with "diyas", earthenware oil lamps and candles.It is a five-day festival, celebrated to commemorate the return of Shri Ram, the lord of virtue, to his kingdom after 14 years of exile," she said. "For some parts in India, it also marks the end of the harvest season and is the chance to give thanks by the farmers to Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity. While the story behind Diwali and the manner of celebration varies from region to region, the festival is celebrated to remember that light triumphs over dark and good triumphs over evil. The carnival of lights is all about celebrating the power of love, honesty and happiness. All the religions in India celebrate this festival. Diwali is like the carnival of India and the popularity of this festival is not only limited to India," she added. "In India, Diwali is spectacular not just in terms of celebration but also in spends. It's a time for family and friends to get together and exchange delightful gifts. Buying goods and gifting to loved ones is an age-old tradition and is considered auspicious. Similarly, I would also like to mention that during festive seasons, when most of us think about our clothes, our house, and our happiness, we forget to include the less fortunate in our thoughts. This Diwali, let's take charge and reach out to the underprivileged people and spread smiles through at least some charity and sharing, in however small way we can. Such noble deeds, not only lifts the festive mood but also contributes to humanity, which is our duty" the Governor said. "Diwali is a festival which gives a significant message of evil being defeated by the good, in the same way we must try to eradicate the evils like jealousy, corruption, racism, violence etc from the society and create a positive atmosphere of amity, brotherhood, and mutual understanding which will strengthen the society and the country as whole" she added. "May the celebrations of Diwali this year help in bringing people closer and making life prosperous and happy" the Governor concluded. The festival of lights, Diwali, will be celebrated on November 7 this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With just a day left for Diwali, a jewellery shop here has attracted the attention of customers by selling gold and silver bars with the imprints of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Speaking to ANI, a customer said, "Lord Laxmi and Ganesh are worshipped on every Diwali and Prime Minister Modi is also like God to us. This year I will buy these bars and worship Modi Ji." This is not the first time that the shop has manufactured jewellery with imprints of the Prime Minister. Earlier rakhis made of gold with photos of Prime Minister Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani engraved on them were also made by the shop. The shop owner, Milan told ANI, "Diwali is an auspicious occasion. Since the time Narendra Modi Ji took over as the Prime Minister of the country there has always been development and welfare. There has been widespread development in the country and hence I thought of making these to mark the occasion." He further said that several orders of the special gold and silver bars have been received by the shop ahead of the Diwali festivities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Diwali is around the corner and while everybody is trying to put together something to wear on Diwali, Mira Kapoor has it all covered for her son. Mera, on Monday, took to her Instagram account to share her Son Zain Kapoor's Diwali clothes that he will don while celebrating his first Diwali. The picture features two outfits, a purple kurta, and a white kurta. In the post, Mira wrote "Zainu's Diwali outfits" and also tagged fashion designer Kunal Rawal. In September, Shahid Kapoor and Mira welcomed parenthood for the second time with their newborn son Zain Kapoor. The couple tied the knot in 2015 and welcomed their first child, Misha, a year later in August. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Hyderabad Task Force on Monday arrested a travel agent for duping people on the pretext of providing job visa. The task force also recovered three passports, three Aadhar Cards and two pan cards belonging to him on different names. Three mobile phones, six sim card, one laptop, one two- wheeler and nine Indian passports of the candidates were also recovered from him. The accused has been identified as Vosa Gangadhar and is a resident of Hyderabad. The police said that Gangadhar worked in various countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia among others and had got familiar with the procedure of procuring a visa. Commissioner of Police, Anjani Kumar, while addressing the media said, "Promising jobs and a better life, he collected about 4 to 5 lakhs rupees from each candidate as per their financial status and also seized their Indian passports. After receiving the amount and passports, he used to book air tickets and completed documentation work and hotel invitation letters which were done by one puneeth, owner of Indo Israel Travels situated at Ghantaghar in the capital." The Police Commissioner further urged people to not fall for lucrative offers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian Air Force on Monday rescued three people from Bharmour area of Himachal Pradesh's Chamba district after they were stranded post snowfall in the area. The youth were identified as, Anil Kumar, Lekh Raj, and Kaka Ram. They went to Reti Dhar on October 31 and got stuck on November 2. On the morning of November 3, Additional District Magistrate (ADM) of Bharmour received a phone call from a member of the Block Divisional Council of Bharmour, informing him of the situation. The ADM immediately constituted a team of four mountaineers, two policemen and three local youth for the search and rescue operation. The operation was called off on November 4, due to the inclement weather and inaccessible terrain. The local administration then contacted the state government for help and in response, the state government requested IAF to intervene. The men have been rescued, are safe and now with their kin. Fresh snowfall and rains have disrupted the daily activities of common people in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Malawi on Monday signed three Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) on extradition treaty, cooperation in the field of atomic energy for peaceful purposes and visa waiver for diplomatic and official passports. India will also extend a new Line of Credit of USD 215 million to Malawi for 18 water projects, TS Tirumurti, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said. India will also construct a Mahatma Gandhi Convention Centre in Blantyre city of Malawi. It will also gift a cancer treatment machine to the Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi. In the health sector, India will assist the African nation with 10 ambulance services and essential medicines. Also, around one lakh textbooks will be given to Malawian students between Grade 8 to Grade 12. Moreover, India has also offered a specialised training programme for Malawi Defence forces. Earlier, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu held talks with Malawi President Arthur Peter Mutharika and reaffirmed their commitment to bolster cooperation in capacity building, training, health, agriculture, energy and mineral resources. MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar wrote on his Twitter handle, "Enhancing existing & exploring new areas of cooperation. VP @MVenkaiahNaidu met with President of #Malawi Arthur Peter Mutharika along with the delegation. Reaffirmed commitment to strengthen cooperation in capacity building, training, health, agriculture, energy & mineral resources." The Vice President also inaugurated the first Jaipur Foot camp under "India for Humanity" initiative and handed over artificial limbs to the beneficiaries. "Transforming lives. VP @MVenkaiahNaidu inaugurated 1st #JaipurFoot camp at #Malawi under "India for Humanity" initiative within the context of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary. In the presence of Malawian dignitaries, VP handed over artificial limbs to the beneficiaries," Kumar tweeted. With this, Vice President Naidu completed his bilateral engagements and departed for India, after completing a six-day visit to the Southern African countries -- Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said that the Indian diaspora enjoys a reputation of being a peace-loving community. While addressing the Indian community here, Vice President Naidu said, "I am happy that the Indian community enjoys a reputation of being a peace-loving community and has been able to assimilate well with the locals." Hailing the contribution of the diaspora in the economic activities of Malawi, the Vice President underlined that the community has made significant contributions in the African nation. "I am happy to note that you have made a significant contribution to finding a place of leadership, in the economic activities of the country. Some of you have attained positions of excellence, in your respective professions. Your strong and wider involvement in economic activities of Malawi is noteworthy, " he said. Vice President Naidu underlined that "the Indian cultural heritage kept alive various Indian festivals celebrated with full religious fervour and with the participation of the entire community". Terming the Indian community in Malawi as 'cultural ambassadors', the Vice President lauded the diaspora for its achievements and making India proud. He further urged the community to continue their mission of carrying the country's message in their interactions with others across the "You are India's cultural ambassadors and the sees you as the representatives of Indian values and way of life. I am happy that many of you have done India proud," Vice President Naidu stated. Underscoring the importance of sharing and caring, which he said is the core of Indian philosophy, the Vice President added, "Please keep building bridges of understanding and empathy as you have been doing, for so many decades. Share your prosperity with your Malawi brothers and sisters and make them partners in progress." He extended an invitation to the Indian community to attend the upcoming Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas in January next year. Earlier, the Vice President arrived in Lilongwe, on the last leg of his tour to the African continent, and was received by Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Malawi, Dr. Emmanuel Fabiano and other officials, after wrapping up his bilateral engagements in Zimbabwe. Vice President Naidu is slated to hold talks with the Malawi leadership on various ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation before departing for India on November 5. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A major mishap was averted at Chennai Airport after an IndiGo flight (6E 7124) operating on Rajahmundry-Chennai route developed a technical problem during the final approach while landing at the Chennai airport last evening. There were 51 members onboard including 47 passengers. No injuries were reported. The flight was scheduled to land in Chennai at 5:45 pm but the plane's second engine failed at the time of the landing, causing the pilot to declare an emergency. The plane finally landed at 6:26 pm. On Monday, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered for an investigation. The incident comes nearly three weeks after Indigo airlines' system was down for 90 minutes across all airports, causing inconvenience to the passengers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As details of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's brutal killing surface, the scribe's son, Abdullah, hopes that his father did not die a painful death. Abdullah, in an interview with CNN, appealed to the Saudi authorities to reclaim his father's body. "I really hope that whatever happened wasn't painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death," he said. Abdullah, who was interviewed along with his brother, Salah, hailed their father as "courageous, generous and very brave." "Jamal was a moderate person. He was liked by everybody. He had differences and common values with everyone," Salah recalled. "I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don't agree with," he added. "All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina (Saudi Arabia) with the rest of his family. I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon" Salah appealed, reported CNN. Earlier in the month, Chief Turkish prosecutor Ifran Fidan claimed that Khashoggi was strangled to death soon after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. He also alleged that Khashoggi's body was dismembered and destroyed. "In accordance with plans made in advance, the victim Jamal Khashoggi, was choked to death immediately after entering the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. The victim's body was dismembered and destroyed following his death by suffocation," CNN, last week, quoted a statement from Fidan as saying. Few weeks after the incident, a group of 15 Saudi agents were found guilty of murdering the former Washington Post journalist, which sparked an international furore. Khashoggi went missing on October 2 after stepping into Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul in Turkey to collect documents that would allow him to get married to Hatice Cengiz, who was waiting outside the consulate for Khashoggi. Cengiz raised an alarm after Khashoggi failed to re-emerge from the Saudi consulate. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hitting back at Union Minister Maneka Gandhi over her comments on the killing of Tigress Avni, Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said that he would have been happy if Gandhi had spoken to him before commenting on the matter. Mungantiwar said, "I would have been happy if Maneka Gandhi had talked to me before commenting on the issue. 13 people were killed and on the guidelines of Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the decision to kill Avni was taken." He added that it would be wrong of Gandhi to doubt the integrity of the forest officials. "Neither I nor the forest department had taken the decision. Officials were trying to capture her from the last one-and-half months. When they tranquilised her, she attacked them so they had to shoot her. It will be wrong to doubt the integrity of the forest officials," Mungantiwar elucidated. Continuing his tirade against Gandhi, the Maharashtra Forest Minister said that if she thinks "any tiger or tigress should not be killed even if it is a man-eater, then the decision should be taken by the Centre regarding it." Earlier on Sunday, Gandhi had hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Maharashtra government over the tigress' killing and termed it a "straight case of crime". In a series of tweets, Gandhi had said, "I am deeply saddened by the way tigress Avni has been brutally murdered in Yavatmal." Vowing to take up the issue "legally, criminally as well as politically", the Union Minister also came down heavily on Mungantiwar, and said that many animals and not only Avni, have been gunned down on the latter's directives. Avni, who was a man-eater tigress, was killed in Yavatmal on Friday night. She was allegedly responsible for the death of 13 people in the Pandharkawda forest in Maharashtra. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dr. Ramdas M Pai, Chairman Emeritus - Manipal Education and Medical Group and President & Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) has been awarded 'Lifetime Achievement Award 2018' for his enormous contributions in the fields of education and healthcare by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI). The award was received by Dr. H Vinod Bhat, Vice Chancellor, Manipal Academy of Higher Education from Secretary, Ministry of HRD as Dr. Pai was unable to attend the function owing to other commitments. "Is an epitome of dedication and perseverance, who has contributed immensely at national and international level. He has spent his entire life working with all the Group of Institutions and his name has till date been synonymous with perseverance, dedication and attaining a larger purpose in all human endeavor," said Dr Pai, a recipient of Padma Bhushan. "This is a proud moment for us. I take this opportunity to congratulate him personally, as well as on behalf of the entire Manipal family. His untiring industry, dedicated perseverance and devotion to his causes have won him this award and other accolades earlier. May his unremitting endeavor go on with undiminished vigor," said Dr Ranjan Pai, Chairman MEMG. "He has contributed immensely to making our Manipal Brand a respected and trusted name not just in India but internationally as well. His principled stance, his unwavering commitment to promoting affordable and accessible education and healthcare has greatly benefited the public at large," added Dr. Ranjan. "His quiet and unassuming generosity through the Manipal Foundation, stand eloquent testimony to his care for the vulnerable sections of our society. We are privileged to have his guidance thus far in our journey and we seek his continued guidance as we take many more steps forward in realizing the dreams of late Dr TMA Pai and Dr Pai himself," he added. "On our part we wish to assure Dr Pai that we will continue to build on the strong platform that he established for us through his dedication and sincerity spanning many decades. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least five Naxals were killed in an encounter with security forces in Malkangiri district's Kalimeda in Odisha in the wee hours of Monday. Officials said the bodies of the Naxals have also been recovered. However, their identities are yet to be ascertained. The encounter comes just over a week after three Chhattisgarh police personnel and a Doordarshan cameraman were killed in a Naxal attack in Dantewada district of poll-bound Chhattisgarh. The Doordarshan crew and the patrol party were attacked in Aranpur village of Dantewada, which is a Maoist hotbed in the heavily-forested central Indian state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to spend the festival of Diwali in Kedarnath, sources said on Monday. Prime Minister Modi, after assuming office in 2014, has primarily spent the festival every year with soldiers and security personnel at different parts of the country. Last year, Prime Minister Modi celebrated Diwali with Border Security Force (BSF) personnel posted in Gurez at Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora district and a day later he visited Kedarnath to inaugurate various development projects. In 2016, Prime Minister Modi met jawans of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITPB), the Indian Army and Dogra Scouts in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh on the day of Diwali. In 2015, he visited the Dograi War Memorial in Khasa, Amritsar to celebrate Diwali with the troops. Months after becoming Prime Minister in 2014, he had paid a surprise visit to the Siachen Base Camp to celebrate Diwali with the soldiers deployed at the World's highest battlefield. The festival of lights, Diwali, will be celebrated on November 7 this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Priyanka Chopra, who recently took the internet by storm with pictures from her fancy bridal shower, is now celebrating her fun bachelorette party with her girl gang and it looks like she is having the time of her life. The bride-to-be has been joined by her cousin Parineeti Chopra and her future sister-in-law and 'Game of Thrones' actor Sophie Turner. She has flown off to Amsterdam with her friends to enjoy her final days as a bachelorette. She took to her official Instagram account to share some super fun and glamorous pictures from the party. The 'Baywatch' actor looked smoking hot in a Georges Chakra ensemble, an embroidered mini dress with a floor length coat in feathers and crystals. She posted the picture with a witty caption, "Featherweight Champion of the world... #Bachelorette #FauxNotFur @georgeschakraofficial" She posted another stunning picture in the same outfit, posing for the camera. The 36-year-old actor also posted pictures on her official Twitter handle, writing, "A day in the life of...#bachelorette" Parineeti, who seems extremely excited as the sister of the bride-to-be also shared pictures from the party. In a picture posted by the 'Namaste England' actor on her Instagram story, she can be seen all smiles posing for the camera, with pastel pretty background and pink and silver balloons. Parineeti also shared her party outfit on her Instagram story looking fabulous as ever dressed in a red check dress with black feathers coat and hair left open. The 'Meri Pyaari Bindu' actor also shared a picture with the girl gang, captioning it as, "Red, White and Bride! #PCsBachelorette" She posted another photo with the 'Quantico' star posing for the camera on her Instagram story. Sophie Turner also gave her followers a sneak peek into the party by posting a picture of the 'Mary Kom' star on her Instagram story, captioning it as, "Bride Goals." Last week, Priyanka's bridesmaids Mubina Rattonsey and Anjula Achari had hosted a bridal shower for her at Tiffany's Blue Box Cafe in New York City. It was attended by all her family members and close friends and the actor looked all excited and happy during the bash. In August, Priyanka and Nick confirmed their engagement during a trip to Mumbai, where their families gathered for festivities, including a Roka ceremony and a big engagement celebration. Since their engagement, the couple has been inseparable, traveling all around the world together. They've gone to Mexico for a quick weekend getaway, Mammoth Mountain in California and a favourite spot of Jonas', Mumbai, New York Fashion Week, among many more. On the professional front, Priyanka will be next seen in Shonali Bose's next directorial titled 'The Sky Is Pink', which also stars Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An 11-member 'cover-up team' was deployed by Saudi Arabia in order to wipe the evidence related to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and dispose of his body. On Monday, Al Jazeera cited Turkish newspaper Sabah stating that the 'cover-up team', which arrived here on October 11, included a toxicology expert and a chemist. Chemist Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani, the toxicology expert, were part of "the so-called investigative team," and made daily visits to the consulate until October 17 before they departed from Turkey on October 20, the report claimed. This development may provide clarification regarding why Turkish police officers were not allowed to investigate the consulate till October 15. While Saudi has acknowledged that the murder was premeditated, there has been no confirmation on the body of the 59-year old former Washington Post journalist. Chief Turkish prosecutor Ifran Fidan had claimed last week that Khashoggi was strangled to death soon after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He also alleged that the body was dismembered and destroyed. Meanwhile, Yasin Aktay, an advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has indicated towards the possibility of the body having been dissolved in acid. Turkish authorities have repeatedly accused Riyadh of causing hindrance in the ongoing investigations into the case by denying key pieces of evidence, with Erdogan calling upon the Gulf country to expose the people who sanctioned the murder. While Erdogan said in a Washington Post editorial that he did "not believe for a second" that King Salman was behind the murder, he did not clearly say the same about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Riyadh has arrested 18 officials who were allegedly linked to the plan to murder Khashoggi. Khashoggi went missing on October 2, after stepping into Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul to collect documents that would allow him to marry fiancee Hatice Cengiz, who was waiting outside the consulate. Cengiz raised an alarm after Khashoggi failed to re-emerge from the Saudi consulate. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CPEC will open avenues for Pakistan,China,ME,Gulf states: Imran Khan SHANGHAI: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday emphasised on the wide-reaching importance of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) saying that the project will open avenues for improved connections between Pakistan, China, Middle East and the Gulf states. PM Khan said the above while addressing the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. The CPEC will be mutually beneficial for both Pakistan and China economically and trade wise. Not only that, it will also connect the two countries with the Middle East and Gulf states. He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) governments motto is naya Pakistan and that the party was working day and night to achieve its goals. He added that corruption and poverty free Pakistan was PTIs priority and that the country must learn from China on how to tackle the two major problems. Khan continued that the current government was putting more emphasis on technology. The premier said that Pakistan was an ideal country for business and investment. There are 100 million individuals under the age of 35, which means Pakistan has a large workforce and is an ideal place for business and investment. On his turn to speak, Chinese President Xi Jingping said that digital technologies and artificial intelligence has revolutionised the world and that China was working towards improving relations with the rest of the world and being part of the revolutionsed world. New Delhi [India], Nov 05 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Centre, Tamil Nadu Government and the state forest officials on alleged indiscriminate culling of wild boars in the state. A bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur has asked Centre, Tamil Nadu government, its Chief Wildlife Warden and other forest officials to respond on a plea filed by an advocate Anupam Tripathi alleging culling of wildlife boars by neglecting guidelines issued by the state government. The petition sought direction to conduct a scientific survey before issuing culling orders. It further sought direction that state government should stop its illegal acts and actions of killing wild boars. The advocate claimed that an all-party meeting chaired by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on June 22 last year had decided to cull and destroy wild boars in 11 district forest divisions. Due to the notification, ordinary citizens were killing wild boars by grossly neglecting the guidelines issued along with the notification, the petition stated. "The notification has been issued in gross violation of law i.e. it was issued without conducting a scientific and analytical survey about the increase in the population of wild boars. This act of the state of Tamil Nadu is barbaric, brutal, cruel and implementation of this indiscriminate policy is even more forbidding and contrary to law," the petition stated. The petition further alleged that after the state government declared the wild boars as 'vermin', there was specific instruction for their killing and disposal of their carcasses. The petition stated that as per section 62 read with section 12 of The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 prohibits killing of any wild animal until declared as 'vermin' as the animal will be deemed to be listed under the Schedule V of the Act, in lieu of which the same animal can be killed if it causes any harm to human or property. Section 62 requires a declaration of 'vermin' by conducting a proper scientific survey which was omitted when the notification declaring wild boars as 'vermin' was issued, the petition read. "The Centre, Tamil Nadu government and forest officials have been asked to carry out the fresh census in every wildlife reserve and parks in the country to enable identifying all those wildlife reserves and parks where the wild boar density is more populated than other reserves and parks," it added. "Once this is done and wildlife reserves are identified where the wild boar populations are higher and similarly where the wild boar population is less or negligible, then the government should carry out the systemic plan of relocating wild boars especially from the dense location to the locations in those reserves where their density is negligible," the petitioner further stated. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Joymala Bagchi Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) [India], Nov 5 (ANI): South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-Sook will be in Ayodhya on Tuesday as the state guest for Deepotsav on Tuesday. On the occasion she will light the lamp made out of waste materials. The lamp is made by the fine arts department of Ram Manohar Lohiya Awadh University and has intricate designs on it which showcases Awadhi tradition and culture. Manoj Dixit, Vice Chancellor of the university told ANI, "Students of our fine art department have made that lamp. They are also making rangolis on the occasion." The size of this lamp is around four and half feet and a team of 25 students created it over a period of 20-25 days. Elaborating upon the details and concept behind the lamp, Vinod Srivastava in-charge of the fine arts department told ANI, "The lamp is four and a half feet tall, it took our team around 25 days to create it. The lady on the lamp is made in such a way that it looks like it is welcoming someone and which is also our tradition and culture. This lamp is made of clay and waste materials. We were given some funds by Cultural and Tourism Ministry of Uttar Pradesh." The grand celebrations of the Diwali festivities in Ayodhya will also set a world record as three lakh diyas would be lit on November 6, as a part of Deepotsav. As per an October 31 official Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) press release she will also be the chief guest at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Queen Suriratna (Heo Hwang-ok) Memorial in Ayodhya on the same day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Karu Jayasuriya on Monday said that he was "compelled to accept status that existed previously" in the legislative body until a clear majority was proved by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. "Even though I have remained silent so far at a time our motherland is embroiled in an unprecedented crisis. I consider it my paramount duty to act in accordance with my conscience for the protection of rights and privileges of the majority of the Members of Parliament," Jayasuriya said in a statement. "I wish to emphasise that I am compelled to accept the status that existed previously until such time that they and the new political alliance prove their majority in Parliament," the Speaker added. Jayasuriya confirmed that as many as 116 Members of Parliament of the United National Party, the Tamil National Alliance, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Muslim Congress had approached him saying that President Maithripala Sirisena's decision to sack Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister was "unconstitutional and undemocratic". Meanwhile, taking to his Twitter handle, Wickremesinghe lauded the Speaker's decision, saying: "It is encouraging that the Speaker has issued a strong statement condemning the unconstitutional actions of the President." "Protests taking place all across the island demonstrate the necessity of resolving this crisis by democratic means, within the framework of the Constitution," the former Prime Minister added. The JVP also hailed the move with leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake stating that the President had earlier prorogued Parliament in order to lure opposition leaders to the Rajapaksa's side with black money, thus establishing a majority. However, the Rajapaksa-led Sri Lankan government condemned the statement, requesting the Speaker to rescind it and terming it personal and politically motivated, the Daily Mirror reported. "Making such a biased statement is unconstitutional and illegal. Decision on certain matters have to be taken according to the Constitution. The Speaker has no right to decide, who should be the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister should be appointed by the President," said Foreign Minister Sarath Amunugama. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has announced that the country's Parliament will be reconvened on November 14, amid rising demands by legislators of the state to end the mounting political crisis in the island nation. Al-Jazeera reported, while quoting sources, that the decision drew strong criticism from the supporters of the country's ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP), who even termed the order to be "too late". UNP supporters also condemned Sirisena's decision to recall parliament two days prior to the initial suspension order against Wickremesinghe, describing the move to be "eyewash to appease the ever-increasing international and local pressure." Sri Lanka has been witnessing political turmoil over the past three weeks, after Sirisena, on October 27, suspended the country's parliamentary proceedings until November 16. He also announced his decision to sack Wickremesinghe and replace him with former president Mahinda Rajapaksa following the collapse of the governing Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)-UNP coalition. The Tamil National Alliance, a coalition of parties representing the Tamils, vowed on Sunday that its 15 members would back the no-confidence motion against Rajapaksa. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A new UK India Council report, 'Beyond the Top 200', sets out how India's new higher policy could accelerate India's rise to superpower status by enabling young Indians to receive the world's best higher in India through greater availability of the top courses provided globally. The report launched in the margins of the FICCI Higher Summit, advocates for effective international collaboration in Indian Higher Education. On the path to becoming a 21st global superpower, India will need is rightly placing excellence, equal access, and employability at the heart of expanding its Higher Education system. As the report highlights, UK Higher Education institutions can, and want, to play an important role in supporting this goal at every level. "We are highly encouraged that the Government of India is creating policy to allow foreign universities to operate in the country. This is a welcome step that would allow the best courses, teaching, and facilities available globally to directly change lives in India," said Richard Heald, UKIBC Chief Executive. "However, there is consideration being given by the Committee developing India's new policy to allow only the top 200 globally ranked universities to participate with the best Indian institutions. We think this will limit the supply of genuinely top-quality learning opportunities for Indians," added Heald. Building on Heald's comments, Tara Panjwani, UKIBC's Head of Higher Education said, "To truly unlock the potential of India's young population, a more flexible approach is needed. Our report therefore recommends that all institutions, whether Indian or foreign, public or private, and irrespective of ranking, be permitted to forge international partnerships should it demonstrate, to both parties, real added value. Only this way can international collaboration meet the demand of India's students, institutions, and employers." Following the launch event and an interaction with the MHRD, the UKIBC delegates are confident and positive about the Indian Higher education environment and are encouraged by initiatives such as SPARC and GIAN, which will strengthen UK India Higher Education Relations. Indeed, one of the delegates, Lewis McKinnon from the University of London, stated that he is "confident that discussions with the MHRD has shown the commitment from UK HE institutions to contribute to India's success and to work toward creating a favorable environment for all to work in. to ensure a prosperous future between India and the UK. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Ananth Kumar Hegde has condemned the Karnataka government's decision to celebrate the birth anniversary of 18th century Mysore ruler, Tipu Sultan, on November 10 and has asked them not to be invited to the event marking the celebration. Tipu Sultan had fought against the British and died in 1799 while defending his capital Srirangapatna (present-day Mandya). Several leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, claims that the ruler was "against Kannada language and anti-Hindu" and thus flay the state government for celebrating his birth anniversary or Tipu Jayanti. The Congress party considers him as the first freedom fighter to have opposed the British rule on India. The Officer on Special Duty to Hedge wrote a letter to the Chief Secretary of Karnataka stating that even after the incidents of violence witnessed across the state last year during the celebrations, the state government's decision to glorify Tipu Sultan is "unfortunate". "History says that Tipu was anti-Hindu and anti-Kannadiga. Earlier when the government had gone ahead with the move there were state-wide protests and sporadic incidents of violence were witnessed. It is unfortunate that the government still wants to glorify him and we condemn it," the letter read. "I hereby would like to inform you to not mention my name in the invitee's list for Tipu Jayanthi," it added. Meanwhile, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said that although the state government has decided to celebrate Tipu Jayanti, there will be restrictions on celebrations as well as protests. "Government will celebrate Tipu Jayanti, but all processions, both for and against have been banned. We have requested 10 companies of RAF from the Centre. All officers have been informed," Parameshwara told reporters here. Last year, the Karnataka government headed by former chief minister Siddaramaiah decided to celebrate Tipu Jayanti on his birth anniversary on November 10. Popularly known as the Tiger of Mysore, Tipu Jayanti has become a controversial figure, especially since 2015, when the BJP and the Congress fought over the need to celebrate the 18th century ruler's birthday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Calling Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as 'bade bhai' (elder brother), Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) president Upendra Kushwaha took a pot shot at Kumar over his DNA controversy three years back. While addressing a rally in Muzzafarpur on Sunday, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Kushwaha asked the Bihar Chief Minister to share the "status and content" of his DNA test. "During election campaign rally in Bihar, Prime Minister Modi had said about the DNA in a very different context. But Nitish Kumar took it upon himself that Modi ji questioned his DNA, and asked all JD(U) workers and people of Bihar to collect samples of nails and hair for DNA testing and send it to Delhi. We are still waiting for the report of the samples. If it has come, we want to know the report of the result," he said. "Nitishji, you have said that you are my elder brother. If we both are from the same family then how am I from a low (caste)? I want to ask Nitishji, how can 'bada bhai' Nitish Kumar be uchch (higher caste) than his younger brother Upendra Kushwaha?" Kushwaha added. Kushwaha's DNA jibe came in the backdrop of a recent function, organised by a media house, where Kumar was asked to respond on Kushwaha's recent claim that the Kumar is unwillingness to continue as the chief minister after 2020. Kumar reportedly said, "Batchit ka star itna 'neeche' mat giraeeye (don't bring down the level of discussion so low). In Bihar assembly polls in 2015, when the Janata Dal (United) and Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) were contesting the election as coalition partners, Prime Minister Modi in his election run-up speech targeted Kumar by saying that his inability to respect others showed that there was something wrong with his DNA. Reacting to this, Nitish had said that 'it is an insult to Bihar' and decided to send samples of nail and hair of one crore people to Prime Minister Modi for DNA testing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US government will fully reinstate energy and banking sanctions against Tehran on Monday, however, eight countries will receive temporary sanctions waivers due to their significantly reduced import of oil from Iran. In May, United States President Donald Trump announced that Washington would be withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In addition, Trump said the US would reinstate sanctions on Iran that were previously lifted under the JCPOA, with some of the restrictions having been reimposed on August 6 and the main ones slated for November 5. This unilateral move has been opposed by other signatories to the JCPOA, with the European Union, Russia and China looking for ways to continue doing business with Iran. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Friday the US would grant temporary waivers to eight countries to allow them to continue importing oil from Iran after November 5. He said a list of the jurisdictions receiving the waivers would be released on Monday. Pompeo pointed out that six of the countries agreed to significantly reduce imports of Iranian oil, while two others plan to halt their imports entirely. US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said Friday the Iran sanctions waivers, or significant reduction exemptions (SRE), would last for six months, adding that Washington did not plan to grant any additional SREs after the 180-day period. Washington is seeking to cut Tehran's lifeline - its energy sector - by banning the purchase of petroleum from Iran, as well as transactions by foreign financial institutions with the Central Bank of Iran. Moreover, the November 5 package of restrictive measures includes sanctions on Iran's port operators, shipping and shipbuilding sectors. The United States told foreign companies to phase out their operations in Iran before the 180-day wind-down period ends on November 4. In response, France's Total was the first to announce the company had left Iran in mid-July because it received no concessions from the US government regarding sanctions on the Islamic republic. The oil and gas company lost $40 million after walking out of the expansion project for Phase 11 of South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, but hoped it could return to Iran in the future. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), France has imported no crude oil or condensate from Iran since June while imports to Italy and Spain in September were lower than average for the first half of the year by 27,000 barrels per day (b/d) and 15,000 b/d respectively. According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Tehran's oil production dropped by 150,000 barrels per day to 3.447 million barrels per day (mb/d) in September. Meanwhile, the country's production quota under OPEC-non-OPEC Vienna deal stands at 3.8 mb/d. Pompeo said on Friday that according to the US assessments, Iran's exports of crude oil already declined by 1 million barrels per day even before the re-imposition of US energy-related sanctions against Tehran. Although Iran's OPEC Governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili assured press in September that Tehran would continue to export oil despite the US attempts to hamper the country's trade with other countries by reimposing sanctions, Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh has been a no-show at several major events during the past months, skipping the OPEC's ministerial monitoring committee in September in Algiers and the Russian Energy Week in October in Moscow. Following the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, Brussels has shown its interest in maintaining relationship with Tehran despite US sanctions. Consequently, the European Union updated its Blocking Statute to shield EU companies wishing to continue doing business with Iran from US penalties. The amended act entered into force on August 7 and would invalidate Washington's judicial decisions and administrative actions within the framework of anti-Iran sanctions on the territory of Europe. Furthermore, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called on EU member states to come up with an alternative to the US-controlled SWIFT payment system in order to better respond to the sanctions policy pursued by the United States against Russia, China, Turkey and other important economic partners of the European Union. SWIFT is used by thousands of banks and other financial institutions around the to securely exchange messages regarding transactions. As a result, in September the European Union and five other remaining signatories - China, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and Germany - to the Iran nuclear deal announced the decision to establish a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that would facilitate legitimate transactions with Iran, including transitions in US dollars. The new payment system will comply with international standards and will be open to other partners in the Although the new protective measure announced by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was expected to come into effect before November, the SVP is still under discussion. According to Tehran, talks between Iran and the European Union on the barter mechanism are progressing and "on the right path." US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday the SWIFT payment system would be subject to US sanctions if it provides financial services to financial institutions designated under Iranian sanctions. Finance ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom said in a joint statement on Friday they would hold a meeting soon to work out a mechanism for securing transactions with Tehran, as the European Union remains committed to protecting the interests of European companies trading with Iran, despite the US sanctions. Despite the looming sanctions, top Iranian oil importers, which include China, India, and South Korea among others, have been reluctant to stop purchases. South Korea, for example, said firms would not cut ties with Iran, although the restrictions would have to be taken into account. Meanwhile, India has been at lengthy talks with the United States to be granted permission to continue importing at least some volume of Iranian oil. New Delhi, Tehran's second-largest buyer, imported 9.8 million tonnes of oil from Iran in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. According to media reports, Washington may allow New Delhi to import around 1.25 million tonnes of oil per month until March 2019, which would mark a significant reduction compared to India's initial plans. The aforementioned option became possible after Pompeo said in early October that Washington would consider waivers for the importers of Iranian oil, including India, to give them time to adjust to the new conditions. However, the United States still expected all countries to eventually reduce their oil imports from Iran to zero. At the same time, China, who imported around 700,000 barrel per day in the first quarter of 2018, is currently in the middle of a trade war with the United States and it is highly unlikely the country would be granted any exemptions. Although Beijing insisted it would not limit its Iranian crude imports to comply with the US sanctions, several media reported in late October that Sinopec Group and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the country's top two state-owned refineries, both suspended placing new orders for crude oil from Iran. Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez announced on Friday that Turkey was one of the eight countries that the United States would exempt from sanctions for importing Iranian oil. The US Treasury Department also said on Friday its sanctions against Tehran would exempt pipeline and other energy projects that transport natural gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey and Europe. According to the JCPOA, Tehran vowed not to produce weapons-grade plutonium at its Arak facility - which it is obliged to reconfigure - and not to build new heavy-water reactors for 15 years to curb its nuclear program. Tehran is also committed to keeping its stock of heavy water, used to cool the Arak nuclear reactor, at no more than 130 metric tonnes. Despite Washington's claims, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly stated that Iran adheres to its nuclear-related commitments. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) From 6-11 November 2018, Zhuhai in southern China becomes an even more bustling metropolis than usual. This is because the port city plays host to the biennial Airshow China, commonly known as the Zhuhai Air Show, which is now in its 12th edition. This event has grown into the largest defense and aerospace exhibition in the Asia-Pacific region by far. It easily eclipses other major air shows such as the Singapore Airshow or Seoul ADEX. One reason for this is that it is endorsed by the Chinese government, State Council and Central Military Commission,and is supported by the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Sponsors of the show have risen from seven to 13, as more want to cash in on the event's success. Military and aircraft aficionados flock to this event every two years simply because it is one of the only real chances to see PLA Air Force (PLAAF) aircraft, helicopters, radars and other PLA equipment. The organizers said: "Since the first air show in 1996, it has developed into a mega international event featuring trade, professional knowledge and visual enjoyment." They also describe it as one of the five top air shows around the As to be expected, the organizers paid gushing tribute to the national leader in its preamble, stating, "With the in-depth development of the Belt and Road initiative and civil-military integration at this new starting point in history, this air show is under the guidance of Xi Jinping's thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era to further encourage innovation." Interestingly, the exhibition has expanded far beyond its original remit of being an air show since the first edition in 1996, taking in a broad spectrum of unmanned systems, missiles, rockets, space technology, land vehicles and much more besides. Indeed, there are 770 exhibitors from 43 countries in 2018registered, the largest total to date. The show is displaying more than 150 aircraft, including those from the PLAAF and Pakistan Air Force. However, a Saudi Arabian aerobatic team failed to show. The scale of the show is borne out by further statistics: the indoor exhibition area has expanded by 22% to more than 100,000m. Extensive outdoor exhibits occupy a further 400,000m, while an outdoor maneuver area for vehicles rose in size to 110,000m. ANI visited the show on the eve of opening day, when feverish last-minute preparations were taking place before VIPs arrived for the official inauguration ceremony on 6 November. As with the 2016 iteration of the show, J-20 stealth fighters are expected to fly during the ceremony, although this year their demonstration is expected to be longer than their brief cameo last time. The J-20s are not expected to reappear until Sunday,when the PLAAF will put on a special display to celebrate its anniversary. Kelvin Wong, senior analyst for aerospace, defense and security at the defense publisher IHS Markit, told ANI, "The Airshow China is the largest defense exhibition or event of its kind in Asia-Pacific. So it offers the a wonderful opportunity to get a glimpse of the typically opaque Chinese defense industry and the PLA." Referring to the indigenous technology on show, Wong agreed that it is progressing forward in leaps and bounds. "With each iteration of the China air show, you can see the equipment getting increasingly advanced and sophisticated. And obviously with the increasing number of international customers acquiring Chinese-made products such as unmanned aerial vehicles, I think, yes, China is climbing up the ranks of the global defense industry." While the air show attracts numerous locals from around China, there is a significant group of foreigners who attend as well. Western aerospace companies such as Bell Helicopter, Rolls-Royce, Airbus, General Electric and Safran are all present. Of course, these companies are not permitted to sell defense-related technologies to China because of European Union and US embargoes. Nevertheless, there is considerable cooperation between Chinese concerns and overseas firms, one example being Airbus Helicopters and the Aviation Corporation of China (AVIC). The two are currently collaborating on the AC352 helicopter, which is a Chinese version of the 7-ton-class Airbus H175. With China a keen buyer of Russian technology, including recent deliveries of S-400 air defense missile systems and Su-35 fighters, the Russians are very well represented too with companies such as the United Aircraft Company and Russian Helicopters. One must not forget Chinese commercial aviation too, with COMAC showing a prototype of the CR929 wide-body airliner. The Chinese-designed and built ARJ21 jet is also on static display. China is still not an easy place for visitors, however, with language a formidable problem for foreigners when catching taxis, shopping at a convenience store or even checking into a hotel. Hotels are often not aimed at the overseas visitor, with concrete slab-like beds and Chinese menus. To further complicate things, new government-imposed regulations mean that many hotels are not accepting credit cards from foreign banks unless they are affiliated with the Chinese-based Union Pay network. Even those wishing to use a vending machine to buy a cold drink would have found it impossible without using apps such as WeChat, yet another inconvenience for visitors. Those staying in accommodation other than regular hotels must also register at their local police station within 24 hours of arrival, a rule being enforced more fastidiously among Chinese paranoia about foreign influence. Immigration clearance also involves full scanning of the visitor's ten fingerprints plus face, meaning foreigners are now fully searchable in the country's massive database. Naturally, this allows China's extensive network of facial recognition cameras the ability to track people with ease. Security at the show site and at the nearby Zhuhai international Airport remain tight, especially so when the opening day rolls around, with numerous police present. However, one of the most frustrating factors about staying in China is the inability to visit one's favorite websites due to the ever-present and oppressive firewall blocking access. Even VNPs are being seriously targeted, making communication with the outside difficult. After braving the 75-90-minute ride from the center of Zhuhai, those visiting must contend with screeds of people, even during the so-called trade show when business deals and networking are occurring. Thus, it is not uncommon to see children, the elderly and the infirm on these days, something unheard of at most other defense trade shows. The final two public days are another experience altogether, as thousands of citizens flock to the show to watch the flying displays, look at the exhibits and sample the wares. As previously mentioned, this air show has expanded into many other realms. Thus, in 2016 for the first time a demonstration of land armored vehicles took place. This is being repeated in 2018, as dozens of vehicles from companies such as North China Industries (NORINC) run their tanks and other heavy vehicles over obstacles in the hopes of adding new customers who will be attracted by price and availability. Wong from IHS Markit, a return visitor to the show, concluded, "This is probably the only defense exhibition in Asia where the exhibitors aren't shy to show off lethal weaponry. Probably many of them will remain as conceptual models and prototypes, nonetheless it's nice to see what the Chinese are thinking." The organizers expected nearly 200 military and political trade delegations at the Zhuhai Air Show, as well as 130,000 visitors during the trade days alone. In fact, it is not uncommon to see North Koreans or military personnel from dictatorships and military governments attending the show. When the dust settles on the air show, new deals will surely have been signed with countries around the world, some of them despotic. When it comes to selling weaponry, China does not abide by the same degree of ethic standards as others do, surely one of the attractions for buyers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ONGC was down 0.48% to Rs 156.60 at 11:16 IST on BSE after net profit rose 61.1% to Rs 8,264.61 crore on 47.6% increase in net sales to Rs 27,989.17 crore in Q2 September 2018 over Q2 September 2017. The result was announced on Saturday, 3 November 2018. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 133.56 points, or 0.38% to 34,878.09. On the BSE, 6.58 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 3.88 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 164.70 and a low of Rs 156.10 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 212.90 on 25 January 2018. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 144.90 on 8 October 2018. The company got $73.07 for every barrel of crude oil it produced and sold in Q2 September 2018, up 47.8% from $49.43 per barrel realisation a year ago. Because of the depreciation in rupee, ONGC's realisation soared 61% to Rs 5,117 per barrel. ONGC got $3.06 per million British thermal unit for natural gas as opposed to $2.48 per mmBtu last year. Oil production fell 6.9% to 4.93 million tonnes, but gas output was up 2.9% at 6.13 billion cubic metres in Q2 September 2018 over in Q2 September 2017. Drilling Rig Sagar Samrat was under conversion into a Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU) for oil production from WO-16 Cluster. The MOPU was scheduled to be commissioned in the beginning of FY2019, which could not be done because of failure on part of the contractor. The non-availability of MOPU as per schedule led to a loss of oil production of about .35 MMT. ONGC took stringent action to terminate the contract and proactively awarded a new contract recently for commissioning of MOPU by March 2019, ONGC said in a statement. In WO-16 Cluster, all the 15 wells have been completed, which will be put on production once the MOPU is commissioned, the firm added. ONGC has notified 7 discoveries so far in FY2019 out of which 4 new discoveries have been made since last press release in this regard on 30 May 2018 (2 new prospect and 2 new pool discoveries). Out of the 4 new discoveries, 3 have been made in onshore blocks while 1 discovery has been made in offshore block. ONGC is the largest crude oil and natural gas company in India, contributing around 70% to Indian domestic production. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nawaz Sharif appeared before accountability court RAWALPINDI: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday appeared before accountability court in Rawalpindi for the hearing of Flagship Investments reference. During the hearing headed by Justice Arshad Malik, former PMs counsel Khawaja Harris continued cross-examination of Joint Investigation Team (JIT) head Wajid Zia. Harris asked Zia whether Nawaz had made investment in Flagship Investments company. He also inquired whether there is any document present which proves investment was made by Nawaz Sharif. To this Zia replied, JIT had not found any such document or bank account. Also, no witness had given testimony that Nawaz Sharif had helped him/her in formation of the Flasgship, Wajid said. Previously, Zia told that JIT had not found a single bank account of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif through which money was transferred abroad for establishment of Flagship. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Captain Safdar were convicted and sentenced to prison for ten years, seven years and one year respectively in Avenfield verdict. Five Maoists have been killed in an encounter with the security forces and ammunition recovered in Odisha's Malkangiri district, police said on Monday. The gun battle took place inside a forest area near Papluru village in the Kalimela late on Sunday. A combing operation by a joint team of Odisha Police and the Special Operation Group (SOG) personnel led to the encounter in which the five Maoists, including a woman was killed, Additional Director General (Operation) R.P. Koche said. Multiple weapons, including two INSAS rifles, a hand grenade and one SLR, were also recovered as the combing operation continued, he said. "We have deployed additional Border Security Forces and SOG personnel to keep a strict vigil and track down all the Maoists hiding in Papluru," he added. "I think, this is by far the best operation of the Odisha Police against the left-wing extremists. While a huge cache of arms and ammunition have been recovered, a search operation is still on to track down the Maoists," Director General of Police (DGP) R.P. Sharma said. --IANS cd/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Ankit Bathla of "Thapki Pyar Ki" fame, who has worked in Indonesian shows, says there are a lot of similarities in the television content of India and the archipelago. "There is a lot in common between the (TV) stories of India and Indonesia. I guess people love to watch romance, drama and horror. So, these are the things which are predominantly common between the two countries and what is also interesting is that the language is pretty much similar," Ankit told IANS in an email interview. "In Bahasa Indonesia (the local language in Indonesia), there are a lot of words that are from Sanskrit. So it was quite interesting as the stories were not really difficult, but still the only problem that I faced is the language which really took some time. But while I can't say I'm a master of it, but yes, I do have a hang of the language," he added. Ankit had first landed in an Indonesian show due to his popularity in an Indian entertainer. "My popular show 'Thapki Pyar Ki', which was aired on Colors channel was dubbed in Indonesian language and it telecast there. It was a big hit, so that's how I managed to be in Indonesia which was just for a meet and greet of seven days. But seeing the fan following and love that Indonesians had for me, I was there for almost seven months instead of seven days... That's how I did their shows. "The language was difficult initially, so we used to speak in English and they would be dubbed in their language Bahasa, but eventually, we did learn the language. I think a it's a pretty interesting and very good language to learn," he said. On the experience of working in Indonesian shows, Ankit said: "Well, cinema is cinema, acting is acting beyond borders... and I loved working in Indonesian shows. The only difference was obviously the language and the way they shoot is really interesting because they make content of more than an hour every day, whereas we make content for just 22 minutes (run)." Ankit is not the only Indian actor to have worked in Indonesian shows. Mrunal Jain, Shakti Arora, Shivin Narang and Shaheer Sheikh have also done their share of shows there. Why are Indonesians keen to work with Indian talent? Ankit explained: "I think they are keen to work with Indian actors and talents because we are popular in Indonesia (as they have seen Indian shows). There is a lot of love that we got from Indonesia. It was really brilliant to see the fans standing for you hours and hours waiting for you to just come down with banners in their hands, with gifts in their hands." He missed his home in Delhi after seven months. "They wanted me to extend even more, so that's when I requested them that I really want to go back to my country because I miss home, I miss my family and I miss working in the Indian market," said Ankit, who is now back in India. "I do keep going back to Indonesia to do meet-and-greets and work for them in their shows. In fact, recently I've come back from London where we were shooting for a web series which is called 'The Man from Bekasi' in which I played the role of an undercover agent and it was again a very interesting experience," Ankit said. He is happy to spend Diwali with his family in Delhi. "I love the Diwali celebrations and enjoy buying new clothes. I love to gift things from Ahujasons... My mom and dad love shawls and stoles and that's what I'm going to gift them this Diwali as well." --IANS rb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Health Minister Brahm Mohindra on Monday said "careless approach" of some government departments was responsible for the outbreak of dengue in the state this year. Mohindra, who chaired a state task force meeting on Monday, said the local government and rural development departments had failed to act, despite repeated calls by the health department, to check the dengue outbreak. "The careless approach of most of government departments in not discharging their administrative duty for curbing the outbreak of dengue has resulted in the present situation," Mohindra said. "Every year, the health department is criticised for the outbreak. Everyone is oblivious of the fact that the local bodies and rural development departments are the key players in tackling the outbreak and other water-borne diseases," Mohindra said. He said the health department has tested nearly 22,000 samples for dengue this year free of cost. "All the cases of dengue are being provided free treatment in government hospitals. The staff of the health department has visited around 15.5 lakh houses to check breeding of mosquito," Mohindra pointed out. He said it is the responsibility of local government department, which is headed by cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, to do fogging in vulnerable urban areas. The rural development department has to do the same in rural areas, the health minister said, expressing serious concern at the attitude of these departments. --IANS js/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In his first outreach to the people of the state since May, ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday extended Diwali greetings through an audio clip played on FM radio. "Namaskar. I wish all Goans Diwali greetings. I pray to God that the coming year be full of happiness and fulfilment. Diwali greetings to you all," Parrikar said in the audio greeting that was sponsored by Goa's Department of Information and Publicity. This is the first time that Parrikar, who is suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer, has directly communicated with the people of Goa since May 13, when he delivered a video address at a meeting of party booth workers. BJP national President Amit Shah had also attended the meeting. Parrikar has been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, New York and Delhi since February this year. Ever since he returned from New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences last month, Parrikar has not made a public appearance, barring three meetings -- one each with the state cabinet, top state BJP leaders and the state Investment Promotion Board. His long absence from office has prompted the Congress to claim that Parrikar cannot function as Chief Minister on account of his illness and should resign. After a senior Congress leader last week alleged that the Chief Minister was probably dead, the BJP-led coalition government was forced to release photographs of a frail-looking Parrikar attending the three meetings. --IANS maya/shs/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Punjab Police have been put on high alert for the Diwali festival following intelligence inputs that Sikh hardliners were out to foment trouble in the border state. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday directed the police to remain on high alert following recent attempts by hardliners, backed by separatist forces in Punjab and other countries, to create trouble in the state. The Chief Minister reviewed the security situation at a high-level meeting attended by senior officers, including Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora. The DGP shared details of the inputs and developments concerning the state, received from various sources. He also briefed the Chief Minister about the busting of a terrorist module of the Ansar Ghazwat Ul Hind (AGH) by the state police on November 3. The Chief Minister directed the officials to ensure fool-proof security at all vital installations and other key places, such as crowded markets and religious shrines. "He asked the DGP to pull out all men for maintaining the highest level of security during the celebrations," a spokesperson for the chief minister said. "The Chief Minister further ordered the DGP to crack down on, and to take immediate action against, anyone found trying to create trouble in any way," the spokesperson added. --IANS js/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has discussed the formation of the constitutional committee with the visiting Russian President's Special Envoy on Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev. Lavrentiev's visit came days after Russia, Turkey, Germany, and France held a summit in Turkey's Istanbul to discuss the formation of the committee. The media office of the Syrian presidency on Sunday said that Assad met Lavrentiev and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin in Damascus, during which the Russian guests put Assad in the picture of the development at the quartet summit that took place on October 27, Xinhua reported. The Russian envoy also discussed with Assad efforts exerted by Moscow with regional and international parties to remove the obstacles to progress on finding a political solution for Syria. According to the report, both sides agreed to continue joint work to remove all the obstacles facing the formation of the constitutional committee. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hopes that by the end of 2018, Syria's constitutional committee will start functioning. The constitutional committee is expected to include 150 members, equally divided into three groups, one chosen by the government, the second by the opposition and the third by UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. The formation of the constitutional committee was agreed upon during inter-Syrian talks in Russia's Sochi this January that were brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey. In his recent remarks, Putin said that "now we need to agree on the third part with the participation of public organizations and representatives of various public bodies." He also noted that the work was not easy as each side would be striving to "fill this part with those people who they trust". --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday issued a legal notice against Trinamool Congress MP and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee for blaming the saffron outfit for the killing of five Bengalis in Assam's Tinsukia and warned him of further legal action, a senior state BJP leader said. "The Trinamool Congress is trying to confuse the people over the killing of five Bengalis in Assam. Abhishek Banerjee has directly accused the BJP and the Assam government of the killing. We have sent a legal notice to the speaker seeking his unconditional apology," State BJP leader Mukul Roy said. "The BJP strongly condemns the cowardly and barbaric act of killing those people, but the Bengal government and the ruling Trinamool Congress are trying to ignite tension over it. It may turn out to be dangerous for the whole nation," he said. The five victims, including three of a family, were allegedly gunned down by an unidentified group in Kheronibari village of Dholla late on Thursday. During one of Trinamool's rally in the city protesting the killings last week, Banerjee had claimed the "BJP-backed goons" were responsible for gunning down the five innocent Bengalis in Assam. Roy, once a senior Trinamool Congress leader before he switched to the BJP last year, said Banerjee has seven days to respond to the legal notice. "An NIA probe has been initiated into the killing. The Centre and Assam government have already said that they would take action against the perpetrators. So he should have thought twice before making such allegations," he added. --IANS mgr/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assam on Monday paid rich tributes to music maestro Dr Bhupen Hazarika on his seventh death anniversary. Hundreds of organizations across the state held functions in various places to pay tributes to the maestro. The Chief Minister said the houses of the Assamese cultural doyen at Kolkata and Kuthori at Kaziranga would be preserved by the state government. Sonowal said 300 bighas of land have been acquired by the government for the purpose of setting up Dr Bhupen Hazarika Samadhi Kshetra near the Dr. Bhupen Hazarika Setu connecting Dhola and Sadiya. "Dr Bhupen Hazarika's songs spoke of humanity, brotherhood and peace. He considered the whole world as his home," said Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday while taking part in a programme organised by the state Cultural Directorate at Hazarika's memorial at Jalukbari in the city. Urging the people to follow the ideals of Dr Hazarika who always worked for uniting all sections of society, Sonowal said people must strive for defeating those trying to disturb social harmony in the state. "Transcending the boundaries of the country and region, Dr Hazarika was able to establish Assamese identity on the global cultural map and introduced the world to the music and culture of the land. It was the dream of Dr Hazarika to build a greater Assamese society based on the humanitarian values," Sonowal said. The chief minister called upon the youth to spread the message of unity and harmony on social media while defending the age-old unity and harmony of the Assamese society in the face of new challenges. --IANS ah/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chandigarh's Mayor Davesh Moudgil on Monday asked the city residents to shun Chinese products and fire crackers, and celebrate the Diwali with traditional fervour. "We will have to refuse not only the fire crackers but also Chinese-made products, especially lighting articles, which will play major role in combating air and noise pollution caused during Diwali. I urge children to also learn about the chemicals present in the fire crackers and the impact of these chemicals on various parts of human body," the mayor said while launching the 'Harit Diwali'campaign on Monday. The Mayor appealed to people to celebrate a pollution-free Diwali this year. He said everyone should not only contribute to reducing pollution but also promote use local made 'diyas' to celebrate a safe Diwali. Municipal Commissioner K.K. Yadav said there was scientific logic behind celebrating Diwali with local made 'diyas' and home-made articles for decoration. --IANS js/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Haryana's main opposition party, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), could be heading for a split, with the fight within the family of its President Om Prakash Chautala coming out in the open on Monday. Chautala's elder son Ajay Chautala, who came out from the Tihar Jail on Monday on parole, told his supporters in New Delhi that the next course of action would be decided in the coming days after he completes a tour of Haryana. Ajay's sons, Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Chautala, were expelled from the primary membership of the INLD on November 2 by their grandfather O.P. Chautala. Dushyant was also removed from the post of leader of the INLD Parliamentary Board. "I am quite surprised to see the affairs of the party (INLD). We will fight this situation. We will decide the next course of action in coming days," Ajay Chautala said in Delhi. Dushyant and Digvijay are great-grandsons of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal. The action follows recent activities of both youth leaders and their supporters who were trying to project Dushyant as a Chief Ministerial face in Assembly elections in Haryana to be held around October next year. "Both Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Singh had been accused of indiscipline, hooliganism and spreading disaffection within the party against the party leadership during the birthday celebrations of Chaudhary Devi Lal in Gohana on October 7," an INLD statement earlier said. "In view of the fact that Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Singh were members of his immediate family, it was not an easy decision for him (Chautala senior) to make. But he added that all his life he had followed the principles and ideals of Jana Nayak Chaudhary Devi Lal, for whom the party was always bigger than the individual or any family member. "Thus he had to make a choice between the party and members of his family and he had chosen the party and decided to concur with the conclusions of the Disciplinary Committee. Accordingly, he had instructed the party office that his decision be immediately put into effect," the statement said. O.P. Chautala and his elder son Ajay were convicted in the JBT (junior basic teacher) recruitment scam in January 2013. Both were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment by a CBI court in Delhi. Both cannot contest elections due to the conviction. The INLD is being managed by Chautala's younger son Abhay Singh Chautala since then. --IANS js/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 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... Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the opening of the world's first import-themed national-level expo here on Monday, calling it a "trail-blazing" move in the history of international trade development. A total of 172 countries, regions and international organisations from five continents will showcase their development achievements and international image at the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), reports Xinhua news agency. More than 3,600 companies from different countries will hold discussions and seek common development with over 400,000 purchasers from China and overseas. The CIIE is "a major policy for China to push for a new round of high-level opening-up and a major measure for China to take the initiative to open its market to the world", Xi said when delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony. He underscored the role of economic globalization, saying that it is "an irreversible historical trend" and provides strong momentum for world economic development. "All countries should be committed to opening up and oppose protectionism and unilateralism in a clear-cut stand," Xi said, calling for joint efforts to build an open world economy. The fair will feature various quality exhibits ranging from German machine tools, Japanese robots and US medical equipment to Australian wine, Brazilian farm produce and South Sudanese handicrafts. With the slogan "New Era, Shared Future", the expo is the brainchild of Xi and is set to become a platform for win-win economic cooperation and a landmark project in the country's higher-level opening up. China will stimulate the potential for increased imports, continue to broaden market access, foster a world-class business environment, explore new horizons of opening up, and promote international cooperation at multilateral and bilateral levels, Xi said. The expo comes at an inflection point as China transitions to high-quality development and shifts from the world's workshop to the world's market, with the world's biggest middle-income population demanding higher-quality consumer products. Xi announced that China's imported goods and services were estimated to exceed $30 trillion and $10 trillion, respectively, in the next 15 years. China has been the world's second largest merchandise importer for nine consecutive years. This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, and has seen a flurry of concrete measures taken by the country to open its doors wider. "China will not close its door to the world and will only become more and more open," Xi added. --IANS ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Chinese couple who stole a diamond worth 300,000 dirhams (about $81,000) from a shop here and then fled the UAE were arrested within 20 hours from an Indian airport, authorities said. The 3.27-carat diamond was recovered in India after it was smuggled out of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) inside the stomach of the woman, an official was cited as saying by the Gulf News on Monday. The pair, in their 40s, grabbed the gem from a jewellery shop in Dubai's commercial business district in Deira and immediately fled the country. They were arrested as they were transiting to Hong Kong via Mumbai. The couple were brought back to the UAE in cooperation with the Interpol and the Indian police, the daily said. The police released footages of the surveillance cameras in the store, which showed the couple entering the jewellery shop in Deira's Gold Souk. The footage showed the man distracting the staff by asking them about stones of certain specifications while the woman was seen going towards the entrance. She was seen opening the glass door of the display and then stealing the white-coloured diamond. Then she hid the the diamond under her jacket and left the shop with the man. The couple then went to the Dubai Mall. Footage showed the couple entering restrooms and then coming out wearing a different set of clothes. They were then seen at the Dubai International Airport, from where they flew out. Colonel Adel Al Joker, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, said the couple confessed to stealing the diamond. An X-ray scan showed the diamond in the woman's gut. A specialist doctor was called in to administer a solution to retrieve the diamond, according to the report. --IANS soni/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The iconic and much-awaited Signature Bridge on the river Yamuna was opened for the public on Monday morning, a day after its inauguration. The bridge, connecting Wazirabad across the river, reduced travel time between north and northeast parts of the city from 45 minutes to just 10 minutes. It also took vehicular pressure off the existing Wazirabad bridge. "The bridge was handed over to the traffic police in the morning and the traffic was allowed to move over the bridge," a government official told IANS. Claimed by the government to be country's first asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge, with the gesture "Namaste", the bridge will help people enjoy a panoramic view of the city from 154-meter-high observation deck -- to open in around two months. "Some final work is still left in the high observation deck -- situated at more than double the height of Qutub Minar -- and it will be opened earlier next year, while the roads will open from Monday," an official had said earlier. The 575-metre-long suspension bridge, proposed in 2004 and approved by the Delhi cabinet in 2007, was inaugurated on Sunday amid a clash between AAP and Bharatiya Janata Party workers. --IANS nks/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday hit back at Rahul Gandhi over killing over tigress Avni, saying his government does not require a certificate from Rahul Gandhi. Earlier on Monday following uproar over killing of tigress Avni in Maharashtra's Yavatmala district on Friday, Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi #Avni." Reacting to this on the sidelines of a function here, Vardhan said, "I think no previous government had worked with such honesty and seriosuness that this government does." He said that his government does not need a certificate from Rahul Gandhi. Tigress Avni, which reportedly killed 13 people, was shot dead on Friday as a part of an operation for which Maharashtra minister called a professional hunter. Earlier on Sunday, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi lashed out at the BJP-led Maharashtra government, calling the killing as a "ghastly murder" and a "straight case of crime". "It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing," she said in a series of tweets. --IANS kd/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Voters in the French Pacific territory here have rejected a bid for independence prompting President Emmanuel Macron to say that it showed "confidence in the French republic". "I have to tell you how proud I am that we have finally passed this historic step together," Macron added. Final results showed that 56.4 per cent chose to remain part of France while 43.6 per cent voted to leave -- a tighter result than some polls had predicted. Turnout was about 81 per cent in this island that is one of UN's 17 "non-self governing territories" where the process of decolonisation has not been completed. The vote was promised in a 1988 deal that put an end to a violent campaign for independence, the BBC reported. Although the referendum passed peacefully but some unrest was reported post polls closed. Cars and a shop were set ablaze in the capital, Noumea, media reports said. The high commissioner's office said some roads were closed by protesters. New Caledonia has large deposits of nickel, a vital component in manufacturing electronics, and is seen by France as a strategic political and economic asset in the region. --IANS in/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Google on Monday honoured Greek professor and computer scientist Michael Dertouzos's 82nd birth anniversary with a doodle. Dertouzos foresaw how the Internet would impact everyday lives. He predicted the popularity of personal computers and helped to maximise their potential as director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Laboratory for Computer Science. "We made a big mistake 300 years ago when we separated technology and humanism. It's time to put the two back together," he wrote in Scientific American in 1997. Born in Athens in 1936, Dertouzos was the son of a concert pianist and an admiral in the Greek navy. He attended the University of Arkansas on a Fulbright Scholarship, earned a PhD from MIT and joining the faculty in 1968. "Under Dertouzos' guidance, the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science grew into a thriving research centre employing hundreds of people collaborating on innovations like distributed systems, time-sharing computers, the ArpaNet, and RSA encryption, an algorithm used to ensure secure data transmission," Google said. Dertouzos worked to make Laboratory for Computer Science the home of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an alliance of companies promoting the Web's evolution and interconnectivity. Dertouzos recruited Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, to run it. In his 1997 book "What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives," he observed: "If we strip the hype away, a simple, crisp and inevitable picture emerges -- of an Information Marketplace where people and their computers will buy, sell and freely exchange information and information work". Dertouzos died on August 27, 2001. --IANS na/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In line with expectations, the sale of gold this Dhanteras across metro cities was subdued owing to high prices of the precious metal. Gold prices are currently around the highest levels in the last few years. In Delhi, gold was priced around Rs 32,600 per 10 gram on Monday. Dhanteras is considered an auspicious occasion for buying gold. "In Delhi, demand on Dhanteras fell around 40 per cent from last year as gold prices are highest in the last three-four years," said an employee with Nihalsons Jewellers, based in the capital. Another employee with Haryana Jewellers in Delhi said: "You can see crowds in the shops, but most of them do not end up buying." In the country's financial capital -- Mumbai -- too traders said sales were down 40 per cent on year-on-year basis. "Though there are crowds, people are not buying as per the expectations, but merely making token purchases of 5-10-20 gm to mark the auspicious day. Mostly gold coins/ or guineas are moving while small, medium or big articles of jewellery are virtually ignored," said Mumbai Jewellers Federation President Rakesh Shetty. Similarly, demand for the yellow metal in Kolkata during the day was down 10 per cent as prices were around 7 per cent higher than last year, India Bullion and Jewellers Association's West Bengal President Pankaj Parekh told IANS. "Dhanteras was expected to bring the much needed rejuvenation in the market but this year jewellery sales have not yet picked up so far," he said. According to Parekh, the depreciation in rupee and rise of international gold prices by around 3-4 per cent in the last two months have pushed the domestic prices of the metal to Rs 32,700 (including GST) per 10 gm during this year's Dhanteras from Rs 30,500 last year. Somasundaram P.R., the World Gold Council's Managing Director for India, said organised players in the market seem "better placed" in comparison to the unorganised participants due to "transparency measures" including the use of digital wallets. "Anecdotal feedback from industry suggests that though footfalls seems to be good, demand could be moderate," he said. The recent sharp increase in prices could weigh on the consumer wallet though, limiting purchases during this season, he said. However, there were some voices of positivity, too. The All India Gem & Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC) said contrary to the expectations, gold and jewellery sales have zoomed during Dhanteras and the positive trend is expected to continue till the upcoming winter wedding season. "The past three days have surprised even the industry. People are literally out in droves in shops and showrooms to make gold purchases. For two months, till last Saturday, the market situation was extremely gloomy," said GJC President Nitin Khandelwal. "Our expectation is that USD may touch around Rs 85 in the near future, given the current international scenario. Along with that, gold itself would shoot up to Rs 45,000 per tola (10 gm). Plus, the upcoming winter marriage season is also driving up the sales," Khandelwal told IANS. Jewellers have now set their eyes for the wedding season starting this month which is likely to firm up demand for gold for jewellery. The marriage season generally starts in November and lasts till March. --IANS rrb-bdc-qn-rv/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three students of Bharti Vidyapeeth College of Engineering in Delhi developed an Android app to measure the alarming pollution levels in the National Capital Region (NCR), the US-based Marconi Society, which awarded them with a prize, said on Monday. "The three students of Bharti Vidyapeeth have developed the application using smartphone camera images to measure the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the NCR, especially New Delhi, by anyone with a smart phone device," said the Society in an e-mail to IANS here. The under-graduate engineering students are Tanmay Srivastava, Kanishk Jeet and Prerna Khanna, who jointly won the cash prize of $1500 (Rs 1,09,500) last week in a contest, organised in India and sponsored by the Society under its Celestini Programme. The NCR, especially Delhi has been in the grip of toxic air for a week, mainly due to thick smoke emanating from the burning of stubble in the farmlands of Haryana and Punjab and lakhs of automobiles emitting fossil fumes. "The three have developed 'Air Cognizer', a portable, real-time air quality analytics application, which is available at Google Play Store to download freely by any smartphone user to measure the air quality in his/her area," said the Society. "The user has to upload an image taken outdoor with half of it (image) covering the sky region. Using image processing techniques, features are extracted and the Machine Learning (ML) model of the app estimates the AQI in the area," said the statement. The ML model is deployed on smartphones using Tensorflow Lite and ML Kit from Google, the world's largest search engine behemoth. "You can't know how to counter an issue unless you know the severity of it. Hence, we created Air Cognizer to make residents know the quality of air they breathe, which is just a click away," Srivastava told IANS from New Delhi. Set up in 1974 in honour of the 1909 Nobel Laureate Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), who invented the radio, the California-headquartered Marconi Society promotes awareness of key technology and policy issues in telecom and internet and recognises individual achievements through the Marconi Prize and Young Scholar Awards every year. The Celestini Programme, named after the hill in Italy where Marconi conducted his first wireless transmission experiments, is run by the Society's annual Young Scholar Awards, who work with engineering under-graduate students in developing countries, to use technology for social and economic transformation of their communities. The Programme was started in India in 2017 in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Delhi) by Google AI's ML engineer Aakanksha Chowdhery, who was a Marconi Young Scholar in 2012 for her work in the high-speed last mile internet connectivity. The IIT-Delhi partners include its professors Brejesh Lall and Prerana Mukherjee. Three teams from 100 applicants were selected to work during the summer at IIT-Delhi on problems related to air pollution and road safety in the national capital. Divyam Madaan and Radhika Dua of the Chandigarh-based University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) won the second prize for designing a website that forecasts air pollution levels in Delhi over the next 24 hours. The website, (http://35.229.111.190:8000/home/) using Google Cloud platform and ML engine, predicts the major pollutant and its causes such as vehicular traffic, industry emissions or agricultural waste in every location based on historical data. The third team, also from Bharti Vidyapeeth, has Sidharth Talia, Nikunj Agarwal and Samarjeet Kaur, who prototyped a digital platform to transmit vehicle-to-vehicle alerts about potential road safety hazards or collisions using computer vision techniques on Raspberry Pi and Xbee radio modules. The platform is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue &vYszzB753P5U (Fakir Balaji can be contacted at fakir.b@ians.in) --IANS fb/in/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP on Monday criticised senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge for comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Adolf Hitler and said it was former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who used the language of former German Chancellor. "Kharge has gone a step forward. He has called Modi a Hitler. I am shocked. The language of Hitler was used by Indira Gandhi during Emergency," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told a press conference. Hitting out at Kharge he said that the Congress leader, who cannot move a step without the permission from the "family", is alleging the party which follows all democratic norms. "It is their desperation. I can understand that. When they sense defeat, they got desperate," Prasad said. Speaking at a "Samvidhaan Bachao Parishad" organised in Bandra by the Mumbai Congress, Kharge said on Sunday Modi wants to do to India what dictator Adolf Hitler did to Germany. "The BJP hasn't been able to walk four steps in the right direction in the past four years. They don't have any right to point a finger at the Congress and ask us what has been done in the past 70 years. "The BJP is trying to bring dictatorship in the country. Modi wants to do to India what Adolf Hitler did to Germany. The Constitution is in danger and we need to fight the BJP's attempts to destroy it," Kharge said. --IANS bns-aks/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) FC Pune City player Diego Carlos has been suspended for three Indian Super League (ISL) matches and fined Rs two Lakhs for breach of AIFF Disciplinary Code, it was announced on Monday. Carlos breach Article 48 'Serious Infringements' and Article 49 'Misconduct against opponents or persons other than match officials', according to a statement. Carlos was shown a direct red card for a bad foul on Seriton Fernandes of FC Goa during ISL match against FC Goa on Sunday. AIFF Disciplinary Committee, based on Referee's report, has further sanctioned two match suspension and the financial penalty in addition to the one match automatic suspension for the red card. --IANS gau/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Timmins postal workers are on the picket lines today as part of the rotating Canada Post strikes. "That's going too far in our opinion and, for us as a union or any type of worker in Canada, it's unacceptable". The Canadian Union of Postal Workers announced this morning that workers went on strike as of 8:00 a.m. local time. "Sometimes our employer is saying 'you have to finish - no matter how long it's going to take, '" Gill said, adding most days he works between a 10- to 12-hour day. "We also continue to provide long-term disability payments and their rate of pay remains the same". One of the expired collective agreements let Canada Post give mandatory overtime to some postal workers, which included letter carriers. En VIVO: San Lorenzo vs Talleres por la Superliga Con Diego Monarriz como entrenador interino y Marcelo Tinelli en las tribunas despues de mucho tiempo, el Ciclon fue una brisa. Emma Garcia se despide entre lagrimas de 'MyHyV' Desde casa "no comparten esos complejos que a veces teneis ni esas inseguridades ni esos arrebatos veinteaneros". Se han deseado suerte, se enfrentan a duros retos, pero eso no hace que la despedida sea menos amarga. Plane crashes into field after mid-air collision in Ottawas west end Two planes have collided in mid-air over Ottawa , Canadian police report. It's not known what types of aircraft were involved. Emergency crews at Ottawa airport. It remains to be seen where the next strikes will be held, but members of the London Local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) are set to gather outside 300 Dufferin on Monday at noon to call on the government to support striking postal workers. The most recent strike action was shown in Regina, Hamilton, North Bay, Outaouais, Mauricie, and Moncton to bring the total to over 60 communities nationwide. The key demands for postal workers are job security, an end to forced overtime and better health and safety measures. "That's why we had to dig in and continue to do this (rotating strikes)", said Langley. Local workers are slightly optimistic as progress has been made in the right direction with a mediator. But the "big ticket" items of safety, benefits and parity for rural and suburban carriers has yet to be discussed. "That has to be revisited and changed and Canada Post has to accept that". "We need more workers to do the work and that's what we're asking for". The Jharkhand cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Monday approved setting up of a 25-ft statue of freedom fighter Birsa Munda at the old Birsa Munda Central Jail here, which is now being converted into a museum. "Along with the statue of Birsa Munda, 9-ft statues of 10 freedom fighters of the state will also come up in the Museum," Urban Development secretary Ajay Kumar told reporters after the cabinet meeting. Jharkhand is developing the old Birsa Munda Central Jail into a museum dedicated to Birsa Munda. Birsa Munda had fought against the British rulers and was hanged in the same jail. The prisoners were shifted to a new building in 2006, and the old central jail is being converted into a museum spread across 30 acres. The state government also decided to give Rs one lakh to Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe students who have qualified the preliminary examination of the Union Public Service Commission. The money will help the students prepare for the main examination. The cabinet also gave its nod to increase the monthly payments of the Aganwadi Sevikas and others. --IANS ns/shs/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Josh Brolin and entrepreneur Kathryn Boyd welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Westlyn Reign Brolin, the actor announced on Instagram on Sunday. "Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce our little girl Westlyn Reign Brolin (Bean)," he wrote of a video showing the newborn sound asleep, reports people.com. "Mama Kathryn was stellar during this miracle birth and Bean is a flawless gem through and through. We are blessed to the core and appreciate so much the love and support during this pregnancy from all who have partaken in our journey, directly and/or indirectly," he added. Brolin, 50, has two other children, Eden, 24, and Trevor, 30, from his first marriage to actress Alice Adair. His second marriage was to actress Diane Lane, with whom he had no children. The latter pair stayed married until 2013. Boyd, 31, is the creator of Midheaven Denim, a line of jeans for taller women. The 5'11" new mother is also a model and was Brolin's personal assistant before the two became engaged in 2015. The couple married in 2016. The "Avengers: Infinity War" actor announced the couple's pregnancy on Instagram in May. "There's a new sheriff in town and she is no bigger than a sweet potato. Hang on to your hats," Brolin captioned the photo slideshow of Boyd showing off her baby bump. The new baby girl's step-grandmother is icon Barbra Streisand. The "Funny Girl" star, 76, has been married to fellow actor James Brolin, 78, since 1998. --IANS nv/rb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The sons of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi issued an emotional appeal for the return of their father's body, in their first interview since he was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October. Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi, who called their father "courageous, generous and very brave", told CNN on Sunday night they endured weeks of anguish and uncertainty following his disappearance and death. "I really hope that whatever happened wasn't painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death," Abdullah Khashoggi, 33, told the news channel during a sit-down interview in here with his brother, Salah, 35. Without their father's body, the brothers said that their family was unable to grieve or find closure. "All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina (Saudi Arabia) with the rest of his family," Salah said. "I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon." Authorities in Turkey, who believe that Khashoggi was murdered by a hit squad sent from Riyadh, were still searching for the journalist's remains. Last week, the chief prosecutor's office said Khashoggi's body was dismembered after he was strangled, while the Washington Post reported investigators were looking into the theory that the body was dissolved in acid. The Saudi Royal Palace has denied any knowledge of the body's whereabouts. Abdullah and Salah told CNN that their father had been misunderstood and intentionally misrepresented for political reasons. "Jamal was a moderate person. He was liked by everybody. He had differences and common values with everyone," Salah said, describing the late Washington Post columnist as a genuine, happy person and an "amazing" father. "I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don't agree with. "Public opinion is important... But my fear is that it's being over politicized. People are throwing analysis that may direct us away from the truth," he added. According to reports in The Washington Post and The New York Times, Khashoggi was labelled as a Muslim Brotherhood sympathiser and a dangerous Islamist in phone calls the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had with Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and Middle East adviser, and John Bolton, National Security Adviser. "It's just labels and people not doing their homework properly, and reading his article and going in depth. It's easier to stick a label on him," Abdullah said, when asked about the Muslim Brotherhood claim. Asked how Khashoggi should be remembered, Salah replied: "As a moderate man who has common values with everyone... A man who loved his country, who believed so much in it and its potential. "Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. And he believed in the transformation that it is going through." Reflecting on their father's career as a journalist, the brothers said their father was "like a rock and roll star" when they were out with him in Saudi Arabia. Salah, the eldest sibling, has been made the principal family point of contact by the Saudi government. Abdullah, who lives in the United Arab Emirates was the last of the slain journalist's children to see him alive. They have two sisters, Noha, 27 and Razan, 25. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to visit Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin later in November, the South Korean Ambassador to Russia said on Monday. The specific dates of Kim's Russia visit were not announced but Woo Yoon-keun said it was likely to happen later this month. "Russia has asked for Kim's visit within this year and expects it to happen. But North Korea seems to be weighing the time and place while looking into the agenda and possible agreements with Russia," Woo was cited as saying by Yonhap news agency. "With Kim's visit to South Korea also planned this year, North Korea appears to be dwelling long on the time of his Russian trip," he said. Kim is also expected to visit Seoul before the end of 2018, which would make him the first North Korean leader to set foot in the neighbouring country. According to experts, the visit could take place in the first week of December. The two possible meetings will take place before the second summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump on North Korea's denuclearization process. Kim had decided to end Pyongyang's isolation earlier this year and declared that he wanted to work towards achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula and sign a peace treaty with South Korea. The two Koreas have been technically at war for over six decades as the Korean War in the 1950s had ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty. Woo added that Putin was also set to visit Seoul in the first half of 2019. The details of the visit would be finalized soon with Moscow, where Seoul is likely to push for a free trade agreement between the two countries, he added. In June, Putin and South Korean President Moon Jae-in had agreed to initiate a dialogue for signing of the treaty. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 22-year-old woman in Kolkata's Baguiati area sought justice before succumbing to burn injuries, after which her husband and two others have been arrested, police said on Monday. "Sangita Das suffered burn injuries on October 26 and she died on November 3. Her husband, Amarnath Das, 25, her mother-in-law Rima Das and Tanaya Chattopadhyay (in relation with Amarnath) have been arrested," a police official said. He said the initial investigation reveals an angle of dowry and an illicit relation of the husband. The third accused is the woman who is said to have an affair with Amarnath. "We have managed to take the statement of the deceased based on which the three individuals were arrested," he said. --IANS bnd/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The first 1,000 MW atomic power unit at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) is expected to be synchronised to the southern grid on Nov 14, said an official. It was earlier announced that the unit belonging to Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) would restart generation on Nov 5, after it was shut down for annual maintenance on Aug 1. Preliminary work towards restarting the unit is underway, an official told IANS. Similarly, the first 220 MW unit at the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) which was shut down on January 30 for annual maintenance is expected to restart power generation on November 18. The KNPP which is in Tirunelvelli, about 650 km from the state capital, and the MAPS in Kalpakkam near here are owned by NPCIL. The NPCIL has two 1,000 MW nuclear power plants at KNPP built with Russian equipment. --IANS vj/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It was a veritable wild goose chase for the state authorities on Monday when they desperately searched long hours for a stray leopard that had sneaked into the sprawling Gujarat Secretariat complex through one of its gates. All ministerial and administrative work came to a standstill. Hundreds of scared employees and bystanders looked on at all the guarded gates when the Secretariat and Forest Department staff scanned through the entire campus looking for the elusive wild cat through the day. The presence of the beast was first spotted by a security guard on the closed circuit television (CCTV) around 1.50 a.m. when he immediately called up his seniors and informed them about the intruder. The young leopard -- said to be all of four years or a sub-adult -- was nabbed much outside and behind the Secretariat Complex. The CCTV grab shows a young leopard sneaking underneath the Sachivalay Complex's gate number 7 and entering the campus. The gate number 7 faces the busiest road in the state capital. "The Forest Department got a call from the Sachivalay around 4a.m. about the leopard's intrusion. A team of around 30 personnel along with men from Sachivalay security started combing the area," said K.C. Trivedi, District Forest Officer (DFO), Gandhinagar. As the news about the stray animal started trickling in, more and more forest personnel were deployed in the search. The Sachivalay employees waiting with bated breath at the gates were only allowed inside the complex around 12:30pm with no confirmed news about the whereabouts of the wild animal. "After about four hours of intense efforts, we were able to nab the wild cat, after tranquilizing him. The four-year-old male sub-adult has been sent to the Gujarat Ecological Education and Research foundation (GEER) for health check-up. The sub-adult appears to be in a healthy shape. The decision about him being sent to a zoo or be released into the wild again will be taken within a day or two," added Trivedi. The Capital Project division, which looks after the state secretariat infrastructure, promptly rectified the loophole at gate number 7 and carried out the necessary fabrication work on Monday afternoon. --IANS desai/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress activists were detained when they attempted to hoist black lanterns (kandeels) at Mantralaya, the state government headquarters, to celebrate a 'dark Diwali' on Monday. Led by state party secretary Sayed Zeeshan Ahmed and others, the activists attempted to sneak inside the Mantralaya complex with black-coloured lanterns, but were prevented and caught by police and security personnel. They were bundled off into waiting police vans as they shouted anti-government slogans and waved the black lanterns out of the (van) windows. "Only two persons are celebrating Diwali this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shaha. For the rest of the country, it's a Dark Diwali with spiraling prices, exorbitant petrol-diesel rates, job losses after demonetization and Goods & Services Tax implementation, besides other issues," Ahmed said. Accusing Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of creating delays in declaring drought in Maharashtra, he said the loan waiver announced last year was "merely on paper and farmers continued to commit suicides across the state, especially in the worst-hit Marathwada region." Though common people of the country in urban and rural areas continue to suffer, neither Modi nor Shah has time to visit Marathwada and see first-hand the plight of the drought-hit farmers, he said. The activists were taken to a local police station and later released. --IANS qn/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man was burnt to death on Monday after an SUV he was in caught fire in west Delhi, police said. Police said the incident occurred around 2 a.m. when some passers-by informed Delhi Fire Service Control Room and the local police about a fire in TATA Sumo SUV at Gram Sabha Puth Kala in Rohini. "A fire tender reached the spot and doused the fire. A body later identified as Surender was found in it," Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajneesh Gupta said. "During investigation, Surender's friend, Mukesh, told the police the two had been drinking alcohol. At night, he left Surender in the vehicle and went home. Surender had told him that he would go to his residence at Begampur when he felt all right," Gupta said. "The body was shifted to a mortuary in Rohini," said the DCP, adding further investigation was on. --IANS sp/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday slammed the media for 'blacking out' his speech at the opening of the Signature Bridge on Sunday, wondering whether newspapers were petrified even of BJP MPs. "Almost the entire Delhi media has blacked out my speech and has refrained from writing that a police officer was assaulted and bottles thrown on stage. I understand media's fear of Modi. But media so petrified of even a BJP MP?," Kejriwal tweeted. The Aam Aadmi Party leader wondered if the "Delhi media (is) completely in Modi's grip". After missing many deadlines, the iconic and much-awaited Signature Bridge on the Yamuna was inaugurated on Sunday by Kejriwal and opened for the public on Monday. The inauguration came after a clash between BJP and AAP workers at the site, with BJP Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari, also an MP, clashing with AAP supporters and allegedly grappling with policemen. --IANS nks/shs/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 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 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met South Korea's first lady Kim Jung-sook who is visiting India at Modis invitation. Jung-sook will be the chief guest at "Deepotsav" event being organised by the Uttar Pradesh government, and at the ground-breaking ceremony of the new Memorial of Queen Suriratna (Heo Hwang-ok) in Ayodhya on Tuesday. "In their meeting today (Monday), Modi and Jung-sook discussed the deep civilisational and spiritual links between India and Korea, and exchanged views on promoting people-to-people exchanges," an official release said. Ayodhya and Korea have a deep historical connection through the legendary Princess Suriratna of Ayodhya, who traveled to Korea in 48 CE and married Korean King Suro, it said. Jung-sook congratulated Modi on being awarded the Seoul Peace Prize. "The Prime Minister warmly recalled the successful visit of President Moon Jae-in to India in July this year which imparted fresh momentum to India-South Korea Special Strategic Partnership," it said. --IANS mak/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused the Modi government of "looting farmers" in the name of its much touted crop insurance scheme, the "Pradhanmantri Bima Fasal Yojana". Taking cognisance of an IANS story in which journalist and farm activist P. Sainath asserted that the crop insurance scheme was a "bigger scam than even the Rafale scam", Gandhi on Twitter accused Modi of promoting crony capitalism. "After looting the Air Force in Rafale, now the farmers are being looted in the name of crop insurance. The motive is one: fill thousands of crores of rupees in the accounts of suit-boot friends," he said in Hindi. The Congress President has been attacking Modi and his government for corruption in the Rafale jets deal. "The government's policies are anti-farmer. The Pradhanmantri Bima Fasal Yojana is a bigger racket than even the Rafale scam," Sainath said on Friday in Ahmedabad. --IANS and/ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Kedarnath on Diwali and offer prayers at the Kedarnath temple. Sources said Modi is also expected to review the progress of development projects including construction of main approach to Kedarnath temple and development of Shankaracharya Kutir and Shankaracharya Museum. During his visit to the shrine last year, the Prime Minister had laid the foundation stone for five infrastructure development projects. These included development of the retaining wall and ghat on the Mandakini and Saraswati and also houses for temple priests. The shrine was struck by calamitous floods in 2013. Sources said Modi is also likely to meet ITBP personnel guarding the border with China. --IANS ps/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actors Rosario Dawson and Julianne Moore have urged voters to elect Democrats to combat the Trump administrations immigration policies. In a video made in partnership with We Stand United, Dawson has said that the Trump administration violated international law by detaining migrants at the border who were legally seeking asylum. Moore said the administration created a humanitarian crisis by separating the families and putting children in cages, reported variety.com. The video also features quotes from a volunteer and a pregnant migrant, who says she walked from town to town until she was grabbed by immigration. Another refugee explains that he and his family left Honduras because of the gang violence and "suffering". Moore urged people to vote for Democrats in the November 6 midterm elections to end the humanitarian crisis at the border. We Stand United is a collective of artistes, storytellers and leading advocates who have come together to unite popular culture and the progressive movement and advance social, environmental and economic justice throughout the US. --IANS rb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Myanmar will receive the first batch of 2,260 displaced people from Bangladesh starting from December 15, authorities said on Monday. Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in August at a ministerial meeting for early repatriation of displaced persons from Myanmar's Rakhine state who fled to Bangladesh, reports Xinhua news agency. The points agreed upon by the two nations cover establishing reception centres and transit camps, combating terrorism, drug-trafficking in border areas as well as repatriation of displaced persons residing along the international border between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Myanmar has been inviting cooperation from domestic and the international community to help the country rebuild and resettle the conflict-torn Rakhine state. Besides making efforts to repatriate displaced people, the government is also implementing the recommendations of the Special Advisory Commission on Rakhine state. On Jun, Myanmar also signed a MoU with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on assisting the government's repatriation process of displaced persons from Rakhine state. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) extremists launched repeated attacks on police outposts in Rakhine state on August 25, 2017, displacing a large number of residents to areas bordering Bangladesh. --IANS ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An international team of scientists have developed a propeller-shaped nanorobots that, for the first time, can drill through dense tissue as is prevalent in an eye. The scientists, including from Max Planck Institute in Germany, applied a non-stick coating to the nanopropellers, which are only 500 nm wide -- exactly small enough to fit through the tight molecular matrix of the gel-like substance in the vitreous of the eye. The molecule-matrix is like a tight mesh of double-sided adhesive tape. The drills are 200 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, even smaller than a bacterium's width. Their shape and their slippery coating enable the nanopropellers to move relatively unhindered through an eye, without damaging the sensitive biological tissue around them. "We applied a liquid layer found on the carnivorous pitcher plant, which has a slippery surface on the peristome to catch insects," said lead author Zhiguang Wu, a post-doctoral student at the California Institute of Technology. "It is like the Teflon coating of a frying pan. This slippery coating is crucial for the efficient propulsion of our robots inside the eye, as it minimises the adhesion between the biological protein network in the vitreous and the surface of our nanorobots." This is the first time scientists were able to steer nanorobots through dense tissue, as so far, it has only been demonstrated in model systems or biological fluids. These nanopropellers can be one day loaded with drugs or other therapeutic agents and steer them to a targeted area, where they can deliver the medication to where it is needed. "The principle of the propulsion of the nanorobots, their small size, as well as the slippery coating, will be useful, not only in the eye, but for the penetration of a variety of tissues in the human body," said Tian Qiu, from the "Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems" Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. --IANS rt/ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Odisha government on Monday formed an inter-ministerial committee to look into the demands of farmers, who marched to the state capital demanding "price, prestige and pension". The three-member committee will be headed by Finance Minister Shashi Bhusan Behera while Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy and Cooperation Minister Surya Narayan Patro are the other members. "We urge the farmers to come forward for a discussion with the state government. We are ready to discuss the demands of the farmers," said the Finance Minister. The state government said it would form the ministerial committee to pacify the agitating farmers who congregated under the aegis of Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan (NNKS) in large numbers at the PMG Square in the state capital. Despite the imposition of Sec 144 (prohibitory orders) in Tamando area on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, hundreds of farmers managed to break the police cordon and entered the state capital to join the congregation. The farmers were stopped by the police at various places to foil their protest. Police took agitating farmers into preventive custody while they were trying to break cordon near Khandagiri and Hanspal. "Formation of the inter-ministerial committee is an attempt to cheat us. The committee doesn't mention anything about pension to farmers. If farmers are barred from entering Bhubaneswar, politicians too will not be allowed to enter our villages," said NNKS convenor Akshaya Kumar. State unit president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Basant Panda said the state government is hoodwinking farmers repeatedly with false promises. "Where is the law for sharecroppers? The potato mission has failed. There is no cold storage for the farmers. Although farmers are staging agitation in a democratic manner, efforts are being made to throttle their voice," alleged Panda. "Odisha is an agrarian state. Most of our population is dependent on agriculture. But the sad part is the income of our farmers is one of the lowest in the country," said Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Niranjan Patnaik. He said 3,700 farmers have committed suicides during the tenure of the BJD government due to debt. The ruling BJD first tried to blame the farmers for this by saying that family disputes and liquor consumption were the cause of suicides, but later its own party members contradicted the claim, Patnaik said. --IANS cd/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) More than 20 million people across the US have already cast their ballots for the crucial midterm elections slated to be held on Tuesday. According to Catalist, a data company that works to compile counts of ballots cast before Election Day, the votes were coming in from seven critical states -- Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Georgia, Texas, Tennesse, Montana, CNN reported on Monday. In Arizona, Representatives Kyrsten Sinema (Democrat) and Martha McSally (Republican) were vying to become the first female senator to represent the Grand Canyon state. According to an NBC/Marist poll released last week, Sinema topped McSally by 6 points. So far, 34 per cent of votes have been cast by Democrats and 43 per cent by Republicans, while independent voters accounted for 18 per cent, with another 8 per cent recorded as "unknown". In Florida, the Senate race is between Democratic incumbent Senator Bill Nelson and Governor Rick Scott, CNN reported. Over 3 million votes have been cast ahead of Tuesday's midterms so far, the Catalist data showed, surpassing what was reported at this point in the last polls held in 2014. Examining the early votes, 40 per cent were cast by Democrats and 42 per cent by Republicans. CNN's most recent polling showed Nelson was just a two-point lead over Scott. Republican Senator Dean Heller and Democrat Jacky Rosen are in the fray in Nevada. The state is also home to two House races that were leaning toward Democrats. CNN polls have Heller and Rosen nearly even, with the latter led by three points. Nearly 290,000 votes have been cast so far in the Silver State, the data showed, with roughly 40 per cent cast by Democrats and 38 per cent by Republicans. About 1.3 million ballots have been cast in Georgia so far, and all eyes were on the race for Governor between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp. In Texas, over 2 million ballots were cast so far in the race between Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O'Rourke. CNN's latest polling had Cruz ahead by an estimated seven points. The state is also home to five competitive House races out of its total of 36, and a governor's race where Democrat Lupe Valdez is running to be the first out LGBTQ and Latina Governor. In Tennessee, Democrat Governor Phil Bredesen is up against Republican Marsha Blackburn. CNN poll has Blackburn leading Bredesen 49 per cent to 45 per cent, while over 1 million early votes cast so far. In Montana, at least 220,000 votes have been cast early for the race between Democratic Senator Jon Tester and Republican Matt Rosendale. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistani and Russian troops have concluded their two-week joint anti-terrorism military exercises, the military said on Monday. The exercise focused on counter terrorism training of the Special Operation Forces of Pakistan and Ground Forces of Russian Federation while exchanging mutual counter terrorism experiences, an Army statement cited by Xinhua news agency said. Pakistani Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa attended the exercises at the National Counter Terrorism Centre in Punjab province's Pabbi town on the last day of the drills and appreciated the participating troops for their dedication, skill and professionalism. He said the exercise "was a great forum to reinforce existing relationship between the two militaries". This was the 3rd exercise as part of Pakistan-Russia bilateral training cooperation since 2016, according to the Army. Russia and Pakistan have been holding the "Friendship" drills since 2016. In 2017, over 200 servicemen took part in the drills, which were held in the North Caucasus of Russia at an altitude of 2,300 metres above sea level. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hours ahead of the one-day special pilgrimage of the Sabarimala temple, devotees facing Kerala Police's questions and checking protested on Monday. The famed temple that witnessed massive protests against the September 28 Supreme Court verdict allowing hitherto banned age group of girls and women to enter the Lord Ayyappa shrine, saw many devotees complain and shout slogans as the police stopped them for checking. At 8 a.m., the police opened the barricade and started allowing devotees to walk to Pamba -- the base town of the temple. With the shrine set to open at 5 p.m., hundreds of pilgrims at Nilackal and Erumely were seen arguing as they faced repeated obstacles from the police from advancing. What irked them most was the insistence to check their identity proofs and answer questions as they tried to reach the sanctum sanctorum that would close at 10 p.m. on Tuesday. At Erumely, all pilgrim vehicles were stopped. The devotees protested and shouted Lord Ayyappa slogans as they arrived at a bus depot of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), demanding transport to proceed to the hilltop shrine. "We have been asked to wait since last (Sunday) night. We are all on a pilgrimage and we have no other intentions. We are not particular that our vehicles should be allowed. The KSRTC should then operate the buses to take us forward," said an angry devotee, as others echoed his demand. Following the growing number of protesters, the police has agreed to allow private vehicles from Erumely till Nilackal. Vishnu Das, 70, was angry at the way the police was managing the pilgrims' progress. He said it was the first time in his 56 years of visit to the shrine that he has been put into such difficulties. "The police are out to create trouble and the scene here is as if it's a battleground. The police is very intimidating. Till last year, there were no issues at all. The visit to Sabarimala is suppose to bring solace, but this time everything has changed," said Das, as he was walking towards Pamba. The arrangements at the temple town is such that all pilgrims arriving on their vehicles have to get down at Nilackal and then take a KSRTC bus to Pamba, about 20 km, and then start the trek to the temple, situated on a hilltop. Sreekumar Varma of the Pandalam Royal family, the custodian of the jewellery of the Sabarimala temple, said he was hurt by the way things have unfold. "All along it has been a peaceful pilgrimage to Sabarimala. But today the temple has been turned into a 'police station'. It pains us all," said Varma. The temple town is witnessing one of its stringent security arrangements. There were more than 2,300 police officials posted at various point up the pilgrimage path after the state tookover the shrine's security on Saturday. Several metal detectors have been kept at a various points and crowd combating arrangements were also in place. The media was allowed to go up the pathway at 9.15 a.m. The Kerala government has announced it will implement the apex court ruling pitting it against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and numerous Hindu groups which have been up in arms against the verdict. --IANS sg/in/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's state-run news channel PTV ran "Begging" dateline instead of "Beijing" on screen during the live broadcast of Prime Minister Imran Khan's speech in China and became a target of trolling by netizens. Khan, who is on an official trip to China to secure financial support from Beijing for his cash-strapped country, was on Sunday addressing a ceremony at the Central Party School (of the Communist Party of China) in Beijing which was shown live by the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). During the telecast of Khan's address on PTV, his location was misspelled from "Beijing" to "begging" in the top left corner of the screen. The typo reportedly remained onscreen for a good 20 seconds or so before it was rectified. The incident provoked all kinds of reactions from people on Twitter, from some calling the act "disgraceful" to others lauding PTV for becoming "drastically independent". The video left many wondering whether it was intentional. The broadcaster later apologised via Twitter, calling the incident "regrettable". It called the issue as a "typographical error". "Strict action has been initiated under rules against concerned officials," it said. According to the News International daily, Pakistan's Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry ordered a probe into the gaffe by the PTV. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale on Monday said bringing ordinance for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya will not be right as the matter is sub judice. Acknowledging the demand of the Hindu community to build a Ram temple in his birthplace, the minister said the construction of the temple should be done after taking the local Muslim community into confidence. "I do not think bringing ordinance on the temple will be the right decision. We sould wait for the Supreme Court's verdict. People should accept the apex court judgement," said Athawale, the president of Republican Party of India. "The demand of the Hindu society to build a temple of Lord Ram in Ayodhya is legitimate and that should be accepted. But the Muslim community living there should also be taken into confidence. The government should look for a solution through meaningful discussion with the Muslims living there," he said. "Any attempt to build the temple by taking law in one's own hand is not permissible," he said. A congregation of Hindu seers on Sunday demanded the government bring an ordinance or a law for construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, and vowed to hold meetings across the country to rally public sentiments in the matter. A number of Bharatiya Janata Party ministers, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, seconded the demand. Taking a dig at Congress of not taking a clear stand on issues such as construction of Ram temple or the Sabarimala temple, Athawale said Rahul Gandhi is busy in blaming the Centre on the Rafale fighter jet deal. "Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi are busy in scamming the Centre on the Rafale issue. They are silent on issues like Sabarimala and the Ram Mandir. They are not playing a proper role," he alleged. Pointing out that temples and masques co-exist in many places in the country, the minister said the government should look for finding a similar solution in Ayodhya. Talking about the proposed 'Mahagathbandhan' or grand alliance of opposition parties against the BJP in the 2019 elections, the minister claimed the alliance would not work because many parties in it would not accept Congress President Rahul Gandhi as a prime ministerial candidate. "There have been a lot of discussions about the Mahagathbandhan ahead of 2019 elections. But the so-called alliance has no basis. I think the parties in the alliance have a lot of prime ministerial candidates and all the parties are not ready to accept Rahul Gandhi as the candidate. That's why it would not work," the Dalit leader from Maharashtra said. He also claimed that the NDA government will emerge victorious under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 while the BJP alone will win more than 300 Lok Sabha seats. --IANS mgr/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Broadly negative Asian markets and profit booking pushed the key equity indices in the red during the afternoon session of the trade on Monday. Except for IT, selling pressure was witnessed in almost all the counters led by the oil and gas stocks. Consumer durables, banking and finance stocks also traded lower. The investor sentiments were also weighed down ahead of the release of the key macro-economic data (PMI service data) and a declining rupee. The domestic currency was trading 59 paise lower, at 73.03 to a US dollar, from its Friday close of 72.44. "The decline in the domestic currency is because of the US dollar, which is stronger as the their economy is doing well. As far as markets are concerned, the volatility is expected to continue. It is trading in a tight range and will continue for few months," Astha Jain, Senior Analyst, Hem Securities, told IANS. In addition, the benchmark Brent crude was below the $73 a barrel. At 1.52 p.m., the S&P BSE Sensex traded 153.62 lower at 34,858.03 from its previous close of 35,011.65. The benchmark index touched a high of 35,123.41 and a low of 34,811.91 while the NSE's Nifty was trading 61.45 points lower at 10,491.55. The State Bank of India, ahead of its second quarterly result due on Monday, traded 5.20 per cent higher at Rs 290.65 apiece. --IANS ravi/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will arrive here on Tuesday to celebrate Diwali with troops in Arunachal Pradesh's Upper Dibang Valley district, a defence official said here. The Defence Ministry confirmed her visit in a tweet on Monday night: "Continuing the tradition of celebrating Diwali with the families of our soldiers, Smt @nsitharaman will celebrate Diwali this year at Dinjan (Assam), Andra La-Omkar and Anini (Arunachal Pradesh)." During her visit, Sitharaman, accompanied by Eastern Army Commander and other senior officials, will be briefed about the defence preparedness and infrastructure improvements by the Army in the region, the official said on Tuesday morning. "She is expected to conduct an aerial survey of the region and will meet troops in Andra La-Omkar and Anini on Wednesday," he said. Sitharaman is also slated to meet families of fallen soldiers. --IANS ah/ksk (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.) Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya on Monday said that in the midst of the political crisis prevailing in the island nation, he was compelled to accept the status of the earlier government till the new political alliance proves its majority in Parliament. In a statement, the Speaker said that a majority of lawmakers in the 225 member Parliament were of the opinion that the recent changes made in the Parliament were undemocratic and inconsistent with Parliamentary traditions. "At a time it has been brought to my attention by the majority that the lawful summoning of Parliament has been prevented and the rights of the Members of Parliament have been usurped, in the name of justice and fair play, I have to make my stance known to the world," Jayasuriya was cited as saying by Xinhua news agency. "I wish to emphasize that I am compelled to accept the status that existed previously until such time that the new political alliance prove their majority in Parliament," he added. The Speaker said he was further of the opinion that following the request submitted to him by 116 parliamentarians stating that the decision made by the President in sacking Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was unconstitutional and undemocratic, their call for Parliament to be summoned immediately was also "extremely reasonable". Sri Lanka has been plunged into a political turmoil since October 26, when President Maithripala Sirisena, in a surprising move dissolved the Cabinet, sacked Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and replaced him with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Sirisena made the decision after his United People's Freedom Alliance pulled out of the national unity government which it had formed with Wickremesinghe's United National Party. A new caretaker government has since then been appointed, with Wickremesinghe and other political parties calling the move illegal and urging Speaker Jayasuriya to convene Parliament to prove their majority. On October 27, Sirisena prorogued Parliament till November 16, but on Sunday evening he issued a special gazette notification saying Parliament would convene on November 14. --IANS soni/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several regions of Italy were braced on Monday for adverse weather conditions following a week of deadly storms and flooding that has claimed the lives of over 30 people across the country. The regions of Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna and Lazio remained on orange alert as Italy's Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli announced he would visit some of the worst-hit areas in the country's north, including the region of Veneto, home of the iconic city of Venice. Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Sunday visited the island of Sicily, where 12 people died in flooding over the weekend, including nine members of two families who were killed when a river burst its banks and flooded holiday homes in the town of Casteldaccia, close to Palermo. "It is not tolerable that tragedies like the one caused by the Milicia river occur in Palermo. Taking care of this territory is the first great work to which we must devote maximum effort," Toninelli said on Twitter. In addition, the storm caused the death of another person in the town of Vicari and two more in the region of Agrigento. Italian authorities continued searching for a doctor in Corleone, Palermo province, who disappeared as he drove to work. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders, led by party president Sukhbir Singh Badal, courted arrest on Monday to protest against the alleged distortion of Sikh history in textbooks of the Punjab School Education Board. The protesting Akali Dal leaders broke two police barriers here while trying to reach the residence of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. The Chandigarh Police took Badal and other leaders into custody. The SAD leaders said that they would continue agitating on this issue till the state Chief Minister apologised to the Sikh community and took action against those responsible for distributing the offending material to school children. Badal told reporters that his party was ready for any sacrifice to protect the honour and dignity of the Sikh gurus and Sikh religion and culture. He said that the Congress government deliberately distorted Sikh history for the second time within a few months, changing it in such a manner that the coming generations would not take pride in their religion and heritage. --IANS js/shs/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Tripura government's decision to cancel May 1 as a public holiday has evoked widespread condemnation in the state. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions' (CITU) Tripura unit said on Monday that it will lodge a complaint with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for cancelling the holiday that marks International Labour Day or "May Day". "The first Left Front government in Tripura in 1978 announced that May 1 will be marked a paid public holiday. But the BJP government cancelled the holiday without giving any reason," the unit's Secretary and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Lok Sabha member Sankar Prasad Datta told the media. Datta said that the CITU had lodged a complaint with the ILO for obstructing holding of programmes in Tripura in connection with "May Day" this year. On Saturday the government issued the list of government holidays for 2019. According to the notification, "May Day" will now be treated as a "restricted holiday". The opposition Congress has also slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government's decision, saying it was against the interest of the labour and working class people. "'May Day' programme is not a political affair, this is an international event. We strongly condemn the decision," party leader Tapas Dey told the media. BJP affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) supported the government decision, saying it follows the Indian culture and civility and hence it does not follow "May Day." --IANS sc/ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that Washington was exempting India from the sanctions on importing oil from Iran. He said the US will continue to negotiate with India and the seven other countries receiving the six-month exemption to get them to cut their Iranian imports to zero. The other countries receiving the exemptions Pompeo announced at a news conference with foreign correspondents in Washington were China, Greece, Italy, Turkey, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that his department was imposing sanctions on 700 individuals, entities, aircraft and ships. In July, US President Donald Trump announced he was pulling out of the nuclear deal signed in 2015 by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Germany and the European Union with Iran to end its nuclear weapons programme. Trump said the sanctions that had been lifted after the agreement would be reimposed and the oil trade would be targeted starting Monday. Pompeo said that an important reason for the reimposition of the sanctions was Iran's promotion of terrorism and that it was aimed at curbing its "revolutionary" policies. Pompeo said the payments made by the oil importers under the exemptions would be put in a special account from which Iran could only make payments for purchases for humanitarian programmes. India imported from Iran nearly 10 per cent of the total of 220 million metric tonnes of crude oil it imported during 2017-18. Since the reimposition of sanctions were announced, India has been cutting back on the Iranian imports. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis) --IANS al/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US unleashed its "toughest ever" sanctions against Tehran on Monday, while a defiant Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed to continue selling its crude oil in the international market despite the measures. "We should break the sanctions very well and we will do that," Rouhani said shortly after the anti-Iran sanctions took effect. US President Donald Trump's administration reinstated all sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, targeting both Iran and countries that trade with it, the BBC reported. Tehran had struck the nuclear deal with six world powers and the EU, agreeing to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of restrictions mainly on its oil sales. Accusing Iran of stirring up regional instability and exporting violence, Washington terminated the nuclear accord on May 8 and said called it "one of the worst and most one-sided deals the US had ever entered into". More than 700 individuals, entities, vessels and aircraft were now on the sanctions list, including major banks, oil exporters and shipping companies. The measures will make it difficult to do business with the oil-rich nation. Washington said that it wanted to stop what it calls Tehran's "malign" activities including cyber attacks, ballistic missile tests and support for terror groups and militias in the Middle East. The Trump administration, meanwhile, granted exemptions to eight countries to continue importing Iranian oil, without naming them. They reportedly include US allies India, Italy, Japan and South Korea. "With the help of the people and the unity that exists in our society, we have to make the Americans understand that they must not use the language of force, pressure and threats to speak to the great Iranian nation. They must be punished once and for all," Rouhani said at a meeting of economic officials. "The US officials have come to the understanding that they could not replace the Iranian oil on the market," he said, adding that even if they did not grant waivers to some countries to keep trading oil with Iran, "we would still be able to sell our oil and we have adequate capabilities to do that". Rouhani said Europe, too, was angry at the US policies, Press TV reported. "Today, we are not the only ones who are angry at US policies; even European businesses and governments are angered by US policies, too." Rouhani also said he believed that America had never before seen as lawless an administration as that of Trump's. He said all US administrations had violated international law, but "these (current officials) score on top on the lawlessness rankings". "I don't recall a group assuming power at the White House that was racist as these." The Iranian military said it would hold air defence drills to prove Tehran's capabilities. Before travelling to a campaign rally for the US midterm elections, Trump said Iran was already struggling under his administration's policies. "The Iran sanctions are very strong. They are the strongest sanctions we've ever imposed. And we'll see what happens with Iran, but they're not doing very well, I can tell you." The UK, Germany and France -- which were among the five countries still committed to the nuclear pact -- objected to the sanctions. They promised to support European firms that do "legitimate business" with Iran and set up an alternative payment mechanism that will help companies trade without facing US penalties. On Sunday, thousands of Iranians chanting "Death to America" rallied, rejecting calls for talks. The rallies coincided with the siege of the US Embassy on November 4, 1979. A total of 52 Americans were held hostage in the Embassy for 444 days and the two countries have been enemies ever since. --IANS soni/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unicef's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa has said the war in Yemen had turned the entire country into "a living hell for children". Geert Cappelaere said this on Sunday at a press conference about the man-made humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, where pre-famine conditions threaten 14 million people, or half the country's population, according to UN estimates. "Yemen, colleagues, is today a living hell for children. A living hell not for 50-60 per cent of children. It is a living hell for every single boy and girl in Yemen," Cappelaere said in Amman, Jordan, after his recent trip to Yemen, Efe news reported. "I visited Hodedia port. The port is a lifeline for 70-80 percent of the Yemeni population. It is only through Hodeida port that commercial and humanitarian supplies arrive, enabling us to deliver assistance in the northern part of the country," the UNICEF regional director said. Since Saturday, the fighting has intensified around Hodeida, which is held by the Houthi rebel forces that also control the capital, Sana'a. Forces loyal to the Aden-based government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have surrounded neighbourhoods in the eastern part of Hodeida, residents told EFE on Sunday. Yemenis from the July 7 neighbourhood said hundreds of people had started fleeing their homes as the neighbourhood was under bombardment, adding that residents of nearby areas were also fleeing the city to the south. More than 50 Houthi rebels and 17 pro-government fighters have been killed in clashes, state television reported Sunday, but it was unclear when the deaths occurred. The war returned to the global spotlight last week when US media published a photo of an emaciated Yemeni girl named Amal, whose death on November 1 was referenced by the UNICEF regional director. "There is not one Amal - there are many thousands of 'Amals'," Cappelaere said. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) This refers to Have we forgotten Kashmir? (November 5). The author has rightly pointed out that the lack of empathy shown by the current establishment towards the Kashmir problem will only aggravate the problem. We simply cant afford to be oblivious of the rising casualties in the valley, be it the loss of security personnel or the civilians. One part of the problem in Kashmir is the misguided youth who are made to believe that they are being oppressed in their own land by the state. This is not difficult for them to believe as they have seen the constant ... A 30-year-old housewife has been arrested for allegedly killing her husband near here in Maharashtra, police said Monday. The accused, Shilpa Bari, a resident of Dahanu in Palghar district, was arrested Sunday night and booked for murder, Inspector Sambaji Yadav of the Gholwad police station said. The victim, Umesh Bari (35), was found dead in his house on November 2, the police said, adding subsequently a case of accidental death was registered. The body was sent for post-mortem and the report indicated the victim was strangulated, they said. The police converted the accidental death case into one of murder and started probe. During the probe, it was revealed the accused was fed up with her husband coming home drunk frequently and harassing her, the police said. To get rid of constant harassment at the hands of her husband, the woman, a housewife, allegedly strangled him with a rope and tried to pass it as a case of suicide, they said. The couple has two children - aged 11 and 10 - the police added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four members of a suspected inter-state auto-lifter gang, including its leader, were arrested, police said Monday. The accused were identified as Sariq Sata (47), Furkan Sheikh (40), Sageer Ahmed (34), Sikender (28) and Sariq, they added. With these arrests, seven members of the gang were nabbed and 51 stolen vehicles recovered from their possession, the police said. Sata, the alleged kingpin of the gang had 43 cases registered against him, a senior police officer said, adding that he was carrying a reward of Rs one lakh on his arrest by the Delhi Police and Rs 20,000 by the Sambhal police. In all, seven members of the gang were arrested so far and 51 stolen vehicles recovered, the officer said. Earlier, three members of the gang -- Kalia alias Safruddin, Tirath and Naveen -- were arrested, he added. During interrogation, they had disclosed that Sata was the kingpin of the gang and since 2012, he, along with his associates Sageer, Sikander and others, was involved in stealing luxury cars in Delhi-NCR. The accused used to sell the stolen vehicles in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Mumbai and the north-eastern states, Rajesh Deo, Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime), said. Safar, Sikander, Sageer and Naveen used to steal the vehicles, whereas Furkan worked on the engine and chassis number and forged documents to get the stolen vehicles re-registered. Sata and Tirath then used to sell the vehicles, the DCP said. During investigation, the police found that prior to stealing a vehicle, the accused used to trace a car declared as a "total loss vehicle" by an insurance company. Such vehicles were then purchased by them through scrap dealers, the DCP added. Subsequently, while the total loss vehicles were disposed of, the documents were retained. The accused then used to target a vehicle of the same make and colour and steal it, he said. After stealing the vehicle, they used to remove the original engine and chassis numbers and inscribe the engine and chassis numbers of the total loss vehicle in their place, the officer said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seventy-nine school students were kidnapped on Monday in an English-speaking region of Cameroon where separatists are fighting an armed campaign for independence, a government source said. The students were abducted along with their principal, a teacher and a driver, the official said, as a source at the school confirmed the kidnapping of the pupils. They were enrolled at the Presbyterian Secondary School in Bamenda, capital of Cameroon's Northwest Region -- one of two regions hit by attacks by anglophone militants that have met with a brutal crackdown by the authorities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said Monday that the accused involved in killing senior BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother in Kishtwar district have been identified and will be brought to book soon. Bharatiya Janata Party state secretary Anil Parihar, 52, and his brother, Ajeet Parihar, 55, were killed on November 1 by suspected militants when they were walking towards their home in Parihar mohalla at around 8.40 pm. It has been proved that it was an incident of militancy, he said, adding that it "was an act of frustration on the part of militants and Pakistan". "Those people (killers of BJP senior leader and his brother) have been identified. Soon, results will be before you (media)," Malik told reporters after a function at the Civil Secretariat here. The Jammu and Kashmir government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the killing and directed it to expedite the investigation and submit its report as early as possible. An indefinite curfew was imposed in parts of Kishtwar and Doda districts on Thursday following the killing of the Parihar brothers. The curfew was, however, lifted from Doda district, including the main town and Bhadarwah along with Paddar and Chatroo sub-divisions of Kishtwar district Saturday, but Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) continued to remain in force in these areas as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madras High Court has cancelled the anticipatory bail of three erstwhile executives of Disc Assets Lead (India) Limited in a Rs 1,137 crore cheating case after it was informed that the trio were not cooperating in the probe. The court also directed them to surrender their passports, if any, and appear before the Special Court for Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (TNPID) cases, Madurai, on November 8. A division bench, comprising Justice M Sathynarayanan and Justice N Seshasayee, on November 1 ordered cancellation of the anticipatory bail granted to the then Managing Director V Janardhanan and directors N M Umashankar and N Arun by the court in September last year. The bench took serious note of the report submitted by the chairman and co-coordinator of Disc Assets, Justice (retired) N Paul Vasanthakumar-- court appointed administrator-- that the accused were misusing the liberty given to them. The report added that the trio avoided furnishing documents of title deeds of properties citing frivolous and unsustainable reasons and were not cooperating with the investigating agency. The matter relates to alleged cheating of 12 lakh depositors of their investment to the tune of over Rs 1,137 crore by the Madurai-based Disc Assets, which was formerly into agri business, after offering farm land for purchase on installment basis and assuring to maintain them. The court had appointed Vasanthakumar, retired Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, as the administrator of Disc Assets for taking over the properties of the company to settle dues to the depositors. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Afghan delegation will attend international talks on the war-torn country in Russia this month, officials said Monday, as the Taliban consider whether to participate. Moscow announced Saturday it would host the event on November 9 in the Russian capital -- even as the United States engages the Taliban in nascent bilateral talks to end the 17-year conflict. Afghanistan's High Peace Council, a government body responsible for reconciliation efforts with the militants, would send four representatives to the meeting, spokesman Sayed Ihsan Taheri told AFP. The Afghan foreign ministry, however, remained evasive about whether it would dispatch a delegation to the conference, which will focus on kickstarting peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban. "We are still negotiating with the Russian officials," spokesman Sebaghtullah Ahmadi said. "We welcome any peace effort that is Afghan-led." Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the militant group was still mulling whether to go. Moscow has also invited representatives from the United States as well as India, Iran, China, Pakistan and five former Soviet republics in Central Asia. Pakistan, which has long been accused of providing support to the Afghan Taliban, would "definitely" attend, foreign ministry spokesman Muhammad Faisal told AFP. The US embassy in Kabul did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Moscow meeting was initially scheduled to take place in September, but was postponed after Kabul insisted that the process should be Afghan-led. The meeting comes at a sensitive time. Newly-appointed US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been trying to convince the Taliban to agree to negotiate an end to the war and there are fears the Russian multi-lateral meeting could derail those efforts. A US government watchdog last week said Kabul's control of Afghanistan had slipped in recent months as local security forces suffered record casualties while making minimal or no progress against the Taliban. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) AICC general secretary and the party in-charge of Assam, Harish Rawat Monday said the killing of five persons in Tinsukia made it clear that Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has failed to maintain law and order in the state. The senior leaders of the Congress, including former chief minister Tarun Gogoi have been warning the government for long that its "divisive policy" will lead to further deterioration of law and order but the state government failed to act, he told reporters here. "The killing makes it clear that the state government has been negligent in maintaining law and order. This has been further compounded by the fact that the killers are yet to be traced and apprehended," he said. Moreover, the chief minister has not assured the people that such an incident will not take place again. "Just giving Rs five lakh to the victims' families is not enough and much more is expected from him", Rawat said. The five people, including three of a family, were killed and two others injured at Kheronibari village under Dholla police station limits in Tinsukia on the night of November 1. Congress condemns the incident, he said adding on behalf of party president Rahul Gandhi he extended his deepest condolences to members of the bereaved families. Turning to the NRC exercise in Assam, he hailed Supreme Court's decision to include five documents in the list of 15 on the basis of which it can be carried out. "The state government through the NRC state coordinator had again resorted to divisive of attempting to get five documents rejected for the verification process. We are thankful that the Supreme Court has rejected it", he added. The Congress will never resort to on the NRC and "We hope genuine Indian citizens will be given justice as we view it as a logical conclusion of the Assam Accord which the people of the state want", the AICC secretary said. Referring to the issue of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Rawat said that the BJP rakes up the issue only before polls. "The matter pertaining to the dispute is before the Supreme Court and will come up for hearing in January. It is time that Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes it clear whether BJP has faith in the judiciary or not". Former Duliajan MLA Amiya Gogoi rejoined Congress and Assamese actor Nayan Nirban Baruah joined it. "Our doors are always open for people who believe in peace, prosperity and development of Assam and those who are determined to defeat the divisive forces of BJP", he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As a thick haze engulfed Delhi two days ahead of Diwali, the national capital's air quality on Monday plunged sharply to "severe" for the second time in a week due to a change in wind direction which brought with it dust and smoke from farm fires raging in neighbouring states. Experts warned the air quality is likely to worsen further due to local factors during the festival. Doctors said the impact of air pollution on public health can be compared to smoking 15-20 cigarettes a day. The overall air quality index on Monday was registered at 418, a drastic decline from a day before when the AQI was moderate at 171. Also, the PM2.5 (particles in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres) and PM10 concentrations spiked to 'severe-plus emergency' category at 361 and 500 respectively, according to CPCB data. A member of a Delhi-based think-tank called for action to minimize the use of private vehicles, which contribute almost 40 per cent to air pollution in the National Capital Region. However, officials attributed the sudden, sharp deterioration in air quality to a change in wind direction, now blowing from the northwestern region towards Delhi, bringing with it dust and smoke from stubble burning in neighbouring states such as Punjab and Haryana. An official with the Centre-run System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research said intensified stubble burning is contributing nearly 24 per cent of the air pollution in Delhi. The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology said the increase in PM2.5 concentration is due to a change in wind direction and because of biomass burning in neighbouring areas. The Centre has said it is making efforts to improve the air quality but added that factors like weather, wind speed and stubble burning in states are not under its control. Minister Harsh Vardhan warned again on Monday that strict action will be taken against people violating anti-pollution norms. "No leniency will be shown towards those who violate the pollution norms," Vardhan said on the sidelines of an event. He urged people to indulge in "green deeds" and behave in a manner that is friendly to the The government has launched a 10-day 'Clean Air Campaign' from November 1 to monitor and report polluting activities. It has ordered halting of construction activities and regulating vehicular traffic in Delhi. Civil construction has been suspended in the National Capital Region. All stone crushers and hot mix plants generating dust pollution have also been closed. The Delhi Pollution Control Committee has directed the transport department and the traffic police to intensify their campaign against polluting vehicles until November 10. Anumita Roychowdhury, an executive director at the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, asked when the authorities are ramping up emergency actions on all sectors why should vehicles be spared. "The proposed action on private vehicles has to be seen within the larger context of how we are gradually ramping up emergency actions on all sectors," she said during a Facebook Live online programme, aptly titled 'Season of Smog'. She said traffic would increase due to festival shopping over the next two days which would further worsen the air quality. "Today we have gone to the extent of shutting power plants, brick kilns, hot mix plants and even gensets, the cars are actually coming last. "So to say, to make exception to cars is very wrong keeping in mind that all the new estimates are showing that private vehicles contribute towards 40 per cent of pollution." The minister said the Centre has given an aid of over Rs 550 crore for farmers to discourage them from indulging in stubble burning. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Come New Year and the state of Andhra Pradesh will have a separate High Court as the Supreme Court has given the green signal for issuing the notification to this effect. It will be the 25th high court in the country and will initially function from a temporary structure till the permanent building comes up in the ambitious Justice City complex in the state's capital Amaravati. Since the bifurcation of the state on June 2, 2014, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have had a common High Court situated at Hyderabad, the latter's capital city. A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said that since all the requirements have been fulfilled, there is no embargo for the competent authority to issue a notification bifurcating the courts into the High Court of Telangana and High Court of Andhra Pradesh respectively. "We expect such a notification to be issued by January 1, 2019, so that the two High Courts start functioning separately and High Court of Andhra Pradesh also starts functioning in the new building at the earliest", the bench said. The court noted the submission of the state that the building, where the Andhra Pradesh High Court would be temporarily shifted would be ready by December 15. "It is also clear that the Judges of the High Court, who would become Judges of High Court of Andhra Pradesh, are satisfied with the facilities in the said building inasmuch as Full Court of the High Court has approved the proposal after Inspection Committee of Judges submitted a report in this behalf," the bench said after perusing the affidavit of Andhra Pradesh said. Senior advocate Fali S Nariman, appearing for state of Andhra Pradesh, said that the government would be hiring villas to take care of the residential needs of the judges at Amaravati. "We may place on record that in Amaravati a very big complex known as Justice City is under construction where the High Court and subordinate courts and even some tribunals would be accommodated and there is a provision for construction of residential complex for the Judges of the High Court and judicial officers of the subordinate courts," the bench said. It said that hiring villas for residences of judges is an ad hoc arrangement till the Justice City gets completely constructed. With the enactment of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated into two states, viz., State of Andhra Pradesh and State of Telangana. The Act, which had come into effect from June 2, 2014 has also a provision for separate High Courts for State of Telangana and State of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad, which was the capital of erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh is now part of Telangana and has become its capital. The existing High Court is located at Hyderabad and it would be housing the High Court of State of Telangana. Insofar as State of Andhra Pradesh is concerned it has decided to create and construct new city known as Amaravati which is going to be the capital of the State and the new High Court of Andhra Pradesh would be located in that city. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A former boxer has choked to death during a televised croissant eating contest in Argentina. The death of 56-year-old Mario Melo was announced by his sister Monday. Aida Melo told the local TN television channel that her brother collapsed behind the contest's announcer as he was choking on a medialuna, a traditional Argentine croissant. She said people thought that he was pulling a prank, but he kept desperately gesturing to the announcer for help. Aida Melo said a doctor finally was summoned from the audience and Mario Melo was rushed to a local hospital in the town of Pinamar, where he was later declared dead on Sunday. Melo was a light heavyweight and heavyweight champion of South America in the 1980s and 1990s. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court on Monday acquitted Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a criminal defamation case filed by a former aide of Congress leader Sheila Dikshit, saying that the complainant cannot be said to be an "aggrieved person". Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal granted relief to Kejiriwal in the case lodged by Pawan Khera, the political secretary of Dikshit when she was the chief minister, for remarks allegedly made against her by the AAP leader in a television show during power tariff hike protests in October 2012. Khera had alleged that Kejriwal used "false and defamatory" accusations against Dikshit, which also harmed his reputation since he was associated with her. The court said Khera was not named by Kejriwal and there was no specific legal injury to his reputation. "The complainant is not a person aggrieved in this case, the words prima facie not defamatory of the complainant and the alleged interview has not been proved as per law. Therefore, this complaint of defamation filed by him is not maintainable," it said. The court had framed charges against Kejriwal under Section 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code in October 2018. If convicted, the politician could have been sent to a maximum two year jail term. In his complaint, Khera had alleged that Kejriwal had defamed him and he spoke the defamatory word with an intention to harm his reputation. Advocate Mohd Irshad, appearing for Kejriwal, had told the court that Khera was not a member of the Congress nor he has disclosed in clear terms his relationship with Dikshit. He had submitted that Kejriwal had not said anything against the political secretary. Kejriwal had opposed the complaint on the grounds that it has been filed by Khera and not by Dikshit herself. According to the complaint, in October 2012, Kejriwal had organised several protests against "power tariff hike in the national capital and had accused the then Delhi government of stalling Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission's move to cut power tariff by 23 per cent in 2010". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday urged people to follow the ideals of musical maestro Bhupen Hazarika, who, through his compositions, had "advocated communal amity, brotherhood and empathy". Hazarika has always worked for "uniting all sections of society" through his creations, the CM said, while offering tributes on the occasion of the bard's seventh death anniversary. "Bhupen Hazarika's songs spoke of humanity, empathy and brotherhood. He considered the whole world his home, and we must imbibe those humanistic values," Sonowal said. He also requested people to "defeat the evil forces" trying to disturb the social fabric of the state. "Hazarika transcended the boundaries of country and region and was able to establish Assamese identity on the global cultural map. It was his dream to build a greater Assamese society based on the humanitarian values," the chief minister said at Bhupen Hazarika Memorial at Jalukbari here. Sonowal's address came at a time, when the state is witnessing a tense situation, following the killing of five people in Tinsukia district four days ago. A group of assailants had gunned down five Bengali-speaking individuals at Kheronbari village, near Dhola-Sadiya bridge. The CM had appealed to the people to maintain peace and communal harmony in the state and promised stern action against the culprits. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The West Bengal Congress on Monday said "divisive politics" of the BJP-RSS combine was responsible for the killing of five Bengali-speaking people in Assam. The Congress party never supports the "narrow politics" of provincialism, communalism and racism, West Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra said. "The BJP government has been shamelessly endorsing the indiscriminate division of religion, language and caste throughout the country. The same situation happened in Gujarat a few days ago," he said. "Both the Assam government and the central government should take steps to ensure safety and security of Bengalis living in Assam," Mitra said. The five people, including three of a family, were killed and two others injured at Kheronibari village under Dholla police station limits in Tinsukia on the night of November 1. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Co-working operator Awfis plans to expand aggressively in Pune by tripling its number of centres to 21 over the next one year driven by huge demand for shared office space in the city from startups and corporates, a top company official said. Awfis, which was founded in April 2015, entered Pune market 18 months back and has established seven centres with a seating capacity of over 4000. Now, it has chalked out a plan to add 8,000 seats more by opening 14 new centres over next one year. Overall, the company has 55 centres, comprising 25,000 seats, across nine cities. A seat costs anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000 in its centres. It posted a revenue of Rs 57 crore last fiscal and the same is expected to reach Rs 170 crore this financial year. "Pune has proved to be an ideal eco-system of startup entrepreneurs, SMEs and corporates, where Awfis is determined to continue its growth trajectory and provide best in class shared workspaces to facilitate businesses. We aim to open 14 new centres over the next one year, taking the total capacity to 21 centres and 12,000 seats in this city," Awfis founder & CEO Amit Ramani told PTI. "We have recently tied up for one centre in Pune with over 600 seating capacity," he said, adding that the company would soon lease space for other centres. Awfis has opened its workspaces across all key business centres in the city and is catering to clients such as Vodafone, Hinduja Group and Michelin Tyres. The company aims to create a strong ecosystem for corporates, SMEs and startups to nurture the spirit of innovation and enterprise in the region. Sumit Lakhani, Chief Marketing Officer, Awfis, said "Pune is undoubtedly one of the fastest growing cities in India and is seeing a lot of demand for superior workspaces by MNCs, SMEs and startups." Awfis currently has centres in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Chandigarh. In wants to expand operations in Tier II markets to achieve its target to establish over 200 centres with 1,00,000 plus seats by 2020. The company had in July raised USD 20 million (about Rs 137.57 crore) from a few investors, including Sequoia India, for expanding its operations and could raise more if required. Since inception, the company has raised USD 51 million. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) From a dazzling riverfront at Ram Ki Paidi to illuminated streets and heritage buildings, Ayodhya has been decked up to welcome South Korean First lady Kim Jung-sook for the grand Diwali celebrations in the holy city. An artistic statue of Lord Ram along with Lord Hanuman has been installed at the historic ghats of the Saryu river, while an iconic ceremonial gateway has been erected near the site of the main function. The old temples facing the ghats of the river have been bathed in colourful lighting and lakhs of 'diyas' (earthen lamps) are being set up on the steps of the ghats. The lamps will be lit up Tuesday to welcome Kim, the chief guest of the main function, while also aiming for a Guinness Book of Record. The main streets of Ayodhya wear a scintillating look with illuminated lamps and special decorations. Many buildings have been lit up for the occasion, including the facade of the Raj Sadan and the residence of royal family of Ayodhya. "About 3.35 lakh 'diyas' are planned to be lit up tomorrow on both the banks of the river and students from various colleges of the Avadh University have come to lit them up, along with other people to light them up. "Many students of the university are also preparing colourful rangolis on Ramayana theme on the banks of the river," a member of the event management team said. Kim, who arrived here Sunday on a four-day visit, Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on her. The first lady also interacted with school students in Delhi. These were the first of Kim's official engagements during her India visit. "Had a great meeting with Mrs. Kim Jung-sook, First Lady of the Republic of Korea. We had fruitful discussions on ways to deepen bilateral cooperation between our nations," Modi tweeted. She then travelled to Lucknow for the next leg of her visit and was received by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on arrival. On Tuesday, Kim will interact with craftsmen of chikankari, a traditional embroidery style of that region, later in the day, she will attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the memorial and 'Deepotatsav' in Ayodhya. The First Lady's participation in the festivities in Ayodhya will showcase our close civilisational links as well as the ongoing deepening engagement between our two countries, an MEA had said in a statement. In July, the two countries had signed an agreement for expansion of the Suriratna memorial project. As per her itinerary shared by the MEA, the South Korean Firsat Lady will also deliver a speech at the Ram Kath Park after the ground-breaking ceremony before proceeding to attend 'Deepotsav' at Naya Ghat. Artists from Maharashtra have worked on 30-ft statue of Lord Ram, made of Plaster of Paris, installed near the site of 'Deepotsav' while they were working on a 25-ft statue of Lord Hanuman near the ceremonial gateway. Huge hoardings, bearing message -- 'South Korean First lady Kim Jung-sook - Welcome to Ayodhya ' and her picture, have been put up across the city. Kim's standalone visit to India has rekindled interest in its legendary princess who married a Korean king. According to Korean legend, the Princess of Ayodhya went to Korea in 48 AD and married King Kim-Suro. A large number of Koreans trace their ancestry to this legendary princess, who is known as Queen Heo Hwang-ok in South Korea. "The legend of Queen Heo Hwang-ok binds the two countries together culturally, and her visit will further promote our people-to-people ties," a senior official at the cultural wing of the Embassy here said. Uttam Das, a seer from Ayodhya, told PTI, "It was a matter of honour for Ayodhya that the she was visiting Ayodhya." "A Princess of Ayodhya had gone there around 2,000 years ago, and now the First Lady is visiting Ayodhya, life has sort of come full circle," he said. "We have good relations with South Korea and her visit will bring the two countries closer," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sixteen-year old Samay Godika, a city school student, will receive USD 400,000 in educational prizes for himself, his teacher and his school, as he emerged winner in the fourth annual "Breakthrough Junior Challenge", a global science video competition. The US-based Breakthrough Prize announced Godika, a junior at the National Public School-Koramangala here, as the winner of this year's 'Breakthrough Junior Challenge' for his video submitted in the lifesciences category on circadian rhythms, which are physical, mental, and behavioural changes that follow a daily cycle. Breakthrough Junior Challenge is a global science video competition designed to inspire creative thinking about fundamental concepts in the life sciences, physics, and mathematics. "As the winner, Samay will receive USD 400,000 (approx Rs 2.92 crore) ineducational prizes for himself, his teacher and his school," Breakthrough Prize said in a release posted on its website Sunday. Samay will receive a USD 250,000 collegescholarship while his ninth and tenth grade science teacher Pramila Menon will get USD 50,000 prize. Additionally,his school will receive a state-of-the-art science lab valuedat USD 100,000. Menon had encouraged his interest in life sciencesand tutored him after school to encourage his curiosity about scientific ideas. Recognising him as a Boston native who now lives in India, Breakthrough said, Samay's video, submitted in the lifesciences category, focused on circadian rhythms, the 24-hour biological processes that can affect simple daily experiencessuch as waking up for school or jet lag. Because he has family members who suffer from Parkinson's and other neurological diseases, Samay is particularly interested in the correlation between circadian rhythms and the effectiveness of medical treatments, it added. "Participating in and now winning the BreakthroughJunior Challenge is life-changing, thrilling and such an honor... I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be recognised alongside so many of the world's top scientists and tech industry leaders," Samay said. Breakthrough Junior Challenge is a global initiative to develop and demonstrate young people's knowledge of science and scientific principles, generate excitement in these fields and engage the imagination and interest of the public-at-large in key concepts of fundamental science, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bollywood production house Junglee Pictures, which was sent a notice by the Delhi government over smoking scenes and alleged promotion of tobacco products in their film, has stated that the depiction of tobacco brands was "incidental and inadvertent" and that they will blur them in copies to be provided for television broadcast in India, a city government official said. However, the Delhi government wants the company to take similar corrective steps in copies being shown in cinema halls also. It has also sought an undertaking from the production house that such violations will not happen in future, Additional Director (Health) Dr S K Arora said. He said that the further course of action will be decided based on compliance by the production house. In its reply to the notice, the company, while accepting that two brands of tobacco were shown -- one at a tobacco kiosk and other at a shopping centre, clarified that they have not received any benefit or payment for displaying those brands, he said. The company has said it will blur the brand names in the scenes in the copies to be provided for television broadcast in India. "They said it was incidental and inadvertent. They denied advertisement or promotion of any brand directly or indirectly. The company also denied receiving any benefits or payments for displaying the brands of tobaccos in the film," Arora said. "They also claimed that the scenes were demand of the script of the film, but, it could have been modified in view of 13 lakh deaths annually happening in India due to tobacco use. Bollywood industry needs to understand that people especially youngsters follow them blindly and easily get influenced by such advertisements," Arora said. "Junglee Pictures company has assured (us) of taking all corrective measures to blur the brands name in the said scenes in the copies to be provided for television broadcast in India. However, we have reiterated that they to do the same in copies being shown in cinema halls also. They should also give an undertaking that such kind of violations will not happen in future under their production house," Arora said. The Delhi government's Health Department had issued the legal notice to the director, producers and actors of the just released Hindi movie 'Badhaai' Ho seeking removal of smoking scenes and those allegedly promoting tobacco products. Arora said there are a lot of smoking scenes and also a tobacco shop displaying tobacco packs shown repeatedly in the movie which are violations under section 5 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA). These are punishable offences under section 22 of COTP. 'Badhaai Ho', starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Sanya Malhotra, Neena Gupta, Gajraj Rao and Surekha Sikri, is a comedy drama about a middle-age couple facing unexpected pregnancy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A special Bangladesh tribunal on Monday handed down death sentences to two persons, including a former leader of the ruling Awami League, for crimes against humanity during the 1971 liberation war and for aiding Pakistani troops. "They will be hanged by neck until they are dead," pronounced the chair of the three-judge International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh (ICT-BD) Mohammad Shahinur Islam after the trial of both convicts who are on the run. Both convicts, in their early 60s, are absconding. Islam said all charges brought against the convicts were proved beyond doubt that warranted the death penalty. Prosecution lawyers had accused them of murdering some 100 people, mostly minority Hindus, in their neighbourhood while siding with Pakistani enemy troops. They were defended by state-appointed counsels during their trial in absentia and of the two Liakat Ali was president of the Awami League's Lakhai sub-district in northeastern Kishorganj. Ali is the second war crimes convict who managed to become a member of the Awami League, the party which led the 1971 Liberation War, by hiding his past role. He was eventually identified as a war criminal as the government initiated the process to try the Bangladeshi collaborators who aided Pakistani troops in committing genocide during the war. Fifty-three people, mostly leaders of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami which opposed Bangladesh's independence, have been sentenced to death for their acts during the war while some of the convicts were from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Seven war criminals have been hanged so far after the Supreme Court upheld the tribunal's judgments while the rest of the cases are pending with the apex court even as five of the convicts have died of natural causes by now. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The West Bengal government will form two welfare boards for those belonging to the Namasudra and Matua communities - two backward groups in the state, a minister said Monday. The cabinet took an unanimous decision on it and decided to form the two separate boards for their socio economic development, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Chandrima Bhattacharya told reporters after a meeting at the state secretariat. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier assured the Namasudra community about formation of a separate board for their welfare during her recent visit to Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts in north Bengal. Bhattacharya said the government has also decided to introduce a bill for giving land rights to those residing in the enclaves in Coochbehar district in the next session of state assembly. During her recent visit to Cooch Behar, the chief minister also asked the officials to be serious about their works for development in the area and welfare of the people of the enclaves. Bhattacharya said in another important decision at the cabinet meeting 41.11 acres of vested land at Pirachandi and Pirabani mouzas in Salboni area of West Midnapore district will be given to West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd for setting up a 10 MW solar power grid in the area. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Accusing Congress president Rahul Gandhi of misleading people on the Rafale deal with France, the ruling BJP on Monday challenged the opposition party to disclose the price at which the fighter aircraft was offered to India during the tenure of UPA-II government. MoS for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal claimed that the price proposed during the UPA-II rule was higher than the deal signed by the BJP-led government and the Congress party was at pain because this dispensation has kicked out middleman from the government-to-government deal. He also said Anil Ambani's company is not the only offset partner of Dassault Aviation as other firms have also tied up with the French manufacturer as offset partners under the Make in India programme. "Congress is talking about the price of the plane which was offered during UPA-I but not UPA-II. Negotiations took place on the first price and the Congress should tell people about the proposed price of 2012-13. That price was higher than the present proposal," Meghwal said at a press conference here. He said the then Congress government was listening to middleman Sanjay Bhandari, a close associate of businessman Robert Vadra, instead of Indian Air Force's continuous demand for high-end fighter aircraft. "BJP government kicked out the middleman which has troubled the Congress," Meghwal said. The Congress has previously rejected the allegations and said the BJP is "desperate" to divert attention. The Union minister, however, said the Congress party failed to seal the Rafale deal between 2006 and 2013. Meghwal claimed that the present government proposed to purchase the fighter aircraft at a much lower price compared to the rates fixed by then UPA government. He also said that former defence minister A K Antony too had refused to disclose the price in some other matters in parliament citing security reasons. "Congress is just spreading lies and misleading public. The matter is in Supreme court and people will get to know about the lies of the Congress party," he said. Referring to communications between Dassault Aviation and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd during UPA government's rule, Meghwal said the timeframe desired by Dassault Aviation to manufacture certain parts of the aircraft did not match with that of HAL and, therefore, there was a need to rope in offset partners. The minister said Congress party's lies would soon be exposed. "Congress has a disease of lying. Earlier, the party had moved a petition in Supreme Court that there were 'fake voters' in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and the court had rejected their plea as it was a lie," he added. Ambani's Reliance Group has said dismissed allegations of corruption in the deal and accused the Congress of resorting to "blatant lies" for political gains. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : BJP Kerala unit chief P S Sreedharan Pillai courted a controversy Monday as TV channels aired a video clip in which he purportedly said the Sabarimala temple head priest consulted him before threatening the closure of the shrine if women in 10-50 age group entered it. As his remarks at a BJP Yuva morcha event in Kozhikode Sunday drew strong reactions from the CPI(M)-led ruling LDF and opposition Congresss, Pillai, an advocate practicing in the Kerala High Court, said the priest had called him seeking a legal clarification, which he had given. However, Head priest Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru told reporters at the temple that he had only consulted senior tantri Kandararu Mohanararu on the matter. Hitting out at the BJP, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said at a public meeting in Kannur that the genuine devotees of Lord Ayyappa should understand the saffron party's "game plan". Responding to the criticism against him, Pillai said several people come to him for consultations and he as a lawyer had all the right to give them legal advice. At the height of dramatic protests against entry of women of menstrual age into the Lord Ayyappa shrine, Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru had on October 19 threatened to shut the sanctum sanctorum if two young women, then escorted by police, were allowed to reach the 'Sannidhanam' (temple complex). Police later escorted back the two women, including an activist, who attempted to enter the temple after the Supreme Court allowed women of all age groups to offer prayers. The BJP and Congress have opposed the CPI(M)-led LDF government's decision to implement the apex court order and not to seek a review of it as demanded by various quarters. In the video, Pillai was purportedly heard saying that the priest had consulted him on whether closing the Ayyappa temple if women tried to enter it would amount to contempt of court. Pillai had said he assured the tantri that there would be no contempt and thousands of believers were with him. "Sabarimala issue is a golden opportunity for us," he had told the party workers, claiming that the agitation was "BJP's agenda". During October 17-22 when the temple opened for monthly puja, the first time after the apex court verdict, devotees and right wing activists staged protests and prevented around 12 women in the 10-50 age group from entering the shrine. Slamming Pillai for his remarks, CPI(M) state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said it was a serious matter and demanded a high-level probe into what he called "all conspiracies" related to Sabarimala and the stand taken by the BJP. The agitation was "well planned" by BJP and the fact that the party could "influence" the priest was "serious", he said. State Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran said Pillai's statements were an "open challenge" to society and to the Supreme Court, while Industries minister E P Jayarajan accused the BJP of using the tantri and other priests for creating trouble at the holy hill. BJP was trying to turn the "secular Kerala" into a "riot zone", Surendran alleged, adding there was a conspiracy behind it and those involved should be brought to book. Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said the real agenda of BJP had been exposed through the video. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, Mullappally Ramachandran told reporters that the remarks of Pillai were "dangerous". Through his words, it had been proved that BJP was trying to create an Ayodhya in Kerala using the Sabarimala issue, he alleged. The issue surfaced on a day when the temple opened for a special puja to be performed Tuesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Pakistani national was Monday arrested by the BSF near the Border Out Post (BOP) in Ramkot near here and recovered an automatic weapon from his possession. Confirming the arrest, a Border Security Force (BSF) official said that during a routine search, the Pakistani national was apprehended and a US-made automatic gun, 24 cartridges and three mobile phones with Pakistani SIM cards were recovered from him. In a separate incident, BSF sleuths seized three kilograms of heroin at a village near the International border. According to an official, the BSF patrolling party observed some suspicious moments along the border in village Ranian and upon close inspection found that some people from Pakistan were approaching the India side. The troops ordered them to stop but as the persons kept advancing, the jawans opened fire forcing them to the return, the official said. Upon searching the site, the troopers discovered the heroin, the official added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CBI denied Monday reports that it has questioned Assam minister Himant Biswa Sarma in connection with its probe into the multi-crore Louis Berger bribery scam case. CBI Spokesperson R K Gaur dismissed reports that Sarma was questioned by the agency in connection with the case as reported by some organisations. No such questioning has taken place as reported in a section of the media, Gaur said. In its order on September 1, 2017, the Gauhati High Court had asked the CBI to take over the probe, saying the state police's investigation was not satisfactory. It is alleged that US-based Louis Berger had adopted illegal means for obtaining three water supply projects in Goa and Guwahati. Unidentified officials of the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority, the US-based multinational company, Louis Berger International, and the Assam government have been booked on charges of criminal conspiracy and corruption, according to the CBI FIR. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will monitor on a daily basis the grievances of the MSMEs relating to the GST as part of efforts to resolve issues being faced by small businesses in the new indirect tax regime. The move comes at a time when the government has initiated a major support and outreach programme for MSMEs to ensure growth and expansion of the sector. The GST help desks have already been set up in all the 80 districts where a 100 day support and outreach programme for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have been launched by the government on November 2. The CBIC has now decided to set up a Feedback and Action Room (FAR) under the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax (GST) to record and process all grievances raised by MSMEs, an official said. The GST help desks will have nodal officers for trade facilitation who would guide the small businesses on their queries surrounding the GST. These nodal officers would report all the grievances on a real-time basis to the FAR, which would then provide the solution. "The FAR would comprise of officers from Delhi and NCR. They would compile a master record of all grievances at various stages of resolution, and send a summary report to the Board on daily basis," an official told PTI. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on November 2 launched a slew of measures for the MSME sector, including faster sanction of loans and easier compliance with environmental rules. Also, GST-registered MSMEs will get a 2 per cent subvention or subsidy on a new loan or incremental loan of up to Rs 1 crore. The MSME sector constitutes a vast network of over 63 million units and employs 111 million people, contributing around 30 per cent to the GDP. It accounts for about 45 per cent of manufacturing output and around 40 per cent to total exports. The GST Council, chaired by the Union Finance Minister and comprising state ministers as members, had in July allowed companies with turnover of up to Rs 5 crore to file GST returns quarterly, up from the Rs 1.5 crore threshold fixed earlier. The move benefited about 93 per cent of the GST registered taxpayers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China's imported goods and services are set to exceed $40 trillion in the next 15 years, President Xi Jinping pledged Monday as he kicked off a major import fair in which India and 80 other countries are participating. An Indian delegation led by Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan is taking part the first China Import Expo inaugurated in the eastern metropolis of Shanghai. A total of 81 countries are taking part in the fair and hoping to gain access to China's tightly closed import market. China, the top global exporter, plans to become a major importer. China's imported goods and services are estimated to exceed $30 trillion and $10 trillion respectively in the next 15 years, Xi said in his inaugural address, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. "India has built a pavilion at the expo highlighting its focus areas of agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, information technology and tourism," Prashant Lokhande, Counsellor Economic and Commerce of the Indian Embassy here said. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was among leaders of the countries who took part in the inaugural function of the Expo. Xi said measures announced in April to relax access to Chinese market have so far been implemented. China has further simplified negative list of foreign investments, reduced investment limits and lifted the level of free investment. China is taking solid steps to expand financial opening-up, continue to advance opening-up in the service sector, deepen opening-up in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and accelerate the opening-up process of sectors including telecommunications, education, medical treatment and culture, Xi said. He said there was every reason to be fully confident in the future of the Chinese economy, which in recent years has slowed down. At present, China's remains generally stable and is making good progress, Xi said, citing data including the GDP growth of 6.7 per cent in the first three quarters of 2018. "China's is truly performing well within the reasonable range, giving us a solid foundation for delivering the development goals for the whole year," Xi said. Compared with other major economies, China still ranks among the world's top in terms of GDP growth, he said. The fundamentals for sound and stable economic growth remain unchanged, the necessary production factors for high-quality development remain unchanged, and the overall momentum of long-term economic stability and progress also remains unchanged, Xi said. China's capacity of macroeconomic regulation is growing, and efforts to deepen reform across the board have unleashed new drivers of growth, he added. With the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) being further implemented, two-way investment and trade between China and countries along the Belt and Road have continued to gather pace, Xi said. "All in all, the favourable conditions are in place for the long-term, healthy and steady growth of the Chinese economy," Xi said. This is China's first import expo. All major countries in the world including the US have massive trade deficits with China which is the leading exporter of the world. US President Donald Trump launched trade war with China in June by slapping additional tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports. Trump has been insisting that China should cut down $375 billion trade deficit by providing more access to the American goods by ensuring IPR protection. India too has been pressuring China to take measures to bring down over $51 billion annual trade deficit, which was one of the main focus areas in the informal meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Wuhan in April this year. Since then, officials of the two countries held several rounds of talks for India to export its agricultural products like sugar and rice as well as its pharmaceuticals and IT in which the country has an upper hand in the global exports. Though the expo, which would be held till November 10, has evoked much interest in global industry, China is yet to liberalise its import market, officials said. It is the world's first import-themed national-level expo, covering an area of about 30,000 square metres, and will feature enterprise and business exhibitions, country pavilions for trade and investment. Twelve countries - Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Vietnam and the UK - will be the "Guest of Honour" at the mega business event. More than 3,000 companies from over 130 countries have confirmed participation in the enterprise and business exhibitions at the expo, with a total booth area of 270,000 square metres, state-run China Daily reported. Authorities on Monday relaxed for three hours the curfew imposed in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar township following the killing of a senior BJP leader and his brother by suspected militants on Thursday night. The local administration had given area-wise relaxation in the township for two hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday. This is for the first time in the past five days that the curfew was relaxed for three hours on trial basis in the entire township, District Development Commissioner, Kishtwar, Angrez Singh Rana, told PTI. He said the relaxation was given from 2-5 pm and it passed peacefully. The law and order situation is returning to normal and no untoward incident has been reported in the district, he said. Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said Monday that those involved in the killing of BJP state secretary Anil Parihar and his brother Ajeet have been identified. On November 1, the Parihar brothers were returning home after closing their stationery shop when gunmen fired at them in Tappal Gali area, following which an indefinite curfew was imposed in parts of Kishtwar and Doda districts. The curfew was lifted from Doda district including the main town and Bhadarwah along with Paddar and Chatroo sub-divisions of Kishtwar district on Saturday, but Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code continued to remain in force in these areas as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order. The killing of the Parihar brothers triggered massive protests across the Jammu region following which authorities suspended internet services in the curfew-bound areas, while the internet speed was slowed down in the rest of the division, including the winter capital Jammu. However, the internet speed was restored to normal in Jammu and other parts of the division Saturday evening. The Army had staged a flag march in sensitive areas to assist the district administration in Kishtwar to maintain law and order. Meanwhile, a BJP delegation led by national vice president Avinash Rai Khanna Monday visited Parihar's house to express condolences with the bereaved family. Khanna asked authorities to strengthen the security of the family and also to the local leaders of the party, a BJP spokesman said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa Monday lodged a complaint with police accusing actor Shahrukh Khan and others of "hurting religious sentiments" of the Sikh community through a poster of his upcoming movie 'Zero'. A SAD-BJP legislator from Delhi, Sirsa alleged in his complaint lodged at North Avenue police station here that that the actor has been shown wearing a 'kirpan' (small sword) in a movie's poster. No immediate reaction was available from the actor or any of his representatives and others concerned with the movie. "As per the Sikh rehat maryada (a code of conduct and conventions for Sikhism, approved by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee), only an Amritdhari Sikh can wear gatra kirpan," Sirsa said in his complaint. Sirsa also lodged his protest against Khan and movie director Anand Rai. "In the movie's promo, the film star does not only appear wearing the 'kirpan' but the poster also shows the star in a lighter mood, thereby further showing the sikh's article of faith in a lighter vein. Sikhs cannot tolerate such mischievous acts, either in films or in real life," Sirsa said in a statement. He demanded police to act on his complaint and get the movie's promo banned. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Social networking giant Facebook has teamed up with agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), expanding third-party fact-checking programme in India, as it looks to combat the spread of "fake news" on its platform ahead of general elections in 2019. Facebook, which in April this year had partnered with BOOM, said the move will "bolster" its ongoing efforts to "clamp down on manipulated posts including photos and videos" on its platform. Speaking to PTI, Facebook Partnership Lead (India) Manish Khanduri explained that AFP has been certified through the Poynter Institute's non-partisan International Fact Checking Network. "One of our key objectives is to engage and combat misinformation and broadly that has been a part of our efforts for a while now... There are many things we do... (the aim is to) reduce, remove (fake news) and inform our audiences," Khanduri said. He added that "AFP is becoming a part of third-party fact-checkers and will essentially bolster efforts to crackdown on misinformation" via text stories, photos and videos" on Facebook's platform. "We will continue to seek partners, we will continue to expand the programme," he said adding that the company will also look at adding support for more Indian languages as well. At present, its partnership with BOOM covers content in English and Bengali. Facebook and WhatsApp, also owned by the social media giant, have been facing the menace of rumours and fake floating on their platforms. Both organisations have taken a number of steps, including sensitisation programmes among users across the country. More recently, WhatsApp - which drew flak from the government over circulation of certain fake and sinister messages that incited mob-fury in different parts of the country - has initiated measures to curb the circulation of misinformation on its platform. Detailing out the process, Khanduri said after a story is rated as false by the fact-checker, it will figure lower in News Feed, "significantly reducing its distribution". He explained that this, in turn, stops the hoax from spreading and reduces the number of people who see it. Facebook has run similar initiatives in countries like France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines and the US. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the crop insurance scheme, alleging that farmers are being "looted" and the 'chowkidaar' has made his intentions clear that "he will steal from others to fill the coffers of his friends". Taking to Twitter, he alleged the motive of the scheme is to fill the accounts of "suit-boot friends" with thousands of crores of rupees. There was no immediate reaction from the government over the allegations. "After 'looting' Air Force in Rafale, now farmers are being looted in the name of crop insurance. The motive is only one: filling thousands of crores of Rupees in the accounts of their suited-booted friends. "The chowkidaar has made his intentions clear: Will steal from others to fill the coffers of friends," Gandhi tweeted in Hindi. During his campaign speeches, Modi had said that he would be a 'chowkidaar' (watchman) of government treasury and would not allow anyone to misuse public money. Rahul Gandhi cited a media report quoting a senior journalist who alleged that the government's crop insurance scheme is a "bigger scam" than Rafale. The Congress has questioned the Modi government's crop insurance scheme, alleging that the compensation to farmers is far less than the premium taken from them by the private players. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : Protests by farmers against a private bank erupted in many parts of Karnataka Monday after arrest warrants were served on some of them for non-repayment of loans, prompting Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to direct the officials concerned to resolve the issue at the earliest. The protests broke out after reports emerged that severalfarmers in Belagavi district were served arrest warrants by a court for non-repayment of loans. The bank's move came despite the Kumaraswamy led Congress-JDS coalition government announcing about Rs 45,000 crore farm loan waiver recently. The chief minister's office said in a statement that the BelagaviDistrict Deputy Commissioner and senior police officials, acting on a directive by Kumaraswamy, have convened a meeting between bank officials and farmers on November 7 to resolve the issue. "The Chief Minister has asked the districtadministration to discuss farmers' issues with the bankofficials at the meeting and in a friendly atmosphere resolve the issue in a way that farmers are not affected," it added. The bank said farmers' interests were of "utmost priority" and it would work with the state government to resolve the matter. In a statement, the bank said it had extended various credit facilities to farmers who had borrowed money for their agricultural or farm related activities. It said legal proceedings were initiated almost six months ago after some farmers failed to repay their loans. "The bank has also been working towards an amicableloan repayment process through a one-time settlement scheduleand would like to encourage farmers to avail thisopportunity," it said, quoting its Regionalbranch Banking Head, South, Sadashiva Mallya. The bank said it was aware of the state government's notificationon the loan waiver scheme and it would align with the directives of the state government and the state-level Bankers Committee on the matter. "Needless to say, theinterests of farmers are of utmost priority and the bankwill work with the government of Karnataka to resolve thematter in the best interests of all parties concerned, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Odisha government on Monday announced the constitution of an inter-ministerial committee to discuss the demands of agitating farmers even as their 'padyatra' reached the entry points of the state capital. Finance Minister S B Behera, who will head the inter-ministerial committee, appealed to the farmers to have faith in the government and return to their villages. "Odisha government stands committed to the cause of farmers' welfare. The inter-ministerial committee will discuss the demands of farmers," he told reporters. He said Odisha was one of the first states to have an exclusive budget for agriculture and farmers' empowerment. "The state government has been providing loans at one per cent interest to farmers and our irrigation budget has had the maximum growth in the last 10 years," Behera said. Officials said the state agriculture, panchayati raj and cooperation ministers would be part of the inter-ministerial committee. The farmers, agitating under the banner of Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan (NNKS), rejected the committee. They staged a sit-in at Tamando and Pahala on National Highway 55 -- the two entry points to Bhubaneswar -- as the police did not allow them to enter the city. "Let the government arrest us. We will not move an inch from the place where the police denied us entry. We will stage a dharna in a non-violent manner," NNKS convenor Akshya Kumar said. He said the agitators have been demanding fair price, pension and prestige for 36 lakh farmers of the state for the past eight years but the government is not paying heed. Marching from Cuttack and Khurda, the farmers planned to hold a mega convention on Mahatma Gandhi Marg near the state assembly. The BJP and the Congress have backed the NNKS farmers' agitation. Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik and former Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda, among others, joined the rally to show their support. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) / -- Two-third borrowers are below-prime individuals looking for emergency credit line Vivifi India Finance Private Limited (Vivifi), one of India's only few fintech non-banking finance companies (NBFC) to provide credit to non-prime borrowers, has achieved major traction across India in first year of its operations. Vivifi's flagship offering, FlexSalary, India's first emergency line of credit for those who need it most but find it difficult to avail the credit, has found takers across major cities and towns in India. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/779616/Flexsalary_Logo.jpg ) (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/779617/Vivifi_Logo.jpg ) Vivifi launched FlexSalary in August 2017 and in one year, the company is doing monthly run rate of 25,000 applications. The web traffic on http://www.FLEXSALARY.com has reached almost 3,00,000 unique visitors. While the initial web traffic/inquiries were from Telangana, the company now receives web traffic and loan applications from across 15 states including Jammu & Kashmir. The top 6 cities from where FlexSalary receives maximum inquiries are Greater Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai and the National Capital Region, with Hyderabad topping the list. Founded by technocrats Anil PInapala, Srinath Kompella, Mridula Regulagadda, and a career banker Patrick Kishore, Vivifi is India's only fintech NBFC that provides credit to non-prime customers. Non-prime customers usually find it hard to get credit from traditional sources due to limited credit history, low (below prime) credit score and low current income. Powered by the first generation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven proprietary technology platform which relies on machine learning algorithms, FlexSalary is fast becoming the lending platform of choice for non-prime borrowers across India. Commenting on the traction gained by FlexSalary since its launch, Anil Pinapala, Founder & CEO, Vivifi India Finance said, "In one year of operations, we have approved over 20,000 FlexSalary accounts with over 1,50,000 app downloads. We are very excited by the acceptance that FlexSalary has gained in the first year of operation amongst non-prime borrowers. Currently, we are fulfilling 15% of the demand for loans with the repayment rate comparable to any prime portfolio. While the acceptance of FlexSalary was anticipated, what is encouraging is the adoption of our product amongst the prime customers, with almost one-third of our current customer base. This signifies the fact that FlexSalary is addressing a latent demand for emergency cash needs. India traditionally has one of the lowest consumer debt penetration at 13% of the GDP even among the emerging markets. This presents a tremendous opportunity to fintech start ups like Vivifi which is committed to bridging this gap by empowering non-prime borrowers with innovative products through our financial inclusion agenda." "The key reason for FlexSalary's success is the simplicity with which vast population of non-prime or near-prime borrowers can avail and repay the loans. These are typically 'new to job', lower salaried consumers who are new to the credit with poor credit scores and don't know who to turn to for their temporary cash-crunch. On the other hand, our robust technology platform deploys various AI-driven algorithms to eliminate fraud, compute the borrower's ability and intent to repay, and predict the best time to collect a loan. This differentiates Vivifi as 100% technology reliant fintech start up NBFC," added Srinath Kompella, Co-founder & COO, Vivifi India. About Vivifi India Finance Private Limited Vivifi India Finance Private Limited (Vivifi), a FinTech NBFC (non-banking finance company), offers Innovative Financial Products to customers across the Credit Spectrum with focus on the Under-Served / Unserved Customers. Vivifi's flagship product, FlexSalary is an emergency line of credit that provides unsecured personal loans to under-prime and near-prime salaried class individuals. Users can access FlexSalary through an app and website or through their employers who have tied up with Vivifi. Using our proprietary machine learning-based credit decision model and loan management system, Vivifi goes beyond traditional credit score to provide credit. Founded by technocrats with an experience of building a successful fintech company in the U.S., Vivifi aims to expand financial inclusion agenda. To know more about us, visit http://www.flexsalary.com. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Police registered an FIR against Union minister Rajen Gohain and five other political leaders Monday for allegedly making provocative statements to divide two communities in Assam in connection with the Tinsukia killings. The police said a complaint was filed by Inamul Haque Laskar, general secretary of Ex-ULFA United Platform, Barak, at Silchar Sadar police station. Besides Gohain, the Minister of State for Railways, the FIR was lodged against BJP MLA Shiladitya Dev, party leader Pradeep Dutta Rai, Congress MP Sushmita Dev, party MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha and Chandan Sarkar. No specific statement was cited in the FIR against them, but it was alleged that they had given such statements on many occasions. Suspected militants in battle fatigue had shot dead five Bengali-speaking people, including three members of a family, beside a bridge near Kheronibari village on Thursday night. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal Friday blamed inflammatory speeches by individuals and organisations for the killings. Two leaders of pro-talk faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) were arrested on November 2 for making provocative statements on various occasions. Earlier on Monday, Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia of the Congress demanded a judicial probe into the killings and alleged that no action was taken against the leaders of the saffron party for their inflammatory speeches. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A fire broke out in the fifth floor of a high-rise office building in the posh Park Street on Monday, a Fire Brigade official said. No one was injured in the fire which broke out at about 11.10 am in the eight-storey building called Apeejay House, he said. The building is located in the Park Street which is the city's foremost dining district, with many restaurants, pubs and offices located in the area. At least 10 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames that started in an office in the fifth floor of the building. The fire was brought under control at about 1.00 pm, the official said. The fire department brought in hydraulic ladder and other equipments to fight the blaze. Disaster management personnel and a large number of policemen were also deployed. Police said that people were evacuated safely from the building, which houses offices of several companies and is also the headquarters of Apeejay Surendra Group. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, they said. Due to the fire, vehicular movement was regulated in and around the Park Street and traffic was affected in the southern areas of the metropolis. In March, 2010, a devastating fire at Stephen Court', near Apeejay House, claimed 43 lives. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A fire broke out on the fifth floor of a high-rise office building in the posh Park Street here Monday, an official said. No one was injured in the fire that broke out at about 11.10 am on the fifth floor of the multi-storied building called Apeejay House, the Fire Brigade official said. "Several fire tenders are busy in dousing the flames," he said. Efforts are being made to evacuate the building, which houses several corporate offices and headquarters of the Apeejay Surendra Group. "Initially, light smoke was seen around 11 am, but by 11.30 flames were seen gushing out of windows with thick black smoke," eyewitnesses said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Dilbag Singh Monday exhorted upon the officers of the state police to give attention to "neutralising terrorism" and timely "disposal of crime cases". Lauding his men for their dedication in the rescue operations launched after the recent snowfall and ensuring a smooth and hassle free 'Darbar Move'-- a practice under which the government functions six months each in Srinagar and Jammu, the DGP said whenever faced with a challenge, the state police has come out with flying colours. "The officers should give attention to disposal of crime cases, curbing the bovine and narcotics smuggling and neutralising terrorism," Singh said at a high level meeting here. Civil Secretariat - the seat of Jammu and Kashmir government, Raj Bhavan and other offices reopened here after functioning for six months in Srinagar during the summer season. The DGP impressed upon the officers to continue their good work and also hailed their contribution as first responders. "Police personnel have to help the people sometimes at the cost of their own comforts," he said, advising the officers to work on the positions with more dedication. After paying homage to police martyrs at a memorial here in the morning, the DGP reached police headquarters and received a ceremonial guard of honour. "All wings are important and all jobs designated for the respective posts are important," Singh said and impressed upon the officers to strengthen the jawans of the state police, as strong and capable constables will make the force stronger. He asked the officers to conduct formal inspections of police stations and administrative inspections of the offices. The DGP further highlighted that work was on to modernize the force and provide housing infrastructure, equipment and training to its personnel. "Police is working on modernisation and up-gradation of police control room Jammu and other units," he said, adding efforts would be made to strengthen the city, highway and border grid. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Joining the chorus for Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S B Shashank's ouster, former Mizoram chief secretary Lalfak Zuala on Monday said the senior poll official was wrong in "working against Principal Secretary (home) Lalnunmawia Chuaungo". NGO Coordination Committee, an umbrella body of major civil societies and student organisations, had sought Shashank's exit from the state, shortly after the Election Commission (EC) removed principal secretary-level state officer Lalnunmawia Chuaungo. Shashank had complained to the EC that Chuaungo was interfering with the poll process. He also hinted at intrusion in electoral roll revision and deployment of central armed police forces (CAPF) in the state. Elections to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly are scheduled to be held on November 28. Lalfak Zuala, who is also a senior member of Zoram People's Forum (ZPM), said the CEO should have complained against the state government to the EC, as Chuaungo had taken the decision in coordination with the top officials. "Chuango must have consulted the state chief secretary, the home minister and the chief minister before making a move. That is usually how the state administration functions," he asserted. The subject of law and order is also in the hands of the state government, Zuala said. "The number of CAPF personnel to be deployed during the election should be determined by the state as the home department officials and the DGP are the right people to assess the requirement. "It was wrong on the part of the CEO to work against Chuaungo" he added. Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawala wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate removal of state Shashank to ensure "smooth conduct of the November 28 elections". He said people of Mizoram have lost faith in the CEO after he complained to the EC about Chuaungo. Shashank, on his part, said he was fulfilling his responsibilities in accordance with EC mandate. Talking about his fallout with Chuaungo, the CEO said he had issued a statement to the District Election Officers (DEO) and Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) on September 11 to notify that "identification slips could be used as valid documents by eligible Bru migrants in Tripura". Chuaungo, however, issued another order on September 13, asking the Bru refugees to refrain from using the identification slips, except for the purpose of repatriation, Shashank said. Thousands of people of the Bru tribe were forced to leave Mizoram and move to tripura after ethnic violence in the state in 1997. The CEO also alleged that the principal secretary and Mizoram Chief Secretary Arvind Ray did not issue any clarification on the September 13 order, despite the EC's instructions. "As the state chief electoral officer, it is my duty to intimate the EC about the developments. I can only hope that the civil societies will understand my position. I am sorry if I have hurt anybody," he told reporters. NGO Coordination Committee, however, sought Shashank's exit at the earliest and issued a statement to say it would picket the state election office from Tuesday. In the past, too, the civil society organisations had opposed the Election Commission's decision to conduct electoral revision of Bru voters in Tripura relief camps. They urged the EC to defranchise all Bru voters who chose to stay back in Tripura and did not return to Mizoram. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Islanders on the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia have rejected independence in a referendum that revealed weaker-than-expected support for Paris in the resource-rich and strategic outpost. On the final count, 56.4 per cent of people rejected the proposition that New Caledonia - some 18,000 kilometres (11,000 miles) from the French mainland - become independent. Turnout was high at 80.63 per cent on Sunday. President Emmanuel Macron expressed his "immense pride that we have taken this historic step together" in an address to the nation, adding it was "a sign of confidence in the French republic, in its future and its values." The island is home to a quarter of the world's known supplies of nickel - a vital electronics component - and is a foothold for France in the Pacific where China is gaining influence. But the winning margin in New Caledonia, sometimes referred to in France as "the pebble", might cause some concern in Paris, as well as in Australia which has been alarmed by Beijing's designs in the Pacific and its investment in island nations. Polls beforehand had forecast an emphatic 63-75 percent of New Caledonians would vote "no" when asked if the archipelago should "attain full sovereignty and become independent". Under a 1998 deal called the Noumea Accord to devolve powers to the territory, two further votes on independence can be held by 2022 - a right independence leaders look set to invoke. "We're a short step away from victory and there are still two votes to come," Alosio Sako, head of the separatist movement FLNKS, said after the results were announced. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe arrived on the island Monday where he will meet political forces on both sides of the independence vote to discuss the future of the territory. As well as being home to French troops and being a source of nickel, the territory gives France a large, exclusive economic zone in the Pacific and rich fishing resources. Macron visited island in May but largely stayed clear of the campaign. However, he has raised concerns over increasing Chinese influence in the Pacific, where Beijing has invested heavily in Vanuatu, a territory which broke from France and Britain in 1980. Accusing the US of "turning its back on the region in recent months", Macron said China was "building its hegemony step by step" - suggesting an independent New Caledonia could be Beijing's next target. During visits to New Delhi and Canberra since taking power last year, Macron has talked up France's Pacific presence to propose an axis of democratic Asian maritime powers that would include India and Australia. There were fears that the referendum in New Caledonia could inflame tensions between indigenous Kanak people, who tend to favour independence, and the white population which has settled since France annexed the islands in 1853. Several cars were burned and a couple of incidents of stone-throwing were reported late Sunday, local authorities said, but the vote was otherwise peaceful. Tensions in New Caledonia boiled over into ethnic strife in the 1980s which claimed more than 70 lives. That led to the 1998 Noumea Accord which paved the way for a steady devolution of powers, as well as Sunday's referendum and possibly two others before 2022. In recent years, France has faced protests and calls for independence in several of its overseas territories, which are a legacy of the country's colonial history and are sometimes dubbed "the confetti of the French empire". French Guiana in South America and the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte have been rocked by major protests over living standards and perceived neglect. Closer to home, the Paris government also faces renewed calls for independence from nationalists on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, which have been rebuffed by Macron. Separatists had urged Kanak voters to choose self-determination for Kanaky, their name for New Caledonia, and throw off the shackles of the "colonial" authorities in Paris. The Kanak community is economically disadvantaged compared with the white population and plagued by high school dropout rates, chronic unemployment and poor housing conditions. But indigenous people make up less than 50 per cent of the electorate and some Kanaks back staying part of France, not least due to the 1.3 billion euros (USD 1.5 billion) the French state hands to the islands every year. Going it alone, "I'm not sure we have all the assets we'd need to succeed," said Marc Gnipate, a 62-year-old pensioner. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) France has issued international arrest warrants for three senior Syrian intelligence officials in connection with the deaths of two Franco-Syrian nationals, legal sources said Monday. The warrants, which target National Security Bureau director Ali Mamluk and two others, were issued for "complicity in acts of torture", "complicity in crimes against humanity" and "complicity in war crimes". The warrants were issued on October 8, but made public only on Monday, according to the International Federation for Human Rights advocacy group (FIDH). The other high-ranking officials are Jamil Hassan, head of the Syrian air force's intelligence agency, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, in charge of the air force intelligence's investigative branch at the Mezzeh military airport in Damascus. They are wanted in connection with the disappearance of Mazen and Patrick Dabbagh, a father and son, who were arrested in November 2013 and who went missing after being detained in the Mezzeh detention centre, according to the FIDH. They were officially declared dead this summer. In June, the German weekly Spiegel reported that German prosecutors had also issued an international arrest warrant for Jamil Hassan on charges he oversaw the torture and murder of hundreds of detainees. In both Germany and France, investigations have touched on evidence provided by "Caesar", a former Syrian police photographer who fled his country in 2013 taking 55,000 photographs of tortured detainees with him, legal sources said in France. The German federal prosecutor's office declined to comment at the time. Clemence Bectarte, a lawyer and coordinator for the FIDH, said Monday that the latest warrants "demonstrate that the wall of impunity surrounding Syrian officials at the highest level can indeed be broken". "This is an unprecedented step towards justice for the Dabbagh family and towards recognition -- by independent judges -- of the atrocities perpetrated against detainees by the Syrian regime," she and Patrick Baudouin, a lawyer for the family, said in a statement. According to the FIDH, the three officials could be put on trial in France, regardless or whether the arrest warrants were executed, under a process of "extraterritorial jurisdiction" which can be applied to crimes against humanity. More than 350,000 people are believed to have been killed in the seven-year Syrian war, which started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011. According to the FIDH, between 250,000 and a million civilians have also been arrested and detained by government forces and affiliated militias since the start of the protests. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior diplomat Gaddam Dharmendra has been appointed India's Ambassador to Iran, the Ministry of External Affairs announced Monday. Dharmendra, a 1990-batch Indian Foreign Service officer and at present, additional secretary in the MEA here, will replace Saurabh Kumar, who was appointed India's ambassador to Myanmar last month. Dharmendra is expected to take up the assignment shortly, it said. His appointment comes at a time when the global focus is on oil imports from Iran as the US on Monday imposed "the toughest ever" sanctions aimed at altering the Iranian regime's "behaviour". India and China are believed to be among the eight countries that have been given the rare temporary exemptions from the Iranian sanctions. The MEA also concurrently accredited Nina Tshering La, currently Indian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Congo, with residence in Kinshasa. She is expected to take up the assignment shortly, the MEA said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Germany's interior minister on Monday forced out domestic spy chief Hans-Georg Maassen, whose controversial comments about racist far-right protesters threw Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government into crisis. Maassen, 55, was pushed into early retirement -- rather than into another government post as earlier planned -- after he exacerbated the controversy by blaming "radical left-wing forces" in Merkel's coalition government for his troubles. Maassen had also criticised Merkel's "naive" immigration policy in a Warsaw farewell speech last month to fellow heads of European domestic intelligence organisations, it emerged at the weekend. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who had long defended Maassen, told a press conference Monday that the spy chief's latest comments were "unacceptable" and had left him "personally disappointed". Seehofer, himself under pressure over the row and over poor regional election results in Bavaria state last month, said he had asked German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to retire Maassen into inactive status. Maassen -- according to a transcript of his Warsaw speech published by the Bild and Sueddeutsche dailies -- had said he could imagine switching "to business or politics" after quitting the leadership of the BfV security agency. The Maassen dispute centred on controversial comments he made that played down the severity of far-right racist mob violence in the eastern city of Chemnitz in late August that shocked Germany and the world. Merkel deplored the xenophobic unrest, but Maassen soon contradicted her and questioned whether any "hunting down" of foreigners had taken place, and whether amateur video footage of the confrontations had been fake. While his comments were cheered by the far right, the three opposition parties and the Social Democrats (SPD) demanded he be fired for meddling in politics -- sparking a row within the Merkel coalition government that lasted for weeks. That infighting was partially blamed for poor state election results that led Merkel to announce last week that she would not stand again for the leadership of her Christian Democrats, marking the beginning of the end of her reign. Maassen, who had been due to move to a top bureaucrat's post in Seehofer's interior ministry, had in his Warsaw speech defended his initial assessment that no "hunting down" of foreigners took place in Chemnitz. "I have seen a lot of German media manipulation and Russian disinformation," he said in his address. "But to see politicians and the media freely invent 'hunts', or at least to spread this misinformation without checking it, to me represented a new step in false reporting in Germany. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) / -- GRUH Finance Ltd. FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE HALF YEAR ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 The Board of Directors of GRUH Finance Ltd. (GRUH) - a subsidiary of HDFC Ltd. - has approved the accounts for the half year ended September 30, 2018 at their meeting held in Mumbai on October 29th, 2018. FINANCIAL RESULTS Profit after tax for the half-year amounted to Rs. 220.43 crores as compared to Rs. 183.50 crores for the previous year - an increase of 20%. Highlights of Operational Performance (Rs. in crore) Details Sept 30, 2018 Sept 30, 2017 Growth (%) Net Interest Margin 349 314 11 Non-Interest Expenses 60 54 12 Profit After Tax 220 184 20 Loan Portfolio The loan portfolio as at September 30, 2018 amounted to Rs. 16,663 crores as against Rs. 14,271 crores in the previous year - an increase of 17%. LENDING OPERATIONS Loan Disbursements Loan disbursements during the period were Rs. 2,738 crores as against Rs. 2,483 crores in the previous year indicating a growth of 10%. Cumulative loan disbursements as of September 30, 2018 were Rs. 31,194 crores. Provisions for Expected Credit Losses As per requirement of Ind AS 109 on "Financial Instruments", provision for credit losses are to be carried in the Balance Sheet based on expected credit losses. Accordingly, as per Ind AS 109, GRUH is required to carry provisions of Rs. 49.91 crores towards expected future credit losses on Loan Assets of Rs. 16,663 crores. Against that, GRUH is actually carrying a provision of Rs. 129.03 crores as on September 30, 2018. DEPOSITS GRUH's deposit portfolio has increased to Rs. 1,515 crores, from Rs. 1,412 crores as at September 30, 2017. GRUH's Fixed Deposit programme is rated "AAA" by CRISIL and ICRA. The rating of "AAA" indicates that the degree of safety of repayment and principal is very strong. GRUH's Short Term borrowings including Commercial Paper (CP) and short term NCD's is rated "A1(+)" by CRISIL and ICRA and GRUH's Long Term Debt and Sub Ordinate Debt programmes are rated AAA by both rating agencies viz. CRISIL and ICRA. RETAIL NETWORK GRUH has a network of 194 retail offices across 11 states of the country. GRUH has 48 offices in Gujarat, 51 offices in Maharashtra, 17 offices in Karnataka, 32 offices in Madhya Pradesh, 13 offices in Rajasthan, 12 offices in Chhattisgarh, 12 offices in Tamil Nadu, 5 offices in Uttar Pradesh, 2 offices in West Bengal and one each in Jharkhand and Bihar. For more information, please visit: http://www.gruh.com Source: GRUH Finance Ltd. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Congress corporator has alleged that he was Sunday kidnapped by BJP's Gandhinagar mayoral candidate's husband due to which he could not vote in the polls Monday. The BJP's Rita Patel and Congress' Pinky Patel are pitted against each for the post of mayor of the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation. The Congress has 15 members in the GMC against the BJP's 17. Speaking to reporters Monday, Congress corporator Ankit Barot claimed that Ketan Patel, husband of BJP's Rita Patel, and another person were behind his abduction as he had refused to shift allegiance to the BJP. Barot returned to Gandhinagar Monday after voting for the post of mayor and deputy mayor was completed. "I was kidnapped by Ketan Patel who took me in a vehicle on the pretext of meeting the local MLA in connection with the mayoral poll. I was then handed over to a group of people who took me to a farmhouse, snatched my mobile phone and threatened me with a revolver," Barot told reporters. Barot claimed he was then taken from the farmhouse to a place on the Madhya Pradesh border. Speaking on the issue, Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police Mayur Chavda said, "Barot met me and said that one Ketan Patel and another person known to him kidnapped him on Sunday." "Barot has said that he was handed over to persons unknown to him who took him to a farm house, before being taken to another place in the early hours of Monday," the SP added. Chavda said that Barot had told police that the kidnappers dropped him near Gandhinagar Monday. He added that a case was in the process of being registered. Ashok Patel, former BJP MLA and relative of Rita Patel, said that they were ready to face any investigation, adding that Barot has levelled charges against them at the behest of the Congress. Meanwhile, the election of mayor and deputy mayor was held Monday amid ruckus created by Congress corporators over Barot's absence. The Gujarat High Court, in an earlier order, stated that the results of Monday's polls should not be declared and it be handed over to the court in a sealed cover. The HC is hearing a petition challenging the election of previous mayor Pravin Patel, who had shifted from Congress to BJP. The matter will come up for hearing on November 22, and the mayoral poll result will be handed over to HC on that day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unidentified gunmen on Monday opened fire from a car and killed a police officer, his driver and guard in Sheikhupura district of Pakistan's Punjab province. Station House Officer (SHO) Zahid Mehmood was travelling from his home to Lahore when the gunmen opened fire on his car, police said. The SHO's driver and guard died on the spot while Mehmood succumbed to injuries on the way to hospital. The attackers fled the site after the attack. Police have erected district-wide blockades and initiated a search operation to arrest the suspected attackers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Sonali Kulkarni says she is honoured and humbled that good work is coming her way in the Marathi film industry where the story is the hero of a film. Sonali will next be seen in "Madhuri", which is backed by Bollywood actor Urmila Matondkar and her husband Mohsin Akhtar. "I am extremely happy. Sometimes we say 'I'd like to be in his or her shoes' but I feel I want to remain in my shoes. There are such good roles coming my way and I'm getting to work with wonderful directors. In Marathi cinema, story is the hero and the story here is amazing," Sonali told reporters. She was speaking at the trailer launch of the film. At the event, the actor said Urmila played a pivotal role in bringing her to the project. "Sometimes you wonder what will happen next after you have done a film where you have enjoyed the process. But in this one, the process was so much fun. I am thankful to Urmila for casting me. She had a lot of options and I'm so much in awe of her. I am happy to be 'Madhuri'" she said. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Swapna Waghmare Joshi, the film also features Subodh Bhave, Sharad Kelkar and Sanhita Joshi in pivotal roles. Sonali, who is known for her performance in films like "Dil Chahta Hai", "Singham", "Deool", "The Good Road" and "Kaccha Limbu", says she never differentiates between a male and a female director as on set everything is gender neutral. "I've worked with a variety of women directors but I feel really nice when you don't realise one is a female director. A director is a director, you shouldn't sense the gender while working. I am so happy I worked with her (Swapna). She keeps everyone relaxed and the mood is reflected on screen," Sonali said. The film will mark Urmila's debut as a producer and presenter and the actor says "Madhuri" was the perfect project for her. "People are venturing into Marathi cinema because somewhere they have this faith that there are several variety of roles, scripts and subjects in Marathi cinema. We have such rich literature, culture, that we are used to watching and reading good work. I am so proud of this fact," Urmila added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Describing ropeways potential in India as "goldmine", Union Minister Nitin Gadkari Monday urged Austrian firm Doppelmayr Group to tap the huge opportunities that the country offers. Doppelmayr, the world's leading manufacturer of ropeways, has installed 60 per cent of global ropeways. Port Rail Connectivity Corporation (PRCC) has identified 100 spots where ropeways will be beneficial, the road transport minister Gadkari said while addressing an event after signing a pact between Austria's Doppelmayr and India's WAPCOS for end to end solutions for passenger ropeway projects. Besides, he said JNPT was going for tender for a ropeway project. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new India vision can be actualised through this transport revolution," he said and urged Doppelmayer to follow 'Make in India' policy. "I will request you should take initiative to manufacture all types of material here under Make In India... This is going to reduce the cost" Gadkari termed ropeways as innovating transport system that can revolutionise traffic solutions especially in hilly states like Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh besides tier II and III cities. "I will suggest this is a goldmine (ropeways and other such systems) given population increase. Technology is economically viable ...It has huge potential. Power is available here. "Port Rail Connectivity Corporation is there. They are doing railway line works worth Rs 40,000 crore. They can also mandate this. State governments can go on nomination basis...There are various options provided by the company right from ropeways to funicular railway, aerial tramway, Gondolas and cables," Gadkari said. Describing ropeways as a revolutionary concept for most hilly areas, Gadkari said Uttrakhand has come with a proposal for its installation of 10 places which will be looked into, provided the state offered land clearances and other regulatory clearances. He said for villages and cities with 5-8 lakh population, it wad need of the hour and would not only battle pollution in tier II and III cities besides metropolises but also cut down on India's huge crude import bills to the tune of Rs 8 lakh crore per annum. He said ropeways will revolutionalise the transport sector as its cost was about 50 crore per km as compared to Rs 350 crore for metro and hydro power is available besides electricity. Such innovative technologies were badly needed in India, given 22 per cent annual growth in automobile and aviation sectors, he said, adding that to cater to the spurt of automobiles, a separate highway lane would not cost less than Rs 88,000 crore which was unviable. Gadkari said, this is a historical day as it will change the face of urban transport in the country. Cable cars and ropeways have already proven to be successful in Bolivia, Vietnam, Switzerland and many other countries. The government is exploring the use of new kinds of vehicles like hybrid aeroboats that combine land, water and aviation technology and can run on land, water and air at speeds greater than 80 km per hour. The minister also informed that ten National Waterways, including Ganga, are being developed for transport. It will soon be possible to carry goods from Varanasi to right up to Bangladesh and the northeastern states on waterways. He said it took almost two years to reach the agreement with Doppelmayr as discussions were started during his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Michael Doppelmayr, Chairman of the Group, said the technology has relevance for India and has done extensive work right from Switzerland to Nigeria. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by RK Gupta, MD, WAPCOS and Vikram Singhal, MD and CEO, Dappelmayr India. The MoU will enable development of ropeway projects in various states using globally accepted standards for passenger safety and reliability. According to the agreement, WAPCOS and Doppelmayr will jointly conduct feasibility studies, prepare detailed project reports for installation of cable cars with a view to provide modern transport solutions for decongestion and last mile connectivity for urban areas and hilly and difficult terrains. The Austrian company has set up about 15,000 ropeway installations across the world and the UN Habitat has also tied up with it to address the urban decongestion at global level. WAPCOS, a state-owned entity, is an Indian multinational with footprints across the globe. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India, China and Japan are among eight countries temporarily exempted from the US sanctions for buying Iranian oil as they showed significant reduction in oil purchase from the Persian Gulf country after the Trump administration reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday. Pompeo vowed that the US will be "relentless" in pressuring Iran as he announced the list of the countries temporarily exempted from the sanctions during a press conference broadcast live. Italy, Greece, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey also figure in the list released by Pompeo. The US on Monday imposed "the toughest ever" sanctions on a defiant Iran aimed at altering the Iranian regime's "behaviour". The sanctions cover Iran's banking and energy sectors and reinstate penalties for countries and companies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere that do not halt Iranian oil imports. While the US had previously wanted countries including India to completely halt oil purchases from Iran by November 4, it seems to have relented considering the havoc the move to completely take out Iranian supplies from the market would have had on prices. India, the world's third-biggest oil consumer, meets more than 80 per cent of its oil needs through imports. Iran is its third-largest supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia and meets about 10 per cent of total needs. Currently, India pays its third largest oil supplier in euros using European banking channels. In May, President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) terming it as disastrous". Under the Obama-era deal, involving five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, Iran agreed to stop its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. After the US' withdrawal from the deal, Trump signed fresh sanctions against Iran and warned countries against any cooperation with Tehran over its controversial nuclear weapons programme. Iran has dismissed these charges and maintains that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. Iranian oil is a lucrative buy for refiners as the Persian Gulf nation provides 60 days of credit for purchases, terms not available from suppliers of substitute crudes -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Nigeria, and the US. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India on Monday extended a new line of credit of USD 215.16 million for 18 water projects in landlocked Malawi and signed three MoUs in areas like extradition and cooperation in atomic energy as Vice President Venkaiah Naidu met Malawian President Arthur Peter Mutharika here. During the meeting between the two leaders, India also offered specialised training programmes for Malawi defence forces, T S Tirumurti, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs, said. An MoU on cooperation in the field of atomic energy for peaceful purposes was signed between the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership and Malawi's Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, he said. The two sides also signed an MoU for an extradition treaty between the two countries and a visa waiver agreement for diplomatic and official passport holders, Tirumurti said. "The Vice President also conveyed our agreement to extend the new line of credit of USD 215.16 million for 18 water projects in Malawi," he said. India will also construct a Mahatma Gandhi Convention Centre in Malawi. It will also gift a cancer treatment machine to the Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi. India has agreed to allow import of mangoes from Malawi, Tirumurti said, adding that the country will also set up a pan-African training institute in agriculture under grant assistance in the landlocked nation. Malawi has also ratified the framework agreement of the International Solar Alliance, he said. Naidu arrived here on Sunday on the concluding leg of his six-day three-nation tour to Africa, which aims at deepening India's strategic cooperation with Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Underling that India and Malawi shared cordial relations and a similar colonial past, Naidu recalled the India visit of former Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika, who was also the brother of the current head of the African nation. Bingu, an economist, was the president of Malawi from May 2004 till his death on April 2012. He was also an alumnus of the Delhi University, where he studied in the 1960s. Mutharika said he consider Naidu "as a brother". Naidu reached here on Sunday from Harare on the last leg of his six-day three-nation tour to Africa, which aims at deepening India's strategic cooperation with Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi. He concluded the trip on Monday. On Sunday, addressing a gathering of the Indian community here, Naidu said the strong bilateral ties between the two nations are cemented by a common vision of developing the citizenry. According to the Indian Embassy here, there are about 8,500 Malawians of Indian origin who predominantly originated from Gujarat and are concentrated in major cities like Lilongwe, Blantyre, Limbe, Zomba and Mzuzu. The number of Indian nationals (NRIs) in the African country at present is about 2,500. Most of them hail from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. They are primarily engaged in trading, agriculture and agro business, pharmaceutical and hospitality. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Malawi on Monday signed three MoUs on extradition, cooperation in atomic energy and visa waiver for diplomats and officials as Vice President Venkaiah Naidu met Malawian President Arthur Peter Mutharika and held wide-ranging talks here. During the meeting between the two leaders, India also offered specialised training programmes for Malawi defence forces, T S Tirumurti, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs, said. An MoU on cooperation in the field of atomic energy for peaceful purposes was signed between the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership and Malawi's Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, he said. The two sides also signed an MoU for an extradition treaty between the two countries and a visa waiver agreement for diplomatic and official passport holders, Tirumurti said. "The Vice President also conveyed our agreement to extend the new line of credit of USD 215.16 million for 18 water projects in Malawi," he said. India will also construct a Mahatma Gandhi Convention Centre in Malawi. It will also gift a cancer treatment machine to the Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi. India has agreed to allow import of mangoes from Malawi, Tirumurti said, adding that the country will also set up a pan-African training institute in agriculture under grant assistance in the landlocked nation. Malawi has also ratified the framework agreement of the International Solar Alliance, he said. Naidu arrived here on Sunday on the concluding leg of his six-day three-nation tour to Africa, which aims at deepening India's strategic cooperation with Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Underling that India and Malawi shared cordial relations and a similar colonial past, Naidu recalled the India visit of former Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika, who was also the brother of the current head of the African nation. Bingu, an economist, was the president of Malawi from May 2004 till his death on April 2012. He was also an alumnus of the Delhi University, where he studied in the 1960s. Mutharika said he consider Naidu "as a brother". On Sunday, addressing a gathering of the Indian community here, Naidu said the strong bilateral ties between the two nations are cemented by a common vision of developing the citizenry. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India's pavilion at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai on Monday showcased key areas like pharmaceuticals, IT, and tourism and services, to enable the country to gain market access in China as part of New Delhi's efforts to bridge the large trade deficit with Beijing. The CIIE was inaugurated by President Xi Jinping on Monday and is expected to attract a large number of Chinese importers. Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan visited and inaugurated the India country pavilion. Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan had invited India to participate in the event, an Indian Embassy press release said. The commerce ministry in consultation with the embassy in Beijing decided to showcase areas where India has proven strength with significant global presence, and has good prospects for further market access in China, the release said. India's country pavilion has focused on sectors such as food and agro products, pharmaceuticals, IT and IT-enabled services (ITES), and tourism and services sector, it said. These four areas represent a very minuscule Indian presence in China, contrary to India's strength and overall global presence, it said. China is India's largest trading partner with total trade expected to hit the USD 100 billion mark in the near future. Both countries have expressed a resolve to address India's concerns regarding the large trade deficit with China, the release said. The Indian government is consistently making sincere efforts to promote India's exports to China, it said. This has been achieved through various bilateral meetings at the government level and continuous engagement of Indian businessmen with China, it said. Recently, the Indian mission in Beijing and consulates in Shanghai and Guangzhou had organised a series of business promotion and buyer-seller meets covering products like sugar, tea, rice, oil meals, pharmaceuticals which received encouraging participation from Chinese importers, it said. The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) is the lead agency for the India country pavilion in CIIE along with other stakeholders like tourism ministry, NAFED, Pharmexcil, Electronics and Software Export Promotion Council and others to showcase India's strength in these diverse areas. The consulate general of India in Shanghai has also extended all local support for the event, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India's plastics exports posted a growth of 31.6 per cent at USD 4.59 billion during the period April - September 2018 (H12018-19) as against USD 3.48 billion in same period during H1 2017-18, registering a faster pace of growth than the overall merchandise export growth from India, as per the Plastics Export Promotion Council (Plexconcil). During H1 2018-19, India reported merchandise exports worth USD 164.04 billion, up 12.5 per cent from USD 145.75 billion in H1 2017-18. According to Plexconcil, plastics formed 2.80 per cent of India's overall merchandise exports in H12018-19. The growth in India's plastics export has been primarily boosted by higher shipment of plastic raw materials, plastic sheet, film, plates, and packaging materials. During H1 2018-19, 23 out of the top 25 destination countries recorded year-on-year growth in plastics export from India. Exports to China, Vietnam and Mexico witnessed high growth rates ranging between 70-140 per cent during the H1 2018-19 period, association said in a statement here. "China, United States and United Arab Emirates continue to be top-3 destinations for India's plastics products. These three countries accounted for 27.5 per cent of India's plastics product exports, by value, during H1 2018-19. And we added new destination countries for plastics export which includes French Guiana, Guam, Kiribati Republic, Lesotho, Marshall Island, Mayotte, Monaco, Nauru Republic and United States Virgin Islands," Plexconcil chairman Ravish B Kamath said. "In the first half of 2018-19, the trend in plastic exports from India has been very positive with a strong year-on-year growth vis-a-vis 2017-18 with August 2018 topping USD 800 million and registering 38.1 per cent y-o-y growth. India's plastics exports in H1 2018-19 were boosted by higher exports, especially to North-East Asia, Africa, European Union, Asean, South Asia, and North America," Plexconcil executive director Sribash Dasmohapatra said. "Having achieved a superior growth in H1 2018-19, we are confident of surpassing our export target of USD 10.6 billion in 2018-19 for products under the purview of our council. We laud the government's support and outreach initiative for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector that was unveiled recently. Since MSMEs form the backbone of our economy, the initiatives in the form of easier access to credit of upto Rs 1 crore within 59 minutes, and increase in interest rebate from 3 to 5 per cent for exporters, among others are steps in the right direction," Kamath said. The country's plastics industry offers potential in terms of capacity, infrastructure and skilled manpower. India is currently ranked among the top five consumers of polymers in the world and has 30,000 plus plastic processing units employing over four million (40 lakh) people across the country, the release said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A ceremonial border personnel meeting (BPM) on the occasion of Diwali was held Monday between Indian and Chinese Army delegations on the Indian side of the border at Chushul in the Ladakh region. "A BPM was held on the occasion of Diwali at the Indian BPM huts at Chushul-Moldo and DBO-TWD in eastern Ladakh Monday," a defence spokesman said. He added that the Indian delegations were led by Brigadier VK Purohit and Colonel SS Lamba and the Chinese delegations by Senior Colonel Yin Hong Chen and Colonel Song Zhang Li. The ceremonial BPM was marked by the lighting of traditional lamps by the delegation leaders, followed by their ceremonial address, the defence spokesman said. He added that both sides highlighted the peace, tranquillity and understanding prevailing on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). A cultural programme showcasing the vibrant Indian culture was held with traditional grandeur, the defence spokesman said, adding that the delegations interacted with each other in a free, congenial and cordial environment and parted amidst feelings of friendship and commitment towards enhancing the existing cordial relations between both sides. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian companies are participating in the China International Import Expo at Shanghai to showcase their potential in areas like agro products, pharmaceuticals, IT, tourism and services sector, the commerce ministry said Monday. "The Ministry of Commerce, in consultation with the Embassy of India in Beijing decided to showcase areas where India has proven strength with significant global presence, and there are good prospects for further market access in China," it said in a statement. India's pavilion has focussed on key sectors such as food, agro products, pharmaceuticals, IT & ITES, tourism and services sector. "These four areas represent very minuscule Indian presence in China contrary to India's strength and overall global presence," it added. It said that China is India's largest trading partner with a total trade expecting to reach USD 100 billion mark in near future. Both countries have expressed a resolve to address India's concern regarding large trade deficit with China, it added. The bilateral trade stood at USD 89.71 billion in 2017-18. The trade deficit increased to USD 63.12 billion in 2017-18 as against USD 51.11 billion in the previous fiscal. India has time and again raised the concern on widening trade gap with China and has asked the authorities of the neighbouring country to provide greater market access for its product to bring down the deficit. "Government of India is consistently making sincere efforts to promote its exports to China," it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The British Council has opened the latest round of scholarships for 2019-20, worth 1 million pounds, for 70 Indian women wanting to pursue a Masters degree in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the UK. Britain's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities announced the second round of the 70th Anniversary Scholarship programme last week, as Prime Minister Theresa May felicitated the previous set of 104 Indian women STEM scholars who are studying at 43 universities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in London on Friday. "Meeting the Prime Minister at her home in 10, Downing Street is an unforgettable day for our scholars," said Alan Gemmell, India Director, British Council. "The scholars' visit is a reminder of the critical importance of the educational relationship between Britain and India and that the UK welcomed 18,000 students from across India last year," he said. Gemmell described the 104 women, who comprise the 2018 British Council 70th Anniversary Scholars, as ambassadors for the future relationship between the UK and India a relationship focused on "creativity, innovation, and life-changing opportunities". More than 50 per cent of the 104 scholars from 2018 are from Tier 2 and 3 Indian cities, which the British Council said underlines its commitment towards improving access to quality education, skills and qualifications across the country, and creating opportunities for Indian women to succeed in India and globally. Sheryl Paul, British Council scholarship winner from Maharashtra who is studying for her MSc in Computer Science from University of Oxford, said, "The past year has been one of the most fulfilling years of my life. From finding out about the British Council STEM scholarships to meeting some of the most influential people across the world as a result of the scholarship, and pursuing a world-class Masters degree in the UK, it has all been great". "I aim to make the most of this opportunity and am very excited to learn that this opportunity has been extended to more Indian researchers". As part of the second edition, the British Council and some of the world's best universities located in the UK will fund full tuition scholarships worth 1 million pounds for 70 Indian women to study a Masters programme in STEM subjects for the academic year of 2019-20. Female candidates with an offer from a UK university by January 30, 2019, will be eligible to apply for this new round of scholarships. "British Council's investment in women scholars supports Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's shift to women-led development and the British Council's own focus on women and girls and UN Sustainable Development Goal 5," the British Council said in a statement. It highlighted the rising numbers of Indian students choosing the UK as a destination for higher education, with a 32 per cent hike in the number of Tier 4 (student) visas granted to Indian nationals in the year ending June, 2018. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) -FirstCall/ -- Interns rate InStep highly for opportunities to work on interesting projects, diversity and work culture Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced that its global internship program, InStep, has been ranked number 1 in the best overall internship category by Vault.com's latest survey on Top Internships for 2019. InStep, also earned the first position in the best consulting internship category, second position in the compensation and benefits category, seventh position in the quality of life and employment prospects categories and tenth position in the career development category. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg ) A fully paid international internship program, InStep annually selects around 140 students from the top 100 universities globally to work on projects across business units and business enabling functions. Interns with technical backgrounds are offered opportunities to work on real-time STEM projects in digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data, cloud computing, data security and Internet of things (IoT) among others. For the ratings, Vault surveyed more than 13,000 interns, past and present, from over 120 internship programs about their internship experiences. Respondents were asked to rate their experiences in terms of quality of life, full-time employment prospects, compensation and benefits, career development, and diversity. These ratings were averaged to determine an overall score for each program. "Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of InStep, this recognition validates our continuous effort to nurture an ecosystem that encourages and guides young talent to realize their dreams," said Pravin Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys. "Innovation is at the heart of all we do at Infosys and InStep is one of the foremost initiatives that champions this endeavor. The program aims to provide an unparalleled internship experience to students from across geographies and allows them to collaborate with experts from the industry on cutting-edge research projects." The Editors at Vault said, "Vault's internship rankings are based on the ratings of actual interns and help students identify the best internship programs. This year, above all other internship programs, Infosys InStep ranked as the best overall internship. Its interns rated the firm's internship program higher, on average, than all other participating internship programs in categories such as career development, employment prospects, and quality of life." About Vault Vault is the most comprehensive resource for employer, university, and internship program rankings, ratings and insight. Vault's influential rankings and reviews are sourced from directed surveys of professionals and students, and evaluate companies, schools, and internships in terms of prestige, best place to work, diversity, quality of life, compensation, and other categories. Vault provides users with in-depth information on employers, industries, interviews, and available jobs and internships. In addition, Vault partners with employers to help build their brands and assist with recruiting efforts, as well as with universities to help their students with employment placement and career selection. About Infosys Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over three decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. Visit http://www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this press release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018. These filings are available at http://www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran greeted the re-imposition of US sanctions on Monday with air defence drills and a statement from President Hassan Rouhani that the nation faces a "war situation," raising Mideast tensions as America's maximalist approach to the Islamic Republic takes hold. The sanctions end all economic benefits America had granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, though Iran for now continues to abide by the accord that saw it limit its enrichment of uranium. While at the moment not threatening to resume higher enrichment, Iranian officials in recent months have made a point to warn the controversial process could resume at any time, faster than before. The new American sanctions particularly hurt Iran's vital oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency for its anemic economy. Its national currency has plummeted over the last year, sending prices for everything from mobile phones to medicine skyrocketing. "Today, Iran is able to sell its oil and it will sell," Rouhani vowed Monday as the sanctions kicked in. However, the noose of American sanctions appeared to be tightening. Iranian officials, meanwhile, reported a cyberattack targeting the country's communication infrastructure, blaming the purported attack on Israel. Iranian state television aired footage of air defense systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military maneuvers underway across a vast stretch of the country's north. It included surface-to-air missiles shooting down a drone. The drill was to continue through Tuesday. Iranian army General Habibillah Sayyari said both the national army and the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard were taking part in the exercise. Rouhani, meanwhile, pledged to government officials in comments aired on state TV that Iran would overcome the sanctions. "We are in the war situation, " Rouhani said. "We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win." He further stepped up the rhetoric, comparing Iran's situation in the 1980s war against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with the current one and President Donald Trump's move to reinstate US sanctions. "Yesterday, Saddam was in front us, today Trump is front of us. There is no difference. We must resist and win," he said. Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis. Its national currency, the rial, now trades at 150,000 to one US dollar, down from when it traded around 40,500 to USD 1 a year ago. The economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year which resulted in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Sporadic demonstrations still continue. Rouhani separately said leaders from "four powers" met with Iran on the sidelines of the September meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to try to save the deal, including brokering a possible meeting with Trump. He did not name those countries, but was likely referring to China, France, Russia and Britain, which along with Germany made up the world powers involved in the 2015 nuclear deal. "This issue does not require a mediator," Rouhani said, blaming America for unilaterally pulling out of the accord. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi also predicted the sanctions will actually work against America's interests. "Many countries from Europe to Russia and China have opposed the sanctions," Ghasemi told journalists, adding that Iranians "have experienced more extensive sanctions" and that they are "not a new issue." The US says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. However, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton, the president's national security adviser, both have made public statements supporting overthrowing Iran's theocratic government. Also Monday, Iran's Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Javad Azeri Jahromi and his deputy, Hamid Fatahi, both tweeted about a cyberattack targeting the country's communications infrastructure, without elaborating. They blamed Israel for the attack and both referenced Stuxnet, which destroyed thousands of centrifuges involved in Iran's contested nuclear programme in 2011. Stuxnet is widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation, though neither country has acknowledged being behind the attack. Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the Iranian claim. Last week, General Gholam Reza Jalali, the head of country's military unit in charge of combatting sabotage, said Rouhani's cellphone was tapped recently. Israel's Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman welcomed the newly restored US sanctions, saying in a tweet that they will deal a "critical blow" to Iran's military presence around the Middle East. The Trump administration's decision to restore sanctions "is the sea change the Middle East has been waiting for," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Struggling carrier Jet Airways has commenced its flight services to Manchester in the UK from Mumbai, with the maiden flight 9W-130 taking off from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport for Manchester Monday morning. With the launch of its fifth non-stop service to/from the UK, which offers over 8,500 seats every week, Jet Airways is now the largest carrier between Mumbai and the UK, the airline said in a release. Manchester is also the 21st international destination on the carriers network, it added. The first service to Manchester, operated by an Airbus A330-200 aircraft, departed from Mumbai at 0230 hours and arrived at flight arrives at Manchesters Terminal 2 at 0755 hours (local time), Jet Airways said. "Our new 5 days-a-week non-stop service brings Manchester into our global network, expanding our footprint as well as the choice of connectivity to and from the UK. The new service will enable Jet Airways to offer over 8,500 seats every week, making it increasingly convenient for business guests, leisure travellers as well as students, to travel between India and the UK," said Raj Sivakumar, senior vice-president for worldwide sales and distribution, Jet Airways. This new service is the first non-stop service connecting India, via its economic capital with Manchester, the third largest city in the UK, the release added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The just-concluded joint military exercise between Pakistan and Russian armies has reinforced the existing relationship between the two militaries, according to Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Bajwa. The Pakistan and Russian armies concluded the third joint military drill on Sunday during which troops from both the countries took part in various exercises and also exchanged mutual counter-terrorism experiences. A Russian Army contingent arrived here on October 22 to take part in the third edition of a joint bilateral military training exercise, Druzhba-III. The two armies conducted various drills in the mountains in Nowshehra district of northwestern Pakistan till November 4, which was also witnessed by Gen Bajwa. "This exercise is great forum to reinforce existing relationship between the two militaries," the Pakistan Army Chief said. Gen Bajwa also visited the National Counter Terrorism Centre in Pabbi in Nowshehra. "The exercise focused on counter-terrorism training of the Special Operation Forces of Pakistan and Ground Forces of Russian Federation while exchanging mutual counter terrorism experiences," the Pakistan Army said, adding the Chief of Army Staff appreciated the participating troops for their dedication, skill and professionalism. Russian Deputy Head of Mission in Pakistan, Valadamir Betezyuk was also present. Pakistan and Russia are trying to bolster defence ties and in August this year they inked an agreement allowing Pakistani troops to train in Russia. The two countries have been holding the 'Friendship' drills since 2016. In October 2016, they held their first-ever joint military exercise in Pakistan. In 2017, over 200 servicemen took part in the drills, hosted by Russia at Minralney Vody in the North Caucasus at an altitude of 2,300 meters above sea level. Pakistan's defence ties with Russia have moved past the bitter Cold War hostilities in recent years and the chill in the relations between Pakistan and the US has further pushed the country towards Russia and China. Over the past three years, Russia has supplied four Mi-35M combat and cargo helicopters to Pakistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP Kerala unit chief P S Sreedharan Pillai courted a controversy Monday as TV channels aired a video clip in which he purportedly said that Sabarimala temple chief priest consulted him before threatening the closure of the shrine if women in 10-50 age group entered it. As his remarks at a BJP Yuva morcha event in Kozhikode Sunday drew strong reactions from the CPI(M)-led ruling LDF and opposition Congresss, Pillai, an advocate practicing in the Kerala High Court, said the priest had called him seeking a legal clarification, which he had given. Several people come to him for legal consultations, he said. At the height of dramatic protests against entry of women of menstrual age into the Lord Ayyappa shrine, Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru had on October 19 threatened to shut the sanctum sanctorum if two young women, then escorted by police, were allowed to reach the 'Sannidhanam' (temple complex). Police later escorted back the two women, including an activist, who attempted to enter the temple after the Supreme Court allowed women of all age groups to offer prayers. The BJP and Congress have opposed the CPI(M)-led LDF government's decision to implement the apex court order and not to seek a review of it as demanded by various quarters. In the video, Pillai was purportedly heard saying the priest had consulted him on whether closing the Ayyappa temple if women try to enter the temple would lead to contempt of court. Pillai had said he assured the tantri that there would be no contempt and thousands of believers were with him. "Sabarimala issue is a golden opportunity for us," he had told the party workers, claiming that the agitation was "BJP's agenda". During October 17-22 when the temple opened for monthly puja, the first time after the apex court verdict, devotees and right wing activists staged protests and prevented around 12 women in the 10-50 age group from entering the shrine. Slamming Pillai for his remarks, CPI(M) state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said it was a serious matter and demanded a high-level probe into what he called "all conspiracies" related to Sabarimala and the stand taken by the BJP. The agitation was "well planned" by BJP and the fact that the party could "influence" the priest was "serious", he said. Industries Minister E P Jayarajan accused the BJP of using the tantri and other priests for creating trouble at Sabarimala. Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said the real agenda of BJP had been exposed through the video. The issue surfaced on a day when the temple opens for a special puja to be performed Tuesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Kerala government has declared its resolve to enforce the Supreme Court's order on women's entry into Sabarimala temple, but it deployed only policewomen over 50 years of age at the shrine when it opened Monday, a move welcomed by both the Congress and the BJP. The two parties are up in arms against the Left Front government for its decision not to file a review petition against the apex court's order lifting the ban on entry of girls and women between 10 and 50 years of age into the shrine. Officials said only women personnel who were not in the menstruating age group have been deployed for security inside the temple complex while those younger are stationed along the route from Nilackal base camp to Pamba, from where the pilgrims trek 5 km to the temple of Lord Ayyappa, its perennially celibate deity. M M Hassan, a senior Congress leader and former state unit chief of the party, said he did not find any "fault" with the government's decision and that deploying younger women at the temple complex would have "provoked" devotees. "I cannot find any fault with the government's move deploying women aged over 50 at 'Sannidhanam' (temple complex). Deploying younger women would have provoked devotees," Hassan said. Referring to the Left Front government's decision to enforce the Supreme Court order and not go for a review, he said had the government acted keeping in mind the sentiments of Ayyappa devotees the present situation would not have arisen. BJP Thiruvananthapuram district president S Suresh said only women of menopausal age should be put on duty at the shrine in keeping with its age-old traditions. At least 15 policewomen aged 50 years or more have been deployed at the 'Sannidhanam'. When asked why only policewomen over 50 years were deployed inside the temple, Inspector General of Police M R Ajith Kumar said women staff of "eligible" age from various departments were stationed at the shrine for official duty for quite some time. Large-scale protests had erupted in different parts of Kerala on October 17 when the doors of the temple had opened for the first time after the Supreme Court's landmark order. Backed by the Congress and the BJP, besides Hindu fringe groups, the protesters had fought pitched battles with police resulting in injuries to many. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar Monday hit back at Union minister Maneka Gandhi, who had slammed him for hiring private marksmen Shafat Ali Khan and his son Asgar Ali for carrying out hunting operations in the state, including the latest killing of a tigress. A day after the Union women and child development minister lashed out at the Maharashtra government over the "ghastly murder" of the tigress, Mungantiwar said she "lacks information" on the issue and was free to order a high-level probe. The tigress, officially known as T1, was believed to be responsible for the deaths of 13 people in the last two years. It was shot dead by Ali in the Borati forest in Yavatmal district Friday. The tigress left behind two 10-month-old cubs. Mungantiwar, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, claimed that Khan was tasked with shooting a tiger in Maneka Gandhi's Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh in 2009 (Gandhi's son Varun Gandhi was representing the constituency in 2009). "Hyderabad-based sharpshooter Shafat Ali Khan was given a certificate of appreciation by the principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) of Pilibhit for killing a tiger," he told reporters at the Mantralaya here. Maneka Gandhi, the current BJP MP from Pilibhit, had alleged that Khan had killed three tigers, at least 10 leopards, elephants and 300 wild boar in Chandrapur in eastern Maharashtra. Mungantiwar hails from Chandrapur district. "He (Shafat) is a criminal known for supplying guns to anti-nationals and for a suspected case of murder in Hyderabad," the Union minister had said in a tweet. Mungantiwar said Khan's name was registered with the governments of nine states to carry out such operations. "Maneka Gandhiji has used the most derogatory comments against the state government, which has lowered the morale of the forest officials. I will write a letter to her and ask her to use national or international agencies to probe the issue and I ensure my cooperation," he added. Mungantiwar said Gandhi was a "victim of lack of information". "She could have spent 50 paise to call me up to ascertain the facts, instead of taking to the social media," he added. "Instead of lodging a complaint with the chief minister, the Union minister can order a high-level inquiry into the incident by a Supreme Court judge or a committee of Supreme Court judges," Mungantiwar said. He claimed that Maharashtra's tiger population had gone up by around 25 per cent in the last four years due to various initiatives of the state government since he took charge as the forest minister. Responding to Gandhi's charge that three tigers were killed on his orders in the past, Mungantiwar said neither he nor the forest secretary had the right to order such killings. "The tigers were killed in 1995, 2006, 2013 and 2014. I was not a minister then," he added. "After I took charge, there was one such case in 2017. Even then, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines were followed and the tiger was only tranquilised. Hence, this is only lack of information that such baseless charges are being levelled by our central leader," Mungantiwar said. Seeking to justify the killing of T1, he said a tigress was beaten to death and run over by a vehicle in an Uttar Pradesh village Sunday, after it mauled just one person. "Here, 13 persons were killed. We do not want tribals, farmers and villagers to turn enemies of wild animals. They are the ones who are actually helping in animal conservation," he said. After the killing of T1 sparked an outrage, Gandhi came out with a series of tweets Sunday. "It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing," she had said in one of the tweets. The Union minister had said she would take up the matter "very strongly" with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Mungantiwar said he acknowledged Gandhi's love for animals. "She is the minister for women and child development. (However) I have to consider the women and children who have been killed by the tigress," he said. Mungantiwar said orders to capture the tigress were issued after she had killed five people. But animal activists approached the Bombay High Court and obtained a stay, which resulted in the "man-eating" big cat killing more people, he added. "The Forest department is not the enemy of the tigress. The animal was killed only after it attacked those trying to tranquilise her," Mungantiwar said. He added that if there were criminal cases against Khan, then Gandhi, being a Union minister, could order his arrest. Meanwhile, seizing the opportunity arising out of the war of words between the two BJP ministers, the Shiv Sena took a dig at the Fadnavis government over the killing of the tigress. Recently, several farmers in Yavatmal district in the Vidarbha region lost their lives due to inhalation of toxic pesticides, but no one was punished, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, an ally of the BJP, said. "We have not seen those responsible for the deaths (of the farmers) get any punishment like the tigress was punished for killing people," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece "Saamana". The Marathi daily said the people in the state were dying due to lack of water, malnutrition, government policies and debt traps, but the administration had never been termed a "carnivore". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday claimed he has the support of 113 parliamentarians to prove the premiership of Mahinda Rajapaksa. His comments came after Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuriya earlier in the day slammed Sirisena's "unconstitutional and undemocratic" actions to sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and suspend Parliament, saying he will not recognise Rajapaksa as the new premier unless he wins a floor test. "We have already got our 113 MPs, I will not take back the step I have taken forward... have taken all steps in accordance with the constitution," Sirisena told a public rally, referring to his decision to sack Wickremesinghe. Sirisena suspended parliamentary proceedings until November 16 after abruptly firing Wickremesinghe and replacing him with Rajapaksa, a controversial former president, on October 26. The Speaker had expected parliament to reconvene on November 7. However, Sirisena Sunday issued notice to reconvene Parliament on November 14. Wickremesinghe, whose party dubbed the move a "constitutional coup", refused to vacate his official residence, saying he is the lawful prime minister and that the president has no constitutional right to replace him. The rally, attended by thousands of supporters, was the first public show of Sirisena and Rajapaksa together after the island nation plunged into a constitutional crisis. With eight United National Party and one Tamil National Alliance legislators defecting to Rajapaksa camp, he is now just eight seats short of the 'magic number' 113 to prove his majority in the 225-member House. While addressing the rally, Sirisena said before opting for Rajapaksa as his prime ministerial choice, he had offered the premiership position to Speaker Jayasuriya and deputy PM Sajith Premadasa. "However, both of them refused to challenge their leader," Sirisena said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The killing of tigress Avni was a sad incident and any procedural lapse in it would be probed, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Monday. The tigress, T1, as she was known officially, was shot Friday night by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali in compartment number 149 of Borati forest under the jurisdiction of Ralegaon Police Station in the state's Yavatmal district. Speaking to reporters here, Fadnavis said, "There is no happiness over the killing. The forest department took the decision since she had killed 13 to 14 people. There are some doubts regarding whether the tigress was first shot and then the dart inserted, this aspect will be probed." Fadnavis added that preliminary reports made available to him state the tigress was shot after she attacked the forest staff trying to tranquilise her. "We speak of increasing tiger population and conserving wildlife, and then unfortunately such a decision had to be taken. The tiger is a gentleman. He attacks only if his habitat is violated. Preliminary reports with me say the tigress attacked the forest department team and she was shot in self defence," the Maharashtra CM said. "Hunter Asghar Ali was hired by the forest department. The doubts raised regarding the killing will be verified," he added. When asked on Union Minister Maneka Gandhi's statements on the tigress' killing, Fadnavis said the former had used "harsh words". In a series of tweets on Sunday Gandhi had said, "It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, minister for forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing." Fadnavis said, "She (Maneka) has used harsh words. But her sentiments should be understood. All animal lovers' sentiments are harsh regarding this incident. It was a difficult decision. Whether the procedure was correct or not will be checked."Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar also crossed swords with Gandhi and claimed that the latter "lacked information" on the issue. "Instead of lodging a complaint with the chief minister, the Union minister (Maneka Gandhi), if she wants, can order a high-level inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge or a committee of sitting Supreme Court judges into the incident," said Mungantiwar Monday. Speaking on other issues, Fadnavis attacked the opposition for targeting his government on drought relief. "One cannot wake up those who behave as if they are asleep. Drought relief in terms of financial compensation is given after a central team makes a visit. "There are some talukas which don't appear in the list of those with severe or moderate drought but still received less than 75 percent rainfall. The state government will help them through State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF)," Fadnavis informed. He said so far 49.5 lakh farmers had benefited due to the Rs 21,000-crore farm loan waiver. Responding to a question on the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, Fadnavis said it was not an election issue for the BJP. "The matter is in public discourse now, since it is being heard in the Supreme Court and is listed for hearing in January 2019," he said. Fadnavis, speaking on the threat of water scarcity in the state, said larger reservoirs had enough water. He hit out at the opposition parties for their tirade against the state government for depletion of groundwater reserves and mocked them by stating that "water doesn't grow beneath the ground". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) His family of seven share two small, squalid rooms in a cockroach-infested Bangkok apartment. But like many Pakistani Christians living illegally in Thailand, Farooz's sharpest worry is not poverty but arrest. There is no safe return to the homeland they fled due to religious persecution, where Islamist invective surged higher last week after the release of Asia Bibi on blasphemy charges. Christians make up less than two percent of Pakistan's Muslim-majority population, but are the sporadic targets of hardline Islamists. Churches have been bombed while pernicious charges of blasphemy are easily pinned on the group, often to settle personal scores. Mass protests against last week's pardon of Asia Bibi - a Christian woman on death row since 2010 over allegations of insulting Islam - have put conditions for the minority in Pakistan back under the spotlight. It has also reminded those who fled, thousands of whom live in the shadows in Bangkok, what awaits if they return. "We cannot go back, our country does not accept us, and no other country wants to take us ... so we are trapped here in Thailand," says Farooz, who gave an alias to avoid being identified by police. Yet the minority are deprived refugee rights in Thailand, and appear increasingly unwelcome as a police crackdown takes place. Aged 15, Farooz is erudite and multi-lingual - he speaks Urdu, Punjabi, English and Thai. But neither he nor his three younger siblings have gone to school for the last five years. Instead, they are forced to pass the days inside - unable to work legally and facing the thinly-disguised scorn of their Thai neighbours. Thailand is not a signatory to UN conventions protecting refugees. But it used to be a sanctuary of sorts, where relaxed visa rules allowed entry and officials could be enticed into turning a blind eye to overstayers. Thai immigration police say they have detained dozens of the minority in recent weeks for overstaying visas or entering the country illegally. Around 70 of those detained chose voluntary repatriation - many more who were not arrested are believed to have followed. "They have decided to return to a place where animosity towards them is at its peak rather than face indefinite detention in Bangkok," says Wilson Chowdhry, of the British Pakistani Christian Association, which helps refugees in Thailand. "They will face persecution, some may be accused of blasphemy ... none have any money or property left as they sold it to get to Thailand," Chowdhry added. Pakistani-Christians in Bangkok numbered around 7,400 two years ago, advocacy groups say. Now around 3,000 remain, some registered with the UNHCR, the rest living underground. Around 1,000 were resettled to "third countries" by the UNHCR or under private sponsorship schemes. Farooz's family came to Thailand in 2013 from Gojra, in Pakistan's Punjab province, the site of a pogrom by Muslim hardliners in 2009 that resulted in seven Christians being burned to death. His father says he witnessed the murder of the Christians and subsequently became a target of death threats and unsubstantiated legal claims aimed at silencing him. The near-daily threats eventually prompted the family to leave. But in Thailand they have found themselves in an administrative bind. With their tourist visas long-expired, the family were detained by Thai authorities in an immigration sweep in 2015. They were eventually released on bail on condition they report to the police every month. That is despite the UNHCR recognising the family as refugees. But bureacracy also dogs their resettlement case. The UNHCR says it needs further documents from Pakistani authorities to put the family on the official pending list for resettlement. Yet the Pakistan Embassy in Bangkok says those documents can only be issued in the country they fled. So Farooz and his family wait it out in Thailand, reliant on charity handouts, occasional menial work and each other. Sobbing quietly, his mother says the impermanence has worn the family down. "I worry for children.. what will happen to them without education? Where will they belong?" she says. "I want to see my mother again, my family... my home. But they will kill us if we have to go back. (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 28 lakh to the wife and three children of a man who was run over by a truck in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh more than two years ago. MACT Presiding Officer Pawan Kumar Jain asked Oriental Insurance Company Limited, insurer of the offending vehicle, to pay a total of Rs 28,34,748, including interest, to the family of Satyendra within 30 days from November 1, the date of the order. "Since the offending vehicle was insured with respondent No. 2 (Oriental Insurance Company Ltd.), it is directed to deposit the award amount of Rs 23,54,000 with interest at 9 per cent per annum from the date of filing of claim petition till realisation of the amount, within 30 days," the tribunal said. It also said the owner and driver of the truck, "shall be jointly and severally liable" to pay the compensation, along with the insurance company, to the victims' kin. Ghaziabad resident Satyendra was run over by a truck near Mohan Nagar crossing on February 2, 2016 when he was on his way to work. The complainant, the victim's wife, had alleged that the truck was being driven in a rash and negligent manner. 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 the insurance company was based in Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A massive fire broke out Monday in a chemical factory in Ambernath in neighbouring Thane district, injuring four persons and forcing Central Railway to halt train services in the area as its tracks are about a 100 metres away from the site of incident. A Fire Brigade official from Ambernath MIDC said that the blaze was reported at around 2pm from the Persia Chemical Factory situated in Morivali MIDC, over 60 kilometres from here. Personnel, fire engines and tankers from fire brigade units of Ambernath, Badlapur, Kalyan and Ulhasnagar have been rushed to the site, he added. Senior Inspector K G Chavan of Ambernath police station said that four workers were injured. "There were 13 workers inside the factory at the time of fire and all started running when it broke out. The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital and are out of danger," Chavan said. He said that the fire is under control and cooling operations were underway. CR chief spokesperson Sunil Udasi informed that the Down line between Ambernath and Badlapur was shut between 3:53pm and 4:20pm as a precautionary measure due to the thick fumes emanating from the fire. One suburban train and a long-distance one were caught up on the tracks for a while due to the fire, he said, adding that no service was cancelled as yet. Senior inspector Chavan informed that a case was being registered, adding that MIDC officials and factory inspectors were on the spot. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A senior Assam police official is the latest to be caught in the ongoing #MeToo storm after he was accused of sexually harassing his junior colleague. Majuli (HQ) Additional Superintendent of Police Leena Doley has charged Additional Director General (Law and Order) Mukesh Agarwal with sexual misconduct six years back. Agarwal could not be contacted for his reaction. "I am a survivor of sexual harassment at the workplace. In the March of 2012, one of my seniors, Mukesh Agrawal, IPS, then IGP (Logistics), offered to take me on a holiday with him for the efficient work I had done," Doley wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. The police officer said she had refused and informed the DGP about it. "Anyway, a lot transpired after that - my written complaint against Mukesh Agrawal, IPS, IGP (L), Assam, now ADGP (L&O), Assam, Guwahati," she said. Doley's husband had committed suicide around six months after the complaint was lodged. "Following which, the Inquiry Officer, Ms. Emily Choudhury, IAS, the then Addl. Chief Secretary, Assam, came to my house... to assure me that it was not because of the complaint that my husband killed himself," she added. Doley wrote that she did not react as "I was beyond any reaction. But the inquiry procedures had not started till then. My case was dismissed as one of misunderstanding although the perpetrator had admitted to the fact". The perpetrator had asked "me to accompany him to a holiday destination without of course telling my husband. Also, the wife of the perpetrator filed a defamation case against me for supposedly defaming her husband". Doley eventually filed a revision petition against it in the Gauhati High Court and won the case. "I am now beyond any redemption. I only feel some kind of contentment that the case against me resulted in a judgement that complainants cannot be persecuted upon for filing a case against sexual predators," she said. Doley, a mother of two, however, rued that she had received no justice for the complaint she had filed. "The personal loss of my husband committing suicide is on a different ground. But I lost.... The Inquiry Committee concluded that it was a misunderstanding even when the perpetrator himself admitted to the fact of the allegation made by me," she added. The police officer lamented that after her experience, "no one else would come out with their stories in government departments. I'm an example. Of defeat. But still, for all of us, who have stood against it, strength to us!! #MeToo". She said it was her duty to inform everyone of the fact that "as per the Gauhati High Court judgement (in the case), defamation cases against complainants cannot be filed during pendency of the allegation". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese electrical appliance maker Midea Group will introduce Toshiba brand home appliances in Indian market, and is setting up a plant to produce them locally, a top company official said. Midea, which owns around 80 per cent stake in Toshiba Lifestyle Products and Services Corporation (TLSC), will manufacture Toshiba-range of home appliance at its Ahmednagar, Maharashtra plant, where it is investing Rs 1,350 crore over the next five years. Midea Technology Park will have three manufacturing units for home appliances, HVAC products and compressors, and will also include a manufacturing facility for Carrier Midea India, a 60:40 joint venture between Midea and Carrier. "The factory would go live in 1.5 years but the interesting fact is, there is one of the factories in the complex, that will make Toshiba brand products, which we intend to launch in India in due course. "The Toshiba factory would make home appliances such as washing machine, refrigerators, water purifier, water heater etc. This would in a phased manner and we would be launching more products in india ... bulk of the volume would be manufactured here at this factory, which would go live in April 2020," Carrier Midea India and Midea Group, India Region Managing Director Krishan Sachdev told PTI. It is planning to introduce Toshiba range of air purifier by diwali time frame this year. On being asked whether Carrier Midea would use its existing sales network and channels for Toshiba here, he said: "We Would be creating our own independent business unit for Toshiba brand products". It will leverage some of the existing business relationships to expand business network. "We would send developed, totally new platform for the Indian markets for Toshiba branded products for all categories," Midea Group Vice President Eric Wang said. In March 2016, Toshiba Corporation had announced to transfer 80.1 per cent stake in TLSC, the home appliance arm of Toshiba, at a price of approximately USD 473 million. "Presently, the company would have brand Carrier in the room Airconditioners, Midea full range from room Airconditioners to commercial Aircondition, home appliances amd Toshiba brand of appliances," Sachdev added. In India, Carrier Midea is a joint venture between UTC Climate Control & Security (UTC CC&S) and Midea Group, and has rights to manufacture and sell Carrier and Midea brand air conditioners, Midea brand home appliances and Midea brand Commercial Air Conditioners in India. The company declined to share the financial details for its India businesses. "Over the last five years, we have significantly grown ahead of the market with a CAGR of about 25 per cent from last five years. Our outlook for the next three years is to increase more than 25 per cent because we are going to introduce some significant large appliances categories in addition to others small appliances category," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As spike in air pollution levels left Delhiites breathless, experts have asked people to report violators of pollution norms to authorities and said each citizen can make a difference by minimising use private vehicles. Doctors here have also expressed concern over the rise in number of patients suffering from respiratory problems. Delhi's air quality deteriorated sharply on Monday to fall in the severe category for the second time within a week due to a change in wind direction and rampant stubble burning in neighbouring states, authorities said. "The public can play a critical role in making the ground level situation more transparent. But, we also need to be responsible by reducing our carbon footprint," executive director at the Delhi-based think-tank Centre for Science and (CSE), Anumita Roychowdhury, said. This can be done by "minimising use of our vehicles, using combine trips, shared transport, cycles and public transport or walking as much as possible, as personal responsibility will also make a difference", she said. Roychowdhury also said people's participation was absolutely critical to keep the pressure on authorities and to ensure that they are doing their job properly. "People must also keep their eyes open and report violators of pollution norms and guidelines immediately to authorities," she said. The CPCB has started a social media page and app where people can lodge complaints and report violation of norms. Dipankar Saha, former additional director and head of air quality management division at the CPCB, said, people can play a big role by reducing emissions by reducing use of private vehicles, not burning garbage and not bursting firecrackers "On Diwali, emission from industrial sector is almost zero, total emission comes either from vehicles or from fire cracker," he said. Doctors said the number of patients suffering from breathlessness and other respiratory ailments have shot up in the last few days. "The present air quality has become a threat for the people. It has become highly polluted and has passed the permissible limit of pollutant manifold. Pollution can affect almost all system in body," senior consultant and head of department, respiratory medicine, BLK Super Speciality Hospital, Sandeep Nayar, said. He said the number of patients have shot up in the last few days. "Even the severity of the disease has increased. We have a spurt of almost 20 to 30 per cent in our outdoor patient service. These patients suffer from cough, breathlessness, sneezing, fever and respiratory distress. "The Commonest ailment seen are acute severe bronchitis, upper respiratory tract infection and exacerbation of asthma," Nayar said. Puneet Khanna, senior consultant, interventional pulmonology, respiratory and sleep medicine at the Pulmonology Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital, said smog can lead to several types of short-term health problems. "High levels of pollutants can irritate your respiratory system, generally lasting for a few hours after you've been exposed to smog. "However, these harmful particles can continue to damage your lungs in the long-term even after symptoms disappear. An increase in breathlessness and cardiac arrest are seen in patients predisposed to these ailments," Khanna said. Pollution can also have a severe impact on the health of pregnant women, doctors said. The current level of air pollution poses a high risk to pregnant women and the baby in their wombs, gynaecologist, obstetrician and IVF expert, Nurture IVF Centre, Archana Dhawan Bajaj, said. "The fetus receives oxygen from the mother, and if she is breathing polluted air, it can increase the health risk of unborn babies. "Most importantly pregnant women in the first trimester need to be more careful as risk increases and pollution can cause a medical condition called intrauterine inflammation," she said. Bajaj said, "Prenatal exposure to pollutants increases the risk of preterm delivery and low birth weight, other factors that can compound to developmental disabilities later on." If we talk about the major risk factors, pollution can cause asthma to the baby in later stages, she said. Delhiites have also expressed concern over the sudden increase in the pollution level. "If the situation is this bad now, I can't anticipate what the situation would be after DIwali," said Neha Sarkar, a Mayur Vihar resident. Another resident said the air deterioration again this year has reduced the festivities for them who are now apprehensive in even stepping out. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mizoram Speaker Hiphei said on Monday that he had resigned from his post, the House as well as the Congress and would join the BJP later in the day, just a little over three weeks ahead of the assembly elections. The seven-time Congress legislator said he submitted his resignation letter to Deputy Speaker R. Lalrinawma who accepted it. From there, he went to Congress Bhavan to resign from primary membership of the party. He is the fifth Congress MLA to resign from the 40-member House since September. Mizoram, the only state in the north-east under Congress rule, will go to the polls on November 28. In Guwahati, convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma said Hiphei, 81, will join the saffron party in his presence in the Mizoram capital Aizawl. "He is a very senior leader. His joining the saffron party will greatly strengthen the organisation," Sarma, who is also Assam finance minister, said. The senior BJP leader, however, did not comment on whether the party will field Hiphei from any constituency in the forthcoming Assembly polls in the hill state. The Congress had earlier named Hiphhei as its candidate for the Palak constituency, but replaced him with party general secretary K T Rokhaw last week following reports that he might move to the BJP. Hiphei was elected to the Mizoram Assembly from Palak constituency in 2013. He won the state elections six times between 1972 and 1989 from Tuipang. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid growing demand for the ouster of Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S B Shashank, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking immediate removal of the CEO as "people have lost faith in him". Shashank Monday said he had "no intention to hurt the sentiments" of the state's civil societies and apologised for rankling them in any way. The NGO Coordination Committee, an umbrella body of major civil societies and student organisations, had sought Shashank's exit from the state, shortly after the Election Commission (EC) removed the state's principal secretary (Home) Lalnunmawia Chuaungo. A section of the media said Shashank had complained to the EC that Chuaungo was interfering in the poll process. "As people have lost faith in him, the only solution for the smooth conduct of Assembly elections 2018 now would be removal of CEO S B Shashank from office forthwith," the chief minister wrote in his letter to the prime minister. A copy of the letter is available with PTI. Elections to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly are scheduled for November 28. Coordination Committee, which had on Friday demanded that Shashank leave Mizoram by dusk Monday, has decided to picket before the CEO's office from Tuesday and not allow him to attend office. The decision was made after the NGO officials attended a meeting convened by the state government and chaired by Chief Secretary Arvind Ray. Additional security personnel have been deployed at the office and residence of Shashank in view of the threats. Earlier on Monday, the CEO told a press meet here that he was just fulfilling his responsibilities in accordance with the instructions of the EC. "As the state chief electoral officer, it is my responsibility that I fulfil the mandate of the EC. I can only hope that the civil societies will understand my position. I am sorry if I have hurt anybody," he said. The EC in its Friday's order had said, "... the Election Commission is satisfied that the continuance of Mr. Lalnunmawia Chuaungo as Principal Secretary (Home), in State Government of Mizoram will have adverse impact on conduct of smooth, free and fair election process in Mizoram". The order mentioned six incidents, mainly related to the arrangements to enable Bru refugees staying in camps in Tripura, take part in the voting process. Thousands of Bru community people had fled Mizoram in the late 1990s following ethnic clash Chuaungo, a native of the state and Gujarat-cadre IAS officer, has been relieved of his responsibilities. On his fallout with Chuaungo, the CEO said he had issued a statement to the District Election Officers (DEO) and Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) on September 11 to notify that "identification slips could be used as valid documents by eligible Bru migrants in Tripura". Chuaungo, however, issued another order on September 13, asking the Bru refugees to not use the identification slips, except for the purpose of repatriation, he said. Shashank alleged that Chuaungo and Chief Secretary Arvind Ray did not issue any clarification on the September 13 order, despite the EC's instructions and The EC has instructed Chuaungo to report before the Ministry of Home Affairs in Delhi. Accusing the CEO of working against the spirit of "free and fair" polls, the NGO Coordination Committee had urged the poll body to replace him. Earlier, too, the civil society organisations had opposed the EC's decision to conduct electoral revision of Bru voters in Tripura's relief camps. They also urged the EC to disenfranchise all Bru voters who chose to stay back in Tripura and did not return to Mizoram. The NGO appealed truck owners to not allow the use of their vehicles to transport central paramilitary forces from outside to Mizoram. It also asked the Federation of Mizoram Government Employees and Workers to support the agitation and cease work from Tuesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the immediate removal of state Chief Electoral Officer S B Shashank as "people have lost faith in him". Shashank's removal is the only solution for smooth conduct of the November 28 Assembly elections, the chief minister said in his letter. He said people of Mizoram have lost faith in the CEO after he complained to the Election Commission (EC) that principal secretary (home) Lalnunmawia Chuaungo was interfering in the poll process. Chuaungo, a 1987-batch Gujarat-cadre IAS officer, has been relieved of his responsibilities in the state. The EC has instructed him to report before the Ministry of Home Affairs in Delhi. "The only solution for smooth conduct of Assembly elections 2018 now would be removal of CEO S B Shashank from office forthwith," the chief minister wrote in the letter, a copy of which is available with PTI. He also suggested that Shashank be replaced by an additional chief electoral officer. "Additional CEO can take over Shashank's responsibilities if making fresh arrangements were difficult at this juncture," the chief minister said. Earlier in the day, the CEO told reporters here that he was fulfilling his responsibilities in accordance with the poll panel's instructions, amid growing demand for his ouster by the civil societies. He also said he had "no intention to hurt the sentiments" of the state's civil societies and apologised for rankling them. Talking about his fallout with Chuaungo, the CEO said he had issued a statement to the District Election Officers (DEO) and Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) on September 11 to notify that "identification slips could be used as valid documents by eligible Bru migrants in Tripura". Chuaungo, however, issued another order on September 13, asking the Bru refugees to refrain from using the identification slips, except for the purpose of repatriation, he said. Shashank alleged that the principal secretary and Mizoram Chief Secretary Arvind Ray did not issue any clarification on the September 13 order, despite the EC's instructions. "As the state chief electoral officer, it is my duty to intimate the EC about the developments. I can only hope that the civil societies will understand my position. I am sorry if I have hurt anybody," he told reporters. NGO Coordination Committee, an umbrella body of major civil societies and student organisations, has sought Shashank's exit at the earliest and issued a statement to say it would picket the state election office from Tuesday. The announcement was made after the members of the committee attended a state government meeting in the afternoon, chaired by Chief Secretary Arvind Ray. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar and BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe Monday met Lok Sabha Speaker and local MP Sumitra Mahajan in connection with ticket distribution for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls. The polls for the 230-member state assembly will be held on November 28. Counting of votes will take place on December 11. Indore district has nine assembly constituencies. "Tai (Sumitra Mahajan) is our senior leader. As she was abroad, we could not hold talks over the Assembly poll tickets with her. Following her return, we called on her," Gwalior Lok Sabha MP Tomar told reporters here. Tomar and Sahasrabuddhe held talks with Mahajan for about 90 minutes, party functionaries said. Tomar denied that Mahajan was upset over the process of picking party candidates. "Mahajan is not unhappy at all," he said. BJP sources have said the ticket distribution for seats in Indore were getting delayed due to a reported tussle between Mahajan and BJP general secretary and Mhow MLA Kailash Vijayvargiya. The Lok Sabha Speaker refused to comment on the matter. "I have no knowledge of the tickets (row)," she said. Vijayvargiya, speaking to reporters recently, had refuted such talks and said there was no tussle between him and Mahajan. Tomar, meanwhile, in reply to a query on the Ram temple said, "We are going to celebrate a historical Diwali in Ayodhya". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Monday filed nomination papers from Budhni seat in Sehore district in the poll-bound state. MP goes to polls on November 28 and votes will be counted on December 11. Budhni, over 60 kilometres from here, is Chouhan's home turf from where he was first elected as MLA in 1990. This would be the fifth time he will be contesting from the seat, close to his ancestral village of Jait in Sehore. At the time of filing nomination papers, Chouhan was accompanied by his wife, Sadhna Singh, sons Kunal and Kartikey, his election agent Ramakant Bhargava and lawyer Shrey Raj Saxena. Before arriving to file his nomination papers, Chouhan and family prayed at his clan deity's temple as well as at the Narmada River, considered holy by Hindus, in Jait village. Addressing party workers ahead of filing his papers, Chouhan mocked the opposition Congress, out of power in the state since 2003, about the condition of roads during its rule. "Everybody knows the number of roads constructed during our stint can easily outnumber the number of potholes that existed during the Congress regime," he claimed. Urging people to identify those who had pushed the state into "backwardness and darkness", Chouhan said, "Without taking my name their day is not completed. They did not like the development that took place during my tenure. Therefore, I have become a thorn in their eyes, whether it is raja, maharaja or udyogpati." The three monikers are generally used by BJP leaders to refer to former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, Congress poll campaign chief Jyotiraditya Scindia and state MP Congress president Kamal Nath. A year after becoming an MLA in 1990, Chouhan was elected MP when he won a bypoll from Vidisha constituency in 1991 after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee quit the seat. Chouhan went on to win Vidisha LS seat in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004. In 2003, Chouhan unsuccessfully contested assembly polls from Raghogarh in Guna district, against then chief minister Digvijaya Singh. In 2005, against the backdrop of infighting among state BJP leaders, Chouhan took over as Madhya Pradesh CM and in 2006 contested from Budhni to get elected to the MP Assembly. He beat the Congress's Rajkumar Patel, a former minister, by a margin of 36,000 votes. He won from the seat again in 2008 and 2013 assembly polls, defeating the Congress's Mahesh Singh Rajput and Mahendra Singh Chauhan by a margin of 41,000 and 84,000 votes respectively. Among the chief minister aspirants from the BJP and the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, only Chouhan is contesting assembly polls this time. Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia, both considered claimants to the coveted chair in case of a Congress victory, are Lok Sabha MPs and are unlikely to contest the polls. State Congress unit president Nath is a nine-time MP from Chhindwara while Scindia represents Guna in Lok Sabha. Besides Chouhan, several other leaders filed their nomination papers Monday. These included Leader of Opposition in MP Assembly, Ajay Singh, from his traditional Churhat seat in Sidhi district, state public relations minister Narottam Mishra from Datia and MP finance minister Jayant Malaiya from Damoh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Planning Commission member and Congress leader Bhalchandra Mungekar Monday accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the ruling BJP, of stoking the Ram temple issue with an eye on elections. He alleged that a "pre-Babri mosque atmosphere" is sought to be created in the country. He also accused Narendra Modi government of "systematically dismantling" the democratic institutions including the Supreme Court and the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). Mungekar charged the RSS with building pressure on the Supreme Court to hold early hearing on the Ayodhya title suits. "Failing this, the RSS has threatened to take alternative routes to construct Ram temple in Ayodhya with the tacit support of the government,"Mungekar alleged. "This is unprecedented that, for the first time, the extra-constitutional bodies are trying to openly target the Supreme court not only for urgent, but favourable verdict," he said in a statement. He said the RSS was "strategically remaining silent" on the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya for four-and-half years of the BJP's rule. "And it's only now, closer to important state and forthcoming general elections, it is trying to revive (the Ayodhya issue) for communal polarisation. This way, a pre-Babri masjid atmosphere is sought to be created in the country," he alleged. On December 6, 1992, a large number of 'Kar Sevaks' - religious volunteers - had gathered in the temple town and demolished the 16th-century Babri Masjid, triggering a spate of communal violence in the country. Mungekar further accused the government of destroying the CBI and the RBI. He recalled that the BJP, when in opposition, wanted separation of the CBI from the government control and make it fully Independent. The BJP-led government blatantly destroyed the agency through "mid-night operation" by shunting out its Constitutionally appointed director, "only with the fear that he might take politically most unfavourable decision," he said. The government recently stripped CBI director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana of all the responsibilities and sent them on administrative leave, after the top officers accused each other of corruption. CBI Joint Director M Nageshwara Rao was last month appointed as its interim director. The matter relating to sending Verma on leave is pending before the Supreme Court. "Similarly, the government undermined the RBI, when the prime minister alone took the fraudulent decision of the demonetisation in November, 2016," Mungekar said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karnataka Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan Monday said Muslims were not against Ram temple at Ayodhya but pitched for construction of both Mandir and Masjid. Khan, who is from the Congress in the party's coalition government with the Janata Dal-Secular, hit out at the BJP for raking up the issue for political reasons, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. "Muslims are not against construction of Ram Mandir, we want Ram Mandir, also Babri Masjid," Khan said. "What we want is peace. Muslims have never opposed Ram Mandir. We have two wishes- one side we want Masjid, one side we want Ram Mandir." Khan's statement comes days after another Congress MLA and former minister Roshan Baig asked, "If Ram Mandir is not constructed in India, will it be built in Pakistan" and said Muslims respected the sentiments of "Hindu brothers." The chorus for bringing in a law to build a Ram temple inAyodhya is growing louder among the Sangh Parivar followingthe Supreme Court's decision to defer hearing on the RamJanmabhoomi land dispute case to January. Pointing out that the case was pending before the Supreme Court, the Minister said, there was no use in talking about it, as the issue has to be decided in the court. Flaying the BJP for "politicising" the issue ahead of Lok Sabha elections, he questioned as to why the saffron party did not remember about the Mandir for the last four-and-a-half years, after they came to power at the Centre. "All of a sudden they want to construct Ram Mandir. What happened for last four-and-a-half years? Elections (Lok Sabha) are due in five or six months, now they remember Ram mandir, Babri Masjid issue," he said. Reiterating that Muslims were not opposed to Ram Mandir, Khan said, "what we want is construction of both Mandir and Masjid. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Myanmar's ruling party led by Aung San Suu Kyi has won at least six seats in by-elections to fill 13 of the 1,171 seats in national, regional and state parliaments, according to preliminary results released Monday. The results for Saturday's polls, available for all but one race, showed the National League for Democracy generally retaining support in the country's heartland, but yielding seats to parties representing ethnic minorities in the areas where they live, mostly in border regions. The NLD won a landslide victory in the 2015 general election, when there was wide-ranging popular support to end decades of military rule. But minority groups have been disappointed that the government of NLD leader Suu Kyi has failed to meet their demands for greater autonomy and a halt to aggressive army activities in their territories. While the results of the small number of races have a negligible effect on the political balance of power, the contests were being watched for trends ahead of the next general election in 2020. The return of voters to ethnic minority parties representing their interests had already been seen in another set of by-elections last year. What this year's polls seemed to underline was the danger to the NLD of a weak voter turnout, which was probably behind the upset defeat of an NLD candidate for a Yangon regional parliament seat. That contest was won by a representative of the Union Solidarity and Development Party, the country's main political grouping after the NLD. The military-backed USDP won three seats in Saturday's polls. Suu Kyi's appeal with the country's Buddhist majority has not suffered much from a crisis involving 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority who fled a brutal army counterinsurgency campaign in the country's west. However, economic development has been lagging and is a source of disappointment among her supporters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with visiting Cuban president in Pyongyang and discussed "crucial issues of common concern" on the current international situation, the North's state media reported Monday. The visit by Miguel Diaz-Canel comes amid stalled talks between North Korea and the United States and only days after Washington imposed fresh economic restrictions on Cuba. Washington's ties with Havana were fully restored in 2015 after more than half a century of enmity, but have deteriorated since President Donald Trump took office. Communist Cuba is one of North Korea's few remaining allies. "There was an in-depth exchange of views on the crucial issues of common concern ... on the international situation and a consensus of views on all issues was reached," said the official KCNA agency. Diaz-Canel was greeted by Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju at the Pyongyang International Airport on Sunday, KCNA reported, where he was given a 21-gun salute and later attended a banquet and enjoyed a special welcoming concert with them. Giving a toast at the banquet, Kim said his meeting with the Cuban leader "marked a watershed in demonstrating the will to carry forward forever the friendship between the two countries". In response, Diaz-Canel said he was willing to "meet all challenges by the hostile forces" while carrying forward their "traditional friendly and cooperative relations", according to KCNA. Diaz-Canel took office in April in a historic transition of power on the Caribbean island, succeeding Raul Castro, who took over from his elder brother Fidel, father of the 1959 revolution. Fidel Castro visited North Korea in 1986 to meet founder-leader Kim Il-Sung, and Pyongyang held three days of official mourning when Castro died in November 2016. North Korea sent a delegation led by Choe Ryong-Hae, a senior aide to its leader Kim Jong Un, to Havana for Castro's funeral. Cuba in the past has flouted international sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme. In 2013 Panama seized a North Korean ship carrying an undeclared Cuban arms shipment of Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets hidden under sacks of sugar. North Korea insisted the weapons were being shipped for repair, prior to their return. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Veteran journalist and Hindu publishing group chairman N Ram has been chosen for the prestigious Raja Ram Mohan Roy Award, presented by the Press Council of India, for his outstanding contribution towards journalism, the council announced Monday. The award will be presented on November 16 on the occasion of the National Press Day. In a statement, the Press Council of India (PCI) also announced other winners of the National Awards for Excellence in Journalism 2018. Ruby Sarkar, Chief Correspondent, Deshbandhu, Bhopal, and Rajesh Parshuram Joshte, Daily Pudhari, Ratnagiri, have been jointly named as winners of the award in the category of 'Rural Journalism'. V S Rajesh, Deputy Editor, Kerala Kaumudhi, has been selected under the award category of Developmental Reporting, the PCI said in a statement. Subhash Paul, Rashtriya Sahara, Delhi, was named as a winner of the award in the 'Photo Journalism-Single News' category, while Mihir Singh of the Punjab Kesari, Delhi has been selected in the category of 'Photo Journalism-Photo Feature', the statement said. Under the category of 'Best Newspaper Art: covering cartoons, caricature and illustrations', P Narasimha, Cartoon Editor, Nava Telangana, Hyderabad, was selected for the award. No entry could qualify in the newly introduced award category of 'Sports Reporting'. The selection of awardees was carried out by a jury comprising eminent working journalists, senior editors, owners and managers representing print media. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday inaugurated a 'Jaipur Foot' camp here and distributed the free India-made prosthetic limb to several beneficiaries. The camp was launched under the 'India for Humanity' programme, which honour Mahatma Gandhi's service to humanity. Inaugurating the camp, Naidu said the first Jaipur Foot camp in the series is launched in Malawi because it was here in Africa that Gandhiji took his "first steps towards becoming a Mahatma, a great soul and later went on inspire a number of generations". "It was this soil of Africa which gave the nourishment and inspiration and made Mahatma Gandhi what he was. It was Africa that transformed his vision and gave greater clarity to his life's mission," Naidu said. The 'Jaipur Foot' is one of the best examples of Indian ingenuity and barefoot engineering that has helped several thousands of victims of landmine blasts and accidents across the world to walk again. "In the presence of Malawian dignitaries, VP handed over artificial limbs to the beneficiaries," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Ravish Kumar tweeted. In the last two decades, the 'Jaipur Foot' has become a symbol of Indian humanitarian assistance in Africa, Asia and Latin America. "As per the Indian world view, the whole world is seen as one family or 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', which is the attitude of empathy, of sharing and caring, of a sharp focus on alleviating the agony of fellow human beings," Naidu said. The Vice President said Gandhiji's vision and voice has a rare resonance in numerous hearts around the world because it springs from the timeless humanistic vision of India. "His experience with truth and his commitment to serve those in need are an inspirational saga," he said. The 'India for Humanity', which was launched on October 2 to coincide with the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhiji, will take the message of the Mahatma to all parts of the world over the next one year. The programme celebrates the great values of humanism which Mahatma Gandhi embodied right through his life. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nearly a dozen Indian-Americans, some of them part of the so-called 'Samosa Caucus', have emerged as strong contenders for Tuesday's high-profile US midterm polls taking place at a time when the anti-immigrant sentiment is at its peak in the country. The emergence of a large number of young Indian-Americans reflects the growing desire of this small ethnic community comprising just one per cent of the US population of 32.57 crores. "It has been incredible to see the rise of Indian-Americans in US politics," Rich Verma, the former US ambassador to India, told PTI. This election could be transformational - sending a number of new members into the House of Representatives and state legislatures as well, observed Verma, who has campaigned for several of the Indian-Americans running for offices. All the four Indian-American lawmakers in the present House of Representatives are expected to easily sail through on Tuesday's midterm polls. They are three-term Congressman Ami Bera from the seventh Congressional district of California and three first timers, who are seeking their re-election: Ro Khanna from 17th Congressional District of California, Raja Krishnamoorthi from eighth Congressional District of Illinois and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from seventh Congressional District of Washington State. The four incumbents are joined by seven other Indian-Americans on the ballot for the House of Representatives. The mid-term elections will take place in the middle of President Donald Trump's four-year term. All 435 seats in the US House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the US Senate will be up for grabs. About 39 state and territorial governorships and numerous other state and local elections will also be contested. Successful entrepreneur Shiv Ayyadurai is the sole Indian-American to be running for Senate. He has pitched himself as an independent against the powerful Elizabeth Warren - a potential Democratic presidential candidate - for the Senate seat in Massachusetts. But they are not all. According to some unofficial estimates, more than 100 Indian-Americans are running for various elected offices across the country. "This year, nearly 100 Indian-Americans ran for office in all levels of government, including some who could flip House seats from red to blue," said John Santos, spokesperson AAPI media of Democratic National Committee. These candidates have put districts in play that Trump won because they are talking about the issues that matter to voters, like protecting access to quality and affordable healthcare and investing in higher education, Santos said. "The DNC is proud to have the backs of Indian-American candidates running up and down the ticket who are working hard to engage diverse constituencies and expand participation of communities who often feel ignored and left behind," the spokeperson said. "From Arizona, to Texas, Ohio, Michigan and beyond we have a great slate of Indian-American candidates. I hope that our number (in the Congress) increases," Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi told PTI in an interview. Krishnamoorthi, who has raised more than USD 5 million, according to latest figures of the Federal Election Commission, had coined the term "Samosa Caucus", the unofficial group of five Indian-Americans in the current Congress. When Bera was elected for the Congress for the first time six years ago, he had hoped that in a decade, the number of Indian-Americans would be in double digit. If 'Desis for Progress' are to be believed, the community is moving in that direction. At least three of the Indian-Americans are locked up in toss-up races Tipirneni, Kulkarni and Pureval. NBC this week also listed out the three Indian-Americans as the ones who could make a difference in their races. Verma feels the only way to give the Indian-American candidates a chance to serve is to get out and vote. "The stakes are so high. This is the most important election of my lifetime," Verma said. The former American diplomat said he was disappointed and concerned at the "racist, anti-immigrant" closing argument of President Donald Trump and thinks fearmongering should concern all Americans, particularly immigrants. "We have to stand up and be heard at the ballot box so we can stamp out the fear and hate, and prop up the terrific crop of candidates who have shown the courage to run and who are running on a very positive, inclusive and pro-growth agenda," he said. Krishnamoorthi echoed Verma, saying it all starts with voters getting out and making sure that their voice is heard on the election day. "I want to see greater number (of Indian-Americans for elected office) and I'd like to see them happen across the geographic landscape," he said. The high-stakes midterm elections are being held at a time when many Republican candidates have been echoing President Trump's message of boosting border security and cracking down on illegal immigration. Trump recently said he will cut aid to 3 Central American countries for their failure to stop a migrant caravan of thousands of people from moving towards the US with the aim to enter America illegally. The Trump administration has also threatened to reform the H-1B foreign workers visa programme which will be part of a skills- and merit-based legal immigration system. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called the start of new US sanctions against his country's main enemy Iran a "historic day" that will reduce Tehran's "aggression" in the region. "Today is a historic day," Netanyahu told lawmakers from his Likud party, according to his office. "Today is the day the US under President (Donald) Trump's leadership imposed extremely harsh sanctions on Iran, the harshest sanctions imposed on Iran since the effort to curb its aggression began." Earlier Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman called the new sanctions a "critical" blow to Iran's actions in the region. The measures described by Washington as "the toughest sanctions ever" follow Trump's controversial decision in May to abandon the multi-nation nuclear deal with Tehran. They aim to significantly reduce Iran's oil exports -- which have already fallen by around one million barrels a day since May -- and cut it off from international finance. Israel had long opposed the Iran nuclear deal, saying it was too limited in scope and timeframe. It also said the lifting of sanctions allowed Iran to finance militant groups and its own military activity. Israel is particularly concerned with Iran's involvement in neighbouring Syria and has pledged to keep it from entrenching itself militarily there. The other parties to the nuclear deal -- Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia -- opposed the US move and say the accord is working as intended in keeping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons for now. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) / -- The Discovery Channels new all-access documentary series "How China Works II" hosted by world-renowned architect Danny Forster has been released. During the three-part series, he gains unprecedented access to the inner workings of China's biggest city, Shanghai. For the full multimedia release, click here: https://www.prnasia.com/mnr/discovery_201810.shtml The new anthology is deeply rooted in the work and life of Chinese entrepreneurs, scientists, officials and ordinary people, giving audiences a panoramic view of Chinese society while presenting the unique achievements and development plans of modern China. "New Ways of Life" During the first episode, audiences are presented with a visual banquet of Shanghai's new culture creation program, with young people showcasing their talents via online live-streaming and video games. Viewers can also look forward to Danny's performance in the new stage play Tomb Notes, which started life as a popular online novel, and a tour of an innovative new Mexican restaurant, highlighting how continued economic and technological development brings cultural prosperity to the city. "A Networked World" The second episode focuses on the achievements of Shanghai in the fields of scientific and technological innovation, with Danny working on a VR commercial while delving into the intricacies of this emerging technology. Acrophobes beware! Danny takes viewers on the city's first 360-degree virtual reality rollercoaster, hovering over the famous city skyline and capturing the avant-garde applications of this dynamic new technology in action. "The Power of Planning" The final episode features the unique Shanghainese community spirit, where all elements of the city come together to enhance and support the development of the city through consultation and planning. The futuristic Shanghai Zhangjiang High-technology park and its state-of-the-art Synchrotron Light Source Lab is provided as an example of the forward-thinking actions of the city authorities. How China Works II was developed with support from the Shanghai Office in coordination with the Discovery Asia-Pacific TV Network, China Intercontinental Communication Centre and China State Council Information Office. The program, first aired in Australia and New Zealand on 29th September, is to be broadcast in Korean, Thai, Hindi, Telugu, Malay, Vietnamese, Cantonese, English, Tamil, Bengali, and additional local and regional languages. For details on the new series and local airing times, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/DiscoverySEAsia/ https://www.facebook.com/DiscoveryChannelAU/ https://www.facebook.com/DiscoveryChannelIndiaOfficial/ Video - https://cdn4.prnasia.com/002071/mnr/201810/discovery/video.mp4 Video - https://cdn4.prnasia.com/002071/mnr/201810/discovery/video1.mp4 Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20181101/2286702-1-a Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20181101/2286702-1-b Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20181101/2286702-1-c Photo - https://photos.prnasia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tragedy struck a just-married couple in the US state of Texas when they were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday in northwest Uvalde County as they left the wedding ceremony, authorities said. The Houstonian, the student-run newspaper of Sam Houston State University, confirmed that Bearkats Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman Byler were killed when the helicopter departing their wedding ceremony crashed north of Uvalde. Will Byler was studying agriculture engineering and Bailee Ackerman Byler was pursuing agricultural communication. The groom's grandfather William Byler confirmed to 12newsnow.com that the helicopter went down Saturday at their family ranch. His grandson Bill Byler, his new wife and the aircraft's pilot all died. According to the couple's wedding website, they were to be married Saturday in Uvalde, where the Byler family ranch is located. Uvalde Police received a call from an aviation monitoring centre around midnight Saturday notifying them of a possible down aircraft north of Uvalde County. Several agencies, including Texas DPS troopers, Game Wardens, Border Patrol, and the Uvalde Fire Department aided police in their search for the aircraft. Police say that shortly after sunrise Sunday, the accident was located. The National Transportation Safety Board says the incident involved a Bell 206B a two-bladed, twin-engine chopper. A spokesperson for the Uvalde Fire Department said that multiple people died in the crash. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Green Tribunal has refused to grant more time to state-owned oil firms to install vapour recovery devices at all fuel stations in the National Capital Region (NCR). A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said that the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a hazard to public health which has to be safeguarded by installing recovery devices. It said installation of machines was necessary in view of the adverse effects of VOC chemicals like benzene, toluene and xylene on human health and Vapour recovery device is an instrument to capture displaced vapours that emerge from inside a vehicle's fuel tank when petrol or diesel is dispensed into it. "It is undisputed that release of VOCs is a hazard to the public health which is to be safeguarded by installing VRDs/VRS, under the Precautionary Principle and Principle of Sustainable Development, no activity can be allowed to be carried out resulting in damage to the public health," said the bench also comprising Justice S P Wangdi. "In this view of the matter, we do not find any justification to grant further extension of time. In fact, there may be issue of recovering compensation for damage to the already caused by release of VOC," the bench. The green panel said the difficulties in procuring devices or delay in granting approvals by the authorities cannot be a ground for continuing any activity affecting public health without safety standards. The tribunal also said that its directions will apply to the NCR where the air quality is extremely bad in the present time and asked the oil firms to comply with it within three months. The NGT had earlier directed the companies to install vapour recovery devices at all fuel stations by October 31 but they had moved a plea seeking extension, saying that grant of approvals for vapour recovery devices was a time consuming process as they had to be imported. The tribunal had directed the oil companies -- Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd -- to install Stage-I and Stage-II vapour recovery devices by October 31 and asked the CPCB and the Ministry of Petroleum to issue directions and ensure that necessary steps are taken by all the concerned. The tribunal was hearing the plea by advocate Aditya N Prasad and Delhi resident Vallari Sheel, who contended that petroleum products at fuel stations contribute significantly to air pollution, and sought directions to stop release of volatile compounds during transfer of petroleum products. The plea referred to a study conducted at various petrol pumps of Delhi which has found that the level of toxic fumes containing pollutants known as VOC was several thousand times higher than the permissible limit. The plea said: "Petroleum products at fuel stations contain traces of benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) all of which are highly toxic in nature. BTX are also potentially toxic air pollutants among other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and have been subjected to significant investigations/research in western countries as well as in India. "BTX is present in both exhaust emissions from vehicles and evaporative emissions at the fuel delivery outlets. It is pertinent to note that exposure to high level of BTX causes neuro-toxic symptoms. Persistent exposure to high levels of BTX may cause injury to human bone marrow, DNA damage in mammalian cells and damage to the immune system." Recently, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee had directed all the oil companies to ensure installation of vapour recovery system at petrol pumps in the city. "Direct the respondents to install Stage I and Stage II vapour recovery devices at all fuel stations, distribution centres, terminals, railway loading/unloading facilities and airports in the National Capital Territory of Delhi," the plea had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam Monday wrote a letter requesting Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to scrap the ongoing redevelopment of iconic Dhobi Ghat under the SRA scheme. Nirupam had last week alleged the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) illegally granted permission for the amalgamation of Dhobi Ghat near Mahalaxmi, a 140-year-old heritage site, along with the nearby temples under the Slum Redevelopment Scheme (SRA). "We have already exposed the vested interests of the BMC chief Ajoy Mehta through a letter dated August 13, 2018 which was written by Chief Engineer (Development Plan) to the architect. "After being nailed, Mehta is now attempting to shift the blame to the SRA claiming that it was the purview of the SRA and not the BMC. But the main issue here is amalgamation of this 140-year old heritage site should not be allowed under the SRA Scheme," Nirupam stated. He requested the chief minister to immediately stay the BMC's action "for the sake of preserving the iconic site". Clarifying that he was not against the redevelopment of Dhobi Ghat, the Congress leader said he only wanted that interests of the residents of the area are protected. The BMC had already denied the allegations of Nirupam. Meanwhile, Nirupam targetted the BJP-led state government over the killing of man-eater tigress T1 by a sharpshooter who was part of a team of forest officials in Yavatmal district. The Congress leader sought to link the deaths of people who were attacked by the big cat in the past to the "failure" of the Maharashtra government in constructing toilets, which he said forced the villagers to defecate in open. "The killing of the tigress is a barbaric murder. While 'Avni' was termed as a man-eater, most of its victims lost their lives when they left their houses to relieve themselves in the open. If these people had access to toilets, this wouldn't have happened. "Our Forest Minister (Sudhir Mungantiwar) wouldn't have had the opportunity to kill the national animal of the country in the name of safety. Why toilets were not constructed in Yavatmal district? Instead of constructing more toilets for the people, the government hired a sharp shooter to kill the big cat," he alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union minister Harsh Vardhan said on Monday that the Centre was making all possible efforts to maintain air quality and no leniency would be shown towards those who violated the norms. Delhi's pollution level sharply spiked Monday as a thick haze engulfed the national capital due to high impact of stubble burning and pushed the air quality in the 'very poor' category, authorities said. The Union minister said legal actions were being initiated against those who violated the pollution regulations. "The Centre is making all possible efforts to maintain the air quality and to protect the No leniency will be shown towards those who violate the pollution norms," Vardhan said on the sidelines of an event organised by the AYUSH Ministry to celebrate the third 'Ayurveda Day'. He said that the Centre has given a financial aid of over Rs 550 crore for farmers who are indulging in stubble burning. Vardhan also appealed to the people to indulge in green good deeds and also ensure environment-friendly behaviour to maintain the air quality which has deteriorated to alarming levels. The minister recently called a meeting of ministers of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi to discuss the deteriorating air quality. Except Delhi Environment minister Imran Hussain, all other ministers skipped the meeting, and instead sent their senior officials to participate in it. On Sunday, a total fine of Rs 83,55,000 was imposed on violators by the teams deployed to monitor implementation of measures to combat pollution in Delhi NCR under the campaign. An aggressive 10-day-long 'Clean Air Campaign' from November 1-10 has also been launched to monitor and report polluting activities as well as to ensure quick action. Based on 368 complaints, a total fine of Rs 83,55,000 was imposed on Sunday itself by 52 teams in the national capital, said the CPCB. It said a total of 119 complaints of construction and demolition activities were received. Other complaints included that of vehicular emission, traffic congestion, industrial emission, open or garbage burning, leaf burning, road dust, unpaved road, fire in landfill sites, air pollution from generators among others, the CPCB said. It said a total of 52 complaints were received through social media and e-mails while 316 complaints through the 'Sameer app' that has been developed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Officials said about 43 teams attended to 248 complaints in Delhi. Two teams attended to 11 complaints in Gurgaon, two teams to 31 complaints in Faridabad and two teams to five complaints in Noida and Greater Noida. Three teams attended 21 complaints in Ghaziabad. On Friday and Saturday, a total penalty of Rs 80 lakh was imposed on violators. The teams are visiting different parts of Delhi and adjacent towns of Faridabad, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Noida. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Ramdas Athawale Monday said the issue of Ram temple should be settled through discussion among Hindus and Muslims and that there was no need for an ordinance as the the court was yet to pronounce its verdict. "We can all understand very well the emotions and sentiments of the people of the Hindu community who want construction of the Ram temple. But any decision would be taken after discussion with the Muslim community," Athawale, the union minister of state for social justice and empowerment told reporters here. "We all should wait till the Supreme Court gives its verdict. Till then I feel no one should take the law in their own hands to construct the temple," he added. The chorus for the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya has been growing with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) demanding an ordinance to acquire land at the disputed site to build the temple. "I don't feel there is any need for bringing in an ordinance. The present government believes in 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' and not in appeasement of a particular community," Athawale said. "There should not be any attempt to pressurize the government and we should wait for the court's verdict," Athawale, who is a leader of the Republican Party of India, a constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, said. On the issue of opposition parties forming a grand alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Athawale said the coalition will not taste success as there are too many prime ministerial candidates and differences among the parties. "In this grand (opposition) alliance there is no unity. There are a lot of issues... Even if Congress tries to come up with an alliance it won't be able to stop the BJP-led NDA from returning to power," the union minister said and claimed that BJP will bag 300 seats and NDA as a whole will bag more than 400 seats in the next Lok Sabha polls. He further condemned the killing of five Bengali-speaking people in Tinsukia in Assam and said the state government was taking action against the culprits. The killings should not be linked with the process of Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC), Athawale added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's state-run channel has apologised after it ran "Begging" dateline instead of "Beijing" on screen during the live broadcast of Prime Minister Imran Khan's speech at the Central Party School of the ruling Communist Party of China. Khan, who is on an official trip to China to secure an economic package for his cash-strapped country, was addressing a ceremony on Sunday at the Central Party School in Beijing which was shown live by the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). During Khan's speech, PTV had written "Begging" instead of "Beijing" in the top left corner of the screen. The word remained on screen for 20 seconds and was then changed. "Today, during a live address of the Prime Minister during his ongoing visit to China, a typographical error took place, which remained on screen for 20 seconds & later removed. This incident is regrettable. Strict action has been initiated under rules against concerned officials," the official twitter handle of PTV tweeted. According to the local media, the gaffe has become particularly ironic since Khan is in China to secure a package from Beijing to try and stall the impending economic crisis Pakistan is facing. Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry has ordered an inquiry into the widely criticised dateline slug displayed by the PTV, The reported. The PTV's gaffe came under criticism on social media with screenshots shared with #begging becoming a top trend on Twitter in Pakistan. During his visit, Prime Minister Khan held talks with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang mainly focussing on seeking China's loans to tide over serious financial crisis faced by Pakistan. China while stating that it would extend necessary support to Pakistan reportedly committed USD six billion funding but did not so far officially confirmed it. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Pakistani lawyer who saved a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy from death row said Monday that the UN and EU made him leave the country "against my wishes" because his life was at risk. Saif-ul-Malook, who has fled to the Netherlands, said he contacted a United Nations official in Islamabad after Islamist violence erupted following the Pakistani Supreme Court's acquittal of Asia Bibi on Wednesday. "And then they (the UN) and the European nation ambassadors in Islamabad, they kept me for three days and then put me on a plane against my wishes," the lawyer told a press conference in The Hague. "I pressed them that I would not leave the country unless I get Asia out of the prison... I am not happy to be here without her but, but everybody said that you are the prime target at the moment and the whole world is taking care of Asia Bibi. "They were of the view that I was the prime target to be killed, and that my life was in imminent danger. For three days they did not let me open the door, one day I called the French ambassador and said I do not want to be here." The lawyer had previously told AFP before his departure on Saturday that he was leaving because "in the current scenario, it's not possible for me to live in Pakistan". Saif-ul-Malook arrived in The Hague at the weekend after a short stopover in Rome, with the help of the HVC Foundation, a Dutch group that focuses on the human rights of Christian minorities. Asia Bibi spent nearly a decade on death row after being accused of blasphemy after a dispute with fellow villagers. The charge is an inflammatory one in Muslim-majority Pakistan. But she remains in Pakistan after Prime Minister Imran Khan struck a deal with with the Islamist hardliners behind the protests. Saif-ul-Malook dismissed the deal as a "face-saving" exercise for the hardliners from the Tehreek-e-Labaik party and insisted that Asia Bibi would "100 percent" be freed soon. "This compromise is nothing but a piece of paper that can be thrown in the dustbin," he said. It was not clear whether Bibi had had any firm offers of asylum if she does leave Pakistan, added the lawyer, who said he was "legally authorised" to choose a country for her. The lawyer said a UN official in Pakistan told him "we are taking care of her" but that "when I said which country, they said we can't say. "I asked the French ambassador 'would your country be willing to offer asylum to Asia Bibi. He said if you request us legally, I said 'OK I request her'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Palestinian man tried to stab Israeli civilians and a soldier in the occupied West Bank on Monday before being shot by a soldier, the army said. The soldier "thwarted this attack after he identified a terrorist attempting to stab civilians and an IDF (Israel Defence Forces) officer," the army said of the incident at Elias junction near Hebron and the settlement of Kiryat Arba. In response, the soldier fired towards the terrorist and neutralised him. He was then evacuated to receive medical treatment. No injuries to Israeli civilians or IDF soldiers were reported," the statement said. A military spokeswoman told AFP the alleged assailant was a Palestinian, who appeared to be slightly wounded in video footage taken after the incident. A wave of mainly lone-wolf Palestinian attacks against Israelis broke out in 2015. The number of attacks has decreased since, but there are fears of another upsurge in violence. On October 22, a Palestinian was shot dead when attempting to stab soldiers in Hebron. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A large number of Arunachal Scouts personnel vandalised Bomdila police station in West Kameng district, damaged five vehicles and snatched away arms and ammunition after two of its personnel were taken there in connection with an incident of alleged misbehaviour, police said Monday. A defence communique said the two personnel of the Second Arunachal Scouts were picked up by police when they had gone to attend Buddha Mahotsav in Bomdila and were severely beaten up in custody. The incident is an outcome of highhandedness displayed by the Arunachal Police coupled with the lax attitude of the civil administration, it added. But West Kameng Superintendent of Police Raja Bantia said the two Scouts personnel had allegedly misbehaved with visitors at the Mahotsava on Friday and were taken to the police station, where they reportedly manhandled the officer in-charge and a policewoman. On Saturday, the Scouts personnel vandalised the police station, threw stones, forcibly entered it and snatched away arms and ammunition, besides the mobile phones of the officer-in-charge and threatened him with dire consequence, the SP said. The district administration has ordered an inquiry into the incident and a committee headed by additional superintendent of police would submit its report within a week, the SP said. The Commanding Officer of the battalion, Col Firdosh P Dubash, Sunday filed an FIR at Bomdila police station against its officer-in-charge Ashok Tayeng, he said. The communique said the two Scouts personnel have been admitted at the Military Hospital in Tenga. "The police have not acted in a responsible and mature manner violating all the laid down protocols of dealing with the uniform personnel, as instead of looking up the soldiers in the police station they should have handed over the soldiers to the military authorities. "The CO tried to defuse the situation by having a meeting with the SP Bomdila on Saturday when the police personnel instigated the CO's guard by misbehaving with them and using unparliamentary language which led to a scuffle between both sides which otherwise could have been avoided had the on duty police personnel had behaved in the more professional manner," it said. Condemning the incident, BJP national council member R K Khrimey Monday urged Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to order a high-level probe. Members of civil society organised a rally at Bomdila to protest rally. Addressing the rally, Khrimey condemned the behaviour of Army personnel and demanded stern action against the wrongdoers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The police made a lathicharge to disperse a crowd which had thronged a suburban theatre Monday for buying tickets for popular Tamil actor Vijay starrer 'Sarkar' on the eve of the film's release as it became "unmanageable." Movie aficionados began thronging the area since this morning and some of them allegedly tried to break window panes in their attempt to buy the tickets at a movie hall in Guduvanchery. "The crowd became unmanageable for the theatre personnel. They feared damage to property and sought police intervention," a senior district police official told PTI. Police made a lathicharge and restored order, the official said, adding the fans expressed regret for their behaviour. On the eve of the movie release on Diwali in the state, enthusiastic fans put up posters and banners, in parts of Tamil Nadu, hinting at a possible "political foray" of their matinee idol. Some of the publicity material has caught attention for its political overtones. A huge banner put up at Manapparai in Tiruchirappalli district, says "enough of Kazhagams' (Dravidian parties) rule..make way for our Thalapathi (commander)." Vijay's image is seen juxtaposed with that of top state leaders like K Kamaraj (freedom fighter and former chief minister) C N Annadurai (Dravidian icon and founder of DMK) and former chief minister M G Ramachandran (AIADMK founder). "Thalapathi is coming to pose a challenge to all those who have ruled Tamil Nadu," another poster said. Going by the movie trailer, Vijay is an entrepreneur who sets in motion efforts to revolutionise the political scenario in the state following his return from abroad. The Vijay-Keerthy Suresh starrer is produced by Sun Pictures, and directed by A R Murugadoss with Oscar winning film composer A R Rahman scoring music. Meanwhile, the Tamil Film Producers Council brought to the attention of film exhibitors that a portal that "hosts pirated versions" of films has challenged that it would upload the HD version of the movie as early as Tuesday evening within hours of its release. TFPC said the portal must not succeed in its illegal attempt and urged movie halls to deploy personnel inside theatres to prevent recording of the movie by using mobile phones or cameras. Besides Sarkar, comparatively small budget movies "Billa Pandi" and "Kalavani Mappillai," are being released for the festival of lights. Last month, Vijay had said corruption has spread like a "virus" in society and insisted if the leader at the top is honest, so will be his followers. He also deplored that bribes were demanded for even issuing birth and death certificates. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) This well-established Blog is worth visiting on a regular basis for a wealth of information of interest to Armenian nationals and to the Armenian Diaspora world-wide. Although it has a particular role in promoting international recognition of the Genocide, the Blog encompasses much more and includes many articles of general appeal to all those concerned with Armenian affairs. Much of the content is difficult or impossible to find elsewhere and the long list of links provided gives easy access to a plethora of material on social, political, religious, educational and cultural matters, and many news items from around the world. In continuing raids in the run-up to Kali Puja and Diwali, around 125 kg of crackers were recovered from two different parts in Baguihati and New Town areas of the city on Sunday, police said. Bidhanagar Police Commissionerate sources said 50 kg of crackers, worth over Rs 40,000, were seized from a house at Hanapara area in Baguihati. The huge stock of fireworks were found in a godown of the house following a tip-off, the sources said, adding, no arrests have been made in this regard so far. In another raid, banned firecrackers, weighing 75 kg, were seized from Edenshop area in New Town, as part of a special drive, they said. Meanwhile, as part of a recent notification, banning sky lanterns and laser lights in the vicinity of N S C Bose International Airport, police were conducting raids in eight areas under Bidhannagar and Barrackpore Police Commissionerate limits. Around 1,400 sky lanterns were recovered from a house at Ashwininagar in Baguiati recently, the sources added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy extended greetings to the people of Union Territory on the eve of Deepavali. In her message, Bedi said, "Diwali, the festival of lights is being celebrated not only in India but also by Indian diaspora across the world spreading positive and happiness." She wished that the festival "illuminates the paths of our lives to usher in good health, happiness and prosperity in the lives of the people of India." Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said the festival was an occasion to nurture unity and peaceful understanding of each other. Noting that Deepavali marked the end of cruel acts of the demon, 'Narakasuran,' he said, "We will drive away all the forces that ignored the welfare of the people." "Very soon Puducherry would record greater progress and development as the people's faith in the government would also be honoured," he added. The territorial government has for the first time granted Rs 1000 to each of the families using Red Colour ration card (below poverty line families) and Rs 675 to families covered under Yellow colour cards (above poverty line) to enable them to celebrate the festivalhappily. Speaker V Vaithilingam, Welfare Minister M Kandasamy, Revenue Minister M O H F Shah Jahan and a host of leaders of different political parties also extended their Deepavali eve greetings. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid a trade war with the US, President Xi Jinping on Monday urged the international community to oppose protectionism as he vowed to step-up China's imports of goods and services to over USD 40 trillion in the next 15 years. Inaugurating the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai in which India along with 172 other countries, regions and international organisations took part, Xi, in a thinly veiled attack on President Donald Trump, called for staunch opposition to protectionism and unilateralism. Leaders of 18 countries, including Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, are taking part in the mega event which is aimed at showcasing China's import potential. "In a world of deepening economic globalisation, practices of the law of the jungle and winner-takes-all only represent a dead end. Inclusive growth for all is surely the right way forward," Xi said. "Countries need to pursue an open policy, explicitly oppose protectionism and unilateralism, and strive to enhance the level of opening-up at both multilateral and bilateral levels, so that we could make our economies interconnected and build an open world economy," he said. Trump has launched a trade war with China in June slapping additional tariffs on USD 250 billion worth of Chinese imports. Trump has been insisting that China should cut down USD 375 billion trade deficit by providing more access to the American goods by ensuring IPR (Intellectual property rights) protection. India too has been pressuring China to take measures to bring down over USD 51 billion annual trade deficit, which was one of the main focus areas in the first informal meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi at Wuhan Summit in April. Xi also said China which is the largest exporter of goods piling up huge trade deficits with most of the countries will import more. China's imported goods and services are estimated to exceed USD 30 trillion and USD 10 trillion, respectively, in the next 15 years, Xi said. All major countries in the world including US and India, have massive trade deficits with China which is the leading exporter of the world. Indian pavilion at the expo showcased country's strong areas like Food and Agro Products, Pharmaceuticals, IT and IT Enabled Services (ITES), Tourism and Services Sectors to gain market access to China, an Indian Embassy press release here said. Xi said measures announced in April to relax market access to Chinese market have so far been implemented. China has further simplified negative list of foreign investments, reduced investment limits and lifted the level of free investment. China is taking solid steps to expand financial opening-up, continue to advance opening-up in the service sector, deepen opening-up in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and accelerate the opening-up process of sectors including telecommunications, education, medical treatment and culture, he said. He also sought to allay concerns about the continued slowdown of Chinese economy, saying that there is every reason to be fully confident about it. At present, China's economy remains generally stable and is making good progress, Xi said, citing data including the GDP growth of 6.7 per cent in the first three quarters of 2018. "China's economy is truly performing well within the reasonable range, giving us a solid foundation for delivering the development goals for the whole year," Xi said. Compared with other major economies, China still ranks among the world's top in terms of GDP growth, he asserted. "All in all, the favourable conditions are in place for the long-term, healthy and steady growth of the Chinese economy," he said. More than 3,000 companies participated in the enterprise and business exhibitions at the expo, with a total a total exhibition area of 300,000 square metres. Twelve countries - Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Vietnam and the UK - will be the "Guest of Honour" at the mega business event. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Priyanka Chopra's maiden Sikkimese production "Pahuna: The Little Visitors" is set to release on December 7. Produced under Priyanka and her mother Madhu Chopra's banner Purple Pebble Pictures, the film has been directed by Paakhi A Tyrewala. The film revolves around three Nepali children who get separated from their parents, escape the Maoists agitation in Nepal and flee to Sikkim. The 35-year-old actor took to Twitter to make the announcement on Monday. "The wait is finally over... 'Pahuna - The Little Visitors' releases in theatres across India on 7th Dec 2018. This is a very special film and I can't wait to share it with you all. #Pahuna7thDec," she wrote alongside the movie's poster. Paakhi said the film is a symbol of hope, something that helps people get by in a tough world. "Sometime it's easier to just give up. Hope is what we all need. Like one of the characters in the film says, 'It's never all dark, there is always light.' "Pahuna is full of hope. That is the reason it resonated with audiences young and old across the globe and now it's releasing in the country it was made and meant for," the director said in a statement. Madhu added the film is special as it addresses the far-reaching consequences for children when adults make harsh decisions. "This story is relevant globally in its appeal," she added. Last month, "Pahuna" was adjudged Best Film (Jury Choice) and Special Mention by Professional Jury in The International Feature Film Category at SCHLINGEL International Children's Film Festival in Germany. Co-produced by Children's Film Society, India (CFSI), the film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha Monday said a proposal for setting up a modern airport in Dhanbad would be brought, considering its demand. He further said that all big cities in Jharkhand, including, Hazaribagh and Medininagar would get airports to increase local air connectivity. Considering demand raised by coal city Dhanbad, the (aviation) ministry will bring a proposal for setting up a modern airport in Dhanbad, Sinha told a press conference in reply to a query. Sinha said that flight to Kolkata from Bokaro would start soon while Dhalbumgarh in East Singhbhum would be developed with modern facilities. He said that the number of operating flights connecting Jharkhand capital Ranchi to different metro cities has been doubled over the years. Sinha said there were only 10 to 12 flights from Ranchi connecting metro cities while now it has been increased to 30 flights and all metro cities including Delhi, Kolkata and Bangaluru, are well connected. Sinha, who represents the Lok Sabha from Hazaribagh, said rail services from Barkakana to Ranchi would be started from the end of the current fiscal year, which is a part of Koderma-Ranchi rail project. Sinha said that railway authorities have conveyed him that Barkakana--Ranchi rail line would be completed by March, 2019 and train movement will start on this new route. Replying to a question, Sinha said that Ramgarh district, which falls in the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha constituency, has received Rs 750 crore as district mineral fund for providing better civic amenities and development of mining district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Monday directed the state police force to remain on high alert ahead of Diwali festival on Wednesday, an official release said. The directions come a day after Army Chief General Bipan Rawat asked security agencies as well as the people of the country to remain vigilant during the ongoing festival season to prevent anti-national forces from succeeding in their nefarious designs. In the backdrop of recent attempts by Sikh hardliners, promoted by forces from across the border to foment trouble in the state, the Punjab chief minister reviewed the law and order and security situation at a meeting attended by Chief Principal Secretary to CM Suresh Kumar, Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora and DGP Intelligence Dinkar Gupta, among others. Amarinder directed the officials to ensure fool-proof security at all vital installations and other key places, such as crowded markets etc. and to maintain the highest level of security during the celebrations. The CM further ordered the police chief to crack down on, and to take immediate action against anyone found creating trouble in any way. It was the responsibility of the police to ensure safe Diwali for the people of Punjab, he added. Meanwhile, on the chief minister's directives, the Home department issued detailed guidelines for the District Magistrates to prevent any untoward incident due to sale or bursting of crackers during Diwali. The DMs have been asked to exercise powers under Explosive Rules, 2008 in a fair and judicious manner, said an official spokesperson, adding that as per as per these guidelines, crackers would be sold between 10 am to 7.30 pm till November 7. Temporary licences would be issued by the DM as per the directions of the High Court which is up to 20 per cent of the total number of temporary licences issued in the year 2016. The grant of issuance of temporary licenses shall be on the basis of draw of lots to be held by the concerned Deputy Commissioners (DCs) themselves, and their power shall not be delegated to anybody else under any circumstances. Safety provisions will be ensured near the areas designated for sale of crackers and crackers won't be allowed to be sold near National or State Highways, railway tracks and crowded areas, as per the guidelines issued to the DMs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Agitating farmers, demanding relaxation in moisture norms for paddy, blocked roads in parts of Punjab for several hours on Monday. Seven farmers' outfits, including Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) (Ekta) and Kirti Kisan Union Punjab, have come together to hold the protests. "We have been demanding that the norm for 17 per cent moisture content should be relaxed to 24 per cent as the farmers have been facing several problems in selling paddy crop because of high moisture content," BKU (Ekta) General Secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said. The protests were held at Ludhiana, Moga, Sangrur, Barnala, Mansa, Faridkot, Fazilka, Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur, said Kokrikalan. The protesters also criticised the government for delaying the sowing of paddy this season, claiming that it led to a loss of three quintals per acre. Earlier this year, the Punjab government issued a notification delaying paddy sowing by five days, to June 20, to save millions of litres of water, which may have otherwise been used by farmers. The farmers claimed rice sellers cut the price of their crop by three to five percent over high moisture content. They also demanded the withdrawal of cases and rollback of fines imposed on farmers for burning stubble. The protesters claimed small farmers have no option but to burn the crop residue. Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is a major contributor to air pollution in Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) No previous government has worked with the kind of "depth and seriousness" this dispensation has, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan said Monday as he hit back at Congress president Rahul Gandhi's barb at the Centre over the killing of tigress Avni. The government does not need a certificate from Rahul Gandhi, Vardhan said. He said a report has been sought by his ministry over the killing of Avni, who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of 13 people in the past two years, on Friday as part of an operation in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district. Earlier on Monday, Rahul Gandhi tweeted,"The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi #Avni." "The central government does not need a certificate from Rahul Gandhi. The kind of seriousness, depth and honesty that the central government works with, I think no other prior government has done it like this," Vardhan said on the sidelines of an event. Asked if his ministry has sought a report, the Minister said,"This is a natural process. Whenever there is any incident, report comes to the department." Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi Sunday lashed out at the BJP-led Maharashtra government over the "ghastly murder" of the man-eating tigress, calling it a "straight case of crime". Maneka Gandhi had said she was deeply saddened by the way the tigress was brutally killed. "It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing," she said in a series of tweets. She said she is going to take up the matter "very strongly" with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Mungantiwar said on Monday that Maneka Gandhi "lacks information" on the issue and can order a high-level probe if she so desires. The killing of Avni, who is survived by her two cubs who are 10 months old, has also been criticised by animal and wildlife bodies. Animal rights body PETA India said Saturday the killing of a tiger as part of an operation in Maharashtra should be investigated and treated as a wildlife crime, and termed it a "dark day" for the nation. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India said Avni was killed "illegally to satisfy a hunter's lust for blood", in contempt of court and in apparent violation of the Wildlife Protection Act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Saudi Arabia sent two experts to Istanbul with the specific aim of covering up evidence after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its consulate in Istanbul, a Turkish official said on Monday. More than a month after the Saudi royal-insider-turned critic was killed inside the mission on October 2, Turkey has still yet to recover the remains amid claims that his body was dissolved in acid. The killing of the 59-year-old has severely dented the kingdom's image in the West and put powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the defensive. "We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of Jamal Khashoggi's murder before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises," a senior Turkish official said, asking not to be named. The official confirmed a report in the Sabah newspaper saying that chemicals expert Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were among a team sent from Saudi Arabia purportedly to investigate the murder last month. The report said they visited the consulate every day from their arrival on October 11 until October 17. Saudi Arabia only allowed Turkish police to finally search the consulate on October 15. After weeks of allegations in pro-government media, Turkey's chief prosecutor last week confirmed Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and the body was dismembered. But despite intensive searches by Turkish police, there is still no trace of his remains. The sons of Khashoggi, Salah and Abdullah, told CNN they wanted Saudi Arabia to return the body so that he could be buried in Medina with the rest of his family. Turkey's allegation of the deployment of a "clean-up" team came after Yasin Aktay, an advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hinted Friday that the body may even have been destroyed in acid. Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told the official Anadolu agency Monday that "all those reports should be investigated". Although Riyadh has arrested 18 individuals on suspicion of involvement, the key question remains over who gave the order to kill Khashoggi. In an editorial published in The Washington Post Friday, Erdogan said it came from "the highest levels" of the Saudi government, while he did "not believe for a second" that Saudi's King Salman had ordered the crime. Turkish media have pointed the finger at powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and analysts have said Ankara is keen to have the heir sidelined from the nexus of power in Riyadh. "Yes, a murder was committed and it was premeditated. Who gave the command for this murder to be carried out on Turkish soil?" Oktay echoed the president's question in Monday's interview. However, Erdogan has yet to directly accuse Prince Mohammed, who has condemned the murder "a repulsive incident". The unnamed Turkish official said Monday: "The fact that a clean-up team was dispatched from Saudi Arabia nine days after the murder suggests that Khashoggi's slaying was within the knowledge of top Saudi official." Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb met with Turkish authorities last week in Istanbul. But this visit appeared to be a fiasco, with the Saudi official refusing to share information from Riyadh's own investigation, according to Turkish officials. Prince Mohammed had been heralded in some quarters before the murder as a modern Arab reformer spearheading a bold vision to transform the country and make it less dependent on energy resources. That image has now been severely battered. There is also a new international focus on Saudi's involvement in the war in Yemen where 14 million people now stand at the brink of famine in Yemen in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The outrage has alarmed business leaders seeking a foothold in the crown prince's reform drive but many have insisted they have no intention of pulling out. Masayoshi Son, the head of Japanese firm SoftBank which has major investments in Saudi Arabia, on Monday condemned the killing but indicated he would continue to do business with the kingdom. "As horrible as this event was, we cannot turn our backs on the Saudi people as we work to help them in their continued efforts to reform and modernise their society. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the controversial killing of tigress Avni in Maharashtra kicked up a row, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Monday preliminary reports showed that the forest department team shot her in "self-defence" after it was attacked while trying to tranquilise the animal. Fadnavis also said any procedural lapse in the incident will be probed even as Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and Union minister Harsh Vardhan were locked in a spat over the killing of the 5-year-old tigress. The tigress, officially as T1 and believed to be responsible for the deaths of 13 people in the past two years., was shot dead by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali in the Borati forest in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district Friday as part of an operation. Fadnavis said preliminary reports made available to him stated that the tigress was shot after she attacked the forest staff trying to tranquilise her. "There is no happiness over the killing. The forest department took the decision since she had killed 13 to 14 people. There are some doubts regarding whether the tigress was first shot and then the dart inserted, this aspect will be probed," he told reporters in Mumbai. "We speak of increasing tiger population and conserving wildlife, and then unfortunately such a decision had to be taken. The tiger is a gentleman. He attacks only if his habitat is violated. Preliminary reports with me say the tigress attacked the forest department team and she was shot in self defence," the chief minister said. "Hunter Asghar Ali was hired by the forest department. The doubts raised regarding the killing will be verified." Asked to comment on Union Minister Maneka Gandhi's statements on the killing, Fadnavis said she had used "harsh words". In a series of tweets on Sunday Gandhi said, "It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, minister for forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing." "She (Maneka) has used harsh words. But her sentiments should be understood. All animal lovers' sentiments are harsh regarding this incident. It was a difficult decision. Whether the procedure was correct or not will be checked," Fadnavis added. Earlier in the day, Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar also crossed swords with Maneka Gandhi and claimed that the latter "lacked information" on the issue. "Instead of lodging a complaint with the chief minister, the union minister (Maneka Gandhi), if she wants, can order a high-level inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge or a committee of sitting Supreme Court judges," said Mungantiwar. Vardhan said no previous union government has worked with the kind of "depth and seriousness" the current dispensation has, as he hit back at Rahul Gandhi over his barb at the Centre on the killing of the tigress. The government does not need a certificate from Rahul Gandhi, Vardhan said. He said a report has been sought by his ministry from the Maharashtra government. Earlier on Monday, Rahul Gandhi tweeted,"The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi #Avni." "The central government does not need a certificate from Rahul Gandhi. The kind of seriousness, depth and honesty that the central government works with, I think no other prior government has done it like this," Vardhan said on the sidelines of an event in Delhi. Asked if his ministry has sought a report, the Minister said, "This is a natural process. Whenever there is any incident, a report comes to the department." The killing of Avni, who is survived by her two cubs who are 10 months old, has also been criticised by animal and wildlife bodies. Animal rights body PETA India said the killing should be investigated and treated as a wildlife crime, and termed it a "dark day" for the nation. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India said Avni was killed "illegally to satisfy a hunter's lust for blood", in contempt of court and in apparent violation of the Wildlife Protection Act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The forum, hosted within the framework of French Prime Minister Edouard Philippes visit to Vietnam, brings chances for businesses from the two sides to learn about investment opportunities in Vietnam as well as France. Mr. Henri Charles Claude, chairman of CCIFV, said that Vietnams efforts in administrative reform and investment environment improvement have created a transparent and attractive mechanism to foreign investors. According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, there are 2,458 FDI projects licensed as of October this year with registered capital totaling US$15.028 billion. Currently, 72 nations and territories have projects newly licensed in Vietnam. Japan is the largest investor with the total capital of over $5.89 billion accounting for 39.2 percent of registered funds. It is followed by South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and China. French firms have been present in Vietnam for over 20 years but their presence has not been clear. Delegates at the forum said that there are three potential fields which French firms need to calculate investment including infrastructure, information technology and consumer market. In infrastructure field, Vietnam has thousands of export processing zones, industrial parks and urban areas but few businesses have invested in waste collection and treatment facilities. In addition, Vietnam is one of ten nations predicted to be worst affected by climate change. Hence, infrastructure projects on anti-flooding and renewable energy will be necessary in the upcoming time. The Vietnamese Government is heading toward digital economy. Smart cities projects have been implemented in HCMC, Binh Duong and Da Nang. Asides from that, Vietnamese businesses have applied digital production models. Mr. Truong Gia Binh, chairman of FPT Group, said that the IT industry has maintained the growth rate of 16 percent a year. Software making industry is expected to keep the growth rate of 25 percent a year in the next three years. Currently, Vietnam has 78,000 IT engineers, 300 universities training 55,000 students in the field. They are expected to train one million IT students by 2020. Retail market scale reached $130 billion last year. The number is expected to quickly increase to hit $280 billion in the next seven years. E-commerce now accounts for 2 percent of the retail market scale, the ratio is predicted to reach 7.7 percent in the next seven years. Representative of French Andros Group said that consumer product especially health and beauty products will have advantages in Vietnamese market. Mr. Francois Corbin, chairman of the French Business Confederation (MEDEF), said there have been 13 delegations of French businesses coming to learn about investment and development environment in Vietnam this year. Vietnam has signed lot of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTA) with many countries in the world. That has not only opened opportunities for Vietnamese but also foreign firms to invest in the country. There are lot of forms for French businesses to speed up investment in Vietnam such as foreign direct investment, joint ventures with domestic companies, merger and acquisition and franchise. Some Vietnamese businesses have well developed such as Thaco Truong Hai, Vingroup, Vietjet Air and Viettel. In addition, there are some state own enterprises who have been equitized quickly such as Vinamilk and Sabeco. These enterprises have not only taken advantage of domestic resources but also focused on mobilizing foreign financial sources to strongly develop domestic and foreign market share. One of difficulties is that Vietnam-EU free trade agreement has not been approved. Tariffs on goods imported from the EU to Vietnam have been high and that has heavily affected the competitive ability of European companies in the Vietnamese market. In addition, operations to fight intellectual property right violations and counterfeits have been ineffective. Mr. Gerald Darmanin, Minister of Public Action and Accounts, said that France will effort to soon pass the Vietnam-EU FTA. At the forum, many Vietnamese and French firms have signed investment memorandum of cooperation in renewable energy, infrastructure and information technology fields. By AI VAN Translated by Hai Mien A day after a ruckus at the inaugural function of the Signature Bridge here, several police complaints were filed Monday by the Delhi BJP, including one by its president Manoj Tiwari, alleging that he was threatened and pushed by an AAP MLA at the event. Tiwari filed his complaint through e-mail to the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) of northeast Delhi, Delhi BJP's media relations cell head Neelkant Bakshi said. "In his complaint, the Delhi BJP president has alleged that he was threatened by Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan at the inaugural function Sunday," Bakshi told PTI. Besides, four other complaints were filed by the office-bearers and workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Delhi unit, alleging violence by AAP workers, he said. Khan has denied the charge that he threatened Tiwari, saying it is "laughable". Tiwari has alleged that Khan threatened to shoot him and pushed him from the stage, where the inaugural function was going on. "Anyone can allege this. He (Tiwari) should present evidence if he has any in support of his allegation," Khan said. The acrimony over the ruckus involving the AAP and the BJP at the event continues with the former demanding Tiwari's arrest for "rioting" and posing "a threat to the security" of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers. Senior AAP leader Dilip Pandey said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh should order Tiwari's arrest. A senior Delhi Police officer said one complaint from the AAP and five from the BJP were received in connection with Sunday's incident, adding that no case was lodged on the basis of the complaints so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hundreds of police personnel, armed commandos, surveillance cameras and mobile jammers have turned Sabarimala, the abode of Lord Ayyappa, into a virtual fortress, hours before it opens Monday evening for a special puja. The unprecedented security arrangements have been made in the backdrop of protests by devotees and Hindu outfits from October 17-22 opposing the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government's decision to implement the landmark Supreme Court verdict permitting women of all age groups to offer prayers at the hill shrine. However, the security arrangements have not gone down well with the devotees and right wing activists who protested at several places against the restrictions at Sabarimala, considered the sacred grove of Lord Ayyappa, a celibate. The temple would open at 5 pm and close at 10 pm Monday for the "Sree Chitira Atta Thirunal" puja slated for Tuesday, marking the birthday of the last king of the princely state of Travancore, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. The government and police machinery is on high alert to avoid any untoward incidents in and around the shrine, where ban orders under CrPC 144 are in force till Tuesday night. Pathnamthitta Superintendent of Police T Narayanan had Sunday told PTI that all arrangements have been made for devotees to ensure smooth 'darshan'. Around 2,300 personnel, including a 20-member commando team and 100 women, have been deployed for the security of the devotees. At least 15 women police personnel, who are over 50 years of age, have been deployed at the 'Sannidhanam' (temple complex), police said. TV footage showed devotees locked in a war of words with police at several places along the route from Nilackal to Pamba, the key base camps on way to the shrine. Besides being unsettled by the intense checking by the police, the pilgrims also complained about the lack of amenities at the base camps, which had witnessed widespread damage during the August deluge. A group of devotees, who arrived at Erumeli since Sunday evening, protested this morning when they were not allowed to leave for Pamba. They blocked road traffic chanting 'Ayyappa Saranam' mantra. Another batch of devotees complained that women police personnel asked their names and identity cards while travelling to Pamba in a state-run bus. "They stopped the bus and asked our names and demanded that we show the identity cards. I said my name is Ayyappa... everyone in our group said the same (as the Ayyappa devotees are called). "In Sabarimala, everyone is Ayyappa... devotees call each other as swamy," a devotee, carrying the sacred 'irumudikettu' (offerings to Lord Ayyappa) on his head, told a TV channel. Another young devotee said he was not allowed to chant 'Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa' by the security officials. Several devotees could be seen walking to Pamba after waiting for the Kerala State Transport buses at Nilackal Around 500 devotees, who reached Pamba after walking for several hours, blocked road traffic en-route in protest. Media personnel were also not allowed to leave Nilackal for Pamba, the last entry point, and 'Sannidhanam' in the morning but the restriction was lifted later. Some women journalists proceeded to Pamba with police escort. Hindu outfits, agitating against entry of women of menstrual age into Sabariamala, Sunday had urged media houses not to depute women journalists under 50 to cover the issue. A series of surveillance cameras have been installed at several points in an around the temple complex. Local TV channels reported that mobile jammers have been installed in front of the room of 'tantri' (head priest), Kadararu Rajeevaru at the temple complex and some other places. They also said police have restrained the priest from speaking to media. Police have already prepared a registry of right wing activists who are likely to reach the shrine to take part in the agitation against the entry of young women. The BJP and various Hindu outfits are on a warpath against the Left-front government over its decision not to seek a review of the top court verdict lifting the ban on entry of women in 10-50 age group. So far, 3,731 people have been arrested and 545 cases registered in connection with last month's protests and violence. Around a dozen women in the age group of 10-50 were prevented from reaching the temple and police and the agitators fought a pitched battle last month over the LDF government's decision to implement the court order. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The sons of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi have appealed to Riyadh to return the body of their father so that the grieving family can bury him in a cemetery in the holy city of Medina with the rest of his clan. Khashoggi was brutally killed inside Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul by a hit squad sent from Riyadh on October 2. Authorities in Turkey are still searching for Khashoggi's remains. Last week, the Turkish chief prosecutor's office said the 60-year-old's body was dismembered after he was strangled, while the Washington Post reported investigators were looking into the theory that the body was dissolved in acid. Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi, who called their father "courageous, generous and very brave," said they have endured weeks of anguish and uncertainty following his disappearance and death. "I really hope that whatever happened wasn't painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death," Abdullah Khashoggi, 33, told CNN in Washington with his brother, Salah, 35. Without their father's body, the brothers say their family is unable to grieve or find closure. "All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina (Saudi Arabia) with the rest of his family," Salah said. "I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon." Saudi Arabia has presented an evolving narrative about what happened to Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen, when he entered the consulate to get papers for his wedding with a Turkish national. Saudi authorities initially denied all knowledge of his fate before later admitting that a group of rogue operators, many part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's inner circle, were responsible. Riyadh has maintained that neither bin Salman nor his father, King Salman, knew of the operation to target Khashoggi. But what has really come to trouble his two sons, their two sisters and their mother are the lies, they say, that have sprung up since Khashoggi's death. Abdullah and Salah emphasised that their father was not a dissident and has been misunderstood and intentionally misrepresented for political reasons. "Jamal was a moderate person. He was liked by everybody. He had differences and common values with everyone," Salah said, describing Khashoggi as a genuine, happy person and an "amazing" father. "I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don't agree with." "Public opinion is important... but my fear is that it's being over politicised. People are throwing analysis that may direct us away from the truth.""Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. And he believed in the transformation that it is going through."Asked how Khashoggi should be remembered, Salah replied, "as a moderate man who has common values with everyone... a man who loved his country, who believed so much in it and its potential."Reflecting on their father's career as a journalist, they say Khashoggi was "like a rock and roll star" when they were out with him in Saudi Arabia. Salah says he is waiting for the investigation to be over and for the facts to come out. "The King has stressed that everybody involved will be brought to justice. And I have faith in that...," Salah said. Asked if he was placing his faith in the King, Salah replied: "yes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) deployed a chemist and toxicology expert to after the murder of in an attempt to cover up evidence of the killing, a Turkish newspaper reported on Monday. The murder of the Saudi royal-insider-turned critic inside Saudi Arabia's consulate in has provoked widespread outrage. Turkish authorities have released gruesome details of a killing that has said was a targeted hit. While officials have admitted the murder was planned, they have so far declined to release details of the whereabouts of the 59-year-old journalist's missing body. According to Turkey's pro-government Sabah daily, sent an 11-member "cover-up team" to on October 11, nine days after the Washington Post contributor vanished after entering the diplomatic compound to obtain paperwork for his marriage. The paper said chemist Ahmad Abdulaziz Aljanobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya Al Zahrani were among "the so-called investigative team", which visited the consulate every day until October 17, before leaving on October 20. finally allowed Turkish police to search the consulate for the first time on October 15. Turkey's chief prosecutor said last week that was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and also confirmed the body was dismembered. Yasin Aktay, an advisor to Erdogan, hinted in an article published on Friday that the body may even have been destroyed in acid. In an editorial published in The Washington Post, Erdogan accused authorities in of refusing to answer key questions about the murder, despite their arrest of 18 suspects a fortnight ago. He said the order to murder the came from "the highest levels" of the Saudi government, adding that he did "not believe for a second" that King Salman was to blame. But he pointedly failed to absolve Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of responsibility for unleashing a "death squad" against the outspoken Saudi The murder has badly tainted the kingdom's de facto ruler. Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb met with Turkish authorities last week in Istanbul but refused to share information from Riyadh's own investigation, according to Turkish officials. A 60 year-old man was crushed to death by a school bus near Vikramshila excavation site in Bihar's Bhagalpur district on Monday. All the 20 children of the school bus are safe and have been sent to their homes, Kahalgaon Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Dilnawaz Ahmad said. The deceased has been identified as Prasadi Paswan (60), a resident of Kasri village of the district, he added. The incident occurred near Vikramshila excavation site under the jurisdiction of Antichak police station when the old man came under the wheels and died on the spot while the bus was moving in the reverse direction, Ahmad said. The bus was on its way towards Gurukripa Academy located at Kahalgaon after picking up children from local areas, he said. The SDPO said that the driver and cleaner managed to escape from the spot while the bus has been seized. Local villagers staged protest over the incident with the dead body and blocked the Kahalgaon-Vikramshila road for an hour which was lifted after intervention of the adminstration. The body has been sent to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, Bhagalpur for post-mortem. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress and other parties of the proposed "grand alliance" for December 7 Assembly elections in Telangana held talks Monday on seat-sharing amid demands from the CPI and TJS for an appropriate share. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy and leaders of other parties held talks and the talks would continue, party sources said. Reddy told reporters that he would go to Delhi tomorrow as part of his party's consultation process on finalising the candidates. The proposed alliance comprises Congress, TDP, CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS). AICC incharge of party affairs in Telangana RC Khuntia said seat-sharing among the parties would be finalised by November 9. "Talks are on with all. It has nearly concluded. You will come to know by (November) 9th. There is no problem in seat sharing of the alliance," he said. "Talks are on with the TJS, TDP, CPI. You will come to know by (November) 9th. All the lists also will be released," he said. Khuntia was replying to a query about seat-sharing among "grand alliance" partners and the TJS reportedly seeking more seats than what was offered. The Gazette notification for the polls will be issued on November 12 and the last date of nominations is November 19, according to the schedule released by the Election Commission. There are a total of 119 assembly seats in Telangana. The TDP, TJS and CPI are reportedly seeking 18, 14, and at least five seats respectively. Meanwhile, the TJS expressed confidence that the "grand alliance" would be in place by Diwali on November 7. "(We) believe that the alliance would be in place by Diwali (November 7)," TJS president M Kodandaram told reporters. He said talks would continue with Congress leaders. The TJS leader said there has been a one month delay in finalising the alliance, which had 'disapppointed' several people's organisations, keen on taking up the campaign. CPI, meanwhile, announced names of nine assembly segments where it wants to contest. CPI state secretary Chada Venkata Reddy, who made the announcement said his party wants the alliance to be strengthened. He said his party was ready to reduce the number of seats in a spirit of mutual understanding. CPI had earlier expressed dissatisfaction over alleged leaks to media that it would be given two-three seats in seat-sharing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress, which is leading the "grand alliance" of opposition parties for the December 7 Legislative Assembly elections in Telangana, Monday said seat-sharing among the parties would be finalised by November 9. "Talks are on with all. Nearly, it has concluded. You will come to know by (November) 9th. There is no problem in seat sharing of the alliance," RC Khuntia, AICC incharge of party affairs in Telangana, told reporters here. The "grand alliance" comprises Congress, Telugu Desam party, CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS). "Talks are on with TJS, TDP, CPI. You will come to know by (November) 9th. All the list also will be released," Khuntia said. He was replying to a query about seat-sharing among "grand alliance" partners and the TJS reportedly seeking more seats than what it was offered. The Gazette notification for the elections will be issued on November 12 and the last date of nominations is November 19, according to the schedule released by the Election Commission. There are a total of 119 assembly seats in the state. The TDP, TJS and CPI are reportedly seeking 18, 14, and at least five seats respectively as part of seat-sharing. Earlier, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) Telangana unit leaders announced support to the Congress. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday demanded the arrest of Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari for "rioting" and "posing a threat" to the security of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Tiwari and his supporters allegedly got into a scuffle with AAP members and police at the inaugural event of the newly-built Signature Bridge here on Sunday. The BJP leader had gone to the event to stage a protest for allegedly not being invited to the inauguration despite being Member of Parliament from the area. AAP's East Delhi Lok Sabha seat in-charge Atishi Marlena alleged Tiwari had gone to the venue for "rioting". "Police was directly or indirectly involved in it and allowed Tiwari and his supporters to reach the stage where the chief minister and other ministers were present, thus posing a threat to their security," she said. Senior AAP leader Dilip Pandey said a party worker, who was injured in Sunday's incident, has filed a police complaint. The Delhi government is also exploring legal options in view of the Delhi police's "failure" to keep "BJP's hooligans" away from the venue, he added. Pandey said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh should salvage the image of the BJP and the Delhi Police by ordering Tiwari's arrest. The BJP had on Sunday said that AAP MLA Amantullah Khan used abusive language and pushed Tiwari. Panday said Khan did it to prevent Tiwari from getting onto the stage. "Khan should not have pushed him. He was only trying to stop him from coming onto the stage, where Kejriwal and other leaders were present," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mexican authorities have accused six municipal police officers of being responsible for the extrajudicial killings of two people in violence-wracked Veracruz state. The police officers were charged with homicide and failure to prevent the crimes that transpired, the local state prosecutor said in a statement Sunday. The murders took place Thursday in Orizaba, a town about 250 kilometres outside Mexico City, when police fired on Ernesto Perez Gonzalez and his brother Roman. Police suspected in these crimes have been detained and are being held in a medium security prison. This is not the first time civilians have been attacked by law enforcement agencies in Veracruz state, where organised crime groups are active and there is a significant record of people going missing. In October, eight state police officers accused of the enforced disappearance of a person in 2014 were arrested. Then in February, the government of Veracruz imprisoned 19 policemen who were active and three commanders during the previous administration in the suspected abduction and killings of people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South Korea's First Lady Kim Jung-sook arrived here Monday to a rousing reception at the Amausi airport. She was received by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who welcomed her with a bouquet. Kim, who reached India Sunday on a four-day visit, is scheduled to participate in Diwali festivities and the ground-breaking ceremony for building a memorial for a Korean queen in Ayodhya Tuesday. "Affectionate bonding. EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on the First Lady of the Republic of Korea, Mrs Kim Jung-sook. India and ROK (Republic of Korea) share a special strategic partnership since 2015 and our relations have deepened and diversified in recent years," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted earlier. "The First Lady's participation in the festivities in Ayodhya will showcase our close civilisational links as well as the ongoing deepening engagement between our two countries," the MEA had said last week. According to Korean legends, Princess Suriratna from Ayodhya had travelled to Korea and married King Kim Suro and became Queen Heo Hwang-ok some 2000 years ago. The South Korean First Lady will also attend the 'Deepotsav' event in Ayodhya Tuesday evening. Kim will leave for Agra on Wednesday for a visit to the Taj Mahal before flying back home. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The order was a recognition of the schools excellent performance in education and training, contributing to the national cause of building socialism and safeguarding the country. Ngan congratulated Chu Van An High School and generations of teachers and students on the schools 110th founding anniversary (1908 2018), saying as one of the oldest schools in the country, Chu Van An, previously known as Buoi School, was the place where many well-known figures started their career as teachers like literary scholar and educationalist Duong Quang Ham, professor of mathematics, linguist, historian and educationalist Hoang Xuan Han and late Minister of Education Nguyen Van Huyen Hundreds of the schools alumni have become successful scientists, engineers, doctors, artists, farmed force heroes and businessmen. The school has also produced many Vietnamese great leaders, including General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Van Cu and Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, she said. President Ho Chi Minh visited the school five times and launched revolutionary education movements here, she added. She further noted that during more than a century since Chu Van An High School was established, it has remained as one of the top education providers of the country with high numbers of students who pass high school and university entrance exams, and study broad. The top legislator praised the school for well preserving traditional values and fostering innovation to make breakthroughs in the era of integration. Good progress has been seen in the schools provision of the dual degree programme of Vietnamese national high school diploma and Cambridge International A-level as well as the implementation of the pilot project to develop it as a high-quality national school that meets international standards, she said, adding that it has reflected the schools great efforts to becoming more dynamic. Ngan hoped that the schools teachers, staff and students will keep up their good work to live up to the reputation of a school named after famous teacher Chu Van An and the trust of the Party, State and people. Vietnamplus South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-sook met Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday as they discussed ways to promote people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. Kim is visiting India at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi and she will be the chief guest at the 'Deepotsav' event being organised by the Uttar Pradesh government and the ground-breaking ceremony of the new memorial of queen Suriratna (Heo Hwang-ok) in Ayodhya on Tuesday. In their meeting on Monday, Modi and Kim discussed the deep civilisational and spiritual links between India and Korea, and exchanged views on promoting people-to-people exchanges, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said. She also congratulated the prime minister on being awarded the Seoul Peace Prize. The prime minister said this honour truly belongs to the people of India. Modi also warmly recalled the successful visit of President Moon Jae-in to India in July 2018, which imparted fresh momentum to India-Korea Special Strategic Partnership. Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had called on Kim. The Korean first lady also interacted with school students here on Monday, the first of her official engagements during her India visit. Kim arrived here Sunday on a four-day visit. "Affectionate bonding. EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on the First Lady of the Republic of Korea, Mrs Kim Jung-sook. India and ROK (Republic of Korea) share a special strategic partnership since 2015 and our relations have deepened and diversified in recent years," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. After her meeting with Swaraj, the first lady visited the ASN Senior Secondary school in East Delhi where she interacted with students. The school has a tie up with South Korea's Jeonnam (Chonnam) Foreign Language High School since 2015 and the institutes have an exchange programme for their students and teachers. Addressing a group of students, Kim urged them to study hard and help in the growth of their nations. The future generation will help in further cementing the Indo-Korean ties, she said. With the political leadership in India and Korea working to strengthen ties, the students will get more opportunities to visit each others countries, she said. The Korean first lady will visit Lucknow and from there, on Tuesday, she will leave for Ayodhya where she will attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the Queen Suriratna memorial. "The First Lady's participation in the festivities in Ayodhya will showcase our close civilisational links as well as the ongoing deepening engagement between our two countries," the MEA had said last week. According to Korean legends, Princess Suriratna from Ayodhya had travelled to Korea and married King Kim Suro and became Queen Heo Hwang-ok some 2000 years ago. The South Korean First Lady will also attend the 'Deepotsav' event in the evening on Tuesday. Kim will leave for Agra on Wednesday for a visit to thee Taj Mahal before heading home. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four days after the killing of five persons in Tinsukia district, the Assam government Monday transferred Sadiya police district SP Prasanta Sagar Changmai with immediate effect. Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia of the Congress demanded a judicial probe into the killings "In the interest of public service, Prasanta Sagar Changmai, Superintendent of Police, Sadiya, is transferred," an official notification of the Home Department said. Changmai and Debojit Deuri, Commandant of the 24th AP(IR)Bn at Charaimari in Baksa, would exchange their places of posting, according to the notification. Suspected militants in battle fatigue shot dead five Bengali-speaking persons, including three members of a family, beside a bridge near Kheronibari village Thursday night. The village falls under the Sadiya police district. Meanwhile, Saikia demanded a judicial probe into the killings, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government was using the administrative machinery to create division in the society for vote-bank politics. "Almost everyone could foresee a violent incident occurring in Assam, yet the state government ignored all the warning signs and remained a mute spectator," he said. Saikia visited the family members of those killed and said the state government should take steps to protect the lives and properties of all sections of the society. The Congress leader accused the BJP-led government of being partial in taking action against those fomenting trouble and claimed that no action was taken against the leaders of the saffron party for their inflammatory speeches, though two pro-talks ULFA leaders were arrested for the same reason. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had Friday blamed inflammatory speeches by individuals and organisations for the killings and the two leaders of the pro-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) were arrested for making provocative statements on various occasions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thirteen sub-Saharan African migrants died and another 80 were rescued at sea after they tried to reach Spain in two boats from the North African coast, Spanish authorities has said. Increasing numbers of migrants are trying to enter Spain by sea or by crossing into the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco, which are the only European territories in Africa. "The coast guard recovered two vessels heading toward the peninsula, with 93 people, 13 of whom have unfortunately died," the Spanish government delegation in Melilla said in a statement on Monday. It said nine of the dead -- all men -- were recovered at sea and Red Cross efforts to revive four others also failed. The two vessels were recovered 32 km off the coast of Melilla, it said, without giving details on the state of the vessels. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 47,000 migrants have arrived by sea in Spain since the start of the year and another 564 have died or disappeared during the journey, often made onboard overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-sook met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and interacted with school students here on Monday, the first of her official engagements during her India visit. Kim, who arrived here Sunday on a four-day visit, will also participate in Diwali festivities and the ground-breaking ceremony of a memorial for a Korean queen in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. "Affectionate bonding. EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on the First Lady of the Republic of Korea, Mrs Kim Jung-sook. India and ROK (Republic of Korea) share a special strategic partnership since 2015 and our relations have deepened and diversified in recent years," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. After her meeting with Swaraj, the first lady visited the ASN Senior Secondary school in East Delhi where she interacted with students. The school has a tie up with South Korea's Jeonnam (Chonnam) Foreign Language High School since 2015 and the institutes have an exchange programme for their students and teachers. Addressing a group of students, Kim urged them to study hard and help in the growth of their nations. The future generation will help in further cementing the Indo-Korean ties, she said. With the political leadership in India and Korea working to strengthen ties, the students will get more opportunities to visit each others countries, she said. The Korean first lady will visit Lucknow and from there, on Tuesday, she will leave for Ayodhya where she will attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the Queen Suriratna (Heo Hwang-ok) memorial. "The First Lady's participation in the festivities in Ayodhya will showcase our close civilisational links as well as the ongoing deepening engagement between our two countries," the MEA had said last week. According to Korean legends, Princess Suriratna from Ayodhya had travelled to Korea and married King Kim Suro and became Queen Heo Hwang-ok some 2000 years ago. The South Korean First Lady will also attend the 'Deepotsav' event in the evening on Tuesday. Kim will leave for Agra on Wednesday for a visit to thee Taj Mahal before heading home. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik Monday asked the state administration to take prompt action to alleviate the miseries of the people hit by heavy snowfall in the region. Chairing a review meeting at the Civil Secretariat here, Malik said stringent action must be taken against traffic offenders. Overloading, over-speeding and all unfit vehicles must be penalised, the governor told the officials. Malik said survey of damaged apple orchards due to heavy snowfall must be undertaken at the earliest, an official spokesman said. He assessed the adequacy of food stock, fuel, supply of electricity and other basic amenities in areas where heavy snowfall was reported. The governor reviewed the schedules of examinations and preparedness of the school education department to facilitate students during the "harsh" winter months. Expressing serious concern over frequent road accidents, the governor asked for strict compliance of road safety norms and the stern dealing with traffic offenders. He advised the transport department to screen untrained and medically unfit drivers. Reviewing the functioning of the health sector, the governor enquired about the preparedness to launch Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission in the state. Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said the scheme will be launched on December 1 and all identified families would be provided insurance cover by December 15, 2018. The governor also reviewed the law and order situation in the state and the work being done by the district administration of Kishtwar to maintain peace. Later, the governor emphasised the need for the state administration to function with speed, efficiency and accountability. Advisors to the governor Khurshid Ganai, B B Vyas, K Vijay Kumar, Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, DGP Dilbagh Singh, Financial Commissioner of Housing and Urban Development Department K B Agarwal, Principal Secretary to Governor Umang Narula, Principal Secretary of Home R K Goyal, Principal Secretary of Finance Navin K Choudhary, Principal Secretary of Planning Rohit Kansal and administrative secretaries of various departments attended the meeting. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Taliban is demanding the body of an assassin who shot dead a powerful Afghan police chief, in return for the remains of 13 people killed in an army helicopter crash in territory controlled by the militants. Tribal elders in the restive western province of Farah bordering Iran have been handling negotiations for the exchange of bodies for nearly a week. So far only 12 of the 25 people killed in the helicopter accident in Taliban-controlled Anar Dara district on October 31 have been given to Afghan authorities. Officials blamed bad weather for the crash, but the Taliban claimed its fighters brought down the aircraft. "We want to hand over the bodies from the helicopter crash to their respective families via the International Committee for the Red Cross, but on condition that the enemy hand over the body of martyred fighter Zabihullah Abu Dajana, who killed Commander Abdul Raziq, to his family," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said in WhatsApp message. Among the bodies returned were those of provincial councillor Jamila Amini, civilians and businessmen, Farah governor spokesman Nasir Mehri told AFP. "No military officials have been recovered yet," Mehri said. Farah police spokesman Mohibullah Mohib confirmed that 12 bodies had been recovered thanks to the efforts of tribal elders. "The rest of them are still with the enemy," he added. The bodies still in Taliban hands include those of the deputy army corps commander for western Afghanistan and the head of the Farah provincial council. Such horse-trading of bodies between the Taliban and tribal elders acting on behalf of the Afghan government is not unusual. But the remains of the gunman who killed General Abdul Raziq, a renowned anti-Taliban strongman credited with keeping a lid on the insurgency in the south, has particularly high propaganda value for the militant group. Raziq was among three people killed when the shooter wearing an Afghan security forces uniform opened fire on a high-level security meeting in Kandahar city on October 18. General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, was standing near Raziq and narrowly escaped unhurt. Since the attack, the killer's body has been kept in the morgue of Mirawais hospital in the provincial capital, a Kandahar health official told AFP on the condition of anonymity. Muslims typically bury the dead as quickly as possible, normally within 24 hours of a person's death. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tata Steel Ltd is eyeing an installed capacity of around 30 million tonne per annum by 2025 in India from the existing 18.5 million tonne, a senior company official said on Monday. The steel major has recently taken over Bhushan Steel and Usha Martin plants, which has a combined rated capacity of 7 million tonne per annum. "With expansion and new capacities, we expect that by 2025, we can have 30 million tonne capacity in India," Tata Steel (India) President-Steel Business, Anand Sen said here. He was speaking about Tata Steel in context to the steel sector's performance and outlook, on the sidelines of a curtain raiser event for an upcoming Indian Institute of Metals' programme. Sen said the planned 30-million-tonne capacity was based on the projected capacity of the Kalinganagar plant to 8 million tonne after its second phase of expansion, the Jamshedpur plant (13.5 million tonne) and the two recently-acquired steel companies. The total capacity of the steel giant stands at 27 million tonne, taking into account its European operations. Speaking about Bhushan Steel, Sen said in the current fiscal, it will achieve 4-4.2 million tonne production. "We are still evaluating capex in the plant (Bhushan Steel), but estimate it may require about Rs 500-1,000 crore," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tata Steel Ltd will adopt a unified branding strategy for all newly-acquired companies, a top official of the steel major said on Monday. The company has recently taken over stressed steel plants of Bhushan Steel and the steel business of Usha Martin. It is also vying for more assets referred to the NCLT. "We will have unified branding of Tata Steel for all the companies, so as to not confuse consumers. However, it would be done only after they are upgraded to meet standards of Tata's quality," Tata Steel (India) President-Steel Business, Anand Sen told PTI. Bhushan Steel's own brand will continue to be in place for now, he said. Sources in Tata Steel had earlier said there are several areas that require upgrades in Bhushan Steel plants to meet the standards of the steel giant. Tata Steel is planning a Rs 500-1,000 crore capex in those plants to carry out debottlenecking activities, Anand added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Telangana government has offered its assistance to Chhattisgarh, which goes to polls on November 11 and November 20, Chief Secretary S K Joshi said Monday. Keeping in view of the assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Telangana, Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat conducted a video conference with all the CSs, CEOs, DGPs, of these states, an official release said Monday. Joshi informed the CEC that the officers of the staste were already in touch with their counterparts in Bijapur and Sukuma, two border districts of Chhattisgarh with Telangana. Joshi further assured them of fullest possible help. He also elaborated that consultation with officials was already in process and said "all of us are working together with better coordination and understanding." Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar, Director General of Police Mahender Reddy and other senior officials participated in the conference. Kumar told reporters that the meeting discussed the need for coordination on law and order, ban on liquor and also Left wing extremism in Chhattisgarh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Texas Governor Greg Abbott hosted Diwali celebrations at his residence at an event attended by prominent Indian Americans where he lauded the community for its achievements in various fields. Abbott lit the ceremonial lamp at the governor's mansion in Austin city, to mark the festival of lights. At Sunday's event, Abbott conveyed Diwali wishes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the people of India and Indian Americans living in Texas and other US states. This is the fourth year in a row that the Texas governor has hosted Diwali celebrations at his mansion in Austin. Those present at the ceremony included Indian Consul General Anupam Ray, Deputy Consul General Surendra Adhana and well-known Indian Americans from across Texas. Abbot lauded the Indian American community for its achievements in various fields and in participating in the prosperity of Texas. He recalled his visit to India earlier this year, his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, and with prominent Indian industry leaders. He also spoke about the growing friendship and trade between India and Texas and the similarities between Indian and Texan values. "The growing similarity of shared values such as education, entrepreneurship, economic advancement, and compassion will continue to bring the communities of India, Texas and Indian Americans closer to each other", Abbott said. Ray also presented a statue of Mahatma Gandhi on behalf of Prime Minister Modi to the governor and thanked him for opening his mansion to prominent Indian Americans of the state to celebrate Diwali, just two days before the crucial US mid-term election. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In an interview granted to Chinas Xinhua news agency on the occasion of his attendance at the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) on November 4-5, PM Phuc affirmed that the most outstanding achievement is the strengthening of political, diplomatic and economic ties. According to the PM, the two countries have maintained regular mutual visits and high-level contacts, through which the two sides reached common perceptions on many important matters. The political and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and China have laid a foundation for the development of investment, trade and economic ties, with the signing of many investment and economic agreements. China has become one of Vietnam's most important trading partners with the two-way trade surging, and trade imbalance gradually improving. A string of people-to-people activities, particularly between youths, residents in border areas, have been held, thus positively contributing to enhancing the bilateral time-honoured friendship. Tourism cooperation between Vietnam and China has continued to advance in recent years, and China is Vietnam's largest source of foreign visitors. The PM cited figures which showed that last year, Vietnam welcomed over 4 million Chinese tourists, up 48.6 percent year-on-year, accounting for over 30 percent of the total international arrivals to Vietnam. In the first ten months of this year, around 4.2 million Chinese tourists visited Vietnam, representing a year-on-year rise of 28.8 percent. Meanwhile, about 3 million Vietnamese people visit China each year. PM Phuc noted that both sides have coordinated closely in carrying out legal documents on land border, intensified management over security and safety in border areas, and achieved common perceptions on controlling dispute and maintaining peace and stability at sea, while actively stepping up negotiation mechanisms on sea-related issues. These achievements have contributed to solidifying the foundation for the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, thus boosting development and improving position of each nation. The Vietnamese government leader suggested the two sides continue to implement the important perception shared by leaders of the two countries, increase the exchange of high-level visits and contacts, promote friendly exchanges and win-win cooperation, and bring practical benefits to the two peoples. He took the occasion to affirm Vietnams support of cooperative activities and economic linkages within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative for the sake of peace, development and prosperity for nations in the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefits and respecting independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of participating countries as well as international law. PM Phuc noted in 2017, Vietnam and China signed a memorandum of understanding on joint implementation of Belt and Road Initiative and "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" plan. Vietnam is of the view that the two countries have cooperation potential in promoting connectivity in policy, infrastructure, trade, finance and people-to-people links, he said. He proposed that Vietnam and China focus on fostering cooperation for greater access to the Chinese market by Vietnamese enterprises and advantageous commodities, such as agricultural products, seafood, fruits, and electronic products, and actively promote balanced and sustainable trade. The PM also called for greater Chinese investments in hi-tech and environmentally-friendly projects in Vietnam, while proposing the Chinese side facilitate Vietnams access to its preferential loans. He informed that the Vietnamese government has instructed ministries and sectors to coordinate with the Chinese side to concretize the above-mentioned cooperation contents, and work out specific cooperation plans on connecting the "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" with the Belt and Road Initiative. PM Phuc appreciated China's organising the 2018 CIIE which reflects the countrys thinking of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, creating a large-scale, important new trade promotion channel for China and partners, and offering opportunities to enterprises from China and other countries to obtain information, research markets and promote trade. Taking part in the expo as a guest of honour, Vietnam has a good chance to promote its national image and strengthen trade and investment promotion activities, Phuc said, adding that Vietnamese companies have opportunities to trade and expand cooperation with 150,000 entrepreneurs and investors from all over the world. Through this expo, Vietnam, as a bridge between the ASEAN Economic Community and China, looks forward to optimizing practical benefits brought by the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area, contributing to the overall development of ASEAN-China economic and trade relations, he added. Three men died when the motorcycle they were riding on, crashed through a broken railing in Chaubepur and plunged 30 metres down into a river on Monday, police said. The incident occurred when the victims were en route to Kanpur from Shivrajpur, Chaubepur Station Officer (SO), Devendra Singh said. Babu Lal Kuril (28) was riding the bike while his cousin Praveen (30) and Sonu (26) were riding pillion, the SO said. While Praveen was a resident of Govind Nagar, Sonu stayed at Latouch road, the SO added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : The Karnataka government Monday decided to celebrate "Tipu Jayanti" to mark the birth anniversary of controversial 18th-century ruler of erstwhile Mysore kingdom, Tipu Sultan, bringing the state under a thick security blanket, amid threats of protest by theBJP. The state BJP, meanwhile, has urged the government to drop its decision to celebrate Tipu Jayanti and not to stand on "prestige" or "ego". Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, who held a meeting with senior officials about the celebrationson November 10, said Deputy Commissioners andSuperintendents of Police of all districts had been directed to organise eventsand funds for it have been released from the Kannada andCulture department. "To maintain security,the DGP (Director General of Police) has requested for 10 companies of Rapid Action Force,as 10 battalions of Karnataka State Reserve Police have beensent for the Chhattisgarh polls. Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police of all districts have beenissued specific directions," he said. Parameshwara, who also holds the Home portfolio, said strict action would be taken against anyone causing riots or disturbing the peace. "At no cost will we allow peace to be disturbed in the state. No processions will be allowed, either in favour or against...we will not permit. Jayanti celebration events shouldbe organised indoors and posters and banners would be allowed there only, he said, adding that social media postings would alsobe monitored and action taken if they were derogatory. The Deputy Chief Minister Minister also said that the event venue in Bengaluru has been shifted from the Vidhana Soudha,the seat of the state legislature, to Ravindra Kalakshetra, on advice from the police department, citing security grounds. This will be first such celebration of 'Tipu Jayanti' after Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy led Congress-JD(S) coalition government came to power in the state. The previous Congress government, led by Siddaramaiah, began celebrating "Tipu Jayanti" on November 10 every year since 2015, amid stiff opposition by the BJP, several Hindu organisations and some individuals. Widespread protests and violence had marredthe celebrations during the first two years. Calling Tipu a "religious bigot", state BJP Chief B S Yeddyurappa said the people's sentiments and emotions against him are strong and widespread, and it is the duty of the government to honour their sentiments. Taking strong exception to Parameshwara's statement that the government would take action againstthose who oppose Tipu Jayanthi celebrations, he said "We haveevery right to oppose what is blatantly a wrong decision andthat which is against the people's wishes." "The Tipu Jayanthi celebration is a new-found strategy of the Congress as part of its of minority appeasement. It is rank opportunism and vote-bank Ifthe government is so keen to honour eminent personalities fromthe Muslim community, we have the late Dr A P J Abdul Kalam or war heroAbdul Hamid," he added. Tipu was a ruler of the erstwhile kingdom of Mysoreand considered an implacable enemy of the British East India Company. He was killed in May 1799 while defending his fort at Srirangapatna against the British forces. Tipu Sultan is a sensitive issue in Kodagudistrict as Kodavas (Coorgis), a martial race, believe thatthousands of their men and women were seized and held captiveduring his occupation and subjected to torture, death andforcible conversion to Islam. He is also accused for execution of Mandayam Iyengars at the temple town of Melkote in Mandya district on the day of the Diwali festival as they supported the then Maharaja of Mysuru. However, the scale of such suppression is disputed by several historians, who see Tipu as a secular and modern rulerwho took on the might of the British. While BJP and some Hindu outfits see Tipu as a "religious bigot" and a "brutal killer", some Kannada outfits call him anti-Kannada, saying that he had promoted Persian at the cost of the local language. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka have extended highest subsidies under different programmes, including for safety purpose and kerosene subsidy, to their fishermen in 2017-18, India has informed the World Trade Organization (WTO). The other programmes under which these states have extended the subsidies includes providing navigational aids, sales tax subsidy on high speed diesel, motorization of traditional boats, reimbursement of sales tax on purchase of diesel for fishing boats and sales tax exemption on industrial kerosene. Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka has provided subsidies worth Rs 228.5 crore, Rs 211.4 crore and Rs 148.5 crore in 2017-18, according to the data provided by India to the WTO. The other states and union territories which extended the support includes Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Daman and Diu, Puducherry, and Lakshadweep. The data assumes significance as some developed countries demand end of these subsidies. On the other hand, developing countries such as India want to protect its low-income and resource-poor fishermen for whom it is a matter of livelihood. "The information provided in this notification is for transparency purposes in order to clarify the operation of programmes or measures," India has said in its notification to the WTO. Bringing disappointment to developing countries like India, the talks at the WTO's 11th ministerial conference collapsed in December 2017, with the US going back on its commitment to find a permanent solution to the public food stockholding issue. The four-day conference, which ended without a ministerial declaration or any substantive outcome, did manage to make some feeble progress on fisheries and e-commerce by agreeing to work programmes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tourists, including foreigners, visiting Delhi ahead of Diwali on Monday complained of having a tough time due to increasing air pollution as a thick haze engulfed the city, with some even cutting short their trips citing health concerns. Some of them said pollution masks were proving ineffective as the air quality has turned "severe", forcing them to visit hospitals to seek treatment for breathlessness, allergy and irritation. Emily, from Amsterdam, said she was cutting short her visit to Delhi due to the deteriorating air quality. "I wanted to spend the Christmas with my friends but then the air quality is so bad that I have decided not to stay here anymore. I will rather go to Kerala and spend the rest of my holidays there," she said. Sonia Aggarwal, who is in Delhi with her family to celebrate Diwali, said she had to take her daughter to hospital after she complained of breathlessness. "Doctors have advised my daughter to use inhalers for the time being. She took ill because of the bad weather conditions. We are concerned about her well-being," Aggarwal, a mother of two, said. Anthony, from Cork city in Ireland, said he used to hear that winter is the best time to visit India but now he feels he should have chosen Bhutan or Nepal for vacation. Hoteliers too complained that they were suffering losses as tourists were leaving the city. "The business has started falling like every year at this time as several tourists are cancelling their stay due to the air quality deteriorating to hazardous levels. Those who were scheduled to visit Delhi have postponed their trip after reading reports of pollution; they are preferring other destinations," said Harish Sharma, manager of a hotel in Old Delhi. Delhi's air quality continued to worsen through the day, inching towards 'severe plus emergency' category as a change in wind direction and rampant stubble burning in neighbouring states brought a sudden spike in the pollution level. Also, the PM2.5 (particles in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres) and PM10 concentrations spiked to 'severe-plus emergency' category at 365 and 503 respectively, according to CPCB data. In NCR, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida and Greater Noida recorded severe pollution levels while Gurgaon recorded very poor air quality, according to Central Pollution Control Board data. The PM10 concentration in several parts of Delhi recorded 'severe plus emergency' levels, around 10 times the permissable limit. The overall air quality index on Monday was registered in the severe category at 434, a drastic decline from a day before when the AQI was moderate at 171. A thick haze has engulfed the national capital two days ahead of Diwali, following which, experts have warned, the air quality is likely to worsen further due to local factors. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP-led Tripura government has dropped May Day or International Labour Day from its list of state's 'regular holidays' and scheduled it under 'restricted holidays', sparking criticism by the opposition CPI(M) in the state. A notification issued by Under-Secretary S K Debbarma on Saturday said the government employees would be allowed to avail four holidays in a year from the list of 12 'restricted holidays', including the May Day. Opposing the move, the CPI(M) demanded reinstatement of May Day in the list of the 'regular holidays'. The party, in a statement issued here on Sunday, said, the move would "adversely affect the interests of working people as May Day signifies labour rights, which were earned through struggle". Nripen Chakraborty, Tripura's first chief minister, included May Day in the list of 'government holidays' in 1978. Terming the decision "anti-working class", former labour minister Manik Dey told reporters here the BJP-IFPT government in state has no regard for the working class. "The BJP-IPFT government's decision only goes on to show how they view workers and labourers. International Labour Day is observed around the world to mark liberation of the working class. I haven't heard of any other state in India dropping May Day from the list of state holidays," Dey said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two college students from Bengaluru were reported missing off the coast of Kottakuppam village bordering Tamil Nadu after they went to bathe in the sea Monday, police said here. Anshul Girish Awasti (21) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, and Enakshi Walia, also 21, doing B Arch in a university there, had come as tourists Sunday and been staying at Chinna Mudaliarchavady, near here, the police said. Nothing could be said as of now as a case of missing persons has been registered, a police official told PTI. A search has begun for the two, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UK government on Monday announced a relaxation of recruitment criteria to allow Commonwealth nationals to apply for jobs in its armed forces to meet a shortage in its ranks, a move that could also benefit Indians. The decision announced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) means that people from Commonwealth countries - including India, Australia, Kenya, Fiji and Sri Lanka - will be considered for roles, even if they have never lived in Britain. The Commonwealth is an association of 53 independent states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire. The MoD laid out the proposals in a written ministerial statement (WMS) before Parliament, which involves a waiver of the current requirement of a minimum of five-year residency in the UK for applying to join the country's Army, Navy or Air Force. This would open up the forces to recruits who have been based in countries like India, Australia, Canada and Kenya and meet the necessary recruitment criteria for the service and role they wish to join. "We have now decided to remove the five-year UK residency criterion for Commonwealth citizens and increase recruitment to 1,350 across the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force (RAF), the MoD statement reads. "Applications will be accepted from all Commonwealth countries, although in order to mitigate the risks associated with unaccompanied minors travelling to the UK without the guarantee of a job, we will not be accepting applications from those under 18," the statement adds. A limited waiver to the residency requirement was introduced in May 2016 to recruit up to 200 Commonwealth personnel per year to fill skill shortage posts. This limited waiver has now been widened, with the RAF and Navy beginning recruitment of Commonwealth applicants right away and the Army to accept such applications from early 2019. Applications from citizens of countries outside the Commonwealth will not be accepted. "Citizens from the Commonwealth have a long tradition of serving with distinction in the Armed Forces, the MoD said. Special rules already allow citizens of Ireland and Gurkhas from Nepal to join the British armed forces. The five-year UK residency requirement for Commonwealth recruits was first waived in 1998, before being reintroduced in 2013. A National Audit Office (NAO) report had revealed in April this year that the UK's armed forces is short of around 8,200 soldiers, sailors and air personnel. Among measures to meet this shortage, women are now allowed to apply for all roles in the British military for the first time in history. Britain currently employs 4,500 Commonwealth citizens in the armed forces, with 3,940 in the Army, 480 in the Royal Navy and 80 serving in the RAF. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UK government on Monday announced a relaxation of recruitment criteria to allow Commonwealth nationals to apply for jobs in its armed forces in order to meet a shortage in its ranks. The Commonwealth is an association of 53 independent states, including India. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) laid out the proposals in a written ministerial statement (WMS) before Parliament, which involves a waiver of the current requirement of a minimum of five-year residency in the UK for applying to join the country's Army, Navy or Air Force. This would open up the forces to recruits who have been based in countries like India, Australia, Canada and Kenya and meet the necessary recruitment criteria for the service and role they wish to join. "We have now decided to remove the five-year UK residency criterion for Commonwealth citizens and increase recruitment to 1,350 across the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force (RAF), the MoD statement reads. "Applications will be accepted from all Commonwealth countries, although in order to mitigate the risks associated with unaccompanied minors travelling to the UK without the guarantee of a job, we will not be accepting applications from those under 18," the statement adds. A limited waiver to the residency requirement was introduced in May 2016 to recruit up to 200 Commonwealth personnel per year to fill skill shortage posts. This limited waiver has now been widened, with the RAF and Navy beginning recruitment of Commonwealth applicants right away and the Army to accept such applications from early 2019. Applications from citizens of countries outside the Commonwealth will not be accepted. "Citizens from the Commonwealth have a long tradition of serving with distinction in the Armed Forces, the MoD said. Special rules already allow citizens of Ireland and Gurkhas from Nepal to join the British armed forces. The five-year UK residency requirement for Commonwealth recruits was first waived in 1998, before being reintroduced in 2013. A National Audit Office (NAO) report had revealed in April this year that the UK's armed forces is short of around 8,200 soldiers, sailors and air personnel. Among measures to meet this shortage, women are now allowed to apply for all roles in the British military for the first time in history. Britain currently employs 4,500 Commonwealth citizens in the armed forces, with 3,940 in the Army, 480 in the Royal Navy and 80 serving in the RAF. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 35-year-old undertrial prisoner who had last week escaped from the premises of a court in south Mumbai, was Monday arrested in suburban Andheri, the police said. The accused Yogesh Darji had given police the slip after he was produced in the court on November 3 in connection with a cheating case registered against him in September last year, a police official said. He was then lodged in the Thane Central prison, he said. Darji was booked under section 224 (Resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pharma firm, Unichem Laboratories Monday announced that the company has entered into an agreement to acquire 20 per cent equity stake in the API and intermediate business of Hyderabad based Optimus group. The acquisition value is Rs 120 crore, a company statement said. The transaction will give Unichem access to Optimus' US FDA approved API manufacturing facilities, and at the same time, Optimus will gain from the extensive knowledge base and industry best practices of Unichem, making the deal a win-win for both Unichem and Optimus, the release said. Unichem engaged in speciality pharmaceutical business manufactures and markets a large basket of generic pharmaceutical formulations in several regulated markets across the world. The company has deep expertise in research, product development, process chemistry and manufacturing of complex API as well as dosage forms. The Optimus group operates as manufacturer of formulations, API's and intermediates for Indian and other regulated/RoW markets. Presently, the group's API vertical has its manufacturing facilities located in Hyderabad and Vishakhapatnam, having specialisation in novel/polymorph chemistry and process engineering. The group's API facilities have obtained a wide range of certifications and approvals. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mandy Squires | July 29th, 2013 Seaweed was a nutritional powerhouse, packed full of vitamins, minerals, protein and omega-three long-chain fatty acids, making it an important food source. Our pristine waters had the greatest diversity of seaweed species in the world and were a veritable Garden of Eden for sea vegetables, Dr Bellgrove said. If the taste, texture and nutritional value of the seaweed compared favourably with its competitors, southwest Victoria was well-placed to become a leading seaweed producer, as traditional growing areas in Japan had been affected by natural and nuclear disasters, she said. The seaweed would be compared in blind trials with Asian-grown seaweed, Dr Bellgrove said. Deakin University marine biologist Alecia Bellgrove said tasting trials of locally harvested seaweed were set to start in Warnambool on August 9. LOCAL waters could become a world food bowl as scientists look to harvest nutritionally rich seaweed. It was also linked with reduced cardiovascular stress and heart disease, lower incidence of diabetes and obesity, and better brain development, she said. "Much of the Australian population is iodine and zinc deficient and that comes back to the fact that our soils are poor in those two elements and therefore our ground vegetable sources are also low in them," Dr Bellgrove said. "However, our oceans are rich in minerals and therefore seaweed, which is basically a sea vegetable, is high in a whole range of important trace minerals and vitamins. Another environmental benefit is that they are plants and, like trees drawing down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, there's a lot of evidence suggesting farming seaweeds in the ocean can be really important for decreasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as part of a climate change solution." It was important the seaweed was farmed for consumption on a commercial scale rather than removed from the wild, she stressed. Besides being used in the production of sushi rolls and in Asian salads and cooking, it was possible seaweed could be included in Western dishes such as pasta and biscuits to deliver health benefits to those who did not routinely eat Asian food, Dr Bellgrove said. Australian seaweed was already being harvested commercially albeit on a small scale in Tasmania and sold to Japanese restaurants, she said. Dr Bellgrove said her interest in harvesting local seaweed was a result of years spent living in Japan and a desire to make sure the food being eaten by Australian families was as healthy and free from toxins as possible. While she now lived in Warnambool with her husband and children, the family still ate a lot of seaweed, she said. "As a parent, I want to know that the food which my children are eating is clean and healthy and free from pollutants," Dr Bellgrove said. "I also want to know that it's rich in the vitamins and minerals that they need." SEAWEED SUPERFOODS High in vitamins and minerals. High in protein and omega three long-chain fatty acids. Low in kilojoules. Lowers heart disease, diabetes and obesity risks. Boosts brain development in children. Sunrisers Hyderabad have traded an "unsettled" Shikhar Dhawan to Delhi Daredevils in a move that will see the India opener play for the IPL franchise of his home city after 10 years. In exchange of Dhawan, Delhi have released all-rounder Vijay Shankar, spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and the young Abhishek Sharma to Sunrisers. Dhawan was bought back by Sunrisers in the auction earlier this year through Right to Match card for Rs 5.2 crore. The southpaw was unhappy about his price tag, leading to the move to Delhi where he played in the inaugural IPL in 2008. "It is with a heavy heart that we announce that one of our long standing players, Shikhar Dhawan, will be playing for another franchise in 2019. We were delighted to pick Shikhar up in the auction after using one of its RTM cards," said Sunrisers in a statement. "Unfortunately, it has become apparent that the player has been unsettled ever since with the amount he was bought for in the auction, which we cannot rectify due to IPL rules. We value the great contribution that Shikhar has made over the years and saddened that due to financial reasons, he feels it's time to move on," the statement added. Dhawan was with Sunrisers since 2013, becoming their leading run-getter with 2768 runs from 91 innings. Daredevils, on the other hand, will be hoping that Dhawan's arrival changes their falling fortunes. "We are thrilled at the prospect of having Shikhar turn up in DD colours for the next season of the IPL. Shikhar has had a hugely successful IPL career and will be an invaluable addition to team DD with the wealth of experience he brings," Delhi Daredevils director Parth Jindal said in a statement. "The Delhi fans love seeing their local boys in action and we're sure they will get lots to cheer for this season with players of Shikhar's caliber in the team," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Transfer of technology and important drugs from Indian entities to Cuba has been adversely impacted due to the decades-long US embargo on the caribbean island nation, according to a report by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) had in a resolution titled 'Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the US against Cuba' requested the UN chief to prepare, in consultation with the appropriate organs and agencies of the UN system, a report on the implementation of the resolution. India was among the 189 UN member states that voted last week in the UNGA in favour of condemning the US' economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba -- a call that has made every year since 1992. Only the US and Israel had voted against the UNGA resolution. The report noted that not only has the embargo against Cuba remained in force, it has been tightened, as demonstrated by examples of the effects of the policy on Cuban entities and on third parties. On November 9, 2017, the US arbitrarily banned direct financial transactions with 179 Cuban institutions in various sectors, which has a negative impact on the country's economic development and an intimidating effect on companies in the US or third countries that wish to establish economic, commercial and banking relations with Cuba. According to the report, some specific examples of the implementation of this policy include instances of Indian entities. On February 12, 2018, it was reported that five Indian banks had refused to carry out a transfer from the office of the UN Development Programme in Cuba to the Indian company Ankur Scientific Energy Technologies, because of the regulations of the US embargo. In March 2018, MediCuba, the Cuban company that imports and exports medical products, was informed that the Indian company Aculife had refused to make direct shipments to Cuba of levofloxacin, a drug used to treat bacterial skin infections, bronchitis and pneumonia, among other diseases. "This was because the Indian company's bank would not authorise the payments made by Cuba, since the shipping documents supporting the payment had a country under embargo as the final destination," the report said. The instance of the case between Aculife and MediCuba has been cited among "examples of the damage resulting from the embargo in the health sector". The report also includes replies from various governments and UN organs to the request of Guterres for information on the matter. According to India, it has not promulgated or applied any laws of the type referred to in the preamble of the UNGA resolution on Cuba, and, as such, the necessity of repealing or invalidating any such laws or measures does not arise. "India has consistently opposed any unilateral measure by countries that impinge on the sovereignty of another country. These include any attempt to extend the application of a country's laws extra-territorially to other sovereign nations," the country's reply said. India further urged the international community to adopt all necessary measures to protect the sovereign rights of all countries. The report noted that the embargo has had a direct impact on all UNDP development projects and emergency activities as it increases the transaction costs of obtaining project inputs and also the cost of transporting the imported goods. "Finding alternative shipping companies requires additional time and effort. As a result, projects have been affected by significant delays in the purchase and distribution of project inputs, which has had a negative impact on the timely implementation of project activities and results," the report said. It said the situation has been particularly worrisome in the case of projects related to food security and local development, given the lengthy process to access and import agricultural inputs such as irrigation systems, machinery and agricultural tools. It cited the example of an ongoing development project that aims to implement measures to adapt to climate change in food production, a gasification plant that uses rice husks was contracted. The technology was received by the beneficiaries of the project. "However, as of today, it has not been possible to realize the bank transfer to the supplier. According to the supplier Ankur Scientific Energy Technologies, the State Bank of India has refused to receive the funds because the transaction is related to a project implemented in Cuba. In this context, it has been impossible to fulfil the payment to the supplier and the implementation of the project has been delayed," the report said. The Cuban companies responsible for manufacturing food products in the country are forced to import approximately 70 per cent of their raw materials from different markets like Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, India, Italy, Mexico and Spain. Moreover, as a result of the blockade, Cuba has not been allowed to buy from the US market, which happens to be very attractive, given its prices and its proximity to Cuba, the report said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States faces a deadline Tuesday that could lead to fresh sanctions on Russia over an attempted assassination with a lethal nerve agent of a former spy in Britain. The State Department on August 6 found that Russia had violated a 1991 US law that seeks the elimination of chemical and biological weapons. The determination came after Britain said that Russian operatives on March 4 attempted to kill former intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal in Salisbury using Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Under the US law, the State Department must report to Congress within three months whether Russia has come into compliance or impose a second round of sanctions. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said the three-month deadline is Tuesday. "The conditions that we would have to certify are that Russia has ceased and assured that it will not use chemical weapons again, and that it has allowed international inspectors to verify those assurances," Palladino said. "So, have they taken the steps to get back into compliance is the issue." However, few members of Congress are likely to be waiting on the edge of their seats for a report on Tuesday -- the date of midterm elections -- so it may take time before the State Department determination comes to light. The first round of sanctions announced with the determination was largely symbolic and included a freeze on US government credit guarantees to Russia and a ban on US arms sales. Russia, the major rival to the United States as a military exporter, does not buy US arms in any case. The State Department made exemptions to continue military trade that allows space cooperation with Russia including commercial launches. It also waived certain sanctions on security-sensitive exports to allow sales related to civil aviation and exports needed by US businesses that operate in Russia. Moscow has given no indication it is eager to satisfy US concerns on the issue. After the initial US determination, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would respond to any measures "with the principle of reciprocity." Last month, The Netherlands expelled agents it said came from Russia's GRU military intelligence who hacked into the world's chemical weapons watchdog, which is based in The Hague. US prosecutors at the same time indicted seven Russian agents -- the latest case of US rank-and-file officials taking Moscow to task despite President Donald Trump's avowed affection for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US on Monday imposed "the toughest ever" sanctions on a defiant Iran aimed at altering the Iranian regime's "behaviour", even as the Trump administration dodged a question whether it has got firm commitments from India and China to stop all oil purchases from Tehran within six months. The sanctions cover Iran's banking and energy sectors and reinstate penalties for countries and companies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere that do not halt Iranian oil imports. The sanctions follow US President Donald Trump's controversial decision in May to abandon the 2015 multi-nation nuclear deal with Tehran. President Trump says that he wants to get Iran back to the negotiating table on the nuclear issue. The Trump administration also says it wants to stop what it calls Tehran's "malign" activities including cyber attacks, ballistic missile tests, and support for terror groups in the Middle East India and China -- the two biggest buyers of Iranian crude, have so far appeared to have skipped the punitive American sanctions targeting the Iranian oil and financial sectors. The two Asian giants are believed to be among the eight countries that have been given the rare temporary exemptions from the Iranian sanctions that kicked off on Monday. The Trump administration said it has asked these countries including Turkey, Iraq, Italy, Japan and South Korea to bring down their oil purchase to zero as soon as possible. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during a talk show on Fox News, refused to reveal which countries received waivers from US sanctions to continue importing Iranian oil. But he said the eight unidentified nations "need a little bit more time to get to zero." He repeatedly parried questions when asked about the commitment from India and China on zero-oil purchase from Iran. "Watch what we do. Watch as we've already taken more crude oil off the market than any time in previous history. Watch the efforts that President Trump's policies have achieved. We've done all of this, too, while making sure that American consumers don't suffer, he said, as he avoided giving a direct answer on India and China. I am very confident that the sanctions that will be re-imposed this Monday, not only the crude oil sanctions, that the financial sanctions that are being put in place by the Treasury Department and over 600 designations of individuals and companies in Iran will have the intended effect to alter the Iranian regime's behaviour. That's our expectation. It's the reason for President Trump's policy, he asserted. India, which is the second biggest purchaser of Iranian oil after China, is willing to restrict its monthly purchase to 1.25 million tonnes or 15 million tonnes in a year (300,000 barrels per day), down from 22.6 million tonnes (452,000 barrels per day) bought in 2017-18 financial year, sources in New Delhi had said last week. The reimposition of US sanctions on Iran, Pompeo asserted are "the toughest ever" on Tehran. They're aimed at a singular purpose, denying the world's largest state sponsor of terrorists the capacity to do things like they did this past couple weeks, attempted assassination campaign in the heart of Europe, he said. These sanctions have already had an enormous impact. We've already reduced Iranian crude oil experts by over a million barrels per day. That number will fall farther. There's a handful of places were countries that have already made significant reductions in their crude oil exports need a little bit more time to get to zero, and we're going to provide that to them, he said. The State Department did not respond to a PTI question as to what will happen if India does not bring down its oil purchase from Iran to zero, as being demanded by it, in next six months. It also did not respond to a question on the fate of the the strategically crucial Iranian port of Chabahar, which India sees as critical for reaching landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia. Trump told reporters on Sunday that the sanctions are the strongest ever imposed by the US. The Iran sanctions are very strong. They're the strongest sanctions we've ever imposed. We'll see what happens with Iran, but they're not doing very well, I can tell you, Trump told reporters at the White House. The president did not respond to a question about the waiver. At an election rally on Sunday, Trump said the Iranian regime now just want to survive. I withdrew the United States from the horrible, one-sided Iran nuclear catastrophe. And Iran is a much different right now than it was before I took office, Trump said at an election rally in Chattanooga in Tennessee. They were doing bad things, and they are doing bad things now, but they don't have the same perspective. They were looking for the Mediterranean. .. They wanted to take over the whole Middle East. Right now, they just want to survive, Trump said. In May, President Trump had pulled US out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) terming it as disastrous. Under the Obama-era deal, involving five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, Iran agreed to stop its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. President Hassan Rouhani on Monday said Iran "will proudly bypass sanctions" by the US. "We are in a situation of economic war, confronting a bullying power. I don't think that in the history of America, someone has entered the White House who is so against law and international conventions," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NASA has awarded nearly USD seven million to an effort aimed at developing a new kind of extraterrestrial life detection system that could be used on Mars, scientists say. The interdisciplinary project, called the Laboratory for Agnostic Biosignatures, will develop a new class of life detection approaches for use on planetary missions -- from the subsurface of the Mars to the farthest reaches of our solar system. "Time and again, we have been bowled over by the indescribable foreignness of other worlds," said Sarah Stewart Johnson from Georgetown University in the US. "Yet the search for extraterrestrial life often defaults to assumptions that arise from experiences with life detection on Earth," said Johnson, the project's principal investigator. NASA's Astrobiology Program awarded the USD seven million grant to the effort explicitly aimed at throwing out the assumption that life out in space will be like life here at home. "Detecting life in an agnostic fashion means not using characteristics particular to Earth life," said deputy principal investigator Heather Graham of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. For example, the team will consider states of disequilibrium with the surrounding environment, such as evidence of conspicuous chemical complexity or unexpected accumulations of chemical elements, Graham said. They will also look for patterns of energy transfer in the hope that such aberrations could tip off the researchers to the existence of life. The key for the project is to identify indicators that are not biased towards the specific type of biochemistry found on Earth. The life detection methods must also be suitable for eventual implementation on flight missions. "Our goal is to go beyond what we currently understand and devise ways to find forms of life we can scarcely imagine," Johnson said. The project will also explore ways to think about the discovery of life in terms of probabilities and thresholds, as opposed to seeking a simple "yes" or "no" as to whether life has been discovered. "When you are looking for extraterrestrial life, results may be messier than just 'yes we found life' or 'no we didn't,'" Johnson said. "To do that, we'll need to think less about whether life fits our preconceptions of what life is, and more about how to quantify the difference between what we see and what we might expect from an abiotic environment," she said. Researchers said the project will support computational efforts to develop probabilistic and theoretical models, some of which will depend on advanced algorithmic and machine learning techniques. It will also oversee the analysis of a wide array of organic and inorganic substrates, including abiotic extracts from meteorites, which will be used to develop and refine these tools and algorithms, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The people of Vantangiya community are busy making preparations to welcome Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the occasion of Diwali on Wednesday. The Vantangiya people, who were brought here from Mayanmar during colonial rule for afforestation activities, said they are grateful to Adityanath for declaring five villages in Gorakhpur and 23 villages in Maharajganj, where they mostly live, as 'revenue villages'. A revenue village is a small administrative region with defined borders. One revenue village may contain many hamlets. A village administrative officer is the head officer of a revenue village. Local women and girls have prepared a welcome song to thank the chief minister for bringing happiness to their lives. "Girls have prepared Saraswati Vandana welcome song, and a song based on cleanliness. We are cleaning every nook and corner of the village to welcome the CM. For us Diwali means 'Maharaj ji' (Adityanath), as we started celebrating the festival 20 years ago only after he started coming to our village on Diwali," Shaguni, a resident of Tinkonia village, told a visiting PTI correspondent. The Vantangiya villages in Gorakhpur have witnessed a lot of changes in the past one year after Adityanath became the chief minister, said Alekh Sharan, a primary school teacher in the village. "The first batch of 15 students have completed high school last year and education has brought many positive changes in their lives," Sharan said. Electricity, television and mobile phones have come to the villages providing the villagers with better connectivity with the outside world. With a availability of potable water and toilets, the villages are becoming more comfortable, said locals. Under PM Awas scheme, the construction of houses has started and every house will have a toilet, village head of Tinkonia, Ram Ganesh, said. "We have received Antyodaya cards which ensure at least 35 kg food grain. We are feeling like human beings and it is all due to 'Maharaj ji'," he said. While describing the history of Vantangiya community, Ashok Srivastav, educationist and social worker said, "Around 99 years before Independence, the British government started using people for cleaning and developing forests. These people were called Tangya farmers and later a cult of Vantangiya started." The farmers did not have any ownership rights over the land and they had only right over their crops. Vantangiyas used to cultivate crops inside the forest and were totally dependent on forest for their livelihood. Conversion of tribal-dominated forest villages to revenue villages under the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act will enable the administration to adopt development measures such as setting up of schools, dispensaries, and other facilities in these villages. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two policemen suffered minor injuries when the vehicle at the rear of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's convoy overturned at Salap in Howrah district on Monday. Banerjee was en route to the Dakshineswar Kali Temple to inaugurate a new skywalk, when the SUV turned turtle as the driver lost control, Howrah Police Commissionerate sources said. The two policemen suffered minor injuries and were treated at a local hospital, they said. The CM continued her journey after a brief halt, the sources added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid growing demand for his ouster, Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S B Shashank Monday said he had "no intention to hurt the sentiments" of the state's civil societies and apologised for rankling them in any way. Coordination Committee, an umbrella body of major civil societies and student organisations, had sought Shashank's exit from the state, shortly after the Election Commission (EC) removed a principal secretary-level state officer Lalnunmawia Chuaungo. A section of the media said Shashank had complained to the EC that Chuaungo was interfering with the poll process. Election to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly is scheduled to be held on November 28. Addressing a press meet here, the CEO said he was just fulfilling his responsibilities in accordance with the instructions of the EC. "As the state chief electoral officer, it is my responsibility that I fulfil the mandate of the EC. I can only hope that the civil societies will understand my position. I am sorry if I have hurt anybody," he said. On his fallout with Chuaungo, the CEO said that he had issued a statement to the District Election Officers (DEO) and Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) on September 11 to notify that "identification slips could be used as valid documents by eligible Bru migrants in Tripura". Chuaungo, however, issued another order on September 13, asking the Bru refugees to not use the identification slips, except for the purpose of repatriation, he said. Shashank alleged that the principal secretary and Mizoram Chief Secretary Arvind Ray did not issue any clarification on the September 13 order, despite EC's instructions. Chuaungo, a 1987-batch Gujarat-cadre IAS officer, has been relieved of his responsibilities in the state. The EC has instructed him to report before the Ministry of Home Affairs in Delhi. Accusing the chief electoral officer of working against the spirit of "free and fair" polls, the Coordination Committee had urged EC authorities to replace him. Vanlalruata, the chairman of the Coordination Committee, threatened to picket the state election department if Shashank did not leave Mizoram by Monday. Additional security personnel have been deployed at the office and residence of Shashank in view of the threats. Earlier, too, the civil society organisations had opposed the Election Commission's decision to conduct electoral revision of Bru voters in Tripura's relief camps. They also urged the EC to defranchise all Bru voters who chose to stay back in Tripura and did not return to Mizoram. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The teams set up by the ruling AIADMK to prepare for byelections to 20 Tamil Nadu assembly constituencies have begun their work, party coordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam Monday said. He also rejected reports that Chief Minister K Palaniswami had asked the party workers to focus on winning eight of the 20 seats, which have fallen vacant due to disqualification of 18 sitting MLAs and demise of two others. The Chief Minister had not spoken of winning "4 or 8 seats which is your guesswork," he told reporters here. The party has recently set up teams for overseeing the preparations for the byelections, expected to be notified anytime with the Madras High Court recently vacating its stay on notifying the 18 vacancies while upholding disqualification of as many MLAs loyal to ousted leader TTV Dhinakaran. Reports had said the AIADMK was keen on winning eight seats to ensure the stability of its government after the bypolls. Panneerselvam said Palaniswami at a meeting held on November 3 at AIADMK headquarters had spoken of winning all the 20 seats and had urged the office-bearers to work towards it. "The preparatory poll work is being done by the byelection teams, and in-charges and for sure the AIADMK's victory symbol Two-Leaves will emerge triumphant," he told reporters. Screening electoral rolls, and interacting with local community leaders and opinion makers are among the tasks that form part of the preparatory poll work by the parties. On the claim by Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar that DMK chief M K Stalin and Dhinakaran, founder of the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, had been meeting secretly, Panneerselvam said there had been 'information', indicating it. "We are continuously getting information that Stalin and Dhinakaran have secretly met and held discussions several times," the deputy chief minister said. On the lukewarm response to invitation to those who had left the party to return, he said it was AIADMK's 'generosity' to welcome them back and it was for them to accept it or not. Days after the high court on October 25 upheld the disqualification of 18 AIADMK rebel MLAs, the ruling party had said they and other who backed Dhinakaran were welcome to return to the parent party. On forging alliance for Lok Sabha poll, Panneerselvam said it will be considered at the time of election with like-minded parties. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Michael Martina and Winni ZhouSHANGHAI (Reuters) - China will lower import tariffs and continue to broaden market access, President Xi Jinping pledged on Monday, raising his estimate for the country's imports in the coming years at the opening of a symbolic week-long trade expo in Shanghai.The Nov. 5-10 China International Import Expo, or CIIE, brings thousands of foreign companies together with Chinese buyers in a bid to demonstrate the importing potential of the world's second biggest economy even as China remains embroiled in a trade row with the United States.In a speech that largely ... Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on November 5, 2018 2018/11/05 At the invitation of State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne will pay a visit to China from November 7 to 9. Q: On November 5, the United States restored its unilateral sanctions that cover Iran's energy and financial sectors. They are the second batch of sanctions the US has re-imposed since it withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Do you have any comment? A: The Chinese side regrets the US decision and we also noted the widespread opposition to the unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction among the international community. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is a multilateral agreement ratified by the UN Security Council and should be implemented in a comprehensive and effective way. This is conducive to upholding the international nuclear non-proliferation regime as well as peace and stability in the Middle East and serves the common interests of the international community. Despite the great changes that have taken place in the situation over the past half year, the existing participants of the JCPOA have remained committed to implementing the deal and maintaining normal economic cooperation and trade with Iran in a responsible manner, which is widely supported by the international community. We noted that the Iranian side by far has been strictly fulfilling its nuclear-related obligations under the JCPOA, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that for 12 times in a row. The Chinese side commends the endeavors made by the Iranian side. Under the current circumstances, we hope that relevant parties will bear in mind the larger and long-term interests, fulfill due responsibilities and obligations and stand on the right side of history. With a fair, objective and responsible attitude, the Chinese side will continue to make unremitting efforts to uphold the JCPOA and firmly safeguard its own legal and legitimate rights and interests. Q: Has the US government granted China an exemption from sanctions on the oil import from Iran? A: We have stated China's position on many occasions. China is always opposed to unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction. The normal cooperation between China and Iran within the framework of international law is legal and legitimate, which should be respected and safeguarded. Q: According to reports, given that the US recently announced it would unilaterally pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), some believe the INF Treaty should be changed into a multilateral deal which includes China and NATO members. What's your reaction to that? A: The Chinese side already stated its position on this issue for many times. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) is a bilateral agreement signed by the United States and the former Soviet Union. It has played an important role in easing the international relations, moving forward the nuclear disarmament process and safeguarding global strategic balance and stability. It is still highly relevant today. Unilaterally withdrawing from the treaty will have negative effects on many aspects. The Chinese side opposes the unilateral withdrawal of the US side as well as the multilateralization of the INF Treaty. China follows a defense policy that is defensive in nature. We have been highly restrained in building up our military and have no intention to and will never pose threats to any other country. Q: The Iranian President highlighted in an article published in Financial Times that it is essential that the European parties as well as China and Russia present and implement the final package of measures to compensate and mitigate the effects of America's latest sanctions on Iran. Has China submitted its package to the Iranian side yet? What are the basic elements of it? A: As I stressed just now, despite great changes that have taken place in the situation over the past six months, the existing JCPOA participants have remained committed to implementing the deal and maintaining normal economic cooperation and trade with Iran in a responsible manner. The two foreign ministers' meetings held by the participants and the joint statements adopted have made clear this point. Under the current circumstances, we hope that relevant parties will bear in mind the larger and long-term interests, fulfill due responsibilities and obligations and stand on the right side of history. With a fair, objective and responsible attitude, the Chinese side will continue to make unremitting efforts to uphold the JCPOA. Q: Does the upcoming visit by the Australian Foreign Minister mean that the "freezing" of relations that has happened over the past year or two has come to an end? A: We have made clear China's principled position on developing China-Australia ties on many occasions. In September this year, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Foreign Minister Marise Payne at the latter's request on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, during which the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-Australia relations and issues of mutual interest and reached important consensus. We stand ready to work with the Australian side to expand exchanges and cooperation across the board and move forward bilateral ties on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. Q: Has China reduced oil imports from Iran? A: I just made it very clear. China is always opposed to unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction. The normal cooperation between China and Iran within the framework of international law is legal and legitimate, and such rights should be respected and safeguarded. We will continue to maintain and implement the JCPOA and firmly safeguard our own legal and legitimate rights and interests. Q: There was a terrorist attack in Egypt against civilians on Friday, killing seven people and injuring over ten others. What is your comment? A: I am not quite clear about this specific terrorist attack you mentioned. Our principled position is that China condemns all forms of terrorist attacks no matter for what reasons they are waged. Q: Reports say that last week the newly elected Brazilian President said that he intended to move the Brazilian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Do you have any comment? A: Our position on the issue of the status of Jerusalem is consistent. Under the current circumstances, we hope that all relevant parties will continue to make more constructive efforts to seek a fair, reasonable and proper solution to the issue of Palestine at an early date and uphold peace and stability in the Middle East. By Michael Martina and Winni ZhouSHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping promised on Monday to lower tariffs, broaden market access and import more from overseas at the start of a trade expo designed to demonstrate goodwill amid mounting frictions with the United States and others.The Nov. 5-10 China International Import Expo, or CIIE, brings thousands of foreign companies together with Chinese buyers in a bid to demonstrate the importing potential of the world's second-biggest economy.In a speech that largely echoed previous promises, Xi said China would accelerate opening of the ... Chinese state-backed semiconductor maker Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co Ltd billed itself as a national leader in the tech industry. It planned to drive a shift towards locally made chips and end a heavy reliance on imports, especially from the United States. "The era of Chinese chips has arrived," it said in a recent promotional online pamphlet to attract chip industry talent. Underneath was a picture of a circuit board emblazoned with the Chinese flag. "China once relied on chip imports, but the tireless work of untold numbers of chip experts has meant that ... (Corrects job title, paragraph 15)By Sumeet ChatterjeeHONG KONG (Reuters) - Rich Chinese and other Asians are increasingly seeking more control of their wealth, driving a rapid rise in the number of so-called family offices, or private investment vehicles, being set up in Hong Kong and Singapore. As the wealthy target greater investment diversification and as business owners hand over the reins to successors, family offices are sprouting in the Asian financial hubs, taking advantage of incentives such as tax breaks and residency being offered.The family office is a relatively new concept in ... By Guy FaulconbridgeLONDON (Reuters) - Britain's serious crime agency has started an investigation into Brexit backer Arron Banks over the source of 8 million pounds ($10.4 million) in loans to groups including Leave.EU which campaigned to leave the European Union.WHY DO WE CARE?Banks has said the investigation is part of an attempt to undermine Brexit. He has repeatedly insisted that the money came from him and that no Russian funding was involved.But if criminal offences or foreign funding are proven, that could cast doubt on the legitimacy of the whole Brexit vote.The groups that received ... (Reuters) - Indian hospital operator Fortis Healthcare Ltd, which is set to be acquired by Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Bhd, posted a quarterly loss due to impairment charges.The company's net loss widened to 1.42 billion rupees ($19.43 million) in the second quarter ended September, from 236.1 million rupees a year earlier, according to a filing on Monday. https://reut.rs/2Do1UXp Fortis, which has operations in India, Dubai, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, agreed to be bought by IHH Healthcare after a prolonged takeover battle, which drew interest from five international and local suitors.Income from ... State-run gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd posted a 50 per cent jump in second-quarter profit on Monday, boosted by higher revenue from its natural gas marketing business. Profit came in at 19.63 billion rupees ($268.86 million) for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with 13.10 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said https://bit.ly/2zoe4Li. Analysts on average had expected a profit of 15.31 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data. Revenue from operations jumped 55.3 per cent to 192.75 billion rupees. By Amanda CooperLONDON (Reuters) - Nearly 40 years after the 1979 Islamic revolution saw the exit of Western oil companies from Iran, the Iranian oil sector faces yet another costly disruption after a series of interruptions from war, sanctions and diplomatic isolation.Washington will reapply sanctions to Iran's oil sector on Nov. 4, after ending its participation in an international deal governing Iran's nuclear sector. Iran's oil buyers outside the United States will stop or reduce purchases because of secondary sanctions applied on foreign companies that use the U.S. banking system.Having ... By Francesco Canepa and Balazs KoranyiFRANKFURT (Reuters) - The race to take over the European Central Bank's supervision arm has become a dead heat as southern European countries appear to be lining up behind an Italian candidate, four sources familiar with the process said.Ireland's Sharon Donnery was earlier seen as the favourite but Italy's Andrea Enria has garnered significant support in recent weeks, suggesting that the vote, to be taken in a secret ballot by ECB policymakers on Wednesday afternoon, will be close, the sources told Reuters.Set up four years ago in the aftermath of a ... LONDON (Reuters) - Commodity broker Marex Spectron has revised its forecast for the 2018/19 global sugar balance, switching its outlook to a small deficit due to expectations for lower output from Brazil, India, Thailand and the European Union. The broker forecast a deficit 1.05 million tonnes (raw value) for the current 2018/19 season having earlier forecast a surplus of 3.21 million tonnes. Marex Spectron pegged the shift on expectations for lower output in countries such as Brazil, India, Thailand as well as the EU as unfavourable weather and more focus on ethanol dent sugar production.The ... By Henning GloysteinSINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped on Monday as the start of U.S. sanctions against Iran's fuel exports was softened by waivers allowing major buyers to still import Iranian crude, while Tehran said it would ignore Washington and continue to sell.Front-month Brent crude futures were at $72.66 per barrel at 0740 GMT on Monday, down 17 cents, or 0.2 percent from their last close.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 30 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $62.84 a barrel.Both Brent and WTI have lost more than 15 percent in value since early October, in part ... The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless. The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well. By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism. MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's top banker State Bank of India, which was handling most of the payments to Iran for oil purchases, is now complying with the U.S. sanctions against Tehran, its chairman said on Monday."We are an international bank. We are based in USA. And for a bank which is present in USA we will act strictly in accordance with the sanctions... We will comply with the sanctions," SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar told a news conference.Reuters in June reported that SBI would stop handling payments from Iran oil purchases from November, when stringent U.S. sanctions against Tehran will ... By Ben HirschlerLONDON (Reuters) - The boss of Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical said on Monday he was confident of securing investor backing for its $62 billion acquisition of London-listed Shire, despite some shareholders' fears about the resulting debt burden.Buoyed by a strong set of quarterly results last week - helped by strong demand for its existing drugs - Chief Executive Christophe Weber insisted that buying rare diseases specialist Shire was not a defensive move."We are quite satisfied with our current progress at Takeda. Our business is doing well," he told the FT Global ... By Lesley Wroughton and Parisa HafeziWASHINGTON/DUBAI (Reuters) - The United States on Monday restored sanctions targeting Iran's oil, banking and transportation sectors and threatened more action to stop its "outlaw" policies, steps the Islamic Republic called economic warfare and vowed to defy.The measures are part of a wider effort by U.S. President Donald Trump to curb Tehran's missile and nuclear programs and diminish the Islamic Republic's influence in the Middle East, notably its support for proxies in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.Trump's moves target Iran's main source of revenue - its ... By Lesley Wroughton and Parisa HafeziWASHINGTON/DUBAI (Reuters) - The United States imposed strict sanctions targeting Iran's oil, banking and industrial sectors on Monday and threatened more action to stop Tehran from pursuing "outlaw" policies, steps the Islamic Republic condemned as economic warfare and vowed to defy.The measures are part of a wider effort by U.S. President Donald Trump to curb Tehran's missile and nuclear programs and diminish the Islamic Republic's influence in the Middle East, notably its support for proxies in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon."The Iranian regime has a choice: ... By Humeyra Pamuk and Timothy GardnerWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States snapped sanctions back in place on Monday to choke Iran's oil and shipping industries, while temporarily allowing top customers such as China and India to keep buying crude from the Islamic Republic.Having abandoned a 2015 Iran nuclear deal, U.S President Donald Trump is trying to cripple Iran's oil-dependent economy and force Tehran to quash not only its nuclear ambitions and ballistic missile program but also support for militant proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East.Earlier, Iranian ... By Humeyra Pamuk and Jane ChungWASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States snapped sanctions back in place on Monday to choke off Iran's oil and shipping industries, while temporarily allowing top customers such as China and India to keep buying crude from the Islamic Republic.Having abandoned a 2015 Iran nuclear deal, U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to cripple Iran's oil-dependent economy and force Tehran to quash not only its nuclear ambitions and its ballistic missile program but also its support for militant proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle ... By Humeyra Pamuk and Jane ChungWASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States snapped sanctions back in place on Monday to choke off Iran's oil and shipping industry, while temporarily allowing top customers such as China and India to keep buying crude from the Islamic Republic.Having abandoned the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to cripple Iran's oil-dependent economy and force Tehran to quash not only its nuclear ambitions and its ballistic missile program but its support for militant proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle ... A team of Delhi-based engineering college students has won a competition by US' prestigious Marconi Society for developing an innovative that estimates the quality of air in one's neighbourhood by analysing the images taken by a smartphone camera. The application developed by Tanmay Srivastava, Kanishk Jeet and Prerna Khanna of Bharati Vidyapeeth's College of Engineering won the top spot in the contest organised in India under the Celestini Program, supported by the Marconi Society, according to an official release issued by the Mountain View, California-based Marconi Society. The Celestini Program, named after the hill in Italy where Guglielmo Marconi conducted his first wireless transmission experiments, is run by winners of the Society's annual Young Scholar Awards, who work with technical undergraduate students in developing countries, to use technology to create social and economic transformation in their communities, it said. The winning team, which won $1,500 for their solution, developed an inexpensive, portable and real-time air quality analytics application: Air Cognizer. In this, a user uploads an image taken outdoors with half of the image covering the sky region. "Using image processing techniques, features are extracted and the model estimates the Air Quality Index (AQI) levels for the user's location. The model is deployed on smartphones using Tensorflow Lite and (ML) Kit from Google," the release said. An Android app of the same name is available at Google Play. "Air Cognizer is simple to use and free -- and will prove to be very useful for citizens in cities like Delhi, where air pollution is particularly acute now," the Marconi Society said. In India, the Celestini Program was started in 2017 in partnership with IIT-Delhi by Aakanksha Chowdhery, an ML Engineer with Google AI, who was selected as a Marconi Young Scholar in 2012 for her work in high-speed last-mile internet connectivity. The other IIT-Delhi partners include Prof Brejesh Lall and Dr Prerana Mukherjee. So far, 14 students have been hosted in India under this programme. In 2018, the second year of the Program in India, three teams from over 100 applicants were selected to work during the summer at IIT-Delhi on problems related to air pollution and road safety in New Delhi, the release said. The second prize went to the team of Divyam Madaan and Radhika Dua, from UIET Chandigarh, Punjab University. They created a website that forecast air pollution levels in Delhi over the next 24 hours using advanced machine learning techniques such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) to predict the major pollutant and its cause (for example, road traffic, industrial emissions, or agricultural wastes) in every location based on historical data. The website prototyped by the students updates in real-time using Google Cloud platform and Cloud ML engine. The team that secured the third spot was also from Bharati Vidyapeeth's College of Engineering. It included Sidharth Talia, Nikunj Agarwal and Samarjeet Kaur. They prototyped a low-latency platform to transmit vehicle-to-vehicle alerts about potential road safety hazards or collisions using computer vision techniques on Raspberry Pi and Xbee radio modules. Podcast: US visa rules begin to hurt Indian IT firms; things you must know about the crisis in the making Uncertainties around US visa norms seem to have started impacting the efficiency of the Indian IT service firms if the September quarter (Q2) numbers of some are considered. An American hero died last week in Afghanistan. You never met him. You never heard of him. You probably have never, ever been to the place he was raised, or where he grew up. Today though, Brent Taylor, an American soldier who was the civilian mayor of North Ogden, Utah, is gone. Taylor died because America is still at war in Afghanistan, no matter what we say to the contrary. Yes, despite three presidents and seventeen years, we are still at war. Our troops are still there. And now Major Taylor is dead. You just dont hear a lot about Afghanistan on CNN or Fox. The chances are neither one ever mentioned Brent Taylor before this past weekend. The producers dont see foreign wars getting a 7 share. They are too busy talking about Stormy Daniels. Last week, though, Afghanistan held its first parliamentary election in eight years. Over 4 million Afghan men and women voted, cautiously. They are still at war. To cast their votes, they had to risk their lives, brave daily threats, and endure deadly attacks by the Taliban, who had sworn to kill those who dared to vote. The Afghan people finally voted only because thousands of Americans and our coalition allies have been protecting them; fighting for the better part of 17 years to give them that right. Major Taylor died so they could cast that ballot. Taylor did not have to be there. He was the civilian mayor of his hometown. He was a volunteer soldier. He was the loving husband to a caring wife, the father of seven children- yes, seven. This week, America votes. We decide our futures by ballots, not bullets. Taylor died fighting in a foreign land for something we take so for granted here at home. Ironically, only two weeks ago, Taylor posted a final note on Facebook about the death of another soldier, a close friend of his, killed by the Taliban, one day before the Afghan voting began. Taylors simple but meaningful last words should be recorded and celebrated for posterity. Unknowingly, citizen Taylor sent America a lasting message. The soldier who was mayor wrote: As the USA gets ready to vote in our own election next week, I hope everyone back home exercises their precious right to vote. And that whether the Republicans or the Democrats win, that we all remember that we have far more as Americans that unites us than divides us. United we stand, divided we fall. God Bless America. Today, Taylor is gone. But like thousands of citizen soldiers before him, his deeds and his courage will live long beyond his time here on Earth. In the past few days, I read a lot about Major Taylor. I see he left Brigham Young University and joined the Army National Guard not long after the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. As a New Yorker, who lost friends there on that day, I salute him. I thank him. Anyone who has been to my office and seen all the pictures on my wall commemorating 9/11 understand how it has measured my life. So yes, even here in Wilton Manors, at a small, gay community newspaper not far from the Atlantic Ocean, we salute you, Major Taylor, your valor and your words. You helped make America special. He was the best of men with the ability to see potential and possibility in everything around him, North Ogdens website said in announcing Taylors death. It added, He was patriotic to the core and a shining example of what an American politician should be. His wife, Jennie Taylor, was quoted this past January in a Utah newspaper. She said that service was an important part of their lives, and an example for their seven children. In our family, we do what we can. If its something we can do, and the call comes to serve, we say yes. We salute your husband, Mrs. Taylor. Yes, we do. And we remember him both as Mayor Taylor and Major Taylor. His volunteerism and his life honors our own. You do what you can when you can and where you can. You fight today to make a difference for tomorrow. Some, like Brent Taylor, do more than sacrifice their time to seek a better world. They sacrifice their lives. We can only hope that within our grasp, we can find the tools to make a difference in our own lives. We here at the SFGN correspondingly salute you too, the readers of our paper and the volunteers in our community. We salute you whether you serve in the National Guard or volunteered as a poll watcher in this weeks election. We salute you whether you serve as a caregiver to an AIDS patient or donated your time to Taste of the Island. We salute you whether you are a first responder or the last person out of the Pride Center at the end of a charity event, cleaning up after everyone else has left. We salute you whether you run and lose your electoral race this past week, or will win and get to serve. We salute you for trying to make a difference. The best way to remember Major Taylors effort is to bring peace to Afghanistan. Coalition forces are still being attacked. Soldiers are still dying. After 17 years of Operation Enduring Freedom, or whatever it is called today, Afghan citizens and allied soldiers are still dying in a land far away. Ask your congressmen what they have done to help bring an end the carnage. Maybe it is time we elected a congress and senate focused on matters of consequence, and a president focused more on democracy rather than demagoguery. Maybe then, peace will come- with luck and dedication to causes that matter, maybe within our lifetime. marketsandmarkets Bioinformatics Market: Market size and Market forecast by 2023 ID: 1543570 Bioinformatics Market by Product & Service (Knowledge Management Tools, Data Analysis Platforms (Structural & Functional), Services), Applications (Genomics, Proteomics & Metabolomics), & Sectors (Medical, Academics, Agriculture) - Global Forecast to 2023 (firmenpresse) - According to the new market research report & Service (Knowledge Management Tools, Data Analysis Platforms (Structural & Functional), Services), Applications (Genomics, Proteomics & Metabolomics), & Sectors (Medical, Academics, Agriculture) - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarketsing number of collaborations between companies and research institutes are the major factors driving the growth of the market. Don Early buyers will receive 10% customization on reports. Based on product and service, the bioinformatics platforms segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR in the market during the forecast period On the basis of product & service, the market is broadly segmented into knowledge management tools, bioinformatics platforms, and services. The bioinformatics platform segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This high growth can be attributed to the increasing usage of different bioinformatics platforms in various genomic and proteomics applications. Additionally, there is an increase in the use of bioinformatics platforms in drug discovery and development, which also contributes to the growth of the market. Based on applications, the genomics segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the market in 2018 On the basis of applications, the global bioinformatics market is divided into genomics, chemoinformatics and drug design, proteomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics. In 2018, the genomics segment is expected to account for the largest share of the bioinformatics market. The rising application of genomics in personalized and preventive medicine is positively affecting market growth. Browse 189 - Tables 27 - Figures 195 - Pages View more detailed TOC (at) https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/bioinformatics-39.html North America is expected to dominate the market in 2018 Among the four geographic regions, North America is expected to account for the largest share of the bioinformatics market in 2018, followed by Europe, APAC, and the RoW. The large share of North America is attributed to the steady funding from the government and private sector for life sciences research and bioinformatics. Market Players The bioinformatics market is highly competitive due to the presence of a large number of players. Few of the major companies in bioinformatics market are Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Illumina Inc (US), Agilent Technologies (US), QIAGEN (Netherlands), BGI (China), Wuxi NextCODE (China), Eurofins Scientific (Luxembourg), Waters Corporation (US), Sophia Genetics (Switzerland), Partek (US), and DNASTAR (US). Request for Free Sample Report (at) http://bit.ly/2JGftBS Browse Adjacent Markets (at) Biotechnology Market Research Reports & Consulting About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets"Growth Engagement Model ". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets"Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Shelly Singh MarketsandMarkets 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: 1-888-600-6441 Email: sales(at)marketsandmarkets.com Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/bioinformatics-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Mr. Shelly Singh MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: 1-888-600-6441 Email: sales(at)marketsandmarkets.com Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/bioinformatics-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Juristisches zu dieser Pressemitteilung Weitere Pressemitteilungen von marketsandmarkets Gynecology Surgical Instruments Market Analysis, Segments, Key Players, Drivers, ... 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Bereitgestellt von Benutzer: akshayjadhav0912Datum: 05.11.2018 - 12:52 UhrSprache: DeutschNews-ID 1543570Anzahl Zeichen: 2976contact information:Contact person:Town:Phone: +44-800-368-9399Kategorie:Typ of Press Release: Erfolgsprojekttype of sending: VeroffentlichungDate of sending:Anmerkungen:Diese Pressemitteilung wurde bishermal aufgerufen.Die Pressemitteilung mit dem Titel:steht unter der journalistisch-redaktionellen Verantwortung vonBeachten Sie bitte die weiteren Informationen zum Haftungsauschlu (gema TMG - TeleMedianGesetz ) und dem Datenschutz (gema der DSGVO ). In a first for India, British banking major HSBC has executed a trade finance transaction involving an export by Reliance Industries to an American client using the blockchain, which massively reduced the time taken for processing the documents. The blockchain-enabled letter of credit transaction facilitated a shipment between Reliance and the US-based Tricon Energy, a joint statement issued by HSBC India and Reliance said. "The use of blockchain offers significant potential to reduce the timelines involved in exchange of export documentation from the extant seven-ten days to less than a day," RIL joint chief financial officer Srikanth Venkatachari was quoted as saying in the statement. The blockchain platform was integrated with the electronic bill of lading (eBL) platform to issue and manage an electronic bill of lading, it said, adding this allows a digital transfer of the title of goods from the seller to the buyer in the underlying trade. The statement claimed that the solution is a significant improvement for any organisation involved in buying and selling goods internationally, as it brings together all parties onto one platform. Blockchain solutions is a distributed database that maintains a continuously-growing list of ordered records called blocks and is deemed to be very transparent as all the stakeholders can view progress real time. A slew of domestic lenders, including ICICI Bank, SBI and Yes Bank among others are working on blockchain solutions and count trade finance as one of the best use cases for the technology because of the ability to cut down on time. HSBC's head of global banking and markets Hitendra Dave said blockchain has a transformative impact on trade finance transactions and enables greater transparency and enhanced security in addition to making it simpler and faster. That apart, it can ensure cost effectiveness, quicker turnaround and also potentially unlock liquidity for businesses, he added. For this transaction between Reliance and Tricon, the LC was issued by ING Bank, Brussels for Tricon Energy US with HSBC India as the advising and negotiating bank for Reliance, it said, claiming the transaction validates the commercial and operational viability of blockchain as an alternative to conventional exchanges for paper-based documentation. Explaining the current system, it said at present buyers and sellers use paper-based LCs to underpin transactions and physical documents are sent to each party in the transaction by post, courier or fax. While the current system provides a high level of certainty, the time and cost involved in processing the documents are deterrents for exporters. HSBC said it, along with five other banks globally supporting the 'Corda application', is seeking to expand the network on an open source basis to drive adoption across the industry. A British MP criticised India's 182-metre Statue of Unity of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as "total nonsense". Conservative Party MP Peter Bone said, "To take 1.1billion pounds in aid from us and then at the same time spend 330 million pounds on a statue is a total nonsense and it is the sort of thing that drives people mad." Bone is referring to Britain's donation of over 1.17 billion pounds (over Rs 9,492 crore) to India as foreign aid in the course of over five years. Though funds were given for various social projects, including women's rights issues, renewable energy projects, and to encourage "religious tolerance", the UK MP believes that it wasn't required as India could have easily afforded money for such projects had it not invested around Rs 3,000 crore on the 2,000-tonne statue. The Tory parliamentarian added, "It is up to them how they spend their money but if they can afford this statue, then it is clearly a country we should not need to be giving aid to." Some of Britain's Members of Parliament, too, are of the view that if India can afford to spend over Rs 2,989 crore on building the statue of the freedom fighter, which is twice the height of the State of Liberty in the US, Britain should not give funds to India at all. As per the report, the UK donated 300 million pounds to India in the year 2012 when the project was started. India received 268 million pounds in 2013, 278 million pounds in 2014, and 185 million in 2015. Critics in the British country believe that since India is the world's fastest growing economy, and is the leader on several fronts, including business and space, it should not be given foreign aids. They maintain that India already gives more money to several poorer countries across the world than it receives as foreign donations, despite having a vast majority of the population living in poverty. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the world's tallest statue on October 31 on ardar Patel's 143rd birth anniversary. The Statue of Unity was constructed by construction and engineering company, Larsen & Toubro Ltd, on the islet of Sadhu Bet. At 182 metre, the mammoth replica of Sardar Patel is the world's tallest statue, leaving behind USA's Statue of Liberty (93 metre), Japan's Ushiku Daibutsu (120 metre) and even China's Spring Temple Buddha (153 metre) statues. The statue has been built to withstand winds of 180km/hour and earthquakes of up to 6.5 Richter scale. Edited by Manoj Sharma Ramgarh (Jharkhand), Nov 4 (PTI) Ten people were arrested in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district on Sunday after police allegedly seized over 500 kg beef from three "illegal" abattoirs and rescued around 20 cows.Slaughter of cattle, and sale or consumption of its meat were banned by the Jharkhand government in 2005.Violators can face up to 10 years' jail and a fine of up to Rs 10,000.Over 500 kg of beef along with slaughtering tools and cattle hide has been recovered from the three abattoirs in Ramgarh district, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Radha Prem Kishore said here.The police team that carried out the raids was pelted with stones by local people, he said."As soon a team of police officers reached Rahmat Nagar locality in Ramgarh to carry out the raids, local people started pelting stones at them. Along with beef, cattle hide and slaughtering equipment were seized from the illegal abattoirs," Kishore told reporters.Additional security forces had to be deployed in the area to bring the situation under control, he said, adding that the raids were carried out on the directive of Superintendent of Police Nidhi Dwivedi. Two separate FIRs have been registered with Rajrappa police station in connection with the raid - one for cattle slaughtering and another for attack on the police, Officer-in-charge Kamlesh Paswan said.He said all 10 accused will be produced before judicial magistrate Monday, Paswan said. The seized beef has been buried at a dumpyard in Ramgarh, Paswan said. PTI COR PVR RMS ANBANB Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb on Sunday said that the state government would start a scheme to distribute cows among 5,000 families in a bid to create employment and battle malnutrition. "We are about to launch a scheme for distributing cows among 5,000 families. I am not against setting big industries, but in that, one has to invest Rs 10,000 crore in employing 2,000 people. But if I give 10,000 cows to 5,000 families, they will start earning in six months," Deb said. He added that the scheme might start in December. Deb, in fact, said his family would rear cows at the chief minister's residence to lead by an example. "Today I am announcing that I will start domestication of cows at the Chief Minister's residence along with my family and will consume its milk. This will also inspire people of Tripura to do the same and would help fight malnutrition," he said, reported Hindustan Times. Deb said 5,000 farmers across the state would be given bank loans to buy cows. The state government would pay interest on such loans. He also asked farmers to participate in fulfilling the goal of making Tripura a model state. Earlier, Deb had been in the headlines for a series of controversial remarks. He had previously said the youth should not waste their vital time and, instead, milk cows and run pan shops. (Edited By Vivek Dubey) It's an age-old tradition in India to buy gold on Dhanteras. The goddess of wealth Lakshmi is worshiped for financial prosperity. Hindus consider it as an extremely auspicious day to make new purchases, especially gold or silver articles and new utensils. It is believed that new "Dhan" (wealth) or some form of precious metal is a sign of good luck. Indian households collectively hold close to 24,000 tonnes of gold, which as per current price is valued in excess of Rs 7.87 lakh crore. There are risks in possessing physical gold, including the possibility of theft. Also, purity of gold itself is a major concern, especially in case of non-hallmarked jewellery. Disadvantages of physical gold Buyers of gold either keep their stash in safes at home, or in lockers at banks. Either way, it is vulnerable to theft and also has a storage cost associated with it. Some people keep gold as a hedge against economic crises such as joblessness, market crash, etc. But it is important to note that there are not likely to be many buyers of physical gold when most people are cash strapped in a slowing economy. Many buy gold during the festive season in the form of jewellery. It comes with making charges, which further escalate the cost. Gold buyers can instead opt for gold bonds to overcome the shortcomings of physical gold. Advantages of Digital Gold Moreover, tax arising on capital gains is exempted in case of digital gold. Sovereign gold bond schemes also offer interest at the rate of 2.50 per cent on the initial investment in gold bonds. And, there is no restriction on the minimum purchase quantity. Some online portals allow consumers to buy gold for as low an amount as Re 1. At present there are various options to buy gold digitally. The most common amongst them are 'Digital Gold', offered on mobile wallet platform Paytm and 'GoldRush' offered by Stock Holding Corporation of India. Both are offered in association with MMTC - PAMP, which is a joint venture between Govt. of India undertaking (MMTC) and Switzerland-based bullion brand PAMP SA. Other investment alternatives Apart from investment in gold this festive season, investors can also consider other lucrative options. Stocks Stock markets have witnessed a recent correction and many stocks have fallen by more than 40 per cent since their August peak. It provides an opportunity to investors to buy the stocks at a lower price and may turn out to be better investment option than spending on physical gold. Real Estate As per a recent development, SEBI has approved REITs (Real Estate Investment Trust) in India. With the advent of REITs, investors who cannot buy expensive real estate can invest small amounts through SIP, just like mutual funds. The capital appreciation earned by REIT gets distributed as dividend to small investors. Mutual Funds If the goal is to invest for long term then mutual fund is the best alternative as it can give exponential returns. Also investment in mutual funds can be customised as per the risk appetite of the investor such as equity mutual funds for young investors and debt mutual funds for aged investors. British Prime Minister Theresa May's office has dismissed as "speculation" a newspaper report that suggests an all-UK customs deal will be written into the legally binding agreement governing Britain's withdrawal from the EU The Sunday Times said the plan would resolve the vexed issue of the Irish border, which is the main stumbling block in the Brexit talks, by avoiding the need to treat Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the UK. With just five months to go until it exits the EU, Britain's divorce talks are at an impasse, fueling huge uncertainty among businesses and causing the value of sterling to see-saw on any news about a possible breakthrough in the talks. Reuters reported on Friday that the EU has suggested a backstop post-Brexit customs arrangement that would cover all of the UK. This could give mainland Britain some scope to set trade rules while keeping the province of Northern Ireland aligned with the EU. British housing minister James Brokenshire said on Sunday there was still an issue around Northern Ireland in the Brexit talks, referring to a yet-to-be finalized 'backstop' arrangement which would prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland if no better solution can be found. "That very much remains our focus and attention in getting that deal," he told the BBC. Asked about the Sunday Times report, a spokesman at May's office said: "This is all speculation. The prime minister has been clear that we are making good progress on the future relationship and 95 percent of the withdrawal agreement is now settled and negotiations are ongoing." The Sunday Times said May's cabinet would meet on Tuesday to discuss her plan and that she hoped there would be enough progress by Friday for the EU to announce a special summit. EU diplomats told Reuters on Friday they doubted a deal could be completed in time for a tentatively scheduled summit on Nov. 17-18, but that it could perhaps come a week later. Cabinet support for any exit agreement is crucial for May, whose ruling Conservative Party is deeply divided over Brexit. Some of her lawmakers want to oust May. May also runs a minority government which relies on the support of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to get legislation through parliament. The DUP has vowed to scupper any deal that treats Northern Ireland differently to the rest of the UK. If she fails to win cabinet and parliamentary support for any deal, Britain faces the prospect of an unstructured Brexit - leaving the EU without any formal arrangements for trade, immigration and many other issues. More than 70 business figures are calling for a public vote on the final terms of Britain's exit from the EU, warning that the country faces "either a blindfold or a destructive hard Brexit," The Sunday Times also reported. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie Senior Irish and British ministers and the leader of the Northern Irish unionist party propping up the minority British government all expressed confidence on Friday that a Brexit deal could be reached in the coming weeks. With just five months until Britain is due to exit the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May has yet to clinch a divorce deal, with negotiators stuck on how to keep open the border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU member state Ireland. Britain's Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, May's de facto deputy, said he "hoped and expected" that Brexit negotiators will secure a final agreement in the coming weeks, a view shared on Friday by Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney after the pair met in Dublin. Coveney said he thought it was possible to secure a deal this month. However, he added that this would require some movement by the British side to find a legal wording that can be sold politically on both sides of the Irish Sea, and that negotiators were not there yet. Both ministers said the two sides were "very close" to resolving differences on the border issue. In Belfast, Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster, whose party supports May's minority government in the British parliament, said she hoped the United Kingdom and the EU were close to a deal that will work for Northern Ireland. "Goodness, we have been here on a number of occasions and I hope we are close to a deal that will work for Northern Ireland, that is what we want," she told reporters after meeting with Britain's Brexit minister Dominic Raab. Raab, who was in Northern Ireland to meet with the province's political parties, added to the optimism by saying he was confident of reaching a deal that was good for all corners of the United Kingdom. Foster said she made it very clear to Raab that it was very important not to have any regulatory barriers as well as no customs barriers between the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland post-Brexit, a key sticking point in the talks. However she also stressed that it was significant that Raab visited ports in Northern Ireland to see the infrastructure there and noted that veterinary checks already take place there between Britain and Northern Ireland. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie This week, Google marks 15 years since the famous company opened its first international headquarters in Dublin. Originally setting up in a serviced office on Harcourt Street with only 5 employees, the company today employs 8,000 - an increase of 1,000 people since 2017 - with the Irish workforce now spanning a number of high-spec buildings around Barrow Street and Dublin working across the entirety of the companys businesses, including Advertising, YouTube, Cloud, Geo and Data Centre operations. To mark this significant occasion, the company has launched its biggest-ever initiative to support local communities throughout Dublin: the Google.org Dublin Impact Challenge, a new 1million fund to support non-profit innovators and social entrepreneurs whose innovative ideas for change are making an impact locally. Google will select 15 proposals, each receiving 50,000 in grant funding to bring their ideas to life, and of these 15 ideas, four projects will be selected by Googles esteemed panel of judge to receive an additional 50,000 of grant funding. Applications to the Google.org Dublin Impact Challenge can be made at http://g.co/dublinchallenge. Applications must be submitted by 6th December. A panel of judges has been assembled including: Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Nial Ring, Mary Rose Burke; CEO of Dublin Chamber, Dublin GAA legend, Bernard Brogan; Journalist, Roisin Ingle, Business In The Community CEO, Tomas Sercovich Fionnuala Meehan, Google Ireland site lead. A choice winner will be chosen by the public for a Peoples Choice Award. Speaking today, Vice President and head of Google in Ireland, Fionnuala Meehan said, "Dublin was the first overseas location for Google and it is very much our home. Weve grown from 5 employees to a workforce of nearly 8,000, and as Google continues to be successful, we want our city to share in that success. Over the years weve supported many local projects through Google.org and Google Arts & Culture, but the Dublin Impact Challenge is our biggest outreach yet to supporting local community endeavours." Source: www.businessworld.ie It was announced today that PiP iT Global, the Galway-based fintech start-up, has hired 8 new staff in its Galway offices in 2018, with plans to recruit a further 17 people in the next 12 -18 months. The expansion follows a successful fund-raising exercise earlier this year when they secured over 1m from private investors and Enterprise Ireland. PiP iT is a secure and private online payment platform which helps customers spend cash digitally. It allows migrants living and working around the world, who are often denied access to backing facilities most people take for granted, to pay bills and transfer money overseas at a fraction of the cost and time taken by more traditional international payment providers who currently dominate the market. Commenting on the expansion, CEO and co-founder of PiP, Ollie Walsh said, "We are digitalising cash. And we are trying to remove the two main obstacles migrants face when transferring money risk and cost. We want to play a big part in combating financial exclusion across the world, by helping the unbanked and underbanked to fully participate in the Digital World. Our fees are 1.5 per cent." He added, "This is a significant saving on the payment, but to put it into some context for example, in a developing nation such as Ghana, one years health insurance costs $5. So, paying a single bill with PiP iT, as opposed to remitting cash, could pay for health insurance for a family member for a whole year." Source: www.businessworld.ie Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza. Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres. Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. Ltd. said over the weekend that it has never acted to steal another firms technology. Photo: VCG Chinese state-back chipmaker Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. Ltd. has denied stealing technology from U.S. rival Micron Technology Inc., its first remarks since being indicted and cut off from its American suppliers last week on orders from Washington. Jinhuas weekend remarks are the latest twist in an escalating dispute over intellectual property between companies from the worlds two largest economies. They come as the U.S. and China are engaged in a trade war, with intellectual property theft by Chinese companies from their U.S. peers as one of the central complaints of U.S. President Donald Trump. The Justice Department unsealed an indictment on Thursday against Jinhua, its Taiwan-based partner United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), and three UMC employees who once worked for a Micron subsidiary. It accused them of stealing trade secrets from Micron, one of the worlds top makers of memory chips, related to the design, development and manufacture of DRAM memory. In concert with that indictment, Washington last week also banned exports of U.S.-made products to Jinhua, cutting it off from those suppliers. Jinhua had remained silent until the weekend, but broke that silence with a brief statement saying it attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights. Jinhua has never acted to steal another firms technology, it said in a statement (link in Chinese) on Saturday. Micron regards the development of Jinhua as a threat and has adopted various means to prevent and damage Jinhuas development. The feud between the pair started in December 2017, when Micron sued Jinhua in the U.S. for stealing trade secrets. Jinhua later countersued Micron in China, and a court in the southern Chinese city of Fuzhou later sided with the Chinese company and blocked the sale of some of Microns chips in China. Jinhua said it resolutely safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of (our) enterprise, and requested that the U.S. and Micron immediately stop their wrong practices. State-back Jinhua is helping to support Beijings Made in China 2025 plan, which aims to upgrade Chinas manufacturing sectors to be more globally competitive, especially in high-value-added areas like microchips. Contact reporter Tang Ziyi (ziyitang@caixin.com) * Stock may face delisting if trading in Hong Kong couldnt be resumed by next July 31 * The company has done little to resolve doubts about its heavy reliance on sales to affiliated companies and receivables to boost revenue Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd. is stirring the market again with a proposal to buy out its frozen shares for HK$55 billion ($7 billion). Its not clear where the money for such a buyout would come from. Shares of the Chinese solar power equipment maker have been suspended in Hong Kong for more than three years. The stock went on ice after a spectacular plunge of 47% one morning in May 2015, after which Hong Kong regulators imposed conditions for trading to resume that they say Hanergy has never met. Now Hanergy founder Li Hejun is talking about relisting the company on the mainland after a privatization, a plan he outlined last week in comments to media. Li was the Chinese mainland's wealthiest man before losing about $14 billion of his personal fortune in the May 2015 Hanergy debacle. While privatization would end a years-long standoff between Hanergy and Hong Kong regulators, relisting on Chinas A-share market may be a remote goal unless the company can solve deep-rooted problems that concern regulators, analysts said. In the past three years, the company has done little to resolve doubts about the viability of its heavy reliance on sales to affiliated companies and receivables to boost revenue, analysts said. The company is under mounting pressure over its frozen shares, analysts said. Under recently revised rules of the Hong Kong bourse, shares suspended more than 12 months must seek resumption by next July 31 or face delisting. In a filing Thursday night, Hanergy said its controlling shareholder, Hanergy Mobile Energy Holding Group Ltd. (Hanergy Mobile) will pay no less than HK$5 for each of Hanergys shares to take the company private. The offer represents a 28% premium over Hanergys last-traded share price of HK$3.91. Hanergy cited market changes and business needs as the reasons for going private. The deal, which involves 26.04% of Hanergys outstanding shares held by public investors, could total HK$54.9 billion, according to the filing. Hanergy and Hanergy Mobile are both ultimately controlled by Li. He holds 98.57% of Hanergy Mobile and 73.96% of the listed unit through affiliated parties, according to company reports. The Hanergy Model In August, Hanergy said it fulfilled all the conditions set by Hong Kong regulators to resume stock trading, including ousting Li from its board and cutting debt and business links with the parent company Hanergy Holding Group. Late last year, Hanergy Holding reduced its stake in the listed unit from 73% to 24.5% while another subsidiary, Hanergy Mobile, became the largest shareholder of Hanergy with 47.8%. The moves apparently havent satisfied Hong Kong securities regulators as they have yet to clear the stock to resume trading, Caixin learned. The Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) declined Caixins requests to comment on Hanergy. The longer (it waits), the riskier it is, said a Hong Kong stock analyst. The May 2015 Hanergy share collapse that preceded the long-running trading halt was triggered by investor concerns about the companys debt overhang and unusual stock movements. Before the plunge, Hanergys shares enjoyed a seemingly unstoppable surge, rising tenfold from 2013 to early 2015 and pushing its valuation above $40 billion. A subsequent investigation by the SFC led to a rare order blocking Hanergy from resuming trading without regulators approval. Last year, a Hong Kong court ruled that Li and four other directors were involved in misconduct such as misleading shareholders. Li was banned from being a director of any company in Hong Kong for eight years. Caixin was unable to reach Li for comment. Established in 1994 as a hydropower producer, Hanergy shifted its business focus to thin film solar modules in 2009 and quickly expanded its business to the entire industrial chain. Thin-film modules are light or flexible solar energy strips that can be mounted on roofs, walls or consumer goods. From 2012 to 2014, Hanergys revenue surged from HK$2.8 billion to HK$9.6 billion despite a slowdown in the global solar energy market. During the same period, accounts receivable rose from HK$3.8 billion to HK$9.9 billion, company reports showed. In 2015, as regulators scrutinized company transactions with connected parties, Hanergys revenue nosedived to HK$2.8 billion. More than 70% of Hanergys revenue came from solar panel manufacturing equipment, mainly sold to industrial parks controlled by affiliated companies. The complexes of factories supposedly produced solar panels or other energy products. Hanergy was almost the sole customer of products produced by those parks, a former Hanergy Holding executive said. Selling the equipment to industrial parks creates receivables to the listed unit. But it is very likely that there are no actual sales of products as most of the parks are not in actual operation, the executive said. Its only for making the books. Despite the freeze on its share trading, Hanergy has pushed since late 2016 for a new round of expansion by signing agreements with more than 10 local authorities to build solar energy industrial parks. Caixin estimated that since 2009, Hanergy has announced plans to build industrial parks with annual solar-cell production capacity totaling 26 gigawatts. That much capacity would work out to about 50 times Chinas average annual production of solar cells between 2013 and 2017, according to data from China Insights Consultancy. In the first half this year, Hanergy outperformed the industry by posting 615% growth in unaudited revenue to HK$20 billion. Net profit surged to HK$7.3 billion from last years HK$245 million. By the end of June, Hanergys accounts receivable more than doubled from a year ago to HK$22.6 billion. No Big Change Since 2015, Hanergy has launched a series of reorganizations and pledged measures to address concerns over its connected-party transactions. By the end of 2017, parent Hanergy Holding transferred its control of the listed unit to newly established Hanergy Mobile and said it would refocus on hydropower and wind farms. In its interim report, Hanergy said regulators concerns about excessive transactions with affiliated parties have been completely solved. Hanergy said its main business partners are local governments and independent third parties. There are some apparent changes. Most of the new solar energy industrial parks announced since 2016 are majority-controlled by investment funds backed by local governments or their investment vehicles, according to public information. But tracking the origin of the funds still shows links to Hanergy. For instance, a project in Yingkou, Shandong Province, received 1.4 billion yuan of investments from its biggest shareholder, backed by the local government. But Hanergy promised to buy back half of the stake from the investor in seven years. In other projects, Hanergys executives or associates of Li appeared as major shareholders or senior managers. The SFC declined to respond to Caixins questions on whether such arrangements are still seen as connected-party transactions. An internal document seen by Caixin indicated that Hanergy Holding and its affiliates are still the second largest customers of the listed unit in 2017. Dream Big After Hanergy unveiled its expensive privatization plan, questions swirled about how the company and its owners would pay for it. Since the 2015 sell-off, the parent Hanergy Holding has faced rising debt disputes with state lenders, suppliers and contractors involved in its massive industrial park projects. Data from the Supreme Court showed that as of Oct. 29, there were eight unpaid debt cases pending against Hanergy Holding. A court verdict in June said there were no assets among Hanergy Holdings accounts could be sold to pay the debt, and the company was listed as a defaulter. In July, media reported that Hanergy Holding mandated that all employees pay at least 200,000 yuan to invest in an asset management product that raised funds to finance the companys industrial park project in Yingkou, reflecting the financial strain. A Hanergy Holding executive denied that the payments were compulsory and said the company was only assisting in sales of the investment product. But several employees told Caixin that they believed those who didnt buy the product would lose their jobs. Hanergy expects to expand the application of its thin film products to households and offices to generate new growth, but the efforts have faced challenges due to high costs, analysts said. The company has equipped office buildings for Ikea, State Power Investment Corp. and FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co. with solar films as new energy sources. But experts said the projects are more demonstrative than commercial as the application of building-integrated photovoltaic systems is still not ready for massive use. A main cash cow of Hanergy Holding is the Jinanqiao Hydropower Station in southwest Yunnan province, which started operation in 2012 with annual capacity of 3 million kilowatts. The station has registered annual revenue of about 3 billion yuan and around 700 million yuan of net profits, company documents showed. But the station has been repeatedly pledged for loans, Caixin learned. Court documents and verdicts showed that the Jinanqiao station has been pledged as collateral by Hanergy Holding for multiple loans totaling more than 14 billion yuan or almost five times annual revenue from banks including China Development Bank (CDB), Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of China. A source at CDB, one of the main credit backers of Hanergy, said the bank is still optimistic about solar energy and believes Hanergy will resume trading as early as next year. Founder Li also shows undimmed optimism. He often compares his company to tech giants like Apple Inc. and Google Inc., setting an ambitious goal for Hanergy to post 200 billion in revenue with an overall valuation of 1 trillion yuan by the end of 2019. Caixin reporters Wei Yiyang, Liu Yanfei contributed to the story. This story has been updated to clarify that Li was the Chinese mainland's wealthiest man before losing about $14 billion of his personal fortune in May 2015. Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com). news, latest-news Milk products sold in Canberra and New South Wales are being recalled amid fears of broken lids spilling into containers. Capitol Chilled Food Australia has issued a recall for a range of Canberra Milk full cream milk products with use-by dates from November 5 to November 15. In a statement, the company said routine testing had found faulty lids on some of the containers, which may have broken off and spilled into the containers, creating a choking hazard. The company has examined all the caps and seals from the milk batch, finding only a "very minimal" number with faults. No consumer complaints had been made about the faults. "We believe this is an isolated incident impacting only the production of products made with thisspecific faulty black cap," Capitol Chilled Food Australia's statement read. Canberra Milk's 1 litre, 500 millilitre and 300 millilitre products are sold at stores in the ACT and in 14 towns in New South Wales, including Queanbeyan, Goulburn, Wagga Wagga and Thredbo. The recall does not impact any other Canberra Milk product, including its full cream 2 litre and 3 litre products with the same use-by dates. comment, editorial It's not everyday an Australian prime minister, even one with a well-documented background in promotions and marketing, fronts up to spruik on behalf of a privately owned multinational corporation. That's what happened on Sunday when Scott Morrison rolled out the red carpet for Virgin Australia's decision to offer ADF veterans "priority boarding" and to introduce American-style pre-flight announcements acknowledging them ahead of take-off. The policies, the manner of their announcement and the politicisation of veterans by a company and a politician searching for a "feel good" media moment went down like the proverbial lead balloon. Coming as it did on the back of last week's underwhelming "veteran's discount card", the idea of being allowed onto the aircraft ahead of anybody else, including apparently the elderly and the handicapped, shocked many past and present service personnel. "We're the kind of people who stand back for others. We don't need priority in a line to board a plane," one, Ray Martin, said. "We don't need lapels or gestures". Most who have posted about the policy roll-out on social media say a public announcement inviting other passengers to acknowledge their presence, presumably through a round of applause, is the worst idea they have ever heard. Catherine MacGregor described the initiative, which is now being reviewed by Virgin in the wake of the backlash, as "more nationalist crap". "Spend more on suicide prevention and health support. Faux American bollocks," she said. Then there is the view that if Virgin was genuine about honouring veterans it would do something that actually cost the company money. This could include discounts on tickets or the occasional free flight. Few would disagree with Qantas's response when asked if it would be following Virgin Australia's lead. "We carry a lot of exceptional people every day, including veterans, police, paramedics, nurses, fire fighters and others, and so we find it difficult to single out a particular group," a spokesperson said. Mr Morrison, in his haste to jump aboard the jingoistic band wagon being prepared for the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, has inadvertently drawn attention to the failure by a succession of governments, including his own, to make the Department of Veterans Affairs more responsive to the needs of recent veterans and the issues of veteran suicide and high veteran unemployment. While the age-adjusted suicide rate for serving personnel is 51 per cent lower than for the general population, it is 18 per cent higher for ex-service personnel. The transition from military to civilian life, which often involves difficulty in finding employment and a sense of community and purpose, is a difficult time. Governments and corporations keen to assist with this passage could help out in many far more practical ways. One might be by providing funding and other support to Soldier On, the Canberra-based organisation that has helped thousands of former service personnel since it was founded in 2008. Less than one per cent of the charity's funds come from the federal government. Another would be to offer preferential employment opportunities to service men and women who are trying to transition from military to civilian life. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/c5a00fe0-5d50-48be-9683-54e5ca8dc08f/r0_46_900_554_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, crime Police believe a man who allegedly broke into a Belconnen residence before committing a sexual offence might have committed similar crimes previously. A 19-year-old man is expected to face ACT Magistrates Court on Monday charged with committing an act of indecency without consent, and burglary. It is alleged the Lyneham man entered the residence on October 14 without permission and committed a sexual offence. He fled the scene soon after. ACT Policing's sexual assault and child abuse team executed a search warrant at the mans residence on Saturday, November 3. Criminal investigations detective acting station sergeant Shane Scott said police believed there might be other victims who were yet to come forward and report similar crimes. "We recognise that it takes courage to come forward if you are a victim of crimes of this nature," detective acting station sergeant Scott said. "Let me reassure anyone that comes forward that your privacy is respected and upheld through the entirety of the process." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/5eb2f779-e5cd-477a-9a02-9b8d1d30d9e4/r0_62_1557_942_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg comment Your report of a speech by Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo ("Officials 'don't decide public interest"', November 1, p10) suggests he thinks it's up to politicians, not public servants, to determine what's in the public interest. While his speech can certainly be read as saying that, it's not completely clear to me that that is the interpretation he intended. He said other things in his speech that seem to be inconsistent with that view. But, if it is his view, it would mean that what's in the public interest is a subjective, not an objective, matter. For example, if the ALP wins the next election, it would be in the public interest for the government to do something about carbon emissions but, if the Coalition wins, it would be in the public interest for it to do nothing. If that's really his view, it would follow that the public interest is not a very useful guide to running the country. My view is that the public interest is an objective matter and that public servants, by dint of their subject matter expertise, are usually best placed to divine what it is. It is therefore up to them to advise the government of the day what they think should be done, not to stay quiet because the government has determined that the public interest is something else. Greg Pinder, Charnwood Some defend current weak Australian government responses to greenhouse issues on the basis that real action on our 1.3 per cent share of emissions is futile globally (Letters, October 26) and only adversely impacts our economy. But aspects of our leadership stance suggest it is a worst possible, wrecking approach in terms of our global impacts via lack of openness and clarity in reporting domestic emission trends, de minimis gaming of national targets at international forums, dismissal of IPCC scientific warnings as irrelevant, rejecting use of economic market signals through carbon trading or pricing, and calls for government subsidies to coal-fired generation and opening up bigger coal exports. These features send precisely the wrong message out to other nations as to considered global behaviour. They reinforce "bottom feeding" such as under the current US leadership and insult our Pacific island neighbours. Like the UK's clever messaging to the English-speaking world, a more outward-looking contribution from Australia would be to recognise the dangers to our especially vulnerable agricultural sector from disruption to moisture balances; to leverage importers of our coal and gas to best manage their emissions; to champion a Pacific region view such as in terms of risks to sea level, reef ecology and ocean life; to provide leadership of the science, technology and economics underpinning effective responses; and to replace a de minimis approach to national emission targets with early over-achievement and marketing communications. Think globally, not inwardly. Roger FitzGerald, Macquarie I noticed on the media recently a couple of off-hand racist phrases "Dutch courage", which implies that the only brave Dutch person is a drunk one, and "scot free", which suggests that Scottish people are likely to get away with crimes. In fact the real meaning of "scot free" was avoiding paying your tax (scot) but few know that so the phrase sounds racist. "Political correctness going mad again," I hear some say but how did Australians feel when people would offhandedly refer to "lazy Australians" as if a hard-working Aussie was a mythical creature? Some in the media still peddle the idea that Australians who are thrown out of work are dole bludgers. Rosemary Walters, Palmerston There seem to be some who are critical of MLA Bec Cody for seeking a historical re-evaluation of some of Canberra's street and locality names. Their grounds are that Ms Cody should be focusing on "less trivial" matters. I guess they won't mind if Ms Cody says she is too busy with more important matters when they next seek help in fixing their own "trivial" problems. Eric Hunter, Cook The ACT government proposes that schools may discriminate on the basis of a child's religion ("Schools will still be able to discriminate with one catch," November 2, p8). But unlike race, sexual orientation, skin, hair and eye colour religion is not an innate, genetic, characteristic. It should be a matter of mature informed choice. School children cannot yet have made that choice. They must not be pressed or deemed to do so prematurely, especially in a publicly funded education system. Schools should, inter alia, equip students to make informed choices in due course including by questioning and challenging religious views, and especially those archaic doctrines that promote discrimination and denial of science. Otherwise they are not educating, but indoctrinating. Public policy, let alone taxpayer funding, must not support such indoctrination. Mike Hutchinson, Reid Peter Harris (Letters, October 29), check out the "Register of Members' Interests 45th Parliament" and you'll see that many current federal politicians state they have free Foxtel, which includes Sky News, in their electorate offices courtesy of ASTRA and Foxtel. While the register has details about the many doozie freebies parliamentarians have acquired, it's also well worth examining to see the spelling and grammar howlers, displayed in many cases via the politicians' personal handwriting. They will make for very interesting conversation starters. Col Shephard, Yamba, NSW The just completed widening of Gundaroo Drive heading towards the Barton Highway at the Gungahlin Drive intersection appears to have four lanes. One turning left towards the city, two going straight ahead towards the Barton, and the fourth, a right hand turn into Gungahlin Drive towards Ngunnawal and Casey and so on. Sounds good except that even on a quiet mid-afternoon weekday the right hand lane only accommodates about 8-10 cars despite having plenty of width in the median strip. About a dozen more cars wishing to turn right are stuck in the right hand lane going straight through the lights. Only one through lane is flowing as the right hand turn light is not green for long and the traffic banks back. The result: more delays as the turn lane is (hopefully) lengthened with more traffic interruption. P. O'Connor, Hawker Bravo to Owen Reid of Dunlop who rightly pointed out the real Malcolm Turnbull (Letters, October 26). I find it amusing that most of the CT letter writers and editors have a sense of sympathy for Turnbull. I guess most of them would be left-wing Labor voters and see Turnbull as their ideal leader, much more than Bill Shorten. The sorrow for Turnbull is amazing as he first wanted to join the ALP but they rejected him (lucky them), then he backstabs Liberal leader Brendan Nelson to gain leadership of the Liberal party. He then loses leadership to Tony Abbott and spends the next part of his political life undermining him at every opportunity. The press says nothing of the destabilising attempts by Turnbull on Abbott. When the roles are reversed Abbott is painted as the villain. Turnbull eventually got what he always wanted, even as a young boy; to be prime minister of Australia. It didn't matter which political party it was, as he has no loyalty to anyone but himself. Did Labor reject Turnbull so that it could send him into the Liberal party to do his best to undermine and wreck that party? Turnbull's views are more at home with the left, the Labor Party. When [finally] challenged by his own party, he calls a spill and loses. So what does he do now, takes his bat and goes home. Oh, but his other home is in New York, lucky him, where he can Tweet on social media how hard done by he was. At least Abbott stayed with his party and toughed it out. Now with the loss of Wentworth, the usual suspects are blaming Abbott and co again, but Labor and Greens votes went down as well. Wentworth reminds me a bit of affluent Canberra where the voters like virtual signalling on things like climate change because they never have to worry about paying high prices for electricity bills and would let the floodgates open for illegal immigrants because they would live 300 kilometres up the road, not next door to them. Turnbull has really left the Liberal Party in a state of disarray and I feel sorry for Scott Morrison, who has to pick up the pieces. Ian Pilsner, Weston The ACT's latest housing strategy ("Housing strategy omits key details", October 30, p1) would have prompted deja vu for many readers. It made the same vague promises as many previous, and equally vague, announcements. Remember Yvette Berry's undertaking to public housing tenants that after eviction they would be able to move into similar housing situated in salt and pepper locations on main transit routes. Over two elections our current government has made many commitments to remedy the housing affordability crisis. Some of the promises have been deliberately forgotten. Others have been paid lip service at best. The housing affordability crisis and high rates of homelessness are still with us. The problem is not with the actual price of building a house. That cost has risen in line with the CPI . Affordable housing is housing that does not cost more than one-third of the average weekly wage. Because of the high price of land, housing in Canberra and other capitals can be well over half the average weekly wage. A simple solution would be to sell land to average wage earners at independently valued prices. Repayment terms and amounts would be set to sit comfortably into an average household budget. The land should be sold over the counter and purchasers should be given the opportunity to sit on it for sufficient time to grow their savings and equity to the point where they would qualify for finance to build. This is more or less what happened between 1950 and 1980. It worked well for Canberrans then and would work well again now. At the moment the ACT government has a scheme for land rent that fits nowhere near the average wage and still entrenches high land prices. That said, I don't believe the current government would ever adopt what I have proposed. Without high land prices, and the corresponding rates, it would be well and truly in the red. I cannot see how they have the gall to call themselves a Labor Party. Howard Carew, Isaacs I refer to recent proposals that applicants for grants from the Australian Research Council be required to demonstrate that their research will be relevant to Australia's national interests. Some years ago, I became aware of a book by Natalie Zemon Davis, The Gift in Sixteenth Century France. Needless to say, I was not struck by its immediate relevance to Australia's pressing problems. About which, more shortly. More than 250 years ago, an anonymous commentator noted "the most extraordinary inventions were rather the effect of chance and subsequent trial, than of any profound forethought and contrivance". Since then, some very useful things have been discovered by accident penicillin among them. One might also mention vulcanised rubber; gelignite; the potato chip, the chocolate chip cookie, the microwave oven and Viagra. The magic word here is serendipity, which I don't believe exists in the lexicon of Australian ministers of education. Back to 16th century France. Davis' book dealt with exchange relationships between nobility and peasants. I thought it might have some application to contemporary policing. Two colleagues and I drew on Davis' intellectual architecture to write a book, Lengthening theArm of the Law: Enhancing Police Resources in the 21st Century (Cambridge University Press 2009). Copies were sent to every police commissioner in Australia. I would argue that the mind-numbing managerialism and "paint-by-numbers" mentality that afflicts the governance of Australian universities makes it more difficult to achieve serendipitous insight. This is definitely not in Australia's national interest. Peter Grabosky, Forrest THIN EDGE OF WEDGE Owen Reid (Letters, November 2) has missed the point. A research paper into Post-Orientalist Arts at the Strait of Gibraltar may be a sitting duck for rejection, but once you've established the principle that a government can decide what research is in the national interest and what's not, the die is cast. Research into, for example, The Effect of Political Donations on Australian Party Policy would undoubtedly be rejected on the same grounds. Fred Pilcher, Kaleen BAD MOVES Throwing money at wars keeps the hawks on the hill throwing money at the war memorial. Stop it. Howard Ubey, Yarralumla CRUSADE A STUNT As an MLA on the backbench with no particular responsibilities in the governing party, I suspect Bec Cody suffers from relevance deprivation syndrome, and that her "crusade" in relation to the ACT's place and street names is simply a cynical exercise in drawing attention to herself. After all, if she doesn't engage in stunts like this every now and then, who would know that she even exists? Don Sephton, Greenway SHAME? JOYCE? N. Ellis (Letters, November 2). I don't think shame is an emotion with which Barnaby is familiar. Michael McCarthy, Deakin WRONG MESSAGE G. King (Letters, October 31) is exactly right when he says bicycles crossing at pedestrian crossings at 10km/h is contentious. We were taught to stop and look before crossing as this benefits both pedestrian and the vehicle driver. What example are we giving our children if we show they can basically run across a crossing without any thought for a driver or their own safety? Ed Gaykema, Reid STAYING AS IS I was once a boy. My wife was once a girl. I am now a man and she is a woman. To the Labor Party: Please do not de-sex us. Pat Tracey, Canberra TOADS A TOUGH ASK I read we must persist with identifying cane toads and ridding the Canberra region of this destructive pest. Should the need arise here, and it almost inevitably will, such an achievement would be welcomed by Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, where the little beasts have proved ineradicable. G. Wilson, Macgregor WRONG CALL Driving along Drakeford Drive just before the Hindmash drive exit, a programmable electronic sign read: "Missing a call won't kill you, just hang up and drive". It should read "just ignore it and drive". B. Hale, Wanniassa 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 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/700cbbce-c0a4-494f-ad55-b84764c639b8/r0_16_320_197_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg For those who are looking for their own land and house, can has a line from credit Ideal. With bank... With the absence of No Recess, the $2,500 Rosecroft Raceway leg of the RUS MidAtlantic series looked like a two-horse race between Atout De Fontaine and perennial favourite Hyway Marcus. Well, a two-horse race it was, but it was another Sofia Zingale-trained horse, Egosnattitudes, who crashed the party to win a thrilling duel in his maiden RUS start with a mile in 2:00. The field was reduced to four with the defection of One True Friend, who was scratched Saturday. When the gate opened, Hyway Marcus (who was ridden by Sasha Moczulski) quickly left to get the first call while Egosnattitudes (Sofia Zingales) raced two-wide around the first turn. By the time Hyway Marcus reached the first quarter, he had a four-length lead over Egosnattitudes in a :28.3 split. As the duo hit the stretch for the first time, Ego quickly closed on the race leader, racing on the outside to be only a head behind Marcus as the tandem reached the half in :58.3. Determined to protect his rail advantage, Hyway Marcus continued to park his opponent. At one point, Egosnattitudes got the lead, but by the time the two horses reached the third station in 1:28.1 Hyway Marcus still had a nose advantage. Marcus attempted to put some more distance between the two, managing a lead of a head over Ego as the duo reached the top of the stretch. As much as Marcus dug in, Egosnattitudes was not to be denied, and by the time the pair reached the wire, it was Egosnattitudes out-grinding Hyway Marcus to score a three-quarter-length victory over the RUS veteran. The other Zingale-trained horse, French trotter Atout De Fontaine (Maria Buchanan), was three lengths further back in third. Puddin N Pie (Stephanie Jacobs) finished fourth. The race concluded the 2018 RUS MidAtlantic series. Plans are already being made for next years series. Any new tracks (fair or pari-mutuel) wishing to be part of the 2019 RUS MidAtlantic series may contact RUS MidAtlantic at [email protected]. (RUS MidAtlantic) Yves Tessier trainee Flying Isa N claimed his third-consecutive victory in the $8,100 Preferred Trot at Rideau Carleton Raceway with a neck victory in 1:57.3 on Sunday, Nov. 4. The 10-year-old gelding by Pegasus Spur got away fourth as Lmc Mass Gem brushed to the top past a :28 opening quarter. Facing no pressure to a :58.4 half, Lmc Mass Gem owned a two-length lead when Flying Isa N angled outside in pursuit of command to three-quarters. Lmc Mass Gem trotted to three-quarters in 1:27.3 and had no dents on his lead turning into the lane. But Flying Isa N cut into his deficit through the straightaway to snag victory late while holding off third-place finisher Raising Richard rallying from a rail trip. Owned by Francois Morin, Flying Isa N won his 10th race in 33 starts this season and his 36th from 132 overall, earning $535,951. Stephane Brosseau drove the $6.90 winner. Canadian Edition upset the $8,100 Preferred Pace with a three-quarter length rail-trip rally at odds of 10-1 in 1:54.3. Machin A Trick led to a :27.3 first quarter and braced the first-over bid of Stonebridge Beach following a :57.3 half. Race-favourite Doctor Royal tracked cover from second over heading to the backstretch all while Canadian Edition stalked from fifth. Stonebridge Beach came within a nose of command at the 1:25.4 third quarter but began a gradual retreat into the final turn. Doctor Royal shot three wide and overtook pacesetter Machin A Trick in the lane, but the 1-5 public choice could not withstand the late rush from Canadian Edition and settled for second to the $23.10 winner. Machin A Trick held third. A seven-year-old gelding by Somebeachsomewhere, Canadian Edition won his eighth race from 37 starts this season and his 30th from 172 overall, earning $194,457. Clarke Steacy sat in the bike for owner-trainer Blake Curran and co-owner Stephen Leblanc. Guy Gagnon scored a training triple on the Sunday card. He won with Playin For Keeps, popping pocket to win a $4,800 claiming pace by one-and-a-quarter lengths in 1:56.3, Cliff Drummond, pulling pocket to take a $6,000 claiming pace in 1:55.1, and Cobalt Man, going wire to wire to win a $6,900 conditioned pace by one-and-three-quarter lengths in 1:56. To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Rideau Carleton Raceway. Verlin Yoder raced the best horse of his career this season, the undefeated Breeders Crown champion Woodside Charm, but the filly was not alone in helping the 45-year-old owner/trainer/driver to the best season of his career. Yoder established highs of 31 wins and $1.38 million in purses as a trainer to go with a career-best $1.15 million as a driver. His 26 victories in the sulky were two shy of his career mark of 28 set last season. And while two-year-old female trotter Woodside Charm contributed $521,658 in purses to this years totals, Yoder still would have surpassed his previous highs of $571,162 as a trainer and $571,903 as a driver without her. We just had the right horses in the right classes, Yoder said. It worked out great. Yoder had three Indiana Sires Stakes champions: two-year-old male trotter Its A Herbie, two-year-old female trotter Kissesforall, and four-year-old female trotter Compelling. Three-year-old male trotter Katkin American finished second to Fiftydallarbill in his Indiana Sires Stakes final. Those four horses combined for 18 wins, hitting the board 43 times in 50 starts, and $749,440. Compelling, claimed by Yoder last year, came back from a suspensory injury to find success. Katkin American was unraced at two, but showed potential last winter while training with Yoders millionaire trotter Natural Herbie. Driven by Yoders son, James, Katkin American was a Hoosier Park track record setter and finished worse than second only once in 12 starts. I knew we had some decent ones coming out of Florida, said Yoder, who lives in the Sunshine State during the offseason and returns to Indiana to race. We knew (Katkin American) was pretty nice. It was nice to have him and watch my son do well with him. The Herbie colt (Its A Herbie), about the middle of March he showed me he had some real talent. We just took our time with him. Hes a big growthy colt and I stuck to my guns and kept on trying to teach him. Every start, he got smarter about things. I was really excited about him. Compelling was a very nice addition. I was going for a Hail Mary (when he claimed her last year) because I was kind of soft in the three-year-old fillies. I took the gamble of keeping her and rehabbing her. I tried to do all the right things and she came back a hundred per cent. It was the middle of February and the boys kept on telling me theyre going to read about her. The farther we got down, the stronger she got. And then there was Woodside Charm, who on October 27 capped a seven-for-seven campaign with her win in the Breeders Crown final for two-year-old female trotters at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono. It was Yoders first trip to the Breeders Crown. She joined Manchego as the only two-year-old filly trotters to be undefeated Breeders Crown champions. The way she did it is what impressed me about her, Yoder said about the fillys season. She went to so many tracks and shipped all over, and every time I went to a different track she adjusted. She let me do what I had to do. Shes a fast, smart horse. Woodside Charm won her Breeders Crown final by one and three-quarter lengths over Simon Allard-driven When Dovescry, and covered the mile distance in 1:54.1 on a cold rainy night. I was going up the backside and she was cruising and Im thinking, man, it cant be this easy, Yoder said. I thought I better grab into her a little bit to make sure I had plenty left. Then when Simon pulled, I was waiting on him, I squawked at her and she was gone. Youre pinching yourself in the race. And then when you get done and get home and start thinking about what you did in the last couple weeks, its pretty amazing. It takes a lot of focus and a lot of hard work to pull something like that off. The biggest thing is staying focused on your work. To stay focused and do your job every day, and stay religious about it, thats the tough part. You set up a plan to lead to one direction. I wouldnt say that Im proud of myself, but I was happy with myself to stay focused. Yoder also credited his wife, Rachel, with being instrumental to the stables success. This was the first year that my wife was able to help me in Indiana and it made a big difference, Yoder said. Weve always been a team, but the boys always went to school and she had to be in Florida and I was always trying to do it myself. When you have somebody that thinks the same way that you do and its a team, it just works better. Yoder is already resettled in Florida, giving his horses some time off and contemplating next season. Things went right; we did the right things and stuck to the plan, Yoder said. Now we have to go back through the motions again. Hopefully we come back and do all right again. (USTA) The final Harrisburg Mixed Sale session is taking place today (Friday, Nov. 9) at the PA Farm Show Complex in Pennsylvania, as Hip Nos. 1,170 through 1,597 are scheduled to pass through the sales ring. Friday's session will get underway at 10 a.m. Important Links: The mixed sale follows the 2018 Harrisburg Yearling Sale, which took place from Monday (Nov. 5) to Wednesday (Nov. 7) and was comprised of three sessions. The three combined yearling sessions saw 830 yearlings sold for $35.42 million, with an average purchase price of $42,675. The number represented a 4.9 per cent increase in gross sales from the 2017 yearling sale and a 7.6 per cent increase in the average sale price per horse. For recaps and further breakdowns of the averages from the past Harrisburg Sale sessions, click one of the following links: President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday night exhorted an overflow crowd at McKenzie Arena to vote Marsha Blackburn into the U.S. Senate. Vice President Pence spoke first, then Lee Greenwood sang his trademark "God Bless the USA" as President Trump strode to the podium. Vice President Pence said, "Tennessee and America need Marsha Blackburn." He said the Trump administration "has a record of two years of action, two years of results, and two years of promises made and kept." As the crowd chanted "Build the Wall," he said work has started on the promised wall on the Southern border. Vice President Pence said Blackburn opponent Phil Bredesen "would be one more vote for the liberal agenda." He said he had been hearing about "a blue wave, but it is going to run into a red wall." President Trump, speaking for 45 minutes, called it "one of the most important elections we have seen. It is right there with 2016." He said, "It will decide whether we continue the great progress that has already been made" or have "liberal Democrats" block it. He recited figures on record job growth and low unemployment, while saying the "tired" military is being rebuilt and veterans given better health care. He said military personnel got their biggest raise in 10 years. President Trump said the stronger the U.S. military "the less likely we will have to use it." He touted a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada and said an imbalance with China trade is being corrected. He also pointed to a major tax increase and said another tax reduction for the middle class is coming - unless, he said, Democrats block it. "We've got to win Congress," he said. President Trump said, "I think we're alright. We'll see." During his address he introduced a number of members of Congress in attendance including Reps. Chuck Fleischmann and Scott DesJarlais as well as Senator David Perdue. Those wanting to get tickets for the event began lining up Sunday morning. Those who waited until later in the afternoon could not get in. Just ahead of President Donald Trump's rally at McKenzie Arena, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesent hosted an interfaith prayer lunch with faith and community leaders at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center. He told the group, First, let me welcome all of you here today and thank you for coming.Mayor Berke, thank you for your hospitality today, and for all that you are doing for Chattanooga. As a former mayor myself, I admire and respect your work, and the city is fortunate to have someone of your work ethic and good will leading it. I hope to have many opportunities to work with you in the future. "I also want to acknowledge this afternoon another prominent Chattanoogan, Bob Corker. He is understandably not here with us, but I want everyone to know that I admire the job he did as Chattanoogas Mayor, and I respect enormously how he has carried himself in his two terms in the United States Senate. As you all know, Im seeking to follow him in that seat, and it would be a privilege to do so. "I enjoy being with each of you any time, but Im sure you recognize that my presence here today is related to the visit by the President of the United States this evening. He is coming on a campaign stop for my opponent, and if the previous two visits are any guide, hell have plenty of derogatory things to say about me. I have to say, I will be glad when the campaign is over this Tuesday and the unending stream of negative ads stops. "My grandkids dog Bella watches television, and Bella wont even look me in the eye anymore. Thats OKpolitics today is a blood sportbut Ive come here to show that there are other ways to campaign and to present your case to the people of Tennessee. My family taught me their values, and one of them was that you respected everyone. The heat of a political campaign doesnt change that. We should vote people in and out, not shout them in and out.Nevertheless, I want to emphasize this:that whatever is said in the heat of the campaign wont affect my willingness, eagerness even, to work with the President. When this election is over, its over. Im not running against the President; if he is for something that is good for Tennessee, I need to support him in that. If its bad for Tennessee, I need to oppose him.Ill feel the same if there is a Democratic President. "While I was Governor, there were numerous times that I strongly supported President Bush, especially in national security and border control matters. And there were several times that I opposed President Obamaexpressing disagreement with parts of the Affordable Care Act and what I thought was some regulatory overreach in other areas. "I have something Id like to talk with you about this afternoon:My re-entry into public life this past year has made two things clear to me.First, I love my country and Tennessee very much. Andrea and I arrived here in the mid-1970s as newlyweds10 monthsin a Volkswagen, not knowing anyone, and got a furnished apartment to start our lives in Tennessee together. We are living proof that America is the land of opportunity. "Second, I love my country very much, and I hate to see it lose its way. Its not just this campaign season or the past couple of years, its been going on for a couple of decades now. Washington is mired in the worst kinds of partisanship, leaders of both parties seem to feel that purposefully setting Americans against each other is somehow acceptable or even desirable. Public discourse has reached new levels of incivility. Consider a marriage:any marriage has arguments from time to time. But in those arguments, we all know that however strongly we might feel, however angry we might be, there are some things you just dont say. Theres a line you dont cross. If you do, you cant go back, the damage is permanent. "With our political arguments, weve stepped over that line.And just as stepping over that line in a marriage corrodes and weakens it, stepping over it in our political discourse corrodes and weakens our nation. Listen to the President when he is here tonight and imagine putting his words into the mouths of Ronald Reagan or John Kennedy. You cant do it; they both would have stopped well short of what I expect this evening. Or, for that matter, listen to some of the Presidents critics on TV tonight; same thing. "I want to tell you about something that happened to me, when I was in my 20s.I grew up in my grandmothers house in a small farming town in upstate New York: Shortsville, population 1100, one traffic light. I grew up hunting and fishing, I worked evenings and Saturdays at the local Rexall drugstore, I graduated with 42 others from our public high schoolRed Jacket Central. "Then, at the age of seventeen, I found myself at Harvard. Surrounded by young men whod already had amazing opportunities in life, whod been to the best prep schools, who had plenty of walking around money, who had already seen the world. It was an overwhelming and discouraging experience, and so I looked around and decided that I needed to reinvent myself. I hate to admit it today, but I was just a little embarrassed by my background. My family werent corporate executives, or doctors, or lawyers, or college professors. They were an office clerk, a mail carrier, a seamstress, a bank teller. I spent a lot of my 20s trying to leave Shortsville behind, to reinvent myself to be more like others whose lives I envied. "When Andrea and I started dating, she never believed in that idea of reinvention, and one day before we were married she gave me a gift. It was a piece of driftwood on which she had carved, Life is discovering yourself. She was telling me to stop looking outside, stop referencing myself to others, to quiet my mind and look inside for what was important. I did so, it changed my life and gave me a much stronger and more reliable center than anything I could invent. "America seems as confused today about who it is as I was about myself in my 20s. We should turn off the tv and smartphone, look inside ourselves, and seek to rediscover just who we really are.When we do, I think one of the things well discover is that we are at heart pioneers. Were the people who came to the New World; and who then came West, to Tennessee among other places.Those pioneers were resourceful; they found new ways to get what they needed done, and one of those new ways was a barn-raising. Were pioneers, and with that were barn-raisers.So I want to tell you about barn raising. "Think about the work it took for pioneers to carve a new life out of unsettled land. They were farmers and they had to clear fields, dig wells, plant crops. And before that first crop was in, they had to build a barn. This wasnt something a pioneer family could do alone. So, when the time came, they asked their neighbors for help.Imagine that barn-raising with me for a moment. A cleared field surrounded by forest. A log cabin where the family lived off on one side.The sky is just getting light, its still cool, but men and women are coming together, crossing the field, from all directions. Pretty soon you can hear the saws, and the hammers, and voices and shouts. A little later, the sun is on the field, and you can start to see the framework of the barn taking shape. "The men and women working together were human and imperfect; just as human and imperfect as we are today. They held grudges. They had disagreements and arguments. Some were friends, others didnt want anything to do with each other. But on barn-raising day, they did something special. For a day, they put aside their differences and were just neighbors. They got to work, and the next morning the sun came up on a new barn, one that hadnt been there yesterday. "That morning might have been a couple of hundred years ago, but the impulse it reflected is just as relevant today:sometimes we have to put our personal grudges, our likes and dislikes aside and work together for a while. We do that sometimesmost people in this room work in some organization, and its safe to assume that you dont agree with or even like everyone you work with. But you set that aside so that the job at hand can be done. "But in our national politics, weve lost that touch. The grudges and disagreements have become too great for us to become neighbors for a while and raise a barn.My mission here today is to ask you to join me in fixing this.I still have a high school civics class view of my government. I believe that it was brilliantly designed by our Foundersa government of three equal branches, acting as a check and balance on one another, protecting against abuses of power. A Constitution and a Bill of Rights. A government run by elected officials, making thoughtful choices to the best of their ability. "Most important, I was taught to believe in American exceptionalism, and I do. While there are those who regard the concept as old-fashioned, or naive, or arrogant, I dont. America is different, its special, were not just one more nation on the world stage. We have a special destiny.Many of those who originally settled our land left behind palace intrigues, decay, intolerance. They dreamt of something new, something better, something exceptional. Their descendants have helped keep that dream alive.I believe in that dream, that destiny, and I will not give up on it.Im not here to make an academic speech. Im in the final days of a political campaign for the United States Senate. If the people of Tennessee choose me next Tuesday to represent them in Washington, I know there are practical, pragmatic things I can do to help. Im sure, for example, I can lead some progress on health care, especially in dealing with pre-existing conditions and drug costs. "But more than anything else, I want to roll up my sleeves, I want to go to work to restore that idea that America is something new, something exceptional. Ancestors came here to escape palace intrigues; we are awash in them today, in both the White House and the halls of Congress. They wanted to escape the decay of the institutions of their government; but does anybody think that the Senatesometimes called the greatest deliberative body in the worlddoes anybody still think the Senate actually deliberates about anything? They wanted to escape intolerance; intolerance is the stuff of headlines as we speak. And intolerance is not limited to the right; Ive experienced plenty from the left as well.Voters in Tennessee are going to have a real choice in a couple of days. For those who are pleased with what our government is becoming, who believe in hard-edged partisanship, that people with different views from their own are the enemy, no compromise, Im not their guy. They have another choice, someone who has helped build that world for the past 16 years, is steeped in it, and is good at it.I want something different. I believe leadership is working to find common ground, not to divide. In independence of thought. In deliberation and compromise and getting things done. And yes, I believe in American exceptionalism. We shouldnt put up with intrigue and corruption and intolerance. Our forebears came here to escape all that; leave it behind. "The belief that America is exceptional, that weve been given the opportunity and the charge to be the standard of civility, the model of enlightened self-government, is not partisan.Leaders as diverse as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, as John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan have embraced it.This is a room of people of faith. Religion is built on faith, but so is America.Today, I challenge you and I challenge myself to devote ourselves to restoring the faith that has sustained Americathat its our destiny to occupy an exceptional place in the world. Chattanooga Police on Sunday night arrested a man they said refused to leave a secure area for the presidential motorcade during a visit by President Donald Trump to McKenzie Arena. Cordarius White, 23, of Germantown, Tn., was charged with criminal trespass and taken to the Hamilton County Jail. Police said White was part of a large group that gathered near the motorcade route and E. Fourth Street and Mable Street. Police said, under instructions from the U.S. Secret Service, no one was to be in front of emergency vehicles at the scene. When police ordered everyone out of the area, White refused to leave, it was stated. Police said they explained to White the reason people were being told to move. When he continued to stay, officers moved him out of the area. Police said White then tried to return to the secure area. When officers tried to remove him again, he continued to try to push his way past officers. White continually tried to pull away from police as he was being taken into custody, it was stated. GPS history teacher Callie Hamiltons social justice class hosted student leaders from Howard School during their visit to the GPS campus last week. The gathering was organized by Mrs. Hamilton and Howard School Vice Principal Dr. Charles Mitchell as a way for students to exchange opinions and perspectives. The students ate lunch together, or broke bread, as Dr. Mitchell described it, and Howard students enjoyed an informal tour of the campus. Institutionalized stereotypes occur in society when we remain isolated from each other, Dr. Mitchell said. We want to make sure we are equipping our students with experiences together, to learn from each other and about each other. The GPS social justice class explores the historic roots of racism and sexism and how Americans have pushed their nation to live up to its foundational ideals. But you cant do social justice from behind a desk, Mrs. Hamilton says. Working toward a more egalitarian society begins with building relationships and recognizing the common humanity within each individual. Mrs. Hamilton and her class will visit Dr. Mitchell and his leadership students next month at Howard to continue their partnership, and both groups of students plan to travel together to the National Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham in early 2019. Marley Lentz, marketing director at Office Furniture Warehouse, has been named the winner of Our Flywheel, a national call for organizations to apply a new model for marketing, sales and service to their own business. Mr. Lentz began working at Office Furniture Warehouse in 2015 during his time at UTC on an internship grant from the Tennessee Small Business Development Center. Hes since managed the companys online presence, branding and local marketing strategy. Hubspot is a global developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing and sales. At Inbound 2018 (annual marketing and sales event sponsored by Hubspot), Brian Halligan (Hubspot CEO) revealed a model for sales, marketing and service to replace traditional funnels. Mr. Halligan then put out the call for organizations to take the Flywheel model and apply it to their own business. Entrees were submitted on social media under the #OurFlywheel hashtag, which were then reviewed by Mr. Halligan and a panel of experts at Hubspot. The sole winner of the contest would be awarded two VIP tickets to Inbound 2019, as well as the opportunity to break down their model with the collection of experts. After reviewing the submissions, Mr. Lentzs application of the Flywheel model to Office Furniture Warehouse was selected by the panel. Im excited to bring a win to Chattanooga," said Mr. Lentz, informally titled "Director of Mind Control" at Office Furniture Warehouse. "UTC, our team and the business community have done exceptionally well in bearing with an eager kid granted responsibilities. I owe them for a warm welcome and most of the value I have to contribute. There is an unbridled amount of talent in this city that far surpasses mine. So, its humbling to be recognized among those heads. National Adoption Day gives permanent homes to 3 Pueblo County kids When Pueblo County celebrated National Adoption Day on Nov. 19, three families got bigger as foster children were welcomed into permanent homes. On Friday, two buses transporting Christian pilgrims in Egypt were ambushed leaving seven dead and up to 16 wounded. According to the Associated Press, security officials reported that attackers fired off several rounds at the buses which were carrying pilgrims from the Bani Suef and Sohag provinces. The bus from Sohag was carrying 28 pilgrims, 9 of whom were wounded. The bus from Bani Suef had 14 passengers on board, half of them were killed and the other seven were seriously wounded. AP reports that a spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church, Boulos Halim, believes the death toll will rise, local officials even raised the death toll to 10. This figure has not been confirmed at this time. Reportedly, no group has claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, though according to AP it bore the hallmarks of Islamic militants who have repeatedly voiced their contempt with Egyptian Christians because of their support for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. El-Sissi led a military coup in 2013 to oust the Islamist president at the time. On Friday, the Egyptian President took to Twitter to condemn the attack and offer condolences saying, I am deeply saddened by the martyrs who fell today with treacherous hands seeking to undermine the fabric of a cohesive homeland... I wish the wounded a speedy recovery and affirm our determination to continue our efforts to combat black terrorism and to prosecute the perpetrators. This incident will not undermine the will of our nation to continue its battle for survival and construction. This is the latest in a string of attacks against Christians and churches around Cairo which have left around 100 people dead. Photo courtesy: Mariam Soliman/Unsplash 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. Officials with Kentuckiana Farms have announced the 2019 stud fees for Muscle Mass and Swan For All. Muscle Mass will stand in Ontario at Tara Hills Stud for a fee of $10,000 (U.S.). The 2018 season has been an incredible year for Muscle Mass, led by multiple-stakes winners Six Pack and Plunge Blue Chip. His offspring set or equalled nine track or world records in a single season. Among his many 2018 accomplishments, Muscle Mass is the second leading North American sire of three-year-old trotters with earnings of over $3.75M; third in sire standings for all-age trotters with earnings of $6.75M, and overall leading sire of three-year-old trotters in New York with earnings of $$1,286,623. Swan For All will stand in Indiana at Victory Hill Farm for a fee of $6,000 US. Swan for All, the leading sire of trotters in Indiana, has two-year-old earnings in 2018 of over $1.7M and overall earnings of over $4.6M. Swan For Alls exciting 2018 was led by Swandre The Giant, Fiftydallarbill and the great Hannelore Hanover ($2,791,638). Muscle Mass 2018 Accomplishments & World Records (WR) Ranked second in sire standings for three-year-old trotters ($3,788,803) Ranked third in sire standings for all-age trotters ($6,795,046) Leading sire of three-year-olds in the New York Sire Stakes program ($1,286,623.18) Offspring set or equalled nine track or world records in a single season Plunge Blue Chip Three-year-old mile at the Meadowlands Racetrack and the Red Mile (1:49.4) (WR) Three-year-old filly at the Meadowlands Racetrack (1:49.4) (WR) Three-year-old filly (half-mile) at Yonkers Raceway (1:53.1) (WR) Delvin Miller Winner NYSS Champion Breeders Crown elimination winner (third in the final) Kentucky Futurity elimination winner Hudson winner Third in Hambletonian Oaks elimination and final Six Pack All-aged male at the Meadowlands Racetrack (1:50.1) and the Red Mile (1:49.1) (WR) Three-year-old mile at the Meadowlands Racetrack (1:50.0) and the Red Mile (1:49.1) (WR) Kentucky Futurity champion Breeders Crown elimination winner Yonkers Trot champion Stanley Dancer winner White Tiger Two-year-old gelding on a five-eighths-mile track (Pocono Downs - 1:55) (WR) (Kentuckiana Farms) Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The prayers of Christians around the world for Asia Bibi have been answered, but many more are needed for her and for all Pakistani Christians. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned the conviction of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy. The acquittal was not only a just ruling, it was an incredibly courageous act by the Court. And still, we should be clear that until Asia Bibi is out of the country, she's not out of danger. Even more, all Pakistani Christians face a very volatile and dangerous situation there now. Here's the background: In June, 2009, Asia got into a dispute with her Muslim neighbors. Her family was the only Christian family in that village, and her neighbors had objected to a non-Muslim using the same cup to fetch water from a well as they did. A few days later, her neighbors successfully petitioned the local cleric to charge her with insulting the prophet Muhammad. What she actually said was "I'm not going to convert [to Islam]. I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammad ever do to save mankind?" She was then arrested and imprisoned while awaiting trial. Sixteen months later, a judge found her guilty and sentenced her to death. Then matters got even worse. When she appealed her case to the highest court in her native Punjab province, the provincial governor there, Salman Taseer predicted that she would be pardoned by Pakistan's president. A few weeks later, Taseer was killed by his own bodyguard. He wasn't the only politician to be killed for defending Bibi. Two months later, Shahbaz Bhatti, a member of the cabinet, was also assassinated for speaking up on her behalf. Bibi was to spend nearly eight more years in jail waiting to learn if she would be executed. In the meantime, her family was forced to flee their village because they too were threatened with death. Finally, on Wednesday, Pakistan's Supreme Court rendered a 56-page opinion citing, among other things, the Quran, Islamic scholars and Shakespeare. In it, the Court overturned the guilty verdict and ordered her release. Besides finding that Bibi's accusers had not proved her guilt, they pointed out something long obvious: Blasphemy allegations are often used in Pakistan to settle scores and provide a pretext for vigilantism. About Asia Bibi the Court said, "She appears to be a person, in the words of Shakespeare's King Lear, 'more sinned against than sinning.'" While she may have finally prevailed in Court, neither she nor her family are safe. As soon as the verdict was announced, protesters took to the streets and "merchants shuttered their shops." The leaders of one Islamic group called for the judges to be killed, which as we have seen, isn't an idle threat. Another cleric said, "Now the decisions will be taken on roads and not in court," adding that anyone who kills Bibi "will be a hero to Muslims." Bibi and her family are expected to leave Pakistan as soon as possible. But that's easier said than done. While "several Western countries have offered her family asylum . . . they are understood to be moving cautiously." Apparently, they're too afraid of "a backlash against them . . . if they are seen as interfering in the case." Given the perfidious history of the Pakistani military and police, which are both riddled with Islamist radicals, only a fool would expect them to adequately protect Asia Bibi and her family. That's why we need to pray today for God's protection on this family. We also need to pray for the estimated 2.5 million Pakistani Christians. Being a Christian in Pakistan is dangerous even in less-charged circumstances. Today, however, Muslim radicals have an excuse to satisfy their bloodlust for Bibi by turning on the Christian community. Yes, we should rejoice at Asia Bibi's legal vindication. But her case must remind us just how much our brothers and sisters need our prays and our advocacy on their behalf. Resources Asia Bibi: Pakistani Christian on Death Row for Blasphemy Released from Prison, Robert Kenna | Opendoorsusa.org | October 31, 2018 Originally published at Breakpoint. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The recent deliberate attack on a Jewish synagogue was not a freak accident. It was the culmination of anti-immigrant, anti-refugee and bigoted rhetoric that has virulently consumed our nation and impacted the lives of too many innocent people, including the 11 worshippers killed. Indeed, the tragic shooting was devastating not only for the Jewish community, but also for Americans as a whole. The Tree of Life Synagogue shooter was motivated by anti-Semitism and hatred for refugees resettled by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), a Jewish refugee resettlement agency. Like my own organization, Church World Service, HIAS is one of the nine national refugee resettlement agencies that partners with the United States government to resettle refugees as part of the U.S. refugee admissions program. The attacker's immense disdain for this life-saving and historically bipartisan program falls in line with the views of those who do not instinctively prioritize the unity of all of our people or the virtues of a diverse society. Since his first week in office, President Trump has been actively dismantling all pathways for families seeking violence and persecution to find safety. With three iterations of the Muslim/refugee travel ban, the lowest administrative ceiling on refugee resettlement in history, and attempts to block pathways to asylum, this administration has harmed tens of thousands of refugees who desperately need protection. In Fiscal Year 2018, the administration resettled only 22 thousand refugees, leaving vulnerable families separated and stranded in life threatening conditions and willing Americans unable to assist them. People of faith across the country share a strong calling to counter the fear and hatred we are seeing in the world, and to foster counter-cultural welcoming communities. This is what HIAS, CWS, and countless congregations we serve across the country are working toward each day. An attack on one of these congregations is an affront to our most firmly held values, an attack on all of us who defend the vulnerable. No one should be attacked for worshipping in the way that they choose. The Bible states: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, and those who claim no faith tradition are all my neighbors. My heart aches to see our Jewish brothers and sisters suffer and for the hate that motivated the attacker to commit this heinous act in the first place. So as our nation mourns and reflects on how to deal with so much hatred he same hatred that fuels islamophobia, xenophobia, and racism in our churches, mosques, schools and communities I remember the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Together, let us pray that such a tragedy does not occur again, and stand firmly against allowing fear and bigotry dominate our headlines and politics. I have full confidence that Americans recognize that hate is an ugly scourge in our society and must be rooted out like the cancer it is. One of the most powerful ways to demonstrate this is to love the vulnerable among us with such fervor that hate no longer has a home. May we fill our communities with light so that darkness has no place to hide. The future of faith communities and our nation's history of welcome depends on it. The Rev. John L. McCullough is President and CEO of Church World Service, a global humanitarian organization and one of the U.S.'s nine refugee resettlement agencies. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment [UPDATE: Nov. 5, 2018, 10:00 a.m.] World Vision responded further on Monday to the accusations. Its latest response can be found below. Obama administration officials have been on the receiving end of much-deserved criticism for the decision to grant a one-time license to allow payment of taxpayers money to the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA), a U.S. designated terror-financing charity in Sudan, once closely linked to Osama bin Laden. However, as a July 2018 investigation by the Middle East Forum uncovered, World Vision, a large but controversial international Christian aid charity, was the primary recipient of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) grant that ultimately ended up funding ISRA. World Vision deserves much of the blame, but so far, its actions have escaped serious scrutiny. Newly available information strongly suggests that World Vision was waylaid by the Sudanese regime, one of only four U.S. designated state-sponsors of terrorism in the world, into doing its bidding. What's more, to protect itself from bad publicity, World Vision has gone to great lengths to deceive the public about its actions. World Vision's response to the July 2018 revelations that it funded ISRA comprised a carefully worded statement claiming: World Vision found no evidence on the Treasury's website that ISRA was a designated entity; World Vision's association with ISRA was a one-time occurrence; and that World Vision took immediate action the second it discovered ISRA was a designated entity. All three of these claims are misleading. World Vision stated that "At the time of selection, there was no indication that [ISRA] had any possible ties to an alleged terrorist-supporting organization." This does not hold up to even moderate scrutiny. ISRA had been a designated charity since 2004. The first page of a Google search for "Islamic Relief Agency" reveals plenty of information about the Sudanese charity's terrorist links. Additionally, former Congressman Mark Siljander, a frequent traveler to Sudan who has signed public declarations both authored and promoted by World Vision, went to jail for lobbying for ISRA's U.S. branch, using stolen USAID money. Siljander's conviction for lobbying for IARA/ISRA was widely reported in the media. World Vision states that a search on the Treasury Department's Sanctioned List Search, they "searched the blocked parties lists for 'Islamic Relief' in 'Sudan,' the searches produced no results." Yet upon typing "Islamic Relief Agency," or just "Islamic Relief," ISRA appears as a designated entity. Moreover, searching Treasury's broader website for "Islamic Relief Agency" or "ISRA" yields immediate results. How many times has World Vision failed to take a more in-depth look at the Treasury Department's website, or simply type ISRA's name into Google? We know that World Vision's relationship with ISRA was not a one-time transaction and a one-time payment authorized by a special license, but part of an ongoing relationship that was integral to their work in Sudan. Indeed, in World Vision's grant application for work in the Blue Nile region of Sudan, submitted to USAID on January 21, 2014, World Vision explicitly discussed having "prior working experience" with ISRA, its local implementing partner for the grant. As World Vision noted in its grant application to USAID, a partner such as ISRA was necessary because of restrictions placed on NGOs by the Sudanese regime. As one USAID official noted in a May 2015 email, ISRA is "Well connected to the (Sudanese) Government." In other words, the Sudanese regime sought to ensure that the regime and its partners ultimately controlled access to sensitive regions, and to force Western NGOs to work through regime-approved groups. The regime's behavior does not surprise experts in the region. Former Ambassador Alberto Fernandez, the Charge D'affaires in Sudan from 2007-2009 told the Middle East Forum that the Sudanese regime has a "sophisticated understanding" of the processes NGOs go through and what is needed to manipulate them into doing what the regime wants. "The Sudanese regime prefers Islamic, and moreover, Islamist, charities like ISRA," said Fernandez. "One possibility could be that the regime wanted to tie up World Vision, or perhaps normalize ISRA in spite of the terror finance designation." In fact, the Sudanese government was directly involved in World Vision's project. World Vision's grant application indicated that at least four Sudanese governmental agencies were all involved, while the regime's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) would oversee the project. When the U.S. government ordered USAID to temporarily suspend payments to ISRA, HAC established a committee to investigate World Vision's "hostility," to the Sudanese regime, while regime newspapers reported that World Vision might face "expulsion." U.S. officials speculated these developments were direct responses to the U.S. government's actions. At no point did World Vision appear to regard its partnership with ISRA as a serious problem. Documents acquired by the Middle East Forum reveal that, in July 2014, World Vision was warned that ISRA appeared to be designated, by a third party considering a partnership with World Vision prior to discovering its involvement with ISRA. But World Vision waited for four months before seeking "clarification" from the U.S. government about ISRA's designation status. USAID, knowing World Vision had been warned, was perplexed when the request was made. One frustrated USAID staffer asked ""(A)m I having deja vu or did we already deal with this organization and issue of (Islamic Relief Agency)?" Subsequently, World Vision pressured U.S. government officials to let it resume its partnership with ISRA. After OFAC confirmed in January 2015 that ISRA was designated, World Vision argued there was "ambiguity" in OFAC's answer. Mark Smith of World Vision complained that ISRA "had performed excellent work" for World Vision in the past, and that "putting contractual relationships in limbo for such a long period is putting a significant strain" on World Vision's relationship with the Sudanese regime. He further threatened of World Vision's "intention to restart work with [ISRA] and to transact with [ISRA]" if OFAC did not respond within a week. Perhaps even more troubling is the issue of the Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS), a number given to all organizations authorized to receive U.S. federal funds. Before World Vision's project with ISRA was approved, USAID specifically reminded the evangelical charity that ISRA would require a valid DUNS number, and that it was World Vision's responsibility to check. World Vision explicitly recognized its responsibility in this area. In a letter dated January 6, 2014, World Vision responded to USAID's instructions, saying, "Acknowledged. World Vision will ensure that Islamic Relief Agency has a DUNS number before we issue a subaward. As part of our internal policy, we take reasonable steps to ensure that we do not fund debarred or suspended organizations or individuals." Somehow ISRA obtained an (apparently fraudulent) DUNS number, which does not correspond to any organization in the Government's System for Award Management (SAM) database. It is unclear who created this bogus DUNS number. Since a designated charity cannot get a valid DUNS number, it is reasonable to assume that the number was created by someone trying to circumvent the law. Either way, World Vision officials explicitly admitted it was their responsibility to ensure that ISRA had a valid DUNS number and did not do so. World Vision obtained a license to pay ISRA $125,000. But this was not the first payment World Vision has made to ISRA, even concerning this particular venture. Documents submitted by World Vision to USAID disclose that the charity had previously transferred $39,759 to ISRA as an "initial advance." This payment was not authorized by the license and thus appears illegal. USAID officials deemed this payment "unfortunate," but seemed satisfied that USAID had not reimbursed World Vision for this particular payment. Further, an email from World Vision to USAID in January 2015 states that ISRA has worked under "other funding streams that WV utilizes." There are numerous questions that need to be answered. What is the nature of World Vision's "prior working experience" with ISRA and how did it come about? How much money over the years and what other forms of support were given to ISRA? Why did World Vision initially fail to alert authorities to the fact it was partnering with a designated terrorist group? Why did World Vision persist in lobbying for its partnership with this Bin Laden-linked terror group to continue? What role did ISRA and World Vision's interactions with the Sudanese regime play in all these decisions? World Vision's belief that the Sudanese regime would shut down its operations for refusing to pay ISRA may be valid. But the nature of the regime, how it operates, and what it seeks to do, should have been obvious to World Vision from the start. The best that can be said is that World Vision fell into the regime's trap and, once inside, did whatever it could to try to get out while saving face with the regime and its allies. World Vision has enabled and funded terror financiers. So far, nothing has been done to hold it accountable not by Congress, the executive branch, nor, in any significant way, by the media or its donors. This needs to change. World Vision's public relations teams work hard to portray a saintly charity merely striving to feed hungry children. This carefully crafted image undoubtedly makes it hard for politicians and journalists to ask the tough questions. But it also makes it even more important that they do. World Vision was asked for comment concerning the questions raised by this article. It provided the authors with a statement that was nearly identical to the July 25th statement discussed in the article and answered none of the questions that were asked. [UPDATE] World Vision's latest response: World Vision categorically denies the accusations made in the opinion piece by Cliff Smith and Sam Westrop published by the Christian Post on November 3. The story omits key facts that we have previously provided, and is based on flawed assumptions and speculation which create false and unfair claims the most outrageous being that we knowingly supported an organization linked to terrorism. Terrorism runs counter to everything World Vision stands for as an organization. We exist to help build a better world for children and their families, serving in the name of Jesus Christ. We would never put those we serve or our staff at risk by working with an organization linked to terrorism. We strongly condemn any act of terrorism or support for those activities. Our detailed statement of July 2018 remains true. IRA was not known to be a blocked party when World Vision made the required start-up payment. The second and final payment for humanitarian work that was verified to have been done was made only after the US Government's Office of Foreign Assets Control granted us permission. IRA was approved for the sub-grant by the U.S Government. Nevertheless, when we became aware that IRA might be the same entity as on the blocked parties list, we suspended the grant and asked the U.S. Government to confirm IRA's status. After the U.S. Government confirmed that IRA "appeared to be" the same blocked party on the list, we asked for permission to pay for confirmed humanitarian services already performed - including repairing water pumps that benefited 3000 people, providing seeds for the new season and vaccinating more than 50,000 animals - not for a resumption of the sub-grant. World Vision took its compliance obligations seriously. As required by regulation, World Vision reported IRA into the U.S. Government's reporting system using ISRA's DUNs number. If its DUNs number was invalid, World Vision would not have been able to submit its report. World Vision works in some 100 countries around the world. We do not compromise our beliefs nor our commitment to integrity as we work with governments throughout the world. World Vision has robust controls and screening processes in place and strongly condemns any act of terrorism or support for those activities. We have no evidence that any of our funds have been used for anything other than urgent humanitarian work. Cliff Smith is the Washington Project Director of the Middle East Forum, Sam Westrop is the Director of Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment If you claim to be an evangelical and plan to vote red on Tuesday in other words, you are pro-Trump your faith will be assaulted and your integrity will be challenged. Here are some useful talking points you can use when interacting with friends, family, co-workers, and critics. I put them in the first person so you can appropriate them without adjustment. (Hey, the less work you have to do, the better, right?) 1) Donald Trump is not my Savior. He didn't die for my sins and I don't owe him my life. (News flash: For all those still struggling with the title of my new book, get over it. It's a positive message, not a negative one unless Donald Trump is your Savior. In that case, the title of my book is the least of your problems. If you still don't get it, read this.) 2) Donald Trump is my president. He got my vote, but I don't worship at his altar. 3) I voted for him because he's pro-life, and he has exceeded my expectations. Not only has he appointed two solid justices to the Supreme Court, but he's appointed scores of pro-life justices to the federal courts and passed pro-life legislation. What would Hillary have done? 4) I voted for him because he's pro-Israel. To call him antisemitic is ridiculous. Not only is he the first president with a Jewish child and Jewish grandchildren, but he moved our embassy to Jerusalem, he confronted the corruption of the Palestinian leadership, he got out of the disastrous Iran deal, and he pulled America out of some blatantly anti-Israel UN organizations. 5) I voted for him because he promised to fight for religious liberties, and he's done that very thing. I'm not just talking about opposing the Johnson Amendment. I mean he's fought for our liberties, both in the court of public opinion and in the courts. Again I ask you, what would Hillary and the Democrats have done? 6) I voted for him because he opposes radical LGBT activism, and he hasn't let me down. He has pushed back against the misappropriation of Title IX by the Obama administration, he has pushed back against trans activism in the military, and he even stopped celebrating Gay Pride month in June. Not to be redundant, but what the would Hillary and the Democrats have done? 7) I voted for him because I was concerned about the genocide of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of ISIS. Under Trump, ISIS has been devastated, which means that many lives have been saved. I can't imagine how you could put a negative spin on this. 8) The economy is humming, and many Americans are benefitting, including African Americans. That's one reason why he's more popular today among African Americans than the day he was elected. Isn't that positive? 9) When I look at the alternatives, what choice do I have? Watching the Kavanaugh hearings, I saw just how ugly the militant feminists can be, just how extreme the pro-abortion crowd can be, and just how unethical some Democrat leaders can be. 10) Do I like everything the president says and does? Certainly not. Do I grimace at some of his rhetoric? You bet. Do I think he has helped fuel the fires of division in America? Actually, I do. That's why I continue to pray for him and that's why I continue to pray that his evangelical advisors and cabinet members and Vice President Pence would be a good influence on him. But let's be clear here. The media has been very divisive and destructive. President Obama and many Democrat leaders practice dangerous and divisive identity politics. So, President Trump is part of the problem, but there's blame on all sides. 11) If you want to examine my faith, then watch my life, evaluate my conduct, listen to my words, and get to my know Savior. (For those who are a little slow, I'll say it again: I'm talking about Jesus, not Trump.) But you have no right to judge my entire witness and testimony based on how I vote. A vote is a pragmatic decision based on available choices. My faith is based on moral and spiritual absolutes. Please don't confuse the two. Of course, these talking points reflect my own perspectives and my own reasons for voting for Trump. Your perspectives and reasons may be different. Still, these talking points should help, especially when your critics are professing Christians themselves. As to the charge that we evangelicals have hurt our cause by voting for Trump, that is only true to the extent that we have refused to be nuanced in our support for him. As I wrote in June 30, 2017, "I'm all for defending our president when he's the subject of unjust attacks. And as a follower of Jesus, I voted for him, despite my misgivings. I'm also very happy to point out the many good things he has already done as president. But I will not sacrifice my ethics and demean my faith to defend his wrongful words. To do that is to lose all credibility before a watching world." So, politics is important, but it's not the gospel. Let's also remember that many of the people telling us that we lost our credibility by voting for Trump are the same ones who told us we had no credibility before we voted for him. In short, have your talking points ready, but don't play the leftwing media's game. Where America is better under Trump, rejoice. Where it's worse, do your best to help make it better. Pretty simple, no? Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The late Milton Berle used to say as a part of his comedy routine: "Since perestroika and glasnost, the Russians have changed their electoral system. A man went in to vote and was handed a sealed ballot. He started to tear it open. An election official said, 'What are you doing, Igor?" 'I'm opening the ballot. I want to see who I voted for,' said the man. The election official replied, 'Don't be foolish, you're not supposed to know. We vote secret ballot in this country.'" Berle's humor reminds us of a privilege which we often take for granted one that other countries were not afforded so freely the right to vote for our leaders the right to choose the direction of our nation. Citizen Christians should earnestly thank God for the freedom to vote, and they should show their gratefulness each opportunity they have to cast a ballot. Voting might be viewed as a sacred civil sacrament. Without exercising it properly, the soul of the Republic may flounder and its vitality diminished. Just as participation in the Lord's Supper is meant to remind us of the price paid for our liberation from the power and penalty of sin, just as it helps strengthen us in the faith each time we partake of it, we vote because of the sacrifices made to give us our political freedoms, and each time we vote it does count and work to maintain and enhance the spirit of America. So let us exercise this privilege on Tuesday, November 6th, Election Day, with the greatest of solemnity and sensitivity to our patriotic and spiritual duties to "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" (Mt. 12:17). In keeping with this command of Jesus, Citizen Christians should vote biblically. Voting biblically requires an unwavering belief in the sole authority of the Scriptures as an inerrant, infallible, and sufficient guide for human happiness and political prosperity. To doubt this belief or to compartmentalize it in a manner that accepts the Bible's direction in one area of life but not another, more specifically one's political convictions, is not a faithful exercise of Christ's command. Wayne Grudem, in Politics: According to the Bible, explains how this religious understanding creates a stark choice for Citizen Christians today. Grudem writes: "There is a significant difference in the religious beliefs of Republicans and Democrats taken as a whole. Conservative evangelicals, who tend to believe that the Bible is God's Word in its entirety, have tended to align themselves with Republican principles. So have others whose religious views lead them to believe in absolute moral right and wrong, such as Roman Catholics, Mormons, and more traditional Jews. "But people who have no religious belief at all, or who do not believe that we can know what God has told us with regard to moral standards, tend to be moral relativists, and this aligns them much more closely with the Democratic Party... "The differences between Democrats and Republicans today have great significance. These differences are not accidental, but stem from differing convictions about several moral and theological issues." Some may find the following statement striking. There is no support in the Holy Bible for abortion, euthanasia, practical atheism that denies state acknowledgements of God, infringements on religious liberties, redistribution of wealth, big government, high taxes, socialism, anti-law enforcement, global warming, reductions in national defense, open borders, LGBTQ, gambling, liberalization of liquor laws, and the legalization of drugs. These political positions typify Democrats, but are generally rejected by Republicans. Granted, some leftist clergy claim there is support in the Bible for the political positions just mentioned. But a common characteristic of these preachers is that they have abandoned a high view of Scripture, or they have wrongly justified, dignified, and pacified the sins of our culture by twisting orthodox Christian teaching to their fancy. They are either like Lot sitting in the gates of Sodom or blind leaders of the blind. Some are false prophets who preach to "itching ears." (2 Tim. 4: 3) Voting biblically requires scrutinizing and selecting candidates whose policy proposals would bring our state and nation closest to reflecting the moral mandates God declares in His Word. No doubt some will argue my words are too partisan for a minister too partisan for a religious organization. But I am first a proud member of the Puritanic Party. I am first and foremost a member of the Straight-Laced Religious Society, as are all who love God and His law, and this would preclude political support for politicians from a Party that shows hostility toward Him or His commandments. VOTE, NOVEMBER 6TH! AND VOTE BIBLICALLY Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment "Some people don't like other people just because they're Jews," declaimed a main character in the 1947 Oscar-winning American classic, "A Gentleman's Agreement." Imagine that! The crematoria at Auschwitz had not yet cooled down, but there were Americans who couldn't abide the thought of Jews sharing their country clubs, neighborhoods, or college classrooms. Those were the challenges for American Jews back then, but today we no longer worry about "gentlemen." After Pittsburgh, we're on guard against the next lone wolf psychopath, armed with hate and bullets, empowered and validated by his invisible social media bigoted "friends." For us Jews it's (still) the best of times and, as we bury our dead in Pittsburgh, the worst of times. According to Pew we are the single most admired religious group in America. On the other hand, the FBI confirms we are the #1 target of religion-based hate in the United States. Simon Wiesenthal said "hope lives when people remember." Let us remember who is responsible for keeping anti-Semitism alive in our time, lest we be powerless to resist it. The Pittsburgh gunman alone is responsible for his heinous deeds. Yet such extremism does not operate in a vacuum. Here are some points to ponder after the Pittsburgh Massacre recedes from the headlines. We offer them as professionals who have struggled with anti-Semitism worldwide for decades. Social media outlets like Gab market hate. Hiding behind a freedom of speech mantra, they deny any moral responsibility for the platform they offer the worst misusers of the privilege of that freedom, eerily similar to ISIS, whose online marketing campaigns spawn lone wolf terrorist attacks on both sides of the Atlantic. Good people used to drive the haters underground. No longer. In major capitals London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Stockholm it is dangerous for Jews to wear the Star of David or a kippah in public. Police and politicians look the other way as (mostly) Islamist extremists bully and pummel Jews on the streets of Europe. Important institutions are rife with winking at anti-Semitism, or even worse. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad calls Jews "hooked-nosed," and boasts that he is "glad to be labelled anti-Semitic." On a recent visit to the UK, Mohamad was welcomed to Imperial College and Oxford by the heads of these institutions. Jeremy Corbyn's Labor Party is awash with Jew-hatred, but he could be the UK's next Prime Minister. An unholy alliance of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, funded by Iran, uses anti-Semitism as a tool to turn the world against Israel. Their propaganda has found enthusiastic support in academia and even churches, so that today over 150 million Europeans believe Israelis treat Palestinians the way Nazis treated Jews. Young Americans hear much of the same on campuses dominated by far-left progressives who detest power and "privilege," especially of Israel and the United States. Anti-Zionism has flourished as a tool for gutless Jew haters: "We don't hate Jews. Only Zionists." Now, there is lots of room to criticize Israel without being anti-Semitic in the slightest. But when that criticism demonizes or subjects Israel to a double standard, the road to anti-Semitism has been crossed, making it that much more attractive to target Jews. Any Jews. Syria, Iran, Nigeria, Myanmar, China - millions are dying, or living in exile, or incarcerated in internment camps for their religious beliefs, but the lion's share of UN resolutions contemptuously pile on the Jewish state. The Jewish people's historic links to their key religious sites have been denied. Not even Nikki Haley's heroics have managed to change their anti-Israel animus. The UN gets not enough done, but Turtle Bay is a definite swamp in breeding anti-Semitic attitudes, projecting an image that the world is united in hating Jews, and an invitation to join in. For close to two thousand years, the Church (followed by various churches) taught and encouraged anti-Semitism. That has changed for the better in some denominations, in some areas. But old attitudes die hard. Rather than show special sensitivity to Jew-hatred, some churches still feed into it. The over-the-top hostility of some church groups to Israel is a case in point. Quakers, who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, are today no Friends of Jews. Mennonites in South America actively aided Hitler in his campaign to demonstrate pure Aryan superiority. (Their roots were in Germany, and they married within their own group.) Their contempt for Israel translates in the popular mind into a rejection of Jews and Judaism. Many other church groups aid and abet the virulent Jew-hatred of Palestinian groups by standing by them as allies without calling them out for the anti-Semitism constantly spewed in their mosques and textbooks. Simon Wiesenthal said: "Where democracy is strong it is good for Jews and when it is weak it is bad for Jews." Our political parties have hugely failed the American people by presiding over a national debate devoid of any civility, and completely dismissive of The Other. The media has simply chosen up sides instead of exposing the erosion of our society. Tragically, the Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre is not cannot be a one-off any more than 9/11 was, even if never repeated. It will change the way Jews live for the foreseeable future. Houses of worship, citadels of peace, will look more like TSA portals to airports. So things are bad and could get even worse. What can we do to try to stem the tide? Don't underestimate the sheer volume of age-old Jew-hatred. It did not disappear after the Holocaust. It never disappeared from polite society. When William Buckley, Jr. wrote his series on anti-Semitism ("In Search of Anti-Semitism," National Review, Dec. 30, 1991) he quoted McGeorge Bundy, an advisor to two presidents, and a former dean of Harvard. He said that if he were to hear today that which was "routinely spoken at [his father's] lunch table," he would have to leave the room in protest. In other words, lots of people still hate Jews just because they are there. Many don't even understand their own bias. Stop pretending that Jews do not need a country of their own that they are perfectly safe in the world's democracies. They are not. Untold millions of Jews would have survived the Nazi Holocaust had a Jewish state existed then. Today, flourishing Israel is hope to more that six million Jews, including thousands who have recently fled France and England. When you deny the legitimacy of the Jewish State, you are denying the right of Jewish survival. Don't believe the bald-faced lies, like Israel is an apartheid state, or that the hordes violently attacking Gaza's border fence are "peaceful demonstrators." Do your own independent search for truth that extends beyond Twitter and YouTube. Don't believe BDS boycotters of Israel when they claim they are peace-seekers. They aren't. Their goal is to demonize and ultimately get rid of the Jewish state. Understand what constitutes anti-Semitism. Many governments have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition. It has eleven components: particularly noteworthy are ones against claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor; requiring of it [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation; using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis; drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis. Finally, go to a Shabbat service in your neighborhood. Get to know us beyond the bagels-and- lox level. The greatest disinfectant to negative stereotypes is to meet the other. Simon Wiesenthal was once asked: "Were you surprised by how many Nazis there were?" "No," he answered, "only by how few anti-Nazis there were." We need healing and we need friends. America, we count on you. Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate dean and director of global social action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is the Center's director of interfaith affairs. Are parents getting it right in teaching children the faith? I've often heard it said that many Christian parents expect the church's Sunday school or youth group to be the main teacher of faith in their child's life. Recently in a discussion on Twitter, I read that churches should be equipping parents to intentionally parent their children in the Christian faith. I completely agree, but I am left perplexed and grieved at how we in the West have found ourselves in a situation where God's people are separating life and faith. Of course the church needs to teach intentional parenting, but why is the gospel not already having a transforming impact on how we live and how we parent? Surely, we have to ask another question why is anyone living out their faith in such a way that it does not impact their entire life? The gospel should be shaping everything. If we are seeking to love Jesus with all our heart, soul and mind, won't our children be impacted by this? If we truly believe that the Bible is the actual Word of God and our daily bread, should we not read it with our children? If we truly believe that prayer is communicating with the God of the Universe should we not pray as a family and teach our children to pray? If we truly long to see God's Kingdom come, do we not seek to make choices as a family that seek God's Kingdom first? How have we made our faith so private that we need to be taught how to share it with those who see us the most? If this sounds pious and judgmental, let me reassure you that as a family we get this wrong every single day and I am so so grateful for grace. But if we are not seeking to get this right, how is the family of God different from any other family? I am grieved that we have become so lukewarm and comfortable in the West that the church has to teach intentional faith parenting. We may as well say, that the church needs to teach the life-transforming news of the gospel. If the gospel is not transforming our lives, have we really understood it? Our love for Jesus and his Word should spill out over and into every single area of our life, including our children's lives. Father, forgive us that our lives do not match up with our faith in Christ. We need your Holy Spirit power to live in such a way that it affects the whole of our lives. Without you we are weak, but in Christ we have everything we need. Please help us. Lizzie Bassford is a wife, mum and missionary living in inner-city Manchester. Follow her on Twitter @captivated01. Asia Bibi's husband looks to the UK, US and Canada for asylum after death threats and violent protests The husband of a Christian woman whose death sentence for blasphemy was overturned last week is pleading with the UK, US and Canada to grant her asylum. Protests by Islamist hardliners brought Pakistan to a standstill following Asia Bibi's acquittal last week. Calls have gone out for the deaths of Bibi and the judges who acquitted her of the charges after eight years on death row. Her lawyer, Saiful Malook, has reportedly left Pakistan out of fear for his life after protests against her acquittal turned violent. The Pakistani government has come under fire for reaching a deal with Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), which orchestrated the protests. As part of the deal, fresh legal proceedings will begin to stop Bibi from leaving Pakistan. A number of arrested protesters were also to be freed. Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, said the deal has only made the family - who are in hiding - more frightened. 'The agreement has sent a shiver down my spine,' he told German broadcaster DW. 'My wife, Asia Bibi, has already suffered greatly. She has spent 10 years in jail. My daughters were dying to see her free, but now this review petition will prolong her plight.' Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled last Wednesday that there was not enough evidence to support the blasphemy charges against Bibi. However, it still has to complete a review of its final verdict. Masih fears that hardliners will try to sway the judiciary against Bibi. He said: 'The judiciary is very courageous. It has really decided the verdict on merit. But now during the review petition, the clerics might gather outside the Supreme Court and try to influence the verdict. It is wrong to set a precedent in which you pile pressure onto the judiciary.' He has made a video appeal to the leaders of the UK, US and Canada to offer asylum to Bibi and the family. Christians called to be peacemakers ahead of US midterm elections Christians are being urged to vote - and show civility - ahead of the US midterm elections on Tuesday. Jentezen Franklin, senior pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia, said the recent media reports of lawmakers receiving suspicious packages, being chased out of restaurants, or having their homes vandalised made for 'one horrifying story after another'. He is appealing to Christians to model respectful disagreement as Americans head to the polls. 'As Christians, we need to lead the way and show our friends and families that we can disagree about important issues, yet still be respectful and civil to one another,' he said. 'We need to be able to come around the dinner table and engage with one another despite differing opinions. Violence and threats of violence are cowardly responses, and Christ has called us to the exact opposite.' He went on to say that Christians have a 'moral obligation' to vote and the responsibility to be peacemakers in their communities. 'Christ urged us to be peacemakers in our homes and our communities. I cannot emphasize enough how incredibly important this is today. Some peacemaking is needed now more than ever,' he said. Samaritan's Purse CEO the Rev Franklin Graham is asking Christians to pray to God for wisdom before casting their ballot. Speaking to Fox and Friends on Saturday, Graham said Tuesday's vote is 'probably the most important midterm election in my lifetime'. 'The stakes are very high,' he said. 'The courts, the economic growth of our country which helps all of us, regardless of our faith we're all benefitting from a strong economy. 'I would certainly ask people to consider what's at stake, and to pray before you vote.' Egypt kills 19 militants following attack on Coptic pilgrims Egypt said yesterday it had killed 19 Islamist militants following the attack on Coptic Christians two days earlier. At least seven people died and 19 more were injured in Friday's attack on three buses carrying Christians on a pilgrimage to St Samuel's Monastery in Minya province. Egypt's Interior Ministry said they had tracked the suspects to a hideout in the desert, according to the Wall Street Journal. The State Information Service called the attack on the Christians a 'desperate attempt' that only exposed the weakness of the militants. The head of Egypt's Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, said of the attack: 'On the hope of the resurrection we bid farewell to them and know that God controls all events in all our lives.' He said: 'We know that such events do not only affect us as Christians, but they affect the entire Egyptian society and we know that the most precious thing we have is our unity and our cohesion. 'We pray for the martyrs and for the injured, and for the safety and peace of our country. We pray for the perpetrators who are used to such incidents that cause grief, pain, and distress,' he concluded. He thanked Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who has pledged to protect Christians and clamp down on the militants. ;I wish a speedy recovery to the injured and assert our determination to fight dark terrorism and to pursue the perpetrators,' Sisi said on his official Twitter account. The attack was condemned by Al-Azhar, the top Sunni Muslim authority. In a statement released on Friday it said: 'The perpetrators of this cowardly act of terrorism are criminals stripped of humanity. They are far from the teachings of religions that call for coexistence; peace; renunciation of violence, hatred and terrorism, and criminalization of killing innocents.' It said: 'Targeting Egyptians will only increase their determination to move forward and united in their war against terrorism.' Crowdfunding the Persecuted Church Contact: Robert Dobyns, 936-443-5020CONROE, Texas, Nov. 5, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- The 2018 International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church was observed by tens of millions of Christians worldwide on Sunday, November 4th. Now many of those believers are seeking tangible ways to help their brothers & sisters in Christ and local churches & ministries which are embedded in areas where persecution is a daily reality.With that purpose in mind, Cubinero, Inc., a 501(c)3 charitable organization focused on creative ways to fund tentmakers, churches and ministries engulfed in the flames of persecution, has launched its crowdfunding solution, TentMakers.According to Robert Dobyns, President of the organization, TentMakers.info is similar to Kickstarter and GoFundMe, except TentMaker's sole focus is helping to fund projects which aid Christians under fire in persecuted nations.Partner ministries can visit TentMakers.info and create projects which are focused upon an individual's need or a specific mission purpose. These project types can include raising funds for Bible smuggling operations, a rickshaw as a tent making business for a national preacher or a new building for an orphanage. The project types are only limited by the real need in that area. TentMakers does not charge any fees for its project listings or services.To learn more about Cubinero, Inc. and the TentMakers project and partner with the persecuted Church, visit www.TentMakers.info Priest who developed Big Bang theory honoured by International Astronomical Union The priest who first came up with what was to become known as the Big Bang Theory has been honoured by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) for his contribution to a key astronomical principle. Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian mathematician, scientist and Catholic priest, was the first person to described the effect by which objects in an expanding universe move away from each other with a velocity proportionally related to their distance. His theory was published in 1927, but confirmed two years later by the observations of Edwin Hubble, who gave his name to Hubble's Law and after whom the Hubble Space Telescope is named. Following an electronic vote among all members of the IAU, which represents more than 13,500 professional astronomers from more than 100 countries, Hubble's Law is to be renamed the Hubble-Lemaitre Law. Seventy-eight per cent of those voting were in favour of the change. Lemaitre was a devout Christian who became a priest in 1923, after service in the Belgian army during World War One and studies in physics and mathematics. He described his theory of the creation of the universe in an article in 1932, referring to 'the Cosmic Egg exploding at the moment of the creation'. Scientists at the time including Einstein were sceptical, but it has become the accepted mechanism for the creation of the universe. Top five qualities that make an expert criminal defense lawyer * Partner Post Everyone wants proper law and order in place, so that crime rates lessen and there's harmony in society. However, a legal battle is something that no one wants to get trapped in. Endless court hearings and trials ruin personal lives and make one utterly dejected. But sometimes, there are situations when a person has to fight a legal battle to prove himself/herself guilt free. When you find your future losing out its balance because of a criminal legal case, you sure do want to get out of this for good. Here you require the expertise and guidance of a criminal lawyer, who can help you manage your legal case better. If you are in Los Angeles, you can search online by looking for criminal defense firms in Los Angeles. Ace lawyers that these firms provide can offer a fair and complete representation of their client to the court. Qualities of an expert criminal defense attorney If you have a criminal legal case that you need to present at court and fight the same, an attorney is the best person to help you out. Today there are plenty of criminal defense lawyers available in the law firms. You need to select the one best for you. Discussed below are the best qualities that make a criminal defense lawyer distinguished from the others. The capacity to delve into complex matters A criminal case has its complexities. Hence, a lawyer should be able to work for long hours and delve deep into the legal issue to provide different perspectives and smart solutions. It happens only when a lawyer is willing to devote as much time required in understanding the case better. Has an impressive courtroom presence Leading criminal defense attorneys are the one who can keep you away from the courtroom drama. However, just in case you manage to be there, they can work their ways to turn the legal case in their favor. An apt lawyer is one who the court addresses with respect and who maintains his dignity inside the courtroom. Analytical Legal cases can keep on continuing like never-ending riddles. Hence, it is essential for lawyers to be logical and analytical as well. They should be able to consider all the facts that define the legal case and make valid conclusions. Furthermore, their analysis should be able to respond to opponents and also look at the positive points of his case and present it better in the courtroom. When it came time to install a new executive chef at his Sud Italia Ristorante, owner Shanon Scott promoted from within the ranks. Angelo Cuppone, who has been the restaurant's chef de cuisine for nearly a year, now wears the title executive chef. Cuppone was promoted after executive chef Maurizio Ferrarese decamped for a position as head chef at the Hotel Granduca Houston. Ferrarese, the former executive chef of Quattro at the Four Seasons Houston, was with Sud Italia only about a year. RIDGEFIELD Jeff Kreitz may be new to the role of police chief, but he is no stranger to Ridgefields 49-member department and certainly not the community it serves. Kreitz, who was chosen as chief late last month, has been with the department for 15 years, most recently as a captain running the Division of Professional Standards, which oversees community programs. He also acts as the departments public information officer. A Ridgefield native, he said the focus on being out there in the public was one of the reasons he became a police officer, and will be something he brings to his tenure as chief. I was the departments community policing officer, but I believe in the philosophy that its department-wide everyone in this job is a community officer, he said. I want to push that. He added that the officers already do a good job getting out into the community, including establishing relationships with organizations or through some of the programs under the Division of Professional Standards. Something he has enjoyed most during his time leading the division is the citizens police academy, an eight-week program for residents to learn about policing and the justice system. The program was brought back a few years ago after being dormant for almost a decade and has been a way for residents to get to know the officers, he said. We get to tell our story through our eyes, he said. Weve had everyone from high school seniors to (state) Sen. Toni Boucher. The response from the community has been fantastic. Doing the job can often mean being there for people who are in their worst moments, he said. You quickly recognize that when people call you, youre really their last line of defense for help, he said. Always treat people with respect and help them to the best of your ability. Kreitz said he will take many of the lessons he learned working with former Chief John Roche to his new position and also highlighted the support of his family and the Board of Police Commissioners. Roche died several days after announcing his retirement in August. He was a great leader and a great man, Kreitz said. I have some big shoes to fill. The Board of Police Commissioners picked Kreitz from a list of three candidates within the department. Members were impressed with each candidate, but ultimately felt Kreitz was best suited to lead the department, Chair Charles Knoche said. We congratulate him and look forward to our work with him in the next years ahead, he said. We always feel after conducting promotional interviews how fortunate the Town of Ridgefield is to have such high quality, knowledgeable and professional officers in our department. aquinn@newstimes.com Oct. 16 At 3:39 a.m., Officer Clisham was dispatched to 5241 Bellaire Blvd. to a criminal trespassing complaint. The subject was identified on surveillance video and officers were able to locate the suspect a few blocks away from the location. The suspect had previously been issued a criminal trespass warning from the business. Suspect was taken into custody and charged with criminal trespass. Officer Quimby assisted in gathering information from the complainant and Officer Ortega assisted in locating the suspect. Oct. 19 At 12:01 a.m., Officer D. Norman was dispatched to a major accident with a vehicle rolled over in the 6800 block of IH 610 NB. Upon arrival, witnesses on scene advised the driver of the at fault vehicle jumped the concrete barrier from the main lanes down to the service road and left the scene of the vehicle accident on foot. Witnesses advised it was a black male wearing a light colored shirt. Officer R. Bellard located a male matching the description approximately half a mile from the scene of the accident at the intersection of the East Service Road and Bissonnet Street. After further investigation, the suspect was placed in custody for fail to stop and render aid and driving while intoxicated. At 11:10 a.m., Officer Vorhees was dispatched to the Bellaire Police Department in reference to a female being threatened through Snap Chat in the 4500 block of Pine Street. At 5:35 p.m., Officer Marcotte initiated a traffic stop on a gray Ford C-Max for failure to display registration in the 5100 block of Bissonnet. The driver was found to have a suspended drivers license and was arrested for driving while license invalid (DWLI). At 4:25 p.m., Officer Guerra was dispatched to 4541 Bissonnet St. in reference to a burglary. The driver of the vehicle left Bank of America on Bellaire Boulevard and drove the above address. While parking the car, a black male approached and broke the window, stole cash that had been withdrawn from the bank, and fled the area in a grey sedan. At 7:54 p.m., Officer Guerra was dispatched to the City of Bellaire Fire Department Lobby in reference to a theft in the 4500 block of Holt Street. On Oct. 15 at 8:41 p.m., the victim transferred money to a fraudulent account. The victim assumed it was the person he had been in contact with for a business transaction. At 7:58 p.m., Officer Schwausch was patrolling the 5200 block of Cedar Street when he observed three males standing next to a car. Officer Schwausch observed an odor consistent with marijuana emitting from their location as he drove by. Officer Schwausch made contact with the 3 males and further investigation found one subject to have South Side Police Department warrants and another subject to have a handgun visible. The handgun was partially in his pocket without a holster, and the suspect was 20 years old. The third subject was checked, cleared and released from the scene. SSPD picked up the subject with their warrants, and the other subject was booked for unlawful carry of a handgun. Officer Liccketto assisted with this investigation. At 5:15 p.m., Officer Marcotte was flagged down by two victims of a burglary of a motor vehicle that occurred in the 6000 block of Avenue B Street. Officer Marcotte took the report and learned a firearm had also been taken in the burglary. The case is pending further investigation. Oct. 20 At 10:30 p.m., Officer OSullivan was dispatched to HEB at 5106 Bissonnet Street in reference to a male subject who was currently detained by employees after shoplifting multiple items. Officer OSullivan arrived and after further investigation, the subject was placed in custody for theft. Corporal Kramer, Officer Schwausch, and Officer Guerra assisted in this incident. Oct. 21 At 9:09 a.m., Officer M. Santillanes was dispatched to a burglary of a motor vehicle call at 6811 Chimney Rock Road. Upon arrival Officer Santillanes met with the victim who stated an unknown suspect broke into his vehicle and stole two Apple Iphones and the victims car insurance card. Officer Santillanes completed a burglary of motor vehicle report. At 5:08 p.m., Officer Marcotte initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle for expired registration in the 5200 block of IH 610 northbound. The driver was found to be intoxicated and was arrested with driving while intoxicated (DWI). At 9:02 p.m., Officer Schwausch was patrolling the 4800 block of Bellaire Boulevard eastbound when he observed a blue Chrylser travelling in front of him with expired registration as of 01/18. Officer Schwausch initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle and found the driver to have 3 confirmed Houston Police Department warrants. Further investigation found the driver to be in possession of approximately 27 grams of marijuana. The driver was charged with possession of marijuana and transported to the Bellaire Jail without incident. Officer Marcotte assisted with this investigation. Oct. 22 At 11:31 p.m., Officer D. Norman conducted a traffic stop on a 2007 White Toyota Camry for no rear license plate light in the 5300 block of Dashwood. The driver fled in the vehicle to the 6600 block of Chimney Rock where defendant was placed in custody after a struggle. Officers T. Quimby and O. Barrientos assisted in this case. Upon further investigation, the defendant was charged with evading in a motor vehicle with a previous conviction and interfering with public duties. Oct. 23 At 11:05 p.m., Officer Quimby observed a green Chevrolet Trailblazer in the 5400 block of Bellaire Boulevard, with no license plate light. Officer Quimby conducted a traffic stop and the vehicle stopped at 5502 Bellaire Blvd. (EZ Pawn Parking Lot). The driver was found to have an outstanding Harris County warrant and to be in possession of marijuana. The driver was placed into custody and transported to the Bellaire Jail for processing and detention. Oct. 24 At 2:20 p.m., Officer H. Lopez was dispatched to the Bellaire Police lobby in reference to a theft in the 100 block of Phanturn Lane. The victim stated on 10-19-2018 his daughter had a charity party at his house and the next day he noticed several cameras were missing from his home. At 9:10 p.m., Officers were dispatched to the 4600 block of Valerie Street in regards to an assault in progress. Officer Delgado made contact with both parties involved. Through investigation the suspect was placed in custody for Continuous Family Violence. Officer Guerra, Officer Liccketto, and Officer OSullivan assisted. At 4:29 p.m., Officer Guerra was dispatched to 5111 Jessamine St. in reference to an indecent exposure. Multiple victims advised the unknown suspect looked at them and grabbed his genital area from the outside of his clothing. After further investigation the investigation concluded the incident was public lewdness. Officer Delgado assisted with this case. Oct. 25 At 2:24 p.m., Officer Vorhees was dispatched to the 900 block of Jolen Court in reference to a BMV. Officer Vorhees met with the victim who stated an unknown suspect(s) entered his unlocked vehicle and removed an Echo leaf blower out of the truck bed of his vehicle. Oct. 26 At 2:11 p.m., Officer M. Santillanes was dispatched to the Bellaire Police Department lobby to meet with a reportee regarding a suspicious package they had received in the 4600 block of Maple Street. Upon arrival the officer met with the reportee who stated an unknown person mailed a suspicious package to her home. Officer Santillanes completed an information report regarding the incident. Oct. 27 At 4:59 p.m., Officer Guerra was dispatched to 100 Bellaire Court in reference to a two car minor that occurred in the 6800 block of IH 610 East Service Road. Officer Guerra made contact with the suspect, and observed the suspect to have glossy eyes, slurred speech and strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath and person. After further investigation, the suspect was arrested for driving while intoxicated. At 3:04 p.m., Officer Guerra was dispatched to Walgreens at 5002 Bellaire Blvd. in reference to a shoplifter. The suspect was located at 6600 South Rice. Officer Guerra arrested the suspect and found the stolen property in the bag she was carrying. The suspect was charged with theft with two previous convictions and transported to the Bellaire Police Department for booking and processing. Officer Marcotte assisted in this case. At 2:29 p.m., Officers Barber and Younger were dispatched to the 4900 block of Bellview Drive in regards to a welfare check. Officers arrived and after a thorough investigation found that the resident had passed away from natural causes. The next of kin were notified and the deceased was collected from the residence by the Harris County Medical Examiners Office. Detective Salinas assisted with the investigation. Oct. 28 At 6 p.m., Officers responded to reports of a car fire at the intersection of 6700 IH 610 West Service Road and 4700 Bellaire Blvd. Upon arrival both occupants of the vehicle in question were identified and shown to have multiple active municipal warrants. During arrest one subject struggled with the arresting officer, Corporal Kramer, and was charged with resisting arrest. The second subject was arrested on municipal warrants without incident. Officer Lysack assisted in this case. Jeanne Celestine Lakin was a child living in Rwanda, Africa, when the Rwandan Genocide started in April 1994. Now living in Houston, Lakin has shared her experience in a memoir titled A Voice in the Darkness, and has also started a nonprofit organization, One Million Orphans, to help orphans have a better life. Before the genocide, Lakin notes that she had a happy life. She had a large family and had all of her extended family close by. Her father was elected in her community as a mediator. If anyone had a problem, they would come to him. There was trust in our family. I had everything I needed. And all of that was taken away in a very short time, Lakin said. In Rwanda there were two main ethnic groups, the Tutsi and the Hutu. In the early 1990s, the Hutu government started to use propaganda, saying that the Tutsis who had been in exile were returning back to invade the country. It was just like in Nazi Germany, Lakin explained. We were dehumanized. We were called snakes and cockroaches. Lakin says that as a child she did not even know what her ethnicity was, until she asked her mother, because of segregation occuring at her middle school. When she broke the news that I was Tutsi, I felt like I was punched in the stomach, Lakin said. Lakins older brother ended up joining the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which were the rebels that fled the country. Because of that, her father was put into jail and was questioned if the family was supporting the Tutsis in exile. We had seen so many people gone missing but we had no idea that it would be as bad as it turned out, Lakin said. On April 6, 1994, Juvenal Habyarimanas airplane was shot down, and he was killed. Habyarimana was the president of Rwanda at the time, and a Hutu. My father came home on April 7, and he said they are killing and not sparing anyone, Lakin said. Lakins father divided the family up into groups of three to keep everyone safer. Lakin was in charge of taking care of her three-year-old twin sisters. She originally went to her aunts, who was married to a Hutu, but she was sent away. She ended up living in the bushes for months, always running and hiding. We ate grass, flowers and seeds. We drank rain water. We watched the killers killing everyone. Rwanda looked like a big graveyard, Lakin said. Her uncle found her in hiding and told her that he saw her mothers dead body, with her three-week old baby still strapped to her back. They thought the baby might still be alive, so Lakin went to her mother to save the boy, but she found out he had been slaughtered as well. She later witnessed her father being killed with machetes. Lakin was nine years old at the time. After a few months, Lakin heard that women and young girls had been forgiven. She went to the Mayor to confirm that this was accurate. The Mayor told her of a safe village to go to, but it actually was a killing spot. Lakin ended up not being killed, but instead was abused and raped by the leader of the group. She was forced to be separated from her twin sisters, so Lakin brought them to her aunts house. The leader realized that the RPF was coming, so he fled to Congo and took her with him. He sold Lakin to another man who was 10 years older, who intended on marrying her. I couldnt imagine being married as a child. I decided to run back to Rwanda. It took me months. When I arrived, the country had been liberated. The country was upside down, but it was safe, Lakin said. The orphanages were over capacity, so she was turned away. She tried to find employment but she was abused by the woman who hired her. She finally was placed with a foster family, and she joined them as they moved to the United States. I wanted to make something out of myself. The fact that I survived, it makes me feel like I have a purpose, Lakin said. Lakin learned English, and then went to college and got a masters degree at Eastern Washington University. She started writing in a journal as a way to share with her siblings what had happened to her. My heart was so heavy. I kept all of this inside of me, the things I had seen, Lakin said. Unfortunately, her siblings were not ready to hear about it. But she kept on writing. With encouragement from her husband, Paul, she realized that it could be not just for her siblings, but for the world to read. Her book, A Voice in the Darkness, can be purchased on avoiceinthedarkness.org. Lakin, as an orphan herself, also wanted to help orphans. I had opportunities to work as an adoption counselor. As I read files on these children all over the world, I found that all of these children just needed love and to be cared for. Their struggles resonated with mine. I walked in their shoes, Lakin said. Her nonprofit, One Million Orphans provides care such as food, clothing, counseling and medical care. Just this morning I received a picture of a child in Burundi with their new school uniform. It makes me smile, Lakin said. Lakin hopes that if there is one thing others can take from her experiences, it is for people to look at others as just people. If we can walk across the aisle and try to understand others, we are not as different as our society makes it, Lakin said. More information can be found at www.avoiceinthedarkness.org/charity. rebecca.hazen@chron.com Oct. 26 At 1:51 p.m., police units were dispatched to a Forgery in Progress. Units arrived as the suspect was exiting the bank and detained her for further investigation. A second subject observed to be with the suspect was also detained for investigation. During investigation, it was determined that both subjects were in possession of narcotics and subsequently charged. At this time, officers were unable to confirm and conclude the investigation of the forgery, due to the business office being closed, and unable to make contact with a representative. Officers were dispatched to the 4000 block of Bellaire in regards to a disturbance. Contact was made with the subject (Jessica Dailey) and upon further investigation, it was discovered the subject was intoxicated. The subject was arrested for Public Intoxication and issued a Criminal Trespass Warning. Oct. 27 An officer was dispatched to the 3600 block of Rice in regard to an FSGI that had already occurred. At 2:53 a.m., an officer was dispatched to the 7300 block of Southwest Freeway to meet with a Sugar Land Police Department officer who had a subject in custody with outstanding warrants with the City of West University Place. The subject (Julia Kuhns) was taken into custody and booked on the warrants without incident. An officer was dispatched to the Southside Place Police Department to pick up an individual with outstanding warrants out of the City of West University Municipal Court. The individual (Kristal Keener) was taken into custody and transported without incident. Oct. 28 An officer observed a vehicle traveling southbound in the 6700 block of Buffalo Speedway with an expired vehicle registration. A traffic stop was conducted and upon further investigation, it was discovered that the driver was in possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. The marijuana and drug paraphernalia were seized and the occupant was enrolled into the Misdemeanor Marijuana Diversion Program (MMDP) and released from the scene without further incident. An Officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby in reference to found property. Dispatch advised that a necklace was found on the sidewalk in the 4100 block of Oberlin. The Officer arrived and collected the necklace submitting them for safekeeping. Oct. 30 At 8:07 a.m., an officer was dispatched to the 4100 block Dartmouth, in regards to a report of Fraud that had already occurred. An officer observed a vehicle traveling northbound in the 5600 block of Buffalo Speedway with expired registration. A traffic stop was conducted and upon further investigation, the driver (Raseana Sherman) was arrested for Driving while License Invalid. At 9:50 a.m., an officer was dispatched to the 5900 block of Edloe, in regard, to a welfare check. It was discovered that the subject (Kevin Addison) was in possession of stolen property and had outstanding warrants with the Houston Police Department for four. An arrest was made and a report was generated. An officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby to speak to a complainant who stated they were a victim Identity Theft. Nov. 1 At 3 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the area of Academy and Tennyson in reference to a disorderly conduct report. By Olivia Rose THE IMPLEMENTATION of an Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS) which has the capability to bolster border security in the TCI is currently on hold awaiting UK approval. This was revealed on Thursday, October 18, during the recently held National Security Council meeting. It was envisaged that APIS would be fully operational in the TCI by September 2017, however at the meeting Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson informed the council that a letter of entrustment had been requested from the UK Government. This will enable the TCI to sign the instrument of accession to the memorandum of understanding for intelligence sharing among Caricom member states. She noted that the UKs consent is necessary for TCIs participation in an APIS database of passenger information which will be shared between Caricom member states and the United States. The automated system, which was established by the US Customs Border Protection (CBP) in May 2009, was adopted by Caricom last year and aims to bolster regional security. It supplies law enforcement officers with data on passengers and crew members prior to arrival and departure from Caricom member states, United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Sean Astwood, Deputy Premier and Minister of Border Control and Employment, in April 2017 led a delegation to Bridgetown, Barbados, for the first Border Security Professional Exchange Conference. At the conference the TCI became the first of six British overseas territories in the region to sign the APIS agreement with Caricom. Astwood said: "Signing the memorandum was a significant and important step in achieving full implementation of the APIS in the Turks and Caicos Islands and by extension improves security for our region. He also pointed out that in recent times and over the past decade there has been an increase in threats due to transnational organised crimes, trades in illicit drugs and other commodities such as guns, human trafficking and illegal migration. "These threats are a result of many things, from defects such as our porous borders, to the success in the growth of our tourism industry, he said. "Whatever the reason, we continue to experience challenges at our port facilities, especially with limitations in data intelligence and manpower resources. Adopting APIS will further allow countries to secure their airports and ports. Halliburton's president and CEO Jeff Miller, executive chairman Dave Lesar and other executives rang the New York Stock Exchange's opening bell Monday to help celebrate the oil and gas services company's 100th anniversary next year. READ MORE: Texas Tech helps design clothing for women in oil fields The anniversary is "a testament to the hard work of our employees who deliver on our core values, including integrity, safety, creativity and reliability," Miller said in a statement. "We look forward to our next century and continuing to deliver superior service to our customers and unparalleled industry returns to our shareholders." READ MORE: Halliburton employee volunteers help at-risk families get ready for back to school Halliburton, which employs 60,000 people in more than 80 countries, plans to host community events in 2019 to commemorate its centennial and has launched a website to honor the milestone year. CFISD / CFISD One Cypress Creek High School student has earned the opportunity to have her hand-decorated holiday ornament displayed at the Texas Capitol, according to a press release from Cy-Fair ISD. Each year, one ornament from each of Texas 150 house districts is chosen to be displayed on the Christmas tree at the Texas Capitol from Nov. 29 to Jan. 2 with descriptions of the ornament, explains the press release. Cypress Creek High School junior Sierah Haines designed an ornament representing Hurricane Harvey, with hands outstretched toward sun rays. Her ornament will represent the 126th district and will also be featured in the House of Representatives 2018 ornament book. The Court of Appeals, Ninth District of Texas in Beaumont has reversed and remanded the trial of former Liberty County Commissioner Mike McCarty back to the 75th District Court in Liberty for a new trial. According to the opinion, the court agreed with most of the merits of the case but took issue with the trial courts refusal of McCartys requested accomplice-witness instruction for Jo Carol Bolt, his secretary, and David Murphy who worked for the former Precinct 1 Commissioner. We conclude the evidence in this case was legally sufficient to support the jurys finding that McCarty knowingly or intentionally misused government personnel and property under the statute, the opinion read. We further determine the indictment was sufficient to put McCarty on notice and allow him adequately to prepare a defense. Nevertheless, the trial court erred by failing to submit accomplice-witness instructions for Bolt and Murphy, and we conclude this resulted in harm calculated to injure the rights of the defendant. Special prosecutor in the case William Lee Hon, District Attorney for Polk County, was disappointed with the ruling. You put a lot of effort into a case like this and you hope that the jury verdict is the end, but thats the nature of the work we do. Sometimes the appellate court finds something that should have been done differently. Consequently, you go back and have another trial, he said. All is not lost for the prosecution. They still have an opportunity to have their decision reviewed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (Supreme Court of Texas). The state prosecuting attorney for the State of Texas will be filing what is called a petition for discretionary review, Hon said. If they decide to hear the case, they will decide if the Ninth Courts ruling was correct or not, the prosecutor said. Should the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agree to hear the case, it would likely remain on appeal for a number of months before a decision out of Austin is rendered. If for some reason they decide not to hear the appeal, the case would be sent back to the 75th State District Court in Liberty County for a new trial. If they had found otherwise, they would have ordered an acquittal in the case and that would have been the end of it, but because they thought there was an error in regard to the jury charge, they remanded it for a new trial, he said. McCarty was convicted last year on two counts of official abuse of official capacity stemming from a series of incidents between Jan. 1 2013 and Jan. 1, 2015. Count One of the indictment alleged McCarty misused government personnel and Count Two alleged McCarty misused government property. McCarty pleaded not guilty to the charges, but a Liberty County jury convicted him on both counts and determined the value was between $20 and $500 on each count making it a Class B misdemeanor. He received a six-month probated sentence on each count and a fine of $2,000. McCartys attorneys Neal Davis and Bill Stradley immediately appealed the verdict. They disagree it was technicalities. We dont believe in technicalities, Davis said. Its the jury charge and its an extremely important part of the case. Its what guides the jury on how theyre supposed to reach a verdict, he said. Davis pointed to the opinion itself to demonstrate how the lack of the jury charge harmed McCartys ability to have a fair trial. Im grateful that they saw things our way and at this point we just have to see how the states going to proceed whether they appeal it or return back to the trial court. Davis said he thought the potential for the case to even be heard by the Texas Supreme Court was remote. The vast majority of cases they decline them, like the U. S. Supreme Court. I think the state had its day in court and its time to move on. Davis said he hadnt even considered what would happen after the trial is either set aside or appealed because hes still concentrating on the criminal case. I dont know what his political future is following this, he said. If the court decides to hear the case, then they will order further briefing from both sides, and then the Supreme Court would likely render an opinion months later. Unless they think this is a significant issue that warrants their attention, theyre going to deny any petition for discretionary review, Davis said. The case would be sent back to the special prosecutor to either proceed to trial or terminate the prosecution. I think we need to wait for the dust to settle before anything else occurs. The next move is not ours, it belongs to the state, said Stradley, co-counsel for McCarty. Liberty County Attorney Matthew Poston, who has a civil lawsuit filed against McCarty, said the verdict doesnt affect his case. It has no effect on the removal or civil proceeding whatsoever since its entirely independent of the criminal case, Poston said. But for the matters of judicial economy, we had agreed to postpone the trial in the civil case until there we received an opinion that we hoped would have provided a final resolution in the case. As uncanny as it might seem, McCarty could run again for his office at the end of this term. It takes a felony or a theft conviction, even though its relatively close to that, but because its a misdemeanor, he could legally run again in the next cycle, Poston said. Poston said he was surprised by the verdict. I didnt see that as a strong likelihood, he said about the opinion. I have my own personal disagreements with the courts opinion, but I respect their ruling. Prosecutor Hon is well-known for his tenacity in his cases. Stand by, theres likely more to come, he said. dtaylor@hcnonline.com Naturally, in times like these, our nation looks to its president for comfort and guidance, Stephen Colbert told his audience on The Late Show last Monday night. Thats our first mistake. The next night, Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, said President Donald Trump was trying to scare people by saying a caravan of Central Americans walking toward the border was full of criminals. Its sort of like Halloween, Noah said, but a racist Halloween. On Wednesday, a distinctly bronzed and bewigged Jimmy Fallon delivered a bit on the presidents midterm message to each state: Hawaii is a beautiful, beautiful country, and Theres a New Mexico? Isnt the old one bad enough? And Thursday, James Corden told his audience on The Late Late Show that a Halloween display at a North Dakota home was so terrifying, that concerned neighbors actually called the police, before revealing a picture of a Trump 2020 lawn sign. The outcome of Tuesdays elections will answer a number of questions: How devoted is the presidents base? How strong is the Democratic resistance? And what, if anything, have nearly two years of late-night Trump zingers added up to? Since the 2016 election, even the least ideological hosts have found the president an irresistible target night after night. While the shows primary aim is to entertain, the first major election in the late-night vs. Trump era will also be something of a barometer for how influential these shows can be, beyond goosing album downloads and box-office sales. Comedy Centrals The Daily Show, which has long had a political focus, broadcast all last week from Miami to raise awareness of Floridas tight races. Noah sat down at a restaurant for an extended interview with Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidate for governor, just one of several competitive contests Noah discussed during the week. The audience was cheering when we were mentioning ballot initiatives, said Jen Flanz, the shows executive producer. On The Late Show on CBS, Colbert will capitalize on the excitement and tension by broadcasting live Tuesday (typically shows are taped earlier in the evening) so he can react in real time as results roll in. This level of late-night political content would have been unthinkable when Jay Leno and David Letterman dominated the hour, let alone during the reign of Johnny Carson. Bill Carter, a former TV correspondent for the New York Times and the author of two books on late night, said that Carson was careful never to reveal his real point of view. He thought it was important to keep a broad audience, so he aimed for the middle of the country, Carter said, adding that even Jon Stewart, the longtime host of The Daily Show, did not seem to want to be too identified with either party. But now, he said, comedians have dropped the veil. Theyre worried about the country and theyre going to say theyre worried about the country, Carter said. And whats behind that veil is solidly left of center. People have asked why there isnt a conservative form of late night comedy, Carter said. I think Fox tried it briefly, but there arent enough writers to support it. Fallon is perhaps the closest to the old mold. He has always positioned himself as a broadly appealing figure, quicker to engage guests in a round of charades or karaoke than to hurl down any political gauntlet. (Commentators on the left ridiculed him during the 2016 campaign for seeming to go easy on Trump in an interview that involved him ruffling the candidates hair.) But even he has perfected a Trump impersonation, and while hes still more likely to paint Trump as juvenile, rather than as the existential threat that other hosts tend to see him as he lampoons the president on a nightly basis. On Thursday, with the midterms just five days away, Fallon mimicked the presidents thinking: So many people to offend, so little time, he said. Perhaps more revealing has been the trajectory of Jimmy Kimmel. In the past two years, he has traded in his old comic persona a chatty insult comic from Nevada, with a no-nonsense sensibility and a broad appeal to Middle America for a new identity as a liberal lion. When the GOP was attempting to repeal the health care law last year, Kimmel delivered a series of emotional monologues about his son, Billy, who was born with a severe heart condition. Kimmels voice has been boisterous throughout the midterm season and last week, he appeared at a rally in Nevada for Jacky Rosen, the Democratic candidate for Senate. But what impact is any of this going to have? In rare instances, celebrities have a measurable effect on a race, especially when they are otherwise seen as apolitical. Last month on Instagram, Taylor Swift endorsed Phil Bredesen, the Democratic Senate candidate in Tennessee, and pointed her followers to the website Vote.org to register. In the next five days, 281,261 people under age 30 registered to vote on that website, nearly double the number that signed up in the entire month of October 2016. Craig Garthwaite, an associate professor of strategy at Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management, wrote a paper on the so-called Oprah Effect when Oprah Winfrey endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary. He found that Winfrey who campaigned last week in Georgia for Stacey Abrams, the Democrat running for governor may have tipped an additional 1 million votes into Obamas column. But hammering away on late night, he said, feels different. If youre ginned up about political action, if youre watching The Daily Show, youre going to vote anyway, Garthwaite said. James Fowler, a professor at the University of California, San Diego who studies political participation, disagrees. You can imagine that with any one of these late shows, with multiple messages and doing it night after night after night, it would be hard to make an argument that its not having at least some effect on an increase in voter turnout, Fowler said. And the shows effects could go beyond turnout. Fowler once published a study that found that Democratic politicians who appeared on Colberts previous show, The Colbert Report, raised about 40 percent more money in the following two months than they had in the two previous months. NASA has begun a series of quiet supersonic research flights off the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston to test how the community responds to the noise from a new experimental aircraft that could eventually cut commercial flight times by half. The space agency on Monday began testing "quiet sonic booms" near the island community using F/A-18 jets as part of its Quiet Supersonic Flights 2018, or QSF18, campaign. The jets are flying over the Gulf of Mexico in a unique maneuver as part of a two-week project to assess public reactions to the noise. "QSF18 is a big step in NASA's efforts to understand what is required for acceptable supersonic overland flight," said Peter Coen, NASA's commercial supersonic technology project manager, in a statement. "This is the first time in decades that we have reached out to a large community as part of our supersonic research," Coen said. "NASA has performed similar tests at our Armstrong Flight Research Center, using similar sounds created by the same F/A-18. We've measured the noise levels and the impact on structures, as well as surveyed people for annoyance, to make certain that these tests are safe and well-planned. We greatly appreciate Galveston's interest and support." NASA officials hope the Galveston tests will help further the agency's goal of perfecting supersonic flight an elusive goal marred by previous efforts decades ago with the Concorde, an aircraft that could cross the Atlantic in just over three hours by traveling twice the speed of sound. It was eventually banned by federal aviation officials after residents complained about noise from the plane's sonic boom. The public response data that NASA collects will be provided to the Federal Aviation Administration for use in developing new rules about potential supersonic passenger flights that could cut cross-country commercial flight times in half. Currently, the FAA bans these flights over land, in part because of concerns about how they would affect communities and infrastructure on the ground. The F/A-18's supersonic dive maneuver starts out over the water. At around 50,000 feet the aircraft are put into a special dive that still creates a regular sonic boom, however when the sound reaches land it should be heard as a quieter "thump" instead. GALVESTON: Company awarded $145 million to construct 6-miles of Texas border wall While the "quiet thumps" produced by the F/A-18 present no risk of causing physical damage to people or structures, NASA has learned that elements such as atmospheric turbulence and humidity can influence how certain areas may perceive the sound. NASA will operate a number of microphone stations in the area to match up the community's response with the decibel level of each sonic thump. The agency will be conducting community surveys to get feedback on the sound levels of the sonic booms. NASA recruited 500 volunteer residents in Galveston to participate. If they hear the thumps, they will define the level at which they were able to perceive the sound. "Galveston is both honored and excited to be part of this project," Galveston Mayor James Yarbrough said in a written statement. "This is the type of project that motivates engineers and innovators" The data will be used to help NASA better understand successful data-collection methods for future flights using an experimental aircraft called the X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology, or QueSST, demonstrator. Starting in 2022, the X-59 will fly directly over yet-to-be-selected communities to collect data using lessons learned from QSF18. The "quiet thumps" produced by the F/A-18 present no risk of causing physical damage to people or structures. A handful of Galveston residents posted on Facebook about the sonic booms on the first day of testing. "I heard the 'quiet thump' this morning," wrote Jeff Daniels underneath a Facebook post from the City of Galveston about the sonic boom testing. "It's definitely much better than a traditional sonic boom but I wouldn't want to listen to it all the time such as regular commercial air flights. It still rattles the windows." Jerry Baker, another commenter on the same Facebook post, wrote, "I just heard LOUD boom. East end, near beach. Windows lightly rattled in this old house." Want to know more? Individuals can report information and feedback about the booms by calling the NASA hotline at 281-483-5111. They can learn more about the program by visiting the information booth at McGuire Dent Recreation Center at 28th Street and Seawall Boulevard in Galveston. Staff writer Alex Stuckey contributed to this report. Nick Powell covers Galveston County for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and send him tips at nick.powell@chron.com Leasing has started for a new 24,000-square-foot office building located in Parkside Capitals University Center along Interstate 10 just east of the Grand Parkway in Katy. Owned by Newmark Homes, the building will be the builders new corporate headquarters. It will also house the Newmark Design Studio. We chose this location because of its proximity to many of our communities, said Mike Moody, president of Newmark Homes. With our company growing, it was time for a move. More than 30 Newmark employees will office out of the buildings second floor, and the design studio will encompass approximately 4,500 square feet on that level 40 percent larger than its current facility. Universal Title Partners also will have offices upstairs. Moody said he expects Newmark to move in mid-November. The entire bottom floor 11,742 square feet is available for lease. The interior could be sub-divided for multiple tenants, and more than 2,000 square feet is set aside as patio space. The building also has drive-thru capabilities. Area retailers include CineMark Theaters, JC Penney, Field & Stream, Buy Buy Baby and Academy. Katy Mills Mall also is nearby. The complex is adjacent to the Katy University of Houston campus under construction now and opening in fall 2019. Edge Realty Partners is handling the leasing and can be reached at 713-900-3000. Newmark Homes builds in 11 Houston-area communities, including those in Katy, Fulshear, Cypress, Sugar Land, Richmond and Tomball. Pricing is from the $230,000s to more than $1 million. For more information, visit http://newmarkhomes.com. Inspired by her Lubbock mentor who organized a Giving Tuesday in that community, Sarah Beaton, a Katy resident, decided that it was a good idea for her community. She talked with Lara Hamilton, executive director, Christ Clinic, who thought it was a good idea and contacted other nonprofits. At a Christ Clinic meeting held at Members Choice Credit Union, Joye Jackson, the credit unions vice president of strategic initiatives & programs, heard the talk about a Giving Tuesday. She took the idea to the credit unions executive team. The result: Members Choice Credit Union is a presenting sponsor of the first #GivingTuesdayKaty, which will take place on Nov. 27. In Katys case, #GivingTuesdayKaty is actually a month-long online giving campaign that takes place Nov.1-30. Visit www.givingtuesdaykaty.org or go to https://www.facebook.com/GivingTuesKaty/ for details. People may designate a donation for one of the participating 16 nonprofits or donate to #GivingTuesdayKaty, said Jackson. Gifts made through #GivingTuesdayKaty will be matched by sponsors. Randy Theilig, Members Choice Credit Union CEO, said credit unions were formed to help people. Theres not just financial need but there is a need in the community. The best way to address that community need, he continued, is to partner with others to make a difference and impact lives. I immediately knew this was something we wanted to be part of. At the start of the press conference, Jackson called it a great and amazing opportunity we have to give back to the Katy community. Participating nonprofits are The Arc of Katy, Attack Poverty Friends of Sundown, The Ballard House, Clothed by Faith, Christ Clinic, Compassion Katy, Fostering Success Foundation, Hope Impacts, Joe Joe Bear Foundation, Katy Cares, Katy Christian Ministries, Katy ISD Education Foundation, Neighborhood KidZ Club, Sons of Keturah, Krause Childrens Residential and YMCA. Nonprofit representatives received T-shirts as they entered the room. The backs of the shirts read, in part, #LiveHereGiveHere. Sponsorships are available ranging from Katy Legacy at $2,500 to Katy M-K-T Railroad at $350. Theres also an option for restaurants to donate a percentage of sales on Giving Tuesday. Denise Mayfield, president/CEO of Katy Cares, called the Giving Tuesday campaign the culmination of years of prayers. She talked of nonprofits serving their community and of conversations about what it would look like if all the nonprofits came together and served the community side by side. I believe we have by far the best community in the entire world, said Mayfield. Collaboration among nonprofits isnt new. Tina Hatcher, executive director, Hope Impacts, which reaches out to help homeless, said efforts began in the spring of 2017 toward a collaboration among nonprofits. The Katy Color Run held in April is an example of that collaboration. Started by Christ Clinic in 2015, the event last year benefited five nonprofits: Christ Clinic, Clothed by Faith, Hope Impacts, Katy Christian Ministries and Compassion Katy. Next April, the run will benefit those groups as well as The Ballard House. The response to community need after Hurricane Harvey also helped to bring nonprofits together. Every time theres a call to action, we see the community come together, said Mayfield. #GivingTuesday was founded in 2012 by 92nd Street Y, a community and cultural center in New York City. More than 100 cities are participating in #Giving Tuesday. karen.zurawski@chron.com Officials with the Katy Independent School District are responding to the deaths of two Mayde Creek High School students by bringing in a crisis intervention team to assist with counseling. Maria Perez, 14, and Isabella Perez, 15, were found shot to death in their home along with their stepfather Victor Portillo by Harris Country Sheriffs Deputies on Sunday, Nov. 4, according to the HCSO. On Sunday night, Mayde Creek High School Principal Ronnie Edwards released a statement to parents about the deadly shooting. It is with a heavy heart that we inform you about a recent loss to our school community, he said. Earlier today, we were informed of the loss of two students who attend our school. This loss is sure to raise many emotions, concerns, and questions for our entire school, especially our students. RELATED: Teens mourn slain Katy sisters found dead in 'likely' murder-suicide with stepfather Edwards said the high school and the district had a Crisis Intervention Team made up of professional trained to help with the needs of parents, and school personnel at difficult times such as this. We have counselors and LSSPs (Licensed Specialists in School Psychology) available for any student who may need assistance surrounding this loss, Edwards said. The counselors were on site beginning Monday morning, he added. We are saddened by the loss to our school community and will make every effort to help you and your child as needed, he said. After the news broke on Sunday, teens flocked to the Perez home to pay their respects to two the sisters who died in what Harris Country Sheriff Ed Gonzalez called likely a murder of two and suicide. He attributed the deaths to a possible act of domestic violence, according to a previous Houston Chronicle report. The events began to unfold when the mother of two girls, Reyna Isabel Perez, filed a missing persons report at the 3800 Block of Silverhawk Drive in the Westfield Subdivision in the Katy area, according to a news release by the HCSO. When deputies arrived, they located three bodies inside the home, including those of the two sisters and Portillos, according to the news release. michelle.iracheta@chron.com Changes are setting up shop at the Kingwood Farmers Market the event is getting a new owner and direction. The Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce announced Oct. 30 that it will hand over ownership of the market to Town Center Park Association. The Chamber had hosted the market every Thursday since 2010. As we are a nonprofit, our resources are limited and our board has the responsibility of being good stewards with our members investments in our organization. said Jenna Armstrong, the Chambers CEO, in the press release. While considering the Kingwood Farmers Market it became clear that an association such as Town Center Park could do a better job of growing and enhancing the market due to the associations focus, physical location and availability of resources. Staying afloat The associations director, Tony Austin said the change was expected as the chamber alters its focus toward macro-level businesses and the market doesnt fit that category. The Kingwood resident of 20 years also added that the initial plan was to excise the market due to declining sales. But if I let it go we wont get it back, he said. So Ive got to hang onto it and try to build it. There were about 18 to 20 vendors at the farmers market, Austin recalled, but then Hurricane Harvey hit Kingwood and ousted everything quantifiable business owners, attendees and revenue. He said that, although more time is still needed, the moment when the market reclaims its pre-Harvey heyday will come. By the end of January, thats the plan, he said. Until then, Austin said hes trying out a medley of methods to both draw vendors in for the rest of November they, familiars or not, wont have to pay any fees and to get the word out a food truck, movie night, quid-pro-quo publicity effort with nearby businesses, blog posts profiling sellers and an active social media page are a few examples. The latter is what Austin currently invests most of his efforts in. Aside from being able to broadcast or re-broadcast content at speed to a substantial crowd, it will also give Kingwood an edge over other areas that can also host farmer markets, he said. FALL IS IN THE AIR: Houston-area farmers markets for the best fall produce Im trying to get into a regimen of at least two postings a week, [one] early in the week to say Hey, this is whats coming up and then on Thursday well say whats happening today, Austin said. The plan is to try to grow the vendors, and if I can grow the vendors then I can grow the audience. Dont forget the market! Cindy Larsen, whose business Cindys Southern Jam is one of the vendors who came to Thursdays farmers market, the first not hosted by the Lake Houston Chamber of Commerce, welcomed Austins social-media push. Its the thing to do today, the modern way of getting word out, she said. You can touch all levels of generation with whichever social media platform you choose to use. Sugar Land-based Shelly Smith, owner of pet food store Bones on the Go!, also liked the approach. Ive noticed even with my other markets that when they step up their social media, we get more people out, she said. A lot of people dont know that [the farmers market is] even here. Laurie Polomsky, owner of the custom cookie bakery Sugar Happiness, believes that going social will certainly benefit to the market in the future. I think its a great way to communicate, said Polomsky, who also goes by the moniker The Happy Baker. Let people know what we have, why were here and what were doing. Regarding the turnout, of both vendors and customers, for this event, Austin thought it was OK. Still, he has faith that whats around the corner is the very growth to revitalize Kingwood Farmers Market. I really appreciate the vendors hanging in there with me as well and I really thought Kingwood would eat it up I think they would if they remembered, he said. I have so many people whod say to me over the weekend, Man, I forgot the market again! and then Id say, Dont forget the market! Its on a Thursday, its been there for eight years. nguyen.le@chron.com The airline is making it a little cheaper to get the heck out of Dodge, er, Houston. A new 72-hour sale, running through just before midnight on Wednesday, is offering some round-trip flights out of Houston's Hobby Airport to international destinations south of the border. Of course these flights need to be snapped up quickly. By Gemma Handy DEEPER insights into what the Lucayans ate and how they prepared their homes could soon be revealed thanks to a slew of "excellent samples uncovered at a centuries-old Amerindian village. The TCIs earliest inhabitants may have imported clay from elsewhere in the region to create living area surfaces, preliminary findings suggest, and like their contemporary counterparts had a particular fondness for conch meat. Archaeologist Dr Shaun Sullivan, who has been leading the two-week excavation at the Long Bay site, told the Weekly News the team were "very pleased with their discoveries. More than a dozen charcoal samples found will be sent for radiocarbon dating to gauge a better idea of just how old the site is. Previous explorations suggest it was inhabited at least as far back as the 14th century. Preliminary analysis of animal bone recovered indicates the villagers ate a lot of shellfish, turtles, and possibly iguanas and hutia, a rodent-like creature once a vital source of protein for ancient peoples and now largely extinct. "This site has an unusually high concentration of conch remains, comprising around 99 percent of the shell found on the site so far, he continued. "At other Lucayan sites in these Islands there was a far greater variety of shell but this one seems to be focused on conch, maybe due to the concentration of conch in the area and the ease with which they could obtain them. The team, which included several volunteers from the local community, also turned up multiple pieces of Lucayan-made Palmetto ware, along with imported ceramics from the Greater Antilles. "The ceramics will be taken to a laboratory for mineral analysis to allow us to compare them with those from Hispaniola and Cuba and help us identify who the Lucayans traded with, Dr Sullivan explained. Among the most significant discoveries was sandy clay that villagers apparently brought from a nearby estuary to cover portions of the ground in their village. "We are considering the possibility that they may have used it as clean surface for their living area, the archaeologist continued. "The soil surface is not totally unique but its unusual and we are still seeking to interpret that. "It appears it was brought there prehistorically because we have found pre-European artefacts on top of that soil. The crew also found areas of very black soil, markedly different from the underlying pale sand, indicating "intensive burning. This could be derived from stone-lined earth ovens used for food, and possibly firing of ceramics. Dr Sullivan first discovered the village in 1976. The large amount of imported pottery found there made it of particular interest with historians hoping to unlock age-old mysteries about the Lucayan people and their long-distance trading partners. "We have found the vast majority of what we hoped we would. And it will assist us in understanding how this particular group of Lucayans made a living and interacted with their environment, the archaeologist said. Much of the village believed to have originally stretched to 100 metres was destroyed by dredging which started in the 1970s to create a ship canal. An area measuring roughly 30 by 50 metres is all that remains. Construction on the site is due to begin next year. Developers Windward Long Bay, behind the forthcoming 90-unit South Bank residential development, gave permission for the area to be excavated and provided funding to help. Dr Sullivan welcomed the strong participation from local schools. "We had nine students who worked for extended periods on site with us and more than 100 visited during the excavation. Governor John Freeman was also among the visitors, taking time out to speak to each of the task teams, Dr Sullivan added. The artefacts will be donated to the national museum. All the ceramics have been photographed and paper records stored digitally. A general report on the findings is scheduled to be published within six months. The city of Bunker Hill Village is slated to remain with the Village Fire Department through December 2019, but where it will get its emergency services after that is still uncertain. After studies, demonstration runs and much discussion on the fire departments response times to Bunker Hill, the westernmost of the six Memorial Villages the department serves, Bunker Hills City Council opted to approve only the 2019 VFD operating budget in September but voted down approving funds for renovations at the fire station. Each of the Villages needed to approve the budget by Sept 30. When Bunker Hill failed to approve the entire budget, the Village Fire Commission told Bunker Hill to give notice whether it wanted to carry services with the VFD through Dec. 31, 2018, or Dec. 31, 2019. As expected by officials in the other Villages, because of the time it would take start alternative services, Bunker Hill opted to keep services through 2019. While Bunker Hill Fire Commissioner Derry Essary said he hopes to reach an agreement and ultimately remain with the VFD, he said the city is making contingency plans. We have retained the services of an architectural firm in designing a new emergency rescue station on the west side of the VFD service area, Essary said. It will be a new building on a site that has yet to be selected. Essary said the city has at least five sites it is considering for the new station and that the location will depend on which can provide the best service to the more western and southern areas of the VFD service area. Also in preparation, Essary said Bunker Hill has hired a fire suppression and EMS (emergency medical service) consultant to assist with getting proper equipment, staffing and an operational plan. He said he has confidence that the plan should be operational by Jan. 1, 2020, but added he would like it to be through the VFD. In a statement obtained by the Houston Chronicle, Bunker Hill Mayor Jay Williams said the proposed $3.5-million capital budget for the renovations was wholly deficient in that it lacked planning for renovating the station or building a new one and an overall budget and timelines for the whole project and the work required. The statement also said there were no plans for a temporary relocation during construction. However, Hunters Creek Village Mayor Jim Pappas produced documents and said he was upset to see the statement in print because architectural plans, cost estimates and a payment schedule for the renovations were indeed available. Pappas said Williams comments flied in the face of three years of hard work and planning, that people in the other Memorial Villages had dotted all their is, crossing all their ts spelling out detailed plans to renovate the fire station. Brian Muecke is the mayor of Hedwig Village and said although the other Villages had tried to dissuade them, Bunker Hills council made its unanimous decision to not approve the entire fire department budget while aware of the impending fallout. After Bunker Hill announced its intentions in June to leave the VFD, leadership from throughout the Memorial Villages implored them to consider the consequences of that action, Muecke said. We did everything we could over the past three months to keep their citizens underneath the VFDs veil of protection. Unfortunately, Bunker Hills leadership did not respond to our repeated and extensive efforts. Muecke said the actions and words from Bunker Hills leadership are currently not matching up. He hopes to engage with them in the future when, he said, they can be more helpful. Five weeks ago, the current elected leadership of Bunker Hill knowingly and deliberately took unanimous action to leave the Village Fire Department. Now they are saying they are hopeful to be a member of VFD again, Muecke said. The contradiction between their actions and words make progress toward that end difficult. I look forward to sitting down with Bunker Hill at a time when its elected leadership can engage in a more thoughtful and constructive manner. Essary said there has always been a sense of cooperation amongst the Memorial Villages, citing examples years back when then Bunker Hill Mayor Bill Marshall backed Hunter Creeks request to put in a police substation at the Houston Racquet Club or when Bunker Hill let Piney Point Village utilize its council chamber as a municipal court. During all of these cooperative efforts, there were various policy disputes between individual Villages; however, in the end if we could agree on an issue that was important to one of our members, somehow we came together, Essary said. I sincerely hope that spirit still exists. tracy.maness@hcnonline.com After the violent attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that left 11 people dead in late October, Jewish communities across the Greater Houston area are doing what they can to show support and solidarity. Thousands gathered at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center Sunday Oct. 28, including Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, for a candlelight vigil to honor victims of the shooting. In the suburbs, Jewish communities across the Houston area participated in the Show Up For Shabbat, a worldwide call for action in response to the Pittsburgh shooting put on by the Global Jewish Advocacy. Aside from the Shabbat, several Houston area Jewish communities have also hosted their own vigils and raised money for the Pittsburgh victims. Another big response to the shooting, which has been called "the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States," that many suburban communities initiated was to increase security at churches. STANDING STRONG: Katy Jewish community not surprised by anti-Semitic attacks "We're all on heightened alert ... and we're in the initial phases," Taryn Baranowski, chief marketing officer at the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston told the Chronicle in regards to security at local synagogues. "Groups have been in contact with law enforcement and we're going to be having some conversations within the community just to provide resources to people." In north Houston, Chabad of The Woodlands is also looking to beef up security by evaluating protocols and security vulnerabilities, while a Clear Lake synagogue took extra precautions and held an active-shooter drill. Click through the photos above for how Houston's suburban, Jewish community has showed their support for the Pittsburgh shooting victims... Rebecca Hennes covers community news. Read her on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | rebecca.hennes@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message With the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue still fresh in the national consciousness, members of Congregation Shaar Hashalon in Clear Lake have had to think about the unthinkable. Members recently hosted an active-shooter drill to prepare should an attack happen in their own synagogue. I dont know when it became acceptable in society to attack people in their houses of worship, but were standing up and stepping up our security to let our folks know were doing everything in our power to keep them safe, said David Hirsch, president of Shaar Hashalon. With some luck, this type of tragedy will never be visited upon us. The training was led by synagogue member Aaron Freedkin, manager of emergency management at Texas Childrens Hospital. Hirsch said that Freedkin does this (type of training) as part of his job; so he will be sharing his own experiences to help keep us safe. Other Jewish congregations from Clear Lake and Galveston were invited to participate in the event. Before the Oct. 27 mass shooting in Pittsburgh in which 11 people were killed at the Tree of Life synagogue when a gunman stormed the building during services Shaar Hashalon had already faced its own incidents regarding hate. No place for hate here This summer hate literature was found on synagogue grounds, the second such incident of its kind. Hirsch said he and other leaders then knew they had to go public with an anti-hate message. Clear Lake is a very diverse area and always has been; so we went forward with a message that theres no place for hate here, he said. The two incidents also prompted the synagogue to beef up security, ensuring doors are always locked, encouraging heightened awareness of who is entering and leaving the building and hiring police officers during High Holiday services. But its not just the Clear Lake and nearby Jewish communities Hirsch and his congregants are concerned about. He said that members felt a responsibility to reach out to Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue. We took up a collection and sent the money and an expression of condolence and support to them, he said. The suspected gunman in the Tree of Life attack, Robert Bowers, told police after his arrest that he wanted to kill Jews. He also had expressed racial hate against the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society on social media. Bowers, 46, has pleaded not guilty to a 44-count grand jury indictment charging him with murder, hate crimes, obstructing the practice of religion and other crimes, for which he could face the death penalty. In the wake of the tragedy, Hirsch said people should stand against hate and racism. This is the time for good people to stand up and say Enough! he said. Its OK in our society for us to have civil differences, but when we get to the point where we teeter on the edge of allowing (racism and hate) to creep back in, then its time for people of good conscience to stand up, no matter your politics or your faith. Three Houston men were arrested after a police chase on Tuesday for allegedly burglarizing a phone store in Spring. The three men Calvin Green, 40; Shadrick Jones, 29; and Albert Clifton, 37 were booked into Montgomery County jail on charges of burglary and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, according to a news release from the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office. The incident began shortly before 4 a.m. on Oct. 30, when a man called 911 to report a possible burglary at a Boost Mobile store at 1511 Rayford Road in north Spring. The caller told police he was following a white Ford pickup truck that had just left the Boost Mobile store. Alarms were going off at the mobile store, and the truck was carrying a safe, the caller said. Authorities attempted to pull over the truck, but the driver refused to stop, according to the news release. Deputies pursued the truck to the Greenspoint area in north Houston, where one suspect bailed from the vehicle and was apprehended. The two remaining suspects were later arrested at an apartment complex on 1000 Greens Road, authorities stated. The news release does not clarify which suspect bailed from the vehicle and which two were arrested at the apartment complex. The Montgomery County Sheriffs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. All three suspects were still in custody as of Monday morning, Montgomery County jail records indicate. A human trafficking and prostitution sting in The Woodlands area last month netted 75 arrests and the recovery of five trafficked individuals, one of which was a juvenile. During a press conference Monday, the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office released the details of Operation Cross County where officials work with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to address the growing problem of human trafficking in Montgomery County. Several non-governmental organizations were also involved in the operation. Agencies working with sheriffs office were the Montgomery County District Attorneys Office, Houston Police Department, Conroe Police Department, Montgomery County Precinct 3 Constables Office, the Department of Public Safety, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Attorney Generals Office, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. State Department. According to sheriffs Lt. Tim Cannon, the sting ran from Oct. 15-30. Undercover agents, Cannon added, posed as sex workers and Johns, using the Internet to find individuals who were seeking sexual favors for money. It was created to actively oppress sexual exploitation and human trafficking in and around Montgomery County, Cannon said. We also focused on possible victims and underage person who might have been involved as well. These concerns have been brought to light through law enforcement investigations and citizens complaints. Many persons in this illicit industry are forced into trafficking themselves by other through force, fraud or coercion. Of the 75 arrests, Cannon said 32 were men, 11 of which were pimps. He added 28 were woman, with some of the women in possession of controlled substances and/or handguns. Sheriff Rand Henderson said he was so proud of the work that was done. He said when he took office in 2017, his department recognized different growing crime trends including human trafficking with a goal to address them aggressively. This was a great opportunity, Henderson said of working with other agencies. HARRIS COUNTY: HPD arrests 16 suspects for prostitution-related crimes Henderson said what has been traditionally known as prostitution has evolved into human trafficking with most of the sex workers being trafficked individuals. That, he said, has changed how investigators operate stings. One key aspect has been interviewing the sex workers after and arrest to determine who has forced them into prostitution. While we netted 75 arrests, I think identifying the true victims is what made this worthwhile, Henderson said. We are really proud of the work done and they deserve all the credit. We also want to send a message that we are not going to put up with kind of activity not just in Montgomery County, but this entire region. Special Agent Lt. Theo Williams with Federal Bureau of Investigation in Houston encouraged residents to be watchful of suspicious activity. Your tips, your information is something that helps us out greatly, he said. We cant do it without you. We need more public participation to help us fight human trafficking not only in Montgomery County and around the county. SUBSCRIBERS: The Track: Struggling to escape "the game" on Bissonnet. Houston Police Lt. Angela Merritt said it was important to bring justice to the victims rescues during the sting. It has been a pleasure and service to come together to defeat this problem, she said. This shows that human trafficking is not only prolific in the inner city but in surrounding counties as well. Special Crimes Bureau Chief Tyler Dunman with the Montgomery County DAs office said echoed Merritt that human trafficking is a serious issue in Montgomery County and praised Henderson for organizing the sting. I stand with the sheriff and I know District Attorney Brett Ligon does too, that when you are arrested in an operation like this you will face a stiff penalty in Montgomery County on behalf of the DAs office, he said. We are looking forward to presenting those cases to a Montgomery County jury and allowing punishment to take place at that time. cdominguez@hcnonline.com NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. Montgomery County residents continued to flood early polling locations Friday logging the high number of voters in the two-week period with 13,493 ballots cast in the Nov. 6 general election. In total, 138,126 voters took advantage of early voting which began Oct. 22 and ended Friday, with 13,414 of those being mail in ballots. The Woodlands two voting locations logged the most ballots cast with the South County Community Center with 38,654 ballots and the Mitchell Library with 16,838. In Conroe, 15,956 ballots were cast, East County saw 14,320 voters with Montgomery close behind with 14,037, Magnolia had 13,837 ballots cast with Willis seeing 10,312. While location party chairs Republican Dr. Wally Wilkerson and Democrat Marc Meyers said they werent sure what was driving the numbers other than residents are energized and motivated. However, a full slate of Democratic challengers could be a draw on both sides Wilkerson and Meyers said. POLITICAL ANALYST: Younger Harris County voters turn out to polls in force According to Meyers, for the first time in 25 years, the Democrats have candidates in Montgomery County. Wilkerson added that is a clear motivation for both parties to hit the polls. By comparison, the last midterm election voters cast 50,391 early ballots. With election day that year, 105,998 of the countys 281,544 registered voters cast ballots in that election. During the 2016 presidential election, 208,310 of the 313,858 registered voters at that time cast votes. Montgomery County now has more than 330,000 registered voters. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. cdominguez@hcnonline.com The Fort Bend Interfaith Community would like to invite people from throughout Fort Bend County to attend an all-faiths Thanksgiving service, United in Gratitude, to be held Monday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. at St. Angela Merici Catholic Church in Sienna. The event will feature readings, songs, poems and prayers from a range of faiths including Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu. "The Interfaith Thanksgiving service brings together people from diverse faith groups and backgrounds to celebrate our shared values of hope, love, and gratitude, said Rabbi Josh Lobel, one of the event organizers. United together as a community of faith, we bring the words and melodies of our individual traditions to create a meaningful and heartfelt expression of gratitude." Pastor David Sincere Jr. was recently honored by the Texas State Board of Education with the 2018 Heroes for Children Award in recognition for his service to the Fort Bend Independent School District. Pastor Sincere is a valued community partner who is helping to make a positive difference in the lives of so many FBISD students, Anthony Indelicato, FBISD assistant superintendent of school improvement said. His commitment and genuine concern for children is apparent in all he does, whether behind the scenes or on the front line, and we couldnt be more proud to partner with him. Sincere has served as a FBISD volunteer for over 20 years. During that time, he has mentored students, sponsored campus clubs, hosted community forums, served on the districts Board Leadership Academy and facilitated Trauma Informed Care training, district officials said. Most recently, Sincere helped found the Advocacy Now Institute, a non-profit ministry associated with Covenant Glenn United Methodist Church. Last year, Sincere and volunteers from the Advocacy Now Institute formed the Gents Club mentor groups for students at Brian Glen and Blue Ridge Elementary Schools. Our primary goal for next year is to expand our mentoring program to other FBISD schools, Sincere said. We also want to bring greater awareness to multiple causes including early childhood trauma, the school to prison pipeline, disproportionality issues and the achievement gap within the district and also through speaking at churches and other venues. Sincere Jr. said he feels a personal connection to students who experience early childhood trauma as a result of challenges he faced as a young student raised by a single mom facing financial difficulties. There was a church that reached out to our family and offered help. Sincere said. They would bring us groceries sometimes and on my birthday they brought presents and a cake to our house. We werent members of their church and they didnt have any connection to our family. They were simply offering support to our family. Sincere said the simple acts of kindness inspired him to form the Gents Club and work to mentor young students who need support and guidance. Sincere was one of 15 volunteers honored by the State Board of Education at a board meeting held Sept. 14 in Austin. We couldnt have better examples of people who stay actively involved with their schools, often long after their own children and grandchildren have graduated, SBOE chairman Donna Bahorich said. We are in awe of their commitment and are so grateful for the assistance the Heroes for Children award recipients are providing. Sincere lives in the Sienna Plantation area of Missouri City with his wife Candice and their three children. Sincere attended Willowridge High School and earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Religion/Religious Studies with minor in Business from Liberty University. He is president of his own media company, Sincere Media Productions, and also serves as Associate Pastor at Covenant Glenn United Methodist Church. knix@hcnonline.com By Olivia Rose A US Coast Guard crew intercepted a shabby sloop carrying some 84 people on Sunday (October 28). The illegal migrants were crowded onto the 42-foot boat which was discovered 30 miles southwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands. According to a report on the US Coast Guards website, Commander Randall Chong in a statement said the boat was "dead in the water and passengers lacked life jackets and other safety gear. He said the migrants were given food, water and medical care aboard the US Coast Guard vessel before they were repatriated on Tuesday (October 30) to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Coast Guard revealed that some 2,488 Haitian migrants had attempted to reach US shores by sea in the fiscal year that ended on September 30. Since October 1, the US Coast Guard said it has intercepted 132 Haitians in the Florida Straits, the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Over the past three decades, the world has seen a steady decline in the number of women dying from childbirth. There has been a notable outlier: the United States. Here the maternal mortality rate has been climbing, putting the United States in the unenviable company of Afghanistan, Lesotho and Swaziland as countries with rising rates. But that trend has been reversed in dramatic fashion in one state: California. The state Department of Public Health calculates that between 2006 and 2013, California lowered its maternal mortality rate by 55 percent from 16.9 to 7.3 deaths for every 100,000 live births, which translates to saving about one life in every 10,000 live births. The California rate is in line with those in Western Europe. During that same period, according to federal data, the U.S. rate rose from 13.3 to 22. The United Health Foundation, which ranks states according to various health indexes, using primarily a five-year average of federal data from 2011 to 2015, put the U.S. maternal mortality rate at 20.7 per 100,000 live births and California's at 4.5. Experts in maternal health blame the high U.S. rate on poverty, untreated chronic conditions and a lack of access to health care, especially in rural areas where hospitals and maternity units have closed in the past few years. But California has made a difference in part by focusing narrowly on problems that arise during labor and delivery, using data collection to quickly identify deficiencies (such as failing to have the right supplies on hand or performing unnecessary Caesarean sections), and training nurses and doctors to overcome them. Those involved in California's efforts acknowledge they cannot definitively say how much the state's falling maternal mortality rate is the result of its endeavors. The state has long provided maternity care for poor women and also embraced the Affordable Care Act, which provided health insurance to more women. But other blue states that eagerly implemented ACA provisions did not experience reversals as dramatic as in the Golden State. The rest of the country has been paying attention. "There's no excuse now," said Stephanie Teleki, who leads maternity care initiatives at the California Health Care Foundation, a philanthropic group that has funded some of the California efforts. "There are free [instruction manuals] to help hospitals address the major drivers of maternal mortality and morbidity. And we have a data center in California that can be replicated in other states that is low-burden and low-cost to hospitals. "This isn't some weird California thing that can't be replicated," Teleki said. "This is doable in other states. It's a matter of having the will and the funding to get it off the ground." The cost to the state Department of Public Health is about $950,000 a year, with additional resources from grants and foundations. The California effort began about 2006, when officials at the state Department of Public Health first noticed the rising rates of maternal deaths. "It was disturbing, and frankly we didn't know why," said Connie Mitchell, deputy director of the department's Center for Family Health. The department created a pregnancy-related mortality review board to dig into causes of every death. (As of last year, 29 other states had created similar boards, according to the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health Program, a national coalition with expertise in maternal health.) With Stanford University, the agency also created the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, which brought together clinicians, hospitals and other maternity experts to sift through the data to identify solutions. In turn, the state and the collaborative created exhaustive "how to" manuals for hospitals and clinicians, detailing the best practices to address specific circumstances, such as obstetric hemorrhages and preeclampsia, a pregnancy-related complication characterized by high blood pressure and signs of damage to an organ, usually the liver or kidneys. They also sent experts to train doctors and nurses on the techniques. The first manual, distributed in 2010, addressed hemorrhages. "Early on, we discovered that labor and delivery was often not ready to spring into action when a hemorrhage happened," Mitchell said. "They hadn't drilled for it in the delivery room, or they kept blood supplies in another part of the hospital and a nurse had to run around for 15 minutes to get it." The hemorrhage tool kit, for example, details what to do when a woman experiences excessive bleeding in the delivery room, who should perform which procedures and what supplies should be on hand. It recommends stocking a hemorrhage-specific tray of medicines in the labor and delivery refrigerator. It also advises that hospitals put together a "hemorrhage cart" on wheels, holding all needed items such as uterine forceps, sutures and a bright task light. Since then, the collaborative has created guides on cardiovascular disease and venous thrombosis, a blood clot in a vein that is a common cause of pregnancy-related deaths. The collaborative also has distributed instructions for reducing the rate of C-section deliveries, which are riskier for women than vaginal births. All are freely available to hospitals and practitioners outside California. Kathleen Belzer, president of the California Nurse-Midwives Association, said the instruction manuals are ubiquitous in hospital maternity units and birthing centers. "I think every [obstetrical care] provider in California and most hospital systems absolutely use" the instruction manuals, she said. "They are very well embraced." The heart of the system, however, is a fast-moving, comprehensive system called the Maternal Data Center, which ; it collects data from birth records, hospital discharge records and other medical information supplied by the state's hospitals. Researchers analyze data at a statewide, regional and even hospital level to determine whether providers are following the best practices. The system allows hospitals to check their performance against peers and can pinpoint problems with individual practitioners. Is a doctor's C-section rate high? Is it because that doctor has a high rate of labor inductions? Hospitals send the data to the Maternal Data Center every 45 days, which, in the world of hospital data collection, is unusually fast and allows for quick interventions when a problem is identified. At least 40 states have also established central bodies similar to California's collaborative, to provide expert support and training to hospitals and practitioners. But no other state has developed as thorough a system for improvements as California's. California's plan brings together all the players in maternal health: clinicians, hospitals, state agencies including Medi-Cal, the administrator of Medicaid in California, professional medical associations, commercial insurance carriers, and philanthropic organizations. According to the collaborative, 212 of the state's 240 hospitals, representing more than 95 percent of births, submit data to the Maternal Data Center. Several Medicaid-managed care plans in the state require hospitals to participate, said Cathie Markow, administrative director of the collaborative. Inspired by California's efforts, in 2014, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Nurse-Midwives and the American Hospital Association created the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health to provide support and guidance to states. Nineteen states - including Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas - are now working with the coalition, known as AIM. "We all look to California because they have reversed the trend and decreased their maternal mortality rate significantly," said Lisa Hollier, a Houston ob-gyn and president of the ACOG. AIM promotes many of the methods pioneered in California, including the creation of collaboratives on maternity care, use of instruction manuals, and rapid data collection and analysis. But even cheerleaders for the California effort agree the success has limits. While the maternal mortality rate has declined overall in California across all demographic groups, African-American woman still are three to four times more likely to die of complications from pregnancy than are white women. In 2006, black women were more than five times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications. The collaborative now is gathering data to focus on closing that racial disparity. - - Ollove is a reporter for Stateline, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp's dual roles as both referee and Republican competitor in the state's gubernatorial election collided Sunday, when the government office he controls announced a "hacking" investigation into the Georgia Democratic Party and his campaign for governor subsequently condemned the "criminal behavior" he allegedly discovered. But neither Kemp's campaign nor his secretary of state's office provided evidence that Democrats had tried to hack into Georgia's voter registration system. And within hours of the investigation's announcement, two voting rights attorneys disputed its premise - suggesting that Kemp launched the probe as a distraction, hours after they told authorities about potential security flaws in the electronic voter systems he is responsible for maintaining. "We alerted the authorities. We expected Mr. Kemp to take action. We were surprised to see the apparent response to that was accusing [the Democrats] of hacking," said David Cross, a Washington, D.C., attorney who is helping sue Georgia to make it use paper ballots, said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. By late Sunday, Kemp's opponent, Stacey Abrams, was trying to reframe the investigation as yet another example of how - she says - the Republican has abused his government power as he seeks a higher office. "Within the past hour it was revealed that Brian Kemp's office, along with the FBI, was notified by a third party yesterday morning regarding a major security vulnerability of Georgia's elections database," Abrams' campaign wrote in a statement. "Kemp's false accusations against the Democratic Party of Georgia were nothing more than a pathetic attempt to cover up for his failures." The office of the secretary of state, which Democrats have accused throughout Kemp's campaign of manipulating the electoral system for his benefit, announced the investigation Sunday morning with an all-caps headline that appeared directly below a voter's guide on a government website: "AFTER FAILED HACKING ATTEMPT, SOS LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO GEORGIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY." The attached statement contained no evidence and almost no details on the Democratic Party of Georgia's "possible cyber crimes," but it said Kemp's office had launched the investigation Saturday evening and alerted the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. By early Sunday afternoon, however, Cross and at least one other voting rights attorney had called foul on Kemp. Cross forwarded an email between himself and an FBI agent from Saturday, sent before Kemp's office launched its probe. In it, the Washington lawyer tells the agent that a secretary of state website set up for voters to check their registration status and find polling locations may be leaking confidential voter information. "Thanks!" the agent replies. "We'll pass the information along to the Secretary of State's Office for them to evaluate." Bruce Brown, a lawyer with the Coalition for Good Governance, told the Who What Why blog that he had alerted Kemp's attorneys to similar issues on Saturday. The outlet reported that the Democratic Party of Georgia had also been in contact with election security experts to express concern about the state's electronic voter systems. After those reports were publicized Sunday, Kemp's state office partially confirmed them in an update to its original statement on the failed "hack." "We opened an investigation into the Democratic Party of Georgia after receiving information from our legal team about failed efforts to breach the online voter registration system and My Voter Page," reads the news statement. "We are working with our private sector vendors and investigators to review data logs. We have contacted our federal partners and formally requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate these possible cyber crimes. The Secretary of State's office will release more information as it becomes available." This isn't the first time Kemp's office has claimed its voting systems were hacked based on thin evidence. After the presidential election in 2016, the Hill reported, he accused President Barack Obama's Department of Homeland Security of launching at least 10 failed cyberattacks on Georgia. An investigation during President Donald Trump's administration concluded that the supposed attacks were actually "normal and automatic computer message exchanges generated by the Microsoft applications involved." This weekend's investigation into Kemp's rival party was immediately condemned as a political ploy by Democrats and some commentators, who believe he should not oversee an election in which he is competing. "Brian Kemp's scurrilous claims are 100 percent false, and this so-called investigation was unknown to the Democratic Party of Georgia until a campaign operative in Kemp's official office released a statement this morning," Rebecca DeHart, executive director of the state Democratic Party, wrote in a statement to reporters. "This is yet another example of abuse of power by an unethical Secretary of State." Abrams, who is polling almost neck-and-neck with Kemp, told CNN on Sunday that she had been unaware of her opponent's investigation into her party. "He is desperate to turn the conversation away from his failures, from his refusal to honor his commitments, and from the fact that he's part of a nationwide system of voter suppression," she said. In a statement late Sunday, Kemp's spokesman issued the following statement: "In an act of desperation, the Democrats tried to expose vulnerabilities in Georgia's voter registration system. This was a 4th quarter Hail Mary pass that was intercepted in the end zone. Thanks to the systems and protocols established by Secretary of State Brian Kemp, no personal information was breached. These power-hungry radicals should be held accountable for their criminal behavior." Voting rights has become a major issue in the campaign, which has drawn national attention because Abrams, 44, if elected, would become the nation's first black female governor. Abrams, who four years ago started a nonprofit group whose goal was to sign up hundreds of thousands of unregistered people of color, has clashed repeatedly with Kemp, whom she calls "the architect of voter suppression." Kemp investigated the group, with which Abrams is no longer affiliated, on suspicion of fraud but found no wrongdoing. Kemp, 55, who has argued that the policies are aimed at preventing voter fraud, also has been criticized for having purged more than a million voters from the rolls during the past year. He has rejected calls, including one from former president Jimmy Carter, that he should step down as the state's top elections official while he is running for governor. Although lawmakers and elections officials in Republican-controlled states have cited concerns about cheating to enact strict voter registration and identification laws, there is no evidence of widespread fraud in the United States. Kemp's office came under intense scrutiny last month when the Associated Press reported that more than 53,000 voter registration applications - 70 percent of them from African Americans - had been held up because the identification information was not an "exact match" to other state records on account of discrepancies such as a dropped hyphen in a person's name. On Friday, a federal judge ordered the state to immediately stop using the rule, saying it would probably lead to violations of the voting rights of a large number of people. Less than two weeks ago, in a separate case, a federal judge ordered elections officials to stop automatically rejecting absentee ballots after advocates filed suit against Gwinnett County, which threw out hundreds of ballots because of discrepancies in signatures or missing addresses. President Trump hosted a campaign rally for Kemp in Macon, Georgia, on Sunday. By Olivia Rose THE HIGHLY anticipated National Security Strategy must include activity by all relevant departments and stakeholders, not just the police, before it is given the green light. Commissioner of Police James Smith presented a draft outline of a proposed National Security Strategy at the recently held National Security Council (NSC) meeting on October 18. The draft plan highlighted areas which the strategy might focus on, coupled with agreed objectives, outputs and timelines. However, Smith was advised by the council to head back to the drawing board and consult with other agencies and departments in a bid to garner more views that would ultimately be integrated into a revised version of the strategy. A new multi-agency body dubbed the Joint Law Enforcement Team (JLET) will be responsible for executing the plan and reporting to the council. Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson underlined that the National Security Strategy had to encompass a multi-agency approach with all departments and elements of society being involved as well as cooperation with international partners. Since coming to office, the Peoples Democratic Movement administration has maintained that the National Security Strategy must be debated, developed and agreed as a platform that would transform the territory. Governor John Freeman, who spoke extensively on the Governments plans for the National Security Strategy during his throne speech last year, said safe communities, streets and borders are essential to the sustainable development of the nation. "My Government remains steadfast in upholding the rule of law and is committed to the fight against crime, he said. "My Government will ensure that the fight against crime is given national priority. "My Government recognises the need for manpower, equipment and training for our police force and equally recognises the need for the best possible working relationship between the police and its greatest partners in crime fighting, the people of these Islands. "We believe that its 12 point plan sets the basis for a comprehensive National Security Strategy and will commit to resourcing and agitating for a comprehensive National Security Plan. "My Government is committed to providing the resources necessary to create a safe and secure Turks and Caicos society where citizens, residents and visitors alike are able to carry out the normal routines of caring for their families, conducting successful businesses and enjoying the simple pleasures of what the Turks and Caicos Islands has to offer. Governor Freeman said it is the Governments firm belief that when the territorys borders are strengthened, the Islands reputation as a safe haven for those who seek to abuse the system and those who do not bring benefits to the country, will change for the better. The National Security Strategy was expected to be completed in 2017 and implemented in 2018. Kevyn Perkins stopped cold when he saw the letters scrawled on the door to his dorm: "N- go back" it said, inked in messy red marker. First he was blinded by confusion. Then rage. And then all he could think about was dropping out, finding a new school, escaping for good. "I thought maybe I don't belong here. So I called my brother and I said, 'pick me up,' " said Perkins, 19, a freshman at the University of St. Thomas, a private and mostly white school in St. Paul, Minn. "He said that's what they want you to do you have to stay there and stay strong." Often overlooked amid the recent intense surge of hatred 11 dead in a Pittsburgh synagogue, two African-Americans gunned down in a Kentucky grocery store, 13 mail bombs sent to prominent Democrats are nearly daily flashes of hate that are no less capable of leaving their victims with deep and permanent emotional wounds. In October alone, there were dozens of examples of the kind of hatred that smolders without ever reaching national attention. It stretched from coast to coast, targeting victims because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender and myriad other differences. An Indiana woman was arrested last week after leaving a racist letter directed at African-American neighbors, urging them to leave the neighborhood because black people weren't welcome. As early voting started in North Carolina, a black Republican volunteer was accosted with slurs and had a gun pulled on him at a polling place, leading to one man's arrest. An Uber passenger in Colorado was arrested after threatening his Middle Eastern driver and chasing him down the street because police said he "hated all brown people." Violent clashes broke out in New York City after a speech by the founder of a far-right group, leading to three arrests. In a Texas courtroom, a man was sentenced to 24 years in prison on Oct. 17 for torching a mosque near the U.S.-Mexico border last year because of what authorities said was a "rabid hatred" of Muslims. In sending the arsonist to prison, Judge John Rainey declared: "This must stop. It is like a cancer to our society," adding that incidents like this create "fear all over the world." Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said xenophobic rhetoric is feeding the anxiety of the current political moment, and that anxiety is prompting fear and promoting resentment and "all the worst impulses." "We're living in a moment where hate crimes are on the rise," said Greenblatt. "We need more than ever for our leaders to ratchet back the rhetoric. People feel like they're on edge across the country." President Donald Trump's critics have accused him of fanning the flames with his divisive political rhetoric something the president pushed back against Friday. He put the blame back on reporters for "creating violence" with what he has called "fake news" stories. Several cases happened on college campuses, which strive to reflect the nation's diversity but sometimes attract its intolerance. At more than 40 colleges, racist flyers or stickers were found posted on campus in October, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which has reported a surge in activity by white supremacist groups since Trump took office. At the College of the Holy Cross in central Massachusetts, a student was beaten in an assault that officials say was motivated by the victim's sexual orientation. Students at DePauw University in Indiana reported four separate cases of hate speech in October. In three, racial and homophobic slurs and threats were yelled from cars passing by campus. In another case, a threat with the N-word was found in an elevator on campus. Anti-Semitic posters appeared at the University of California, Davis, blaming Jews for allegations of sexual assault that were made against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Several Jewish groups on campus wrote a letter demanding a stronger response from the school's administration. "Anti-Semitism is very real and alive on our campus," the letter said. "Jewish students should not have to be scared of walking on campus. Students are choosing not to openly identify as Jews through our clothing." For Perkins, the red lettering marred the image of the friendly, welcoming campus that was sold to him by college officials. The incident led to a student protest that prompted the school to cancel class for a town hall-type meeting discussing racial tensions on campus. Since he found the note Oct. 19, Perkins has become more withdrawn, he said, and less outgoing. And although he decided to stay at St. Thomas, he's left to wonder who on campus felt such hatred for him, and why. "I'm already the odd one out, and the words, the hatred behind it really made me mad," he said. "Degrading someone based on the color of their skin, I just couldn't understand why someone would do that." A RADIO show explaining the workings of the public service is set to come on air in January 2019, the premier has announced. In a statement on Thursday (November 1), Sharlene Cartwright Robinson said she hoped to get rid of the confusion that continues to exist over roles in the public service and how the Government works. "Many will recall that I have gone on record in the last year and half speaking to the need for a radio show that will educate the public on just this, she said. "I am pleased to announce that this educational show will be introduced in January 2019 and more details will be shared in the upcoming weeks. "It is my Governments hope with the aid of the public service to take the public through each ministry initially and to explain the workings. She said that much is happening within the elected and administrative arm of the Government and members lament the "sometimes poor public relations on our part. The premier revealed a communications director will soon join the Office of Premier and will assist in all public relations. They will by disseminate "much needed increased updates and will more effectively manage the happenings from the Premiers Office and ministers. "And finally, many will recall that following the storms of September 2017, I deemed it important to use all means to communicate with our people and on a daily basis as much was happening, she said. She initially issued Premiers Daily Briefings by Whatsapp, radio and Facebook, and then followed this by Premiers Weekly Briefings. "Much is ongoing as we seek to better the lives of our people and I am pleased to announce the return of the Premiers Weekly Briefings during the month of November which will be radio based and shared on all platforms, Cartwright Robinson said. Next Monday, in a special feature the premier will appear on Radio Turks and Caicos at 2pm to discuss the recently submitted constitutional proposals to the United Kingdom. Medical cannabis is a rapidly growing market in recent years, as patients increasingly turn to this alternative therapy for management of multiple underlying chronic medical conditions. In California, more than 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries, cooperatives and delivery services are in place. Though the government heavily regulates marijuana, we really don't know very much about the training of the budmasters behind the counter. That is, until now. Researchers queried 55 budmasters using an online survey. Now, recognizing the huge number of dispensaries across the country and the number of employees in each dispensary, it's obvious that 55 is representative of a small population of the dispensary staff. Related: Dear Cannabis Entrepreneurs: Enjoy Ruling Your Small Pond While You Can Nevertheless, it gives us a good start. Ninetyfour percent of staff responded they provided guidance or advice to patients. Between 74 percent and 88 percent reported providing advice on specific hybrids and cannabinoid ratios, in addition to side effects and treatment specific to the patients symptoms. All of them reported being either very satisfied or highly satisfied with their jobs, so it doesn't appear that there was a good reason for them to lie to skew the the survey. Their ages ranged from 22 to 63 years with a median age of 31.9. Most (86 percent) were Caucasian, with 55 percent female and 60 percent with a college education or higher. Nearly all -- 84 percent -- work full-time in the dispensary for an average wage of $15 per hour, though pay ranged from $8 to $25 per hour. Length of their employment ranged from one month to seven years with a median of one year. Related: Marketers Are Overcoming Unique Challenges to Build Campaigns for the Nascent Cannabis Industry A little over half of the budmasters reported receiving any formal training at the time of their initial employment. About a third received training in customer service while a fourth were trained in business and the business model but medical training was provided to only 20 percent and scientific training to just 10 percent. Dispensary staff reported making recommendations to their customers based on their particular condition or ailment, the experience of other patients, things they had read on websites, or their own experience. Unfortunately, 20 percent of the time recommendations were based on what product needed to be moved from inventory, while 47 percent of the time recommendations were made based on a new variety or breed that had recently been introduced. Unfortunately, dispensary staff recommendations for cannabinoid concentrations for particular patients symptoms were also frequently incongruent with existing empirical evidence. For example, workers who recommended CBD for appetite or high THC concentrations for depression could actually worsen a patient's underlying medical condition. Dispensary staff are more likely to be providing cannabis advice than even trained medical staff. Although each state has created its own legislation regarding the cultivation and distribution of cannabis component the individuals, there's currently little or no guidance or oversight of associated patient care. Related: 4 Effective Ways to Build a Standout Cannabis Brand The combination of a lack of training and client expectations for support at the counter make it imperative that clinically based provider education programs are completed before anybody is standing at the dispensary counter, either the budmaster or the patient. Good advice increases the likelihood of a good first exposure, and repeat business after that promising initial successful experience. Clinical training of staff is a key component of a successful business plan for your dispensary. Related: Survey Finds Dispensary Staff Are Well Trained for Sales but Not for Medical Advice How 7 Brothers Became Pioneers in Hemp-Based CBD 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 The speaker of parliament said he will nominate opposition leader Ulf Kristersson as the prime minister candidate next week to break the gridlock that has gripped Sweden since its inconclusive election two months ago. At a press conference at parliament on Monday, Speaker Andreas Norlen said it's important that the process is driven forward and that alternatives are tested in the legislature. A formal nomination will be made on Nov. 12 and a vote could happen two days after, the speaker said. Norlen has been leading group talks since last week to try to untie a political knot after neither of the two establishment blocs won a majority in September's election. The vote saw a surge in support for the nationalist Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots which now sits as a king-maker in the middle. Kristersson, who leads the conservative Moderate party, on Monday accepted the task and said he will aim to present a government based on the four-party Alliance's policies. The Christian Democrats have already declared that they want to be part of the government, while he has invited the Center party and Liberals, he said. "I'll go to a vote in parliament under all circumstances," Kristersson said at a press conference. "Talking can't get us any further in this process." Kristersson already failed in his first attempt to form a viable government, after which acting Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, a Social Democrat, was also unsuccessful. Kristersson faces deep divisions within his alliance, with the Center party and Liberals opposed to any negotiations with the Sweden Democrats. There's no set deadline for how long government talks can take. But four formal votes have to happen in parliament before a new election is called. Jimmie Akesson, the leader of the nationalist Sweden Democrats, has urged the speaker to speed up the process and bring alternatives to a vote in parliament. The analysis within his party is that it would ultimately gain from a new election, he said last week. Akesson told newspaper Aftonbladet on Monday that he's keeping the "door open." After Lofven and Kristersson's failures, it had been speculated on that the role of trying to forge a compromise would fall to Center Party leader Annie Loof. Norlen said that he had considered this, but that Kristersson as well as the Christian Democrats had opposed giving the job to Loof. In a post on Instagram, Loof said that it was regrettable she wasn't given the opportunity to see whether forming an Alliance government is possible. "I'm, of course, even in the future ready to play an active and constructive role in the work to ensure Sweden gets a new, strong government," she said. Liberals leader Jan Bjorklund said in an interview with TV4 that his party will vote against Kristersson next week since it wants to continue to try to seek cooperation between the two blocs, but that its stance may change at a later stage. Loof told the broadcaster that her party will decide how it will vote in the coming week after getting an explanation from Kristersson on how he will relate to the Sweden Democrats, whose support he will depend on to pass budgets. The road to recovery has been a long one for David Morales, who was injured during the al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole 18 years ago last month. And he knew it would be difficult to collect the nearly $315 million that he and others wounded in the attack were awarded in their suit against the Republic of Sudan. But he didn't expect the case to go all the way to the Supreme Court, and he certainly didn't think he would see the Trump administration aligned with Sudan on the other side of the legal battle. "I thought the United States would be on the side of its veterans," Morales said in a recent interview. "It was very surprising, especially with Mr. Trump in office. It seems like he is in support of veterans. It kind of hurts." Years of litigation and millions of dollars in awards are on the line this week as the Supreme Court addresses a seemingly mundane question: whether notices of the lawsuits against Sudan were sent to the wrong address eight years ago. The notices were addressed to the Sudanese Embassy in Washington at 2210 Massachusetts Ave. NW, where an employee signed for them. One federal appeals court has decreed that was adequate. But Sudan says that federal law, as well as the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, requires papers to be served on the foreign minister at his official address, which in this case is in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. A different federal appeals court has agreed with that interpretation. Into this legal and diplomatic quagmire has stepped, ever so gingerly, U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco. He, as well as Saudi Arabia and Libya, filed an amicus brief agreeing with Sudan, one of four nations the State Department lists as sponsoring terrorism. "The United States deeply sympathizes with the extraordinary injuries suffered by respondents, and it condemns in the strongest possible terms the terrorist acts that caused those injuries," Francisco wrote in his brief to the Supreme Court. But "litigation against foreign states in U.S. courts can have significant foreign affairs implications for the United States," he continued, "and can affect the reciprocal treatment of the United States in the courts of other nations." Washington lawyer Kannon Shanmugam represents those wounded in the attack in the lawsuit being considered by the Supreme Court, and, in a separate suit, the families of those killed. It has been put on hold pending the court's decision. "It is mind-boggling that the government has decided in this case to side with a state sponsor of terrorism and against men and women who are seeking to recover for grievous injuries suffered in the service of our country," Shanmugam wrote ina brief to the court. "In any event, this court should reject the government's sloppy analysis and its dubious bottom line." The lawsuits arise from the deadly incident on Oct. 12, 2000, when al-Qaida suicide bombers in a fiberglass boat detonated explosives near the naval destroyer USS Cole, which was refueling at a harbor in Yemen. The blast killed 17 American sailors - 15 men and two women - and wounded 42 others. Years later, the suits were filed against Sudan under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, alleging Sudan had supplied material support to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, who lived in the country for a time. In the case involving the wounded that the Supreme Court is hearing Wednesday, Republic of Sudan v. Harrison, the plaintiffs filed suit in federal court in the District, and asked the clerk to send the documents to Sudan's foreign minister at the embassy in Washington. Someone at the embassy accepted them. But Sudan never responded to the suit, nor did its representatives put on a defense. (Sudan's culpability is not an issue the Supreme Court is considering.) District Judge Royce Lamberth held an evidentiary hearing and entered a default judgment against Sudan in the amount of $314,705,896. The judgment was registered in New York in an attempt to access Sudanese assets held in three banks there. It was at that point Sudan filed notice in the case, telling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit that the judgment should be vacated because the service at the embassy did not comply with the law. At issue is the part of the immunities act that details what a party must do to file suit against a foreign government. Relevant here is that the notice "be addressed and dispatched by the clerk of the court to the head of the ministry of foreign affairs of the foreign state concerned." Lawyers representing Sudan say that is most naturally read to mean the package be sent to the foreign minister in that country, not to its diplomatic mission in Washington. In addition, serving process at an embassy violated an article of the Vienna Convention that says "the premises of the mission shall be inviolable." Those"inviolability" provisions "constitute bedrock principles of international diplomacy, are enshrined in international law and practice, and are widely accepted in the United States and beyond as prohibiting service by mail on or through a diplomatic mission," Washington lawyer Christopher Curran, one of Sudan's lawyers, told the Supreme Court in a brief. Sudan is supported by a group of international law professors and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is implicated in the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi at its consulate in Turkey. "As much as any foreign state, the Kingdom has a strong interest in preserving the inviolability of foreign missions, including the longstanding prohibition against serving legal process at mission premises," it tells the court. More important is Sudan's support from the United States. It does not accept notice at its embassies around the world, and ruling against Sudan would endanger the government's "continued ability to successfully assert that it has not been properly served in these instances," Francisco wrote in the government's brief. The 2nd Circuit, hearing the case of those wounded in the attack, ruled for the plaintiffs, reasoning that the notice was not served on the mission in Washington, but to the foreign minister via the personnel there. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in the case involving the survivors of the dead, disagreed, and said the judgments should be vacated. That is hard to explain to Lorrie Triplett, whose last glimpse of husband Andrew was in her rear-view mirror, as the sailor rode a bike she had bought him back to the Cole when it was still docked in Virginia. The money she would receive would go to care for her two daughters, whose memories of their father are faint, she said. "To say that we don't deserve something that should have been, it's beyond me," she said. By Olivia THE TURKS and Caicos Islands and 11 other overseas countries and territories (OCTs) will benefit from 40 million earmarked for sustainable energy and marine biodiversity projects. The news came when leaders of several OCTs met at a resilience summit held in St Maarten on October 25. The high-level summit marked the beginning of a Caribbean regional programme which deals with three areas - resilience, marine biodiversity and sustainable energy. During the event, the participating countries officially signed the EU programme, which made the cash available from the European Development Fund (EDF). The funds will now be accessible for individual governments to use over the next five years to invest in sustainable energy and for the protection of marine life. The programme, which relates to the development agenda of the European Union, concentrates on empowerment of communities. It will benefit the Turks and Caicos Islands, Anguilla, Aruba, Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Montserrat, Saint Barthelemy, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten. Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson joined her overseas counterparts at the meeting and discussed the way forward under the theme, Unite, prepare, adapt. After catastrophic climate events last year in the Caribbean, the need for more innovative leadership was stressed at the conference. Premier Robinson shared the TCIs initiatives thus far in its creation of a climate change policy, training for policy makers in embedding disaster risk reduction and climate change action and the move towards protecting the environment including the ban on single use plastic bags and the move towards further bans on plastic and Styrofoam. She noted that the region must lead in being climate smart through the education of its people and in taking forward initiatives that will preserve the environment. The premier underscored that although many countries desire to rebuild more resiliently and climate smart, it is costly. "Building back better costs money, we must address this, she said. "We must seek to diversify our small economies as far as we are able and we must be responsive to the regional crisis last year and proactive for the years to come. POLICE in Grand Turk are investigating three structural fires over the past week. In the first incident at 7.40pm on October 26, reports indicate that there was a fire on Hospital Road. Police and fire officials responded to the scene where they met a two board and concrete structure engulfed in flames. No one was injured in the flames and the fire was extinguished. Later that night, at 9.40pm, police and fire officials again responded to a fire in North Back Salina. According to police information, the wooden structure that was engulfed in flames was abandoned. The fire was extinguished. In the third incident, at 1.55am on October 27, emergency personnel rushed to the scene of another fire on Osbourne Road. Officials met part of an abandoned wooden structure on fire. Fire officials extinguished the flames. Anyone who may have information on the said incidents, is advised to contact the Chalk Sound Police Station at 338-5901 or 941-8082 or anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477. This Page has moved to a new address: Sorry for the inconvenience Redirection provided by Blogger to WordPress Migration Service Terry Bryan Thompson, a railroad worker and the husband of a fired sheriffs deputy, was convicted of murder Monday for placing a young Houston father in a lethal choke hold outside a family restaurant last year. The jury found Thompson guilty of murder in the choking death of 24-year-old John Hernandez, a glass installer who was with his family at the Crosby-area restaurant last year when a fight broke out on Memorial Day weekend. When the guilty verdict was read aloud in the courtroom, Thompson, 42, exhaled deeply and fell into his seat while one of his family members covered her mouth as if to stifle an exclamation. Hernandezs widow, parents and other supporters packing the courtroom quietly wiped away tears as they watched Thompson being handcuffed and led away to the Harris County Jail. He faces a sentence ranging from five years in prison to life when the punishment phase of the trial begins Tuesday. We just needed that closure, to see that that they were actually going to handcuff him and take him away like any other person, said family member Diana Escalante. Not someone who is married to someone who is part of the justice system. Escalante was referring to Thompsons wife, an off-duty Harris County Sheriffs deputy who helped hold Hernandez down on the pavement. She was fired by Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, and her trial is pending. It is the second time the high-profile murder case against Thompson has gone to trial. In June, a first trial ended in a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. In that trial, Thompson missed being acquitted by one vote, that of a juror who did not believe it was a case of self-defense. The first trial was discouraging, members of Hernandezs family said. But on Monday they said the guilty verdict was the outcome they wanted as they waited for the jury to consider the case during 12 hours of deliberations. Were satisfied because justice was served, and he cannot be free after what he did, Hernandezs father, Ignacio Hernandez, said outside the courtroom. None of Thompsons supporters spoke after the verdict, nor did his attorney, Scot Courtney. Courtney has maintained that Thompson was acting in self-defense after being punched in the eye by Hernandez, who testimony showed was intoxicated. The confrontation was initiated by Thompson who was angry that Hernandez was urinating in the parking lot of the a Dennys restaurant after 11 p.m. on May 28, 2017. During an altercation, Thompson was hit in the face by Hernandez and received a black eye. He was able to quickly get on top of Hernandez and put him in a chokehold. Defense attorneys said Thompson maintained the hold on Hernandez because the younger man never quit struggling. Medical experts testified Hernandez eventually lost consciousness because of a lack of air and blood flow, and did not regain consciousness and died days later in the hospital. Prosecutors said Hernandez can be seen on Dennys surveillance video tapping out, meaning he was done fighting. Tom Berg, First Assistant at the Harris County District Attorneys office, credited a new trial team of John Jordan and Sarah Mickelson Seeley with obtaining the conviction. I selected them because I thought they were the best we had, and they more than met our expectations, Berg said. Berg said prosecutors in the second trial had more time to prepare and there was a range of witnesses availability . Berg, noting that the DAs office was criticized when Thompson and his wife were indicted, said Mondays verdict was vindication of that decision. We are content that this very diverse jury saw the evidence we saw and, based on that evidence, found Terry Bryan Thompson guilty of murder, he said. The jury, which is made up of nine women, two of whom are black, and three men will reconvene Tuesday where prosecutors are expected to ask them to sentence Thompson to decades in prison. We will be asking for a lot of time because he took another mans life and we think is was unjustified, Berg said. But it will be the jury that tells us the view of the community on what is a just sentence in this case. The case gained international attention when protests erupted after a 53-second cell phone video of the 13 minute-long altercation showed Hernandez face down on the concrete with Thompson on his back, his arm wrapped around the younger mans neck. Thompsons wife, former Harris County Sheriffs deputy Chauna Thompson, can be seen on the video holding Hernandez down yelling at him to stay down. She arrived after her husband and was in civilian clothes. She was fired days after the video surfaced, and is awaiting trial on murder charges. The trial, in state District Judge Kelli Johnsons court, is in its third week. A crash on the eastbound South Loop at Fannin turned deadly Monday morning. The two-car wreck was reported around 6 a.m., according to Houston Transtar. At one point, the wreck shut down all mainlanes of the freeway. They have since reopened. However, two frontage road lanes are closed at Almeda. If all goes well for New York Democrats on Nov. 6, they will gain control of the state Senate for the first time since their brief control of the chamber in 2009-2010. Such a victory would unify state government under one party for the first time since the Republicans held both chambers of the Legislature and the Governors Mansion during the early 1970s. Democrats would then be poised to take advantage of their power to pass legislation that has long been held at bay by the GOPs state Senate majority. This is especially so since the Independent Democratic Conference disbanded and most of its former members lost in the primaries. That would also leave the importance of Sen. Simcha Felder, a conservative Democrat who caucuses with Republicans, greatly diminished. Of course, not all progressive priorities are equally easy to get through a state Senate that might hold only a narrow Democratic advantage and one dependent on newcomers from moderate suburban and upstate districts. Its easy to imagine Roe v. Wade being codified into state law through the Reproductive Health Care Act early next year, but legalizing marijuana, creating a single payer health care system, or passing a full congestion pricing plan for New York City are likely to be very contentious. Here are the 10 most significant proposals that could become law if the Democrats control the Senate, Assembly and Governors Mansion in 2019. The Reproductive Health Act Christopher Penler/Shutterstock Whatever his faults, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is known for a relentless approach to governance and that means he will push hard for the Legislature to pass the Womens Reproductive Health Act. The bill would update state law on abortion rights, which predates Roe v Wade, to bring them in line with current federal laws. With Brett Kavanaugh now on the Supreme Court, the Court might overturn the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in the near future. In that case, the state Legislature act in order to ensure that those abortion protections would still be covered by state law. Cuomo has already made a promise on the campaign trail to get the bill passed within 30 days of the opening of the upcoming legislative session and the only barrier to accomplishing that goal appears to be Republican control of the state Senate. The Assembly passed the bill in March, but it never left committee in the Senate. State Sen. Michael Gianaris a Queens Democrat who is expected to be the deputy majority leader if Democrats take the Senate has said that quick progress can be expected on the issue in the upcoming legislative session. The DREAM Act Christopher Penler/Shutterstock The Democrat-controlled Assembly passed the DREAM Act in February and it could be among the partys top legislative priorities if they take the Senate. The legislation in contrast to a federal bill that provides a route to citizenship for DREAMers would allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at New York public universities, as well as make them eligible for state financial aid programs. (Citizenship and immigration law is under federal jurisdiction.) Republicans in the Senate however have long opposed the bill. Though it has passed the Assembly multiple times since it was first introduced in 2013, it has only came up for a vote once in the Senate in 2014, when it came within two votes of passing. While the bill didnt make it out of committee this past legislative session, it could move to the top of Democrats agenda if they, along with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, see it as a way to push back against President Donald Trumps anti-immigration policies. However, its unclear whether Democrats will make it a high priority. The DREAM Act is often perceived as being something that Democrats want to pass, but not something that Democrats want to spend a lot of political capital on, Felipe De La Hoz, a reporter for the immigration news site Documented, said on The Brian Lehrer Show last month. It could go to the end of the legislative line again. Speed camera expansion Photo/Shutterstock Right now, the only thing keeping more than 100 speed cameras on outside of New York City schools is an emergency executive order signed by Cuomo in August. That move came after the state Senate adjourned without passing either a bill passed by the Assembly that would have increased the number of cameras, nor a Republican bill that would have extended the program. Democrats can cut Republicans out of the decision-making process if they control the Senate and perhaps expand the program, as the New York City Council would like . But, rather than expend political energy on the issue at the expense of other issues, they could theoretically just let the status quo continue with the state of emergency,. Marijuana legalization a katz/Shutterstock More and more states have legalized recreational marijuana in recent years, increasing pressure on New York to follow suit. Several developments in the past year suggest that Democratic lawmakers and Cuomo are coming around to the idea in a manner faster than the 2014 process to legalize medicinal marijuana for patients suffering from serious illnesses. A series of 15 listening sessions concluded last month and there is already a working group tasked by the governor with drafting legalization for recreational marijuana. If Democrats take control of the Senate, then there would likely be an opportunity to vote on whatever bill comes out of that effort. New York risks missing out on a growing industry if it fails to act as neighboring states have on the issue, according to legalization proponents. "You have it in Massachusetts. You'll probably have it in (New) Jersey. If you have it on both borders, I think the discussion starts to flip,'' Cuomo said this week in an interview with The Post-Standard in Syracuse. Otherwise, Cuomo noted, "people will be driving to Jersey and driving to Massachusetts, to buy pot anyway. Teacher evaluations Atomazul/Shutterstock One person effectively tanked a bill last year that would have decoupled student test scores from public school teacher evaluations Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan. The Republican leader had made an increase in the regional charter school cap, diminished oversight of yeshivas and more funding for charter schools a condition of passing legislation. While there had been bipartisan support for changing how teacher performance is judged, those conditionswere too much for Assembly Democrats who pronounced the Senate bill dead on arrival. A bill that lacked the controversial provisions passed the Assembly and had the support of Cuomo meanwhile did not come up for a vote. The New York State United Teachers union pushed hard against legislators Democrats and Republicans who voted against the bipartisan bill, but there is no guarantee that the union would make changing teacher evaluations a top priority when the new legislative session begins. Union leader Andrew Pallotta has said that school funding will take precedence early next year and there is also a chance that the union would push for a new bill rather than the previous bipartisan one if the union feels it could get a better deal from a Democratic majority. Pallotta would not say in an interview with City & State in the late summer whether he would back the same bill again. But even if a Democratic legislature doesnt address the issue right away, there is still a good chance that they will come back to the issue later in the year, especially since there seems to be a bipartisan consensus to get something done on the issue. Rent regulation Read regulation could be a particularly divisive issue for Senate Democrats. The current rent laws, which cover about 1 million rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments in New York City, expire in mid-June. Its very likely they will be extended even if Democrats dont take the Senate because Republicans have passed extensions of their own before. What could make things different this year is how new faces will affect Senate Democrats approach to the issue. Incoming senators like Alessandra Biaggi and Julia Salazar campaigned heavily on strengthening rent protections for tenants. Whether Democrats will push for something closer to universal rent control, simply pass an extension of the current laws, or enact more targeted pro-tenant reforms like ending vacancy decontrol, will show how much power the left wing of the party has in the new legislative session. The real estate industry is worried that their worst nightmarecould come true, but if Democrats only win a slim majority in the chamber, then moderate Republicans might have leverage on the issue, especially if Salazar, Biaggi and others insist on dramatic changes to the current laws. All signs point to rent control being extended, but what form that effort takes depends on whether Democrats can come to an agreement among each other. Criminal justice reform Dev Chatterjee/Shutterstock A Democratic Senate majority would open the way to a litany of criminal justice reforms. State Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins outlined her partys goals last year. She would presumably push for them in the upcoming session if she becomes Senate majority leader in January. The first part of the three-bill approach is to end cash bail, as has already happened in California. Then there is a bill that would speed up the timeframe for criminal cases to go to trial. A third piece of legislation would strengthen discovery laws to enable defendants to see all of the evidence against them before they make plea deals with prosecutors, who currently do not have to disclose trial witness names, statements, grady jury testimony and other evidence. Cuomo has already signalled in his last State of the State address that he would back such changes to state law. Voter reforms Photo/Shutterstock Another front where a Democratic Legislature could keep Cuomo honest is reforming New Yorks notoriously restrictive voting laws an effort that Cuomo has at least played lip service to in recent years. Changes in the upcoming year that a Democratic Legislature might consider would include the creation of early voting, automatic voter registration and an expansion of absentee voting. With the demographics of the state at-large favoring Democrats, there is a strong incentive for the party to push for such changes though easing voting restrictions might not boost support for Democrats as much as both parties assume. Single-payer health care [[{"fid":"6426","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"9":{"format":"default"}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"9"}}]] The issue that would likely be the most divisive inside the Democratic conference would be whether or not to pass the New York Health Act, an effort to create a universal, single-payer healthcare system statewide. The Assembly passedthe bill over the summer, but it was a non-starter in the Senate. But that was before a long-awaited study from the RAND Corporation found that single-power health care could work in New York assuming that the right conditions align. Support for such a plan appears to be increasing among Democrats, especially since former members of the IDC lost primaries to more liberal Democrats who have expressed support for single payer health care. However, Cuomo has yet to get behind the New York Health Act, even though he has signalled support for such a plan at the national level. Like with universal rent control, a slim Democratic majority in the state Senate might not be enough this year to pass AlbanyCare , but that doesnt mean progressives wont try to win the rest of the party over to their side. Congestion pricing [[{"fid":"6427","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"10":{"format":"default"}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"10"}}]] Cuomo has gradually come out for a fee on cars entering the heart of Manhattan during business hours to ease traffic and raise revenue for the subway system. Met with skepticism from suburban and some outer-borough legislators, it failed to pass this year, with the exception of a surcharge for taxi and for-hire vehicles . But the financial problems of the New York City subway system have only gotten more serious in the past year, and congestion pricing is a top way to pay for needed repairs, even if it would not bring in enough revenue by itself. In contrast to other major progressive demands, party leaders appear to be somewhat evasive in whether they would push hard for congestion pricing, or even support it at all. I cant speak for others. Were gonna have to have those conversations, Gianaris told Gotham Gazette in October. Stewart-Cousins position on congestion pricing remains unclear, because she appears to have reservations on supporting legislation that would hurt commuters from her suburban district in Westchester County. In the end, the fate of congestion pricing could be a matter that reflects divisions between lawmakers who represent constituents who commute by car and those who dont, whether they are Republicans or Democrats. There are a lot of proposals we should be considering before we consider charging middle-class people who drive into Manhattan, Assemblyman David Weprin, a Queens Democrat, told The Wall Street Journal. But Cuomo has said that congestion pricing is the only realistic option to secure billions of dollars for the subway however and he could be the difference in driving the issue forward in upcoming budget negotiations especially since keeping the subway system from getting worse might determine whether or not he succeeds in creating a legacy as one of the states great governors. Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Now, the UK's two largest breast cancer charities, have announced that they plan to merge in spring 2019. The merger will create a new charity that will have an income of around 45m. By merging, the two organisations aim to create one comprehensive offer for people affected by the disease and also increase their campaigning voice. The charities plan to create one new organisation which will be chaired by Jill Thompson, currently a trustee of Breast Cancer Care. Deylth Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, will become the chief executive of the new entity. Samia al Qadhi has decided to step down as chief executive of Breast Cancer Care after 25 years at the charity. The charities have not ruled out redundancies although they have said that every effort will be made to minimise them. Both the charities current chairs - Lynne Berry of Breast Cancer Now and Emma Burns of Breast Cancer Care - will step down when the merger takes place. There will be six trustees from each charity on the new board. See below for full board. The rest of the senior leadership team will be appointed in the coming months and both organisations will continue to operate independently. Breast Cancer Now launched in 2015 following the merger of Breast Cancer Campaign and Breakthrough Breast Cancer. Its latest accounts show it has an income of 28.3m and a staff count of 156. Breast Cancer Care was founded in 1973 and its accounts show an income 16.9m with 215 employees. A spokeswoman said that: "Every effort will be made to minimise redundancies and maximise retention. To ensure merger is a success, we need to retain our combined talent and expertise as two charities." The new charity will be headquarted at Ibex House where Breast Cancer Now is currently based. Bold and exciting opportunity Jill Thompson, trustee and treasurer for Breast Cancer Care, and chair of the new charity, said: Despite the enormous progress made by both charities, the challenge that lies ahead in breast cancer is unprecedented. This merger is a bold and exciting opportunity to rise to this challenge, together, and make a significant difference to the millions affected providing support for today and hope for the future. Lynne Berry, chair of Breast Cancer Now, said: Merging now to create one, comprehensive charity for everyone affected by breast cancer is undeniably the right thing to do for those affected by the disease. Together, well be a stronger charity to influence and drive progress further, with a united community and one clear voice for everyone affected by breast cancer, now and in the future. Delyth Morgan, current chief executive at Breast Cancer Now, and CEO designate of the new charity, said: This merger is a once in a lifetime chance to unite two leading charities to make greater and faster progress for everyone affected by breast cancer. With incidence rising, inequalities in care remaining, and over eleven thousand families torn apart by metastatic breast cancer every year in the UK, we need to do much, much more and we need to do it now. It will be a great honour to lead the new charity; a role which is both professionally, and personally, very important to me. As the UKs first comprehensive breast cancer charity, we will be driven forward by collaboration, ambition and most importantly the passion of our supporters and partners, who will remain at the heart of the new organisation. By joining forces, well do everything we can to make the research breakthroughs that will give women more time to live and to ensure everyone affected by the disease has the support and care they need. We look forward, with great hope, to taking this exciting step together. Full board Mark Astaire Barbara Brown Sonia Gayle Marion Lewis Andrew Moore Trevor Powles Adrian Harris Sue Gallone Ann Pickering Chris Copeland Pascale Alvanitakis Guely Care workers at Scottish charity Cornerstone have voted by 92 per cent to reject a pay offer from their employer. Workers union Unison said it has never before seen such strength of feeling among its members in the charity sector. The charity, based in Aberdeen, provides services to people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, autism and dementia throughout Scotland. It recently introduced its Local Cornerstone initiative which will see some carers taking on management responsibilities, and subsequently offered a new pay deal to workers. However, last week the union balloted its members, who voted to reject the offer by 92 per cent. The union has called for: A 3 per cent pay rise for staff who are not eligible for the Scottish Living Wage (not 1 per cent as proposed by Cornerstone) Pay for sleep-in shift workers at the Scottish Living Wage, currently 8.75, backdated to 1 April 2018 (not October as proposed by Cornerstone) Pay 12 per hour for all carers undertaking management responsibilities (not 10.10 per hour as proposed by Cornerstone) It has also called for an improvement to sick pay and a commitment to no compulsory redundancies. Deborah Clarke, Unisons regional organiser, described the ballot result as an amazing show of strength by a predominantly female workforce and said it shows the tide is turning. She said: Employers can no longer expect to get cheap labour on the backs of low-paid women. Cornerstone says it believes in fair work, so it beggars belief that they are refusing to engage with their staff on fair pay. Cornerstone needs to listen to their dedicated and exceptional workforce and get back around the negotiating table and deliver a fair pay deal for staff. The charity has been contacted for comment. The Wellcome Trust has avoided a 13m VAT bill after a court ruled that the tax should not be charged on the charitys payment of management fees to investment managers outside the EU. The charity had previously been prevented from recovering VAT on non-business activities such as the buying and selling of shares by the courts due to an application of a reverse charge. The reverse charge is the amount of VAT that would have been paid on a service if it had been bought in the UK. HM Revenue and Customs had considered that the Wellcome Trust was eligible to pay 13m in VAT through the reverse charge, but the charity argued that the place of supply of the management services it was paying for was outside of the UK so not eligible for the tax. The First Tier Tribunal ruled that the charity is not required to account for the VAT on the investment management services it receives from outside the EU under the reverse charge procedure. A Charity Tax Group (CTG) spokesman welcomed the decision, which he said would "preserve significant resources for the charity sector". He said: "We recognise that the decision may have limited value for other charities but we hope that it will set a useful precedent for charities that find themselves in similar circumstances to Wellcome. Meanwhile, Steve Hodgetts, VAT partner at RSM, said the case suggested that other charities might be paying too much for similar services. He said: The case raises a very interesting point highlighting the ambiguous nature of some the language in the VAT Directive which had been interpreted differently. Despite the tribunal decision the case will almost certainly be appealed due to the amounts involved. However, charities who are accounting for VAT under the reverse charge provisions should consider their position further and if necessary make protective claims to HMRC for any VAT overpaid. A while ago, Sir Stephen Bubb, the leader of the Charity Futures initiative, asserted that the governments mini-department for charities the once-vaunted Office for Civil Society had been hollowed out until it was little more than a name on the door. So far, it looks as if Bubb is being proved right. The Office for Civil Society has all but disappeared from government communications. Its budget has been slashed to less than a fifth of its height. And after the last election, charities were downgraded from having their own minister to having a timeshare on a minister, together with sport, horse racing, gambling, youth, lotteries and loneliness. Tracey Crouch, who until recently was that fraction of a minister, was left holding basically every brief that no one else wanted, with no time to spend on any of them. Crouch has succeeded in one slightly exciting initiative: a new Civil Society Strategy, as a keystone of her efforts to improve governments frosty relationship with the sector. Its not really a strategy, though. It's a vision of what shed like governments relationship with the sector to be. It was penned in elegant and thoughtful prose by Danny Kruger, a Conservative speechwriter and charity founder, and outlined a rosy future of sunlit uplands which we could all buy into. Sadly, the vision is not deliverable. The leaders tasked with making it happen have no staff, no money, and no influence. The problem is that charities are an irrelevance to this government. Theyve got one seventh of a ministerial brief, belonging to a minister whos just quit because shes been ignored, in a department with no budget, in a government with no majority, run by a party at war with itself, which is anyway ideologically less supportive of the sector than any government in recent memory. Its hard not to ask how it went so wrong. What can be done? On the narrow question of how we get better government services to charities, there are a couple of things which can obviously be done at DCMS. The main one is to give the charities minister some money to spend. There is cash there. The government has identified 2bn in dormant assets which in theory should flow to the sector, and my personal suspicion is that there is much more there than the relatively cautious estimates so far essayed. But there seems to be little will to get on with gathering it in. The sector is desperately in need of grant funding, which unlike tax relief can be targeted at the poorest areas and the neediest causes. But its unlikely to get it. But to think about structural funding for the sector shows a lack of ambition. The charity sector has if we are honest had a tendency to welcome crumbs from the government table. We have welcomed 20m transition funds and a range of increasingly niche tax cuts, when these will have no impact whatsoever on the problems charities are trying to solve. The real problems I think its becoming clearer that charities real problems cant be solved in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport the siding into which the sector was shunted after Theresa May took power. The more proximate solutions are all in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, down the road, which is probably where a minister for civil society should really be working. It is there that charities can address the big issues facing them commissioning, most pressingly. Im not necessarily arguing for a machinery of government change, though. I'm told it's disruptive and difficult, and anyway it doesnt matter where you sit if you cant reach the levers of power. And those levers dont lie in MHCLG either. They lie in Number Ten and Number 11 Downing Street. Voluntary sector bodies are not a homogenous group, but they all share a commitment to one of three things the strengthening of communities, the preservation of our common culture, or the creation of a fairer playing field. This last, in particular, is the primary duty of most charities, and it needs a change in the outlook of the whole government, and in the way we run our society. It needs a greater empowerment of regional and local authorities, a greater focus on care, especially social care, and a new approach to benefits and housing. It also needs a change in our economy. Our country is has been stalling because the government has spent seven years obsessing about balancing the books and taking spending out of the economy. What it needs is a programme of regeneration and spending like the one Franklin Delano Roosevelt brought to rejuvenate the United States in the 1930s. Sadly what it has got is not FDR, but Theresa May and a bunch of Brexiteers. Without these changes of outlook at the top without an acceptance that the government needs to work for the benefit of all citizens, rich or poor it hardly matters whether charities have a whole minister, or some fraction of one, or none at all. There may, though, be a slender ray of hope. There was some sign in the last Budget that if if we can reach a sensible settlement on Brexit, or ideally not leave at all, then we might have hit rock bottom, and be on our way out of the hole. For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here. When my dad called, at 4am his time, I knew the storm was bad. He was calling from Saipan, part of the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. The power had been out for nearly 12 hours, the wind was howling, and he couldnt sleep. He said it felt like the wind was trying to suck him out of the house. He was calling from a landlinethere was no cell servicewanting to know what was going on. As I googled satellite images, I realized just how bad the situation was, even for a place thats used to getting slammed by violent weather. I soon learned that this was a super typhoon, called Yutu, the most powerful storm on earth this year, and the worst in the US since 1935. At least two people diedone was crushed by a collapsing building and one was killed in the days following the storm by carbon monoxide from a generator. The night I heard from my dad, more than a thousand people became homeless; for many, thats still the case. RELATED: Dear journalists: Meteorologists are not happy many of you are making the same mistake about hurricane categories The winds tore roofs off homes and leveled concrete power poles. Families huddled together in hallways, closets, and bathrooms to escape falling furniture and flying debris. Concrete walls shook and trees flew through windows. When thousands of people emerged to assess the damage, they saw what looked like a war zone. Despite the widespread destruction, not a single national news crew was on the ground to document it. Adriana Cotero, a newscaster in Saipan, has been shocked by the absence of mainland journalistsespecially now, as a humanitarian crisis is unfolding: tens of thousands of people are expected to go months without electricity in the islands unforgiving heat. People need to see this, Cotero says. There needs to be international media attention on this. Were so far away, people dont know who we areits sad. Even from a distance, news outlets reported much less about Yutu than they did Hurricanes Michael or Florence, according to data from Media Cloud, an open-source tool. Major news outlets such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and HuffPost each published just one non-wire story. The TV News Archive, a nonprofit that tracks captions for broadcasts, returned just 21 results for Yutu, compared with more than 500 for Hurricane Lane and thousands for Hurricane Florence. Juanita Mendiola, a resident of Tinian who hid in her bathroom to survive Yutu, says that the relative lack of coverage is painful. It feels that we have to do this alone, she says. The world is kind of silent. Sign up for weekly emails from the United States Project Not many people have heard of the Northern Mariana Islands, made up of 14 islands including Saipan and Tinian. The islands, home to the indigenous Chamorro people, are at least a day by plane from the mainland, and flights are expensive. From Tokyo, however, they are only about a three-hour plane ride, which made the islands key battle sites during World War II; the Enola Gay took off from Tinian to bomb Hiroshima. The clear turquoise lagoons are still littered with sunken tanks from the American invasion. Today, the islands are often the first stop for thousands of immigrants from the Pacific and Asia pursuing the American dream. The last territory to join the USbirthright citizenship was established in 1986the Northern Mariana Islands got a seat in Congress in 2008, but its for a non-voting delegate. People born there are US citizensand many are part of the wave that delivered Donald Trump to the White Housebut they cant participate in presidential elections. That makes the relative lack of news from Saipan, given the eclipse of focus on the midterms, particularly frustrating. Its not surprising, however, since the Northern Mariana Islands have almost always been absent from the national conversation. In 1975, for instance, when officials from the US and the Northern Mariana Islands signed an agreement establishing the commonwealth, the pact didnt even make front-page news. An obvious barrier to coverage is the fact that Saipan is far away from most American newsrooms. Yutu destroyed parts of the islands airport, forcing reporters to cover the storm remotely. Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokesperson for The New York Times, tells CJR that reporters covered the storm from the Philippines with help from staff in New York. Yet once flights were up and running, many of the news outlets that noticed the storm seemed to quickly forget about it. Only some 55,000 people live in the Northern Mariana Islands; the small population, in conjunction with the low death toll, may have made the crisis seem less newsworthy, especially compared to the Pittsburgh shooting or the midterm elections. American news organizations tend to treat storms in the Pacific as developing-world disastersthat is to say, newsworthy only when theres truly overwhelming devastation, Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University, explains. Plus, Most news directors cant point to the Northern Marianas on a map. ICYMI: The tweet that derailed a news cycle Mendiola says that the lack of attention stings, given how much the islands continue to sacrifice for the mainland. One uninhabited island has been used by the Navy as a bombing range since 1971; recently, the Navy sought to expand training on more islands. The commonwealths national security value has grown with the rise of China and threat of North Korea. The absence of coverage has consequences for disaster relief. Kevin Bautista, the press secretary for Ralph Torres, the governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, says that it means fewer volunteers to help with rebuilding. He tells CJR, Knowing the CNMIthe Northern Mariana Islandsjust as a footnote to World War II is not enough. Because of its historic strength, Yutu seems to have garnered more national attention than Typhoon Soudelor, which similarly ravaged the islands three years ago and left residents without power for months. Some residents are happy with the level of news media coverageany national stories at all are significant for a community thats used to being overlooked entirely. (What do you mean no coverage? my mom said when I told her I was writing this story. We were in The Washington Post!) But former residents of the islands living in the states, of whom there are thousands, sought more information. David Atalig, of San Diego, says he turned on the TV when he heard about the storm but he only saw coverage of the midterms and Trump. He reached out to a couple of local TV stations to get the word out about the relief efforts but never heard back. In the absence of more news stories, Facebook and Instagram have become crucial ways to get up to date about the storm and organize relief efforts. Leni Leon, a Saipan photographer, has been going from village to village posting stories on social media of storm victims: an immigrant with only a trash bag and suitcase left to his name; a couple who spent hours receiving dialysis treatment only to sleep in their car; a pregnant mother who lost her home and is forced to sleep on her in-laws floor. Most people on Saipan and Tinian say that the community is resilient and recovering. By this point, preparing for and rebounding from large typhoons has become a part of local culture in the Northern Mariana Islands, a rite of passage for every generation. But studies suggest that climate change will continue to bring more frequent and intense storms. Whats happened to the Marianas will happen againhere and around the world, Tina Sablan, a candidate for the islands legislature, says. Everyone should be paying attention. ICYMI: A reporter asked for 20 years of lottery winner data. After analyzing the records, he noticed something unusual. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Anita Hofschneider is a staff writer at Honolulu Civil Beat. The insurance industry has operated with great consistency and clear processes for many years. People may not always like or agree with how things work, but nearly everyone from the consumer to the provider essentially goes with it no uprisings to drive change, no big shakeups. That is until recently. Seemingly all of a sudden, artificial intelligence (AI) is infiltrating the insurance industry, which may be a bit scary to those devoted to long-established practices. In reality, we are witnessing relatively quick developments and sparks of innovation, considering the overall life cycle of the insurance industry. And what AI offers now and promises to in the future is anything but scary. Its actually quite exciting as the industry enters a truly transformative period that will result in greater efficiency, significant cost savings, and far better service and/or care. What Constitutes AI AI has become one of the biggest buzzwords in the tech landscape, so I want to define what it really means, particularly as it is pertains to the insurance industry. AI is a computerized system that exhibits behavior that is commonly thought of as requiring human intelligence. Taking this a step further, it essentially translates to machines acquiring a certain level of human-ness so that interactions with software become more like interactions with real people. It also mandates that a system has the ability to learn and improve on its own. Advances in AI come as the result of a number of factors, but undoubtedly, consumer-based technologies have led the charge. Voice, machine learning, computer vision, and deep learning have been refined in consumer products, services and platforms, but they are now being combined to create really powerful automated solutions for some of the biggest issues organizations face. Specific to the insurance industry, novel AI-based applications can shift the workforce and advance what companies are able to assess and offer as well as how quickly they can do it. And this is just over the short term. McKinsey & Company predicts that AI has the potential to live up to its promise of mimicking the perception, reasoning, learning, and problem solving of the human mind. In this evolution, insurance will shift from its current state of detect and repair to predict and prevent, transforming every aspect of the industry in the process. The Rise of InsurTech This may sound a bit abstract and futuristic, but AI advances have already led to a whole new market segment: InsurTech. A slew of new companies have popped up, showcasing strong growth by bringing AI and machine learning to market with the industrys very specific and nuanced needs in mind. For example, Cyence, which was acquired by Guidewire Software, developed a platform to ascertain the financial impact of cyber risk and management of risk portfolios; and Cape Analytics provides a service to property insurers that combines AI and geospatial imagery to analyze property and streamline the underwriting process and these are just two examples. Other AI-based companies have emerged to reduce costs in claims operations, identify various insurance protection options, and transform mobile and social media marketing for insurance companies. The InsurTech segment is not defined by new players alone. Several incumbents have also dipped their toes into the AI waters to develop innovative applications. State Farm developed Distracted Driver Detection that utilizes dashboard camera images. Allstate has ABIE, a virtual assistant to help agents with information regarding Allstates commercial products, and Progressive now applies machine learning on top of data collected from client drivers through the Snapshot mobile app. What Does It All Mean? First and foremost, the rise of InsurTech indicates that the insurance industry is changing profoundly as it modernizes. The ability to analyze countless data points in mere seconds opens ways to assess and predict that humans simply cannot hope to accomplish. This does not mean that humans are no longer needed in the industry. Quite the contrary. People still possess higher-level thinking skills that machines are not equipped to gain. The capacity to factor in intangibles, to make judgement calls, to see and interpret what lies beyond the screen these are human skills that will always be in demand. In this light, AI and machine learning applications should be leveraged to streamline and better inform the decisions humans must make. When this happens, workers are freed up to focus on the facets of their jobs that matter the most. In addition to benefits to workers, organizations experience multiples of improvement in cost savings by increased efficiency, accuracy and better predictions generally. Simultaneously, customer service and patient care improve by providing answers and resources tailored to their specific case in a fraction of the time. Perhaps the most exciting impact of InsurTech, however, will be the new business models that arise. The notion of how we administer care will change, as will the way we construct policies for individuals and companies. Essentially, what has never been possible before is suddenly on the table. The options may appear overwhelming or even threatening to the existing way of life, but AI and InsurTech have arrived. The advancements that will occur over the next decade will be extraordinary for all constituents. Pay attention and embrace the innovation long needed in the insurance industry. Gulf Power has a disaster fund to pay for the thousands of out-of-state linemen and extra equipment needed to rebuild Bay Countys electrical system after Hurricane Michael. But whether that fund can cover the whole recovery cost isnt yet known. None of that has been thought about yet, Jeff Rogers, spokesman for Gulf Power, said of the total cost to restore electricity.Weve been focused only on restoration but over the next couple of weeks well get more information. Rogers said the company has a disaster fund set up with the state of Florida to pay for situations like the hurricane, which knocked out power in the county three weeks ago. Money for the fund comes from portions of customers electricity bills, Rogers said. If there isnt enough in the fund, we may go to the state to ask for more, Rogers said. Rogers said power companies across the country have similar disaster funds that pay for visiting repair crews and equipment. Its always the host company that pays for it, Rogers said of disaster recovery. Like when we travel, the host company picks up the tab. Robert Barnes, a Panama City native who now lives in Vernon, said he saw people on the social media site Facebook complaining about Gulf Power but praising visiting crews. Thinking that Gulf Power was being unfairly criticized, Barnes asked The News Herald through its Bay Asked, We Answered series: Who pays for all of the out-of-state power company crews, equipment and supplies? I wanted to get some factual information out there about what theyve done, Barnes said about Gulf Power. Theyve done a hell of a job getting things back up and running. Rogers said that to date, power was restored to almost everyone in the county who can receive electricity. Still, theres an estimated 15,000 customers whose homes and buildings are too damaged to accept power, he said. Theres destroyed equipment, its all over mostly in the hardest hit areas, Rogers said. But, weve got people getting repairs every day. Rogers noted that with the major restoration complete, most of the visiting linemen had left the county. More than 7,000 people from power companies across the country were in the county at the peak of the repair effort. Weve probably got about 1,500 now, Rogers said. Now were in the cleanup phase, making sure repairs were done correctly and checking for possible weak points. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Submit A federal jury has ruled against a Colorado couple who claimed that a marijuana growing operation hurt the value of their property with sweeping mountain views in a case that was closely watched by the U.S. cannabis industry. Jurors reached their verdict in Denver after deliberating for about half a day, The Colorado Sun reported Wednesday. It was the first time a jury considered a lawsuit using federal anti-racketeering law to target a marijuana company. A loss in this case would have meant the loss of his business, Matthew Buck, the lawyer for grow owner Parker Walton, told the Sun, The marijuana industry has followed the case since 2015, when attorneys with a Washington, D.C.-based firm first filed their complaint on behalf of Hope and Michael Reilly over Waltons operation in the rural southern Colorado town of Rye. Vulnerability to similar lawsuits is among the many risks facing marijuana businesses licensed by states but still violating federal law. Lawsuits using the same strategy have been filed in California, Massachusetts and Oregon. One the Reillys lawyers, Brian Barnes, said the couple bought their land for its views of Pikes Peak, built a house there and hike and ride horses on the property. But they claimed pungent, foul odors from a neighboring indoor marijuana growing business have hurt the propertys value and the couples ability to use and enjoy it. Congress created the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act better known as RICO to target the Mafia in the 1970s, allowing prosecutors to argue leaders of a criminal enterprise should pay a price along with lower-level defendants. The anti-racketeering law also allows private parties to file lawsuits claiming their business or property has been damaged by a criminal enterprise. Those who prove it can be financially compensated for damages plus attorneys expenses. While growing recreational marijuana has been legal in Colorado since 2014, it remains illegal under federal laws that are not enforced in the state against growers who follow state laws. Starting in 2015, opponents of the marijuana industry decided to use the anti-racketeering law against companies producing or selling marijuana products, along with investors, insurers, state regulators and other players. Cannabis companies immediately saw the danger of high legal fees or court-ordered payouts. Their concern grew when a Denver-based federal appeals court ruled in 2017 that the Reillys could use anti-racketeering law to sue their neighbor, the licensed cannabis grower neighboring. Insurance companies and other entities originally named in the Reillys suit have gradually been removed, some after reaching financial settlements out of court. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- City officials and the Independence firm that is redeveloping the former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital site have agreed upon a name for the project. The name is Valor Acres. DiGeronimo Development LLC is building the multiple-use project -- which may include stores, restaurants, apartments, hotels, hospitals, manufacturing plants, offices and laboratories -- on 103 acres at the northwest corner of Brecksville and Miller roads. "We kept saying, joking in part, that folks here in town and in the area would always refer to the property as the VA," Brecksville Mayor Jerry Hruby told cleveland.com in an email. "The DiGeronimo group suggested that the name (include) the letters VA. "Our armed forces have a reputation for valor, so we all thought Valor Acres was an appropriate name," Hruby said. Banners with the new name, and an overhead rendering of the proposed development, are attached to chain-link fences now surrounding the site. DiGeronimo is recruiting tenants, but none have been signed yet. "We are in discussions with several potential users -- retail, office and hotel," Hruby said. "An agreement is being drafted with one major tenant, an office use." Hruby said an environmental cleanup of the former VA site has begun. Buildings should start coming down in 2019, perhaps in February or March. In June, DiGeronimo agreed to pay the city of Brecksville $5 million over 15 years to redevelop the former VA hospital campus. The firm gave the city $1 million upfront and will pay the remainder of the money gradually over time, as it completes the development. The development will occur in nine phases. The city has determined that only 85 acres are developable, due to possible wetlands on the site and the need for storm-water detention basins and/or retention ponds. The city will transfer ownership of the land in each phase, as development occurs, to DiGeronimo. The developer can then either keep, lease or sell the land. The project will also include adding a northbound exit ramp off Interstate 77 at Miller and a southbound freeway entrance ramp at Miller. Now, the I-77-Miller interchange has only a northbound freeway entrance ramp and a southbound exit. The agreement doesn't say who would pay for the ramps, only that all parties will "work collaboratively and use reasonable, good-faith efforts" to expand the interchange within five years. The agreement also states that the city and developer will try to obtain "funding, grants, subsidies or other incentives" for certain aspects of the overall project. MORELAND HILLS, Ohio -- Illegal dumping, building department violations; Fox Glen Road: After a resident reported Oct. 19 that a neighbor's landscaper had backed a dump truck out of the driveway and dumped its contents into the middle of the cul-de-sac, police arrived to find yard waste, tree clippings and plastic bags of trash on the ground. The landscaper, based in the Strongsville area, was also cited for not having a village permit. Departmental information, Chagrin Boulevard: The Information Technologies specialist for the Orange City Schools reported Oct. 16 that a teacher at Moreland Hills Elementary School had received three different emails telling her to send bitcoins to an account or all of her data would be compromised. The IT department was changing her email address, but wanted the virtual incident documented. Fraud, Hiram Trail: A resident reported Oct. 18 that a canceled debit card had at least 11 unauthorized charges of $16.86 apiece, along with a one-time charge of $21.99, all at Target and totaling over $207. Target canceled the charges and the victim contacted officials at Key Bank, who requested a police report. She told police that she had already destroyed the card in question after getting an upgrade and before the fraudulent charges occurred. Fraud, SOM Center Road: A Shaker Heights man, 75, reported Oct. 22 that he was notified in early September that two unauthorized credit cards in his name were overdrawn. The cards, with Fifth Third and Synchrony banks, were opened in his name back around 2006 through Marvel and Walmart. Synchrony requested a police report, although it was unclear why he went through Moreland Hills. Damage to property, Wiltshire Road: A resident reported Oct. 26 that her neighbor, 87, who lives across the street, had damaged her mailbox while backing into her own driveway about 10:40 p.m. The neighbor said this has happened in the past and she has paid out of pocket to cover the damage, adding that the driver was not answering the door. The driver in question spoke with police on Oct. 28, denied the incident and had them look at her car, which showed no damage. Police told the neighbor that it may be a civil matter and suggested installing an outdoor security camera. Animal at large, Ellendale Road: A resident was cited after an Oct. 28 incident in which her dog went after a neighbor walking her dog. The neighbor reported there was no contact this time, but her dog has been bitten in the past. The aggressive dog's owner, who had received a warning from police several weeks before, apologized and said she did not know how her dog kept sneaking out. She was advised to keep the dog tied up. If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Saturday Night Live and cast member Pete Davidson are taking heat for a joke about a congressional candidate in Texas who lost his eye in Afghanistan. With a picture on the screen of an eye-patched Dan Crenshaw, a Republican running for the House in TX-02, Davidson, during a segment on Weekend Update, cracked, You may be surprised to hear hes a congressional candidate from Texas and not a hit-man in a porno movie. The audience laughed before Davidson interrupted. Im sorry, I know he lost his eye in war or whatever. The comparison and Davidsons flip reaction to Crenshaws injury -- which the former Navy SEAL sustained in 2012 when a bomb exploded during his third tour in Afghanistan -- sparked outrage on social media. .@NBCSNL should be ashamed of themselves for last nights show. Thankfully we have brave men & women like @DanCrenshawTX otherwise gutless cowards like #PeteDavidson wouldnt have a desk to sit behind. Dan - America is 100% with you! Thank you for the service and sacrifice. https://t.co/jtSBKmeyma Eric Trump (@EricTrump) November 4, 2018 Pete Davidson should be counting his lucky stars he will likely never be within arms reach of a Navy SEAL (or real man for that matter). Sick little punk. Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) November 4, 2018 NEW: NRCC Statement on SNL's Pete Davidson Mocking War Hero Dan Crenshaw https://t.co/qb9Oj0WjV1 pic.twitter.com/SnR54KZiq1 NRCC (@NRCC) November 4, 2018 Getting dumped by your pop star girlfriend is no excuse for lashing out at a decorated war hero who lost his eye serving our country," the National Republican Congressional Committee, referencing Davidsons public breakup from Ariana Grande, said in a statement. "Pete Davidson and NBC should immediately apologize to Dan, and to the millions of veterans and military families who tune in every weekend because theyre not laughing, Crenshaw, in response, took the high road. Good rule in life: I try hard not to offend; I try harder not to be offended, he wrote on Twitter. That being said, I hope @nbcsnl recognizes that vets dont deserve to see their wounds used as punchlines for bad jokes. Good rule in life: I try hard not to offend; I try harder not to be offended. That being said, I hope @nbcsnl recognizes that vets dont deserve to see their wounds used as punchlines for bad jokes. Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) November 4, 2018 Speaking to TMZ, the candidate later said neither Davidson nor SNL owed him an apology. I want to get away from this culture where we demand apologies every time someone misspeaks, he said. Theyre feeling the heat around the country right now and thats fine. Saturday Night Live and Davidson -- who also mocked the appearance of a Democrat (Andrew Cuomo) and himself (I look like a Dr. Seuss character went to prison!) -- havent commented. During an appearance on NBCs Today Monday, fellow cast member Kenan Thompson said the joke definitely missed the mark, adding, Petes a very humble dude and he has a big heart. I dont think he goes out to offend people. Crenshaw, by the way, has a 90 percent chance of winning on Tuesday, according to FiveThirtyEights projections. HINCKLEY TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Property damage, State Road: A driver was cited at 4:52 p.m. Oct. 11 after police received reports from several witnesses of his erratic driving. Other drivers said they saw the truck, pulling a large piece of farm equipment, hit several mailboxes. When police stopped the driver and told him he had struck at least seven mailboxes in Hinckley, Peninsula and Richfield, he said he was not familiar with the area. He said he had purchased the farm equipment locally and was taking it to his farm in Michigan. Ohio Highway Patrol troopers were called and it was determined that the man was pulling an oversize load and needed proper permitting to do so. The truck was parked until the permit could be obtained. Theft, Somerset Drive: A resident reported his 1985 Ford Mustang stolen at 4:39 p.m. Sept. 27. The victim said the car was being stored at a friend's house in Alabama. When the friend died, his widow said the car had been taken by the deceased brother. The widow did, however, refuse to give her brother-in-law the title, instead mailing it back to the owner in Hinckley. Police were still investigating the incident at the time of the report. Property damage, Babcock Road: A resident reported finding his mailbox missing at 2:56 p.m. Sept. 19. The man suspected that the mailbox had been struck by a vehicle. There was no further information at the time of the report. If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland police found no evidence of a bomb after a threat was called into a business Monday morning near the I-X Center and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Police were called about 8 a.m. to Mazzella Lifting Technologies in the 21000 block of Aerospace Parkway near the airport. Someone called in the threat to the business, which was evacuated, according to police. Investigators have not said whether the threat is in any way related to President Donald Trumps scheduled visit to the I-X Center for one of his final public appearances before the 2018 midterm elections. The president is expected to appear at the campaign rally at 3 p.m. The Cleveland police bomb squad searched the business, along with a bomb-sniffing dog and found no bomb. The employees were allowed back inside the building about 9:30 a.m. No arrests have been made, and Cleveland police provided no additional details. CLEVELAND, Ohio State officials are finally about to look at new ways of funding online schools and avoiding a repeat of the $80 million ECOT overpayment controversy that has fueled political and legal fights for more than two years. A panel of six legislators just appointed by House and Senate leadership will begin working Nov. 15 to shift Ohio away from paying online charter schools based solely on the number of students enrolled, toward a system that rewards schools only when students learn. Its an important distinction that could dramatically affect the schools and students, and end a longstanding complaint that Ohio was pouring millions into online schools with little learning to show for it. As the state found in early 2016, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) was barely making students participate in their online classes just enough to avoid having to disenroll them while raking in millions of tax dollars for virtual no-shows. Several smaller online charter schools in Ohio also could not show enough class participation to satisfy the Ohio Department of Education and owed millions back to the state, just far less than the $80 million the now-closed ECOT owed. The new panel, ordered by the legislature last spring, will find a plan to pay schools based on students course completion, for competency in subjects or for finishing units within a course. When you have a system that pays for completion, it undercuts the motivation for just signing kids up, because now they (schools and students) actually have to do the work, said State Sen. Peggy Lehner, a Kettering Republican who will co-chair the panel. State Rep. Robert Cupp, a Lima Republican, will co-chair the panel, joined by State Sens. Randy Gardner, a Bowling Green Republican, and Vernon Sykes, an Akron Democrat, as well as State Reps. Stephen Hambley, a Brunswick Republican, and Catherine Ingram, a Cincinnati Democrat. Cupp, Hambley and Sykes could not be reached for comment. As part of its research, the panel will look at how other states pay online schools to educate students and find what works, and doesnt, in those states. Lehner said her staff has identified five Florida, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas and Utah that fund e-schools based on results, but very little research on what funding method drives schools to higher quality. We dont have a lot to build on, so were doing a lot from scratch, she said. Ohio is starting this process more than two years after some state officials notably State Auditor and attorney general candidate Dave Yost called for a funding change in 2016. Yosts action on ECOT has been a major debate in his campaign against Democrat Steve Dettelbach, who says Yost should have called out ECOTs funding issues sooner. Yost says he could not because he believed state law required online schools to be paid solely based on enrollment, not class participation. The Ohio Supreme Court disagreed earlier this year and upheld findings by the Ohio Department of Education that ECOT was overpaid for students who did not participate in online classes enough. National support of online charter schools also took a major hit in late 2015 when Stanford University researchers found that students at e-schools in 17 states and Washington, D.C., learned less at school than similar students that stayed in traditional schools. The difference was the same as skipping 72 days of school in developing reading skills and skipping 180 days essentially a school year - of math lessons, their report found. For Ohio, online students learned 79 days less material in reading than peers in traditional schools and 144 less days in math. The main advocacy group for online schools, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL), also raised funding discussions in 2015. What if education funding was not based on seat-time, but on rewarding student performance? a report from iNACOL asked. What if supporting students to achieve at higher levels and accelerate student progress was rewarded rather than simply having them show up and funding education based on attendance? In 2016, national charter school backers like the National Alliance for Public Charter school cited the Stanford study and criticized online school performance and called for several law changes, including new completion-based funding systems. The pro-charter Fordham Institute also called for a performance-based funding system earlier this year. The panels work had another delay, even this year. The legislature ordered the panel to have its report not just start its work by Nov. 15 as it passed Senate Bill 216. But Gov. John Kasich delayed signing the bill, which pushed its effective date until this week. Lehner said a full report is unlikely by the end of this year and that the panel may have to continue into next year. This is an exceedingly complicated subject, she said. It involves thousands of children in Ohio and we have to do this right. COLUMBUS, Ohio Franklin County residents hoping to beat the crowds on Election Day encountered 45-minute lines on Monday, the last day of early in-person voting. In Cuyahoga County, Monday lines to vote were not as long as Sunday. County Board of Elections Director Pat McDonald said Sundays were longer and snaked out of the front door, beyond our parking lot. Monday evening data from the Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husteds office showed early in-person and mail voting was up compared to 2014, the last election without a presidential race. 1.1 million voters have requested an absentee ballot by mail. By the end of business on Monday, 884,323 had been cast. At this same point in 2014, 718,925 mail ballots had been cast. 429,521 Ohioans voted early in person as of Monday. In 2014, 145,637 voters cast ballots early in person. 9,790 military and overseas voters have requested an absentee ballot as of today and 5,356 had been cast. Voters had until 2 p.m. Monday if they want to vote early. People can vote Tuesday at their polling place from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Statewide early voting data was not available Monday afternoon. In Cuyahoga County as of Sunday night: 17,583 people voted in person 197,569 requested ballots. In 2014 there were 153,000 requested ballots. 152,688 returned ballots, both through in-person voting and mail ballots. Other comparisons to 2014 in Cuyahoga County were not immediately available. In Franklin County as of Sunday night: 50,462 people had voted in person this year. As of the same point in time in 2014, 12,143 had voted early in person. 114,486 Franklin County residents had mailed their ballots as of Sunday evening. In 2014, 103,190 voters had mailed ballots. At the Franklin County Board of Elections in northern Columbus, many of the voters were Democratic-leaning. Republicans have said their voters are energized as well. Columbus resident Ama Abu doesnt normally vote early. She didnt even vote in 2014, the last midterm election. She said she planned to vote for Democrats. Its pretty obvious why we all had to come out this year, she said. Michelle Schriver, a resident of the Columbus suburb of Hilliard, said she voted early because she had more time than on Tuesday, and she didnt want to be stressed Tuesday about finding time to vote. She will vote for Democrats, she said, not necessarly to thwart President Donald Trumps agenda, but to get it more centered, she said. She said she feels both parties have extreme elements and this year, Democrats could help center the right. Mitchel Garrison of Columbus described himself as a Democratic sympathizer. Normally, I take a little more time to look at the Republicans than I did this year, he said. Hes not a fan of how Republicans in the White House and in Congress are running the country and wants the Democrats to be elected to serve as a check, he said. Rotunda Rumblings Crunch time: It's just one day before the midterm election. The polls, at least in everything besides the U.S. Senate race, are close. Are you ready? Get ready: Kyle Kondik, the political analyst for the University of Virginia and Ohio native, is the guest on the latest episode of Ohio Matters, the cleveland.com politics podcast. If you don't subscribe yet, you should. You can sign up on iTunes or Google Play, just to name a couple of options. Legendary: Musician John Legend on Sunday made campaign appearances in Cincinnati and Cleveland, where he shared the stage with Democratic governor candidate Richard Corday and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Legend closed the Cleveland rally by singing a song from his Grammy-award winning song, "Glory," writes cleveland.com's Hannah Drown. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez also was on hand for the Cincinnati and Dayton events. Republican governor candidate Mike DeWine had a busy weekend of campaign stops, including appearances in Cleveland, Geauga County and Toledo. U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, the Republican Senate candidate, campaigned Saturday with Rep. Bill Johnson in Columbiana County and then Sunday with Sen. Rob Portman in Bowling Green. For your watchlist: Cleveland.com's Jeremy Pelzer ran down his 12 top Ohio state legislative races to watch. They include Ohio's Senate DIstrict 3 between Republican Anne Gonzales and Democrat Tina Maharath and Senate District 5 between Democrat Paul Bradley and Republican Stephen Huffman. Deja vu: Former Vice President Joe Biden made his second trip to Northeast of the week when he headlined a Saturday get-out-the-vote rally for Democratic hopefuls. As cleveland.com's Seth Richardson reports, his speech was essentially the same as one in Youngstown earlier last week, but with a noted emphasis on pushing people to the polls. Hitting pause: Zack Space, the Democratic state auditor candidate, canceled his scheduled appearance at the Biden event to visit his mother, who is in failing health, according to a statement issued by the Space campaign. Trumped up stakes: Tuesday's midterm election is a referendum on Donald Trump's presidency, Eric Trump said during a campaign stop in Canton on Friday. "He's 100 percent on the ballot because if we don't hold the House, if we don't hold the Senate, it's going to be so much harder to get anything done," Trump said, according to cleveland.com's Andrew Tobias. "They will make his life miserable." Trump was there to boost Renacci's campaign for Senate and Rep. Bob Gibbs' re-election campaign. As a reminder: President Donald Trump is appearing in Cleveland this afternoon. His campaign says the rally at the IX Center will start around 3 p.m. Also today: Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will campaign in Cleveland Monday morning at the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party headquarters with Steve Dettelbach, the former Northern Ohio U.S. Attorney and current Ohio attorney general candidate. Air raid: Bloomberg News analyzed more than 3 million 2018 election ads across the country and mapped the results of what types of commercials are playing where. Health care was unsurprisingly number one, but deeper trends were also explored, such as there being more ads critical of Trump from Republicans than Democrats and Democrats running more agricultural-related ads than Republicans. Fitz sighting: Ed FitzGerald, the former Cuyahoga County executive and 2014 gubernatorial candidate, was among those who wrote a letter of support for a businessman convicted of embezzling from his company's employee pension fund, writes cleveland.com's Eric Heisig. C. David Snyder, 66, nonetheless was sentenced to two years in federal prison on Thursday. Another rare sight: After largely making himself scarce in the race to replace him, Ohio Gov. John Kasich made a campaign appearance for Mike DeWine in Columbus on Friday. "He looks at politics like we're all part of his family," Kasich said, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer's Jessie Balmert and Jackie Borchardt. Also on Kasich's schedule: The possible 2020 candidate has scheduled Monday appearances on CNN, MSNBC, The View and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, according to the Columbus Dispatch's Randy Ludlow. RIP: Daniel Best, a pharmaceutical executive from Bay Village who was appointed in March to lead U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initiatives to lower prescription drug prices, has died, writes cleveland.com's Sabrina Eaton. HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced Best's death in a Thursday statement. Yikes: Listeners of a Cincinnati radio station were subjected to ads spouting an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory over the weekend. The Cincinnati Enquirer's Scott Wartman writes that WLW management said under federal law, they had no choice but to run the campaign ad purchased by Jim Condit, Jr., a Green Party candidate for Ohio's 2nd Congressional District. The local Green party and 2nd District candidate Jill Schiller, a Democrat, both denounced the ad on Twitter. Yikes again: In a Friday article, Ludlow excerpted passages from State Sen. Kris Jordan and Delaware County Recorder Melissa Jordan's messy divorce trial. Mrs. Jordan described an incident in which she said her husband, a Republican now running for the Ohio House, broke a car window with a snow shovel and then fired a gun into the ground. The same testimony, which Kris Jordan denied, made its way into a recent campaign commercial from Cory Hoffman, Jordan's Democratic opponent. Birthdays Jane Timken, Ohio Republican Party chairman Full Disclosure Five things we learned from Rep. Timothy Schaffer's April 9 financial disclosure statement. Schaffer, a Lancaster Republican, is running for re-election in House District 77. 1. Schaffer is the executive director of the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers, earning $25,000 to $49,999. In the Ohio House, he earned $66,943.93 last year. 2. Schaffer also is the executive director of the Engineer Foundation of Ohio and the Ohio Society of Association Directors, although he didn't report compensation for those positions. 3. He is investing in a pension with the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, a 401(k) in Lincoln Financial and has an annuity with Great American Insurance Group. 4. The House reimbursed him $1,530.88 for mileage between home and Columbus. He received a $1,218.81 reimbursement for 2016 travel to a National Conference of State Legislatures event. 5. He received a $149 legislator of the year award from the International Interior Design Association. Straight From The Source "Thank God this is ending." - Cincinnati Enquirer politics columnist Jason Williams on the nasty 1st Congressional District election between Republican Rep. Steve Chabot and Democrat Aftab Pureval. Capitol Letter is a daily briefing providing succinct, timely information for those who care deeply about the decisions made by state government. If you do not already subscribe, you can sign up here to get Capitol Letter in your email box each weekday for free. PARMA, Ohio -- This year's Veterans Day is a little bit more special for Dale Anderson II, who last spring was elected to Commander Detachment of Ohio Sons of The American Legion. It's a unique position for the North Royalton resident, who is also Sons of The American Legion Post Commander of Parma's American Legion Post 703, located on York Road. "In the Sons of the American Legion, we are the heirs of the veterans," said North Royalton resident Anderson. "And in my case, I'm the first member in Ohio, maybe in the country, elected as Commander Detachment who has a mother as a veteran. My mother, Margaret Anderson, served in World War II's WAC (Women's Army Corps)." The Commander Detachment oversees 15 American Legion districts and roughly 31,000 veterans in the Buckeye State. "It's a serious position to grow the American Legion and to help our veterans in any and all ways we can," Anderson said. "So it's a one-year term and there are just a lot of responsibilities. I've been all over -- Rittman, Dayton National Cemetery and the national headquarters twice in Indianapolis." Anderson, who has been involved with the American Legion for more than 30 years, said the war veteran organization is currently going through a transition. "Not only are World War II veterans passing away, but our Korean veterans are only five years difference," Anderson said. "Just two years ago, I had one of the biggest honors. The family asked me to be a pallbearer for the last Pearl Harbor survivor in Cuyahoga County." Each American Legion hall includes three groups -- veterans, Sons of American Legion and the Women's Auxiliary. The latter two are there to support the veterans. As for Veterans Day, American Legion Post 703 -- which includes roughly 800 members from Parma, Parma Heights and surrounding communities -- will host a small ceremony. "We're giving our veterans the respect and honor they deserve," Anderson said. "They're the reason we're free." ROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- Since 1954, the more than 100 members of the Rocky River Women's Club have been providing assistance to families in need. The membership meets regularly, whether for their general meetings or book club or just for their own brand of fellowship at potluck dinners. Member Anamarija Machesky spoke about the group, a non-profit social and service organization. She said the club takes its mission seriously, especially at holiday time. "Our primary civic responsibility," she said, "is to oversee and manage the Rocky River Assistance Program, which helps families in financial need with groceries and supplies. Children enrolled in the program receive school supplies, backpacks, coats, gift cards and items from their holiday wish lists." The club's fundraising efforts are targeting a growing poverty rate in Rocky River, which has increased to its current rate of 7.1 percent. With a population of just over 20,433, as reported by City-Data for 2014, that translates to approximately 1,450 people in need, according to the club. Machesky said the club allows members to provide a neighbor-to-neighbor effort, "helping people in your own back yard." With the more than $359,000 they have raised, they have supported programs such as Meals on Wheels, the Rocky River Food Assistance program and Rocky River Little League, among others. In 2017, they provided more than $50,000 in scholarships to Rocky River students and served more than 90 families. Each December, the group conducts its biggest fundraising effort, the Holiday Home Tour, usually consisting of six homes. This year, the tour of some architecturally unique Rocky River homes is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2, leaving from the parking lot at Rocky River High School. Regular tickets are $35 and VIP tickets are $55. The limited number of tickets will be available to purchase online. A VIP ticket include admission to an after-tour party from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Sapphire Pear on Detroit Road. Guests will have the opportunity to meet home owners and committee members. Anyone interested in sponsoring the event or having their home featured on the tour should email the club at rrhometour@gmail.com or call 440-462-9563. Special note: Machesky said canned and packaged goods are being assembled for those in need from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at the Rocky River Adult Activity Center, 20120 Detroit Road. Drop-off food donations are appreciated to add to the effort. CLEVELAND, Ohio Icelandair, which launched service from Cleveland this year, is buying rival Wow Air, the other Iceland-based airline that, until last month, also flew out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The purchase, announced Monday morning, may not have much of an effect on Cleveland, given that Wow had already decided to quit the Cleveland market. Its last flight from Hopkins was in late October. If anything, it may strengthen Icelandair, which has been in a competitive battle with Wow in recent years for market share, particularly in the United States. In a statement, Icelandair said both airlines would continue to operate under existing brands. The acquisition creates opportunity for both companies to become even better prepared to provide international carriers with strong competition in the international airline market, according to the statement. The airlines combined share of the transatlantic market is about 3.8 percent. Both airlines started flying from Cleveland in May, in a move that raised some eyebrows among industry observers. Could Cleveland which hadnt had transatlantic service in nine years support two carriers offering nonstop service to Iceland? Related: Cleveland Hopkins' Icelandic airline experiment hits turbulence, as Wow Air pulls out, Icelandair cuts back Though the two companies have different business models, they both use Keflavik International Airport near Reykjavik as a hub to funnel travelers to and from elsewhere in Europe. Wow is whats known as an ultra-low-cost carrier, with rock-bottom basic fares and add-on fees for extras like advanced-seat assignments, baggage and more. Both airlines felt the crunch of competition this year, particularly as fuel costs increased. Icelandairs CEO resigned in August, after a disappointing second-quarter earnings report. Wow recently issued $70 million in bonds to refinance debt and fund future operations. Seth Kaplan, managing partner of Airline Weekly, said the competition took its toll. Sometimes you have a situation thats just unsustainable. You cant fly all over the world for $99 forever, especially with fuel prices where they are. Kaplan said he thinks the merger is probably good news for Cleveland, because it will help Icelandair regain its footing. Last month, Icelandair announced it was reducing its service in Cleveland to the busy summer months. The airline had originally intended for its Cleveland-to-Reykjavik route to be year-round. At the same time, Wow announced it was completely ending service from Cleveland, Cincinnati and St. Louis. In an interview with USA Today, Wow CEO Skuli Mogensen said the carrier was planning to focus on larger North American markets and new service to India. Kaplan said any airline merger brings a mix a good and bad, for both employees and customers. In the case of Wow and Icelandair, he said: I think its probably more good than bad. Billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer is planning to make a final pitch to Florida voters on Election Day to back Andrew Gillum for governor, CNBC has learned. Steyer is looking to meet with college students in the Sunshine State on Tuesday in a last ditch effort to push Gillum over the finish line, according to the financier's lead strategist Kevin Mack. Steyer's goal, according to Mack, is to convince students at Florida State University and Florida A&M University, to vote for Gillum. Both schools are located in Tallahassee. Lintao Zhang | Pool | REUTERS Lintao Zhang | Pool | Reuters SHANGHAI, China For the third time since U.S. President Donald Trump was elected, Chinese President Xi Jinping took to the global stage on Monday to repeat his rhetoric against protectionism and promote his country as an advocate for international openness and cooperation. While China has made some progress on opening up its economy to foreign companies, critics say the pace is still too slow and many of Xi's announcements have been in the works for some time. In fact, China's attempts to position itself as a champion of globalization fly in the face of its status as one of the most protectionist major nations. Despite that, Xi discussed at length during his highly anticipated address about the benefits of an open international economy, "The economic and social well-being of countries in the world is increasingly interconnected. The reform of the global governance system and the international order is picking up speed," Xi said during his speech from the China International Import Expo. "On the other hand, the world economy is going through profound adjustment and protectionism and unilateralism are resurging. Economic globalization faces headwinds, and multilateralism and the system of free trade are under threat." To face those headwinds, Xi presented his country as one pursuing "a new round of high-standard opening up" and intent on widening "its market access to the rest of the world." In fact, he said, this week's expo "demonstrates China's consistent position of supporting the multilateral trading system and promoting free trade. It is a concrete action taken by China to advance an open world economy and support economic globalization." The Chinese leader said his country will seek to stimulate the potential for increased imports and will further lower import tariffs. He also pledged that China will speed up the opening of its education, telecommunications and cultural sectors. As it now stands, Asia's largest economy maintains extensive barriers for foreign firms looking to conduct business in those areas. The speech also briefly addressed the issue of intellectual property theft, which has been a chief complaint foreign firms have had about China. Xi pledged to "enhance" the punishments for such actions to "significantly raise the cost for offenders." Xi also acknowledged that parts of China's economy are facing challenges and uncertainty right now, but said the government is working quickly to address those issues and has improved in its overall ability to manage macroeconomic growth. A Chinese customer rests as he stands in a store in a shopping district on January 20, 2015 in central Beijing, China. China's services sector chalked its slowest growth in over a year last month as the volume of new orders dried up, a private survey showed, suggesting a further loss in economic momentum as a rough 2018 draws to a close. The slowdown in the services sector which accounts for more than half of China's economy and is an important generator of jobs is particularly worrying for policy makers as they have been counting on it to offset rising pressure on exports from a heated trade row with the United States. The Caixin/Markit services purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 50.8 in October from 53.1 in September, the lowest since September 2017, and creeping closer to the 50 line that separates growth from contraction. Any prolonged weakness in the services sector would complicate Beijing's efforts to steady growth in the face of the trade dispute with the United States, a manufacturing slowdown at home and campaigns to curb excess capacity, pollution and corporate debt. A cooling this year of the Chinese property market, another major contributor to the economy, has also weighed on demand for real estate services. Significantly, Caixin's sub-index for new business orders showed virtually no growth at 50.1 in October, down from 52.4 the previous month and the worst performance since a contraction in November 2008 during the global financial crisis. That dented business confidence towards future activity to a three-month low, according to the survey. The nation's financial services sector was especially hard-hit by the subdued market conditions. China is leaning on services, particularly high value-added services in finance and technology, to reduce the economy's traditional reliance on heavy industry and investment. Some firms surveyed by Caixin also expressed concerns of the possible impact of the Sino-U.S. trade dispute on future activity. The impact of the trade frictions on business confidence, and real activity, was starting to show in the broader economy. A separate Caixin survey published last week showed China's manufacturing sector hardly grew in October after stalling in the previous month. October was the first full month after the latest U.S. tariffs went into effect. Washington and Beijing slapped additional tariffs on each other's goods on Sept. 24, and U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to hit China with more duties. Caixin's composite manufacturing and services PMI, also released on Monday, fell to 50.5 in October from 52.1 a month earlier. That was the lowest level since June 2016. Offering a glimmer of hope, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had what the U.S. president described as a "very good" phone discussion about trade last week. Plans were being made for them to meet on the sidelines of the G20 leaders summit in Argentina at the end of November. CNBC's Jim Cramer on Monday was skeptical of a report in Japan's Nikkei newspaper that said demand for Apple's iPhone XR appears to be disappointing. The paper earlier Monday quoted sources as saying the Cupertino, California-based tech company has told suppliers Foxconn and Pegatron to stop preparing additional production lines. "This is complete nonsense," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." His charitable trust owns Apple stock. Apple shares were more than 2 percent lower midmorning Tuesday after the report. Separately, the company's stock was downgraded by Rosenblatt Securities, which said it has lowered its expectations for iPhone production and shipments. Apple pulled the broader tech sector lower last week, falling more than 6 percent on Friday, after the company's iPhone shipments for last quarter missed estimates. Apple also offered light guidance and announced major changes to its reporting structure. Cramer, the host of "Mad Money," said at the time that investors shouldn't give up on the company's stock despite Apple's management botching the way it announced a change to its earnings reporting. "My advice now is to let this stock settle down. Give the sellers who don't believe [CEO] Tim Cook's explanation a couple more days to get out. Then, if you don't own it, I'd start buying it," he said Friday. Cramer has long warned investors against selling Apple's stock on news reports about iPhone demand. Nikkei did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Cramer's remarks. CNBC's Elizabeth Gurdus contributed to this report. Crystal City locals were not especially surprised when The Washington Post reported Saturday that Amazon is in advanced planning stages of placing a new headquarters in the neighborhood, which is part of Northern Virginia city Arlington. For the better part of a year, Arlington-based real estate agent Eli Tucker has been telling his clients to consider the possibility that Amazon would bring new business and higher property prices to the community, even calling Crystal City a "likely location of Amazon HQ2" in listings. Over the past few months, his clients have started bringing it up first. "It's part of every single conversation I have with buyers and sellers," said Tucker, president of the Eli Residential Group at RLAH Real Estate. "I have people coming to me wondering if they've missed the boat with Amazon HQ2 and sellers wondering if they should sell now or if they should hold onto their property." On Monday, media outlets including NBC News reported that that Amazon is now planning to split its new headquarters between more than one city, meaning that Crystal City would share any benefits of a new Amazon building -- as well as any drawbacks. "The roads are already pretty clogged as it is and I can't imagine having 50,000 more people just across the city in Crystal City," D.C. resident Mark Manivog said, referencing the 50,000 jobs Amazon originally claimed HQ2 would bring to the new location. (That number is likely to be half as large if Amazon splits its new headquarters.) "I'll be happy, there will be more jobs and more opportunity, but at the same time there is the traffic issue and there is the housing price issue." Other locals, like Northern Virginia resident Lars Dyrud, hardly see a downside to having Amazon HQ2 in the area. "I think it's virtually all positive," he said. He noted that local property owner JBG Smith had already "done a great job of revitalizing the area" ahead of the anticipated Amazon selection. Real estate professionals seem to agree that if Crystal City does become a new Amazon location, housing prices will almost certainly increase. Both Tucker of RLAH and Associate Broker Aaron Seekford of Arlington Realty advise sellers that if they have the option to hold on their property until after the announcement, they could sell for more without much additional risk. "If Amazon does not come it's not like the market is going to bottom out," Tucker said. "You can make a speculative play and if Amazon decides to go elsewhere you're still in a really strong real estate market." The ongoing trade war between the United States and China is unlikely to have any major impact in the short term because it takes time for companies to adjust their supply chains, according to the CEO of DBS Group. The short-term impact of the trade tensions "might be exaggerated," Piyush Gupta told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Monday. "The assumption that trade is going to fall off a cliff is, I think, unlikely," he said. "Supply chains are not that easy to move. Our own sense is that the technology supply chain will take three, four years to move." Companies cannot replicate overnight the factories in China that are part of their existing supply chains with new set-ups in other areas of the world, according to the DBS chief. "You've got to get land, hire workers, build plants. We don't think the actual impact of trade will start getting visible in the 2019 time frame," he said. As a result, supply chains will not be "in a hurry" to shift away from China and production activity will continue to be "fairly steady," Gupta added. There are concerns that factory activity in China could slow and the world's second-largest economy might lose its growth momentum due to the trade war. So far, the U.S. has levied tariffs on an extensive list of Chinese products. Beijing, for its part, responded with duties on products from the U.S., even as President Xi Jinping emphasizes his rhetoric denouncing protectionism. While short-term concerns over Deutsche Bank were put to one side on Monday as the embattled German lender performed better-than-expected in the European Central Bank's (ECB) latest stress tests, longer term worries still continue to rattle investors. Deutsche shares climbed a modest 0.2 percent in early deals after it registered a core tier 1 capital ratio of 8.14 percent at Friday evening's test. This figure is essentially the cash buffer it has in the event of a financial crisis. Shares, however, tumbled 1 percent late morning. The assessment looked at the bank's 2017 balance sheet and tested how it would stand up to the strain of what the ECB described as "adverse market developments." In 2016, Deutsche Bank saw its ratio drop to 7.8 percent, ranking it as one of the lowest in the health check. However, the 2018 results still placed the German lender at 40th place out of the 48 lenders tested and analysts have warned that the progress shown may not be enough. "The problem in the euro zone is a dearth of bank lending," consultancy High Frequency Economics said in its weekly research note Monday. "(The) stress tests, published on Friday, show some progress toward bank recapitalization, although not enough to prevent some of the strongest banks in Europe from flirting with mandatory recap (recapitalization) levels in the adverse scenario," the firm said. ECB vice president Luis de Guindos told a conference in Brussels on Monday that a number of euro zone banks, holding about 40 percent of the sector's assets need to strengthen their capital positions. "Banks with core capital ratios in the adverse scenario below 9 percent display a weaker, though still satisfactory, capital position," de Guindos said. "These 12 entities, representing almost 40 percent of total assets of the sector, should increase robustness and enhance capital positions to face challenges ahead and will thus be closely monitored," he added. On Friday, James von Moltke, the chief financial officer of Deutsche Bank, said his company had shown a "greater resilience across market, credit and operational risk" despite tougher tests than what was seen two years ago. "We have the liquidity and capital resources to support profitable growth," he added in an official statement. For Elon Musk, the difference between a "manageable" work schedule and an "insane" one is somewhere between 80 and 120 hours of work per week. "You're gonna go a little bonkers if you work 120 hours a week," Musk told Recode's Kara Swisher in an interview on Wednesday at Tesla's Palo Alto, California headquarters. "There were times when, some weeks ... I haven't counted exactly, but I would just sort of sleep for a few hours, work, sleep for a few hours, work, seven days a week. Some of those days must have been 120 hours or something nutty." Now, Musk said he is "down to 80 or 90" hours of work per week and "it's pretty manageable." Musk said while "80 is pretty sustainable," the increase in suffering when you work more than that is dramatic. "The pain level for hours increases exponentially. It's like nonlinear above 80," Musk said, according to a transcript. Still, 80 hours a week is over 10 hours more than the average CEO of a multibillion-dollar company works. A study published in June by Harvard Business Review found CEOs worked an average of 62.5 hours a week. On average, the CEOs monitored for the study worked 9.7 hours per weekday, which totals just 48.5 hours per work week. They also worked 79 percent of weekend days at an average of 3.9 hours daily, and 70 percent of vacation days with an average of 2.4 hours on those days. For the study, Harvard professors Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria, tracked how 27 CEOs of companies with an average annual revenue of $13.1 billion spent their days in 15 minutes increments, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for three months. As for Musk, he has attributed some of his recent controversial behavior to his work schedule. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down 0.09 percent provisionally, with the various sectors taking different directions. Technology was down by about 1.5 percent, whereas oil and gas stocks jumped by about the same amount. Looking at individual stocks, Vopak rose 4.7 percent after reporting higher-than-expected results. Siemens health care also jumped 2.7 percent on its latest earnings release. European banks were under particular scrutiny after the latest results of European stress tests on Friday. Barclays and Lloyds had the lowest capital ratios in the adverse scenario. According to KPMG, this was due to new accounting rules and high levels of unsecured debt examples of which may include credit card loans. Both stocks traded flat on Monday. "The U.K. banks fared the worst in the test due to macro risks associated with Brexit, but the results do not inform their capital requirements with the BOE (Bank of England) publishing its stress test results on Dec 5," Jefferies said in a research note on Monday. On the other hand, Italian banks were under pressure. Although they eased past the tests' adverse scenario requirements, analysts believe the macro assumptions for Italy were a little too optimistic. Banco BPM and Intesa Sanpaolo dropped about 2 and 1.6 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, euro zone finance ministers gathered in Brussels for another meeting. The Italian budget plan for 2019 is set to be a talking point among the ministers. Luigi di Maio, Italy's deputy prime minister said the country's spending plans will become "a recipe" for reviving European growth. The Trump administration also reinstated all sanctions removed under the 2015 nuclear deal, targeting both Iran and states that trade with it. Oil prices have risen in the session. By around 3 p.m. London time, WTI was higher by nearly half a percent while Brent Crude had risen almost one percent. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018. Facebook on Monday said it would no longer allow President Donald Trump's re-election campaign to run advertisements urging Americans to vote for Republicans to stop thousands of immigrants from crossing the U.S. border, saying the ad violated company policy. "This ad violates Facebook's advertising policy against sensational content so has been rejected," a company spokeswoman said in a statement on Monday. "While the video is allowed to be posted on Facebook, it cannot receive paid distribution." The 30-second advertisement, which CNN and others have called "racist," warns Americans of "an invasion" of 7,000 immigrants headed to the U.S. "Stop the caravan. Vote Republican. I'm Donald Trump, and I approve this message," the advertisement says. Trade tensions can't be fixed by talks between Washington and Beijing alone, according to the World Trade organization (WTO). President Donald Trump has long promised to redress a trade imbalance between China and the U.S. and since gaining power has attempted to reduce the deficit by imposing tariffs on goods and services. Trump's protectionist measures have been countered by President Xi Jinping, leading talk of a trade war. Those fears have translated into choppy and dramatic trading in equity markets across the globe. Trump and Xi are expected to talk trade in the upcoming G-20 meetings, igniting speculation that a trade deal could be in the offing. But speaking to CNBC's Eunice Yoon on Monday, the WTO's Director General, Roberto Azevedo, said that while bilateral talks are necessary, other countries would need to have their say. "If it is strictly bilateral it is often a win/lose situation where people say: 'I win and you lose, or this is good for you but bad for me'," he told CNBC in Shanghai at the China International Import Expo The WTO's top employee said while two-sided conversations were good for securing market access or agreeing trade deals, the current environment of trade friction was affecting several other countries. He said a multilateral format would be needed to include different perspectives in the conversation. "When you have more open conversation with more countries involved you tend to have a more productive and more cooperative conversation," he said. Trump has previously dismissed the WTO as a "catastrophe," suggesting the organization isn't fit to arrange fair trading between countries. Azevedo conceded that it was "no accident" that people are talking about WTO reform, but he saw it as a tacit admission that the organization is best placed to resolve disputes. "It doesn't mean that you have to have 164 members of the WTO on board, but you need to have a significant number of partners playing this game. I think right now, there is appetite for that." WATCH: Twelve US execs explain how Trump's trade war affects their bottom lines Iran plans to defy newly reimposed U.S. sanctions and continue to sell, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reportedly said on state TV on Monday, according to Reuters. "America wanted to cut to zero Iran's oil sales ... but we will continue to sell our oil ... to break sanctions," Rouhani reportedly told economists at a meeting that was broadcast live. On Monday, Washington reimposed sanctions on Iran in a bid to put pressure on the Islamic republic to curb its nuclear, missile and regional activities. The first round of U.S. sanctions were reimposed in August. U.S. crude oil traded 0.55 percent lower on Monday at $62.81, while the benchmark slid 0.41 percent lower to trade at $72.53 at 2:25p.m. HK/SIN time. The Trump administration said on Friday it will grant special exceptions to eight jurisdictions, allowing them to temporarily carry on importing oil from Tehran even after the sanctions are reimposed, according to cabinet members. President Donald Trump gave oil importers 180 days to wind down purchases of Iranian crude when he withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May. The eight waivers will allow the jurisdictions to gradually reduce their purchases after the Nov. 4 deadline. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did not name the eight jurisdictions on Friday, but a South Korean official said Monday that Seoul had been granted an exception from U.S. sanctions against Iran. Additional reporting from CNBC's Tom DiChristopher and Reuters Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify the name of President Hassan Rouhani. The Italian banking system came under pressure on Monday morning, after shares in the country's largest four lenders fell despite an overall positive result in the latest stress tests conducted by the European Banking Authority (EBA). Banco BPM sank 3.4 percent; UniCredit dropped more than 1.6 percent; and Ubi Banca was down by 1.8 percent in late-morning trade in Europe. Meanwhile, Intesa Sanpaolo's shares got further hit, down 2.2 percent on the back of a Goldman Sachs downgrade on Friday. The investment bank said that Intesa is "well-managed" and has a "comfortable capital position." However, it expects the profitability of the bank to be dented by a "deteriorating macro-outlook," Reuters reported. However, analysts told CNBC that the fall in shares on Monday highlighted a number of concerns surrounding Italy. "The stress tests results were actually broadly positive on the Italian banks. However, I feel that the shares are down as questions are beginning to be raised in regards to the expectations for Italy for next year," Tom Kinmonth, fixed income strategist at ABN Amro told CNBC via email Monday. The four banks registered a capital ratio in the adverse scenario above 5.5 percent the threshold that analysts use to know whether a bank passed or failed stress tests. Out of the four, Banco BPM had the lowest capital ratio in the adverse scenario at 6.7 percent. This figure is essentially the cash buffer it has in the event of a financial crisis. Meanwhile, analysts at Capital Economics said that despite the results, Italian banks "are still a source of discomfort." This is because "the economic assumptions underlying that analysis are a little too optimistic." The EBA assessed the banks' 2017 balance sheet and in effect looked at data before the change in government in Rome. "If the EBA were to come up with a baseline scenario today, it would presumably show slower growth than it had previously assumed. And they would also need to factor in the hit to banks' capital as a result of the increase in bond yields," Jack Allen, senior European economist at Capital Economics told CNBC via email Monday. The new anti-establishment government in Italy, appointed in June, has promised to challenge European fiscal rules. As a result, concerns over the country's ability to repay its debts have grown and that has dented Italian lenders, given that they are one of the main holders of Italian debt. Teresa Heitsenrether at the New York Stock Exchange Courtesy of JPMorgan J.P. Morgan Chase is letting clients tap crucial software used by its own trading desks for the first time. At the heart of the world's biggest investment bank is an all-seeing program that allows its traders and salespeople to value trillions of dollars in stocks, bonds and currencies. Now, J.P. Morgan is letting clients access the trading program named Athena after the Greek goddess of wisdom to run analytics on their own investments, according to Teresa Heitsenrether, the bank's global head of custody and fund services. Her business safeguards almost $25 trillion in assets and is known for winning the industry's biggest-ever deal last year by convincing BlackRock to move $1.3 trillion in assets. The firm has already sold subscriptions to its Investment Analytics Platform to 208 big investors, Heitsenrether said in an interview. Another 42 clients are expected to sign by year-end. Banks want to move from hawking individual products to becoming platforms that clients can turn to as one-stop shops for financial services. The shift is necessitated and enabled by advances in technology that allow software to replace human-heavy processes. As the world of finance becomes digitized, simple activities like custody become cheaper to provide, and so banks have to offer harder-to-replicate services as part of a bundle to inspire loyalty. "The value of the traditional business of purely operational services continues to diminish because we're finding better ways to do things with technology," Heitsenrether said. "The battle will be won and lost on, 'Can you give me the right information, analytics and services on top of that?' Becoming a platform is where we see the future." It's also the latest example of a big financial firm finding commercial applications for software it originally created for its own needs. BlackRock, the world's largest money manager, created a risk analytics program known as Aladdin almost three decades ago. Now Aladdin, sometimes referred to as an X-ray machine for portfolios, helps manage $18 trillion of the planet's financial assets, mostly through licenses to institutional investors. More products to follow? More recently, Goldman Sachs has opened up its risk management system called SecDB to clients in a range of apps to help clients customize derivatives or other instruments. J.P. Morgan's effort, which went live earlier this year, is the bank's first external product based on Athena. Others may follow: It's looking to offer related services in the future, including risk management systems for regional and foreign banks. Athena was created with help from some of the same engineers who designed Goldman Sachs' SecDB in the 1990s. Goldman's program was seen as the bank's secret sauce for trading because it allows for a unified, real-time view of risk across a bank's trading positions. SecDB is credited with helping Goldman navigate the 2008 financial crisis better than other banks, which typically relied on a network of cobbled-together programs across trading desks. At J.P. Morgan, Athena replaced nine separate systems in the fixed income division and later spread to include equities. Clients targeted for J.P. Morgan's IAP include pensions, endowments and insurance companies. Those asset owners are assuming more investing duties to save money, said Heitsenrether, a 30-year J.P. Morgan veteran who took over the custody bank in 2015. While big asset managers already have sophisticated tools to examine their holdings, pensions and others don't, providing an opening for J.P. Morgan, she said. "They don't have a good way to aggregate all that info across multiple external portfolio managers, and may discover that they have an overly concentrated position in Apple because everyone owns the same stuff," Heitsenrether said. The move puts J.P. Morgan at odds with products from industry vendors including MSCI and Bloomberg, she said. The bank declined to provide revenue projections for the program; it's seen more as a way to attract and retain clients to the custody business than as a stand-alone operation, according to a person with knowledge of the firm. Custody helped generated $3.9 billion in revenue last year, a 9 percent increase from 2016. So far this year, revenue in the business has climbed 11 percent. Custody is a growth business People cast their ballots at a community center during early voting October 25, 2018 in Potomac, Maryland, two weeks ahead of the key US midterm polls. ( Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images Voters across the country will head to the polls on Tuesday to determine which party controls the House of Representatives and the Senate for the final two years of President Donald Trump's first term in office. But it is not just lawmakers on the ballot. More than 150 ballot measures will be up for consideration on Tuesday, according to a Ballotpedia tally, including 63 measures placed on the ballot by petition that could create new laws or strike down old ones, circumventing state legislatures. The bottom of the ballot may not be earning headlines, but it is fertile ground for big spenders looking to shape policy at the state level. Ballot measure campaigns have spent more than $1 billion this cycle on par with the amount raised for a successful presidential bid and have attracted the attention of major businesses and spending groups. The issues are heavily charged. In three states, West Virginia, Oregon and Alabama, voters will consider placing new limits on abortion access. In three others Idaho, Utah and Nebraska voters could choose to expand Medicaid over strong local Republican opposition. The key issues this year are election reform and marijuana legalization, with voters in 16 states taking up the issues. Measures in a number of states have pit renewable energy proponents against heavily funded opposition campaigns. Six states could face tougher limits on their ability to collect taxes. Election reform One of the most closely watched initiatives is a Florida proposal that could restore voting rights to most convicted felons in the state. The measure is expected to pass, which would enfranchise more than 1.5 million people 10 percent of the voting population in a state that often proves critical in presidential races. Interestingly, there has been little in the way of organized opposition. Voters in four other states will decide issues that observers say could "end gerrymandering" by shifting redistricting decisions from elected officials to independent commissions. It's an issue that has rattled statehouses around the country and could prove consequential for the national political landscape. The U.S. Supreme Court took up the issue earlier this year, but ultimately punted on a major ruling, lending more weight to the measures on the ballot in Michigan, Utah, Missouri and Colorado. Marijuana legalization Despite a federal prohibition, nine states and the District of Columbia allow for recreational marijuana use. If pot advocates have their way on Tuesday, two more states could join in. Voters in Michigan and North Dakota will decide whether to permit recreational weed use via ballot measures this Election Day. That is in addition to measures in Missouri and Utah that could allow the drug for medicinal purposes. 2016 was seen as a watershed year for marijuana legalization, and much of the activity took place via ballot measure. Arkansas, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada and North Dakota all increased access to marijuana that year. Renewable energy Source: Bank of America Merrill Lynch The best stock market returns occur when Washington, D.C., is locked in the "gridlock" that comes with different parties controlling the two houses of Congress, data shows. The best returns under a Republican president occurred while Congress was split, with that scenario producing 12 percent annual returns, according to data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Democrats are expected to retake control of the House from the GOP. Republicans, meanwhile, are expected to maintain a slim majority in the Senate. "Markets typically like gridlock in D.C.," Joseph Song, U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said in a note. This outcome may "modestly reduce risk of trade tension, and be supportive of risk assets." Song also said the industrials and materials sectors could benefit from a divided government as both parties could find common ground on a "small" infrastructure bill. The broad index also does OK when Republicans control the White House and Democrats lead both houses of Congress. In these instances, the S&P 500 averages an annual return of 8.6 percent. Watch: How the midterms will affect Trump's economy Nancy Pelosi is expected to become the next speaker of the House if Democrats regain the majority, but she might face a challenge from a familiar adversary. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who lost to Pelosi when he challenged her to be the House minority leader, is open to the idea of vying to lead Democrats in the lower chamber of Congress, an aide told CNBC. "No decisions have been made regarding leadership, but Rep. Ryan has left the door open on the matter. Any decision would come after tomorrow's election results," Michael Zetts, Ryan's communications director, said Monday. Pelosi, the California Democrat who was the first female speaker of the House, has made it clear on the campaign trail that she has been focused on helping Democrats regain the majority in the House. However, she's confident she will become the next House leader if Democrats take over Congress. "It is up to them to make that decision, but I feel pretty comfortable where I am," Pelosi said this year at a CNN political forum when asked if she will be the next speaker. Pelosi previously was speaker from January 2007 until January 2011. Democrats need to flip 23 seats to win a majority. Experts give the party good odds to overtake the GOP. As of Monday, data analyst Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight gives Democrats an 87 percent chance of retaking the House. A senior Democratic aide close to Pelosi, who asked not to be named, blasted the notion that Ryan might try to challenge the California Democrat, suggesting that the Ohio lawmaker is trying to position himself for a presidential run in 2020. "Tim Ryan has done nothing but exploit his criticism of Nancy Pelosi to get himself on TV and prepare for a presidential run," the aide said. "He has done absolutely nothing to distinguish himself since he last lost to Pelosi. Pelosi has tirelessly traveled the country and raised half of the record DCCC haul. Ryan is a shameless self-promoter and actively undermined Democratic unity going in the election. It's unlikely Ryan will jump in because a lamb who has been slaughtered twice by Pelosi isn't a terribly effective presidential campaign platform from which to spring from." Ryan, who's consistently governed as a moderate Democrat, has said publicly that he's also considering running on the Democratic ticket for president in 2020. A spokesman for Pelosi did not return requests for comment. Ryan once competed against Pelosi for a leadership post. After President Donald Trump won in 2016 and the GOP held onto the House, Ryan challenged Pelosi for the title of House minority leader. Ryan lost, but he still managed to garner 63 votes compared with Pelosi's 134. Other Democrats have made it a point to say they don't support Pelosi for a leadership role. According to an NBC News survey taken in August, at least 50 Democrats running for House seats said they would not back Pelosi for speaker. Many of those candidates opposing her called on Pelosi to step aside and argued it was time for new leadership. Those close to the minority leader, though, scoff at the idea of Pelosi not receiving enough votes to lead the party if the Democrats make inroads in the House. They point to her get-out-the-vote efforts and the impact she's had raising money for Democratic election committees, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or the DCCC. "She's been cold, calculated and the Democrats most important weapon in combating Republicans trying to keep their majority. She's been running on three things: messaging, money and mobility," said a close Pelosi advisor who declined to be named. "There's not a single member of the Democratic congressional leadership who has even come close to what Pelosi has done throughout the year. With that being said, no one within her party will have the courage to take her on if they pull off a victory on Tuesday." In October, Pelosi's office announced that she had raised $34.2 million for Democrats during the third quarter. That total includes $30.5 million directly for the DCCC. For the 2018 cycle, Pelosi raised $121.7 million for Democrats and since entering leadership ranks in 2002, she's raked in $714.5 million for her party. In the past week, her extensive work on the campaign trail has led her to tell donors and advisors that she's confident Democrats will gain at least 30 seats in the House. Nonpartisan elections analysis site Sabato's Crystal Ball also expects Democrats to pick up more than 30 seats in the House. Masayoshi Son speaks during a joint announcement with Toyota Motor to make new venture to develop mobility services in Tokyo in October 2018. SoftBank's chief executive broke his silence over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Monday, saying the incident could have some impact on the firm's $100 billion Vision Fund. The Japanese tech investment giant has poured billions into start-ups in Silicon Valley and around the world through this investment fund. The fund is anchored by Saudi money, with the country's sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF) contributing $45 billion. "We don't yet know the clear understanding of the case so we would like to be careful watching the outcome," SoftBank's Masayoshi Son said via a translator at an investor briefing following the release of the company's second-quarter results Monday. Son said he had not heard of any companies saying they would not want to accept investments from the Vision Fund due to its relationship with Saudi Arabia's PIF, however he said that "there may be some impact" on the fund's investments. SoftBank on Monday said that its July-September operating profit rose to 705.7 billion Japanese yen ($6.23 billion), an almost 80 percent jump from the 395.6 billion yen profit it reported in the previous year. Its bumper revenues have been helped by higher valuations on the bets it has made on tech companies. Son said he had met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to raise his concerns about the incident. When asked by a reporter about what he had told him, Son replied the crown prince had said: "This was not something which should have happened." SoftBank's boss declined to attend a major business conference in Saudi Arabia, the Future Investment Initiative, last month, but he said that he did visit the country to meet with officials and raise his concerns about Khashoggi's death. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, shakes hands with Salah Khashoggi, a son, of Jamal Khashoggi, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday, Oct. 23. The sons of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Sunday issued an appeal for the return of their father's body and said they wanted to return to Saudi Arabia to bury him. In an interview with CNN, Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi said that without their father's body, their family is unable to grieve and deal with the emotional burden of their father's death. "It's not a normal situation, it's not a normal death at all. All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina (Saudi Arabia) with the rest of his family," Salah Khashoggi said. "I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon." Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the Saudi government and its de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Saudi authorities have admitted that Khashoggi was murdered in a premeditated action, revising previous statements that his death was unintended. Turkish officials and some U.S. lawmakers have said that Crown Prince Mohammed ordered the murder, an allegation that Riyadh denies. Khashoggi's body has not been recovered, and Saudi authorities are conducting an official investigation. Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an international businessman, said on Sunday that the probe will exonerate the country's leader. Salah Khashoggi on Oct. 24 met in Riyadh with the crown prince and King Salman to receive condolences along with other Khashoggi family members. Salah departed for Washington a day later, and his CNN interview was his first public comments since then. He said King Salman assured him that those involved in Jamal Khashoggi's murder would be brought to justice. "We just need to make sure that he rests in peace," Salah Khashoggi said of his father. "Until now, I still can't believe that he's dead. It's not sinking in with me emotionally," he said, adding that there has been a lot of "misinformation" about the circumstances of the death. Salah said that charges that his father was a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood organization were not true. Asked how Khashoggi should be remembered, Salah replied, "As a moderate man who has common values with everyone ... a man who loved his country, who believed so much in it and its potential." "Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy, that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. And he believed in the transformation that it is going through." In a setback for industry groups, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday announced that it would not take up challenges to Obama-era "net neutrality" regulations that barred internet service providers from giving certain customers preferential treatment. The Trump administration overturned those regulations last year, and since June they have not been in effect. But a range of challenges to the regulations remained before the court, brought by groups such as the United States Telecom Association, AT&T and The Internet & Television Association. The court's decision will leave in effect a decision from a federal appeals court in Washington upholding the constitutionality of the regulations. That means the decision can be relied on for precedent in the future. Three of the court's conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, said they would have vacated that decision. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh recused themselves. Trump announced in May The United States was withdrawing from a 2015 accord with Iran, which lifted wide-ranging sanctions on the Iranian economy. In return, Tehran agreed to accept limits on its nuclear technology program and allow inspections of its nuclear installations. A new round of punishing sanctions on Iran's energy, banking and shipping sectors went into force overnight. The list targets more than 700 entities, including individuals, banks, aircraft and vessels. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday said Tehran will evade the sanctions and keep pushing its oil barrels into the market, reiterating the nation's long-standing defiance. "The Iranian regime has a choice. It can either do a 180-degree turn from its outlaw course of action and act like a normal country or it can see its economy crumble," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a press conference. The return of sanctions, first implemented during the Obama administration, fulfills President Donald Trump 's vow six months ago to ratchet up pressure on Iran, despite widespread international criticism. The Trump administration says it will lift the sanctions only after Iran's leadership in Tehran accepts its list of 12 demands . The Trump administration on Monday renewed sanctions against hundreds of entities throughout Iran's energy sector and its broader economy, promising to exert more pressure on the Islamic Republic. Trump, who has long railed against the nuclear deal as one-sided and flawed, gave foreign companies 90 to 180 days to wind down their business with Iran. Companies that engage in sanctioned activity with Iran face the threat of being locked out of the U.S. market. The 180-day period came to a close this week, restoring a heavier slate of sanctions on Iran than a first round that went into effect after the 90-day grace period. The latest round largely targets oil exports from Iran, OPEC's third-largest crude producer. The European Union, which opposes Trump's unilateral withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, is seeking to preserve the accord and protect the continent's companies from the sanctions. However, many European firms have cut off ties with Iran rather than risk losing access to the massive U.S. financial and economic systems. According to the State Department, companies in more than 20 nations have entirely stopped buying Iranian crude, shrinking Iranian oil exports by about 1 million barrels per day and depriving the regime of roughly $2.5 billion in revenue. Pompeo on Monday released a list of countries that can continue importing Iranian oil for the time being, including Iran's top two customers, China and India. Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey are also on the list. The waivers will allow them to reduce their purchases over the coming weeks and months. On Monday, Trump said his administration issued the waivers to prevent a spike in oil prices. "I don't want to drive the oil prices in the world up, so I'm not looking to be a great hero and bring it down to zero immediately," he told reporters. "I could get the Iran oil down to zero immediately but it would cause a shock to the market." Trump's Iran policy has been a major contributor to this year's oil price rally. Crude futures hit nearly four-year highs last month as the market braced for the loss of the Iranian barrels. Prices have since fallen by about $13 a barrel amid a sell-off in global markets, signs of weaker-than-anticipated oil demand and rising output from major producers. Monday's actions designate 50 Iranian banks and their subsidiaries, more than 200 individuals and vessels in Iran's energy and shipping sector and an Iranian airline and its 65 aircraft. "Treasury's imposition of unprecedented financial pressure on Iran should make clear to the Iranian regime that they will face mounting financial isolation and economic stagnation until they fundamentally change their destabilizing behavior," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. "The maximum pressure exerted by the United States is only going to mount from here. We are intent on making sure the Iranian regime stops siphoning its hard currency reserves into corrupt investments and the hands of terrorists." During the press conference on Monday, Pompeo addressed Trump's tweet on Friday in which the president posted an image of himself tagged, "Sanctions are coming," mimicking the hit fantasy novels and HBO series "Game of Thrones." Asked whether the tweet was appropriate, Pompeo criticized the media. See the tweet "Much has been made of this 'Game of Thrones.' Qassem Soleimani responded, and I haven't seen any of you comment on that. This is a man who has American blood on his hands. He's killed American soldiers, and that's not funny," Pompeo said, referring to a "Game of Thrones" image released in response by Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. In fact, a number of news outlets reported on Soleimani's tweet, including The Washington Post, the Daily Mail and the New York Daily News. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's move to deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border is so far shaping up to have a cost of $220 million, according to two U.S. defense officials who were not authorized to speak publicly. The initial cost estimate, a figure that could change based on the ultimate size and scope of the mission, comes as nearly 4,000 troops moved to the border Saturday as Trump has repeatedly warned of a caravan of migrants from Central America. In a briefing Monday, however, the Pentagon said it had no cost estimate at the moment. In mid-October, a caravan of at least 3,500 Central American migrants seeking asylum left Honduras for the United States border. The caravan is currently in southern Mexico. Trump has made the caravan one of his prime targets as he campaigns for Republicans down the stretch of the midterm election campaign. The president has referred to the caravan as an "invasion" while claiming that Democrats want open borders, which Democrats deny. Critics have called the deployment a political stunt. Defense Secretary James Mattis, however, downplayed that criticism last week. "The support that we provide to the secretary for Homeland Security is practical support based on the request from the commissioner of customs and border police. We don't do stunts in this department," he said Wednesday. A Pentagon risk assessment found that the caravan did not pose a threat to the United States, according to a person with direct knowledge of U.S. intelligence. This person also said that the caravan would take about a month and a half to get to the U.S. border. A second caravan of about 1,000 to 1,500 people from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, crossed the border into Mexico last week. The Department of Defense estimates that more than 7,000 troops will be positioned in California, Arizona and Texas in support of the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection. In which case, the border mission, dubbed Operation Faithful Patriot, will have a larger U.S. military footprint than the combined efforts in Iraq and Syria. However, last week, Trump said he was prepared to deploy as many as 15,000 service members to the border, a move that would be on par with the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan, which remains America's longest war. The Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. The Washington Post previously reported that the border deployment could end up costing $200 million by the end of the year. WATCH: The economic cost of immigration detention The United States reimposes oil and financial sanctions against Iran on Monday, significantly turning up the pressure on Tehran in order to curb its missile and nuclear programs and counter its growing military and political influence in the Middle East. The move will restore U.S. sanctions that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the administration of President Barack Obama, and add 300 new designations in Iran's oil, shipping, insurance and banking sectors. President Donald Trump announced in May that his administration was withdrawing from what he called the "worst ever" agreement negotiated by the United States. Other parties to the deal, including Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, have said they will not leave. Details of the sanctions will be released at a news conference scheduled for 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT) with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkey all top importers of Iranian oil are among eight countries expected to be given temporary exemptions from the sanctions to ensure crude oil prices are not destabilized. The countries will deposit Iran's revenue in an escrow account, U.S. officials have said. 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. The reimplementation of U.S. sanctions on Iran will benefit the hard-line faction within the Middle East country, according to the Washington, D.C.-based National Iranian American Council (NIAC). The non-profit group which aims to represent Iranian Americans added that the sanctions could also isolate the United States and increase its reliance on Saudi Arabia in the region. Policy Director Ryan Costello told CNBC Monday that the current president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, is a relative moderate in Iran's political elite who may have to adopt a tougher stance if he is to retain his political influence. "Rouhani really has had the rug pulled out from in terms of sanctions When you look at the forces who have benefited from this decision it is the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) who have benefited," Costello said in a phone call. "You are kind of likely to see a rally around the flag with this and the moderate wing of the Rouhani government will also have to move more in line with the hardliners," he added. The Trump administration has reinstated all sanctions removed under the 2015 nuclear deal, targeting both Iran and states that trade with it. The policy director said the sanctions "snapback" will allow the Iranian government to shift blame on the U.S. as the cause of domestic suffering, especially should shortages of food and medicines become more acute. Bazaar Corporate Radar | Feb 22, 2021, 12:00 AM IST Bazaar Corporate Radar Bazaar Corporate Radar is your window into the minds of top CEOs, Boardrooms, global economists, fund managers and sector analysts. If it?s making news, you?ll find it on Bazaar Corporate Radar. The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form Ive written recently about Microsoft taking on the role of the tech industrys conscience. Among other stands, the company has called for the federal government to regulate face-recognition technology and warned in a blog post about the potential dangers of AI-powered technology, ranging from serious privacy invasions to suppression of free speech. Microsoft has also pushed for international pacts to limit the way in which the United States and other countries use cyberweapons. But now Microsoft is trying to land a massive $10 billion U.S. Defense Department contract involving AI and cloud technologies a contract so controversial that Google has declined to participate in the bidding after many of its employees voiced concern. Microsoft employees have asked the company to do the same, but the company has refused. Is Microsoft putting its morals aside in order to try to land a lucrative contract? Or is it instead helping make the country militarily stronger and safer? Its a tough call, but a deep look at the issue offers an answer. First, lets start with the contract itself. Its for a program called JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) that will develop a cloud-based infrastructure for employing data in warfare. Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said it will also include the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for warfare, and added, JEDI Cloud is an acquisition for foundational commercial cloud technologies that will enable warfighters to better execute a mission that is increasingly dependent on the exploitation of information. Department of Defense Chief Management Officer John H. Gibson II offered a more blunt explanation: We need to be very clear. This program is truly about increasing the lethality of our department. Amazon and IBM have joined Microsoft and others in pursuing the contract. Google was notable for its absence from the field. That came about after an uproar by its employees over a previous Defense Department contract. That one, called Project Maven, uses AI to interpret video information, and would be used to target drone strikes. Four thousand Google employees signed a petition demanding the company adopt a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology. As a result, Google ended its participation in Project Maven. And when it came time to bid on JEDI, Google said it wouldnt, in part because we couldnt be assured that [the JEDI deal] would align with our AI Principles. Microsoft employees, following the lead of Googles workers, have tried to pressure Microsoft not to purse JEDI. In an open letter to Microsoft, the employees claimed that the contract is shrouded in secrecy, which makes it nearly impossible to know what we as workers would be building. Many Microsoft employees dont believe that what we build should be used for waging war. When we decided to work at Microsoft, we were doing so in the hopes of empowering every person on the planet to achieve more, not with the intent of ending lives and enhancing lethality. The employees also point to a blog post by Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, and Harry Shum, executive vice president of Microsofts AI and Research Group, titled The Future Computed: Artificial Intelligence and its role in society. In it, Smith and Shum say that AI development should be guided by strong ethical principles to make sure AI is designed and used responsibly. Those ethical principles, their blog says, are fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusivity, transparency, and accountability. Employees say that JEDI violates several of those principles. They have also asked that Microsofts participation in JEDI be reviewed by the companys AI ethics committee. The letter concludes, Microsoft, dont bid on JEDI. Microsoft brushed off its employees complaints and continues to work toward landing the contract. In a blog post about why the company is pursuing JEDI, Smith explained, We readily decided this summer to pursue this project, given our longstanding support for the Defense Department. All of us who live in this country depend on its strong defense. We want the people of this country and especially the people who serve this country to know that we at Microsoft have their backs. They will have access to the best technology that we create. Smith admitted, though, that Artificial intelligence, augmented reality and other technologies are raising new and profoundly important issues, including the ability of weapons to act autonomously. And he acknowledged that once Microsoft provides technology to the military, how its used will be out of the companys hands, telling The New York Times, We cant control how the U.S. military uses our technology once we give it to them. But he argued, The military is subject to civilian control. And we believe we will have an opportunity to influence those discussions. In his blog post, he concluded, To withdraw from this market is to reduce our opportunity to engage in the public debate about how new technologies can best be used in a responsible way. So as far as Microsoft is concerned, its case closed. The company is bidding on the contract. Should it, though? Or should it pay attention to employees who ask the company to pull out? Whats the ethical thing to do? This is one of those issues in which both sides have strong moral arguments. But Microsoft falls short on one thing: The company isnt willing to have an open discussion about whether its participation violates the ethical principles Smith himself laid out in The Future Computed. And the company also isnt willing to have its AI ethics committee weigh in, either. If ever there were an issue that gets to the core of the use of AI ethically, its the use of AI for increasing lethality, which the Defense Department says is the purpose of JEDI. So Microsoft should have a thorough debate about it, air all the issues, and have its AI ethics committee help make the decision. To do it any other way makes it hard to take Microsoft at its word that its being ethical and trying to get the contract to help the country, rather than to add more billions to its bottom line. The final round of our American research tour takes us to two districts in California, one in prosperous Orange County and another further north around the city of Fresno. This is usually thought of as a heavily Democratic state, but the Republicans are defending crucial districts here that could decide whether they keep control of Congress this week. These include districts which elected Republican Congressmen two years ago, but chose Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump for President. How they choose this time will help determine the balance of power in Washington. The migrant caravan making its way to the US from Honduras continues to loom large in voters minds as they began to make their minds up. Our groups reaction was a combination of sympathy for the families leaving their countries in search of a better life, and resolve that Americas borders including Californias had the be protected and the law enforced: For me its really a hard story, because I understand how difficult their lives are in the country theyre coming from, because their government doesnt protect them. There arent jobs, they are in fear for their childrens lives, and so I have compassion for them. But at the same time there are people all over the world who dont have that access. They dont have that border to cross. Im an immigrant. I came here the legal way, and I worked my way to college education to be where Im standing. Its really heartbreaking. You hate to see people suffer, but laws have to be upheld. I think the idea that anybody can come here without any legalities really undermines our foundation as a country. Though most supported the Presidents decision to deploy troops to the border, many were uneasy about the potential consequences: theyre going to try to hold them so they dont cross, and somethings going to happen and there will be physical violence; I do think we need to have some sort of protection, but its just I feel like its going to get out of hand. By the nature of the districts we visited, many of our participants leaned Republican but had voted only very reluctantly for Trump, if they had done so at all (I always thought he was kind of a pompous ass But there really wasnt anyone else and we were kind of stuck. Most had been put off by his antics rather than anything to do with policy but while no-one liked his behaviour any more than they did two years ago, several felt he has turned out to be a more effective President than they had feared. I was like, really, we have to pick between these two? Oh gosh. But honestly, Im kind of pleasantly surprised. His mouth needs some work, we knew that. That may even be worse than what I thought it would be. But as far as what hes actually doing, Im pleased. I think its good that the Koreas are starting to talk. Theyve always been separate since I could remember because the Korean war predates me and Im old, so thats nice. Thats something I thought wed never see. Those who had been pleasantly surprised often mentioned the economy: I got to be honest about it. I had no intention of voting for him because I thought he was a joke. But being a blue collar worker, being a construction worker, for commercial drivers the work has tripled for me since hes been in office. So for me, OK maybe Trump is immature and hes definitely not a politician, hes a businessman. Maybe thats what we needed. Its his administration. The government doesnt create jobs unless theyre building new departments and things of that nature. But its obvious that our business sector is fairly comfortable with the climate that is currently within the United States, and they are the ones that are putting jobs in place there. Not everyone was impressed, however: Disrespecting the German woman. I mean shes a woman, and Im sure he doesnt like the fact that shes in power. Our U.K. allies, theyve been our allies forever and hes completely disrespectful of the Queen and the parliament. And its just mind-boggling to me that theres no respect for anything, he just thinks hes better than everyone. Despite his dominance of the national political scene, Trump himself was hardly a consideration for most of our participants when it came to deciding how to vote this week. For one thing, most did not see him and the Republican party as the same thing: Hes just his own kind of guy. I wouldnt put a bad name to the whole Republican party just because of one person. Though who will control Congress is a consideration, the bigger one for our groups is the quality of their local candidates, and how they stand on the issues that mattered to them: Im looking for who seems to be the best person for the position, whether that be Republican or Democrat. I just want somebody the most honest person, I know that sounds insane when were talking about politics but, you know, I have a certain way that I live my life with morals and standards. And I kind of expect the same out of my politicians to some degree. Im one of these people that is a registered Republican, but I like to base it on whoever is the candidate, rather than Democrat or Republican. I mean I really hate it when you say: are you going to go blue or red? If I was voting on a generic ballot I would vote one way. Does Trump influence that generic ballot? Yes. But my actual vote in this congressional race I have problems with both candidates. Most expected stalemate in the event that the Democrats take the House, rather than any real change. Politicians seemed to have lost the art of getting together to work things out: Just like were doing right here, this roundtable were doing here. Thats what they need to do over there. You need to take this podcast and show it to them and say: this is the way you to do things, so you guys can collaborate and get your ideas together. Isnt that the way its supposed to be? Well, it is rocket science to some people unfortunately. Since I was in the area, I dropped in on the legendary Democratic campaign strategist Bob Shrum, at the University of Southern California where he is now Professor of Practical Politics. Did he think there was any risk that a good result for his party this November would make them complacent for the bigger contest in 2020? I dont think after 2016 that there is the slightest chance that Democrats will ever again assume a presidential election is in the bag at least those who were alive in 2016. I was on a show here on showtime called The Circus with Mike Murphy, who is my co-director here at the Centre for the Political Future a Republican strategist, a longtime friend of mine, we campaigned against each other but we like each other. And I said, and he concurred, that no way no how, in no universe, not this one or an alternative one, could Trump be President the United States. I dont think people are ever going to get that complacent again. Hillary Clinton could have won, he thinks, if she had chosen a different nominee for Vice President: If she had picked Bernie Sanders look at the three states were talking about, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania she won Pennsylvania, she lost Michigan, she lost Wisconsin to him in the primaries. She might very well have won. So I think that there were a lot of things that went wrong in that campaign. But most fundamentally Trump won the message war. You can have all the bells and whistles in the world, you can have all the data analytics in the world, you can have all the targeting and organisation in the world. But if you lose the message war youre likely to lose the election. And Trump had a very simple message: Make America Great Again were not great now. And the problem is immigration and Im going to stop the immigrants. And the problem is foreign trade, and Im going to take care of that too. And everybody knew it. You know Hillary Clintons slogan, Stronger Together, was not about her. It was actually a hidden negative critique or a coded negative critique of him. So she didnt have a real economic message that got conveyed to voters. What direction would the party be taking are Democrats yearning to go in a more liberal direction? My own sense is that Democrats are going to be pretty pragmatic in 2020, that theyre going to ask a fundamental question, and that fundamental question is going to be: who has the best chance to beat Trump? And I think thats where the party will ultimately settle in terms of a nominee. But when youre looking at 20, 22, 23 people who want to run forPpresident, youre looking at a process that could be quite unique. I mean, the Republicans had to divide their debates into two parts. Last time, they had the big peoples debate and then they had the kids table. That could happen with Democrats too. Even so, if one candidate picked up early momentum it could be over sooner than people expect: The other thing that will be interesting is to see whether or not one candidate can win both Iowa and New Hampshire. Thats only happened twice. When it happens, the process tends to collapse toward that candidate Its possible that everybodys going to run around saying oh my God, there are so many candidates, this process is going to take so long, its going to be so expensive, its so draining. But its possible, just barely possible, that it could get over pretty fast. Listen to Lord Ashcrofts interviews with Bob Shrum, John Kasich and others as well as extracts and analysis from his pre-election focus groups, on the Ashcroft in America podcast. Alexander Temerko: The relationship between business and government has never been as meaningless as under May Alexander Temerko is an industrialist and a Conservative Party donor and activist. Never has the relationship between business and Number Ten been as meaningless or fruitless as under Theresa May. She continues to repeat the mantra that she is leading a pro-business government, but that is an exaggeration. Hers is not an anti-business government that would be a more accurate way of putting it. A pro-business government is what Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron led in their day; its what Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Angela Merkel are leading today. Despite her soft-spot for SMEs, our Prime Minister is undeniably afraid of global business. Globalisation has shown that big business and public-private partnerships (something we hardly see in the UK anymore) are the real long-term drivers of a steadily growing modern economy. The presence of global business centres is what makes the difference between a country thats prosperous and one thats merely surviving. Indeed, such business is the powerful locomotive, pulling along SMEs and much of the socio-economic activity in the regions. Business leaders have always been there to support Mays Government at the most critical times. Yet our strong and stable leader has repeatedly shunned any direct engagement with business in favour of sporadic consultations with the trade lobby, whose academic experts interests have long since been prioritised over representation of any actual economy sectors. The Prime Minister has a presidential style of leadership. Her talent is for forming small, quasi-familial groups of trusted advisers. While David Cameron was comfortable working with big diversified teams, she seems reluctant to engage with the broad meritocratic audiences whose praises she so often sings. This desire to keep discussions tightly controlled has had a negative impact on almost every key policy decision taken to date. It is time to change. Today, not only the countrys economy but also its integrity hinges on the UK business community backing the Brexit plans proposed by the Prime Minister and her Cabinet. No-one wants Brexit to be a disaster but how to avoid it without break-through ideas and bold compromises? The British economy will quickly lose its appeal should financial, industrial and services majors, driven by impending uncertainty and the fear of mounting responsibility to shareholders, relocate their headquarters and investment capital to more profitable jurisdictions with more predictable regulations. This could, in turn, trigger almost instant separatist rhetoric and action by the countrys subsidised regions. Inside the eye of the Brexit storm, this outcome would be increasingly irreversible. People will start going by the saying Better a painful ending than endless pain. One person will certainly be delighted with a painful ending: his name is Vladimir Putin. Are we willing to afford him the pleasure? The answer is clear even to Jeremy Corbyn and Jacob Rees-Mogg, both of whom have been aiding this painful ending by holding on to his very own wrong end of the stick. Europe would suffer, too. Take just one example from my industry: 70 per cent of our utilities are owned by European firms. Machinery and metal products are another trade goldmine for European business. At a time of escalating conflict with the US and sanctions or restrictions in trade relations with China, Russia, Iran and others, this is key. Europe just cannot lose Britain with its import-oriented economy as well. If that happens, countries right at the heart of Europe France, Germany, Portugal, and to some extent Belgium and Holland too will feel the pain. However, in these countries, business is much more influential and integrated with the operation of Government. European business wants to live and wants to live well which makes it our best ally in promoting a sensible responsible Brexit. Businesses talk best with other businesses. They will not waste time talking when they dont know if they are being heard by the Government, though. Hence, the key to a good Brexit is empowering UK entrepreneurs to talk to their European counterparts and become official ambassadors for the Governments Brexit plan. The other key piece of the puzzle is for May to accept the Irish border backstop provided that the EU undertakes to guarantee our countrys integrity. This would restrain any spontaneous separatist movements in the UK, at least for as long as the EU continues to exist. If accession to the EU is all but impossible for any breakaway state, withdrawal from the UK would be pointless. What happens if our Government does not create the broad coalition of business it needs and push bold compromises through? Quite simply, if there is no deal hammered out by December, a new election will be the only option to avoid the catastrophe of no deal. If the Chequers plan falls through, it clear to almost everyone today that Parliament will not accept any other plan be it Canada-plus, Australia-minus or a No Deal. The European Commission for its part, will not consider any new proposals, since none of them could get a majority in the UK Parliament and Europe will itself be moving into EU Parliament elections. All thats left are two options. They are both domestic either a new referendum or another snap election. It is up to Parliament and our political elites to choose. They have to choose between their two great fears: the fear of a new election which is highly likely to mean a coalition government, and the fear of a new referendum that goes against Brexit. Connor Short is the Youth Coordinator for Tory Workers and the Chairman for Wigan, Leigh and Makerfield Young Conservatives. The National Union of Students is in crisis and its because they havent been seen to proudly champion students rights, but have instead opted to promote anti-Brexit marches and free McFlurries. Ask a student if they have joined the NUS and they are more than likely going to say yes. However, ask them what they get from it, they are most likely going to say a free McFlurry and five per cent off at Amazon. Its a great incentive and one that I would like to see our own party adopt in some fashion. But, the NUS is failing to show that they are more than a discount card. Their intent on selling discounts more than protections for students rights is what will bring them down. Unless they take a drastic change in direction. Take a look at the NUS website and you will see what every member sees. Protest campaigns about Brexit and voting ages, sitting amongst tips for how to get a job and the discounts offered by the NUS discount card. Here lies the root of the current problem the NUS faces. On their accounts is a 3 million deficit. A quite sizeable deficit for a union. And if all the NUS offers is limp campaigns and a few special offers, they will see more university student unions disaffiliating. In the last two years, the NUS has lost the affiliation of student unions from Loughborough University, Newcastle University, Hull University, University of Surrey and University of Essex. To lose five student unions is quite a large loss of membership revenue. These five universities add up to approximately 89,000 students, with potential membership revenue from the NUS card hitting a height of 1 million per year. And thats just the disaffiliated Student Unions from the last two years. The NUS is missing some massive opportunities and need to keep student union affiliation at the forefront of their endeavours, rather than bussing activists down to the capital for a walk around and offering them a free McFlurry. It is believable that rumours of a student union looking to disaffiliate themselves from the NUS would stir up tensions amongst the student community at the university. However, students simply dont care. The NUS has failed to properly measure its competition. If it was to continue to market its unique selling point as the discount card they offer, then they should have spotted the rise of UniDays. It is also a discount card that offers discounts in a variety of categories, just like the NUS card. However, UniDays is free. Whereas, the NUS card costs 12 per year. Making the worry about losing McFlurry privileges, gone. Students at disaffiliated universities can simply sign up to UniDays and continue to enjoy discounts at top high street stores and restaurants, without having to hand over a piece of their student loan. In order to suppress this crisis, the NUS needs to behave less like a discounts-first union and more like a rights-first union with the added bonus of a discount card. For the NUS to survive, it needs to be seen as a necessity to students, rather than a luxury. Students need to see the NUS standing up against rogue landlords charging ridiculous fees to students, standing up for unfair suspensions of students, and providing legal advice to students who need it, amongst many other social justice fights that we see most other unions providing on a daily basis. Until this spirit of the union is achieved, sadly I do not believe the NUS will continue and students will be left seeking help on a local level without guidance from the expertise a national union would be able to offer. When the NUS ceases its limp Brexit campaigns and begins to principally stand up for students rights, they may see a return to affiliation from some disaffiliated student unions and a decline in the number of new disaffiliated student unions. Thus, they will survive and eventually clear their deficit. Peter Ainsworth is the Managing Director of EM Applications and is the author of Universities challenged: funding higher education through a free-market graduate tax. The harsh criticisms from all quarters of the trial balloons floated by the Augar Review suggests it will fail to produce any useful solutions to the tuition fee quandary. Cutting the headline figure to 6,500 would starve universities of resources. If the Treasury makes up the difference with teaching grants it will cost the state 3 billion it does not have, after making a 20 billion commitment to the NHS. It would be a Labour-lite policy and vastly politically inferior to Corbyns pledge of zero fees. A second idea is, apparently, to charge much more say 13,000 for medicine and science and other subjects that lead to high earnings. This might mollify the Treasury, but it isnt true that all medics and scientists have high earnings. Arts graduates of some universities earn more than scientists at others. Even for any given institution the range of earnings is wide, with some graduates doing exceptionally well and others doing no better than if they had never gone to University. This idea is a double fault it both devalues the arts and overcharges many scientists. Since everybody would pay more than under Corbyns plan it remains a political loser. The fundamental difficulty facing this review is that it appears to require squaring the circle. On the one hand it must address the political challenge arising from Corbyns promise to abolish tuition fees altogether. On the other it must preserve the independence and resources of the higher education sector. Preventing the easy delivery of these two is that austerity remains for most departments, and the terms of reference required that any proposal be within present budget constraints. Without some very creative ideas the task seems impossible. Augars team, unfortunately, does not look equipped for out of the box thinking as it is drawn exclusively from the political and producer establishment. Augar was a non-executive director of the Department for Education. Bev Robinson is the Principal of a Further Education College. Edward Peck is Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University. Professor Alison Wolf Baroness Wolf of Dulwich is both producer and politician. Sir Ivor Martin Crewe is Master of University College, Oxford. Jacqueline De Rojas serves on the governments Digital Economy Council. Nowhere in this panel are the consumers of higher education represented. The two groups who should be consulted to advise on how to reform this system are businessmen who hire graduates and parents with young children. Despite the ever-increasing proportion of youth attending University the CBI and other business groups continue to complain of a skills shortage. They say that too many graduates lack the attitudes and aptitudes that would make them productive. As a consequence, fully one third of graduates languish in non-graduate jobs. The other group is parents of young children. They want the best for their children and want a system that is fit for purpose either providing an education that quickly helps students into higher paid employment or supporting them until they do. Without consumer representation the Augar review is the victim of what an economist would call Regulatory Capture. This is a failure in government policy where a body charged with acting in the public interest instead advances the commercial or political concerns of the producers that currently dominate the sector; and consumer dissatisfaction continues. What a producer/political team cannot see is that the underlying problem is that the sector is inefficient. If that can be improved then the conundrum is readily solved costs can fall while standards improve. Looking at the problem with the eyes of the consumer makes it obvious that the focus of the review should be how to raise productivity. The only way that a Conservative government can match Labours tuition fee abolition offer is with some form of graduate tax. This has the appeal that it is fair the better off pay more and it abolishes the idea that there is a price for tuition. Tuition becomes free again, but the graduate will pay slightly more tax in recognition of the fact that the degree boosts their earnings. However, if the tax receipts flow to the Treasury there is nothing to encourage higher productivity and Universities finances are at risk from changing political priorities. The solution is to have the graduate tax operate by means of a contract between each University and its graduates so that tax receipts flow directly to each institution. This is not fantasy land. The Economist reports that several US universities had instituted schemes that operated in this way. Purdue introduced ISAs (Income Share Agreement) as a means of payment of tuition costs in 2016, funded by its own endowment. Clarkson University in New York and Lackawanna College in Pennsylvania have recently begun similar schemes. The articled stated that it was believed another twelve institutions were due to follow shortly. Tying the Universities income to that of its graduates aligns interests for the long term. As The Economist noted, such a scheme makes it likely that universities will adjust their courses to achieve better outcomes for both parties. If the Augar review team reads the tea leaves, or just The Economist, they will see that the future is clearly signposted. This weeks Cabinet meeting ConservativeHome is told that there are two Brexit-related items on the agenda for discussion at tomorrows Cabinet meeting. The first is the now-weekly deliberation on preparations for leaving itself and for No Deal. The second is a more general exchange and gathering of views. That might seem to provide an opportunity for Theresa May to put a draft deal to Cabinet members. It looks like a convenient week for Downing Street to do so. This is because the Commons is in recess from tomorrow until next Tuesday, November 12. It would suit Number Ten for MPs to be absent if and when proposals are put to the Cabinet, because this would minimise the opportunities for hostile reaction and the inevitable talk of a leadership challenge. However, it appears that the Government and the EU have not yet reached an outline agreement, though there is so much smoke and mirrors that one can never be quite sure. In any event, the Prime Minister would presumably not want to risk putting a proposal agreed by Sabine Weyand and Olly Robbins straight to Cabinet members. (Remember what happened three or so weeks ago.) A summit in mid-to-late November? A more likely way of proceeding would be for the Cabinet to have another discussion about the key issues at stake including five key issues we raised yesterday: the Northern Ireland backstop, implications for Scotland and the Union, a UK-wide customs arrangement, the enforcability of a political declaration, and what this last might contain. We hope that Cabinet members press, as some did at last weeks meeting, for three conditions to met for any proposed deal. That they approve it; that the Attorney General gives a view of it in writing, and that the Chief Whip offers an assessment of its likelihood to pass the Commons in particular, whether it would effectively split the Conservative Parliamentary Party and leave Theresa May reliant on Labour backbench votes for it to pass. Cabinet members told this site yesterday that any draft deal must be put to them for approval. Number Ten wants to get a move on, because the more time ticks away before March 29, the less of it the Government will have to get its legislative preparations completed. A date for a special summit to deal that deal was previously provisionally pencilled-in for the weekend of November 17-18. Will Raab go to Brussels this week? One view is that settling a mid-to-late November date for a summit is only possible if Dominic Raab flies to Brussels later this week to agree it with Michel Barnier. If this is correct, the Prime Minister would seek tomorrow to get broad agreement from the Cabinet for him to do so on an agreed basis. If Raab and Barnier reached an agreement about a draft deal and summit date, May would duly go to the latter herself to formalise the agreement in principle. There is talk of a four-way press conference at the end of such a summit, starring the Prime Minister, Barnier, Donald Tuskand Raab himself (to show the Parliamentary Party that the pro-Leave Brexit Secretary is signed up). The deal would then be put to Cabinet. Such a timetable would leave a dangerous gap for Number Ten between an agreement to hold a summit and it actually taking place. It would presumably be filled by claims and counter-claims about what was in the deal to be signed off. There would be that talk of 48 letters to Graham Brady. However, Brexiteering Tory MPs would probably want to wait to see the final product. Would there be Cabinet resignations? Let us presume for a moment that this is controversial. A question that follows is: would any Cabinet members resign and, if they did, would that leadership challenge follow? (This line of thinking shows the importance to May of getting Raabs assent to any deal. If she doesnt have it, she wont have his backing in putting one to Cabinet. Which suggests that she is now dependent on his agreement to be able to do so.) The Prime Minister survived the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson without then facing a confidence ballot. The consensus expectation is that she would similarly be able to withstand the loss of Andrea Leadsom, Esther McVey and perhaps Penny Mordaunt and that Liam Fox and Chris Grayling are unlikely to quit. Michael Gove going would be more problematic. So would be the departures of Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt. But these are unlikely. In particular, Cabinet members whose departments would be in the front line in the event of No Deal have an obvious incentive to stay on. These are Gove (agricultural products at the border), Grayling (transport and prospective queues, particularly in Kent), Javid (border control and security arrangements) and Matt Hancock (medical supplies), though there is no realistic prospect of the pragmatic last resigning. What would be the role of the Attorney General? The arrival in Cabinet of Geoffrey Cox, with his track record as a Brexiteer and authority as a senior QC, has transformed its balance of debate. The Attorney General played a central role in demolishing a set of Robbins/Weyand proposals in the middle of last month. He has turned up to a meeting of Andrea Leadsoms pro-Leave pizza club of Ministers. Cox is surely no Peter Goldsmith prepared to issue different drafts of guidance, each closer to the view that the Prime Minister wants. There might well be a row about Cabinet members access to his written advice, which will be provided to May. Number Ten will be nervous about it leaking if distributed. Labour, other opposition parties and many Conservative MPs will demand that Parliament sees it. We want it to be published. A conventional expectation is that Cox would make an oral presentation to Cabinet. Is it conceivable that he could stress the distinction between his legal responsibilities and his political views? (Well, Prime Minister: as a lawyer, my view is that under these proposals we could not escape the backstop. But as a politician, my take is that they are preferable to No Deal.) If the Cabinet approves a deal, what happens next? The Commons would then undertake its meaningful vote. Today, we glance only at one aspect of it. Let us suppose for a moment that Brexiteers are unhappy with a deal agreed by Cabinet, and that perhaps there have been resignations. We stress that neither of these will necessarily be the case in the event of a deal. Would, say, ERG members immediately flood Graham Brady will a mass of letters demanding a confidence vote thus risking blame for alone seeking to bring down May at a crucial moment in the Brexit drama? Or would they wait for the meaningful vote, join MPs from other parties in opposing the Prime Ministers plan and hope that, if it went down, she would then resign? This would arguably leave them less directly exposed to criticism from fellow Tories. We dont know what the answer is, but the question is worth asking. Experts say consumers diets can impact greenhouse gas emissions As many consumers struggle to deal with the stress of climate change, a new study conducted by researchers from the University of South Australia explored how our diets may impact the environment. The teams work showed that limiting consumption of unhealthy options like sweets, red meats, and processed foods may have positive environmental benefits. It is time we better acknowledge the environmental impacts of the type and amount of food we eat, considering the planet... Professional licensing laws can be some of the most complex and mind-boggling to read, even for lawyers. However, for many automation companies, the painstaking task of scouring the requirements for the professional licensing of their engineers is not required thanks to the industrial exemption. While the exact rules vary by state, the industrial exemption relieves work within a factory from the necessity of complying with state engineering licensing laws. Many states industrial exemptions contain some or all of the following stipulations: the engineer must not be offering services to the general public; the engineer must be an employee of a public utility, state agency, or manufacturing company; and the engineering work must be incidental to the products or non-engineering services of the engineers employer. In sum, the industrial exemption is meant to benefit those entities that have enough internal processes and safeguards in place to supervise their engineers without interference of the state through professional licensing laws. Not every state has an exemption It is important to note not every state includes manufacturing in its industrial exemption and there are a handful of states without an industrial exemption. The industrial exemption also faces opposition, including from some national and local engineering associations, which seek to limit states industrial exemptions, citing public safety reasons, among other things. If a companys engineers are not properly licensed, the company may be subjected to government fines. In some cases, there is a possibility customers can rightfully refuse to pay for work done by personnel who should have been licensed. The unauthorized practice of engineering is also a criminal offense in some states. Professional licensing action plan Automation companies should consider implementing an industrial exemption action plan to ensure the engineering licensing requirements of each of the states in which they do business are met. An action plan might include the following steps: 1. Review (or have a lawyer review) the engineering licensing laws of the states in which the company operates It is important to know what engineering activities require a professional license and which dont. If the activities are arguably covered, then check if the states industrial exemption may apply and, even more importantly, if such an exemption does not exist. Give some thought to whether or not what the business does truly falls within the industrial exemption. If not, what are the licensing requirements for the given activities? Research whether or not the state has a definition of control systems integration and, if so, if that definition requires a professional license. Then determine whether or not the industrial exemption could arguably apply to the work done for customers. If this task seems too daunting, contact a lawyer familiar with the automation industry and ask him or her to prepare a licensing law summary the company can use as a guideline for each state in which the company operates. 2. Conduct an inventory of engineers Some states industrial exemptions require the exempt engineer to be supervised by a licensed engineer. Create a list of engineers, what licenses they hold, their role, and what projects they are working on. This will be a useful tool to determine if the company complies with the states industrial exemption. 3. Keep abreast of any proposed changes to the states industrial exemption Whenever a change to the industrial exemption is mentioned in the state the company operates, learn more about the proposed changes. If an association or organization in which the company is involved is proposing a change, be an advocate for the companys position on the proposal. 4. Include an acknowledgement in the companys terms and conditions To better protect the company from customers who refuse to pay based on an issue with an engineers licensing, consider including a provision in the companys terms and conditions providing that the customer agrees the industrial exemption applies to the companys work and acknowledges some or all of the work may be performed by unlicensed engineers. Licensing laws can change frequently, so it is important to annually evaluate the companys compliance with such requirements. Julie Weller is a lawyer in the automation and robotics practice of Faegre Baker Daniels, a law firm in the U.S., U.K., and China. Edited by Mark T. Hoske, content manager, Control Engineering, CFE Media, mhoske@cfemedia.com. KEYWORDS: Legalities, engineering licensing laws Professional engineering licensing laws can vary by state. engineering licensing laws can vary by state. Exemptions also can vary by state for professional engineer licensing. also can vary by state for professional engineer licensing. Rules change; review them. Consider a contract clause. CONSIDER THIS Is your company covered by professional engineering licensing laws in the states where you work? We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds.. The quest to build megaships in China will be met with a variety of challenges, according to industry experts, speaking at China Cruise Shipping 13 in Shenzhen. By 2023, the first luxury cruise vessel will be delivered (from a Chinese yard), and before that, we will have two secondhand vessels, said Zhaoben Zhang, executive president of the China Cruise and Yacht Industry Association. Zhang was referring to China State Shipbuilding Corporations plans to acquire two 85,000-ton 2,800-guest ships that will join a domestic fleet in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Zhang said China Merchants Group is also considering a plan to acquire and operate secondhand cruise ships. We have found manufacturing a cruise vessel (in China) will be challenging, he added. Were not worried about the technology, we are most worried about the cultural and management differences as well as other legal issues. Raoul Jack, regional general manager for Bureau Veritas, said that many projects were looking to build new cruise ships in China. Everyone was thinking about it or talking about in 2011 or 2012, he said, its clear that China is now involved in cruise ship building. The question to ask is do you know what you do not know? added Hans Eivind Siewers, segment director for passenger ships globally, DNV GL. Building a cruise ship is extremely complex with completely different challenges compared to building merchant ships, he said Before a luxury megaship is delivered from China State Shipbuilding Corporation, expedition vessels will come first, with SunStone set to debut the first of up to 10 built-in-China vessels in 2019 from China Merchants Heavy Industries. Among the challenges are weight control, the polar code, safe return to port, change orders, quality control and more. Cruise ship projects are high value with high financial risk, Siewers added. Ronin Zong, a partner at Wikborg Rein in Shanghai, said that the design capacity, project management capacity and the entire supply chain in China is still coming together. All these have posed new challenges for Chinese shipyards, he said. Design and spec requirements are very different from other shipbuilding segments. The under estimation of complexity in coordination has historically been a major contributor to cost and schedule overruns, said Zong, suggesting that yards may want to first look at refits and drydocks to get their feet wet in the cruise market. Holland America Line presented some of the food to be found in the new Rudis Sel de Mer specialty restaurant aboard the Nieuw Statendeam, along with food faces on plates, at an event in New York last week. The grinning food faces of Holland Americas master chef, and self-proclaimed culinary pop artist, Rudi Sodamin, grace eight charger plates created by French porcelain masters Bernardaud. Chef Rudi and Michel Bernardaud fifth-generation keeper of his family company displayed the plates in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday. The decorative plates feature ingredients caviar, squid, fruit, root vegetables, tarragon, chili peppers, and much more arranged to make Zucchini Zeus, and Smiling Creamed Spinach. Four more plates in the series will be released in early 2019, said Sophie Raubiet, Bernardaud's director of retail. In January, the cruise line released Food Faces, a coffee table book of the chef's art. The plates and the book will be available for sale on the Nieuw Statendam. Plans call for passengers to have the plates individually or as a set shipped directly to their homes rather than clank in their luggage. All the plates will be part of the table settings in Rudi's Sel De Mer, Holland Americas first-ever chef-branded specialty restaurant, said Frits van der Werff, the lines vice president of food and beverage. Bite-size lettuce cups of tuna tartar and wallet-thick slabs of salty-sweet bacon were among the dishes served at the event, created by chef David Burk of the lines Culinary Council. It's the first time we've attached a chef to a place and the first time for Rudi to have a place at sea that's a dedicated place, Van Der Werff said. Rudi has been at the forefront of culinary innovation. He said the new wine list curated by renowned critic James Suckling will roll out fleet-wide in the two months. It will feature all wines rated 90 or higher, and a James Rock Star List featuring wines rated 96 to 100. Van Der Werff also spilled a little on the yet-to-be released cocktail menu, saying a bottle-service style smoked drink will be served in an oversized glass flask. He showed Cruise Industry News a photo smoke inside a bottle of brown liquid. Smoked Negronis and Manhattans have become increasingly popular in land-based restaurants. This could be following that trend. When the Explorer Dream debuts for Dream Cruises next April, it will become the companys pathfinder vessel, according to Thatcher Brown, president of the brand. Weve learned there has been value in creating a pathfinder strategy, said Brown, in an interview with Cruise Industry News in Shenzhen at China Cruise Shipping. As we look to bring bigger ships into the market, we are also bringing a pathfinder ship in. Between now and getting the first Global-class vessel in 2021, we need to have a presence in North China. We need to start building our awareness and getting folks to really understand who we are and why they should cruise with us. The Explorer Dream will be converted from the SuperStar Virgo, introducing a number of Dream Cruises features, including the brands ship-within-a-ship luxury suite area, the Palace. Next summer, the vessel will sail short cruises from Shanghai and Tianjin to Japan and Russia, utilizing the ships technical abilities which include a high service speed, enabling it to call on Russia on a five-day itinerary. We want to start inviting that market to cruise with Dream, said Brown. The companys two other ships are currently deployed out of South China and Singapore. We need a ship up there to prime the market for the Global class. For winter 2019-2020, the vessel will move to Australia and New Zealand, with the company targeting Chinese and Asian guests in a fly-cruise market move. We are interested in expanding our footprint globally, Brown said. Beyond Australia, Brown said Alaska was still on the horizon for Dream Cruises, but the company would need to have the right timing, weighing the deployment move against revenue and demand. Fly-cruise products will play an important role for Browns brand as well as the evolution of the Chinese market. Fly cruises will demand an earlier booking curve, according to Brown, helping incentivize travel agents with the benefits of booking early in China, which is notorious for being a close-in booking market. Pricing has a lot to do with how we move the booking curve out. If we can create more pricing transparency and integrity, we wont have people waiting for the price to drop, said Brown. The Explorer Dream will join the larger Genting and World Dream vessels. The company gets new, 5,000-guest Global-class ships next, which are expected to enter service in early 2021 and 2022, respectively. Toss around accusations of a failed attempt to hack a states voter registration system without actually providing any proof thats one way to really stir things up right before the midterm elections. That is what Brian Kemp, Georgias current secretary of state who is also the Republican candidate for governor did on Sunday. With the midterm elections just a few days away, Kemp accused the Democratic Party of Georgia of hacking the state's voter registration system. Democrat Stacey Abrams, his opponent, called it a reckless and unethical ploy to mislead voters. Kemp, via the Georgia Secretary of States office, first released the following statement: After a failed attempt to hack the state's voter registration system, the Secretary of State's office opened an investigation into the Democratic Party of Georgia on the evening of Saturday, November 3, 2018. Federal partners, including the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation, were immediately alerted. "While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cyber crimes," said Candice Broce, Press Secretary. "We can also confirm that no personal data was breached and our system remains secure." As you likely noticed, Kemp cited no evidence. Hes been embroiled in controversy, including the potential conflict of interest from remaining as secretary of state instead of stepping down while running for governor. And last week, a federal judge called Georgias exact match voting requirement overly burdensome and ordered the state to adjust it. Georgia Democrats emphatically denied the hacking accusations. Abrams told CBS News that Kemp learned about a vulnerability in the voter registration system and attempted breach on Friday but opted not to act until Sunday. Kemp, via his Secretary of States office, later released an update to the first hacking accusation statement: We opened an investigation into the Democratic Party of Georgia after receiving information from our legal team about failed efforts to breach the online voter registration system and My Voter Page. We are working with our private sector vendors and investigators to review data logs. We have contacted our federal partners and formally requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate these possible cyber crimes. The Secretary of State's office will release more information as it becomes available. Georgia Democratic Party releases emails about voter system vulnerabilities It should be noted that WhoWhatWhy revealed that it had a copy of an email sent by the Georgia Democratic Party highlighting the vulnerabilities in Georgias My Voter Page. It was after that article when Kemp announced the investigation into the Democratic Party of Georgia. Add this tweet from WSB-TV investigative reporter Aaron Diamant to the clusterflub; it contained a text message from the Georgia Secretary of States office, claiming the FBI is looking for information on Rachel Small asking why she was talking about trying to hack the Secretary of States system. BREAKING: Just got this text from Georgia Secretary of State office official... "The FBI is looking for information on 'Rachel Small...'" after bombshell announcement its investigating @GeorgiaDemocrat Party for "failed cyberattack" on State's voter registration system. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/tYlODB6KV4 Aaron Diamant (@AaronDiamantWSB) November 4, 2018 The Democratic Party of Georgia responded by claiming, Team Kemp is losing their minds. BREAKING: Team Kemp is losing their minds. Rachel Small is a volunteer for the Democratic Party of Georgia on our voter protection hotline. She received an email from a man named Richard Wright. She forwarded Richard's email to our voter protection director. Sorry, @BrianKempGA. https://t.co/eogwmEZ2X0 Georgia Democrat (@GeorgiaDemocrat) November 4, 2018 To prove Kemps irresponsible ploy to use the FBI and abuse his power as Secretary of State, Georgia Democrats released emails. The first was from Richard Wright a person not affiliated with the Georgia Democratic Party sent to Rachel Small who is a volunteer for the Democratic Party. The email dated on Saturday detailed two security issues. The one dealing with My Voter Page allegedly allowed a person to download any file on the system. The second one, regarding the online voter registration, allegedly allows the URL to be changed and download anyones data and that includes lots of PII. Rachel Small then forwarded Wright's email to Sara Ghazal, the Democratic Party of Georgias Voter Protection Director. The email about the security vulnerabilities that were forwarded by Small that does not indicate that Small or anyone in the Democratic Party actually did any hacking are the reason Kemp supposedly was looking for information about Small and launched an investigation after the failed hacking attempt allegedly by the Democrats. Kemps office told The New York Times that the email showed Small talking about trying to hack the Secretary of States system. Previous data breaches affecting Georgia voters This is not the first time that poor security impacted Georgia voters. Last year, a breach impacted as many as 7.5 million Georgia voter records. In 2015, another data breach led to the release of private information of more than 6 million Georgia voters. Many people have blamed Kemps incompetence for the breaches. The Georgia race for governor is being watched closely. If Abrams wins the election, she will be the first African-American female governor in the U.S. Kemps allegations, and the timing, certainly make it appear as if he doesnt want the race to be judged on merit alone. Some security experts, such as Chris Vickery, are looking into Georgias potential online voter flaws. Georgia needs to get it together. They need to take all their shit and get it together. Get your shit together, Georgia. pic.twitter.com/Rvc2UsfpbR Chris Vickery (@VickerySec) November 5, 2018 Michele Leigh / Contributed photo The extraordinary story of five unmarried sisters, whose lives in a small Irish village are about to be torn apart, is shared in Brian Friels Dancing at Lughnasa, onstage in Newtown, Friday, Nov. 16, through Sunday, Dec. 8. Dancing at Lughnasa is told from an adults point of view. That adult, Michael Evans, is the illegitimate son of one of the sisters and is recalling the summer he was 7, back in 1936. Michael recounts events which took place in and around his aunts cottage. He shares stories about the five women who raised him, and a time in their lives when love seemed possible for all of them. BRIDGEPORT - Police issued some details late Sunday on a shooting that took place earlier in the evening behind the PT Barnum Apartments. They reported that some 20 shots were heard being fired around 4:30 p.m. at 225 Anthony St., in the rear of the PT Barnum Apartments, Building 15. Contributed / Hearst Connecticut Media FAIRFIELD A delivery man who shot himself with his own gun is now facing charges, police said. Timothy Frey, 24, who drove for Wings Over Fairfield, allegedly shot himself in the stomach while cleaning his six-shot revolver outside the Black Rock Turnpike restaurant on Oct. 9. Frey, who lives on Haviland Drive in Trumbull, turned himself in at headquarters Sunday afternoon. The U.S. gave a stark warning to companies around the world: Evading sanctions on Iran will hurt. "I promise you that doing business in Iran in defiance of our sanctions will ultimately be a much more painful business decision than pulling out of Iran," Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said Monday at a news conference in Washington, after the U.S. imposed penalties on 700 individuals, banks, ships, aircraft and companies tied to Iran's energy and financial industries. Vowing "swift, severe penalties" to those caught violating sanctions, Pompeo said the U.S. pressure's campaign has cost Iran $2.5 billion in oil revenue since May. But oil traded close to a six-month low as Pompeo's tough talk was softened by his announcement of temporary waivers from penalties for eight nations. President Donald Trump is trying to force Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions and what he calls its support for terrorism in the Middle East by choking off its oil revenue. The move came after he abandoned the deal that the U.S. and five other world powers reached in 2015 to ease sanctions in return for curbs on Iran's nuclear program. Pompeo confirmed that the eight countries granted waivers from oil sanctions are China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. He said the waivers were only temporary measures to ease their transition from Iranian crude and avoid destabilizing the energy market. But some Republicans in Congress have vowed legislation to eliminate the waivers, and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani ridiculed them on Monday. "That the U.S. is forced to exempt eight nations from sanctions on oil sales when it had previously said it wants to cut Iran's oil sales to zero, isn't that as sign of Iran's victory and the U.S. backing off," Rouhani said. The waivers largely confirmed expectations in the energy market and eased concerns about the prospects of a tight global market at the end of the year. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery dropped as much as 1 percent to $62.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest since April 9, before recovering 0.6 percent to $63.52 as of 1:51 p.m. London time. While Iran and all of the other nations in the 2015 nuclear agreement have vowed to stand by its provisions, Pompeo said more than 100 companies have canceled their plans to do business with Iran since Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal in May. The administration's pledges to be "aggressive" in enforcement of the sanctions indicates that U.S. individuals and companies in violation could face high penalties or even the threat of jail time, according to John Smith, who left Treasury in May as a civil servant leading the unit that issues and enforces sanctions and is now a partner at the law firm Morrison & Foerster. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin added 700 entities to the sanctions list on Monday bringing it to 900. Among those listed for the first time Monday were 50 Iranian banks, 200 individuals, and shipping vessels tied to Iran's shipping and energy sector and more than 65 Iranian aircraft. The only path to sanctions relief is for Iran's leaders to halt its support for terrorism and abandon its nuclear ambitions "immediately," Mnuchin said, adding that the U.S. is watching the Iranian regime with "laser focus." The administration had signaled that its enforcement of sanctions would include targeting Swift, the global financial messaging network, for any violations of the new restrictions. In a statement Monday, Swift said it would suspend "certain Iranian banks' access" to its system. "This step, while regrettable, has been taken in the interest of the stability and integrity of the wider global financial system," according to the statement. "Our mission remains to be a global neutral messaging provider." On Friday, Trump said he is open to a deal with Iran that blocks its nuclear-weapons program and that his so-called maximum pressure campaign targets Iran's government, not its people. But more sanctions will come until Iran's government decides to "either abandon its destructive behavior or continue down the path toward economic disaster," the president said. But Rouhani said his country would engage in talks only if the U.S. honored its commitments in the Iran deal. "Respect your commitments, then we will talk," Rouhani said in a meeting with economy officials, according to state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. "We have no issues with talks if the opposing side is a party that values its word, promise and pact." - - - Bloomberg's Ladane Nasseri, Golnar Motevalli, Grant Smith and Viktoria Dendrinou contributed. As President Donald Trump banged the drum of ultranationalism on the campaign trail, you could be forgiven for missing a declaration from the White House's top foreign-policy official. White House national security adviser John Bolton delivered a speech in southern Florida on Friday announcing new sanctions on leftist regimes in Cuba and Venezuela. He grouped the two countries together with Nicaragua into a "troika of tyranny," reprising the "axis of evil" he once decried as an official in the George W. Bush administration. Bolton, an inveterate Cold Warrior, pointed to a "triangle of terror stretching from Havana to Caracas to Managua" that was "the cause of immense human suffering, the impetus of enormous regional instability, and the genesis of a sordid cradle of communism in the Western Hemisphere." On one level, this could be boilerplate rhetoric from any hard-line Republican administration. The specter of Latin American leftism has long haunted Washington in the forms of communist leaders such as Fidel Castro, Marxist guerrillas such as the Sandinistas or left-wing populists such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales. On the other hand, the Trump administration has been willing to act on its ideological caprices, ordering travel bans and unraveling major diplomatic agreements. In addition to the new sanctions, Trump has also undone the brief Obama-era thaw with Cuba. But it's not clear what the White House will achieve with its new, confrontational posture. "It is true what they say that these are three regimes that are horrible and deserve to be treated as pariahs, but nothing has worked so far," Moises Naim, a distinguished fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said to my colleague Josh Rogin. "Cuba has been a challenging issue for every administration since the Bay of Pigs invasion, and no American president has been able to solve that puzzle. So, let's see if they have come up with a new remedy, a new strategy, a new regional approach. Right now, we don't know." Bolton made another comment that was perhaps even more revealing of the administration's outlook. He hailed the election of "like-minded leaders" in the region such as Brazil's president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro. The victory of such a far-right candidate, Bolton said, demonstrated "a growing regional commitment to free-market principles, and open, transparent, and accountable governance." Trump tweeted "Had a very good conversation with the newly elected President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who won his race by a substantial margin. We agreed that Brazil and the United States will work closely together on Trade, Military and everything else! Excellent call, wished him congrats!" It was a strange way to describe a man who is notorious for his racist, homophobic and misogynist rhetoric and has cheered the brutal legacy of Brazil's military dictatorship. His chief economist, Paolo Guedes, champions the liberalizing reforms of the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet - a man better known for the blood on his hands than his fiscal policy. "Perhaps the personality whom Bolsonaro most resembles is Roberto D'Aubuisson, the late Salvadoran politician and former National Guard major who, in collusion with the security forces and conservative landowners, ran the death squads that captured and killed thousands of suspected leftists in a campaign of terror aimed at 'purifying the fatherland,'" wrote the New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson. "Not since the early nineteen-eighties, when much of Latin America was in the grip of anti-Communist dictators who formed a cabal to kill and disappear the hemisphere's leftists, has a politician emerged with such a vituperous discourse." None of this appears to be of much concern to Trump. The U.S. president was one of the first major leaders to congratulate Bolsonaro on his electoral victory on Twitter, effusively cheering a fellow nationalist onto the hemispheric stage. (French President Emmanuel Macron, by contrast, offered a more guarded welcome to Bolsonaro, stressing "democratic principles" and the importance of Brazil holding the line on climate policy.) Critics place both men within a broader trend of demagogic right-wing leaders who have swept to power over the past two years. "There's no question that authoritarian leaders around the world have drawn inspiration from the fact that the leader of the world's oldest and most powerful democracy seems to delight in shattering democratic norms," leftist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wrote in a column two months ago. Sanders tweeted "Brazil's new President Jair Bolsonaro is a far-right authoritarian who has praised the former military dictatorship and referred to black activists as 'animals.' "It's very troubling that Bolton sees Bolsonaro as 'like-minded' with Trump. Even more troubling, he's probably right." In Bolsonaro, Trump may see an ideological fellow politician who shares his contempt for international agreements and organizations. Bucking years of Brazilian diplomacy, Bolsonaro has announced that his government will move Brazil's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and may shutter the Palestinian mission in Brasilia. Following so closely in Trump's footsteps deepens the sense of a new right-wing axis emerging in world politics, one within which the Brazilian leader may play a prominent role. This may be good news for Trump, particularly if he seeks to turn up the heat on Venezuela - Bolsonaro has advocated a far tougher line against Brazil's dysfunctional northern neighbor than his more liberal opponents. But there's a risk of his rule drifting into the tyranny derided by Bolton. "The new Brazilian president's policy positions will likely please Washington in the short term. But what their longer-term effect will be, for both Brazil and the United States, is worth asking," analysts Roberto Simon and Brian Winter noted in Foreign Affairs. "Bolsonaro's past statements and current policy proposals suggest that his presidency will pose a direct threat to democratic norms and institutions, the rule of law, social justice, and the improvement of security in Brazil," the authors continued. "The past 30 years have been an era of progress for most of Latin America, thanks in large part to those values. Saluting the American flag cannot compensate for the real risk that Bolsonaro will abandon them." Hildale and Colorado City make big improvements under court-ordered reforms, report says Fox News, Utah/November 3, 2018 By Ben Winslow A new report filed in federal court in Arizona finds the governments of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz., have made significant improvements under reforms ordered in the wake of a Justice Department lawsuit. The town governments were sued by the feds, accused of discriminating against non-members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. The towns police force was accused of being more loyal to imprisoned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs than they were to the people they were supposed to be serving. A jury ruled against the towns and a judge put them under 10 years of oversight by a court-appointed monitor. The monitor is submitting reports roughly every 90 days to update the judge on changes being made. This latest one marks the second year of oversight. In the latest report, obtained by FOX 13 on Saturday, the monitor reported that the police force was hiring new officers and conducting anti-discrimination trainings. Newly hired police chief Mark Askerlund has been very cooperative, the monitor reported. For the first time, Colorado City has subdivided property. Previously, land in Hildale and Colorado City was communal under the United Effort Plan Trust, the real-estate holdings arm of the FLDS Church. A judge in Utah took control of that in 2004 over allegations Jeffs and other FLDS leaders mismanaged it and its been under oversight with an eye for subdividing it for the past decade. The polygamous border town of Colorado City opens its first bar As we move into the second year of monitoring and with the initial injunction items having been implemented, the direction of the communities is shifting to involve the creation of new codes and processes in land-use, utility practices, and governance issues. This is a good sign of development and progress; however, this is also a monumental task, the report states. Its causing a little anxiety amongst some, the report hinted, but the monitor believed it will bring stability to local government and services in the area. The subdivision of the community will provide a path forward for inclusive home ownership for all individuals, he wrote, later adding: Policymaking can, at times, be challenging in all cities but is additionally challenged here due to the culture and history of the area. In 2017, Hildale elected its first woman and ex-FLDS mayor. Earlier this year, the council completely secularized when the last FLDS members quit. The communities populations have shifted significantly over the years with many FLDS faithful leaving for places scattered across Utah and ex-members moving back home. Hildale Mayor Donia Jessop and the new council have pushed for economic development and infrastructure improvements. Hildale has dropped an appeal of the Justice Departments lawsuit, accepting the court-ordered reforms and leaving Colorado City alone to fight it. To see more documents/articles regarding this group/organization/subject click here. Patriot Park memorial receives crucial 6-acre donation David Schmucker donated nearly 7 acres to the park for the centerpiece Gold Star Memorial Plaza. David Cameron has shot down claims that he is planning a political comeback. But he is not denying that he is bored s***less in his enforced early retirement. The former PM has already written a whopping 400,000 words in his memoirs surpassing even Tony Blairs monster verbiage in his autobiography. So who should be quaking? He has a go at Angela Merkel for not giving him anything in the pre-referendum negotiations, Dog is told. David Cameron pictured outside No 10 with wife Samantha Cameron and children Nancy, Arthur and Florence as he resigned as PM in July 2016 - but friends have claimed he is plotting his return No matter how long Philip Hammond survives at the Treasury, hell never match the illustrious record of Tory predecessor R. A. Butler. At least, not based on a hilariously miscaptioned portrait of Rab hanging in the Commons Tea Room. Butler, it declares, was Chancellor from 1951 to, er, 1985. Which is going some. He died in 1982. Sir David Attenboroughs new BBC series Dynasties follows David, an alpha male chimp who endures a tortuous and at times violent struggle with rivals to become leader of his tribe. A bid for leadership is never instant. Hell have to keep this up for many days, warns Sir David of his simian namesake. A coded message to would-be Tory leader David Davis, surely. Sir David Attenboroughs new BBC series Dynasties follows David, an alpha male chimp who endures a tortuous and at times violent struggle with rivals to become leader of his tribe Truss trounces Mel in Battle of the Budget Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss, left, was involved in a ding-dong over who should give the plum closing speech in the Commons Budget debate her or highly regarded but lower-ranked departmental rival Mel Stride. Liz saw off the threat from Mel but it was quite a struggle, says a pal. Much fiercer than any of the rows with No 10 over ending austerity. Tory rising star and ex-soldier Tom Tugendhat had a contretemps with a doorman when asked to produce his pass to enter the Foreign Office for a meeting. An insider snipes that the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee boss went into a right strop and stormed off in a huff. Not so, insists Tom. The chap on the gate was just rude, he says. With John Bercows grip on the Speakers chair weakening, senior Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael is happy to confess to a heightist jibe at 5ft 6in Bercow. Six-foot plus Carmichael recalls addressing a party fundraising event thus: What am I bid for this full-size bottle of Speaker Bercows single malt whisky? Very rare it normally only comes in miniatures. The BBCs blatant political and cultural bias is now a major national scandal. The latest example huge prominence given to an attack on the Budget by a clearly biased think-tank has rightly outraged Ministers. The offence was made considerably worse by the description later dropped of the think-tank involved as independent. 'The Corporation has, once again, broken the bargain on which its existence is based,' writes The Mail on Sunday The assertion is absurd. Its director, Torsten Bell, was a senior aide to failed Labour leader Ed Miliband. The Corporation has, once again, broken the bargain on which its existence is based. Under its Charter and Agreement, which require it to be impartial on matters of major controversy, it receives the licence money collected for it by the State under the threat of prosecution. How can the State justify this, and why should TV owners be prepared to put up with it, if the money is used to promote any particular interest or cause? On many issues from man-made global warming to drug legalisation the BBC makes no attempt to be or even look impartial. Yet the Corporation is also a valuable and irreplaceable institution. The Budget bias case should be pursued until the BBC apologises on air. But this is not enough. The Corporations system for dealing with complaints is a disgrace. Initial queries do not even go directly to the BBC but are handled by service company Capita. The few which make it past Capitas time-wasting battle screens are brushed aside by an Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) which seldom accepts that anything is wrong. This is because the BBC is so isolated from reality that it is unaware of its own bias, much as a goldfish is unaware that it is a goldfish. Beyond the ECU lies Ofcom, which has not shown so far that it is up to the task. A specific complaints tribunal, empowered to issue public rebukes, independent of the BBC and governed by an impartial board, is needed, for the good of broadcasting and the country. Without such a body, it is hard to see how the licence fee can be sustained much longer. Money wont save our failing police Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick THE epidemic of knife crime, especially in London, is clearly out of control, and is spreading into areas previously regarded as safe, at times of day when people might reasonably expect the streets to be peaceful and orderly. Meanwhile, the police react to burglary by placing the responsibility for crime not on thieves but on homeowners who are advised to keep quiet about owning valuable possessions and to refrain from revealing floor plans of their houses to potential buyers. Something is fundamentally wrong with the way in which the police now operate. They have rashly given up enforcing the laws against cannabis possession despite the ever-stronger correlation of its use with mental illness and violence. Rather than preventing crime by their presence, they wait for it to happen and then find they cannot cope. Our political leaders need to stop arguing about police numbers, and take a long, hard look at police methods. More manpower will not, by itself, make ineffective or misguided policies work better. Dont let autism victims down Health Secretary Matt Hancock deserves praise for acting swiftly over The Mail on Sundays revelations of the cruel and oppressive treatment, in some care homes, of young people suffering from autism. The Care Quality Commission will now investigate the matter. Let us hope that its investigation will be rapid and rigorous, and that its recommendations will be fully and thoroughly implemented. A Chinese artist is showing off her maxi pads, splattered with red. She's posting them on Instagram, and framing them and hanging them on her walls. The red isn't blood, though it's paint. Manhei Chan, who goes by @chanmanheyyyy on Instagram, isn't displaying her used sanitary napkins, but rather using fresh ones as canvases for her watercolor paintings. To date, she's painted a variety of subject matter in her intricately-detailed watercolors, proving that even Playtex and Tampax can be made museum-worthy. Art: A Chinese artist is making a statement by painting on sanitary napkins Something to celebrate: Manhei Chan has mostly painted flowers for the thought-provoking series Tools: She uses watercolors not blood but clearly chose red paint on purpose Varying subjects: She has also painted faces and fish for the series Something fishy: She also added a few hashtags, including #feminist, #feminism, #girlpower, and #vulvaart Thus far, she has created pictures of fish, faces, and flowers - all of which have been carefully illustrated onto the tiny canvases. The artist doesn't give much of an explanation for the series, which is called Red Flow, or the choice of canvas. She hasn't written anything in her captions to make clear just why she choice period products for her pieces. But there's no doubt she's sending a message of the feminist variety, as she's transformed something that's often seen as gross or unseemly into something beautiful. She also added a few hashtags, including #feminist, #feminism, #girlpower, and #vulvaart. The artist: Of course, she also paints other things, including the self-portrait You go, girl! The series is called Red Flow and seems to celebrate periods Getting creative: She has also done a few paintings on paper cut into the shape of menstrual pads Loving it: Her followers have called the pieces 'thought-provoking,' 'amazing,' 'lovely,' and 'gorgeous' Pride: Some of the works are framed and mounted on pink backgrounds On display: The pieces have been shown in galaxies and are also posed on Instagram Her followers are great fans of her work, too, and have called the pieces 'thought-provoking,' 'amazing,' 'lovely,' and 'gorgeous.' Sanitary pads have certainly been used in art before, and often carry a political or feminist message. In 2015, an artist called Elone printed messages and taped them to sanitary napkins, then hung them around town in Karlsruhe, Germany. 'Imagine if men were as disgusted with rape as they are with periods,' read one. A woman who was dismayed by the lack of female role models for her daughter has penned a book celebrating history's unsung heroines. New York-based designer Yvonne Lin wrote The A-Z of Wonder Women to teach her four-year-old daughter Roni about female 'trailblazers and groundbreakers', and landed a publishing deal in the process. Speaking about her book, she told MailOnline: 'Boys and girls need heroes as they grow up. There are thousands upon thousands books and movies about famous athletes, scientists, artists or explorersalmost all men. 'Whatever a little boy wants to pursue, he sees paths. Even though women have flown to the Moon, won the highest prizes in science and maths, led countries, armies and even pirate fleets, little girls are mostly shown princesses and mermaids. 'Sure, its not necessarily the worst career choice, but there are not enough castles and beaches for 3.5 billion women. In this book, both girls and boys will see 26 trailblazing wonder women from across the globe and throughout time.' Here, Yvonne introduces six of history's most pioneering women - but how many can you name? Scroll down for the answers... 1. To persuade politicians and the public, this British woman (1829-1910) pioneered the use of wedge charts to show the impact of filth and neglect - but was 'pink-washed' by history This woman was 'pink-washed by history,' Yvonne writes. 'When The Times described her first major achievements during the Crimean War, they called her a ministering angel whose slender form glided along corridors with a lamp. 'This woman was not a slender ministering angel; she was a gifted and unstoppable researcher, statistician and organizer. 'At Scutari military hospital, she found sick and wounded soldiers living in inhumane conditions surrounded by fleas and rats and a complete lack of medical records. 'Unlike almost all people of her time, this woman had an excellent knowledge of statistics. She collected and organized records to learn, unexpectedly, that more soldiers died from preventable diseases than from battle injuries. 'To persuade politicians and the public, she pioneered the use of wedge charts to show the impact of filth and neglect. 'When a new hospital was built and run the way she prescribed, the mortality rate plummeted by a factor of ten, setting modern medical standards.' 2. This 16th-century 'pirate queen' (1530-1603) kept going in an action packed pirate-y manner until she died at the ripe old age of 73 when most people died before 40 'How can you not include an honest-to-god sixteenth century Irish pirate queen?' writes Yvonne. 'By the tender age of 26, this woman had buried her first husband, avenged her lover, kicked out her second husband, managed to keep the second husband as an ally, built a fleet and a land army, fought and robbed both the Irish and English, and beat off an Algerian ship attack (the day after giving birth) with a pistol in each hand. 'She kept going in an action packed pirate-y manner until she died at the ripe old age of 73 when most people died before 40.' 3. She was arrested her in 1943 but this woman (1910-2008) kept silent and she was sentenced to death but managed to escape thanks to a cunning plan from her close friends 'During WWII, this 4ft 11in woman carried Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto in a sack over her back. 'She also used trunks, suitcases, wheelbarrows and ambulance stretchers to save about 2,500 Jewish children more than any other individual. 'The Nazis arrested her in 1943; they fractured her legs and feet trying to make her speak. This woman kept silent; she was sentenced to death. 'Miraculously, her friends bribed the executioner and snatched her out of Gestapo hands. After the war, she lived, worked, took care of her children and never bothered to tell her story. 'In 1999, a class of American high school students in Kansas discovered her actions during a history project and told her story.' 4. This woman (1870-1952) devised genius methods to teach children so that they could join society. She took many of the same techniques to improve education for all kids 'This woman turned the impossible into the obvious,' says Yvonne. 'First, she became one of the first female doctors in Italy. 'Then she spent two years carefully studying mentally disabled children who were typically shuttered away. She developed methods to teach them so that they could join society. 'She took many of the same techniques to improve education for all kids. She founded her own school, Casa Dei Bambini. 'There, she took away the centuries old unquestioned educational norms of forced drills and repetition. Instead, she gave the kids exploration, guided choice, confidence and joy, and for the first time ever, children-sized furniture and objects. 'The children thrived and their parents took notice. A hundred years later, there are around 700 Montessori schools in the United Kingdom alone and more than 7,000 worldwide.' 5. This woman, who was born in 1962, famously dressed in pink and held a one-woman protest march walking with the sign 'Give Women Their Rights' 'This trailblazer fights for womens rights where women need it most,' says Yvonne. 'In Saudi Arabia it is illegal for women to wear anything other than a black abaya. 'She dressed in pink and held a one-woman protest march walking with the sign Give Women Their Rights; she was arrested. 'Until 2018, it was illegal for Saudi women to drive. In 2008, she drove and posted the video on YouTube; she was arrested. 'It is illegal for a woman to cross a border without her male guardians consent. She tried to cross the border three times; she was banned from travel. 'It is illegal to assist a battered woman without her husbands consent. She and her friend helped a battered woman escape; they spent ten months in prison. 'However, it is legal for a 50-year-old man to marry an eight-year-old girl. This woman campaigned against the marriage and succeeded; the marriage was terminated.' 6. This woman's books gave word to women from the most remote and undeveloped parts of China, to migrant workers, and to mothers who were forced to abandon their daughters 'I chose this woman because she gave a voice to silent women. Life in Communist China was harsh and oppressive for men and women alike but poor rural women suffered the most and spoke the least. 'This woman, a radio broadcaster at the time, interviewed these women and China heard their voices and stories for the first time. 'Her books gave word to women from the most remote and undeveloped parts of China, to migrant women workers, and to mothers who were forced to abandon their daughters. 'There is a personal connection too, if my grandmothers hadnt managed to escape from China in 1949, she could have met them on her quest.' The A-Z of Wonder Women by Yvonne Lin, Wren & Rook, 7.99 This time last year, Leeanne Hundleby had a bright idea. She and husband Guy had recently founded a leather handbag label, Strathberry, in their home city of Edinburgh and were desperate to get their brand on the arms of the A-list. Their first target? Meghan Markle, Prince Harrys glamorous and ever-so-fashionable then-girlfriend. Id watched Suits [Meghans TV series] obsessively and always thought that she was stylish, says Leeanne, 46. I routinely wrote to her agent and stylist and then, on a whim, we sent a few pieces. Fast forward 12 months and that turned out to be the best decision Leeanne ever made. For the Duchess of Sussex has carried not one, but three of those bags on major royal occasions, catapulting the fledgling company onto the world stage. Not only are Strathberrys bags, which cost between 225 and 995, stocked at Selfridges and global department store Nordstrom, but the brand is launching its first bricks-and-mortar store, which opens its doors today, in Londons illustrious Burlington Arcade. The founders of luxury brand Strathberry have seen a dramatic increase in the popularity of their bags since the Duchess of Sussex (pictured) wore their designs Joining brands such as Mulberry and Penhaligons, and sitting between Chanel and Manolo Blahnik in the Mayfair arcade, theres no clearer sign that Strathberry a name still little-known beyond an elite band of fashionistas has been propelled into the designer handbag league. Its a huge step for us, says Leeanne. It is a bit daunting, but were excited. Its a beautiful spot and an honour to be next door to such well-known brands. Its beyond anything either of us ever imagined. Much has been made of the so-called Meghan effect, the pull of the Duchess when it comes to trends but Leeanne and Guy were one step ahead of most, approaching the Palace a month before the royal engagement was even announced. Since then, their experience of Princess Power has been nothing short of a whirlwind and there is no doubt in their minds that Meghan is behind their success. When she appeared with her first Strathberry bag, the 525 tri-colour Midi Tote (strathberry.com), which she carried last December in Nottingham on her first outing as Harrys fiancee, the phones in their Edinburgh HQ didnt stop ringing. Within 11 minutes of the photos surfacing, the handbag sold out, says Leeanne. Visitors to strathberry.com were up by around 5,000 per cent. Over the next few days, 3,500 shoppers signed up for stock updates. Meghans second outing with a Strathberry was, rather fittingly, on her first trip to Scotland, where she chose the 425 bottle green East/West Mini for a walkabout in Edinburgh in February. The bag sold out in minutes, while sales of other Strathberry products soared by 300 per cent and the website was inundated by frenzied shoppers. Leeanne Hundleby, 46, and her husband Guy were inspired to launch Strathberry (selection of bags pictured) after being captivated by the leather goods available in rural Spain It was the same story in July, when Meghan carried the 525 Midi Tote in tan leather on her first overseas tour to Ireland. The overnight interest in the brand was scary, admits Guy, 46. Were a pretty private family. We suddenly had interview requests from around the world. For six months afterwards, the couple refused to have their photo taken, so abashed were they by the media maelstrom. It was a very busy time, laughs Leeanne, who, having juggled motherhood the couple have four children with the demands of running her own company, is used to multi-tasking. It is this family story at the heart of the brand that she believes appeals to Meghan, who takes great interest not only in the aesthetics of her fashion items, but the people, families and relationships behind them. Strathberry is a kitchen table business, having started as an idea on a holiday, where Leeanne and Guy found themselves enthralled by handcrafted leather goods on offer at markets across rural Spain. Shes not the sort of woman to pick up any old bag because it goes with her outfit - Leeanne On their return home, in 2013, they hatched a plan: to combine this craftsmanship with the spirit of Scotland, which didnt have an internationally known luxury accessories brand. There are so many brands throwing themselves at Meghan and she could choose any of them, says Leeanne. But she is considered in what she wears. To have Strathberry in the mix suggests she knows a little about where we come from and what we do. Shes not the sort of woman to pick up any old bag because it goes with her outfit. She values quality. Certainly, quality is key in Strathberrys bags, which are crafted by artisans whose skills have been passed down through generations in the same Spanish workshop where Dior manufactures its small leather goods and Loewe creates its iconic 1,525 Puzzle bags. Each style is sketched by designers in Scotland and then hewn from the softest Spanish leather. The signature style of Strathberry bags include thirty-six pieces that are hand-cut and sewn together. On average they retail at around 300, making them relatively affordable Thirty-six pieces are hand-cut and sewn together with 3,500 stitches, before 21 bits of brass hardware are fitted, including the bar closure over the handle, which has become the brands signature. With such attention to detail, its a wonder the Hundlebys have managed to keep their prices so low. But, having begun the business with modest savings, then raising 125,000 through crowdfunding, they are all too aware of the importance of ensuring their bags, costing on average around 300, are relatively affordable. When you compare this to the cost of a handbag at one of its new neighbours in Burlington Arcade, it is here that Strathberry has a clear advantage. A Mulberry Bayswater tote, for example, starts at 895, while a Chanel clutch costs 1,350. Will this plucky Scottish brand otherwise hold its own in the cut-throat world of London fashion? Leeanne is quietly optimistic. Weve never taken anything for granted and were not starting now, she says. This may be our only shop or it may be the first of many. Who knows? Shoppers will now be able to touch our bags and try them on in front of a mirror. Were excited about what that means for the future. Meghan may have paved the way for success, but theyre not resting on their laurels just yet. Fresh designs are in the pipeline, with seven new shapes set to launch in the New Year. Meanwhile, Leeanne is keeping schtum on whether or not there may be yet another Strathberry in the royal wardrobe. Handily, their new shop is just 15 minutes drive from Kensington Palace, so shes hoping a very special customer might pop in. If she did, Id like to buy her a drink, says Leeanne. Its the least I could do to thank her. Generous Australians have donated more than $65,000 to help the recovery of a young girl who suffered a decade of sexual abuse after being prostituted by her own mother. The money was raised after mummy blogger Constance Hall shared the harrowing story from Kenya about rape victim 'Elizabeth' - who was abused from the age of just two. The Perth mother put a desperate call out on social media in an effort to help raise $45,000 for Elizabeth who was subjected to horrific sexual abuse for 10 years. The Australian blogger is an ambassador of charity Rafiki Mwema that provides child abuse survivors a safe home in Kenya. Her plea led to the fundraising website to crash after just five minutes. However, more than $65,000 has been raised in under 24 hours. 'I want to talk to you about a little girl called Elizabeth who lives with us in Rafiki Mwema. She's the most beautiful teenager you'll ever meet. She's full of love, full of hugs and kindness but she's so deeply troubled from her past,' Constance said. Constance Hall has shared a heartbreaking story about a teenage girl named Elizabeth whose 'mother facilitated her prostitution' from the tender age of two (pictured together) The mummy blogger - who's an ambassador of charity Rafiki Mwema that provides child abuse survivors a safe home in Kenya - spoke out about rape victim Elizabeth in a bid to raise money What is Rafiki Mwema? Rafiki Mwema in Kenya is a charity that provides a home for girls who have been subjected to horrific abuse and it is no longer safe for them to stay in their own homes The organisation also house boys who have survived the horrors of living on the streets. The objective of Rafiki Mwema Incorporated is to raise funds to all allow these homes to continue providing shelter and support. Advertisement 'Her "mother" facilitated her prostitution from the age of two years old for 10 years. During that time she was brutally raped. 'She had knives held to her throat to keep her quiet, her body is covered in scars and she has a very good memory of the abuse. 'Yes, physically she is safe now. But mentally she is still in grave danger.' Constance explained the young girl had been receiving ongoing therapy but has started to have psychotic episodes. 'Elizabeth was progressing well in therapy. [But] the trauma is so deep with Elizabeth now that she has some very deep psychotic problems,' she said. 'It has terrified the other children at Rafiki and the doctors have said she needs to be committed to a psychiatric hospital. There she will suffer more abuse, be drugged to the point that she is not there and probably not survive. 'We need to keep her, we need to prove to her that she will not be punished for what someone did to her.' The Perth mother (pictured with her kids) put a desperate call out on social media in an effort to help raise $45,000 for Elizabeth who was subjected to horrific sexual abuse for 10 years Constance and her husband Denim welcomed their first child together - baby son Raja Wolf earlier this year Constance said the only option they have now is to build Elizabeth her own hut so she could be provided with the best care. 'Our only option is to build her a hut, her own accommodation on our farm. With two full time "aunties" Kenyan carers. We don't have the money,' she explained. 'If we can't build this and keep her, she will end up with the state because her episodes are affecting the other children's therapeutic progress. 'I wouldn't ask you guys if we weren't desperate to help her, save her.' Constance made the plea on Sunday afternoon to more than 1.2 million of her followers on Facebook to make a donation via the My Cause page. 'We need $45,000 to build this. You are our only option. Whatever you have, whatever you can spare,' she said. 'Please save Elizabeth, keep her at home with her new sisters, where she belongs.' Constance made the plea on Sunday afternoon to more than 1.2 million of her followers (pictured with her husband Denim Cooke) Within three hours of launching the campaign, thousands of generous Australians rallied behind the mummy blogger to raise money for Elizabeth (Constance pictured with her daughter) And within three hours, thousands of selfless fans rallied behind the mummy blogger to raise money for Elizabeth. 'Wow. I have spent my whole day in tears. You people are good. You are so good. You are reinstalling my faith in humans and you are saving Elizabeths life,' Constance said. 'Queens are changing the world. Saving each other and saving the vulnerable. I love you so much. 'I cannot explain what you have done. For a girl who was dealt the worst hand, this girls luck is changing today. 'I am almost positive you are saving her life today.' There's no easy way to tell someone you want to break up with them. And Australian television personality Sami Lukis has revealed she faced the 'most brutal rejection' of her dating life after she was dumped by an ex-boyfriend. Writing for Whimn, the now-48-year-old said she was dating a man 10 years younger than her but he decided to call it quits due to one crucial deal breaker. '"It's not you. It's your uterus." That's how he dumped me,' Sam revealed. Australian television personality Sami Lukis has revealed she faced the 'most brutal rejection' of her dating life after she was dumped by an ex-boyfriend 'Maybe those weren't his exact words. I think he said something along the lines of, "I'm just not ready to give up on the possibility of one day having kids with my partner."' The Sydney radio presenter revealed she had struggled to fall pregnant naturally years ago due to infertility problems. Despite several attempts to make a baby, Ms Lukis said eventually, she accepted the agonising admission that she will never be able to conceive. 'I thought I'd made peace with it and moved on. But when the guy dumped me because I couldn't give him a child, the pain hit me all over again. Twice as hard. I felt like a failure. Like I wasn't "woman" enough for him,' she added. The now-48-year-old said she was dating a man 10 years younger than her but he decided to call it quits due to one crucial deal breaker - he wanted kids The Sydney radio presenter revealed she had struggled to fall pregnant naturally years ago due to infertility problems Ms Lukis said the man was fully aware about her fertility problems early on in their relationship but he later decided he wanted to have his own kids. By sharing her story, Ms Lukis said she wanted to warn other women about the heartbreaking consequences of dating younger men. 'If you're going to date a younger man, just know that your fertility might turn out to be the crucial deal breaker for him,' she said, adding that she doesn't want to go through the same heartbreak ever again. Mums everywhere are celebrating the launch of a new range of dolls now stocked on the shelves of Australian retail giant Kmart. The male and female Anko Glamour Dolls (Anko is Kmart's own brand) cost $4 and being praised because they offer more realistic body proportions. The diverse collection features four female dolls, each with different hair and skin colour. The outfit choices are simple and fuss-free and even high heels have been switched for sensible flats. A mother who shared a photo of the Anko Glamour dolls to a popular Facebook page was met with a flurry of comments by those also saying how pleased they were with the new toy. The male and female Anko Glamour Dolls (pictured) are being praised because they offer more realistic body proportions There are a range of four dolls to choose from, each with different hair and skin colour 'Spotted these "Glamour Dolls" today. Same height as Barbie but twice the width, ie, a normal human size. How good!' The mother captioned her original post. The dolls, which also feature minimal makeup, were celebrated for their "normal" appearance and for being dressed in a way that was both stylish and practical. 'Love it, they're "normal" looking, actually dressed to cover the body, and not blasted with a sh*tload of makeup. We need more like this,' wrote one commenter. A new doll range by Kmart (pictured) is being lauded by shoppers for its embrace of body diversity Another wrote: 'They actually look like normal women (with thighs) - I want them.' 'These dolls look exactly like my niece. I bought her one with brown hair and it was uncanny. Its great dolls are starting to reflect reality,' an approving aunt added. The woman who shared the original post explained in the comments the dolls were '$4 each or they had a whole set of different women and blokes for $15!' The dolls are $4 each or there is a whole set of different female and male dolls available for $15 Other commenters said while Kmart efforts were laudable, in the past few years Barbie had also released a range of dolls representing different body shapes and ethnicity. In 2016, Mattel introduced a "new look" for Barbie. It released female dolls that resembled various body sizes and shapes. Included in this new look were dolls of various skin tones and hairstyles all which was the first time Barbie had changed its image since the 1960's. Celebrity baby names tend to have an impact on trends, but it turns out that only certain monikers have real staying power. Experts at Nameberry have predicted what the most popular names will be in 10 years time, and Charlotte is set to top the list for girls - inspired by our very own little princess. But it's not just the royals influencing name choices, as experts predict Harper - the name of Victoria and David Beckham's daughter - will sit at number three on the list in 2028. The predictions are based on the fact that these two names have held their own in the top 10, rather than proving to be a flash in the pan. 'Names that get popular fast, usually thanks to a celebrity or a pop culture event, tend to fall just as fast,' CEO of Nameberry, Pam Satran explained. Charlotte is set to be the most popular girls' name in 2028, inspired by the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (pictured with her brother George at Princess Eugenie's wedding in October 2018) Mini trend-setter! Harper Beckham, seven, pictured with her father David at London Fashion Week in September 2018 is predicted to be influencing baby name trends in 2028 'Beyonce, used for 105 baby girls in 2008, was used for no baby girls last year.' Names that are popular over several years tend to hang on in the top ten before gradually falling out of favour. 'Emma entered the top 10 in 2002 for instance, moving in and out of the number one spot but lingering in the top five. 'We project it will still be in the top five in a decade,' Pam explained. MOST POPULAR GIRLS NAMES IN 2028 Charlotte Amelia Harper Emma Olivia Evelyn Mia Aria Ava Sofia Advertisement MOST POPULAR BOYS NAMES IN 2028 Liam Mateo Maverick Noah Lincoln Lucas Henry Theodore Jaxon Oliver Advertisement For boys, Liam is expected to be the most popular moniker in 2028 in a list that's less based on celebrity influence. Other predictions for popular names include Lucas, Noah and the ever popular Oliver. Oliver, Harry, George, Noah and Jack were the most popular names for boys in the UK in 2017. Olivia, Amelia, Isla, Ava and Emily were the top five names for girls in 2017 with Sarah falling out of the top 100 since records began in 1904. In London, Muhammad was the go to boy's name. Muhammad also topped the ranks in Yorkshire, the West Midlands and the Humber. Olly (Oliver) Murs and Prince Harry may have something to do with most popular boys' names while actress Olivia Coleman and little Royal Mia Tindall may have influenced baby naming Interestingly, there were three variations of Muhammad in the top 100. If combined, Muhammad, Muhammed and Mohamed would pip Oliver to the post as the overall most popular boys' name. Harry, Oliver and Jack are showing no signs of slowing in popularity, with all three names having also been in the top five ten years ago. Nick Stripe, of the Office for National Statistics, said: 'Although Oliver and Olivia remained the most popular baby names in 2017, some fascinating changes took place beneath them. 'Leo entered the boys' top 10 for the first time, whilst Hunter rocketed into the top 100, also for the first time, reaching number 78. ROYAL BABY NAMES STILL POPULAR - BUT MEGHAN YET TO CLIMB RANKINGS Royal names feature near the top of the list of most popular baby names in England and Wales, but Meghan is yet to show a climb to the top, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Oliver and Olivia may have topped the baby names charts for the second year running, but George and Charlotte are consistently popular baby names, taking 3rd and 12th place on their respective lists. George has seen a slight increase in popularity over the last decade, climbing nine spots up the rankings since 2007. The Royals do seem to have an effect on baby names, as the birth of Princess Charlotte in 2015 demonstrated. Meghan is yet to show a climb to the top, according to data from the ONS Charlotte holds steady near the top of the list and sits in 12th place with 2,384 births in 2017 - the same position as 10 years ago. However, the name was dropping down the list before the birth of the Princess, reaching a low of 25th place in 2015 - before being propelled back up the rankings in the years since. As the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's third child, Prince Louis, arrived in April 2018, will it have the same impact on naming trends? Louis was the 82nd most popular boys' name of 2017 with 819 babies born, a drop of 11 places on the previous year and down 22 positions on 10 years ago. Could it start climbing again in the years to come? Meghan Markle was known to be in a relationship with Prince Harry throughout 2017, before announcing their engagement in November of that year. However, despite her prominence, Meghan was the 797th most popular girls name in 2017, with 49 baby Meghans born. However, the more popular British spelling of Megan also dropped down the list and barely made it into the top 100. The name dropped 17 places to become the 100th most popular girls' name of 2017. The name has suffered a steep decline in popularity over the last decade, dropping 83 places in the rankings since 2007. Elizabeth McLaren at the ONS said: 'The name Louis has been declining in popularity so it will be interesting to see if the naming of the latest Royal baby will reverse this trend next year. 'Meghan and Megan have also become less popular as baby names in recent times, but again, the addition of a new Royal with this name might reverse this trend. 'Royal names are often traditional names which do seem to go in cycles of popularity, although Elizabeth has consistently been in the top 100 since records began.' Advertisement 'Sarah, the most popular name for baby girls throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s, dropped out of the top 100 for the first time since our records began in 1904. Brand new entries into the top 100 for girls include the names Aurora and Hallie.' Thomas has been toppled in the top ten, falling out for the first time in 35 years. Most of the top 10 baby names of 2007 have declined in popularity, with the names Thomas, Daniel, Ruby, Grace, Jessica and Chloe all given to at least 50% fewer babies in 2017 than they were 10 years previously. Despite the top of the lists remaining steady, there are eight new names appearing in the top 100 baby names lists: two for boys, and six for girls. The data shows the six new female entries were Aurora, Orla, Edith, Bonnie, Lyla and Hallie, replacing Lexi, Zoe, Maddison, Sarah, Felicity and Lydia. A woman who is dating a man 18 years her junior has said she is fed up of being mistaken for his mother - and insists that she is not a cougar because he pursued her. Cree Ingles, 49, met Aaron Johnson, 31, while visiting another neighbour in the building they both live in in Eugene, Oregon, in the US. They quickly hit it off after exchanging numbers and even slept together just hours after meeting - despite Aaron having a girlfriend at the time. The pair, neither of whom work due to disabilities, have now been together for seven years. They insist their relationship isn't just about sex and took part in a handfasting ceremony - a form of pagan wedding - in September last year before having a commitment ceremony last month on their anniversary. But despite their happiness, Cree complains that she's mistaken for her partner's mother 'about three times a month', but admits: 'I'm used to it.' Cree Ingles, 49, met her partner Aaron Johnson, 31, seven years ago while visiting a neighbour in their building in Eugene, Oregon The pair quickly hit it off and even slept together within hours of meeting - but insist their relationship is not just about sex Cree is regularly mistaken for Aaron's mother, and outsiders have even referred to her as a cougar - something she denies, because he pursued her She said: 'About three times a month I get called his mom or he gets called my son when we are out in public together. Although I'm used to it, it does get old that people just assume our relationship when we are together. 'Sometimes I will reference old sayings, I asked him if he enjoyed his time without his "ball and chain" when I went out for the day without him, and he had to Google to see what I meant. 'Songs, movies, or music - he doesn't know what I'm talking about. For instance, he didn't know who The Fonz was. He thought it was a band. 'We have a hard time making friendships because either the men or women we try to befriend hit on him or hit on me. They don't take our relationship seriously. 'A common misconception is our relationship is completely about sex. You don't stay together with someone for over seven years and it just be about sex.' Cree said: 'A common misconception is our relationship is completely about sex. You don't stay together with someone for over seven years and it just be about sex' The pair are very much in love, and Aaron has since moved into the apartment next to Cree Aaron initially lived three doors down from Cree on the floor above, but once a unit beside her flat became available he moved in next door. Although both of their families have been accepting of their relationship, the pair face judgement from outsiders - with some even calling Cree a 'cougar'. Cree said: 'I don't claim the title of cougar because he came after me, with a vengeance. I thought I was just messing around with the neighbour kid when he went there and made it obvious he was interested in me. 'I have been in previous relationships where my partners have been 10 years younger (one male, one female) but I have also been in relationships with people older than me as well. Cree and Aaron took part in a handfasting ceremony in September last year before having a commitment ceremony last month on their anniversary Cree added: 'We have been in funny situations because the people are so embarrassed, or they are just flat out rude and stop speaking to us after we say we're together. 'That's really their issue and not ours. Love is love' 'At first it felt weird because I felt like everybody was judging me, but now we just go about our day and don't worry about it. 'Some people do assume that I'm his mum but we both quickly let them know that we are together. 'We have been in funny situations because the people are so embarrassed, or they are just flat out rude and stop speaking to us after we say we're together. 'That's really their issue and not ours. Love is love. Love is hard enough to find without putting restrictions on it. 'It's nobody's business what you do behind closed doors, and if they want to make it their business they need to look inside their own lives and fix their issues before judging others.' The new Dyson Airwrap has been hailed as a 'revolutionary' new way to style your hair, but at 400 it doesn't come cheap. Now one beauty guru has discovered a clever technique which she claims will deliver identical results to the high-tech styler - and it doesn't cost a penny. Dubai-based influencer Huda Kattan, also known as Huda Beauty, recommends using a sawed-off water bottle to help mould your tresses into perfect waves in a 'five-minute curling hack'. She advises cutting off the top of the bottle with a stanley knife, before making an incision halfway down the makeshift barrel that's big enough to fit a hairdryer nozzle into. Beauty hack: Huda Kattan, also known as Huda Beauty, recommends using a sawed-off water bottle to help mould your tresses into perfect waves in a 'five-minute curling hack' as an alternative to the new Dyson Airwrap which costs around 399.88 from most retailers Once the bottle is thoroughly clean, a thick section of hair can then be placed inside it, before hot air into is funnelled into it via a standard hairdryer. Kattan, whose Instagram fame helped her launch an eponymous beauty range, claims the cost-cutting technique is a great alternative to Dyson's new drying/ curling iron hybrid, which has taken the hair industry by storm. The styler - which uses air instead of damaging heat to curl your hair - is the result of more than six years of testing and uses a spinning motor to create an area of high pressure at the top of the styling barrel. A high-velocity jet of air then disperses out of six air slots around the barrel, while a glass based thermistor measures the temperature up to 40 times per second to ensure your hair is never exposed to extreme heat. Huda's water bottle styling hack STEP 1: Using a pair of large scissors or a palette knife, cut off the top of the water bottle so that one end is sealed and the other open (left) STEP 2: Down one side of the bottle, cut a slit thats 2cm longer than your hairdryer nozzle and 3cm in width (right) STEP 3: Now that the bottle is prepped, take a small section of your hair and twist it gently and then place it in the bottle. Insert the nozzle into the bottle through the gap STEP 4: Turn your hair dryer on and leave it in the insert, to blow dry your hair for 30 seconds. But be careful; the bottle gets hot so make sure youre wearing gloves! STEP 5: Remove the hair from the bottle and spray with hairspray. Do this to the rest of your hair, doing small sections at a time (pictured: the finished result) Advertisement The real deal: Dyson's new Airwrap - which uses air instead of damaging heat to curl your hair - is the result of more than six years of testing and researching different hair types Commenting on the cult styling tool on her blog, Huda wrote: 'While we understand that its the most innovative tool the hair styling industry has seen in decades, theres no denying that its a lot of money. 'So when we came across a curling hack that mimics the same drying technique, but you only need a plastic bottle to fulfill your hair dreams (not a months rent) we had to give it a go.' Huda is far from the first to give the water bottle technique a try; it has been storming Instagram in recent weeks as beauty bloggers look for cheaper alternatives to expensive styling tools. Giving her verdict on the styling hack, she wrote: 'Although we had seen a few videos, we were still slightly skeptical until we saw the curls for ourselves. 'Obviously, it doesnt have the hair saving technology as the Dyson Airwrap, or the various brushes and drying options, but it does deliver the same bouncy curls, and possibly even quicker than the Airwrap. Were sold!' BBC viewers were left very uncomfortable after witnessing a semi-naked Louis Theroux joining in a 'sensual' dinner party for his latest documentary exploring the world of polyamory. The documentary maker stripped to his underwear, was smeared in whipped cream and ate strawberries served by topless women in the first episode of his Altered States series, which aired on Sunday night. The show, entitled 'Love Without Limits', saw the 48-year-old father-of-three admit that he had asked his wife's permission before he took part in a blindfolded 'sensual' dinner in Portland, Oregon. Some viewers said the racy scenes had 'gone too far' as others complained that it made them 'cringe' with embarrassment for the broadcaster - who they insisted must have a very understanding wife. As part of his new BBC documentary series Altered States, Louis Theroux took part in a blindfolded sensual eating dinner which he had to seek permission from his wife before he could join in BBC viewers watching the racy scenes said they made them 'cringe' with one even saying he had 'gone too far' during making the thought-provoking documentary about polyamory 'So wrong. Made me cringe. His wife must be an angel #gonetoofar,' said one. 'The sensual eating is truly toe curling cringe,' added another. One person joked it was so uncomfortable to watch they were close to vomiting: 'Really enjoyed last nights show although did have me conflicted and I even dry heaved a couple of times! It made for uncomfortable viewing.' The saucy scenes showed the broadcaster, who has three sons with film director Nancy Strang, join the group Sex Positive Portland, which celebrates non-monogamous relationships - and before long he was watching attendees at the dinner 'spasming' in ecstasy. Louis said he felt like he needed to 'throw himself in' to the dinner and prove that he was as 'committed' as everyone else was, but was later seen admitting activities had gone much further than he thought they would. Louis played the part of the 'giver' for the first portion of the evening, feeding people and stroking them before it was his turn to become the 'taker' and removing his clothes He was fed strawberries and other food by topless women while he was blindfolded for the programme about polyamory in Portland, Oregon joining the group Sex Positive Portland for an evening event He previously told the Sun: 'There were people kind of spasming in ecstasy. There was a lot of nipple tweaking and one woman went round squirting whipped cream on her breasts and feeding the whipped cream to various people.' He added: 'That was one of those images you'll have in your head for ever.' In the documentary, Louis confessed to his fellow attendees, in a pre-dinner drink before shedding his clothes, that he was nervous and had never been fed food before by strangers. The leader of the group gently talked through the night with people put in pairs, one the 'giver' and one the blindfolded 'taker'. The new couples were then encouraged to eat and feed each other with any part of their body. At the beginning of the evening Louis said he felt 'nervous' about taking part but then decided that he had to 'throw himself' into it Louis took part in the evening where he was a 'giver' and a 'taker', which saw him remove most of his clothes and fed strawberries and cream by topless women and other men Louis commented: 'Advertised as sensual eating it soon became clear that the eating was taking a back seat to the sensual.' Still clothed, the broadcaster got involved rubbing another man's back and shoulders while he was being fed by another man and woman. The film-maker started as a 'giver' for the first portion of the evening and then became a 'taker'. Removing all his clothes - apart from his boxers - Louis was then blindfolded and sat down on the floor while being fed by a topless women in a skimpy black thong. While he was being fed by multiple people, there were moans and groans in the background from other people enjoying their dinner. He said: 'It was all rather embarrassing, but at the same time a little bit liberating. 'For a moment the idea of a world in which the currency of sex and love was more free-flowing made a tiny bit of sense.' The broadcaster travelled to Portland, Oregon, which is seen as the US capital of polyamory and ethical non-monogamy, which is the practice of 'openly and transparently having multiple relationships that go further than just sex' Louis previously appeared on the BBC's The One Show where he spoke about the episode which filmed in Portland, Oregon, the heart of the polyamory movement, seeking to re-write the rulebook on how we conduct intimate relationships and experience family life. Portland, whose city motto is 'Keep Portland Weird', is seen as the US capital of polyamory and ethical non-monogamy, the practice of openly and transparently having multiple relationships that go further than just sex. He said: 'I really do try to go into these things and keep and open mind. 'As flawed as polyamory clearly is, there is an in-built problem with it, which is jealousy. It's not as though monogamy is perfect. 'I think I will be sticking with monogamy, yes.' Louis also engaged with families who have made the bold decision to open up their relationships in a number of different ways including inviting other partners into the family home Louis also embedded himself with families who have made the bold decision to open up their relationships in a number of different ways; whether inviting others into existing relationships or allowing partners to seek romance elsewhere. He discovers that for many, more partners means more love and more happiness. But for others, multiple-relationships have led to jealousy, upset and broken-hearts. Louis Theroux Altered States: Love Without Limits is available on BBC iPlayer She chose Givenchy to create a classic dress for her wedding to Prince Harry and it seems that creative director Clare Waight Keller also has the feminist principles that would certainly impress the Duchess of Sussex. Birmingham-born Clare, 48, was crowned Designer of the Year last week at the Harper's Bazaar Women of the Year Awards and used the opportunity to convey an important message to young women about their career paths. The first female creative director of the Paris couture house said she's often asked what it's like to be a woman at the helm, but claims this line of questioning shouldn't even exist. 'My answer is always, "why should it even be a question that I'm a woman there?",' she explained. Givenchy's creative director Clare Waight Keller, 48, who was born in Birmingham said people shouldn't even question what it's like to be a woman at the head of a Paris couture house. Pictured: The designer at the Harper's Bazaar Women Of The Year Awards in London Meghan walking down the aisle at St George's Chapel Windsor in the Givenchy wedding gown made by Clare and her team 'I want to take this minute just to say that I've got teenage girls and I'd like them in their adult life to think that actually at this point, we live in a world where we don't have to ask questions like that. 'That actually, you're a talent and you've got an amazing creative world and vision, and that should be the most important thing.' As a keen champion of women's empowerment it's no wonder the Duchess of Sussex chose the first female director of Givenchy to design her wedding dress when she married Prince Harry in May. The Duchess has since made Givenchy one of her go-to designers for important royal engagements in the same way that her sister-in-law Kate has aligned herself with her wedding dress designer Alexander McQueen. Meghan couldn't resist sporting another creation by her wedding designer Givenchy for a visit to Cheshire in June 2018, her first official engagement with the Queen, and looked elegant in the cream fitted dress with a cape feature at the shoulders Meghan chose a forest green Givenchy skirt and knitted top as she arrived in Dublin in July for her first official overseas visit since marrying Prince Harry. The Duchess gave Givenchy another starring role when she wore a black 2,510 dress with sheer sleeves and a velvet panel around the neckline to the Oceania exhibition in September 2018, her first official solo engagement as a royal Seven years on from her wedding day and the Duchess of Cambridge continues to rely on her bridal designer Alexander McQueen for high-profile occasions. The Duchess of Sussex showed her loyalty to the French brand when she stepped out in a custom-made number for her first official joint engagement with the Queen in Cheshire in June 2018. She also chose a forest green Givenchy knitted top and pencil skirt for her arrival in Dublin for her first official overseas visit as a member of the royal family. Meghan chose a navy Givenchy coat for Princess Eugenie's wedding in October, which prompted speculation that she might be hiding a baby bump. The Duchess also gave her favourite designer a high profile nod in this pleated navy skirt and knitted top for her last day in New Zealand during the recent royal tour It was also her choice as she attended the opening of the 'Oceania' exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in September, her first official solo engagement without Prince Harry by her side, as well as for Princess Eugenie's wedding a month later. And it was no surprise that Givenchy featured on the recent high profile tour of Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji. On her final day in New Zealand, Meghan went out with a bang, choosing a bespoke Givenchy pleated skirt, which featured thick royal blue stripes and thinner white stripes, with a co-coordinating jumper, also by the French fashion house. A man has revealed how he managed to beat Ryanair's controversial new baggage charges by stitching his entire holiday wardrobe to the inside of his coat - and he successfully made it onto the flight. Lee Cemino, 30, a property landlord from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, filmed his efforts at making it on to the plane, saying he 'loves' flying with Ryanair and that they're always on time and 'run like clockwork'. However, he added that he wasn't happy with the newly hiked up baggage charges introduced by the low-cost airline. The new policy Ryanair introduced on November 1 means passengers are no longer allowed to place a small suitcase in the hold for free, forcing them to pay a minimum of 8 for any bag that won't fit under the seat in front or weighs more than 10kg. Instead Lee decided that he doesn't want to fork out the money to store his luggage instead opting to test out his genius hack - which was a success. Property developer Lee Cemino said he 'loves' flying with Ryanair and that they're always on time and 'run like clockwork', but he'd been stung with the new baggage charges, so decided to find a way around it by stitching his luggage into his coat At the end of the clip Lee was seen cheering with success as he then went on to board the plane wearing his specially adapted coat and arriving in Belfast Lee shared the video on his Facebook page which has since gone viral after being posted to Twitter by a friend. It revealed his clever hack, with several items of clothing stitched inside his coat that would act as compartments for him to store more clothes in. Crafty Lee told MailOnline: 'I often travel Ryanair, cheap flights and for great destinations. Ryanair had changed the baggage allowance policy the day before we were due the fly to Belfast. 'Because I travel so often, Im pretty clued up about on the luggage rules. I always manage to get my clothes into hand luggage. 'I had an old coat at home so I though why not try and see what my local tailors could do. We proved we can do it! He added: 'I felt like I looked ridiculous but I wasnt noticeable to anyone, if you only need to get away for a day or two why pay for a luggage fee?' Lee appeared to make it through the check-in for his flight with all the belongings he had stitched into his coat instead of taking a suitcase In the clip Lee says: 'Me and me mate are off to Belfast for my birthday, we booked the flight but it turned out to be two days after the baggage changes. He continued: 'I was properly annoyed but I had an idea,' he explained. 'I looked through my wardrobe and found an old coat, I found a friendly tailor. The tailor made it so I could fit the entire contents of a roll-on cabin bag into the lining of my coat.' He explained to MailOnline: 'We use a local tailor in Tunstall. They absolutely loved the idea and threw in some of their own ideas when creating this upgrade to my coat. 'They havent yet charged me so Ill be keeping an eye out for the invoice. He had also attached small plastic bags to stash his toiletries inside. Lee had taken the coat to a tailor and asked them to add some extra compartments. He was worried it wasn't going to work initially as the coat appeared very bulky Lee managed to squeeze in all his essentials including a spare coat which he needed for the miserable weather in Belfast Lee was dubious at first joking that 'it is never going to work' before he is seen nervously heading to Manchester airport, to catch his flight to Belfast. He waits in the line to board the flight: 'They're properly checking everyone...' But then after the screen cuts to black it is revealed Lee made it through the check-in and shouts 'yes!' as he runs to board the plane, later arriving in Belfast. A spokesperson for Ryanair told the MailOnline, in response to Lee's attempts to get around the baggage fee: 'Thanks to our larger free small bag allowance (40 per cent bigger) and cheaper checked-in bag option (8 for a 10kg bag), Ryanair customers can bring all they need without having to board the aircraft looking like the Michelin Man or Joey from Friends. 'Weve received lots of positive feedback from customers and airports across Europe on our new bag policy, which is leading to faster check-in, security and boarding, and improved punctuality.' Lee had also added a plastic bag for his toiletries as well as old underpants with zips so that he could store extra items like shoes and spare clothes This graphic shows how Ryanair's new charges will be applied. Passengers have to pay 8 to check in a 10kg bag and if you bring a second bag to the gate or you first bag is too big, you will be charged a fee of 25 The stringent new rules have led to confusion among many Ryanair passengers who have pointed out that if they pay for priority boarding which costs 6 they will continue to be allowed to take both a 'personal bag' and a small suitcase as hand baggage. A Ryanair spokesman previously said: 'Our new bag policy, which was first announced on 23 Aug, came in to effect on Thursday (1 Nov) and initial reports from the airports and our customers is that that it's working well and reducing delays at security and speeding up the boarding process. What exactly IS Ryanair's baggage policy? From November 1, passengers can only take one small personal bag on board measuring 40x20x25cm that must fit under the seat in front. If you bring a second bag to the gate or you first bag is too big you will be charged a fee of 25. Passengers have to pay 8 to check in a 10kg bag. Passengers who pay for priority boarding - which costs 6 - will continue to be allowed to take both a 'personal bag' and small suitcase as hand baggage. Advertisement 'Priority Boarding customers will continue to enjoy two free carry-on bags. All other (non-priority) customers will be allowed one free (small) carry-on bag, and those who wish to check in a second bigger 10kg bag can do from /8 at the time of booking.' Passengers have to pay 8 to check in a 10kg bag. The previous lowest price for checked luggage was 25 for up to 20kg, which remains an option for those with heavier cases. The maximum size of 'personal bags' allowed on board has been increased by 40%. Passengers who pay for priority boarding which costs 6 will continue to be allowed to take both a 'personal bag' and small suitcase as hand baggage. Ryanair believes some customers may prefer the 8 checked luggage option because they 'do not want to drag a wheelie case through airport security.' It claimed most passengers will be unaffected by the changes, as 30 per cent already buy priority boarding and a further 30 per cent travel with only a 'personal bag'. It was tipped as this year's answer to The Night Manager, but it appears The Little Drummer Girl is failing to grip viewers in the same way as its widely-loved predecessor. The second episode of the BBC's new John le Carre adaptation, which aired last night, left some viewers switching off as they struggled to get to grips with the espionage thriller's 'turgid' and 'confusing' plot. But others were quick to defend the slow-burn drama, claiming it is simply a show that requires 'more attention' in order to grasp the story. Divisive: The second episode of The Little Drummer Girl left some viewers switching off as they struggled to get to grips with the espionage thriller's 'turgid' and 'confusing' plot. Pictured, Becker (Alexander Skarsgard) and Charlie (Florence Pugh) in last night's episode Slow burner, or 'boring'? Viewers were divided over the John le Carre adaptation, with some switching off when they failed to understand the plots. Others said it 'makes you pay attention' The show - from the team behind The Night Manager - kicked off last week in Germany in 1979 when a bomb goes off in the diplomatic quarter of Bonn, with senior Israeli intelligence agent Martin Kurtz (Michael Shannon) flying in to investigate. A series of similarly deadly attacks targeting prominent Jewish figures across Europe have been carried out in recent weeks, and Kurtz believes there is a Palestinian revolutionary at the heart of this pattern. Kurtz sets in motion a brilliant and elaborate plan to catch the kingpin, Khalil (Charif Ghattas), enlisting the help of passionate young British actress Charlie, played by Florence Pugh. Unanswered questions: The second episode shed some light on the mysteries thrown up by the show's opener. Pictured l-r: Martin Kurtz (Michael Shannon), Litvak (Michael Moshonov) and Charlie (Florence Pugh) in a scene from last night's episode Complicated: The majority of viewers appeared to be alienated by the show, with one asking whether anyone understands the plot. Others branded the storyline 'obtuse' and 'turgid' As a upcoming young actress she is treading the boards of pub theatres and struggling to land a breakthrough part, and drifts from one bad relationship to another, unable to find her purpose in life. When an anonymous benefactor sends Charlie and her theatre troupe on a rehearsal jaunt to Greece, she feels renewed vigour. But a working holiday soon becomes a journey of discovery when she encounters a man named ' (Alexander Skarsgard) on the beach and embarks on a whirlwind romance when he whisks her on a date to neighbouring Athens. Praise: Other viewers were quick to praise the adaptation, saying it is 'excellent' viewing In last night's episode it emerges 'Peter' is in fact Israeli secret service agent Gadi Becker, who has been brought out of retirement by Kurtz to infiltrate a militia cell by posing as Salim Al-Khadar, or 'Michel', the brother of kingpin Khalil. Skarsgards character has to slide smoothly into the role of Michel, wearing his clothes, adopting his mannerisms - and his love of womanising. Charlie is brought into play the role of his girlfriend, believing the real 'Michel' is being missing but in reality he is being held by Kurtz. The episode also picks apart the backstory Charlie had provided, revealing she is also adept at keeping secrets. Mr. President, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me particular pleasure to be able to speak to all of you this morning and apart from anything else to be back in Ghana after all these years. My wife and I have had the most special time in the country here over the past few days and we have been so deeply touched by the wonderfully warm welcome we have received wherever we have been. In fact so warm it's taking some time for my blood to thin. And I can scarcely believe that so much time has passed since I first set foot in this fascinating land back in 1977 when, believe it or not, I was only twenty-eight years old and Ghana, too, was young, having just completed her first two decades of independence. Although I am afraid it has taken me far too long to return, I can assure you that I have been following Ghana's story closely and, like so many other people, I have been profoundly impressed by the remarkable course that Ghana has taken. Over these past years, your country, ladies and gentlemen torment if I may say so, has become an example to other nations. It has given its citizens stability and security, with strong democratic institutions, free and fair elections and the peaceful transition of power, in a vibrant multi-party, multi-faith democracy. At the same time, Ghana's civil society has thrived and its N.G.O.s, its trades unions and professional associations are now among the most active and engaged in the region. I know, too, that Ghana's traditional leaders some of whom, including the Asantehene and Okyenhene, I have had the great pleasure of meeting again on this visit continue to have a vital and influential voice in your national discourse. Underpinning all of this, it seems to me, are Ghana's deeply-held values of tolerance and inclusion which are embedded in your traditional culture and enshrined in your constitutional protection of free speech and freedom of religious expression. While, elsewhere, diversity has fuelled division and conflict, in Ghana it has been an enduring source of strength and national pride. Ghana has also become a force for good in the world. For over fifty years she has made a much-valued contribution to United Nations Peace-keeping operations, with Ghanaian armed servicemen and women, police officers and civilians making a vital difference to the maintenance of international peace and security and helping to create the conditions for sustainable development in countries stricken by conflict. Here, Mr. President, if I may, I would like to take the opportunity to pay a special tribute to the memory of that proud son of Ghana, Mr. Kofi Annan, whose recent loss has been so keenly felt by people throughout this country and indeed across the World. I had the particular pleasure of meeting Mr. Annan on numerous occasions, and have the greatest respect for his moral conviction, his strong sense of justice and his quiet determination to confront the world's most urgent challenges. He will long be remembered by all those who knew him, and by countless others whose lives he touched. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, the histories of our two nations are, I know, closely intertwined, and while today we enjoy shared opportunity, we can never forget that our past has sometimes borne witness to tragedy and loss and, at times, profound injustice. At Osu Castle on Saturday, it was especially important to me as indeed it was on my first visit there forty-one years ago that I should acknowledge the most painful chapter of Ghana's relations with the nations of Europe, including the United Kingdom. The appalling atrocity of the slave trade, and the unimaginable suffering it caused, left an indelible stain on the history of our world. While Britain can be proud that it later led the way in the abolition of this shameful trade, we have a shared responsibility to ensure that the abject horror of slavery is never forgotten, that we abhor the existence of modern slavery and that we robustly promote and defend the values which today make it incomprehensible, to most of us, that human beings could ever treat each other with such utter inhumanity. At other points in our history, our two nations have suffered and toiled alongside each other. At the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery on Friday afternoon, I was honoured to join you, Mr. President, in remembering the bravery and sacrifice of troops from Ghana, and from across West Africa, who made such a vital contribution in the First and Second World Wars. In the First World War alone, a staggering 200,000 soldiers from West Africa supported the Allied effort and 30,000 of them lost their lives. During the Second World War, some 65,000 Ghanaians served in the Royal West African Frontier Force, in operational theatres stretching from East Africa to modern day Burma. I need hardly say, therefore, how special it was for my wife and I to meet some of those surviving veterans during this visit. Now as we mark the Centenary next month of the end of the First World War, it is so very important that we remember all those who fought wherever they came from and wherever they served and that we honour the immense sacrifice that so many of them made. Today, Ladies and Gentlemen, the United Kingdom and Ghana enjoy a dynamic partnership of equals, anchored in our shared experience but looking to a shared future. We share the same language, the same legal system, the same values and a strong trading relationship that is worth over one billion dollars. You will not be surprised to hear that I have been very pleased to see, over these past few days, the many ways in which the United Kingdom has been helping to make a difference in Ghana whether through the private, government or N.G.O. sectors. But this is a two-way relationship, and the influence of Ghana, and of people of Ghanaian heritage, in the United Kingdom is extensive and vital too whether in the arts, fashion, music, technology, business, academia or, of course, sport. There is, it seems to me, no greater example and demonstration of the bond between our two countries than the 250,000 men and women of Ghanaian descent who live in the United Kingdom and make such an indispensable contribution to our society and our economy. Many of these tremendously successful individuals are both British and Ghanaian and play active roles in the lives of both our countries. They act as a bridge between us, across which travel the ideas, creativity and talent that fuel our shared prosperity and help shape our identity. Shortly before we set off on this Tour, my wife and I were delighted to host a Reception, at St. James's Palace in London, to celebrate the contribution to British life of the West African diaspora communities in the United Kingdom. We were joined by many famous faces and leaders in their fields, but also by nurses, police officers, armed forces personnel, teachers and other men and women who make such an indescribable difference to our country. These diaspora communities as with the British Asian communities, or those whose roots are in the Caribbean are one of our contemporary society's greatest assets and one in which I have nothing but the most enormous pride. They offer a powerful demonstration of Britain's place within our remarkable Commonwealth family, of the shared opportunities it represents, and of everything that binds us together in a changing world. Next year of course we will celebrate the Commonwealth's seventieth birthday. The Commonwealth, therefore, is just a few months younger than I am myself and has lasted a great deal better - as you can probably see for yourself ladies and gentlemen - and therefore so has been a fundamental feature of my life for as long as I can remember. Over these seven decades, the Commonwealth has built upon its firm foundation of shared experience and common values to strive for a more prosperous and more secure future for the 2.4 billion people who call the Commonwealth home. The past seventy years have brought global change on an unprecedented scale, with challenges and opportunities that could never have been anticipated in 1949. All the while, the Commonwealth has been a constant a common point of reference by which its members have navigated the ever-changing tides of an uncertain world. Ghana has played an active and influential role in the Commonwealth ever since becoming, in 1957, the first newly independent African country to join. President Kwame Nkrumah, of whom I have vivid memories of meeting when he visited the U.K. in the 1960's, played a key role in the forced withdrawal of apartheid South Africa from the Commonwealth in 1961 and, later, was instrumental in the establishment of the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1965. Today, Ghana continues to play an influential role. At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London in April, during which I had the great pleasure of sitting next to you, Mr. President, at The Queen's Banquet, Ghana lent its voice to commitments, among other things, on education, gender equality, clean oceans, cyber security and more. I know, Mr. President, that you share my determination that the Commonwealth should strive for renewed relevance in the lives of its citizens and should draw upon its unparalleled networks of professional expertise to offer practical solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our time, many of which are increasingly deep-seated and deeply integrated. No issue is more pressing, it seems to me, than that of climate change.The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which provided stark and alarming evidence that even 1.5 degrees of warming will mean catastrophic damage to the planet's ecosystems, sent a clear signal that we must all surely heed. The impact of such alarmingly dangerous climate change is, of course, a really major risk multiplier for it exacerbates the increasing fragility of the world's natural capital, on which we are all totally dependent and the resilience of which has been substantially undermined by decades of over-exploitation. I am afraid, Ladies and Gentlemen, that the impacts of climate change global warming are already being felt by far too many Commonwealth citizens, not least through the devastation that is wrought, ever more frequently, by the terrifying hurricanes and cyclones to which our small island states, in particular, are so horrifyingly vulnerable. In November last year I visited the Caribbean islands of Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and the British Virgin Islands, after previously visiting Malaysia Singapore and Indonesia, to show my support to those communities as they struggled with the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria; and earlier this year, I visited Vanuatu, in the Pacific, to see how they were recovering from Cyclone Pam, which wreaked havoc across that archipelago. Although, in each of these island states, I encountered a strength of spirit and resilience that was profoundly humbling, with the existential threat of climate-induced catastrophe growing ever more real, one has to wonder what the future holds. I know, of course, that the effects of climate change are being felt every day by people across this continent as well, with increasingly erratic weather patterns representing a growing threat to food security and triggering the mass migration of millions of people. It is profoundly worrying, for instance, that Lake Chad is today just one tenth the size it was only a few decades ago a catastrophic shrinkage which, combined with the Southward spread of the Sahara desert, is displacing whole populations and fuelling bitter conflict. With such different parts of the Commonwealth, thousands and thousands of miles apart, facing such depressingly similar challenges, there is, it seems to me, tremendous potential for the Commonwealth to share best practice and co-ordinate its response to these kinds of disasters. Earlier this year in Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory, I visited the highly impressive National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, which deploys world-class medical teams and facilities in rapid response to disasters overseas, on behalf of the Australian Government. To my mind, at least, it offered a compelling example of the sort of co-ordinated response that could be replicated elsewhere in the Commonwealth to offer practical assistance to people in their times of greatest need. Although, tragically, it is essential that we prepare for the effects of climate-induced disasters in this way, we must, at the same time, work together to tackle the underlying causes which surely means, among other things, establishing a proper price for carbon and addressing the global problem of perverse subsidy regimes and the continuing lack of the 'polluter pays' principle. In addressing the fundamental and most pressing challenges that our planet faces, I have long felt for what it is worth - that this can be done, at least in part, by developing a truly circular economy in which we design products so that little or nothing is wasted in recycling and put in place the planning systems, infrastructure and incentives to ensure that every effort is made to minimise our environmental impact. It is becoming evident that not following such an approach has disastrous consequences, as is witnessed by the fact that 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the Ocean every year, that soon there will be one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish in the sea, and that the dead zones in the Ocean, now numbering over 400, are continuing to grow. Given this, ladies and gentlemen surely, surely we must find a way to protect and conserve our ocean and develop a truly sustainable circular approach to the Blue Economy, as we must to the rest of our economic activities? Such an approach will not only protect our eco-systems but will also generate new jobs and will stimulate economic growth. Now I know you agree, Mr. President, that Ghana can play a vital role in all of this, helping to lead the way in Africa and, indeed, in the Commonwealth at large. In this regard, I was delighted to see that Ghana has joined the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Blue Ocean Economy, which is co-chaired by the Prime Minister of Norway and the President of Palau, with the World Resources Institute, of which I recently became Patron, providing the Secretariat. I am utterly convinced of the potential for the Commonwealth to be part of the solution to these challenges and the Commonwealth Clean Oceans Alliance, announced at this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London, is an important example of how it can do so. The Alliance brings together Commonwealth countries around a commitment to preventing plastic entering the marine environment. A key part of the Alliance is the Global Plastics Action Partnership, established by the World Economic Forum and World Resources Institute, as a global public-private delivery mechanism to tackle the terrible plastic pollution of our rivers, deltas and oceans. I am delighted, therefore, that Ghana has been included among the first three country beneficiaries, alongside Indonesia and Vanuatu. In the same way that taking an integrated approach to Ocean issues resolving the problems of wastage, plastics, over-fishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the absence of adequate Marine Protected Areas, is vital to protect the Ocean's health, so too, it seems to me, is an integrated landscape approach to the rural economy in order to protect our ecological, social and economic security. And, in this regard, I can only applaud Ghana's leadership on the Cocoa and Forest Initiative, the inaugural meeting of which I was happy to host, with my then International Sustainability Unit in London last year, and am shortly to attend a follow-up meeting after I've finished this speech. As I am sure you are more aware than ever, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are entering the era of a 'triple threat' that is to say one where the effects of climate change, rapid urbanisation, unsustainable population growth and natural resource depletion are compounding to make the perfect storm. It is already beyond most people's comprehension that in the last twenty-five years the number of people living in towns and cities has almost doubled. But by the year 2050, the world's urban population is projected to increase by an additional 2.3 billion people which in context is the total current population of the Commonwealth. Even more concerning is that on current trends, this doubling of the world's urban population would result in a tripling of the world's urban footprint placing enormous strains on ecosystems and directly challenging the carbon reduction strategies that are so vital in the context of climate change. Across the Commonwealth the impact of these frightening trends is, as I've said, only, too evident, with urban sprawl and informal settlement dislocating millions of people from basic services and jobs. Recent studies show that in the Commonwealth urban growth will be greatest in the places with least professional resource to plan for it which is critical if it is to be sustainable. Invariably, current tools and policies for planning urban settlements are just not rapid enough to get ahead of the rate of urban development. And unless our growing towns and cities are planned, even at the most basic level, to protect main arterial routes, farmland and natural ecosystems, then we will not realise the potential benefits of economic growth and the opportunity that sustainably planned urban expansion can undoubtedly deliver. My own Foundation therefore has been working with the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, the Commonwealth Association of Planners and Commonwealth Association of Architects to develop an online toolkit that will help shape growth in secondary cities, where most of the projected urbanisation is expected to occur. Given the challenges in the Commonwealth to address this rapid urbanisation across sub-Saharan Africa, India and through to the small Island States there is also a huge opportunity through the diversity of the Commonwealth to share tools, techniques and best practice for planning walkable, mixed-use, mixed-income human settlements that can play such a vital role in the reduction of poverty, mitigation of the impacts of climate change and reversing damage to finite ecosystems. There are, it seems to me, Ladies and Gentlemen, so many ways in which the Commonwealth can draw on its unparalleled store of talent and professional expertise, and sheer diversity of experience, to find solutions to the enormous challenges we face, and seize the opportunities from which we can all benefit. An astonishing sixty per cent of the Commonwealth's two billion citizens are now under the age of thirty the potential, therefore, is immense, but so are the risks especially from unemployment and alienation, we therefore need to empower young people through personal development programmes, skills-training and assistance with business enterprise development. In all of this lies tremendous opportunity for the people of this continent. Every young person, in Ghana just as in the U.K., has the potential to make a difference in their communities and to their country. Helping young people to unlock their potential is something to which I know you are committed, Mr. President. In the United Kingdom I set up my Prince's Trust some forty-two years ago and, since then, it has helped nearly a million young people to get into jobs, education and training or to start their own enterprise and to create brighter futures for themselves and those around them. Now, through Prince's Trust International, we are taking the experience and expertise that my Trust has built up since 1976 and, with local partners, are helping to change young lives in other parts of the world. I am therefore delighted to be able to announce that Prince's Trust International is now looking to bring their programmes to Africa for the first time, starting here in Ghana. It will, I hope, offer a further connection between our countries, in some small way, at least, whereby we can contribute to your priority, Mr. President, of fuelling youth employment and diversified economic growth. Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen It is clear to me that the Commonwealth remains as vital today, as it has ever been. It brings us together, building bridges between our governments and our people, and offering the practical means to work together for a better future. In such an uncertain and changing world, none of us can know what kind of a planet our grandchildren, and great grandchildren, will inhabit, but the Commonwealth, it seems to me, offers us a vital mechanism to help ensure that it is not poisoned and polluted and that its vitality is not compromised. Therefore, we owe it to them and to every one of our 2.3 billion fellow Commonwealth citizens to renew and strengthen the partnerships between us, and use them to give life to the aspirations of each generation. I have nothing but the greatest confidence that Ghana will play an essential part in that, just as it always has, and that the bonds between our countries will remain strong and indispensable to us all. Thank you ladies and gentlemen Advertisement Few people alive today could say they've met the likes of Nelson Mandela, Elvis, Amy Winehouse and The Beatles. But legendary photographer Terry O'Neill, 80, is lucky enough to have taken pictures of them all over the course of a stellar career spanning almost six decades. Most famous for his portraits of Elton John in the 1970s, Terry has dedicated much of his life to taking pictures of the rich and famous. Now a new exhibition offers a glimpse at rarely seen snaps, including one of Paul McCartney playing the piano at Ringo Starr's wedding, and another of Audrey Hepburn reclining beside a pool on the set of Two for the Road in St Tropez in 1967. Scroll down to see more of the legendary snapper's atmospheric shots of some of the biggest stars of the past century... World-famous photographer Terry O'Neill is displaying a number of his rare and never seen before pictures, including this one of Paul McCartney at Ringo Starr's wedding in 1981, at a new exhibition Over the course of his career, which has spanned nearly 60 years, Terry was lucky enough to photograph some of the most famous people in the world - including Nelson Mandela, pictured here on his 90th birthday in 2008 During the 1960s, Terry worked on a number of film sets across the globe, capturing incredibly intimate shots of stars relaxing - including Audrey Hepburn, pictured here by a pool in St Tropez while shooting the 1967 filming Two for the Road. 'When the call came to ask if I wanted to go down to the south of France to work on the new film starring Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn, well, how do you say no to that?' Terry later said of Hepburn in an interview with Iconic Images. 'She really knew how to work with a camera, with a photographer' Elizabeth Taylor met David Bowie while casting for the film The Blue Bird in 1975. Bowie turned up two hours late for the meeting, leaving Elizabeth fuming. To defuse the situation, Terry started taking photos of the pair, including a series of them sharing a cigarette. Speaking about the pictures with Harper's Bazaar in 2011, he said: 'When I look back at my photographs of her, its always this set that I come back to a young David Bowie in a nervous embrace, Elizabeth in total command... An unlikely meeting, an intoxicating pair; the shots were instantly snapped up all over the world' In 1972, Terry took this photograph of Hollywood stars Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood in Tuscon, Arizona Over the years, Terry became close friends with Raquel Welch, taking this photograph of her in 1969. He told Iconic Images: 'My friendship and working relationship with Raquel goes back more than fifty years now. I worked with her when she was starting out and the camera loves her. Well, everyone loves her!' During Elton John's peak in the 1970s, Terry O'Neill took numerous pictures of the star. He once said of Elton: 'He hated being photographed. The costumes were what he hid behind' Ava Gardner, pictured in 1968, was close friends with Terry until her death in 1990. Ava helped Terry meet her ex-husband Frank Sinatra by writing him a letter, and the pair worked together for many years. Terry told the Sunday Times: 'Ava was very nice and she wrote me a letter to give to Frank. I don't know what she wrote but whatever it was, it opened up a door for me and I was with him for the next 30 years, off and on' Pictured: Fellow photographer David Bailey setting up a shot of Jean Shrimpton in 1963. Some of Terry's most famous shots are of Jean, who was considered the face of the swinging 60s Pictured: Raquel Welch and Farrah Fawcett on the set of Myra Breckinridge in 1970. Raquel had the titular role Terry photographed Dustin Hoffman during the filming of John and Mary in New York in 1969 Terry has photographed every single James Bond, from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig. Here, Sean Connery is pictured pretending to hitchhike during the filming of Diamonds of Forever in 1971 Pictured: Elizabeth Taylor in period costume on the set of A Little Night Music in Austria, 1977 In 1964, Liza Minnelli and her mother Judy Garland performed at the London Palladium together (pictured). Speaking about the legendary show with Playbill, Liza said: 'My mother tricked me into doing the show. She asked me to come perform in London with her but I declined. I felt I wasnt ready, I was too young. But Mama didnt take no for an answer' Terry snapped this photo of English heavyweight boxer Henry Cooper back in 1960 Terry ONeill: Rare and Unseen is at Iconic Images Gallery, 13A Park Walk, Chelsea, south west London, SW10 0AJ from November 9 - January 15, 2019 Online heavyweight Amazon has released a Christmas advert as it prepares to lure festive shoppers away from the high street. The super retailer unveiled a 90-second feel-good TV spot to rival the likes of John Lewis and Marks & Spencer as it once again goes head-to-head with bricks and mortar stores with its one-stop shop approach. The heart-warming campaign sees a chorus of animated Amazon boxes singing the Jackson 5 hit Can You Feel It? as they are transported to excited customers in homes, hospitals and office buildings around the world. Festive cheer: Amazon's TV spot sees a chorus of animated boxes singing as they are transported to excited customers in homes, hospitals and office buildings around the world. The clip starts with a scene of a little girl distracted by a single brown box in the corner, right Spirit of Christmas: A worker stuck in her cheery office cubicle is given a fresh lease of life when a stack of singing Amazon parcels is wheeled past her desk by the mailman The online retailer follows in the footsteps of brands including Argos, Aldi and Currys PC World, who have already rolled out their festive adverts. The 90-second Amazon offering opens with a single singing brown delivery box catching the attention of a little girl making a gingerbread house at the dining room table of a cosy family home decorated with twinkling fairy lights. It cuts to a scene of an office worker typing away in her cubicle whose face lights up as the mailman pushes a stack of Amazon parcels past her desk. Busy families, delivery drivers and a nurse tending to a child in their hospital bed all start to feel the festive cheer when they come face-to-face with the singing boxes. Carefully choreographed: Singing the Jackson 5 hit Can You Feel It?, the parcels are seen spinning and twirling around the wide aisles of an Amazon warehouse, delighting staff Special delivery: A nurse and a young child in hospital also receive a festive delivery Lighting up the sky: A busy mother uses Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa to turn on the lights covering her house, pictured, allowing the company to plug more of its products It is the second time the singing boxes have featured in the Christmas adverts, following the success of last year's offering. The campaign launched on Saturday 3 November and will run across nine countries including the US, UK, Germany and Mexico. Nine further spots will be rolled out. First out the post with its advert this year was Currys PC World, which debuted its campaign - titled The Magic of Christmas Upgraded - on Thursday 1st November during Emmerdale, featuring the carol Good King Wenceslas as the soundtrack. Worldwide travels: A delivery worker wheels in another batch of singing Amazon boxes Sing like you mean it! The back of a delivery truck is opened to reveal a stack of singing parcels Easy collection: Another customer is seen using an Amazon Pickup Locker for their delivery Next up was Argos, which aired the following night featuring a festive fool determined to ruin Christmas. The mischievous impish creature causing chaos for families during the festive period by rewiring their lights, opening their gifts and stealing their instruction manuals. Meanwhile Aldi was accused of copying Coca Cola with its Christmas advert. The spot sees the character of Kevin The Carrot return once again, this time driving a red truck covered in Christmas lights that looks strikingly similar to the instantly recognisable Coca-Cola truck. A cult anti-ageing cream that sells one unit every 60 seconds has landed in the UK for the first time. Hana Capsule Cream, from Korean brand J.One, has hit shelves in Boots after drumming up a large waiting list and huge international interest. Packed with youth-boosting peptide complex and fullerene, the range has been dubbed the 'caviar of skincare' because it is presented in dosed 'pearls' and applied with a spatula. The 22 (20g) cream sold 10,000 units in just five hours when it launched across the pond at Sephora, and continues to be a bestseller for the cosmetics giant; indeed, J.One claim the cream has been snapped up by almost one in three Korean women. Have you got yours yet? Dubbed the 'caviar of skincare', Hana Capsule Cream has hit shelves in Boots after drumming up a large waiting list and huge interest across the globe It contains a Nobel prize-winning ingredient; fullerene, a carbon molecule which acts as a powerful antioxidant. The scientists behind its discovery - Robert F. Curl Jr., Sir Harold W. Kroto and Richard E. Smalley - were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in 1996. According to J.One, the addition of fullerene provides protection for the skin from the everyday environmental onslaught, while peptides increase collagen production and boost firmness. Earlier this year, some 100,000 people signed up to a waiting list for J.One products when the range was first introduced to the UK. The latest launch follows the news in April this year that enthusiasts were scrambling to get their hands on J.One's sellout skin firming treatment following its UK debut. The J.One 'jelly pack' (20 for 30ml), devised in South Korea, is billed as a 'multitasking treatment, mask, and primer' and promises to deliver 'extreme hydration'. Firmer skin in a bottle? The sellout formula, devised in South Korea, is billed as a 'multitasking treatment, mask, and primer' and promises to deliver 'extreme hydration' Brains as well as beauty! The cult product was created by Korean actress Jiwon Ha as a result of her desire to condense her laborious morning skin care ritual into one bottle Comprising a jelly-like texture, it contains fragmented hyaluronic acid which penetrates deep into the skin layers to lessen the visibility of lines and maximise elasticity. Indeed, so popular is the Jelly Pack that when it appeared on a Korean TV shopping channel it shifted 5 million units over the course of just three shows. The product was created by Korean actress Jiwon Ha as a result of her desire to condense her laborious morning skin care ritual into one bottle. It is designed to be applied to cleansed skin first thing in the morning with gentle 'patting' before makeup is applied. A recent Mintel report revealed that British women are spending more than ever on facial skincare; in 2017, we spent 1.15bn on facial skincare with the rise of beauty trends inspired by Korean facial skincare routines. A joke birthday card sent by Princess Diana to her accountant has given an insight into the late royal's cheeky sense of humour. The birthday card, thought to have been sent in the Nineties, has surfaced on LA-based celebrity auction site Julien's Auctions after its anonymous owner decided to sell it. According to the anonymous seller it was sent by Diana, who was killed in a car accident in Paris in 1997, to Anthony Burrows, an accountant and friend. The front of the card features an image of Sleeping Beauty, which reads: 'A little prick in the hand sent Sleeping Beauty to sleep'. It's a reference to the fairytale in which Sleeping Beauty falls into a deep sleep after pricking her finger on a spinning wheel, but also a cheeky double entendre that's followed up with the punchline inside the card: 'Only the big ones are worth staying awake for!' Scroll down for video Princess Diana's cheeky sense of humour has been revealed in a birthday card up for auction on LA-based site Julien's Auctions, which was sent to accountant Anthony Burrows, and is currently estimated to be worth $800 - $1,200 (600- 900) The front of the card, thought to have been sent during the nineties, features an image of Sleeping Beauty, which reads: 'A little prick in the hand sent Sleeping Beauty to sleep', along with a handwritten note from the late royal The card is addressed to 'Tony' and reads: 'A belated Happy Birthday for the 5th! From Diana.' The card is expected to fetch as much as $800 - $1,200 (600- 900), and bidding currently stands at $250 (192) in the online auction. The description by the bidding site describes the card as 7 by 5 inches, and reads: 'A humorous birthday card with 'Sleeping Beauty' on the cover, handwritten in black felt pen by HRH Princess Diana, 'Tony, A belated Happy Birthday for the 5th, from, Diana.' A naughty message printed on the inside reads: 'Only the big ones are worth staying awake for!'. The card is signed by the late mother to Princes William and Harry, along with a handwritten note reading: 'Tony, a belated Happy Birthday for the 5th! From Diana'. 'Tony refers to Anthony Burrows, accountant and trusted employee of HRH Princess Diana.' Speaking to the Mirror, the anonymous owner of the card said: 'I know that Diana liked to send humorous cards, but I haven't seen any quite this naughty, so for me it really shows that she was a fun human being that could share some dirty jokes with her closest friends. 'This is a secret card that has been kept hidden for many years. A true gem for anyone that is a fan of this special human being.' MailOnline has contacted Julien's Auctions for further comment. Diana's butler Paul Burrell, 60, has previously claimed that the mischievous princess once put a fake dog poo in Prince Harry's Christmas stocking when he was a child (Prince Harry seen as a youngster in the mid-eighties) Diana's former butler Paul Burrell, 60, has previously claimed that the mischievous princess once put a fake dog poo in Prince Harry's Christmas stocking when he was a child. Speaking to the Mirror last month, Mr Burrell recalled how the now Duke of Sussex, now 33, was thrilled with the gift - and even planned to use it to play a prank on his grandmother the Queen. He said: 'She'd spend hours looking for jokey things for their stockings. One year, Harry got fake dog poo.' Mr Burrell served as a footman to the monarch before working for Diana, and has often told stories of his time in royal circles. She has reportedly been asked to join her daughter Meghan Markle for Christmas at Sandringham in just a few weeks time. And today Doria Ragland appeared to be making the most of the LA heat where temperatures reached 77F (25C) today, as she took her dogs for a walk in the Californian sunshine. The 62-year-old stepped out for a stroll near her home with her two pet dogs a day after royal insiders claimed that she had been 'invited by the Queen' to attend the royal family's Christmas celebrations. Meghan's mother Doria Ragland was spotted out on a dog walk in LA on Monday following reports that she will attend the royal Christmas celebrations in Sandringham Doria cut a casual appearance in a pair of cream trousers and in light of the warm weather, did away with a jacket wearing a simple grey t-shirt. She took her stroll in a pair of comfy trainers and kept her essentials in a bright red saddle bag. She finished her look with a pair of chic shades as she made her way home on Monday. The Queen is said to have asked Doria, 62, to join them for the family's first Christmas since Harry and Meghan's wedding as a 'mark of her respect' for the Duchess. Doria cut a casual appearance in a pair of cream trousers and in light of the warm weather, did away with a jacket wearing a simple grey t-shirt She took her stroll in a pair of comfy trainers and kept her essentials in a bright red saddle bag Her outing comes just a day after royal insiders claimed that the Queen herself had extended the festive invitation to Doria An emotional Doria was the only member of Meghan's family to attend her wedding to Prince Harry at Windsor Castle in May. A source said it was a 'very thoughtful gesture' for the pregnant Duchess's mother to be invited, in what would be an unusual move, the Sunday Express reported. An invitation for Doria would break with royal precedent as even the Middleton family has not been invited to stay at the Norfolk estate. The Duchess of Cambridge's family has joined the royals at church on Christmas morning but they have stayed at nearby Anmer Hall rather than Sandringham itself. If Doria (pictured with Meghan before May's royal wedding) does attend the festive celebrations it would break with royal precedent as even the Middleton family has not been invited to stay at the Norfolk estate The Queen (pictured) is said to have asked Doria to join them for the family's first Christmas since Harry and Meghan's wedding as a 'mark of her respect' for the Duchess The Queen's invitation would show respect and also acknowledge that Meghan, unlike Kate, has no other family in Britain, the source said. A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace declined to comment. Doria won widespread praise for her dignity at the royal wedding following weeks of family drama surrounding Meghan's father, Thomas Markle. Mr Markle pulled out because of health problems just days before she was due to walk down the aisle and admitted he had staged paparazzi pictures. He later said he had apologised to both Harry and Meghan and denied staging the shots for money, insisting they were taken in a bid to 'change his image'. Doria was also in London in September and joined her daughter at an outdoor reception at Kensington Palace to mark the launch of a cookbook. Ivanka Trump kept a low profile and headed to work straight from her garage on Monday morning, but the first daughter appeared to be in great spirits. The 37-year-old was seen flashing a bright smile in the back seat of the black Secret Service SUV as she left her Washington, D.C. home wearing a black and white checkered skirt suit. Ivanka later joined her father, President Donald Trump, on Air Force One as they headed to Ohio to rally Republican support in Cleveland, just one day before the midterm elections. Scroll down for video Busy: Ivanka Trump traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, with her father on Monday to rally Republican support ahead of the midterm elections Arrival: When Ivanka stepped off Air Force One at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, she had on dark sunglasses and carried a black handbag in her right hand The White House senior adviser looked ready for business in a peplum blazer that was tied at the waist and a matching pencil skirt, topping off her ensemble with a pair of wine-colored pumps. She was sporting smokey eye makeup and her long blonde hair was straightened and worn loose around her shoulders. When Ivanka stepped off Air Force One at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, she had on dark sunglasses and carried a black handbag in her right hand. Upon their arrival, the father and daughter duo headed to the I-X Center for the Make America Great Again rally. Off to work: Earlier in the day, the 37-year-old headed to work straight from the garage of her Washington, D.C. home Good day? The first daughter flashed a bright smile while sitting in the back seat of the SUV. She had a classic khaki coat hanging in front of her First daughter duties: Ivanka was all smiles as she addressed the crowd at the Make America Great Again rally in Cleveland before her father took the stage The first daughter was all smiles as she addressed the crowd before her dad took the stage and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Ivanka spent the the day before enjoying the fall weather at her dad's Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. The mother-of-three took to Instagram on Sunday afternoon to share a scenic snapshot of trees' red leaves, writing: 'Fall.' She also posted an Instagram stories video of their drive through the trees as well as a Boomerang of her seven-year-old daughter, Arabella, jumping off of a hay barrel. He's a proud dad: The father and daughter shared a kiss on the cheek at the rally Outfit of the day: Ivanka donned a black and white checkered skirt suit featuring a peplum blazer and matching pencil skirt The little girl looks ready for fall in a red and white jacket, navy leggings, and matching red sneakers. It's unclear if Ivanka was also joined by her husband, Jared Kushner, and their two sons, Joseph, five, and Theodore, two. Although her children used to be frequent fixtures on her Instagram page, Ivanka has shared very few photos of them in recent months. The trip to Bedminster came after the first daughter made a rare appearance on the campaign trail Thursday in a final push to rally Republican support days before the midterm elections. Fall: Ivanka took to Instagram Stories on Sunday to share a Boomerang of her seven-year-old daughter, Arabella, jumping off of a hay barrel at her dad's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey Great outdoors: The mother-of-three also posted a video of their drive and photos of the trees at Trump National Golf in Bedminster Ivanka stopped in Reno, Nevada, to praise Republican Sen. Dean Heller for his role in passing the 2017 GOP tax bill and predict that he will win his tight battle for re-election against Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen. 'I don't do a lot of campaigning,' she told about 80 supporters at the GOP field office. 'But I really wanted to do it for him. This is our first stop and our most important stop. I know he's going to win.' Meanwhile, her older brother, Donald Trump Jr., 40, traveled to Sun City, Arizona, on Thursday with his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle to campaign for Republican Senate Candidate Martha McSally. Despite their last-ditch efforts, the likelihood of a Democratic 'blue wave' looms with the Democrats possibly gaining as many as 40 seats in the House of Representatives in the elections, a leading political analyst said Thursday. Couldn't resist sharing: Ivanka simply captioned this scene snapshot: 'Fall' Spreading the word: Ivanka made a rare appearance on the campaign trail Thursday Support: The first daughter praised Republican Sen. Dean Heller and predicted that he will win his tight battle for re-election against Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen Last week, Ivanka also endorsed Iowa governor Kim Reynolds, who is running for reelection after signing the most restrictive abortion ban in the country into effect. Ivanka visited Iowa on Friday to campaign for the governor, who is in a tight race with Democrat challenger Fred Hubbell. When tweeting about Reynolds, she focused on the fact that she is the state's first female governor but failed to mention the abortion ban. As the FIRST female Governor of Iowa, @IAGovernor cut taxes, balanced the budget (with a 127 m surplus!) & fostered a pro-growth environment where incomes are rising & unemployment is 2nd lowest in the Country!' Ivanka tweeted. 'Proud to be in Des Moines to support my friend. Vote for Reynolds!' After making her Good Morning America debut last week, the morning show's newest fashion contributor Jessica Mulroney is back dishing out style advice. The 38-year-old stylist and BFF to Meghan Markle signed on with the program at the end of October, joining Robin Roberts to talk about fall fashion necessities. And she's certainly committed to the gig: On Monday morning, she was back to give viewers a peek at the biggest winter coat trends this season. Scroll down for video Back on! Jessica Mulroney was back on Good Morning America on November 5 In the know: The 38-year-old stylist offered her fashion tips as the show's new style contributor Bad weather: She was spotted heading in in her plaid suit and leather jacket while shielding herself from the rain with a large umbrella Jessica sat down with Robin for the segment, who also introduced her for her debut last week. The pair already seem to be hitting it off, as Robin called Jessica 'my new BFF'. Besties: She and Meghan Markle have been best friends for years and she also serves as an unofficial stylist for the Duchess of Sussex While Jessica talked fall style last week, today she shifted to winter, rounding up some chic coat trends for the colder months. 'I don't know if you know, I'm from Canada, so I basically live in coats eight to nine months of the year, so I'm very familiar with this topic,' she said. Though she said she was calling out big trends from the runways, however, she also noted that 'trends,' by nature, go out of style so unlike more classic, timeless pieces, they're not something worth splurging on. 'Trends are fads. They do not last long, so we don't want to invest in them. We want to be able to be fashionable without paying the heavy runway price tag,' she said. To that end, she noted some of the chicest, trendiest designer coats and went shopping for less-expensive versions from brands like Old Navy and Topshop. First, she talked up the 'teddy' coat trend, which she gushed is 'cozy' and 'cuddly'. One of the fam: She smiled on the show and seems to be getting along quite well with Robin Roberts Budget shopping: She spotlighted seven winter coat trends and found runway looks for less Bad habit: After she appeared on the show last week, she was busted by photographers smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk in New York City 'Think about a teddy bear that's basically hugging you through the winter,' she said. Instead of a $10,000 one on the runway, she found an $111 one from ASOS. Jessica continued in this vein, pointing out several other looks from the runways. Trends she called out included a vinyl leather trench, a puffer, and a transparent raincoat the latter of which, she said, you don't want to spend too much on because the trend won't last too long. Jessica also talked up a shearling moto coat, faux leopard, and menswear plaid power coats. By the end of the segment, Jessica said she thought Robin could pull off that vinyl leather but the anchor said she preferred the shearling moto. Fashion girl: Last Monday, Jessica was first announced a new fashion contributor for GMA Welcome! The stylist made her debut on October 29 and was introduced by Robin Roberts GMA first announced on October 29, that Jessica, who attended the royal wedding and has styled Meghan for years, would be coming on the show periodically to 'bring viewers the latest fashion trends and styles'. Jessica was introduced by Robin Roberts, and came on to show how to create a six-piece capsule wardrobe. 'We are fed so much information when it comes to fashion. What we're supposed to buy, what's trendy, what we're supposed to get rid of,' she said, 'How do we figure out the key pieces we should have in our closet? 'So that's what a capsule collection is. It's finding those six pieces that you can mix and match, you can do day to night, you actually wear. They don't just hang in your closet.' Several models came out, showing how to wear these six pieces different ways. There was pair of black pants, which were worn first with a red jacket and heels for a workday look, and second with a black turtleneck and duster coat for a more casual outfit. Big moment: In her first segment, she showed off six fashion pieces every woman should have for fall, which can each be worn different ways Jetset: She and her husband Ben recently went to Australia to join Meghan and Harry for part of their royal tour The duster coat was then draped over a floral dress for a date night. She suggested picking patterns that are subdued, so you're more likely to rewear them and then showed that same floral dress worn with a chunky sweater draped on top. The sweater, she showed after, can also be worn with leather leggings for a sexy night out look, while those skintight leggings can be worn with a red blazer like the one the first model wore. Though being besties with Prince Harry's new wife certainly isn't hurting Jessica's career, the mother-of-three also has the professional styling chops to back up her new gig. While she served as an unofficial stylist for Meghan, she also styles Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau (well-connected Jessica is married to the son of former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney). She also tagged along for part of Meghan's royal tour with Harry, joining the royal couple in an 'unofficial' capacity - meaning they were believed to have covered their own expenses - during their time in Australia. Barbara Bush and her new husband, Craig Coyne, had a whirlwind five-week engagement and a surprise wedding, but it looks like they have quickly settled into married life. The newlyweds were seen shopping in New York City's trendy Soho neighborhood on Monday, just a few days before their one-month wedding anniversary. To keep out the fall chill, Barbara, 36, was bundled up in cozy white turtleneck worn under a salmon-colored coat that was tied at her waist. Out and about: Barbara Bush and her new husband, Craig Coyne, enjoyed a stroll through New York City's Soho neighborhood on Monday Keeping warm: Barbara, 36, was bundled up in cozy white turtleneck worn under a salmon-colored coat that was tied at her waist The former first daughter had on jeans and sneakers for the casual outing, topping off her look with cross-body bag and sunglasses that sat on top of her head. As they strolled down the street, Barbara held a small coffee in her hand while she kept the other warm in her pocket. Craig, meanwhile, donned a knit sweater over faded blue pants and sneakers. The 37-year-old screenwriter's sunglasses were tucked into his collar, and he carried a cloth tote bag in his hand. The two walked side by side each other, but they didn't appear to be talking too much during the walk. Casual outing: The former first daughter wore her sunglasses on the top of her head and held a small coffee in her hand Running errands: Craig, 37, donned a knit sweater over faded blue pants and carried a cloth tote bag in his hand Times flies: Barbara and Craig will be celebrating one month of marriage on Wednesday after saying 'I do' on October 7 Barbara and Craig will be celebrating one month of marriage on Wednesday after saying 'I do' on October 7. The couple kept their secret five-week engagement under wraps and got married in a small ceremony last month at her family's estate in Kennebunkport, Maine. 'It was wonderful. It was everything we wanted. It was small and in a place that we have grown up and have so many incredible memories, in Maine,' Barbara said of her wedding day during an appearance on the Today show last month. 'We just wanted to make sure we could do it while my grandfather was still healthy,' she added. Less than a month later, it seems as though Craig has been welcomed into the family with open arms. Group outing: Barbara and Craig joined her twin sister Jenna Bush Hager and her Today co-star Savannah Guthrie when they took their kids trick-or-treating last week with their husbands. Guthrie's husband Michael Feldman (kneeling) was a key adviser to Al Gore during the bitter 2000 campaign and legal battle which was won by Barbara and Jenna's father. Matching! Barbara came along dressed as a mermaid, just like her youngest niece, Poppy Just last week, he happily spent Halloween with Barbara and her nieces. The two tagged along with Barbara's twin sister Jenna and her Today co-star Savanna Guthrie as they took their children trick or treating in Manhattan. Barbara came dressed as a mermaid, just like Jenna's three-year-old daughter, Poppy, who went as Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Keeping with the oceanic theme, Craig and Jenna's husband, Henry Hager, donned octopus hats, while Jenna also dressed as a sea creature. However, it appeared as though the family was unable to agree on matching costumes. Jenna and Henry's five-year-old daughter, Mila, did her own thing this Halloween went trick or treating as a witch. One woman decided to celebrate a monumental birthday by celebrating in her local Taco Bell with friends and family. Myrtis Jewel Painter turned 106 years old on Sunday, so she headed over to a Taco Bell in Phoenix, Arizona, to enjoy a meal with her loved ones. 'I think Taco Bell is a good place to come to, I really do.' Myrtis told KTVK during the festive event. Happy: Myrtis Painter turned 106 years old on Sunday and headed to Taco Bell Excited: The woman from Phoenix, Arizona, said it was 'a good place' for her to come as she has been visiting the chain restaurant for the last eight years Celebrating: Video shows Myrtis using her walker to enter the restaurant where she was greeted with claps and cheers from staff and loved ones In honor of the monumental celebration, Taco Bell took the time to adorn its restaurant with birthday decorations for the woman. Included in the decorations were multiple tables with reserved signs on them to let other patrons know not to sit there during the birthday celebrations. Restaurant owner Gleg Gladden told the news site he has seen Myrtis come to the restaurant for the last eight years. 'At 106? And they want to come to Taco Bell? And hang out with me?' Gleg said. 'It's just amazing.' With her walker guiding her way, Myrtis first entered the fast-food chain with a big grin on her face as people clapped and cheered for the woman. This now 106-year-old is celebrating with tacos and Mexican pizza! Be sure to watch #azfamily tonight for Myrtis story! @azfamily pic.twitter.com/t3zNAlmrJM Samie Solina (@samiesolina) November 4, 2018 Birthday meal: Myrtis was greeted with birthday decorations and ate tacos and Mexican pizza to reign in the monumental year Big smiles: The Taco Bell staff even went as far as to reserve tables for the party ahead of the celebration She then celebrated her birthday with tacos and a Mexican pizza surrounded by family, friends and the Taco Bell employees. When asked what it is like to be 106 years old, Myrtis responded: 'I don't walk as good.' Myrtis was born in Texas in 1912 before moving to Phoenix in 1932. She opened her first shoe store entitled Ernie Brewers Shoes with then-husband Ernie. The business went on to launch six more stores in Arizona. When Thanksgiving season rolls around, there are a few classic foods most people can't help but crave: turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie. But how about those flavors... on potato chips? This November, Pringles is offering three limited-edition Thanksgiving flavors just in time for the holiday but the special snacks will only be available for a limited time. Eat up! Pringles is offering three limited-edition Thanksgiving flavors just in time for the holiday Get 'em before they're gone! At 11:59pm on Nov. 6, customers can buy a three-pack of Thanksgiving Pringles from Kellogg.com, while supplies last Flavors: The box includes Turkey, Stuffing, and Pumpkin Pie-flavored chips Stacked: The flavors come in mini cans that are sold together in a pack of three At 11:59pm on Nov. 6, customers can buy a three-pack of Thanksgiving Pringles from Kellogg.com, while supplies last. The box includes Turkey, Stuffing, and Pumpkin Pie-flavored chips which the brand first debuted last year as part of a larger Thanksgiving box. However, that box was only distributed to media and bloggers. This is the first time the chips are available to the general public to buy. 'When we launched Pringles Thanksgiving Dinner last year, it was so exciting to see Pringles fans' positive reactions celebrating how insanely accurate the flavors were,' Yuvraj Arora, senior vice president of marketing for Kelloggs U.S. snacks division, said in a press release. 'We knew that we had to get Pringles Thanksgiving flavors in more peoples hands this year particularly hearing that Turkey, Stuffing and Pumpkin Pie not only were delicious, but truly tasted like the real deal.' The flavors are pretty spot-on, but for the skeptical, the Turkey most closely resembles a BBQ flavor, Stuffing is not far off from Sour Cream & Onion, and Pumpkin Pie tastes undeniably like pumpkin. Snack attack: Last year, Pringles had fans freaking out about their Thanksgiving Dinner pack Special: It was only available in limited quantities to influencers and was designed to look like a TV dinner Multi-course: There were eight flavors, including turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, mac & cheese, cranberry sauce, creamed corn, and pumpkin pie Sandwich: They also suggested stacking for fun combinations Pringles debuted three of the limited-edition flavors last year as part of its Thanksgiving Dinner pack. The limited-edition box came with eight different types of chips arranged in a tray reminiscent of TV dinners. Flavors includec turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, mac and cheese, creamed corn, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. 'The Pringles Thanksgiving Dinner flavors are not only new, but cover every course of the real meal from the main event, to sides and even dessert,' Kurt Simon, the brand's senior director of marketing, said in a press release zt the time. The box even suggested a few flavor combinations for mix-and-match stacking, including eating the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potato-flavored chips to make a 'leftover turkey sandwich'. Matt Hancock will say prevention will be at the heart of the NHS long-term plan Health advice will be tailored to class, lifestyle and genetic make-up under a new strategy to give everyone in the UK an extra five years of life. Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock wants public health bodies to use personal data of millions to target advice on alcohol, diet and exercise. The technique is dubbed 'predictive prevention', where Government data is used to target different messages at those to whom it is likely to apply. For example, pregnant women in Blackpool would receive stop smoking messages because the data shows they are much more likely to smoke than elsewhere. In a speech to be delivered today, Mr Hancock will declare prevention is better than cure as he hopes to boost healthy life expectancy by 2035. At present, boys can expect a healthy life expectancy of 63-and-a-half years, with another 16 years in poor health. Girls can expect 64 years of healthy life plus 19 years of illness. In a vision document released yesterday, it was revealed that the Government wants to 'offer people precise and targeted health advice'. This will be specifically designed for their demographic, location, lifestyle and their circumstances, as well as their health needs and their health goals. Officials are being tight-lipped on further details of how the plans will work until next year. Mr Hancock told The Sunday Telegraph that the personalised advice may also be tailored for individual genetic make-up. He said: 'For instance, if you get your genome partially sequenced you can find out if you have a deficiency in a particular vitamin. 'A vitamin B12 deficiency leads to a higher instance of dementia but can be prevented by eating broccoli. 'If we said to the population as a whole, 'You must eat more broccoli', it wouldn't go down as well as if people have their genomes sequenced [and] know they have a particular problem.' Mr Hancock earlier this month announced a huge scale-up to the 100,000 genome project pioneered by David Cameron. He announced plans to sequence one million whole genomes but said he wants to 'make it available to all'. Mr Hancock also said: 'We are spending 97billion of public money on treating disease and only 8billion preventing it across the UK.' 'You don't have to be an economist to see those numbers don't stack up,' he added, accepting that targeting advice based on social background could attract controversy. People must take more responsibility for their own health by eating less, stopping smoking and taking more exercise, the Health Secretary will say today 'A focus on prevention and predictive medicine isn't just the difference between life and death, it's the difference between spending the last 20 years of your life fit and active or in constant pain from a chronic condition. 'So our focus must shift from treating single acute illnesses to promoting the health of the whole individual.' Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, said: 'Investing in prevention is the smartest thing we can do. 'We need to move from a system that detects and treats illnesses to one that also predicts and prevents poor health through promoting health in all policies and puts people back in charge of their own health.' Mr Hancock will also call on GPs and other community services to step up to the plate to take the pressure off hospitals. However, he will also say: 'Prevention is also about ensuring people take greater responsibility for managing their own health. 'It's about people choosing to look after themselves better, staying active and stopping smoking. Making better choices by limiting alcohol, sugar, salt and fat.' The Health Secretary will add: 'And the reason why getting prevention right really matters is because it's the only way we can tackle health inequality.' Mr Hancock will say prevention will be at the heart of the NHS long-term plan, due later this year. In turn, the NHS will do more to identify and tackle the root causes of poor health by using genomics, working with employers and improving housing. Mr Hancock will also announce that the Government is to put forward 'realistic but ambitious goals' to bring salt levels down further by Easter. He will be talking today at the annual meeting of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes. A mother-of-four was left blind in one eye when a parasite latched onto her cornea after she swam in her local pool while wearing contact lenses. Stacey Peoples, 49, from Denver, Colorado, was unable to see out of her left eye for months after she became infected with the rare acanthamoeba keratitis. She was rushed to hospital during Independence Day weekend 2014 when the agony became so intense she was unable to get out of bed. With her eye clouded over 'like a zombie's', Mrs Peoples' begged doctors just to remove the eye and end her suffering but the medics fought hard to save it. Mrs Peoples' was forced to use 'pool cleaner' eye drops to kill the infection every couple of hours for several months. In agony and unable to see out of her left eye at all, Mrs Peoples' even questioned whether she wanted to be alive. However, in April 2015, the school administrator underwent a cornea transplant, which has restored her vision to 20/20 with glasses. Stacey Peoples was unable to see out of her left eye for months after she became infected with the rare acanthamoeba keratitis. She is pictured after the procedure back at work as a school administrator after being forced to take a seven-month break during her recovery Stacey Peoples was left blind in one eye when a parasite latched onto her cornea after she swam in her local pool while wearing contact lenses. Pictured during her recovery, she was rushed to hospital over July 4 weekend 2014 when the pain was too intense for her to move She likened the pain to 'someone snapping a rubber band against my eyeball every four or five seconds'. 'The back of my eye felt like it was going to blow out the back of my brain,' she added Speaking of the Independence Day weekend, Mrs Peoples said: 'When we got to the cabin for fourth of July weekend I just went straight to bed. 'The pain was so intense. It felt like someone was snapping a rubber band against my eyeball every four or five seconds. 'The back of my eye felt like it was going to blow out the back of my brain.' Mrs Peoples also developed a severe migraine, as well as a constantly watering eyes and nose. 'I didn't know it was possible to produce this much fluid,' she said. 'My eye looked like a zombie's. 'It was completely cloudy and the whites of my eye was bright red and so gross.' Mrs Peoples' pain became so intense she had to be rushed to hospital in Traverse City, Michigan, where medics were initially baffled as to what was wrong. 'They booked me an appointment with a cornea specialist and after she looked in my eye she went to consult medical books. It was very worrying,' she said. 'She told me she believed I had an amoeba, and while I was relieved they finally had some idea of what was going on, I didn't know what I was in for. 'She said, "We have to try and save the eye and worry about vision later". After being discharged from hospital, Mrs Peoples' (pictured before her transplant) had to insert 'pool cleaner' drops into her eyes every two hours for five months to kill the infection. In agony, she said all she did was 'move from my bed to my rocking chair and back again' Before being taken to hospital, she claimed her eye clouded over 'like a zombie's'. She also battled an intense migraine, as well as a constantly running eye and nose WHY SHOULDN'T YOU SWIM OR SHOWER WHILE WEARING CONTACT LENSES? Swimming or showering while wearing contact lenses puts a person at risk of blindness. Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK), an amoeba found in water around the world, can infect the cornea - the 'clear window' at the front of the eye. The burrowing amoeba can penetrate through the eyeball, causing total vision loss within just a matter of weeks. An analysis of all incidents recorded in the past 18 years showed that 86 per cent of patients had swam with their lenses in, according to a study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. Contact lenses can create small abrasions in the eye, which make it easier for the amoeba to attach when the eye comes into contact with water. As well as the risk of swimming, the scientists also highlighted the risk of rinsing lenses with tap water. Acanthamoeba, which feed on bacteria, can be present in all forms of water, including lakes, oceans, rivers, swimming pools, hot tubs and even showers. It can also be found in tap water and soil. Although AK are generally harmless to humans, cornea infections can be extremely painful. Treatment usually involves antiseptic drops that kill the amoeba, which may need to be taken every hour for the first few days, even while sleeping. Source: Moorfields Eye Hospital Advertisement The pain was so extreme, Mrs Peoples even asked the doctors to remove her eye, however, the medics insisted they try and save it. 'I had lost my vision completely by this point. All I could see was white,' she said. To kill the infection, Mrs Peoples had to apply eye drops every two hours for five months, with her agony meaning she was unable to stray far from her bed. While fighting the illness, she was also forced to take a seven-month leave from her job. 'I was prescribed eye drops, which essentially contain pool cleaner to kill the parasite. I had to put these into my eyes every two hours for months,' Mrs Peoples said. 'I was using the drops every two hours until December, and for those months I moved from my bed to my rocking chair and back again. I couldn't do anything else. 'I had two or three very dark days where I thought this pain is too much, it would be better if I wasn't here.' Although Ms Peoples' managed to raise a smile at times during her recovery, she admits she also had dark days, where she questioned whether it would be better if she was not alive Pictured before being treated, Mrs Peoples' lost all vision out of her left eye until all she could see was 'white'. Doctors fought hard to save her eye but at the expense of her sight However, by April the next year Mrs Peoples' luck had changed when she underwent a cornea transplant at the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette. And just one day later, she was able to see again. Speaking of the procedure, Mrs Peoples said: 'They removed my damaged cornea and replaced it. 'When the patch came off two days after the surgery, it was amazing. I went into hospital unable to see and then came out and could see so clearly. 'It's been wonderful. I have a little bit of trouble with depth perception but with glasses I have 20/20 vision. 'I'm a huge advocate of organ donation now because this wouldn't be able to see if not for my generous donor.' But in April 2015 Mrs Peoples' luck changed when she underwent a cornea transplant. Pictured after the procedure, she described the results as 'amazing' when she could see just the next day. She now has 20/20 vision with glasses and has become an advocate for organ donation Pictured after the transplant, Mrs Peoples' claims she can now see 'so clearly' Following her ordeal, Mrs Peoples is warning others to avoid wearing contacts in water. 'The reason I am sharing my story is to warn people not to wear their contacts in water or even in the shower,' she said. 'This is rare but it can happen. Even if you've been doing it for 20 years like me. 'Doctors tell you not to do it. My doctors think I picked this up in the pool while wearing my contacts. 'I'm just lucky I have such a wonderful family. Otherwise I would never have gotten through this.' According to the Centers for Disease Control, 85 per cent of acanthamoeba keratitis cases occur in contact-lens users. Contact lenses can create small abrasions in the eye, which make it easier for the amoeba to attach when the eye comes into contact with water. Babies living near busy roads may be more likely to become fat when they're older, according to research. Nitrogen dioxide pollution, churned out by diesel engines like those in lorries, vans and buses, could disrupt how well children burn fat, scientists say. A study found 10 year olds who lived in polluted areas when they were babies are, on average, 2.2lbs (1kg), heavier than those who grew up around cleaner air. The first year of a baby's life is a 'critical window', experts say, and parents should think carefully about where they raise their children and how it affects their health. The research comes after the World Health Organization revealed 90 per cent of the world's children are breathing unsafe air. Children spending the first year of their life in areas with high levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution, which comes from vehicle exhaust fumes, are likely to be 2.2lbs (1kg) heavier than their peers by the age of 10, Southern California researchers found Researchers from the University of Southern California followed 2,318 children in the Golden State to track how pollution affected their bodyweight later in life. They found those who spent their first year of life in a polluted area gain weight significantly faster as they grow older. In the study, they wrote: 'Our study suggests that early life may represent a critical window of exposure where increased [air pollution] may result in increased risk for higher childhood [weight] trajectories, which in turn may lead to childhood obesity.' Although the study did not determine the reasons for this, it could be because pollution causes inflammation which affects the brain, The Guardian reported. POLLUTION LEVELS ILLEGAL IN MOST UK MONITORING ZONES The UKs air pollution was labelled a 'national embarrassment' in September. Figures for 2017 showed 37 out of 43 air quality zones across the UK had illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution, the same number as the previous year. Annual average levels of the pollutant from exhaust fumes fell in most places, figures from the Government and environmental law charity ClientEarth revealed. But levels are still more than double the legal limit in Greater London and also well over the limit in areas including South Wales, West Midlands, Glasgow and Greater Manchester. Brighton, Worthing and Littlehampton in West Sussex an area declared as legal in the previous year crept up to just below the threshold again, the statistics show. The UK has been breaching EU pollution limits for nitrogen dioxide, much of which comes from diesel vehicles, since the rules came into effect in 2010. Air pollution causes an estimated 40,000 premature deaths a year in the UK and is linked to health problems from childhood illnesses to heart disease and even dementia. Advertisement Lead researcher PhD student Jennifer Kim told the newspaper: 'The most common thought is inflammation of body systems like the lungs which may spill over into the entire body the brain which regulates appetite and changes in fat metabolism.' The research focused on the effect of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which is at illegal in levels in most UK cities and urban areas around the world. People are becoming more concerned about the effects of pollution as scientific studies stack up the damage it's doing to people's physical and mental health. Other recent research has shown air polluted by vehicles raises the risk of a low birth weight, birth defects and cot death. And a study published in October claimed as many as 33million visits to A&E by people with asthma around the world are due to air pollution. 'We would urge parents to be mindful where their young children spend their time, especially considering if those areas are near major roads, Ms Kim said. 'The first year of life is a period of rapid development of various systems in the body [and] may prime the bodys future development.' The research was published in the journal Environmental Health. Professor Jonathan Grigg, of Queen Mary University, was not involved in the research but told The Guardian: 'This study showing an association between increased body mass in children and exposure to air pollution from roads is important since it is compatible with previous studies showing an association between type 2 diabetes and air pollution in adults. 'However, more research is needed to explain how toxins inhaled into the lungs affect fat cells throughout the body.' Women are not being warned that having breast implants could give them potentially deadly cancer, an expert claims. The number of women getting cancer after having implants may be being underestimated, whether they're part of cancer treatment or for cosmetic reasons. Breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL) is an officially recognised type of cancer and has been reported 57 times in the UK since 2012. Surgeons are being urged to be more proactive about diagnosing and reporting the condition amid concerns it affects one in every 24,000 implants in Britain. Kimra Rogers, 50, from Idaho, got cancer as a result of breast implants she had put in 14 years earlier as part of a breast enlargement she says she was not warned about the risk and had chemotherapy and radiotherapy when doctors misdiagnosed her with Hodgkin's lymphoma Nigel Mercer, the former president of the British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS), told The Times he knows 'for certain' that women are not being told about the risk. He said it would be 'pretty devastating news' for a patient who had already had their breast removed because of cancer to be told they had another form of the disease. More than 40 per cent of women who have surgery for breast cancer have a mastectomy, in which the breast is removed. Many of these women will have implants to reconstruct the breast afterwards. 'I have seen patients who have not been warned there is a risk of BIA-ALCL by the clinic or surgeon they have seen,' Mr Mercer said. BIA-ALCL is a type of lymphoma, meaning it is a cancer beginning in immune system cells called lymphocytes. It can then spread around the body. Non-Hodgkin lymphomas of which there are more than 60 types have a 10 year survival rate of around 63 per cent, according to Cancer Research UK. BIA-ALCL is usually noticed when women who have had breast implants feel one of their breasts swelling quickly but without causing pain. It was identified for the first time in 2010 and the first case in the UK was diagnosed in 2012 since then, 45 confirmed cases have met the official definition of the disease. Exactly how the implants trigger the cancer is not known but it can normally be treated with surgery if caught early on. 'MY BREAST IMPLANTS GAVE ME CANCER' A mother-of-three from Caldwell, Idaho, last year revealed she had lymphoma which she believed was caused by her breast implants. Kimra Rogers, 50, was diagnosed with lymphoma in May 2016 and, to her horror, she was told the cancer was likely caused by her breast implants. She had the implants 14 years earlier to increase her breast size from a small B-cup to a large C-cup. Ms Rogers was horrified to discover her cancer had probably been caused by the implants used in the breast enlargement she had 14 years earlier Although there is now research explaining the links between implants and breast implant associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL), Ms Rogers claims she was never told about the risk when she went to have the procedure done. 'I remember telling my doctor: "They never once told me it would be a possibility I could get cancer if I got these implants",' she told Daily Mail Online. Ms Rogers noticed something was wrong when her hair and skin started to become extremely dry and her hair began to fall out, then she noticed a lump under her arm. Her doctors misdiagnosed her with Hodgkin's lymphoma, for which she had chemotherapy and radiotherapy but the implants weren't removed. Ms Rogers's doctors thought she had Hodgkin's lymphoma so treated her with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but did not remove the implants which they believed had caused the cancer It was only when Ms Rogers did some of her own research online that she suspected she had BIA-ALCL. Her diagnosis was confirmed by a doctor but she couldn't have her implants removed until at least six months after her radiotherapy. When she spoke to Daily Mail Online last year, Ms Rogers was trying to raise money for surgery to remove the implants, which her health insurance company wouldn't pay for, claiming it was cosmetic. It is not clear if she has had the procedure yet. Ms Rogers said at the time: 'In the end, the cancer wrapped up into my neck and clavicle, so I would've had to have chemo anyway, but I at least would have had the source of the cancer out of my body. 'Surgeons won't remove the implants until I'm six months past my last round of radiation. Had I been correctly diagnosed and had them out in the first place, it's possible the whole ordeal would be over.' Advertisement The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) says it is 'actively investigating' the link and urges surgeons to report all suspected cases of it. It is 'essential all patients who are considering a breast implant for reconstructive or cosmetic purposes are made fully aware of the potential risks by their surgeon,' the MHRA said in a joint statement alongside surgeons' associations. Rachel Rawson, clinical nurse specialist at Breast Cancer Care, told The Times: 'After a life-changing breast cancer diagnosis, reconstruction can help many women feel more like themselves again, so then being diagnosed with BIA-ALCL is utterly heartbreaking. 'We hear from the very few women blind-sided by this disease that it makes long-term recovery even more difficult, dramatically increasing feelings of anxiety, isolation and abandonment, and theres often no support because its so rare. 'It can reduce body confidence to an all-time low, sometimes taking away the option of having a reconstructed breast again forever.' Bystanders are less likely to perform life-saving CPR on women due to concerns they will be accused of sexual assault, research suggests. In one trial, scientists discovered many passers-by are reluctant to resuscitate an unconscious woman out of fear of inappropriate contact. Separate research also found bystanders are less likely to perform CPR on collapsed females in a virtual-reality setting. 'It is important to realise that CPR is lifesaving and should be rendered to collapsed individuals regardless of gender, race or ethnicity,' lead author of the first study Dr Sarah Perman, from the University of Colorado, said. Bystanders are less likely to perform CPR on women due to concerns about inappropriate contact. In a study of more than 50 people, scientists discovered many may be reluctant to resuscitate an unconscious woman out of fear of being accused of sexual assault (stock) In the first study, researchers asked 54 people online why women who suffer a cardiac arrest in public may be less likely to get CPR. This came about after previous research suggested women receive CPR in a out-of-hospital stetting less than men. Around 60 per cent of the respondents were male and 85 per cent white. And almost three in 10 had been CPR trained. The respondents blamed inappropriate touching or exposure, as well as a fear of being accused of sexual assault, for their reluctance to resuscitate a woman. Fear of causing an injury, thinking women may be 'faking it' and even believing breasts stop CPR from being effective were also noted. HOW TO GIVE CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can be used to try to restart someone's heart if it has stopped. CPR should only be used in an emergency situation if someone is unconscious and not breathing. People without CPR training should stick to hands-only chest compressions, the NHS says. To carry out a chest compression: Place the heel of your hand on the breastbone at the centre of the persons chest. Place your other hand on top of your first hand and interlock your fingers. Position yourself with your shoulders above your hands. Using your body weight (not just your arms), press straight down by 5-6cm (2-2.5 inches) on their chest. Keeping your hands on their chest, release the compression and allow the chest to return to its original position. Repeat these compressions at a rate of 100 to 120 times per minute until an ambulance arrives or you become exhausted. Source: NHS Advertisement Men were twice as likely to be concerned about inappropriate touching than the female respondents, who were more worried about causing an injury. The researchers have expanded the survey and have a manuscript under review that details public perceptions of CPR. They are also planning to work with CPR training sites to counteract fears about issuing the emergency procedure to women. 'The consequences of all of these major themes is that women will potentially receive no CPR or delays in initiation of CPR,' Dr Perman said. Although the study was small, the researchers believe it may highlight an important challenge facing public health. 'Bystander CPR has been linked to better survival and neurologic recovery after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest,' Dr Perman said. 'Quality chest compressions require that rescuers put their hands on the chest and push hard - regardless of [the recipient's] gender, the act of CPR is no different.' In the second trial, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Resuscitation Science tested bystanders' response to cardiac arrest using virtual reality. Because it happens suddenly, real-world cardiac arrest is hard to study, according to lead author and centre director Marion Leary. This trial's 75 adults volunteers were placed in a virtual environment made up of a busy city. They were asked to respond to events as they would in real life. Cardiac arrest is the sudden loss of blood flow due to the heart failing to pump effectively. More than 350,000 cases occur in the US and around 30,000 in the UK every year (stock) After someone cried for help, a mannequin was placed so participants could perform CPR and attach an AED. An AED is a portable device that checks the heart's rhythm. If needed, it can send an electric shock to the organ to try and restore a normal beat. WHAT IS A CARDIAC ARREST? A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood around the body, which is usually due to a problem with electrical signals in the organ. This causes the brain to be starved of oxygen, which results in sufferers not breathing and losing consciousness. In the UK, more than 30,000 cardiac arrests occur a year outside of hospital, compared to over 356,000 in the US. Cardiac arrests are different to heart attacks, with the latter occurring when blood supply to the heart muscle is cut off due to a clot in one of the coronary arteries. Common causes include heart attacks, heart disease and heart muscle inflammation. Drug overdose and losing a large amount of blood can also be to blame. Giving an electric shock through the chest wall via a defibrillator can start the heart again. In the meantime, CPR can keep oxygen circulating around the body. Advertisement Results showed the participants performed CPR and used an AED less on the virtual-reality females than the males. The researchers add, however, bigger studies are required to determine if this was a coincidence or part of a larger trend. Both studies are being presented at the American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium in Chicago. 'If you see someone collapse, call 911, begin CPR, and if there is an AED around, use it,' Ms Leary said. 'Doing something is better than doing nothing. You have the power to help save someone's life.' Cardiac arrest is the sudden loss of blood flow due to the heart failing to pump effectively. More than 350,000 cases occur in the US and in the region of 30,000 in the UK every year. Although less than 12 per cent of sufferers survive, CPR can double or even triple a victim's chances of pulling through. This comes after research released last month found almost one in three people would not perform CPR if someone's heart stopped in the street. A survey by the British Heart Foundation found only 70 per cent of people would try to resuscitate someone if they saw them collapse. The Health and Social Care Secretary has been accused of 'nannying' over his plans to make people take control of their own health. Matt Hancock announced plans to help people make healthier choices to reduce how many people become hospital patients in a speech today. He said smokers should be given extra help to quit, people should be advised on eating healthily and be encouraged to exercise. Mr Hancock also suggested employers should play a bigger role in keeping their workers healthy, and health workers should stage more 'bedside interventions'. But his plans have come under fire, with people criticising the 'nanny state' for telling them what to do and blaming people who struggle to afford healthy lifestyles. Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has been accused of 'nannying' over his calls for the NHS to stage more bedside interventions to give people health advice while they're in hospital In a paper called 'Prevention is better than cure', the Department of Health and Social Care has set out plans for personalised healthcare plans. There should be more intervention from the NHS, Mr Hancock said, targeting services at people who are most likely to need them, dubbed predictive prevention. For example, smokers admitted to hospital could be automatically given help to quit then followed up with phone calls after they leave. This is a model used in Ottawa, Canada, where it reportedly makes patients half as likely to return to hospital within a month, and almost twice as likely to still be alive in two years' time. Mr Hancock said in a speech today: 'I want to see bedside interventions in our hospitals so smokers who are patients are offered medication, behavioural support and follow-up checks when they go home. 'PRESCRIBE CULTURE, NOT PILLS' Doctors should prescribe fewer pills and more visits to the library or trips to the concert hall, Health Secretary Matt Hancock will say. In a speech to the King's Fund healthcare think tank, Mr Hancock will argue the arts can be an antidote to conditions including mental health problems, ageing and loneliness. 'We've been fostering a culture that's popping pills and Prozac when what we should be doing is more prevention and perspiration,' he will say. 'Social prescribing can help us combat over-medicalising people ... dishing out drugs when it isn't what's best for the patient and it won't solve their problem.' The announcement comes after he set out plans for a radical shift in the NHS towards preventing disease and illness. 'We should value the arts because they're essential to our health and well-being. And that's not me as a former culture secretary, who's spent a lot of time around luvvies, saying it,' he is expected to say. 'It's scientifically proven. Access to the arts improves people's mental and physical health. It makes us happier and healthier.' Advertisement 'And we need to fulfil our commitments to the obesity strategy, and set ambitious targets also on salt.' But critics say the plans are going too far and have been tried before with no success. Columnist and TalkRadio host, Julia Hartley-Brewer, said in an interview with the Health Secretary: 'Everyone knows you're not supposed to live on a kebab and cigarettes every day but clearly millions of people are doing it. 'Why do you think this health message will get through when those other health messages haven't?' Mr Hancock has also said employers should give their workers free fruit, loan them bicycles and offer counselling in an attempt to keep people healthy enough to work. Yesterday on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Ms Hartley-Brewer said: 'Im not entirely sure its my bosss job to make sure Im fit and healthy enough, either mentally or physically, to go to work. 'Its about personal responsibility. If you want to be healthy, be healthy. If youre not healthy and you cant work then tough.' People on Twitter have also had digs at Mr Hancock's strategy. Matt Kilcoyne said: 'Cut down on the nanny state pronouncements, forced calorie counts, bans and taxes, and take responsibility for your department'. A man called David Hardman added: 'Taking responsibility for one's health (or living with the consequences of poor health) when rich is fairly easy. People on Twitter have also had digs at Mr Hancock's strategy. Matt Kilcoyne said: 'Cut down on the nanny state pronouncements, forced calorie counts, bans and taxes, and take responsibility for your department' Jim Gallagher said prevention is not as effective as experts might like it to be, tweeting: 'Hancock was spouting about preventing health problems in the population Siema Iqbal said: 'Perhaps make junk food, cheap booze and cigs less affordable and available' A man called David Hardman added: 'Taking responsibility for one's health (or living with the consequences of poor health) when rich is fairly easy' Twitter use 'Kulgan of Crydee' tweeted that they thought 'Labour was the Nannying State' 'If you can't afford luxury extras like gym membership, personal trainer, etc then it's a bit more of a challenge. Live in the real world Mr Hancock.' Mr Hancock said in his speech this morning the 6.6 per cent increase in A&E admissions over the last year was 'unsustainable'. He added: 'Only with better prevention can our NHS be sustainable in the long term,' and called for more interventions to give people assertive health advice. Siema Iqbal, a GP, tweeted: 'Perhaps make junk food, cheap booze and cigs less affordable and available. Perhaps make fruit and veg, access to gyms, health education and mental health services cheaper and more available?' And Jim Gallagher said prevention is not as effective as experts might like it to be, tweeting: 'Hancock was spouting about preventing health problems in the population. 'I've heard all this nanny state crap before and it never works. You can't make adults do something they don't want to do. 'A good many poor people can't afford healthy food just the cheapest.' Details of how the Government's personalised healthcare plans will work have not yet been released. Six-year-old twins Lucas and Parker Talbert both have a lot of fight. Lucas has the technical skills, learning to kick and punch in karate classes near the Talbert's home in Old Fort, North Carolina. Parker fights the wheelchair he isn't ready to accept needing. He fights his parents when he gets tired, and he fights a devastating disease. While Lucas is developing mentally and physically, his twin brother's progress is slowing. Soon, Parker will begin to regress. He suffers from Sanfilippo Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, often referred to as 'childhood Alzheimer's.' A genetic glitch leaves children with Sanfilippo with little or none of an enzyme that lets the body break down and dispose of cellular waste. Without this enzyme, cell waste builds up, and becomes toxic - especially in the brain. The disease robs most children of what they've learned thus far in life by the time they are 10, taking back their memories, their ability to walk, speak or crawl. Despite the family's attempts at clinical trials, his family must watch as one twin's horizons expand - while Parker slowly slips away from them. Jeremy and Christina Talbert's son, Parker (second from left) has Sanfilippo Syndrome - often called 'childhood Alzheimer's' - but his twin brother, Lucas (right) does not suffer from it Parker and Lucas were born prematurely, so they had to make frequent visits to the hospital to make sure they were progressing well in the first year of their lives. Hospitals, Christina and Jeremy Talbert soon found out, would become a permanent fixture in their family's life. Lucas was doing fine, but one of the nurses that routinely looked after the boys grew concerned over Parker. He wasn't quite keeping up with his twin brother. Developmentally, he seemed to be lagging, but physically, parts of Parker seemed to grow too fast. His spleen was enlarged, his liver was enlarged, and his head was abnormally big. It was enough for doctors to run more tests. Before the family was formally given the diagnosis, a nurse told them what the genetic test's results said: Sanfilippo Syndrome. 'She said I should not look it up before I spoke to the doctor,' recalls Christina. But seeing the expression on the nurse's face, Christina and Jeremy couldn't help themselves. The twins were born prematurely in September 2012. While they were still infants, it became clear that Parker was lagging behind Lucas They poured over pages and pages of search results online. When it comes to Sanfilippo, there is so much information, few answers, but too many heart-breaking facts, stats and stories. Government informational posts and non-profit websites are strewn with opaque terminology: 'missense mutations,' to genes with names that look like alphabet soup, mucopolysaccharidosis type III, neurodegenerative. But it was clear to the Talberts that their son had a devastating disease, with no cure. Just a year and a half after he was born, they understood that Parker was dying. 'It was a time of insane turmoil. It was a horrible thing to read and we did not want to believe it,' Christina says. 'We were praying that [the nurse] was wrong.' But within a few days, they were back at the doctor's office and their fears were confirmed. As a baby, Parker's cognitive development was slow, but his spleen, liver and head all seemed to grow too quickly The news was tempered with on bright spot. There was a clinical trial for treating Sanfilippo Syndrome taking place at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC), just a three hour drive from the Talbert's home in Old Fort, North Carolina. Christina and Jeremy wasted no time enrolling Parker in the trial, which started in 2015. The experimental treatment used a compound to break down heparan sulfate, the toxic cell waste the builds up in the brains of children with SF. Parker's genetic mutation means his body doesn't produce enough of the enzyme that clears away this cell-killing waste. The experimental drug would replace the missing enzyme - for the half of the study participants that got the drug. The rest would receive a placebo and serve as the control group. Over the course of the next year, Parker received three doses at UNC. Jeremy and Christina met the parents of other children in the trial, all buzzing with a glimmer of cautious hope. 'We were meeting these other parents whose kids were getting treatment and they thought it was helping,' Jeremy says. But for Parker, 'it was false hope,' he says. Parker had been randomly placed in the control group, so every hint of improvement the Talberts thought they saw was an illusion. After a year in the dark, the pharmaceutical company, Shire, allowed the control group trial participants to receive real doses of the drug, too. The Make-a-Wish Foundation sent the Talberts, including Jeremy's children from a previous marriage, Carson and Ryan (left) to Disney World, where Parker was thrilled to see Mickey Parker can only say about 30 words, but there's no doubt about his Disney enthusiasm. He wears his Mickey ears around the house (left) and he and Christina went as Mickey and Minnie Mouse this Halloween (right) Parker got his first dose of the enzyme replacement. 'When it was finally our time, it was such a relief finding out that our child was going to get treatment,' Jeremy says. 'In our eyes, we really thought it was working. He looked us in our eyes, he was trying to say a couple words ... I don't know if it was just him, or us just thinking it was the drug [making him better].' But in September 2016, the trial was cancelled. 'Shire said the drug wasn't meeting the endpoints like it was supposed to, but a lot of it boils down to money as well.' The drug was found to be safe, but was not preventing memory declines as hoped. It is unclear if funding played a role in the company's decision to put the trial on hold. Sanfilippo slows a child's development for some time, then halts development, then children start to decline, losing skills and abilities. 'Parker has plateaued with learning right now. He's not really learning anything else. He has about a 30-word vocabulary, maybe five sign language movements, and he doesn't try to count like he used to, or try to color or put blocks together,' Christina says. He is still able to go to school, splitting his time in prekindergarten between two classes. In one, the children all suffer developmental delays, many of whom are immobile. In the other, children are not quite so far off their developmental milestones. 'Being around other kids who are speaking and are a little more socially skilled helps Parker to mock them,' his mother explains. As fraternal twins, Parker and Lucas (left) look very similar, but Parker has the 'coarser' features typical of kids with Sanfilippo. He can be temperamental, but on good days, loves to be held, hugged and hoisted into the air by his father, Jeremy (right) Despite their similarities, the Talberts say Lucas sees Parker as more like a baby than like his twin. He loves and helps the family with Parker, but he can't fully understand what's happening to his brother and sometimes gets frustrated with him. The Talberts have to strike a delicate balance between making the sacrifices they must to help one twin without it coming at the expense of the other. 'Everything is kind of bittersweet,' says Jeremy. 'Everything you're excited and proud to see Lucas do you have to be sad and emotional because you know Parker will never be able to. 'It's like every win comes with a defeat.' For now, Lucas is largely shielded from the reality of what's happening to his brother. By the time he's old enough to comprehend a fuller explanation - the Talberts estimate around 10 - Parker will likely only be mobile with a wheelchair. The Talberts recently purchased Parker's first chair, but Christina says he resists using it. On the Make-a-Wish Foundation trip to Disney World they took two years ago, Christina, Jeremy, or one of Jeremy's older children from a previous marriage, Ryan and Carson, had to carry Parker or push him in a stroller. Christina and Jeremy recently purchased a wheelchair for Parker, but he resists using it. By the time he and Lucas are 10 and his twin understands what's happening to his brother, Parker will probably have no choice but to use the wheelchair Still, it was a bright time for the family - and Parker especially. 'Parker loves Mickey Mouse, anything Mickey will get that boy jumping and hollering,' Christina says. On good days, like those on the trip, 'it's almost like you get a little more of him. He'll look you in the eye, or give you a kiss and hug you real big,' Jeremy says. The Talberts fear that those days will become more rare, that Parker might lose words like 'please,' 'more,' and 'slide.' They are attempting to find another trial for Parker, but his enrollment in the Shire trial precludes him from some. For others, he's been out of a trial for too long. Still, the Talberts press on, raising money for Sanfilippo research for the twins' sixth birthday last year, in conjunction with the Cure Sanfilippo Foundation, which provides a support network for families like the Talberts, and raises funds and awareness about the disease. As they contribute to the cause, the Talberts are trying to see the best in their devastating situation. 'There are so many more children with this disease than there are spaces available to take. You try not to get mad or bitter, and hope that if there is not a cure for your child, then your child can help some child get a cure for this terrible disease,' says Jeremy. Living near to a noisy road or an airport triples your risk of a heart attack or stroke, research suggests. Scientists warned the boosted odds also exist for non-smokers and people who don't have diabetes - who already face a heightened risk. Exposure to environmental noise drives a brain region involved in stress response, Massachusetts General Hospital experts say. This then promotes blood vessel inflammation, which can lead to cardiovascular problems, such as heart attacks and strokes. Those exposed to chronic noise, such as near an airport, showed more inflammation in their arteries, and a greater than three-fold risk of suffering a heart attack or a stroke and other major cardiovascular events Researchers led by Dr Azar Radfar used 499 people for the study. Participants had an average age of 56 years old in the study. The findings were presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions conference in Chicago today. None of the participants had cardiovascular illness or cancer. They all underwent simultaneous PET and CT scans of their brain and blood vessels. Using those images, the scientists assessed the activity of the amygdala - an area of the brain involved in stress regulation and emotional responses. To gauge noise exposure, the researchers used participants' home addresses and derived noise level estimates from the Department of Transportation's Aviation and Highway Noise Map. To capture cardiovascular risk, the researchers examined the participants' medical records following the initial imaging studies. Of the 499 participants, 40 experienced a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, in the five years following the initial testing. People with the highest levels of noise exposure had higher levels of amygdala activity and more inflammation in their arteries. Their risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke was greater than three-fold, compared with people who had lower levels of noise exposure. That risk remained elevated even after the researchers accounted for other risk factors, including air pollution, high cholesterol, smoking and diabetes. Additional analysis revealed that high levels of amygdalar activity appears to unleash a pathway that fuels cardiac risk by driving blood vessel inflammation, a well-known risk factor for cardiovascular disease. 'A growing body of research reveals an association between ambient noise and cardiovascular disease, said Dr Radfar. 'But the physiological mechanisms behind it have remained unclear. 'We believe our findings offer an important insight into the biology behind this phenomenon.' The results of the study offer much-needed insight into the biological mechanisms of the well-known, but poorly understood, interplay between cardiovascular disease and chronic noise exposure, researchers said. They caution that more research is needed to determine whether reduction in noise exposure could meaningfully lower cardiovascular risk and reduce the number of cardiovascular events on a population-wide scale. In the meantime, however, the new findings should propel clinicians to consider chronic exposure to high levels of ambient noise as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. 'Patients and their physicians should consider chronic noise exposure when assessing cardiovascular risk and may wish to take steps to minimize or mitigate such chronic exposure,' Dr Radfar said. Last month, research also linked traffic noise pollution to a higher risk of depression. Researchers warned that being regularly exposed to more than 65 decibels, which is quieter than a lorry, can increase a persons risk by two thirds. Paris, TX (75460) Today Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low around 60F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low around 60F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. A nine-year-old New Mexico boy has passed away nine months after he contracted a rare and deadly rat disease. Fernando Hernandez, from Bloomfield, started experiencing flu-like symptoms, including fever, vomiting and lethargy, in January. He was hospitalized after he began having trouble breathing and - after weeks of tests - he was diagnosed with hantavirus, a disease spread through rodent droppings that cripples the organs. While waiting for a heart-lung transplant, Fernando suffered a brain hemorrhage that left him brain dead. His parents made the heartbreaking decision to take him off life support. Fernando Hernandez, nine (pictured), from Bloomfield, New Mexico, passed away after a long battle with hantavirus, a rare and deadly rat disease that cripples the organs The boy began experiencing flu-like symptoms in January. After being hospitalized twice and weeks of inconclusive tests, Fernando (pictured) was properly diagnosed Near the end of January, Fernando began vomiting but his parents, George Fernandez and Anna Granados, told The Farmington Daily Times they assumed he'd come down with the flu. But, when his symptoms didn't improve, he was taken to San Juan Regional Medical Center, where he spent 10 days. Despite an X-ray that revealed spots on his lungs, no tests were conclusive so was sent home with antibiotics. WHAT IS HANTAVIRUS? Hantavirus is found in wild rodents, such as mice and rats. Humans can contract the virus by coming into contact with infected rodent droppings, urine, saliva and nesting materials. Diagnosis can be difficult because early symptoms often resemble other more common viruses such as the flu. The virus can lead to Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), a condition that infects the heart, lungs and other organs by weakening blood vessels and causing them to leak. The body attempts to fight the virus by creating inflammation, which -combined with the organ infection - leads to intense damage throughout the body. In the lungs, leaky blood vessels cause flooding in the air sacs, making it difficult for patients to breathe. When the virus infects the heart, the damage reduces the organ's ability to circulate blood through the body. This causes critically low blood pressure and a lack of oxygen throughout the body, which can quickly lead to organ failure and death. There have been 728 total cases reported in just 36 US states as of January 2017. The virus is fatal in 36 percent of cases. Source: CDC Advertisement However, just a few days later, the boy was struggling to breathe on his own. His parents rushed him to the emergency room, where he was airlifted to Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora. Doctors still couldn't figure out what was wrong but, when Fernando's heart began to fail, he had to undergo numerous surgeries before being hooked up to an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine. The machine pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the body, which allows the heart and lungs to rest. Finally, in late February, Fernando was diagnosed with hantavirus. The rare virus is caused by coming into contact with infected rodent droppings, urine, saliva, nesting materials, or inhaling particles from these. About two months before Fernando was diagnosed, his father asked him to clean the backyard and he wonders if that was the cause. 'Farmington is a farming community and they tell us it's in the soil,' George Hernandez told Fox News in March. 'I had my son help me clean the backyard two months ago - I just really hope it wasn't that.' Diagnosis can be difficult because early symptoms often resemble other more common viruses such as the flu. The virus can cause blood to leak into the lungs, making it difficult to breathe, and weakens blood vessels so that blood and oxygen cannot be circulated throughout the body. The infection can lead to Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, which can lead to respiratory failure and death. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 728 total cases reported in the US as of January 2017. The agency adds that only 36 states have reported cases, the overwhelming majority in states west of the Mississippi River. Fernando's parents told The Daily Times that their son had been at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio where he was working to get strong enough to have a heart-lung transplant. But, on October 26, he suffered a brain hemorrhage that left him brain dead. The family made the painful decision to take him off of life support. 'We really thought he was going to make it,' George Hernandez told the newspaper. While waiting to get a heart-lung transplant, Fernando (left and right) suffered a brain hemorrhage in October which left him brain dead. His parents made the heartbreaking decision to take him off of life support Hantavirus is caused by coming into contact with infected rodent droppings, urine, saliva, nesting materials, or inhaling particles from these (file image) A GoFundMe page has been set up help cover Fernando's funeral expenses. So far, more than $4,500 has been raised out of a $15,000 goal. 'Fernando had hopes and dreams of getting out of the hospital one day and return to his normal life...school, friends, family etc.,' his father wrote on the page. 'Unfortunately destiny took another routeI can tell you the last few weeks weren't all that great for him...he was in constant pain but was holding on.' Hernandez is the second New Mexican resident to die of hantavirus this year. In February, 27-year-old Kiley Lane was diagnosed with the illness, and was on life support for more than two months. The Daily Times reports that she died on April 18 at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. A man started to go bald after developing 'moth-eaten' alopecia from his untreated syphilis. The 35-year-old, who had a history of bipolar disorder, went to an emergency psychiatry clinic when he began suffering from paranoid delusions. A physical examination revealed he had patchy alopecia, as well as a faint, scaly rash on his torso, arms and legs, which can both occur in the later stages of a syphilis infection. Blood tests then revealed the man, believed to be from Pennsylvania, was infected with the syphilis-causing bacteria Treponema pallidum. A man started to go bald after developing 'moth-eaten' alopecia from his untreated syphilis After having a penicillin injection into his muscle, the man's rash disappeared within days and he was discharged once his mood stabilised. It is unclear if his hair grew back. But doctors behind the case report revealed 'hair typically regrows after antibiotic treatment'. After arriving at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the patient underwent neurological tests, which were normal aside from his psychiatric tendencies. His first blood test revealed he was carrying abnormally high amounts of the protein reagin, which is involved in allergic reactions. Reagin is an antibody, which is used by the immune system to neutralise viruses and bacteria. This blood-test result caused doctors to test for other antibodies, with ones that fight Treponema pallidum coming up as positive. After being treated with both antibiotics and antipsychotic medication, the patient was discharged. It is unclear how he has fared since. The case was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Non-scarring alopecia with a 'moth-eaten' appearance affects between 2.9 and seven per cent of people infected with secondary syphilis, data suggests. However, Dr Ata Moshiri, who treated the patient, told MailOnline: 'This is personally the first case of syphilitic alopecia I have diagnosed and my colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania have similarly seen very few cases. 'This leads me to believe the literature likely overestimates the incidence.' Secondary syphilis can occur if the primary form of the STI, which causes sores around the genitals, anus or mouth, goes untreated. In secondary syphilis, the bacteria spreads via the blood to the skin, liver, joints, lymph nodes, muscles and brain. 'The most common mechanism seems to be for syphilis to trigger an inflammatory response against the hair follicles that often resembles alopecia areata; an autoimmune, non-scarring alopecia,' Dr Moshiri said. 'We see an intense immune reaction against the lower part of the hair bulbs, which in turn causes a shift from the growth phase to the rest and involutional phases of growth, thus causing the hair to fall out.' A rash is the main symptom, which generally occurs between six weeks and three months after a patient's initial sores have healed. The rash most commonly occurs on the soles of the feet or palms of the hands, however, it appeared elsewhere on the patient. The parents of a four-year-old girl who died in a viral outbreak of adenovirus at a New Jersey pediatric care facility are calling for it to be shut down. Dorcase Dolcin is one of 10 severely disabled children who died at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Haskell. In total, 27 children and one staff member have contracted the illness - with 17 currently battling the infection. The outbreak was reported days after inspectors found 'handwashing deficiencies' at the facility, which houses elderly people and children. Dorcase was born developmentally disabled due to a lack of oxygen while in the womb, leaving her completely incapacitated and immunocompromised. Her parents, Modeline Auguste and Ocrioimy Dolcin, are accusing the staff of negligence, saying they often found their daughter sitting in dirty diapers and that she wasn't even given a flu shot prior to her death. Modeline Auguste (left) and Ocrioimy Dolcin (right) whose four-year-old daughter died in a viral outbreak of adenovirus at a New Jersey pediatric care facility are calling for it to be shut down Dorcase Dolcin (left and right) is one of 10 severely disabled children who died at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Haskell. She first contracted a fever on September 30 Dorcase, who is the couple's only child, was born in September 2014 severely disabled due to a lack of oxygen while Auguste was pregnant with her. Her parents told NorthJersey.com that she spent the first three months of her life in a neo-natal intensive care unit. Dorcase had to use a ventilator to breathe, required a feeding tube, and never spoke a word. Her parents knew she needed full-time care. She was first placed at the Voorhees Pediatric Facility, a long-term care center where four children have been diagnosed with adenovirus in a separate outbreak. In June 2016, Dorcase was moved to the Wanaque Center, which is closer to her parents' home in East Orange and where they would visit her almost every other day. However, there were several occasions on which her mother and father say they found their daughter 'neglected'. Multiple times, Dorcase was wearing a double diaper - meaning staff were waiting for longer periods to change her - and they even saw feces on her body. 'She was dirty with poop. Even the chair was dirty,' Auguste told NJ.com. 'When they don't know you are coming, the baby was always dirty,' Dolcin told the website. It was only after several days that the staff sent Dorcase (pictured) to the hospital. On October 8, Dorcase died after the adenovirus developed into pneumonia and a stomach infection Auguste (left) and Dolcin (right) say they often found their daughter sitting in dirty diapers when they visited her and that staff didn't even administer a flu shot before her death Dolcin says the healthcare workers didn't even give Dorcase a flu shot. 'It is negligence because they don't take full responsibility for what happened over there,' he told NorthJersey.com. 'They're just satisfied to make money, not to take care of the sick people.' Auguste told NJ.com that, on September 30, Dorcase developed a fever that was rising and falling over the course of several days. Her parents begged the Wanaque Center to send her to the hospital, but staff allegedly told them they were 'waiting for the doctor'. On October 4, a nurse told Auguste that there was blood around her daughter's trach. 'I said: "Send her to the hospital",' Auguste said. 'They were still waiting for the doctor.' Finally, the next evening, Dorcase was taken to Saint Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson. Doctors told the parents that she had pneumonia and a stomach infection, the couple told NJ.com. So far, 27 children and one staff member have contracted the illness at the Wanaque Center On October 31, the New Jersey Department of Health released a report that found 'four out of six staff were deficient with their hand hygiene technique'. Pictured: The Wanaque Center By October 7, Dorcase was unresponsive to treatments and, on October 8, she passed away. The next day, October 9, was when the Wanaque Center contacted the state for the first time to inform health officials about the outbreak. Adenoviruses usually do not cause any complications and symptoms resolve themselves. However, among children like Dorcase, who have weakened immune systems, adenoviruses increase the risk of developing a severe illness or neurological diseases. On October 31, the New Jersey Department of Health issued its report after a surprise inspection of the facility found that its staff were negligent about hand-washing. The report stated that 'four out of six staff were deficient with their hand hygiene technique.' The couple did not know other children had fallen ill until they started seeing other parents they knew at the hospital. Health Commissioner Dr Shereef Elnahal told NorthJersey.com it's not possible for Wanaque to shut down due to the lack of pediatric care facilities in the state - there are only three others. But Auguste and Dolcin say they believe closing the center is the only way to prevent another child from getting sick and dying. 'In order for me to be happy, the facility has to be closed,' Auguste told the website. Laura Levis died at 34 of a treatable asthma at the doors of a Massachusetts emergency room, according to a heart-wrenching story penned by her husband, Peter Demarco, in Globe Magazine. DeMarco previously published an open letter to the staff of CHA Somerville Hospital, thanking them for treating his wife and her family with dignity. But that was before he knew the whole story. Before he knew that Laura had called 911. Before he knew she had walked to the hospital. Before he knew Laura had made it within feet of the door to the ER. Now, his gratitude has turned to horror and rage at the series of simple but catastrophic failures that led to his wife's death just outside the hospital. Laura Levis (left) died at 34 of cardiac arrest after an asthma attack just outside the door to a Massachusetts hospital. After learning of the failures of hospital staff and 911 dispatchers, her husband, Peter DeMarco (right) penned the horrifying story of her death in Globe Magazine Every year, around 3,500 people die of asthma attacks. Most of them don't have much in common with Laura. Nearly half of people who die of asthma are over 65. Laura was young, and impeccably fit. Every year, hospital mistakes kill more than 250,000 Americans, according to a recent estimate from Johns Hopkins University. We don't have a clear count for how many people died waiting for an ambulance, or because 911 operators didn't do their jobs well enough, but even emergency responders themselves have said, anecdotally, that the problem is worsening. We do know that one death was the result of all of these failures combined. Levis had long had asthma. She was accustomed to dealing with the occasional attack. But on September 16, 2016, it became clear to Levis that the attack was not going to simply subside. Despite her asthma, Laura incredibly fit, lifting and running competitively What seemed like a convenience would prove one of the crucial facts of Levis's death. She was staying just a short walk downhill from the hospital. So when it was becoming increasingly difficult to breath, sometime just after 4am, Levis started walking toward the CHA Somerville. Levis was tough, by her husband's vivid account. She was 5ft 2in, but could bench press more than her own body weight, ran and lifted weights competitively. Surveillance cameras outside the hospital show that Levis stopped in the hospital's driveway, debating which of the two entrances looked most likely to lead to the emergency department. She tried one, but the sliding glass door didn't move when she stood in front of it and peered in. So Levis started to make her way to the second entrance. She almost made it. Just 29 feet from the second door, she sat down on a bench. Panting, Laura called 911. 'I'm at Somerville Hospital. I'm having an asthma attack. I'm dying,' she told the voice on the other line. She was speaking to a regional dispatcher, who tried to clarify her location, then called the local Somerville police station. The two dispatchers went back and forth over Laura, who could hardly talk by then. Emergency responders use pings from cell towers to triangulate a person's position. DeMarco and Levis were living separately when she died. He didn't know that his wife had tried to call 911 and waited 10 minutes for help until after she had been taken off life support That ability has undoubtedly saved countless lives as it is certainly more precise than relying on the descriptions of surroundings given by people mid-emergency. But the technology is far outdated. With the GPS coded into app running in the background of your smart phone, you can order take out to a more precise location than 911 responders can pinpoint your call to. The pings to Levis's phone suggested she had either collapsed on the street near the far right corner of the hospital, or that she was at the opposite corner behind the hospital. So when CHA Somerville told DeMarco that his wife of two years had been in the last place they looked after being contacted by 911, it could have been true, if they had gone first to those two GPS locations. Or, it could have been an over-statement, a poorly-chosen cliche. Or, because she had lost consciousness, on a bench just outside that second hospital entrance, it could have been a bold-faced lie. 'In the 911 tape, you hear Lauras voice again. "Im outside," she starts to say, before struggling to make another sound,' DeMarco writes. 'It is 4:25 am and 36 seconds. It is the last time Laura speaks.' Dispatchers for 911 calls ask callers where their emergencies are and use cell towers to ping phones to try to get locations. Levis tried the one entrance (A) but it was locked. She nearly made it to the second (B), but collapsed on a bench (star). Pings to her cell phone (red) suggested she was much further, at one of two far corners of the hospital's grounds As DeMarco explains, that's when Levis's 'countdown' began. Though there is no exact time limit for how long someone can be without oxygen, it starts to affect the brain around 10 minutes. Every passing second brings a higher risk of brain damage, a higher risk that you will never wake up again. The dispatcher had called an ambulance, not realizing that if someone had run out of the hospital, they would have found Levis practically without looking. DeMarco, a former Boston Globe journalist, tallied every second that was wasted with excruciating detail. The pain of listening to each call recording, watching surveillance footage of the moments where his wife was almost saved in time - so many times - but then overlooked, again, is hard to imagine. By the time she was finally found by firefighters, it was too late. The doctors didn't know that for sure yet, DeMarco didn't even know his wife had had an asthma attack and, based on her conversations with the 911 dispatcher, DeMarco writes that his wife's final thoughts were likely that 'help is on the way.' The next morning, DeMarco got the call from Somerville that his wife had gone into cardiac arrest. DeMarco and Levis had been living separately for a few weeks, so he knew nothing of the asthma attack. But a shift-change had just happened at the hospital - 15 minutes before the hospital contacted DeMarco. No one at the hospital when DeMarco arrived had been present when Laura was finally admitted. 'But now, I wonder, why did the emergency room wait 2 hours after Laura was admitted to contact me? Was it merely a coincidence that I was called 15 minutes after the night-shift staff had left the building?' he writes. There was a chance that Levis might wake up if the swelling around her brain subsided and she hadn't been without oxygen for too long. So DeMarco waited for seven days with Levis before a doctor told him, Levis's father and Demarco's father that the woman they all loved was not going to wake up and it was time to let her go. Levis lost consciousness and could not breath for 10 minutes. If any one of the litany of mistakes DeMarco details hadn't been made, she might have regained consciousness He even remembered the conduct of the doctor as admirable. 'In a gesture of humility, [Dr Duncan] Kuhn sat on the floor, looking up at us as he told us Laura wasnt coming back.' No one mentioned where or when she'd be found, or the 911 call, or any of the failures that preceded Levis's death. DeMarco wrote a public thank you letter that was published in the New York Times. Since then, Levis's uncle followed his gut feeling, calling the local police station. This led him to the 911 call, and started the process of unravelling Levis's death that DeMarco has since dived into her. The uncle called Levis's father, himself a doctor, who told DeMarco about the 911 call. '"Pete, I have the most terrible thing to tell you," my father-in-law said. "They killed Laura,"' DeMarco recalls. DeMarco attempted to sue the hospital for malpractice, and city and state officials did investigate Levis's death. The Department of Health and Human Services even investigated, and found CHA Somerville to be negligent. The government settled with the hospital for $90,000. Levis was wearing a hoodie from the Spartan Race she and DeMarco had run together when she died. DeMarco, a former journalist, was first grateful to Somerville for treating her with dignity for the week she was in a coma, then furious when he learned of their negligence But that was as much as the multi-million dollar company that owns that hospital could be liable for, thanks to a federal cap on how much a hospital that receives Medicare funding can be sued. DeMarco is angry at that cap, and most of all he's angry at a woman he refers to only as Nurse X. The early morning of Levis's death, many posts in the hospital, like the security desk, were simply unmanned, so there's on one to blame. But, in his chilling words: 'On the surveillance video, you see Nurse X take one step outside the ambulance-access door, going no further than an arms reach from it. 'In the predawn darkness, Nurse X cranes her neck a bit to see, but she doesnt spot Laura on the bench, which is almost straight ahead of where shes looking, albeit in a shadow.' Watching the video, 'Laura was just about 70 feet from her; you see them both in the same frame of the surveillance video, shot from overhead,' DeMarco writes. But several more minutes would pass and cost Laura her life. Now, DeMarco is just beginning to heal. He writes that he spent a year avoiding the hospital before going to sit on the bench where his wife died, waiting, alone, for help. A security guard came out to assist DeMarco. More than a year too late. But, at least, he takes some small comfort in new signage that's been put up around the hospital, clearly marking the entrances. And that someone was there. We are in the grip of a depression epidemic. At least, thats what you would assume from the latest figures that show rates of it are rising faster than any other condition. Despite living in an advanced, affluent society, free from war or famine, we are apparently becoming more and more miserable with, on average, one in ten people affected. In some areas in England, as many as one in six patients has now been diagnosed with depression, according to new figures from NHS Digital. That is a staggering number and if true, indicates a full-scale public health crisis. Blue Britain: According to the data, we are becoming more and more miserable with time - but is the diagnosis correct every time? Doctors have warned that the rising numbers are putting further pressure on already overstretched GPs who are struggling to cope with the numbers asking for help. But are we really becoming more depressed? I dont think we are. We should all be worried about this because one in ten of us is now on an antidepressant and in many cases this might not be whats needed and could possibly do more harm than good. Theres no doubt that part of the sudden increase in rates of depression is down to increased awareness. For years, mental health issues lurked in the shadows with people too ashamed to come forward and ask for help, or unaware that what they were feeling was a mental illness and deserved treatment. Now not a week goes by where some celebrity isnt bearing all and admitting to having, or having had, a mental health problem. In one way or another, mental health makes the news almost every day. For someone such as myself who works in this area, this sea change has been quite startling and its clearly a good thing that more people are coming forward who would otherwise have suffered in silence. Common: In some areas in England, as many as one in six patients has now been diagnosed with depression, according to new figures from NHS Digital The problem is that its not always the people who need treatment or to be referred to mental health services who are benefiting. Too often campaigns or awareness raising only resonate with groups who are already relatively good at asking for help such as middle class, articulate and educated people. I know that it must seem disingenuous for a doctor like me, working in mental health, who has spent years pushing for better understanding around mental illness, to suddenly volte face and say that, actually, can we please all stop for a moment, but I am. Im far from alone in being wary about the fall-out from this sudden surge in interest in mental health. Sir Professor Simon Wessely, former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and current President of the Royal Society of Medicine, said last year every time we have a mental health campaign, my heart sinks. Not a week goes by where some celebrity isnt bearing all and admitting to having, or having had, a mental health problem. Dr Max Pemberton This was met with bewilderment by many. After all, surely having the likes of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on our side was a coup wed be over the moon about? If only it were that simple. As Professor Wessely explained: We dont need people to be more aware. We cant deal with the ones who already are aware. Campaigns simply encourage those with milder symptoms to come forward and get treatment they dont need (antidepressants are not effective in mild depression, for example), meanwhile other groups suffer in silence. Mental health is still highly stigmatised in many impoverished, immigrant populations for instance, meaning that they will often avoid seeking help or simply not know how to mobilise help. A hashtag campaign isnt going to help vulnerable older people. Similarly, middle-aged, working class men have been shamefully left behind. These men tend not to be on Twitter, or Instagram, either. A horrifying study by the London School of Economics a few years ago showed that, while mental illness accounts for nearly half of all ill health in the under 65s, only a quarter of those who need treatment actually get it. 'Theres no doubt that part of the sudden increase in rates of depression is down to increased awareness,' says Dr Max Pemberton Some of the highest rates of under diagnosis occur in lower class middle-aged and older men, who also have the highest rates of suicide. A Government inquiry into suicide published a few years ago showed that less than 10 per cent of people who killed themselves had been referred to mental health services in the previous year. But what about the apparent rise in numbers? As the NHS reported last week, the most common condition treated by GPs is high blood pressure with 13.9 per cent of patients affected, followed by depression (9.9 per cent), increasing from 9.1 per cent last year, putting it just ahead of obesity. My concern is that a significant proportion of these people wont actually have depression. Despite what the Government promises in budgets, on the ground mental health services are stretched gossamer thin. Mental health teams will often only be able to see the most unwell patients, meaning the burden for diagnosing and treating most patients falls on GPs. Many people diagnosed with depression will never have see a psychiatrist. More than 80 per cent will only ever be seen by their GP, who will have had, at most, six months of training in mental health some have none at all. Its not the fault of GPs, but many have limited knowledge of mental health and so can easily misdiagnose other mental health conditions as depression. The symptoms of personality disorder, for example, will often mimic depression, with patients complaining of feeling empty and hopeless. Yet the treatment for personality disorder is very different and involves specialist, intense and long-term psychotherapy. WHAT IS DEPRESSION? While it is normal to feel down from time to time, people with depression may feel persistently unhappy for weeks or months on end. Depression can affect anyone at any age and is fairly common approximately one in ten people are likely to experience it at some point in their life. Depression is a genuine health condition which people cannot just ignore or 'snap out of it'. Symptoms and effects vary, but can include constantly feeling upset or hopeless, or losing interest in things you used to enjoy. It can also cause physical symptoms such as problems sleeping, tiredness, having a low appetite or sex drive, and even feeling physical pain. In extreme cases it can lead to suicidal thoughts. Traumatic events can trigger it, and people with a family history may be more at risk. It is important to see a doctor if you think you or someone you know has depression, as it can be managed with lifestyle changes, therapy or medication. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement I have often come across people who have tried countless antidepressants over years, all to no effect. They therefore believe they have untreatable depression when, in fact, they had a personality disorder and so have been receiving the wrong treatment. But its not just misdiagnosis thats at the root of this apparent rise. I think a far bigger part is over-diagnosis and this relates to mental health problems in general, and particularly in children. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services specialist teams seeing referrals from GPs for children with serious mental health problems are chronically under resourced. Yet colleagues who work in these services describe being inundated with referrals, not from those patients with the worst symptoms who urgently need help, but those with mild symptoms whose parents demand they are seen. At the root of this lies the fact that normal distress and upset is being relabelled as mental illness. Recently there have been several reputable-sounding surveys which appear to suggest that about 50 per cent of children are experiencing mental health problems. Ive worked in childrens mental health services and the findings are complete bilge. This is something Professor Sir Simon Wessely has railed against, particularly one report from the National Union of Students that suggested that over three quarters of students were mentally ill. He said: One wonders whats happening when you have 78 per cent of students telling their union they have mental health problems you have to think Well, this seems unlikely. I agree. This is really about the medicalisation of distress and normal emotions. Feeling down because your boyfriend dumps you or your friends go bowling without you is not a mental illness. You dont have depression. Sometimes life is upsetting and unpleasant and doesnt go how we want it to. A teenager said to a colleague of mine the other day that it was cool to have depression. No, its not. Its absolutely earth-shatteringly horrible. Of course, there are children who really do experience mental health problems and dont for a minute think that all this awareness helps them. In fact, it runs the risk of doing damage. They trivialise the true horror of teenage mental illness. Do not try and lump in getting upset at failing GCSE geography with early onset schizophrenia. Psychiatrists have tried to push back against this creeping over-diagnosis. As Professor Sir Simon Wessely says: We are acutely aware of the dangers of over-medicalisation of what are normal emotional problems [psychiatrists] are the people who try to maintain some form of boundary between sadness and depression, between eccentricity and autism, between shyness and social phobia. But a combination of increased awareness and celebrities speaking out about their mental health problems, means many people are clamouring for a diagnosis, a label, to give validation to their problems. Far better to have clinical depression than just a dreary life. Social media doesnt help not because it triggers mental illness, but because it perpetuates unrealistic expectations on how rosy life can be. When people examine their own lives and find them coming up short in comparison, they assume something must be wrong. The majority of people having a difficult time arent mentally ill, were just experiencing life. We should be talking about the realities of life and tools for being resilient, not making out theres something wrong and giving people prescription pills they dont need. Antidepressants can be a lifesaver for those with depression. But they come with serious side-effects and we shouldnt be dishing them out unless theres a clear clinical need. I saw one young man whod been put on an antidepressant after he went to see his GP and started crying. When I asked him more, he said his mother had just died. I wrote to the GP explaining Id stopped the antidepressant because crying after your mother had died is normal and Id be more worried if he hadnt cried. Of course, Im pleased that those with mental illness now feel able to talk about it openly. Of course, its a good thing we have increasing understanding and sympathy for those struggling with mental health conditions and that people feel able to come forward for help. But the increased awareness has not been the panacea wed hoped for. It has, sadly, created as many problems as it cured. When it comes to our health, it seems there is still a gender gap in what we know and how we treat men and women. Research suggests that women are missing out on potentially life-saving treatments and tests because doctors and researchers have failed to take fundamental biological differences between the sexes into account. Certain behavioural or social factors mean that women are less likely to be diagnosed with particular conditions, or get treatment, too. For example, a study concluded women in the early stages of Alzheimers are going undiagnosed because they tend to have superior verbal memories the type that helps them remember words from stories or lists, for example. Underclass: Women get a raw deal by the ever-present patriarchy, according to Dr Kat Arney In the study by the University of Illinois, presented to the Alzheimers Association International Conference earlier this year, women managed to sustain their performance in memory tests even when scans showed Alzheimers was beginning to damage key parts of the brain. The scientists concluded that while the female advantage may be functionally beneficial, it could mask the early stages of Alzheimers, resulting in a more severe burden of disease at the time of diagnosis, with more rapid deterioration thereafter. Also, for years, heart attacks have been thought of as a mans disease, mainly because men have traditionally tended to be more likely to smoke, have unhealthy lifestyles or succumb to stress. The symptoms of a heart attack in women are also often thought of as less typical, so tend to be missed. As a result, cases in women are also missed. Women are more likely to die following an attack, partly due to misdiagnosis. WOMEN'S BREASTS CAN AFFECT HEART SCANS Women with heart attacks are more likely to be taken to hospital and discharged with an irrelevant diagnosis such as panic attacks or indigestion, says Georgios Kararigas, a professor of translational gender research at Charite University Hospital in Berlin, Germany. This means they are not properly treated, which is detrimental to their health and can lead to unnecessary deaths, he adds. A further complicating factor is that typical symptoms of a heart attack such as chest pain, rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath are more common in men. Bad science: Even if a heart attack is suspected, getting a diagnosis in women is tricky because breast tissue creates confusing shadows on the scan - which culminates in sexism MEN: THE FACTS - According to the Office for National Statistics, men lead women in succumbing to nine of the top 10 killer diseases, including heart disease, stroke, pneumonia, diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver - Men suffer a life expectancy gap that has widened 400 per cent in 90 years - Men are more likely to get - and die from - every form of unisex cancer. Despite this, they are excluded from fundraising activities such as Cancer Research UK's Race For Life. - Prostate cancer kills more men than breast cancer kills women - Boys are denied the HPV vaccine, solely because of their gender Advertisement Women, instead, are more likely to experience fatigue, anxiety, light-headedness and sleep disturbances over a period of several days or weeks, rather than a sudden pain. These problems can be easily mistaken for other, less serious conditions. Even if a heart attack is suspected, getting a diagnosis in women is tricky because breast tissue creates confusing shadows on the scan commonly used to detect coronary heart disease, known as Spect (single-photon emission computerised tomography). Male and female hearts share the same physiology and function, but the response to disease differs significantly, says Professor Kararigas. Thats partly because hormones play a role. Most women have a regular hormonal cycle after puberty, driven by the sex hormone oestrogen. This hormone has a protective effect against heart disease, though its not clear why. However, once oestrogen levels drop after the menopause, this protection is lost and the risk of developing heart problems rises dramatically. Heart disease even looks different in men and women. Men tend to have larger fatty blockages in their arteries which trigger an attack. These can be treated with a small tube, called a stent, to open up arteries and restore blood flow. By contrast, womens arteries tend to get furred up with a layer of fatty material over a larger area. Stents or similar surgical approaches dont work, and treatment tends to focus on lifestyle changes and drugs such as blood-thinning aspirin or beta blockers to reduce strain on the heart. These gender differences extend into doctors perceptions of illnesses affecting men and women. Alarmingly, a study of A&E admissions in Florida, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year, showed that women are more likely to die if they are treated by male rather than female doctors. This is likely due to stereotyped views about how a typical (male) heart attack patient should be treated. RESEARCH STUDIES LEAVE OUT WOMEN One of the main reasons for the lack of knowledge about the impact of female hormones and biology on a whole range of conditions is a historical focus on using males for research. In laboratory studies, we have to use animal models to look at whats going on for example, in the brain so to use as few animals as possible most studies only include males, says Professor Spires-Jones. Victims: Once again, women are oppressed because men are more commonly used in studies Males have less variation in behaviour and dont have hormonal cycles, so are easier to study but were missing out on information about how females behave, and they are potentially very different. This lack of female-specific data extends across all aspects of health research, from dementia and cardiovascular disease to asthma and autoimmune conditions. For example, one review found that more than a fifth of studies didnt state the sex of the animals, while 80 per cent of those that did used males. A major study published in 2017 by researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute studied data of more than 200 characteristics including bone mass, metabolism and behaviour, finding that differences between the sexes could affect results in more than half of experiments. One of the studys authors, Professor Judith Mank of University College London, said the results show how often differences occur in characteristics that would otherwise be assumed to be the same in both sexes. The fact that a mouses sex influenced genes indicates that males and females differ right down to the underlying genetics behind many traits. Only studying males paints half the picture, she said. WOMEN'S DRUGS ARE TESTED ON MEN As well as missing out on developments in laboratory research, women have long been ignored in clinical trials of new therapies. In 1977, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned women of childbearing potential from most trials, even if they werent pregnant or planning to conceive. This was overturned in 1994, but disproportionately few women take part in trials today. In fact, anti-anxiety drug Valium known as mothers little helper was originally never tested on women. Illegal: Feminist Caroline Criado-Perez wants to create legislation forcing researchers to include data from males and females - or face the long arm of the law Disturbingly, a 2016 study by Brazilian researchers, published in the Journal of Depression and Anxiety, showed that the menstrual cycle could have a major impact on Valiums effectiveness depending on the time of the month, even rendering it useless. A recent study to test the interactions between alcohol and Addyi, a drug designed to boost female libido, enrolled 23 men and two women. This failure to study the effectiveness and side-effects in women has potentially serious safety consequences. Between 1997 and 2001, eight out of ten previously approved prescription drugs pulled from the shelves by the FDA due to unacceptable health risks were found to be more harmful to women than men, even though half of them were more likely to be given to women. We know women are more likely to suffer drug reactions, and the menstrual cycle affects how well a treatment works, says Caroline Criado-Perez, author of the upcoming book Invisible Women, investigating gaps in research data relating to women. This has been used as an excuse to ignore females, but the reality is that women have these hormones and the drugs will interact with them. Additionally, she says, many trial drugs dont work when theyre tested on males. But this means treatments that might only work in females are shelved, so women may miss out on potential therapies. People say women are too complex for medical research but we have to do more to study sex differences in males and females, adds Professor Kararigas. We need to understand the differences in the underlying mechanisms of disease and identify novel drug targets for more appropriate treatment for both men and women, taking us towards the true realisation of personalised medicine. If we dont study both males and females, how can we find therapies that would be good for each of them? he says. Caroline Criado-Perez would like to see legislation forcing researchers to include data from males and females from the earliest stages of laboratory research, and to properly separate trial data by sex as a condition of bringing a new treatment to market. Professor Spires-Jones agrees: We need to make sure were helping 100 per cent of the population, not half. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26 Sadomasochism is not an entirely alien pastime in Hollywood. My own experimentation with it comes at this time each year when I attend Baftas star-studded Britannia Awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles and get ritually humiliated by regular host Jack Whitehall. This afternoon, he posted an Instagram photo of himself with his scriptwriting team, and the ominous caption: Coming up with new and innovative ways to mug off Piers Morgan in front of Hollywoods finest. Sadomasochism is not an entirely alien pastime in Hollywood. My own experimentation with it comes at this time each year when I attend Baftas star-studded Britannia Awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles and get ritually humiliated by regular host Jack Whitehall I sat near the front with Dame Joan Collins, who startled the LA guests at our table by loudly demanding, Could I please have the bread basket? as they mournfully picked at their kale salads. Im a freak in this town, she chuckled, I like carbs. When the show began the awards were streamed live on Britbox, which has just started airing Good Morning Britain in the States a large camera suddenly appeared inches from my face. Whitehall was clearly going for an early kill. Britbox recently announced, so I can only assume its something theyre actually proud of, that theyre officially bringing Piers Morgan back to the US, he sneered. The audience erupted into raucous jeers, albeit with some pleasing counter cheers too. I thought that might be the reaction, he nodded. About as welcome as the return of Ebola... The crowd gasped, as I shouted GET HIM OFF! Sorry, Whitehall chortled, I shouldnt compare Piers Morgan to Ebola thats very unfair to Ebola. The giant TV screens around the room showed Jim Carrey, Cate Blanchett and Damian Lewis all cackling away. The rat wasnt finished. I really shouldnt joke. I do some charity work and was lucky enough to meet a young boy who had actually lost his eyesight to a Piers Morgan show. Couldnt bear it, just reached for two forks. Whitehall mimed stabbing his eyes out as the room rocked with laughter. I was DOA again. Blanchett, who received the Stanley Kubrick award for excellence in film, made a rambling but fantastically entertaining 11-minute speech that began: This is a total f****** disaster! I am so f****** low-five my glasses are so filthy, I cant even read my pieces of paper! They told me to speak for three to five minutes but we could be here all night! We nearly were, as she veered from mocking the under-cooked chicken we had for dinner, to demanding audience affirmative action against an increasingly divisive world. Were all f***** up, she declared, and you all just need to turn around and give the person beside you a hug. I looked at Joan, we both burst out laughing, and then hugged it out. Im going to stop now... said Cate. KEEP GOING! I pleaded, loudly. She paused, looked down at me and chuckled, then carried on for another few minutes. When she finally did stop, Whitehall reemerged to jokily berate her: Cate, Im supposed to be the one who lowers the tone at this event! Damian Lewis, honoured for excellence in TV, superbly mimicked Sir Michael Caine as he revealed how he learned his best acting tip from him: Always only look at the eye closest to the camera and never blink. And he paid an emotional tribute to his parents and actress wife Helen McCrory, who stars in Peaky Blinders. To my beautiful mum, who came to the set of Band Of Brothers and was tickled pink her son had a job, ANY sort of job, but who very sadly didnt live to see Band Of Brothers I love you. To my dad, who is really responsible for all this acting malarkey because he took me to the theatre all the time when I was young I love you. And to my love Helen, who when I said, Babe, come out for the night and get a break from filming in Manchester, dropped her voice alarmingly deep and said: Damian, nobody messes with the Peaky foo**** Blinders. Lewis finished by evoking the spirit of last years winner of his award: In the words of the great Dick Van Dyke, I do what I likes, and I like what I do. When Carrey received his Charlie Chaplin award for comedy, a montage of his greatest film moments was played to remind us that hes right up there with Robin Williams as the most brilliantly bonkers comic genius in movie history. Or rather, he was. Depressingly, hes now gone aggressively political with all the dreariness that involves when actors forget that their primary function, as Joan reminded me during one interminably self-indulgent monologue about the supposed higher calling of thespianism, is to just bloody entertain. As his name was announced, Carrey who spends most of his time these days abusing President Trump on Twitter sprang to his feet two tables away from me and hurled his chair over guests heads onto the stage. Then he charged to the podium and launched into a frenzied anti-Trump diatribe, branding him an evil monster wrecking the planet, to whoops of approval from the very liberal crowd. I know this isnt funny, he yelled, but things are not very funny these days! No Jim, thats because so many comedians have turned into demented Trump-bashing bores. At the end, Whitehall whose very entertaining performance included introducing Viola Davis with the words, She starred in How To Get Away With Murder, Saudi Arabias most popular show said, Well, thats it. Piers, the after-party is at Motel 6 in Glendale. Everyone else, well see you in the ballroom. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27 An email from Jack Whitehall: Thanks for being a good sport. You ARE like Ebola, except at least you can get rid of Ebola. The Nutcracker And The Four Realms Cert: PG, 1hr 39mins Rating: For a Disney film, The Nutcracker And The Four Realms seems to have flown into our cinemas slightly under the radar and certainly without the brouhaha wed normally associate with what, to all intents and purposes, looks like the media giants big pre-Christmas release. Why could that be? Could it, perhaps, reflect a lack of confidence in a film based on a classical ballet rather than a familiar fairy tale? Or the always slightly worrying fact that it has two directors Lasse Hallstrom, of Chocolat and Cider House Rules fame, who did the main filming, and Joe Johnston, best known for Captain America: The First Avenger, who came in to supervise what sounds like an extensive period of reshooting? And then Morgan Freeman lurches into shot as the inventor and toymaker Drosselmeyer and the penny, rightly or wrongly, drops. After all, its barely six months long after filming had been completed since 81-year-old Freeman was accused of sexual misconduct by eight women. Keira Knightley is an absolute hoot as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Particularly at times of stress when given to exclaim: Oh, poo! Above: Knightley and Mackenzie Foy as Clara He subsequently apologised but such accusations are the last thing Disney, a company that prides itself on putting children and families first, would want to be associated with. Doubly so, for a film that places a feisty young female lead centre-stage and features two of Hollywoods more formidable females, Keira Knightley and Helen Mirren, in supporting roles. Suddenly, the modest marketing push and Freemans even more modest screen time begin to make sense. Which is all a bit of a shame because this live-action production has much to commend it. Nineteenth-century Yuletide London is brought magically to life (of course its snowing; its Christmas in a Disney film), the young American actress Mackenzie Foy makes a splendid Clara, and Knightley is an absolute hoot as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Particularly at times of stress when given to exclaim: Oh, poo! Have fun spotting Richard E Grant, Jack Whitehall and Omid Djalili in cameo roles, and look out for Helen Mirren as Mother Ginger, who is the evil regent of the Fourth Realm Yes, there are moments as Clara journeys first to Godfather Drosselmeyers lavish Christmas Eve party and then, more magically, to the Narnia-like Kingdom of the Four Realms, when its easy to think this is all getting a bit C S Lewis and Lewis Carroll-like. But do your literary history homework (or read the end credits, like me) and remember that both the ballet and the film are loosely adapted from a short story, The Nutcracker And The Mouse King, written way back in 1816. Two centuries on and mice, quite rightly, have a key role to play once again. You can tell its a Disney film, cant you? Some of the modern gender-role stuff doesnt bear close examination, as Clara, by now accompanied by her own Nutcracker soldier (Jayden Fowora-Knight), makes her way to the fairytale castle where three of the regents of the four kingdoms Sweets, Snowflakes and Flowers make her welcome. IT'S A FACT Helen Mirren was born Illiana Lydia Petrovna Mironova. Her Russian grandfather was stranded in London during the 1917 revolution. Advertisement Its lovely that Clara is the sort of girl who can quote Newtons Third Law of Motion and is a whizz at all things clockwork, but its a slight shame that the thing that really brings a smile to her face is a magical princess makeover, complete with big hair and fabulous frock. Still, I can see a lot of mothers warming to the more practical Nutcracker soldier outfit that soon follows all winter boots, swirling red skirt and tight military-style jacket. Have fun spotting Richard E Grant, Jack Whitehall and Omid Djalili in cameo roles, marvel at the brilliance of Misty Copeland in the films gorgeous ballet sequence and look out for Mirren as Mother Ginger, who is the evil regent of the no-longer-mentioned Fourth Realm. Unless, of course, all is not as it seems SECOND SCREEN Widows (15) Rating: Juliet, Naked (15) Rating: Slaughterhouse Rulez (15) Rating: Mirai (PG) Rating: Peterloo (12A) Rating: Nae Pasaran (12A) Rating: Steve McQueen is best known for the art-house offerings Hunger, Shame and 12 Years A Slave. Yet here he is suddenly making a crime thriller based on a TV series written by Lynda La Plante in the Eighties. And very good the new Widows is too, with the story relocated to Chicago and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn brought in to help with the screenplay. But the core of the plot is unchanged: a gang of career criminals burn to death in their getaway van when a job goes horribly wrong and, faced with ruin, their hitherto law-abiding widows turn to crime themselves, pinning their hopes on pulling off the last big job planned by Harry (Liam Neeson) before his death. Some of the plotting is a little clunky but the acting is wonderful, with Viola Davis on sparkling form as Harrys resourceful widow, Veronica. Not so much a romcom as a bittersweet romance with funny bits, Juliet, Naked is a delicious adaptation of Nick Hornbys novel about two thirtysomethings struggling to make coupledom work. He (Chris ODowd) is Duncan, a college lecturer nerdishly obsessed with missing musician Tucker Crowe. She is Annie (Rose Byrne), Duncans increasingly dissatisfied girlfriend, who secretly begins a Youve Got Mail-style online relationship with Crowe (Ethan Hawke), whos not nearly as mysterious or missing as people think. With fracking back in the news, the timing couldnt be better for Slaughterhouse Rulez, a truly extraordinary comedy that combines elements of St Trinians, If... and er... Creature From The Black Lagoon. It takes a while to find its stride as fracking begins in the grounds of the frightfully posh Slaughterhouse School but is very funny and spectacularly gory once it does. Mirai is a lovely Japanese animation about sibling rivalry, parenting and magically-passed-on wisdom, while Peterloo is an unwatchable Mike Leigh film about the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 Mirai is a lovely Japanese animation about sibling rivalry, parenting and magically-passed-on wisdom, while Peterloo is an unwatchable Mike Leigh film about the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 thats burdened with a surfeit of speeches and some terrible acting. If its working-class heroes youre after, youre better off with Nae Pasaran, an unexpectedly moving documentary about the Scottish factory workers who, in 1974, refused to work on Rolls-Royce aircraft engines because they had been involved in the bloody coup that brought General Pinochet to power in Chile. Its crying out for a Made In Dagenham-style remake but, until then, this will do very well indeed. George Ezra Palladium, Cologne Touring Nov 8-15 and Mar 7-23 Rating: Prediction, always a mugs game, is probably even madder at the moment, but here goes anyway: in 2019, George Ezra will win his first Brit award. And fully deserve it. When he broke through in 2014, with Budapest, Ezra was a 21-year-old with an old mans voice and the air of a one-hit wonder. Now, after making the song of the summer in Shotgun, hes one of Britains princes of pop sunnier than Sam Smith, more charming than Ed Sheeran. Prediction, always a mugs game, is probably even madder at the moment, but here goes anyway: in 2019, George Ezra will win his first Brit award. And fully deserve it Ezra has two British tours coming up, both sold out. In Cologne, he packs the 4,000-capacity Palladium, an oblong cousin of the Roundhouse in London, industrial but convivial. The fans range from about seven to 70. Its not easy to spot Ezra when he comes on stage as the arenas beckon, he may want to invest in a video screen but everyone can feel his presence. IT'S A FACT Ezra made his stage debut at 13, 'singing the female part of the song Teenage Dirtbag, wearing eyeliner and my sisters skinny jeans. Advertisement The man radiates bonhomie, and so does his sound, bolstered by some barnstorming horns. Breezy and inclusive, its like the trips abroad that he loves to sing (and talk) about. Hes the poet laureate of Airbnb. There is a thread that runs from Bill Haley to the Beach Boys to Martha And The Vandellas to Madness to this man. Fun, fun, fun, as Brian Wilson put it: snappy rhythms, cheery choruses, a tonic for the whole family. To this mix, Ezra adds lyrics addressing the many anxieties that plague his generation, pop stars included. Songs like Pretty Shining People take a classic flavour bittersweet and give it a contemporary twist. No wonder people like them. georgeezra.com The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters: The Tragic And Glamorous Lives Of Jackie And Lee Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger Rating: The first paragraph sets the tone. Jacqueline Kennedy, the greatly admired former First Lady, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma at the age of sixty-four, reads the first sentence. The illness spread rapidly through her body, and Jackie opted to die at home, in her spacious apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The spaciousness or otherwise of an apartment has got nothing to do with her dying. A death scene is no time for an author to summon the estate agent with his measuring tape. That misapplied little word spacious signals the start of a book which consists of a weird, vulgar mixture of coffin-chasing and interior decoration. Jackie Kennedy (in blue) and sister Lee Radziwill with their daughters Caroline (left) and Anna in London, 1965 Later in the same paragraph we are told She died at home on May 19 1994 ironically on her father Black Jack Bouviers birthday... Yet theres little irony in dying on your fathers birthday. Coincidentally is more like it. Though Jackie is dead, her younger sister Princess Lee Radziwill is still with us, aged 85. She granted the authors an interview in 2014 for Vanity Fair magazine. They were, they say, greeted at the door by Therese, her long-time ladys maid, and ushered into a living room where light poured in from three tall, graceful windows. Graceful like elegant and sumptuous is one of the authors favourite words. On the next page, they are struck by the Eastern influences in the graceful room, and, two short paragraphs on, they recall the way Lees sister Jackie had become an international icon of grace, style and beauty. Therese serves the three of them an elegant lunch of chilled cucumber soup and a watercress salad. According to them, this grim repast lived up to her reputation for serving exquisite meals that subtly matched her decor, such as serving borscht to coincide with the color of her dining room walls. Are guests of Lee Radziwill forced to eat purple food morning, noon and night? Or, if she is planning to serve parsley omelettes as a main course, does she order her interior decorators to hastily repaint the walls yellow with green specks? Jackie and Lee were born, three-and-a-half years apart, to a snobbish, pushy mother and a drunken playboy father, John Black Jack Bouvier, who died in relative poverty, having first warned the girls that all men are rats, and advising them to play hard to get and never be easy. From the start, the two sisters were very different Jackie shy, Lee gregarious, Jackie cool, Lee impulsive though they shared a lifelong love of money. They were both brought up to shine in high society, and their training paid dividends. We learn that Jackie was named Debutante of the Year by the influential gossip columnist and social arbiter Igor Cassini, who wrote under the nom de plume Cholly Knickerbocker. She then went to the Sorbonne in Paris, which prompted a love affair with all things French. This meant that, when she got back, she called her new horse Danseuse rather than Dancer. Lee was always more reckless than Jackie. Aged 20, she married a wealthy man called Michael Canfield, who was rumoured to be the illegitimate son of Prince George, Duke of Kent. But, just a month later, Jackie trumped her by marrying the richer and more dashing young senator John F Kennedy. It wasnt long before Lees marriage went off the rails. Michael was a heavy drinker; Lee had affairs. Michael asked Jackie how he could stop her leaving him. Get more money, Michael, replied Jackie. Michael pointed out that he had a trust fund and a good salary. No, Michael, replied Jackie, I mean real money. Lee then trumped Jackie by becoming a princess, marrying a Polish aristocrat 20 years her senior, Prince Stas Radziwill. First she had a son, Anthony, and then a daughter, Tina. Tina was born three months premature, in the wrong country, so Lee flew home to London, leaving a nanny to fly back with the newborn baby, four months later. This is the sort of behaviour that the authors count as graceful and elegant. Jackie Kennedys life has already been exceptionally well chronicled, which is presumably why she plays only a supporting role to the lesser-known Lee in this account of the two sisters. Their lives overlapped in an often creepy way: Lee seems to have had affairs with both Jackies husbands. In her fine biography of Jackie, written in 2000, Sarah Bradford revealed that Lee had hopped into bed with President Kennedy early in his marriage. The authors of The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters attribute the rumour to the unreliable Gore Vidal, and seem doubtful about it it is hard to know if Vidal is telling the truth here but Bradford had it confirmed by Jackies sister-in-law Joan, who had been told about it by Jackie. Sibling rivalry is the theme of this book. At times, it reads like Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? When they were little girls, Jackie knocked Lee out with a croquet mallet, but, says Lee, I finally triumphed by pushing her down the stairs Lee also had an affair with Aristotle Onassis, but this time before rather than after Jackie married him. Lee reportedly liked his primitive vitality, and appreciated his sexual prowess, his Oriental tastes in that area. Sadly, this has no explanatory footnote. As a consolation prize, Onassis appointed her cuckolded husband, Prince Radziwill, a director of Olympic Airways, which he owned. Lee later wondered whether Onassis had just been using her as a way of roping in Jackie. Certainly, when both sisters stayed on his yacht, Jackie came away with the pricier gift. He gave Lee, who was then his nominal girlfriend, three diamond-studded bracelets, but he dug deeper for Jackie, giving her a dazzling diamond-and-ruby necklace estimated at $50,000. This was before the assassination of President Kennedy. After it, Onassis set about wooing Jackie. Its a perfect match, said Onassiss surly son Alexander. My father loves names and Jackie loves money. On the eve of the wedding, JFKs little brother Teddy stepped in to negotiate a pre-nup. In exchange for Jackie waiving her legal right to inheriting 12.5 per cent of his estate, Onassis settled $3 million on her, and $1 million for each of her children, plus $150,000 a year for life. Later, Onassis was plotting to divorce Jackie when, in the nick of time, he died. Her settlement somehow grew to $26 million overall, and, with crafty investment after his death, turned into $150 million. Happy days! Sibling rivalry is the theme of this book. At times, it reads like Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? When they were little girls, Jackie knocked Lee out with a croquet mallet, but, says Lee, I finally triumphed by pushing her down the stairs. As they grew up, Lee was generally considered the prettier, livelier sister, but it was Jackie who became the most famous woman on Earth, and was voted Americas most admired woman five years running. Small wonder that Lee found it hard to swallow. My God, how jealous she is of Jackie: I never knew, wrote Lees best friend Truman Capote to Cecil Beaton. But Lee insisted that it was the other way round, telling Beaton that Jackie was so jealous of me. Certainly, Lee rarely had a good word to say about Jackie. Even when Jackie was recovering from the trauma of having seen her husbands brains blown out by an assassins bullet, Lee was remarkably unsympathetic. She cant stop thinking about herself and never feeling anything but sorry for herself, she told Cecil Beaton. Lee tried her hand at this and that actor, chat-show host, interior decorator but proved no great shakes at any of them. She followed The Rolling Stones around on one of their tours; Keith Richards called her Princess Radish. She even became Director of Special Events for Giorgio Armani, which is surely second only to Tequila Ambassador on anyones list of unjobs. Perhaps her greatest successes have been sexual. She once set her sights on the stalwartly gay dancer Rudolf Nureyev in Henley, of all places. Nureyev later claimed he had managed to get her pregnant, but she remains adamant that he was just confused. The Little Drummer Girl Sunday, BBC1 Rating: There She Goes Tuesday, BBC4 Rating: This adaptation of John le Carres The Little Drummer Girl has been made by the same team as The Night Manager but it has none of its sexiness or swagger, although what it lacks most are the two crucial qualities for it to work. Its not involving and its not dramatic. It is exceptionally busy, quickly cutting between multiple locations (where are we today, West Germany? London? Tel Aviv? Athens?) but as every element vied for our attention, it was impossible to invest in any one. It will be a critical success its labyrinthine and critics love that for fear theyll look stupid if they dont; fact but not a popular one as it has all the grip of a marshmallow and there isnt a bare bottom in sight. Bare bottoms, also not crucial. But they do help, are cheering and we have come to rather expect them on a Sunday night. Florence Pugh and Alexander Skarsgard. Skarsgard plays 'Joseph', one of those mysterious, emotionally unavailable men that (male) writers think women adore, but in reality would actually wish to swipe round the head with the instruction, For Gods sake, say something The first episode opened excitingly with a tense, clock-ticking bomb scene. I will give you that. But from then on it was essentially talking in rooms or on beaches or in taverns while the inter-titles specified the location and you, perhaps, struggled to put this element together with that. (I know I struggled: I had to watch it twice and still havent done with the struggling.) There are three main characters. Theres Kurtz (Michael Shannon), the Israeli Mossad agent charged with bringing down the Palestinian cell blowing up prominent Zionists around the world. There is Charlie (Florence Pugh), the gullible English actress who superficially espouses radical views and is being recruited by the Israelis to infiltrate that cell. And finally theres Joseph (Alexander Skarsgard), also a Mossad agent and one of those mysterious, emotionally unavailable men that (male) writers think women adore, but in reality would actually wish to swipe round the head with the instruction, For Gods sake, say something. His job is to make Charlie fall in love with him. (By the way, with Joseph and Kurtz did it occur to you that we are somehow being directed to Conrads Heart Of Darkness?) Directed by the Korean cinema auteur Park Chan-wook, this was visually lush, if not absurdly so. Its all set in 1979 Shannon is trussed up like Tom Selleck and the mise en scene is a sea of Seventies brown, offset by lurid wallpapers and vast modular sofas, although I grew up in the Seventies and there was still a lot of Edwardian and Victorian furniture around, you know. Its not like everyone throws everything out to keep in chime with a particular decades style. Meanwhile, plot-wise, as Kurtz busied himself with capturing Salim the cell is run by four brothers and hes the youngest Charlie was appearing in a London pub production of St Joan, future uncertain, until an anonymous patron paid for her to tour Greece along with her fellow cast members. Here, shes befriended by Joseph, who turns up humming a tune specifically written for the show. (So, he must have been watching her in London, but she wasnt creeped out by that?) Pugh is a magical actress but there may be something too fiercely intelligent about her to play someone quite so naive. Charlie does fall for Joseph, rather than swipe him, which leads to an embarrassing scene at the Parthenon involving full-body shadow puppetry and lines like, How will I ever love again? He finally delivers her to Kurtz, for the role of her life. I didnt lie to you, Joseph says sincerely, as he hands her over. We are meant to take this as true, and as an indication of the beginnings of his feelings for her, as well as his fundamental integrity, but it didnt wash. He had lied to her. Often. I watched twice, like I said, and Im still confused. Would a Palestinian terrorist in a safe house conduct his private life in front of the window? Why recruit an actress when you could just employ a female agent? This may pick up, and because I feel guilty about letting Black Earth Rising slip, Ill watch the second episode. But I may not be in it for the full six-week ride. The highlight of my week is currently There She Goes. A comedy-drama written by Shaun Pye, based on his own experience of raising a severely learning disabled child, it stars David Tennant and Jessica Hynes (a revelation) as the parents of Rosie (Miley Locke), who is now nine. Rosie is gloriously herself, but its hell getting her to the park, and its hell getting her out of a bubble bath and, if it werent for Mini Cheddars, it would be even worse hell. But this is also filled with love and warmth and understanding and while I cant say if its true, having never raised a disabled child, it has the ring of truth about it. So far, it has been gently comic, but the final scene of this weeks third episode was laugh-out-loud funny, as well as brilliantly touching. (One two woman!) The highlight of my week. You may not know his name, but IMRAN AMED is the most influential man on the front row. Robert Johnston on why no one wants to get on the wrong side of him The highlight of London Fashion Week in September was the arrival of Victoria Beckham after showing her collections in New York since 2008. To celebrate this and the labels tenth birthday Victoria joined forces with Vogue to throw a party at Marks Club in Mayfair. Vogue editor Edward Enninful greeted guests including Alexa Chung, Lara Stone and Jourdan Dunn. Victoria arrived with husband David and son Brooklyn and ended the evening dancing on a sofa to Spice Up Your Life. Imran Amed with Bella and Gigi Hadid at Septembers Business of Fashion 500 gala dinner during New York Fashion Week Among all this, guests might have spotted a diminutive man in a black poloneck busily working the room. His name, Imran Amed, may not be household and anyone outside that room might struggle to recognise him, but it is whispered that he could be the most powerful man in fashion. The Big bosses in the fashion capitals check his 500 list avidly to see if theyre on it and if their rivals arent His influence comes from his position as founder and boss of London-based website The Business of Fashion, launched as a blog in 2007 and today a global phenomenon reporting on the daily goings-on of the international fashion industry, worth trillions. If it were a country, fashion would be the seventh biggest economy, not far off the worth of the UK. Imran is now a fixture at fashion shows and glamorous parties around the world. At his own events, fashions A-list line up at the velvet rope desperate to get in. A few days before the Beckham do he hosted the glittering Business of Fashion 500 party in New York, with guests including supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid, Lily Aldridge and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, as well as designer Tommy Hilfiger. Since 2013 this power list of the most influential people in the industry from multimillionaire managing directors to make-up artists and models has grown into an annual party. The 500 is in no particular order so no one appearing on it can take offence. Many of those included appear year after year but Imran is smart enough to know that there have to be surprises. The big bosses in the fashion capitals check it avidly to see if they are on it and, even more satisfyingly, if their rivals arent. And if you arent a shoo-in, it may be worthwhile keeping in with Imran to improve your chances. Although based in London, Imran is just as likely to be spotted in Milan, Paris, Tokyo and Shanghai. He claims to have up to ten meetings every day and to travel 150 days a year. He is most ubiquitous online the daily Business of Fashion newsletter drops into half a million inboxes and is read by all the power players, from CEOs down. In an interview with Vogue, the British handbag designer Anya Hindmarch said, Its the first thing I read every day in bed before I even see my children. Imran was awarded an MBE last year and today he employs nearly 80 people around the world. However, the most convincing proof that he has become a major player is that he now inspires fear. People refuse to comment on the record, even when they have only positive things to say. The knowledge that their bosses are reading The Business of Fashion and that Imran has their direct lines is enough to keep their lips sealed. Imran, of Indian descent, was born in Calgary, Canada in 1975. Having studied at university in Montreal he completed an MBA at Harvard Business School in the USA and moved to London to work for management consultancy McKinsey & Co. After four years he felt he wasnt progressing so left to pursue a career in the fashion industry. He hired himself out as an adviser and set up a fashion consultancy to help young designers find funding. Success wasnt forthcoming, however. To amuse himself Imran created a blog from his bedroom in Notting Hill. The timing was perfect. In 2007 a new digital age was dawning finally, luck was on his side and Imran was savvy enough to see the opportunity. An early stroke of fortune was his friendship with Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet. She had worked at Tatler magazine and from her flat in Chelsea in 2000 started one of the first businesses selling designer fashion online. With the help of her French banker (now ex-) husband Arnaud, Natalie quickly attracted investors and by 2010 she sold her business to giant luxury conglomerate Richemont owner of brands such as Cartier and Dunhill for 50 million. Natalie spotted Imrans potential and with her connections was able to introduce him to investors, giving him, by association, an aura of credibility. In 2013, he had seed money worth more than 1 million from investors including LVMH, owner of Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, plus venture capitalist Index Ventures, which already had stakes in online businesses such as Net-a-Porter and Asos. Imran with Kate Moss, left, and Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet, right, who spotted his potential early on Imrans idea was simple: the clue was in the name. While glossy magazines and celebrities celebrated the glamour of fashion, few focused on the business itself. Imran realised that while designers such as John Galliano and Stella McCartney were feted as celebrities, true power lay beyond the limelight and few people even knew the names of the players. Who are the really clever people, the creative directors or those that hire them? In an age of celebrity, the backroom boys were ready for some attention. His lack of fashion background meant he was a blank page on which the industry could write its own stories Old-school industry newspapers such as Womens Wear Daily and Drapers Record suddenly sounded out of date. The big labels in Milan and Paris, struggling to make sense of this new landscape, were intrigued by Imrans digital business background. As one London-based luxury commentator says, He brought tech to what had been considered a creative industry. His lack of a fashion background meant he was a blank page on which the industry could write its own stories. The strictly suit-and-tie captains of the fashion industry were more comfortable talking to someone with an MBA than a fashion director in a lobster hat. Imrans McKinsey background enabled him to launch his career with a spectacular charm offensive. Not being a trained journalist, initially his online journal largely supplied links to stories from other sources, such as The New York Times and the Financial Times. He didnt report the news, he reported on the reporting of it so could not be held responsible for the views expressed. There is no doubt that Imrans success is based on his hunger to be part of the industry. He has been seduced by the glamour of fashion. Unsurprisingly, success attracts resentment, and rumours abound of increasingly diva-like demands this is a man who, while unfailingly polite in public, takes himself very seriously and is said to expect to be treated accordingly. However, no one will admit to having experienced bad behaviour first-hand. It would make little difference if the stories were true. Fashion loves its monsters, and anecdotes are gleefully swapped. Anyone watching The Devil Wears Prada would conclude that working for American Vogues Anna Wintour was far from a walk in the park, but the thinly disguised fictional account of her outrageous treatment of staff merely burnished her image. One big question about The Business of Fashion is how profitable it is or isnt. In the digital arena finances are far from transparent. The London-based e-commerce company Farfetch is a favourite of the site (Natalie Massenet is co-chairman) and The Business of Fashion gleefully reported that it raised around 680 million when it floated on the New York stock exchange last month, valuing the company at nearly 5 billion, while admitting that it has yet to make a profit. Some believe this is true for Imrans business, too. One anonymous US fashion commentator says, I suspect that it isnt necessarily going to plan for Imran. I think he imagined he would be lying on a tropical beach by now, having sold out for a Louis Vuitton trunkful of cash. So far it hasnt happened. One aspect of Imrans life that is met with great surprise by many is largely due to assumptions about the fashion industry itself. That is, most people take it for granted that he is openly gay. Absolutely not, insists an industry insider who has spent time with him on the international conference circuit. He refuses to confirm either way. His response, with some justification, is that he hasnt time to have a personal life. The hard work has paid off. Back in 2007 when Imran was in his bedroom writing a blog, US Vogue announced its September issue was the biggest magazine ever a feat that became the film The September Issue. Neither Imran nor Anna could have known it, but this was the moment that Nemesis, the goddess in charge of cutting people down to size, licked her lips. The magazines publisher, American Conde Nast, has since plunged into the red and gossip rages about Wintours future. Meanwhile, Imran is planted firmly on the front row and it looks as though he will be there for the foreseeable future. The old-school fashion editors will just have to budge up. Actor and comedian Ben Miller on flat whites, forgetfulness and his fear of being laughed at... Actor and comedian Ben Miller Where is home? A classic Cotswold-stone house in the Gloucestershire hills. Guilty pleasure? My 1980s record collection, which includes music by people such as Peter Gabriel, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Thompson Twins and the Cocteau Twins. Career plan B? A coffee barista with a hipster beard, taking a very long time to make flat whites and espressos. Who would play you in a movie of your life? I hope it would be me, in a mystery called Lost Property in the Cotswolds, playing a detective trying to track down things. Im always losing such as car keys and mobile phones. Biggest bugbear? Someone nabbing a parking space when you are about to go into it. As a child you wanted to be I wavered between Tarzan as played by Johnny Weissmuller and Stan Laurel. Your best quality? My spaniel-like loyalty. And your worst? I can be indecisive about things and the less important something is the more indecisive I am. Most romantic thing youve ever done? On our fourth wedding anniversary last year, when you are supposed to give fruit, my wife Jessica and I bought each other olive trees. Celebrity crush? Its always been Carol Vorderman Last meal on earth? A hamburger or the jerk chicken from Banners a restaurant in Crouch End, North London. Dream dinner-party guests? I would have a round table with Jayne Mansfield, Albert Einstein, Edith Piaf, Stephen Fry, Marie Curie, me and Jessica. Advice to teenage self? The things that you are worrying about now wont turn out to be important. Cat or dog? Dog, definitely I have a wheaten terrier called Ruby. What do you see when you look in the mirror? Salvador Dali, as I have been furnished with the most monumental Dali-esque moustache to help promote the Movember Foundations annual Grow a Mo campaign that raises funds for mens health. Starstruck moment? Meeting Paul McCartney backstage at a Steve Coogan show at the Hammersmith Apollo. I was really into the Beatles as a teenager and was so overwhelmed that all I managed to say was, Hi. Big break? Meeting my comedy partner Alexander Armstrong. Career highlight? Doing a sketch with Alexander and John Simm at the Royal Variety Performance in 2008. Favourite tipple? A double espresso with hot milk on the side. Im obsessed with coffee. Top of your bucket list? To visit China. One thing that would make your life better? A better short-term memory. Philosophy? Life is a mystery, youve just got to go with it. Biggest lesson you have learned about money? Mr Micawber in Charles Dickenss David Copperfield got it right when he said happiness comes from income exceeding expenditure, and misery from expenditure exceeding income. First record you bought? Wild West Hero by the Electric Light Orchestra. Best present you ever received? A Spanish guitar from my parents when I was about 12. I began playing then and I still do. Biggest fear? Strangely enough, being laughed at. Probably one of the reasons I became a comedian is that you get a chance to control when people laugh at you. Happiness is... That moment of balance as you swing from one emotional extreme to another. Celebrity crush? Its always been Carol Vorderman. Colour? Turn it up. Pattern? The busier the better. Humour? Make us smile! These fun-filled ideas, taken from a new book, show how to give your home a bright and brave update VIVA EL RETRO For Spanish interior designer Patricia Bustos, being bold in her Madrid apartment means combining different eras, ignoring outdated rules about matching and injecting quirkiness into all of her projects. 1960s California meets 80s Scandi in this fabulously OTT room. The chairs, by Norwegian designer Terje Ekstrom, along with the bamboo tiki bar and the neon Oh La La!! light designed by Patricia, can all be filed under the so wrong its right category. For a similar neon wall light, try rockettstgeorge.co.uk An eye-catching oversized antique light makes a statement in the dining area. Patricia loves to scour vintage stores and markets in Madrid and all over Europe. The rug is by Kelly Wearstler for The Rug Company (therugcompany.com) Patricia designed the pink velvet sofa and the leopard-print fronted cabinets she works with local craftsmen on special orders for clients and sometimes keeps the samples. The wall sconce is from Alfies Antique Market (alfiesantiques.com) The master bedroom is calmer, with one wall covered in pale geometric wallpaper by Casamance (casamance.com) and white bedlinen. A mustard throw, custom-made cushions and pink lion print by artist Paul Fuentes (paulfuentesdesign.com) add flashes of colour SHOP THE LOOK PALM TREE FLOOR LAMP, 1,025, audenza.com NEON FLAMINGO LIGHT, 195, padlifestyle.com AUDREY HEPBURN PRINT (60cm x 80cm), 180, surfaceview.co.uk RUG (1.52m x 91cm), 1,729, therugcompany.com MILD MEETS WILD Dutch designer Pien Essinks townhouse demonstrates how a bold home can have a neutral backdrop enlivened with dashes of strong colour and daring furniture. The clean lines of the kitchen are brought to life with a changing display of childrens artwork. The stools are second-hand, cut down to fit the counter height. The decanter pendant lights are by leebroom.com Pien wanted her young son Kees to be surrounded by things that ignited his imagination. She designed this wall mural for him. For a selection of bespoke wall murals for children, try mrperswall.co.uk The 1940s Gispen table was inherited from Piens grandmother. The leather dining chairs are by Dutch brand Jess Design (jessdesign.com), and the copper pendant lights are by Tom Dixon (tomdixon.net) SHOP THE LOOK PENDANT LIGHT, 155, nest.co.uk FAUX SKULL, 38, Wall Charmers, etsy.com HOT SHOTS OF COLOUR This Victorian terraced house on a quiet street in West London has seen a lot of changes. Rachel and Chris Roberts, with their young family, have made it their own, redesigning it from top to bottom with the help of Office S&M, an architectural firm commissioned to create a stylish, child-friendly home (officesandm.com) The upholstered banquette seating lifts to provide neat storage. A thread of yellow flows through the house from the plant pot to the Santorini wall lights from Sputnik Estudio (estudiosputnik.com) On the top floor, a bedroom was added for the growing family, with three arched windows painted in a sunny yellow shade. The shutters are practical as well as adding a sweet charm. The walls are painted in Farrow & Balls Calamine SHOP THE LOOK ACTS OF DARING DINNER PLATES, 170 for four, melodyrose.co.uk THROW, 240, scp.co.uk Nailfix & Chill Nail Polish Eraser Cream; Le Vernis Nail Colour in Opulence; The Body Shops Almond Nail & Cuticle Manicure Oil I cant say why exactly, but I had rather gone off nail polish. For the past year Ive preferred to keep my nails au naturel on both hands and feet using just The Body Shops Almond Nail & Cuticle Manicure Oil pen (8, thebodyshop.com) to keep them moisturised and looking healthy. So when news that the leading session manicurist Ama Quashie was opening her own nail salon (amathesalon.com) and was steering clear of acrylics, I was keen to know more. Based in Brixton, South London, where she and her business partner Latoyah Lovatt grew up, the salon has a community feel a long bench serves as the mani station to encourage customer interaction, a bit like a communal dining table. As for the menu, the focus is, says Ama, on natural nails; amplifying and making people fall in love with what they were born with. So theres a naked nail treatment, for both men and women, to give nails and hands an MOT. Ama isnt eschewing colour or polish, of course, but her offering includes brands that are as natural as possible: Kure Bazaar for polish and Artistic for soft gel, both of which are free from harsher ingredients. In her own beauty routine she likes to keep it as clean as can be and wanted the same options on offer in her salon. There are other innovations enticing me back to colour. The recently opened Townhouse nail bar (mytownhouse.co.uk), for instance, which treats nail tools with the same sterilising integrity as a hospital treats its surgical instruments. About time, too all those jars of goopy disinfectant that nail tools stand in leave me feeling a bit perturbed. I hope that more nail bars follow their lead. Then Chanels new limited-edition Le Vernis Nail Colour in Opulence (22, chanel.com from Friday) turned my head. Its the shade of gilded chocolate and I love it, almost as much as Nailfix & Chill Nail Polish Eraser Cream (12.95, thisisbeautymart.com), a nourishing, acetone-free formula in a tube. Simply dab it on, rub it in and wipe off to remove polish with no stinky fumes, dry nails or sofa spillage. This is the nail product of dreams. And, just like that, polish feels fresh again. WHY TITANIUM TOOLS RULE Meanwhile, new British brand Navy is out to upgrade the make-up tool category think tweezers and everything for brows and lashes, as well as nail care. Theyre elegant gold pieces not real gold but surgical-grade steel coated in titanium and all made in Sheffield. Why titanium? Because bacteria cant adhere to its surface and its more durable than steel. The tools were designed, says founder and former salon owner Rebecca Crawforth, for the hygiene-conscious consumer and the beauty professional and come with a five-year guarantee. I cant recommend them highly enough. From 26, navyprofessional.com. BACK - AND EVEN BETTER... Topshop Beauty has relaunched. Now housed in chic but any-age-appropriate black packaging (or rose gold for the Glow Liquid Highlighters, above, 15 each), most products have been given a technology upgrade, but old favourite shades such as the Matte Lipstick in Rio Rio (10) have returned. I love the new Ultra-Matte Lip Crayons (in Comment, 10), which Im told replaced the lip-to-cheek pots and work as well as anything twice the price. The whole range costs between 5 and 16; topshop.com. Advertisement It's the quintessential Australian road trip - driving along dusty roads in a 4WD while taking in the spectacular scenery of the Outback. Holden have compiled a list of tips to ensure even the most inexperienced driver can negotiate the challenging terrain while hitting the road. The checklist will help anyone looking to head out for a summer road trip, such as those ploughing through thick silt while ducking in and out of spectacular abandoned mines in Coober Pedy, South Australia. Ploughing through thick silt while ducking in and out of spectacular abandoned mines in Australia's rugged Outback with ease proved Holden's new and improved Colorado can turn even the most inexperienced 4WD user into an expert Holden specialist engineer Henry Weinlich said checking tyre pressure was an important part of a successful road trip 'Tyre condition is critical due to loading conditions likely to be encountered on rough, unsealed road sections,' he said Coober Pedy is the opal capital of Australia, and provides a welcome relief for anyone looking to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. The breathtaking Breakaways are a perfect spot for lunch and some social media opportunities taking photos of the incredible open space showing red dirt right up to the horizon. For the everyman driver looking to head out on their own Outback adventure, it is recommended motorists take heed of a few crucial tips. Holden specialist engineer Henry Weinlich said checking tyre pressure was an important part of a successful road trip. Mr Weinlich also said it was important to come up with a fuel plan before setting off on an Outback adventure Driving on terrain such as that encountered on the outskirts of Coober Pedy meant the grip levels were another important consideration Travelling in a convoy was also a safeguard against getting stranded without supplies 'Tyre condition is critical due to loading conditions likely to be encountered on rough, unsealed road sections,' he said. Holden's top tips for Outback driving 1. Check your tyres and decrease their pressure 2. Refuel 3. Stock up and ensure you travel as a group 4. Check safety of trailers 5. Think about your grip levels Advertisement 'If you intend to travel on rough roads, consider fitting all terrain accessory tyres for improved traction and durability. Don't forget to check you've got spare tyres in good condition too. 'Depending on planned routes or roads, lowering tyre pressures can provide increased traction, vehicle control and durability.' Mr Weinlich also said it was important to come up with a fuel plan before setting off. 'Your fuel plan is critical. Driving off road will consume more fuel per kilometre and must be taken into account, especially for remote areas,' he said. Travelling in a convoy was also a safeguard against getting stranded without supplies. 'Surface grip can immediately change for any given road, caused by loose gravel, corrugated roads, wet patches surface condition as well as crests which all reduce tyre grip,' Mr Weinlich said 'As far as practicality, travel as a group with extra water for everyone, so you have backup available if needed,' Mr Weinlich said. Driving on terrain such as that encountered on the outskirts of Coober Pedy meant the grip levels were another important consideration. 'Surface grip can immediately change for any given road, caused by loose gravel, corrugated roads, wet patches surface condition as well as crests which all reduce tyre grip,' Mr Weinlich said. 'For this reason, ensure you've got traction controls and switch-on-the-fly in your vehicle. 'Holden Colorado offers switch-on-the-fly between 2WD and 4WD offering drivers extra piece of mind.' An extraordinary series of juvenile tweets from Paul Barry's Media Watch team has exposed the rampant bias plaguing the taxpayer-funded ABC program. While Media Watch champions itself as a fair and balanced industry watchdog, these public tweets reveal a culture of professional snobbery and a complete lack of impartiality - in clear breach of the national broadcaster's charter. Under the ABC act, Media Watch is supposed to gather and present news and information that is 'accurate and impartial according to the recognised standards of objective journalism'. But you need to go no further than the tweets of the Media Watch 'story editor' Jason Whittaker to see that those who work on the show do not consider it necessary to be impartial or abide by the show's own guidelines. An extraordinary series of juvenile tweets from Paul Barry's 'fair and balanced' Media Watch team has exposed the rampant bias plaguing the taxpayer-funded ABC program Muppet: Media Watch 'story editor' Jason Whittaker has done nothing much with his career other than navel gaze and sneer about media and journalism from the safely protected world of political website Crikey and the ABC In a string of offensive tweets by Mr Whittaker, he describes the Mail as the 'festering boil on the arse of Australian media', a 'skidmark' on the industry and repeatedly refers to its talented, hardworking journalists as 'sewer rats'. This comes from a man who has done little with his career other than navel gaze and sneer about media and journalism from the safely protected world of the political website Crikey and the ABC. Media Watch executive producer Tim Latham offers an extraordinary defence of Whittaker's tweets, claiming: 'Jason Whittaker's twitter account represents his personal views and not the view of this program.' Media Watch 'story editor' Jason Whittaker makes clear his biased views on Daily Mail Australia Whittaker rants about Daily Mail Australia while working for a supposedly impartial program Even Paul Barry tweets abuse at the Daily Mail despite leading a supposedly fair and balanced ABC program Are these the sorts of juvenile attacks we should expect from a taxpayer-funded program that claims to be an independent watchdog of Australian media? What they do confirm is a culture of bias against digital media and particularly Daily Mail Australia, led by the program's wilting host Paul Barry, who is openly disdainful of the Mail and regularly labels it a 'disgrace'. From you, Mr Barry, we take that as a compliment. Barry, who is paid more than $200,000 a year for his 15-minute-a-week show and lives in a palatial eastern suburbs home, loves to take the high moral ground but is blind to the incredible failings of his own operation. In an extraordinary move, the program took to Twitter last Wednesday to publicly tout for complaints against Daily Mail Australia ahead of a planned hatchet job on the publication on Monday night - effectively outsourcing the job for which the show is handsomely paid by every taxpayer in this country to do. In a pinned tweet, Media Watch asked journalists to provide examples of stories that had been followed up or rewritten by the Mail - a standard industry practice that has been operating for as long as media has existed. Walkley Award-winning journalist says he has only been 'ripped of' by the ABC and Guardian The so-called watchdog boldly declared it was planning to 'take them (Daily Mail Australia) on'. Seriously? Is this what Mr Barry and his so-called independent team consider 'impartial, accurate and objective'? All it does is point to a program that has lost its way, with a snobby, outdated view of what constitutes 'news' and a growing reputation for chasing a pre-determined outcome. Media Watch has been also contacting former Mail journalists by text message and email inviting them to describe how our newsroom operates. One irate former Mail journalist described the entire Media Watch planned hatchet job this way: 'How unprofessional' John Griffiths reckons Fairfax Media has 'ripped' his work more 'shamelessly' than the Mail 'I was absolutely furious to be contacted by a Media Watch staffer to "dish dirt" on Daily Mail Australia,' they said. 'In my newsroom now, they watch Daily Mail Australia like hawks, and are always running over to say "the Daily Mail has this or that story, we need it now".' At Daily Mail Australia we are not ashamed of the way we operate. Do we break exclusive stories? Yes, every day. Do we hire young journalists, give them the best training in the industry and send them on placements to cover stories around the world? Yes. And like any other media organisation, do we follow up stories and chase our own angles to cater for our massively growing readership? Of course we do. Eden Vedder wants to know why the ABC outsources its journalism to make its work easier So it stings of hypocrisy when the ABC singles out us for supposedly stealing content when we are no different to the rest of the Australian media market. Even the lazy callout for dirt on Daily Mail Australia resulted in some unexpected feedback for Barry and his team, with Walkley-winning journalist Michael West quick to point out he had only ever had his work taken by the ABC, the Guardian and the Australian Financial Review - without any attribution at all. Similiarly, John Griffiths responded: 'To be honest Fairfax ripped my work more shamelessly than the Mail'. Others were quick to highlight that News Corp also follows up stories that other websites have published, including Daily Mail Australia. One response, in particular, drew attention to the rank hypocrisy of Media Watch. 'So let me get this right, you are asking others for examples of where someone took their work to make it easier - all so you can make your work easier. Fantastic irony', wrote Eden Vedder. Daily Mail Australia has no problem with other journalists following up its stories. And we are not here to call out the practices of other hard-working journalists or the organisations they represent. The world has changed but Media Watch has failed to move with the times, and it shows. Nobel Prize winners from across the globe are calling for the immediate release of a jailed photojournalist who has been 'abducted, abused' and jailed in Bangladesh. Visiting professor at Sunderland University Shahidul Alam is being held in the country, accused of 'spreading false information' after he reported on a protest. Richard Branson, Desmond Tutu and Sharon Stone are among the luminaries lining up to demand the release of the renowned photographer, who told a court he has been 'tortured'. Mr Alam's family in London told MailOnline after being snatched from his home in Dhaka, Mr Alam, 63, is sick and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress symptoms, as well as vertigo and chronic pain. After he was refused the chance to apply for bail on Thursday, his family also revealed he has been refused medical attention and legal representation as they fear they will 'never see him again'. Shahidul Alam, 63, has been 'tortured' in custody and threatened with waterboarding according to his statements Renowned photographer and human rights activist Shahidul Alam embracing a Rohingya child during an assignment Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Wales, Alfonso Cuaron, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Arundhati Roy, are among 12 Nobel laureates attempting to stop him being sentenced to 14 years behind bars. 'We the undersigned raise our joint voice against arbitrary police remand under the draconian ICT Act against Dr Shahidul Alam,' they said in a statement. The Government of Bangladesh claims Mr Alam spread 'false information' contrary to Section 57 of Bangladesh's Information and Communication Technology Act (ICT). Mr Alam was arrested hours after he documented a protest held by Bangladeshi students over the state of the roads in the country, on August 5, after two children were killed by a speeding bus. As well as taking photos of the protesters, the award winning photographer spoke on Facebook Live and was interviewed about the angry uprising at which his equipment was 'smashed by government heavies'. Despite the threats he criticised the government's handling of the demonstrations. He said the actions stemmed from anger about widespread government corruption in an interview with Al Jazeera. Hours later, he was abducted from his home, handcuffed and gagged by 30 officers and charged, his family revealed. If convicted, he could serve up to 14 years in prison. Mr Alam has been held since August 5 and is not being given the chance to fight his case due to delays and deferrals His niece Sofia Karim from Ealing, London, said she feels 'justice has collapsed'. She said: 'He was in his flat when he was taken by more than 30 plain clothes men. They presented a girl to the flat to pose as a student so that he opened the door. 'They restrained the security guard and masked the CCTV. 'My aunt was in a friend's flat and she heard him scream. She said it sounded like somebody was being murdered. She knew it was him and that something was terribly wrong. 'When they got to the flat he was gone. He was taken into the detective branch. My aunt and family and friends waited all night and were not told a thing.' Mr Alam told relatives and the court he was tortured in custody. He said he had been made to walk up and down flights of stairs while blindfolded with his hands handcuffed behind his back and a heavy object placed on his head. He was repeatedly punched on the face, threatened with water boarding, and with his partner being picked up for questioning, and with 'pins being used the next time, relatives claimed. 'When he got to court he shouted out to the press 'I've been hit. My bloodstained panjabi [tunic] was washed and I was made to wear it again'. He also said he had been denied legal representation,' Ms Karim added. 'We know only what he was able to tell the court I am sure there is much more.' Last month, Mr Alam was awarded the prize known as the 'Oscar of photography' the Lucie Humanintarian Award, yet he had to be informed of his win as he sits in jail. Mr Alam is visited for just thirty minutes, once a week, by his wife Rahnuma Ahmed. He is still unable to eat bread without softening it in dhal because of the chronic pain. Who has joined the calls for the release of Shahidul Alam? Nobel laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu Sharon Stone Sir Richard Branson Jimmy Wales Alfonso Cuaron Noam Chomsky Naomi Klein Arundhati Roy Patrick Farrell Graciela Iturbide UK arts & culture open letter signed by: Anish Kapoor (Artist) Akram Khan (Choreographer and Dancer) Antony Gormley (Artist) Ben Okri (Poet and Novelist) Brett Rogers (Director, The Photographers' Gallery) Bob and Roberta Smith - RA, OBE (Artist) Charlie Brooker (Writer and Producer) David (Lord) Puttnam (Educationalist and Filmmaker) Dame Emma Thompson (Actor) Frances Morris (Director, Tate) Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director, Serpentine Gallery) Sir John Leighton (Director, National Galleries of Scotland) Lubaina Himid (Artist) Maria Balshaw CBE (Director, Tate) Mark Wallinger (Artist) Martin Parr (Photographer and Photojournalist) Nicholas Cullinan (Director, National Portrait Gallery) Nicholas Serota (Chair of Arts Council England) Steve McQueen (Artist and film director) Sir Terence Conran (Designer, restaurateur and retailer) Advertisement Mr Alam is being put under huge mental stress as his hearings are 'delayed and deferred' his family told MailOnline. Mr Alam started his career in London after studying for a PHD. He spent his university years in Liverpool where he also passed five A-Levels in five months. Now, he frequently returns as a visiting professor. His family in the UK fear they may never see him again. 'I really feel bad for my mum she is 72 and he is her only living sibling,' Ms Karim added. 'He is her little brother. He came to London all the time and she was always driving him to the airport 'I think she is secretly afraid she will never see him again. She's not sleeping now. 'They are both very strong people. 'I also worry about the safety of my family in Bangladesh. The government is picking everyone up now. It is draconian. 'Journalists are being persecuted more and more.' The campaign for his release has gone global with protests being held in the US, Peru, Australia, Nepal and Mexico. In the US a plane was flown over the Statue of Liberty with the banner: 'Free Shahidul'. Last month, images from Alam's Crossfire series (2010), portraying extrajudicial killings committed by the Bangladeshi state were displayed in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in a show of solidarity by Tania Bruguera herself once detained by the Cuban government. Alam's bail petition has been pending with the High Court since 27 August, and was again dropped from the High Court list on Thursday. His lawyers argue the Bangladeshi government regularly monitors all broadcasts and keeps all the transcripts. Lawyer Sara Hossain also arguing that a decision on Alam's fate should be made as soon as possible. Another member of his legal team, Jyotirmoy Barua told AFP that Alam's continued detention was illegal. He said: 'We are very unhappy. There is no justification for detaining a person without trial for three months.' Richard Branson (left) and Sharon Stone (right) are among the celebrities who have demanded the release of the 63-year-old journalist Laureates and dignitaries from around the world have called for the release of the photojournalist (pictured) who began his career in London Barua said the actions of the government were 'a clear violation' of Alam's rights under the Bangladeshi constitution. He was arrested after he appeared on Al Jazeera describing the regime as an 'unelected government... hanging on by brute force'. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, used her first statement to raise the attacks and arrests of journalists in Bangladesh. In recent weeks, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been accused of stifling dissent further by ratifying a controversial new digital security law. A prominent critic of the government was arrested for defamation last month days after he helped form an opposition coalition. Thomas Hughes, executive director of Article 19 which campaigns for freedom of expression said: 'Journalists around the world are assaulted and killed for exposing corruption, holding governments to account or simply expressing their opinions or beliefs. The perpetrators of these crimes largely go unpunished, whether they are state-sponsored actors, organised criminals or religious extremists. 'Today, we call for an end to violence against journalists but also an end to political rhetoric that denigrates the media, dehumanises journalists and makes the environment they work in more dangerous.' Labour MP Tulip Siddiq is the niece of current Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina. She told MailOnline: 'I have raised the concerning case of Shahidul Alam with Foreign Office (FCO) Ministers and have addressed the case publicly. 'I have been clear in my remarks - saying that I find the case deeply distressing and that I believe Mr. Alams detention should end immediately. 'I have also been clear that I believe Bangladesh must uphold international standards of justice in treating its own citizens. 'I make regular representations to the FCO on behalf of my constituents, raising issues concerning a wide range of international affairs. 'This includes Bangladesh, which remains a human rights priority country for British Foreign Office Ministers.' Bangladeshi police deny ever assaulting Mr Alam. The grandfather of murdered schoolgirl Ellie Butler has today demanded an apology from the family judge who sent her back to the father who would kill her a year later. Her maternal grandfather Neal Gray is also calling for an inquiry into the decisions that led to the six-year-old being beaten to death by Ben Butler, 39 in 2013. Mr Gray says his only reason to live is to get justice for his beloved granddaughter, who he believes would be alive today if it wasn't for Mrs Justice Hogg's decision in 2012. Ellie had lived with him and her grandmother Linda after she was shaken as a newborn - but was handed back after her manipulative and violent father convinced the judge it was an accident. A letter he has written to the judge, revealed in a new documentary about her death to be broadcast this, says: 'Justice Hogg. To say that Ellie's death has caused complete and utter devastation to us is an understatement. Ellie was our shining light. She was a beautiful, bubbly, intelligent little girl who always had a smile on her face. 'It would be helpful if you acknowledge our pain and anguish, to support the need for an inquiry and simply say sorry'. Ellie Butler's maternal grandfather Neal Gray has written to the judge who ordered her back to her parents a year before she was beaten to death in a cruelty case that shocked Britain Ben Butler had Ellie (pictured in his arms) taken away at six weeks after she was apparently shaken and put into care - only to be returned to him later Butler was jailed for 23 years in 2016 and her mother Jennie Gray was convicted of perverting the course of justice for trying to cover it up and jailed for 42 monts Ellie was found dead on her bedroom floor in October 2013 with 'catastrophic head injuries' compared to car crash victim and her father was jailed for 23 years in 2016. Her mother Jennie Gray was convicted of perverting the course of justice after trying to 'cover-up' to protect Ellie's father, Ben Butler and jailed for 42 months. Mrs Justice Hogg returned the child to Ben Butler in 2012 despite objections from police, social services and Neal Gray, who warned her she would have 'blood on her hands' In a special episode of Britain's Darkest Taboos, a documentary exclusive to Crime + Investigation, her grandfather Neal described seeing Ellie's body. He said: 'She looked like a little baby. I told her that I loved her and that I would miss her. I couldn't hold her but I am pleased I had the chance to say goodbye'. His wife Linda would die on the first day of Butler's murder trial and says he has 'nothing left'. He said: 'I feel I have betrayed her by letting her go [back to her parents]. People say I am silly but I still feel I betrayed her'. He added: 'I have to fight for justice for her'. A year earlier she was handed back to her parents by Mrs Justice Hogg despite objections from police, social services and Neal Gray, who believed Ellie should stay with him. She signed off her 2012 judgement saying: 'It is seldom that I see a 'happy end' in public law proceedings. It is a joy for me to oversee the return of a child to her parents.'. A year later she was murdered at home by her abusive, controlling and violent father. Ellie would also suffer injuries like this black eye and an injured shoulder in the months before she was beaten to death Her grandfather says he feels he has let his granddaughter down and wants justice for her in the form of a full inquiry into the mistakes that led to her being handed back to Ben Butler Ellie's tragic story began in 2009 when Butler had taken her to St Helier Hospital in south London with serious head injuries when she was just six weeks old. Doctors quickly diagnosed bleeding on the brain, bleeding in the eye and swelling of brain tissue - all indicators of a deliberately shaken baby. Butler's excuses: How Ellie's father tried to blame Peppa Pig and a Jack Russell for her injuries Ben Butler caused Ellie Butler's horrific injuries by hitting her over the head with a blunt object or flinging her against a hard surface, according to the jurors' verdict. Here are some of the alternative scenarios put forward as Butler desperately tried to avoid responsibility: Peppa Pig. Butler's defence team suggested the children's DVD was playing in Ellie's bedroom. They said Ellie could have copied the cartoon character who jumps in puddles. In the 999 call, Butler says Ellie has 'fallen down'. Minnie the Jack Russell puppy. Butler said he was convinced Ellie suffered her head injury around October 10 or 11 when she fell chasing Minnie on the stairs. He suggested this injury caused her later death on October 28. Pink Disney Princess child's stool. The 24in high three-legged chair was found upturned by Ellie's body. A defence expert suggested it was possible for her to fall from such a height and suffer a fatal injury - but not two. The prosecution said the scene had been staged. Butler claimed Ellie was physically more fragile than other children. He alleged she had a skull fracture while in the care of others, including her maternal grandparents. A medical expert could not say how old the fracture was. The police. Butler accused investigators of trying to frame him as he had embarrassed them by winning his appeal over the 2007 baby-shaking case. However, Detective Inspector Dave Reid rubbished Butler's claim, saying the evidence against him was 'overwhelming'. Medical bias. Butler ranted about the 'medical Mafia', saying the establishment was set against him. Advertisement The little girl was also found with burn injuries on her forehead and hand, which Butler claimed were the result of her rolling off a pillow and hitting a radiator while he was looking after her. Police investigated and the couple were arrested. But although Gray was later told she faced no further action, Butler was convicted in March 2009 at Croydon Crown Court of grievous bodily harm and cruelty. Almost immediately after being sentenced to 18 months behind bars, Butler launched an appeal. Three months later, he was released so he could fight his case, which was based largely on the findings of the second team of medics. The conviction was quashed in 2010, with Lord Justice Moses criticising the original trial judge for failing to properly explain to the jury that Ellie had made a full recovery. After Butler's victory, his confidence grew. By this point, Ellie had been taken into the care of the London Borough of Sutton before being placed with her maternal grandparents. Butler was only allowed supervised access to Ellie for two hours, twice a year, at a social services contact centre, while Gray was only allowed access six times a year, because of her continual support of her abusive husband. The pair then fought an audacious and very public battle to win back their little girl. In a series of interviews about their alleged ordeal, they lambasted officials for 'stealing' their child without any justification. It then led to the the family courts where in October 2012 Mrs Justice Hogg made court order exhonerating Butler and Gray and returning Ellie to their care. At the time, Mr Gray, who had cared for Ellie since she was a baby, warned the judge she would have 'blood on her hands'. After Ellie was returned to her parents she suffered a series of bumps to the head which the couple put down to 'clumsiness' and falling on the stairs. In October 2013, she broke her shoulder bone but neither Butler nor Gray sought medical treatment for her. And weeks later she was murdered in an 'extreme' and 'catastrophic' beating Butler had claimed Ellie sustained the horrific injuries when she hit her head as she was jumping up and down in her bedroom while watching Peppa Pig. But prosecutors insisted Ellie's injuries were too 'extreme' and 'catastrophic' to have been caused by an accidental fall. The back of Ellie's head was a 'boggy mass', the court heard, and a post-mortem examination attributed her death to Butler either beating her over the head with a heavy object or throwing her against the floor or wall. Britain's' Darkest Taboos: Ellie Butler will be broadcast on Crime+ Investigation on Monday November 12 at 9pm. A new documentary had new footage of Ellie as a baby after she was taken into the loving care of her grandparents Ellie was taken away from her grandparents in 2012 and within a year she had been murdered A four-year-old girl has reportedly been gang-raped by a nurse and four other people while being treated in an intensive care unit for a snake bite. The girl was attacked while alone in hospital near Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, India. Local police official Mahesh Srivastava said that the girl told her grandmother she was raped by a hospital attendant and four others on Saturday night. India has been rocked by brutal rape stories in recent years, prompting mass protests and outrage in the country (file photo) He confirmed that one man was in custody and that police were looking for the four others involved. Police have also asked for CCTV footage and are trying to determine why the girl was left alone in the ICU. The officer said that the girl had been in the hospital for four days and was being treated for a snake bite. The hospital is located 250 kilometers southwest of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. India has been rocked by a series of high profile sexual assaults in recent years, including the gang-rape and murder of a student on a moving New Delhi bus in 2012. That attack galvanized a country where widespread violence against women had long been quietly accepted. The government has passed a series of laws increasing punishment for rape of an adult to 20 years in prison and earlier this year approved the death penalty for people convicted of raping children under age 12. However, it's rare for more than a few weeks to pass without another brutal sexual assault being reported. A western Wisconsin community on Sunday was grieving the deaths of three Girl Scouts and a parent who were collecting trash along a rural highway when police say a pickup truck veered off the road and hit them before speeding away. Authorities have not released the names of the girls or the woman who were struck by the truck Saturday in Lake Hallie, or the name of a fourth girl who survived but was in critical condition at a Minnesota hospital. The girls were members of Troop 3055 and were fourth-grade students in nearby Chippewa Falls, which is about 90 miles east of Minneapolis. 'Our hearts are broken for the girls and families of the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes,' CEO Sylvia Acevedo of Girl Scouts of the USA said in a statement Sunday. Girl Scouts sing as hundreds of community members turn out in the rain Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil at Halmstad Elementary School in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. The event was in remembrance of three fourth grade Girl Scouts and a parent who died Saturday They were killed after being struck by a pickup truck while their troop was picking up trash along a rural highway Sherri Jasper, a Girl Scout board member and counselor at Halmstad Elementary School, leads the program for a candlelight vigil at the school Girl Scout Jessica Lauterbach, 12, of Altoona, Wisconsin, attends the vigil on Sunday evening A relative of the adult victim struck and killed by a vehicle Saturday looks at the path he thought the truck took when it veered off Wisconsin County Hwy. P Teddy bears, flowers, and candles were placed on benches outside Halmstad Elementary School in Chippewa Falls as a memorial to the three Girl Scouts and the parent Tire tracks marked with spray paint lead to where a vehicle struck the three girls and the adult 'The Girl Scout Movement everywhere stands with our sister Girl Scouts in Wisconsin to grieve and comfort one another in the wake of this terrible tragedy.' Counselors, faith leaders and trained school staff would be available at least through Monday at two elementary schools, according to Chippewa Falls School District Superintendent Heidi Eliopoulos. 'This is a difficult time for our students, families and staff,' Eliopoulos said in a message to parents. 'We will be providing ongoing support for both students (and) families and staff for as long as needed.' Teddy bears, balloons and candles sat on two wooden benches in front of Halmstad Elementary School on Sunday while dozens of families met inside with faith leaders and counselors. Families did the same at Southview Elementary School, the other school in Chippewa Falls the girls attended, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. 'It's been very nice. There's been a lot of people - it's been a very supportive environment,' said Michelle Golden, human resources director for the school district. Lake Hallie police Sgt. Daniel Sokup said the pickup, a black Ford F-150, crossed a lane and veered into a roadside ditch, striking the victims. Other members of the troop were picking up trash from the opposite shoulder. The 21-year-old driver, Colten Treu of Chippewa Falls, sped off but later surrendered. He will be charged with four counts of homicide, Sokup said. It was unclear Sunday if Treu had an attorney who could speak for him. Police misspelled Treu's first name as 'Colton' in initial news releases. Lake Hallie police Sgt. Daniel Sokup said the pickup, a black Ford F-150, crossed a lane and veered into a roadside ditch, striking the victims. Medical personnel are pictured at the scene on Saturday The driver, identified as 21-year-old Colton Treu, turned himself into police later on Saturday Sokup said it was not immediately known if there were other factors that might have led the driver to leave the road. The Star Tribune reported that the crash happened before a hill and there were no blind spots, and Sokup said it was 'not an unsafe area.' But Cecily Spallees, a personal care attendant at a group home near the crash site, told the newspaper that drivers regularly speed on that stretch of road, which quickly changes from a 55-mph to a 35-mph zone. 'I'm always telling one of my residents that he shouldn't walk this strip at night,' Spallees said. 'It's not safe.' Troop 3055's regional council, the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes, expressed its condolences on Facebook and said a vigil will be held Sunday evening at the girls' school. No longer reluctant to speak out, former President Barack Obama delivered a closing argument for Democrats that seeks a firm check on President Donald Trump's policies in Tuesday's midterm elections. Obama and Trump offered competing visions for the country in a split screen of campaigning on Sunday, seeking to galvanize voter turnout in the fight to control Congress and governors' mansions. Obama rallied Democrats in Gary, Indiana, on behalf of Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly, who faces a stiff challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. Later in the day, the former president campaigned in his hometown of Chicago for businessman J.B. Pritzker, Democrats' nominee for Illinois governor. No longer reluctant to speak out, former President Barack Obama (seen on Sunday rallying for Illinois Democrats in Chicago) delivered a closing argument for Democrats that seeks a firm check on President Donald Trump's policies in Tuesday's midterm elections Obama has taken on a more public role this fall after refraining from offering a full-blown counterpoint to Trump's policies, which have sought to dismantle Obama's legacy. Without invoking his name, Obama has accused Trump of lying and 'fear-mongering' and warned Democrats not to be distracted. Trump has punched back, accusing Obama of leaving behind a trail of broken promises on trade, the economic recovery and a promise during his presidency that patients could keep their doctors under his health care law. Trump headlined Sunday rallies in Macon, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, supporting Republican Brian Kemp, who is running for Georgia governor, and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who is seeking an open Senate seat in Tennessee. Obama praised Donnelly during a rally in northwest Indiana as someone who's honest and direct, telling voters, 'You don't want a "yes" man.' Obama's appearance in Gary was sandwiched between Trump's trips to Indiana on Friday and Monday to help Braun. Donnelly has often sounded far more like Trump than Obama on issues. He angered some Democrats by embracing some of Trump's priorities, including a border wall with Mexico. But he has supported the Affordable Care Act, the health care overhaul signed into law by Obama. The former president told thousands of cheering supporters that he and Donnelly don't always agree. But he said it was more important to elect a senator who will put what's best for his state over his party. Rallying his faithful in Macon, Georgia, Trump praised Kemp as a 'strong man' and 'strong personality' and said Kemp would become a great governor for Georgia. The president assailed Kemp's Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, as 'one of the most extreme far-left politicians in the entire country.' The Georgia race has garnered attention from a list of high-profile backers, including Oprah Winfrey, who campaigned for Abrams last week. Abrams is attempting to become the nation's first black female governor. Trump said Winfrey was a friend of his until he ran for president but he is now urging Georgia voters to listen to his endorsement instead of hers. On Friday, Obama once again took aim at his successor without mentioning him by name. The former president appeared at a rally in Miami to boost the candidacies of Andrew Gillum, who is running for governor, and the incumbent Senator Bill Nelson. Obama and Trump offered competing visions for the country in a split screen of campaigning on Sunday, seeking to galvanize voter turnout in the fight to control Congress and governors' mansions. Trump is seen above at a rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Sunday 'The character of our country is on the ballot,' Obama told the estimated 4,000 people at the rally. 'In the closing weeks of this election, we have seen repeated attempts to divide us with rhetoric designed to make us angry and make us fearful, thats designed to exploit our history of racial and ethnic and religious division, that pits us against one another to make us believe that order will somehow be restored if it just werent for those folks who dont look like we look, or dont love like we love, or pray like we do.' Two days before Obama's Miami appearance, Trump was in Fort Myers, where he was stumping for Ron DeSantis, Gillum's opponent. 'Republicans want strong borders, no crime, no chaos and no caravans,' the president said. 'Democrats want open borders, and they want to invite caravan after caravan into our country, which brings crime upon crime. 'A vote for Democrats is a vote to liquidate America's borders. 'And it's a vote to let meth, fentanyl, heroin, and other deadly drugs pour across our borders, drugs that take the lives of over - think of this - over 70,000 Americans a year.' At a rally in Indianapolis on Friday, Trump referred to Obama as 'Barack H. Obama' without pronouncing his middle name - Hussein. Though instead of pronouncing the middle initial, Trump drew it in the air with his finger. Former Nomads bikie vice president and convicted killer Moudi Tajjour has claimed he is 'out of retirement' while sharing a picture of him being arrested 'with the boys'. Describing the shot taken by officers from the elite police unit Strike Force Raptor as a 'great pic', the Instagram post late on Sunday night appeared to signal his return to the Nomads MC as well as send a mocking message to New South Wales police. Tajjour was barely a teenager when he became the youngest ever member of the Nomads MC in the late 1990s - having left school in Year 8. Former Nomads bikie vice president and convicted killer Moudi Tajjour has claimed he is 'out of retirement' while sharing a picture of him being arrested 'with the boys' Posting under the username cant_fight_fate, Tajjour said: 'lmao wen I was arrested with few da boys.' 'Great pic though - IM OUTA RETIREMENT AND I AM BACK - NOMADS MC.' Since then the man who claimed earlier this year the hard-knocks aspect of the Nomads had given way to anyone with 'a bit of coin' has served four years in prison for manslaughter. Tajjour has made headlines in recent months for his volatile marriage to Sanaa Mehajer, the younger sister of Salim. The pair have since split and Ms Mehajer has an AVO against him. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia in April, Tajjour said he had turned away from the bikie world in order to run his wedding motorcycle escort and consulting companies. But despite claiming he had given up his club colours the ex-bikie vice boss has now admitted to being one of the gang members lying face down on the ground in the image released by Raptor South in June. Posting under the username cant_fight_fate, Tajjour said: 'lmao wen I was arrested with few da boys.' 'Great pic though - IM OUTA RETIREMENT AND I AM BACK - NOMADS MC.' Tajjour (right) has made headlines in recent months for his volatile marriage to Sanaa Mehajer (left), the younger sister of Salim. The pair have since split and Ms Mehajer has an AVO against him Tajjour (left) was barely a teenager when he became the youngest ever member of the Nomads MC in the late 1990s - having left school in Year 8 The image was one of those released by Raptor South to publicise the beginning of a police crackdown on growing gang-related violence in regional New South Wales. Between April and June, elite police squads were on the ground in Woolongong to hone in on feuding bikie gangs. In just two months, Raptor South arrested eight people, laid more than 40 charges and conducted almost 20 operations, Assistant Commissioner Barrie said. The operation also seized tens of thousands of dollars in drugs and illicit cash, and took almost 20 prohibited weapons off the streets of southern NSW The State Crime Command's Criminal Groups Squad officially launched 'Raptor South' in June to have a full-time presence in the Illawarra region and stamp out growing criminal gang activity. Since then the man who claimed earlier this year the hard-knocks aspect of the Nomads had given way to anyone with 'a bit of coin' has served four years in prison for manslaughter Investigators have retrieved hours of data from the flight recorder of the Lion Air jet that mysteriously fell from the sky and killed 189 people. Indonesian authorities have extended the search at sea for victims and debris after 69 hours of flight data was downloaded from the recorder, including its fatal flight. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet crashed just minutes after taking off from Jakarta on October 29, in the country's worst airline disaster since 1997. Divers found the black box on Thursday in a damaged condition and investigators said it required special handling to retrieve the information. Investigators have retrieved hours of data from the flight recorder (pictured) of the Lion Air jet that mysteriously fell from the sky and killed 189 people Divers found the black box on Thursday in a damaged condition and investigators said it required special handling to retrieve the information Indonesian authorities have extended the search at sea for victims and debris after 69 hours of flight data was downloaded from the recorder, including its fatal flight Another box, the voice recorder that was located in the cockpit, is yet to be discovered. Divers are searching in the same area that the first box was found as they have a weak locator signal. The second black box is believed to be just 50 metres from the main search area, where the water is only 30 metres deep, but ocean currents and mud on the sea bed is complicating search efforts. The search operation is now in its seventh day and with hundreds of people and dozens of ships assisting. National Search and Rescue Agency chief Muhammad Syaugi said the search is planned to continue for another three days. More than 100 body bags of human remains have been pulled from the water, with the number expected to rise as remains were now washing up on land. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet crashed just minutes after taking off from Jakarta on October 29, in the country's worst airline disaster since 1997 Divers are searching in the same area that the first box was found as they have a weak locator signal National Search and Rescue Agency chief Muhammad Syaugi said the search is planned to continue for another three days The body bags have been handed over to police for forensic identification, yet only 14 victims have been identified so far. 'From here we will analyse what happened to that flight,' head of Indonesia's transportation safety committee Nurcahyo Utomo told reporters. Analysis of the remains found so far is due to being on Monday, with information being passed to police if required. The night before the fatal crash, the same aircraft had erratic speed and altitude issues during a flight from Bali to Jakarta. The pilot made a radio alert to turn back to Bali just minutes into the flight, however was able to overcome the problem and landed safely in Jakarta. He made a radio alert to turn back to Bali just minutes into the flight, however was able to overcome the problem, Mr Herson told Reuters (Navy officers unload wreckage) The two-month-old Lion Air jet (pictured) had suffered engine trouble the day before it crashed and killed 189 people Passengers on the aircraft's second last journey recalled a bumpy flight which was delayed by two hours, including 30 minutes spent waiting in the cabin in the heat. Travellers noted an 'unusual' rumbling coming from the engine and a 'roller coaster'-like flight, which combined with the heat caused some people to become ill. Hours later, the pilot of flight JT610 issued an alert to turn back to Jakarta moments after taking off, and received permission, but the plane plunged into the Java Sea and killed everyone on board. Lion Air confirmed the plane suffered a technical issue on Sunday, but stated it had been 'resolved according to procedure'. The Lion Air crash is the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since 1997, when 234 people died on a Garuda flight near Medan. More than 100 body bags of human remains have been pulled from the water, with the number expected to rise as remains were now washing up on land The east coast of Australia is expected to battle high temperatures and humid conditions for two more days before a cold front moves in. South-east Queensland is anticipated to feel the brunt of the heat, with temperatures nudging towards 40C on Monday and Tuesday. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the temperature in Ipswich, south-east Queensland, will hit 39C on Monday. The Bureau also upgraded their heatwave forecast to 'extreme' for south-east Queensland over the next three days. The east coast of Australia is expected to battle high temperatures and humid conditions for two more days before a cold change travels through According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the temperature in Ipswich, south-east Queensland, will hit 39C on Monday According to the Courier Mail, south-east Queensland has experienced the hottest start to November since 2005. Senior Meteorologist at Weatherzone Jacob Cronje said conditions are expected to be 'uncomfortable' in Queensland in the coming days due to unrelenting humid conditions. 'It looks like for Brisbane itself, the CBD, we are looking at temperatures in the low to mid 30s, each day until Wednesday before cooler weather arrives from the south, that'll also impact New South Wales before that,' he told Daily Mail Australia. Mr Cronje said it would be even hotter in places further inland, such as Archerfield, where it is expected to reach at least 35C. 'Sea breezes will keep the coast slightly cooler but high humidity will make it sweaty,' the bureau said. Adding to the uncomfortable conditions, Mr Cronje said: 'It is an extended spell of heat and with that, evenings are unlikely to cool below 20C.' In 2016, Brisbane had an extended heatwave with seven 30C days in a row, beginning on November 8. 'This is the earliest run in quite a long time,' Mr Cronje said. 'The humidity could make it feel more uncomfortable around the coastal areas.' Senior Meteorologist at Weatherzone Jacob Cronje said the coming days in Queensland will be 'uncomfortable' due to unrelenting humid conditions South-east Queensland is anticipated to reach temperatures nudging towards 40C over the next couple of days The cool change is anticipated to begin on Tuesday night, as cold weather arrives from the south, hitting New South Wales first and arriving in Queensland on Thursday. 'It's dropping temperatures right down from the mid 20s to the low 30s over the Tablelands to 16. So Orange is going to drop to 16 and its minimum temperatures early Thursday morning could be near freezing, 2C at this point,' he said. 'After quite a bit of heat we could see frost again.' Mr Cronje said it would feel particularly cold on Thursday morning for parts of New South Wales, despite clear skies. The cool change is anticipated to begin on Tuesday evening as cold weather arrives from the south, hitting New South Wales first (pictured: Bondi Beach) Mr Cronje said the first proper drop will occur on Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning Mr Cronje said it would feel particularly cold on Thursday morning for parts of New South Wales, despite clear skies Melbourne is expected to have a wet start to the week with showers forecast over the next couple of days. Temperatures in Canberra remain warm until the cold change comes through mid-week, dropping to the low 20s. Perth will experience some sunshine during the middle of the week with pleasant temperatures lingering around the mid-20 mark. Adelaide can expect some showers and temperatures in the low 20s. In Darwin, heat will continue to reach over 30C and a possible shower or storm is forecast each day. Temperatures in Hobart are forecast around the high teens and conditions are expected to be partly cloudy with a shower or two. A woman who is battling breast cancer is trying to track down the author of a life-affirming message in a bottle she found washed up on a beach. Laura Barnard was camping with her boyfriend at North Entrance beach, on the New South Wales Central Coast, on Saturday night when they stumbled across the mysterious bottle. She opened it to discover a heartwarming message written by a five-year-old boy named Flynn earlier this year. A woman battling with breast cancer found a life-affirming message in a bottle washed up on a beach (pictured) Laura Barnard was camping with her boyfriend at North Entrance beach, New South Wales, on Saturday night when they stumbled across the note (pictured) She opened it to discover a heartwarming message written by a five-year-old boy 'My name is Flynn Bettison,' the note read. 'I am sending this message from Shelly Beach Australia. I hope whomever finds my message has a wonderful life.' Ms Bernard was diagnosed with breast cancer in February and has since undergone a tough year of chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. Amid the difficult circumstances, she said that the unique letter brought a smile to her and her boyfriend Mark (pictured) She has just weeks left of the intensive treatment and has been declared cancer-free by doctors, although she will have to wait another three to five years before she enters remission. Amid the difficult circumstances, she said that the unique letter brought a smile to her face and brought comfort to the couple. 'It just touched us so much after what me and Mark have been through this year,' Ms Bernard told Daily Mail Australia. The couple are now looking to track down Flynn so they can send him a message in return. 'We wanted to thank him for putting a smile on our faces,' Ms Barnard said. She took to social media to spread the word of her search, writing on Facebook: 'Please share the post as much as you can so we can find him and hopefully send this little man a card.' A Perth car rental business owner has been sentenced to five years in jail for raping one of his female employees. Guarav Nautiyal, 45, who moved to Australia in 2015 on a skilled migrant visa, also faces deportation back to India after he has served his sentence. The married father-of-two drove the employee to his home in March 2016 after asking her to join him at a work appointment. Nautiyal then raped the woman, who verbally and physically resisted him. The 45-year-old told the District Court of Western Australia (pictured) he believed the sex was consensual, but Judge Amanda Burrows convicted him of two counts of sexual penetration without consent The 45-year-old told the District Court of Western Australia he believed the sex was consensual, but Judge Amanda Burrows convicted him of two counts of sexual penetration without consent, according to the West Australian. Nautiyal sexually harassed the victim on multiple occasions leading up to the incident, the court heard. In a statement, the victim said Nautiyal repeatedly hugged, kissed and touched her inappropriately while at work, leaving her humiliated. 'She had expressly conveyed to you her disinterest in you in a sexual manner,' Judge Burrows said. A witness also recounted Nautiyal's inappropriate touching of the victim at a Christmas party, describing him as 'an octopus'. Nautiyal has been sentenced to five years in jail and faces deportation back to India (stock image) The victim said her confidence had been severely knocked since the attack, adding that she has been suffering from anxiety and panic attacks and been unable to secure another job. 'I was happy, confident, giving and loved life. I could make friends everywhere I went,' she said. 'But now I feel I've lost myself and that can never be found again.' 'I feel I've lost myself': The victim said her confidence had been severely knocked since the attack (stock image) Nautiyal has also been issued with a life-long restraining order, preventing him from contacting the victim again, or going within 100m of her. Nautiyal bought the car rental business in Perth with his brother-in-law and had previously held high-level roles at global banks in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. His wife of 12 years had been in Dubai running her own business when the assault took place. Victorian prisoners are being given barista training and taught how to rap, as part of a taxpayer-funded prison perks program. Meanwhile, frustrated staff are left to fend for themselves in a workplace marked by favouritism, bullying and inadequate security standards. Speaking to The Herald Sun, an anonymous whistleblower said correctional officers at Melbourne Assessment Prison (MAP) and the County Court of Victoria were angry that the standard of care given to prisoners far exceeded that offered to staff. Prisoner officers are angry that criminals are being treated to rap lessons and coffee making classes, while they deal with work place bullying, favouritism and poor security 'They are happy to pay for DJs to come in and teach the prisoners how to rap about raping women, but they aren't prepared to pay the money to make sure two prison officers can escort a prisoner,' the whistleblower said. The whistleblower raised additional examples of the poor conditions endured by staff, including one officer who was racially abused by an inmate, who later also threw semen on a prison guard, and others who were provided plastic bags to cover their shoes and forced to walk through human excrement following a sewerage leak at the country court. And unlike the prisoners, it appears that officers at the County Court do not even have access to washing facilities. 'It is an absolute disgrace. They treat the prisoners better than they treat the staff.' said the source. Unlike prisoners, officers at the County Court of Victoria don't even have access to showers Favouritism and bullying among employees were also a concern, with allegations that some senior staff were involved in sexual relationships with juniors, and allowing their judgement to be clouded as a result. Guards who complained about any perceived injustice, including unfair job promotions, were labelled 'cowards'. Perhaps most worrying, however, were revelations by the whistleblower of a number of unaddressed safety breaches at the MAP and County Court. Some of the issues included use of out out-of-date entry cards to access high security jails by some prison officers, and unarmed prison officers escorting prisoners alone. A Corrections Victoria spokesman defended the barista and rap training programs as practical solutions designed to help prisoners return to the community and find jobs. He also said Corrections Victoria had no evidence to support claims of bullying, favouritism or security concerns. 'We always expect all staff to uphold the highest levels of professionalism and ethics, and provides comprehensive training and education to ensure they are aware of expectations,' the spokesman said. Nonetheless, it is understood that the anti-corruption watchdog Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) has been notified of the issues. However, a spokeswoman said 'For legal reasons, IBAC is unable to comment on this matter.' Kanye West gave a two campaign donations totaling $200,000 to a Chicago Democratic mayoral hopeful, with one before and one after he said he was 'distancing' himself from politics. West, who was previously a vocal supporter of President Trump, flaunting a MAGA hat whenever cameras were rolling in recent months, made an about face on Twitter last week, saying he realized 'I've been used to spread messages I don't believe in.' The hip-hop megastar then emphatically added, 'I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative!!!' State campaign records show West gave $126,460 to Amara Enyia's mayoral campaign, a week after he donated $73,540 and appeared with her for a sidewalk news conference on Chicago's South Side. Scroll for video Chicago mayoral candidate Amara Enyia speaks as Chance the Rapper, center, and Kanye West listen during a rally Tuesday, Oct. 23 in Chicago, after which he donated $73,540 to her campaign After the hip-hop megastar shared he was distancing himself from politics, he donated an additional $126,460, bringing his total contributions to the democrat to $200,000 On October 23 Kanye, along with Chance the Rapper, appeared front and center at a rally for Enyia in Chicago. Other Democrats have questioned Enyia for accepting money from a high-profile Trump supporter. But she's said she appreciates Kanye's backing. On October 11, Kanye had a bizarre, on camera, rambling, expletive laden meeting with Trump in the Oval Office. During Kanye's Twitter announcement that he was leaving politics, he also shared some beliefs that seemed to be in contradiction to Trump's, including supporting common-sense gun laws 'to make our world safer.' He also said he wanted to see 'compassion for people seeking asylum and parents who are fighting to protect their children from violence and war.' It is unclear if the public ridicule Kanye received for his Oval Office appearance had anything specifically to do with his about face. His Twitter announcement suggested he was, however, pressured to break-ties with Trump by his inner circle. Besides tweeting he was breaking from politics and specifically hitting out at some of the president's positions, he shared: 'I would like to thank my family, loved ones, and community for supporting my ACTUAL beliefs and my vision for a better world. Home and Away bad boy Dan Ewing has been slapped with a second apprehended violence order (AVO) in a month, this time involving his ex-wife. Ewing, 33, was ordered by police on Saturday to stay at least 500 metres away from the home of Marni Little, who he separated from in 2015. A friend of Ms Little's told Daily Mail Australia there have been numerous incidents in recent months that led police to order him not to 'stalk, harass or intimidate' his ex-wife. Ewing will face Manly Local Court on Tuesday, November 13, in relation to the latest AVO. It was the second AVO to be taken out against Ewing, after he was first ordered to stay away from Ms Little's new husband David Robertshaw. Former Home and Away star Dan Ewing (left) has had a second apprehended violence order (AVO) taken out against him in less than a week, this time by his ex-wife Marni Little (right) Ewing (pictured) is due to face Manly Local Court on Tuesday in relation to the a different AVO taken out against him by police last weekend after an altercation with Ms Little's new husband David Robertshaw Police issued the AVO after Ewing allegedly assaulted Mr Robertshaw during the custody exchange of his and Ms Little's son, on October 21. That matter is due to be heard in Manly Local Court on Tuesday. It is understood police were called to the handover point at Neutral Bay, on Sydney's north shore, after the actor initially refused to give up custody of his son. The alleged incident between Ewing and Mr Robertshaw occurred as the Home and Away star was dropping off his young son after his regular Saturday night custody. 'Dan was dropping (their son) off to Marni, but Dave went instead because she wasn't feeling well,' the couple's friend Kate Fox said. It's understood that Ewing refused to hand over his son to Mr Robertshaw as Ms Little was not present. After a dispute that lasted close to an hour, an altercation allegedly occurred between the child's father and step-father. It's alleged the most recent AVO against Ewing came after a series of incidents relating to Ms Little (The pair are pictured together during a custody handover of their son) The former 'River Boy' carries his young son to the custody handover with Ms Little In happier times: Ewing and Ms Little smile for a selfie shortly after the birth of their son Ewing (left) allegedly assaulted David Robertshaw (right), the new husband of his ex-wife Marni Little (pictured), during a custody handover on Sydney's north shore on October 21 Police were called to the handover point, at which time the dispute was resolved. Mr Robertshaw then took the young boy and returned to the home he shares with Ms Little. Ms Little and Ewing separated in December 2015, and it is understood the actor now has custody of his son on Wednesday and Saturday nights. The alleged incident came just days before Ms Little and Mr Robertshaw's wedding. The couple tied the knot in an intimate ceremony at Strath Creek, in central Victoria, last Sunday. The incident between Ewing and Mr Robertshaw came just days before Ms Little and Mr Robertshaw married in Victoria (pictured) Ewing and Ms Little were married in 2012 and separated in late-2015 Ms Little last week told New Idea of her excitement over her second wedding. 'I've been Marni Ewing for so long now and just didn't want that identity anymore,' she said. 'Dave is so wonderful with the boy and loves him like his own, so it was only a matter of time before he popped the question.' Ewing made a cryptic social media post on Monday, just hours after his ex-wife had remarried. Sharing a photo to Instagram, his post included a quote that read in part: 'May all the negative energy trying to bring you down come to an end.' Following his split from Ms Little, Ewing (right) began dating actress Kat Risteska (left) in 2016 Ewing (pictured with Ms Risteska and his son) starred on Home and Away for more than a decade as a member of the 'River Boys', before finally departing from the show in 2017 Ewing starred on Home and Away as a member of the troublesome 'River Boys' for more than a decade until his departure from the show in 2017. He has since turned his attention to the big screen, appearing in a number of small-scale local and international movies. In 2016 Ewing began dating actress Kat Risteska. Daily Mail Australia has contacted both Ewing's management and Mr Robertshaw for comment. By Trend The statements of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, voiced during their recent visit to the region, once again showed their lack of initiative in the negotiations to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The co-chairs traditionally noted the importance of maintaining an atmosphere of trust for intensive negotiations to settle the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. International mediators merely confirmed the obvious fact that after the meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, which took place on the sidelines of the CIS summit in Dushanbe in September, the tensions on the contact line of troops decreased noticeably. Indeed, after the meeting of the leaders of the two countries, the tensions on the line of contact decreased. For example, while previously the units of the Armenian armed forces violated the ceasefire 160 or more times during a day, the statistics of recent weeks show that the number of violations does not exceed 30 times per day. But, given that the leadership of Armenia still shies away from substantive negotiations with Azerbaijan, the observed decline in tension is nothing but another attempt by Yerevan to mislead the world community, to show Armenia "as a supporter of peace", not war. To this end, the Armenian prime minister often speaks about Armenias "commitment to peace", saying that the parties should work out mechanisms of trust, and take other security measures. The populist statements of the Armenian PM are of the same declarative nature as the traditional statements of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on the necessity of mutual concessions of the parties. Meanwhile, the immediate task of the co-chairs is to intensify the negotiation process and apply mechanisms of influence on Armenia - the cause of the conflict. As practice shows, the meetings at various political forums to resolve the Karabakh conflict would be more effective if there was a pressure by international mediators (representing the leading powers) on the occupant country - Armenia. As a result, the illegal practice of Yerevan to keep the territories of Azerbaijan under occupation and maintain the status quo unequivocally violates the norms and principles of international law, and this fact should primarily concern the co-chairs, who, according to the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group, have pledged to fulfill their mediation mission in accordance with the international law. It is just the OSCE MG which, as the only and important mediation forum, is obliged to force Armenia to comply with the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the Helsinki Final Act. The co-chairs should intensify the negotiations in this vein in order to achieve positive results in resolving the conflict. Azerbaijan, in turn, is making efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully, and this fact also does not remain beyond the attention of world powers, and in particular the United States. This is noted by senior officials in the US presidential administration and the State Department. For example, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent, during his visit to Baku, said there was progress towards resolving the conflict after the New York meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the Dushanbe meeting of the leaders of the two countries. The fact that the Dushanbe conversation is of great importance for the intensification of the negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was also stated by the former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, former co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza. He noted that this event is a key factor ensuring a certain degree of mutual trust, which gives prerequisites for a breakthrough in negotiations. Azerbaijan, as a party affected by the conflict imposed by Armenia, along with statements by the leading powers supporting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, expects practical steps from the OSCE Minsk Group to intensify the negotiations, and in particular, force Armenia to de-occupy the occupied territories. But the international mediators are passive and, apparently, still untenable, which was confirmed once again by their last visit to 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. A prison guard at Rikers Island is lucky to have escaped serious injury after being violently beaten by an inmate without anyone intervening to help him. Video footage emerged of two men standing chest-to-chest in a common area of the Robert N Davoren Center at the New York facility, when the unidentified inmate shoves the officer and they begin to fight. The clip, obtained by the New York Post, first shows them shuffling around for a couple of seconds. Video shows the two men shuffling around inside the Robert N Davoren Center (left) before the inmate knocks the officer to the ground and hits him (right) The inmate then grabs the officer and slams him to the floor, climbing on top of him and punching his head. He then apparently helps the guard to his feet and hits him. The two men are then seen moving into the hallway while two other inmates observe the fight. The prisoner then lifts a plastic trash can into the air and hurls it at the officer, but it is unclear where it hit him because he was out of the view of the camera. It was not known when the video was shot, but the Department of Correction claimed the incident occurred 'weeks ago'. Correction Officers Benevolent Association President Elias Husamudeen denounced the violence and argued the city needs to hire more prison officers. The footage first shows the two men shuffling around for a few seconds in a common area The officer then looks to be trying to gain control of the inmate with a number of movements The inmate begins to hit the officer in the head as another prison inmate looks on He told the New York Post: This video and others like it are another reminder of why the officer to inmate ratio in the NYC DOC needs to change. Building four new jails is not going to reduce violence as long as Correction Officers remain outnumbered and without the tools they need to maintain law and order.' Jason Kersten, a Department of Correction spokesman added: This inmate was placed into restrictive housing when this occurred weeks ago, and is no longer in our custody. The violent exchange then moves to a hallway, where the unidentified inmate hurls a plastic trash can into the air and throws it at the officer while two other inmates look on It is not clear where the trash can hit the officer but a trail of sludge like liquid can be seen on the ground from the garbage before the inmate runs and the officer comes back into view 'We are using every tool possible to help officers do their jobs in a secure environment. Thankfully, our officer was not seriously injured.' In August New York Mayor Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled plans to replace the notorious Rikers Island jail complex with four smaller lockups located in densely populated neighborhoods. The plan includes turning an Art Deco government building that went up in lower Manhattan in 1930 into a tower for up to 1,500 inmates. The announcement comes six months after officials decided to shut down Rikers by 2027 after years of complaints about violence by guards and gang members, mistreatment of the mentally ill and juveniles and unjustly long detention for minor offenders. New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced plans to replace the Rikers Island complex (pictured) with smaller correctional facilities located in densely populated neighborhoods Advocates for the closure also have argued that the island facility near La Guardia Airport - accessible only by a narrow bridge - is too isolated, cutting off inmates from the outside world in a way that hinders oversight and rehabilitation. Daily populations at Rikers have fallen to about 8,200 a day and could reach as low as 5,000 thanks to reduced sentences for low-level offenders and other criminal justice reforms, officials said. They said the lower inmate populations have made dismantling the complex and replacing it with the smaller facilities, each with 1,500 beds, more viable. An ally of Jeremy Corbyn has said all private homes should be 'nationalised' by giving town halls the right to buy them. Hard-left Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle told a rally that council bosses should be given the power of first refusal on houses up for sale. The plans would see swathes of privately-owned property being taken into public control. In response, Tory chairman Brandon Lewis tweeted: 'Even your home is not safe from Labour now.' Hard-left Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle (pictured) told a rally that council bosses should be given the power of first refusal on houses up for sale Mr Russell-Moyle, 32, also said he wants to tear up planning laws to allow local authorities to build high-rise flats in suburbs and leafy villages. He claimed Labour would order mass compulsory purchases of former council homes sold off under Margaret Thatcher's Right To Buy scheme. The MP for Brighton Kemptown made his controversial comments at an anti-austerity conference in London. He declared: 'Let's not just talk about council houses let's get those bloody private houses back into our hands.' Speaking under a banner reading 'Stand With Corbyn', Mr Russell-Moyle said a future Labour government would abolish the right to buy and 'compulsory purchase en masse' housing stock which had been sold. 'We need to develop a system that slowly over time takes property out of private hands and puts it into public hands,' he said. Mr Russell-Moyle spoke under a banner reading 'Stand With Corbyn' (pictured, the Labour leader). To cheers from Labour activists, he added: 'For example, why not give every council the first right of refusal with any houses put up for sale? And I don't mean a former council house, I mean your private house.' Last night former housing minister Grant Shapps branded the plans 'pure madness'. The Tory MP said: 'The truth's out cuddly Corbyn wants to nationalise your home.' The party's deputy chairman James Cleverly tweeted: 'Your home isn't safe under Labour. That 'right to buy' will be at a price of Labour's choosing and it won't be at its full market value.' In response to the speech, a Labour Party spokesman said: 'This is not Labour policy. 'Labour will end the housing crisis by building 100,000 genuinely affordable homes a year, introducing controls on rents, longer tenancies and improved renters' rights and taking action to end rough sleeping.' Labour frontbencher Kate Osamor was at the centre of a second row over her staff last night. The MP has already been criticised for continuing to employ her son Ishmael, 29, despite his conviction for possessing cocaine. Now the shadow aid secretary is under fire for using researcher Elizabeth Dudley despite her suspension in 2016 for endorsing anti-Semitic social media posts. Miss Osamor declined to comment. Leader's son pays price of Labour feud The son of Jeremy Corbyn has been dragged into his father's row with John McDonnell. Seb Corbyn was chief of staff to the shadow chancellor but his role has now been 'downgraded' after an influx of hard-Left advisers. Tensions between Labour's two most senior men intensified last week after Mr McDonnell said the party would not oppose higher income tax thresholds unveiled in the Budget. Role: Jeremy Corbyn's son Seb Corbyn (left) with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell That was later contradicted by Mr Corbyn's spokesman. It follows Mr McDonnell making Madeleine Williams his chief of staff. A source told The Sunday Times: 'Seb basically got demoted. 'That's another of the reasons why Jeremy and John fell out. Seb basically works in the office without a title.' It was also said accusations of nepotism had 'embarrassed' Mr McDonnell. His spokesman denied Seb Corbyn had been marginalised. Can licking a toad's back get you high? Do male seahorses give birth? And can vampire bats donate blood? The animal kingdom is full of myths and astonishing realities. In their new book, scientists Dani Rabaiotti and Nick Caruso sort out what's true and what's false... Claim: Vampire bats donate blood to other bats True Despite their sinister reputation, the three species of vampire bats in Central America are surprisingly social creatures, living alongside one another in large colonies. If any bat hasn't managed to find food on its nightly hunting trips, another bat in the colony will share its meal usually bird blood mouth-to-mouth. Despite their sinister reputation, the three species of vampire bats in Central America are surprisingly social creatures. Stock photo Claim: Earwigs like to lay eggs in your ears False The belief that earwigs like to burrow into our ears dates back to the writings of Roman author and naturalist Pliny the Elder, who made the claim but it is false nonetheless. Earwigs do like moist, dark places, but they prefer natural habitats, such as in soil and under tree bark, to ears. Thankfully, an earwig has never been reported to have laid an egg inside a human's ear canal. Claim: You can get high from licking a toad True Undoubtedly one of the strangest things people have done to elicit a recreational high is to lick a toad in particular, the cane toad and Colorado River toad, which produce the chemical 5-methoxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine. While this chemical makes the toads unpalatable to predators, in humans it triggers the release of serotonin, a feel-good substance in the brain, which can also produce powerful hallucinations. Claim: Cutting in half an earthworm creates two earthworms False If you've ever seen an earthworm split in two by a shovel, you'll have noticed that one wriggling body is replaced by two. But they don't both become a new worm. While earthworms can regenerate tissue, a tail will only grow back from the half that contains the head. The other half may wriggle for a time due to nerves in the tissue still firing, but it will not regenerate into a new worm. Claim: White sand is made of fish waste True Yes, the white famous beaches of the Maldives are one giant accumulation of fish excrement. But not just any old fish this sand is formed by the bumphead parrotfish, which feeds almost entirely on coral that contains a tasty type of algae. The coral is chewed into dust and excreted as a fine sand. One fish can produce 90kg of sand a year. Claim: Wasps target human beings False It may seem like wasps are out to sting you and ruin your picnic, but there's an explanation for their actions. Worker wasps spend their lives seeking high-protein foods, such as insects, to feed the colony's young. But, when the last brood has been raised and the worker's job is done, they look for sugary foods to sustain themselves. Undoubtedly one of the strangest things people have done to elicit a recreational high is to lick a toad. File photo Claim: Flirty monkeys soak their fur in urine True Capuchin monkeys found in forests in Central and South America go to great lengths to woo a mate. One method used by males is to urinate into their paws and rub it into their fur. Females can sniff out the testosterone levels in urine to identify sexually mature males as well as determining the male's status in their group's hierarchy. High levels of testosterone often correspond to a high social status. Claim: An anteater uses its nose to suck up ants False The anteater's long snout in fact contains both its mouth and nose. If an anteater used its nose to inhale ants, the insects would bite and sting the inside of the nasal canals. Instead, anteaters use their long tongues of up to 60cm, which can be flicked up to 160 times per minute, to lap up the ants before swallowing them. Claim: Octopuses have detachable penises True When a male argonaut octopus spots a mate, it launches its 'penis' a sperm-filled tentacle in the direction of the female. This appendage 'swims' towards the female, attaches to a mantle behind her head and is stored in a cavity. Females can store the sperm of multiple males in these cavities to fertilise their eggs. Unfortunately for the male argonauts, they die shortly after detaching their appendage. Claim: Male seahorses can give birth True Male seahorses are equipped with a stomach pouch resembling that of a kangaroo. After a courtship dance, the female will deposit eggs in the pouch to be fertilised. The male is able to regulate the temperature of the pouch as well as transfer nutrients through its skin to the eggs. While the male is incubating the eggs, the female produces more to replace those that will hatch from the pouch. Claim: Camels store water in their humps False Camels can survive for more than ten days without water, but it's not because they carry fluid in their humps. The hump is where the camel accumulates fat. Distributing fat around the body would, in desert climes, raise the animal's body temperature to dangerously high levels. So how do camels stay hydrated? In addition to having coats and nostrils that have evolved to limit sweating, they drink very quickly, gulping down 200 litres of water in just three minutes. Claim: All birds are monogamous False Approximately 92 per cent of the nearly 10,000 species of bird on our planet exhibit a form of monogamy but a minority do not. For instance, DNA analysis of blue tits suggests that up to half of eggs in a nest belong to a male other than the one tending them as part of the pair. The belief that earwigs like to burrow into our ears dates back to the writings of Roman author and naturalist Pliny the Elder. File photo Claim: Polar bears eat penguins False Polar bears eat seals, rodents and fish, but not penguins. This is not because polar bears don't like the taste of them. It's just that polar bears are found in the Arctic Circle in the Northern Hemisphere, whereas penguins are almost entirely native to the Southern Hemisphere. Claim: Vulture excrement kills bacteria False Vultures defecate on to their legs. Some ornithologists claim this kills any bacteria that the birds may have picked up from standing and feeding among dead and decaying carcasses. However, this is not true. Vultures don't have sweat glands, so they need another way to cool off. Their legs are well-supplied with blood vessels lying close to the surface of their skin and, as the liquid waste evaporates, it helps them lose heat and remain cool. Claim: Horses are unable to vomit True When human beings vomit, our stomach is squeezed between the organs in our abdomen and diaphragm, therefore expelling its contents. However, horses can't do this because they have a powerful valve at the bottom of the oesophagus that prevents food rising up through their gastrointestinal tract. Claim: Some newts stab themselves to deter predators True In 1879, Franz Leydig, a German zoologist, observed an unusual trait in the Iberian ribbed newt. When startled, he noted, sharp spines suddenly appeared along its sides. In fact, they are the newt's ribs, which force their way through the skin to make it harder for predators to swallow them. Fortunately for the newt, it also has a remarkable ability to repair the broken skin afterwards. From True Or Poo? By Dani Rabaiotti and Nick Caruso (Quercus, 9.99). Dani Rabaiotti and Nick Caruso 2018. To order a copy, visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 0844 571 0640. Former President Barack Obama has praised Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly during a rally in northwest Indiana as someone whos honest and direct, telling voters 'You dont want a yes man.' Obamas rally Sunday in Gary came between his successors trips to Indiana on Friday and Monday to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun. Donnelly has often sounded far more like President Donald Trump than Obama on issues. Hes angered some Democrats by embracing some of Trumps priorities, such as a border wall with Mexico. But he has supported the Affordable Care Act, the health care overhaul passed under Obama. Former President Barack Obama has praised Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly during a rally in northwest Indiana as someone whos honest and direct, telling voters 'You dont want a yes man.' Obama is seen above at the rally in Gary, Indiana on Sunday Obamas rally Sunday in Gary came between his successors trips to Indiana on Friday and Monday to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun Obama told thousands of cheering supporters that he and Donnelly dont always agree. But he says its more important to elect a senator who will put whats best for his state over his party Obama told thousands of cheering supporters that he and Donnelly dont always agree. But he says its more important to elect a senator who will put whats best for his state over his party. For Braun, a businessman who has campaigned as a steadfast Trump ally, the current president's appearances in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne are no-brainers in a state he won two years ago by 19 points. But for Donnelly, who frequently touts how often he votes with Trump, the Obama rally is a little more complicated. 'If he does need to inoculate himself from some of his firmer conservative rhetoric, it's a pretty effective way to do it,' said Christina Hale, a former state lawmaker and the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2016. Donnelly has angered some Democrats by tacking to the right in recent weeks and embracing some of Trump's pet priorities, such as building a border wall with Mexico. Obama, on the other hand, has proven a polarizing figure with independent and Republican voters and is credited with some of Indiana's rightward political shift, even though he won the state in 2008. To win in Tuesday's election, Donnelly not only needs high turnout from his party's base but also must peel off some moderate Republicans and independents. That's why Sunday's rally in Gary, a city that has more in common with the Democratic stronghold of nearby Chicago than deep red parts of the state, could prove strategic. 'While President Obama's approval ratings are not great in much of the state, you can pretty safely bring into Chicago media market,' said Republican consultant Cam Savage. Trump was keenly aware of Obama's upcoming visit, which he mentioned Friday during an event at an Indianapolis-area high school. 'It's no surprise that Joe Donnelly is holding a rally this weekend with Barack H. Obama,' Trump said as the crowd jeered. Donnelly (left) has often sounded far more like President Donald Trump than Obama on issues. Hes angered some Democrats by embracing some of Trumps priorities, such as a border wall with Mexico. His challenger, Mike Braun, is seen right He later added: 'We don't want to go back to the Obama days.' Like other Senate Democrats running in states Trump won, Donnelly has largely avoided bringing in political celebrities who are adored by the base but could create problems. 'Keep in mind he's not bringing in Obama until the Sunday before the election,' said Hale, who added Republicans likely won't have enough time to use it as an effective line of attack. As a red-state Democrat, Donnelly has had a target on his back ever since he unexpectedly defeated Republican Richard Mourdock in 2012, when the former state treasure said a woman who gets pregnant from her rapist is carrying a 'gift from God.' He's walked a delicate line since then, often frustrating his own party and Republicans alike with the votes he takes. Trump was having none of it on Friday, tying Donnelly to 'radical left' figures in the party who are widely reviled by the GOP base. 'This Tuesday I need the people of Indiana to send a message to Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and the radical Democrats by voting for Mike Braun,' Trump said as the crowd erupted in boos. 'I'm really speaking more to the television cameras than to you because I don't think we have too many Donnelly voters. Anybody going to vote for Donnelly in this room?' The boos grew even louder. Ahdel Ali, pictured outside Worcester Crown Court in 2012, was attacked by a makeshift weapon at Wakefield prison, in West Yorkshire, leaving him with a large wound running from his neck to his shoulder The ringleader of a child grooming gang has been scarred for life after a prison assault left him needing 40 stitches. Ahdel Ali, 31, who led a grooming gang in Telford, was attacked by a makeshift weapon at Wakefield prison, in West Yorkshire, leaving him with a large wound running from his neck to his shoulder. According to The Sun, his assailant used two razor blades embedded in a strip of cardboard. A source said: 'Ali and the other lad had a bit of a ruck earlier in the day. 'Prison officers split them up but they were still furious with each other. The other inmate went back to his cell later on and it had been covered in excrement. 'He flipped, blamed Ali and went straight back for him with the blade. It was a really nasty wound - Ali lost a lot of blood. 'He went to hospital and had around 40 stitches before being taken back to prison.' Ahdel Ali was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2012, while his brother Mubarek was handed a 14-year-term after a court heard the two men systematically groomed young girls for after hour sex sessions at a restaurant. Both denied a total of 24 offences at the time, including controlling child prostitution, people trafficking and sexual exploitation. The abuse was committed against four girls between March 2008 and December 2009. During the trial, Stafford Crown Court heard the pair groomed two teenage girls for sex before persuading them to work as prostitutes. One of the victims told the court she and her friend were driven to a restaurant in Wellington, Telford, Shropshire, after hours. Ahdel Ali, 24, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, while his 29-year-old brother Mubarek was handed a 14-year-term after a court heard that the two men systematically groomed young girls for after hour sex sessions at the restaurant The woman, giving evidence behind a screen, told the court: 'Two of the men took my friend into a bedroom. It was after the restaurant was closed and there were three men in rooms upstairs.' She said she went into one room where she found her friend having sex with one of the men. Another man asked her to have sex, she said, but she refused and instead performed a sex act on him. She told the court: 'I felt I had to do it. I didn't want to do it.' When the girls left the restaurant they found the Ali brothers taking drugs and drinking in their car, the jury heard. The girl told the court: 'They were just laughing. They thought it was funny because we had to do it and they got money for it.' A Prison Service spokeswoman said: 'A prisoner at HMP Wakefield was assaulted on October 21 by a fellow prisoner and this is now being investigated by police.' The court also heard the girl met the brothers when she was 15. She said that they befriended her but when she turned 16 she was forced to have sex with men up to four times a week. A Prison Service spokeswoman said: 'A prisoner at HMP Wakefield was assaulted on October 21 by a fellow prisoner and this is now being investigated by police.' Three women have been accused of helping mothers abduct and hide their own children. The women, aged 75, 68 and 46, allegedly played an active role in the abduction of three children earlier this year. The arrests are part of a two-year Australian Federal Police investigation into parental abduction, during which authorities uncovered a $140,000 yacht allegedly used to transport kids overseas. Three women have been accused of helping mothers in the midst of bitter custody battles to abduct their own children (pictured: police arresting three men in relation to the investigation) The arrests are part of a long-running investigation by the AFP into a group allegedly assisting the parental abduction of children across Australia The trio allegedly assisted in stealing the children by providing transport, accommodation and other forms of support to help the mothers evade police. Police allege the group dyed the children's hair and changed their names and birth dates. The allegedly abducted children have since been recovered by the Australian Federal Police. The women could face up to 10 years behind bars for conspiracy to defeat justice, or the lesser penalty of seven years for child stealing. The trio were arrested on October 17. Authorities also conducted search warrants at premises in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. A further three men were arrested late last week in relation to the nationwide case, including a 64-year-old man in Grafton who authorities allege was the key financier and organiser of efforts to help two separate women abduct their children. The $140,000 yacht was allegedly going to be used to transport abducted children from its mooring in Tasmania to New Zealand or South Africa, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. 'The actions of these people in deliberately ignoring court orders and helping hide children from their extended families, the Courts and law enforcement cannot be justified,' Assistant Commissioner Debbie Platz, National Manager Crime Operations, said. 'This activity has the potential to significantly endanger the safety and wellbeing of children,' she said. A further three men were arrested late last week in relation to the nationwide case The 75-year-old Taree woman and 68-year-old Newcastle woman are scheduled to appear before the Brisbane Magistrates Court on December 7. The 46-year-old Townsville woman is scheduled to appear before the Magistrates Court on 20 December 2018. Any person with information is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers. The death of notorious gangster John Macris is the seventh underworld killing carried out in Athens this year - and his murder may have been perpetrated by an Albanian contract killer due to a vicious turf war. Macris, 46, was ambushed outside his seaside villa in the Greek capital on Wednesday, and was shot multiple times in the chest, stomach and shoulder. Greek police are investigating if his killing is linked to the growing gangster conflict in Athens - known as the 'World of the Night' by locals - which is threatening to spiral out of control. The death of notorious gangster John Macris (pictured with wife Viktoria Karida) is the seventh underworld killing carried out in Athens this year Ms Karida (pictured) was screaming in the street after her husband was killed, and was apparently unaware of his criminal past Macris, 46, was ambushed outside his seaside villa in the Greek capital on Wednesday, and was shot multiple times in the chest, stomach and shoulder Hitmen from Albania have been previously responsible for contract killings in the city, using three vehicles at a time in order to flee the country. Macris' death may have also been linked to his business interests, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. He had planned to open a firm called 24/7 Security Services, and police are investigating if the company was a front for money laundering or was considered a threat by Macris' rivals. Eight vehicles with the company's logo were removed from outside the business headquarters the morning after Macris was killed, and the next day its signage had been ripped down. Authorities reportedly believe the order to shut down the business would not have come from Macris' family. His glamorous former Playboy playmate wife Viktoria Karida was screaming in the street after her husband was killed, and was apparently unaware of his criminal past. Hitmen from Albania have been previously responsible for contract killings in the city, using three vehicles at a time in order to flee the country (Pictured: Macris' funeral) Visibly distraught, the glamorous model and current reality show contestant, attended the memorial service wearing a black, bouffant wind blazer and Louis Vuitton biker boots The couple married in 2016 on the party island of Mykonos. Macris had no criminal record in Greece but police were aware of his background. He had spent time behind bars in Australia for selling drugs. On the night of his murder, Macris was about to leave his home to open his security business when he was shot. Surveillance footage shows the gunman approaching Macris before delivering a flurry of bullets. The shooter is about 170cm tall and was wearing a cap at the time of the killing. Macris had only just left his home (pictured) when he was ambushed and shot dead Macris was buried in Greece on Sunday amid tight security. Black-clad bouncers and security guards covered in tattoos blocked the entrance of the towering cliff-top church of Agios Nectarios in the seaside region of Voula, where the 46-year-old old underworld figure was gunned down earlier this week. Held shortly after midday on Sunday, his wife and their two children were allowed to attend the ceremony in Athens along with 40 close friends and relatives. Still, dozens of curious onlookers crammed behind bushes, watching celebrities, models and underground figures pay final tribute to a man known here by the nickname 'Australos,' meaning 'The Australian' in Greek. Chocoholic Aussies will soon be able to get their hands on five brand new KitKat flavours - imported directly from Japan and exclusively available at just one location. The flavours, which are part of the 'Created in Japan' range, include Butter, Sake, Uji Matcha, Strawberry & Maple and Hokkaido Melon and Mascarpone. From Wednesday, the Asian-inspired flavours will be available at KitKat's Chocolatory shop in Melbourne. From Wednesday, the Asian-inspired flavours (pictured) will be available at KitKat's Chocolatory shop in Melbourne KitKat lovers can either purchase the products in-store or order online and collect them in-store. Each 69g bar will retail at $8. The new products are the result of a growing demand from Australians for new and interesting flavours. 'We know that Australia has a love affair with Asian cuisine, so we explored the extensive Japanese range and chose to import the five most iconic flavours,' Connie Yuen, Head Chocolatier at KitKat Chocolatory, told Daily Mail Australia. The new flavours are part of the 'Created in Japan' range and include Butter (top left), Sake (top right), Uji Matcha (bottom left), Strawberry & Maple (bottom right) and Hokkaido Melon and Mascarpone (below) KitKat lovers can either purchase the products in-store or order online and collect them in-store. Each 69g bar will retail at $8 'It was a hard decision to make there are over 300 unique creations available in Japan but we landed upon delicious combinations that we believe will excite Aussie chocolate lovers.' The company expects the Butter flavour to be the 'real standout' - not just for its rich and creamy taste, but also its exclusivity. 'It's only available to purchase in Hokkaido, a region of Japan renowned for its dairy products,' Ms Yuen said. But for those looking to really tempt their taste buds, the Sake flavour bar contains a small amount of the Japanese rice wine. 'It's definitely one for the adults!' Ms Yuen said. The new flavours will be available in Melbourne right up until Christmas, and Ms Yuen hinted at the potential for more new flavours. 'Keep your eyes peeled for whats next because we are always innovating and will have lots more exciting flavour combinations launching soon,' she said. The KitKat Chocolatory opened in late 2016 and provides customers with the opportunity to design their own KitKat bar. Foreign nationals will be eligible to join the Armed Forces in greater numbers as British residency requirements for service are set to be scrapped. The Ministry of Defence will remove the need for Commonwealth citizens to have lived in the UK for five years before applying for service, it will be announced on Monday. An extra 1,350 personnel from oversees are hoped to be enlisted to the Navy, Army and Air Force every year. The move comes as the Armed Forces struggle to recruit enough personnel to fill a shortfall in their ranks. Foreign nationals will be eligible to join the Armed Forces in greater numbers as British residency requirements for service are set to be scrapped Applicants from nations including India, Australia, Canada and Fiji will be considered for all roles in the forces, without having lived in the UK. Until now, they had to have resided in Britain for five years and their recruitment was capped at a maximum of 200 per year. The Army will begin the admissions from early next year, while the Navy and RAF will commence the process immediately. Other than the Nepalese Gurkhas and applicants from the Republic of Ireland who can enrol under a special arrangement, those from outside the Commonwealth will still need British citizenship to apply. Foreign nationals will be eligible to join the Armed Forces in greater numbers as British residency requirements for service are set to be scrapped. The Gurkhas can currently enrol under a special arrangement Ministers say the move will give Britain an 'operational advantage over our adversaries' as well as 'perspective' and 'cultural understanding,' according to the Daily Telegraph. However, MPs have said it highlighted the recruitment crisis in the Armed Forces. They blamed Capita, the business service provider hired to run the Army's recruitment campaign. Mark Francois, a member of the defence select committee, told the Telegraph: 'Foreign and Commonwealth troops have historically been important and valued sources of recruitment for the British Army and I welcome the recruitment limit increase.' Mark Francois (pictured), a member of the defence select committee, blamed Capita, the business service provider hired to run the Army's recruitment campaign, for the drop in recruitment figures But he added that this 'cannot excuse the ongoing disaster that is the Capita recruiting contract.' He cited recent evidence given to the committee that the Army would be 'lucky' to reach 50 per cent of its recruitment figures this year. 'The Army is disappearing before our eyes and will continue to do so until Capita are sacked,' he added. Lt Gen Sir Mark Poffley, the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff for Military Capability, gave evidence to the committee in the Commons and conceded that the Army failed to hit recruitment targets in recent years. But a Capita spokesman told the Telegraph: 'We are confident that the changes we are introducing to the Army recruitment process are delivering [better] outcomes for candidates and the Army.' In April, a National Audit Office report said the full-time military was running at a 5.7% shortfall. An extra 8,2000 regulars and 2,400 engineers were needed to fill the 'largest gap in a decade', the report added, while intelligence analysts and pilots were also in demand. Prince Charles will today tackle the abject horror of Britains role in slavery in an emotive speech in Ghana Prince Charles will today tackle the abject horror of Britains role in slavery in an emotive speech in Ghana. Although he will not make a full apology for what he describes as an indelible stain, he will not avoid Britains involvement in the trade. Charles and Camilla are on a four-day tour to strengthen trade relations with Ghana and support community projects. On the last leg of the visit, the Prince of Wales will speak at the International Conference Centre at the invitation of President Nana Akufo-Addo. While he will mainly use it to pay tribute to Ghanas role in the Commonwealth, Charles was keen to reference the slave trade in Ghana and Britain and Europes role in it. He also wanted to use the occasion to highlight Britains determination to tackle modern slavery. The prince was visibly moved by a visit to Fort Christiansborg in Osu, a suburb of the capital Accra, during which he was told of its chilling history. Built in 1661, the fort also known as Osu Castle was used by the Danes to hold slaves before they were sent to the New World. In the 19th century, it became the headquarters of the local British government. The Prince of Wales will mainly use his speech to pay tribute to Ghanas role in the Commonwealth (pictured being greeted by dancers at Fort Christiansborg in Accra, Ghana) The Danes once housed and processed more than 1.5million African slaves at the castle, out of the six million human beings traded from West Africa. During a visit to the fort, Charles walked down the spiral staircase used by slaves on their final journey to the adjoining beach, where they were loaded on to ships. The staircase was designed to be so narrow that slaves could only walk in single file, stopping them overpowering Danish traders. Queen invites Doria for Xmas Meghan and her mother Doria Ragland In an unprecedented step, the Duchess of Sussexs mother is expected to fly in from the US to spend Christmas with the Queen. Meghans mother Doria Ragland, 62, is said to have been invited to Sandringham to join her daughter and the rest of the Royal Family. The honour was not extended to Carole and Michael Middleton, parents of the Duchess of Cambridge. A royal source said it was a very thoughtful gesture, adding: Its a mark of the Queens respect for Meghan and an acknowledgement that she doesnt have any other relations in this country unlike Kate, who has a very close family. The Middletons have joined the Queen at church on Christmas morning, but stayed with William. Advertisement At the bottom were dungeons in which enslaved Africans were kept for up to six months as they awaited transportation. During a sombre moment in searing heat, Charles paused at the foot of the stairs, known as the door of no return, to reflect on the forts horrific past. In his speech today, he is expected to say: The histories of our two nations are closely intertwined, and while today we enjoy shared opportunity, we can never forget that our past has sometimes borne witness to tragedy and loss and, at times, profound injustice. At Osu Castle, it was especially important to me as indeed it was on my first visit there 41 years ago that I should acknowledge the most painful chapter of Ghanas relations with the nations of Europe, including the United Kingdom. The appalling atrocity of the slave trade, and the unimaginable suffering it caused, left an indelible stain on the history of our world. While Britain can be proud that it later led the way in the abolition of this shameful trade, we have a shared responsibility to ensure that the abject horror of slavery is never forgotten, that we abhor the existence of modern slavery and that we robustly promote and defend the values which today make it incomprehensible, to most of us, that human beings could ever treat each other with such utter inhumanity. Charles will also pay tribute to the strength of the relationship between the UK and Ghana. He is keen to highlight the countrys role in the Commonwealth and stress how, by acting within the organisation, it can play an important role over environmental issues and rapid urbanisation. He will also acknowledge Ghana as an example to the region and to the world of a stable democracy, a beacon of tolerance and diversity. In his speech, the prince is expected to say: The Commonwealth should strive for renewed relevance in the lives of its citizens and should draw upon its unparalleled networks of professional expertise, to offer practical solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our time, many of which are increasingly deep seated and deeply integrated. No issue is more pressing than that of climate change. Dubai-based Shuaa Capital, a leading financial services provider, has registered a net profit of Dh30.1 million ($8.2 million) for the third quarter, up 31 per cent over the same period last year. It is the groups highest quarterly figure since 2008. Announcing the results for the quarter ended September 30, Shuaa Capital said year-to-date net profits stood at Dh56.4 million compared to Dh59.8 million last year. The groups asset management business line saw a 35 per cent increase in profits to hit Dh8.5 million, as its operations grows further in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Shuaa Capital's revenues for the period grew 39 per cent year on year to hit Dh41.1 million from last year's figures of Dh29.6 million. General and administrative expenses increased 38 per cent to Dh29.2 million from last year's Dh21.2 million as the group supported the growth of business operations and expansion activities outside of the UAE, said the Dubai financial services company in its statement. CEO Fawad Tariq Khan said: "The third quarter saw us maintaining our positive trajectory based on the previously announced road map. The various teams are actively working on developing client relations, and to seize opportunities across multiple market jurisdictions." "Our recent acquisition of Amwal International Investment Company in Kuwait, and intended business affiliations are meant to help us benefit from synergies and capture inbound and outbound business prospects. Activating these investments and partnerships is imminent, and we expect the final quarter to be another game changing quarter for the Group," he added. As of September 30, Shuaa said its balance sheet and total assets had hit Dh1.9 billion compared to Dh1.2 billion in December last year. The groups liquidity position is healthy with Dh323.7 million in cash, while its liabilities increased to Dh887 million. Its net equity stood at Dh892.4 million while the leverage ratio was 0.46, it added.-TradeArabia News Service Dane Swan has refused to apologise after being caught driving with a blood alcohol reading of 0.054 following his Thursday night appearance on The Footy Show. The former Collingwood star was fined $484 and had his licence immediately suspended for three months, but said on Sunday said he was 'not sorry to anyone', Herald Sun reported. He was pulled over on Williams Road in Malvern, south east of Melbourne, at 11.30am on Friday, hours after he appeared on The Grand Final Footy Show. AFL bad boy Dane Swan was fined and had his licence suspended after being caught drinking driving in Melbourne The 34-year-old claimed he had eight hours of sleep before getting behind the wheel and said he thought it was 'unlucky' he was busted while above the legal limit. 'I probably shouldn't have gotten behind the wheel, but I had had eight hours sleep and I thought I was OK,' he said from inside the Birdcage marquee at Derby Day. 'In hindsight it was obviously the wrong decision and I am not apologising to anyone because it has nothing to do with anyone else.' He added he 'stuffed up' and was prepared to suffer the consequences, however remained adamant he would not be apologising to anyone. Swan (right with girlfriend Taylor Wilson) was fined $484, had his licence immediately suspended for three months and must have an alcohol interlock device fitted to his car 'I will cop my whack and that is fair enough. I got picked up for drink driving the day after it and then I went away. I got back yesterday so I have no idea,' he told the publication. Along with his fine and driving suspension, he was ordered to have an alcohol interlock device fitted to his car, making it impossible to drive intoxicated. Witnesses told 3AW they saw Swan with police and his car by the side of the road the Friday morning he was taken to a local station and breath-tested. Tough new drink-driving laws that began in Victoria on April 30 automatically cancel and suspend the licence of even a first time offender. A former Olympic diver who won hearts and a gold medal in Athens has been refused bail after facing court for stealing charges. Chantelle Lee Newbery, who rose to prominence after the Olympics Games in 2004, appeared at the Toowoomba Magistrates Court, in Queensland, on Monday morning. The 41-year-old faces 14 stealing charges, one contravening a direction or requirement charge and two failing to appear charges. Newberry was picked up by police on Friday after she failed to attend court for previous charges, according to the Courier Mail. Scroll down for video Chantelle Lee Newbery (pictured), who won a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, appeared at the Toowoomba Magistrates Court, Queensland, on Monday On Saturday, the court heard the gold medalist is living in social housing accommodation despite her elite sporting success. Her lawyer, Robert Burns, said Newberry had experienced 'quite a fall from grace'. Despite her attempts to prove that her living conditions are adequate, Newberry has been denied bail and remanded in custody. Mr Burns, who noted his client was a 'sportsperson of note', said he would personally attend her home - where she keeps her medals - to prove the residence was a suitable bail address. Newberry made history in 2004 when she ended an 80-year medal drought for Australian divers by winning gold. Newberry (pictured), 41, made history in 2004 when she ended an 80-year medal drought for Australian divers by winning gold In 2014, Newberry escaped a drug possession conviction in a Queensland court and she spoke about the ordeal on A Current Affair (pictured) In 2014, Newberry escaped a drug possession conviction in a Queensland court after pleading guilty for failing to dispose of syringes and possession of methylamphetamine. Newberry, then 37, was placed on a drug diversion program. Following the ordeal, Newberry spoke about the drug charges and her battles with depression in an emotional interview with A Current Affair. 'I have experimented with a couple of things but I wouldn't say I was a drug user,' she told ACA. 'I guess I just want to apologise for bringing the negative attention to the sport of diving, myself, my family, my kids, the Olympic Committee, everyone. I feel like I've let a lot of people down and I've disappointed a lot of people and there's a lot of people that believe in me that I've thrown doubt in their mind now and I'm really sorry for that.' Magistrate Viviana Keegan adjourned the bail application until November 15. The grand centrepiece of the Australian sporting calendar has once again rolled around, as millions of punters open their wallets to place bets on Tuesday. Everyone likes to pretend they're a horse racing expert come Melbourne Cup day, but picking the winner in the 'race that stops a nation' is tough for even the experts. On Tuesday afternoon, Australians will stop what they're doing for three-and-a-half minutes and pray that they've chosen the fastest horse. Over the 157 years the cup has been running, picking the winner out of 24 horses has never been easy. Before you open up a betting app or head to the pub, Daily Mail Australia has compiled a comprehensive guide with all you need to know before the gates open at the 2018 Melbourne Cup. The grand centrepiece of the Australian sporting calendar has once again rolled around, as millions of punters open their wallets to place bets on Tuesday Over the 157 years the cup has been running, picking the winner out of 24 horses is proving to be extremely difficult HORSES IN THE 2018 MELBOURNE CUP NAME Best Solution The Cliffsofmoher Magic Circle Chestnut Coat Muntahaa Sound Check Who shotthebarman Ace High Marmelo Avilius Yucatan Auray Finche Red Cardinal Vengeur Masque Ventura Storm A Prince of Arran Nakeeta Sir Charles Road Zacada Runaway Youngstar Cross Counter Rostropovish AGE & BARRIER 5yo - Barrier 6 5yo - Barrier 9 7yo - Barrier 17 5yo - Barrier 4 6yo - Barrier 13 6yo - Barrier 16 10yo - Barrier 18 4yo - Barrier 22 6yo - Barrier 10 5yo - Barrier 11 5yo - Barrier23 8yo - Barrier 1 5yo - Barrier 15 7yo - Barrier 5 7yo - Barrier 2 6yo - Barrier 7 6yo - Barrier 20 8yo - Barrier 3 5yo - Barrier 14 6yo - Barrier 24 6yo - Barrier 12 4yo - Barrier 8 4yo - Barrier 19 4yo - Barrier 21 COLOUR & SEX Bay - Horse Bay - Horse Bay - Gelding Chestnut - Horse Grey - Gelding Brown/Black - Horse Bay - Gelding Brown/Black - Horse Bay - Horse Brown - Gelding Bay - Horse Bay - Gelding Chestnut - Horse Bay - Gelding Bay - Gelding Bay - Gelding Bay - Gelding Bay - Gelding Bay - Gelding Bay - Gelding Bay - Gelding Bay - Mare Bay - Gelding Bay - Horse Advertisement TEMPERAMENT OF THE HORSE Equine physiotherapist Tom Simpson is passionate about the welfare of animals and has treated some of the best thoroughbreds in the world. Mr Simpson says the secret to picking a winner is just before the race, and how they look in the mounting yard. 'Look at temperament - whether he's got his game day face on. More often than not you want a nice, relaxed horse,' Mr Simpson said. 'You want to avoid horses that are slathering in sweat and running around controlling their handler.' CONDITION AND COAT OF THE HORSE Mr Simpson also said the health of the coat and the fitness of the horse are two qualities that go hand in hand. 'That is quite reflective of how the horse is feeling and its general well-being,' he said. Mr Simpson also noted the fitness and overall wellbeing of the horse is something punters may want to look out for: 'Definition and muscle tone are key things that go into that.' 'You basically want to rule out a lack of fitness. You don't want a really fat, roly poly kind of horse. At this level they're all going to be pretty well spot-on. Last year's Melbourne cup winner Rekindling with jockey Corey Brown who will be riding Magic Circle this year Australians will stop what they're doing for three-and-a-half minutes in anticipation that they've chosen the fastest horse 'You want to see the horse is peaking for that run. That's the biggest thing - is it ready for that race? And then their action, the way they're walking. You want them walking out nice and even. 'Make sure the feet are stepping symmetrically, front and behind. Otherwise it might indicate an area of soreness which might impact negatively on their racing.' Mr Simpson said horses competing in staying races such as the 3200 metre Cup should be more relaxed than those running in sprints, typically 1000 to 1200 metres. TRACK CONDITIONS TRACK RATING SYSTEM Firm 1 Dry hard track Firm 2 Firm track Good 3 Track with good grass coverage (rating on Derby Day) Good 4 Track with some give in it Soft 5 Track with reasonable give in it Soft 6 Moist but not badly affected track Soft 7 More rain-affected track Heavy 8 Rain affected track Heavy 9 Wet track Heavy 10 Heaviest track, very wet Advertisement Some international horses may be able to adapt to different surroundings extremely well, as they race in varying tracks. On Saturday the Flemington track was rated at the third-hardest level, leaving the owner of this year's favourite, Yucatan, pleading officials to 'turn the taps on'. However, with wet weather forecast for the $7.05 million race, they may not have to. Nick Williams said there would be 'a lot of sore horses' on Tuesday due to the 'ridiculously firm' track. Yucatan's trainer had a different view, suggesting the firmer track may give the five-year-old an advantage. Overnight showers have saved Flemington officials from having to turn on the tap, putting the track in the good range on Monday morning. Some say the secret to picking a winner is before the race and how the horses look AGE Four and five-year-olds are the best bet to win the cup, with horses between the age range winning the cup on 44 occasions. Experts have warned three-year-old horses have generally not yet reached their peak, while those seven years and over don't compare to younger rivals. 'Historically, four and five-year-old horses have been the strongest Melbourne Cup competitors,' Jared Timms from Neds Bookmakers said. 'But half a dozen six-year-olds have won the race throughout the past decade, including Prince Of Penzance and Almandin.' Best Solution, The Cliffsofmoher, Chestnut Coat, Ace High, Avilius, Yucatan, Finche, Sir Charles Road, Youngstar, Cross Counter and Rostropovich are in the prime age range for this year's race. COLOUR History would tell that the most successful colour at the Melbourne Cup is Bay, with both favourites Yucatan and Rostropovich falling into this category. The most successful colour at the Melbourne Cup over the 157 years of racing has been Bay, winning 68 times. Best Solution, The Cliffsofmoher, Magic Circle, Who Shotthebarman, Marmelo, Auray, Red Cardinal, Vengeur Masque, Ventura Storm, A Prince of Arran, Nakeeta, Sir Charles Road, Zacada, Runaway, Youngstar and Cross Counter fall into this category. MELBOURNE CUP 2018 ODDS YUCATAN MAGIC CIRCLE CROSS COUNTER BEST SOLUTION MUNTAHAA AVILIUS MARMELO YOUNGSTAR THE CLIFFSOFMOHER A PRINCE OF ARRAN FINCHE VENTURA STORM ROSTROPOVICH SOUND CHECK WHO SHOT THEBARMAN RED CARDINAL RUNAWAY CHESTNUT COAT ACE HIGH VENGEUR MASQUE SIR CHARLES ROAD AUVRAY NAKEETA ZACADA $5.50 $8 $10 $12 $12 $13 $15 $15 $17 $18 $26 $26 $26 $34 $34 $34 $34 $51 $61 $71 $71 $81 $81 $81 Source: TAB Advertisement WEIGHT Only three horses have carried more than 56 kilograms to victory since 1983, leaving Best Solution, and The Cliffsofmoher with questionable odds. Since 1996 the average weight carried by the winner has been just over 53.5kg. Horses with around 53-55kg are probably the ones to look out for if you want to be cheering loudest at the finish line on Tuesday. This year, these horses include Marmelo, Avilius, Yucatan, Auvray, Finche, Red Cardinal, Vengeur Masque, Ventura Storm, A Prince of Arran, Nakeeta, Sir Charles Road and Zacada. These fans are pictured checking the form guide during a previous Melbourne Cup Carnival Mail Australia has compiled a comprehensive guide with all you need to know before the gates open at the 2018 Melbourne Cup BARRIER AND SADDLECLOTH All eyes were on the mounting yard on Saturday for the barrier draw, with everyone keen to see where their favourite would jump come 3pm on Tuesday. Since 1958 when barrier stalls were first used in the Cup, more horses have won from the four outside barriers (21 to 24) than have won from the four inside (1 to 4). Yucatan pulled out barrier number 23, which isn't necessarily bad but isn't ideal either, according to Cory France at Neds bookmakers. Who Shot Thebarman drew barrier 18, which has incredibly never produced a winner. Caulfield Cup winner Best Solution will run comfortably from handy barrier number 6, while Moonee Valley Gold Cup winner Ventura Storm drew 7. The most successful saddlecloth is number 1, with Godolphin international Best Solution wearing it this year. BEGINNERS GUIDE TO PLACING A BET ON CUP DAY A spectator checks the form guide at the Melbourne Cup Carnival meeting in 2007 WIN - YOUR HORSE FINISHES FIRST The easiest way to have a punt on Cup day is picking the horse which you think will be first to the post. For example, if you put $10 on a runner at $15 odds, you stand to walk away with $150 if luck's on your side. PLACE - YOUR HORSE RUNS FIRST, SECOND OR THIRD If you think your horse has a good chance of running well but might not quite be good enough to win, perhaps you should make a 'place' bet. You'll then collect money if your horse finishes first, second or third - although the payout will be substantially lower than the win dividend. EACH WAY - TO WIN AND PLACE By placing an 'each way bet' you stand to collect BOTH the win and place dividend should your horse finish first. If it runs second or third - you collect the place dividend but will lose the wager you bet on the win. THE EXOTICS - HIGHER RISK BUT GREATER REWARD - QUINELLA A quinella bet involves picking the two horses you think will finish first and second in any order. - EXACTA It's tough enough picking a winner, but if you think you know which horses will run first AND second in correct order - place an exacta bet for a very healthy return. - TRIFECTA Selecting the first three horses across the line is no easy feat - but if you can pull it off you could walk away with thousands of dollars. To make things slightly easier, you can 'box' your selections - meaning the horses can finish first, second and third in any order. This will, however, decrease the percentage of the trifecta dividend you will receive. - FIRST FOUR The only difference between a trifecta and a first four bet is the addition of the fourth place-getter. Again, you can 'box' all four (or as many as you like) so they don't have to finish in order. The more horses you choose to 'box' - the lesser percentage of the dividend you will collect. Advertisement GENDER Only three female horses have won the Melbourne Cup in the past 20 years - Jezabeel, Ethereal and three-time champion Makybe Diva. In 2017 there will be only one entrant flying the flag for the females - Youngstar. But with no mare triumphing since Makybe Diva completed her hat-trick in 2005, it is commonly a man's world as far as the big Flemington showdown is concerned. Stallions have been the most successful horse, wining the cup 67 times - Yucatan and Rostropovich are both stallions. Only three horses have carried more than 56 kilograms to victory since 1983, leaving Best Solution, and The Cliffsofmoher with questionable odds Racing crowds in the members area are seen studying the form during 2012 Melbourne Cup Day BEWARE THE OUTSIDER Since 1983, just five outright favourites have won: Fiorente ($7) in 2013, Makybe Diva ($4.50) in 2005 and at $3.50 in 2004, Jezabeel ($7) in 1998, Might And Power ($4.50) in 1997 and Let's Elope ($4) in 1991. Since the Cup was first run in 1861, four horses have won at odds of 100-1: The Pearl (1871), Wotan (1936), Old Rowley (1940) and Prince of Penzance two years ago. Be sure to be wary when it comes to those at big odds, this year that includes: Chestnut Coat, Sound Check, Who Shot Thebarman, Ace High, Auvray, Red Cardinal, Sir Charles Road and Zacada with a high of $201. TRAINERS International trainers have had lots of success in the Melbourne Cup over the years. Irishman Dermot Weld was the first overseas raider to conquer with Vintage Crop in 1993 and later Media Puzzle in 2002. Japanese trainer Katsuhiko Sumii had the 2006 winner Delta Blues, while Frenchman Alain de Royer Dupre became the 150th winner of the Cup with Americain in 2010. Compatriot Mikel Dezangles followed the next year with Dunaden and the German-trained stayer Protectionist, prepared by Andreas Wohler, scored in 2014. The race has been increasingly dominated by horses bred and trained overseas, with those in the industry questioning how much longer Australian-bred horses will compete for the cup. Australian trainers include those with Sound Check, Who Shot Thebarman, Ace High, Avilius, Auvray, Finche, Red Cardinal, Vengeur Masque, Ventura Storm, Sir Charles Road, Zacada, Runaway and Youngstar. THE PAST TEN CUP WINNERS - AGE, SEX AND WEIGHT YEAR 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 HORSE Rekindling Almandin Prince of Penzance Protectionist Fiorente Green Moon Dunaden Americain Shocking Viewed AGE/SEX/WEIGHT Four/H/51.5kg Seven/G/52kg Six/G/53kg Five/H/56.5kg Six/H/55kg Six/H/53.5kg Six/H/54.5kg Six/H/54.5kg Four/H/51kg Five/H/53kg Advertisement JOCKEYS Damien Oliver, who will ride outsider Red Cardinal this year, is the most historically successful jockey in the Cup, having won in 1995, 2002 and 2013. Kerrin McEvoy, who will be on board Cross Counter, has ridden two Cup winners. Corey Brown rode Rekindling to victory last year and this year will be riding Magic Circle. Michelle Payne is the only female jockey to have won the race, taking Prince of Penzance to victory in 2015. There are no female jockeys riding in this year's race. OWNERS Of the owners, Lloyd Williams is the most successful with five wins: Rekindling last year, Almandin in 2016, Green Moon (2012), Efficient (2007), What A Nuisance (1985) and Just A Dash (1981). This year Williams has two chances, with favourite Yucatan and The Cliffsofmoher. 'He's a good sort, about 490kg. Light on his feet. Good type of Galileo horse. He's a strong horse, not too heavy,' Williams said of Yucatan. Some say the secret to picking a winner is just before the race, and punters should look at how they look in the mounting yard before placing bets Horses with just one word in their names have also been the most successful horse, having won 89 times (Pictured: Corey Brown riding Rekindling last year) THE AMOUNT OF WORDS IN A HORSES NAME Horses with just one word in their names have also been the most successful horse, having won 89 times. If history proves right, Muntahaa, Marmelo, Avilius, Yucatan, Auray, Finche, Nakeeta, Zacada, Runaway, Youngstar and Rostropovich have the best odds. ADVICE FROM THE BOOKIES Cory France from Neds says Yucatan is a deserved favourite following on from his impressive lead-up win in the Group 3 Herbert Power Stakes. He also fancies Cross Counter, who has won four of his seven starts. 'This is one impressive horse and anything he does would not surprise us,' he said. Another import Mr France speaks highly of is Magic Circle, to be steered by last year's Melbourne Cup winning jockey, Corey Brown. 'Magic Circle has had experience over the trip, but does need to overcome the massive hurdle of racing in Australia for the first time,' he said. The TAB, however, suggested Rostropovich, claiming history is on the horse's side. 'On the Eve of the Melbourne Cup, history could be on the side of $26 chance Rostropovich,' the TAB statement said. 'Having crunched the numbers, Rostropovich has more in common with other previous Melbourne Cup winners than any other horse in tomorrows race across five categories age, sex, name, weight and colour.' Melbourne Cup favourite Yucatan shares similar traits to Rostropovich as a five year old, bay coloured horse, with one word in his name carrying less than 54.5kgs, however no horse starting with Y has ever won the Melbourne Cup. TAB are placing their bets on Rostropovich, as history is on the horse's side Journalist Jamal Khashoggi's sons issued an emotional appeal to have their father's body returned home during a sit-down with CNN. Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi said they've been through weeks of agony following his disappearance and the confirmation on his death. 'I really hope that whatever happened wasn't painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death,' Abdullah Khashoggi, 33, said during his interview alongside his brother Salah, 35 in Washington on Sunday. There are varied reports as to what happened to Khashoggi's remains. An adviser to the Turkish President says the journalist was strangled and then dissolved in acid. Similarly, the Washington Post, the outlet Khashoggi was a correspondent for, reports his body may have been dismembered to be easily dissolved in acid. They are citing Turkish government sources. His sons say without their father's body, grieving and closure is not possible. 'All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina (Saudi Arabia) with the rest of his family,' Salah told CNN. Scroll for video Abdullah Khashoggi (left) beside his brother, Salah Khashoggi (right) told CNN in an interview Sunday they want their father's body returned for burial Jamal Khashoggi's (left, and pictured right entering the Saudi embassy in Turkey on Oct 2) body was dissolved in acid after he was strangled inside the an adviser to Turkish President Erdogan claims. The slain journalist's employer, the Washington Post is reporting similarly 'I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon.' Salah, Khashoggi's eldest son says, despite the misinformation he has received about his father's untimely death, he believes Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz when he says those responsible will be found out. 'The King has stressed that everybody involved will be brought to justice. And I have faith in that. This will happen. Otherwise Saudi wouldn't have started an internal investigation,' Salah said. When asked if he was putting his faith in the Saudi King, Khashoggi's eldest son replied 'yes.' Weight of the world: Eldest son, Salah Khashoggi, has to deal with reading between media reports, his large family's inquiries into his father's remains and the investigation into his death, and being the go-between for his family and the Saudi Royal Family, while processing his father's untimely death Salah and Abdullah describe their father as a loving family man, who believed in the direction the Saudi Royal Family is taking the country in. They want people to know he was not a dissedent as has been suggested by Saudi Crown Prince in conversations with Jared Kushner and National Security Adviser John Bolton The Saudi government's official story behind Khashoggi's killing changed dramatically in the the weeks after he first disappeared in Saudi Arabia's embassy in Turkey on October 2, after going inside for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee. On October 4, Saudi government officials said he had left the consulate through a back door. Eventually it became clear that he never walked out. On October 19, the the Saudi's said the Washington Post correspondent was killed in a fist fight inside the consulate. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that the order to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi's came from the highest levels of the Saudi government. What has troubled the journalist's sons the most has been the outright lies surrounding their father's death, and the portrayal of his postmortem legacy. 'Jamal was a moderate person. He was liked by everybody. He had differences and common values with everyone,' Salah said, adding that Khashoggi was an 'amazing' father. Jamal Khashoggi leaves behind his two sons, and two daughters, as well as grandchildren, all who are living in the Middle East and are dealing with an unbelievable spotlight 'I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don't agree with. 'Public opinion is important... but my fear is that it's being over politicized. People are throwing analysis that may direct us away from the truth.' On Friday, it was claimed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Khashoggi a 'dangerous Islamist' to Trump officials shortly after he vanished. Salman told Jared Kushner and National Security Adviser John Bolton that Khashoggi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood during a phone call a few days after the journalist went missing, but before Saudi acknowledged he was dead. While the Muslim Brotherhood is not considered a terrorist organization in the US or Europe, it is considered so in many Arab nations and is perceived to be existential threat to Saudi Arabia. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured) says that he believes the order to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi's came from the highest level of the Saudi government His sons say, however that their father is not only not a dissident, but also firmly believed in the direction the monarchy was taking the country in. Khashoggi's family have previously and repeatedly denied that the reporter - a Saudi regime insider turned critic - was a member of the Brotherhood, calling suggestions that he was dangerous 'ridiculous'. Meanwhile Salah, as the family's eldest heir, has bore the brunt of his large family's inquires into his father's death. On top of trying to wrangle media reports and disinformation about Khashoggi's legacy, he is also personally dealing with his father's death. 'Our source is the same source that you have. It is a mystery. This is putting a lot of burden on us- all of us. That everybody is seeking for information just as we do. They think that we have answers, and unfortunately we don't,' Salah said. 'It's difficult, it's not easy. Especially when the story gets this big. It's not easy, it's confusing. Even the way we grieve, it's a bit confusing,' Abdullah said. 'At the same time, we're looking at the media and the misinformation. There's a lot of ups and downs. We're trying to be emotional and at the same time we're trying to get the story, bits and pieces of the story to complete the whole picture. It's confusing and difficult. It's not a normal situation and not a normal death.' Salah says in the meantime he is waiting for the investigation to be over and for the facts to come out. In an op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday, Turkish President Erdogan said: 'We must reveal the identities of the puppet masters behind Khashoggi's killing.' Elsewhere it was claimed that Mohammed bin Salman called Jared Kushner and John Bolton and branded Khashoggi a 'dangerous Islamist' However, the Turkish president said he did not believe that Saudi King Salman had ordered the killing. Erdogan says does not believe 'for a second' that King Salman had ordered 'the hit' on Khashoggi and he also refrained from directly accusing the crown prince. He also said that Turkey's friendship with Saudi Arabia did not mean that it could turn a blind eye to the killing of the journalist last month in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. An adviser to Erdogan said last week that MbS, as the crown prince is informally known, had 'blood on his hands' over Khashoggis killing. The comments were the bluntest yet from someone linked to Erdogan about Riyadh's de facto ruler's role in the death. In a warning, Erdogan added: 'No one should dare to commit such acts on the soil of a NATO ally again. If anyone chooses to ignore that warning, they will face severe consequences.' Earlier, an advisor to the Turkish President Erdogan said that Khashoggi's body was cut up and dissolved in acid after he was strangled inside the Saudi consulate. John Bolton and Jared Kushner, who took the call, were urged not to abandon US-Saudi ties in the face of the growing scandal Yasin Aktay, an official in Turkey's ruling party, said on Friday that it appears Khashoggi's body was dismembered so it would be easier to melt. Speaking at a business summit in Riyadh, in which he managed to sign business deals worth $50billion despite the killing, Salman said the killing was 'very painful, for all Saudis.' His regime has tried to paint the murder as the work of rogue elements within the Saudi state, which he has pledged to reform, and he called it 'not justifiable'. On Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it would take 'a handful more weeks' before the US has enough evidence to impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia. However, he said the sanctions would focus on individuals responsible for Khashoggi's death, suggesting that the US is following Salman's line and holding 'rogue elements' responsible, rather than the kingdom and its leadership as a whole. 'We're continuing to understand the fact pattern,' Pompeo said Thursday during an interview with Missouri-based KMOX news radio. 'We are reviewing putting sanctions on the individuals that we have been able to identify to date that have - that were engaged in that murder. The news comes as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mulls what action to take against Saudi, and suggested on Friday that sanctions could be ready in a couple of weeks 'It'll take us probably a handful more weeks before we have enough evidence to actually put those sanctions in place, but I think we'll be able to get there,' he said, adding that President Donald Trump had vowed accountability for all involved in the 'heinous crime'. The top US diplomat has previously said the killing 'violates the norms of international law.' But Pompeo emphasized, as Trump has, that 'not only do we have important commercial relationships, but important strategic relationships, national security relationships with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and we intend to make sure that those relationships remain intact.' Speaking at a journalism awards ceremony Thursday, Fred Ryan, Publisher and CEO of the Washington Post which Khashoggi wrote for, urged the Trump administration to take a tougher line. 'When officials of our government are asked about consequences for Jamal's murder, they often talk about 'balancing our interests in the area,'' he said. 'The 'Khashoggi incident' is viewed in some respects as a 'complication' in a far more important strategic relationship. 'But Jamal's death is more than a 'complication.' It is vicious, state-sponsored murder of an innocent journalist,' he added, calling on the government to suspend arms deals with Riyadh and not resume 'business as usual' with the kingdom. 'If those who persecute journalists get away with their crimes - and are allowed to continue with business as usual - it only invites more of the same,' he said. The Post Office has spent an estimated 5million of public money waging a legal battle against its own sub-postmasters. This can be revealed as more than 500 men and women who used to run small branches start a landmark High Court case on Wednesday claiming a giant miscarriage of justice. They are suing the Post Office, claiming they were wrongly accused of theft and false accounting after money went missing from their village branches. Scores were driven to ruin over the alleged glitches in the Horizon computer system they used. The Post Office has spent an estimated 5million of public money waging a legal battle against its own sub-postmasters. File photo The Post Office denies the system was faulty but could face a compensation bill of up to 1billion if it loses. Sub-postmasters and mistresses run small branches and are not employees of the Post Office but private business people. They often take on the role in semi-retirement to operate much-valued local services from village stores or similar locations. But after alleged glitches in the Horizon system reported shortfalls of tens of thousands of pounds, dozens were prosecuted. Some were jailed, scores went bankrupt and at least one suicide was blamed on the accusations. Lead claimant Alan Bates, who kept a branch in Llandudno, North Wales, from 1998 to 2003, said: Im pleased the trial is finally starting and very much hope it will bring resolution for the claimants, all of whom have waited many years for this day to come. Unlike Royal Mail, the Post Office is not a private company and its legal costs are met by taxpayers. In a pre-trial hearing, Mr Justice Fraser revealed the costs for lawyers so far were 10million. If both sides have been spending at the same rate, it suggests the Post Office has spent 5million on lawyers before the trial in London has even started. The Post Office made no comment on the costs but vowed to defend itself robustly in court. File photo Legal fees for the sub-postmasters are being met by private litigation funding firm Therium Capital Management, which will take a cut of any damages or shoulder any costs. The judge also rejected a bid by the Post Office to strike out sections of the sub-postmasters witness statements for what he called public relations reasons. He said the evidence was properly admissible and added: The principle of open justice is an important one. The Post Office made no comment on the costs but vowed to defend itself robustly in court. A spokesman said: We have worked hard over a number of years to address the issues raised. We have conducted thorough investigations and sought to resolve some of the claims through mediation. The claimants represent a very small proportion (0.01 per cent) of users of our Horizon computer system users since 2000. The system is operated successfully by thousands of employees, postmasters and their staff to process 47 million transactions every week, including on behalf of high street banks. Jessica Anne King, 38, was arrested and held at Orange County Jail on the criminal charge of child neglect Thursday. She has since been released on bail A Florida woman was arrested and charged with neglect of a child after her six-year-old son got lost trick-or-treating alone until 10.30pm on Wednesday. The young boy was found wandering a half-mile away from his Nicoma Trail home. His mother Jessica Anne King, 38, allowed him out until 8pm on Halloween but the child did not have a watch with him or any way to tell the time. King, who lives in Maitland, told law enforcement she let the boy go alone because she was ill. She also told them she had fallen asleep so didn't realize he was not home yet. The youngster was discovered by a man and a woman who noticed him dressed as an astronaut. While he was aware of his address he did not know the route back home and told the strangers he had been out alone 'since the sun was out'. He added that his parent was 'resting', according to a police report. They stopped off at a house to give the child water as he complained of being thirsty and noted that he 'immediately chugged' the drink. The pair told law enforcement that when they took him home afterwards, King 'seemed unfazed by her child being alone'. Her son was found at 10.30pm Wednesday wandering a half-mile away from his Nicoma Trail (pictured) home in Maitland, Florida after his mother allowed him out until 8pm but fell asleep When cops questioned the mother about whether she thought it was a good idea for her child to be out alone, she told them she 'guessed not'. King was taken into custody Thursday. She was held at Orange County Jail on the criminal charge and released after posting bail. King declined to comment after she was freed, reports Orlando Sentinel. The Florida Department of Children and Families was notified by law enforcement of the incident. King's child is currently in the care of a neighbor at the request of her family. A detective who led the hunt for Madeleine McCann has made 350,000 from a book on the case that slurred the missing girl's parents- but they are determined to make him pay. Court documents show retired Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral made more than 350,000 from his book The Truth of The Lie and a DVD spin-off. He claims Madeleine died in an accident at the Algarve apartment in 2007 and her parents then covered it up, according to The Sun. Kate and Gerry are currently battling him at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to prevent him cashing in on the disappearance of their daughter. Goncalo Amaral claims Madeleine (pictured) died in an accident at the Algarve apartment in 2007 and her parents covered up the crime Kate McCann (pictured left) and her husband Gerry McCann (pictured right), parents of missing British youngster Madeleine McCann, leave the court house in Lisbon after delivering statements in their case against Portuguese police officer Goncalo Amaral in July 2014 Portugal's former top investigator Goncalo Amaral pose with his book entitled 'Maddie:The Truth about the Lie' A source close to them said: 'If Goncalo Amaral continues to make these outrageous claims then he will find he has a tough fight on his hands. 'Kate and Gerry are not going to let him get away with what he said about them.' An injunction against the book he released was issued in 2009 and the couple started a libel action against Amaral. They won the case in 2015 but the ruling was overturned on appeal, a decision upheld by Portugals Supreme Court. According to documents filed at the ECHR, Mr Amaral made 342,111 euros from book sales in 2008-2009 and another 40,000 euros from the DVD spin-off. It is believed that he also made 20,000 from interviews about Madeleines disappearance, and has made more money in book sales since the injunction was lifted. The McCanns have now gone to the ECHR and the couple fear if they lose, it could wipe out the remaining 750,000 in the fund set up to search for Maddie. The three-year-old vanished from an apartment in Portugal's Praia da Luz during a family holiday in May 2007. Court documents show Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral (pictured) made more than 350,000 from his book The Truth of The Lie and a DVD spin-off Gerry and Kate McCann whose daughter Madeleine disappeared from a holiday flat in Portugal She and her younger twin siblings had been left sleeping alone in their beds while her parents were dining in a nearby tapas restaurant with pals. Last month it was revealed in The Mail that donations from the public to the Maddie Fund have dwindled to 'virtually zero' over the past 11 years. A source close to Kate and husband Gerry said: 'The idea that money is still flooding in is just wrong. Donations dried up a long time ago. At times the story comes into the news a few kind people send in a quid or two but their is nothing of any real value.' The Madeleine Fund, officially called Leaving No Stone Unturned, was launched shortly after she went missing. Its sole purpose of to find Maddie, support her family and bring her abductors to justice. A sum of 750,000 is left in the pot which the McCanns will dip into to pay for their own private investigators if the police search is shelved. Over the years money had been flooding into the Fund - which once topped nearly 2million - much it from online sales of merchandise to help the search for Maddie, who would now be aged 15. But Kate recently closed the shop, posting on the Find Maddie website: 'Unfortunately, due to many commitments and pressures, I am unable at this time to attend to website orders. We greatly appreciate your support. Thank you to everyone who has kindly donated to Madeleine's Fund through our Online Store. Your support means a lot to us.' In the first months of Maddie's disappearance from the Algarve 1.8million poured into the fund including more than 64,000 from sales of T-shirts, wristbands and 'holiday packs' posters and car stickers holidaymakers could paste up when they went abroad. The following year generous supporters donated more than 600,000, with merchandise again a s large part of the fund. But over the years is has dwindled to a few thousands pounds and now virtually nothing. Kate's 2011 best-selling book 'Madeleine', with serialisation rights, netted her 1million which she ploughed into the Fund. Together with serialisation deals, it is understood the book which became a best-seller has raised nearly 1million for the fund, which has six trustees including Kate and Gerry, both 50. Kate and gerry are now 'keeping fingers crossed' the search for Maddie will carry on for another six months Their pal said: 'The funding is down to the Home Office and the police. Kate and Gerry have no say in the matter. They have been here before. They simply have no idea if the search will come to an end or will carry on. It is a daunting prospect they face once more and time is running out for a decision to be made.' The last handout of around 150,000 was given at the start of April which runs out at the end of September. A pervert who sexually assaulted a kindergarten student claimed she 'knew exactly what she was doing' and 'wanted it'. Cornelus Bezuidenhout, 75, who claimed to be a 'good Christian', made the vile comments to police in January after the girl pleaded with her parents to keep him away. The South African national - a father of five - who now lives in Melbourne, had been looking after the girl after befriending the parents of his niece's friend. Cornelus Bezuidenhout, 75, blamed his six-year-old victim for her own molestation He had repeatedly molested the child after collecting her from kindergarten, taking her on trips to the park and playing dolls in a bedroom. On one occasion he touched the little girl while he shared a meal with her parents. The brazen sex offender was caught after his terrified victim pleaded with her parents not to let him come around to their house. 'He's not as nice as he seems,' she warned, telling her shocked parents Bezuidenhout had 'touched her private parts'. The child was forced to recount her ordeal to the court just days before Christmas last year, telling a judge her abuser had hurt her. The devout Baptist pleaded guilty to two charges of sexually assaulting a child aged under 16. He had initially denied abusing the girl, telling his wife of 26 years that nothing was wrong. Cornelus Bezuidenhout abused a six year old girl and then told police she 'wanted it' He continued his outrageous behaviour when questioned by police, telling them the little girl was trouble. Bezuidenhout blamed his victim for her abuse, telling detectives 'it was no accident'. 'It was purely for her as she wanted it,' he said. 'It was a game ... she knew exactly what she was doing.' Bezuidenhout said he abused the girl only to 'please her' and that he was a 'good Christian' who had been unable to maintain an erection for the past five years. 'This little girl should know boundaries because she'll get herself into trouble,' he told police. He went on to muse that it was 'unbelievable a five-year old seduces a 75-year old man'. County Court of Victoria Judge Gabriele Cannon agreed. 'The punishment must be just,' she said. Judge Cannon condemned Bezuidenhout for his 'gross breach of trust' and labelled his comments to police as 'repugnant'. 'You knew what you did was wrong ... you blame the six-year old victim,' she said. She sentenced the civil engineer to 22 months in jail, with a non-parole period of 10 months. With time served, Bezuidenhout will likely be deported back to South Africa in a little under seven months. He will return alone after his wife filed for divorce with plans to remarry. ' Full Frontal host Samantha Bee made a witty retort to Mike Huckabee after he claimed anyone who votes Democrat on Tuesday will get a lump of coal in their Christmas stocking. Huckabee, a Republican and former governor of Arkansas, was tweeting about the 2018 midterm elections with the ballots due to be cast on Tuesday in one of the most divisive and closely watched midterms in recent memory. He tweeted: URGENT! Just got off phone with Santa Claus calling from North Pole and he said anyone who votes for a Democrat will get a lump of coal in his/her stocking. He said there is a reason his suit is red'. Full Frontal host Samantha Bee (left) delivered a hilarious response to Mike Huckabee (right) after he claimed anyone who votes Democrat will get a lump of coal for Christmas Mike Huckabee implied voters will benefit more if they vote Republican rather than Democrat Samantha Bee was quick to respond to Mike Huckabee with this put down of the Republican party But Full Frontal host and comedian Sarah Bee was quick to respond to Huckabees contribution, retweeting his post along with the caption: Breaking: Democrats put coal miners back to work.' Bee was seemingly referring to criticism of Donald Trump for not delivering on his pre-election promise to put coal miners back to work. Government data shows the US added about 2,000 coal mining jobs since Trump took office, but economists said the change is not statistically significant. The export-fueled bump in coal production and coal-mining employment is forecast to fade next year. In 2017, Trumps first year in office, 8,000 coal miners were hired to work in mines across America. That figure, while seemingly significant, was just a 1.6 per cent increase from the previous year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while the overall number of coal miners across the nation now exceeds 50,500, its a far cry from the 80,000 who were employed as miners as recently as 2000 when Democrat Bill Clinton was president. It is not the first time Samantha Bee has criticized a member of the Huckabee family It is not the first time that Samantha Bee has criticized a member of the Huckabee family. In a sketch earlier this year, Bee explained why she thought White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders - who is Mike Huckabees daughter - was simultaneously 'amazing' and 'evil'. 'Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a f*****g liar,' said Bee. 'Calling Sanders a liar isnt an insult, its her job description.' Donald Trump is greeted by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee during his campaign event in August 2016 in Fort Lauderdale Huckabee is known for his sometimes inflammatory remarks about the Democrats and was accused of racism for this tweet which was directed at Nancy Pelosi Bee also praised Sanders for keeping her job for so long in the Trump administration. You have outlasted every man whos had your job and almost any other job in the Trump White House to become one of the most powerful women in the nation,' Bee said. 'You are a hell of a role model for little girls everywhere who are smart and hardworking and completely evil.' In 2008, Huckabee hosted the Fox News Channel talk show Huckabee, ending the show in January 2015 in order to explore a potential bid for the presidency. Other Twitter users were also critical of Huckabee's sarcastic put down of the Democrats But in February 2016, He suspended his presidential campaign after a disappointing finish in the Iowa caucuses. He later announced that he was all in for Trump. Earlier this year he accused of being a racist after he tweeted a photo on Saturday of five men who appear to be using hand signs associated with the MS-13 gang with the caption, 'Nancy Pelosi introduces her campaign committee for the take back of the House'. Huckabee has a history of making inflammatory remarks, including ones that have drawn criticism from within his own party. While running for president in the 2016 election, Huckabee invoked the Holocaust to criticize then-President Barack Obama, comments that drew a rebuke from his then rival former Florida governor Jeb Bush. A woman handed an abandoned newborn to a guest at Walt Disney Worlds Animal Kingdom Lodge, according to authorities. The Orange County Sheriffs Office says it received a report at 2am on Sunday. Sheriffs deputies said that officials at the Animal Kingdom Lodge reported an abandoned infant. A woman handed an abandoned newborn to a guest at Walt Disney Worlds Animal Kingdom Lodge, according to authorities A guest walked into the lobby and told officials that an unknown woman handed the newborn child to her while she was outside, according to WOFL-TV. The baby was rushed to Celebration Hospital in good health. Florida's Department of Children and Families has been notified of the incident and is investigating along with the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Florida has a so-called 'safe haven law' on the books. The law allows parents of a child born within seven days to leave their infant at a hospital or fire station without facing prosecution. startAD, the accelerator and entrepreneurship hub at NYU Abu Dhabi and powered by Tamkeen, has announced that applications for the second edition of the competitive startup programme will open today (November 5). Organized in partnership with the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the second edition of Beyond the Pitch is open to UAE residents between the ages of 18 and 25. Under the theme of sustainability, the contest continues to harness the entrepreneurial talent of the UAEs youth to drive solutions to the critical challenges of climate action, the circular economy, green cities, and sustainable food and agriculture. These topics were selected by startAD alongside its partners GGGI and the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment in order to encourage local ideas that will have a significant impact on the environment and economy. Applications can be submitted online until January 15, 2019; an information session will be held at the Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Centre (DTEC) in Dubai on November 25 from 6-8pm. The program is highly selective; only 15 projects will be accepted. Individuals or teams with an existing technology project are encouraged to apply; they must be able to demonstrate a scalable project with the potential for a global impact. Projects that have been a part of previous hackathons, pitch competitions, or other programs will also be considered. Minister of Climate Change and Environment Dr Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi said: Todays youth play a vital role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Hence, the UAE has prioritized the engagement and empowerment of youth at the highest levels. Initiatives, such as Beyond the Pitch, support UAEs efforts and several other initiatives launched to encourage entrepreneurship among youth and attract innovative startups to the region. Youth value independence and autonomy and believe that it is their duty to improve their communities, and eventually, the world. The UAE has also created a number of platforms that give youth an opportunity to voice their dreams and aspirations, as well as motivate them and harness their innovative solutions to global issues. Director of startAD Robyn Brazzil said: With 35 per cent of the UAEs population under the age of 25, this program is a great opportunity for local youth to take innovative and impactful ideas and turn them into viable business models in a short period of time. Beyond the Pitch is true to its name. We sought to fill the gap created by pitch competitions and hackathons, by providing much needed follow on support and guidance. The 15 successful teams will go through two preliminary boot camps on February 8-9 and February 15-16, 2019, where they will receive instructions on ideation, getting to product market fit, and customer development. Additional workshops will be held throughout the program from March to April with a focus on developing and validating a business model as well as learning how to present to a diverse audience of potential partners, customers, and investors. The 2019 intake of applicants will receive oversight and support from business leaders and entrepreneurs. GGGI and the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment will also support in matching teams with green business experts to help them gain valuable insights into how to create a successful green business. The 2018 cohort of Beyond the Pitch saw 17 teams from four emirates and 11 universities gain access to 20 mentors. Participating teams included Project Vision, which was awarded $3,000 for its development of an innovative Artificial Intelligence virtual assistance platform for the visually impaired. TradeArabia News Service The Education Secretary is demanding billions more for schools following a Budget in which the Chancellor lavished more money on potholes than classrooms. Damian Hinds said education spending was a special case that deserved more than the real-terms freeze currently on offer to all departments outside the NHS in next years spending review. Philip Hammond warned last week that a huge increase in health spending meant other departments would be left with an average zero per cent real-terms settlement in the three-year review. Damian Hinds said education spending was a special case that deserved more than the real-terms freeze currently on offer to all departments outside the NHS in next years spending review But, in an interview with the Daily Mail, Mr Hinds made it clear this will not be enough for education, which is facing a rising school population and teacher shortages. Schools and colleges, education, is a different category of spend from others, he said. This is about investment in our skills base, its about bringing on the next generation, its about social mobility, its about fulfilling the potential of children. Teachers drowning in paperwork Schools will today be warned to cut classroom red tape, amid fears excessive hours spent on paperwork are causing teachers to burn out. In a joint letter to head teachers today, Education Secretary Damian Hinds and Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman warn that teachers are drowning in unnecessary and meaningless data. They say teachers now spend more than half their time on non-teaching tasks, such as data collection, marking and lesson planning. Mr Hinds told the Daily Mail that the culture of excessive data collection by schools had developed over years, with many now collecting information that was not required by Ofsted or his department. He said: As a teacher you want to inspire children, you want to develop them, you want to bring the absolute best out of every child. Youre much more likely to be able to do that to best effect if youre sharp and wide awake and not frustrated by filling in a load of Excel spreadsheets. Advertisement We know on a simple economic level our productivity levels are not nearly where they should be theres a big gap compared to Germany and America. And we need to improve our skills base. Weve seen great improvements in education primary reading is a fundamental building block but also later on in school. Crucially from a social mobility perspective, the gap between the rich and poor has narrowed. Education is delivering. It has demonstrated its ability to deliver and for the spending review, and for all Government planning, there is a very strong case for education. Last weeks Budget provided an extra 400million for schools this year. But Mr Hammond angered teachers by suggesting that this cash, for what he called the little extras, would solve their funding problems. The phrase led to a tidal wave of mockery from teachers and parents, with schools pointing out there was no point buying new whiteboards, as Mr Hammond suggested, if there were not enough staff to use them. One parent joked that they would be dressing their children as potholes to see if we can get more funding for their school after the Chancellor announced 420million for road repairs. Mr Hinds winced when asked about the Chancellors phrase. And while he defended the new money, he made little effort to disguise his frustration about the way the announcement was handled. Last weeks Budget provided an extra 400million for schools this year. But Philip Hammond angered teachers by suggesting that this cash, for what he called the little extras, would solve their funding problems Asked if he would use the phrase himself he laughed nervously and replied: No, the phrase I use is for additional small capital projects. 'Look, 400million is a substantial sum of money and its good that because of the strength of the economy and great record on employment that its been possible to find some extra capital money for in-year spend, including crucially in schools. When you take that 400million and divide it down to individual schools, this will be for relatively small capital projects. Nevertheless I hope it will be of use to schools. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson announced Britain is to open a major new military base in Oman in a drive to boost UK influence post- Brexit Britain is to open a major new military base in Oman in a drive to boost UK influence post-Brexit. Hundreds of troops will deploy to the permanent joint training base in the Middle East from next March, the month Britain leaves the European Union. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson made the announcement as he watched the culmination of Britains biggest war games exercise in nearly two decades. In scenes reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher in 1986, he rode to a live firepower demonstration in a Challenger 2 main battle tank. He emerged from the turret wearing a helmet and body armour, with a Union Jack flag flying behind him. Baroness Thatcher was similarly photographed in a Challenger after the Falklands War. Mr Williamson said he did not have the former PM in mind when he got inside the tank, but the visit was a great chance to speak to soldiers in the desert. Williamson said hundreds of troops will deploy to the permanent joint training base in the Middle East from next March, the month Britain leaves the European Union About 5,500 British personnel have spent a month pretend fighting an invasion force alongside 70,000 Omanis. Speaking from HMS Albion afterwards, he said: This is the largest military exercise that is going on in the world at present. Britain isnt retreating from the world. We are stepping out. He said Britain had for so long been looking just at Europe and it was time to go global. The symbolism of this Omani British base opening as we exit the European Union I hope isnt lost on people, he added. Parents complained after a photograph of the pupil was posted online. It showed him in uniform alongside the caption: Hows there a 30-year-old man in our maths class? A refugee school student under investigation by the Home Office over claims he lied about his age told a fellow pupil he was a married father-of-two, it has been alleged. The asylum seeker reportedly told the pupil he was 25, despite the authorities believing that he is only 15. Concerns were raised after the student, understood to be from Iran, began studying for GCSEs at Stoke High School in Ipswich, Suffolk. He is thought to have travelled from Germany to the UK where he was given asylum. Pupils began speculating about his age soon after he joined classes in September and one 15-year-old girl at the school told teachers that he had bombarded her with text messages. Parents complained after a photograph of the pupil was posted online. It showed him in uniform alongside the caption: Hows there a 30-year-old man in our maths class? Pupils also found a Facebook profile in the same name as the pupil. It showed a man with a thick moustache and chest hair swigging from a bottle of beer. Stoke High School in Ipswich, Suffolk. Pupils began speculating about the pupil's age soon after he joined classes in September and one 15-year-old girl at the school told teachers that he had bombarded her with text messages The profile claimed to be of a former architecture student at the Islamic Azad University in Abadan, Iran, who had lived in Erfurt, Germany. Outraged parents threatened to remove their children from the school, which has 680 pupils, until a full investigation was conducted. Some who complained to the school say they were told the student had the appropriate paperwork. But claims emerged yesterday that the pupil, who speaks in broken English, has admitted he is much older than his Year 11 classmates. One mother, who asked not to be named, said: My son asked him how old he was and he replied that he was aged 25 and married with two kids. I feel the school could have done more before allowing him into the school. I also feel a little disgusted about the school not putting the safety of the real students first. The Ormiston Academies Trust, which runs Stoke High School, last week asked the Home Office to investigate. The school said the pupil is no longer attending classes. A mother whose daughter was left with a broken pelvis after an inflatable slide collapsed during fireworks display has called on them to be banned. Donia Echouafni's daughter Nadine was one of eight youngsters injured when a 30ft slide 'popped' during a funfair event on Saturday. Ms Echouafni recalled witnessing 'a sea of children' writhing in agony after the slide came crashing down in Woking, Surrey. Nadine, 12, was the last of the children to be discharged from hospital following the incident. Ms Echouafni has now called on MPs to outlaw the inflatables and for greater safety at funfairs. Scroll down for video Donia Echouafni's daughter Nadine (pictured together) was one of eight youngsters hurt during the incident at Woking Fireworks on Saturday The deflated slide is seen on the ground in Woking Park after it collapsed injuring eight children last night Ms Echouafni recalled witnessing 'a sea of children' writhing in agony after the slide came crashing down in Woking, Surrey She told ITV News: 'I don't want to be the killer of joy and say that we should eliminate everything and go health and safety mad, but I don't want another child to go through this. 'It was a traumatic event for adults, let alone children. To see what looked like a sea of children lying down on the ground screaming and unable to move is something that no child should ever witness.' Another mother who pulled her children off an inflatable slide moments before the eight children were hurt said it was an 'accident waiting to happen.' Hayley Arris was at Woking Fireworks in Surrey with her husband Jonathan and their four children on Saturday night. She said one of the kids came down the slide and said: 'It's going to pop, daddy.' That came moments before Surrey Police declared a 'major incident' after multiple children fell from the 'giant inflatable slide' at about 7.30pm, shortly before the display was due to start. Parents who took their children to the event said there were 40 children playing on the inflatable slide - when rules state there should only be 12 at one time. 'You could tell straight away it was dangerous and overcrowded,' Ms Arris told the Sun Online. 'When our kids went up, I turned to my husband and said, "Get them off, it's manic up there. It's an accident waiting to happen."' The funfair that hosted families awaiting fireworks was under police cordon on Sunday, Police investigators with cameras were inspecting other attractions, including the crooked house and the Ferris wheel Ms Arris said there 'more and more' kids of all ages were piling onto the slide and many were getting hurt on their way down. 'I've never seen so many kids on an inflatable slide like that - it was a free for all,' she said. 'It was so chaotic that when the kids were sliding down they were knocking their heads together.' She said there was no attendant manning the slide to ensure the safety of the children, only a person collecting payment. The collapse of the slide is now being investigated after eight children were taken to hospital. Tory MP Robert Halfon (pictured) has called on the government to implement a temporary ban on inflatable slides Seven of the children, all aged under 16, have been discharged. One boy was kept in for overnight observations but suffered injuries 'not thought to be significant', police said. Tory MP Robert Halfon has called on the government to implement a temporary ban on inflatable slides until all regulations 'are updated'. He told BBC 5Live: 'I reiterate my urge to the government that they should have a temporary ban on inflatables and bouncy castles in public places until all the regulations we know have been updated. 'Twenty injuries since 2011, we've had two tragic deaths - the time for just looking at it is over. 'The government have got to have possibly a temporary ban on these things until we know for sure that they're safe and no parent has to ever worry again.' Fireworks organiser Michael Holden, of Woking District Rotary, said it appeared the children had fallen to the ground from the top of the slide. Mr Holden, who estimated around 5,000 people were in the park when it happened, said the circumstances around how the children were injured remain unclear. 'We don't still know yet what exactly happened but eight children appear to have come off near the top of the slide and landed on the floor alongside it,' he said. Horrified witnesses saw the structure 'buckle' around 8pm before eight injured youngsters were rushed to hospital. But despite parents' claims the slide looked 'flimsy', the funfair organiser who hired the ride insists it was 'standing until midnight' and says the children simply 'fell off.' A deflated inflatable slide sits on the ground in Woking Park, Surrey where the collapse of the slide during a fireworks funfair which resulted in eight children being taken to hospital The slide (pictured) was believed to have collapsed at the fireworks display at the park in Woking John Edwards, of Edwards Amusements, told the Sun it wasn't overcrowded and the children 'fell off' the slide onto grass - not concrete as previously claimed. He said: 'It didn't collapse. Never in a million years. It's still being investigated but it definitely was not overcrowded as they cleared it out in five minutes and there are only three entrances. 'It did not collapse. It was still standing at midnight. 'The children were injured because they fell about 10 to 12ft from the slide, which was about half-way up. They fell onto grass on the bottom, and it was quite soft grass.' Mr Edwards told the newspaper he did not witness the incident, but reports of the slide collapsing are just 'speculation'. The event organiser's claims are contrary to parents' complaints. Andy Datson, 23, said he saw up to 40 children on the slide, which he estimated was about 30-ft high, despite rules saying there should be 12 at most. 'We had been walking past the slide earlier in the night and said it looked unsafe. It looked pretty flimsy to say the least,' he said. 'There were far too many kids on it. It didn't look like it could hold that many people.' Oliver Trimble told the BBC that the evacuation was announced over the event's loudspeakers shortly before 8pm, when the fireworks were due to begin. Horrified witnesses claim they saw children plunge on to concrete when a slide in Woking Park, Surrey suddenly 'buckled'. One parent, named only as Carl, told the BBC he stopped his son from going on the slide because he feared he would get hurt. He said: 'My son asked me 'dad please can I go on the slide?' and I looked and saw about 20 kids on it and said 'there's no way you're going on there.' 'I thought someone's going to come off that injured - they're going to get a kick to the head. It looked so dangerous. My parental instinct kicked in.' The funfair that hosted families awaiting fireworks was under police cordon on Sunday, the collapsed slide completely deflated. Police investigators with cameras were inspecting other attractions, including the crooked house and the Ferris wheel. The event was shut down and hundreds were evacuated after the accident last night. One man, who was with his wife and nine-month-old son, said: 'We heard kids screaming and then saw them begin to fall off the side.' Others reported that the slide had earlier looked 'flimsy and unsafe'. But despite the severity of the casualties, some disgruntled attendees at the event were quick to take to social media to request refunds. They have since removed the posts following outrage from other Twitter users. Woking Fireworks had tweeted that they would deal with ticketing issues later, as some people asked for refunds One user had replied to a thread from Woking Fireworks where others had asked for refunds Some people suggested that the refunded ticket price should be donated to the air ambulance service Some Twitter users described those asking for refunds as 'scumbags' Woking Fireworks tweeted to apologise for having to evacuate the park Twitter users responded to the statement from Woking Fireworks regarding the incident Organisers at the local Rotary Club responded on Twitter: 'We are all very shocked and distressed by events in the funfair this evening. 'We are focusing in assisting the emergency services in dealing with the injured children. 'If you'll excuse us, we'll turn our attention to dealing with ticketing issues etc when we can?' Emergency workers said those hurt suffered a range of spinal and neck injuries, and broken arms and legs. Some were taken to hospital by air ambulance. Safety guidelines say there should be no more that 12 people on an inflatable of that size at any time, but witnesses suggest that more than three times that number of children were on the slide when it collapsed. Andy Datson, 23, saw up to 40 children on the inflatable. Police officers surrounded the slide, situated in the funfair area of the park where a fireworks display was due to take place The air ambulance reportedly left the park at around 9.15PM to transport the last casulaties He said: 'We had been walking past earlier in the night and said it looked unsafe. It looked pretty flimsy to say the least. 'There were far too many kids on it. It didn't look like it could hold that many people.' The horrific accident happened at 7.20pm at a funfair held alongside one of Surrey's biggest fireworks displays, which attracts about 12,000 spectators. The tragic toll of inflatables JULY 2018: Three-year-old Ava-May Littleboy dies after being thrown 20ft when an inflatable trampoline explodes on Gorleston Beach in Norfolk. AUGUST 2016: Nine children are hurt when an inflatable slide blows over in Swanage, Dorset. MARCH 2016: Summer Grant, seven, dies after a bouncy castle is blown 50ft into the air with her stuck inside in Harlow, Essex. JUNE 2015: Four children and an adult are injured in Fife when an inflatable slide slips its moorings and is blown 150 yards. JULY 2006: Claire Furmedge, 38, and Elizabeth Collings, 68, die and 12 others are seriously hurt when an inflatable sculpture blows 30ft into the air in Co Durham. Advertisement Surrey Police declared a 'major incident' saying it involved 'a number of people falling from an inflatable slide'. The force added: 'A number of children fell from the slide and were injured. Eight children have been taken to hospital with potentially serious injuries. 'We are grateful to the public of Woking for their understanding and assistance in quickly evacuating the scene.' Musician Anna Neale was among hundreds of people evacuated from the park, which had been packed with families with young children awaiting the fireworks display. The 36-year-old said: 'We saw all the blue lights and then the air ambulance arriving. We all evacuated very calmly. Everyone was just shocked.' She had planned to take her daughters, aged ten and six, on the giant slide after the fireworks. 'I am very grateful my children didn't go on it, let's just put it that way.' Others described the aftermath, with one saying: 'The mood is very sombre It's very quiet.' Other witnesses described the horrifying event, saying: 'It is a terrible scene. many of the children have got broken arms and legs and obviously terrified. 'I have seen the air ambulance arrive at the scene and at least one of the children has been flown to St. Georges Hospital in London where doctors have been put on standby.' Ambulances leaving Woking firework display after up to seven children were injured on an inflatable slide The fun fair at the fireworks display was empty following the incident Ambulances from all over Surrey were scrambled to the incident and at least four of the badly hurt children were taken to St Peter's Hospital, in Chertsey, in a serious condition. Surrey Police earlier said in a statement: 'We have declared a major incident following a number of people falling from an inflatable slide at the Woking Park fireworks display at around 7.30pm this evening. 'We are appealing for anyone who witnessed the incident, or has video or photographic footage of what happened, to make contact with Surrey Police via 101, or surrey.police.uk/ReportIt, quoting reference PR/P18262524.' The event was being held at Woking Park, on Kingfield Road. Gates opened for the event at 6PM this evening and the firework display was set to begin at around 8PM. Tickets for the event were priced at 12 for a family which would include two adults and two children, and this price was for attendees who purchased their tickets in advance online. Organised by the Rotary Club of Woking District, the 'Fireworks Extravaganza' is considered to be one of the best firework displays in the South East, and in the past has been one of the most popular events held in Woking. Police and ambulance crews arrived at the scene, following the collapse of the Helter Skelter Pictures from Woking Fireworks show members of the emergency services treating an unknown patient next to an inflatable slide. People at the event have been evacuated following the incident Social media users were keen to show their support and one user 'Roy Cooper' said: 'I sincerely hope the injuries aren't too serious. 'My grandson was on the inflatable next to the incident at the time. Never seen so many ambulances. Thoughts are with all the families concerned. 'Jit Kakad' posted: 'Just seen air ambulance hovering above the park - just hope those injured are being attended to swiftly.' After being evacuated many users took to social media to express their well-wishes for the people injured during the incident. Once user 'Anna' wrote on Twitter: 'Just been evacuated from Woking fireworks due to a fairground ride collapsing thoughts out to everyone involved.' Gates opened for the event at 6PM and the fireworks display was set to begin at around 8PM Attendees at the funfair had to be evacuated and it was reported that around 12,000 people had showed up Ambulance crews at the scene at the park in Woking, Surrey where people were earlier evacuated Other users were disgusted by other attendees who had asked for refunds with one user 'Chris Young', labelling them as scumbags. He said: 'Just do a search for 'Woking Fireworks' on Twitter. You'll see the scumbags asking for refunds.' He also added: 'It's nothing short of appalling that people's minds go straight to money when children have been seriously injured. 'We don't care about getting our money back, we just want all those involved to be OK. Keep up the good work @wokingfireworks.' Tim Noble said that these people were a 'failure to human society'. Police officers were deployed to help the flow of traffic coming out of the park Tickets for the event cost around 6 per head with family tickets also available Responding to a thread he said: 'to the woman that was not impressed for not being given a refund you are a failure to human society we stopped to listen to you saying its not your fault its its not your problem a few children have been seriously hurt if not worse and all you care about is your family ticket.' Tom McLaughlin said that 'anyone asking for their money back, now or at all, should be thoroughly ashamed'. Replying to the thread, 'Helen' said: 'OMG that's shocking that people are asking for their money back at a time like this....' Other users suggested that they could donate the refunded amount to the people who had been affected by the incident, Tyler Anthony Groves said: 'People are inexcusable! I will donate my 12 to the families effected or the air ambulance if you don't mind.' Several police cars were parked around the surrounding area of the park as emergency services dealt with the incident Emergency service vehicles such as ambulances and police cars lined the roads on the outside of the park A lawsuit claims Tatyana Gleyzerman (pictured), 54, subjected Yekaterina Angert, 34, 'to a barrage of unprovoked inappropriate personal revelations' An ex-seamstress at Tom Ford's flagship New York store is suing the company and her former manager, claiming her boss fired her after she didn't engage in sexually inappropriate conversations and took time off work due to anxiety. Yekaterina Angert, 34, worked at the Madison Avenue branch of the designer brand from June until October. She alleges in a lawsuit that Tatyana Gleyzerman, 54, subjected her 'to a barrage of unprovoked inappropriate personal revelations'. 'For example Gleyzerman told [Angert] that she was 'very horny,' and that she 'needed sex for breakfast, lunch and dinner,' court papers say about the manager whose LinkedIn profile states she is the 'alterations manager/head fitter-tailor/special services VIP/ Tom Ford PR of women-men's clothing'. 'Gleyzerman also told [Angert] that she owns 'every sex toy that is possible to own' and 'today with an iPhone and technology you can do anything with sex toys',' the lawsuit document continues. The paperwork states that the 'behavior escalated from inappropriate to downright nasty and discriminatory' when the plaintiff did not engage with the unprofessional chat. She even claims the accused told her that the Manhattan workplace was anti-Semitic and encouraged her to hide her religion. Angert's lawsuit says she was told 'not to discuss her Judaism or kosher observance' because 'they don't like Jews around here'. The complainant adds that Gleyzerman tried to force her to work on Jewish holidays. The accuser used to work as a seamstress at Tom Ford's flagship Manhattan, New York store The paperwork states that the 'behavior escalated from inappropriate to downright nasty and discriminatory' when the plaintiff did not engage with the chat at the Madison Avenue branch Her treatment at work allegedly evolved to the line manager continuously reprimanding her by yelling in front of co-workers and executives on a high level that it made her sick with anxiety. The accuser is suing both the individual and the Tom Ford (pictured) company for unspecified damages Angert mentions she was hospitalized twice due to panic attacks during her short time at the company and eventually had to take time off because her complaints to people higher up in the team were not immediately acted upon. Then she was let go after taking leave to cope with her illness. The accuser is suing both the individual and the company for unspecified damages. 'It is sad to see this level of abuse go on in today's day and age, particularly at an institution as prestigious as Tom Ford,' the New York Post reports Angert's lawyer, Maimon Kirschenbaum, said. Tom Ford appears to be backing Staten Island resident Gleyzerman, who has worked for Versace, Gucci and Calvin Klein and studied in the Ukraine. A spokeswoman for Tom Ford told The Post: 'We have investigated the claims made and found them to be without merit, and we look forward to vigorously opposing them in court.' On August 8, 1918, Allied forces began an offensive which marked the beginning of the end of the First World War. The Battle of Amiens, lasting for three days, kick-started the Hundred Days Offensive - a series of onslaughts which eventually broke through German resistance. Troops courageously battled on the Western Front until November, robbing the German army of the substantial gains they made in the Spring. Here, war correspondent William Beach Thomas, writing in August 1918, describes the breakthrough which ultimately carried the Allies to victory. This was the British Army's finest day From the Front by W. Beach Thomas From dawn to midday yesterday we watched from a hill outside Amiens possibly the greatest feat of arms in the annals of the British Army, and the arms were of the strangest and most various sorts. On the ground were our iron horses on caterpillar feet, while 300 feet above flew airmen whose impudent audacity has never been excelled. Seldom did high adventure end more triumphantly or begin in such great strain. Jubilant: Men of the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles after returning from the front during the Battle of Amiens Victors: American troops celebrating the gains made during the Battle of Amiens It was not yet light when we passed through a village heavily shelled earlier in the night. Two dead horses, a broken ambulance and the rubble of several houses told some part of the tale. Soon we reached one of the best observation posts ever provided by nature for a battle drama, but darkness and mist clinging to us like facecloths were over everything and increased the strain felt by the waiting soldiers. Everyone was asking himself the vital question: Did those German divisions hidden in the fog suspect the imminent threat? Probably yes. By a happy accident for the enemy, one of his special storm divisions had attacked us on Tuesday, taken several prisoners and probably seen signs full of meaning. If they had noticed them and thus discovered our secret, we should know at any minute, for the enemy would inevitably soak our roads and ways of approach with gas and hammer our front lines with explosive. A map printed in the August 9, 1918 edition of the Daily Mail. The dotted line and arrows show the advance made by Allied troops a day earlier But, as the hour and minute approached, the silence grew deeper. Our own harassing fire died down and the enemy were firing no more than scattered, haphazard shells. Everyone's spirits rose as zero hour approached. It was now as certain as normal signs could make it that the enemy was unaware. At 4.25 the silence broke into splinters and even the darkness and mist seemed to open at the clap of our preparatory barrage. A gunner observer who had fought through the Somme and Flanders said, as he lifted a telephone in his dug-out: 'It is the best I ever saw.' Afterwards every other wounded soldier all down the line spoke of the barrage almost as a lover. It absolutely flattened what there was of wire and trench. This thunder continued like one protracted clap for just four minutes. As it halted and checked just for a moment in order to be lifted farther back on the enemy, we knew the infantry and tanks had charged. But nothing whatever was visible and the mist now came down thicker than ever. Though it was clear above, one could see scarcely 40 yards along the earth. Aeroplanes nevertheless seemed to hum overhead in about equal numbers with the shells. At 5.45 appeared the first group of prisoners, about two score. I never before saw prisoners quite like them. They were spick and span, no dirt, no heat, no bloody sconces or limp limbs. Only their uniforms and bayonets suggested war. The sight was almost ludicrous. They had apparently surrendered to the barrage itself in sheer admiration without making the effort to fire. Some of the prisoners said that a local attack was expected soon, but that when the barrage opened and the infantry charged they were taken completely by surprise. They were ignorant of the general trend of the war. None seems to have heard of the capture of Soissons, but a rumour had reached them that Fere-en-Tardenois was taken by the French. The men were of a good type and well-equipped. British troops beam as they pose for a photograph wearing captured German helmets American soldiers on the Western Front just days before the breakthrough Battle of Amiens began RAF officers at Clairmarais aerodrome near Ypres in July 1918 Presently more prisoners dribbled back, some carrying wounded men on stretchers. Some of these say the tanks were too quick for them. I heard afterwards that a whole battery and crew were taken prisoner without firing a shot. At 8 Old Rupert, as someone called him, nearly evoked a cheer. Rupert is a sausage balloon. He was 3,000 ft up and miles nearer the enemy than any balloon I ever saw. Observers regarded him as lost and kept looking nervously up, but no Fokker approached. Our fighting planes, in spite of the low mist, were perhaps up in overwhelming numbers. By 9 the mist was vanishing quickly. The gun glistens on the dewdrops on the grass blades seen through the slit of an observation dug-out. The telephone rings; a keen young gunner at the other end wants to know if he may shove his guns forward. He adds: 'Infantry have taken all the enemy's field guns and are pursuing his heavies.' His optimistic estimate was not accepted, nor his request granted immediately. At 9.30 we all felt that open warfare was beginning, and I could see across Hamel Village such movement of men and machines as I never saw before. Not a single German shell fell in their neighbourhood. It was amazing, incredible, and the sense that a great success had been won came over all observers. The telephone tells that 1,500 prisoners are coming back, and, in a few minutes, I see companies of them marching along the bank of the river below. At 10 the picture of the battlefield was magnificent. But it was time for me to go farther back and hear more precise details of the stirring things I had seen. As the sun conquered the mist, one airman I spoke to saw scenes of confusion much farther afield. German batteries and strings of vans scampered off and the hurry produced a muddling of which our airmen, with machine-gun and bomb, took all advantage. Not out of the woods yet: Allied gunners with a hastily camouflaged artillery piece during fighting near Amiens It is said that among the scamperers was a German general. He was seen in all his panoply by a low-flying airman, running for his life from a pursuing tank. The airman did not see the sequel, of course, but it is believed the general was out of breath and was finally taken prisoner. British troops fighting north of the First French Army is any sight more stirring than khaki alongside blue on days of battle? attacked the enemy on a front of about 15 miles, from Morlancourt to the woods south of the Bray-Roye road. This northern piece is a whale's-back chalk ridge dividing the Ancre and the Somme. The southern part is an undulating plain with some woods. The hardest fighting came, and was expected, on these two wings. In the north the enemy had put in a new picked division, had himself attacked two days earlier and made special preparation for defence with massed garrisons. In the south the obstacles were different but as great. There we had to cross the River Luce, a peculiarly difficult passage both in itself and because the enemy had built first-class trenches. There was tough fighting in the middle, too. Cerisy village, on the south bank of the Somme, was quite commanded from a spur on the northern bank and, for a time, the advance was checked, but a message to the northern troops was instantly answered. 17 TONS OF BOMBS The RAF reported that observation was rendered difficult by ground mist, but a considerable amount of reconnaissance and photography was carried out. Over 17 tons of bombs were dropped during the day with good effect and a large number of combats took place. Fifteen hostile machines were brought down and seven driven down out of control. Two of our machines are missing. One ton of bombs was dropped during the night and one of our night-flying machines is missing. Yesterday morning British aeroplanes also carried out a successful attack on the explosives factory at Rombach. Good results were obtained and all our machines returned. Advertisement They attacked the high ground at Chipilly and, thanks to their quick co-operation, Cerisy was taken at a rush with just over 300 prisoners. In the extreme south the woods proved tougher than the river crossing. One regiment cleared part of Hangar Copse after hard bayonet fighting. Dodo Wood, commanding the Luce River, was half-encircled and then rushed. Hard fighting was reported from Cemetery Copse and from Hamel Wood but, in spite of these checks, the advance went on with astonishing speed all along the line. One unit had taken trenches 6,000 yards from their starting point before 11 o'clock. Men of another unit had actually reached points well over five miles from our front trench early in the afternoon. The infantry showed great ingenuity through the half-open warfare which succeeded the first assault, in manoeuvring round machine-gun nests and in hiding themselves, octopus-like, in their own smoke. Their movement was so quick and concerted that the enemy had little time to remove his guns. The feature of the day was the extinction of the German artillery. Its answer to our barrage was rather slow and patchy, though up to standard in some places, notably north of the river. One isolated shot deserves mention. It hit one of our ammunition lorries full, damaged the engine of the lorry but did not explode a single shell or hurt the driver. Such partial successes were few. As soon as the infantry were well on the move, the enemy's gunners began to pack up and many must have had little chance of saving their batteries. In no battle has our artillery proved so mobile or moved more secretly or nearer to the enemy, or fired so accurately. The liaison with the French was perfect. The same may be said of the British troops on the two sides of the Somme. How the Battle of Amiens might have been reported today A fascinating four-page spread in today's Daily Mail showing how the Battle of Amiens was reported back in 1918... The release of CCTV footage of a brazen thief who allegedly stole $6000 worth of lawnmowers from six Bunnings stores has led to a man being charged. Queensland detectives have charged a man, 36, for several alleged fraud offences across North Brisbane and Moreton last month. Police will allege the man attended Bunnings stores at Rothwell, North Lakes, Morayfield and Carseldine, where he stole Honda mowers valued at over $1,000. A man (pictured) will appear in court next month after he was captured on CCTV allegedly stealing lawnmowers at six Bunnings stores across southeast Queensland A Bald Hills man was charged with five counts of enter premises and commit an indictable offence, one count of forgery, one count of possessing items for forgery, one count of use thing to forge document and an unrelated weapons charge. He will appear in Pine Rivers Magistrates Court on November 29. The man wasn't happy to see the 9 News cameras outside the police station after he was charged on Sunday night but still found time to stop and take a selfie of himself being filmed. He was charged after CCTV footage was aired on 7News earlier that night of an alleged bandit sporting an impressive rat's tail mullet and distinctive tattoos who stole six lawnmowers by simply walking them out the front door. A thief allegedly stole six lawnmowers from Bunnings by walking them out the front door Footage from six separate Bunnings stores across Brisbane showed the alleged thief wheeling trolleys past the self-service counter and exiting the shop. It shows the man allegedly pushing a cart with a large box strategically placed on its lowest shelf. The lawnmower, which was visibly perched on a trolley, was wheeled out of the store in Brisbane. The man was nicknamed the Bunnings Bandit when footage of the alleged incidents aired Additional footage was taken from other stores across the Brisbane region, which shows him using the same tactic to steal another five lawnmowers. In some instances, the Bunnings bandit allegedly feigns using the pay-wave service on his card at a self serve check out, before again wheeling the lawnmowers through the front doors. Police allege inside the boxes are identical Honda mowers worth more than $1000 each, which they believe were being offloaded on buy-sell-swap Facebook pages. Police urge anyone with information to contact Policelink on 131 444. Police allege the man was reselling the mowers on buy/swap/sell pages or on another similar platform A 32-year-old man has been charged with seriously injuring a toddler. Police attended a property in Strathmore, Melbourne, on Thursday following an investigation by the Fawkner Sexual Offences Child Abuse Investigation Team. They arrested a man over an alleged incident involving a two-year-old at East Keilor, 16km north-west of Melbourne's CBD, in April 2016. A 32-year-old man has been charged with seriously injuring a toddler two years after the alleged incident took place (stock) The man resisted arrest and was bitten by a police dog, police said. He was transferred to hospital due to an arm injury. Police charged him with intentionally and recklessly causing serious injury and conduct endangering life. The man was also charged with possessing meth-amphetamine and drug of dependence. He is due to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Monday. Schools will today be warned to cut classroom red tape, amid fears excessive hours spent on paperwork are causing teachers to burn out. In a joint letter to head teachers today, Education Secretary Damian Hinds and Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman warn that teachers are drowning in unnecessary and meaningless data. They say teachers now spend more than half their time on non-teaching tasks, such as data collection, marking and lesson planning. Teachers now spend more than half their time on non-teaching tasks, such as data collection, marking and lesson planning Mr Hinds told the Daily Mail that the culture of excessive data collection by schools had developed over years, with many now collecting information that was not required by Ofsted or his department. He said: As a teacher you want to inspire children, you want to develop them, you want to bring the absolute best out of every child. Youre much more likely to be able to do that to best effect if youre sharp and wide awake and not frustrated by filling in a load of Excel spreadsheets. White doctors are more likely to be promoted in the NHS than their ethnic minority colleagues, research suggests. The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) found that although white British doctors apply for fewer posts as consultants, they are more likely to get one. Black and minority ethnic (BME) staff account for a third of the NHS workforce, but less than 6 per cent in some senior positions. White doctors are more likely to be promoted in the NHS than their ethnic minority colleagues, research suggests An RCP survey of 487 doctors who became NHS consultants last year found those from a BME background applied for an average 1.66 posts before succeeding, as opposed to 1.29 for white British doctors. The figure for shortlists was 66 per cent compared with 80 per cent. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the British Medical Association, told The Guardian: This study is further confirmation of the unacceptable racial bias that exists within the NHS. The RCP, which represents hospital doctors in England, said the unconscious bias could mean that talented BME doctors are being overlooked for promotion. RCP president Andrew Goggard called the findings a clear warning signal. Access to onboard connectivity is increasingly becoming a deciding factor in whether young and talented individuals want to spend their lives at sea, and whether shipping companies are able to retain experienced and high qualified seafarers, said an expert. Speaking at a panel discussion at Seatrade Maritime Middle East to address the critical role of connectivity in the maritime Industry, Drew Brandy, senior vice president, market strategy, Inmarsat Maritime said: The benefits of equipping crew extend far beyond social media, this is about empowering people to be more efficient, more balanced and better employees. France-based IEC Telecom, one of the leading global providers of managed network communication solutions along with Inmarsat - a pioneer of mobile satellite communications, hosted the session. The Navigating Connectivity While at Sea session brought together renowned industry experts including Brandy; managing director at IEC Telecom Middle East Nabil Ben Soussia; marine superintendent for Mercan Group Gurkan Buyuktelli; and Rashid Isa Rishi Al Heddi, group managing director of Seamaster Maritime. The session was presented in four panels, where experts shared their evidence-based perspectives on the critical role connectivity plays in enhancing ship efficiency, safety and environmental standards, the direct link between connectivity at sea and crew wellness and the benefits of unlimited internet access for ship management, it said. Drew Brandy opened the session presenting outcomes of a new Royal Holloway University of London study commissioned by Inmarsat and the Sailors Society that draws on the availability of communications tools and its impact on crew behaviour, self-esteem, wellbeing and even productivity. With over 90 per cent of worldwide trade served by the maritime market, vessels at sea rely on broadband connectivity and VSAT technology to stay in touch with operations on land, increase work productivity and improve the quality of life for seafarers that are the backbone of the maritime industry, it added. The research also revealed that pressures related to the lack of reliable and sufficient digital connectivities amplify other pressures such as financial pressure, family strains, and isolation felt by seafarers regardless of status. Nabil Ben Soussia, managing director at IEC Telecom Middle East emphasised the need for companies to implement the right balance between meeting corporate goals and maintaining crew welfare for operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness. He added that with no fundamental technology or financial barriers to connectivity at sea, and with innovations in technology propelling a networked economy on land, it is becoming easier to ensure connectivity at sea. Yet, businesses are quite reluctant to provide open access to crews on account of fear of increased and high running costs, large file downloads and overall work disruption. Ben Soussia said: Maritime companies today acknowledge that onboard connectivity is linked directly to seafarer welfare as well as business productivity. As such, the challenge is to balance the two well while maintaining budgetary control at all times. Our solutions like OneGate Maritime are designed to meet all of these requirements. Ben Soussia explained that the OneGate Maritime is a unique platform developed by IEC Telecom that meets the dual requirements of onboard connectivity for crew welfare as well as for corporate use. It provides 360 support for corporate communication, helping businesses manage bandwidth, monitor usage consumption, control budget and retrieve 24/7 satellite support. At the same time, the OneGate Maritime improves the crew wellbeing on board by providing access to a high-quality voice and data connection including VoIP, web browsing, VOD and emails. It allows tight control over budgets while managing crew allocations. It also includes the ability to hold remote crew training, arrange special assistance via telemedicine and more. Captain Buyuktelli, marine superintendent, Mercan Group Chemical Tanker Operator presented the benefits of unlimited internet access to ship management with insights from end-users on different challenges and opportunities. With thousands of merchant ships crossing the oceans and millions of cargo containers in tow, Capt. Buyuktelli explained the need for fast and efficient communications aboard vessels and between land and sea. Buyuktelli added: Equipping crew with the right tools including onboard connectivity is about empowering them to do their jobs more effectively as well as helping them stay in control of their lives. Connectivity is about more than just web-browsing or access to social media; its about providing support for problem-solving, remote diagnostics or telemedicine as well as opportunities for continuous learning, he said. Sharing insights on digitalised communications in the UAE, Rashid Isa Rishi Al Heddi, group managing director of Seamaster Maritime, said: Maritime businesses in the UAE are beginning to acknowledge that connectivity can have a direct positive impact on business productivity as well as crew welfare. Connectivity can benefit such areas as container movements, crew welfare, ship management and operation, cross-industry collaboration, land and shore communication. Ultimately businesses will see a reduction in costs, increase in productivity as well as improved overall industry cooperation, he said. The maritime industry is today on the cusp of a technology revolution and will witness significant transformation over the next decade. Some of these changes have already started to take hold. Today we see increased automation onboard vessels with more systems connected to shore-based operations. This facilitates the constant monitoring and support to ensure operational efficiency and minimal disruption. As the industry embraces digitalisation, paper-based activities and documentation will give way to electronic transfer whether it is for navigational purposes, scheduling or port documentation. The panel was moderated by Captain Zarir Irani, global president of the IIMS and a veteran mariner with more than 27 years of work experience in the Maritime and Oil & Gas industry who contributed greatly to the discussion on maritime connectivity. The discussion highlighted that within maritime communications, the impact of technology and a whole host of rich multi-media functionality is being embraced to achieve operational efficiency and competitive advantage; however, the right policies, adequate education, and a thorough understanding is imperative to ensure the drive for change, it stated. TradeArabia News Service Do you think itll be a favourite or a roughy? Will you back a European raider or one of the local battlers? Should we fancy a tough stayer or a quick finisher? The questions over the Melbourne Cup form are many, but boil down to one: whos going to win? The market, and many of the experts, say Yucatan. The sentimentalists will back the 10-year-old Who Shot Thebarman, and a lot of women will be putting their money on the only mare in the race, Youngstar. Scroll down for video Race day is here! Thousands will head to Flemington for the race that stops a nation Owner of Magic Circle, Marwan Koukash, shows his g-string during the Melbourne Cup parade Likely winner Many will look to precedent, and those that do might conclude that Godolphin - the world's richest racing stable cant win despite having three runners with strong credentials. For two decades, the stable's owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, has been trying and failing to win the Melbourne Cup. So does that mean Godolphin simply cant win our biggest prize, or does it mean that it is due? The stable will saddle up three runners on Tuesday: Best Solution and Cross Counter, both trained in England, and Avilius from the local arm of the operation where hes trained by James Cummings, whose granddad Bart knew a thing or two about preparing Cup winners. All three are given a chance by bookies: Best Solution, which won the Caulfield Cup last month in his first local run is paying $13; Cross Counter is at $10 despite not having raced in 10 weeks and never in Australia; and Avilius is at $13, having won four straight races before finishing a creditable fourth behind the unbeatable Winx in the Cox Plate. The concern with European horses is that they are accustomed to racing in small fields, with lots of galloping room - something they simply don't get in the Cup with a densely packed 24-horse field. This is the main risk with Cross Current, despite his impressive European form. To counteract that, Godolphin has chosen accomplished local jockey Kerrin McEvoy, who has won the Cup twice. From barrier 19, it will require an expert ride to win. Best Solution, on paper, has more going for him. From barrier six, he should get a comfortable run on or near the rail throughout the race, and as he showed in the Caulfield Cup, he can start his sprint a long way from home. The plan will be to get him out in front of the field at the top of the straight - the only question is whether he can hold on against the fast finishers out wide. He does carry the heaviest weight in the field, but it is the same 57.5 kilos he had winning at Caulfield. What of the favourite Yucatan? His odds shortened dramatically after an easy victory on Caulfield Cup day when he was eased up but could have won by ten lengths if ridden out to the line. Owner Lloyd Williams - who has two strong runners on Tuesday - has a superb recent record, with winners in 2007, 2012, 2016 and 2017. Prepared by Irish master trainer Aiden O'Brien, there are plenty of reasons to back Yucatan with confidence. However, his price of $6 certainly doesn't represent value for a horse drawn out wide in barrier 23, from where he will be forced to use up energy early to get a decent position near the front of the field, where he likes to race. His stablemate The Cliffsofmoher at $17 represents much better value. He's a backmarker drawn nicely in barrier 9 who should get a cosy run in the hands of arguably the worlds top jockey in Ryan Moore. In the stallions two local starts, he ran on strongly from the back in both the Caulfield Stakes and Caulfield Cup, all with the intent of peaking on Tuesday. Ultimately, Best Solution is the top horse in the race, having won four straight top class races in a row. So were tipping him to win, albeit with the caveats that it has been 17 years since any horse completed the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double and no top weight has won the Cup since Makybe Diva completed her hat trick in 2005. The Cliffsofmoher should finish hard and would be the next pick, and maybe try a roughy for third. Best Solution, ridden by Pat Cosgrave, hangs on for victory on the rails in the Caulfield Cup ahead of the fast-finishing Homesman. Best Solution will carry the top weight in Tuesday's Melbourne Cup. OUR MELBOURNE CUP WINNER: Best Solution Outsiders Don't worry if the horse you fancy is at long odds, as plenty of outsiders in recent times have won or placed. It is a handicap after all, so even the most moderately performed horse must be given some chance. Michelle Payne became the first female jockey to win the Cup on Prince of Penzance in 2015 at the tasty odds of 100/1, the 2008 winner Viewed was 40/1 while British galloper Red Cadeaux ran in the placings three times at odds ranging from 20 to 60/1. So how do you pick a roughy in the Cup? History shows two good guides - inside barriers and light weights. It tells you something that last year's top four started in barriers 2, 3, 4 and 5. When Prince of Penzance won at huge odds, he started in barrier 1, hugged the fence the whole way and preserved a lot of energy to unleash in the final two furlongs. The placegetters that year - Max Dynamite and Criterion - were in barriers 4 and 2 respectively. Prince of Penzance was also lightly weighted with 53 kilograms, and the two winners since have carried even less: Almandin had 52 kilos in 2016 and Rekindling carried only 51.5 last year. On those criteria, who fits the bill this year? The inside two barriers belong to local outsiders. Sydney veteran Auvray is at $101 but is a tough stayer at his best on firm tracks, while Vengeur Masque ($67) has finished midfield in his three lead-up runs but has plenty of stamina and will keep working to the line. Among the best lightweights are Prince of Arran and the Gai Waterhouse-trained Runaway. Kerry Packer, who made many massive bets on the Cup, worked off the theory that you should always back horses coming off a win leading into the Cup. Both tick that box: Prince of Arran hung on tenaciously to take out the Lexus Stakes on Saturday and earn the last place in Tuesdays field, while Runaway took out the Geelong Cup the same preparation as recent Cup winners such as Media Puzzle, Americain and Dunaden. But the horse that could run well at big odds is last years Victorian Derby winner Ace High. He won impressively in Sydney before being well beaten in the Caulfield Cup where he was forced into an unfamiliar leading role on an unsuitable soft track. If not for that excusable flop, hed be at half his current quote of 80/1. Yucatan returns to the winner's stall after winning the Herbert Power Stakes at Caulfield. His easy victory in that race saw him installed as the clear favourite for Tuesday's Melbourne Cup. Connections delight in the victory of Runaway in the Geelong Cup. Jockey Stephen Baster, trainer Gai Waterhouse and owning syndicate chief Anthony Mithen are all smiles. Runaway is a lightweight chance in Tuesday's Melbourne Cup. TOP OUTSIDER: Ace High Multiples For many punters, the Cup is all about having a crack at the multiples, with trifectas and first fours often paying massive amounts. When Green Moon took out the 2012 Cup, the first four paid a record $1.4 million for every dollar bet. Older punters can remember when Vintage Crop became the first European horse to win in 1993, and the trifecta paid $68,000 thanks to placings for rank outsiders Te Akau Nick and Mercator. Miracle bets aside, the only way to make such big collects is to select the entire field when choosing the placegetters, which either involves betting a large amount, or accepting only a small percentage of the dividend. But for those looking to economise and dream of the giant collect, they need to select only a few runners. With a big-priced outsider often running a place, thats easier said than done. If you want a good collect with a few selections, its best to take a gamble by leaving out the fancied horses. How about trying the best-of-the-locals trifecta below. Hit that, and you can retire early. VALUE TRIFECTA: Ventura Storm, Runaway, Ace High Racehorse owner Lloyd Williams has won the Melbourne Cup five times, including the past two. He has two strong chances again this year with favourite Yucatan and The Cliffsofmoher. Our Melbourne Cup rankings for 2018: STRONG CONTENDERS: 1. Best Solution: The class horse of the race, chasing a fourth straight Group One win. Ideally drawn in barrier 6. Carries the top weight though. $12 2. The Cliffsofmoher: Great trainer, great jockey, good barrier. Should get a cosy run in back half of the field and a big threat if he finds a good late run. $18 3. Ace High: Derby winner had excuses for bad Caulfield Cup but previous runs very good. A roughy who needs to show dash early to overcome a wide draw. $101 4. Yucatan: Super impressive winner last start, and will start as favourite. Can owner Lloyd Williams win three straight Cups? The risk is his very wide gate. $6.50 5. Avilius: No shame in being beaten by Winx in the Cox Plate, and won four straight before that. A brilliant finisher who will be a threat if he gets a clear run. $14 6. A Prince of Arran: Tough win on Saturday when he just kept digging deep at the front. Wide barrier but has a forceful and in-form jockey. $21 7. Ventura Storm: Beaten only two lengths by Winx, then flew late in Caulfield Cup and won Moonee Valley Cup. Can't knock that form. $41 8. Runaway: Led throughout to win Geelong Cup and could take some catching with a light weight if he tries the same tactics here. $51 9. Vengeur Masque: Ran on late in lead-up runs and should appreciate two miles. Son of Monsun, who sired three of the past five Cup winners. Barrier 2. $91 10. Auvray: Close in Metropolitan, unsuited on bog track last start. From barrier 1, this stayer will be on the rail near the back so needs to start his run early. $151 TAKING A CHANCE: 11. Youngstar: The only mare in the race, she got within a length of Winx in Turnbull before pulling too hard early in the Caulfield Cup. Lightweight chance. $15 12. Magic Circle: Genuine stayer who won his previous start in England by six lengths but unusual preparation as he hasn't raced in almost six months. $8.50 13. Cross Counter: Godolphin stable rates him highly but are asking a lot of a young horse to win a big, high-pressure race like this in only his eighth start. $9.50 14. Muntahaa: Impressive win in a good Cup reference race last run. No local start, foreign trainer and foreign jockey - sign of confidence or hubris? $13 15. Marmelo: Beaten favourite in last year's Cup. No local runs this time, so is he fresher or underdone? Champion jockey Hugh Bowman a plus. $15 16. Rostropovich: Will need to spend energy early, sprinting to a good position from a wide barrier, so can he last the distance? Minimum weight his best asset. $23 17. Finche: Euro stallion who finished well in Geelong Cup in his first start for Winx's trainer Chris Waller. Doesn't have Hugh Bowman this time though. $26 18. Sound Check: Imported stallion was a close second to Best Solution in Germany two starts back but no match for that horse in Caulfield Cup. $41 HIGHLY UNLIKELY: 19. Chestnut Coat: Japanese horses filled the Cup quinella in 2006 but don't count on a repeat as he looked very one-paced in the Caulfield Cup. $71 20. Who Shot Thebarman: A 10-year-old having his fifth Cup start. Relishes these long races and still competitive but his best days are behind him. $61 21. Red Cardinal: Trainer Darren Weir and jockey Damien Oliver know how to win big races, but his recent form has been very ordinary. $67 22. Nakeeta: British veteran ran fifth in the Cup last year but mediocre UK form and a poor local run last week gives little confidence. $126 23. Sir Charles Road: Kiwi gelding couldn't win the Coongy or Bendigo Cups in past two starts, so asking a lot to perform here. $101 24. Zacada: Narrowly beaten in the Sydney Cup in autumn but nowhere near winning in four starts this spring. Will be at huge odds. $176 Four pet food factory workers in Queensland have been rushed to hospital after a chemical spill at a pet food factory. Queensland Ambulance was called to the Real Pet Food Company in Ormeau, on the Gold Coast, just after 8am on Monday. Paramedics assessed workers at the factory for respiratory complaints following exposure to an unknown gas. Queensland Ambulance was called to a pet food factory (pictured) in Ormeau just after 8am on Monday following reports of chemical exposure A total of 12 people have been assessed with four patients being transported to hospital from the workplace incident in Ormeau, Queensland Ambulance confirmed on Twitter. Three people were taken to Logan Hospital in a stable condition, while a third was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital in a serious condition. A spokesperson for Queensland Fire and Emergency Services told Daily Mail Australia confirmed that the spill was the result of two chemicals being mixed together to create a gas. Four factory workers at The Real Pet Food (pictured) Company in Queensland were rushed to hospital Three people were taken to Logan Hospital in a stable condition, while a third was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital in a serious condition Scientific officers were on scene to measure the level of reaction in the contaminated areas, and to test and neutralise the chemicals. 'Just after 10.30am, they had neutralised the chemicals and were doing some air sampling before giving the all clear,' the spokesperson said. QLD Fire and Emergency Services deemed the area safe just before 11am. Donald Trump flipped the script on Democrats as he headed into the final stretch of mid-term campaigning, claiming that it's liberals who want to 'turn back the clock' and 'throw America in reverse' in this election. Trump implored Americans of every background to 'reject the Democrat politics of anger and division and to unite behind our proud and righteous destiny as Americans' at his fourth rally of the weekend. The president was campaigning on Sunday night in Tennessee along GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who is seeking to replace retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker. She told a cheering crowd midway through the Chattanooga event: 'And if you want to vote no on Hillary Clinton and her cronies one more time, stand with me and let's win this election!' President Donald Trump (pictured at the rally in Tennessee) claimed that it's liberals who want to 'turn back the clock' and 'throw America in reverse' in this election Trump was campaigning in Tennessee along GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn (pictured together) Trump beat Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. But he warned voters that his agenda could easily be unraveled if Democrats win control of the House and Senate on Tuesday. 'The Democrats want to turn back the clock, throw America in reverse and return power to a corrupt, selfish ruling class that only looks out for themselves. You see it happening, but we stop it,' he said. 'Our opponents are stuck in the past, while we are rebuilding and going into America's great future.' Trump told Blackburns likely voters, 'I need you to vote for a Republican House and a Republican Senate so we can continue this incredible movement, the greatest political movement in the history of our great country.' Listing many of his promises from his first two years in office, including changes to the immigration system that would end the diversity lottery visa program, Trump told them: 'We will keep the criminals, drug dealers and terrorists the hell out of our country.' He said, 'I am asking every citizen, from every party, every background and every race color and creed to reject the Democrat politics of anger and division and to unite behind our proud and righteous destiny as Americans. I need you to get your family, get your friends get your neighbors, get your coworkers and go out and vote Republican. Do it now, do it Tuesday, he said. On Election Day, you need the people of Tennessee to send a message to Cryin Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and the radical resistance by voting for Marsha Blackburn.' Blackburn is squaring off against Democrat Phil Bredesen in Tuesdays election for the United States Senate. Trump dubbed Bredesen a far-left liberal who supports a socialist takeover of health care and totally supports the Democrats' open border madness. The president also claimed that Schumer begged Bredesen to run for the Senate, because hell be a rubber stamp on his agenda. However, Bredesen is one of a handful of Democrats running this cycle has openly stated that he would not vote to elect Schumer to the most powerful position in the Senate. He said in September, You've heard a lot recently of this campaign about me, about these crazy ideas about if somehow I'm elected and go to Washington, suddenly I'm going to turn my back on a whole lifetime of thinking for myself and being independent and suddenly become some kind of a political lackey. That's not going to happen for a bunch of reasons. One of them is that I think a lot of the problem in Washington is with the leadership that we have there now, Bredesen said, name-checking current Republican and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, including Schumer, who ascended to power in 2016 after the last Democrat in the position retired. Schumer shouldnt get too cozy in the role of minority leader and shouldnt expect to become majority leader, even if Democrats win control of Congress, Bredesen said in late September. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at the campaign rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Sunday Trump warned voters that his hard work could easily be unraveled if Democrats win control of the House and Senate We need to get new leadership. I can tell you right now that if I'm elected, and when I'm elected and go to Washington, I am not going to be voting for Chuck Schumer, he asserted. Nevertheless, Trump said that hed be a vote in favor of an open borders agenda that would have illegal immigrants on the receiving end of free welfare, education and the right to vote. Democrats want to abolish ICE and turn America into a giant, sanctuary city, he claimed. Trump said that Republicans have to come out in droves to elect candidates that support him to the House and Senate so that Schumer and Pelosi are not elevated to the legislative branchs most powerful positions. We dont want to take any chance that we get a little bit carried away, so go out and vote, he said addressing the problem of mid-term election complacency. I dont want to see any extremely depressed former congressmen from Tennessee, so go out and vote, he asserted. In remarks that echoed the closing speeches of national Democrats in the last several days, Trump said that attendees of the rally owe it to their ancestors and famous Tennessee residents like Andrew Jackson and Davy Crockett to vote, and vote Republican, in the federal elections this week on Tuesday. Loyal citizens like you helped build this country, and together we are taking back our country, returning power to you the American people, that's what's happening, Trump said. These courageous Americans did not shed their blood, sweat and tears so that we could sit at home while others try to erase their legacy, tear down our history and destroy our proud American heritage. Democrats say its Republicans who are trying to roll back the clock to a time when minorities did not have the right to vote and women were not in control of their bodies. Theyve accused the GOP of voter suppression tactics and making false claims about their plans for federal regulations on health care. Barack Obama accused the GOP of flat-out lying about their intent to cover Americans with pre-existing conditions in their proposed overhaul of health insurance. Trump fired back at him, bringing up his falsely-rated promise that Obamacare wouldnt interfere with patients ability to keep their doctors and existing plans, if they so choose. Democrats have generally used the turn-back-the-clock argument against the GOP since Obama, the first African-American president, was elected to high office in 2008. It was a popular refrain in 2016 from Clinton, too, who if she had been elected would have been the first woman to hold the title of United States president. Leo Varadkar today warned Theresa May Britain cannot unilaterally decide when to pull out of the Brexit backstop - fuelling fears the UK will remain locked into the EU customs union forever. The Irish PM gave the stern warning in a hastily arranged phone call between the two leaders amid reports a Brexit deal is on the cusp of being agreed. He branded the UK a 'divided kingdom' and poured cold water over British hopes the sticking point of the Irish border is finally being overcome in the talks. Reports at the weekend revealed the UK is on the verge of agreeing a deal which would see Britain stay in the EU customs union as a 'backstop' to avoid a hard Irish border. But the PM is facing a Tory mutiny over the plan, with Boris Johnson branding it an 'absolute stinker'. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab is demanding the UK must be allowed to leave the customs union unilaterally within three to six months if the backstop kicks in. A statement from the Dublin government said Mr Varadkar indicated 'openness to consider proposals' - but only on the basis that the 'outcome of any such review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop'. A message posted by Mr Varadkar's deputy Simon Coveney making the same point earlier was retweeted by EU negotiator Sabine Weyand, as Brussels ratcheted up pressure on Mrs May. The way of ending a backstop is the last significant sticking point in the divorce talks, MailOnline has been told. Irish PM Leo Varadkar (pictured on a visit in Dublin today) said he and Mrs May had discussed a 'review mechanism' in a phone call, but it could not be ended by a 'unilateral decision' Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has criticised Prime Minister Theresa May after rumours of a secret Brexit deal were leaked Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab (pictured in Downing Street today) is understood to be demanding that the UK is able to leave unilaterally within three to six months if the backstop does kick in The focus of the tensions was laid bare today with Mr Varadkar saying he and Mrs May had discussed a 'review mechanism' in a phone call. However, any more concessions by the PM the issue could spark a major Cabinet revolt tomorrow. Mrs May is expected to present a new policy paper on Brexit to ministers, with some Eurosceptics fearing an 'ambush'. Mr Raab was among several senior figures including Andrea Leadsom and Esther McVey who have been on 'resignation watch' in case Mrs May breaks key red lines in talks with the EU. Downing Street sources tried to play down speculation about an imminent breakthrough today, and suggested that the EU was trying to turn up the heat. Giving a readout of the call with Mr Varadkar, a No10 spokesman said: 'They agreed that the intention was that the backstop should only be a temporary arrangement and that the best solution to the Northern Ireland border would be found by agreeing a future relationship between the UK and the EU. 'In order to ensure that the backstop, if ever needed, would be temporary, the Prime Minister said that there would need to be a mechanism through which the backstop could be brought to an end. 'She affirmed the UK's commitment to the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and to avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. The Prime Minister and the Taoiseach agreed that discussions should continue.' Speaking to reporters in Dublin today, Mr Varadkar said: 'The UK in many ways is a divided kingdom, the people are split 50/50 over whether they want to leave the European Union or not. 'The cabinet seems divided, the government seems divided, parliament is divided, and that has made it very difficult to come to an agreement. 'Id much prefer to have a united kingdom, a united country, to be our partner in these negotiations, but we dont, so we have to work through.' What is the final issue in the Brexit talks? Theresa May insists the Brexit deal is 95 per cent done - but the final issue of the Irish border backstop may be the hardest part. The backstop sets out what will happen to the Irish border if the Brexit transition ends before a final UK-EU trade deal is in place. Transition is currently due to end in December 2020. The EU is still insisting that in the absence of a full trade deal, Northern Ireland should stay in the EU customs union while the rest of the UK leaves to ensure the Irish border remains open. Mrs May has flatly rejected the idea, saying she would not agree to anything that risked splitting the UK. Instead, the government has mooted a temporary customs union for the whole UK. There would also probably need to be more regulatory checks between mainland UK and Northern Ireland to protect the single market. Some already take place, but they could be dramatically stepped up - potentially creating a huge flashpoint with the DUP. Brussels now appears to be prepared to do a UK-wide backstop in the divorce deal - but insists it must be robust and the UK could not exit it unilaterally. Advertisement The Irish border has been the most vexed issue in the negotiations with the EU over the divorce terms. Brussels had initially demanded that Northern Ireland stays within its jurisdiction for customs and most single market rules to avoid a hard border. But Mrs May flatly rejected the idea, saying she would not agree to anything that risked splitting the UK. Instead, the government has mooted a temporary customs union for the whole UK. However, that concept will be fiercely resisted by Eurosceptics who say there must be a time limit. There would also probably need to be more regulatory checks between mainland UK and Northern Ireland to protect the single market. Some already take place, but they could be dramatically stepped up - potentially creating a huge flashpoint with the DUP. Brussels now appears to be prepared to do a UK-wide backstop in the divorce deal - but insists it must be robust and the UK could not exit it unilaterally. In an article for the Sun today, Mr Johnson said the plan was an 'absolute stinker' and a 'Christmas present of the finest old Brussels fudge'. He warned the government was proposing to 'hand over an amazing 40billion for absolutely nothing in return'. 'We have agreed to remain in vassalage forever,' he said. 'Even after we leave according to this so-called deal we will remain in a nonsensical 'implementation period' in which we will be effectively nonvoting members of the EU. 'For the first time in a thousand years we will have to accept foreign made laws with no power to change or make those laws. We will be a vassal state a colony for at least 18 months, probably more.' He added: 'If the customs union whispers are true, then Mrs May will be leading us to little more than Brexit in name only'. Mr Johnson called on the Cabinet to turn its back on the plans ahead a crunch meeting tomorrow morning. There have been mounting signs of optimism that the UK and EU can thrash out a divorce package. Many of the thorniest issues on the Irish border backstop - which would come into effect if no other way is found to avoid a hard line between Northern Ireland and the Republic - appear to have been resolved. However, Mr Raab is said to have passed on a tough message to Mr Coveney last week, saying the UK must be able to bring the backstop to an end unilaterally and with three to six months' notice. Cabinet Office minister David Lidington was apparently dispatched to Dublin to smooth over the issue on Friday. But the clash could yet torpedo the whole process. The Brexit package on the table is thought to feature extra regulatory checks in the Irish sea - something that could cause fury from Mrs May's DUP allies. Pictured are DUP leader Arlene Foster and her deputy Nigel Dodds in Belfast last week The continuing tensions were laid bare today when Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney insisted that there cannot be a 'time limit' on any backstop, and the UK must not be able to end it unilaterally Mr Coveney tweeted this morning: 'The Irish position remains consistent and v clear that a 'time-limited backstop' or a backstop that could be ended by UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by IRE or EU. 'These ideas are not backstops at all + don't deliver on previous UK commitments.' The message was endorsed by Ms Weyand, Michel Barnier's deputy, who complained it was 'still necessary to repeat this'. As Tory Brexiteers become increasingly anxious about the shape of Mrs May's plan, Mr Johnson slammed the EU over the Irish border issue and accused Brussels of creating an issue that shouldn't exist. 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 According to Mr Johnson, the EU Commission doesn't want a hard border and neither does anyone else involved and the situation was 'designed by the EU' to stop any future independence bids. He added: 'Brexit was meant to be about taking back control. Under this plan we surrender control to Brussels.' The Prime Minister has had a difficult week and her former foreign secretary is convinced that she will come under more fire when MPs realise what the deal will really involved. He branded the rumoured plan 'a national humiliation' and called for it to be thrown out. In response, a Downing Street spokesman said: 'We are not staying in the customs union the Prime Minister could not have been clearer. 'We are making good progress on the future relationship and 95 per cent of the Withdrawal Agreement is now settled. Negotiations are ongoing.' Referring to reports of the agreement, she added: 'This is categorically not the deal.' Mrs May is facing a Cabinet showdown this week over new Brexit concessions designed to secure a deal this month. The Prime Minister will brief her senior ministers tomorrow on new proposals to break the Brexit deadlock, including plans designed to satisfy EU demands for additional checks on goods travelling between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Brexiteer Cabinet ministers are demanding legal advice from the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox before signing off any new proposals, amid fears they are set to be bounced into accepting a deal 'at any price'. In a sign of the Cabinet's twitchiness, Mrs May yesterday held a series of conference calls with ministers to reassure them she had not agreed a Brexit deal without their knowledge. Downing Street dismissed reports that Mrs May has sealed a 'secret Brexit deal'. But Cabinet ministers complain they are being 'kept in the dark' about the true state of the negotiations and fear a deal could be sprung on them as early as this week, with no time to consider the long-term implications. One Cabinet source said Mrs May appeared to be 'desperate' to agree a deal this month to allow more time to get it through Parliament and avoid having to implement costly contingency plans for a no deal scenario. 'The fear is that in her desperation to get it done this month she will be willing to give up anything,' the source said. 'Everyone wants a deal, but they don't want it at any price. That's why half the Cabinet wants to see legal advice from Geoffrey Cox before signing anything off. But when are they going to tell him what they are proposing? Are we just going to be presented with a fait accompli?' David Davis demanded legal advice is made public ahead of a parliamentary vote on the final deal, warning that the deal was 'one of the most fundamental decisions that a government will have taken in modern times'. He added: 'The authority of our constitution is on the line. So we have to get this right and the Government has to be transparent.' Government sources were tight-lipped about the contents of the 'update on negotiations' Mrs May will provide to the Cabinet tomorrow. But it is understood she has now tabled new proposals for regulatory checks on goods travelling to and from Northern Ireland. No 10 dismissed as 'speculation' reports that the checks could be carried out by British officials away from the border. EU negotiator Michel Barnier (pictured in Brussels last month) has been trying to force more concessions out of the UK Meanwhile, Remain-backing Conservative MP Dominic Grieve said reported proposals for the UK to remain in a customs union following EU withdrawal made clear that the whole Brexit process was 'questionable'. The former attorney general told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'At the end of the day it highlights why the entire enterprise is questionable, because in fact what we are likely to end up with is leaving the EU but staying in a relationship of sufficient dependency on it without influence as to call into question the whole project.' Mr Grieve rejected the argument that MPs should back whatever deal Mrs May secures in order to avoid a disorderly exit from the EU, repeating his call for any deal to be put to a second referendum. 'I don't accept that rejecting the deal would necessarily mean it is no deal at all,' said Mr Grieve. 'Of course it would provoke a political crisis ... but there comes a point where you have to look to the long term. 'If the long term is that we are simply going to be continuing this argument long after we've left the EU on March 29 next year as to what our future relationship with it is going to be, then, quite frankly, it would be better to have that argument now and let the public decide what they want and if they are content with the arrangements the Government has come up with.' Just when you thought there couldnt be another anti-Brexit lobbying group, here it comes: A band of company bosses calling themselves Business for a Peoples Vote is to be launched this week. In fact, its a wholly owned subsidiary of the organisation tendentiously called Peoples Vote a group that cant bring itself to mention the words second referendum because it wont admit that what it advocates is nothing other than that the British people got it wrong when a majority of those casting their historic ballot voted Leave in 2016. Somehow, they must be made to vote again but get it right this time. And what do these 70-odd company bosses say in their letter to accompany the launch, leaked to the Sunday Times? The uncertainty over the past two years has already led to a slump in investment, which will make our country poorer. You would never know from this that, over the past two years, employment rates in the UK have actually reached record highs and the unemployment rate is the lowest since the early Seventies. Or that the British economy had been growing, not shrinking. Fury And you would also never know that these are the same people who backed the scare story during the referendum, confected by the then-Chancellor George Osborne, that simply as a result of voting to leave the EU, there would be an immediate recession and up to 800,000 people would be thrown onto the unemployment register. Now they say: We are facing either a blindfold or a destructive hard Brexit. Both these options will further depress investment. Neither was on the ballot in 2016. The Government's pro-EU leaflet, costing more than 9m, that landed on door mats across Britain in the build-up to the EU Referendum Thats right, they werent. Because that ballot paper offered the clear choice of remaining in or leaving the EU. What else could it have done? As the then-Prime Minister, David Cameron, put it in a pamphlet which at a cost of 9.3 million was sent to every home in the land: This is your decision. The Government will implement what you decide. And by a winning margin of almost 1.3 million votes, we decided: Leave. Sir John Major has recently joined the band of those calling for a second referendum. In an article last week for the Evening Standard, which is edited by one George Osborne, the former PM declared there was an overwhelming moral case for a second referendum. John Major (above) is calling for a second referendum, though he originally ridiculed the idea Im not sure Id choose John Major as my moral guide. Especially as he had, before the vote in 2016, told the BBCs Andrew Marr that if the publics choice was for Leave, it would not be politically possible to say: Weve reconsidered, lets have another referendum. If we vote to go out, then were out and we have to get on with it, he told Marr. Which is what Theresa May is trying to do. Youd think, given Majors fury at the way his predecessor Margaret Thatcher had let it be known she disagreed with his policies over Europe, that he would not have lent his support to a campaign which can only have the effect of destabilising Mrs May and her attempts to land a reasonable deal with Brussels. Still, Major has not taken the option of a peerage, so is not a legislator. There are, however, a number of peers among those who have created Business for a Peoples Vote. The group give their names as: Lord Karan Bilimoria, Lord Mervyn Davies, Baroness Martha Lane-Fox, Lord Paul Myners, Lord Rumi Verjee. Perhaps I am pedantic, but I find it infuriating that these characters cant even get their own names right. Only the sons or daughters of dukes, marquesses and earls have their first names included in their titles. And none of Lords Bilimoria, Davies, Myners and Verjee are anything more than bog-standard life peers. Isnt that enough for them? Still, as far as most voters are concerned, the idea that any group of peers can parade as the champions of a Peoples Vote is inherently ridiculous. There are some genuine business heavyweights on the list, though: notably Sir Michael Rake, former president of the Confederation of British Industry, and Niall Fitzgerald, erstwhile boss of Unilever. These two are entitled to argue that Britains leaving the EU will depress investment in this country. Laughable But bear in mind that these same two gentlemen had been in the forefront of the campaign to get Britain to abandon the pound to join the euro. They claimed the nation would suffer economically if we didnt. They were epically wrong about that and have never uttered a word of contrition. Sir Mike Rake (above), who signed the letter, had also campaigned for the UK to join the Euro In other words, the leading lights of Business for a Peoples Vote are exactly the elite whom the majority that voted Leave in 2016 hold in greatest contempt. The idea that these characters could persuade such voters to change their minds is laughable. But it is another businessman about whom those campaigning for a second referendum want us to worry: Arron Banks. Following a referral by the Electoral Commission, the National Crime Agency is investigating Banks for alleged offences committed in the 2016 referendum. Banks had given, or loaned, 8 million to Leave.EU (not the officially recognised campaign, Vote Leave). Controversial businessman Arron Banks leaves the BBC studios after appearing on The Andrew Marr Show The Electoral Commission had been especially concerned about 2 million of this, loaned to another pro-Brexit group, Better For The Country, which it is claimed came from a bank account in the Isle of Man. Under the regulations of the referendum, the Isle of Man counted as a non-British territory and was, therefore, impermissible. By contrast, although the U.S. banks Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley gave generously to the Remain cause, they did so via UK bank accounts. So that was all right. There is a second allegation against Arron Banks: that he was not the true source of all the money he loaned. It is even suggested by anti-Brexit campaigners that the Kremlin supplied some of it. Interviewed by Andrew Marr yesterday, Banks waved bank documents in the presenters face, insisting that all the funds came from him. Banks is a chancer who (like most chancers) can turn from charming to malevolent in a second; and his network of offshore bank accounts in Gibraltar and the Isle of Man may be designed to keep his true financial position conveniently obscure. But even if it were demonstrated that the 2 million for Better For The Country came from the Isle of Man, I doubt many of those who voted Leave will regard that as a reason to start the referendum again. Waste After all, when you include the 9.3 million spent on that Government pamphlet declaring that leaving would be terrible for jobs and the economy, the Remain camp outspent Leave by 28.4 million to 13.4 million. Saner voices among those who campaigned for Remain recognise that Banks should not be used as a means of discrediting the biggest democratic exercise in British history, whatever the outcome of the investigation. Voices such as the Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, who told the BBC: I dont think there is a natural connection to this and calling for a re-run of the referendum. I would rather we focus our resources on holding Mr Banks to account. Actually, Business for a Peoples Vote is a pure waste of resources: there will not be a second referendum. The result of the original one was authorised by both main parties in the 2017 General Election. Subsequently, Parliament endorsed Mrs Mays decision to invoke Article 50, the mechanism through which secession from the EU is carried out. And, under that mechanism, the UK will, on March 29, 2019, cease to be a member of the EU. Who knows, there may one day be a referendum on whether to re-join. In such circumstances, as an applicant, the UK would have to agree to move towards membership of the euro. But thats what these characters Niall Fitzgerald, Sir Mike Rake, Uncle Lord Cobley and all want, isnt it? Let them wait, and then argue that case. It would be more honest. Details of a letter written by gang boss Domenic 'Mick' Gatto to an associate just hours after he shot and killed a rival underworld figure have been revealed. Gatto, 63, claimed he acted in self-defence when he killed Andrew 'Benji' Veniamin, a hitman for notorious Melbourne gangster Carl Williams, in March 2004 during an argument at La Porcella restaurant in Carlton. After being arrested and charged for Veniamin's murder, Gatto - the leader of the infamous 'Carlton Crew' - was taken to Port Phillip Prison's Charlotte Unit, a high-security facility. He wrote a letter to friend Mario Condello - who himself would be shot dead in 2006 - from his cell, calling Veniamin a 'little maggot', the Herald Sun reported. The details of the letter have been revealed just days after Gatto's 34-year-old son Justin was found dead near an apartment complex in the Melbourne CBD. Details of a letter written by gang boss Domenic 'Mick' Gatto (pictured) to an associate just hours after he shot and killed a rival underworld figure have been revealed Gatto, 63, claimed he acted in self-defence when he killed Andrew 'Benji' Veniamin (pictured) in 2004 'I can't believe that little maggot tried to kill me, anyway he is in his place,' Mick Gatto wrote in his jailhouse letter, first obtained by journalists John Silvester and Andrew Rule, published in their book 'Underbelly: The Gangland War.' Gatto wrote that prison had 'changed a lot since the days of old'. 'I feel a bit like Hannibal Lecter (sic), everywhere I go you have to be cuffed and stripped,' he said. 'I can't believe for a bloke that prides himself on not getting involved in all the bulls**t, I can't believe how trouble finds me.' A former boxer and debt collector, Gatto now works professionally as a mediator in the building sector. Gatto used a long snub Smith and Wesson .38 hand gun (pictured) to shoot Veniamin In 2016, Gatto pleaded guilty to two charges related to keeping an unregistered shotgun and ammunition in his home. They were found in a cavity behind a cabinet in an ensuite of his Lower Plenty home in Melbourne. At the time, the court heard Gatto was given the gun in 2005 by Condello after, he was acquitted of Veniamin's death. Magistrate Carolene Gwynn accepted Gatto had a genuine fear for his safety, but said it wasn't an excuse. A former paratrooper who fought in the Falklands War has gone on hunger strike to demand better support for veterans. Gus Hales, 62, claims the treatment of former servicemen is 'shocking' and intends to fast until November 11 - Remembrance Day. Mr Hales joined the army at the age of 18 in 1976 before serving with the Royal Engineers in the Falkland Islands in 1982 before also serving in Northern Ireland. He began his strike on Monday October 29 outside charity Combat Stress' PTSD treatment centre in Audley Court in Newport, Shropshire, where he had been receiving treatment before he claims it was cut off in 2016. Gus Hales, 62, (pictured) claims the treatment of former servicemen is 'shocking' and intends to fast until November 11 - Remembrance Day Mr Hales hopes his protest will raise awareness of the lack of mental health care for soldiers and admits he was traumatised by his experiences serving his country. Combat Stress said they were 'concerned' by the hunger strike and had offered Gus opportunities to be reassessed for treatment. Yesterday, General Sir Peter Wall, president of veterans charity Combat Stress, pledged to review cases of former service members treated for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the Daily Express. He handed the 62-year-old a letter, apologising for his treatment. Mr Hales called Sir Wall, who is his former troop commander, 'brilliant' and that he would continue his protest to highlight the lack of mental health care for soldiers. Married father-of-one Gus, who lives in Builth Wells, Wales, said: 'My work involved finding and clearing minefields. Imagine your worst nightmare, being in a minefield where your next move could blow your leg off while being shelled at the same time. 'Being put under shell fire is the most terrifying experience. 'In the Falklands, I had come from Goose Green to Fitzroy on a chopper and the Galahad was coming in. 'We said to ourselves 'they're sitting ducks', and within a couple of hours the ops room shouted 'air raid warning red'. Mr Hales, pictured at his protest yesterday in Shropshire, joined the army at the age of 18 in 1976 before serving with the Royal Engineers in the Falkland Islands in 1982 before also serving in Northern Ireland 'The next thing you know is there is a huge explosion that echoed around. I was in a machine gun, and suddenly men are being pulled off the Galahad with limbs hanging off and burns. 'Where it happened there were no medical facilities, blokes were taken into a community centre and were lying on the floor, badly burned and screaming. I was right in the middle of that, and you don't come out of that experience in the same way you went in.' Gus, who is a convert to Buddhism, still suffers episodes where he hears the screams of pain and artillery, but said the worst times were in the 10 years after he had left the army. The former NCO, who reached the rank of sergeant after serving for 13 years, said: 'It's not like my imagination, they are echoing through my mind like it's seared on my memory. 'Every memory comes with an emotional state. I'm not just seeing this, but experiencing the emotions that come with it - 36 years later and it can still tear me apart. Crowds gathered to support his cause. He began his strike on Monday October 29 outside charity Combat Stress' PTSD treatment centre in Audley Court in Newport, Shropshire, where he had been receiving treatment before he claims it was cut off in 2016 'It's branded on me like a branding iron on my conscious. 'I have learned to not proliferate the memory, because it's the start of the narrative and if I follow the narrative too far it ends in a complete and utter breakdown. I have to say 'don't go there'. 'But that needs training and awareness, and that is what places like this - Combat Stress in Newport - used to provide, and now it's gone. 'The Government is quite prepared to pay the bill for the sinking of the ships and the lost aircraft, but they should put some money towards the after care, because at the moment we have empty buildings and veterans on the streets. 'It is a modern day travesty. 'When I came back, I was slowly driving myself crazy. 'The first real incident I remember was I going out to meet some people and having an overwhelming sense of anxiety that something was about to happen. I was restless. I'd never get a good night's sleep. I'd always be on the edge, ready to go, always with that sense of being ready to explode into a kind of anger. 'This is how we were primed to go to the Falklands. We did drills and we were taught to cut people's throats, you don't come back from that a gentle being. 'You are brutalised, and you're left with that afterwards. 'People talk about flashbacks and for me it would manifest in intense feelings in my body that would literally cripple me. 'I wasn't able to move. I had a great melancholy and sadness of it all and that I was involved in it.' Gus also previously sought help from Combat Stress at a treatment centre called Tyrwhitt House in Surrey where he was given counselling and respite care. But he claims he was discharged from assistance from the charity without explanation by a welfare officer three years ago, and has yet to receive an explanation as to why. He alleges he has been denied a discharge medical report. Gus believes he is not alone and says he has spoken to other veterans with similar stories. He said: 'The treatment was very therapeutic, it gave you chance to meet other veterans and get your head together. 'What's going to be there for the next wave of veterans? I don't want them to be the same as me. 'November 11 is the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, where this condition first came light. 'It was called shell shock then, it's now called PTSD. 'You can't have all these gushing parades for our glorious dead when we are treating people who are alive in this way. 'This is not political, this is about veterans. It's about the veterans of the past, the present and those yet to come. Sue Freeth, chief executive of Combat Stress, said she was concerned about Mr Hales' decision to go on hunger strike. She said: 'Mr Hales' wellbeing is of paramount importance to us. We're concerned with his decision to stage a hunger strike, especially in this wintry weather, and are keen to resolve this matter quickly 'At Mr Hales' request, our Regional Operations Manager met with him today to discuss his concerns. Unfortunately, he decided not to speak to her. We also offered him the opportunity to meet with one of our clinical team for a mental health assessment, but he also refused this 'In the last three years, we've offered Mr Hales many opportunities to be reassessed for treatment with us if he wished. Sadly he's not taken any of these offers up. We have offered him today an appointment with our Veteran Peer Support volunteer. 'Due to demand, we no longer offer open ended treatment but do provide further treatment as needed. Our aim is to help people recover their independence rather than remain dependent on us 'We really hope Mr Hales will engage with us so we can work with him to resolve his concerns.' Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton had a family night at the theater in New York to catch the production of What The Constitution Means To Me on Sunday. The production written and starred by Heidi Schreck's, a two-time Obie Award winner, was supposed to close on Sunday but has been extended and will now run from November 27 until December 30, according to the New York Times. The off Broadway play was written on Shreck's own experiences interpreting the Constitution in light of women's rights from the time she was 15, and goes through how it impacted her life. Bill and Hillary Clinton pictured with What the Constitution Means to Me playwright Heidi Schreck on Sunday in New York Chelsea Clinton Mezvinsky and Director Oliver Butler pose backstage at the New York Theatre Workshop production of Heidi Schreck's The play, directed by Oliver Butler, comes at a particularly poignant time for interpretation of the 1787 document in America today. President Trump said just last week during rallies leading up to the mid-terms on Tuesday that he questions the constitutionality of birthright citizenship as a guarantee. And just last month, a war over the confirmation of the president's nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual misconduct allegations was waged. The play examines the Constitution's power over women's bodies specifically. During his hearings, Kavanaugh would not say if he found Roe V. Wade to be 'important precedent' but his interpretation of when a woman can excersize her right to an abortion is much more narrowly defined than what federal law currently allows. In a memo Kavanaugh wrote in 2003, which was made public during the hearings, he acknowledged that the Supreme Court 'can always overrule' Roe v. Wade. 'I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since Court can always overrule its precedent,' he wrote, adding that some conservative justices then on the court 'would do so.' There's a reason why it's called the race that stops a nation. Millions of Australians will be watching race seven at Flemington Racecourse on Tuesday afternoon for the running of the Melbourne Cup. But do you know what a $10 each way bet is or are scratching your head as to why you can't see Australia's favourite mare Winx or last year's Cup winner Rekindling in the form guide? Here are the answers to the commonly asked questions that every racing novice needs to know before the big race. Flemington Racecourse will be flurry of fascinators, dresses and suits on Tuesday for the 2018 Melbourne Cup What time is the Melbourne Cup? The 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over is held at 3pm on the first Tuesday of November. The big race is all over in under three-and-a-half minutes. The race headlines a 10 race program at Flemington Racecourse on Tuesday with the on track action getting underway at 10.50am. How can I place a bet? The easiest way to place a bet is to pick a horse which you think will be first to the post. You will need the name/or number of the horse when you place a bet. If you put $10 on a runner at $15 odds, you stand to walk away with $150 if luck's on your side. If your horse doesn't win but finishes second or third, you won't go home empty handed if you've also put on a place bet. To put on a bet that includes win and place, ask for a 'each way'. If you can't get to a TAB on Cup day, you can also place a bet with the many betting websites online, including TAB and Sportsbet. You don't need to be a racing expert to place a bet on the Melbourne Cup Who are the favourites for the race? From a field of 24 runners, Irish trained five-year-old Yucatan will likely start favorite for the Melbourne Cup and is currently priced at $5.50 by TAB. Magic Circle is the second placed favourite at $8, followed by Cross Counter ($9). Australia's main hope is lightly-weighted four-year-old mare Youngstar ($15), trained by Chris Waller. For those wanting to try their luck on an underdog, Auvray and Nakeeta are both paying the longest odds at $101. Last year's Cup winner Rekindling and runner-up Johannes Vermeer aren't running in this year's field. Cross Counter (pictured) is the third best priced favourite for the Melbourne Cup What does the winner win? This year's Melbourne Cup winner will receive a record $4million in prize money, as well as the coveted trophy. The trophy is created from 1.65 kg of 18-carat gold, while the winning trainer and jockey also receive a miniature replica of the cup. Second place will receive $1 million, third gets $500,000 with prize money allocated right through to 12th for the first time this year. Melbourne Cup Day attracts thousands of racegoers as it is a public holiday in Victoria Why isn't Winx racing in the Melbourne Cup? The Chris Waller-trained mighty mare who has won 29 consecutive races to become the darling of Australian racing doesn't run long distances. The longest Winx has has ever raced is 2400m, which resulted in a rare early career loss for the Sydney-trained mare. She has never won beyond 2200m which is a kilometre less than the Melbourne Cup. The 2017 Melbourne Cup winner Rekindling (pictured) isn't running this year What television channel is it on? The Melbourne Cup was the 15th most-watched event on Australian free-to-air television last year. All the Melbourne Cup action will be live on Channel Seven for the last time after the network stated 'another party has placed a far higher valuation'. It has been on Channel 7 since 2002. Channel 10 recently secured the rights and will broadcast Melbourne Cup Day from next year, after Victorian Racing Club put the Melbourne Cup Carnival broadcast rights out to tender for the first time in 16 years. The first Tuesday in November is the busiest day of the year for bookmakers What is the weather forecast for Melbourne Cup Day? Racegoers should bring their umbrellas and raincoats as a wet Melbourne Cup Day for a second consecutive year is forecast. Temperatures are predicted to reach a high of 20 degrees with a 90 per cent chance of showers in Melbourne, most likely in the morning and early afternoon and the chance of thunderstorms. 'Heavy rain which may lead to flash flooding is forecast to develop over parts of central Victoria (including Melbourne) early Tuesday,' the Bureau of Meteorology bureau tweeted on Monday. 'It's already going to be wet and soggy with showers and possibly storms,' Weatherzone meteorologist Kim Westcott told 9 News. Its not going to be particularly windy so thats a slight plus, but not so good for feathers and fascinators.' Racegoers will need to take their umbrellas with them to Flemington on Tuesday Are there still tickets available to go to the Melbourne Cup? For those who have left their planning until the last minute, the answer is yes, according to Ticketek. General admission is $90 adults and if you bring the kids along, under-16s are free. Gates open at 8.30am. Public transport is the best way to get there with direct trains to Flemington Racecourse from Flinders Street, Southern Cross and North Melbourne stations. The couple behind the New Mexico cult that left a three-year-old boy dead and allegedly trained 11 children with an intention to carry out terrorist attacks, started their desert compound because of jealousy and 'black magic', according to authorities. A federal filing claims husband Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and his first wife Jany Leveille ran off with his son Abdul-Ghani after Leveille became convinced Wahhaj's second wife, Hakima Ramzi, had used black magic to get pregnant with the little boy. Court papers state that Leveille had suffered a miscarriage and thought Ramzi who Wahhaj was also married to and openly enjoyed a polygamous relationship with transferred the baby she lost 'from Jany into (Ramzi's) womb'. First wife Jany Leveille (right) had suffered a miscarriage and ran off to the New Mexico compound with husband Siraj Ibn Wahhaj's (right) son Leveille allegedly believed second wife Hakima Ramzi (pictured) had used black magic to get pregnant. Federal prosecutors say she thought Ramzi transferred the child into her womb The child was born with a disease called hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) due to lack of oxygen during labor and Leveille's brother, Von-Chelet Leveille, believes they were trying to make him better at the compound. He says his sister, 35, used ruqya, an Islamic ritual which wards off evil spirits, but denies she used black magic. 'In Islam, having seizures can also be viewed as being possessed by spirits,' he told the New York Daily News, noting that the child had seizures once or twice a month. 'We stayed in contact for the entire nine months. I am one hundred percent sure they tried to heal him (Abdul-Ghani).' Wahhaj's family believed his first wife who he met a few years after she moved from Haiti to Brooklyn undocumented in 1998 - was suffering from schizophrenia and jealousy. They also accused her in the past of putting spells on Wahhaj, 40, while Leveille had told her husband's relatives they had her under a curse. The body of three-year-old Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj (pictured) was discovered on the compound. He died without his medication less than a month after he left Georgia The child was born with a disease called hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) due to lack of oxygen during labor and Leveille's brother, Von-Chelet Leveille, believes they were trying to make him better at the compound However Von-Chelet noted in his interview with NYDN that his sister had four of her own children with Wahhaj, money, a car she used to drive Ramzi to appointments, plus the house they all shared in Georgia. Wahhaj only married Ramzi in 2004. But he spent 10 years of flying to Morocco to visit her before she finally moved to the United States. The theme of 'healing' continued in Leveille's digital journal discovered after the compound was raided. It was confirmed the boy died without his medication less than a month after the family left Georgia. 'On December 24th, 2017, the most horrendous event occurred,' court documents say she wrote. 'How could Quranic recitation execute a child? This only happens to shayateens (demons). Ibn Siraj recited over the other children, the children remained healthy.' Prosecutors claim they then waited eight months for the child to be resurrected as Isa the Islamic name for Jesus Christ. Eleven children were held at a makeshift compound in the desert area of Amalia, New Mexico This photo, provided by the Toas County Sheriff's Department on August 6, shows the conditions at the compound 'At last, Allah confirmed that indeed, H.I.E. and diseases of the sort are not real. Isa Ibn Maryam (Abdul-Ghani) was lifeless since birth,' she wrote in her journal. They claim in the filing that they found evidence once the boy was brought back to life, the team of young children they had trained to use guns would attack 'teachers, military, law enforcement, and financial institutions.' State prosecutors recently paused their child abuse case against Wahhaj and Leveille until the federal case could be processed. A trial date has not been set. Lucas Morton, 40, his wife Subhannah Wahhaj, 35, and her sister Hujrah Wahhaj, 37, were also held on charges amid claims they helped train children for potential attacks on schools, law enforcement agencies and other institutions. A federal grand jury indicted the group on firearms and conspiracy charges, which stemmed from accusations that Leveille had been living in the country illegally and that the others had conspired to provide her with firearms and ammunition. Hujrah Wahhaj (left) talks with her attorney Marie Legrand Miller during a hearing on a motion to dismiss in the Taos County Courthouse Subhannah Wahhaj (left) sat with her attorney Megan Mitsunaga during a hearing on a motion to dismiss Ebrahim K Kanoo, the sole distributor of Toyota vehicles in Bahrain, has announced the arrival of the special edition Land Cruiser 4.6L GX-R Grand Touring (GT) Edition at the Toyota Showroom in Sitra. The Toyota Land Cruiser is the leading 4WD SUV in the Middle East Region, due to its outstanding performance and unwavering reliability. For over 60 years the Land Cruiser has raised benchmark after benchmark, carving out its own path and becoming an integral part of peoples lives everywhere you go. The latest Grand Touring Edition promises to set yet another benchmark with its added aesthetic upgrades and special edition stamp. The 4.6 Litre V8 already comes with a host of amazing features including an independent double wishbone front suspension which provides a seamless and smooth driving experience in the roughest terrain. It also boasts the latest technology and safety features to enable both drivers and passengers an effortless command of the interior cabin and all the features it provides. The Grand Touring Edition upgrades the existing top of the line SUV with stunning aesthetic additions such as the 20 two-tone aluminium wheels that give the Land Cruiser a more distinguished and sporty appearance. The premium black headlamps, modern and robust new grille design and sporty front and rear bumper spoiler all add to the elegance and beautiful design of the exterior, making it even more interesting for the discerning driver. It also features the exclusive and much sought after authentic Grand Touring emblem which only adds to the lustre and appeal. TradeArabia News Service China will lower import tariffs and continue to broaden market access, President Xi Jinping said today at the opening of a week-long trade expo that aims to rebrand the country as a global customer. The China International Import Expo is part of official efforts to defuse trade tension while resisting pressure to roll back industry plans that Washington, Europe, Japan and other governments say violate its market-opening obligations. Xi also promised to accelerate opening of the education, telecommunications and cultural sectors, while protecting foreign companies' interests and enhancing punitive enforcement for infractions of intellectual property rights. China will lower import tariffs and continue to broaden market access, President Xi Jinping said today at the opening of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai today President Donald Trump seen at a rally on Sunday in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The ongoing trade war has sunk relations between the world's two largest economies Xi's remarks come at a time of heightened tension between China and some of its biggest trade partners, particularly the United States, which has imposed tariffs on US$250 billion (190 billion) worth of Chinese goods so far Xi's remarks come at a time of heightened tension between China and some of its biggest trade partners, particularly the United States, which has imposed tariffs on US$250 billion (190 billion) worth of Chinese goods so far. China has retaliated with US$110 billion (85 billion) worth of tariffs on U.S. goods. 'It is our sincere commitment to open the Chinese market,' Xi said in a speech to a VIP audience that included Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Xi promised to 'stimulate the potential to increase imports,' including by cutting costs for importers and improving consumer spending power. China expects to import US$30 trillion (23 trillion) worth of goods and US$10 trillion (7 trillion) worth of services in the next 15 years, he added. Microsoft founder Bill Gates talks with Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma at the trade fair today The China International Import Expo is part of official efforts to rebrand the country as a global customer and defuse trade tension while resisting pressure to roll back industry plans A robot wielding a paper fan amongst 'origami' paper cranes is displayed at the trade fair today Some 3,600 companies from 152 countries selling everything from Egyptian dates to German factory machinery are attending the five-day event at a Shanghai convention centre that bills itself as one of the world's biggest buildings. Xi's government is emphasising the promise of China's growing consumer market to help defuse complaints Beijing abuses the global trading system by reneging on promises to open its industries. Business groups complain that while Beijing is expanding imports to serve its manufacturers and consumers, it blocks access to industries including finance and logistics. They say regulators are trying to squeeze foreign competitors out of promising fields such as information security. Prime ministers and other senior officials of governments including Egypt, Pakistan and Vietnam also are attending the fair. The United States - China's biggest trading partner - had no plans to send a high-level envoy. The expo is 'likely not a huge benefit or attraction for US companies,' said the chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, William Zarit, in an email. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev speaks at the opening ceremony of the trade fair Visitors stand near a helicopter displayed at the China International Import Expo 'Many may be attending because they think it is politically smart,' said Zarit. 'However, unless some of the protectionist trade barriers currently in place are changed, it won't make much difference either way.' Xi made no mention of Beijing's fight with President Donald Trump over Chinese plans for state-led development of technology industries. But in an indirect reference to Trump's 'America first' policies and threats of import controls, he appealed to other governments to 'jointly safeguard free trade.' China has cut tariffs and announced other measures this year to boost imports, which rose 15.9 per cent in 2017 to US$1.8 trillion (1.3 trillion). But none addresses US complaints that prompted Trump to impose penalty tariffs of up to 25 per cent on US$250 billion (190 billion) of Chinese imports. Chinese leaders have rejected pressure to roll back plans such as 'Made in China 2025,' which calls for state-led creation of global champions in robotics and other fields. Some American officials worry that might erode US industrial leadership. Last week, Trump and Xi had what China's foreign ministry called an 'extremely positive' phone conversation. They plan to meet this month during the Group of 20 gathering of major economist in Argentina, but private sector analysts say a breakthrough is unlikely. Xi also promised to accelerate opening of the education, telecommunications and cultural sectors while protecting foreign companies' interests Xi's government is emphasising the promise of China's growing consumer market to help defuse complaints Beijing abuses the global trading system Attendees walk past robotic arms displayed at the China International Import Expo. Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised to open China's market wider and lower import tariffs The fight has added to challenges for communist leaders are who trying to shore up economic growth that slumped to a post-global crisis low annual rate of 6.5 per cent in the three months ending in September. They also are struggling to revive confidence in a stock market that has tumbled 25 per cent this year to become the world's worst performer. Xi acknowledged some Chinese industries face 'growing risks' but said efforts to shore up growth are already paying off. 'The fundamentals for sound and steady growth of the Chinese economy remain unchanged,' he said. The expo fits in with Beijing's quest to develop a trading network centred on China and increase its influence in a Western-dominated global system. China already is the No. 1 market for its Asian neighbours and is promoting its multibillion-dollar 'Belt and Road' initiative to expand commerce by building ports, railways and other infrastructure across 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Europe and Africa. The fair lets Beijing show it is 'making efforts to boost imports,' said Rajiv Biswas, chief Asia economist for IHS Markit. But it is 'unlikely to have much impact' on its politically sensitive trade balance with the United States. Some 3,600 companies from 152 countries selling everything from Egyptian dates to German factory machinery are attending the five-day event in Shanghai A police patrol boat displayed at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai today. The trade fair lets Beijing show it is making efforts to boost imports, analysts say A U.S.-Chinese deal 'will require significant measures by the Chinese authorities to reduce bilateral trade imbalances and to protect US intellectual property rights,' Biswas said. Europe, Japan and other trading partners have criticised Trump's tactics but echo US complaints. European leaders are frustrated that Beijing bars foreign acquisitions of most Chinese assets while its own companies are on a global buying spree. Last week, the French and German ambassadors to Beijing appealed for changes including an end to requirements that foreign companies operate in joint ventures with state-owned partners. Writing in a Chinese business magazine, they called for an overhaul of rules they say hinder companies from profiting from and protecting their technology. The Shanghai expo also gives Beijing a chance to repair its image as a positive for global development following complaints 'Belt and Road' leaves host countries with too much debt, while too little work goes to local companies. Governments including Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand have scrapped or scaled back projects. Kenya and other nations have run into trouble repaying Chinese loans. An opportunistic snake seeking refuge from the hot weather in a sink has given a homeowner a huge surprise after she discovered it chilling in her laundry. The woman left a few doors open at her home in Samford, in Queensland's Moreton Bay region, to let some breeze in because she didn't have air conditioning. But the oversight left her on Saturday in the presence of quite the unwelcome intruder, a massive and extremely venomous eastern brown snake. An opportunistic snake seeking refuge from the hot weather in a sink has given a home occupant a huge surprise after she discovered it chilling in her laundry But the oversight left her on Saturday in the presence of quite the unwelcome intruder, a massive and extremely venomous eastern brown snake She sought assistance from Brisbane North Snake Catchers and Relocation's Steve Brown, who came out about midday and had the slithery beast gone in no time. 'It was a bit of a fright for her She was petrified. She's not opening [the doors] any more,' Mr Brown told Yahoo7. The following morning however as the heatwave continued, two more huge snakes came in search of salvation, each of them 'tapping' on her glass windows to be let in. The larger of the two was at the front door, seemingly begging for someone to let it come inside, while the other was 'tapping on the window' in the courtyard. She sought assistance from Brisbane North Snake Catchers and Relocation's Steve Brown, who came out about midday and had the slithery beast gone in no time. The bigger one was bagged up by Mr Brown but the second one had already made tracks by the time he got there. Mr Brown said the increased snake activity around her home could have been caused by the female reptiles, who emit a distinct scent when they ovulate. 'If there is a influx of snakes this time of year around your place there's a possibility there is a ovulating female close by, which the males can smell causing an increase of snakes around your property,' he said. Two tiny baby girls are new home owners after their parents bought them Melbourne houses fearing they would be priced out of the market when they grow up. Although they are too young to sign for a mortgage, tiny tot tycoons Siana Gatt, 4, and Ayla, 18 months, now each own a home in Sunbury, in the northwestern suburbs of Melbourne. Real estate rises over the past decade have all but priced a generation out of home ownership in Sydney and Melbourne after extremely high levels of migration pushed demand and easy credit primed the market. Loving parents Jonny and Fahriye Gatt did not want their daughters to struggle or never own a home. Afraid of property price rises, they pitched in to get each of their girls a foot in the door Loving parents Jonny and Fahriye Gatt did not want their daughters to struggle or never own a home, so they pitched in to get their children a foot in the door. 'There's no chance they will be able to buy a home,' he told news.com.au. 'By the time they are 25, a home is going to be a few million dollars.' Mr Gatt has just settled on a $500,000 Sunbury house for Ayla after purchasing his older daughter, Siana, a home in 2015. The family had originally looked in their own suburb of Rowville but found they were priced out, so they looked further afield at the older homes in Sunbury. They are not the only ones afraid of how their children will afford a home in the future, despite recent price falls. This loving family are not the only ones to try to future-proof their children against the property price rises that have priced a generation out of the market in Sydney and Melbourne Last December, Barbara and Adam Anagnostiadis bought off-the-plan apartments for their two children James Anagnostiadis, 7, and his sister Aiva, 10, after watching others struggle to buy a home. Their units, to be held in trust until they are old enough to manage them, are also in Melbourne, in the sought-after south-eastern suburb of Dingley Village. Total net overseas migration has grown from less than 90,000 per year in 1993 to more than 180,000 per year in 2017, according to Department of Immigration figures quoted by economics website Macrobusiness. That adds a city bigger than Darwin to Australia's population each year, increasing competition for homes, as well as putting pressure on infrastructure such as roads, hospitals and schools. Property price rises are not forever. Experts say the tightening of easy credit has caused the recent falls in dwelling values in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Easy credit has also been a cause of the property price rise according to Martin North, principal of property and finance consulting firm Digital Finance Analytics, and tightening credit is now causing prices to fall. Property prices in Sydney fell 7.4 percent in the year to October 31, with Melbourne falling 4.7 percent and Perth dropping 3.3 percent according to the most recent figures from CoreLogic. Mr North cautioned against purchasing property for children now saying it is too difficult to predict what conditions may be like in 30 years. 'Chances are that property may be more accessible relative to income than today,' he told Daily Mail Australia. Mr North said the last 20 years were not representative of property price activity over the past 100 years, where apart from a significant run up after World War II, they drifted sideways. 'Property price rises are not a permanent fixture of the Australian economy,' he said. The lives of a Texas bride and groom were cut short when the helicopter that whisked them away from their fairytale wedding crashed into the side of a hill. Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman, both 23, who were seniors at Sam Houston State University, died in the early hours of Sunday morning alongside their pilot, just hours after they said 'I do'. Their 76-year-old pilot, Gerald Lawrence also died. He was a Vietnam veteran, his wife told DailyMail.com on Monday. Lawrence was a private commercial pilot who worked for the groom's father's helicopter business. NTSB investigators described him as 'highly qualified' on Monday. On Sunday, the aircraft went down in Ulvade, a mile from the ranch where they tied the knot in front of 700 guests, after around ten minutes in the air. The NTSB, which is investigating the crash, said it happened at 1.47am. Local sheriffs however received reports of it at midnight. Lawrence called 911 to report a problem with the air craft before his death, his wife said. Search teams took hours to find the wreckage in the dark. Lawrence was flying the couple to San Antonio Airport where they were due to catch a flight for their honeymoon. The pilot's wife said he had never had an accident before and was 'very close' to the Byler family who he worked for. Scroll for video Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman, both 23, died on Sunday hours after getting married along with pilot Gerald Green Lawrence (right) when their helicopter crashed Guests cheered the couple off as the doomed helicopter lifted into the night sky in Texas Wedding guest Eric Smith, who shared the tragic news on Facebook, wrote: 'The pilot, Jerry, was also on board. There were no survivors.' Smith described the soiree as a fairytale wedding, and said the couple were surrounded by friends and family as they departed into the sky. Lawrence's wife Hilda told DailyMail.com on Monday that he was a 'fantastic' husband. 'He was the most fantastic funny, energetic man. Very humble and lovable man,' she said. She said he knew the Byler family 'very well'. The Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, game wardens, Border Patrol agents, the Uvalde Volunteer Fire Department and Uvalde Emergency Medical Services searched for the chopper and located the wreckage just around daybreak. Bailee and Will shared an engagement photo from inside a helicopter after he proposed. The pair were both agriculture students who were due to graduate this year The beaming bride and groom posed for joy filled photos with best friends on their last day on earth. Bailee pictured posing with her Maid of Honor Jessica Stilley Lawrence was a Vietnam veteran who recently tied the knot too. He is pictured with his wife Hilda in April It took them so long to find the couple and the pilot because they crashed in the 'pitch dark' onto the side of a mountain. 'When we got to the site we knew what we were dealing with we saw a helicopter in a terrible state. 'When we came, the family was, a lot of the family was there. 'They had been dropped off by private helicopter,' Texas Game Warden Rachel Kellner said at a press conference on Monday afternoon. She said the bodies were 'close enough' to the wreckage for them to find them easily. Jessica Stilley, Bailee's maid of honor, paid a heart-wrenching tribute to her best friend. 'My sweet Bailee Raye, my heart is broken in a million little pieces as I sit here and think of the rest of my life without my best friend.' Will and Bailee were surrounded by friends in their wedding party on what was said to be the happiest day of their young lives She added: 'I'm so sad to even be captioning these pictures with this, but you know I just have to share with everyone how beautiful you looked on your wedding day like I normally would have.' Jessica recalled crying tears of joy as she helped Bailee get ready for the biggest day of her young life. 'I'm so happy you married the man of your dreams and found the precious love you deserved with him. 'We always said we'd find the men to sweep us off our feet one day and boy am I'm so happy you get to be with him in the best forever you could imagine. 'Thank you for loving me.' The couple dressed more casually as the evening drew to a close, while a sign that read 'How sweet it is to be loved by you' welcomed guests into the reception The beaming bride is seen being walked down the aisle by her father Shane Ackerman After the couple became engaged, Bailee posted a loved up shot of them together. Her bright smile flashes at the camera while she holds up her engagement ring. She captioned the image, 'Thank you to everyone who sent us their best wishes when WE GOT ENGAGED!!!' 'Will and I have the best support system out there, and I honestly cannot truly express how blessed we are. 'I am in awe of you, Will Byler, and I hope that everyone gets to experience a love like the one we have.' Her caption closes out: 'Today is the beginning of forever TOGETHER!' One of their engagement shots shows the couple beaming from inside a helicopter cockpit. Will's family member posted a touching tribute to the young couple gone to soon The couple also bonded over a mutual affection for the rodeo life, with Will competing in college, and Bailee earning a spot as a rodeo princess Madi Wagner, a friend of the couple, had poignant words for them after the tragedy: 'I am having a hard time comprehending this whole situation, but I have not once asked why. 'These two spent their last day on this earth celebrating with their most cherished loved ones- I believe it truly was the best day of their lives. 'I know for certain God needed these two sweet souls more than we did here on earth. 'I know for certain they have made him proud, for the work they have done here on earth as well.' Madi continued: 'To see all of the people that loved these two so greatly is a blessing. As a Christian, I know that Gods hands are upon them and what better honeymoon could anyone ever imagine than entering those gates and spending their first days as husband and wife at Gods right hand.' Brazen criminals as young as just 14 are behind an elaborate bank card scam costing businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars, police allege. Police claim the scammers have been manipulating EFTPOS transactions at shops, cafes and other businesses across Western Australia. Alleged criminals are accused of distracting retail staff as they are handed EFTPOS machines to pay for items. Police claim the scammers have been manipulating EFTPOS transactions at shops, cafes and other businesses across Western Australia Alleged criminals are accused of distracting retail staff as they are handed EFTPOS machines to pay for items Police claim they then use stolen bank cards to pay for the transaction, or enter an inflated purchase price before accusing staff over-charging and demanding a refund. WA police have dubbed the scam as 'card not present' frauds and launched 'Taskforce Travel' last month to tackle the issue. WA Police has charged 20 people with 235 offences since launching the taskforce. Authorities believe it is predominantly small businesses that are being hit by the scammers. 'Ultimately, it is small businesses run by families who are the victims ... and have been severely impacted by such losses,' Regional Investigations Unit Det-Sgt Simone Taplin told The West Australian. WA police have dubbed the scam as 'card not present' frauds and launched 'Taskforce Travel' last month Authorities believe that it is predominantly small businesses that are being hit by the scammers 'We want to make sure all offenders are held accountable.' Retail staff are urged to practice caution when handing over machines, and only permit customers to enter their PIN number. Staff who detect a customers behaving suspiciously while making a transaction are encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers. Daily Mail Australia has reached out to EFTPOS for further comment. A woman claims she was raped by Chinese billionaire Richard Liu told police she pleaded with him to stop as he attacked her after a night of drinking. The founder of the Beijing-based e-commerce site JD.com was arrested on August 31 in Minneapolis, but released without charges and returned to China, according to documents seen by the Star Tribune. Prosecutors in Minneapolis are reviewing the case, but there is no timeline for when they might make a charging decision. Chinese billionaire Richard Liu (pictured) was arrested after a student claimed he raped her in her apartment in Minnesota after a night of drinking while at a dinner with a large group Liu, 45, is a student with the Carlson School of Management's doctor of business administration China program and was in Minneapolis for a weeklong residency. His attorneys have said he's innocent. The alleged victim is from China and is a student at the University of Minnesota. Her Florida-based attorney, Wil Florin, confirmed that she attended dinner on August 30 with Liu and others in which liquor was served and she felt coerced to drink. According to materials viewed by the newspaper, the woman told a friend by text message that after the dinner, Liu dragged her into a vehicle and made advances. 'I begged him to stop but he didn't listen,' one text read. She told police he followed her inside the apartment and pulled off her clothes as she protested. She told police, 'I told him 'no' several times'. The woman also told investigators that she escaped from him and started to redress herself before he threw her on the bed and raped her. The Hennepin County Attorneys Office assesses whether to charge Chinese billionaire Richard Liu with sexual assault. Liu is an internet entrepreneur and one of the countrys wealthiest men in China The Hennepin County Attorneys Office are currently assessing whether to charge Richard Liu with sexual assault 'I didnt do it willingly. I want to escape,' she texted a friend in Mandarin, adding that Liu was in her bed. I couldnt escape. 'How could I know that Qiangdong Liu would come to mess with me. Im just a normal girl. Im not eyeing anyones deep pocket. I repeatedly begged him not to touch me.' Afterward, she used the messaging system WeChat to text friends about what happened and whether she would report it. 'We were battling against each other on the bed and finally I escaped from him and went back to the living room and put the bra back on again,' she said in the interview with police. 'Finally, he just threw me onto the bed. He was on me. He was heavy. I tried to push him away. But he was on top of me and then he raped me. 'He is going to exercise his power. You underestimate him.' The woman's lawyer Will Florin (pictured left) said she has fully cooperated with police and stands ready to cooperate with the county attorney. Richard Liu's lawyer Jill Brisbois (pictured right) said that her client maintains his innocence According to a source, the 21-year-old also sent a text to the male friend who had accompanied her that night, telling him of the sexual assault. He drove to her apartment complex and called 911 from outside. The woman eventually gave a statement to police and Liu was arrested. Jill Brisbois, one of Liu's attorneys, told the Star Tribune she could not discuss the case or share evidence with the media because they do not want to interfere with the judicial process. However she said in a statement: 'Richard maintains his innocence, has cooperated fully with the investigation, and was quickly released by police without any restriction on his travel and without being required to post bail. 'We believe his innocence will be apparent once a determination has been made and all evidence is disclosed to the public'. Liu is known in Chinese as Liu Qiangdong. He is worth $7.5 billion. News of Lius arrest more than two months ago made headlines across the world and in China, where he is an internet entrepreneur and one of the countrys wealthiest men. In 2017, the Carlson School launched its four-year doctoral program for Chinese executives in collaboration with Tsinghua University in Beijing. It is described by the University of Minnesota as a professional degree program for high-level executives in China and is 'tailored for top executives in Chinese business'. Students pay an average of $75,000 to the Carlson School to attend the four-year program. General Motors on Friday introduced two new electric bikes that it intends to offer customers beginning next year. The Detroit-based car company is trying to capitalize on the growing and lucrative e-bike market. By 2023, it is estimated that sales of e-bikes will reach 40 million units, according to Statista.com. GM will be offering two e-bikes - one of which is foldable and the other compact, according to The Verge. So far, the company has not offered specifics as to how much the bikes will cost. Nor do we yet know their size, weight, and range. General Motors unveiled two electric bikes it plans to sell to consumers beginning in 2019 The Detroit-based car company is trying to capitalize on the growing and lucrative e-bike market So far, the company has not offered specifics as to how much the bikes will cost. Nor do we yet know their size, weight, and range GM is also leaving it up to the public to determine what to call the bikes. It is launching a crowdsourcing campaign offering a grand prize of $10,000 to whoever comes up with the best name for the e-bikes After names are chosen for the e-bikes, GM will reveal more information as to its specifications GM is also leaving it up to the public to determine what to call the bikes. It is launching a crowdsourcing campaign offering a grand prize of $10,000 to whoever comes up with the best name for the e-bikes. There will also be nine $1,000 runner up prizes. After names are chosen for the e-bikes, GM will reveal more information as to its specifications. A spokesperson for the company told The Verge that its engineers based in Canada led the development of the e-bikes. This would represent a shift given that most of the e-bikes that have been sold in the United States and Canada were imported - mainly from China though also from Europe. While GM and other e-bike manufacturers hope to gain an edge on the North American market, companies are also eager to do business in China, where the demand for the vehicles is likely to surge. Other tech giants are also seeing the potential in the e-bike market. Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc bought electric bicycle service JUMP Bikes, allowing Uber to offer U.S. passengers an alternative to cars and further consolidating the crowded bike-sharing industry. JUMP is a dockless electric bike service that has rolled out in San Francisco, where it has 250 bikes, and Washington. Uber will have some competition. Lyft announced earlier this year that it acquired Motivate, the oldest and largest bike-share company in North America. Motivate already operates its bikes in New York City, where it is known as CitiBike; in Washington, D.C., where it is known as Capital Bikeshare; and in San Francisco (Ford GoBike). GM isnt the only car manufacturer that is looking to enter the electric market. BMW is already producing both electric bikes and motorcycles while Audi has rolled out a line of electric mountain bikes. Ford has also rolled out its own electric scooter. A wandering man has been arrested in Townsville after he was discovered cooking a meal in a home he allegedly broke into. The man, believed to be in his 30s, is accused of breaking into a car outside the front of the property in Cranbrook and falling asleep. According to the Townsville Bulletin, Townsville Tactical Services Group Acting Inspector Patrick McCarthy claimed the man broke into the vehicle at 8am on Saturday. A wandering man has been arrested in Townsville after he was discovered cooking a meal in a home he allegedly broke into (stock image) He reportedly placed some sunglasses and paperwork on the car's bonnet before taking a nap, and was later interrupted by the vehicle's owner. Police allege he then walked into a nearby house, 'removed some frozen goods from the fridge inside' and starting 'cooking inside the kitchen'. The homeowner found the man in his kitchen, according to the publication. The man reportedly fled before being arrested by police a short while later in the yard of the same house. The man, believed to be in his 30s, is also accused of breaking into a car outside the front of the property in Cranbrook and falling asleep He reportedly placed some sunglasses and paperwork on the car's bonnet before taking a nap, and was later interrupted by the vehicle's owner Reports claim that the man has been charged with two counts of unlawful entry to a residence and is set to appear in court at a later date. Acting Inspector McCarthy called the incident 'disturbing', and said it should act as a reminder for residents to keep their vehicles and homes locked. 'Aside from the fact he has fallen asleep and was disturbed, it can be quite serious for the people inside so I'm just glad in this instance the offender was able to be picked up so quickly.' Daily Mail Australia is awaiting further information from Queensland Police. A 27-year-old New York man shot dead outside a Brooklyn bar two weeks after he defended a waitress who was being harassed, was 'always giving a helping hand'. Kevin Virgo father to a nine-year-old daughter - was fatally shot in the torso Friday in an incident captured on camera outside Atlantic Boat Club in Prospect Heights. The murder was allegedly prompted by an event that had occurred on a separate night where a group of men refused to let a waitress leave the venue. Scroll down for video Kevin Virgo father to a nine-year-old daughter - was fatally shot in the torso Friday Virgo told them to leave her alone and proceeded to punch and knock out one man involved, according to restaurant staff. On the night he died, the regular at the venue was reportedly told by a fellow club-goer to go outside and around the corner. At that point he's seen on dark video footage where sparks fly as the weapon fires. Those who worked at the venue said they had been worried the men would want revenge on him after the altercation. The victim's father spoke out as law enforcement hunted for the person who killed him Sunday. 'He always gave a helping hand,' Virgo's father, Ainsley, told the New York Daily News. 'He was always looking out for the weaker person.' The incident was captured on dark video footage where sparks fly as the weapon fires His 58-year-old dad spoke to his son hours before he was gunned down as he took his mother to JFK Airport. She was heading to Chicago for her sister's funeral. 'Kevin was a great kid. Everybody loved him,' his dad said about the man who worked at a hardware store. 'He caused no trouble or nothing. He was a nice boy... He would take (his daughter) to school every day. The killing occurred outside Atlantic Boat Club in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York 'Everybody can't believe this happened. He was always smiling, always telling his jokes.' According to the New York Police Department the homicide rate for the city was up 6.5 percent for 2018 (until October 28). The number of murders was recorded at 247 homicides compared to 232 the previous period. Virgo's father demanded the gunman confess to the murder or else he would take it upon himself to find out what happened. 'Turn yourself in or I'm going to find them,' he said. Anyone with information on Virgo's slaying is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1 (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential. A Samoan man who denies murdering his wife stabbed her with such force the tip of the kitchen knife he used broke off in her head. Arona Peniamina, 38, is on trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to murdering his wife Sandra at their home in Kippa-Ring, north of Brisbane, on March 31, 2016. He admitted killing her, pleading guilty to a lesser offence of manslaughter, a plea rejected by prosecutors. Arona Peniamina, 38, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife wife Sandra Peniamina 'She died on the driveway of that house covered in her own blood, you will hear, most likely killed with a bollard that was taken from the fence line,' prosecutor Dzenita Balic told the jury on Monday. Ms Balic alleges Peniamina punched the mother-of-four and stabbed her multiple times with a kitchen knife, kicking her when she fell to the ground. 'She wasn't actually going to die from those injuries,' Ms Balic said. When Mrs Peniamina tried to escape, her husband followed her, threw her to the ground in the driveway, kicked her again and beat the back of her head with a bollard. At least one of the couple's children saw their father 'smashing' their mother, Sandra Peniamina's, head into the floor, a court heard The handle of the knife he used was later found by police underneath the family's parked car, the blade was discovered nearby and it's tip was lodged in the woman's head. 'This was a killing with a murderous intent by him on the basis of a sequence of events,' Ms Balic said. The court heard the couple's relationship had been rocky, Peniamina was concerned his children would be taken from him, and he believed his wife was having an affair. The jury was shown crime scene photos with blood spattered across the dining room and kitchen floors, on kitchen cupboards and the inside of the front door. The victim was found facedown in the driveway of the family home Peniamina later told an undercover police officer his wife had tried to kill him, the court heard. At least one of the couple's children saw the attack and told police of seeing their father 'smashing' their mother's head into the floor. The child talked of feeling unable to do anything, the jury was told. In an emotional testimony, neighbour Michael White recalled hearing a woman inside the Peniamina's home screaming for up to 15 minutes. '(They were) blood-curdling screams. You could tell she was in trouble,' he said. Mr White said he told his mother to call triple zero and walked to the front of the house, where he found the victim facedown on the driveway and a man crouching nearby. He told the court he saw one of the couple's children standing in the doorway looking out at the bloodied scene. The trial continues. While digital transformation has been on the oil and gas radar for some time, harnessing the power of new technologies is now the number one priority for the industrys most senior decision-makers as they plot a path forward for their business. Responding to the high importance being placed on digital transformation and disruption, the worlds leading oil and gas event, the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec) has introduced an all-new Digitalisation Zone for its 2018 edition. Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE; hosted by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc); and supported by the UAE Ministry of Energy, the Abu Dhabi Chamber, and the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, Adipec will take place from November 12 to 15, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec). The International Energy Agency has estimated digital technologies could cut oil and gas production costs by between 10 and 20 per cent, but industry trials suggest bigger results are achievable. Chief Executive Officer of BP Bob Dudley told the Financial Times a pilot project to apply data analytics to some of its wells has resulted in a 20 per cent production increase. The BP Technology Outlook 2018 predicts the application of digital tools, such as sensors or internet of things (IoT), supercomputing, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, all supported by cloud technology, could reduce primary energy demand and energy system costs by 20-30 per cent by 2050. Adipec's new Digitalisation Zone, supported by tutorials and conference sessions, is designed to help the oil and gas industry understand how digitalisation can transform the performance of their assets. What we observe is that while executives might name one area as most affected by digitalisation, they also tell us that every aspect of oil and gas operations will see some degree of change, said Jean - Philippe Cosse, vice president of dmg events, which organises Adipec. In addition, all these digital technologies are interlinked and interdependent. For example, as smart sensors collect more and more data, this data requires additional storage capacity, extra processing power, as well as advanced analytics solutions, and, of course, all this must also have security in mind. Digitalisation is fundamental, transformational, and is a number one priority for the most senior oil and gas industry decision makers, as they plan future investments. Change will be felt across the full oil and gas value chain. For upstream production, digital initiatives have significantly increased production, improved well construction outcomes, cut operational costs, reduced non-productive time and decreased capital project completion time. In downstream industries such as refineries maintenance and reliability, production planning and scheduling, production execution, as well as health, safety and environment (HSE) are the areas that will experience the most positive impact. Between the two, the midstream sector is reducing repair and maintenance costs, including the deployment of 3D printing technologies, while sensors (IoT), drones and robotics can help improve pipeline inspection and prevent leakages. Digitalisation will also feature within Adipecs highly respected conference programme, long-recognised as the premier meeting place for energy ministers, global business leaders and C-suite executives from the worlds oil and gas giants. New conference sessions will include discussion of how oil and gas can learn from other industries to accelerate digital transformation, trusting data-driven decisions, the potential for Artificial Intelligence and robotics to transform supply chains and asset tracking systems, and where legacy platforms fit into the picture. The focus on digitalisation will be headlined by a keynote address from Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, UAE. Panel discussions and on-stage interviews will feature some of the industrys most influential digital thinkers and decision-makers, bringing diverse experience from across the industry. Speakers include C-suite executives from NOCs, IOCs and other oil and gas businesses, including Adnoc; Saudi Aramco; Petronas; Gazprom Neft; Total; Pemex; OMV; Baker Hughes, a GE company; Weatherford; Wintershall; and JOGMEC. The technology and consulting sectors will offer representatives from Microsoft; IBM; SAP; Siemens; Aveva; ABB; Accenture; and PwC. The Digitalization Zone includes dedicated space for start-up businesses and SMEs, as well as established technology companies already operating within the oil and gas sector. Adipec will also provide a dedicated Tech Tutorial theatre for senior executives and representatives of the industry to understand first-hand the changing trends and technologies that are shaping the future of the sector. - TradeArabia News Service A second alleged member of a baby formula gang has been charged with stealing the product from grocery store shelves. The 35-year-old man was arrested at a Dundas Valley home in Sydney's northern suburbs on Monday as part of a police investigation into the theft and distribution of $250,000 worth of baby formula, vitamins, Manuka honey and other goods. He was later charged with offences including larceny and theft. A second alleged member of a Sydney baby formula gang has been charged with stealing the product from grocery store shelves (pictured: stolen baby formula) Police allege he stole baby formula from a Carlingford supermarket that was later sent overseas The man allegedly he stole baby formula from a Carlingford supermarket that was later sent overseas. The gang's alleged ringleader, 48-year-old Lie Ke, had at least 12 people under her wing sourcing items, which are all highly sought after in China. She was arrested in late August, when a police raid of two Carlingford homes uncovered $215,000 in cash and 4000 tins of baby formula. Most baby formula retails in Australia for $20 to $35 dollars a tin but it can sell for more than double that in China. In February, detectives received information from retailers relating to the coordinated theft of baby formula and vitamins across Sydney. The formula, allegedly stolen from Coles and Woolworths supermarkets as well as Chemist Warehouse outlets across the city, was seized along with more than $200,000 cash. About $125,000 of that money was allegedly found inside a sleeping bag at a home in Sydney's north-west. Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said at the time: 'The criminal network has on-sold this product and has made a fair profit out of it.' A man who was wrongfully convicted of the 1994 murder of his fiancee has defended his $2.57 million payout. Henry Keogh, 63, has faced an inquiry by the South Australian Parliament Budget and Finance Committee in Adelaide over the payout that he received in July. 'Can you even begin to imagine what imprisonment for that period of time was like? More than 7000 sunrises and sunsets that I never saw,' he told the inquiry. Scroll down for video Henry Keogh, 63, has faced an inquiry into the $2.57 million ex-gratia payout that he received in July for being wrongfully convicted Mr Keogh said the payment showed that the government was willing to show mercy to a person the justice system had failed. 'I believe that I am owed a debt for this nightmare, as is my family, as is Anna-Jane who deserves better than to be remembered as the woman killed by the man she loved and the man who loved her,' he told the inquiry. 'It frankly staggers me that against the clear findings of the Court of Appeal and the litany of non-disclosures and cover-ups that have occurred in this case, you're even looking into the ex-gratia payment as an issue.' Henry Keogh was sentenced to life imprisonment over the drowning death of his fiancee, Anna-Jane Cheney, with the conviction later quashed. But the family of Ms Cheney have reacted with shock to news of the compensation payout and were reportedly seeking legal advice, according to the Adelaide Advertiser. A statement from the family via their lawyer Greg Griffin said they were looking into 'legal advice on the options available to pursue Keogh for the matters arising from the death of Anna-Jane'. Keogh was found guilty of drowning Ms Cheney, then 29, in a bath at their home in Adelaide's east in March 1994. He was sent to jail for a minimum 25 years, after the prosecution mounted a case based mainly on circumstantial evidence, which included more than $1 million in life insurance policies that listed Keogh as the sole beneficiary. Keogh was released from prison in 2014 after the Court of Criminal Appeal found flawed forensic evidence led to a miscarriage of justice in his 1995 trial. Keogh had been sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty over the drowning death of his fiancee Anna-Jane Cheney (pictured) The prosecution dropped the case in November 2015 after former chief forensic pathologist and key witness Dr Colin Manock was deemed medically unfit to stand. Keogh told Seven News the compensation payout meant he and his family could now put the 'sorry chapter' behind them. 'Myself, and my family in particular, went through a lot of torture and anguish for nothing,' Keogh said. 'It means I've got some financial security for me and the family and we can put this sorry chapter behind us.' Ms Cheney died six weeks before the couple were to be married. Ms Cheney died six weeks before the couple were to be married South Australia Attorney-General Vickie Chapman announced the compensation payout on Monday, saying 'let me be clear, there is no winner in this case'. 'The view of Mr Keogh's innocence or guilt, or otherwise, is academic in my assessment of this matter,' she said. Ms Cheney's family have expressed 'serious concerns' Ms Chapman oversaw the compensation payout, adding 'any application by Keogh for compensation should have been allowed to take its proper course'. The wife of John Macris, model Viktoria Karida, is reportedly considering moving to Australia, where the Sydney underworld figure has another son The teenage son of John Macris was too afraid to travel to Greece for his father's funeral over the weekend, but he may soon be reunited with his half siblings. A source close to the teenager told Daily Mail Australia he was 'too frightened' to go to Athens, and does not use his father's name. The boy will instead pay his respects in Australia later this week, when Macris's body is flown back for burial. The Sydney underworld figure, who is reported to have been a major drugs supplier in Mykonos where he owned a number of clubs, was gunned down on Wednesday outside his luxury villa in Voula, in the south of Athens. Macris's brutal killing, believed to be a crime related hit, has left his wife, former playmate Viktoria Karida, living in fear with their two young children Alexandra and Achilles. Greek newspaper Ta Nea claims the model, who was walking the runway at Greek fashion week when her husband, 46, was murdered, has been in hiding since his murder and is now considering moving to Australia. The paper claims a leaked disposition revealed Ms Karida had no idea about her husband's proximity to danger. 'He wasn't scared of anything. He hadn't told us of death threats he had received,' she reportedly told police. 'We led a quiet life.' Macris's other son is in his teens and was 'too frightened' to attend his funeral in Athens, a source told Daily Mail Australia Ms Karida reportedly knew nothing of any threat against Macris, and has gone into hiding with their children, daughter Alexandra and son Achilles Yiannis Togas, who designed Ms Karida's wedding dress, told the Sydney Morning Herald the couple were deeply in love, and they and their two young children were 'very, very close'. Mr Togas says he does not believe the mother-of-two had any idea about her husband's criminal past because she lived in a 'cloud'. 'Even if her husband had any sort of other job I don't believe she knew anything because she lived in her own world, she was in a cloud,' he said. 'That's what I believe because when you're in love you see everything in another way. In a beautiful way. I don't believe she knows anything. 'I'm very sad, it is a very difficult moment for her, she has two children - it's very difficult.' Macris, 46, was ambushed outside his seaside villa in the Greek capital on Wednesday, and was shot multiple times in the chest, stomach and shoulder Macris had only just left his home (pictured) in Voula when he was ambushed and shot dead Macris's Greek funeral was a highly secure event, with bouncers and security guards keeping watch over the entrance of the Agios Nectarios church in Voula. Less than 50 people were in attendance, many of them relatives, and no speeches were made. Of the friends who attended, many were high profile celebrities or underworld figures. Macris's murder is the seventh underworld killing carried out in Athens this year. Police are currently investigating whether a group of hit men from Albania, responsible for other killings in Athens, were behind the cold-blooded shooting. The search for a missing Wisconsin teenager whose parents were shot dead is being scaled back after authorities said their investigation is entering a new phase. Authorities have been searching for Jayme Closs, 13, ever since her parents, James and Denise Closs, were found shot to death October 15 in their Barron area residence. Investigators believe Jayme was abducted and ruled her out as a suspect in her parents killings. The Barron County Sheriff's Office announced that the ground search for missing girl Jayme Closs, 13, has been scaled back due to a declining number of tips The bodies of Denise, 46, and James Closs, 56, were found shot dead in their Wisconsin two weeks ago. Some rumors behind their death speculate they were targeted by a co-worker or perhaps for some involvement with meth, which is rampant in the area Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald announced that tips have been declining in the abduction case and authorities will transition their round-the-clock reactive operation to one with a more methodical investigative approach. He said: 'To date we have received over 2,100 tips and we follow up on every one of them and all of them have been contacted in some sort and follow up is being conducted. 'Again, just because the posture of our operations center has transitioned, does not mean the tips should stop. We still have a team on-call, to handle them as they come in'. The Barron County sheriffs office has been assisted by area police and sheriffs agencies, the Wisconsin State Patrol, state Department of Natural Resources, state Division of Criminal Investigation and FBI. 'Just because the posture of our operations center has transitioned, does not mean the tips should stop. We still have a team on-call, to handle them as they come in. Please continue to call in your tipsthere is a tip out there that will help us solve this case and bring Jayme home,' Fitzgerald said. Authorities said they received a 911 dispatch call and heard yelling and they found the front door kicked in on October 15. Jennifer Smith, left, and Susie Allard, aunts of Jayme Closs, speak during a press conference on October 24 in a bid to raise awareness about the missing teenager Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald announced that a $25,000 reward has been offered to help solve the case of missing Jayme Closs They found her parents shot to death but the girl had vanished. The missing teen isnt considered a suspect, officials said early on. They believe that she was inside the house when her parents were killed. The search for Closs was expanded nationwide on October 19. Fitzgerald said the investigators have probed social media platforms, phone records, and statements from a range of people including family members, friends, and co-workers. The aunt of the teen made an emotional plea for anyone with information to contact the authorities and spoke out directly to Jayme. Authorities are transitioning from a round-the-clock reactive operation to a more methodical investigative approach in the hope of finding Jayme Cross (pictured) safe and well A group of volunteers searched the ditches along highway eight in Barron last month 'Jayme, not a moment goes by that were not thinking of you and praying for you, said Jennifer Smith, girls aunt, during a press conference at the Barron County Sheriffs Department on Wednesday, October 24. Your family and friends miss you so much. Your sparkling eyes, your bright smile, your soft little giggles. Smith appealed to anyone with knowledge about the disappearance of her 13-year-old niece to contact the Barron County Sheriffs Department. She vowed that the search for Jayne would continue until she is found. Investigators have announced a $25,000 reward. Police also released three vehicles of interest, meaning those drivers could have been behind the horrific murder that has mystified the small Wisconsin town of just 3,300 people. Kyle Jaenke-Annis (pictured) was charged with burglarizing Jayme Cross' home on October 27 and he was cleared of any involvement in relation to her disappearance One vehicle was likely a red or orange 2000 to 2014 Dodge Challenger, based on surveillance footage from nearby homes and businesses. The second car was likely a black 2006 to 2010 Ford Edge or a black 2004 to 2010 Acura MDX, according to the sheriff's office. Separately, a 32-year-old Wisconsin man is facing burglary charges after police he broke into the vacated home of Jayme Closs on October 27, stealing various items of clothing, including underwear believed to belong to Closs Kyle T. Jaenke-Annis, of Cameron, Wisconsin was charged in Barron County Circuit Court with burglary of a building or dwelling and felony bail jumping. However he was cleared of any involvement regarding her disappearance. This is the moment a fisherman gets inked by while trying reel in a wily squid. Video footage opens with two fishermen Jarrad Edwards and his friend Casey Mitchell in a small boat just off the coast of St Kilda, Adelaide. In the video, Mr Edwards, 35, is eyeing off a squid lurking just beside the boat but is struggling to catch the animal. Scroll down for video 'Aw I missed him,' Mr Edwards says. The camera then captures the squid coming back and Jared successfully manages to catch him on his second attempt. 'Got him!' Mr Edwards yells in triumph. But his victory is short-lived - as he reels in the tentacled-beast it unexpectedly sprays black ink onto the surprised angler. Mr Edwards appears to be in shock and closes his eyes as the black ink slides down the left side of his face. Video footage shows two fishermen Jarrad Edwards and Casey Mitchell (pictured, left) in a small boat just off the coast of St Kilda, Victoria. Jarrad had his eye on a squid (pictured) lurking just beside the boat but struggled to catch the animal on his first attempt Casey Mitchell, who filmed the video, can't stop laughing and proceeds to take a selfie of the squid's mess. Jarrad Edwards told Daily Mail Australia that he had been catching squid all afternoon with Casey before the encounter. He said: 'He [Casey] was feeling frustrated on not catching any and I gave him a chance but the squid preferred my jig.' This is the hilarious moment Jarrad Edwards (pictured) got unexpectedly inked by the squid as he tried to reel it in He revealed that the squid had already inked in the water just before so he thought he was 'safe'. 'I saw the squid inked in the water so I thought I was safe. Little did I know it had a backup plan,' he said. The video which was shared by 7 News, has attracted more than 130 likes within the first hour it was shared on Facebook. It comes just months after a video emerged of a kayaker who was hilariously slapped in the face by a seal with a large octopus. The viral footage captured by Taiyo Masuda with his GoPro took place off the coast of Kaikoura in New Zealand. Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger, the retired pilot best known for his Miracle on the Hudson landing which saved the lives of 155 passengers on board in 2009, is urging Americans to vote for the Democrats on Tuesday. Sullenberger has no regrets about writing an op-ed last week denouncing the Republican Party - even though he has been a longtime supporter of the GOP. 'How could I not?' Sullenberger told MSNBC on Saturday. 'I felt an intense obligation to act, not just to watch, to put my voice out there, to vote, to try to make a difference.' He said that while he has normally voted for Republicans, his vote was not 'partisan' but one that was in line with 'American values.' Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger, the retired pilot best known for his Miracle on the Hudson landing which saved the lives of 155 passengers on board in 2009, is urging Americans to vote for the Democrats on Tuesday. He is seen above during an appearance on MSNBC on Saturday In his interview with MSNBC, Sullenberger slammed President Donald Trump, though he would not address him by his name. 'I don't think he's either capable or willing to change,' he said of Trump. 'Instead of talking to the current occupant of that office, I am talking to the American people. 'I'm saying, you are the ultimate check and balance. It is up to us. 'As I said in my piece, we cannot wait for someone to rescue us, we must do it ourselves. 'Everyone, everywhere, must vote in massive numbers.' Last week, Sullenberger wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post declared 'this is not the America I know and love.' In an apparent attack on President Donald Trump (seen above in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Sunday), Sullenberger said the current leadership was selfish, unfit to rule, immoral, and harmful to American interests In an apparent attack on Trump, Sullenberger said the current leadership was selfish, unfit to rule, immoral, and harmful to American interests. He wrote: 'To navigate complex challenges, all leaders must take responsibility and have a moral compass grounded in competence, integrity and concern for the greater good.' But many in the current leadership are 'cowardly, complicit enablers, acting against the interests of the United States, our allies and democracy; encouraging extremists at home and emboldening our adversaries abroad; and threatening the livability of our planet,' he continued. 'Many do not respect the offices they hold; they lack - or disregard - a basic knowledge of history, science and leadership; and they act impulsively, worsening a toxic political environment.' Sullenberger said he had been a registered Republican for most of his life but implied he could never vote for Trump. He wrote: 'We must rededicate ourselves to the ideals, values and norms that unite us and upon which our democracy depends. 'We must be engaged and informed voters, and we must get our information from credible, reputable sources.' In 2009, 'Sully' saved 155 lives by landing a plane on the Hudson River after the engines were blown out by passing geese 'We cannot wait for someone to save us. We must do it ourselves.' He added: 'This Election Day is a crucial opportunity to again demonstrate the best in each of us by doing our duty and voting for leaders who are committed to the values that will unite and protect us.' Sullenberger was dubbed a national hero for safely ditching a US Airways plane into the Hudson river off of Manhattan after the plane stuck a flock of geese, saving all of his 155 lives. The flight had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport when a flock of geese disabled the engines. Sullenberger safely glided to a water landing and all passengers and crew members were rescued in what became known as the 'miracle on the Hudson.' Sullenberger and about a half-dozen passengers gathered at the NY Waterway ferry terminal to thank the ferry boat company, whose boats quickly got to the downed plane and rescued people. They then boarded a boat and sailed out to the area of the landing, where they raised a toast. Two women who were found with kilograms of methylamphetamine hidden inside their luggage after flying from Sierra Leone to Australia blame someone else for duping them, a court has heard. Matafa Fofana, 21, and Rosaline Koroma, 29, had almost 9kg of low-grade meth, equating to 4.83kg of pure meth, concealed in the lining of their suitcases when they arrived in Perth in May last year. The pair, who lived together in Melbourne, claimed they didn't know the drugs were there but were found guilty by a Supreme Court of WA jury in September. Matafa Fofana, 21, and Rosaline Koroma, 29, were found to be guilty for drug smuggling by a Supreme Court of WA (pictured) in September Fofana's lawyer told the court during sentencing submissions on Monday that his client, who has a four-year-old son, had written a powerful letter but it contained no mention of remorse. 'I am sorry for being so naive and trustworthy of others,' she wrote. 'I made a mistake and that mistake was to trust the wrong people.' Koroma, a refugee, also said in her letter that she was reckless and naive to 'trust people', but she accepted responsibility for her actions and had shown remorse. The prosecutor said text messages from Fofana stating she was going to Africa 'for business' showed she had an awareness of her future activities. 'Both seek to maintain there was a third party who duped them,' she said. The pair will be sentenced on December 10. Vladimir Putin (pictured yesterday) may have thousands of informants in the UK, Russian exiles in Britain have claimed Russians living in the UK believe up to half of their fellow expats are sending information back to Moscow, a bombshell report claimed today. Putin's Kremlin are in the midst of a new cold war with Britain after GRU agents were sent to assassinate Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury with novichok in March. Today a report called Putin Sees and Hears It All: How Russia's Intelligence Agencies Menace The UK reveals the industrial scale of his espionage operation in Britain. And it cites the case of Vladimir Ashurkov, who came to Britain in 2014 after he requested asylum 'due to political persecution' by authorities. He fled to London after being intimidated by the Kremlin for supporting the opposition but quickly realised he was being followed everywhere he went. On one occasion he met a fellow businessman for coffee in a cafe popular with Russians but afterwards became sure that one or more people there were listening in. GRU agents Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov were sent to Britain in March to murder Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, plunging Britain and Russian into a new cold war His friend ' travelled to Moscow the following week and he met with some people from the security services. They knew about our meeting, where we met and what we discussed', according to today's report. Mr Ashurkov has said he has 'learnt to be vigilant at emigre gatherings listening out for who was talking about politics, security and other sensitive topics, aware that they might be informants collecting information and sending it to Moscow'. 'Interviewees ... suggested that anywhere between a quarter and a half of Russian expats were, or have been, informants,' the report said. Some of the spying is flagrant with agents openly gathering outside Russians schools and businesses to intimidate. The men are loudly speaking Russian and eating sunflower seeds, one of the most popular snacks in the country. Author of the report Andrew Foxall said that the capital is 'ill-equipped' to deal with the worrying rise in Russian espionage. He claims that the country's embassy in London holds a great deal of power and its officials are relied upon to make contacts and find business opportunities in Britain. Describing the current atmosphere in the UK he said: 'There is this increasing paranoia or belief that they [Russians] are being watched, that they need to be careful what they say and to whom they say it and where they speak'. Last month it was estimated that there are 200 Russian spies in the UK and at least 500 agents providing information. But if today's estimates are correct then thousands will be passing back information. The figures come amid an increasing fear of Russian infiltration and espionage in the country following the attempted murders of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March this year. Experts believe that officials at then Russian embassy in London (pictured) have a tight grip in citizens, controlling access to business opportunities in the UK The father and daughter, who were poisoned with a military grade Novichok nerve agent, were discovered unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on March 4 before rescue services were called to the scene. Former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove said today's report 'forcefully reminds us that Russian intelligence activity in the West is still large-scale and intrusive'. He told The Times: 'We need to devote significant resources and expertise ourselves to monitoring and blunting this threat to our national security. 'As during the Cold War an effective counterintelligence capability remains an essential part of our own intelligence and security community'. Footage has emerged showing thousands of women being whipped to rid them of evil spirits during a brutal ceremony in a remote Indian village. Women and teenagers kneel side-by-side in a long line and wait to be flogged by priests during the Vijayadashami festival celebrated once a year in Tamil Nadu, southern India. Video shows how they are lashed one-by-one until they can no longer cope with the pain. Footage has emerged showing thousands of 'possessed' women being whipped to rid them of evil spirits during a brutal ceremony in a remote Indian village Women and teenagers kneel side-by-side a huge line and wait to be flogged by priests during the Vijayadashami festival celebrated once a year in Tamil Nadu, southern India Video shows how they are lashed one-by-one until they can no longer cope with the pain The ceremony takes place at the ancient Sri Achappan Temple at Bavithram Vellalapatti, a remote village situated on the border of Tiruchi and Namakkal districts of Tamil Nadu. The so-called 'salvation seekers' volunteer to be whipped with some fearing they are possessed and others believing the ritual will cure sickness. Priests dressed in traditional clothing then carry out the flogging using whips and pieces of wood. One of them, a 60-year-old named as Chelli, claimed: 'A single lash can cure them of their illness, pain and other evils.' A 14-year-old girl who came voluntarily to get flogged had irregular menstruation and thought the process could heal her of the problems. The ceremony takes place at the ancient Sri Achappan Temple at Bavithram Vellalapatti, a remote village situated on the border of Tiruchi and Namakkal districts of Tamil Nadu So-called 'salvation seekers' volunteer to be whipped. Priests dressed in traditional clothing then carry out the flogging using whips and pieces of wood In another case, a newly married woman came to be flogged because her in-laws thought that she was possessed and that evil spirits would not bring luck to her new home. When asked if such a ritual was a crime, one of the priests said: 'It is the belief of the people that bring them here. 'If no one comes to get flogged, we won't go to their houses and ask them to come to the lashing ground.' Authorities said Donte Sherrod Grayer, 26, accidentally shot himself while robbing a Georgia McDonald's on Saturday night (pictured in 2014) A Georgia sheriff's office said a man robbing a McDonald's accidentally shot himself in the thigh, foiling his escape. The Bibb County Sheriff's Office named Donte Sherrod Grayer, 26, of Macon, Georgia, as being the suspect in a Macon McDonald's robbery on Saturday night. Authorities said that at about 11pm, a man later identified as Grayer entered the McDonald's while wearing a black and red wig. According to witnesses, Grayer then asked to speak with the restaurant's manager, before revealing a gun and telling the manger to open the safe in the back office. The manager did as told, then escaped to the front of the restaurant along with another McDonald's employee. Witnesses then reported hearing a gun shot from the back office and seeing Grayer exit the restaurant and run towards the business center behind the McDonald's. Witnesses said they heard Grayer screaming for help while wearing only his boxers, with the red and black wig, clothes and money 'all connected to the armed robbery' on the ground next to him. The Sheriff's Office said in the media statement that Grayer was reported to have suffered a gunshot wound in his left thigh and that their initial investigation indicated that Grayer accidentally shot himself at some point during the incident. Authorities said that a man wearing a colorful wig shot himself in the thigh while robbing the safe at this McDonald's in Macon, Georgia, on Saturday night When deputies arrived on the scene, they took Grayer to the hospital. He was said to be in stable condition. When he's released from care, police said that they'll arrest Grayer as the suspect in the commercial armed robbery and he'll be transported to the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center. Grayer has not yet been arrested, according to a jail records search Monday. The Sheriff's Office has asked that anyone with information regarding the McDonald's robbery should call the Bibb County Sheriffs Office at 478-751-7500 or Macon Regional Crime Stoppers 1-877-68CRIME. The Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) announced the beginning of the cruise ship season, with the arrival of Azamara Cruises on November 4. The cruise ship, sailing under the Azamara Quest cruise line, had over 600 tourists onboard from different nationalities. The cruise season has kicked off in the Kingdom of Bahrain and we look forward to receiving more cruise ships over the next few months, further developing the kingdoms tourism sector and contributing towards the development of the national economy, said the director of tourism marketing and promotions at BTEA, Yousif Al Khan. We appreciate the joint efforts from all governmental entities and cruise ship operators who are facilitating the passengers' journey through Khalifa Bin Salman Port. These ships contribute in the arrival of multi-national passengers to the kingdom and exposing them to its rich history and tourism offerings, which make it an ideal tourism destination, he added. A tour around the kingdom was organised for the visitors and they got the chance to visit some of Bahrains tourist attractions and learn about its contemporary and ancient sites including Bahrain International Circuit, Al Jasra Handicrafts Centre, Bahrain National Museum, Al Fateh Grand Mosque and Manama Souq. Hosting the cruise ships comes as part of the BTEAs long-term strategy to further develop the Kingdoms tourism sector under the slogan of Ours.Yours., which contributes to the kingdoms economy and the 2030 Economic Vision. - TradeArabia News Service This is the shocking moment a firework was let off in someone's car in London. The video which has been shared widely online took place at night earlier this week. A hooded man can be seen running towards a stationary car in the middle of the road carrying a lit firework which he abruptly throws into the car. In the video, the man pulled open the black car's rear doors open but luckily didn't succeed in his plans. The firework flew out of the vehicle before he could slam the door, locking the explosive inside. A Twitter user named who shared the video said: 'Welcome to London where we put fireworks in random people's cars.' Appalled viewers were quick to share their thoughts on the dangerous incident - with several people urging local cops to take action. One said: 'Imagine there were kids in the car. They would be traumatised. This ain't cool at all.' This is the shocking moment a hooded man hurls a lit firework into a stationary car in London Another responded: 'Could have burned the people inside or exploded the car.' Since being uploaded, the video has already racked up over 140,000 views online. The incident comes after a policewoman had to run for cover after an exploding firework is launched at her in the street in an attack that saw children caught in the crossfire. The shocking footage comes on the same day that a 25-year-old man issued a warning about the dangers of fireworks after his eyeball was 'split in two' in an accident. Luckily, the firework flew out of the car before the man had time to trap it inside It left several officers with injuries and singed the hair of a nine-year-old girl during the attack in London Fireworks were also launched at a fire engine in Bradford, West Yorkshire forcing them to withdraw from a call out. In sickening footage, yobs have been targeting London driver and pedestrians in wave of Halloween fireworks incidents. A toddler has been miraculously rescued from the sea after he wandered out of a tent while his parents were asleep. Fisherman Gus Hutt thought 18-month-old Malachi Reeve was a doll when he saw a small figure floating in the water at Matata Beach, near Whakatane on New Zealand's north island. It wasn't until Malachi let out a squeak that Mr Hutt knew he was alive and plucked him from the sea. Malachi's mother, Jessica Whyte, said she felt like her heart had stopped beating after learning her little boy had unzipped the tent they were sleeping in and walked into the water. Little Malachi Reeve (pictured) has been miraculously rescued from the sea after he wandered away when his parents fell asleep in a tent Malachi's mother, Jessica Whyte, said she felt like her heart had stopped beating after finding out her little boy had unzipped the tent they were sleeping in and walked into the sea Fisherman Gus Hutt thought 18-month-old Malachi Reeve was a doll when he saw his small body floating in the water at Matata Beach, near Whakatane (pictured) on the east coast of New Zealand's north island 'His face looked like porcelain with his short hair wetted down but then he let out a little squeak and I thought, "oh God, this is a baby and it's alive",' Mr Hutt said, according to NZ Herald. 'He was floating at a steady pace with a rip in the water. If I hadn't been there, or if I had just been a minute later I wouldn't have seen him. He was bloody lucky, but he just wasn't meant to go; it wasn't his time.' The rescue was all the more remarkable because Mr Hutt was at a fishing location more than 300ft from his normal usual spot. Malachi's family had been staying at Murphy's Holiday Camp on October 26 when the child unzipped the tent and walked to the beach around 7am without waking his parents. Mr Hutt found the youngster floating in the water after returning to check his lines at 7.15am. Malachi's mother, Jessica Whyte was woken at about 7.30am to the camp manager informing her that Malachi had been rescued from the sea. When they were reunited the toddler was cold and purple. Mr Hutt found the youngster (pictured) floating in the water after returning to check his lines at 7.15am Malachi's family had been staying at Murphy's Holiday Camp on October 26 when the small boy unzipped the tent and walked to the beach around 7am without waking his parents 'It was horrible in between hearing that and seeing him,' she told Stuff. 'I don't think my heart [beat] from hearing that to seeing him. I don't think my heart worked. 'It was scary but he was breathing, he was alive. Oh God, it was amazing seeing him. I gave him a big hug.' Malachi normally sleeps until gone 8am, she said, but there is a chance that he may have been woken earlier than usual by the sound of the waves. Ms Whyte, from Matamata, has warned parents to ensure their tents are fully zipped to avoid any similar incidents this summer. Rebecca Salter, co-owner of Murphy's Holiday Camp told the BBC: 'Apparently the baby had been very excited to be on the beach. It was the couple's first night staying here. It's the first time they've been here.' She said Mr Hutt brought the boy to them before they wrapped the youngster in towels. 'It came as a shock to everyone. It was a very, very lucky result... it could have been a very tragic incident. It's a freakish miracle,' Salter added. Local police confirmed that they attended the emergency, adding that the baby was now 'okay'. A man, 28, has been charged with attempting to smuggle 9.5 million cigarettes in Western Australia a record bust in the state. Police recently seized 47,500 cartons of cigarettes at a container examination facility in Fremantle, Western Australia on October 31. The cigarettes, which were made in South East Asia, were worth $7.6 million in evaded duty, according to police. Scroll down for video A man, 28, (pedicured) has been arrested and charged with attempting to smuggle 9.5 million cigarettes in Western Australia Police recently seized 47,500 cartons (pictured) of cigarettes at a container examination facility in Fremantle, Western Australia Last week, Australian Border Force (ABF) officers searched two homes, a tobacco shop and storage room linked to the tobacco bust in Morley, Perth where 31,000 additional cigarettes were found. A man, from Morley, was later arrested and charged with one count of illegally importing the tobacco with the intention of defrauding the revenue. The 28-year-old appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court last Saturday and was granted conditional bail to reappear in court this Friday. The cigarettes were identified after the 40-foot container was x-rayed by Border Force police. According to the ABF, a detector dog also gave a reaction indicating the presence of tobacco. ABF Regional Commander for WA Rod ODonnell said the detection was the biggest supply of illicit tobacco in the states history. In a statement he said: This is by far the biggest illicit cigarette seizure made in WA. Importantly, weve been able to prevent the Commonwealth being defrauded of more than $7.66 million in legitimate revenue.' The maximum penalty for tobacco smuggling is 10 years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to five times the amount of duty evaded. The cigarettes were identified after the 40-foot container was x-rayed (pictured) by Border Force police The cigarettes were made in South East Asia and worth $7.6 million in evaded duty, according to police For the 7.66 million worth of evaded duty, the man risks a maximum fine of more than $38 million. In Australia, the illicit tobacco market is worth about $600 million a year in evaded revenue. Commander Rod ODonnell said: 'Illicit tobacco is an international issue, with much of the profits from cigarettes sold illegally in Australia being used to fund other criminal activity both here and overseas. 'The ABF is committed to working with our international partners to detect, investigate and disrupt those involved in the illegal tobacco trade and to stop the profits from these smuggling operations from funding further criminal activity.' Two Army veterans selling poppies for Remembrance Day were ordered to leave a London shopping centre over public safety concerns. John Paul Gaughan, 59, and Vic Emery, 57, who served a collective total of 50 years, were told on Saturday they did not have permission to be at intu Uxbridge and would have to leave. The pair continued to sell poppies by the main entrance ahead of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One next Sunday and were later invited to come back inside but refused on principle. John Paul Gaughan, 59, (left) and Vic Emery, 57, who served a collective total of 50 years, were told on Saturday they did not have permission to be at intu Uxbridge and would have to leave Mr Gaughan, a former Royal Engineer who wears a poppy all year round, said: 'I am actually disgusted and I just could not get my head around it. 'I will keep volunteering for the Poppy Appeal as long as I still have breath in my lungs because I lost too many friends not to but I wouldn't go back to intu, I won't even shop there. 'I go to a veterans' breakfast club and they asked if anybody could volunteer to help issue poppies so I did assume it was all above board and sorted. 'The manager told us it was policy but the basic principle of health and safety as far as I'm concerned is a common sense approach and that was not used here. 'We are not really selling anything, it's just a donation. Plus, it was for a one-off event and a major anniversary, which we or even our grandchildren might not see again.' Mr Gaughan said they had been selling poppies from 9am until about lunchtime when an intu employee asked if they had permission to be there and then said they had to leave. 'We left and no voices were raised but, of course, local people thought it was disgusting and about an hour later a lady came back outside and asked us to come back in, he said. 'We refused on principle. Even though I prefer to stand inside, I have been in all kinds of inclement weather and I would stand in driving snow, rain or whatever and not mind it for this cause. 'If they had taken a moment to think about what we are doing and why first, we could have come to a resolution but I don't appreciate them coming back an hour later to change their mind without even saying sorry. 'I don't have a vendetta or want anyone to lose their jobs over it, I just think people need to be better educated about this issue. We had some people asking us when Armistice Day was.' Mr Emery, who was in the Royal Pioneer Corps for 22 years, said intu Uxbridge's behaviour was 'shameful' and 'should never have happened' given they both fought for their country. Im a health and safety officer myself and I thought it was very weird, he said. 'After the public became quite unhappy about it, they did say we could come back in but by that point we were settled where we were.' The pair said a staff member at intu Uxbridge (seen in this undated photo) said they had to leave for 'public safety reasons' Intu Uxbridge said: 'We support and value the role of the Poppy Appeal, and every year we support its volunteers in raising all important funds. 'Yesterday, while the volunteers hadn't notified us of their collection, which we kindly require all of our charity and volunteer organisations to do, we did have conversations with their team to allow them to remain in the centre, but they declined to do so. 'We are discussing this with the British Legion to ensure that this situation doesn't happen again and that they continue to be welcomed into the centre.' Manager Laurie Taylor said: 'We have never had problems with poppy sellers before because previously they have come to speak to us first. 'For all we knew, these could have been rogue sellers even though they were wearing berets and medals.' Despite Mr Emerys insistence that there were 'no rows', Mr Taylor added: 'The gentlemen were asked nicely if they would mind going as they did not have permission and refused. 'They started getting funny with us and taking pictures of us. 'One of our employees later apologised but they refused to come back in and were quite stubborn. Instead they stayed outside telling customers that we kicked them out. 'A number of people actually came to us to get our view because they were being quite negative outside and once we explained they understood.' The Royal British Legion has been contacted for comment. An anxious university student was found hanged a day after his university exam results came out, an inquest has heard. Rajiv Aryal was studying astrophysics at the University of Sussex but was left 'disappointed with his results' which came out on July 12, his girlfriend said. A friend forced his way into this home in Brighton the following day and found Mr Aryal hanging inside. Paramedics were called but the 19-year-old was pronounced dead at his student home, a coroner was told. The police found there no signs of any suspicious behaviour and Coroner Catharine Palmer said the death appeared to be 'a deliberate act' by Mr Aryal. Rajiv Aryal was found hanging at his student house the day after exam results were given out Mr Aryal's girlfriend Ellen Robinson told the hearing that he was 'such a hard-working student' and he got 'quite obsessed with studying'. She said he 'often said he was upset when he didn't do well in his studies' and was 'a lot more anxious than normal' leading up to his death. Ms Robinson also said he had 'financial concerns' because he had 'gone quite far in to his overdraft'. During a postmortem, Rajiv was confirmed to be 'a healthy young man' with 'no signs of drugs or alcohol in his system' at the time of death, the inquest heard. His father Laxmi Aryal, from London, said his son had previously suffered from low moods but he thought these had cleared in the last few years. He told the hearing: 'It has been a huge shock for all of us. His ambition was to become a scientist and I really felt he was going to become a great one. I don't think he ever planned to take his own life.' His friend managed to get into the house where he lived in this street in Brighton in July Rising tide of worries among students The number of university students seeking mental health support has risen by more than 50% in five years. Research by the BBC last month found that nearly 80,000 students asked for help last year, up from around 50,000 in 2013. Students in need of help are encouraged to ring Samaritans, Papyrus or YoungMinds crisis messenger service. Advertisement Rajivl's father added: 'He had asked me for some financial help and I gave him a bit of money to support him. 'It seemed he was planning the future and where he was going to live after the summer holidays, so I don't think he really thought about taking his own life. I did not think it would end like this.' Assistant East Sussex Coroner Catharine Palmer said the cause of death was hanging and his 'high levels of anxiety' could be a potential contributing factor. She told the court that he had clearly waited until his housemates had left the house before taking his life in order to not be disturbed. She therefore concluded his death was 'a deliberate act', but there were no obvious contributing factors such as illness, drugs or a history of mental health. For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See samaritans.org for details. This is the adorable moment a baby elephant makes an ardent attempt to wake up his sleepy brother. The cute scenes took place in Kruger National Park in South Africa, shot by a tourist on safari. In the past, scientists found that African elephants have four distinct personality traits, including playfulness which is clear to see here. To see elephants lie down flat on their sides is a rare sight and mostly it will be the youngsters that do enjoy a rest on their sides. The baby elephant, who wanted to play, was not going to let his bigger brother enjoy his morning nap in the sun. The little elephant proceeds to climb on top of his brother with his front legs. The young African elephant relentlessly harasses his older brother to wake up The older elephant caves in and looks dazed and confused as his brother continues to pester The sleepy brother still does not get up and his little brother starts pushing and shoving him more intensely, adamant that he should play with him. Suddenly the sleepy brother decides that this is enough and quickly jumps up, looking confused with the situation. The clip was shot on safari in the Kruger National Park, and is at polar opposite to what some people see when touring the wilderness. Last month, a group of horrified tourists witnessed mother nature at work as a pride of hungry lions savagely killed a lone water buffalo. The black box recorder recovered from the doomed Lion Air plane that crashed, killing all 189 on board shows the jet's airspeed indicator was faulty when it crashed and during three other flights, investigators said today. According to a technical log the Lion Air plane, which had only been in service a few months, suffered instrument problems the day before because of an 'unreliable' airspeed reading. All 189 people on board the Lion Air jet were killed when the plane crashed into the Java Sea on October 29 just minutes after taking off from Jakarta. The night before the fatal crash, the same aircraft had erratic speed and altitude issues during a flight from Bali to Jakarta, it emerged yesterday. Passengers noticed an 'unusual' rumbling coming from the engine and a 'roller coaster'-like flight, which combined with the heat caused some people to become ill. Angry relatives of the victims today demanded answers from the airline's owner at an emotional press conference. Lion Air Founder and owner, Rusdi Kirana, stood up, bowed his head, and clasped his hands together when relatives of passengers of the doomed Lion Air flight demanded answers at a press conference today Relatives of passengers who died in the crashed Lion Air flight JT610 sobbed during a meeting with Indonesian authorities and Lion Air management in Jakarta today Distraught families begged the founder of Lion Air to tell them why the plane, which was found to have technical problems, had been passed fit to fly. At a news conference today charged with emotion, relatives questioned Indonesian officials including transport minister, Budi Karya Sumadi, and the head of the country's transportation safety committee (KNKT). At one stage during the meeting, which was arranged by Indonesian officials, relatives urged Lion Air founder, Rusdi Kirana, who was in the audience, to stand up. He stood up, but did not comment and clasped his hands together and bowed his head as if seeking forgiveness. After the meeting, Kirana left in a hurry, avoiding questions from reporters. Since the privately owned budget carrier was founded in 1999 by the Kirana brothers, its aircraft have been involved in at least 15 safety incidents and it has been placed under tougher international safety restrictions than other Indonesian airlines. Muhammad Bambang Sukandar, the father of another victim, said Lion Air technicians needed to take 'full responsibility' if it was proved they had not properly attended to technical issues following the jet's previous flight from Bali to Jakarta. Since the privately owned budget Indonesian carrier was founded in 1999 by the Kirana brothers, its aircraft have been involved in at least 15 safety incidents A woman, whose husband was on Lion Air flight, cries as she holds their son after a news conference about the recovery process at a hotel in Jakarta Families of victims of the air disaster demanded authorities tell them why the jet was cleared for take off when it had technical problems He said, as he sought to choke back tears: 'This is not an unimportant thing. These are people's lives. Don't let something like this keep happening in Indonesia.' Indonesia is one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets, but its safety record has been patchy, with its transport safety panel investigated 137 serious aviation incidents from 2012 to 2017. Najib Fuquoni, a relative of a victim, demanded an independent investigation into the crash, said: 'We are the victims here. Imagine if you were in our position.' Indonesia is one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets, but its safety record has been patchy, with its transport safety panel investigated 137 serious aviation incidents from 2012 to 2017. Indonesian authorities yesterday extended by three days the search for victims and a second black box recorder from wreckage of a nearly new Boeing 737 MAX that slammed into the sea a week ago only minutes after it took off from Jakarta. Some relatives and families of victims of the Lion Air flight had to leave the meeting because they were too upset Indonesian National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) officials examine a turbine engine from the Lion Air flight at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta Divers found the black box on Thursday in a damaged condition and investigators said it required special handling to retrieve the information. The second black box is believed to be just 50 metres from the main search area, where the water is only 30 metres deep, but ocean currents and mud on the sea bed is complicating search efforts. More than 100 body bags of human remains have been pulled from the water, with the number expected to rise as remains were now washing up on land and only 14 victims have been identified so far. While victims' relatives are desperate to know what happened, the first crash of a Boeing 737 MAX is also the focus of scrutiny by the global aviation industry. Transport minister Sumadi, added that authorities were also conducting a special audit to include operating procedures and crew qualifications He said: 'As an initial step we conducted ramp checks for 11 Boeing 737 Max 8.' Divers recovered the crucial black box with dozens of hours of data as investigators piece together final moments of the doomed flight that killed 189 Members of an Indonesian rescue team unloaded a pair of tyres from the ill-fated Lion Air flight which were recovered at sea The search effort has involved 151 divers, five helicopters, 61 ships, ranging from fishing boats to ships with advanced sonar scanners, as well as underwater drones. An Indonesian rescue diver died during the search for a second black box, parts of the plane, and human remains on the muddy seabed. The head of KNKT Surjanto Tjahjono has said 69 hours of recorded data from 19 flights, including the one that crashed, had been downloaded successfully from a partly damaged flight data recorder recovered on Thursday. As of Monday, 138 body bags containing human remains had been recovered and handed to police for forensic identification, yet only 14 victims had been identified. Among the larger parts of the plane found have been a mangled engine and a damaged aircraft wheel. Tjahjono said based on initial analysis the 'engine was running with fairly high speed' when it hit the water. While there were no signs of an explosion in the air, the plane appeared to have hit the water with huge force, he added, saying: 'When the plane hit the water, the energy released was extraordinarily large.' A tourist has died after he was mauled by a shark near an idyllic beach, only weeks after two other tourists were attacked in the exact same spot. The 33-year-old was airlifted to hospital from the Whitsunday Island's Cid Harbour in north-east Queensland on Monday evening, but ultimately died from his injuries. The victim was swimming off a charter yacht when he was bitten in the left thigh, right calf and left wrist, the latter of which was reportedly inflicted while fending off the predator. Scroll down for video A third shark attack in less than two months on the Whitsundays (pictured) has taken the life of a male tourist The 33-year-old was airlifted to hospital from the Whitsunday Island's Cid Harbour in north-east Queensland on Monday evening, but ultimately died from his injuries Emergency services were called to the scene just after 5:30pm on Monday. The RACQ CQ Rescue Helicopter landed on an adjacent beach just before 8pm, the Courier Mail reports. A Tweet by Queensland Ambulance confirmed at least one paramedic arrived on the scene before the rescue helicopter and administered preliminary treatments. The man, who remains unidentified, was airlifted to nearby Mackay Hospital in a critical condition after receiving CPR. He died shortly after arriving. Emergency services were called to the scene just after 5:30pm on Monday The tourist, 33, was swimming off a charter yacht on Monday afternoon when he was mauled In September, two tourists were attacked in the same body of water within 24 hours of each other, resulting in the culling of six sharks. On the afternoon of September 19, Tasmanian tourist Justine Barwick was mauled while swimming off of a private yacht in Cid Harbour. Hours later, a 12-year-old girl was bitten on the leg and rushed to Mackay Base Hospital for immediate treatment. The RACQ CQ Rescue Helicopter landed on an adjacent beach just before 8pm A schoolgirl from Melbourne, Hannah Papps, subsequently lost her leg in the attack. The Queensland government soon after released a 'catch and kill' order on predators in the area, resulting in the culling of five tiger sharks and one other. Fisheries Queensland issued a statement soon after the attacks, telling people that Cid Harbour was 'not safe for swimming'. A Florida man has opened up about how he saved multiple lives by pouncing on a shooter at a Tallahassee yoga studio when his gun jammed. Scott Paul Beierle, 40, entered a hot yoga studio with a duffel bag on Friday night, pulled out a gun and started firing, killing two women. At one point his gun malfunctioned and Joshua Quick bravely attacked him with a vacuum cleaner and then a broom. This gave the other people in the room time to escape before Beierle turned the gun on himself. Hero: Florida yoga studio hero Joshua Quick gave his first interviews to ABC about the night he disarmed a shooter who killed two women The shooter was 40-year-old Scott Paul Beierle (left). At one point his gun jammed and Quick (right) bravely attacked him with a vacuum cleaner and then a broom The two victims who were shot dead have been named as Maura Binkley, 21, (left) and Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, 61 (right) Quick told ABC News: that upon entering the classroom, Beierle began frantically rummaging through his bag and the teacher came over to help him. 'The yoga instructor walked over to assist him to do something and that's when I heard her scream,' Quick recounted. 'I looked up...I do not recall this, but i was told that I yelled, "He's got a gun.' When Beierle opened fire, Quick said he scanned the room looking for something that could be used as a weapon against the attacker. 'The only thing that I could think was was this vacuum cleaner with a heavy end, so as soon as he came out of the corner, the gun stopped.,' Quick said, describing the moment the shooter's firearm jammed. 'I used that opportunity to hit him over the head with it [vacuum cleaner].' Beierle then struck Quick in the face with his pistol, knocking him to the floor and giving him a nasty cut that required stitches. Quick said: 'I jumped up as quickly as I could, ran back over and next thing you know, I'm grabbing a broom, anything I can. And I hit him again.' Daniela Garcia Albalat was among the yoga students who escaped due to Quick's heroic actions. She said: 'I want to thank that guy from the bottom of my heart because he saved my life.' Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo said Friday night that the gunman shot six people and pistol-whipped one other before fatally shooting himself. The two victims who were shot dead are Nancy Van Vessem, 61, and Maura Binkley, 21. The shooter killed two people and wounded at five others before killing himself (the scene is seen above) Dr Van Vessem was an internist and chief medical director for Capital Health Plan the Tallahassee Democrat confirmed. Capital Health Plan said in a statement: 'Our Capital Health Plan family is deeply shocked and saddened about the tragic loss of our beloved friend and colleague, Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, among the other victims of this terrible incident. 'As CHP's longtime chief medical director, Nancy has been a guiding, visionary force in our daily work to serve the wellness and health care needs of thousands of families in this community. 'Her dedication, caring, leadership, humanity, and experience made her one of the most respected, inspiring, and accomplished medical professionals in the state and country. Our hearts are filled with sorrow and prayers for her family. We all have been so blessed to have Nancy in our lives.' Binkley was a student at Florida State University and Dr Van Vessem was a faculty member. A person is seen being transported from scene of a shooting in Tallahassee, Florida on Friday Emergency personnel are seen stationed outside the yoga studio after a gunman opened fire The shooting in Tallahassee on Friday appeared to be a part of a domestic dispute Video courtesy of Michael Hudak University President John Thrasher said in a statement: 'There are no words to express the shock and grief we feel after learning of the deaths of Maura Binkley and Dr. Nancy Van Vessem. 'To lose one of our students and one of our faculty members in this tragic and violent way is just devastating to the Florida State University family. We feel this loss profoundly and we send our deepest sympathies to Maura's and Nancy's loved ones while we pray for the recovery of those who were injured.' Megan Nixon told the Tallahassee Democrat she was eating at Riccardo's Restaurant downstairs when the gunman opened fire. She said: 'We heard pop, pop, pop. It sounded intense. It didn't sound like gunshots.' Melissa Hutchinson said she helped treat a 'profusely' bleeding man who rushed into a bar after the incident. She said three people from the studio ran in, and they were told there was an active shooter. Matthew Rodin, left and Susan Turner comfort Melissa Hutchinson who rendered aid to some of the victims of a mass shooting The shooting happened at a small Tallahassee shopping center on Friday afternoon 'It was a shocking moment something happened like this,' Hutchinson said. The people who came in were injured. They told her the shooter kept coming in and out of the studio. When he loaded his gun, people started pounding the windows of the studio to warn people. Erskin Wesson, 64, said he was eating dinner with his family at a restaurant below the yoga studio when they heard the gunshots above them. 'We just heard 'pow, pow, pow, pow,'' Wesson said. 'It sounded like a limb falling on a tin roof and rolling.' The restaurant's owner came by a short time later, asking if anyone was a doctor, Wesson said. His step-daughter is an emergency room nurse and helped paramedics for about an hour, he said. There were 11 people signed up for the 5.30pm class. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who is the Democratic nominee for governor, tweeted that he's breaking off the campaign trail to return to Tallahassee. Tallahassee police chief Michael DeLeo speaks to the press at the scene of a shooting Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum said he's breaking off the campaign trail to return to Tallahassee He wrote: 'I'm deeply appreciative of law enforcement's quick response to the shooting at the yoga facility in Tallahassee today. 'No act of gun violence is acceptable. I'm in close communication with law enforcement officials and will be returning to Tallahassee tonight.' Late Friday night, after earlier appeared at a campaign event with former President Barack Obama, Gillum spoke to reporters near the scene of the shooting to say that he had visited in the hospital two people who were shot at the studio. The mayor said they were in good spirits despite their injuries. Gillum asked residents to pray for those who survived and those who were killed in the shooting. 'We all feel a sense of added vulnerability' because of the shooting, the mayor said. City Commissioner Scott Maddox wrote on Facebook: 'In my public service career I have had to be on some bad scenes. This is the worst. Please pray.' Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, called DeLeo and the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to get details of the shooting. 'I will remain in constant communication with law enforcement. We have offered state assistance,' Scott tweeted. The plaza where the shooting took place is home to popular restaurants, a jewelry store, a framing shop, a hair salon and other businesses. Arron Banks is facing fresh questions today amid claims he has contradicted evidence given to MPs about the source of millions of pounds in donations to the Brexit campaign. The insurance tycoon gave a defiant interview yesterday in which he insisted there was 'no Russian money and no interference' after a criminal probe was launched into the source of funding. The Leave.EU co-founder told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that all the cash came from a UK-registered company, Rock Services. But Commons Culture Committee chair Damian Collins today pointed out that Mr Banks had previously told MPs the company existed to provide services to his other enterprises, and generated no cash of its own. The Electoral Commission's review of referendum finances focused on 2million reported to have been loaned to Better For The Country by Mr Banks and his insurance companies and a 6million donation which he made alone. Mr Banks and Leave.EU chief executive Liz Bilney deny any wrongdoing. A National Crime Agency (NCA) probe has been launched into 'suspected criminal offences' after the Electoral Commission said it had reasonable grounds to suspect that Mr Banks was not the true source of the cash. Arron Banks (pictured right) told the Andrew Marr show yesterday that there was 'no Russian money' behind the millions he spent fighting for Brexit MPs claim there is a 'discrepancy' between Mr Banks' claims about the source of the money The elections watchdog also said that loans involved a company - Rock Holdings - based on the Isle of Man, which was impermissible under finance rules. Mr Collins said Mr Banks' TV appearance had gone 'not very far' in establishing the facts. 'Basically Arron Banks said the money came from a holding company that he told the Select Committee provides services to the other companies he owns,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'What's not clear is where the money came from to get to that holding company in the first place, because this is a business that in and of itself doesn't generate cash. The question is where did the money come from? What is Arron Banks accused of? Arron Banks is accused of financing loans to Leave.EU and the parent company Better for the Company from illegal sources. The Electoral Commission's review said that, as well as having reasonable grounds to suspect he was not the true source of the cash, loans involved a company, Rock Holdings, based on the Isle of Man. This is banned under the rules. While the Electoral Commission does not name Russia or any other possible source of the money, Mr Banks has repeatedly denied a link to the Kremlin. The watchdog said it suspected Mr Banks, Ms Bilney and others involved in the campaign to have concealed the true details of the financial transactions. It believes a number of criminal offences may have been committed and passed it to the National Crime Agency. It said its investigation relates to suspected electoral law offences. Advertisement 'It is a discrepancy because what he told us was that Rock Services really just provides services to other companies that he owns - provides cash, makes payments. It doesn't make any money itself. It's not selling products and services and generating cash. 'For Rock Services to have money to give to Leave.EU or anyone else, that money has got to have been put in that bank account by another company or another individual. 'If Rock Services made the donation, where did the money come from for Rock Services to do that? That is still not clear. No matter how many times he was asked that question, he didn't answer it.' Mr Banks accused Andrew Marr of trying to 'smear' him yesterday as the BBC interviewer demanded he explain where millions for Brexit came from. He repeated his claims a police investigation will find 'no Russian money' in a heated live TV clash days after he was reported to the National Crime Agency on suspicion of making illegal donations in the Brexit battle. Mr Banks insists the 6million he ploughed into Leave.EU campaign was 'generated from cash and businesses in the UK'. He insisted the saga was a 'misunderstanding' about a 'holding company' he owns called Rock Holdings based on the Isle of Man. He said the money he loaned Leave.EU during the referendum came from the UK-based firm Rock Services, which Mr Banks said insures thousands of people in Britain. Marr suggested official records on Rock Services do not prove the source of the money - prompting Mr Banks to the BBC presenter of trying to 'smear' him. Told he was 'changing his story' as Marr pressed for details on where the 6million came from, Mr Banks insisted he was 'expanding it'. Mr Banks even claimed the Government's handling of Brexit had proved so 'corrupt' that 'I think we would have been better to probably remain and not unleash these demons'. In a heated interview, Mr Banks (pictured outside the studios) told Marr all the money he ploughed into Leave.EU campaign was 'generated from cash and businesses in the UK' Mr Banks wielded papers he said cleared his name and insisted the Electoral Commission had never asked for bank statements to demonstrate where the cash came from. He said: 'I am telling you the Electoral Commission never asked for the bank statements? Why?' Mr Banks claimed: 'This is about undermining Article 50, this is about undermining the Brexit vote.' Told by Mr Marr there was 'no evidence' of the money inside Rock Services, Mr Banks insisted 'you're getting it wrong'. Mr Banks said Rock Services has 'all sorts of revenues' but did not detail them. He said: 'Rock Services has all sorts of revenues - we insure half a million people. 'I know it's complex for journalists to understand but we know what this is about - it's about undermining Article 50 and the Brexit result. 'It's a group of vicious MPs who have grouped together with the Guardian and the FT.' In his evidence to MPs in June, Mr Banks said: 'Rock Services is a treasury function, it just delivers the cash. It is just a service company. 'The actual loan came from another one of my companies that was delivered in. From my perspective, I am a UK taxpayer. I have made the loan out of my own funds or company funds to Better for the Country.' Arron Banks (pictured at the BBC yesterday) was accused of misleading MPs over the connections between his insurance business and his Brexit campaign today Arron Banks is being investigated by police over Brexit campaign funding - and responded with this tweet of himself relaxing in Bermuda Mr Banks, who was returning from holiday in Bermuda, showed bank statements to The Mail on Sunday which he said proved that 'no large amounts of cash flowed in during 2015 or 2016 from any source'. The self-proclaimed 'Bad Boy of Brexit' has said he will show the documents to NCA officers today. The partially redacted statements show modest incomes and outgoings at Rock Holdings, an account at the centre of the probe. 'I have done nothing illegal and I am confident I will be cleared of the ludicrous allegations levelled against us', Mr Banks said. Tory MP and chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Damian Collins (file image) interrogated Mr Banks in Parliament earlier this year He described as 'absurd' the claim he was 'an agent of the Russian state'. 'I understand that among the millions who voted Remain, many still feel sore that they lost,' he said. 'That does not give them the right to undermine the will of the majority. They simply have to accept that if they want to live in a democracy, Brexit is a reality.' The Electoral Commission also referred Leave.EU, its chief executive, Elizabeth Bilney, and the organisation that ran it, Better For The Country, to the NCA. Bob Posner, the Commission's director of political finance, said: 'We have reasonable grounds to suspect money given to Better For The Country came from impermissible sources and that Mr Banks and Ms Bilney knowingly concealed the true circumstances under which this money was provided. 'This is significant because at least 2.9million of this money was used to fund referendum spending and donations.' Mr Banks insists that lawyers prepared his 'loan structure within Electoral Commission rules'. 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. TCN News A number of national, local daily newspapers, channels and media agencies on 15 October 2018 reported an alleged case of terror-funding related to the construction of Khulafa-e- Rashideen Masjid in Palwals Uttawar village. The reports were based on a National Investigation Agency (NIA) source. The NIA also reported that through their investigations that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)-linked charity Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) distributed a lot of money through a hawala network among poor families in Haryanas Mewat region to build goodwill for the terror group. And many newspapers quoted INA that the LeT funded many weddings in the village and also for construction of the said mosque. Support TwoCircles The NIA officers on 3 October 2018, days after the agency arrested three men, including the Imam of the Masjid, Mohammed Salman, in New Delhi in an alleged terror-funding case. However no one in the village beleives the stories of the NIA. A fact finding committee of the Delhi Minorities commission comprising Ovais Sultan KhanMember of Delhi Minorities Commissions advisory committee; A C Michael, Former Member of Delhi Minorities Commission, and member of DMC advisory committee; Abu Bakr Sabbaq, advocate and human rights worker, and Sardar Gurmindar Singh Matharu, Member of Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar released their reprot on 31st October in the Delhi MInorities commission office, New Delhi in the midst of the press and other officials. Through the fact finding report the committe has decalred that there is no evidence that the moque which is still under construction has been funded by any terror outfit. And the persons arrested by the NIA are not involved in any terror activity. The complete report is available at: Palwal-Mosque-Oct2018-Fact-Finding-Report-DMC or http://www.m-g.in/Palwal-Mosque-Oct2018-Fact-Finding-Report-DMC.pdf Robert Bowers, 46, was in touch with a number of neo-Nazis in Britain The Pittsburgh synagogue killer was in touch with right-wing extremists in Britain it can be revealed, as concerns mount that the murders could spawn copy-cat attacks on this side of the Atlantic. Robert Bowers, 46, is accused of killing 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pennsylvania last weekend using an assault rifle and three handguns. Bowers was in touch with a number of neo-Nazis in Britain who subscribe to the same brand of conspiracy theory that Jews control the world, according to security sources. The news comes amid heightened concerns in Britain about the level of right-wing extremist activity as MI5 takes on an increasing role in countering the threat. Bowers used a website called Gab which calls itself a 'free speech' alternative to Facebook and Twitter and does not have the same limits on hate speech. Gab is said to have become a 'haven' for white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other extremists as mainstream sites attempt to squeeze them out. Bowers used a website called Gab which calls itself a 'free speech' alternative to Facebook and Twitter and does not have the same limits on hate speech Bowers, 46, is accused of killing 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pennsylvania (pictured) last weekend using an assault rifle and three handguns Bowers signed up for an account in January. His biography was headed: 'Jews are the children of Satan,' and a photo on his profile included the number 1488, a reference to Adolf Hitler. He used the site to share anti-Jewish images, conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the world, and criticism of President Trump - alleging he was too accommodating of Jewish influence. There is no suggestion that Bowers' contacts in Britain helped him plan the attack or knew about it in advance but the presence of British extremists on American web platforms has caused concern in the security services. One source said they were increasingly concerned that right wing extremists could seek to imitate Bowers' attack on a synagogue. Right-wing referrals to the Prevent de-radicalisation programme increased from 10 per cent in 2015 to 30 per cent in 2017. In the 12 months to June, 14 per cent of all terrorism-related arrests were associated with extreme right-wing ideologies. A spokesman for Counter-Terrorism Policing said: 'Police are committed to tackling all forms of toxic extremist ideology which has the potential to threaten public safety and security. 'The overriding threat to the UK remains from [ISIS] inspired groups and individuals but our operations reflect a broader range of dangerous ideologies - including extreme right wing - and we will work tirelessly with our partners to confront them.' Scotland Yard said yesterday: 'We do not discuss details of any individuals who we may or may not be investigating.' Before setting out on his killing spree, Bowers posted a message on the site saying: 'I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in.' Gab was started in August 2016 by a right-wing programmer, Andrew Torba, who complained about 'an ultra-PC culture' where 'major online communication platforms and social networks censor dissenting opinions and ideas.' He promised users would be allowed to 'speak freely without fear of being suspended for some arbitrary unknown reason.' Among those attracted to using the site were Milo Yiannopoulos, the former Breitbart journalist; Andrew Anglin, the founder of the neo-Nazi publication Daily Stormer, and Richard Spencer, a well-known white supremacist. Before setting out on his killing spree, Bowers posted a message on the site saying: 'I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in.' He had previously reposted a doctored image of the Auschwitz concentration camp, replacing the words over the gate with: 'Lies Make Money.' Another post read: 'Open your eyes! It's the filthy evil Jews bringing the filthy evil Muslims into the country!!' A doctored image showed President Trump in conversation with a man wearing a skullcap and another post featured a suitcase full of guns, according to reports. A processional leaves the Jewish Community Center after the funeral of Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, who was among those killed in the massacre After Bowers was named as a suspect in the mass shooting, Gab released a statement saying it 'unequivocally disavows and condemns all acts of terrorism and violence.' Mr Torba, Gab's chief executive, said that the company had turned over information about Bowers account to law enforcement agencies and was cooperating with the investigation. But the company took to Twitter to boast that its website was getting a million views per hour in the aftermath of the shooting. The website was taken down on Sunday night after Joyent, the company's web provider, stopped hosting it and GoDaddy, the domain name provider, gave it 24 hours to move its domain name to another service. The payment processing platform Stripe, which the company used to receive fees for its 'Gab Pro' membership, froze their account and PayPal shut the account Gab had with them. 2006 Assange creates Wikileaks with a group of like-minded activists and IT experts to provide a secure way for whistleblowers to leak information. He quickly becomes its figurehead and a lightning rod for criticism. 2010 March: U.S. authorities allege Assange engaged in a conspiracy to hack a classified U.S. government computer with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. July: Wikileaks starts releasing tens of thousands of top secrets documents, including a video of U.S. helicopter pilots gunning down 12 civilians in Baghdad in 2007. What followed was the release of more than 90,000 classified US military files from the Afghan war and 400,000 from Iraq that included the names of informants. August: Two Swedish women claim that they each had consensual sex with Assange in separate instances when he was on a 10-day trip to Stockholm. They allege the sex became non-consensual when Assange refused to wear a condom. First woman claims Assange was staying at her apartment in Stockholm when he ripped off her clothes. She told police that when she realized Assange was trying to have unprotected sex with her, she demanded he use a condom. She claims he ripped the condom before having sex. Second Swedish woman claims she had sex with Assange at her apartment in Stockholm and she made him wear a condom. She alleges that she later woke up to find Assange having unprotected sex with her. He was questioned by police in Stockholm and denied the allegations. Assange was granted permission by Swedish authorities to fly back to the U.K. November: A Swedish court ruled that the investigation should be reopened and Assange should be detained for questioning on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion. An international arrest warrant is issued by Swedish police through Interpol. Wikileaks releases its cache of more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables. December: Assange presents himself to London police and appears at an extradition hearing where he is remanded in custody. Assange is granted conditional bail at the High Court in London after his supporters pay 240,000 in cash and sureties. 2011 February: A British judge rules Assange should be extradited to Sweden but Wikileaks found vows to fight the decision. April: A cache of classified U.S. military documents is released by Wikileaks, including intelligence assessments on nearly all of the 779 people who are detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. November: Assange loses High Court appeal against the decision to extradite him. 2012 June: Assange enters the Ecuadorian embassy in London requesting political asylum. August: Assange is granted political asylum by Ecuador. 2013 June: Assange tells a group of journalists he will not leave the embassy even if sex charges against him are dropped out of fear he will be extradited to the U.S. 2015 August: Swedish prosecutors drop investigation into some of the sex allegations against Assange due to time restrictions. The investigation into suspected rape remains active. 2016 July: Wikileaks begins leaking emails U.S. Democratic Party officials favoring Hillary Clinton. November: Assange is questioned over the sex allegation at the Ecuadorian Embassy in the presence of Sweden's assistant prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and police inspector Cecilia Redell. The interview spans two days. 2017 January: Barack Obama agrees to free whistleblower Chelsea Manning from prison. Her pending release prompts speculation Assange will end his self-imposed exile after Wikileaks tweeted he would agree to U.S. extradition. April: Lenin Moreno becomes the new president of Ecuador who was known to want to improve diplomatic relations between his country and the U.S. May: An investigation into a sex allegation against Assange is suddenly dropped by Swedish prosecutors. 2018 January: Ecuador confirms it has granted citizenship to Assange following his request. February: Assange is visited by Pamela Anderson and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel. March: The Ecuadorian Embassy suspends Assange's internet access because he wasn't complying with a promise he made the previous year to 'not send messages which entailed interference in relation to other states'. August: U.S. Senate committee asks to interview Assange as part of their investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election. September: Assange steps down as editor of WikiLeaks. October: Assange reveals he will launch legal action against the government of Ecuador, accusing it of violating his 'fundamental rights and freedoms'. November: U.S. Justice Department inadvertently names Assange in a court document that says he has been charged in secret. 2019 January: Assange's lawyers say they are taking action to make President Trump's administration reveal charges 'secretly filed' against him. April 6: WikiLeaks tweets that a high level Ecuadorian source has told them Assange will be expelled from the embassy within 'hours or days'. But a senior Ecuadorian official says no decision has been made to remove him from the London building. April 11: Assange has his diplomatic asylum revoked by Ecuador and he is arrested by the Metropolitan Police; he is remanded in custody by a judge at Westminster Magistrates Court. April 12: He is found guilty of breaching his bail terms. May 1: Sentenced to 11 months in jail. May 2: Court hearing takes place over Assange's proposed extradition to the U.S. He tells a court he does not consent to the extradition and the case is adjourned until May 30. May 13: Swedish prosecutors reopen rape case saying they still want to question Assange. June 3: Swedish court rules against detaining him in absentia, setting back the extradition case. June 12 Home Secretary Sajid Javid signs an extradition request from the US. June 13 A hearing sets out the date for Assange's full extradition hearing - February next year. November Swedish prosecutors stop investigation into an allegation of rape against Mr Assange November 25 - Medics say without correct medical care Assange 'could die' in Belmarsh December 13 - Hearing in London hears he is being blocked from seeing key evidence in case December 19 - Appears at Westminster Magistrates' Court via video-link where his lawyer claims US bid to extradite him is 'political'. 2020 June: Assange failed to appear via video link for his most recent court matter in London's Westminster Magistrates' Court A massive loaded iron ore train has been derailed after it travelled a staggering 92km without a driver. Earlier on Monday morning the 268 wagon train was travelling from Newman to Portland in Western Australia. At about 4.40am, the driver got out of the train to inspect a wagon, according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. A massive loaded iron ore train has been derailed after it travelled a staggering 92km without a driver (stock image of a Pilbara iron ore train) The train was 92km in before BHP personnel managed to bring it to a halt Yet just as he started to inspect it the Pilbara train started to travel on its own. It was 92km in before BHP personnel managed to bring the train to a halt at 5.05am. In a statement, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said: 'The driver alighted from the locomotive to inspect an issue with a wagon. While the driver was outside of the locomotive, the train commenced to runaway. 'With no one on board, the train travelled for 92 km before being deliberately derailed at a set of points operated by the control centre, about 119 km from Port Headland (near Turner siding).' A BHP spokeswoman told The West Australian no one was injured and authorities are investigating.' 'We are working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the situation,' she said. The ATSB is investigating. Advertisement Incredible black and white pictures show men transformed into 'human fireworks' as they prepare to be set alight and wrestle each other for a 1930s bonfire night display. The images reveal how workmen were selected to fight one another protected only by white asbestos suits with a set of explosives strapped to their bodies as spectators looked on transfixed. The black and white photos were taken ahead of a firework display at the Crystal Palace in south London in 1933, which was moved to the area from Hyde Park after the Great Exhibition of 1851. Colourful fireworks were also set off from a giant ferris wheel constructed by workers in the grounds. Other images in the collection show female workers at Brock's Firework Factory in Cheam, south London, photographed in 1930 ahead of another bonfire night display in the capital. Women are seen carrying explosives of all shapes, colours and sizes as revellers prepare to mark Guy Fawkes night. Although the origins of fireworks can be traced back to seventh century China, they only came into widespread use in Britain in the late 13th century, with bonfire night celebrated from the 1650s onward to mark the arrest of Fawkes and the failure of his 1605 gunpowder plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Two men are transformed into 'human fireworks' for a display at the Crystal Palace in 1933 after it was moved to south London from Hyde Park in 1854. The men are seen wearing asbestos suits to protect them before preparing for a wrestle Now that's commitment! Another man is seen being kitted out in his 'human firework' costume for the firework display at the Crystal Palace in south London in 1933 The men are protected by just an asbestos suit before being fitted with a series of explosive devices in the shape of a human In other fascinating black and white pictures from the 1930s, female workers from Brock's Firework Factory in Cheam, south London are pictured holding giant fireworks for a display in 1930 to celebrate Guy Fawkes night Workmen are seen preparing firework bases in a trench for a spectacular explosive display in Crystal Palace in 1933 Women from Brock's Firework Factory in Cheam, south London, are pictured carrying different retro-style fireworks for the 1933 firework display at Crystal Palace in south London Workmen in overalls are pictured preparing one of the giant set pieces for the firework night display at Crystal Palace, south London in 1933, which included a giant revolving ferris wheel with colourful explosives attached to it A shocking video shows yobs launch a rocket from a moving car at a cyclist - appearing to score a direct hit. The driver is filming on his mobile while the front seat passenger holds the lit rocket out of the window. A cyclist approximately 50 metres in front of them appears to be engulfed by the flash and smoke from the rocket. Video shows yobs launch a rocket from a moving car at a cyclist, appearing to score a direct hit The clip emerged on social media when it was posted by a user from Yately, Hampshire. It was filmed at night from the driver's seat and shows the rocket already lit and pointing at a 45 degree angle out of the passenger window. The occupants of the car can be heard giggle as the camera pans to look forward and a cyclist appears. The driver of the vehicle recorded his idiotic friend holding the firework before launching Video was originally posted by a user from Yately, Hampshire captioned 'bloody good shot sir' The rocket launches as it arcs towards the cyclist a man can be heard saying: 'Oh my god.' The next moment the cyclist disappears as he is engulfed by a huge flash, shortly followed by a burst of multi-coloured sparks and smoke. In the instant before the clip ends, the cyclist can be glimpsed apparently still on his bike. On social media, one viewer responded to the video, which was captioned 'bloody good shot sir', saying: 'These f****** need reporting.' Another added: 'Complete a******s. Hope they get caught,' on the clip posted last Thursday. One user said: 'The idiots that think it's amusing really need to grow up.' The footage has emerged after a similar incident earlier this week where a yob was caught on camera letting off a firework in someone's car. Shocking moment a hoodie-wearing youth throws a lit firework into a 'random' car on a London street This is the shocking moment a firework was let off in someone's car in London . The video which has been shared widely online took place at night earlier this week. A hooded man can be seen running towards a stationary car in the middle of the road carrying a lit firework which he abruptly throws into the car. In the video, the man pulled open the black car's rear doors open but luckily didn't succeed in his plans. The firework flew out of the vehicle before he could slam the door, locking the explosive inside. A Twitter user named who shared the video said: 'Welcome to London where we put fireworks in random people's cars.' Appalled viewers were quick to share their thoughts on the dangerous incident - with several people urging local cops to take action. One said: 'Imagine there were kids in the car. They would be traumatised. This ain't cool at all.' This is the shocking moment a hooded man hurls a lit firework into a stationary car in London The young man throws a firework into the car window (left) before it explodes (right) Another responded: 'Could have burned the people inside or exploded the car.' Since being uploaded, the video has already racked up over 140,000 views online. The incident comes after a policewoman had to run for cover after an exploding firework is launched at her in the street in an attack that saw children caught in the crossfire. The shocking footage comes on the same day that a 25-year-old man issued a warning about the dangers of fireworks after his eyeball was 'split in two' in an accident. Luckily, the firework flew out of the car before the man had time to trap it inside It left several officers with injuries and singed the hair of a nine-year-old girl during the attack in London Fireworks were also launched at a fire engine in Bradford, West Yorkshire forcing them to withdraw from a call out. In sickening footage, yobs have been targeting London driver and pedestrians in wave of Halloween fireworks incidents. The Pakistani lawyer who helped free a Christian woman who had been sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy has fled to the Netherlands, a Christian rights group said on Monday. Asia Bibi, 53, was sentenced to death in 2010 for allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed, and Wednesday's successful appeal sparked several days of violent protests across the country. The demonstrations, which saw thousands call for Ms Bibi and her legal team to be executed, only subsided after the government agreed that the mother-of-five would be banned from leaving Pakistan after her release. Her lawyer, Saiful Mulook, left Pakistan on Saturday, due to fear that he could be attacked, saying 'it's not possible for me to live in Pakistan.' Controversial: Asia Bibi, 53, was sentenced to death in 2010, after being accused of insulting Islam during an argument over a water bowl with a group of Muslim women in Punjab Yesterday, Ms Bibi's husband made an impassioned plea to Donald Trump and Theresa May, asking them to offer the family asylum, saying he feared for his family's safety. Ashiq Masih criticised the government deal, saying it was 'wrong' to ban Ms Bibi, who is reportedly still being held in prison awaiting a release, from leaving Pakistan. In a video released this weekend, Mr Masih said: 'I request President Donald Trump to help us to leave (the country), and I request the prime minister of the UK to do their level best to help us, to grant us freedom.' Several parties in Dutch parliament have said they support providing temporary shelter to Bibi if she flees there. Spain and Italy have also offered Ms Bibi, who is due to be released from prison at some point later this week, and her family asylum, provided they are able to leave Pakistan. Plea: Ms Bibi's husband Ashiq Masih, pictured with their daughter Eisham, has asked Donald Trump and Theresa May to grant the family asylum On Saturday, Mr Masih told German radio the court had been 'very courageous' to acquit his wife, who is reportedly still being held in prison awaiting a release. 'The current situation is very dangerous for us. We have no security and are hiding here and there, frequently changing our location,' he told the German radio station, saying he was worried his wife would be attacked in prison. Mr Masih demanded the government reinforce Ms Bibi's protection in prison, worrying that she may be attacked. He cited the case of two Christian men who were shot dead after a court acquitted them in another blasphemy case. Ms Bibi's daughter Eisham Masih, said the family have been forced to live on the move due to the threats against their lives. 'We have been moving around from home to home staying away from any places where people who hate us could find us. 'Sometimes we have seen and heard the large riots and we have watched as little TV as possible - all it shows us is how many people hate us and want us dead. 'I have cried for joy when I heard my mother would be set free, I now cry for the despair of our situation only God can save us all.' The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Ms Bibi's blasphemy conviction sparked violent protests, seen here on Sunday, calling for the mother-of-five to be executed The protests only subsided after Khan's government made a deal with hardline Islamist that they could appeal her release, and that Ms Bibi would have to stay in the country Anger: Despite Friday's deal, the protests continued across Pakistan this weekend Wilson Chowdhry, of the British Pakistani Christian Association, said the family was resting its hopes on the US, Britain or Canada to grant them asylum and help them reach a place of safety. 'These nations have the largest Pakistani Christian communities,' Chowdhry said, added that Masih also wants asylum for some members of the extended family and those who have helped with his wife's case, one of whom could speak English. 'If Asia Bibi leaves the country, every family member, every person associated to her, will be killed,' he said. Chowdhry, whose organisation is running a petition to help get Ms Bibi to a safe nation, said the family's initial relief at the acquittal has turned into anguish. 'The daughters are weeping. They still haven't seen their mother. The family is totally shattered,' he said. 'They absolutely don't know when they will see their mother. Since (the court decision), with the violence and the protests, it is too dangerous for them to see their mother in jail.' Protests involving thousands of demonstrators demanding that Ms Bibi be hanged, spearheaded by the hardline Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, erupted moments after the Supreme Court overturned the conviction on Wednesday. Khan's government reached a deal with TLP and other Islamist groups on Friday to end the protests, with various levels of success. What is next: Ms Bibi is set to be freed from prison, but the family has said it is going to be too dangerous for them to stay in Pakistan A huge crowd of Islamists gathers near the Parliament House in Islamabad on Friday on a third consecutive day of protests against the acquittal of Asia Bibi earlier this week A supporter of a radical Islamic group stands guard as protesters block a main road to condemn a Supreme Court decision that acquitted Asia Bibi Protest: Supporters of a hardline Islamist party held a protest in Lahore after Ms Bibi's conviction was overturned on Wednesday As well as a travel ban preventing Ms Bibi from leaving the country, the Pakistani government agreed not to object to the TLP or other hardline movements appealing the release, which has now been filed with the court. 'There will be a war if they send Asia out of country,' TLP leader Cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi said after the deal was reached. On Sunday, Twitter suspended Rizvi's account after inflammatory statements targeting the judiciary, prime minister, and military after the acquittal of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy, the government said. 'We sent a request to Twitter that this account has been inciting hate and violence,' two senior officials at the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority told Reuters. The TLP condemned the suspension of Rizvi's account, terming it a 'conspiracy by the opponents of the protection of prophethood and Islam'. A second account that was created on Sunday was also suspended soon after. Despite Friday's deal, protests continued in several locations throughout the weekend, with hundreds arrested for violence and causing damage to property. In Punjab province alone, police arrested 1,100 people for violating public order, injuring police officers and damaging public and private properties and vehicles. In addition, police are seeking to take action against 2,500 unidentified individuals 'for thrashing citizens, damaging government and private properties and looting people on roads,' Dawn.com reported. Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) supporters chant slogans during a protest against the court decision to overturn the conviction Across the nation: TLP supporters block the road carrying placards demanding that Asia Bibi should be hanged in Faisalabad on Wednesday A TLP holds a placard reading 'The only punishment for prophet's blasphemer is to sever the head' during a protest in Islamabad Ms Bibi's case outraged Christians worldwide and has been a source of division within Pakistan, where two politicians who sought to help her were assassinated, including Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who was shot by his own bodyguard. The allegations against Ms Bibi date back to 2009, when she was working in a field near her home village in Sheikhupura, Punjab and was asked to fetch water. The Muslim women she was labouring with objected, saying that as a non-Muslim Ms Bibi was unfit to drink from the same water bowl as them. Ms Bibi would later say that the women insulted her religion, to which she responded: 'I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind?' This prompted the Muslim women to go to a local imam and accuse Ms Bibi of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed. Happier times: Asia Bibi is seen with her two youngest children Eisham, left, and her sister Esha, right, who has learning difficulties - now aged 18 and 17 Before Ms Bibi could be arrested on any official charges, a violent mob descended on their family home, and beat Ms Bibi up in front of her children. The abuse was so violent, police were called to the scene, but after rescuing the mother-of-five, they arrested her and threw her in jail - and a year later she was convicted of blasphemy. Blasphemy is a charge so sensitive in Pakistan that anyone even accused of insulting Islam risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes. The charge is punishable by a maximum penalty of death under legislation that rights groups say is routinely abused by religious extremists as well as ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores. The law does not define what blasphemy constitutes, and evidence is often not reproduced in court for fear of committing a fresh offence. Despite this, calls for reform of the blasphemy law have regularly been met with violence and rejected. The young police officer who was mowed down and nearly killed in horror hit-and-run has been photographed in hospital for the first time since the accident. 24-year-old Constable Peter McAulay was pictured looking in high spirits in Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital despite showing a large scar on his left arm. It's been almost six weeks since he was hit by and dragged metres down the road by a stolen vehicle in Ipswich, which was driven by a 16-year-old boy trying to avoid spikes Const McAulay had just layed out. Constable Peter McAulay, 24, (pictured centre) who was mowed down and nearly killed in horror hit and run has been photographed in hospital for the first time since the accident. The photo also features Queensland Police Service's Commisioner Ian Stewart (left) and his dad Mike (right) The photo also features Queensland Police Service's Commisioner Ian Stewart and his dad Mike, looking estactic standing next to the lucky survivor. 'Constable Peter McAulay is making a miraculous recovery- Dad Mike clearly agrees,' Comm Stewart said in a statement. 'Peter we wish you a swift and complete recovery' he wrote. The Commissioner then went on to praise paramedics and Queensland Health workers who all did their part in saving Const McAulay's life. Despite the progress however, he still says their is 'still a way to go'. Const McAulay (pictured) was placed in an induced coma and spent several days fighting for life in the intensive care unit of Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital before showing incredible signs of improvement Const McAulay was placed in an induced coma and spent several days fighting for life in the intensive care unit of Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital before showing incredible signs of improvement. The young constable was forced to endure several life-saving surgeries, and is expected to remain in hospital for some time yet. The 16-year-old boy as well as a 15-year-old girl, who was inside the stolen vehicle at the time of the hit and run, have been charged with attempted murder. It's been almost six weeks since he was hit by and dragged metres down the road by a stolen vehicle in Ipswich, which was driven by a 16-year-old boy trying to avoid spikes Const McAulay had just layed out (pictured) Saudi investigators sent to help Turkey look into the Jamal Khashoggi consulate murder were removing evidence instead, it has been claimed. A team of 11 Saudi officials arrived in the country nine days after Khashoggi was killed to take part in a joint Turkish-Saudi probe into the slaying, according to a senior Turkish official. They included experts on chemicals and toxicology who were reportedly charged with obfuscating the evidence, the official said, confirming a report in Turkey's Sabah newspaper. Turkey believes that two members of the team came to the country 'for the sole purpose of covering up evidence' before Turkish police were allowed to search the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where Khashoggi was killed on October 2 after he entered to collect a document he needed to marry his Turkish fiancee. Saudi investigators sent to help Turkey look into the Jamal Khashoggi (pictured) consulate murder were removing evidence instead, it has been claimed Turkey believes that two members of the team came to the country 'for the sole purpose of covering up evidence' before Turkish police were allowed to search the Saudi Consulate (pictured), where Khashoggi was killed on October 2 after he entered to collect a document he needed to marry his Turkish fiancee Sabah identified the two men as Ahmed Abdulaziz al-Jonabi and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani. The official said the fact that a clean-up team was dispatched suggests that Khashoggi's killing 'was within the knowledge of top Saudi officials.' Istanbul's chief prosecutor, who is leading the investigation, announced last week that Khashoggi, who lived in exile in the United States, was strangled immediately after he entered the consulate as part of a premeditated killing and that his body was dismembered before being removed. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an op-ed in the Washington Post last week that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest level of the Saudi government and added that the international community had the responsibility to 'reveal the puppet masters' behind the slaying. Turkey is seeking the extradition of 18 suspects who were detained in Saudi Arabia so they can be put on trial in Turkey. They include 15 members of an alleged Saudi 'hit squad' that Turkey says was sent to Istanbul to kill the Washington Post columnist who had written critically of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Turkey says a hit squad was sent to Istanbul to kill the Washington Post columnist who had written critically of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured) On Saturday, Sabah newspaper, which is close to the government, said Khashoggi's body - which still hasn't been found - was dismembered and removed from the Saudi Consulate in five suitcases. A senior official of Turkey's ruling party - and a friend of Khashoggi's - has suggested his body may have been dissolved in acid or other chemicals. Turkey's vice president, Fuat Oktay told state-run Anadolu Agency that such reports need to be investigated. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left) posing for a picture with a wounded soldier at the Riyadh Military Hospital today Meanwhile, two of Khashoggi's sons appealed for his remains to be returned so that he may be buried in Saudi Arabia. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, the sons also said they hoped he did not suffer when he was killed. 'All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina with the rest of his family,' Salah Khashoggi said. Khashoggi probe will exonerate leader, says billionaire Saudi prince Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an international businessman from the kingdom, says an official investigation into the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi will exonerate the country's leader. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the Saudi government and its de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in early October. 'I ask Saudi Arabia now publicly, through your program, to have the investigation made public as soon as possible,' he said. 'I believe the Saudi crown prince will be 100 percent vindicated and exonerated.' Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal (pictured), an international businessman from the kingdom, says an official investigation into the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi will exonerate the country's leader Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the Saudi government and its de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured left and right visiting Riyadh Military Hospital), was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in early October Prince Alwaleed was detained last year with dozens of other wealthy Saudis in a move by the crown prince to consolidate power and reform the country. On Sunday, Prince Alwaleed said his detention was 'forgiven and forgotten.' The crown prince's allies have said last year's crackdown was a fight against corruption and Prince Alwaleed agreed. 'Thank God that, after this incident, many of those that were detained had a big cleaning process,' he said. Prince Alwaleed was freed from Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton Hotel along with other royals, senior officials and businessmen, most of whom reached financial settlements with the authorities. Prince Alwaleed denied reports that he had been tortured in custody and that officials stripped him of his wealth. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said: 'I believe the Saudi crown prince will be 100 percent vindicated and exonerated' Advertisement 'I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon,' he said. Separately, a top Saudi human rights official has reiterated his government's 'regret and pain' over Mr Khashoggi's death. Speaking at a regular review of the kingdom's record by the UN's top human rights body, Bandar bin Mohammed al-Aiban, the president of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, emphasised that the monarchy had ordered an investigation to 'bring the perpetrators to justice in order to bear the fact to the public'. The killing is likely to come up among representatives of more than 100 countries set to speak during the review of Saudi Arabia on Monday. Other countries, including China, Mexico, Chad and Monaco, are also due to be reviewed in coming days by the 47-member UN-backed body. Iran has greeted the re-imposition of US sanctions with air defence drills and an acknowledgement from President Hassan Rouhani that the nation faces a 'war situation'. The sanctions end all the economic benefits America granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. For now, Iran continues to abide by the accord which saw it limit its enrichment of uranium. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said: "Today the enemy (the United States) is targeting our economy...the main target of sanctions is our people. "America wanted to cut to zero Iran's oil sales...but we will continue to sell our oil...to break sanctions," Rouhani told economists, adding the sanctions were illegal and unfair. 'This is an economic war against Iran but... America should learn that it cannot use the language of force against Iran ... We are prepared to resist any pressure,' Rouhani said. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (centre) attending a cabinet meeting in the capital Tehran today President Donald Trump stands with Lee Greenwood as he sings 'God Bless the USA' to start a rally with supporters in Chattanooga, Tennessee While not threatening to resume higher enrichment, Iranian officials in recent months have said this could resume at any time - and faster than before. The new American sanctions particularly hurt Iran's vital oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency for its struggling economy. Its national currency has plummeted over the last year, sending prices for everything from mobile phones to medicine skyrocketing. Mr Rouhani said: 'Today, Iran is able to sell its oil and it will sell.' Iranian state television aired footage of air defence systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military manoeuvres which got under way across a vast stretch of the country's north. Iranian army general Habibillah Sayyari said both the national army and the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard are taking part in the exercise. Mr Rouhani, meanwhile, pledged that Iran would overcome the sanctions. 'We are in the war situation,' he said. 'We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win.' Iran's President Hassan Rouhani speaks at a news conference on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York in September Iran's economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year which resulted in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Sporadic demonstrations still continue. The US says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. However, US leader Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton, the president's national security adviser, have both made public statements supporting the overthrowing of Iran's theocratic government. Labour should back Theresa May's Brexit deal if it includes a backstop plan which keeps the UK in a customs union, one of the party's MPs said last night. Lisa Nandy said Labour MPs 'owe it to the country' to find a way to secure a Brexit deal rather than letting Britain crash out of the Brussels bloc. The Prime Minister is said to have nearly reached a secret agreement with the EU as she frantically tries to get a deal approved before the end of the year. It would reportedly keep the whole of the UK in a customs union with the EU - avoiding a hard Irish border. The PM may have to rely on Labour votes to get her deal through Parliament as she is already facing a backbench mutiny over the plan, which Boris Johnson branded a 'stinker'. Ms Nandy, Labour MP for Wigan, said Labour politicians should consider backing the PM's deal if it protects the economy and saves jobs. Lisa Nandy said that Labour MPs (pictured at Labour's party conference in Brighton) 'owe it to the country' to find a way to secure a Brexit deal rather than letting Britain crash out of the Brussels bloc with no deal She told the BBC Radio 4 Westminster Hour: 'All MPs owe it to the country to try and find a way through this and look at whichever deal comes back with an open mind about what is in the best interests of our constituents.' She added: 'Having a UK-wide customs arrangement would be a really big piece of the jigsaw for Labour, and something that we ought to consider.' A number of Labour MPs, including Caroline Flint, have suggested they would back the PM's deal if it is a choice between that and crashing out with no agreement at all. What is the final issue in the Brexit talks? Theresa May insists the Brexit deal is 95 per cent done - but the final issue of the Irish border backstop may be the hardest part. The backstop sets out what will happen to the Irish border if the Brexit transition ends before a final UK-EU trade deal is in place. Transition is currently due to end in December 2020. The EU is still insisting that in the absence of a full trade deal, Northern Ireland should stay in the EU customs union while the rest of the UK leaves to ensure the Irish border remains open. Mrs May has flatly rejected the idea, saying she would not agree to anything that risked splitting the UK. Instead, the government has mooted a temporary customs union for the whole UK. There would also probably need to be more regulatory checks between mainland UK and Northern Ireland to protect the single market. Some already take place, but they could be dramatically stepped up - potentially creating a huge flashpoint with the DUP. Brussels now appears to be prepared to do a UK-wide backstop in the divorce deal - but insists it must be robust and the UK could not exit it unilaterally. Advertisement And the PM has made several public attempts too woo Labour MPs - imploring them to back her plan in the country's national interest. But Ms Nandy took a swipe at Mrs May - accusing Number Ten of failing to build a cross-party coalition in Parliament for her Brexit plan. She said: 'The trouble is still, that although there appears to be a bit of progress made between the UK and the EU Theresa Mays biggest problems are in her own party. She is still being held to ransom by a small group of hard Brexiteers who dont want a future trading relationship with the EU, or at least on very limited terms. And she has not even begun to start thinking about how she does the hard work in Parliament to understand how she would build a majority to get this deal through. And with less than 150 days to go until we leave, either with that Withdrawal Agreement or with no deal, I think this is getting really serious. Westminster is swirling with reports that No10 is on the brink of doing a deal with the EU which it could announce this week. It would see the UK staying a customs union with the EU to avoid a hard Irish border - the major stumbling block which has threatened to derail the talks. Downing Street has dismissed rumours the arrangement could last for years, and tried to play down reports a deal is effectively in place. But Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab is said to be demanding that the UK is able to leave unilaterally within three months if he backstop does kick in - and the idea of extra regulatory checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK could cause a meltdown with Mrs May's DUP allies. Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson (pictured left at Tory party conference in Birmingham last month) has criticised Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured, right , in Downing Street last week after rumours of a secret Brexit deal were leaked The continuing tensions were laid bare today when Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney insisted that there cannot be a 'time limit' on any backstop, and the UK must not be able to end it unilaterally. His message was retweeted by EU negotiator Sabine Weyand as Brussels ratcheted up pressure on Mrs May. Mr Johnson said the plan was an 'absolute stinker' and a 'Christmas present of the finest old Brussels fudge' which meant 'we are proposing to hand over an amazing 40billion for absolutely nothing in return'. 'We have agreed to remain in vassalage forever,' he said. 'Even after we leave according to this so-called deal we will remain in a nonsensical 'implementation period' in which we will be effectively nonvoting members of the EU. 'For the first time in a thousand years we will have to accept foreign made laws with no power to change or make those laws. We will be a vassal state a colony for at least 18 months, probably more.' By Auqib Javeed, TwoCircles.net Srinagar: The family members of a Srinagar youth who is reported to have joined militant ranks on Saturday blamed students of Sharda University who assaulted him in the varsity campus on October 4 for their sons actions. Ahtesham Bilal Sofi (19), a resident of downtown in Srinagar, was a first-year graduate student at Sharda University in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Support TwoCircles He was beaten up on October 4 in a case of mistaken identity and the video of Ahtesham being assaulted was shared widely on social media. He went missing on October 28 and on Friday his gun-wielding picture along with an audio of joining ISJK (Islamic States of Jammu and Kashmir), an outfit influenced by ISIS ideology went viral on social media. I strongly believe that he took this extreme step because he was thrashed by some students in the university. He was injured badly when I went to see him in the University, says Bilal Ahmad Sofi, father of Ahtesham. Bilal says he went to the university from Srinagar on the same day and he spoke to higher authorities of the university regarding the issue. I even met to a senior official from the concerned police station, who asked if I wanted to file an FIR against the students who had thrashed my son. I refused, to do so because I thought the issue would be resolved by the University, he adds. Bilal stayed with his son for 7 days and during the time he was approached by the accused students for an apology. Ahtesham told me they not only have beaten him but also two Kashmiri girls in the university. The accused students came to meet me and they apologised for the same I told them you are just like my own children and everything is going be fine but couldnt imagine that their action would let my child to militancy, Bilal says. Sitting with other members of the family, Irfana Begum, his mother, has been left devastated ever since she saw Ahteshams gun-wielding photo. She cant believe that her lone son is not with her anymore. She made a desperate appeal to him to return home for the sake of his ailing father. Ahtesham went missing on October 28 after he left the varsity with formal permission to go to Delhi. On 2nd November, he took everybody by surprise when his photograph and an audio message made rounds on social media that he had joined militant ranks. This is a message to all who consider Jihad is a way of fighting, he is heard saying in the purported audio. Our blood is not white, we will give you tears of blood. I was looking into the eyes of those kufaar (non-Muslims) when they attacked me in groups like dogs; I felt I had delayed to be part of Jihad for long. But not anymore. While referring to his audio clip his father feels that the assault forced him to join militant ranks. Cant you listen what he says in audio, Bilal says as he breaks down in tears, adding, the attack might have affected him mentally. The anxious family members of Ehtisham while appealing to all militant organisations that he is the lone son of his parents, said, Please send back my Ahtesham; there is no one to look after us. I appeal to Zakir Mussa and resistance leadership to help me to get my son back, says Irfana. Police sources while talking to TwoCircles.net said they are verifying the picture of Ahtesham joining militant ranks. It cant be ruled out that he has joined militant ranks because of the assault, but first of all we are verifying whether this image of him claiming to join militancy, said a police officer who wished not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to media. When asked how he joined militancy in such a short period of time, he said, everything will be revealed after investigation, its not right time to talk adding that Ahtesham had been an active stone pelter earlier. Former Chief Minister of the state Omar Abdullah termed Ahteshams joining of militant rank as hugely worrying. If this is genuine its hugely worrying. Sometimes seemingly small actions have huge consequences. If what happened to him at #ShardaUniversity has lead him to choose such a destructive path its even more tragic. One more life on the path to ruin & one more family in turmoil. Abdullah wrote on Twitter. Despite repeated attempts, Sharda University didnt respond to the phone calls of this reporter. A passenger and a driver were filmed fighting on a bus in south-east China, days after a similar incident caused a deadly crash in Chongqing. Shocking surveillance footage shows a male passenger repeatedly hitting a female driver on Thursday after she reportedly closed the doors before he could get off. The incident drew heavy criticism from net users in China, where people are still reeling from the tragedy on October 28 that killed 13 people. A passenger and a driver were filmed fighting on a bus in south-east China's Jiangxi province, days after a similar incident caused a deadly crash in Chongqing, killing at least 13 people Shocking surveillance footage shows a male passenger repeating hitting the female bus driver on Thursday after she reportedly closed the doors before he could get off Other passengers rushed to break up the fight and called emergency services. The driver, surnamed Li, was taken to hospital with minor injuries. Li was dropping off some passengers in Xinyu, Jiangxi at about noon when she closed the exit doors after checking the rear view mirror. However, the passenger thought Li intentionally closed the doors before he could get off and rushed to the driver's seat to argue with her. He started kicking the coin collector before slapping the driver across the face, according to Jiangxi news site City Scene. The driver stared hitting the man back and was also seen kicking him as well The man started kicking the coin collector before slapping the driver across the face Three other passenger rushed forward to the bus driver's aid, but the man refused to let go Shocking video footage shows the man pulling the driver's hair, landing blows on her and kicking her in the stomach. The driver stared hitting the man back and was also seen kicking him as well during the struggle. Three other passenger rushed forward to the driver's aid, but the man refused to let go. After a few minutes, the passengers were able to pull the two apart. Emergency services were alerted to the scene and the driver was taken to hospital. The police are investigating the incident, according to the report. A video posted by Chongqing police on its social media account shows a woman fighting with the driver before the bus veered into the wrong lane and fell off the bridge on October 28 The moment the Chongqing bus plunged into the Yangtze River. Such incidents have caused widespread concern and outrage against cases of passengers assaulting bus drivers in China A passenger was caught on camera fighting with the bus driver before the vehicle veered into the wrong lane and fell into the Yangtze River on October 28. Two people are still missing. Both incidents have prompted widespread concern and outrage against cases of passengers assaulting bus drivers in China. 'The country should implement a blacklist for public transportation for these kind of passengers,' one user commented. 'Thank goodness the other passengers stopped the fight, we cannot afford to have another tragedy,' another said. Advertisement A hitherto untold story is set to shed light on a top-secret mission instigated by Churchill and the War Cabinet during the Second World War. The mission, codenamed Operation Tabarin after a Paris nightclub, was a Royal Navy wartime expedition to reassert British sovereignty in Antarctica and to deny access to enemy ships and submarines. Led by the Canadian Andrew Taylor - the only Canadian ever to lead a British wartime operation - some historians argue it was the most important and enduring of all government-sponsored programs of research in the Antarctic. But Operation Tabarin, which lasted from 1943-1945, also set in train a series of events that would lead, ultimately, to the Falklands War of 1982. The diary of the expedition's botanist Ivan Mackenzie Lamb, which gives details of the mission complete with photos and expedition maps, has now been published more than 70 years on. Ivan Mackenzie Lamb with Dainty the dog in 1945. While working at The British Museum Lamb, a botanist, was recruited to serve as a botanist, dog-driver and assistant surveyor on Operation Tabarin A base from the east, showing the Nissen hut in 1944. Operation Tabarin, which lasted form 1943-1945, was a Royal Navy undertaking to occupy British Antarctic Territories and to deny access to enemy ships and submarines Operation Tabarin is without doubt one of the most significant expeditions of what might be described as the post-Heroic phase of Antarctic exploration; ultimately it would develop into the British Antarctic Survey, arguably the most important and enduring of all government-sponsored programs of research in the Antarctic. Pictured, workers unloading stores to establish Base A at Port Lockroy, 1944 Victor Russell and David James pictured at the end of the first sledge journey from Hope Bay. Operation Tabarin was a monumental event in UK Antarctic history, paving the way for the scientific excellence that has made the UK a world leader in Antarctic science Operation Tabarin was an expedition to secretly establish bases, keep a watchful eye on German and Japanese activities, and curb opportunistic Argentinian incursions. Lead botanist Ivan Mackenzie Lamb's account of the expedition provides a fascinating insight into the top secret military operation. He was a member of the naval party that established three manned bases and remained in the field throughout the operation's two-year duration as he took part in all three major sledging expeditions. Operation Tabarin was led by Lieutenant James Marr - famously known as the Boy Scout who won a national newspaper competition to accompany Sir Ernest Shackleton on an expedition to the Antarctic in 1921. Tabarin was the first of a series of British Antarctic naval expeditions, later known as the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey and subsequently the British Antarctic Survey. Lamb's account is told in a new book, The Secret South, compiled from his memoirs. Operation Tabarin: The expedition which set about a world-leading research centre for earth-system science and global climate change Surveying at the foot of the Wall Range, Wiencke Island. Operation Tabarin was the first of a series of British Antarctic naval expeditions, later known as the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey and subsequently the British Antarctic Survey. Operation Tabarin had its origins in the territorial tension that had been mounting since the beginning of the 20th Century. Britains indifference to the loss of the Scottish Antarctic Expeditions meteorological station, built in 1903 and given to Argentina in 1904, led to increasing challenges to Britains claims of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands Territories. This had been exacerbated as the whaling industry took off in Antarctica, when Britain had begun charging for whaling licences to the dismay of Argentina and leading to several Argentinean diplomatic notes being sent to Britain asserting their territorial claims in the area. Operation Tabarin was led by Lieutenant James Marr, a Marine Zoologist. Determined to make the most of this naval operation, Marr recruited scientists from the armed forces to expand on research that had been carried out in Antarctica before the war, mainly in survey, biology, geology and meteorology, and formed the 14-man expedition team that was to set off for Antarctica. HMS Bransfield left Tilbury Docks in November 1943, but the ship had to be abandoned at Falmouth. However thanks to the Highland Monarch, a luxury passenger liner now transporting troops to the Falkland Islands, the expedition finally set sail on 14 December and arrived at Stanley in the Falkland Islands on 26 January 1944. By the end of 1944, plans to establish the main base of operations at Hope Bay early in 1945 were well underway, with Marr now also planning to establish a base on Stonington Island. On 14 January 1946, after a frustrating and ill-informed wait, the men were unexpectedly relieved and, after loading up themselves and their supplies, and leaving members of the new team to settle in, arrived at Deception Island the next day. By 16 January they were back at Port Lockroy to relieve the team there, and left the next day with stores including penguins bound for London Zoo. On 21 January 1946 the men arrived back in the Falkland Islands, and by 11 February were on their way back to Britain. On arrival in London on 9 March 1946, and with their request for a salary advance ignored, three of the men with no friends or family in London were forced to sleep rough that first night. With little mention made of their return, the men submitted their reports and then went their separate ways. Source: The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust Advertisement Andrew Taylor and Lamb. Taylor, a surveyor from the Royal Canadian Engineers, led the second year of the expedition, establishing Hope Bay (Base D) as the centre for dog-sledge-based fieldwork on the mainland The buildings at Port Lockroy were unoccupied for over 30 years until 1996, when they were restored to their original 1962 condition by the British Antarctic Survey. The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust open Base A every year, giving visitors an insight into early scientific work in Antarctica and Operation Tabarin. Pictured, Winter Solstice celebrations in 1944 Lamb emerging from his igloo, 14 August 1944. By the end of 1944, plans to establish the main base of operations at Hope Bay early in 1945 were well underway, with Marr now also planning to establish a base on Stonington Island after assisting Taylor, who would be Base Leader, with the setup up of Hope Bay Gwion Taff Davies was the stores officer and handyman at Port Lockroy in 1944 Johnny Blyth arrived at Port Lockroy in March 1944 and also worked as a handyman at Hope Bay in 1945 Setting a fish trap at Port Lockroy. During the first year of the expedition attempts at fishing proved all but futile Carpenter Lewis Chippy Ashton arrived at Port Lockroy in 1944 and continued to work with the team at Hope Bay in 1945 The editors write: 'Whatever quixotic objectives motivated him to join the expedition, there can be absolutely no doubt regarding Lamb's contribution to the success of Operation Tabarin.' Lamb helped to establish three manned bases - on Deception Island and on Goudier Island early in 1944, and at Hope Bay in February 1945. He also took part in major sledging journeys, manhauling across Wiencke Island in September and October 1944, and covering some 800 miles with dog teams in the area around James Ross Island between August and December 1945. The book adds: 'A highly proficient photographer, he also took countless photographs, both at the bases and while sledging, and developed the negatives and printed the images in the base's tiny darkroom. 'In some ways, though, perhaps the most important of Lamb's characteristics, at least when judged against the peculiar backdrop of a polar expedition, were his empathy and kindliness.' Ivan Mackenzie Lamb: The botanist famous for his part in a secret mission instigated by Churchill's War Cabinet Ivan Mackenzie Lamb was a polar explorer and botanist Born in London in 1911, Ivan Mackenzie Lamb was a polar explorer and botanist who specialised in the study of lichens and bryophytes. While working at The British Museum he was recruited to serve as a botanist, dog-driver and assistant surveyor on Operation Tabarin. He remained with the expedition for its two year term, for which he was awarded the Polar Medals of both Britain And America. After the war Lamb became Professor of Cryptogramic Botany at The National University of Tucuman for four years and collected plants in South America. Lamb returned to Canada and a post at the Canadian National Museum in Ottawa, followed by directorship of the Farlow Herbarium at Harvard (1954-1972). In 1971 he was diagnosed with Disfonia Syndrome - a neurological disorder affecting the voice muscles in the larynx - underwent a sex change operation and changed his name to Elke Mackenzie. Lamb died of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or motor neurone disease (MND) in January 1990. Source: JStor Advertisement Andrew Taylor acted as the Field Commander, base leader and surveyor at Hope Bay in 1945 and as a surveyor at Port Lockroy in 1944 Tom Berry worked as both a storeman and a cook at Hope Bay and Port Lockroy Following the outbreak of World War II, Allied shipping across the globe became vulnerable to attacks by German Navy commerce raiders and U-boats. The war also threatened to reignite the long standing Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute with neutral Argentina. Operation Tabarin was subsequently launched under the guise of protecting the waters from the Germans, while seeking to occupy the islands so Argentina could not lay claim to them. Operation Tabarin veterans Reece, White and Rusell remained at their bases, continuing their work for the FIDS. Participants of Operation Tabarin were awarded the Polar Medal in 1953. Ivan Mackenzie Lamb's book, The Secret South, is published by Greenhill Books. It is available now. RRP 19.99. English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson has been formally released from bail after his case was sent to the Attorney General. Robinson - real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - is waiting to hear whether he'll face any more court action for filming people in a Huddersfield grooming trial in Leeds and broadcasting the footage on social media. The activist was sent to prison for endangering the trial, but later freed when appeal judges found the way his case was handled was 'fundamentally flawed'. The Attorney General, the government's top legal officer, will now decide whether to bring a fresh case. Tommy Robinson, pictured when he was arrested in Leeds, is waiting to find out whether he'll face new court action for filming people involved in a grooming trial. He is no longer on bail It is unclear when the Attorney General will make a decision, but lawyers say the case may be decided as soon as this week. Robinson is hoping to head off on money-spinning trips to speak in the US and Australia after gaining notoriety abroad from the case. He is waiting to see if US and Australian authorities will allow him to enter their countries. At a short hearing this morning, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC announced that Robinson is no longer subject to any bail conditions. Robinson was freed from prison in August after three leading judges quashed a contempt of court finding made at Leeds Crown Court. But he could be sent back to jail if he is again found in contempt for filming people involved in the trial. Previous court appearances have seen large crowds of supporters fill the streets The court heard that he denied breaching the Contempt of Court Act and making a broadcast likely to seriously prejudice the trial. Judge Hilliard had referred the case to Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC after receiving a document from Robinson last month. He had said: 'It is sufficient to say that the nature and extent of the controversies to be considered emerged to my eye more clearly than before.' The Attorney General's Office has said all the material was being looked at 'afresh' before a decision was made on whether to refer Robinson to the High Court for contempt. Robinson has been invited to speak at meetings in Washington on November 14 by the US group The Middle East Forum. He is meanwhile billed to appear alongside Gavin McInnes, the Canadian founder of the alt-right group Proud Boys, at a series of speeches in Australia in December. The pair say they will appear in Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Sydney between December 5 and December 16. A British nurse has died on a girls' holiday in Dubai after falling ill on the flight over from Britain. Charlotte Carter was 'excited' for her winter sunshine holiday with friends and was due to stay at the plush Five Palm Jumeirah hotel in the sunshine kingdom. But the mental health nurse began feeling ill on the flight before suffering a heart attack in a taxi to their hotel. The 30-year-old was taken into intensive care and resuscitated 'multiple times' but tragically died. She flew with two female friends on October 29 from Gatwick Airport and the group ordered bottles of champagne before taking off. Charlotte Carter (left) died after being taken ill on her flight from Gatwick to Dubai with two female friends The nurse began feeling ill on the flight before suffering a heart attack in a taxi to their hotel, the Five Palm Jumeirah hotel in Dubai But Charlotte later fell ill during the seven hour flight - and suffered cardiac arrest in the taxi on their way to see a friend living in UAE. Charlotte, of Swansea, South Wales, did not take out travel insurance ahead of the trip and her family now face 30,000 costs to cover medical bills and to bring her home to the UK. Friend Megan Boyes, who set up a crowdfunding page, said: 'Our gorgeous friend Charlotte tragically lost her life at the age of 30. 'She was so excited to go on holiday to Dubai on a girls trip but sadly she fell ill on the flight which resulted in her being taken to intensive care once arriving in Dubai. 'After being resuscitated multiple times she unfortunately couldn't be saved. 'We want to help raise money, as like many young people do, Charlotte didn't take out travel insurance which means the medical bills and repatriation costs will be very high. 'Charlotte was the most caring, kind and thoughtful person and she dedicated her life to helping others as a mental health nurse. She was taken from us far too young. 'Any contributions however big or small will be very much appreciated by her family and friends. As Charlotte (left and right) did not take out travel insurance ahead of her trip her family now face 30,000 costs to cover medical bills and to bring her home to the UK 'We have changed the target to 30,000. Recently we have found out this is how much it will cost to bring her back- obviously this doesn't include the medical fees etc but its another important target for us to aim for and to help Charlotte's family.' Friend Kate George said Charlotte was on her way to visit her in Dubai when she fell ill in a taxi. She said: 'My best friend came on holiday to see me and went into cardiac arrest in the taxi on the way to my house. 'Understandably excited and looking forward to her Dubai holiday and completely forgetting about insurance. 'Charlotte was on the flight messaging me saying she can't wait to see me and planning our week, she was absolutely fine, even on top form and this happens completely out of the blue. Friend Megan Boyes, who set up a crowdfunding page for Charlotte's family, described her as 'our gorgeous friend.. who tragically lost her life at the age of 30' 'We need all the help we can get. A tragedy doesn't even describe what's happened to our beautiful, witty charming girl.' Friend Melissa Jenkins, who flew to Dubai with Charlotte, said she was 'heartbroken'. She said: 'Get our girl home - Charlotte Carter we love you. 'Dubai will always have a piece of my heart but has also taken away a piece. 'Live your life you never know what's round the corner....always my angel xxx.' A post mortem examination is due to be held in Britain to determine her cause of death. A Foreign Office and Commonwealth spokesman said: 'We are supporting the family of a British woman following her death in the UAE, and are in contact with the Emirati authorities.' A JustGiving page has already raised more than 17,000. Villages have won a lengthy battle against a wealthy landowner with links to Prince Harry after he was ordered to reopen a public footpath by his 1.25million mansion. Henry Pelly caused uproar in 2016 when he shut a footpath running through the 17-acre estate of his six-bedroom Luccombe Mill at Bratton, Wiltshire. Mr Pelly, whose cousin Guy is Prince Harry's best friend, immediately faced opposition from locals, who claimed they had been able to walk through the grounds for 'a hundred years. Now after an astonishing 'David against Goliath battle' a planning inspector has told property developer Mr Pelly that the footpath must be reopened to the public. Henry Pelly (left, with partner Will Jenkins) - whose family has links with Prince Harry - caused uproar when he shut the footpath after buying six bedroom Luccombe Mill at Bratton Mr Pelly shut a footpath running through the 17-acre estate of his six-bedroom Luccombe Mill at Bratton, Wiltshire (pictured) Henry Pelly is the cousin of Guy Pelly (shown left), who is a close and personal friend of Prince Harry Katherine Beaumont, 72, who has been leading the battle to get the footpath reopened, stressed that locals 'want to walk along it again as soon as possible'. 'We have beaten him,' she added. 'It was a bit of a David against Goliath battle and we won the day; David won. 'But it was more a question of what was right rather than trying to win. I am feeling quite elated' it is great news. It was fair. 'I was thinking of future generations versus one owner who is there weekends most of the time.' She claimed villagers were 'painted as being senile or imbeciles with poor memories' after claiming the footpath had been open for up to 100 years. Outraged villagers said the footpath, known as the Watercress Walk, insisted it should be recognised as a public right of way in accordance with the law. Outraged villagers said the footpath, known as the Watercress Walk (entrance pictured), insisted it should be recognised as a public right of way in accordance with the law Katherine Beaumont (pictrued), who has been leading the battle to get the footpath reopened, stressed that locals 'want to walk along it again as soon as possible' Wiltshire Council then made a legal order recognising it as a footpath (pictured in relation to Mr Pelly's house) after receiving representations from the 81 locals But Henry and long-term partner Will said they were 'determined to fight' the campaign and referred the matter to their solicitors. Wiltshire Council then made a legal order recognising it as a footpath after receiving representations from the 81 locals. The council said it was satisfied it had been a footpath for at least 20 years, causing Mr Pelly to object. Now, following a three-day public inquiry, a planning inspector has ruled it is a public footpath and must be re-opened. Wiltshire Council said: 'We are pleased the inspector has agreed with our original decision and for those who have campaigned for it to remain open 'The Inspector has now ordered the path should be added as a public footpath and we will now work with the affected landowners to make the path available to the public again in the near future.' Christmas might be the time for indulging but animal experts are warning to avoid special treats for dogs as some products can be deadly. Australian animal welfare advocates Happy Tails is urging owners to dodge the cheap festive pet treats this holiday season. The group claim some of the products, made from cattle and horse hides, could be poisonous, Yahoo7 reported. 'Many of these so-called treats end up with the dog ''enjoying'' some time in a veterinary surgery over Christmas,' the group said in social media post. Australian animal welfare advocates Happy Tails is urging owners to dodge the cheap festive pet treats this holiday season he group claim some of the products, made from cattle and horse hides, are poisonous to your pooch 'The vast majority of these rawhide products and treats come from China. 'More chemicals are used in order to split the hide into layers which is then washed with hydrogen peroxide to give the white ''pure'' look and remove the rancid smell.' The group claimed chemicals in the products include arsenic, mercury, chromium and formaldehyde, which they said increase the risk of blockages and poisoning for dogs. The group has told pet owners to leave the products in the shop or throw them in the bin if they are given them as a gift. It's not just animal treats that put pets at risk during Christmas. According to a study published in the journal Veterinary Record, the number of dogs being poisoned from chocolate spikes in the lead-up to Christmas. The group has told pet owners to leave the products in the shop or throw them in the bin if they are given them as a gift Between 2012 and 2017, 386 cases of chocolate poisoning involving 375 animals were reported at almost 230 veterinary practices in the UK Chocolate contains theobromine, a stimulant similar to caffeine, which can cause vomiting, increased heart rate, agitation and seizures in dogs. Advent calendars, Christmas tree decorations, Santa Claus figurines and gift box selections were among the confectionery items devoured by dogs on numerous occasions. Between 2012 and 2017, 386 cases of chocolate poisoning involving 375 animals were reported at almost 230 veterinary practices in the UK. A 15-year-old 'sociopath' who spent half an hour throttling his mother to death with his bare hands as she fought for her life after a row over bad grades appeared in court on Sunday where he was denied bail and remanded in custody. Gregory Logan Ramos is accused of murdering his mother Gail Cleavenger, 46, in her own bed at their family home in Florida shortly after midnight on Friday last week. He then enlisted two of his friends to help him stage a burglary in his home and called 911 to report his mother missing. Gregory was arrested after confessing to killing his mother it during police questioning. Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood described the schoolboy as 'soulless', said he showed no remorse, and is 'among the top three sociopaths I have ever encountered'. In his police confession, Ramos told how he had argued with his mother on Thursday evening after getting a D grade at school. Prosecutors are now weighing up whether or not to charge Ramos as an adult. Gregory Logan Ramos, 15, appeared in court on Sunday charged with murdering his mother Gail Cleavenger in a row over a D grade he was given in school. The teenager, who has been described by police as a top tier 'sociopath', was denied bail Ramos, 15, spent half an hour strangling his mother Gal Cleavenger, 46, with his bare hands and had to return for a second time after the first attack failed to kill her On Sunday, he was ordered to a juvenile detention facility for the next 21 days. His two friends were allowed to return home where they will be monitored by ankle bracelets. Last Friday, the teenager's mother gave him a row for the D grade and then called his father, who was on a business trip, to tell him about it. She went to bed afterwards at 11pm. Ramos waited for 90 minutes then crept into her bedroom and tried to strangle her at 12.30am. She woke up and fought him, scratching his face and trying to throw him off. Eventually, he overpowered her. She died at 1am. Ramos is pictured with his friend Brian Porras who police say helped him stage the burglary by removing items from his home and placing them in various different locations. Porras and Dylan Ceglarek, another friend, were granted bail Ramos made a chilling confession to the murder after being arrested. He will be housed in a juvenile facility for the next 21 days while prosecutors determine whether or not to try him as an adult After killing Gail, Ramos invited school friends Dylan Ceglarek and Brian Porras, both 17, to his house to stage a burglary. Ramos was arrested after trying to stage a burglary scene at his home which his friends helped him put together. In his mugshot, above, the scratches police say his mother gave him are seen The trio kicked in a door and removed items such as a computer, rifle and Playstation, before driving to a nearby church where they buried Gail's body underneath a fire pit. Chitwood told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that the boys chose the pit because the soil was loose and could be easily dug up. After burying the body eight inches deep, Ramos returned home and went to school, but left early in order to establish his alibi. Arriving home, Ramos placed what he called a 'Grammy-winning' 911 call to report the burglary, using classes he took in criminal justice at University High to try and give a flavor of truth to his lies. He also reported his mother missing and said there was a van with the engine running sitting in his driveway. But Chitwood said detectives suspected the story from the start and brought Ramos in for questioning. The son buried the body in a fire pit at River City Church (pictured) 1.5 miles away Friday morning Dylan Ceglarek (left) and Brian Porras (right) were detained because they helped Ramos pretend a burglary had occurred After several hours of intense interviews, Ramos 'broke' and confessed to everything. But rather than expressing guilt or remorse, Chitwood said he seemed proud. 'He had no sign of remorse. He is a soulless individual,' Chitwood said. 'He was very proud of his work and he wanted to show it off. To watch how cold and callous he was when talking about it was the most shocking thing to me.' Chitwood said that Ramos tried to justify his actions as 'preemptive self-defense', and was convinced that 'he had to kill [Gail] before she killed him'. He added that there was no evidence of this, and no evidence that Gail had been abusive toward him. Cleavenger returned home Friday night to discover his wife was missing, before Ramos confessed to killing her early on Saturday. Gail (center) had called the boy's father to tell him about their son's D grade at school. After that Ramos (right) was motivated by 'rage' to kill his mother Ramos confessed to using a wheelbarrow to move Gail's body into the family van and then drove to River City Church 1.5 miles away where he buried her in a fire pit. At first he drove to Daytona's Holly Hill area to dump her corpse but headed back to find a shovel before heading to the church. Architect Gail had been reported as absent from work on the morning she died Meanwhile his friends staged the break-in before convening in a nearby Circle K to get their back-stories straight. Ramos helped cook up the story using his training as a part of Orange City Police Explorers. Chitwood said he had hoped to become a homicide detective in future. After taking down Ramos's confession on Saturday, authorities went to the fire pit and exhumed Gail's body. Chitwood added that this was 'one of the most disturbing and saddest I've seen in my career'. 'I have a feeling this is a case we'll be hearing about for years to come. 'All our hearts break for this family,' he added on Twitter. Drake has shared an emotional tribute after learning that a young fan of his sadly passed away. The Canadian rapper took to Instagram Sunday night to post a photo of him wiping his tears by his fan Kay's bedside, writing: 'I am crying in this pic but it was tears of joy cause we just prayed for you with your father Will remember you forever K!' The 32-year-old In My Feelings rapper met Kay through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps young people suffering from critical illnesses. He revealed that the two had formed a 'genuine bond' and would often text. Drake admitted that he was 'sorry' to have missed a birthday text she sent to him, adding that it's 'eating his soul right now', but said Kay knew how much he loved her. Drake took to Instagram Sunday night to post this tribute photo of him visiting a fan named Kay through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, who sadly passed It's unclear what illness Kay suffered from, but fans shows their support for the girl offering condolences and saying she is now an 'angel' Kay's family commented on Drake's post from Kay's private Instagram account, saying she knew how much the rapper loved her 'Gonna miss you a whole lot. We met through make a wish and we built a genuine bond you would text me and check on me while I was on tour and tell me positive things and share your dreams and goals,' Drake's caption reads. 'I am crying in this pic but it was tears of joy cause we just prayed for you with your father. I am sorry I missed your text on my birthday thats eating my soul right now but you know how much I loved you and was looking forward to seeing you after tour. 'I dont know why I am writing this on (Instagram) I just need to get it out cause its sitting heavy on my heart. Will remember you forever K!' It's unclear what illness Kay suffered from but fans showed their support for the girl offering their condolences and writing that she's now an 'angel'. A member of Kay's family responded to Drake's photo from Kay's private Instagram account. 'Thank you so much for the love and support youve showed her. She knew you loved her and had you in her final thoughts, as she asked for you. We hope God continues to bless you! - via The Family,' the comment reads. The 32-year-old rapper revealed the pair shared a 'genuine bond' and would often text Drake has been known for visiting some of his biggest fans through the Make-A-Wish Foundation and being a loyal source of support. Recently he visited 11-year-old Sofia Sanchez for her birthday following her viral video doing the Kiki Challenge to Drake's In My Feelings hit. Video shows the moment Sofia's jaw dropped as Drake walked into her hospital room at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. Luckily, Sofia underwent a nine-hour surgery to receive a new heart just one week after her visit from the star. 'I feel more alive. It's so much better than my other heart,' Sofia said, adding that Drake has made a promise to her once she's fully recovered. 'He said that when I'm out of the hospital and can be around more people, he said he's going to bring me up on stage and sing God's Plan with me,' Sofia told Today excitedly. She also revealed that the rapper had sent her an iPad pro with the words 'Love always from Drake,' engraved on the back. 'It's permanently on there. You can't scratch it off!' she said of the gift and his special message. Kyall Parnell was the first victim of London's year of violence, he was stabbed on the night of New Year's Eve Vijay Patel was beaten to death in January after refusing to buy Rizla cigarette papers for a teenager January 1) Kyall Parnell, 17, was attacked in front of horrified revellers on his way to a New Year's Eve party and died after being chased through traffic in Tulse Hill, south London. A murder investigation was opened in 2018. 2) Steve Frank Navarez-Jara was the first person to be killed in 2018. The 20-year-old was stabbed on New Year's Day in Old Street, north London. 3) Elizabeta Lacatusu, 44, who came to London from Romania to work, was stabbed in Redbridge, east London on January 3. 4) Vijay Patel, 49, died on January 6 after being attacked outside a shop in Mill Hill Broadway after refusing a teenager trying to buy Rizla cigarette papers. 5) Daniel Frederick, 34, died after being stabbed in Hackney on January 8 while walking home after attending a hospital check-up with his pregnant partner. 6) Harry Uzoka, 25, worked as a model in London and was knifed in the heart in Shepherd's Bush on January 11. 7) Seyed Azim Khan's body was found in Ilford Cemetery with extensive head injuries in February after he went missing on his way home from work on January 24. 8) Yaya Mbye, 26, died in hospital after being stabbed in Stoke Newington. east London, on January 28. 9) Juan Olmos Saca, 39, was stabbed in the chest in Peckham, south east London, on the January 29 and died a week in hospital. 10) Khader Saleh, 25, was stabbed at Wormwood Scrubs prison on January 31. 11) Eleven-week-old Lily-Mai Saint George was found unresponsive at an address in Tottenham on January 31. She died at Great Ormond Street Hospital three days later. February 12) Hassan Ozcan was just 19 when he died from multiple stab wounds in Barking, east London, on February 3. 13) Kwabena Nelson, 22, a youth worker from Tottenham, died after being stabbed near his home on February 3. Elizabeta Lacatusu had her throat slashed in Ilford Hannah Leonard was stabbed in a flat in Camden in February 14) Hannah Leonard, 55, was stabbed in a flat in Camden on February 8. 15) Sabri Chibani, 19, was stabbed in the chest in Streatham, south west London, on February 11. 16) Bulent Kabala was the first victim to be shot dead in 2018. The 41-year-old was gunned down on February 12 and died at the scene in Barnet, north London. 17) Saeeda Hussain, 54, was stabbed at a house in Ilford on February 13 and died from her injuries. 18) Lord Promise Nkenda was just 17 when he was stabbed in Canning Town, east London, on Valentine's Day. 19) Mark Smith, 48, died from multiple injuries after being found unconscious in Waltham Forest on February 15. 20) Lewis Blackman, 19, was stabbed in the early hours of February 18 after going to a house party in Kensington. He died outside the former home of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. 21) Jozef Boci, 30, suffered serious head injuries after being attacked on the street in Greenwich on February 17 and died in hospital just under a week later. 22) Rotimi Oshibanjo, 26, was stabbed in Southall on February 19 and died from his injuries. 23) Sadiq Mohammed, 20, died after being stabbed in Camden on February 20. 24) Abdikarim Hassan, 17, a friend of Sadiq, died on the same night after also being stabbed in Camden. 25) Amir Ellouizi, 24, was shot in Westminster on February 20 and died seven days later on February 27. March 26) Michael Boyle, 44, died from a single stab wound to the chest. He was attacked on 25 February and died in hospital on March 10. 27) Christopher Beaumont, 42, was stabbed at a house in Hammersmith on March 1. 28) Laura Figueira, 47, was found dead at her home in Richmond, south west London, on March 5th having suffered stab wounds. 29 and 30) Later the same day, her husband Adelino Figueia de Faria, 57 and two young sons Claudio, 10, and Joaquin, 7, were discovered at the bottom of Beachy Head at Birling Gap, East Sussex, with all three having died from 'multiple injuries consistent with falling from a height'. Russian socialite Nikolai Glushkov was strangled at his home in New Malden 31) Kelva Smith was 20 when he died after being stabbed in the stomach in Croydon, south London. 32) Kelvin Odunuyi, 19, was shot outside a cinema in Wood Green on March 8. 33) Julian Joseph, 36, died in hospital 11 days after being attacked and suffering a serious head injury on a night bus in New Cross just after midnight of March 13. 34) Nikolai Glushkov, 68, died from compression to the neck in New Malden on March 13. 35) Joseph William-Torres, 20, was shot in a car in in Essex Close, Walthamstow on March 14. Two teens, 15 and 17, charged with murder. 36) Lyndon Davis was 18 when he was stabbed in Chadwell Heath on March 14. 37) Naomi Hersi, 36, was found with stab wounds at a hotel near Heathrow Airport on March 16 and was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. Jozef Boci, 30, was assaulted in Greenwich and later died from his injuries 38) Russell Jones, 23, died after suffering from stab injuries and a gunshot wound in Enfield, north London, on March 17. 39) Tyrone Silcott, 41, died after being stabbed in Hackney on March 18. 40) Balbir Johal, 48, was admitted to hospital with stab wounds after being attacked in Southall on March 19 and died a few hours later. 41) Jermaine Johnson, 41, was stabbed to death an an address in Walthamstow on March 19. 42) Beniamin Pieknyi, 21, was found with stab wounds at the Stratford shopping centre in East London, on March 20 and was pronounced dead at the scene. 43) Abraham Badru, 26, was shot in Dalston on March 25. 44) Wieslaw Kopcynski, 59, died on March 27th two days after being found lying in bed in Barking with serious head injuries following a suspected assault. A post-mortem found the cause of death was a complex skull fracture 45) David Potter, 50, was found dead inside a house in Tooting High Street on March 26 after suffering from stab injuries. Hersi Hersi was stabbed in Hounslow in March 46) Reece Tshoma was 23 when he was stabbed in Plumstead, south east London, on March 29. 47) Leyla Mtumwa, 36, was found with stab wounds at a home in Haringey on March 30. 48) Ourania Lambrou, 80, died in hospital after being pushed to the ground by her attacker in a drunken rage in Camden on March 31. April 49) Devoy Stapleton, 20, stabbed outside bar in Wandsworth in the early hours of April 1. 50) Tanesha Melbourne, 17, was shot in the chest on April 2 after a drive-by shooting in Tottenham, north London. 51) Amaan Shakoor, 16, was shot in the face, also on April 2 in Walthamstow and died a day later in hospital. 52) Career criminal Henry Vincent, 37, died after being stabbed in the chest as he burgled Richard Osborn-Brooks' house in Lewisham on April 4. The 78-year-old was initially arrested for murder but cleared of all charges and faces no further action. 53) Babatunde Akintayo Awofeso, 53, died after fight at a bookmakers in Upper Clapton on April 4 following reports of an altercation with another man. Russell Jones, 23, became the eighth person in a week to be killed in London in March when he was ambushed outside shops in Enfield 54) Israel Ogunsola, 18, in Hackney after being stabbed, also on April 4. The victim approached police who performed first aid but he died at the scene after 25 minutes. 55) John Maclean, 35, stabbed at a flat in the Isle of Dogs on April 12th. 56) Raul Nicolaie, 26, stabbed to death in Zenith Close, Colindale at 6pm on Sunday, April 15th. 57) Natasha Hill, 18, found dead with head injuries at an address in Sewell Road, Abbey Wood at 4.22am on Sunday April 15. 58) Samantha Clarke, 30s, stabbed to death in Sudbourne Road, Brixton, at 6:30pm on Sunday, April 15th. 59) Sami Sidhom, 18, who studied law and history at Queen Mary University, was stabbed in the back just yards from his home in Forest Gate, east London, after going to the West Ham v Stoke game on April 16. 60) Builder John Woodward, 47, found dead on the roof of the Pressman Mastermelts building in Hatton Garden on April 17. Post-mortem gave cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head. 61) Aaron Springett, 32, died after street fight outside bookies in Merton, south west London, after suffering from a blunt force trauma to the chest on April 20. There was outcry in April when Tanesha Melbourne, 17, was shot in the chest in Tottenham 62) Kwasi Anim-Boadu, 20, stabbed during a mass brawl in Seven Sisters Road, Finsbury Park, north London, on April 21. May 63) Leon Maxwell, 38, shot outside Queensbury tube station on May 1. A 26-year-old man also shot went to a north London hospital. 64) Rhyhiem Barton, 17, shot dead in broad daylight near his family's flat in Kennington on May 5th. 65) Onees Khatoon, 71, murdered at her home in Gade Close, Hayes, on May 13. Her son Majid Butt, 51, has been charged. 66) Rosina Coleman, 85, found battered to death at her home in Romford on May 15. 67) Abdulrahman Nassor Juma, 24, known to friends as Mani, fatally stabbed in the chest in Barking on May 17. 68) Osman Shidane, 20, stabbed repeatedly in Ruislip on evening of May 15, died three days later on Friday May 18. 69) Homeless Arunesh Thangarajah, 28, stabbed to death in Mitcham in early hours of Sunday May 20th. Rosina Coleman was battered to death at her home in Romford in May 70) Sophie Cavanagh, 31, viciously attacked at an address in Bromley around 6pm on Sunday May 20. 71) Father-of-two Marcel Campbell, 30, from Tottenham, fatally stabbed outside an ice cream parlour in Islington on Monday May 21st. 72) Gerry Gaffney, 46, died in hospital on May 21st, eight days after being repeatedly stabbed near The Oval cricket ground in south London on Sunday May 14th. 73) Molly Frank, 61, a care worker, suffered fatal head injuries at an Islington residential home on May 24 and died in hospital the next day. A special post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as intra-cerebral haemorrhage. 74) Aspiring actress and singer Bethany-Maria Beales, 22, fell to her death from the 19th floor of The Heron, a 36-storey residential skyscraper in the City on May 26. 75) Mark Fontaine, 41, from Walthamstow, repeatedly stabbed in Chelsea on May 30. June 76) Andra Hilitanu, 28, who was seven months pregnant with her third child, found stabbed in the neck at her flat in Brent on June 1st. The Romanian national's family revealed that her unborn child also died. 77) Edmond Jonuzi, a 35-year-old Albanian, was knifed in park and collapsed near Turnpike Lane station in north London on the evening of Saturday June 9th. Katerina Makunova, 17, was stabbed to in Camberwell in July 78) Gitana Matukeviciene, 50 and originally from Lithuania, found with multiple injuries at a residential address in Dagenham on Saturday June 9th never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead on Tuesday June 12th. 79) Mark Tremain, 52, died from his injuries on June 14th two weeks after being badly beaten near his home in Albert Square, Stockwell, on May 31st. 80) Apprentice lift engineer Joshua Boadu, 23, died in hospital on June 18th, seven days after being repeatedly stabbed in Bermondsey. 81) Matthew Thomas, 39, died shortly after being found with multiple injuries at a flat in Pimlico on Thursday June 21st. 82) Slawomir Weglarski, 39, died after a fight outside a pub in Greenford in the early hours of Saturday June 23rd. 83) Gita Suri, 56, found with stab wounds to her back in the garden of a house in Greenwich on Saturday June 23rd. 84) Schoolboy Jordan Douherty, 15, from Chafford Hundred, stabbed to death after a birthday party in Romford on Saturday June 23rd. 85) Ishak Tacine, 20, of Enfield, repeatedly stabbed in Edmonton following reports of an altercation between men armed with baseball bats on June 27th. July Drill rapper Latwaan Griffiths died of stab wounds after he was dumped in a Camberwell street by a moped rider 86) Elderly woman Shuren Ma, 72, found with a fatal head injury at a house in Woolwich on July 1st. 87) Janek Brakonecki, 57, a Polish national, found critically injured in a car park off Leytonstone High Road on Saturday July 7th. 88) Katerina Makunova, 17, stabbed to death in a block of flats in Camberwell on Thursday July 12th 89) Latwaan Griffiths, 18, from Southwark, died in hospital hours after being found with stab wounds in Denmark Road, Camberwell, on July 25. He had been dumped in the street by a moped rider. 90) Sheila Thomas, 69, was found stabbed to death at her home in Casino Avenue, Herne Hill on Tuesday July 31st. August 91) Drill rapper Sidique Kamara, 23, aka Incognito, stabbed to death in Camberwell in an alleged gang feud on August 1. 92) Thomas Peter, 50, of Valentines Way, Dagenham, has been charged with murder and arson with intent to endanger life after woman found dead in east London on Thursday August 2nd. Joel Urhie was found dead inside the burnt-out shell of his family home in Deptford 93) Malik Chattun, 22, from Surbiton, stabbed to death in group fight in Kingston just after 2am on Aug 5. 94) Seven-year-old Joel Urhie died in arson attack on his family home in Adolphus Street, Deptford, just before 3.30am on Tuesday August 7th. 95) Simonne Kerr, 31, A nurse who starred as part of a the B Positive choir who reached the final of this year's Britain's Got Talent, stabbed to death at an address in Grayshott Road, Battersea, on Wednesday August 15th. 96) Joseph Cullimore, 42, died after being repeatedly stabbed at a house in Chingford in the early hours of Friday August 17th. 97) Gary Amer, 63, a plumber of Holborn, found with multiple knife wounds at an address off the Old Kent Road on the afternoon of Friday August 17th. 98) Leroy 'Junior' Edwards, 66, found with multiple stab wound at an address in Catford in the early hours of Saturday August 18th. 99) Kaltoun Saleh was badly burnt in a fire at a flat in Finsbury Park on July 5th and died at a specialist burns hospital on Tuesday August 21st. 100) Carole Harrison, 73, found dead inside her house in Teddington following a fire on Wednesday August 22nd. A post-mortem found she had suffered injuries consistent with an assault. Advertisement 'Buried like dogs' as part of an anonymous, 'state-controlled version of grief... 'worthy of Lenin' - not descriptions we would recognise today of the poignant First World War cemeteries that dot the countryside of France and Belgium. Yet these were the thoughts of thousands of bereaved mothers after the conflict, who were furious that the remains of their sons would be consigned to mass cemeteries in foreign fields rather than taken home for a private burial. Others were disgusted by the identical gravestones marking the bodies, with the organisation overseeing the burying of the Empire's war dead accused of 'conscripting bodies' with no regard to the individual characters of the men being commemorated. The cemeteries of France and Belgium run by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission are today admired as poignant and dignified places, but they initially sparked a huge amount of controversy. Pictured: Pilgrims visiting a CWGC cemetery circa 1927 Many bereaved mothers were furious that the remains of their sons would be consigned to mass cemeteries in foreign fields rather than being taken home for a private burial. Others protested that they would all be buried under identical headstones, like the ones seen being manufactured in this image from c.1918 To mark 100 years since the end of the Great War, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has released an online exhibition called 'Shaping Our Sorrow', which includes a section on the protests called 'Anger'. Plenty of this was directed at the Commission as it set up the ground rules for a uniform style of commemoration, which was seen by some as robbing families of the right to say how their loved ones should be remembered. The decision to leave the 979,000 dead British and Empire soldiers in France was also controversial, as it left many families unable to visit them. The policy contrasted with the USA, which usually repatriated its soldiers. One of the most prominent campaigners was Sarah Smith, a housewife from Leeds whose 19-year-old son died in 1918 and was buried at Grevillers British Cemetery in France. She organised a 2,500-strong petition to the Prince of Wales, the Commission's president, demanding he reverse the policy against repatriation on behalf of his 'broken-hearted subjects'. This attempt failed but it led to the founding of the British War Graves Association, which was based in Leeds and had more than 3,000 members by 1922. As secretary, Mrs Smith repeatedly wrote to the Commission outlining her demands, which included providing government funding for families to visit graves, and adding more space between the burials. 'Many thousands of mothers and wives are slowly dying for the want of the grave of their loved ones, to visit and tend themselves, and we feel deeply hurt that the right granted by other countries is denied us,' she wrote to Queen Mary in 1920. To mark 100 years since the end of the conflict, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has released an online exhibition called 'Shaping Our Sorrow', which includes a section on the protests called 'Anger'. In this image, pilgrims pay their respects at a cemetery, where the dead are marked with wooden crosses The protests reached such a pitch that they sparked a debate in Parliament in May 1920, at which MPs concluded that the Commission should be allowed to continue its work. Winston Churchill, the then-Secretary of State for War and therefore Chair of the Commission, gave a resounding statement of support. Pictured: People paying their respects at a CWGC site The decision to leave the 979,000 dead British and Empire soldiers in France was also controversial, as it left many families unable to visit them. The policy contrasted with the USA, which usually repatriated its soldiers. In this image, a priest oversees a memorial service during the conflict on the Western Front Mrs Smith had all her demands politely rejected, but did not give up and enlisted the help of several aristocratic women to her cause, including Lady Florence Cecil, the wife of the Bishop of Exeter. Lady Florence, who herself lost three sons in the conflict, set up her own petition in 1919 which garnered 8,000 signatures. This urged the Prince of Wales to allow headstones in the shape of a cross - a common demand from relatives, who abhorred the rounded marble ones adopted by the Commission which were seen as not sufficiently Christian. She was backed by her sister-in-law, the women's rights activist Beatrix Maud Palmer, Countess of Selborne, who repeatedly appealed, 'to let these poor women bring home the bodies of their dead sons'. In 1920, she even wrote an article comparing the Commission's policy of equality in death to a form of 'National Socialism', decrying everything from the uniform cemetery designs to the ban on repatriation. 'This conscription of bodies is worthy of Lenin,' she added. Similarly scathing words were contained in the flood of angry letters which were sent to the Commission, which peaked at 3,000 over a single day in 1918. One Ruth Jervis said she was 'shocked beyond words' at the Commission's policy against allowing, 'our brave boys... to be brought home to their native countries'. 'I speak plainly, (as I have a right to) being one of the mothers whom have been called upon to sacrifice their only child, and in the defence of their country,' she wrote. 'Is there no limit to the suffering imposed upon us, is it not enough to have our boys dragged from us and butchered and not allowed to say nay, without being deprived of their poor remains and refused a visit to their graves? 'I was hoping that at the end of the war that it would be some measure of consolation that I would be able to visit his remains, but it seems even that hope is gone. It is cruelty in the extreme...' Early on, the Commission decided it would treat soldiers equally in death regardless of their rank or social status. Pictured: Examples of early headstone designs drawn up by the CWGC. The gravestones were engraved with different symbols depending on the soldier's religion Despite the controversy the CWGC's pro-equality approach provoked at the time, it is generally popular today. Pictured: Early sketch by Edwin Lutyens for the Thiepval Memorial, which lists the names of thousands of dead Letters written to the Commission by Ms M Carpenter, who lost her son at the Somme, (left) and Canadian mother Anna Durie Ms M Carpenter, who lost her son at the Somme, wrote: 'I, with countless hundreds of mothers and wives, read with greatest sorrow and still greater disgust of the proposed uniform headstones to be erected over our graves and dear dead headstones. Stones we would put over our favourite dog's headstones. It is an insult to our feelings and to the honoured dead. Too awful for words. Why should we not erect our own memorials? They are a disgrace, and I for one do not intend for one to remain on my son's grave.' The protests reached such a pitch that they sparked a debate in Parliament in May 1920, at which MPs concluded that the Commission should be allowed to continue its work. Winston Churchill, the then-Secretary of State for War and therefore Chair of the Commission, ended the debate with a resounding statement of support. He said: 'There is no reason at all why, in periods as remote from our own as we ourselves are from the Tudors, the graveyards in France of this Great War shall not remain an abiding and supreme memorial to the efforts and the glory of the British Army, and the sacrifices made in the great cause.' So in the end the Commission won out, and maintained its approach of equality for all ranks that inspires many modern visitors to its cemeteries. Dr Lucy Kellet, its Heritage Interpretation Officer, said: 'It is really interesting to see how, while people now admire our approach of commemorating everyone equally, at the time it was met with a lot of consternation and derision. 'We were receiving on average ten letters a day protesting at the fact there wasn't going to be repatriation, and there were 3,000 letters in one day alone. 'Thankfully we can look back in hindsight and realise that the right decisions were taken, but it's really interesting to look back and see that at the time things were not set in stone, we were confronting entirely new challenges.' The CWGC's Faubourg D'Amiens cemetery in Arras is based on the classic design of rows of identical headstones with no distinction based on rank. It contains remains from both of the two world wars This is the first in the two-part series on the much-forgotten Malabar Struggle and stories of ghastly violence committed by the British in the region around 1921. I Sameel, the author of this article, also looks at why and how such incidents were left out or/and ignored by our mainstream historians. This article was originally published by Madhyamam Weekly on October 8, 2018. The article has been translated from Malayalam by Najiya O of TwoCircles.net. The Malabar Struggle is a critical time space in the Indian freedom struggle. The different angles of viewing the struggle are evident in the terms of Mappila Rebellion and Malabar Revolt etc. The Malabar Struggle has been significant in influencing the creation of the common conscience of modern Kerala, determining the path of the Indian nationality and the formation of the social identity of Malabar, according to EV Ramakrishnan in Malabarine Kandethal: Padanam, Malabar Desheeyathayude Idapadukal (DC Books, 2008). However, the Malabar Struggle still remains a critical timespace in the history by the different looks mentioned above. The official statements regarding the Indian freedom struggle either kept silent on the popular protests related to Malabar or mentioned them only casually. There are no evidences for even the Wagon Tragedy, which received a bit more public visibility compared to other incidents related to the Malabar Struggle, to have deeply touched the conscience of Malayalis (EV Ramakrishnan Page 13). Questions are arising as to why the incidents that led Malabar to a battlefield for nearly a century did not receive the deserving relevance in the historical conscience of Malayali. Even the Wagon Massacre (named as Tragedy in history) gained visibility only through the popular cultural media, including the cinema. As MT Ansari points out in Malabar: Desheeyathayude Idapadukal (DC Books, 2008) Only the Wagon Tragedy of November 20, 1921, can be seen in the nationalist history lessons. As if all the other incidents, whether of Muslims or Hindus, insult us. However, we do not conceal the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 19, 1919 (379 people were killed on the orders of General Dyer, according to official records) and the Chauri Chaura incident in which angry peasants burnt alive 23 policemen on February 5, 1922. Compared to the Malabar Revolt (2,337 people killed, 1,652 injured and 45,404 imprisoned in the Malabar Revolt as per official records and according to unofficial records, 10,000 were killed, 50,000 imprisoned, 20,000 exiled and 10,000 found missing), other incidents are limited in extensiveness. Support TwoCircles Just like the Malabar Revolution was ignored by the national historical studies, it can also be seen that some significant incidents in it were ignored or only casually mentioned even in the special studies related to it. Important among them is the massacre by the British at Melmuri-Adhikarithodi in Malappuram. This incident comes second only to the bloody Pookkottur battle in the number of people killed among the various incidents in the Malabar Rebellion. While more than 350 people lost their lives at the Battle of Pookkottur, the massacre at Melmuri-Adhikarithodi took the lives of 246 people on October 25, 1921. People including women, children, aged and sick people were forced out of their houses, lined up and shot dead by the Dorset Regiment, an infantry regiment of the British army. However, it has not found a place in the public history. Some incidents including the Melmuri-Adhikarithodi massacre have been totally neglected from the general readings about the violence of the colonial government and massacres that took place in Kerala. And hence, more detailed studies should be carried out about the massacres that took place in Kerala, especially Malabar, during the colonial rule. Massacres: the seen and unseen It can be seen clearly that the Punnapra-Vayalar struggle (a communist uprising in the princely state of Travancore, British India, against Prime Minister, C. P. Ramaswami Iyer and the state in which around 1,000 people were allegedly killed) has got much importance in the public readings and history in the studies related to the massacres in Kerala. Though the massacres in the Malabar Revolution including the Pookkottur Battle have been exceptional considering the nature of the struggle and power of the enemy etc when compared to the Punnapra-Vayalar struggle, they are given only lesser attention in the public readings. The Punnapra-Vayalar incident as such is considered a central theme in the history of struggles in Kerala. But such a position is not given to the Mappila struggles in Malabar in which thousands of people have died. The Melmuri-Adhikarithodi massacre has not become a central theme for even the studies about the Malabar Struggle. There have been studies on whether the massacres related to the Malabar Revolution were part of the national history or not; but even those studies have not probed into the government terror involved. Such a probe would be possible only through the historiography centred on these massacres. This article is an effort to discover the material causes and archives from the memory of people and historical remnants of this region for such a historiography. And this effort is relevant as the historical narration of the Malabar Struggle should go beyond the colonial records of RH Hitchcock, GRF Tottenham, CT Atkinson and Divan Bahadur C Gopalan Nair as well as the studies carried out by Dr M Gangadharan and Dr KN Panicker. The second biggest massacre Large gang reported last night 4 miles north-west Malappuram. Operations undertaken against them by Dorsets, Artillery and armoured cars. Enemy met in jungle west of Melmuri opposing our troops there and in the houses, refusing to come out when ordered to surrender and offering continued and determined opposition resulting in 246 rebel casualties. This was the content of a Telegram [No.S 250/453/G] sent by the General Commanding Officer of Malabar to the Madras Government on October 25, 1921. (GRF Tottenham The Mappila Rebellion 1921-1922, Madras Government Press, 1922) Innocent women and children along with old and sick people were forced out of their houses and shot dead, houses looted and set on fire by the British armys Dorset Regiment. This took place in the places named Konompara, Adhikarithodi, Melmuri Muttippadi and Valiyattappadi, in a 1.5 kilometre circumference on the Kozhikode-Palakkad national highway, which is 3 kilometres from Malappuram town. This is the Melmuri-Adhikarithodi massacre that took place on October 25, 1921. The soldiers in the companies A and D in the second battalion, Dorset Regiment, reached Konompara in armoured vehicles with cannons under the leadership of Lieutenants Hevic and Goff in the morning and massacred 246 people. Cannon balls were fired in the beginning with a big sound, said Nambankunnan Moideen of Melmuri Valiyattappadi who was born 10 years after the incident. The frightened people hid in their homes. Then the army entered each and every house and forced everybody out. Those who refused to get out of their houses were forced out by hitting and torturing with the stock and bayonet of guns. Wooden storage boxes named mancha and pathayam were broken and the contents looted. Books including the Quran, Sabeenappattu (Arabic songs praising prophet Muhammed), baiths (Arabic songs), padappaattu (war songs) etc were piled up in the yard and set ablaze, and then the houses roofed by palm leaves and grass were set on fire. Then all the men were lined up and shot dead one by one. Those who tried to prevent, including women and children, were also shot dead. The operation which began in the morning came to an end by the long siren of the Army Commandant around noon. The army was aiming the gun at Chalattil Kalladithodi Moideenkutty Haji on a sideway at Konompara when the long whistle blew and they let him free, said PT Muhammed Master who was four years old at the time and died recently. (Nisar Kaderi Pookkottur Yuddhavum Melmuri Operationum, 1921 Churul Nivaranam Pookkottur Yuddha Smaraka Samithi Souvenir, 2007) Hundreds of people were killed in the orchards and courtyards, and about 100 houses were set ablaze in the operation of a few hours. Some remained in a critical situation as good as dead after having been shot. There were some others who lay abandoned for about four days and then died as there was nobody to take care of them. The martyrs were buried in the places they lay dead. The graves in the courtyards Though most of the studies on the freedom struggle and the Malabar struggle kept silent on this massacre, the graves played an important role in keeping the incident alive in the memories of the region and the generations that followed. Those who were shot dead in the courtyards in front of the houses were buried there itself. The burial was completed by the people who came from nearby places on the request of Kunjithangal of Malappuram Valiyangadi, the president of the Malappuram Khilafat Committee. Many people have been buried in a single grave. Many were buried in the dead of the night out of fear of the army. While some were buried in the laterite stone quarries (Kalluvettukuzhi) near the houses, in some places women alone dug graves and buried the dead. Women had to do the burials, which is the duty of the men according to the Islamic belief, as all the men in the locality had fled fearing the army. One of the graves dug by women, which is only 2 feet in depth, is still there. Now we have information about only 40 people buried in nine graves out of the 246 martyred. Daughters shot dead for their fathers Most of the cruelties done to women, children and the aged by the British army during the Malabar Revolution havent been included in the public historical narratives. What the women, children and the aged experienced at the Melmuri-Adhikarithodi incident were cruelties violating the common norms to be followed even during war time. Among the graves are those of two daughters who were killed while trying to prevent the army taking away their fathers. One of them is an 11-year old from the Keedakkadan family at Adhikarithodi. She was beaten by gunstock when she tried to prevent the British from taking away her father from their house, holding him tight. When they couldnt take her apart from the father even after several attempts, the army killed both of them together. It is said that they were visiting the girls mothers house. The other one is Kadiyamu, daughter of Areeppuram Parakkal Kunjeen Haji of Konompara Cheeranganthodi. Kadiyamu had come from her husbands house to take care of her sick and aged father. The army tried to push her off too with gunstock when she tried to prevent them dragging off her aged father who was lying on the big wooden storage container (pathayam). At last, Kunjeen Haji was forcefully taken off to the eastern yard of the house and laid on his front on the ground. Kadiyamu lay on her father to prevent him from getting shot. Finally, both were shot dead. Our pages of history couldnt document these two brave daughters. And this can be read as evidence for the selected silence of the public mind towards Mappila history and Mappila woman. While the common historical narrations kept silent about the Melmuri-Adhikarithodi massacre, this history was documented at least to some extent by the Qissappattu, a type of songs popular among the Malabar Muslims earlier. One of them is the work of Yogyan Hamsa Master, a Qissappattu expert. This is found in the Abdurahman Qissappattu which he wrote about freedom fighter Muhammed Abdurahman Sahib: Lahalakkaar Melmuri parisaramil undarivaal Lahika padayalar vanna aayudhamaale avaril Shatham mail aavaasethum balliya thokkum Shakthamerum peerankiyum bayanettum bombum Shabdamilla thuppaakkiyal vedivech chirichum Lakkum lagaanumilla nattare vadhichum. (Yogyan Hamsa Master Page 51) (*The army came to Melmuri with weapons including cannons, guns and bombs, learning of the presence of mutineers, and laughed and killed people with silenced guns without any heed) A video showing a baby bear's epic struggle to climb a snowy mountain to keep up with this mother has captivated viewers around the world. The clip, filmed by a Russian man, was shared millions of times on social media after it was posted online by a member of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. It shows a mother bear who made it to the peak of a mountain in the Magadan region on June 19 but has to wait for her cub as it struggles to make its way up. The cub is seen coming agonisingly close to reaching the top, but suddenly loses its grip and plummets back down in a matter of seconds. And although some viewers watched with bated breath to see if the cub would eventually reach the peak, others criticised the footage. They claim the bears had been attempting to get away from the drone filming them and the problem wouldn't have occurred if it hadn't been there. Eventually the cub manages to gain some traction in the steps left by its mother's ascent through the snow As they traverse the snowy face, the cub loses its footing and slips down, trying to cling on with his small paws. He seems to manage to gain some traction only to plunge down further, but he seems more energetic than ever as he climbs back up. Eventually the cub manages to find better footing on the track already cut by his mother and gets to the top. The mother bear looks down as the drone has zoomed out to show the massive scale of the mountain compared to the little bear As they traverse across the icy face the cub loses his footing and slips down the sheer face while its mother watches on 'I was stressed watching this,' wrote one person on Twitter. Another added: 'I couldn't take it .. I had to fast forward just to make sure he made it.' Another joked: 'This is almost giving me lion king flashbacks.' Others commented that the bear's struggle was motivational. 'We could all learn a lesson from this baby bear: Look up & don't give up.' Others commented on the mother bear's parenting skills, with some commending her and others suggesting they may be why she only has one cub. 'Parents could learn a lesson from mama bear: Sometimes you've got to let kids figure it out on their own even if they slip and struggle a little,' wrote one Twitter user. Ziya Tong, a member of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society originally posted the video with a lighthearted caption, 'Look up and don't give up' As the video went viral today, Tong answered concerns and provided links to advice on filming wildlife with drones as some feel the bears were terrified and were making off in haste But David Videcette said: 'Female bears generally have two cubs in a littler, and they will stay with their mother until they are at least two years old. 'I'm letting you decide why this mother only has one cub.' He added: 'Fair play to the little guy though, for not giving up.' Meanwhile, Indian billionaire businessman Anand Mahindra wrote: 'If I'm not wrong, the mother bear actually made the cub slip down again & try harder, so as to build his willpower.' But he also described the clip as the 'best' Monday morning motivator. 'That little bear just didn't give up,' he tweeted. 'I'll now start this week and every week with that spirit.' The video quickly went viral online and led to many social media users commenting on what was going on in the clip Others have tweeted about their concern at the use of a drone in capturing the footage which may have spooked the bears, thinking it was a bird of prey. Towards the end of the footage when the cub looks like he has made it, the drone swoops in and the mother bear appears to frantically swipe to grab her cub. But instead of helping the youngster, she ends up dislodging the snow around it and sends it tumbling further than ever. The video was originally shared on YouTube before being picked up by Ziya Tong who is a member of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. The TV presenter highlighted that the video she had shared should also be an example of poor drone usage and tweeted guidance for any amateur wildlife drone operators to follow. The two bears begin their perilous walk from the rocky face to head up to the peak of the mountain After a few attempts and a lot of determination the cub manages to make it up and is reunited with its mother Thriller author David Videcette said he thought the video might illustrate that the mother bear was not doing her job properly A 19-year-old man from Syria has been charged with raping a teacher at a high school in southern Sweden. The teenage student allegedly pushed the mother-of-two into a room, locked the door and sexually assaulted her at the school in Nassjo, near Jonkoping. In the weeks before the incident, the student allegedly sexually harassed the teacher, after which he sent her a Snapchat message in which he threatened to rape her, court documents reveal. Prosecutors claim the student said he would kidnap someone in the woman's family if she did not comply and have sex with him, Smalands Dagblad reports. Allegations: The high school teacher claims the 19-year-old student pushed her into a room at the school in Nassjo, southern Sweden, and sexually assaulted her After the alleged attack took place in mid-September, the alleged victim, who is in her 30s, wrote about the incident on her blog, stating 'a no is a no'. 'And no, it doesn't matter that you have an amazing figure. No, it doesn't matter that your clothes are sexy and tight. No, it doesn't matter that you know the person. No, it doesn't matter that no one else saw it or heard it. A no is a f***ing no.' She writes in the blog, which has since been made inaccessible, how she tried to fight back, begged the attacker to stop and that she felt 'like a fragile bunny that the hunter was about to shoot with his gun.' She also claimed that the attacker, whom she does not identify, had told her he had assaulted her 'because my body was so irresistable [sic]. So curvy, so sexy, so hot that you just had to do it.' The suspect has been studying a language introduction programme at the high school, after reportedly arriving from Syria with his family in recent years. Charged: The incident took place in Nassjo, southern Sweden, some time after the 19-year-old had allegedly threatened the teacher Court documents list him as 'stateless', but having been born in the Syrian city of Damascus. His family has since defended the 19-year-old in local media, claiming that the alleged rape 'may have been a misunderstanding between her and him'. 'My son is not like that. We are a traditional family, and he would never do something like that,' the mother of the suspect told Expressen. Speaking to Aftonbladet, the 19-year-old's father said: 'He always has girlfriends, he doesn't need to rape anyone.' The teenager is known to police, and has previously been arrested over a number incidents including shoplifting, drugs violations and resisting arrest. The trial will take place in November. The 19-year-old suspect denies the allegations. Theresa May today slammed Donald Trump for unleashing the US's 'toughest ever' sanctions regime on Iran. The Prime Minister said she 'regrets' the President's decision to impose the restrictions on Tehran's oil, shipping and banking industries. And she said Britain would stick to the nuclear deal thrashed out with Iran - which sees sanctions waived in return for a curb on the regime's development of nuclear weapons. The PM's official spokesman said: 'We regret the reimposition of sanctions by the US. 'Our position remains that as long as Iran continues to meet the deal that exists, we will be committed to it too.' Mr Trump pulled the United States out of the nuclear pact after branding it the worst deal in American history. Theresa May (pictured two weeks ago in London) today slammed Donald Trump for unleashing the US's 'toughest ever' sanctions regime on Iran And Washington has now reimposed all the sanctions which were suspended in 2015 - hitting crucial parts of Iran's economy including its lucrative oil industry. The move has been met with a furious backlash in Iran where it has sparked a wave of anti-American protests. And Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has greeted the move by ordering air defence drills. While in a dramatic escalation of rhetoric, the Iranian President said the country now faces a 'war situation'. President Donald Trump stands with Lee Greenwood as he sings 'God Bless the USA' to start a rally with supporters in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mr Trump has reimposed sanctions on Iran sparking furious protests in the Middle Eastern country Iranian state television aired footage of air defence systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military manoeuvres which got under way across a vast stretch of the country's north. Iranian army general Habibillah Sayyari said both the national army and the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard are taking part in the exercise. Mr Rouhani, meanwhile, pledged that Iran would overcome the sanctions. 'We are in the war situation,' he said. 'We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win.' Mr Trump has abandoned many of Barack Obama's foreign policy agreements and vowed to be far more assertive. He hammered the Iran nuclear deal on the campaign trail, and rebuffed pleas by Mrs May and other world leaders to stick to it once in power. Germany's outgoing head of domestic intelligence has attacked Angela Merkel's coalition government, as the leader fended off questions about her ability to remain Chancellor after stepping down as the head of her party. Hans-Georg Maassen, the soon-to-be former head of Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), condemned the German government's 'naive and leftist' policies in a speech, costing him his new job at the interior ministry. Maassen, who was asked to leave the BfV in September after he downplayed far-right violence against migrants, told fellow European intelligence chiefs that he was the victim of a witch-hunt by 'radical-left forces' in the government. Meanwhile, Mrs Merkel has said she is ready to continue in the job as German Chancellor until 2021, despite some questioning if this will be doable if one of her rivals takes over as chair of the Christian Democratic Union. Hans-Georg Maassen, the outgoing head of domestic intelligence, condemned the German government's 'naive and leftist' policies, costing him his new job at the interior ministry Speaking at the meeting of European spy chiefs, Maassen said: 'I'm seen in Germany as a critic of idealistic, naive and leftist foreign and security policy,' adding he might be going into 'politics or business' after leaving the BfV. The 55-year-old's remarks during the closed meeting were published by German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Monday, sparking calls for him to make an early exit from the BfV. Hours after they were made public, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said the initial plan of making Maassen his 'special adviser' after leaving the BfV would be scrapped, and that the chief spy would instead be sent into early retirement. Seehofer said Maassen had used 'unacceptable formulations' during the meeting, that made continuing to work with him impossible 'in whatever function.' Seehofer said that Thomas Haldenwang, Maassen's deputy at the BfV, will take on Maassen's duties until there is a decision on a permanent successor. Even before Maassen's remarks were published, Merkel's Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners and opposition parties had been demanding Maassen's sacking for overstepping the bounds of neutrality that German civil servants are expected to adhere to. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she is ready to continue in the job for the rest of the parliamentary term, which is supposed to last until 2021, despite resigning as the leader of the Christian Democratic Union The recriminations follow bruising setbacks for all three parties in Merkel's coalition in crucial regional votes over the past month. The poor results prompted Merkel to resign as head of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) after 18 years, but remain as Germany's chancellor until 2021. Speaking earlier today, Merkel insisted that she can work well with any potential successor as leader of her party, including a one-time rival seeking a comeback after a decade-long absence. There are three high-profile candidates to succeed her: CDU general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is the closest to Merkel's centrist approach; and two contenders who stand for a more conservative profile, former parliamentary leader Friedrich Merz and Health Minister Jens Spahn. Pressed Monday on whether she really wants to stay on as Chancellor after her resignation, she replied: 'I don't know of readiness without willingness.' Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Maassen would be sent into early retirement in the wake of his controversial comments published on Monday Many observers question how realistic that is, particularly if Merz becomes CDU leader. Merkel ousted Merz as her bloc's parliamentary leader in 2002 and many doubt they could work together. Merz left the German parliament in 2009. Merkel said she had 'always found solutions' with Merz in the past, though 'of course we were not always of the same opinion.' 'I have no doubt that, if that is the outcome, I can work well together with Friedrich Merz, as with every other candidate,' she told reporters in Berlin. Merkel's successor is to be elected at a CDU congress in Hamburg Dec. 7-8, after the candidates have presented themselves at a series of regional conferences. The chancellor sought to downplay the possible destabilizing impact of the party leadership change on the federal governing coalition with the Social Democrats, which has squabbled since it took office in March. A CDU leadership meeting Sunday and Monday showed a 'conviction that we will continue the government on the basis of the coalition agreement,' Merkel said. Violent storms, hail and tornadoes are set to batter central and eastern America on Tuesday morning as voters head to the polls for the mid-terms. A storm system will bring a high risk of severe weather across Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas overnight on Monday, ABC reports. The cold, wet and windy weather will then weaken as it moves east on Tuesday morning, but could still bring tornadoes to the eastern seaboard anywhere from Georgia up through the Carolinas and into Pennsylvania. Severe weather will hit Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas on Monday night before tracking east on Tuesday (pictured), bringing high winds, rain and thunderstorms Hail, thunder and tornadoes are possible anywhere from Georgia, up through the Carolinas and into Pennsylvania on Tuesday, forecasters say The storms will likely suppress voter turnout in mid-terms as people struggle to get out and cast their ballots (pictured, a downed tree in Wilmington, Massachusetts) A storm system centered around the Great Lakes is responsible for the cold front sweeping east and bringing disruption on polling day, the Weather Channel reports. There will be an intensifying area of low pressure tracking through southern Canada on Tuesday, pushing its associated cold front through the eastern states. The Great Lakes, northeast and New England will see gusts of up to 40mph and and heavy rain on Tuesday. Meanwhile light snowfall is possible in North Dakota, northern Minnesota and upper Michigan, or rain mixed with snow. There are fears that the weather could suppress voter turnout on election day, but forecasters say that - because the weather system is moving - no one place will be a washout for the entire day. Aside from the potentially disruptive weather, the eastern half of the US will see above-average temperatures, so people are being told to vote between storms. It comes after two men died after high winds during a storm caused a 50-foot wall to collapse at an Amazon Fulfillment Center in Maryland on Friday night The heavy winds knocked down fences and light poles, as well as scattering debris Trees were also felled in Mississippi last week, in a taste of what could be to come on Tuesday The central plains and west should remain dry throughout the day. It comes after two people died last week as storms tore through Maryland, destroying part of an Amazon fulfillment center. The Florida Panhandle was also struck be severe weather last week, while at least 12 tornadoes were confirmed in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, with the damage surveys expected to continue Friday. Voting opens on Tuesday morning in crucial mid-term ballots which will see all 435 seats in the House and 35 seats in the Senate up for grabs, as well as 36 gubernatorial races taking place. The polls will be seen as a litmus test on Donald Trump's presidency, and will define the rest of his term. Should Republicans hold their majorities in both the Senate and House, or even increase them, it will be a massive boost to Trump's often polarizing political agenda and act as a springboard for a 2020 presidential run. However, if a 'blue wave' emerges among Democrat support and they seize back control of one or both houses, things will become much harder for Trump. The Dems have vowed to frustrate his America First agenda at every turn, with the possibility of impeachment once Robert Muller finishes his election meddling probe. At the moment, polls project Democrats winning back the House but failing to take the Senate. However, the same polls also projected a comfortable win for Hillary Clinton in 2016. A woman who discovered her mother's 'butchered' body at her home when she returned from school has broken her silence after 16 years. Jennifer Liston was just 12 when her mother, Bernadette Liston, was murdered in their Victor Harbor home, south of Adelaide, on October 25, 2002. 'The first thing I saw was blood on the floor...it was so vicious, they butchered her,' she told 9News. Bernadette Liston (pictured) was found bashed, shot multiple times by her daughter Jennifer Liston in their Victor Harbor home, south of Adelaide, in 2002 'I just bolted as fast as I could outside and I just screamed.' Her mother had been bashed, shot multiple times, she also had knife wounds. Police charged Bernadette's partner Francis Marshall with murder but she was cleared in 2010 as the judge ruled there was not enough evidence to prove murder beyond reasonable doubt. More than 16 years later the case is still active. But detectives who have reviewed the case say they had not been able to identify any other suspects. Jennifer wants the killer found and justice for her mother who never got to meet her grandkids. A $200,000 reward is still on offer. An apprentice plumber who allegedly bashed his best friend to death says he was under the control of 'something f**king evil', a court has heard. Mathew Flame, 20, was charged on Monday with the murder of Liam Anderson, the son of Australian rock icon Angry Anderson, in Sydney's northern beaches on Sunday morning. Facing Manly Local Court on Monday afternoon, Flame's barrister, Charles Waterstreet, said his client knew what he was doing but had 'no control over his actions' after allegedly consuming a concoction of drugs and alcohol. Concerned he was having an overdose, Flame tried to flee a house party he and Anderson were attending, court documents state. But with a few of the final words Anderson ever said, he went after his friend, telling others: 'I would never leave him.' Scroll down for video Accused murderer Mathew Flame (right) says he was under the control of 'something f**king evil' the night he allegedly bashed his best friend to death The court heard that Anderson and Flame had attended a hip-hop concert in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills with a group of friends, news.com.au reports. The pair met for drinks on Saturday night before allegedly taking MDMA and drinking late into Sunday morning. The party travelled back to a house party on the northern beaches at about 4am, court documents allege, where Flame consumed more MDMA and marijuana. The final dose gave the 20-year-old heart palpitations, according to the documents. Concerned he was suffering an overdose, he went into the bathroom where he lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness soon after, he believed himself to be 'under something's control', he stated in the court documents. A witness allegedly found a blank-faced Flame (left) on top of a bloody Anderson (centre right) Liam Anderson (lower right) and his alleged attacker Mathew Flame (top right) were 'obsessed with each other' according to friends He decided to leave the party as others, including Anderson, begged him to stay. Concerned for his friend's wellbeing, Anderson went into the night after Flame, telling the others: 'Hes my best friend. I would never leave my best friend.' At an intersection shorty up the road, a fight broke out between the two friends which would end fatally. A witness passed by and saw Flame on top of Anderson's beaten body, the court documents state. When the passerby asked what Flame was doing, the young man stared back blankly. As Liam begged for help and the witness ran to call police, the alleged attack continued. Flame (left) had allegedly consumed a concoction of drugs the night before Liam's death In court, Flame smiled and blew a kiss to his mother, who mouthed 'I love you' and sobbed as she was comforted by friends, the ABC reported. A family friend told the ABC that Flame's mother visited him in the police cell on Monday morning, describing him as 'traumatised and in a state of complete shock'. His mother didn't comment to media as she left court. His lawyer asked the court if his client could undergo a mental health assessment while in custody, along with a medical assessment for injuries sustained on Sunday. The court also heard that Flame had no previous criminal history. His lawyer told reporters outside court afterwards that the two men were 'best friends' since childhood and it was a 'just incredibly sad' for the two families. 'What has happened is lightning has struck twice on two individuals and their families and it's a double tragedy,' Mr Waterstreet said. 'It's a double tragedy for two very, very good families and two very, very good boys.' When asked how his client is feeling, Mr Waterstreet said: 'Everyone is devastated.' A handcuffed Mathew Flame (pictured) appeared in court on Monday, where he was refused bail until his next court appearance on January 29. Mathew Flame (right) is accused of bashing his close friend Liam Anderson (left) to death on Sunday morning after going into a drug-induced psychosis When police arrived, it's alleged they struggled to get Flame off Mr Anderson, and had to use pepper spray to separate the men. Mr Anderson's facial injuries were so severe that he was barely recognisable by the time police were able to separate the men. He was treated at the scene, but died en route to hospital. Ryan Walsh told Daily Mail Australia Flame had been working for him as an apprentice plumber for 'about a year' and had never been any trouble. 'He's pretty placid at work,' he said. '[I'm] a bit shocked.' Anderson regularly posted on social media about his alleged attacker calling him a 'brother'. The pair were in a recent Facebook post together at the Defqon1 music festival in September, with Liam posting a 'shout' to Flame 'for being a real one, love ya mate x'. A spokesperson for the Flame family told The Australian they regarded Mr Anderson as 'part of their family', and said Flame's actions were completely out of character. 'Matt has never been violent in any way and as the circumstances will be unfolded in court we hope to prove to the public and the court there are two victims here, and two devastated families,' they said. Mr Anderson has been remembered as a humble, down to earth man with a kind soul, and 'one of the realest to walk this earth'. Police were called to the 'brutal and bloody' park where Liam Anderson, 26, was found on Sunday morning. He died en route to hospital 'You always told me to be myself no matter what and you helped me see the light when no one else could,' one man wrote. 'You are the most positive bro I think I've ever met. Rest up my brother, I'm gonna miss you.' Many recalled his talent as a rapper, and his pure attitude towards his art. 'I remember talking to him about the joy of busking and connecting with random people on the street,' one man wrote. 'There's a certain few you meet over the years that really stick with you, this fella had a really good soul.' Liam Anderson (pictured, left with father Gary, better known as rocker Angry Anderson) was unconscious and suffering from head wounds so severe he was barely recognisable when emergency crews arrived On Monday, friends met at the Pavilion Reserve park, where Mr Anderson was killed and left flowers and a moving note behind. 'Liam, there are no words to express our sorrow in losing you,' it read. 'Our tears we can wipe away - the ache in our hearts will always stay. 'Beautiful Liam now rest in peace. 'We will always miss your funny, cheeky ways. 'You were a loving friend and a great mate. 'All our love. Casey, Emma, Barb, Tony, Rach, Jas, Nick, Rhys and Brad. XXX.' Liam Anderson's grieving friends met at Pavilion Reserve on Monday, where they left floral tributes and notes expressing their devastation A statement on behalf of Angry Anderson issued on Sunday afternoon, confirmed the death of his youngest child but requested privacy. He has since touched down in Sydney after dashing back from Western Australia, where his band Rose Tattoo had been touring their 40th anniversary show. A daytime dog-walking ban in a city in south-west China has prompted outrage among pet users. Dog owners in Wenshan, Yunan province are no longer allowed to walk their dogs from 7am to 10pm as part of official efforts to 'improve residents' living conditions and maintain public safety,' the authorities announced last Monday. Other rules stipulate that dogs must be on a leash less than one metre in length and held by an adult in outdoor areas. They must not cause disturbance to others as well. Dog owners in Wenshan, Yunan province are no longer allowed to walk their dogs from 7am to 10pm as part of official efforts to 'improve public safety,' authorities announced (file photo) City officials told video news site Pear that the new regulations were drawn based on an increasing number of complaints against dog owners (file photo) Dogs are also banned from government buildings, public transport, schools, hospitals, parks, public squares, gyms, hotels restaurants, markets and shopping centres, the notice added. City officials told video news site Pear that the new regulations were drawn based on an increasing number of complaints against inconsiderate and irresponsible dog owners. 'We would receive up to three complaints every day regarding dogs causing nuisance and disturbance to residents,' the Wenzhan law enforcement agency said. The ordinance, posted on the Wenshan Municipal People's Government website, took effect on October 29. Anyone find violating the rules could face criminal prosecution. Dogs in Wenshan are banned from government buildings, public transport, schools, hospitals, parks, public squares, gyms, hotels restaurants, markets and shopping centres (file photo) While some citizens strongly opposed the ban, others expressed their support of the new law in the heated debate online. A trending Weibo page titled 'No walking dogs from 7:00 to 22:00' has gathered nearly 57 million views. 'Does this mean I have to wake up ever day before 7am to walk my dog, and after a long day at work, wait till 10pm at night to walk it again?' users commented. Others questioned the practicality of the new law, with one user saying: 'So all the dogs are going to be out at the same time every day - this creates a bigger disturbance to everyone trying to sleep!' 'Why don't you just ban owning dogs once and for all?' another said. 'I think this is a great idea, this is beneficial to everyone,' one user said, defending the new rule. 'Support. This should be expanded to cover the rest of the country,' another user said. 'I hope they will have the same rule in Beijing - but from 6am onwards!' Wenshan authorities defended the ordinance following the outcry, saying that this is a precautionary measure that must be taken in the city (file photo) Wenshan authorities defended the ordinance following the outcry, saying this is a precautionary measure that must be taken. Officials told The Paper there is 'nothing controversial' about the ban, adding the authorities must take action before someone is hurt. Other cities are also starting to implement rules on dog owners to curb dog bites and attacks in China, which has the world's second-highest number of reported rabies cases in the world. A credit system is being enforced in Jinan, Shandong province, where points would be deducted from owners for various infractions. The violations include walking a dog with a leash or tag, not cleaning up poo, or causing disturbance. If a dog owner loses all 12 points, the authorities could confiscate the dog. Since the programme was introduced last year, 1,430 dog owners had been fined, according to state media. A ten-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by her older brother has given birth to a baby boy. The Colombian girl was taken to a hospital in the borough of Florencia where she had a C-section and gave birth to a son. The attack happened in the town of Puerto Leguizamo in the south-western Colombian department of Putumayo where the girl, whose identity has not been revealed, lived with her parents. The girl and her baby boy after the successful C-section. She gave birth after she was sexually abused by her own brother Hospital director Camilo Diaz told local media: 'According to the information we have received from the police, the minor became pregnant after she was sexually abused by a family member, apparently her brother.' Both the baby boy and his ten-year-old mother are reportedly doing well. According to local media, the girl's parents did not want to report their son to the local authorities. The investigation by police into the claims of child abuse continues. A Kansas family is grieving after a man hit their beloved pup with his pickup truck and then stabbed the dog to death right in front of them. Kirstyn Barlow, of Olathe, was heading to a play date with her four children and two dogs when her chihuahua Poochies suddenly ran into the street on Thursday. A pickup truck then struck Poochies' back legs. The driver stopped a few houses down and got out of his car to pick up the injured pup. Barlow thought the man was going to help Poochies, but was shocked when he pulled out a knife and stabbed her through the neck instead. Scroll down for video A Kansas family is grieving after a man hit their beloved pup with his pickup truck and then stabbed the dog to death right in front of them Kirstyn Barlow was heading to a play date with her children and dogs when her chihuahua Poochies ran into the street. This man (captured on the family's home security camera) hit Poochies with his truck and then stabbed her neck 'He didn't say anything to me,' Barlow told Fox 4. 'He just took her on the sidewalk, he stabbed her, one clear stab through the neck.' 'I thought he was going to bring her to my yard and say "What can we do? Do you have a vet? Is there somewhere we can take her?" But that wasn't the case at all.' Barlow said she rushed her four children inside the house after they witnessed the horrific stabbing. 'He brought her down and dropped her down in front of the kids like it was nothing, like he didn't care,' she added. 'He just wrapped her in a tarp on the side of my house, an old paint tarp that was moldy. He was like, "She's gone. There was nothing I could have done. I had to put her out of her misery."' Barlow (pictured with one of her children) thought the man was going to help Poochies, but was shocked when he pulled out a knife and stabbed her through the neck instead Barlow said she rushed her four children inside the house after they witnessed the horrific stabbing. The man told her he had to put Poochies 'out of her misery' Barlow was even more shocked when the man told her he had dogs as well. 'The worst part about it is, he said, "I can't imagine what you're feeling, because I have dogs and I couldn't imagine how I would feel if my dog got hit and died,"' she recalled. Barlow believes there was a chance Poochies could have been saved, and wishes she had been given the opportunity to at least take her to the veterinarian. 'She loved us so much, and we loved her so much,' she said. 'I saved her when she was four-weeks-old from getting hit on the street.' Barlow and her family buried Poochies that night in their backyard, but had to exhume her body the next day so it could be examined for an investigation. Barlow believes there was a chance Poochies could have been saved, and wishes she had been given the chance to at least take her to the veterinarian Barlow said she just wants the driver to realize that he shouldn't have been the one to determine whether Poochies could survive The driver was captured on video by Barlow's home security camera, and Olathe police have since identified him. His name has not yet been released. Authorities said the animal cruelty case remains under investigation and that animal control officers will determine the nature of Poochies' injuries. Barlow said she just wants the driver to realize that he shouldn't have been the one to determine whether Poochies could survive. 'This was her first birthday, this was her birthday week,' she said. 'For him to do this to her, to take her life, it wasn't his to take.' A police officer drunkenly romped with a passenger on a late-night train after bragging he had been on a riot training course, a disciplinary tribunal heard. Sgt Kyle Blood was cleared of sexually assaulting the woman by a jury but a judge publicly cast doubt over his fitness to wear the uniform. The 38-year-old but is now facing a Metropolitan Police disciplinary hearing over his actions. Blood was making his way home from a night out in Soho, central London, where he had been drinking cocktails and downing shots of sambuca in the early hours of June 17, 2016. Both he and the woman boarded at Kings Cross Station shortly after 11:20pm and he performed a sex act on her for seven minutes between St Albans and Harpenden, it was said. Policeman Kyle Blood faces a disciplinary panel for performing a sex act on a woman on a train Blood told the passenger he could be trusted because he was in the force and had been on a riot training course. Stephen Morley, for the Met Police, told the standards panel: 'After a short conversation Sergeant Blood kissed her [the woman]. She says she then fell asleep. 'She says that Sergeant Blood was a police officer and she trusted him, she could let her guard down, and just went back to sleep.' Concerned passengers saw Sergeant Blood and walked away to discuss what they should do. Mr Morley added: 'They saw Sergeant Blood with his knees on the floor of the carriage and they saw [the woman's] legs in the air.' The woman said she told Blood 'I do not want this,' and he stopped. She told the tribunal: 'I think I was in shock as to what had happened, the tears came later. Then I realised what had actually happened. 'At first I was sort of numb to what had happened. When other people came up and asked: "Are you alright?" I could feel what had happened.' Blood, who joined the Met in 2002 and became a sergeant in 2012, broke down in tears as he said he was about to lose his dream job. He told the hearing he had let down his family but insisted he knew '100 per cent that I hadn't sexually assaulted anybody on a train'. He was cleared of sexual assault at a trial, but now faces a hearing by the Met Police Blood said: 'I was walking down the carriages looking to find an available toilet. 'It was the first space I came across when I wanted to sit down. 'I noticed she opened her eyes and smiled at me and the closed eyes again as she had her head resting on the window. 'Because she smiled at me and made eye contact I thought it would be a good idea - with hindsight it definitely wasnt - to get her attention again by rubbing her calf with my calf. 'She had closed her eyes again so it was just to get her to open them again and see if she wanted to smile at me again. 'We spoke about cycling, I did say Ive always wanted to date a girl who was into cycling. 'I think I put my arm around her and started to kiss her and I remember we shared a very long, passionate, overly passionate for a train, kiss. 'Looking back in hindsight, kissing how we did and acting how we did on a train or anywhere in public, it was stupid, absolutely stupid and Im horrified by what Ive done.' He confirmed he touched her intimately and claimed she was 'reciprocal'. PS Blood said: We kissed, at some point I felt her hand going quite high up my groin and I was already very aroused at the time. The incident happened on a train from London up to Luton on an evening in July 2016 I remember it was receptive groaning. There was no suggestion that she did not want that or a push back. It was all very reciprocal. I asked her if we could swap numbers and she took my phone in her hand and she quickly and speedily put her number into my phone. Then I rang her phone three times until it connected so she could have my number. Blood denied doing anything to the woman while she was asleep but admitted his conduct was totally unacceptable. He also denied trying to take his trousers off and explained they were grey super skinny jeans. Blood said he stopped after she told him 'I dont want this' and sat back down next to her. He continued: 'It was a that point I thought "what the hell am I doing", I just shot up, straight back next to her and put my arm around her again.' A fellow passenger, Ian White, asked the woman if she was alright and was confronted by Blood who got off after security arrived. Blood is said to have headed for a pub in Luton before kissing another woman and inviting her to his house. She declined. During Blood's trial, the woman from the train had claimed she awoke to find him assaulting her, but a jury at Luton Crown Court cleared him of assault by penetration. During Blood's trial, the woman from the train had claimed she awoke to find him assaulting her, but a jury at Luton Crown Court (pictured) cleared him of assault by penetration The officer admits he breached the standards of his profession in a gross manner but denies the 31-year-old was asleep when he made his advances. Blood was tried under the name of Carl Blood in October last year. He was also cleared of raping a woman in January 2016 after they met on the website Plenty of Fish. Judge Barbara Mensah had said after his acquittal last year: 'The defendant leaves the court without a stain on his character. 'But I want to say this, I think right-thinking members of the public would question whether Mr Blood, even on his own account, is a right and proper person to be a police officer.' Blood joined the police in 2002 and has worked in Enfield, Walthamstow, and Barking. He became a sergeant in 2012 and was 36 at the time of the brief encounter. He said he first wanted to join the force after he was mugged with a friend outside a swimming baths in Leicestershire when he was 14, and now dreads the prospect of losing his job. Blood, from Luton, is facing a single allegation of gross misconduct concerning his actions on board the train on 17 June 2016. The hearing continues. A Nigerian farmer allegedly blamed raping his mum and former mother-in-law on a spirit that made him attack older women when drunk. Shekari David blamed alcohol for making him attack the two family members, aged 65 and 70, while they slept in their beds. The 32-year-old allegedly told police he attacked his own mother because he 'couldn't find any old women to rape' while drunk at a festival. He described to police officers how his own mother began screaming after she woke to find him on top of her. David also reportedly told Nigerian police his wife left him and married another after discovering he had raped his own mother. Then after the first attack he got drunk and went to his ex-mother-in-law's home in the village of Katari in the middle of the night and raped her as well. Both incidents happened after the suspect went to a festival and got drunk before he was caught in the act and beaten up by vigilantes. Shekari David allegedly confessed to raping his own mother and former mother-in-law after he got drunk at a festival and crept into their bedrooms at night The Nation reported he told police: 'I am a farmer and I was once married, but my wife abandoned me due to my penchant for raping old women. 'I raped my mother during a festival when I got drunk. 'I couldn't find any old woman to rape and when I got home, I found my mother sleeping and I penetrated and raped her. 'My mother screamed when she saw me on top of her and our neighbours gathered. Everyone saw that I was drunk and when I became sober I begged her to forgive me and she accepted.' The suspect was arrested by police investigating armed robberies and rapes by a motorcycle gang in the district of Kaura. David's alleged crimes are said to have terrified elderly women in the area with many left unable to sleep. He said: 'I don't know if I am under a spell,' he is said to have told officers. 'But whenever I am drunk, a spirit comes into me and I will be going around town looking for women to rape. 'I have been beaten up over this issue yet I can't still control myself whenever I get drunk.' David allegedly told police in a confession to the Police Special Intelligence Response Team he was beaten up by angry locals who caught him attacking the women as they called out for help. He added in his confession: 'When my wife heard about it she was angry and she left the house and went back to her parent before she later found another man who married her. David was said to have been arrested after police were investigating gunpoint robberies by a motorbike gang in the area 'Not long after that, I attended another festival in my wife's community and I became drunk again. 'In the dead of the night I went to my ex-wife mother's house and found her sleeping and I raped her. 'When the woman woke up and saw me on top of her, she shouted and people came around, and caught me. 'I was given the beating of my life before I was asked to go. 'I don't know what usually comes over me when I am drunk. That spirit is what normally pushes me to rape old women.' A Police Special Intelligence Response Team source told the paper David was arrested with his fellow gang members who were snatching motorbikes at gunpoint. The police spokesman said: 'It was some vigilante men that assisted us in arresting David, when we came to look for him. 'We found him and his gang members in their hideout. We arrested them and recovered a motorcycle from them. 'The vigilante men also informed us that David has been a major threat to old women living in their community and has formed the habit of sneaking into their apartments at night to rape them.' Police are desperate to find two vulnerable teenagers who were last seen at Thorpe Park over a week ago. Hafsa Mourdoude, 16, and Darcie Goobie, 14, of Dartford, Kent, were on a day out at the theme park with a big group, but left without saying anything. They are not believed to have mobile phones or any money and their families are extremely concerned for their welfare. The pair were last seen on CCTV leaving Thorpe Park at 4.10pm on October 26. They have links to East Ham in east London and Hastings in East Sussex. But it is also possible that they have stayed in the Staines, Chertsey or Thorpe areas. It is not known if they have stayed together or split up. Hafsa Mourdoude, 16 (left) and Darcie Goobie, 14 (right) of Dartford, Kent, were on a day out at Thorpe Park in Surrey with a big group, but left without saying anything on October 26 Hafsa is described as olive skinned, 5'5' tall, slim, with black wavy shoulder length hair. Police say when she was last seen she was wearing a light blue denim jacket, orange lace body suit, black leggings and black trainers. She is believed to have orange trainers and silver sliders with her in a bag. Darcie is described as olive skinned, 5ft 3in tall, medium build with black hair worn in a bun. The pair were last seen on CCTV (still pictured) leaving Thorpe Park at 4.10pm on October 26 When she was last seen she was wearing a short burgundy jacket with black fur-trimmed hood, black leggings and pink trainers and was carrying a black bag. A Surrey Police spokesman, said: 'We are keen to speak to anyone has information that could help us find the girls - did you see them leaving Thorpe Park shortly after 4pm on Friday? 'Do you know which direction they were headed? Did you give them a lift or seen them at a local train station? Have you seen either of them since? 'Anyone with information is asked to contact Surrey Police urgently on 101 (999 in an emergency) quoting reference PR/ 45180114519.' An off-duty California fire captain passed away Monday morning after being struck by a suspected intoxicated driver while out for a morning bike ride over the weekend. The accident involving Costa Mesa Fire and Rescue Captain Mike Kreza, 44, took place in Mission Viejo early Saturday morning, and the department announced his death on Facebook Monday afternoon. 'Our brother, Mike Kreza passed away early this morning. Words alone cannot describe the immeasurable heartache felt by his friends & family, including his fire family,' the message read. According to the Orange County Sheriff's Department, at around 8am on Saturday deputies responded to a report of a crash on eastbound Alicia Parkway near Via Burgos, where they found Kreza laying in the roadway unresponsive with visible injuries to his head and body. Off-duty Costa Mesa Fire Captain Mike Kreza, 44, died on Monday, after being struck with a van in Mission Viejo Saturday morning. Pictured: Kreza with wife Shanna and their three girls At the time of the suspected DUI crash, Kreza was riding his bike in preparation for the upcoming Ironman Arizona triathlon, in which he also competed in 2016 (pictured) Courtesy of KTLA Based on witness accounts, the deputies learned that the driver of a van, later identified as 25-year-old Stephen Scarpa, struck Kreza as the firefighter was riding his bicycle. The driver remained at the scene of the accident. Kreza had served with the Costa Mesa Fire and Rescue for 18 years Scarpa is suspected of being under the influence of an unspecified controlled substance at the time of the crash. According to the sheriff's department, multiple prescription medications were seized from his vehicle. Scarpa, who is said to be unemployed, was booked into the Orange County Jail on a charge of felony driving under the influence. His bail was set at $100,000. A spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney's Office told DailyMail.com Scarpa will be arraigned on Tuesday, at which time a determination will be made whether to upgrade his charges in light of the victim's passing. Kreza, an 18-year veteran of the Costa Mesa Fire and Rescue, was rushed to a hospital suffering from life-threatening injuries. Our entire Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue family is immensely saddened by the news that one of our own was involved in an accident this morning. We are working together to support the family and each other, Fire Chief Dan Stefano stated. We appreciate the strong showing of support from our brothers and sisters of the Orange County fire services and law enforcement agencies that have reached out to assist us during this difficult time for our fire family.' On Saturday, the Orange County Sheriff's Department held a candlelight vigil for Kreza At the time of the accident, Kreza, who was married and had three young daughter with his photographer wife, Shanna, was training for the Ironman Arizona triathlon scheduled for November 18. Kreza competed in the gruelling race, which involves running, biking and swimming, back in 2016. Deputies with the Orange County Sheriff's Department held a candlelight vigil for Kreza on Saturday evening. A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to provide financial assistance to the Kreza family. As of Monday morning, more than $102,000 has been raised. Gary McDonald is pictured leaving the Royal Courts of Justice in London after his claim was rejected by appeal judges A son who claimed a 1.6million inheritance from his rags-to-riches father was not enough has lost a fight over the rest of his parents' 10million fortune. William McDonald and his wife Marlene had six children, but the couple's deaths in 2011 and 2013 set off a bitter war within the family of 'ordinary working people', a court heard. Each child was awarded an equal 1.6million slice, but Gary McDonald, 49, claimed he had been promised the money by his parents before they died. Gary said he had toiled every spare minute during his working life for his father in the expectation that he would eventually be handed the bulk of the family's wealth. But his case was rejected by a judge in March, and now again by Court of Appeal judges, leaving Mr McDonald with a 'mere 1.6million', his siblings' lawyers said. 'In many ways, this is the most striking feature of this case,' said their barrister, Timothy Evans. 'Gary is not satisfied with a "mere" 1.6 million.' Mr Evans said the family had been 'close-knit' until the 'sad dispute' left them facing each other across a court room. William McDonald grew up in 'relatively difficult and limited living conditions' in Ireland, but emigrated to Wales in the 1950s and became a successful businessman. He gradually built up his own farms at Coedkernew, near Newport, before selling the land in 1997 for 8.4million, a court heard. Speaking afterward the hearing, a spokesman for the siblings said: 'We're not this sort of people. It shouldn't have come to this.' The Court of Appeal heard Mr McDonald claimed that he had worked long hours for low pay for his father's farming and property development businesses. He said he was considered his father's 'heir apparent' and had been assured that, if he 'stuck with it', the vast majority would one day be his. However, his father's final will was written before Gary was even born and, with Marlene already dead, the fortune was split equally between the siblings. Gary, his brothers John, Liam and Fintan McDonald, and sisters Maria Watkins and Patricia Duckett, would each pocket 1.6million. Gary's claim to the 'lion's share' of his parents' 'considerable wealth' was dismissed by Judge Milwyn Jarman QC at the High Court in March. The judge said the 1.6million he was due was 'proportionate to the unpaid or underpaid work which he carried out for his parents'. The Court of Appeal in London (pictured) heard Mr McDonald claimed that he had worked long hours for low pay for his father's farming and property development businesses But appealing, Gary's barrister Leslie Blohm QC argued that Judge Jarman had got it wrong. He said there was clear evidence that Gary's hard work went a long way towards ensuring that the farmland went for a top price in 1997. 'The repeated theme...was that Gary worked every free hour on the farms, whilst the siblings were not seen on the farms,' Mr Blohm said. And the work which Gary did for his parents over 27 years until his father's death had 'immense financial and personal consequences' for him and his family. He is a 'hard-working man' who, but for promises made by his parents, would have laboured for his own benefit in his own business, the QC added. Although Judge Jarman said Gary probably saw work for his parents as a 'stop gap between jobs', Mr Blohm denied that was the case. He had continued to devote some of his time even after he set up his own successful building business in 2006, said Mr Blohm. 'Unlike his siblings, throughout his adult life Gary has either worked for his father full time at low wages, or worked long hours unpaid on request when already working for someone else. 'He has 'stuck with it' on any reasonable sense of the phrase,' added Mr Blohm. For the siblings, Mr Evans said the ruling that Gary was entitled only to an equal share of the fortune was correct. Given the type and pattern of work Gary did, it was 'inherently unlikely' that his parents would have made such 'extravagant promises' to him. 'The fact is that the judge...found that assurances as to inheriting, through the companies, the bulk of their considerable fortunes, had not been given to Gary,' he said. 'He had a wealth of reasons for doing so.' After a half-day hearing, Lord Justice Underhill, Lord Justice David Richards and Lord Justice Coulson rejected Gary's challenge to his inheritance. 'We have reached a decision on the substance of the matter, which is that the appeal will not proceed,' said Lord Justice Underhill. A heartbroken mother took her own life on an aristocrat's estate just a week after her daughter also killed herself, an inquest heard today. Charlotte Dunne, 29, of Wilton, Wiltshire, hanged herself after breaking up with her girlfriend of four-and-a-half years, Toyah Goodenough. Miss Dunne's mother Beverley Dickenson, 49, was left distraught after she identified her daughter's body but had promised her husband she would not take her life. Heartbroken mother Beverley Dickenson (left), 49, took her own life on an aristocrat's estate just a week after her daughter Charlotte Dunne (right), 29, also killed herself, an inquest heard However, a joint inquest heard that Mrs Dickenson then hanged herself after looking through her daughter's possessions - in what a coroner called a 'double tragedy'. Mrs Dickenson's husband David said he found his wife's body in the house they shared on the estate of the Earl of Pembroke's country house in Wilton. Miss Dunne, who had traces of alcohol and cocaine in her system, was discovered at the bottom of the stairs in her house by her distraught brother Joe. Mr Dunne today fought back tears as he revealed his sister showed no signs of being 'down' over her break up and had planned to go for lunch with him the day she died. Salisbury Coroner's Court heard Miss Dunne was found dead at her home in Wilton on June 10 this year after failing to show for Sunday lunch with her brother. Taxi driver Mr Dickenson said his wife, who worked as a cleaner, 'took Charlotte's death quite badly' and was 'worried about the cost of her funeral'. Mr Dickenson said when he went to bed early on June 16 this year, Mrs Dickenson began going through her daughter's belongings. Mr Dickenson said: 'She took Charlotte's death quite badly. I did worry about her and we spoke about it and she said she would not (kill herself). Miss Dunne's father Neil Buckley (right) arrives at Salisbury Coroner's Court for today's inquest 'Beverley was worried about the cost of Charlotte's funeral. I was quite busy at the time, I had three very early airport runs in a row, and it was the Saturday night when I went to bed about 9pm. 'She was in our living room. She seemed normal, going through Charlotte's belongings. I always wake early and I noticed Bev was not in bed. 'I thought she had fallen asleep in the chair in the living room. I checked upstairs and I found the stuff she had been going through. 'I looked downstairs and there was the remains of a bottle of wine. The shed light was on was and that's when I found her. 'I was in a state of shock and started tidying the living room for two or three minutes before I thought 'I have got to call someone'.' Mrs Dickenson had been prescribed a sleeping drug just after her daughter's death, and traces of it were found in her system along with alcohol. The inquest heard Miss Dunne had seen a doctor days before her death, telling her she had been in the house for ten days - but had not thought of taking her own life. As well as splitting from her partner, Miss Dunne had got into debt through drinking, drugs and alcohol. Mrs Dickenson was found in the grounds of the Earl of Pembroke's country house in Wilton Giving evidence today, her heartbroken brother fought back tears as he recalled how he had found Miss Dunne after she did not turn up for Sunday lunch. Mr Dunne said: 'There were no signs to show how down she was. She looked after my daughter the week before and she was fine. 'She was very good with my daughter. She just seemed alright.' Mr Dunne told the inquest he had last seen his sister on the Friday night before her death and had text her the following night to tell her to be at his for 12pm on the Sunday for lunch. When asked about her not arriving, he said: 'I assumed she was still asleep, so I let her be.' He told coroner Nicholas Rheinberg that when he arrived at Miss Dunne's house there were no lights on, and when he discovered her body he 'ran out' the house straight away. The inquest heard Miss Dunne, who had split with her partner just a few weeks before, left a suicide note for her family to find. Miss Dunne worked as a cleaner for her partner Miss Goodenough after they met online. However, it was heard Miss Dunne had been arrested for ABH after an alleged attack on Miss Goodenough with a plastic lamp after she did not pay her wages. In a statement, Miss Goodenough said Miss Dunne texted her saying she planned to end her life. The coroner recorded conclusions of suicide for both Miss Dunne and Mrs Dickenson The inquest heard Miss Dunne had been a 'bubbly' person, who had been making plans to get a new job before her death. Her father, Neil Buckley, said in a statement: 'Charlotte was a bubbly person. She did appear to be happy in the beginning of her relationship, they seemed to be very close. 'She would talk to me about her problems, she was very open and honest with me. 'Before her death, she was down but she was making plans for the future. Right up until Charlotte's death, she was sending positives messages to me.' Recording conclusions of suicide for both Miss Dunne and Mrs Dickenson, Mr Rheinberg said it was 'double tragedy'. He said: 'Charlotte, in normal circumstancess, was a bubbly person, someone who enjoyed life. She had been in a long term relationship, which I think had been fulfilling in the first couple of years. 'She seemed to be coping. It is a shame that she could not see how many people have attended today, clearly those who lover her. 'I have no doubt whatsoever that she physically ended her own life. Mrs Dickenson had suffered the horrible tragedy of the recent loss of her daughter. 'There were the usual preperations to make for the funeral and the like, also the task fo looking through Charlotte's belongings. 'Mr Dickenson went to bed early and when he woke he expected to find his wife alseep in a chair. Instead he found her hanging in the store room and clearly she had been dead for some time. 'Although there was no note left by her, I come to the inevitable conclusion that at that point in time Mrs Dickenson intended to take her own life. 'This is a double tragedy and my sympathies go out for you all having to deal with this.' For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See samaritans.org for details. The father of an Iowa teenager who was sexually assaulted and robbed by four of his classmates has sued the teens and their parents. In the lawsuit, the father, only identified as John Doe, accused Noah Lamar, Kaden Dishman, Ritter Stahlbaum and Morgan Hough of maliciously assaulting his son in September 2017. The man's son was 15 years old at the time of the attack that authorities said occurred at Hough's home. The father of an Iowa teenager who was sexually assaulted and robbed by four of his classmates has sued the teens and their parents. Morgan Hough (left) and Ritter Stahlbaum (right) were named in the lawsuit Hough (pictured) is facing charges of sexual abuse, robbery and felony assault by penetration with an object. Hough has pleaded not guilty According to the Des Moines Register, boy's father sued the homeowners because they failed to supervise the teens and allowed them to drink alcohol. The suit also alleges that the parents of the other minors were liable for their actions. Two couples have denied the accusations and asked the court to dismiss the action. In September 2017, the four teens were arrested at Johnston High School. Lamar, who was 15 at the time, pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery in December, according to the Register. Dishman, also 15 at the time, has pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting willful injury causing bodily injury. Lamar and Dishman will be sentenced in adult court when they turn 18. Hough, who was 18 at the time, and Stahlbaum, then 17, are set to go to trial. Noah Lamar (pictured), who was 15 at the time, pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery in December In September 2017, the four teens were arrested at Johnston High School They are facing charges of sexual abuse, robbery and felony assault by penetration with an object. Hough has pleaded not guilty. The Dishmans and Stahlbaums claimed the victim consented to illegal drinking and wrestling with their sons, knowing there was a possibility of getting hurt, according to the Register. In the suit, the two families also claim the victim provided the others with alcohol. During the alleged assault, the victim had been choked, urinated on and sodomized while he was unconscious at a party. The victim's father said the assault has caused his son 'serious, painful and permanent injuries'. According to the victim's father, the teen was found unconscious on their front lawn without his wallet of cellphone. A short time later, police discovered the teenager's stolen credit card had unauthorized charges for online video games and McDonald's, the Register reported. The father is seeking monetary damages for his son's injuries. Police are searching for a 15-year-old boy from New Jersey who hasn't been seen since the day before Halloween. Thomas Kolding, who lives Mountain Lakes, was last at his family home on October 30. It's believed Kolding took a train from Denville to Newark - Broad Street Station. From there, he is thought to have taken another train to New York Penn Station, according to Mountain Lakes police. Thomas Kolding, who lives with his family in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, was last known to be at his family home on October 30 His location is unknown from that point but the investigation shows Kolding had a strong interest in traveling to California, Mountain Lakes police said. The teenager's mother, Aleksandra Wieleba Kolding, took to her Facebook page to appeal for information. It's believed that Kolding took a train from Denville to Newark - Broad Street Station. He is then though to have taken another train to New York Penn Station. His location is now unknown 'Our son, Thomas, has been missing since Tuesday. He is a wonderful, resourceful, and far-too-adventurous young man who we are worried about beyond words,' Wieleba Kolding said. Kolding is described as having brown hair and brown eyes. He weighs approximately 120 lbs and is 5 feet 3 inches tall. The teenager's mother, Aleksandra Wieleba Kolding, took to her Facebook page to appeal for information Kolding had a strong interest in traveling to California, Mountain Lakes police said. He was last seen wearing a camouflage jacket and a gray winter skull cap. He was carrying a large black backpack. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact Mountain Lakes police. The state you live in could well determine if millionaire status is in your future, according to a new analysis released Monday. Experts at the personal finance site GoBankingRates used median household income, along with average cost-of-living data and the average long-term investment return of 5.5 percent to calculate how many years it would take to become a millionaire in each state. The key factor in their ranking was how much surplus income is left over for investment based on income earned and the cost-of-living in each state. This map illustrates how long it would take to become a millionaire in each U.S. state A majority of Americans believe you must have at least $1 million before you can be considered 'rich,' according to a separate survey by GoBankingRates. The fastest path to racking up those seven figures may just be a move to Maryland, where wise investment practices could make you a millionaire in just 28 years largely due to the state having the highest median income ($78,945) in the nation. Median income is the amount that divides the income distribution in a given state into two equal groups, with half of all incomes totaling above that amount and half below. Utah ranks second, with a median income that's $9,000 above the national average and a low cost of living, millionaire status could be achieved in 31 years. Alaska and Hawaii tie for third place, with a 33-year path to becoming a millionaire in both states. Alaska has the second-highest median income ($76,440) in the U.S., while Hawaii has the sixth-highest ($75,297), making it easier to amass money faster in each location. New Jersey follows, in fifth place, with a 36-year wait to make $1 million in investment income, largely thanks to that state's high median household income of $76,126. Virginia ranked sixth, with a 39 year wait to become a millionaire, followed by Colorado (40 years), California (41 years), Connecticut (42 years) and Washington State (42 years). Meanwhile, it will take longer to become a millionaire in West Virginia than any other state, with a 110 year wait largely thanks to a low median income of $43,385. Montana follows, with a 104-year path to the seven-figure lifestyle, due to the low amount of money ($9,072) residents in that state can save annually, on average. Most people won't live long enough to become millionaires in Maine, where it takes 98 years to achieve that status. Vermont followed, at 96 years, largely due to the high cost of living (eight highest in the nation). Louisiana was the fifth-slowest state, with a long 89-year wait, thanks to the low median income of $45,146. At 84 years, Florida ranked sixth-longest, followed by Arkansas (83 years), Mississippi (81 years), South Dakota (80 years) and New Mexico (79 years). Pope Francis has called for global efforts to ensure that anti-Semitism is 'banned from the human community'. The pontiff lamented current anti-Semitic attitudes and said it is vital to preserve the memory of the Holocaust, as he greeted visiting rabbis at the Vatican on Monday. His comments came just over a week after 11 people were killed in an attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh, United States. Faith unity: Pope Francis, pictured today meeting the President of Paraguay, said it is vital to preserve the memory of the Holocaust 'We are called to commit ourselves to ensure anti-Semitism is banned from the human community,' Francis said during a meeting with rabbis from the World Congress of Mountain Jews. Mountain Jews are the descendants of Jews who left ancient Persia and settled in the Caucasus. Francis said the Holocaust, in which the Nazis murdered six million Jews around Europe during World War Two, must continue to be commemorated to keep its memory alive. 'Without a living memory, there will be no future, for if the darkest pages of history do not teach us to avoid the same errors, human dignity will remain a dead letter,' he said. He noted the recent 75th anniversary of the deportation of Rome's Jews by Nazi occupiers and that November 9 will be the 80th anniversary of 'Kristallnacht,' the night when mobs ransacked thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses in Germany and Austria. Pope Francis is seen during his audience with Paraguay's President Mario Abdo Benitez, left, and his wife Silvana Lopez Moreira at the Vatican, Monday 'Sadly, anti-Semitic attitudes are also present in our own times. As I have often repeated, a Christian cannot be an anti-Semite, we share the same roots,' Francis said, stressing the importance of inter-faith dialogue. In the run-up to Tuesday's contentious U.S. elections, in which immigration has become a central issue, racist fliers have been reported on university campuses in at least five states, while synagogues in New York and California have been sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti. Last month, in the worst attack ever against U.S. Jews, a gunman yelling 'All Jews must die' stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11 worshippers and wounding six other people including four police officers, before he was arrested. Last week British police launched an investigation into alleged anti-Semitic hate crimes within the opposition Labour Party, after a report that Labour itself had found evidence of party members threatening politicians. The three Girl Scouts who were tragically killed by a pick-up driver while collecting trash for a community service project have been identified. Haylee Hickle, 10, Autumn Helgeson, 10, and nine-year-old Jayna Kelley were struck and killed by Colton Treu in Lake Hallie, Wisconsin on Saturday morning. Treu, 21, later confessed to police that he had been huffing chemicals to get high just before the crash, authorities said. Hickle's mother Sara Schneider, 32, was also killed in the crash. Treu veered across lanes and off a straight road into a ditch where his black Ford pick-up truck struck four girls and Schneider. Ten-year-old Autumn Helgeson was one of the three Girl Scouts who were tragically killed while picking up trash on the side of the road in Lake Hallie, Wisconsin on Saturday morning Jayna Kelley, nine, was also killed. She is pictured here with her mother on the same day of the horrific crash Ten-year-old Haylee Hickle (left) and her 32-year-old mother, Sara Schneider (right), a security guard from the town of Lafayette, were also tragically killed in the horrific crash The driver, 21-year-old Colten Treu (pictured), turned himself into police after speeding off. He has since admitted to huffing chemicals to get high just before the crash Treu sped off from the scene but later turned himself in to police. His passenger also turned himself in and both admitted they had intentionally inhaled chemicals to get high 'just prior' to the crash, police said. Another 10-year-old who was struck in the crash is hospitalized in stable condition. Her name has not been released. Treu is being held in custody on suspicion of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and was due to face court on Monday. The fourth graders from the Chippewa Falls School District were picking up trash along County Highway P when they were struck. The victims were among seven children and five adults who were working in the ditches along the roadway. Pictured is Haylee Hickle Mourners at the school held a candlelit vigil to pay tribute to the girls. Pictured: Haylee Hickle Tire tracks marked with spray paint lead to where a vehicle struck the three girls and the adult On Sunday night mourners at Halmstad Elementary School held a candlelit vigil to pay tribute to the girls. The victims were among seven children and five adults who were working in the ditches along the roadway. 'Our hearts are broken for the girls and families of the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes,' CEO Sylvia Acevedo of Girl Scouts of the USA said in a statement Sunday. 'The Girl Scout Movement everywhere stands with our sister Girl Scouts in Wisconsin to grieve and comfort one another in the wake of this terrible tragedy.' Lake Hallie police Sgt Daniel Sokup said the pickup, a black Ford F-150, crossed a lane and veered into a roadside ditch, striking the victims. Medical personnel are pictured at the scene Girl Scouts sing as hundreds of community members turn out in the rain Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil at Halmstad Elementary School in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin Sherri Jasper, a Girl Scout board member and counselor at Halmstad Elementary School, leads the program for a candlelight vigil at the school Girl Scout Jessica Lauterbach, 12, of Altoona, Wisconsin, attends the vigil on Sunday evening A relative of Sara Schneider looks at the path he thought the truck took when it veered off Wisconsin County Highway Counselors, faith leaders and trained school staff would be available at least through Monday at the two elementary schools, according to Chippewa Falls School District Superintendent Heidi Eliopoulos. 'This is a difficult time for our students, families and staff,' Eliopoulos said in a message to parents. 'We will be providing ongoing support for both students (and) families and staff for as long as needed.' Teddy bears, balloons and candles sat on two wooden benches in front of Halmstad Elementary School on Sunday while dozens of families met inside with faith leaders and counselors. Families did the same at Southview Elementary School, the other school in Chippewa Falls the girls attended, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. 'It's been very nice. There's been a lot of people - it's been a very supportive environment,' said Michelle Golden, human resources director for the school district. Teddy bears, flowers, and candles were placed on benches outside Halmstad Elementary School in Chippewa Falls as a memorial to the three Girl Scouts and the parent Lake Hallie police Sgt. Daniel Sokup said the pickup, a black Ford F-150, crossed a lane and veered into a roadside ditch, striking the victims. Other members of the troop were picking up trash from the opposite shoulder. They were all wearing bright green safety clothing. The Star Tribune reported that the crash happened before a hill and there were no blind spots, and Sokup said it was 'not an unsafe area.' But Cecily Spallees, a personal care attendant at a group home near the crash site, told the newspaper that drivers regularly speed on that stretch of road, which quickly changes from a 55-mph to a 35-mph zone. 'I'm always telling one of my residents that he shouldn't walk this strip at night,' Spallees said. It's not safe.' A British promoter has been shot dead on the holiday island of Cyprus. Gary Christodoulou from Walton, Liverpool, was shot several times on Thursday night as he made his way between the resorts of Larnaca and Ayia Napa. The 33-year-old, who was on the island working as a promoter, was found with gunshot wounds to his head and body in an acacia grove - more than 300ft from a ditch where his silver Mercedes had gone off the road. His devastated family believe the father-of-one was gunned down as he tried to flee from the vehicle and believe the killing may have been a case of mistaken identity. British promoter has been shot dead while driving on the holiday island of Cyprus in what his family has described as a 'case of mistaken identity' Sofia Christodoulou (right) described her brother as a 'hard-working man' with a 'heart of gold' and suggested the killing was a case of 'mistaken identity' In a statement released through a family friend, Mr Christodoulou's sister Sofia, who is in Cyprus trying to bring her brother's body home, said: 'Gary was a hard-working man, father of five-year-old Lucas. 'He was a well loved gentleman with a heart of gold. There was no reason for Gary to have been shot, it must be mistaken identity. This has left his family and friends heartbroken.' Police in Cyprus were alerted by a member of the public to the car which was discovered off the road between Ayia Napa and Rizoelia with the engine running, its headlights still on and a bullet lodged in the passenger seat. But there was no sign of the driver, according to local Cypriot media. The victim's family have been told he escaped the car before being fatally shot in the acacia grove. Sofia said: 'It is believed Gary's vehicle was attacked by a gunman who shot through the window of the car. 'Gary escaped and tried to cross the road where he was then shot again, three times, once in the chest and twice in the head.' He was found at 11.50pm on Thursday. The promoter had been working seasonally in Cyprus since 2010 and had been back on the island since February. The family are now desperate to bring his body home to Liverpool and are fundraising to fly him back to the UK. They have set up a Just Giving page to raise money. A respected election forecaster is predicting a House gain of 30 to 40 seats is the most likely outcome but a full-on blue wave could lead to a 45 seat takeover. In a final memo before Tuesday's election, the Cook Political Report's race-by-race forecast moves two Republicans, Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry and Georgia's Karen Handel, into the tossup category. Democrats would be two-thirds of the way to their needed 23 seat gain to capture the House just by picking up the seats that already lean their way. In that case, they would need to pick up just eight of the remaining 30 pure 'tossup' races. Final polls: The last three polls to be published on Sunday and Monday create a confusing picture The most likely outcome is for Democrats to gain 30 to 40 seats, enough to win control of the House, according to a leading election forecast 'If the 30 races in Toss Up were to break evenly, Democrats would score a net gain of 30 seats. However, history shows that one party typically wins a lion's share of close races,' writes David Wasserman, the report's House analyst. But the nonpartisan analyst notes that in two years when control of Congress changed control, the 2016 Democratic and the 2010 'Tea Party' wave, the winning party rolled up 57 per cent of the tossups and all the races leaning their way, along with 19 per cent of the seats leaning the other way, along with 9 per cent of the other side's 'likely' seats. Such a scenario would lead to a 40-seat Democratic gain, although, although polls this year have revealed enthusiasm among members of both political parties. The forecast moves two Texas districts from 'likely' to 'lean' Republican, amidst a surge of early voting and attention to a high-profile Senate contest there. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (L) and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R), meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., December 7, 2017. Pelosi is poised to succeed the retiring Ryan if Democrats win control, although she may face a leadership battle President Trump's focus on the immigrant caravan upended the GOP's midterm message for swing House seats Incumbents who didn't think they had to sweat the election, Michigan's Fred Upton and Florida's Mario Diaz-Balart, now find themselves in the 'lean Republican' category likely to prevail, but potential victims of a blue wave. According to Wasserman, a '"Red Exodus" is contributing to the potential "Blue Wave" in the form of retirements. There are 41 GOP open seats, with 15 tossups. Retirements often presage a party loss, as lawmakers decide to jump ship before facing potential minority status. The prediction came as two more polls gave Democrats the edge in the 'generic' ballot for Congress, pushing the advantage up to an average of 7.3 per cent. President Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House en route to three rallies Sunday and complained there are 'so many people' in the House he couldn't visit all the Republicans Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., of PA-04 district, delivers an address to constituents during a town hall meeting at the Hamilton Health Center in Harrisburg, Pa. Handel's race has been moved to 'tossup' amid a strong and well-financed challenger Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., of PA-04 district, delivers an address to constituents during a town hall meeting at the Hamilton Health Center in Harrisburg, Pa. He is running in a redrawn 10th district and has been moved to 'tossup' category. Vice President Mike Pence and former VP Joe Biden each campaigned there In the Georgia race in the Atlanta suburbs, Democrat Lucy McBath had a $150,000 fundraising edge over the one-term Handel, forcing the national congressional campaign committee to come in with a final ad buy in a district President Trump narrowly carried. On Sunday, President Trump laid the rhetorical groundwork for possible defeat in the House, complaining there are 'so many people' there and it would be impossible for him to campaign for them all. 'I think we're gonna do well with the House,' Trump told reporters at the White House Sunday. Then he allowed: 'My primary focus of course has been in the Senate,' a statement born out by his travel schedule in the final days of the campaign, which took him to a series of states with toss-up Senate races. 'There are so many people in the House. That's a lot of stops. I have done some House stops also,' Trump said. The US fund manager who predicted the credit crunch has warned of turmoil in the UK if Jeremy Corbyn becomes PM. Steve Eisman, whose activities inspired hit film The Big Short, said he expected the government to seal a Brexit deal with the EU. But he told a conference in Dubai over the weekend that he was shorting two bank stocks on the basis that the package will be rejected by Parliament. Without naming any of the firms in question, he suggested a much bigger threat could be posed by a hard-Left Labour government. Steve Eisman, whose activities inspired hit film The Big Short, said he expected the government to seal a Brexit deal with the EU According to Bloomberg, the 56-year-old said he saw uncertainty around Brexit as one of the big risks threatening the UK economy and said his fund was betting against two banks. Mr Eisman said: 'I'm shorting two stocks in the UK, but I've got a screen of about 50 and I might short all 50 if I think Jeremy Corbyn is going to be prime minister. 'Corbyn's a Trotskyite. 'Now, I know my Trotskyites well and I know you don't want to be invested in the UK if a Trotskyite is prime minister.' Mr Eisman famously made millions by betting against the sub-prime mortgage market before the crash in 2008. Since Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in the Commons last week) became leader in 2015, Labour has swung dramatically to the Left He was later portrayed in the hit 2015 film The Big Short, with Steve Carell depicting a character based on him. Since Mr Corbyn became leader in 2015, Labour has swung dramatically to the Left. The party has vowed to splurge hundreds of billions of pounds if it comes to power, renationaising key sectors of the economy including power, water and rail. It insists the money for the spending spree can be raised from hiking taxes on those earning more than 80,000 a year. However, there have been claims they will need to expand the tax increases more widely to foot the bill. A therapist killed the mother of one of his patients then shot himself dead as the seven-year-old boy watched on, police say. Jonathan Neil Coffman, 43, shot and killed 36-year-old Sunshine Price Pauly outside her home in Monrovia, a suburb of Huntsville, around 9.30am on Friday. Just before she died, Pauly managed to call police and say she was being threatened by a man with a gun. Jonathan Neil Coffman, 43, shot and killed 36-year-old Sunshine Price Pauly outside her home in northern Alabama around 9.30am on Friday When officers arrived at her house 10 minutes later they found both Pauly and Coffman dead outside from gunshot wounds. Pauly's seven-year-old son, who was undergoing therapy sessions with Coffman, was at home at the time but uninjured. The boy is now being cared for by relatives, according to detectives. It is not clear what motivated the murder-suicide, with investigations ongoing. Coffman was employed by the Arc of Madison County, but the organization said he was not providing therapy to Pauly's child on their behalf. A statement from Arc said: 'The Arc is deeply saddened to hear of these tragic events. Mr. Coffman was employed by The Arc. 'To be clear, however, The Arc was not providing any services to the victims family. Pauly's seven-year-old son, who was a patient of Coffman's, was at home at the time of the attack but was unharmed and is now being cared for by relatives 'We want to provide space for the authorities to investigate this matter and for the families to grieve.' Authorities say an Alabama therapist fatally shot the mother of one his patients before killing himself. Madison County Sheriff's Lt. Donny Shaw tells AL.com that 43-year-old Jonathan Neil Coffman killed 36-year-old Sunshine Price Pauly outside of her Monrovia home Friday and then shot himself. Shaw says Coffman was a therapist and treated Pauly's 7-year-old son. News outlets report deputies were called when a woman reported she was in danger and a man was at her home with a gun. Authorities say the man and woman were dead from gunshot wounds when deputies arrived. The woman's 7-year-old child was there but remained unharmed. Shaw says family members are taking care of the child. Investigators say they are still working to determine a motive for the murder-suicide. A police K-9 has been killed in the line of duty in Michigan. The four-year-old dog named Axe was shot by suspect Theoddeus Gray, 29, Sunday outside of the Lakeland Manor Banquet Hall where 70 people were inside attending a baby shower. The German Shepard was part of the St Clair Shores Police Department and joined officers around 6.30pm to respond to a call about a man with a gun. Gray reportedly ignored officer's demands to drop his weapon before fleeing on foot. That's when Axe was deployed to track and chase him down. When Gray was confronted by Axe, he opened fire and struck the male dog. Officers then returned fire and Gray was killed. A four-year-old police K-9 named Axe was shot dead Sunday in St Clair Shores The dog was tracking down an armed suspect outside a baby shower held at Lakeland Manor Banquet Hall The suspect, identified as Theoddeus Gray, 29, shot Axe and Gray was later shot and killed by police. He's pictured in a 2013 mugshot 'We are saddened to hear that AXE, a St Clair Shores K-9 was killed in the line of duty this evening,' The Macomb County Sheriff's Office, the department handling the shooting investigation, wrote on Facebook. 'Please say a prayer for his handler and all the St. Clair Shores Police Department. We thank you for your service AXE. May you rest in peace. Axe was transported to an animal hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A large crowd of police and K-9 handlers came to the animal hospital to show their support for Axe, who was with the department since 2016. Axe was then removed from the veterinary hospital draped with an American flag and escorted away in a procession of police cars with flashing lights. 'Axe was deployed and upon confronting the male, shots were fired from a handgun by the male, striking the K-9. St. Clair Shores Police Department officers returned fire, striking the male,' the department said. Local resident Nick Altadonna told Fox 2. 'All of a sudden I heard, what I thought were fireworks at first, I knew right away once I heard the rounds going off that it was definitely not fireworks.' 'It's bizarre, a lot of people that live around here have been here for a pretty long time, it's generally a pretty safe area so people are really shocked to see this sort of thing go on here,' he added. The department identified Gray Monday. He was from Detroit and previously arrested for a drug offence in 2013. Axe had been with the department since 2016 and was honored after his death One person is dead and two others have been injured after a shooting broke out at a California detox center on Monday morning. The shooter is still at large after opening fire at the Helen Vine Detox Center in San Rafael around 1.33am on Monday. Authorities said they received a call that staff members had been shot. One person is dead and two others have been injured after a shooting broke out at the Helen Vine Detox Center in San Rafael, California on Monday morning (pictured) The shooter is still at large after opening fire at the Helen Vine Detox Center in San Rafael around 1.33am on Sunday. When officers arrived at the rehab facility, they found three people had been shot. One man was pronounced dead at the scene. Another man and a woman were taken to Marin General Hospital. Their condition remains unknown and their names and ages have not been released. The area was searched by officers from the Marin County Sheriff's Office, San Rafael Police Department, Novato Police Department, Central Marin Police Authority, and the California Highway Patrol. When officers arrived at the rehab facility, they found three people were shot. One man was pronounced dead at the scene. A man and a woman were taken to Marin General Hospital California Highway Patrol's helicopter unit also aided in the search but the suspect was not located. The area has since been secured. MCSO detectives are continuing to the investigate the scene. The Helen Vine Recovery Center is a 26-bed co-ed residential detoxification program. It offers 'recovery-oriented services to people with alcohol and drug addiction issues, as well as co-occuring psychiatric problems', according to its website. The area was searched by the Marin County Sheriff's Office, San Rafael Police Department, Novato Police Department, Central Marin Police Authority, and California Highway Patrol Local police have been known to take people to the center when they're drunk in public or have called for help after drinking for days, according to Marinscope. Some clients come from the emergency rooms of local hospitals, while others check themselves into the center for treatment. The center is open 24 hours a day and is staffed by 15 employees. There is a men's dorm with 16 beds and a women's dorm with 10 beds. It is the only detox center in Marin County. Advertisement Texas' hotly contested U.S. Senate race accelerated Monday toward potentially the closest finish in decades as Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Congressman Beto O'Rourke scraped their polarized bases for any last voters in a burst of final rallies in liberal big cities and Trump-loving suburbs. In Texas, where nearly 4.9 million early voters has already surpassed turnout in the previous midterm elections , O'Rourke and Cruz delivered their anxious supporters similar warnings in a state unaccustomed to close calls: far bigger numbers were still needed. 'We're going to see tomorrow record-breaking Democratic turnout,' Cruz told a crowd in Pearland, a typical Republican stronghold outside Houston, while imploring them to each get five people they know to the polls Tuesday. Head to head: Ted Cruz is facing the race of his life after an unexpected breakout by Beto O'Rourke, a Democratic congressman from El Paso. Cruz campaigned in Cypress, a Houston suburb, while O'Rourke campaigned in the city itself National picture: Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke however are in a far difference scenario, with Cruz ahead in polls but by a far thinner margin than Texas has seen since 1978 Bright future: Both Cruz and Beto O'Rourke are now securely placed in the national political firmament Closing argument: Beto O'Rourke headed to the House of Blues in Houston, Texas, for one of his final rallies 'That's what it's going to take. Because we know the far-left is angry and they are coming after jobs, they are coming after freedom, they are coming after security.' Polls have shown a surprisingly tight race in Texas, which hasn't elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 30 years. For Cruz, the stop in a Pearland megachurch was what he called his 48th campaign rally in six weeks - a defensive campaign blitz on Texas' conservative turf that even a year ago would've seemed unnecessary. But O'Rourke's supercharged, expectation-defying campaign that took him to each of Texas' 254 counties and raised a blockbuster $70 million has made the race one of the most closely watched in the country heading into Tuesday's deeply divisive midterm elections, which President Donald Trump is calling a referendum on his combative presidency. For nearly a year, O'Rourke has run as a genial and proudly liberal antidote to the Trump-era GOP and reaffirmed in the closing weeks of his underdog bid that he would vote to impeach, a position that even most Democrats have avoided. O'Rourke began his final full day of campaigning in Houston and Dallas, Texas' biggest Democratic cities, before making his way home to El Paso. His last appeals to voters included more humane immigration policies at a time when Trump has sent troops to the border and issued dire warnings about a caravan of immigrants, mostly from Central America, walking through Mexico and slowly toward the U.S. border. 'At the time they seek to divide us and polarize us and scare us about one another it's precisely at that moment that Texas stands up,' he said. 'Not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Americans and, as human beings, to rewrite this country's immigration policies.' Last-gasp rally: Ted Cruz hit the Houston suburbs as he faces the tightest Texas senate race in almost 40 years, with his opponent campaigning in the city itself Crucial demographic: Ted Cruz has called on Republicans to get out and vote for him, acknowledging that Democratic turnout is on its way to breaking records On his way: Ted Cruz spent the final day of campaigning on his Get Out The Vote bus tour, arriving in Cypress, a Houston suburb, to make another address Final argument: Ted Cruz urged Republican voters to find five people and make sure they voted too as the outcome of his race depended on getting his base to vote Blues wave: Beto O'Rourke headed to the House of Blues in Houston for one of his last rallies and was headed home to El Paso for voting Tuesday Democrats have been shut out of statewide office in Texas since the 1990s and recent elections haven't even been close. But at the same time, turnout in Texas so far has also been nothing like recent elections. The final tally Tuesday could be more in line with presidential years that typically draw higher levels of turnout. Nearly 9 million people voted in 2016, when Trump won Texas by 9 points, making him the first Republican presidential candidate in two decades to not carry the state by double digits. Single-digit U.S. Senate races are even rarer in Texas - the last one happened in 1978. O'Rourke is planning to cast his own vote Tuesday in El Paso, where he has been a three-term congressman. Cruz already cast his ballot in his hometown of Houston, where he will watch the returns on election night. The two have bright political futures, perhaps even plausible White House aspirations, regardless of which one wins their high-profile Texas Senate race. Around Labor Day, when polls showed onetime punk rocker O'Rourke closing in on flipping a Senate seat in the country's largest Republican-dominated state, speculation abounded that O'Rourke could be a 2020 presidential hopeful. Political observers have suggested an upset, or even a close loss, could catapult O'Rourke to national prominence, allowing for the same transformation from longshot to national political star that he'd already undergone in his home state. O'Rourke shrugged off such talk and, as it turned out, he probably peaked then. Polls now show Cruz with a consistent, if modest, lead. But that doesn't diminish O'Rourke's rise from virtual unknown outside his remote hometown of El Paso to one of this election's most talked-about national figures. He shattered Senate race fundraising records with donations from supporters across the country, fueling optimism about his potential staying power outside Texas. Trump backing: Ted Cruz kept fighting Trump in a bitter presidential nomination battle - but is now relying on the president to motivate his voters in Texas Suburban welcome: Supporters applaud as Sen. Ted Cruz speaks at a campaign rally event at the Creekwood Grill in Cypress, a Houston suburb Urban welcome: In his native El Paso, Beto O'Rourke's advertising got a wave from two residents of the border city 'Talent and charisma translate,' said Texas Democratic strategist Matt Angle, adding he'd rather see O'Rourke bolster the Texas Democratic Party's future than look nationally. But he also said the idea that politicians have to wait their turn to move up the ranks died with President Donald Trump's emergence, meaning O'Rourke's rise can resonate beyond this race. 'The notion of waiting in line is going away,' Angle said. 'There's an understanding that, in both parties, there is a vacuum at the top for somebody to really step into a leadership role.' Cruz, meanwhile, finished second in the 2016 Republican presidential primary and has made no secret about wanting to try again post-Trump. He could do that from the Senate, but since he has built his entire career around presidential aspirations, even a stunning and potentially humiliating defeat wouldn't necessarily derail those. 'If you lose with your honor intact, able to build a national donor file and email list, get millions of dollars in earned media, then you become a bit of a commodity,' said Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser, who ran Texas Sen. John Cornyn's successful 2014 re-election campaign. 'People often pay you to speak. You write a book. You go on a tour. You start a PAC. You support candidates and causes, and it actually elevates your profile.' Turning lesser-race losses into White House campaign success isn't new. Jimmy Carter lost Georgia's Democratic gubernatorial primary in 1966 but eventually recovered to win the post four years later and the White House six years after that. Richard Nixon lost the 1960 presidential race, then ran unsuccessfully for governor of California two years later, but captured the White House in 1968. The best example might be former Sen. Rick Santorum, who lost his 2006 Senate re-election bid in Pennsylvania by 18 points only to finish second in the 2012 Republican presidential primary. Leaving politics temporarily also has allowed top Democrats and Republicans to become TV commentators, keeping them in the spotlight without having to explain unpopular votes or actions taken in office. After losing the 2008 Republican presidential primary, ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee used his own Fox News show to keep his name in the headlines prior to launching a 2016 White House bid. A similar path might give Cruz the chance to define where he fits in a future GOP no longer defined by Trump, while O'Rourke could further boost his beyond-Texas bonafides. Rory McShane, a Las Vegas-based Republican media consultant who has clients in seven states this cycle, said it would likely be O'Rourke, not Cruz, wondering about his immediate future after Election Day - but that it doesn't have to be a career-ender. 'I think that what Beto has that almost no other Democrat in the country right now has is this ability to appeal, at least in some way, to blue-collar, rural Democrats,' McShane said. O'Rourke's message of bipartisan optimism and willingness to visit deeply conservative corners of Texas where Democrats rarely venture helped him draw large crowds, not unlike Trump in 2016. McShane said even a losing O'Rourke could do something like head the Democratic National Committee: 'That is a position where he can be on television every night, where he can maintain his relationship with donors and build new relationships.' In the meantime, Cruz has poked fun at suggestions O'Rourke could be a future presidential contender, gleefully tweeting results from a recent CNN poll showing O'Rourke in eighth place among possible 2020 Democratic White House candidates. Cruz himself began preparing for his 2016 presidential run as soon as he got to the Senate and has generally been non-committal when asked if he'll finish his full term should he win on Election Day. O'Rourke says he'll stay all six years and, as for running for president, 'It's a definitive no.' 'If I don't win,' he's said 'we're back in El Paso.' But he wouldn't be the first to change his mind. If it comes to that. Residents in Arkansas and Alabama captured a celestial phenomenon on Friday as a large meteor, described as a 'fireball,' streaked across the night sky. Those who caught the dramatic moment took to social media to share the spectacular sight. There were also reports of meteors visible in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Missouri. On Twitter, The National Weather Service in Birmingham, described one meteor as 'orange with a green tail' and posted a video of a sighting at Shelby County Airport. The meteors are part of the 'Taurid meteor shower,' an annual event. According to the American Meteor Society both the Southern Taurids and the Northern Taurids are currently active. The Society received 379 reports of fireball sightings on Friday night alone. The meteors are part of the 'Taurid meteor shower,' an annual event lasting between September and November The meteors that streaked across the night sky on Friday are known as 'fireballs' There were also reports of meteors visible in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Missouri 'The Southern Taurids are a long-lasting shower with several minor peaks in October and November,' according to the American Meteor Society. 'The shower is active for two months but rarely produces more than five shower members per hour, even at maximum activity. 'The Taurids (both branches) are most notable for colorful fireballs and are often responsible for an increased number of fireball reports from September through November.' The American Meteor Society received 379 reports of fireball sightings on Friday night Explained: The difference between an asteroid, meteorite and other space rocks An asteroid is a large chunk of rock left over from collisions or the early solar system. Most are located between Mars and Jupiter in the Main Belt. A comet is a rock covered in ice, methane and other compounds. Their orbits take them much further out of the solar system. A meteor is what astronomers call a flash of light in the atmosphere when debris burns up. This debris itself is known as a meteoroid. Most are so small they are vapourised in the atmosphere. If any of this meteoroid makes it to Earth, it is called a meteorite. Meteors, meteoroids and meteorites normally originate from asteroids and comets. For example, if Earth passes through the tail of a comet, much of the debris burns up in the atmosphere, forming a meteor shower. Advertisement The Northern and Southern Taurids are active together in late October and early November. This can lead to an notable increase in fireball activity. November 5 could be a good night to turn your eyes skyward. According to earthysky.org there could be a higher-than-average rate of South Taurid meteors shooting across the sky. The president's family members warned in a campaign call on Monday that Democrats will introduce 'socialism' or worse 'anarchy' if they're elevated to the majority in Congress as a result of the mid-terms. Lara Trump said that 'Democrats have done everything imaginable and even some things that are absolutely unimaginable' to stop her father-in-law's agenda. 'And let's not forget socialism. That, that's something else that they're running on. Very scary and everybody needs to be pay attention,' she asserted. Eric Trump said that 'they want to do everything they possibly can to stand in my father's way' and contended that 'if Nancy Pelosi is in there, if Chuck Schumer is in there, you're going to have two years of anarchy.' Final polls: The last three polls to be published on Sunday and Monday create a confusing picture The president's family members held a call on Monday on behalf of his reelection campaign to warn voters that Democrats will introduce 'socialism' or worse - 'anarchy' - if they're elevated to the majority in Congress Lara Trump said that 'Democrats have done everything imaginable and even some things that are absolutely unimaginable' to stop her father-in-law's agenda. Eric Trump said that 'they want to do everything they possibly can to stand in my father's way' The president's son said that Democrats would impose mob rule that would see peoples' cars burning if they dare to display symbols of their patriotism. 'You see the resistance movement, and hey, you and I have been on the receiving end of quite a bit of it, right?' he said. 'But people don't want to see people, you know, banging on the doors of the Supreme Court. People don't want to see people's cars getting, you know, torched by -- you know because they have the American flag on their window.' He said: 'I mean, that's not who we are as a country. It's not the civility that, you know, we all expect. And that's where my father came up with, you know, "Jobs vs. Mobs." ' Trump referenced former Attorney General Eric Holder's advice that 'when they go low, we kick 'em.' He claimed Holder told Democrats to 'kick 'em in the face,' as he also talked about Hillary Clinton's claim that 'civility can start again' while Democrats are in charge. 'The Democrats are scared. They don't stand for anything right now. They stand for doubling people's taxes, which would put our economy into a recession or maybe a depression. They want to attack law enforcement and they want to resist and they want to obstruct,' he said. 'And they want to do everything they possibly can to stand in my father's way, and that's why people have to get out and they have to vote for Republicans.' He also said, 'Obamacare was one of the greatest lies ever told by an American president.' The call featured a rotating cast of Republicans, from party head Ronna McDaniel to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The president also joined in for several minutes at the end. House Speaker Paul Ryan was noticeably absent. He and Trump have clashed over the president's immigration tactics, and the president told him last week in a tweet that he should keep his focus on protecting the majority after he pushed back on a claim that the nation's chief executive has the power to end birthright citizenship. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, a candidate for speaker if Republicans are keep control of Congress, pitched in, instead. He said that it's not just Pelosi, the House minority leader, who would gain power in a Democratic majority California Reps. Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters will chair powerful committees. McCarthy said that Waters told 'mobs' to 'attack' Cabinet members in restaurants. 'That's not what we want in this country. This country is better than that. Look, even though Hollywood looks down on us, we proudly brush off these attacks. We support the president's agenda,' he proclaimed. Waters told a group of supporters to 'absolutely harass' administration officials but says she was advocating violence. A limousine is set aflame with 'We the People' spray painted on the side after the inauguration of Donald Trump on 20, 2016 in Washington D.C. The president's son said there would be more 'anarchy' to come if Democrats take power Trump said during remarks at the end of the call that whether he agrees or not, the press considers it 'very much a referendum on me and our country' if Democrats win control of Congress tomorrow. He's holding three rallies today in Ohio, Florida and Indiana to drive home his message that Republicans cannot let that happen. McDaniel said during the town hall that Trump's aggressive campaigning has given Republicans a fighting chance in the election year that empirical evidence suggests will favor Democrats. 'The president has been our biggest boost on the campaign trail, we are so lucky to have him do these rallies and the exhaustive schedule that he's keeping. But it is making a difference,' she said. 'And now we have to finish for him. This is our time to step up and help this president and he needs us right now.' Lara Trump said the single-most important action that Democrats who crossed party lines to vote for Trump can do in the mid-terms is vote Republican. 'The president cannot do it alone. He would like to think he can,' she said with a laugh. 'But he can't do it alone.' 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. The wife of former Olympic skier Bode Miller has shared an ultrasound image of her new baby boy that was taken just days after their daughter drowned - as she remembered the toddler on what would have been her second birthday. Morgan Miller shared the 3D ultrasound image on Instagram on Sunday as she opened up on tragically losing their 19-month-old daughter Emeline in California earlier this year. Miller said she was advised to check on her unborn baby in the days after Emmy's death in June and went in for the ultrasound. She said initially she didn't want the 3D image of her son but the nurse took it anyway and it has since become a treasured part of their family. Miller described seeing her 'angel' daughter holding her son's face in the image. Morgan Miller has shared an 3D ultrasound image of her baby boy that was taken just five days after her daughter Emmy drowned. Morgan described seeing her 'angel' daughter holding her son's face in the ultrasound The heartfelt post about the days after losing Emmy came just hours before Morgan paid tribute to her daughter on what would have been her second birthday 'When we walked out of the hospital without our Emmy, despair and uncertainty surrounded us. The parting words from the medical staff, in those early hours after we lost our baby Emmy, was to check on the baby in my tummy,' Miller wrote. 'So, five days after losing her, I reluctantly had the ultrasound tech come check on the baby growing in my belly... During the last ultrasound, my baby Emmy lay in my arms wondering what she was looking at on the screen. And, now, she was gone. 'This time, I asked the tech to be quick. She asked if I wanted a 3D image to which I replied, 'no'. She swiftly maneuvered the wand around my stomach, checking on all parts. 'As she viewed the baby's profile, she told me, 'I know you don't want a 3D image but this is a perfect angel and I feel like I need to do one. I will be quick'. 'As the screen switched over to 3D imaging, I saw my sweet baby's face. He looked so much like my other babies: just like Bode with that sweet nose and those full lips. Morgan also shared the first two photos of her newborn son holding what appeared to be a necklace with his sister Emmy's hand print engraved on it Morgan previously shared this image on Instagram of her holding Emmy in her final moments after she fell into a neighbor's pool in California back on June 9 'But as quickly as I saw this new baby, my eyes moved to the angel lying to the right of his face, holding him, arms around his neck. Almost as if to say, 'It's okay. I'm here. It's going to be okay. I love you'. 'I hold onto this picture as a clear sign that my son knows his sister. That my baby girl Emmy is still with us. And now that our sweet baby boy is here earth side, he now holds her.' Morgan also shared the first two photos of her newborn son holding what appeared to be a necklace with his sister's hand print engraved on it. The heartfelt post came just hours before Miller paid tribute on Instagram to Emmy on what would have been her daughter's second birthday. The Millers welcomed their baby boy on October 5. They are also parents to three-year-old boy Nash Skan. Bode also has two children from prior relationships: a 10-year-old daughter Neesyn and five-year-old son Samuel. The couple's daughter Emmy fell into a neighbor's pool in California on June 9 and was pronounced dead in hospital. Morgan noted in Sunday's post that the last ultrasound she had before the 3D image was one where Emmy was lying next to her on the bed (pictured above) Italy has threatened to defy the EU and press ahead with its anti-austerity budget which could lead to unprecedented fines. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said Italy 'will never kneel again' over plans to increase the country's deficit to three times what it was under the previous government. The draft budget agreed last month, called for tax cuts and a minimum income for the unemployed. Both of these measures would increase Italys deficit at a time when Brussels is pressuring Rome to reduce its debt. The EU Commission sent a letter to Rome rejecting the budget - a historic first that threatened to plunge the eurozone into crisis. Italy's growth is down, its unemployment up and its debt has become colossal. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said 'Italy will never kneel again' to the EU over threats from Brussels to impose heavy fines if a tax cutting budget was passed This would already be more than enough to cause deep concern as eurozone finance ministers meet for the first time since Brussels rejected Rome's 2019 budget. Exasperated finance ministers around the eurozone are expected to back Brussels in the row over Italy's budget today, setting the stage for an unprecedented clash. But Italy's populist coalition government led by its far-right vice premier Matteo Salvini has refused to back down. The coalition of Salvini's League and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, plans to run a public deficit of 2.4 per cent of GDP - three times the target of its centre-left predecessor. Eurosceptic Salvini's response to the bloc's demands was stark, adding: 'No little letter will make us back down. Italy will never kneel again.' This unprecedented provocation may draw an unprecedented response from the EU and if Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government doesn't fall into line, it could face huge fines. Italy has until November 13 to submit a revised budget, and President Sergio Mattarella has promised a 'constructive dialogue' with Europe's institutions. Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Social Policies, Luigi Di Maio (left), Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (centre) and Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini (right), at a press conference following a cabinet meeting on the country's draft budget last month EU Economy Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Italy has until November 13 to submit a new budget plan when the body will rule on whether to allow the package. He sais: 'When a member does not respect the rules it has an impact on the others.' Asked whether some deal or compromise could be found between Brussels and Rome, Moscovici replied: 'No. We're not in a negotiation. We're not in a discussion. The rules are the rules.' A senior European official said: 'Everyone is worried. It [sanctions against Italy] would be inevitable. 'Italy could be the next country to need the European Stability Mechanism. It's hypothetical at this stage, but the risk is real.' Italy already owes 2.3 trillion euros ($2.6 trillion), a sum equivalent to 131 per cent of its GDP, and even if Brussels blinks and fails to punish Rome, the markets surely will. Rating agency Moody's has already downgraded Italian debt, and Standard & Poor's has dropped its outlook from stable to negative. The governor of the Italian central bank, Ignazio Visco, has expressed concern that borrowing rates will have to rise and political experts warn the coalition could come under pressure from League voters. Italy has Europe's fourth-largest economy and the bloc would struggle to bail it out. Members of the single currency bloc have flouted collective budget guidelines before, but none so 'openly and consciously' as the unrepentant populist coalition south of the Alps. Brussels might have had more sympathy for Rome's decision to increase spending if the underlying economic situation had promised better times ahead. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte insists that a spending stimulus package is needed to kick start the country's low growth rate But Italy's jobless rate is more than ten per cent, way above the eurozone average, and growth in the third quarter of this year ground to a halt at a stagnant zero percent. The coalition's 2019 budget is based on the country experiencing an annual growth of 1.5 percent - a figure considered optimistic by the IMF, which has forecast only one per cent. Conte insists the low growth rate is all the more reason to kick start the economy through a spending spree, but Brussels fears the rising deficit could lead to a new debt crisis. The much watched 'spread' - the gap between German and Italian bond yields - has grown to around 300 basis points, up from around 130 in the first quarter of 2018. The situation is reminiscent of the Greek debt crisis, except with Italy's much bigger and more central eurozone economy at the heart of the storm, making a bailout difficult. A Chinese couple have been arrested in Thailand after stealing luxury baggage to order from airport carousels. Tze Yeung Li, 35, who is a Canadian citizen but was born in China, and 21-year-old partner Luo Jieying were busted at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on Saturday. The arrests came after an American traveler - who has not been identified - complained that her Rimowa cases worth around $5,000 had vanished. Luo Jieying, 21, seen left, has been arrested after stealing designer suitcases from travelers at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok last week Jieying and partner Tze Yeung Li, 35 (right), took two Rimowa suitcases worth around $5,000 from an American tourist who reported them to airport police Airport security staff checked CCTV and spotted the cases being snatched from the baggage carousel and arrivals terminal floor by the couple. Police then tracked the suspects until they arrived back at the airport for their return flight, when they were taken into custody. After confessing to their crimes, investigators raided their hotel and discovered other luxury baggage. The couple confessed that they stole the luggage to order before selling it at cut-price rates back in China. They said that the contents of the suitcases were just a 'by-product' and the main aim was to target expensive designer cases. Li (left) and Jieying (right) walked out of the airport carrying the expensive bags, but were arrested when they tried to check in for their return flight to Hong Kong After they were arrested, police raided the couple's hotel room and found more stolen luggage, which was destined for sale on the black market Li and Jieying said the contents of the suitcases were merely a by-product, and that their real target was the luggage itself The two were charged with 'burglary at night', which in Thailand carries a slightly more severe penalty than burglary during the day, and have been held in custody while prosecutors prepare the case. Airport boss Kittipong Kittikachorn said: 'If you're thinking of committing a crime at the airport, you will finish up in court. 'We have CCTV in thousands of locations and it is very difficult to escape from the eyes of the police. 'We are always on the side of the victim and will prosecute the offender.' An electronic billboard advertisement suggesting that President Donald Trump might be God 'in the flesh' has been taken down in St. Louis, Missouri. The billboard featured a photo of Trump, a partial quote from a bible verse that read, 'The word became flesh...' and an iteration of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign slogan, adjusted to read, 'Make the gospel great again.' A representative from DDI Media told DailyMail.com that the advertisement was removed from the electronic billboard on Monday morning. DDI Media could not disclose who paid for the advertisement. An electronic billboard ad suggesting that President Donald Trump might be God 'in the flesh' was taken down in St. Louis, Missouri on Monday, after residents questioned its meaning The ad left locals wondering about the intended message behind the wording and imagery. 'I didn't know what to make of it,' Sherri Chisholim told KMOV4. 'I didn't know what message it was trying to send but I felt like it was somewhat offensive, I didn't know if they were trying to equate Donald Trump to Jesus.' The partial bible verse quote on the display came from John, chapter 1, verse 14, and reads in full: 'The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.' The ad left locals wondering about the intended message behind the wording and imagery; Trump is shown here speaking at a rally in support of US Senate candidate Josh Hawley on Thursday in Columbia, Missouri The partial bible verse quote on the display came from John, chapter 1, verse 14, and reads in full: 'The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth' Before being pulled, the advertisement was on display on Interstate 170 near Saint Charles Rock Road in St. Louis. There are many churches along that exit off the interstate, which doubles as Missouri State Route 180. The closest houses of worship along St. Charles Rock Road include the Bible Missionary Church and Embassy of Heaven in one direction. In the opposite direction along 180, religious houses Harmony United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church of St. John, Nazareth Temple Church of God, Living Waters Church of God Fellowship, and Grace Family Outreach Church of St. Louis. Pastor Nathan Hopping from Harmony United Methodist Church shared his displeasure at the display with DailyMail.com. 'I am very concerned with billboards and political ads that do more to separate us than to unite us. When it comes to faith, my opinion is we are not right or left, but we are some of us for all of us, which is a very different perspective than what was conveyed on the billboard,' Pastor Hopping said. 'Of course Donald Trump is not the word of God, any more than I am, and I'm not really sure what whoever placed the ad as trying to do except for perhaps grow the divide between us. The profound truth of the word becoming flesh is that humanity now is united in grace, instead of torn part in division, and so to use scripture to that political end, I think, is disgusting.' Representatives for the First Baptist Church of St. John and Nazareth Temple Church of God also said they had no idea who might've placed the ad. The others could not immediately be reached for comment. DDI Media could not divulge whether the advertisement had been purchased locally. The DDI Media representative DailyMail.com spoke with was not certain whether the advertisement was taken down at the direction of the person or entity who paid for it, or at the discretion of DDI Media. The president has been in Missouri for final campaign efforts in recent days, leading up to the midterm general election on Tuesday. Three managers of a company in south-west China have been detained by police for punishing their staff. A worker of a home improvement firm in Zunyi, Guizhou province said employees were whipped by belts, forced to drink urine and eat insects because they had not met sales targets, Chinese media reported. Local police launched an investigation after shocking video footage emerged last week showed several men getting whipped by their bosses with a belt in front of other employees. Another clip shows people drinking cups of yellow liquid while holding their noses. Local police launched an investigation after shocking video footage emerged last week showing several men getting whipped by their bosses with a belt in front of other employees Another clip shows people drinking cups of yellow liquid while holding their noses Other extreme punishments for failing to meet expected profits at the company including kneeling, eating mustard and shaving their heads, according to Beijing Youth Daily. One text message apparently sent by managers showed that staff would have to eat three cockroaches for each failed sale, according to video news site Pear. Other punishments including selling condoms and sanitary pads on the street. Two of the company managers, surnamed Guo and Cai, have been detained for 10 days, while a third manager, surnamed Huang, have been detained for five days, Honghuagang District Police said in a statement on Weibo on Sunday. The topic page on Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo titled 'employees who failed to meet their goals forced to drink urine' has been viewed more than 30 million times. Two of the company managers, surnamed Guo and Cai, have been detained for 10 days, while a third manager, surnamed Huang, have been detained for five days, police said While many users slammed the company and offered their sympathy to the employees, some questioned why the staff members have not resigned. One staff member told Pear Video that the company owed employees two months' pay, adding that staff who quit instead of accepting the punishment would have their wages cut. According to the article 88 of China's employment contract law, employers are not allowed to humiliate and give corporal punishment to workers, the Chinese government said on its website. The employer shall be liable for compensation if any harm is done to the worker, the article stipulates. However, Chinese companies have been known for carrying out public humiliation rituals as punishment - from crawling on the streets to worm-eating. A group of gym employees in Jiangmen city, south-east China's Guangdong province have been publicly shamed by their boss for failing to meet their sales targets last month Just last month, 30 male employees at a gym were forced to strip down to their boxers and parade around the streets of Jiangmen, Guangdong for failing to meet their sales quotas. In 2016, an employer in Hanzhong, Shaanxi forced its employees to eat squirming mealworms following their failure to reach targets. Shocking footage from June 2016 shows the boss of Shanxi Changzhi Zhangze Agricultural and Commercial Bank in Changzhi stage paddling eight people. In October 2015, one particularly angry boss made his 12 employees crawl around a lake in Zhengzhou, Henan as penance for not reaching the expected profit. Many sufferers tore their shirts and trousers during the ordeal and one employee was spotted crying by the side of the road. London has been revealed as the supercar capital of the world, with more luxury vehicles seen there than in Moscow, Los Angeles or New York. Figures show that there were 14.81million pictures of flash cars posted to Instagram in the last three years - and 6.1million of them were in London. With four per cent of all supercar social media posts, the English capital ranks above Moscow with 5.9million posts, Los Angeles with 4million and New York with 3.7million, reports the Evening Standard. According to the data map Knightsbridge boasts the highest number of luxury cars, with drivers showing off their rides around Harrods, the Park Tower Hotel and Sloane Street. Other hotspots includes Lowndes Square in Belgravia and the famous Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair. Figures show that there were 14.81million pictures of flash cars posted to Instagram in the last three years - and 6.1million of them were in London. Picture of a green Lamborghini on the streets of London With four per cent of all supercar social media posts, the English capital (yellow Lamborghini pictured in London) ranks above Moscow, New York and Los Angeles Londoners and tourists in the capital appear to have a preference for Aston Martins whereas Bentleys are most often posted in Moscow, London and Dubai Looking at the data, provided by Activity Superstore, Ferraris are the most popular supercar to upload to Instagram, with 59million people posting pictures of them worldwide since 2015. In the last three years there have been 48million Lamborghini pictures on the photo-sharing platform, 43 million Porsches, 17.6million McLarens and 17.5million Bentleys. At the other end of the scale, Lykan Hypersports are the least Instagrammed supercar with just 483,000 in three years. Londoners and tourists in the capital appear to have a preference for Aston Martins - along with reisdents and visitors in Los Angeles and Istanbul. Bentleys are most often posted in Moscow, London and Dubai. A gold Range Rover and red Ferrari are pictured outside the famous Dorchester Hotel in London's Mayfair According to the data map Knightsbridge boasts the highest number of luxury cars. A silver Mercedes is pictured on a quiet street in the area Matt Davis, a spokesman for gift experience company Activity Superstore, told the Standard: 'We're living in an era of supercar showmanship. Where millionaires, and billionaires, use their exotic automotive finery to wow an audience of admirers. Which city boasts the most supercars? Figures show that there were 14.81million pictures of flash cars posted to Instagram in the last three years - and 6.1million of them were in London. - Moscow - 5.9million - Los Angeles - 4million - New York - 3.7million Advertisement 'It obviously works because in just the last three years, a huge 148 million supercars have been Instagrammed. 'There may be many dedicated enthusiasts out there but almost everyone can appreciate a beautifully crafted supercar when they see one. 'For this reason, we decided to map out where the supercar capitals are so people know where to go if they want to spot one.' The figures come after a supercar dealer in the north of England complained over-zealous parking wardens in his area are punishing his millionaire customers by targeting for fines. Shak Shah, 37, from Huddersfield says he has lost sales worth hundreds of thousands of pounds due to the increased presence of Kirklees Council wardens. He says they have ticketed customers and even prestige cars being moved in and out of his showroom, Shak's Specialist Cars. Among the cars for sale in his showroom are Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches, Rolls-Royces and a 1.7million McLaren Senna, which was recently sold. A Texas police officer is being hailed a hero for saving a baby's life after she stopped breathing in her mother's arms. The moment was captured on video as Splendora ISD Police Chief Rex Evans rushed over to the family's vehicle. Evans was stopped at a traffic light around 2pm on Friday when 'a Hispanic family pulled up next to him looking for the EMS Station'. A Texas police officer is being hailed a hero for saving a baby's life after she stopped breathing in her mother's arms. The officer is seen taking the baby away from her crying mother The officer immediately called for EMS and started CPR on the baby (pictured) The officer then discovered that the family had an infant who wasn't breathing. He immediately called for EMS and started CPR on the baby. In the video, the baby's mother is seen handing the child to the officer as she is heard crying in the background. In a matter of moments, the baby starts crying softly. 'She's breathing now!' the officer is heard saying as he consoles the infant. Emergency responders are then seen arriving to the scene as they prepare to transport the baby to a local hospital. 'Never think a day is just another day. Some days, the opportunity presents itself to literally change the world and your life, in the same moment,' the Splendora ISD Police Department wrote on Facebook. Authorities have not identified the baby's family. It's still unclear what caused the baby to stop breathing. A mother with mobility problems who lived on the 15th floor of Grenfell Tower had used the stairs just once prior to fleeing down them on the night of the fire, an inquiry heard. Rashida Ali, who had a heart operation four months before the fire, had been helped up the stairs when the lifts were broken, shortly after she moved in in 2014, and since then had always used the lifts. Before the fire on June 14 last year, the 55-year-old had 'chronic multiple health conditions', including heart problems and shortness of breath, and she used a walking aid. Rashida Ali (in the orange) has only used the lifts because of mobility problems, but was forced to use the stairs on the night of the tragedy Kensington and Chelsea Council (RBKC) were aware she had problems with her mobility, she told the public inquiry into the fire. On the night of the fire she fled with her daughter, then 10, after smelling burning and noticing smoke at the bottom of the high-rise when she looked out of the window. She said her husband, Sid Ali Atmani, was sick in bed and refused to go with them, believing the fire was 'no big deal'. When she got to the bottom of the tower she handed her daughter to a neighbour and returned to try to get her husband. But Mrs Ali was stopped by a firefighter, who refused to let her past the second floor and promised to get Mr Atmani out when she handed him her flat keys. After about half an hour, she saw her husband exit the tower, disorientated, barefoot and covered in soot. When Mrs Ali got to the bottom of the tower she handed her daughter to a neighbour and returned to try to get her husband, the inquiry heard Kensington and Chelsea Council (RBKC) were aware Mrs Ali had problems with her mobility, she told the inquiry. Pictured: The women run into the downstairs floor community room In her written statement Mrs Ali said: 'He was not talking or responding. He was in shock. 'I had a whole mixture of emotions when I saw him; I was angry with him for staying and putting us through such pain and worry, and I was obviously relieved that he has survived. 'I started to shake him, speak to him, then I couldn't stop crying.' Mrs Ali, who is originally from Somalia, first came to London into 1996, and had lived in Liverpool since 2010. She returned to north Kensington to live in Grenfell Tower in 2014 because she needed to be close to family who could support her after her heart operation. Mrs Ali, who described herself as the 'keeper' for her family, said she lost a lifetime of treasured mementos as well as friends. Mrs Ali, who is seen running of Grenfell Tower to safety, said she had friends in the fire as well as a lifetime of treasured mementos She said: 'People dear to me have died. I have survived but have lost everything. 'My possessions have been destroyed - wedding jewellery, clothes and things that I had collected over the years which would remind me of a time, place or person. 'I had separate photo albums for each of my children, where I collected photos from when they were babies. 'I also had family photo albums from my mum and my dad, all the history of the family. 'I used to gather all the pictures from them and said I would look after them, I was the 'keeper' and now I have lost them all.' A total of 72 people perished as a result of the tower block blaze. The public inquiry is in its first phase at Holborn Bars in central London, and is hearing evidence from survivors of the fire and those who lost loved ones. Gab.com, the social network site where suspected Pittsburgh synagogue mass killer Robert Bowers aired his anti-Semitic views, was back up on Sunday evening after being offline for a week while it looked for another registrar to host its domain name. After learning that Bowers posted virulent anti-Semitics rants to Gab.com before the deadly shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue on October 27 that left 11 dead and five injured, GoDaddy Inc asked the site to move to another registrar. Hosting firm Joyent Inc and payment processors PayPal Holdings Inc and Stripe Inc stopped providing services. Gab.com, the social network site favored by suspected Pittsburgh synagogue mass killer Robert Bowers, was back online Sunday after a week-long hiatus Gab.com announced its return online with this tweet Sunday Domain name registrar and host Epik, which is headquartered in Seattle, said in a lengthy blog post invoking the names of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin on Saturday it had agreed to host the site. 'To the casual observer, the case of Gab.com seems like it is something new,' writes Epik.com founder and CEO Robert Monster. 'It is not. It is history repeating itself. 'While there are consequences to actions, there is also the proverbial risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. My hope, for all of our sakes, is that Gab.com treads wisely, using its liberty for the betterment of most, and the enlightenment of all.' Bowers, 46, has pleaded not guilty to murdering 11 people and wounding five others on October 27 Gab.com was back online shortly after 5pm describing itself as 'a social network that champions free speech, individual liberty and the flow of information online.' Bowers has pleaded not guilty to all 44 counts against him in connection to the synagogue massacre, which marked the worst attack on the Jewish community in the United States in the history of the country. Two hours before Bowers allegedly burst into the Tree of Life temple and opened fire during a Shabbat religious service, he posted on Gab.com about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), a non-profit that helps refugees relocate to the United States. 'HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in,' wrote Bowers, who is white. Gab was started in August 2016 by a right-wing programmer, Andrew Torba, who complained about 'an ultra-PC culture' where 'major online communication platforms and social networks censor dissenting opinions and ideas.' Torba promised users would be allowed to 'speak freely without fear of being suspended for some arbitrary unknown reason.' The site bills itself as a free-speech alternative to the more heavily policed Twitter and has been a popular gathering space for the alt-right, white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Among those attracted to using the site were Milo Yiannopoulos, the former Breitbart journalist; Andrew Anglin, the founder of the neo-Nazi publication Daily Stormer; Richard Spencer, a well-known white supremacist, and InfoWars founder Alex Jones. Gab.com said in a statement that when it learned of the shooting suspect's profile on its site, it took swift and proactive action to contact law enforcement immediately. Two hours before Bowers burst into the Tree of Life temple and opened fire during a Shabbat religious service, he posted on Gab.com about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society A man takes a moment at each of the Star of David memorials with the names of the 11 people who were killed at the Tree of Life synagogue two days after a mass shooting in Pittsburgh The CEO of the social media platform released this statement distancing his site from Bowers in the wake of the slaughter The social media platform backed up Bowers user data and suspended the account, then told the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the data held by the company. Gab unequivocally disavows and condemns all acts of terrorism and violence, the company's statement said. Founded by programmer Andrew Torba (pictured) in 2016, Gab.com bills itself as a free-speech alternative to the more heavily policed Twitter An archive of Bower's Gab posts since he joined the site in January showed an angry, anti-Semitic man who shared messages such as: Daily Reminder: Diversity means chasing down the last white person. Utsav Sanduja, Gab's former chief operating officer, said the company and its mission will survive guilt by association and could do more fundraising through cryptocurrencies in order to bypass tech companies. We created Gab for the purpose of letting off steam not to kill. That was not our intention, he said. Gab raised $1million through crowdfunding last year, but recorded a loss of $201,704, according to a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Microsoft Corp said in an emailed statement that it terminated Gab's accounts on its Azure cloud computing platform last month. Defiant: Gab.com addressed the media in this strongly worded tweet following its comeback Alphabet Inc's Google and Apple Inc's mobile app stores previously blocked Gab, cutting off a crucial source of access to new users. After resuming operations Sunday, Gab.com tweeted what it characterized as its statement to media: You failed. We are back online. We grow stronger by the hour. Free speech lives at http://Gab.com . This is only the beginning. May God have mercy on you for what you people have done this past week. Peace, love, and prayers. The main suspect in the alleged gang rape of an 18-year-old girl in south-west Germany had previously been a suspect in two prior sex crimes, police revealed today. The 22-year-old Syrian, only identified as Majd H, was investigated over the gang-rape of a 20-year-old woman in his home along with two other men, but authorities reportedly dropped the investigation due to lack of evidence. Majd H. is accused of going on to orchestrate the brutal four-hour gang rape of the teenage girl, which allegedly took place after he drugged her in a nightclub in Freiburg on October 14. Main suspect: Majd H. and two other men were accused of raping a 20-year-old woman, before he allegedly drugged and gang-raped the teenager in a nightclub in Freiburg, Germany At the time of the sexual assault of the 18-year-old, Majd H. had an arrest warrant against him for a drugs offence, and was supposed to be arrested on the 23rd October. According to Bild, the warrant described Majd H. as a dangerous individual and a repeat offender, stating that it was highly probable that he might commit other offenses, including grievous bodily harm, sexual coercion and exhibitionism. Bernd Belle, the head of the investigations team, claimed that police did not have the personnel to immediately act on the drugs offence arrest warrant, and that they had wanted to gather more evidence as well as check the suspect's whereabouts. 'Then the events caught up with us,' Mr Belle said. It is unclear what other sex crime the 22-year-old had been investigated for. Known to police: At the time of the brutal gang-rape of the 18-year-old, Majd H. had an arrest warrant against him for a drugs offence, and was supposed to be arrested days later Assaulted: Majd H. is accused of drugging the 18-year-old's drink at this night club in Freiburg, before he and at least seven others raped her According to local news reports, Majd H. came to Germany in 2014, and is believed to have had links to the YPG - a Kurdish militia which has been involved in fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Pictures posted of the 22-year-old on social media shows him posing with a large machine gun. Seven Syrian men between the ages of 19 and 29, along with a 25-year-old German, have been arrested in connection with the Freiburg gang-rape so far, with police still looking for further suspects. According to local media, most of the arrested suspects were already known to police for various previous offences. Bild identified some of Majd's alleged accomplices as 19-year-old Ahmed Al H., 24-year-old Muhammad Al H., 20-year-old Munahad M., 22-year-old Alaa Al M. and 29-year-old Jekar D. According to police, the number of sex crimes in Freiburg is increasing despite the total crime rate decreasing. Peter Skinner admitted making indecent images and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity A former grammar school master who was caught exchanging explicit messages with what he thought was a teenage boy has avoided jail. Peter Skinner was caught sending the messages on a chatroom after a police officer posed as a 14-year-old. The 73-year-old retired languages teacher, who was also found with indecent images of children, avoided a prison sentence after a judge ruled he had 'given more to society than he had taken away.' Skinner, a wine and art expert, sent the messages to what he thought was a 'troubled bi-sexual teenager named Dylan who self harmed.' Over a four-day period he attempted to arrange to meet 'Dylan' at a seaside pier, claiming he had previously met another youngster. He was arrested at his home in Greenmount, near Bury in Greater Manchester after he suggested they meet on the Welsh island of Anglesey. Police found 26 indecent images of children on his computer plus search terms dating back to 2011 including 'young boys having sex.' At Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, Skinner admitted making indecent images and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity. Skinner was a teacher at Bury Grammar School and had donated 20,00 of his own money towards a new modern languages building following his retirement in 2005 He was given a jail sentence suspended for two years. The court heard how Skinner was a teacher at Bury Grammar School and had donated 20,00 of his own money towards a new modern languages building following his retirement in 2005. He had also collected some 100,000 in Victorian artwork which he was going to give to an art gallery in Anglesey. Skinner was also a member of the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne - a prestigious international wine association for experts on the French Champagne wine region. Prosecutor Justin Hayhoe prosecuting said Skinner initiated conversations on September 14 last year after logging on chat rooms and other forums including Chatforum.com. He said: 'The defendant lied and said he was 59. Skinner continued contacting him and said he was okay with his age and he just liked chatting with 'nice teen lads'.' Later Skinner asked if they could message each other on a private chatroom saying 'it was more secure'. Skinner was also ordered to sign the Sex Offender Register for ten years and was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order Mr Hayhoe added: 'He asked to see a photo of Dylan and Dylan asked to see a photo of Skinner, but neither provided photos of themselves. He said he would rather meet face-to-face and talk. 'He said he would treat him with respect and not do anything he didn't want to do. He asked Dylan If he was single and asked if he knew many people who had sex. 'He said Dylan was a 'really nice boy' and asked him if he wanted to spend some quality time with him. He learnt that Dylan never had a father and he said he would take him on as a father. 'He then told Dylan he had four cars and he owned a Jaguar vehicle after learning that Dylan likes cars. This was grooming behaviour.' Later the conversation became more explicit including one three hour exchange in which Skinner bragged of being 'distinguished.' He offered to give him 20 pocket money then give him more cash on his birthday and at Christmas before police raided his home. In mitigation defence lawyer Colin Buckle said the conversations were 'nothing more than a fantasy' and Skinner 'would never have met with this fictitious person.' He added: 'He has destroyed the reputation he has built over 40 years, in about four days in the chat he had with Dylan. 'His impeccable character has now been obliterated in those short days. He knows he is going to be shunned. He was extremely proud of being a Chevalier of the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne. Chief constables and other members who have knighthoods were also part of this group but he has now left it. 'He said to me in our last conference, "What I have lost and left behind is much greater to me than my liberty." Judge Bernadette Baxter told him: 'You have worked for many years as a teacher so you will know all about safe guarding children, and the people who suffer life long effects from offences such as these. 'I would be failing my public duty if I did not make this a custodial sentence. But it's clear to me that in your lifetime you gave more to society than you took away over many years. The higher you climb the harder you fall. 'You truly have fallen from grace. Society will be better served if you can be rehabilitated. ' Skinner was also ordered to sign the Sex Offender Register for ten years and was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. Speaker Paul Ryan spoke to President Donald Trump on the phone on Sunday to make one final, in-person plea: please talk up the economy in the final 48 hours before voters go to the polls on Election Day. The president's response: his focus on immigration and the caravan of migrants headed toward the United States has fired up his base, which he believes will boost Republican numbers on Tuesday. House Republicans believe an economic message is key to helping them hold on to seats in the suburbs, a crucial area outside major cities usually marked by independent and swing voters. Speaker Paul Ryan pleaded with President Trump to talk up the economy instead of immigration in the closing days of the 2018 midterm election 'You can only say so many times that we created 250,000 jobs last month,' President Trump said on Saturday Final polls: The last three polls to be published on Sunday and Monday create a confusing picture And Republicans are concerned President Trump's laser-like focus on the immigration issue - which successfully catapulted him to the White House - will backfire in the midterms and give the Democrats a wide majority in the House of Representatives, Politico reported. But Trump's focus has turned to the Senate, particularly on the nine states where Democrats are running for reelection and where he won in 2016. And he sees his fiery rhetoric on immigration as the kind of red meat his base will eat up in time to go vote on Tuesday. It's a different picture from a few weeks ago, when Republicans hoped the tough talk on immigration would gin up GOP voters. Now they fear the president has gone too far in talking about the issue after a week when Trump has railed against illegal immigrants; claimed he can end birthright citizenship; dispatched thousands of active duty troops to the border, even suggesting they should treat rock-throwers as if they were shooting on the troops; and touted a controversial ad that links the caravan of migrants to a brutal cop killer. 'Trump has hijacked the election,' one senior House Republican aide told Politico of Trump's focus on immigration. 'This is not what we expected the final weeks of the election to focus on.' In the meantime, the economy added a quarter of a million jobs in the last quarter and unemployment sits at below 4 percent. But Trump defended his decision to close the campaign focusing on red meat issues like the caravan, vowing to change political asylum, hold asylum seekers in tent cities, and end 'birthright citizenship' that previously has been ensured by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. 'You can only say so many times that we created 250,000 jobs last month,' Trump said on Saturday, following Democratic and never-Trump Republican critics who charge him with fear-mongering. 'When we're fixing a problem or fixed a problem there's no reason to go on about it for 45 minutes,' Trump said. Trump and Ryan have had a controversial relationship going back to the 2016 election. Ryan refused to campaign with Trump in Wisconsin during that contest after the 'Access Hollywood' tape - where Trump made disparaging comments about women - was revealed. In the last week, the two men butted heads again after Ryan said the president does not have the legal authority to end birthright citizenship. Trump directed Ryan, who's retiring this year, to butt out of the citizenship debate and worry instead about defending Republican territory. 'Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! ' Trump proclaimed in a tweet on Wednesday. 'Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border!' Donald Trump put the Republican speaker of the House on blast last week after the outgoing congressman said the president does not have the legal authority to end birthright citizenship The most likely outcome is for Democrats to gain 30 to 40 seats on Tuesday, enough to win control of the House, according to a leading election forecast Ryan's latest plea for the president to focus on the country's strong economy comes as a respected election forecaster predicted a House gain of 30 to 40 seats is the most likely outcome on Tuesday but a full-on blue wave could lead to a 45 seat takeover. Democrats would be two-thirds of the way to their needed 23 seat gain to capture the House just by picking up the seats that already lean their way. In that case, they would need to pick up just eight of the remaining 30 pure 'tossup' races. 'If the 30 races in Toss Up were to break evenly, Democrats would score a net gain of 30 seats. However, history shows that one party typically wins a lion's share of close races,' writes David Wasserman, the report's House analyst. But the nonpartisan analyst notes that in two years when control of Congress changed control, the 2016 Democratic and the 2010 'Tea Party' wave, the winning party rolled up 57 per cent of the tossups and all the races leaning their way, along with 19 per cent of the seats leaning the other way, along with 9 per cent of the other side's 'likely' seats. Such a scenario would lead to a 40-seat Democratic gain, although, although polls this year have revealed enthusiasm among members of both political parties. The president came under fire for the ad, which he first tweeted on Wednesday and then retweeted Sunday morning, by members of his own party who called it 'sickening.' Others say the ad is 'racist.' On Sunday, President Trump laid the rhetorical groundwork for possible defeat in the House, complaining there are 'so many people' there and it would be impossible for him to campaign for them all. 'I think we're gonna do well with the House,' Trump told reporters at the White House Sunday. Then he allowed: 'My primary focus of course has been in the Senate,' a statement born out by his travel schedule in the final days of the campaign, which took him to a series of states with toss-up Senate races. 'There are so many people in the House. That's a lot of stops. I have done some House stops also,' Trump said. Those comments have caused some Republicans to feel abandoned. They feel Trump's focus on the immigration issue to help Senate Republicans in rural, red states is a direct threat to the House Republicans fighting to keep their seats in suburban areas. 'His honing in on this message is going to cost us seats,' one senior House GOP campaign source told Politico. 'The people we need to win in these swing districts that will determine the majority, it's not the Trump base; it's suburban women, or people who voted for [Hillary] Clinton or people who are not hard Trump voters.' Madeline Sayoc, mother of MAGAbomb suspect Cesar Sayoc, says her son has been suffering from mental illness 'for some time' The mother of MAGAbomb suspect Cesar Sayoc said her son suffered with mental illness 'for some time' before mailing at least 15 pipe bombs to prominent liberals and opponents of President Trump. Madeline Sayoc told ABC in a letter that she had not seen her son for four years before he turned up on the news, adding that she was 'hurt, sad, shocked and confused' at the news. 'That's not how I raised him,' she said. Sayoc said her son has repeatedly refused to get treatment for his issues, despite pleas from his family. Cesar's lawyers previously said that he hated his mother for kicking him out of her house when he refused therapy. Sayoc also lambasted Trump's harsh rhetoric for inspiring the attack while praising the late John McCain's calls for unity between all Americans. Sayoc wrote: 'My son has been ill for a long time and my family and I have tried, over and over again, without success to urge him to get the help he needs. 'We, in America, have a mental health crisis in this country and need to change laws to allow families to compel and require mental health treatment for those in need of such treatment before their illness worsens to where it is too late. 'Our political leaders, like our President Donald Trump, need to recognize that there are many sick people in this country who take their rhetoric and words of "War with the Media" and "War with the Democrats" to heart. 'I beg President Trump and others to refrain from talk of War with fellow Americans and remember, as Senator McCain taught us, that we may politically disagree but we are all patriotic Americans and all we want is a safe country for all Americans.' She added that she has not lived with her son for 35 years, and was having surgery when he was arrested. Sayoc also criticized the harsh rhetoric of President Trump for inspiring the attack, while praising the late John McCain and his call for all Americans to treat each-other with respect FBI agents with the van where it is believed Sayoc constructed his bombs in Plantation, Florida. He was arrested last week after being traced to the sunshine state It was after waking up from the operation that she learned he was the suspect. On Friday last week, Sayoc's lawyers announced he will be sent from Florida to New York City to face the charges against him. The attorneys waived a bond hearing on Friday, saying they agreed that it was in his best interest if the case played out in New York court. Sayoc remain in custody in Miami, Florida. It is not known when he will be transferred. He will obtain new lawyers in New York who may still seek bail for him once the case is taken there. 'We wanted to make sure that all of his constitutional rights were preserved,' said lawyer James Benjamin after the hearing. 'We feel we've done all we can.' Sayoc was charged with five counts on October 26. They are; interstate transportation of an explosive, illegal mailing of explosives, threats against former presidents and certain other persons, threatening interstate communications and assaulting federal officers. He faces more than 50 years in prison if convicted on all counts. The timing of Sayoc's transfer to New York is uncertain. It can happen quickly or take weeks, and is not usually announced ahead of time by the US Marshals Service, Mr Benjamin said. Even defence lawyers are not informed. 'Your guess is as good as mine,' he said. 'The government wants to get him up there as soon as they can.' Sayoc is depicted in courtroom sketch this week. No cameras have been allowed in the courtroom when he has appeared Sayoc is accused in New York of sending 15 improvised explosive devices to numerous Democrats, Trump critics and media outlets. He was arrested a week ago outside a south Florida car parts store in a white van in which he had been living, which was covered with stickers of Mr Trump and images of some of the president's opponents with red crosshairs over their faces. No bombs exploded and no one was injured, but Sayoc faces nearly 50 years in prison if convicted on five federal charges that were filed in New York because some of the devices were recovered there. The decision by his lawyers not to seek release on bail came after federal prosecutors released a letter outlining more evidence against him, including DNA linking him to 10 of the explosive devices and fingerprints on two of them. Other evidence includes online searches Sayoc did on his laptop and mobile phone for addresses and photos of some of his intended targets, which included former president Barack Obama, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, former vice president Joe Biden, California senator Kamala Harris and New Jersey senator Cory Booker. Packages were also mailed to CNN in New York and Atlanta. The laptop also has a file with the address in Sunrise, Florida, of the office of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. That office was used as the return address on the packages containing the pipe bombs, according to the FBI. Mr Benjamin said the prosecution letter does not prove anything, and noted that it refers to 'possible' DNA matches to Sayoc. 'The word flimsy actually still applies,' he told reporters. 'We can't do anything but speculate now. And it's too early.' Advertisement A billionaire Danish tycoon who is the UK's second largest private landowner has snapped up a 3million luxury Highlands estate. Anders Holch Povlsen, 46, bought the 1,100-acre Kinrara Estate near Aviemore, which comes with a 12-bedroom mansion and five cottages. The picturesque estate is his 12th in Scotland, meaning he is the country's largest private landowner with more than 222,000 acres. Only public bodies and charities own more land in Scotland. A spokesperson for his property company Wildland Ltd said: 'An offer has been accepted on the property and legal missives are being exchanged.' Anders Holch Povlsen bought the 1,100-acre Kinrara Estate (pictured) near Aviemore, which comes with a 12-bedroom mansion and five cottages Mr Povlsen (pictured with his wife Anne) is Scotland's largest private landowner with more than 222,000 acres Mr Povlsen, the owner of the Bestseller clothing brand, is a married father-of-four with a reported net worth of 4.9 billion. Kinrara lies adjacent to the River Spey in the Cairngorms National Park and has a renowned pheasant shoot. The fashion tycoon has bought it from Clouds Estate based in Salisbury, who put it up for sale with Savills with a guide price of 3million in August. The estate, described as having one of the finest Georgian properties in the region, has been home to two influential women. It was built in the 1790s for Jane, the Duchess of Gordon, following her estrangement from the Duke of Gordon. She was renowned for her independent spirit and beauty as well as her forthright determination and political endeavour. The fashion tycoon has bought the property (above) from Clouds Estate based in Salisbury, who put it up for sale with Savills with a guide price of 3million in August The estate, described as having one of the finest Georgian properties in the region, has been home to two influential women The Highlands estate was built in the 1790s for Jane, the Duchess of Gordon, after her estrangement from the Duke of Gordon The tycoon now has 12 properties in Scotland, meaning he is the country's largest private landowner with more than 222,000 acres. Pictured, a map shows some of the estates in his portfolio The Duchess of Gordon was one of the leading political hostesses of her time. She threw lavish parties at both her London home on Pall Mall and at Kinrara House, where she had a dance floor installed along the full length of the property. One of her proudest achievements was securing titled husbands for all five of her daughters, including three dukes, a marquis and a baronet. She insisted the marriages and offspring of all her daughters be inscribed on her gravestone, which lies at Kinrara near the ancient site of St Eata's Chapel near the banks of the Spey. She also established The Gordon Highlanders, later commanded by her son George, recruiting it 'first battalion in 1794 with 'a shilling and a kiss', by offering the King's shilling between her teeth to any man who would join their ranks. The main house is a 12-bedroom property and also has two self-contained apartments. Pictured, a living room inside the main house The property 'will appeal to entrepreneurial buyers wishing to capitalise on Scotland's growing tourist sector,' according to Evelyn Channing from Savills Another extraordinary women lived at Kinrara from around 1929 until 1936. Lucy, also known as Lady Houston, was a former 'show-girl' known as 'Poppy'. She eloped at the age of 16 in 1873 to Paris with a member of one of the families that owned the Bass Brewery, Frederick Gretton. They had a tumultuous relationship and when he died in 1882, he left her 6,000 per year for life. She went onto marry three times and was an active suffragette. Meanwhile, Mr Povlsen already owns 11 other estates in Scotland and recently surpassed the former Scottish record of 217,000 acres, owned by the Duke of Buccleuch. Kinrara lies adjacent to the River Spey in the Cairngorms National Park and has a renowned pheasant shoot The estate (pictured) has fishing, stalking and shooting rights, wetlands, pasture and glorious mixed woodlands When the property went up for sale, Evelyn Channing from Savills, said: 'Kinrara has it all - tranquility and beauty and a range of possibilities for developing income streams. 'It's lovely setting, in the midst of glorious Strathspey, which attracts visitors from all over the world, will appeal to entrepreneurial buyers wishing to capitalise on Scotland's growing tourist sector.' The main house also has two self-contained apartments. The estate, which has five further cottages, has fishing, stalking and shooting rights, wetlands, pasture and glorious mixed woodlands. The estate has a 3.2 mile stretch of the River Spey for salmon and sea trout fishing. It also provides an excellent habitat for both Roe deer and Red deer, and it is thought the population would support culls of up to about 40 a year. Anders Holch Povlsen has been directly contacted for comment. Robert Ginn, 56, had a collection of 1,733 indecent images and videos featuring children and babies A lonely paedophile caught with child abuse manuals including a sick Harry Potter themed handbook was jailed for one year today. Robert Ginn, 56, was arrested after he made a series of internet searches for child pornography. When police raided his east London home they found he had a collection of 1,733 indecent images and videos featuring children and babies. Prosecutor Mathew Turner said Ginn also had instructional paedophile manuals, including one titled: 'Hogwarts School for Pedo Wizards.' Mr Turner said: 'One of the videos depicted a six-month-old baby.' The paedophile manuals were discovered by police as part of Operation Belladonna on devices in Ginn's home. They had not been deleted and were 'easily accessible.' Three of the manuals, each called the Jazz Guide, included tips on 'how to rape a child under-six without causing them harm.' Bespectacled Ginn hobbled into the dock at Snaresbrook Crown Court with the aid of a walking stick. Michael Williams, defending, said Ginn was a 'depressed' and 'lonely' man. Bespectacled Ginn hobbled into the dock at Snaresbrook Crown Court with the aid of a walking stick. He admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and five counts of possessing a paedophile manual He asked Judge Grace Amakye to give Ginn a suspended sentence with a rehabilitative element rather than immediate custody. Mr Williams said: 'A custodial sentence is likely to be one which will result in him losing his accommodation.' He also asked the judge to consider Ginn's pet cat and said: 'He has a cat, which is all he has for company. 'It will be a much darker place he finds himself in when he comes out. 'It is a plea of mercy on his behalf that he can put this most dreadful episode behind him and try to rebuild his life.' Judge Grace Amakye told Ginn: 'I am of the view that your offences are so serious that they do pass the custodial threshold. 'The victims contained within these images were vulnerable because of their ages and they undoubtedly suffered and may still be suffering from the violence meted out upon them.' She sentenced Ginn to a total of 12 months and passed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order. Michael Oatley, from the Crown Prosecution Service, spoke out following Ginn's conviction. He said: 'Robert Ginn kept a number of paedophile manuals that detailed horrific ways in which to sexually abuse and manipulate young children. 'He also admitted he had downloaded thousands of indecent images of children - more than 500 of these were extreme in their nature. 'It is illegal to download indecent images of children and we will prosecute those who break the law and pose a risk to young people.' Ginn, of Bonner Street, Bethnal Green, east London, admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and five counts of possessing a paedophile manual. A planned tube strike is set to go ahead on Wednesday plunging passengers into travel chaos - after last minute talks failed to prevent the 24-hour walkout. The move comes after Tube chiefs refused to reinstate a sacked train driver who was let go after opening train doors while two carriages were still in a tunnel. In a last ditch attempt to prevent the strikes, desperate talks were held today at the conciliation service Acas. Scroll down for video The strike comes just weeks after another held by drivers' union Aslef for the same reason. Commuters are seen here at Liverpool Street station on October 5 when workers staged a walkout on the Central line Stratford station (pictured) is among the destinations across the Central line scheduled to be shut for more than 24 hours. It is pictured here on October 5 when workers staged a similar strike Oxford Circus (pictured) will be among the stops on the Central line not operating on Wednesday as workers stage a 24 hour walkout But Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union and drivers' union Aslef were not convinced by the outcome. Now members of the unions on the Central and Waterloo & City lines will walk out for 24 hours on Wednesday as a result of the dispute. Speaking previously, RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: 'Industrial relations on the Central Line have been at breaking point for some time now. 'And the failure of the management to address the issues, and a conscious decision to up the ante by attempting to single out and pick off individual members of staff, has tipped the situation over the edge and has led to the announcement of strike action.' The strike will fall on the same day as a strike by the union on the Piccadilly Line in a similar dispute. The action is expected to cripple Tube services, causing travel chaos for commuters and other passengers. Commuters at Liverpool Street Station struggled to get to their destination on October 5 as workers staged a 24-hour walkout. The dispute was centered around the sacking of an 'experienced driver' A police officer is seen re-directing a commuter at Liverpool Street station on October 5 as the Central Line and Waterloo & City Line close as part of a 24-hour tube strike. Members of the Aslef union had walked out in a dispute over a sacked driver There were queues outside Ilford station on the morning of October 5 as people struggled to get in as a 24-hour tube strike occurred Ilford station in East London was packed with commuters trying to work out how to get to work as workers staged a 24-hour strike on the Central and Waterloo & City lines on October 5 Finn Brennan, Aslef's organiser on LU, said: 'The issues underlying this dispute - fair treatment at work and complying with agreements - aren't just confined to a couple of areas. 'The Aslef executive committee is to discuss resolutions from our branches on the Hammersmith and City and Northern lines asking to be balloted for action, with other branches set to follow. 'Unless there is a rapid change of approach from management, working inside existing agreements instead of trying to circumvent or 'reinterpret' them, then the likelihood is there will be a network-wide shutdown in the run-up to Christmas.' The Central and Waterloo & City lines are expected to have no service throughout the day on Wednesday, with normal services resuming the next day. While the Piccadilly line will have limited or no service from around 2pm on Wednesday until around 3pm the next day. Mr Brennan continued: 'Senior figures at Transport for London need to realise just how serious the industrial relations problems on London Underground have become and start to deal with them. 'Aslef does not want to be in a position where we are faced with dispute after dispute. We don't want to see passenger journeys disrupted and our members having to lose money.' The Piccadilly line (pictured is a Piccadilly line train at Stamford Brook underground station) will have limited or no service from around 2pm on Wednesday until around 3pm the next day The move comes just weeks after Aslef held a strike on the Central and Waterloo & City lines, plunging passengers into travel chaos. On October 5, commuters were seen stuck in tunnels and spilling out onto pavements as they tried to get to work during what was branded an 'utter shambles'. Angered travellers who pay hundreds of pounds a month for their tickets said they are 'losing wages' or cannot find a suitable way to the office. Aslef train drivers were striking for the reason as the upcoming strike - the sacking of an 'experienced driver' for 'one error of judgement. The unnamed driver had an 'exemplary' record but opened train doors while two carriages were still in a tunnel at Wanstead station shortly before the morning peak period. An appeal hearing upheld the sacking. Tube passengers were furious on October 5 as the Central Line closed for the day as part of a 24-hour strike (above and below) Nigel Holness, LU director of network operations, urged the unions call off the strike actions - labelling it 'unjustifiable'. He said: 'I urge the unions to call off this entirely unnecessary action, which will only cause disruption to our customers, while those discussions are ongoing.' Transport for London will have around 150 extra buses on Wednesday in a bid to relieve pressure brought on by the stirkes. They will also have more than 80 extra buses on Thursday as the Piccadilly line recovers to a normal service following the end of the action. A horse owner filmed the terrifying moment her mare began to throw herself against the doors of a stable after a private fireworks display terrorised the animal. Robyn Barclay, 35, filmed herself on Saturday November 3rd as she tried to calm one of her horses while her neighbour Shirley Kruger helped calm the other. The one-year-old mare, called Miss Moose, that Robyn was attempting to hold back in the footage can be seen trying to 'rear and throw herself at the door.' Robyn Barclay's two horses were 'petrified' by the sound of fireworks on Saturday night Luckily for Robyn, from Sittingbourne in Kent, her neighbour ran over to help as soon as they heard the fireworks go off in the distance around 7pm. She said: 'A neighbour ran over to help me when she heard them start as knew the horses would be petrified. 'She calmed one while I was trying to stop the other from trying to jump out of her stable.' Mare Miss Moose (pictured) tried to 'rear and throw herself at the door' when she heard the pop of fireworks The firework display lasted for 20 minutes and Robyn had to console her horses for the entire time. According to Robyn, both her horses haven't been the same since the terrifying incident on Saturday. She said: 'Both are nervous wrecks the past two days and are now even reacting to car headlights driving past.' Robyn posted the video to her Facebook page with the caption: 'Bloody horrible things. My poor babies. Thank goodness for lovely neighbours who ran over to help me when they heard them start.' Plenty of people have left comments on the heartbreaking video demanding a ban on the use of fireworks. Jude Kirtley Moon said: 'Enough is enough. This is terrible. Poor horses. They need to ban them. Shelly Mortimer posted: 'Bloody irresponsible. If they need a reason to ban sales of fireworks to the general public, this is it.' PETA Director Elisa Allen spoke has criticized the use of fireworks and the effect they have on the wellbeing of pets. She said: 'PETA has longed urged public officials to ban fireworks, which cause countless problems for animals - including fatalities. Robyn and neighbour Shirley Kruger stayed with the two horses (pictured) who were in their stables and tried to comfort them during the 20 minute private firework display After Robyn (pictured) shared the video online, many people called for fireworks to be banned and sympathised with the frightened horses saying 'this is terrible' 'Loud displays seem like World War III to many animals, who have no idea that they're meant to be a celebration.' she said. 'Domesticated animals, including dogs, cats, and horses, often panic when the explosions begin, breaking free from leads or out of enclosures and running for their lives.' This footage comes after a video went viral of a greyhound trembling after hearing fireworks were being let off outside. A petition on Change.org to have private firework displays banned has received more than 300,000 signatures and is days away from reaching its target of 500,000. The petition calls for a review on firework rules in order to protect animals from injury and distress. Robyn said both her horses haven't been the same since the terrifying incident on Saturday and have been ' nervous wrecks' since It said: 'Fireworks can cause serious distress to animals. They don't only suffer psychologically, but also physically as many attempt to run away from, or hide from, the bangs.' Julie Doorne, from Firework Abatement UK (FAB), who set up the petition back in October, has outlined what reviews need to take place in order to keep animals safe. She believes private use of fireworks should be restricted to traditional dates such as November 5th, New Year's Eve, Chinese New Year and Diwali. RSPCA campaign manager Eloise Shavelar agreed with the petition and called for the government to take action. She said: 'We want to see the UK government take advantage of the public's feeling on this by strengthening the existing acts and restricting the use of fireworks to traditional days of the year like bonfire night.' Daniel Stip, 21, came to Britain from his home near Cape Town, South Africa when he was 18, and studied music and performance in Devon before dropping out and moving around the country A 'dangerous' rapist carried out two sex attacks, including one on a 72-year-old widow, after he was freed by mistake from a private mental health hospital. Paranoid schizophrenic Daniel Stip was arrested by police after his first attempted rape on a Cambridge University student in September 2017 but was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Stip was transferred to a hospital run by the Cygnet Group, who should have contacted the police before he was released so he could be arrested and interviewed. He remained at one of their units for just under a month before being freed into the community on October 24, 2017, and moving to Paignton in Devon, where he attacked two more women in January this year. He was picked up by police in Devon in between the two offences and questioned about the Cambridge attack, but at that stage there was no evidence to link him to first Paignton attack and he was released under investigation. Within hours, he barged his way into the home of a 72-year-old widow and raped her. He fled and was only picked up after threatening to jump off the Clifton Suspension Bridge five days later. Homeless South African ex student Stip, aged 21, admitted rape, two counts of attempted rape, robbery, burglary, and was sent to a secure mental hospital, by Judge Peter Johnson under a hospital order. The victim of the first assaults was a student on her second day as a fresher at Cambridge who was attacked in the street on September 17 last year. She fought Stip off and he fled after robbing her of 40 after two male students intervened. He was identified by DNA and arrested in Kings Lynn on September 26. He was sectioned almost immediately and transferred to the care of the Cygnet group, who should have notified police of his release on October 24, but did not do so. His next attack was in Victoria Park, Paignton, on January 2 this year, where he pinned down a 25-year-old stranger. She was able to fight him off but was so traumatised she was not able to give police full details for several days. Stip was arrested on January 4 and interviewed about the Cambridge rape before being released under investigation. He raped the 72-year-old woman the next morning. He was arrested in Bristol on January 10 and has been detained in mental hospitals ever since. He has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, which was induced or aggravated by his heavy use of cannabis. Judge Peter Johnson told him: 'You moved to this country when you were 18 and already suffering from a mental disorder. In September 2017 you carried out the first attempted rape. It was a very disturbing attack which left the victim with significant problems. 'On January 2 this year you committed another attempted rape in Paignton. It was another very unpleasant attack which has had long term consequences on her. 'On January 5, you went into a woman's house, and having pushed her in the door, you raped her. If that was not bad enough, you took the ashes of her partner when she begged you not to do so. 'It is clear that on any view, you are dangerous and there is a serious risk of sexual offending against women strangers.' Mr Martin Salloway, defending, said it was clear that Stip's mental illness was the principle reason for his offending and that it reduced his culpability. Stip came to Britain from his home near Cape Town, South Africa when he was 18, and studied music and performance in Devon before dropping out and moving around the country. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is making a massive, last-minute push on behalf of Democrats in the mid-terms. The former politician who has repeatedly changed his party affiliation put $5 million behind an ad buy urging the public to support Democrats on Tuesday. 'Political violence tears at the heart of our democracy. And violence against a religious group, in a house of God, tears at the heart of our humanity,' Bloomberg, who's Jewish, says, seemingly referring to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. 'At these moments of great national tragedy, we look to Washington to lead.' As Bloomberg decries 'pointed fingers instead of open hands, division instead of unity,' a photo of President Trump pointing appears on the screen. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is making a massive, last-minute push on behalf of Democrats in the mid-terms As Bloomberg decries 'pointed fingers instead of open hands, division instead of unity,' a photo of President Trump pointing appears on the screen The philanthropist who has thrown his weight behind gun control reform notes that he's supported candidates on the left, on the right and in the center. 'But at this moment, we must send a signal to Republicans in Washington that they have failed to lead, failed to find solutions, and failed to bring us together,' he says. 'Thats why I'm voting Democratic.' Bloomberg's foray into the election and his direct attack on Trump added to speculation that he plans to oppose the sitting president in 2020. In an interview late last month, Bloomberg played coy, telling CNN, 'I am focusing on Nov. 6 and then I've said, you know, a few months later I'll take a look at it and see.' 'I'm trying to go to as many places as I can in this country and talk to people and see what's on their mind and understand whether I think with my experience I could help them get where they want to go and then try to convince them that I'm the right person for it,' he said. Other candidates have launched so-called listening tours before their bids, as well. For months, Hillary Clinton traveled the country listening to voters before she finally announced her long-planned bid. Bloomberg in his two-minute ad has him talking direct to camera, as if he were a candidate. It aired during '60 Minutes' on Sunday evening on CBS and was set to run on CNN on MSNBC on Monday, according to a release provided by Independence USA PAC. Independence USA is Bloomberg's self-funded political action committee. As a former mayor of New York City, Bloomberg in the ad presents himself 'as an American who is deeply concerned with the direction of our nation,' in the wake of political violence like the October synagogue shooting. 'We expect a plan. We expect to be called to a higher purpose. We expect to work together. I don't hear that call coming from Washington these days. Do you?' he asks. Bloomberg takes aim at both sides in the ad, claiming that the 'greatest threats' to America today are from within the federal government. 'Sadly, our greatest threats today can be found from within our borders, from a government that is constantly on the verge of shutting down over partisan bickering, that is accumulating record debt, and failing to address our most urgent problems,' he says. He ends the ad with a call to action. 'America is the greatest nation on earth and for all our sakes we must start becoming the UNITED States of America once again.' John Jay Curtis (pictured),75, a retired California lawyer, told Dailymail.com on Monday that he was terribly injured by a Corona bottle unexpectedly exploding A third person has claimed to have been terribly injured by a Corona bottle unexpectedly exploding. John Jay Curtis, 75, from Mission, Viejo, California, shared photos of the gruesome injuries he sustained to his foot on September 25 following what he says was an explosion inside a case of Corona bottles that shot shattered glass into his body. The retired California lawyer told Dailymail.com on Monday that his injuries included a severed artery and nerves in his leg. New York City barback Gonzalo Louis-Morales told the New York Post of his encounter with an exploding Corona bottle in July, followed by construction worker Lachtman Ramnanan sharing a similar story with the Post from an incident on Father's Day, with each encounter leaving both men partially blinded. 'You have to ask yourself, are they so callous that they would rather let people get seriously injured and fight law suits rather than spend the money to do the right thing and recall Corona beer?', Curtis said. Curtis told DailyMail.com that he plans to file a lawsuit to recover damages related to his injuries. Curtis (pictured) said that his injuries included a severed artery and nerves in his leg John Jay Curtis, 75, from Mission Viejo, California, is the third person to claim to have been terribly injured by a Corona bottle unexpectedly exploding (Curtis's injury is shown here) Curtis told the New York Post in an article published on Sunday that he was walking through his garage while carrying a case of Corona bottles, on the way his kitchen door, when suddenly 'there was an explosion like someone shot off a grenade.' 'All of a sudden, Im in abject pain and thrown back on the ground. My right leg is all cut and bleeding profusely,' Curtis said. 'I passed out and lost consciousness for maybe 20 seconds and just bled everywhere, and then I come to, and I scream for my partner to come out and help me, and he did, and he started picking out the glass. 'It took us 20 minutes to stop the bleeding and get the glass out.' Curtis told the New York Post in an article published on Sunday that he was walking through his garage while carrying a case of Corona bottles, on the way his kitchen door, when suddenly 'there was an explosion like someone shot off a grenade' Curtis went to his primary care physician, who he said told him, 'I feel something in there,' and took her scalpel and removed a shard of glass His injuries 'started festering and got red and started hurting,' Curtis said, within days of the accident. Curtis went to his primary care physician, who he said told him, 'I feel something in there.' 'She numbed me up and took a scalpel and found a little shard of glass that was in there,' Curtis said. Corona beers are brewed by Constellation Brands, Inc., with bottles manufactured by Owen-Illinois Glass, and sold at Costco, among may other places. Following his ordeal, Curtis said he contacted both Constellation and Owens-Illinois, and both companies said they'd come take a look at the case that Curtis purchased, including whatever was left of the shattered glass bottles. 'I am angered, and disheartened that Constellation Brands, Owen-Illinois Glass and Costco for many months, if not years, continue to manufacture, bottle and sell Corona beer bottles after they learned a long time ago that some of these bottles have, without warning, exploded like glass grenades injuring people all over the country, putting out one man's eye, severing an artery and nerves in my leg,' Curtis said. 'I am angered, and disheartened that Constellation Brands, Owen-Illinois Glass and Costco for many months, if not years, continue to manufacture, bottle and sell Corona beer bottles after they learned a long time ago that some of these bottles have, without warning, exploded like glass grenades injuring people all over the country, putting out one man's eye, severing an artery and nerves in my leg,' Curtis said A spokesperson said the matter is being investigated and they are 'committed to ensuring that our products continue to meet our high quality standards' Constellation spokesperson Michael McGrew said: 'We take any claims related to consumer safety, health and well-being seriously. I can say unequivocally that we conduct rigorous testing throughout our production process, and our bottles are designed and tested to maintain their integrity. We will investigate the matter and remain committed to ensuring that our products continue to meet our high quality standards.' Curtis, however, is not buying McGrew's statement. 'They have had months, if not years to "investigate" and yet have done absolutely nothing to stop the mayhem or to compensate their victims,' Curtis said. 'What they are doing is irresponsible and callous.' Curtis add that he'd like to know 'what the hell did Corona do to solve this' following the earlier reports by Louis-Morales and Ramnanan, who also said they were injured by exploding bottles. Curtis would like the company to issue a recall, to protect other consumers. Authorities believe a massive gas explosion was responsible for leveling most of a 9,000-square-foot house in Pennsylvania Sunday night. Police said that an apparent gas leak led to the explosion which demolished about 75 per cent of a Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, mansion shortly after 8pm on Sunday. The six-bedroom home, said to have been sold for $3.4million in 2008, was under renovation at the time of the blast. Fortunately, the homeowners who have not yet been identified were inside the 2.4-acre property's guest house and no injuries were reported, according to NBC Philadelphia. A suspected gas leak-related explosion flattened 75 per cent of a Pennsylvania mansion Sunday night, festooning neighboring trees and the lawn with debris The sound from the explosion was said to have been heard across the township and resulted in at least one home suffering damage to a window pane However, it was reported that rubble from the home were strewn around the lawn, while debris landed in neighbors' trees. A PECO energy company spokesperson told the Delaware County Daily Times that PECO crews arrived at the home at about 8.45pm Sunday to turn off the gas. The energy crews, police and other first responders were also at the scene Monday morning. The spokesperson also told NBC Philadelphia that no additional gas leaks would pose any public threat. The booming noise from the explosion was said to have been heard across the region, while the force from the explosion caused damage to nearby homes. The 9,000-square-foot home (pictured prior to explosion) was under renovations at the time of the explosion and its occupants were living in a guest house on the property Energy company crews arrived on the scene to turn off the gas shortly after the explosion Authorities said they don't believe foul play was involved in the explosion, but noted that the fire marshal and ATF would be investigated the incident One man tweeted that he 'Lost a window pane in the explosion,' accompanying it with a photo Across the street neighbor Peter Cooke, 80, told The Inquirer that he had never heard anything as loud as the explosion, but that when he looked outside, he didn't see any fire. Cooke's son, Michael, 30, said that the family 'thought a meteor had gone off or something.' Meanwhile, Steve Liebowitz, 60, whose home is about a half mile away from the exploded mansion, said that the sound was so loud and sounded so nearby that he first thought his backyard grill had exploded. His 12-year-old son, Chase, thought it might've been a gunshot. 'In today's world, you don't know what kind of explosion happened or whether it was a gunshot,' Liebowitz said, noting that they were 'actually afraid' of the noise. And, on social media, tweeter Larry Borden, wrote that he 'Lost a window pane in the explosion' and also posted a clip from his surveillance camera revealing what the explosion sounded like from his home. It's unclear exactly how far away he lives from the house that was destroyed, however. Local police said that the explosion could be heard 'township wide,' while ABC 6 reported that 911 calls about the blast noise came in from neighboring state New Jersey. Authorities do not believe that foul play was involved in the explosion, but the fire marshal and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are said to be investigating what happened. Election Day 2018 is mere hours away and all eyes are on a few key political races that may determine which party controls Congress for the next two years. Much debate has centered on whether the Democrats can recapture the House of Representatives and deliver a rebuke to US President Donald Trump or if the Republicans will be able to defy the polls and hang on to maintain their majority. In the Senate, the Republicans are still favored to maintain control, though a few critical races could upend that dramatically. Governors races across the country, often relegated to the background in favor over the high-stakes battle for Congress, have emerged as crucial in the upcoming election as several candidates try to make history and both Republicans and Democrats test out their messages in the key 2020 election swing states. The fate of the US Congress hangs in the balance of just a handful of crucial political races Heres a look at the key races to watch head of the 2018 midterm election as well as information on how to watch the election results, when the polls close, when the exit polls come out and when the actual results will be available. House of Representatives races to watch Much of the lead-up to the 2018 midterm election has centered on whether the Democrats will be able to regain control of the House of Representatives for the first time since relinquishing control of it to the Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections, which saw them sustain broad losses across the board. Indeed, most pollsters give the Democrats strong odds of retaking the Congressional chamber, with FiveThirtyEight pegging the Democrats chances of retaking the House of Representatives at 87 per cent as of November 5, though, until the final results are in, nothing is assured for their party. Likewise, the Cook Political Report is also forecasting a net gain of 30 to 40 seats in the House of Representatives, more than enough to flip the chamber to Democratic control. Key races to watch include Iowas fourth congressional district, where incumbent Congressman Steve King is locked in an increasingly tight race and could end up losing. King has drawn criticism as of late after more attention has been drawn to his controversial statements and alleged relationships with European far-right parties and endorsements of politicians tied to racist and Neo Nazi groups. Another racially-charged race lies in New Yorks 19th congressional district where John Faso, the incumbent Republican, is locked in an extremely close battle with Democrat Antonio Delgado. Some Republican groups have attacked Delgado, an African-American, over his career in hip-hop music. Even more critical races lie in Kansass third congressional district and New Mexicos first congressional district, where Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland are respectively running to become the first Native American women to serve in Congress. Senate races to watch The Senate too has many key races to keep a close eye on as the 2018 midterm election draws near. As the Republicans currently hold a razor thin 51-49 majority, the election results of just a few critical races could either bolster their majority in the chamber or see it revert back to Democratic control. As with the House of Representatives, a small handful of key races have emerged as critical to watch. Per Real Clear Politics, a number of crucial races have come down to the wire and are very important in terms of which party will control the chamber. Senator Ted Cruz, left, and Representative Beto O'Rourke, right, are locked in a tight and unpredictable Senate race in Texas as the 2018 midterm elections looms closer by the hour In Florida, Democratic Senator Bill Nelson is locked in a tight battle with Republican Governor Rick Scott, leading Scott very narrowly on the eve of the election. The contest in Indiana is also exceptionally close, with incumbent Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly holding a razor thin edge over Republican challenger Mike Braun. Missouri is being eyed by Republicans as a potential pickup, as Republican candidate and Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley holds a very slim lead over Democratic incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill. The Republicans are also hoping for another pickup in Montana, where Trump won handily in 2016. However, incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Tester currently holds a modest lead over Republican challenger Matt Rosendale, the states auditor. One interesting race thats been shaping up to be surprisingly competitive is in West Virginia, where Trump again won easily in 2016. There, Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democratic who once held a commanding lead, has seen his lead collapse in the finals days of the race where hes pitted against Republican challenger and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey. In Texas, incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz holds a fairly modest lead over Democratic challenger Representative Beto ORourke in whats shaping up to be one of the most hotly-contested and closest races in the country. In the southwestern US, two battleground states have also emerged as being critical to watch. In Nevada, Democratic challenger Representative Jacky Rosen has surged into a slight lead over incumbent Republican Senator Dean Heller while in Arizona, Democratic Representative Kyrsten Sinema holds a very narrow lead over fellow Representative Martha McSally, a Republican, as the two battle to become the states first female senator. In Tennessee, Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn holds a modest lead over Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen in the final hours before the election. Governors races to watch Many governors races have shaped up to be very competitive and could alter the political landscape in many states across the US. In Florida, Democrat Andrew Gillum, the Mayor of Tallahassee, is locked in a close battle with Republican Representative Ron DeSantis. In neighboring Georgia, Stacey Abrams is attempting to become the first African-American female governor in US history in her close battle with Republican Brian Kemp, the Georgia Secretary of State. Democratic candidate for Governor of Florida, Andrew Gillum, is trying to defeat Republican candidate Representative Ron DeSantis to become the state's first African-American governor Likewise, in Vermont, Democratic candidate Christine Hallquist is running to become the first transgender governor in US history, though currently trails the states incumbent Republican governor, Phil Scott, in the polls. In Maryland, Democrat Ben Jealous is also running to become the first African-American governor of the state, though he currently trails in most polls to incumbent Republican Governor Larry Hogan. In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt, the states attorney general, and Democrat Steve Sisolak are currently deadlocked in the polls while another very competitive race is shaping up in Iowa, where Democrat Fred Hubbell is facing an extremely close contest with incumbent Republican Governor Kim Reynolds. How to watch the 2018 midterm election Live election coverage will air on all the major news networks, including ABC News, CBS News and NBC News, while cable news networks such as CNN, MSNBC and Fox News will also air extensive coverage with live analysis and commentary by a wide array of pundits and pollsters. C-SPAN and PBS will also air live coverage while NPR will also offer coverage of the races starting at 8pm EST. When do the polls close? Polls closures vary by state, though most are generally between 7pm EST and 11pm EST. Alaska and Hawaii, however, wont close their polls until midnight. Close races could mean that the outcome of the election isn't known quickly on election night When do the exit polls come out? Exit polls are expected to be available as soon as the polls close. However, as the 2016 election showed, exit polls dont always necessarily reflect the actual outcome of the races, reinforcing the importance of waiting until the final results are in and fully counted. When will the results come in? The actual election results may take a while to filter in due to various reasons. The predicted high turnout, considerable number of absentee ballots and large population of states like California, Florida and Texas among others and the likelihood of many close races will likely mean that not all the races will be called quickly and could linger into Wednesday morning or longer. However, as many key states will close their polls fairly early, the control of the House of Representatives could be determined before midnight. In the 2014 midterm elections, the results of two House of Representatives races in California werent determined for a full two weeks after the election. Notably, some states, particularly for governors races, have runoff elections if no candidates breaks a certain threshold on Election Day, typically 50 per cent of the vote. The question of whether or not Georgia's Stacey Abrams will become the nation's first black female governor could drag on for a month after Election Day if neither she nor her opponent garner a majority of votes on Tuesday. Georgia law requires either the Democrat Abrams or the Republican Brian Kemp accumulate more than 50 percent of the vote, which may not happen given how close polling has the race and the presence of Libertarian candidate Ted Metz on the ballot. If neither tops 50 percent, then the top two finishers move into a runoff election, which would take place on Dec. 4. The Georgia Governor's contest between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp could go on another month should neither garner over 50 percent at the ballot box Final polls: The last three polls to be published on Sunday and Monday create a confusing picture President Trump held a campaign rally for Kemp on Sunday Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Abrams on Friday There has never been a general election runoff for governor in Georgia. Polls show the race is essentially tied as both parties have invested heavily in their candidates. And early voting has reached record levels with more than 2 million people already casting their ballots. Behind the scenes, both Abrams and Kemp's campaigns are preparing for a prolonged campaign, including assembling legal teams and stockpiling money for another 28 days of campaigning, Politico reported. If a runoff does happen, it could be quite the spectacle in Georgia. The contest has already drawn mega-watt star power into the state with Will Ferrell, Oprah Winfrey and former President Barack Obama flying in to help Abrams. Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump have campaigned for Kemp. Given the national spotlight on the race, should a runoff happen expect money and more famous names to pour in. Both sides are also buckling down on election laws as Kemp, the Georgia secretary of state, has claimed the Democratic Party of Georgia attempted to hack the state's voter registration system yet has provided no evidence to support the charge. The secretary of state's office is refusing to supply any details, as well, and the Democratic Party is denying the unverified allegation, calling it a 'political stunt.' Kemp defended the investigation to reporters on Monday, saying he's 'not worried about how it looks' to launch an investigation into the opposition party just two days before the election. 'I'm doing my job,' he said. 'This is how we would handle any investigation when something like this comes up. Because I can assure you if I hadn't done anything and the story came out that something was going on, you'd be going, 'Why didn't you act?'' Abrams called the accusation another example of Kemp's 'pattern of voter suppression' during an interview Monday on CBS's 'This Morning.' Star power has poured into the state: Actor Will Ferrell campaigned for Abrams last month Oprah Winfrey campaigned for Abrams last week Vice President Mike Pence campaigned for Kemp last week She also said it was a 'witch hunt.' 'It's wrong to call it an investigation,' she told CNN on Monday morning. 'It's a witch hunt that was created by someone who is abusing his power.' Additionally, Abrams has called on Kemp to resign as secretary of state over alleged voter suppression tactics that have made it more difficult for African-American voters to cast ballots. Georgia is litigating its voter identification rules requiring information to be a precise match to the Social Security Administration's listing for an individual to cast a ballot in the mid-term election. A federal judge in an injunction on Friday said that Georgia must ease up on the rules that bar individuals from casting a ballot if there's even a slight variation, caused sometimes by a data entry problem, such as a missing hyphen or spelling error. Georgians who show proof of citizenship must be allowed to vote on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor L. Ross said. Kemp's office says it has already been living up to that standard in early voting. According to the Associated Press, more than 51,100 Georgians will be affected this election by the issue that could prevent them from casting a ballot, if they do not bring the proper documents. Opening statements got under way Monday morning in the trial of a man accused of killing Queens jogger Karina Vetrano two years ago. A jury made up of eight women and four men is hearing the case of murder suspect Chanel Lewis. Lewis, 21, is charged with sexually assaulting and strangling Karina Vetrano as she ran on a secluded park trail in Howard Beach, Queens, in August 2016. Mothers in court: Cathie Vetrano (left), the mother of murder victim Karina Vetrano, is pictured arriving in Queens Supreme Court on the first day of the trial against Chanel Lewis, whose mother, Veta (right), was also in attendance Karina Vetrano was 30 years old when in August 2016 she went out for a jog near her home in Queens, from which she never returned Six months later, police arrested then 20-year-old Chanel Lewis in connection to the jogger's death Karina's mother, Cathie Vetrano, was seen sobbing and clutching a cross as Queens Assistant District Attorney Brad Leventhal described in graphic detail her daughter's final violent moments, reported NBC New York. The prosecutor told the court in his opening statement that the 30-year-old runner was accosted and grabbed as she jogged along Spring Creek Park on August 2, 2016. Vetrano was punched in the face, thrown to the ground, violently raped and then strangled in a marsh, about a block away from her house, where her father, Philip Vetrano, would later find her body. Authorities previously said that the victim desperately fought for her life until the very end. Final photo: This screenshot shows Karina jogging along Spring Creek Park on August 2, 2016, a short time before her rape and strangulation Authorities said Karina(left and right) put up a fight before her killer choked her to death Lewis was arrested and charged in connection to Vetrano's murder six months later. Despite making a videotaped confession, in which he allegedly admitted to killing Vetrano, saying he was mad at his neighbor when he spotted her at random and snapped, Lewis has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and aggravated sex abuse. In February, a judge decided to let DNA evidence and a videotaped confession be used at trial. Lewis' attorneys previously questioned the validity of his DNA sample from a consensual cheek swab, which was compared to DNA evidence recovered from under the victim's fingernails, and the manner in which his confession was gained. On Day 1 of Lewis's trial, the defendant, dressed in a grey suit, glanced back at Vetrano's mother and sister, who was rocking back and forth in her seat. Cathie Vetrano wept as the prosecutor described the moment her husband, Phil, found their daughter lying face down in the dirt. 'He fell to his knees, wept and did what any parent would do. He cradled her and lifted her back to his chest,' Leventhal said, according to reporting by the Queens Daily Eagle Lewiss mother, Veta, was also in court today. She arrived in the company of State Assemblyman Charles Barron and the Rev Kevin McCall. Cathie Vetrano was seen sobbing and clutching a cross during opening statements A 10-year-old girl has been detained in the death of an infant after she allegedly stomped on his head at a daycare in Wisconsin. Chippewa County Sheriff Jim Kowalczyk said the girl is in juvenile custody and has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide. Kowalczyk said the sheriff's department got a call on Tuesday from a caretaker at a day care in the town of Wheaton. A 10-year-old girl (pictured) has been detained in the death of an infant after she allegedly stomped on his head at a daycare in Wisconsin. The child appeared in court on Monday and was charged with first-degree intentional homicide The caller said a six-month-old male was bleeding from the head and was unresponsive. Kowalczyk said the infant was pronounced dead at the Gillette Childrens Hospital in St Paul, Minnesota. According to the Star Tribune, police questioned one adult and three children at the day care center. All four pointed at the 10-year-old girl as the suspect. The girl later admitted to hurting the infant. She reportedly told authorities that she was holding the baby when she dropped him. Police said the child then hit his head on a footstool and began crying. The girl panicked and stomped on the childs head, Kowalczyk said. She reportedly told authorities that she was holding the baby when she dropped him. Police said the child then hit his head on a footstool and began crying. The girl panicked and allegedly stomped on the childs head When the baby was found, he was bleeding from the head and unresponsive. The infant was pronounced dead at the Gillette Childrens Hospital (pictured) in St Paul, Minnesota According to the Tribune, a doctor who examined the baby determined that the injuries were not accidental. The girl appeared in Chippewa County Circuit Court on Monday morning in handcuffs and wearing a black hoodie. Her biological parents were in court with her, but the girl had been removed from their home in September and placed in foster care. The girl was staying with the family who runs the day care when the tragic death occurred. Cash bond was set at $50,000. A Utah mayor who was on his fourth deployment to Afghanistan when he was shot dead last week had just posted about the gains America was making in the war against terror. On October 29, Brent Taylor shared photos of the men and women of Afghanistan making their way to the polls for the first time in close to a decade. 'It was beautiful to see over 4 million Afghan men and women brave threats and deadly attacks to vote in Afghanistans first parliamentary elections in eight years,' wrote Henry. 'The strong turnout, despite the attacks and challenges, was a success for the long-suffering people of Afghanistan and for the cause of human freedom.' Of the images he shared, the most striking was one of a Muslim woman depositing her ballot in a voting box as he noted: 'A record number of women ran for Parliament and voted in this month's election.' He closed out the post by stating: 'As the USA gets ready to vote in our own election next week, I hope everyone back home exercises their precious right to vote. And that whether the Republicans or the Democrats win, that we all remember that we have far more as Americans that unites us than divides us.' Scroll down for video Family size: Brent Taylor, the mayor of North Ogden, Utah and a father of seven, was shot dead while on a year-long deployment with the national Guard in Afghanistan (Brent, his wife and five of their children) Powerful statement: One week prior to his death, Taylor has shared a Facebook post showing residents of the country voting for the first time in almost a decade (woman casing ballot above) Exercise: He was killed when an Afghan security forces member allegedly opened fire on him and some other foreign servicemen as they were training Afghan soldiers (Taylor training above) Less than a week after he shared that post, Taylor was shot dead. The major and military intelligence officer with Joint Force Headquarters was expected to return to his mayoral job in January, and reunite with his wife Jennie and their seven children, ranging in age from 11 months to 13 years old. Taylor served two tours in Iraq and was on his second tour in Afghanistan. His remains are scheduled to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday evening. Earlier Sunday, Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton, the adjutant general of the Utah National Guard, told reporters that Taylor's mission was to help train and build the capacity of the Afghan national army. 'He was with folks he was helping and training. That's what's so painful about this. It's bitter,' said Burton. 'I do believe that Major Taylor felt he was among friends, with people he was working with.' Taylor was shot by one of the commandos being trained and that the attacker was killed by Afghan forces. Tributes poured out from politicians across the state in the wake of his death. Rest in peace: Taylor is survived by his wife Jennie and their seven children 'Brent was a hero, a patriot, a wonderful father, and a dear friend,' wrote Senator Orrin Hatch. 'News of his death in Afghanistan is devastating. My prayers and love are with Jennie and his seven young children. His service will always be remembered.' Governor Gary Herbert wrote: 'I am heartbroken at the loss of Major Brent Taylor. Our deepest condolences and constant prayers are with his wife Jennie, his children and the entire Taylor family. All of Utah mourns with you.' Taylor became the city's mayor in 2013, four years after being elected to the city council. He stepped down for the past year while serving overseas, but was ready to resume his duties when he returned home. The NYPD is hunting a group of young men who were filmed throwing a pole through a Brooklyn synagogue on Saturday as Sabbath services took place inside. The group was caught on surveillance cameras hovering around the synagogue in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood on Saturday. There were six boys in the group. Some wore black hoodies and some wore orange sweatshirts. Together, they stood for a moment and looked inside the synagogue from the sidewalk. The boy who was holding the pole mimed tossing it towards the building but didn't. As they started to make their way further down the street, another boy in the group grabbed it from him and hurled it through the window glass. They all ran away immediately. The synagogue has not been named. One man, who did not wish to be named, told The New York Post that there were people inside at the time of the incident. The teenagers hovered outside the synagogue in Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant neigborhood for a minute on Saturday while prayers were happening inside One of the teenagers in an orange sweatshirt hurled the pole through the window All six of the boys ran off immediately. Police are now appealing for information about them The boys took off running down the street afterwards. Their stunt occurred just a week after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting which claimed 11 lives. After the atrocity, synagogues in New York City and elsewhere around the country were on high alert and enlisted their own security as a precaution. The NYPD is now hunting the teens who they say knew they were targeting a synagogue. They categorized the incident as a hate crime. The Williamsburg Shromrim, a neighborhood watch group founded in the 1970s to counteract antisemitic attacks, tweeted the video to alert Jews in Brooklyn to the dangerous attitudes. 'Be on the lookout,' it said. Advertisement Effigies of Prime Minister Theresa May and Boris Johnson are among the Bonfire Night guys going up in flames this evening as Britain remembers the fifth of November. All across the UK this evening families wrapped up warm and gathered outside to watch the Bonfire night celebrations, commemorating the failed gunpowder plot of 1605. Ever since the failed plot, for hundreds of years, Brits have marked the occasion by setting off fireworks and lighting bonfires with a guy, perched on top of the searing flames. A number of local societies now pick a prominent celebrity or politician to be placed on top of the bonfire, with previous guys including Nigel Farage, US President Donald Trump and Cherie Blair. Scroll down for video Participants have started to parade through the town of Lewes during the annual Bonfire Night festivities. Hundreds of other events will also be taking part across the UK this evening People from the village of Ottery St Mary in Devon carrying the traditional burning tar barrels through the streets this evening Effigies including one featuring British Prime Minister Theresa May and Jacob Rees-Mogg sit near the parade route ahead of Bonfire Night celebrations tonight in Lewes, England Fireworks explode above Caenarfon castle in Wales this evening at the bonfire celebrations. Thousands of people will be wrapping up warm and flocking to events all over the country Boris Johnson and a headless Theresa May waiting expectantly before the start of the Lewes Bonfire Night which attracts approximately 100,000 visitors Participants dressed in costumes from the 1600s parade through Lewes, in East Sussex, this evening. They also have a number of guys, including Theresa May, to be burnt on the fire Pyrotechnics staff oversee the bonfire as a giant wooden reindeer-drawn sleigh burns on the Skinningrove Bonfire, at Saltburn-by-the-Sea in north-east England tonight An effigy of Boris Johnson is paraded through the town of Lewes in East Sussex during an annual bonfire night procession held by the Lewes Bonfire Societies This evening at Lewes annual bonfire evening, in East Sussex, which attracts more than 100,000 visitors, the guys burnt seemed to have a distinctly political theme with an effigy of Prime Minister Theresa May riding the red Leave campaign bus, with Brexit supporting Tory-MP Jacob Rees-Mogg holding on at the back. Another shows Boris Johnson with a headless Theresa May, in a none too subtle dig at his possible future political ambitions. A further giant model appears to show the Prime Minister wearing a leopard print dress and shoes with a bag over her head with Number 10 as a sinking ship. The Lewes Borough Bonfire Society also produced a tableau of a steam engine entitled the 'Lewes Ghost Train' in a nod to the problems the town has faced with public transport provided by Southern Railway and its parent company Govia Thameslink. The popular tradition- known by many as Guy Fawkes night- marks the failed gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament in 1605. Members of the public watch as a giant wooden reindeer-drawn sleigh burns on the Skinningrove Bonfire, at Saltburn-by-the-Sea in Yorkshire People at a huge neighbourhood fire in Speke, Liverpool this evening. Thousands of Brits will wrap up warm and head to celebrations this evening A ghost train effigy made for the Lewes bonfire night this evening. Thousands of people are expected to make the trip down to East Sussex to see the fire and the parade A barrel is relit as children from the village of Ottery St Mary, in Devon, take part in the traditional burning tar barrels through the streets of the village Participants parade through the town of Lewes in East Sussex during an annual bonfire night procession held by the Lewes Bonfire Societies. Thousands are expected to flock to East Sussex this evening to see it A group of people gather to watch fireworks go off at a huge neighbourhood bonfire in Speke, in Liverpool, this evening A group of people watch at fireworks brighten the sky above Speke, in Liverpool this evening, as a large fire rages in the centre Revellers parade through the streets of Lewes in East Sussex, southern England, on November 5, 2018, during the traditional Bonfire Night celebrations A giant wooden reindeer burns on the Skinningrove Bonfire, at Saltburn-by-the-Sea in north-east England tonight Participants parade through the town during the annual Bonfire Night festivities in Lewes, Britain this evening It takes its name from Guy Fawkes- the ringleader of the Catholic plot designed to assassinate the Protestant King James I and replace him with a catholic. Although Guy Fawkes is the most famous conspirator, he was by no means the one who conceived the plan. Fawkes was drafted in by Thomas Wintour, the cousin of the plot's mastermind Lord Robert Catesby. Fawkes distinguished himself in military matters during the 80 Years War, where he fought on the side of Catholic Spain against the Protestant Dutch, and developed an intimate knowledge of gunpowder and explosiveswhich were crucial to the plot. Participants parade through the town of Lewes in East Sussex during an annual bonfire night procession held by the Lewes Bonfire Societies tonight A reveller wearing fancy dress along with hundreds of others as they parade through the streets of Lewes in East Sussex tonight An effigy is pulled on a cart as participants parade through the town during the annual Bonfire Night festivities in Lewes this evening After the initial meeting in May 1604, where Catesby, Fawkes, Wintour and Thomases Percy and Wright swore an oath of loyalty, the final tally of conspirators grew to 13 by March 1605. The conspirators rented a basement storeroom in the Palace of Westminster, to which 36 barrels of gunpowder were transported. The plot was supposed to be executed months before the final 5th November date, but Parliament continued to be delayed, forcing the conspirators to wait. Crucially, the plot remained secret all that time, until late October 1605, when the nobleman Lord Monteagle received an unsigned letter that read: 'My lord, out of the love I bear to some of your friends, I have a care of your preservation, therefore I would advise you as you tender your life to devise some excuse to shift of your attendance at this parliament . . . for though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow.' Revellers parade through the streets of Lewes in East Sussex this evening. A man in a bowler hat tends to his bonfire this evening at the parade (pictured) Participants wear costumes ahead of the annual Bonfire Night festivities in Lewes this evening. A reveller is carrying a sign saying 'Trust in God and Keep Your Powder Dry' Revellers parade through the streets of Lewes in East Sussex, southern England, on November 5, 2018, during the traditional Bonfire Night celebrations A member of a bonfire society wears a costume ahead of the annual Bonfire Night festivities, in Lewes, this evening Monteagle passed the letter to King James's spymaster Robert Cecil and at midnight on 5th November, Guy Fawkes was discovered in the storeroom holding long fuses and matches after a second search of the Palaces. Giving his name as John Johnson, Fawkes was tortured for two days straight before he broke and revealed the details of the plot. He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered alive in January 1606the standard punishment for those convicted of treason. However, he defied his sentence by jumping from the gallows and snapping his neck. On principle, his corpse was hanged, drawn and quartered anyway. The evening always falls on November 5 each year so is convenient to remember, the famous rhyme many will remember from their childhood goes: 'Remember, remember!/ The fifth of November/ The Gunpowder treason and plot;/I know of no reason/ Why the Gunpowder treason/ Should ever be forgot!' Volunteers in Kansas City, Missouri were left reeling Sunday evening after The Kansas City Health Department 'dumped food that had been prepared for the homeless.' An organization called 'Free Hot Soup,' that brings food and clothing to Kansas City's homeless community, told KCTV5 News that the health inspectors had dumped out the food, that included bean soup, and told them to leave. Jennifer McCartney, who volunteers with 'Free Hot Soup,' said she was shocked when police and health inspectors showed up at Ilus Davis Park where they were serving meals. Volunteers were left shocked after The Kansas City Health Department 'dumped food that had been prepared for the homeless.' Bean soup (pictured) was one of the dishes Some of the homeless, who have benefited from the free food, said they are dependent on meals like those given out by 'Free Hot Soup.' 'It lifts you up and makes you feel like you can make it,' said Paul Spicer, a 'Free Hot Soup' recipient. A health department official told KCTV5 the group was serving improperly prepared food without a permit. They shut down all three locations where McCartney and other volunteers were working. 'They told us we could throw away the meals or they would do it,' McCartney added. A video shows health department officials carrying trash bags that volunteers said contained food intended for the homeless but discarded by inspectors An organization called 'Free Hot Soup' had prepared the food for Kansas City's homeless community, they claim it was thrown out in bags by inspectors (pictured) One volunteer took video of inspectors dumping food into plastic bags to go in the trash and said they poured bleach on it. The video was posted on Facebook by Mindy Nickles. Inspectors shut down all three locations where 'Free Hot Soup' were distributing free food The health department said it's normal practice to make sure no one eats discarded food and that they had warned 'Free Hot Soup' in the past about serving community meals. Kava-no: The new Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh, will not hear a gun control case after the court as a whole decided against taking up a California challenge. It is unknown how he voted The U.S. Supreme Court for a second straight year refused on Monday to hear a challenge to California's limits on carrying handguns in public, dealing another setback to gun rights proponents. The court's action underscored its continued reluctance to step into a national debate over gun control roiled by a series of mass shootings including the one at a Pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11 people on Oct. 27. It has not taken up a major gun case since 2010. The justices, declining to hear an appeal by two gun owners, on Monday left in place a November 2017 ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding California's restrictions. California law generally bars people from carrying firearms outside the home but local sheriffs can issue permits to carry a concealed gun in public places if applicants show 'good cause.' It is left up to individual sheriffs to determine what constitutes 'good cause.' The Supreme Court in June 2017 declined to hear a similar case challenging California's policy toward carrying guns in public. In the case acted upon on Monday, gun owners James Rothery and Andrea Hoffman - who wanted to carry their weapons in public - sued the state and Sacramento County in 2008, saying the process for granting permits for carrying a concealed handgun was 'arbitrary and capricious' and violated their right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment. They also said the law violated their 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law. New court: This was the scene last month as attorney Brenda G. Bryn, far right standing, addressed the new Supreme Court who are from left Neil Gorsuch; Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer; Clarence Thomas; Chief Justice John Roberts; Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Samuel Alito; Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh Like the case turned away by the Supreme Court last year, this one was an appeal of a lower court decision upholding a local sheriff's refusal to issue a permit. In its landmark 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller ruling, the Supreme Court held for the first time that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual's right to bear arms for self-defense in the home. In 2010, the court said that ruling applied nationwide. The action Monday was the first on a gun rights issue since conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, appointed by President Donald Trump, joined the court last month. In his previous role as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Kavanaugh backed expansive gun rights. The court did not disclose how individual justices voted in the California case. Humanitarian aid projects funded by Oxfam in Yemen have repeatedly been bombed by the Saudi-led coalition, the British charity said, slamming the government for refusing to halt their support and weapon supplies to Riyadh. Coalition airstrikes hit a vital cholera medical facility in Abs, Hajjah province in June despite being notified about the treatment facility on more than 12 occasions, the Independent reported . In April, the jets also struck a water supply system which impacted the livelihood of at least 6,000 people in a country that is suffering one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the 21st century. READ MORE: Saudis, UAE pressured UN for favorable media coverage in exchange for Yemen aid report The revelations about the strikes on charity-funded facilities in Yemen emerged following this weeks parliamentary debates in the House of Commons, where British lawmakers were trying to evaluate the impact of UK arms sales to the Saudis. During the hearing on Tuesday, Oxfams Dina el-Mamoun revealed that UK aid to the war-torn country is being bombarded. On the one hand, British aid is a vital lifeline, on the other, British bombs are helping to fuel an ongoing war that is leading to countless lives being lost each week to fighting, disease and hunger, Oxfams head of advocacy, Toni Pearce, told the Independent following the International Development Committee hearing. Read more Referring to Londons policy towards Yemen as irresponsible and incoherent, she noted that the UK's ongoing arms sales to Riyadh are contributing to the destruction of scarce food supplies, hospitals and homes, as well as aid programs funded by British taxpayers. The UK Government had been widely criticized for its continued support of Saudi Arabia and its arms supplies, which contributed to the destruction of vital infrastructure and mounting civilian casualties. And since Britain makes billions on these arms sales, over the last three years London has repeatedly dogged the pressure to cut arms deals to the Saudis. At the same time, despite UKs hand in exacerbating the crisis, the country has also spent more than 400mn in aid to the country throughout the course of the war. As a potential way out of the spotlight, Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday backed the American call for a ceasefire in Yemen, even though the record of the US supporting the Saudis, no matter what, undermines whatever peace initiative they may now try to promote. Official UN figures say that more than 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led bombing campaign began in March 2015. Yet Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) believes that at least 56,000 people have lost their lives in the war. The violence has also left around two-thirds of Yemens population of 27 million relying on aid amid the ongoing strict naval and aerial blockade of the country by the coalition. The conflict has impacted over seven million children in Yemen who now face a serious threat of famine, according to UNICEF figures announced this week. Over 6,000 children have either been killed or sustained serious injuries since 2015, UN childrens agency said. The humanitarian situation in the country has also been exacerbated by outbreaks of cholera, polio, and measles. Tuesday's midterm elections will mark the first nationwide voting since Russia targeted state election systems in the 2016 presidential race, with federal, state and local officials seeking to reassure the public their voting systems are secure. There have been no signs so far that Russia or any other foreign actor has tried to launch cyberattacks against voting systems in any state, according to federal authorities. The Department of Homeland Security has been working over the last year to improve communication and intelligence-sharing with state and local election officials who were largely left in the dark about Russian activities in 2016. Federal agencies including Homeland Security and the FBI have opened a command center to help state or local election offices with any major cybersecurity problems that arise. 'Things are running pretty smoothly around the country,' said Matt Masterson, senior cybersecurity adviser with the Department of Homeland Security. The same can't be said about early voting and the voter registration process in some states. Early voting: Madelyn Whitehead, 2, helps her father, Rob Whitehead, from Maryland Heights, Missouri, vote during absentee voting on Monday at the St. Louis County Board of Elections in St. Ann, MO Charged election: Brian Kemp, the Georgia secretary of state who is also Republican candidate for governor is at the center of a battle of whether his allegation of hacking into electoral systems is a political stunt designed to hit Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams Early start: Early voters were in line already on Monday at the old Sedgwick County Courthouse in Wichita, Kansas, where voting lasted until noon. The state has been hit by warnings of election day polling places being closed or consolidated Voters casting ballots early have encountered faulty machines in Texas and North Carolina, inaccurate mailers in Missouri and Montana, and voter registration problems in Tennessee and Georgia. In other states, including Kansas, Election Day polling places have been closed or consolidated. Some of the problems have prompted lawsuits, and there is concern that last-minute court rulings on voter ID requirements in a handful of states will sow confusion among voters and poll workers. The challenges come amid a surge of interest, with registrations and turnout running well ahead of what is typically seen during a midterm election. Wendy Weiser, who oversees the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, said she believes efforts to restrict voting access have been 'more intense' than in previous elections but said efforts to combat them also have increased dramatically. 'These hurdles often work because people aren't willing to go to the trouble of going through the various hoops that the state puts in front of them,' Weiser said. 'Really motivated voters can overcome these kinds of hurdles.' The issue of election security is clearly on the minds of voters. A recent Chicago Harris/AP-NORC poll found that nearly eight in 10 Americans are at least somewhat concerned about potential hacking of election systems, with 45 percent saying they are extremely or very concerned. A key concern is that five states exclusively use electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper trail that can be used to verify election results if questions about the final tally arise. Georgia, where the governor's race is among the most closely watched elections in the country, is one of the states where voting rights groups have been raising numerous concerns about election security and voter access. Over the weekend, reports of security vulnerabilities within the state's online voter registration portal prompted a flurry of accusations from the Secretary of State's office, which is overseen by Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp. His office claimed without providing evidence that Democrats had tried to hack into the system. Democrats dismissed that as an effort to distract voters from a problem in a system he oversees. In advance: Yolanda Jimenez casts her mail-in ballot at the voting center at the California Museum 8, in Sacramento, California Kemp is one of two Republicans who are overseeing elections this year while also running for governor. Former President Jimmy Carter is among those who have called for him to step down, but Kemp has insisted that he will continue to do the job while warning of the potential for voter fraud. While experts have said voter fraud is exceedingly rare, Republicans have used it to justify strict voter ID laws, purging of voter rolls and other measures that make it more difficult to vote. President Donald Trump has often cited voter fraud as a reason he lost the popular vote two years ago and has raised the issue during his recent campaigning. On Monday, he was asked what proof he had of people attempting to vote illegally in the midterms. 'All you have to do you is go around, take a look at what's happened over the years and you'll see,' he said outside Air Force One on his way to a rally. 'There are a lot of people, a lot of people, my opinion and based on proof, that try and get in illegally and actually vote illegally.' Nationally, some 6,500 poll watchers are being deployed by a coalition of civil rights and voting advocacy groups, including Common Cause, to assist people who encounter problems at the polls. That is more than double the number sent to polling places in 2016, while the number of federal election monitors has declined. The U.S. Justice Department announced Monday that it is sending personnel to 35 jurisdictions in 19 states, which is less than the 67 jurisdictions in 28 states that received assistance in 2016. A Malibu musician, a New Mexico astrophysics major, an aspiring Los Angeles voice-over actress, a cybersecurity expert in Detroit. These are just four of Peter Ellenstein's accomplished 24 children. The catch? He only began meeting them last year. On October 5, 2017, Ellenstein was divorced and childless. The former actor turned theater producer was bankrupt and hadn't held a steady job for a year. The next day, he found out out he had a daughter. Three weeks later, he found out she wasn't his only child. Ellenstein wasn't exactly surprised to discover he had children. His sperm, which he donated for seven years at two California labs, had been described as 'very potent'. But Ellenstein was still shocked when he found out that even one of his children wanted to meet him - much less dozens of them. Los Angeles resident Peter Ellenstein, 57, has 24 children. The catch? He only began meeting them last year. He is pictured here with just some of his growing brood Ellenstein wasn't exactly surprised to discover he had children. His sperm, which he donated for seven years at two California labs, had been described as 'very potent' The first Facebook message came on that fateful day in October. It was sent by Rachel White - the 24-year-old musician raised in Malibu by a single mother. 'Hi Peter, I hope all is well with you. I am messaging you under very strange circumstances and I want to prematurely apologize if I have been led to the wrong person,' the message began. 'This is a very sensitive subject for us all and I can understand the surprise it might bring. To give you a bit of my background, I was born in 1994 due to in-vitro fertilization.' 'My mother had always wanted a kid and with this new technology was able to achieve her lifelong dream of becoming a parent. So, the reason I am messaging you is that I believe you may have been the donor.' 'I don't know what the proper protocol is in this situation, I am still just stupefied. If you choose not to maintain contact or even respond, I understand completely and will not hold it against you. I just want to say thank you.' But Ellenstein was still shocked when he received this message in October 2017 from one of his daughters, Rachel White, the first child who would try to make contact with him What Ellenstein didn't know is that Rachel had already found 11 of his children. The half-siblings had been linked through the donor register and the DNA testing site 23andMe The siblings had worked together to try and figure out the identity of their dad, who they have been told was a Los Angeles actor 'If you want to go down this crazy rabbit hole, I am here and would love to keep exploring.' What Ellenstein didn't know is that Rachel had already found 11 of his children. The half-siblings discovered each other through the donor register and the DNA testing site 23andMe. The siblings then worked together to try and figure out the identity of their dad, who they were told was a Los Angeles actor. When Rachel typed 'Peter Ellenstein' into the movie database IMDB, her father was staring back at her. Ellenstein knew the likelihood that Rachel was his biological daughter was high. From the years of 1987 to 1994, Ellenstein had been a frequent donor for two Los Angeles sperm banks, making quick cash to try and support his acting career. He could earn upwards of $900 a month for his sperm, sometimes donating five times in a single week. At first Ellenstein was nervous to make contact with Rachel. But eight hours after he first received her message, he agreed to meet her the next day. Three weeks later, Rachel told Ellenstein she had some news. He had 11 more children. Within a year that number more than doubled Ellenstein asked her to come to his friend's house on Rodeo Dr in Beverly Hills, hoping to impress his offspring. When the pair finally met, they hugged for a long time as tears streamed down their faces. 'A different part of my brain opened up,' Ellenstein told Los Angeles Magazine. 'I felt like I owed her something - my best self.' 'It was a profound feeling looking at someone who so clearly resembled me and some of my mannerisms. And it turned out we had all kinds of things in common.' From the years of 1987 to 1994, Ellenstein had been a frequent donor for two Los Angeles sperm banks, making quick cash to try and support his acting career Three weeks later, Rachel told Ellenstein she had some news. He had 11 more children. Within a year that number more than doubled. Dexter Elliot is the astrophysics major, pursuing his degree at the University of New Mexico. Alana Shannon, 24, is the aspiring voice-over anime actress with a twin sister named Bridget. Jamie is the cyber-security expert in Michigan. There's also Melanie Sulkin, 27, a Denver attorney, Natalie Jones, 19, a child psychology major at Arizona State University, and Tyee Williams, who is studying environmental science in Ecuador. There's also Michael, a Navy sailor in Guam that Alana says is 'the only Trump voter in the group', and Courtney and Brittany, who are studying zoology and environmental science at UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis, respecitvely. Also in the group is Jeremy, 29, a comedian based in Ventura who also works as an English and SAT tutor in Shanghai, and Laine Hammer, 26, an Encino copywriter. 'Now we just need a doctor, banker, mechanic, electrician...' Ellenstein joked in one of his texts in a group chat with his growing brood. Sidney Weisberg-Sweetman, 17, is the youngest of the clan. The high school athlete only found out about Ellenstein after taking a DNA test for 23andMe. 'I have two moms, so I always knew I had a donor father but he was completely anonymous,' Sidney told The Sun. Now Ellenstein - who dubbed himself the 'Sperminator' - and his children try to get together at least several times a month The children have plenty of names for Ellenstein, depending on who you ask. Some call him Peter, some call him 'donor father', and some simply call him dad. Here he is with Rachel White, who started it all 'Then I took the test and got connected with my sister Rachel and brother Peter and we kept growing.' Sidney said that people don't believe him when he says he has 23 siblings, but that he loves having so many people he can now call brother and sister. 'It's great for me because I'm an only child so I haven't grown up with brothers or sisters,' he said. 'So it's nice now to get to go out and hang out with my siblings.' 'It's weird to say that you have become friends with your siblings because usually you grow up with them, but in the past year that's what's happened to me.' Now Ellenstein - who dubbed himself the 'Sperminator' - and his children try to get together at least several times a month, doing everything from dinner to bowling and even taking international holidays. They even have a special Facebook group and spreadsheet to help keep everyone organized. The children have plenty of names for Ellenstein, depending on who you ask. Some call him Peter, some call him 'donor father', and some simply call him dad. But Ellenstein had made a point to make sure he has his children's parents' support. They even have a special Facebook group and spreadsheet to help keep everyone organized Ellenstein is even filming a potential docuseries about his journey thanks to the help of two television producers 'Most of the real parents have been supportive,' he said. 'Some have felt a little concerned but they've soon come around when they've seen the benefits for their kids having so many siblings.' Although all 24 siblings have yet to be in the same room together at the same time, they hope to make it happen one day. And Ellenstein is even filming a potential docuseries about his journey thanks to the help of two television producers. Ellenstein, who now also drives cars for Uber, credits his children with giving him purpose. 'I feel an incredible responsibility to all these people,' he said. 'This was what was lacking in my life. It's the perfect thing to have come along.' 'When I firsts saw Rachel, part of my brain and a part of my heart opened up that I didn't know that I had before. And I can't really explain what it is.' 'It was a mixture of sort of a sense of longevity, of purpose, wonder. I'm really just feeling things that I'd never experienced before.' 'I can't believe I was a part - even a small part - of creating all these wonderful kids. I feel like I get to be a part of 24 different adventures.' President Donald Trump said on Monday he'll 'probably not' be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris this weekend after he warned of illegal voting in Tuesday's contest and special counsel Robert Mueller prepares to wrap up his probe on the 2016 election. Trump said his meeting with his Russian counterpart would probably take place at the upcoming G20 meeting in Buenos Aries, Argentina, the weekend of Nov. 30-Dec. 1. The president told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before he left on his final campaign swing that Paris - where he'll celebrate the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I - was not the proper place for a sit down. President Donald Trump said on Monday he'll 'probably not' be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris President Trump on Monday warned about illegal voting in Tuesday's election 'We haven't set anything up yet. We don't know if that's going to be the right place. I'm going to be in Paris for other reasons. But we will be meeting at the G20 and probably will have meetings meetings after that,' he said. 'But I'm not sure we'll have a meeting in Paris. Probably not,' he added. Kicking the meeting down the road also allows the White House to avoid any potential post-election photo opportunities and possibly awkward questions about election meddling. Trump on Monday warned about 'ILLEGAL VOTING' as he called it in a tweet. 'Law Enforcement has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place in Tuesday's Election (or Early Voting). Anyone caught will be subject to the Maximum Criminal Penalties allowed by law. Thank you!,' he wrote. Trump said at the White House in mid-October he would probably meet with Putin in Paris amid Russia's protests of Trump's decision to withdraw from a longstanding nuclear weapons treaty, the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, known as the INF. That plan appears to have changed. The president was heavily criticized in July for agreeing with Putin's assertion Moscow did not meddle in the presidential election, despite findings otherwise from U.S. intelligence agencies. Trump later said he misspoke at the press conference in Helsinki. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani, a member of Trump's legal team, said he expects the Mueller's probe of Russia's role in the 2016 election to be wrapped up by the end of November. He also said both sides agreed to stay quiet until voters went to the ballot box on November 6. Rudy Giuliani (left) said Robert Mueller's (right) probe should be wrapped up at the end of November; Mueller is under political pressure to get it done Trump was heavily criticized in July for agreeing with Putin's assertion Moscow did not meddle in the presidential election during their meeting in Helsinki 'We have an informal agreement that while negotiating the final details of a Q&A that we wouldn't comment much, we have been sort of quiet,' Giuliani told Bloomberg. 'But I expect a day after the election we will be in serious discussions with them again, and I have a feeling they want to get it wrapped up one way or another.' Mueller is investigating Russia's role in the 2016 election, whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow and whether the president obstructed justice. Trump's legal team will send him the president's answers to submitted questions after the election but only if he agrees to no questions on obstruction of justice and no face-to-face sit interview. Mueller is under political pressure to wrap up his probe. After the election, he is expected to report on two of his main charges: whether there was collusion between Russia and Trump's campaign and whether the president took any actions that constitute obstruction of justice. Trump, in an October interview with CBS' '60 Minutes,' dismissed talk that Russia helped him win the White House in the 2016 presidential election. 'Do you really think I'd call Russia to help me with an election? Give me a break. They wouldn't be able to help me at all. Call Russia. It's so ridiculous,' the president said. A Russian fighter jet has intercepted a US military plane by flying dangerously close in international airspace over the Black Sea. Footage shows the Russian SU-27 making a high-speed pass at a 'very, very close' distance to the American US EP-3 on Monday - a move that The Pentagon deemed 'unsafe' and put the American pilots and crew at risk. Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said the jet flew in front of plane then activated its afterburners creating more turbulence, and then matrulyde a second pass by the US aircraft. However, the Russian Embassy in the US claimed Monday that their jet was simply 'accompanying' the American 'spy plane' in order to prevent a 'violation of Russian airspace.' The Embassy added that the aircraft 'followed all necessary safety procedures.' Video shows the Russian SU-27 that intercepted an American US EP-3 Monday over the Black Sea The Russian Embassy in the US said their aircraft 'followed all necessary safety procedures' Pahon said there was no communication between the two aircraft throughout the 25-minute incident. A reconnaissance in a EP-3E (similar to the one pictured) felt vibrations from the Russian plane The U.S. EP-3 Aries came out of Souda Bay, Greece, and was conducting routine operations. 'This interaction was determined to be unsafe due to the SU-27 conducting a high speed pass directly in front of the mission aircraft, which put our pilots and crew at risk,' the US Navy said in a statement. 'The intercepting SU-27 made an additional pass, closing with the EP-3 and applying its afterburner while conducting a banking turn away. 'The crew of the EP-3 reported turbulence following the first interaction, and vibrations from the second.' It is still unclear at exactly what distance the Russian jet came to the US reconnaissance. The Russian Embassy in the US posted a brief statement on Twitter Monday denying any fault. 'The Su-27 jet's crew reported identifying the #US EP-3 Aries spy plane and accompanied it, preventing a violation of Russian airspace and followed all necessary safety procedures,' the tweet said. This is not an isolated incident. The last time a US military aircraft was intercepted by a Russian jet came in January when the plane flew within just five feet of a US Navy EP over the Black Sea. The Pentagon deemed the move 'unsafe' and said US pilots and crew were at risk At the time, The US State Department accused the Russians of 'flagrantly violating existing agreements and international law.' The Black Sea borders Ukraine, Russian-occupied Crimea and Russia in addition to Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Georgia. The area has a high concentration of Russian, US and NATO military forces. In November 2017, a similar incident occurred over the Black Sea when a Russian SU-30 crossed in front of a US P-8A Poseidon. And in Syria in December, US F-22s fired warning flares at two Russian SU-25 planes that, according to US officials, crossed the country's de-confliction line. Russian authorities denied their planes had crossed the line. The violent sexual fantasies of disgraced former soldiers have been revealed, after seven of them were sacked from the army due to inappropriate behaviour towards women. Two women who joined the First Battalion Royal Australian Regiment were the subject of late-night messages after the unit began accepting females in combat roles. Text and Facebook messages obtained by the Australian reveal the soldiers' fascination with sexual violence, including jokes about assaulting women during sex and recording interactions without their consent. 'When you... smack the back of her head so it comes out her nose... when she looks up she should look like an angry dragon!' one soldier said in a message. The violent sexual fantasies of disgraced former soldiers have been revealed, after seven of them were sacked from the army due to inappropriate behaviour towards women (stock image) 'Red dragon mate that's where it's at, it's like an angry dragon except you punch her in the nose at the end so there is blood mixed in... from her nostrils.' A whistleblower provided details of the messages to military investigators in 2017, saying he was concerned for the safety of the woman who was being discussed. In one case, a private was drinking with a female soldier at a bar in Townsville, Queensland, and was messaging other soldiers. The private jokes to his fellow unit members about a domestic violence incident, where a woman with a name similar to the woman he is drinking with was attacked. 'I should bash her?' the private said. His friend replied to the message by sending two videos of himself discussing rape, according to the whistleblower. Other messages in the exchange include suggesting a sexual encounter should be filmed. 'Should record it tbh (to be honest). She's keen as (f**k),' one of the messages reads. 'For the boys!!! F**k her on the bar,' another reads. Text and Facebook messages reveal the soldiers' fascination with sexual violence, including jokes about assaulting women during sex and recording interactions without their consent A whistleblower provided details of the messages to military investigators in 2017, saying he was concerned for the safety of the woman who was being discussed In a different message thread, some of the same soldiers discussed a video of a woman promoting female Israeli soldiers. 'I think I just caught brain herpes listening to that dumb bitch,' a solider said in a message. The Defence Department confirmed the soldiers' sacking but declined to provide further details due to privacy. Australian Defence Association boss Neil James said the remarks were 'disgusting', 'cowardly and unprofessional'. 'The experience overseas shows there will always be some resistance from dinosaurs to females but there is a need to be quite firm at the start and retain a critical mass of females,' he said. 'My understanding is that because of the action taken, none of the women has quit and that is important for the success of the project over a long period of time.' A Houston man has been charged with capital murder after investigators say he stabbed to death his estranged wife and a handyman who was installing cabinets at her home on Sunday. Deputies with the Harris County Sheriffs Office responded to a mobile home in the 21000 block of Berrywood Bend Lane in Tomball at around 2pm and discovered the bodies of 29-year-old Michelle Bullock and 56-year-old Mark Keil. Both the woman and man were found dead from multiple stab wounds outside the residence. Brian Bullock (pictured), 34, has been charged with capital murder for allegedly in stabbing deaths of his estranged wife Michelle (right), 29, and handyman Mark Keil, 56 Deputies with the Harris County Sheriffs Office found the bodies of the victims Sunday the 21000 block of Berrywood Bend Lane in Tomball, Texas (pictured) An hour later, the female victims estranged husband, 34-year-old Brian Bullock, turned himself at the Harris County Sheriff's Office substation in Cypresswood with blood on his face, claiming he had been in a fight. According to investigators, Michelle, who was a mother-of-three, had a protective order against Brian and warned her neighbors and friends to be on the lookout for him, claiming that he was stalking her, reported KPRC. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez called the incident a tragic case of domestic violence. According to records cited by the Houston Chronicle, Brian was arrested in June and charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly pushing his estranged wife. The husband was jailed for two months and then released in August after posting $2,500 bond. He was due back in court in the domestic violence case in December. Keil was installing cabinets at Michelle Bullock's mobile home (pictured) when Brian allegedly stabbed them both multiple times By some accounts, Michelle had been living in fear of her estranged husband and had sent her three children to stay with their baby sitter as a precaution, reported The Woodlands Patch. Handyman Mark Keil was helping Michelle remodel her trailer home on Sunday afternoon when Brian showed up and a deadly altercation ensued. Brian Bullock is currently being held in the county jail without bond pending his next court appearance scheduled for Tuesday. Ready, set, de-stress. Stress Awareness Day will be observed Wednesday, November 7. The annual awareness day aims to help people identify the causes of stress in their daily lives and cope with them. The day was started by the International Stress Management Association to help provide the public with more information about stress, dealing with it and how it effects the body and mind. International Stress Awareness Day is celebrated on the first Wednesday of every November When not properly dealt with, stress is known to cause serious health problems that include, but are not limited to, high blood pressure, risk of heart disease and weakened immune system. Want to know more about International Stress Awareness Day, like how you celebrate? Weve got you covered. What is International Stress Awareness Day? International Stress Awareness Day is a day created by the International Stress Management Association. It focuses on identifying the causes of stress in your life and finding healthy ways to manage those stresses. When left undealt with, stress has been known to cause health complications. Some of those complications include high blood pressure, increased risk of heart disease and a weakened immune system. International Stress Awareness Day aims to help individuals as well as companies. They emphasize the importance of seeing stress and dealing with it quickly and effectively. Keeping your #workstress secret? Confide it to the International Stress Management Association on #stresshelpline on Nov. 7th, #nationalstressawarenessday,. Your best route to regaining your mental and physical wellbeing. https://t.co/VMbvW3K9Vy Aum Consultancy (@AumConsultancy) November 5, 2018 When is International Stress Awareness Day? International Stress Awareness Day is celebrated on the first Wednesday of every November. This year, it falls on November 7. How to celebrate International Stress Awareness Day Celebrate International Stress Awareness Day by doing something that doesnt cause you any stress. Take a day off, exercise, spend time with loved ones whatever works for you. If you need help identifying and removing stressors from your life, you can reach out to organizations like the International Stress Management Association for help and resources. International Stress Awareness Day events If you're looking for some organized events celebrating International Stress Awareness Day, you're in luck. The International Stress Management Association had a few things planned that you can attend in person or participate in online. In honor of International Stress Awareness Day (November 7), the International Stress Management Association UK (ISMA) has chosen the theme "Does Hi-Tech Cause Hi-Stress?" Tap below to register for the FREE Online Stress Summit! https://t.co/1V2QmbKhgZ American Institute of Stress (@AIS_StressNews) November 2, 2018 Annual ISMA Conference The International Stress Management Association will be holding their annual conference, featuring speakers, workshops and relaxation. A woman who worked as Fire Chief on the Grenfell Tower fire will speak, as will global futurist Rohit Talwar and others. The program will be held Friday, November 9 at the Royal Over-Seas League in London's St James. Stress Survey This year, the International Stress Management Association will be offering a survey about the possible effects of workplace automation and the stress it could cause. The survey will be launched on International Stress Awareness Day. Online International Stress Summit If you'd like to participate in the International Stress Awareness Day fun from the comfort of your home, you're in luck. This year, Tom Meyers and Danielle Sax are hosting the International Stress Summit, which will run from 9am GMT to 5pm GMT. The event will feature 13 interviews with experts on stress and/or technology and much more. You can find out more information and register here. You can also chat with the online stress chatbot about an problems you may be having related to stress. The chatbot was launched in 2017. Stress Fair Feel free to pop over to the International Stress Management Association's Stress Fair in London at Virgin Health Club. New Jersey therapist Diane Sylvia, 58 (pictured), has been charged with planning the assault of a Massachusetts man after authorities say she tried to hire a former patient to carry out the hit A New Jersey therapist has been charged with planning the assault of a Massachusetts man after authorities say she tried to hire a former patient to carry out the hit. Diane Sylvia, 58, allegedly tried to pay a one-time patient who has been a member of an organized criminal gang in the past to kill a man who she said had something on her that could ruin her career, US Attorney Craig Carpenito said on Monday. Sylvia is accused of activities leading up to the eventual solicitation of an agent who she thought was a hitman, between September 24 and October 31. She was set to appear in federal court in Camden, New Jersey on Monday before US Magistrate Judge Karen M. Williams on a charge of solicitation to commit a crime of violence. If convicted, Sylvia faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. The former patient introduced Sylvia to an agent working undercover as a hitman, who Silvia allegedly met multiple times at her Linwood, New Jersey office (pictured) and paid a total of $5,000 to carry out the assault Some time in September, Sylvia allegedly told a former patient that she wanted him to help her have a man who resides in North Attleboro, Massachusetts killed. During the former patient's therapy sessions with Sylvia, he revealed his prior connections to an organized crime gang, according the the criminal complaint filed against the therapist. 'Armed with this knowledge, which Sylvia obtained during her professional relationship with the [former patient] as his therapist, Sylvia asked the [former patient[ to conspire to kill [an] Individual.' This allegedly occurred on September 24. At that time, the former patient contacted authorities and stopped seeing Sylvia, who had previously been treating him in her capacity as a licensed clinical social worker who provides mental health counseling at an office in Linwood, New Jersey. With the help of authorities, that former patient introduced Sylvia to an agent posing as a hitman, on October 6. At that time, Sylvia allegedly changed her request from one of having the man be murdered, to asking that he be beaten and permanently disfigured. According to authorities, Sylvia said, 'He needs his pretty little face bashed in, thats what I really want.' 'A broken arm would help, too,' she allegedly said, adding that 'all he has is, like, his big muscles and his cute face.' Later, Sylvia allegedly said, 'I really just want his face punched in, I swear to God. And his arm broken, thats what I want.' According to the undercover agent, Sylvia said she wanted the man beaten because he 'ended up with some stuff on me that he was gonna report me to the licensing board, which means I have no job.' The undercover agent then allegedly asked how assaulting this man would help Sylvia, to which prosecutors said that she replied, 'Its just gonna make me feel better' and 'its the only way I can get him back.' At multiple points in their discussions and meetings, Sylvia allegedly attempted to call off the assault, at least once due to her former patient saying that person was going to take a 'break' from counseling. But she later allegedly recommitted to the plan, each time. Prosecutors said that Sylvia arranged two more meetings with the undercover agent, while believing he was a hitman, throughout which she paid the agent a total of $5,000 to carry out the assault plan. During those second two meetings, prosecutors said Sylvia specifically ordered the purported hitman to attack the Massachusetts man by doing 'something that makes him not so cute,' while making a slashing motion on her cheek, adding the agent should do 'something so he cant do push-ups, so he cant work out.' According to her profile on Psychology Today, Sylvia has been a practicing mental health professional for 23 years. Sylvia included the following about her practice in the profile: Sylvia is being represented by Michel (pronounced 'Michael') Paulhus, who could not immediately be reached for comment 'All relationships and states of mental health are affected by factors both present and past, including the environment in which we were raised. By strengthening our sense of self, we can restore functioning and create a life of positive satisfaction. Our words and thoughts are powerful and help create the life we desire. The most important component of therapy is the relationship between the client and therapist and the client's willingness to make the decision to change. 'I help people cope with every day stress, and most mental health conditions. Creating safe, supportive relationships is often the key to health. I also treat those with addictions (including Gambling) and their family members. Change is achieved by using a positive approach focused on setting and achieving personal goals.' Sylvia is being represented by Michel (pronounced 'Michael') Paulhus, who could not immediately be reached for comment. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Alyson M. Oswald of the US Attorneys Office in Camden. Advertisement President Donald Trump began his final pre-election campaign day Monday hinting that he expects a pollster-confounding surprise like the one that shocked the political establishment in 2016. While most opinion surveys project that the Republicans will retain control of the U.S. Senate, the GOPs House majority appears in danger. Trump, though, suggested in Cleveland, Ohio that his party might gobsmack the world again no matter what the political press corps predicts. 'There is something going on, Ohio, that theyre not talking about,' he said after greeting about 6,000 people in a sea of red hats. Theres an electricity like people have not seen since a date in 2016. November, Trump said, adding later that 'we defied the pundits and the critics. We rejected them.' 'There are a couple of honest polls,' he snarked, remarking that they provide Republicans with a 'very, very good promise' for Tuesday. President Donald Trump arrived to speak at the first of three campaign rally appearances Monday in Cleveland, Ohio, in a state he won two years ago A massive crowd greeted the president on his last campaign swing before he finds out whether Democrats will take control of Congress Trump brought his daughter Ivanka to the stage in Cleveland, where she praised her father for ushering in a 'golden age' of economic security An estimated 6,000 people packed the IX Center, a convention space near the Cleveland airport; he has stops in Indiana and Missouri before the day is out 'There's something happening,' he said, trying to recapture his 2016 energy. 'Something's going on. Does that make sense? And they are not happy back there,' Trump added, pointing to a colony of reporters and cameras. 'The media is not happy. They're not happy. They never report this. They don't report these crowds.' The president ticked through a list of talking points about jobs, the national economy and business deregulation, declaring with a broad grin that 'we have a lot of great, great sound bites.' He introduced Ivanka Trump to the audience, calling her a 'wonderful, wonderful daughter,' right after joking that he 'will never, ever call a woman beautiful again because its become 'politically incorrect.' Ivanka boasted that the president had ushered in a 'golden era' of economic security. 'My father promised that he would fight to give you all a voice. He promised that he would fight for the forgotten men and women of America,' she said to cheers. 'The fight is paying off.' Trump beamed when her moment was over: 'Alright, I never said she was beautiful. But she was smart.' A day before a national election that will determine how much or how little cooperation he gets from Congress through the end of his first term, he conceded that its become a referendum on him. 'In a sense, I am on the ticket,' Trump said. He might have to make peace with the people of Lima, Ohio, whose town name he butchered no fewer than four times. 'Leeema,' he said of the western Ohio town, pronouncing it like the capital of Peru. It's 'Lye-ma,' like the bean. Trump hit his usual talking points but also joked that he wasn't allowed to call his daughter Ivanka 'beautiful' anymore becasue it had become 'politically incorrect' The president boasted that he has brought new life to the off-year midterm elections, which used to be considered a sleepy affair with little staying power in the media The president said he would like to fund his entire proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, but like the photos he's seen of soldiers putting up barbed wire He took a shot at the media in the cavernous IX Center, just a stones throw from the Cleveland Airport, saying that his own star power has boosted their networks rating and newspapers reach during what would otherwise have been a sleepy non-presidential political cycle. 'These guys are making a fortune because me and you!' the president told his hooting audience. 'I mean, whoever ever heard of midterms?' 'The midterm elections used to be, like, boring,' he said, taking credit for the excitement. 'Now it's like the hottest thing.' And hours after a trio of TV networks banned his campaign ad that linked an illegal immigrant cop-killer to thousands of Central American migrants walking north through Mexico, he bragged about the military deployment he has ordered to stop them. 'The Democrats have invited caravan after caravan of illegal immigrants to flood our country,' Trump said, warning of 'a 2018 socialism, open-borders edict' from Democrats if they should gain control of Congress. The president started his final day of campaigning in Ohio, mispronouncing the name of one of its cities As chants of 'Build that wall!' rang out, he complained momentarily about the slow pace of Capitol Hill funding for his signature project before reflecting on the first set of news photos of the militarys arrival. 'We want to do it all at one time,' he said of his wall. 'But barbed wire looks pretty effective too, with soldiers standing in front of it. 'You think were letting that caravan into this country?' he asked. 'No!' came the roaring reply. He complained that Democrats wanted illegal immigrants to reap welfare benefits along with 'free healthcare, free education and the right to vote.' 'And its the right to vote that they like best. They want them to be able to vote.' Trump has rallies scheduled in Indiana and Missouri later on Monday, before a late-night return to the White House. A mother who allegedly killed her 5-year-old daughter by pushing her down a set of stairs onto a concrete landing on Halloween has been charged. Twenty-five-year-old Ciara Robinson faces charges including third-degree murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault and child endangerment. Ciara Robinson, 25, from Parkesburg is accused of killing her 5-year-old daughter, Amatulah 'Amy' McLaughlin, by pushing her down a set of stairs onto a concrete landing on Halloween Chester County prosecutors said emergency responders were called to the Parkesburg home just before 9:30 p.m. Wednesday where 5-year-old Amatulah 'Amy' McLaughlin had been dead 'for some time.' Prosecutors allege Robinson became angry and struck the child, then pushed her down the 8- or 9-foot basement stairs. Chester County prosecutors said emergency responders were called to the Parkesburg home on Wednesday where the 5-year-old had been dead 'for some time' Authorities allege the child also had evidence of past abuse such as extensive bruises, scars, puncture wounds and strike marks over her arms, legs and back. Court documents don't list a defense attorney and a listed number for Robinson couldn't be found Monday. President Donald Trump would lose the 2020 presidential campaign against every woman who's been named a possible Democratic challenger to him, a new poll revealed. And crushing the president are two women who have empathetically ruled out a run but easily beat him with double digits: Oprah Winfrey topping him with 53 percent to his 41 percent and Michelle Obama beating him with 55 percent to his 42 percent, the new Axios/Survey Monkey poll shows. But even lesser-known candidates such as Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Kirsten Gillibrand all beat Trump: Harris at 52 percent to his 42; Klobuchar at 51 percent to his 42; and Gillibrand with 50 to his 44. Oprah Winfrey has made it clear she is not running for president Michelle Obama said she doesn't have the passion to run for president The numbers indicate serious problems with women for the president, who brags he won that voting bloc in 2016 but, in reality, only won white women. And women have been a show of force since his election, organizing Marches for Women against him and a record number of women running on the Democratic ticket in congressional contests. Even Trump's 2016 rival Hillary Clinton tops him in this poll at 50 percent to his 45 percent. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who Trump refers to as 'Pocahontas,' does the least well against him: 49 percent to his 47 percent. Warren - who is attacked by Trump the most and doing the worst against him in the poll - released her genetic testing after the president's repeated questions about her claims of Native American heritage. It likely means all the 2020 hopefuls need to brace for an onslaught of personal attacks from the commander in chief. But the poll shows Trump is struggling with women voters - 64 percent view him unfavorably, and particularly among white suburban women, who will be a key voting bloc in 2020. Harris polled well with African American and white suburban women, while Klobuchar polled best with white suburban women. Oprah Winfrey made it clear when she was in Georgia on Thursday to campaign for gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams that she was not there to lay the groundwork for a presidential bid of her own. 'I want to make it very clear to all the press everyone - I'm not here making some grand stand and I'm thinking about running for myself. I don't want to run,' she told the crowd. 'I'm not here to test any waters. I don't wanna go in those waters,' she said, shaking her head and waving her finger. And Obama denied any interest when she was asked about speculation that either her or Winfrey would run. 'The reason why I don't want to run for president - and I can't speak for Oprah - but my sense is that, first of all, you have to want the job,' she said at the 39th Annual Simmons Leadership Conference in Boston in April. 'I've never had the passion for politics,' she added. 'I just happened to be married to somebody who has the passion for politics, and he drug me kicking and screaming into this arena.' Harris had made no announcement about 2020 but politicos note she has visited the early 2020 voting states of Iowa and South Carolina in signs seen that she is considering a bid. President Donald Trump would lose the 2020 presidential campaign against every woman who's been named a possible Democratic challenger to him Elizabeth Warren, who is attacked by Trump the most, did the worst against him in the poll Klobuchar received raves for her measured questioning and withstanding of attacks from Brett Kavanaugh during his second of contentious confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, when he was fighting off a sexual assault allegation from Christine Blasey Ford. She is expected to easily win reelection in her home state of Minnesota this year. Gillibrand vowed to serve her full six-year term if she wins reelection in November, meaning she would not to challenge PresidentDonald Trump in 2020. She has been mentioned a possible presidential contender, given her strength as a fundraiser and prominent perch in the Senate as a female lawmaker who represents an influential state. 'I will serve my six-year term,' Gillibrand said when asked about a presidential bid during a debate in Manhattan earlier this month against herGOP Senate challenger Chele Farley. Clinton rekindled debate about whether she would make a third run at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when she admitted in an October interview: 'Well, I'd like to be president.' Neither Kamela Harris (left) nor Amy Klobuchar (right) have said anything about 2020 but are being watched closely Hillary Clinton said she would talk about 2020 after the midterms while Kirsten Gillibrand said she would not run for president if reelected to the Senate in 2018 She has been campaigning and fundraising for Democrats in the midterms and has pushed any decision down the road. 'I'm not even going to even think about it until we get through this Nov. 6 election,' she said. 'But I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure we have a Democrat in the White House come January of 2021.' Warren said in September she would 'take a hard look' at running for the White House in 2020 once the midterm elections are over. The polling data is from two surveys. The first was conducted October 24-28 among 3,411 adults, and has margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 points. The second was conducted October 28-30 among 6,497 adults, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 points. Close: Shadow minister Kate Osamor with Jeremy Corbyn A Labour frontbencher whose son was convicted of possessing thousands of pounds of drugs at a music festival has handed him a promotion. Shadow international development spokesman Kate Osamor now faces a potential Commons sleaze probe over her refusal to sack her son from his job in her Parliamentary office. Ishmael Osamor, 29, pleaded guilty to having 2,500 of drugs with intent to supply at Bestival in Dorset last year. But his mother has resisted pressure to remove him from his taxpayer-funded job in the House of Commons and he has actually been promoted to become his mothers chief-of-staff. Labour last night refused to say whether he was handed the new role which comes with a salary of up to 49,793 before or after his arrest last September. Miss Osamor, 50, was yesterday reported to Parliaments standards watchdog over allegations she brought the Commons into disrepute by turning a blind eye to her sons conviction. But the Labour MP last night claimed criticism of her decision not to sack her son was racist. In an open letter to the Parliamentary commissioner for standards, Tory MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan said Miss Osamor had failed to uphold the code of conduct for MPs. She wrote: You do not need me to outline how serious drug offences are, and in this place we ought to treat them as such. For a Member of Parliament to maintain the employment of someone convicted of such a crime turns a blind eye to the damaging consequences of such behaviour and seriously brings the integrity of Parliament into disrepute. By continuing to allow a man convicted of a serious drug related offence to work in Parliament, Miss Osamor is clearly damaging the reputation of this House. Miss Osamor responded to the letter on Twitter, writing: I have done nothing wrong. This is politically motivated. Ishmael Osamor, 29, pleaded guilty to having 2,500 of drugs with intent to supply at Bestival in Dorset last year In a further tweet, she added: The appalling abuse I have endured has been racist and politically motivated! Miss Osamor also liked a series of tweets suggesting she had been targeted because she is a black woman. One said: Shame on the racist media who are taking a hit at another outstanding black woman, because they think shes an easy target. Commons records showed Osamor earned between 30,000 and 35,000 in 2016/17 working in his mothers office as a senior communications officer. But in May, when he was elected as a local councillor in Haringey, north London, Osamor wrote on his declaration of interests that his job title was chief-of-staff. A Labour spokesman declined to comment on whether Osamor was promoted since he was arrested in September last year, when he was caught with a 2,500 haul of ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and cannabis. They said: We dont comment on staffing matters. A man who answered the telephone in Miss Osamors Commons office yesterday claimed that her son was unavailable. Jeremy Corbyn flanked by Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities Dawn Butler (left) and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development Kate Osamor Osamors new salary has not been made public, but pay scales for Commons researchers show MPs are allowed to pay their most senior staff between 33,000 and 49,793. The MPs son was given a two-year community order and told to pay 400 prosecution costs after he pleaded guilty to four drugs related charges at Bournemouth Crown Court last month. After the Daily Mail revealed his conviction, Osamor last week resigned as a councillor, saying: I sincerely regret, and apologise for, not informing my family and colleagues of the pending court case, and have stood down. Miss Osamor has yet to condemn publicly or apologise for her sons involvement with drugs, simply saying he had admitted what he did was wrong and apologised.MPs voted in July to change rules so the Parliamentary commissioner for standards no longer names those under investigation until an inquiry is concluded. A spokesman for the commissioner, Kathryn Stone, said she could neither confirm nor deny whether a complaint had been received about Miss Osamor or whether it would be looked into. Commons Speaker John Bercow last week agreed to launch a separate inquiry into whether Osamor should have his pass to the Parliamentary estate revoked. Senior figures including Sir Alistair Graham, former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, have called on Miss Osamor to sack her son. Sir Alistair said last week: He is clearly not the kind of person who should be working in Parliament. Labour shadow ministers yesterday voiced support for Miss Osamor. Karen Lee, shadow fire minister, tweeted: You are a hard-working and principled MP Im proud to call you my friend. Why did court accept 2,500 festival drugs haul was not for sale? Ishmael Osamor pleaded guilty to four drugs charges after his barrister Mohsin Zaidi struck a deal with the Crown Prosecution Service at Bournemouth Crown Court Ishmael Osamor was spared prison after his barrister persuaded prosecutors he was not planning to make a profit from his 2,500 haul of drugs. Judge Stephen Climie, who has a history of sparing drug users from prison, said the 29-year-old was lucky to avoid a four-year prison term and sentenced him to 200 hours of unpaid work instead. The judges decision was condemned last night by Mary Brett, chair of the anti-drugs group Cannabis Skunk Sense. Mrs Brett said: Police have become increasingly soft on drugs, especially cannabis, and judges arent making an example of users and dealers when they are brought to trial. In this case, Osamor has escaped with nothing more than a slap on the wrist which is quite amazing given the quantity of drugs he had on him. He shouldnt have a job in the Commons. He should be in prison. Osamor pleaded guilty to four drugs charges after his barrister Mohsin Zaidi struck a deal with the Crown Prosecution Service at Bournemouth Crown Court. The former Labour councillor had been caught with 30g of ecstasy a class A drug blamed for a string of deaths at music festivals as well 7.5g of cocaine, 5.7g of ketamine and a trace of cannabis at least years Bestival festival in Dorset. Incredibly, he was let off prison as the drugs were for his personal use and for his friends. The court was not told how many friends were with him. Advertisement The emotional final moments of a young rugby player who died eight years after swallowing a slug and becoming a paraplegic have been revealed. Sam Ballard, 28, died on Friday at Sydney's Hornsby Hospital after battling with a condition contracted from rat lungworm in 2010. Mr Ballard passed away in the morning 'surrounded by 20 of those he most loved in the world,' his mother, Katie Ballard, said. The emotional final moments of young footy player Sam Ballard, 28, (right) who died eight years after swallowing a slug and becoming a paraplegic have been revealed Mr Ballard (pictured) passed away in the morning 'surrounded by 20 of those he most loved in the world,' his mother Katie said Mr Ballard's (right) funeral will take place on Thursday at the Palm Chapel at Macquarie Park Crematorium, to which the public are invited and encouraged to wear a 'splash of red or blue' Katie Ballard also told Ten Daily 'the room was so full of love'. He said 'I love you' moments before passing way, she added. A friend of Mr Ballard, who was also present in the room during his final moments, confirmed the young man told his mother several times he loved her before he died. The 28-year-old's heartfelt final exchanges with his friends and family emerged as a touching obituary for the former footy player appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald. Katie Ballard also said 'the room was so full of love' and her son said 'I love you' to her before passing away A friend of Mr Ballard (right), who was also present in the room during his final moments, confirmed the young man told his mother several times he loved her before he died. The 28-year-old's heartfelt final exchanges with his friends and family emerged as a touching obituary for him appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald It read: 'Sam was a true battler and hero to his younger brother Joshua and sister Melanie. 'He had an army of friends and family who have loved and cared for him for which he was truly grateful. 'His last days were the happiest and he was surrounded by a room full of love.' Mr Ballard's funeral will take place on Thursday at the Palm Chapel at Macquarie Park Crematorium, to which the public are invited and encouraged to wear a 'splash of red or blue'. The death of the once promising young rugby player and former Barker College student has also been met by an outpouring of grief, with many people online paying tribute to his 'courage' and determination. 'May Sam's star always shine bright, just the way it did in life,' a mourner wrote. 'That's terrible, my son shared his room with him at the Ryde rehabilitation centre. He was a courageous young man. RIP Sam and condolences to his family and friends,' another said. Mr Ballard was with mates at a friend's 19th birthday party when his life was irreversibly changed. Friends Jimmy Galvin and Michael Sheasby told The Project, in April this year, of the fateful night. 'We were sitting over here having a bit of a red wine appreciation night, trying to act as grown-ups and a slug came crawling across here,' Mr Galvin said. 'The conversation came up, "should I eat it?" Off Sam went. Bang. That's how it happened.' Mr Ballard fell ill after eating the slug and was told by doctors he had been infected with 'rat lungworm'. The worm is commonly found in rats but snails or slugs can be infected when they eat rodent droppings. Tragically, Mr Ballard contracted eosinophilic meningo-encephalitis and lapsed into a coma for 420 days, suffering a severe infection to his brain. 'He was a courageous young man': Those closest to Mr Ballard (pictured) have paid tribute to his determination after his incident in 2010 Others online who payed tribute to the young man urged his friends to celebrate his life after all the hardships. 'I hope the friends that were with him when he swallowed the slug, especially the one who dared him,' one tribute read. 'Let go of the guilt and try to find some peace themselves. Don't let the guilt of the role you played destroy your lives, your mate wouldn't have wanted that.' 'Rest In Peace Sam. Hopefully your friends will keep visiting your mum and family in the coming years. Sympathy to you all,' another wrote. Mr Ballard (pictured) spent three years in hospital after the incident Prior to the dare, Mr Ballard was a promising young rugby star at Barker College on Sydney's north shore. Mr Ballard's mother Katie (right) described her son as a 'larrikin' but 'invincible' Before the accident, Mr Ballard's mother described how she saw her son as 'invincible'. In a Facebook post from 2011, Ms Ballard said she hoped her son would walk again. 'Sam is doing really well. He is still the same cheeky Sam, and laughs a lot. He will walk and talk again (thank god) but the time factor is was we don't know,' she wrote. She later said the accident completely changed his life. 'It's devastated, changed his life forever, changed my life forever. It's huge. The impact is huge,' she said. A female inmate in California ripped out her own eye and swallowed it in her cell after prison guards ignored her screams for four hours. The gruesome ordeal took place last year at the California Institution for Women in Chino. The woman, who has not been named, had been screaming every 15 minutes for at least four hours before she got on the floor and tore out her eye. She had already eaten her eye by the time guards rushed into her cell. The woman, identified only as Inmate Patient X, was not being given medication even though she had been identified as 'psychotic'. The ordeal was detailed in a recent report obtained by the LA Times that is critical of mental healthcare in California prisons. Chief psychiatrist for the state's prison system, Dr Michel Golding, wrote the report and said vulnerable inmates are allegedly not being cared for properly. The inmate who tore out her eye was evaluated by a psychologist but a psychiatrist was not brought in to administer any drugs. Doctors said in the aftermath and she had shown signs she needed immediate medication. 'The tragedy is that any competent psychiatric physician or general medical physician would have medicated the patient, and likely the patient's eye would still be in her head had that happened,' Golding said in his report. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation issued a statement slamming Golding's report. 'The department strongly disagrees with this individual's allegations, and looks forward to a fair and thorough review and hearing of all the facts,' a spokeswoman said. 'We have worked closely with lawyers representing prisoners, as well as the court appointment monitors, for many years to improve the mental health of inmates, and our dedicated and well-trained staff will continue to provide appropriate care and treatment.' Golding's report was included in federal court documents linked to a lawsuit that is arguing that psychiatric care in prison is a constitutional right. Brandy's daughter Sy'Rai Smith, 19, opens up on body positivity issues and how her mother was with her 'through everything' ... as she thought she was 'embarrassed' of her First daughter Ivanka Trump joined her father on stage Monday in Ohio, but the president cautioned that in an age crisscrossed by feminism and political correctness he would never again be able to publicly praise her beauty. Donald Trump instead introduced his famously photogenic daughter as 'really smart,' recalling that her classmates at the Wharton School of Finance once complained about how she found her studies comparatively easy. 'The truth is she's a very, very you're not allowed to use the word "beautiful" anymore when you talk about women. You're not allowed,' he said, launching into a tongue-in-cheek lecture. 'No, no. It's politically incorrect. Oh, no. It is politically -- I will never call a woman "beautiful" again,' he said, before asking every man in an audience of 6,000 to raise his hand and make the same pledge. Trump brought his daughter Ivanka to the stage in Cleveland, where she praised her father for ushering in a 'golden age' of economic security The president joked that he was no longer allowed to refer to his own daughter as 'beautiful' because it's become too 'politically incorrect' 'You will never ever say your wife, your girlfriend, anybody is beautiful, right? I'm not allowed to say it. Because because it's my daughter Ivanka, but she's really smart. And she's here!' Trump said. Ivanka spoke briefly about economic security and jobs, after remarking: 'That was some introduction!' She boasted that the president had ushered in a 'golden era' of economic security. 'My father promised that he would fight to give you all a voice. He promised that he would fight for the forgotten men and women of America,' she said to cheers. 'The fight is paying off.' Trump beamed when her moment was over: 'Alright, I never said she was beautiful. But she was smart. Instead of beautiful, he said Ivakna is 'really smart' and reminisced about how easy she found classes at the Wharton School of Finance Ivanka is a senior White House aide she doesn't accept a salary and rarely makes political appearances President Donald Trump arrived to speak at the first of three campaign rally appearances Monday in Cleveland, Ohio, in a state he won two years ago Ivanka is also a senior White House adviser but seldom makes public campaign appearances. Monday was an exception, as the president's schedule called for a three-state blitz in the space of eight hours on the eve of the midterm congressional elections. He began his Monday afternoon hinting that he expects a pollster-confounding surprise like the one that shocked the political establishment in 2016. 'There is something going on, Ohio, that theyre not talking about,' he said after greeting about 6,000 people in a sea of red hats. Theres an electricity like people have not seen since a date in 2016. November, Trump said, adding later that 'we defied the pundits and the critics. We rejected them.' An IRA Hyde Park bombing suspect has been arrested over the murders of two British soldiers after an explosion in 1972. John Downey was detained by Irish gardai on Monday evening under a European Arrest Warrant as part of a joint operation with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Mr Downey, 66, was arrested in Co Donegal and is expected to appear at Dublin High Court on Tuesday afternoon to face extradition proceedings. John Downey, 66, (pictured) has been arrested in Co Donegal on suspicion of murdering two Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers in a bomb attack in Enniskillen in 1972. He is wanted for questioning in Northern Ireland on suspicion of murdering Lance Corporal Alfred Johnston, 32, a father of four, and Private James Eames, 33, a father of three, in Co Fermanagh. They died when an IRA bomb exploded in a car they were checking on the Irvinestown Road, Cherrymount, Enniskillen on August 25, 1972. In 2013, John Downey was charged with murdering four Royal Household Cavalrymen with a bomb in London's Hyde Park. The IRA car bomb exploded as they made their way from their Kensington barracks to a Changing Of The Guard ceremony at Horse Guards Parade in July 20 1982. It killed the four soldiers and injured others as they travelled from their barracks to Buckingham Palace. Seven horses were also killed and another horse, Sefton, survived terrible injuries. He stood trial at the Old Bailey but the case dramatically collapsed after it was revealed he had received a written assurance from former prime minister Tony Blair's government that he was not actively wanted by the authorities. The letter was issued under the terms of the controversial On The Runs (OTRs) scheme. Trial judge Mr Justice Sweeney ruled that Mr Downey's arrest at Gatwick airport, as he transited the UK on the way to a holiday, represented an abuse of process and he put a stay on any future prosecution in relation to the Hyde Park case. The episode sparked a government inquiry into the OTR scheme. Mr Downey has always denied any involvement in the Hyde Park attack. The four soldiers killed in Hyde Park were Trooper Simon Tipper, 19, Lance Corporal Jeffrey Young, 19, Squadron Quartermaster Corporal Roy Bright, 36, and Lieutenant Anthony Daly, 23. A spokesman for the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland said: 'Following careful consideration of all available evidence, a decision has been taken to prosecute one person for the offence of murder and for aiding and abetting the causing of an explosion. 'Extradition proceedings were initiated in the High Court in Dublin on Monday November 5, to seek the extradition of one man from the Republic of Ireland for trial in Northern Ireland. 'One man was subsequently arrested in County Donegal this evening and is due to appear in court in Dublin tomorrow.' A leading chef says drug dealers operate outside his two Michelin-starred restaurant because of a lack of police. Daniel Clifford said criminal behaviour was common around Midsummer House in Cambridge. He posted footage online of an alleged drug deal to highlight the problem after police failed to respond to his complaints. 'It's a daily occurrence that my staff witness drug-dealing taking place,' tweeted Mr Clifford, 45. Daniel Clifford says drug dealers operate outside his two Michelin-starred restaurant because of a lack of police 'When are we going to see a police presence to crack down on this? CCTV has been provided.' The footage shows two friends on bikes approach another youth on a bicycle in broad daylight. One hands over some cash and is given a small object which he pockets before pedalling away. The restaurant one of only 20 in the UK with two Michelin stars overlooks the River Cam in a park near the city centre. Staff believe the dealers switched to Midsummer Common following a drug-related murder at nearby Stourbridge Common in August. He posted footage online of an alleged drug deal (above) to highlight the problem after police failed to respond to his complaints Mr Clifford said criminal behaviour was common around Midsummer House in Cambridge A spokesman for Midsummer House said: 'We see suspicious people outside the restaurant regularly and see them dealing drugs. If we don't see them dealing we know why they're there. 'Our staff are feeling intimidated. We spoke to police about these problems in early September and haven't heard from them since.' A police spokesman said: 'We are aware of issues relating to the dealing and use of drugs in the Midsummer Common area and are gathering evidence ... 'We ask the public continue to report any concerns in order for us to build up a full intelligence picture to tackle it.' Doctor waited four hours after racist muggers attacked him By James Tozer for the Daily Mail A hospital consultant yesterday slammed police for allegedly taking four hours to arrive after he was subjected to a race attack. Walid Deeb, 34, has been signed off work in his trauma unit after badly injuring his knee in the bag-snatch incident. After fighting off the ten-strong teenage gang, he called police but no help came. He struggled home where an officer took a statement four hours later. Walid Deeb, 34, has been signed off work in his trauma unit after badly injuring his knee in the bag-snatch incident The robbery attempt in Manchester last month is being treated as a hate crime because of the abuse the gang hurled at him. Mr Deeb said: 'Where were the police? There is something seriously socially wrong. What if I was older and couldn't fight them off? 'I don't blame the officers I blame the system. I didn't see one police car pass by. Anything could have happened.' Inspector Stephen Griffin of Greater Manchester Police said: 'Due to the fact police were dealing with several critical incidents at the time, an officer was unable to attend immediately. 'Officers attended the victim's home address and established that a group of youths had approached the victim and shouted racial slurs at him. Investigations are ongoing.' Mr Deeb, who needs surgery on his knee, was on his way to a meeting to discuss Manchester's homelessness problem at the time. Advertisement Home Office policing chief under fire for defending 'hate' probes By Ian Drury, Home Affairs Editor for the Daily Mail A Home Office minister was accused of passing the buck yesterday after she defended the investigation by police of hate crimes. Victoria Atkins blamed decisions to probe wolf-whistling and similar matters on chief constables and elected crime commissioners. She was also urged to 'get a grip' after denying a link between police cuts and a rise in murders. Victoria Atkins blamed decisions to probe wolf-whistling and similar matters on chief constables and elected crime commissioners In a stumbling BBC interview, Miss Atkins insisted the spike in gang-related violence in London and other cities was not due to a reduction in officer numbers but because the nature of crime had changed. She was put on the spot following the fatal stabbing of a man in Anerley, south London, on Sunday the fourth in the capital in five days and one of 118 killings this year. Miss Atkins spoke out after Sara Thornton, chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said officers should be allowed to get back to tackling burglary and serious offending rather than so-called hate crimes, 94,000 of which were investigated in 2017-18. Miss Atkins, a junior minister for crime, said there was more than one reason behind the bloodshed including the rise of so-called 'county lines' drugs gangs. 'The nature of crime is changing,' she said. 'Gangs are far more ruthless than they used to be. The levels of violence which doctors are now seeing in A&Es show that incidents which before perhaps wouldn't have resulted in fatalities now are resulting in fatalities. Drivers 'must pay for fuel first to cut thefts' Motorists should be forced to pay for fuel upfront to tackle a surge in thefts, a senior policeman has said. Simon Cole, who is chief constable of Leicestershire, said 12 per cent of crimes faced by his force were retail-related. The number of people driving off without paying 'bilking' increased to around 25,000 nationally last year, with annual rises of up to 40 per cent in some areas. 'The petroleum industry could design out bilking in 30 seconds by making people pay upfront, which is what they do in other countries,' said Mr Cole. 'They don't, because the walk into their shops is part of their business offer.' But Brian Madderson of the Petrol Retailers' Association said: 'The Government should be empowering responsible businesses to enforce the law where the police are too overstretched to intervene. 'One solution would be to give petrol retailers access to the DVLA database, so they can pursue drive-offs through the civil courts.' Advertisement 'The police and others have to face up to the reality that criminals are changing their crime types and we have to be able to tackle that.' On claims that the crime epidemic was linked to falling police numbers, Miss Atkins said that 'wasn't supported by the evidence'. Earlier this year, internal Home Office research suggested cuts had 'likely contributed' to a rise in violence. But that document also appeared to contradict itself, stating it was unlikely that 'lack of deterrence was the catalyst for serious violence'. Miss Atkins also played down the idea that political focus on hate crimes such as misogyny was distracting attention from core policing priorities. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Sir Ed Davey said: 'It's astonishing but true that Conservative ministers clearly don't believe increasing police numbers has a role to play in tackling Britain's violent crime wave. They really need to get a grip. 'What this minister said is flatly contradicted by the Home Office's own analysis, leaked earlier this year. It stated clearly that Tory police cuts have 'likely contributed' to the rise in serious violence. 'It's also contradicted by the Police Federation, the National Police Chiefs' Council and the Metropolitan Police commissioner, who have all warned that Tory cuts are harming forces' ability to do their jobs and keep us all safe. 'The police shouldn't be forced to choose between investigating serious violence and investigating hate crimes. The Government must give them the resources to do both.' Lord Hogan-Howe, who served as Metropolitan Police commissioner from 2011 to 2017, stressed the need for extra resources as the Government was tackled at Westminster over cuts to police numbers. Calling for more technology to help officers identify those carrying knives, he added: 'The investment of resources when we have lost 24,000 police officers is vital.' London mayor: Halting tide of violence could take ten years By Chris Greenwood for the Daily Mail Sadiq Khan faced a storm of criticism last night for warning it could take a decade to bring violent crime under control. The Labour London mayor wants to follow Glasgow's lead in developing a 'public health approach' to stop young people turning into criminals. But political opponents say this would be too late for the many families whose lives have been destroyed. A fatal stabbing at the weekend has taken the number of killings this year in London to 118. Sadiq Khan faced a storm of criticism last night for warning it could take a decade to bring violent crime under control The number of officers meanwhile has fallen to 29,500, the lowest figure for more than a decade. Mr Khan said he favoured different public sector bodies working together, adding: 'It will take some time. I know that because of the lessons we've learnt from places like Glasgow. 'To really make significant progress can take up to ten years, a generation. They saw in Scotland what we are seeing in London, which is children in primary schools thinking not only is it OK to carry a knife, but it gives them a sense of belonging in joining a criminal gang. 'It makes them feel safer and they see nothing wrong in getting involved in this sort of behaviour.' But Shaun Bailey, a Tory London Assembly member, said: 'Londoners need this surge of violent knife crime stopped now, not in ten years. We need to put criminals under pressure, not our communities. 'It's time for Sadiq to make better choices with the resources he has, not shift the blame or complain about the funding he would like in a perfect world, because the world isn't perfect and people are dying. Shaun Bailey, a Tory London Assembly member, said: 'Londoners need this surge of violent knife crime stopped now, not in ten years' 'We should be taking a zero tolerance approach to gangs and their knife crime, and pushing for tougher sentences on other crimes that are pressuring our communities, like acid attacks and moped-enabled robberies.' Tony Arbour, another London Tory, said the mayor's approach was wrong. 'You cannot compare Glasgow with London, the pattern of criminality is quite different,' he added. 'If the police believed that the mayor truly supported a robust crack down on real crime then the problem could be dealt with.' Mr Khan has blamed rising violence in London on the 700million cuts to the Metropolitan Police budget over the past seven years, with more reductions expected. He told the BBC there was a direct link between falling police numbers and increasing crime, citing a leaked Home Office report. 'The most senior police officers in the country have said it's naive to think there's not a link between cutting police numbers and an increase in violent crime,' he added. His plan includes a review of the most serious offences since 2014 to discover the trends behind them. The Met has set up a taskforce to target 'habitual knife carriers' in hotspots, with more than 1,300 arrests in six months. But community police teams have dwindled as robberies, violence and knife crime continue to rise. Advertisement This Remembrance Sunday I will do my duty at our village church and read a long list of the dead of two world wars who attended the prep school my family used to run. There are 96 names listed by surname only, for that is how they were known at the school. Anderson, Batty, Bolton ma, Bolton mi, Boyce, Brownrigg . . . it begins, just some of the carnage of Jutland, the Western Front and beyond. Among the World War II dead are two sets of three brothers, the Jenner-Fusts and Lanes, killed at places such as Java, Alamein, Burma, Malta. One small school in England lost 94 boys and two teachers in those wars. The list acquires a rhythm of its own, almost the toll of a funeral bell. This arrangement - Heckington 100, from in Lincolnshire - commemorates the 31 men from the village who died in the First World War. St Andrew's Church (pictured) has been decorated with 18,000 poppies, which are knitted, crotchet or painted. People from all parts of the community took part in the project to honour the wardead This display to commemorate the fallen is in Ripon Park, North Yorkshire. You can send your tributes to us by emailing s.murphy-bates@mailonline.co.uk A World War One tableau on village green in Lower Peover near Knutsford in Cheshire. The figures are traditional scarecrows made of wood and straw Knitted poppies decorate a tree in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, where the wardead are being remembered ahead of the centenary of the First World War A display in Somerset depicts soldiers alongside civilians and medical staff as people remember the fallen this November Hayling Island in Hants remembers the dead with a project in which 18,000 poppies were crocheted and knitted to decorate St Peter's Church A total of 13,000 poppies cascading from the roof to the ground in Keswick , Cumbria, to commemorate the fallen soldiers This poppy tribute was erected in Pelsall Village, West Midlands, as the nation pays tributes to those who fought and died The school closed in 1994 and there is no one left who actually knew most of these dead soldiers, yet with each year I find it harder to keep a quaver from my voice. We have reached the centenary of the 1918 Armistice. How much longer, as a country, will we continue to mourn casualties of a war that is now as distant from us as the Battle of Waterloo was from them? Is mourning even the right word for what we do with our red poppies and our rolls of honour? Or is this something more deeply rooted? Remembrance Day chimes with the British autumn. The dolefulness of this Sundays civic gatherings around the country will be matched by Novembers leaf-fall and a general dankness in the air. It is a day for greatcoats and hats and the stamp of black shoes on cold flagstones and gravel paths, when a smell of soil and decay is on the churchyard breeze. That the Great War ended on November 11 was strategic happenstance, but the date the 11th of the 11th had a poetry to it and it pretty much coincided with the ancient festivals of Halloween and All Souls Day. Grassmoor Craft Group in Derbyshire displayed nearly 2,000 poppies in the heart of the village, commemorating the end of WW1 From earliest times this was when the Celtic inhabitants of our isles contemplated death and those they had lost. I have never been to a Remembrance Service in the southern hemisphere, where it is springtime and Nature is bursting out all over, but it must have a very different flavour. How do you spend Poppy Day? Do you attend your local parade or do you watch TV coverage of the national ceremony in London, where the Queen and her prime ministers, present and past, lay wreaths at the Cenotaph? I went to the London event once, to stand in the crowds on Parliament Square and watch the old soldiers march past, elderly men still bristling with comradely pride. It gave one a rare sense of nationhood and of what the Armed Forces do for our parliamentary kingdom. Most years, though, I have spent Remembrance Day at ceremonies in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. The hymns reach into our innards: Abide With Me, O Valiant Hearts or Parrys setting of the Tennyson poem Crossing The Bar. Laurence Binyons words, they shall grow not old as we that are left grow old, catch the theft of youth from those who died in war and those of us now being bent by age. There is the march-past by the local branch of the Royal British Legion, medals swinging on lapels and veterans juddering to attention in defiance of the years. That these veterans include familiar faces neighbours suddenly transformed by wearing their old colours accentuates the Forces local links. This tribute features 662 hand knitted and named poppies on crosses now installed in front of Worthing Town Hall thanks to the talented ladies of Storm Ministries The dead come often from the county regiments. From the war memorial lists you hear local surnames in our part of Herefordshire six members of the Lee family, still prominent in the village and that makes the years telescope and 20th century sacrifices seem closer. Then comes the two-minute silence, when all you can hear is the wind at your ears and the occasional sniffle from someone who has found it all too much. The Last Post may be trumpeted less than faultlessly, but the blend of earnest imperfection and shared solemnity can be immensely powerful. So many of those who died were just farmhands from nearby fields, unsuspecting lads who exchanged spades and ploughs for rifles and howitzers. Pre-School children listening to a story about why we mark the 11th November with poppies. All the children and staff were involved in making the poppies for the display at Humpty Dumpty Day Nurseries & Pre-Schools in Lichfield Some people find Remembrance Day too militaristic. They are entitled to their view, but there is a difference between enlightened patriotism, which is a fine thing, and triumphant nationalism, which has no place at any church service or, for that matter, elsewhere. In the list of fallen former pupils that I read every year, there is one, Ahrens, who was a German who died while fighting against us. He may have been the enemy, yet we honour him as an equal before God, a man no less patriotic and unfortunate than our British troops. War is hellish for both sides. The people of Clowne, Derbishire, have crafted a poppy display to adorn their memorial wheel as the centenary approaches in coming days On Sunday, the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, will lay a wreath at the Cenotaph. Some who lived through the war are opposed to his presence. I, born post-war, can only welcome it as a further moment of reconciliation between us. Then there are those who choose to wear pacifist white poppies. Intellectually I might question their stance are they saying they would never fight evil? but emotionally it is hard to condemn their idealism. What did our grandfathers fight for, particularly in the war against Hitler, if not the right to hold contrary views? My mother, in her 80s, finds it harder to bite her tongue about pacifism. Her father was a British Army sapper who landed at D-Day and dashingly fought his way east through to Germany, running into a few lumps of shrapnel en route. He died in 1949, partly of his wounds, and my mothers childhood was wrecked by that war. This display at Blackpool's Victoria Hospital in Lancashire features a replica of the Menin Gate draped with knitted poppies Remembrance Sunday is not easy for her, yet she stands with her gloved hands gripped tight, defying the raw memories that must make her want to gasp. The formality of Remembrance Sundays ceremonial, with its spare, stark words and its wind- whistling silence, is very British in its emotional restraint. Do WE romanticise those and other wars? Do we cast back longingly to a less complicated time, when stalwart women and men did not hesitate to make sacrifices for king and country? It seems we mark the day more now than 30 years ago. Amid todays zingy restlessness maybe Remembrance Day reflects a need for occasional acts of communal melancholy. There must come a time when we will place less emphasis on the world wars and focus instead on loved ones we have lost in the previous year. I can see it would make sense for Remembrance Sunday eventually to become an All Souls Sunday. But I dont sense that moment has yet arrived. A hundred years on, the story of the Western Front continues to grip our imagination. So, on Sunday, I will recite once again that sorrowful list of the unforgotten fallen whom we never knew. You can send us your best Remembrance Day poppy displays by emailing: pictures@mailonline.co.uk New South Wales A permit is required where the lottery promotes a trade or business. A permit is not required if qualified/expert judges are used and the winner is judged against a specific criteria. Victoria No permits required to run online competitions. The cost of entry must not exceed $1. The names of winners of all prizes over $1000 must be published in accordance with the methods set out in the legislation, and winners of prizes must be advised in writing of the prize. Queensland Business and Industry Portal Lotteries are classified into different categories and some categories require a license. Applications for a permit can be made through the QLD Office of Liquor and Gaming. Generally, free entry trade promotions do not require a license. Western Australia No permits required to run online competitions. Entry must be free. South Australia A license is not required for lotteries where the prize value is $5,000 or less. Tasmania Permits are not required to run online competitions or trade promotions. Winners will be notified in writing and published on the website approximately 24 hours after the final draw and will remain on the website for a minimum of 30 days. Northern Territory Games of skill do not require a permit. For games of chance, where the total prize value of the trade lottery is less than $5,000, a permit is not required. Australian Capital Territory Any lottery which includes an element of chance or a mixture of chance and skill requires a permit. Source: Legal Vision Memorabilia that belonged to the first man to set foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong, has fetched more than $7.4 million (5.8m) at auction. Among the items on sale was Armstrong's spacecraft ID plate from Apollo 11's Eagle lunar lander module, which sold for the highest price, $468,500 (360,000). There has been renewed interest in the Apollo missions, with NASA launching celebrations in October to mark the 50th anniversary of the program. In a separate auction, a gold-coloured Navy aviator's helmet once owned by John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, sold for $46,250 (35,500). Scroll down for video Memorabilia that belonged to the first man to set foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong, has fetched more than $7.4 million (5.8m) at auction. Among the items on sale was Armstrong's spacecraft ID plate from Apollo 11's Eagle lunar lander module (pictured) The items, on sale at Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, were part of a huge collection that once belonged to the late astronaut. The plaque includes a representation of the lunar module that touched down on the moon on July 20, 1969. Once back on Earth, it was mounted on a wooden base before being offered to Armstrong. The other two astronauts who took part in the mission, Edwin Buzz' Aldrin and Michael Collins, also each received one of these plaques. The souvenir plaque did better than the lot that was expected as the highlight of the sale, an American flag taken during the trip to the moon, but never deployed on site. Larger than most flags brought into space 18 by 11 inches (45 by 29 cm), it was sold for $275,000 (210,000), including fees and commissions. The plaque, which sold for the highest price of any of the items at auction, includes a representation of the lunar module that touched down on the moon on July 20, 1969. Once back on Earth, it was mounted on a wooden base before being offered to Armstrong The flight suit (pictured) that Armstrong wore aboard Gemini 8, the 1966 mission that performed the first docking of two spacecraft in flight, brought the astronaut's family $109,375 (84,000). Also among the collection was a fragment from the propeller (pictured) and a section of the wing from the Wright brothers' Flyer, the first heavier-than-air self-powered aircraft Armstrong's two sons, Rick and Mark, decided to part with some of the very large collection of their father, who died in 2012. It includes more than 2,000 objects. Both the wing fabric (pictured) and propeller section each sold for $275,000 (212,000). Armstrong's two sons, Rick and Mark, decided to part with some of the very large collection of their father, who died in 2012. It includes more than 2,000 objects. Just part of the collection was offered at the sale - held Thursday through Saturday in Dallas, as well as online. Another two sales are planned in May and November 2019 by Heritage Auction, which organised the first. Also among the collection was a fragment from the propeller and a section of the wing from the Wright brothers' Flyer, the first heavier-than-air self-powered aircraft. They each sold for $275,000 (212,000). The flight suit Armstrong wore aboard Gemini 8, the 1966 mission that performed the first docking of two spacecraft in flight, brought the astronaut's family $109,375 (84,000). Also on sale in a separate auction was astronaut John Glenn's helmet, which went for $46,250 (35,500). Glenn was among the Mercury Seven, the group of astronauts that piloted America's first manned spaceflights in the 1960s. Also on sale in a separate auction Was John Glenn's helmet (pictured), which went for $46,250 (35,500). Glenn was among the Mercury Seven, the group of astronauts that piloted America's first manned spaceflights in the 1960s The golden helmet (pictured) he wore while setting the transcontinental speed record during 1957's 'Project Bullet' went up for grabs to the public. Glenn gifted it to Matt Carpenter, son of Scott Carpenter who was also part of the Mercury Seven The golden helmet he wore while setting the transcontinental speed record during 1957's 'Project Bullet' went up for grabs to the public. Glenn gifted it to Matt Carpenter, son of Scott Carpenter who was also part of the Mercury Seven. Matt said: 'When we were young, as far back as I can remember, we would play naval aviators on the couch, and either my brother or I would wear the gold Glenn Navy helmet and one of us would wear a helmet that belonged to my father.' When the Carpenters discovered Armstrong's sons had organised a sale of their famous father's memorabilia, Matt Carpenter said the helmet seemed like an ideal fit. Carpenter, now 40, and his brother Nick, 39, would like to use some of the proceeds to help underwrite a documentary they are producing about the Glenn-Carpenter friendship. Matt Carpenter said they interviewed both astronauts in 2012 and hope to release the film in 2019. Its working title is the famous Glenn quote, 'Zero-G and I feel fine.' Viking civilisations produced tar on an industrial scale and coated their longships in the sticky substance to help waterproof the vessels. A series of pits in Sweden are thought to make tar in batches of 45 - 65 gallons (200 - 300 litres), ten times the volume of the substance being produced anywhere else at the time. Experts believe this helped turn the Nordic society into a European powerhouse and allowed them to traverse the treacherous waters of the Baltic and North Sea. Scroll down for video Viking civilisations produced tar on an industrial scale and coated their longships in the sticky substance to help waterproof the vessels. In order to adequately waterproof all the timber in a single Viking ship the Navy would have required about 500 litres of tar (stock) Andreas Hennius, from Uppsala University, found that the pits appear in the archaeological record at the same time that Viking society became a maritime power. In order to adequately waterproof all the timber in a single Viking ship the Navy would have required about 100 gallons (500 litres) of tar, making production of the substance essential to the society's success. It was made in deep pits filled with pine wood, covered with turf and set on fire. This process was up-scaled around 680AD after smaller pits were discovered that date back to around 100AD and 400AD. Mr Hennius, a PhD candidate at the Swedish University, found the funnel-shaped pits with a cavity underneath to capture the resin. Further analysis of the soil around the pit confirmed they were used in tar production but it remained unexplained how the process was industrialised by the Vikings. Production of the substance was essential to the society's success and was made in deep pits filled with pine wood, covered with turf and set on fire. Experts believe this helped turn the Nordic society into a powerhouse and allowed them to traverse treacherous waters (stock) During excavations, Mr Hennius said: 'It is a clear change from small-scale household production to large-scale production.' 'To go out into the forest and stay there for probably several months is a big thing. It means a change in how you organise the whole of the region, with people removed from ordinary agrarian production. 'That will influence the whole structure of life.' The research was published in the journal Antiquity. Messaging could be about to get a lot more complicated thanks to a new feature that lets you send secret messages in WhatsApp group chats. A beta version of the facility - dubbed 'reply privately' - was spotted in the latest testing edition of the popular app for Android. It's designed to let you to start a separate conversation - hidden from the group - with another member. Users will need to be careful where they direct their responses, however, with the possibility of unkind comments being revealed to everyone. Although the new facility opens a new window for you to chat privately in, the chances of replying in the wrong window seem high - particularly if you have lots of private windows open. Scroll down for video The new feature was spotted by WABetaInfo and will allow users to reply to an individual member of the group chat without losing the context of the group's wider discussion The new feature is due to be released in WhatsApp according to WABetaInfo, the technology information group that made the discovery. It was found in the Android beta version of the Facebook owned messaging platform. WhatsApp already allows users to reply to a member of a group chat individually, but the new feature will divert you to a personal chat without losing the context of the discussion within the group. To use the feature, the user presses on the message of the person they want to reply to prompting the 'reply privately' option to come up, opening up a private conversation with that user. In groups were only the administrator can send out messages, non-admins can now reply privately to that person, without the message being seen by the rest of the group. The new addition is to be introduced as part of the Android 2.18.335 update, but it is not available for web versions or iOS yet, according to WABetaInfo. The app, which launched in 2009, will allow users to send a private reply user by holding their message down until the 'privately reply' option comes up However, they warn that users should not update to the latest version because they say there is a bug where the app will crash if users delete media in the group. WABetaInfo is renowned for studying WhatsApp beta code and finding reliable information on forthcoming features. This includes their recent finding that advertisements would be used in the status section of the app before the company officially confirmed they would be starting to embed paid-for content from 2019. Launched in 2009, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging service in the world racking up 1.5 billion monthly users, surpassing Facebook Messenger and WeChat. Brazen grave robbers have damaged an ancient burial site by desecrating the human remains and leaving them dumped in a pile in order to steal ornaments and artefacts. The shocking incident happened in a pre-Hispanic cemetery which could be up to 5,000 years old. The site is known as Jerusalem K'uchu which is in a small rocky cave in the Combapata district of the Peruvian province of Canchis. Local media report the thieves almost completely destroyed the graves in order to steal the ornaments the bodies were buried with. Scroll down for video Brazen grave robbers have damaged an ancient burial site by desecrating the human remains and leaving them dumped in a pile in order to steal ornaments and artefacts The burial site is reportedly from 'Andean culture', a term used to describe the indigenous peoples of the Andes mountains, often those controlled by the Inca Empire. The oldest known Andean civilisation is The Norte Chico civilisation of Peru dating back to 3200 BC and the Inca civilisation, which arose in the early 13th century. From 1438 to 1533, the Incas controlled a large part of western South America, centred around the Andes mountain range before falling to Spanish conquistadors. Photos show that the human bones and skulls were dumped in a pile so the thieves could reach the artefacts. Archaeologists have reportedly confirmed the skeletons were completely disjointed in the raid and the stone and mud structures used to protect the remains were also destroyed. Authorities are working to identify all the objects stolen and damaged by the thieves. Fifteen human skulls found in the interior of the cave will need to be conserved. The shocking incident happened in a pre-Hispanic cemetery which could be up to 5,000 years old. Those responsible have not yet been identified Local media report the thieves almost completely destroyed the graves in order to steal the ornaments the bodies were buried with From their ancient capital Cusco, the Incas controlled a vast empire called Tahuantinsuyo, which extended from the west of present-day Argentina to the south of Colombia. The empire included the mountain-top citadel of Machu Picchu in modern-day Peru -- now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major tourist attraction. The cultural organisation responsible for the site have reported the case to the National Police who have launched an investigation. Those responsible have not yet been identified. The burial site is reportedly from 'Andean culture', a term used to describe the indigenous peoples of the Andes mountains, often those controlled by the Inca Empire The oldest known Andean civilisation is The Norte Chico civilisation of Peru dating back to 3200 BC and the Inca civilisation, which arose in the early 13th century. Photos show that the human bones and skulls were dumped in a pile so the thieves could reach the artefacts Archaeologists have reportedly confirmed the skeletons were completely disjointed in the raid and the stone and mud structures used to protect the remains were also destroyed The site is known as Jerusalem K'uchu which is in a small rocky cave in the Combapata district of the Peruvian province of Canchis Earlier this year researchers in Peru claimed to have found the origins of the Incas using DNA analysis of their modern-day descendants. After becoming fascinated by the Inca culture, their organizational skills and their mastery of engineering, researchers Ricardo Fujita and Jose Sandoval of Lima's University of San Martin de Porresit became interested in the genetic profile of their descendants. They said the aim of the study, the first of its kind, was to reveal whether there was a unique Inca patriarch. 'It's like a paternity test, not between father and son but among peoples,' Dr Fujita told AFP. The cultural organisation responsible for the site have reported the case to the National Police who have launched an investigation. Those responsible have not yet been identified The scientists wanted to verify two common legends about the origin of the Incas. 'After three years of tracking the genetic fingerprints of the descendants, we confirm that the two legends explaining the origin of the Inca civilization could be related,' said Dr Fujita. 'They were compared with our genealogical base of more than 3,000 people to reconstruct the genealogical tree of all individuals. 'We finally reduced this base to almost 200 people sharing genetic similarities close to the Inca nobility.' 'The conclusion we came to is that the Tahuantinsuyo nobility is descended from two lines, one in the region of Lake Titicaca, the other around the mountain of Pacaritambo in Cusco. That confirms the legends,' said Dr Sandoval. The ozone layer that shields life from cancer-causing solar rays is slowly recovering, a UN study has revealed. A hole was found in the ozone layer above Antarctica in the 1980s as a result of harmful chemicals being pumped into the atmosphere. This has allowed large amounts of ultraviolet light to reach Earth unabated and has been linked to an increase in skin cancer diagnoses. Severe bans on the manufacture of these products has seen the hole in the ozone recover at a rate of one to three per cent per decade, scientists have now found. This process reverses the damage done by years of dangerous depletion and is expected to be fully repaired by the 2060s, the study revealed. Scroll down for video The ozone layer that shields life from cancer-causing solar rays is slowly recovering at a rate of one to three per cent per decade, a study from the United Nations has revealed The study was a four-yearly review of the Montreal Protocol, a 1987 ban on man-made gases that damage the fragile high-altitude ozone layer. It found long-term decreases in the amount of these gases in the atmosphere and that the stratospheric ozone was recovering. 'The Antarctic ozone hole is recovering, while continuing to occur every year, the report said. 'As a result of the Montreal Protocol much more severe ozone depletion in the polar regions has been avoided.' The Antarctic ozone hole was expected to gradually close, returning to 1980 levels in the 2060s, the report said. 'Evidence presented by the authors shows that the ozone layer in parts of the stratosphere has recovered at a rate of 1-3 per cent per decade since 2000,' UN Environment and the World Meteorological Organisation said. 'At projected rates, Northern Hemisphere and mid-latitude ozone is scheduled to heal completely by the 2030s followed by the Southern Hemisphere in the 2050s and polar regions by 2060.' Production and emissions of CFC-11 had unexpectedly increased from eastern Asia since 2012 but the country or countries have not yet been identified. In 1987, the Montreal Protocol was agreed, which led to the phase-out of CFCs the first signs of recovery of the ozone layer The Ozone layer sits in the stratosphere 25 miles above the Earth's surface and acts like a natural sunscreen Ozone is a molecule comprised of three oxygen atoms that occurs naturally in small amounts. In the stratosphere, roughly seven to 25 miles above Earth's surface, the ozone layer acts like sunscreen, shielding the planet from potentially harmful ultraviolet radiation that can cause skin cancer and cataracts, suppress immune systems and also damage plants. It is produced in tropical latitudes and distributed around the globe. Closer to the ground, ozone can also be created by photochemical reactions between the sun and pollution from vehicle emissions and other sources, forming harmful smog. Although warmer-than-average stratospheric weather conditions have reduced ozone depletion during the past two years, the current ozone hole area is still large compared to the 1980s, when the depletion of the ozone layer above Antarctica was first detected. In the stratosphere, roughly seven to 25 miles above Earth's surface, the ozone layer acts like sunscreen, shielding the planet from potentially harmful ultraviolet radiation This is because levels of ozone-depleting substances like chlorine and bromine remain high enough to produce significant ozone loss. In the 1970s, it was recognised that chemicals called CFCs, used for example in refrigeration and aerosols, were destroying ozone in the stratosphere. In 1987, the Montreal Protocol was agreed, which led to the phase-out of CFCs and, recently, the first signs of recovery of the Antarctic ozone layer. The upper stratosphere at lower latitudes is also showing clear signs of recovery, proving the Montreal Protocol is working well. But the new study, published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, found it is likely not recovering at latitudes between 60N and 60S (London is at 51N). The cause is not certain but the researchers believe it is possible climate change is altering the pattern of atmospheric circulation - causing more ozone to be carried away from the tropics. They say another possibility is that very short-lived substances (VSLSs), which contain chlorine and bromine, could be destroying ozone in the lower stratosphere. VSLSs include chemicals used as solvents, paint strippers, and as degreasing agents. One is even used in the production of an ozone-friendly replacement for CFCs. Advertisement The UN had already hailed the success of the Protocol, which banned or phased out ozone depleting chemicals, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). CFCs were once widely used in refrigerators and spray cans and were found to be the main reason behind the loss of the ozone layer. The report said it was the first time the Antarctic ozone hole had shrunk in size and depth since 2000. The study also looked at the thinning of the ozone layer in the Arctic and found the annual variations were much larger. This made it harder for the researchers to confirm if there had been a definite recovery. Most of the banned gases have been phased out but the report found at least one violation of the protocol. Research has previously found that levels of ozone-damaging chlorine (blue line) are rapidly declining in the planet's atmosphere, a direct indicator that Earth's protective layer is on the mend. The black line shows the ozone change since 2005 A 2016 study found that the ozone had been depleted by the use of the now banned chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which react with the ozone as they break down. Nasa satellite data from February 2016 (pictured) shows the thinnest parts of the ozone (in red) over the Arctic stretching across Russia, Canada and the US Production and emissions of CFC-11 had unexpectedly increased from eastern Asia since 2012 but the country or countries have not yet been identified. If CFC-11 emissions continued at the same rate the presence of ozone-depleting chemicals will return to 1980 levels with a seven and 20 year delay to mid-latitude and polar regions. Earth's ozone layer acts like a sunscreen, shielding the planet from potentially harmful UV radiation that can cause skin cancer, cataracts, and damage wildlife. There is a debate over how much of Australia's skin cancer rate stems from a weakness in the earth's ozone layer. The so-called 'ozone hole' was especially big over Australia when anti-skin cancer efforts began in the 1980s. Orangutans are slowly disappearing from rainforests and edging closer to extinction despite claims from the Indonesian government, researchers say. Officials has been slammed over suggestions that the primates are making a comeback - with population numbers doubling in one year. The great apes - which experts say are actually in decline - are currently only found in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra and are classified as 'critically endangered'. A recent report by the Indonesians alleged that orangutan populations had increased by more than 10 per cent between 2015 and 2017. This has been called 'biologically impossible' by the scientific community and directly contradicts their body of research, it is claimed. Scroll down for video Orangutans are slowly disappearing from rainforests and edging closer to extinction despite claims from the Indonesian government, researchers say. Officials has been slammed over suggestions that the primates are making a comeback (stock image) The controversial Indonesian report focused on nine monitoring sites including national parks. Their data suggest the orangutan population doubled in one year, going from 1,153 orangutans in 2015 to 2,451 individuals in 2016. Most scientific data indicate that the survival of orangutan species continues to be seriously threatened by deforestation and killing. For instance, a study in Current Biology earlier this year suggested that, between 1999 and 2015, Borneo lost more than 100,000 orangutans. Doctor Erik Meijaard, of Borneo Futures and the IUCN Species Survival Commission, said: 'All three species of orangutan are Critically Endangered and on a steep decline. 'Their numbers are not increasing as indicated by the Indonesian government report. 'It is biologically impossible for an orangutan population to double its size in a year.' Dr Meijaard noted that some of the sampling sites are used for orangutan introduction and relocation, and so any increase in those areas was inevitably preceded by a reduction elsewhere. A recent report by the Indonesians alleged that orangutan populations had increased by more than 10 per cent between 2015 and 2017. This directly contradicts the belief in the scientific community which is based on legitimate published research and peer-reviewed by experts It is unclear what the report will mean for the future of orangutans, he warned. Dr Meijaard also noted that the Indonesian government is now in the process of developing a new 10-year action plan for orangutan conservation. 'If the government thinks that orangutan populations are increasing, it calls for completely different strategies compared to those required for dealing with rapidly decreasing populations,' he added. 'It is important that the government realises that populations remain in decline. Therefore, a new approach to orangutan conservation is needed.' The full findings were published in a letter to the journal Current Biology. Massive floods that loomed more than 65 feet high may once have swept the surface of Mars. This is according to a new study, which argues that many of the rock depositions on the red planet are the result of large bodies of moving water, not just a puny river. Researchers say Mars may once have been home to global ice much like that which existed on Earth during the Pleistocene, giving way to huge outburst floods that shaped the features we see today. Scroll down for video Four units within a stretch of rock in the Gale Crater each represent different types of deposition, according to the new research, and all of these packages involved water.' Researchers say it suggests there were large-scale floods In the new study, researchers examined a 400-meter stretch of sedimentary rock found in Mars Gale Crater. The region has been explored in part by the Curiosity rover and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and contains rocks thought to be 3.7 to 4.1 billion years old. Four units within this rock each represent different types of deposition, according to the new research, and all of these packages involved water, says Ezat Heydari of Jackson State University. In one spot, known as the Hummocky Plain Unit, ridges filled with rounded cobbles and cross beds were found to reach 4 meters (13 feet) high. There, the grains of sediment get up to 20 centimeters in size. In one spot, known as the Hummocky Plain Unit, ridges filled with rounded cobbles and cross beds were found to reach 4 meters (13 feet) high. This can be seen as the grayish-green above The Mastcam image above shows a conglomerate with grains up to 10 centimeters in diameter, some of which are well-rounded, in further evidence of moving water These ridges are asymmetric, Heydari says. In other words, they were formed by one directional current. According to the researcher, creating such features would have required large-scale flooding, with water upwards of 10-20 meters deep. Thats one of the reasons I say these deposits are related to floods, rather than a puny river, Heydari says. The sedimentary rocks seen in the Gale Crater may have been transported there through processes similar to that which took place on Earth thousands of years ago during the Pleistocene. Massive floods that loomed more than 65 feet high may once have swept the surface of Mars. This is according to a new study, which argues that many of the rock depositions on the red planet are the result of large bodies of moving water, not just a puny river. File photo HOW DOES A LAKE ON MARS CHANGE WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT LIFE ON THE RED PLANET? Liquid water is known to be one of the key components to life as we know it, and scientists have spent decades searching for it on Mars. If a large, permanent of body of water exists on the red planet then it has a good chance of hosting microbial life. Researchers had long speculated liquid water is present under the planet's surface, but lacked solid evidence to confirm this. A new finding from a team of Italian scientists suggests a subsurface lake that stretches 12 miles (20km) long is hidden beneath the Martian south pole. The discovery is the first evidence of a lake of liquid water on Mars that still exists today an environment scientists believe is ideal for the growth of life. While the lake exists at a hostile temperature of -68C (-90F), microbes could grow there, as they do in similar environments on Earth, scientists said. Dr Brendan Burns, a microbiologist and astrobiologist from The University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the research, said: 'While the surface of Mars is inhospitable, there is the fascinating possibility that microbial life could survive and flourish in sub-glacial Martian waters.' Advertisement On both planets, one hemisphere was covered by ice northern Hemisphere on Earth, versus the Southern Hemisphere in Mars and the other hemisphere was warm, Heydari says. The new report follows research published earlier this year that offered what was said to be the first evidence that liquid water still exists on Mars today. Scientists at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics revealed the presence of the underground reservoir this summer. The team says it spans 12 miles (20km) and is buried a mile (1.6km) beneath the surface. But, studying this feature wont be easy. As of now, the technology on the Mars rovers and landers cannot drill deep enough to reach such a deeply-buried lake. Advertisement The biggest dust storm ever seen over Greenland has been revealed in a series of stunning satellite images. The unusual event is caused by 'glacial flour', a fine-grained silt formed by glaciers grinding and pulverizing rock. Scientists have never been able to study the phenomenon in large storms until last month, when satellite images captured a storm. Scroll down for video The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Terra satellite and a sensor on the European Space Agencys Sentinel-2 collected imagery on September 29, 2018, of a sizable silt plume streaming from Greenlands east coast WHAT IS GLACIAL FLOUR? Glacial flour is a fine-grained silt formed by glaciers grinding and pulverizing rock. Glacial flour is the smallest size of sediment, much smaller than sand, and is responsible for the milky, colored water in the rivers, streams, and lakes that are fed by glaciers. Because this sediment is so fine, it is easily transported by and suspended in water. In this case, NASA says the glacial flour was likely made by several glaciers farther up the valley, then carried south by meltwater streams and deposited in the floodplain. Advertisement 'This is by far the biggest event detected and reported by satellites that I know about,' said Santiago Gasso, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He first noticed the storm on October 3. 'We have seen a few examples of small dust events before this one, but they are quite difficult to spot with satellites because of cloud cover,' said Joanna Bullard of Loughborough University. 'When dust events do happen, field data from Iceland and West Greenland indicate that they rarely last longer than two days.' The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite and a sensor on the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 collected the first imagery of the storm on September 29, 2018, showing a sizable silt plume streaming from Greenland's east coast. The source was a braided stream valley about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northwest of Ittoqqortoomiit, a village at a latitude of 73 degrees North. That puts the village north of the northern coast of Alaska. The series of Landsat and Sentinel 2 images show the floodplain where the stream flows into Scoresby Sound. As the soil on the floodplain dried out, the floodplain became increasingly gray. Northwesterly winds on September 29 were strong enough to lift glacial flour into the air. The series of Landsat and Sentinel 2 images above and belowcaptured on September 21, 23, 29, and 30shows the floodplain where the stream flows into Scoresby Sound. As the soil on the floodplain dried out (first two images), the floodplain became increasingly gray. Northwesterly winds on September 29 were strong enough to lift glacial flour into the air. The glacial flour was likely made by several glaciers farther up the valley, then carried south by meltwater streams and deposited in the floodplain. As stream water levels dropped in autumn, the floodplain dried out and became susceptible to scouring by the wind. In this case, Bullard noted, the winds were triggered by the combination of a low-pressure system crossing the Greenland ice sheet followed closely by a ridge of high pressure. Since high-latitude dust events are poorly understood, they are typically not included in atmospheric and climate models. Gasso hopes that eventually they will be included because they could have effects on air quality, the reflectivity of snow, and even marine biology. Its no secret that most dogs love a good chase. And now, researchers in Japan are harnessing this trait to remotely control the animals without the use of invasive technology. Footage of recent experiments with the system shows how a dog can be guided toward an object of interest, and even navigate obstacles, simply by having it follow a dot of light. Scroll down for video A video shared to YouTube shows exactly how the new system works; the dog (in this case a poodle) is fitted with a vest that has on-suit light sources, which shine on the ground in the direction it should go According to the team at Tohoku University, the new system allows for canine motion control. A video shared to YouTube shows exactly how it works; the dog (in this case a poodle) is fitted with a vest that has on-suit light sources, which shine on the ground in the direction it should go. Essentially, this means the vest is equipped with a handful of flashlights. The suit also carries a camera that shows the handler a view from the dogs perspective, allowing the person in charge to see what the dog is seeing as it navigates the space. While it might seem simple, the footage shows just how well this can work to lead a dog through a complex environment without a human by its side. In the video, the poodle follows the changing dots of light around two obstacles to get to object A. And, when it approaches the object to inspect, the handler will get a clear view, too. According to the researchers, this was done all by using the remote-controlled system. The dog moved between the desks and arrived at target location by following the light stimulation specified by operator, the team says. The suit also carries a camera that shows the handler a view from the dogs perspective, allowing the person in charge to see what the dog is seeing as it navigates the space (top right) Footage of recent experiments with the system show how a dog can be guided toward an object of interest, and even navigate objects, simply by following a dot of light WHAT GIVES DOGS THEIR ULTRA-SENSITIVE SENSE OF SMELL? The slimy surface of a canine nose is behind their sophisticated sense of smell. Damp mucus on a dog's nose 'pre-sorts' smells by blocking the passage of some odour particles more than others, the team reports. Brent Craven, from Pennsylvania State University and team studied MRI images of a dog's nasal passages to see how air travelled through them. They found that different types of molecules were picked up by nerve cells at different points along the airways. Dogs have many more nerve cells in their nasal passages than people and a wider variety of receptors that pick up different chemicals. This allows them to be trained to sniff out certain odours - such as those in USB drives. Advertisement This type of approach could help to improve the efficiency of dogs used in difficult environments. While search and rescue dogs may be able to fit through small spaces to access areas a human handler cannot, its currently difficult to guide them beyond this point. Thats where the light-based system, or something of similar design, could come into play. Advertisement A vintage fire truck has been transformed into a quirky holiday rental where guests can climb a ladder, use a hose and even slide down a fireman's pole. The Red Rescue Retreat is nestled in the heart of the Lake District close to Keswick offering stays for 402 per week. The truck can sleep up to four people - two adults and two children - meaning that it costs 14 per person per night. The Red Rescue Retreat in the heart of the Lake District, close to Keswick, which is a former fire truck that has been converted into a holiday rental. It's not clear why there's a picture of a burning house next to the decking The property can sleep up to four people - two adults and two children. Pictured is the master bedroom on the upper floor Guests reach the master bedroom by climbing up a ladder, right, and can slide back to the ground down a fireman's pole, left The unusual property has two bedrooms, and guests reach the master bedroom by heading up the ladder where they'll find a king-size bed, TV, dressing table and even a fireman's pole that they can use to slide back down to the ground. Meanwhile a second bedroom on the ground floor has two fire engine bedsteads and firefighter-themed curtains for children. The ground floor also has a lounge with a smart TV while the dining area has panoramic views across the Blecathra Fells and the kitchen is equipped with an oven, hob and a fridge. Inside the master bedroom, there is a large double bed as well as a smart TV and a dressing table In the second bedroom on the ground floor there are two beds with fire engine bed steads and fire engine-themed curtains for children The lounge in the converted fire truck has a comfortable sofa as well as a ladder that takes guests up to the master bedroom There is also a sauna room and a shower room, which leads to a decked patio with a seating area. At the back of the truck there is a small area where firefighter costumes and hoses are available for children to play with. The listing says: 'This fantastic unique fire truck is nested in a spectacular location, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, within the splendid Lake District National Park. The fully equipped kitchen has an oven, hob, wine cooler and fridge. To the right, a door leads to a sauna A stay at the property works out at 14 per person per night. Pictured is the modern shower and toilet room inside the truck 'Entering the fire truck from the lovely decked patio area, into the fantastic open-plan unique accommodation with an array of quirky features including the firemans pole and replica tied ceiling cables. 'Outside there is a decked patio, with seating area. 'It is perfect for al fresco dining and lazy evening star gazing, across the spectacular Blencathra fells.' Ryanair passengers will be unable to check in online for a 12-hour period this week because the airline is closing its website and mobile app for an upgrade. The no-frills carrier confirmed today that its online services will be closed from 5pm on Wednesday, November 7, until 5am on Thursday the following day. During this time customers will also not be able to make new bookings or change existing ones. Ryanair passengers will be unable to check in online for a 12-hour period this week because the airline is closing its website and mobile app for an upgrade However, the Dublin-based carrier says it has contacted all passengers due to travel on Wednesday and Thursday via email or text message to inform them of the website closure. These passengers will be allowed to check in online for their flight on Tuesday before the web closure takes place. Ryanair charges passengers 55 to check-in for flights at the airport if they have failed to do so either online or on the mobile app. Ryanairs Robin Kiely said: 'As part of our continued digital development, a web closure and system upgrade will take place for 12 hours, from 17:00hrs (UK time) on Wednesday November 7, until 05:00hrs (UK time) on Thursday November 8, during which time our online check-in service will not be available. 'Flight bookings and changes will also be unavailable during this period. Customers travelling on Wednesday or Thursday should check-in for their flight on Tuesday 6th November. 'We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused by this upgrade, which will further improve Ryanair.com, Europes largest travel website.' News of the web closure follows chaos at the airline last week when it introduced its new luggage policy News of the web closure follows chaos at the airline last week when it introduced its new luggage policy. Ryanair no longer allows passengers to take a small suitcase in the hold for free, forcing them to pay a minimum of 6 for any bag that won't fit under the seat in front. But following widespread confusion at airports across Europe, the carrier waived some of the controversial new baggage fees. A spokesman for the airline said: 'While our new bag policy has come in to effect, we have briefed our gate agents to take a reasonable approach while customers get used to the new rules.' On Thursday, Rebel Wilson appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show while promoting her new film, Isn't It Romantic. But the 38-year-old raised the ire of fans when she made a large claim - that she is the first plus-size lead in a rom-com. The Australian actress quipped: 'I'm proud to be the first-ever plus-sized girl to be the star of a romantic comedy'. 'Just admit you were wrong and apologise': Rebel Wilson faces backlash after saying she was the 'first plus size woman' to play the lead in a romantic comedy. Rebel is pictured with actor Milo Ventimiglia in a skit on The Ellen DeGeneres Show It was that bold comment which caused a backlash, with several viewers of the show taking to Twitter to question Rebel's claim. One wrote: 'I love @RebelWilson as much as the next girl, but she isnt the first plus-sized woman to play the lead in a romantic comedy. Queen Latifah and MoNique have both played rom-com leads'. Rebel responded to that comment personally, Tweeting: 'Hey girl! Yeah I of course know of these movies.' Claims: On Thursday, Rebel Wilson appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show while promoting her new film, Isn't It Romantic, and raised the ire of fans when she claimed she is the first plus-size lead in a rom-com. Rebel is pictured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Australian actress quipped: 'I'm proud to be the first-ever plus-sized girl to be the star of a romantic comedy'. Rebel is pictured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show 'But it was questionable as to whether: 1. Technically those actresses were plus size when filming those movies or 2. Technically those films are catorgorized/billed as a studio rom-com with a sole lead. So theres a slight grey area,' she wrote. However fans were not convinced by the rationale, pointing out that the 2006 Paramount Studios romantic comedy The Last Holiday, starring plus size actress, Queen Latifah, did meet the perimeters Rebel herself had set. Others flagged another romantic comedy, also released in 2006, distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures and named Phat Girlz, which stars plus-size actress Mo'Nique. Responding: Several viewers took to Twitter to question Rebel's claims. While she responded personally, it did not silence the critics First: Fans pointed out that the 2006 Paramount Studios romantic comedy The Last Holiday, starring plus size actress, Queen Latifah, pre-dates Rebel's film Isn't It Romantic by over a decade. Queen Latifah is pictured in The Last Holiday Pioneers: Other fans flagged another romantic comedy, also released in 2006, distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures and named Phat Girlz, which stars plus size actress Mo'Nique The onslaught continued, with one person Tweeting: 'Pleaaaaaase take several seats behind Queen Latifah, Monique, Ricki Lake, Melissa McCarthy, etc.' Another demanded: 'It isnt complicated. Just admit you were wrong, apologize, and thank Queen Latifah for the path she created for plus size women, that you now walk upon. Its massively important for our generation to see apology and growth.' Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Rebel Wilson for comment. Scenes: In the upcoming film, Isn't It Romantic (pictured) Rebel stars opposite Liam Hemsworth as a woman who is struck on the head and wakes up in a romantic comedy Coming soon! Shirtless Liam Hemsworth stars as the love interest of Rebel's character Racy! Rebel plays Natalie, who grew up idolising the 1990 film Pretty Woman. She gets the attention of Liam's character and the pair share some racy love scenes In upcoming film Isn't It Romantic, Rebel stars opposite Liam Hemsworth as a woman who is struck on the head and wakes up in a romantic comedy. Rebel plays Natalie, who grew up idolising the 1990 film Pretty Woman, only to be told by her mother she is 'no Julia Roberts', before the accident makes all her wildest dreams come true. The film also stars Priyanka Chopra, Adam DeVine and Betty Gilpin and is due in cinemas on Valentine's Day next year. Jessica Gomes, Nicole Trunfio and Gemma Ward have been inseparable for years. But it appears two members of Australia's favourite model trio may have had a falling out. This Sunday, Sydney Confidential reported that a rift has formed between Jessica and Nicole, leading Nicole and to unfollow the David Jones ambassador on social media. Friends no more? David Jones ambassador Jessica Gomes (left) is rumorued to be feuding with fellow model Nicole Trunfio (right), having been unfollowed by her on social media in recent weeks When asked by Sydney Confidential about the rumoured falling out this week, Jessica abruptly changed the topic, simply responding: 'I've known [Nicole and Gemma] for over 15 years, but I have known a lot of the girls for a long time.' 'I've known Jess Hart for a long time as well. I've also known Amy Finlayson for a long time,' she added. When the publication pressed Jessica's agent for details, the agent was unable to get in contact with the model. What happened? The brunette beauties have been friends for years The alleged breakdown of their friendship comes after Jessica praised her friend after she gave birth to daughter Gia. At an InStyle Australia event, Jessica told Daily Mail Australia they were doing 'fantastic'. She continued: 'We always talk business. We just support one another and really be each other's cheerleader. 'I have known a lot of the girls for a long time': Jessica reportedly changed the subject when asked about the models' friendship 'It can get quite overwhelming in this industry. You're doing so many things.' Jessica was the maid of honour at Nicole's wedding to musician Gary Clark Jr. in 2016, carrying the couple's son Zion down the aisle. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Nicole Trunfio and Jessica Gomes' management for comment. Kelly Gale, 23, has responded to Robyn Lawley's attack on the size of Victoria's Secret models, claiming she 'understands' where the curvy model is coming from. Appearing on The Morning Show this week ahead of her appearance on The Victoria's Secret catwalk, Kelly weighed in on Robyn's public call to boycot the iconic runway show until the brand hires plus-sized models to walk. 'I understand where [Robyn] is coming from,' Kelly thoughtfully said. 'I understand where she is coming from': Model Kelly Gale, 23, says she 'understands' why Robyn Lawley wants curvier models on Victoria's Secret catwalk (Pictured: Kelly Gale, Robyn Lawley) 'Girls want to see something they see is similar to how they look,' she explained. The Swedish-Australian stunner, who regularly faces scrutiny for her extremely slender frame, also hit back at her own body shamers during the interview. Fiercely defending her gym-honed figure, the said: 'For me, it's just being about being healthy and fit,' she said, 'and when I'm healthy and fit, this is what I look like.' 'When I'm healthy and fit, this is what I look like': The Swedish-Australian stunner, who regularly faces scrutiny for her extremely slender frame, also hit back at her own body shamers during the interview Ignoring the haters: The Swedish-Australian stunner regularly faces scrutiny for her slender frame It was a different story for the beauty who revealed she was battling a terrible cold earlier this week. She took to her Instagram story on Wednesday in a panic, saying: 'Now is not the time to get sick.' Kelly said she felt like she was coming down with a cold and asked her fans for any suggested remedies and recommendations on how to get rid of it as soon as possible. Crusade: Australian model Robyn has campaigned for the inclusion of plus size girls in the lingerie extravaganza The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show will take place on November 8 in New York City. Kelly has recently been doing four-hour gym session in preparation for the lingerie extravaganza. In 2017, she revealed her pre-runway training regimen included going to the gym seven times a week for up to two-and-a-half hours at a time. 'Now is not the time to get sick': Kelly freaked out as a health crisis struck just days before the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Kyle Sandilands regularly broadcasts intimate details about his relationship with girlfriend, Imogen Anthony. However over the weekend, the KIIS FM radio shock jock, 47, revealed the one thing he will never discuss publicly when it comes to his partner-of-eight-years. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the couple's annual Halloween party in Sydney, the radio star refused to reveal the kind of engagement ring his 27-year-old lady love would want to receive if he ever dropped the knee. Scroll down for video EXCLUSIVE 'I'm not saying!' Kyle Sandilands, 47, (pictured) has revealed the one thing he will never talk publicly about when it comes to girlfriend Imogen Anthony, 27 When Kyle was quizzed about Imogen's preferred diamond cut, he said slyly: 'I know what she likes, I know what cut she likes. 'Oh, I'm not saying...no I can't say!' 'It has to be some sort of surprise. I know what it will be and how it will be... I just haven't bought it yet!' Kyle explained. The Sydney radio star also spoke candidly about starting a family with the blonde bombshell. 'Yeah that will happen one day': The Sydney radio star also spoke candidly about starting a family with the blonde bombshell 'Yeah that will happen one day,' he revealed before adding: 'Unless I'm too old to f**king have kids by the time we have them.' 'But we would have to be married before that would happen!' the shock jock said. Earlier, Kyle, who has been dating Imogen since 2012 hinted it's likely the pair haven't taken their relationship to the next step due to their busy schedules. 'A baby?' Kyle Sandilands, 47, is left shocked when his girlfriend of eight years Imogen Anthony, 27, addresses pregnancy rumours during an appearance on The Morning Show on Wednesday 'Who knows that's one of those things... we never really get the time to do anything!' Kyle said. Kyle's comments come after Imogen spoke candidly about having a baby with Kyle during an interview on The Morning Show this month. Discussing the tour of their Mosman mansion on MTV Cribs Australia, host Kylie Gillies asked the model about whether she will be debuting a nursery room. 'I knew where that was going there. Give me a couple more years!' Imogen said when Kylie Gillies suggested the pair might be entertaining the idea of a baby A surprised Kyle exclaimed, 'A baby?' upon hearing the suggestion. Imogen responded, saying: 'There is lots of rooms in the house... I knew where that was going there. Give me a couple more years!' 'I can give it to you already now, just give me a few years. Still I'm 27,' she added. Offering a piece of his own advice, Kyle said: 'Live your life and then have a baby'. Poking fun at Kyle, the stunner comically said - 'I'm already looking after a big baby as it is at the moment' while pointing at her beau. He sparked dating rumours with fellow reality TV star Elora Murger, 28, after they were spotted putting on a cosy display in August. But MAFS star Dean Wells, 40, has finally now thrown cold water over the whispers, while confirming his single status. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at Kyle Sandilands' & Imogen Anthony's annual Halloween party last week, the Manly-based star laughed off the claims, sharing: 'Definitely not!' Scroll down for video EXCLUSIVE 'Definitely not!' MAFS' Dean Wells, 40, has denied rumours he is dating Bachelor In Paradise's Elora Murger, 28, and confirms he is still single. Dean and Elora pictured at the Honey Birdette lingerie store launch in Sydney on August, 11, 2018 'Elora and I are really good friends and we have a lot in common but we're not like dating or anything like that,' Dean insisted. What's more, Dean revealed he is currently single after he confirmed he struck up a relationship with an 'actress' girlfriend in August. 'I'm not dating anyone at the moment. The girl I was with didn't work out,' Dean admitted later on Sunday. 'I'm not dating anyone at the moment': What's more, Dean (pictured) revealed he is currently single after he confirmed he struck up a relationship with an 'actress' girlfriend in August 'We are still friends and she just doesn't want to be in the limelight I guess,' he said. Dean, who once embarked on an 'affair' with co-star Davina Rankin while 'married' to TV bride Tracey Jewel during the social experiment revealed he had moved on with a new 'actress' girlfriend earlier this year. Speaking to Who magazine in August, the reality TV star previously spoke about his high-hopes for the now defunct romance, sharing: 'It's very early days, I don't use the 'L' word lightly - but I'm happy.' Happier times: Speaking to Who magazine in August, the reality TV star previously spoke about his high-hopes for the now defunct romance, sharing: 'It's very early days, I don't use the 'L' word lightly - but I'm happy' Dean refused to reveal the identity of the mystery woman, saying she prefers to stay 'out of the spotlight.' The creative director first revealed he was seeing someone back in June while attending the Logie Awards with Davina and their co-star Ryan Gallagher. At the time, a source told Daily Mail Australia that the pair had plenty of 'chemistry' and 'bonded' over the experience of being on reality TV. Controversy: Dean's (left) stint on Married At First Sight this year was a controversial one after he embarked on an 'affair' with Davina Rankin while 'married' to TV bride Tracey Jewel (right) Dean, who has also been linked to his ex Tracey a number of times since their break-up, was last thought to be dating busty Maxim model Courtney Brittle, 21. Back in April, the brunette beauty was pictured on his arm at a number of events, including the premiere of Avengers: Infinity War in Sydney. However the relationship appeared to fizzle as the pair have not been seen publicly together for a number of months now. 'Getting to know the real Dean': Meanwhile in August, Dean was spotted putting on a cosy display with busty Bachelor In Paradise star Elora at the Honey Birdette lingerie store opening in Sydney Meanwhile whispers emerged in early August, Dean and Elora struck up a romantic liaison after the pair were spotted together for the third time in one week. The pair attended the Honey Birdette lingerie store launch in Pitt Street, Sydney on Friday, August 10. 'There was definitely chemistry. They've shared similar experiences being on reality shows and Elora feels like she's getting to know the "real" Dean,' a source at the soiree told Daily Mail Australia. Dean first rose to fame earlier this year on Channel Nine's Married At First Sight. She's set to storm the catwalk in the upcoming Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. And on Saturday night, Georgia Fowler made the sidewalk her runway as she stunned in a stylish black ensemble in NYC. Attending a fitting for the lingerie extravaganza, the 26-year-old model cut a chic figure in a satin blouse unbuttoned to reveal her flawless decolletage. From Catwalk to Sidewalk! Georgia Fowler, 26, cut a glamorous figure in matching monochrome ensemble while attending fitting ahead of Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in NYC Emphasizing her lithe figure, she paired the stylish look with slim-fitting black jeans with studded detail and frayed ripped hems. Stepping out in a pair of black boots, she accessorised with an eye-catching grey and purple leather bag. And flaunting a faultless complexion, Georgia rocked a make-up palette consisting of dark brows, dewy foundation and a pink lip. Picture perfect: Flaunting a faultless complexion, Georgia rocked a make-up palette consisting of dark brows, dewy foundation and a pink lip Beautiful: Attending a fitting for the lingerie extravaganza, the 26 year-old model stunned in a satin blouse unbuttoned to reveal her flawless decolletage The striking appearance comes days after the Kiwi beauty revealed she was knocked back by the lingerie giant five times. In an interview with Vogue Australia on Tuesday, Georgia said: 'The first two years I went to an initial casting then was asked to callbacks.' 'But the third year I didn't make the callback which was a real setback.' Style: Emphasizing her lithe figure, she paired the chic look with slim-fitting black jeans and frayed ripped hems 'I auditioned for the show five times before I got it and trained hard for it every time as it was a dream of mine before I even began modelling.' The glamazon will make her third appearance in a row at the fashion spectacle due to take place in New York on Thursday night. Georgia made her Victoria's Secret runway debut in 2016 in Paris. She returned for the Shanghai show the following year. Mel Greig recently quit her regional radio hosting gig and relocated to Sydney's swanky Bondi Beach. And while she currently has no full-time job or set plans for the future, the 36-year-old says she's never been happier. In a column penned for Yahoo Lifestyle on Sunday, the bubbly blonde spruiked the benefits of spontaneity, asking: 'Why can't I live in the now, enjoy this moment and let this journey take me wherever the hell it's taking me?' 'Why can't I live in the now?' Mel Greig has admitted she doesn't know what the future holds after quitting her lucrative radio job to live as a carefree 'Bondi hipster' She added: 'I have a few side projects but if you asked me what's on the cards for me in January I would say, 'F**k knows' and for the first time in my life I actually don't care.' It seems Mel has some savings from her recent job as a breakfast broadcaster on Wollongong's Wave FM. The busty beauty is currently renting out a home in Bondi, and is loving her laid-back lifestyle. 'I'm living life as a Bondi Hipster and I couldn't be happier!': Mel is currently without a full-time job 'I'm living life as a Bondi Hipster and I couldn't be happier!' she insisted. Mel has devoted some of her newfound free time to losing weight, and has shed 10 kilograms during a 10-week body transformation challenge. Although she now enjoys healthy eating and less alcohol, the stunner admits she still likes indulging in cheeky treats at parties. All about balance! Despite shedding 10 kilograms, Mel (right) recently revealed she still likes indulging in the odd glass of wine 'Still trying to master the art of moderation after a 10-week hiatus of naughty stuff,' Mel wrote beneath an Instagram snap uploaded last month. Tagging personal trainer Tegan Haining, Mel said she was looking forward to her next exercise session. 'Looking forward to getting smashed when I get back @teganhaining and that's a new kind of smashed for me,' the radio personality, who went from 87kg to 77kg, joked. KIIS FM's Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson were recently named the most successful breakfast duo in Australian FM radio history. However, the veteran radio host, who has carved out an illustrious 26-year career in broadcast, had strong opinions when asked about the current state of radio. Speaking at Kyle and Imogen's annual Halloween party on Friday, Kyle told Daily Mail Australia that the rise of reality TV stars scoring radio shows is 'crazy.' Scroll down for video 'It's just crazy!' KIIS FM host Kyle Sandilands (pictured) blasts the rise of reality TV stars hosting radio shows 'It's just crazy... put radio people, who know how to do radio on the radio,' Kyle said. 'You can't just put someone that's popular on reality TV on the air because the popularity it comes and goes in waves and then what have you got?' Kyle said before concluding:'nothing!' Kyle perfected his radio craft as a result of working every time slot imaginable in some of Australias hardiest regional and metropolitan areas. Listen up! From Darwin to Brisbane; Kyle has developed a fine-tuned ear having worked every radio time slot imaginable in some of Australia's most hardiest regional and metropolitan cities 'That's just crazy...put radio people, who know how to do radio on the radio': Kyle told Daily Mail Australia he believes the rise of reality TV stars on radio shows is simply 'crazy.' Kyle and Jackie O pictured at their KIIS FM studio's in Sydney Humble beginnings: Kyle scored his first radio gig in 1992, at the tender age of 21 at Triple M Townsville formerly known as 4TO. Kyle is pictured with the promotional vehicle he drove for Townsville radio station 4TO in his first media job Kyle scored his first radio gig in 1992, at the tender age of 21 at Triple M Townsville, formerly known as 4TO, then moved on to work in Darwin, Cairns and Brisbane before he scored the plum role of host at the Hot30 Countdown (2Day FM Sydney) in 1999. The KIIS FM star, who recently revealed he is paid a staggering $45,000 per day on his breakfast radio slot spoke about the importance of budding announcers clocking up their flying hours in the bush. 'You learn out in the bush...you hone your skills...you make all of your mistakes out there and then you come and give it a go!' Kyle said. In recent years, radio executives have shown great interest in hiring reality stars due to their pre-existing fame and marketable brands. Popular: In recent years, radio executives have shown great interest in hiring reality stars due to their pre-existing fame and marketable brands. Pictured left, Florence Alexandra, and right, Alex Nation In June, Bachelor In Paradise star Florence Alexandra announced she was making the leap from the small screen to the airwaves as she accepted a new radio gig on Southern FM in Victoria. The Dutch-born beauty made her co-hosting debut earlier this year, telling Daily Mail Australia: 'Since I have done so many radio shows after Bachelor and Bachelor In Paradise I really started enjoying doing it.' She currently co-hosts a lunch time program, called the Flo, Mike and Louie Show, from 12pm to 2pm. Former radio star: Sam Frost also joined the radio business in 2015 with beloved TV presenter Rove McManus for 2Day FM's breakfast slot. However poor ratings forced their show to be axed in 2016 Budding radio star: Meanwhile, Ash, 32, (pictured) launched her breakfast radio career at 101.3 Sea FM Central Coast (NSW) in January this year Florence's path from reality television show to radio stardom is a very similar path to that followed by fellow Bachelor alumni Alex Nation and Sam Frost. In April 2017, Alex announced she would co-host Southern FM's drive show called The Drive Out with Jay, Foz and Alex. Unfortunately for the blonde beauty her radio stint was short lived when she called it quits on the show in January 2018. Sam Frost also joined the radio business in 2015 with beloved TV presenter Rove McManus for 2Day FM's breakfast slot. However poor ratings forced their show to be axed in 2016 and replaced by the Em Rusciano show with Harley Breen, which has since changed hosts. Meanwhile, MKR star, Ash Pollard, 32, launched her breakfast radio career at 101.3 Sea FM Central Coast (NSW) in January this year. In September, KIIS FM's Kyle and Jackie O Show were named the most powerful talent in Australian radio, according to Radio Today. As reported by Mumbrella, Kyle and Jackie topped the annual list despite being beaten in the August FM ratings survey by the Jonesy and Amanda breakfast show on Sydney's WSFM. However after a slight slump in the ratings in August, the Kyle and Jackie O show was once again crowned Sydney's No. 1 breakfast radio program in the latest survey. As reported by Radio Today this month, the sixth survey of 2018 showed that KIIS 106.5's breakfast flagship was the city's top program. They first split in 2001, while promoting their second album, claiming they 'hated' each other. But girl group All Saints have managed to repair their friendships 17 years on, after realising what mattered most to them. Speaking to news.com.au, members and sisters Natalie Appleton, 43, and Nicole Appleton, 45, revealed the women had to 'rediscover' their friendships before they could truly reunite. 'We're family now:' British girl group All Saints reveal how they managed to reunite after two first bitter splits during which they 'hated' each other. Pictured left to right: Natalie Appleton, Shaznay Lewis, Melanie Blatt and Nicole Appleton in 2018 'We fell out because of a lot of things that were going on around us. We had to rediscover our friendships before we could reunite. Our friendship always came first,' the siblings told the paper. Although the British group first reunited in 2006, and again in 2013, it's only now that they foursome feel like 'family'. 'We love each other. We've known each other too long!' the sisters told the publication. They added: 'If it all stopped tomorrow we'd still be the closest friends. We're family now.' Closer: Natalie and Nicole Appleton revealed the band 'rediscovered' their friendships before they could finally truly reunite. Pictured left to right, Melanie Blatt, Nicole Appleton, Shaznay Lewis and Natalie Appleton in 1995 Bond: 'We love each other. We've known each other too long!' Natalie and Nicole Appleton said of their most recent reunion. Pictured in 1997 All Saints previously revealed they disbanded in 2001 because relations between each of the four members seriously soured. Speaking to Alan Carr in 2016 during an appearance on his chat-show, the quartet - Shaznay Lewis, 43, Melanie Blatt, 43, Nicole and Natalie Appleton - admitted that they once 'hated' one another. Chatting to the comic about why they went their separate ways, Melanie said: 'We just weren't really getting on any more and we kind of hated each other so we just thought 'f**k it, let's stop'. Finally: Although the British group first reunited in 2006, and again in 2013, they now feel like 'family' to one another. Pictured in 2016 Candid: Speaking to Alan Carr in 2016 during an appearance on his chat-show (pictured), the quartet admitted that they once 'hated' one another All Saints first hit the music scene in 1993, without sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton, and were called All Saints 1.9.7.5, but they failed to find success. Yet after shortening their name and adding the talented sisters, the foursome went on to find triumph in 1997 with their debut album, All Saints, which became the third best-selling girl group album of all time in the UK. And after breaking up twice, the girls officially reformed in 2013 and they released their album Red Flag in 2016. They released their fifth album, Testament, in July this year. She enjoyed a luxury trip to Fiji with her daughter Saskia, two, and son Wolf, three, last month. And on Sunday night, fitness entrepreneur Tammy Hembrow jetted off for another lavish holiday with her adorable youngsters. Sharing the news with her eight million Instagram followers, the 24-year-old posted a sweet picture of herself cuddling up to the little ones at the airport. 'I didn't have much money when I started my first business': Instagram sensation Tammy Hembrow touts her own accomplishments as she jets off on another luxury holiday. Pictured with daughter Saskia and son Wolf 'Bye bye Aus,' she captioned the post without disclosing her getaway destination. Last month, Tammy hinted in another post that she may go to Trinidad to visit her grandmother. 'Where should me & the babies go on our next vacay ? (sic) Maybe Trinidad to visit my grandma,' the blonde beauty wrote. The holiday comes after Tammy took to the social media platform on Saturday to reflect on her success as a businesswoman while offering candid advice to her fans. 'Bye bye Aus,' she captioned the Instagram post without disclosing her getaway destination. Pictured: Tammy (right) enjoying her tropical holiday to Fiji last month with her daughter Saskia, two (center) and son Wolf, three (left) 'Here's to all my girl bosses doing it for themselves,' she began. 'Everything I have I worked for. Everything I own I bought myself. I didn't have much money when I started my first business,' Tammy revealed. 'I started building a brand and then spent countless hours creating the product myself. I used the money I made from that to fund my second business. I'm a mother first & a BOSS b***h second and I'm damn proud of that. 'I'm a mother first and a BOSS b***h second and I'm damn proud of that': The holiday comes after Tammy took to the social media platform on Saturday to reflect on her success as a businesswoman while offering candid advice to her fans 'Whatever you want in life go get it!! Don't wait for the perfect time or until you have more funds. Just start with what you have and do what you can. Cause guess what, you can pretty much do anything you set your mind to,' she passionately concluded. The Queensland mother-of-two launched her personal brand in 2015, selling workout programs that aided her incredible fitness journey. She then launched her app, Tammy Fit. Tammy also owns athleisure business Saski Collection, which she launched in 2017. In that time, the label of high quality tights, crop tops and hoodies has sold in over 190 countries and has made a revenue of $3.6 million as of July this year. Karl Stefanovic, 44, dramatically walked off the Today show last Friday morning after 40 minutes on the air, suffering from what appeared to be a nasty cold. But new reports allege Karl's sudden sick leave was his way of getting an early start to his bucks celebrations, which began just hours after he left the show. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Karl 'raised eyebrows getting shenanigans off to an early start (thereby avoiding unwanted paparazzi) by pulling a sickie on air'. Did Karl Stefanovic fake a sickie on-air to attend his bucks party? Today host, 44, was caught out partying in Queensland just hours after leaving work early because he felt 'unwell' on Friday Hours after his sudden on-air exit, Karl boarded a flight to Brisbane to begin what would be a 48-hour weekend of partying with his closest male pals. The secretive celebrations kicked off on Friday afternoon and were hosted by Ironman Grant Kenny at his lavish waterfront mansion on Minyama Island. Woman's Day has also claimed that Karl was picked up from Brisbane airport by his fiancee Jasmine Yarbrough's father Bob, who drove the TV star to the Mantra Zanzibar hotel, where Karl had booked four $200-a-night hotel rooms for his fellow party-goers. Kicking things off! The secretive celebrations kicked off on Friday afternoon and were hosted by Ironman Grant Kenny at his lavish waterfront mansion on Minyama Island (Pictured: Karl attending the Logies in April 2017) Guests in attendance included Nova radio host Tim Blackwell, Delta Riggs bassist Michael Tramonte and A Current Affair producer Steve Marshall. The glossy publication has claimed that Karl and his merry men actually departed Grant's mansion at 10pm before continuing the Karl's hotel room. Further, one of Karl's pals allegedly told the magazine that Karl had no more than 'three hours of sleep' during the weekend. What a miraculous recovery! On Sunday, Karl competed in a 17km ocean paddle alongside Grant Kenny and future father-in-law Bob Yarbrough for a community fundraiser (Pictured: Karl attending the Logies in July 2018) Speaking to Woman's Day, however, Karl insisted that Friday night's festivities 'wrapped up at 8.30' and that the whole thing was a 'low-key affair'. On Sunday, Karl competed in a 17km ocean paddle alongside Grant Kenny and future father-in-law Bob for a community fundraiser. 'When asked about his amazing comeback from sickness as he limbered up for the endurance challenge, [Karl] said: 'I was very sick yesterday, but had a good sleep and don't feel too bad now. This is a great cause, so I wanted to do my bit,' The Courier Mail reported. Everything OK there? On Friday morning, Karl left viewers scratching their heads when he announced that he was feeling ill and joked about providing his co-host Georgie Gardner with a 'sick note' before leaving On Friday morning, Karl left viewers scratching their heads when he announced that he was feeling ill and joked about providing his co-host Georgie Gardner with a 'sick note' before leaving. He had been coughing and sounding unwell since the the start of the broadcast at 5:30am and eventually went home at around 6:10am. A supportive Georgie, 48, patted Karl on the back and told him to 'pull up stumps and go home and get to bed,' prompting a sniffling Karl to walk off set clutching ab ox of tissues. Karl is expected to tie the knot with fashion designer Jasmine Yarbrough in Mexico on December 8. Wedding bells in paradise! Karl is expected to tie the knot with fashion designer Jasmine Yarbrough in Mexico on December 8 The lovebirds will tie the knot in a picturesque chapel at the One&Only Palmilla Resort, where they'll also be staying. The wedding will be a three-day affair, with the soon-to-be newlyweds sparing no expense. They've booked two villas, one at US$8500 (approximately AU$11600) per night, and another for US$11000 (approximately $AU15000) per night. She was spotted making her first fashion week appearance in over a year last month. And Lindsay Lohan continued to make her comeback to the spotlight, as she helped host the MTV EMAs in Bilbao, Spain, on Sunday. The actress, 32, pulled out all the stops as she changed outfits in between the red carpet and stepping out on stage, but it was her pronunciation of the Spanish city that tickled viewers the most. MTV EMAs 2018: Lindsay Lohan looked chic as she dressed up in two outfits... before making a hilarious gaffe on stage by pronouncing Bilbao as BILBOA on Sunday night Lindsay stepped out on stage to present the award for Best Electronic Act, which went to DJ Marshmallow, when she made the blunder. The actress was saying hi to the crowd of music fans when she pronounced the city 'Bilboa' rather than Bilbao. Fans found the whole situation hilarious, and they took to Twitter to explain how funny they thought it was. One joked: 'I don't know where #LINDSAYLOHAN is at the moment, but Bilboa is not Bilbao' Amusing: Lindsay stepped out on stage to present an award when she made the blunder In stitches: Fans found the whole situation hilarious, and they took to Twitter to explain how funny they thought it was Another Twitter user said: 'im shook because everyone is saying BILBAO and not other things, except for lindsay lohan (sic)' While one took a more amusing approach, as they wrote: 'Thank you Bilboa ~ Lindsay Lohan, 2018, in Bilbao.' One fan was very candid, as they admitted: 'Lindsay Lohan just said "hello blaoblao" to Bilbao I'm screaming.' Hosting: Lindsay presented the award for Best Electronic Act, which went to DJ Marshmallow Gothic: Lindsay put on a chic display when she went out on stage in an all-black ensemble, which saw her slip into a velvet mini dress These boots are made for walking: She boosted her height in a pair of bulky ankle boots, and she kept her accessories simple by wearing a long black bracelet on her wrist Ecsatic: Lindsay seemed to be very happy to be presenting the award Lindsay put on a chic display when she went out on stage in an all-black ensemble, which saw her slip into a velvet mini dress. She boosted her height in a pair of bulky ankle boots, and she kept her accessories simple by wearing a long black bracelet on her wrist. The Mean Girls star had brushed her fiery locks into a sideswept style, and they fell in waves as she wore a generous slick of eyeliner to make her eyes stand out. All that glitters: Earlier in the night, Lindsay stepped out onto the red carpet and let her dress, which featured a strapless hemline and romantic pleats, do all the talking Chic: She added height with a glamorous pair of patent black stilettos, and added a touch of glitter with a pair of silver bracelets Stunning: The Parent Trap star styled her auburn-hued locks in tumbling waves and framed her features with berry lipgloss and bronze shadow Earlier in the night, Lindsay stepped out onto the red carpet and let her dress, which featured a strapless hemline and romantic pleats, do all the talking. She added height with a glamorous pair of patent black stilettos, and added a touch of glitter with a pair of silver bracelets. The Parent Trap star styled her auburn-hued locks in tumbling waves and framed her features with berry lipgloss and bronze shadow. The actress also appeared to be in great spirits as she stopped to take photos with excited fans. Strike a pose: Lindsay worked every angle as she stood on the pink carpet Friendly: The actress also appeared to be in great spirits as she stopped to take photos with excited fans Happy: Lindsay beamed as she met with the adoring crowd of fans Rebel Wilson was skewered on social media last week after mistakenly claiming she is the first plus-size lead to star in a romantic comedy. But over the weekend, the Australian actress took some time off from Twitter to attend an onsite auction in Sydney's affluent suburb of Millers Point. The Hollywood actress was spotted attending the property auction to help one of her two sisters buy a heritage listed terrace on Lower Fort St. Under the hammer: Over the weekend, Australian actress Rebel Wilson attends an onsite auction in Sydney's affluent suburb of Millers Point (pictured) 'Going once, going twice!' Rebel (left) attended the auction in Sydney with her sister Annachi (right) Her sister Annachi, who is a nurse, was outbid by a young couple who scooped up the three-bedroom property for $2.7milion. Spanning three levels the property was marketed as a stones throw from Walsh Bay, The Rocks and historic pubs. It featured an attic, marble fireplaces, hardwood floors and original iron stove. An ideal lifestyle: Annachi (right) just missed out on the property which is a stones throw from Walsh Bay, The Rocks and historic pubs. Old features: The terrace is fitted with an attic, marble fireplaces, hardwood floors and original iron stove A little shabby: The terrace was sold in original condition and required major renovations The terrace was built in 1891 and was sold in original condition, requiring major renovations. Properties on the popular street have previously fetched upwards of $6million. The suburb was Australias first public housing site and used by the state government until in 2014, when it was decided that the houses would be sold off. Still searching! Annachi was outbid by a young couple who scooped up the three-bedroom property To date, 70 properties have been sold in the area netting the government over $182.73 million. After the government started the mass sell-off of property the medium house price skyrocketed with the suburb joining the million-dollar club in 2015. By the end of September 2015, the median house price was $2,401,000, making it, at the time, more expensive than prestigious Killara, $2,395,000, McMahons Point $2.25 million and Waverley, $2,145,000. She reportedly enjoyed a 'boisterous' $10,000 bachelorette party with her girlfriends at Crown Towers over the weekend. And Karl Stefanovic's future wife Jasmine Yarbrough, 33, is said to have completed her extravagant celebrations with a very naughty cake. Jasmine and her friends reportedly topped off their wild weekend with a custom-made cake iced with a fondant penis wearing a sombrero and mustache. A frisky fiesta! Jasmine Yarbrough completes her $10,000 bachelorette weekend celebrations with a VERY rude Mexican-themed cake A photo of the phallic-inspired dessert was published by Woman's Day on Monday, which appears to have been inspired by the Mexican location of Jasmine and Karl's impending nuptials. Accompanied by chicken heiress Tamie Ingham and a group of female friends, Jasmine and her posse stayed at the Crown's $11,500-a-night presidential suite during the wild hen weekend, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The Crown's website explains that the presidential package includes a 24 hour butler service. Nice digs! Accompanied by group of female friends, the socialite and her posse reportedly stayed at the Crown's $11,500-a-night presidential suite (pictured) Fancy! The Crown's website explains that the presidential suite (pictured) includes a 24 hour butler service and has its own entrance via private elevator access It also has its own entrance via private elevator access, and a bottle of complimentary champagne is on offer. Those who book the presidential suite's luxury packages, which start at $998 a night, are treated to a private check-in service and private concierge facilities. And a good time was had by all it seems, as The Sydney Morning Herald reports that members of the group of hens were heard shouting, 'This is Karl Stefanovic's fiancee' at 'random guests' as they 'made their way through the hotel'. All inclusive: Those who book the presidential suite's luxury packages, which start at $998 a night, will be treated to a private check-in service and private concierge facilities It comes at a busy time for Karl and Jasmine, who are expected to get married in Mexico on December 8. They will tie the knot in a picturesque chapel at the One&Only Palmilla Resort, in the seaside town of San Jose del Cabo. Drink up! To top things off a bottle of complimentary champagne is on offer for guests According to a Sydney Morning Herald report, Karl's children from his first marriage to Cassandra Thorburn, Jackson, 19, Ava, 13 and River, 13, will travel to Mexico with Karl and Jasmine. However, the paper goes on to claim that the three siblings will not attend the actual wedding ceremony. Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Cassandra Thorburn and Karl Stefanovic for comment. Soon to wed: It comes at a busy time for Karl and Jasmine, who are expected to get married in Mexico on December 8. Karl's children are believed to be accompanying him on the trip Mates! One of the guests at Jasmine's hen night is said to be her good pal, chicken heiress Tamie Ingham (right). he Sydney Morning Herald reports that members of the group of hens were heard shouting, 'This is Karl Stefanovic's fiancee' at 'random guests' Karl and his shoe designer partner will tie the knot in a picturesque chapel at the One&Only Palmilla Resort, where they'll also be staying. The wedding will be a three-day affair, with the soon-to-be newlyweds sparing no expense. They've booked two villas, one at US$8500 (approximately AU$11600) per night, and another for US$11000 (approximately $AU15000) per night. Ritzy: Karl and his shoe designer partner will tie the knot in a picturesque chapel at the One&Only Palmilla Resort (pictured) where they'll also be staying In March, they exchanged vows at a 'commitment ceremony' in Palm Beach, Sydney. However it was not legally binding. But one person who won't be in the wedding party Karl's his former Today show co-host Lisa Wilkinson. Speaking to Confidential on Sunday, the 58-year-old confirmed: 'I have not been invited.' Almost: In March, they exchanged vows at a 'commitment ceremony' in Palm Beach, Sydney. However it was not legally binding She found fame in 2004 as a member of the MTV reality series The Real World: San Diego. And having turned her 15 minutes into a career in showbusiness, Jamie Chung enjoyed some fun in the sun in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with husband Brian Greenberg and friends. 'Anniversary weekend. Thank you for dealing with my crazy antics and neurotic tendencies,' Jamie captioned in a picture of her and her hubby. 'You are the only one that really gets me. I love you to the moon and back.' R & R: Jamie Chung was spotted enjoying some fun in the sun in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico And the 35-year old stunner hasn't been shy in showing off her sculpted figure in a bevy of bikinis during their getaway. She was spotted soaking up the rays with friends on the beach at an exclusive resort in a navy blue striped Seafolly bikini. The Gifted actress accessorized with a pair of retro sunglasses that would have made a 1950's pinup girl proud and with a classic brown straw hat. At times she added a white blouse for a little cover-up when needed. Wow factor: The reality star turned actress was a showstopper in a navy blue Seafolly bikini The little details: The Gifted star accessorized with retro sunglasses and brown straw hat Never at a loss for variety, Jamie also shared a picture of her in a gold retro style bikini that screamed Hollywood siren of yesteryear. And in a more casual setting, the beauty rocked a dark one piece swimsuit with the beautiful greenery backdrop as she enjoyed what she called a: 'Casual Friday.' The California native also showed off her taut curves in a gold bikini that was adorned with stars when the happy couple headed out to take a boat ride with some friends. Going strong: Jamie Chung and husband Brian Greenberg celebrated their third wedding anniversary October 31 Pampered: The Gifted star stayed at an exclusive resort in Cabo San Lucas over the weekend Serenity: The 35-year old enjoyed a 'Casual Friday' in a black one-piece swimsuit Jamie also looked amazing in an Instagram picture showing her wearing a gold pattern dress as she walked along the resort pool with the ocean in the horizon. 'Nestled away in a cove surrounded by mountains. by the most patient @bryangreenberg.' #montagefiesta,' she captioned in the photo. Jamie and Brian celebrated their three year wedding anniversary October 31. Retro: Jamie also rocked a gold bikini that screamed Hollywood siren from yesteryear The fashion of the day: Jamie also stunned in a gold bikini that was adorned with stars Excursion: Jamie and Brian were all smiles as they joined up with friends to take a boat ride Accessories: The actress paired her gold swimsuit with retro sunglasses and gold necklaces PDA: Brian and Jamie shared some personal moments on her Instagram Story Gigi Hadid looked happy to be stepping back into her angel wings on Sunday for the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. The 23-year-old was spotted in New York while attending fittings for the yearly lingerie extravaganza. Last year, the model didn't get to walk in the show, which was held in Shanghai, after being denied entry into China. Angel sighting: Gigi Hadid looked happy as she attended fittings for the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in New York on Sunday after not being able to participate last year Gigi stepped on to the streets of Manhattan with a megawatt smile as she prepared to don her wings once more for the VS show which will film this month and air in December. The 2018 show is being moved back to New York after two years abroad. Last year's show in China was a disaster after a handful of models were denied their visas. Along with Gigi and the models, Katy Perry was also refused entry, causing the lingerie brand to scramble at the last minute to replace the women. Take two: Last year Gigi was denied her visa to get into China and couldn't walk in the 2017 VS show Now that the show is back in the states, Gigi is sure the take the catwalk along with sister Bella and Kendall Jenner. Leaving the fitting, the model looked much more covered up than she will be for the scantily clad runway show. Gigi donned a pair of relaxed fit boyfriend jeans with ripped knees and black booties. In one hand she carried a petite structured orange handbag. Modest look: The model opted for much more covered up ensemble than she will be in for the scantily clad runway show this month November 6: Gigi's graphic T-shirt made a political statement reading 'vote' ahead of the US midterm elections on Tuesday Her makeup on Sunday was simple but glam with a dusty rose matte lip and loose waves of blonde locks. The California girl made a political statement in a white graphic T-shirt by designer Prabal Gurung that read 'vote' in bold letters under a blue tuxedo blazer with black edging. On Tuesday, the US will head to the poles for the 2018 mid-term elections. Rock the vote: On social media, the older sister of Bella Hadid shot a quick selfie video showing off her vote shirt and asked her 44.1 million Instagram fans to 'please vote' in the caption Pundits on both sides of the political aisles have called this election the most important in a generation. Celebrities from Gigi to Eva Longoria to Amy Schumer and Emily Ratajkowski have been vocal about mobilizing citizens to vote. On social media, the older sister of Bella Hadid shot a quick selfie video showing off her vote shirt and asked her 44.1 million Instagram fans to 'please vote' in the caption. They've been dating for a year. And on Sunday, Sarah Hyland and Adam Wells were the picture of young love as they strolled around a Farmer's Market in the Studio City neighborhood of LA. The pair held on tight to each other as they checked out what the stalls had to offer. Together: They've been dating for a year. And on Sunday, Sarah Hyland and Adam Wells were the picture of young love as they strolled around a Farmer's Market in LA The Modern Family actress, 27, was dressed in an orange knit hoodie and black skintight leggings with black ankle boots. She carried a patterned canvas bag and wore her hair in a ponytail. She sported gold-framed sunglasses and gold hoop earrings. Slender frame: The Modern Family actress, 27, was dressed in an orange knit hoodie and black skintight leggings with black ankle boots Shopping trip: Hyland carried a patterned canvas bag and wore her hair in a ponytail. She sported gold-framed sunglasses and gold hoop earrings A fine romance: The Farmer's Market was held in the Studio City neighborhood near to where they live. The pair checked out what the stalls had to offer Adams wore a white t-shirt with red trim that had the phrase 'Let's fall in love with our telephones off' emblazoned across the front. He added black jeans with a brown belt and worn brown leather shoes. The former Bachelorette contestant had a black bag slung over one shoulder and wore shades. Had a message: Adams wore a white t-shirt with red trim that had the phrase 'Let's fall in love with our telephones off' emblazoned across the front. He added black jeans and brown shoes She was dubbed the worst Strictly contestant in history. But controversial former MP Ann Widdecombe is reportedly set to return to the ballroom for a Christmas special. The Tory politician, 71, entertained the nation as one of the most memorable dancers the show has ever seen when she paired with Anton du Beke in 2010. Keep dancing! Controversial former MP Ann Widdecombe is reportedly set to return to the ballroom for a Christmas special A show insider told The Sun: 'Ann's endearingly hapless moves had the nation falling in love with her back when she was on the show with Anton and they boosted viewing figures by a mile. 'The Christmas special is always a light-hearted, fun episode and so it was a no-brainer to get Ann on board to add to the comedy of it. 'Ann has promised she's going to be back to her best and producers are hoping she will provide her most entertaining routine yet in the one episode.' MailOnline has contacted a Strictly representative for comment. Ready to rumba: The Tory politician, 71, entertained the nation as one of the most memorable dancers the show has ever seen when she paired with Anton du Beke in 2010 Anne will join Love Island presenter Caroline Flack who is also reportedly returning to Strictly this Christmas to take part in the annual festive edition of the series. And she is said to be pairing up with Neil Jones for the show - making her his first ever celebrity partner. This comes as the pair have faced a turbulant 2018, with Caroline, 38, getting engaged and then splitting from Andrew Brady, and Neil, 35, learning that his wife Katya was caught kissing her own Strictly partner Seann Walsh. Feeling festive: Caroline Flack is reportedly returning to Strictly Come Dancing this Christmas to take part in the annual festive edition of the series Partnered up: Caroline is said to be pairing up with Neil Jones for the show - making her his first ever celebrity partner Caroline won the series in 2014 and is said to have 'jumped at the chance' to return to the BBC show. A source told The Sun: 'Caroline expected to be paired up with pro dancer Pasha Kovalev again, but Strictly bosses were inundated with requests for Neil to finally get a celebrity dance partner. 'It's their way of showing Neil they support him and are grateful for the dignified way he handled the situation with Seann and Katya. Drama: This comes as the pair have faced a turbulant 2018, with Caroline, 38, getting engaged and then splitting from Andrew Brady More drama: Neil, 35, learnt that his wife Katya was caught kissing her own Strictly partner Seann Walsh [both pictured] 'Neil hopes this is the next step to being paired up with a celeb next year on the main series of the show.' MailOnline has approached the BBC for comment. The rehearsals for the festive edition are reportedly set to begin next week. Meanwhile, Caroline is also said to be questioning her future with former The Apprentice star Andrew, 27. Coming back: Caroline took part on the 2014 season of Strictly Come Dancing Winning: She won the series with her partner Pasha Kovalev four years ago A source told The Sun: 'Caroline expected to be paired up with pro dancer Pasha Kovalev again, but Strictly bosses were inundated with requests for Neil to finally get a celebrity dance partner' Following a drunken rant he allegedly made during their holiday in Portugal, The Sun also claims Caroline is having second thoughts about him, after they reconciled after their split during the summer. According to the publication, Andrew had been booted out of a juice retreat for bringing in alcohol before launching into an 'abusive' shouting tirade at his Love Island host girlfriend. She was said to be 'devastated' by his behaviour which led fellow guests at the resort to complain, as management chose to evict Andrew for the incident. It was also reported that she returned home on Thursday, and is now considering how to proceed with their relationship and whether they have a future together. The Hollywood Film Awards kicked off its ceremony on Sunday, celebrating some of the biggest movies of the year. And Shailene Woodley looked spectacular while flaunting her long legs as she posed up a storm at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The 26-year-old wore a shimmering metallic low-cut outfit to the event with an accompanying belt that appeared to accentuate her waist. She's here: Shailene Woodley looked great in her metallic ensemble at the Hollywood Film Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday Similar to its design from the front, Shailene's choice of attire exposes her back with the only thing keeping it intact is the black suede ribbon that flows down her spine. Shailene kept her brunette tresses in a sleek bun but seemed to have opted in keeping her bangs loose for the evening. And in an apparent attempt not to distract the attention from an outfit with already so much detail to it, the Divergent actress kept things rather simple with the addition of black heels. That's different: Shailene's choice of attire exposes her back with the only thing keeping it intact is the black suede ribbon that flows down her spine A gold clutch and diamond earrings appeared to have done it for the Hollywood star, who was already commanding enough attention with the shimmering of her ensemble. Meanwhile, the White Bird in a Blizzard beauty's pretty facial features had been enhanced with a radiant touch of makeup. It correlated with her glowing skin as she gleefully showed off her best angles while getting her photograph taken on the red carpet. Keep it simple: A gold clutch and diamond earrings appeared to have done it for the Hollywood star, who was already commanding enough attention with the shimmering of her ensemble Shailene was in attendance for the event to support her Big Little Lies co-star Nicole Kidman, who is receiving the Career Achievement Award at the ceremony. It's quite commendable that Shailene showed up to the occasion since she's been caught up filming her forthcoming Drake Doremus Project with Jamie Dornan in Los Angeles earlier in the week. The untitled drama follows the life of a woman who tries to navigate through love and heartbreak over the course of one year. New project: Shailene and her co-star Jamie Dornan had been filming scenes for their upcoming Drake Doremus movie in Los Angeles on Friday During that time, she will unlock the secrets to her life in a sudden turn of events and in the most surprising of places. Following the completion of the movie, Shailene is expected to star as Arkie in the upcoming cartoon movie of the same name. The feature-length motion picture will star notable names including Jai Courtney, Andrew Bachelor, and Tim Minchin. Rick Grimes officially left The Walking Dead on Sunday's episode as he disappeared on a mystery helicopter with Anne after blowing up a bridge of walkers. The show protagonist, portrayed by Andrew Lincoln, washed up on a riverbank badly injured but still alive after destroying the bridge as Michonne [Danai Gurira], Daryl Dixon [Norman Reedus] and his group of followers watched on in horror. His ultimate fate was left open-ended as Anne [Pollyanna McIntosh], previously known as Jadis, brokered a deal with a mystery group, who collected both her and Rick in a helicopter as she told him they were going to save his life. Making a spectacular exit: Rick Grimes [Andrew Lincoln] made his final appearance on The Walking Dead, in an episode entitled What Comes After, which aired in the US on Sunday night This means that die-hard fans of the wildly popular AMC show need not mourn his departure, as it has been revealed that Rick will live on in spin-off films. Industry publication The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Rick and Anne's story will continue in these big-budget movies, the first of which is currently being written by Scott M. Gimple, The Walking Dead's chief content officer for AMC. Production is slated to begin sometime in 2019, although there is no air date set and it isn't known where filming will take place. Still alive: The show protagonist was shown surviving a bridge explosion and being rescued Impalement: During the episode Rick awoke from a hallucination still impaled by rebar spike In Lincoln's final episode on the show, entitled What Comes After, things kicked off with Rick looking at a swarm of birds from a hospital room where the series started as he looked down on himself in a hospital bed. 'Wake up, it's time to go,' he told himself as the birds became helicopters and flew over the building. Rick grabbed his own bloody abdomen as the Rick in the hospital bed told him: 'Yeah wake up a**hole.' The show then cut back to Rick impaled on the rebar spike as walkers approached him. Pull up: The community leader used his belt to pull himself off the rebar in his fight to survive Chased: A huge herd of walkers followed Rick, who quickly rode away from them on horseback Rick whipped off his belt and wrapped it around some poles and pulled himself off the rebar that had pierced his stomach. It worked and just in time for him to get back on his horse and escape. Nearby, Anne ran into problems as her RV broke down and she told the mystery group that she had an 'A' for them. 'You know where to find me and I'll be ready,' she told them over her radio. Injured Rick urged himself to stay awake but he soon fell into unconsciousness and the show flashed to a house, a car wreck and his empty hospital bed. Severely wounded: Rick was badly wounded and kept slipping in and out of consciousness Rick was about to pass out again when he found an old deserted cabin, which had 'Come Face Me A**holes' written across the door. He got into the house and found bandages for his wound as well as a human skeleton clutching a pistol. Rick dreamed that he rode into the city on his horse looking for his family. He was met by his former sheriff's partner Shane Walsh [Jon Bernthal], who Rick killed in season two, and they sat in his patrol car eating burgers in front of the wrecked car he had seen earlier. Rick told him he was looking for his family and Shane joked it could be his family, as Rick has long believed Judith [Cailey Fleming] was Shane's child from a relationship with his wife Lori [Sarah Wayne Callies]. Friend-turned-foe: Shane Walsh, played by Jon Bernthal, also appeared in one of Rick's visions Family lost: Rick, who had killed his old friend, told Shane that he was looking for his lost family The pair argued as Shane told him that he he needed more from him. 'It's time. Kneel down, dig deep, find it Rick, the rage, the hatred, find it, the loyalty, find it,' he told Rick. 'It's the only way this thing gets done and it has to, do you understand me? You can do it brother.' Rick told him he was sorry for what he had done to him, before his friend attacked him. But Rick awoke to find that it was a walker who had discovered him in the cabin. Rick fought the moster off and managed to escape through a wall in the cabin with the walkers in hot pursuit. Back in Alexandria, Michonne talked to Judith as Maggie [Lauren Cohan] arrived back at the city gates. Under attack: Zombies were seen attacking Rick at a cabin and he barely managed to escape Growing up so fast: Judith Gimes appeared contant as she was shown at home with Michonne Maggie arrived at the house and told Michonne to get out of her way so she could get to Negan. 'He didn't die, it's done,' Michonne told her. 'Because Rick decided it was?' she asked as Michonne refused to budge and asked her if Glenn Rhee would want it. 'The one thing I had was getting to see Glenn's murderer die and you took that from me,' said Maggie. Michonne asked her what Negan's [Jeffrey Dean Morgan] death would do and Maggie told her it would 'start things over'. 'Stop acting like I can turn this off, it has been a year-and-a-half and I can't,' said Maggie as Michonne told her she would 'have to find another way.' Revenge plot: A defiant Maggie was intent on killing Negan, but she was stopped by Michonne The key: Maggie made a convincing argument and, in the end, Michonne gave her the jail key 'I can't keep living like this,' Maggie told her, before reaching out as Michonne handed her the key and stepped aside. Maggie entered the jail and confronted Negan. 'She just gave up the keys, huh?' said Negan as he told Maggie she 'had the fire'. Maggie ordered Negan to get down on his knees as he told her he remembered her screaming at Glenn's [Steven Yeun] death. 'What have you finally come for revenge?' he asked her. 'Justice,' she said as Negan recalled the gory details of Glenn's braining to death. Behind bars: Beleaguered Negan was loudly ordered to get on his knees by a furious Maggie In pursuit of justice: Maggie was seeking justice for the braining of her husband Glenn Rhee 'I used to say I didn't enjoy killing, but your old man, he was different, killing him the way I did , now that was fun,' said Negan as he urged her to kill him. 'It was worth it,' he told her as he demanded she kill him. Maggie threw him out of his cell and into the light as Negan begged her to kill him. 'You have to, so I can be with my wife. I should be dead, I have to be dead, it is supposed to be you and has to be you, I can't do it. I have tried. I can't be like this, please don't make me stay like this,' he begged through tears. Maggie told him to get back in his cell, saying as he trudged back: 'I came to kill Negan but you are already worse than dead. That settles it.' 'It was not supposed to be like this,' he cried as she locked him back up. Death wish: A defeated Negan begged Maggie to kill him as he kneeled in the gold, grey cell Farm life: The late Herschel Greene also appeared to Rick in another one of his hallucinations Maggie walked out and Michonne knew she had not carried out the killing. The pair were interrupted by news of something happening at the camp. Rick then fell unconscious again and he was back on the farm looking out over the countryside alongside Maggie's father, Hershel Greene [the late Scott Wilson]. 'I am so sorry for what happened to you, to Glenn, for everything Maggie's lost,' he said as Maggie's father hugged him. 'My girl is strong, my grandson will only make her stronger, you don't got to worry about her,' Hershel assured him. Rick told him he needed to find his family 'and keep them together'. No worries: Rick said that he needed to find his family but Herschel assured there was no need Door warning: In another vision Rick approached a door warning about the dead outside 'No, you don't, you only think you do. I know it has been hard,' he told Rick. Rick agreed and told him that what he wanted for them was hard and that he was 'tired'. 'My family, maybe I can find them here,' he said as Hershel told him he had to wake up. Rick regained consciousness but soon slipped off again. This time he was in a badly damaged building, and found a door that said not to open as the dead were outside. He walked through the door and into the light and found an endless pile of dead human bodies. As he picked his way through them deceased survivor Sasha [Sonequa Martin-Green] stood up behind him. 'They're all dead,' he told her. Bodies: Rick walked through the door and was surrounded by and endless pile of dead bodies She's back: Sasha [Sonequa Martin-Green] also appeared to Rick in another hallucination 'Yeah, I know and its OK,' Sasha told him, prompting Rick to respond: 'How can this be okay?'' 'Because you did your part like I did mine, like the others did before us,' she told him. 'How?' he replied. 'They gave us the strength we needed to do what we had to do for the others and the others draw strength from us, we change each other, we help each other and we make each other better and it never ends,' she answered. 'It feels like it's ending,' he said. She responded: 'Little things do end but it is never the end of everything because we don't die, it is not about you or me or any one of us. Wake up call: During the dream, Rick was told by Sasha to wake up, which he eventually he did Walkers under attack: A defiant Rick fired away after being attacked by zombies at the camp 'It is about all of us and I don't think it just evens out, I think it always crosses over toward the good, toward the brave, toward love.' 'Family, you are not going to find them because they are not lost and you are not lost. What you need to do is wake up,' Sasha told him. Rick then woke up on the ground as his horse ran away and he found himself at the camp, where they had been taken over by walkers. He shot a few as they approached him but the situation quickly became overwhelming and a heavily bloodied Rick had to try and keep ahead of them on foot. Rick made it to the bridge and appeared to have accepted his fate when Michonne, Carol Peletier [Melissa McBride], Daryl and Eugene Porter [Josh McDermitt] arrived to save him. Not over: Michonne appeared in a vision and urged Rick not to give up in his battle to survive Bridge route: Rick lead the walkers onto the bridge with water running strongly below it 'It is not over, we don't die,' Michonne told him as she held his head in her hands and told him she loved him. 'You're a fighter and never give up, so fight Rick, fight for me, fight for all of us,' she told him. 'But you're my family, I have found you,' he told her as she cried. 'But this isn't real,' he said as Michonne urged him to wake up, and when he did he was alone on the bridge. Rick lead the walkers onto the bridge as the water ran strongly underneath it. And when they were all on it Rick looked toward home and said 'I can't'. Close call: A monstrous walker moved in to attack Rick as he grew weary in his fight to escape Nice shot: Daryl Dixon from a nearby clearing shot the walker in the head saving Rick As a walker got right up on him it was taken out by an arrow fired by Daryl (Norman Reedus) from a clearing as Michonne and the group arrived. Rick pulled out his handgun and took aim at a case of knocked over explosives and as he fired and destroyed the bridge he said: 'I've found them.' Daryl broke down in tears and Michonne screamed as the bridge exploded and the walkers fell into the river below. In the distance Anne watched the smoke from the fire as a helicopter hovered above her and bodies of the walkers floated down the river. Rick was washed up on the river bank. 'He is hurt but he is strong can you help him?' she asked the helicopter. Big explosion: Rick fired at explosives on the bridge, bringing it down and taking out the herd Love lost: Michonne wailed as Rick appeared to die in the massive and dramatic explosion Friend gone: Eugene, Carol and Maggie watched in horror as the big bridge went up in flames She told them it was not a trick and that she was 'trying to save a friend who saved me', before asking if they had a deal and the helicopter landed. Anne was then seen inside the helicopter telling Rick: 'You are going to be okay, they are going to save you.' The helicopter flew off into the distance with Rick and she aboard. On the ground a group of strangers were surrounded by walkers only to be saved by an armed six-year-old Judith, who picked up her dad's cowboy hat and told them her name was 'Judith. Judith Grimes'. The Walking Dead producer Scott Gimple during The Talking Dead after-show revealed that Rick's storyline ended on the show, 'but it's not the end of his story'. AMC announced that Andrew will reprise his role of Rick in three films for the cable network. Getting emotional: A tearful Daryl looked on in despair as the reality of the explosion hit him I will survive: But Anne spotted Rick on the river bank and arranged for his dramatic rescue Lincoln wanted to leave the series so he could spend more time with his family in England, and the films spawned from a conversation Lincoln had with Gimple, when he served as showrunner on The Walking Dead. The three movies will be the first of, 'multiple new scripted ventures' that will expand The Walking Dead franchise. 'The story of Rick will go on in films,' Gimple says. 'Right now, we're working on three but there's flexibility in that.' 'Over the next several years, we're going to be doing specials, new series are quite a possibility, high-quality digital content and then some content that defies description at the moment,' Gimple added. With Lincoln wanting to spend more time with his family, the decision to branch out into feature films was a win-win for both the actor and AMC, who was looking for other ways to expand the franchise. Mystery group: A helicopter hovered overhead as Anne made a deal for saving injured Rick Alive: It appeared he would live another day, as he helicopter flew with Rick and Anne aboard The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that that Lincoln would be required to be in production for two months at a time for each movie. That schedule pales in comparison to the nine months a year Lincoln spent filming The Walking Dead each season, in the sweltering Atlanta heat. The movies will explore the time period between Rick's helicopter rescue by Anne/Jadis and the time jump to many years later at the end of the episode. 'It is about who he is and who he's going to be and certainly how he deals with the situation he's in,' Gimple added. 'We know Rick Grimes, he would want to be home.' It's also possible that other characters like Michonne and Daryl could possibly surface in the movies as well, but nothing is set in stone yet. Catch The Walking Dead tonight at 9:00pm on FOX in the UK. Apocalypse survivors: A small group of survivors was shown surrounded by circling zombies They are among the world's top models who will hit the catwalk for the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in New York City on Thursday. And on Sunday Elsa Hosk and Devon Windsor looked to be in runway form when they strutted their stuff after leaving a fitting for the prestigious event. The chiseled beauties flashed plenty of high-fashion, glamour, and a dash of playful attitude when they hit the bustling streets of the big city. Skills on parade: Elsa Hosk and Devon Windsor looked to be in runway form after leaving a fitting for the 2018 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in NYC Elsa hit the pavement looking fashionable in a mid-thigh length dark patterned jacket with a black belt to help accentuate her trim figure. She paired it perfectly with black stockings, black leather boots as she carried a tan purse in her hand. For added effect, the 29-year old a red,white and blue pattern scarf and a pair of stylish dark sunglasses. She wore her blonde tresses long past her shoulders and with a part in the middle. 'Fittings GLAM - dont remember ever being this excited!!!' the beauty shared on Instagram this past week. '(This even beats when I turned 5 and my parents let me have my birthday at Mcdonalds) cant wait to for you to see what Im wearing in the show and how beautiful and dreamy its all looking.' Stylish: Elsa hit the pavement in looking fashionable in a mid-thigh length dark patterned jacket with a black belt to help accentuate her trim figure and black leather boots Fun and classy: Devon opted for a more casual look after her fitting, with the centerpiece being a pair of black pants that had wing-like material on the legs along with a grey sweater For her part, Devon opted for a more casual look after her fitting, with the centerpiece being a pair of black pants that had wing-like material on the legs. The 24-year old matched it with a grey sweater over a black turtleneck and a pair of black heeled leather boots. Her blonde locks were styled with added body, subtle soft waves and a center part. Like Elsa, Devon is a veteran of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and with that, an abundance of gratitude for those who have help make it possible. 'Thank you to all my friends, family, agents and the people from VS who have believed in me 6 years in a row!!!!!' she captioned in an Instagram post last month. 'I think people think it gets easier every year, and I can honestly say that is not true. Every year gets more and more difficult and I find myself wanting it even more! I have never worked so hard or wanted anything in my life so badly. So, to be rewarded for that is a feeling I cannot describe!' Ready to walk: 'Fittings GLAM - dont remember ever being this excited!!!' the beauty shared on Instagram this past week. "cant wait to for you to see what Im wearing in the show.' The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show will be taking place November 8 in New York City, but it won't air until December 2 on ABC. Previous years have seen the runway extravaganza take place in Los Angeles, London, Paris and most recently in Shanghai. Some of the most-followed and in-demand models will be returning, which includes the likes of fellow VS Angels Lais Ribeiro, Adriana Lima, Taylor Hill, Jasmine Tookes, among others. There will also be high profile models: Kendall Jenner, Lais Ribeiro and Bella and Gigi Hadid. And musical guests include Bebe Rexha, The Chainsmokers, Halsey, Rita Ora, The Struts, Kelsea Ballerini and Shawn Mendes. Latina actresses Rosario Dawson, Zoe Saldana, Eva Longoria, America Ferrera and Gina Rodriguez came together to help get other Latinas to go out and vote. The actresses all took the stage at the Latinas Stand Up rally on Sunday, held at the Ball & Chain restaurant in the Little Havana area of Miami. The actresses also appeared at a rally in Kissimmee, Florida on Sunday as well, where they encouraged the crowd to vote for Democratic candidates in the mid-term elections on Tuesday. Rock the vote: Actresses Zoe Saldana, Gina Rodriguez, Eva Longoria, America Ferrera and Rosario Dawson appeared at the Latinas Stand Up rally in Miami on Sunday Solidarity: The actresses all took the stage at the Latinas Stand Up rally on Sunday, held at the Ball & Chain restaurant in the Little Havana area of Miami While the actresses outfits were all different, they all wore shirts that encouraged their Latinx counterparts to vote. Saldana, Longoria, Ferrera and Rodriguez all wore shirts that simply said Vote in different designs, while Dawson wore a shirt that read 'Somos Mas,' which translates to 'We are more.' The rallies in both Miami and Kissimmee were timed to the end of early voting on Sunday, with the election on Tuesday, November 6. Speaking out: While the actresses outfits were all different, they all wore shirts that encouraged their Latinx counterparts to vote Using her voice: Eva took to the mic during the event to empower the crowd Empower: Eva looked passionate as she discussed the importance of the upcoming mid-term election Weighing in: She looked chic for the appearance in a tailored blazer, jeans and her 'vote' T-shirt Standing together: Saldana, Longoria, Ferrera and Rodriguez all wore shirts that simply said Vote in different designs, while Dawson wore a shirt that read 'Somos Mas,' which translates to 'We are more' The Associated Press reports that the Kissimmee rally was also attended by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. The event was also attended by two U.S. representatives of Puerto Rican descent, Darren Soto of Florida and Nydia Velazquez of New York. Click Orlando reports that the actresses told the crowd that their vote is their greatest weapon against the current administration. Speaking out: She joined Gina Rodriguez, Zoe Salsana, America Ferrera and Rosario Dawson on stage Rocking the vote: The rallies in both Miami and Kissimmee were timed to the end of early voting on Sunday, with the election on Tuesday, November 6 Zoe for change: 'We are decent people that work,' Saldana said. 'We take care of our elderly. We take care of our children. We take care of our communities, and we love America' 'We are decent people that work,' Saldana said. 'We take care of our elderly. We take care of our children. We take care of our communities, and we love America.' 'It is about time that we invested in candidates that love us back,' Saldana added. Ferrera added at the Kissimmee rally that, 'what's at stake is plain and simply everything. Everything is at stake.' Applauding change: 'It is about time that we invested in candidates that love us back,' Saldana added Taking a stand: Ferrera added at the Kissimmee rally that, 'what's at stake is plain and simply everything. Everything is at stake' After the rally, the actresses all canvassed the area of Little Havana along with the New Florida Majority, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Center for Popular Democracy Action and the Latino Victory Project Saldana was recently seen as Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War and she's also filming the highly-anticipated Avatar sequels. Dawson recently starred in Rodriguez's hit series Jane the Virgin, along with Netflix's Luke Cage, while Longoria is filming the Dora the Explorer movie. Standing as one: Saldana was recently seen as Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War and she's also filming the highly-anticipated Avatar sequels. Claire Foy gained world-wide attention for her portrayal as Queen Elizabeth for two seasons on the hit Netflix show, The Crown. Now the 34-year old British born actress is taking over the iconic role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Spider's Web: A New Dragon Tattoo Story. And on Sunday, she looked striking in a bold red dress when she hit the red carpet for a special screening of the much-anticipated movie in New York City. Making a statement: Claire Foy attended a special screening of The Girl in the Spider's Web: A New Dragon Tattoo Story in New York City on Sunday The 5ft 4in beauty commanded attention in the full-length number when she stepped in front of an array of photographers. The rich color and stylish creases gave off an edgy-elegance to the eye-catching piece. For added wow factor, she wore a large dark red belt that helped accentuate her womanly curves. The accessories were kept to a minimum, with the exception of a ring and hoop earrings, and she wore her short dark tresses pushed back off of her face with a part to the left. Iconic: Claire is the third actress to take over the role of Lisbeth Salander in the franchise Shining star: The British-born star was a showstopper in a full-length bold red dress The breakout: Foy is best known to many fans for her portrayal as Queen Elizabeth for two seasons on the hit Netflix show, The Crown Also on hand for the New York City roll out included: the crime thriller's director Fede Alvarez, Foy's co-stars Sylvia Hoeks, Andreja Pejic, and Christopher Convery, producer Elizabeth Cantillon, as well as Victoria's Secret model Stella Maxwell and dancer Frankie Grande. With the role, The Manchester-born Foy is now the third actress in the movie franchise to play the fictional hacker on the big screen. She follows Noomi Rapace, who starred in the 2009 Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel, and Rooney Mara's portrayal in Sony's 2011 American adaptation. The leading lady and the boss: the 34-year old actress got chummy with the film's director Fede Alvarez on the red carpet Ladies night: Foy's co-stars Sylvia Hoeks, left, and Andreja Pejic, right, struck a pose together The crew: Foy lined up for photographers with co-stars Hoeks, Christopher Convery, producer Elizabeth Cantillon and co-star Andreja Pejic After 2011's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, most expected Sony to adapt the next two books in the Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Instead, the studio opted to continue the franchise by adapting The Girl in the Spider's Web, the first novel from David Lagercrantz, who took over the book series after Larsson's death. The new adaption, which follows Salander as she tries to rescue and exact vengence for battered women, is a sequel to David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and the second installment in the American-produced Millennium film series. The film, which also stars Sverrir Gudnason, LaKeith Stanfield and Stephen Merchant, premiered at the Rome Film Festival October 24, and will hit theaters in the US Friday November 9. The resume: Director Fede Alvarez is a Uruguayan national who is best known for helming Evil Dead (2013) and Don't Breath (2016) Commanding the spotlight: Victoria's Secret Angel Stella Maxwell showed off her toned figure with an open Blazer without a shirt An original: Sylvia Hoeks looked chiseled and elegant with her close crop cut and floral dress She won the 2011 season of Australia's Next Top Model and has since gone on to become an international runway sensation. And it's not had to see why Montana Cox is so in demand. The 25-year-old beauty stunned in a pink bikini as she enjoyed a day at Sydney's Tamarama Beach with friends over the weekend. Sizzling hot! Model Montana Cox stuns as she shows off her sensational figure in a neon pink bikini at Sydney's Tamarama Beach with friends Watch the tan lines! After a dip in the ocean, the Melbourne-born beauty removed her bikini top in order to achieve the perfect tan Montana revealed her slim figure in a low-cut neon pink bikini top, teamed with coordinating briefs that accentuated her lean legs. Tying her locks back off her face, the brunette drew attention to her makeup free visage. Accessorising with a pair of delicate gold drop earrings, Montana added a slick of red polish to her talons. Readjustment: The Melbourne-born beauty readjusted her bikini top at one stage After a dip in the ocean, the Melbourne-born beauty removed her bikini top in order to achieve the perfect tan. The sighting comes after Montana silenced rumours that she's in a relationship with multimillionaire Justin Hemmes, 45. Beach babe: Montana swept her locks back off her face, drawing attention to her blemish-free visage Colour: The winner of Australia's Next Top Model cycle seven added a slick of red polish to her talons Stunning: Every inch of Montana's incredibly toned figure was on display 'We are just friends, we have always just been friends, I think people just like to talk about things,' she told The Sun Herald late last month. Justin also denied the claims, telling The Sydney Morning Herald's Private Sydney on Saturday that they are 'just friends'. Cooling off: Joined by pals on the outing, the clan enjoyed a dip in the ocean Banter: Montana engaged in conversation with a pal on the sand Relaxed: Montana appeared relaxed and at ease, and at one stage checked her iPhone Sun smart: The leggy star reapplied sunscreen to her skin The speculation came after Justin announced his split from the mother of his two children, Kate Fowler, 28, in July, after nearly five years together. 'Kate and I have the utmost love and respect for each other,' he told The Sydney Morning Herald when he revealed their separation. '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.' Attentive: Montana rubbed sunscreen onto her friend's back Trim and terrific: Montana drew attention to her toned back as she continued to rub on sunscreen Cover up: The glamazon covered her front with with an abstract wrap as she worked on tanning her back In conversation: Montana later engaged in conversation on the phone He added: 'Kate is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful woman. As for what the future holds I am not sure.' Upon confirming his split from Kate in July, Justin said they had actually separated six months prior. Justin and Kate share two daughters together - Alexa, two, and 15-month-old Saachi. Beach outing: The group sprawled out on their towels It may be three decades since the Eighties. But that didn't stop Emily Ratajkowski from being pretty in pink. The 27-year-old model looked stunning as she arrived for the Welcome Home premiere in West Hollywood on Sunday. Dynamic duo: Emily Ratajkowski joined Aaron Paul at the Welcome Home premiere in West Hollywood on Sunday She was not alone for the occasion as she was joined by co-star Aaron Paul at the Casa Noble sponsored event. Emily looked elegant in a pink short-sleeved dress featuring a backless detailing. The dress was brought together by a black ribbon which was tied around the back as she sported a pair of heels. Enchanting: The 27-year-old looked elegant in a pink short-sleeved dress featuring a backless detailing Pleased: She looked happy to be there Fashionable: The dress was brought together by a black ribbon which was tied around the back as she sported a pair of heels Wonderful: She accessorized with large blinged out earrings which wrapped around her lobe She accessorized with large blinged out earrings which wrapped around her lobe. Her brunette tresses were worn down in a middle-part as they cascaded over her shoulders. Emily accentuated her stunning looks with complementary make-up including smokey eye and shiny lip. Aaron, 39, looked dapper in all black including velvet jacket over matching T-shirt, trousers and dress shoes. Wow factor: Her brunette tresses were worn down in a middle-part as they cascaded over her shoulders Pretty: Emily accentuated her stunning looks with complementary make-up including smokey eye and shiny lip Handsome: Aaron, 39, looked dapper in all black including velvet jacket over matching T-shirt, trousers and dress shoes Breaking good: His rocked his signature buzzed haircut as his face had noticeable scruff on it His rocked his signature buzzed haircut as his face had noticeable scruff on it. In the film the two stars play a couple who spend a weekend at a vacation rental home in the Italian countryside in an attempt to fix their relationship. However they are put in an awful situation as the homeowner has more sinister fans for the duo. Welcome Home - directed by George Ratliff - is set for limited release in the US on November 16. Scott Disick, 35, and Sofia Richie, 20, made a hasty exit after barely cracking a smile during their brief appearance at Derby Day on Saturday. And it appears the couple may have left early after the socialite was left in tears. Dressed in designer threads at Flemington Racecourse, Sofia looked emotional during what looked like a tense exchange with the father-of-three. Scroll down for video Is this why they left early? Sofia Richie, 20, appears to wipe away tears during a 'heated exchange' with boyfriend Scott Disick, 35, before making a quick exit from Derby Day Trying to stop her makeup from running, she deftly patted her cheeks and her eyes underneath a birdcage veil. Her boyfriend Scott maintained a stony expression during what appeared to be a tense row. Attempting to calm the situation, the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star seemed to be appealing for reason. Is everything OK? Dressed in designer threads at Flemington Racecourse, Sofia looked emotional during what looked like a tense exchange with the father-of-three Emotional: Scott appeared uncomfortable as the Instagram model struggled to keep it together Emotional: Trying to stop her makeup from running, she deftly patted her cheeks and under her eyes underneath a birdcage veil Tense: Sofia meanwhile got more passionate in her delivery, leaning towards a downcast Scott to make her point Drama: The beauty seemed shaken and out of sorts after the tense encounter Sofia meanwhile got more passionate in her delivery, leaning towards Scott to make her point. And clad in a charcoal grey suit complete with a matching patterned tie, he gently caressed his girlfriend's arm, trying to offer comfort. The gesture seemed to work with the daughter of Lionel Richie appearing to gather herself and smile again. Support: Clad in a charcoal grey suit complete with a matching patterned tie, the father-of-three gently caressed his girlfriend's arm, trying to offer comfort Feeling scrutinized: Presumably aware of an audience, the pair attempted to appear nonchalant and relaxed But shortly afterwards, the couple seems distant and distracted as they abruptly exited the event. The departure would undoubtedly have been earlier than organizers desired after reportedly shelling out six figures for the couples appearance. Daily Mail Australia has reached out to representatives for comment. All better? The gesture seemed to work with the daughter of Lionel Richie appearing to gather herself and smile again Busy man: The high-profile couple jetted into the country on last week ahead of Scott's hosting appearance inside the Ultra Marquee at Derby Day and kept an incredibly busy schedule Following their brief appearance at Derby Day on Saturday, the couple were equally stone-faced as they caught a flight out of Melbourne International airport on Sunday. The expected departure seemed to contradict reports Scott and Sofia were staying on for the Melbourne Cup in Tuesday. The high-profile couple jetted into the country on last week ahead of Scott's hosting appearance inside the Ultra Marquee at Derby Day and kept an incredibly busy schedule. Not ideal: The departure would undoubtedly have been earlier than organizers desired after reportedly shelling out six figures for the couples appearance They stepped out for a paid appearance at Windsor Smith at Chadstone Shopping Centre on Thursday. In the days prior, they visited Taronga Zoo, cruised around Sydney Harbour on a luxury yacht, hosted a Halloween party at The Star's Marquee and made an appearance at Melbourne's Alumbra nightclub. Trouble in paradise? Shortly after the exchange, the couple seems distant and distracted as they abruptly exited the event Angela Bassett put on an eye-popping show at an awards show in Los Angeles on Sunday night. The actress, 60, flaunted her impressive cleavage as she arrived for the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards. Bassett wore a dark red and silver sparkly jumpsuit left open at the bust to reveal a black bustier. Stunner: Angela Bassett put on an eye-popping show as she arrived for the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday The Black Panther and 9-1-1 star struck a pose on the black carpet in her on trend outfit that had long sleeves and cropped pants. She added a pair of black peep-toe sandal heels. The actress accessorized with statement silver hoop earrings and her hair was styled back from her face and fastened into a ponytail. Working it: The actress, 60, wore a dark red and silver sparkly jumpsuit left open at the bust to reveal a black bustier Looking good: The Black Panther and 9-1-1 star accessorized with statement silver hoop earrings and her hair was styled back from her face and fastened into a ponytail The annual awards show recognizes the work of those behind the scenes in the movie industry. It's sponsored by Hamilton watches and Los Angeles Confidential magazine. The celebrity guests serve as presenters of the awards. Elizabeth Olsen, 29, showed up for the event in a black mini dress belted at the waist. She went bare-legged in black sandal heels and left her long blonde hair loose. Stylish: Elizabeth Olsen, 29, showed up for the event in a black mini dress belted at the waist Black on black carpet: The actress went bare-legged in black sandal heels and left her long blonde hair loose Dashing duo: The stars of A Private War - Rosamund Pike and Jamie Dornan - both supported the awards show, posing together for photos Lovely: The English actress, 39, looked elegant in a white dress with flowing sleeves. She knotted a brown leather belt around her waist and added matching brown sandal heels The stars of A Private War - Rosamund Pike and Jamie Dornan - both supported the awards show, posing together for photos. The English actress, 39, looked elegant in a white figure-hugging dress with flowing sleeves. She knotted a brown leather belt around her waist and added matching brown sandal heels. Dornan, 36, looked dapper in a dark two-piece suit with a shirt and a tie. Helmed A Quiet Place: Actor and director John Krasinski showed up solo, looking good in a charcoal gray suit with a matching tie Terrific trio: Wildlife director Paul Dano and his partner Zoe Kazan were joined by Dano's leading man Jake Gyllenhaal Partners: Dano, 34, co-wrote Wildlife, his directorial debut, with Kazan, 35 Winner: Gyllenhaal was there to present Dano with the evening's Breakthrough Director honor. Past winners of the award include Darren Aronofsky, David O. Russell and Barry Jenkins Actor and director John Krasinski showed up solo, looking stylish in a charcoal gray suit with a matching tie. Wildlife director Paul Dano and his partner Zoe Kazan were joined by Dano's leading man Jake Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal, 37, was there to present Dano, 34, with the evening's Breakthrough Director honor for his directorial debut which he co-wrote with Kazan, 35. Past winners of the award include Darren Aronofsky (Jackie), David O. Russell (American Hustle) and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight). Also on hand was British actress Felicity Jones who showed up to hand out a trophy to her On the Basis of Sex screenwriter Daniel Stiepleman, while rami Malek presented an award to Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King. Team: Dornan and Pike presented an award to their A Private War cinematographer Robert Richardson and they were joined by the film's director Matthew Heineman, right Presenter duty: Ryan Gosling attended to present an award to his First Man costume designer Mary Zophres Pretty look: British actress Felicity Jones also showed up to hand out a trophy to her On the Basis of Sex screenwriter Daniel Stiepleman. She looked gorgeous in a pink sleeveless dress Movie with a message: Regina Hall, in a strapless purple gown, handed the Hamilton Award for Director to The Hate U Give helmer George Tillman Jr. She will be walking the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in just a few days. And Stella Maxwell already looks runway ready. The 28-year-old star turned heads as she went shirtless at the The Girl In The Spider's Web special screening in New York City on Sunday night. Wow factor: Stella Maxwell looked stunning while shirtless at The Girl in the Spider's Web: A New Dragon Tattoo Story special screening in New York City on Sunday She donned a black FRAME blazer with nothing on underneath as she completed the look with a pair of skinny leather trousers and strappy heels. Her blonde locks were worn down cascading over one side as she accentuated her natural looks with complementary make-up topped off with smokey eye and shiny lip. Not seen on the red carpet was Stella's girlfriend Kristen Stewart. Gorgeous: The 28-year-old model donned a black FRAME blazer with nothing on underneath as she completed the look with a pair of skinny leather trousers and strappy heels Stunning: Her blonde locks were worn down cascading over one side as she accentuated her natural looks with complementary make-up topped off with smokey eye and shiny lip However one star who happened to be there was main star of the film Claire Foy who took over the iconic role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Spider's Web: A New Dragon Tattoo Story. The 34-year old British born actress looked striking in a bold red dress when she hit the red carpet for a special screening in the Big Apple. Flying solo: Not seen on the red carpet was Stella's girlfriend Kristen Stewart The 5ft 4in beauty commanded attention in the full-length number when she stepped in front of an array of photographers. The rich color and stylish creases gave off an edgy-elegance to the eye-catching piece. For added wow factor, she wore a large dark red belt that helped accentuate her womanly curves. Making a statement: Claire Foy was also in attendance at the special screening The accessories were kept to a minimum, with the exception of a ring and hoop earrings, and she wore her short dark tresses pushed back off of her face with a part to the left. She follows Noomi Rapace, who starred in the 2009 Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel, and Rooney Mara's portrayal in Sony's 2011 American adaptation. After 2011's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, most expected Sony to adapt the next two books in the Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Iconic: Claire is the third actress to take over the role of Lisbeth Salander in the franchise Shining star: The British-born star was a showstopper in a full-length bold red dress The breakout: Foy is best known to many fans for her portrayal as Queen Elizabeth for two seasons on the hit Netflix show, The Crown Instead, the studio opted to continue the franchise by adapting The Girl in the Spider's Web, the first novel from David Lagercrantz, who took over the book series after Larsson's death. The new adaption, which follows Salander as she tries to rescue and exact vengence for battered women, is a sequel to David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and the second installment in the American-produced Millennium film series. The film, which also stars Sverrir Gudnason, LaKeith Stanfield and Stephen Merchant, premiered at the Rome Film Festival October 24, and will hit theaters in the US Friday November 9. The leading lady and the boss: the 34-year old actress got chummy with the film's director Fede Alvarez on the red carpet Ladies night: Foy's co-stars Sylvia Hoeks, left, and Andreja Pejic, right, struck a pose together Thandie Newton has an eclectic fashion sense. And on Sunday, the Westworld star definitely made a statement as she walked the red carpet at the 2019 Breakthrough Prize event at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. Newton, 45, opted for a colorful cold-shoulder asymmetrical dress. Eclectic fashion choice: Thandie Newton made a statement as she arrived at the 2019 Breakthrough Prize event at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California The patterned number had buttons down the front was fastened at the waist with a wide black leather belt. The actress stepped out in embellished sandal heels that revealed the black polish on her toenails. Newton wore her hair styled with a center parting and tied back from her face. She was made up with black mascara and red lip color. Glamorous: Newton, 45, opted for a colorful cold-shoulder asymmetrical dress and stepped out in embellished sandal heels that revealed the black polish on her toenails Natural beauty: Newton wore her hair styled with a center parting and tied back from her face. She was made up with black mascara and red lip color The London-born star first got noticed in the 1991 film Flirting before winning a role in Interview With The Vampire in 1994 with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. She then starred in the 1998 drama Beloved and joined Cruise again in Mission: Impossible 2 released in 1996. Her other big screen credits include The Chronicles of Riddick, Crash, The Pursuit of Happyness and Solo: A Star Wars Story. On the small screen, she's had a recurring role on ER from 2003 to 2005 and in HBO's Westworld since 2016. Newton is married to screenwriter and director Ol Parker with whom she shares three children. She became somewhat of a feminist icon when she revealed her unshaven underarms at the Notting Hill movie premiere way back in 1999. But, almost two decades later, Julia Roberts finally addressed her hairy display as she chatted to Busy Phillips on her show Busy Tonight on Sunday, admitting it wasn't supposed to be a political statement at all and was merely wardrobe miscalculation. The Oscar-winning actress, 51, made headlines when she revealed her hairy underarms while waving at fans at the hit romcom's London premiere, and paved the way for a number of celebrity followers, including Ashley Graham, Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga. 'I just hadn't really calculated it': Julia Roberts finally explained her hairy underarm reveal at the 1999 Notting Hill premiere on Busy Tonight on Sunday However, Julia admitted it wasn't her intention to make a statement about beauty standards and still distinctly remembers the furore. She confessed: 'The picture is vivid in my mind actually, from that, from that moment. 'I think I just hadnt really calculated my, my sleeve length and the waving, and how those two things would go together and reveal personal things about me. Famous moment: The Oscar-winning actress, 51, made headlines when she revealed her hairy underarms while waving at fans at the hit romcom's London premiere She'll never forget it! Julia admitted it wasn't her intention to make a statement about beauty standards and still distinctly remembers the furore 'So it wasnt so much a statement as its just part of the statement I make as a human on the planet, for myself.' Julia has joined a flurry of female stars who have dared to reveal their hairy underarms over the years, with Madonna, Drew Barrymore and Michelle Rodriguez also being among the households names who refuse to shave their armpits to uphold beauty ideals. The chat came after the actress, who rocketed to fame in Pretty Woman, a modern update on Cinderella, told Stellar magazine that she has outgrown the romantic comedy genre. Over it! The chat came after the actress, who rocketed to fame in Pretty Woman, a modern update on Cinderella, told Stellar magazine that she has outgrown the romantic comedy genre Speaking candidly, the mother-of-three explained that 'sometimes they don't work for you at a certain point of life experience'. Julia has made the move into television, as executive producer and star of psychological thriller Homecoming. She enthused: 'There's so much great content on television now. So for me the consideration isn't whether it's TV or a movie, it's whether there's a good story.' Busy Tonight airs Mondays through Thursdays at 10pm on E! She plays the late American war correspondent Marie Colvin in the gritty new drama, A Private War. And Rosamund Pike attended the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards in Los Angeles, alongside her co-star Jamie Dornan, on Sunday. The British actress, 39, looked absolutely sensational in a puff sleeved white mini dress, with a chic brown belt at the waist to showcase her toned figure. Chic: Rosamund Pike attended the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards in Los Angeles wearing a white ,mini dress and brown leather sandals Pals: Rosamund posed up a storm with her charming A Private War co-star Jamie Dornan on Sunday Accentuating her statuesque figure, the Gone Girl star displayed her legs with a pair of heeled gladiator sandals. Rosamund wore her locks in loose waves, keeping her make-up understated with light touches of blush and gloss. Adding a touch of glitz to her elegant ensemble, Rosamund accessorised her outfit with a pair of dainty silver drop earrings. Paying tribute: Marie Colvin pictured left in 2011, a year before her death in a rocket strike in Syria, and Rosamund, right, as her in the movie Opting for similarly sophisticated attire, Rosamund's co-star Jamie, 36, looked dapper in a black suit. He teamed the outfit with a crisp white shirt and suave grey tie, as he posed up a storm with Rosamund. A Private War is based on an article about war correspondent Colvin, which was published in Vanity Fair magazine. Beauty: Rosamund wore her locks in loose waves, keeping her make-up understated with light touches of blush and gloss Glam: The star looked worlds away from her onscreen role as the late American war correspondent Marie Colvin in the gritty new drama, A Private War Elegant: The British actress, 39, looked absolutely sensational in a puff sleeved white mini dress, with a chic brown belt at the waist to showcase her toned figure Rosamund previously said she researched the role heavily, spending time with Colvin's close friends and watching videos of her. The talented star discussed struggling to detach herself from playing Colvin, 52, who was killed during a rocket strike in Syria in 2012. In an interview with The Sunday Times magazine, Rosamund said of her latest starring role: 'I have taken responsibility for this one. I care very much about it, about the whole thing. Winner: Robert Richardson, who was awarded for Cinematographer for A Private War, alongside Rosamund, Jamie, and producer Matthew Heineman Presenters: The pair played host for the event which recognises the work of those behind the scenes in the movie industry Having a laugh: In typical style for the two actors, they couldn't help but enjoy a little giggle 'I'd go into her mind until my heart started to race. Now I wear a version of Marie inside me.' The annual awards show recognises the work of those behind the scenes in the movie industry. It's sponsored by Hamilton watches and Los Angeles Confidential magazine, with the celebrity guests serving as presenters of the awards. Fun times: Rosamund and Jamie larked around while on stage at the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards She recently revealed she loves nothing more than to go make-up free, have her hair scraped back and wear her 16-year-old son's tracksuit trousers. But Elizabeth Hurley looked glamorous as ever as she shared her sexiest bikini-clad Instagram snap on Monday, while holidaying at the 6,400-a-night Milaidhoo Island Maldives. The Royals star, 53, showed off her cheeky side as she stripped off her silk lace robe for the camera to exhibit her phenomenal curves in a teeny-tiny pink paisley print two-piece. Racy display: Elizabeth Hurley looked glamorous as ever as she shared her sexiest bikini-clad Instagram snap as she holidayed in the Maldives on Monday Shimmying from side-to-side, Liz seductively opened the dressing gown to debut the bikini, winking to the camera as she showed off her incredible figure. Stripping off the robe, the model drew attention to her jaw-dropping assets in the halterneck top which featured gold circle detailing at the bust. Meanwhile, the matching tie-side bottoms highlighted her taut midriff and toned pins. Eye-catching@ The Royals star, 53, showed off her cheeky side as she stripped off her silk lace robe for the camera to exhibit her phenomenal curves in a tiny pink paisley print two-piece Tease: Shimmying from side-to-side, Liz seductively opened the dressing gown to debut the bikini, winking to the camera as she showed off her incredible figure Set pulses racing: Stripping off the robe, the model drew attention to her jaw-dropping assets in the halterneck top which featured gold circle detailing at the bust She wore her ombre hair in glamorous waves and accentuated her youthful visage with her signature black smoky eye. Liz jetted to the Maldives to pose in her latest line of swimwear, teasing fans in her latest video with a sneak peek from behind-the-scenes. Sharing another snap in her beach-get up, she wrote: 'Peachy Maldivian morning'. Her latest Instagram posts comes after the Austen Powers star slammed reports her son Damian took all of her swimwear photos. She told MailOnline: 'It's just complete nonsense that somebody made up and everybody else ran with. 'He took one or two shots ages ago and that was it. He's at boarding school, for heaven's sake. I can assure you I do not drag him to Mauritius every weekend to take my picture. Sun-soaked break: Liz jetted to the Maldives to pose in her latest line of swimwear, teasing fans in her latest video with a sneak peek from behind-the-scenes 'Damian is a great photographer, and he instinctively knows what younger people want to see, but that's all. Our downtime together is usually spent watching something scary on Netflix or Vikings on Amazon Prime. 'Because he's away all week and has to make his own bed and tidy his room, I'm probably overindulgent when he's around to make up for it. 'Given I'm a single mother and he's an only child, by default we spend a lot of time together and we are utterly comfortable in each other's company.' By her own account, in the country Elizabeth is worlds away from her beach snaps, preferring to have her hair scraped up, very little make-up and shuns expensive athleisure wear. 'I tend to wear Damian's cast-offs,' she said. 'His 14-15-year-old trackie bottoms fit me perfectly.' She celebrated her 23rd birthday bash with a low-key karaoke dinner with her pals on Saturday evening. And Kendall Jenner put on casual display as she headed to New York City's Gotham Gym on Sunday afternoon. The catwalk queen shunned her typical glamour in favour of a cosy burgundy hooded jumper, embellished with flashy graphics from Jayden Smith's debut album Syre. Low-key: Kendall Jenner put on casual display as she headed to New York City's Gotham Gym on Sunday afternoon, after celebrating her 23rd birthday on Saturday Complementing her slender physique, the model sported a pair of clingy running tights, tied in with sporty monochrome trainers. Kendall added touches of her signature glamour to her look as she accessorised with a pair of square-framed skinny glasses. Showcasing her naturally radiant beauty, the brunette swept her tresses into a loose ponytail to reveal her make-up free complexion. Casual look: The catwalk queen shunned her typical glamour in favour of a cosy burgundy hooded jumper, embellished with flashy graphics from Jayden Smith's debut album Syre Kendall's low-key display comes after she rang in her 23rd birthday bash with a fun karaoke night, alongside pals Bella Hadid and Tyler The Creator on Saturday night. The IMG model maintained an effortlessly chic display as she donned a fluffy black coat, box-fresh sneakers and denim jeans during her night out at Sing Sing Karaoke. Commanding attention on her special day, the brunette added a mini party hat over her sleek ponytail. Time to party: Kendall's low-key display comes after she rang in her 23rd birthday bash with a fun karaoke night Star-studded: The model proved to be in good company as she was joined by close friends Bella Hadid (L) and Tyler The Creator (R) Meanwhile, fellow supermodel Kendall, 22, accentuated her statuesque frame in the houndstooth flares and swapped her usual towering heels for a pair of white trainers. The sister of Gigi Hadid teamed the looked with a black long-sleeved top and accessorised the ensemble with a small handbag. Despite showcasing her off-duty style, she kept her to her usual glamorous beauty ways and paired her neatly blow dried her raven-coloured locks with a glossy lip. Getting into the fun of the evening, Bella worked a bright red party hat on top of her head, which was kept in place with an elastic band. Style savvy: The IMG model maintained an effortlessly chic display as she donned a fluffy black coat, box-fresh sneakers and denim jeans during her night out at Sing Sing Karaoke Kendall was recently confirmed for this year'sVictoria's Secret Fashion Show after missing out in 2017. She missed the event last year due to a contractual conflict, as the Keeping Up With The Kardashians' star was the face of La Perla lingerie and unable to model for any other lingerie brands. This year's catwalk show will see the brand return to New York City, after hosting the event abroad for the past few years. However, while the show is taking place in the Big Apple, Victoria's Secret is bringing some British flair to the mix, announcing earlier this month that it will be collaborating with London-based designer Mary Katrantzou on a capsule collection that will make its debut on the runway. Daniel Craig has confessed that he's become an expert drinker since becoming James Bond as he fears being snapped by fans in the pub. The 50-year-old, who has fronted four 007 films since 2006, joked his A-list celebrity status has taught him to drink '18 pints in a half an hour' in attempt to stop movie-lovers from recognising him in his local. According to the Daily Star, he said: 'I've got this window of opportunity in pubs of about 30 minutes. Master: Daniel Craig has confessed that he's become an expert drinker since becoming James Bond as he fears being snapped by fans in the pub 'After that things start happening and it's not relaxing anymore. I've got really good at drinking 18 pints in half an hour. I like to have a drink, and I love pubs and I love finding new pubs and places to socialise. But that has a limit on it now.' The Layer Cake actor previously said that you wouldn't see him stumbling out of pubs after landing the classy 007 agent role and discussed at the time how he was very aware of the fact that the cameras are on him at all times. In 2012, the British actor, who is married to Rachel Weisz, told Vanity Fair that he could no longer enjoy a regular social life now that fans have camera phones and could possibly capture his every move He said: 'You talk to people in the movie business who have been doing this 40 years and they all say the difference is that, back in the day, you could go and have a drink in the bar, get drunk, fall over, have a good time, relax, whatever, and no one would know about it. Drink up: The 50-year-old, who has fronted four 007 films since 2006, joked his A-list celebrity status has taught him to drink '18 pints in a half an hour' in attempt to stop movie-lovers from recognising him in his local (Pictured in 2012 with his Skyfall co-star Javier Bardem) 'Opportunity': According to the Daily Star, he said: 'I've got this window of opportunity in pubs of about 30 minutes' (Pictured in 2008's Quantum Of Solace) 'But now everyones got a camera. Not that all I want to do is get drunk in a bar, but thats an example. Adding: 'So you cant live a normal life anymore. Because it will become public knowledge that youve whatever - gotten drunk in a bar or skinny-dipped on a beach or something.' Aside from socialising, Daniel was at the centre of a media storm last month after Piers Morgan criticised him for carrying their newborn daughter in a papoose. The baby is the first child for the couple, who wed in 2011. Rachel shares son Henry, 12, with former fiance, director Darren Aronofsky, while Daniel has a daughter Ella, 26, with ex-wife Fiona Loudon. Discussion: In 2012, the British actor, who is married to Rachel Weisz, told Vanity Fair that he could no longer enjoy a regular social life now that fans have camera phones and could possibly capture his every move Controversy: Aside from socialising, Daniel was at the centre of a media storm last month after Piers Morgan criticised him for carrying their newborn daughter in a papoose The actor was spotted on a solo outing in New York last month with the newborn, but Piers was unimpressed, tweeting: 'Oh 007.. not you as well?!!! #papoose #emasculatedBond.' Twitter users were not impressed and bombarded the GMB host, who later apologised for his comments, with images of fathers baby wearing with some toting two children at the same time. Even Captain America star Chris Evans weighed in, tweeting: 'You really have to be so uncertain of your own masculinity to concern yourself with how another man carries his child. 'Any man who wastes time quantifying masculinity is terrified on the inside.' She's following in her mother's footsteps as a party hopper and model. Yet, Anais Gallagher, 18, enjoyed some time away from the London social scene as she strolled around the romantic setting of Venice, Italy with her photographer beau Kitt Sullivan, 27, on Sunday. The daughter of Noel Gallagher and Meg Mathews sported a low-key look as they stepped out for a bite to eat in the Floating City and packed on the PDA over their dinner table. Stepping out: Anais Gallagher, 18, enjoyed some time away from the London social scene as she strolled around the romantic setting of Venice, Italy with her photographer beau Kitt Sullivan, 27, on Sunday Wrapping up for the outing, Anais donned a tan-coloured corduroy jacket and teamed it with a pair of loose-fitting grey joggers. The model kept to her off-duty theme by walking the romantic city's streets in a pair of leather military-inspired boots and worked her blonde locks into a low-chignon at the nape of her neck. Complementing his other half's casual appearance, Kitt wore a pair of black tracksuit bottoms, a suede shearling lined coat layered over a red T-shirt. The pair looked the picture of young love as they kissed and cosied up to one another while they waited to be served. Loved-up: The daughter of Noel Gallagher and Meg Mathews sported a low-key look as they stepped out for a bite to eat in the Floating City and packed on the PDA over their dinner table Pucker up: Anais leaned in for a quick peck Her PDA-filled appearance comes after the daughter of Noel Gallagher and Meg Mathews documented her playful argument with boyfriend Kitt, 27, on Instagram Stories last month following the launch of Miss Selfridge's Christmas collection. The long-haired photographer refused to take her picture for social media and so she called him out on it. Anais shared the video with 155,000 followers joking: 'Kitt's mad at me because I asked him to take pictures of me which any loving boyfriend should take pictures of their girlfriend when they're asked to'. Kitt is heard in the background disagreeing before Anais posted a second video asking her boyfriend to stop laughing at her. Cute: The pair looked the picture of young love as they kissed and cosied up to one another while they waited to be served Mane attraction: The model worked her blonde locks into a low-chignon at the nape of her neck Model Anais and Kit first met while on a photoshoot early in 2018 and have been inseparable since. Anais is taking the fashion world by storm as she's been announced as a contributing fashion editor at Tatler. And she's enrolled at Camberwell College of Arts in South London. The fashionista has previous experience in the fashion and modelling world, having been signed up to a modelling agency at the tender age of 11. The catwalk queen appeared in her first campaign for Accessorise when she was just 14 and was recently unveiled as the new face of Reebok. She juggles her busy career with motherhood as she shares adopted daughter Genesis, seven, with husband Genesis Tennon. And Viola Davis has joked she hasn't had the 'most pleasant experiences' with fellow mums while discussing her new film Widows with Lorraine Kelly on her eponymous show on Monday morning. The award-winning actress, 53, also touched on the filming process of her new heist movie, admitting that she was 'terrified' to kiss her on on-screen husband Liam Neeson. Candid: Viola Davis has joked she hasn't had the 'most pleasant experiences' with fellow mums while discussing her new film Widows with Lorraine Kelly on her eponymous show on Monday Viola, who adopted Genesis in 2011, spoke on interacting with other mothers: 'Being around other mums has not necessarily been the most pleasant experience. 'I get it, though. I get it. We try to out-score each other with our kids. We just throw our kids in there. Poking fun at her past encounters with competitive mothers, the How to Get Away With Mother star added: 'People say, "My kid is better than your kid, my kid doesnt cuss, my kid makes all straight. My kid has never done anything bad in their entire lives"'. Family first: The award-winning actress, 53, juggles her busy career with motherhood as she shares adopted daughter Genesis, seven, with husband Genesis Tennon (pictured in 2017) Viola went on to discuss her new film Widows, directed by Steve McQueen and co-starring Colin Farrell and Michelle Rodriguez. 'I like this film because of how multi-generational, multi-ethnic it is, how inclusive it is. I love how the film opens with me and Liam Neeson in bed together. I love it, I do.' The Help star admitted: 'I was terrified, Ive got to kiss Liam Neeson, I was like, "Oh my god!"' During her time on set, Viola also revealed she struck up an unlikely bond with on-screen pet dog Olivia. She gushed over her canine co-star: 'Let me tell you something, we dont have a dog [at home], because my husband says the dog is going to tear up the furniture. 'Im talking about love. I love that dog. I was kissing the dog, I was holding that dog between scenes. I would say, "Youre my baby". Im always looking at people who kiss their dogs mouth like, "Thats disgusting". [But] I was kissing that dogs mouth!' Scared: Viola also touched on the filming process of her new heist movie, admitting that she was 'terrified' to kiss her on on-screen husband Liam Neeson Scared: Viola also touched on the filming process of her new heist movie, admitting that she was 'terrified' to kiss her on on-screen husband Liam Neeson 'We try to out-score each other': The How to Get Away with Murder star, who adopted Genesis in 2011, spoke on interacting with other mothers Upcoming fim: Widows sees the screen star play Veronica Rawlins, who finds out that their criminally-driven deceased husbands left behind a debt that could consequently change their lives Widows sees the screen star play Veronica Rawlins, who finds out that their criminally-driven deceased husbands left behind a debt that could consequently change their lives. Speaking to the Press Association during the London premiere for the heist film, Viola admitted that the industry has been slow to depict women accurately on screen. She revealed: 'I think we are in a zeitgeist where people want to make more films about women because it's the hip thing to do. I don't want it to be a hip thing, I want it to actually be a change. I don't want it to be a hashtag. 'I feel very much attached to the idea that whatever woman I'm presenting, it should be a woman that is reflective of the women that I know in my life', Viola added. Widows will hit UK cinemas on November 6. He's currently in India shooting his new film, 'DHAKA'. But on Monday, Hollywood actor Chris Hemsworth, 35, took time out to take selfies with a large group of fans while on location. Taking to Instagram, the A-lister shared a series of photographs of himself surrounded by smiling faces. Scroll down for video 'Beyond thankful': Hollywood hunk Chris Hemsworth is mobbed by fans in India as he shoots Netflix action film Dhaka 'Beyond thankful for the kindness and generosity that the people of India have extended to us while making our little film here,' he said. Looking every inch the movie star, the Avengers actor was surrounded by fans with him shaking a number of hands with them. the Thor actor has shared a number of behind-the-scenes footage of himself in the South Asian country. Gushing: 'The kindness and generosity that the people of India have extended to us while making our little film here,' Chris gushed over the fans in the caption of the snaps Taking to his Instagram Story on the same day, Chris shared a video of himself at an intersection of a busy local road. 'Good system this one,' he could be overheard saying as the intersection was swamped with cars. Chris added the captions to the short clip: 'beautiful chaos,' and 'Traffic is flowing beautifully,' with a number of horns going in the footage. Excited! In a third snap, Chris could be seen touching the hands of fans as they rushed to get close to the Thor star Chris, who is based in Australia's Byron Bay, is no stranger to travelling to interesting locations for filming requirements. In October, Chris showed the perks of the job when he posed in a luxurious brown speedboat while filming Men In Black in Italy. Driving the boat with the wind in his hair, Chris captioned the series of photos: 'Just another day on the set of MIB. Italy you're too kind.' Just another day on set: In October, actor Chris Hemsworth enjoyed a boat ride in Italy after he revealed he 'selfishly' asked his family not to visit him so he could focus on work Throwing the shaka sign, the Australian actor looked chic in a light blue shirt and pale pink linen pants. He completed the casual but chic Mediterranean look with a pair of sunglasses. Surrounded by islands and beautiful shoreline, the Thor star appeared relaxed as he steeled the boat through the bright blue water. Perks of the job! He captioned the series of photos: 'Just another day on the set of MIB. Italy you're too kind' The shots come after Chris revealed his family usually follow him around the world as he films back-to-back blockbusters. But for his recent movie, Bad Times at the El Royale, the former Home and Away star admitted he actually told wife Elsa Pataky he 'needed' to be alone for the duration of the shoot. Speaking to GQ Australia he admitted that spending time with Elsa, 42, and their three children - daughter India, six, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, four - would be too distracting. Solo: It comes after Chris revealed for his recent movie, Bad Times at the El Royale, he actually told wife Elsa Pataky (left) he 'needed' to be alone for the duration of the shoot 'Normally I come away with my family,' he said, when asked about balancing work and family life. 'We arrive in a city. I rush off to work, do my prep. Rush home, kids, family, my wife. Next morning, up again, trying to fit in some training. Rush home, feed the kids.' Dad time: Chris admitted that spending time with Elsa, 42, and their three children - daughter India, six, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, four (pictured) would be too distracting 'Elsa ended up having a job at the same time, so it was fine but I actively chose to have it be a solo mission. It allowed me to selfishly focus just on this character,' he explained. 'I would wake up and think, 'I can actually go to work and think about the character', and then I would come home and think about the character then, too. 'I just hadn't been able to go to that place for a while' he concluded. She's become the focus of heightened attention, after she was spotted enjoying a passionate smooch with Jack Whitehall at a Los Angeles karaoke bar on Friday. And fans of Kate Beckinsale, 45, appeared to be chomping at the bit for further details of the actress' possible romance with the 30-year-old comedian, as she took to her Instagram to share a sultry selfie on Sunday. After the Underworld star shared a snap of herself posing before a mirror, a horde of her followers began to speculate that she was hiding the British funnyman behind a set of ruffled floral curtains that appeared to protrude considerably at the bottom. Curtain call: Kate Beckinsale's fans accused her of hiding potential new boyfriend Jack Whitehall behind her curtains, when she shared a sultry selfie on Instagram on Sunday Taking to her social media account for the first time since photographs of her kiss with Jack emerged which preceded the pair making their way to an upscale West Hollywood hotel the screen beauty tickled fans with her quirky sense of humour. She wrote next to the shot, which a light crop top with black bottoms: 'Dont even attempt to f**k with me Ive just correctly diagnosed a family member with a double stye and Im suddenly getting a lot of texts about chickens.' However, eagle-eyed fans appeared more concerned with the background, with one of her followers enquiring: 'Are you hiding behind the curtain @jackwhitehall?' Lip lock: The actress was photographed kissing Jack Whitehall at a Los Angeles bar on Friday Big speculation: A number of Kate's followers speculated that she was hiding Jack in her selfie 'Is this in the hotel with Jack?' asked another. 'How has he done that. Fair play.' 'What are you hiding behind the curtains?' wrote another probing fan, whose question was met with a sea of responses pointing to Jack. The Hollywood actress and comedian Jack ere seen in a steamy embrace as they partied the night away at the exclusive Blind Dragon nightclub in Los Angeles. During their date night, Kate was seen relaxing into Jack as he wrapped his arm around her lovingly to hold her close to him. As the evening progressed, the pair put on a loved-up display as Jack placed a kiss on Kate's head in a loving way. The ex factor: The screen star was in an eight-year relationship with Michael Sheen until 2005 The actress was later seen lounging in front of him as they chatted to each other, before they gave each other a smooch. Kate and Jake then fell into the throes of romance as they shared a passionate kiss, and the actress could be seen draping one arm across his shoulder as she placed her other hand on his chest. Earlier that night, the pair dined at celeb hotspot Craig's in West Hollywood, but left separately likely to avoid being photographed together. They then reconvened at the karaoke lounge, where they were seen laughing and joking around with each other before their passionate display. Following their date, the pair were pictured heading back to a 2,000-a-night West Hollywood hotel together. Split: Kate divorced director Len Wiseman in 2016 and has a daughter Lily from her relationship with Welsh actor Michael Sheen An onlooker told The Sun: 'They were like a pair of loved-up teenagers and werent trying to hide their feelings, they were practically sitting on top of each other in the booth of the nightclub and were laughing with each other. 'Kate rested her hand on Jacks shoulder and she kept laughing and smiling at his jokes, as the night progressed, he seemed to be growing in confidence and put his arm around her and gave her a hug. 'Then he decided to put his hand around the back of Kates neck and pulled her across him, where they started to passionately kiss.' MailOnline has contacted Kate and Jack's representatives for comment. In video footage obtained by The Sun, the Aviator star put on a very cosy display as she headed to The London Hotel with the budding actor. Relationship: Jack was in a relationship with actress Gemma Chan, 35, but the pair called time on their relationship after six years together in 2017 Kate divorced director Len Wiseman in 2016 after 12 years of marriage. She has previously been linked with on-off American toyboy Matt Rife. She has a 19-year-old daughter Lily with her former husband, the actor Michael Sheen, 49, who she split from in 2003. Jack meanwhile was in a relationship with actress Gemma Chan, 35, but the pair called time on their relationship after six years together in 2017. An insider told The Sun at the time the couple remain friends despite the break-up, and decided to go their separate ways after finding it more and more difficult to spend time together. The source said: 'Jack and Gemma secretly pulled the plug on their relationship but remain good friends. Flirting up a storm: Jack was also romantically linked to Kirsty Gallacher, 45, back in April 'For the past couple of years they've both been finding it difficult to make proper time for one another and, with their schedules showing no signs of slowing down, have decided to go their separate ways. 'It's sad but they remain supportive of one another.' Jack and Gemma first began dating after meeting on the set of Jack's comedy-drama series Fresh Meat in 2011, and both have gone on to have hugely successful acting careers. He was also romantically linked to Kirsty Gallacher, 45, back in April. The pair have reportedly been friends for years. The Sun reported the chemistry between Kirsty and Jack reached boiling point at a star-studded event, which reportedly resulted in a 'romp'. While Jack is a hugely successful stand-up comedian, he is forging an acting career in Hollywood, most recently starring in Disney's newly-released film The Nutcracker and The Four Realms. She's currently preparing to strut the Victoria's Secret runway this month. And in the lead-up to the show, Shanina Shaik has reflected on the progress the lingerie extravaganza has made over the years. During an interview with The Daily Telegraph on Monday, the 27-year-old model explained that the brand has opened up to diversity. 'We will see more in the coming years': Model Shanina Shaik claimed that Victoria's Secret has opened up to diversity in an interview with The Daily Telegraph on Monday. Pictured in 2011 'I think that over the years Victoria's Secret has opened up to more diversity,' she told the publication. 'I think we will see more and more in the coming years,' Shanina added, explaining that the girls who currently strut the coveted runway work very hard. 'The girls who walk for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show work really hard to be their fittest and healthiest,' she stated. 'I think that over the years Victoria's Secret has opened up to more diversity,' she told the publication. Pictured in 2015 The interview comes after model Robyn Lawley, 29, launched a petition to boycott the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show due to not casting a plus size model in its history. 'I am sick and tired of seeing the same body type,' Robyn said while making an appearance on The Morning Show last month. Robyn explained that she wants the runway to feature 'a few other sizes' and calls for the lingerie brand to add diversity. 'The girls who walk for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show work really hard to be their fittest and healthiest,' she stated 'So many young women watch the show and aspire to [have] these bodies and if we just include a few more sizes of different variations I think that will help so many young women feel more love for their bodies. 'I could not care less about walking for them, not anymore. But I would love to see some curvy bodies on there,' she added. And having earned a coveted spot on this year's show, Shanina will be gracing Victoria's Secret annual catwalk for the fifth time. 'I am sick and tired of seeing the same body type': Shanina's interview comes after model Robyn Lawley, 29, launched a petition to boycott the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show due to not casting a plus size model in its history After failing to make the cut for the last two years, the runway regular was surprised when she got the call for the upcoming 2018 show. 'I didn't expect that I would be doing the casting this year, in all honest truth,' she admitted to news.com.au in September. Aidan Gillen and Daryl McCormack were dressed in character on Monday morning as filming commenced on the forthcoming fifth season of Peaky Blinders. The pair mingled with a busy production team during a location shoot outside Liverpools Grade II listed Britannia Adelphi Hotel, where McCormack appeared to be making his debut as a yet to be established character. The young actor, whose previous screen credits include Notes on a Scandal and Vikings, was confirmed as the enormously popular shows latest cast-member in October, shortly before filming got underway. Quiet on set: Aidan Gillen and Daryl McCormack were dressed in character on Monday morning as filming commenced on the forthcoming fifth season of Peaky Blinders And he was dressed in accordance with its post-World War I setting in a smart wing-tipped shirt, heavy overcoat and obligatory Baker Boy cap while filming scenes with comparative veteran Gillen, 50. The Irish star, better known for his former roles on cult HBO dramas The Wire and Game of Thrones, will reprise his role as Romany gypsy hitman Aberama Gold when Peaky Blinders finally returns in 2019. With a thick mustache defining his features the smartly dressed character appeared to have undergone something of a makeover since his last screen appearance. Appropriate setting: The pair were on hand to shoot scenes outside Liverpools Grade II listed Britannia Adelphi Hotel Here he comes: McCormack appeared to be making his debut as a yet to be established character on Monday morning Looking good: The young actor was dressed in accordance with the post-World War I setting in a smart wing-tipped shirt, heavy overcoat and obligatory Baker Boy cap while filming scenes with comparative veteran Gillen Gold and his family arrived on horseback in season four, ostensibly to help Tommy Shelby deal with Italian-American mobster Luca Changretta. But he was behind the wheel of a lavish period car on Monday, with Gillen engaging in a tense conversation with McCormack - who menacingly leaned into the driver's window while standing on the vehicle's foot rest. The tone soon shifted during a short break between scenes, prompting broad smiles from the actors as they enjoyed a light-hearted chat. A welcome return: Gillen, better known for his former roles on cult HBO dramas The Wire and Game of Thrones, will reprise his role as Romany gypsy hitman Aberama Gold when Peaky Blinders finally returns in 2019 Transformation: With a thick mustache defining his features the smartly dressed character appeared to have undergone something of a makeover since his last screen appearance Face to face: Gold was behind the wheel of a lavish period car on Monday, with the character engaging in a tense conversation with McCormack - who menacingly leaned into the driver's window while standing on the vehicle's foot rest In good company: The pair were surrounded by members of the production team during a break between scenes in Liverpool city centre Both were later seen examining the day's rushes with director Anthony Byrne, brought in to helm all of the new season's forthcoming episodes. The pair were joined on set by actor Harry Kirton, who was sharply dressed as Tommy's younger brother Finn Shelby while filming scenes in and around an old fashioned telephone box. Annie Harrison-Baxter will produce the new series, which sees the welcome return of a host of familiar characters following a vicious gang war. Upbeat: The tone soon shifted during a short break between scenes, prompting broad smiles from the actors as they enjoyed a light-hearted chat He looks familiar: Harry Kirton was also seen filming scenes as Finn Shelby on the exterior set Looking the business: The actor was sharply dressed as his recurring character, the younger brother of Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby Show creator Steven Knight is now keen to develop a further two seasons, telling Digital Spy: 'My ambition is to make it a story of a family between two wars, so always I've wanted to end it with the first air raid siren in Birmingham in 1939. It'll take three more series [to reach that point].' Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content, added: 'Peaky Blinders is world class drama at the top of its game and the time has arrived for it to move to the UK's biggest channel. 'Steven Knight's epic storytelling is authentic and utterly compelling and I want to give it the chance to be enjoyed by an even broader audience on BBC One. 'We couldn't have asked for a better response to series four and the impact it had with young audiences. This move will also give BBC Two more creative headroom to experiment with new drama.' Peaky Blinders season five is set to air in 2019. Coming soon: Annie Harrison-Baxter will produce the new series, which sees the welcome return of a host of familiar characters following a vicious gang war Authentic: A period car idled on the kerb surrounded by members of the production team during a break between scenes on Monday Getting involved: Gillen and McCormack were later seen examining the day's rushes with director Anthony Byrne, brought in to helm all of the new season's forthcoming episodes Blanco Blanco got all gussied up in a ball gown on Sunday evening for the Hollywood Film Awards where Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling were presenters. The actress wore a head-turning off-the-shoulder pink gown by French designer Christophe Guillarme that made her look like a modern-day Audrey Hepburn. The Washington state native has been picking up several film roles lately - her next is Torch, which is directed by Christopher Coppola - Nicolas Cage's cousin - with Oscar-winner Rita Moreno as a co-star. The movie was shot in the jungle in Belize. Dramatic: Blanco Blanco got all gussied up in a ball gown on Sunday evening for the Hollywood Film Awards where Brad Pitt was a presenter Tops: The actress wore a head-turning off-the-shoulder pink gown by French designer Christophe Guillarme that made her look like a modern-day Audrey Hepburn There is a similarity: The actress looks a bit like iconic movie goddess Audrey Hepburn best known for Breakfast At Tiffany's and My Fair Lady; seen in 1957 in Hollywood The gown was made of light pink satin and there were red rose petals on the bottom hem. She added pointy gold heels with a design on top. Long red earrings with a geometric design added sparkle and she held on to a boxy clutch purse. Showstopper: The gown was made of light pink satin and there were red rose petals on the bottom hem and a red belt was added Her credits were Christophe Guillarme, Abramovicm, Vladimir Simic, Carmen Steffens and Jessica Bratich. This comes after she revealed she has a new addition to her family. The TV and movie actress has adopted a small white bunny, she revealed on Instagram this week. Good shoes: She added pointy gold heels with a design on top Nailing the details: Long red earrings with a geometric design added sparkle and she held on to a boxy clutch purse And on Halloween the Fabulous Christmas Holidays star posed with the little pet while wearing an eye-catching white swimsuit. 'With my sweet bunny #StarStar,' she wrote in the caption as she cuddled up to the little furry wonder. The cover girl wore her brunette hair down and had on flattering makeup with no jewelry on. She showed off her figure in a plunging suit that made the most of her curves. Fuzzball: Blanco has a new addition to her family. The TV and movie actress has adopted a small white bunny, she revealed on Instagram this week Darling: And on Halloween the Fabulous Christmas Holidays star posed with the little pet while wearing an eye-catching white swimsuit Also last week she stood out at the Suspiria premiere this week at the Arclight Hollywood Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles. The actress wore custom-made shoes that had five strands of pearls on them. They were created especially for the looker by Mme Weathersby. The brunette bombshell added a lovely off-the-shoulder dress by French designer Christophe Guillarme as she posed with her beau of 10 years John Savage, who is best known for the classic film The Deer Hunter. The fashion fiend ensured she didn't miss a beat on the red carpet. The beauty put on a showstopping display in an off-the-shoulder lace frock that featured tulle and pleats throughout. Her hair was pulled up with some curled strands running loose around her face. She added a large cocktail ring and diamond earrings for a very glam look overall. Savage looked ready to party in a floral print Chinese blazer over a red button down shirt. He can be seen in the upcoming film War Photographer with Vanessa Eichholz. Date night: Blanca was seen with her boyfriend of 10 years, John Savage, at the Boy Erased premiere last week Blanca has been making strides in her acting career this year. She has already appeared in the films The Dog of Christmas, Fake News, and Torch. And this year she has worked on The Fabulous Christmas Holidays, Betrayed, Woman On The Edge and Ovide And The Art Of Love. She got her start in 2010 with the movie The Las Chicana. Before coming to Hollywood she was a student that got two degrees: She graduated from Washington State University with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and from Eastern Washington University with a Master of Social Work, in addition to studying Spanish in college. They fuelled rumours of a romantic reunion when they were seen returning to London together in March. And on-off couple Alexa Chung and Alexander Skarsgard set tongues wagging about a potential reconciliation once again as they took a leisurely stroll through New York on Sunday. The British model, 35, and the Swedish actor, 42, looked happy and relaxed as they shared a joke while wandering around the city together. Reunited? On-off couple Alexa Chung and Alexander Skarsgard set tongues wagging about a potential reconciliation once again as they took a leisurely stroll through New York on Sunday The pair were believed to have called time on their two-year relationship in June 2017, but are thought to have reunited earlier this year. In recent months, the Big Little Lies star is said to have reconciled with ex-girlfriend Charlize Theron, 43, after rekindling things on the set of their political comedy Flarsky, nearly six years on from when they first dated. The power couple were rumoured to be dating back in 2012, but their short romance ended after 'just a few dates' with each going their separate ways. Alexa nailed her chic look with a long blue coat and mini denim skirt, while Alexander sported an edgy emerald jacket. The model paired her outfit with black ankle boots and a matching shoulder bag while she carried a white shopping carrier in her hand. Back on? The British model, 35, and the Swedish actor, 42, looked happy and relaxed as they shared a joke while wandering around the city together The Legend of Tarzan actor teamed his statement coat with some light wash jeans and black boots. Alexander walked alongside his former flame sporting reflective sunglasses while carrying a large green duffel bag. Earlier this year, the pair were seen making their way across St. Pancras International train station after arriving in the UK capital via Eurostar from Paris, France. The couple, who had not been seen together since parting ways in summer 2017, linked arms as they exited the station and made their way onto the street. They originally confirmed their split in last July, with friends claiming the separation was entirely amicable. Chic: Alexa nailed her chic look with a long blue coat and mini denim skirt, while Alexander sported an edgy emerald jacket A source told E! Online: 'No one cheated on anyone. It was a clean breakup that was caused by busy schedules and distance. They really did love each other and were pretty serious. They still have respect for each other.' Separate sources claim Alexa and Alexander have remained in regular contact since the split, adding: 'Alexa is always friends with her exes. Shes always cool with everyone she dates and stays in contact and even will hang out with them after they break up. 'She and her other exes have hung out after they break up and (Alexander) is no exception. They still text each other all the time and met up when they were in the same city.' Alexa said of Alexander when they were dating: 'Hes an amazing man, very structured, responsible and supportive. He's very good at, not making me more grown up, per se, but at making me take myself more seriously.' MailOnline has contacted representatives for the pair for further comment. Bodyguard creator Jed Mercurio has confessed that he almost killed off Richard Madden's character David Budd in the BBC series' thrilling final episode. In the series finale, viewers watched as David fought his innocence after he woke up strapped into a bomb vest by gangsters working for crime boss Luke Aitkens. Speaking to Vulture, show runner Jed revealed that David narrowly avoided the chopping block in a bid to prove that anything could happen in the nail biting series. On the chopping block: Bodyguard creator Jed Mercurio has confessed that he almost killed off Richard Madden's character David Budd in the BBC series' thrilling final episode Jed notably killed off the show's other main character, Home Secretary Julia Montague, played by Keeley Hawes, after an explosion took place during her speech in episode three. He shared: 'It [killing him off] was something that we very definitely played with as being a possibility. 'I think once you do the unexpected and you take the viewers to a position of discomfort about being able to rely on characters surviving, then it does completely affect the way in which the drama is viewed. Adding: 'That real sense of jeopardy is something that we worked really hard to create.' Twist: Jed notably killed off the show's other main character, Home Secretary Julia Montague, played by Keeley Hawes, after an explosion took place during her speech in episode three Nail biting: In the series finale, viewers watched as David fought his innocence after he woke up strapped into a bomb vest by gangsters working for crime boss Luke Aitkens Thankfully for fans Jed opted against his macabre decision and admitted that it would have been 'too nihilistic' to end the hit series on such a negative note. The reports come after show star Richard revealed he was in talks with creator Jed for season two, after it became the most-watched drama since records began in 2002. In an interview with Deadline last week, the actor, 32, admitted he could be returning to the character of PC David Budd for the BBC programme's next outing. He explained: 'I'm going to meet Jed in a couple of weeks, to have a chat and see what's in his brilliant brain. 'Nihilistic': Thankfully for fans Jed opted against his macabre decision and admitted that it would have been 'too nihilistic' to end the hit series on such a negative note In talks: The reports come after show star Richard Madden, 32, revealed he was in talks with creator Jed for season two, after it became the most-watched drama since records began in 2002 'So, I'm like, what can happen next? You know, with David. Because he had a hell of a couple months there. Where do you go with this guy?' 'I also thought, maybe it's going to be like American Horror Story where, in the second series, it's a whole different incarnation of it, and I'm a royal and Keeley [Hawes, his co-star] is on my protection team. 'And you get all the rest of the actors back, and we all do different things. But who knows what's in Jed's mind. I'm very keen to hear.' The series' intense finale saw his character get knocked out by a mob boss before being fitted with a bomb vest, making him a wanted man in the eyes of the police. Keen to discuss: In an interview with Deadline on Wednesday, the actor, 32, admitted he could be returning to the character of PC David Budd (pictured with co-star Keeley Hawes) Having been able to persuade them to let him provide proof that he was being set up, David then walked through the streets of London with the bomb still attached, and the police following closely behind. Richard admitted this scenario would probably make things difficult for him to return in the future, as he explained: 'I think, you know, David Budd, he walks about London with a bomb on. 'I mean, everyone definitely knows his face now. He can't really slip back into police work again. What's his life like after that?' The hit BBC drama won the largest audience recorded for a TV programme that was not a sporting or national event since 2010. Now for something completely different: He added, 'I also thought, maybe it's going to be like American Horror Story where, in the second series, it's a whole different incarnation of it' In total, the show drew in an audience of 17.1 million across 28 days and over several devices including PCs, laptops, smartphones and tablets, according to the BBC. Last time a drama had figures peak above 17 million was Only Fools and Horses' Christmas Day episode in 2002, which had an audience of 17.4 million. The gripping series followed troubled bodyguard and police officer David and his relationship with controversial Home Secretary Julia Montague, played by Keeley Hawes, who was killed halfway through the series. Creator Jed has previously hinted the series could have up to four installments, but it is not yet clear whether Richard or Keeley will return. Advertisement They remain one of the world's most successful and influential girl bands, who on Monday confirmed they would reunite for a six-date nationwide tour. But the Spice Girls' decision to reunite (minus Victoria Beckham) for the first time since their 2012 tour has divided social media, with some fans admitting to being so overjoyed they cried, while others have branded the band's regrouping 'cringe' and are claiming it won't be the same without Posh. Twitter users took to the social media site in their droves to impart their opinion, with many expressing their thoughts via the popular medium of meme. Making them Holler: The Spice Girls' decision to reunite (minus Victoria Beckham) for the first time since their 2012 tour has divided social media, with some fans admitting to being so overjoyed they cried, while others have branded the band's regrouping 'cringe' and are claiming it won't be the same without Posh Adopting a more cynical outlook on the comeback tour, some fans accused the band of reforming to top up their supposedly dwindling bank accounts, with one writing: 'I wish they would call comeback and reunion tours by their real name. The "We've run out of money tour" #SpiceGirls.' Another concurred: 'I'm shocked at the #SpiceGirls getting back together. Didn't think they'd run out of money this quickly,' before a third chimed: 'Swear the spice girls live in a constant circle of together > broken up > rumours of getting back together > denying said rumours > run out of money > together and touring again.' Others lamented Victoria's failure to appear, while some took comfort in the recent revelation that she would still receive a payout from the tour because she owns an equal stake in the band, according to reports. It's all Too Much! Twitter users took to the social media site in their droves to impart their opinion, with many expressing their thoughts via the popular medium of meme Overjoyed: Some fans admitted news of the reunion had left them sobbing uncontrollably. Others claimed they were willing to go the distance to see the band in the UK and were preparing to book flights One fan tweeted: 'Spice Girls are announced a reunion tour..without Victoria Beckham...well it isnt much of a reunion tour now is it?' Another disappointed follower wrote: 'Im a Celeb with no Ant, Spice Girls Reunion with no Victoria..like havin me Xmas dinner with no pigs in blankets. Disgrace,' while a further concurred: 'The spice girls are touring next year but Victoria isn't doing it so what's the point.' 'I love that @victoriabeckham isn't joining up again. But is still gonna make money from it! #girlpower #friendshipneverends,' tweeted one fan. Not the same without Posh! Others lamented Victoria Beckham's failure to appear, while some took comfort in recent reports she will still receive a payout from the tour because she owns an equal stake in the band When five become four: (L-R) Geri Horner, Mel C, Emma Bunton and Mel B have finally announced that they're reuniting for a six-date UK tour next summer. But they'll be hitting the road without their bandmate Victoria Beckham 'Victoria Beckham not bothering with that spice girls reunion tour but still getting 1/5 of the money it takes in cus of contracts she signed 25 years ago is absolutely glorious s**thousery,' another mocked. Other unimpressed Twitter users were quick to mock the band's decision to announce their reunion via a fake broadcasting clip that saw them pretend to squabble over outfit choices, with one writing: 'That Spice Girls announcement video just made me cringe my own skeleton into dust.' However, there were those who went wild over the announcement, even claiming the news sent them so over the edge they burst into tears. Many international fans also insisted they wouldn't be bound by borders and were planning to book their plane tickets to watch the band on their UK tour. One wrote: 'I CANT DEAL WITH MY LIFE RIGHT NOW! MY 12 YEAR OLD SELF IS CRYING. @spicegirls DEFINITELY FLYING OVER THE POND TO SEE MY FAVORITE GIRL BAND OF ALL TIME. #SpiceGirls #SpiceTour.' Another enthused: 'IM CRYING AT SCHOOL BC OF THE @SPICEGIRLS THANK GOOD NO ONE IS AROUND.' Others gushed: 'I am literally for real crying SPICE GIRLS COMEBACK TOUR OMFG,' and, 'I can't even lie, I have been sat at my desk crying at the @spicegirls announcement for the last 40 minutes... I am ready.' Ouch! Many fans questioned the group's motive to reform, with some claiming it was because their funds have dried up over the years Priyanka Chopra donned yet another dramatic bridal look on Sunday night as she and her 10 gal pals continued her bachelorette festivities in Holland. The Indian 36-year-old posted outside the W Amsterdam (which boasts a heated rooftop pool) in a white feathered Georges Chakra creation beneath a matching BOSS faux fur coat for warmth. The Google Pixel 3 spokesmodel - who relies on stylist Mimi Cuttrell - could barely sit down in the ultra-short, long-sleeved embellished mini-dress but it was breathtaking. Here comes the bride! Priyanka Chopra (M) donned yet another dramatic bridal look on Sunday night as she and her 10 gal pals continued her bachelorette festivities in Holland 'Featherweight champion of the world!' The Indian 36-year-old posted outside the W Amsterdam in a white feathered Georges Chakra creation beneath a BOSS faux fur coat Priyanka's future sister-in-law Sophie Turner - who's engaged to Joe Jonas - shared an Insta-story of her whipping around the gown's gossamer ostrich feather train. Chopra completed her over-the-top attire with white Christian Louboutin pumps, which made it more difficult to walk on the cobble stones. Armie Hammer's wife Elizabeth Chambers later Insta-storied a cute clip of the Bollywood beauty pounding back tequila as well as late-night pasta. The former Miss World 2000 also partied with her cousin Parineeti Chopra as well as gal pals Dana Supnick-Guidoni, Isha Ambani, Tamanna Dutt, Chanchal Dsouza, and Natasha Pal. Breathtaking: The Google Pixel 3 spokesmodel - who relies on stylist Mimi Cuttrell - could barely sit down in the ultra-short, long-sleeved embellished mini-dress 'Bride goals': Priyanka's future sister-in-law Sophie Turner - who's engaged to Joe Jonas - shared an Insta-story of her whipping around the gown's gossamer ostrich feather train Red sole: Chopra completed her over-the-top attire with white Christian Louboutin pumps, which made it more difficult to walk on the cobble stones 'Our bachelorette, a big fan of tequila!' Armie Hammer's wife Elizabeth Chambers later Insta-storied a cute clip of the Bollywood beauty pounding back tequila as well as late-night pasta Priyanka - who boasts 91M social media followers - gushed of her bachelorette bash on Instagram: 'Red, white and Bride!' It's only been a week since Chopra was feted by some of the same exact friends during her ostentatious bachelorette party at Tiffany & Co. Blue Box Cafe on posh Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The Bumble app investor was last pictured with her fiance Nick Jonas on October 29 when they caught a preview of Kerry Washington's Broadway play American Son at the Booth Theatre in New York. 'This is such a wonderful new step in my life and I'm still getting used to it because it's obviously been a whirlwind and I haven't seen myself happier,' the A Kid Like Jake actress told ET last week. Ladies night: The former Miss World 2000 also partied with her cousin Parineeti Chopra (L) as well as gal pals Dana Supnick-Guidoni, Isha Ambani, Tamanna Dutt, Chanchal Dsouza, and Natasha Pal Priyanka - who boasts 91M social media followers - gushed of her bachelorette bash on Instagram: 'Red, white and Bride!' 'Bridal shower that broke all the rules': It's only been a week since Chopra was feted by some of the same exact friends during her ostentatious bachelorette party at Tiffany & Co. Blue Box Cafe on posh Fifth Avenue in Manhattan 'Just being in the whole situation of finding somebody who can be a partner to you in so many more ways than one is amazing, so yes I'm very excited!' Priyanka and the 26-year-old Golden Globe nominee - who first canoodled at the Met Gala in May - made their July 18 engagement official with a traditional Punjabi Roka ceremony in Mumbai on August 18. The globetrotting couple's whirlwind romance came as a surprise to Jonas fans - who've watched him love and leave famous exes like Lily Collins, Kate Hudson, Olivia Culpo, Selena Gomez, and Miley Cyrus. 'So happy for you both!' The Bumble app investor was last pictured with her fiance Nick Jonas on October 29 when they caught a preview of Kerry Washington's (R) Broadway play American Son at the Booth Theatre in New York Dakota Fanning stepped out on the set of her new film Sweetness In The Belly on Monday, where she is set to portray a white Muslim woman raised in Africa. And the actress, 24, was seen getting into character on set for the first time, as she wore a hijab and full female Muslim dress to transform into the character. The Ocean's 8 star was hard at work with the cast and crew on location in Dublin, Ireland, which was designed to double up as a concrete council estate in London during the 1970s. Action! Dakota Fanning got to work on set of Sweetness In The Belly in Dublin on Monday, as she stepped out in full female Muslim dress to immerse herself into her character Dakota's ensemble consisted of a royal blue hijab, a striped Jilbab, a blue and grey shawl, and a pair of brown ballerina shoes. The actress looked downcast as she filmed while walking through the streets of the city, where she interacted with members of the cast, including Wunmi Mosaka. Before filming began, Dakota kept off the Autumnal chill by wearing a pair of grey UGG Boots, and she was seen giving them to an assistant in between takes. Getting into character: Dakota's ensemble consisted of a royal blue hijab, a striped Jilbab, a blue and grey shawl New role: She is set to portray a white Muslim woman raised in Africa in the film, and the set was designed to double up as a concrete council estate in London during the 1970s Cold: Dakota kept off the Autumnal chill by wearing a pair of grey UGG Boots, and she gave them to an assistant before filming began as she changed into brown ballerina shoes Busy: Dakota interacted with her co-stars whilst filming including Wunmi Mosaka (pictured) Based on the novel by Camilla Gibb, the drama follows the life of Lily (played by Dakota) from childhood to her late 20s. Her early childhood is spent travelling with her Anglo-Irish hippie parents across Europe, they relocate to Morocco where eight-year-old Lilly spends her time outside while her parents get high. One day the couple are tragically murdered, and Lilly is taken in by an Englishman, and Islamic convert, Mohammed Bruce, who helps raise her at a Sufi shrine in the city, where she is taught by spiritual guide Great Abdal. When she is 16, Lilly decides to go on a spiritual journey across Africa to Ethiopia, where she earns her room and board by teaching the Qur'an to children. Inspiration: Based on the novel by Camilla Gibb, the drama follows the life of Lily (played by Dakota) from childhood to her late 20s Immigrant: Lilly's early childhood is spent travelling with her Anglo-Irish hippie parents across Europe, before they relocate to Morocco when she is eight Adopted: One day the couple are tragically murdered, and Lilly is taken in by an Englishman, and Islamic convert, Mohammed Bruce Even though she spends many years there, Lilly still feels like an outsider until she meets local doctor Aziz, who feels the same as she does, and soon they fall in love. When the story finds Lilly ten years later she remains in exile in Britain, where she lives with an Ethiopian friend named Amina (Wunmi) and other immigrants. Working as a nurse and refugee worker, she holds out hope that she will see Aziz again some day, and remains fiercely loyal to him despite having no news. It is during this time that Lilly struggles with her cultural identity and place in the world, as she tries to understand who she is, and where she belongs. Different time: When the story finds Lilly ten years later she remains in exile in Britain, where she lives with an Ethiopian friend named Amina (Wunmi) Converting to Islam: He helps raise her at a Sufi shrine in the city, where she is taught by spiritual guide Great Abdal Finding herself: When she is 16, Lilly decides to go on a spiritual journey across Africa to Ethiopia, where she earns her room and board by teaching the Qur'an to children Variety reported that filming is set to continue in Ireland before the cast and crew move on to shooting scenes in Ethiopia. The film will also star Kunal Nayyar (The Big Bang Theory) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman). It is directed by Zeresenay Mehari, and has been adapted from the novel by Laura Phillips, and has yet to be given a release date. Finding love: Even though she spends many years there, Lilly still feels like an outsider until she meets local doctor Aziz, who feels the same as she does, and soon they fall in love It's five years since Fast & Furious star Paul Walker died in a fiery car crash in November 2013. His daughter Meadow turned 20 on Sunday and she marked the occasion by posting a snap of someone holding a slice of chocolate cake complete with a 'two' candle and a 'zero' candle on her Instagram Stories. Now a model, the red-head had only just got to know her dad properly at the time of his death. Time to celebrate: Paul Walker's daughter Meadow turned 20-years-old this weekend; here she is seen in an Instagram photo from 2017 Goodbye to her teens: A friend presented her with a slice of cake that had a 2 and a 0 candle on top to mark turning 20 Father and daughter time: Meadow shared this snap of herself with her dad on Facebook. She moved from Hawaii to Paul's home in Santa Barbara just a year earlier A year earlier she had moved from Hawaii, where she was raised by her mother Rebecca Soteros, to Paul's home in Santa Barbara, Ca. His family talked about their relationship ahead of a documentary about his life, I Am Paul Walker, released on August 11. 'He loved being a dad. He was so proud of her,' his brother Cody, 30, said at the time. The morning of his death, November 30, 2013, Paul and Meadow had gone out to breakfast and later planned to buy and decorate a Christmas tree. Suited up: Paul looked dapper at the London premiere of Fast & Furious 6 in 2013. He died in a fiery car crash six months later, age 40 But after leaving a fundraiser for his charity Reach Out Worldwide, the actor went for a ride in a red Carrera GT Porsche driven by his friend Roger Rodas. It crashed and exploded in a fiery inferno, killing them both. He was 40 years old. Meadow launched the Paul Walker Foundation in his name two years later. Blue-eyed baby: Meadow looked adorable in this throwback snap with Paul 'I found myself reflecting on his passions,' she wrote on Instagram . 'His passion for the ocean, his passion for rescuing animals, his passion for helping people and his passion for spontaneous goodwill. 'I wanted to start this foundation because I want to share that piece of him with the world. I want to share that part of him with others.' Meadow reached a settlement against Porsche in a wrongful death suit in 2017. She gave birth just nine months ago. But Behati Prinsloo looked more than ready to hit the catwalk when she was seen heading off from Victoria's Secret Fashion Show fittings in New York on Monday. The South African stunner, 30, showed off her statuesque figure in a pair of skin tight vinyl pants. Fit as a fiddle: Behati Prinsloo stepped out in vinyl pants while visiting Victoria's Secret headquarters for a fitting on Monday morning Flashing a hit of belly, Behati paired her pants with a tank top styled like the front of a Chinese take-out box. The wife of Adam Levine tucked her trousers into Doc Marten boots for some edge but made it clear she was full fashionista as she clutched onto a Dior saddlebag. An off-white Prada jacket was meant to guard her from the AM drizzle, but instead was slung off her shoulder for a stylish, albeit impractical effect. The look was rounded out with necklaces of various lengths, some sweeping down towards her navel, another charm clinging close to her neck. Enjoy! Flashing a hit of belly, Behati paired her pants with a tank top styled like the front of a Chinese take-out box Just what the Dr. ordered! The wife of Adam Levine tucked her trousers into Doc Marten boots for some edge but made it clear she was full fashionista as she clutched onto a Dior saddlebag Not needing any makeup, Behati kept a fresh face. She styled her smooth blonde locks straight. Right outside the Victoria's Secret HQ, she was happy to pose by the VS sign welcoming visitors. Later on she shared a sneak peek on her lingerie look on Instagram. I came, I saw... Right outside the Victoria's Secret HQ, she was happy to pose by the VS sign welcoming visitors Peek-a-boo! Later on she shared a sneak peek on her lingerie look on Instagram Behati is a bona fide VS veteran, having walked nine runway shows for the lingerie brand since 2007. She had the honor opening the VIP fashion affair twice, one time in 2014 and again in 2015. This year's NYC show marks the beauty's first return to the VS runway since giving birth to her two children. The model welcomed daughter Dusty Rose in 2016 and then daughter Gio Grace in 2018. They're currently back in Barbados, the place they tied the knot two years ago, enjoying an idyllic romantic holiday. And Zoe Salmon and her husband William Corrie looked to be thrilled to be back on the sun-soaked isle on Monday, as they stepped out by the pool for a day or R'n'R. The former Blue Peter presenter, 38, showed off her impressively toned physique in her eye-catching red two-piece, which she covered with a flowing sarong of the same colour. Lady in red: Former Blue Peter presenter Zoe Salmon looked stunning in a red bikini and matching sarong as she enjoyed her romantic break in Barbados with hunky husband William Corrie on Monday Looking good: The former Blue Peter presenter showed off her impressively toned frame in her skimpy red bikini The Northern-Irish star was seen laughing with her other half, as she clutched on to her wrap, giving a saucy flash of cleavage as she settled on a sun lounger Zoe whipped her golden locks atop her head in a loose bun and added a paor of retro sunglasses to the ensemble, in a matching red to her swimwear. The presenter let her clear and glowing complexion take centre stage as she soaked up the Caribbean sunshine. Gorgeous: The Northern Irish star strolled along the sand in the eye-catching ensemble Good times: Laughing and joking, the pair looked as happy as ever Natural beauty: The presenter let her clear and glowing complexion take centre stage as she soaked up the Caribbean sunshine Hubby William wore a white tee and blue boardshorts, opting to cover up his muscular torso. He too added shades to the look as he accompanied his wife to the beach after their stroll by the pool. The pair are known to be fans of the holiday hot spot, after eloping to the island to get hitched two years ago. The couple were together for five years before tying the knot, after meeting at a friend's wedding in Castle Leslie, County Monaghan - where Sir Paul McCartney famously married Heather Mills in 2002. Chic: She shielded her eyes with retro red sunglasses Beach style: Will, meanwhile, displayed his muscular legs in bright blue and white patterned swim shorts Sun-kissed: The pair are known to be fans of the holiday hot spot, after eloping to the island to get hitched two years ago Happily ever after: The couple were together for five years before tying the knot, after meeting at a friend's wedding in Castle Leslie, County Monaghan - where Sir Paul McCartney famously married Heather Mills in 2002 Zoe's romance with William comes after she dated another fellow Northern Irish man - former Hollyoaks actor Gerard McCarthy. The pair split in 2009 after 18 months, with Gerard declaring 'there's plenty more Salmon in the sea' following the end of their romance. The blonde started her career when she won Miss Northern Ireland in 1999, before turning her attention to presenting. She co-hosted iconic children's show Blue Peter to 2004 until 2008, and went on to appear as a contestant on Dancing On Ice in 2009. Melissa Gorga has escaped the chill of autumn in New Jersey by taking a trip to Jamaica. And on Monday the 39-year-old TV star shared several images to social media where she seemed to be having a ball on the island. 'Jamaican Me CRAZY... @iberostar,' the Real Housewives Of New Jersey star wrote in her caption. Time for a two piece: Melissa Gorga has escaped the chill of autumn in New Jersey by taking a trip to Jamaica with her pals Fun in the sun: And on Monday the 39-year-old TV star shared several images to social media where she seemed to be having a ball on the island She had on a black string bikini with gold bracelets on her arm and a red headband. Gorga was in the shore letting the water come up to her ankles. In another image she revealed she was helping a friend celebrate her birthday: 'The Marcos are cray cray Its momma dukes bday! Me & my sistas are giving her a 70th to remember! .' And in a video she was seen cuddling up to her husband of 14 years, Joe Gorga. The star has three kids with Joe Gorga. The children are Antonia, Gino, and Joey. A new face: Here the star posed with a man by the swimming pool bar Her boo: And in a video she was seen cuddling up to her husband of 14 years, Joe Gorga Her posse: Here she was with her pals and added the caption, 'The Marcos are cray cray Its momma dukes bday! Me & my sistas are giving her a 70th to remember!' They all live in Montville, New Jersey. Not seen was Teresa who is reeling from the news that her husband Joe Giudice will be deported to Italy once his three year prison sentence is served. She has vowed to fight the deportation. Her clan: The star has three kids with Teresa Giudice's brother Joe Gorga, her husband since 2004. The children are Antonia, Gino, and Joey Teresa and Melissa used to be foes as they bickered over the attention they received from Joe Gorga. But after Teresa suffered a crisis when she was sent to jail for fraud, she became closer to her family. And Melissa seemed to show a tremendous amount of support as she helped with Teresa's four children. They've enjoyed several getaway in French Polynesia in the past. And it seems former Biggest Loser trainers Michelle Bridges, 48, and Steve 'Commando' Willis, 42, just can't keep away from the idyllic destination. The pair are currently spending some quality time together in Bora Bora with their son Axel, two,, staying at a $3,000-a-night Conrad Bora Bora Nui resort. Lucky them! Michelle Bridges and her family are currently enjoying a working holiday in Bora Bora Bora Bora babies! Michelle, 48, took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a sweet picture of Commando and Axel swimming in their villa's private infinity pool, which looks over a private beach Michelle, 48, took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a sweet picture of Commando and Axel swimming in their villa's private infinity pool, which looks over a private beach. Their king beach pool villa starts from a whopping $3,000 AU a night and has lagoon views. Not too shabby! The couple's king beach pool villa starts from a whopping $3,000 AU a night and has lagoon views Luxe: The 124 square metre room also features a large bathroom with a separate bath tub It's gorgeous! The pair are currently spending some quality time together with their son Axel, two, in Bora Bora, staying at a $3,000-a-night resort, the Conrad Bora Bora Nui The 124 square metre room also features a large bathroom with a separate bath tub. Guests staying at the resort can enjoy overwater luxury villas and fine dining with tropical views. Michelle and Steve are there for work and pleasure - enjoying some downtime before conducting a fitness camp. 'Smoke and mirrors': Michelle told her followers that it's important they remember that what they see on Instagram is only the highlights Michelle told her followers that it's important they remember that what they see on Instagram is only the highlights. 'Next stop here...Tahiti! But really I want to be honest. Cause I feel the Instagram "smoke and mirrors" is soooo (sic) much BS! (sic),' she began the post. She went on to describe their trip as an 'epic work adventure.' 'Time and love has been spent to make this adventure come to life! So please! Enjoy the pics (sic) to come. But I really want to say unlike many other posts you see, there is work and grind - which brings pleasure! All of which we are happy to do cause we just love empowering people. 'And we want to show you that! Not to make anyone feel inadequate, (which is sometimes how I feel when I look at Instagram) but more to show you what possible for all.' She's been focusing on developping her swimwear brand in recent years. And Kimberley Garner was taking a break from her business duties to attend The Floral Ball 2018 in aid of The Sheba Medical Centre at One Marylebone, London on Monday evening. The model, 28, opted for elegance in a dramatic black gown with a plunging neckline. Elegant: Kimberley Garner was taking a break from her business duties to attend The Floral Ball 2018 in aid of The Sheba Medical Centre at One Marylebone, London on Monday evening Kimberley looked incredible in the gauzy number, which boasted a voluminous skirt and a nipped in waist. The former Made In Chelsea star sported heavy make-up including a smoky eye and a shimmery lip for the occasion. The blonde beauty wore her hair down loose and kept her accessories to a minimum, letting her dress do all the talking. Beauty: The former Made In Chelsea star sported heavy make-up including a smoky eye and a shimmery lip for the occasion Chic: Kimberley looked incredible in the gauzy number, which boasted a voluminous skirt and a nipped in waist Glamorous as ever: The blonde beauty wore her hair down loose and kept her accessories to a minimum, letting her dress do all the talking Red hot: Presenter Zoe Hardman was also partying the night away at the event Kimberley recently chatted to MailOnline about becoming a female entrepreneur, revealing that her focus in on her swimwear brand and property development. She also revealed that after landing her first Hollywood role last year, she won't rule out another appearance on the big screen. 'Last year I had a breakup and got offered a part in the film, so I took it and went off the LA, and it was the first time I actually did any acting,' she explained. Floral fancy: Tonia Buxton was looking lovely in 50s inspired floral frock Bridal chic: Laura Pradelska attended in a stunning bridal inspired white dress Beautiful in blue: Lara Fraser (left) and Olivia Cox (right) were hard to miss as they arrived 'I want to focus really on my company and running the business, that's my passion but if stuff comes up along the way then obviously I'd love to do it. 'I was in Made in Chelsea eight years ago, but since then I've done my company which I loved. 'I also bought a property and did it up myself, I bought it, developed it, put it back on the market for twice what I bought it for. I'm really interested in business and being a young female entrepreneur.' Beaming: Zoe was looking stylish in her ribbon embellished frock with gold polka dot detailing Sombre style: Lady Colin Campbell (left) and Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini (right) were dressed to impress Think pink: Former Top Model contestant Victoria Clay donned silky fuchsia co-ords Gwyneth Paltrow voted one day early for the midterm elections. And the 46-year-old Oscar winner took to Instagram on Monday to share the news with her 4.8m followers. 'Its a right not to be taken for granted so I did it a day early and Im gonna rock this sticker all day. #votevotevote,' said the Iron Man actress. Proud American: Gwyneth Paltrow voted one day early for the midterm elections. And the 46-year-old Oscar winner took to Instagram on Monday to share the news with her 4.8m followers Patrow was seen in close up as she wore light makeup and had her hair down in loose curls. The looker was in a blue outfit and seemed to be next to an RV in a parking lot. The ex of Brad Pitt and Chris Martin is currently shooting The Politician, a TV series centering on a wealthy young man from Santa Barbara with political aspirations. Also on the show are Ben Platt, Barbra Streisand,, Lucy Boynton, Zoey Deutch, Laura Dreyfuss; the director is Ryan Murphy of Glee fame. Fresh togs: Last week Paltrow also shared a photo of her new line of clothing. 'Brand new drop of G. Sport today in the @goopshop,' she said while in a light pink look Last week Paltrow also shared a photo of her new line of clothing. 'Brand new drop of G. Sport today in the @goopshop,' she said while in a light pink look. In late September her life changed drastically when she tied the knot with second husband Brad Falcuk, 47. The actress shared on Goop the first photo of her nuptials, which took place at their home in The Hamptons on September 29. Showing Gwyneth in her beautiful backless cap-sleeved lace Valentino couture dress with a fitted bodice, the picture was of the newlyweds, as they were showered in confetti after the ceremony. DailyMailTV was the first to report that Gwyneth wore Valentino for her big day. Newlyweds: The blonde beauty shared her first picture of her wedding to Brad Falchuk last week; she wore Valentino A dotted cathedral length veil cascaded down Gwyneth's back, while her blonde hair was worn in soft beachy waves. Her daughter Apple and stepdaughter Isabella wore simple floor-length white Monique Lhuillier gowns, while the groom and groomsmen - her son Moses and stepson Brody - wore Tom Ford suits. Sharing the image to Instagram, Gwyneth wrote: 'Took me a minute to get it together, but at long last, for those who have requested, a little look inside the best day of our lives.' Revealing a further 46 pictures of her big day to her lifestyle magazine Goop, Gwyneth talked fans through her nuptials, which took place in front of just 70 carefully chosen guests. The party started the night before with a rehearsal dinner, held alfresco on wooden tables, set family style, under a canopy of bistro lights. The carefully curated theme was 'wild', with the bare tables carrying extravagant floral displays using figs, blackberries and plums, created by Michael and Darroch Putnam of Putnam & Putnam. The guests dined on Dungeness crab and avocado, followed by scampi, then a main course of prime rib or honey mustard duckling with fall vegetables. They finished the meal with a choice of either carrot cake (Gwyneth's choice) or chocolate and vanilla cake (Brad's preference). The small guest list was compiled of school friends of both the bride and groom, a select few celebrity chums and family, including Gwyneth's actress mother Blythe Danner, and the couple's four children. Gwyneth's long-term BFF Cameron Diaz, her husband Benji Madden, Jerry Seinfeld, Rob Lowe and Gwyneth's Avengers co-star Robert Downey Jr all made the cut. Indeed in one image Gwyneth, wrapped warmly in a woolen shawl, is seen laughing in delighted surprise as Downey toasts the couple during his speech, the smiling guests drinking glasses of Ruinart rose champagne. She's taken a note from the Kardashian sister's playbook by dating one of their exes. And now Sofia Richie seems to be coveting their famous curves as well as she posted a revealing snap viaInstagram on Monday. The 20-year-old beau of Scott Disick - former flame of Kourtney - looked more full figured in a grey bodysuit than in recent bikini snaps. Looking peachy: Sofia Richie posted a revealing snap via Instagram where she seems more pert than usual on Monday Past pert: Her rear end seemed to have slightly less plumpness to it back in 2016 Daring to impress, the daughter of Lionel Richie rocked the formfitting ensemble that accentuated her extremely pert derriere. Compared to the photos showcasing her rear in skimpy bathing suit bottoms, Sofia seems to have filled out quite a bit these past few months. When Sofia and Scott first began dating, rumors spread she was trying to replicate the style of his ex, Kourtney Kardashian. Slide me New curves? The 20-year-old looked more full figured in the grey bodysuit than in a bikini snaps from 2016 Sofia quickly went from a platinum blonde to a deep chestnut brown, much akin to the eldest of the Kardashian klan's hair hue. And around her birthday in August, rumors swirled she may have treated herself to a breast augmentation. 'It definitely does look like Sofia Richie had a breast augmentation based on her latest photos, compared with those from her past,' Dr. Daniel Barrett, a board-certified plastic surgeon, told Hollywood Life. Kopy kat? When Sofia and Scott first began dating, rumors spread she was trying to replicate the style of his ex, Kourtney Kardashian, including dying her hair darker 'She has very likely undergone a breast augmentation and with what looks like a rounded silicone implant. Her upper projection and cleavage is a dead giveaway.' Meanwhile, Sofia and Scott spent a whirlwind weekend in Australia to celebrate Derby Day. Upon arriving in Melbourne on Saturday, Sofia looked as if she'd rather be anywhere else than the Australian Turf Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race. Feeling down? Sofia looked stony-faced as she arrived at Derby Day in Melbourne alongside boyfriend Scott Disick on Saturday The model appeared sullen as she made her way into the Ultra Australia marquee at Flemington Racecourse. However, her downcast mood was seemingly short-lived, with the beauty later seen cracking a smile while mingling with fellow racegoers. It's the happy couple's first trip to Australia together. Twist and pout! Sofia kept a sullen face at the annual celebration Back in September, Sofia opened up about her relationship with Scott in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald. 'We are very happy, very lovey dovey,' she told the newspaper. 'We are best friends and that is mainly the strongest connection we have. We have always had that best friend connection and from there it has really worked out. I am so happy.' She recently joined her castmates to promote the movie at the San Sebastian Film Festival. And Juliette Binoche was in her element as she attended the Paris premiere of her new film The High Life on Monday night. The 54-year-old actress looked incredible in a simple black shirt and a pair of eye-cathing green trousers. Peace out! Juliette Binoche was in her element as she attended the Paris premiere of her new film The High Life on Monday night Juliette was the picture of elegance in her button-down shirt with a silk trim and her high-waisted garment. The French star added a quirky, tomboy twist to her look thanks to a pair of chunky black ankle boots. The talented actress wore her brunette locks down in loose waves and set off her age-defying features with rosy blusher. Chic: Juliette was the picture of elegance in her button-down shirt with a silk trim and her high-waisted garment Edgy: The French star added a quirky, tomboy twist to her look thanks to a pair of chunky black ankle boots Joking around: Juliette proved she doesn't take herself too seriously as she goofed around In attendance: Ethan Hawke was also putting in an appearance at the film premiere Juliette was last seen attending the premiere of High Life at the 66th San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain alongside her co-stars Mia Goth and Robert Pattinson. Pattinson appeared to be in good spirits while posing for photos alongside his co-stars Juliette and Scarlett Lindsay. He crouched down to lift young Lindsey off her feet, before continuing to converse with Binoche. Premiere: Juliette was last seen attending the premiere of High Life at the 66th San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, alongside her co-stars Mia Goth and Robert Pattinson Robert revealed how much he'd been wanting to work with his High Life director Claire Denis. According to Deadline, the collaboration between the two only came about because the English actor took it in his own hands to get in contact with the influential French filmmaker. 'I'd been pursuing Claire for ages,' Pattinson admitted. 'We met in LA, and I just really liked her in the meeting. [But] it was just one of those really long processesI think it was four years later or something when we did the movie, and it's probably been an eight-year process [in all].' Today's Birthday, November 4: Disgraced former archbishop of Boston Cardinal Bernard Law (1931 - 2017) He resigned as Archbishop of Boston after covering up years of sexual abuse of children by priests, but Cardinal Bernard Law died as the archpriest of an important Rome basilica and was buried without reference to his downfall. Born on November 4 1931 in Torreon, Mexico, Law was the son of an Air Force colonel and grew up in military bases in the US and Latin America. He graduated from Harvard University and was ordained as a priest in 1961 for the Natchez-Jackson diocese in Mississippi, which at the time was the poorest diocese in America. There he championed civil rights in the then-segregated south as the editor of the diocese's newspaper, receiving death threats for his efforts. But Law is not well-remembered for his work fighting for civil rights but instead for the dark shadow of child abuse that fell over Boston during his time leading the clergy there. Law was appointed as the Archbishop of Boston on January 11 1984 by the then Pope John Paul II and became one of America's most influential churchmen. At the time Boston was one of the most prestigious and wealthy archdioceses in the country but a succession of devastating stories by the Boston Globe's Spotlight team in 2002 blew the lid on the moving of priests who sexually abused children from parish to parish for years under Law's tenure. This was done without informing parishioners or law authorities of the dangers the priests presented to children. The Pope reluctantly accepted Law's resignation in the wake of the stories, but the situation in Boston proved to be only the tip of the iceberg of abuse and cover-up within the church - with thousands of other stories uncovered in the wake of the story. Six months after his resignation, the Massachusetts attorney general's office announced Law and others would not face criminal charges for their actions. After a period spent in a US monastery, Law moved to Rome and in 2004 was appointed as archpriest of the city's Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The basilica is one of Christianity's four major basilicas. While the post was just symbolic and ceremonial and was a fall from grace, Law kept his rank as a cardinal and participated in the conclave that elected Pope Benedict in 2005. Law died in Rome in 2017 after a period of declining health. Firefighters are bracing for more hot and windy conditions with total fire bans in place across parts of NSW. While temperatures aren't forecast to be as high as they were on Friday and Saturday, the mercury is set to climb towards 40C in parts of northern NSW on Sunday. Far northwestern Tibooburra and Warialda in the Northwest Slopes region are tipped to reach 39C. Total fire bans are in place for the North Western, Northern Slopes and New England regions with very high danger warnings for the Monaro, Illawarra and Southern Ranges. While rain is forecast for the state's far west, firefighters are bracing for very dry and windy conditions for northern parts of NSW, Rural Fire Service spokesman Greg Allan told AAP. As the November 24 state poll draws closer, major and minor parties are ramping up efforts to lure voters. Premier Daniel Andrews has recently taken a regional focus while the Opposition's Matthew Guy has been in Melbourne's outer suburbs. North of Melbourne in Kyneton on Saturday, Mr Andrews announced a $10 million grant for small agribusiness while on Friday he went to towns outside Geelong and Ballarat and promised motorsport and scout hall upgrades. Mr Guy pledged $10 million for a regional sporting precinct at Kingston Green Wedge, south of Melbourne, and the day before was in Pakenham pledging the removal of three level crossings and a train station rebuild. The Greens, by contrast, have their sights on inner Melbourne. They hope to retain the lower house seats of Melbourne, Prahran and Northcote and are hoping to gain Richmond and Brunswick. If they succeed, they could hold the balance of power. Former party leader Bob Brown joined Greens Prahran MP Sam Hibbins in Toorak on Saturday to encourage his campaign team who were doorknocking all day. Hibbins won the seat in 2014 on the state's slimmest margin of 0.4 per cent and believes this election will be just as close. Derryn Hinch's Justice Party is in full swing after launching its Victorian campaign in Geelong on Saturday. The party has candidates in every upper house seat and six lower house seats - Cranbourne, Mordialloc, Carrum, Bentleigh, Frankston and Rippon. Detectives are questioning a man after a Queensland woman was found dead in the car park of a Fraser Coast motel. Emergency services were called to the Maryborough City Motel about 5am Saturday following reports of a disturbance. They discovered the 58-year-old's body outside the motel, with a crime scene quickly established and forensic officers beginning investigations into how the woman died. Acting Detective Inspector Wade Lee said initial inquiries suggested the woman knew her assailant. Det Insp Lee did not confirm how the woman had died but said the investigation was "moving very quickly". A 22-year-old man was at Maryborough Police Station on Saturday night helping officers with their inquiries after his arrest at a Maryborough residence, Queensland Police said. Police have appealed to the public for information, in particular anyone travelling in the area shortly before 5am on Saturday who heard or saw anything suspicious. Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox is due to arrive in Melbourne on a flight from Manila. The 72-year-old has been in the Philippines for 27 years but is flying into Australia after having had her passport confiscated. Her forced return comes after the nation's hard-line president, Rodrigo Duterte, accused her of meddling in internal politics through involvement in human rights campaigns. Since April, Sister Fox has resisted attempts by immigration officials to be rid of her. But her missionary visa expired while various appeals were still being pursued and she was given a temporary tourist visa that expires on November 3. South Australia need their bowlers to tip the scales back in their favour after Victorian quick Scott Boland had given the Bushrangers the upper hand in their Sheffield Shield clash at the MCG. A Tom Cooper century helped the Redbacks to 4-231 at tea on Saturday's opening day, but they lost 6-13 in a stunning collapse after the resumption to be all out for 244. Boland did the damage, taking 5-8 in four overs after tea to finish with 7-54 off 17 overs. The Vics cruised to 0-72 at stumps, with Travis Dean making a quick-fire 56 and Marcus Harris more circumspect on 16. "Looking at the score, we are a bit (under pressure) but I don't think we're too far off," Cooper told AAP. "The Vics were probably saying the same thing at tea time. "I think there's still a little bit in the wicket but we bowled reasonably well without any luck. "So if we can come out in the morning and someone has a Scotty Boland-type spell, then we'll be right back in it." In an inspired spell, Boland removed danger man Cooper for 118, after dropping him at mid-on when he was on 80, then terrorised the SA tail. The performance rocketed Boland to the top of the Shield leading wicket-takers' list with 22 from five innings. "We're in a pretty good position now ... at 4-231, it could have gone either way but we pulled our fingers out after the tea break," Boland said. "Our openers have got us in a good position going into day two. "I think if we can hold them out in the first hour, it will go a long way to putting us in a position to win this game." The 29-year-old is making a strong case for a return to the national set-up after playing the last of his 14 ODI games in green and gold in 2016 in South Africa. "I feel like the ball's coming out really well," he said. "I think everyone has ambitions to play for Australia at any point in their career. If it happens, it happens. "But there's so many good quicks in front of me, so I'm not holding my breath. "If I keep taking wickets and we keep winning games, then I'll be happy." First day honours went to Matthew Renshaw but the Queensland opener believes leg spinner Mitch Swepson will soon make his presence felt in their Sheffield Shield clash with Western Australia. Ex-Test batsman Renshaw did his best to earn a national recall with a classy 89 as Queensland reached 4-269 by stumps on day one at Allan Border Field on Saturday. Renshaw gave national selectors food for thought ahead of next month's first Test against India in Adelaide as they sweat on incumbent opener Usman Khawaja (knee). However, Renshaw believed former Australian T20 spinner Swepson was poised to make an impact after the AB Field deck developed rough patches and variable bounce late on day one for the leggie to exploit. "For Mitch Swepson, there is a bit of rough already which is good for us as a team having him in the back pocket," he said. "They (WA) bowled really well and tight, bowled aggressively. It was tough to score runs out there." Renshaw was a victim of the wicket's variable bounce, trapped in front by Matthew Kelly (1-46) with a delivery that appeared to keep low. It ended a near five hour knock that featured 11 fours and two sixes. Renshaw shared a 90-run opening stand with Joe Burns (49) and put on another 77 for the third wicket with Charlie Hemphrey (68 not out) in a not so subtle reminder to Test selectors. Renshaw missed out on selection at Australia's recent ill-fated Test series in UAE against Pakistan after a head knock in a tour match. The lanky left-hander played the last of his 11 Tests back in April. He was plucked from Queensland's Shield title victory celebrations to open the batting for Australia in South Africa in the wake of the now infamous sandpaper controversy. Renshaw - last season's top Shield run scorer - wasn't getting ahead of himself after finding form at AB Field. "I have got what I have been dealt (by national selectors) and just deal with that, not think too much about the future and concentrate on winning games for Queensland," Renshaw said. WA quick Jhye Richardson has 2-34. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to announce funding for new water infrastructure for Townsville during his four-day trip to Queensland. The federal government will provide $195 million to fund a second pipeline to the Burdekin River to ensure the town's water supply for the next 20 years, The Sunday Mail reports. The town currently gets its water from the Ross River Dam and this is supplemented during drought by water from the Burdekin River. The second pipeline has been recommended by a Townsville Water Security Taskforce. "Last time I was in Townsville to announce our investment in the port, I listened carefully to the issues being raised about Townsville's long-term water supply," Mr Morrison told the paper. "We are taking decisive action to secure Townsville's water supply for decades to come - nothing is more important for a growing city. "More water means more jobs in the short and long term." A couple has had a rude awakening when a car crashed into their southeast Melbourne home in the early hours of the morning. It's alleged the car was being driven erratically when it lost control and crashed into the Seaford home about 1.30am on Sunday. The residents, a man and the woman aged in their 30s, escaped unscathed but the house sustained extensive structural damage. The two males in the car attempted to flee but were stopped by neighbours. A 25-year-old man, alleged to be the driver of the car, suffered minor injuries and later returned a breath test reading of 0.130 per cent. He is expected to be charged on summons with drink driving offences. His 22-year-old passenger is assisting police with their inquiries. NSW Police will travel to Brazil to help local authorities build a brief of evidence against the man charged with murdering Cecilia Haddad in Sydney. The 38-year-old Brazilian national's body was found in Sydney's Lane Cove River in April. Her ex-boyfriend Mario Marcelo Santoro fled Australia in the days after her death and was later found in Rio de Janeiro and charged with her murder. Officers from the state's homicide squad on Sunday flew to Rio after finalising a mutual legal assistance request with their Brazilian counterparts. With more Victorians living in rental apartments, the pet lovers among them are beginning to question why landlords won't let them keep furry friends. Pet Insurance Australia has released a list of ideal apartment-dwelling dogs and says landlords need to "get real" about pet ownership because rental housing for pet owners is ridiculously limited. A survey by rent.com.au, which has 70,000 rental properties on its database found only 10 per cent of properties nationally were listed as "pet-friendly". And 40 per cent explicitly stated pets were not welcome. "It's time we see real change in thinking to allow more pet owners access to secure and reliable homes," Pet Insurance Australia's Nadia Crighton said. The state government estimates one in three Victorians owns a dog and acknowledges pet ownership is mentally and physically beneficial. Premier Daniel Andrews last month pledged 15 new off-leash dog parks across Melbourne, ahead of the November 24 state election. "More dog parks mean more open spaces for families and their pets to enjoy, close to home," he said. Labor says it will identify "under-utilised" parks or reserves suitable for enclosed dog parks across 12 local council areas. For those landlords nervous about letting pets into their rental property, veterinarian and director of VetShop Australia Dr Mark Perissinotto recommends good communication with renters. "We'd advise them to consider providing guidance to would-be tenants on what the property can and cannot support," he said. "It's about understanding the size of the property, its locality to parks and other areas a pet can run free - all of which can provide a better foundation for turning down Great Danes but providing the ideal environment for a French Bulldog." Top apartment dog breeds according to Pet Insurance Australia: - Bulldog - Boston Terrier - Bichon Frise - Cavalier King Charles Spaniel - Chihuahua - Dachshund - French Bulldog - Greyhound - Maltese - Poodle - Pomeranian - Pug - Shih Tzu - Silky Terrier Senior Nationals MP Darren Chester says he would like to see improved vetting of party members in the wake of an alt-right infiltration into the party. "I think better checking and vetting on our behalf, making sure that people aren't members of some of these more extremist organisations would be in order," the Veterans Affairs Minister told the ABC on Sunday. "It has been disappointing, no question it has been disappointing, but I think they've taken action very quickly, very affectively and we've seen the back of them." Almost 20 members of the NSW Nationals tendered their resignation last week amid an internal investigation into the alt-right infiltration of the party. Another group of suspects have been given a week to explain why they should remain members or will also be banned for life. Mr Chester said the risk of extremist movements penetrating Australian political organisations was something all major parties needed to be wary of. "I think there are challenges there for all political parties, in terms of there are certain individuals in the community who would seek to get involved in the political process and try to distort it from within," he said. The NSW Nationals executive on Friday passed a motion making several far-right groups incompatible with Nationals membership. Senior Nationals MP Darren Chester has urged against banning Australia's live sheep export industry after a damning review revealed disastrous failings to stop animal cruelty. Mr Chester said the industry was worth $250 million and employed 3000 people. "If there was a ban on the live export of sheep, the flow-on impacts on the market would be dramatic," he told the ABC on Sunday. "We've got to be very careful when we start talking about banning things - the impact on the economy would be quite significant." A review of the trade conducted by public sector integrity expert Philip Moss has recommended much stricter management of animal welfare. Several Liberal MPs this week called for the trade to be scrapped altogether. "I don't support their position," Mr Chester said. A new external inspector-general will oversee the Agriculture Department's regulation of live animal exports. There will also be a principal regulatory officer within the department to improve compliance and culture. The department's animal welfare branch, which was scrapped by former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce in 2013, will be reinstated. New animal welfare indicators will be developed and introduced along the supply chain. The Moss review found the skills, resources and technology for effective regulation were lacking, with concerns the department's dual roles in promoting the trade and policing it could be contradictory. Getting rid of the animal welfare branch detracted from the regulator's ability to achieve that balance. In April, footage of 2400 sheep dying on voyages to the Middle East during a shipment in August 2017 emerged, prompting Agriculture Minister David Littleproud to initiate a range of reviews. Earlier in the year, the government announced independent observers would be on each sheep vessel to the Middle East and stocking densities reduced by 28 per cent. While the government and the Agriculture Department accepted all 31 of the Moss review's recommendations, Labor is standing firm on pushing for a five-year phase out of sheep exports. Mr Littleproud called on Labor to back legislation to put harsh new penalties on dodgy live exporters, which has stalled because of an opposition amendment to phase out the trade over five years. The 1997 disappearance and suspected murder of a South Australian mother-of-two is undergoing a full case review. Gail King was last seen at Minlaton, on Yorke Peninsula. Her de facto husband told police that she left their two young children with him on July 7, 1997, and drove back to the family home in Adelaide to attend a meeting the next day. However, when he got back to their home on the following evening her car was at the property, along with the bag she took to Minlaton, but Ms King was not. A new case officer within the major crime investigation branch has been assigned to the investigation in a bid to identify new leads, information and forensic evidence. Detective Brevet Sergeant Tanya Mason said one of the crucial questions was how Ms King's car came to be at her Brahma Lodge property. "There are two likely possibilities in this case," she said. "Firstly she was killed by a close associate in the Minlaton area, with someone involved in returning the vehicle to Adelaide to stage the scene, or secondly she was killed by another person, who is most likely known to her, after returning to Adelaide," Sgt Mason said. "We are keeping an open mind to all possibilities." Sgt Mason said while Ms King's de facto husband had been interviewed and was considered a person of interest, police were also aware that Ms King had been having an affair and investigators had spoken to that person too. "Anyone with information in this case is asked not to assume what we know, or what someone else has said to us - please call and provide the information," she said. "There was nothing to suggest she didn't get home, and there was nothing to suggest she did." Ms King's black handbag, along with her purse and keys, have never been located. Sending refugees from Nauru to New Zealand would be a "giant magnet" for people smugglers, Defence Industry Minister Steven Ciobo says. The government intends to evacuate all asylum-seeker children from Nauru by the end of this year, but has resisted calls from Labor to accept New Zealand's offer to resettle some of the refugee families. "The only thing that Labor's soft approach is going to do is restart the trade of people smugglers in our region," Mr Ciobo told Sky News on Sunday. "That's going to be a giant magnet for those that want to come to our country ahead of those that are sitting, unfortunately, in UNHCR camps trying to do the right thing. "I think that would be a great injustice to those who actually are deserving to come to countries like Australia, the United States or other countries, but who can't afford to pay a people smuggler." A bull mastiff dog has mauled a Perth policeman who was trying to handcuff a knife-wielding man who tried to run officers down with his motorcycle. The man was armed with a knife and making threats when officers were called to the property in the Perth suburb of Redcliffe at 11.30am on Sunday, WA Police said. He tried to drive at police on the motorbike but officers dragged him off and were about to handcuff him when the dog attacked, latching onto the calf of the officer, WA Police said in a statement. Australian star Minjee Lee has suffered a horror front-nine collapse to plummet from the lead in the final round of the LPGA Tour's Japan Open. World No.5 Lee went into the day with a three-shot lead but carded two double bogeys and three bogeys in her first nine holes to tumble into a tie for 16th at the turn. Japan's Nasa Hataoka had picked up five shots in her first 10 holes to claim a three-shot lead from Spain's Carlota Ciganda, with Lee a distant eight shots behind her. Pamela Anderson has called on Scott Morrison to stand up for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and help bring him back to Australia. The former Baywatch star said the prime minister should lend his support to Australian-born Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for six years. She also denied rumours she was anything more than a friend of Assange, but said in an interview with Nine Network's 60 Minutes that they have a close bond which they describe as a "romantic struggle". Assange took refuge in Ecuador's embassy in 2012, after British courts ordered his extradition to Sweden to face questioning in a sexual molestation case. The case was dropped but supporters have said Assange fears he could be extradited to the United States if he leaves the embassy over the publication of US diplomatic and military secrets by WikiLeaks. In a message to Mr Morrison, Anderson said: "Defend your friend and get Julian his passport back and take him back to Australia and be proud of him and throw him a parade when he gets home." A Queensland man charged with allegedly stabbing his neighbour to death after the pair began arguing on their way home from a party is expected to front a Brisbane court. The 27-year-old was charged with murder on Sunday after he allegedly stabbed the 33-year-old Meadowbrook man in the neck as the victim got out of the car they had been travelling in. It's understood the pair had been at a party on Saturday night where a brawl reportedly broke out before the dead man offered his neighbour a lift home. The man is also facing two counts of serious assault after allegedly spitting in the faces of two female officers. He is expected to appear in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Monday. Independent Kerryn Phelps is set to be declared the winner of the Wentworth by-election after a fortnight of counting. The result will be announced by the Australian Electoral Commission on Monday morning with Dr Phelps expected to narrowly come out ahead of Liberal candidate Dave Sharma. Her win will rob the coalition of its majority government and force Prime Minister Scott Morrison to bargain with the crossbench. The high-profile GP was on 51.22 per cent of the two-candidate preferred vote, ahead of Mr Sharma by 1851 votes as of Saturday morning. Dr Phelps claimed victory on the night of the by-election on October 20 when she achieved an unprecedented swing of more than 20 per cent against the Liberal Party in the eastern Sydney seat. But that changed the day after as the margin between the two narrowed to less than 900 votes while postal votes were still being counted. Since then, electoral officials have been processing and roll checking postal votes, pre-poll declaration votes and provisional votes. Dr Phelps plans to stay on the Sydney City Council once she takes up her seat in federal parliament. But she won't say whether she will reveal the legal advice she relied on to ensure she is eligible to sit in Wentworth under section 44 of the constitution. The section of the constitution bans people from sitting in parliament if they earn money from taxpayer funds. Dr Phelps' position as a university professor, and her role as a GP receiving Medicare payments, could mean she is potentially breaching the rules. But the independent has previously told reporters she's satisfied she's not breaching section 44. Peter Handscomb's sole focus is helping Victoria win their Sheffield Shield clash with South Australia, not building his case for a Test recall. But he'll do both, regardless of his focus, if he can add to his match-turning innings when he resumes on 123 on day three at the MCG on Monday. As Australian wickets tumbled in Sunday's ODI in Perth , Handscomb notched his 14th first-class century to help the home side to 7-345 at stumps, with a 101-run first-innings lead. The match was delicately poised with the Vics at 5-193 and Handscomb on 24 shortly after lunch on Sunday. But the Victorian skipper guided his side out of danger and into a match-winning position with a determined, patient and poised knock that will surely please national selectors. Handscomb's first ton of the summer comes on the back of four half-centuries in a row in Victoria's successful one-day cup campaign. "Since the second game of the (one-day cup) I feel like my movement has been really good ... going forward and back to the right balls and being able to score relatively freely," Handscomb told AAP. "I'm comfortable and feeling good with my game. "I've made a couple of very minute tweaks and it's a bit of a mindset thing ... just going back to believing that my game is good enough. "If that (Test) opportunity does come, I'll be doing everything in my power to ensure that I stick to my game and stick to my guns and try to make as many runs as possible. "But I'm here trying to win games for Victoria, making sure the boys here are doing all the right things." Test seamer Peter Siddle (13 runs) will join Handscomb at the crease as the home side look to press home their advantage. Persistent showers are forecast for the remaining two days of the match, but Handscomb won't allow that to affect his strategy as he looks to make it three outright wins from three matches for the top-of-the-table Vics. "It's a very commanding position and we'll look to try to extend that lead as much as possible then bowl pretty well," he said. "(The pitch) looks like it's starting to play a couple of tricks ... so it's good signs for us when we come out and bowl for the second time." Prime Minister Scott Morrison is preparing to embark on a blitz of key marginal seats in Queensland, as his senior lieutenants attempt to push past the bruising Liberal leadership spill. Mr Morrison will visit the Gold Coast on Monday as he kicks off a road trip throughout the Sunshine State. He will announce federal government funding for the next stage of the Gold Coast's light rail network, News Corp reports. "Looking forward to hitting the road in Qld this week and keeping Australia on the right track," Mr Morrison posted to Twitter. The prime minister fired the stater's gun on his Queensland campaign on Sunday, announcing a multimillion dollar pipeline to secure Townsville's water supply. Success in the Sunshine State will be critical to his fortunes at the next election, which is due by May. Senior Labor MP Wayne Swan said the prime minister had a deplorable record in Queensland. "It is one of savage cuts to health, to education, of cuts to penalty rates," Mr Swan said. "Mr Morrison's visits to Queensland have been brief and far between ... Sightings of Mr Morrison in Queensland are rarer than sightings of Migaloo the white whale." The prime minister spent much of last week focusing on initiatives for veterans, announcing discount cards, jobs initiatives and a $500 million expansion of the Australian War Memorial. Virgin Airlines also announced it would offer Australian soldiers priority boarding and acknowledge their service in-flight, with other carriers under pressure to follow suit. But while Mr Morrison wanted to focus on veterans, his awkward public clash with Malcolm Turnbull proved an unwelcome distraction. The men traded barbs over Mr Turnbull's deployment to an oceans conference in Bali, after Mr Morrison accused the former prime minister of going beyond his brief by talking about trade and diplomacy. Cabinet Minister Steve Ciobo said voters did not care about Mr Turnbull being dumped as prime minister in August, but refused to say whether the government was better off under Mr Morrison. Mr Ciobo, who voted for fellow Queenslander Peter Dutton in the Liberal leadership spill, said people recognised the change of prime ministers but had moved on. "I also don't think, frankly, that Queenslanders or indeed Australians more generally care about what's happened," he told Sky News. "What the next election will be about is a clear choice between the coalition and the Australian Labor Party." Veterans' Affairs Minister Darren Chester also cautioned against focusing on festering leadership frictions within the coalition, less than six months out from the election. "We can't spend the rest of this parliamentary term looking in the rear-view mirror," he told the ABC. Victorian County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd has weighed in on debate over so-called African gangs in Melbourne, saying only a small percentage of sentences relate to Australian-African youth. The chief judge, who spoke to ABC TV's Four Corners, said the media's consistent reporting on crime committed by African youth from Melbourne's western suburbs had fuelled the public's perception on the matter. "That creates an impression that ...a very significant proportion of our work is taken up with African youths from the western suburbs of Melbourne," he told the ABC's program, which aired on Monday night. "That's a false impression." Only a "tiny" proportion of the 1600 people sentenced a year received media coverage, and the media was sure to report on offending committed by those with African heritage, the chief judge said. "If you are an African offender, and certainly if you're an African youth of South Sudanese background from the western suburbs of Melbourne, rest assured your case will be reported upon," he said. His comments follow follow a political war of words over Melbourne gang violence and its links to the Australian-African community. People born in Sudan and South Sudan make up 0.1 per cent of Victoria's total population, but the community is responsible for one per cent of crime in the state. Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was accused of stoking racism a few months ago when he said authorities should be "fair dinkum" about dealing with Sudanese gangs in Victoria. In January, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said people were scared to go out for dinner in Melbourne due to "African gang violence". The issue of crime among African youths in Victoria first came to notice in 2012 when the Apex gang emerged, but debate intensified following a breakout of violence at the Moomba festival at Melbourne in 2016. Victoria Police was given state funding for a gang task force, and hundreds of youth offenders have been arrested since early 2016. Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita has warned Europe against developing a 'fortress' mentality to immigration from Africa Morocco's foreign minister has warned Europe against developing a "fortress" mentality to immigration from Africa, while promising his country is doing everything possible to control its borders. Morocco, which nationals of many African states can visit without visas, has become a major gateway for sub-Saharan migrants into Europe, with 47,000 entering Spain from the north African coast in 2018, four times the number for the whole of last year. The main reason is changes to smuggling routes favoured by human traffickers, who have switched their operations progressively from Turkey or Libya to Morocco over the last three years. In an interview with AFP, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita urged European politicians not to stoke fears about immigration and understand the problems of the poor countries where many migrants originate, as well as transit nations like Morocco. "For as long as Europe chooses a security approach, that will favour illegal migration. If Europe turns itself into a fortress, there will be new ways of getting round the controls," he said late on Wednesday. Morocco, which nationals of many African states can visit without visas, has become a major gateway for sub-Saharan migrants into Europe, with 47,000 entering Spain from the north African coast in 2018, four times the number for the whole of last year The EU has put forward a migration strategy that includes increased development aid to tackle poverty in Africa, but anti-immigration, far-right politicians promising to seal borders are gaining ground continent-wide. Italy's new populist government, which includes figures from the far-right League party, has taken the lead in promising mass expulsions and a new hardline on arrivals. "There's no longer a cool-headed discussion to find solutions. People try to exploit the issue for gains elsewhere," Bourita said in a telephone interview. - Under pressure - Morocco has found itself under increasing pressure from its European partners, particularly Spain, to help stem the number of migrants crossing into Spanish enclaves in north Africa or crossing the Mediterranean. It has also faced criticism for either doing too little to crack down on human traffickers, or for the methods used to move sub-Saharan Africans away from its northern coast. "All the pressure shouldn't be on transit countries, that European countries say from their own comfortable positions 'you are mistreating migrants' or 'you are too slack, it's a problem'," Bourita said. "Everyone has a responsibility." The European Union agreed to an extra 55 million euros ($62 million) in funding for Moroccan and Tunisia border controls in August, while further aid is reportedly under discussion. Some analysts believe the kingdom is using its leverage with Europe behind closed doors. This could see it demand more money for security and economic development, or by using the issue in other diplomatic negotiations such as over the status of the disputed Western Sahara region, or fishing and agricultural deals with the EU. Increased arrivals from Morocco "may have been part of a Moroccan strategy to heighten the EU's awareness of its importance as a migration partner, with a similar aim of potentially increasing financial aid," analyst Chloe Teevan at the European Council on Foreign Relations wrote last month. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has openly used this strategy, warning Europe repeatedly that he would open the gates and allow millions of refugees and migrants to start crossing the Mediterranean again. The EU signed a controversial -- but effective -- deal with Turkey in 2016 tied to aid of 3 billion euros to stop the flow of migrants. It has also negotiated with Libya and Egypt, other countries with poor human rights records, with the same goal. Bourita denied that Morocco was asking for anything in return for its cooperation with the EU, saying it was acting in its own national interest and to show goodwill towards its European partners. "There is an offer from Europe to help us in our efforts and Morocco has taken note of this, but Morocco is not there to negotiate anything," he said, declining to talk about the amount of additional aid being discussed. Moroccan authorities say 54,000 attempts by migrants to cross to Europe were foiled between January and the end of August. "Things are going in the right direction," he said. "There are real results." The US Institute for Supply Management's monthly survey showed respondents in the oil, chemical goods, food and beverage, plastics and rubbers, and coal sectors all said tariffs were hurting business Growth in the crucial US manufacturing sector slowed in October to its lowest level in six months as the US-China trade war bit deeper into business, a survey showed Thursday. The ISM manufacturing index fell 2.1 percentage points to 57.7 percent, which still represents healthy growth but was also significantly below analyst forecasts. The unexpected dip in the Institute for Supply Management's monthly survey for the first time showed a contraction in business for makers of manufactured metal goods -- a sector facing higher prices due to US import tariffs -- while other businesses complained increasingly of disrupted supply chains and higher costs. Any reading above 50 percent indicates growth, and US manufacturing has now grown without interruption for more than two years. "Not bad but when you've had these levels month after month and then you have a two-point decline it says something's happening," Timothy Fiore, chairman of the ISM manufacturing survey committee, told reporters. "I'm hoping that there'll be a rebound." New orders dipped 4.4 points -- falling below 60 percent for the first time in 18 months -- production slipped by four, employment was two points lower but prices rose 4.7 points, accelerating their gains. Fiore said that, for the fifth month in a row, more than 40 percent of businesses complained of tariff-related troubles. Manufacturers are increasingly worried they will not be able to pass on rising costs to customers and as a result are making "manufacturing footprint changes" to sustain business in 2019, he added. - Tariffs a 'big problem' - The number of manufacturing industries reporting expansion fell by two to 13. Wood producers, primary metal makers, fabricated metal manufacturers which produce goods like tractors and machinery, as well as non-metallic minerals producers, all said they shrank. Survey respondents in the chemical goods, food and beverage, plastics and rubbers, oil and coal as well as miscellaneous manufacturing all said tariffs were hurting business. A respondent in plastics and rubbers said a recently concluded deal to rewrite the North American free trade pact "does nothing to help our company" because it left tariffs in place on aluminum and steel. President Donald Trump this year has imposed tariffs on about $250 billion in Chinese imports -- with duties on a $200 billion tranche due to rise to 25 percent by January 1. Trump said Thursday he had had a "very good" call with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of an expected meeting at this month's Group of 20 summit in Argentina. Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics, which was not involved in producing the survey, said the ISM report was likely to soften further in the coming months but would still be supported by recent fiscal stimulus and strong consumer demand. Slower growth outside the United States and a stronger dollar could also weigh on US exports, he added. "For the consumer, the tariffs are for the most part still an abstract idea, but for manufacturers they are real, and a big problem," he said in a note to clients. "This might just be noise, but wouldn't bet on it." Divers retrieved one of the plane's two black boxes, which could hold vital clues to the cause of the deadly accident Divers have found a piece of landing gear from a crashed Lion Air jet, Indonesian authorities said Thursday, following the discovery of a critical black box that could explain why the brand-new plane plummeted into the sea, killing 189 people. Search teams have been scouring the seabed for the fuselage of the Boeing-737 MAX 8, which plunged into the waters off Indonesia's northern coast shortly after takeoff on Monday despite only being in service a few months. Referring to the landing gear, search and rescue agency head Muhammad Syaugi said late Thursday, "we have found part of it", as authorities piece together what caused the crash. "Separately, we have found bigger parts of the plane than we have seen in previous days," he added, hours after officials announced the recovery of a data recorder from the plane. There were no known survivors and only body parts have been found so far. Jannatun Cintya Dewi, 24, is the first victim to have been identified among the 189 believed killed when the Lion Air plane crashed into the sea Relatives are desperate to be able to say goodbye to their loved ones and the first funeral for one of the passengers was held on Thursday. But many others have yet to be located and analysts hope more victims could still be found with the bulk of the wreckage. "I assume that there will be a lot of bodies still strapped into the seats," aviation analyst Dudi Sudibyo told AFP. Dozens of divers are taking part in the massive recovery effort along with helicopters and ships, but the authorities have all but ruled out finding any survivors. - Cockpit recorder still missing - The plane's black boxes, which airlines are required to install, offer investigators their best chance of discovering why such a new jet crashed. The devices record information about the speed, altitude and direction of the plane as well as flight crew conversations. Officials from Boeing and the US National Transportation Safety Board joined the Indonesian team sifting through twisted metal plane parts and a pile of personal effects plucked from the sea "The good news is we have found one of the black boxes," Syaugi told reporters earlier Thursday. Authorities said a flight data recorder was recovered, but they were still looking for the cockpit voice recorder. On a Jakarta dockside Thursday, Boeing and US National Transportation Safety Board officials joined the Indonesian team in sifting through twisted metal plane parts and piles of passengers' torn clothing, shoes, wallets and phones. The single-aisle Boeing plane, which was on its way from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang city, is one of the world's newest and most advanced commercial passenger jets. Authorities are sending recovered remains to hospital for DNA comparison to passengers' relatives Despite the name, black boxes are in fact bright orange with reflective stripes. They are built to survive at vast depths and in extreme heat, and are fitted with a beacon which can emit a signal for one month. Black boxes help explain nearly 90 percent of all crashes, according to aviation experts. "Data from the plane -- the engine, all the instruments -- are recorded there," Sudibyo said. "If there is an anomaly, some technical problem, it is recorded there too." - First funeral - Passengers' remains are being sent to hospital for DNA identification. Forensic experts identified Jannatun Cintya Dewi as the first victim of the crash Wednesday evening. Plane crash in Indonesia: data from flights JT610 The 24-year-old civil servant's coffin was carried by pallbearers through the streets of her East Java hometown Sidoarjo on Thursday. Dewi's mother collapsed and had to be carried into their home, with friends and relatives weeping as the casket was laid in a freshly dug grave sprinkled with flowers. A bowl of fruit and two palm branches lay at one end. Some relatives have shared heart-wrenching tales of their final contact with loved ones. A smartphone case and shoes are among the recovered personal items of victims on board the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610 A selfie taken by a newlywed husband, Deryl Fida Febrianto, and sent to his wife some 30 minutes before the jetliner crashed has gone viral online. Aviation experts are puzzled by the accident but say it's too early to determine what caused it. Lion Air's admission that the jet had an unspecified technical issue on a previous flight -- as well its abrupt fatal dive -- have raised questions about whether it had faults specific to the newly released model, including a speed-and-altitude system malfunction. The accident has also resurrected concerns about Indonesia's poor air safety record which until recently saw the country's carriers facing years-long bans from entering European Union and US airspace. Lion Air has been plagued by safety concerns and customer complaints over unreliable scheduling and poor service. The budget carrier has been involved in a number of incidents including a fatal 2004 crash and a collision between two Lion Air planes at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport. In 2014, an AirAsia crash in the Java Sea during stormy weather killed 162 people. Turkey and the United States launched a joint patrol in the northern Syrian city Manbij, which is controlled by the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units militia (flag pictured), which Turkey considers a terrorist group Troops from Turkey and the United States launched joint patrols in the northern Syrian city of Manbij on Thursday, the Turkish defence minister said, part of a bid to ease tensions between the NATO allies. "The joint patrol in Manbij between Turkish armed forces and the US began today at 3.53pm (1253 GMT)," Defence Minister Hulusi Akar told lawmakers, according to state-run news agency Anadolu. The city is controlled by the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Turkey considers a terrorist group. The patrol took place around the Sajur River that divides Manbij and the region of Jarabulus, which was captured by Turkish-backed Syrian rebels from the Islamic State group in 2016 during Ankara's first offensive in northern Syria. Manbij was captured from IS by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an umbrella group dominated by the YPG. Ankara has repeatedly threatened to attack the city and earlier this week President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had completed preparations for a new operation to "destroy" the YPG in northern Syria. There are US forces in the Sunni Arab-majority Manbij -- which lies just 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of the Turkish border -- and Washington has been closely working with the YPG in the fight against IS. The US support of the Kurdish militia has strained relations with Turkey. Ankara says the YPG is an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody insurgency in Turkey since 1984 with the goal of forming an independent Kurdish state. The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by Turkey, the US and the European Union. Earlier this year, Turkey and the US agreed the YPG militia would withdraw from Manbij. As part of the roadmap, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at the time said the agreement would ensure the YPG leaves Manbij, then Turkey and the US would work together to establish a local security structure and decide who will govern the city. Defence minister Akar warned earlier Thursday that "the terror group (YPG) will be buried in the trenches it has dug". Egypt's Coptic Christians have repeatedly been targeted by the Islamic State jihadist group Gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt on Friday, killing at least seven in the latest attack on a religious minority repeatedly targeted by jihadists. The attackers opened fire on the bus in Minya, the province's bishop told AFP. The gunmen "killed seven people and wounded 14, all of whom are in the Sheikh Fadel hospital in Beni Mazar" around 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of Cairo, said Bishop Makarios of Minya. A security official confirmed the attack, adding that there were "dead and wounded". There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting. Copts, a Christian minority that make up 10 percent of Egypt's 96 million people, have in recent years been repeatedly targeted by the Islamic State jihadist group. IS killed more than 40 people in twin church bombings in April 2017 and a month later shot dead 28 Christians in Minya province as they headed to a monastery on a bus. Egypt's government imposed a countrywide three-month state of emergency after the April 2017 church bombings. In December 2017 an IS gunman killed nine people in an attack on a church in a south Cairo suburb. A year earlier, an IS suicide bomber killed almost 30 worshippers at a church in Cairo located in the Saint Mark's Cathedral complex, the seat of the Coptic papacy. The Egyptian army launched a major offensive in February 2018 against IS in the Sinai Peninsula, where the group has waged a deadly insurgency since the fall of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Alongside attacks against Copts, the jihadists have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen in Egypt in recent years and were allegedly behind a November 2017 attack against a mosque in north Sinai that killed more than 300 people. The military offensive -- Dubbed "Sinai 2018" -- has killed more than 450 jihadists, according to an army estimate, while around 30 Egyptian soldiers have been killed during this year's operation. Egyptian authorities have also convicted jihadists for their role in attacks against Copts. Last month an Egyptian military court sentenced 17 people to death over the suicide attacks against churches in 2016 and 2017. Copts have long complained of discrimination in Egypt and IS is not the only group to have launched sectarian attacks against the community. In December 2017, hundreds of Muslims attacked a church south of Cairo that had been operating without a permit for more than a dozen years. Samsung kept the top spot in the global smartphone market which saw a fourth consecutive sales decline, according to research firms Global smartphone sales fell for a fourth consecutive quarter in the period through September, suggesting a challenging market for device makers awaiting catalysts to spark sales, researchers said. A report by research firm IDC late Thursday showed 355 million handsets delivered in the third quarter, a year-on-year decline of six percent. "IDC maintains its view that the market will return to growth in 2019, but at this stage it is too early to tell what that growth will look like," the report said. A separate survey by strategy Analytics showed an eight percent drop in sales to 360 million units. "The global smartphone market has now declined for four consecutive quarters and is effectively in a recession," said Strategy Analytics director Linda Sui. "The smartphone industry is struggling to come to terms with heavily diminished carrier subsidies, longer replacement rates, inventory buildup in several regions, and a lack of exciting hardware design innovation." According to Strategy Analytics, Apple's iPhone sales of 46.9 million units suggested the California giant is focusing on price increases, capping its overall volume growth. Samsung remained the top vendor with just over 20 percent of sales, according to both surveys. Chinese-based Huawei held second place with over 14 percent and Apple remained third with roughly 13 percent. The fourth and fifth largest, respectively, were Chinese device makers Xiaomi and Oppo. The researchers said a slowdown in China is a major factor in the slump in global sales, while noting that the market could pick up next year as makers introduce new devices compatible with superfast 5G, or fifth-generation wireless networks. "China's domestic market continues to be challenged as overall consumer spending around smartphones has been down," said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC. "Despite this, we believe this market will begin to recover in 2019 and beyond, driven in the short term by a large, built up refresh cycle across all segments, and in the outer years of the forecast supported by 5G migration." Coptic Christians carry a coffin during a funeral at the Prince Tadros church in Egypt's southern Minya province, on November 3, 2018, after a deadly gun attack on a bus carrying pilgrims Angry Coptic Christians on Saturday buried relatives shot dead on a bus carrying pilgrims south of the Egyptian capital, as security was tightened after the second such jihadist attack on the country's main religious minority in as many years. The Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind Friday's attack, which killed seven Christians returning from a visit to the desert cemetery of Saint Samuel that was also targeted in 2017. A security source said another seven people were wounded in the shootings near the central Egyptian city of Minya. Under heavy guard by masked security personnel on Saturday, hundreds of angry Copts gathered in and around Minya's Prince Tadros church from dawn for the funeral of six victims. The seventh victim, an Anglican, was buried Friday evening in a village outside Minya. After Saturday's prayers, the bodies were carried out in white coffins bearing wreaths of white flowers, amid shouts of "with our souls, with our blood, we will defend the cross!" Egyptian mourners attend the funeral of Anglican Assad Labib, 35, at a church in Sawaada village near Minya city early on November 3, 2018 They were being buried in a nearby Coptic cemetery. "We will not forget the promises of officials, including the president of the republic, that the criminals will be punished," Bishop Makarios of Minya said in an address to mourners. Members of the crowd, however, booed as he thanked security officials. Many Copts accuse authorities of not doing enough to protect them, following a string of attacks that have killed over 100 members of their community since 2011. The authorities launched an inquiry into the latest attack and on Saturday announced a compensation package of 100,000 pounds ($5,500) to each victim, as well as a monthly stipend of 1,500 pounds. - Fear of further attacks - Dozens of victims' family members had waited throughout Friday night outside Minya's main hospital to receive the bodies for burial. An elderly woman wept for her dead son and wailed as she sat on the ground outside the hospital morgue. Map locating Minya in Egypt where seven Coptic Christians were killed in an attack on their bus on November 2, 2018 "He was the best child... I'll never see him again," she said. Security forces remained on alert outside the hospital for fear of further attacks, while roads were blocked to the scene of the shooting. A Coptic cleric, asking not to be named, told AFP around 24 people had escaped the attack unharmed and spent the night at a nearby village church. - 'What do they want?' - "Should I carry a gun with me when I go to pray or when I'm at home? Because I could die if I go to church," said Michel, a 23-year-old Copt whose neighbour was killed in the attack. He said three of the victims had been siblings. "What do these terrorists want? Do they want us to hate Muslims?" An Egyptian Coptic priest speaks to a woman wounded when gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians on November 2, 2018 On Saturday, a burned-out four-wheel-drive truck, which witnesses said had been used by a group of militants in white galabiya gowns, stood near the site of the attack. Residents had attacked the car and handed two of its occupants to security forces, they said. As Egypt's Christians reeled from the latest attack, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called Coptic Pope Tawadros II to offer his condolences and led a minute of silence at a youth forum. Copts, a Christian minority that make up 10 percent of Egypt's 97 million people, have in recent years been repeatedly targeted by IS jihadists. In May 2017, masked gunmen ordered Christians travelling to Saint Samuel to get off their buses and recant their faith. The group refused and were shot one by one, leaving 28 people dead in the IS-claimed attack. An Coptic priest blesses the coffins of victims of an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, during an early morning ceremony at a church in Egypt's Minya province on November 3, 2018 IS also killed more than 40 people in twin church bombings in April 2017, and an IS gunman last December killed nine people in an attack on a church in a south Cairo suburb. Egypt's army launched a major offensive in February 2018 against IS in the Sinai Peninsula, where the group has waged a deadly insurgency since the fall of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, killing hundreds of soldiers and policemen. The military offensive -- Dubbed "Sinai 2018" -- has killed more than 450 jihadists, according to an army estimate, with around 30 soldiers killed. "This latest attack shows that the anti-ISIS (IS) campaign has not yet succeeded in Egypt, despite obvious efforts by the authorities to tackle it in different parts of the country," said H. A. Hellyer, senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute in London. Copts have long complained of discrimination in Egypt and IS is not the only group to have launched sectarian attacks against the community. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (L) lays a wreath at the French memorial in Dien Bien Phu, the battle that spelled the end of France's colonial rule in Indochina Standing at the site of the epic battle of Dien Bien Phu in northern Vietnam, French colonel Jacques Allaire wept at the memory of his 4,000 fellow fighters who died in the bloody fight that would spell the end of France's colonial rule in Indochina. The 94-year-old former POW accompanied French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Saturday to the remote valley where the bloody battle raged for 56 days before Vietnam's shock victory that would pave the way for the communist nation's independence. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (C) shakes hands with war veterans in Dien Bien Phu, where 13,000 people were killed in the 1954 battle "This is like being in a dream, I'm thinking of my comrades, of all my men," said Allaire, who was captured by communist soldiers in 1954 and held for more than seven months, including a 90-day "death march" to a prison near the Chinese border. As the fate of the French became clear in March 1954, he received a written order from his commander: "Cease combat and destroy your weapons". He kept the note throughout his captivity and carried a copy of it in his jacket pocket to the battle site Saturday, an area he called "unrecognisable". "It was a small village, far from everything (in 1954). Today it's a city, which proves that Viet Minh fighters didn't fight for nothing," he said. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe tours the former French military command bunker in Dien Bien Phu The ferocious battle in the rugged, remote valley killed 13,000 people on both sides in under two months, as Vietnamese fighters hemmed in French forces -- equipped with superior weapons -- and bombarded them with heavy artillery. Vietnam's win over the French led to the country's division into the communist-ruled north, headed by revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, and a pro-US southern regime. That set the stage for two decades of war which would end with unification and America's defeat in the Vietnam War in 1975. Today France is one of Vietnam's most important allies, with soaring trade worth $7.6 billion and cosying military alliances. Vietnamese Dien Bien Phu veteran Nguyen Tran Viet, 87, shows a portrait of when he was a soldier Philippe, who is in Vietnam for a three-day visit until Sunday, is the second senior French leader to visit Dien Bien Phu after President Francois Mitterrand in 1993. "It is difficult to imagine that for several months this was the site of intense fighting rarely seen," Philippe said, after touring France's former underground command centre and lighting incense at a memorial plaque. "For those who lived through those moments, I know the emotion is very intense and once again the message that I want to convey here, is a message of admiration, of respect and of pride," he said. - 'No more hatred' - Ahead of the visit, several Vietnamese veterans recalled the fight-to-the-death spirit that carried them to victory, despite the odds the faced. Retired Vietnamese colonel Hoang Bao, 85, says he has no hatred towards the French any more Hoang Bao was barely 20 years old when he trekked hundreds of kilometres (miles) to the site, facing off with the French full of hate and ready to die for his country's independence. But today, retired colonel Bao is happy to call his former foe a friend. "We have no hatred toward the French any more," the 85-year-old told AFP in Hanoi, wearing his dark green military uniform decorated with medals. But he said there are important lessons to be learned to avoid the mistakes of the past. "The French didn't learn our history well, so they lost... Vietnam is different from other countries, we are not willing to surrender," he said. 'One slogan was: We would rather die than be slaves again,' says former colonel Tran Quoc Hanh, 84 Facing the French in battle was complicated for some fighters like Bao, whose lives were closely intertwined with their colonial rulers, sometimes going to school or working alongside them. But driven by patriotism and a fierce thirst for independence, many Vietnamese took up the struggle fortified by bitter memories of invasion by the Chinese, Japanese and French. They were also buoyed by Communist slogans that urged everyone to pitch into the war effort. "One slogan was: We would rather die than be slaves again and (we will) sacrifice everything for independence and freedom," said Tran Quoc Hanh, an 83-year-old former colonel. The bill would require tech companies to store data in Vietnam, and remove 'toxic content' from websites and hand over user information if asked by the government to do so Vietnam may give internet companies like Google and Facebook one year to comply with a controversial cybersecurity law, according to a draft decree that outlines how the draconian bill could be implemented. The cybersecurity bill, which observers say mimic China's repressive web control tools, is set to come into effect in January despite drawing sharp criticism from the US, the EU and internet freedom advocates. The bill would require tech companies to store data in the country, and remove "toxic content" from websites and hand over user information if asked by the government to do so. Critics of the bill say it will be a chokehold on criticism in the one-party state where activists are routinely jailed and all independent media are banned. According to a draft decree on how the law may be implemented, published by the Ministry of Public Security Friday, companies offering internet services in Vietnam may be given 12 months to comply. "Enterprises... must archive data (and) set up branches or representative offices in Vietnam," the decree said. It did not outline the punishment for failing to comply, but any country in breach of the law could be barred from offering its services in Vietnam. An enterprise can mean internet service providers, e-commerce sites, online payment firms and social networks. The draft decree added that companies must store user data in the country for at least 36 months. Personal data required to be stored includes everything from a user's name to passport number, medical records, credit card information and biometric data. Google declined to comment Saturday, while Facebook did not immediately respond to a request from AFP. The public has two months to provide feedback on the decree, in line with Vietnamese law, though public comments have not traditionally led to dramatic alterations to proposed bills. The law was passed by Vietnam's rubber-stamp parliament in June, part of a broader crackdown on internet freedoms that has sparked outcry from the country's activists. This week, the government said it had set up a web monitoring unit that can scan up to 100 million items per day to sniff out "false information". A few days later officials said 3,000 sites featuring "inappropriate content" had been blocked. With 53 million users, Facebook is by far the leading site in Vietnam, a country of 93 million. It is a crucial platform for activists -- and many have been jailed based on Facebook posts -- but also a leading site for business owners. Any efforts to block access to the site are likely to spark widespread opposition across the country. Maulana Sami Ul-Haq, dubbed the 'Father of the Taliban', was stabbed to death by unknown intruders at his residence Friday night A key Pakistani cleric with close ties to the Afghan Taliban who was killed in the garrison city of Rawalpindi was buried Saturday as Prime Minister Imran Khan called for an investigation into the murder. Maulana Sami Ul-Haq, dubbed the "Father of the Taliban", was stabbed to death by unknown intruders at his residence Friday night. The cleric, who is in his 80s was buried in his hometown Akoda Khattak, around 115 kilometres (70 miles) northwest of Islamabad. Thousands of people gathered for the funeral prayers guarded by dozens of police personnel while a bomb disposal squad cleared the graveyard before the cleric's body was brought for burial, an AFP reporter at the site said. His seminary had produced some of the key leaders of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, something that the cleric and his associates would proudly tell visiting journalists. The list of graduates written on the walls of the seminary includes the names of leaders of the Pakistani Taliban. An investigation into the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007 revealed that the assassins had stayed at his seminary before travelling to Rawalpindi where Bhutto was killed. The Afghan Taliban issued a statement terming his death "a great loss for the entire Islamic Ummah" (nation). "He rendered unforgettable services and assistance to the oppressed Afghan nation against the Soviet and American invasions," the statement said. Afghan envoys in Pakistan had reached out to him seeking his help in starting negotiations with the Afghan Taliban. But analysts doubted if he had any sway with them. "He did not had any influence on the Afghan Taliban but he supported their cause," analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai told AFP. "Many of the leaders and fighters of the Afghan Taliban had studied at his madrassa," he said. Pakistani media termed his death a blow to the Afghan peace process but Yusufzai doubted it, saying his death would have no impact on the talks as he was never part of any negotiations. Social media users in Afghanistan termed him a "troublemaker". "The Taliban have lost their father, now they are orphan," Bilal Noori, an Afghan, posted on Facebook. His death was widely condemned in Pakistan by politicians and religious leaders, with the prime minister calling for an investigation into the murder. In 2014, the cleric was a member of the negotiating committee from the homegrown Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- who brokered a ceasefire with the government, although the talks later failed. He twice held roles as a member of Pakistan's Senate. His JUI-S party was an ally of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party headed by Prime Minister Khan. Indigenous people make up less than 50 percent of the electorate and some Kanaks back staying part of France Islanders on the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia on Sunday rejected independence in a referendum that revealed weaker-than-expected support for Paris in the resource-rich and strategic outpost. On the final count, 56.4 percent of people rejected the proposition that New Caledonia -- some 18,000 kilometres (11,000 miles) from the French mainland -- become independent. Turnout was high at 80.63 percent. President Emmanuel Macron expressed his "immense pride that we have taken this historic step together" in an address to the nation, adding it was "a sign of confidence in the French republic, in its future and its values." The island is home to a quarter of the world's known supplies of nickel -- a vital electronics component -- and is a foothold for France in the Pacific where China is gaining influence. But the winning margin in New Caledonia, sometimes referred to in France as "the pebble", might cause some concern in Paris, as well as in Australia which has been alarmed by Beijing's designs in the Pacific and its investment in island nations. Voters queue outside a polling station, with the participation rate at 73.68 percent an hour before polls closed, much higher than in local elections in 2014 Polls beforehand had forecast an emphatic 63-75 percent of New Caledonians would vote "no" when asked if the archipelago should "attain full sovereignty and become independent". Under a 1998 deal called the Noumea Accord to devolve powers to the territory, two further votes on independence can be held by 2022 -- a right independence leaders look set to invoke. "We're a short step away from victory and there are still two votes to come," Alosio Sako, head of the separatist movement FLNKS, said after the results were announced. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe arrived on the island Monday where he will meet political forces on both sides of the independence vote to discuss the future of the territory. - Balancing China in the Pacific? - As well as being home to French troops and being a source of nickel, the territory gives France a large, exclusive economic zone in the Pacific and rich fishing resources. New Caledonia, where a referendum on independence will be held on Sunday Macron visited island in May but largely stayed clear of the campaign. However, he has raised concerns over increasing Chinese influence in the Pacific, where Beijing has invested heavily in Vanuatu, a territory which broke from France and Britain in 1980. Accusing the US of "turning its back on the region in recent months", Macron said China was "building its hegemony step by step" -- suggesting an independent New Caledonia could be Beijing's next target. During visits to New Delhi and Canberra since taking power last year, Macron has talked up France's Pacific presence to propose an axis of democratic Asian maritime powers that would include India and Australia. - Ethnic tensions - There were fears that the referendum in New Caledonia could inflame tensions between indigenous Kanak people, who tend to favour independence, and the white population which has settled since France annexed the islands in 1853. Polls suggest pro-independence activists will be disappointed by the results of Sunday's referendum Several cars were burned and a couple of incidents of stone-throwing were reported late Sunday, local authorities said, but the vote was otherwise peaceful. Tensions in New Caledonia boiled over into ethnic strife in the 1980s which claimed more than 70 lives. That led to the 1998 Noumea Accord which paved the way for a steady devolution of powers, as well as Sunday's referendum and possibly two others before 2022. In recent years, France has faced protests and calls for independence in several of its overseas territories, which are a legacy of the country's colonial history and are sometimes dubbed "the confetti of the French empire". French Guiana in South America and the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte have been rocked by major protests over living standards and perceived neglect. Closer to home, the Paris government also faces renewed calls for independence from nationalists on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, which have been rebuffed by Macron. Separatists had urged Kanak voters to choose self-determination for Kanaky, their name for New Caledonia, and throw off the shackles of the "colonial" authorities in Paris. The Kanak community is economically disadvantaged compared with the white population and plagued by high school dropout rates, chronic unemployment and poor housing conditions. But indigenous people make up less than 50 percent of the electorate and some Kanaks back staying part of France, not least due to the 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) the French state hands to the islands every year. Going it alone, "I'm not sure we have all the assets we'd need to succeed," said Marc Gnipate, a 62-year-old pensioner. burs-adp/ecl/amu Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Mazda Motor (China) Co., Ltd. announced that its retail sales in China declined 4.2% compared with the same period a year ago to 232,596 units for the first ten months. Besides, the automaker saw its Oct. sales plunge 25.3% over the previous year to 21,881 units in the country. As to the performance of two joint ventures from January to October, FAW Mazda handed over 92,435 vehicles with a year-on-year (YoY) drop of 7.1% and Changan Mazda also faced a YoY decrease of 2.2% with 140,161 vehicles delivered in total. By the end of October, Mazda has been suffering YoY drop in monthly sales from 6 consecutive months, according to the sales of previous months compiled by Gasgoo. Nobuhiko Watabe, Chairman of Mazda Motor (China) Co., Ltd, said that the company's October sales were still less than that of the previous year and the stagnant PV market climate probably maintain until the end of the year. The sales released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed that China's PV sales in September decline 12% year on year (YoY) to around 2.0247 million units. Changan Mazda will showcase the Mazda CX-8 7-seat 3-row SUV at the upcoming Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition. In addition, FAW Mazda will also bring the all-new 2.5L version of the Mazda CX-4 in the show. Twitter released a statement saying the company had removed thousands of accounts for "engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion", in violation of the platform's policies Twitter has deleted thousands of automated accounts, many posing as Democrats, that were posting tweets encouraging US voters to sit out Tuesday's crucial midterm elections, according to media reports. The reports cited a Twitter statement Friday as saying the social media company had "removed a series of accounts for engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion -- a violation of our policies." CNN said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had alerted Twitter to the accounts, which were removed in late September and early October. "For the election this year we have established open lines of communication and direct, easy escalation paths for state election officials, DHS, and campaign organizations from both major parties," the statement said. Twitter said it appeared the account network was run out of the United States, but did not provide details on how the accounts worked. For months, Twitter has sought to eliminate automated and bogus accounts designed to manipulate the public conversation on Twitter, in response to concerns over Russian interference in the 2016 election. In October the platform said its number of active users fell by nine million in the past quarter as a result of these efforts. US President Donald Trump recently complained that Twitter was removing some of his followers. A Coptic Christian mourns victims, killed in an attack by Islamic State jihadists a day earlier, during a ceremony in Egypt's southern Minya province, on November 3, 2018 The Islamic State group's latest deadly attack in Egypt shows it still has the ability to launch bloody strikes in the country despite pressure from a military offensive in the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt's army has since February waged a major operation dubbed "Sinai 2018" aimed at neutralising jihadists in the desert region. But after several months of calm, IS on Friday claimed an attack in central Egypt that killed six Coptic Christian pilgrims and one Anglican worshipper. Gunmen opened fire on the devotees as they headed home on a bus from the Saint Samuel monastery in Minya province south of the Egyptian capital. "At a time when IS is weakened in the Sinai, it is trying to launch operations elsewhere in Egypt," said Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid, political science professor at Cairo University. Copts, a Christian minority that make up 10 percent of Egypt's 97 million people, have been repeatedly targeted by IS in recent years. And Minya province, said Sayyed, provides "fertile ground" for jihadist operations. The latest attack was preceded by a nearby assault in May 2017 also claimed by IS, when masked gunmen ordered Christians travelling to Saint Samuel to get off buses and recant their faith. The pilgrims refused and were shot one by one, leaving 28 people dead. Egypt's Coptic Christian minority has been repeatedly targeted by IS in recent years "The Islamists are rooted in central and upper Egypt, particularly in Minya and Asyut -- it is not difficult for IS to recruit in this region," said Sayyed. The jihadists' goal is to show that "Egypt is not stable, even as (President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi) tries to give this impression," he added. Another expert said it was clear IS is far from defeated in Egypt. "This latest attack shows that the anti-ISIS campaign has not yet succeeded in Egypt, despite obvious efforts by the authorities to tackle it in different parts of the country," said H.A. Hellyer, senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services institute in London. Since December 2016, jihadist attacks in Egypt have left more than 100 Christians dead. - 'Massive problem' - Hellyer said the latest assault "shows that the wider issue of sectarianism being instrumentalised to support certain parts of radical extremist opposition continues to be a massive problem". Since Egypt's military toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, extremists have regularly attacked security forces, killing hundreds of police officers and soldiers. The Egyptian Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group pledged allegiance to IS in 2014, gaining expertise and logistical support from the international jihadist group, which once controlled a self-styled "caliphate" in parts of Iraq and Syria. The jihadists soon ramped up their attacks on civilians, planting a bomb on a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from a south Sinai resort in 2015, killing all 224 people on board. Egyptian policemen patrol a road in the Sinai Peninsula on July 26, 2018 In response to the uptick in attacks -- and under the guise of tackling terrorism -- Sisi has repressed all forms of Islamist opposition, crushing secular dissent along the way. In late November 2017, Sisi gave his security forces three months to re-establish order in the Sinai after an attack against a mosque that killed more than 300 in the peninsula's north. But nearly a year after that ultimatum -- and nine months after the military offensive began -- the jihadist insurgency in the Sinai remains alive. Friday's attack in Minya province showed that IS can still hit hard outside the peninsula, despite retaining only a few hundred or so increasingly squeezed fighters in Egypt, according to experts. The army said in October it had killed more than 450 jihadists since the start of the Sinai operation, while the regime says it has lost around 30 soldiers. Press access to the areas affected by military operations is entirely cut off, making it hard to corroborate what is happening on the ground. Rights groups regularly denounce what they call a failure by the state to provide for populations in the operational zone -- accusations the authorities deny. As Pittsburgh congregations observed their first Shabbat on Friday since a gunman killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue, people greeted each other at the Temple Sinai, only blocks away from the massacre scene With memories of the week-old Pittsburgh synagogue shooting still fresh in the US, more than 200 members of the Tree of Life congregation came together for the first Shabbat service since the deadly assault. Eleven people died when a gunman burst in on October 27 and opened fire at the synagogue known for its tradition of openness, tolerance and respect. The gathering at sundown Friday -- much larger than on a typical Friday -- took place in the Rodef Shalom synagogue in the nearby Shadyside neighborhood, a temporary home to the Tree of Life congregation, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Tree of Life rabbi Jeffrey Myers, a survivor of the shooting, on Saturday described the agony of the past week, but also the determination of his congregation -- and of Pittsburgh -- to remain strong. After 97-year-old Rose Mallinger on Friday became the final victim laid to rest, Myers told CNN that he sat down and "cried like a baby. I couldn't stop." "This is the last funeral, and every time I do one, for me, when I chant the memorial prayer, it takes a piece of my soul away. "I have no more left to give. My tank is empty." - 'We'll be back' - A Pittsburgh police officer stands guard outside Temple Sinai before Shabbat services, six days after 11 people were shot dead in the nearby Tree of Life synagogue Asked what message he had conveyed Friday to his congregants, he said, "I don't believe God lets this stuff happen. Humans have a choice. This person made this choice." Robert Bowers, who was arrested at the shooting scene, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to federal charges of killing 11 people and wounding six others, including four police officers. Some of the charges carry the death penalty. Congregants are working meticulously -- and with the respect demanded by Jewish tradition -- to clean and restore the Tree of Life building. "It is a horror," Myers said. "It is worse than any sci-fi film, because it is real. It is not phony Hollywood." Asked by CNN if he could stand to return to the building, Myers said, "Yeah, we're going to do whatever is the necessary work." He vowed: "We'll be back." The rabbi said he took hope in the "outpouring of the community -- the sheer immensity of love. It gives me hope, because it reminds me there are so many good people, and this gives me strength to say hate will never win." One congregant, Kris Kepler, who missed last Saturday's service because he was ill, spoke to the Post-Gazette of the importance of Friday's service. The preceding days, he said, had "been nothing but funerals and sadness and pain and anguish... "It felt really good to be with my Tree of Life family" again. For months, Twitter has sought to eliminate automated and bogus accounts designed to manipulate the public conversation Twitter on Saturday said it deleted a "series of accounts" that attempted to share disinformation, ahead of crucial midterm elections, as media reports said thousands of accounts were axed. The social media company "removed a series of accounts for engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion -- a violation of our policies," it confirmed to AFP without giving a number. Twitter said it has established "open lines of communication" for state election officials, Republican and Democratic campaign officials, and the Department of Homeland Security. Reports said many of the accounts were posing as Democrats, posting tweets encouraging US voters to sit out Tuesday's ballot. CNN said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had alerted Twitter to the accounts, which were removed in late September and early October. For months, Twitter has sought to eliminate automated and bogus accounts designed to manipulate the public conversation on the platform, in response to concerns over Russian interference in the 2016 election. In October it said its number of active users fell by nine million in the previous quarter as a result of these efforts. US President Donald Trump recently complained that Twitter was removing some of his followers. Roy Hargrove (C), seen playing at the Hamilton club in Washington, died on November 2, 2018, his Facebook page announced American trumpet player Roy Hargrove, a precocious talent and a frequent performer at European jazz festivals, died Friday at age 49, his Facebook page announced Saturday. The page quoted his longtime manager Larry Clothier as saying Hargrove died in New York from cardiac arrest following complications from a battle with kidney disease. "One of the most respected and loved musicians in our New York City community and the world at large, the trailblazing multiple Grammy Award-winning trumpeter was known just as intensely for his brimming fire and fury as he was for his gorgeous, signature balladry," the post read. "Over and over, his sound attested to and sanctified his deep love for music. His unselfish timbre covered the waterfront of every musical landscape. Owning his music, his sound, Roy inspired generations of musicians." The Texas-born musician, discovered at his Dallas performing arts high school during a visit by legendary trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, developed his talents quickly. Under Marsalis's tutelage and encouragement, he traveled to Europe to play at festivals the summer after his high school graduation. By age 25, his star was already on the rise in the contemporary jazz world. Hargrove went on to play or record with Marsalis and other jazz greats, including Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Stanley Turrentine and Joshua Redman. He won Grammy awards in two different categories: in 1998 as Best Latin Jazz Performance for "Habana," and in 2003 for Best Jazz Instrumental with "Directions in Music," recorded with what was called a post-bop supergroup. According to the opposition, some 50 people are still jailed after taking part in protests to demand the resignation of Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe (pictured January 2018), who has been in power since 2005 after taking over from his father Over one thousand people marched in Togo's capital of Lome on Saturday to demand the release of protesters jailed after demanding the resignation of President Faure Gnassingbe. At the call of the Citizen Front "Togo Debout" (FCTD), an umbrella organisation of civil society groups, the demonstrators converged on a public square. Some leaders of the main coalition, including veteran opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre, attended the beginning of the protest. "We would have liked to take part in the march until the end, unfortunately we must go to Conakry to meet President Alpha Conde, one of the facilitators in the Togolese crisis," Fabre told AFP. According to the opposition, some 50 people are still jailed after taking part in protests to demand the resignation of Gnassingbe, who has been in power since 2005 after taking over from his father, who ruled for 38 years. Gnassingbe has opposed changes to the constitution that would put a limit on presidential terms, sparking the nationwide uprising. "Those still in detention must be released immediately and unconditionally," said Front spokesman David Dosseh. The FCTD has also spoken out against elections scheduled for December 20. "We don't associate ourselves with this sham electoral process," said Dosseh. US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 26, 2018 in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday hailed US leader Donald Trump for reimposing sanctions against mutual foe Iran, ahead of a fresh round of penalties set to kick in Monday. "Thank you, President Trump, for this historic move. The sanctions are indeed coming," Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office. "For years I've been calling for sanctions to be fully reimposed against Iran's murderous terrorist regime, which threatens the entire world." Trump announced in May he was withdrawing the US from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposing sanctions, sparking outrage among world powers who say Tehran has been complying with commitments to restrict its atomic programme. On Friday, Washington confirmed it was going ahead with a second round of sanctions set to take effect on Monday. Netanyahu said the effect of the first round of sanctions reintroduced in August "were already being felt". "The riyal has plummeted, Iran's economy is depressed and the results are evident," he said. The European Union, France, Britain and Germany -- all signatories to the 2015 deal with Iran -- have condemned the US move to renew its sanctions on Iran. Washington says it wants a new deal with Tehran, curtailing its regional interventions and missile programme -- demands which have been flatly rejected by Iran. Carthage Film Festival's Jury President Deborah Young (C) arrives with members of the jury on November 3, 2018, for the opening of the 29th edition of the Carthage Film Festival in Tunis Tunisia kicked off a major film festival Saturday under tight security, just days after a suicide blast rocked the centre of the capital. Events at the Carthage Film Festival are being held a stone's throw away from where a female suicide bomber wounded 20 people in central Tunis on Monday. "We wanted to show that Tunisia continues to live," Prime Minister Youssef Chahed told AFP at the opening ceremony. "Tunisia combats terrorism through security measures... and also through culture." The festival, now in its 29th year, celebrates the best of Arab and African cinema and is set to run for one week. Monday's attack was the first in the Tunisian capital since November 24, 2015 when a suicide bombing killed 12 security agents on a bus for presidential guards. That attack was claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group. Since the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, jihadist attacks in Tunisia have killed dozens of foreign tourists and members of the security forces. In June 2015, 38 people were killed in a shooting rampage at the coastal resort of Sousse which targeted tourists, while an attack in March that year on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis left 22 people dead, most of them tourists. Those attacks, also claimed by IS, devastated Tunisia's crucial tourism sector. Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal attends the Future Investment Initiative FII conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh on October 24, 2018 Saudi authorities have released the brother of billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal after nearly a year in detention, family members said Saturday, as the kingdom faces international pressure over journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder. The release of Prince Khalid bin Talal was confirmed by at least three relatives on Twitter, with photos shared of him kissing and embracing his son who has been in a coma for years. "Thank god for your safety," his niece Princess Reem bint Al-Waleed tweeted, posting additional pictures of the released prince with other relatives. The government has not offered any public explanation for his arrest or the conditions of his release. The Wall Street Journal reported that he was detained for 11 months for criticising the biggest crackdown on the kingdom's elite last November that saw dozens of princes, officials and tycoons detained at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton hotel. The government labelled it a corruption crackdown, but critics said it was an attempt by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- heir to the Saudi throne -- to sideline his potential rivals and consolidate power. Prince Al-Waleed, dubbed the Warren Buffett of Saudi Arabia, was among those rounded up and was released in early January after an undisclosed financial agreement with the government. It appeared similar to deals that authorities struck with most other detainees in exchange for their freedom. Prince Khalid's release comes as the kingdom faces international outrage over the killing of Khashoggi inside its consulate in Istanbul on October 2. It is widely seen as the worst diplomatic crisis facing the kingdom since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said the order to murder Khashoggi came from "the highest levels" of the Saudi government, without directly naming the crown prince. The government now appears keen to shore up internal royal family support to defuse the crisis. Authorities could also potentially release other elites still in detention, including former Riyadh governor Prince Turki bin Abdullah and billionaire businessman Mohammed al-Amoudi, The Wall Street Journal reported. "The killing of Jamal Khashoggi has left the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its weakest diplomatic position since the horrific terror attacks of September 11," Ali Shihabi, head of the pro-Saudi Arabia Foundation think tank, wrote in a report published on Friday. "In the aftermath of the understandable global outrage at the Khashoggi murder, something will clearly have to give." Shihabi called for the release of "women activists and other moderate critics of the government" who have been detained in Prince Mohammed's widely condemned crackdown on dissent in recent months. Former drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, pictured in January 2016 following his recapture, faces sentencing for flooding the United States with tons of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs over a quarter century As a child living in poverty in Mexico, he peddled fruit just to eat. A lifetime later, as the world's most wanted drug lord, his empire was so vast he commanded a fleet of submarines to move his wares. But having been convicted in February for flooding the United States with tons of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine over 25 years, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman will now be sentenced in New York on Wednesday. Prosecutors have requested life imprisonment, plus an extra 30 years for good measure. While in prison for the last three-and-a-half years Guzman, 62, has lost much of the aura of the feared and, for many in Mexico, beloved drug kingpin he once enjoyed. He lost weight and says he has health problems. Guzman's head is shaved and he wears humble blue prison garb. His trademark moustache is gone. In May, his lawyers complained that his detention in solitary confinement in a high-security prison in Lower Manhattan violated the constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual punishment." "Mr Guzman has been over two years now without any access to fresh air or natural sunlight," his lawyers said, adding that he'd "been using toilet paper as makeshift earplugs." It has been a humiliating fall from a position of power and lifestyle of luxury for Guzman, whose nickname "El Chapo" translates as "shorty," due to his five-foot, two-inch (1.57-meter) frame. "El Chapo," pictured with US Drug Enforcement personnel as he is extradited to the United States in 2017, has lost much of the aura of the feared drug kingpin In his heyday, the man towered over his rivals, casting a long shadow over Mexico's criminal underworld. During Guzman's reign, his Sinaloa drug cartel's empire expanded across the globe, its tentacles stretching from the Americas to Europe and Asia. After two prison breaks, Guzman was finally captured by Mexican marines in January 2016 and extradited to the United States in January 2017, ending his decades-long cat-and-mouse game with the authorities. While his cartel is synonymous with violence and drug addiction, Guzman became a hero of Mexico's underworld, with musicians singing his praises in folk ballads known as "narcocorridos" -- tributes to drug capos. He fooled the government with his cartel's engineering feats, building tunnels to ship drugs under the US-Mexico border and to help him escape the authorities. While he nurtured a Robin Hood image back home, his cartel fought bloody turf wars with rivals, contributing to the drug conflicts plaguing Mexico. Guzman grew so rich that he was on Forbes magazine's list of billionaires, but he dropped out in 2013 after spending much of his wealth on protection. - 'Very poor' - Hollywood star Sean Penn interviewed "El Chapo" for a 2016 Rolling Stone article "I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world. I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats," Guzman boasted to Sean Penn in a clandestine meeting that the US actor wrote about for Rolling Stone magazine in 2016. Guzman said in a separate video message to Penn that his family was once "very humble, very poor" and that his mother made bread in the village of La Tuna. "I sold oranges, I sold soft drinks, I sold candy," he said, claiming he entered the drug business at age 15 because there were "no job opportunities." "The only way to have money to buy food, to survive, is to grow poppy, marijuana, and at that age, I began to grow it, to cultivate it and to sell it," he said. Guzman was born on April 4, 1957, in Badiraguato, a town known as the cradle of several drug lords. He was recruited by Guadalajara cartel boss Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, known as "The Godfather" of Mexico's modern drug cartels. After Felix Gallardo was arrested in 1989, Guzman's Sinaloa cartel began its meteoric rise. But he had enemies. A gunfight in May 1993 at the airport of Guadalajara ended the life of the western city's archbishop, Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, allegedly because he was mistaken for Guzman. He was arrested in Guatemala in June 1993. Eight years later, he pulled off his first prison break, sneaking out inside a laundry cart in 2001. - Love-struck capo - Graphic on "El Chapo" It took 13 years for the authorities to grab him again, in February 2014, in a condo in the Sinaloa resort of Mazatlan, where he was hiding with his wife, Emma Coronel, and their US-born twin daughters. But 17 months later, Guzman fled again, humiliating President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration. This time, his henchmen had built a one-mile (1.5-kilometer) tunnel that opened in his cell's shower. He zoomed out by hopping on a modified motorcycle mounted on rails. But it only took six months for the marines to catch him again in Los Mochis, a coastal town in Sinaloa. Officials say his soft spot for Mexican-American actress Kate del Castillo led to his downfall. Mexican officials leaked to the media phone intercepts of his flirtatious text messages to the star, who brokered Guzman's meeting with Penn. Guzman married at least three times. He has several children, including two sons accused by the US authorities of having "significant" roles in the Sinaloa cartel. Another son, Edgar, was shot dead in 2008. An international panel discussion titled "Minsk ghetto: 75 years later" was organized at the History Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University by the Russian information and analysis agency Vestnik Kavkaza, the Diaspora History Laboratory of the History Faculty, the All-Israel Association of People from Belarus, the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the history department of Belarusian State University and the 'Historical Memory' Foundation for the Promotion of Actual Historical Research. The event was not only about the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, but also about attempts to glorify its accomplices in some post-Soviet countries. Moderator of the panel discussion, Deputy Dean, Academic Secretary of the history department of Moscow State University, head of the Diaspora History Laboratory, Associate Professor, candidate of historical sciences Oksana Solopova recalled that the Minsk ghetto was one of the largest in Europe: "Not just Belarusian Jews were there, but also Jews from Germany, Austria, other European countries. Ghettos began to be formed on June 19, 1941. Since then, for those who live in Belarus, who are involved in studying or are involved in Belarusian Jewry, in Minsk Jewry, knows few meanings of the word 'pit'. And the first feeling is shock... This is part of my childhood too. My grandmother was taken away from Brest area in June 1941, and although I was born in 1971, it seems to me, I always knew what a "pit" is. It's an issue of historical continuity within the family, of memory that is reproduced in generations. Belarusian Jews who live in Israel say We saw each other at the Pit in 1978, Last seen at the Pit in 1991. And everyone knows that they meant the May 9th. It was a special subculture that was accompanied by music, because trucks drove there and Soviet songs of the war years were played, people came there, showed letters from the U.S., from Israel, which were sent by their relatives, communicated, and even married sometimes. It was a hymn to the memory of the people who passed away, but also a hymn to life. Few survivors were shy about surviving." Back during the war, Soviet journalists, led by writers Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman, who were military reporters for the Red Army, have started to create a 'Black Book' - a collection of documents and eyewitness accounts of crimes against the Jewish people in the Nazi-occupied territory of the USSR and Poland during the Holocaust, and the participation of Jews in resistance against the Nazis during World War II. Oksana Solopova cited the lines from the 'Black Book' about the history of the Minsk ghetto: On October 21, 1943, the ghetto was again, for the last time surrounded by Gestapo men. All the people were put in cars and sent to their deaths. When no one was found in apartments, houses were blown up with grenades so that those in shelters would die." "Look, how unemotional, how cold, how distantly, without excessive agitation and without unnecessary emotions Grossman and Ehrenburg write about it. You know why? Maybe Im wrong, but I think its written for those who understand. And those who understand do not need excessive hype and emotions. For those who understand, facts are enough. Because when we imagine 100 thousand people and the time for which them were destroyed, the brain refuses to understand and imagine it. I think that it's kind of a protective mechanism working in the body. One should just know it. Because if you fully imagine it, it is not clear how to live with it, how to look at humanity and think about the prospects for the development of civilization, Oksana Solopova said. Todays panel session is not just a scientific conference, not just a result, which the Diaspora History Laboratory has been achieving on for a long time, it is also a civic stand of the faculty. This is an attitude to what responsibility to history means, the deputy dean of the department said. There are about 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan, providing the main component of the Resolute Support mission to support and train local forces One US soldier was killed and another wounded in an "apparent insider attack" in Kabul on Saturday, NATO said, in the latest such assault on international forces in Afghanistan. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the third so-called "green-on-blue" attack in less than three weeks that have rattled foreign troops tasked with training and assisting the war-torn country's military. The Taliban claimed two similar attacks in the western province of Herat on October 22 and the southern province of Kandahar on October 18. General Scott Miller, the top NATO and US commander in Afghanistan, narrowly escaped the latter attack that killed a powerful police chief. "Initial reports indicate the attacker was a member of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces," NATO's Resolute Support mission said in a statement. The attacker was killed by "other Afghan forces", it added. The latest "green-on-blue" attack -- in which Afghan forces turn their weapons on international soldiers with whom they are working -- takes the number of US soldiers to die in Afghanistan this year to eight. The wounded American soldier was flown to Bagram Airfield north of the Afghan capital where he was receiving medical treatment. He was in a "stable condition". An investigation into the incident was under way, the statement said. Local media in the US named the slain soldier as Brent Taylor, the mayor of North Ogden in Utah state and a father of seven. Taylor had served two tours in Iraq and was on his second tour to Afghanistan when he was killed, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Currently, there are about 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan, providing the main component of the Resolute Support mission to support and train local forces. More than 2,000 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of the war in 2001. While casualties have fallen dramatically since the withdrawal of NATO combat troops at the end of 2014, the deadly burden has shifted to Afghanistan's security forces, which are suffering record-level casualties. But the insider attack on a high-level security meeting in Kandahar that was attended by Miller shocked the US military, whose generals seldom face attack and are rarely wounded. The attacker killed three people, including General Abdul Raziq, who was seen as a bulwark against the Taliban insurgency in the south. Another 13 people were wounded, including US Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley. That incident was followed four days later by an attack in Herat province that killed one NATO soldier and wounded two others. All the victims were Czech. After the Herat attack the Resolute Support mission scaled back its operations in Afghanistan for several days, avoiding face-to-face contact with Afghan counterparts. Thousands of loyalists from across the country are camped out at the Temple Trees residence in Colombo The banquet hall at Sri Lanka's ousted prime minister's official residence is packed with supporters -- many sleeping on chairs and the floor -- who have come to stand guard as he tussles for power with an old rival. Thousands of loyalists from across the country are camped out at the Temple Trees residence in Colombo, a colonial-era bungalow where Ranil Wickremesinghe has been holed up since his shock dismissal more than a week ago. Day and night they top up coconut oil lamps and keep jasmine-perfumed incense sticks burning in the 5,000-capacity banquet hall -- usually reserved for state dinners and VIP weddings -- while the 69-year-old plots his next move. President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe on October 26 but he has refused to accept the decision or to leave the residence so former strongman leader Mahinda Rajapakse -- who was named in his place -- can move in. S.M. Faheed, a 73-year-old diehard supporter of Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP), vowed to stay there until the constitutional crisis is resolved. "I will not leave until Ranil is given the PM's chair," Faheed said. "We are here to support him and make sure no one tries to throw him out of Temple Trees." Wickremesinghe has asked lawmakers to vote and end the crisis "If I have to, I will stay here till I die." Wickremesinghe has asked lawmakers to vote to decide between him and Rajapakse and end the crisis, but parliament has been suspended since his sacking. "If I win... (Rajapakse) must stand down. If he wins, I will leave Temple Trees and move away," Wickremesinghe told AFP on Friday. But he will have trouble convincing his followers to give way. - Prayers for victory - Shakuntala Devi travelled 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the Tamil city of Jaffna in the north of the country to join the crowd that grows each day. Crowds mob visiting politicians and ask for selfies Volunteers bring meals to Devi and others while Buddhist monks chant prayers that are broadcast on a public address system within the premises. Devi said she wanted to show solidarity after Wickremesinghe's government built 5,000 homes for people like her who were displaced by the civil war that ended in 2009. "I came to show my gratitude to the prime minister," she said. Another protester who gave her name as Sandya said: "We want to tell Sirisena: If you have any shame, call parliament and let our leader take back his seat." Others in the huge crowd echoed her views, with one person saying Sri Lanka had "become the laughing stock of the world". "Sirisena is the most ungrateful man. May he be cursed and be struck by lightning," said Jayanthi Jayewardena, an elderly supporter. Sirisena won the presidency from Rajapakse in 2015 with the help of Wickremesinghe and his UNP. The two formed a coalition, but have since fallen out badly. Matters came to a head with the sacking, which Wickremesinghe acknowledged had surprised him. - 'Desperate people' - Sirisena has cut Wickremesinghe's official bodyguard retinue and pool of limousines. A depleted plain clothes contingent now keeps watch over the residence while a private cleaning company has also been hired. A few police commandos in camouflage uniform can also be seen. Legislators loyal to Wickremesinghe keep up back-to-back press conferences at the residence which has become the centre of media attention, with crowds mobbing visiting politicians and asking for selfies. In comparison Rajapakse has remained low-key, quietly organising a campaign to win over MPs to support him when parliament eventually meets. Huge sums have allegedly been offered to potential defectors and some lawmakers have already left the UNP. Wickremesinghe, who has been speaking to local and foreign journalists while conducting talks with allies, said he was concerned that the power struggle could degenerate into street violence. "There can be trouble in the country if this goes on," he said. "We will be calling on our people not to resort to violence... but you don't know what arises in a situation like this. A few desperate people can start off a bloodbath." Pyongyang said it could revert to its former policy of developing nuclear weapons if the US does not end tough economic sanctions against the impoverished regime North Korea has warned the United States it will "seriously" consider returning to a state policy aimed at building nuclear weapons if Washington does not end tough economic sanctions against the impoverished regime. For years, the North had pursued a "byungjin" policy of simultaneously developing its nuclear capabilities alongside the economy. In April, citing a "fresh climate of detente and peace" on the peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared the nuclear quest complete and said his country would focus on "socialist economic construction". But a statement issued by the North's foreign ministry said Pyongyang could revert to its former policy if the US did not change its stance over sanctions. "The word 'byungjin' may appear again and the change of the line could be seriously reconsidered," said the statement carried by the official KCNA news agency late Friday. At a historic summit in Singapore in June, US President Donald Trump and Kim signed a vaguely-worded statement on denuclearisation. But little progress has been made since then, with Washington pushing to maintain sanctions against the North until its "final, fully verified denuclearisation" and Pyongyang condemning US demands as "gangster-like". "The improvement of relations and sanctions are incompatible," said the statement, released under the name of the director of the foreign ministry's Institute for American Studies. "What remains to be done is the US corresponding reply," it added. The statement is the latest sign of Pyongyang's increasing frustration with Washington. Last month, the North's state media carried a near 1,700 words long commentary accusing the US of playing a "double game", implicitly criticising Trump for his comments aimed at barring Seoul from lifting sanctions against Pyongyang. Despite a flurry of diplomacy on and around the peninsula differences are emerging between Seoul and Washington, which stations 28,500 troops in the South to protect it from its nuclear-armed neighbour. The South's dovish president Moon Jae-in has long favoured engagement with the North, which is subject to multiple UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. He has dangled large investment and joint cross-border projects as incentives for steps towards denuclearisation, while the US has been adamant pressure should be maintained on Pyongyang until it fully dismantles its weapons programmes. In an interview with Fox News on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated that sanctions will remain until Pyongyang carries out denuclearisation commitments made in Singapore, adding he will meet with his North Korean counterpart next week. Americans are going to the polls to elect governors and members of the House of Representatives and Senate A number of notable races are taking place on Tuesday in the US midterm elections, when Americans go to the polls to elect governors and members of the US House of Representatives and Senate. Here is a look at some of the most interesting contests: - Beto-mania - One of the most expensive and closely watched Senate races is in Texas, where incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz is facing Democratic Representative Beto O'Rourke. O'Rourke, 46, whose given names are Robert Francis but who goes by Beto, is mounting a suprisingly strong challenge to the 47-year-old Cruz in the reliably Republican "Lone Star State." Beto O'Rourke, a Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Texas, is considered a rising star of the party O'Rourke, a three-term congressman and former member of a punk band, is drawing enthusiastic support from many urban dwellers in Texas while Cruz does better in conservative rural areas. Plucking the Senate seat from Cruz, who battled Donald Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, would be a major victory for the Democratic Party. - Dueling female candidates - Arizona will have a woman representing the southwestern state in the US Senate for the first time as two women battle for the seat being vacated by Jeff Flake, a Trump critic who is not running for reelection. Republican Martha McSally, seen here with President Donald Trump, is a former air force fighter pilot seeking a Senate seat from Arizona The Republican flag-bearer is Martha McSally, a 52-year-old former US Air Force fighter pilot and two-term member of the House of Representatives. McSally's Democratic opponent is Kyrsten Sinema, 42, a three-term member of the House of Representatives who spent several years of her childhood in poverty after her parents divorced. McSally and Sinema are running neck-in-neck in a state which President Donald Trump won by 3.5 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election. - Democrats in danger - Democratic Senate candidates are in danger of losing their seats in Missouri, North Dakota and Indiana. In Missouri -- which Trump won by 18 points in 2016 -- Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, 65, is facing a strong challenge from Republican attorney general Josh Hawley. Trump has campaigned personally for the 38-year-old Hawley and called him a rising star in the party. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill is locked in a tough race as she seeks reelection from Missouri In North Dakota -- which Trump won by 36 points in 2016 -- Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp, 63, is fighting for her political survival against Republican Kevin Cramer. Cramer, 57, who has served three terms in the House of Representatives, currently leads in the polls. In Indiana, Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly, 63, has a small lead over his Republican challenger Mike Braun, a 64-year-old businessman, in a state which Trump won by 19 points in 2016. Bob Menendez, 64, a Democrat from New Jersey who has served in the Senate since 2006, could also be in trouble after facing corruption charges. The case ended up with a hung jury and a mistrial and the charges were dropped. Menendez is being challenged by Republican businessman Bob Hugin, 64. - Close eye on Florida - Two of the most-watched races in the country are in Florida. Democrat Bill Nelson, 76, was first elected to the Senate in 2000 and was easily reelected in 2006 and 2012. But Nelson, who served as a payload specialist on a Space Shuttle in 1986, is facing a tough challenge this time from Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a Democrat, is running to become governor of Florida Gun control is a big issue in the race following the February shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 people dead. Another close race in Florida is for governor to replace the 65-year-old Scott. Democrat Andrew Gillum, 39, the African-American mayor of Tallahassee, is locked in an acrimonious battle with Ron DeSantis, 40, a member of the House of Representatives and ardent Trump supporter. Trump has personally campaigned for DeSantis and has had harsh words for Gillum, considered by some to be a potential future star of the Democratic Party. - First black female governor - In Georgia, Stacy Abrams, 44, the former minority leader of the state House of Representatives, is running for governor against Republican Brian Kemp, the 55-year-old Georgia secretary of state. Democrat Stacey Abrams would be the first black woman to become governor of a US state if she wins the election in Georgia Abrams, who has received the support of Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities, would be the first black woman to become governor of a US state if she wins. The race has seen allegations that Kemp has attempted to prevent tens of thousands of mainly black voters from taking part in the election. US Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democratic moderate facing a shrinking pool of voters in her party in her home state of Missouri, is promoting her middle-of-the-road politics as a way to lure Republican voters ahead of the November 6, 2018 midterm elections Days before deeply polarizing US midterm elections, Democrat Claire McCaskill is tearing through Missouri, trying to entice Republican voters with her middle-of-the-road politics -- even as rabble-rouser-in-chief Donald Trump whips up support for her rival. As a two-term Democratic centrist in an increasingly Republican-leaning Midwestern state, McCaskill has beaten the odds before. But she faces a herculean task Tuesday, with President Trump campaigning for her challenger Josh Hawley twice in the race's final five days seeking to stop McCaskill's Senate re-election bid cold. During a campaign event in St. Louis she insisted the president's Missouri trips showed Hawley's desperation, but she avoided bashing Trump himself. "I don't get up every day trying to figure out how to fight the president," McCaskill, 65, told AFP at the gathering hours before Trump rallied in Columbia. "This is about standing up to the president when I think he's wrong, like on tariffs which are brutalizing the agriculture industry in our state, (and) it's about working with him, like on the opioids bill" to expand drug abuse prevention and treatment programs. McCaskill's task is two-fold in a state that chose Trump by nearly 20 points in 2016: get out the vote in deep blue territory like St. Louis -- where rallying African-American support is critical -- and draw enough support in conservative rural Missouri to put her over the top On Thursday she campaigned in St. Louis before heading northwest to O'Fallon, a town in the Republican-held second congressional district, to highlight her efforts to expand healthcare access, protect coverage for pre-existing conditions and improve care for veterans. Her challenge reflects the opposition Democrats' across much of the Midwest, where several states including Democratic strongholds like Michigan and Wisconsin voted twice for Barack Obama, but flipped for Trump in 2016. "We gotta hunker down here these last few days," McCaskill -- who balances a folksy demeanor with the razor-sharp language of a former prosecutor -- told a crowd of 100 people. "We'll do some hugging before this is over." And perhaps some hand-wringing. McCaskill is fighting for her political life, neck and neck in polls with Hawley, the state's pro-Trump attorney general who is 27 years her junior. Trump calls Hawley a rising Republican "star," but McCaskill insists he would only serve as a rubber stamp for the president's agenda. For Democrats, Missouri is an absolute: lose the state, and efforts to put a check on Trump in the Senate, where Republicans who hold a 51-49 edge, will evaporate. - 'Push and pull' - US President Donald Trump is traveling to Missouri twice in the closing days before the November 6, 2018 midterm elections in order to campaign with Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley (right), who is challenging Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill Observers acknowledge Missouri is shifting steadily into Republican territory. The Show Me State has long embraced the labor movement traditionally aligned with Democrats, and unions remain influential. But Missourians are largely socially conservative, which leads to a "push and pull," explained Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican candidate for state representative. As the national Democratic Party "got more and more progressive... it's been harder for those in the Midwest to follow along with them," Coleman said while doorknocking in Arnold, in the same Republican district as O'Fallon. Even as many voters across the country, particularly women, voice frustration with Trump, Coleman said he remains popular in her district. McCaskill's race is a toss-up, but "I think it's going to break late -- and conservative," Coleman added. The Old Courthouse is seen infront of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri on November 1, 2018 Not if more people like Jason Shoemaker vote. The 40-year-old independent supported Trump in 2016, but said he backs McCaskill for Senate. Shoemaker, who works for coal giant Peabody Energy, has grown "disheartened with politics" because of the mudslinging often fueled by Trump's caustic tweets. That being said, he appreciates the economy's upward trajectory, an accomplishment Republicans are selling heavily this year. "I don't like half the stuff that comes out of the man's mouth," Shoemaker said of Trump, "but at the same time my 401-K (retirement plan) is looking great." - Campaign blitz - Republican state representative candidate Mary Elizabeth Coleman canvases for votes in Windsor Township near St. Louis, Missouri on November 1, 2018 As candidates nationwide make their closing arguments, it is virtually impossible for voters to ignore Trump, who acknowledges the election is a referendum on his presidency. Trump has thrust Missouri into the spotlight, as his multi-state final campaign blitz ends in Cape Girardeau, Missouri on election eve. Thursday in Columbia he urged Missouri to "retire far-left Democrat" McCaskill. Hawley joined Trump on stage, and quickly linked her to failed presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. "Claire McCaskill has spent her lifetime in politics just like Hillary," Hawley said. She "wanted us to call Hillary Clinton Madam President. On November 6, we're going to call Claire McCaskill 'fired,'" he said. The crowd roared. McCaskill meanwhile is hugging it out, one voter at a time. "It's hard," she said of her mission. Getting Democrats enthusiastic is key, she said, "but you also have to have the trust of voters who don't view their decision through a political lens." Kit Jenkins is a supporter, but she's nervous. The 66-year-old retired professor is urging Democrats to vote to rein in Trump, and hopes Republicans do the same. "This is a fight," Jenkins said of McCaskill's re-election effort. "I'm not here saying hey, we nailed it," she added. "I'm here saying, God damn it I'm giving you everything I have." Repsol Honda rider Marc Marquez celebrates winning the Malaysia MotoGP at the Sepang International Circuit World champion Marc Marquez won the Malaysian MotoGP Sunday despite starting in seventh position after being hit with a grid penalty, surging past Valentino Rossi who crashed out when leading. Suzuki's Alex Rins came in second after overtaking Yamaha rider Johann Zarco, who finished third, in the final stage of the race at Sepang. Italian star Rossi finished 18th after tumbling off his bike on the 16th lap and losing the lead to Marquez, who was crowned world champion last month in Japan. Nine-time world champion Rossi, second on the grid, looked to be heading for his first win in Malaysia since 2010 as he dominated the early stages. However Marquez, who qualified in pole position but was hit with a six-place grid penalty for impeding another rider, slowly worked his way through the pack. The Spaniard reached second place and was slowly closing the gap on Rossi, 39, when the Italian fell off his bike as he leaned into a corner. Movistar Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi (front) finished 18th after tumbling off his bike on the 16th lap and losing the lead He got up and continued but by that point victory had already slipped out of his grasp. Marquez, 25, was dominant in the final stages of the race and opened up a big gap to the rest of the field. "The start was not perfect but then I started to take out the riders step-by-step," said Marquez. "I started to feel better and better, and I started to see I was catching (Rossi)." Marquez also lost his pole position in the Grand Prix of the Americas in Texas in April and was dropped to fourth on the starting grid after being penalised for disturbing Maverick Vinales in qualifying. He went on to win that race for the sixth consecutive time. Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso, the winner in Malaysia in 2016 and 2017, could only manage sixth but retains second place in the overall standings, with Rossi's crash leaving the Italian in third with one race remaining. The rain stayed away after organisers shifted the start of the MotoGP two hours earlier in a bid to avoid tropical downpours, which usually occur in the late afternoon in Malaysia. The decision came after Saturday's qualifying session was delayed by more than an hour due to heavy rain. Humidity and tropical rain are a constant challenge for riders at the Sepang circuit. The 2016 and 2017 editions of the MotoGP took place during heavy downpours. A Bahraini man holds a placard bearing the portrait of Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the Shiite opposition movement Al-Wefaq, during a protest on May 29, 2016 Bahrain's appeals court sentenced the head of the country's Shiite opposition movement to jail for life Sunday over charges of spying for rival Gulf state Qatar, a judicial source said. Sheikh Ali Salman, who headed the now-outlawed Al-Wefaq movement, had been acquitted by the high criminal court in June, a verdit the public prosecution appealed. The latest ruling on Sunday can also be appealed. Bahrain, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, severed all ties with Qatar in 2017, banning their citizens from travel to or communication with the emirate over what they say are Doha's ties to both Iran and radical Islamist groups. Salman is currently serving a four-year sentence in a separate case -- "inciting hatred" in the kingdom, which has seen mainly Shiite protests against the Sunni monarchy since 2011. In November, Salman and two other members of Al-Wefaq were charged with working for Qatari intelligence with the aim of overthrowing the Bahraini government. King Hamad has announced parliamentary elections on November 24 in Bahrain. Members of dissolved opposition parties, including Al-Wefaq and the secular Al-Waad group, are banned from running. The Sunni-ruled Gulf state has been hit by waves of unrest since 2011, when security forces crushed Shiite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. Opposition movements have been outlawed and hundreds of dissidents have been imprisoned -- with many stripped of their nationality. Bahrain last year ratified a constitutional amendment granting military courts the authority to try civilians charged with terrorism, a term that is loosely defined by the Bahraini penal code. In June, the kingdom amended its law on political rights, prohibiting "leaders and members of political associations dissolved for violating the kingdom's constitution or its laws" from running in legislative elections. Bahrain, a key ally of the United States and home to the US Fifth Fleet, accuses Shiite Iran of provoking unrest in the kingdom. Iran denies the allegations. The United Nations and rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticised the Bahraini monarchy over its treatment of protesters. Amnesty and HRW categorise Salman and other jailed opposition leaders prisoners of conscience. The Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa and the key Red Sea port city of Hodeida in 2014 Dozens of Yemeni rebels have been killed in battles and air strikes in Hodeida, medics said Sunday, as pro-government forces advanced in the insurgent-held Red Sea port city. The bloodshed comes despite growing international pressure to end a years-long conflict that has left thousands dead. Fifty-three Huthi rebels were killed and dozens were injured over the past 24 hours, medical sources in Hodeida told AFP. Clashes intensified in the city and centred around its university on Saturday and Sunday morning, a pro-government military official said. Huthi media reported air strikes in Hodeida on Sunday but did not give a fighter casualty toll. Military officials said Saudi-led coalition warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes to support pro-government forces in the fighting which began on Thursday evening. Thirteen pro-government troops were killed, medical sources in Aden and Mokha -- where the fighters were transported -- told AFP. The clashes erupted just hours after the government said Thursday it was ready to restart peace talks with the Iran-backed Huthis. The offer followed a surprise call by the United States for an end to the Yemen war, including air strikes by the coalition. Hodeida port is the entry point for more than 70 percent of imports into the impoverished country, which is teetering on the edge of famine. - 'Shamefully slow to act' - Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, a special envoy for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), appealed for an immediate ceasefire. "As an international community we have been shamefully slow to act to end the crisis in Yemen," she said in a statement during a trip to South Korea. "We have watched the situation deteriorate to the point that Yemen is now on the brink of man-made famine, and facing the worst cholera epidemic in the world in decades," Jolie added. "The only way to enable refugees to return home, and to bring down the overall numbers worldwide, is to end conflicts themselves." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday had called for a halt to violence to pull Yemen back from the "precipice". After UN-backed peace talks collapsed in September, the coalition announced it was relaunching an assault on Hodeida. Yemeni government officials said Tuesday that the coalition had sent more than 10,000 new troops towards the battleground city. Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the war in 2015 to bolster Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the rebels took over the capital Sanaa and drove the government further south to Aden. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 10,000 people have since been killed. Some rights groups estimate the toll could be five times higher. Iranian protesters burn US and Israeli flags during a demonstration outside the former US embassy in Tehran on November 4, 2018 Iran's annual rally to mark the storming of the US embassy and hostage-taking of 1979 had particular significance on Sunday on the eve of renewed sanctions by Washington. Thousands joined rallies in Tehran and other cities, carrying placards that mocked President Donald Trump, wiping their feet on fake dollar bills, and engaging in the usual ritual of burning the US flag. This year's 39th anniversary fell just hours before Washington was set to reimpose sanctions -- including an oil embargo -- following its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal earlier this year. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Revolutionary Guards, addressed the crowd from the grounds of the former embassy, now known as the "den of spies". He said "economic warfare" was a final bid by Washington to overthrow the Islamic republic after decades of failed attempts. Iranian protesters hold placards mocking US President Donald Trump, Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman outside the former US embassy in Tehran on November 4, 2018 "With God's help and the resistance and perseverance of the pious and revolutionary people of Islamic Iran, this last weapon of the enemy -- the economic war -- which is accompanied by America's widespread media operation against the nation of Iran, will be defeated," Jafari said. "Never threaten Iran," he warned US President Donald Trump, describing him as America's "strange president". The seizure of the US embassy by radical students was a key stage in the Islamic revolution of 1979, leading to a 444-day hostage crisis that permanently damaged relations between Washington and Tehran. The students believed the US would launch a counter-coup to return deposed shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power -- similar to the CIA-backed coup that overthrew Iran's elected government in 1953 -- unaware that the king was already critically ill with cancer. Several of the students later regretted the incident, but for the establishment it has become a powerful symbol of Iran's refusal to be dominated by outside powers, the key driving force of the revolution. Without the attack on the embassy, "the revolution would not have reached its 40th year," said Jafari. Palestinian children do their homework during a power cut in Gaza City in September 2017 The lights are going back on in the Gaza Strip, in a rare piece of positive news from the blockaded Palestinian enclave. In recent days, residents say they have received up to 16 hours of mains electricity a day, compared with as little as four previously. UN humanitarian officials report an average of between nine and 11 hours per day since October 25. It is the result of a landmark six-month deal, part of efforts to end unrest along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip that has raised fears of a fourth war since 2008. The deal emerged amid ongoing indirect negotiations between the strip's Islamist rulers Hamas and Israel, mediated by the UN and Egypt, in hopes of reaching a long-term truce. The fuel agreement, whose first deliveries arrived on October 9, has provided the most power to Gaza residents in years. The tentative results are showing in the enclave's beleaguered economy: companies able to work longer, restaurant costs falling, and even an increase in ice cream. Margins are tight for Kamal Fattoum's two-man box factory in Gaza City and his meagre profits would evaporate if he were to run a generator. He only uses the heavy equipment needed for the hours he has mains electricity, so his work day had shortened in tandem with Gaza's dwindling power supply. The uptick has had an immediate impact. "Instead of working for four hours we can work for eight or more," he explained. - Abbas opposed - Last month's deal sees Qatar pay $60 million for fuel delivered to Gaza's sole power station. The deliveries are sent through Israel, which agreed on condition the United Nations monitors them to avoid interference by Hamas, which it accuses of diverting humanitarian aid. The deal was made without the backing of the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority, based in the occupied West Bank and run by president Mahmud Abbas. Abbas lost control of Gaza to Hamas in a 2007 near civil war, prompting Israel's crippling blockade it says is necessary to keep the Islamist movement that has called for its destruction from obtaining weapons or materials to make them. Egypt had also kept its border with Gaza mostly closed in recent years before opening it in May. A tanker delivers fuel to the Gaza Strip's sole power plant in Nuseirat on October 24, 2018 UN officials and rights groups have called for the blockade to be lifted, saying it has helped impoverish the two million people stuck in the cramped enclave. Hamas-backed border protests and clashes that began on March 30 have led to more than 200 Palestinians and one Israeli being killed. International powers have traditionally sought Abbas's support before carrying out aid programmes in Gaza, but he opposed this agreement, saying it legitimises Hamas's rule. He has also imposed punitive measures on Gaza. Unable to get Abbas to back the deal, UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov and others worked around him. - More television - The result is rates of power the likes of which some Gazans say they can barely remember. Coupled with pre-existing electricity delivered from Israel, Gaza now has about 200 megawatts a day, said Mohammed Thabet, spokesman for the Gazan energy company. It is short of the 400-500 megawatts needed for full power, but enough to see service double or more. The Gaza Strip's sole power plant in Nuseirat "We were paying around 800 shekels ($215) a day for 12 hours power from a generator," said Karam Al-Tali, deputy manager of a restaurant in Gaza City. Now they only need to buy three hours of power from a generator thanks to the increase in mains electricity, he said. The kebabs and sandwiches they sell go for just 14 shekels ($3.50), he pointed out. Nearby a corner shop now has enough electricity to power freezers -- meaning they are stocking ice cream again. The UN's Mladenov said in a statement to AFP the Qatari donation was making "a visible difference in the lives of people." "This should point the way to what other donors can do if they want to help avoid a war and help those in need." Indirect talks are continuing on a long-term truce, and on Friday Gaza protest leaders called for calmer demonstrations along the border. Those calls were largely heeded, resulting in one of the calmest Friday protests since demonstrations began in March. The electricity deal may yet be a false dawn. Western diplomats say there can be no major rebuilding of Gaza while Hamas remains in control. Electricity shortages will likely intensify again as winter kicks in and more energy-sapping heaters are switched on. Mahed Dahdour, 38, said the impact for his building company would only be significant if Israel eased the blockade. "Electricity without money is nothing," he said. But for now residents are taking advantage of the power boost -- with at least one downside. Umm Yusef, who lives in a crumbling house with her five kids in Gaza City, said of her children: "They used to study more. Now you can't even talk to them -- they are watching the TV!" A minor, 2,9-magnitude earthquake occurred in Tbilisi today, InterPressNews reported. Zurab Javakhishvili, professor of Ilia State University Earth Scientists Institute, told InterPressNews that aftershocks were felt at 5:36 pm. According to the Earth Scientists Institute, Tbilisi was the epicenter of the quake. Ashiq Masih, the husband of Asia Bibi, has pleaded for the international community to help him and his family to leave Pakistan The husband of a Pakistani Christian woman at the centre of a divisive blasphemy case has pleaded for international help to leave the country, saying he feared for his family's safety. The request by Asia Bibi's husband Ashiq Masih came a day after he criticised a government deal with hardline Islamists that left her in legal limbo, and called on authorities to protect her. Bibi -- who had been on death row since 2010 on blasphemy charges -- was acquitted by the Supreme Court Wednesday, triggering large street protests by ultra-conservative Islamists who paralysed Pakistan for three days, blocking roads and disrupting traffic. The government reached a deal Friday to end the protests by agreeing to a travel ban preventing Bibi from leaving the country, and saying it would not object to hardline movements appealing the verdict. An appeal has now been filed with the court against Bibi's release. Masih criticised the government deal, saying it was "wrong". Large street protests paralysed Pakistan for days after Asia Bibi was acquitted on blasphemy charges "I request President Donald Trump to help us to leave (the country), and I request the prime minister of the UK to do their level best to help us, to grant us freedom," said Masih, in a video message, seen by AFP, also requesting help from the Canadian prime minister. Wilson Chowdhry, of the British Pakistani Christian Association, told AFP that the family was resting its hopes on the US, Britain or Canada to grant them asylum and help them reach a place of safety. "These nations have the largest Pakistani Christian communities," Chowdhry said, added that Masih also wants asylum for some members of the extended family and those who have helped with his wife's case, one of whom could speak English. "If Asia Bibi leaves the country, every family member, every person associated to her, will be killed," he said. - 'Totally shattered' - Chowdhry said the family's initial relief at Bibi's acquittal has turned into anguish. "The daughters are weeping. They still haven't seen their mother. The family is totally shattered," he said. Asia Bibi had been held on death row since 2010 on blasphemy charges, before the Supreme Court acquittal this week "They absolutely don't know when they will see their mother. Since (the court decision), with the violence and the protests, it is too dangerous for them to see their mother in jail." Blasphemy is a hugely inflammatory charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unproven allegations of insulting Islam can spark attacks and killings at the hands of vigilante mobs. Masih Saturday told German Deutsche Welle radio the court had been "very courageous" to acquit his wife, an illiterate mother in her 50s who was accused of blasphemy a decade ago. "The current situation is very dangerous for us. We have no security and are hiding here and there, frequently changing our location," he told the German radio station, saying he was worried his wife would be attacked in prison. The case began in June 2009 when Bibi was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. Muslim women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Muslim, she should not touch the water bowl, and reportedly a fight erupted. A local imam then claimed Bibi insulted the Prophet Mohammed -- a charge she has consistently denied. Bibi's lawyer fled Pakistan on Saturday, fearing for his life. "In the current scenario, it's not possible for me to live in Pakistan," Saif-ul-Mulook, 62, told AFP before boarding a plane to Europe. Masih demanded the government reinforce Bibi's protection in prison, worrying that she may be attacked. He cited the case of two Christian men who were shot dead after a court acquitted them in another blasphemy case. The tiger known popularly as Avni was shot dead in Maharashtra on Friday night, sparking immediate controversy An Indian cabinet minister accused a party colleague Sunday of ordering the "ghastly murder" of a tiger and vowed legal action after the man-eating animal was shot in the country's west. The big cat blamed for killing more than a dozen people was shot dead Friday night after a months-long search, capping one of India's most high-profile tiger hunts in decades. But the shooting in the forests of Maharashtra state sparked immediate controversy and allegations the kill was unethical and illegal. Maneka Gandhi, a staunch animal activist and part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet, accused the state forest minister of hiring a "trigger-happy shooter" to slay the tiger. "It is nothing but a straight case of crime", said Gandhi, a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), describing the shooting as a "ghastly murder". "I am definitely going to take up this case of utter lack of empathy for animals as a test case. Legally, criminally as well as politically," she posted on Twitter. She accused the state's forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar -- also from the BJP -- of ignoring appeals to call off the hunt for the tiger known officially as T1 and popularly as Avni. The Supreme Court had issued a hunting order for T1 in September, ruling that she could be killed if tranquilizers failed. Several appeals were made against the death sentence. Forestry officials acknowledged to Indian media that no vet was present during the hunt, as required by the Supreme Court order. The Indian branch of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the tiger slaughter was about "satisfying a hunter's lust for blood". The big cat was blamed for 13 deaths since June 2016 but animal activists said she was trying to protect her young. A team of more than 150 people had spent months searching for T1, using a paraglider and dozens of infrared cameras while sharpshooters had ridden on the backs of elephants. T1 was shot by Asghar Ali Khan, son of India's most famous hunter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan, who was meant to be leading the hunt but was not present Friday night. The senior Khan defended his son's actions as "a reflex action of self-defence" as the tiger turned on the hunting party after being struck by a tranquilizer dart. India has launched a major campaign to boost tiger numbers. At the last tiger census in 2014 the number had risen to more than 2,200 from a low of less than 1,500. But urban spread as the population of 1.25 billion grows has increasingly eaten into the territory of wild animals. Endangered elephants and tigers kill on average one person a day, according to government figures. Rebels killed at least seven civilians and abducted 15 others, including children, in fresh overnight raids in the far eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, civilian and military sources said Sunday. Fighters of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) staged two raids Saturday night in the North Kivu region bordering Uganda, Teddy Kataliko, leader of the civilian administration in Beni district, told AFP. According to his account, rebels at Mangboko burnt a lorry driver in his vehicle and killed six other civilians, while in Oicha, they killed one person and abducted 15 others -- for a total death toll of eight. Beni district administrator Donat Kibwana said seven people were killed and 15 people were abducted, including 10 children. Army spokesman Captain Mak Hazukay also put the death toll at seven. Kataliko denounced the army as ineffective, saying: "It is not normal that the army cannot manage to keep the population safe," but Hazukay insisted that soldiers had reacted quickly to stop the rebel incursions. The ADF, which US authorities designated a terror group in 2001, is a militia created by Muslim rebels to oppose Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni but which also operates in the DRC. It is blamed for a string of attacks in the region since 2014 that have killed at least 700 civilians, and 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers in a December assault last year. The by-elections are a rare test of support for embattled leader Aung San Suu Kyi's government The party of Myanmar's embattled head of state Aung San Suu Kyi said Sunday they were defeated in six constituencies in a national by-election, showing uneven support for her government after a string of controversies. Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) swept to power in 2015 in a landslide victory, ending decades of military rule. But her tenure has been full of stumbles, most notably with ethnic groups involved in peace talks with the military -- which has been marred by skirmishes and ongoing civil war in states like Kachin and Shan. The dissatisfaction came through in the results of Saturday's by-election, in which 13 seats in the lower and upper houses of parliament and regional assemblies were up for grabs. "Currently, we won seven seats and lost in six places," NLD spokesman Dr. Myo Nyunt told AFP. Four of the six seats were previously held by NLD candidates. While official tallies have not yet been released by the Union Election Commission, preliminary results show the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) had beaten NLD out on three seats. In some constituencies voters went with ethnic political parties, while people in Rakhine state's Yathedaung township threw their support behind the son of a prominent politician who has in the past capitalised on the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists' dissatisfaction with Muslim communities. Dr. Myo Nyunt said the losses of these six seats is due to his party's unpopularity with ethnic minority groups and people working for the government. "We heard that ethnic groups are not satisfied with our performance regarding the peace process," he said. Voters cast their ballots in a small but important by-election in Myanmar on Saturday Political analyst Maung Maung Soe told AFP that the low voter turnout in most of these constituencies hurt the NLD's showing, and voter apathy could really impact them in the next election in 2020 -- adding that in comparison, the military-aligned USDP has unwavering support. "Although NLD supporters are many, they are currently losing supporters from ethnic groups and intellectuals as well as from the media," he said. For press freedom advocates, Suu Kyi's shine has worn off due to the jailing of two Reuters journalists who reported on the killing of 10 Rohingya men by the military. They were sentenced to seven years in prison in what has largely been regarded as a sham trial. Outside of Myanmar, the international community has also soured on the former Nobel Laureate, as her image as a rights icon has been shattered due to her handling of the Rohingya crisis. More than 720,000 people of the stateless Muslim minority group have fled Bangladesh since a military crackdown in August 2017, which UN investigators have alleged amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity. Myanmar has denied almost all the allegations, justifying the actions of the military as necessary to combat terrorism. The Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa and the key Red Sea port city of Hodeida in 2014 Intensified fighting shook a key rebel-held port city on Yemen's Red Sea coast on Sunday, leaving dozens dead as the United Nations warned that children in the war-torn country face "a living hell". The bloodshed comes despite growing international pressure to end a years-long conflict that has killed thousands and pushed the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation to the brink of famine. Fifty-three Huthi rebels have been killed and dozens wounded in battles and air strikes over the past 24 hours in Hodeida, according to medical sources in the port city, which is a key gateway for humanitarian aid. Military officials said Saudi-led coalition warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes early Sunday to support pro-government forces in fighting that appear to be approaching the city's main university. Huthi media reported air strikes in Hodeida on Sunday but did not give a fighter casualty toll. Thirteen pro-government troops were killed, according to medical sources in Aden and Mokha, where their bodies were transported. Nearly three quarters of the country's imports flow through Hodeida, from where they are transported by land to areas further north. The port is controlled by Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels and under blockade by Saudi Arabia and its allies in a government coalition. - 'Living hell for children' - The UN children's fund (UNICEF) warned an assault on Hodeida city would jeopardise the lives of Yemenis across the country who depend on its port for humanitarian aid. "Yemen is today a living hell -- not for 50 to 60 percent of the children -- it is a living hell for every boy and girl in Yemen," he told a news conference in the Jordanian capital. Conflict in Yemen The UN has called Yemen, long the poorest country in the Arab world, the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, and warned that 14 million people across the country face imminent famine. The Hodeida clashes erupted on Thursday just hours after the government said it was ready to restart peace talks with the Iran-backed Huthis. The offer followed a surprise call by the United States for an end to the Yemen war, including air strikes by the coalition. Both the coalition and rebels stand accused of acts that could amount to war crimes, and the Saudi-led coalition has been blacklisted by the UN for the maiming and killing of Yemeni children in air raids. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, though some rights groups estimate the toll could be five times higher. - 'Shamefully slow to act' - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday pleaded for a halt to violence to pull Yemen back from the "precipice". And Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, a special envoy for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), appealed for an immediate ceasefire. "As an international community we have been shamefully slow to act to end the crisis in Yemen," she said in a statement Sunday. A Yemeni child suffering from malnutrition is weighed at a treatment centre in the capital Sanaa on October 6, 2018 "We have watched the situation deteriorate to the point that Yemen is now on the brink of man-made famine, and facing the worst cholera epidemic in the world in decades," Jolie added. "The only way to enable refugees to return home, and to bring down the overall numbers worldwide, is to end conflicts themselves." Multiple attempts to find a political solution to the Yemen conflict, widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, have failed. UN-backed peace talks between the Huthis and government collapsed in September after the rebels refused to travel to Geneva unless the United Nations guaranteed both their delegation's safe return to Sanaa and the evacuation of wounded fighters. Yemeni government officials said Tuesday that the coalition had sent more than 10,000 new troops towards the battleground city, seized by the rebels in 2014 along with the capital Sanaa. Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the war in the following year to bolster Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi whose government fled to the southern city of Aden. Iraqi forces gather near Al-Qaim border crossing between Syria and Iraq on November 1, 2018, reinforcing their positions along the porous frontier to prevent a spillover from clashes there between Islamic State group and US-backed forces The Islamic State group killed 12 US-backed fighters in a surprise attack Sunday from the jihadists' holdout in eastern Syria on the Iraqi border, a Britain-based monitor said. Twelve fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide car bombing and subsequent clashes in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. An SDF spokesman, however, denied any members of his Kurdish-led alliance had been killed. "There are counter-attacks every day and the clashes are ongoing, but the talk of martyrs among our ranks is not true," Mustefa Bali said. According to Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman, Sunday's attack "started with a car bomb driven by a suicide attacker against an SDF position between Hajin and Al-Bahra". The attack allowed IS to advance towards Al-Bahra from its holdout around Hajin, and push back the first lines of defence of the SDF, which is backed by the US-led coalition, the Observatory said. The monitor said 14 civilians and nine IS jihadists were killed Saturday in coalition air strikes in Hajin and the nearby towns of Sousa and Al-Shaafa. A coalition spokesman said those strikes targeted IS positions. "The strikes killed ISIS terrorists and destroyed three operational facilities critical to ISIS's operations," Sean Ryan told AFP, using an alternative acronym for IS. The SDF, with the support of coalition air strikes, in September launched an offensive to wrest the Deir Ezzor pocket including Hajin from IS, making slow advances. But the alliance suffered a major setback as they retreated last week from the entire pocket after IS suicide bombings and low visibility due to sand storms. Last Wednesday, the SDF suspended its fight against the jihadists after Turkish forces fired on the group's positions in northern Syria. The coalition estimates 2,000 IS fighters remain in the Hajin pocket near the border with Iraq, which has reinforced military positions near its Al-Qaim crossing to prevent a spillover of clashes. IS overran large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" across land it controlled. But the jihadist group has since lost most of that territory to various offensives in both countries. In Syria, its presence has been reduced to parts of the vast Badia desert and Hajin. A total of more than 360,000 people have been killed since Syria's multi-front war erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests The minister in charge of Jerusalem affairs for the Palestinian Authority, Adnan al-Husseini, poses in front of gutted computers after an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank town of Al-Ram, near Jerusalem Israeli forces raided the offices of the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem on Sunday, authorities said, after reports of an investigation related to a land sale. Israeli authorities confirmed the raid in Al-Ram, just on the other side of Israel's separation wall from Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, but provided few details. It came after Israel's detention of the Palestinian governor, Adnan Gheith, on October 20. He was released two days later. The Palestinian Authority's (PA) Jerusalem affairs minister, Adnan al-Husseini, told AFP that Israeli forces confiscated documents and material during the raid. The same building houses his ministry and the governor's office, both of which he said were raided in the first such Israeli action. Palestinian government spokesman Yusuf Mahmud said it was a "dangerous escalation of the occupation and a flagrant violation of all international laws and agreements". Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency said in a statement a joint raid with police and the army was over "illegal activity by the PA in Jerusalem". It said "various materials were seized which will be examined by security bodies." Asked to specify which illegal activity, the Shin Bet said only that all PA activity in Jerusalem was illegal. Employees work behind a broken window in their office at the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority's ministry of Jerusalem affairs in the occupied West Bank town of Al-Ram, following an Israeli raid Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. It considers the entire city its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state. The PA has a minister for Jerusalem affairs and a Jerusalem governor located in Al-Ram, with Palestinian Authority activities barred in Jerusalem itself. Israeli media reported that the investigation follows the PA's arrest of a man last month accused of selling property in east Jerusalem to a Jewish buyer. Such sales are highly controversial among Palestinians concerned with Israeli settlers buying property in east Jerusalem. But among Israelis, there have been calls for authorities to free the man arrested by the PA over the sale. Neither the PA nor Israeli authorities commented on the alleged arrest of the property seller, who Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported was a Palestinian with US citizenship. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says goodbye to Kim Yong Chol (R), North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, before boarding his plane at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang in July 2018 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday he will meet this week in New York with North Korea's number two, Kim Yong Chol, to resume denuclearization talks. Announcing the meeting on Fox News Sunday, Pompeo said it would be "a good opportunity to continue the denuclearization discussions" underway since US President Donald Trump's historic summit in June with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Pompeo's announcement follows a North Korean foreign ministry statement that the North will "seriously" consider reviving its nuclear weapons program unless US sanctions are lifted. But Pompeo dismissed the warning, saying, "I'm not worried about that." "We are very focused. We know with whom we are negotiating, we know what their positions (are) and President Trump has made his position very clear," Pompeo said. He added there would be "no economic relief until we have achieved our ultimate objective." At their summit in Singapore in June, Trump and Kim signed a vaguely worded statement on denuclearization. But little progress has been made since then, with Washington pushing to maintain sanctions against the North until its "final, fully verified denuclearization," and Pyongyang condemning US demands as "gangster-like." "The improvement of relations and sanctions are incompatible," said the statement, released under the name of the director of the foreign ministry's Institute for American Studies. "What remains to be done is the US corresponding reply," it added. Supporters of ousted prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe gather at the prime minister's official residence, which Wickremesinghe has refused to leave Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena announced Sunday that parliament would reconvene a week later than expected, prolonging a bitter power struggle that has crippled the country. Sirisena had on Friday promised that he would recall parliament on Wednesday to decide between two rivals claiming the lawful right to head Sri Lanka's government. The nation of 21-million has been gripped by constitutional turmoil since Sirisena sacked his former ally, prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and his cabinet on October 26 -- appointing former president Mahinda Rajapakse in his place. Sirisena shut the legislature a day after the sacking, preventing a vote demanded by Wickremesinghe to prove his majority. On Sunday the expected recall was pushed back until November 14. "I do by this Proclamation summon Parliament to meet at the Chamber of Parliament... on the Fourteenth day of November, 2018 at 10.00 am," Sirisena said in an official proclamation. The United Nations had led a chorus of international voices demanding an early resumption of parliament to end the constitutional crisis that has paralysed the administration and caused economic upheaval. Wickremesinghe says his dismissal was illegal as he commands a greater majority in parliament than former strongman Rajapakse. Sunday's announcement by Sirisena came as the country's main Tamil party urged him to end the worsening political crisis. - 'End the crisis' - The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) could tip a vote to decide between the two rivals and has already said it would vote against Rajapakse in a no-confidence motion when parliament reconvenes. Both men have been marshalling numbers behind the scenes, worrying civil society groups who protested Sunday in the capital Colombo against the horse-trading. TNA legislator Dharmalingam Sithadthan said the president had called the Tamil legislators to a meeting Wednesday -- the same day parliament was originally expected to reconvene. "We have asked the president to immediately call parliament and end this crisis," TNA legislator Dharmalingam Sithadthan told AFP. Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) risks losing legislators to Rajapakse's camp as the days drag by. Some members of his party have alleged they were offered portfolios and huge amounts of money to switch allegiances. Seven MPs have already switched sides and been granted portfolios under Rajapakse's new administration. The Sunday Times of Colombo newspaper described the sacking of the prime minister as "sheer political expediency" and outside the law. The state-run Sunday Observer, now controlled by Rajapakse loyalists, defended the change of government but acknowledged the crisis should be resolved. According to latest counts, Wickremesinghe now has 102 MPs from the 225-seat assembly after another defection while Rajapakse and Sirisena also have 102. Most of the remaining 21 MPs -- including the TNA -- are set to oppose Rajapakse, observers said. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) party, which has seven lawmakers, said its members had also rejected offers to join the Sirisena-Rajapakse camp. Meanwhile, thousands of supporters continue to occupy Wickremesinghe's official residence saying they would resist any move by Sirisena to evict their prime minister. Democratic supporters attended a campaign event on November 4, 2018 in Montpelier, Vermont as both US parties made a final, frenzied push two days before key midterm elections Republicans and Democrats were making frenzied, final pushes Sunday to motivate their voters ahead of midterm elections seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump's divisive first two years in office. With Trump continuing a hectic schedule of campaign appearances and former president Barack Obama making a last appeal for a Democratic candidate in Chicago, both sides say voter turnout will be key. With political passions at a rare peak, early voting in some states already running far ahead of normal levels. "It's all about turnout," said Senator Chris Van Hollen, as Democrats wage what polls say is an uphill battle to win control of the Senate. He appeared on "Fox News Sunday." US midterm elections: turnout And with Democrats favored to retake the House of Representatives, Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel concurred that: "It's going to depend on voter turnout on Election Day." But in the first midterm under Trump -- an utterly unconventional president -- there are many unknowns, above all the bottom-line impact of a president who has driven both supporters and foes to a rare fever pitch of emotion. - Many unknowns - US President Donald Trump has a nearly non-stop schedule of campaign appearances, like this one at a rally in Pensacola, Florida on November 3, 2018 The party of a first-term president tends to lose congressional seats in his first midterm. But a healthy economy tends to favor the incumbent -- and the US economy has been growing with rare vigor. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll on Sunday suggested that while Democrats retain an edge in their battle for the House, Republicans could profit from increasingly positive assessments of the economy and by Trump's harsh focus on border security. It found registered voters preferred Democratic candidates for the House over Republicans by 50 percent to 43 percent; but that was down from a 14-point advantage in August. US Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat in a tough battle for reelection, campaigning in St Louis, Missouri Another wild card: The campaign's closing days come just a week after a gunman, who allegedly hated immigrants and Jews, killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, and after a fanatical Trump supporter was arrested in Florida on charges of mailing pipe bombs to prominent Trump opponents, including Obama. The president's critics say the highly charged atmosphere he has helped create made the two attackers feel comfortable to carry out their crimes. Republicans, trying to move past that, have been enthusiastically pressing the economic argument. American voters have watched the economy grow for two years under Trump, McDaniel said on ABC. "They're making more money. More jobs are coming back. That's a great closing argument." But the president -- to the unease of some in the party -- has instead used his nearly nonstop schedule of campaign rallies to keep the spotlight on what he calls the security threat from migrants seeking to enter the US through Mexico. Supporters cheer US President Donald Trump at a "Make America Great Again" rally at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport in Belgrade, Montana. Democrats meantime insist that only they will protect the healthcare gains made under President Barack Obama, that Trump has employed inhumane measures to keep migrants out, and that the divisiveness he has fostered must end. "The Republican effort to take away important healthcare protections is one that Senate Republican candidates have been running away from," Van Hollen, who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said on ABC. But he was cautious about prospects for his chamber on Tuesday, saying, "Senate Democrats really face the toughest political map in 60 years." The U.S.-led coalition conducted air strikes on a small city Hajin in Syria's Deir ez-Zor using banned white phosphorus munitions, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported, citing sources. "The International Coalition used shells with white phosphorus, prohibited by international conventions, during an air strike on the New Market area in Hajin in the east of Deir ez-Zor province," the agency reported, citing local sources. SANA had earlier reported about the US-led coalition using the internationally-prohibited white phosphorus munitions in their airstrikes in Syria. The use of white phosphorus munitions is banned under the 1977 First Additional Protocol to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. A handout picture provided by the office of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on October 14, 2018 shows him giving a speech during a ceremony at Tehran University Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic republic "will proudly bypass sanctions" by the United States that took effect on Monday targeting the country's oil and financial sectors. "I announce that we will proudly bypass your illegal, unjust sanctions because it's against international regulations," Rouhani said in a televised speech. "We are in a situation of economic war, confronting a bullying power. I don't think that in the history of America, someone has entered the White House who is so against law and international conventions," he added. The renewed US sanctions aim to significantly curb Iran's oil exports and cut it off from international finance, and follow US President Donald Trump's controversial decision in May to abandon the multi-nation nuclear deal with Tehran. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, pictured in Washington on October 23, 2018, said the sanctions were intended to "starve the Iranian regime of the funds it uses to fund violent activity throughout the Middle East and around the world" The United States vowed Monday to be "relentless" in countering Iran as sweeping sanctions took effect, but the Islamic republic defiantly promised to stand up to the "bullying" by Washington. President Donald Trump's administration nonetheless issued eight exemptions from its demand on all countries to stop buying Iran's oil, its largest export, amid widespread global opposition to the unilateral US sanctions. Six months after Trump pulled out of an international agreement on ending Tehran's nuclear program, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the ultimate US goal was for Iran to make a "180-degree turn" and abandon its "current revolutionary course." While stopping short of urging regime change, he reiterated his demands for Iran to end policies rooted in the 1979 Islamic revolution including its support for regional proxies such as the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and its development of missiles. "We hope a new agreement with Iran is possible, but until Iran makes changes in the 12 ways I listed in May, we will be relentless in exerting pressure on the regime," Pompeo said. He said the sanctions -- which took effect on the 39th anniversary of Iranian zealots' seizure of the US embassy following the ouster of the pro-US shah -- intended to "starve the Iranian regime of the funds it uses to fund violent activity throughout the Middle East and around the world." UN inspectors say Iran is abiding by an agreement reached with Trump's predecessor Barack Obama to draw down its nuclear program. That deal was backed by European powers, Russia and China and sealed by a UN Security Council resolution. "I announce that we will proudly bypass your illegal, unjust sanctions because it's against international regulations," Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech as the sanctions took effect. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (C), seen at a cabinet meeting in Tehran in a handout picture provided by the Iranian presidency on November 5, 2018, said the Islamic republic "will proudly bypass sanctions" by the United States "We are in a situation of economic war, confronting a bullying power. I don't think that in the history of America, someone has entered the White House who is so against law and international conventions," he added. In one of Tehran's bazaars, there was anxiety over the future. "The shadow of the sanctions has already affected the economy in a disastrous way, people's purchasing power has plunged," said Ehsan Attar in his herbal remedy shop. - 'Act on your commitments' - An Iranian protester burns a dollar banknote during a demonstration outside the former US embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran on November 4, 2018 Rouhani said four countries had approached him during his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly in September offering to mediate with the US, but he turned them down. "There is no need for mediation. There is no need for all these messages. Act on your commitments, and we will sit and talk," he said. Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Gholamali Khoshroo, asked the world body Monday to hold the United States to account, although there was no indication that member-states would take up the issue. The latest tranche of US sanctions aims to significantly cut Iran's oil exports -- which have already fallen by up to one million barrels a day since May -- and cut off its banks from international finance. The Belgian-based SWIFT banking network, the backbone for international monetary transfers, said Monday it had suspended several Iranian banks from its service. Key dates since the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal The International Monetary Fund forecasts that US sanctions will cause Iran's economy to contract 1.5 percent this year and 3.6 percent next year -- pain that Trump has boasted about as he touts his record ahead of Tuesday's congressional elections. Iran's economy was already suffering major structural problems -- including widespread corruption, weak investment and a banking sector laden with toxic assets -- before Trump walked out of the deal. Rouhani's plan since his election in 2013 was to boost the economy by rebuilding ties with the world and attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment -- a strategy that now looks in tatters. - Exemptions to sanctions - The United States issued eight waivers to its ban on buying Iranian oil -- to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. Iranians drivers fill their tanks at a gas station in the capital Tehran on November 5, 2018 Trump said he wanted to go "a little bit slower" on oil sanctions to avoid a price hike, which is especially sensitive in the United States. "I'm not looking to be a great hero and bring it down to zero immediately," Trump told reporters, saying the move "would cause a shock to the market." And despite Trump's repeated declarations that the Iran deal has been a "disaster," the United States announced exemptions that preserve civilian nuclear cooperation started under the accord. The activities at Bushehr, Iran's only nuclear power station, as well as the Fordow enrichment plant and the Arak heavy water reactor, will be allowed "to continue under the strictest scrutiny to ensure transparency and maintain constraints on Iran," a State Department statement said. The other parties to the nuclear deal -- Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia -- have vehemently opposed the US move and vowed to keep alive the accord, technically known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The only support for the US position has come from Iran's regional rivals, notably Saudi Arabia and Israel, whose prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hailed the start of sanctions as "a historic day." Foreign companies and banks are largely unwilling to make enemies of the US Treasury, and most international firms that set up in Iran after the 2015 deal have been forced to leave, including France's Total, Peugeot and Renault, and Germany's Siemens. "Unfortunately, we were treated dishonorably by both the American and Iranian governments," said Fereshteh Safarnezhad, a 43-year-old teacher, on the streets of Tehran. "The Americans never really committed to the deal and the Iranian government did not spend the cash it got from the deal on the people." Bahraini Sheikh Ali Salman, pictured on November 20, 2014, was sentenced on Sunday to life in jail for spying for Doha Qatar denied Monday accusations it interfered in Bahrain's internal affairs after a Manama court sentenced the head of the Shiite opposition to life in jail for spying for Doha. Bahraini Sheikh Ali Salman was sentenced on Sunday for "acts of hostility" against Bahrain and "communicating with Qatari officials... to overthrow constitutional order". Doha has repeatedly denied accusations of conspiring against Bahrain with Salman, a Shiite cleric who headed the now-banned Al-Wefaq movement. Qatar's foreign ministry on Monday said that the case had been politicised and accused Manama of being "narrow-minded". "The state of Qatar condemns the mentioning of its name in Bahrain's political disputes and internal conflicts," the ministry said in a statement. It added that Bahrain should not resort "to the politicisation of the judiciary or use Qatar's name in favour of political calculation that has proven to be narrow-minded". Shortly after, Bahrain's foreign ministry renewed warnings against "any form of interference or harm to the integrity and independence of the kingdom's judicial system". Human rights groups have condemned the verdict against Salman, with Amnesty International calling it "a travesty of justice". Bahrain and Qatar have been locked in a bitter regional dispute since June 2017, when a Saudi-led boycott of Doha was enforced over allegations it was cosying up to regional arch-rival Iran and supporting radical Islamist groups. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates banned their citizens from travel to or communication with Doha. Ruled for more than two centuries by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, Bahrain has been hit by waves of unrest since 2011, when security forces crushed Shiite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. Five months after Syrian government and allied forces retook Yarmuk, the neighbourhood in southern Damascus remains a ghost town After years of fighting, crippling siege and bombardment, what was once the Palestinian diaspora's largest urban settlement in southern Damascus has been reduced to a sea of debris. Former residents of the Palestinian camp of Yarmuk are desperately counting on assistance from abroad to help raise the once-bustling neighbourhood back out of the rubble. "We've lived through a terrifying nightmare," said 46-year-old Amina, one of the camp's very few remaining residents. It "didn't kill us, but now we need someone to rebuild the houses so our people and neighbours can return," she said, wearing a long black robe and white headscarf. In May this year, Syrian government and allied forces retook the neighbourhood, which had for years been the Islamic State jihadist group's only bastion in the capital. Five months on, it is a ghost town where bulldozers have carved wide passages through a sprawling jumble of concrete debris and mangled steel rods. Foreign "countries need to help us because we're like a cripple who needs a crutch to walk again," Amina said. Founded in 1957 with tents for Palestinians forced to leave their homes by the establishment of Israel, Yarmuk grew into a sprawling neighbourhood of permanent structures that became home to 160,000 Palestinians, as well as Syrians. In 2012, around 140,000 residents fled clashes, leaving the rest to face severe food shortages under government siege. And three years later, IS jihadists entered the area, bringing further suffering to remaining residents. - Salvaged playground - Despite all this, dozens of families including Amina's remained inside the camp, and others have since trickled back in. A few children snake between the charred carcasses of buses and cars lining a street on their way to a school outside the camp. Abu Bilal sits in a playground he built for children in Syria's war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmuk in southern Damascus In Amina's street, one of the only roads in Yarmuk still inhabited, a recently returned neighbour has cobbled together a playground. Abu Bilal has brought together swings, a small merry-go-round and a slide in an alley adorned with portraits of President Bashar al-Assad and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "I created this space so the neighbourhood's children could be happy," said the 54-year-old, who now works sweeping streets recently cleared of rubble. "What I do is not enough for people to come back, but I hope donor countries" will help, he said. In September, bulldozers started to clear Yarmuk's main roads of rubble, with funding from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and are expected to take another two months to finish clearing side streets. "Rebuilding requires (foreign) countries and huge capital," said Palestinian engineer Mahmud Khaled, a member of a committee overseeing the rubble clearing. But Palestinian and UN officials say the camp's future is still unclear, as Damascus has not yet given a green light for any re-building or officially allowed residents to return. - 'Future of the camp'? - Boys ride bicycles in Syria's war-ravaged Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus on November 1, 2018 The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says its 23 premises in the camp including 16 schools are damaged, but it will not fix any if the government does not officially allow residents to return. "What is the future of the camp? Will the government allow people to go back or not?" UNRWA's head in Syria, Mohammed Abdi Adar, said. "Before we can do anything, we must get a clear answer," he told AFP. Even then finding funding would be tough, said the official, whose agency has been facing a funding crisis since the United States cut vital support. "Many donors are saying they will not support the reconstruction in Syria," Abdi Adar said, though he stressed the aim for UNRWA was simply to re-establish services. Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people, displaced millions and ravaged large parts of the country since it started in 2011. Regime ally Moscow has called for assistance in rebuilding Syria so millions of refugees can return. In July, the government tasked the ministry of works to draw up new plans for Yarmuk, as well as other Damascus suburbs retaken from rebels and jihadists, sparking fears that the camp could fall under a controversial new law for redevelopment. Under this law, if their land is part of a new development, owners inevitably lose their property but can apply for compensation if they can prove ownership. Individual Palestinians and Syrians own property in 80 percent of the Yarmuk camp, while the remainder is owned by the Syrian state and managed by its authority for Palestinian affairs. For now, Palestinian officials say the government has assured them that Yarmuk is under no threat. They are pushing for a 2004 plan to be followed for reconstruction. Clemence Bectarte, litigation coordinator for the FIDH, said the French warrants send "a strong signal saying 'impunity must not prevail'" France has issued its first international arrest warrants for three senior Syrian intelligence officials, a move hailed by rights groups Monday as an important step towards prosecuting war criminals. The warrants -- one of them for National Security Bureau director Ali Mamluk -- were issued for "complicity in acts of torture", "complicity in crimes against humanity" and "complicity in war crimes". Jamil Hassan, head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence, is also targeted along with Abdel Salam Mahmoud, in charge of the Air Force Intelligence investigative branch at the Mezzeh military aport in Damascus. All three warrants were issued in connection with the deaths of two Franco-Syrian nationals, father and son Mazen and Patrick Dabbagh. Mazen Dabbagh was a 57-year-old official working at a French school in Damascus, where Patrick, 22, was a student. The pair were arrested in November 2013 and went missing after being detained in the Mezzeh detention centre, according to the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). The FIDH says that neither was active in the opposition movement against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and that their arrests remain unexplained. They were officially declared dead this summer. Arrest warrants for the three Syrians were issued on October 8, but made public only on Monday, according to the FIDH. - Drawing on 'Caesar' photos - France is not the first European country to launch legal cases against members of the Syrian regime: similar cases are being pursued in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands. In June, German magazine Der Spiegel reported that German prosecutors had also issued an international arrest warrant for Hassan on charges of overseeing the torture and murder of hundreds of detainees. Both the French and German investigations have drawn on evidence provided by a former Syrian police photographer known as "Caesar". He fled Syria in 2013, taking with him 55,000 graphic photographs showing the brutal torture of detainees. Clemence Bectarte, litigation coordinator for the FIDH, said the French warrants send "a strong signal saying 'impunity must not prevail'." "It's the first time the French courts have issued international arrest warrants against senior Syrian dignitaries," she told AFP. "These arrest warrants are the highest level of what the French courts can do," she added. "It's a very important signal, and a very important symbol, of the level of responsibility that is being placed on the highest echelons of Syria's repressive apparatus." According to the FIDH, the three officials could be put on trial in France, regardless of whether the arrest warrants were executed, under a process of "extraterritorial jurisdiction" which can be applied to crimes against humanity. The Syrian government has not ratified the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court, and its powerful ally Russia would block any war crimes investigation via the United Nations. More than 350,000 people are believed to have been killed in the Syrian war, which started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011. According to the FIDH, between 250,000 and a million civilians have been arrested and detained by government forces and affiliated militias since the start of the protests. Remnants of traditional slavery have become a major issue in Mauritania, an impoverished, deeply conservative and predominantly Muslim state. At this protest last year, the banner read "No to Slavery" Mauritania reacted furiously Monday after the United States pulled its status as a preferential trade partner, accusing the West African state of tolerating forced labour and hereditary slavery. The decision, made by Washington last Friday, will terminate Mauritania's eligibility for trade preference starting January 1. Mauritanian government spokesman Mohamed Ould Maham lashed the move Monday on Twitter, calling it "a betrayal of the friendly relations between our countries and a denial of our efforts" to roll back slavery practices. He pointed to President Donald Trump's posture towards Saudi Arabia, implying that Riyadh -- under fire over the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi -- got soft treatment because of its purchases of US weapons. "Would Trump have taken this decision if he was expecting a $110 billion (96.5 billion euro) arms contract with us?" he asked rhetorically. The United States said the decision was based on an annual review of eligibility under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which requires African countries to improve rule of law and uphold respect for human rights and labour standards. "Mauritania has made insufficient progress toward combating forced labour, in particular the scourge of hereditary slavery," the US Trade Representative said in a statement. "In addition, the government of Mauritania continues to restrict the ability of civil society to work freely to address anti-slavery issues." Remnants of traditional slavery have become a major issue in Mauritania, an impoverished, deeply conservative and predominantly Muslim state. Under a generations-old system of servitude, members of a "slave" caste are forced to work without pay, typically as cattle herders and domestic servants. Slavery was officially abolished in 1981. In 2015, parliament made slavery "a crime against humanity" punishable by prison terms of up to 20 years, compared with five to 10 years previously. No official figures exist for those still enslaved, but some NGOs estimate that up to 43,000 people remained in bondage in 2016, accounting for around one percent of the population. Hundreds of thousands of Mauritanians are the descendants of slaves. Activists say the country has made little headway towards eradicating the problem, although specialised courts set up in 2015 have notably come down harder on offenders this year. In March, a court in the Atlantic port of Nouadhibou sentenced a father and his son to 20 years in prison for enslaving a family of four. A woman was jailed for 10 years for doing the same to three sisters. In April, the court in the coastal capital Nouakchott gave three men the maximum sentence of a year behind bars for denigrating others by addressing them like slaves, a first for such a crime. Despite the symbolic power of the US decision, bilateral trade is negligible. According to official Mauritanian figures, Mauritania imported US goods worth 80 million euros in 2017, and exported just 1.33 million euros. Museveni said he had 'never stepped into the kitchen' in 45 years Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni came under fire Monday for saying he had not stepped into the kitchen since he got married, and that it was not a man's role to cook. "The head of the home never goes into the kitchen. It is now 45 years with Mama Janet, I have never stepped into the kitchen. That is how it should be," he said on Sunday in a statement, as an example of how politicians and civil servants should stick to proscribed roles. Oxfam's International Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima, hit back at the 74-year-old president on Twitter, saying she was "disappointed". "Cooking isn't a woman's job. It's a life skill. All people - men and women should cook," she wrote. "When cooking, cleaning and doing other domestic chores are left to women, they are denied an equal chance to raise incomes or to be politically active." Beatrice Alaso from the opposition Forum For Democratic Change told AFP: "Museveni has revealed to the world what he has always believed in: that women can never be the same as their male counterparts." Online news website Watchdog Uganda however defended Museveni's comments as consistent with the country's culture which sees men cooking as "taboo", saying some ethnic groups in the country have a word referring to men who cook as a "transvestite or a man dressing and behaving like a woman." Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro announced during his campaign his intention to move the country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem The Palestinian envoy to Brazil said Monday he hoped president-elect Jair Bolsonaro's pledge to relocate Brasilia's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem was simply campaign talk and would lobby the new government against the move. "Let's hope it's a campaign announcement. We are hoping that (the incoming government) will maintain Brazil's traditional position, respectful of the United Nations resolutions on the issue," Ibrahim Alzeben told AFP. The Palestinians consider the Israeli-annexed eastern part of Jerusalem the capital of their future state and have condemned the move from Tel Aviv as provocative, saying it would destabilize security in the region. However Alzeben -- the Palestinian ambassador in Brazil since 2008 -- dismissed as "premature" any notion of hardening the Palestinian tone with the incoming far-right government. Alzeben said from this week -- when Bolsonaro begins his transition to power -- the Palestinian mission will intensify efforts to dissuade the new government from breaking with years of diplomatic tradition. Alzeben believes the decision can be reversed before Bolsonaro is sworn in. "We have two months for diplomacy to do its job," he said, adding that his side was in touch with Bolsonaro's team over what he considered a "very important issue." "I doubt that the elected government does not want peace for that region," he added. Bolsonaro, who takes office on January 1, has yet to make the key announcement of who his foreign minister will be. But the former army captain announced the embassy relocation plan during his election campaign, following the lead of the United States. On Thursday Bolsonaro tweeted that "as previously stated during our campaign, we intend to transfer the Brazilian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem." "Israel is a sovereign state and we shall duly respect that," he said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the move as "historic". Brazil formally recognized the Palestinian state in 2010, during the term of leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In 1975, under the military dictatorship, Brazil recognized the Palestinian Liberation Organization as a national liberation movement. It authorized the opening of a Palestinian mission in Brasilia in 1993, according it embassy status five years later. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkish officials say U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have agreed to take "constructive steps" toward strengthening ties. In a telephone call Thursday, Turkish officials said the two leaders also discussed Syria and agreed to maintain "close contacts" concerning bilateral and regional issues. Their conversation came as Turkish and U.S. troops began conducting joint patrols around the Syrian town of Manbij, as part of an agreement that aimed to ease tensions between the two NATO allies. Ties were strained over Turkish demands for the withdrawal of U.S.-backed Kurdish militia that drove Islamic State militants out of Manbij in 2016. Erdogan also conveyed Turkey's condolences over the Pittsburgh synagogue attack that left 11 people dead. The officials provided the information on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, listens to Technology Minister Mustafa Varank at a defence technology development meeting, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018. Turkey's state-run news agency says the Turkish military has shelled positions held by U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters across the border east of the Euphrates River in Syria, killing four Kurdish fighters and wounding six others. The attack came a day after Erdogan said Turkey has finalized plans for a "comprehensive and effective" operation to drive out Kurdish militia from the region.(Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, second right, listens to Technology Minister Mustafa Varank, right, at a defence technology development meeting, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018. Turkey's state-run news agency says the Turkish military has shelled positions held by U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters across the border east of the Euphrates River in Syria, killing four Kurdish fighters and wounding six others. The attack came a day after Erdogan said Turkey has finalized plans for a "comprehensive and effective" operation to drive out Kurdish militia from the region.(Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a defence technology development meeting, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018. Turkey's state-run news agency says the Turkish military has shelled positions held by U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters across the border east of the Euphrates River in Syria, killing four Kurdish fighters and wounding six others. The attack came a day after Erdogan said Turkey has finalized plans for a "comprehensive and effective" operation to drive out Kurdish militia from the region.(Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses supporters at the parliament, in Ankara, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018. Erdogan said the Turkish prosecutor repeated to his Saudi counterpart Turkey's extradition request of 18 suspects detained in Saudi Arabia for the Oct. 2 killing to be put on trial in Istanbul. (Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan poses for a photo at a defence technology development meeting, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018. Turkey's state-run news agency says the Turkish military has shelled positions held by U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters across the border east of the Euphrates River in Syria, killing four Kurdish fighters and wounding six others. The attack came a day after Erdogan said Turkey has finalized plans for a "comprehensive and effective" operation to drive out Kurdish militia from the region.(Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool) BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian government shelling of a rebel-held area in the country's northwest Friday killed at least eight people in the latest and deadliest violation of a truce in the area reached two months ago, a Syria war monitor and an opposition paramedic group said. The artillery shelling marked another violation of a truce reached between Russia and Turkey in September that avoided a major government offensive on the rebel-held province of Idlib. Last Friday, seven people were killed when government forces shelled parts of Idlib, according to opposition activists. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said eight people were killed, including five civilians, in the shelling near the village of Jarjanaz in Idlib. The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, said artillery shells left 10 people dead and others wounded. The Sept. 17 agreement to set up a demilitarized zone 15-20 kilometers (9-12 miles) deep and stretching along the front lines around Idlib, including parts of the provinces of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo, aimed to avert a government offensive on the area. It also called on jihadi fighters to evacuate the demilitarized zone, but activists say many of them did not pull out. Idlib has recently witnessed internal fighting between al-Qaida-linked militants and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters. In the northern city of Raqqa, which was held by the Islamic State group until October last year, gunmen shot dead tribal leader Bashir Faysal Hweidi in his car, according to the Observatory and the activist collective Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently. IS claimed responsibility for the attack accusing Hweidi in a statement of cooperating with the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led group that captured the city from the extremists last year. Hweidi was a senior leader of the Afadla tribe, one of the largest in Raqqa province. IS sleeper cells have been blamed for deadly attacks in areas they once controlled in Syria and Iraq. In neighboring Lebanon, the General Security Directorate that oversees foreigners in the country said in a statement that 87,670 Syrian refugees have returned home since July when the governments of Lebanon and Syria began facilitating the return of refugees. Lebanon is home to more than a million Syrian refugees, or about a quarter of the country's population, putting a huge strain on the economy. Syria's conflict that began in March 2011 has killed some 400,000 people and some five million refugees have fled to neighboring countries. Millions others are internationally displaced. A fire broke out in the fifth floor of a high-rise office building in Indian Kolkata's Park Street area this morning, a Fire Brigade official said. The official added that no one was injured in the fire which broke out at about 11.10 am in the eight-storey building called Apeejay House. At least 10 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames that started in an office in the fifth floor of the building. The fire was brought under control at about 1.00 pm, the official said. The fire department brought in hydraulic ladder and other equipments to fight the blaze. Disaster management personnel and a large number of policemen were also deployed. Police said that people were evacuated safely from the building, which houses offices of several companies and is also the headquarters of Apeejay Surendra Group. They added that cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, NDTV reported. Due to the fire, vehicular movement was regulated in and around the Park Street and traffic was affected in the southern areas of the metropolis. WASHINGTON (AP) - Turkey and the U.S. on Friday lifted sanctions on senior government officials that had been imposed during the diplomatic standoff over the arrest of American pastor Andrew Brunson, officially ending a case that had strained relations between the two NATO members. The Treasury Department said it was lifting the sanctions on Turkish Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu, while Turkey removed its retaliatory measures against Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The moves follow the release last month of Brunson, who spent two years in prison and faced the possibility of a life sentence on terrorism charges that he called "ridiculous." Brunson had lived in Turkey as a missionary for more than two decades when he was arrested as part of a widespread Turkish government crackdown that followed a failed coup against President Recep Erdogan in July 2016. Brunson denied the charges against him, and the U.S. repeatedly called for his release. In August, it imposed sanctions on the two government officials to press Turkey to release the 50-year-old evangelical pastor. Brunson was convicted in October on charges of providing assistance to terrorist groups and sentenced to three years in prison. But he was freed and allowed to leave the country. He is now back in the United States. FILE - In this July 25, 2018 file photo, Andrew Craig Brunson, an evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, arrives at his house in Izmir, Turkey. The United States has lifted sanctions on two senior Turkish officials that were imposed in connection with the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson. (AP Photo/Emre Tazegul, File) MANILA, Philippines (AP) - An Australian nun who angered the Philippine president by joining anti-government protests used her final hours in the country to call on Filipinos to unite and fight human rights abuses. Sister Patricia Anne Fox left the Philippines for Australia on Saturday night. The Bureau of Immigration ordered her deported in July, put her on a blacklist and then downgraded her missionary visa to a temporary visitor's visa, which expired Saturday. President Rodrigo Duterte has bristled at criticism of his leadership, particularly by foreigners like Fox, who he says have no right to meddle in Philippine domestic affairs. Most of the criticism has focused on his bloody anti-drug campaign, which has left thousands dead, alarmed Western governments and rights groups and prompted two complaints of mass murder before the International Criminal Court. "At present in the Philippines the human rights abuses are just increasing and it's a reign of terror and tyranny," Fox told reporters after arriving at Melbourne airport on Sunday. During a farewell news conference in a Catholic school before leaving for the Manila airport with a convoy of supporters, the 71-year-old Fox called on Filipinos to speak up and help the marginalized fight to gain land, houses and jobs. "The big challenge now is not to lose hope, to know that if we all move together, we can bring about change," Fox said. Australian Roman Catholic nun Sister Patricia Fox receives flowers from children of informal settlers as she arrives for a visit to the Redemptorist Church prior to her departure for Australia Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in suburban Paranaque city, south of Manila, Philippines. Sister Fox decided to leave after 27 years in the country after the Immigration Bureau denied her application for the extension of her visa. The Philippine immigration bureau has ordered the deportation of Fox who has angered the president by joining anti-government rallies. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) "Pope Francis said that if you're a Christian and there's massive human rights violations ... you should take action, make noise. Where the oppressed are, the church people should be there, not only always talking but with them and hopefully more vocal," she said. Fox told The Associated Press separately by phone that Duterte's anti-drug crackdown was "horribly barbaric" and she vowed to return to the country if allowed to resume her 27 years of missionary work for the poor. "I know a lot of mothers, wives who have lost someone. You have no right to take a life just like that without justice," Fox said. Dozens of activists, laborers, priests, nuns and tribal people, some in tears, thanked Fox by celebrating a Mass in her honor before sending her off. A lawyers group backing Fox, the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers, said that by persecuting a frail and low-key missionary, Duterte has turned her into an "overnight rock star." Known for being soft-spoken, Fox is a coordinator of a Roman Catholic order of nuns and has worked for the poor in the Philippines. She promotes human rights and the welfare of workers, farmers and ethnic groups and has spoken against Duterte and his government, which has also been criticized for stifling dissent. She recalled in Melbourne that after she had spoken publicly in support for Coca-Cola workers seeking benefits in the Philippines, their picket was "broken up brutally, 10 of them were arrested and were five days in jail and not charged." "And so they were having a press conference and I did say to them, when they wanted me to speak, that the teachings of the Catholic Church clearly say you have a right to assembly, you have a right to unionize, you have a right to regular work. Now that, in the deportation order, was anti-government. One of the commentators said that now the social teachings of the Catholic Church are anti-government," she said. The immigration bureau said Fox violated her missionary visa by venturing far beyond her community in suburban Quezon city in metropolitan Manila and interfered in domestic politics by joining protests and news conferences that tackled "political and human rights issues against the government." Fox's lawyers said she joined the marginalized as part of her missionary work and called the Duterte administration's actions "political persecution." They expressed fears that the move to evict Fox could undermine the crucial civic and religious work of foreign missionaries in the country. Aside from Fox, the government has separately blocked a critical Italian politician, Giacomo Filibeck, and another Australian, Gill Hale Boehringer, from entering the Philippines this year. "The law is clear: The entry and admission of an alien is a matter of privilege, and not a right," Bureau of Immigration spokeswoman Dana Sandoval said Saturday. Australian Roman Catholic nun Sister Patricia Fox, second from right front row, attends a mass hours before her departure for Australia Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in suburban Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. Sister Fox decided to leave after 27 years in the country after the Immigration Bureau denied her application for the extension of her visa. The Philippine immigration bureau has ordered the deportation of Fox who has angered the president by joining anti-government rallies. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) NOUMEA, New Caledonia (AP) - Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. The polls opened Sunday morning in a referendum that's a milestone in the process of the archipelago's three-decade-long decolonization - one that will help define New Caledonia's future as an independent country or as a continuing part of France. More than 174,000 registered voters are invited to answer the question: "Do you want New Caledonia to gain full sovereignty and become independent?" Observers expect a majority to favor remaining a part of France, based on opinion polls and previous election results. Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (10 p.m. Saturday in mainland France; 9 p.m. GMT) and close 10 hours later. Results are expected later Sunday. New Caledonia, a cluster of islands, is home to about 270,000 people. They include the native Kanaks, who represent about 40 percent of the population, people of European descent (about 27 percent) and others from Asian countries and Pacific islands. People line up at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as they prepare to cast their votes as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) It relies on France for defense, law enforcement, foreign affairs, justice and education, yet has a large degree of autonomy. New Caledonia receives about 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in French state subsidies every year, and many fear the economy would suffer if ties are severed. The referendum is the result of a process that started 30 years ago to end years of violence between supporters and opponents of separating from France. The violence, which overall claimed more than 70 lives, prompted a 1988 deal between rival loyalist and pro-independence factions. Another agreement a decade later included plans for an independence referendum. Most Kanaks have tended to back independence, while most descendants of European settlers have favored keeping the French connection. To ensure security during the vote, additional police were sent to New Caledonia. Authorities also banned the carrying of firearms and alcohol sales immediately before and during the vote. If voters say no to independence Sunday, the 1998 agreement allows two more self-determination referendums to be held by 2022. A man prepares to cast his vote at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) An United Nations observer inspects a polling station while residents in Noumea, New Caledonia, vote as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) Women stand behind curtains at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as they prepare their votes as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A man, right, drapes the flag of New Caledonia on his shoulders as the French flag flies in the background as he and a woman line up to cast their votes at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A woman prepares her ballot at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A man casts his vote at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) Former Mayor of Noumea, Sonia Lagarde, right, works at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, during an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A resident of New Caledonia's capital, Noumea, casts his vote at a polling station as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A resident of New Caledonia's capital, Noumea, casts his vote at a polling station as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) Residents of New Caledonia's capital, Noumea, wait in line at a polling station before casting their vote as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A man drapes his country's flag over his shoulders as residents of New Caledonia's capital, Noumea, wait in line at a polling station before casting their vote as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) Residents of New Caledonia's capital, Noumea, wait in line at a polling station dedicated to the natives of the Loyalty islands, before casting their vote as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) Roch Wamytan, a former leader of the independentist party, Union Caledonienne, prepares to cast his vote at a poling station in Le Mont-Dore, New Caledonia, during an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's Supreme Leader says on the eve of the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran that the Islamic Republic is the "victorious party" after nearly 40 years of confrontation by the U.S. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that despite military, economic and propaganda wars waged by the U.S. against Iran over the last four decades, "the U.S. is the defeated side and the Islamic Republic is the victorious party." Militant Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy on Nov. 4, 1979 and took 52 American diplomats hostages for 444 days. Khamenei said the U.S. has failed to dominate Iran in the way it did before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted a pro-Western monarchy. He says the U.S. is weaker than it was in 1979. AKORA KHATTAK, Pakistan (AP) - Thousands of mourners have attended the funeral of a prominent Pakistani cleric who was killed in a knife attack at his home in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Maulana Samiul Haq's son, Hamidul Haq, led his father's funeral prayer Saturday in the town of Akora Khattak in the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Haq, the head of his faction of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam party, was killed Friday. He was a revered teacher with influence over Pakistani militants and Afghanistan's Taliban, many of whose leaders and commanders studied a strict interpretation of Islam at his Haqqani seminary, earning him the title of "father of the Taliban." In recent weeks, Afghan clerics had appealed to Haq to use his influence on Afghanistan's Taliban to ensure peace there. LONDON (AP) - Britain's prosecution service has agreed to pay undisclosed damages to U.S.-born BBC broadcaster Paul Gambaccini over the way it handled unfounded sex abuse allegations against him. The Crown Prosecution Service says it and Gambaccini "have reached an agreement without admission of liability." A well-known music presenter, Gambaccini was arrested in 2013 and questioned by police investigating historical sexual abuse in the wake of revelations about the late BBC TV personality Jimmy Savile, a serial predator who abused hundreds of victims. The following year, prosecutors said he would face no charges. Gambaccini sued the prosecution service, saying authorities had not made clear that the allegations were baseless and had wrongly suggested that his accusers were underage. The 69-year-old broadcaster told Saturday's Daily Mail he is still pursuing separate legal action against police. LONDON (AP) - A report says the Spice Girls are about to give fans what they really, really want: a reunion. The Sun newspaper said Saturday that the 1990s girl group is about to announce a new tour, but without original member Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham. The newspaper says the band has recorded a message that will be broadcast Monday announcing a 2019 U.K. stadium tour. Apart from Beckham, now a successful fashion designer, the lineup includes Melanie "Sporty Spice" Chisholm, Emma "Baby Spice" Bunton, Melanie "Scary Spice" Brown and Geri "Ginger Spice" Horner. The band was a 1990s phenomenon with hits including "Wannabe" and "Viva Forever." They performed as a four-piece for two years after Horner quit the band in 1998, split in 2000 and last reunited at the 2012 London Olympics. MADRID (AP) - Spanish police say they have busted a crime ring that cloned credit cards and was headed by a man who had previously been found guilty of helping finance the September 11, 2001 attacks. Police said Saturday they have arrested 19 people, including a 49-year-old Algerian man who had served a prison sentence in Spain for using cloned credit cards to help fund the 2001 attacks in the U.S. Police would not reveal the name of the individual. All 19 suspected members of the ring were arrested in Madrid. The group spent 500,000 euros (569,000 dollars) on the fake credit cards it made by cloning authentic cards before the ring was broken up, according to police. PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - President Donald Trump on Saturday used his final Florida campaign event before next week's elections to implore supporters to send Republicans to the governor's mansion and the U.S. Senate, claiming that allowing Democrats to win either office would bring ruin to the state he also calls home. Trump returned to Florida for the second time this week to help rally support for Gov. Rick Scott, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. Trump also sought to boost former Rep. Ron DeSantis, who is facing off against Andrew Gillum, the Democratic mayor of Tallahassee, in the race for governor. Trump argued that Gillum would "destroy Florida" and claimed that Gillum's policies would be a "total nightmare" for the state. "You have only one choice, Ron DeSantis for governor," Trump told thousands of cheering supporters at a rally at Pensacola International Airport, with Air Force One park right outside of the hangar. "If you want to pay high taxes, you ought to vote for the mayor of Tallahassee," Trump said. "You will destroy the state that I love." Trump noted that he also calls Florida home; his Mar-a-Lago estate is located in Palm Beach and he spends most weekends there in the winter. He also said of the Democrat: "Andrew Gillum is not equipped to be your governor. It's not for him." President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Pensacola International Airport, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Pensacola, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Trump criticized Nelson, too, claiming that he only sees the former astronaut "around election time when he's on television every night." Earlier Saturday, Trump campaigned in Montana, where he made it clear that he wants to see Democrat Jon Tester booted from the Senate on Tuesday over a personal grudge as much as political ambition. Trump blames Tester for the defeat of his nominee to run the Department of Veterans Affairs. The president told hundreds of cheering supporters at a separate airport rally in the Montana chill that Tester "tried to destroy" Ronny Jackson, a Navy admiral and White House doctor. "That's why I'm here," Trump said. "I've never forgotten it and it's honestly one of the reasons I'm here so much," said Trump, who last campaigned in Montana in mid-October. "It's a disgrace, what he did to that man." Trump was in Montana to boost GOP Senate candidate Matt Rosendale, who is challenging Tester in Tuesday's election. The rallies are part of Trump's multistate blitz in the run-up to Tuesday's balloting, when control of the House and Senate - and perhaps the future of Trump's agenda - are at stake. Trump said having Rosendale in the Senate will be "phenomenal." The president blames Tester for the backlash against Jackson, who eventually withdrew his nomination after facing anonymous ethics allegations, including claims of on-the-job drunkenness and wrecking a government vehicle. Jackson denied the allegations. Tester, the top Democrat on the Senate committee that oversees veterans' issues, had released a list of the allegations against Jackson that was compiled by the committee's Democratic staff. Trump, however, doesn't mention that the allegations weren't the only factor that contributed Jackson withdrawing from consideration. Lawmakers questioned Jackson's limited managerial experience and his fitness to run a department as sprawling as the VA. At both rallies, Trump sought to rally the energized crowds by talking up the economy and tax cuts, new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, border security and several caravans of Central American migrants who are slowly advancing toward the U.S.-Mexico border. He mentioned plans for a new military branch called the Space Force, and complained anew about the news media. Trump also defended his decision to focus almost exclusively on the migrants and immigration in the closing days of the election. He recently announced that he intends to change asylum procedures, end the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship and build numerous "tent cities" to hold migrants caught crossing the border illegally. "You can only say so many times that we created 250,000 jobs last month," Trump said in Montana, in defense of his focus on immigration that some of the president's critics say amounts to fear-mongering. Trump has denied trying to instill fear as a reason to vote Republican on Election Day. "When we're fixing a problem or fixed a problem there's no reason to go on about it for 45 minutes," Trump said. Trump also called up Rep. Greg Gianforte to speak from the podium but did not repeat his praise of the congressman, who was convicted of body slamming a journalist just before winning a 2017 special election. Trump had said during last month's Montana stop that anyone who can do a body slam "is my kind of guy." The president subsequently was criticized for seeming to glorify violence against journalists. ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics ___ Follow Darlene Superville on Twttier: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Pensacola International Airport, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Pensacola, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Belgrade, Mont. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Belgrade, Mont. (AP Photo/Janie Osborne) President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Belgrade, Mont. (AP Photo/Janie Osborne) President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Belgrade, Mont. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) - Nine months after 17 classmates and teachers were gunned down at their Florida school, Parkland students are finally facing the moment they've been leading up to with marches, school walkouts and voter-registration events throughout the country: their first Election Day. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student activists set their sights on the 4 million U.S. citizens turning 18 this year. They're hoping to counteract the voter apathy that's especially prevalent among the youth during midterm elections. Many of the activists, now household names like David Hogg, postponed college plans to mobilize young voters. Many of them support gun reform, in the name of their fallen classmates. "It is kind of the culmination of everything we've been working for," said senior Jaclyn Corin, one of the founders of the March For Our Lives group. "This is truly the moment that young people are going to make the difference in this country." Corin, who voted along with her dad at an early polling site on her 18th birthday, visited a half-dozen cities in just a handful of days last week, getting up at 3 a.m. to board planes. It has been a whirlwind for the students, with celebrity support from Oprah to Kim Kardashian, a Time magazine cover, late night TV spots and book deals - but all of it misses their main target unless it motivates students to cast ballots by the end of Tuesday. At a University of Central Florida event during the final week of election campaigning, Stoneman Douglas graduate and current UCF student Bradley Thornton escorted fellow students to the campus' early voting site. UCF student Tiffany McKelton said she wouldn't have voted if the Parkland activists hadn't shown up on campus. In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018 photo, Sofie Whitney, activist and student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, talks about voting during a Vote for Our Lives event at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. Nine months after 17 classmates and teachers were gunned down at their Florida school, Parkland students are finally facing the moment they've been leading up to with marches, school walkouts and voter-registration events throughout the country: their first Election Day. (AP Photo/John Raoux) "I've never voted in a primary election. I actually did it because of them," said McKelton, a psychology major from West Palm Beach. In the past months they've boarded countless buses and planes, passed out T shirts, and hosted BBQs and dance parties on college campuses around the U.S. Thornton said talking things through often does the trick. "I can't tell you how many conversations I've had that were like, 'Ah, I'm not interested' ... and through just a simple, really nice cordial conversation, they get this magical inspiration to vote," Thornton said. Corin said she's encountered plenty of voter apathy along the way. The students often note that voter turnout in the last midterm elections was the lowest since World War II. "It's really about tying it back to gun violence or tying it back to immigration or whatever that person is passionate about," Corin said. "I've used that tactic so many times and it has actually worked." It remains to be seen what role the youth vote will play in this year's midterms. The 30-and-under crowd is more likely to vote in this year's midterms than in the past. Forty percent say they'll vote, compared to just 26 percent in 2014, according to a new poll by Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. They're being pushed, in part, by a strong disapproval of President Donald Trump. Trends in Florida's early voting suggest a surge in young voters. Of the 124,000 people aged 18 to 29 who had voted in person at early polling stations as of Thursday, nearly a third did not vote in the presidential election in 2016, according to analysis by University of Florida political science professor Daniel Smith. About half of those new voters were newly registered. "There are newly energized voters who sat out in 2016, or have registered since then, who are turning out. There's no question about that," Smith said. In contrast, for people 65 and older who had voted early and in person, about 7 percent didn't vote in 2016. Matt Deitsch dropped out of college after the Feb. 14 shooting at Stoneman Douglas to help start March For Our Lives alongside his younger siblings, Parkland survivors Ryan Deitsch and Samantha Deitsch. He said this year's election will be a starting point, "not a culmination." "It's where we really get to see what kind of push we really made to the needle," Deitsch said in between passing out fliers to UCF students. "We're running a really good race but there's really so much work to do." Corin said the young activists will continue with their mission regardless of the election outcome. "The fact that we've engaged a new generation of voters, that's a win," Corin said. ____ Schneider reported from Orlando. ____ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018 photo, wristbands to encourage students to vote are seen on a table at a voting information booth during a Vote for Our Lives event at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. Nine months after 17 classmates and teachers were gunned down at their Florida school, Parkland students are finally facing the moment they've been leading up to with marches, school walkouts and voter-registration events throughout the country: their first Election Day. (AP Photo/John Raoux) In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018 photo, David Hogg, center, a student who survived the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting walks with volunteers to a polling place on campus during a Vote for Our Lives event at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. Nine months after 17 classmates and teachers were gunned down at their Florida school, Parkland students are finally facing the moment they've been leading up to with marches, school walkouts and voter-registration events throughout the country: their first Election Day.(AP Photo/John Raoux) In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018 photo, students dance atop a bus to music during a Vote for Our Lives rally at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. Nine months after 17 classmates and teachers were gunned down at their Florida school, Parkland students are finally facing the moment they've been leading up to with marches, school walkouts and voter-registration events throughout the country: their first Election Day. (AP Photo/John Raoux) In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018 photo, a student with a rainbow flag listens to speakers during a Vote for Our Lives rally at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. Nine months after 17 classmates and teachers were gunned down at their Florida school, Parkland students are finally facing the moment they've been leading up to with marches, school walkouts and voter-registration events throughout the country: their first Election Day. (AP Photo/John Raoux) In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018 photo, David Hogg, a student who survived the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting rides a bike on the campus of the University of Central Florida encouraging students to vote during a Vote for Our Lives event at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. Nine months after 17 classmates and teachers were gunned down at their Florida school, Parkland students are finally facing the moment they've been leading up to with marches, school walkouts and voter-registration events throughout the country: their first Election Day. (AP Photo/John Raoux) In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018 photo, student volunteers help out at a booth to encourage on campus voting for students during a Vote for Our Lives event at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. Nine months after 17 classmates and teachers were gunned down at their Florida school, Parkland students are finally facing the moment they've been leading up to with marches, school walkouts and voter-registration events throughout the country: their first Election Day. (AP Photo/John Raoux) FILE - In this Wednesday, March 14, 2018 file photo, Fordson High School students in Dearborn, Mich., carry signs as they participate in a nationwide walkout to bring attention and to honor to the 17 students killed in a mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. (Max Ortiz/Detroit News via AP) In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018 photo, Bradley Thornton, left, a student volunteer, escorts Gabriel Sanchez to a polling place on campus during a Vote for Our Lives event at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. Nine months after 17 classmates and teachers were gunned down at their Florida school, Parkland students are finally facing the moment they've been leading up to with marches, school walkouts and voter-registration events throughout the country: their first Election Day. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Russian energy giant Gazprom and Austrian oil and gas company OMV have signed a supplement to a contract in order to increase gas supplies to Austria by 1 bln cubic meters per year. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and OMV CEO Rainer Seele signed the document at their working meeting in St. Petersburg, the Russian gas holding said in a statement. "The document stipulates an increase of gas supplies to Austria in addition to the contract volume by 1 billion cubic meters per year throughout the term of the contract," it said, TASS reported. "Gazproms export to Austria has been setting new and new records over the past few years. In 10 months of 2018 the supplies to the republic exceeded by one third the volume in the same period of 2017, reaching 8.8 bln cubic meters. The signing of the deal on extra export volumes, in addition to the contract, once again confirms high demand of our European consumers in Russian gas," Miller said. Seele noted that Europes demand in gas will grow since gas-fired power stations successfully replace coal while domestic production in Europe drops. The increasing gas supplies to Baumgarten in Lower Austria contribute to ensuring security of energy supplies for both Austria and other European countries, he said. WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump spread distorted theories and numbers on immigration in the campaign's final days while claiming economic gains for minorities that have not been achieved. A look at 11th hour rhetoric before the elections Tuesday and the reality: MEDIAN INCOME TRUMP, on attracting the nonwhite vote from Democrats: "We have the best unemployment numbers, the best median income numbers for all of these groups. We have the best numbers we've ever had. ...They should be worried about the African-Americans, because they're going to lose them." - Fox interview Monday. THE FACTS: He did not achieve the best median income numbers for all the nonwhite groups. Both African-Americans and Asian-Americans had higher income prior to the Trump administration. The median income last year for a black household was $40,258, according to the Census Bureau. That's below a 2000 peak of $42,348 and also statistically no better than 2016, President Barack Obama's last year in office. Central American migrants, part of the caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, get a ride on a truck in Donaji, Oaxaca state, Mexico, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. The migrants had already made a grueling 40-mile (65-kilometer) trek from Juchitan, Oaxaca, on Thursday, after they failed to get the bus transportation they had hoped for. But hitching rides allowed them to get to Donaji early, and some headed on to a town even further north, Sayula. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) Many economists view the continued economic growth since the middle of 2009, in Obama's first term, as the primary explanation for recent hiring and income gains. More important, there are multiple signs that the racial wealth gap is now worsening even as unemployment rates have come down. As to Asian-Americans, the median income for a typical household last year was $81,331. It was $83,182 in 2016. ___ ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION TRUMP, on the practice of allowing immigrants caught crossing the border illegally to stay in U.S. communities as they await immigration hearings: "We're not doing releases. What's been happening over years is they would come in, release them, and they would never show up for their trial. And we now have 25 or 30 million people in this country illegally, because of what's been happening over many years." - remarks Wednesday to reporters. THE FACTS: It's nowhere close to 25 million to 30 million, nor has the number increased much in recent years. The nonpartisan Pew Research Center estimates there were 11.3 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally in 2016, the most recent data available. That number is basically unchanged from 2009. Advocacy groups on both sides of the immigration issue have similar estimates. The number of such immigrants had reached a height of 12.2 million in 2007, representing about 4 percent of the U.S. population, before declining due in part to a weakening U.S. economy. ___ TRUMP, on tweeting a video blaming Democrats allowing a man to enter the U.S. who killed two police officers: "All I'm doing is just telling the truth." - speaking to reporters Friday. THE FACTS: The video he spread around does not tell the truth. It says Democrats let Luis Bracamontes into the country and "let him stay." Bracamontes entered the U.S. illegally, in 1996, during the Democratic administration of President Bill Clinton, but he was also deported by that administration the next year after being caught buying crack cocaine and serving his sentence. He returned repeatedly. By the time he was sentenced to death in California for the 2014 killings of the police officers, he had been deported four times, according to Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones. No evidence of leniency by Democrats has emerged in the episode. Democratic and Republican administrations alike have deported hundreds of thousands of people a year and no administration, Trump's included, has caught everyone trying to enter illegally. ___ TRUMP on what U.S. troops should do if encountering migrants who are trying to get to the border from Mexico: "I didn't say shoot, I didn't say shoot." - remarks to reporters Friday. THE FACTS: A day earlier, he said of the migrants: "They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back. I told them, consider it a rifle." The procession has been largely peaceful. Some migrants in one caravan clashed with Mexican police at the Mexico-Guatemala border, hurling stones. ___ TRUMP: "President Obama separated the children from parents and nobody complained. When we continued the exact same law, the country went crazy." - immigration speech Thursday. THE FACTS: Actually, Obama did not do the same thing as a matter of policy. While it's true the underlying laws were the same, the Trump administration mandated anyone caught crossing the border illegally was to be criminally prosecuted. That policy meant adults were taken to court for criminal proceedings, and their children were separated and sent into the care of the Health and Human Services Department, which is tasked with caring for unaccompanied migrant children. Trump's zero tolerance policy remains in effect, but he signed an executive order June 20 that stopped separations. Jeh Johnson, Obama's Homeland Security secretary, recently told NPR there may have been unusual or emergency circumstances when children were taken from parents, but there was no such policy. ___ TRUMP: "At this very moment, large well-organized caravans of migrants are marching towards our southern border. Some people call it an invasion. ...These are tough people in many cases; a lot of young men, strong men and a lot of men that maybe we don't want in our country. ...This isn't an innocent group of people. It's a large number of people that are tough. They have injured, they have attacked." - immigration speech Thursday. THE FACTS: He's given no evidence that people in the caravans are, by and large, dangerous, hardened criminals - after acknowledging at one point that there is no such proof. The migrants in the caravans are mostly from Honduras, where it started, as well as El Salvador and Guatemala. Overall, they are poor, carrying the belongings that fit into a knapsack and fleeing gang violence or poverty. It might be true there are some criminals mixed in with the throngs, given the sheer number of migrants. Trump did not substantiate his claim that members of the MS-13 gang, in particular, are among them. The Homeland Security Department issued a sheet stating that "over 270 individuals along the caravan route have criminal histories, including known gang membership." But it did not specify how it had arrived at that number. Some migrants in one of the caravans clashed with Mexican police at the Mexico-Guatemala border, hurling stones and other objects as they tried to cross the international bridge. One migrant died; it's not clear how it happened. Caravan leaders said they had expelled a number of troublemakers from the procession, exhibiting some self-policing. Ultimately, most entered Guatemala - and later, Mexico - by illegally bypassing immigration checkpoints. The caravan otherwise has been overwhelmingly peaceful, receiving applause and donated food from residents of the towns they pass. Mexican police have not tried again to stop them. ___ BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP TRUMP: "It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't. ... Well, you can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order." - interview published Tuesday with "Axios on HBO." THE FACTS: Scholars widely pan the idea that Trump could unilaterally change the rules on who is a citizen. It's highly questionable whether an act of Congress could do it, either, though it is conceivable that legislators could change the rules regarding children born in the U.S. of parents who are in the country illegally. Peter Schuck is perhaps the most prominent advocate of the idea that birthright citizenship is not conveyed by the Constitution to children of parents who are living illegally in the U.S. Even he says "Trump clearly cannot act by" executive order. "I feel confident that no competent lawyer would advise him otherwise," he said by email Tuesday. "This is just pre-election politics and misrepresentation and should be sharply criticized as such." Schuck, of Yale, and colleague Rogers Smith of the University of Pennsylvania have argued since the mid-1980s that Congress can set the rules for providing citizenship to U.S.-born children of parents who came illegally. But most scholars on the left and right share the view that it would take a constitutional amendment to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country illegally. James Ho, a conservative Trump-appointed federal appeals court judge, wrote in the Green Bag legal journal in 2006 that birthright citizenship "is protected no less for children of undocumented persons than for descendants of Mayflower passengers." Stephen Yale-Loehr, a Cornell university immigration expert, said the case against Trump's authority is "not open and shut, but the better view is it would require a constitutional amendment." The Constitution's citizenship clause was part of the post-Civil War amendments that enshrined the rights of African-Americans. The citizenship clause, in particular, was intended to overturn the Supreme Court's notorious Dred Scott decision of 1857 that held African-Americans were not citizens. The Supreme Court has never ruled squarely about the clause's application to children of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. Trump did not make a distinction between legal and illegal status in his remarks. An 1898 Supreme Court decision held that the U.S.-born son of legal Chinese immigrants was a citizen under the 14th Amendment; a footnote in a 1982 decision suggests there should be no difference for children of foreign-born parents whether they are in the U.S. legally or illegally. ___ TRUMP: "We're the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And it has to end." - interview with "Axios on HBO." THE FACTS: That's wrong. The U.S. is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship - the principle of jus soli or "right of the soil" - is applied, according to the World Atlas and other sources. Most are in the Americas. Canada and Mexico are among them. Most other countries confer citizenship based on that of at least one parent - jus sanguinis, or "right of blood" - or have a modified form of birthright citizenship that may restrict automatic citizenship to children of parents who are on their territory legally. More broadly, Trump's view that U.S.-born children of foreigners live a lifetime of taking "all those benefits" ignores the taxes they pay, the work they do and their other contributions to society. ___ 2016 ELECTION SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, White House press secretary: Trump "got elected by an overwhelming majority of 63 million Americans who came out and supported him and wanted to see his policies enacted." - press briefing Monday. THE FACTS: Trump did not earn a majority of votes in the 2016 election. He did win the Electoral College, allowing him to capture the presidency. Trump won nearly 63 million votes compared with more than 65 million for Democrat Hillary Clinton, who racked up lopsided victories in big states such as New York and California, according to election data compiled by The Associated Press. But she lost the presidency due to Trump's winning margin in the Electoral College, which came after he narrowly won less populous Midwestern states including Michigan and Wisconsin. ___ FLORIDA GOVERNOR'S RACE TRUMP, on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum: "His city, Tallahassee, is known as the most corrupt in Florida and one of the most corrupt in the nation." - Fox interview Monday. THE FACTS: Trump is making an unsubstantiated assertion. Republicans including Gillum's opponent, Ron DeSantis, have made crime and corruption a talking point in the governor's race to knock down the Tallahassee mayor's political momentum, saying it's a crime-ridden city. But Tallahassee is not even in the top 25 when it comes to city per-capita crime rates in Florida. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement reports that Tallahassee had 5,765 crimes per 100,000 people in 2017. By comparison, the Florida city with the highest rate, Medley, had 28,004 crimes per 100,000 people. Trump, who stressed the principle of innocent until proven guilty when allegations shadowed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, has also pointed to an ongoing investigation by the state's ethics commission into whether Gillum accepted gifts from lobbyists after a Tallahassee businessman and persistent critic of Gillum filed a complaint. Gillum has denied any wrongdoing in that case, or that he is a target in a separate ongoing FBI investigation into the city's government. ___ Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Mark Sherman in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. ___ Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - An ethnic minority Tamil party in Sri Lanka said Saturday that it will support a no-confidence motion to be brought against the country's former strongman whose controversial appointment as prime minister has plunged the country into a political crisis. The Tamil National Alliance's announcement comes as divergent political parties in Parliament try to thwart Mahinda Rajapaksa from strengthening his position as prime minister. The party said in its statement that Rajapaksa's appointment and President Maithripala Sirisena's suspension of Parliament was undemocratic. In the statement, the party accused Rajapaksa's government of offering money and ministerial posts to "induce" opposition lawmakers to cross over. A Tamil National Alliance lawmaker, S. Viyalendran, defected on Friday and was appointed as Rajapakasa's deputy minister of regional development. No specific bribery allegations against Viyalendran were made, but the party condemned him for "being a part of this conspiracy." The United National Party led by ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has announced plans to propose a no-confidence vote against Rajapaksa as soon as Parliament reconvenes. The Tamil party's 15 votes could give Wickremesinghe's camp a decisive edge over Rajapaksa. So far, six members from Wickremesinghe's United National Front have defected to Rajapaksa's government. Some 121 lawmakers were expected Saturday to support the no-confidence vote, according to a count by The Associated Press. Sirisena dismissed Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet last week and later announced that he acted in part because Wickremesinghe and a Cabinet colleague were behind an alleged assassination plot against him. Details of the alleged plot have not been disclosed and Wickremesinghe has repeatedly denied the accusation. Sirisena also suspended Parliament until Nov. 16. Sirisena's moves have triggered a power struggle that some observers have called a constitutional crisis. Since his ouster, Wickremesinghe has stayed at Temple Trees, the official residence of the prime minister, insisting he is still the legitimate leader because he commands majority support in Parliament. Wickremesinghe said in an interview with the AP that there is credible evidence that Rajapaksa's party is attempting to buy support in Parliament. Palitha Range Bandara, a United National Party lawmaker, has said that he was offered millions of dollars and a minister portfolio if he crossed over. Lawmakers from Rajapaksa's party have denied the allegations. Sirisena is under mounting pressure by his political opponents, rights groups and foreign governments including the United States and European Union to summon Parliament and end the crisis. Tensions had been building between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe for some time, as the president did not approve of economic reforms introduced by the prime minister. Sirisena was also critical of investigations into military personnel accused of human rights violations during Sri Lanka's long civil war, which ended in 2009. Rajapaksa is credited as a hero by Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese majority for ending the conflict with a faction from the ethnic Tamil minority population. TNA represents ethnic Tamils for whom the now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels fought for an independent state. NEW YORK (AP) - Whatever success Republicans have amassed in taking control of all three branches of U.S. government, and whatever fate awaits them as midterm elections near, some on the right are working to cement change by amending the Constitution. And to the mounting alarm of others on all parts of the spectrum, they want to bypass the usual process. They're pushing for an unprecedented Constitutional convention of the states. While opponents are afraid of what such a convention would do, supporters say it is the only way to deal with the federal government's overreach and ineptitude. "They literally see this as the survival of the nation," said Karla Jones, director of the federalism task force at the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, which represents state lawmakers and offers guidance and model legislation for states to call a convention under the Constitution's Article V. Among the most frequently cited changes being sought: amendments enforcing a balanced federal budget, establishing term limits for members of Congress, and repealing the 17th Amendment, which put the power of electing the Senate in the hands of the public instead of state legislatures. For the past 229 years, constitutional amendments have originated in Congress, where they need the support of two-thirds of both houses, and then the approval of at least three-quarters of the states. But under a never-used second prong of Article V, amendments can originate in the states. Two-thirds of states - currently, 34 - must call for a convention at which three-fourths of states approve of a change. This photo made available by the U.S. National Archives shows a portion of the United States Constitution with the title of Article V. For the past two centuries, constitutional amendments have originated in Congress, where they need the support of two-thirds of both houses, and then the approval of at least three-quarters of the states. But under a never-used second prong of Article V, amendments can originate in the states. (National Archives via AP) The particulars of such a convention, though, are not laid out. Do the states have to call for a convention on the same topic? Must they pass resolutions with similar or identical wording? The U.S. Supreme Court may have to decide whether the threshold of states has been reached and, ultimately, the parameters of a convention and the rules delegates would be governed by. A bill introduced in the U.S. House last year would direct the National Archives to compile all applications for an Article V convention. Some believe enough states have already passed Article V resolutions, pointing to votes over the years across the country on a variety of potential amendment topics. Others contend the highest possible current count of states is 28 - the number of states with existing resolutions on the most common convention topic, a balanced budget amendment. Others point to lower total counts based on states that have passed near-identical resolutions. Regardless, proponents of a convention believe they have momentum on their side more than any other time in American history. "That second clause of Article V was specifically intended for a time like this, when the federal government gets out of control and when the Congress won't deliver to the people what they want," said Mark Meckler, a tea party leader who now heads Citizens for Self-Governance, which runs the Convention of States Project calling for an Article V convention. Legislation promoted by the group calls for a convention focused on the federal government's budget and power, and term limits for office holders. It has passed 12 states and one legislative chamber in another 10. The Convention of States Project says 18 other states are considering the measure. Meckler, like other backers of a convention, believes there's no reason why it can't be limited in scope. Others aren't so sure. Four states that previously had passed resolutions calling for a convention have rescinded them in recent years, often citing wariness over a "runaway" convention. Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, has sounded alarms on a possible convention and portrays the coast-to-coast emergence of resolutions on the issue "a game of Whack-a-Mole." "This is the most dangerous idea in American politics that most people know nothing about," she said. Nancy MacLean, a Duke University historian and author of "Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America," views the prospect of an Article V convention with fear - the next chapter of decades of work on the far right transforming the federal judiciary and supporting cases that go on to make broad constitutional points, all while suppressing votes and gerrymandering districts. "The ultimate project," MacLean said of conservatives, "is to transform our primary rules book, which is the Constitution." There are proponents of an Article V convention on the left who see it as a possible way to overturn the Citizens United campaign finance decision, pass the Equal Rights Amendment and otherwise address what they see as a stacked deck that has helped the GOP get an unfair advantage. But with more red states than blue ones, it seems an unlikely path to abolishing the Electoral College, reengineering apportionment of the Senate or otherwise devising a democracy they believe is more reflective of the American public's views. In that view, it's baffling to some observers that conservatives are the ones pushing a convention. "I don't know what exactly they're unhappy with. When I look at the current politics, it seems to me things for them are going really well," said constitutional law professor Michael Klarman of Harvard University. "They're already getting what they want from the Supreme Court. Gerrymandering is fine. Unlimited money in politics is fine. The Electoral College is OK. Voter purges, photo ID laws are OK. So I don't know exactly what they're looking for." Meckler acknowledges the loudest voices calling for a convention are conservative. ("You look at our website, it's all right-wingers," he says.) But he sees that as a reflection of a conservative culture in which the Constitution is more frequently discussed, not a reflection of the politics of it. It's not the first time a convention has been proposed. In the 1890s, when the Senate refused to take up the issue of direct election of senators, states pursued a convention, falling just short. Eventually, the 17th Amendment passed in the usual way, fulfilling that aim. In the 1960s, states sought a convention over a Supreme Court decision dictating how legislative districts were apportioned. But convention opponents have always feared that once one has been launched, it could tear up the Constitutions in all sorts of ways. What's to stop a convention from passing an abhorrent affront to the Founders, like an outright ban on Muslims, Klarman asks. He points to a 2009 Swiss referendum that resulted in outlawing the construction of minarets, the towers found beside mosques. "It's a dangerous route and an unpredictable one," said Laurence Tribe, another Harvard University constitutional law expert. Jones said such fears are "misguided" and that "so many stopgaps" would prevent a "runaway" convention. "That suggests a failure of institutions that is so massive that the last thing we need to worry about is a constitutional amendment," she said. "That would suggest that Congress failed in its duty to say, 'Look, you dealt with an issue that is not contained in the resolution.' That would require the judiciary to also not step in. It would require a failure of all of our democratic institutions and it would require a failure of the American people not to rise up." Still, several states have rescinded previous calls for a convention as lawmakers grew fearful of what it could bring. Over the years, Nevada lawmakers have made various calls for a convention to consider a ban on abortion, to prohibit racial integration of schools and to abolish the 17th Amendment. But when Democratic state Sen. Tick Segerblom saw how close advocates were to hitting the 34-state mark, he realized the idea was no longer far-fetched and that it would be safer to back off its Article V votes rather than take the chance of a runaway convention. So last year, he sponsored a resolution to do just that. The goals of convention backers "are not the Democratic Party's goals or even the Republican Party's goals," he said. "It's some fringe groups." In fact, while some conservatives have voiced the greatest support for a convention, others strongly oppose it. At an October hearing in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Kim Stolfer of the gun rights group Firearms Owners Against Crime told lawmakers that the push for a convention "scares the dickens out of me." Andy Schafly of the conservative Pennsylvania Eagle Forum called a convention "a Pandora's box." A Republican who sponsored an Article V resolution and supports it so passionately that she calls it "my baby," Arizona state Rep. Kelly Townsend once shared those misgivings. Now, though, she believes it could both put the country on the right path and unite the parties. She thinks an amendment on term limits could bring Democrats and Republicans together. That, in turn, could lead to another amendment that merges issues of opposing sides - perhaps, say, overturning of Citizens United to appeal to liberals while mandating a balanced budget to bring in conservatives. "This isn't red vs. blue," she said, "this is about states' rights and an overspending, overbearing federal government that is out of control." Harvard's Tribe rejects that as naive. "The idea that we could have a kumbaya moment in which a convention would produce a stable republic with some respect for the rule of law," he said, "seems like a fantasy." ___ Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org or https://twitter.com/sedensky DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a 15-year-old Florida boy strangled his mother after getting into an argument over a bad grade he received. Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood told news outlets the teenager was arrested early Saturday after the body of 46-year-old Gail Cleavenger was found buried under a nearby church's fire pit. Investigators say the boy killed her after they argued about his school grades. Chitwood says he faces murder charges. It was unclear Saturday if he has a lawyer to represent him. The Associated Press typically does not identify juveniles charged with crimes. After the killing, authorities say the boy called friends to help him make it look like someone had burglarized the home. The boy initially told deputies his mother was missing. The two 17-year-old friends face multiple charges. NEW YORK (AP) - Facebook and other social platforms have been fighting online misinformation and hate speech for two years. With the U.S. midterm elections just a few days away, there are signs that they're making some headway, although they're still a very long way from winning the war. That's because the effort risks running into political headwinds that Facebook, Twitter and Google find bad for business. Some even argue that the social networks are easy to flood with disinformation by design - an unintended consequence of their eagerness to cater to advertisers by categorizing the interests of their users. Caught embarrassingly off-guard after they were played by Russian agents meddling with the 2016 U.S. elections, the technology giants have thrown millions of dollars, tens of thousands of people and what they say are their best technical efforts into fighting fake news, propaganda and hate that has proliferated on their digital platforms. Facebook, in particular, has pulled a major reversal since late 2016, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg infamously dismissed the idea that fake news on his service could have swayed the election as "pretty crazy." In July, for instance, the company announced that heavy spending on security and content moderation, coupled with other business shifts, would hold down growth and profitability. Investors immediately panicked and knocked $119 billion off the company's market value. The social network has started to see some payoff for its efforts. A research collaboration between New York University and Stanford recently found that user "interactions" with fake news stories on Facebook, which rose substantially in 2016 during the presidential campaign, fell significantly between the end of 2016 and July 2018. On Twitter, however, the sharing of such stories continued to rise over the past two years. A similar measure from the University of Michigan's Center for Social Media Responsibility dubbed the "Iffy Quotient " - which gauges the prevalence of "iffy" material on social networks - also shows that Facebook's "iffiness" has fallen from a high of 8.1 percent 1n March 2017 to 3.2 percent on Monday. Twitter iffiness has also fallen slightly, from 5.6% in November 2016, to 4.2 percent on Monday. FILE- In this Aug. 6, 2015, file photo, a FaceBook elections sign stands in the media area in Cleveland, before the first Republican presidential debate. Facebook and other social platforms have been waging a fight against online misinformation and hate speech for two years. With the U.S. midterm elections coming soon on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, there are signs that they're making some headway, although they're still a long way from winning the war. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) Even at these levels, fake news remains huge and may be spreading to new audiences. A team led by Philip Howard, the lead researcher on Oxford's Computational Propaganda effort, looked at stories shared on Twitter during the last 10 days of September 2018 and found that what it called "junk news" accounted for a full quarter of all links shared during that time - greater than the number of professional news stories shared during that time. The team defined junk news as sources that published deceptive or incorrect information, often in an ideological or conspiratorial way, while failing to meet criteria such as professionalism, bias, credibility and style. While the Oxford analysis didn't produce similar figures for Facebook, the researchers did map out how junk news circulates on the social network and found that conspiracy theories and other misinformation once confined to a "hard right" audience are now shared more freely among mainstream conservatives as well. (Left-leaning users have also developed a taste for junk news, the Oxford team found, but it represents only a small fraction of the material they share on Facebook.) Such studies offer imperfect pictures of what's actually happening on social networks, since the services typically don't offer researchers untrammeled access to their data. Twitter, for instance, takes issue with the Oxford study, noting that it used a public feed of tweets that doesn't reflect the filtering Twitter does to remove malicious or spammy material. Tamping down misinformation, of course, is anything but easy. Adversaries are always finding new ways around restrictions. It can also be hard to distinguish misinformation and propaganda from legitimate news, especially when world leaders such as President Donald Trump are regularly disseminating falsehoods on social media. Politics also complicates matters, since the social-media companies are anxious to avoid charges of political bias. When Facebook, Google's YouTube and, eventually, Twitter all banned the conspiracymonger Alex Jones for various violations of their terms of service, Jones and his allies immediately claimed he was being censored. President Trump chimed in a few weeks later with a parallel charge, claiming without evidence that Google and other companies were "suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good." Twitter, in fact, charges that researchers such as the Oxford team define "junk news" too broadly. The group, for instance, classes conservative sites such as Breitbart News and the Daily Caller as "junk" by its criteria. Twitter argues that banning "media outlets that reflect views within American society" would "severely hinder public debate." Some critics charge that the very advertising-based business model that made Zuckerberg rich is also perfectly suited for propagandists. Services like Facebook and Twitter "sustain themselves by finding like-minded groups and selling information about their behavior," Dipayan Ghosh, a former privacy policy expert at Facebook and Ben Scott, senior adviser at New America, wrote in a Time Magazine op-ed earlier this year. "Disinformation propagators sustain themselves by manipulating the behavior of like-minded groups." "They don't self-regulate," said Dora Kingsley Vertenten, a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California and CEO of research consulting firm Trenton West. "They just want to make a profit, and what they have done to date is not nearly enough." Really fixing the misinformation problem might require big changes to how these services work. Users started spending less time on Facebook after it made changes to make its service more "meaningful" to users, involving less scrolling through posts and more interactions with friends, the company said. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has hinted that he is open to drastic changes , but he hasn't yet said what they might look like. And there haven't been any obvious shifts since he made that statement in August. FILE - This July 16, 2013 file photo shows a sign at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Facebook and other social platforms have been waging a fight against online misinformation and hate speech for two years. With the U.S. midterm elections coming soon on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, there are signs that they're making some headway, although they're still a long way from winning the war. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File) FILE - This Oct. 26, 2016 file photo shows a Twitter sign outside of the company's headquarters in San Francisco. Facebook and other social platforms have been waging a fight against online misinformation and hate speech for two years. With the U.S. midterm elections coming soon on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, there are signs that they're making some headway, although they're still a long way from winning the war. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) FILE - This Tuesday, July 19, 2016, file photo shows the Google logo at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other social platforms have been waging a fight against online misinformation and hate speech for two years. With the U.S. midterm elections coming soon on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, there are signs that they're making some headway, although they're still a long way from winning the war. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill has approvingly evoked former President Ronald Reagan. She said she would back President Donald Trump if he stopped a migrant caravan at the border. And speaking on Fox News, she has decried "crazy Democrats." What is the Democratic senator up to? The vulnerable incumbent is appealing to the right in a bid to win a third term in a state that Trump won by 19 percentage points in 2016. She's betting a more centrist message will resonate with independents and moderate Republican voters she desperately needs to beat Republican challenger Josh Hawley, who has relentlessly attacked her as too liberal for the conservative leaning state. "For me, it's not about fighting the president every day," she told a group of supporters gathered at an iconic Missouri pizza parlor called Shakespeare's Pizza in the college town of Columbia. "It's about fighting for you every day." McCaskill's messaging prompted Trump to say sarcastically during a Thursday rally in Columbia, Missouri, that: "I didn't know she was a Republican." U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., speaks during a campaign rally Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018, in Bridgeton, Mo. McCaskill is running for re-election. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) She's among 10 Democratic Senate incumbents up for re-election in states the president won, and Republicans see Missouri as a prime opportunity to flip a seat and build on their now slim 51-49 majority in the Senate. So, during a late October debate McCaskill praised Republican icon Reagan for working to unite the country when he was president in the 1980s. She accepted an interview with Fox News, which in itself is unusual for a Democrat, and on Monday criticized "crazy Democrats" who "walk in restaurants and scream in elected officials' faces." "I am not somebody who thinks that we should ever be uncivil," McCaskill said. "I think what most Missourians want is for us to listen to each other, figure out where we can compromise, not scream in each other's faces (and) not call each other names." She avoided calling any of her Senate Democratic colleagues crazy but noted that she has clashed with Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and disagrees with Sen. Bernie Sanders on a number of issues. Asked in the same Fox interview about the caravan of migrants making its way through Mexico, McCaskill said: "Stop it at the border. I think the president has to use every tool he has at his disposal and I'll 100 percent back him up on that." Hawley scoffs at such talk from McCaskill, who he called a "liberal Democrat, for darn sure." "She votes with (Sen.) Chuck Schumer almost 90 percent of the time, she voted against Justice (Brett) Kavanaugh, against Justice (Neil) Gorsuch, against middle-class tax cuts, against border security," Hawley said Saturday at a Columbia campaign stop. "She's against standing up to China and trade cheaters. I mean any issue that's important to Missourians, she's with her party down the line." Hawley tied his campaign to Trump and has embraced the president throughout his campaign, although he's been careful not to adopt Trump's incendiary rhetoric. He got some conservative backup from National Rifle Association President Oliver North, who campaigned for him Saturday in Imperial, Missouri, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of St. Louis. The NRA endorsed Hawley and aired ads against McCaskill, even as the organization nationally adopted a lower profile in this year's high-stakes midterms as the dynamics shift in the gun debate. A check of McCaskill's record shows that she votes with the president about half the time, though she has opposed him on some of the biggest votes including both of his Supreme Court nominees, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Trump said that McCaskill had been "saying such nice things about me. But you know what? She'll never vote with me. That's the problem." Some voters don't seem sold on McCaskill's message, either. "I'm a hardcore conservative, and she's a hardcore liberal even though she's trying to hide it," said Jeff Ferry, a 50-year-old antique store owner from Perry, Missouri who traveled to Columbia to see the president speak. When asked who he will pick for Senate, he said "it sure won't be Claire McCaskill." ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Floridians could help determine control of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday as they decide whether to keep three-term incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson in office or replace him with Republican Gov. Rick Scott. Nelson has been viewed as one of the nation's most vulnerable Democrats thanks to the formidable challenge from Scott, a multimillionaire businessman who has poured more than $60 million of his own fortune into the contest. A Nelson loss could make it difficult for Democrats to take back the Senate. While the two men differ on a range of issues ranging from gun control to health care, the election has been more about character and competence and the candidates' respective relationships with President Donald Trump. Scott has urged voters to "retire" the 76-year-old Nelson, calling him ineffective and faulting him on everything from the level of federal support for the space program to the slow wait to get federal money to help repair the Lake Okeechobee dike. "I work and he doesn't," said Scott. "He doesn't do anything. I don't know what he has done in 42 years of office." That message has resonated with voters such as Ed Evangelista, who attended a Trump political rally this week in southwest Florida. He recently moved to the state after living in Connecticut for most of his 70 years. HOLD FOR STORY- FILE- This Oct. 23, 2018 file photo shows Sen. Bill Nelson campaigns in Orlando. Florida Gov. Rick Scott has spent tens of millions of his own money. He has tried to make the election about Nelson's lengthy tenure in Washington, but instead he has been put on the defense over the environment, health care and his finances. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP, File In his home state, he said he voted for Democrats and Republicans. Now that he lives in Venice, Florida, he's casting his first ballot in the state for Scott. "He's been in way too long," Evangelista said of Nelson. "I don't care if he's a good guy or not." Nelson has responded by branding Scott as a Trump follower who has used the governor's office to pad his wealth and has ignored problems festering in the state. He has insisted Scott's actions to cut the budgets of water-management districts and limit enforcement actions at the state's environmental agency have contributed to the toxic algae and red tide that have plagued the coast this year. Nelson has also criticized Scott for opposing President Barack Obama's federal health care overhaul. "The campaign is about trust and integrity," Nelson said during a campaign swing through Tallahassee with Vice President Joe Biden. "I think the choice is pretty clear. You just can't trust Rick Scott. He'll either change his position or he goes completely against the public interest." When Scott first decided to run, the contest between him and Nelson was seen as one of the marquee races in the nation, involving two heavyweights. But that battle has been overshadowed by the governor's race, a vitriolic contest between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum that's been seen as a proxy battle between Trump and Democrats. Scott also spent nearly two weeks off the campaign trail to respond to Hurricane Michael, which pummeled several counties in the Florida Panhandle and was responsible for dozens of deaths. Scott, a one-time health care executive, jumped into politics eight years ago and rode a tea party wave into the governor's office. He promised to enact stiff new policies to deal with immigration and was a loud critic of Obama. While in office, Scott backed away from his hard line on immigration and even came out in support of Medicaid expansion, although he changed that position once he was re-elected. The 65-year-old governor planned to make the election a referendum on Nelson's tenure, but found himself playing defense over his own record and became the target of vocal protests at some of his campaign stops. The governor also began widely airing a television ad promising to retain the Affordable Care Act's consumer protections for people with pre-existing conditions, even though Florida is one of the states involved in a lawsuit aimed at overturning the federal law. The governor has maintained he had nothing to do with the lawsuit, but he has not called for the state to withdraw from it. Nelson and his allies ran ads questioning Scott's ethics, pointing to his ouster as chief executive of health care giant Columbia/HCA amid a federal fraud investigation. Although Scott was never charged with any wrongdoing, the health care conglomerate paid a then-record $1.7 billion fine for Medicare fraud. Nelson, whose long political career included a stint as the state's insurance commissioner, has been put on the defensive this election season, as well, particularly over several public comments and statements. Over the summer he triggered a firestorm when he said the Russians were meddling in Florida's election system after an unsuccessful attempt in 2016. While top GOP senators would neither confirm nor deny Nelson's statement, federal authorities told Florida election officials they saw no signs of any "new or ongoing compromises" of state or local election systems. More recently, Nelson warned that the ongoing political strife in the nation could lead to the genocide that happened in the African nation of Rwanda, where nearly a million people were killed in the early '90s. FILE- This Sept. 18, 2018 file photo shows Florida Gov. Rick Scott, center, candidate for the U.S. Senate speaking to supporters at a campaign rally in Orlando, Fla. Scott, who is challenging incumbent Democratic Senator Bill Nelson, has tried to make the election about Nelson's lengthy tenure in Washington. Instead he has been put on the defense over the environment, health care and his finances.(AP Photo/John Raoux, File ) FILE- This Oct. 15, 2018 file photo shows Gov. Rick Scott, listening to President Donald Trump at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., to visit areas affected by Hurricane Michael. Scott is challenging incumbent Democrat, Sen. Bill Nelson. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) CLEVELAND (AP) - Federal prosecutors say a Boy Scout leader recorded boys changing clothes before and after swimming at a YMCA, his home's bathroom and inside teepees at an Ohio scout reservation. Thirty-nine-year-old Thomas Close, of Shelby in central Ohio's Richland County, was arrested and indicted Thursday on sexual exploitation of children and receiving and distributing child pornography charges. An affidavit submitted by Homeland Security Investigations says cybercrime investigators focused on Close after linking him to videos found on the internet. The affidavit says Close told investigators he recorded the videos starting in 2011. Around 5 terabytes of child pornography was found on his home computer. A message seeking comment was left Saturday with Close' public defender. Shelby is roughly 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Columbus. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma Republicans seized control of every statewide elected office in the 2010 midterm election, and they've maintained their dominance ever since. But in a state Republicans like to boast is the "reddest of the red," 72-year-old Democrat Drew Edmondson is threatening to break the GOP stranglehold and win back the governor's mansion after eight years under Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, who has reached her term limit. Polls have consistently shown Republican mortgage company owner Kevin Stitt, a 46-year-old political newcomer who casts himself in the mold of a businessman outsider like President Donald Trump, slightly ahead of Edmondson. But the race appears to be tightening. The Cook Political Report has moved it from "likely Republican" to "toss up," though FiveThirtyEight.com, which also analyzes political contests, still projects Stitt likely to win. A Libertarian, Chris Powell, also is running. Despite Republicans' growing advantage in voter registration and recent dominance at the ballot box, there are signs the party's grip on power may be slipping after years of a sluggish state economy, budget crises and GOP tax cuts that forced deep cuts to state programs, especially public schools. Over the last two years, Democrats have chipped away at the GOP's super majorities in the Legislature, winning a string of four special elections to claim seats previously held by Republicans, including two where the GOP incumbents stepped down amid sex scandals. Democrats, particularly women , also appear to be energized by their opposition to Trump and by spring teacher walkouts in Republican-led states including Oklahoma, where schools shut down across the state while tens of thousands of educators and their supporters flooded the Capitol for two weeks of protests over school funding. FILE - This combination of file photos shows Oklahoma gubernatorial candidates in the November 2018 election from left, Democrat Drew Edmondson and Republican Kevin Stitt. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrtocki, File) Sally's List, an Oklahoma group dedicated to recruiting and training politically liberal women for public office, endorsed about a dozen female candidates in each of the last two election cycles. This year, they've endorsed 45. The group's executive director, Sara Jane Rose, said a growing interest among women seeking office "started with anti-Trump and gun violence, and then teachers sort of fell into that group, and also people looking at what's going on nationally with women mobilizing." There are also signs of Democratic enthusiasm in rural areas where Republicans have made huge gains over the last two decades. In Pontotoc County, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) southeast of Oklahoma City, the local Democratic Party had to move its monthly meeting twice after attendance exploded following Trump's 2016 election. Two years ago, the party didn't field a single precinct officer. This year, it filled 24 of 27 positions, said local chairman Bobby Joe Trail. Edmondson also is generating enthusiasm among teachers, whom he courted with frequent visits during the walkout. They made "Remember in November" their mantra after becoming frustrated with Fallin and the GOP-led Legislature. During a recent campaign stop at JD's diner in the Pontotoc County community of Ada, Edmondson hit on familiar themes that he hopes will help neutralize Stitt's advantage in rural areas: improving public schools and expanding Medicaid to cover more of the working poor. Those sounded like good ideas to 72-year-old local Ronald Boggs. "The top two issues to me are education and health care," Boggs said. "I think education hasn't been sufficiently funded and we don't pay our teachers enough." Pat McFerron, a Republican political strategist and pollster, said that while he expects Stitt to win, Edmondson has been able to take advantage of growing discontent among voters with the direction the state is moving, particularly when it comes to education. "I jokingly say the top three issues in the state are education, education funding and teacher pay," McFerron said. "And on education issues, right or wrong, Democrats have an advantage." McFerron said Stitt's opposition to this year's tax hikes that funded the teacher pay raise also "is damaging when that's the top issue voters are talking about." Stitt says despite his opposition to taxes, he supports raising teacher pay even more. And while he recognized the race is tight, he said his lack of political experience is a benefit. "I think we have to have an outsider, a business person," Stitt told a packed crowd at a coffeehouse in the Oklahoma City enclave of Bethany. Stitt also has amassed more than twice as much money as Edmondson, raising $10 million for his campaign, including nearly $5 million of his own money. Oklahoma Republican Party Chair Pam Pollard agreed there is a rising level of enthusiasm among Oklahoma voters but that it also extends to Republicans, particularly after the testy Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh . "I don't see and hear the blue wave. I don't," Pollard said. "There's a lot of talk out there, but when I take a look at the polls, we're in good shape." ___ Follow Sean Murphy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apseanmurphy ___ For the AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics In this Oct. 25, 2018, photo, Drew Edmondson, the Democratic nominee for Oklahoma governor, speaks at JD's Diner in Ada, Okla. Edmondson is hoping to break the GOP's stranglehold on state government in Oklahoma with a win over Republican Kevin Stitt in the race to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Mary Fallin. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy) In this Oct. 12, 2018, photo, Kevin Stitt, the Republican nominee for Oklahoma governor, greets guests at Java 39 coffeehouse in Bethany, Okla. Stitt is locked in a tight race with Democrat Drew Edmondson to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Mary Fallin. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy) In this Oct. 25, 2018, photo, Drew Edmondson, the Democratic nominee for Oklahoma governor, speaks to patrons at JD's Diner in Ada, Okla. Edmondson is hoping to break the GOP's stranglehold on state government in Oklahoma with a win over Republican Kevin Stitt in the race to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Mary Fallin. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy) NEW YORK (AP) - Every Wednesday night, Broadway dancer Beth Nicely spends her one night off from the musical "Chicago" leading a group of enthusiastic New Yorkers in a joyful ritual: Tap dancing. But this isn't the traditional shuffling and hoofing. She choreographs to pop music and calls her one-hour lessons POP TAP. "I wanted to make it relevant and reach people that don't know how to tap and that's through pop music," Nicely said recently. "Everyone knows the songs and it's just a cool juxtaposition to put tap with different contemporary songs." The class began in January 2017 as a way for Nicely to help a group of friends planning to do a tap show. She said she'd choreograph it if they used pop music to up the fun factor. The classes continued beyond the performance date and Nicely said word of mouth led to growing popularity. "I couldn't keep up with the texts," she said of people asking to join. Now she posts on Instagram and on Facebook when a class is happening and asks those interested to direct message her for details. That's a way to keep it safe and to vet the dancers. Some tap experience is required. After all, her students have just an hour to learn a complete dance. In this Sept. 19, 2018 photo, dancer Beth Nicely, left, teaches Pop Tap class, a weekly tap dance routine to pop music, in New York. Every Wednesday night, Broadway dancer Nicely spends her one night off a week from the musical "Chicago" leading a group of enthusiastic New Yorkers in a joyful ritual: Tap dancing. (AP Photo/Bruce Barton) "I would say in the tap world it's like intermediate level, so you can't just come and be like, 'I can do this.'" The turnout is mostly female but there are some male tappers who occasionally take part. Nicely said her attendees include other dancers, lawyers, bakers, the vice president of marketing for a restaurant group and moms who used to take dance and need some "me time." Dancers and dance teachers visiting New York have also attended while in town, learning about it from social media. "I think everyone in class will tell you it feels like creating and doing something special and fun," said Nicely. "Moving your feet, relieving stress, getting positive feelings." Nicely, who is originally from Columbus, Ohio, said the class is also a way for New Yorkers to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. "I think living in New York City, it's hard. It's hard to have a community or have a weekly, fun check-in time with the same group of people. It's just nice that it's become that," she said. "We do class and then we go to my apartment for pizza and wine after or we go to the Mexican place nearby for chips and guacamole." The regular tappers agree it's a highlight of their week. Also, the price is right. Nicely asks for $10 to cover the studio cost, assuring "it's not about profit." "It became this obsession of coming every Wednesday and it was on my calendar, set like a meeting," said regular pop tapper, Sarah McLellan. Nicely tries to come up with the routines a day or two before class but sometimes it can happen day of. Sometimes the music is fast, sometimes slower. She jokes that the slower songs are "con-tap-orary," instead of "contemporary." Dances are under one minute, so the performance video can post on Instagram . McLellan, who is originally from Australia, said friends and family back home watch the videos on Instagram regularly. "I have people who I went to high school with, family members like aunts and cousins, and they wait for that video to go up. People just love it. They'll have their favorites in the class and point people out." Nicely is continuously floored by the responses she gets from social media. "A reporter in Texas said the news was getting to be a lot for them, and sometimes she brings her crew together and they watch a tap video and everybody starts smiling. They don't know how to tap. They just love it," she said. In a recent POP TAP class, the group began with a warm-up routine to get their feet moving to Kesha's "Die Young." Then Nicely began teaching a routine to "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon. She broke it down into sections. Occasionally someone had a question or asked the person next to them about a step, but there was no pressure. It's all smiles in POP TAP. That's the point said regular tapper Jackie Ostick. "There are no rules. There are no critiques in a bad way where you feel like you're a bad dancer," she said. "You just have fun." Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and first lady Mehriban Aliyeva have attended the inauguration of Qarabag Equestrian Complex of Qarabag Horse Breeding Farm LLC under the Animal Breeding Scientific-Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture. President Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the complex, after which he and first lady Mehriban Aliyeva viewed conditions created at an indoor ring, Trend reported. The republic's minister of agriculture Inam Karimov and head of Qarabag Equestrian Complex Maarif Huseynov highlighted the work done to develop horse breeding in the country, and conditions created at the complex. Ilham Aliyev and Mehriban Aliyeva watched Azerbaijan`s ancient national Sur-papag horse game. The head of state and his wife also familiarized themselves with the conditions created at a horse stable, as well as watched performance of Suvarilar group of the Equestrian Center of the State Border Service. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on a shooting at a Florida yoga studio (all times local): 7:05 p.m. The man who shot and killed two people in a Tallahassee yoga studio appears to have made a series of racist and misogynistic videos four years ago. Police say that on Friday night Scott Paul Beierle posed as a customer at the yoga studio and then suddenly started shooting people. He killed two women and injured five others. Beierle then fatally shot himself. In a series of videos that were posted to YouTube in 2014, a man who looks like Beierle criticized how black people dress and speak and called women who date black men "whores." In another video, the man complained about an "invasion" from Central America, while in another he ranted about the women who he said had caused him to become a misogynist. A Tallahassee police spokesman would not confirm or deny the videos were Beierle's, but biographical details mentioned in the videos match known facts about Beierle. This undated photo provided by Leon County Sheriff's Office shows Scott Paul Beierle. Two people were shot to death and five others wounded at a yoga studio in Tallahassee, Fla., by Beierle, a gunman who then killed himself, authorities said. The two slain Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, included a student and faculty member at Florida State University, according to university officials. (Leon County Sheriff's Office via AP) The existence of the videos was first reported by BuzzFeed. ___ 4:20 p.m. A Florida State University college student from Atlanta was one of two people killed in a Tallahassee yoga studio. The Tallahassee Democrat reported that Maura Binkley was due to graduate in May and she was studying German and editing, writing and media. Her father Jeff Binkley told the newspaper she was hoping to get a job with Teach for America. Jeff Binkley said that police told him the killing of his daughter was a random act. Tallahassee police say that on Friday night Scott Paul Beierle posed as a customer at the yoga studio and then started shooting people without warning. He killed two women and injured five others. Beierle then fatally shot himself inside the studio. Dr. Nancy Van Vessem was also killed in the shooting. She was an FSU faculty member. ___ 2:20 p.m. Tallahassee police say a 40-year-old man posed as customer at a yoga studio and started shooting people without warning, killing two women as patrons tried to fight back. Scott Paul Beierle then fatally shot himself inside the studio. Authorities are still trying figure out why he mounted the deadly attack. The police statement says, "Patrons fought the assailant to prevent him from harming themselves and others." Beierle was a graduate of nearby Florida State University but he was living in a city in central Florida. Police were searching Beirele's residence in Deltona, located east of Orlando. Beirele had been previously arrested for grabbing women although the charges were eventually dropped. Records also showed that he was banned from the campus of Florida State University in 2014. The shooting occurred Friday evening in an upscale shopping center. ___ 10:30 a.m. Court records show that the 40-year-man identified as the shooter at a yoga studio in Tallahassee had been previously arrested for grabbing women. Police say that Scott Paul Beierle shot six people, killing two, and pistol whipped another person before turning the gun on himself. Beierle was charged by police with battery in 2016 after he slapped and grabbed a woman's buttocks at an apartment complex pool. Records show that the charges were eventually dismissed after Beierle followed the conditions of a deferred prosecution agreement. Beierle was also charged with battery in 2012 for grabbing women's buttocks in a Florida State University campus dining hall. A FSU police report shows that Beierle told police he may accidentally bumped into someone, but denied grabbing anyone. ___ 8:30 a.m. Authorities in Florida's capital city say two people were shot to death and five others wounded at a yoga studio by a gunman who then killed himself. Officials at Florida State University said the two slain Friday were an FSU student and faculty member. Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo told reporters Friday night that the man shot six people and pistol-whipped another after walking into the studio, which is part of a small shopping center. The suspect then fatally shot himself, DeLeo said. DeLeo said the shooter acted alone and authorities are investigating possible motives. City Commissioner Scott Maddox said on Facebook, "In my public service career I have had to be on some bad scenes. This is the worst. Please pray." A person is transported from scene of a shooting, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, in Tallahassee, Fla. A shooter killed one person and critically wounded four others at a yoga studio in Florida's capital before killing himself Friday, officials said. (Tori Schneider/Tallahassee Democrat via AP) Tallahassee police chief Michael DeLeo speaks to the press at the scene of a shooting, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, in Tallahassee, Fla. A shooter killed one person and critically wounded four others at a yoga studio in Florida's capital before killing himself Friday, officials said. (AP Photo/Steve Cannon) SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Whether Democrats win a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers of the California Legislature will likely come down to a sprawling state Senate district west of Fresno that looks on paper like it should be a lock for the party. Democrats have an 18-point voter registration advantage in the district, where two years ago voters favored Democrat Hillary Clinton by 20 points over Republican Donald Trump. Half of the registered voters in the district are Latino. And yet the seat has stayed in Republican hands. It's open now because incumbent Anthony Cannella is termed out. That has presented an opportunity for Democrats who are just one vote short of the 27 they need for a two-thirds supermajority that would allow them to raise taxes, suspend legislative rules or override vetoes without Republican votes. The party is expected to hold its supermajority in the 80-member Assembly, where they need 54 votes and have 55. Outgoing Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown sometimes clashed with fellow party members in the Legislature who wanted significantly more spending, especially on social programs. In this photo taken Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018, Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salina talks with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the democratic candidate for governor, during a campaign stop in Modesto, Calif. Democrats, are one vote short of the 27 needed for a supermajority in the 40-member Senate. Caballero has received help in her campaign from Newsom and other Democratic candidates. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) His likely successor is Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. A supermajority could give him an easier path to expanding the tax base and the health care system. If longshot conservative Republican John Cox upsets Newsom, his actions could be overridden by a two-thirds vote. Republicans are pinning their hopes in the district on Madera County Supervisor Rob Poythress while Democrats are backing Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, who lost to Cannella in 2010. Republicans so far have been overachieving and Democrats and Latinos underperforming in early ballot returns, setting up a nail-biter election night Tuesday, said Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc., which collects voter data from counties. The key could come from a swath of the district "where the Democrats are almost more conservative, blue collar, work in the agricultural industry and can be more swing voters," he said. The money pouring into the race underscores the importance to both parties. More than $7.7 million has been spent, with the two parties dumping in $4.1 million, tops among all legislative races in the state. Democrats have spent $2.3 million of that total. Poythress said his election would prevent "truly a one-party government" in Sacramento, which he called bad for democracy. Caballero played down the importance of a supermajority, saying the party isn't monolithic. "People are hurting right now and the last thing I'm going to want to do is raise taxes," she said. Democrats including Caballero used their supermajority in the Assembly last year to raise gasoline and other transportation taxes by $5 billion a year. They were one vote short in the Senate until Cannella became the only Republican to support it. Poythress is pounding Caballero for her vote, but she says the hike is providing "resources we desperately need in our communities." Caballero hails from the Salinas Valley, across a mountainous divide from Poythress' home in the inland San Joaquin Valley. Caballero moved there in 1979 as an attorney representing farm workers. She held appointed or elected positions in Salinas from 1986 until her election to the Assembly in 2006. After she lost to Cannella, Brown appointed her secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency until she returned to the Assembly in 2016. Poythress was born in Madera, where he manages a bank and is a partner in a hardware store and the family farm. He was elected to the City Council in 2004 and county board in 2016. Both candidates say they're good fits for the agricultural district that includes parts of six counties. Caballero is a leader of a group of pro-business, moderate Assembly Democrats and holds some policy positions anathema to party leaders. She blames the state's strict environmental laws for stalling affordable housing in the district that's been hard-hit by exorbitant costs spilling over from nearby Silicon Valley and wants to carve out exceptions or a speedier environmental review process. Poythress more broadly blames burdensome laws and regulations for hobbling development. Caballero, like Poythress, supports more water storage, either behind dams or underground, and opposes Brown's proposal to move more Northern California water through massive tunnels. She supports Brown's high-speed rail project to connect rural commuters to big-city jobs. Poythress opposes it as an ill-conceived waste of money. Caballero supports the state's sanctuary law to protect some immigrants in the country illegally from deportation, while Poythress said the law protects felons. He backs more vocational training to bootstrap the region's farm labor economy and a guest visa program to bring in laborers legally from other nations. She said the valley's future lies in crops that use less water, and in adopting robots and mechanization to make up for fewer farm laborers. Those automated "smart farms" will mean higher-paying, less back-breaking agricultural jobs, she said. Caballero has a reputation of fighting for her district and the gas tax seemingly hasn't sparked the voter revolt Republicans had sought, said Darry Sragow, a former Democratic strategist who publishes the nonpartisan California Target Book that tracks legislative races. But the bulk of the district's voters are in the Central Valley, where residents may view Poythress as one of their own and Caballero as a coastal Democrat too aligned with the San Francisco Bay Area, said Target Book editor Tony Quinn, a Republican demographics expert. "The one opportunity the Republicans have in what looks like a horrible year is the demographics of this district work against any candidate who comes out of the Salinas area," Quinn said. In this undated campaign handout photo is Madera County Supervisor Rob Poythress who Is running for the 12th state Senate District seat in the Nov. 6 election. Poythress is running against Democratic Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, of Salinas.(Poythress for Senate 2018 campaign photo by Nathan J. Huebert Photography via AP) OXFORD, Ohio (AP) - Ohio Democrats are hoping one of their winningest politicians ever can help halt statewide Republican domination, pitting Sen. Sherrod Brown's popularity against Donald Trump's after the impressive 2016 presidential-race victory raised questions about the future of the Buckeye State's traditional role as a bellwether. Brown, who won his first Ohio legislative election in 1974, is expected to capture a third term by a substantial margin over Trump-backed GOP Rep. Jim Renacci. The governor's race is considered a toss-up, other statewide races are competitive, and Democrats are within range to flip a House seat or two. Republicans swept statewide offices in 2014 and 2016, and Trump's 8-point win over Democrat Hillary Clinton was the biggest presidential margin in Ohio since 1988. Democrats know that in a midterm election, which tends to favor the out-of-power party, and with an open governorship because Republican incumbent John Kasich is term-limited, this is their best opportunity in years to turn that tide. Brown has been campaigning in the final week for other Democrats on the ballot and has made fundraising appeals for Democratic governor nominee Richard Cordray. He is transferring $300,000 from a Brown-led fundraising committee to help other Democrats. He has raised $2 million for Ohio Democrats in the current two-year election cycle, while raising more than $27 million for his own campaign. "I think people want change," Brown said in an AP interview before his third Senate debate, at Miami University. "I think people see corruption in Columbus, and the rich getting tax cuts. I think that's going to affect voters up and down the ticket." Brown said he wants Cordray, a former federal consumer watchdog, as "my partner" in standing up to Wall Street. FILE - In this Oct. 22, 2018 file photo, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, participates in a roundtable discussion with addiction treatment professionals and patients at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, in Cleveland. Ohio Democrats are hoping one of their winningest politicians ever can help halt Republican statewide domination. Brown is pitting his popularity against Donald Trump's after the impressive 2016 presidential-race victory raised questions about the future of the Buckeye State's traditional role as a national bellwether. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File) Brown planned to join former Vice President Joe Biden, Cordray and other Democratic candidates Saturday in the Cleveland area. Meanwhile, Trump will lead a rally for Republicans in Cleveland on Monday, the day before the election. Trump is not on this year's ballot but is very much on the minds of voters on both sides. Even in the same house. "I'm hoping that the Democrats are motivated to get out there and vote," said Sally Schott, executive director of a nonprofit organization. The suburban Cincinnati woman, 58, is alarmed at "how uncivil things are right now." Her husband, Tom, 62 and retired from a career in print communication sales, said he expects Republicans will turn out to express their support for Trump, as he will. "I think he's done real well. The economy's doing well; I think the world's in a better place," Schott said. "I'm happy." Another Republican sweep on the heels of Trump's decisive 2016 victory might move the state off a 2020 Democratic presidential nominee's must-win list, said Kyle Kondik, who wrote 2016's "The Bellwether." Kondik, at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, studied the state's record of picking the presidential winner in all but two elections since the 19th century. "Given how Trump ran pretty significantly ahead of his national margin in Ohio, I wonder if that will scare off Democratic presidential investment," Kondik said. But Kondik agreed that Brown could lift Democrats in tight races such as the governor's race between Cordray and Attorney General Mike DeWine, a former senator unseated by Brown in 2006 who has been winning elections nearly as long as Brown has. Brown said he couldn't predict whether he will have any coattails. "You guys get to do that," he replied. The gravelly voiced senator speaks blue-collar language and has populist appeal. He has praised Trump moves to toughen trade deals and use tariffs. "Sherrod Brown is the most difficult Democrat in Ohio to beat," said Gary Cates, a former longtime Republican state legislator in southwest Ohio. "He's a got a pretty good brand that represents a broad cross-section of people." Brown has also been a state legislator, secretary of state, and congressman, winning 15 of his 16 elections. A Brown campaign ad had factory workers praising Brown, 65, while noting he has been described as "disheveled," ''rumpled" and "wrinkled." "Sherrod Brown is just exactly what you see," said Michele Fisher, 61, a small-business woman in suburban Cincinnati. "He will listen. He's there to help people." In an Oct. 12 rally in the southwest Ohio community of Lebanon, Trump urged support for Renacci, a fourth-term congressman who decided to challenge Brown after getting White House encouragement. Trump took note of Brown's support of him on tougher trade. "In fact, I just want to think, is he a Republican?" Trump said. But he added: "He didn't vote for tax cuts. He doesn't vote for us, folks. It might be nice for him to say he agrees with my economic policy when he's never going to vote for it." Besides the tax cuts, Brown has been sharply critical of Trump's immigration policies and has called on Renacci to join him in urging Trump to show leadership in trying to unite the country. Before the rally on a rainy Friday evening in a Warren County Fairgrounds arena, Renacci said in an interview that Brown's lead isn't as big as widely reported, and that "if we get turnout, he loses." Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" blared on the arena speakers as Renacci spoke. Recent polls have given Brown a double-digit percentage-point lead. Renacci blames Brown's fundraising prowess on special interests. Renacci has repeatedly said Brown's liberal record is more like "a Hollywood liberal" than a typical Ohioan's views. Renacci, 59, has recycled 1980s allegations of domestic abuse from Brown's divorce, triggering a campaign ad by Brown's ex-wife, who has remained a political supporter of Brown, saying Renacci "should be ashamed." Brown's campaign followed with an ad for "Air Renacci," satirizing the businessman's campaign flights aboard a strip-club owner's private plane. Brown was vetted by Hillary Clinton's campaign as a possible 2016 running mate, but he insists he has no strong interest in running for president in 2020. Republicans including Cates say don't underestimate the power of the guy not on the ballot. "I've been really surprised by the level of Trump energy there still is in Butler County," said Ann Becker, a West Chester Township trustee and veteran GOP activist. "(Trump) kind of galvanizes us." ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics ___ Follow Dan Sewell at https://www.twitter.com/dansewell FILE, In this Oct. 12, 2018 file photo, President Donald Trump, right, gestures alongside U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Ohio, left, at a rally endorsing the Republican ticket in Lebanon, Ohio. Ohio Democrats are hoping one of their winningest politicians ever can help halt Republican statewide domination. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is pitting his popularity against Donald Trump's after the impressive 2016 presidential-race victory raised questions about the future of the Buckeye State's traditional role as a national bellwether.(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - When Paul Davis heard earlier this year that the complete remains of two Civil War soldiers had been uncovered recently at Manassas National Battlefield, mixed among severed limbs in a surgeon's pit, he immediately wondered: Could that be his great-great uncle William, who died at the Second Battle of Bull Run, but whose bones had been lost to history? From what he knew of his ancestor's death, it seemed possible. Davis had read letters that said William - a color sergeant in the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, part of the Union Army's famed Iron Brigade - died after being taken by ambulance for treatment. Unfortunately for Davis, he may never find out. Army officials rejected requests from several families to conduct DNA testing that might have enabled their identification before reburying the remains as unknown soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery in September. "The Army made the decision that the costs associated with obtaining, storing, and testing of the DNA from these two Unknown U.S. Soldiers was not justified due to the significant passage of time as the possibility of identifying comparator DNA is extremely unlikely," a statement from Army officials at the cemetery says. Davis said he finds the Army's stance insulting. In this Sept. 6, 2018 photo, the 3rd Infantry Regiment, also known as the Old Guard, carry the remains of two unknown Civil War Union soldiers to their grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. The U.S. Army is being criticized for reburying the remains of two recently discovered Civil War soldiers without conducting DNA testing. The soldiers were found at Manassas National Battlefield, among severed limbs in what researchers believe was a surgeon's pit. Army officials said DNA testing was unjustified and reburied them as unknown soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) "Don't put someone in a box for eternity without their name if you have the ability to identify that person," said Davis, 64, of Fort Myers, Florida. Davis noted that the U.S. military has an entire department working to identify remains of service members, but the agency only investigates cases going back to World War II. He said he doesn't understand why the military's commitment comes with an apparent expiration date on older conflicts. "There's a covenant that exists between our country and our soldiers: If they're lost, our country will try to find them, and if they're found, our country will try to identify them," Davis said. "When a soldier makes the ultimate sacrifice in battle for his country, when does the commitment to bring him home end?" This discovery was unusual, and accidental. Countless unidentified soldiers were buried where they fell during the Civil War. National Park Service policy is to leave their remains in place, considering battlefields to be hallowed ground. These bodies were discovered in 2014 when workers digging to install a pipeline uncovered human bones. Researchers eventually found nearly a dozen severed limbs, along with two full sets of remains. They were able to conclude the soldiers were members of the Union Army, based on uniform buttons found in the pit and a bullet lodged in the one man's femur, fired from a Confederate Enfield rifle. The location corresponds with work done by surgeons in the battle's aftermath, as the Union medical corps sent ambulances to collect the wounded and treat those left lying on the battlefield who could be saved, said Douglas Owsley, an anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institution who examined the remains. Owsley said he does not dispute the Army's contention that DNA testing would be unlikely to identify the two individuals, because there could be many potential candidates with plausible claims like those put forward by Davis, given the large number of casualties at Second Bull Run. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency already has a $144 million budget and 600 staffers working to identify tens of thousands of remains, and typically identifies about 200 service members a year. Making an exception in Davis' case could open the door to an even larger caseload by violating its firm rule against investigating pre-World War II conflicts. Owsley said some consideration was given to developing DNA profiles of the remains before they were reburied, but the Army opted against that as well, noting that Arlington was founded as a place to honor the Civil War dead, both known and unidentified. "The Army feels strongly that the dignified burial of these two sets of remains is in keeping with the over 2,000 Civil War Unknowns who were killed in action near the national capital region and are buried at Arlington National Cemetery," the Army said in its statement. Owsley said it may be easier to identify the severed limbs. Surgeons were under orders to document amputations so that Army pensions could be issued to these wounded soldiers, and there are fairly extensive records of surgeries from the battle. Owsley said he hopes to preserve samples from the limbs, which are stored at the Smithsonian, but the Army has not yet agreed to such testing. Davis said every detail he learns about the case seems to jibe with his ancestor's story. He said no one at the Army was willing to look at his documents and other evidence corroborating the possibility that his ancestor has been unearthed. For instance, Park Service officials said Davis' ancestor couldn't have been connected because he served in a Wisconsin regiment, and isotope testing - which can be done less expensively and more easily than DNA testing - indicated the two soldiers were likely from New England. But Davis said his great-great uncle lived in Maine before moving to the Midwest for work as a lumberjack. Indeed, a headstone in a Maine cemetery bears William Garcelon Davis' name, marking an empty gravesite. That's why Paul Davis wants his ancestor buried in Maine, even though he recognizes the honor of burial at Arlington. "The ones who loved him, that's where they thought he belonged," Davis said. In this Sept. 6, 2018 photo, the 3rd Infantry Regiment, also known as the Old Guard, stretch the American flag over the casket containing the remains of one of two unknown Civil War Union soldiers at their grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. The U.S. Army is being criticized for reburying the remains of two recently discovered Civil War soldiers without conducting DNA testing. The soldiers were found at Manassas National Battlefield, among severed limbs in what researchers believe was a surgeon's pit. Army officials said DNA testing was unjustified and reburied them as unknown soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) In this Sept. 6, 2018 photo, P. Daniel Smith; deputy director, National Park Service, left, Karen Durham-Aquilere; executive director, Army National Military Cemeteries, second from left, and Mark Esper, Secretary of the Army, right, participate in a military funeral with honors for two Civil War Union soldiers at their grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. The U.S. Army is being criticized for reburying the remains of two recently discovered Civil War soldiers without conducting DNA testing. The soldiers were found at Manassas National Battlefield, among severed limbs in what researchers believe was a surgeon's pit. Army officials said DNA testing was unjustified and reburied them as unknown soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - With President Donald Trump clamoring to defeat U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and conservative groups spending heavily against him, the Democrat is falling back on a well-worn strategy in his pursuit of a third term: make the election about Montana, not Washington. Trump's feud with Tester, triggered by the lawmaker's opposition to Trump's choice for Veterans Affairs secretary, has blossomed into an all-out presidential campaign to install Republican Matt Rosendale. Trump is making a record fourth visit to Montana on Saturday. Instead of fighting back, Tester has sought to ingratiate himself with Trump's supporters, reminding them of legislation on veterans that he sponsored and the president signed and touting his understanding of the state as a lifelong resident and farmer. Tester avoids almost any mention of Trump in campaign speeches. He speaks about health care and Republican proposals to make it harder to get coverage for pre-existing conditions. He talks about protecting public lands in the state, while demonizing his opponent as "Maryland Matt," a real estate developer from Maryland who falsely claims to be a rancher. "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, they know I understand the importance of public education," Tester said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Matt Rosendale isn't any of that." Rosendale, Montana's state auditor and insurance commissioner, has looked to score points by using the GOP playbook - plugging a hardline immigration stance and highlighting Tester's opposition to Trump's Supreme Court nominees. But his primary strategy seems to be riding the president's coattails. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana leads a crowd in a cheer during a rally in Helena, Mont., on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018. Tester, a Democrat is running for re-election against Republican challenger Matt Rosendale. (AP Photo/Matt Volz) "How can you argue about the tax cuts and the benefits being provided to the people of Montana and the nation?" Rosendale said during an interview. "We're seeing national security in a better place. We're starting to work on securing our southern border. ... These are things that are working for people across the state and across our nation." A Rosendale victory would give Montana an all-GOP congressional delegation and could cement the party's control of a closely divided Senate. Rosendale, 58, moved to Glendive, Montana, with his wife and three sons in 2002. He won a seat in the state Legislature in 2010. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House in 2014, became state Senate majority leader the next year and was elected in 2016 as state auditor. Tester, 62, is married with two children. He took over his family's farm in the town of Big Sandy after college and taught music at an elementary school. He was elected to the state Senate in 1998 and the U.S. Senate in 2006. In 2012, Tester beat back a challenge from a Republican congressman. Libertarian Rick Breckenridge rounds out Tuesday's Senate ballot. He hasn't been actively campaigning and on Thursday threw his support behind Rosendale. The move caught Libertarian leaders off guard and was disavowed by the party's chairman, Francis Wendt, who said Rosendale was weak on personal privacy protections. The GOP is hopeful the move will prevent a repeat of Tester's 2012 re-election, when a Libertarian candidate peeled away enough votes that they could have changed the outcome if they had gone to the Republican. Trump's appearance Saturday in Belgrade will mark the most visits to Montana by any sitting president. He took a personal interest in the race after Tester released allegations of workplace misconduct against Trump's first nominee for VA secretary, Ronny Jackson, who withdrew from consideration in April. Jackson has denied the allegations and they are being investigated by Pentagon officials. At Saturday's rally, Trump railed against Tester for three minutes for attempting to "ruin" Jackson, "the most clean-cut, wonderful person that' you've ever met," the president said. "He tried to destroy him, and I've never forgotten," Trump said. "It's honestly one of the reasons I've been here so much." The president's attentions have helped boost a candidate who wasn't the GOP's first or even second choice to take on the two-term incumbent. The White House blitz in Montana also included multiple trips by the president's son, Vice President Mike Pence and a parade of Republican senators. The visits have fired up interest in the race but that could backfire if it motivates voters who disapprove of the president, said David Parker, a political analyst at Montana State University. "They're putting all their chips on the table with the Trump brand," Parker said, adding that Rosendale's campaign had no choice, with Tester outraising him 4-to-1 in donations. Outside groups and donations to the candidates have reached $60 million, a record for Montana politics. In Rosendale's view, Tester embodies the same corrupt Washington establishment that the Democrat pledged to change when he first ran in 2006. Tester now ranks as one of the top recipients of cash donations from lobbyists among all members of Congress, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. "How can you stand there 12 years ago and say that I won't be encumbered by lobbyists, and this is the number one recipient?" Rosendale said of Tester. "People spend too much time in Washington, D.C., and they become intoxicated with the power and privilege that's presented to them." Tester has made a name for himself as a proponent of campaign finance reform and says the amount of money going into the race is out of his control. "Look, this is the landscape," Tester said. "The difference is, I will push and I will work hard for campaign finance reform. I think it hurts our democracy badly." ___ Associated Press reporter Matt Volz in Helena contributed to this report. ___ Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MatthewBrownAP ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics In this Oct. 23, 2018 photo Republican Senate candidate Matt Rosendale smiles during a rally in Helena, Mont. Rosendale is in a tight race against incumbent Democrat Jon Tester.(AP Photo/Matt Volz) FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2018 file photo President Donald Trump and Montana State Auditor Matt Rosendale, who is running against Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., shake hands during a campaign rally at Minuteman Aviation Hangar in Missoula, Mont. Rosendale has President Donald Trump and other big-name Republicans surrounding him on the campaign trail. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster,File) PITTSBURGH (AP) - Parents clutched their children, couples leaned on each other and bystanders wept as about 100 people gathered in a steady drizzle outside the desecrated Tree of Life synagogue for what a former rabbi called a healing service one week after the worst attack targeting Jews in U.S. history. Rabbi Chuck Diamond led a service of prayers, songs and poetry and reminisced about some of the worshippers killed, as Show Up For Shabbat services honoring the 11 dead and six wounded were held at synagogues across the United States. "I almost expected Cecil to greet me this morning," Diamond said of Cecil Rosenthal, 59, killed along with his brother, David, 54, in the Oct. 27 shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in the city's Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Diamond called the victims "angels given to us, full of love and life." In the past week, people told him of weddings, bar mitzvahs and other ceremonies they've held at the synagogue. "This is a place, a building that has stood for joy, but now it is forever stained," Diamond said. But the shooting "cannot overshadow (that) this building is and will be into the future a place of joy." He said he took great comfort in seeing people of all faiths come together since the shooting and for his prayer vigil on Saturday. Rabbi Chuck Diamond, center, a former Rabbi at the Tree of Life Synagogue, hugs a woman after leading a Shabbat service outside the Tree of Life Synagogue, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh. Last Saturday, 11 people were killed and six wounded when their worship was interrupted by a gunman's bullets. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) "It's important to come and take care of your community when something like this happens. I want to be in solidarity," said Andrew Allison, who attended Saturday's service. Before coming to the outdoor service, Steve Irwin, 59, and a friend stopped by a Squirrel Hill coffee shop. "When we went to pay, we were told all the coffee was paid for by the Sandy Hook community," referring to Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.? "It brought tears to my eyes," Irwin said, standing outside Tree of Life on Saturday with his dog. "It shows how incumbent it is upon us to pay it forward to the next community this happens, which we hope never happens, but we know it will happen." The outdoor service "gives you a sense of normalcy, which is impossible to find right now," he said. Meanwhile, the pews were packed at Central Synagogue in New York City, where Jews and non-Jews alike gathered for a special Show Up for Shabbat service. "It's such a tragedy that happened in Pittsburgh, and I was touched by the calling of the Jewish community to welcome non-Jews into their synagogues today, so I couldn't resist and I came," said Steven Kent, an Episcopalian. "It was a wonderful feeling." The suspect, Robert Bowers, 46, pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges that could result in a death sentence. He was arraigned on a 44-count indictment charging him with murder, hate crimes, obstructing the practice of religion and other crimes. "This is not a Jewish problem, although Jews were targeted. This is a human problem," said Rev. Lee Clark, a retired Presbyterian pastor who took part in Saturday's service outside the Tree of Life synagogue. "The only way to confront hate is to face it with love." About a half-mile away at Congregation Beth Shalom, worshippers, including several members of Tree of Life, gathered for Shabbat services. They honored Augie Siriano, 59, the 25-year Tree of Life custodian, who witnessed the shooting. "I had tea with Cecil (Rosenthal) 10 minutes before I found him," Siriano said later, wiping away tears. "Augie just loved them," said Siriano's girlfriend, Rose Battista. Scott Priester, 48, a Lutheran, came to Beth Shalom on Saturday - his first ever Shabbat service. "The shooting rocked me to the core, more than anything in my personal life," he said. Gary Friedman, 65, called the massacre "a blow, a stab to the heart." He had no doubt the community will recover. ?"We'll get over it," he said. "We always do. What other choice do we have?" ___ Associated Press reporter Julie Walker in New York contributed. Republican Rep. Keith Rothfus, second from left, leaves the Beth Shalom synagogue after a Shabbat morning service, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Rabbi Chuck Diamond, left, a former Rabbi at the Tree of Life Synagogue, shares a laugh with worshipers before leading a Shabbat service outside the Tree of Life Synagogue, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh. About 100 people gathered in a cold drizzle for what was called a "healing service" outside the synagogue that was the scene of a mass shooting a week ago. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) A worshiper walks past a Pittsburgh Police officer, and a private security guard outside the main entrance of the Beth Shalom synagogue after attending a Shabbat morning service, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Former Rabbi at Tree of Life Synagogue, Rabbi Chuck Diamond, second from left, prepares to lead a Shabbat morning service outside the Tree of Life Synagogue Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh. About 100 people gathered in a cold drizzle for what was called a "healing service" outside the synagogue that was the scene of a mass shooting a week ago. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) A Shabbat morning service led by former Tree of Life rabbi Chuck Diamond,center, is held outside the Tree of Life Synagogue Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh. About 100 people gathered in a cold drizzle for what was called a "healing service" outside the synagogue that was the scene of a mass shooting a week ago. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) A Shabbat morning service led by former Tree of Life rabbi Chuck Diamond,center, is held outside the Tree of Life Synagogue Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh. About 100 people gathered in a cold drizzle for what was called a "healing service" outside the synagogue that was the scene of a mass shooting a week ago. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Pittsburgh Police officer Sarah Pratt gets a hug before a Shabbat morning worship service led by Rabbi Chuck Diamond outside the Tree of Life Synagogue Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh. About 100 people gathered in a cold drizzle for what was called a "healing service" outside the synagogue that was the scene of a mass shooting a week ago. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) People line both sides of the street as they gather outside the Tree of Life Synagogue for a service on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Pittsburgh. About 100 people gathered in a cold drizzle for what was called a "healing service" outside the synagogue that was the scene of a mass shooting a week ago. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) Colleen Cooper, of Shaler in suburban Pittsburgh, lays a single rose on each of the memorials for the eleven people fatally shot last week at the Tree of Life Synagogue after a service, on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Pittsburgh. About 100 people gathered in a cold drizzle for what was called a "healing service" outside the synagogue that was the scene of a mass shooting a week ago. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) Kerry Smooke, center left, and daughter Molly Feinberg, right center, attend a Shabbat morning service by Rabbi Chuck Diamond outside the Tree of Life Synagogue Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh. About 100 people gathered in a cold drizzle for what was called a "healing service" outside the synagogue that was the scene of a mass shooting a week ago. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Former Rabbi at Tree of Life Synagogue, Rabbi Chuck Diamond, prepares to lead a Shabbat morning service Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh. About 100 people gathered in a cold drizzle for what was called a "healing service" outside the synagogue that was the scene of a mass shooting a week ago. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Former Tree of Life rabbi Chuck Diamond leads a service outside the Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Pittsburgh. Eleven people were killed and six others injured in a shooting during services there a week ago. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) Rabbi Chuck Diamond, center, a former Rabbi at the Tree of Life Synagogue, hugs a woman after leading a Shabbat service outside the Tree of Life Synagogue, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh. Last Saturday, 11 people were killed and six wounded when their worship was interrupted by a gunman's bullets. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Democrats in Kansas who have had to sit on the political sidelines for the better part of a decade are hoping for a blue wave on Election Day that could help them break the Republican grip on power and are optimistic about their chances in several races, including the one for governor. Kansas is a virtual lock for the GOP nominee in presidential races. President Donald Trump won the state two years ago by nearly 21 percentage points, and the last Democratic presidential candidate to carry it was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Kansas last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1932, and Republicans are close to a 2-to-1 advantage among registered voters. Yet a purple streak runs through the state because of decades of infighting within the dominant Republican Party. In the past 50 years, the state has had five Republican and five Democratic governors. Chris Reeves, a Democratic National Committee member from the Kansas City area, said 2018 was "a year that was really set up for us," with energy high and many Democratic candidates outpacing GOP foes in fundraising. "Let's say everything goes wrong," Reeves said. "I think what it causes us to do is to say, 'You know what? We needed a lot more legwork from the spring on, in registering new voters.'" The marquee race for governor between conservative Republican Kris Kobach and Democrat Laura Kelly was a toss-up in the campaign's final weekend. Kelly is wooing GOP moderates who are put off by Kobach's hardline stances on issues such as immigration, while Kobach expects his conservative base to turn out to counter enthusiasm on the left. FILE - This combination of file photos shows Kansas gubernatorial candidates in the November 2018 election from left: Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach; Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly; and Independent candidate, businessmen Greg Orman. (Thad Allton/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP, File) While Trump won the state handily, he narrowly lost the Kansas City-area congressional district of GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder, who is now in danger of losing his seat because suburban voters have turned against the president. Democrats also hope to flip the open seat in a neighboring eastern Kansas district where Republicans are suffering from their perennial problem of internal dissension. A political novice emerged from a crowded Republican primary and is struggling to unite the party behind him. The state GOP's goal is to wash out any purple to make Kansas like other states that haven't elected a Democratic governor in more than 20 years, such as Idaho, South Dakota, Texas or Utah. Kansas Republicans started their latest streak with a clean sweep of statewide and congressional races in 2010, riding a wave of tea party opposition to President Barack Obama. In 1994, in a GOP-wave year nationally, Republicans swept all of those races except one, state insurance commissioner. After winning that down-ballot race, Democrat Kathleen Sebelius built a political profile that allowed her to win two terms as governor. State GOP Chairman Kelly Arnold said that if Republicans manage another sweep this year, "We have basically eliminated the Democrat bench." Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, is Trump's closest political ally in the state. He advocates tough state policies against immigration and promises to shrink state government so that Kansas can return to cutting taxes. He's battling the ill-feelings left over from former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's experiment in cutting income taxes in 2012-13 and ensuing budget problems that prompted even some national Republicans to label the effort a failure. Legislators reversed most of the tax cuts in 2017, and Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka, argues that Kobach's election would end a nascent fiscal recovery. Independent candidate Greg Orman, a Kansas City area businessman, trails far behind Kelly and Kobach but could be a spoiler helping Kobach. Kansas House Minority Leader Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat, argues that if Kobach is elected, his conservative politics will make him a foil that helps Democrats recruit candidates. And, with the excitement this year, "That energy doesn't go away." During a recent get-out-the-vote rally in Topeka, Kobach described the governor's race as "super-close." "This is a situation where every phone call you make counts," he told fellow Republicans. "Every text message you send counts." The race for the eastern Kansas open seat also is extremely close. It features Democrat Paul Davis, who narrowly lost to Brownback in a run for governor four years ago, and Republican Steve Watkins, an ex-Army officer and government contractor. They're running to replace retiring Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins. Watkins, a political newcomer, has been caught inflating parts of his biography , but Trump carried the GOP-leaning district by 17 percentage points, and the GOP is hungry to keep the seat. Democrats are more confident of picking up the Kansas City-area seat, where Yoder is struggling to win a fifth term. Democrat Sharice Davids has gained national attention because she's LGBT and Native American. Patrick Miller, a University of Kansas political scientist, said losing all three big races would be a big blow to Democrats' morale. But he discounts the idea of a long-term political exile for them because, "two years, four years, from now, it's a different political context." "There are states in this country, sometimes they go decades without electing a governor of a certain party, and that party that keeps losing, they nominate awful candidates," Miller said. "But then the right electoral circumstances happen, and, bam!" ___ Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics Republican candidate for Kansas Governor Kris Kobach speaks during a rally hosted by the American Conservative Union Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder speaks during a rally hosted by the American Conservative Union Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo. Yoder is facing Democratic challenger Sharice Davids in Kansas' 3rd district. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Conservative provocateur Corey Stewart started his U.S. Senate bid last year as a longshot, promising to run a "vicious" and "ruthless" crusade against Democratic incumbent Tim Kaine in a style similar to President Donald Trump. With just days to go until Election Day, there's little sign those Trump-like tactics - including personal attacks on Kaine and his son - have found purchase in increasingly blue Virginia. Stewart is down in most polls, starved for cash and shunned by fellow GOP congressional candidates. Republicans openly worry Stewart will hurt down-ballot candidates facing stiff competition in several Virginia congressional districts as Democrats try to take control of the U.S. House. "Without a lot of top-of-the-ticket support, these congressional candidates have really got to grind it out," former White House adviser Steve Bannon recently told a local talk radio host. Stewart's devotion to Trump has gotten little in return from the White House. Vice President Mike Pence recently campaigned for a little-known, longshot Virginia congressional candidate in a heavily Democratic district, but has done no events with Stewart. On top of it all, Stewart said he recently lost a major client at his international trade law firm because of the campaign. In this Oct. 25, 2018 photo, Virginia Senate candidate Corey Stewart speaks with members of the Virginia Deer Hunters Association in Chesterfield County, Va. Stewart started his U.S. Senate bid a last year as a longshot, promising to run a "vicious" and "ruthless" crusade his opponent in a style similar to President Donald Trump's successful 2016 race. With just days until Election Day, there's little sign those Trump-like tactics have found purchase in an increasingly blue state. (AP Photo/Alan Suderman) "I've lost a lot of money because of this," Stewart said in an interview, adding he'll be facing "some painful years" if he loses. Stewart declined to name the client or the reason why the client left, but the immigration hardliner and outspoken advocate of Confederate imagery has been a magnet for controversy. Critics have routinely labeled Stewart, who also chairs the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, an opportunist trying to use racial discord for political gain. His main Republican primary opponent accused him of "dog-whistling" to win support from white supremacists, anti-Semites and racists. Stewart has had to disavow past associates, including Jason Kessler, the major organizer of last year's violent protests in Charlottesville. "This is an individual who is a lawyer, and a Georgetown grad, he knows who these people are, he knows what they stand for," Kaine said of Stewart at a debate. Kaine's campaign message centers on fostering a "Virginia that works for all." A former governor and lieutenant governor seeking a second Senate term, Kaine has never lost a statewide election in Virginia. But having been Hillary Clinton's running mate in 2016, he's keenly aware of the threat of an upset. Kaine has kept a full campaign schedule and amassed a war chest 10 times the size of Stewart's. Kaine has used the money to blanket the state with ads, while Stewart only recently started limited circulation of television ads. Kaine has frequently campaigned with Democratic congressional candidates, spending much of the past week supporting Democrats in deep-red, rural districts. On Monday, he did three events with Jennifer Lewis, a Democrat running in a western Virginia district that Trump won by about 25 percentage points. She said Kaine was the first person to call her when she won her primary, and has given helpful advice since. "When he shows up, it definitely increases the crowd for sure," Lewis said. Stewart says he's not bothered that other Republicans aren't campaigning with him, and he insists the polls are wrong. "I'm all in, there's nothing to go back to," Stewart said. "I mean, I'm all in, I've got to win ... My life is forever changed with this race." Stewart was in good spirits after a Virginia Deer Hunters Association banquet outside Richmond recently. As rifles, crossbows and paintings of Trump and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee were auctioned, Stewart was peppered with encouragement while he walked table-to-table, shaking hands and posing for photos. "Don't back down, buddy," one woman yelled. "We are rooting for you, yes we are," another woman said. Some praised Stewart as a principled candidate who isn't afraid of controversial stances. Others praised his support of Trump and said they felt good about Stewart's chances. "I believe it's neck and neck," said Al Wilder, an Army veteran from Chesterfield. Stewart said the warm reception shows his campaign's hidden momentum that polls don't capture. But the crowd of 1,000 mostly white hunters represents a shrinking slice of the Old Dominion. Demographic changes have helped make Virginia a reliable win for Democrats. No Republican has won a statewide office in nearly a decade. Stewart is finishing with a "Jobs, Not Mobs" tour around Virginia, and he still hopes the president may join him. "We're hoping he's going to be here, but look, he's got a whole country to run," Stewart said. LONDON (AP) - Brexit is undermining Northern Ireland's hard-won peace by creating tensions between Catholic and Protestant communities, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Saturday, even as hopes rose for a solution to the Irish border problem that has deadlocked negotiations. "Brexit has undermined the Good Friday Agreement" - the 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland - "and it is fraying relationships between Britain and Ireland," Varadkar said. "Anything that pulls the two communities apart in Northern Ireland undermines the Good Friday Agreement and anything that pulls Britain and Ireland apart undermines that relationship," he told Ireland's RTE radio. Negotiations between Britain and the European Union over Britain's departure from the bloc have stalled over the issue of the border between EU member Ireland and the U.K.'s Northern Ireland. Both sides agree there must be no customs posts or other barriers that could disrupt businesses and residents or undermine Northern Ireland's peace. But they haven't agreed on how to guarantee that - and Britain is due to leave the bloc on March 29. The border impasse has heightened fears that the U.K. might crash out of the EU without a deal on divorce terms and future relations, leading to chaos at ports and economic turmoil. FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 file photo, Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar arrives for a meeting of the European People's Party EPP in Brussels, Belgium, as European leaders meet to negotiate on terms of Britain's divorce from the European Union. Leo Varadkar said Saturday Nov. 3, 2018, Brexit is undermining Northern Ireland's hard-won peace by pulling Catholic and Protestant communities apart. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, File) The EU has proposed keeping Northern Ireland inside a customs union with the bloc to remove the need for border checks on the island. But Britain's Conservative government and its Northern Irish ally, the Democratic Unionist Party, won't accept that because it would mean customs and regulatory checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. Britain wants instead to keep the whole U.K. in an EU customs union, but only temporarily. Although there has been no outward sign of a Brexit breakthrough, Irish and British officials say they are increasingly optimistic that a solution can be found. After meeting Friday with Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney in Dublin, British Prime Minister Theresa May's deputy David Lidington said negotiators were "very close" to an agreement. Coveney agreed there had been "a lot of progress." "I think it is possible to get a deal in November," he said. BALTIMORE (AP) - The Latest on the collapse of a section of an Amazon distribution warehouse on Baltimore (all times local): 2 p.m. An Amazon official says the two people killed after part of a distribution warehouse in Baltimore collapsed amid severe weather weren't employees of the online retail giant, but worked for an outside company. Amazon spokeswoman Rachael Lighty said Saturday that no one else was injured when severe storms with strong winds tore through Maryland Friday evening. Baltimore fire officials didn't respond to phone or email messages from The Associated Press. News reports cite Baltimore fire officials as saying one man was found under debris Friday night and later pronounced dead, while a second man's body was recovered early Saturday. Officials say a 50-foot wall at the warehouse collapsed. Emergency personnel look over damage, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, after a weather-related building collapse at an Amazon distribution warehouse on Baltimore's southeast side Friday night. Chief Roman Clark tells the Sun that a 50-foot wall collapsed late Friday at the Amazon Fulfillment Center as a storm hit the area. (Ulysses Munoz/The Baltimore Sun via AP) ___ 12:30 p.m. A company official says a second person is dead after part of an Amazon distribution warehouse collapsed amid severe weather in Baltimore. Amazon's senior vice president of operations Dave Clark said in a tweet Saturday that there were two fatalities at the site. Baltimore fire officials didn't immediately respond to phone or email messages from The Associated Press. Severe storms with strong winds tore through much of Maryland Friday evening. News reports cite Baltimore fire officials as saying one man was found under debris Friday night and later pronounced dead, while a second man's body was recovered early Saturday. Officials say a 50-foot wall at the warehouse collapsed. ___ 12:45 a.m. The fire department says one person is dead and another was unaccounted after a weather-related building collapse at an Amazon distribution warehouse on Baltimore's southeast side, the Baltimore Sun reports. Chief Roman Clark tells the Sun that a 50-foot wall collapsed late Friday at the Amazon Fulfillment Center as a storm hit the area. Clark says one person was found under debris and taken to a hospital, where the person was pronounced dead, the Sun reports. He adds that a second person was unaccounted for. Images taken from outside the facility showed a badly damaged truck and a knocked over light pole, the Sun reports. The National Weather Service had earlier warned of thunderstorms in the area, with some producing gusty winds and heavy rain. People look over a damaged truck, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, after a weather-related building collapse at an Amazon distribution warehouse on Baltimore's southeast side Friday night. Chief Roman Clark tells the Sun that a 50-foot wall collapsed late Friday at the Amazon Fulfillment Center as a storm hit the area. (Ulysses Munoz/The Baltimore Sun via AP) The United States unleashed its "toughest ever" sanctions against Iran today (08:00 MSK). The Trump administration reinstated all sanctions removed under the 2015 nuclear deal, targeting both Iran and states that trade with it. More than 700 individuals, entities, vessels and aircraft are now on the sanctions list, including major banks, oil exporters and shipping companies. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said more than 100 big international companies had withdrawn from Iran because of the looming sanctions. He also said Iranian oil exports had dropped by nearly one million barrels a day, choking the main source of funding for the country, BBC reported. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in turn, has vowed to sell oil and break the sanctions. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote on his Twitter page that the "Iranian nation used to import everything for years, now it has developed a habit of producing everything." Washington re-imposed the sanctions after U.S. President Donald Trump in May pulled out of a 2015 accord aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions. Washington also says it wants to stop what it calls Tehran's "malign" activities including cyber attacks, ballistic missile tests, and support for violent extremist groups and militias in the Middle East. The UK, Germany and France - which are among the five countries still committed to the nuclear pact - have all objected to the sanctions. They have promised to support European firms that do "legitimate business" with Iran and have set up an alternative payment mechanism - or Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) - that will help companies trade without facing US penalties. The Trump administration has granted exemptions to eight countries to continue importing Iranian oil, without naming them. They are reported to include US allies Italy, India, Japan and South Korea, along with Turkey, China and India. Pompeo said the countries had already made "significant reductions in their crude oil exports" but needed "a little bit more time to get to zero". He said two would eventually stop imports and the other six would greatly reduce them. WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump and Democrats are delivering competing closing arguments during the final weekend before Tuesday's elections, but their messages are complicated by a deadly shooting in a politically pivotal state. Trump aimed to drum up voter turnout with events Saturday in Belgrade, Montana, and Pensacola, Florida, about 200 miles west of Florida's capital, Tallahassee, where two people were shot to death and five others wounded at a yoga studio on Friday night. Vice President Mike Pence helped embattled Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis., and then was meeting up with Trump in Florida to rally Republicans behind Rick Scott, who is trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, and former Rep. Ron DeSantis, who hopes to succeed Scott as governor. DeSantis has been in a tight contest against Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who broke off campaigning after the shooting in his hometown. Gillum had appeared earlier Friday with former President Barack Obama. Democrats were fanning out across the country to help the party stoke turnout in their effort to capture seats in Congress and win several races for governor. Former Vice President Joe Biden was campaigning in Ohio with former Obama administration official Richard Cordray, who is attempting to become governor in a high-profile contest. A look at campaign activities on Saturday: Supporters hold up signs as the wait to hear President Donald Trump speak at a campaign rally Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Pensacola, Fla. (AP Photo/Butch Dill) ___ FLORIDA SHOOTING The final stretch of the Florida campaign was briefly disrupted by the shooting Friday evening at a Tallahassee yoga studio. Scott and Gillum both rushed back to the state capital after the gunman killed two people and injured five others before killing himself. Shortly before midnight, Gillum and Scott met with victims who had been taken to a hospital near the shopping center where the shooting took place. Gillum, who has clashed with Scott in the past, thanked the governor for his "care and consideration" by visiting the victims. Both Gillum and Scott planned to return to campaigning on Saturday with stops in central Florida. Scott was expected to be with Trump when he holds a rally later in the day in Pensacola, while Gillum was to attend a get out the vote concert with Jimmy Buffett in West Palm Beach. DeSantis, Gillum's Republican opponent in the governor's race, has repeatedly criticized Tallahassee's crime rate in his campaign speeches. Police have not yet identified a motive behind the shooting. ___ IMMIGRATION In Montana, Trump pushed back on criticism that he is focusing too much on immigration rhetoric during the closing days of the election season. Trump said during his rally that he also talks about economic gains, but can only "go for 4 or 5 minutes." After that, he said, "what I do is talk about some of the problems." Said Trump: "When we're fixing a problem or fixed a problem there's no reason to go on about it for 45 minutes." Trump has focused his closing midterm argument on immigration, stoking anxiety about several caravans of Central American migrants traveling to the southern border. He's also threatening constitutionally enshrined birthright citizenship. ___ GEORGIA ROBOCALL In Georgia, a robocall apparently paid for by a white supremacist group directly injected racism into a governor's race already fraught with race-laden debates over ballot access and voter suppression. Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp joined together in condemning the automated telephone call that featured a voice impersonating Oprah Winfrey, the billionaire media star who campaigned in Georgia for Abrams Thursday. The call concluded by saying it was paid for by The Road to Power, a group organized by Scott Rhodes of Idaho, who has been linked to several other incendiary robocalls, including a recent effort in Florida, where Gillum would become the first black governor in state history. Kemp issued a statement calling the tactic "vile" and "contrary to the highest ideals of our state and country," adding a condemnation of "any person or organization that peddles this type of unbridled hate and unapologetic bigotry." Abrams' campaign also blasted the move but criticized Kemp and Trump, who will campaign together in Georgia Sunday. The campaign said Trump and Kemp had contributed to a poisonous atmosphere and Kemp has been silent on previous racially loaded attacks on Abrams. ___ PENCE Campaigning in Wisconsin, Pence pushed back against the notion that Democrats will sweep to victory in Tuesday's elections. "I keep hearing about this blue wave," Pence said. "Let's make sure that blue wave hits a red wall in the Badger State." Pence and Walker addressed more than 500 supporters in northwest Wisconsin, where the two-term governor told them, "I need your help now more than ever." Walker noted that recent polls have shown him tied with Democrat Tony Evers. Pence pointed to the caravan of immigrants traveling through Mexico toward the U.S. southern border and claimed it was "being driven by the dangerous policies of Democrats." The audience chanted, "Build that wall!" ___ WISCONSIN REPUBLICANS Hundreds of northwest Wisconsin Republicans huddled together in 40-degree temperatures waiting to enter the shipping warehouse in Hudson, Wisconsin, where Pence rallied supporters for Walker. Walker is in a fight for his political career just three days before the election. Polls show Walker knotted with Evers, Wisconsin's superintendent of schools. Walker supporter Sue Hodgson described herself as "nervous, more than excited." ''We're here to show our support," Hodgson, of nearby River Falls, Wisconsin, said. "I just hope it's enough." Walker needs to shore up northern Wisconsin and turn out conservatives in the suburban counties around Milwaukee to overcome intensity among Democratic-leaning voters in Milwaukee and Madison. Walker has defied the odds before, beating a recall election in 2012 mounted after he signed controversial legislation in 2011 stripping public employees of union rights. "It's going to be very close," said Ronald Godden, who traveled more than two hours north from near LaCrosse to attend the rally. "People know he got us out of the hole. We know he's a Godly man. That's the most important thing to me." ___ TEXAS VOTING Nearly 4.9 million people voted in Texas' 30 largest counties during the early-voting period, surpassing the total number of votes cast throughout the state in the last midterm election. Texas secretary of state figures released Saturday found that more than 540,000 people in those 30 counties voted early on Friday, which was the last day of early voting in the state. Although Texas has 254 counties, the 30 largest are home to nearly 80 percent of the state's residents. The nearly 4.9 million early votes exceed the 4.7 million total votes cast in Texas in the 2014 midterm election. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O'Rourke, his Senate challenger, have said strong turnout would benefit them. O'Rourke, a rising Democratic Party star, is trying to become Texas' first Democrat to win statewide office since 1994, but he faces long odds given Republicans' advantages in statewide elections. ___ Associated Press writer Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Florida, Darlene Superville in Belgrade, Montana, Thomas Beaumont in Hudson, Wisconsin, and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report. ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum speaks during a rally at CFE Arena on the campus of UCF in Orlando, Fla., on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel via AP) ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkey's president says Donald Trump has promised to look into possible U.S. measures against a Turkish bank for evading sanctions on Iran. Speaking Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave details about a phone conversation he had with Trump on Thursday as strained relations between the two countries ease following Turkey's release of an American pastor. Erdogan said he raised the issue of the state-owned Halkbank, which had an executive charged in New York for taking part in a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran. Turkey maintains Halkbank did not violate the sanctions. Erdogan says Trump "said he would immediately instruct his ministers about this." It was not clear what Trump could do. They also discussed joint military patrols in Manbij in northern Syria. Erdogan says he will meet with Trump in France next weekend. DENVER (AP) - Republican treasurer Walker Stapleton has attacked his opponent in the race for Colorado governor, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, as too radical and extreme for the rapidly growing state as the GOP tries to prevent a complete Democratic takeover of the Statehouse. Stapleton's repeated criticism of the liberal Polis underscores Republican fears that the party could lose control of the state Senate in Tuesday's election. The Senate has acted as a check on attempts by the Democratic-led House to restrict gun rights and raise taxes for public schools. "Colorado does not want a socialist for governor," Stapleton declared when Polis, an advocate of universal health care, campaigned with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders last month. In response, Polis cites a high-tech entrepreneurial career that made him wealthy before he entered Congress in 2009 and has let him personally invest more than $22 million in his campaign this year. Polis and his supporters largely view the race as a referendum on President Donald Trump, whom Stapleton has embraced. Trump's efforts to dismantle former President Barack Obama's health care law top the list of issues. "Health care is on the ballot. Social Security and Medicare are on the ballot," Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told activists while campaigning with Polis at Servicios de la Raza, a Denver community center. "You need guardrails here in Colorado." FILE - In this Wednesday, July 11, 2018, file photograph, Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton speaks after introducing his running mate, Lang Sias, during a news conference in a military aircraft museum in Denver. Stapleton, who has served two terms as the state's treasurer, is facing Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Polis in the race for the state's top official. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File) Colorado Republicans haven't held the governor's seat since 2007. Early returns suggest Stapleton, 44, is the underdog in an election in which independents, the state's largest voting bloc, are turning out in high numbers, as they did in Colorado's Democratic primaries. If elected, Polis, 43, would be Colorado's first openly gay governor. A Democratic-controlled Statehouse could move forward on gun regulations, expand public school funding and limit drilling options for Colorado's $31 billion oil and gas industry - one that's prospered under centrist Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, a former petroleum geologist who is term-limited. Colorado's Republican-led Senate has forced compromise on those issues. Senate President Kevin Grantham credits that compromise for the state's fast-growing economy, one of the strongest in the nation. "That balance of government is good for predictability and stability and steady sailing for businesses," Grantham said. Republicans have a one-vote Senate edge entering the election. A cluster of races in Denver's suburbs will determine the outcome, and they have attracted money from the national parties and outside groups. Voters have been bombarded with daily mailers, television ads, texts and door knocks in targeted races such as Democratic state Rep. Faith Winter's challenge of Republican state Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik. Democrat Hillary Clinton won the district by 5 percentage points in 2016. Stapleton has attacked Polis' advocacy of green energy and publicly funded preschool and kindergarten. He defends state constitutional limits on taxes and spending that require voter approval for any tax hike. As treasurer, Stapleton worked with both parties to ensure a stable state investment portfolio and to rescue an underfunded state pension fund. He claims Polis' plans for fully funded preschool and kindergarten and universal health care coverage would triple Colorado's budget - if Polis could raise the taxes to fund them. "I'm a big believer that if you ask people to pay for things, you have to explain how you're actually going to fund government, health care, transportation," Stapleton said. Polis pledges to "build coalitions" to fund transportation and schools and promote green energy investment - suggesting that restrictive tax laws eventually need to change in a state whose population has grown from 4.3 million in 2000 to an estimated 5.7 million this year. Polis called for restricting access to guns for those in crisis and urged voters to elect a governor who supports abortion rights. Stapleton said he would be a "pro-life governor" who would respect Roe v. Wade as the law of the land but didn't address during the campaign what he would do if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn that ruling. Trump weighed in Thursday on Twitter, saying Stapleton "will be an extraordinary Governor for the State of Colorado" and calling Polis "weak on crime and weak on borders - could never do the job." Polis - who founded high schools for new immigrants and English learners - cited Trump's escalating midterm rhetoric about immigration as a critical reason to vote Democratic. "I'm willing to stand up to this president or any president that tries to profit on division and on fear-mongering," he told the Servicios de la Raza crowd. "Colorado could either elect a Donald Trump 'yes man' as governor or somebody with a track record of creating opportunities for families and bridging the great divides in our state." ___ Associated Press writer Colleen Slevin contributed to this report. ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics Jared Polis, left, Democratic candidate for Colorado's governorship, greets a canvasser before he sets out to talk to voters Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in north Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) Jared Polis, left, Democratic candidate for Colorado's governorship, speaks to canvassers before they set out to talk to voters Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in north Denver. With Polis is his 4-year-old daughter, Cora, center, and 7-year-old son, Caspian. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) YORK, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina courthouse has been evacuated after bedbugs were found there for the second time in just over two weeks. York County Clerk of Court David Hamilton said specially trained dogs found evidence of bedbugs in both courtrooms of the criminal court building Thursday as well as in offices on both floors. Hamilton told The Herald of Rock Hill officials decided to close the entire building for safety as a stronger chemical treatment is applied. Bedbugs were found in parts of the building on Oct. 16. Hamilton says the areas were treated then with heat, and testing afterward found no bugs. ___ Information from: The Herald, http://www.heraldonline.com ISLAMABAD (AP) - The Latest on the acquittal of a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan after being convicted of blasphemy (all times local): 10:15 a.m. The lawyer for a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy charges after spending eight years on death row in Pakistan has fled the country, fearing for his safety. Asia Bibi's brother, James Masih, said Saturday that her lawyer, Saiful Malook, left Pakistan, without providing further details. Malook's phone was switched off. Pakistan's top court acquitted Bibi on Wednesday and ordered her release in a move that infuriated the country's hard-line Islamists, who have held nationwide protests demanding her death. The government reached an agreement with the Islamists overnight in which it agreed to impose a travel ban on Bibi while the case is reviewed. Radical Islamists rally to condemn a Supreme Court decision that acquitted Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, who spent eight years on death row accused of blasphemy, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018. Bibi plans to leave the country, her family said Thursday, as Islamists mounted rallies demanding Bibi be publicly hanged. The Islamists also called for the killing of the three judges, including Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, who acquitted Bibi. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary) Malook told The Associated Press earlier this week that he would have to leave Pakistan because the followers of hard-line cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi had threatened to kill him as well as the judges who acquitted Bibi. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan, and the mere rumor of insulting Islam has caused lynchings. Bibi was arrested in 2009 on allegations that she insulted Islam's Prophet Muhammad. ___ 11:15 a.m. Nationwide protests triggered by a Christian woman's acquittal on blasphemy charges have ended following an overnight deal between Islamists and the government. Under the agreement, Asia Bibi may not leave the country until the Pakistan Supreme Court's ruling is reviewed. Authorities cleared the intersections of major cities after supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Party dispersed upon announcement of the agreement. Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri announced that authorities will now not allow Bibi to leave the country until the Supreme Court makes a final review of its verdict. A petition had already been filed for the review. Bibi spent eight year on death row. Meanwhile, Pakistani authorities were making arrangements for the funeral of prominent cleric Maulana Samiul Haq who was killed Friday at his home in Rawalpindi. LOS ANGELES (AP) - Trumpeter Roy Hargrove, a prolific player who provided his jazz sound to records across a vast range of styles and won two Grammys, has died at age 49, his manager said Saturday. Hargrove died in New York on Friday of cardiac arrest stemming from a longtime fight with kidney disease, longtime manager Larry Clothier said in a statement. Clothier said Hargrove "was known just as intensely for his brimming fire and fury as he was for his gorgeous, signature balladry. Over and over, his sound attested to and sanctified his deep love for music. His unselfish timbre covered the waterfront of every musical landscape." Many of Hargrove's peers regarded him as the greatest trumpeter of his generation. Through his own bands and as a sideman, Hargrove brewed his jazz with African and Latin sounds, R&B, soul, pop, funk and hip-hop. He led the progressive, genre-melding group The RH Factor, played in sessions for Common, Erykah Badu and D'Angelo, and collaborated with jazz giants including Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis. "He is literally the one man horn section I hear in my head when I think about music," Questlove, drummer and leader of the Roots, said on Instagram Saturday. "Love to the immortal timeless genius that will forever be Roy Hargrove y'all." In this July 26, 2018 photo, American jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove performs at the Five Continents Jazz festival, in Marseille, southern France. The Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter has died at age 49. Manager Larry Clothier says in a statement that Hargrove died in New York on Friday, Nov. 2, from cardiac arrest stemming from a longtime fight with kidney disease. (AP Photo/Claude Paris) A native of Waco, Texas, Hargrove was discovered by his fellow trumpeter Marsalis while Hargrove was playing at a performing-arts high school in Dallas. He went on to the Berklee College of Music in Boston and then transferred to the New School in New York, where he joined in jam sessions at jazz clubs in the evening. One of those clubs, the Blue Note, said on its Twitter account Saturday that Hargrove was a "young master and friend gone too soon." Hargrove released his first solo album, "Diamond in the Rough," in 1990. He won his first Grammy in 1998 with his Afro-Cuban band Crisol for its album "Habana." He then won another in 2002 for "Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall," featuring a band he led with pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Michael Brecker. Questlove, who worked with Hargrove on several projects, said his improvisational skills were astonishing. "I can't properly document how crucial and spot on Roy was with his craft man," he said. "We NEVER gave him instructions: just played the song and watched him go." Other tributes flowed from the musical community as word spread of Hargrove's death. "I have no words over the loss of my dear brother of 31 years," bass player Christian McBride said on Twitter. "We played on a lot of sessions together, traveled a lot of miles together, laughed a lot together, bickered on occasion - and I wouldn't change our relationship for anything in the world. Bless you, Roy Hargrove." Trumpet player and composer Keyon Harrold called Hargrove the "trumpeter jazz king" on Instagram. "The spirit that radiated from the bell of his horn was always a force of youth enthralled with the wisdom of old," Harrold said. Don Cheadle, who directed and starred in the 2016 movie "Miles Ahead" about trumpet great Miles Davis, tweeted a picture of himself with Hargrove, saying: "You were a beautiful soul, young lion, you will be terribly missed." Hargrove is survived by his wife Aida, daughter Kamala, mother Jacklyn and brother Brian. Memorial plans are in the works, but no details have been announced yet. ___ AP Music Writer Mesfin Fekadu in New York contributed to this story. ___ Follow Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton . ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greek police say they have arrested a 51-year-old Greek man in possession of a valuable archaeological artifact - the top of an ancient Ionic column. The arrest took place on Oct. 30, when police raided the suspect's flat in the Athens area of Monastiraki, below the Acropolis, but was announced Saturday. The recovered part of the Ionic column contains the volute - the spiral-shaped ornament characteristic of the Ionic and later styles - and the abacus - the weight-bearing flat slab at the top of the column - both in excellent condition. A preliminary examination by an expert said the column could date anywhere from the 5th to the 2nd centuries BC and was likely stolen from the Acropolis or a nearby location. Embers falling on their heads, Venesa Rhodes and her husband had seconds to rush their two beloved cats into their SUV before a wildfire last summer would overtake them all. One cat got in. But the other, named Bella, bolted and disappeared as the blaze bore down. The couple had no choice but to flee, and their home and much of the neighborhood in Redding, California, soon was reduced to ash. Rhodes and her husband, Stephen Cobb, presumed Bella was dead. Devastated by their losses, they moved 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to Rhodes' hometown of Anchorage, Alaska, to start over. Nearly six weeks later, they got a call that left them gobsmacked: Bella was alive. Volunteers had put out a feeding station at Rhodes' burned-out property, staked it out after spotting the cat, and then trapped her. "I started bawling," Rhodes said from Anchorage, where Bella was curled up in a corner sleeping. "We were shocked. We were just so overjoyed and just hoping she was OK." Rhodes and Cobb are among dozens of people who lost their homes in the deadly Carr Fire but had their lives brightened weeks or months later when their pets were found. In this undated photo, Volunteers with Carr Fire Pet Rescue and Reunification pose with their "Lost and Found Fire Pets" kiosk in Redding, Calif. Volunteers continue to track and catch missing pets nearly two months after the fire was extinguished. They post pictures of the rescued pets in hopes that their owners will recognize them and reunite with them. More than 80 families who lost their homes in California's deadly Carr Fire in July have learned weeks or months later that their dogs and cats had survived the deadly disaster. (Courtesy of Stacey Jimenez via AP) A network of about 35 volunteers - called Carr Fire Pet Rescue and Reunification - is responsible for many of the happy endings, which continue more than two months after firefighters extinguished the blaze, which destroyed more than 1,000 homes and killed six people. The group formed with the help of another volunteer animal group born out of the devastating Tubbs Fire, which killed at least 22 people and destroyed thousands of homes last year in wine country north of San Francisco. Robin Bray, a field coordinator for the Carr Fire group, said about 80 pets have been reunited with their families using social media and specially made kiosks in Redding where images of found pets are posted. Most are cats that have "been through hell," she said. Bray said each new reunion fuels her and the other volunteers, many of whom use their own money to trap and treat the animals. "We've seen amazing things," Bray said. "We're finding cats that were in a house and the owners presumed they had passed. The heat of fire breaks windows in houses and cats jump out and run and hide. They're survivalists." The volunteers go to elaborate lengths to catch the animals, which often are traumatized and injured. Equipped with night-vision cameras, traps and lots of food for bait, the volunteers stake out an area where a missing pet has been spotted, waiting for the right moment to drop a trap. They won a hard-fought rescue of a dog nicknamed Buddy on Oct. 27 after he had eluded capture for weeks. They tried luring him with steak and french fries, another dog and a pickup truck like the one his owner drove before finally nabbing him. It was a two-woman, two-hour operation. One woman crawled on the ground and placed food under a trap and the other waited in a truck and pulled a rope to complete the capture. Bray, a private pilot by day, once spent nearly seven hours trapping a cat. The wait was worth it, she said. "So many of these people have lost everything," Bray said. "The only thing they care about is finding their pet that they love. They want that hope back in their lives and we're trying to provide that." Jessica Pierce, a Lyons, Colorado-based bioethicist who studies end-of-life issues involving humans and their pets, said losing a beloved animal and a home is a double whammy of grief. "To then be reunited with a pet you thought was gone, that would be like getting a piece of your home back," she said. "For many people, pets are a sense of home, and they identify home with a sense of comfort and peace." Steve and Susan Cortopassi were reunited with their cat, Big Ernie, on Oct. 3, more than two months after the fire started. Their other cat, Elsa, was found about three weeks after the fire, which destroyed their home of 30 years. The Cortopassis had to evacuate in the middle of the night. They grabbed their two dogs but weren't able to track down the cats. A friend showed Cortopassi cellphone video of her destroyed home a couple days after the fire and she figured the cats were gone forever. "It was just complete and utter devastation," she said. "It's just a miracle they're alive. It's like, life finds a way." Rhodes got her call on Sept. 2, 41 days after the fire began. Bella, who is 2, had some burns on her belly, her long black hair was singed to medium length and she was underweight. Her formerly gray paws are now permanently pink. When she was found, Rhodes and Cobb drove to Redding over five days with their other cat, Mama, so the whole family could be reunited. After staying in a hotel for another five days to make sure Bella was OK, the whole family returned to Alaska. "We have friends that don't even like cats thinking how crazy we were and we just said, 'They're part of our family,'" Rhodes said. "I lost a lot. Thank goodness we did get Bella back because our hearts were just sunken." ___ Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP In this undated photo, a cat renamed Carrson is pictured with singed wingers and burnt ears, injuries he suffered in the Carr Fire in Redding, Calif. Carrson is one of hundreds of pets whose owners thought they were dead but actually survived the blaze. (Courtesy of Linda Sigler via AP) FILE - In this July 28, 2018, file photo, a deer grazes along a road covered in fire retardant as the Carr Fire burns near Redding, Calif. More than 80 families who lost their homes in California's deadly Carr Fire in July have learned weeks or months later that their dogs and cats had survived the deadly disaster. A network of about 35 volunteers, called Carr Fire Pet Rescue and Reunification, is responsible for many of the happy endings and continues to track and catch missing pets nearly two months after the fire was extinguished. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File) In this Oct. 27, 2018, photo Robin Bray comforts Buddy the dog after she and another volunteer captured him after weeks of failed attempts in Redding, Calif. Bray is among a group of 35 volunteers known as Carr Fire Pet Rescue and Reunification responsible for reuniting at least 80 families with pets feared killed in the Carr Fire this past summer. More than 80 families who lost their homes in California's deadly Carr Fire in July have learned weeks or months later that their dogs and cats had survived the deadly disaster. (Courtesy of Beth Farmer via AP) FILE - In this July 27, 2018, file photo, homes leveled by the Carr Fire line are seen in the Lake Keswick Estates area of Redding, Calif. More than 80 families who lost their homes in California's deadly Carr Fire in July have learned weeks or months later that their dogs and cats had survived the deadly disaster. A network of about 35 volunteers, called Carr Fire Pet Rescue and Reunification, is responsible for many of the happy endings and continues to track and catch missing pets nearly two months after the fire was extinguished. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File) FILE- In this Aug. 9, 2018, file photo Loretta Root wipes her eyes while visiting the remains of her home in the Keswick area burned in a wildfire in Redding, Calif. More than 80 families who lost their homes in California's deadly Carr Fire in July have learned weeks or months later that their dogs and cats had survived the deadly disaster. A network of about 35 volunteers, called Carr Fire Pet Rescue and Reunification, is responsible for many of the happy endings and continues to track and catch missing pets nearly two months after the fire was extinguished. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local): 8:30 p.m. President Donald Trump is sharing the stage at a Florida rally with the state's Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate and governor, at the same time taking swipes at their Democratic opponents. Trump's appearance Saturday night in Pensacola, Florida, followed a rally earlier in the day in Montana, part of a multistate sprint by the president toward Tuesday's midterm elections. Trump says Florida's Democratic senator, Bill Nelson, hasn't lobbied his White House on behalf of Florida residents. And he says the Democratic nominee for governor, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, will ruin the state in one or two years, adding that Gillum just isn't "equipped" to be governor. Trump turned the stage over to the GOP nominee for the Senate, Gov. Rick Scott, and its nominee for governor, former congressman Ron DeSantis. President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally at Pensacola International Airport, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Pensacola, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ___ 7:55 p.m. President Donald Trump is telling Florida voters that Democrats want to knock the country down "with a giant wrecking ball." The president is hosting a rally in Pensacola, Florida, his second of the day after a rally in Montana. Trump is highlighting the nation's economy, including record-low unemployment, particularly among racial minorities, and promising a tax cut focused on the middle class. Trump is appearing in Florida to back the Republican candidate for the Senate, Gov. Rick Scott, and the GOP's nominee for governor, Ron DeSantis. ___ 1:55 p.m. President Donald Trump is pushing back on criticism that he is focusing too much on immigration rhetoric during the closing days of the election season. Trump rallied Republicans in Montana on Saturday. He said he does also talk about economic gains, but said he can only "go for 4 or 5 minutes." After that he said "what I do is talk about some of the problems." He said: "When we're fixing a problem or fixed a problem there's no reason to go on about it for 45 minutes." Trump has focused his closing midterm argument on immigration, stoking anxiety about several caravans of Central American migrants traveling to the southern border and threatening the constitutionally enshrined right of birthright citizenship. ___ 1:05 p.m. President Donald Trump is playing up his feud with Democrat Jon Tester as he campaigns against the Montana senator. Trump claims at a rally at the Bozeman airport that Tester "tried to destroy" his first choice to head his administration's Department of Veterans Affairs. Here's what Trump says: "I've never forgotten it and it's honestly one of the reasons I'm here so much." In April, Tester went public with allegations against VA nominee Ronny Jackson accusing the White House doctor of drunken behavior, overprescribing prescription drugs and fostering a hostile work environment. Jackson denied the allegations but withdrew his nomination. Trump has repeatedly appeared in Montana for Tester's opponent, Matt Rosendale. ___ 12:50 p.m. President Donald Trump is emphasizing the booming economy as he urges supporters in Montana to back Republicans on Election Day. Trump says at a rally at the Bozeman airport that if Republicans lose the House, "radical Democrats" will undo his efforts over the past year. Trump is citing recent job gains and his massive tax cuts. Trump is campaigning for GOP Senate nominee Matt Rosendale who is trying to unseat the Democratic incumbent, Jon Tester. It's Trump's fourth visit to Montana as he works to stave off Democratic enthusiasm on Tuesday's midterm elections. Trump also repeated a promise for an additional tax cut, though he offered no details. After Montana, Trump is heading to Florida for a rally in Pensacola. ___ 6:50 a.m. There are two more political rallies on President Donald Trump's schedule for Saturday - and two more on Sunday and three more on Monday. And that's after two on Friday. He's in the midst of a final sprint to Tuesday's midterm elections, and he'll be in Montana and Florida later Saturday to campaign for Republican candidates. The president says in an early morning tweet that "Everyone is excited about the Jobs Numbers - 250,000 new jobs in October. Also, wages rising. Wow!" The government reported Friday that employers added 250,000 jobs last month. Unemployment remains low and pay rose at a healthy pace. Trump held rallies Friday in West Virginia and Indianapolis, where he stayed overnight. Trump opened those rallies by highlighting the economic news. Supporters of President Donald Trump listen to him speak during a campaign rally at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Belgrade, Mont. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump reacts to the crowd after speaking at a campaign rally at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Belgrade, Mont. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) DETROIT (AP) - Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, have announced they are giving $16 million to be shared among 18 nonprofits in the Detroit area. The Ballmers announced the grants this past week through the Ballmer Group, which focuses on helping children and families escape poverty. Recipients include City Year Detroit, Detroit Children's Fund, Planned Parenthood of Michigan, United Way of Southeastern Michigan, Michigan League for Public Policy and Detroit Employment Solutions Corp. Steve Ballmer, who grew up in the area, told The Detroit News on Friday the goal is to help "a higher percentage of kids move up the economic totem pole." Connie Ballmer says they don't plan to publicize future giving. She adds that it's "too bad" that "you can't give money away without getting attention." ___ Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/ Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, center, speaks with Katrina McCree, right, and Cecily King at the Mack Avenue Community Church Development in Detroit on Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. Ballmer and his wife, have announced they are giving $16 million to be shared among 18 nonprofits in the Detroit area. (Max Ortiz/Detroit News via AP) Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (from left) with his wife Connie Ballmer speak with Pamela Martin Turner at the Mack Avenue Community Church Development in Detroit on Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. Ballmer and his wife, have announced they are giving $16 million to be shared among 18 nonprofits in the Detroit area. (Max Ortiz/Detroit News via AP) Georgia's Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has started his visit to China yesterday. He has already held a meeting with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of China, Siqing Chen, in Shanghai. Bakhtadze and Chen discussed bilateral trade and economic ties between Georgia and China emphasizing the importance of the free trade deal which has come into play on 1 January 2018, making Georgia the first country in the region to have such a deal with China, the Georgian PM press service reported. As part of the meeting a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Enterprise Georgia Agency and Bank of China Group which will further support deepening cooperation between Georgian and Chinese small and medium enterprises. During his visit to China PM Bakhtadze will attend the first China International Import Expo where the Georgian pavillion will be represented with 53 producers, Agenda.ge reported. He will also participate in the opening ceremony of the Hongqiao International Trade Forum and deliver a speech at a panel discussion devoted to trade and investments. ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece's Culture Ministry says a Greek farmer's recent discovery of a fragment of an ancient statue while tilling his field has yielded three more statues and several graves in the past month. Archeologists have been busy since mid-October, digging part of a field near the central Greek town of Atalanti, 150 kilometers (94 miles) northwest of Athens. The dig began after the farmer found the torso of an ancient kouros (young man) and immediately alerted the authorities. The ministry said Saturday that a total of four large fragments of life-size limestone statues of young men have been found, along with a triangular statue base. All include torsos, with the largest fragment including a head. Deeper down, seven graves with several unspecified findings have been unearthed, likely part of a larger cemetery. This undated photo provided by the Greek Culture Ministry on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, shows a statue which was discovered at the town of Atalanti, in central Greece. A farmer's recent discovery of a fragment of an ancient statue while tilling his field, has yielded three more statues and several graves in the past month, Greece's Culture ministry has announced. (Greek Culture Ministry via AP) This undated photo provided by the Greek Culture Ministry on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, shows statues which were discovered at the town of Atalanti, in central Greece. A farmer's recent discovery of a fragment of an ancient statue while tilling his field, has yielded three more statues and several graves in the past month, Greece's Culture ministry has announced. (Greek Culture Ministry via AP) This undated photo provided by the Greek Culture Ministry on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, shows statues which were discovered at the town of Atalanti, in central Greece. A farmer's recent discovery of a fragment of an ancient statue while tilling his field, has yielded three more statues and several graves in the past month, Greece's Culture ministry has announced. (Greek Culture Ministry via AP) This undated photo provided by the Greek Culture Ministry on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, shows a statue which was discovered at the town of Atalanti, in central Greece. A farmer's recent discovery of a fragment of an ancient statue while tilling his field, has yielded three more statues and several graves in the past month, Greece's Culture ministry has announced. (Greek Culture Ministry via AP) TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Israel's prime minister has praised the restoration of U.S. sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch opponent of the agreement concluded by the Obama administration, said Saturday that President Donald Trump had made an "historic" decision by restoring sanctions against "the murderous terror regime in Iran that is endangering the entire world." In a statement from his office, Netanyahu said "the effect of the initial sanctions is already felt," referring to a financial crisis in Iran that has triggered sporadic protests. The Trump administration restored sanctions targeting Iran's shipping, financial and energy sectors on Friday, but carved out exemptions for eight countries that can still import oil from Iran without penalty. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman wants a criminal investigation of a woman who said she wrote an anonymous letter alleging sexual misconduct by now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but later recanted authorship and admitted she didn't know him. Sen. Chuck Grassley tells the Justice Department that Judy Munro-Leighton contacted his committee in October and claimed she wrote the letter, which arose during Kavanaugh's confirmation process. The Iowa Republican says that under questioning from the committee, she said she never met Kavanaugh and didn't write the letter. Kavanaugh has denied all the allegations against him. President Donald Trump seized on the issue at a Montana rally Saturday, calling it a "disgrace." Grassley last month also requested a criminal investigation into another Kavanaugh accuser, Julie Swetnick, and her attorney, Michael Avenatti. AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Nearly 4.9 million people voted in Texas' 30 largest counties during the early-voting period, surpassing the total number of votes cast throughout the state in the last midterm election, according to secretary of state figures released Saturday. State data show that more than 540,000 people in those 30 counties voted early on Friday, which was the last day of early voting in the state. Although Texas has 254 counties, the 30 largest are home to nearly 80 percent of the state's residents. The nearly 4.9 million early votes exceed the 4.7 million total votes cast in Texas in the 2014 midterm election. In the state's much-watched Senate race, both Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O'Rourke have said strong turnout would benefit them. Cruz is seeking a second term against O'Rourke, a rising star in the Democratic Party who has shattered Senate campaign fundraising records despite shunning donations from outside political groups. O'Rourke is trying to become Texas' first Democrat to win statewide office since 1994, but faces long odds given the advantage that GOP candidates have in statewide elections. FILE - This combination of Sept. 21, 2018, file photos show Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, left, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, right, during their first Senate debate in Dallas. The anniversary of the deadliest church shooting in the nation's history _ when a gunman killed 25 people in a rural church near San Antonio _ is the day before the Texas Senate election between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and rising Democratic star Beto O'Rourke. But you wouldn't know it spending time with either campaign. That massacre in Sutherland Springs, and another Texas mass shooting at Santa Fe High School near Houston about six months later, aren't the race's top issues. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool, File) On paper, the race was never supposed to be even close. A three-term congressman and onetime punk rocker, O'Rourke was virtually unknown outside of his hometown of El Paso before challenging Cruz. The charismatic candidate's calls for bipartisan optimism and willingness to visit all 254 Texas counties - even deeply Republican areas that Democrats gave up on decades ago - made him the toast of national liberal circles. It also sparked speculation that O'Rourke could use an upset of Cruz, or even a close loss, to run for president in 2020. And it helped him shatter Senate campaign fundraising records, including raising an astounding $38-plus million just in the three-month period from July through September. Cruz dismisses that, saying "Texas won't be bought" and blaming the "hard left" which he says is "filled with rage" against President Donald Trump. He says there are more Republicans than Democrats in Texas, so if he can avoid conservative complacency, he'll win easily. SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - In 1994, Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Foley of eastern Washington state became the first House Speaker to lose an election bid since the Civil War. People in eastern Washington may be poised to oust another legislative leader this year. Republican U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who is fourth in House leadership and the highest-ranking woman in the GOP, faces a formidable challenge in the 5th Congressional District from Democrat Lisa Brown. It is one of three U.S. House races in Washington state getting national attention as Democrats try to gain control of the chamber. Democrats also are mounting strong challenges for two other Republican-held districts - the 8th, which stretches from Seattle's eastern suburbs across the Cascade Mountains and the 3rd, in southwestern Washington. Congressional races in Washington state are usually predictable, with incumbents holding their seats with relative ease. Currently there are six Democrats and four Republicans in the state's House delegation. "I think it's just a matter of everyone anticipating that 2018 would be a good year for Democrats," said Travis Ridout, a political science professor at Washington State University. "A lot of high-quality Democratic candidates saw that they might have a good chance and decided to run this year." McMorris Rodgers got 49 percent of the vote, to Brown's 45 percent, in August's primary election, in which the top two finishers advanced to November regardless of party. But the outcome, with McMorris Rodgers below 50 percent, was close enough that Brown brought in nearly double what McMorris Rodgers raised in campaign funding in the third quarter. In this Oct. 28, 2018 photo, Lisa Brown, left, the Democrat challenging Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Wash., for her 5th Congressional District seat, poses for a photo with a supporter, right, and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., center, following a pep talk with Murray to volunteers at Brown's campaign office in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) McMorris Rodgers has raised $5.49 million in total, while Brown has raised $5.29 million, as of the Oct. 17 reporting period. The $10.7 million raised by the two campaigns is unprecedented in the district. Many negative TV ads brand Brown as a tax-and-spend liberal, and McMorris Rodgers as a career politician who is in lockstep with President Trump. McMorris Rodgers believes the country is on the right path, with unemployment low and business confidence high. "What a change to two years ago," she said during a recent debate. "Let's not go back. Let's keep striving to a positive future." She is the highest-ranking House Republican in a competitive race, and the contest is important as the Democrats seek to win control of the House. Plus, the district hasn't seen a close election since Foley lost. Brown contended the economy is not nearly as rosy as portrayed by Republicans, and that the district needs new leadership. "Eastern Washington is ready for an independent advocate who will put our region's interests over special interests and party priorities," Brown said. "My opponent is a leader in a dysfunctional Congress." The 5th District is centered in Spokane, which has a metro population of more than 500,000 residents. The other roughly 200,000 residents of the district are scattered in small communities and rural areas. The district voted for President Donald Trump by 13 points in 2016. The two candidates served in the state Legislature in the 1990s, where both were identified as rising stars. McMorris Rodgers was elected to Congress in 2004, replacing George Nethercutt - the man who defeated Foley - who made a failed bid for a U.S. Senate seat. Brown served as majority leader of the state Senate before leaving in 2013 to become chancellor of Washington State University Spokane. McMorris Rodgers has voted with the president nearly exclusively, although she has broken with him on the tariff war with China. Many Washington farmers export products to China, and the tariffs are hurting their business. Brown has pounded McMorris Rodgers for her 50-some votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act. McMorris Rodgers was the only one of four GOP House members from Washington who voted to repeal the law last year. About 86,000 people in the 5th District have federally subsidized insurance from the ACA, and the rate of people without health insurance in the district has fallen from more than 16 percent in 2013 to less than 6 percent in 2016. Brown has produced ads showing people who say they were helped by the law. Vice President Mike Pence has come to Spokane to stump for McMorris Rodgers. Former President Barack Obama has endorsed Brown. McMorris Rodgers, 49, has spent virtually her entire adult life in politics. After college she worked as a campaign manager and legislative aide for a member of the Washington statehouse, ultimately being appointed to his seat when he moved to the state Senate. She served in the Washington House from 1994 through 2004, when she was elected to Congress. Brown, 62, was first elected to the state Legislature in 1992 and moved to the state Senate in 1996. She was also an economics professor at Eastern Washington and Gonzaga universities before becoming chancellor of WSU Spokane. ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics In this Oct. 28, 2018 photo, Democrat Lisa Brown, second from right, speaks during a public reading of "Seven Prayers to Cathy McMorris Rodgers," a chapbook of poems by Kate Lebo directed at Brown's opponent in the 5th Congressional District election, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Wash., in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) In this Aug. 22, 2018 photo, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., right, stands near a sign that reads "It's the Economy, Stupid," as she speaks at an event promoting tax breaks for small businesses that was part of the Job Creators Network bus tour in Spokane, Wash. McMorris Rodgers, who is fourth in House leadership and the highest ranking woman in the GOP, is facing a formidable challenge in the 5th Congressional District from Democrat Lisa Brown. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) In this Oct. 28, 2018 photo, Lisa Brown, right, the Democrat challenging Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Wash., for her 5th Congressional District seat, walks with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., left, as they arrive to give a pep talk to volunteers at Brown's campaign office in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) In this Aug. 22, 2018 photo, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., left, walks past a campaign sign for her opponent, Democrat Lisa Brown, as she knocks on doors with campaign field coordinator Steve Johnson, right, in Spokane, Wash. McMorris Rodgers, who is fourth in House leadership and the highest ranking woman in the GOP, is facing a formidable challenge in the 5th Congressional District from Brown. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) In this Oct. 28, 2018 photo, Democrat Lisa Brown, center-left, greets supporters following a public reading of "Seven Prayers to Cathy McMorris Rodgers," a chapbook of poems by Kate Lebo directed at Brown's opponent in the 5th Congressional District election, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Wash., in Spokane. Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) In this Aug. 22, 2018 photo, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., left, shakes hands as she campaigns in Spokane, Wash. McMorris Rodgers, who is fourth in House leadership and the highest ranking woman in the GOP, is facing a formidable challenge in the 5th Congressional District from Democrat Lisa Brown. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) In this Oct. 28, 2018 photo, Lisa Brown, right, the Democrat challenging Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Wash., for her 5th Congressional District seat, arrives with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., second from right, to give a pep talk to volunteers at Brown's campaign office in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) In this Aug. 22, 2018 photo, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., right, walks with campaign field coordinator Steve Johnson, left, as they knock on doors while campaigning in Spokane, Wash. McMorris Rodgers, who is fourth in House leadership and the highest ranking woman in the GOP, is facing a formidable challenge in the 5th Congressional District from Democrat Lisa Brown. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) In this Aug. 22, 2018 photo, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., poses for a photo in Spokane, Wash. McMorris Rodgers, who is fourth in House leadership and the highest ranking woman in the GOP, is facing a formidable challenge in the 5th Congressional District from Democrat Lisa Brown. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) In this photo taken July 17, 2018, Lisa Brown, the Democrat challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., poses for a photo in Colfax, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) NEW YORK (AP) - Whatever success Republicans have amassed in taking control of all three branches of U.S. government, and whatever fate awaits them as midterm elections near, some on the right are working to cement change by amending the Constitution. And to the mounting alarm of others on all parts of the spectrum, they want to bypass the usual process. They're pushing for an unprecedented Constitutional convention of the states. While opponents are afraid of what such a convention would do, supporters say it is the only way to deal with the federal government's overreach and ineptitude. "They literally see this as the survival of the nation," said Karla Jones, director of the federalism task force at the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, which represents state lawmakers and offers guidance and model legislation for states to call a convention under the Constitution's Article V. Among the most frequently cited changes being sought: amendments enforcing a balanced federal budget, establishing term limits for members of Congress, and repealing the 17th Amendment, which put the power of electing the Senate in the hands of the public instead of state legislatures. For the past 229 years, constitutional amendments have originated in Congress, where they need the support of two-thirds of both houses, and then the approval of at least three-quarters of the states. But under a never-used second prong of Article V, amendments can originate in the states. Two-thirds of states - currently, 34 - must call for a convention at which three-fourths of states approve of a change. This photo made available by the U.S. National Archives shows a portion of the United States Constitution with the title of Article V. For the past two centuries, constitutional amendments have originated in Congress, where they need the support of two-thirds of both houses, and then the approval of at least three-quarters of the states. But under a never-used second prong of Article V, amendments can originate in the states. (National Archives via AP) The particulars of such a convention, though, are not laid out. Do the states have to call for a convention on the same topic? Must they pass resolutions with similar or identical wording? The U.S. Supreme Court may have to decide whether the threshold of states has been reached and, ultimately, the parameters of a convention and the rules delegates would be governed by. A bill introduced in the U.S. House last year would direct the National Archives to compile all applications for an Article V convention. Some believe enough states have already passed Article V resolutions, pointing to votes over the years across the country on a variety of potential amendment topics. Others contend the highest possible current count of states is 28 - the number of states with existing resolutions on the most common convention topic, a balanced budget amendment. Others point to lower total counts based on states that have passed near-identical resolutions. Regardless, proponents of a convention believe they have momentum on their side more than any other time in American history. "That second clause of Article V was specifically intended for a time like this, when the federal government gets out of control and when the Congress won't deliver to the people what they want," said Mark Meckler, a tea party leader who now heads Citizens for Self-Governance, which runs the Convention of States Project calling for an Article V convention. Legislation promoted by the group calls for a convention focused on the federal government's budget and power, and term limits for office holders. It has passed 12 states and one legislative chamber in another 10. The Convention of States Project says 18 other states are considering the measure. Meckler, like other backers of a convention, believes there's no reason why it can't be limited in scope. Others aren't so sure. Four states that previously had passed resolutions calling for a convention have rescinded them in recent years, often citing wariness over a "runaway" convention. Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, has sounded alarms on a possible convention and portrays the coast-to-coast emergence of resolutions on the issue "a game of Whack-a-Mole." "This is the most dangerous idea in American politics that most people know nothing about," she said. There are proponents of an Article V convention on the left who see it as a possible way to overturn the Citizens United campaign finance decision, pass the Equal Rights Amendment and otherwise address what they see as a stacked deck that has helped the GOP get an unfair advantage. But with more red states than blue ones, it seems an unlikely path to abolishing the Electoral College, reengineering apportionment of the Senate or otherwise devising a democracy they believe is more reflective of the American public's views. It's not the first time a convention has been proposed. In the 1890s, when the Senate refused to take up the issue of direct election of senators, states pursued a convention, falling just short. Eventually, the 17th Amendment passed in the usual way, fulfilling that aim. In the 1960s, states sought a convention over a Supreme Court decision dictating how legislative districts were apportioned. But convention opponents have always feared that once one has been launched, it could tear up the Constitutions in all sorts of ways. What's to stop a convention from passing an abhorrent affront to the Founders, like an outright ban on Muslims, asks constitutional law professor Michael Klarman of Harvard University. He points to a 2009 Swiss referendum that resulted in outlawing the construction of minarets, the towers found beside mosques. Jones said such fears are "misguided" and that "so many stopgaps" would prevent a "runaway" convention. ___ Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org or https://twitter.com/sedensky IMPERIAL, Mo. (AP) - The Latest on the Missouri U.S. Senate race between Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill and Republican challenger Josh Hawley (all times local): 4:10 p.m. National Rifle Association President Oliver North is campaigning for Missouri's Republican U.S. Senate candidate Josh Hawley. North spoke to several dozen Hawley supporters during a Saturday rally in Imperial, about 30 minutes south of St. Louis. North railed against Missouri's incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill and other Democrats, warning that if Democrats take control of the U.S. House they will try to impeach President Donald Trump. North says Trump's presidency is important in filling any additional vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court with justices who support the Second Amendment. The NRA endorsed Hawley and ran ads against McCaskill. U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., speaks during a campaign rally Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018, in Bridgeton, Mo. McCaskill is running for re-election. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) The Democrat has said she supports policies including strengthening background checks for buying firearms, banning bump stocks, and "ensuring that anyone who is too dangerous to get on an airplane can't get their hands on a gun." ___ 9:25 a.m. Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill is appealing to the right in the final days of her campaign for a third term representing Republican-leaning Missouri. She cites approvingly President Ronald Reagan. She says she would back President Donald Trump if he stopped a migrant caravan at the border. She has given an interview to Fox News and decried "crazy Democrats." She's hoping that message wins over independents and moderate Republicans in a state Trump won by nearly 19 percentage points in 2016. But Trump and her Republican challenger, Josh Hawley, say she's still too liberal for Missouri. Trump told supporters during a Thursday rally in Columbia that McCaskill says nice things about him, but doesn't vote with him. Hawley says he would be a reliable ally for the president. MEXICO CITY (AP) - More than a hundred police fanned out Saturday in the northern Mexico state of Chihuahua to search for a missing American hiker. Patrick Braxton-Andrew, a 34-year-old Spanish teacher from North Carolina, was last seen six days ago, on Sunday, by personnel at a hotel he was staying at in Urique, a former mining village at the base of one of the many canyons that make up the Copper Canyon National Park. The Chihuahua state prosecutors' office shared images of police and volunteers searching for the missing hiker along rocky paths and steep gorges. The picturesque network of canyons is home to the Tarahumara indigenous group, widely regarded as endurance athletes for their runs through blistering heat in hand-made sandals. The canyons are also plagued by violent conflicts over illegal logging, which locals accuse of being fronts for money laundering by Mexican drug cartels. Childhood friend Russell Miller described Braxton-Andrew as an avid runner who has traveled extensively in Latin America. Braxton-Andrew was excited to take in the beauty of the canyon, Miller said. A picture on a Facebook page organized by friends and family shows Braxton-Andrew standing in front of Machu Picchu, the Incan ruins in Peru. Another picture shows him standing next to an elephant in front of a waterway. Braxton-Andrew's family said via a statement to the Associated Press that they have not given up hope. "We just want to bring him home. If anyone saw him or has any information on his potential whereabouts, please let the authorities know. Any information could be valuable and we need help finding Patrick," they said. LOS ANGELES (AP) - Johnny Depp's charismatic leader at the center of the new "Fantastic Beasts" sequel isn't modeled on President Donald Trump. But the stars of "Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald," the film written by J.K. Rowling about a dark wizard who becomes a divisive leader in the magical world, tell The Associated Press that there are some similarities. The film is set in the "Harry Potter" universe and finds Depp's character, Gellert Grindelwald, seeking to gain power and divide "pureblood" wizards from humans in 1920s Paris. "It's shining a light, isn't it, on things that have happened before as well," said Callum Turner, who plays Theseus, the older brother to Eddie Redmayne's hero main character in the film. "And how seductive and easy things can take a turn for the worse. And not just be specific to any one moment. "That's the question. Why are we - people being seduced in that way? What is it in the moment, in the zeitgeist, what is that? And that's what is interesting about that - that's the similarity. Not the person. The message." Katherine Waterston, who plays a magical law enforcement agent, says the villain crafted by the politically outspoken Rowling is more "subtle" than the real-life president. FILE - In this July 21, 2018 file photo, Johnny Depp appears in character as Gellert Grindelwald at the Warner Bros. Theatrical panel for "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" on day three of Comic-Con International in San Diego. Depp's charismatic leader at the center of the new "Fantastic Beasts" sequel isn't modeled on President Donald Trump. But the stars of "Crimes of Grindelwald," which J.K. Rowling was writing during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, say there are some similarities. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File) "Every bad guy is more nuanced and subtle than Trump. He is like the most overt bad guy of all time," she said. "But it's amazing because she was actually writing this long before the election happened - this chapter of the story. So yeah, it's interesting actually with brilliant people, if they're paying attention to the way the world is going, they actually tend to predict the future. Yeah, but it really is I think from paying close attention. And she's so politically active." Ezra Miller plays a mysterious character named Credence Barebone, whose powers include a destructive magical parasite. He says Grindelwald shares similarities to many leaders throughout history. "I think it's approaching universal themes that sure, can you look at all of the autocrats in all of history and be like, 'Yup, they are all kind of that guy, sure,'" Miller said. "There's a period where they just convince everyone that they are on their team and they're going to get them good jobs and it's going to be awesome. "And that's like how tyranny works. Like at first they convince you that they have the right to rule you. And then they arm up and get it on. It's a universal story." "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald," the second of five planned movies in the franchise, hits theatres in the U.S. and U.K. on November 16. FILE - In this July 21, 2018 file photo, Callum Turner, from left, Ezra Miller, dressed in a Toadette costume from the Super Mario Bros. video game franchise, and Alison Sudol attend the Warner Bros. Theatrical panel for "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" on day three of Comic-Con International in San Diego. Johnny Depp's charismatic leader at the center of the new "Fantastic Beasts" sequel isn't modeled on President Donald Trump. But the stars of "Crimes of Grindelwald," which J.K. Rowling was writing during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, say there are some similarities. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File) BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - A 37-year-old Canadian man missing since early October has been found dead in Montana. The Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office says the body of Cameron Collin was found about 9:30 a.m. Saturday in a creek south of Billings. Collin had been in Montana for a wedding when he disappeared sometime on the night of Oct. 4. A Sheriff's Office press release on Saturday said there has been no indication of foul play during its ongoing investigation. An autopsy will be done Monday to determine the cause of death. One person died after a mid-air collision involving two small aircraft Sunday morning over Ottawa, Canada. Police said one of the planes crashed near McGee Side Road. The second plane, carrying two people, was redirected to the Ottawa International Airport, where it landed safely. The occupant of the aircraft that crashed, a Cessna 150, died at the scene due to critical injuries, paramedics said. Those on board the second aircraft were not injured. The pilot of the second plane, a twin-engine 11-seat Piper Cheyenne, reported to air traffic control that the first aircraft hit the bottom of his plane and affected his right landing gear. The incident happened around 10 a.m. After the crash, police closed off a section of McGee Side Road. Paramedics, firefighters and police all attended the scene, CBC reported. IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - By bus, by freeway or on foot, candidates dashed across California on Saturday in a frantic rush to secure votes, knocking on doors, dialing phones and urging throngs of volunteers to fight for every vote. Nowhere were the stakes higher than in Southern California's Orange County, a one-time Republican stronghold where Democrats are trying to claim as many as four GOP-held House seats. Those districts figure prominently in the party's national strategy to seize at least 23 seats on Election Day to retake control of the House. In the closely fought suburbs of the 45th District, comedian Chelsea Handler kicked off a rally for U.S. House candidate Katie Porter, who is trying to unseat Republican Rep. Mimi Walters. The boisterous rally in a hotel ballroom was headlined by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic candidate for governor, who described the election as a proxy vote on President Donald Trump's administration. He urged the crowd to send a message to the president about his agenda: "We reject it," he said, setting off a thunderous cheer. Porter, a law school professor, said Walters had turned her back on the county and its residents, pointing to her votes against the Affordable Care Act. "Show her the door," she told them. Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox, center right, and Young Kim, a candidate running for a U.S. House seat in the 39th District in California, take a group photo with supporters during a campaign stop Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Rowland Heights, Calif. California's gubernatorial candidates targeted Orange County on Saturday, a place where Democrats hope to turn over four congressional seats. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) A similar urgency was on display in the nearby 39th District, where Republican Young Kim is in a toss-up contest with Democrat Gil Cisneros for the seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Ed Royce. At a rally in a parking lot outside a campaign office where volunteers were working the phones, she was joined by the GOP nominee for governor, John Cox, who pulled up in a lime-green bus splashed with the slogan, "Help is on the way." Kim urged a crowd of cheering supporters waving signs to get to the polls or mail in a ballot as soon as possible, warning them, "It could be your vote" that makes a difference on Election Day. "It's all going to come down to a few votes," she said. She also urged support for Cox, who has been trailing Newsom in polls and fundraising in a state where Democrats hold every statewide office, both chambers of the Legislature and a 3.7 million edge in voter registrations. "Can you imagine Gavin Newsom being our governor?" she asked, eliciting loud boos and shouts from the crowd with the mention of the Democratic candidate. Cox said residents are suffering from too many taxes, on fuel, on food. "This campaign is about saving the state of California," he said. "This state has been made unaffordable and unlivable" under Democratic leadership, he said. The competing rallies showcased the stark political divide in the nation's largest state, where the population has become more diverse and the politics more firmly Democratic. Trump lost California by over 4 million votes in the 2016 election, and independents now outnumber Republicans in the state. Kim, a former legislator who worked for Royce for years, is running as a Trump supporter with an independent streak. But she has been cautious about mentioning the president at a time when polls show college-educated women are fleeing Trump's GOP. She never mentioned him in her remarks at the rally. "We are in it to win it," she told her volunteers. ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox, right, and Young Kim, a candidate running for a U.S. House seat in the 39th District in California, wave to their supporters during a campaign stop Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Rowland Heights, Calif. California's gubernatorial candidates target Orange County on Saturday, a place where Democrats hope to turn over four congressional seats. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) People wait in a line during early voting Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) Felicita Subhita, left, reviews her ballot as she uses curbside voting services during early voting Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - President Donald Trump accused Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly of "trying to steal the election" by running ads touting the Libertarian candidate in an effort to peel away votes from Republican challenger Mike Braun in a close contest. In a tweet Saturday , Trump said the rumor is Donnelly paid for the Facebook ads. The Indiana Democratic Party confirmed that it paid for them and a line at the top of the ads says that they are "authorized by Donnelly for Indiana." The ad is among several on Facebook saying that Braun used to be a Democrat and has voted for tax increases as a member of the state Legislature. It urges Hoosier conservatives to "vote your values." "Libertarian Lucy Brenton is the true Anti-tax conservative," the ad says. Braun says he is a fiscal conservative. Republicans hope to knock off Donnelly in a state Trump won easily in 2016 to expand their 51-49 majority in the Senate. Trump visits Fort Wayne, Indiana, Monday to rally for Braun. LAKE HALLIE, Wis. (AP) - A pickup truck lurched off a road in western Wisconsin Saturday and hit a group of Girl Scouts picking up trash in a ditch, leaving three girls and one adult dead and critically injuring a fourth girl, police said. Sgt. Daniel Sokup of the Lake Hallie Police Department said the driver of the black Ford F-150 pickup truck fled the scene but later turned himself in. He identified the driver as Colton Treu, 21, of Chippewa, Falls, Wisconsin. Sokup said Treu will be charged with four counts of homicide through the negligent use of a vehicle. Sokup said the crash happened before a hill and there were no blind spots. "The area is not an unsafe area," he said. Sokup said it was not immediately known if there were other factors that might have led the driver to leave the road. The crash happened late Saturday morning as the girls were picking up litter in a ditch in Lake Hallie, a town about 95 miles (153 kilometers) east of Minneapolis. The pickup was heading north and crossed over a lane and went into the ditch, striking the group. The girls were in the fourth grade at Halmstad Elementary School in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune quoted a relative of a girl in the troop who was not injured as saying. The Girl Scouts were all wearing bright safety vests and were accompanied by several adults. Emergency medical personnel gather at the scene of a hit-and-run accident Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Lake Hallie, Wis., that killed two girls and an adult. (Steve Kinderman/The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram via AP) Two of the girls and the woman were pronounced dead at the scene. A third Girl Scout was transported to a hospital where she later died, Sokup said. The fourth girl was transported to a hospital in critical condition. The names of the dead were not immediately released. ___ Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com NORTH OGDEN, Utah (AP) - A Utah mayor who was also a Utah Army National Guard major training commandos in Afghanistan was fatally shot by one of his Afghan trainees, officials said Sunday. Brent Taylor, 39, had taken a yearlong leave of absence as mayor of North Ogden north of Salt Lake City for his deployment to Afghanistan. He was a military intelligence officer with Joint Force Headquarters and was expected to return to his mayoral job in January. Another U.S. military member whose name was not immediately made public was wounded in Saturday's attack that killed Taylor, who died from wounds from small arms fire, military officials said. Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton, the adjutant general of the Utah National Guard, told reporters that Taylor's mission was to help train and build the capacity of the Afghan national army. "He was with folks he was helping and training. That's what's so painful about this. It's bitter," Burton said. "I do believe that Major Taylor felt he was among friends, with people he was working with." Utah media outlets cited a statement from NATO saying that Taylor was shot by one of the commandos being trained and that the attacker was killed by Afghan forces. This undated photo provided by the Utah National Guard shows Maj. Brent Taylor of the Utah National Guard. Taylor, former mayor of North Ogden, died in Afghanistan on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, City Councilman Phillip Swanson said. Taylor was deployed to Afghanistan in January with the Utah National Guard for what was expected to be a 12-month tour of duty. Taylor previously served two tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. (Courtesy of Utah National Guard via AP) Taylor leaves behind a wife and seven children. His remains are scheduled to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday evening. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Taylor "was there to help. He was a leader. He loved the people of Afghanistan... This is a sad day for Utah, for America." "Brent was a hero, a patriot, a wonderful father, and a dear friend," U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said on Twitter. "News of his death in Afghanistan is devastating. My prayers and love are with Jennie and his seven young children. His service will always be remembered." Taylor served two tours in Iraq and was on his second tour in Afghanistan. Taylor in January when he was being deployed told local media that he was assigned to serve on an advisory team training the staff of an Afghan commando battalion. Hundreds of residents of North Ogden lined the street to see him off as police escorted him and his family around North Ogden, a community of about 17,000. Taylor became the city's mayor in 2013. This undated photo provided by the Utah National Guard shows Maj. Brent Taylor of the Utah National Guard. Taylor, former mayor of North Ogden, died in Afghanistan on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, City Councilman Phillip Swanson said. Taylor was deployed to Afghanistan in January with the Utah National Guard for what was expected to be a 12-month tour of duty. Taylor previously served two tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. (Courtesy of Utah National Guard via AP) The Fallen Soldier Tribute is shown at the Utah Army National Guard Recruiting building Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Draper, Utah. Military officials say a major in Utah's Army National Guard who was also the mayor of a city north of Salt Lake City was killed in Afghanistan after being shot by a member of the Afghan security forces. They say North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor was in the country to train Afghan commandos and was shot Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, by one of the trainees at the Kabul military training center. The attacker was then killed by Afghan forces. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune, via AP) Soldiers attend a news conference where Gov. Gary R. Herbert and Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton address the media Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Draper, Utah. Military officials say a major in Utah's Army National Guard who was also the mayor of a city north of Salt Lake City was killed in Afghanistan after being shot by a member of the Afghan security forces. They say North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor was in the country to train Afghan commandos and was shot Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, by one of the trainees at the Kabul military training center. The attacker was then killed by Afghan forces. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune, via AP) Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton, center, address the media on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Draper, Utah. Military officials say a major in Utah's Army National Guard who was also the mayor of a city north of Salt Lake City was killed in Afghanistan after being shot by a member of the Afghan security forces. They say North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor was in the country to train Afghan commandos and was shot Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, by one of the trainees at the Kabul military training center. The attacker was then killed by Afghan forces. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune, via AP) Gov. Gary Herbert speaks during a news conference Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Draper, Utah. Military officials say a major in Utah's Army National Guard who was also the mayor of a city north of Salt Lake City was killed in Afghanistan after being shot by a member of the Afghan security forces. They say North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor was in the country to train Afghan commandos and was shot Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, by one of the trainees at the Kabul military training center. The attacker was then killed by Afghan forces. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune, via AP) Gov. Gary Herbert addresses the media on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Draper, Utah. Military officials say a major in Utah's Army National Guard who was also the mayor of a city north of Salt Lake City was killed in Afghanistan after being shot by a member of the Afghan security forces. They say North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor was in the country to train Afghan commandos and was shot Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, by one of the trainees at the Kabul military training center. The attacker was then killed by Afghan forces. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune, via AP) GARY, Ind. (AP) - Former President Barack Obama praised Indiana Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly on Sunday for being willing to break with his party, telling a roaring crowd at a rally in the state that "you don't want just a yes man." Donnelly has sounded more like President Donald Trump while trying to persuade voters in the conservative Midwestern state to grant him a second term. He's angered some Democrats by tacking to the right in recent weeks and embracing some of Trump's pet priorities, such as building a border wall with Mexico. But Obama told voters during the rally in Gary that Donnelly "tries to do right by people" - not just his party - and noted he supported the Affordable Care Act, the health care overhaul passed under Obama. "Joe Donnelly and I didn't agree all the time. But Joe always let me know where he stood and I knew what he believed in and that he always was focused on: 'What's the best thing for the Hoosiers that he served?'" Obama said. "He was honest and he was direct. So you can count on that. That's what you want. You don't want just a yes man all the time." Obama's stop was sandwiched between his successor's trips to the state Friday and Monday on behalf of GOP Senate candidate Mike Braun. For Braun, a businessman who has campaigned as a steadfast Trump ally, the current president's appearances in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne are no-brainers in a state he won two years ago by 19 points. But for Donnelly, who frequently touts how often he votes with Trump, the Obama rally was a little more complicated. Former President Barack Obama, left, points as Democratic gubernatorial candidate U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly waves to the crowd during a campaign rally at Genesis Convention Center in Gary, Ind., Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) "If he does need to inoculate himself from some of his firmer conservative rhetoric, it's a pretty effective way to do it," said Christina Hale, a former state lawmaker and the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2016. Obama has proven a polarizing figure with independent and Republican voters and is credited with some of Indiana's rightward political shift, even though he won the state in 2008. To win in Tuesday's election, Donnelly not only needs high turnout from his party's base but also must peel off some moderate Republicans and independents. That's why Sunday's rally in Gary, a heavily African-American city that has more in common with the Democratic stronghold of nearby Chicago than deep red parts of the state, could prove strategic. The northwest Indiana region supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, and driving turnout there on Tuesday will be critical for Donnelly. A spokesman for Braun, Josh Kelley, said Donnelly was "doubling down on the liberal resistance movement" by campaigning with Obama. Obama criticized Republicans for passing a tax bill that benefited the wealthy, and for trying to end protections for pre-existing conditions provided through the Affordable Care Act. And without mentioning Trump's name, he told the crowd they could return the country to a kinder, less divisive kind of politics. "On Tuesday you can vote for politics that is decent and honest and lawful and tries to do right by people like Joe Donnelly does," he said, adding at one point that his voice was growing hoarse from all his campaigning in recent days. Trump was keenly aware of Obama's visit, which he mentioned Friday during an event at an Indianapolis-area high school. "It's no surprise that Joe Donnelly is holding a rally this weekend with Barack H. Obama," Trump said as the crowd jeered. He later added: "We don't want to go back to the Obama days." As a red-state Democrat, Donnelly has had a target on his back ever since he unexpectedly defeated Republican Richard Mourdock in 2012, when the former state treasurer said a woman who gets pregnant from her rapist is carrying a "gift from God." Donnelly has walked a delicate line since then, often frustrating his own party and Republicans alike with the votes he takes. Trump was having none of it on Friday, tying Donnelly to "radical left" figures in the party who are widely reviled by the GOP base. "This Tuesday I need the people of Indiana to send a message to Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and the radical Democrats by voting for Mike Braun," Trump said as the crowd erupted in boos. "I'm really speaking more to the television cameras than to you because I don't think we have too many Donnelly voters. Anybody going to vote for Donnelly in this room?" The boos grew even louder. ___ Slodysko reported from Indianapolis. Former President Barack Obama, right, greets Democratic supporters at Genesis Convention Center, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Gary, Ind. Obama rallied Democrats on behalf of Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who faces a stiff challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Former President Barack Obama speaks during a rally to support Indiana Democratic gubernatorial candidate U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly at Genesis Convention Center in Gary, Ind., Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Former President Barack Obama, right, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly smile as they wave to the crowd during a campaign rally at Genesis Convention Center in Gary, Ind., Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Former President Barack Obama speaks at a rally, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Gary, Ind. Obama rallied Democrats on behalf of Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who faces a stiff challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Former President Barack Obama speaks to Democratic supporters at Genesis Convention Center, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Gary, Ind. Obama rallied Democrats on behalf of Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who faces a stiff challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Former President Barack Obama speaks to Democratic supporters at Genesis Convention Center, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Gary, Ind. Obama rallied Democrats on behalf of Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who faces a stiff challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Former President Barack Obama waves to Democratic supporters at Genesis Convention Center, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Gary, Ind. Obama rallied Democrats on behalf of Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who faces a stiff challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Former President Barack Obama, right, greets Democratic supporters at Genesis Convention Center, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Gary, Ind. Obama rallied Democrats on behalf of Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who faces a stiff challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Thousands of Iranians rallied Sunday in commemoration of the 39th anniversary of the takeover and hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, just hours before the re-imposition of all American sanctions lifted by the nuclear deal. The 444-day crisis after the fall of the U.S.-allied shah transfixed America, as nightly images of blindfolded hostages played on television sets across the nation. Ultimately, it would be President Jimmy Carter leaving office that saw all 52 captive American diplomats freed. Sunday, hard-liners vented their rage at a new American president, Donald Trump, who pulled America out of the nuclear deal struck by his predecessor that the United Nations says Tehran still honors. With crippling sanctions on Iran's vital oil industry set to take effect Monday, Iran's already-anemic economy likely will suffer more, though politicians and protesters struck a defiant tone. "Today the Iranian nation will show that Mr. Trump is too small to be able to bring Iran to its knees," said Ali Larijani, Iran's parliament speaker. The annual commemoration marks when student demonstrators climbed over the fence at the embassy on Nov. 4, 1979, angered about Carter allowing the fatally ill Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to receive cancer treatment in the United States. The students soon took over the entire, leafy compound. A few staffers fled and hid in the home of the Canadian ambassador to Iran before escaping the country with the help of the CIA, a story recounted in the 2012 film "Argo." While the commemoration annually sees American flags burned and cries of "Death to America" rise up, it also has a carnival-like atmosphere for the students and others taking part. Some waved massive inflatable ballistic missiles. Others held signs lampooning Trump, including images of him contorted into a Nazi swastika or as a missile chasing after a dove. Some even showed a smiling silhouette logo of Kentucky Fried Chicken's founder Col. Harland David Sanders crossed-out, equating the chain once in Iran before the Islamic Revolution to decadent Americanism. Iranian demonstrators burn representations of the U.S. and Israeli flags during a rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, marking the 39th anniversary of the seizure of the embassy by militant Iranian students. Thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary as Washington restored all sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander-in-chief of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, gave a speech vowing that Iran "can overcome this economic war and failure of the sanctions project is imminent." "Mr. Trump! Never threaten Iran because moans of the frightened U.S. forces in Tabas can still be heard," Jafari said, referring to the failed American mission to rescue the hostages known as Operation Eagle Claw. He added: "Still the moans of your terrified sailors and your British friends in Persian Gulf can be heard," referring to times the Guard have held sailors captive there. On Friday, the Trump administration announced the restoration of sanctions on Iran's shipping, financial and energy sectors, the second batch of penalties to be restored. Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis. Its rial currency now trades at 145,000 to one U.S. dollar, down from when it traded 40,500 to $1 a year ago. The economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year which resulted in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Sporadic demonstrations still continue. The United States says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. However, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton, the president's national security adviser, both have made public statements supporting overthrowing Iran's theocratic government. The symbolism of the looming sanctions coming wasn't lost on protesters Sunday. "Sanctions have always existed and we are used to them," said one woman protester who only gave her name as Torabi. "The tougher they take it out on us, the more resistant we become." Trump himself has embraced the sanctions as he faces a tough mid-term election in the U.S. that could change the balance of power in Congress. He tweeted out an image of him with the caption: "Sanctions Are Coming," a play on the HBO television series "Game of Thrones." Hard-liners in Iran responded with a similar image of Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Guard's expeditionary Quds Force reading: "I Will Stand Against You." Another demonstrator Sunday, Jamshid Zarei, waved a banner in English quoting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying: "America can't do a damn thing." "The Iranian people are feeling the economic pressure at their dinner tables and we complain about this, but it will not make Iranian people give up Islam, their values and the (Islamic) Revolution because of rising prices," he said. "Anyone who thinks that way is really a fool." ___ Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press television producer Mohammed Nasiri in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. Demonstrators chant slogans during an annual rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, to mark the 39th anniversary of the seizure of the embassy by militant Iranian students. Thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary as Washington restored all sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Representations of the U.S. and British flags are walked on by demonstrators during an annual rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, to mark the 39th anniversary of the seizure of the embassy by militant Iranian students. Thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary as Washington restored all sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Demonstrators chant slogans during a rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, marking the 39th anniversary of the seizure of the embassy by militant Iranian students. Thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary as Washington restored all sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) A demonstrator holds an effigy of US government icon "Uncle Sam" during a rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, marking the 39th anniversary of the seizure of the embassy by militant Iranian students. Thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary as Washington restored all sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) A demonstrator holds up a caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, marking the 39th anniversary of the seizure of the embassy by militant Iranian students. Thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary as Washington restored all sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Iran's Revolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Ali Jafari speaks during a rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, marking the 39th anniversary of the seizure of the embassy by militant Iranian students. Thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary as Washington restored all sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Investigators succeeded in retrieving hours of data from a crashed Lion Air jet's flight recorder as Indonesian authorities on Sunday extended the search at sea for victims and debris. National Transportation Safety Committee deputy chairman Haryo Satmiko told a news conference that 69 hours of flight data was downloaded from the recorder including its fatal flight. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet crashed just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta on Oct. 29, killing all 189 people on board in the country's worst airline disaster since 1997. The flight data recorder was recovered by divers on Thursday in damaged condition and investigators said it required special handling to retrieve its information. The cockpit voice recorder has not been recovered but searchers are focusing on a particular area based on a weak locator signal. National Search and Rescue Agency chief Muhammad Syaugi said Sunday the search operation, now in its 7th day and involving hundreds of personnel and dozens of ships, would continue for another three days. Syaugi paid tribute to a volunteer diver, Syahrul Anto, who died during the search effort on Friday. The family of the 48-year-old refused an autopsy and he was buried Saturday in Surabaya. Rescuers hand body bags containing the remains of the victims of the crashed Lion Air jet to colleagues upon arrival at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018. The brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta early on Oct. 29, killing all of its passengers on board. (AP Photo/Fauzy Chaniago) More than 100 body bags of human remains had been recovered. Syaugi said the number would continue to increase and remains were also now washing up on land. He said weak signals, potentially from the cockpit voice recorder, were traced to a location but an object hadn't been found yet due to deep seabed mud. Flight tracking websites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude during its 13 minute flight and a previous flight the day before from Bali to Jakarta. Passengers on the Bali flight reported terrifying descents and in both cases the different cockpit crews requested to return to their departure airport shortly after takeoff. Lion has claimed a technical problem was fixed after the Bali fight. Syaugi said a considerable amount of aircraft "skin" was found on the seafloor but not a large intact part of its fuselage as he'd indicated was possible Saturday. He and other top officials including the military chief plan to meet with families on Monday to explain the search operation. The Lion Air crash is the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since 1997, when 234 people died on a Garuda flight near Medan. In December 2014, an AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea, killing all 162 on board. Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, though several were allowed to resume services in the following decade. The ban was completely lifted in June. The U.S. lifted a decadelong ban in 2016. Lion Air is one of Indonesia's youngest airlines but has grown rapidly, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations. It has been expanding aggressively in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing region of more than 600 million people. NOUMEA, New Caledonia (AP) - The Latest on New Caledonia's independence referendum (all times local): 11:10 p.m. French President Emmanuel Macron says the majority of New Caledonians who voted in a referendum on independence chose to remain part of France. In a televised address from Paris, Macron pledged "there is no other path than that of dialogue" on the future of the South Pacific archipelago that has been part of France since 1853. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe will meet with officials in New Caledonia to discuss future plans. The referendum was the result of a process that started 30 years ago to end years of violence between supporters and opponents of separating from France. A man, right, drapes the flag of New Caledonia on his shoulders as the French flag flies in the background as he and a woman line up to cast their votes at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) ___ 9:30 p.m. New Caledonian voters are supporting the "Non" vote against independence from France with more than half the votes now counted in the referendum on its future. The office of the French High Commissioner for the South Pacific territory says the "Non" camp against independence has nearly 64 percent of the 80,990 votes counted so far. In all, 174,000 people were registered to vote in Sunday's ballot. The Pacific archipelago became French in 1853 but the region's native Kanak people faced severe discrimination under colonial rule. New Caledonia now receives about 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in French state subsidies every year, and many fear its economy would suffer if ties are severed. ___ 8:40 p.m. Voter turnout in New Caledonia's independence referendum was so high that some polling stations had to stay open later than planned. The office for the high commissioner of the French territory in the South Pacific says some polling stations in Noumea, the capital, closed about an hour late Sunday evening because they had large lines of people still waiting to vote at the planned closing time. Earlier, the commissioner estimated that about three-quarters of registered voters in the South Pacific archipelago cast ballots. Anne-Marie-Mestre, a member of a committee that oversaw the referendum campaign, said the high turnout reinforced the legitimacy of the vote on whether to break free from France. She said: "No one will be able to cast doubt on the representativeness and sincerity of the vote. All age groups were represented and mobilized." ___ 8:05 p.m. First results are trickling in from the independence referendum in New Caledonia, with a village of about 600 people the first to declare, voting overwhelmingly against a split from France. New Caledonia's High Commissioner tweeted that Farino on the territory's main island voted by a margin of 9 to 1 against independence, and that nearly 95 percent of the village's registered voters cast ballots. Fuller results from far more heavily populated areas are expected later Sunday. Voters have turned out in exceptional numbers to decide whether the French South Pacific territory should break free from the European country that claimed it in 1853. ___ 7 p.m. Voters have turned out in exceptional numbers to decide whether the French South Pacific territory of New Caledonia should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. The territory's High Commissioner estimated that close to three-quarters of the territory's registered voters had cast ballots an hour before polls closed Sunday evening, a far more robust turnout than in New Caledonia's provincial election in 2014. Results were expected later Sunday. From Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron was to speak about the territory's future and its choice in a televised address. The independence vote marked a milestone for the archipelago of 270,000 people that lies east of Australia and has sun-kissed lagoons as well as a nickel mining industry. The archipelago became French in 1853 under Emperor Napoleon III. Women stand behind curtains at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as they prepare their votes as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A woman prepares her ballot at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A man prepares to cast his vote at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) An United Nations observer inspects a polling station while residents in Noumea, New Caledonia, vote as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) People line up at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as they prepare to cast their votes as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) Roch Wamytan, one of the former leaders of the independentist party, Union Caledonienne, casts his vote at a poling station in Le Mont-Dore, New Caledonia during an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) Roch Wamytan, a former leader of the independentist party, Union Caledonienne, prepares to cast his vote at a poling station in Le Mont-Dore, New Caledonia, during an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) Residents of New Caledonia's capital, Noumea, wait in line at a polling station dedicated to the natives of the Loyalty islands, before casting their vote as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A man drapes his country's flag over his shoulders as residents of New Caledonia's capital, Noumea, wait in line at a polling station before casting their vote as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A resident of New Caledonia's capital, Noumea, casts his vote at a polling station as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A resident of New Caledonia's capital, Noumea, casts his vote at a polling station as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) Former Mayor of Noumea, Sonia Lagarde, right, works at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, during an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) A man casts his vote at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) People line up at a polling station in Noumea, New Caledonia, as they prepare to cast their votes as part of an independence referendum, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Voters in New Caledonia are deciding whether the French territory in the South Pacific should break free from the European country that claimed it in the mid-19th century. (AP Photo/Mathurin Derel) ROME (AP) - Storm-related floods killed at least 12 people in Sicily, Italian authorities said Sunday, including nine members of two families who were spending a long weekend together when water and mud from a swollen river overran their rented villa. After surveying the stricken Mediterranean island by helicopter, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte identified two more of the victims as a German couple whose car was swept away by flood waters near Agrigento, a tourist town known for its ancient Greek temples. Italian news reports said a 1-year--old, a 3-year-old and a teenager were among the flood victims from the family get-together in Casteldaccia. A survivor, Giuseppe Giordano, lost his wife, two of his children, his parents and a brother, Italian news agency ANSA said. State broadcaster RaiNews24 said Giordano was stepping outside on Saturday night when the torrent rushed in and described him as the sole person to made it out alive. When he opened the door, "there was a river of water, I was knocked down and grabbed hold of a tree," Giordano told reporters between sobs. "I was yelling, 'Help, help.'" "My son Federico tried to save his little sister, but both died," Giordano said, telling reporters he heard his son call out "I handle" about the girl's rescue. A Carabinieri (Italian paramilitary police) officer stands by a car carrying the coffin of one of the nine people that lost their lives when their home was flooded in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Italian state radio says a rain-swollen river in the countryside near Palermo, Sicily, has flooded a home, killing 9 people. It said one person survived the flood late Saturday night by clinging to a tree, and that the victims were from two families spending the weekend together. (Igor Petyx/ANSA via AP) Then "I saw the windows go dark, the light go out, a layer of mud was moving across the floor," Giordano said, Then, he said he was swept away from the house by the force of the water. The two families had gathered in the villa during Italy's long weekend centering on the Nov. 1 All Saint's Day national holiday. Although Italian news reports originally described him of the house's owner, Giordano said he was renting the villa. Casteldaccia Mayor Giovanni Di Giacinto told Sky TG24 that the flood water reached 2 meters (move than 6 feet) high inside the home. Rescuers retrieved the bodies from the home. A Sicilian prosecutor opened an investigation to determine if neglect, such as possible inadequate drainage of the river, played a role in the deaths or if the home was built illegally close to the river. The latter might be the case. Pino Virga, the mayor of the neighboring town of Altavilla Milicia, told SkyTG24 TV that other local authorities told him the house was slated for demolition because it stood too near the river. Separately, Di Giacinto told reporters the homeowner had blocked the demolition by challenging it in a local tribunal. A nursing home up the road was spared any damage, ANSA reported. Only days earlier, other storms battered much of northern Italy, killing at least 15 people, uprooting millions of trees near Alpine valleys and leaving several Italian villages without electricity or road access for days. Conte said a special Cabinet meeting could be in the coming days to deliberate aid for storm-ravaged communities, as well as to approve 1 billion euros ($1.15 billion) to ensure safe hydrogeological conditions in Italy, including proper cleaning of riverbeds. The other known casualty in Sicily was a man whose body was also found on a guardrail along a Palermo-area road after floodwaters swept away his car, Italian news reports said. Across the island, in the town of Cammarata, near Agrigento, the fire department said its divers worked to recover the bodies of the couple whose car was caught up in the flooding waters of the Saraceno River. Also in Agrigento province, firefighters rescued 14 people from a hotel in the town of Montevago, which was threatened by floodwaters from the Belice River. Elsewhere in Sicily, at least two other people were missing Sunday after floodwaters swept away their cars, including a doctor heading to the hospital in the hill town of Corleone. In Casteldaccia, Maria Concetta Alfano said she, her husband and their adult disabled daughter fled after barking dogs drew their attention to the rising waters in the Milicia River. ANSA quoted the husband, Andrea Cardenale, as saying he drove away as "water was up to the hood of the car." ___ Frances D'Emilio is on twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio. A view of the flooded house where nine people lost their lives in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Italian state radio says a rain-swollen river in the countryside near Palermo, Sicily, has flooded a home, killing 9 people. It said one person survived the flood late Saturday night by clinging to a tree, and that the victims were from two families spending the weekend together. (Mike Palazzotto/ANSA via AP) A view of the flooded house where nine people lost their lives in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Italian state radio says a rain-swollen river in the countryside near Palermo, Sicily, has flooded a home, killing 9 people. It said one person survived the flood late Saturday night by clinging to a tree, and that the victims were from two families spending the weekend together. (Igor Petyx/ANSA via AP) The governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, 2nd from right, checks the devastation left behind after a week of bad weather in the Veneto region, northeastern Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Zaia inspected the damage caused by flooding, high winds and landslides to mountain areas as heavy winds have been battering the country. (Vigili del Fuoco via AP) A view of the area where nine people lost their lives when their home was flooded in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Rainstorms lashing Sicily have killed at least 10 people, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said before heading Sunday for the stricken Mediterranean island. State radio said nine of those victims were in a home that was flooded by a rapidly swelling river in the countryside near Palermo. (Ruggero Farkas/ANSA via AP) A view of the flooded house where nine people lost their lives in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Italian state radio says a rain-swollen river in the countryside near Palermo, Sicily, has flooded a home, killing 9 people. It said one person survived the flood late Saturday night by clinging to a tree, and that the victims were from two families spending the weekend together. (Mike Palazzotto/ANSA via AP) The swollen Milicia river runs in the area where nine people lost their lives when their home was flooded in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Rainstorms lashing Sicily have killed at least 10 people, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said before heading Sunday for the stricken Mediterranean island. State radio said nine of those victims were in a home that was flooded by a rapidly swelling river in the countryside near Palermo. (Ruggero Farkas/ANSA via AP) A view of the flooded house where nine people lost their lives in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Italian state radio says a rain-swollen river in the countryside near Palermo, Sicily, has flooded a home, killing 9 people. It said one person survived the flood late Saturday night by clinging to a tree, and that the victims were from two families spending the weekend together. (Mike Palazzotto/ANSA via AP) The swollen Milicia river runs in the area where nine people lost their lives when their home was flooded in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Rainstorms lashing Sicily have killed at least 10 people, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said before heading Sunday for the stricken Mediterranean island. State radio said nine of those victims were in a home that was flooded by a rapidly swelling river in the countryside near Palermo. (Ruggero Farkas/ANSA via AP) The governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, 2nd from right, checks the devastation left behind after a week of bad weather in the Veneto region, northeastern Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Zaia inspected the damage caused by flooding, high winds and landslides to mountain areas as heavy winds have been battering the country. (Vigili del Fuoco via AP) An aerial view shows the damages caused by bad weather in Rapallo Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018 as rainstorms and strong winds continue to batter the country. Half the yachts at the Carlo Riva Marina in Rapallo, near Genoa, were destroyed by waves. Further to the south, the Cinque Terre town of Portofino was left cut off after the main access road collapsed into the sea. (Vigili del Fuoco via AP) Damaged and submerged boats are moored at the Rapallo harbor, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018 as rainstorms and strong winds continue to batter the country. Half the yachts at the Carlo Riva Marina in Rapallo, near Genoa, were destroyed by waves. Further to the south, the Cinque Terre town of Portofino was left cut off after the main access road collapsed into the sea. (Vigili del Fuoco via AP) PARIS (AP) - Sweeping accusations that the Kremlin tried to sway the 2016 U.S. election haven't chastened Russian trolls, hackers and spies - and might even have emboldened them. U.S. officials and tech companies say Russians have continued online activity targeted at American voters during the campaign for Tuesday's election, masquerading as U.S. institutions and creating faux-American social media posts to aggravate tensions around issues like migration and gun control. Russia denies any interference. So far U.S. authorities haven't announced any huge hacks or the kind of multipronged campaign suspected in the 2016 election, and it's hard to judge whether the more recent Russian actions have any link to the Kremlin or will have any electoral impact. But why do they appear to be at it again? Dozens of Russians suspected of meddling in 2016 have been hit with U.S. charges or sanctions, including well-placed magnates. Moscow's ties with the West have deteriorated badly amid ever-more-shocking allegations of Russian interference abroad. And some argue that Russian meddlers don't need to mess with the U.S. midterms this year because they got what they wanted in 2016: Donald Trump in the White House and mass disillusionment with the democratic process. The Kremlin likes Trump because he's one of the rare Western leaders to embrace Russian President Vladimir Putin, but its hoped-for Russian-American rapprochement hasn't really materialized. A Democratic House or Senate after Tuesday's U.S. election would make that an even more distant prospect. In this Thursday, April 19, 2018, photo, 'USA Really' editor Alexander Malkevich gestures while speaking at the plenary meeting of the forum "Society, Culture and Media" in St. Petersburg, Russia. As Americans prepare for another election, Russian troublemakers appear to laboring afresh to divide U.S. voters and discredit democracy, and perhaps even sway the outcome. (Svetlana Kholyavchuk/Interpress Photo Agency via AP) "Russians have a preference and they will do what they can to swing (the result) in their favor, especially if margins are tight," said James Nixey, head of the Russia and Eurasia program at the London-based think tank Chatham House. He cautions, however, that "Russia is not responsible for all of America's problems. America has splits and fissures like all of us, and Russia puts in a lever and pries them open." Some Russians, meanwhile, wear the U.S. accusations as a badge of honor, a sign that their country is a fearsome world power again. The first person charged with foreign interference in the 2018 midterms, Elena Khusyaynova, said "my heart filled with pride" at the news. Speaking last week on Russian TV after being accused in the United States of a covert social media campaign for both the 2016 and 2018 votes, she added, "It turns out that a simple Russian woman could help citizens of a superpower elect their president." Pavel Koshkin of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies called accusations of meddling "a gift to Russian propaganda and Russian politicians," who can use U.S. anti-Russian sentiment "as a tool in stirring anti-Americanism and increasing their approval ratings." The 2016 U.S. election thrust Russian foreign interference into the spotlight, but it wasn't an isolated project. It fit into a yearslong effort by Putin's Kremlin to take revenge over what's seen as the U.S.-led humiliation of post-Soviet Russia, through crippling loan programs and NATO's post-Cold War expansion. The Kremlin also resents what it considers U.S. interference in the politics of countries once under Moscow's sphere of influence, from Ukraine to the Caucasus. To many Russians, what's happening now in the U.S. is just payback. The resulting U.S. sanctions have damaged the Russian economy, but if the goal was changing Russian foreign policy, "this goal certainly hasn't been achieved," said analyst Masha Lipman. "In fact, the opposite is true. The more pressure (on Russia), the lower the desire or willingness to concede." As special counsel Robert Mueller has investigated possible Russian collusion with Trump's 2016 campaign, Moscow has increased efforts to make its mark elsewhere - in Syria, Libya, and in political debates across Europe. So far in 2018, Russian agents have been accused of a nerve agent attack in Britain, trying to hack the world's chemical weapons watchdog in the Netherlands, and seeking to derail a referendum in Macedonia to stop the country from joining NATO and the European Union. Even after Mueller's team in February indicted a dozen Russians linked to the Internet Research Agency, the so-called troll farm in St. Petersburg, its sponsors openly continued to target U.S. audiences. One of its projects, a news site called USAReally, covers tight U.S. congressional races and is closely following the migrant caravan heading north from Latin America. "Yes, we are a Russian site. We talk to Americans about America. But is that forbidden?" its chief editor Alexander Malkevich, an avowed Trump fan, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Influence readers? Every media wants to do that. ... and so what?" He acknowledged that Russian-American relations are unlikely to improve quickly no matter the outcome Tuesday - and expressed interest in the 2020 U.S. presidential race. Malkevich also assails what he calls the myth of American democracy. That's one more way that alleged Russian manipulation of U.S. social media serves the Kremlin's interests: By discrediting Western democracy, that strengthens Putin's argument to his own voters that his authoritarian model of governance is best. "The growing confrontation with the West and a focus on it on national television channels probably helped consolidate this effect of a fortress under siege," one of Putin's metaphors for modern Russia, Lipman said. "And pledging allegiance to the leader is a matter not only of loyalty but even of national security and national identity. " Many of the Russians accused of interference in the 2016 U.S. campaign have moved underground or moved on. Some shut down their social media presence. Some have changed jobs. One of the indicted troll factory workers, Sergei Polozov, announced on the Russian social network VKontakte that he was "using his notoriety for a good cause" and had persuaded Russian censors to block four Ukrainian news sites. He vowed to continue fighting those who "try to drag Russia through the mud" and thanked "those who want to join me in the fight against informational enemies." The troll factory, meanwhile, has moved to bigger offices in St. Petersburg, just 2.5 kilometers (a mile and a half) across town. ___ Associated Press writer Iuliia Subbotovska in Moscow contributed to this report. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the name of the Russian body is the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies. In this handout photo taken from the Federal News Agency website on Monday, Oct. 22, 2018, Elena Khusyaynova, an accountant poses for a photo. As Americans prepare for another election, Russian troublemakers appear to laboring afresh to divide U.S. voters and discredit democracy, and perhaps even sway the outcome. The first person charged with foreign interference in the 2018 midterms, Elena Khusyaynova, said "my heart filled with pride" at the accusation. Speaking last week on Russian TV after being indicted for a covert social media campaign for both the 2016 and 2018 votes, she added, "It turns out that a simple Russian woman could help citizens of a superpower elect their president." (Federal News Agency via AP) FILE - In this Monday, July 16, 2018, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the beginning of a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland. As Americans prepare for another election, Russian troublemakers appear to laboring afresh to divide U.S. voters and discredit democracy, and perhaps even sway the outcome. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Honda Motor posts a year-on-year (YoY) sales growth of 3.1% with 138,666 vehicles delivered in China last month, according to the sales data released by Honda China. For the first ten months, the Japanese automaker sold 1,103,670 vehicles in this country, which was 5.8% less than that of the previous year. In October, GAC Honda came across a YoY drop of 4.2% with its sales totaling 67,285 units. The sales of Honda branded cars reached 66,358 units, falling 3.3% over a year ago. Over half models witnessed YoY drop in monthly sales. Especially, the sales of the VEZEL, one of the three models whose October sales exceeding 10,000 units, slid 14.3% from the previous year. However, the Accord and the Fit, the other two models with 10,000 units-plus monthly sales, had YoY sales jump of 34.4% and 29.3% respectively. Although the sales of the MDX and the RDX skyrocketed 133.3% and 246.7% from the year-ago period respectively, their absolutely small sales quantity failed to offset the sharp drop made by the CDX, thus the total sales of the Acura brand still faced a substantial YoY drop of 43.4%. After suffering YoY decline in monthly sales for 8 consecutive months since the CR-V engine issue was broke out, Dongfeng Honda achieved an evident YoY growth of 11.2% with 71,381 vehicles handed over last month. It is noteworthy that the INSPIRE all-new sedan, who hit the market on October 25, has had a sales volume of 51 units. We shall wait to see how it performs on market in the future. Washington has vowed to impose the "toughest" sanctions ever against Tehran starting November 5, 2018 after withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal earlier in the year. At the same time, the US revealed eight states that would be allowed to do business with Iran for a certain period of time. The US imposed sanctions on a number of Iranian entities and individuals on November 5, following Washington's exit from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but offered waivers to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. "We have decided to issue temporary allotments to specific circumstances to a handful of countries responsible for specific circumstances and to ensure a well-supplied oil market," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, Sputnik reported. Namely, US Treasury has announced that some 50 Iranian banks and their subsidiaries abroad, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and 23 of its subsidiaries, as well as 200 individuals and ships in the country's shipping and energy industries, have fallen under the effect of sanctions. Moreover, the US has imposed sanctions against "Iran Air," the country's largest carrier and over 65 of its aircraft. Overall, some 700 individuals and entities have been affected by the new US sanctions. "Today, in its largest ever single-day action targeting the Iranian regime, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned more than 700 individuals, entities, aircraft, and vessels," the official statement said. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that 20 countries have reduced their oil imports from Iran, cutting Tehran's exports by 1 million barrels. He also revealed that three civilian nuclear energy projects in Iran would be spared US sanctions, including the Bushehr power plant. Pompeo promised to provide more details on the list later. LONDON (AP) - Jeremy Heywood, a powerful government adviser who ran Britain's civil service until illness forced him to step down, has died of cancer, the government said Sunday. He was 56. Prime Minister Theresa May said Heywood, who died early Sunday, "worked tirelessly to serve our country." She called his death "a huge loss to British public life." As Cabinet secretary since 2012, Heywood oversaw Britain's government bureaucracy and was responsible of putting ministers' plans into action. That made him an influential though little known figure outside the Whitehall government district. He had previously been principal private secretary to Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, chief of staff to Blair's successor Gordon Brown and Downing St. permanent secretary under Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. Brown said Heywood "was a unique civil servant who may not always have agreed with proposals from ministers but always had a positive and often better alternative to offer." Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said Heywood had advised politicians of right and left, and "none of us had the faintest idea what his politics were. He was just the perfect civil servant." FILE - In this May 4, 2012 file photo, Jeremy Heywood, permanent secretary at No 10 and Cabinet Secretary, shows his Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. The British government says Jeremy Heywood, who ran the country's civil service until illness forced him to step down, has died of cancer, early Sunday Nov. 4, 2018. He was 56. (John Stillwell/PA via AP, File) The government announced Oct. 24 that Heywood was retiring to fight his illness and granted him the title Lord Heywood of Whitehall. LONDON (AP) - Prime Minister Theresa May's office on Sunday dismissed as speculation reports that Britain and the European Union were close to striking a divorce deal after reaching a compromise on the intractable issue of the Irish border. Downing Street said "negotiations are ongoing" and that a Sunday Times report claiming a proposed agreement had been reached on future customs arrangements at the Ireland-Northern Ireland border was "speculation." However, U.K. and EU officials have said in recent days that a deal is getting closer and could be sealed this month. May's deputy, David Lidington, said Friday that negotiators were "very close" to an agreement. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney said "I think it is possible to get a deal in November." Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, but London and Brussels have not reached an agreement on their divorce terms and a smooth transition to a new relationship. The stalemate has heightened fears that the U.K. might leave without a deal in place, leading to chaos at ports and economic turmoil. An October EU summit that had been billed as the deadline for a breakthrough ended with the talks still deadlocked. Leave campaigner and businessman Arron Banks, centre, speaks to the media outside BBC Broadcasting House in London, after appearing on the Andrew Marr show, in London, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Britain's National Crime Agency is investigating a main financial backer of the campaign to get Britain out of the European Union over suspected illegal funding during the country's EU membership referendum, authorities said Thursday. (Victoria Jones/PA via AP) The key obstacle is the Irish border, which will be the U.K.'s only land frontier with the EU after Brexit. Britain and the EU agree there must be no customs posts or other barriers that could disrupt businesses and residents on either side or undermine Northern Ireland's hard-won peace process. But the two sides have not agreed on how to do that. Britain rejected the EU's proposal - to keep Northern Ireland in a customs union with the bloc - because it would impose new customs and regulatory checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. According to the Sunday Times, a proposed solution would keep all the U.K. in a customs union - but with an exit clause to mollify pro-Brexit British lawmakers who worry the U.K. will be bound to the EU forever. May faces a battle to get a deal approved by her Cabinet - which is split between supporters of a clean break with the EU and those who want to keep close economic ties to the bloc - and past an equally divided Parliament. May has already lost two top ministers, Boris Johnson and David Davis, over her Brexit blueprint. Others could follow in a bid to make her change course. And pro-Brexit Conservative lawmakers have openly mulled attempting to oust May with a no-confidence vote and a party leadership contest. So far, the prime minister has stood her ground and her opponents have blinked. With the clock ticking, opponents of Brexit are stepping up efforts to secure a new referendum on whether to accept any deal agreed between Britain and the bloc. Britain voted in 2016 to leave the EU, but some argue the public should get a second chance to decide once the shape of the U.K.'s future relations with the bloc is clear. More than 70 British business leaders signed a letter published Sunday urging a second vote, arguing that the conditions proposed by the government for associating with the EU after Brexit are "not nearly as good as the current deal we have inside the EU." Signatories included James Daunt, chief executive of the Waterstones book store chain, former Sainsbury's supermarket CEO Justin King and Martha Lane-Fox, founder of Lastminute.com. Meanwhile, one of the main funders of the successful pro-Brexit side in the 2016 referendum is facing a criminal investigation. The National Crime Agency is investigating insurance tycoon Arron Banks after electoral officials alleged that 8 million pounds ($10.4 million) he funneled to a pro-Brexit group might have come from outside the U.K., in violation of election laws. A British parliamentary committee is also investigating Banks' role in the referendum and his meetings with Russian officials. Banks denied wrongdoing Sunday, accusing anti-Brexit politicians and journalists of pursuing a "witch-hunt" against him. "The money came from a U.K.-registered company ... generated from businesses in the U.K.," Banks told the BBC. "There was no Russian money and no interference of any type," he said. Leave campaigner and businessman Arron Banks speaks to the media outside BBC Broadcasting House in London, after appearing on the Andrew Marr show, in London, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Britain's National Crime Agency is investigating a main financial backer of the campaign to get Britain out of the European Union over suspected illegal funding during the country's EU membership referendum, authorities said Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018. (Victoria Jones/PA via AP) WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Polish health officials are calling on people to vaccinate themselves and their children after measles cases were reported in the region around Warsaw. Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski said 17 recent measles cases in the Mazovia Province all resulted from parents failing to get their children vaccinated. The Polish cases come as the World Health Organization has reported tens of thousands of measles cases across Europe. At a news conference on Sunday, Szumowski and other health officials stressed that measles vaccinations are safe. Measles is a highly contagious disease and WHO says it is one of the leading causes of death worldwide in young children. It's easily prevented with a vaccine. As Americans prepare for another election, Russian troublemakers have again tried to divide U.S. voters and discredit democracy. The activity appears focused on abuse of social media, through American-looking posts and sites, instead of big cyberattacks or disrupting voting systems. So far, it's more modest than the influence campaign Russia is accused of carrying out in 2016, and Russia is not alone - it's just one source of online manipulation ahead of Tuesday's election. Russia denies interference, and may not be able to affect the outcome anyway, but has reason to be interested in the election result. U.S. officials and tech companies are trying to improve election security and fight disinformation campaigns online. Here's what they say the Russians have been up to: ___ FUNDING TROLLS FILE - In this Monday, July 16, 2018, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the beginning of a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland. As Americans prepare for another election, Russian troublemakers appear to laboring afresh to divide U.S. voters and discredit democracy, and perhaps even sway the outcome. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) One Russian has been charged so far by U.S. officials of interference in 2018 election campaign: Elena Khusyaynova, a bookkeeper with the Internet Research Agency, the "troll factory" accused of manipulating the 2016 U.S. campaign. Khusyaynova is accused of a covert social media campaign for both the 2016 and 2018 votes in the United States. The criminal complaint says she began buying social media ads in 2015, including on Facebook and Instagram, and spent on internet services including VPNs, which help mask online activity. Khusyaynova also purchased social media analytics products, which gauge the performance of online postings, and paid bloggers and U.S.-based activists. The proposed operating budget she oversaw was more than $35 million from January 2016 through June 2018 - including $10 million for the first half of this year, the complaint says. It is unclear how many Americans saw postings financed by Khusyaynova's activity. ___ FAUX-AMERICAN SITES The Russian troll factory's owners, the Federal News Agency, registered three domain names in April aimed at the U.S. market, according to the SPARK-Interfax database. The websites all lead readers to a site called USAReally, aimed at showing American audiences news that has been "hushed up" by the mainstream media. Its Russian roots aren't hard to find. Its Russian chief editor, Alexander Malkevich, is openly critical of Democrats and says "America won" when Donald Trump became president. Its readership remains small, in the tens of thousands, which Malkevich blames on "censorship" by Facebook and Twitter. It is trying to amplify its voice via links on other media. In recent days, its focus has been on the migrant caravan weaving through Latin America, on tight congressional races - and on an effort to recruit Megyn Kelly, whose show on NBC was canceled amid controversy over her comments on blackface Halloween costumes. ___ TRICKY TWEETS Even after the February indictment by U.S. authorities of a dozen Russians linked to the Internet Research Agency, it continued to work on tricking U.S. audiences - including seeking to mobilize activists to participate in street demonstrations. Twitter last month released millions of tweets and other content targeting Americans that it said came from the IRA, both from the 2016 race and continuing through the summer of 2018, well into the U.S. midterm campaign. Examples of tweets include those from the account @TEN_GOP, which pretended to be Tennessee's Republican party, and posted a photo of then-FBI Director James Comey with the words "resign now." It's unclear how many people saw the content, which is no longer available on Twitter itself. In August, Facebook and security firm FireEye revealed influence campaigns on the social network originating in Russia and Iran. Experts say Russia's alleged actions in the 2016 U.S. election may have encouraged Iran to follow suit. ___ PROBING CANDIDATES Microsoft executives said recently that the company had detected attempts by Russia's GRU military intelligence agency to hack into the campaigns of two senators, and disabled Russian-launched websites disguised as U.S. think tanks and Senate sites. One attempt involved Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who is seeking re-election in a state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016. Microsoft identified an attempt to steal the password of at least one McCaskill staffer through a fake Senate login website, in the most notable instance of attempted campaign meddling by Russia made public this year. It's not clear whether Russians are again targeting U.S. voting systems. U.S. officials have said that before the 2016 general election, Russian agents probed at least 21 state election systems. ___ AP cybersecurity writer Frank Bajak in Boston and Iuliia Subbotovska in Moscow contributed. FILE - This Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018 file photo shows a business center building known as the "troll factory", an Internet Research Agency, one of a web of companies allegedly controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has reported ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in St. Petersburg, Russia . As Americans prepare for another election, Russian troublemakers appear to laboring afresh to divide U.S. voters and discredit democracy, and perhaps even sway the outcome. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File) In this handout photo taken from the Federal News Agency website on Monday, Oct. 22, 2018, Elena Khusyaynova, an accountant poses for a photo. As Americans prepare for another election, Russian troublemakers appear to laboring afresh to divide U.S. voters and discredit democracy, and perhaps even sway the outcome. The first person charged with foreign interference in the 2018 midterms, Elena Khusyaynova, said "my heart filled with pride" at the accusation. Speaking last week on Russian TV after being indicted for a covert social media campaign for both the 2016 and 2018 votes, she added, "It turns out that a simple Russian woman could help citizens of a superpower elect their president." (Federal News Agency via AP) CAIRO (AP) - An Egyptian rights group which has supported victims of alleged police torture and forced disappearances says it is halting operations amid a sweeping government crackdown. The Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms said Sunday that another member, lawyer Mohamed Horira, was arrested last week. Horira is married to Aisha Khairat el-Shater, the daughter of an imprisoned senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood. She was also arrested last week. Authorities have arrested thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members since the 2013 military overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, who had been a prominent member of the Islamist group. The leaders of the rights group, lawyers Ezzat Ghoneim and Azzoz Mahgoub, were forcibly disappeared and later charged with plotting against the government. They remain in detention despite a court ordering their release. SANAA, Yemen (AP) - Fighting has escalated around Yemen's key port city of Hodeida, with more than 150 combatants killed over the weekend from both the rebel and government-backed sides, officials said Sunday. Airstrikes and naval artillery pounded rebel positions around the Red Sea coastal city, where government backed-troops are launching a major ground assault to try to wrest it from dug-in rebels. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The rebels, known as Houthis, said they repelled the latest offensive on Hodeida, killing or wounding 215 troops, but did not provide a breakdown. They said they destroyed 20 armored vehicles over the past 24 hours. Fierce fighting also erupted in the provinces of Bayda, to the south, and Saada, a Houthi stronghold in the north, they added. The offensive came despite recent calls by the Trump administration for a cease-fire by late November. Yemen has been at war since March 2015 when the Houthis occupied northern regions and forced the government into exile. Since then, a Saudi-led, U.S.-backed coalition supporting the largely exiled government has blockaded the rebel-held north and waged a devastating air campaign, causing thousands of deaths. The U.S. has sold billions of dollars' worth of arms to Saudi Arabia and provides logistical and other support to the coalition. FILE - In this Aug. 25, 2018 file image made from video, a severely malnourished seven-year-old Amal Hussein - whose name means "hope" in Arabic, is weighed at the Aslam Health Center in Hajjah, Yemen. On Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, Geert Cappelaere called the situation a "living hell" for all Yemeni children, noting the death of Amal a child whose emaciated body gained attention on the front page of the New York Times last week. In a speech delivered in Amman Cappelaere said, "There is not one Amal - there are many thousands of Amals." (AP Photo/Hammadi Issa, File) The coalition accuses the Houthis of acting as Iran's proxy. The war has led to one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Three-quarters of Yemen's people require life-saving assistance, according to the U.N. Population Fund. An estimated 10,000 people have been killed and more than 8 million are at risk of starvation from a looming famine. The regional director of the U.N. children's agency, Geert Cappelaere, said the warring sides in Yemen make it difficult to deliver and distribute humanitarian aid to the country. He said the situation is a "living hell" for all Yemeni children, singling out the death last week of 7-year-old Amal Hussein who had suffered from severe malnutrition. "Unfortunately, Amal is not the only Yemeni child suffering that fate," he told a news conference in Amman, Jordan. "Thirty thousand children in Yemen die every single year of malnutrition as one of the most important underlying causes. There is not one Amal - there are many thousands of Amals." The Associated Press had photographed Amal - whose name means "hope" in Arabic - in August. A photograph of the emaciated child with a protruding rib cage and stick-like arms also appeared recently on the front page of The New York Times. Medics say her death was the result of insufficient medical care as supplies dwindle and many people like Amal live far from treatment centers. Mariam Ali, Amal's mother, told the AP on Sunday that she had been walking on foot under the rain for over an hour to reach a health center when her daughter died in the middle of the road lasts week. "I collapsed and only woke up to find myself home surrounded by neighbors who wrapped me in a blanket while my husband took Amal away," Mariam said. She has six children who have suffered bouts of vomiting and diarrhea but recovered, whereas while Amal was sick for four years before she passed away. Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz is an industry leader in financial literacy. A seasoned financial planner, she is senior vice president of Charles Schwab & Co., the company her father founded in 1971. Schwab-Pomerantz has advised two White House administrations and is the author of multiple personal finance books. Schwab-Pomerantz recently spoke to The Associated Press about financial literacy, gender parity and the importance of having a financial plan. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. Q: Financial literacy has been a part of your entire life. What made you so passionate about it? A: I've been working for Schwab since I was 16. The company was basically a startup at that time. (My father) built the company on democratizing investing and creating more accessibility for everyday Americans. They say apples don't fall far from the tree, so I guess that my whole career has been about democratizing investing and making it more accessible for those not well-served by our industry. Growing up, my father - before Schwab - was a struggling businessman. He had several ventures that didn't pan out. And when I was young my parents divorced. My mom was Stanford Phi Beta Kappa - my parents met at Stanford - but she was definitely a woman of the time. And with my dad struggling and the divorce I think it had an impression on me about women's financial empowerment. Women really (need) to be engaged in their finances and independent. I've been fortunate to learn about investing and saving at an early age and see the benefit of that. This undated photo provided courtesy of Schwab shows Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, who is an industry leader in financial literacy. A seasoned financial planner, she is senior vice president of Charles Schwab & Co., the company her father founded in 1971. Schwab-Pomerantz has advised two White House administrations and is the author of multiple personal finance books. (Courtesy of Schwab via AP) Q: You mentioned underserved populations, are there groups that should be taking better steps with their money, or who lack information? A: I have been working on this for 30-plus years and along with my colleagues have created financial literacy programs for women, for inner city kids, for working poor over 50 - everyday Americans. And I'm talking to our clients from rich to poor. What I have concluded is that the lack of financial literacy cuts across Americans from all walks of life. It is blind to economic status, gender and age. Our latest research found there was some positive news: women's attitudes and aspirations are in the right place. Unfortunately, cultural habits and society still get in the way of women having economic parity and that is discouraging. Q: How can that change? A: I think it is one thing where we all need to come together. (Financial education) can be embedded in school curriculums. And in the public sector, the government has a bully pulpit. And nonprofits - we have a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club. I think together we can all start to make the change. The bottom line is a lot of these issues start at home- how we talk about money. The gender gap starts at early ages so we've got to be talking to daughters the same way as sons. Also, it's about creating a culture that it is our personal responsibility to be engaged in our finances. Q: What is the biggest hurdle for folks wanting to take control of their money? A: It's about making a plan for getting there. That intentional act of focusing on your finances can make such a difference. It's also about being scrappy - you've got to know what you are spending your money on, where you are spending your money and where can you cut. You just have to be a little more disciplined sometimes. If you have aspirational goals you are more likely to be motivated. I think people think it is scarier than it really is. Q: I understand even you get professional financial advice? A: I recently revealed this. I always did it on my own and it wasn't until my 40s that I got outside help. I was flying all over the country. I had three kids, a husband and a big commute. I couldn't do it all on my own. I went into a Schwab program and we met on a quarterly basis and I did the work. Using an adviser felt kind of like a personal trainer. It creates more accountability. I meet with them on a regular basis and I learn from that person and I get better results. Q: What do you suggest for starting education with children? A: I did start early and I had a little system. When my kids were young - 5 years old or so - I gave them an allowance, not very much. And that was the beginning of them experiencing money and putting value on it. I remember my middle child pleading to get Pokemon cards and I was tempted to buy them and move on. But I said 'You have an allowance, why don't you get them for yourself.' He thought about it and thought about it and said 'I think I'll pass.' He decided his money was more valuable than mine. Learning the value of money early and making choices is important. When it came to investing, I made them come to the Schwab office and fill out paperwork. I could have done it for them but I wanted them to experience working with a financial institution. It can be intimidating for a lot of people. And when the kids got jobs I opened up a custodian Roth IRA where they started saving. Q: Anything else we should know? A: Learning about finances isn't a one-point-in-time thing, it's a lifelong pursuit. Life changes and therefore your goals change. PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - The battle over who will represent Maine in the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi River is the most expensive political race in state history, leading to more television campaign ads than any other state and underscoring millions of dollars of so-called "dark money" pouring into the race. That boils down to a rate of 26 commercials per hour, or about one every two minutes, according to the Wesleyan Media Project. But whether those never-ending ads fueling the Democrat and Republican duking it out in Maine's 2nd Congressional District will sway voters is unclear with a few days to go before the state's Tuesday election. "There are a ton of ads. It's pretty shocking how many ads there are," said John Hafford, a business owner in Medway. "One of the things I'm most alarmed with is how negative it's become. It's getting pretty rough out there." The U.S. House race in the 2nd District, which covers most of the state and is overwhelmingly rural, has already broken records to become the most expensive in the state's history, with over $12 million in spending by outside groups so far. That includes $2.3 million spent by liberal Patriot Majority USA, a nonprofit that doesn't have to disclose who funded its ads against Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin. The congressman has tried to use misgivings about such spending to his advantage and argues that Democrats who have long railed about big money in politics are playing the same games. FILE - This combination of photos show U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin in 2017, left, and state Rep. Jared Golden in 2018, right, in Maine. Golden is challenging Poliquin for the 2nd District Congressional seat in the November 2018 general election. The battle over who will represent Maine in the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi River is the most expensive political race in state history. (AP Photos/Robert F. Bukaty, File) "There's millions and millions of dollars pouring into this race from Nancy Pelosi, the extreme radical from San Francisco, or Maxine Waters. All this dark money," Poliquin said, in a recent campaign ad. His challenger, Democratic state Rep. Jared Golden, who has decried dark money and distanced himself from Pelosi, recently vowed to require such groups to disclose their donors. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC linked to House Speaker Paul Ryan and funded partly by untraceable money, has spent $3 million to oppose Golden. "A huge amount of money is going into that race. That tells you how close the race is, how important the race is, not just in Maine but nationally," said Mark Brewer, a political scientist at the University of Maine. Meanwhile, at the state level, Democrats boosted by hard-to-trace money still have the spending advantage over Republicans with a few days to go before Election Day. National liberal groups like the Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee have contributed heavily in Maine, partly in hopes of gain influence in redistricting following the 2020 census in Maine. Democrats - who currently boast just 13 governors - also hope to win the governor's mansion and the state Senate, which Republicans currently control 18-17. State campaign finance records show $9.6 million has been spent to boost Democratic candidates for state office, compared with $3.6 million spent helping Republicans. At least $1.6 million in contributions to Maine races this year comes directly from groups that don't have to disclose their donors, including the League of Conservation Voters and Planned Parenthood's advocacy arm. Democrats have outspent Republicans in Maine in recent years, and that hasn't always meant victory. While polling suggests frustration among some Mainers toward President Trump and outgoing GOP Gov. Paul LePage, the increasingly polarized state's vast 2nd Congressional District gave a historic single electoral vote to Trump in 2016. In 2014, outside spending totaled $14.6 million in Maine state-level races. That year, $4.7 million was spent boosting Republican candidates, compared with $9.9 million on Democrats. ___ Associated Press writer David Sharp contributed to this report. COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka's president issued an order Sunday for Parliament to reconvene on Nov. 14, when lawmakers will get the chance to hold a confidence vote on the nation's former strongman who has been named prime minister. The announcement made in a decree comes amid a political crisis in the South Asian island nation sparked when President Maithripala Sirisena dismissed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa last month. Sirisena suspended Parliament in an apparent attempt to give Rajapaksa time to muster support to survive any no-confidence vote. Political opponents, rights groups and foreign governments including the United States and European Union have urged Sirisena to summon Parliament immediately and end the crisis. Thousands of Sri Lankans also protested in the capital in the past week demanding Sirisena immediately convene Parliament. Sirisena's moves have triggered a power struggle that some observers have called a constitutional crisis. Since his ouster, Wickremesinghe has remained at Temple Trees, the official residence of the prime minister - insisting he is still the legitimate leader because he commands majority support in Parliament. Sri Lankan civil rights activists hold placards during a demonstration outside the official residence of ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Nov 4, 2018. Ousted Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Friday there is credible evidence that his replacement is attempting to buy support in Parliament ahead of an expected vote of confidence when it reconvenes. ( AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana) Wickremesinghe said in an interview with The Associated Press that there is credible evidence that Rajapaksa's party is attempting to buy support in Parliament. Palitha Range Bandara, a United National Party lawmaker, has said that he was offered millions of dollars and a minister portfolio if he crossed over. Lawmakers from Rajapaksa's party have denied the allegations. However, seven members from Wickremesinghe's United National Front have defected to Rajapaksa's government. On Saturday, the Tamil National Alliance -an ethnic minority Tamil party- said that it will support a no-confidence motion to be brought against Rajapaksa, after one lawmaker from their party joined Rajapaksa's government. The Tamil party's 15 votes could give Wickremesinghe's camp a decisive edge over Rajapaksa. Some 120 lawmakers were expected by Sunday to support a no-confidence vote against Rajapaksa, according to AP count. After sacking Wickremesinghe, Sirisena announced that he made the replacement in part because Wickremesinghe and a Cabinet colleague were behind an alleged assassination plot against him. Details of the alleged plot have not been disclosed and Wickremesinghe has repeatedly denied the accusation. Tensions had been building between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe for some time, as the president did not approve of economic reforms introduced by the prime minister. Sirisena was also critical of investigations into military personnel accused of human rights violations during Sri Lanka's long civil war, which ended in 2009. Rajapaksa is credited as a hero by Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese majority for ending the conflict. NORTH OGDEN, Utah (AP) - The Latest on a Utah city mayor killed during an attack in Afghanistan while he was serving with the state's National Guard (all times local): 2 p.m. The remains of Utah mayor who was also a major in the Utah Army National Guard and killed in Afghanistan are scheduled to arrive Monday evening at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Authorities say funeral plans still are pending for 39-year-old Brent Taylor. Officials say he was training commandos in Afghanistan and died when a member of the Afghan security forces shot him on Saturday. Taylor had taken a yearlong leave of absence from his job as the mayor of the Utah city of North Ogden for his deployment to Afghanistan. Soldiers attend a news conference where Gov. Gary R. Herbert and Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton address the media Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Draper, Utah. Military officials say a major in Utah's Army National Guard who was also the mayor of a city north of Salt Lake City was killed in Afghanistan after being shot by a member of the Afghan security forces. They say North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor was in the country to train Afghan commandos and was shot Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, by one of the trainees at the Kabul military training center. The attacker was then killed by Afghan forces. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune, via AP) He was a military intelligence officer with Joint Force Headquarters and was expected to return to his mayor's job in January. Taylor leaves behind a wife and seven children. ____ 12:45 p.m. Military officials say a major in Utah's Army National Guard who was also the mayor of a city north of Salt Lake City was killed in Afghanistan after being shot by a member of the Afghan security forces. They say Brent Taylor was in the country to train Afghan commandos and was shot Saturday by one of the trainees at the Kabul military training center. The attacker was then killed by Afghan forces. U.S. military officials say another military member whose name has not been made public was wounded during the attack. The 39-year-old Taylor was on a one-year leave of absence from his job as mayor of North Ogden for his deployment to Afghanistan. He was scheduled to return in January. Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton, the adjutant general of the Utah National Guard, told reporters Sunday that Taylor's mission was to help train and build the capacity of the Afghan national army. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert says Taylor loved the people of Afghanistan and was there to help. __ 8:30 a.m. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert says he is heartbroken the death of North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor during an attack in Afghanistan while he was serving with the state's National Guard. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Taylor died Saturday in an apparent "insider attack" in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Herbert in a statement says Taylor gave "the ultimate sacrifice" and was a "brave and selfless soldier." U.S. military officials say another service member whose name hasn't been released is being treated for wounds sustained in the attack. Additional information is scheduled to be released later Sunday at a news conference with Herbert and Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton, the adjutant general of the Utah National Guard. The 39-year-old Taylor deployed to Afghanistan in January with the Guard for what was expected to be a 12-month tour of duty. He previously served two tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. Taylor in 2013 became mayor of North Ogden, a city of about 17,000 people 46 miles (74 kilometers) north of Salt Lake City. ____ 1 a.m. Authorities say the mayor of a Utah city has been killed during an attack in Afghanistan while he was serving with the state's National Guard. North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor died Saturday in an apparent "insider attack" in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. U.S. military officials say another U.S. service member whose name hasn't been released is being treated for wounds sustained in the attack. But Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer J. Cox wrote on his Facebook page that Taylor has been killed. The 39-year-old Taylor was deployed to Afghanistan in January with the Utah National Guard for what was expected to be a 12-month tour of duty. He previously served two tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. Taylor in 2013 became mayor of North Ogden, a city of about 17,000 people 46 miles (74 kilometers) north of Salt Lake City. Gov. Gary Herbert speaks during a news conference Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Draper, Utah. Military officials say a major in Utah's Army National Guard who was also the mayor of a city north of Salt Lake City was killed in Afghanistan after being shot by a member of the Afghan security forces. They say North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor was in the country to train Afghan commandos and was shot Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, by one of the trainees at the Kabul military training center. The attacker was then killed by Afghan forces. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune, via AP) Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton, center, address the media on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Draper, Utah. Military officials say a major in Utah's Army National Guard who was also the mayor of a city north of Salt Lake City was killed in Afghanistan after being shot by a member of the Afghan security forces. They say North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor was in the country to train Afghan commandos and was shot Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, by one of the trainees at the Kabul military training center. The attacker was then killed by Afghan forces. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune, via AP) The Fallen Soldier Tribute is shown at the Utah Army National Guard Recruiting building Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Draper, Utah. Military officials say a major in Utah's Army National Guard who was also the mayor of a city north of Salt Lake City was killed in Afghanistan after being shot by a member of the Afghan security forces. They say North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor was in the country to train Afghan commandos and was shot Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, by one of the trainees at the Kabul military training center. The attacker was then killed by Afghan forces. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune, via AP) Gov. Gary Herbert addresses the media on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Draper, Utah. Military officials say a major in Utah's Army National Guard who was also the mayor of a city north of Salt Lake City was killed in Afghanistan after being shot by a member of the Afghan security forces. They say North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor was in the country to train Afghan commandos and was shot Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, by one of the trainees at the Kabul military training center. The attacker was then killed by Afghan forces. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune, via AP) An explosion was reported in Hatikva Quarter in Israel's Tel Aviv on Sunday night. Two cars went up in flames, the local police said. The bodies of two men in their thirties were extricated from one car and their deaths were pronounced at the scene, according to initial reports from Magen David Adom. One person was lightly injured and was evacuated to the hospital. The police have determined that the explosion was of a criminal nature. The men who were killed are known to the police and it is suspected that they were deliberately targeted as part of a gang war, the Jerusalem Post reported. JERUSALEM (AP) - President Donald Trump's recent assertion that U.S. troops should respond to rock-throwing migrants - a hypothetical scenario - as if they were armed has sparked a debate about the appropriate use of force. Nigerian troops swiftly used Trump's comments about the migrants as justification for a deadly crackdown on demonstrators over the weekend. From the Gaza Strip to Africa and Europe, security forces have faced stone throwers in very different ways, from firing live rounds to limiting themselves to non-lethal means. A 1990 U.N. document calls on law enforcement officials to show maximum restraint and to use firearms only in cases in which an "imminent threat of death or serious injury" is identified. These standards have been interpreted differently around the world. Last week, Trump called attention to a migrant caravan of several thousand Central Americans making their way toward the U.S. border. It is a largely peaceful procession, though some migrants in one caravan clashed with Mexico police, hurling stones. FILE -- In this Oct. 2, 2018 file photo, a Palestinian protester from Birzeit University throws stones during clashes with Israeli troops near the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. President Donald Trump's assertion that stones thrown by Latin American protesters at American troops should be treated as "rifles" has sparked debate about the appropriate response to rock throwing crowds -- particularly after Nigerian troops appeared to use his comments as justification for a deadly crackdown on demonstrators. From the Gaza Strip to Africa to Europe, security forces have long dealt with stone throwers, albeit in very different ways. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File) Although the caravan is still some 1,200 kilometers (800 miles) from the border, Trump has mobilized troops and declared that if U.S. soldiers face rock-throwing migrants, they should react as though the rocks were "rifles." Trump later said he was merely calling for the arrests of stone throwers. But following Trump's comments, Nigeria's military sent out a tweet that appeared to use his words as justification for shooting and killing Shiite protesters. It later removed the tweet. Omar Shakir, the Israel-Palestine director of the international group Human Rights Watch, said he fears Trump's comments could encourage other forces to loosen their rules of engagement. "Trump's brazen, inflammatory statements, days before U.S. midterm elections, have already been seized on by rights abusers to justify more expansive open fire standards," he said. Here is a look at how countries around the world respond to stone throwers. ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS: Israeli forces have been confronting Palestinian stone throwers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for decades. Israeli tactics have evolved over the years, particularly with the increased use of what are presented as non-lethal crowd-dispersal tools such as tear gas and rubber bullets. Israeli officials say that live fire is used only as a last resort, when soldiers' lives are threatened. But critics accuse Israel of unnecessarily, and perhaps illegally, using deadly force. In recent months, for instance, over 160 Palestinians have been killed during mass protests along Gaza's border with Israel. Many have been unarmed. Israel says threats go beyond stone throwing, and that protesters throw grenades and firebombs, or try to break through the border to attack Israeli civilians. David Tzur, a former commander of Israel's paramilitary Border Police, said non-lethal force is sufficient in most cases, but that troops could be justified using live fire in more chaotic situations, if a moving vehicle is pelted with stones in a tense locale, for instance. GREECE: In Greece, firebombs and stone-throwing are routine occurrences at anarchist demonstrations held on most weekends. Police typically respond with tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowds. In 2008, a policeman fired his gun at a group of youths in central Athens, killing a 15-year-old protester. The death sparked two weeks of riots in major cities across Greece, and the policeman was jailed for murder. MIGRANTS IN EUROPE: Migrants making their way to Europe have clashed with security forces in various countries. In Spain, migrants from Africa have on several occasions stormed across the border, assaulting police officers with acid, skin irritants and other objects. But police are not permitted to use live ammunition and have not even used rubber bullets against migrants since a much-criticized crackdown in 2014. Spanish police did use rubber bullets last year in clashes with Catalan separatists. Hungary, which takes one of the hardest lines against migrants, used only tear gas and water cannons in a major clash with migrants three years ago. One Syrian migrant, however, was sentenced to five years in prison on terrorism charges for entering the country illegally and throwing stones at police. KASHMIR: In Indian-administered Kashmir, a disputed territory divided between India and Pakistan, protesters have long viewed stone throwing as legitimate protest against Indian rule. India has often responded with tough measures, including live fire and metal pellets that have killed, maimed or blinded hundreds of people over the last decade. India says its troops are in life-threatening situations that justify the heavy use of force. Protesters caught throwing stones at soldiers and police - often identified through video recordings of demonstrations - are usually accused of attempting to murder government officials, a charge that carries long imprisonment. Many stone throwers have been shot dead by soldiers. Rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown. ___ Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain in Srinigar, India; Elena Becatoros in Athens; Thomas Adamson in Paris; Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary; Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, and Aron Heller in Jerusalem contributed to this report. WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's top diplomat doesn't seem fazed by North Korea's warning about possibly reasserting a policy of bolstering its nuclear arsenal unless the United States lifts economic sanctions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells "Fox News Sunday" that "we've seen this as we go through negotiations" aimed at denuclearization. He plans to meet this coming week in New York with a senior North Korean official. Pompeo says that "stray voltage happens to be all around us" but that the U.S. officials "know with whom we're negotiating" and "what their positions are." Pompeo says President Donald Trump has made it clear to the North Koreans - "no economic relief until we have achieved our ultimate objective." ROME (AP) - Italy's president lamented World War I's roots in "aggressive nationalism" and held up the European Union on Sunday as the "highest expression" of a commitment to common good needed to prevent catastrophic military conflicts. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the war, Italian head of state Sergio Mattaella also recalled Europe's history of anti-Semitism as he urged young people to remember the conflict's lessons while striving for peaceful coexistence. "To celebrate together the end of the war and to jointly honor the fallen - all the fallen - signifies to reiterate with force, all together, that over the path of war, we prefer to develop friendship and collaboration," Mattarella said at a ceremony in Trieste, a port city not far from some of the deadliest battles between Italian soldiers and troops of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. The event was part of a week of observances planned for the centenary of Armistice Day. More than 60 heads of state and government, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, are expected to attend an international ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on the Nov. 11 anniversary. French President Emmanuel Macron started a six-day tour of World War I battlegrounds Sunday night in the eastern French city of Strasbourg. Accompanying him were his wife, Brigitte, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. On Monday, Macron plans to attend a ceremony in memory of the soldiers who died early in the war, during the Battle of Morang in 1914. Frecce Tricolori (Three Colors Arrows) acrobatic squad of the Italian Air Force flies over the Vittoriano, background center, the unknown soldier monument, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI and Armed Forces Day, in Rome, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) In Trieste, Italy's president singled out the memory of a "simple soldier," Vittorio Calderoni, who died from his wounds at age 17 just after World War I ended. Calderoni was the son of Italians who had immigrated to Argentina, but he sailed to Europe to enlist in the army and fight for Italy. Mattarella said he chose to pay tribute to him "because Vittorio Calderoni was Jewish, the youngest of some 400 Italians of Jewish origin who died in the Great War." The president said he considered it his duty to note that in the same square where he spoke, late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini delivered a 1938 speech that ushered in "the dark and tragic" period of the Fascist regime's anti-Jewish laws. Mattarella encouraged young people to keep an "active" memory for the victims of wars as a way to consolidate freedom and harmony as "irreversible" choices for Europeans. In contrast, Mattarella said, the war demonstrated the "incapacity of the European ruling class" to pursue "national aspirations and interests in a peaceful" way and to thus surrender to "aggressive nationalism" and the desire for power. Rome is a founder of the European Union, the unity of which is being tested by rising nationalist sentiments in several member countries, including Italy, where a populist government took over in June. ___ Thomas Adamson in Paris and Luigi Navarra in Redipuglia, Italy, contributed to this report. ___ Frances D'Emilio is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio A woman holds a photo of New Zealand World War I soldier Vincent Stephensen prior to a World War I Centenary memorial service at the New Zealand Battlefield Memorial in Le Quesnoy, France, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo) Poppies on the cover of a church program are set on a bench prior to a World War I Centenary memorial service in Le Quesnoy, France, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo) New Zealand soldiers arrive for a WWI Centenary memorial service at the New Zealand Battlefield Memorial in Le Quesnoy, France, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo) Helen Pollock, from Auckland, New Zealand, prepares to lay a rose for her father, who served during World War I, during a World War I memorial service at the New Zealand Battlefield Memorial in Le Quesnoy, France, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo) Portuguese Army paratroopers participate in a military parade in Lisbon to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Some 4.500 soldiers took part in the parade. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) A Portuguese Army soldier in combat gear participates in a military parade in Lisbon to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I, Sunday, Nov. 4 2018. Some 4.500 soldiers took part in the parade. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) Portuguese Army veterans carrying their banners leave the stands after watching a military parade in Lisbon to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Some 4.500 soldiers took part in the parade. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) Portuguese Nacional Republican Guard dogs and their handlers participate in a military parade in Lisbon to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. Some 4.500 soldiers took part in the parade. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) Portuguese Air Force soldiers stand during the trumpet call commemorating those killed in war at a ceremony in Lisbon to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I, Sunday, Nov. 4 2018. The ceremony included a military parade of some 4.500 soldiers. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) WASHINGTON (AP) - For Democrats, the midterm elections have been a beacon in the dark, a chance to re-emerge from the political wilderness and repudiate a president they view as a dangerous force. But on the cusp of Tuesday's vote, many Democrats are as anxious as they are hopeful. Their memories from 2016, when they watched in disbelief as Donald Trump defied polls, expectations and political norms, are still fresh. And as Trump travels the country armed with a divisive and racially charged closing campaign message, the test for Democrats now feels at once similar and more urgent than it did two years ago: They failed to stop Trump then, what if they fall short again? "Part of what's at stake here is our ability to send a message that this is not who we are," said Karen Finney, a Democratic consultant who worked on Hillary Clinton's losing 2016 campaign. This year, history is on Democrats' side. The sitting president's party often losing ground in the first midterm after winning office, and for much of 2018, voter enthusiasm and polling has favored Democrats as well. Primary contests filled the Democratic roster with a new generation of candidates, including several minority candidates who could make history in their races. While the fight to regain control of the Senate, largely playing out in conservative states, may prove out of reach for Democrats, the party has been buoyed by its ability to run competitively in Republican-leaning states such as Texas and Tennessee. President Donald Trump looks to the crowd after speaking at a campaign rally at Pensacola International Airport, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Pensacola, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Democrats' focus is largely on snatching back the House and picking up governors' seats in Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere. The party is also seeking redemption in the Midwest where Trump won over white, working-class voters who had backed Democrats for years. In Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Democrats appear poised to regain ground. Such victories would build momentum behind the party's shift toward a new generation of candidates who are younger, more diverse, with greater numbers of women and more liberal than Democratic leadership. They would also signal that Trump's hard-line positions on immigration and his penchant for personal attacks turn off more voters than they energize. A good night for Democrats on Tuesday would provide a blueprint for how the party can successfully run against Trump in the 2020 presidential race. At least two dozen Democrats are waiting in the wings, eager to take on Trump. But the president has proved once again to be a powerful political force late in a campaign. Even with his daily airing of grievances on Twitter and an approval rate below the average for his recent predecessors at this point, he has almost single-handedly put Republicans in a stronger position this fall. He's aggressively appealed to his loyal, core supporters with a sharply anti-immigrant, nationalist message and by casting Democrats as outside the mainstream. "A vote for any Democrat this November is a vote to really put extreme far left politicians in charge of Congress and to destroy your jobs, slash your incomes, undermine your safety and put illegal aliens before American citizens," Trump said during a rally Saturday in Pensacola, Florida. If Republicans hang on to control of Congress, Trump will almost certainly be emboldened. Democrats would be left with difficult questions about a path forward. For example, how can Democrats assemble a winning coalition in 2020 if they fail to appeal to the moderate suburban voters who hold sway in the congressional districts that decide which party holds a House majority? And how will Democrats, if they fall short, sustain the energy from young people and women who have marched in protest of Trump, registered to vote and volunteered for the first time this election season. "I'm concerned that if the election is not what we hoped for that people will say, 'it's too hard' and become disengaged," said Jennifer Palmieri, who served as Clinton's communications director during the 2016 campaign. As Americans participated in early voting this weekend, that same anxiety was palpable among some voters. In Southern California, lifelong Democrat Theresa Hunter said she didn't take Trump seriously in 2016. But she sees a chance for Democrats to render their judgment on the president by pushing his party out of power in a different branch of government. "To see his party jump on board and march in lockstep is what's terrifying," said Hunter, a 65-year-old retired salesperson from Lake Forest, California. A few hours north, California voter Lawrence Reh was casting his ballot. Afterward, his voice quivered and he wiped back tears as he voiced frustrations about Trump and his worries about the direction of the country. "If we don't make any progress in this election, I don't know where we'll go from here," Reh said. ___ Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco and Amy Taxin in Lake Forest, California, contributed to this report. ___ EDITOR'S NOTE - Julie Pace has covered the White House and politics for the AP since 2007. Follow her at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics ___ This story has been corrected to reflect that the name of the California voter is Lawrence Reh, not Lawrence Roh, in the final two paragraphs. Former President Barack Obama and Democratic candidate for Georgia Governor Stacey Abrams pose for a photograph with two unidentified family members after a campaign rally at Morehouse College Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) Members of the U.S Army place razor wire for a temporary encampment for the troops near the U.S.-Mexico International bridge, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Donna, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Casey Mchone waits outside McKenzie Arena for a campaign rally with President Donald Trump Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Mchone arrived at the arena at 6:30 a.m. for the 7 p.m. rally. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - A battery of corruption allegations and criminal charges against former President Cristina Fernandez hasn't fazed a strong band of hard-core backers, who have helped make her a leading - if undeclared - contender to regain power in next year's elections. Hundreds of supporters, some waving signs saying, "Strength, Cristina!" thronged the street outside when investigators searched the former president's apartment recently. Cries of support for Fernandez rise from crowds during protests against the austerity policies of the conservative who replaced her as president, Mauricio Macri. "Now more than ever, soldiers of Cristina" read a sign at a demonstration demanding improved conditions for disabled retirees. "Many women voted for the government of Mauricio Macri and now they regret it," Teresa Rollano said while walking arm-in-arm with a friend who carried that sign. "The people want Cristina because she represents the working class. She has given us all of our rights." A recent survey by local pollster Ricardo Rouvier & Associates said Fernandez is neck-and-neck with Macri in terms of support ahead of the October 2019 election. In this Oct. 3, 2018 photo, Yenni Prieto poses for a photo holding an Argentine national flag designed with an image of former President Cristina Fernandez, during a demonstration demanding improved conditions for disabled retirees, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A battery of corruption allegations and criminal charges against former President Cristina Fernandez hasn't fazed a strong band of hard-core backers including Prieto, who have helped make her a leading, if undeclared, contender to regain power in next year's elections. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) That's remarkable backing for a politician who faces numerous formal investigations into alleged bribery, money laundering and criminal association during her own administration from 2007 to 2015 and that of her late husband Nestor Kirchner from 2003 to 2007. Fernandez, now a senator, hasn't been convicted of any crimes - a first trial is scheduled to start in February - and she fiercely denies any wrongdoing, accusing officials of persecuting her to distract from the current economic crisis. But the Argentine press has been filled with picturesque scandals: bags of millions of dollars in cash tossed over a convent wall, the mysterious death of a prosecutor who accused Fernandez of a cover-up, the corruption conviction of her former vice president. Part of her strength stems from disenchantment with Macri, whose budget-cutting efforts have forced thousands out of public jobs, raised electricity bills and hiked bus fares without managing to revive the economy or rein in soaring prices. His decision this year to seek IMF aid to help has roused fears among those who blame the international agency for a devastating economic crash in 2001, when Argentina's government was forced into the largest debt default in history to that point and millions of Argentines were plunged into poverty. Many credit Kirchner and Fernandez for leading the country out of that crisis, even if Macri's backers blame Fernandez's policies for eventually creating the country's current woes. Under Fernandez, "I was able to buy a new car, fix my house and travel on a plane for the first time," said Gloria Buffarini, a hairdresser. "I used to pay 600 pesos a month (about $16) for electricity. Now, it's 3,000 (about $80). Fernandez's supporters credit her for nationalizing the pension system, keeping energy cheap through subsidies and redirecting revenue to the poor through handouts, and see her as a trailblazer for women's advancement. The former president's appeal also flows from her leadership of a powerful - if often fragmented - populist tide in Argentine politics that originated with strongman Juan Domingo Peron in the 1940s and from progressive social policies she passed in the face of opposition from powerful business interests. But she also inspires deep animosity. Detractors blame her for endemic corruption and the deterioration of Argentina's economy, which was choked by restrictions on imports, exports and foreign currency exchanges in the latter part of her administration. "Not since Peron has there been another leader who has generated such a situation of love and hate," said Mariel Fornoni of the Management & Fit consultancy. She said Fernandez has a "hard core of followers who are going to vote for her no matter what she does." Fernandez infuriates people like Patricio Canbelari, a language teacher, who said, "Most want to see her arrested," and called her a "white-gloved thief." Fernandez's former public works secretary was arrested in 2016 when he was caught tossing bags containing more than $9 million over the walls of a convent. He later agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, joining other witnesses in accusing Fernandez and her son of overseeing a plan to skim millions of dollars from public works projects. Judges also are investigating allegations published by the newspaper La Nacion that a senior official's chauffeur kept detailed diaries of millions of dollars in cash payments, including some delivered to the presidential offices and to Fernandez's private home. Fernandez, along with other former officials, also faces trial on charges that she covered up the role of Iranians in a 1994 terrorist bombing at a Jewish center in Argentina's capital. The prosecutor who first recommended charges against her, Alberto Nisman, died mysteriously of a gunshot wound four days later - a case that is still under investigation. Fernandez's former vice president, Amado Boudou, is in prison, appealing a sentence for bribery and business incompatible with his public office. He was accused of using shell companies and middlemen to take over the only company with contracts to print Argentina's currency. Fernandez's Senate seat grants her immunity from arrest but not from prosecution. That immunity could be lifted only by an unlikely vote of two-thirds of the country's senators. While a conviction might theoretically bar her from running for office, that would only occur after appeals were exhausted - a process that would take many years. Fornoni said some Argentines believe that although corruption was rife during Fernandez's term, it exists in Macri's government as well. "They say: 'They were probably corrupt, but I lived better,'" Fornoni said. ___ Associated Press journalist Paul Byrne contributed to this report. In this Oct. 3, 2018 photo, Teresa Rollano, who is employed as a maid, holds up an a collage of former President Cristina Fernandez she keeps in a plastic protective sleeve, during a demonstration demanding improved conditions for disabled retirees, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "Many women voted in the government of Mauricio Macri and now they regret it," said Rollano, during the demonstration where protesters chanted, "Stay strong, Cristina" and held signs saying, "Now more than ever, soldiers of Cristina." (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) In this Oct. 3, 2018 photo, philosophy professor Juan Carlos Amarfil, 67, strikes a pose wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an image of former President Cristina Fernandez, as he holds a poster headlined, "Economic terrorist" next to an image of President Maurcio Macri, during a demonstration demanding improved conditions for disabled retirees, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Cries of support for Fernandez, who is now serving as a senator, continue to rise from crowds during protests against the austerity policies of Macri, the conservative who replaced her as leader of Argentina. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) In this Oct. 3, 2018 photo, philosophy professor Juan Carlos Amarfil, 67, poses with his backside to the camera to show the text on his T-shirt that reads in Spanish: "She stole my heart. Thank you for the most beautiful 12 years of my life, of my family's and my people," referring to former President Cristina Fernandez, during protests against the austerity policies of the current administration. Fernandez's supporters credit her for nationalizing the pension system, keeping energy cheap through subsidies and redirecting revenue to the poor through handouts. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) In this Oct. 6, 2018 photo, political scientist Maria Victoria Munne, 26, holds a ceramic doll depicting former President Cristina Fernandez, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "She granted many rights to all of society." says Munne about Fernandez. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) In this Oct. 6, 2018 photo, retiree Clara Schapiro, 75, poses for a picture backdropped by a wall emblazoned with a message that reads in Spanish: "With Cristina, you don't mess around," in reference to former President Cristina Fernandez, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "She helps the people, helps everyone, so you're touched by a person like that," says Schapiro. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) In this Oct. 3, 2018 photo, Lidia Benavidez poses wearing a crocheted headband in Argentina's national colors and embedded with the name "Cristina" in reference to former President Cristina Fernandez, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "Cristina means everything to me." says Benavides. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) In this Oct. 3, 2018 photo, Hector Franco poses holding two protest signs with messages that read in Spanish: "Stop the brutal cuts", left, and "Come back Cristina!" during a demonstration against the cut of disability payments, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "I'm in love with her!" says Franco. Part of her strength stems from disenchantment with President Mauricio Macri, whose budget-cutting efforts have forced thousands out of public jobs, raised electricity bills and hiked bus fares without managing to revive the economy or rein in soaring prices. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Dressed in black, white and purple, revelers in Haiti visit cemeteries during the country's annual Fete Gede, or the Festival of the Dead. The celebration of spirits, which is often held during the first two days of November, coincides with the Roman Catholic festivities of All Saints' Day. It's an intricate affair. During the festival, believers dress up as Gede spirits known as "Loas" and say they become possessed by those who hear their prayers and provide favors to members of their congregation. "The Gede spirit has manifested in my head for 30 years," says Atesi Auguste, who sells fried food in the streets of Cite Soleil, one of the most crowded, poorest and violent slums on the outskirts of the capital. Auguste and her husband, Raynold Alexandre, are well known voodoo priests in the slum, and three of their six children are priests, too. In this Nov. 1, 2018 photo, a human skull sits on top of Baron Samedi's tomb during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. With the faces covered with white-powder, wearing hats and black, white and purple clothes, voodoo believers in Haiti walk through the streets and visit the cemeteries along the country during the Fete Gede, a celebration of the spirits equivalent to the Roman Catholic festivity of the Day of All Saints. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Every year during the celebration, they paint their faces with white powder, wear special clothes and walk through the shantytown's narrow pathways to pay tribute to the spirits. They also drink and wash their faces, eyes and even genitals with a mixture of rum and hot chili peppers, and offer coffee, food, rum, music and dances to their deceased loved ones and Baron Samedi, the ruler of the graveyard. Among all the Loas, Baron Samedi is one of the most respected and is said to be the protector of children and last hope for the sick. He is often depicted drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco and following young women in a provocative manner. Mimose Bernard, a 44-year-old believer, performs voodoo rituals for other residents in the slum from the beginning of October to Nov. 2. She says Baron Samedi is a good spirit who helped protect her with good health and good luck. "I remember that I was 10 years old when I first invoked the Gede spirit," said Bernard, who lives with her child in a tiny home built from old metal sheets. In this Oct. 30, 2018 photo, Mimose Bernard, a voodoo believer poses for a picture as she invokes a "Gede" spirit, before Haiti's annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede, in Cite Soleil slum, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. "I remember that I was 10-years-old when I first invoked the Gede spirit", says Bernard who lives with her child in a tiny home that was built with old metal sheets, where some images of voodoo are part of the decoration and her bed with some clothes holding full the room. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Nov. 1, 2018 photo, a voodoo believer who is supposed to be possessed with a Gede spirit, performs rituals near Baron Samedi's tomb during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The characteristics of this traditional celebration, the flamboyant customes and the white-powdered faces of the priests in trance inspired some of the first Hollywood stories about zombies. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Oct. 27, 2018 photo, Atesi Auguste, a voodoo priestess, sits as she sells fried meat and bananas and she watches Mimose Bernard who issupposed to be possessed the Gede spirit, during Haiti's annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede, in Cite Soleil slum, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. "I have thirty years in having Gede spirit manifested in my head", said Auguste. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Nov. 1, 2018 photo, a voodoo believer walks to Baron Samedi's tomb during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The most respected along the Fete Gede is Baron Samedi, a lewd representation of life and death, who runs the gate of the Guine (a kind of Heaven) wearing a black suit and top hat while drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco and following young ladies in a provocative manner. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Nov. 1, 2018 photo, meals and flowers sits on the ground of Baron Samedi's tomb during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Accompanied by the priests, the believers, some of them also wearing the loas' clothes, make their annual visit to cemeteries in Port-au-Prince and throughout the country to honor the spirits by offering coffee and meals to the dead loved ones and to the black cross that represents Baron Samedi. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Oct. 31, 2018 photo, Raynold Alexandre, a voodoo priest, who is supposed to be possessed the Gede spirit, drinks with his daughter Darline Alexandre, also voodoo priestess, during Haiti's annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede, in Cite Soleil slum, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Alexandre and his wife Auguste are well known voodoo priests and three of their six children are also voodoo priests. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Nov. 1, 2018 photo, voodoo believers who are supposed to be possessed with Gede spirit perform rituals in the middle of Baron Samedi's tomb during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Every year, during the celebration, they paint their faces with white powder, wear the loas' clothes, travel the narrowly pathways through the shanty town and go to cemeteries to pay tribute to the spirits.( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Nov. 1, 2018 photo, a voodoo believer who is supposed to be possessed with Gede spirit perform rituals on Baron Samedi's tomb during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Baron Samedi is also considered by Haitian voodooists as the wisest adviser, protector of children and the last hope for the sick. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Nov. 1, 2018 photo, voodoo believers who are supposed to be possessed with Gede spirit perform rituals in the middle of the street during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Along the celebration, which starts on October and has its climax on November 1st and 2, the believers wear the distinctive clothes of their Loas or Gedes, the creol generic name for the spirits. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Nov. 2, 2018 photo, a voodoo believer who is supposed to be possessed with Gede spirit performs rituals near Baron Samedi's tomb during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As a proof that they got into trance and their bodies got possessed by Gedes, they drink and wash their faces, their eyes and even their genitals with a mixture of raw rum and hot chili peppers that, according to believers, could burn the skin of any human alive. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Nov. 1, 2018 photo, voodoo believers who are supposed to be possessed with Gede spirit dance in the middle of the street during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The characteristics of this traditional celebration, the flamboyant customes and the white-powdered faces of the priests in trance inspired some of the first Hollywood stories about zombies. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Nov. 1, 2018 photo, voodoo believers who are supposed to be possessed with Gede spirit walk in the middle of the street during the annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede at Cite Soleil Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Every year, during the celebration, they paint their faces with white powder, wear the loas' clothes, travel the narrowly pathways through the shanty town and go to cemeteries to pay tribute to the spirits.( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) In this Nov. 2, 2018 photo, Frantz Lindor, left, a voodoo believer, rests with his mate in a voodoo temple during Haiti's annual Voodoo festival Fete Gede, in Cite Soleil slum, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Every year, during the celebration, they paint their faces with white powder, wear the loas' clothes, travel the narrowly pathways through the shanty town and go to cemeteries to pay tribute to the spirits and got possessed by them. ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The Latest on the situation in Iran after the re-imposition of all American sanctions on the country on Monday (all times local): 6 a.m. Turkey's top diplomat has criticized the U.S. resumption of sanctions on Iran as unilateral, not wise and dangerous, calling for a dialogue and compromise. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Tokyo for talks with Japanese leaders, told reporters Tuesday that Turkey opposes sanctions because they don't achieve results. He said cornering Iran is not wise, isolating Iran is dangerous and punishing the Iranians is unfair. President Donald Trump's administration's resumption of sanctions on Iran took effect Monday, though eight major importers of Iranian oil, including Turkey and Japan, are spared temporarily from immediate penalties. An effigy of U.S. government icon "Uncle Sam" is held up by demonstrators during a rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, marking the 39th anniversary of the seizure of the embassy by militant Iranian students. Thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary as Washington restored all sanctions lifted under the nuclear deal. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Cavusoglu said one-third of Turkey's gas imports come from Iran and it's difficult for any country to immediately diversify their energy mix. He said the U.S. "unilateral" decision affects the world. ___ 5:45 p.m. Israel's prime minister is lauding the newly restored U.S. sanctions against Iran as "historic," saying they will "strangle" what he described as Iranian state-sponsored terrorism. Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday at parliament that the Trump administration's decision to restore sanctions was already having an effect. He called the move "a big day for the state of Israel." Israel has been a fierce opponent of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal from which the U.S. withdrew this year, saying the deal didn't rein in Iran's regional military activities. The new sanctions against Iran's shipping, financial and energy sectors come into effect Monday. The U.S. says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. ___ 2:20 p.m. China says it regrets the U.S. decision to re-impose sanctions on Iran but will continue to uphold the nuclear deal Beijing agreed to as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters on Monday that the accord "should be comprehensively and effectively implemented" despite the fact that the United States pulled out of it in May. Hua says: "We regret this decision by the U.S." She added that the international community objects to unilateral sanctions such as those brought by the U.S. She also said China stood with those nations that have vowed to keep the agreement alive despite the U.S. withdrawal, and said Iran has been "strictly fulfilling its obligations" under the accord. Hua urged all sides to keep in mind "long-term interests, fulfill their obligations and responsibilities and choose to stand on the right side of history." ___ 2 p.m. Iranian officials say the country is being targeted by a cyberattack. Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Javad Azeri Jahromi and his deputy, Hamid Fatahi, both tweeted about the attack on Monday - the same day U.S. sanctions on the country once lifted by the nuclear deal resumed. They blamed Israel for the attack and said it targeted Iran's communications infrastructure, without elaborating. Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment. Iran previously faced a computer virus called Stuxnet, which destroyed thousands of centrifuges involved in Iran's contested nuclear program in 2011. Stuxnet is widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation, though neither country has acknowledged being behind the attack. Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali, the head of country's military unit in charge of combatting sabotage, said last week that President Hassan Rouhani's cellphone was tapped recently. ___ 12:35 p.m. Iran's foreign ministry is shrugging off the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions on Iran, saying it's nothing new and that the country has gone through a wider range of sanctions in the past. The ministry's spokesman, Bahram Ghasemi, says that Iranians "have experienced more extensive sanctions" and that they are "not a new issue." He also called the sanctions that went into effect on Monday "fruitless" and part of the U.S. propaganda and psychological war against Iran. He claimed the sanctions would backfire and work against the United States and that "many countries from Europe to Russia and China have opposed the sanctions." The sanctions end all U.S. economic benefits America granted to Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and in particular target Iran's vital oil industry. ___ 11: 10 a.m. Israel's defense minister is welcoming newly restored U.S. sanctions against Iran, saying they will deal a "critical blow" to Iran's military presence around the Middle East. Avigdor Lieberman said in a tweet on Monday that the Trump administration's decision to restore sanctions "is the sea change the Middle East has been waiting for." Israel has been a fierce opponent of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal from which the United States withdrew this year, saying the deal didn't rein in Iran's regional military activities. The new sanctions against Iran's shipping, financial and energy sectors, come into effect Monday. The U.S. says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. ___ 11 a.m. Iran has greeted the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions with air defense drills and an acknowledgement from President Hassan Rouhani that the nation faces a "war situation." The developments raise Mideast tensions as America's maximalist approach to the Islamic Republic takes hold. The sanctions end all the economic benefits America granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, though Iran for now continues to abide by the accord that saw it limit its enrichment of uranium. While for now not threatening to resume higher enrichment, Iranian officials in recent months have made a point to threaten that could resume at any time faster than before. The new American sanctions particularly hurt Iran's vital oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency for its anemic economy. Its national currency has plummeted over the last year, sending prices for everything from mobile phones to medicine skyrocketing. A campaign aiming to share Scotlands shared values and inclusive view of the world has been launched. The #MakeSomeonesDay campaign will mark the start of Scotlands Winter Festivals, backed by 550,000 from the Scottish Government. The campaign kicks off the start of the festivals on St Andrews Day, November 30. The Winter Festivals celebrate Scotlands culture and heritage over the Christmas period and Hogmanay with events across the country, also marking Burns Night on January 25. BEMIS, the national ethnic minorities-led umbrella body, is also hosting multi-cultural celebrations as part of the festivals. The Scottish Government is working with the global Fair Saturday Foundation with a programme of more than 70 nationwide events to help raise funds for good causes and promote fairness and sharing, starting on December 1. A number of events are held across Scotland over the winter period (Andrew Milligan/PA) Ben Macpherson, Minister for Europe, Migration and International Development, said: This St Andrews Day presents a positive, inspiring opportunity for all of Scotland, in all our diversity, to celebrate the inclusive, outward-looking and compassionate spirit of our nation by helping others and by showing generosity and kindness. Whether its on St Andrews Day or St Andrews Fair Saturday, this year we can all show the best of what it means to be Scottish by each of us doing something small to #MakeSomeonesDay. If each of us does something kind for someone else, together we can make a big, positive impact for the benefit of the whole of Scotland. Jordi Albareda, Fair Saturday director and founder, said: When we began the Fair Saturday movement, we wanted countries all over the world to embrace its ideals of creating social impact though arts and culture. It is fitting that Scotland is hosting the first nationwide Fair Saturday festival outside of Spain and we hope the public will mobilise behind our aim of creating a better future for all. Controversial Leave campaigner Arron Banks is being investigated for suspected criminal offences over 8 million of campaign funding made during the Brexit referendum. The National Crime Agency (NCA) probe was launched after the elections watchdog said it had reasonable grounds to suspect that Mr Banks was not the true source of the cash. Mr Banks, one of the founders of the Leave.EU campaign, said he was confident the investigation would put an end to the ludicrous allegations against him and appeared unfazed by the allegations while he enjoyed a fishing trip in Bermuda. He claimed the Electoral Commissions decision to refer him to the NCA was the result of intense political pressure from anti-Brexit supporters. The commission also referred Leave.EU, its chief executive, Elizabeth Bilney, and the organisation that ran it, Better for the Country, to the NCA after carrying out a review. Bob Posner, the commissions director of political finance, said: We have reasonable grounds to suspect money given to Better for the Country came from impermissible sources and that Mr Banks and Ms Bilney, the responsible person for Leave.EU, knowingly concealed the true circumstances under which this money was provided. Arron Banks (Stefan Rousseau/PA) This is significant because at least 2.9 million of this money was used to fund referendum spending and donations during the regulated period of the EU referendum. Mr Banks said: I am confident that a full and frank investigation will finally put an end to the ludicrous allegations levelled against me and my colleagues. There is no evidence of any wrongdoing from the companies I own. I am a UK taxpayer and I have never received any foreign donations. The Electoral Commission has produced no evidence to the contrary. Statement from @Arron_Banks: "I am pleased that the Electoral Commission has referred me to the National Crime Agency. I am confident that a full and frank investigation will finally put an end to the ludicrous allegations levelled against me and my colleagues." pic.twitter.com/V6fdjk604Z Leave.EU (@LeaveEUOfficial) November 1, 2018 Ms Bilney also accused the Commission of having a biased approach in its investigations and said she was confident she would be exonerated. She told BBC Radio 4s World At One programme: I hope that the matter will be shortly concluded to demonstrate that no crimes have been committed. They are looking at it how they want to through their own biased lens, she added. Mr Banks was criticised by the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee earlier this year for seeming to want to hide the extent of his contacts with Russia. But Ms Bilney dismissed suggestions that some of the money may have come from Russia. I run the group of companies where the money was from and we dont have any transactions that are from Russia, she said. I am completely comfortable that we have done everything above board. NCA initiates investigation following Electoral Commission referral pic.twitter.com/qSzZfEWSEH National Crime Agency (NCA) (@NCA_UK) November 1, 2018 The Electoral Commissions review of referendum finances focused on 2 million reported to have been loaned to Better for the Country by Mr Banks and his insurance companies and a 6 million donation he made alone. It said that, as well as having reasonable grounds to suspect he was not the true source of the cash, loans involved a company, Rock Holdings, based on the Isle of Man, which was impermissible under the rules. The watchdog said it suspected Mr Banks, Ms Bilney and others involved in Better for the Country and Leave.EU concealed the true details of the financial transactions. It believes a number of criminal offences may have been committed. The NCA said its investigation relates to suspected electoral law offences. A spokesman added: While electoral law offences would not routinely fall within the NCAs remit, the nature of the necessary inquiries and the potential for offences to have been committed other than under electoral law lead us to consider an NCA investigation appropriate in this instance. Asked if the Prime Minister remained confident the referendum was fair, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: The referendum was the largest democratic exercise in this countrys history and the PM is getting on with delivering its result. The Government is facing key Budget votes as Labour tensions on how to deal with the financial package set out by Chancellor Philip Hammond continue to simmer. MPs will conclude their Budget debate on Thursday as ministers appear confident of support after the DUP signalled it would back the Tories. After shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Labour would end the working-age benefit freeze if it gained power, the party is set to table Budget amendments calling for income tax rises for high earners. Labour has put down amendments to the Budget resolutions demanding a hike in income tax to 45% on earnings above 80,000, and 50% for those above 125,000. The move follows a heated row in Labour ranks after Mr McDonnell said the party would not oppose Tory tax cuts for the middle class. The Labour leadership has said the party will not attempt to force a vote on the personal allowance changes effectively abstaining. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Under Mr Hammonds Budget plans the personal allowance, which is the maximum amount someone can earn before paying tax, will rise to 12,500 from 11,850. The higher rate threshold, the income at which someone becomes liable to pay the 40% tax rate, will rise to 50,000 from 46,350 at the same time. A number of prominent Labour MPs have called on the party to oppose the changes as they say they disproportionately benefit the better-off. Labour MP Chuka Umunna told ITVs Peston: No, I dont think these are the right kinds of things to be basically making a set of income tax changes which primarily benefit high earners. Thats obviously wrong. Mr McDonnell said Labour would not oppose the tax cuts as they would also benefit low and middle-income workers. Speaking during the Budget debate, Labours Dame Margaret Hodge appeared to attack her party leaderships stance on taxation as she spoke against punishing the wealthy. Former minister Dame Margaret said: We cant keep promising excellent schools, effective policing and compassionate care if we refuse to raise the necessary money through tax. We cant keep pretending that punishing the wealthy is the solution to underfunding. We need to have a truthful conversation with voters about how much we need to raise in tax to fund public services. Yvette Cooper, Labour chairwoman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said Theresa May had reneged on her promises to prioritise people who were just about managing ahead of the wealthiest in the latest Budget. She said: Theyre going ahead with over 1 billion in real cuts to tax credits and benefits this coming year for the poorest families. At the same time they are choosing to spend about the same amount of money on tax cuts for higher rate taxpayers, including those on more than 100,000 a year. A lone parent with a four-year-old working part-time could end up being nearly 3,000 worse off whereas the high earners end up being over 1,000 better off. SNP work and pensions spokesman Neil Gray criticised Mr Hammond for bringing forward a tax cut that disproportionately benefits higher earners the most instead of stopping the benefit freeze which he described as the single biggest cash grab from low-income families. Mr Gray added: He keeps up an income squeeze on the many to pay for the biggest tax cuts for the few. That might have been the line from the shadow chancellor but of course theyre supporting this disgrace, and the tax shambles that Labour has got themselves in was compounded yesterday by Scottish Labour putting out a statement asking the Scottish Government to do the exact opposite of what the Labour frontbench here wants to do on tax. Ukrainian army ready to add UAVs Bayraktar TB2 to its armory, Ukraine's Presidential adviser and Minister of Defense Yuriy Biryukov said on his Facebook page. During the official visit to Turkey, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko visited the production of Baykar Makina, one of the world's leaders in the production of powerful unmanned aviation complexes, the presidential press-service reported. "Tactical and technical characteristics of UAVs of various types, including the military ones, were demonstrated to the Head of State and the Ukrainian delegation. Also, negotiations were held on cooperation between the defense complexes of Ukraine and Turkey," Interfax cited the statement as saying. Bayraktar TB2 has wing span of 12 meters and max takeoff weight of 650 kg. It can carry 150 kilograms of cargo and operate day and night with communication range of 150 km. The Prince of Wales has begun the first full day of his west African tour by highlighting the important milestone taken by Gambians in turning their backs on 22 years of autocratic rule. Charles comment came during a welcoming ceremony attended by Gambias president Adama Barrow, whose shock election victory in 2016 brought an end to the authoritarian regime of former leader Yahya Jammeh. The heir to the throne and the Duchess of Cornwall had a busy day in Gambia where highlights included the princes visit to the Gambian Armed Forces Training School while his wife attended a Commonwealth Big Lunch at the High Commissioners residence. The Prince of Wales with President Adama Barrow in McCarthy Square as the official welcome ceremony began (Joe Giddens/PA) Speaking in McCarthy Square, in the capital Banjul, where officials and schoolchildren had gathered to welcome their royal guests, the heir to the throne said: I was delighted to join Her Majesty the Queen in welcoming you, Mr President, to London in April this year for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and, in so doing, to welcome all Gambians back into the Commonwealth. It was, if I may say so, an important milestone on the new road that the Gambia has chosen in turning your back on 22 years of autocratic rule in order to embrace a new beginning. The First Lady of the Gambia Fatou Bah-Barrow and the Duchess of Cornwall watch a performance during a visit to St Teresas School in the Gambian capital (Joe Giddens/PA) Today, the United Kingdom and the Gambia can once again work together to defend our shared Commonwealth values and to promote democracy, human rights, tolerance and the rule of law. So, too, can we commit ourselves, together, to addressing with all urgency some of the most pressing challenges facing our world, such as climate change, resource depletion, youth unemployment and rapid urbanisation, and to do so by harnessing the remarkable professional expertise and experience upon which the Commonwealth and her member states can draw. Later Charles and Camilla will attend a state dinner held in their honour. Charles and Camilla also paid their respects to fallen soldiers during a visit to a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery (Joe Giddens/PA) The royal tour will also see the prince and his wife visit Ghana and Nigeria. The couples trip comes hard on the heels of the Prime Ministers high-profile visit to the continent just a few months ago. Theresa May made a three-nation trade mission to Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria during August and September, in an attempt to bolster Britains post-Brexit fortunes. A Japanese pilot has admitted being almost 10 times over the alcohol limit shortly before a flight from Heathrow Airport, police said. Drunk first officer Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, 42, was arrested at the airport after failing a breath test just 50 minutes before Japan Airlines (JAL) flight JL44 to Tokyo was due to take off with him in the cockpit. Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that the driver of a crew bus alerted police after smelling alcohol on the pilot. The flight was operated by a Boeing 777 aircraft which holds up to 244 passengers. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said Jitsukawa pleaded guilty to exceeding the alcohol limit at Uxbridge Magistrates Court on Thursday. Tests revealed he had 189mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system, almost 10 times the 20mg limit for a pilot. A pilot has admitted being drunk before a flight (Steve Parsons/PA) The drink-drive limit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 80mg. He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on November 29. JAL issued an apology and pledged to implement immediate actions to prevent any future occurrence, adding that safety remains our utmost priority. The flight departed after a 69-minute delay. In June an experienced British Airways pilot was jailed for eight months for being caught on duty while more than four times the alcohol limit. Julian Monaghan drank three double vodkas in his hotel room on an empty stomach before he was due on board a flight from Gatwick Airport to Mauritius on January 18. NHS Scotland is planning to consolidate its IT systems into one in a move it hopes will cut waiting times and improve patient care. The health service has signed a deal with Microsoft to bring together more than one hundred separate computer systems into one with the aim of improving staff efficiency, as hospital boards across the country struggle to keep up with the 12-week treatment time guarantee introduced by the SNP in 2012. GPs, consultants and support workers will be able to communicate on the new digital platform, allowing them to share patient information more easily. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon with members of staff during a visit to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow to mark the 70th Anniversary of the NHS (Andy Buchanan/PA) Jeane Freeman, Scotlands Health Secretary, said: By consolidating hundreds of separate systems across Scotlands NHS and care services, we can ensure that our hard-working staff are able to focus more on patients than processes. At the same time, we have a duty to protect peoples information safely and securely. As part of that, moving to Office 365 is going to make our systems more resilient. The collaboration will run for a minimum of three years, with an option to extend for a further two years and will cost up to 80 million. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been under increased pressure to improve waiting times in Scotland, after numbers for April to June this year showed that just less than three quarters (74.6%) of patients were meeting the 12-week treatment guarantee, which she oversaw as health secretary back in 2012. The law states that patients will be guaranteed NHS treatment within 12 weeks, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said during First Ministers Questions last week. It was an SNP flagship law that helped them take power in 2007. And it is a law that the SNP Government has broken over 100,000 times. But on Tuesday the Government said they would keep on breaking the law for another three years. The Scottish Government has committed to invest 850 million in efforts to cut waiting times (Peter Byrne/PA) Ms Sturgeon conceded, saying: The 12-week treatment guarantee, yes it has not been adhered to more than 100,000 times, but 1.6 million patients have been treated within that, patients that might have waited over 12 weeks without that guarantee. There are now fewer people waiting more than 12 weeks for treatment than was the case when this government came to office. The Scottish Government has committed to invest 850 million in efforts to cut waiting times. Speaking about the deal, Microsoft UK chief executive Cindy Rose said: NHS Scotland staff do incredible work each and every day, however cross-department collaboration can be challenging due to the use of multiple systems. By moving to one common platform in Office 365, staff will have the best tools available to work together seamlessly, ensuring theyre able to focus on what counts most helping patients. Furthermore, by moving to Windows 10 E5, NHS Scotland can be confident that its systems are running on the most up-to-date software at all times. As a result, the organisation will have a real-time view of any potential cyber threats and can therefore minimise the impact of any cyber-attack across the entire organisation. Prominent cleric Maulana Samiul Haq, known as the father of the Taliban, has been killed in a knife attack at his home in Rawalpindi, according to police and his family. Haqs son Hamidul Haq said his father was killed on Friday. Yousaf Shah, Haqs spokesman, said the attackers identity and motive were not immediately known. Maulana Samiul Haq (BK Bangash/AP) Haq was the head of his faction of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam party. The religious scholar was the founder of the famous Haqqania seminary, where dozens of Afghan leaders were educated. His seminary is in the town of Akora Khattak in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. Police said they have transported Haqs body to hospital and officers are investigating. A leading Irish politician has blasted Brexiteer claims that a Northern Ireland border backstop is unnecessary as completely unfeasible, warning that the peace process would be under threat without a deal. Senator Neale Richmond, who chairs the Seanads Brexit committee clashed with Tory MP Owen Paterson after the latter said that the border issue could be solved using existing practical systems. It came after reports from Dublin suggested that a deal involving an all-UK customs union in the Withdrawal Agreement, plus a separate backstop for Northern Ireland, was close to being agreed. On Friday, Irelands deputy premier Simon Coveney said he believes a Brexit deal could be reached by the end of November, with his Westminster counterpart, Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, saying negotiators were very close, after the pair held talks in Dublin. Mr Paterson, a former Northern Secretary, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that any such deal would be a total betrayal of millions of Leave voters and the 85% of voters at the last General Election who backed Tory and Labour manifestos which committed to leaving. He repeated a warning that Northern Ireland may become an EU protectorate and said that experts backed the European Research Groups claim that the border can be kept open and managed using current systems. He said: They are convinced that the current proposals, the Chequers proposals, the facilitated customs regime, is completely unworkable in practical terms for five to ten years. They have looked at this, they are completely abreast of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, World Customs Organisation rules, and they have assured us that we can continue using many of these administrative systems if there is political goodwill. We are addressing a very small amount of trade which is very very regular and already very very clearly administered and regulated. (PA Graphics) In some ways it suits that it is agriculture and food mainly because it is such a highly regulated part of our economy. However, Senator Richmond said that what was described as a very small amount of trade was actually 14,000 commercial vehicles every day and 30,000 people crossing the Irish border to and from what would become a third party country after Brexit. Some 85% of the trade was carried out by small businesses who did not need added bureaucracy, he added. He told Today: The advice he (Mr Paterson) has got from one Dutch academic doesnt stack up to the expert advice of HM Revenue and Customs, the European Commission, the Irish government, the WTO itself and thousands more legal minds. When we talk about political goodwill I think its very important why the Irish government and why the European Commission is so firm on an Irish-specific backstop is the preservation of peace. Its the 20-year-old fragile Good Friday Agreement peace, something that the Irish government and indeed the British government is a co-guarantor of, and we must work to ensure that there is no hard border, customs or otherwise, on the island of Ireland, as that is a threat to that Good Friday Agreement. Lets focus on that first and foremost. Looking forward to welcoming @DLidington + Karen Bradley to Dublin for British Irish Intergovernmental Conf. with me + @CharlieFlanagan. Strong UK/Irish friendship, trust+cooperation more NB than ever. Legacy, Security Coop, East-West relations + NI Pol stability all on Agenda pic.twitter.com/H5fHCpqWCP Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) November 2, 2018 On Friday Mr Lidington and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab visited Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively for talks with senior political figures as the deadline for securing a Brexit deal gets ever closer. Speaking at a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in Dublin, Mr Coveney said he believed it is possible to get a deal in November, adding: This border issue is complicated to resolve but I think were very close to resolving it. I certainly hope we are. Mr Lidington replied by saying: Were certainly, as Simon said, very close to resolving it. Mr Raab was tight lipped about how negotiations were going when he was questioned by the media during a visit to Belfast. After meeting politicians from across the spectrum he pledged that his Government will not sign up to any deal which could threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK. Tributes have been paid to two teenagers who were fatally stabbed on the streets of London within 24 hours. Flowers were laid near Clapham South Tube station in memory of a 17-year-old killed there on Friday. Flowers left near the scene where a 17-year-old boy died after being stabbed outside Clapham South Tube station (Tom Horton/PA) Less than a day earlier, 15-year-old Jay Hughes was pounced on in a premeditated attack near a chicken shop in Bellingham, south-east London. His family paid tribute to him as very bright and brilliant at art. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the teenagers deaths were a terrible waste of young lives, as he offered his condolences to their families. The fatalities came as debate continues over the effect of police budget cuts and what officers should focus their resources on. APPEAL: We're appealing for information after two teenagers were injured after shots were fired in Victoria Road, Handsworth, at around 8.15pm last night (Friday 2 November). More here: https://t.co/HrPdOdsXO4 pic.twitter.com/4bsYOb8F43 Birmingham Police (@brumpolice) November 3, 2018 Meanwhile, police said two teenage boys were shot from a car in the Handsworth area of Birmingham on Friday night. West Midlands Police said a 15-year-old was in a stable condition in hospital after being shot in the back, while a 14-year-old was hit in the arm. Jay Hughes was attacked near the Morleys chicken shop in Randlesdown Road, Bellingham, at about 5.20pm on Thursday. His aunt, 32-year-old Rochelle, said he went out to get some food and he never came back, the Evening Standard reported. He loved riding his mountain bike, was very bright and brilliant at art. He wanted to be a cartoonist, she added. The attack on the 17-year-old, who has not yet been formally identified, happened at about 4.35pm on Friday near the south-west London Underground station. Purple flowers wishing the boy lots of love were left near the scene, as well-wishers visited to pay tribute. A 17-year-old girl, who asked not to be named, described him as a hard-working boy, adding: He was sweet and nice and he always used to message me if he knew I was sad. Scotland Yard have yet to make any arrests over the latest two fatalities, which bring the homicide tally in the capital to 115 this year, 19 of them teenagers. Appeal for information after teen fatally stabbed in #Wandsworth - incident occurred outside Clapham South Tube Station at 435pm . The station remains closed. https://t.co/ziqzigU0G5 pic.twitter.com/j00lmxD9pN Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) November 2, 2018 Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, who is Britains top officer, said on Friday that stretched forces must prioritise serious violence and drug gangs rather than non-criminal acts of misogyny. She said officers cant go on increasing the scale of the mission without further funding as she indicated that other offences, such as online fraud, were lower priority. Violent crime devastates communities - and we're working tirelessly with @metpoliceuk and others to tackle it. Anyone with information about this incident should call the police on 101 or @CrimestoppersUK anonymously on 0800 555 111. There is no honour in staying silent. https://t.co/lkt61RtY14 Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) November 2, 2018 The London Mayor has previously blamed rising violence on 700 million cuts to the Mets budget over seven years, with more expected to come. On Friday, Mr Khan announced the latest measure in the public health approach to tackling violence, with a review of the most serious offences since 2014 to discover the trends behind attacks. The SNP has appointed a woman to chair the party for the first time. Former MP Kirsten Oswald takes on the business convener role, succeeding Derek Mackay MSP, after being nominated by Nicola Sturgeon. She will now be responsible for overseeing operational party matters and chairing the National Executive Committee and National Conference. Ms Oswald said: I am thrilled and honoured to be appointed business convener for the SNP at this crucial point in Scottish and UK politics. With the UK Tory government hellbent on dragging our country off a job-destroying Brexit cliff edge it is more vital than ever that Scotlands voice is heard. To make that voice louder and more powerful it is vital that all of our members have every opportunity to have their say and that enhanced member power will be my priority. Kirsten Oswald was nominated by Nicola Sturgeon (Danny Lawson/PA) The SNPs vision of hope and ambition and our actions in government making Scotland fairer and ready to join Europes successful small, independent countries is in stark contrast to the inward-looking doom, despair and chaos of Westminster. Bruce Crawford and Angus Robertson have previously held the position, which was created in 2004. Finance Secretary Mr Mackay was in the role for the last seven years. He said: The past seven years has been an incredible period of growth for the SNP. It has also been the most dynamic period in modern Scottish political history. We have won the last three Scottish parliamentary elections, won the previous two Westminster elections in Scotland and delivered an independence referendum which was the biggest democratic event in our nations history. These achievements, along with the fact that we consistently hold a double-digit leads in polls, show that we are undoubtedly the most successful party in the UK and arguably the most successful political party in Europe. A bugle taken by Wilfred Owen from a dead German soldier during the First World War is to be played at the poets graveside to mark the centenary of his death. The sounding of the instrument in Ors, northern France, at a commemorative ceremony on Sunday will be the first time it has been played in public. Owen was killed on November 4 1918 during the battle to cross the Sambre-Oise canal at Ors, just seven days before peace was declared. He wrote about the bugle in a letter home to his brother a year before his death, said Fiona MacDonald, of the Wilfred Owen Association. She told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: We know from a letter that he wrote to his brother, Colin, in May 1917 that he had got this bugle. He said Ive got some loot. And he was going to give it to Colin but he said that he had grown too fond of it to part with it. A ceremony to mark 100 years since the death of Wilfred Owen will be held in France (National Portrait Gallery London/PA) The bugle has since been kept by Owens family. Ms MacDonald said she hoped Sundays commemoration would once again draw attention to the central message in Owens renowned poetry about the brutal reality of war. She said: We are hoping that Owens work will continue way past these centenary commemorations. The Wilfred Owen Association works to promote his work and really his ethos. I dont think we can any longer pretend that war doesnt have a huge cost, with shell shock, now post-traumatic stress disorder, the bereavement of families. Events are planned around the world on November 11, to mark Armistice Day 100 years after the end of the First World War. Brexit is undermining 20 years of peace in Northern Ireland and is fraying relationships between Britain and Ireland, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said. The Irish prime minister gave a stark warning about the state of cross-border relations on Saturday, with just months to go before the UK is due to quit the European Union. His comments came after another Dublin politician said a return to a hard border threatened the peace process, in a row following reports that a backstop plan was close to being agreed with Brussels. Senator Neale Richmond, who chairs the Seanads Brexit Committee, told Brexiteer Tory MP Owen Paterson on BBC Radio 4s Today programme that plans for solving the border dispute using existing practical systems was completely unfeasible. Speaking on RTE Radio Ones Marian Finucane programme on Saturday morning, the Taoiseach said: Brexit has undermined the Good Friday Agreement and it is fraying relationships between Britain and Ireland. Anything that pulls the two communities apart in Northern Ireland undermines the Good Friday Agreement and anything that pulls Britain and Ireland apart undermines that relationship. His comments came two days after Nobel peace prize winner and Conservative Lord Trimble accused Mr Varadkars government of riding roughshod over the 1998 agreement. Lord Trimble, who helped draw up the landmark agreement which ended decades of deadly fighting in the province, claimed that the Brexit process could result in Northern Ireland ending up as part of an effective EU protectorate. Brexit talks have reached an impasse over the EUs backstop plan, which would see Northern Ireland effectively remaining in the customs union and single market unless alternative arrangements were found to prevent a hard border. But reports from Dublin had suggested that a deal involving an all-UK customs union in the Withdrawal Agreement, plus a separate backstop for Northern Ireland, is close to being agreed. On Friday, Irelands deputy premier, Simon Coveney, said he believed a Brexit deal could be reached by the end of November, with his Westminster counterpart, Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, saying negotiators were very close, after the pair held talks in Dublin. (PA Graphics) Mr Paterson reiterated Lord Trimbles protectorate claim, saying that any backstop which involved the whole UK staying in a customs union would be a total betrayal of millions of Leave voters and the 85% of voters at the last general election who backed Tory and Labour manifestos which committed to leaving. Mr Paterson, a former Northern Secretary, told Today: They are convinced that the current proposals, the Chequers proposals, the facilitated customs regime, is completely unworkable in practical terms for five to 10 years. They have looked at this, they are completely abreast of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, World Customs Organisation rules, and they have assured us that we can continue using many of these administrative systems if there is political goodwill. We are addressing a very small amount of trade which is very, very regular and already very, very clearly administered and regulated. In some ways it suits that it is agriculture and food mainly because it is such a highly regulated part of our economy. Looking forward to welcoming @DLidington + Karen Bradley to Dublin for British Irish Intergovernmental Conf. with me + @CharlieFlanagan. Strong UK/Irish friendship, trust+cooperation more NB than ever. Legacy, Security Coop, East-West relations + NI Pol stability all on Agenda pic.twitter.com/H5fHCpqWCP Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) November 2, 2018 But Senator Richmond said that what was described as a very small amount of trade was actually 14,000 commercial vehicles every day and 30,000 people crossing the Irish border to and from what would become a third party country after Brexit. Some 85% of the trade was carried out by small businesses who did not need added bureaucracy, he added. He told Today: The advice he (Mr Paterson) has got from one Dutch academic doesnt stack up to the expert advice of HM Revenue and Customs, the European Commission, the Irish Government, the WTO itself and thousands more legal minds. When we talk about political goodwill I think its very important why the Irish Government and why the European Commission is so firm on an Irish-specific backstop is the preservation of peace. Its the 20-year-old fragile Good Friday Agreement peace, something that the Irish Government and indeed the British Government is a co-guarantor of, and we must work to ensure that there is no hard border, customs or otherwise, on the island of Ireland, as that is a threat to that Good Friday Agreement. Lets focus on that first and foremost. Irish cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan has said medical professionals who fail to disclose information to patients should face sanctions. The mother of two, who is one of more than 220 women affected by the countrys cervical cancer screening scandal, said she would keep fighting for accountability and more answers. People cannot be sacked and I think that is something I certainly will be striving for, she said. Vicky Phelan and Stephen Teap were honoured for their bravery in speaking out on behalf of the women and families affected by the controversy (Brian Lawless/PA) Scandals like this will happen again and again until we actually have proper accountability in this country. Ms Phelan made the comments at the countrys Labour party national conference in Dublin on Saturday, as she and Stephen Teap, whose wife Irene died last year, were honoured for their bravery in speaking out on behalf of the women and families affected by the controversy. They received a standing ovation as they were presented with the Jo Cox Award, named after the UK MP who was killed. It emerged earlier this year that 221 women and families were not told about misreported smear tests. Ms Phelan, 43, from Co Limerick, was instrumental in bringing the scandal to light when she took legal proceedings after a 2011 smear test, which returned no abnormalities, was found three years later to be incorrect. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014 but she was only told of the false negative result last year. She settled the High Court action for 2.5 million euro (2.2 million). Ms Phelan said sanctions were necessary, not because she wanted to see people being punished, but because otherwise doctors and consultants do not disclose their mistakes. Unfortunately you need to put sanctions in place in order for people to toe the line and actually do what theyre supposed to do, she said. Mr Teap, a father of two young boys, told delegates at the conference that his late wife had been disrespected by healthcare professionals when they failed to disclose the test results to them. We were in awe of them, he said. We thought that they were the greatest people that there was. Then for them to turn around and disrespect my wife in the way that they did is one of the things that makes me most angry. Mr Teaps late wife had cervical cancer, which was missed by two smear tests. If her illness had been detected earlier, her life may have been saved. Both Ms Phelan and Mr Teap said they would keep pushing and fighting until all 50 recommendations made in a recent scoping inquiry by Dr Gabriel Scally, were implemented, in particular the introduction of mandatory open disclosure of patients information. UK health expert Dr Scally was commissioned by the Irish Government to lead an inquiry into the misinterpretation of the cancer tests. He found there were serious gaps in the governance structures of the Cervical Check screening services. The Irish Labour party held detailed policy discussions on the future of womens health at the conference. A debate on housing and health and Labours approach to any future government formation talks are also set to be discussed during the three-day event. The party wants to see the all-party Slaintecare plan implemented swiftly. It aims to provide care based on need and not on a persons ability to pay. The party is putting out its stall ahead of the next general election, which it believes is likely to be held in the first half of next year. Washingtons protectionism policy will harm the United States itself, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday, TASS reports. Of late, the US has taken steps to stifle rivalry on global markets and impose tough control over the system of free exchange of goods and services, the Russian premier noted. "This is called protectionism, when some countries try to fence themselves off from other countries. A number of states conduct this policy, and the largest of them is the US, which imposes various restrictions and tariffs against China, the European Union and our country. Eventually, Im sure that the US economy will be affected by this," Medvedev told an online conference in the Shanghai Media Group. This policy negatively affects the growth rates of global economy, Medvedev said, calling for preserving the regime of the World Trade Organization as well as developing and reforming it in some cases. The Russian prime minister stressed that "protectionism is a bad phenomenon in global economy, it has always existed but in previous years most countries adhered to the rules developed in the WTO framework." According to Medvedev, "so far the mankind has not invented anything better in this sphere," although the WTO system is not ideal, it works and ensures rivalry in the world and free development of economies and countries. Medvedev emphasized that Chinas Belt and Road Initiative is completely different from protectionism since it is aimed at "developing global processes in economy and linking various countries." Speaking on plans of conjugating the Eurasian Economic Union and the Belt and Road Initiative, the Russian premier said it is necessary to analyze the positive effect of this idea for the countries economics and people. Police in Florida have named the gunman who shot two people to death and wounded five others at a yoga studio before turning the gun on himself. Tallahassee police said Scott Paul Beierle, 40, shot six people and pistol-whipped another after walking into the yoga studio that sits on the second floor of the small shopping plaza. Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo said some in the studio showed courage and tried to stop him. Witnesses who were at the shopping centre described how people who had been in the studio, including one who was bleeding, ran away, seeking shelter in nearby bars and restaurants as shots rang out. Police responded within a few minutes, but by then Beirele had fatally shot himself, leaving police to search for a motive and a community to wonder what prompted the violence near the citys fashionable neighbourhoods. You dont think about this in Tallahassee and now you have to, said Elle Welling, who said she saw at least three people put into ambulances as she was leaving a shop across the street. We are heartbroken but we are strong. We are a community united against violence. Our thoughts and prayers stay with the victims of the tragic act of violence at Hot Yoga. Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the shooting.https://t.co/7A3bPDw1EJ #TallyStrong #OurCityOurHome pic.twitter.com/NLBFnpWrUO Tallahassee Police (@TallyPD) November 3, 2018 The two killed on Friday were a student and faculty member at Florida State University, according to university officials. The department identified them as Dr Nancy Van Vessem, 61, and Maura Binkley, 21. Police said two other victims were in a stable condition, and three had been released from the hospital. Officers at the scene in Floridas capital (Steve Cannon/AP) Police said Beierle acted alone but they were still looking into what prompted the shooting. He had been in the military and was a graduate of nearby Florida State University, but was living in Deltona, a town in central Florida east of Orlando. Authorities in that county were searching his residence there. Witnesses told police that Beierle posed as a customer to gain entrance to the studio, then started shooting without warning. During a late night press briefing, Mr DeLeo declined to say what kind of gun he had. Court records show that he had been previously arrested for grabbing women. Beierle was charged by police with battery in 2016 after he slapped and grabbed a womans buttocks at an apartment complex pool. Records show that the charges were eventually dismissed after Beierle followed the conditions of a deferred prosecution agreement. Beierle was also charged with battery in 2012 for grabbing womens buttocks in a Florida State University campus dining hall. An FSU police report shows that Beierle told police he may have accidentally bumped into someone, but denied grabbing anyone. I am appreciative of law enforcement and our first responders for their quick response. Ill continue to be briefed by law enforcement and will continue to pray for the victims and their families. https://t.co/smY1liK4Zc Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) November 3, 2018 Erskin Wesson, 64, said he was eating dinner with his family at a restaurant below the yoga studio when they heard the gunshots above them. We just heard pow, pow, pow, pow, Mr Wesson said. It sounded like a limb falling on a tin roof and rolling. The restaurants owner came past a short time later, asking if anyone was a doctor, Mr Wesson said. His step-daughter is a nurse and helped paramedics for about an hour, he said. Melissa Hutchinson said she helped treat a profusely bleeding man who rushed into a bar after the incident. She said three people from the studio ran in, and they were told there was an active gunman. Police at the scene after the shooting in Tallahassee, Florida (Tori Schneider/Tallahassee Democrat/AP) It was a shocking moment something happened like this, Ms Hutchinson said. The people who came in were injured, including the bleeding man who was pistol-whipped while trying to stop the gunman. They told her the gunman kept coming in and out of the studio. When he loaded his gun, people started pounding on the studios windows to warn people. Both governor Rick Scott and Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for governor, broke off from the campaign trail to return to Tallahassee. Im deeply appreciative of law enforcement's quick response to the shooting at the yoga facility in Tallahassee today. No act of gun violence is acceptable. I'm in close communication with law enforcement officials and will be returning to Tallahassee tonight. Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) November 2, 2018 Mr Scott and Mr Gillum both visited gunshot victims, including one who had been shot nine times. Mr Gillum asked residents to pray for the survivors and those who were killed. We all feel a sense of added vulnerability because of the shooting, the mayor said. The lawyer for a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy charges after spending eight years on death row in Pakistan has fled the country, fearing for his safety. Asia Bibis brother, James Masih, said on Saturday that her lawyer, Saiful Malook, had left Pakistan. Pakistans top court acquitted Asia Bibi on Wednesday and ordered her release in a move that infuriated the countrys hard-line Islamists, who have held nationwide protests demanding her death. Protesters rally to condemn the Supreme Court decision (K.M. Chaudary/AP) The government reached an agreement with the Islamists overnight in which it agreed to impose a travel ban on her while the case is reviewed. Mr Malook told The Associated Press earlier this week that he would have to leave Pakistan because the followers of hardline cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi had threatened to kill him, as well as the judges who acquitted Ms Bibi. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan, and the mere rumour of insulting Islam has caused lynchings. Ms Bibi was arrested in 2009 on allegations that she insulted Islams Prophet Muhammad. Her family and lawyers deny she ever insulted Islam. Human rights groups have called for Ms Bibis release and criticised the blasphemy law, saying it has been used to settle scores or abuse religious minorities. The court upheld the blasphemy law, but said there was not enough evidence to convict Ms Bibi. Pakistans Supreme Court has not been known to reverse its decisions, but court reviews typically take years. Ms Bibis family had expected her release by Thursday night. Her husband, Ashiq Masih, returned from Britain with their children in mid-October and was waiting for her release so that they could fly out of Pakistan. Though the family has not disclosed her destination, France and Spain have offered asylum. The husband of a Christian Pakistani woman who spent eight years on death row after being accused of blasphemy has asked Theresa May to grant them asylum in Britain. Asia Bibi has faced calls for her life amid widespread protest after she was acquitted of an allegation of insulting Islams Prophet Muhammad. Her husband, Ashiq Masih, on Saturday called for the UK to grant the mother and their family refuge amid fears for their safety. In a video seen by the Press Association, he says: I am requesting the Prime Minister of the UK help us and as far as possible grant us freedom. Speaking in Punjabi, he also called for asylum from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Donald Trump in the footage. A supporter of a radical Islamic group stands guard as protesters block a main road to condemn a Supreme Court decision that acquitted Asia Bibi (Muhammad Sajjad/AP) Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, who has also launched a petition calling for their asylum, said: The fact no offer has manifested is shocking. Hundreds of thousands of people have rioted and called for her death. The official route to asylum would mean the family would need to make the request after fleeing Pakistan. However, the Pakistani government reached a deal with Islamists to restrict Ms Bibis travel while the case is reviewed. The chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, Tom Tugendhat, said he has asked the Home Office for an urgent evaluation of the situation, the Guardian reported. It is clear that Ms Bibi, and other religious minorities, are in grave danger and prime minister Imran Khan needs to decide if he believes in the rule of law or the rule of the mob, the Conservative MP added. Mrs May has previously called for the death penalty to be abolished globally when asked about Ms Bibis case. Ms Bibi was arrested in 2009, accused of insulting Islams prophet during an argument with fellow farm workers and sentenced to death for blasphemy. Lawyers have denied she ever insulted Islam. Campaigners have long-criticised Pakistans blasphemy laws, saying they are misused to abuse religious minorities. Pakistans Supreme Court acquitted Ms Bibi on Wednesday, upholding the law but saying there was not enough evidence to convict her. Ms Bibis lawyer fled Pakistan on Saturday while fearing for his life, according to reports. Nasir Saeed, the director of CLAAS UK a charity that supports persecuted Christians in Pakistan, called for Mrs May to intervene quickly. The lives of Asia Bibi and her family are in danger as long as she remains in Pakistan, as the protests following the verdict have shown, he added. We ask that Mrs May takes swift action to help secure the safe exit of Asia Bibi and her family from Pakistan, as the situation is becoming increasingly perilous. France and Spain have reportedly offered Ms Bibi asylum. It has been requested that the footage of her husbands message is not made public for fear of reprisals. More than 70 business leaders have backed a second Brexit referendum, warning that the UK faces either a blindfold or a destructive hard Brexit that would be bad for both firms and jobs. Waterstones chief executive James Daunt, ex-Sainsburys chief executive Justin King, Lastminute.com founder Baroness Lane-Fox and Innocent Drinks co-founder Richard Reed are among signatories of a letter calling for a Peoples Vote on leaving the European Union. The letter argues that both the Governments current plans for Brexit, and a no-deal Brexit, would leave the country worse off than they were being in the EU if the country left in March. Richard Reed is among the signatories (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA) Other people who put their name to the letter include Cobra Beer founder Lord Bilimoria, former Marks and Spencer chairman and ex-Labour peer Lord Myners, Alex Chesterman, founder of the Zoopla property website, and Sir Simon Robertson, the ex-chairman of Rolls-Royce. The signatories all acting in personal capacities come from various different areas of commerce, including finance, retail, and food and drink. They are the latest group to call for a second referendum, with a rally demanding a fresh referendum a fortnight ago seeing a crowd estimated at more than half a million people march through central London. Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the Peoples Vote March (Yui Mok/PA) The letter states: The business community was promised that, if the country voted to leave, there would continue to be frictionless trade with the EU and the certainty about future relations that we need to invest for the long term. Despite the Prime Ministers best efforts, the proposals being discussed by the Government and the European Commission fall far short of this, and they are not nearly as good as the current deal we have inside the EU. The uncertainty over the past two years has already led to a slump in investment, which will make our country poorer. We are now facing either a blindfold or a destructive hard Brexit. Both these options will further depress investment. They will be bad for business and bad for working people. Given that neither was on the ballot in 2016, we believe the ultimate choice should be handed back to the public with a Peoples Vote. Lord Myners, who was appointed as city minister by Gordon Brown in 2008 but now sits as a crossbencher, added: Any deal will be made from a position of weakness where we have surrendered our principal negotiating cards. It will be half-formed, casting a long shadow over business confidence, damaging investment and hurting both enterprises and their employees for years to come. A spokesman for the Department for Exiting the European Union said: The people of the United Kingdom have already had their say in one of the biggest democratic exercises this country has ever seen and the Prime Minister has made it clear that there is not going to be a second referendum. We remain confident we will agree a mutually advantageous deal with the EU, that works for business and the economy. Six children are being treated for potentially serious injuries after an inflatable slide is believed to have collapsed at a fireworks funfair, medics have said. Surrey Police said Woking Park was evacuated as medics, including an air ambulance crew, treated a total of seven patients on Saturday. The force initially said it was a collapse of a helter skelter at the fairground in Woking, but the latest information said it was a giant inflatable slide. #Woking Our clinicians have treated six children on scene for potentially serious injuries. Along with our colleagues @airambulancekss, our crews are transporting the patients to major trauma centres in London South East Coast Ambulance (@SECAmbulance) November 3, 2018 One witness said he had been concerned earlier that night when he saw up to 40 children playing on the flimsy slide at once. South East Coast Ambulance Service said it had multiple crews at the scene of the significant incident at Woking Fireworks. Our clinicians have treated six children on scene for potentially serious injuries, SECamb said in a statement. We have had to evacuate the whole #Woking Park site to allow the air ambulance to land. If you are still in the area, please follow the instructions given to you by officers and make your way home. Surrey Police (@SurreyPolice) November 3, 2018 The patients were being transported to major trauma centres in London with the help of the air ambulance, the statement added. Andy Datson, 23, said he saw up to 40 children playing on slide, which he estimated was about 30-foot tall at its highest. We had been walking past the slide earlier in the night and said it looked unsafe. It looked pretty flimsy to say the least, he said. There were far too many kids on it. It didnt look like it could hold that many people. The journalist, who lives in Guildford, Surrey, said that he noticed the flashing lights of ambulances after walking off with friends. I immediately thought thats going to be the slide, he said. It looked like there were too many children on it and the side area had given way, he said. Emergency services arrive at the scene (Andy Datson/PA) If, heaven forbid, they fell from the top I would say its at least 25 to 30-ft tall. Oliver Trimble told the BBC that the evacuation was announced over the events loudspeakers shortly before 8pm. He said he saw victims being treated by medics, adding: It was quite a horrendous sight to see. This is one of Wokings biggest events of the year, thousands of people come to see the fireworks, he said. Local musician Anna Neale said she was among the hundreds of people who evacuated the park, which had been packed with families with young children. The 36-year-old said: We saw all the blue lights and saw the air ambulance arriving. We all evacuated very calmly. Everyone was just shocked. She had planned to take her daughters, aged 10 and six, on the giant slide after the fireworks. She said: I am very grateful my children didnt go on it, lets just put it that way. Woking District Rotary Club, the events organisers, said it was shocked and distressed by the collapse. We are focusing in assisting the emergency services in dealing with the injured children, a statement added. Our thoughts are with the children and their families at the moment. The fireworks extravaganza had been due to start at 8pm. A Health and Safety Executive spokeswoman said initial enquiries were being made. A Woking Borough Council spokesman said: We will be working with the police and relevant authorities to understand and explain what happened. Theresa May will join Emmanuel Macron in France on Friday to commemorate the fallen from the First World War ahead of the centenary of its end. Downing Street said the Prime Minister would meet the French president for a ceremony on the Somme, where tens of thousands of British and French soldiers were killed in the bloody conflict. They will have a working lunch in Albert before laying a wreath at the imposing Thiepval Memorial, which is inscribed with the names of some 72,000 war dead who have no known graves. The Thiepval Memorial (Gareth Fuller/PA) The Prime Minister will arrive in France via Belgium, where she will lay wreaths in a military cemetery in Mons on the graves of John Parr, the first British soldier to be killed in 1914, and George Ellison, who was killed just 90 minutes before the Armistice came into effect at 11am on November 11 1918. Mrs May said: Next week will mark one of the most significant moments in our nations history. One hundred years after the guns fell silent on the Western Front, each and every one of us can pause to reflect on the immense sacrifices that were made by so many. The killing fields of France and Belgium are scarred by the horrors of war, but the strength and closeness of our relationship today is a testament to the journey our countries have travelled together. Im proud to represent the immense gratitude of our nation at these commemorations and share these moments of reflection with our friends and partners in Europe. The wreath she and Mr Macron shall lay will comprise poppies, the British remembrance symbol, and their French equivalent le bleuet. The Cenotaph (Anthony Delvin/PA) Downing Street said the Prime Minister would also join senior royals at The Royal British Legion (RBL) Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday. The following day she will also join them at the Cenotaph, where federal president Frank-Walter Steinmeier will become the first German leader to lay a wreath at the monument to the dead. Theresa May has paid tribute to the immense sacrifices made during the First World War as she hailed the strong relationship between Britain and its European allies. The Prime Minister spoke as the centenary of the end of the bloody four-year battle draws near. Mrs May will take part in a series of events this week, culminating in a national service of remembrance on November 11. (PA Graphics) On Sunday, a bugle will sound at the French graveside of war poet Wilfred Owen, marking 100 years since his death on November 4 1918, just seven days shy of peace being declared. Elizabeth Owen, the widow of his nephew Peter, will attend a ceremony in Ors, in the north of the country, where the instrument which was taken from a dead German soldier will be used to play The Last Post. Meanwhile, at the Tower of London on Sunday evening, about 10,000 flames will be lit, in remembrance of those who fought and died in the war. The light display installation, called Beyond the Deepening Shadow, will run each evening up to and including on Armistice Day. On Friday, Mrs May will join Emmanuel Macron in France to commemorate the fallen. Downing Street said she would meet the French president for a ceremony on the Somme, where tens of thousands of British and French soldiers were killed in the bloody conflict. Mrs May said: Next week will mark one of the most significant moments in our nations history. One hundred years after the guns fell silent on the Western Front, each and every one of us can pause to reflect on the immense sacrifices that were made by so many. The killing fields of France and Belgium are scarred by the horrors of war, but the strength and closeness of our relationship today is a testament to the journey our countries have travelled together. Im proud to represent the immense gratitude of our nation at these commemorations and share these moments of reflection with our friends and partners in Europe. The wreath she and Mr Macron shall lay will comprise poppies, the British remembrance symbol, and their French equivalent le bleuet. (PA Graphics) Downing Street said the Prime Minister would also join senior royals at The Royal British Legion (RBL) Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday. The following day she will attend the Cenotaph alongside them, where federal president Frank-Walter Steinmeier will become the first German leader to lay a wreath at the monument to the dead. Scottish Ambulance Service staff have been subjected to 460 verbal and physical assaults since the beginning of 2015, according to figures. Of the assaults recorded, 372 were physical and 88 were verbal (including spitting). The number of assaults does however appear on course to be lower this year than in 2017 40 assaults have been reported so far in 2018, down from the 141 over the course of the previous year. The FOI request, made by the Scottish Conservatives, also indicated there are over 2,500 addresses in Scotland currently red flagged meaning ambulance staff cannot enter without police presence. A violence at work survey conducted by Unison Scotland reported there were 18,225 assaults on NHS workers in 2018. The Emergency Workers Act enables penalties of up to 12 months imprisonment, a 10,000 fine, or both to be imposed following conviction for offences against ambulance staff. The attacks on Scottish ambulance staff were described as `despicable (Andrew Milligan/PA) The Scottish Government extended the legislation in 2008 to include health professionals working in the community. For more serious attacks, other offences such as assault can be used which mean offenders can face penalties up to life imprisonment. Liam Kerr, Tory shadow justice secretary, said: Our emergency services constantly help people and save lives in difficult circumstances, often risking their own safety for others. It is disgraceful that anyone would assault them, physically or verbally, as they try to help others. While this year does seem to be on course to have fewer attacks, one attack on ambulance staff is one too many. More must be done to keep them safe, including tough action from the courts in response to anyone who has assaulted, or threatened, ambulance staff. A Scottish Government spokesman said: Attacks against our ambulance 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. A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said: Our staff should not have to fear for their safety when treating patients and keeping them safe is of paramount importance to us. That is why we have introduced a range of measures to help protect them individual addresses where staff have previously faced violence or threatening behaviour are automatically flagged to our crews, who can then request additional support, if required. Ambulance staff are also trained in managing aggression and assessing risk, enabling them to better judge when they need to wait for support from the Police, or additional ambulance crews. The Duke of Cambridge has revealed that his father, the Prince of Wales, lives the way he advocates when it comes to his environmental beliefs and took him litter picking during a school holiday. William and his brother, the Duke of Sussex, thought it was normal to be given spikes and black plastic bags as teenagers and encouraged to clear up other peoples rubbish. Charles is well known for his campaigning to protect the rain forests, save endangered species from extinction and combat the threat of climate change. William and Harry recall the memory in a new hour-long BBC documentary marking Charless forthcoming 70th birthday. Speaking in Prince, Son And Heir: Charles At 70, William said: He took us litter picking, when we were younger, on holiday. We were in Norfolk on school holidays, and went out litter picking with him Both of us thought This is perfectly normal, everyone must do it. The Prince of Wales has encouraged his sons, the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of Cambridge, to respect the environment (Alastair Grant/PA) Were there with our, basically, spikes, stabbing the rubbish into black plastic bags. The comments were made as the royal brothers watched a recording of the prince giving a speech in 1970 in which he mentioned the growing throwaway plastic society. William went on to say that his father was affected by the backlash he received for his environmental views, which saw him ridiculed for supposedly talking to plants. He said: He does live the way he advocates so, until someone comes up with an electric plane its impossible to get round the world, for instance, without using a plane thats there. He did take to heart the criticism quite a lot when he was younger. Harry confessed he was programmed to collect litter because of the positive influence of his father. He said: Hes done an amazing job without telling us what we should be doing or what direction we should be going. Hes just let us learn from the nature of the job, learn from him, learn from Mummy, to the point where I used to get the mickey (taken) out of me at school for just picking up rubbish. Prince, Son And Heir: Charles At 70 will be broadcast on Thursday at 9pm on BBC One. Nicola Sturgeon has called on the UK Government to come clean on how much Brexit will cost the NHS. The First Minister claimed millions of pounds could be lost in funding for research trials after leaving the EU. She pointed to other dangers, such as pharmaceutical companies being told to stockpile medicine in preparation for a no-deal scenario. Speaking ahead of her speech at the National Cancer Research Institute Conference, the First Minister said: Far from the 350 million extra a week promised to the NHS from Brexit, there is growing evidence of mounting costs. Its now time the UK Government came clean on the scale of the cost to our health service. The Prime Minister failed to guarantee there would be no interruption in medicine supplies after Brexit. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (Jane Barlow/PA) This came after UK ministers published a truncated tender, at a cost of tens of millions of pounds, associated with medicines stockpiling. There is no good Brexit for our health service. Even with a deal we face a loss of millions of pounds in research funding which could hit clinical trials. The best way to avoid this damage to the health service is to remain in the EU. But short of that, the UK must stay in the Customs Union and Single Market which is around eight times the size of the UK market alone to minimise the damage of Brexit and ensure we continue to have access to the high quality frontline and research staff we need. She added that the Scottish Government is doing all it can to mitigate the expected damage Brexit could cause the NHS. A spokeswoman for the UK Governments Department of Health and Social Care said: The Government is confident of reaching a deal with the EU that benefits patients and the NHS but we are preparing for all situations and we are working closely with partners to ensure the proper provision of all medicines in the event of a no deal Brexit. The department is working closely with pharmaceutical companies to minimise costs and we have received good engagement from the industry so far. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc(left) meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Shanghai yesterday during Chinas first International Import Expo__Photo: Thong Nhat/VNA , , , Vietnam attached importance to developing its friendly, stable, healthy and sustainable relationship with China, and considered it one of the top priorities of the countrys foreign policy, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.He made the statement at a meeting with Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping in Shanghai on November 4 as part of his trip to China to attend the first International Import Expo of China (CIIE 2018).PM Phuc called for joint efforts to maintain high-level visits and meetings, increase mutual political trust, promote important cooperation mechanisms between the two parties and countries, further utilize the potential of each side and boost cooperation in areas that made practical progress.The guest congratulated China on the achievements it had recorded after 40 years of reform, and expressed his wish that under the leadership of the Communist Party of China led by Xi Jinping, the Chinese people would be able to turn China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful.He also lauded Chinas initiatives to contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world, as well as its Belt and Road Initiative.Vietnam backed the Mekong-Lancang cooperation in combination with the framework of the Greater Mekong Sub-region collaboration for effective use and management of water resources and sustainable development, he noted.PM Phuc expressed his belief that the CIIE 2018 would open up new cooperation channels for goods distribution, helping promote official trade activities and brand building so that more and more Vietnamese commodities would be consumed in the Chinese market.He asked the Chinese side to make it easier for Vietnamese goods to enter its market, and devise practical policies and measures to reduce Vietnams big trade deficit towards promoting stable and sustainable growth of bilateral trade.Vietnam always welcomed Chinese investment in the country, he said.Regarding sea-related issues, the Vietnamese Government leader applauded the positive results of negotiations and cooperation mechanisms in less sensitive areas in the sea between the two countries, as well as initial progress for the Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) between ASEAN and China.He suggested the two sides respect each others legitimate interests, realize the common perceptions of the two countries leaders and the agreement on the basic principles guiding the settlement of sea-related issues between Vietnam and China, and patiently solve disputes by peaceful measures in line with international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in order to maintain peace and stability in the East Sea and the region.For his part, Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping said that PM Phucs participation in the expo reflected the Vietnamese Governments respect for their bilateral relations.He stressed that the Chinese Party and State always treasured ties with Vietnam, and agreed to maintain high-level contacts to bolster political understanding and foster all-round cooperation in a practical manner with the Southeast Asian country.He added that both sides would work together to enhance people-to-people exchanges and consolidate their traditional friendship while maintaining peace and sustainability at sea and creating favorable conditions for bilateral ties to thrive.Regarding economic-trade cooperation, Xi stated that China would import more goods from Vietnam to balance trade with the neighboring country.In 2017, Vietnams shipments to China rose 36.8 percent and China would continue to promote the trend, he said.On the same day, while hosting a reception for leaders of major Chinese groups operating in finance, construction and infrastructure development, PM Phuc said that the Vietnamese Government always welcomed Chinese investment.PM Phuc spoke highly of Chinese corporations business achievements at home and abroad.The Chinese businessmen lauded Vietnams socio-economic development while saying they would continue to expand and invest in finance, insurance, banking, energy and transport infrastructure in Vietnam.They expressed their hope that the Vietnamese Government and relevant authorities would create favorable conditions for them to join large projects in the country.Vice Chairman of Ping An Trust Song Chengli said that his corporation had strengths in finance, insurance, banking and investment with total assets of 870 billion.The group was in the worlds top 500 enterprises and ranked 7th among the leading global financial giants, he said, adding that he was interested in Vietnams mechanisms to protect foreign financial firms, especially those investing in local credit organizations.Chairman of China Greenland Zhang Yuliang expressed his pleasure at meeting PM Phuc in Shanghai, saying that his firm had cooperated with many large groups around the world and had total assets worth USD 150 billion.He said that Vietnam was a potential market with great cooperation opportunities, especially in agriculture, adding that Vietnamese farm produce and food were also welcomed in the Chinese market.For his part, PM Phuc spoke highly of the groups plans to invest and expand in Vietnam.He applauded the fields in which Chinese firms wanted to pour cash into Vietnam, including agriculture, food production, finance and transport infrastructure development.The PM asked representatives from Vietnamese ministries and sectors to collect opinions and proposals from Chinese firms and then arrange working sessions to discuss how to realize their business ideas.With its current development pace, from now to 2020, Vietnam needed USD 25 billion per year for infrastructure development, PM Phuc said, noting that it was a promising land for international investors, including China, to cultivate, as it is one of Vietnams priorities for the countrys socio-economic development.He expressed his hope that Chinese firms would promote imports of Vietnamese agro-forestry-fishery products.- The Brexit latest, free fruit for employees and a fireworks display marred by injuries to children all lead the papers on Sunday. The Sunday Times reports on what it calls Theresa Mays secret Brexit deal, with the paper saying the Prime Minister has secured private concessions which will allow Britain to remain in the customs union. The Sunday Telegraph leads with Health Secretary Matt Hancock calling on companies to do more to improve the health of their staff by offering perks such as free fruit and counselling. The front page of the Sunday Telegraph: 'Give staff free fruit, minister tells bosses' #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/cevBfuknRF The Telegraph (@Telegraph) November 3, 2018 The Observer runs with Brexit, with the paper carrying allegations from whistleblowers that Arron Banks may have misled Parliament over the links between his business and Leave.EU group. The Independent reports on a new inquiry into bullying at Westminster. The Mail on Sunday says Downing Street has lodged a complaint with the BBC over the coverage of the budget earlier this week. What the papers say - November 4 The Sunday Express leads on injuries in Woking at a Bonfire Night party. And the Daily Star on Sunday reports that 1,000 Army dogs have been put down over the last 15 years. Almost half of holidaymakers think the Government should introduce a tourism tax on overseas visitors, a new survey suggests. Many countries popular with UK tourists charge fees for visitors, including Spain, Italy, France and the US, and the growth of accommodation website Airbnb has led to concerns about overtourism and spiralling property prices in some destinations. A poll of more than 1,000 UK holidaymakers to mark the start of trade show World Travel Market in London found that 45% believe the UK should respond with its own tax. Overseas visitors spent 285 million nights in the UK last year, according to Office for National Statistics data. This suggests a 2 per night levy could raise 570 million per year, which could be invested in improving infrastructure and services. Scotlands First Minister Nicola Sturgeon recently ordered a consultation into allowing councils to set so-called tourist taxes. Tourists posing for a photograph in Westminster (Hannah McKay/PA) Birmingham, Bath and Edinburgh have already considered introducing such a scheme. But the hospitality and travel industries are lobbying against a levy, arguing that inbound tourists face hefty VAT and Air Passenger Duty charges which are higher than in many competing countries. Paul Nelson of World Travel Market London said: It can seem galling for British holidaymakers to have to pay extra for a tourism tax when theyre overseas, yet there are no similar levies here in the UK. Such a tax could raise hundreds of million of pounds a year which could be invested back into UK infrastructure. A 53-year-old man has been taken to hospital after being shot by police. Armed officers from West Mercia Police were called to School Road, Bromsgrove, to reports of a man with a handgun at around 1.45am on Sunday. The injured man was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and has undergone surgery. A man is being treated in hospital after being shot by police in Bromsgrove. Read more here https://t.co/iADs5DRa9a West Mercia Police (@WMerciaPolice) November 4, 2018 His injuries are not thought to be life-threatening and the incident has been referred to the Independent Office of Police Conduct. Deputy Chief Constable Richard Moore said: It is standard procedure that incidents of this nature are referred to the Independent Office of Police Conduct and we will now work with them as they carry out their enquiries. Thousands of Iranians have staged a rally in Tehran marking the anniversary of the 1979 US embassy takeover as Washington restored all sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. The crowd chanted Down with the US, and Death to Israel during Sundays rally in the capital, and state TV said similar demonstrations were held in other cities and towns. On Friday, Donald Trumps US administration announced the restoration of sanctions on Irans shipping, financial and energy sectors, the second batch of penalties to be restored after the US president withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear agreement in May. The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks Tehran (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/AP) Iranian students stormed the embassy shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The US cut off diplomatic relations in response. Irans clerically-led government celebrates the embassy takeover every year as a decisive blow against the United States, which had supported the autocratic rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The embassy compound, widely known as the den of spies, is now a cultural centre. Anger and distrust over the US is surging again following Mr Trumps decision to withdraw from landmark nuclear deal with world powers despite Tehrans compliance with the agreement, which was negotiated under the Obama administration. A movie-style poster inspired by Game Of Thrones which appeared on Donald Trumps Twitter feed (Donald Trump/AP) On Friday, Mr Trumps government announced the restoration of sanctions on Irans shipping, financial and energy sectors, the second batch of penalties to be restored. Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis, and has seen sporadic protests in recent months as Iranian officials have tried to downplay the sanctions and their effects. The US said the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. At a gathering on Saturday, Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, portrayed the sanctions as part of a long tradition of American hostility toward the Islamic Republic, which he said had nevertheless prevailed. The centenary of the death of First World War poet Wilfred Owen will be marked at his graveside with the sound of a bugle he took from the battlefield. The instrument, taken from a dead German soldier, is due to be played in public for the first time at the ceremony in Ors, northern France, on Sunday. Elizabeth Owen, widow of the renowned war poets nephew Peter, will be among those at the gathering. The soldier was killed on November 4 1918 during the battle to cross the Sambre-Oise canal at Ors, just seven days before peace was declared. He wrote about the bugle, referring to having got some loot, in a letter to his brother in 1917. An early-morning visit to the canal side site of his death, followed by The Last Post and readings of the soldiers poetry at his grave in Ors communal cemetery, were planned by the Wilfred Owen Association. Grace Freeman from the Wilfred Owen Association holding the bugle the war poet took from a dead German soldier (Fiona MacDonald/PA) Grace Freeman, a trustee of the association, said they expected between 150 and 200 people to attend in memory of a man famed for his writings on the brutal reality of war. She said: It was important for us all to be here and to remember him, to make sure his words and his legacy are not forgotten. We all feel privileged to be here and to be involved. I have spent a long time deliberating over how Id like to describe being a woman who doesnt have children. I have settled on non-mum, but the world also prefers child-free, it seems. However you label it, there are a lot of women out there, like me, who have chosen not to have a family, for myriad reasons. (And please note, I place no judgement of those who are child-free and dont like kids!) As aunt to Nancy, five, and Cole, two, godmother to two of my friends children and honorary aunt to countless others, my life is far from child-free. And I love it that way. I just dont have the urge to have any children of my own. Which causes issues, it seems, for many people. And they often say things that, while Im sure they dont think about it or mean it, can be quite harsh on us non-mums. Heres my list of things not to say to us 1. But youre so good with kids Yes, yes I am. In fact, Id call myself brilliant with kids, never mind good. Hanging out with kids is so much fun. You get to do things youre otherwise not allowed to in adult environments (watch Disney films, do glittery craft, say poo a lot). But does being good with kids mean I should have them? I dont think so, sorry. 2. Youd make a fab mum This often goes hand-in-hand with good with kids. My initial reaction is, Er, how do you know? I might be awful! Im impatient, quite selfish, terrible with budgeting, and I struggle to wake in the night even if a storm is raging. I often wonder if Id stir to my babys cries. I have a fabulous rapport with children, and really relate to them, but I truly think being a mum is very different to just getting on well with your friends kids. 3. What if you get lonely when youre 80? This classic was said to me by a nurse when she was taking my blood! Great bedside manner not. So, people have kids just to not be lonely? Lovely. Create a human so youre not on your own. You do know there are other humans out there? And kids grow up/move away? Having a child is absolutely no guarantee that you wont be lonely in old age, and I find it worrying that someone would think that the way to stave off loneliness is by having a baby. Many new mums feel desperately isolated and suffer postnatal depression suggesting a baby is a cure for loneliness is concerning to me. 4. Have you ever wanted children? This is a really intrusive question, and should be avoided at all costs, please. You have no idea if someone who is not a mum has had a miscarriage, tried for children and now decided that its not for them or perhaps they did want kids and something else happened thats changed their mind, such as a break-up or career change. Im quite open about my experiences with my friends, and am lucky not to have ever suffered a loss such as miscarriage. But a stranger could leap in with this one not knowing my personal history. Not wanting children in the present doesnt mean the person never did. 5. Do you feel left out? Not being in the `mum gang doesnt mean I cant be friends with women who are (thinkstock/PA) Yep, often! Does that mean I should create human life? Nope! And I make great effort to enjoy time with the little people in my life so I get a dose of fun (such as going on a mini break to the coast with my sister and her boy). Im sure my mum friends feel left out of a lot of things too. The key here is about adapting through your friendships, not just being sidelined. I make an effort to see friends who have kids, and make our lives work together. So, that way, I dont feel left out and, instead, I feel part of their new life stage. Just like they do with me for example, all the friends who painstakingly arranged babysitters so they could come to my 40th birthday party. 6. Youre so lucky This entry is going to be a list of phrases that you may well have uttered as a mum, but please, please, think before you do it again, especially to a single woman who doesnt have children. Having access to more time for, say, a manicure, doesnt mean were not lonely sometimes. See also: Its OK for you, You have no idea, Id love a night on my own!, Im so stressed, Motherhood is the best thing thats ever happened to me. In return, we promise not to moan (too much) when we have to stay a bit late at work because youre off to relieve the childminder. 7. But Meghans pregnant! The Duchess of Sussex, who is expecting her first child, on Bondi Beach (PA) Um. So I should be too? This is interesting, as its a bit like saying, But she straightened her hair, to a woman with a bouffant of curls. Im excited for her its lovely news. As I say, I love babies other peoples. But, just like I havent bought the same maxi dress she wore on Bondi Beach, I dont want to be pregnant just because Meghan is. Australia and Australians answered the call of the Empire emphatically when the fighting began in the First World War including Aboriginal men who were denied citizenship of the land they called home. The contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander soldiers is unclear, owing to the fact that race was often not recorded on enlistment forms. But independent researcher and historian Philippa Scarlett has sought to change this, spending decades uncovering stories of those who became so-called forgotten diggers. Australian forces - including Aboriginals - took part in the Battle of Gallipoli (Niall Carson/PA) She said: As a white Australian, I just had no idea as many people did in the 1990s, that Aboriginal people served in any of Australias conflicts. When they came back, Aboriginal soldiers were quite often not recognised and missed off war memorials. More than 1,000 Aboriginal men attempted to enlist, with 820 serving in the AIF between 1914 and 1918 including at Gallipoli, Light Horse in Egypt and the Australian Tunnelling Company on the Western Front, Ms Scarlett said. The Defence Act at the time prevented anyone who was not of mostly European descent from serving, but many Aboriginal men found their way in. Some claimed they were from the south of Europe, others travelled to a second centre after being refused by a recruiting officer elsewhere. Ms Scarlett, who works with the mission records of the AIF, said there was a paradox with Aboriginal men volunteering when the country refused to grant them citizenship, and would not until 1967. She said: Why would they fight for the people who were the imperialists? It is very hard to understand, but some people say they just joined up following very aggressive recruitment campaigns. Its hard to know because we dont have any written records, but I think there were a few who were fighting for their country. Australia was their country, although it had been taken from them. They went into the war, just like other soldiers, and some came home injured, some didnt come home, they were traumatised, injured. These men went, their country did not recognise them, and when they came home there were so many rights they didnt have. They were treated like second-class citizens. A number of Aboriginal soldiers had hopes of greater equality after the war. But Thomas Blackman, writing to anthropologist Caroline Tennant-Kelly in 1935, said: I always thought that fighting for our king and country would make me naturalised British subject and a man with freedom in the country but I have hardly had freedom since I returned from the war; I have no justice at all. Aboriginal soldiers were also decorated for their war efforts, four receiving Distinguished Conduct Medals and one, Ewan Rose, being awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre. His recommendation, from Captain Robert Thomas Brock, spoke of Corporal Roses courage and cheerfulness as he extracted colleagues at Broodseinde Ridge. Ms Scarlett said it was only in recent years that the efforts of native people had been brought into public consciousness, adding: I think thats important. At last, during this 14-18 period, that Aboriginal people are being put into the mainstream history. More than 136 million pairs of socks were supplied to troops during the First World War, according to monthly records kept by the War Office from 1914 to 1920. Details were kept on every aspect of warfare, including ammunition, food supplies and equipment for millions of soldiers. To commemorate the centenary of the end of the war, here are some of the standout numbers. 5.33 million: estimated strength of the Empire forces in November 1918. Of this number, more than 1.6 million of the troops were stationed at home in Great Britain. A group of soldiers in action during the First World War (PA) 908,000: total number of British and British Empire armed forces deaths in the Great War. 619: number of British civilians killed in air raids from December 23 1914 to July 20 1918. This included 142 children, and a further 1,650 people were injured. 7.45 million: average daily expenditure of the war in the period April 1 1917 to May 5 the same year. 5.25 million: tons of ammunition shipped to France from August 9 1914 to November 10 1918. British soldiers under cover in France (PA) 1.25lb: daily ration of bread issued to troops in France at the beginning of the war, along with 4oz of bacon, 3oz of cheese and 3oz of sugar. By the beginning of 1918, the daily bread ration had been reduced to 1lb, with cheese down to 2oz. 3,000: death sentences passed on British and Empire troops and other camp followers from the start of the war to the end of March 1919, for offences such as desertion and mutiny. Of that number, 346 death sentences were carried out 266 of them for desertion. British artillerymen in action during the opening of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 (PA) 578: Victoria Crosses awarded to British forces in the period between August 1914 and May 1920. This is the highest military decoration for bravery in the face of the enemy. Figures taken from the March 1922 War Office publication Statistics Of The Military Effort Of The British Empire During The Great War The boss of online holiday site Lastminute.com has spoken out over his fears for the travel industry after Brexit and said uncertainty is weighing on firms. Chief executive Marco Corradino told the Press Association he believes the Government will secure a transition deal to avoid flights being grounded after March 29, but warned there would be implications. There will be an effect, but the reality is that we dont know exactly what will happen and that is the worst thing for business. I hope the effect will not hurt demand for holidays. Lastminute.com boss Marco Corradino said the `best is yet to come for the group (Lastminute.com/PA) So far, Lastminute.com has not seen any drop-off in demand for holidays for next summer season, but he raised concerns over a potential psychological impact on UK consumers after Brexit. It comes after Transport Secretary Chris Graylings recent revelation that talks on UK-EU post-Brexit flight route access have still not begun. Mr Grayling told a gathering of UK airport bosses there is no way that flights will stop between the UK and EU after March, but said the European Commission has not yet been willing to start formal talks. Lastminute.com is also optimistic that there will be no airport Armageddon next March, with Mr Corradino putting faith in the UK and EU to come to an agreement. Im not worried about the transition phase, but more whats next, he said. We dont have any idea of whats in mind the politicians should be planning for the future. The Italian entrepreneur is bullish over Lastminute.coms prospects despite Brexit worries and a very competitive travel market that has claimed the scalps of a raft of players in recent years. The demise of airline Monarch, budget long-haul carrier Primera Air and LowCostHolidays has highlighted how tough the industry has become, but the holiday boss also stressed the importance of protection for consumers. Mr Corradino said the failures will bring about a positive change in pushing authorities to offer better protection for passengers, while showing the benefits of packages with Atol scheme protection. His comments come as Lastminute.com celebrates its 20th anniversary, having first burst on to the travel scene in October 1998. Founded by well-known entrepreneurs Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman, it shook up the travel sector and turned holiday booking from a long, arduous task into a one-click job. The group was one of the few businesses to survive the dot com bubble and inevitable crash something Mr Corradino puts down to its ability to adapt and change. It has also changed hands three times since being founded, most recently bought by Bravofly Rumbo in 2015, which has since rebranded as lm Group. Were a very different company, because at the very beginning of the dot com era, we were focused on simple products like flights business. Right now we are more focused on holidays, he said. Oxford graduates Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox co-founded Lastminute.com in October 1998 As a pioneer of so-called dynamic packaging where consumers can build their own package of flights, accommodation, and car rental in real-time prices it believes its ongoing investment in this area will pay off as demand shows no signs of slowing. It has just raised its guidance for underlying earnings for 2018 to between 36 million euros and 38 million euros (32 million-33 million), which would mark a 33% to 38% hike on 2017. The group is also hoping to expand further into offering experiences, for example with music and sport. Mr Corradino said: We are 20 years old right now, so were not a teenager anymore, but the best is yet to come. The boss of digital challenger Starling Bank has said conditions are still tough for new market entrants despite renewed efforts to boost competition since the 2008 crash. Starling founder and chief executive Anne Boden said it was a wave of crisis-era consolidation that prompted UK regulators to launch a new authorisation process which ultimately helped usher in a string of new banks. Royal Bank of Scotlands takeover of ABN Amro and Lloyds Banking Groups acquisition of HBOS, as well as the collapse of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, all left a smaller banking sector in their wake. While a raft of new firms entered the lending market, Ms Boden said few have managed to push on to launch current accounts for everyday retail customers. We were, I think, the second bank to go through that authorisation process. OakNorth was the first and theyre an SME bank, she told the Press Association. But you know, there was a whole raft of digital startups going through: there was Atom Bank, Tandem Bank, Starling and Monzo. And these four banks went through the authorisation process. But only ourselves and Monzo ended up doing current account banking and thats hard, thats difficult. So, although the legislation was intended to create new competition, its still tough and not many banks have actually managed to sort of launch and thrive. Anne Boden is founder and chief executive of Starling Bank (Starling Bank/PA) The boss of Metro Bank which itself was the UKs first high street bank in more than 100 years after its post-crisis launch in 2010 insists that competition is stronger than it was in 2008. There are more challenger banks, I think that theres an acceptance of new organisations and that people can see the banks are trying to create competition, Craig Donaldson said in an interview with the Press Association. I do think we need to ensure that from the regulatory perspective that they continue to encourage growth of competition. He warned that Britains divorce form the EU could overshadow efforts to support new players. With all this focus on Brexit, theres just a danger that they forget to continue to focus on creating a competitive environment. And you know, Brexit has become all-encompassing for some and actually we have a country to run at the same time. Both Ms Boden and Mr Donaldson worked under the Royal Bank of Scotland umbrella around the time of its fateful 45 billion bailout. A Metro Bank branch in Tottenham Court Road, London (PA) While Ms Boden was stationed in Europe as ABN Amros head of transaction banking, Mr Donaldson was based in the UK in its retail and SME banking division. I dealt with customers myself, colleagues in stores, colleagues in contact centres, and its fair to say there wasnt a single person who I worked with who didnt genuinely, genuinely feel the weight of what was happening, he said. Nobody was proud, everybody was trying to do the best they could and it was genuinely a horrible time. It was around that time that he made contact with soon-to-be Metro Bank founder Vernon Hill before going on to be part of the executive team. Ms Boden said it was a deafening status quo that spurred her to leave RBS. I got quite frustrated post-crisis. People tried to pretend it hadnt happened and tried to put things back together the way they were before the bankers were involved in re-mediating the past, and were very inward-focused, and I found that trying to pretend it never happened was a very blinkered way to be. In 2011, she went in search of pastures new, first moving to a fintech consultancy, then Allied Irish Bank (AIB) as its chief operating officer, before going on to found Starling. Starling and Metro are now in line to bid for for a 775 million fund from Royal Bank of Scotland aimed at bolstering competition in the small business banking sector. It is part of conditions attached to RBSs 45 billion Government bailout at the height of the financial crisis. We believe that people like ourselves true disruptors will make good use of the money and giving that money and that grant to the likes of the bigger banks, said Starling Banks chief executive. If you reward new banks such as ourselves, with money from the fund, you will get better value for money. Theresa May has led tributes to former head of the Civil Service Sir Jeremy Heywood, who has died from cancer aged 56. Sir Jeremy, who spent four years as head of the Civil Service, passed away on Sunday, days after retiring through ill health. His position as one of Whitehalls most senior mandarins under four successive prime ministers has led him to be regarded as a key behind-the-scenes influence in the shaping of modern Britain. Mrs May hailed his impact on the country, saying: The many retirement tributes paid to Jeremy from across the political spectrum in recent weeks demonstrated his extraordinary talent supporting and advising prime ministers and ministers, and leading the Civil Service with distinction. He worked tirelessly to serve our country in the finest traditions of the Civil Service and he is a huge loss to British public life. I will always be grateful for the support which he gave me personally and will remember his achievements across his career as we regret that he did not have the chance to offer his talents for longer in retirement. Sir Jeremy Heywood was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 2012 (John Stillwell/PA) Sir Jeremy had been Cabinet Secretary since 2012 and previously served as principal private secretary to prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, chief of staff to Mr Brown and Downing Street permanent secretary to David Cameron. He revealed earlier this year that he had been diagnosed with cancer in June 2017, but remained in post during a summer of political upheaval triggered by the shock general election result. He took a leave of absence in June and announced on October 24 that he was stepping down, with acting Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill taking over the role on a permanent basis. In a statement released on Sunday via Downing Street, his wife Suzanne paid tribute to a wonderful father who crammed a huge amount into his 56 years. The country has lost a leader of exceptional ability, unquestioned integrity and - as we saw in the way he fought his illness - remarkable courage. Our hearts go out to Jeremy Heywoods family. Gordon Brown (@GordonBrown) November 4, 2018 She said: He saw it as a huge privilege to work so closely with four prime ministers and two chancellors and was unwavering in his efforts to help each of them reach their goals. He was always conscious of the need for civil servants to see the world through ministers eyes while at the same time respecting the boundaries between politicians and civil servants. Away from his work, he inspired admiration, respect and affection in his many and diverse group of friends and returned it to them. Jeremy could light up any room or conversation and loved hosting a good party. Saddened to hear that Sir Jeremy Heywood has passed away. It was a tremendous privilege to work with him in Government. He was well respected as Cabinet Secretary & head of the Civil Service. He served our Country with great professionalism & he was a dedicated public servant. Priti Patel (@pritipatel) November 4, 2018 Sir Jeremy was nominated for a peerage by Mrs May as Lord Heywood of Whitehall after his retirement in recognition of his distinguished service to public life. Former Treasury minister Yvette Cooper paid a tearful tribute to Sir Jeremy as the news of his death broke while she was appearing on Sky News Ridge show. Ms Cooper said: People will not be aware of quite how many remarkable things he did to steady crises, deal with some of the most difficult problems and as a very honourable public servant to hold people together and to make sure the Government frankly did not do stupid things on many occasions. His contribution to public life for all governments, whatever your politics, was immense and we owe him a debt of gratitude. Jeremy Heywood was a great civil servant. He put his intellect, professionalism & charm at the service of Ministers of all parties & was never afraid to give honest even if unwelcome advice. Thoughts, prayers & heartfelt sympathy to his family. David Lidington (@DLidington) November 4, 2018 Sir Mark Sedwill, Sir Jeremys successor as Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service, said he had made an immense contribution to public life, serving four prime ministers with distinction through some of the most challenging episodes of the last 30 years. He added: We will miss him more than we can say, and will be the poorer without his advice, leadership and extraordinary insight. He set the highest standards and challenged us to meet them. Jeremy was always looking to move difficult problems forward, restlessly confident to deliver a better way. Nine people have died after a rain-swollen river flooded a home in the countryside near Palermo, Sicily, Italian state radio said. Heavy rains have lashed Sicily, a southern Italian island, several days after storms ravaged much of northern Italy. State radio said one person survived the flood late on Saturday night by clinging to a tree. Reports added that the victims were from two families who were spending the weekend together. Nine people lost their lives, according to reports (Ansa/AP) The Italian news agency Ansa said two people were missing on Sunday in other incidents near Sicily after floodwaters swept away their cars, including that of a doctor heading to a Corleone hospital. Italys earlier storms in the north killed at least 15 people, flattened or uprooted millions of trees near Alpine valleys and left several villages without electricity or road access for days. A struggling health board has been criticised after an official report revealed it is looking to shed 10% of its workforce. NHS Tayside is aiming to shed around 1,300 members of staff as part of efforts to balance the books, through natural staff turnover. It comes despite the Scottish Government pledging to write off millions of pounds in debt. The plans are revealed in a section marked other major issues in an assurance report to the board from September. It said there was an acceptance that staff levels need to reduce by 10%. Monica Lennon described the decision as a "recipe for disaster" (Mark Runnacles/PA) Scottish Labours shadow health secretary Monica Lennon said: Cutting over 1,000 jobs is not a rescue plan for Scotlands worst-performing health board. Its a recipe for disaster that could risk patient safety and staff well-being at NHS Tayside for many years to come. The financial chaos and risk that has plagued NHS Tayside is not the fault of its loyal and dedicated workforce, nor is it fair on the patients. For NHS Tayside to be considering cutting staffing by 10%, at a time when staff are already overworked and stressed, is unbelievable and raises serious safety concerns. NHS Tayside which has a workforce of around 13,000 has a projected deficit of 18.7 million for 2018/19. It was among a number of health boards to have around 150 million worth of debt written off by the Scottish Government. Several have received loans known as brokerage in recent years to fill funding gaps. None of the job losses at NHS Tayside are to come through redundancies. The reasoning behind the move was to bring its staffing level closer to that of other health bodies, it said. Annie Ingram, NHS Tayside director of workforce, said: Over the past two years, NHS Tayside has carried out a number of workforce benchmarking exercises which showed NHS Taysides spending on workforce is higher than similarly sized health boards. We spend around 540 million on staff every year and we have a responsibility to ensure that our public funding is spent in the best possible way. It is important that we identify where efficiencies can be made whilst ensuring that services are being delivered with the best use of the resources we are allocated. Patient safety and clinical care remain a top priority for NHS Tayside but we must also achieve financial balance. That is why we are carrying out an organisation-wide review of staff numbers, grades and skills, which is being carried out in partnership with our staff and our trades unions, to ensure we have a safe, affordable and sustainable workforce. Our transformation programme will present opportunities to redesign services delivering them in a different way with a different workforce. There is a no compulsory redundancy policy in NHS Scotland therefore no one will lose their job. Any reduction will be due to natural staff turnover. The health board had a new chief executive and chairman appointed in April. A Scottish Government spokesman said: It is right that NHS Tayside keeps its workforce under review it is the responsibility of individual health boards to deliver good workforce planning, making sure that they have the right people with the right skills in the right place. He added that patient safety and quality of care are top priorities for the government, and said the health boards resource budget has increased by 9% in real terms since 2010/11. A new exhibition tells the story of the German aliens detained in their thousands at British camps during the First World War. Stobs internment camp near Hawick in the Scottish Borders held around 4,500 civilians and military prisoners of war, the second largest of its kind in the Empire. It features in Behind the Wire: Civilian Internment in the British Empire 1914-1919, an exhibition launched at Hawick Museum on Sunday. Stobs is one of the best preserved camps and has become an important archaeological site which continues to offer insights into detention during the Great War. A single hut remains, along with the foundations of several others, and a cairn in memory of those who died there is located by a cemetery. The camp as it once appeared (Collections of Scottish Borders Council administered by Live Borders/Hawick Museum) The exhibition will be shown in Ireland and South Africa, with plans to take it to Canada and New Zealand. Researchers are meanwhile undertaking translations of German language texts that were produced by Stobs detainees. They include letters and a camp newspaper. Professor Stefan Manz of Birminghams Aston University, part of the Stobs research project, said: Stobs is really unique. I think theres a lot of potential there to make this into a really interesting archaeological site and memorial site of the First World War. Well put the texts online in due course, to really give local communities a sense of where they sit within the wider global context of First World War history, and really connect these communities to other communities around the world. Stobs had been a military training ground until war was declared on August 4 1914 and a day later the Aliens Restriction Act was passed by parliament. German civilians specifically men aged between 17 and 55 were detained in large numbers on grounds of national security. In some cases they were arrested for their own safety in the midst of widespread anti-German feeling. In total around 30,000 were interned in Britain. Professor Manz said: No crime needed to be committed in order for the government to round up these so-called enemy aliens. The fear was of spies, of saboteurs, of people rushing back to the German army and being able to fight for Germany. So there was some kind of basis to the whole thing, but on the whole scholars agree that it was a knee-jerk reaction that just wasnt necessary. But its not our task to judge. Its what happened in a war-time situation. Conditions were relatively good in the camp, as the Hague Convention covering the humane treatment of prisoners of war had been ratified several years before. Detainees were given relative freedom to pursue activities to avoid so-called barbed-wire disease a term used to describe the depression and nervousness of internees with no privacy, nothing meaningful to do and worries about the family they had been forced to leave behind. Detainees kept themselves busy producing a camp newspaper (Collection of Scottish Borders Council administered by Live Borders/Hawick Museum) Many used their professional skills inside the camp, offering services to fellow prisoners as hairdressers and tailors. Others worked in postal rooms, kitchens and hospitals. Insights into life in the camp have been obtained through copies of the camp newspaper, Stobsjade, which they sent copies to their relatives, but not before it had been approved by the censors. Among those who died during internment were 35 soldiers, four sailors and six civilians. Stobs was decommissioned by the army in the 1960s and the bodies buried there were all exhumed and reburied in a German war graves cemetery in Staffordshire. The memorial stone at Stobs, which bears the inscription To our comrades who died far from home, is being restored and there are plans to host a ceremony there on Armistice Day. A hundred years after the First World War armistice was signed, here is a look at Scotlands part in the conflict in numbers: 24 bombs dropped by German airships on Edinburgh on the night of April 2 1916. Thirteen people were killed. 74 Scots who were awarded the Victoria Cross the highest award for gallantry for any Commonwealth soldier. 4,500 German civilians and prisoners of war detained at Stobs internment camp near Hawick in the Scottish Borders. 105,000 Scots-born men killed fighting for the British armed forces in the war. A further 15,000 died fighting for the dominion forces. The German warship Hindenburg was the final to sink at Scapa Flow (PA) 72 German warships scuttled while interned at Scapa Flow after the armistice. The order came from German commander Admiral Ludwig von Reuter who feared the ships would be divided among the allied powers. 226 People killed when a train packed with troops bound for Gallipoli collided with a local passenger service at Quintinshill near Gretna in May 1915. A further 246 were injured in what remains Britains worst rail disaster. The collapse of an inflatable slide at a fireworks funfair that resulted in eight children being taken to hospital is being investigated. Seven of the children, all aged under 16, have been discharged following the incident in Woking, Surrey. One boy was kept in for overnight observations but suffered injuries not thought to be significant, police said. Surrey Police declared a major incident at Woking Fireworks after multiple children fell from the giant inflatable slide at about 7.30pm on Saturday, shortly before the display was due to start. Those taken to London hospitals were treated at St Georges Hospital and Kings College Hospital, while one was treated at St Peters Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey, South East Coast Ambulance (Secamb) said. Crime scene investigators in Woking Park, Surrey (Andrew Matthews/PA) Fireworks organiser Michael Holden, of Woking District Rotary, said it appeared the children had fallen to the ground from the top of the slide. Mr Holden, who estimated around 5,000 people were in the park when it happened, said the circumstances around how the children were injured remain unclear. We dont still know yet what exactly happened but eight children appear to have come off near the top of the slide and landed on the floor alongside it, he said. One witness said he was concerned earlier that evening when he saw up to 40 children playing on the flimsy slide at once. Police have appealed for anyone with footage of what happened to contact them. The investigation is now with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the force added. The funfair was under police cordon on Sunday and the collapsed slide had been completely deflated. The slide has been deflated (Andrew Matthews/PA) Police investigators with cameras were inspecting other attractions, including the crooked house and the Ferris wheel. HSE inspectors were also in attendance, with a spokeswoman confirming initial inquiries were being made. Andy Datson, 23, said he saw up to 40 children playing on the slide, which he estimated was about 30ft tall at its highest point. We had been walking past the slide earlier in the night and said it looked unsafe. It looked pretty flimsy to say the least, he said. There were far too many kids on it. It didnt look like it could hold that many people. The journalist, who lives in Guildford, Surrey, added: It looked like there were too many children on it and the side area had given way. Following inflatable slide incident @WokingFireworks last night, we're pleased to say 7 of 8 injured were discharged from hospital overnight. 8th victim kept in for observations, but injuries not believed to be significant.@H_S_E will now investigate.#Woking Surrey Police (@SurreyPolice) November 4, 2018 Local musician Anna Neale, one of hundreds who had to evacuate the park with their families, said said she was relieved she had not taken her young children on the slide. The 36-year-old mother-of-two said: We saw all the blue lights and saw the air ambulance arriving. We all evacuated very calmly. Everyone was just shocked. Ms Neale said: I am very grateful my children didnt go on it, lets just put it that way. Woking District Rotary Club said it was shocked and distressed by the collapse and would meet to agree next steps. Following news of the childrens conditions, Woking Fireworks tweeted: We are really pleased for all concerned to hear that the injuries are not as serious as first feared. We are meeting shortly to agree next steps. We are really pleased for all concerned to hear that the injuries are not as serious as first feared. We are meeting shortly to agree next steps https://t.co/9VgKfYJKVT Woking Fireworks (@wokingfireworks) November 4, 2018 A Woking Borough Council spokesman said: We will be working with the police and relevant authorities to understand and explain what happened. Meanwhile, the ambulance service said three people suffered minor injuries on a teacup ride at a fireworks event in Leeds Castle in Maidstone on Saturday. A Secamb spokeswoman said the service was contacted shortly after 5pm but did not attend as the events medical cover dealt with the incident. The soldiers of 1st battalion, Cameron Highlanders landed at Le Havre within days of war being declared, bound for the Western Front. It marked the beginning of Scotlands role in the battles of the Great War, which would cost the country more than 105,000 men. A huge response to Lord Kitcheners call for volunteers saw new battalions formed and army divisions created. Freshly trained soldiers would soon join regular and territorial forces in the trenches. In all, around 750,000 Scots men fought in the war. One of Lord Kitcheners recruiting posters (Topham Picturepoint/PA) There were many reasons for signing up. Some were motivated by patriotism, some drawn by the promise of a military wage, and others carried along by peer pressure. Professor Ewen Cameron, head of the School of History at Edinburgh University, said: In the volunteering period between 1914 and early 1916, Scotland provides a disproportionate number. In that period you do see extraordinary levels of recruiting in particular areas of Scotland, such as the heavy industrial areas of Lanarkshire and Ayrshire. The professional army and territorial forces bore the brunt of the fighting until the first of the major battles where Kitcheners New Armies were deployed. Battle of Loos September 25 1915 Half the 72 battalions in the largest British offensive of 1915 belonged to Scottish regiments. It saw new army units deployed for the first time, among them the volunteers forming the 9th and 15th Scottish Divisions. There were heavy losses as they tried to break through German defences in Artois and Champagne. The 9th Black Watch volunteer battalion suffered more than 700 casualties felt by families in Angus, Fife, Perthshire, Aberdeenshire, Stirlingshire, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire. Professor Cameron said: Loos is where those new army battalions first saw battle in reasonably large numbers, and thats in some ways when the war began to have a serious impact in Scotland, in terms of losses. It wasnt just professional soldiers or territorials, it was ordinary men who had signed up in 1914 and in early 1915 that were being killed in very large numbers. Patrick Watt, curator of Modern History and Military Collections at National Museums Scotland, said: If you look at the names on war memorials, September 25 1915 is a date that crops up an awful lot. Thats because so many Scots were involved. British soldiers marching after the Battle of Loos in 1915 (Tophams Picturepoint/PA) Because of the way forces were raised, with groups of people from one town or village going off to fight together, it meant some communities suffered disproportionate losses. That was the case for Portree on the Isle of Skye, which commemorates May 17 1915, the third day of the battle of Festubert, where the 4th Cameron Highlanders saw many men fall. Battle of the Somme July 1 1916 Casualties on the first day were the worst in the history of the British Army. Among them were the Edinburgh-raised soldiers of the 15th Battalion, The Royal Scots, who lost 610 soldiers and 18 officers killed, wounded or missing, by July 3. The 16th Battalion lost 460 soldiers and 12 officers. Battle of Arras April 9 1917 When British troops attacked German defences near the city of Arras in Northern France it saw the greatest concentration of Scots in any of the set-piece battles of the war. As well as the 44 Scottish battalions there were seven Canadian battalions with Scottish heritage, including The Canadian Scottish, and The Newfoundland Regiment. Theres a huge concentration of Scots on the battlefield at Arras, including Scots from across the diaspora. Because by this point, the Canadians have arrived, there are Australian soldiers involved, New Zealanders and South Africans, said Mr Watt. The battle became a costly stalemate for both sides and in the end Britain had suffered around 159,000 casualties one third of them Scottish. The wreckage of a British tank at Passchendaele (PA) Passchendaele July 31 1917 There was a another massive Scottish presence at Passchendaele, with more than 50 battalions from Scotland fighting. It is remembered as one of the harshest battles of the war, with heavy rain contributing to the Allies gaining only five miles of ground in three months. The British suffered 300,000 casualties. German Spring Offensive March 21 1918 An attack by the Germans, aimed at breaking through the weakest point of the British Front, saw 7,000 killed and 21,000 captured. Mr Watt said: The 9th and 15th Scottish Divisions, the 51st Highland Division, they were almost overrun by German troops. They did manage to pull back in the end, so the line that ran from the Swiss border all the way up to the Channel was still in tact, but it was a very close-run thing. That was a crucial point in the war and Scottish soldiers played an important role in stopping that German breakthrough in March 1918. Thousands of photos showing the care provided at a veterans hospital since the end of the First World War have been collected into an archive celebrating a centenary of support given to service personnel. In 2013, a volunteer at the Queen Alexandra Hospital Home (QAHH) in Worthing, West Sussex, discovered more than 3,000 photographs packed away in boxes in the attic. As staff at the hospital, which was last year renamed Care For Veterans, examined the photographs they found a visual chronicle of the hospitals services since it was founded in 1919 including never-before-seen images of Queen Alexandra, King George V and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Many of the photographs date back to the hospitals original site at Gifford House, Roehampton, before it relocated in 1934 to Worthing. During the First World War, hospitals were created to treat returning soldiers but the QAHH was established at the end of the war as it became clear that many of those injured would need ongoing rehabilitation and care. The photo archive shows how makeshift wards were fashioned from ballrooms, the type of wheelchairs used by veterans as well as the social activities they participated in along with the emergence of occupational therapy. Elizabeth Baxter, head of fundraising and marketing at Care For Veterans, said: We were set up to care for those returning from the horrors of the First World War, it was a really important decision to look after those who had come back and not just forget about them. The photo archive lets people see what happened, to see those who came back with no legs and arms aged just 17 or 18 and the care given to them, so we do not forget our history. Our facilities are modern now and very different to how they were but we are still caring for those who are brave enough to stand up and be counted. The Duchess of York being photographed by a resident of the home in 1928 (The Queen Alexandra Hospital Home/PA) We have moved on with the type of care we can provide but we were set up with the same ethos to care for people who have put their lives on the line and give them the very best quality of life they deserve. Creating the archive, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, in time for the 100th anniversary of the end of the war and the foundation of the QAHH has taken a team at the hospital more than a year. It has involved digitising and preserving the original photographs and creating photo canvases to display some of the images as well as creating a number of resources to take out into the community. More details can be found at https://www.careforveterans.org.uk/about-us/photo-archive/ Controversial Leave campaigner Arron Banks has insisted there is no Russian money and no interference after a criminal probe was launched into the source of 8 million of campaign funding for the Brexit referendum. In a typically combative performance, the businessman and co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign told the BBCs Andrew Marr Show that all the cash came from a UK-registered company, and repeated claims that he was being targeted by Remain-supporting politicians. The National Crime Agency (NCA) probe was launched into suspected criminal offences after the elections watchdog said it had reasonable grounds to suspect that Mr Banks was not the true source of the cash. It also said that the loans involved a company Rock Holdings based on the Isle of Man, which was impermissible under finance rules. But Mr Banks told Marr that it came from a UK-based insurance business, saying: There was no Russian money and no interference of any type. I want to be absolutely clear about that. The money came from Rock Services which was a UK limited company, it was generated out of insurance business written in the UK. Contrary to some of the press reports in the FT (Financial Times) and other Remain-leaning publications, we insure nearly half a million customers a year the size of Manchester. We turn over 250 million of premiums, its a sizeable business. The Electoral Commissions review of referendum finances focused on 2 million reported to have been loaned to Better for the Country by Mr Banks and his insurance companies and a 6 million donation which he made alone. Mr Banks lashed out again at the Electoral Commission, accusing it of being full of his political opponents, as well as elements of the media who opposed Brexit. He said Rock Services had all sorts of revenues, but did not detail them. I know its complex for journalists to understand but we know what this is about its about undermining Article 50 and the Brexit result, he added. Its a group of vicious MPs who have grouped together with the Guardian and the FT. Arron Banks described Damian Collins as a `snake in the grass (PA) Mr Banks also attacked Damian Collins, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which is conducting its own probe into the referendum campaign. Asked why he had written to Mr Collins constituents in Folkestone and Hythe, calling him a snake in the grass, Mr Banks replied: Well, he is. The commission also referred Leave.EU, its chief executive, Elizabeth Bilney, and the organisation that ran it, Better for the Country, to the NCA last week after carrying out a review. Bob Posner, the commissions director of political finance, said: We have reasonable grounds to suspect money given to Better for the Country came from impermissible sources and that Mr Banks and Ms Bilney, the responsible person for Leave.EU, knowingly concealed the true circumstances under which this money was provided. This is significant because at least 2.9 million of this money was used to fund referendum spending and donations during the regulated period of the EU referendum. Ms Bilney also denies any wrongdoing. French president Emmanuel Macron has said the majority of New Caledonians who voted in a referendum on independence chose to remain part of France. In a televised address from Paris, Mr Macron pledged there is no other path than that of dialogue on the future of the South Pacific archipelago which has been part of France since 1853. A man casts his vote at a polling station in Noumea (AP) French prime minister Edouard Philippe will meet with officials in New Caledonia to discuss future plans. The referendum was the result of a process that started 30 years ago to end years of violence between those both for and against separation from France. John McDonnell has said the Scottish Labour leader has quite rightfully refused to raise the higher tax band in line with Westminster. The shadow chancellor has backed Philip Hammonds Budget plans to raise the 40p higher income threshold to 50,000, saying it puts money in pockets. People in Scotland are taxed at 41% on earnings above 43,430 and Richard Leonard has said his party would not support raising that level. Mr McDonnell told Sunday Politics Scotland: Richard Leonard, quite rightfully because taxation is devolved, put forward the Scottish Labour Party proposals. The intellectual basis is this we all agree on the common principles of a fair taxation system. That has to reflect the demographic that we represent and also it has to reflect the devolved nature of our decision making in our country at the moment. Richard Leonard, quite rightfully, and the Scottish Labour Party have actually come forward with their tax proposals which are based upon fairness, based upon raising additional monies that will be put into public services. Thats exactly the tax proposals and principles that were putting forward here. Richard Leonard said Labours next UK manifesto would rule out another Scottish independence poll (Jane Barlow/PA) People in Scotland earning over 43,430 pay more tax than those in rest of the UK. Some people on lower wages north of the border are taxed less. UK Labours position is to make the top 5% of earners pay more, Mr McDonnell said. He also refused to commit to putting a ban on any future Scottish independence referendum in the next Labour manifesto. It comes despite Mr Leonard saying there would be one. The shadow chancellor said his party could be expected to oppose another poll, as it was a distraction from tackling austerity. The grandson of a soldier who was resettled on a remote island in Co Fermanagh after the First World War has recalled both the struggles and happy times he experienced. Some 11 soldiers were resettled on Cleenish Island in Upper Lough Erne. It was part of a Homes fit for heroes promise by then prime minister David Lloyd George for the soldiers returning home from the Western Front. This promise was realised through the Irish Soldiers and Sailors Act which, was passed in 1919. However, Cleenish Island was one of the more unusual resettlements. The soldiers were selected through a county-wide application process. New homes with farmland were built on the island to help returning soldiers adapt to civilian life. Each house came with up to 40 acres of land for the veterans to farm. They had to make money both to support themselves and pay for their new homes. Many of the houses on the island now lie abandoned, but one still belongs to the family of the soldier to whom it was allocated. Balfour Hoeys grandfather John Balfour remained until he was 101 years old. Mr Balfour had been a private with the Royal Irish Rifles and served for most of the war from when he was just 20 in 1914 in northern France and Flanders until the end of the war. Balfour Hoey, holds the medals of his grandfather John Balfour one of the first soldiers to be resettled on Cleenish Island in Co Fermanagh after returning home from the First World War. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday November 3, 2018. Balfour was the longest resident of the 11 soldiers who were resettled on the island. See PA story MEMORIAL Armistice Island . Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire He saw action at the Battle of the Somme among other clashes, and managed to return home without major injury as a 25-year-old. Mr Balfour was quoted in a newspaper article as describing the war as hard and dangerous times. Mr Hoey said the land on the island was some of the best in Fermanagh, but said the soldiers did not have an easy start to their new lives. For a start there was no bridge to the island, and initially belongings and livestock had to be transported by cot, a type of raft used in the area to transport goods and animals to the various islands in the lough. There was also no gas, no electricity, shops or other utilities. A local newspaper report a few decades later chronicled the long and arduous years of toil on the island to make a living. A bridge was built in 1956 following years of campaigning, but the same newspaper report said it was too late to stop the exodus of the former soldiers leaving. Margaret Judge, of the Bellanaleck Local History Group, said many of the men had to borrow money to buy livestock and then heavy rain in the summer of 1924 meant little hay was yielded, and in the following spring many of the cattle were struck down with an illness. Margaret Judge, Treasurer of the Bellanaleck Local History Group, outside the the grave yard on Cleenish Island in Co Fermanagh, a remote island used as a resettlement scheme for soldiers after the First World War. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday November 3, 2018. Some 11 soldiers were resettled on the Island, each with a house that came with up to 40 acres of land for the veterans to farm. They had to make money both to support themselves and pay for their new homes. See PA story MEMORIAL Armistice Island . Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire Mr Balfour was the only veteran to remain despite the hardships. Mr Hoey said he remembers being on the farm during his school holidays as a child. I remember playing on the farm from when I was about four years of age, he told Press Association. I grew up in Ballinamallard, but I was there during all the holidays. My grandfather was the only one who stuck it out on the island. He never really said much about the other soldiers, but I suppose he was maybe sad more of them didnt stay. But it was hard times he always said. The Bellanaleck Local History Group now run tours of the island, which also boasts a much older history as a monastic site dating back to the sixth century. The group planted a tree in 2016 on the island to commemorate the former residents. The centenary of war poet Wilfred Owens death has been marked at his graveside in France by the sounding of a bugle he took from the battlefield. Elizabeth Owen, widow of his nephew Peter, attended the moving ceremony in Ors communal cemetery on Sunday, following a dawn visit to the site of the soldiers death along the Sambre-Oise canal. French locals and members of the Wilfred Owen Association gathered to hear The Last Post played on a bugle Owen took from a dead German soldier during the First World War. The bugle taken from the battlefield by Wilfred Owen, held by Grace Freeman from the Wilfred Owen Association (Fiona MacDonald/PA) Musician Heather Madeira Ni said she was grateful to have the opportunity to play the instrument, which had never been sounded in public before, on such a historic occasion. She said: The bugle is such a piece of history and a great chance for me to get to know Owen and his poetry. Its such an important part of British history. The more I learn about Wilfred Owen, the more grateful I am to have this opportunity. Owen was killed on November 4 1918 during the battle to cross the Sambre-Oise canal at Ors, just seven days before peace was declared. He wrote about the bugle, referring to having got some loot, in a letter to his brother in 1917. Some of Owens poetry, focused on the brutal reality of war, was also recited. His final letter home was read and wreaths were laid in his memory in a service Fiona MacDonald of the Wilfred Owen Association, described as moving. She said: It was really moving. There is just something really special about being here and hearing Owens bugle played for the first time in public. An experienced firefighter has told of his constant fear for his crews safety on Bonfire Night after experiencing a warzone. Last year there were a number of incidents involving disorder and fire-starting, one of which resulted in serious injury to a police officer in Edinburgh, as well as lots of property damage. Watch manager Glynn McAffer said his crew was among those to be targeted with aggression. He added: It was like a war zone when we arrived, and my first thought was: Im not going in there. I had no other choice but to call our operations control and inform them that we required a police presence to ensure the safety of our firefighters. Watch manager Glynn McAffer, second from right, and his crew (Scottish Fire and Rescue Service) He added: Its difficult as you are there to do a job and protect the community but there is of course a frustration as you have come to hose down what they call fun. I have to think of the personal safety of my crew and if there are too many of them well just leave. For newly qualified firefighters it can be quite a daunting experience my job is to protect them. Crews responded to around 330 bonfires across Scotland between 5pm and 10pm that night, while operations control received more than 800 calls. The threat of attack is said to have played on the minds of many on the ground. Mr McAffer added: We were constant as soon as we came on duty until about midnight and we were told what areas to avoid and where to wait for police back-up. Its sad because you are basically treating every incident as if you will be attacked. One of the police officers was also injured its just unacceptable. He spoke out as the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service launches its #DoNotAttackMe campaign, which condemns violence against firefighters. The campaign comes ahead of the services busiest night of the year. Firefighters based at the citys Marionville Fire Station were called to respond to a massive bonfire engulfing five cars during Bonfire Night 2017. They had to withdraw and call for police assistance after being harangued by a large group of youths who filmed the firefighters. Bonfire Night takes place on November 5 every year and dates back to a celebration of King James Is survival of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. It was the greatest loss of civilian lives from a German attack on Scottish soil during the First World War. On the evening of April 2 1916, two Zeppelins reached the Firth of Forth while heading for the Royal Navy Base at Rosyth in Fife. But lost in the darkness, the lumbering airships instead made towards Edinburgh city centre. Over 35 minutes, the drones of Zeppelins L14 and L22 were punctuated with 24 explosions bombs which killed 13 people and injured 24. Ian Brown, assistant curator of aviation at the National Museum of Flight, said: There was a significant impact on Edinburgh. Other than the shock of the city far from the trenches of the Western Front being attacked, there was considerable damage caused as well as loss of life. Warning of the impending air raid was received at 7pm. Traffic was stopped, lights lowered and emergency services were put on alert. Residents were ordered to take refuge. Just before midnight, the first reports of bombs landing in Leith arrived signalling the start of Scotlands first ever air raid. Robin Love, 66, was killed by the sixth explosive to drop. It came through the roof of his top floor flat on Commercial Street, near the docks, with part of the shell hitting him while he was in bed. A total of 20 bombs landed in the Leith area and caused major damage to property, but just two people were killed the other being a one-year-old boy. The Zeppelins then followed the Water of Leith to reach the city centre. One bomb landed about 400 yards from Edinburgh Castle, while another fell in the grounds of George Watsons College. The White Hart Hotel in the Grassmarket and the County Hotel on Lothian Road suffered substantial damage, as well as a number of tenement buildings in Newington. Six men were killed on Marshall Street, while Private Thomas Donoghue of the 3/4th Battalion Royal Scots, who was visiting his family, later died in hospital. After the raid, the rigid airships left without any effective counterattack. A waiter, hairdresser and child were among the dead civilians. An unexploded bomb dropped during the air raid (National Museums Scotland) The L14 went on to become the most successful German airship of the First World War, completing 17 attacks on Britain and dropping 22 tonnes of bombs. Mr Brown said: Zeppelins were also surprisingly difficult to shoot down. One would think that a huge aircraft filled with highly combustible hydrogen would easily burst into flames, but that was not the case. They flew at an altitude that was very difficult for a British fighter to reach and even if they did, firing machine gun bullets at them would have little effect. The bullets would puncture the gas bags, but not ignite the hydrogen gas. The gas would leak, but only very slowly from the tiny holes, so this made little difference to the buoyancy of the airships. The damage caused to the city was in the region of 44,000, estimated to be worth about 3.6 million today. A flagstone marking the spot where a bomb dropped in the Grassmarket (Conor Riordan/PA) A number of sites commemorate the locations where shells landed, including high up on Castle Rock and in the Grassmarket. Archibald Campbell was a schoolboy at George Watsons College when the attack happened. The 13-year-old recorded the aftermath in his diary, published online by the University of Edinburgh. He wrote: Wakened at 12.05am by bombs. Went downstairs to parlour where sat till 1.10am. From window saw blaze over Leith. Every window in front of school smashed. Hole about 4ft deep and 6ft across right up against Ethel Davidsons room, which was absolutely smashed. Desks, window frames, broken glass, stones and piles of plaster, all smashed up, filled the room. Thoughts soon turned to questions about the effectiveness of anti-air raid precautions. Attention was drawn to the large number of vessels at the waterfront which were lit up at night, as well as advice about lowering lights not applying to the gas variety. Chief Constable of Leith John Macleod said at the time a better guide for a Zeppelin could not be got. This led to changes addressing these issues for any future raids. But the lasting impact of the attack was apparent in the mental health of residents. People of the city suffered months of shock and stress following the aerial bombardment. A child who was born during the early hours before the attack was given the middle name Raida. Her father pleaded with the Military Service Appeal Tribunal against conscription because the new mother had been left nervous and sleepless since the shelling. Evidence presented to the Military Service Appeal Tribunal in support of Peter Smiths appeal, 1916(National Records of Scotland) Edinburgh has not seen an aerial attack as deadly as the 1916 raid ever since not even during the Second World War. Irelands Labour Party leader has said the party is considering potentially running candidates in local elections in Northern Ireland. Brendan Howlin said he had written to SDLP leader Colum Eastwood last week seeking clarification about a possible merger between Fianna Fail and the SDLP. Fianna Fail, which is currently the main opposition party in the Irish Republic, is currently in talks with the SDLP and is expected to run a number of candidates in next years elections. Speaking at the culmination of the Labour Partys national conference Mr Howlin said he would like to hold discussions with members of the SDLP to see how they could construct a slate of candidates that would allow people who want to express Labour values to have the option of voting for Labour candidates. Mr Howlin said his party had worked with the SDLP as comrades within the Party of European Socialists for decades. I think there are an awful lot of people in the SDLP who remain very loyal to Labour values, he said. Irelands Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin (Brian Lawless/PA) Thats what brought them into the SDLP in the first instance and I dont think they should be abandoned to simply have to join Fianna Fail. In a bizarre set of events last month Fianna Fail had to insist it had not selected any candidates to stand despite a member of the partys ruling executive maintaining Sorcha McAnespy had been chosen as a candidate to run in next years local government poll. Flanked by frontbench Fianna Fail TD Eamon O Cuiv and party senator Mark Daly, Ms McAnespy was unveiled as a Fianna Fail candidate. But on the same evening as she was being unveiled as a candidate at a meeting in Omagh the parliamentary party said it had not selected anyone to run for election. Ms McAnespy claims party leader Micheal Martin had personally told her she had been chosen as a candidate. In a speech to Labour party delegates in Dublin on Saturday night Mr Howlin said the Labour party would step in to ensure a pluralist option was available to voters in Northern Ireland if the merger between the SDLP and Fianna Fail went ahead. The Wexford TD said the Labour party wanted a New Ireland where everyone on the island of Ireland had a decent standard of living. He promised to recall the New Ireland Forum, a cross-border body set up by the Irish Government in the 1980s to bring together a range of views on how to end violence in Northern Ireland. Searches are under way for a reverend who has been reported missing in Gloucestershire. Reverend John Paul Hoskins was last seen at his home in Langley Road, Winchcombe, at around 11pm on Saturday night. Police said they are concerned for the welfare of the reverend, who is the priest-in-charge at Winchcombe Parish. Searches are taking place in Winchcombe and Tewkesbury as well as Oxfordshire where Mr Hoskins has links, police said. The 43-year-old is described as a white man, five foot six inches tall and of stocky build. He has short, grey hair and a close cut beard. (PA) Police said he is believed to have been wearing a green and grey walking jacket with black pads on the arms and shoulders, a black snood, walking boots and maybe jeans. Anyone with information is asked to contact the force on on 101. Greater numbers of foreign nationals are expected to be made eligible to join the armed forces as ministers try to improve recruitment. In January this year, the Army, Navy and RAF had 137,300 trained regulars, 8,200 below their current requirement, according to a report by the public spending watchdog. The 5.7% shortfall was the largest for a decade, said the National Audit Office (NAO), which warned there were much larger shortfalls in the number of regulars with critical skills, like pilots, engineers and intelligence analysts. Here is a look at the recruitment pressures facing Britains military forces. ARMY The size of the regular Army plummeted from 159,100 in 1980 to around 83,600 in 2017, according to Ministry of Defence statistics. Between 2010, when 108,920 were serving, and 2017 there was a steady decline in the number of full-time personnel. The Commons Defence Committee was told in October that the Army currently has 77,000 fully trained troops compared with a target of 82,500. The Army Careers office in Canterbury, Kent (Gareth Fuller/PA) A report commissioned by Downing Street, published in 2017, found the Army was running at more than 30% below its annual recruitment target. Outsourcing giant Capita has had the contract for Army recruiting since 2012. The MoD disclosed in October that Capita managed to bring in fewer than one in 10 of the recruits the Army needs for 2018-19 in the first quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Mark Poffley said that, in the three months to August, the Army had signed up just 10% of the officer recruits and 7% of the other ranks it needed for 2018-19. Capita said regular soldier applications were at five-year high and the number of overall eligible applications had increased by 71% between 2013 and 2018. ROYAL AIR FORCE Some areas of the armed forces are reportedly seeing improvements, with the RAF recording its best recruiting year in a decade. In October, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier said recruitment was strong and they were hitting about 100% of their recruiting targets. The Queen inspects newly graduated recruits at RAF Halton near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire (Fiona Hanson/PA) Sir Mark said the RAF had recruited 56% of officers recruits and 48% of other ranks over the three months to August. The NAO report said there was a need for 800 pilots, especially in the RAF. ROYAL NAVY More than 32,000 people make up the full-time force of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. In October the captain of Britains biggest and most powerful warship said it would be lovely if we had another 10,000 people in the Navy. However, HMS Queen Elizabeth Captain Jerry Kyd said the Navy was OK and getting back into balance. HMS Queen Elizabeth, Captain Jerry Kyd said the Navy was `getting back into balance (Andrew Matthews/PA) Sir Mark said that 22% of the officers and 20% of other ranks for the Royal Navy had been recruited over the three months. 100% of officers and 10% of other ranks had been recruited for the Royal Marines over the same period. Its that time of year again, light, bright and sparkling. Diyas spread their golden glow. Lights put on their Chinese show. Only, if you are in Delhi for that matter, many other Indian cities along with the festivities, pollution spreads its grey cloak. People, animals, other life forms choke. The air is grey, but the heart need not be. (Photo: PTI) However, to generations of Bollywood-hardened humanity, these are minor deterrents. Diwali is the time to send out the joy and the poison of crackers into the air, waste watts of electricity, contribute to global warming, and of course, dress up and deck up. In keeping with these changing times, heres a list of five easy ways to look your best at Diwali in the age of pollution. DIY festive masks: The heart is full of joy but the lungs are full of fumes. Now that masks have become an indispensable part of our lives (if you arent wearing one yet, please start), they need to be suitably festi-fied. The people who make and sell these masks seem to have missed out on a brilliant marketing opportunity, and are still selling masks that only do the job of letting you breathe in clean air. Thats obviously so not enough. So, bling up your masks. Take sequins and get to work. You can take different-coloured sequins and mimic that psychedelic lighting at your neighbours house, changing colour every dazzling second (all night long). If your tastes are more dull-but-cost-the-earth-Khadi type, just take some paint and add two stripes to each side, in muted maroon and gold. Not everyone in a mask need look like this. (Photo: YouTube) Or, go the whole hog. Buy lace or zardozi that will go with your Diwali dress, ask your neighbourhood masterji to stich/stick them to your mask. Remember, be yourself. Stand out in the herd of wheezing, sniffling humanity. Go to your sick bed in style. Earmuffs Yes, yes, the air is toxic. Yes, its been weeks since any of us took a deep breath. But Diwali is the time when the nose is freed of its solitary misery. The ears join in. From every direction come the sounds of fire-crackers, car stereos, DJs, random musically-inclined humanity. There is so much chaos outside, its easy to drown out the disquiet within. Dont be that person who leans out of windows to yell at children and is promptly forced to retreat, spluttering. Embrace the noise. Invest in good-quality earmuffs. Here, a few essentials have to be kept in mind. Nothing a good pair of earmuffs can't take care of. (Photo: PTI) Buy something that goes with your outfit and complements your skin tone. Pastels are in, but for the evening, you can go for something blingier. Make sure your earrings go with the earmuffs. Because they are globular, pair them with long, thin earrings (muffs on top of jhumkas will make you look like a temple door resist that temptation). Your lipstick and eye shadow must match the earmuffs. After all, its the little things that matter. Bigger issues of noise pollution, global warming or harming animals can wait. Air purifier Diwali, of all festivals, celebrates the indoors. More than meeting-greeting your loved ones, its about staying firmly within in the hope of Laxmi paying you a visit. Guest is God. Laxmiji is anyway Goddess. You cant offer her polluted air. This Dhanteras, buy an air purifier, if you havent already (why, though?). But the air purifier should blend in with the festive air. Write Om Shubh Labh on it with haldi. Draw a diya on it. Hang a genda phool mala around it. Pepper spray If you do step out, however, there are more tangible dangers. Every woman knows the uses of pepper spray. The air anyway has worse toxins, so wield that bottle without fear. But put it in a potli bag that matches your dress. Imagine the effect someone tries to rob/attack you, you whip out a dainty golden thing, and whoosh. Carry the festive spirit, and the pepper spray, with you. (Photo: Twitter) But fill the bottle with glitter and sparkles beforehand. Spread festive cheer in more ways than one even as you blind the pervert. Sturdy shoes Walking out on Diwali is a hurdle race. There are half-exploded crackers to get burnt from, flowers to slip over. Blinded with the fuljhadi lights in your face, you anyway cant see where you are walking. So wear your sturdiest shoes. But still, put your best fashion foot forward. Immerse your shoes in paint two days before Diwali. Throw glitter on them for good measure. Stick on sequins, mirrors, anything that you can tear of a cushion cover. Or, cut up your old saris and dupattas. Paste them on. Keep festivity on, head to toe. Pollution may ruin our health, habitat and planet. We will not let it ruin our festivals. Or our fashion. Also read: How garlic can help shake off festive excesses I am shocked, like others, by what has been said and written about MJ Akbar in the media and on social networks. I am also perplexed! Why would he have done what he is alleged to have done and for so long? MJ Akbar has been hit by a series of serious charges. (Photo: PTI/file) Akbar has filed a defamation case against Priya Ramani. Irrespective of the outcome of this case or other cases he might file, MJ has lost the case in the court of public perception. Will the court victory restore his credibility, his reputation, his status and standing? MJs strongest denials cant possibly remove the widely held impression if 20-odd women have made similar accusations, there is bound to be dal mein kuchh kala, as the adage goes. The entire episode is like a big, expensive Bohemian crystal vase has been thrown off its pedestal by a strong gust of wind, reducing it to small pieces. No amount of painstaking efforts to glue all the pieces together could bring the vase to its original shape and beauty. The Me Too movement should be welcome. It empowers women, considered weak even helpless for long. At least, the urban and educated women wont suffer in silence any more they are more likely to speak up, and take the masks off erring mens faces, no matter how powerful they might be. All acts of sexual harassment and exploitation should be condemned unequivocally, thoroughly probed and the accused, if proven guilty, must be punished. #MeToo and its high time too. (Photo: Reuters) Hopefully, this movement will expand, in spite of defamation cases; predators will be mortified and the level of sexual harassment will come down drastically. However, it is crucial that accusers must have irrefutable facts. It is actually naive on the part of a grown-up educated woman not to suspect some ulterior motive when called for a job interview in a hotel and not in the office, that too, in the late evening. In many cases, acute financial needs encourage young women to take risks, notwithstanding their own nagging suspicion. But isnt it also true that many young girls, in a desperate hurry to climb up the ladder, unintentionally fall prey to those who promise to help fulfill their dreams? I have been an admirer of MJ, the writer and journalist, for the last 30 years. His command on English prose is exceptional; a retired Foreign Secretary once told me that every line Akbar wrote read like a classical epitaph. His writing is marked by perceptive understanding and depth. Never short of courage, he could tear apart the mightiest with his sharp pen. The success of the publications he launched, both commercial and critical, made him an iconic figure. His books Nehru: The Making of India and The Shade of Swords established him as a serious writer of international repute. He also flirted with politics; he won a Lok Sabha seat in Bihar (1989) on a Congress ticket given by Rajiv Gandhi. This heady mix respected journalist, successful editor, internationally acclaimed writer and part-time politician made him a celebrity of sorts in the Fourth Estate. At his peak, he was courted both by aspiring journalists and heavyweight politicians. He was courted by top netas of all camps. (Photos: Twitter) In August 89, on his return from a week-long trip to India which we had arranged, the Chief Editor of the Times of London asked if he could do anything for me. I reminded of him Nehrus birth centenary and asked if he could carry a full centre page op-ed on Nehru on November 14th. He instantly quipped: Done! Just tell me who could write a balanced critique. Aware of the launch of MJs book Nehru:The Making of India in London a month back, I suggested MJs name. Emails hadnt arrived then, so MJ faxed them 10-12 pages on Nehru. The article was carried uncut with their headline: Why Tanks will never roll on the Streets of Delhi? In contrast to the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing, it was a tribute to Nehrus role in nurturing and strengthening democracy in India. In 2006, I invited MJ to Nairobi to speak on Islam, Jihad and International Terrorism at a function jointly organised by Lions and Rotary Clubs. He opened his speech with a provocative question Can you name the first Jihadi in the world? After a pause, he added let me tell you: it was none other than our beloved Lord Krishna! Most of the audience was aghast. Then, he explained, at the battle of Kurukshetra, when Arjun was reluctant to pick up arms against his own kith and kin, Krishna, through his sermon, helped him address the doubts from within and exhorted him to perform his duty and fight for what was right. Jihad, in its pristine form, was a fight within to overcome ones negative emotions and stand up for righteousness; it wasnt killing innocent people. Present-day Jihadists who indulge in violence insult and defile the true meaning of jihad. His rational and persuasive arguments calmed the frayed tempers of the audience. MJ Akbar was famous for his speeches and arguments. (Photo: Facebook/MJ Akbar) A month later, he phoned me from his hotel in Nairobi that he was on his way to Mogadishu, Somalia. A British journalist had been killed there a week before, so I strongly advised him to drop the idea, adding, Anything could happen to you. Brushing aside my concerns, he insisted this was the right time to be in Somalia; no Indian paper had reported from ground zero in Mogadishu; we would be first! When I was the Dean FSI, 2007, I invited Akbar twice to speak to the newly recruited diplomats. He had strongly criticised the Civil Nuclear Deal, so some mandarins in South Block werent happy. I maintained, all Indian diplomats were duty-bound to defend government decisions, but they should listen to contrarian views too. I was at the dinner at the residence of the Jordanian Ambassador with a dozen Ambassadors from the Arab world when the news of MJs sacking as the editor of The Asian Age was announced. It was greeted with disbelief. Most said they wouldn't read The Asian Age from the following day; for them Akbar was The Asian Age! Whether something happened or not, whether he laid hands on anyone or not, whether he wins the defamation case or loses it, several women have claimed to have suffered emotional distress on account of his conduct. Many friends of MJ feel, in good faith, he should offer a public apology. That will be a gentlemanly redressal of his alleged indiscretions, proven or not. Also read: Why MJ Akbars resignation is the first big victory for the MeToo movement By WestKyStar & Murray-Calloway Co. Hospital Staff By WestKyStar & Murray-Calloway Co. Hospital Staff Nov. 04, 2018 | 07:51 PM | MURRAY Center for Health & Wellness Open House Wednesday, Nov. 14th Center for Health & Wellness Free Diabetes & Cholesterol Screening, 6-9 am Free Chair Massages, 9-noon Door Prizes, Giveaways All Day FitMeals Murray FREE Tasting, 4-6 pm No Joining Fee/No Contract All Day Nutrition Talk: Diabetes: Know the Basics November is Diabetes Awareness Month. We will be discussing ways diabetes can be prevented as well as how to keep diabetes under control to prevent further health related complications. We will also talk about different types of diabetes and their treatments. Monday, Nov. 19th 9 am Center for Health & Wellness Free Screening: Hickory Woods Osteoporosis Screenings Thursday, Nov. 8th 1:30-2:30 pm Hickory Woods Pulmonary Function Test/Blood Pressure No appointment required. Free Screening: Benton Library Thursday, Nov. 15th 10-noon Benton Library Osteoporosis Heel Scan No appointment required. Free Screening: Weaks Senior Citizen Center Tuesday, November 20th 10-11:30 am Blood Pressure & Non-Fasting Glucose No appointment required. Free Screening: Spring Creek Health Care Tuesday, Nov. 27th 9-11 am Blood Pressure, Pulse, Pulse Ox, BMI, Waist Circumference, Osteoporosis Screening, Pulmonary Function Test, & Non-fasting Glucose No appointment required. Wesley Living Thursday, Nov. 29th 2-3 pm Pulmonary Function Test & Blood Pressure No appointment required. Blood Drive Tuesday, Nov. 27th 8:30 am-4:30 pm Center for Health and Wellness Alzheimers Care Giver Support Group Thursday, Nov. 1st 10 am Weaks Senior Citizen Center For more information, call 270-753-0929 Bariatric Support Group Thursday, Nov. 1st 11:30-12:30 pm Center for Health and Wellness For more info call Bariatric Solutions 270-762-1547 ALS Support Group Thursday, November 8th 6-7 pm MCCH Board Room For more info call Mitzi Cathey at 270-293-1748 Bariatric Support Group Tuesday, Nov. 13th 5:30-6:30 pm Center for Health & Wellness For more information call Bariatric Solutions, at 270-762-1547 Parkinson's Support Group November 13th & November 27th Noon Weaks' Senior Citizen Center For more info call 270-753-0929 Breastfeeding Support Group Thursday, Nov. 15th 4-5:30 pm Center for Health & Wellness For more info call Alycia Janow 270-226-4776 National Alliance on Mental Illness Thursday, Nov. 18th 6:30 pm MCCH Education Building (Corner of 8th and Elm) For more info call 270-748-6133 Breast Cancer Support Group Tuesday, Nov. 27th 5:30-6:30 pm Applebees For more info call Evelyn 270-489-2462 Dialysis Support Group Thursday, Nov. 22nd 4:30 -5:30 pm Weak's Senior Citizen Center For more info call Tasha Mitchell 270-759-3080 Stroke and Head Injury Support Group Monday, Nov. 27th 5:30-7 pm Center for Health & Wellness For more info call Cheryl 270-293-9442 For more information on programs or free screenings available from Murray-Calloway County Hospital, and the Center for Health and Wellness, call 270-762-1348. Staff at Murray-Calloway County Hospital and the Center for Health & Wellness will be offering educational health promotion events during the month of November to community members, Wellness Center members and MCCH employees. Its time for India to make adequate reparation for the pettiness displayed by Nehru and his progeny towards Sardar Patel, the man who gave us the India we live in today The inauguration of Sardar Vallabhai Patels statue the Statue of Unity in Gujarat on October 31 by the Prime Minister has raised the hackles of the whining, carping bunch of malcontents of the Nehruvian and Marxist mould who question the wisdom of erecting a statue incidentally the tallest in the world at such huge cost. But, these complaints must be brushed aside because we owe our very existence as a nation to Sardar Patel. There are a lot more reasons as well, many of which, were hidden by Sarkari historians owing allegiance to a single political family but which must now be brought into the public domain. Here are some of them: When the British left the country, they gave all the princely states three options to declare their independence or accede to India or Pakistan. To get such a motley group of over 550 maharajas and rajas many of whom were on their own ego trips to sign on the dotted line and become part of India was a Herculean task. However, Sardar Patels steely determination combined with his diplomacy and foresight enabled him to get the princes to sign the instrument of accession. If he had not taken up this responsibility, the map of India would have had gaping holes. The Nizam of Hyderabad and the Nawab of Junagadh had decided to accede to Pakistan and a couple of maharajas in central India were keen to retain their independence. Patel put his foot down, sent in the armed forces when necessary and got these States integrated into India. I do not want undigested lumps in Indias belly, he is reported to have said in the context of Hyderabad becoming a part of Pakistan. Prime Minister Nehru was not happy with the use of force but the truth is that if Iron Man Patel were not to be around at that time, no one would have been able to counter Nehrus pusillanimity and the map of India would have been in tatters on the very day of her independence. Is this not sufficient reason for building the Statue of Unity? Apart from being as tough as nails while dealing with issues relating to national unity, Sardar Patel had another extraordinary quality his readiness to sacrifice for the larger cause. There is abundant evidence to show that he was the very epitome of selflessness, which was in contrast to the pettiness and selfishness of Nehru. On Gandhis advice, Patel had to forego the opportunity to head the Congress on many occasions including 1928, 1929, 1936 and 1946 and make way for Nehru. In 1946, it was clear that the person elected president of the Congress would be invited by the British to be the first Prime Minister of Independent India. The party asked 15 Pradesh Congress Committees to propose names for the office. Twelve of the 15 committees voted for Sardar Vallabhai Patel. The remaining three committees had no opinion. In other words, not a single pradesh committee wanted Nehru as party president and Prime Minister. The story goes that Nehru went into a sulk and told Gandhi that he will not play second fiddle to anybody. Gandhi stepped in once again on behalf of Nehru and got Patel to withdraw from the contest. Thus, although his party overwhelmingly wanted him to be the first Prime Minister after Independence, Patel sacrificed this for the sake of the party and national unity. Historians loyal to the Nehru-Gandhis have hidden these facts from the people all these years. So, for those who ask why spend so much on Patels statue, the answer is is this not sufficient reason to remember the Sardar in the most memorable way possible? As against Patels large-heartedness, we now have evidence of how small-minded and spiteful Nehru was when dealing with Patel. When Patel died on December 15, 1950 in Mumbai, he directed officials from Delhi not to attend Patels funeral in Mumbai. Even more shocking was the first order he issued after Patels demise that his official car a Cadillac be returned to the Foreign Ministry forthwith. More was to follow. The best example of Nehrus small-mindedness relates to the Bharat Ratna. Nehru gave himself the Bharat Ratna in 1955. Sardar Patel was conferred the Bharat Ratna belatedly by the Chandrashekar Govermnment in 1991. Further, while the Nehru-Gandhis have helped themselves to much of Lutyens geography, Nehru treated Patels daughter, Maniben, in the most insensitive manner when she met him after Sardar Patels death. In his memoirs, Verghese Kurien, the father of the milk revolution tells us how shabbily Nehru treated Maniben Patel. After Patel passed away, Maniben picked up a book and a bag that belonged to him and went to meet Nehru. Patel had instructed her to hand them over to Nehru. The bag contained Rs 35 lakh that belonged to the Congress and the book was the partys book of accounts. Nehru took them and thanked her. Maniben waited expectantly, hoping he would say something more, but he did not, so she got up and left. He did not even enquire as to how she was doing after the passing of Patel. Kurien found Nehrus behavoiur distressing. Long years ago this writer had put together a list of 450 Government schemes, projects and institutions named after just three members of the Nehru-Gandhi family. This included a majority of social welfare schemes of the Union Government, airports, national parks, educational and scientific institutions and sports tournaments. Nothing was left out. Yet, all those who have been party to this crass enterprise and vulgar display of sycophancy are unhappy that the man who gave us the India we live in today is being honoured in a manner which is worthy of this stupendous effort. Therefore, the time has come for India to make adequate reparation for the pettiness displayed by Nehru and his progeny towards Sardar Patel, the greatest son of India. The Statue of Unity is now a reality because of the Patel-like determination and commitment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give the Sardar his due. The Prime Minister must ignore these critics and take further initiatives like introducing the real Sardar to school children through history books. He must then begin the next big project to provide another extraordinary national hero Subhash Chandra Bose his rightful place. Bose, too, has been a victim of the chicanery of establishment historians. The nation will always remember Narendra Modi for ensuring that India will eternally be grateful to its real heroes. (The writer is Chairman, Prasar Bharati. The views expressed here are personal) Nearly 10 workers from India died everyday on an average during the last six years in Gulf countries, which contribute over half of total foreign remittances to the country, a voluntary group has said on the basis of RTI replies. There were about 22.53 lakh Indian workers in the six Gulf countries in 2017, according to figures of External Affairs Ministry presented in response to a Rajya Sabha question on August 26, 2018. In his RTI application, Venkatesh Nayak from Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative had sought to know from the External Affairs Ministry the data about deaths of Indian workers in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from January 1, 2012 till about mid-2018. The data was provided by Indian missions in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia but the Embassy in the UAE refused to give information, he said. The Indian embassy in Kuwait referred to data on their website which was only 2014 onwards. Nayak said Indians working in Gulf countries accounted for more than half of the remittance that India received from all over the world between 2012 and 2017. "While India received a total of USD 410.33 billion in remittances from the world over, remittances from the Gulf countries accounted for USD 209.07 billion," he said. In order to fill gaps in data regarding deaths, Nayak said he used data provided in Parliamentary questions in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. "Available data indicates, at least 24,570 Indian Workers died in the six Gulf countries between 2012 and mid-2018. This number could increase if the complete figures for Kuwait and UAE are made available publicly. This amounts to more than 10 deaths per day during this period," he said. The ruling AIADMK is in turmoil following a disclosure by a former MLA from Thoothukudi district that Kadambur C Raju, the Minister for Information and Publicity in the Edappadi Palaniswamy Government, is heading the sleeper cell working for TTV Dhinakaran and VK Sasikala, the expelled leaders. GV Markandeyan, former AIADMK legislator, alleged that Minister Raju, who is a close relative of Sasikala, was sending AIADMK MLAs to Dhinakarans camp. The dissident leader Dhinakaran has been claiming from day one that there were many sleeper cells in the Edappadi Palaniswamy camp owing allegiance to the former. They would come to me at the right moment and this will cause the downfall of this Government, Dhinakaran had told many times. According to Markandeyan, Minister Raju managed to get the party ticket for the 2016 Assembly election at the instance of Sasikala and he was a camp follower of Dhinakaran and Sasikala. But Raju refuted the allegations and claimed that the party was in a growth trajectory in the district. There is no factionalism in the party. There is no need to accord any importance to an individuals opinion, Raju told media persons. He also asked them not to take Markandeyan seriously because the latter was desperate. Interestingly, Raju has not spoken anything against Dhinakaran or Sasikala lending credence to the charges by Markandeyan. There are reports that the legislators who were disqualified by the Speaker and whose action was upheld by the Madras High Court had joined the Dhinakaran faction. The AIADMK which is facing a precarious situation in the Legislative Assembly because of the loss of 19 MLAs, has to win at least 19 of the 20 by polls, for which the Election Commission may announce the schedule any time from now. A speech delivered by Cooperation Minister Sellur K Raju recently had caused ripples in the party. While addressing a party meeting at Madurai, Raju said that the day was not far off when the AIADMK would be headed by a woman. What is to be noted is that both the Rajus have not told anything critical of Sasikala and Dhinakaran till date. Sellur Raju later issued a clarification stating that his words were a pep-talk for women activists of the party and it should not be mis-interpreted. KA Johny, author and columnist who is a keen follower of the AIADMK politics said that these developments need not be taken seriously. We have to wait for the Supreme Court ruling on the petition demanding the disqualification of deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam and ten MLAs who had voted against the Edappadi Palaniswamy Government in the trust vote held in February 2017. That will be the turning point in AIADMK politics. Till then the AIADMK has no major crisis, said Johny who also forecast that Dhinakaran would take control of the AIADMK in the coming months. But Govindarajan Satyamurthy, veteran scribe and commentator said that the sleeper cells of Dhinakaran are alive and kicking in the AIADMK. We may have to wait till the by-elections are over. The AIADMK is unlikely to win even a single seat and there would be a rebellion in the party against Panneerselvam and Edappadi Palaniswamy. Lets wait for six months, said Satyamurthy who is confident that KA Sengotiyyan, the School Education Minister would be the chief ministerial candidate once the Mannargudi clan led by Sasikala takes control of the party. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee once again on Monday reminded that those who sell religion for their personal and political benefits, were doing great disservice to their faiths. Inaugurating Indias first skywalk to approach a religious site at Dakshineshwar Kali Temple, Mamata attacked the phony saffron brigade for practising falsehood and befooling the people in the name of religion. If you really want to do something for your religion then practice and preach tolerance instead of selling and using it for political gains, Mamata said reminding how she was stopped from going to Chicago to deliver the Swami Vivekananda Memorial lecture to commemorate the 125th year of his celebrated speech at the world parliament of religions. I was scheduled to address an audience at Chicago but later I was told how some people up (read BJP central leadership) their literally threatened the organisers and got my name struck out to make way for someone else to make the speech. This shows how these people are out to hijack our own religion, Mamata said. "These people have no knowledge of Puranas, Vedas or for that matter any religious scripture or their true essence. They only know to set one section of the society against the others and reap political harvest, she said. Only selling religion for political purpose and power was the main motto of some people, the Chief Minister said apparently in reference to the opposition BJP. Donning saffron cloth does not make you a religious person. Saffron cloths are sold in the market and anyone can wear them. To talk religion you have to be religious only then you will be able to do something for your religion and the people in general. The Chief Minister reminded how Swami Vivekananda while in Rajasthan went hungry for three days before being noticed in such state by a Muslim person who offered him cucumber and saved him. In Chicago a Christian person helped him to find a place of residence. Swamijis master Ramakrishna Paramahansa always preached the unity of religions, she said reminding the presence of a Mazaar inside Dakshineshwar Temple where Thakur Ramakrishna meditated before telling all how he visualised people drinking water from the same pond and how a mother was addressed as Maa by a Hindu, Amma by a Muslim and Mother by a Christian. There were two kinds of sadhus wearing saffron clothes she said. There are phony sadhus who wear saffron clothes but divide the people for narrow self interest and there are true sadhus who love one and all, she said. Advising the powers that be to follow her example in the interest of devotees and tourists by constructing the skywalk like the one that was inaugurated at Dakshineshwar Banerjee said she was considering similar facilities at Kalighat, Tarapeeth, Tarakeshwar and other places. The skywalk is a futuristic elevated glass-and-steel pathway about 3.5 metre wide, and 340 metre long fitted with 12 escalators and 4 elevators and shops on two sides that would cater to the devotees who visit the Temple built by Rani Rashmi and where once Ramakrishna Paramahansa lived and prayed. We are naming this skywalk after the name of Rani Rashmani not only because she constructed the temple but also because she played a great role in the Indian and Bengali renaissance, Mamata said. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would release its election manifesto for Chhattisgarh on November 11 here. Delhi Government's Cabinet Minister and Chhattisgarh In-charge Gopal Rai would unveil the manifesto in Raipur, party sources informed. Earlier, AAP had released around 13-point affidavit on different issues in each state assembly constituencies. The issues were regarding power, water, health, self-reliance, Lokayut, pension, employment, purchase of paddy at Rs 2600 per quintal, Panchayat representative honorarium besides several other issues. Party sources said that AAP has been working on the election manifesto for the last six months. Several suggestions were sought from women, elders, youth, business community, tribal and farmers. Party chief spokesperson Uchit Sharma said that suggestions for the election manifesto was sought from people of 90 state assembly constituencies through social media and other online modes. Several Non Resident Indians (NRI)s of Chhattisgarh had also sent suggestions on e-mail. Finally all the suggestions were compiled by state unit of the party and were handed over to the Sankalp Patra Samiti (Manifesto Committee) for finalisation. The bail application of the 16-year-old accused of killing a seven-year-old boy at a private school in Gurugrams Bhondsi area was rejected by the Sessions court on Monday. Earlier on October 30, the Juvenile Board had also rejected the teenager bail plea. The bail plea was moved before the court of Additional Sessions Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu who rejected the same and asserted that there was no ground at this stage to release him on bail. The accused is lodged at the correction home in Faridabad since November 11 after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) nabbed him on November 7 on charges of murdering the Class 2 student of the school. The CBI lawyer and the counsel for the seven-year-old victim argued that granting bail to the accused would be detrimental to the case. The CBI in their reply asserted that in case Bholu petitioner (imaginary name given by the trial court) is granted bail he may tamper with the prosecution evidence and also influence the prosecution witness. The agency also mentioned that he may abscond which would hamper the course of the trial so the bail plea should be dismissed. The accused sought regular bail saying that he had no criminal background. He also said that the Juvenile Justice Board has wrongly passed the order that he be tried as an adult in the murder case without taking into consideration that the accused is a student and his whole educational career is at stake. The defence lawyer in the bail application also argued that the teenager has spent almost a year in the correction home and there no other concrete matter is available in the case. The bail plea also said that the teens parents are ready to abide by the condition imposed by the court for granting bail. The schoolboy was found with his throat slit outside a school toilet on September 8 last year. Earlier, the court had barred the media from using the name of the 16-year-old accused in the case and asked it to use fictitious names instead. While the seven-year-old victim was named Prince by the court, the juvenile accused was named Bholu and the private school in Bhondsi was referred to as Vidyalaya. First Lady of Korea Kim Jung-sook was given a warm welcome on her arrival in the state capital on Monday to attend the Deepotsava when over 3 lakh diyas (earthen lamps) will be lighted at the ghats of Ayodhya on Tuesday. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his ministerial colleagues welcomed her at the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport. Tourism Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi accompanied the first lady from New Delhi in a special Korean flight. Kim Jung-sooks presence assumes importance because of the link Korea has with Ayodhya. It is believed that a princess from Ayodhya, the place where Lord Ram is believed to have born, became the queen in South Korea some 2,000 years ago. She also ruled a dynasty known as Karak. The name of the princess of Ayodhya is believed to be Suriratna but in South Korea, she is named as Heo Hwang-ok. In this celebration, Koreas first lady will lay the foundation stone for the Rs 50-crore memorial of Queen Hur Hwang-ok. A Korean cultural team will give a performance at the Queen Memorial. Padmashree Surdarshan Patnaik has also made a sculpture of Lord Ram in sand near the Queen Memorial park. An official said that the main function would be held on Tuesday when a shobha yatra would be taken out from Saket College in Ayodhya where 15 tableaux showing different acts of Lord Ram would be on display. Among the tableaux, four will be displayed by artistes from foreign countries like Korea, Laos, Russia and Indonesia. The procession will culminate at Ramkatha park. At the Ramkatha park, Yogi will receive Lord Ram and Sita along with Laxman who will arrive on a chopper. The CM will also honour the Ramlila artistes of different countries and in the night, Ramlila of different countries will be performed along with a cultural dance by the Korean team. In the evening, over 3 lakh diyas will be lighted at Ram Ki Paudi by over 5,000 volunteers. The Chief Minister will light the first special diya having a diameter of 16 feet. Rita Bahuguna Joshi said that it would be a never before experience in Ayodhya. The city is all decked up with permanent facade lighting. The BJP Yuva Morcha on Monday locked all district and sub-divisional Employment Exchange offices across the State in protest against the State Governments alleged failure in providing employment to youths during its 19 years of rule. Yuva Mochar activists led by respective district presidents locked the main gates and held demonstrations at Employment Exchange Offices. During its 19 years rule, the BJD Government has failed in providing employments to youths. Many posts are lying vacant in Government offices. Besides, private companies have not recruited youths as per MoU norms, alleged activists. In the capital city, Manch activists led by Yuva Morcha president Tankadhar Tripathy locked the Employment Exchange office here. Tripathy demanded that the State Government make a statement as to how many youths have been enrolled in the Employment Exchanges and how many of them have got jobs during the last 19 years. Among others, Yuva Morcha general secretary Bishwaranjan Badajena, secretary Arpita Aparajita, Abhishek Acharya, Jagannath Pradhan and Harekrushna Khuntia participated in the agitation here. Meanwhile, the BJD also held agitations at two Central PSUs, one at Indian Rare Earths Limited, Chhatrapur, and the other at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Sunabeda. The BJP Government has failed to keep its promise to provide two crore youth every year. Had it given employment, 10 crore youth in the country and 36 lakh youth in the State had been benefited. The Narendra Modi Government has betrayed the youths, alleged BJD activists. The elder sister-in-law of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National General Secretary Saroj Pandey, Charulata Pandey finally gave in to the pressure from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to withdraw nomination papers on Monday. The last date for withdrawal of nomination is November 5 for the second phase of polling scheduled on November 20. She had filed the nomination papers on November 2, the last date for filing of nomination papers for Vaishali Nagar seat. Earlier, brother of Saroj Pandey, Rakesh Pandey had been making the claim for contesting from Vaishali Nagar assembly constituency , but BJP had retained the sitting MLA Vidyaratan Bhasin. In case of Charulata Pandey, as per party sources, BJP National President Amit Shah had talked to her after which she took the step of withdrawing nomination. Party sources said that Rakesh Pandey had raised the question before the senior party leaders during the interaction with him that when son of Chief Minister, MP and MLAs sons can contest election, then why brother of Saroj Pandey cannot contest polls. After much convincing, Rakesh Pandey had withdrawn nomination but his wife jumped into poll fray after filing the nomination papers as independent candidate much to the embarrassment to the BJP and Saroj Pandey. With Charulata Pandey withdrawing nomination papers, all political drama over the issue had been put to rest. The war of supremacy in the Indian National Lol Dal led by the Chautala clan of Haryana has apparently turned bitter and intense with Ajay Singh Chautala coming out in support of his sons, Dushyant and Digvijay and announcing to fight back. Yaachna nhi ab rann hoga, Jivan jai ya ki maran hoga, said Ajay Chautala, while quoting a couplet from Mahabharat, an epic story of the family feud, during the address to his supporters in New Delhi, after coming out from the Tihar Jail on parole on Monday. Elder son of INLD national president OP Chautala, Ajay further said, I have learnt from my father Adhikaar magne se nhi, cheenne se milta hai. Ajays harsh statements came after his sons, Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Chautala were expelled from the primary membership of Haryanas main opposition party INLD on November 2 by their grandfather OP Chautala. Dushyant was also removed from the post of Leader of the INLD Parliamentary Board. Stung by these decisions, Ajay Chautala said, I am quite surprised to see the affairs of the party (INLD). We will fight this situation. We will decide the next course of action in coming days after I complete the tour of Haryana. I will conclude the states tour on November 17 at Jind, where we will decide the next course of action, said Chautala while asking his supporters to gather in a large number at Jind on that day. Indicating towards the recent happenings in the INLD including expulsion of his sons, partys state secretary general Ajay told his supporters, I am meeting you in a changed circumstances. I will visit Dadri, Bhiwani, Hansi, Hisar and then go to Sirsa, where I will meet the party workers on Tuesday, he added. With Ajay Chautala backing his sons and staking claims on the party, battle lines are clearly drawn in the Chautala clan for establishing supremacy and control over INLDs base vote bank. Also, the chacha-bhatija war in the INLD has evidently turned in a war between two brothers, Abhay and Ajay Chautala with the developments on Monday. OP Chautalas younger son Abhay Chautala, who is also the Leader of opposition in Haryana Assembly and Dushyant Chautala had been fighting to lay claim on the legacy of partys founder and former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhuri Devi Lal. Both Dushyant and Digvijay are great-grandsons of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal. In a veiled attack on his younger brother, Abhay Chautala who had claimed that those who left the party were the paid agents of the Congress, Ajay said that we all are INLD people. Mentioning names of INLD MLAs and former MLAs who were present on the occasion, he asked his supporters, Are they Congressmen? Are you Congressmen? A day before, Abhay Chautala, the MLA from Ellenabad while commenting about the resignations of several party leaders following the expulsion of the young leaders, had said that those who left the party were the paid agents of the Congress who were trying to weaken the INLD. In more signs of defiance, Ajay also went onto say that Indian National Students Organization (INSO), the student wing of the party cannot be dissolved. INSO is an independent body founded by me and it cannot be dissolved, he said. Party kisi ki bapauddi nahi hai. (No one has birth right over the party). The party belongs to workers who have nourished it with toil and blood, Ajay said while warning against autocratic ways in INLDs affairs. Though he did not mention Abhays name during his entire address, it was evident that his stinging remarks were directed at his younger brother, who is calling the shots in the party. Announcing that he will be visiting all district headquarters to seek opinion of party workers to chalk out the next course of action, Ajay said that we will create a situation compelling OP Chautala to invite Dushyant to take over the reins of the party. The statement made by Ajay Chautala was welcomed by a huge applause by party cadres who raised slogans in support of Dushyant. Two party MLAs Anoop Dhanak and Rajdeep Phogat, former MLAs, senior party leaders were present during Ajays address to the party workers in New Delhi. Citing the incident in late 80s when the Chautala family had faced succession battle between Devi Lals eldest son, OP Chautala and his third son, Ranjit Singh, Ajay said that there was a time when Devi Lal had sidelined OP Chautala but later OP Chautala took over the reins of the party. On the occasion, he also lauded his father and party patriarch OP Chautala and late Devi Lal and asked the party workers not to raise any question on the family or use offensive language against any leader and family member. Speaking on the occasion, Dushyant Chautala earlier said that he would abide by the decision of his father. The hostilities within the Chautala family have virtually split the party into two camps. While trouble has been brewing between Abhay Chautala and his nephew Dushyant for almost a year, the crisis within the party had deepened after the Gohana rally on October 7 where a group of youths had allegedly indulged in hooting at the time Abhay was speaking and there were cheers for Dushyant Chautala as he spoke. Digvijay and Dushyant were expelled after partys disciplinary committee had found them guilty of charges of indiscipline and engaging in anti-party activities. The expulsion of these two young leaders has put in doubt the INLDs prospects in the forthcoming general elections and assembly polls scheduled later in 2019. Notably, both OP Chautala and Ajay Chautala are barred from contesting elections after they were convicted in a teachers recruitment scam in 2013. Both are serving ten-year sentences in Tihar Jail. The INLD is being managed by Abhay Chautala since then. After being out of power since 2005, the INLD had in April this year announced to join hands with the BSP for 2019 crucial polls. The INLD had announced to contest Lok Sabha polls and assembly polls in Haryana in alliance with the BSP. By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 04, 2018 | 08:20 PM | GRAVES COUNTY There will be no shortage of choices for Mayfield and Graves County residents as voters head to the polls on Tuesday. One of the highest-profile races is the Graves County Sheriff's race. Incumbent Dewayne Redmon is the only name on the ballot, but he's accused of stealing hydrocodone from the sheriff department's drug drop box. He was indicted on official misconduct and possession of controlled substance charges in August. Several write-in candidates are challenging Redmon, including Chief Deputy Davant Ramage, Jason Clark, Gregory Allen Jones, Robin Holmes, Michael Corey Apperson and Bill Howard Harris. In other county races, incumbent Judge-Executive Jesse Perry, an Independent, is facing a challenge from Democrat Greg Higdon. Republican George Workman is challenging Democratic incumbent Jailer Randy Haley. And, Republican Tony Sheridan and Democrat Brad Jones are facing off in the coroner's race. In the Wingo City Commissioners race, six candidates are vying for four seats. The Mayfield Mayor's race is also garnering a lot of interest, as two current city council members, Steven Elder and Kathy O'Nan are going head-to-head to replace Teresa Cantrell, who's not seeking re-election. In the Mayfield City Council race, 18 candidates are vying for 10 seats. Voters in Graves County will also participate in choosing between incumbent Republican James Comer or his Democratic challenger Paul Walker for the 1st Congressional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and between incumbent Republican Richard Heath and his Democratic challenger Charlotte Goddard in the 2nd District State Representatives race. A statewide referendum will also determine if a victim's bill of rights will be added to the Kentucky Constitution. To see a sample ballot for Graves County, click the link below. On the Net: High drama prevailed when Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders and MLAs, led by its president Sukhbir Badal, courted arrest after breaking two police barriers to reach the residence of Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, and later staging a dharna at police station, to register their protest against denigration of Guru Sahiban in the history books under Congress regime. The party also announced to continue agitation on the issue till the Chief Minister apologized to the Sikh sangat (community) and took action against those responsible and distributing the offending material to school children. Sukhbir Badal led senior party leaders and MLAs in a protest march from the MLA Hostel to the Chief Ministers residence during the course of which they broke two police barriers before they were stopped near the entry point of the Chief Ministers residence. The Akali leaders carried placards demanding action against those who had insulted the Guru Sahiban besides calling for Capt Amarinders resignation for failing in his duty to assuage the hurt feelings of the Sikh masses. Sukhbir later told the media that the SAD was ready to pay any sacrifice to protect the honour and dignity of the Guru Sahiban as well as Sikh religion and culture. He said that the Congress Government had deliberately distorted Sikh history for the second time in months to change it in such a manner that coming generations did not take pride in the rich heritage. The insult meted out the Guru Sahiban was intolerable and the SAD would not rest till those who had prepared the defamatory matter as well as those who had distributed it were not arrested and proceeded against, he said. During the dharna, in front of the Chief Ministers residence, leaders raised slogans like Guru itehas de katil murdabad murdabad, Capt Amarinder isteefa deva, and Capt hai hai. The Akali leaders refused to end their sit in and stuck to their stand following which they were taken into custody and arrested by the Chandigarh Police. Slogans of Panth ki jeet reverberated as the leaders were escorted to buses and taken to a local police station. The leaders did not relent and even staged a dharna at the police station demanding Chief Minister to apologize and resign for failing to do this duty towards the Sikh panth. They also condemned the Congress conspiracy to weaken the Sikh panth by distorting history books of Class XI and Class XII. CAPT SLAMS SUKHBIR FOR RESORTING TO LAWLESSNESS TO SPREAD FALSE PROPAGANDA OVER HISTORY BOOKS Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday lambasted the Akalis led by Sukhbir Badal for unnecessarily creating a law and order problem over the issue of school history books even after the Government had categorically clarified that the new course books would not be introduced until the Expert Group set up to review them completes its task. Capt Amarinder, reacting strongly to the violence triggered by Akali protesters who clashed with the police while trying to break through barricades outside his residence, slammed Sukhbir for trying to take the law into his hands and diverting public attention from the more crucial task of maintaining law and order ahead of Diwali. Sukhbirs action is a frantic bid to divert attention from the crisis facing the SAD which was faced by an internal revolt just months before the crucial Lok Sabha elections, he said. The Chief Minister pointed out that he had already directed the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) to continue with the existing history textbooks for Classes XI and XII pending completion of the review by the Expert Group, which has already held 11 meetings to assess the standard of the text books, with particular focus on factual and religious discrepancies, if any. The Expert Group of eminent historians was constituted by the State Government on May 11, 2018, in response to concerns raised in certain quarters regarding alleged errors and discrepancies in the syllabi of history for Classes XI and XII. The Group is chaired by Prof Kirpal Singh and comprises Dr JS Grewal, Dr Indu Banga, Dr Pirthipal Singh Kapur along with Dr Balwant Singh Dhillon and Dr Inderjeet Singh Gogoani, both representatives of SGPC. Capt Amarinder reminded Sukhbir that he had already asked the Education Minister OP Soni to ensure a comprehensive review by the Expert Group, taking into consideration all the complaints and suggestions received earlier. The Chief Minister had also directed the Education Minister to ensure that individual chapters of history books are not released by PSEB, and only a textbook properly vetted and approved by the Expert Group and the Government is published after proper diligence, said the spokesperson. Despite his categorical assertion that the students will be taught only history that is factually correct and backed by evidence, without any dilution in the coverage of Punjab and Sikh history, the Chief Minister said: Sukhbir & Co are continuing to politicize the vital issue, which show their total lack of sensitivity towards the interests of the people of Punjab, particularly the student community. Terming the Akali act as the height of irresponsibility, the Chief Minister said that desperate to gain public attention, the Badals were now stooping to all lows, irrespective of the impact of their actions on the people of Punjab. At the same time, the Chief Minister urged students not to be misguided by the Akali propaganda but to concentrate on their studies with the prescribed history books (those of the 2017-18 academic session). The grand and imposing building of the Forest Research Institute (FRI) in the Doon valley, an architectural landmark visited by hundreds of tourists every day, turns 89- years-old this month. The pride of place which this impressive building enjoys in the valley is well-known. The building is one of the jewels in the Doon valleys crown and is held in great respect as a national heritage site. Visitors from all over the world visit this site and are overawed by its statuesqueness. It seems that age cannot wither nor custom stale the beauty of this edifice. With each passing year, it grows more fascinating and attracts more and more people from the world over. It was inaugurated on November 7, 1929. There is hardly any visitor to this region who has not seen this grand building and the museums it houses. Several Hindi films and even South Indian films have been shot at this campus. Karan Johars film Student of the Year has some lovely scenes shot at FRI. FRI is usually shown as a college or university in films that are shot here. Styled in Greco-Roman Architecture by Sir C G Blomfield, the main building is a National Heritage which was inaugurated in 1929. It was inaugurated by Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, on November 7, 1929.Its Greco-Roman and Oriental architecture is spread over a plinth area of 2.8 hectares. The FRI campus is spread over 500 hectares. The building took seven years to complete and cost a then astronomical sum of about Rs 90 lakh. Seventy five years of the grand FRI building were celebrated in the year 2004, two years before the Forest Research Institute celebrated its centenary year. Senior foresters and scientists attended the platinum jubilee celebrations in the valley. The FRI was first called the Imperial Forest Research Institute (IFRI) and shifted two buildings between 1906 and 1928, settling finally at the New Forest Campus in 1929 where it is still located. Laboratory research in forestry started in 1878 in the small chemical laboratory attached to the Forest School in Dehra Dun. A beginning to organise forestry research was at last made in 1906 with the establishment of the FRI in Dehra Dun. It is interesting to know that the FRI and the Doon School, both synonymous with the Doon valley, share a close connection. The Doon School was set up as the realisation of a dream of Satish Ranjan Das, one of pre-independent Indias most eminent barristers and a member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy of India. With support from a wide range of eminent Indians of that time, the Indian Public Schools Society was registered as a non-profit making body under the Indian Companies Act in 1929. Unfortunately, SR Das passed away in 1928. Thereafter his wife and friends collected funds to start the school in September 1935. The society was fortunate to be able to take over the Chand Bagh Estate in Dehradun from the Indian Forest College and to acquire the neighbouring Skinners Estate from the family of the well-known Col Skinner of Skinners Horse. In 1926, the Forest institute shifted from Chand Bagh to its present location. The building was completed and formally inaugurated in 1929. Over the years, the FRI has remoulded its priorities to the contemporary need of the times. This remoulding culminated into the formation of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) in 1986. On December 6, 1991, the FRI got the status of Deemed University. The history of the FRI is synonymous with the evolution and development of scientific forestry not only in India but also in the entire sub-continent. The FRI actually began as a small forest school at Dehra Dun in 1878 to impart training to forest rangers. This school, which was taken over by the Central Government in 1884 and named the Imperial Forest school, formed the nucleus of the present FRI. By the beginning of the 20th century, the school became an institution with a fine museum, herbarium collections, labs and an instructive arboretum. In 1906, research departments were added to the school and it was designated as the Imperial Forest Research Institute and College. The vast and imposing corridors of the beautiful building echo with the valuable observations made by the pioneer forest officers during their tours in the far-flung forests of India. Their informal and frequent forays into the domain of scientific forestry provided the foundation on which the edifice of forestry research has been built. There are seven museums situated in the main building namely timber museum, minor forest product museum, entomology museum, silviculture museum, social forestry museum and pathology museum. Looking at the FRI building and the immense work that has gone on at the institute for the last one century, it is no surprise that the Doon valley is known the world over as the Cradle of Indian Forestry. As many as 175 police constables, many of them women, have been dismissed from service for indulging in large-scale vandalism and violence here Friday, following the death of a female colleague, a top police official said. Inspector General of Police (IGP), Patna Zone, Naiyar Hasnain Khan said Sunday the dismissed constables included 167 trainees. Khan, who had been entrusted with the investigation and taking departmental action against those indulging in the indiscipline, said 23 others posted at the police line here were also suspended. "Nearly half of the dismissed trainee constables are women. The suspended personnel include a head constable and two others who had the responsibility of assigning duties to trainees," the IGP said. The police personnel were dismissed and suspended after getting Khan's approval, Patna Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manu Maharaj said. Policewoman Savita Pathak (22) died at a private hospital here Friday morning, a day after she had to be taken off duty due to a serious stomach pain. Blaming the seniors for putting Pathak on duty despite ill health, trainee constables went on a rampage, vandalising the entire police line and overturning vehicles of officials on the streets on Friday. It had taken hours to bring the situation under control with top officials supervising the operations in full riot gear. The police authorities had said the death appeared to have been caused by dengue. However, the hospital later clarified that the dengue test had not been conducted on her, but she was suffering from some form of viral infection. Khan said, "During investigation, we found that Pathak was indeed ill and she had been on medical leave in October for three days. In such a situation, she should not have been asked to report to duty." The IGP added that he had also recommended action against the medical officer of the Police Hospital for his failure to take proper stock of the deceased constable's health and give appropriate advice and treatment, which might have saved her life. "I also found that more than 90 personnel were posted at the police line for more than four years. This is unacceptable and they will be transferred out of the Patna zone," he said. Khan said the departmental action was in addition to the FIRs lodged against those who had indulged in the indiscipline. Four FIRs have been lodged in connection with the incident. "One of the FIRs was lodged by Mohammad Masaluddin, the Deputy Superintendent of Police in-charge of the police line, who was assaulted and chased to his residence by a mob that ransacked his house and misbehaved with his family members," Khan said. He denied the allegations levelled by the agitators that the deputy SP was responsible for Pathak's death. "We suspect that the agitators were instigated by some disgruntled personnel, against whom the officer might have taken action in the past," the IGP said. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had sought a detailed report on the incident from Director General of Police (DGP) K S Dwivedi. A fire broke out on the fifth floor of a high-rise office building in the posh Park Street here Monday, an official said. No one was injured in the fire that broke out at about 11.10 am on the fifth floor of the multi-storied building called Apeejay House, the Fire Brigade official said. "Several fire tenders are busy in dousing the flames," he said. Efforts are being made to evacuate the building, which houses several corporate offices and headquarters of the Apeejay Surendra Group. "Initially, light smoke was seen around 11 am, but by 11.30 flames were seen gushing out of windows with thick black smoke," eyewitnesses said. The Trump administration has said it is confident that "the toughest ever" sanctions against Iran which came into effect on Monday will have the intended effect to alter the Iranian regime's behaviour, even as it dodged a question on whether the US has firm commitments from India and China to stop all oil purchases from Tehran within six months. The sanctions cover Iran's banking and energy sectors and reinstate penalties for countries and companies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere that do not halt Iranian oil imports. India and China -- the two biggest buyers of Iranian crude, have so far appear to have skipped the punitive American sanctions targeting the Iranian oil and financial sectors. The two Asian giants are believed to be among the eight countries that have been given the rare exemptions from the Iranian sanctions that kicked off on Monday. The Trump administration said it has asked these countries including Turkey, Iraq, Italy, Japan and South Korea to bring down their oil purchase to zero as soon as possible. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during a a talk show on Fox News, repeatedly parried questions when asked about the commitment from India and China on zero-oil purchase from Iran. "Watch what we do. Watch as we've already taken more crude oil off the market than any time in previous history. Watch the efforts that President Trump's policies have achieved. We've done all of this, too, while making sure that American consumers don't suffer, he said, as he avoided giving a direct answer on India and China. I am very confident that the sanctions that will be re-imposed this Monday, not only the crude oil sanctions, that the financial sanctions that are being put in place by the Treasury Department and over 600 designations of individuals and companies in Iran will have the intended effect to alter the Iranian regime's behaviour. That's our expectation. It's the reason for President Trump's policy, he asserted. India, which is the second biggest purchaser of Iranian oil after China, is willing to restrict its monthly purchase to 1.25 million tonnes or 15 million tonnes in a year (300,000 barrels per day), down from 22.6 million tonnes (452,000 barrels per day) bought in 2017-18 financial year, sources in New Delhi had said. The reimposition of US sanctions on Iran, Pompeo asserted are the toughest ever on this country. They're aimed at a singular purpose, denying the world's largest state sponsor of terrorists the capacity to do things like they did this past couple weeks, attempted assassination campaign in the heart of Europe, he said. These sanctions have already had an enormous impact. We've already reduced Iranian crude oil experts by over a million barrels per day. That number will fall farther. There's a handful of places were countries that have already made significant reductions in their crude oil exports need a little bit more time to get to zero, and we're going to provide that to them, he said. The State Department did not respond to a PTI question as to what will happen if India does not bring down its oil purchase from Iran to zero, as being demanded by it, in next six months. It also did not respond to a question on the fate of the the strategically crucial Iranian port of Chabahar, which India sees as critical for reaching landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia. In May, President Donald Trump had pulled US out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) terming it as disastrous. Under the Obama-era deal, involving five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, Iran agreed to stop its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Iran has dismissed these charges and continues to keep its stand that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. In another interview to CBS News, Pompeo said the European companies will not be permitted to do business with both the United States and with Iran. Frankly since May, since the President's announcement of withdrawal from the ill-fated agreement, European companies have fled Iran in great numbers. Hundreds of businesses have departed Iran, he said. The whole world understands that these sanctions are real, that they are important, that they drive the Iranian people's opportunity to make the changes in Iran that they so desperately want and stop Iran from having the wealth and money that they need to continue to foment terror around the world, Pompeo said. Brian Hook, the special adviser to the secretary of state and special representative for Iran, told PBS News that the US is not looking to give any exceptions or waivers to its sanctions regime. Going forward, next year, we anticipate a much better supplied oil market, and that will help us accelerate, I think, the path to zero, he asserted. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected] | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. 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KG, ADM WILD Ingredients GmbH, ADM WILD Nauen GmbH, ADM WILD Valencia S.A., ADM Wild Netherlands BV, ADM Worldwide Holdings LP, ADMIS Holding Co Inc., ADMIS Hong Kong LTD, ADMIS Singapore Pte Limited, AOR, AT Holdings II Company, Agri Port Services Investments Ltd., Agri Port Services LLC, Agricolas Madagascar SARLU, Agrinational Insurance Co, Agriserve, Agrograin LTD, Alfrebro LLC, Alfred C Toepfer International Netherlands BV, Alimenta USA, American River Transportation Company LLC, Ameriseed, Amylum Bulgaria EAD, Amylum Nisasta Sanayi Ve Ticarek Anonim Sirketi, Archer Daniels Midland (UK) Limited, Archer Daniels Midland Asia Pacific Ltd., Archer Daniels Midland Erith LTD, Archer Daniels Midland Europe BV, Archer Daniels Midland Europoort BV, Archer Daniels Midland Nederland BV, Archer Daniels Midland Singapore PTE LTD, Arinos Unlimited, Aston Foods & Food Ingredients, Balanceados Nova SA Balnova, Barbados Mills Limited, Bela Vista Bio Etanol Participacoes LTDA, Bern Aqua, BioPolis SL, Biopolis, Campa Sued GmbH & Co KG, Cattleman's Choice Loomix LLC, Chamtor, Ci ADM Colombia Ltda., Controladora ADM Sa De Cv, Crosswind Petfoods Inc., Daavision BV, Eaststarch, Eatem Corporation, Eatem Foods, Elstar Oils, English River Pellets Inc., Epicore Bionetworks INC, Epicore Networks (USA) INC, Erich Ziegler GmbH, Evialis France, Fasco Mills Co., Filozoo SRL, Florida Chemical, Florida Chemical Company LLC, GP Blanching Inc., Global Cocoa Holdings LTD, Golden Peanut Company LLC, Golden Peanut and Tree Nut Seed SA (PTY) LTD, Golden Peanut and Tree Nuts SA, Group Lysac, Guyomarc'h - VCN Company Limited, Guyomarc'h Vietnam CO LTD, HFR Shipping Company Ltd, HRA Shipping Company Ltd, HTI Shipping Company Ltd, Harvest Innovations, Hilltop Grain and Feed, Holding P and A Asia Company Limited, Hubei Meiweiyuan Biotechnology, Ilitchevskiy Maslo Extractionniy Zavod (IMEZ), Invivo NSA Asia PTE LTD, Invivo NSA Philippines Inc, Jamaica Flour Mills Limited, Julius Meijer-Alpharma BV, LLC ADM Ukraine, Liquid Feed Commodities, Malta Industries SA de CV, Malta-Texo De Mexico SA de CV, Master Mix of Trinidad LTD, Medsofts Investment Co, Medsofts L.L.C., Medsofts Trading Co, Mepla Comercio e Navegacao Ltda, NRG Inc, Naviera Chaco SRL, Neovia, Neovia Latina SL, Neovia Nutricao E Saude Animal LTDA, North Star Shipping S.R.L., P and A Marketing SA, PJSC ADM Illichivsk, PT Wirifa Sakti, Pancosma (Shanghai) Feed Additives CO LTD, Pancosma France SAS, Pancosma SA, Premiere Agri Technologies of Mexico Inc, Pura Foods LTD, Rodelle Inc., Schokinag-Schokolade-Industrie Herrmann, Sermix, Setna Nutricion SA, Societe Industrielle Des Oleagineux, Southern Cellulose Products Inc, Soy Investors LLC, Specialty Commodities, Specialty Commodities LLC, Sul Mineira Alimentos LTDA, SzSzV Kft, Toepfer International, Toepfer International Trading (Shanghai) Co. LTD., Vantage Corn Processors LLC, WILD Amazon Flavors Ltda, WILD Flavors, Wild Flavors Inc., Wild Flavors International GmbH, Wild Flavors Singapore Pte. Ltd., Wild Intermare GmbH, Wild Russia LLC, and Wisium SA (PTY) LTD. By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 04, 2018 | 10:30 AM | MARSHALL COUNTY Marshall County voters will head to the polls Tuesday with the rest of the nation to choose the candidates who will represent them over the next term, with several hotly contested races on the ballot and some guaranteed changes coming to the makeup of the county's government.On the county level, incumbent Republican Kevin Neal will face Democrat State Rep. Will Coursey in the race for county Judge/Executive. Neal has served as Judge/Executive since 2015. Coursey has been a State Representative since 2008.Sheriff Kevin Byars, a Democrat who has held the position since 1997, will be defending his seat against Republican challenger Eddie McGuire. McGuire has 17 years of law enforcement experience, including 7 years as a police supervisor.Whatever the results of Tuesday's election, Marshall County voters will be electing a new county attorney. Jeff Edwards is not running for re-election, leaving the seat wide open for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century. Independent Jason Darnall, who has worked in the office for 14 years, is looking to fill the vacant seat, as is his Democratic challenger Zachary Brien, who currently serves as Benton City Attorney.Also not seeking re-election is District 1 County Commissioner Bob Gold. Voters will instead choose between Democrat Justin Lamb and Republican Joshua Medley. In the Second District, Incumbent Democrat Johnny Bowlin will face off against Republican Kevin Spraggs. Democrat Richard Cocke, elected 3rd District Commissioner in 2015, will defend his seat against Republican Monti Collins.There will also be a new Coroner in Marshall County beginning next year. Mitchell Lee retired at the end of last year, leaving the seat open. Republican Michael Gordon will challenge Democrat Barry Taylor for the seat. Former Benton Police Chief Tracy Watwood has been serving as interim Coroner since Jan. 1.Marshall County voters will also help elect several candidates to state and national races. Incumbent Republican James Comer and Democratic challenger Paul Walker are both running for the 1st Congressional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Voters will also participate in a statewide referendum to decide if a "victim's bill of rights" will be added to Kentucky's Constitution.In the race for Kentucky's open 6th District state legislature seat, Republican Chris Freeland will face Democrat Linda Story Edwards. Incumbent Republican Danny Carrol is running against Democratic challenger Julie Tennyson for the 2nd District State Senate seat.Contested city level races include Benton City Council and Calvert City Mayor. In all, 10 candidates are running in the Benton City Council nonpartisan race; Tim Moores, Ann C. Riley, Kevin Farley, Stuart Wyatt, Rita Murray, Stanley "Butch" Holland, Gene Gilliland, Sherra Riley, Drew Williams, and Charles Edmonds. Only 6 candidates will be chosen. Incumbent Lynn Jones is running against challenger Von Puckett for Calvert City Mayor.There are also several non-contested races on the ballot in Marshall County. Click the link below to view the full Marshall County ballot. On the Net: Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA provides dialysis care and related dialysis care services in Germany, North America, and internationally. It offers dialysis treatment and related laboratory and diagnostic services through a network of outpatient dialysis clinics; materials, training, and patient support services comprising clinical monitoring, follow-up assistance, and arranging for delivery of the supplies to the patient's residence; and dialysis services under contract to hospitals in the United States for the hospitalized end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and for patients suffering from acute kidney failure. The company also develops, manufactures, and distributes dialysis products, including polysulfone dialyzers, hemodialysis machines, peritoneal dialysis cyclers, peritoneal dialysis solutions, hemodialysis concentrates, solutions and granulates, bloodlines, renal pharmaceuticals, and systems for water treatment; and non-dialysis products, such as acute cardiopulmonary and apheresis products. In addition, it develops, acquires, and in-licenses renal pharmaceuticals; offers renal medications and supplies to patients at homes or to dialysis clinics; and provides vascular, cardiovascular, endovascular specialty, vascular care ambulatory surgery center, and physician nephrology and cardiology services. The company sells its products to dialysis clinics, hospitals, and specialized treatment clinics directly, as well as through local sales forces, independent distributors, dealers, and sales agents. As of December 31, 2020, it operated 4,092 outpatient dialysis clinics in approximately 150 countries. Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Bad Homburg, Germany. Read More American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at contact@marketbeat.com | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. Premium Brands Holdings Corporation, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and distributes food products primarily in Canada and the United States. It operates in two segments, Specialty Foods and Premium Food Distribution. The company provides meat products and snacks, deli products, beef jerky and halal, sandwiches, pastries, specialty and gourmet products, salads and kettle products, entrees, panini, wraps, subs, hamburgers, burgers, muffins, breads, pastas, and baking and sushi products, as well as processed meat products. It is also involved in the distribution of food products, including meat, seafood, and halal food products, as well as operation of retail/convenience store and concessionary, and provision of food and seafood processing services. The company operates under the brand names of Harvest Meats, Hempler's, Grimm's Fine Foods, Piller's, Freybe, Isernio's, Expresco, SJ Fine Foods, McSweeney's, Made Rite, Fletcher's, Deli Chef, Belmont Meats, Conte Foods, SK Food Group, Oven Pride, Hygaard, Quality Fast Foods, HQ Fine Foods, Creekside Custom Foods, Stuyver's Bread, Bread Garden Express, Audrey's Patisserie, Duso's, Gourmet Chef, Island City Baking, Skilcor, Leadbetter's, Mclean Meats, Buddy's Kitchen, Raybern's, Partner's Crackers, Shaw Bakers, Oberto, Concord Meats, Country Prime Meats, The Meat Factory, and Golden Valley Farms. It serves chains and large format retailers, independent and specialty retailers, foodservice operators, foodservice distributors, and other food manufacturers and food brokers. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Richmond, Canada. Read More There is not enough analysis data for Dividend 15 Split Corp. II. 5.0 Community Rank Outperform Votes Dividend 15 Split Corp. II has received 4 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Dividend 15 Split Corp. II has received 1 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Dividend 15 Split Corp. II has received 80.00% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Dividend 15 Split Corp. II and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe DF will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe DF will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Rogers Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and sells engineered materials and components worldwide. It operates in Advanced Connectivity Solutions (ACS), Elastomeric Material Solutions (EMS), Power Electronics Solutions (PES), and Other segments. The ACS segment offers circuit materials and solutions for connectivity applications in wireless infrastructure, automotive, aerospace and defense, connected devices, and wired infrastructure under the RO4000, RO3000, RT/duroid, TMM, AD Series, CuClad, Kappa, DiClad, IsoClad, COOLSPAN, MAGTREX, TC Series, IM Series, 92ML, and CLTE Series names. The EMS segment provides engineered material solutions, including polyurethane and silicone materials used in cushioning, gasketing, sealing, and vibration management applications for general industrial, portable electronics, automotive, mass transit, aerospace and defense, footwear and impact mitigation, and printing markets; customized silicones used in flex heater and semiconductor thermal applications; and polytetrafluoroethylene and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene materials used in wire and cable, electrical insulation, and automotive applications under the PORON, BISCO, DeWAL, ARLON, Griswold, eSORBA, XRD, HeatSORB, and R/bak names. The PES segment offers ceramic substrate materials, busbars, and cooling solutions under the curamik and ROLINX names. The Other segment provides elastomer components; and elastomer floats for level sensing in fuel tanks, motors, and storage tanks for applications in the general industrial and automotive markets under the ENDUR and NITROPHYL names. Rogers Corporation was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Chandler, Arizona. Read More Gildan Activewear Inc. manufactures and sells various apparel products in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It provides various activewear products, including T-shirts, fleece tops and bottoms, and sport shirts under the Gildan, Gildan Performance, Gildan Hammer, Comfort Colors, American Apparel, Anvil by Gildan, Alstyle, Prim + Preux, and GoldToe brands. The company also offers hosiery products comprising athletic; dress; and casual, liner, therapeutic, and workwear socks, as well as sheer panty hoses, tights, and leggings under the brands of Gildan, Under Armour, GoldToe, PowerSox, GT a GoldToe Brand, Silver Toe, Signature Gold by Goldtoe, Peds, MediPeds, Kushyfoot, Therapy Plus, All Pro, Secret, Silks, Secret Silky, and American Apparel. In addition, it provides men's and boys' underwear products, and ladies panties under the Gildan and Gildan Platinum brand names; and ladies' shapewear, intimates, and accessories under the Secret and Secret Silky brands. The company sells its products to wholesale distributors, screen printers, or embellishers, as well as to retailers and consumer brand companies. The company was formerly known as Textiles Gildan Inc. and changed its name to Gildan Activewear Inc. in March 1995. Gildan Activewear Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Read More Aenza SAA is a holding company, which engages in the provision of engineering, management consulting, real estate, and corporate shares trading services. It operates through the following segments: Engineering and Construction, Infrastructure, Real Estate, Technical Services, and Parent Company Operation. The Engineering and Construction segment includes activities such as engineering, civil works, electro-mechanic construction, building construction, and contract mining. The Infrastructure segment provides operation and maintenance services for infrastructure assets. The Real Estate segment develops and sells homes targeted to low and middle income population sectors. The Technical Services segment offers information technology services, and electricity networks services. The Parent Company Operation segment corresponds to the services which the holding company provides, management, logistics, and accounting services. The company was founded by Alejandro Grana Garland, Carlos Montero Bernales, and Carlos Grana Elizalde on June 22, 1933 and is headquartered in Lima, Peru. Read More 18 hours ago The Top 3 Large-Cap Stocks to Buy Under $100 Owning Quality Large-Cap Stocks Doesn't Have to Break The Bank There are certainly a lot of advantages associated with investing in large-cap stocks. These are companies with a market capitalization of over $10 billion and play a huge role in determining the overall direction and trend of the indexes. Read Article TelefAnica Brasil S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides mobile and fixed telecommunications services to residential and corporate customers in Brazil. Its fixed line services portfolio includes local, domestic long-distance, and international long-distance calls; and mobile portfolio comprises voice and broadband internet access through 3G, 4G, and 4.5G, as well as mobile value-added services and wireless roaming services. The company also offers data services, including broadband and mobile data services. In addition, it provides pay TV services through direct to home satellite technology, IPTV, and cable, as well as pay-per-view and video on demand services; network services, such as rental of facilities; other services comprising internet access, private network connectivity, computer equipment leasing, extended service, caller identification, voice mail, cellular blocker, and others; wholesale services, including interconnection services to users of other network providers; and digital services, such as entertainment, cloud, and security and financial services, as well as sells wireless devices and accessories. Further, the company offers multimedia communication services, which include audio, data, voice and other sounds, images, texts, and other information, as well as sells devices, such as smartphones, broadband USB modems, and other devices. Additionally, it provides telecommunications solutions and IT support to various industries, such as retail, manufacturing, services, financial institutions, government, etc. It markets and sells its solutions through own stores, dealers, retail and distribution channels, door-to-door sales, and telesales. The company was formerly known as TelecomunicaAAes de SAo Paulo S.A. - TELESP and changed its name to TelefAnica Brasil S.A. in October 2011. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in SAo Paulo, Brazil. Read More There is not enough analysis data for Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Buy-Write Income Fund. 4.7 Community Rank Outperform Votes Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Buy-Write Income Fund has received 92 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Buy-Write Income Fund has received 40 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Buy-Write Income Fund has received 69.70% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Buy-Write Income Fund and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe ETB will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe ETB will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next TC Energy Corporation operates as an energy infrastructure company in North America. It operates through Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines, U.S. Natural Gas Pipelines, Mexico Natural Gas Pipelines, Liquids Pipelines, and Power and Storage segments. The company builds and operates 93,400 km network of natural gas pipelines, which transports natural gas from supply basins to local distribution companies, power generation plants, industrial facilities, interconnecting pipelines, LNG export terminals, and other businesses. It also has regulated natural gas storage facilities with a total working gas capacity of 535 billion cubic feet. In addition, it has approximately 4,900 km liquids pipeline system that connects Alberta crude oil supplies to refining markets in Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, and the U.S. Gulf Coast. Further, the company owns or has interests in seven power generation facilities with a combined capacity of approximately 4,200 megawatts that are powered by natural gas and nuclear fuel sources located in Alberta, Ontario, QuAbec, and New Brunswick; and owns and operates approximately 118 billion cubic feet of non-regulated natural gas storage capacity in Alberta. The company was formerly known as TransCanada Corporation and changed its name to TC Energy Corporation in May 2019. TC Energy Corporation was incorporated in 1951 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Teledyne Technologies: Alia Corporation Inc, Bolt Technology Corp, Bowtech Products, CARIS, CDL do Brasil Equipamentos e Servicos Submarinos Sociedade Empresaria Ltda., CETAC Technologies, DALSA, Demo Systems, Detcon Holdco Inc., Ensambles de Precision S.A. de C.V., Falcon Analytical, Frontline Test Equipment, GMI Group Holdings Limited, Hafmynd ehf, Hanson Research Corp, IST Oldham Instruments India Private Limited, Industrial Control Machines, Intelek, Intelek Limited, Intelek Pension Trustees Limited, Intelek Properties Limited, LeCroy (Beijing) Trading Co. Ltd., LeCroy Corporation, Lidar Aviation Services Inc., Maple Imaging LLC, Micralyne Inc, Ocean Design Ltda., Oldham Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Oldham Simtronics SAS, Oldham-Winter GmbH, PDM Neptec, Reynolds Industries Limited, Rhombi Canada LP, Rhombi Holdings Limited, Rhombi Netherlands B.V., Rockwell Scientific Company, Simtronics AS, TDY Jersey Limited, Teledyne Advanced Pollution Instrumentation, Teledyne Australia Pty Ltd, Teledyne BlueView, Teledyne Bogatin Enterprises LLC, Teledyne Bowtech Limited, Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., Teledyne C.M.L. Group Limited, Teledyne CARIS B.V., Teledyne CARIS Inc., Teledyne CARIS UK Ltd., Teledyne CARIS USA Inc., Teledyne CDL Inc., Teledyne CDL Limited, Teledyne Catalyst Enterprises Inc., Teledyne Computer Access Technology Corporation, Teledyne Controls LLC, Teledyne Cougar, Teledyne Czech s.r.o., Teledyne DALSA (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Teledyne DALSA Asia-Pacific Ltd., Teledyne DALSA B.V., Teledyne DALSA GmbH, Teledyne DALSA Inc., Teledyne DALSA Industrial Products Inc., Teledyne DALSA K.K., Teledyne DALSA Semiconductor Inc., Teledyne Dalsa, Teledyne Defense Electronics LLC, Teledyne Denmark A/S, Teledyne Detcon Inc., Teledyne Digital Imaging Inc., Teledyne Digital Imaging US Inc., Teledyne Energy Systems Inc., Teledyne Europe Holdings C.V., Teledyne France, Teledyne France SAS, Teledyne Gas Measurement Instruments Limited, Teledyne Gavia ehf., Teledyne Germany GmbH, Teledyne Hanson Research Inc., Teledyne ICM SA, Teledyne ICM SPRL, Teledyne Innovaciones Microelectronics S.L.U., Teledyne Instruments Inc., Teledyne Instruments Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Teledyne Japan Corporation, Teledyne Korea Ltd., Teledyne Labtech Limited, Teledyne LeCroy AB, Teledyne LeCroy Delaware LLC, Teledyne LeCroy GmbH, Teledyne LeCroy Inc., Teledyne LeCroy India Trading Private Ltd., Teledyne LeCroy Japan Corporation, Teledyne LeCroy Korea Ltd., Teledyne LeCroy OakGate Inc., Teledyne LeCroy S.A.R.L., Teledyne LeCroy S.R.L., Teledyne LeCroy SA, Teledyne LeCroy Singapore Pte. Ltd., Teledyne Limited, Teledyne Micralyne Inc., Teledyne Monitor Labs, Teledyne Monitor Labs P.R. Inc., Teledyne Netherlands B.V., Teledyne ODI, Teledyne Optech Inc., Teledyne Paradise Datacom Limited, Teledyne RD Instruments, Teledyne RD Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Teledyne RESON, Teledyne RESON A/S, Teledyne RESON B.V., Teledyne RESON GmbH, Teledyne RESON Holding B.V., Teledyne RESON Inc., Teledyne RESON Pte. Ltd., Teledyne RESON UK Limited, Teledyne RISI Inc., Teledyne Rad-icon Imaging Corp., Teledyne Redlake MASD LLC, Teledyne Reynolds Inc., Teledyne SG Brown Limited, Teledyne Scientific & Imaging LLC, Teledyne Scientific Imaging GmbH, Teledyne Scientific Imaging Limited, Teledyne Signal Processing Devices Sweden AB, Teledyne Singapore Private Limited, Teledyne TSS Limited, Teledyne Taiwan Company, Teledyne Technologies (Bermuda) Limited, Teledyne Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Teledyne Technologies International Corp., Teledyne Technologies Israel Ltd., Teledyne Tekmar Company, Teledyne UK Limited, Teledyne VariSystems, Teledyne VariSystems Inc., Teledyne Wireless LLC, Teledyne e2v, Teledyne e2v (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Teledyne e2v (Overseas) Holdings Limited, Teledyne e2v Asia Pacific Limited, Teledyne e2v Limited, Teledyne e2v Semiconductors SAS, and The Oceanscience Group Ltd.. The following companies are subsidiares of Procter & Gamble: "Procter & Gamble Services" LLC, "Procter & Gamble" LLC, Agile Pursuits, Agile Pursuits Franchising, Arbora, Arbora & Ausonia, Arborinvest, Billie, Braun (Shanghai) Co., Braun GmbH, Braun-Gillette Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Celtic Insurance Company, Compania Procter & Gamble Mexico, Compania Quimica S.A., Corporativo Procter & Gamble, Cosmetic Products Pty. Ltd., Detergent Products B.V., Detergent Products SARL, Detergenti S.A., Eurocos Cosmetic GmbH, FPG Oleochemicals Sdn. Bhd., Fameccanica Data S.p.A., Fameccanica Industria e Comercio Do Brasil LTDA., Fameccanica Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Fater S.p.A., Fountain Square Music Publishing Co., Gillette (China) Ltd., Gillette (Shanghai) Ltd., Gillette Aesop Ltd., Gillette Australia Pty. Ltd., Gillette Canada Holdings, Gillette Commercial Operations North America, Gillette Diversified Operations Pvt. Ltd., Gillette Egypt S.A.E., Gillette Group UK Ltd, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland GmbH & Co. oHG, Gillette Holding Company LLC, Gillette Holding GmbH, Gillette India Limited, Gillette Industries Ltd., Gillette International B.V., Gillette Latin America Holding B.V., Gillette Management LLC, Gillette Nova Scotia Company, Gillette Pakistan Limited, Gillette Poland International Sp. z.o.o., Gillette Poland S.A., Gillette U.K. Limited, Gillette del Uruguay, Giorgio Beverly Hills Inc., Hyginett KFT, Industries Marocaines Modernes SA, LLC "Procter & Gamble Novomoskovsk", LLL "Procter & Gamble Distributorskaya Compania", Laboratorios Vicks, Liberty Street Music Publishing Company, Limited Liability Company 'Procter & Gamble Trading Ukraine', Limited Liability Company with foreign investments Procter & and Gamble Ukraine, MDVIP, MERCK KGAA NPV, Marcvenca Inversiones, Modern Industries Company - Dammam, Modern Products Company - Jeddah, New Chapter, New Chapter Canada Inc., Olay LLC, Oral-B Laboratories, P&G Distribution Morocco SAS, P&G Hair Care Holding, P&G Industrial Peru S.R.L., P&G Innovation Godo Kaisha, P&G Israel M.D.O. Ltd., P&G K.K., P&G Northeast Asia Pte. Ltd., P&G Prestige Godo Kaisha, P&G Prestige Service GmbH, P&G South African Trading (Pty.) Ltd., PGT Health Care (Zhejiang) Limited, PGT Healthcare LLP, PPI ZAO, PT Procter & Gamble Home Products Indonesia, PT Procter & Gamble Operations Indonesia, Phase II Holdings Corporation, Procter & Gamble (Chengdu) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Sales Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (East Africa) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Egypt) Manufacturing Company, Procter & Gamble (Enterprise Fund) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Consumer Products Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Enterprise Management Service Company Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Health & Beauty Care) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Jiangsu) Ltd. China, Procter & Gamble (L&CP) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Procter & Gamble (Manufacturing) Ireland Limited, Procter & Gamble (Shanghai) International Trade Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Acquisition GmbH, Procter & Gamble Administration GmbH, Procter & Gamble Algeria EURL, Procter & Gamble Amazon Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Amiens S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Argentina SRL, Procter & Gamble Asia Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Australia Proprietary Limited, Procter & Gamble Azerbaijan Services LLC, Procter & Gamble Bangladesh Private Ltd., Procter & Gamble Blois S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Brazil Holdings B.V., Procter & Gamble Bulgaria EOOD, Procter & Gamble Business Services Canada Company, Procter & Gamble Canada Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Chile , Procter & Gamble Chile Limitada, Procter & Gamble Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Commercial LLC, Procter & Gamble Commercial de Cuba S.A., Procter & Gamble Czech Republic s.r.o., Procter & Gamble DS Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Danmark ApS, Procter & Gamble Detergent (Beijing) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Deuttschland GmbH, Procter & Gamble Distributing (Philippines) Inc., Procter & Gamble Distributing New Zealand Limited, Procter & Gamble Distribution Company (Europe) BVBA, Procter & Gamble Distribution S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Eastern Europe, Procter & Gamble Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Procter & Gamble Egypt, Procter & Gamble Egypt Distribution, Procter & Gamble Egypt Holding, Procter & Gamble Egypt Supplies, Procter & Gamble Energy Company LLC, Procter & Gamble Espana, Procter & Gamble Europe SA, Procter & Gamble Export Operations SARL, Procter & Gamble Exportadora e Importadora Ltda., Procter & Gamble Exports, Procter & Gamble Fabricacao e Comercio Ltda., Procter & Gamble Far East, Procter & Gamble Finance (U.K.) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Holding Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Management S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Financial Investments LLP, Procter & Gamble Financial Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Financial Services S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Finland OY, Procter & Gamble France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH, Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH & Co. Operations oHG, Procter & Gamble GmbH, Procter & Gamble Grundstucks-und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Procter & Gamble Hellas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Holding (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Holding France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Holding GmbH, Procter & Gamble Holding S.r.l., Procter & Gamble Holdings (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Home Products Private Limited, Procter & Gamble Hong Kong Limited, Procter & Gamble Hungary Wholesale Trading Partnership (KKT), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care Limited, Procter & Gamble Inc., Procter & Gamble India Holdings, Procter & Gamble Indochina Limited Company, Procter & Gamble Industrial - 2012 C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Industrial S.C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Costa Rica, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Guatemala, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Panama, Procter & Gamble International Operations Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble International Operations SA, Procter & Gamble International Operations SA-ROHQ, Procter & Gamble International S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Investment Company (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Investment GmbH, Procter & Gamble Italia, Procter & Gamble Japan K.K., Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan Distribution LLP, Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan LLP, Procter & Gamble Korea, Procter & Gamble Korea S&D Co., Procter & Gamble Lanka Private Ltd. Sri Lanka, Procter & Gamble Leasing LLC, Procter & Gamble Levant S.A.L., Procter & Gamble Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Berlin GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Marketing Romania SRL, Procter & Gamble Marketing and Services doo, Procter & Gamble Maroc SA, Procter & Gamble Mataro, Procter & Gamble Mexico Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Mexico Inc., Procter & Gamble Middle East FZE, Procter & Gamble Nederland B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Investments B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Services B.V., Procter & Gamble Nigeria Limited, Procter & Gamble Nordic, Procter & Gamble Norge AS, Procter & Gamble Operations Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Overseas India B.V., Procter & Gamble Overseas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Pakistan (Private) Limited, Procter & Gamble Partnership LLP, Procter & Gamble Peru S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals France SAS, Procter & Gamble Philippines, Procter & Gamble Polska Sp. z o.o, Procter & Gamble Portugal - Produtos De Consumo, Procter & Gamble Product Supply (U.K.) Limited U.K., Procter & Gamble Production GmbH, Procter & Gamble Productions, Procter & Gamble Productos de Consumo, Procter & Gamble RHD, Procter & Gamble RSC Regional Service Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Retail Services BVBA, Procter & Gamble S.r.l., Procter & Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Satis ve Dagitim Ltd. Sti., Procter & Gamble Seine S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Procter & Gamble Services (Switzerland) SA, Procter & Gamble Services Company N.V., Procter & Gamble Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Share Incentive Plan Trustee Ltd., Procter & Gamble South America Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Spol. s.r.o. (Ltd.), Procter & Gamble Sports and Social Club Ltd., Procter & Gamble Sverige AB, Procter & Gamble Switzerland SARL, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Limited, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Sales Company Limited, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Limited, Procter & Gamble Technology (Beijing) Co., Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Tuketim Mallari Sanayii A.S., Procter & Gamble UK, Procter & Gamble UK Group Holdings Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK Parent Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Universal Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Verwaltungs GmbH, Procter & Gamble Vietnam, Procter & Gamble d.o.o. za trgovinu, Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.C.A., Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.R.L., Procter & Gamble do Brasil S/A, Procter & Gamble do Brazil, Procter & Gamble do Nordeste S/A, Procter & Gamble-Rakona s.r.o., Progam Realty & Development Corporation, Redmond Products, Richardson-Vicks Real Estate Inc., Richardson-Vicks do Brasil Quimica e Farmaceutica Ltda, Riverfront Music Publishing Co., Rosemount LLC, SPD Development Company Limited, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Scannon S.A.S., Series Acquisition B.V., Shulton, Surfac S.R.L., Sycamore Productions, TAOS - FL, TAOS Retail, Tambrands Inc., Temple Trees Impex & Investment Private Limited, The Art of Shaving - FL, The Dover Wipes Company, The Gillette Company, The Gillette Company LLC, The Gillette co., The Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC, The Procter & Gamble GBS Company, The Procter & Gamble Global Finance Company, The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, The Procter & Gamble U.S. Business Services Company, This is L., US CD LLC, Vidal Sassoon (Shanghai) Academy, Vidal Sassoon Co., WEBA Betriebsrenten-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Walker & Company Brands, and iMFLUX Inc.. There is not enough analysis data for El Paso Electric. 3.9 Community Rank Outperform Votes El Paso Electric has received 256 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes El Paso Electric has received 192 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment El Paso Electric has received 57.14% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about El Paso Electric and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe EE will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe EE will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next The following companies are subsidiares of Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft: 87 Leonard Development LLC, ABFS I Incorporated, ABS MB Ltd., Acacia (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Accounting Solutions Holding Company Inc, Alex. Brown Financial Services Incorporated, Alex. Brown Investments Incorporated, Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft mbH, Amber Investments S.a r.l., Ambidexter GmbH, Ambidexter GmbH i.L., Argent Incorporated, BHW - Gesellschaft fur Wohnungswirtschaft mbH, BHW Bausparkasse Aktiengesellschaft, BHW Holding GmbH, BHW Kreditservice GmbH, BNA Nominees Pty Limited, BT Globenet Nominees Limited, BTAS Cayman GP, BTD Nominees Pty Limited, Baincor Nominees Pty Limited, Bainpro Nominees Pty Ltd, Baldur Mortgages Limited, Bankers Trust Investments Limited, Barkly Investments Ltd., Bayan Delinquent Loan Recovery 1 (SPV-AMC) Inc, Bayan Delinquent Loan Recovery 1 (SPV-AMC) Inc., Berkshire Mortgage Finance, Betriebs-Center fur Banken AG, Biomass Holdings S.a r.l., Birch (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Blue Cork Inc, Blue Cork Inc., Borfield Sociedad Anonima, Breaking Wave DB Limited, Cape Acquisition Corp., CapeSuccess Inc., CapeSuccess LLC, Cardales UK Limited, Cardea Real Estate S.r.l., Career Blazers LLC, Career Blazers Management Company Inc, Career Blazers Management Company Inc., Career Blazers Personnel Services Inc, Career Blazers Personnel Services Inc., Career Blazers Personnel Services of Washington D.C. Inc. Washington D.C., Caribbean Resort Holdings Inc, Caribbean Resort Holdings Inc., Carpathian Investments Designated Activity Company, Cathay Advisory (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cathay Advisory (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cathay Asset Management Company Limited, Cathay Capital Company (No 2) Limited, Cedar (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Centennial River 2 Inc., Centennial River Corporation, Chapel Funding, Charlton (Delaware) Inc, China Recovery Fund LLC, China Recovery Fund LLC, Cinda - DB NPL Securitization Trust 2003-1, City Leasing (Thameside) Limited, City Leasing Limited, Consumo S.p.A., Consumo Srl in Liquidazione, Cyrus J. Lawrence Capital Holdings Inc., Cyrus J. Lawrence Capital Holdings Inc., D B Investments (GB) Limited, D&M Turnaround Partners Godo Kaisha, D.B. International Delaware Inc., D.B. International Delaware Inc., DAHOC (UK) Limited (in members' voluntary liquidation), DAHOC Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, DB (Barbados) SRL, DB (Malaysia) Nominee (Asing) Sdn. Bhd., DB (Malaysia) Nominee (Tempatan) Sendirian Berhad, DB (Pacific) Limited, DB (Pacific) Limited New York, DB (Pacific) Limited New York, DB Abalone LLC, DB Alex. Brown Holdings Incorporated, DB Alps Corporation, DB Aotearoa Investments Limited, DB Asia Pacific Holdings Limited (in voluntary liquidation), DB Asset Finance I S.a r.l., DB Asset Finance II S.a r.l., DB Aster II LLC, DB Aster III LLC, DB Aster Inc., DB Aster LLC, DB Beteiligungs-Holding GmbH, DB Boracay LLC, DB Capital Investments Sarl, DB Capital Markets (Deutschland) GmbH, DB Capital Partners Inc., DB Capital Partners Inc., DB Cartera de Inmuebles 1 S.A.U., DB Cartera de Inmuebles 1 S.A.U., DB Chestnut Holdings Limited, DB Commodity Services LLC, DB Consorzio S. Cons. a r. l., DB Corporate Advisory (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., DB Covered Bond S.r.l., DB Credit Investments S.a r.l., DB Delaware Holdings (Europe) Limited, DB Direkt GmbH, DB Elara LLC, DB Energy Commodities Limited (in members' voluntary liquidation), DB Energy Trading LLC, DB Enfield Infrastructure Holdings Limited, DB Equipment Leasing Inc., DB Equipment Leasing Inc., DB Equity Limited, DB Finance (Delaware) LLC, DB Finance (Delaware) LLC, DB Finance International GmbH, DB Ganymede 2006 L.P., DB Global Markets Multi-Strategy Fund I Ltd., DB Global Technology Inc., DB Global Technology Inc., DB Global Technology SRL, DB Group Services (UK) Limited, DB HR Solutions GmbH, DB Holding Fundo de Investimento Multimercado Investimento no Exterior Credito Privado, DB Holdings (New York) Inc., DB Holdings (New York) Inc., DB Holdings (South America) Limited, DB IROC Leasing Corp., DB Immobilienfonds 1 Wieland KG, DB Immobilienfonds 2 KG i.L., DB Immobilienfonds 4 KG i.L., DB Immobilienfonds 5 Wieland KG, DB Impact Investment (GP) Limited, DB Impact Investment Fund I L.P., DB Impact Investment Fund I L.P., DB Industrial Holdings Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, DB Industrial Holdings GmbH, DB Intermezzo LLC, DB International (Asia) Limited, DB International Investments Limited, DB International Trust (Singapore) Limited, DB Investment Managers Inc., DB Investment Managers Inc., DB Investment Partners Inc., DB Investment Partners Inc., DB Investment Resources (US) Corporation, DB Investment Resources Holdings Corp., DB Investment Services GmbH, DB Io LP, DB Litigation Fee LLC, DB London (Investor Services) Nominees Limited, DB Management Support GmbH, DB Managers LLC, DB Municipal Holdings LLC, DB Nexus American Investments (UK) Limited (in members'voluntary liquidation), DB Nexus Investments (UK) Limited (in members' voluntary liquidation), DB Nominees (Hong Kong) Limited, DB Nominees (Singapore) Pte Ltd, DB Omega BTV S.C.S., DB Omega Holdings LLC, DB Omega Ltd., DB Omega S.C.S., DB Operaciones y Servicios Interactivos Agrupacion de Interes Economico, DB Overseas Finance Delaware Inc., DB Overseas Finance Delaware Inc., DB Overseas Holdings Limited, DB PWM, DB Portfolio Southwest Inc., DB Print GmbH, DB Privat- und Firmenkundenbank AG, DB Private Clients Corp., DB Private Wealth Mortgage Ltd., DB RC Holdings LLC, DB Re S.A., DB Service Centre Limited, DB Service Uruguay S.A., DB Services Americas Inc., DB Services Americas Inc., DB Servizi Amministrativi S.r.l., DB Strategic Advisors Inc., DB Strategic Advisors Inc., DB Structured Derivative Products LLC, DB Structured Derivative Products LLC, DB Structured Finance 1 Designated Activity Company, DB Structured Finance 2 Designated Activity Company, DB Structured Holdings Luxembourg S.a r.l., DB Structured Products Inc., DB Structured Products Inc., DB Trustee Services Limited, DB Trustees (Hong Kong) Limited, DB U.S. Financial Markets Holding Corporation, DB UK Bank Limited, DB UK Holdings Limited, DB UK PCAM Holdings Limited, DB USA Core Corporation, DB USA Corporation, DB Valoren S.a r.l., DB Value S.a r.l., DB VersicherungsManager GmbH, DB Vita S.A., DBAB Wall Street LLC, DBAH Capital LLC, DBAH Capital LLC, DBCIBZ1, DBCIBZ2, DBFIC Inc., DBFIC Inc., DBNZ Overseas Investments (No.1) Limited, DBOI Global Services (UK) Limited, DBOI Global Services Private Limited, DBR Investments Co. Limited, DBRE Global Real Estate Management IA Ltd., DBRE Global Real Estate Management IB Ltd., DBRE Global Real Estate Management IB Ltd., DBRE Global Real Estate Management US IB L.L.C., DBRMS4, DBRMSGP1, DBUK PCAM Limited, DBUKH No. 2 Limited, DBUSBZ1 LLC, DBUSBZ1 LLC, DBUSBZ2 S.a r.l., DBUSBZ2 S.a r.l., DBX Advisors LLC, DBX ETF Trust, DBX Strategic Advisors LLC, DBO Vermogensverwertung GmbH, DEBEKO Immobilien GmbH & Co Grundbesitz OHG, DEE Deutsche Erneuerbare Energien GmbH, DEUFRAN Beteiligungs GmbH, DEUKONA Versicherungs-Vermittlungs-GmbH, DEUTSCHE BANK A.S., DG China Clean Tech Partners, DI Deutsche Immobilien Treuhandgesellschaft mbH, DIB-Consult Deutsche Immobilien- und BeteiligungsBeratungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., DISCA Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, DNU Nominees Pty Limited, DSL Portfolio GmbH & Co. KG, DSL Portfolio Verwaltungs GmbH, DTS Nominees Pty Limited, DWS Alternatives France, DWS Alternatives Global Limited, DWS Alternatives GmbH, DWS Asset Management (Korea) Company Limited, DWS Beteiligungs GmbH, DWS CH AG, DWS Distributors Inc., DWS Distributors Inc., DWS Far Eastern Investments Limited, DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA, DWS Group Services UK Limited, DWS Grundbesitz GmbH, DWS International GmbH, DWS Investment GmbH, DWS Investment Management Americas Inc., DWS Investment Management Americas Inc., DWS Investment S.A., DWS Investments Australia Limited, DWS Investments Hong Kong Limited, DWS Investments Japan Limited, DWS Investments Shanghai Limited, DWS Investments Singapore Limited, DWS Investments UK Limited, DWS Management GmbH, DWS Real Estate GmbH, DWS Service Company, DWS Trust Company, DWS USA Corporation, De Heng Asset Management Company Limited, De Meng Innovative (Beijing) Consulting Company Limited, DeAM Infrastructure Limited, Deloraine Spain S.L., Delowrezham de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Deposit Solutions, Deutsche (Aotearoa) Capital Holdings New Zealand, Deutsche (Aotearoa) Foreign Investments New Zealand, Deutsche (Mauritius) Limited Port, Deutsche (New Munster) Holdings New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Access Investments Limited, Deutsche Aeolia Power Production Societe Anonyme, Deutsche Alt-A Securities Inc., Deutsche Alt-A Securities Inc., Deutsche Alternative Asset Management (France) SAS, Deutsche Alternative Asset Management (UK) Limited, Deutsche Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Ltd, Deutsche Asset Management (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Asset Management (Japan) Limited, Deutsche Asset Management (Korea) Company Limited, Deutsche Asset Management S.A., Deutsche Asset Management S.G.I.I.C. S.A., Deutsche Australia Limited, Deutsche Bank (Cayman) Limited, Deutsche Bank (Chile), Deutsche Bank (China) Co. Ltd., Deutsche Bank (China) Co. Ltd., Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) Berhad, Deutsche Bank (Suisse) SA, Deutsche Bank (Uruguay) Sociedad Anonima Institucion Financiera Externa, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft, Deutsche Bank Americas Holding Corp., Deutsche Bank Bauspar-Aktiengesellschaft, Deutsche Bank Capital Finance LLC I, Deutsche Bank Capital Finance Trust I, Deutsche Bank Europe GmbH, Deutsche Bank Financial Company, Deutsche Bank Holdings Inc., Deutsche Bank Holdings Inc., Deutsche Bank Insurance Agency Incorporated, Deutsche Bank Insurance Agency of Delaware, Deutsche Bank International Limited, Deutsche Bank Investments (Guernsey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A. - Fiduciary Deposits, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A. - Fiduciary Note Programme, Deutsche Bank Mutui S.p.A., Deutsche Bank Mexico S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple, Deutsche Bank Mexico S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple, Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, Deutsche Bank National Trust Company Los, Deutsche Bank Nominees (Guernsey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Nominees (Jersey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Polska Spolka Akcyjna, Deutsche Bank Representative Office Nigeria Limited, Deutsche Bank S.A. - Banco Alemao, Deutsche Bank S.A. - Banco Alemao Sao, Deutsche Bank SPEARs/LIFERs Series DBE-8011 Trust, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Limited, Deutsche Bank Services (Jersey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Sociedad Anonima Espanola, Deutsche Bank Sociedad Anonima Espanola, Deutsche Bank Societa per Azioni, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Delaware, Deutsche Bank Trust Company National Association, Deutsche Bank Trust Company National Association, Deutsche Bank Trust Corporation, Deutsche CIB Centre Private Limited, Deutsche Capital Finance (2000) Limited, Deutsche Capital Hong Kong Limited, Deutsche Capital Management Limited, Deutsche Capital Markets Australia Limited, Deutsche Capital Partners China Limited, Deutsche Cayman Ltd., Deutsche Colombia S.A.S., Deutsche Custody N.V., Deutsche Domus New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Equities India Private Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 1 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 2 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 3 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 4 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance No. 2 Limited, Deutsche Foras New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Immobilien-Leasing mit beschrankter Haftung, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Immobilien-Leasing mit beschrankterHaftung, Deutsche Global Markets Limited, Deutsche Group Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Deutsche Group Services Pty Limited, Deutsche Grundbesitz Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Deutsche Grundbesitz Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., Deutsche Grundbesitz-Anlagegesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Deutsche Holdings (BTI) Limited, Deutsche Holdings (Grand Duchy), Deutsche Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Deutsche Holdings (Malta) Ltd., Deutsche Holdings Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 2 Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 3 Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 4 Limited, Deutsche Immobilien Leasing GmbH, Deutsche India Holdings Private Limited, Deutsche International Corporate Services (Ireland) Limited, Deutsche International Corporate Services Limited, Deutsche International Custodial Services Limited, Deutsche Inversiones Dos S.A., Deutsche Inversiones Limitada, Deutsche Investments (Netherlands) N.V., Deutsche Investments India Private Limited, Deutsche Investor Services Private Limited, Deutsche Knowledge Services Pte. Ltd., Deutsche Leasing New York Corp., Deutsche Mandatos S.A., Deutsche Master Funding Corporation, Deutsche Mexico Holdings S.a r.l., Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group Limited, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group Public Limited Company, Deutsche Mortgage & Asset Receiving Corporation, Deutsche Mortgage Securities Inc., Deutsche Mortgage Securities Inc., Deutsche Nederland N.V., Deutsche New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Nominees Limited, Deutsche Oppenheim Family Office AG, Deutsche Overseas Issuance New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Postbank, Deutsche Postbank Finance Center Objekt GmbH, Deutsche Postbank Funding LLC I, Deutsche Postbank Funding LLC II, Deutsche Postbank Funding LLC III, Deutsche Private Asset Management Limited, Deutsche Securities (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Securities (Proprietary) Limited, Deutsche Securities (SA) (Proprietary) Limited, Deutsche Securities Asia Limited, Deutsche Securities Australia Limited, Deutsche Securities Inc., Deutsche Securities Israel Ltd., Deutsche Securities Korea Co., Deutsche Securities Mauritius Limited, Deutsche Securities Menkul Degerler A.S., Deutsche Securities S.A., Deutsche Securities S.A. de C.V. Casa de Bolsa, Deutsche Securities S.A. de C.V. Casa de Bolsa, Deutsche Securities Saudi Arabia, Deutsche Securities SpA, Deutsche Securities Venezuela S.A., Deutsche Securitisation Australia Pty Limited, Deutsche Services Polska Sp. z o.o., Deutsche StiftungsTrust GmbH, Deutsche Strategic Investment Holdings Yugen Kaisha, Deutsche Trust Company Limited Japan, Deutsche Trustee Company Limited, Deutsche Trustee Services (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Trustees Malaysia Berhad, Deutsche Wealth Management S.G.I.I.C. S.A., Deutsches Institut fur Altersvorsorge GmbH, Durian (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., EC EUROPA IMMOBILIEN FONDS NR. 3 GmbH & CO. KG i.I., Elba Finance GmbH, Elizabethan Holdings Limited, Elizabethan Management Limited, Emerald Asset Repackaging Designated Activity Company, Erste Frankfurter Hoist GmbH, European Value Added I (Alternate G.P.) LLP, Exinor SA, FARAMIR Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungs GmbH, FRANKFURT CONSULT GmbH, Fiduciaria Sant' Andrea S.r.L., Finanzberatungsgesellschaft mbH der Deutschen Bank, Franz Urbig- und Oscar Schlitter-Stiftung Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-037, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-039, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-040, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-041, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-043, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-044, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-047, Funfte SAB Treuhand und Verwaltung GmbH & Co. Suhl "Rimbachzentrum" KG, G Finance Holding Corp., G.O. IB-US Management L.L.C., G918 Corp., GAC-HEL Inc., GWC-GAC Corp., Galene S.a r.l., Gemini Technology Services Inc., German American Capital, German American Capital Corporation, Gladyr Spain S.L., Global Markets Fundo de Investimento Multimercado, Global Markets III Fundo de Investimento Multimercado - Credito, Greenwood Properties Corp., Grundstucksgesellschaft Frankfurt Bockenheimer Landstrae GbR, Grundstucksgesellschaft Kerpen-Sindorf Vogelrutherfeld GbR, Grundstucksgesellschaft Leipzig Petersstrae GbR, Grundstucksgesellschaft Wiesbaden Luisenstrae/Kirchgasse GbR, HTB Spezial GmbH & Co. KG, Hollandsche Bank-Unie, IOS Finance EFC S.A., ISTRON Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungs-GmbH, IVAF I Manager S.a r.l., IVAF I Manager S.a r.l., Immobilienfonds Buro-Center Erfurt am Flughafen Bindersleben I GbR, Immobilienfonds Buro-Center Erfurt am Flughafen Bindersleben II GbR, Immobilienfonds Mietwohnhauser Quadrath-Ichendorf GbR, Immobilienfonds Wohn- und Geschaftshaus Koln-Blumenberg V GbR, J R Nominees (Pty) Ltd, Joint Stock Company Deutsche Bank DBU, Jyogashima Godo Kaisha, KEBA Gesellschaft fur interne Services mbH, Kidson Pte Ltd, Konsul Inkasso GmbH, Kradavimd UK Lease Holdings Limited, LA Water Holdings Limited, LAWL Pte. Ltd., Latitude Australia Secured Personal Loans Trust, Leasing Verwaltungsgesellschaft Waltersdorf mbH, Leonardo III Initial GP Limited, Lindsell Finance Limited, London Industrial Leasing Limited, MEF I Manager S. a r.l., MEF I Manager S. a r.l., MHL Reinsurance Ltd., MIT Holdings Inc., MIT Holdings Inc., MPP Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Maher Terminals Holdings (Toronto) Limited, Morgan Grenfell & Company, MortgageIT, MortgageIT Inc., MortgageIT Inc., MortgageIT Securities Corp., Motion Picture Productions One GmbH & Co. KG, NCW Holding Inc., Navegator - SGFTC S.A., Navegator - SGFTC S.A., New 87 Leonard LLC, Nordwestdeutscher Wohnungsbautrager Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, OOO "Deutsche Bank TechCentre", OOO "Deutsche Bank", OPB Verwaltungs- und Beteiligungs-GmbH, OPB Verwaltungs- und Treuhand GmbH, OPB-Holding GmbH, OPB-Nona GmbH, OPB-Oktava GmbH, OPB-Quarta GmbH, OPB-Quinta GmbH, OPB-Septima GmbH, OPPENHEIM Capital Advisory GmbH, OPPENHEIM Flottenfonds V GmbH & Co. KG, OPPENHEIM PRIVATE EQUITY Manager GmbH, OPPENHEIM PRIVATE EQUITY Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, OPS Nominees Pty Limited, OVT Trust 1 GmbH, OVV Beteiligungs GmbH, Opal Funds (Ireland) Public Limited Company, PADUS Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, PARTS Funding LLC., PB Factoring GmbH, PB Firmenkunden AG, PB International S.A., PB Spezial-Investmentaktiengesellschaft mit Teilgesellschaftsvermogen, PBC Banking Services GmbH, PCC Services GmbH der Deutschen Bank, PT Deutsche Sekuritas Indonesia, PT. Deutsche Verdhana Sekuritas Indonesia, Pan Australian Nominees Pty Ltd, Peruda Leasing Limited, Plantation Bay Inc., Plantation Bay Inc., Postbank Akademie und Service GmbH, Postbank Beteiligungen GmbH, Postbank Direkt GmbH, Postbank Filialvertrieb AG, Postbank Finanzberatung AG, Postbank Immobilien GmbH, Postbank Immobilien und Baumanagement GmbH, Postbank Immobilien und Baumanagement GmbH & Co. Objekt Leipzig KG, Postbank Leasing GmbH, Postbank Service GmbH, Postbank Systems AG, QR Tower 2 LLC, Quantiguous, R.B.M. Nominees Pty Ltd, REO Properties Corporation, RREEF, RREEF America L.L.C., RREEF China REIT Management Limited, RREEF European Value Added I (G.P.) Limited, RREEF Fund Holding Co., RREEF India Advisors Private Limited, RREEF Management L.L.C., RTS Nominees Pty Limited, Reference Capital Investments Limited, RoPro U.S. Holding Inc., RoPro U.S. Holding Inc., Route 28 Receivables LLC, Route 28 Receivables LLC, SAB Real Estate Verwaltungs GmbH, SAGITA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SAPIO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SCUDO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., SEDO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., SENA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Objekt Kamenz KG, SIFA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SOLIDO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SP Mortgage Trust, SPINO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., SPV I Sociedad Anonima Cerrada, SPV II Sociedad Anonima Cerrada, STATOR Heizkraftwerk Frankfurt (Oder) Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Sal. Oppenheim, Sal. Oppenheim Alternative Investments GmbH, Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. AG & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien, Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. Beteiligungs GmbH, Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. Komplementar AG, Sechste Salomon Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Sechste Salomon Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., Service Company Four Limited, Sharps SP I LLC, Singer Island Tower Suite LLC, Somkid Immobiliare S.r.l., Stelvio Immobiliare S.r.l., Structured Finance Americas LLC, Structured Finance Americas LLC, Swabia 1. Vermogensbesitz-GmbH, Suddeutsche Vermogensverwaltung Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, TAKIR Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, TELO Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, TEMATIS Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., TERRUS Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., TESATUR Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Objekt Halle I KG i.L., TESATUR Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Objekt Nordhausen I KG i.L., TOSSA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, TRIPLA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, TRS Aria LLC, TRS Leda LLC, TRS Maple II LTD, TRS Oak II LTD, TRS SVCO LLC, TRS Scorpio LLC, TRS Tupelo II LTD, TRS Venor LLC, TRS Walnut II LTD, Tagus - Sociedade de Titularizacao de Creditos S.A., Tasfiye Halinde Deutsche Securities Menkul Degerler A.S., Tempurrite Leasing Limited, Thai Asset Enforcement and Recovery Asset Management Company Limited, Tianjin Deutsche AM Fund Management Co. Ltd., Treuinvest Service GmbH, Triplereason Limited, UKE Beteiligungs-GmbH, UKE Grundstucksgesellschaft mbH, UKE s.r.o., Ullmann - Esch Grundstucksgesellschaft Kirchnerstrae GbR, Ullmann - Esch Grundstucksverwaltungsgesellschaft Disternich GbR, Ullmann Ullmann Krockow Krockow Esch GbR, VCJ Lease S.a r.l., Vesta Real Estate S.r.l., VOB-ZVD Processing GmbH, WEPLA Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, WEPLABeteiligungsgesellschaftmbH, Wealthspur Investment Ltd., Whale Holdings S.a r.l., World Trading (Delaware) Inc., World Trading(Delaware)Inc., Zumirez Drive LLC, db PBC, and norisbank GmbH. The following companies are subsidiares of Brinker International: BI INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LLC, BI MEXICO HOLDING CORPORATION, BIPC GLOBAL PAYROLL COMPANY LLC, BIPC INVESTMENTS LLC, BIPC MANAGEMENT LLC, BRINKER AIRPORTS LLC, BRINKER ALABAMA INC., BRINKER ARKANSAS INC., BRINKER ASIA INC., BRINKER BRAZIL LLC, BRINKER CANADIAN HOLDING CO. ULC, BRINKER CANADIAN RESTAURANT CO. ULC, BRINKER CB LP, BRINKER CB MANAGEMENT LLC, BRINKER FHC B.V., BRINKER FLORIDA INC., BRINKER FREEHOLD INC., BRINKER GEORGIA INC., BRINKER INTERNATIONAL PAYROLL COMPANY L.P., BRINKER LOUISIANA INC., BRINKER MICHIGAN INC., BRINKER MISSISSIPPI INC., BRINKER MISSOURI INC., BRINKER NEVADA INC., BRINKER NEW JERSEY INC., BRINKER NORTH CAROLINA INC., BRINKER OF BALTIMORE COUNTY INC., BRINKER OF CARROLL COUNTY INC., BRINKER OF CECIL COUNTY INC., BRINKER OKLAHOMA INC., BRINKER OPCO LLC, BRINKER PENN TRUST, BRINKER PROPCO FLORIDA INC., BRINKER PROPERTY CORPORATION, BRINKER PURCHASING INC., BRINKER RESTAURANT CORPORATION, BRINKER RHODE ISLAND INC., BRINKER SERVICES CORPORATION, BRINKER SOUTH CAROLINA INC., BRINKER TEXAS INC., BRINKER VIRGINIA INC., CHILIS BEVERAGE COMPANY INC., CHILIS INC. a Delaware corporation, CHILIS INC. a Tennessee corporation, CHILIS INTERNATIONAL BASES B.V., CHILIS OF BEL AIR INC., CHILIS OF KANSAS INC., CHILIS OF MARYLAND INC., CHILIS OF WEST VIRGINIA INC., Grady's Inc., MAGGIANO'S OF ANNAPOLIS INC., MAGGIANO'S OF HOWARD COUNTY INC., MAGGIANO'S OF KANSAS INC., MAGGIANOS BEVERAGE COMPANY, MAGGIANOS HOLDING CORPORATION, MAGGIANOS INC., MAGGIANOS OF TYSONS INC., MAGGIANOS PROPERTY CORPORATION, MAGGIANOS TEXAS INC., PEPPER DINING HOLDING CORP., PEPPER DINING Inc., and PEPPER DINING VERMONT INC.. The following companies are subsidiares of Cardinal Health: A+ Secure Packaging LLC, Access Closure, Access Closure Inc., Aero-Med Ltd., Alaris Medical Systems, Allegiance Corporation, Allegiance Healthcare, AssuraMed, AssuraMed Inc., Automatic Liquid Packaging, Bergen Brunswig Corp, Bindley Western Industries, Boron LePore & Associates, Borschow Hospital & Medical Supplies, Cardinal Health 100 Inc., Cardinal Health 104 LP, Cardinal Health 105 Inc., Cardinal Health 107 LLC, Cardinal Health 108 LLC, Cardinal Health 110 LLC, Cardinal Health 112 LLC, Cardinal Health 113 LLC, Cardinal Health 114 Inc., Cardinal Health 115 LLC, Cardinal Health 116 LLC, Cardinal Health 118 LLC, Cardinal Health 119 LLC, Cardinal Health 121 LLC, Cardinal Health 122 LLC, Cardinal Health 123 LLC, Cardinal Health 124 LLC, Cardinal Health 126 LLC, Cardinal Health 127 Inc., Cardinal Health 2 LLC, Cardinal Health 200 LLC, Cardinal Health 201 Inc., Cardinal Health 222 (Thailand) Ltd., Cardinal Health 247 Inc., Cardinal Health 249 LLC, Cardinal Health 3 LLC, Cardinal Health 414 LLC, Cardinal Health 5 LLC, Cardinal Health 6 Inc., Cardinal Health 7 LLC, Cardinal Health Australia 503 Pty. Ltd., Cardinal Health Austria 504 GmbH, Cardinal Health Belgium 505 BVBA, Cardinal Health Canada Holdings Cooperative U.A., Cardinal Health Canada Inc., Cardinal Health Chile Limitada, Cardinal Health Colombia S.A.S., Cardinal Health D.R. 203 II Ltd., Cardinal Health Denmark ApS, Cardinal Health Finland Oy, Cardinal Health Foundation, Cardinal Health France 506 SAS, Cardinal Health Funding LLC, Cardinal Health Germany 507 GmbH, Cardinal Health Germany Manufacturing GmbH, Cardinal Health IPS LLC, Cardinal Health International Philippines Inc., Cardinal Health Ireland 419 Designated Activity Company, Cardinal Health Ireland 508 Limited, Cardinal Health Ireland Unlimited Company, Cardinal Health Italy 509 Srl, Cardinal Health Japan G.K., Cardinal Health Korea Limited, Cardinal Health Malaysia 211 Sdn. Bhd., Cardinal Health Malta 212 Limited, Cardinal Health Managed Care Services LLC, Cardinal Health Medical Equipment Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cardinal Health Medical Products India Private Limited, Cardinal Health Mexico 244 S. de R.L. de C.V., Cardinal Health Mexico 514 S. de R.L. de C.V., Cardinal Health Middle East FZ-LLC, Cardinal Health Netherlands 502 B.V., Cardinal Health Norway AS, Cardinal Health P.R. 120 Inc., Cardinal Health P.R. 218 Inc., Cardinal Health P.R. 220 LLC, Cardinal Health Pharmaceutical Contracting LLC, Cardinal Health Pharmacy Services LLC, Cardinal Health Poland Spolka z ograniczonaa odpowiedzialnossciaa, Cardinal Health Portugal 513 Unipessoal Lda., Cardinal Health Singapore 225 Pte. Ltd., Cardinal Health Spain 511 S.L., Cardinal Health Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Cardinal Health Sweden 512 A.B., Cardinal Health Switzerland 515 GmbH, Cardinal Health Systems Inc., Cardinal Health Technologies LLC, Cardinal Health Technologies Switzerland GmbH, Cardinal Health U.K. 432 Limited, Cardinal Health do Brasil Ltd., CareFusion, Cirpro de Delicias S.A. de C.V., Convertors de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Cordis, Cordis (Shanghai) Medical Devices Co. Ltd., Cordis Cashel Company Unlimited, Cordis Corporation, Cornerstone Partners G.P.O. L.P., Covidien Manufacturing Solutions S.A., Curaspan Health Group Inc., Denver Biomedical, Dik Drug, EPIC Insurance Company, Emerge Medical, Enturia, Especialidades Medicas Kenmex S.A. de C.V., Futuremed Health Care Products, Gala Biotech, Geodax Technology, Griffin Capital LLC, HLS Freight Services, Healthcare Solutions Holding, Innovative Therapies Inc., Instant Diagnostic Systems Inc., KPR Australia Pty. Ltd., KPR Italia S.r.l., KPR Switzerland Sales Gmbh, KPR U.S. LLC, Kendall Patient Recovery BVBA, Kendall-Gammatron Limited, Kinray, Leader Drugstores Inc., Limited Liability Company "Cardinal Health Russia", Ludlow Technical Products Canada Ltd., MCD, Magellan Laboratories, Marin Apothecaries, MedMined, Medicine Shoppe International Inc., Mediquip Sdn. Bhd., Medtronic - Patient Monitoring & Recovery, Mirixa Corporation, NaviHealth, Nippon Covidien Ltd., One Cloverleaf LLC, Outcomes Incorporated, Owen Healthcare, PCI Pharma Services, ParMed Pharmaceuticals, Pinnacle Intellectual Property Services Inc., Pinnacle Intellectual Property Services-International Inc., Post-Acute Care Center for Research LLC, Pyxis Corporation, Quiroproductos de Cuauhtemoc S. de R.L. de C.V., R Cubed Inc., R.P. Scherer Corporation, RGH Enterprises Inc., RainTree GPO LLC, RainTree Oncology Services, Renal Purchasing Group LLC, Rxealtime Inc., Sonexus Health LLC, Syncor International, TelePharm, TelePharm LLC, The Harvard Drug Group, The Harvard Drug Group L.L.C., Tradex International Inc., Viasys Healthcare, WaveMark Inc., Zuellig Pharma China, mscripts, mscripts LLC, and mscripts Systems India Private Limited. Pembina Pipeline Corporation provides transportation and midstream services for the energy industry. It operates through three segments: Pipelines, Facilities, and Marketing & New Ventures. The Pipelines segment operates conventional, oil sands and heavy oil, and transmission assets with a transportation capacity of 3.1 millions of barrels of oil equivalent per day, ground storage of 11 millions of barrels, and rail terminalling capacity of approximately 145 thousands of barrels of oil equivalent per day serving markets and basins across North America. The Facilities segment offers infrastructure that provides customers with natural gas, condensate, and natural gas liquids (NGLs), including ethane, propane, butane, and condensate; and includes 354 thousands of barrels per day of NGL fractionation capacity, 21 millions of barrels of cavern storage capacity, and associated pipeline and rail terminalling facilities. The Marketing & New Ventures segment buys and sells hydrocarbon liquids and natural gas originating in the Western Canadian sedimentary basin and other basins. Pembina Pipeline Corporation was incorporated in 1954 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Read More iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF's stock was trading at $108.64 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, IWD stock has increased by 50.8% and is now trading at $163.88. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Brookfield Asset Management, Inc. engages in the management of public and private investment products and services for institutional and retail clients. It operates through the following segments: Asset Management, Real Estate, Renewable Power, Infrastructure, Private Equity, Residential Development, and Corporate Activities. The Asset Management segment includes the management of its listed partnerships, private funds and public securities. The Real Estate segment is comprised of the ownership, operation and development of core office, core retail, LP investments and other properties. The Renewable Power segment encompasses the ownership, operation and development of hydroelectric, wind, solar, storage and other power generating facilities. The Infrastructure segment consists of the ownership, operation and development of utilities, transport, energy, data infrastructure and sustainable resource assets. The Private Equity segment refers to the broad range of industries, and is mostly focused on business services, infrastructure services and industrials. The Residential Development segment represents homebuilding, condominium development and land development. The Corporate Activiti Read More SunTrust Banks, Inc. operates as the holding company for SunTrust Bank that provides various financial services for consumers, businesses, corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit entities in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer and Wholesale. The Consumer segment provides deposits and payments; home equity and personal credit lines; auto, student, and other lending products; credit cards; discount/online and full-service brokerage products; professional investment advisory products and services; and trust services, as well as family office solutions. This segment also offers residential mortgage products in the secondary market. The Wholesale segment provides capital markets solutions, including advisory, capital raising, and financial risk management; asset-based financing solutions, such as securitizations, asset-based lending, equipment financing, and structured real estate arrangements; cash management services and auto dealer financing solutions; investment banking solutions; and credit and deposit, fee-based product offering, multi-family agency lending, advisory, commercial mortgage brokerage, and tailored financing and equity investment solutions. This segment also offers treasury and payment solutions, such as operating various electronic and paper payment types, which comprise card, wire transfer, automated clearing house, check, and cash; and provides services clients to manage their accounts online. The company offers its products and services through a network of traditional and in-store branches, automated teller machines, Internet, mobile, and telephone banking channels. As of December 31, 2018, it operated 1,218 full-service banking offices located in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. SunTrust Banks, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Read More CONSOL Coal Resources LP produces and sells high- British thermal unit (Btu) coal in the Northern Appalachian Basin and the eastern United States. It owns a 25% undivided interest in the Pennsylvania mining complex, which consists of three underground mines and related infrastructure that produce high-Btu thermal coal located primarily in southwestern Pennsylvania. The company markets its thermal coal principally to electric utilities. CONSOL Coal Resources GP LLC operates as a general partner of the company. The company was formerly known as CNX Coal Resources LP and changed its name to CONSOL Coal Resources LP in November 2017. CONSOL Coal Resources LP was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. 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. Unifi, Inc. engages in the manufacture and sale of synthetic and recycled products made from polyester and nylon. It operates through the following segments: Polyester, Nylon, Brazil, and Asia. The Polyester segment sells polyester-based products to other yarn manufacturers, knitters, and weavers that produce yarn and fabric for the apparel, hosiery, home furnishings, automotive, industrial, and other end-use markets in U.S. and El Salvador. The Nylon segment offers nylon-based products to knitters and weavers that produce fabric for the apparel and hosiery markets in U.S. and Colombia. The Brazil and Asia segments comprises polyester-based products to knitters and weavers that produce fabric for the apparel, home furnishings, automotive, industrial, and other end-use markets principally in South America and Asia. The company was founded by George Allen Mebane IV in 1969 and is headquartered in Greensboro, NC. Read More Nov 5, 2018 | By Thomas GE Additive and GE Aviation have announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given change in design approval to replace a conventionally manufactured power door opening system (PDOS) bracket, used on GE Aviations GEnx-2B commercial airline engines that power the Boeing 747-8, with an additively manufactured bracket. FAA change in design approval for additively manufactured power door opening system (PDOS) bracket The new additively manufactured PDOS brackets will be mass produced at GE Aviations facility in Auburn, Alabama, using GE Additive Concept Laser M2 cusing Multilaser machines this month. GE Aviation anticipates the first GEnx engines installed with the new brackets will be shipped in January 2019. The PDOS is used on the ground to open and close the fan cowl doors to enable access to the fan compartment for maintenance reasons. The original PDOS brackets on the GEnx-2B engines were milled from a solid block of metal, resulting in approximately 50 percent of material waste. Now using direct metal laser melting (DMLM) additive technology to manufacture the new brackets, that waste has been reduced by as much as 90% and part weight by 10%. We chose this project because it represented several firsts for us. Its the first program we certified on a Concept Laser machine. Its also the first project we took from design to production in less than ten months, said Eric Gatlin, general manager, additive integrated product team, GE Aviation. The decision to mass produce using a cobalt-chrome alloy over a traditional nickel-based superalloy has enabled a faster build. To make this approach as efficient as possible, four brackets will be printed at the same time. Using a bespoke, interlocking design to house all four brackets on a single build plate, the Concept Laser M2 cusing machines pair of lasers can print an aircrafts worth of brackets in one build, before post-processing and inspection. Finally, by taking production of the brackets entirely in-house, GE Aviation will also reduce its production costs. To ensure the M2 cusing machines were certified to meet the strict requirements for the aerospace industry, collaboration on this program has been closer than usual with our colleagues at GE Additive. As we continue thinking about the many parts we can design, redesign and manufacture on GE Additive machines, Im looking forward to putting both our teams and the technology through their paces, Gatlin added. Its been outstanding to watch teams from GE Aviation, GE Additive across the US, Mexico and Germany collaborate. In such a short space of time, they have really excelled with the PDOS bracket and achieved a truly groundbreaking success. Seeing the M2 machines produce flight quality hardware, and demonstrating what it is truly capable of, is another great milestone in our own additive journey, said Jason Oliver, President & CEO, GE Additive. Posted in 3D Printing Application Maybe you also like: 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 following companies are subsidiares of Textron: AAI Corporation, AAI Services Corporation, ALSTOM Gears, Able Aerospace, Able Aerospace Services Inc., Able Engineering & Component Services, Aeronautical Accessories LLC, Airborne Tactical Advantage Company LLC, Arctic Cat, Arctic Cat ACE Holding GmbH, Arctic Cat France SARL, Arctic Cat GmbH, Arctic Cat Inc., Arctic Cat Production LLC, Arctic Cat Production Support LLC, Arctic Cat Sales Inc., Arctic Cat Shared Services LLC, Arctic Cat UK Ltd., Arkansas Aerospace Inc., Avco Corporation, Aviation Service servis letal doo Ljubljana, Aylesbury Automation, B/K Navigational Equipment sro, Beech Aircraft Corporation, Beech Holdings, Beechcraft Defense Support Holding LLC, Beechcraft Domestic Service Company, Beechcraft Germany GmbH, Beechcraft International Holding LLC, Beechcraft International Service Company, Beechcraft New Zealand, Beechcraft Service Company UK Limited, Bell Helicopter GK, Bell Helicopter KK, Bell Textron Asia (Pte.) Ltd., Bell Textron Canada International Inc., Bell Textron Canada Limited/Limitee, Bell Textron Inc., Bell Textron Korea Inc., Bell Textron Miami Inc, Bell Textron Prague a.s., Bell Textron Rhode Island Inc., Bell Textron Services Inc, Bell Textron Supply Center BV, Bell Textron Technical Services Inc., Benzlers, Brazaco Mapri Industrias, Burkland, Cessna Aircraft Company, Cessna Citation European Service Center SAS, Cessna Dusseldorf Citation Service Center GmbH, Cessna Finance Corporation, Cessna Finance Export Corporation, Cessna Mexico S de RL de CV, Cessna Spanish Citation Service Center SLU, Cessna Zurich Citation Service Center GmbH, Citation Parts Distribution International Inc., Cushman Inc., Datacom Technologies, David Brown Group, Doncaster Citation Service Centre Limited, E-Z-GO Canada Limited, Energy Manufacturing, Flexalloy, HBC LLC, Hawker Beech de Mexico S de RL de CV, Hawker Beechcraft Argentina SA, Howe & Howe Inc., Howe and Howe Technologies, Industrial Technology Inc., InteSys Technologies, International Product Support Inc., KSB Annecy SAS, Kautex (Changchun) Plastics Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Chongqing) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Guangzhou) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Pinghu) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Shanghai) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Wuhan) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex Corporation, Kautex Craiova srl, Kautex Germany Holding GmbH, Kautex Inc., Kautex Japan KK, Kautex Shanghai GmbH, Kautex Textron (UK) Limited, Kautex Textron Benelux BVBA, Kautex Textron Bohemia spol sro, Kautex Textron CVS Limited, Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG, Kautex Textron Iberica SL, Kautex Textron Italia Srl, Kautex Textron Management Services Company de Puebla S. de RL de CV, Kautex Textron Portugal Produtos Plasticos Sociedade Unipessoal Lda., Kautex Textron de Mexico S de RL de CV, Kautex Textron do Brasil Ltda., Kautex of Georgia Inc., Kaywood Products Corp., Klauke, LCI Corporation International, LLC Textron RUS, Maag, McCord Corporation, Mechtronix, Medical Numerics Inc., Midland Industrial Plastics, MillenWorks, MillenWorks Themed Technologies, MotorFist LLC, OPINICUS Simulation and Training Services LLC, OmniQuip International, Opinicus, Optical Boring Co., Opto-Electronics, Opto-Electronics Inc., Overwatch Systems Ltd., PEINER Umformtechnik, Pirelli Tyres - General Rubber Goods (GRG) division, Premiair Aviation Maintenance Pty Ltd, Progressive Electronics, Ransomes, Ransomes Inc., Ransomes Investment LLC, Ransomes Jacobsen France SAS, Ransomes Jacobsen Limited, Ransomes Limited, Ransomes Pensions Trustee Company Limited, Replacement Part Solutions LLC, Response Technologies LLC, Rotor Blades Limited, Sukosim Verbindungselemente, TRU Simulation & Training Spain SL, TRU Simulation + Training Inc., TRU Simulation + Training LLC, TekGPS Engineering Srl, Textron Airland LLC, Textron Atlantic LLC, Textron Aviation Australia Pty. Ltd., Textron Aviation Canada Ltd., Textron Aviation Defense LLC, Textron Aviation Finance Corporation, Textron Aviation Inc., Textron Aviation Prague Service Center sro, Textron Aviation Rhode Island Inc., Textron Aviation Services de Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Capital BV, Textron Communications Inc., Textron Far East Pte. Ltd., Textron Finance Holding Company, Textron Financial Corporation, Textron Financial Corporation Receivables Trust 2002-CP-2, Textron Fluid and Power Inc., Textron France Holding SAS, Textron France SAS, Textron Global Services Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment UK Limited, Textron IPMP Inc., Textron India Private Limited, Textron Innovations Inc., Textron International Inc., Textron International Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Limited, Textron Management Services Inc., Textron Motors GmbH, Textron Motors North America Inc., Textron Outdoor Power Equipment Inc., Textron Realty Corporation, Textron Shared Service Centre (Canada) Inc., Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc., Textron Sweden AB, Textron Systems Australia Holding Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Australia Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Canada Inc., Textron Systems Corporation, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK (Holdings) Limited, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK Limited, Textron Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Textron UK Pension Trustee Limited, Textron Verwaltungs-GmbH, Turbine Engine Components Textron (Newington Operations) Inc., United Industrial Corporation, Westminster Insurance Company, Williams Machine & Tool, Wuxi Textron Specialized Vehicles Co. Ltd., and Zhenjiang Bell Textron Aviation Services Limited. Hertz Global's quiet period expires on Monday, December 20th. Hertz Global had issued 44,520,000 shares in its IPO on November 9th. The total size of the offering was $1,291,080,000 based on an initial share price of $29.00. During the company's quiet period, insiders and any underwriters involved in the IPO are restricted from issuing any earnings forecasts or research reports for the company because of SEC regulations. Following the end of the company's quiet period, the brokerages that served as underwriters will likely initiate research coverage on the company. Research Agreement Executed With MC Supply Partner Perth, Nov 5, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Nanollose Limited ( ASX:NC6 ) ( FRA:N0L ) ("Nanollose" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that in addition to the non-binding Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU") signed in April 2018, a binding research agreement ("Agreement") has been executed with Indonesian food producer, PT Supra Natami Utama ("PT SNU").Highlights:- Microbial Cellulose (MC) supply partnership deepens with research agreement- Research underway to assess best MC growing conditions and processing methods for scale-up- Agreement paves the way for a binding agreement to develop a commercial growing facility- Nanollose to retain all Intellectual Property resulting from the researchThe agreement will accelerate research into the best growing conditions and processing methods of microbial cellulose before scaling up to commercial production. The agreement also takes Nanollose a step closer towards a binding agreement for developing a commercial scale factory to produce textile grade microbial cellulose, which can then be transformed into fibre using Nanollose's technology.Securing large quantities of microbial cellulose is critical in that it will allow Nanollose to provide brands, retailers and manufactures with enough raw material to create commercial quantities of our Tree-Free NullarborTM fibre. Achieving this scale will eventually set the platform for future revenues from the raw material supply chain, the licencing of our technology and royalties from end users.As Nanollose prepares to scale-up microbial cellulose production, the Company is also pleased to announce that, as a result of this Agreement, PT SNU has employed a scientist dedicated solely to Nanollose's R&D. This scientist will also oversee the processing of the Company's 250kg stockpile of raw microbial cellulose into a form suitable for the production of Nullarbor fibre.Under the terms of the Agreement Nanollose retains all intellectual property and PT SNU has first right of refusal to work with Nanollose to jointly develop a commercial scale factory and supply chain for microbial cellulose in Indonesia.Nanollose Managing Director Alfie Germano said; "This is an encouraging next step. Our partner is providing Nanollose with a broad foundation to help develop the technology and build a supply chain. In the near future we see more formal agreements between the two companies to commence commercial supply".ABOUT PT SUPRA NATAMI UTAMAPT Supra Natami Utama is one of Indonesia's largest and most established producers of coconut food, beverages and cosmetic products and has multiple facilities across Indonesia with access to significant quantities of coconut by-products and waste streams.Through this partnership, Nanollose has gained access to these waste streams for use in the production of textile grade microbial cellulose on an industrial scale, which can then be transformed by using Nanollose technology into fibres. Nanollose and PT SNU also started to explore, unlock and develop other sources of liquid organic waste (including beer and other fermentable liquids) as feedstocks for additional microbial cellulose.About Nanollose Ltd Nanollose Limited (ASX:NC6) is an innovative Australian company that uses a low cost and eco-friendly fermentation process to grow fibres that could become a sustainable alternative to conventional plant-derived cellulose fibres. The Companys process, which uses streams from various large-scale industries like sugar, wine and food, has the ability to produce Plant-Free Cellulose. Cellulose is the hidden building block polymer most consumers know nothing about, but forms a huge part of items used in their everyday life such as clothing, paper and hygiene products. The following companies are subsidiares of Lloyds Banking Group: A G Finance Ltd, A.C.L. Ltd, ACL Autolease Holdings Ltd, ADF No.1 Pty Ltd, Addison Social Housing Holdings Ltd, Alex Lawrie Factors Ltd, Alex. 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GTT Communications, Inc. provides cloud networking services to multinational enterprises, carriers, and government customers in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers wide area networking, such as software-defined wide area networking, multiprotocol label switching, and virtual private LAN service; high bandwidth-Internet connectivity and IP transit, as well as broadband and wireless Internet access services; managed equipment and security services; and unified communication services consisting of session initiation protocol trunking, cloud unified communication service, and traditional analog voice. It also provides transport services, such as Ethernet services that enable to design network equipment; and video transport services to support broadcast quality transmission of live events, sports entertainment, and news to media and entertainment industry. In addition, the company offers infrastructure services enabling transport of high volume data between data centers, enterprise office locations, and media hubs; wavelength services to deliver scalable high-performance optical connectivity; colocation, turnkey, duct, and dark fiber services; advanced solutions, including security, hybrid cloud, database, and application management Its IP network consists of approximately 600 points of presence. GTT Communications, Inc. markets its products and services through a network of direct sales force and indirect sales channels. The company was formerly known as Global Telecom & Technology, Inc. and changed its name to GTT Communications, Inc. in January 2014. GTT Communications, Inc. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. Read More Hamburger Hafen und Logistik Aktiengesellschaft operates as a port and transport logistics company in Europe. It operates through four segments: Container, Intermodal, Logistics, and Real Estate. The company operates three container terminals in Hamburg; and container terminals in Odessa, Ukraine, and Tallinn, Estonia. It also offers intermodal services that connect ports on the North and Baltic seas, and between the Northern Adriatic and its hinterland, as well as inland terminals. In addition, the company provides specialist handling, and consulting and management services; and additive manufacturing and airborne logistics services, as well as develops, rents, and manages real estate properties. The company was formerly known as Hamburger Hafen- und Lagerhaus-AG and changed its name to Hamburger Hafen und Logistik Aktiengesellschaft in 2005. The company was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. Hamburger Hafen und Logistik Aktiengesellschaft is a subsidiary of HGV Hamburger Gesellschaft fAr VermAgens- und Beteiligungsmanagement mbH. Read More The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, produces, distributes, and markets gas in Hong Kong and Mainland China. It is involved in the provision of liquefied natural gas, methanol, and coal and other chemicals; conversion and utilization of biomass, and industrial and agricultural waste; and operation of natural gas refilling stations, piped city-gas projects, upstream and midstream developments, water and wastewater treatment projects, energy exploration and utilization ventures, and aviation fuel facilities. The company supplies town gas to approximately 1.9 million customers. It also provides network connectivity, and data center and cloud computing services; and engages in the software development, solution implementation, and systems integration activities. In addition, the company offers consultancy and engineering contractor services, including utilities installation, infrastructure construction, and civil and building services engineering for public and private projects; and designs and manufactures gas meters and metering systems. Further, it is involved in water supply and wastewater treatment serving 2.4 million customers. Additionally, the company manufactures polyethylene piping and fittings; and engages in the customers center, cafA, restaurant, retail sale, automatic meter reading system development, laboratory testing, payment gateway and related, project management, landfill gas project, financing, logistics, oil, research and development, property development, and securities investment activities. The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited was founded in 1862 and is headquartered in North Point, Hong Kong. Read More Commencement of drilling - Kat Gap Perth, Nov 5, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - WA-focused gold exploration and development company Classic Minerals Limited ( ASX:CLZ ) ("Classic", or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has commenced RC drilling at its Forrestania Gold Project (FGP) in Western Australia.Highlights:- 1000m of RC drilling underway at Kat Gap after highly successful campaign in August 2018- Assay results expected late November- Drilling to extend strike and up-dip extensions of Kat Gap high grade mineralisationClassic CEO Dean Goodwin said:Following the stunning results of our last drilling program, including multiple high-grade gold hits at Kat Gap and Lady Magdalene, we are very excited to be heading back to the FGP to undertake further follow up drilling. This latest round will be focused solely on our Kat Gap project which delivered outstanding results over the previous 3 drill campaigns. Drilling will again focus on the main granite - greenstone contact of which only 160m of a total 3.5km of potential strike has been tested by the Company.We are planning to drill north along strike and also test for high grade gold mineralisation up-dip from previous bonanza intersections to see how close the gold gets to the surface. This information will be extremely important in any future mine planning and pit design work.Future drilling programs at Kat Gap will then focus on testing an 800m long section of the main granite - greenstone contact where current drill line spacings are 100m apart. Our current drilling is located right in the middle of this 800m long section. We are of the firm belief that significant gold mineralisation is lurking between these sections similar to what we have seen during the last 3 drilling programs. I can't wait to get stuck into it.DRILLING PROGRAMFollowing on from the very encouraging results (see ASX announcement dated 8 October 2018) from its last program at Kat Gap, the Company will be targeting this area again with additional drilling.KAT GAP DRILLINGKat Gap contains a shallow unmined gold deposit discovered in the 1990s, which was the subject of resource estimations and scoping study by Sons of Gwalia in 2003. The open-ended deposit lies within a 5 km long geochemical gold anomaly that has seen very little drill testing, and after the previous drill program completed in August, Classic sees great potential for the discovery of a substantial shallow high-grade gold deposit within the Kat Gap project area. The upcoming program will be testing for extensions of the high-grade gold system.The most recent drilling completed in August was focused on testing the main granite-greenstone contact which has been the main focus since the prospect was discovered by previous holders. A few holes were drilled up against the cross-cutting Proterozoic dyke where high-grade gold mineralisation appears to have concentrated. Several holes were also drilled deeper testing the interpreted plunge of the main mineralisation. Drill holes FKGRC017 - FKGRC019, FKGRC022 - 024 and FKGRC028 - 033 (inclusive), all tested the main contact lode with holes FKGRC020 - 021 and FKGRC027 drilled close to the Proterozoic dyke. Holes FKGRC025 and FKGRC026 were drilled deeper down the potential plunge of the main system. Better results from these holes included: 10m @ 30.78 g/t Au from 28m including 2m @ 116.10 g/t Au from 31m in FKGRC018; 9m @ 8.08 g/t Au from 95m including 1m @ 62.30 g/t Au from 101m in FKGRC025; 10m @ 4.18 g/t Au from 26m including 1m @ 15.10 g/t Au from 31m in FKGRC022 and 5m @ 4.85 g/t Au from 16m including 1m @ 19.10 g/t Au from 16m in FKGRC017.Holes FKGRC025 and FKGRC026 were drilled deeper than previous holes to test the potential down plunge extent of the main granite-greenstone contact lode. Both holes intersected significant gold mineralisation supporting the interpretation of a seventy-degree plunge to the north. Results include: 9m @ 8.08 g/t Au from 95m including 1m @ 62.30 g/t Au from 101m in FKGRC025 and 1m @ 18.80 g/t Au from 86m in FKGRC026. The plunge line is wide open along strike and down dip.As part of the November drilling campaign, Classic has 17 holes planned at Kat Gap for a total of 1,000m. These holes will test further north along strike from existing RC drilling along the granite-greenstone contact zone. In addition, the drilling will also test for up-dip continuations of high-grade gold mineralisation up against the Proterozoic dyke.ABOUT THE FORRESTANIA GOLD PROJECTThe FGP Tenements (excluding Kat Gap and Lady Lila) are registered in the name of Reed Exploration Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASX listed Hannans Ltd ( ASX:HNR ). Classic has acquired 80% of the gold rights on the FGP Tenements from a third party, whilst Hannans has maintained its 20% interest in the gold rights. Hannans' 20% interest is free-carried, meaning Hannans is not required to fund any activities on the FGP until a decision to mine has been made. For the avoidance of doubt Classic Ltd owns a 100% interest in non-gold rights on the Kat Gap and Lady Lila Tenements including but not limited to nickel, lithium and other metals.The FGP contains an existing Mineral Resource of 5.3 Mt at 1.39 g/t for 240,000 ounces of gold, classified and reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012), with a recent Scoping Study (see ASX Announcement released 2nd May2017) suggesting both the technical and financial viability of the project. The current post-mining Mineral Resource for Lady Ada, Lady Magdalene and Lady Lila is tabulated in the link below.To view tables and figures, please visit:About Classic Minerals Limited Classic Minerals Limited (ASX:CLZ) is an exploration and development company focused on gold deposits in Western Australia's famous Goldfields region. In March 2017, Classic acquired the Forrestania Gold Project, with seven tenements stretching across 450km2. Strategically located in a very prospective region, the FGP is an underexplored package surrounded by multimillion ounce deposits such as Bounty (2Moz) and Yilgarn Star (1.5Moz). Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. is an international offshore energy company. It focuses on subsea construction, maintenance and salvage services to the offshore natural gas and oil industry. The firm also provides specialty services to the offshore energy industry, with a focus on well intervention and robotics operations. The company operates through three segments: Well Intervention, Robotics and Production Facilities. The Well Intervention segment offers vessels and related equipment that are used to perform well intervention services primarily in the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea regions. The Robotics segment involves four chartered vessels and also includes ROVs, trenchers and ROVDrills designed to complement offshore construction and well intervention services. The Production Facilities segment includes its investment in the Helix Producer I and Kommandor LLC. Helix Energy Solutions Group was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Houston, TX. Read More 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 iShares S&P SmallCap 600 ETF's stock was trading at $62.31 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, IJR shares have increased by 87.7% and is now trading at $116.96. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. iShares Edge MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF's stock was trading at $115.21 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, MTUM stock has increased by 62.7% and is now trading at $187.41. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. 1 Wall Street research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for iShares North American Tech ETF in the last year. There are currently 1 hold rating for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street research analysts is that investors should "hold" iShares North American Tech ETF stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in IGM, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares. View analyst ratings for iShares North American Tech ETF or view top-rated stocks. Shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF split before market open on Monday, December 7th 2020. The 2-1 split was announced on Friday, November 6th 2020. The newly issued shares were distributed to shareholders after the closing bell on Friday, December 4th 2020. An investor that had 100 shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF stock prior to the split would have 200 shares after the split. EIOPA is closely monitoring the contingency planning of insurance undertakings, in particular of the undertakings from the United Kingdom and Gibraltar with cross-border business in EEA30 countries. The insurers with the largest cross-border business in the EEA30 countries have taken action and are implementing contingency measures. However, to date, 124 undertakings from the United Kingdom and Gibraltar with cross-border business in EEA30 jurisdictions have no or insufficient contingency plans in place to ensure service continuity in case of a withdrawal without an agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union. In case of a withdrawal without an agreement, 9.1 million EEA30 policyholders might face uncertainty and delays in receiving payments. This is significantly down from the total 38 million EEA30 policyholders with a cross-border contract, which shows the extent of action by UK insurers with large cross-border business. The residual cross-border business concerned have insurance liabilities of EUR 7.4bn. The residual business of insurers from the United Kingdom and Gibraltar without sufficient contingency plans represents (in terms of insurance liabilities) only 0.16% of the overall insurance business in the EEA30 countries.The majority of the business (with insurance liabilities of EUR 5.4bn) relates to a handful of insurers in the United Kingdom. The remaining business has mainly low value and short-tail liabilities. Overall, 75% of the contracts concerned belong to portfolios with average written premiums of less than EUR 100 per year. On average, the remaining duration of liabilities of 76% of the contracts is less than two years. The majority of the contracts are with non-life insurers. Only 3 % of the potentially affected policyholders have a contract with life insurers. EIOPA is working with the national competent authorities to address the residual risk. By law, insurance undertakings have to ensure continuity and regularity in the performance of their activities, including the development of contingency plans. Supervisory authorities have to ensure compliance respectively. To avoid disruptions in service continuity, immediate and reinforced actions from undertakings and supervisory authorities are required. Insufficient contingency planning that may result in consumer detriment is a severe governance failure. Policyholders of cross-border insurance contracts with undertakings from the United Kingdom and Gibraltar should be informed by their insurer about the relevant contingency measures they are taking and the impact on their contractual relationship and services. If they have further questions, customers may also wish to contact their insurance company. For general information related to the impact of the withdrawal on insurance contracts and services, the policyholders can contact their national supervisory authority or the supervisory authorities in United Kingdom or Gibraltar. Based on the data collected through the monitoring of the contingency planning and in particular due to the nature and scale of the business concerned, EIOPA's assessment is that the service continuity issue does not give rise to financial stability risks. However, EIOPA will continue to closely monitor and assess potential financial stability risks. Weatherford International plc, an oilfield service company, provides equipment and services for the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil and natural gas wells worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere. It offers artificial lift systems, including reciprocating rod, progressing cavity pumping, gas, hydraulic, plunger, and hybrid lift systems, as well as related automation and control systems; pressure pumping and reservoir stimulation services, such as acidizing, fracturing and fluid systems, cementing, and coiled-tubing intervention; and drill stem test tools, and surface well testing and multiphase flow measurement services. The company also provides safety, downhole reservoir monitoring, flow control, and multistage fracturing systems, as well as sand-control technologies, and production and isolation packers; liner hangers to suspend a casing string in high-temperature and high-pressure wells; cementing products, including plugs, float and stage equipment, and torque-and-drag reduction technology for zonal isolation; and pre-job planning and installation services. In addition, it offers directional drilling services, and logging and measurement services while drilling; services related to rotary-steerable systems, high-temperature and high-pressure sensors, drilling reamers, and circulation subs; managed pressure drilling, conventional mud-logging, drilling instrumentation, gas analysis, wellsite consultancy, and open hole and cased-hole logging services; reservoir solutions and software products; and intervention and remediation services. Further, the company provides equipment and drilling tools; tubular handling, management, and connection services; equipment rental services; and onshore contract drilling and related services through a fleet of land drilling and workover rigs. Weatherford International plc was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Thermo Fisher Scientific: 236 Perinton Parkway LLC, 27 Forge Parkway LLC, ABR--Affinity BioReagents, ACI Holdings Inc., ARG Services LLC, ASPEX Corporation, Abgene Inc., Abgene Limited, Acoustic Cytometry Systems Inc., AcroMetrix LLC, Acros Organics B.V.B.A., Advanced Biotechnologies Limited, Advanced Scientifics (ASI), Advanced Scientifics Inc., Advanced Scientifics International Inc., Affymetrix Biotech Participacoes Ltda., Affymetrix Biotech Shanghai Ltd, Affymetrix Inc, Affymetrix Japan K.K., Affymetrix Pte Ltd, Affymetrix UK Ltd, Afora S.A.U., Ahura Scientific, Alchematrix Inc., Alchematrix LLC, Alfa Aesar, Alfa Aesar (China) Chemical Co. Ltd., Alfa Aesar (Hong Kong) Limited, Allergon AB, Alphine Mountain Limited, Ambion Inc., Apogent Denmark ApS, Apogent Finance Company, Apogent Holding Company, Apogent Technologies Inc., Apogent Transition Corp., Apogent U.K. Limited, App-Tek International Pty Ltd, Applied Biosystems B.V., Applied Biosystems Finance B.V., Applied Biosystems International Inc., Applied Biosystems LLC, Applied Biosystems Taiwan LLC, Applied Biosystems Trading (Shanghai) Company Ltd., Applied Biosystems de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Applied Scientific Corporation, Avances Cientificos de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Avocado Research Chemicals Limited, B.R.A.H.M.S. Biotech GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. UK Ltd, BAC BV, BAC IP BV, Barnstead Thermolyne LLC, Beijing Phadia Diagnostics Co Ltd, Bender MedSystems GmbH, BioTrove Corporation, BioTrove International Inc., Bioanalysis Labsystems S.A., Biochemical Sciences LLC, Biolab, BmT GmbH Laborprodukte, Bonsai Tecnologies - Sistemas para Biotecnologia e Industria Unipessoal Lda, Brammer Bio, Bumi-Sans Sendirian Berhad, CAC Limited, CB Diagnostics AB, CB Diagnostics Holding AB, CEPH International Corporation, CHK Holdings Inc., CRS Robotics, CTPS LLC, Capitol Scientific Products Inc., Capitol Vial Inc., Cellomics Inc., CellzDirect Inc., Cenduit GmbH, Cenduit LLC, Cezanne S.A.S., Chase Scientific Glass Inc., Chromacol Limited, Clintrak, Clintrak Clinical Labeling Services LLC, Clintrak Pharmaceutical Services LLC, Cohesive Technologies (UK) Limited, Cohesive Technologies Inc., Columbia Diagnostics Inc., Compendia Bioscience Inc., Comtest Limited, Consolidated Technologies Inc., Consultores Fisher Scientific Chile Ltd, Core Informatics, Core Informatics LLC, Core Informatics UK Ltd., D-finitive Technologies Inc., DCG Systems B.V., DCG Systems C.V., DCG Systems G.K., DCG Systems GmbH, DCG Systems Korea Ltd., DCG Systems LLC, DPI Newco LLC, DSM Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Dharmacon, Diagnostix Ltd., Dionex (China) Analytical Ltd, Dionex (Switzerland) AG, Dionex (UK) Limited, Dionex Austria GmbH, Dionex Benelux B.V., Dionex Brasil Instrumentos Cientificos Ltda, Dionex Canada Ltd., Dionex China Limited, Dionex Corporation, Dionex Denmark A/S, Dionex Holding GmbH, Dionex I LLC, Dionex Pty Ltd., Dionex S.A., Dionex S.p.A., Dionex Singapore Pte Ltd., Dionex Softron GmbH, Dionex Sweden AB, Distribution Solutions International Inc., Doe & Ingalls Investors Inc., Doe & Ingalls Limited, Doe & Ingalls Management LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties II LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties LLC, Doe & Ingalls of California Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Florida Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Maryland Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Massachusetts Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of North Carolina Operating LLC, Doublecape Holding Limited, Doublecape Limited, Drakeside Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Duke Scientific Corporation, Dynal Biotech Beijing Limited, EGS Gauging Ltd., EGS Gauging Technical Services Company, EP Scientific Products LLC, Ecochem N.V., EnviroEquip Pty Ltd, Epsom Glass Industries Limited, Equibio Limited, Erie Electroverre S.A., Erie Finance Limited, Erie LP Holding LLC, Erie Scientific Company of Puerto Rico, Erie Scientific Hungary Kft, Erie Scientific LLC, Erie U.K. Limited, Erie UK 1 Limited, Erie UK 2 Limited, Erie UK Holding Company, Erie UK Senior Holding Limited, European Laboratory Holdings Limited, Eutech Instruments Europe B.V., Eutech Instruments Pte Ltd., Eutech Instruments Sdn Bhd, Ever Ready Thermometer Co. Inc., FEI Asia Pacific Co. Ltd., FEI Australia Pty Ltd, FEI CPD B.V., FEI Company, FEI Company Japan Ltd., FEI Company of USA (S.E.A.) Pte Ltd., FEI Czech Republic s.r.o., FEI Deutschland GmbH, FEI EFA Inc., FEI EFA International Pte. Ltd., FEI Electron Optics B.V., FEI Electron Optics International B.V., FEI Europe B.V., FEI France SAS, FEI Global Holdings C.V., FEI Hong Kong Company Limited, FEI Houston Inc., FEI Italia Srl, FEI Korea Ltd., FEI Melbourne Pty Ltd., FEI Microscopy Solutions Ltd, FEI Munich GmbH, FEI Norway Holding AS, FEI SAS, FEI Saudi Arabia LLC, FEI Servicos de Nanotecnologia Ltda., FEI Technologies Inc., FEI Technology de Mexico S.A. de C.V., FEI Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., FEI Trondheim AS, FEI UK Ltd., FHP LLC, FRC Holding Inc. V, FS (Barbados) Capital Holdings Ltd., FS Casa Rocas Holdings LLC, FS Mexicana Holdings LLC, FSI Receivables Company LLC, FSII Sweden Holdings AB, FSII Sweden Holdings I AB, FSIR Holdings (UK) Limited, FSIR Holdings (US) Inc., FSUK Holdings Limited, FSWH Company LLC, FSWH II C.V., FSWH International Holdings LLC, Fermentas China Co. Ltd, Fermentas Inc., Fermentas International, Fermentas Sweden AB, Fermentas UK Limited, Fiberlite Centrifuge LLC, Finesse Scientific Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Finesse Solutions AG, Finesse Solutions Inc., Finnzymes Oy, Fisher Alder S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Asia Manufacturing Ventures Inc., Fisher Bermuda Holdings Limited, Fisher BioImage ApS, Fisher BioPharma Services (India) Private Limited, Fisher BioSciences Japan G.K., Fisher BioServices Inc., Fisher Bioblock Holding II SNC, Fisher CLP Holding Limited Partnership, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 1, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 2, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 3, Fisher Canada Limited Partnership, Fisher Chimica BVBA, Fisher Clinical Logistics LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services (Bristol) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Colombia) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Korea) Co. Ltd, Fisher Clinical Services (Mexico) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Peru) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services Colombia S.A.S., Fisher Clinical Services GmbH, Fisher Clinical Services Inc., Fisher Clinical Services Japan K.K., Fisher Clinical Services Latin America S.R.L., Fisher Clinical Services Limited Liability Company, Fisher Clinical Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Clinical Services Peru S.R.L, Fisher Clinical Services Pte Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services U.K. Limited, Fisher Emergo B.V., Fisher Germany Holdings GmbH, Fisher Hamilton China Inc., Fisher Hamilton Mexico LLC, Fisher Holdings ApS, Fisher Internet Minority Holdings L.L.C., Fisher Laboratory Products Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Fisher Luxembourg Danish Holdings SARL, Fisher Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Maybridge Holdings Limited, Fisher Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific (Austria) GmbH, Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Fisher Scientific (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific (SEA) Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific A/S, Fisher Scientific AG, Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Limited, Fisher Scientific Biotech Line ApS, Fisher Scientific Brazil Inc., Fisher Scientific Central America Inc., Fisher Scientific Chile Inc., Fisher Scientific Colombia Inc., Fisher Scientific Company, Fisher Scientific Company L.L.C., Fisher Scientific Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Fisher Scientific Europe Holdings B.V., Fisher Scientific GTF AB, Fisher Scientific Germany Beteiligungs GmbH, Fisher Scientific GmbH, Fisher Scientific Holding Company LLC, Fisher Scientific Holding HK Limited, Fisher Scientific Holding U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific Holdings (S) Pte Ltd, Fisher Scientific International LLC, Fisher Scientific Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Fisher Scientific Ireland Investments Unlimited, Fisher Scientific Ireland Limited, Fisher Scientific Japan Ltd., Fisher Scientific Jersey Island Limited, Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd, Fisher Scientific Latin America Inc., Fisher Scientific Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Fisher Scientific Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific Mexico Inc., Fisher Scientific Middle East and Africa Inc., Fisher Scientific Norway AS, Fisher Scientific Operating Company, Fisher Scientific Oxoid Holdings Ltd., Fisher Scientific Oy, Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific S.A.S., Fisher Scientific S.L., Fisher Scientific SPRL, Fisher Scientific The Hague I B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague II B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague III B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague IV B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague V B.V., Fisher Scientific U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company 2, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company Limited, Fisher Scientific Unipessoal Lda., Fisher Scientific Venezuela Inc., Fisher Scientific Worldwide (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Holdings I C.V., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Inc., Fisher Scientific de Mexico S.A., Fisher Scientific of the Netherlands B.V., Fisher Scientific spol. S.r.o, Fisher Servicios Clinicos (Chile) LLC, Fisher Servicios Clinicos Chile Ltda, Fisher WWD Holding L.L.C., Fisher Worldwide Distribution SPV, Fisher Worldwide Gene Distribution SPV, Flux Instruments, Fuji Partnership, G & M Procter Limited, G V Instruments Limited, GV Instruments Canada Ltd., GV Instruments Inc, Gatan Inc, General Scientific Company Sdn Bhd (M), Genomed molekularbiologische und diagnostische Produkte GmbH, Gerhard Menzel B.V. & Co. KG, Gold Cattle Standard Testing Labs Inc., Golden West Indemnity Company Limited, Goring Kerr Detection Limited, Greenville Service Company Inc., HENO GmbH i.L., Hangar 215 Inc., Helmet Securities Limited, Henogen, HighChem, HyClone International Trade (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Hybaid Limited, I.Q. (BIO) Limited, IDnostics AG, ILS Laboratories Scandinavia AB, Inel Inc., Inel SAS, InnaPhase Inc., InnaPhase Limited, IntegenX, Intrinsic BioProbes Inc., Intrinsic Bioprobes Inc., Invitrogen (Shanghai) Investment Co. Ltd., Invitrogen Argentina SA, Invitrogen BioServices India Private Limited, Invitrogen Europe Limited, Invitrogen Finance Corp., Invitrogen Holdings LLC, Invitrogen Holdings Ltd., Invitrogen Hong Kong Limited, Invitrogen IP Holdings Inc., Invitrogen Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ion Torrent Systems Inc., Ionalytics Corporation, JSC Thermo Fisher Scientific, Jouan LLC, Jouan Limited, Jouan SA, Kendro Containment & Services Limited, Kendro Laboratory Products Ltd, Kettlebrook Insurance Co. ltd., Keystone Scientific, KonTEM GmbH, Kyle Jordan Investments LLC, LIFE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, LTC Tech South Africa PTY Ltd., La-Pha-Pack GmbH, Lab Vision (UK) Limited, Lab Vision Corporation, Lab-Chrom-Pack LLC, Lab-Line Instruments Inc., Labomex MBP S. de R. L. De C.V., Laboratoire Service International - L.S.I, Laboratory Management Systems Inc., Laboratory Specialties Proprietary Ltd., LambTrack Limited, Laser Analytical Systems Inc., Liberty Lane Investment LLC, Liberty Lane Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Life Sciences International (Poland) SP z O.O, Life Sciences International Holdings BV, Life Sciences International LLC, Life Sciences International Limited, Life Technologies AS, Life Technologies Australia PTY Ltd., Life Technologies BPD AB, Life Technologies BPD UK Limited, Life Technologies Brasil Comercio e Industria de Produtos para Biotecnologia Ltda, Life Technologies Chile SpA, Life Technologies Clinical Services Lab Inc., Life Technologies Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Czech Republic s.r.o., Life Technologies DaAn Diagnostic (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Europe B.V., Life Technologies Finance Ltd., Life Technologies Finland Oy, Life Technologies GmbH, Life Technologies Holdings PTE Ltd., Life Technologies Inc., Life Technologies International B.V., Life Technologies Japan Ltd., Life Technologies Korea LLC, Life Technologies Limited, Life Technologies Magyarorszag Kft, Life Technologies New Zealand Ltd., Life Technologies Norway Investments US LLC, Life Technologies Polska Sp z.o.o., Life Technologies SA, Life Technologies SAS, Life Technologies s.r.o, Linkage Biosciences Inc., Linkage Biosciences S.a.r.l., Loftus Furnace Company, Lomb Scientific, Lomb Scientific (Aust) Pty Limited, MTI-GlobalStem, Marketbase International Limited, Matrix MicroScience Inc., Matrix MicroScience Ltd., Matrix Technologies Corporation Limited, Matrix Technologies LLC, Maybridge Chemical Company Limited, Maybridge Chemical Holdings Limited, Maybridge Limited, Medical Analysis Systems Inc., Medical Analysis Systems International Inc., Medical Diagnostics Systems Inc., Metavac LLC, Microgenics Corporation, Microgenics Diagnostics Pty Limited, Microgenics GmbH, Microm International GmbH, Microm Laborgerate S.L.U, Molecular BioProducts Inc., Molecular Probes Inc., Molecular Transfer Inc., NAPCO Inc., NERL Diagnostics LLC, NOVODIRECT GmbH Labor- und Industrie- Megerate, Nalge (Europe) Limited, Nalge Nunc International (Monterrey) LLC, Nalge Nunc International Corporation, Nanjing WeiKangLe Trading Industrial Co Ltd, NanoDrop Technologies LLC, National Scientific Company, Navaho Acquisition Corp., Neomarkers Inc., New FS Holdings Inc., NewcoGen PE LLC, Nihon Dynal K.K., Niton Asia Limited, NovaWave Technologies Inc., Nunc A/S, ONIX Systems Inc., OXOID CZ s.r.o., Odyssey Holdings Corporation, Odyssey Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 1 S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 2 S.a r.l., Odyssey Venture Corporation, Omega Data Systems, One Lambda Inc, Onix Holdings Limited, Orme Scientific Limited, Owl Separation Systems LLC, Oxoid (ELY) Limited, Oxoid 2000 Limited, Oxoid AS, Oxoid Australia Pty. Limited, Oxoid Company, Oxoid Deutschland GmbH, Oxoid Holding SAS, Oxoid Holdings Limited, Oxoid Inc., Oxoid International Limited, Oxoid Investments GmbH, Oxoid Limited, Oxoid N.V., Oxoid New Zealand Limited, Oxoid Pension Trustees Limited, Oxoid Senior Holdings Limited, Oxoid UKH LLC, PAX - DSI Acquisition LLC, PE AG, Pacific Rim Far East Industries LLC, Pacific Rim Investment LLC, Panomics L.L.C., Panomics S.R.L., Patheon, Patheon API Inc., Patheon API Manufacturing Inc., Patheon API Services Inc., Patheon Austria GmbH & Co KG, Patheon B.V., Patheon Banner U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon Biologics (NJ) LLC, Patheon Biologics Australia Pty Ltd, Patheon Biologics B.V., Patheon Biologics LLC, Patheon Calculus Merger LLC, Patheon Cooperatief U.A., Patheon Development Services Inc., Patheon Finance LLC, Patheon France SAS, Patheon Holdings B.V., Patheon Holdings I B.V., Patheon Holdings II B.V., Patheon Holdings SAS, Patheon I B.V., Patheon I Holding GmbH, Patheon Inc., Patheon International AG, Patheon Italia S.p.A., Patheon KK, Patheon Life Science Products International GmbH, Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC, Patheon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Patheon Pharmaceuticals Services Inc., Patheon Puerto Rico Acquisitions Corporation, Patheon Puerto Rico Inc., Patheon Regensburg GmbH, Patheon Softgels B.V., Patheon Softgels Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings LLC, Patheon UK Limited, Patheon UK Pension Trustees Limited, Pelican Acquisition Corporation, Perbio Science (Canada) Company, Perbio Science AB, Perbio Science BVBA, Perbio Science France SAS, Perbio Science Inc., Perbio Science International Netherlands B.V., Perbio Science Invest AB, Perbio Science Nederland B.V., Perbio Science Projekt AB, Perbio Science Sweden Holdings AB, Perbio Science Switzerland SA, Perbio Science UK Limited, Phadia AB, Phadia Diagnosticos Ltda, Phadia GmbH, Phadia Holding AB, Phadia International Holdings C.V., Phadia Korea Co. Ltd, Phadia Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., Phadia Malta Holdings Limited, Phadia Oy, Phadia Real Property AB, Phadia Sweden AB, Phadia Taiwan Inc., Phadia US Inc., Phadia s.r.o., Pharmacaps Mexicana SA de CV, Phenom-World B.V., Phenom-World Holding B.V, Phenom-World Innovations B.V., Phinotex, Pierce Biotechnology Inc., Pierce Milwaukee Holding Corp., Pierce Milwaukee Inc., Polychromix, Power Sweden Holdings I AB, Power Sweden Holdings II AB, Power Sweden Holdings III Aktiebolag, Princeton Gamma-Tech Instruments LLC, Princeton Security Technologies, Prionics AG, Prionics Asia Ltd., Prionics Deutschland GmbH, Prionics France SAS, Prionics Italia S.r.l., Prionics Lelystad B.V., Prionics USA Inc., Priority Air Express LLC, Priority Air Express Pte. Ltd., Priority Air Express UK Limited, Priority Air Holdings Corp, Priority Solutions International, Promedica Pty Limited, Proxeon, Proxeon Biosystems ApS, Qiagen, REP GBP I-B Blocker Inc., Raymond A Lamb Limited, Remel Europe Limited, Remel Inc., Richard-Allan Scientific Company, Robbins Scientific LLC, Robocon Labor- und Industrieroboter Gesellschaft m.b.H, Rupprecht and Patashnick, Rupprecht and Patashnick (R&P), Russell pH Limited, S.C.I. du 10 rue Dugay Trouin, SCI Inno 92, STC Bio Manufacturing Inc., Samco Scientific (Monterrey) LLC, Samco Scientific LLC, Saroph Sweden AB, Schantz Road LLC, Seradyn Inc., Shanghai Life Technologies Biotechnology Co. Limited, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (C-I) Trading Co. Ltd, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (S) Trading Co. Ltd, Southern Trials (Pty) Ltd., Specialty (SMI) Inc., Spectra-Physics AB, Spectra-Physics Holdings Limited, Spectra-Physics Holdings USA LLC, Spectronex, Staten Island Cogeneration Corporation, Sterilin Limited, Stokes Bio Ltd., Sweden DIA (Sweden) AB, SwissAnalytic Group GmbH, Systems Manufacturing Corporation, TFLP LLC, TFS Breda B.V., TFS LLC, TFS Singapore HK Limited, TFSL Financing GP LLC, TFSL Senior GP Holdings 2 LLC, TK Partnership, TKA Wasseraufbereitungssysteme, TMOI Inc., TPI Real Estate Holdings LLC, TSP Holdings I LLC, TWX LLC, Technology Design Solutions Pty Ltd, Thermedics Detection de Argentina S.R.L, Thermo Allen Coding Limited, Thermo Asset Management Services Inc., Thermo BioAnalysis LLC, Thermo BioAnalysis Limited, Thermo BioSciences Holdings LLC, Thermo CIDTEC, Thermo CRS Holdings Ltd., Thermo CRS Ltd., Thermo Cambridge Limited, Thermo Cayman Holdings Ltd., Thermo Corporation, Thermo DMA Inc., Thermo Detection de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Dutch Holdings Limited Partnership, Thermo EGS Gauging LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings I LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings II LLC, Thermo Eberline LLC, Thermo Electron (Calgary) Limited, Thermo Electron (Chile) S.p.A., Thermo Electron (Karlsruhe) GmbH, Thermo Electron (Management Services) Limited, Thermo Electron (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Electron A/S, Thermo Electron Australia Pty Limited, Thermo Electron Export Inc., Thermo Electron Holdings SAS, Thermo Electron Industries, Thermo Electron LED GmbH, Thermo Electron LED S.A.S., Thermo Electron Limited, Thermo Electron Manufacturing Limited, Thermo Electron Metallurgical Services Inc., Thermo Electron North America LLC, Thermo Electron Pension Trust GmbH, Thermo Electron Puerto Rico Inc., Thermo Electron SAS, Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments LLC, Thermo Electron Sweden AB, Thermo Electron Sweden Forvaltning AB, Thermo Electron Weighing & Inspection Limited, Thermo Elemental Limited, Thermo Environmental Instruments LLC, Thermo Fast U.K. Limited, Thermo Finland Holdings LLC, Thermo Finland Holdings MT1 B.V., Thermo Finland Holdings MT2 B.V., Thermo Finnigan LLC, Thermo Finnigan Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Malta Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN-I) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (CN-II) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings I Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings II Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings 2) LLC, Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) II Limited, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Heysham) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Kandel) GmbH, Thermo Fisher CHK Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust II, Thermo Fisher Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Thermo Fisher Cyprus Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Detection Mexico LLC, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics (Ireland) Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AB, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AG, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Aps, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Austria GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics B.V., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics K.K., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics NV, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.L.U., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.p.A. , Thermo Fisher Diagnostics SAS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Thermo Fisher Eurobonds Ltd., Thermo Fisher Financial Services Inc., Thermo Fisher GP LLC, Thermo Fisher German Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Germany B.V., Thermo Fisher India Divestco Private Limited, Thermo Fisher India Holding B.V., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Thermo Fisher Israel Ltd., Thermo Fisher Production et Services SAS, Thermo Fisher Project Cyprus LLC, Thermo Fisher Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Asheville) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Australia) C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Barbados) Holdings Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Breda) Holding BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Bremen) GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (CN) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China-HK) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (DE) Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Ecublens) SARL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance II) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Fuji) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Holding II) B.V. & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Johannesburg) (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mexico City) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Milwaukee) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mississauga) Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Monterrey) S. De R.L. De C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (NK) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) Austria Holding GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-I) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-II) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN1) UK Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) Dutch LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Praha) s.r.o., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) GmbH & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Schweiz) AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Instruments Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Suzhou) Instruments Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific AL-1 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific AU II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Aquasensors LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V.B.A., Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (I) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (II) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics UAB, Thermo Fisher Scientific Beteiligungsverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Biosciences Corp., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brahms LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Instrumentos de Processo Ltda., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Servicos de Logistica Ltda, Thermo Fisher Scientific C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cayman Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chemicals Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific China (C-I) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China (S) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings I B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings III B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings IV B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings Aps, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus IV C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus V C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Denmark Senior Holdings ApS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie 1 Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Europe GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC Finance C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing S.a.r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSUKHCO Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Falcon Senior Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Finance Company BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific GENEART GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Germany BV & Co. 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It serves in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The company has a strategic partnership with Sephora SAS to create the online prestige beauty destination. Zalando SE was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Read More Nuveen Massachusetts Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of Massachusetts, United States. The fund primarily invests in undervalued municipal securities and other related investments which are exempt from regular federal and Massachusetts income taxes. It seeks to invest in investment grade securities that are rated Baa/BBB or above by S&P, Moody's, or Fitch. 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Read More Adam Mortara of Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP, counsel for Students for Fair Admissions, speaks with reporters following the final day of the landmark trial challenging Harvard University's affirmative action admissions policies. William S. Consovoy of Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC, center, is expected to lead any appeal in the closely watched case. (Chris Villani | Law360) Law360, Boston (November 2, 2018, 8:27 PM EDT) -- The closely watched trial of a lawsuit taking on Harvard University's affirmative action admissions policies, which could land before the U.S. Supreme Court and have a wide-ranging effect on college applications, closed Friday with the challengers saying the wolf" of racial bias was at the school's front door and the university saying that wolf was targeting black and Latino students.In closing arguments before U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs, who will decide the case, and an overflow crowd in the courtroom on Bostons waterfront, the anti-affirmative-action group Students for Fair Admissions and Harvard each circled back to a term used in opening statements by SFFA lawyer Adam Mortara of Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP "Someday this will be written about in the history books, and those books may say that Harvard let the wolf of discrimination through the front door, Mortara said. We hope those books will say this court slammed the door shut." WilmerHale s William F. Lee, counsel for Harvard, agreed the wolf of bias was at the door, but said it came cloaked as SFFAs desire to remove 1,000 highly qualified African-American and Hispanic students from Harvards campus.That wolf is not intentional discrimination by anyone. That wolf comes in the form of SFFA and its experts, Lee said. It is those who would turn back the clock The wolf of racial bias is, indeed at our door. We ask the court to turn the wolf out.SFFA sued the nations oldest university in 2014, claiming it unfairly caps the number of Asian-Americans admitted and, due to unfair bias and stereotyping, assigns Asian-Americans lower scores on the personal profile rating it hands out to every applicant. Harvard defended its admissions policies, saying it uses race only as a boost, or tip, in the narrowly defined way sanctioned by law, and only in connection with multiple other factors and for highly qualified candidates.Over the past three weeks, SFFA has sought to convince Judge Burroughs that Harvard has systematically assigned lower personal scores to Asian-American students, falsely stereotyping them as quiet and reserved. SFFA lawyer John Hughes stressed this during his closing argument, pointing to a recent change clarifying to Harvard admissions officers that race is not to be used in assigning a personal score and students who are more introverted should not be docked on the personal rating.Hughes called it a corrective step to combat some of the bias and stereotypes that creeped into Harvards process, while also presenting it as evidence Harvard knew it had a problem.To Harvards credit, they actually finally did something about it for the Class of 2023, Hughes said. Its a step in the right direction.But Lee said the admissions guidelines shift constantly, saying the Harvard admissions office didnt close after SFFA filed its lawsuit. Pointing to statistics that show Asian-Americans outscored other races in the academic and extracurricular profile ratings assigned by Harvard admissions officials, he said it would amount to a bizarre scheme to give those applicants higher scores on part of their application, only to turn around and unfairly dock them on the personal rating.Judge Burroughs requested that both sides submit post-trial briefs by February, and more in-court arguments are expected early next year before she reaches a verdict. Many feel this will wind up before the Supreme Court, and outside the courthouse Friday, both sides acknowledged the case is likely far from over.Its quite clear what this case is about SFFA wants to eliminate 1,000 African-Americans and Hispanics from the Harvard campus, Lee said. If thats going to happen, its going to be a decision of some significance by a court of some significance, but that would be a big change in the law, it would be a big change for universities like Harvard and, personally, I think it would be a disaster for the country.It would be a very, very sad day in history, added fellow WilmerHale lawyer Seth Waxman, given how far we have come and yet the kind of divisions as a country we face politically and among different racial and ethnic and geographic groups. This is the way forward, not the way SFFA is proposing to take us.Asked whether he expects the matter is headed for the high court, the anti-affirmative-action legal strategist behind the suit, Edward Blum, said "common wisdom says that it is." Blum has already guided six cases to the Supreme Court, including the 2013 case Fisher v. Texas, which upheld the use of race in college admissions."We are respectful of Judge Burroughs. She is going to do an excellent job. We are not thinking about anything beyond that right now," said SFFA attorney William S. Consovoy of Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC, later adding, "We are committed to this case until the end."Consovoy will likely handle the appeal for SFFA if the case continues beyond the district court level, as expected, while Waxman and WilmerHale's Paul Wolfson would lead Harvard's side.Competing expert data dominated much of the trial and each side accuses the other of cooking the numbers to fit the result they wanted to see. SFFA left out crucial groups of students, such as athletes and legacies, and excluded variables like intended career and parental occupation, Harvard said, because they made the alleged " Asian penalty " disappear.Harvard argues that data showing a positive effect for being Asian for athletes, legacies, Dean's List students, and children of faculty, Asian-American students from California, and female students is more than enough to show that Harvard did not discriminate.Harvard also criticized SFFA's expert for omitting the controversial personal rating from his data set, but SFFA said that rating cannot be factored in, because it is influenced by race."The statistical case is over, once you resolve that factual dispute in our favor," Hughes told Judge Burroughs.A 2013 investigation by Harvard's own Office of Institutional Research also showed Asian-Americans were at a disadvantage and the school knew it had a problem at the time, but did nothing, SFFA claimed, pointing to contemporaneous internal emails by admissions officials.The trial dug into the once-secret Harvard admissions process and drew considerable public interest. The fifth-floor courtroom was often packed with a standing-room-only crowd. The Trump administration weighed in, siding with SFFA and accusing Harvard of "racial balancing." The other Ivy League schools backed Harvard, which insisted a diverse campus benefits all students , as did a group of diverse students and more than two dozen student and alumni organizations on the Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus.The students and organizations were allowed to participate by Judge Burroughs as amici, and gave their own closing statements Friday. Both of them noted that none of the anonymous SFFA plaintiffs testified or submitted their rejected applications during the trial."Behind the dueling statistical data in this case, are real people," Cara McClellan of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund told the judge. "Their testimony made clear that the dramatic reduction in Black and Latinx students on campus from the loss of race-conscious admissions, estimated at 50 percent, would be devastating for all Harvard students.""I feel privileged to participate in a trial where the lawyering has been so exceptional," Judge Burroughs said as the trial concluded. "The issues raised in this case are incredibly important, both to the parties in this case, but also to the world ... I hope our final work product is worthy of the effort put into it."Students for Fair Admissions is represented by Adam K. Mortara, J. Scott McBride, John M. Hughes, Katherine L.I. Hacker and Krista J. Perry of Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP, William S. Consovoy, Thomas R. McCarthy, Michael H. Park, John Michael Connolly and Patrick Strawbridge of Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC, and Paul M. Sanford of Burns & Levinson LLP Harvard is represented by Seth P. Waxman, Paul R.Q. Wolfson, Daniel Winik, Debo P. Adegbile, William F. Lee, Felicia H. Ellsworth, Andrew S. Dulberg, Elizabeth C. Mooney and Danielle Conley of WilmerHale.The amici students are represented by Oren M. Sellstrom, Genevieve Bonadies Torres, Kristen Clarke, Jon M. Greenbaum and Brenda Shum of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights , Nicole K. Ochi of Asian Americans Advancing Justice and Lawrence Culleen, Nancy Perkins, Steven Mayer and Emma Dinan of Arnold & Porter The amici organizations are represented by Cara McClellan, Earl A. Kirkland III, Janai S. Nelson, Jennifer A. Holmes, Jin Hee Lee, Michaele N. Turnage Young, Rachel M. Kleinman, Samuel Spital and Sherrilyn A. Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. and Kathryn Rebecca Cook and Kenneth N. Thayer of Sugarman Rogers Barshak & Cohen PC The case is Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, case number 1:14-cv-14176 , in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.--Editing by John Campbell. 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Inc., Gallagher (Bermuda) Insurance Solutions Ltd., Gallagher - Grace/Mayer Insurance Agency, Gallagher Bassett Aires Inc., Gallagher Bassett Canada Inc., Gallagher Bassett Insurance Services Ltd., Gallagher Bassett International Ltd., Gallagher Bassett NZ Pty Ltd., Gallagher Bassett Services Inc. , Gallagher Bassett Services Pty Ltd., Gallagher Bassett Services Workers Compensation Victoria Pty Ltd., Gallagher Benefit Services (Canada) Group Inc., Gallagher Benefit Services (Holdings) Limited, Gallagher Benefit Services Inc., Gallagher Benefit Services Management Company Limited, Gallagher Benefit Services Pty Ltd, Gallagher Benefits Consulting Limited, Gallagher Bomford Couch Wilson, Gallagher Burgess, Gallagher Canada Acquisition Corporation, Gallagher Caribbean Group Limited, Gallagher Clean Energy LLC, Gallagher Communications Limited, Gallagher Community Clinic RPG LLC, Gallagher Consulting Ltda, Gallagher Corporate Services LLC, Gallagher Coyle, Gallagher CyberRisk, Gallagher Energy Risk Services Inc., Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC, Gallagher Holdings (UK) Limited, Gallagher Holdings Bermuda Company Limited, Gallagher Holdings Four (UK) Limited, Gallagher Holdings Three (UK) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (Barbados) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Kitts & Nevis) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Lucia) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Vincent) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers Jamaica Limited, Gallagher International Cash Management s.r.l., Gallagher International Holdings (US) Inc., Gallagher Investment Advisors LLC, Gallagher Inwest Group, Gallagher Koster, Gallagher Lambert Group, Gallagher Madison Risk & Insurance Services, Gallagher Mauritius Holdings, Gallagher Mississippi Brokerage LLC, Gallagher RE Colombia Ltda Corredores de Reaseguros SA, Gallagher Risk & Reward Limited, Gallagher Risk Group LLC, Gallagher Risk Placements Pty Ltd, Gallagher SKS, Gallagher Service Center LLP, Gallagher-Tarantino, Galtney Group, Game Day Insurance Inc., Gardner & White Corp., Gardner Marine Agency, Garza Long Group, Gatehouse Consulting Limited, Gault Armstrong Kemble Pty Ltd, Gault Armstrong SARL, Giles Group, Giles Holdings Limited, Giles Insurance Brokers, Gillis Ellis & Baker Inc., Goodman Insurance Agency, Grandy Pratt Co., Greenseed Alternative Mangaers Platform Ltd, Grossman & Associates, Group Benefits of Arkansas, Group Insurance Associates, Gruppo Marcucci, HLG Holdings Limited, HMG-PCMS Limited, HPF Investments LLC, HR Owen Insurance Services Limited, Hagan Newkirk Financial Services, Hagedorn & Company, Hardman & Howell Benefits, Harlequin Insurance PCC Limited, Hartstein Associates Inc., Healthcare Professionals Purchasing Group LLC, Healthcare Risk Solutions, Heath Lambert Group Ltd., Heath Lambert Limited, Heath Lambert Overseas Limited, Heiser Insurance Agency, Henderson Phillips Fine Arts Insurance, Herbruck Alder & Co., Heritage Insurance Brokers (CI) Limited, Hesse & Partner AG, Hesse Consulting, Hexagon ICC Limited, Hexagon Insurance PCC Limited, Hill Chesson & Woody, Hogan Insurance Services, Home & Travel Limited, Honour Point Limited, Horseshoe Corporate Services Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services (Cayman) Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services USA Inc., Horseshoe ILS Services UK Ltd, Horseshoe Insurance Advisors US LLC, Horseshoe Insurance Advisory Ltd., Horseshoe Insurance Services Holdings Ltd, Horseshoe Insurance Services Holdings US Inc., Horseshoe Management (Gibraltar) Limited, Horseshoe Management (Ireland) Ltd, Horseshoe Management Ltd., Horseshoe PCC Limited, Horseshoe Re Limited, Horseshoe Services (Cayman) Ltd, Horseshoe Services (Pty) Ltd, Horton Insurance Agency, Housing Authorities Services Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Human Resource Management Systems, I-Protect Underwriting Pty Ltd, IBIS Advisors, IBS Reinsurance Singapore Pte Ltd, ILS Fund Services Ltd., ISG International, ITI Solutions, Igloo Insurance PCC Limited, Independent Benefit Services, Independent Fiduciary Services, Ink Underwriting Agencies Limited, InsSync Group Pty Ltd, Inspire Underwriting Limited, Instrat Insurance Brokers, Instrat Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd, Instrat Integration Holdco Pty Ltd, Insurance Acquisitions Holdings Limited, Insurance Associates Inc., Insurance Dialogue Limited, Insurance Dialogue Ltd., Insurance Plans Agency, Insurance Plus Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Insurance Point, Insurance Risk Managers of Missouri Inc., Insure My Villa Limited, Insure Pty Ltd, Integrated Healthcare Strategies, InterNational Insurance Group, InterPacific Underwriting Agencies, Intermountain Financial Benefits, Interstate Insurance Underwriters, JPGAC LLC, James F. Reda & Associates, James R. Weir Insurance Agency, Jenkins and Associates, Joe E. Martin Inc., John P. Woods Co. Inc., Jones Brown, Jones Brown Group Inc., Jones Brown Insurance Solutions Inc., Joseph Distel, Joseph James & Associates Insurance Agency, Just Landlords Insurance Services Ltd, KDC Associates, KRW Insurance Agency, Kahl Insurance Services, Kaler Carney Liffler & Co. Inc., Kane Group - Insurance Management Operations, Kelly Financial, Kent Kent & Tingle and RBS, Keyser Benefits Corp., Kingspark Enterprises Pty Ltd, L&R Benefits, LSG Insurance Partners, Learn About Money Limited, Lewis & Associates Insurance Brokers, Leystone Insurance & Financial, Life Plans Unlimited, Lincoln Financial Management, Longfellow Financial, Lucas Fettes Limited, Lucas Fettes and Partners Limited, Lutgert Insurance, MA Underwriting Pty Ltd, MDM Insurance Associates, MG Advanced Coal Technologies-1 LLC, MGA Insurance Services, MRS Holdings Ltd., Madison Scott & Associates, Managed Healthcare Solutions, Mannequin Insurance PCC Limited, Marchetti Robertson & Brickell Insurance, Marine Insurance Service, Martin Gordon & Jones Inc., McDowall Associates Human Resource Consultants, McIntyre Risk Management, McLean Insurance Agency, McNeary, McPherson Benefits Group, McRory & Co., Mecacem Insurance SPC Ltd, MedInsights Inc., Melton Insurance Associates, Memberworks Canada LLC, Merit Insurance, Metcom Excess, Metzler Bros. Insurance, Meyers-Reynolds & Associates, Mid America Group, Midwest Surety Services, Mike Henry Insurance Brokers, Mike Henry Insurance Brokers Limited, Mike Henry Insurance Funding Limited, Miller Buettner & Parrott, Miller-Harrison Insurance Services, Milne Alexander Pty Ltd, Minvielle & Chastanet Insurance Brokers, Monument Insurance (NZ) Limited, Monument Llc, Monument Premium Funding Limited, Mortgage Insurance Agency, Murphy Consultants, Mutual Insurance Services, NationAir Aviation Insurance, National Administration Co., National Ethics Association, National Transportation Adjusters, Nelson/Monarch Insurance Services, Nicoud Insurance Services, NiiS/Apex Group Holdings, Nonprofit Insurance Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Noraxis Capital Corp, Nordic Forsakring & Riskhantering AB, North Alabama Insurance, Nourse Insurance Brokers, O'Gorman & Young, OAMPS (UK) Limited, OAMPS Gault Armstrong Pty Ltd, OAMPS Limited, OAMPS Special Risks Ltd, Offshore Market Placements Limited, Optimum Talent, Orb Financial Services, Orb Financial Services Limited, Osprey Insurance Brokers Limited, Oval Group, Oval Healthcare Limited, Oval Insurance Broking Limited, Oval Limited, Oval Management Services Limited, Oxygen Insurance Managers, P2 Group, PEN Insurance Management Advisors Ltd, PT IBS Insurance Broking Service, Pacific Insurance Agency, Palmer Atlantic Insurance, Palmer Atlantic Insurance Ltd, Palmer Atlantic Risk Services Ltd., Park Row Associates, Parkstar Enterprises Pty Ltd, Parmia Pty Ltd, PartnerSource, Pastel Holding (NZ) Company, Pastel Holdings Pty Limited, Pastel Purchaser (NZ) Limited, Pastel Purchaser Pty Limited, Pavey Group Holdings (UK) Limited, Pavey Group Holdings Limited, Pavey Group Limited, Pearson Dunn Insurance Inc., Pen Underwriting Canada Limited, Pen Underwriting Group Pty. Ltd., Pen Underwriting Limited, Pen Underwriting Pty Ltd, Persing Dyckman & Toynbee Inc., Personal Advice Services Pty Ltd, Petty Burton Associates, Pointer Insurance Agency, Portmore Insurance Brokers (Wilshire) Limited, Portmore Insurance Brokers Limited, Potter-Holden & Co., Powell Insurance Agency, Premier Insurance Services Inc., Premier Risk Services, Premium Finance Corporation, Preston-Patterson, ProSource Financial, Professional Agents Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Professional Claims Managers, Proinova AB, Proinova Agency AB, Pronto California Agency LLC, Pronto California General Agency LLC, Pronto Florida Claims LLC, Pronto Florida General Agency LLC, Pronto Franchise LLC, Pronto General Agency Ltd, Pronto General Agency Management LLC, Pronto Holdco Inc., Pronto Holding California LLC, Pronto Holding Florida LLC, Pronto Insurance Agency of Laredo Inc., Pronto Premium Finance LLC, Property & Commercial Ltd., Property Insurance Initatives Limited, Property and Commercial Limited, Protected Insurance Company, Protection Plan Association Inc., Protek Group Limited, Providium Consulting Group, Ptarmigan Underwriting Agency Limited, Ptarmigan Underwriting UK Limited, Purple Bridge Claims Management Limited, Purple Bridge Finance Limited, Purple Bridge Group Limited, Purple Bridge Investments Limited, Purple Bridge Online Services Limited, Purple Bridge Publishing Limited, Quantum Underwriting Solutions Limited, Quillco 226 Limited, Quillco 227 Limited, R. L. Youngdahl & Associates, R.G. Speno Inc., R.W. Scobie, RA Rossborough (Guernsey) Ltd., RA Rossborough (Insurance Brokers) Ltd, REGENCY Group inc., RGA Referencing Limited, RGA Underwriting Limited, RIL Administrators (Guernsey) Ltd., RJ Dutton Inc., RSM Insurance Services Limited, Reassurance Holdings Inc., Rebholz Insurance Agency, Reid Manson Ltd., Reimbursement Services, Rentguard Limited, Reward Management Limited, Reynolds & Rodar Insurance Group, Riley & Associates, Rio 587 Limited, Rio 588 Limited, Risk & Reward Group, Risk Management Partners Limited, Risk Placement Services Inc., Risk Planners, Risk Services (NW) Limited, Risk Services (NW) Ltd., Risk Solutions Group Limited, Robert A. Schneider Agency, Robert Keith & Associates, Roberts & Roberts Insurance Service, Robinson-Adams Insurance, Rossborough Healthcare International Ltd, Rossborough Insurance (IOM) Ltd., Rossborough Insurance Services Ltd. (Jersey), S. A. Freerks & Associates, SEG Insurance Ltd, SGB-NIA Insurance Brokers, SHILLING Ltd, SKANCO International, SMERI AB, SRS Underwriting Pty Ltd, Secure Enterprises Pty Ltd, Securitas Re, Sellers Group, Sentinel Indemnity LLC, Septagon Insurance PCC Limited, Shuford Insurance Agency, Sigma II Insurance Agency, Sinclair Billard and Weld Limited, Sobieski & Bradley, Solid Benefit Guidance, Spanjers Insurance Agency, Spataro Insurance Agency, Specialised Broking Associates, Specialty Risk, Stackhouse Poland, Stackhouse Poland Bidco Limited, Stackhouse Poland Group Limited, Stackhouse Poland Holdings Limited, Stackhouse Poland Midco Limited, Stackouse Poland Limited, Stanton Group, Stark Johnson & Stinson Inc., Steel Agency, Strata Solicitors Ltd, Strategic Health Plans Corp., Strathearn Insurance Brokers, Strathearn Insurance Brokers (Qld) Trading Trust, Strathern Insurance Group Pty Ltd, Strathern Integration Holdco Pty Ltd, Strathern Unit Trust, Strong Financial Resources, Summit Insurance Group, Sunday and Associates, Sunderland Insurance Services, Super Advice Corporate Services Pty Ltd, Taylor Benefits, Texas Insurance Agency, Texas Insurance Managers, The BeneTex Group, The Buchholz Planning, The Chapman Group, The Commonwealth Consulting Group, The Daniels Group Inc., The EHE Group LLC, The EHE Insurance Agency LLC, The Eagle Insurance Agency LLC, The Eriksen Group, The Forker Company, The Gleason Agency, The Great Lakes Agency, The HR Group, The Hawk Agency, The Human Capital Group, The Lance Group, The Levitt/Kristan Co., The MW Bagnall Company, The Old Greenwich Consulting Group, The Parks Johnson Agency, The Plus Companies Inc., The Presidio Group, The Producers Choice, The Rains Group, The Splinter Group, The Titan Group, The Treiber Group, The Woodsmall Companies Inc., Title & Covenant Brokers Ltd., Title Investments Limited, Tom Sherwin Insurance Agency, Total Reward Group, Total Rewards Group (Holdings) Limited, Towle Agency, Transwestern, Tri-State General Insurance Agency, Triad Insurance Agency, Triad USA, Tribeca Strategic Advisors, Trinder & Norwood, Trip Mate, Trissel Graham & Toole, Tropp & Co., Tudor Risk Services, Tyloma Holdings Limited, Uni-Care Inc., Unison Inc., Universico Group, Unoccupied Direct Limited, V2V Holdings LLC, VEBA Service Group, Vasek Insurance Services Limited, Velo ACU LLC, Velo Holdings Inc., Verbag AG., Vertrue LLC, Victory Insurance Agency, Vincent L. Braband Insurance, Vital Benefits, Voluntary Benefits Solutions, W. E. Kingsley Co. Inc., WM. W. George & Associates, Walker Taylor Agency, Welling Associates, Wesfarmers Insurance - Insurance Brokerage Operations, Western Benefit Solutions, White & Company Insurance, Whitehaven Insurance Group, William Gallagher Associates Insurance Brokers, William H. Connolly & Co., Williams Insurance Agency Inc., Williams-Manny Insurance Group, Winn & Company Insurance Brokers, Wischmeyer Benefit Partners, Woodbrook Underwriting Agencies, Woods & Grooms, WorkCare Northwest, Worksite Communications, Y. S. Liedman & Associates, YOA Capsicum Reinsurance Broker Limited, Zenor Limited, Zuber Insurance Agency, and e3 Financial. 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. LAURENT INC., ULTRAMAR ACCEPTANCE INC., ULTRAMAR ENERGY INC., ULTRAMAR INC., Ultramar Diamond Shamrock, V-TEX LOGISTICS LLC, VALERO (BARBADOS) SRL, VALERO (PERU) HOLDINGS GP LLC, VALERO (PERU) HOLDINGS LIMITED, VALERO ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO ARUBA ACQUISITION COMPANY I LTD., VALERO ARUBA FINANCE INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO ARUBA HOLDING COMPANY N.V., VALERO ARUBA HOLDINGS INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO ARUBA MAINTENANCE/OPERATIONS COMPANY N.V., VALERO BROWNSVILLE TERMINAL LLC, VALERO CANADA FINANCE INC., VALERO CANADA L.P., VALERO CAPITAL CORPORATION, VALERO CARIBBEAN SERVICES COMPANY, VALERO COKER CORPORATION ARUBA N.V., VALERO CUSTOMS & TRADE SERVICES INC., VALERO EAST BAY LLC, VALERO ENERGY (IRELAND) LIMITED, VALERO ENERGY ARUBA II COMPANY, VALERO ENERGY INC., VALERO ENERGY LTD, VALERO ENERGY PARTNERS GP LLC, VALERO ENERGY PARTNERS LP, VALERO ENERGY UK LTD, VALERO ENTERPRISES INC., VALERO EQUITY SERVICES LTD, VALERO FINANCE L.P. I, VALERO FINANCE L.P. II, VALERO FINANCE L.P. III, VALERO FOREST CONTRIBUTION LLC, VALERO GRAIN MARKETING LLC, VALERO H2 PIPELINE COMPANY LLC, VALERO HOLDCO UK LTD, VALERO HOLDINGS INC., VALERO INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS INC., VALERO LIVE OAK LLC, VALERO LOGISTICS UK LTD, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY (PANAMA) LLC, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY COMPANY, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPY INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO MARKETING IRELAND LIMITED, VALERO MKS LOGISTICS L.L.C., VALERO NEDERLAND COOPERATIEF U.A., VALERO NEDERLAND COOPERATIEF U.A., VALERO NEW AMSTERDAM B.V., VALERO OMEGA COMPANY L.L.C., VALERO OPERATIONAL SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO OPERATIONAL SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO OPERATIONS SUPPORT LTD, VALERO PARTNERS CCTS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS CORPUS EAST LLC, VALERO PARTNERS CORPUS WEST LLC, VALERO PARTNERS EP LLC, VALERO PARTNERS HOUSTON LLC, VALERO PARTNERS LOUISIANA LLC, VALERO PARTNERS LUCAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MCKEE LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MEMPHIS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MERAUX LLC, VALERO PARTNERS NORTH TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS OPERATING CO. LLC, VALERO PARTNERS PAPS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS PORT ARTHUR LLC, VALERO PARTNERS SOUTH TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS TEXAS CITY LLC, VALERO PARTNERS THREE RIVERS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WEST MEMPHIS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WEST TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WYNNEWOOD LLC, VALERO PAYMENT SERVICES COMPANY, VALERO PEMBROKESHIRE LLC, VALERO PEMBROKESHIRE OIL TERMINAL LTD, VALERO PLAINS COMPANY LLC, VALERO POWER MARKETING LLC, VALERO RAIL OPERATIONS DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO RAIL OPERATIONS DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO RAIL PARTNERS LLC, VALERO REFINING AND MARKETING COMPANY, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-ARUBA N.V., VALERO REFINING COMPANY-CALIFORNIA, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-OKLAHOMA, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-TENNESSEE L.L.C., VALERO REFINING-MERAUX LLC, VALERO REFINING-NEW ORLEANS L.L.C., VALERO REFINING-TEXAS L.P., VALERO RENEWABLE FUELS COMPANY LLC, VALERO SECURITY SYSTEMS INC., VALERO SERVICES INC., VALERO SKELLYTOWN PIPELINE LLC, VALERO TEJAS COMPANY LLC, VALERO TERMINAL HOLDCO LTD, VALERO TERMINALING AND DISTRIBUTION COMPANY, VALERO TERMINALING AND DISTRIBUTION DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO TEXAS POWER MARKETING INC., VALERO ULTRAMAR HOLDINGS INC., VALERO UNIT INVESTMENTS L.L.C., VALERO WEST WALES LLC, VRG PROPERTIES COMPANY, VTD PROPERTIES COMPANY, WARSHALL COMPANY LLC, and ZELIG COMMERCIAL INC.. 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 Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells petrochemical products in the People's Republic of China. It operates through five segments: Synthetic Fibers, Resins and Plastics, Intermediate Petrochemicals, Petroleum Products, and Trading of Petrochemical Products. The Synthetic Fibers segment produces polyesters, acrylic fibers, and carbon fibers that are primarily used in the textile and apparel industries. The Resins and Plastics segment produces polyester chips that are used to produce polyester fibers, coating, and containers; polyethylene resins and plastics, which are used to produce insulated cables and mulching films, as well as molded products, such as housewares and toys; and polypropylene resins that are used for films and sheets, as well as molded products, such as housewares, toys, consumer electronics, and automobile parts; and PVA granules. The Intermediate Petrochemicals segment produces p-xylene, benzene, and ethylene oxide, which are used as raw materials in the production of other petrochemicals, resins, plastics, and synthetic fibers. The Petroleum Products segment operates crude oil refinery facilities used to produce refined gasoline, fuel, diesel oil, heavy oil, and liquefied petroleum gas. The Trading of Petrochemical Products segment is involved in the import and export of petrochemical products. The company was founded in 1972 and is based in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China. Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited is a subsidiary of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation. Read More 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. 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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. Tree Island Steel Ltd. manufactures and sells steel wire and fabricated steel wire products for industrial, construction, agricultural, and specialty applications in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It offers industrial products, such as pulp and unitizing, waste, chain link, upholstery, low carbon, and shaped wires, as well as straight and cut bars; and wirelines for use in the oil industry. The company also provides residential products, including bulk and collated nails, packaged nails and fasteners, and packaged and bulk screws; nail head identification systems; and woven and welded wires, and corners and accessories. In addition, it offers commercial products comprising reinforcing mesh, pipe mesh and flexicage, and engineered structural mesh, as well as mine mesh products; and rebar tie and concrete reinforcing wires. Further, the company provides agricultural products consisting of agricultural wire, rolled fencing, fence panels, and fence staples and stay. Tree Island Steel Ltd. markets its products under the Tree Island, Halsteel, True Spec, K-Lath, Stucco-Rite, TI Wire, Tough Strand, and ToughPanel brand names. The company was formerly known as Tree Island Wire Income Fund and changed its name to Tree Island Steel Ltd. in October 2012. Tree Island Steel Ltd. was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in Richmond, Canada. Read More The Williams Cos., Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company, which explores, produces, transports, sells and processes natural gas and petroleum products. It operates through the following segments: Transmission and Gulf of Mexico; Northeast G&P; and West. The Transmission and Gulf of Mexico segment comprises of interstate natural gas pipelines, Transco and Northwest Pipeline, as well as natural gas gathering and processing and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region. The Northeast G&P segment includes midstream gathering, processing, and fractionation businesses in the Marcellus Shale region primarily in Pennsylvania and New York, and the Utica Shale region of eastern Ohio. The West segment consists of gas gathering, processing, and treating operations in the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado and Wyoming, the Barnett Shale region of north-central Texas, the Eagle Ford Shale region of south Texas, the Haynesville Shale region of northwest Louisiana, and the Mid-Continent region which includes the Anadarko, Arkoma, and Permian basins. The company was founded by David Williams and Miller Williams in 1908 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Read More I'm about to tell you something so unbelievable but apparently true. For over three years now, it appears that a group of judges at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa who are are all alumni of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law have been coordinating an apparent human sacrifice conspiracy against an Ottawa woman named Dezrin Carby-Samuels who has been severely disabled as a result of the activities of these judges. In a nutshell, "human sacrifice" is a reputed activity of "non-human entities" who have coordinated and then reinforce the promotion of certain people into positions of power provided that they show their "loyalty" to the non-human entities when called-upon. The most vulnerable members of our society are targeted for "human sacrifice". The most heinous barbaric acts of cruelty, torture and destruction are a part of a "human sacrifice" ritual. The alleged practice has taken place since the earliest and most tyrannical societies came into existence on our planet Earth. In these societies, demonic aliens elites sought to worship demonic aliens as their God or gods that often brought technology that would then be used to support military oppression and torture. Unfortunately, Dezrin Carby-Samuels like so many vulnerable people on our planet are being targeted by non-human beings which can appear as "people". But these "people" are in no way human. Dr. Michael Salla referred to such entities as "shape shifters". David Icke has further described such entities to be reptilian that operate from a different dimension that reaches into ours. Such victims like Dezrin include children who go missing as targets of alien abduction (or become victims of pedophile rings) to homeless people on the street who from time to time appear to be been chosen by the non-human handlers as targets of apparent human sacrifice rituals. My name is Jesse, and I'm an investigative journalist. Since 2015 I have watched the bizarre activities at the Ottawa courthouse at 161 Elgin Street. I have also investigated activities by non-human entities which include alien abductions. But I never expected that my investigation on Dezrin's plight would take me to apparent non-human interference at the Ottawa courthouse through judges working in tandem with Ottawa lawyers John E. Summers and Jeremy Wright of the City of Ottawa. It is apparent that Jeremy Wright is an apparent ring leader of University of Ottawa psychopaths somehow recruited to perpetuate demonic torture against Dezrin. Jeremy Wright in his official capacity works to defend Bordeleau's rag tag gang of dirty cops who sought to block Raymond getting help of his Mom for more than three years. In one instance, when a Small Claims Court judge was just about to enable Raymond to see his Mom, Mr Wright gave some weird "wink" at a Judge sending him into an immediate panic leading him to immediately reverse his inclination to assist Raymond in helping his Mom. Mr Wright is a highly secretive lawyer embedded into the City of Ottawa as an apparent handler for a University of Ottawa "rogue group". It's notable that while one set of judges at the Ottawa courthouse would seek to liberate Dezrin Carby-Samuels from the profound abuse and torture that she has been experiencing at the hand of her husband, the "rogue group" would seek to perpetuate it. The rogue group are all members of the University of Ottawa alumni community. This group was reinforced by an apparent dirty cop named Detective Robert Griffin and a lawyer named John E Summers who is the alleged lawyer for Dezrin's husband against Dezrin's son. Funny thing is that Dezrin husband can in no way afford Mr. Summers. When Raymond asked Mr Summers who he ACTUALLY works for and pays his bills, he refused to say. There is absolutely a zero chance that Dezrin's retired husband who struggles to pay his biills when he's not abusing Dezrin with the help of others could afford the legal services of John Summers who has worked to perpetuate his abuse for more than three years at a pay rate of more than $300 per hour having been practicing law since 1999. We therefore have 100% conclusive evidence that someone or more likely a "group" without any empathy for the plight of Dezrin in conditions of abuse is paying a University of Ottawa trained lawyer who is getting the support of judges and others ALL directly affiliated with the University of Ottawa. I don't believe in such coincidences. But every time Dezrin was about to be liberated, another set of judges who simply ignore all the evidence and case law that Raymond presented. Finally, one Judge named Sylvia Corthon decided that she was going to "seize" the case, and declared not only Summary Judgement against Raymond, but also declared him to be a Vexatious Litigant. It became apparent that Sylvia Corthorn had "seized the case" to prevent another judge who is not a member of an apparent University of Ottawa demon worshiping group from trying to again help Dezrin. You see, Raymond who is Dezrin's son has sought to liberate his Mother from abuse as any loving and responsible son would want to do. One of my favourite shows is Murdoch Mysteries like so many other Canadians. One of my favourite part of Murdoch Mysteries is when Detective Murdoch connects criminal suspects with each other by tying a common association with each other using a blackboard in his constabulary office. Thinking of the Detective Murdoch character I decided that I was going to try the same technique to figure out an apparent bizarre pattern taking place against Dezrin Carby-Samuels. However, I didn't expect to find anything though this exercise. But to my amazment I did. All three Judges at the Ottawa courthouse that have apparently worked to Ottawa lawyer John E Summers to perpetuate abuses against Dezrin are all University of Ottawa alumni. These judges are Justice Pierre Roger, Justice Sylvia Corthorn and Regional Senior Justice James MacNamara. None of the three judges at the Ottawa courthouse who had sought to act fairly and support the liberation of Dezrin are connected with the University of Ottawa. The judges who acted to spare Dezrin are Justice Patrick Smith, Justice Callum MacLoed and Justice Robert Beaudoin. I have provided screenshot proof of an apparent coordinated pattern of bizarre judicial decisions by the University of Ottawa alumni at the Ottawa courthouse. It is apparent that there's a very distinct pattern of psychopath behaviours by three judges at the Ottawa courthouse with shared ties to the University of Ottawa that is extremely distinct from the behaviours of judges who aren't connected with the University of Ottawa. My screenshot shows the distinctive affiliations of legal "actors" in this matter. Coincidence? I think not. I then took my "theory" that there's "fifth" column of Judges who are seeking to subvert civil and human rights in resistance to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to different Faculties of Law across Canada to get their reaction. Only the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law members were hostile to the notion. It was almost as if they were hypersensitive based upon their own complicit behaviour. Could in fact the University of Ottawa be home to psychopaths who refuse to let go of their on-going abuse and torture against Dezrin Carby-Samuels? Are we witnessing a human sacrifice ritual that has sought to seize and perpetuate Dezrin's abuse? Is Dezrin one of possibly many people who have been subjugated to abuse in Ottawa as a result of a "human sacrifice ritual"? And guess where John E Summers attended law school? You would be right if you said the University of Ottawa. I then became more intrigued. I then looked up Ottawa's Chief of Police Charles Bordeleau's background whose Office supported the dirty cop that forcibly separated Raymond from his Mother. Once again we have a perfect match. Bordeleau also graduated from the University of Ottawa and received an award from the Tefler School of Management (screenshot attached). After Bordeleau's dirty cop orchestrated Raymond's forcible separation from his Mother that has suffering from profound domestic abuse, Dezrin lost the ability to walk, talk or write. After months of unlawfully being prevented from seeing his Mother, Raymond filed an Emergency Motion at the Ottawa courthouse in December 2015. Raymond appeared before University of Ottawa Faculty of Law graduate Justice Pierre Roger. At first, Justice Roger was going to grant Raymond's request seeing as he began to say "no harm in it". But that's when things began to get really bizarre. Someone from judge's chambers interrupted Judge Roger's deliberation. When Justice Roger came out of this "meeting" he was a different person, declaring the matter "personal to him" and that he would say "no" to Raymond seeing his Mom and checking on her well-being. Raymond persevered and eventually got a Default Judgement from Justice Patrick Smith who has no affiliation with the University of Ottawa. Justice Patrick Smith who is a member of the Lakehead University community granted Raymond's request through an order dated 11 February 2016. But shortly after, John E Summers who was a top graduate of the University of Ottawa entered the picture. He began to manufacture and support countless obvious lies to justify continued forcible separation. Raymond and his Mother last saw each other on 12 June 2016. John E Summers lies are easily transparent to any fair minded judge. So, John E Summers needed "help" if he was going to perpetuate Dezrin's abuse. John E Summers got that help when he and Raymond appeared in front of Regional Senior Justice James MacNamara who threw out Justice Patrick Smith's Order to enable Raymond and his Mother to see each other, on a daily basis, so Raymond could ensure his Mother's care as she has wanted Raymond tried to appeal that decision. But that appeal was then intercepted by an angry Justice Roger who declared his interception to be a "coincidence". I don't believe in such coincidences. It was quite improper for Roger to "coincidently" get the file. He should have recused himself. But, instead, Justice Roger "fined" Raymond $1500 for his Appeal. When the matter was referred to Justice Callum Macloed, he was quite concerned about Dezrin's well being and directed John E Summers on 24 March 2017 to obtain independent verification to ensure Dezrin has not been held a prisoner against her wishes. On our "Murdoch blackboard" Justice Macloed is a graduate of Queens in Kingston, Ontario with no U of O affiliations. John E Summers then sought to get the matter thrown out of Court. But his request was blocked by Justice Robert Beaudoin whose ties are with the University of Windsor Faculty of Law. Then all of a sudden after this decision by Justice Beaudoin, the matter was then "seized" by Justice Sylvia Corthorn who like John E Summers, Justice Roger, Regional Justice McNamara and Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordaleau are all University of Ottawa alumni. Justice Sylvia Corthorn not only totally ignored all evidence and case law presented by Raymond but also ignored any support for Raymond articulated by non-University of Ottawa Judges. When Justice Beaudoin recognized her apparent judicial misconduct by granting Raymond's request to have her recused from the trial, Justice Corthorn simply sped up her final rulings which were directed at preventing Raymond from his efforts to rescue his Mother from the "Hell of Earth" that she has lived for more than three years thanks to an apparent "University of Ottawa mafia" which has sought to perpetuate the abuse and torture of Dezrin Carby-Samuels. Bengaluru: After Infosys, TCS is now facing racial discrimination charges in the US, its largest customer market. A few American employees, who have lost their jobs, have raised the allegations and TCS will face trial in California starting Monday, reported Bloomberg. The trial begins amid tension and uncertainty over H1-B visa. Many Indian companies have exported manpower, a practice that has not found favour with US president Donald Trump. Peter Bendor-Samuel CEO and founder of California-based Everest Group, told FC: "TCS along with the other Indian firms are facing a growing scrutiny under a difficult political environment in the US. We have seen similar lawsuits against Infosys and expect to see more against the other firms." It's the cultural difference that is at root of the problem, TCS and other Indian firms rely on importing Indian talent through H-1B and L-1 visas and they transport this culture to the US, he added. The lawsuit was brought as a class action on behalf of about 1,000 non-South Asians -- most of them US citizens -- who were fired by TCS while on "benched" status, meaning they were laid off by the company while they were between job assignments, said Bloomberg. B01 New Delhi: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has issued a show-cause notice to RBI Governor Urjit Patel for "dishonouring" a Supreme Court judgment on disclosure of the wilful defaulters' list. The CIC has also asked the Prime Minister's Office, the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to make public the letter of former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on bad loans. Irked over the denial of information on disclosure of names of wilful defaulters who have taken bank loans of Rs 50 crore and above by the RBI in spite of a Supreme Court order, the CIC has asked Patel to explain why a maximum penalty should not be imposed on him for "dishonouring" the court verdict, which had upheld a decision taken by then information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, calling for disclosure of names of wilful defaulters. Patel, speaking at the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on September 20, had said the guidelines on vigilance, issued by the CVC, were aimed at achieving greater transparency, promoting a culture of honesty and probity in public life and improving the overall vigilance administration in the organisations within its purview, the CIC pointed out. "The commission feels that there is no match between what RBI governor and deputy governor say and their website regarding their RTI policy, and a great secrecy of vigilance reports and inspection reports is being maintained with impunity, in spite of the Supreme Court confirming the orders of the CIC in the Jayantilal case," Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said. He concluded that it would not serve any purpose to punish the CPIO for this defiance, because he acted under the instructions of the top authorities. "The commission considers the governor as the deemed PIO responsible for non-disclosure and defiance of SC orders and CIC orders and directs him to show cause why a maximum penalty should not be imposed on him for these reasons,before November 16," Acharyulu said. He rejected the arguments of Santosh Kumar Panigrahy of the RBI that section 22 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act would not override various laws he quoted, prohibiting disclosure of names and details of wilful defaulters and hence, the RBI should be discharged from the obligations of disclosure. "His contention that unless the above referred enactments are repealed, the RBI cannot disclose the details of defaulters is also absurd," Acharyulu said. He added that another contention of Panigrahy that the pendency of a PIL before the SC on the issue would prevent him from disclosure was also baseless as he did not present any interim order passed by the Supreme Court preventing the disclosure of names of wilful defaulters or against the proceedings before the CIC. "These submissions of the RBI show that its legal wing did not bring to the notice of the CPIO that in the RBI vs Jayantilal N Mistry case, a Supreme Court bench consisting of M Y Eqbat and C Nagappan JJ, on December 16, 2015 [Transferred Cases (Civil) Nos. 91 to 101 of 2015], gave a landmark decision, upholding the direction of the CIC to disclose the inspection reports of the RBI and the names of wilful defaulters in many cases, rejecting all the above referred contentions of the RBI," Acharyulu said. The information commissioner said in that case, the counsel for the RBI had raised the same contentions, referring to the same cases referred by Panigrahy, and those were straightaway rejected by the SC. "The commission finds no merit in hiding the names of, details and action against wilful defaulters of big bad loans worth hundreds of crores of rupees. The RBI shall disclose the bad debt details of defaulters worth more than Rs 1,000 crore at the beginning, of Rs 500 crore or less at a later stage within five days and collect such information from the banks in due course to update their voluntary disclosures from time to time as a practice under section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act," he said. Acharyulu asked the RBI governor to remember, at least once, one of the three lakh farmers who died in the field as he failed to sustain his crop or sell his produce for an appropriate price and hence, could not pay of the debt before defying the transparency law and directions, and discontinue the non-disclosure policy which will seriously harm the economy. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan who turned 53 on Friday, greeted thousands of his fans outside his residence at midnight and thanked them for their wishes. (Photos: Viral Bhayani) Mumbai: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's birthday bash at a restaurant in suburban Mumbai was stopped by police in the early hours of Saturday for allegedly breaching the time limit. A police official said that restaurants in the city can not operate beyond 1 am, but the party was continuing well after that. Khan had reportedly called his close friends in the tinsel town for his53rd birthday celebrations at the swanky restaurant in Bandra. Loud music was playing when police came visiting, the official claimed. No case has been registered in this regard, he said. After making waves with his moves in the song Jimikki Kammal that went viral, and stepping into Kollywood with two good projects, Appani Sarath will now be playing the lead in the upcoming Malayalam film Love FM. The movie will be directed by Shridev. The film also has actors like Tito Wilson, Janaki and Malavika Menon in major roles. The shoot of the film is already underway in Kozhikode. Diyas, rangolis and paper lanterns look to replace noisy, toxic fireworks this Diwali, to prove that the festival of lights even without crackers can be just as enlightening. Celebrations have begun for the most-awaited festival in India, Diwali. This year, a special emphasis is being placed on keeping the festival as eco-friendly and pollution-free as possible. The Supreme Court of India has issued guidelines to authorise the sale of only green and eco-friendly crackers and a time frame within which they can be burnt. Not just the authorities, even at an individual level one can do a lot to make a difference and celebrate an eco-conscious Diwali. The speed at which we are polluting the environment is alarming and also hazardous for humans as well as animals. Nitin Malik, the lead vocalist of rock band Parikrama, strongly feels that there should be a blanket ban on crackers that give out toxic emissions and make noise. He says, Every year my dog shivers and refuses to come out during Diwali because of the loud crackers. I feel no one should be allowed to burst crackers with loud decibel levels because it can lead to anxiety and cause heart problems in not just humans but also animals. A lot of animals and birds have very sensitive hearing, so imagine if we get scared by the noise how bad it must be for them. I stopped bursting crackers since 2001, when I learned that it causes so much pollution. Diwali is a festival of lights and even from a mythological point of view, it was celebrated by lighting lamps and diyas to welcome Lord Rama. The commercial aspect of crackers and fireworks came in much later and has no mention in the holy texts. Mumbai-based socialite and entrepreneur, Dimple Nahar plans to organise a programme and invite a guru and motivational speaker to share the message of positivity. She says, We will use earthen diyas and handmade paper torans to decorate. Instead of oil, we will use ghee lamps made of clay and distribute healthy prasad. One can use coconut shells as diyas, use cinnamon sticks to decorate candles; it will not only give a rustic look but will also leave a delightful smell in the vicinity. Avoid using chemical rangoli colours, and opt for colourful painted rice or leaves, or spice powders that are easily available at home. We can also avoid bursting crackers and urge everyone to spend the evening with live bands or listen to kirtans and create spiritual awareness. Stop giving gifts In cities like Delhi, where gifting is an integral part of festivals, Mandeep Nagi, designer and founder of of a gifting brand, wants to completely ditch gifts this year as she finds it a nuisance due to the traffic and air pollution. She says, This Diwali, I have decided to not go anywhere to distribute gifts. I feel Indians waste a lot of fuel by visiting friends and family, and I will not do that this year as part of my eco-friendly contribution. Even the sweet boxes, no one likes to keep them! People needlessly spend money on sweets and dry fruits to distribute as Diwali gifts. Instead, why not gift books to spread the light of knowledge. Delhi-based publisher, Ajay Mago of Om Books International, says that Indians should surely opt for eco-friendly ways to celebrate the occasion. He asks, Do we really need a Supreme Court ruling to understand how celebrating Diwali as an irresponsible citizen could impact people across age groups in cities that enjoy the dubious distinction of being amongst the most polluted in the world? Diwali is essentially a festival of lights, so my personal favourites are the traditional clay diyas with wicks dipped in ghee/oil, candles of various sizes and shapes neatly lined up on boundary walls, railings, just about everywhere, making the entire city, country sparkle like a jewel. One can add to that strings of fresh marigolds and other flowers. And gifts only for my friends and family. Fun without crackers There is a lot of talk about the bursting of crackers and the pollution that people contribute to in the name of celebration. If you are planning on throwing an eco-friendly party, Prem Dewan, head of a luxury brand, shares some ideas. He says, I just attended a Diwali party which was eco-friendly with no compromise on having fun. The host organised a diya painting contest for the little ones. These diyas were further used to decorate the home with few flowers around it instead of electric lights. The food was served on banana leaves instead of thermocol plates and in earthen mugs instead of plastic cups. Instead of bursting crackers that add harmful toxic elements to the air, we launched paper lanterns in the sky and the effect was surreal. Hyderabad: The pensions promised by the TRS partial manifesto will be implemented from December 11, after Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao takes oath as Chief Minister, caretaker minister K.T. Rama Rao. Addressing a meeting in Yadadri, he said, The TRS government will give Rs 2,016 as an old age pension by revising the eligibility age to 55 from 60. The disabled will get pension of Rs 3,016. The government will give Rs 3,000 to unemployed youth as allowance and about 10 lakh unemployed youth will benefit from this. He said Congress governments used to give only six hours of free electricity to the farm sector, that too in phases. The Chandrasekhar Rao government implemented 24x7 free power for agriculture and also gave loan waiver of Rs 17,000 crore, he said. If Mr Chandrasekhar Rao comes back to power, Rs 1 lakh loan waiver will be given to farmers and Rythu Bandhu will be enhanced to Rs 10,000 per acre. He said that Congress had filed more than 200 cases to stall development. The cases were filed even on the names of dead people, Mr Rama Rao said. It has been proved that it was an incident of militancy, he said, adding that it 'was an act of frustration on the part of militants and Pakistan'. (Photo: ANI | Twitter) Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said Monday that the accused involved in killing senior BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother in Kishtwar district have been identified and will be brought to book soon. Bharatiya Janata Party state secretary Anil Parihar, 52, and his brother, Ajeet Parihar, 55, were killed on November 1 by suspected militants when they were walking towards their home in Parihar mohalla at around 8.40 pm. It has been proved that it was an incident of militancy, he said, adding that it "was an act of frustration on the part of militants and Pakistan". "Those people (killers of BJP senior leader and his brother) have been identified. Soon, results will be before you (media)," Malik told reporters after a function at the Civil Secretariat here. The Jammu and Kashmir government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the killing and directed it to expedite the investigation and submit its report as early as possible. An indefinite curfew was imposed in parts of Kishtwar and Doda districts on Thursday following the killing of the Parihar brothers. The curfew was, however, lifted from Doda district, including the main town and Bhadarwah along with Paddar and Chatroo sub-divisions of Kishtwar district Saturday, but Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) continued to remain in force in these areas as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order. It is possible to see it as one would the Statue of Liberty, symbol of a universal expression of collective values, amid deep blue waters of the New York Harbour. The worlds tallest statue of today is bigger, humongous. Cant miss it from miles away. Large statues are meant to send a tall message, be it Christ the Redeemer or the Gomateswara near Mysore, as they present people with a religious icon of such massiveness as to invoke fear, respect, awe. But this Sardar Patel statue conveys humility. So, it should be even more possible to admire it with an apolitical perspective. The problem with our country in the age of the social media is everything is political. You build a rural toilet and they would invest it with the kind of dirty party politics that you begin to wonder if we are not somehow a fallen nation as the character in the movie Live by nightsays of Florida in the time of Prohibition. Is it possible at all today to view anything with normal eyes after putting away the spectacles that seem to lend everything a distinct political hue? Sardar Patel was a pan India figure. Strong man yes, but one who used that strength of his approach to bring several small, even petty, kingdoms into the Indian fold, sometimes by force as he did in Hyderabad. We were convinced when very young that our history may have been different had the man lived longer and passed on the might of believing in a larger composite India. But that is not the point. We needed to feel a natural pride in such a man having walked in our midst. Passing for posterity the values cherished by those who fought for our freedom may not have been as easy a task though, not for Gandhi, not for Patel, nor Nehru nor his successors. Even had they succeeded, we may still be as close as we are to a fallen nation in terms of values. We may have been given a greater reason now to remember the giant of a man who forged a united India from a motley collection of egotistical bunch of princes about to lose their life of living off the fat of the land. What we have now is the bitter aftertaste of this unseemly controversy over to whom the Sardar Patel legacy belongs. Why not think of it as a national legacy of which the statue will also be a reminder. Should it matter that a BJP-RSS Prime Minister was the prime mover of a massive tribute in stone, steel and bronze to the man who once walked tall? World over, there is statue politics. Tomorrow, the Sardar statue will be dwarfed somewhat by that of Chhatrapati Shivaji. Even so, to whom would the Shivaji legacy belong but to the whole of India? Down in Malawi they are objecting to a planned statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the premise that he was a racist. He must have seemed so to some peoples of Africa at least. Remember, they delighted in bringing down 1,320 statues of Lenin in Ukraine. At every turn modern Russians begin to understand how cruel their history was. Their titans are seen in different light today in changed national and political circumstances. Why, they even had a grand national figure in Josef Stalin who is seen today as a murderous psychopath, which he indeed was. We have had our share of statue politics too. Almost too much of it as warring groups go around defiling statues as if this were a great national game of mocking each others icons. The putting up of a gigantic statue - at a stiff price of course - must be seen as an accomplishment that goes beyond the politics of it. We can afford one, but not too many as competitive statue politics has a way of draining the States resources though Mayawatji would not have been bothered by such petty details. Now there is talk of a Ram statue by the Sarayu. But then we live in a country that somehow finds money for millions of shrines of every denomination than public healthcare hospitals. We may not see this in the present but in some dystopian future the fear might come true that the statues built by mighty men to mightier men as a tribute - or even to catch votes - may only convey the inexorable lesson of Ozymandias, King of Kings - Nothing beside remains. Round the decay / Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away.Even then, the fault would not be that of Sardar Patel, but of every Indian who came after him and who allowed the system to be hijacked by the politicians and their peculiar calling which seems to bother only about how best to serve themselves. That is the real pity, not the whopping Rs 3,000 crore spent by a nation on a colossal statue. On learning about the presence of the leopard in the premises, the state forest department started a search operation. (Photo: ANI | Screengrab) Ahmedabad: A leopard sneaked inside the premises of the high-security Gujarat government secretariat in Gandhinagar in early hours Monday, prompting the Forest Department to launch a search operation for the feline. The secretariat, or Sachivalaya, in the state capital near here houses the offices of Gujarat chief minister and chief secretary, besides those of other ministers, senior bureaucrats and government departments. Secretariat employees and officials have been asked not to enter the complex, which also houses the assembly building, till the wild animal is captured. CCTV footage shared by the authorities showed the leopard sneaking into the Sachivalaya complex from beneath a locked gate at around 2 am. On learning about the presence of the leopard in the premises, the state forest department started a search operation and has been caught. WATCH: Leopard entered Secretariat premises in Gujarat's Gandhinagar, early morning today. Forest department officials are currently conducting a search operation to locate the feline (Source: CCTV footage) pic.twitter.com/eQYwATbk2b ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 "The leopard may have lost its way and entered into the premises. We will either catch him or make sure he leaves the complex.We have deployed senior officers along with teams having tranquiliser guns for the operation," said Rajeev Kumar Gupta, additional chief secretary, Forest Department. He said leopards are part of wildlife found in 40 to 50 square km area surrounding the state capital. The Union minister had said she is going to take up the matter 'very strongly' with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. (Photo: File) Mumbai: Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar Monday took strong objection to Union minister Maneka Gandhi's criticism of the state government over the killing of a tigress called Avni, saying she "lacks information" on the issue and can order a high-level probe if she wants to. Mungantiwar's statement comes a day after the Union Women and Child Development minister lashed out at the Maharashtra government over the "ghastly murder" of the tigress, T1, as she was known officially, calling it a "straight case of crime". The tigress, survived by her two 10 months old cubs, was believed to be responsible for the deaths of 13 people in the past two years. She was shot dead by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali in the Borati forest in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district Friday as part of an operation. In a series of tweets, Gandhi had stated, "It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing." The Union minister had said she is going to take up the matter "very strongly" with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Talking to PTI, Mungantiwar said Gandhi's criticism "stems from her lack of information" on the issue and asserted neither he, as a minister, nor any of the secretaries in his department have the right to order such killings. Such decisions are taken as per the guidelines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), he said. "She (Gandhi) loves animals. She is, however, Minister for Women and Child Development. I have to consider the women who have been killed by the tigress," Mungantiwar said. If she deems fit, she can suggest changes in the NTCA guidelines, the senior state minister said. Both Mungantiwar and Gandhi are members of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Maharashtra minister said orders to capture the tigress were given when she killed five people. However, he said animal activists approached the Bombay High Court and obtained a stay, which resulted in the "man-eating" big cat killing more people. "The Forest Department is not an enemy of the tigress. She was killed only after she attacked those trying to tranquilise her," Mungantiwar said. He said if sharp-shooter Asgar Ali has criminal cases registered against him, then Gandhi, being a Union minister, can order his arrest. The Maharashtra Forest Department has nothing to do with the cases, if any, against him, Mungantiwar said. "Instead of lodging a complaint with the chief minister, the Union minister, if she wants, can order a high-level inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge or a committee of sitting Supreme Court judges into the incident," said Mungantiwar. Meanwhile, seizing the opportunity arising out of war of words between the two BJP ministers, the Shiv Sena took a dig at the Fadnavis government over the tigress's killing. The BJP's bickering ally said Yavatmal district, where the tigress was killed, has also seen a spate of farmers suicide. Recently, several cultivators in the district in Vidarbha region lost their lives due to inhalation of toxic pesticides, but no one was punished, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said. "We have not seen those responsible for the deaths (of farmers) get any punishment like the tigress was punished for killing people," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'. The Marathi daily said people in the state are dying due to lack of water, malnutrition, government policies and debt traps but the administration has never been termed a "carnivore". Bengaluru: The Cubbon Park police on Sunday served a notice to the actor Arjun Sarja, asking him to appear before the police for questioning on Monday, in connection with a sexual harassment allegation filed by Sandalwood actor Sruthi Haraharan. Sruthi had accused Sarja of misbehaving with her during the shooting of bilingual film Vismaya in 2015. She had filed a complaint with the Cubbon Park police alleging that Sarja had sexually harassed her and touched her inappropriately during rehearsals. The Karnataka HC had on Friday restrained the police from arresting Sarja until the next hearing on November 14, but told them to continue with the investigation. The Cubbon Park police, who are investigating the case, had recorded statements of the director of Vismaya, Arun Vaidhyanathan, and producer Umesh. They had also summoned the crew members and staff of the movie to record their statements last Wednesday. The director and the producer had told police that no such incident was brought to their notice by anyone nor they knew nothing about it. History has time and again taught us that, science fiction is only a fantasy until science makes it a reality. In the 1940s Isaac Asimov, a prolific science fiction writer wrote about a future where robots are a part of the human world. Similarly, in a sci-fi film, Robocop made more than 30 years ago, a robot is built-up in order to solve an unprecedented crime problem in dystopian crime-ridden Detroit. Today science fiction has become a reality. Police in different parts of the world are using robots for law enforcement and first, ever robotic police officers have become deployed across China, Dubai and Hyderabad in India. Dubai Police introduced its first robot police officer on May 24 last year. Wearing a police cap and moving on wheels, the robot features a computer touch-screen on its chest that can be used to report a crime or inquire about speeding tickets. At 5ft 5in tall and weighing 100 kg, it can speak six languages and is designed to read facial expressions. The UAE has big plans for the future. By 2030 it wants robots to make up 25 per cent of its police force, including fully functioning androids capable of chasing down offenders and making arrests. Hyderabad has launched the countrys first smart policing robot called the smart Robocop. The robot has capabilities to move, recognise people, take complaints, detect bombs, identify suspects, interact with people and answer to queries. It is equipped with cameras and has an array of sensors connected to GPS in its beta version. It has been developed by H-Bots Robotics, a Hyderabad-based robotics technology company. In Zhengzhou, China, Police robots that look like armless Daleks roam the high-speed train station, they use facial-recognition software to help officers identify suspects, interact with customers and answer their questions. At Beijings Tiananmen Square stun gun-wielding robots patrol crowds of tourists. The robots negotiate their own path along designated routes, and an officer monitoring the bot remotely controls the stun guns. Kinshasa, the Republic of Congo in the year 2013, in an effort to enforce traffic rules and reduce road accidents, installed giant solar-powered robots, at busy intersections which controls traffic with arms that signal red and green flags and ushers pedestrians safely across roads. The robots are also equipped with surveillance cameras which send footage of reckless driving to the police. Ford Motors is reported to have filed a patent for a robot-controlled autonomous car that would use artificial intelligence to issue speeding tickets from roadside hiding spots. The robot would be able to detect violations independently on its own or by connecting to the roadside surveillance cameras. Robots like humans have also perpetrated crimes and have been arrested for committing them. On August 18, 1982, a robot called DC-2 was the first robot ever to be taken into custody by the Beverly Hills Police Department for illegally distributing flyers on North Beverly Drive. In Russia, an activist robot called Promobot was arrested for taking part in a political rally in support of Russian parliamentary candidate Valery Kalachev in Moscow. Conversely, robots have also helped police in arresting criminals in several instances. In May this year, a man was arrested in Berlin for allegedly beating up his girlfriend and later firing shots at her vehicle. Robots can also be a criminals best friend, as police in Taiwan discovered in mid-2014 when they attempted to arrest a known armed drug dealer who had tightly protected his home with a series of surveillance robots streaming video, meant to give early warning of police presence. In the near future, robots will be used to assist in bank robberies, street holdups, and even kidnappings. Hackers have already created the R2B2, the Robotic Reconfigurable Button Basher, a machine capable of attempting repeated passwords on locked, lost, or stolen iPhones and Android devices at the rate of one attempt per second. A national debate was sparked about police use of remote-controlled robots and the legality of their deployment as a delivery mechanism for lethal force, in the United States shortly after the tragic Dallas shooting in July 2016. The standoff between the police and the sniper who was targeting police officers ended after the police used a bomb disposal robot to deliver and detonate explosives where the gunman took shelter. This opened up a Pandoras box and raised questions of how far robotically controlled force can be taken and whether robots could be armed? Whether we were creating Terminators by doing so? Despite the dystopian furore, several countries have stationed and are continuing to deploy armed robots. An astounding video was posted on social media by Russias Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in which a gun-toting robot has the ability to fire two pistols simultaneously. At the end of the video Rogozin apologetically professes that Russia is not trying to build a terminator but only trying to train robots that can take decisions in dire circumstances. A robotic firm in Israel has built a Roomba-like gun-toting robot with a built-in 9 mm Glock pistol called Dogo. This small land rover can enter a house quietly, climb stairs, and even manoeuvre over obstacles. Ready with eight cameras and two-way audio, the Dogo allows police to communicate with and fire upon suspects without risking their lives. In the USA, a robotic battalion in North Texas is constantly on standby, ready to combat crime and defuse potentially deadly situations. The Polish Police recently acquired a reconnaissance robot or a throw robot called Taktyczny Robot Miotany (TRM) which can be tossed or dropped from a height into buildings or spaces. It has the capability to scout the scene with its camera, microphone and various other options. This robot is designed to be accoutred with stun grenades or explosives if need be, which can then be triggered by the control panel used to drive the TRM around just like the Recon Throwbot used frequently by the American cops. Brazilian police, in order to inspect suspicious packages during the Olympics held in their country,acquired 510 Packbots a military grade bomb detection and reconnaissance robot. Each PackBot 510 weighs around 65 pounds and carries with it four cameras, as well as its main feature, a 6-foot telescoping arm that can lift a 30-pound payload. PackBots are primarily deployed for bomb detection and disposal; it can even use mechanical wire cutters attached to the end of its arm. The PackBot climbs stairs, manoeuvres in water, and can crawl around at about 6 miles per hour, faster than most adults jog. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorists have turned to robotic VBIEDs (vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices) commonly known as car bombs, to destroy multiple buildings and rock entire neighbourhoods, with some vehicles containing up to seven thousand pounds of explosives. VBIEDs are powerful weapons and have destroyed numerous targets around the world, including Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and the Murah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Lets say, in the near future you are travelling in your car, you hear the siren and flashing lights of a police car behind you. You pull over to the side, you expect a police man to step out of the car, but realisation soon dawns on you that the car is the police officer. This might seem like a scene from a sci-fi novel or movie, but robotic policing is going to be the new normal sooner than you think. Prior to delegating decisions about the use of force to robots we have to resolve: How much should police delegate decisions about the use of force to robots? How heavily should robots be armed? Under what circumstances should a robot be able to use force? In the sci-fi film Robocop Detroit city is depicted as dystopian and crime -ridden, where a sinister corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) wins a contract from the city government to privatise the police force. Two executives at OCP look toward high-tech solutions to the crime problem, with an old-school executive developing a robot (ED 209) while an ambitious newcomer develops a cyborg (Robocop) from the remains of a fallen police officer. In a memorable scene, when the armed robot (ED 209) is being tested it fails to recognise the fact that its determinate threat has disarmed himself by dropping his gun resulting in the disastrous obliteration of its target, proving a point that putting ones trust in autonomous armed police robots could prove catastrophic. We must, therefore, realise that one of the greatest gifts a police officer has is his or her faculty to use discretion. Robotisation has its place, but it can never substitute the good judgment, sanity, and compassion found in an officers heart and soul. Forest department officials say the tigress has never attacked people in the last 10 years. (Representional Image) Lucknow: Villagers crushed a tigress to death with a tractor in Kishanpur sanctuary of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve on Sunday; hours after the tigress mauled a 50-year-old man in Uttar Pradeshs Pilibhit district. After the tigress attacked the man, angry villagers marched to the core area of the park, allegedly beat up forest guards, snatched a tractor and then ran over the 10-year-old tigress when they found her. They also hit the animal with heavy sticks. The incident came two days after hunters shot dead a tigress suspected of killing 13 people in Maharashtra. Forest department officials say the tigress has never attacked people in the last 10 years. Mahavir Kaujlagi, deputy director of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, said the villagers killed the tigress in a retaliatory attack. While we were busy in rushing the injured man to hospital, the villagers surrounded the big cat and crushed it to death under a tractor, he said. 50-year-old Devanand, succumbed to his injuries, who the villagers said was attacked by the tigress on Sunday morning. Ramesh Kumar Pandey, field director of the tiger reserve said action will be taken against those involved in the attack on the tigress. An FIR will be lodged under the Wildlife Protection Act and appropriate action taken. The killing of a tiger inside the protected area is a serious offence, Pandey added. The tiger is Indias national animal and is categorised as a Schedule One species of endangered animals under the Wildlife Protection Act. This is the second time the hill temple will open for devotees after the Supreme Court in late September allowed women of all ages to enter it, overruling those who believe that woman aged between 10 and 50 shouldnt visit the shrine dedicated to Lord Ayyappa. (Photo: File) Sabarimala: With few hours left for Sabarimala shrine to be opened for one-day pooja, around 2,300 security personnel, including a 20-member commando team and 100 women have been deployed. Last month, violent protests were witnessed against the entry of women of all ages into the shrine. Orders banning assembly of four or more people have been imposed in Sabarimala and nearby areas, police said on Sunday. This is the second time the hill temple will open for devotees after the Supreme Court in late September allowed women of all ages to enter it, overruling those who believe that woman aged between 10 and 50 shouldnt visit the shrine dedicated to Lord Ayyappa. On Sunday, various Hindu outfits wrote to media houses and urged them not to depute women journalists to cover the one-day event. We recognise your right to support or oppose devotees stand on the issue, but the issue is highly emotional and we expect you will not take a stand that will aggravate the situation, the letter said. Dismissing reports that media was being restrained from going to Sabarimala, Kerala Director General of Police Loknath Behara said there was no bar on entry of journalists. No restriction of any sort has been imposed on media persons, he said. "To ensure necessary protection to the media, we are not allowing them now. As soon as security arrangements are complete, media will be allowed in Sabarimala and nearby places," he added. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPc, banning assembly of four or more people, is in force at Pamba, Nilackal, Elavungal, and Sannidhanam for 72 hours from midnight on Saturday. If a woman is willing to trek to the temple, if needed, women cops will escort them, a senior official camping at the hilltop said. Congress and BJP have condemned the police deployment, saying that it will disturb the serene atmosphere of the temple and would curb free movement of pilgrims. PS Sreedharan Pilla, state BJP chief said, No other temple in the country might have faced such an ignominy. Devotees will have to go through five check posts. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is in hurry to allow women to the temple and he will be fully responsible for its outcome also. The shrine would open at 5 pm on Monday for the "Sree Chitira Atta Thirunal" special puja slated for the next day, marking the birthday of the last king of Travancore Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, and close at 10 pm on that day. Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru and chief priest Unnikrishnan Namboodiri would jointly open the temple doors and light the lamp at the 'Sreekovil' (sanctum sanctorum). (With PTI inputs) Hyderabad: Union minister Smriti Irani on Sunday said the defeat of the TRS would be the real Diwali for the people of the state. She criticised the government for not implementing Modicare, the Centres health insurance scheme. Ms Irani was speaking at a party meeting at Amberpet in Hyderabad on Sunday. She started her brief speech, which lasted less than 10 minutes, in Telugu, which cheered up the party workers. She said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started a wonderful scheme for the health of the poor called Ayushman Bharat, which would give a health cover of `5 lakh for poor families. Though the entire country appreciated the scheme, the Telangana government has not implemented it. When I asked about it, I learnt that many such Central schemes are not being implemented. The question arises what kind of fear does KCR and the TRS have? She said she was told that the TRS government feared that Mr Modi would get more popularity if Central schemes were implemented. They should remember that Mr Modi is already popular and thats why he became Prime Minister, she said. TRS leaders are thinking that family rule is democracy. The whole state is under the control of one family. The liberation day of Telangana will be on December 7. The defeat of TRS is a real festival and Diwali to the people of Telangana, she said. PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- The Mississippi Maritime Museum will host their 2019 Fall Social and Membership Drive on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, at the Maritime Activities Center located at 609 Dupont Avenue in Pascagoula. Current members, potential members and stakeholders are all invited to attend. Open House begins from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m., with a brief ceremony at 6 p.m. At their general membership meeting in February, it was revealed the Maritime Museum is set to open in mid-2020, according to then board president Terry Bollman. "The actual museum itself which is going to be in the math and science building of the old Pascagoula High School is planned to open in mid-2020," Bollman said. "In the meantime, our intention is to start some programs before the museum's opening where we can reach out to the community." Thursday's meeting will show the progress of the Maritime Activities Center and allow members to renew their membership for the upcoming year. "We invite everyone in Jackson County and along the Gulf Coast to see what exciting things have been going on with the Mississippi Maritime Museum," said Perry Thompson, Museum Board President. "This social gives us an opportunity to meet and greet Board members and Museum leadership." Museum Art Contest winning art work from students in the community will be on display for event goers to enjoy. The students created pieces represent the history of Maritime in Mississippi. These pieces were judged, and the winner will be recognized with gift cards from Walmart, Jerry Lees, and the Grand Theater. The event is free to the public. For additional information, please visit the Mississippi Maritime Museum's Facebook Page or www.msmaritimemuseum.org The war for an independent Barcelona (1976) February 1 1976: three months after the death of dictator Generalisimo Francisco Franco (4 December 1892 20 November 1975), the Assembly of Catalonia (Asemblea de Catalunya) marched in Barcelona under the banner Libertat, Amnesty, Estatut dAutonomia (Freedom, Amnesty, Autonomy). Local residents associations, Trade Unions, political parties (many illegal), along with members of cultural and artistic entities participated. Initially it was peaceful. There was a sit-in on the Passeig de Sant Joan, at the corner of Carrer de Provenca. But the Civil Guard and riot police police-threw smoke bombs at the seated protesters and charged them. Later, numerous groups marched through the streets of the Eixample to reach the Modelo prison, where they sought the release of political prisoners. The Civil Guard waited. They were armed with rifles. Manel Armengol had a camera. See many more on flashbak. Anorak Posted: 5th, November 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink There are temples which are thousands of years old and conserved by us in India. THANJAVUR: South Indian women who believe in Indian culture will not visit Sabarimala if they are in their menstruating age, said Ms. Dheepa, daughter of the Vice President, Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu, here on Sunday. Ms. Dheepa was hereon a visit to the Big temple with her mother Usha, and children. She told presspersons after darshan, that those who agitate at Sabarimala were doing it for various reasons. I am a South Indian woman who respects our culture, she said. There are temples which are thousands of years old and conserved by us in India. Instead of looking at them, people are going abroad to see other things, Ms. Dheepa said and regretted at idols going missing from temples. He sanctioned loan an amount of Rs 1.37 crore to Prashanth, Kumar and Poojari based on fake land document papers and handed over the pay orders in advance, instead of handing it to the vendor at the time of registration. (Representional Image) Hyderabad: The White Collar Offences team from Hyderabad CCS on Monday arrested the branch manager of Andhra Bank for cheating and sanctioning loans without valid documents. According to the officials, Ramachandruni Hanumantha Rao, the manager of Andhra Bank, currency chest, S.V. University Campus, Tirupati, was arrested following a complaint from a Branch Manager of the said banks from Madhura Nagar branch on March 22, 2016. Based on the complaint, cases were booked against Pasham Prashanth, Kolapalli Naveen Kumar, Srinivasa Poojari and others, said the DCP, CCS, Avinash Mohanty. Hanumantha Rao, conspired with other men and sanctioned loans while he was working at the Madhura Nagar branch. He sanctioned loan an amount of Rs 1.37 crore to Prashanth, Kumar and Poojari based on fake land document papers and handed over the pay orders in advance, instead of handing it to the vendor at the time of registration. Subsequently, the men committed fraud and caused a loss to the Bank, Mr Mohanty added. Officers of the Pollution Control Board have visited the Uppal depot to check out the situation but there has not been any response from them. When this newspaper contacted PCB officials, they refused to comment, stating that they will have to check exactly what the problem is. Hyderabad: Hydrogen sulphide emissions from untreated sewage and carbon emissions from dump yards are the main reasons for carbon deposits accumulating on electric wires and causing trains to malfunction. A senior environmental scientist at the Pollution Control Board explained, "Hydrogen sulphide is an issue at major sewage points; it interacts with the copper in the wires turning it into copper sulphide and causing the deterioration. The electric insulation has to be increased or the maintenance has to be taken up more frequently to undo the damage." Officers of the Pollution Control Board have visited the Uppal depot to check out the situation but there has not been any response from them. When this newspaper contacted PCB officials, they refused to comment, stating that they will have to check exactly what the problem is. The Delhi Metro Rail suffered from the same problem as pollution levels in the capital are very high. To overcome the problem, the copper split pins in the electric wires of metro trains were changed to stainless steel pins. Delhi Metro Rail replaced a total of 9,532 copper pins with stainless steel pins to deal with the problem of sudden stopping of the trains and frequent breakdowns due to the carbon deposits. With Hyderabad Metro Rail the problem is only at the Uppal depot because it is close to the dumping yard and sewage depot. The danger of these gases to the health of people living and working in the surrounding area can be very severe. Dr Mehboob Khan, senior professor and superintendent of Government Chest Hospital, explained the ill effects of these harmful emissions on the human body. "The presence of these gases like sulphide, hydrogen and other oxides in the air decreases the supply of oxygen in the blood. There will be symptoms like headaches, tremors, and breathlessness and long term effects can involve deterioration of the organs. The circulatory system through which oxygen is carried to different parts of the body is badly affected due to which the lungs have to overwork. Apart from that, there is constant bad odour which can cause severe irritation. Hyderabad: MIM chief Asaduddin Owiasi on Monday termed the Congress-led Mahakutami as the East India Company of the present era even as targeted AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. Addressing a public meeting in Sangareddy, he asked the audience, What is the name of Kutami? The people replied, Dhobi Kutami, He replied, Whatever this is, it is not an alliance but East India Company of 2018. He said that the reason he was making the comparison was that if it succeeded, Mr Naidu would decide the fate of Telangana while sitting in Vijayawada. He asked the people whether they wanted the fate of TS to be decided in Nagpur by the RSS or in Delhi by the Congress or here in Hyderabad. He answered the question himself: The decision will be taken not by the people sitting in Delhi, Nagpur or Vijayawada but by the people who live here. This necessitates sending back this modern East India Company on December 7. Mr Owaisi asked Mr Naidu, Now you want to protect the nation. What were you doing when Gujarat happened? New Delhi: As the Indian Navys nuclear submarine INS Arihant has successfully completed its first deterrence patrol, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday it was a fitting response to those who indulge in nuclear blackmail, in a clear but veiled reference to Pakistans oft-repeated nuclear threats. Dhanteras, he said, had become even more special. Indias pride, nuclear submarine INS Arihant successfully completed its first deterrence patrol! I congratulate all those involved, especially the crew of INS Arihant, for this accomplishment, which will always be remembered in our history, he said in a series of tweets. Dubbing INS Arihant as the harbinger of fearlessness for the country, Mr Modi said, Today is historic because it marks the completing of the successful establishment of the nuclear triad. Indias nuclear triad will be an important pillar of global peace and stability. This is a major achievement for the country, the PM said, adding INS Arihant would help protect the country from external threats and contribute to the atmosphere of peace in the region. In an era such as this, a credible nuclear deterrence is the need of the hour. The success of INS Arihant gives a fitting response to those who indulge in nuclear blackmail, he tweeted. The Prime Minister, addressing the Arihant crew, warned the enemies of India not to "resort to any audacity", asserting that India was a peace-loving country and does not instigate anyone but does not spare those who needle it. "Our nuclear arsenal are not a part of an aggressive policy, but it is an important means for peace and stability. Peace is our strength, not our weakness. Our nuclear programme must be seen with regard to Indias efforts to further world peace and stability," he said. The PM noted that this achievement has put India among a handful of countries having the capability to design, construct and operate a Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarine (SSBN). BJP president Amit Shah described the achievement as a "historic feat", as he hailed Mr Modis strong leadership, which, he said, had enhanced the countrys strategic and economic position globally. Noting that the feat was achieved on Dhanteras, which is about wellbeing, Shah said, In that spirit, our armed forces give India the historic feat of our nuclear submarine, INS Arihant, completing its first deterrence patrol. The Indian armed forces ranked among the best, were fully committed to peace and at the same time, fully prepared to give a strong answer to elements who tried to disturb the atmosphere of peace, he said, adding that a grateful nation saluted their courage. The achievement of INS Arihant and the nuclear triad will further India's strategic and security interests. It also reaffirms India's historical commitment to peaceful coexistence, Shah said. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said with this feat, India has entered the league of a few countries that can design, construct and operate Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarines (SSBN). The bench said that in Amaravati a very big complex known as Justice City is under construction where the High Court and subordinate courts and even some tribunals would be accommodated. Hyderabad: In a significant development with regard to the constitution of the separate High Court for Andhra Pradesh, the Supreme Court has permitted the AP government to set up the High Court in temporary accommodation till the permanent structure is ready. A two-member bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan, while disposing of an appeal by the Union of India challenging the order of the High Court with regard to a separate High Court for Andhra Pradesh, said, We expect a notification to be issued by January 1, 2019 so that the two High Courts start functioning separately and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh also starts functioning in the new building at the earliest. Referring to the affidavit filed by the Andhra Pradesh government, the bench noted that the CRDA came up with a proposal to build an interim judicial complex on about 2 lakh sq. feet, with 18 court halls and a Chief Justices court hall and the CRDA adopted the same technique it had adopted for the construction of the Secretariat and the Assembly buildings, the judicial complex could be completed by December 15, 2018. The bench observed, The High Court has done whatever is required of them to do and the impression created as though the Judges are hesitant to shift, is factually incorrect. The moment the infrastructure is made ready and a notification is issued, the High Court is prepared to shift. In fact some of the Judges, who expressed willingness to shift, have also retired in the past two years and more. Citing the chronology of the developments to set up the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, the bench said, It can be discerned that the building where the High Court of AP would be temporarily shifted would be ready by December 15, 2018. It is also clear that the Judges of the High Court, who would become Judges of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, are satisfied with the facilities in the said building inasmuch as Full Court of the High Court has approved the proposal after Inspection Committee of Judges submitted a report in this behalf. Mr Nariman senior counsel also made a statement at the Bar that the Government would be hiring villas to take care of the residential needs of the Judges at Amaravati. The bench said, We may place on record that in Amaravati a very big complex known as Justice City is under construction where the High Court and subordinate courts and even some tribunals would be accommodated and there is a provision for construction of residential complex for the Judges of the High Court and judicial officers of the subordinate courts. The bench held that since all the requirements stand fulfilled, there was no embargo for the Competent Authority to issue a Notification bifurcating the courts into the High Court of Telangana state and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh respectively. Hyderabad: Telangana state government has offered all possible assistance to Chhattisgarh which goes to polls November 12 and 20. Keeping in view of the Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Telangana states chief election commissioner O.P. Rawat on Monday conducted a video conference will all chief electoral officers, chief secretaries and DGPs of these states. TS chief secretary S.K. Joshi informed to CEC that the officers of Telangana state were already in touch with their counterparts of Bijapur and Sukuma, two border districts of Chhattisgarh, and every effort is made to conduct the elections in peaceful manner. Mr Joshi said he has assured them of all possible help. Meanwhile, 11 political parties in the state contesting the elections have been given time slots on government media All India Radio and Doordarshan. TS chief electoral officer said in a statement on Monday that the period of broadcasts and telecasts will be between the last day of filing nominations and two days before the polling. The Prasar Bharathi will decide the actual date and time for the broadcasts and telecasts, subject to technical constrains. A jewellery shop in Surat has attracted customers by selling gold and silver bars with imprints of PM Modi and former PM late Atal Bihari Vajpayee. (Photo: ANI) Surat: With just two days left for Diwali, a jewellery shop here has attracted the attention of customers by selling gold and silver bars with the imprints of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Speaking to ANI, a customer said, "Lord Laxmi and Ganesh are worshipped on every Diwali and Prime Minister Modi is also like God to us. This year I will buy these bars and worship Modi Ji." This is not the first time that the shop has manufactured jewellery with imprints of the Prime Minister. Earlier rakhis made of gold with photos of Prime Minister Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani engraved on them were also made by the shop. The shop owner, Milan told ANI, "Diwali is an auspicious occasion. Since the time Narendra Modi Ji took over as the Prime Minister of the country there has always been development and welfare. There has been widespread development in the country and hence I thought of making these to mark the occasion." He further said that several orders of the special gold and silver bars have been received by the shop ahead of the Diwali festivities. CHENNAI: Averring that those who could not directly take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi were making vain attempts to dislodge the BJP-led government at the Centre, BJP state president Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan said, even if one thousand Chandrababu Naidus and Stalins emerge, they can never succeed in toppling Mr. Modi. The PM, she said, was capable of leading India to new heights in all spheres including economy and health. He is a great leader. No matter how many enemies emerge and how many difficulties are imposed, he cannot be toppled because people have high expectations of him, she said responding to DMK chief MK Stalins support on Saturday for Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidus initiative of meeting Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Corrupt, autocratic and divisive forces are destroying the democratic fabric of our country, Mr. Stalin said in a tweet. It is the need of the hour for all non-BJP parties to come together on a common platform, he wrote further and congratulated Rahul Gandhi and Chandrababu Naidu after their meeting and wrote they have my support. On the Supreme Court imposing a two-hour time slot for firing crackers on Deepavali, Dr. Tamilisai told reporters here that bursting crackers on the Festival of Lights is part of the celebration on that day. So time should not be allotted. The revelry involves firing of crackers from the wee hours till midnight. Deepavali means bursting crackers and lighting oil lamps and the festival cant be celebrated without crackers, she said. Speaking at a function in the city, she said Neet has largely been instrumental in helping the poor students to pursue a career in medicine. I had received 2,000 mails requesting the continuation of Neet, which is helping the rural poor students to join the medical colleges. The entrance test will be beneficial in the coming years too, she said. Hyderabad: With the seat adjustment talks heading to the climax ahead of the poll notification date on November 12, the Communist Party of India is increasing the pressure on the Congress for a greater share of seats. The CPI on Monday publicly named eight constituencies that it is asking for as part of seat adjustments among Mahakutami parties. It warned the Congress that it was ready to contest in many other constituencies if the Congress did not allot it the seats it wanted. The CPI state executive body meeting in the city on Sunday and Monday finalised Plan A and Plan B that will be implemented according to the response from the Congress. Plan A is a demand for the seats and Plan B is to announce candidates in nearly 25 constituencies. Speaking to mediapersons, CPI state secretary Chada Venkat Reddy said, All our party workers are not at all satisfied with the Congress. They say that there should be a Mahakutami, but they are not taking it seriously. We are ready with two plans. If the Congress does not agree, we will contest in 20 seats in addition to what we are asking the Congress. We are asking the Congress for the Assembly constituencies of Kothagudem, Wyra, Husnabad, Bellampalli, Manugode, Deverakonda, Mancherial and Pinapaka. He added, We are the one that laid the path for the Mahakutami. We dont want to go with any other party if we exit the Mahakutami. The CPI can decide the result in as many as 40 constituencies. In these 40 constituencies, we can make someone win or lose. The CPI will give some more time to the Congress. If there is no proper response we are ready to go alone it in the elections. Hyderabad: The fate of aspirants for Congress tickets will be decided in the next 48 hours, with the partys central screening committee chaired by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi set to meet on November 7 in Delhi. The high command has directed state Congress leaders to complete the seats adjustment talks with the Mahakutami partners by Tuesday. The high command has directed the TPCC to be liberal with the allies. Mahakutami constituents Telugu Desam, the CPI and the TJS are mounting pressure on the Congress for more seats. The Congress may finally contest about 90 seats out of the 119 in the state Assembly. Two days ago, TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy had announced at Delhi that the Congress would contest 95 Assembly seats and the TD had agreed to 14 as its share. The party had planned to divide the 10 remaining seats between the TJS and the CPI. The TD is now asking for two more seats, TJS wants at least 13 and the CPI five seats. Besides, the Congress also wants to change some of the seats allotted to the TD. For instance, the Congress had decided to give Telugu Desam the Kodada seat, represented by the partys sitting legislator Padmavathi, the wife of TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy. Now it wants to retain Kodada. The CPI has announced that if a decision on seats is further delayed, it would announce its candidates for nine seats in two or three days. The Congress has sent a communication to the party asking it not to take any hard decision. Mahakutami leaders met at an unidentified location till late in the night on Monday to discuss seat sharing. The Congress plans to announce the list by November 9. TPCC election committee leaders headed by Mr Reddy will leave for Delhi on Tuesday. The AICC screening committee headed by Mr Bhakta Charan Das is holding a meeting in Delhi to complete the exercise on selection of party candidates. CHENNAI: Those who act in films dreaming of becoming chief minister can only rule in the silver screen and not in real life. They can make film on bogus voting with (the help of) plagiarised story, BJP state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan sarcastically remarked about actor Vijay's Sarkar slated for release on Deepavali. Her caustic remarks could nevertheless provoke the fans of Thalapathy as Vijay is called. This A. R. Murugadoss film Sarkar, with Vijay in the lead, has raised expectations in the Tamil film industry and is a huge deal in Kollywood. "Those who cannot be straightforward in film world will not be capable of ensuring honesty and transparency in real life politics There is a big confusion in the film world. They plagarise stories.. when they cannot manage affairs well in their field, how can they ensure transparency in politics," she said reacting to Vijay's film. This is not the first time Dr Tamilisai has criticised the actor. He had to face a volley of criticism from the BJP leaders for his earlier film which was critical of GST and digital India initiative. Continuing her angry outburst she said "those who cannot manage Sarkar well, are talking about forming the government to help the people." "This is just an illusion," she added. Actors of his ilk, she said took politicians for granted and criticised them. Turning to other issues, Dr Tamilisai told reporters here on Monday that AMMK leader T. T. V. Dhinakaran had entered a tacit understanding with DMK chief M. K. Stalin to create a political crisis. For its part, the DMK hopes that it would stand to gain in the Lok Sabha elections next year by projecting Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minsiterial candidate. But things are likely to be the other way round. "The DMK combine is sure to lose all the 40 seats in the Lok Sabha poll," she claimed. Chinese state-backed semiconductor maker Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co Ltd billed itself as a national leader in the tech industry. It planned to drive a shift towards locally made chips and end a heavy reliance on imports, especially from the United States. The era of Chinese chips has arrived, it said in a recent promotional online pamphlet to attract chip industry talent. Underneath was a picture of a circuit board emblazoned with the Chinese flag. China once relied on chip imports, but the tireless work of untold numbers of chip experts has meant that from 90 per cent imports we have been able to attain localised production, it said, highlighting a high-skilled global workforce harking from the United States, Japan and South Korea. Jump with us into a chip era that belongs to China. That bold ambition now faces major hurdles. The US Justice Department indicted Fujian Jinhua and Taiwan-based United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) for industrial espionage. The indictment said the companies conspired to steal trade secrets from US semiconductor company Micron Technology Inc relating to its research and development of memory storage devices. Under a technology cooperation agreement signed in 2016, UMC develops memory-related technologies for the Chinese firm. The charges came after the US Commerce Department banned US companies from selling hardware and software components to the Chinese firm and UMC. The Taiwan firm said shortly afterwards that it will temporarily halt its research and development activities with Fujian. The Commerce Department action could deal a significant blow to the Chinese semiconductor maker, given its reliance on US supplies, and Chinas technology ambitions. On Saturday, Fujian Jinhua said in a statement posted on its website that it had not stolen any technology and that it always attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights. Chinese government officials have said privately that Fujian is of high strategic importance to China, which is looking to boost home-grown technology under its Made in China 2025 plan, a bid to catch up technologically in key areas such as semiconductors, where it has long been reliant on imports - notably from America. You cant build a fab (fabrication plant) without US equipment companies. You just cannot do it, said Risto Puhakka, a semiconductor industry expert at VLSI Research. The worlds most important suppliers of the tools needed to make memory chips Applied Materials Inc, KLA-Tencor Corp, and Lam Research Corp - all hail from the United States. TOP THREE CHIP MAKER China imported $270 billion in semiconductors in 2017, more than its total imports of crude oil, highlighting the countrys lack of a true rival to US chipmaking giants such as Micron, Intel or Qualcomm. To close the gap, analysts said earlier this year money was raining down from Beijing and state-backed funds, like the countrys state chip Big Fund, to support firms such as Fujian Jinhua. The Chinese firm has been working to open a giant $5.7 billion chip factory in October to produce 60,000 semiconductor wafers per month in its first stage of production, and 120,000 in its second stage, according to domestic media. Fujian is just one of a handful of Chinese semiconductor firms that have in recent years looked to crack the global chip industry. They are working on chips that can be used in smartphones to missile guidance systems. Two officials at a state-linked semiconductor fund said Fujian Jinhua was working with highly specialised semiconductor materials to make circuits, a high priority for Beijing and the countrys chip fund. You could consider Fujian Jinhua a top three China chip company in terms of their research and development, one of the people said. Both asked not to be identified because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter. STATE TIES Fujian Jinhua was established in 2016 with funding from state-owned Fujian Electronics & Information Co and Jinjiang Energy Investment Co. Other backers include municipal governments from the southern cities of Quanzhou and Jinjiang. Fujian Jinhuas former board chairman served as a provincial-level party secretary. The firms focus was to become a manufacturing leader in DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, a chip commonly used in personal computers, workstations and servers. The sector has been long dominated by US firm Micron and South Koreas SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics. Once completed, the project will fill the gap in the field of DRAM memory in China, the company said in a news post last year. It added the factory had been included in a list of the countrys top engineering projects supported by the state. In the information age, integrated circuits have been a strategic basic industry for China, it wrote. Future prospects are bright. 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. Facebook said the video had not been reported by users and that it could not comment further on the clip. (Photo: AFP) A video link posted on Facebook on June 20 showed a man cooking human body parts in a pot over a wood fire. In Cameroon, the footage went viral. Some Facebook users said the man was a cannibal and that the video was shot in the countrys English-speaking west, where separatist insurgents are fighting to create a breakaway state. Local websites quickly debunked this notion. The man in the video was not a separatist fighter or cannibal, and the body parts were not real. The clip was taken on a Nigerian film set and uploaded to Instagram on June 17 by make-up artist Hakeem Onilogbo, who uses the platform to showcase his work. But the videos rapid spread raises questions about Facebooks ability to police millions of posts each day and crack down on hate speech in a country where internet use is rising fast, social media are used for political ends and the company has no permanent physical presence. The day the link was posted on Facebook, a member of the government brought the video to the attention of international diplomats in the capital, Yaounde, via the WhatsApp messaging service, according to messages seen by Reuters. Facebook said the video had not been reported by users and that it could not comment further on the clip. It was no longer available on the site by late October. A senior Facebook official said tackling misinformation in Cameroon was a priority for the company, which acknowledges more needs to be done. Were prioritising countries where weve already seen how quickly online rumours can fuel violence, such as Myanmar and Cameroon, said Ebele Okobi, Director of Africa Public Policy at Facebook. In Cameroon, Facebook has been used both to incite violence and to make threatening posts. Facebook has no staff operating permanently in Cameroon and says it monitors the country from Britain and the United States. It has an Africa-focused team that frequently visits the region, and has partnered with NGOs and civil society in Cameroon in recent months to combat hate speech. Facebook has removed pages and accounts related to the separatist conflict, and is working to slow the spread of kidnapping videos, the company said. It declined to say how many people it had helping it in Cameroon, how much money it had so far invested or how many posts it had taken down. Reuters found dozens of pages posted in recent months showing graphic images in Cameroon, some of which were months old. One Facebook user on July 18 posted a picture of the decapitated body of a Cameroonian policeman lying in a gutter and said the image gave him joy. The same day, separatist spokesman Ivo Tapang applauded the killing of two Cameroonian soldiers and linked to a website raising funds for guns, ammunition and grenade launchers. Tapang did not respond to requests for comment. A Facebook spokeswoman said the company was unaware of the posts before Reuters pointed them out but that they were both removed after review. It is against Facebook rules to celebrate suffering or crowdfund for arms, she said. Facebook has artificial intelligence that it uses globally to detect problematic posts. But in Cameroon, it does not have a consortium of fact-checking companies to monitor posts as it does in the United States. Leading civil society figures in Cameroon say Facebook needs more resources and faces an increasingly difficult task as internet use grows. 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 iPhone XR is easily one of the most reasonable smartphones Apple has ever built in recent times and you wont need the fortune to enjoy the latest as well as the greatest from Apple. Rating: When the iPhone X was unveiled last year, the world of consumer technology went berserk. Some were dumbstruck with an almost edge-to-edge fullscreen design while Apple loyalists were fanboying over the new UI navigation. However, the exorbitant price meant it was seen restricted only to the affluent. Since then, people had been looking forward to the leaks that described a new 6.1-inch LCD iPhone offering most of the bells and whistles of the iPhone X without burning a hole in the pocket. And as expected, Apple's CEO Tim Cook took the wraps off the brand new iPhone XR the iPhone that fans have been waiting for patiently. The iPhone XR was conceptualised to offer most of the headlining features of the iPhone XS to a larger consumer base that wasnt willing to shell out more than a lakh of Rupees. On paper, it retains the same highly anticipated design, the advanced biometrics and the brains and eyes from that of the XS. The compromises are made in the display and camera departments, out of which the former has drawn a lot of criticism. Despite that, Apple is selling the XR in five colour variants, with the minimum asking price being Rs 76,900 for the 64GB variant. You can spend Rs 81,900 and bump up the storage to 128GB or go up to 256GB by shelling Rs 91,900. With the prices still undercutting the XS by a huge margin, is the iPhone XR the flagship-class smartphone that we have been looking forward to coming out of the Cupertino giants factories in recent history? Let dig deeper. Build, Design Unlike some of its rivals (Ahem Google), Apple takes hardware very seriously and has set a record for delivering breathtaking devices in the last decade. Last years iPhone 8 and iPhone X lineup brought back the more glamorous glass-metal sandwich build to the iPhone after a long while (the iPhone 4S set the trend). The XS and XS Max set the pinnacle for smartphone building this year with a meticulous attention to detail and a choice of materials that will maintain the luxurious feel over years to come. The XR too follows the same footsteps, but cuts corners from a few areas to keep the prices "affordable". But this is Apple they dont come cheap! So, the design geniuses at Cupertino cleverly borrowed what was considered premium in the older models of the yesteryear and infused it into the iPhone XR. The result is surprisingly impressive the XR goes for a 7000-series Aluminium frame instead of the stainless steel seen on the X or the XS. This makes the XR retain the matte finish charms of the iPhone 8 and 7 series models. However, the smooth texture also makes the XR slippery and its advised that you dress up your XR with a case as soon as you take it out of the box. Everywhere else, the design is pretty close to what we saw on the iPhone X last year an all-glass rear with a camera bump and a notched-display to the front. Apple says the glass is one of the most durable ones in the market and will sustain itself well against scratches. However, our unit was picking up minor scuffs when exposed to daily usage scenarios, so its advisable to go for a tempered glass protection in order to save yourself from massive repair bills. You still get the volume rockers, the slider switch for profiles and the sleep button in the traditional iPhone positioning. There's a visible single SIM tray, but the XR features Dual SIM connectivity thanks to the provision of an eSIM. The eSIM will presently work with Airtel and Jio for Indian consumers, and will allow users to switch between two networks for either making a call or using the Internet. Since eSIM hasn't gathered much traction in India, we wished that Apple had offered the Chinese variant which has two physical SIM card slots. We also wished that Apple had pushed for an IP68 certification instead of the IP67 certification here to make it absolutely weatherproof like the XS and XS Max. Nonetheless, the iPhone XR will cope well with light showers and accidental spills. Eager eyes will notice the slightly thicker bezels on the XR when compared to the X, XS or XS Max thats due to the Liquid Retina display (LCD) that Apple chose over the usual OLED panels. The displays natural properties make the bezels a tad thicker, the reason for which we discuss next. Display While in development, the XR was known to the world as the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone. And without surprises, Apple proudly flaunted its own take on a narrow-bezel LCD panel, which it loves to call Liquid Retina. Measuring 6.1-inches diagonally, it renders images at a resolution of 828 x 1792 pixels with a pixel density of 328ppi. Now, people have been bashing Apple for stuffing a low-resolution panel in the XR, with some comparing it with iPhone 4S unit. It also hits your conscience, especially when you consider that rivals are offering full HD+ displays as standard in this segment. Boot up the XR and theres no way you will see pixels peeping at you. In fact, the display seems to be as good as it has been on previous LCD iPhones. The colours are vibrant (thanks to the wide colour gamut) while contrasts are maintained up to natural levels. Apples TrueTone colour adjustment works well under different ambient lighting, managing the white balance to keep the colour tines closer to natural ones. Being an LCD means you get oodles of brightness, even under direct sunlight. Apple also confirms that they have increased the number of LEDs for the backlight which means a brighter display with an increased nits output. However, a slight shift in colours is noticeable once you tilt the device at smaller angles the display loses colour accuracy while viewing off-axis. Nonetheless, while binge-watching on YouTube or swiping through the photo gallery, the display provides for enjoyable viewing experiences. The notch does eat up into the viewing area and theres no way to scale apps (especially games) to avoid the notch maybe Apple could do something in the future. Now, several of you must be wondering how Apple managed to kick off the chin and prevent backlight bleed on an edge-to-edge LCD display. Apple doesnt do shortcuts and therefore, went up to greater extents to make sure the viewing experience is close to what users get on the XS and XS Max. The XRs LCD gets pixel masking and sub-pixel anti-aliasing, which masks the light bleed and enables the panel to follow the curves around the edges. A new backlight design cleverly stuffed under the visible narrow bezels makes sure you only see what you intend to, not a halo effect peeping from the edges. All of this makes for a uniform bezel all-around, with only the notch being an exception. And after all, these panels come colour-corrected from the factory which means that they are not conventional LCD displays slapped on your phone, but are a highly tuned to get the best and next-to-original images. Performance Each year, iPhones are known to be built around chips that are a whole generation faster than the ones seen released from the Qualcomm or Samsung factories, or anyone else from the Android universe. Nothings changed for the XR this year as well. Apple has stuffed in the same 7nm A12 Bionic chip that drives the XS series. The A12 Bionic SoC holds a hexa-core CPU paired with a quad-core GPU and an octa-core Neural Processing Unit. This is paired with 3GB of RAM, which is a GB lesser than the XS. Count in Apples proprietary iOS 12 and the package is complete. The iPhone XR is fast out-of-the-box ridiculously fast and capable. The optimised iOS 12 makes sure that all the power available at hand is utilised in the most efficient of ways so as to maintain Apples standard of smooth smartphone user experience. Apps and games open way before than they do on Android counterparts the fruits of immense hardware-software optimisation. Memory management is very impressive, with XR easily holding multiple apps in the memory for users to swipe between them at any moment. However, with a limited 3GB of RAM, the XR doesn't hold as many apps as its elder siblings. The animations are smooth as silk, with no noticeable lags or stutters anywhere throughout the UI. iOS gesture navigation is the benchmark, making every swipe feel as natural and fluid as it should seem. No wonder, the XR easily scored an average of around 363,500 on AnTuTu, outperforming every other smartphone out there. iOS 12 as a smartphone operating system is extremely smooth and sensible. It may not be as versatile as Android, but it makes sure all the smartphone chores are dealt the way they are intended to. Since the XR follows the iPhone X-class of aesthetics, the Control Centre is now accessible from the top right corner while Notifications are accessible from the centre or the top left corner of the display. And on the topic of notifications, iOS 12's revamped notification management system now makes it easy to deal with notifications from the lock screen. Grouped notifications are now a blessing and long-pressing on them throws up more options to customise the way you are notified on such information. The widget window now includes more interactive widgets for most apps and we found it a useful place to catch up with what's happening with the phone and its apps with a quick glance. iOS 12 brings in Screen Time, which helps you track your smartphone usage and if needed, tone down your usage with the help of several tools. One can use Downtime to make only those apps available that are absolutely needed at specific times of the day, or use App Limits to set time limits for individual apps. Googles Digital Wellbeing on Android 9 Pie does give you more options to maintain your digital health, but Screen Time isnt far behind and could do with more finessing on Apples part to make it more usable. Sadly, due to the lack of 3D Touch on the XR, iOS 12 turns to haptic feedback, which is essentially iOS style of doing the long-press-for-options feature. App shortcuts are gone for now and moving the cursor between texts requires you to long-press the spacebar for adjusting the cursor. However, what works as intended, if not better, is the FaceID biometrics system. Apple finally got rid of TouchID on the current years lineup and is relying completely on its TrueDepth camera system using FaceID. For those who dont remember, the TrueDepth system comprises of a dot projector building up a 3D face map with invisible IR light dots, which is illuminated by an IR Flood Illuminator and is captured by an IR-sensitive camera. FaceID works like a charm in most lighting situations, even when it goes pitch dark. The accuracy is remarkable, with the system never giving up to a glimpse of your face. You can verify your online payments with supported services using FaceID as well. The downside to FaceID is that you need to be facing your phone to unlock it, which is less convenient that TouchIDs anywhere unlocking capabilities. However, once you get used to it, FaceID is more effortless than any other biometric verification and you will almost get used to it. Camera With this years iPhone lineup, Apple has followed Googles suit and has adopted the idea of computational photography. The XS series gets a dual lens system, but the XR has to make do with a single rear setup, keeping cost in mind. Despite that, the XR gets the XS impressive primary unit a 12MP sensor with an aperture of f/1.8 a 1/2.55-inch sensor with 1.4m pixels and is assisted by OIS as well as PDAF. The 7MP front camera is assisted by the TrueDepth system for dealing with selfies and unique 3D imaging effects. Lets start with the rear camera it is awesome! Period! The XR maintains Apples style of imaging with slightly warmer colour tones. However, the single sensor captures tremendous amounts of details and the new computational photography ensures the dynamic range is pretty close to what you see in reality. Under daylight, the XR doesnt even break a sweat. Photos look really good almost as good as they look on the iPhone XS. The dynamic range, as well as the brightness levels, are rendered accurately no complaints here. The Smart HDR mode maintains a good balance of exposure in most shots. Low light does put some strain on the camera with regards to exposure, but noise was usually invisible. Night time photography is handled decently, with the camera doing its algorithmic magic to keep noise at bay while maintaining sharpness. This results in some shots looking dull when compared to results from some of its established rivals, but it's assured that you will get quality images most of the time, which can easily be edited as per your whims. The exposure from light bulbs, floodlights and the likes are handled impressively too. The lack of a telephoto lens, however, affects the sharpness when you are zooming in on a subject. The portrait mode makes for impressive bokeh effects, with Apple improving the edge detection between the subject and the background this time. In fact, the software-based bokeh is a tad better than what we had seen on the iPhone XS. As Apple advertised, the bokeh resembles the blurring from a DSLR cameras depth-of-field effects and you can adjust it even after you have taken the shot a la Google Pixel. Weirdly though, Apple's bokeh system can only identify human faces, which means your pets and objects wont be getting the bokeh love unless Apple decides to fix this later in future. In short, the Apple Bokeh algorithm only works with human faces and not objects for now. So be prepared to ruin your shots if you are shooting anything else other than human portraits. The front cameras results can be at best be termed as extremely impressive. The 7MP sensor captures enough details and just the right balance of colours to make sure selfies keep looking good. However, in low light, a noticeable amount of noise creeps up and you would require some sort of editing before you show off on social media. The TrueDepth system makes for 3D studio lighting effects previously seen on the iPhone X and Apple still has some ground to cover. The edge detection is most of the times a hit-or-miss. Additionally, the XR weirdly only keeps the face and the bust in focus while blurring everything below it. You can dial down the blurring after you have taken the photo and XR makes sure the blurring doesn't feel unnatural by adjusting the shape of the bokeh to resemble a DSLR camera's effects. You also get access to Animojis and Memojis, which now track tongue movements along with facial animations pretty accurately. Normal mode Portrait Mode Portrait Mode with 3D lighting effects When it comes to video, the XR can pull up its socks and deal with up to 4K videos shot at 60fps. The camera maintains the focus efficiently while the sensor makes sure the image qualities of still images do get applied to the video as well natural dynamic range and good contrast levels. You can also record slow-motion videos with 1080p@240fps, with audio matching the pace of the footage only iPhone excel in this regard. Battery The Plus-sized iPhones have always been known to offer longer stamina than the regular sized models due to the bigger body accommodating a bigger power reserve. The XRs 6.1-inch form is closer to the former, which means Apple could fit in a 2942mAh battery. This is smaller by the standards set by Android manufacturers, but more than enough for an iPhone thanks to ultra-efficient and optimised iOS 12 as well as the chip. Therefore, with a heavy usage scenario involving incessant texting, streaming audio via wireless headphones, catching up on the latest YouTube videos, browsing social media feeds and short sessions of gaming, the iPhone XR can stay alive through an entire working day, with around 30 per cent of power to spare. On the busiest of days, we managed to get up to 8 hours of screen-on time, which is exceptional for a phone of this class. Filling up the XR is faster with a fast charger or fast wireless charging pad, but the standard 5W adapter takes up to 2.5 hours for topping up the reserve. Conclusion After going through the iPhone XR a little closely, its easy to assert that Apple has a winner on its hands that will keep filling the cash registers for the next few years. The iPhone XR is a great flagship-grade smartphone that hits most of the sweet spots consumers look for in an ultra-premium smartphone premium aesthetics, a superb user experience, a great battery life and an extremely capable camera. The XR does fall short in certain areas where rivals outdo it by miles the display, despite packing impressive technology, isnt as good as the AMOLED counterparts, and the lack of a secondary sensor for the rear camera limits a camera that can do wonders otherwise. Additionally, Apples computational photography has still some ground to cover, considering Googles prowess in this regard. Despite some chinks in its armour, the iPhone XR makes for a superb premium smartphone as an all-rounder. It excels in the majority of areas where one needs a flagship smartphone to perform without compromising on the core fundamentals of a gold-standard user experience. If you arent crazy about zooming while taking photos and dont care about a visually-seducing OLED panel, the iPhone XR makes more sense over the expensive iPhone XS Max. Its easily one of the most reasonable smartphones Apple has ever built in recent times and you wont need the fortune to enjoy the latest from Apple. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Its impressive to see how the difference between the best of Apple and best of the Android world has shrunken to extremely low levels, if not be on par with each other. The iOS vs Android battle is refuelled every year when two of the tech worlds biggest giants unveil their ultimate offerings in the smartphone segment. Apple unveils its trendsetting iPhones in September with never-before-seen hardware technologies while Google shows its prowess in the software side with the Pixel range of phones. This year, the Pixel 3 is Googles flagship and offers a very premium smartphone experience while maintaining the industry-leading single rear camera from the Pixel 2. Apple meanwhile unveiled three iPhone models, with the base iPhone XR being the only phone to fall just under Rs 1 lakh mark. The iPhone XR is theoretically pretty similar to the Pixel 3 XL in many regards, including the single rear camera and the price. If you are seeking an ultra-premium smartphone, chances are that you must probably be confused between the two. Therefore, we have pitted them against each other, putting most of their features under the scanner to see whether one of them has a lead over the other. Design The aesthetics of both the phones make for one of the most important buying decisions between these two. The design language that these two embraces are meant to appease different types of crowd. Apple has maintained its elegant, yet practical, design for the iPhone XR. This is, in fact, the same design we had last seen on the iPhone X and now the XS and Max respectively. The rounded rectangular shape with curved edges gives the XR a signature iPhone look. The rear is reminiscent of the iPhone 8, especially with the single rear camera sensor sitting on the top left corner. The curved frame also ensures a snug fit in palms, but the matte finish on the aluminium frame makes it pretty slippery. Apple doesnt disclose what glass is used on the XR, but confirms its toughest one they could find in the market. The front adorns a fullscreen design with the TrueDepth camera-sporting notch sitting on the top. The bezels are thicker when compared to the XS, but they are uniform all around. The Pixel 3 XL carries forward its traditional Pixel dual-tone design but this time, its two Gorilla Glass 5 panels sandwiching a glossy metal frame to match the glass colours. The Pixel 3 XL feels lighter at 184g and is surprisingly easy to live with, especially while moving around, despite having a slightly bigger footprint than the iPhone XR. Google has given the Pixel a laser etched matte finish on the rear for maintaining the metallic matte look, but has paved way for wireless charging this time. And yes, the overall design is pretty sleek; however, the controversial front holds the huge display notch and a thick chin, which puts off those obsessed with symmetrical design choices on a smartphone. The larger than usual notch (some say bathtub notch) holds two cameras while the chin houses the loudspeaker. The design is bold yet playful and may or may not appeal to the majority. Personal preferences differ and both of these will appeal to completely different crowd the iPhone XR for the image-conscious and the Pixel 3 XL for those who want something bold and playful. Display This is where both of them differ by miles. The iPhone XR flaunts a Liquid Retina display, which is a fancy name for an LCD panel. The 6.1-inch LCD display renders images at a resolution of 828 x 1792 pixels in an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 and a pixel density of 326ppi. Under normal circumstances, the iPhone XR offers a reasonably good experience. The True Tone tech automatically adjusts the white balance while support for wide colour gamut makes for a visual feast for the eyes. However, the panel loses colour accuracy off-axis and overall image quality seems a tad dull. The notch does eat up into the viewing area while watching videos or playing games, but Apple doesnt provide for a way to optimise apps to take it into consideration while in fullscreen mode. App developers will soon create apps to work around this new display size and notch, but we shall witness them as and when they release/update. The Pixel 3 XL, on the other hand, is certified by DisplayMate to sport one of the best smartphone displays at present. The 6.3-inch OLED panel renders images at 1440 x 2960 pixels in an aspect ratio of 18.5:9 and a pixel density of 523ppi. Images are sharp with support for HDR and DCI-P3 colours, the Pixel 3 XLs display makes using the phone a treat. Colourful UI elements pop put while videos flaunt high contrasts and rich colours. The viewing angles are wide, but the panel starts throwing up a slight blue tint on extreme angles. OLED panel also makes for the Always-On Display, which is a highly convenient feature, showing the date, time and weather in monochromatic tones. The big notch takes up a considerable amount of space while watching videos or playing games, and most app developers havent figured out a way to optimise their app UIs for the screen. Performance Apple is known to build some of the most powerful mobile processors in the smartphone industry and the iPhone XR is a living testament to that. The A12 Bionic chip with just 3GB of RAM works in conjunction with an ultra-efficient iOS 12 to make sure the phone works as intended. The user experience is qualitative, with iOS apps show full compatibility and high detail thats close to perfection. Everythings very organised on the iPhone, but a tight restriction on customisation options means that you have to be contended with whats offered. With Google, things are different they follow a software-first approach, unlike the industrys hardware-first approach. The focus here is high on delivering a great user experience instead of making just everything faster. The Pixel 3 XL runs on the latest version of Android 9 Pie with Pixel launcher on top. Androids versatility with Googles addition of extremely smart features means that the phone is eager to assist you at every moment of your smartphone usage. The Google Assistant is core to the Pixel experience and it makes using the Pixel a charm. Even with just 4GB of RAM, the Pixel 3 XL doesnt know lags or stutters its buttery smooth. Choosing between these two completely depends on which platform or ecosystems are you acquainted with. However, be assured that you are going to get the best user experience on both the phones and neither of these will disappoint you in any way. Camera On paper, both the Pixel and XR offer almost identical specifications. Even the approach to mobile photography is taken remarkably similar both of them rely on a single camera with computational photography. The Pixel 3 XL relies on Googles smart algorithms to throw up some of the best images you can expect from a smartphone these days. The Pixel 3 XL nails it with details and smartly figures out a way to make every photo look better than it should actually. However, the iPhone XR isnt inferior by any means it impresses in managing exposures and details in most lighting situations. And for most parts, the results from both of these excel in their own ways. Lets talk about the iPhone first. The XR follows the usual Apple-style approach to photography a warm colour tone that ensures details are never missing. In daylight, there are oodles of details and the dynamic range is maintained to the extent of what you see in reality. However, in shadows or low light situations, exposure management isnt impressive, with the camera often underexposing darker areas of the photos. The photos often make the scene look dull than what they actually are. That said, Apples computational photography makes sure you dont get to see undesired grains in the darker areas, which is a major positive for the iPhone XR. The Portrait mode works really good for both the front and rear cameras, and Apple has improved the edge detection vastly when compared to the previous iPhones. However, selfie portraits only keep the face and the bust in focus while blurring out the rest of the body, which may put off some selfie enthusiasts. The Pixel 3 XL is the second outing for Googles computational photography and with the first one being outstanding, things only go north for the hero from Mountain View. The Pixel 3 also does the what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach for daylight photography but excels the iPhone XR in terms of details. Its easy to make out the skin pores and freckles on a persons face not many phones do that. Add to that the accurate contrasts across the canvas and you get some of the most brilliant daylight photos from a smartphone camera. If you love pixel peeping, then look no further than the Pixel 3(got the pun?). The Pixels obsession with details continues even in low light scenes, although a noticeable amount of grains start creeping up in certain situations. In extremely dark conditions, the Pixel tries its best to capture as much as it can see, but noise eventually is smeared across the photos, unless you have switched on HDR modes in which case the Pixel trades noise for details. That said, you will still get photos that can be flaunted on Instagram. The Night Sight mode (yet to be released officially) does a better job in dealing with noise and details, but requires you to hold on to the camera for a few seconds in the same position for a while. The Portrait mode also does a really impressive job with edge detection on the subject and works uniformly for humans as well as inanimate objects alike (the iPhone XR restricts its pride only for humans). In professional hands, Pixel 3 will easily come up with visual treats without requiring any sort of editing. iPhone XR Google Pixel 3 XL iPhone XR Google Pixel 3 XL iPhone XR Google Pixel 3 XL iPhone XR Google Pixel 3 XL iPhone XR Google Pixel 3 XL iPhone XR Google Pixel 3 XL (Night Sight) iPhone XR Google Pixel 3 XL iPhone XR Google Pixel 3 XL iPhone XR Google Pixel 3 XL camera samples iPhone XR Google Pixel 3 XL iPhone XR Google Pixel 3 XL iPhone XR Portrait mode Google Pixel 3 XL Portrait Mode Both the cameras will easily put a smile across a shutterbugs face in daily life and both are closely matched in their optical abilities. However, the Pixel 3 has a slight edge over the iPhone XR with regards to details and exposure management. Battery With flagship phones, battery life hasn't been one of the USPs of a device of this category. In the last two years, both Apple and Google have stuffed in bigger batteries on their flagships to keep users away from the socket for at least an entire day. The Pixel 3 XL has a 3430mAh fuel tank, which is adequate according to the standards set by the giants of the Android universe. Apple hasnt officially disclosed the battery capacity, but third-party sources have confirmed a 2942mAh power reserve. We have used both the phones extensively as our daily drivers and the iPhone XR has been constantly edging out an entire day with a moderate usage scenario thanks to an ultra-efficient iOS 12. You brim up to the iPhone XR before you leave for the day and you can easily move over to the next day with around an average of 30 per cent power in reserve. The Pixel 3 XL is close on its heels, with an average of an entire days battery life. However, despite Google optimising its software for the hardware, Androids natural properties bog down the Pixel in the stamina run when compared to the iPhone. Do note that our usage scenario for the test included lots of texting, streaming videos and music, occasional sessions of casual gaming, light photography, and browsing social media. Price The Pixel 3 range starts at Rs 71,000 for the base variant with an 18:9 5.5-inch FHD display and 64GB of storage, with the 128GB variant selling for Rs 80,000. The Pixel 3 XL with the infamous notch and a bigger battery starts at Rs 83,000 for the 64GB variant, but you can bump up the storage to 128GB on the top end variant by shelling out Rs 92,000. The Pixel 3 XL is available in Just Black, Simply White and Not Pink. The iPhone XR starts at Rs 76,900 for the base 64GB variant, while the 128GB variant retails for Rs 81,900. The range-topping 256GB variant demands a sum of Rs 91,900. The XR is available in Black, Blue, Coral, Yellow and (PRODUCT) RED. Conclusion Its impressive to see how the difference between the best of iOS and Android worlds have shrunken to extremely low levels, if not be on par with each other. The iPhone XR and the Pixel 3 XL represent the best of their own platforms. In fact, both these smartphones are pretty evenly matched and its tough choosing one over the other. However, as we stated earlier, the Pixel 3 XL and iPhone XR are meant to cater to completely different crowd respectively. If you want to invest in a smartphone that makes a statement on the move and offers an almost flawless user experience along with an extremely capable camera and an awesome battery life, the iPhone XR is an easy pick no second thoughts here. On the other hand, if you want a smartphone that boldly flaunts an unconventional yet funky design, a superb camera and one of the most intelligent mobile software experiences, nothing beats the Google Pixel 3 XL in this regard. Its effortlessly cool. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Iran's economy was already suffering from major structural problems -- including major banking issues -- before Trump walked out of the nuclear deal. (Photo: AP | File) Tehran: Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic republic "will proudly bypass sanctions" by the United States that took effect on Monday targeting the country's oil and financial sectors. "I announce that we will proudly bypass your illegal, unjust sanctions because it's against international regulations," Rouhani said in a televised speech. "We are in a situation of economic war, confronting a bullying power. I don't think that in the history of America, someone has entered the White House who is so against law and international conventions," he added. The measures described by Washington as "the toughest sanctions ever" follow US President Donald Trump's controversial decision in May to abandon the multi-nation nuclear deal with Tehran. The latest tranche aim to significantly cut Iran's oil exports -- which have already fallen by around one million barrels a day since May -- and cut it off from international finance. The United States has given temporary exemptions to eight countries -- including India, Japan and Turkey -- to continue buying oil in a bid to avoid disturbing their economies and global markets. But US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed to push Iran's oil sales to zero. "Watch what we do. Watch as we've already taken more crude oil off the market than any time in previous history," he told CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday. Trump's administration says it wants a new deal with Iran that curbs its interventions around the Middle East and missile programme -- demands that have been flatly rejected by Tehran. "Constantly they are sending us messages saying 'Let's sit and negotiate.' Negotiations for what?" said Rouhani. "First, you respect the negotiations we already concluded, so that there are grounds for the next negotiations." Rouhani said four countries had approached him during his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly in September, offering to mediate with the US but he turned them down. "There is no need for mediation. There is no need for all these messages. Act on your commitments, and we will sit and talk," he said. Iran's economy was already suffering from major structural problems -- including major banking issues -- before Trump walked out of the nucleaIran, Tehran, Iran President, hassan Rouhani, US Sanctions on Iran, White House, Donald Trump, r deal. But Trump's announcement in May helped fuel a run on Iran's currency that has seen the rial lose more than two thirds of its value, driving up prices and forcing the government to resort to food handouts for the country's poor. Rouhani came to power in 2013, vowing to rebuild ties with the world and attract billions of dollars in foreign investment. The other parties to the nuclear deal -- Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia -- have all vehemently opposed the US move and vowed to keep trade going, though they are struggling to convince private companies to stand up to US pressure. Most of the international firms who lined up to work in Iran after the 2015 deal have been forced to leave, including France's Total, Peugeot and Renault, Germany's Siemens. "Today, it's not just us who are angry with America's policies. Even European companies and governments are angry with America's policies," said Rouhani. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (IM) detained and interrogated a 16-member army team led by a Lt Colonel for about half-an-hour after it trespassed the gate of the outfits central headquarters at Hebron in Nagaland. A statement emailed to DH by the NSCN (IM) said the incident happened around 4.30pm on Friday when the army team led by Lt Col Mohammad Zabiulla belonging to its signal department in its Zakhama post entered Kamdi Bazar in Peren district, where the outfits central headquarters is situated. The army personnel came in four gypsys and trespassed the gate of central headquarters at Hebron to go towards Jalukie. However, they were stopped at the gate by the Naga Army personnel who were already alerted about the Indian Army personnel moving towards the Hebron. The Indian army personnel were detained and interrogated for about half-an-hour. The Indian army personnel who started their journey from Rangapahar army camp claimed that they followed the direction given by the passersby and had no idea that they were to cross the central headquarters of Government of Peoples Republic of Nagalim (GPRN), said the statement. The statement said it was a violation of the ground rules of ceasefire it had signed with the government in 1997. However, the Indian army personnel were cautioned and set free in good faith after they admitted their serious mistake, it said. The NSCN (IM), which is in ceasefire with the Centre since 1997, runs its own government called GPRN and its central headquarters at Hebron is its power centre. They have their armed cadre whom they call Naga Army and move freely in the designated areas in Nagaland. The NSCN (IM) says Nagas were never part of India and have been leading an armed battle for protecting unique identity of the Nagas. The NSCN (IM) signed a broad framework agreement with the government in August 2015 and is expected to sign a final agreement soon for a solution to the decades-long Naga problem. The GPRN wonders why the Lt Col did not coordinate with the various Indian army units stationed in and around Dimapur. The Indian army personnel could have taken the Sukhovi village route where the Indian army has its training centre to connect to Jalukie or taken the Niuland route which is being used by the public due to roadblock/landslides at NH-29 near Chumukedima. It was a total negligence on the part of the Indian army personnel to have reached a sensitive area such as the doorstep of our central headquarters at Hebron, said the statement. Public relations officer (defence), Col. Chiranjeet Konwar, based in Dimapur in Nagaland, told DH that the army team had taken the route as suggested by a passerby as the road between Dimapur and Kohima was closed on Friday due to a landslide. The army team was on their way from Dimapur to Kohima, he added. Migrants: cooperation with Algeria positive - Italian PM Conte in Algiers calls for joint effort on repatriations (ANSAmed) - ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 5 - Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte on Monday said cooperation with Algeria on immigration was very positive during a visit to Algiers. ''Italy and Algeria know well the importance of the integrated management of migration phenomena, based on principles of shared responsibility and partnership among countries of origin, transit and destination'', Conte told a joint press conference with his Algerian counterpart, Ahmed Ouyahia. ''The cooperation is very positive, we are satisfied''. Talking about repatriations, he said he has confidence ''in a joint effort that can ensure further progress in terms of increased effectiveness of agreements already in place''. (ANSAmed). Three years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioned Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumars DNA at a political rally during the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha too has hit Nitish on the same issue. During 2015 polls, Prime Minister Modi had questioned your DNA. You took it personally and decided to send the samples. Its three years now. The report must have come by now. Share your DNA report, a visibly angry Kushwaha told Nitish at a rally in Muzaffarpur. Kushwaha, who has a running feud with Nitish, was apparently miffed with the Bihar Chief Minister after the JD (U) strongman refused to join issues with the Union Minister. I dont want to stoop to low level. Neither I want the public discourse to be brought down, nor is it necessary for me to react on all the issues, said Nitish when asked whether he ever told Kushwaha that he would relinquish Bihar CMs chair after 2020. Last week, Kushwaha had stunned everyone when he made the disclosure that Nitish had once told him that he would give up chief-ministership after 2020. Nitishs aides attacked the Union minister fiercely when they told Kushwaha that CMs chair was not rasogulla or muton rice where you can satiate your desire after eating it. Piqued at the stand of Nitish and his aides, Kushwaha hit back at the Bihar CM. You have said I am not worthy of comment. By saying this, you have relegated me to a lowly position, while keeping yourself at high pedestal. Is this the way an elder brother (Nitish) treats his younger brother (Kushwaha), said the Union Minister for State for HRD. The relationship between Kushwaha and Nitish soured further ever since BJP chief Amit Shah said last month that BJP and JD (U) would enter into a 50:50 formula for the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, leaving little room for the other smaller allies. Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, on Monday, directed the Belagavi district administration to hold a reconciliation meeting between farmers and officials of Axis Bank on November 7, in the backdrop of the bank having secured arrest warrants for non-payment of loans. With respect to the Axis Bank having moved court in Kolkata against non-repayment of loans, and the court having issued arrest warrants, the chief minister today, directed the district administration and police to sort out the issue, said a statement from the Chief Ministers Office. Accordingly, Belagavi Deputy Commissioner S B Bommanahalli, will chair a meeting with defaulting farmers and Axis Bank; on November 7, where both parties are expected to reach a settlement amicably, the CMO said. Kumaraswamy has had to step in after five farmers in Belagavi, were issued an arrest warrant by a Kolkata court for defaulting on loans they borrowed for purchase of farm machinery and land development. Apparently, nearly 150 farmers have borrowed loans from Axis Bank. The issue is threatening to snowball into a major controversy. The Kumaraswamy administration has already announced a Rs 45,000 crore crop loan waiver - applicable for loans outstanding as on July 10, 2018 - and has repeatedly said that farmers need not worry about repayment. Kumaraswamy has also publicly threatened banks against pressurizing farmers on repaying loans. Statement from Axis Bank Sadashiva Mallya, Regional Branch Banking Head- South, Axis Bank, told that the bank is working towards amicable loan repayment process through a one-time settlement scheduld. Our bank through its branches has extended various credit facilities to farmers who have borrowed money for their agricultural/farm related activities. In accordance with the laws of the land, legal proceedings were initiated almost six months ago following failure of loan repayment by the farmers. The bank has also been working towards an amicable loan repayment process through a one-time settlement schedule and would like to encourage the farmers to avail this opportunity," he said. "We are cognizant of the notification issued by the Government of Karnataka on the loan waiver scheme and shall be aligned with the state government and the SLBC directives in this regard. Needless to say, the interests of the farmers are of utmost priority and the bank will work with the Government of Karnataka to resolve the matter in the best interests of all parties concerned, Mallya added. The state government has prohibited processions, for or against Tipu Jayanti during its celebrations in Karnataka on November 10. The government has also directed district administrations to celebrate the Jayanti in closed spaces like auditoriums and ensure that no posters or banners are erected on that day. Heavy security Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister G Parameshwara, who held a meeting with police officials regarding security arrangements for the Jayanti at Vidhana Soudha on Monday, told reporters that elaborate security measures were being put in place to ensure that there are no untoward incidents in the state during the celebrations. The BJP has staunchly opposed Tipu Jayanti and threatened massive protests if the government goes ahead with the celebrations. Venue shifted Parameshwara also said that the venue of the Jayanti (organised by the state government) was shifted to Ravindra Kalakshetra from Banquet Hall in Vidhana Soudha. "The decision to shift the venue has been taken to ensure law and order during the celebrations in the city. Last year, there were several problems when the celebrations were held in the Banquet Hall. That is why we have taken a decision to change the venue. Also, since all state organised Jayanti are held at Ravindra Kalakshetra, we have decided to organise Tipu Jayanti too there. The Jayanti celebrations will come to a close by 2 pm," he added. RAF to be deployed Parameshwara said that the government would install Rapid Action Force (RPF) for providing security measures, as the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) battalions had been deployed to other states on election duty. The Home Minister said that stringent action will be taken against persons who resort to posting derogatory or provocative messages on social media, and also against miscreants/troublemakers who try to disrupt the celebrations. HDK's past opposition Reacting to a question on Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's opposition to the Tipu Jayanti celebrations in the past, Parameshwara said, that the former had made those remarks in his personal capacity. "But now he is heading the coalition government. The chief minister has assured to take forward all the programmes initiated by the previous Congress government," Parameshwara added. A former fierce critic of Tipu Jayanti, and the government funds being used for the same, Kumaraswamy has, however, has now acceded to the celebrations, thanks to coalition politics. The state government has been organising Tipu Jayanti for the past three years. In 2015, the Jayanti celebrations had led to clashes between two groups forcing authorities to impose prohibitory orders in parts of Kodagu district. SWARTHMORE People from all walks of life and different faiths converged at the Swarthmore Friends Meeting House Sunday afternoon with a unified message to stop gun violence. This latest event in the county to decry intentional fatal usage of firearms gathered about 100 people who want sensible gun reform, this after 11 people were killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27 as an alleged anti-Semitic hate crime. Ralph Ciampa of the interfaith group Heeding Gods Call Delaware County said its time for a change in the country to prevent such public mass shootings from continuing to happen. We need to stand up to protest those risks that still remain in our community and that could be changed, he said to the crowd outside the meeting house. Were glad to have you here to add to our voices in our communities that say things need to change. Heeding Gods Call organized Sundays event and featured speakers from different faiths and religious affiliations including Jewish, Muslim and Baptist. Community members who have been directly affected by gun violence and those working with organizations to bring about change in firearm availability also spoke. No matter the message, Heeding Executive Director Brian Miller said spiritual leaders who speak out against violent massacres always miss one point: To be active. Things are not going to change until we all get active, said Miller. Im happy to say that you are being active by being here today. Thats where we intend at Heeding Gods Call and we will continue to call on people like you to get active and stay active about this issue, and thats how were going to bring change. Jessica Frankl from Delco United for Sensible Gun Policy said families get disrupted when gun violence takes the life of a loved one. She said there have been times where she cant contain her anger and sadness with each new shooting that happens in the United States, the country with the highest gun fatality rate in the world. Rather than finding the solution to help stop the carnage, we hear calls from our leaders to put guns in schools and in churches, she said. None of us want to live in a world where there is an armed guard on every corner, and we all know that more guns are not the answer; What do we do? A first step lauded by Frankl was Gov. Tom Wolf on Oct. 12 signing a law which requires a convicted domestic abuser to relinquish their firearms to a law enforcement agency or authorized gun dealer within 48 hours. The previous time frame was 60 days and allowed the firearms to be stored at a friend or family members residence. This bill was approved with all representatives and senators serving Delaware County voting to approve it. Getting that bill signed into law was declared the first piece of sensible gun legislation signed into law in Pennsylvania by Frankl, and it was no small feat to get it through. It took everyday people like you picking up your phones, writing your legislators, showing up in Harrisburg all of that to get our legislators to call for a vote and make the right decision, she said. We did more than hope and pray, as Brian said, we took action and it worked. Rabbi Nathan Martin of the Congregation Beth Israel of Media said after the experiences the country endured over the past week his heart breaks at the killings in Pittsburgh and two African Americans shot in a Kentucky supermarket in another alleged hate crime. When you save a life, it is as if youre saving a world, said Martin. When you take a life, it is as if you are destroying the world. The killings this week were part of a larger string of killings by gun violence that we face in our country everyday (that) have up-ended lives and destroyed worlds. After a number of speeches at the Swarthmore Friends Meeting House there was a remembrance walk down to the Trinity Episcopal Church in the borough. Around the church building property at the corner of College Avenue and North Chester Road was a slew of T-shirts serving as a marker for lives lost to gun violence in the county. This Memorial of the Lost is a mobile way to put a visual element to the number of lives lost to gun violence. Each shirt has the name and age of a person who had succumbed to a bullet. At Trinity, people received voting guides that listed the gun rights positions of state and federal lawmaker candidates in Tuesdays election and participated in a letter-writing campaign to their legislators to ask for more participation in common-sense gun legislation. Art Carney, who was born a century ago yesterday, is now mainly remembered for his long tenure as Jackie Gleasons second banana on. Needless to say, there are worse fates for an actor than being remembered for just one role, starting with not being remembered at all. But there was much more to Carney than his much-loved impersonation of Ed Norton, the bumbling sewer worker, and the reason why you probably arent aware of that fact that is one of the saddest stories I know. Carney, who started out as a comedian, discovered almost accidentally as a byproduct of the popularity of The Honeymooners that he had the stuff great character actors are made of. He was all over the tube in the long-gone days of live network TV, appearing in delightful small-screen versions of Charleys Aunt and Harvey and giving a powerfully persuasive performance in The Velvet Alley, a Playhouse 90 episode from 1959 written by Rod Serling in which he played a disillusioned TV writer who bore a suspiciously close resemblance to Serling himself. A year later, Serling wrote another, equally memorable role for Carney, who played an alcoholic department-store Santa Claus in a Twilight Zone episode called The Night of the Meek that cut far closer to the knuckle than its viewers knew at the time. Then, in 1965, Carney created the role of Felix Ungar in the original Broadway production of Neil Simons, co-starring with Walter Matthau and receiving reviews that at the very least should have established him as a top-tier stage actor. But Jack Lemmon replaced him in the 1968 film version of, and that was that: Carney continued to play Ed Norton on TV, and he even contrived to win a Tony in 1968 for his performance in the short-lived Broadway production of Brian Friels, but hed missed his chance to become a full-fledged star in his own right. The problem, as everybody in the business was all too well aware, was that Carney, like the character he played in The Night of the Meek, was an alcoholic who also suffered from chronic depression. Hed been able to keep his drinking under control in the Fifties, but he lost his footing early in the run of The Odd Couple, in part because his own marriage, like that of Felix Ungar, was breaking up. To be sure, Carneywho would always make a point of describing himself as an actor, not a comedianwas by all accounts brilliantly successful in infusing his interpretation of the part with the emotional turmoil of his offstage life. As he later recalled: There were so many parallels to my own life in that role. The character carries around pictures of his kids and his house and shows them to visitors. During one performance, when I was doing that on stage I broke down and cried. But nobody in Hollywood was willing to take a chance on casting a drunk whod never appeared in a film role of any substance, and so Carney was never seriously considered for the part. The brass ring passed him by, and within a few years his career had dried up. It wasnt until 1974 that Carney stopped drinking for good, the same year in which he finally landed a leading film role that was worthy of his talents. His richly wrought performance in Paul Mazurskys, in which he played a lonely, irascible widower who is forced to move out of his Upper West Side apartment and start a new life when the building in which he lives is torn down, won him a well-deserved best-actor Oscar and brought him the big-screen success that had previously eluded him. Three years later he played an over-the-hill private detective in Robert Bentons, a neo-noir comedy-drama in which he once again showed what he could do with a meaty part. He acted as often as he cared to for the rest of his life, and while he would never again stretch himself, his supporting roles in such comedies asandwere always carried off with the grumpy charm that became his trademark. When Carney died in 2003, the obits all mentioned Ed Norton first and foremost, which was fair enough. To have played an iconic sitcom character had long since earned him a spacious room in the mansion of posterity. But for those who were aware of the other things that he might have done with his great gifts, Carneys death was the occasion for a different kind of mourning, the kind to which Stephen Sondheim refers in the most poignant song from his greatest musical: You take your road. The decades fly. The yearnings fade, the longings die, You learn to bid them all goodbye. I hope that Art Carney wasnt haunted in old age by the road he didnt takebut Id be surprised if it didnt come to his mind on occasion. Few things sting more fiercely than the unbidden memory of wasted time. * * * Art Carneys New York Times obituary is here. A scene from The Velvet Alley, originally telecast live by CBS in 1959 as an episode of Playhouse 90. The script is by Rod Serling and the episode was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. Jack Klugman plays Carneys agent: A scene from The Night of the Meek, a 1960 Twilight Zone episode written by Serling and directed by Jack Smight in which Carney plays opposite John Fiedler: Glenda Jackson presents Carney with his Oscar for Harry and Tonto: In the lovely Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, members of Tree of Life Congregation gathered for Shabbat services, as was their practice, their sustenance, their abiding joy. This was what Saturday mornings were for: prayer on the weekly Sabbath, which had begun Friday just before sundown and would end that evening. It was as much a part of their lives as eating, as breathing. Also in the synagogue that day, new life was being celebrated in a baby-naming and circumcision ceremony. It was meant to be a day of pure happiness, an exercise in great love and deep faith and hope for a future in which that faith would thrive and bless generations to come. Tears would be shed. But they were to be tears of gratitude and gladness. Then, into that sacred space, came a gunman wielding an assault-style AR-15 rifle and three Glock .357 handguns. The gunman said he wanted all Jews to die horribly ugly words, but ones not unfamiliar to every Jewish person who has grown up fending off anti-Semitic slurs. Journalist Howard Fineman grew up in Tree of Life synagogue. As he wrote in The New York Times, Pittsburgh was where he developed faith in the United States. Now, what the Anti-Defamation League believes was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in this nations history has shaken that faith. I was taught in Squirrel Hill that we were in the one country that was an exception to the history of the human race in general and the Jews in particular, Fineman wrote. Founded on Enlightenment principles of individuality, freedom, tolerance and justice, the United States was the only place besides Israel where Jews could live at one with their nation, unburdened by fear or confusion about identity. Now I must wonder: If Pittsburgh isnt safe for Jews, if Squirrel Hill isnt safe, if the Tree of Life isnt safe, what place is? At a rally in Indianapolis on Saturday, President Donald Trump said, This wicked act of mass murder is pure evil, hard to believe, and frankly, something that is unimaginable. This was an anti-Semitic act. You wouldnt think this would be possible in this day and age. He cannot have been paying attention. An audit by the Anti-Defamation League found that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. rose 57 percent in 2017. The incidents included harassment, vandalism and assault. It was the largest single-year increase on record and the second-highest number reported since the ADL started tracking such data in 1979. Alarmingly, the coded language of anti-Semites and white nationalists has been creeping into our political and everyday discourse. Consider the terms globalist and globalism. Theyre often used when discussing trade and other economic issues. But theyre rooted in Nazi propaganda. According to an analysis in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the word globalist echoes the ideology of Adolf Hitler, who portrayed the Jews as international elements that conduct their business everywhere, thus harming and undermining good people who are bounded to their soil, to the Fatherland.' It has been a cornerstone of conspiracy theories featuring George Soros and a fantastical Jewish conspiracy designed to destroy white or Western society by flooding it with third-world hordes. At a White House event Friday, Trump invoked the term globalists when he said foreign countries are cheating our workers. When someone in the audience shouted, Soros, and Lock him up, Trump laughed and echoed the phrase Lock him up. Soros is a Democratic donor and philanthropist. Hes also Jewish. He was the first recipient of the pipe bombs mailed to Trump critics last week. Just before his attack, the Pittsburgh shooter expressed on social media a hatred for HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees. He wrote: HIAS likes to bring invaders that kill our people. I cant sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics. Im going in. The credo of HIAS is Welcome the stranger. Protect the refugee. A statement on its website explains the organizations mission: Founded in 1881 as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS stands for a world in which refugees find welcome, safety, and freedom. Guided by Jewish values and history, HIAS rescues people whose lives are in danger for being who they are. People like the men, women and children fleeing violence and poverty in the caravan that began in Honduras and is making its way toward the United States. Those are the people the Pittsburgh shooter hated. President Trump has described the caravan on Twitter as an invasion. Why is this worrying? Because when we start seeing people as faceless hordes, and describe them as if they were intent on our destruction, we begin to dehumanize them. And thats when racism and anti-Semitism take firmer hold. People of goodwill may differ on immigration policy. But refugees and immigrants should be accorded the same human dignity and decency we expect for ourselves. A gunman who killed two people at a supermarket in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, tried first to enter a predominantly black church but found it locked. He shot two African-Americans at a Kroger supermarket instead. Three days later, a gunman fueled by anti-Semitic rage and a twisted sense of mission killed 11 people at Tree of Life among them Jews old enough to have lived through the Holocaust, only to be slain in their synagogue on the holy Sabbath. Tom Ridge, a Republican, served as governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 until 2001, when he joined the administration of President George W. Bush as this nations first secretary of homeland security. On Twitter, Ridge noted that the violence, bigotry and hate of the last few days has me distraught and upset, with my country and our leaders. He called last weeks pipe bomb campaign and the Tree of Life massacre assaults not only against humanity, but also our Constitution. It is a tragic manifestation of divisive, mean and intolerant civic leadership. Too many of our civic leaders no longer speak to the better angels of our nation. We must demand more than simply condemning these actions with empty rhetoric. Ridge is right, of course. Empty rhetoric no longer is enough. We stand with victims of racist and religious hatred. We stand with the Jewish community in Squirrel Hill and elsewhere. We thank the police officers who risked their lives to keep a tragedy from becoming even more horrific. This hatred has to stop. Let it stop with each of us. SALT LAKE CITY It appears the kids arent all right with their dads political ideology. Whats going on: The two adult children of Steve West, the Republican candidate for the Missouri Houses 15th District, told voters they shouldnt elect their father, according to The Kansas City Star. Emily and Andy West said their fathers political ideology is pure hatred and totally insane. Emily West told The Star her father made multiple comments that are racist and homophobic and how he doesnt like the Jews. Flashback: Back in August, The Star reported that West has a history of "bigotry including homophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and outright racism." Both the Missouri Republican Party and the Anti-Defamation League condemned Wests comments. Going further, USA Today reports that West previously made comments on a radio talk show where he defended Hitler, saying, "Hitler was right about what was taking place in Germany. And who was behind it." Defense: West told USA Today he is not anti-Semitic and his comments have been taken out of context. He said his children were caught up in a very toxic divorce. Reminder: This reminds me of my report from September on six siblings who urged Arizona voters not to support their brother Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar. DRAPER Brent Taylor, North Ogden mayor and a major in Utah's Army National Guard, was "the personification of love of God, family and country," Gov. Gary Herbert said Sunday, one day after news spread of Taylor's killing during an insider attack in Afghanistan. "This is a sad day for Utah, for America," Herbert said at Sunday's news conference. Taylor's remains are expected to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday at 9:45 p.m., said Utah National Guard Maj. Gen. Jefferson Burton. Funeral arrangements are still being made. Taylor's service was "a testament to the character of this man and motivation to preserve the freedom you and I enjoy as Americans," Burton said, calling Taylor "one of our finest soldiers." Taylor, 39, took an unprecedented one-year leave of absence from his post as mayor for his deployment to Afghanistan in January. But months away from his return, he was killed during an "apparent insider attack" Saturday in Kabul, Burton said. He leaves behind his wife, Jennie, and seven children ranging in age from 13 years to 11 months. Taylor's mission, as part of his work with the Special Operations Joint Task Force in support of Operation Freedom Sentinel, was to help train and "build capacity" in Afghan forces. He was killed and another U.S. soldier was wounded in the insider attack at the Kabul Military Training Center, where a member of the Afghan security forces opened fire on them, Burton said. The attacker was then killed "on the spot" by Afghan forces, Burton said. Taylor was a "bridge builder" and "a man who made friends and loved people," making the attack especially "bitter" for the Utah National Guard, Burton said. "I do believe that Maj. Taylor felt he was among friends, with people he was working with," Burton said, but he noted the area is still considered a "combat zone" where the Taliban obviously is still active. Burton characterized Taylor's death as a "betrayal," or an instance of "maybe misplaced trust." "It's bitter," Burton said. "He was with folks he was helping and training That's what's so, ultimately, painful about this." Burton noted the attack is still under investigation, though he hopes it will conclude soon. "He did love the people of Afghanistan that's what's difficult about this whole thing," Herbert said. "He was there to help them and did so. And that's the mark of a leader. There's a reason he was elected mayor of North Ogden. All his life he demonstrated leadership and a willingness to help." A GoFundMe page to support Taylor's family had already raised more than $170,000 as of Sunday evening. The family was also accepting donations through the Taylor Family Charitable Account at America First Credit Union. Taylor's family released a statement later Sunday through Jennie Taylor's sister, Kristy Pack, expressing appreciation "for the outpouring of love and support during this unspeakably difficult time." "Brent's life impacted so many of us in remarkable ways, and we are grateful for the expressions of gratitude and sympathy that we have received," Pack said. "We are especially grateful for the love and support shown to Brent's grieving children. "As one of many, many military families to give the ultimate sacrifice, we also want to express our love for this great nation and the pride that we feel knowing that Brent gave his life in service to his country the country he and Jennie both love so much," the statement continued. "Even in this time of heartbreak, we feel the closeness of our eternal Father in heaven and the comfort of knowing that the Lord has welcomed home one of his most beloved sons." Pack, standing outside of Taylor's home in North Ogden, added that her sister wanted to express that while "we are overwhelmed with heartache, there is no regret." She noted her sister "knew what she was signing up for" as a wife to a military man. "When a man like Brent has the desire to bring freedom to others and to serve his country, and he gives his life to that cause, in our view there's not a whole lot of room for anger," Pack said. "We are so proud of the way he lived proud of the way he gave his life." Taylor was remembered Saturday by Utah leaders as a devoted patriot and family man, well respected for his political contributions and military service. Close friend and former Pleasant View Mayor, Toby Mileski, said Taylor had recently pondered the possibility of running for Utah governor. One of six brothers to join the National Guard, Taylor was serving in his fourth deployment at the time of his death. Taylor was deployed twice to Iraq in 2006 and again in 2007 to support operation Iraqi freedom, where he was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star Medal. From 2007 to 2008, Taylor again deployed to Iraq in support of the same operation, where he served as a platoon leader and a senior intelligence adviser. Taylor joined the military in 2003 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Military Intelligence Corp in 2006 as a graduate from Brigham Young University's Reserve Officer Training Corp, according to information provided by the Utah National Guard. Taylor held a bachelor degree in political science from Brigham Young University, as well as a master's degree in public administration from the University of Utah, where he was also a Ph.D. candidate in international relations. Throughout his time in the military, Taylor served in numerous positions, including platoon leader, battalion plans officer, vulnerability assistance officer, explosive ordnance disposal officer, mobile training team chief, selective service officer, and recruit sustainment program coordinator. Burton said Taylor was "just somebody driven to do good," whether it was in politics, military or in his community in general "wherever he could make a difference." "He put a lot of sunshine wherever you went," Burton said. "He was that kind of guy." SALT LAKE CITY The deaths of two long-time law enforcement officers from the Salt Lake area were announced Sunday one, a retired lieutenant from West Valley, and the other a Unified Police sergeant. Both died from medical issues. Both police departments issued statements lamenting the deaths, memorializing former West Valley police officer James Crowley and Unified Sgt. Cory Peterson as respected members of law enforcement. "(Crowley) was a generous human being and dedicated police officer who gave of himself unselfishly to his family, friends, coworkers, and the citizens of West Valley City," the West Valley City Police Department said in a statement. "He will be deeply missed. Our prayers and thoughts go out to his family during this difficult time." Crowley, 71, died due to a brain tumor, according to West Valley police spokeswoman Roxeanne Vainuku. Unified Police Sgt. Melody Gray said Peterson, 47, died from "medical-related issues" after being with the department for 10 years, as of last month. "(He was) a great guy, I can't even tell you," Gray said. "The guy was so giving and was so generous that it's unbelievable. Right now our hearts just really go out to his family and all the people who deeply loved him." Unified police did not elaborate on Peterson's medical issues, but a GoFundMe page set up to raise funds for Peterson's treatment said he had been in intensive care "due to pancreatitis and several compounding factors." The page had raised more than $9,000 as of Sunday. Crowley was hired as a police officer in West Valley when the city first incorporated in 1980. He retired after 33 years of service, equaling 41 total years in law enforcement, according to city officials. During his service, Crowley was promoted to sergeant in 2000, before he was promoted to lieutenant in 2002. He worked as a supervisor in the patrol and investigations division, as well as the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Task Force and the chief's office. "Following his retirement, Jim remained an active supporter of our department as a member of the West Valley City Honorary Colonels," West Valley officials said. "He was an integral part of bringing the Fraternal Order of Police to the State of Utah and was the longest standing state trustee on the national level at the time of his death. Jim Crowley dedicated his life to our profession." Peterson was recently promoted to sergeant at the Midvale Precinct, where he had worked since 2012, Gray said. Gray and Vainuku said funeral services for both men are forthcoming. MONUMENT VALLEY, San Juan County Tammie Nakai lives under a vista of red-rock spires and purple sunrise sky that offers arguably some of the United States' most breathtaking views. But her home lacks what most of the country considers basic necessities: electricity and running water. "It's been that way my whole life, almost 31 years," she said at the jewelry stand she and her husband run with pride in Monument Valley, a rural community near the Utah-Arizona border where tourists stand in the highway to re-create a famous running scene from "Forrest Gump." As she decides how she'll cast her ballot, Navajo voters like Nakai could tip the balance of power in their county on Tuesday. It's the first general election since a federal judge decided racially gerrymandered districts illegally minimized the voices of Navajo voters who make a slim majority of San Juan County's population. The county overlaps with the Navajo Nation, where people face huge disparities in health, education and economics. About 40 percent lack running water in their homes. The race highlights the simmering tensions between Native Americans and white residents who live across the San Juan River on ranches and in towns laid out in neat grids by Mormon settlers. Though county leaders acknowledge the historical inequities Navajo people face, they say those issues go far beyond their reach. Willie Grayeyes disagrees. After a fight to get on the ballot, the Democratic County Commission candidate is running in a new district and wants to help address needs like basic utilities and neglected dirt roads that tear up buses and can wash out in storms, keeping students from school. Overlapping county, federal and tribal governments mean it's not always clear who is responsible for any given problem. But if Grayeyes, wins the county's governing body will be majority Navajo for the first time. "I want to sit at the table ... rather than, 'There's an Indian sitting over there. Let's see what he says,'" he said at a meeting last week. "Long term, I want to change the things, the beliefs that separate us dominant society vs. Native American communities." Tribes also have been fighting for increased access to the ballot box in Nevada, Alaska and North Dakota, where a U.S. Supreme Court decision last month allows the state to keep requirements that Native Americans said were discriminatory. Utah's San Juan County is a southwestern landscape of rolling green sage and red mesas that covers an area nearly the size of New Jersey. It includes Monument Valley and a handful of other primarily Democratic communities on the Navajo Nation, which also sprawls into Arizona and New Mexico. The county's larger, mostly non-Native towns of Blanding and Monticello are heavily Republican. The county faced a voting-rights case in the 1980s, and more recently a federal judge decided its three commission districts were drawn so only one member would be Navajo. The county is appealing that ruling as unfair to Blanding voters. Grayeyes is running in a new, 65 percent Navajo district against Kelly Laws, a Republican former Blanding city councilman whose son is the county attorney. It's the county's only contested commission race this year. Laws didn't return messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. A Grayeyes win would also change the county's position in the still-fresh debate over Bears Ears National Monument, land that tribes consider sacred. Many of the county's non-Native residents were angry when President Barack Obama created the monument. They argue the added protections on 2,100 square miles were too broad and closed the area to energy development. They cheered President Donald Trump's decision to downsize Bears Ears by about 85 percent. "It's been very divisive," said Bruce Adams, the commission's Republican chairman, who is running unopposed for another term. He acknowledges the steep contrast between life in his hometown and conditions on the Navajo Nation, but said it's wrong to lay all the problems at the feet of county government. "We've tried to treat these people just like we treat everyone in San Juan County. They're no different to us than any other citizen," Adams said. Navajos in the county do face unique challenges getting to the ballot box. Many homes lack traditional street addresses, and with few jobs on the reservation, people travel frequently for work. Navajos went to court after a switch to vote by mail, saying it made it harder to receive ballots through unreliable mail service and for elderly Navajo-language speakers to read them. Elections officials have worked to address those obstacles, but Navajo leaders remain skeptical. The road to Grayeyes' candidacy also went through federal court. The county disqualified him from the ballot after the clerk decided he lived outside the district. Grayeyes fought back, noting has was registered to vote there for decades. "It's degrading to be told, 'You don't live here,'" Grayeyes said. "It's a sacred thing." A federal judge sided with him, finding the county clerk wrongly backdated the complaint from a would-be rival for the seat. Outgoing San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman sees that ruling as part of the county's ongoing struggle against the federal government, which owns most of the land in the county. Lyman became a figure in the states' rights movement when he was convicted of a misdemeanor after leading a protest ATV ride through a closed canyon. "It's intended to break the county," said Lyman, who's running for a state legislative seat. "This paternalistic management of Native Americans, it's a concept whose time has way past. But to turn it and say San Juan County is the author of that is the hugest disservice." Instead, he and Adams say federal and tribal leaders have let Utah Navajos down. But Kenneth Maryboy, a Navajo running unopposed for another commission seat, said the county could and should do more. "If we have two Native Americans in there .... that would be leverage to make things happen," he said. Navajo voter Julie Ann Holiday is glad to see more Native Americans on the ballot. She and her husband live in a traditional Navajo hogan, a circular, one-room dwelling with a wood stove and dirt floor. It has no water tap and is serviced by a plywood outhouse. It was originally built to host ceremonies for her father, who died after years of working in nearby uranium mines. Growing up, Holiday often rode 70 miles to school in Blanding. The schools are closer to reservation homes now, after Navajos filed a lawsuit against the county. Holiday earned her master's degree online from her hogan, after convincing tribal electricity officials to hook up a satellite dish outside. She loves both cultures that intersect at her home but sometimes feels caught between two worlds. "We're right on the edge of the Navajo Nation and San Juan County. You don't know which way to turn," she said. "We've come a long way to get what we need. We just worked hard for it." SALT LAKE CITY More than half a million Utahns have already turned out to vote ahead of Election Day, according to state officials. But even after those early votes are counted, people may have to wait a few days to hear who won tightly contested races like the one between Republican Rep. Mia Love and Democrat Ben McAdams. Around 550,000 people have already voted as of Friday afternoon, representing 40 percent of registered voters in Utah, said Justin Lee, state director of elections. That's compared to a total of about 46 percent of voters who cast their ballots overall in the 2014 election, Lee said. "And we haven't even hit Election Day yet. The numbers are certainly looking up," he said. Improved turnout for the midterm election appears to be happening across the country. More than 30 million Americans have cast early ballots, according to the Associated Press, eclipsing the 2014 early totals nationally. At least 28 states have surpassed their 2014 early votes. Lee said he has only heard of a few small problems "here and there" that county clerks are working through. "With voting, polling locations being available on Election Day, any voter who has issues or thinks there may be an issue can always go vote on Election Day" instead of early voting, Lee explained. County clerks are now processing early ballots, and then they'll start tabulating them on Tuesday using high-speed scanners. "They can process a lot of the ballots when a lot of the front end work has been done on Election Day," Lee said. Mail-in voting in 27 of Utah's 29 counties has created more work for county clerks because mail-in ballots that get dropped at polling places or sent by mail close to Election Day must be verified and counted in a time-consuming process, Lee said. For those in Salt Lake County who forgot to send in their ballots and want to beat potential crowds at the polls on Election Day, early in-person voting continues through Monday. Lee said officials are unsure what voter turnout will look like on Monday, the last day for early voting. "We really don't have a baseline for what a by-mail election looks like here in Utah so we certainly expect to see more ballots come in," but officials are not sure how many, he said. On Tuesday, in-person polling locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. If you aren't already registered to vote, no worries you can register on Election Day at the polls by bringing a valid ID and proof of residence, such as a utility bill showing your name and address. To find out the closest polling site to you, enter your address at vote.utah.gov. You can also track your ballot on the same website. If a Utah race is too close to call on Election Night a possibility in the tight contest between Republican Rep. Mia Love and Democrat Ben McAdams candidates and voters will have to hold their breath while waiting to hear the results. The lieutenant governor's office asks county clerks to follow a vote release schedule created in 2016 that includes a delay until a Friday afternoon dump of results, designed to allow county clerks time to tally ballots in an organized and proper manner without being hounded by campaigns and news organizations to release votes every day, Lee said. "We're far more concerned with making sure the counties have the time get it right, than to get it done fast," Lee said. That's one way Utah differs from many other states, which release voting results as they come in, said Wendy Underhill, director of elections at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Utah appears to be in the minority in delaying it, though there may be advantages to a more cautious approach, she said. Utah counties are not required to follow the vote release schedule. Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen told the Associated Press she plans to release votes one day earlier, on Thursday. Her county accounts for about four-fifths of registered voters in Love's district. Utah County, which has the second-largest portion of voters in Love's district, with 14 percent, will wait until Friday because protecting the integrity of the election is most important, County Clerk Bryan Thompson said. "I understand that everyone wants to know, but if we have issues and there are mistakes, that calls things into question," Thompson said to the AP. Two other counties have 1 percent of the voters in the district: Juab and Sanpete counties. Juab County will do another release Wednesday, said county clerk Alaina Lofgran. Sanpete County will wait until the following Tuesday, Nov. 13, because of a lack of staffing, County Clerk Sandy Neill said. Even if people are clamoring for more votes in the Love-McAdams race, which could decide control of Congress, Lee said the state won't deviate from its plan. "From our perspective, we don't care," Lee said. "I'm being a little flippant with that, but I mean, nothing matters even for Congress' perspective until we do an official certification of results." State and counties don't certify results until the official vote canvass two weeks later, but news organizations such as The Associated Press regularly call races on election night based on statistical models, demographics, the number of absentee ballots and political issues that may affect the outcome of races. Lee said he thinks voters are better served by getting large dumps of votes rather than a trickling of votes to avoid tight races appearing to flip back and forth. "No matter how often we release them, it seems like people want them more often," Lee said. "I think what people would like to see, and I don't think it's practical or feasible, is a live stream of results." There was little criticism of the delayed vote count. Katie Matheson of Alliance for a Better Utah, a left-leaning watchdog group, said election officials are smart to do their due diligence. "There's a lot of stake in these races," Matheson said. "Taking the time to make sure the info they have correct is important." Mail-in deadline Monday Ballots must be postmarked Monday to be counted. If a voter cannot get to a post office, ballots can be dropped off at polling places or other dedicated sites on Election Day. Visit vote.utah.gov for more information. WEST JORDAN Police say two men driving through a neighborhood on Sunday night tried to shoot a random garbage can from their car but missed and hit a garage door. No one was injured in the incident that happened about 9:30 p.m. near 3400 West and 6600 South, said West Jordan Police Sgt. JC Holt. But a couple walking their dog in the neighborhood at about the same time heard and saw the incident and called police. As officers were processing the scene where the bullet hit the garage door, the suspect vehicle drove by again, Holt said. Police attempted to pull over the vehicle and a short chase ensued. The vehicle stopped and the driver and passenger got out and ran inside a friend's house. Andrew Rockman, 28, of Sandy, was arrested for investigation of failing to stop for law enforcement. The alleged shooter ran out a back door. Police were still looking Monday for Tommy Ray Valdez, 27, for questioning, according to Holt. SALT LAKE CITY Pete Davidson and producers from Saturday Night Live are under fire for a joke that mocked a war veteran. What happened: Davidson mocked Dan Crenshaw, a Republican congressional candidate from Texas, who lost his eye when he served in Afghanistan. This guy is kinda cool, Dan Crenshaw, Davidson said. You may be surprised to hear hes a congressional candidate from Texas, and not a hit man in a porno movie. Im sorry, I know he lost his eye in war, or whatever. Whatever. The mocking comment came in a skit in which Davidson offered his thoughts about individual candidates running for the midterms. The Deseret News did not link or share the clip because of graphic language. Reaction: Crenshaw shared his thoughts about the skit on Twitter. Good rule in life: I try hard not to offend; I try harder not to be offended. That being said, I hope @nbcsnl recognizes that vets dont deserve to see their wounds used as punchlines for bad jokes. Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) November 4, 2018 He also told CNN Monday morning that he hopes SNL and Davidson will pool their money together and donate it to a foundation helping veterans. History: Crenshaw is a Navy SEAL who did five tours of duty, according to his campaign website. He lost his eye during an improvised explosive device blast in Helmand in 2012. He recovered and deployed two more times. He retired in 2016 with two Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart and the Navy Commendation Medal with Valor, according to his campaign website. More mocking: SNL didnt hold back Saturday night. They also mocked former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clark and Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham. MILLCREEK Police have arrested a man wanted in connection with an officer-involved shooting over the weekend. Robert Craig Ortega, 28, of Sandy, was arrested Monday by Unified police. Just after 2 p.m. Saturday, a Salt Lake police officer spotted Ortega outside a Chevron gas station, near 3300 South and 1100 East, and discovered there was a warrant out for his arrest issued by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. Some kind of altercation ensued as the officer attempted to take him into custody, according to Salt Lake Police Sgt. Brandon Shearer. The officer first attempted to use his Taser, which did not work. He then used his gun, firing at least one shot. Ortega, who was not injured, drove away from the scene. Shearer said where the officer's shot ended up will be part of the ongoing investigation conducted by Unified police. Details surrounding Ortega's Monday arrest were not immediately available. Ortega was convicted of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child in 2011 and sentenced to three years to life at the Utah State Prison, according to court records. As part of a plea deal at the same time, a case in which Ortega was charged with assault on a police officer and failing to stop for police was dismissed. Ortega's lengthy criminal history also includes theft- and drug-related convictions. WASHINGTON Two U.S. government agencies are giving conflicting interpretations of a safety study on cellphone radiation: One says it causes cancer in rats. The other says there's no reason for people to worry. No new research was issued Thursday. Instead, the National Toxicology Program dialed up its concerns about a link to heart and brain cancer from a study of male rats that was made public last winter. The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees cellphone safety, disagreed with the upgraded warning. And "these findings should not be applied to human cellphone usage," said Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, FDA's chief of radiological health. What's most important is what happens in humans, not rats, said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. "The incidence of brain tumors in human beings has been flat for the last 40 years," Brawley said. "That is the absolute most important scientific fact." THE ORIGINAL STUDY In a $30 million study, scientists put rats and mice into special chambers and bombarded them with radiofrequency waves, like those emitted by older 2G and 3G phones, for nine hours a day for up to two years, most of their natural lives. The levels the rodents experienced were far higher than people are typically exposed to. THE FINDINGS Last February, the National Toxicology Program said there was a small increase in an unusual type of heart tumor in male rats, but not in mice or female rats. The agency concluded there was "some evidence" of a link. Also, the February report cited "equivocal evidence" of brain tumors in the male rats. Thursday, the agency upgraded its description of those findings. The heart tumor increase marked "clear evidence" of cancer in male rats, it announced. There is "some evidence" of brain cancer. The change came after the agency asked outside experts to analyze the findings. "We believe that the link between radiofrequency radiation and tumors in male rats is real, and the external experts agreed," said John Bucher, the toxicology agency's senior scientist. While his agency said the risks to rats don't directly apply to people, the study raises safety questions. THE DISAGREEMENT The FDA immediately disagreed, firing off a press release assuring Americans that "decades of research and hundreds of studies" has made the health agency confident that the current safety limits for cellphone radiation protect the public health. Plus, FDA pointed out confusing findings from the rodent study such as that the radiated rats lived longer than comparison rats that weren't exposed to the rays. The toxicology agency said it appeared that the radiofrequency energy helped older rats' kidneys. There's a reason two different government agencies are clashing they're asking different questions, said George Washington University public health professor George Gray. A former science chief for the Environmental Protection Agency, Gray said the toxicology program examined how cellphone radiation affected animals. By looking at what it means for humans, the FDA "brings in more sources of information and data than just these recent tests in rats and mice," he said in an email. SO ARE CELLPHONES SAFE? "I'm calling you from my cellphone," noted the cancer society's Brawley. He pointed out one well-known risk from cellphones: Car crashes when drivers are distracted by them. As for cancer, if people are concerned, they could use earphones or speakers, he said. Those who study risk aren't hanging up. "My family and I won't change our mobile phone habits based on this news," said George Washington's Gray, co-author of the book "Risk: A Practical Guide for Deciding What's Really Safe and What's Really Dangerous in the World Around You." ___ The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. The government of Tanzania has claimed that Bharti Airtels proposed IPO of its African operations would be illegal as it was not consulted on the matter despite holding a 40% stake in Airtel Tanzania. Bharti Airtel holds the remaining 60% of the Tanzanian operation, which is one of 14 that comprise Airtel Africa. The Indian group recently secured investments worth $1.25 billion from several companies, including Singtel and Softbank, which will help it to pay down debt as it readies its African IPO. Despite the governments allegations, Business Standard reported that Airtel claims to have notified the relevant authorities of both its recent investment round and its IPO intentions. Additionally, Airtel does not intend to alter the ownership structure of Airtel Tanzania in any way. The Tanzanian unit of Airtel has been the subject of some controversy before. Towards the end of 2017, the government launched an official probe into whether that unit had been established by its former owner Zain Group using assets that had been sold illegally by the countrys former government. Airtel maintained its deal had received all necessary approvals, and it was found that the ownership issue dated back to the 2001 privatisation of parts of the Tanzania Telecommunications Company. While no formal announcement was made, it appears the matter was settled after negotiations. Huawei recently launched its flagship smartphone, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, at an event in London but users have already started to complain about issues related to its display. Some people took to the Huawei community forum in the UK and showed that their devices were having green hues on the edges. It seems that the problem it is occuring on LYA-L09 devices with an LG screen. Those who have the LYA-L29 device (also with an LG screen) have reportedly not detected any green bleeding/radiation problems. The company has acknowledged the presence of a problem and are offering phone replacements in select countries. SuomiMobiili cited Elina Takala, Huawei's Director of Marketing and Communications Finland, who said that the company is investigating why a small number of phones have been green in some countries. In Finland, consumers will get a new phone without charge if they have a faulty display. The Mate 20 Pro features a 6.39-inch 2K+ Curved OLED HDR display with a 19.5:9 display aspect ratio and a standard rectangular notch that houses the front camera and sensors for face recognition. The Mate 20 Pro also has an in-display fingerprint sensor that uses Dynamic Pressure Sensing. The devices unlock speed is also said to have increased by 30 percent over the last generation of the in-display fingerprint sensors. The Mate 20 Pro is powered by the Kirin 980 SoC, which is based on a 7nm architecture and the phone is backed by a 4,200 mAh battery, and even gets an IP68 rating. Coming to optics, the Mate 20 Pro comes equipped with a triple rear camera setup: 40MP + 20MP + 8MP sensors, where the first sensor is paired to a 27mm wide lens with an f/1.8 aperture, while the second 12 MP sensor gets a 16mm ultra-wide lens with an f/2.2 aperture. The 8MP sensor is paired to a 3X 80mm telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture. On the front, the Mate 20 Pro features a 24MP RGB sensor that is housed inside the notch and alongside the camera, there is a dot projector, a flood illuminator, an IR camera, and a proximity and ambient light sensor as well. Motorola One Power could soon join the ranks of the smartphones that have got the Android Pie 9.0 update. The smartphone was seen listed on Geekbench running Android Pie OS, which suggests that a stable update could soon be rolled out to it. Googles Pixel devices, a couple of Nokia-branded smartphones and some OnePlus handsets are among the handful of phones that have already got the update while several of other OEMs have either rolled out or are planning to release beta versions of the update to their devices. According to the listing, the Motorola One Power running on Android Pie scored 1,274 points on single-core and 4,508 points multi-core tests. Notably, these scores are less than what the smartphone scored when it ran on Android 8.1 Oreo. In our review, Motorola One Power scored 1,330 points in the single-core test and 4,961 points in the multi-core test. This means that Motorola engineers have to tweak the software according to the device so that it can work on its full potential when upgraded to a higher OS number. Moto One Power was launched under Google's Android One programme and was first announced during the IFA 2018 event in Berlin. If a smartphone is enrolled under Googles Android One programme, its assured to get at least two OS updates and timely security patches. The company claims that the Moto One Power is made in India and that 100 percent of its parts are made in the company's manufacturing facility in Chennai. The Moto One Power features a 6.2-inch Full HD+ 19:9 Max Vision display with a notch and a maximum brightness of 450 nits. It runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636, which is paired with the Adreno 509 GPU. The smartphone comes with 4GB RAM/64GB of internal storage. The internal storage can also be extended up to 25GB via a microSD card. In the camera department, the smartphone is equipped with 16MP + 5MP dual-rear cameras with f/2.0 aperture and 1.12m pixels. The main camera also supports 4K video-capture. On the front, there is an 8MP sensor with a f/2.0 aperture and 1.25m pixels. The front camera supports portrait mode, auto HDR and comes with selfie beauty mode. The Motorola One Power features a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and is fitted with bottom-firing Dolby Audio speakers. Motorola says that the One Power comes with Widevine L1 certification, which means that it can support viewing HD video playback on Netflix. The Motorola One Power was priced at Rs 15,999 when it was launched. Samsung is doing the best it can to make Bixby, its digital assistant more popular. Despite pre-installing the assistant on its smartphones and other devices, hardly anyone is seen using it. Samsung thinks this could be because the assistant is not as versatile as Amazon Alexa or the Google Assistant. As a result, the company is planning to open up the platform for third-party development. According to a report from Wall Street Journal, the South Korean giant is slated to make the announcement at the Samsung Developers Conference next week. While its not technically the first time Samsung is allo third-parties to develop apps for Bixby, the report states the support could be wider this time. Samsung hopes having third-parties develop applications for Bixby will make the AI assistant catch up to its rivals like the Google Assistant, Alexa or Siri. Even Microsofts Cortana is being used by people more than Bixby. The report stated that Samsung will announce how developers can create capsules for Bixby. It sounds a lot like Alexa Skills, which enables the smart speaker platform to hail a cab, book a table, play a game and more. Though Bixby is hardly being used, Samsung is bulldozing consumers with the feature by offering it on 500 million consumer appliances including fridges, washing machines, televisions and more, apart from smartphones. The company plans to install Bixby in all its products by 2020. Active third-party development can make or break a platform. Amazons Alexa is so popular today because of its versatility and its wide of range of skills. Google Assistant too, apart from being installed on every single Android phone sold outside China, is also quite versatile, and has active support from the community. Apple too recently opened Siri up to third parties through Siri Shortcuts this year. Microsoft also has Cortana skills for the same reasons. Samsung is also expected to reveal some concrete details about its upcoming foldable smartphone at its Developers Conference. The foldable smartphone is likely to be launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next year. Apple Watch has been the most shipped smartwatch globally in the third quarter of 2018, two separate reports have confirmed. Both these reports have also placed Fitbit in the second place, making it overtake Samsung and other smartwatch makers. While Strategy Analytics puts Apple Watches global market share at 45 percent, Counterpoint Research says that Apple Watch grabbed 30 percent of the smartwatch market share globally. According to Strategy Analytics, global smartwatch shipments grew by 67 percent annually to reach 10 million units in the third quarter of 2018. Apple shipped 4.5 million smartwatches worldwide in Q3 2018, rising 25 percent from 3.6 million units in Q3 2017. While far ahead of the chasing pack, Apples global smartwatch market share slipped to 45 percent this quarter, down from 60 percent a year ago. Apple is facing growing competition from a revitalised Fitbit and Samsung. The recent launch of Apples new Watch Series 4 model was a badly needed addition to its armoury, Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, said. Fitbit shipped 1.5 million smartwatches worldwide and captured 15 percent of the global smartwatch market share, rising strongly from zero market share a year ago. Fitbit is now the worlds second largest smartwatch brand, the report shows. Steven Waltzer, Industry Analyst at Strategy Analytics, says that Fitbits Versa portfolio is proving to be wildly popular across North America. Fitbit has further scope for growth next year by pushing deeper into Europe, Asia and Latin America. Samsung captured 11 percent of the global smartwatch market share in Q3 2018, lifting itself slightly from 10 percent in Q3 2017. Meanwhile, according to Counterpoints Global Smartwatch Tracker, global smartwatch shipments grew by 53 percent year-on-year (YoY) in the third quarter of 2018 with strong performance from Fitbit, kids' watch brands such as imoo, and start-ups such as Amazfit. Research Director Jeff Fieldhack noted, Apple continues to dominate the smartwatch market with a lions share of 30 percent of the smartwatches shipped. The introduction of the Series 4 this fall was the biggest update from a design and features standpoint, and has quickly resonated with Apples loyal user base. Apples Series 3 saw an uptick later in the quarter with discounted pricing, while Apples Series 1 continued to be the single biggest selling SKU contributing to almost half of all Apple Watch shipments. This could change in holiday season quarter as our channel checks showed pent-up demand for the Series 4. Counterpoint Research Analyst Satyajit Sinha also complimented Fitbits Versa smartwatch for becoming the driving force of the sales. Fitbit continues to shift its focus from predominantly SmartBand/trackers to smartwatches and has now evolved as the next best player to Apple in terms of experience and scale. The launch of the Versa smartwatch was the turning point for Fitbits smartwatch segment growth. The health/fitness factor is playing a key role in driving consumer decision making for the adoption of smartwatches and Fitbit has entirely focused on this core use case, Sinha said. Trump changes tact, says US open to new Iran deal US president Donald Trump on Saturday said the US remained open to reaching a new, more comprehensive deal with Iran that effectively blocks its path to nuclear weapons, in a development that shows the United States is changing tact. President Trumps unilateral move to opt out of 2015 peace treaty with Iran has no supporters and other signatories to the nuclear pact have opposed the US move. Our objective is to force the regime into a clear choice, Trump said in a statement released by the White House on Friday evening, referencing the resumption of sanctions today. Either abandon its destructive behaviour or continue down the path toward economic disaster. The penalties were aimed at the Tehran government, not at the long suffering Iranian people, he added. For this reason, Trump said, we reiterate today that the sale of food, medicine, medical devices, and agricultural commodities to Iran has long been, and remains, exempt from the sanctions. President Trumps move to abandon the Iran pact has also antagonised nations world over after he decided to go ahead with the sanctions plan, arguing that nations, banks and businesses worldwide will decide theyd rather do business with the US than Iran. The administrations strategy is to punish Iran, in fact, has turned into a punishment of all nations at a time when oil prices have started firming up again. The United States remains open to reaching a new, more comprehensive deal with Iran that forever blocks its path to a nuclear weapon, addresses the entire range of its malign actions, and is worthy of the Iranian people, Trump said in the statement. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said earlier Friday that the U.S. would grant eight temporary waivers for countries to keep importing Iranian crude oil after sanctions snap back on Monday. The decisions on waivers is part of the administrations balancing act to get tough on the Iranian government while also trying to ensure that global oil prices dont soar. But Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have also had to fight a rearguard action against hard-liners in the administration including John Bolton, the national security adviser. Bolton has argued that the waivers and a decision not to bar Iranian banks from the global Swift financial messaging system were too generous toward Iran, according to a person familiar with the administrations internal debate. A senior administration official said Japan, India and South Korea were among those getting waivers. China the leading importer of Iranian oil is still in discussions with the US on terms, but is among the eight, according to two people familiar with the discussions who also asked not to be identified. Others could include Taiwan and Turkey. The European Union as a whole wont get a waiver, Pompeo said. In a joint statement on Friday, the European Unions high commissioner and the finance and foreign ministers from the UK, Germany and France said they deeply regret the further re-imposition of sanctions by the United States. They said they will work to protect European economic operators engaged in legitimate business with Iran, including preserving effective financial channels and continuing Irans export of oil and gas. Defaulters find IBC a stumbling block to loan write-downs: RBI The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Act, introduced by the government to ease the process of loan recovery for lenders, has disturbed the existing debtor-creditor equation and it is only natural that it is facing resistance, NS Vishwanathan, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said while delivering a speech at XLRI, Jamshedpur last week. The earlier debtor-friendly environment made it possible for the defaulting debtors to secure moratoriums and force write-downs on debt repayment, while retaining management control over the borrowing units or thwart banks efforts to realise their dues by indulging in serial litigations, he said. The out-of-court restructuring mechanisms too suffered high failure rates resulting in the borrowing entities continuing to indulge in repeated defaults, being confident that the balance of power remained with them and the ability of banks to discipline errant borrowers was weak. The debtor friendly environment had its effect on banks business preference, while also partly contributing to the ever-increasing stressed assets in the banking system. Banks ability and/or willingness to lend to persons or entities that needed credit were hampered, he added. When creditors know that they have weak rights resulting in a low recovery rate, they are averse to lend. Hence, lending in India is concentrated in a few large companies that have a low probability of failure. Further, secured credit dominates, as creditors' rights are partially present only in this case. Lenders have an emphasis on secured credit. In this case, credit analysis is relatively easy: It only requires taking a view on the market value of the collateral. As a consequence, credit analysis as a sophisticated analysis of the business prospects of a firm has shrivelled. He said In India, before the enactment of IBC, the Reserve Bank as banking regulator had to design resolution mechanisms that tried to emulate the desirable features of a bankruptcy law as identified in the literature. However, in the absence of a bankruptcy law in the country, those schemes could not result in meaningful resolution of the stressed loans. This resulted in significant mismatches between the book values of loans carried by banks and the inherent economic value of those loans. In this context, the enactment of the IBC is a watershed event, which has completely changed the legal framework governing the insolvency regime in the country. The enactment of IBC also enabled the Reserve Bank to come out with a revised framework for resolution of stressed assets. These initiatives by the Government of India and the Reserve Bank are being challenged by the defaulting borrowers in various judicial fora. .we thought it necessary to deliver a detailed judgment so that all Courts and Tribunals may take notice of a paradigm shift in the law. Entrenched managements are no longer allowed to continue in management if they cannot pay their debts. In this context, it needs to be recognised that when banks take recourse to legal remedies available to them when a borrower defaults on his debt servicing, including that of security enforcement, they are essentially trying to recover the depositors money from a defaulting borrower, whatever be the reasons for default. However, the defaulting borrowers portray such an action by banks as a case of a ruthless big bank taking over the assets of a hapless borrower. This is the kind of portrayal used even by the large corporates. Here, one needs to distinguish between a private moneylender lending his own money for making a profit and a bank, which to a large extent uses depositors money (and tax payers money, in case of public sector banks). A correct portrayal of the situation would be: public interest (ie, depositors + taxpayers) vs borrowers interest, he said. Genuine defaulters! Viswanathan said one argument that is often repeated is that there are different reasons for default, and the regulations should treat them differently based on the reasons which lead to the default. The proponents of this line of thought argue that where the borrowers are affected by external factors beyond their control, they should be treated as genuine defaulters and some leniency in prudential norms is warranted. This is a fallacy, even though it is important to appreciate that some defaults are inevitable part of lending business. He said the recognition of default or accounting for deterioration in the quality of asset should be independent of the reasons for such default or deterioration. Whereas, it is the resolution plan which should be a function of ability and willingness of the borrower to honour his obligations. Where a borrower has temporarily lost his ability to pay due to circumstances beyond his control, a quick and efficient restructuring of the debt either outside the courts or within the insolvency framework would be in order. In case of wilful or strategic defaulters, ie, borrowers with the ability but no willingness to pay up their debt, change in ownership accompanied by punitive action against the defaulting management is the way to go. Finally, if the business is beyond revival, faster liquidation would help in reallocation of resources to productive use. This is what the Revised Framework for Resolution of Stressed Assets seeks to achieve. Munhall, Pa. In a crowded concert hall here on a late October evening, rock musician Steven Van Zandt leaned into the microphonenodding his head, wrapped in his trademark bandanaand turned his between-song banter to teacher appreciation. Weve been, you know, just trying to give a little respect to the teachers around the country, he said to audience applause, while intermittently strumming a guitar at the helm of his 15-person band, the Disciples of Soul. Theyre underappreciated, he said, pausing for emphasis. Underpaid. Underfunded. Van Zandt, a member of Bruce Springsteens E Street Band and an actor on the HBO show The Sopranos, was giving a shoutout to teachers for a reason: This concert, at the Carnegie Library Music Hall of Homestead in Munhall, was one of the first stops on his Soulfire Teacher Solidarity Tour. In part, the tour is a bid to get Van Zandts free arts-integration curriculum, TeachRock , into more classrooms around the country. The musicians Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, which runs the educational initiative, has invited teachers at every stop on the tourwhich is traveling to 19 states and Canadafor a free experience thats half professional development, half night out: a one-hour arts integration workshop followed by a rock concert. So far, more than 10,000 teachers have registered for the workshops, the foundation reports. The organization has also partnered with local school districts in some of these stateswhich have agreed to offer professional-development credit to educators who participate. As teacher strikes and labor actions swept the country this spring before the tour began, Van Zandt took notice, and the tour took on another missionbringing attention to teachers struggles and rallying community support. The show is scheduled to stop in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and West Virginiaall states that saw strikes or widespread teacher action over the last nine months. At the event here in Pennsylvania, a state that didnt see large-scale teacher activism this year, some teachers emphasized the importance of public solidarity with the profession. But for others, the show was an introduction to the issues other teachers across the country have been protesting. Bringing Back the Arts Years before this springs teacher strikes, TeachRock was born out of education activism. Speaking from the stage to about 100 educators gathered in the concert hall for the professional-development workshop, Van Zandt recounted the story of the curriculums origin. Ten years ago or so, the [National Association for Music Education] came to me and said, This No Child Left Behind legislation is devastating all the arts classes across America, he said, referring to the previous federal education law. So I went to Congress. I talked to [U.S. Sen.] Teddy Kennedy and I talked to [Sen.] Mitch McConnell. And I said, We got a little problem with this legislation. The arts were being pushed to the back burner in many places , neglected in favor of subjects like math and English that were tested under the law. Van Zandt said he asked the legislators: Could they do something to bring music back into the classroom? They were like, Not gonna happen, said Van Zandt. He went back to NAfME, he said, and proposed a different fixan arts-integration curriculum that would weave music history through core subjects like English and social studies. The online library now includes about 140 free lesson plans. Most resources are written by the Rock and Roll Forever Foundations staff, which includes current and former educators, said Christine Nick, the senior manager of policy and outreach. The organization also partners with several documentary films and the music education nonprofit Little Kids Rock to create some resources. The majority of lessons are tailored to middle and high school social studies courses, examining how popular music has reflectedand shapedsocial, political, and economic forces in the 20th century. Other materials integrate contemporary pop and hip-hop artists, who might be more familiar to 21st century students: A social-emotional learning lesson uses Alessia Caras song Here to explore anxiety and peer pressure. Another traces the beats and rhythm in songs by enslaved people in the Americas through to Beyonces music today. (TeachRock is far from the only organization providing materials that infuse popular music into core curricular subjectsresources like Flocabulary , for example, use hip-hop as an access point.) If Im being honest, I came in more skeptical than positive, said Jeff Duda, a high school literature teacher in Latrobe, Pa., who attended the workshop and the concert, in an interview with Education Week. Professional development can be hit or miss , he said, with no guarantees that programs promising creative, thorough materials will actually deliver. But Duda said hell be able to use these lessons in his English classroom. Im actually really pleasantly surprised, he said. For the pre-show workshop, teachers sat in rows in the concert hall as foundation staff led them through sample activities projected on a screen on the stage. In one activity, participants watched a British news spot on the Beatles from 1963, and then offered suggestions of historical and cultural factors that led to the bands rise. These are the kinds of issues teachers can explore in social studies or history courses, said Bill Carbone, the foundations vice president and an ethnomusicologist by training. If you start peeling back the layers on She Loves You, its not about the chords or the drumbeats anymore, he said to the teachers. The music opens the door to talk about the changing economy, generational differences, and repressed female sexuality in the 1960s. Finding a path to student engagement is the curriculums No. 1 priority, said Van Zandt, in a sit-down in his dressing room with Education Week. We want to be the cool class, the one that they look forward to, and the one theyre going to participate in and be engaged in, he said. Its what I call, teaching in the present tense, he said later, rather than, Learn this now, and someday youll use it. A History of Activism Teachers are the latest cause Van Zandt has championed in a career thats been in part defined by political activismhes well-known for the anti-apartheid protest song Sun City and his role in the cultural boycott of South Africa. (The TeachRock curriculum includes lessons on the song and the boycott.) In the United States today, Van Zandt worries about division, and he thinks educators play a crucial role in shaping a well-informed citizenry. Its teachers that are on the front lines everyday in the war against ignorance, he said. The tour is meant to show gratitude to educators, he said, but also to garner support for teachers political action. Of course you always hope there isnt a strike, he said. But if there is a strike, you want to make sure the community is supporting it, so that the teachers can get what they need. In Munhall, a former steel town outside of Pittsburgh, Van Zandt was playing to a labor-friendly crowd. When he mentioned supporting teachers unions to the educators in the workshop, the audience erupted in claps and cheers. Later, Van Zandt said his song Solidarity, written to highlight the Polish labor movement in the 1980s, translates to todays context. Supporting union movements is one of my things, he told Education Week. Anne Funk, an elementary music teacher in Pittsburghs North Allegheny school district, said that kind of public appreciation is helpfulit shapes a positive narrative about teachers work and their value. I think that we can do better as a profession, just talking a little bit more about ... why what were doing with kids everyday in the classroom is important, she said in an interview. Some attended the event in search of unity with other teacher activists. Tara Blake, an elementary music teacher in Kane, Pa., said it was the name of the tour that first caught her eyeshe hoped to forge connections with union members across the state, she said. The community in her rural district thinks teachers are overpaid, she said, and she wanted to see if other educators in bigger school systems were facing the same problemand how they were dealing with it. But Blake was doubtful she would be able to work with anyone she met at the event, because of the distance. Kane is about a three-hour drive from the Pittsburgh area. But other teachers werent counting on the event to mobilize social change. Christina Kralic, a 3rd grade teacher from the North Allegheny school system, said that her district doesnt generally lack funding or resources. She hoped the PD would give her some ideas to take back to her classroomand perhaps a better understanding of the financial challenges other school systems face. Other teachers spend a whole lot more on things for their classroom and resources for their classroom that we dont have to spend, she said. Understanding the different realities that teachers deal withthats important for bringing people together. After the workshop ended and the general public began to stream into the concert hall, teachers said they were excited for the show. Im a big rock-and-roll person, said Blake, the teacher in Kane. She would be coming back to the Pittsburgh area next week to see another rock concert, she said. And even though the educators made up less than half of the audience, it was clear there were teachers in the house. Theres this thing called STEM, said Van Zandt from the stage near the beginning of the concert. It stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. One of our goals is to turn STEM into STEAMand add the arts into the curriculum, he said, and the audience roared its approval. With RISC-V, the open source approach is to be transferred to hardware. Open source software is popular for operating systems as well as for office programs. But can this idea also work with hardware? We interviewed Rick O'Connor, Executive Director of the RISC-V Foundation. ? Mr. O'Connor, what is RISC-V? ! Rick OConnor: RISC-V ISA is a free and open instruction set architecture (ISA) enabling a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration. RISC-V offers a number of advantages over other architectures, including its openness, simplicity, clean-slate design, modularity, extensibility and stability. Designers also have the option to implement extensions for RISC-V to optimize and customize a design for their specific application needs. ? What advantages do you see through the use of RISC-V CPUs? ! OConnor: Implementers from a wide variety of industries are taking advantage of the flexibility, scalability and extensibility of RISC-V as an alternative to closed, proprietary ISAs. RISC-V has been designed into a wide variety of applications including graphics engines, machine learning and AI, networking, storage, security, embedded and general purpose processors. Theres also a growing ecosystem of OS support, development tools, FGPA softcores, IP and design services. For example, to name but a few implementations from the vast RISC-V ecosystem, Western Digital is transitioning consumption of over one billion cores per year to RISC-V to meet the needs of big data and fast data processing requirements. Also, Microsemi created its Mi-V RISC-V ecosystem with a suite of tools and design resources from Microsemi and a number of third parties to support RISC-V design. The French startup GreenWaves Technologies developed the industrys lowest power IoT application processor, showing how a small team on a relatively limited budget can create custom embedded solutions. The team at SiFive, consisting of original RISC-V pioneers out of UC Berkeley, are bringing the power of open-source and agile hardware design to the semiconductor industry with a variety of open RISC-V CPU implementations. ? Are RISC-V CPUs compatible and how is compliance with the RISC-V Foundation's specification ensured? ! OConnor: The RISC-V ecosystem has demonstrated a large degree of interoperability among various implementations. The strategy behind RISC-V is to have a small simple base ISA and modular standard extensions that work well for the large majority of code, while also leaving ample space for application-specific extensions that do not interfere with the standard ISA core. Also, the RISC-V Foundation has an active Compliance Task Group within the Technical Committee chartered with developing open source RISC-V ISA Compliance suites for use by all RISC-V implementers to validate ISA compliance. ? What do Open Source License users need to consider when implementing the RISC-V ISA? ! OConnor: The RISC-V ISA if free and open for use by anyone in all types of implementations without restriction. Designers are free to develop proprietary implementations for commercial exploitation or open-source implementations to be shared as they see fit. The RISC-V Foundation encourages both types of implementations. For commercial RISC-V implementations, a license to the RISC-V trademarks is required which is granted to members of the RISC-V Foundation. ? Who developed RISC-V? ! OConnor: RISC-V represents the fifth major RISC ISA design from UC Berkeley informed by more than three decades of RISC research dating back to Dave Pattersons original RISC work in the 1980s. Dave Patterson and John Hennessy published the pioneering researched about RISC in Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, a book that is now commonly known as the standard text for processor design. In 2010, after many years and many projects using MIPS, SPARC, and x86 as basis of research, it was time for the Computer Science team at UC Berkeley to look at what ISAs to use for their next set of projects. Due to challenges with existing architectures, the team started a project to develop their own clean-slate ISA. In 2014, UC Berkeley released the fixed user spec for RISC-V. The RISC-V Foundation was officially founded in 2015 as a non-profit corporation to govern the ISA. ? What are the objectives and tasks of the RISC-V Foundation? ! OConnor: The mandate of the RISC-V Foundation is to protect the sanctity of a single RISC-V standard across the industry and to encourage RISC-V ISA adoption globally. The RISC-V ecosystem has seen incredible growth over the past few years. The RISC-V Foundation now has over 180 corporate, academic and individual members, directing the future development and adoption of the RISC-V ISA. There are a number of innovative industry implementations of RISC-V from established technology giants and emerging startups, along with interesting applications from academic institutions and government-funded programs. With this growth, its clear that RISC-V is already paving the way for the next 50 years of computing design and innovation. ? What are your plans for the future of the RISC-V Foundation? ! OConnor: At the RISC-V Foundation, we look forward to seeing the RISC-V ecosystem mature even further as more companies join the Foundation and build new and innovative hardware and software that implements the ISA. The Foundation is also committed to developing more robust security approaches for the industry. We recently created the Security Standing Committee bringing together industry leaders to share findings, develop consensus around best security practices and identify potential security improvements for RISC-V based IoT devices, embedded systems, and machine learning implementations. We are also focused on increased Linux support for both embedded and compute distributions of the Linux OS. We expect to see closer collaboration with the Linux community, the most successful open source software ecosystem and RISC-V, the most widely adopted free and open ISA for use across all computing devices. ? Was plant die RISC-V Foundation fur die electronica in Munchen? ! OConnor: While the RISC-V Foundation will not be attending electronica in Munich this year, there are a variety of RISC-V activities happening at the show. Member companies including Dolphin Integration, GreenWaves Technologies and Microsemi will be exhibiting at the show. Rick OConnor, geschaftsfuhrender Direktor der RISC-V Foundation Rick OConnor ist geschaftsfuhrender Direktor der RISC-V Foundation und der RapidIO.org. Mit seiner langjahrigen Erfahrung in der Fuhrungsebene von Halbleiterunternehmen verfugt er uber eine einzigartige Kombination von kaufmannischen und technischen Fahigkeiten. OConnor war fur die Entwicklung von Dutzenden von Produkten verantwortlich, die einen Umsatz von uber 500 Millionen US-Dollar erzielten. Er hat berufsbegleitend Betriebswirtschaft an der Universitat Ottawa, Kanada, studiert (Executive MBA) und Elektrotechnik, B.A. (Hons), an der Hochschule Algonquin College in Ottawa, Kanada. rickoco@riscv.org Seite 1 von 2 Loganair announces increase in flights to Edinburgh Loganair has announced it will increase flights between the Isle of Man and Edinburgh next Summer. The Scottish airline plans to increase the frequency of flights between Edinburgh and the Island, adding an extra service throughout the summer. A seasonal link between Edinburgh and Guernsey will also operate. DALLAS, Nov. 5, 2018 -- Required CPR education in high school may lead to higher bystander CPR and cardiac arrest survival rates, according to preliminary research to be presented in Chicago at the American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium 2018 - an international conference highlighting the best in cardiovascular resuscitation research. Researchers analyzed data from more than 109,668 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests patients (64 percent men, 49.4 percent white, 19.1 percent African-American, 2.3 percent Hispanic, 2.9 percent other and 26.4 percent unknown) from the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival database or (CARES) - a surveillance registry tracking out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in communities in 42 states. The database analysis included all nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrests from 14 states and the District of Columbia where at least 50 percent of the population was in an area covered by a CARES participating agency from 2013 to 2017. Researchers found that bystander CPR, survival to hospital discharge and neurologically favorable survival (mild to moderate cerebral incapacity) was higher in states that require CPR training in high school. Of the cases studied from 2013 through 2017 (with people representing all ages), 59 percent occurred in states with required high school CPR training enacted. In those states: 41.3 percent of people who suffered cardiac arrest outside of a hospital received bystander CPR before emergency medical services arrived, compared to 36.1 percent in states without CPR education laws enacted. 11.3 percent of people who suffered cardiac arrest outside of a hospital survived to hospital discharge, compared to 8.9 percent for states without the laws enacted. Neurologically favorable survival was more likely in states with the laws enacted, 9.5 percent compared to 7.6 percent for states without laws enacted. Because CARES is a registry and data are owned by varying local and state agencies, information on specific states included in the study is confidential. ### Note: Scientific presentation is 2:45 p.m. CT, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago Victoria Vetter, M.D., MPH, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA Additional Resources: Downloadable images related to this news brief are on the right column https://newsroom.heart.org/news/cardiac-arrest-survival-higher-in-states-with-required-high-school-cpr-training?preview=1a29eef07105e5f9a112e9e062f8f83f Map of CARES participants: https://mycares.net/sitepages/map.jsp AHA news release 8/23/18: CPR training at school now required in 38 states For more news at AHA Resuscitation Science Symposium 2018, follow us on Twitter @HeartNews #RESS18. Statements and conclusions of study authors that are presented at American Heart Association scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect association policy or position. The association makes no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at https://www.heart.org/en/about-us/aha-financial-information. About the American Heart Association The American Heart Association is a leading force for a world of longer, healthier lives. With nearly a century of lifesaving work, the Dallas-based association is dedicated to ensuring equitable health for all. We are a trustworthy source empowering people to improve their heart health, brain health and well-being. We collaborate with numerous organizations and millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, advocate for stronger public health policies, and share lifesaving resources and information. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1. DALLAS, Nov. 5, 2018 -- People who experience sudden cardiac arrest are less likely to receive CPR from bystanders and less likely to survive, when they collapse in neighborhoods with large Latino populations, according to a large, new study to be presented in Chicago at the American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium 2018, an international conference highlighting the best in cardiovascular resuscitation research. Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when the heart abruptly stops pumping blood due to an electrical malfunction. Almost 4 in 10 such cases are witnessed by a bystander who is not an emergency medical services provider, according to American Heart Association statistics. The American Heart Association recommends that bystanders who see a teenager or adult suddenly collapse call 9-1-1 and administer "Hands-Only CPR" -- chest compressions without rescue breaths until help arrives. Fewer than 12 percent of people survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. "Survival is low, but prompt delivery of CPR by a lay bystander can significantly improve outcomes," said Audrey L. Blewer, Ph.D., M.P.H., lead study author and assistant director of educational programs at the Center for Resuscitation Science at Penn Medicine. The study examined records of 18,544 cardiac arrests in adults between 2011-2015 that were not witnessed by emergency personnel and occurred outside a hospital. Researchers compared neighborhoods according to U.S. Census classifications based on percentage of Latino residents. They found: Overall, bystanders provided CPR in 37 percent of cases. In neighborhoods where Latinos accounted for less than one-quarter of the population, bystanders provided CPR in 39 percent of the cardiac arrests in the study. In neighborhoods where Latinos made up more than three-quarters of the people, CPR was given in just 27 percent of such incidents. Among all patients in the study, Latinos were 27 percent less likely than whites to receive CPR. Cardiac arrest victims in the most heavily Latino-populated neighborhoods were almost 40 percent less likely to survive until discharge from the hospital. The findings considered differing levels of education and income among the neighborhoods, Blewer said. The data were from the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, a clinical trial network of emergency medical service systems and hospitals across the United States and Canada. Consortium figures suggest out-of-hospital cardiac arrest occurs in about 111 out of every 100,000 individuals, or more than 350,000 people in the United States each year. The U.S. Latino population, which in mid-2016 numbered nearly 58 million, is expected to nearly double over the next 40 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Targeting Latino communities is a vital part of efforts to reduce U.S. deaths from sudden cardiac arrest, Blewer said. AHA Emergency Cardiovascular Care goals include doubling out-of-hospital bystander CPR response rates this decade, from 31 to 62 percent by 2020. "We need to think about targeting communities with lower rates of bystander CPR with simple, effective CPR training," Blewer said. "We also need to think about public messaging around CPR -- are we communicating our message clearly and effectively to all communities? Have we thought about public messaging of pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest? Is this getting disseminated to all racial/ethnically diverse communities?" Research has found that counties with high proportions of Latino residents are more likely to have low rates of CPR training. Recent work by Blewer and her colleagues indicated that Latinos were less likely than blacks or whites to be trained in the use of automated external defibrillator (AEDs), a portable, lifesaving device that can be used by people without medical training to deliver an electric shock to the heart. ### Co-authors are Shaun McGovern, B.S., EMT-B; Robert Schmicker, M.S.; Susanne May, Ph.D., M.S.; Laurie Morrison, M.D.; Tom Aufderheide, M.D.; Mohamud Daya, M.D., M.S.; Ahamed Idris, M.D.; Clifton Callaway, M.D., Ph.D.; Peter Kudenchuk, M.D.; Gary Vilke, M.D.; and Benjamin S. Abella, M.D., M.Phil. Author disclosures are on the abstract. A Mentored Clinical and Population Grant from the American Heart Association funded the study. Note: Scientific presentation is Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, 1:15 p.m. CT at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Additional Resources: American Heart Association volunteer expert, Joseph P. Ornato, M.D., FACP, FACC, FACEP perspective (via Skype) and images related to this news release are on the right column https://newsroom.heart.org/news/fewer-cardiac-arrest-victims-get-bystander-cpr-in-latino-neighborhoods?preview=1d72853b519e1b99ad4e7476c835290a Spanish release Hands-Only CPR Heart Attack or Sudden Cardiac Arrest: How Are They Different? Latinos less aware of automated external defibrillators "Mama Knows Best" - an American Heart Association Hands-Only CPR training video For more news at AHA Resuscitation Science Symposium 2018, follow us on Twitter @HeartNews #RESS18. Statements and conclusions of study authors that are presented at American Heart Association scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect association policy or position. The association makes no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at https://www.heart.org/en/about-us/aha-financial-information. About the American Heart Association The American Heart Association is a leading force for a world of longer, healthier lives. With nearly a century of lifesaving work, the Dallas-based association is dedicated to ensuring equitable health for all. We are a trustworthy source empowering people to improve their heart health, brain health and well-being. We collaborate with numerous organizations and millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, advocate for stronger public health policies, and share lifesaving resources and information. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1. DALLAS, Nov. 5, 2018 -- Pediatricians generally don't address elevated blood pressures in overweight children during well-child visits. When they do broach the subject, their communication is often unclear, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2018, a premier global exchange of the latest advances in cardiovascular science for researchers and clinicians. Researchers analyzed 30 video- and audio-recorded well-child visits of 6- to 12-year-olds with overweight/obesity who had elevated blood pressures at the visit. Visits were recorded from 2013 to 2016. Eighty percent of the children had elevated blood pressures, and 20 percent had blood pressure readings at the recorded visit plus two or more past visits that were high enough to meet criteria for pediatric hypertension. Researchers found pediatricians: provided clear and direct information about high blood pressure in 16.6 percent of visits; made unclear statements in 16.6 percent of visits -- for example: "The biggest reason I worry about this [obesity] is you can start having adult problems like high blood pressure"; and frequently didn't address high blood pressure at all (66.7 percent of visits). Researchers noted that providers were more likely to use more direct communication when children had systolic blood pressures that exceeded the adult high blood pressure threshold. Researchers also looked at communication themes such as therapeutic lifestyle counseling and follow-up information, each of which they found occurred in 10 percent of visits. Of the 20 percent of children who met criteria for the diagnosis of pediatric hypertension, not one received communication about this diagnosis from pediatricians during the recorded visits. ### Note: Scientific presentation is 2:15 p.m. CT, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. Nora Bismar, B.S., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX Additional Resources: Images may be downloaded from the right column https://newsroom.heart.org/news/overweight-kids-often-left-in-the-dark-about-their-high-blood-pressure?preview=ecc728f6a53f4cd00dadd9cb4ebaa464 High blood pressure in children For more news from AHA Scientific Sessions 2018, follow us on Twitter @HeartNews #AHA18. Statements and conclusions of study authors that are presented at American Heart Association scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect association policy or position. The association makes no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at https://www.heart.org/en/about-us/aha-financial-information. About the American Heart Association The American Heart Association is a leading force for a world of longer, healthier lives. With nearly a century of lifesaving work, the Dallas-based association is dedicated to ensuring equitable health for all. We are a trustworthy source empowering people to improve their heart health, brain health and well-being. We collaborate with numerous organizations and millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, advocate for stronger public health policies, and share lifesaving resources and information. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1. DALLAS, Nov. 5, 2018 -- A spike in Chicago crime was associated with a relative increase in blood pressure among people who lived in safe neighborhoods, according to preliminary research to be presented in Chicago at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2018, a premier global exchange of the latest advances in cardiovascular science for researchers and clinicians. A study of 53,402 adults revealed that in Chicago in 2015, a violent crime surge that included increased homicide, assault and robbery, was associated with a 9 percent higher odds of increased blood pressure among residents living in low-crime communities compared to those living in high-crime areas. The results suggest that the environment affects heart health, and that violent crime happening elsewhere can affect others living in a city, even if individuals are not directly exposed to crime. Previous research has shown a relationship between crime exposure and high blood pressure, but researchers wanted to evaluate whether crime had a broader effect on heart health and if stress responses varied between neighborhoods. Researchers used information from the Chicago Police Data Portal and matched violent crime rates to home addresses of patients from nearby outpatient clinics. Violent crime rates spiked in 2015 and continued to rise in 2016, before declining in 2017. Researchers decided to focus on this surge and analyzed health records from this period, which included patients' blood pressure readings. More than 54 percent of the patients in the study were black, nearly 64 percent of them were female, and the average age was 48. Overall, not surprisingly, low-crime communities had lower rates of high blood pressure (22.5 percent) compared with high-crime communities (36.5 percent), and rising violent crime rates were associated with 3 percent higher odds of increased blood pressure. However, what did surprise researchers was the correlation between the surge in violent crime and a relative surge in high blood pressure among people living in safe areas. The findings suggest that the stress of increased crime has far-reaching effects, and efforts to reduce and prevent violence may improve public health of the entire city. "I saw anecdotal evidence of this," said lead study author Elizabeth Tung, M.D., an instructor of medicine at the University of Chicago. "I had friends living in low-crime neighborhoods who were extremely anxious about rising crime rates in the city. Crime, and particularly violent crime, is a unique stressor because people prioritize safety. Safety is second in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but in many ways, it can get in the way of more basic needs, like access to healthy food." Based on these findings, researchers plan to look at specific mechanisms connecting exposure to violent crime and high blood pressure, and how crime may affect self-care and disease management. For example, patients may be afraid to refill prescription medications and forgo treatment for a few days if they can't get to the local pharmacy safely. Alternatively, individuals may isolate themselves from friends and family or avoid going out to grocery shop because of concerns for personal safety. ### Co-authors: Elizabeth L. Tung, M.D., M.S.; Stephanie A. Besser, M.S.A., M.S.A.S.; Rhys Chua, M.P.H.; Marynia Kolak, Ph.D., M.S.; Stacy T. Lindau, M.D., M.A.P.P.; Emeka Anyanwu, M.D.; James K. Liao, M.D.; and Corey E. Tabit, M.D., Ph.D. Author disclosures are on the abstract. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the American Heart Association funded the study. Note: Scientific presentation is 11:30 a.m. CT, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. Additional Resources: American Heart Association volunteer expert, Willie E. Lawrence, M.D. perspective (via Skype), blood pressure monitoring video and images may be downloaded from the right column https://newsroom.heart.org/news/violent-crime-raises-blood-pressure-even-among-those-living-in-safe-areas?preview=3bd022c8b0b140bf584ed9da33566223 For more news at AHA Scientific Sessions 2018, follow us on Twitter @HeartNews #AHA18. Statements and conclusions of study authors that are presented at American Heart Association scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect association policy or position. The association makes no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at https://www.heart.org/en/about-us/aha-financial-information. About the American Heart Association The American Heart Association is a leading force for a world of longer, healthier lives. With nearly a century of lifesaving work, the Dallas-based association is dedicated to ensuring equitable health for all. We are a trustworthy source empowering people to improve their heart health, brain health and well-being. We collaborate with numerous organizations and millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, advocate for stronger public health policies, and share lifesaving resources and information. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1. PORTLAND, Ore.--Imagine building a machine so advanced and precise you need a supercomputer to help design it. That's exactly what scientists and engineers in Germany did when building the Wendelstein 7-X experiment. The device, funded by the German federal and state governments and the European Union, is a type of fusion device called a stellarator. The new experiment's goal is to contain a super-heated gas, called plasma, in a donut-shaped vessel using magnets that twist their way around the donut. The team completed construction of Wendelstein 7-X, the world's most advanced superconducting stellarator, in 2015 and, since then, scientists have been busy studying its performance (Figure 1). "The advantage of stellarators over other types of fusion machines is that the plasmas produced are extremely stable and very high densities are possible", said Dr. Novimir Pablant, a U.S. physicist from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, who works alongside a multinational team of scientists and engineers from Europe, Australia, Japan, and the United States (the U.S. collaboration is funded by the Department of Energy). Using a tool called an X-ray spectrometer, Pablant studied the light given off by the plasma to answer an important question: Did the design of Wendelstein 7-X's twisted magnetic field work? His results indicate that, indeed, the plasma temperatures and electric fields are already in the range required for peak performance (Figure 2). He will present his work at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference in Portland, Ore. If the scientists working on Wendelstein 7-X are successful in optimizing the machine performance, the plasma contained in the donut will become even hotter than the sun. Atoms making up the plasma will fuse together, yielding safe, clean energy to be used for power. This achievement is a major milestone as it shows that it is possible to achieve temperatures of more than 10 million degrees in high-density plasmas using only microwaves to heat the electrons in the plasma. This achievement takes us one step closer to making fusion power a reality. ### For additional information see also: [1] http://www.ipp.mpg.de/4413312/04_18 PORTLAND, Ore.--We all know microwaves are good for cooking popcorn, but scientists have recently shown they can also prevent dangerous waves in plasmas and help produce clean, nearly limitless energy with fusion. Fusion takes place when fast moving atomic particles slam into each other and stick together. The particles need to be so hot that atoms break down, leaving a gas of charged particles called a plasma. The energy given off when plasma particles fuse can be harnessed to make electricity. To harness fusion energy, the fast particles can be confined by a strong magnetic field, which guides the particles along a closed path. If the particles get knocked off their closed path, they make fusion less efficient and can even damage the fusion device. Scientists, therefore, are looking for ways to prevent the energetic particles from veering off course. One way a particle can be kicked out of the fusion device is by interacting with waves. Just as a boat in a lake can be jostled by waves passing by, a particle in a plasma can get a boost of energy from waves moving along the magnetic field used to confine the plasma. In the work here, the waves are called Alfven waves named after the Nobel Prize winner Hannes Alfven who discovered them. Such waves are problematic for future tokamak fusion reactors because they make it more challenging to keep the plasma hot and undergoing fusion. "Controlling these waves helps us hold onto the fast particles that heat fusion plasmas," said Dr. Michael Van Zeeland from General Atomics, who led the research. The international team that carried out this research was composed of more than 30 scientists from across the globe who worked together to develop an approach to keep the waves in check. The research, which was conducted at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego, California, and the ASDEX-Upgrade facility in Germany, will be presented at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics meeting in Portland, Oregon. The scientists used a specific kind of microwaves, electron cyclotron waves, which they precisely directed near the location of the waves on the magnetic field. The microwaves were found to modify the wave activity significantly-in some cases completely removing them. This research yielded insight into these particular microwaves and how they interact with waves on the magnetic fields. The researchers believe the results can lead to the development of approaches to control or reduce the presence of waves on the magnetic fields and could help chart a path to more efficient fusion energy. ### PORTLAND, Ore.--Imagine looking under your couch and instead of finding fluffy dust bunnies, you see the dust is arranged in straight lines--you might wonder what caused this order. Scientists are experiencing that same feeling, not with dust under a couch, but with electrically charged dust in the microgravity of space. The dust the scientists are studying is made up of tiny spheres 10 times smaller than the width of a human hair. This dust becomes electrically charged when it collects electrons from an energetic gas called a plasma. In a lab on Earth, electrically charged dust generally lines up either along the downward pull of gravity or across it. Scientists at the Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics, and Engineering Research (CASPER), at Baylor University, got a surprise when examining data from a similar experiment on the International Space Station orbiting 248 miles above Earth where gravity is much weaker. Rather than the dust bouncing around randomly, the dust often wiggled around in straight lines, even without gravity. "Gravity on Earth is at least as strong as the electric forces between the dust grains. In microgravity we expected the dust particles to spread out," said Truell Hyde, director of CASPER, who leads the study. "Instead, we found that the small forces between the dust particles and the atoms in the plasma impose order on the system." Dr. Hyde and his research group are presenting their findings at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics meeting in Portland, Ore. The study was carried out on the PK-4 experiment (Figure 1), short for Plasma Kristall-4, which was built through a partnership between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). The research is the first project of this kind on the space station with direct involvement of U.S. research groups and is funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA. Learning that dust grains line up in microgravity is potentially important for understanding how groups of things attain structure. At small sizes, forces between atoms provide structure for molecules and proteins, while at very large sizes gravity provides the structure for stars and galaxies. Hyde said, "This experiment may help explain how structures form when they are between very small and very large sizes." ### Researchers in Canada found that protecting arctic cod from sea vessel noise may be as simple as kicking the ships' speed down a few knots WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 5, 2018 -- The western Canadian Arctic's natural underwater soundscape has been shielded from the din of commercial shipping by the sea ice that covers the area, rendering it mostly inaccessible to shipping vessels. But with large amounts of ice shrinking in the Arctic Ocean, a growing number of ships are gaining access to the area. This trend is expected to accelerate. One concern with vessel transits is how noise pollution can detrimentally affect marine animals -- including Arctic cod -- given the critical importance of these fish in the arctic food web. "Noise from shipping traffic can lead to acoustic masking, reducing the ability of cod and other marine animals to detect and use sound for communication, foraging, avoiding predators, reproduction, and navigation," said Matt Pine, a research fellow at the University of Victoria and Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS Canada). Pine and his colleagues at the University of Victoria, WCS Canada and JASCO Applied Sciences have found that the negative impact of noise from shipping vessels can be mitigated by reducing the ship's speed. They will present their research at the Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting, held in conjunction with the Canadian Acoustical Association's 2018 Acoustics Week in Canada, Nov. 5-9 at the Victoria Conference Centre in Victoria, Canada. Pine's research team investigated potential relief in acoustic masking by reducing the speed of container and cruise ships by 10 knots, from 25 knots (equivalent to about 17 mph) to 15 knots (equivalent to about 11.5 mph). The research has involved advanced propagation modeling of ship noise and the acoustic masking effects on arctic cod, two types of whales (belugas and bowheads) and two types of seals (bearded and ringed). The researchers incorporated field data to produce computer simulations in which container and cruise ships passed through the western Canadian Arctic via the Northwest Passage. They explored the effect each type of ship had on the volume of the ocean surrounding a fish, seal and whale within which prey, a predator or other danger could be heard by that animal. "Our modeling study shows that reduction in acoustic masking effects can be substantial," Pine said. However, he cautioned, the findings are not so clear-cut. "Acoustic masking effects are quite dynamic, and slowing down a vessel doesn't necessarily equal the same benefits for all animals," he explained. For example, sometimes smaller masking effects were seen in certain weather conditions. For the fish, however, weather conditions did not make a difference in the masking effects because their hearing thresholds in most frequency bands are above the ambient levels. "In this case, the type of vessel was more important," Pine said, "with cruise ships reducing their masking effect more if slowed by 10 knots than the container vessels nearer the vessel." ### Presentation #1aAB1, "Assessing vessel slowdown as an option for reducing acoustic masking for Arctic cod in the western Canadian Arctic," by Matthew Pine, David E. Hannay, Stephen J. Insley, William D. Halliday and Francis Juanes will be Monday, Nov. 5, 8:50 a.m. in the Crystal Ballroom of the Victoria Conference Center in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. A press conference on this topic will take place at 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6. Register at http://aipwebcasting.com. USEFUL LINKS Main meeting website: https://acousticalsociety.org/asa-meetings/ Meeting technical program: https://ep70.eventpilotadmin.com/web/planner.php?id=ASAFALL18 Hotel information: https://acousticalsociety.org/asa-meetings/#hr WORLD WIDE PRESS ROOM In the coming weeks, ASA's World Wide Press Room will be updated with additional tips on dozens of newsworthy stories and with lay language papers, which are 300-800 word summaries of presentations written by scientists for a general audience and accompanied by photos, audio, and video. You can visit the site, beginning in late October, at http://acoustics.org/world-wide-press-room/. PRESS REGISTRATION We will grant free registration to credentialed journalists and professional freelance journalists. If you are a reporter and would like to attend, contact Rhys Leahy or the AIP Media Line (media@aip.org, 301-209-3090). We can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips or background information. LIVE MEDIA WEBCAST A press briefing featuring a selection of newsworthy research will be webcast live from the conference Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. Times and topics to be announced. Members of the media should register in advance at http://aipwebcasting.com. ABOUT ASA The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world's leading journal on acoustics), Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. For more information about ASA, visit https://acousticalsociety.org. ABOUT CAA The Canadian Acoustical Association (CAA) is a professional, interdisciplinary organization that fosters communication among people working in all areas of acoustics in Canada; promotes the growth and practical application of knowledge in acoustics; encourages education, research, protection of the environment, and employment in acoustics; and is an umbrella organization through which general issues in education, employment and research can be addressed at a national and multidisciplinary level. For more information about CAA, visit http://caa-aca.ca. A team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine has uncovered an unexpected mechanism that can explain a form of Batten disease called neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis 8. The findings published in the journal Nature Cell Biology provide potential new targets for future therapeutic interventions for this rare and incurable disease. "Batten disease refers to a group of diseases that are part of the lysosomal storage disorders. At the core of these conditions are problems with the cell's ability to clear the waste produced by its regular functions, which leads to the accumulation of cellular waste to toxic levels," said first author Dr. Alberto di Ronza, who was a postdoctoral researchers in the Sardiello lab while he was working on this project. The lysosomes are the structures in charge of clearing the waste. Lysosomes are sacs containing enzymes, a type of proteins that break down cellular waste into its constituent components, which the cell can recycle or discard. When lysosomes fail and cellular waste accumulates, disease follows. "When we started this project, we knew that neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis 8 was associated with defects in the CLN8 protein, but we didn't know how the defects led to the disease," said corresponding author Dr. Marco Sardiello, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor. It was a mystery because CLN8 is not located in the lysosome. It works in a completely different part of the cell, called the endoplasmic reticulum, which is where many molecules, including lysosomal enzymes, are synthesized in the cell. The mystery was how mutations in a protein that is not in the lysosome would result in a lysosomal storage disorder. Discovering a new fundamental mechanism To solve the mystery, the researchers first looked for proteins that would assist on the exit of lysosomal enzymes from the endoplasmic reticulum en route to the lysosomes. "We narrowed it down to four candidates and CLN8 was one of them. It was the only one that interacted with two-thirds of the lysosomal enzymes we tested," di Ronza said. Then, the researchers worked with mice carrying defective CLN8 molecules, a mouse model that recapitulates many of the characteristics of the disease observed in humans. They determined that in these mice the lysosomes have fewer lysosomal enzymes. "Things started to click," Sardiello said. "If CLN8 in the endoplasmic reticulum mediated transfer of lysosomal enzymes, then having defective CLN8 proteins could explain why fewer enzymes make it to the lysosome." In addition, the researchers discovered that a specific piece of CLN8 acts like a hook, 'catching' lysosomal enzymes to facilitate their exit from the endoplasmic reticulum. They also identified the molecular signals that help CLN8 move from the endoplasmic reticulum to its destination and back. These discoveries open potential new therapeutic interventions. "I started this research because I wanted to contribute to improve patients' lives," di Ronza said. "Patients with CLN8 defects have limited options, but I hope that this work will provide opportunities to explore potential new therapies for these patients." "Co-author Lauren Popp and I were very excited to contribute to this study that elucidated a novel mechanism of lysosomal formation," said co-author Dr. Laura Segatori, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice University. "Our group has focused on understanding and manipulating the mechanisms controlling processing of lysosomal proteins. I am excited that this study provides novel findings that are likely to change the way we approach the study and treatment of lysosomal storage disorders." "The solution to this mystery was completely unexpected," Sardiello said. "We identified a new fundamental biological process that, when is disturbed, leads to this form of lysosome storage disease. This discovery is relevant not only to the Batten disease community, but also to other scientific communities studying basic mechanisms of the cell." ### Other contributors to this work include Lakshya Bajaj, Jaiprakash Sharma, Deepthi Sanagasetti, Parisa Lotfi, Carolyn Joy Adamski, John Collette, Michela Palmieri, Abdallah Amawi, Kevin Tommy Chang, Maria Chiara Meschini, Hon-Chiu Eastwood Leung, Alessandro Simonati, Richard Norman Sifers and Filippo Maria Santorelli. The authors are affiliated with one of the following institutions: Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Rice University, University of Verona, Italy and IRCCS Stella Maris, Italy. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health grant NS079618 and grants from the Beyond Batten Disease Foundation and the NCL-Stiftung Foundation. This project was supported in part by the Hamill Foundation and by the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center grant number 1U54 HD083092 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. A recent report by the Government of Indonesia claiming an increase in orangutan populations of more than 10 percent from 2015 to 2017 is at odds with many recently published and peer-reviewed scientific studies on the subject, according to a letter in Current Biology on November 5. For instance, a study in Current Biology earlier this year suggests that, between 1999 and 2015, Borneo lost more than 100,000 orangutans. Most scientific data indicate that the survival of orangutan species continues to be seriously threatened by deforestation and killing, the researchers write. "All three species of orangutan are Critically Endangered and on a steep decline. Their numbers are not increasing as indicated by the Indonesian government report," says Erik Meijaard (@emeijaard) of Borneo Futures and the IUCN Species Survival Commission. The Indonesian government's report focused on nine monitoring sites including national parks. Their data suggest the orangutan population doubled in one year, going from 1,153 orangutans in 2015 to 2,451 individuals in 2016. But, Meijaard and colleagues write, "it is biologically impossible for an orangutan population to double its size in a year." They go on to note that some of the sampling sites are used for orangutan introduction and relocation, and thus any increase in those areas was inevitably preceded by a reduction elsewhere. The sampling plots considered in the government's report represent less than 5 percent of the Bornean and Sumatran orangutan's range. They miss the Tapanuli orangutan altogether and include only protected lands. As a result, it is "scientifically unjustified to extrapolate population trends from these sampling sites to the total range of all three species." Meijaard says it is unclear what this report will mean for the future of orangutans. The Indonesian government is now in the process of developing a new 10-year action plan for orangutan conservation, he notes. "If the government thinks that orangutan populations are increasing, it calls for completely different strategies compared to those required for dealing with rapidly decreasing populations," Meijaard says. "It is important that the government realizes that populations remain in decline. Therefore, a new approach to orangutan conservation is needed." To understand why populations in both Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo are still decreasing, the researchers have been soliciting input from governments, corporations, and other stakeholders to determine which strategies have been effectively implemented. They say a more optimistic, forward-looking approach to orangutan conservation will require better collaboration and selection of strategies proven to reduce threats to remaining orangutans. ### This research was supported by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wildlife Without Borders Great Ape Conservation Fund, the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group Section on Great Apes (SGA), and the Arcus Foundation. Current Biology, Meijaard et al.: "Orangutan populations are certainly not increasing in the wild" https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)31277-6 Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit: http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com. Practice lags behind accepted Canadian Cardiovascular Society guidelines leading to the occurrence of preventable strokes, according to experts writing in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology Philadelphia, November 5, 2018 - International guidelines recommend direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) over warfarin to prevent stroke for most patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, a substantial portion of patients in Canada, who would benefit from anticoagulation, do not receive it adequately or at all. Experts review the evidence for the use of DOACs in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, discuss reasons for the large gap between guidelines and clinical practice, including policy and funding barriers, and propose strategies for the future. AF affects about 350,000 patients in Canada and about 10 times as many in the United States. AF is the most common heart rhythm disorder in the world with major impact on public health, especially due to increased risk of stroke. Stroke due to AF still comprises up to 15 percent of all stroke cases, and disabling stroke remains disproportionately more common in patients with AF than in patients without. Although anticoagulation drug therapy is an effective treatment, its use in Canada is slow to reflect evidence-based guidelines. "Despite the evidence and near unanimity of clinical practice guidelines, these drugs go unprescribed for many, perhaps even most, eligible patients," noted lead author Chris S. Simpson, MD, of the Queen's University-Kingston Health Science Center, Kingston, ON, Canada. "The result is that many preventable strokes are still happening every day in Canada." DOAC indications for stroke risk reduction were initially incorporated into the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) guidelines in 2010. This recommendation has subsequently been included in the guidelines of other major societies such as the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the American Heart Association (AHA). The CCS then recommended a preference for dabigatran over warfarin because of dabigatran's greater efficacy and safety. The 2014 CCS guidelines strongly recommended with "high-quality evidence" that DOACs should be preferred over warfarin when an OAC is indicated for stroke prevention in AF but highlighted the lack of governmental approval of DOACs and saw the lack of reimbursement in Canada as a "major challenge" to following the recommendations. The authors call attention to patient-physician factors in DOAC decision-making and identify barriers to using DOACs in Canada: Perceived cost is a major, if not the main barrier to prescribing DOACs. High initial cost due to temporal gap between guidelines recommendation and funding approval. Antiquated perception among physicians that aspirin is a suitable alternative to DOAC, lack of experience in managing DOAC, and fear of bleeding complications. Mandatory trial with warfarin in some Canadian provinces. Lack of experience and limited availability of specific reversal agents to manage bleeding. Lack of patient awareness of stroke risk in AF and information regarding DOAC usage and access. Concurrent release of multiple DOACs and patient-targeted information on DOAC profiles and dosing schedules may delay patient-physician decision to start DOAC. Limited use coverage that denies patients who are eligible based on guidelines, forcing suboptimal therapy or paying out-of-pocket if not covered by private insurance. Physicians required to justify clinical decision in providing evidence-based guideline-recommended treatment. Physicians' lack of guideline awareness contributing to reduced confidence in starting DOAC therapy. Guideline awareness may be part of the reason why cardiologists (more than other specialists) are more likely to start DOAC treatment. Recognition of this "guidelines-policy gap" is the first step, say the authors, in developing a strategy to improve implementation of DOAC usage in Canada, including: Improving awareness of the risk and preventability of stroke. Enabling physicians to provide evidence-based DOAC usage. Empowering patients to improve adherence and persistence. Collecting real-life data that encourage patient self-monitoring and physician outcomes auditing, and build evidence that is useful for policy makers. Using post-marketing data in negotiating shared risk-management between pharmaceuticals and government to improve access to DOACs. "This discussion highlights a significant conflict between clinical practice guidelines processes and governmental regulatory and approval processes," commented Dr. Simpson. "Both processes aim to act in the best interests of patients and the public and should therefore work in concert rather than in conflict. The result of this conflict is a delay in the uptake of a beneficial therapy which saves lives and prevents significant morbidity." Observations of other government-funded universal healthcare systems may be helpful in providing solutions to managing the policy and funding barriers in Canada. The authors point out that the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK is considered to be a good peer comparator to the Canadian health system. The NHS bases its practice on ESC guidelines and its funding policy is guided by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE guidelines emphasize individualized assessment and discussion with patients regarding benefits and risks of each OAC option and recommends against a "trial of warfarin" because this would prolong the time to find the best therapy. The UK also employs several strategies to increase access to guideline-recommended therapies that are awaiting approval or have insufficient funding, such as the Patient Access Scheme, which allows expensive, non-approved therapies to be more accessible through discount negotiations between manufacturer and the Department of Health. Similar schemes in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia have also improved access. "Every doctor wants their patient to have the best treatment possible. Every provincial government has a duty to their citizens and taxpayers to spend public money in a way that provides the best value. Only by working together can we hope to achieve both goals," Dr. Simpson concluded. ### MOSS POINT, Miss. -- The 18th annual Jackson County Veterans Day program is set to be held Friday, Nov. 9 at 11 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial Monument located in downtown Moss Point. Carla Todd Voda, President and CEO of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce is set to serve as the Master of Ceremony. Following the welcome, the Presentation of Colors will be held, followed by the National Anthem, sung by Dr. Kimberly Cox Rasmussen Pledge of Allegiance, welcome and invocation. The POW/MIA ceremony will follow, accompanied by a presentation of the Wreath for the Fallen, recognizing in memoriam of the following fallen soldiers: Major Michael Green, United States Army Master Sergeant Scott E. Pruitt, United States Marine Corps Master Sergeant Coater DeBose, United States Army Sergeant First Class Sean M. Cooley, United States Army Sergeant Terrance D. Lee, Sr., United States Army. The program's speaker is Nick Overby, Assistant Superintendent for the Moss Point School District and 1983 graduate of Pascagoula High School. Overby earned a Bachelor of Science degree in History from The University of Southern Mississippi in 1988, and a commission in the U.S. Army Reserve as a second Lieutenant. During his military career he graduated from the U.S. Army Transportation School, U.S. Army Quartermaster School, U.S. Army Engineer School and Command and General Staff College. Overby was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait in 2003 to 2004 in service of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Afghanistan in 2010 to 2011 in service of Operation Enduring Freedom. His military career spanned 28 years, and he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Army Reserve in 2016, as a logistician. The Veterans Committee, planning the event, is encouraging residents of Jackson County to attend the program, bring their American flags to wave and show their support for the veterans of all wars and the active duty personnel serving along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. There will be food on the lawn next to the monument following the program. This year's presenting sponsors are Keesler Federal Credit Union and Mississippi Power. The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce would like to thank the City of Moss Point, all sponsors and the Jackson County Veterans Planning Committee for making this event possible. Those interested in volunteering in this year's Jackson County Veterans Day Program can call Linda Johnson at the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce at 228-762-3391 or email JohnsonL@jcchamber.com. Water shortages are hitting some areas of the world hard, and with increasing global temperatures, more regions may be experiencing drought conditions. Countries such as Saudi Arabia rely on desalination plants to provide drinking water to their residents, producing 5 million cubic meters of desalinated water per day. The method requires a high amount of energy, which can limit the use of the process in many parts of the world. Researchers have been working on using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind to power desalination plants, and reduce the need for traditional, fossil fuel-powered methods. Now, new research presents an untapped resource for powering desalination: geothermal energy. "We're searching the world right now for better methods, low carbon methods, to create energy," says Thomas Missimer, of Florida Gulf Coast University. "We want electricity that's generated at base load -- in other words, generated 24 hours a day without interruption. Geothermal is one of those types of energies." Missimer says geothermal provides energy in two ways: wet rock and dry rock. Wet areas, like Iceland, use the hot water from deep in the earth to provide the energy to move turbines and produce energy. But this type of geothermal heat is rare. On the other hand, dry rock geothermal potential is more wide-spread globally. Missimer suggests using these areas--regions like southern California, North Africa, and the Red Sea region -- to heat water that can be used to produce energy. Dry rock geothermal methods are currently being used in parts of the world for energy production, but Missimer says that the heat can be used in more efficient ways, especially with desalination. Details of the new research constructing a "geothermal energy-water campus" will be presented on Monday at the 2018 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. Usually, geothermally heated water from the ground is converted to steam, that steam powers a turbine to create electricity, then the heated water is vented to the atmosphere while it's still hot -- still over 100 degrees Celcius in most cases. Instead of venting, the team wants to use that hot steam in their desalination processes. The first desalination process is multiple effect distillation (MED), which requires hot water (above 100 degrees Celsius), but the second process, adsorption desalination (AD), can be run on cooler water, says Missimer. As the steam moves through the system and cools, it is still effective for powering desalination. "Now you have an efficient system where you have conserved the latent heat that you've captured in the ground through three processes: turbine electricity generation, MED and AD." At the end of the desalination process, Missimer says that distilled water and chilled water (from the AD process) are the final products. While the distilled water can be consumed, even the chilled water is reused--the cool water can be recycled through the plant to help with air conditioning. Lastly, the researchers propose to store excess water in aquifers for later use, which Missimer says is a future energy saver. "By storing some of that excess water, you can use that water seasonally when more water is required and sort of even out the changes in demand to the system." The benefits of a system like this are broad: there is no carbon dioxide being produced at the plant, as it is all self-contained and powered by geothermal energy, rather than fossil fuels. It also has an economic benefit. "If you look at the benefit to the place like Saudi Arabia, saving 6 million barrels of oil a day, at $100 a barrel -- that's a bloody fortune," says Missimer. Missimer says it is even more effective than a solar-powered plant, because it can be run 24 hours a day, compared to just daylight hours. He adds that the benefits really come with the efficiency of operation. "In a facility like this, if it's run properly, you're not consuming a resource," says Missimer, adding that the heat keeps flowing and is renewable. For now, the idea is theoretical and hasn't been put into practice. But Missimer adds that the individual parts of the plant and the technology have been around for a while -- it just hasn't been combined all together into one plant. "We've learned that sometimes you don't need new technology to make advances," he says. "Sometimes it's piecing together old technology in a constructive way to provide more efficient operation." He and his colleagues are hoping to put their carbon-neutral desalination ideas into practice in the near future. ### Author: Thomas M. Missimer, PhD Visiting Professor Eminent Scholar, Hydrogeology and Water Resources U. A. Whitaker College of Engineering Emergent Technology Institute Florida Gulf Coast University 16301 Innovation Lane Rm. 112B Fort Myers, FL 33913 Email: tmissimer@fgcu.edu Tel.: +239-810-3009 Abstract: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2018AM/webprogram/Paper320494.html Time: Monday, 5 Nov, 10:25a Session: T13. Global Warning: Accelerating Rates of Change Forewarn of Catastrophic Impacts I The Geological Society of America, founded in 1888, is a scientific society with members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth-science education. Indianapolis, IN, USA: Researchers recently used ground penetrating radar to locate an unmarked, potential mass grave site in Lithuania, according to a new study that will be presented at The Geological Society of America's 2018 Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Sunday, 4 November. The work aims to amass evidence that points to the likely locations of mass graves from the Holocaust and, in time, award federal distinction to the areas in the form of memorials. "The larger context," says physical geographer Harry Jol from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, "is that, within the holocaust in Lithuania, every small and large town has a mass gravesite." Though many potential mass grave and execution sites are peppered throughout Lithuania, only eyewitness accounts, with some accounts conflicting, are the first lines of evidence to guide researchers to approximate locations. In some areas, roughly 5-10 and upwards to 2,000 individuals lie buried, while other locations have upwards of ten times that number. By using ground-penetrating radar, researchers like Jol can narrow the search by peering below the surface and searching for signs that indicate human-caused disturbances. Jol and his colleagues have located mass grave and execution sites in other areas throughout Lithuania and Israel, though this particular study pertains to the Rokiskis region. "We're basically able to slice into the ground the same way the oil and gas industry does and build a three-dimensional model of the near subsurface," Jol says, explaining that breaks in the subsurface, as well as rectangular or circular patterns, can be interpreted as digging. "When those breaks occur, and with some of the patterns we see, that indicates that something has cut through those glacial-fluvial sediments." Indeed, radar images revealed such signs in the Rokiskis region, indicating a potential grave site roughly two meters below the surface. Under Jewish burial traditions, which detail practices for honoring the dead, the remains of Jewish persons, once buried, must not be disturbed. Ground penetrating radar images are just one line of evidence that teams of researchers use to establish exact locations of these sites. Historical and eyewitness accounts, as well as aerial photographs taken by Nazi pilots form other lines of evidence used to determine likely coordinates. Little is known about the roughly 28 victims of the execution and burial site in Jol's study. They likely hailed from a nearby village, he says, and were sought out when Nazi soldiers reviewed public records of local families. Farmers were then often ordered to dig a grave that could hold the number of victims they had identified through those records. "The Nazis then went to the Jewish population and said, 'we're going to move you to another location where you can join other Jews, take three days of supplies with you.' Then, as they were walking out to the train or depot, they were shuttled off into the forest, executed and buried in a pit." Once gathered, the various lines of geoscience evidence are passed through local museums, archaeologists, and eventually political offices before the site can be awarded federal distinction. Signs of a once-strong Jewish population preceding the second world war, like city streets named after synagogues, are now sparking interest in younger generations, Jol says. "Recently a play written about these types of mass executions in the region received a national award," he says. "And there's a building recognition now where some of the youth are asking, 'is this part of our history?'" Other creative works, like documentaries and exploration of poetry from the time, are prompting further reflection on the Holocaust's shadow in Lithuania. At the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Jol often shepherds undergraduate students in studies like these and, in similar work, his colleagues have excavated synagogues and other mass grave sites throughout Lithuania and surrounding regions. ### This presentation is on Sunday, 4 Nov., from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and the abstract is online at https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2018AM/webprogram/Paper324710.html. The Geological Society of America, founded in 1888, is a scientific society with members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth-science education. Indianapolis, IN, USA: Many farms have areas where the ground either floods or does not retain enough water or fertilizer for crops to thrive. Such marginal lands could become useful and potentially profitable if they are planted with perennial bioenergy crops such as shrub willow and switchgrass, report researchers this week at the annual meeting of The Geological Society of America in Indianapolis. In a project that's been underway since 2011, researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have been studying how shrub willow and switchgrass in sandier, easily dried-out patches of land can not only control erosion, but also suck up excess fertilizer chemicals that could otherwise contaminate surface water and groundwater. Excess fertilizer nutrients can lead to a host of downstream problems including toxic algal blooms, increased costs for water treatment facilities, and the growth of the hypoxic "dead" zone in the Gulf of Mexico. "The focus is on improving water quality," said John Quinn, a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois. But along the way they have found that shrub willow and grasses have other potential benefits as well, including being a source of biomass for biofuel, a resource for pollinators and other wildlife, and by providing other ecosystem services. To conduct their study, the team, led by Cristina Negri, located marginal areas on their 6.5-hectare research farmland in east-central Illinois, using corn yield maps, GIS, and publicly available data on soil and topography to identify low productivity, high nitrate-leaching, and erosion-prone areas, explained Jules Cacho, also of Argonne National Laboratory. They planted shrub willow as a bioenergy crop in marginal areas and then monitored their effects on soil, soil water, groundwater, and vegetation to determine how nutrients applied to the corn and soybean fields were lost to the soil water or taken up by the plants. They also kept track of changes in greenhouse gases, the diversity of insects, and the total mass of vegetation. Their results show that since the willows were planted in 2013, the trees have significantly reduced concentrations of fertilizer nitrate in the soil water compared to the soil water in the adjacent cornfields. "What's important about perennial crops is their deep-rooting capability," said Quinn. "They can intercept excess nitrates from corn crops. The energy grasses in particular have deep and fibrous root systems." "What is attractive by implementing this landscape approach is that it has the potential to address multiple societal needs at once, thus beneficially intensifying land use," said Negri. If the benefits of nitrate removal and potential bioenergy generation (from harvesting and digesting willows and grasses) are factored in, the cost of implementing the grass and shrub willows could be at least partially offset. "It's not competing with corn," Cacho said. "If there is a local market for biomass there is economic benefit. You are not displacing any agricultural lands. You are identifying land that is not good for corn and soybeans. You are not wasting fertilizer." The team is working with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service with the aim of making their integrated land management with willows and grasses an official "best management practice," which could create additional financial incentives for farmers. ### Quinn will be presenting results from the project on Tuesday, 6 Nov., in a talk titled "Integrated Landscape Management for Improving Water Quality in the Midwest." The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office. Contact: John J. Quinn, Ph.D., P.E. Environmental Science Division Argonne National Laboratory mail: EVS 240, Argonne, IL 60439 phone: 630-252-5357 email: quinnj@anl.gov Abstract: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2018AM/webprogram/Paper321884.html Presentation time: 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, 6 Nov. 2018 Session: T16. Advances in Agrohydrology: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Water Resources, Land Management, and Food Systems https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2018AM/webprogram/Session45389.html Tuesday, 6 Nov. 2018: 1:30-5:30 p.m. Room 138-139 (Indiana Convention Center) The Geological Society of America, founded in 1888, is a scientific society with members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth-science education. The behaviour of the nematode provides important clues for the evolution of food-motivated behavior in higher animals Finding food and staying at a food source are crucial survival strategies in the animal world. But how are external feeding signals on the molecular, cellular and neuronal circuit level transformed into behaviour? To find out, neuroscientists often resort to less complex model species such as the nematode C. elegans. It only has 302 nerve cells and its network of connections has been precisely mapped, allowing scientists to investigate in detail how its nerve cells communicate with each other to achieve certain types of behaviour. Alexander Gottschalk and his team focused in this study on a neuronal circuit involving a pair of sensory nerve cells that detect the presence of food, and release the neuromodulator dopamine. This dopamine signal affects two types of downstream neurons, termed DVA and AVK and, as the team discovered, it does so in opposing ways. Dopamine activates DVA, promoting dwelling and local search behaviour, while inhibiting AVK, which promotes dispersal and long-range search behaviour. Specifically, this takes place by DVA and AVK signalling to further downstream motoneurons, which in turn control muscle activity. But what conclusions does this allow regarding foraging in higher animals such as humans? In the worm, the DVA neuron modulates locomotion by signalling to motoneurons via the neuropeptide NLP-12. Mammals have an equivalent to NLP-12, the neuropeptide cholecystokinin. Its release is also regulated by dopamine signalling, for example in reward-related behaviour like feeding. This shows that during evolution, the importance of dopamine and the neuropeptide cholecystokinin/NLP-12 as neuromodulators has been conserved. They influence motivated behaviour in the search for food intake, but also other actions, if rewarding sensations can be actively gained by certain behaviours. The neuron AVK, which acts as an antagonist to the DVA neuron, releases a neuropeptide called FLP-1 in the absence of food. FLP-1 acts as a counterpart to NLP-12/cholecystokinin in the worm. Although FLP-1 is more likely to be invertebrate-specific, similar 'RF-amide' neuropeptides are found in mammals, where they also control food intake. Thus, similar inhibitory balancing of cholecystokinin signalling may also be found in mammals. The C. elegans neuron types identified in this study may thus provide important guidance in the search for similar cell types in mammals where myriads of cells mediate similar mechanisms of motor control. ### Publication Oranth et al.: Alexander Gottschalk et al.: Food sensation modulates locomotion by dopamine and neuropeptide signaling in a distributed neuronal network, in: Neuron 100, 1-15; December 19, 2018. (online November 1st, 2018) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.10.024 You can download images here: http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/74664380 Image 1: The nematode C. elegans. Credit: Alexander Gottschalk, Goethe-Universitat Image 2: Nematode feeding tracks. Credit: A. Oranth Image 3: Neuronal circuit controlling foraging behaviour by C. elegans. Credit: A. Bergs, A. Gottschalk. Further information: Professor Alexander Gottschalk, Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences and Institute of Biophysical Chemistry, Faculty 14, Max-von-Laue Strasse 15, Riedberg Campus, Tel.: +49 69 798 42518, a.gottschalk@em.uni-frankfurt.de Current news about science, teaching, and society in GOETHE-UNI online (http://www.aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de) Goethe University is a research-oriented university in the European financial centre Frankfurt The university was founded in 1914 through private funding, primarily from Jewish sponsors, and has since produced pioneering achievements in the areas of social sciences, sociology and economics, medicine, quantum physics, brain research, and labour law. It gained a unique level of autonomy on 1 January 2008 by returning to its historic roots as a "foundation university". Today, it is among the top ten in external funding and among the top three largest universities in Germany, with three clusters of excellence in medicine, life sciences and the humanities. Together with the Technical University of Darmstadt and the University of Mainz, it acts as a partner of the inter-state strategic Rhine-Main University Alliance. Internet: http://www.uni-frankfurt.de Publisher: The President of Goethe University Editor: Dr. Anne Hardy, Referee for Science Communication, PR & Communication Department, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Tel: (069) 798-13035, Fax: (069) 798-763 12531. Researchers from North Carolina State University have identified proteins that may be useful in both earlier diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and in more accurate disease prognosis. ALS, often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. Currently, there is no effective treatment or cure. "The current average time from symptom onset to diagnosis for ALS patients is 1 to 1 years," says Michael Bereman, assistant professor in biological sciences at NC State, leader of the proteomics core at NC State's Center for Human Health and the Environment (CHHE) and lead author of a paper describing the work. "A lot of time and money gets spent by patients during that time period. And once a patient has a diagnosis, the tools we currently have to monitor disease progression are very subjective." Bereman, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2015, knows firsthand the shortcomings of the current methods of diagnosis and prognosis. So he and his NC State colleagues decided to look for biomarkers in ALS patients that could potentially speed diagnosis and give doctors a more accurate picture of disease progression. The team obtained samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood plasma from 33 ALS patients and 30 healthy individuals. "We were looking for differences in protein abundance," Bereman says. "Essentially, if there were higher or lower levels of a particular protein in the ALS fluids, it was considered a protein of interest." Using mass spectrometry they identified over 1,000 different proteins in the fluids, then used advanced machine learning techniques to develop models that consisted of multiple proteins. "It was the combination of proteins that really improved upon the diagnostic and prognostic value of any single protein," Bereman says. Models developed from proteins found in CSF proved more useful than those in blood plasma. However, Bereman notes the potential clearly exists for an assay in blood plasma, which would be less invasive. Bereman selected two proteins that looked promising for both diagnostic and prognostic applications, then conducted further analysis to validate their usefulness as biomarkers. The proteins, chitinase-3 like1 and alpha-1-antichymotrypsin, are associated with immune-system activation in the brain and thus could also be used as an objective way to measure effectiveness of current therapies directed at tempering this pathway. Interestingly, immune-system activation is also known to play a role in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, indicating the assays could potentially be used in these diseases as well. "Our goal is to create a panel of protein targets that could give doctors a quicker path to diagnosis for ALS patients, as well as an objective way to measure disease progression, or to test the efficacy of new drugs," Bereman says. "Our next steps will be to look at changes in these proteins and their signaling pathways over time in fluids that have been longitudinally collected from ALS patients." ### The work appears in Scientific Reports. CSF and plasma samples were provided by the Northeast ALS Consortium biorepository. NC State graduate student Joshua Beri, research scientist Jeff Enders of CHHE and NC State's Molecular Education, Technology and Research Innovation Center (METRIC), and CHHE research scientist Tara Nash, also contributed to the work. Note to editors: An abstract of the paper follows "Machine Learning Reveals Protein Signatures in CSF and Plasma Fluids of Clinical Value for ALS" DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-34642-x Authors: Michael Bereman, Joshua Beri, Jeff Enders, Tara Nash, North Carolina State University Published: Scientific Reports Abstract: We use shotgun proteomics to identify biomarkers of diagnostic and prognostic value in individuals diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Matched cerebrospinal and plasma fluids were subjected to abundant protein depletion and analyzed by nano-flow liquid chromatography high resolution tandem mass spectrometry. Label free quantitation was used to identify differential proteins between individuals with ALS (n = 33) and healthy controls (n = 30) in both fluids. In CSF, 118 (p-value < 0.05) and 27 proteins (q-value < 0.05) were identified as significantly altered between ALS and controls. In plasma, 20 (p-value < 0.05) and 0 (q-value < 0.05) proteins were identified as significantly altered between ALS and controls. Proteins involved in complement activation, acute phase response and retinoid signaling pathways were significantly enriched in the CSF from ALS patients. Subsequently various machine learning methods were evaluated for disease classification using a repeated Monte Carlo cross-validation approach. A linear discriminant analysis model achieved a median area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.94 with an interquartile range of 0.88-1.0. Three proteins composed a prognostic model (p = 5e-4) that explained 49% of the variation in the ALS-FRS scores. Finally we investigated the specificity of two promising proteins from our discovery data set, chitinase-3 like 1 protein and alpha-1-antichymotrypsin, using targeted proteomics in a separate set of CSF samples derived from individuals diagnosed with ALS (n = 11) and other neurological diseases (n = 15). These results demonstrate the potential of a panel of targeted proteins for objective measurements of clinical value in ALS. Visible from NASA's Aqua satellite revealed the extent of Tropical Storm Xavier into western Mexico from its position just off-shore from Mexico's Jalisco state. Tropical Depression Twenty-Five-E (25E) formed on Nov. 3 and strengthened in a tropical storm on by 11 p.m. EDT that day. When it became a tropical storm it was re-named Xavier. Xavier has continued to hug the coast of western Mexico since it formed. On Nov. 4 a visible image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite showed an organized storm with a thick band of powerful thunderstorms circling the center. On Nov. 5, a Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Punta San Telmo to Playa Perula, Mexico. A Tropical Storm Warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area. The National Hurricane Center noted at 11 a.m. EDT the center of Tropical Storm Xavier was located near latitude 18.5 degrees north and longitude 106.2 degrees west. Xavier is moving slowly toward the west-northwest near 3 mph (6 kph), but an increase in forward speed is expected later today. Maximum sustained winds are near 60 mph (95 kph) with higher gusts. Weakening is forecast during the next few days, and Xavier is expected to degenerate into a remnant low by Tuesday night. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 115 miles (185 km) from the center. The estimated minimum central pressure is 999 millibars from the center. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1006 millibars. NHC said that Xavier is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 1 to 3 inches over coastal sections of the Mexican states of Colima and Jalisco, with isolated maximum amounts of 4 inches possible. This rainfall may produce flooding. Swells generated by Xavier will affect portions of the coast of southwestern Mexico during the next few days. On the forecast track, Xavier's center is expected to remain offshore the coast of southwestern Mexico and continue to move farther away from the coast today. For updates on Xavier, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov ### An Oregon State University environmental ethicist and scientists from nine other universities say an international oversight panel is needed to guide decisions about whether and when to employ gene-editing technology to solve ecological problems. In a paper published today in Science, Michael Paul Nelson and collaborators including researchers from Yale, Harvard, Brown and MIT propose a coordinating body to act as a neutral third party in gene-editing decision-making. Nelson is a professor of environmental ethics and philosophy in the OSU College of Forestry. Gene editing refers to causing specific changes to an organism's DNA; an enzyme makes a snip in the DNA at a specific sequence, and editing takes place when the cell repairs the cut. Editing can involve adding, subtracting or modifying DNA. Changing the genome means altering the characteristics of an organism, and the applications are potentially limitless. Genetically modified mosquitoes, for example, could be a tool for suppressing malaria; corals could have their genomes changed such that they would better resist environmental stressors. "But what if those gene-edited coral species dominated reef ecosystems at the expense of a diversity of naturally evolving coral species and the fish that depend on them?" said Nelson, the Ruth H. Spaniol Chair of Renewable Resources at OSU. "Or if a gene modification designed to suppress an invasive species escaped its release site and spread to a native population and suppressed that population too?" Nelson notes that each decision to release a gene-edited organism should be considered through the lens of: What is the scope and intent of the alteration? What are the ecosystems that might be affected? What are the consequences for human health? What are the value systems of the communities that might be affected? "Underlying all of this are differing views about what is considered 'natural' and to what degree humans should even be intervening in ecosystems," Nelson said. "Different societal views about the human relationship to nature need to shape decision-making, and local community knowledge and perspectives need to be engaged to address these context-dependent, value-based considerations." Nelson and his co-authors, among them scientists from UCLA, Arizona State, Georgia Tech and the National Geographic Society, propose a coordinating body to bring together communities, technology developers, and governmental and nongovernmental organizations "in ways that ensure inclusive deliberations." The coordinating body would set up a framework for deliberations that produce standardized reports and deliver recommendations, and also establish information-sharing protocols to connect deliberations around the globe. "Characterizing what defines an affected 'local' community will be an important part of this process and will depend on the nature of the technology in question and how it is predicted to interact with the environment," Nelson said. "For example, if a self-propagating gene drive is under deliberation to counter malaria transmission, then representatives from much of sub-Saharan Africa would deserve a voice in deliberation. For cases where a technology is more limited in scope, predictive models could be used to define the communities most likely to be affected." The authors envision the coordinating body operating with the shared support of multiple existing groups, such as the World Health Organization and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. "That would hasten its development so it could meet the rapid pace of gene-editing technologies," Nelson said. "Joint support would also lend immediate accountability and authority." Funding could come from a trust built with contributions from concerned governments, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs. The body's success will depend on inputs and expertise from a range of disciplines and world views, Nelson notes. "This governance model proposes a connection between local needs and global frameworks and expertise," he said. "That has the potential to help us all realize the most profound benefit of gene editing: the opportunity to inspire a more healthy and just future for all who share our planet." A key aspect of the panel would be a collection of neutral and informed facilitators, Nelson said. "They'd understand existing power structures, and foster relationships between groups that hold disparate ideological stances, striving to cultivate certain virtues among deliberants," he said. "Transparency and trustworthiness are musts if this panel is to work, and facilitators will help everyone who participates understand that." ### Rice University scientists have found a simple method to attach drugs or other substances to antibodies, the powerful proteins that are central to the body's immune system. The Rice lab of bioengineer Han Xiao developed a technique called pClick, which uses a cross-linker that snaps to a specific site on antibodies and serves as a bridge to therapeutic molecules or nanomaterials without the need to re-engineer the antibody with harmful chemicals, enzymes or ultraviolet (UV) light. All of those alternatives are used by companies and researchers to prepare antibodies for conjugation - the process of chemically modifying them. "But our technology is straightforward, highly efficient and economical," said Xiao, who joined Rice last year with funding from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). "We use native antibodies with no engineering, no enzyme treatment, no chemical treatment, no UV treatment. People have tried to use all these things before to achieve site-specific conjugation. We don't need them." The research is detailed in the American Chemical Society journal Bioconjugate Chemistry. Antibodies are dimers, identical proteins that in this case come together in a "Y" shape, and the workhorses of the immune system. Their job is to recognize and bind to pathogens, facilitating the invaders' elimination. Antibodies either roam the blood stream or attach themselves to cells that need protection. Because they are ubiquitous in the body, modifying them is a way to treat disease. That's not easy, Xiao said. "For the first generation of antibody conjugation, people used targets like lysine or cysteine residues to attach their therapeutic molecules," Xiao said. "But antibodies are so big, and there are so many lysine and cysteine residues, they can never control their positions. Each batch they make of a drug is different." He said second-generation research focused on site-specific conjugation to place therapeutic drugs at a particular location on the antibody. "That let them optimize the position of the drug, but to do so people needed to know the antibody's sequence and engineer it," Xiao said. "Our next-generation work addresses two problems," he said. "First, we don't have to engineer antibodies. We use antibodies from the market for direct, site-specific conjugation. Second, we know exactly where our molecule goes on the antibody." The key to proximity-induced conjugation is using non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs), synthetic hooks that can be made to covalently bind to a specific spot on a protein when it gets close enough (the "p" in pClick stands for proximity). Because antibodies are two-protein dimers, ncAAs bind one to a side and provide two spots for enhancement. Xiao sees pClick as a general strategy for antibody conjugation by industry and academia. He noted tests to link a side chain protein to human and mouse antibodies conjugated with ncAA showed efficiencies of more than 90 percent. Stability tests showed the antibodies did not significantly degrade after two hours of incubation in human serum. "The regions of the antibody protein we address are conserved across human and mouse, and we demonstrated that pClick works on both," he said. "This efficiency was a surprise, but it's important for the antibody-drug conjugate field." Xiao's Rice lab plans to develop pClick for cancer immunotherapy. "We want to achieve different conjugations, from antibody-drug conjugates all the way to antibody-antibody conjugates, where we would mix two antibodies and they would click together," he said. "We think we can have one antibody target the cancer cell, and the other antibody target the immune cell," Xiao added. "Then the antibodies will bring the cells together." ### Rice graduate student Chenfei Yu and postdoctoral researcher Juan Tang are lead authors of the paper. Co-authors are Rice graduate students Axel Loredo and Yuda Chen and undergraduate Aviva Gordon; and Sung Yun Jung, an assistant professor of biochemistry, and Antrix Jain, a research assistant, of Baylor College of Medicine. Xiao is the Norman Hackerman-Welch Young Investigator and an assistant professor of chemistry. CPRIT and the Robert A. Welch Foundation supported the research. Read the abstract at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.8b00680. This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2018/11/05/antibodies-get-easy-upgrade-with-pclick/ Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews. Related materials: Xiao Lab: http://xiao.rice.edu/People/hanxiao/hanxiao.html Department of Chemistry: https://chemistry.rice.edu Wiess School of Natural Sciences: https://naturalsciences.rice.edu Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Lisa Giocomo, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and Christopher Harvey, PhD, assistant professor in the Harvard Medical School Department of Neurobiology, have been selected to receive this year's Young Investigator Award. Supported by Sunovion, a pharmaceutical company, the $15,000 award recognizes outstanding achievements and contributions made by young neuroscientists who have demonstrated scholarly independence. The award will be presented in San Diego at Neuroscience 2018, SfN's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. "Dr. Giocomo has contributed novel insight into spatial perception, and Dr. Harvey has made strides in our understanding of the synaptic specificity of neural plasticity," SfN President Richard Huganir said. "The implications of their work have the potential to bridge molecular processes with cognitive function and to provide new applications of tools and techniques in a frontier area of systems neuroscience." In her postdoctoral work at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Giocomo focused on the role that grid cells of the entorhinal cortex play individually and as a part of a circuit as they create a spatial map of the environment. Using interdisciplinary methodologies, including whole-cell patch and in vivo unit recording, and genetically altered animal models, she discovered that a grid cell's location along the entorhinal cortex determines that cell's role in spatial perception. Moreover, as an independent researcher at Stanford University, Giocomo has helped to elucidate how spatial perception is formed at a cellular level. This work involves looking at border cells, which activate near environmental boundaries; place cells, which activate spatial locations; and velocity signals. Harvey's work has advanced our knowledge of neural circuitry for navigation and decision-making. As a graduate student at the Watson School of Biological Sciences at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, he used two-photon microscopy and fluorescent reporters to show that signaling molecules can be shared between neighboring syn-apses, revealing new rules for synaptic plasticity. As a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, Harvey devel-oped virtual reality systems in which mice can navigate in virtual mazes while neural activity is probed with optical and electrophysiological methods. He identified new properties of coding in hippocampal place cells and showed that cortical populations of neurons are sequentially activated during decision tasks. In his lab at Harvard Medical School, Harvey has developed approaches to understand emergent properties of populations of neurons in the context of decision-making. With optical and computational approaches, his work has identified how activity in neural populations changes over timescales ranging from seconds to weeks, provid-ing evidence for new structure in the dynamics of neural circuits. ### The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is an organization of nearly 36,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and the nervous system. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) will present the Jacob P. Waletzky Award to Michael Bruchas, PhD, of the Washington University School of Medicine, at Neuroscience 2018, SfN's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. The award is given to a young scientist whose independent research has led to significant conceptual and empirical contributions to the understanding of drug addiction. Recipients receive a $25,000. "On behalf of SfN, it is my pleasure to congratulate Dr. Bruchas for his leadership in the integration of stress biology, opioid signaling, and drug abuse-related behaviors, and for his outstanding contributions to our understanding of the neural circuits responsible for addiction," SfN President Richard Huganir said. Bruchas' studies illuminating the role of kappa-opioid receptors and signaling in stress, depression, and negative affect have been crucial to the understanding of how these systems affect behavior, especially substance use and abuse. His work has advanced the understanding of the circuitry and cell biology critical to the development of drug dependence and could help to inform the development of new treatments for addiction, depression, and anxiety. In addition to his foundational discoveries, Bruchas has taken a leading role in introducing new techniques for the study of brain function in awake, behaving rodents, applying cutting-edge technology to explore fundamental questions in the neurobiology of addiction. He has also developed sophisticated bioengineering tools to enhance the use of optogenetic techniques, with an eye toward clinical applications. His laboratory has introduced new wireless, optofluidic methods for combining pharmacology with optogenetics. Use of the "Bruchas modification" is opening new experimental possibilities and broadening even further the potential applications of optogenetics. ### The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is an organization of nearly 36,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and the nervous system. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rodolfo Llinas, MD, PhD, Thomas and Suzanne Murphy Professor of Neuroscience and chairman emeritus of physiology and neuroscience at the New York University School of Medicine, will receive this year's Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience. The award will be presented at Neuroscience 2018 in San Diego, SfN's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. The Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience is a $25,000 prize that honors an outstanding scientist who has made significant contributions to neuroscience throughout his or her career. Ralph W. Gerard, for whom the award is named, was instrumental in establishing the Society for Neuroscience and served as its honorary president from 1970 to 1974. "SfN is pleased to present this award to Dr. Llinas, who has achieved exceptional scholarly excellence with an impressive impact on neuroscience over a long and highly distinguished career. His research has significantly advanced our knowledge of the membrane biophysics of neurons," SfN President Richard Huganir said. Llinas' work in neurophysiology has bridged neuron membrane channels and biophysics, leading to the understanding that neurons are not passive intake systems but actively modify input and output transformations in complex ways. His contributions include discovering dendritic calcium spikes, dendritic inhibition, electrotonic coupling, and subthreshold oscillations in mammalian neurons, and demonstrating presynaptic calcium current at the squid giant synapse. He also showed how the active neuron concept can affect interpretation of brain rhythms in the intact brain as well as its implications in neurological and psychiatric conditions. "The active neuron concept brought about a fundamental change in our thinking regarding the abilities of single neurons," said Gyorgy Buzsaki, Biggs Professor of Neuroscience, Physiology and Neurology at the New York University Neuroscience Institute. "Today, the neuron is considered as a dynamic piece of machinery with enormous computational power, a knowledge that is prominently highlighted in any contemporary volume on neuroscience." Llinas additionally extrapolated related molecular biophysical discoveries related to system functions and complex behaviors such as sleep cycles and cerebellar rhythmicity and implicated their function roles in neurological and psychiatric conditions. Much of this pioneering work was done in humans using magnetoencephalography, a noninvasive tool that measures milliseconds of brain activity at a high time temporal resolution. ### The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is an organization of nearly 36,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and the nervous system. LA JOLLA, CA - Nov. 5, 2018 - As co-leaders of an international collaboration, scientists at Scripps Research have discovered that tethering four antibodies together may be an effective strategy for neutralizing all types of influenza virus known to infect humans. The research, published this week in Science, suggests this strategy could lead to influenza prevention tools with the strength and potency to last throughout the flu season, even as the virus mutates rapidly. "We don't have a vaccine yet that protects against all of the two main types of influenza (A and B). The key to this study is the engineering of a multidomain antibody that is cross-neutralizing to influenza A and B," says Ian Wilson, DPhil, Hansen Professor of Structural Biology at Scripps Research, and Chair of the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology. Tethering together antibodies is not a new concept, but this is the first time four antibodies have been tethered together and tried against influenza. The antibodies in this study came from llamas that had been challenged with a vaccine containing three types of the virus, as well as a key protein from two different strains of influenza. Llamas are important in immunology research because they produce unique antibodies that are smaller and simpler than those found in humans and fit into smaller and more recessed binding sites on the viral surface. "In this case, the llama antibodies could be easily linked together to create multi-specific antibodies binding to different sites on different targets," Ian Wilson says. "This multi-specificity is the key to having broad coverage of highly variable pathogens like influenza." The scientists tethered together two llama antibodies against influenza A and two against influenza B to create a "multidomain" antibody. With their Scripps Research colleagues, Ian Wilson and Professor Andrew Ward, PhD, led the x-ray and electron microscopy structural studies to show exactly where this multidomain antibody was binding to influenza proteins. They found that the antibody could target several vulnerable sites on influenza A and B. This means the antibody was cross-reactive and may have the ability to protect against all circulating strains of the virus that affect humans, as well as new subtypes that could mutate to cause pandemics. "The question then was how you might deliver those antibodies," says Ian Wilson. For this, the scientists turned to an approach traditionally used in gene therapy, not vaccine design. They used a viral vector that could deliver a specially engineered gene to instruct cells to start expressing a producing protein comprised of fragments from all four llama antibodies. The viral vector, called adenovirus-associated virus, was then administered into the nostrils of mice via a nasal spray. The goal was to get them to produce these protective antibodies in their upper respiratory tract, the tissues most vulnerable to influenza. Collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania, led by James Wilson, MD, PhD, and Maria Limberis, PhD, found that this approach could offer protection against multiple strains of influenza--and it worked rapidly, within a few days in most of the mice. While the study suggests that a multidomain antibody approach may hold potential as a strategy for the prevention of influenza A and B, this research is preclinical and further study is required to determine whether such a medicine can successfully be developed. ### The study, "Universal protection against influenza infection by a multi-domain antibody to influenza hemagglutinin," also includes authors from Janssen Research & Development LLC., Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V., Quantitative Sciences, The University of Hong Kong and the University of Pennsylvania. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants R56,AI117675 and R56 AI127371), by a grant from Janssen, and in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Department of Defense (grant 64047-LS-DRP.02) and the Theme-based Research Scheme, Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong (ref. T11-705/14N). X-ray diffraction data were collected at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) beamlines 23ID-B, 23ID-D, and 17-ID and at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) BL12-2. Use of the APS was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. GM/CA CAT is funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Cancer Institute (Y1-CO-1020) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (Y1-GM-1104). Use of the SSRL, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, is supported by the U.S. DOE, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under contract DE-AC02-76SF00515. The SSRL Structural Molecular Biology Program is supported by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research and by the NIGMS (including P41GM103393). Research carried out at the University of Adelaide and the University of Bristol has examined long-held beliefs that success in school and careers is due to more than just high intelligence. Non-cognitive skills are also important. The study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour is the first to systematically review the entire literature on effects of non-cognitive skills in children aged 12 or under, on later outcomes in their lives such as academic achievement, and cognitive and language ability. "Traits such as attention, self-regulation, and perseverance in childhood have been investigated by psychologists, economists, and epidemiologists, and some have been shown to influence later life outcomes," says Professor John Lynch, School of Public Health, University of Adelaide and senior author of the study. "There is a wide range of existing evidence under-pinning the role of non-cognitive skills and how they affect success in later life but it's far from consistent," he says. One of the study's co-authors, Associate Professor Lisa Smithers, School of Public Health, University of Adelaide says: "There is tentative evidence from published studies that non-cognitive skills are associated with academic achievement, psychosocial, and cognitive and language outcomes, but cognitive skills are still important." One of the strongest findings of their systematic review was that the quality of evidence in this field is lower than desirable. Of over 550 eligible studies, only about 40% were judged to be of sufficient quality. "So, while interventions to build non-cognitive skills may be important, particularly for disadvantaged children, the existing evidence base underpinning this field has the potential for publication bias and needs to have larger studies that are more rigorously designed. That has important implications for researchers and funding agencies who wish to study effects of non-cognitive skills," says Professor Lynch. ### This research received funding from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, and the UK Economic and Social Research Council. Physicists at the University of Alberta in Canada have developed a new way to build quantum memories, a method for storing delicate quantum information encoded into pulses of light. "We've developed a new way to store pulses of light--down to the single-photon level--in clouds of ultracold rubidium atoms, and to later retrieve them, on-demand, by shining a 'control' pulse of light," said Lindsay LeBlanc, assistant professor of physics and Canada Research Chair in Ultracold Gases for Quantum Simulation. LeBlanc conducted this research with postdoctoral fellow Erhan Saglamyurek. Quantum memories are an important component of quantum networks, serving much the same role as hard drives in today's computers. And the interest in storing quantum data efficiently and effectively is only growing, with practical applications including a quantum fibre-optic internet and other methods of secure communication. "This experiment involved taking short pulses of light, in which we could encode quantum information, storing the light in the atoms, and then retrieving the original pulse that carries the same information," explained Saglamyurek. The novel method developed by LeBlanc and Saglamyurek, which is best-suited for key applications requiring high-speed operation, also has considerably fewer technical requirements than required in common quantum storage techniques. "The amount of power needed, for example, is significantly lower than current options, and these reduced requirements make it easier to implement in other labs," added Saglamyurek. This discovery will allow for the crucial scaling up of quantum technologies, which has proven the biggest challenge to date in the emerging field. ### The research team also included two graduate students working in LeBlanc's lab, Taras Hrushevskyi and Anindya Rastogi, and Khabat Heshami from the National Research Council in Ottawa. The paper, "Coherent storage and manipulation of broadband photons via dynamically controlled Autler-Townes splitting," was published in Nature Photonics (doi: 10.1038/s41566-018-0279-0). Almost half of the nearly 10 million patients with active tuberculosis each year could potentially be cured with significantly shorter treatments than current guidelines recommend, a new analysis from UC San Francisco has found. The results suggest targeted therapies could be more effective in treating TB, which killed an estimated 1.3 million people around the world last year. The new study, published Nov. 5, 2018 in Nature Medicine, re-analyzed data from three pivotal TB trials that had failed to show the efficacy of four-month treatments over the standard six-month treatment duration. The new analysis was led by Marjorie Imperial, a graduate student in the Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics program at UCSF, with publicly available data from the Platform for Aggregation of Clinical TB Studies. The UCSF scientists said the reason the earlier trials failed was because they treated all patients the same, regardless of the severity of their disease. In the new analysis, when patients were retrospectively stratified into minimal, moderate and severe disease categories, the four-month drug regimens turned out to have been highly effective for the 47 percent of patients with minimal disease. But the four-month regimens were not effective for patients with moderate or severe disease. And even the standard six-month treatment was insufficient for those with the most extensive disease. "Our study shows a stratified medicine approach can be feasibly applied to achieve treatment shortening for many patients with TB," said Payam Nahid, MD, MPH, professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at UCSF School of Medicine, and one of the first authors of the paper. "A one-size-fits-all approach leads to undertreatment of patients with severe forms of disease, and overtreatment, with the potential that the drugs will cause harm, for patients who have less extensive disease." The study also challenges the assumption, built into both U.S. and international treatment guidelines, that TB patients can safely miss occasional doses of medication, as missing just one in 10 doses was found to have resulted in a fivefold greater risk of treatment failure. "People thought it was OK to miss some doses," said Rada Savic, PhD, associate professor of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences at the USCF School of Pharmacy, and the senior author of the study. "But it's not OK to miss even one out of 10 doses." TB has been treatable with antibiotics since the discovery of streptomycin in 1943, although the bacteria that causes the disease quickly developed resistance to the drug, which was used alone. New, highly effective rifampin-based combination regimens were developed in the 1970s and 80s, but resistance has arisen once again, a dangerous development given how common the disease has become. Alarmingly, TB now kills more people than any other infectious disease, surpassing HIV/AIDS in mortality. The researchers said a targeted approach to treatment based on their findings could be applied even in resource-limited settings where the epidemic is spreading the fastest, since the risk stratification relies on clinical markers that are already available in TB programs. They said that new markers could also be identified to enable a tailored treatment approach for patients with drug-resistant TB, which requires taking drugs for up to two years that can have severe side effects. "You can imagine how profound the change would be for patients with drug-resistant TB if they didn't have to take toxic drugs any longer than necessary," Savic said. "The best strategy for improving TB therapy is to have shorter treatment durations." ### Authors: Other authors of the paper include Patrick Phillips, of UCSF; Geraint Davies, of the University of Liverpool; Katherine Fielding, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Debra Hanna, of Critical Path Institute; David Hermann, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Robert Wallis, of the Aurum Institute; John Johnson, of Case Western Reserve University; and Christian Lienhardt, of the World Health Organization. Funding: World Health Organization, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; National Institutes of Health, NIAID (1R01AI104589). Disclosures: None. About UCSF: UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise. It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises three top-ranked hospitals - UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland - as well as Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics, UCSF Benioff Children's Physicians and the UCSF Faculty Practice. UCSF Health has affiliations with hospitals and health organizations throughout the Bay Area. UCSF faculty also provide all physician care at the public Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, and the SF VA Medical Center. The UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program is a major branch of the University of California, San Francisco's School of Medicine. Please visit http://www.ucsf.edu/news. Follow UCSF ucsf.edu | Facebook.com/ucsf | YouTube.com/ucsf Irvine, Calif. - November 5, 2018 - Researchers from the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, have discovered that neurons located in the vision centers of the brains of blind rats functioned normally following fetal retina cell transplants, indicating the successful restoration of vision. The research was published today in JNeurosci, the Journal of Neuroscience. Led by David Lyon, PhD, associate professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology and director of graduate studies at the UCI School of Medicine, the study, titled, "Detailed visual cortical responses generated by retinal sheet transplants in rats with severe retinal degeneration," reveals that sheets of fetal cells integrate into the retina and generate nearly normal visual activity in the brains of blind rats. "It's been known that retinal sheet transplants can integrate into the degenerated eyes and allow the animals to detect light. But, beyond rudimentary light detection it was not known how well the visual system in the brain functioned with the newly integrated retinal transplant," said Lyon. "In this study, we found that neurons in the primary visual processing center perform as well as neurons in animals with normal healthy retinas. These results show the great potential of retinal transplants to treat retinal degeneration in people." Age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa lead to profound vision loss in millions of people worldwide. Degeneration of the retina as a result of age or progressive eye disease damages the light-detecting cells necessary for accurate vision. Current treatments can only help protect existing cells from further damage and are ineffective during late stages of disease once these cells are gone. Retinal sheet transplants have been successful in animal and human studies, but their ability to restore complex vision has not yet been assessed. "Remarkably, we found fetal retinal sheet transplants generated visual responses in cortex similar in quality to normal rats. The transplants also preserved connectivity within the brain that supports potential of this approach in curing vision loss associated with retinal degeneration," said Lyon. Measuring the response of neurons in the primary visual cortex, Lyon and colleagues demonstrated how rats with severe retinal degeneration that received donor cells became sensitive to various attributes of visual stimuli, including size, orientation, and contrast, as early as three months following surgery. The study represents an important step forward in combating age- and disease-related vision loss in human adults. Follow up behavioral research will be necessary to further determine effectiveness and acuity. ### About the UCI School of Medicine Each year, the UCI School of Medicine educates more than 400 medical students, as well as about 130 doctoral and master's students on the Irvine, California campus. More than 700 residents and fellows are trained at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, California and at other affiliated institutions. The highly regarded medical school is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Accreditation and ranks among the U.S. News & World Report's top 50 medical schools in the nation for research. Dedicated to advancing medical knowledge and clinical practice through scholarly research, physician education, and high-quality care, the school of medicine offers MD, MS, and PhD Degrees; a Master of Science in Biomedical and Translational Science (MS-BATS), combined MD/MBA, MD/MS-BATS, and MD/MPH programs; and a distinctive combined MD/master's program called the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC). For more information, visit: som.uci.edu. About the University of California, Irvine Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 30,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. Located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities, UCI is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit http://www.uci.edu. A study carried out by a research team made up of researchers from the University of Cordoba, the Maimonides Institute of Biomedical Research (in Spanish abbreviated to IMIBIC) and Queen Sofia University Hospital revealed that sexual dysfunction suffered by women who are breast cancer survivors is linked to phobic anxiety, which nevertheless, does not affect sexual function in women with no history of cancer. For women who have survived breast cancer, this type of anxiety can result in sexual intercourse being an unpleasant experience. These women have difficulty with excitement, lubrication, orgasms and with experiencing intercourse as a satisfying and pleasant experience. Though there are other factors that affect sexual dysfunction in women who have undergone cancer treatment, this recently published study in the journal Psycho-Oncology points out that psychological impact can be enough to cause a problem in a woman's sexual behavior and that women can lose desire to have intercourse and try to avoid having intercourse. University of Cordoba researcher, Ana Abril Requena, explains that "phobic anxiety is consistently linked to sexual changes in this group of patients, which proves the significance of psychosocial factors upon sexuality, causing sexual relations to be unpleasant experiences in these cases." Though it is true that certain kinds of cancer affect sexuality more than others, such as those affecting reproductive organs, this research reveals that, in the case of breast cancer, phobic anxiety is the main reason that leads to a lack of sexual drive. In this group of patients, les sexual activity and less interest in sex was observed, as well as a worse perception of one's attractiveness and femininity. Abril points out that the discoveries made in the research "can be used to help prevent these kinds of issues and to develop more specific responses to help reduce the symptoms that negatively affect the quality of life for patients and their partners by means of, for instance, behavioral therapy and relaxation techniques." From this study, another interesting piece of information has been shown related to women cancer survivors but not consisting in symptoms or side effects. This is that most female breast cancer survivors "are not satisfied with the quantity nor quality of the information provided to them by healthcare providers regarding breast cancer's side effects on their sexuality after being diagnosed and above all after receiving treatment. The research shows that 79.3% of the women studied professed this opinion. This research project was carried out by means of questionnaires administered to two groups of women: one was made up of women who had been diagnosed with cancer and had finished treatment and the other was made up of women with no cancer history. Each group consisted of 30 people with an average age of 55. Most of the participants were married and there was a similar educational level in the two groups. Within the group of patients, most had undergone chemotherapy (76.7%) and/or radiation therapy (73.3%), followed by hormone therapy (60%; 23.3%) and breast-conserving surgery (50%). This method allows for measuring different dimensions of anxiety with standardized questionnaires such as the Inventory of Situations and Responses of Anxiety (abbreviated to ISRA-B in Spanish) and the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). The former obtains information on the three systems of anxiety (cognitive, physiological and motor) and on four specific characteristics of anxiety (in assessment, interpersonal, phobic and daily life situations). The latter, FSFI, assesses six different domains: desire, excitement, lubrication, orgasms, satisfaction and pain. ### Abril?Requena A, Garcia?Torres F, Alos FJ. Sexual dysfunction and phobic anxiety in breast cancer survivors. Psycho-Oncology. 2018; 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.4894 As part of a $6 million effort to establish new therapies for high-risk pediatric liver cancer, Navin Varadarajan, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, will modify T cells to recognize and kill glypican-3, a molecule found in liver cancer cells. Inherently that's what the immune systems' white T cells do -they fight invaders or infections. It is also what Varadarajan does. With two previous awards from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), Varadarajan is working to improve effectiveness of T-cell immunotherapy. On this CPRIT multi-investigator research award, he joins Andras Heczey, a physician researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, in examining one of the most common forms of liver cancer in adolescents, hepatocellular (HCC) carcinoma. HCC patient survival rates are under 30 percent. No effective cure is available for most metastatic hepatocellular tumors. Current treatment includes surgical resection or liver transplantation in combination with dose-intensive chemotherapy regimens -associated with significant morbidity in HCC - or which may cause low blood cell counts, hearing impairment, speech and cognitive delay and long-term damage to the heart. "It is thus critical to develop new, effective and safer therapies," said Varadarajan. T cell-based immunotherapy has worked in other types of cancers, like leukemia and lymphoma. The team at Baylor will isolate the T cells, modify them with synthetic receptors and then Varadarajan will get to work. "We have a platform for documenting how well T cells work and we will use it to determine which T cell properties are essential in fighting the cancer cells," said Varadarajan, whose team built the microscopy-based methods for monitoring cellular function. Once determined, certain functions can be added or subtracted through genetic editing to make the T cell the best cancer fighter possible. The modified cells will deliver targeted and tailored therapy in clinical trials at Baylor. "The hope is to get consistent and durable patient responses in pediatric HCC by using the power of immunotherapy," said Varadarajan, who credits CPRIT with the steps forward in immunotherapy. "Texas taxpayers are amazing for funding CPRIT. Much of this research would not be possible without it," said Varadarajan. CPRIT's goal is to expedite innovation in cancer research and product development, and to enhance access to evidence-based prevention programs throughout the state of Texas. ### CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Single mothers, those with less education and mothers enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children - better known as the WIC Program - may receive less information and support with breastfeeding, a new study found. Led by University of Illinois postdoctoral research associate Carolyn Sutter, the study suggests that mothers who are at greatest risk of breastfeeding cessation may have access to fewer resources that provide helpful information and support. More than 440 new mothers responded to an online survey about their breastfeeding practices, breast pump use and infant feeding methods at six weeks postpartum. All of the women were participants in the Synergistic Theory and Research on Obesity and Nutrition Group 2, better known as STRONG Kids 2, an ongoing child-obesity prevention program administered by the U. of I.'s Family Resiliency Center. "The STRONG Kids 2 program collects a lot of data around breastfeeding and different feeding practices that mothers are using, especially during their infants' first year of life," Sutter said. "Within that initiative, I was interested in finding out where mothers get their information and support for engaging in the often-challenging task of breastfeeding, and how we can bolster those resources or eliminate some of the barriers that mothers face." Despite the many documented benefits of breastfeeding, such as breastfed infants receiving antibodies that resist bacteria and viruses and reduced risks of asthma and allergies, only about half of U.S. mothers breastfeed their infants through their first six months of life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Breastfeeding Report Card. Barriers that discourage mothers from breastfeeding or expressing breast milk to feed their infants include physical complications such as insufficient milk supply, and structural barriers such as mothers' need to return to work. Slightly more than 70 percent of the mothers in the current study were breastfeeding exclusively, while another 18 percent of them were feeding their child a combination of breast milk and infant formula. Women were asked whether they had received information on breastfeeding and breast pumping or support for these practices from professional sources such as clinicians and WIC; educational and informational media; relatives, friends and peers; their workplaces; and their child care providers. The majority of the women in the study were first-time mothers, and 97 percent of these women reported that they received support from their health care providers or other professionals to help them with breastfeeding. Nonetheless, Sutter found that these mothers, along with women participating in WIC, were less likely to breastfeed their infants, even though WIC provides educational materials and assistance to mothers who do so. "Despite receiving information and support at higher rates, being a first-time parent was associated with decreased odds of breastfeeding, as was WIC participation," Sutter said. "It's unclear whether the information and support is completely absent or if it's not resonating with them in a meaningful way that supports breastfeeding practices due to ineffective delivery methods or to some mothers' heightened stress levels." More than 95 percent of breastfeeding mothers and 78 percent of the mothers who used breast pumps reported that they received information and support from professional sources. However, Sutter found that mothers' sources of information and support were linked with demographic differences. For example, first-time mothers reported receiving greater levels of support from professionals and from friends and relatives than did their counterparts who had given birth previously, Sutter found. Accordingly, women who had college or postgraduate degrees, who were white and not enrolled in WIC were more likely to seek information from books, websites or other media. While receiving advice from a trusted friend or relative may be beneficial, Sutter noted that interpersonal factors may become impediments, especially when family and community members provide incorrect information to the new mother or when negative subjective norms in the community discourage breastfeeding. To be effective, educational and informational materials about infant feeding practices must be culturally sensitive and be sensitive to women's differing lifestyles, Sutter said. For example, mothers who must return to work shortly after giving birth may find information on using breast pumps more useful to them than information on breastfeeding alone. Sutter will present her findings at the National Council on Family Relations annual conference Nov. 7 in San Diego. The paper was published recently in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine. ### Barbara H. Fiese, the director of the center and a professor of human development and family studies, co-wrote the study along with Brent McBride, the director of the Child Development Lab; nutritional sciences professor Sharon M. Donovan; and graduate students Alexandra Lundquist and Erin C. Davis. New research has revealed the impact a change in US guidelines had on the prescribing of antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) to prevent a life-threatening heart condition infective endocarditis (IE) in patients before undergoing invasive dental treatment. The findings of the international research provide further evidence that the UK's National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) were wrong to call for a complete ban on the use of AP before invasive dental procedures - even for those considered to be at high-risk of IE such as patients with artificial or repaired heart valves or a previous history of IE. The study is the largest and most comprehensive research into the 2007 American Heart Association's (AHA) recommendations that AP should continue to be given to patients at high-risk of developing IE, but not to those at moderate-risk. The research showed a large fall in AP prescribing for those at moderate-risk of IE (64 per cent). However, it also identified a concerning fall in AP prescribing to those at high-risk (20 per cent) - despite the AHA's recommendation that high-risk individuals should continue to receive AP before invasive dental treatment. In parallel, the study also identified a significant increase in IE (177 per cent) in those at high-risk but only a barely significant increase in those at moderate-risk. Lead author, Professor Martin Thornhill from the University of Sheffield's School of Clinical Dentistry, said: "Although the data do not prove a cause-effect relationship between AP reduction and IE increase, they are very supportive of the AHA recommendation to give AP to those at high-risk but not to those at moderate-risk of endocarditis." "It also provides further evidence that the 2008 NICE recommendation that AP should cease completely in the UK, was probably wrong and should be changed." Professor Thornhill added: "Current NICE guidance on the use of AP to prevent IE is confusing and unhelpful for clinicians and patients, and probably wrong." "In the absence of clear and sensible advice from NICE, the recent attempt by the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Program (SDCEP) to provide advice for dentists about how to implement the NICE guidelines - effectively suggesting they follow the AHA recommendations, is very welcome." IE is a serious infection of the heart valves with high morbidity and mortality - 30 per cent of people die within a year of being diagnosed. Previous studies have shown that approximately 40 per cent of cases are likely to have been caused by bacteria from the mouth. A large number of people with pre-disposing cardiac conditions are at increased risk of IE and some patients, for example those with prosthetic or repaired heart valves, previous history IE or certain congenital heart conditions, are at high-risk of developing IE. Consultant Cardiologist and co-author of the study, Mark Dayer from Taunton and Somerset NHS Trust, said: "The recent implementation advice by SDCEP is a timely recognition that the patient has the right to be told the arguments both for and against prophylaxis and decide whether or not they wish to take it. To my mind, the data in this study further supports the use of prophylaxis in patients at high risk of endocarditis, as recommended in America and across the rest of Europe." Since the 1950s, the main method for preventing IE world-wide has been to give those at increased risk AP before invasive dental and medical procedures. A lack of evidence for the efficacy of AP, concerns about the risk of adverse reactions and the development of antibiotic resistance has led guideline committees to gradually reduce the number of situations where AP is recommended. In 2008, however, NICE recommended the complete cessation of AP in the UK, despite a lack of evidence for or against AP efficacy. In contrast the majority of guidelines committees across the world, including the American Heart Association (AHA), recommended that individuals at high-risk of IE should continue to receive AP but it should stop for those at moderate-risk. In 2015, research conducted by Professor Thornhill and his team published in The Lancet , found that the 2008 change in NICE guidelines had led to an 89 per cent fall in AP prescribing in the UK. This pioneering research also showed there had been an increase of 35 IE cases per month since the guideline change. As a result, NICE reviewed their guidance but continued to recommend against AP. The new study provides further evidence to support the advice given by the AHA, and most other guideline committees around the world, that those at high-risk of IE undergoing invasive dental procedures should receive AP. It also supports the advice recently published by the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Program (SDCEP), about how to implement the NICE guidelines - which tells dentists to discuss and offer AP to patients at high-risk of IE, just like the AHA guidelines. The results of the study will be published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) today (5 November 2018), and in hard copy on the 27 November. ### The data will also be presented by Dr Pat O'Gara, Chair of Cardiology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham Women's at the AHA Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago on the 11 November 2018. The study was funded by Delta Dental of Michigan and its Research and Data Institute. For further information please contact: Amy Huxtable, Media Relations Officer, University of Sheffield, 0114 222 9859, a.l.huxtable@sheffield.ac.uk Notes to editors The multidisciplinary study was led by Professor Martin Thornhill from the University of Sheffield, UK, in close collaboration with colleagues from the Mayo Clinic College of medicine (Dr Larry Baddour), Harvard Medical School/Brigham & Women's Hospital (Dr Patrick O'Gara), Taunton & Somerset NHS Trust, UK (Dr Mark Dayer), Duke University Medical School (Dr Vivian Chu), The Carolinas Medical Center (Dr Peter Lockhart), and Truven Health Analytics/IBM Watson Health (Drs Teresa Gibson and Eli Cutler). The University of Sheffield With almost 29,000 of the brightest students from over 140 countries, learning alongside over 1,200 of the best academics from across the globe, the University of Sheffield is one of the world's leading universities. A member of the UK's prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines. Unified by the power of discovery and understanding, staff and students at the university are committed to finding new ways to transform the world we live in. Sheffield is the only university to feature in The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2018 and for the last eight years has been ranked in the top five UK universities for Student Satisfaction by Times Higher Education. Sheffield has six Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and its alumni go on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence all over the world, making significant contributions in their chosen fields. Global research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, AstraZeneca, Glaxo SmithKline, Siemens and Airbus, as well as many UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations. Researchers from the University of Seville state that the sound perception has varied due to the success transformations of the building How did words or the rain sound inside the Mosque of Cordoba in the time of Abd al-Rahman I? Today, thanks to virtual simulation tools, it is possible to know the sound filed of spaces that no longer exist. This field of work is known as "Acoustic Archaeology" by some researchers. Working in this field, researchers from the Higher Technical School of Architecture at the University of Seville have carried out a study in which they have determined the variation of the acoustic parameters, such as reverberation, clarity or definition of the Mosque of Seville currently. Faced with the visual homogeneity of the interior of the Islamic mosque, the results obtained in the acoustic study allow us to confirm that the sound perception varies by area. This is due to the successive expansions that the temple has experienced during its history. "The mosque founded by Abd al-Rahman I responded acoustically to Muslim liturgical requirements, providing a living space that favoured their majesty. Later expansions gave a formal appearance of superposition on the pre-existing space. However, notable sound difference were produced in the interior space. This, united with the increase in depth caused by the expansion of Abd al-Rahman II, meant a reduction in the acoustic quality of the areas furthest away from the qibla wall", explains the University of Seville professor Juan Jose Sendra. With the expansion of Al-Hakam II, two acoustically juxtaposed mosques were obtained. The last lateral expansion, by Al-Mansur, in which even the mihrab was decentred with respect to the new layout, was separated from the rest of the building, with a clear degradation in the quality of verbal communication. The Christian era The Christian transformations of the Mosque, to make it suitable for use as a cathedral, substantially modified the Muslim space. Therefore, the experts state that in the modern day space of the Mosque-Cathedral is a "complex architectural unit", with a multiplicity of sound spaces, the fruit of all the spatial transformations that have taken place, each different according to the spatial archetype, be it Muslim or Christian. Sound spaces The research group 'Architecture, Heritage and Sustainability: Acoustics, Lighting, Optics and Energy' ('Arquitectura, Patrimonio y Sostenibilidad: Acustica, Iluminacion, Optica y Energia') of the University of Seville has spent more than a decade working in this field of study. In recent years, two Plan Estatal I+D+I (State R+D and innovation) Projects on Spanish cathedrals, mainly Andalusian, stand out. Various articles have been published, from different perspectives, which analyse the sound in the cathedrals of Seville, Granada, Malaga, Cordoba and Jaen. Specifically, in the case of Seville Cathedral, articles have been published that have analysed both the acoustic-spatial variety of the cathedral space, as well as the influence certain special spatial configurations have had on its acoustics, for example, when there is a big concert, or of the temporary architectural features present for certain religious celebrations. Currently, they are also working on publishing a book that intends to decodify the complex and fragmented space of the Mosque-Cathedral today, via analysis of its process of evolution from the first mosque of Abd al-Rahman I until the present day, with the aim of recovering a lost sound memory. ### This research has been done in collaboration with the Canon Council of Cordoba Cathedral and their architect, Gabriel Rebollo. This study was made available online in June 2018 ahead of final publication in print in November 2018. Kids who experiment with e-cigarettes end up smoking tobacco about as much as teen smokers who never used the devices, according to a USC study in the Nov. 5 journal Pediatrics. "The findings show that e-cigs do nothing to deter the amount of combustible smoking in youth," said Jessica Barrington-Trimis, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the study's lead author. "On the contrary, they increase the likelihood that vaping teens will start smoking." The study is likely to add heft to a growing chorus seeking changes in regulation or industry practice for the nicotine delivery devices. Their popularity has surged while government and health officials warn of unintended consequences. The e-cigarette market is expected to reach $44.6 billion worldwide in five years. Earlier this year, the FDA commissioner declared e-cigs and vaping an "epidemic" that threatens to undo gains in decreasing smoking rates, and ordered e-cigarette manufacturers to submit plans on reducing teen use. "This study shows that tobacco control policies are needed to reduce adolescent use of e-cigs and prevent progression to more frequent tobacco use," Barrington-Trimis said. The USC researcher and her colleagues surveyed 6,258 high schoolers from three studies, the Children's Health Study and Happiness and Health Study in Southern California, and the Yale Adolescent Survey study in Connecticut, about their vaping and smoking usage. Participants were surveyed again about 12 months later. Here's what researchers found: - 7 percent of never-smokers started smoking - 21 percent of e-cig users began smoking regular cigarettes - The number of days that teens smoked in the past 30 days was similar for those who began smoking after using e-cigarettes or who began smoking without e-cigarettes - Teens who were using both combustible and e-cigarettes were more likely to continue using both than to switch to vaping only. Previously, researchers found that many of the kids who vaped started smoking cigarettes later. "Pediatricians need to find a way to address this matter because e-cigarettes are not benign, and it's unlikely to stop there," said Barrington-Trimis. "A lot of people like to compare cigarette smoking to vaping and say, oh, vaping is safer. When you're talking about kids, and especially kids who might never have started smoking without vaping, it's definitely not safer than not using any tobacco products at all." Barrington-Trimis said the study was unique because its large size allowed researchers to look beyond smoking initiation, and see what patterns emerged after a year. ### The study's other authors are Adam Leventhal, Feifei Liu, Tess Boley Cruz and Rob McConnell, all of the Keck School of Medicine; and Grace Kong, Margaret Mayer and Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, of the Yale School of Medicine. The study was funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute and the FDA Center for Tobacco Products (P50CA180905), and the National Institute for Drug Abuse (K01DA042950, R01DA033296 andP50DA036151). (San Antonio, Nov. 5, 2018) -- To expand the understanding and explanation of Alzheimer's disease, United States businessman James Truchard has given a $5 million USD gift to The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) College of Sciences to establish the Oskar Fischer Project. The initiative will engage the world's brightest minds in a comprehensive literature review with the goal of synthesizing that information into one simple explanation for the cause of Alzheimer's disease. The challenge was announced today during the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting, an international gathering of nearly 30,000 scientists taking place through Nov. 7 in the United States. Truchard, retired president and chief executive officer of United States-based technology company National Instruments, conceptualized and established the Oskar Fischer Project to engage the world's brightest minds. The challenge will award up to $4 million USD in Oskar Fischer Prizes, including a grand prize of $2 million, two second place prizes of $500,000 each and four third place prizes of $250,000 each. Collectively, the monetary awards are the world's largest prizes of their kind. Through personal research, Truchard, 75, was introduced to the work of Oskar Fischer (1876-1942), a Jewish pioneer in neuroscience who studied dementia at the same time as Alois Alzheimer. In 1900, Fischer began working at Charles University's German University, based in Prague. His research led to the identification of senile plaques (then called neuritic plaques), the signature lesions of Alzheimer's disease. Fischer hypothesized that the plaques were associated with presbyophrenia, then characterized as a form of senile dementia marked by memory loss, memory distortions and disorientation. He published on 12 patients with plaques and tangles, protein strands that appear during Alzheimer's disease, in 1907, the same year that Alzheimer published on one patient with early onset Alzheimer's. Fischer remained at the German University until he was removed in 1939. Two years later, he was sent to Theresienstadt in Terezin, a way station for Auschwitz and Treblinka. He died in 1942, unable to survive the harsh conditions of the concentration camp. "A century has passed since Oskar Fischer's seminal work, and tens of billions have been spent around the world on research and potential cures. Over 130,000 research papers have been published and yet no definitive explanation and cure for Alzheimer's has been found," said Truchard. "We need to look at Alzheimer's as a big complex puzzle with a missing piece. We need a brilliant individual who can take all of the pieces and consider what each offers, and then develop one explanation that fits because it pulls all of the pieces together and makes the puzzle whole." According to the World Alzheimer Report 2018 by Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI), an estimated 50 million people worldwide are living with dementia at a cost of $1 trillion to the global economy. That population is expected to more than triple by the year 2050, according to ADI, which also reports that the global ratio of publications on neurodegenerative disorders versus cancer is just one to 12. "The Oskar Fischer Project will take a new systems approach to the research on Alzheimer's, building on the work Oskar Fischer started over a century ago," said George Perry, chief scientist of the UTSA Brain Health Consortium. "Jim Truchard's generous gift will create an international forum to assess that work and bring forward an explanation that will advance society's understanding of the disease." The University of Texas at San Antonio, a world leader in brain health research, will incubate the two-year challenge. In the UTSA Brain Health Consortium, 38 of the nation's brightest scientists are engaged in research on brain mechanisms and therapeutics. The university's researchers have expertise in neurodegenerative disease, brain circuits and electrical signaling, traumatic brain injury, regenerative medicine and stem cell therapies, medicinal chemistry and drug design, neuroinflammation, and psychology. "Through Jim Truchard's support, the Oskar Fischer Project will accelerate our shared mission of unraveling the mysteries of neurodegeneration through engagement with the smartest thinkers around the world," said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. Truchard added, "I truly believe that Alzheimer's disease is multifaceted; it's about lifestyle, heredity and brain regression. It's important to look at all possible solutions. This contest will bring together the world's best minds to consider the entire story." UTSA will work closely with an interdisciplinary committee of outstanding scientists from Texas to award the Oskar Fischer Prizes. The call for proposals will open in February 2019 and will continue through the two-year term of the project. ### About The University of Texas at San Antonio The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is a public urban serving university specializing in health, cybersecurity, energy, sustainability, and human and social development. With more than 32,000 students, it is the largest university in the San Antonio metropolitan region. UTSA advances knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. The university embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property--for Texas, the nation and the world. Learn more online, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram or on UTSA Today. Research suggests that more mosquito-related disease could have consequences for future human health as the climate continues to change Research mapping the evolution of mosquitos against rising CO2 levels over millions of years, has suggested that more mosquito-related diseases could have consequences for future human health as the climate continues to change. The research showed that whilst there is a link between rising CO2 levels and mosquito evolution, it is less directly linked than previously thought, with other factors, such as the diversity of mammal hosts, contributing to an increase in the species richness of mosquitos. Many mosquito-borne diseases have been eradicated in areas of Europe, whilst many parts of Asia and Africa still harbour diseases such as malaria, Yellow fever, Zika virus, and Dengue fever. Female mosquitos can identify sources of blood-meal from the CO2 levels that mammals release from their bodies. There is now concern that as CO2 levels rise as a result of human activity, so too will the diversity of disease-carrying mosquitos. There is limited research, however, on how the mosquito is evolving in a changing climate and how and why the species is diversifying. The new study, from researchers at the University of York, the University of Bath, and China Agricultural University, shows for the first time the impact that climate change is having on the rate in which mosquitos diversify, and what this might mean for human health in the future. Dr Katie Davis, from the University of York's Department of Biology, said: "We constructed an evolutionary tree of mosquito species, and then mapped it against past climate change. We then used a mathematical model to look at direct cause and effect, which revealed that rising CO2 levels overtime has increased species of mosquito, but less directly than we previously thought. "We found that the increase in the diversity of mammals led directly to a rise in the number of mosquito species, and also that there is a relationship between CO2 levels and the number of mammal species, but there are missing pieces of this puzzle, so we can still only speculate at this stage." More research is needed to understand what climate change means for the future of the mosquito and the work will contribute to further discussions about the value of the mosquito to the ecosystem and how to manage the diseases they carry. Professor Matthew Wills, from the University of Bath, said: "It's only the female mosquitos that take a blood meal, and they use the CO2 that mammals and other vertebrates exhale as a very general cue to locate their hosts. One line of thinking is that as ambient levels of atmospheric CO2 rose, mosquitos may have found it increasingly difficult to distinguish between the CO2 from their hosts and those background levels. "Vision, body heat and other smells might then have become more important in locating their blood meals, but many of these cues tend to be more specific to particular hosts. As a general rule, we know that a strong host specificity can be an important driver of speciation in parasites, and the same may be true in mosquitos." Chufei Tang, from China Agricultural University, said: "The rising atmospheric CO2 has been proven to influence various kinds of organisms, but this is the first time such impact has been found on insects. This research provides yet another reason for people to participate in low-carbon lifestyles." Dr Davis added: "Despite some uncertainties we can now show that mosquito species are able to evolve and adapt to climate change in high numbers. With increased speciation, however, comes the added risk of disease increase and the return of certain diseases in countries that had eradicated them or never experienced them before." ### New research has uncovered genetic variations that may contribute to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the leading cause of liver disease. New research has uncovered genetic variations that may contribute to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the leading cause of liver disease. NAFLD is major health concern in Western countries, with one in four people, including children, affected. The international collaboration led by Associate Professor Mohammed Eslam and Professor Jacob George of the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, studied more than 1,000 patients with NAFLD to establish a link between genes and a build-up of fat in the liver, known as hepatic steatosis. The team found that three genetic variations - FNDC5 rs3480, PNPLA3 1148M, and TM6SF2 E167K - were linked to increased fat in the liver. Lead author Dr Mayada Metwally said the findings strengthened the link between genetics and liver disease, which could lead to new treatment options. "Hepatic steatosis is one of the major risk factors for NAFLD, so if we can understand its causes, we can work towards preventing it," she explained. "We've previously thought that genes such as FNDC5, which help make a protein called irisin, play a role in depositing fat in the liver, but this is the first time we've demonstrated the link and identified the mechanisms. "Our findings show that these genetic variants contribute to liver fat in people with NAFLD. The more variants a person has, the more likely they are to accumulate fat in the liver." Left untreated, NAFLD can also cause complications in the heart and kidneys. "The growing number of people with NAFLD is alarming, particularly since many patients don't develop symptoms until the condition is advanced," Dr Metwally said. "Understanding the genetic causes of NAFLD is crucial. We can now look towards targeting these genetic variations as a potential treatment to slow the progression of disease." About the science The team discovered how a single-letter variation in the FNDC5 gene mediates differences between those at risk of severe steatosis, and those who are not. The authors show that a particular microRNA is induced in the liver of people with NAFLD. MicroRNAs are silencers: they stop the 'messengers' that transmit information to produce a protein from a gene, in this case, the production of the protective protein FNDC5. The researchers also observed that this 'bad' microRNA binds too and represses FNDC5 production. ### The research paper was published today in the Journal of Hepatology: https://www.journal-of-hepatology.eu/article/S0168-8278(18)32505-4/fulltext Dr Metwally is affiliated with the Westmead Institute, Westmead Hospital and the University of Sydney. The largest genomic study of parasitic worms to date has identified hundreds of thousands of new genes and predicted many new potential drug targets and drugs. The research from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Edinburgh, and their collaborators will help scientists understand how these parasites invade us, evade the immune system and cause disease. Reported in Nature Genetics today (5th November), the study could lead to new de-worming treatments to help prevent and treat the diseases caused by parasitic worms worldwide. Parasitic worms cause some of the most neglected tropical diseases, including river blindness, schistosomiasis and hookworm disease, and blight the lives of over a billion people globally. Infections can last many years or even decades, leading to severe pain, massive physical disabilities, retarded development in children, and social stigma associated with deformity. Despite the huge health burden inflicted on many of the poorest countries of the world, there has been little investment in parasitic worm research. To understand how worms can infest and live inside people, the researchers compared the genomes of 81 species of roundworms and flatworms, including 45 that had never been previously sequenced. Their analysis revealed almost a million new genes that had not been seen before, belonging to thousands of new gene families, and which had huge variations in how they were distributed between species. The researchers found that some species of worms had enormous gene families to help them colonise the host gut, migrate through host tissue or digest food. Other species had many gene families that affect the host immune system to keep the worm hidden. Dr Matt Berriman, senior author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "Little is known about the biology of many parasitic worm species, so we used a broad comparison of their genomes to discover the most striking genetic differences between them. We have uncovered many new genes and gene families to help understand how the worms live and migrate inside us and other animals. This dataset will catapult worm research into a new era of discovery." Anti-worm treatments have remained unchanged for years and are often inadequate. In addition, an over-reliance on just a few existing drugs may lead to drug resistance. To search for new interventions, the researchers mined the dataset of 800,000 worm gene sequences to predict new worm drug targets and anti-worm drugs. Making use of the ChEMBL database* of existing drugs and chemicals, they narrowed the list down to 40 high-priority drug targets in the worms, and hundreds of possible existing drugs or compounds. Dr Avril Coghlan, lead analyst from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "The spectrum of drugs available to treat worm infections is still very limited. We focussed our search by looking at existing drugs for human illnesses. This may provide a fast-track route to pinpointing existing drugs that could be repurposed for deworming." Further research could lead to a raft of new treatment possibilities to help improve the lives of the millions of people suffering from the neglected tropical diseases caused by these worms. In addition to uncovering new genes and potential new deworming possibilities, the 81 genome sequences allow researchers to place each worm in the evolutionary tree of life, to help understand how parasites evolve. Prof Mark Blaxter, an author from the University of Edinburgh, said: "All the parasites evolved from free living ancestors, and comparing their genomes has shown the changes that happen when a species becomes a parasite. Parasites affect most of the natural world, and these genomes hold a record of how these fascinating animals - and their astounding biology - came to be." The parasite genomes are also providing clues into how worms avoid being attacked by our immune systems. This could help our understanding of the immune system itself and ultimately let us use the natural power of the immune system to improve human health. Associate Prof Makedonka Mitreva, senior author from Washington University's McDonnell Genome Institute, said: "Parasitic worms are some of our oldest foes, and have evolved over millions of years to be expert manipulators of the human immune system. This study will lead to a better understanding of the biology of these important organisms, but could also help us better understand how our immune systems can be harnessed or controlled." ### Notes to Editors *ChEMBL is a database of bioactive molecules with drug-like properties, at the EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute. Selected websites: Washington University's McDonnell Genome Institute The University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh's Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Infectious Diseases network conduct world-leading research in infectious disease biology and medicine. Genome sequencing in Edinburgh was delivered by Edinburgh Genomics, an open-access academic genomics facility that has core support The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). 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 this news is not available UPDATE: The British pound US dollar (GBP/USD) exchange rate continues to be buffeted by daily Brexit headlines, with the latest coming on Monday. As reported by Barclays, "GBP/USD rose yesterday on reports that the EU may offer a compromise proposal on border customs to resolve the Brexit standoff (The Times). GBP/USD rose to two-week highs of 1.3085 this morning and markets will closely watch any further headlines today." British Pound Technical Analysis: Upside limited around 1.33 The Pound to Dollar exchange rate had a very strong end to the week, but GBP/USD is far from out of the woods while it has failed to retake the high-ground above 1.30. In their weekly preview for the British Pound, analysts at ING note that the possibility of a Brexit deal this November could yet resurrect Cable, The ebb and flow of Brexit continue to drive GBP and UK rates. After a bad October, (GBP short-term rates priced three years forward fell 30bp during the first three weeks of October), we see something of a reprieve. Remarks that well see a Brexit deal by November 21st have helped, although the UK press story that an equivalence deal for financial services has been agreed looks over-hyped. Upside dreams are significantly capped for the Pound, and INGs bullish appetite is distinctly hampered by the recent trading range although there have been rumblings of a breakthrough on the longstanding Irish border issue which could potentially provide a significant catalyst to help get the GBP back in un an uptrend, Cable has now swung into the upper half of the 1.27-1.32 trading range, and frankly, there is not much certainty we can push a lot higher. That said, further remarks from Brussels that they may be compromising their position on the need for a back-stop on the Irish border could trigger some modest GBP gains. UK data: GDP crucial risk event for the Pound Sterling There is a good deal of important data due out in the United Kingdom this week, but it is the GDP reading which is of most interest to investors, traders and the Bank of England. ING thinks that markets are positioning for a strong reading as the report indicates, The UK data focus next week will be Thursdays 3Q18 GDP release. Consensus already expects a strong 0.6% QoQ and UK rates have already risen after the central bank press conference. From a technical perspective, the number needed to push the Pound back up to 1.33 would need to be a significant beat on current expectations. Also included in this note is the fact that the Dutch institution is less optimistic about the prospects for the Euro moving forward, Unless we see a 0.7% QoQ print or higher, it will be difficult to see GBP/$ push onto the 1.3250/3300 area. However, we are becoming more bearish on the EUR, and for those expecting sterling to perform a little better, we could see EUR/GBP trading down to 0.8620. All of the good news for the Pound seems flimsy, and I find it hard to get too excited about meaningful progress. The politicians are starting to feel the squeeze, however, and hashing out a deal is possible, assuming that both sides actually truly want a resolution, which is something I find to be more of a question with each passing week. Brexiteers dont want a soft Brexit they want a hard Brexit, and Soft Brexiteers are really resigned Remainers so dont want a deal as that means committing to Brexit. The EU doesnt want the UK to leave so they dont want a deal either, they want things to stay as they are. All this justifies a risk premium in the Pound. Privacy Settings This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. You may change your settings at any time. Your choices will not impact your visit. NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using. Monday, November 5, 2018 You may be wondering whats up with my book about Ferrari of Los Gatos, as I havent posted many stories on my blog recently. For the last couple of months, Ive been focused on finalizing my book proposal and getting the book ready for agents and publishers. After attending the Writers Digest Conference in New York, I learned how important a book proposal (or business plan) is to successfully get a book to market. The proposal is what a literary agent uses to sell the book to a publisher. I thought I had what I needed, but it wasnt good enough. It took a lot of time and effort but its ready now and I hope to send it to New York next week. Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck. The sooner I have a publisher, the sooner you get to read the book. While attending the Writers Digest Conference I pitched my book to several literary agents and a few were excited, especially because of new Ferrari movies coming out next year. Timing is everything. You may have heard about the new Ferrari movies being filmed now and coming to the big screen next summer. Ford vs. Ferrari is scheduled to be released June 28, 2019, and will star Matt Damon and Christian Bale. Its about the battle between Ford and Ferrari to win Le Mans in 1966. In 1963, Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca got the door slammed in their face by Enzo Ferrari on a buyout offer. After that, Ford declared they would build their own damn endurance racer. Thats when Carroll Shelby, builder of the Ford Cobra, entered the picture. He saved." the Ford GT effort by re-engineering the Cobra and making it a winner. [Spoiler Alert] In 1966, Ford GT40s took 1st-2nd-3rd at Le Mans. It wont be surprising if the movie includes something about what happened when Ford tried to buy Ferrari as covered in Ferrari and Ford Surprise the World of Racing.." The Enzo Ferrari Story is scheduled to be released later in 2019 and will star Hugh Jackman as Enzo and Noomi Rapace as Ferraris estranged wife, Laura. The film takes place in 1957, a year where passion, failure, success, death, and life all collide in Ferraris battle for supremacy against rival Maserati. In 1993, Fiat acquired 51% of Maserati from Alejandro De Tomaso and in 1997, sold a 50% share in the company to Maseratis long-time arch-rival Ferrari (Ferrari itself being owned by Fiat). In 1999, Ferrari took full control, made Maserati its luxury division, and built a new state-of-the-art factory. Ferrari is credited for bringing Maserati back, after many lackluster years of Maserati teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. What goes around, comes around. If you know anything about the movies coming out next year or have another classic car story, please share it in the comment section below. Big Oil companies reported their best financial quarter in four years this week as they raked in multibillion-dollar profits, in some cases doubling them from the previous year. Exxon Mobil, the nations biggest oil company, said Friday that it boosted its third-quarter profit by almost 60 percent from a year ago, to more than $6.2 billion. Chevron doubled its earnings to $4 billion. Earlier this week, Royal Dutch Shell said it earned a $5.8 billion profit in the third quarter, up nearly 50 percent from $4 billion last year, and its quarterly revenues surpassed $100 billion for the first time since 2014 when oil prices were still near $100 a barrel. The British oil major BP said its third quarter profits nearly doubled to almost $3.4 billion. The companies benefited not only from higher oil prices and production, but also soild earnings from refining and chemical operations. Exxon Mobil, for example, said it earned $2.3 billion from refining and chemicals, while Chevron earned $1.4 billion from these operations. On HoustonChronicle.com: How the ethane molecule changed the Gulf Coast and the world The integrated (Big Oil) firms are all operating pretty well right now, said Brian Youngberg, a senior energy analyst at Edward Jones in St. Louis. Theyre figuring out how to operate in a cyclical industry under more pressure than ever Nearly all the oil majors have significant operations in the Houston area, and their strong earnings should help support the regions economy, which only recently has gained momentum following the oil bust that lasted roughly from 2014 to 2016, said Patrick Jankowski, senior economist for the Greater Houston Partnership. Job growth here is on the upswing, while activity generated by the energy industry is on the rise across the state, from the booming Permian Basin in West Texas to Beaumont and Port Arthur in southeast Texas, where companies such as Exxon Mobil and the French oil major Total are investing billions in refining and petrochemical projects. The surge in profits signals the industry is out of the doldrums and on the expansion track, said Jankowski. Youre seeing some hiring, but maybe not a substantial spree. It definitely means theres less pressure for layoffs. Oil companies slashed jobs during the oil bust as crude prices dove to $26 a barrel in early 2016. They have since risen above $75 as recently as a month ago, but concerns over growing supplies and a slowing global economy have sent prices back below $65 a barrel. Oil settled Friday at $63.14 in New York, down 55 cents. Chevron said Friday that its Permian production jumped 80 percent in a year, and the company reiterated its interest in buying or building an oil refinery in the Houston area to help process all of that crude. Its petrochemical joint venture, ChevronPhillips, is considering another massive expansion in the Houston area after just completing one in Baytown early this year. Exxon Mobil said its production in the third quarter rose to 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent rose from 3.6 million in the second quarter, although volumes were still down about 2 percent from the third quarter of 2017. Exxons year-over-year production has declined in nine of the last 10 quarters. On HoustonChronicle.com: As oil majors move into the Permian, cool efficiency replaces passion and guts Exxon is stabilizing, but its taken two-and-a-half years, said Pavel Molchanov, energy analyst with Raymond James. Exxon Mobil is focused on its holdings in the Permian Basin, where it operates 38 drilling rigs. After just finishing a big petrochemical expansion this summer in Baytown and Mont Belvieu, Exxon is advancing a new chemicals and plastics plant outside of Corpus Christi. The company also plans to launch a refining expansion in Beaumont. Those projects will all consume oil and gas from the Permian. Chevrons stock rose more than 3 percent Friday to $114.73 a share. Exxon stock climbed nearly 2 percent to $81.95 a share. jordan.blum@chron.com twitter.com/jdblum23 Civilian drones pose a "steadily escalating threat," as the devices are likely to be used by terrorists, criminal groups or drug cartels to carry out attacks in the U.S., FBI Director Chris Wray told a Senate committee. "Terrorist groups could easily export their battlefield experiences to use weaponized" drones, Wray said in written testimony for a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Wray's comments, his most forceful to date on the threat from drones, come as U.S. law enforcement and homeland security agencies have just obtained legal authority to monitor drone communications and to disable them in extreme cases as a result of such concerns. The anti-drone measures were contained in a bill setting aviation policy that President Donald Trump signed on Friday. "The FBI assesses that, given their retail availability, lack of verified identification requirement to procure, general ease of use, and prior use overseas," drones will be used in an attack in the U.S. including "a mass gathering," Wray said. The rapidly expanding civilian drone market has prompted optimism it will be an economic boon for farmers, utilities and delivery companies, and the Trump administration in May unveiled 10 test beds for the new technology. The government predicts the total U.S. fleet of small drones will reach 1.6 million this year. At the same time, however, growing concerns about criminal and terrorist use of the devices have slowed the government's plans for broader flight rules. The Federal Aviation Administration had planned by the end of 2016 to propose a framework for allowing routine flights over people for the first time. That action was blocked after the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security raised concerns. As a result, the government is drawing up regulations that will require most of the devices to broadcast their identity and location so that they can be tracked by authorities. The FBI has observed "repeated and dedicated" attempts by Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and al-Qaida to use drones in attacks, Wray said. Criminal gangs such as MS-13 and Mexican drug cartels have also used the devices, he said. Drones apparently were used in a recent unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro. The FBI has disrupted at least one effort to use drones in an attack in the U.S., Wray said. A Massachusetts man was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2012 for attempting to attack the Pentagon and Capitol using jet-powered model planes. ISTANBUL - More than a month after their father's death, the sons of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi have made a plaintive appeal for the return of his body, saying he should be buried in the Saudi city where he was born in a cemetery alongside his relatives. "We just need to make sure that he rests in peace," Salah Khashoggi, 35, told CNN in an interview Sunday alongside his brother, Abdullah Khashoggi, 33, in their first comments to the news media since their father was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Jamal Khashoggi's body has not been found. And even as the sons requested the speedy retrieval of his remains, new details from Turkey's investigation into the case that were released Monday made that likelihood seem remote. A Turkish official said investigators believe Saudi Arabia sent a two-person "cleanup" team to Turkey nine days after Khashoggi's death to remove any evidence of his killing from the consulate as well as the nearby residence of the Saudi consul general. The regional rivalry between Turkey and Saudi Arabia has captured the spotlight in the weeks since the killing of Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post. The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to prod Saudi leaders to acknowledge what he says is their role in the death. The Saudi government refused to comment for weeks but in the face of international outrage finally conceded that Khashoggi was killed in their consulate, even as they blamed it on rogue Saudi agents. But lost in the din have been the voices of Khashoggi's children, grieving and forced to pick through a confusion of graphic news reports as they piece together details of their father's death. Khashoggi's daughters did not appear in the CNN interview. "Everybody's telling a different story. I'm trying to simplify it as much as possible. He died," Abdullah Khashoggi said. "It's not a normal situation and not a normal death." "I really hope that whatever happened wasn't painful for him, or it was quick," he added. Salah Khashoggi, who lives in Saudi Arabia, became the public face of the family's sorrow when a photograph of him, stone-faced, meeting Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was shared on social media and interpreted as evidence of the family's rage at the royal family. But in fact, Salah Khashoggi said, the king had assured him that "everybody involved will be brought to justice" for the killing. "I have faith in that. This will happen," he said. Erdogan has said that Jamal Khashoggi's killing by Saudi agents was premeditated and that the order came from the "highest levels" of the Saudi government, although he has not specified who he thinks was responsible. Erdogan also has demanded that the Saudi government reveal the location of Khashoggi's body. Turkey has said that a hit squad sent from Saudi Arabia strangled Khashoggi shortly after he entered the consulate to seek a document he needed for his planned marriage to his Turkish fiancee. Turkish authorities said the team dismembered Khashoggi's body and disposed of it. Turkey has repeatedly accused Saudi authorities of trying to obstruct its investigation. On Monday, a Turkish official said that at least two members of a team that Saudi Arabia sent to investigate Khashoggi's killing were actually there to cover it up. The official, who was not authorized to comment on the record and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the dispatch of the two men to Turkey "suggests that Khashoggi's slaying was within the knowledge of top Saudi officials." The official confirmed details in a report published Monday in Turkey's pro-government Sabah newspaper that said the two men - a chemist and toxicologist - were part of a delegation of Saudi investigators sent to Turkey nine days after Khashoggi was killed. Beginning Oct. 12, the two men visited the consulate regularly for a week, the paper reported. "We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence," the official said. - - - The Washington Post's Zeynep Karatas contributed to this report. History books dont have entries about Chee Bo Eng CTol. Born in Honolulu at the tail end of the 19th century, she was one of the first Chinese American residents to settle Houston, where she set up a shop in the Fifth Ward and made a difference in ways small and large. She gets no parades or statues. Just a humble headstone at Forest Park Lawndale, a cemetery on the citys east side, where her neighbors include other influential if under-celebrated female civic leaders, like Maria Ninfa Rodriguez Laurenzo (Mama Ninfa), who opened the original Ninfas restaurant on Navigation, and Dominiqu De Menil, who founded the Rothko Chapel and Menil Collection. Womens stories have often been lost, because they have not been recorded, Betty Trapp Chapman said on Saturday afternoon, as she sat in the front seat of a luxury bus, shuttling a few dozen Houstonians around to the citys historic graveyards for cemetery tours to deepen their understanding of how many of Houstons long-lost female residents helped shape the citys culture. Women in the 19th and early 20th century were much less likely to have jobs outside the domestic sphere than their husbands, and they couldnt own property. Because of this, womens stories arent often found in public records. And because they were less likely to be literate than men, it can be hard to find their domestic lives chronicled in diaries as well. So much has been lost to time. But Chapman has spent decades writing women back into Houstons history. Weve realized that we need to know these stories, she said. So this year, when it came time for Archaeology Now and the Houston History Alliance to plan their sixth-annual cemetery tour on the weekend of Halloween, organizers decided to focus on stories of women that might otherwise be overlooked by the typical history buff. On Saturday, the group visited both Forest Park Lawndale and College Memorial Park Cemetery, one of the citys oldest burying grounds for black residents, founded in 1896. It sounded like the perfect afternoon to Christopher Lo, who drove up from League City for the tour. We came last year, and I realized that Ive lived here for 24 years, and though I knew some of the names, I didnt know the history of the people, he said. And Ive always been interested in this kind of history. He and others visited the graves of eight women over the course of the day, hearing stories from both historians and descendants. At CTols grave, her daughter Mae Jean Chan spoke about what it was like when her mother first came to Houston. The Chinese in 1932 did well in three places: Restaurants, laundry and grocery. My family chose grocery, and they heard of a town called Houston that was great for new starters, Chan said. She told of how her mother moved first to the Third Ward, then to the Fifth Ward, where they primarily served black and Jewish families, taking great efforts to learn everyones names. She wanted the store to be a part of the fabric of the community. We were a neighbor, a friend, and then a shopkeeper, she said. When CTols Jewish neighbors needed someone to record donations at their temple on the high holy days, they called upon CTol. My mom was a visionary. She said that she and my father would be shopkeepers, then me and my sisters would be teachers. Our children would be professionals. And their children would go into public service, Chan said. Three generations into this vision, Chan reported its going just as planned. That sentiment - women building a strong foundation for the next generation - was repeated throughout the day. Across town, at the grave of Pinkie Yates, Yates great niece Martha Whiting-Goddard shared this same conviction. Pinkie Yates is buried alongside her father John Yates, who was born in slavery and became a highly respected pastor in Houston. Born in 1879, Pinkie Yates attended Spelman Seminary in Atlanta and became an educator, carrying her fathers torch in the quest to build up Houstons black community through education. She became a second-grade teacher, working for more than two decades before she went blind. The Yates family has a saying, according to Whiting-Goddard: When you teach a child, you touch the future. Pinkie Yates subscribed to that ideal wholeheartedly, but as one of several children who became educators, she wasnt alone in that quest. She and her sisters teamed up with neighbors to help plant seeds of prosperity in their community. Women in Houston have always worked together to get what they needed, said Whiting-Goddard. Because thats the kind of place Houston is. Just a few feet away from the Yates plot, where 12 family members are buried, Annie Pruett Butler Hagan is laid to rest. Born in 1863, she arrived to Houston with only 50 cents in her purse in 1889. But she was a skilled nurse and founded the first nurses training club for black women. Theres no record of how many nurses she trained, or how many hundreds of lives the network she created saved. But the folks that run the cemetery are sure it was substantial. Think of all the women who stand on her shoulders, Archaeology Now Executive Director Becky Lao said as she stood next to Hagans grave. maggie.gordon@chron.com; twitter.com/MagEGordon For the past four years, San Antonio resident Joe Richie has taken daily opioid medication needed for a bad back that has been operated on five times. The Air Force veteran and former call center employee said Percocet gives him the ability to function and live a full life. Wanting to be on the lowest amount possible, Richie, with the help of his health care provider, said he recently weaned himself down from six 10-milligram pills a day to five, a process that took about three months. Any faster, he said, would have sent him into physical withdrawals. But in September, Richie, 56, learned from staff at his pain clinic that his daily pill regimen was about to be curtailed even more, and immediately. He was told the clinic had to abide by 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, a part of which forced prescribers to limit their patients opioid dosage and strength to a certain level, lower than the amount Richie was taking for his pain. Not doing so put the physicians license at risk, he was told. On ExpressNews.com: State should expand meds available for opiod addiction Overnight, Richies medication level was cut by almost half. He said his life went into a tailspin. I can barely function, said Richie, who receives federal disability payments and has insurance through Medicare. I was given no warning. My productivity is down to zero, and I am never out of pain. I cant sleep. A national epidemic of opioid misuse that is killing tens of thousands of people a year prompted more than two dozen states, but not Texas, to pass laws or add policies about how doctors prescribe opioids. Some rules reduce the number of pills that can be given at any one time to a week or less. Others place a ceiling on the maximum allowable dose or tell doctors to do forced tapering with long-term chronic pain patients. Many of these regulations cite the 2016 CDC guidelines, which were issued as a way to improve communication between doctors and patients on the benefits and risks of long-term opioid use for chronic pain and to make such use safer, among other concerns. But some experts said the guidelines have been widely misinterpreted and that the collateral damage has been chronic pain patients who take their medication as prescribed and feel victims of an overreaction by the medical community. In some situations, the guidelines have created an adversarial relationship between doctor and patient. On ExpressNews.com: Bexar County receives $1.65 million to fight opioid epidemic Some insurers have stopped covering certain opioids, such as OxyContin, and several big-box pharmacies are no longer filling certain prescriptions. About 18 million Americans take long-term prescription opioids for chronic pain, studies show. The physician at the pain clinic where Richie is treated declined to be interviewed for this story, citing a busy schedule. Misconstruing guidelines Dr. Sherif Zaafran, president of the Texas Medical Board, said the guidelines were addressed only to primary-care physicians, not doctors who are pain specialists, who treat cancer patients and those in hospices, or who offer other end-of-life care. Theyre absolutely being misconstrued, he said. They were not meant to hinder patients getting access to their needed medication, especially chronic pain patients. The guidelines recommend that when a patients opioid dosage reaches a certain level the equivalent of a relatively high dose of morphine a primary care physician should strongly consider referring the patient to a specialist for chronic pain, Zaafran said. The particular dosage level is targeted by the CDC because its where over-sedation and other bad side effects can happen, he said. Patients whove been on opioids for a long time may require a far higher dose, which is why the guidelines arent meant to be a hard-and-fast rule, he said. There are already parameters in place in Texas concerning the long-term prescribing of opioids, Zaafran said. They include written contracts between doctors and patients that require certain practices, such as frequent patient visits and routine urine screenings, to make sure patients are taking their medications properly. So long as those things are being done, doctors shouldnt have to worry about their prescribing practices, he said. On ExpressNews.com: A year later, officials promote progress of opioid task force One concern is that chronic pain patients cut off from their medication or tapered too fast may be driven by their desperation to street drugs such as heroin or illegally made fentanyl, the latter of which is driving the national opioid overdose numbers these days, far more than prescription medications. Some studies show pain patients cut off from their medication are at greater risk for suicide. We get calls at least two to three times a week from patients looking for someone else to take over prescribing their medications. Its become so common we call them opioid refugees. said Bob Twillman, executive director of the Academy of Integrative Pain Management in Kansas City, a physician-led organization that advocates for pain patients. Twillman said some physicians are worried that the government, the Drug Enforcement Administration or their state medical boards are scrutinizing prescribing patterns, possibly putting their licenses at risk. Shocking numbers are whats powering the pendulum swing, from the early days when doctors freely prescribed opioids, assured by pharmaceutical companies that they werent addictive. Last year, nearly 72,000 people in the U.S died of a drug overdose, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Almost 50,000 overdosed on opioids, including prescription medications and illegal drugs such as heroin and illicit fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger than heroin. Almost 30,000 deaths were linked to fentanyl alone last year. On ExpressNews.com: $11M grant to combat opioid crisis could put naloxone in hands of more first responders, civilians According to NIDA, 8 percent to 12 percent of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain eventually become addicted. The rate of opioid prescribing almost half done by primary care physicians has been on the decline, although the rate is still far higher than in the 1990s. Last year, there were almost 3,000 drug overdoses in Texas, mostly from methamphetamine or cocaine use, although heroin and fentanyl overdoses are on the rise. Doctors worried, too Its not just pain patients who are concerned about the CDC-fueled changes. Many in the medical field worry that a misreading of the 2016 guidelines is hurting patients. The wholesale reduction in access to opioids is based on the presumption theres an equal risk of addiction for everyone, said Jennifer Sharpe Potter, professor of psychiatry at UT Health San Antonio. This approach is not based in science. And theres no proof these kinds of reductions are effective. Potter said studies show opioids are not effective for certain types of pain, and some subgroups of chronic pain patients may be more prone to becoming addicted. There are also alternatives to opioid medication, such as non-opioid medication and options like exercise, acupuncture, physical therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. But not all are effective, and many arent covered by health insurance companies, she said. There are risks with many types of medication, she said. Above all, its the doctor, not the government, who should be having these conversations with patients. On ExpressNews.com: Training on opioid antidote expanding in S.A. The realistic concerns we have about opioids are in danger of becoming an irrational fear, she said. Dr. Debra Patt, executive vice president of Texas Oncology in Austin, said that in some states where strict opioid prescribing rules have been adopted, even some cancer patients have struggled with having access to their pain medication. These are state and federal policies that have the best of intentions but end in some really negative consequences, she said. One cancer patient in San Antonio who shares that concern is Jennifer Nelms, 45, who was treated for cervical cancer in 2004. Her treatment included multiple weeks of chemotherapy and intensive radiation treatments. It fried me, Nelms said. It caused all the problems Im having today. In addition to extensive tissue damage, she has a bone infection that requires daily antibiotics and causes intense pain in her hip and spine. Nelms, who had a recurrence of cancer in 2015 but is now in remission, is fully disabled and, like Richie, depends upon her opioid medication to function. She said she cant stand for long periods and needs the drug Norco to do even simple things, such as laundry and cooking dinner for herself and her 19-year-old son. It scares me to death, she said, regarding the idea that she may be forced to reduce her dosage. I need this medication to have an even somewhat good quality of life. I need it to take my pain away, or else Id go crazy. On ExpressNews.com: Caught in the opioid snare: A photo essay Nelms compares the move to reduce access to opioid medication to the similar efforts to reduce access to food stamps bad actors who commit food stamp fraud are hurting those who legitimately need assistance to survive, as she does. Do I worry about addiction? she said. I do have a slight concern. I know how powerful these drugs are. When I take mine on an empty stomach, I do get that buzz. So in the back of my mind, Im always careful about that risk. Potter at UT Health agrees that opioids have been overprescribed in America. But is the only solution a dramatic reduction in access that hurts those with real pain? she asks. No. We must have a balanced approach and let science drive our policies. New federal report on way The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Task Force on Opioid Prescribing Guidelines, of which Zaafran is a member, will soon release its initial draft report on the proper management of acute and chronic pain, including opioid prescribing. The final report, due out in May, is expected to further clarify and give directions on the guidelines. Zaafran said the initial draft will strongly comment on the misinterpretation of the CDC guidelines and the unintentional consequences that its had. In a signed letter, hundreds of doctors across the nation have asked the CDC to clarify and amend its guidelines around opioid dose reductions. Zaafran said the Texas Legislature in its last session passed a law that requires pain management clinics to be regularly audited to ensure theyre following appropriate prescribing practices. And legislators passed a second law that requires physicians, starting Sept. 1, to check a statewide prescription monitoring program before prescribing controlled substances such as opioids, to make sure patients arent doctor shopping. Those who treat cancer or hospice patients are exempt. Richie, the pain patient, said that over the years hes tried non-opioid medication to treat his spinal disc disease, along with acupuncture. Nothing relieved the excruciating back and leg pain that hobbled him. I wake up every day now, and all day long Im thinking about medication, he said I wasnt like this before. Its insane. After his medication was reduced, he appealed to the clinic multiple times and was finally given some additional pills at a reduced dose, to help him taper over a two-week period. But it didnt help much, and Richie continues to struggle with pain. He said he plans to visit a homeopathic clinic to try to find something to help him sleep. He said he knows patients from his clinic who are looking into marijuana or cannabidiol oil to find some relief. Some are exploring ordering opioid drugs on the internet. Richie said his wife, normally a conservative person, has suggested he try cannabis. Anything to help him return to the man he was before. This is driving legitimate pain patients who were never the problem into the category of those who are having the problem, he said. A pool of money started by San Antonio more than 20 years ago to address the loss of trees that are cut down for new development has grown substantially in recent years, city officials say. Under a 1997 ordinance enforced by the Development Services Department, developers either preserve trees, replace them on-site or pay fees aimed at providing shade canopy where it is needed elsewhere in the city. Although amounts paid into the fund vary from year to year, the city has tracked an overall tenfold increase, from $241,630 in 2006 to $753,197 in 2012 to $2.48 million this year, according to data reported to the City Council. The money is being used to plant trees across the city. Parks Director Xavier Urrutia said most city parks have adequate tree canopy, so his department is looking elsewhere. We kind of already have maxed out all our vacant empty space and planted trees there. So really, what were working on now is really more big organizations campuses, like our universities and colleges, Urrutia told the councils Community Health and Equity Committee. On ExpressNews.com: Tree-Centennial event held at Hardberger Park On Saturday, volunteers planted trees at the University of Texas at San Antonios main campus as part of a Tree-Centennial program to add 300 trees at colleges and universities during the citys Tricentennial. Tree seedlings were given away to people to take home and plant. The goal is to distribute nearly 13,000 trees this year. The Parks and Recreation Department also is planting trees at San Antonio Housing Authority properties, along Martinez and Apache creek greenways and in association with inner-city homes assisted through the Under 1 Roof residential roof repair program. City staffers are working in neighborhoods that have been identified as lacking trees and financial resources. They have coordinated tree plantings with residents in the Las Palmas, Wheatley, Harlandale and South San/Kindred neighborhoods. The program was an outgrowth of an effort nearly two years ago to replace trees toppled by tornadoes. We said, Lets replicate that program and target communities where we see basically a gap in canopy, Urrutia said. Those were targeted outreach to specific homeowners, asking them to allow us to go onto their property and add trees. To preserve heritage oaks, the city provides training to tree trimmers on oak wilt prevention, provides door hangers to educate residents on the fungal disease and has adjusted brush pickup cycles to serve oak-heavy neighborhoods in the summer the best time for trimming. Councilwoman Ana Sandoval, who chairs the committee, had requested the presentation about how the tree money is spent. She pressed city staff to explain the long-term goals of the tree programs. In about a year, Texas A&M Forest Service will have completed an inventory to help determine what mix of species to plant, and where, to maximize the benefits that trees provide: shade, beauty, air quality, stormwater runoff containment and soil erosion control. After a 2007 study showed a roughly 38 percent canopy coverage citywide, the council set a goal of 40 percent. Council members Rey Saldana and Manny Pelaez spoke of the community outrage they hear after large-scale destruction of trees occurs, including a clearing of 38 acres last summer to build the Mansions at La Cantera, a luxury apartment complex. Under the citys rules, 8 acres of preserved trees mitigated the loss of trees in that project. On ExpressNews.com: City says developer complied with tree ordinance To say that were not doing anything would be a misstatement, because what weve done since 97 is actually accumulate resources through development to plant more trees, Saldana said. I think its really helped us balance out the really sensitive issue. Although the city has historically updated the tree ordinance every few years the last time was in 2015 officials said there is no update planned at this time. Councilman Greg Brockhouse said the city has come a long way on the tree canopy and the tree ordinance itself but should not further tighten the rules, potentially driving up costs to developers that are passed on to homebuyers. Im not saying it needs to go away. Im not saying we need to eliminate it. It doesnt need to go any further, in my opinion, Brockhouse said. 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 SUTHERLAND SPRINGS The Bible verse James 4:14 asks, What is your life? It then describes life as a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes. First Baptist Church Pastor Frank Pomeroy said the fleeting nature of life is something hes come to respect since 26 of his closest friends and family were killed within a matter of minutes Nov. 5, 2017. He and the community have taken that newfound understanding of the vulnerability of their lives, of how quickly life can come and go, and have chosen to celebrate. On Sunday, they commemorated the mass shooting the deadliest in a place of worship in the country with lively church services, a picnic, musical performances and speakers outdoors. There is no guarantee for tomorrow, Pomeroy said, so Id rather have fun today. I hope people walk away realizing that though we are broken, and though we are hurting in ways, we are joyous, he said. Ted Elmore, who works for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, remarked during services that the last time he was at First Baptist was for Pirate Day, an annual event the church puts on in October where the congregants dress like pirates. Arrgh! responded the regular members of the congregation to Elmore, while some of the newcomers looked around, confused. There was a larger turnout than usual for Pirate Day this year because many reacted to the tragedy by getting more involved with church life. Hundreds also gathered for the one-year anniversary services Sunday. We gather on this anniversary day to give meaning to what happened a year ago. Because there is meaning in that. Grief is real, tears are real. Tears are expressions of love, Elmore said. Every tear shed is shed because you love somebody. Thats a good thing. The services were packed with out-of-towners and extended family, with an overflow space in an outdoors tent. Gov. Greg Abbott spoke during the picnic afterward, and U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Henry Cuellar, along with Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt, attended. Its not a celebration of what happened to us, but its a celebration of the response and what happened after, said Kris Workman, the churchs worship leader who was shot and paralyzed from the waist down and is in a wheelchair. This is a celebration about moving on. The old church sanctuary sits adjacent to the festivities. Its been converted into a pristine white memorial, chairs inscribed with the victims names placed in the spots where they were Nov. 5. A recording of church leaders speaking to the congregation plays in a loop at the front, some the voices of those who were killed. Survivors and victims family members trickled in throughout the day, some peaceful and at ease, others trembling, tears pouring down their cheeks. Abbotts address described how he raced to Sutherland Springs hours after the news broke of the tragedy. He said that even then, as he made the rounds at hospitals visiting survivors, everyone was making sure that good overcame evil. The governor said the injury that Workman suffered was in the same location along the spine that left Abbott paralyzed after an accident in 1984. He said community members shouldnt let the tragedy be the only story in their lives. Last year you may have been in a situation where you were not in control. Today you are in a situation where you are in control, Abbott said. You get to decide what that next chapter looks like, and the chapter after that looks like, and the chapter after that, all the way to the end of that story of the book of your own life. During services, Pomeroy stepped to the side of the podium and told congregants they must let the memories of the victims continue to influence their lives, to change them for the better. Today were remembering our loved ones that are no longer in physical form, but they are not fully gone. Theyre right here, Pomeroy said, pointing to his head. Theyre right here, he said, pointing to his heart. Were not going to forget them. The name of Pomeroys 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle, is engraved on one of those 26 chairs in the memorialized church sanctuary. He vividly remembers the last time he saw her. It was Friday, Nov. 3, and he was dropping her off at school in the morning. Two days later, she was killed at the church while Pomeroy and his wife were out of town. She was smiling, she was laughing, we were joking, he said. Thats going to be in my mind forever. sfoster-frau@express-news.net In December 1968 at Our Lady of the Lake College, a handful of San Antonio students testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The historic hearings were the first of their kind on the civil rights problems of Mexican-Americans in the Southwest. As intimidating as the task might have been for the high school and St. Marys University students, their testimony was blistering and was widely reported. Later this month, Nov. 15-17, again at Our Lady of the Lake now a university hundreds will gather to celebrate that history and to reflect on the progress made and the work yet ahead. The 50th anniversary has prompted many to go back and read some of the more than 1,000 pages of testimony taken during those historic six days, coming from more than 70 witnesses. Experts from throughout the Southwest appeared before the commission, on which beloved Dr. Hector P. Garcia of the American G.I. Forum sat. READ ALSO: Board reversal on naming 'Mexican American Studies' cheered Newspaper accounts focused on two major figures angry over the proceedings. Mayor Walter McAllister didnt appreciate the potential negative image the country would see of San Antonio, especially after HemisFair 68. U.S. Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, as revered as he was, had long been at odds with young Chicano political activists protesting discrimination and demanding change. McAllister and Gonzalez now sound so small. They werent the voices being most heard. Gonzalez called the hearings rigged. McAllister got to testify about how well San Antonio was doing, mentioning the sewage services that had been extended to the Hispanic community. The students had different opinions. They testified that theyd been physically punished for speaking Spanish; that teachers regarded it as a filthy language; that counselors steered most students to vocations. The students said they never heard about college options, nor did their schools offer classes such as physics, chemistry or calculus, which would have prepared them for college. The students, mostly from Lanier and Edgewood, said some teachers didnt have degrees, and one testified that such teachers asked students to type up their college papers for them. READ ALSO: Mexican-Americans search for 'homelands' and find themselves When asked by commissioners whether their schools ever brought in mentors or professionals to speak to them, one student said no, but that criminals were brought in from the penitentiaries to encourage us not to go into the life of crime. Another student said an Anglo teacher told him that Mexican-Americans were foreigners and guests in the United States. A California scholar, whose testimony helped open the hearings, said the reverse was true. He got roaring applause. That year was memorable in many ways, no less because across the country Chicano students were going to war, getting disproportionately put on the front lines, yet at home their counterparts were fighting racism and inequality. The testimony I read also illustrated how infrequently women voices were heard. Holding Up the Mirror Conference: The 50th Anniversary of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission Hearings on Mexican Americans in the Southwest will be part celebratory, part retrospective and part forward-looking. The hearings focused on the challenges facing Mexican-Americans in education, employment, economics and the administration of justice, the latter including the head of the Texas Rangers, who had little knowledge and training and had to admit under questioning from Dr. Garcia that he didnt graduate from high school. At this months conference, panels will look at those same challenges and voting rights, immigration, LGBTQ rights, housing and the digital divide. Activist Rosie Castro was in college at Our Lady of the Lake during the commissions visit. So much has changed since then, she said, but so much more remains to be reformed. Voting access and suppression of Native Americans and Mexican-Americans are top of mind at Tuesdays midterm election. Polls close at 7 p.m. READ ALSO: Some area schools already plunging into Mexican-American studies Were going backward, Castro said. Retired University of Texas at San Antonio professor Bertha Perez, co-chair of the conference program, said she has seen enormous strides made by the many Mexican-Americans whove succeeded in higher educations and are taking seats in every profession. But too many have been left behind, and so many barriers remain, she added, while the money-centered powers continue to lead with only their interests in mind. Fifty years later, the Holding Up the Mirror Conference will hear from another generation of young people about what theyre experiencing and thinking and what futures theyre facing. Its likely theyll speak truth to power. Its again all important that we listen. Three Texas counties will get extra scrutiny from the federal government during Election Day, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday. Harris, Tarrant and Waller counties will be among 35 communities nationwide subject to federal monitoring for possible violations of the Voting Rights Act. Employees with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division will ensure all voters are given equal access to the polls, regardless of race, language or disability. "This year we are using every lawful tool that we have, both civil and criminal, to protect the rights of millions of Americans to cast their votes unimpeded at one of more than 170,000 precincts across America," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in statement. Harris and Waller counties were both subject to federal scrutiny during the 2016 election as well. The announcement by the Justice Department was a stark shift from a similar effort in 2016. The department is subjecting half as many counties to the oversight in 2018, only 35 counties compared to 67 in 2016. The federal government is monitoring compliance in 19 states in 2018 compared to 28 in 2016. President Trump sent out a tweet Monday morning emphasizing law enforcement's focus on voter fraud. "Law Enforcement has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place in Tuesday's Election (or Early Voting). Anyone caught will be subject to the Maximum Criminal Penalties allowed by law. Thank you," Trump tweeted. Sessions also brought up voter fraud as a concern in his statement. The previous Attorney General Loretta Lynch did not talk about voter fraud in her comments about federal monitoring in 2016. "Likewise, fraud in the voting process will not be tolerated. Fraud also corrupts the integrity of the ballot," Sessions said. There's little evidence that voter fraud is a major issue in U.S. elections. An analysis by News21 in 2012 found 2,068 alleged-election fraud cases between 2000 and 2012 out of millions of ballots cast. On Election Day, Justice Department staffers will be available to receive and respond to complaints about violations of federal voting rights laws. Complaints can be made via phone at 1-800-253-3931, via fax at 202-307-3961 or email at voting.section@usdoj.gov. Voters can also file a complaint at www.justice.gov/crt/votercomplaint. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for Election Day. Although schools were formally scheduled to be opened yesterday, the attendance was poor. The schools were hard hit, and there were some classes with but five or six present out of classes of 20 or 30. Of course, the chief cause was Spanish influenza. It is believed by the Superintendent of Schools, Frederick S. Camp, that the mothers in many cases kept their children home through fear that they might catch the disease. A meeting was held last week of all the principals, at which some prominent physicians were present. The subject was much discussed and it was advised by physicians that children who have had influenza, or those in whose families there have been, or those who have heavy colds, be excluded from schools until they can furnish a certificate from the Board of Health. 50 years ago Cases of scarlet fever, whooping cough reported New cases of scarlet fever and whooping cough were reported in Stamford, and the number of mumps patients rose from five to 11. Strep throat infections declined from 15 to eight in Stamford and from eight to two in Greenwich. Darien cases rose from two to four, and Ridgefield had 13 compared with four the previous week. 25 years ago Reburial problems sadden family Stamford native Dorothy Wildman was married to Milne Williamson for 35 years for the last 20, she nursed him through Parkinsons disease, until his death in 1987. Two years ago, she married Charles Wilman a Danbury widower who had cared for his wife, a stroke victim, for 18 years before her death. Not long after their marriage, Dorothy and Charles Wildman decided they wanted their ex-spouses buried beside what will be their own two graves in the Wooster Cemetery in Danbury. erin.kayata@stamfordadvocate.com; (203) 964-2265; @erin_kayata FAIRFIELD, Conn. On a sleepy fall weekend, 10 men from 19 to 64 years old, one a hometown resident, others from as far away as New York and Massachusetts planned to visit a home in a quiet neighborhood off Mill Plain Road. Those plans, however, unfolded in a starkly different way than each man likely imagined. Instead of meeting with either a 12-year-old girl or a 13-year-old boy that police said the men thought they were communicating with online, through email and texting, the men were cast into the glare of a four-day sting orchestrated by a television personality, in cooperation with Fairfield police and the States Attorneys Office. The men were charged with various offenses, which depending on the case, ranged from criminal attempt at first-degree sexual assault and enticing a minor to criminal attempt at risk of injury or impairing the morals of a minor. Among the men, according to court records, was a 32-year-old math teacher from Harrison, N.Y., who police said claimed he only wanted to smoke marijuana with the girl. And a 28-year-old sandwich-shop manager who allegedly sent the boy a photograph of his private parts and claimed he only wanted to follow up with a kiss. And the 31-year-old T-shirt printer from Shelton, who later told police he was medically unable to have sex. The box of condoms found in his car? They were old, he claimed. Then there was 27-year-old Stephen Buchanan, of Stratford, a member of the Connecticut National Guard who fought in Iraq. Police said he tried to convince the Fairfield University student portraying the girl to get into his car, where officers later found a black bag containing a loaded gun, a roll of duct tape, a knife and a box of condoms. Bond for him was set at $1.1 million bond. Joshua Colon, 32, of Glendale, N.Y., admitted following his arrest that he had previously sodomized a 15-year-old boy, police said. More Information STAYING SAFE ONLINE The Center for Family Justice, with offices in Fairfield and Bridgeport, offers the following tips to teens about Internet safety: Never give out personal information on the Internet. This includes names, addresses, phone numbers, the name of a school, parents' work address or phone number. Never send anyone a picture without checking with parents or guardian first. It may not be safe to let someone online know what you look like. Never agree to meet a person that you "met" only online. Would you get in a car with a complete stranger? Of course not. It's important to understand that people you meet online may be very different in real life. Run, don't walk away, from anyone who suggests you meet in secret. And tell your parents immediately if you receive that kind of request. Tell your parents or teachers - and show them if possible - if you see or experience something online that makes you uncomfortable. They can take action; including contacting local law enforcement or your local sexual assault crisis center. Agree on a set of Internet safety rules with your parents and stick to them. Decide what time of day you'll go online, how long you'll stay there and the safe places your allowed to visit. If you want to check out something new, talk to your parents first. Don't download anything unless you've checked with your parents first. While some downloads are OK, some contain viruses that can damage your computer and some may contain illegal material. Don't click on links in email from anyone you don't know. If you've been the victim of an Internet predator get help. The center's free and confidential sexual violence hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call 203-334-6154. See More Collapse Our community is safer today as a result of this operation, Police Chief Gary MacNamara said. The police operation was run parallel to the sting conducted by former NBC newsman Chris Hansen for a future program, Hansen vs. Predator, that he is preparing. Now the head of his own production company, Hansen News Network, he hopes to revive the program at another network, and chose Fairfield as the first site for the shows revival. The sting was based at a Fairfield home, offered to Hansen by a friend. While his production company was inside the house, police officers monitored a live stream of the activities from the homes garage, as well as back at department headquarters. There were also officers stationed throughout the neighborhood, police said. The suspects didnt get the address until the very last minute, said police Detective Fred Hine. He said that, in every case, officers were able to identify each mans vehicle when he arrived in town and they were constantly under surveillance. MacNamara said Hansen could have run the undercover sting without the Police Departments involvement, but that would have meant the alleged predators would not have faced criminal arrest as they left the house. We had a responsibility, the police chief said. Hine said the police had live access to the text messages being sent. We were confident that it was a controlled approach, he said. According to police, the men who were arrested all engaged in sexually explicit language with someone they thought was a child and, in some cases either sent, or requested, nude photos. During the investigation, which ended Sunday, an array of cameras was hidden within the house and outside as well. Much of the time was spent waiting for the men to arrive. One man, after coming in and briefly chatting with the young man he thought hed been texting with, left the house when Hansen walked into the kitchen. Oh, Chris, he said, and turned and walked out the door, only to be taken into custody by Fairfield police detectives. The suspects were cooperative with police, said Lt. Mike Gagner, head of the detective division. They didnt offer up any explanations to police, Hine said, although many had a conversation with Hansen regarding why they were there. I cant say they were surprised to see us, Hine said, adding Hansen was non-committal in his conversation with the men as to whether police would be involved. When they walked out, they were surprised at the situation they had put themselves in, he said. The two young volunteers who posed as the teens the men were texting were not involved in any of the online or text conversations with Hansens decoys, police said, and were not in any danger. MacNamara said the States Attorneys Office was involved during the investigation, as well as a computer forensics expert from the Monroe Police Department. Fairfield detectives reviewed transcripts from the text and online conversations to make sure that there was a cause for arrest. While police officials said the four-day investigation was worth it, they acknowledged that it was not something they would have been able to do on their own. The resources (Hansen) had were incredible, Hine said. They were beyond most departments resources. The Internet allows people to prey on children with anonymity, MacNamara said. These cases are very difficult to develop and access, because of that anonymity. They believe they are free of any detection by law enforcement and, at least for these 10 individuals, that was not the case. Hansen worked for 20 years at NBC, and in 2004, To Catch a Predator became a segment of the networks Dateline NBC program. The segment, while popular, was not without controversy and spawned two lawsuits and questions about the ethics of his sting operations. In 2013, Hansen himself was in the news regarding an alleged affair the married Connecticut resident had with a Florida television reporter. NBC did not renew his contract that year. He has had a show, Killer Instincts with Chris Hansen on a true crime cable channel, Investigation Discovery. It is unclear where the Hansen vs. Predator episodes might be broadcast or when. Funded through a Kickstarter campaign, the shows website provides no information regarding air dates or where it can be viewed. MacNamara said his department regularly focuses on ways to protect the community from Internet predators. We talk about Internet safety, we run classes for parents on Internet safety and always try to remind people to be safe. He said the arrests should reinforce, for both parents and children, that theres a reason we say to be careful on the Internet. At the towns public schools, Superintendent of Schools David Title said Internet safety is specifically taught to students in grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 as part of the health curriculum. We also teach it in terms of the library/media center curriculum, Title said. Given the extensive types of technology our children and grandchildren have access to, it is critically important that parents are checking the communications, games and devices they have access to, said Debra Greenwood, president of the Center for Family Justice, a social-services agency with Fairfield and Bridgeport offices. Predators find ways to integrate games and websites/viruses that can be intriguing to children and young adults. Knowing who, what and where your children communicate with can save their lives. Greenwood said parents shouldnt just assume this is a topic that is discussed in schools, and added that the center can work with others, or solely, to offer community prevention education for parents. We tell our children to wear bicycle helmets when riding a bike, we need to teach them about internet safety as well, she said. Charges filed The men arrested and charged with enticing a minor, criminal attempt at first-degree sexual assault and criminal attempt at risk of injury or impairing the morals of a minor were: Jeffrey B. Sokol, 44, Beacon Street, Brookline, Mass. Joshua R. Colon, 32, 67th Street, Glendale, N.Y. Vincent M. Ambrosio, 19, Swenson Drive, Wappinger Falls, N.Y. Arrested and charged with enticing a minor, criminal attempt at second-degree sexual assault and criminal attempt at risk of injury or impairing the morals of a minor were: Charles E. Lawrence, 59, Plesko Place, Fairfield Jesse Velez, 28, Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport John M. Dupee, 40, Dover Street, Norwalk Stephen P. Buchanan, 27, Belair Terrace, Stratford David N. Tiriolo, 31, East Village Road, Shelton Michael G. Gentile, 64, Shawe Valley Lane, Brewster, N.Y. Arrested and charged with criminal attempt at risk of injury or impairing the morals of a minor: Michael Manzi, 32, Haviland Street, Harrison, N.Y. Schlumberger NV engages in the provision of technology for reservoir characterization, drilling, production and processing to the oil and gas industry. It operates through the following business segments: Digital and Integration; Reservoir Performance; Well Construction; and Production Systems. The Digital and Integration segment combines the company's software and seismic businesses with its integrated offering of asset performance solutions. The Reservoir Performance segment consists of reservoir-centric technologies and services that are critical to optimizing reservoir productivity and performance. The Well Construction segment includes the full portfolio of products and services to optimize well placement and performance, maximize drilling efficiency, and improve wellbore assurance. The Production Systems segment develops technologies and provides expertise that enhances production and recovery from subsurface reservoirs to the surface, into pipelines, and to refineries. The company was founded by Conrad Schlumberger and Marcel Schlumberger in 1926 and is headquartered in Houston, TX. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of LyondellBasell Industries: A. Schulman, A. Schulman 's-Gravendeel B.V., A. Schulman AG, A. Schulman Asia Limited, A. Schulman Belgium BVBA, A. Schulman Canada Ltd., A. Schulman Castellon S.L., A. Schulman Europe GmbH & Co. KG, A. Schulman Europe International B.V., A. Schulman Europe Verwaltungs GmbH, A. Schulman Gainsborough Ltd, A. Schulman GmbH, A. Schulman GmbH (Austrian Branch), A. Schulman Holding Company France S.A.S., A. Schulman Holdings (France) S.A.S., A. Schulman Holdings S.a.r.l., A. Schulman Inc., A. Schulman Inc. Limited, A. Schulman International Inc., A. Schulman International Services BVBA, A. Schulman Ireland Limited, A. Schulman Magyarorszag Kereskedelmi Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, A. Schulman Nordic AB, A. Schulman Plastics (Branch), A. Schulman Plastics (Dongguan) Ltd., A. Schulman Plastics (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., A. Schulman Plastics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., A. Schulman Plastics BVBA, A. Schulman Plastics India Private Limited, A. Schulman Plastics PTY. LTD., A. Schulman Plastics S.r.l., A. Schulman Plastics SAS, A. Schulman Plastics bvba Bornem Sucursala Cluj-Napoca, A. Schulman Plastics organizacni slozka, A. Schulman Plastk Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, A. Schulman Plasticos do Brasil Ltda., A. Schulman Polska Sp. z o.o., A. Schulman Real Estate GmbH & Co. KG, A. Schulman S.A.S., A. Schulman S.a.r.l., A. Schulman Thermoplastic Compounds Limited, A. Schulman Thermoplastic Compounds Sdn Bhd, A. Schulman de Mexico S.A. de C.V., A. Schulman del Peru S.A.C., A.Schulman Poznan Sp. Z o.o., ARCO Chemical, AS Global Holdings Inc., AS Mex Hold S.A. de C.V., AS Worldwide LLC, AS Worldwide LLC & Cie S.C.S., ASI Akron Land Co., ASI Employment S.A. de C.V., ASI Investments Holding Co., Al Waha Petrochemical Company, BKV Beteiligungs- und Kunststoffverwertungs-gesellschaft mbH, BMC Deutschland GmbH, BMC Dongguan Limited, BMC Far East Limited, BMC TetraDURTurkey Plastik Hammadde Kompozit Uretim Sanayi ve Ticaret Limted Sirketi, Basell (Thailand) Holdings B.V., Basell Advanced Polyolefins (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Basell Advanced Polyolefins (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Basell Advanced Polyolefins (Thailand) Company Ltd., Basell Arabie Investissements SAS, Basell Asia Pacific Limited, Basell Bayreuth Chemie GmbH, Basell Benelux B.V., Basell Chemie Koln GmbH, Basell Europe Holdings B.V., Basell Germany Holdings GmbH, Basell Holdings Middle East GmbH, Basell Iberica Poliolefinas Holdings S.L., Basell International Holdings B.V., Basell International Trading FZE, Basell Italia S.r.l, Basell Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Basell Moyen Orient Investissements SAS, Basell North America Inc., Basell Orlen Polyolefins Sp. Z.o.o., Basell Orlen Polyolefins Sprzedaz Sp. Z.o.o., Basell Poliolefinas Comercial Espagnola S.L., Basell Poliolefinas Iberica S.L., Basell Poliolefinas Ltda., Basell Poliolefinas S. de R.L. de C.V., Basell Poliolefine Italia S.r.l., Basell Polyolefin Istanbul Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Basell Polyolefine GmbH, Basell Polyolefines France S.A.S., Basell Polyolefins Company BVBA, Basell Polyolefins India Private Limited, Basell Polyolefins Korea Ltd., Basell Polyolefins UK Limited, Basell Sales & Marketing Company B.V., Basell Service Company B.V., Basell Slovakia s.r.o., Basell Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Basell UK Holdings Limited, Basell UK Ltd., Brindisi Servizi Generali S.c.a.r.l., Bulk Molding Compounds Inc., Bulk Molding Compounds Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bulk Molding Compounds do Brasil Industria de Plasticos Reforcados Ltda., Citadel Brazil Holdings LLC, Citadel Intermediate Holdings LLC, Citadel Plastics Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Citadel Plastics Holdings Inc., Citadel Plastics Mexico Holdings LLC, Citadel Plastics Netherlands Holdings LLC, Compagnie Petrochimique de Berre SAS, Compagnie de Distribution des Hydrocarbures SAS, EMS Holding Ltd., EPS Ethylen-Pipeline-Sud Geschaftsfuhrungs GmbH, EPS Ethylen-Pipeline-Sud GmbH & Co. KG, Elian S.A.S., Equistar Bayport LLC, Equistar Chemicals LP, Equistar GP LLC, Equistar LP LLC, Equistar Mont Belvieu Corporation, GuangZhou Basell Advanced Polyolefins Co. Ltd., HGGC Citadel Plastics Holdings Inc., HGGC Citadel Plastics Intermediate Holdings Inc., HMC Polymers Company Limited, HPC Holdings LLC, Hadlock Plastics LLC, Houston Refining LP, I.F.M. S.c.a.r.l., ICO Europe C.V., ICO Holdings LLC, ICO Holdings New Zealand Limited, ICO Petrochemical Cayman Islands, ICO Polymers Cayman Islands, Indelpro S.A. de C.V., Infraserv GmbH & Co. Hochst KG, Inmobiliaria Satchmo S. de R.L. de C.V., Innovacion Y Desarrollo en Materiales Avanzados A.C., J.R. Courtenay (N.Z.) Limited, LPI Holding Company, LYB (Barbados) SRL, LYB Advanced Polymer Solutions Ireland Limited, LYB Americas Finance Company LLC, LYB Equistar Holdings LLC, LYB Export Holdings Limited, LYB Exports Inc., LYB Finance Company B.V., LYB International Finance B.V., LYB International Finance II B.V., LYB International Finance III LLC, LYB Ireland 2 Limited, LYB Ireland Limited, LYB La Porte Hyperzone LLC, LYB Luxembourg S.a r.l., LYB Matrixx Holdings Inc., LYB Receivables LLC, LYB Trading Company B.V., LYB Treasury Services Ltd., Limited Liability Company "LyondellBasell Polyolefins", Limited Liability Company A. Schulman, Lucent Polymers Inc., Lyondell Asia Holdings Limited, Lyondell Centennial Corp., Lyondell Chemical Company, Lyondell Chemical Europe Inc., Lyondell Chemical Overseas Services Inc., Lyondell Chemical Products Europe LLC, Lyondell Chemical Properties L.P., Lyondell Chemical Technology 1 Inc., Lyondell Chemical Technology L.P., Lyondell Chemical Technology Management Inc., Lyondell Chemie (PO-11) B.V., Lyondell Chemie (POSM) B.V., Lyondell Chemie Nederland B.V., Lyondell Chimie France SAS, Lyondell China Holdings Limited, Lyondell Greater China Holdings Limited, Lyondell Greater China Ltd., Lyondell Greater China Trading Limited, Lyondell Japan Inc., Lyondell PO-11 C.V., Lyondell POJVGP LLC, Lyondell POJVLP LLC, Lyondell POTechGP Inc., Lyondell POTechLP Inc., Lyondell Refining Company LLC, Lyondell Refining I LLC, Lyondell South Asia Pte Ltd, LyondellBasell Acetyls Holdco LLC, LyondellBasell Acetyls LLC, LyondellBasell Advanced Polyolefins Mexico S.A. de C.V., LyondellBasell Australia (Holdings) Pty Ltd, LyondellBasell Australia Pty Ltd, LyondellBasell Brasil Ltda., LyondellBasell Canada Inc., LyondellBasell Central Europe Kft., LyondellBasell China Holdings B.V., LyondellBasell Circular Economy B.V., LyondellBasell Covestro Manufacturing Maasvlakte V.O.F., LyondellBasell Egypt LLC, LyondellBasell F&F Holdco LLC, LyondellBasell Finance Company, LyondellBasell Holdings France SAS, LyondellBasell Hungary Kft, LyondellBasell Industries Holdings B.V., LyondellBasell Industries N.V., LyondellBasell Investment LLC, LyondellBasell Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., LyondellBasell Polyolefin (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., LyondellBasell Services France S.A.S., LyondellBasell Subholdings B.V., LyondellBasell Taiwan Co. Ltd., LyondellBasell Transportation Company LLC, Millennium Chemicals, Natpet Schulman Specialty Plastic Compounds, Ningbo ZRCC Lyondell Chemical Co. Ltd., Ningbo ZRCC Lyondell Chemical Marketing Co. Ltd., OE Insurance Ltd, Oil Casualty Insurance Ltd., Oil Insurance Limited, PD Glycol LP, PO JV LP, PO Offtake LP, POSM II Limited Partnership L.P., POSM II Properties Partnership LLC, PT A.Schulman Plastics, PT ASchulman Plastics Commercial, PTT Chemical PCL, Poly Pacific Polymers Sdn. Bhd., Poly Pacific Pty. Ltd., PolyMirae Co. Ltd., Premix Holding Company, Premix Inc., Prime Colorants Inc., QCP B.V., QCP Holding B.V., QCP IP B.V., Quantum Composites Inc., RIGK GmbH Gesellschaft zur Ruckfuhrung industrieller and gewerblicher Kunstoffverpackungen mbH, Rayong Olefins Co. Ltd., Rexene - LDPE and PP Businesses, SCG ICO Polymers Company Limited, SJS Plastiblends, San Jacinto Rail Limited, Saudi Ethylene & Polyethylene Company, Saudi Polyolefins Company, Sociedad Espanola De Materiales Plasticos Semap S.A., Societe des Stockages Petroliers du Rhone SA, Solvay Engineered Polymers, Surplast S.A., TRV Thermische Ruckstandsverwertung GmbH & Co. KG, TRV Thermische Ruckstandsverwertung Verwaltungs-GmbH, Technology JV LP, The Matrixx Group Incorporated, ULSAN PP Co. Ltd., YNCORIS GmbH & Co. KG, Zylog Plastalloys, and tetra-DUR Kunststoff-Produktion GmbH. Aphria, Inc. engages in the production and supply of medical cannabis. It operates through the following segments: Cannabis Operations, Distribution Operations, and Business Under Development. The Cannabis Operations segment produces, distributes, and sells both medical and adult-use cannabis. The Distribution Operations segment are carried out through its wholly owned subsidiaries ABP, FL Group, and CC Pharma. The Distribution Under Development segment includes operations in which the firm has not received final licensing or has not commenced commercial sales from operations. The company was founded by Cole Cacciavillani and John Cervini on June 22, 2011 and is headquartered in Leamington, Canada. Read More The Toronto-Dominion Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides various personal and commercial banking products and services in Canada and the United States. It operates through three segments: Canadian Retail, U.S. Retail, and Wholesale Banking. The company offers personal deposits, such as chequing, savings, and investment products; financing, investment, cash management, international trade, and day-to-day banking services to businesses; and financing options to customers at point of sale for automotive and recreational vehicle purchases through auto dealer network. It also provides credit cards; real estate secured lending; auto finance; consumer lending; point-of-sale payment solutions for large and small businesses; wealth and asset management products, private banking, investment advisory, and trust services to retail and institutional clients; and property and casualty insurance, as well as life and health insurance products. The company also provides capital markets, and corporate and investment banking services, including underwriting and distribution of new debt and equity issues; advice on strategic acquisitions and divestitures; and trading, funding, and investment services to companies, governments, and institutions. It offers its products and services under the TD Bank and America's Most Convenient Bank brand names. The company operates through a network of 1,085 branches, 3,440 automated teller machines, and 1,223 stores, as well as offers telephone, digital, and mobile banking services. The Toronto-Dominion Bank was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More The Belgian authorities are planning a cull of wild boar to prevent further spread of African swine fever (ASF). A total of 114 dead wild boars have been diagnosed with ASF so far all of them have been located in the restriction zone in the Luxembourg region of the country, according to the latest briefing from ForFarmers. It is expected that the number will continue to rise with a total of 300 to 400 boars confirmed with ASF) in Belgiums restricted zone. When this figure is stable then locally, the authorities intend to shoot the remaining wild boars in the restriction zone. While the infected area, which is near the French border, is densely populated with wild boar, there were, fortunately, very few commercial pigs. Around 3,000 domestic and commercial pigs in the restriction zone have already been culled as the authorities strive to keep the virus out of commercial pigs as well as limiting the spread in wild boar. Testing of dead wild boar continues, with samples is taken from their mouth, nose, spleen and bones and sent to Belgiums central laboratory, Sciensano, for diagnosis. After an initial sharp drop, on the back of export bans by non-EU countries, pig prices are now stable but still lower than before and lower than in surrounding countries. Compensation is being paid to pig farmers in the restriction zone whose pigs have been culled, but not to other farmers. The UK's National Pig Association (NPA) has urged pig farmers and keepers to not feed kitchen or catering waste to pigs to help prevent the spread of the disease. ABPs Port of Immingham has welcomed a substantial quantity of high-grade fertiliser for distribution to farmers across the country, from one of their oldest customers. International grain, fertiliser and seed merchant Gleadell Agriculture has been importing and exporting a range of agribulk products at Immingham since the 1970s, finding markets for crops and accessing quality products for Britain's farmers. The vessel, called the MV Montrose, contained 26,000 tonnes of high quality granular urea, which is bagged and distributed to farmers as essential crop nutrition. The cargo has been shipped to Immingham from Alexandria in Egypt. Supporting local farmers by helping to maximise crop yields, the shipment will require around 900 lorries to be distributed across the length and breadth of the country. ABPs dedicated bulk terminals in Immingham handle around 1 million tonnes of agribulk-based cargoes each year and a further investment boost for the site was recently announced by the port operator. Mark Frith, ABP Port Manager for Grimsby and Immingham said: Agribulk business is exceptionally important for the UK economy. Farmers across Lincolnshire and further afield will greatly benefit from imports such as this large shipment. David Sheppard, Managing Director of Gleadell said: Our longstanding and excellent relationship with ABP in Immingham comprises a wide range of crops and products. Having the facility to handle a large vessel such as the MV Montrose enables us to maximise economies of scale, delivering benefits to all our farmer customers who will be taking delivery of this fertiliser over the coming weeks. The founders of Errington Cheese have won a further legal dispute with South Lanarkshire Council in relation to four batches of cheese confiscated by the Local Authority in 2016. The council was taken to court by the cheesemaker after it accused the company of breaching health regulations and sought to have stocks of cheese destroyed. South Lanarkshire Council wanted to dispose of the small cheese producers entire stock after a suspected E.coli link. On Thursday (November 1) the Court of Session ruled that Sheriff Robert Weir, QC, who condemned the cheese as being unsafe to eat, had "misdirected" himself, acting "unreasonably and irrationally at common law, contrary to the approach required as matter of EU Law." Sheriff Weir had accepted the argument from South Lanarkshire that a draft policy document produced by Food Standards Scotland allowed him to condemn the cheese. In doing so, Sheriff Weir assumed a policy document can override the requirements of EU regulations - which state if an uncertain organism is suspected in food, a comprehensive risk assessment must be undertaken, before the food can be condemned. South Lanarkshire Council must now release the three batches of Corra Linn cheese and one of Lanark Blue, although the latter produce is now unsaleable. Compensation The company continues to pursue a compensation case against the local authority for both its legal costs in fighting the case and for the business impact of the incorrectly condemned product. Speaking about Lord Bannatynes judgement, founder of Errington Cheese, Humphrey Errington said: This is a significant legal ruling which will have lasting implications for food producers as well as the overall remit of Food Standards Scotland. Food Standards Scotland can no longer issue enforcement policy if it goes above and beyond what is required in EU regulations." The turbulent period has been detrimental to the business, with sales falling to as low as 25% of pre-2016 levels, forced to lay off staff and funnel almost all its cash reserves into a costly legal battle. Mr Errington added: Were delighted the Court of Session has ruled in our favour with the companys efforts now focussed on getting the business back on track by increasing production and sales, while also coming to a settlement with the local authority over our legal fees and compensation for spoiled produce. "Once an agreement is reached, well hopefully be in a position to reemploy some of our loyal workforce," he said. Last month, the South Lanarkshire based cheese producer opened up its production facilities to mark the Great British Cheese Day (Sunday, October 21), inviting members of the public onto the farm to taste some cheese and gain an insight into the processes behind it. 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. 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 Shahrukh Khan's crazy fan slits his throat after failing to meet him | FilmiBeat Shahrukh Khan is not just a superstar! He is like an emotion for his die-heart fans who literally live and breath his films. From doing downright crazy things, spending bucks on tattoos to running away from their homes in order to meet their favourite actor, we have often seen fans doing crazy things for their favourite acts. Birthday Boy Shahrukh Khan & AbRam Wave At The Sea Of Fans Gathered Outside Mannat! View Pictures However, one crazy fan of Shahrukh did a shocking thing when he failed to met his favourite actor. Reportedly, a 26-year-old man Sunday slashed himself with a blade outside Shahrukh's bungalow Mannat after failing to meet him. An Indian Express report stated that, 'As per the to police, Mohammed Saleem had been waiting on the reclamation, metres away from the actor's house 'Mannat', early morning on Friday. The promenade at the time was packed with several thousand others who were hoping to spot Khan, who celebrated his birthday on Friday. The police had also cordoned off the lane and did not allow fans to approach the actor's house. At 3.05 am, Saleem allegedly slit his throat with a knife. A police officer rushed him to Bhabha Hospital, where he was given first aid.' "The man was allowed to go home after we called his wife. We have only made diary entry about the incident and not booked Saleem," the daily further quoted an officer at the Bandra police station. Meanwhile, Shahrukh Khan's Zero trailer was unveiled on his birthday, i.e 2nd November. The trailer has broken record and has become the first Indian film to garner 54 mn views within 24 hrs. Happy Birthday Shahrukh Khan: Stop Everything Else & Check Out These Unseen Pictures Right Away! Launched at a grand event on the occasion of superstar Shahrukh Khan's birthday, the trailer has been receiving immense love and appreciation from audiences and critics alike. The film is slated to hit the theatrical screens on 21st November, 2018. The participants also took oath to conserve and protect the area for golden langurs, which is the official mascot of the BTC government. Guwahati: Golden langur, a charismatic primate species conspicuous by its lustrous creamy-golden fur and found only in few forest patches of Assam and Bhutan have got a secure and safe landscape of their own in Western Assam. It is also on the list of 25 most endangered primates of the world. The forest officials, wildlife activists and villagers have started demarcation of the area by laying the first boundary pillar and welcome signage of the Habitat Conservation of Golden Langur. To mark the occasion an event was organised at Salbari, a fringe village under Chirang district of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). The participants also took oath to conserve and protect the area for golden langurs, which is the official mascot of the BTC government. The project was conceived by New Horizon, a community-based organisation, under the guidance of Chirang forest division, BTC and supported by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and its international partner, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Forest resources are facing immense threat from encroachment across Assam. In such a situation, an initiative taken by the community, the forest department and NGOs has come as a welcome step in Chirang reserve forest under Manas tiger reserve, WTI coordinator Bhaskar Choudhury said A species endemic to semi-evergreen and mixed-deciduous forests of Indo-Bhutan border, Golden langurs (Trachypithecus geei) was known to the western world only after its discovery by naturalist E P Gee in the 1950s. It has already been listed as endangered species in the IUCN Red List and Schedule-I species in Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972). In India its distribution is confined to approximately 2,500 square kilometer between the rivers Manas in the east, Sankosh in the west and Brahmaputra in the south in Assam. However, habitat destruction had shrunken the area to about 1, 400 sq km, a large portion of which is now in Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD). In Bhutan its distribution is restricted to central Bhutan ranging between Sankosh river and the Chamkhar-Mange-Manas river system. It is sisgnificant that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has put the golden langur, found only in India and Bhutan, on the list of 25 most endangered primates. An ICUN report, Primates in Peril (2016-18), released last year, had said habitat threat to golden langurs would worsen considerably despite a number of initiatives. The wildlife activists working on protecting the Golden Langurs from extinction said that the villagers have agreed not to allow any encroachment in the area. They said that the area demarcation will be completed by the forest department soon in support of the fringe villagers. Subsequently, a proposal to declare the whole area a conservation reserve will be moved to the State Wildlife Board, Assam. The area, if approved by the board, will be the first conservation reserve in the state and also in the region, Mr Choudhury added. The Reason Behind Staying Apart When asked about these rumors revolving her marriage, Shweta said," I will tell you what really happened. Abhinav's father passed away the same year I got pregnant. Abhinav's parents stayed in Bengaluru, so he had to stay there for some time before he could get his mother here. His father was a retired air force officer and his mother owned a publishing company. Abhinav required some time before he could wrap up everything and be in Mumbai with us. He stayed there for almost a year." People Questioned Her She further added, "Now, here people started noticing that I was going to parties alone and was not seen with him. Even after Reyansh was born, he used to come for some time and go back. So, people felt why are they not staying together? Some people had the nerve to even call me and ask, Hey, is everything well in your marriage? We don't see your husband with you.' Now, why should I tell people what happened? People need gossip. I felt so weird that just because my husband was away for some time, people found a reason to gossip and therefore I decided to stop giving any explanations to anyone." On Modern Relationships Shweta has is strongly opinionated about modern marriages. She said, "During our parents' time, husbands used to happily compliment their wives and there was no sarcasm. Now, I see that a husband and wife are no longer part of the same team in public gatherings. Many times, the husband is passing a remark on the wife's family or the wife finds an opportunity to pull him down and so on. This shows that somewhere, there is lack of communication and understanding, which is weakening the foundation of a beautiful relationship." Shweta Feels Like Mother For The First Time It is quite evident from her social media posts that Shweta just can't get enough of her 2-year-old son. "With Reyansh, I feel it is my first time as a mother. I am thoroughly enjoying it. I love doing everything for him. Though I have help, I do all the little things that a mother enjoys doing for the child. I even take him everywhere I travel for work. It is one of the most beautiful phases of my life.", she said. Online music education platform Peilian.com said on Friday that it had raised $150 million in Series C funding from eight investors. Tiger Global led the round, joined by existing investors Tencent, Orchid Asia Group, GSR Ventures, Bluerun Ventures, Longcapital and BHG Longhills Capital. Peilian will use some of the proceeds to cooperate with music schools, and plans to invest $8.7 million in 100 partnered schools for research and development of music education. The platform said that it intends to collect more data so that it can use artificial intelligence to develop online courses and products. Peilian was founded in... SpendEdge, a global procurement market intelligence firm, has announced the release of their Global Grinding Machines Category Procurement Market Intelligence Report. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005370/en/ Grinding Machines Category Procurement Market Intelligence Report. (Graphic: Business Wire) This procurement intelligence report provides an illustration of the cost drivers during the forecast period. This includes an analysis of the degree of revenue generation expected from different industrial sectors that will significantly promote the growth of this category. It also highlights the profiles of all the pertinent grinding machine manufacturers in this market. According to this report, the all-round socio-economic development of the developing nations is leading to massive infrastructural developments and update of existing machines. This is subsequently prompting the adoption of equipment like the grinding machines. Request the free Sample Report to gain more critical insights into the grinding machines market. However, this report does not restrict itself to highlighting the regions that promise ample opportunities for growth. It also outlines the parameters that are aligned to the market dynamics and are meant to help the investors in building a sustainable and a profitable procurement strategy in the grinding machines market. Talk to our expert to get personalized assistance on devising an effective procurement strategy for this market. "Considering the criticality of this equipment across any sector, the buyers must opt for suppliers based on their effectiveness in providing after-sales services, inclusive of periodic maintenance of grinding machines," says SpendEdge procurement expert Tridib Bora. "In addition, the level of efficacy can be measured based by the time consumed by the suppliers for fault diagnosis and rectification of the grinding machines and the availability of skilled technicians for the periodic maintenance support," added Tridib. SpendEdge's procurement experts believe that the following factors will influence the growth of the grinding machines market to a great extent: Rise in steel and aluminum prices is a major category risk for the industry Growth in the manufacturing sector will increase the demand for grinding machines Purchase the Full Report, to know how you can successfully sustain yourself in the competitive grinding machines market. SpendEdge is now offering limited-time discounts on report purchases. Buy two reports and get the third one for free SpendEdge's procurement market intelligence reports for the heavy industry category provide detailed information on the major costs and volume drivers that impact category growth. Such information will help the buyers as well as the suppliers to determine the total cost of ownership and change their procurement strategies accordingly. Additionally, SpendEdge's reports provide insights on the sustainability and procurement best practices for the category. Report scope snapshot: Grinding machines market Cost-saving opportunities Supplier side levers Buyer side levers Quantifying cost-saving opportunities Interested to know more about the scope of our reports? Download a FREE sample Best practices Procurement excellence best practices Procurement best practices Sustainability practices Want customized information? Get in touch Category pricing insights Total cost of ownership analysis Overview of pricing models Comparison of pricing models To view this report's complete table of contents, Download a FREE sample Do you purchase multiple reports in a year? Our subscription platform, SpendEdge Insights, provides ready-to-use procurement research reports for multiple categories. Now access latest supplier news, innovation landscape, markets insights, supplier tracking, and much more at the click of a button. Start your 7-day FREE trial now. Related Reports: Global Elevators Category Procurement Market Intelligence Report Global Cranes Category Procurement Market Intelligence Report About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. To know more, https://www.spendedge.com/request-free-proposal View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005370/en/ Contacts: SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 630 984 7340 UK: +44 148 459 9299 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us Announcement Follows Completion of Sale to SK Capital Partners SCHENECTADY, N.Y., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SI Group, a leading global developer and manufacturer of performance additives, process solutions, pharmaceuticals and chemical intermediates, announced today the company's new executive leadership team. These changes follow the October 15, 2018 completion of the acquisition of SI Group by SK Capital Partners, a private investment firm focused on the specialty materials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors. The transaction included the combination of SI Group with Addivant, an SK Capital portfolio company since 2013 and leading global producer of specialty additives. The newly combined company is marketed under the SI Group brand, and is led by the following executive leadership team: Frank Bozich , SI Group CEO , SI Group CEO John Steitz , CEO, Additives , CEO, Additives Chris Cornille , Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Services , Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Services Brooke Manrique , Senior Vice President, Human Resources & Communications , Senior Vice President, Human Resources & Communications Tom Masterson , Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Regulatory Affairs , Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Regulatory Affairs Wei Ru, Senior Vice President, Engineering & Process Technology Paul Tilley , Senior Vice President, Chemical Intermediates & Industrial Resins , Senior Vice President, Chemical Intermediates & Industrial Resins Patrick Weinberg , Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer , Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Rich White , Senior Vice President, Manufacturing & EHSQ Additionally, the new company has been structured around several strategic business units that will focus exclusively on product offerings and innovation, as well as superior customer relationship management. These leaders include: Katie Ellet , Vice President, Oilfield Solutions , Vice President, Oilfield Solutions Philip Ingham , Vice President, Industrial Resins & Specialties , Vice President, Industrial Resins & Specialties Robert Kaiser , Vice President, Rubber & Adhesives , Vice President, Rubber & Adhesives Chris Roberts , Vice President, Fuels & Lubricants SI Group is led by Frank Bozich and John Steitz, proven chemical industry leaders with over 75 years of collective expertise. "These organizational changes leverage the key competencies and capabilities of our leadership teams. The structure enables a strong external focus, cultivating more collaborative relationships with our customers," said Frank Bozich, CEO. John Steitz, CEO Additives, added, "We will be more adept at delivering superior customer value and more thoughtful, systematic and anticipatory to changes in global market forces that impact the industry." Biographies may be found at http://www.siigroup.com/leadership.asp. ABOUT SI GROUP SI Group is a leading global developer and manufacturer of performance additives, process solutions, pharmaceuticals and chemical intermediates, with strong market positions in the plastics, oilfield, rubber, fuels & lubricants, active pharmaceutical ingredients and industrial resins industries. SI Group solutions are critical to the quality and performance of countless industrial and consumer goods. Headquartered in Schenectady, New York, SI Group operates more than 30 manufacturing facilities on five continents with approximately $2 billion in annual sales, and more than 3,000 employees worldwide. SI Group is a portfolio company of SK Capital Partners. In 2018, SI Group received its third silver award for corporate social responsibility by EcoVadis, and is ranked among the top seven percent of more than 45,000 worldwide companies. SI Group is The Substance Inside. For more information, please visit www.siigroup.com. Media Contact: Tara Morgan SI Group, Inc. + 1 518-347-4194 tara.morgan@siigroup.com Photo- https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/779723/SI_Group_Global_Headquarters.jpg Logo- https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/95496/si_group__inc__logo.jpg PowerBand Solutions Inc. (TSXV: PBX; OTCQB: PWWBF; Frankfurt: 1ZVA) ("" or the ""), a leading online auction and remarketing platform to buy and sell used vehicles, is pleased to announce that it has appointed Gordon Cummings, CPA, CA, FCA (UK), as Chief Financial Officer of the Company.Gordon has over 29 years of experience in finance and management including: senior managerial positions in 2 of the Big 4 audit firms; the positions of CFO and then subsequently CEO of a Canadian alternative investment manager; the roles of CFO followed by CEO of a gold-silver exploration and development company listed on the TSX and NYSE Amex; and most recently a senior finance role with one of Canada's largest pension asset managers, with assets under management of over $140 billion.Gordon holds a Bachelor of Accountancy degree from the University of Glasgow and is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. Gordon will be responsible for leading the finance and treasury functions for the Company, as well as playing a key role in future corporate finance activities.Mike Moen, President and COO of PowerBand, commented: 'We are very pleased that Gordon has decided to join our team as we start to capitalize on the many opportunities presented to PowerBand in Canada, the United States, and globally. Gordon has considerable experience in cross-border financing and M&A activities and we are looking forward to his leadership in these areas.''Taking on the role of CFO of PowerBand Solutions is a tremendous opportunity,' said Gordon Cummings. 'I look forward to working with Mike Moen and all the members of the team to strengthen corporate strategy and governance, improve cost controls, and drive towards profitability.' Mike Moen also stated: 'I would like to thank Joe Mastrogiacomo for his service as CFO over the past several months, and wish him well with his future endeavors.' Gordon Cummings has been granted an option to acquire 400,000 common shares ('Shares') at an exercise price of $0.125, being the closing trading price of the Shares on the TSX-V on November 2, 2018. The options will expire five years from the date of grant and vest over three years. In addition, a consultant has been granted an option to acquire 500,000 Shares at an exercise price of $0.125, being the closing trading price of the Shares on the TSX-V on November 2, 2018. The options will expire five years from the date of grant of these options. 81,034 will vest immediately and the remaining 418,966 have been conditionally granted and will vest over three years after certain grant conditions are met. About PowerBand Solutions Inc. PowerBand Solutions Inc. is a technology provider listed on the TSX Venture Exchange that is developing solutions for automotive and other industries that drive efficiency and transparency in the marketplace. PowerBand has developed and commercialized a leading-edge online auction platform that increases revenues and profit margins for its automotive dealership, Original Equipment Manufacturer, commercial fleet and rental company customers. PowerBand's remarketing platform, the PowerBand Exchange, incorporates the industry's latest auction technologies, inventory management, market intelligence, and appraisal processes. For further information, please contact: Richard Goldman, VP Corporate Development 1-866-768-7653 rgoldman@powerbandsolutions.com FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the Company and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. As a result, we cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by Canadian securities law. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. SOURCE: PowerBand Solutions Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/527203/PowerBand-Appoints-Gordon-Cummings-as-CFO Paris, 05 November 2018 ROCHE BOBOIS SA (ISIN: FR0013344173 - Ticker symbol: RBO), a global benchmark on the high-end furniture market and the name behind the French Art de Vivre, today publishes its revenues for the first nine months of its financial year. Revenues (unaudited - in m) 2017 2018 Change at current exchange rates (%) Change at constant exchange rates (%) H1 126.3 129.2 +2.3% +5.4% Q3 54.6 61.2 +12.2% +12.2% 9 months 180.9 190.4 +5.2% +7.5% The breakdown of revenues by region is presented in the appendix Double-digit revenue growth in Q3 During Q3 2018, Roche Bobois group posted revenues of 61.2 million, compared to 54.6 million during Q3 2017, representing growth of 12.2% (at current and constant exchange rates). This remarkable performance is heightened by a favourable base of comparison for the United States (deliveries postponed). It should be noted that changes in exchange rates had no overall impact on Q3 revenues this year. With regard to regional performances, France continued its momentum with growth of 5.1% in Q3 2018. Owned stores posted very positive sales despite a downturn in the French furniture market (year-to-date figures at 31 August: -2.3% - source: IPEA). Meanwhile, the USA/Canada region posted strong growth in Q3, up 26.1% at constant exchange rates (revenues of 20.1 million in Q3 2018 compared to 16.0 million in Q3 2017). This performance reflects a favourable base of comparison with Q3 2017, related to postponed deliveries at numerous stores (delivered in Q4). Also of note is the ramp-up of the two latest store openings as of Q2 2017 (New York Upper West Side and Miami Design District), which contributed around 1 million (at constant exchange rates) to Q3 revenues. As expected, the United Kingdom, a market impacted by Brexit, was down 6.5% at current exchange rates (down 8.2% at constant exchange rates). Finally, the rest of Europe recorded a strong performance, posting growth of 18.1% at constant exchange rates, driven by the excellent results of owned stores in Germany and Switzerland. Italy also contributed to this growth through the two franchise takeovers in Milan. At the end of the first nine months of 2018, the Group posted revenues of 190.4 million compared to 180.9 million a year earlier, representing growth of 7.5% at constant exchange rates (5.2% at current exchange rates). Retail sales of the owned store and franchise networks [1] Over the first nine months of 2018, the entire Roche Bobois Group network recorded retail sales1 of 334.0 million, compared to 345.6 million over the same period in 2017, down 1.1% at constant exchange rates (down -3.4% at current rates). Retail sales of owned stores were up 0.1% at constant exchange rates. Note that the Group should record retail sales growth in Q4 2018 due to the postponement until October of the "8 Exceptional Days" event in the USA/Canada region (instead of the usual month of September). A favourable outlook for the end of the year Taking into account the base effects expected in the United States for the next quarter, Roche Bobois SA forecasts a slight decline in revenues for Q4 2018 without undermining its ability to generate annual growth for 2018. Meanwhile, the Group is following its plan to open new stores as scheduled. The three own store openings announced in the United States in Q2, located in Greenwich, New York (New York Upper East Side - 2nd store) and San Diego (2nd store) are currently under construction and will open soon. Roche Bobois SA also confirms the opening of three to five new franchises before the end of the year. About Roche Bobois SA Roche Bobois SA is a French family business founded in 1960. The Group operates in 54 countries and has a network of 329 owned stores and franchises (at 31 december 2017) marketing its two brands: Roche Bobois, a high-end furniture brand with a strong international presence, and Cuir Center, positioned in the mid-range market segment with an essentially French customer base. Through its Roche Bobois brand, the Group embodies the French Art de Vivre whose presence can now be felt on the world stage, with original and bold creations from talented designers (Bruno Moinard, Jean Nouvel, Ora Ito, Sacha Lakic, Christophe Delcourt, Stephen Burks, Kenzo Takada, Bina Baitel...) and partnerships with fashion and haute couture houses. Roche Bobois is also a committed partner in the world of culture and the arts. Including franchises, these two brands posted 2017 revenues of 480 million excluding VAT, to which Roche Bobois contributed 388 million and Cuir Center 92 million. Roche Bobois SA consolidated revenues came to 249 million in 2017. For more information please visit www.bourse-roche-bobois.com CONTACT Actus Finance - Anne-Pauline Petureaux Investor Relations Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 72 apetureaux@actus.fr Actus Finance - Alexandra Prisa Press Relations Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 90 aprisa@actus.fr APPENDICES Revenues by region and by brand (unaudited - in m) Q3 2018 Q3 2017 Change at current exchange rates (%) Change at constant exchange rates (%) Roche Bobois France 17.2 16.3 +5.1% +5.1% Roche Bobois US/Canada 20.1 16.0 +26.1% +25.9% Roche Bobois UK 2.8 3.0 -6.5% -8.2% Roche Bobois Other Europe 10.9 9.2 +18.1% +18.1% Roche Bobois other (overseas) 2.6 2.0 +30.7% +30.7% Cuir Center 7.3 7.6 -4.2% -4.2% Corporate 0.3 0.5 -26.5% -26.5% TOTAL 61,2 54,6 +12.2% +12.2% Revenues by region and by brand (unaudited - in m) 9 months 2018 9 months 2017 Change at current exchange rates (%) Change at constant exchange rates (%) Roche Bobois France 62.4 59.2 +5.5% +5.5% Roche Bobois US/Canada 51.0 47.3 +8.0% +15.2% Roche Bobois UK 10.7 11.6 -8.3% -7.2% Roche Bobois Other Europe 34.2 31.4 +9.0% +11.0% Roche Bobois other (overseas) 4.6 3.9 +17.9% +17.9% Cuir Center 25.6 25.7 -0.3% -0.3% Corporate 1.8 1.9 -3.7% -3.7% TOTAL 190.4 180.9 +5.2% +7.5% [1] Orders received excl. VAT throughout owned store network and franchises for both brands ------------------------ 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-0-55820-pr_roche-bobois_q3_def.pdf Intel True View's Volumetric Capture Lets Fans See Every Angle of the Most Amazing Action via Match-Day Broadcasts and Online Content Imagine watching a season-defining moment, then reliving it from any angle including from the perspective of your favorite player as they run up to take a penalty or make an improbable goal-line clearance. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190207005208/en/ Intel Corporation, in partnership with Arsenal FC, Liverpool FC and Manchester City, will deliver immersive experiences via Intel True View at Emirates Stadium, Anfield and the Etihad Stadium. Intel True View transforms volumetric video data captured from 38 5K ultra-high-definition cameras into immersive 3D replays. Fans worldwide will enjoy the biggest moments of the match from every angle. (Credit: Intel Corporation) In partnership with Arsenal FC*, Liverpool FC* and Manchester City*, Intel will deliver immersive experiences via Intel True View at Emirates Stadium, Anfield and the Etihad Stadium. Now their fans worldwide can enjoy the biggest moments of the match from every angle, whether they're watching the Rights Holders' live broadcast and highlights or reliving the action post-match from their favorite clubs' official website, mobile app or social media. As three of the most recognizable and innovative football clubs in the world, Arsenal FC, Liverpool FC and Premier League* champions Manchester City will leverage Intel True View to capture every match element from every angle. Intel True View re-creates the action on the pitch and presents that from an ideal vantage point or player's perspective, using Intel's unmatched data-processing capability to deliver the experience to fans. Beginning March 10, Intel's leading volumetric technology will bring fans as close to the action on the pitch as the starting XI from the world's most iconic football clubs. With dedicated supporters across the globe, football fans are passionate about the tactics as much as the goals scored, and Intel True View will highlight the immersive experiences unique to the style and skill of football. The partnerships will introduce features that include: Multi-angle views of a play: Intel Sports' industry-leading volumetric video process creates thrilling 360-degree replays and highlight reels from every conceivable angle, using 38 5K ultra-high-definition cameras. Intel Sports' industry-leading volumetric video process creates thrilling 360-degree replays and highlight reels from every conceivable angle, using 38 5K ultra-high-definition cameras. Laser wall: A virtual plane giving viewers a clear picture as to where players are positioned on the pitch. A virtual plane giving viewers a clear picture as to where players are positioned on the pitch. Be the player capabilities: Intel True View freezes a moment in the match to let fans see the pitch from the eyes of a player. This also enables presenters and pundits to share a new level of insight into the tactics and decisions made by players to provide an entirely new perspective to fans. Intersection of Sports and Technology: The sports industry is undergoing a period of significant change as consumer behavior is shifting, driving technology, leagues and brands to address the expectations of fans. In 2018, technology investments into sports reached nearly $1 billion, continuing to drive the intersection of sports and technology. With smart and connected tools, Intel is uniquely positioned to enable the sports industry to capture, analyze and respond to new levels of insight in real time and create amazing new experiences for fans. How Intel True View Works: The process begins with volumetric video, the capture and rendering technique behind Intel True View. Using the volumetric capture method, footage is recorded from 38 5K ultra-high-definition cameras that includes height, width and depth of data to produce voxels (pixels with volume). After content is captured, a substantial amount of data is processed with servers powered by Intel Core i7 and Intel Xeon processors. The software then re-creates all the viewpoints of a fully volumetric 3D person or object. That information renders a virtual environment in spectacular, multi-perspective 3D that enables users to experience a captured scene from any angle and perspective and can provide true 6 degrees of freedom. James Carwana, vice president and general manager of Intel Sports, said: "Immersive media experiences continue to create more opportunities for sports teams and leagues to put the fan experience first. With the expansion of Intel True View into more stadiums with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City, we have the chance to transform the experience for fans of one of the world's top sports leagues with our leading and differentiated volumetric technology." Peter Silverstone, commercial director of Arsenal FC, said: "We are always looking to find new ways to bring our 780 million fans and followers around the world closer to the action and this partnership will give our fans a whole new view of the game. The technology effectively allows a supporter to step into the boots of players and see the game from their perspective. "We have seen the impact this Intel technology has had in other sports leagues across the world and are excited that it will be installed at Emirates Stadium. "At Arsenal we are committed to innovating and keeping at the forefront of developments on and off the pitch so it's fitting that Emirates Stadium will be the first stadium to bring Intel's immersive and transformational True View technology to the Premier League." Billy Hogan, managing director and chief commercial officer of Liverpool FC, said: "We're delighted to be working with Intel to bring this advanced Intel True View technology to our supporters. "Intel True View enables fans to immerse themselves even further into the game and has the power to add a new depth to match highlights, which can significantly improve the supporter experience. This technology has the potential to add a new dynamic to how people interact with the game and create different conversations with our fans around the world. "We strive to utilize the latest technology to be at the forefront of the experience our supporters have, whether that's on-screen or online, and with the help of our newest partner Intel, that is certainly set to continue." Damian Willoughby, senior vice president of Partnerships at City Football Group, said: "We're very excited to integrate Intel True View at the Etihad Stadium and to announce our new partnership with a world-class brand like Intel. We love to be first, both on and off the pitch, so we are delighted to pioneer this game-changing technology at the Etihad Stadium. We are sure City fans, and football fans around the world, will love watching beautiful football from every angle." Media Resources: Photographs and videos: Arsenal FC, Liverpool FC and Manchester City Bring Immersive Experiences to Fans with Intel True View (News Release) More context: True View website (Intel.com) About Intel Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), a leader in the semiconductor industry, is shaping the data-centric future with computing and communications technology that is the foundation of the world's innovations. The company's engineering expertise is helping address the world's greatest challenges as well as helping secure, power and connect billions of devices and the infrastructure of the smart, connected world from the cloud to the network to the edge and everything in between. Find more information about Intel at newsroom.intel.com and intel.com. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190207005208/en/ Contacts: Farm Saechou Intel Corp. (HQ) +1 916-377-9577 farm.p.saechou@intel.com Sarah Allen Intel Corp. (UK) +44 1793 404435 sarah.l.allen@intel.com Katie Baldwin Arsenal Football Club +44 207 704 4010 kbaldwin@arsenal.co.uk Ursula Hutchinson Liverpool Football Club +44 151 907 9372 Ursula.Hutchinson@liverpoolfc.com Toby Craig City Football Group +44 20 7874 5519 Toby.Craig@cityfootball.com LONDON, November 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- everis, the consulting and outsourcing major, will provide wide reach and local support in Continental Western Europe for iGTB's end-to-end transaction banking digital product suite Intellect Global Transaction Banking (iGTB), the transaction banking and technology specialist from Intellect Design Arena Limited, the fastest growing Fintech product company with the CAGR of more than 21% over past three years, announced its partnership with everis, an NTT Data Company, dedicated to consulting and outsourcing. The digital products of iGTB along with the local presence of everis in targeted countries with dedicated staff, and expertise in IT consulting services of the financial industry, will provide the much-required digital transformation capability for Continental Western Europe. From this partnership iGTB will accelerate sales processes for a strong pipeline and provide valuable local support for implementation and maintenance. In turn, Everis will be enabled to develop a unique Transaction Banking practice and center of excellence that will add to its financial services capability in addition to getting access to UK market through iGTB's clientele. Manish Maakan, CEO, iGTB said: "iGTB expects to ride the crest of IT spend in new investments in Europe, which is expected to grow by 16% year-on-year* for the next three years, due to a renewed focus on digital transformations. This partnership with Everis will help us tap into the available opportunities on digital transformations and contextual banking effectively and thus create a greater brand presence in Europe. everis will be equipped with our digital suite of end-to-end transaction banking products that stand out with their contextual banking capabilities and API-first & microservices-based platform that uses predictive analytics and machine learning to provide corporates with automatic, tailored "best-next" actions and offers, based on contextual business data." * Source: Celent Global Tech Spending Forecast Banking Edition 2018 Jose Pablo Carbonell, CEO, everis added: "We are very excited to be part of this partnership. This will complement the Financial Services expertise of everis in consulting and outsourcing. It will open opportunities related to Transaction Banking in addition to retail banking and capital markets. These opportunities will help everis create a transaction banking practice and Centre for Excellence. I am sure this partnership will create huge value to our customers by providing the best combination of transaction banking products and services. Our widespread reach and brand will help iGTB with required IT support and maintenance for their digital products, resulting in world class fintech products available to European banks with much needed local language and doorstep support." About Intellect Design Arena Ltd: Intellect Design Arena Ltd, a specialist in applying true digital technologies, is the world's first full spectrum Banking and Insurance technology products company, across Global Consumer Banking (iGCB), Central Banking, Global Transaction Banking (iGTB), Risk, Treasury and Markets (iRTM), and Insurance (Intellect SEEC). With over 25 years of deep domain expertise, Intellect is the brand that progressive financial institutions rely on for digital transformation initiatives. Intellect pioneered Design Thinking for cutting-edge products and solutions for Banking and Insurance, with design being the company's key differentiator in enabling digital transformation. FinTech 8012, the world's first design centre for Financial Technology, reflects Intellect's commitment to continuous and impactful innovation to address the growing need for digital transformation. Intellect generates annual revenues of more than USD 169 million, serving more than 200 customers through offices in 40+ countries and with a diverse workforce of more than 4,000 solution architects, domain and technology experts in major global financial hubs around the world. For further information on the organization and its solutions, please visit intellectdesign.com. For information on the solutions for global transaction banking, please visit https://www.igtb.com . About everis an NTT DATA Company everis is an NTT DATA group company that offers business and strategy solutions, development and maintenance of technological applications, and outsourcing services. The company, which carries out its activity in the banking, insurance, industry, utilities, telecommunications, public administration, and health sectors, reached a turnover of 1.17 bn Euro in the last fiscal year. It currently has over 21,000 professionals distributed in its offices and high performance centres in 16 countries. NTT DATA is a leading IT services provider and global innovation partner headquartered in Tokyo, with business operations in over 50 countries. Our emphasis is on long-term commitment, combining global reach with local intimacy to provide premier professional services varying from consulting and systems development to outsourcing. For more information, visit http://www.nttdata.com . For Media related information, please contact: Nachu Nagappan Intellect Design Arena Ltd Mob: +91-893-961-9676 Email: nachu.nagappan@intellectdesign.com For Media related info, Americas and Europe: Zoe Fowke Intellect Design Arena Ltd Mob: +44-020-751-694-61 Email: zoe.fowke@intellectdesign.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 5, 2018) - Iconic Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: ICM) (OTC Pink: BVTEF) (FSE: YQGB) ("Company" or "Iconic") would like to revise the November 1, 2018 news release, where there was an understatement relating to the inferred resource at its Bonnie Claire Project in Nevada. For clarification, the previously announced resource of 5.370 billion kilograms (kg) or 11.839 billion pounds of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), is in fact 11.839 billion pounds of elemental lithium. The 5.370 billion kg resource is equivalent to 28.584 billion kilograms (28.584 million tonnes) of LCE. The significance of this differentiation is that converting elemental lithium to LCE produces a much larger resource. Lithium is typically produced and sold as lithium carbonate. Therefore, resources are usually given as LCE. The Bonnie Claire Lithium Property Characteristics: The Property is located within Sarcobatus Valley that is approximately 30 km (19 miles) long and 20 km (12 miles) wide. Quartz-rich volcanic tuffs, that contain anomalous amounts of lithium, occur within and adjacent to the valley. Geochemical analysis of the local salt flats has yielded lithium values up to 340 ppm. The gravity low within the valley is 20 km (12 miles) long, and the current estimates of depth to basement rocks range from 600 to 1,200 meters (2,000 to 4,000 feet). The current claim block covers an area of 35 km2 (13.5 mi2) with potential to be underlain by lithium-rich sediments. Richard Kern, Certified Professional Geologist (#11494) and CEO of Iconic is the Qualified Person who has prepared and reviewed this press release in accordance with NI 43-101 reporting standards. On behalf of the Board of Directors SIGNED: "Richard Kern" Richard Kern, President and CEO Contact: Keturah Nathe, VP Corporate Development (604) 336-8614 For further information on ICM, please visit our website at www.iconicminerals.com. The Company's public documents may be accessed at www.sedar.com. Forward Statement: This news release includes certain forward-looking statements or information. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Iconic expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. CPaaS is an exciting space and Cloudonix is one of the growing players in the area, making it easier for developers to go-to-market and provide solutions for customers. As an interesting differentiator, the company espouses their support for smart devices, applications and web pages. I recently met with Eric Klein at Astricon in Orlando, as a follow-up meeting we had earlier this year to the one at ITEXPO in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Some of the latest news from the company is a new ISO 27001 certification which aids in winning business from larger companies. In addition, Eric explained, many companies are happy about working with Cloudonix as they allow CPaaS functionality without per-minute, per-line, per-endpoint, per DID or transaction fees. Customers buy blocks of 100 concurrent calls and add blocks as they grow. Cloudonix supports almost 22,000 different smartphones and tablets. Here is another interesting differentiator Traditionally, when a new flagship device comes out, each company with an app that uses voice, needs to create a new version that supports the different hardware and software in the new device. This takes time to code, test, and then get approved in the appropriate app store. In the case of the iPhone X this took at least 2 weeks for development and approval. The Cloudonix licensing server works directly with the phone for unique configuration, meaning there is no need to put out a new version of the APP for every new device. Thus it took apps using Cloudonix service less than a day to support the iPhone X. In summary, the company offers an exciting CPaaS alternative to some of the other players in the space and more flexible pricing means potentially lower costs for customers. Learn more about CPaaS and UC at ITEXPO, January 29-February 1st, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Where Doers & Disruptors Find Communications & Technology Solutions The members of the delegation also gave Rs 1 lakh to each of the families as compensation from the West Bengal chief minister. Guwahati: Amid simmering tension after the killing of five Bengali youths, a team of Trinamul Congress leaders from West Bengal visited the families of those massacred by the outlawed Ulfa(I) rebels in Assam and vowed to strengthen their voice in brining the perpetrators of the crime to book. The delegation comprising Rajya Sabha MPs Derek OBrien and Nadimul Haq, Lok Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur and MLA Mahua Moitra told reporters that they visited the aggrieved families on the instructions of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has expressed anguish over the killing and said an environment of violence was prevailing all across the country. Five members of the Bengali community, including two of a family, were picked up and killed by Ulfa(I) rebels on Thursday night in Upper Assams Tinsukia district. The members of the delegation also gave `1 lakh to each of the families as compensation from the West Bengal chief minister. Were with you. That is why weve come here. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has sent us here to be with you, said Ms Thakur, who also broke into tears with aggrieved family members. This is a humanitarian visit. This is a visit to stand with the grieving families, said Derek OBrien, who alleged that an environment of violence was now prevailing all over the country, be it Assam or Gujarat. He told reporters his party would ensure that those responsible for such a heinous act would be brought to book. We will raise the issue of the killing in Parliament too, he added. The delegation assured the families of all help and vowed that the Trinamul Congress would stand by Bengalis in Assam. A TMC delegation of six MPs had also gone to Silchar on August 2 to assess the situation in Assam in the wake of the publication of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 30, but were stopped at the airport. They were not allowed to leave the airport and were sent back the next day. Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said the state government had taken the Trinamul Congress delegations visit positively as any political party had the right to visit victims of an attack. The Assam police has, meanwhile, intensified its counter-insurgency operations in the Upper Assam district. Asserting the involvement of Ulfa(I) rebels in the killing, security sources said te Ulfa(I) rebels suspected to be involved in the crime are feared to have crossed over to Myanmar. Indicating that few linkmen have been picked up by the police, the security sources said an armed group of Ulfa(I) rebels was reported to have been moving in Tinsukia district for past few weeks, but the police had failed to foil their gameplan. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 5, 2018) - Empire Minerals Corporation Inc. (the "Corporation") announces the results of the Annual General and Special Meeting of the Shareholders held on October 31, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec. At the Meeting, shareholders approved the Corporation's updated by-laws, the name change, the re-appointment of Wasserman Ramsey, Chartered Accountants as auditors of the Company for the ensuing year, and elected Angelo Parravano, Inga Gratcheva, and Edward Murphy as directors to the board of directors of the Corporation. The shareholders also approved and ratified all acts of the Directors, Administrators, Officers, and any Interested Persons and the Corporation. The shareholders did not approve of the stock consolidation of the Corporation. For more information, please contact: Ms. Sheri Monardo 416-543-2881 Medical device company Cochlearare set to appeal a case they lost in the US in the patent infringement lawsuit by the Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Scientific Research (AMF) and Advanced Bionics LLC (AB).Damages of $US268 million have been awarded against Cochlear. An appeal could take up to two years.The company established a provision in FY14 based on the view of Cochlears independent damages experts assessment of the liability that could result from the dispute. They set aside a provision of $21.3 million in case they lost the case. This is now under review.As the patent at issue in the litigation has expired, the judgment will not disrupt Cochlears business or customers in the United States.Cochlearshares are trading 2.33 per cent lower to $175.38. The deal will give Amazon access to nearly a third of Indias organised food and grocery market through the Big Bazaar and Nilgiris supermarket chains US e-commerce major Amazon is reportedly set to buy 9.5 percent stake in Kishore Biyani-led Future Group's arm Future Retail for Rs 2,500 crore, a media report said. According to The Economic Times, Amazon will buy the stake through foreign portfolio route (FPI) and the deal will be announced on 14 November. The deal will give the US e-commerce giant access to nearly a third of Indias organised food and grocery market through the Big Bazaar and Nilgiris supermarket chains and other outlets owned by Future Group. In August this year, it was reported that Amazon had begun formal negotiations with Future Group to invest around $600-700 million for a 12 to 15 percent stake in the retail major. Other international names of repute were also eyeing the Indian retail market. Google was looking to join forces with Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall to invest Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 4,000 crore ($499.36 million - $570.69 million) in Future Retail, The Economic Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Alibaba was in talks with big Indian companies, including Future Retail, to boost its retailing plans in India. In June, PremjiInvest, the investment arm of Wipro chairman Azim Premji, picked a six percent stake in Future Retail from the Bharti Group for about Rs 600 crore. Amazon, on its part, has also been aggressively investing in the Indian market across its e-commerce, payment and logistics operations. It had committed $5 billion to the Indian operations and a large part of that has already been pumped in. Amazon and homegrown Indian rival Flipkart, owned by Walmart, kicked off competing sales events last month, jostling to grab shoppers in India's October-December festive season when households make most big-ticket purchases. Amazon and Flipkart are locked in a battle to dominate an Indian e-commerce market tipped, within a decade, to be worth $200 billion annually, according to Morgan Stanley. Amazon, which already has over 100 million registered users in India, is making a deeper push in the country's small towns and cities in a bid to attract another 100 million customers by investing in infrastructure and partnering with local players for quicker deliveries. Its Prime loyalty programme, which offers free delivery, early access to deals during sales and free music and video streaming, has helped Amazon win tens of millions of clients, making India its fastest-growing Prime market globally. With inputs from agencies Patanjali plans to open around 100 outlets of Paridhan by the end of this fiscal and have a network of around 500 stores by March 2020, mostly on the franchise model New Delhi: Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali Ayurved on Monday forayed into the fast-growing branded apparel segment through its brand 'Paridhan' and expects a sale of around Rs 1,000 crore next fiscal. The Haridwar-based firm plans to open around 100 outlets of Paridhan by the end of this fiscal and have a network of around 500 stores by March 2020, mostly on the franchise model. It has introduced three brands -- Livfit, Aastha and Sanskar-- targeting customers across all age groups. "This year, we would have a network of 100 stores ranging between 500-2,500 sq feet. We are aiming a turnover of around Rs 1,000 crore in the next fiscal," said Baba Ramdev. He further added: "It would also be available online by next year. We are working on it." While Sanskar would be a range of menswear, Aastha is a women's brand and Livfit would have a range of sportswear and Yoga dresses. "Our target is to compete with multinational companies in this field such as Adidas, Puma," he said adding the Paridhan range would be around 30-40 percent cheaper and would target ordinary people. The company may plan to have a standalone store of its three brands, depending on the catchment area and availability of space, said K M Singh, who is heading the apparel business of Patanjali. According to Ramdev, in the textile industry, 90 percent sales is through the unorganised segment and the branded segment accounts only 10 percent, in which there is hardly any Indian brand. "We want ordinary people to feel proud of wearing domestic brand," he added. Besides, Paridhan would have a range of artificial jewellery and wedding clothes which would be at least 40 percent cheaper than rivals, he claimed. The range of Patanjali jeans would start from Rs 500, shirt (Rs 500-1,700). Paridhan would have around 1,100 options along with 3,500 SKUs of menswear, womenswear, kidswear, denim and accessories. The company is sourcing from 90 vendors across India and would encourage small and medium enterprises, Singh added. This is the ninth venture of Patanjali after entering into herbal Ayurved, natural pure products, cosmetics, personal care, cattle feed & biofertilisers, dairy products and frozen vegetables and packaged water. Patanjali, which had recorded multi-fold growth in recent years, witnessed a marginal growth only last fiscal hit by the implementation of GST, finishing at around Rs 12,000 crore. In 2016-17, Patanjali clocked a turnover of Rs 10,561 crore, registering 111 percent growth. In this round of fund infusion, most of the banks would be getting growth capital for expanding their lending, particularly to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). New Delhi: The Finance Ministry is likely to finalise the second round of capital infusion for public sector banks (PSBs) towards the end of this month taking into account the latest quarter's performance, sources said. In this round of fund infusion, most of the banks would be getting growth capital for expanding their lending, particularly to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a slew of measures, including loan sanction of up to Rs 1 crore in less than an hour and relaxation in labour and environmental laws for MSMEs to give a boost to the sector, the country's second-biggest employer. Second quarter result announcements of banks, barring one or two, would be over this week and subsequently the ministry would start discussions with them, sources said. After assessing the requirement, the ministry is expected to finalise the capital infusion of about Rs 54,000 crore by November-end or by the first half of the next month. The ministry had earlier this year provided capital infusion of Rs 11,336 crore to five PSBs to help them meet their interest payment commitments. Punjab National Bank (PNB), hit by the Nirav Modi scam, got the highest amount of Rs 2,816 crore, while Allahabad Bank received Rs 1,790 crore. Andhra Bank got capital support of Rs 2,019 crore, Indian Overseas Bank Rs 2,157 crore and Corporation Bank Rs 2,555 crore. The infusion was part of the remaining Rs 65,000 crore out of Rs 2.11 lakh crore capital infusion over two financial years. The government announced the Rs 2.11 lakh crore capital infusion programme in October last year. As per the plan, the PSBs were to get Rs 1.35 lakh crore through re-capitalisation bonds, and the balance Rs 58,000 crore through raising of capital from the market. Out of the Rs 1.35 lakh crore, the government has already infused about Rs 82,000 crore through recap bonds and the balance would be done during this fiscal. India has a limited window [of a decade] for becoming a developed economy unless we get our policies and priorities right. In June 2018, the State Bank of India (SBI) in its monthly publication Ecowrap warned establishment policymakers on the threat of India losing its demographic dividend. The report cited the case of the Karnataka, which is witnessing population ageing amid declining fertility rates, and cautioned about the declining enrolment in primary public schools in the state. The report said: We believe this is a problem across other states too and Indias strength of demographic dividend could actually turn into Indias disadvantage by 2030. India has one of the youngest population in a world which is ageing. In 2011, an IMF report said that about a quarter of the projected increase in the global population aged 15-24 years between 2010-2040 will occur in India. In the next two decades, India will be the largest single provider of the global workforce, providing India with a rich demographic dividend, which, according to IMF, gives India the single biggest hope to catch up to China. Today, India is struggling to reap the benefits of its prized demographic dividend largely due to lack of jobs, inadequate spending in education, health and infrastructure. Again, just last month, the World Bank released its inaugural Human Capital Index (HDI) report where it placed India at a lowly 115 among 157 countries. The BJP-led government rejected the report, saying it had serious reservations about the advisability and utility of this exercise of constructing the HCI. Soumya Kanti Ghosh is the Group Chief Economic Advisor at State Bank of India (SBI) where he heads the Economic Research Department (ERD), which published the report in June. Ghosh spoke with Rohit Inani on the SBI report and the dangers of India losing its demographic dividend. Excerpts from the conversation: The SBI recently warned in its Ecowrap about the dangers of India losing its demographic dividend by citing the example of "empty primary government schools in Karnataka". Summing up, the report said that "the moot point of this discussion is that India has perhaps now only a limited window of a decade to get into the developed country tag or stay perpetually in emerging group of economies. Policymakers, wake up and smell the coffee!" It is a harsh indictment. No, actually it is a fact. But take the demographic profile. Of course, India is enjoying the fruits of its demographic profile. We are a very young population [with] 65 percent of the median age around 27 years. All of it is true, but my limited point of view is that there are states like Karnataka and Kerala....It's a myth that the population has been going up. In the last two decades, the addition to the incremental population as per the 2011 census has been already around 18 crore. In the last 10 years, the same number of the populace has been added. So the overall population growth in India has been declining over the last two decades. Firstly, India's population growth is a myth. Second, out of 25 million babies that are born every year, say close to 15 million gets into the labour force if we consider a 40 percent drop. The issue is that the way the things are moving we think that by 2030, at the current rate, the older age of the population will gain impotence. So the demographic dividend that India was enjoying for the last several decades may see a downside. Until we have a proper statewide policy of addressing the demographic dividend, I think it will be difficult for India to get the developed country tag. By 2030, in terms of size, we can become the fourth or even the third -largest economy. This is one part of the dialogue; but the other part is that if you don't address the issues facing our demographic dividend in terms of state-specific policies, I think it will be difficult for us to get out of this developing country tag. India is in the middle of its demographic transition at the moment, which began about 40 years ago and will continue for 30 more years. Presently, it could be said to be at the peak of this transition. Can you briefly talk about this transition of a nation from a developing to a developed economy at such an opportune time? The transition from a developing to a developed economy comes in terms of the growth in the per capita income. This is one part. The other part is skilling your labour force, making sure they get well-paying jobs. It's a necessary pre-condition apart from other issues like infrastructure development. So if you have a population that is not ageing, unlike the population ageing we are witnessing in some developed countries that is contributing to their financial depredation for a long time, so unless we take advantage of our young demography in terms of their skill and knowledge, we cannot call ourselves transitioning to a developed economy. This is the bottom line. And why did we give India a "limited window"? It's because in the next 10-12 years, the trend of declining population growth in the [more prosperous] southern states coupled with declining enrolment in government primary and secondary schools, which has been happening now for the last decade or so; and this means that we are entering an age where a slowing population growth is having an impact on a young demography. You are saying that India's demographic dividend has reached a tipping point? Yes, it is reaching a tipping point, but I will not say that we are there yet. We will get into a situation whereby it will be difficult for us to get out of the developing economy tag if we don't address policies on sectoral imbalances and state-specific imbalances. For example, the southern states are witnessing a population decline unlike the northern states where the fertility rate is higher, and hence the replacement fertility rate will peak out in 2021. What are the dangers then of India actually losing out on its prized demographic dividend? There are already concerns regarding this possibility in certain political and industry circles. Recently, Pranab Mukherjee warned that "India's demographic dividend will turn into a demographic disaster" if jobs are not created. If you have a country which doesn't have a substantial young population, it could have a lot of impact on the macro parameters because young people have a propensity to spend more. We have a population which is "low-leverage". If the skilling of the labour force is not methodically perceived and developed in a country like India, we will be unable to get up the ladder in terms of our economic potential or economic realisation to where we should have been. India's problem today is a huge labour force which is not adequately compensated. The major problem is not lack of jobs, but lack of quality jobs that pay well. It is unlikely to push the consumption of an economy toward a higher trajectory. Take the West or China and some East Asian nations. Most of the growth acceleration in these countries was harboured by capitalising on its demographic transition. India is a latecomer to this transition, but today it stands to lose its only chance, and indeed a rare opportunity, to transition into a middle-income economy from a low-income economy. I won't say it is India's only chance, but the window of this transformation is indeed limited today. My sense is that...I won't say it won't happen, but I think if we fail policy-wise to craft state-specific policies so as to benefit from our demographic dividend, then it will be difficult. Recently a report by UNDP stated that India will need 280 million jobs by 2050, the year when India's working age population is expected to peak. But since 1991, when India liberalised its economy, close to 300 million Indians sought employment but less than half were employed, according to the same report. Today, even though India's GDP has consistently grown, we are still struggling to create jobs. How do you assess this situation considering, according to the SBI study, that we have a limited, irreversible window to turn things around? I have a strong objection to the employment figures. These are mostly based on surveys. Until and unless these surveys are scientifically designed and contracted, they will give out a number which will be on the conservative side but a wrong number nonetheless. Most of these surveys came out after the 2008 financial crisis and were restricted to 10 industries [in the EPFO payroll data]. If a country which is growing at 7 percent, or a country which is growing at 9-10 percent in between 2003-2008, I don't believe that jobs were not created. The larger issue is the quality of jobs generated in India, which is very poor. But a high GDP growth doesn't necessarily translate into a higher job growth, especially in the case of the Indian economy. Yes, high GDP growth may not lead to a surge in employment and this causation between a higher GDP and employment growth has been broken. What you are saying is correct. But in the last 5 years there is a perverse causation that is happening. For example, China produced 15 million jobs last year but look at the growth rate of China, it was one of the lowest in the country in the last few years. But China and other developed economies can create the same number of jobs even at a lower growth rate because they have a highly resourceful human capital, which we don't have. And that is the entire argument I'm making...that we have to develop our human capital. For example, the participation of more women in the workforce. Having said that, I still don't believe that we have a job crisis in India; the more important issue is the lack of quality jobs. In January this year, the Maratha caste protests brought Mumbai to a standstill, demanding reservation in jobs. Many, including some prominent names in the industry, saw it as evidence of India's demographic implosion. I get your point. See, it's similar to saying that X number of people or X to the power infinity number of people are applying for 10 jobs. In the Indian context, job security has now become very important. After the 2008 financial crisis when the economy went into a tailspin, people believe that government jobs are actually more secure. So there could be a perverse causation in the other way. If you find that there is social unrest or the issue of more people applying for government jobs, my only request is to look at it through a larger prism that even if a person is employed, that person is always going to apply for a more secure job. Harvesting demographic dividend usually depends upon how a country mobilises its savings, channelling the same into investments in education, healthcare, infrastructure, et cetera. In low-income countries like India, public sector banks remain the most important source of finance. Consider our Current Account Deficit (CAD), which is expected to hit 2.8 percent of GDP this financial year and the gross non-performing assets (NPA) plaguing our public sector banks, which stood at Rs 4.04 lakh crores in 2016, equalling the combined public spending for health, education, defence and roads. How do you assess this situation in the light of the limited window of a decade for India to reap the benefit of its demographic dividend? See, any economy goes through the ups and downs of the business cycle. It is a fact that there has been an accumulation of non-performing assets (NPAs). But we also went through a crisis in 1998, the Asian banking crisis. It's unfortunate that this problem has arisen for reasons that were outside the control of banks. Having said that, I think the banks always have enough to lend. We are a country where a fiscal deficit has always been a concern. My sense is that this should not be a hurdle for India going forward [with maximising its human capital resources]I think it will be better for India as a country to deliver what it has promised its citizens. In 2008, in a lecture delivered at the University of Chicago, "Is there a threat of oligarchy in India?, Raghuram Rajan cautioned about India arriving at a crossroad. He said, With the right policies and some luck, we will become a middle-income constitutional democracy in my lifetime. I think it is fair to say that we are entering one of the most critical periods in Indias history. The next ten years will determine whether we will take our place amongst the group of nations like South Korea and Taiwan that have made their way from poverty to moderate prosperity in a couple of generations. Today, almost 10 years later, the SBI has sent out a similar warning. I have already said that India has a limited window [of a decade] for becoming a developed economy unless we get our policies and priorities right. (Inani is a journalist based in Delhi. He has contributed to TIME, The Nation and The Caravan, among other publications) BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An oil export pipeline in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region has been upgraded to a capacity of 1 million barrels per day from 700,000 bpd, the Kurdish regional government's natural resources ministry said on Sunday. The pipeline carries crude across Iraqi Kurdistan and connects to a metering station in Fish-Khabur near the Turkish and Syrian borders, before feeding another pipeline that takes the crude to the Turkish Mediterranean coast for export BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An oil export pipeline in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region has been upgraded to a capacity of 1 million barrels per day from 700,000 bpd, the Kurdish regional government's natural resources ministry said on Sunday. The pipeline carries crude across Iraqi Kurdistan and connects to a metering station in Fish-Khabur near the Turkish and Syrian borders, before feeding another pipeline that takes the crude to the Turkish Mediterranean coast for export. "This extra capacity will accommodate future production growth from KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) producing fields, and can also be used by the federal government (in Baghdad) to export the currently stranded oil in Kirkuk and surrounding areas," the ministry's statement said. The KRG currently exports over 400,000 bpd of crude oil, it said. Exports from oilfields in Kirkuk have been on hold since Iraqi government forces took control of them from the Kurds last year in retaliation for a Kurdish referendum on independence which was widely opposed by Turkey, Iran and Western powers. Kurdistan has built the pipeline for Kirkuk exports to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan after the old Kirkuk pipeline belonging to the federal government had been damaged by Islamic State militants. (Reporting by John Davison, Ahmed Rasheed, Dmitry Zhdannikov in London; Editing by Adrian Croft) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. JNPT already has a liquid cargo terminal in addition to the four container terminals off the city's east coast. Mumbai: The nation's largest container port JNPT is planning to host an edible oil refinery to maximise revenue and ensure captive cargo, a top port official said Monday. The state-run port already has a liquid cargo terminal in addition to the four container terminals off the city's east coast. "We have received an expression of interest from edible oil players for setting up a refinery on our land. It is a good way to earn revenue by giving out our land for the same," acting chairman Neeraj Bansal told reporters. He said the land will be leased out on a long-term basis and it will also be beneficial for the port as it will give it captive cargo. The raw material for the refinery will be imported from abroad and a considerable part of the finished products will be sent out through the sea, Bansal said, pointing to the cargo possibilities that come along with a port. Port sources said a six-acre plot has already been identified for the refinery project. Bansal said the port is also investing Rs 310 crore for extending the liquid cargo tank farm which will increase its capacity to 4.5 mtpa. The port is also coming up with a tender this week to bid out large land parcels at the adjoining special economic zone (SEZ), the chairman said, adding the land parcel will be over 285 acre and winning bidders will have to give a commitment to employ at least 12,000 people on it. There has been intense speculation if contract mobile phone manufacturer Foxconn will opt for setting up base at the port's SEZ. However, Bansal refused to comment directly when asked about it, saying all the entities will have to bid for the plot. Explaining that government has allowed major ports to deploy its excess funds for operational assets rather than earn interest by depositing those with banks, Bansal said JNPT, which had cash and equivalent of over Rs 3,800 crore, has also drawn its plans including buying assets. The port has put in its expression of interest to acquire the financially troubled Dighi Port, which is undergoing resolution through the NCLT process, Bansal said. According to sources, private port operators Adani Ports and JSW Ports are also interested in the asset. Bansal said the port is also looking to acquire rights to develop Revas and Vijaydurg ports from the existing concession holders who are yet to begin construction. He said Vijaydurg in south Konkan coast is a particularly important port because of the upcoming mega oil refinery in close proximity. "We do not have any waterfront left at the port to increase capacity and therefore we are looking at various other options," he said. On plans to develop offshore satellite port at Wadhavan, Bansal acknowledged that there are a few environmental concerns and added that the port, in association with the state government, is looking to mitigate those so that the development can go through. Bansal claimed the work done by the port has plated an important role in upping India's rank in the ease of doing business ranking to 77 from 100. He pointed out that the country's ranking in trading across borders has jumped to 80 from 146 earlier, which is largely due to the work being done by the port as it is container movement which the World Bank uses for its rankings. The port is working on projects worth over Rs 5,000 crore at present to ease operations internally, including an 8-lane road, multiple flyovers at junctions and also a Rs 200 -crore centralised parking plaza. On 13 April, the government issued the information memorandum for the 51 percent stake sale in the profit-making Pawan Hans Ltd and had sought EoI from interested bidders by 18 June. Mumbai: Pawan Hans Ltd's staffers body PHJEF has alleged irregularities in the company's ongoing disinvestment process and has urged the Civil Aviation Ministry to "re-fix" the bidding norms/ eligibility criteria. In a letter to Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu last week, Pawan Hans Joint Employees Forum (PHJEF) has also requested the government to ensure the interest of the company and its employees do not get compromised in the process. The forum comprises both officers and employees union of PHL. In Pawan Hans, the government holds 51 percent stake through the Civil Aviation ministry while the rest 49 percent stake is with oil and gas behemoth ONGC. "We express our serious concern on a major flaw/deviation in the ongoing disinvestment process of the company...."the bidders who are eligible (financial and otherwise) for only half of the company's total stake, full stake of the company is now being offered. This will not only result into bestowing undue favours but also selling company to incompetent and ineligible buyers," PHJEF alleged in the letter. On 13 April, the government issued the information memorandum for the 51 percent stake sale in the profit-making Pawan Hans Ltd and had sought EoI from interested bidders by 18 June. The eligibility criteria including financial net worth of the prospective bidders were fixed accordingly. Later, fresh bids were invited after ONGC board in July decided to combine its 49 percent stake in the offer for sale by the government. The last date for submission of initial bids was also extended to 19 September. "During the process, vide an addendum, option to take an additional 49 percent stake of ONGC was given to the prospective bidders without revising their eligibility criteria. It will undermine the very aim of the disinvestment process," the forum alleged in the letter. The forum has also accused SBI Caps, which is the transaction adviser to the strategic disinvestment of Pawan Hans, of "failing" in adequately guiding the government on the issue. "It is requested that the matter may kindly be examined and bidding norms/eligibility criteria should be re-fixed in a transparent manner to ensure the interest of the company and its employees do not get compromised and strategic disinvestment process is implemented in the correct and envisaged manner to get the desired results," the forum stated in the letter. A man allegedly raped a 19-year-old B.Com college student in Maharashtras Nagpur district, around 820km from here, the police said Sunday. Mumbai: A man allegedly raped a 19-year-old B.Com college student in Maharashtras Nagpur district, around 820km from here, the police said Sunday. The accused and his friend were arrested within hours of the incident, which occurred on the night of November 2 along the Hyderabad-Jabalpur highway at Hudkeshwar, an officer said. The incident occurred when two men spotted the girl and her male friend sitting together behind bushes at an isolated place, he said. The men then attacked the duo and one of them dragged her friend to the road while the other man raped her behind the bushes. Before leaving, the accused told the girl that his two friends would be coming in sometime and told her not to leave, the official said. In the meantime, the male friend tried to stop vehicles plying on the highway for help, but to no avail, he said. The official said the male friend couldnt summon help immediately, as his mobile phone was switched off. After some time, a truck driver stopped his vehicle and took him to the nearest eatery from where he contacted the police, he said. The police registered a case of gang rape under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and within hours picked up two suspects who are identified as Anil Thete (46) and Baba Bhagat (38), the official said. Smartphones, the most visible symbol of 'Digital India's' ambitious expansion, are increasingly Chinese. Chinese firecrackers may be dampened by the Supreme Court's crackdown but there is still a big question this Diwali: Is that Ganesha you are worshipping made in China? As the country celebrates its annual festival of lights and a traditional financial new year with a symbolic worship to the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi in the north, there is a classic half-empty versus half-full glass scenario emerging for India's economy. That is not exciting news for a government heading into general elections months away but there are hidden signals that suggest that market economics creates new threats as well as opportunities to which policy-makers wake up late. Capital expenditure in terms of new projects totalled Rs 1.87 lakh crore in the July-September quarter, compared with Rs 2.68 lakh crore in the previous quarter and Rs 3.65 lakh crore in the quarter before. There was a significant jump in January-March from the Rs 2.15 lakh crore in the last quarter of 2017. You can't find an undeniable upswing in the data but there seems to be a clear signal in the see-saw curve that old-fashioned fairy-tale extrapolation of capital expenditure creating machines that generate high-productivity jobs and high economic growth may be a thing of the past. The Rs 10-lakh-crore pile of non-performing assets (NPAs) in the public sector dominated banking system, and visible tensions between the Reserve Bank of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government are only indicative of a mood in which no entrepreneur would easily commit ambitious spending plans. As Mahesh Vyas, the head of the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE) says, "Although they (CAPEX data) do not show any great deterioration in investment activities, they fail to live up to the small promise held out during the past few months that a revival in the capex cycle was around the corner." Here's the catch: Are we holding up a cracked mirror to assess the economy based on a past obsession with manufacturing growth that required high capital expenditure in a world that has changed a lot? From the rise of automation technologies and New Age services to an established base of manufacturing capabilities in China, we may be looking at a new-normal scenario in which talk of high CAPEX-driven growth may be nearly as pointless as trying to manufacture typewriters in the era of smartphones. CMIE data shows that capacity utilisation rose to 75 percent last March, the highest in four years and machinery orders zoomed to their highest in August. It is not as if India does not need machines, but are we stuck in a Nehru-era fantasy of a closed economy? Clearly not. One only has to look at India's smartphone sales to get an inkling of what might be happening: The Chinese dragon may have become a Trojan horse of sorts, deterring fresh investments though every industry will have its own story to tell. The parliamentary standing committee on commerce said in the last quarter that Chinese imports had "thrown a spanner in the wheel of India's economic progress per se and industrial manufacturing in particular" with imports from China growing from 11.6 percent of all imports in 2013/14 to 16.6 percent in 2017/18 -- precisely the period that should have been the promised achche din (Good days) by the Narendra Modi government. At $63 billion, the trade deficit with China constitutes more than 40 percent of India's trade deficit. Over the past decade, imports from China increased by $50 billion, while India's exports to that country rose by only $2.5 billion. The committee of MPs even taunted the government's quest to boost the "ease of doing business" in India ranking, in which India has just zoomed by 23 notches to 77, as only making things easier for the Chinese. From consumer goods and toys to colours to firecrackers to even the statues of Goddess Lakshmi and Ganesha, the 'Made in China' syndrome haunts India's economy. Smartphones, the most visible symbol of "Digital India's" ambitious expansion, are increasingly Chinese. Indians splurged more than Rs 50,000 crore in the year that ended March 2018 buying phones made by just four Chinese brands: Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Honor. The faces selling them were made in Bollywood but the hands were in Shenzen and the minds in Shanghai. These brands ended an extended honeymoon for Indian brands like Micromax, Lava and Intex that once cornered 54% of the market share but are now down to less than 10 percent. Amid rising oil prices that have raised the average import price from $65 a barrel estimated at the beginning of the financial year to around $80 levels and a weaker rupee that has lost 13 percent against the US dollar this year, the trade scenario is worrisome but the eroded rupee may be a blessing in disguise for those hurt by Chinese imports. So, is India's economy torn between a rock and a hard place even as a demographic surge drives consumption-driven growth? Answers to where opportunities -- as distinct from threats -- lie elsewhere. Look beyond bankers singing the bad loan blues to see a robust growth in private equity, the place where startups are born, difficult long-term bets taken and increasingly, where new types of jobs are created in place of old ones. Strategic consulting firm Bain & Co said in April this year that India was an Asian leader in fund-raising through private equity deals, with India-focused funds growing by 48 percent in 2017 to $5.7 billion. The amount in itself may be small in comparison with the big capital expenditure figures but smaller investments on long-term bets are the ones that guzzle capital as they grow in sunrise industries. Bain said that at around $ 9 billion, Indian "dry powder' remained at levels similar to 2015 and 2016 levels, indicating capital availability for quality ventures. Alternative investment funds (AIFs), the ones that pour in venture capital and other forms of private high-risk equity, have doubled in India over the past couple of years and numbered 346 in 2017. AIFs raised $5.1 billion in 2017, double the previous year's level. There are around 500 active private equity funds in India. The total deal value in India during 2017 was $26.4 billion, the highest in a decade. Unicorns (billion-dollar valuation startups) like PayTM, Ola Cabs and Flipkart (since acquired by WalMart) were joined by New Age fintech startups and other wannabe growth engines. There is also a silver lining to the NPA cloud. Distressed asset funds -- away from the bankruptcy court wrangles of headline-grabbing companies such as Essar Steel and Bhushan Steel -- picked up pace. Private equity players included those shopping for distressed assets, playing Batman to rescue companies that had juice left in them but were troubled by short-term cash flow problems. From homegrown Edelweiss and Piramal groups to international names like Blackstone and Bain, those are among nurturing ailing companies back to health. If we look at the backroom boys nursing back old-economy companies and the dealmakers incubating high-quality future giants in venture capital rather than the quarrelsome safari-suit capitalists at the National Company Law Tribunal, there is more room for hope and optimism this Diwali. A silver lining may be a better thing to buy this Dhanteras than a golden fantasy. (The writer is a senior journalist and commentator. He tweets as @madversity) By Sam Nussey and Makiko Yamazaki TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son on Monday condemned the killing of a journalist by Saudi security personnel, and said his firm must carry out its responsibility to the kingdom's citizens whose money is invested in its Vision Fund. Saudi Arabia is the largest investor in the fund which was launched last year with over $90 billion in capital, giving Son firepower to make big bets in late-stage startups such as shared office space provider WeWork Cos and hotel chain OYO hotels. Global outcry over the murder case, however, has led many observers to regard that dependence as a risk to SoftBank's plans to raise further funds. By Sam Nussey and Makiko Yamazaki TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son on Monday condemned the killing of a journalist by Saudi security personnel, and said his firm must carry out its responsibility to the kingdom's citizens whose money is invested in its Vision Fund. Saudi Arabia is the largest investor in the fund which was launched last year with over $90 billion in capital, giving Son firepower to make big bets in late-stage startups such as shared office space provider WeWork Cos and hotel chain OYO hotels. Global outcry over the murder case, however, has led many observers to regard that dependence as a risk to SoftBank's plans to raise further funds. "These funds are important to the Saudi people in ensuring their economy diversifies and is no longer dependent on oil," Son said on Monday. "It is true that a horrible incident happened. On the other hand, we have a responsibility towards the Saudi people, and we must carry out our responsibility rather than turn our backs on them." Son was presenting SoftBank's earnings results, appearing before reporters for the first time since Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist critical of the Saudi state, was murdered early last month in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. SoftBank booked July-September operating profit of 705.7 billion yen ($6.23 billion), helped by higher valuations on high-tech bets by the Saudi-backed Vision Fund. That compared with 395.6 billion yen a year earlier under different accounting standards. (Click for graphic showing the Vision Fund's growing contribution to SoftBank profit https://tmsnrt.rs/2RAwtfI) Son said there was no indication SoftBank's Saudi links are deterring startups from accepting capital, with internet-connected window company View on Friday announcing a $1.1 billion investment from the Vision Fund. And there are still plans to raise further funds, Son said, though he emphasised SoftBank would proceed cautiously and is waiting for the outcome of the Khashoggi case. Worries about the Saudi fallout and a broader downturn in global technology stocks have weighed on SoftBank shares. They closed on Monday at 8,747 yen, down 24 percent from September's high of 11,500 yen. IPO WORRIES Another recent concern has been the planned initial public offering (IPO) of SoftBank's domestic mobile phone unit amid government pressure on Japan's telecommunications industry to lower prices. Market participants said the offering could surpass the record $25 billion worth of shares sold by China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in New York in 2014. (Click for a chart of the largest IPOs in Japan and globally https://tmsnrt.rs/2NyR45I) The IPO will mark the transformation of SoftBank from a domestic telco, which successfully challenged the country's incumbent duopoly, into one of the world's biggest technology investors. While the offering is expected to draw Japan's cash-rich retail investors attracted to SoftBank's image as a successful tech company and the prospect of steady returns, it comes as the government pushes for lower fees. Against that backdrop, NTT Docomo Inc said last week it will cut service charges by as much as 40 percent, affecting its earnings from the next fiscal year. Separately, competition is set to increase as e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc enters the mobile market in a year's time with the help of a tie-up with telco KDDI Corp. Son shrugged off such concerns on Monday, saying he wanted to keep growing sales and profit at SoftBank's mobile unit and pay a high dividend. Even so, in the face of that government pressure, SoftBank will increase automation and reduce headcount in mobile operations by 40 percent over the next two to three years focusing instead on new growth areas, Son said. The unit serves as the gateway for many of SoftBank's portfolio companies into Japan, operating joint ventures such as shared offices with WeWork, taxi hailing with China's Didi Chuxing, and a QR code payments business using technology from India's Paytm. ($1 = 113.2500 yen) (Reporting by Sam Nussey and Makiko Yamazaki; Writing by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Christopher Cushing) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. IGP, Patna Zone, Naiyar Hasnain Khan said the dismissed constables included 167 trainees, while others were in service for some time. Khan, who had been entrusted with the investigation and taking departmental action against those indulging in the indiscipline, said 23 others posted at the Police Line were suspended Patna: As many as 175 police constables, many of them women, were dismissed from service Sunday for indulging in large-scale vandalism and violence here Friday, following the death of a female colleague, a top police official said. Inspector General of Police (IGP), Patna Zone, Naiyar Hasnain Khan said the dismissed constables included 167 trainees, while others were in service for some time. Khan, who had been entrusted with the investigation and taking departmental action against those indulging in the indiscipline, said 23 others posted at the Police Line were suspended. "Nearly half of the dismissed trainee constables are women. The suspended personnel include a head constable and two others who had the responsibility of assigning duties to trainees," the IGP said. The policemen were dismissed and suspended after getting Khan's approval, Patna Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manu Maharaj said. Savita Pathak (22) died at a private hospital here Friday morning, a day after she had to be taken off duty due to a serious stomach pain. The police authorities had said the death appeared to have been caused by dengue. However, the hospital later clarified that the dengue test had not been conducted on her, but she was suffering from some form of viral infection. Blaming the seniors for putting Pathak on duty despite ill health, trainee constables went on a rampage, vandalising furniture in the Police Line and overturning vehicles of officials on the streets. It took hours to bring the situation under control with top officials supervising the operations in full riot gear. Khan said, "During the investigation, we found that Pathak was indeed ill and she had been on medical leave in October for three days. In such a situation, she should not have been asked to report to duty." The IGP added that he had also recommended action against the medical officer of the Police Hospital for his failure to take proper stock of the deceased constable's health and give appropriate advice and treatment, which might have saved her life. "I also found that more than 90 personnel were posted at the Police Line for more than four years. This is unacceptable and they will be transferred out of the Patna zone," he said. The Patna police zone comprises a dozen districts of central Bihar. Khan said the departmental action was in addition to the FIRs lodged against those who had indulged in the indiscipline. Four FIRs have been lodged in connection with the incident. "One of the FIRs was lodged by Mohammad Masaluddin, the Deputy Superintendent of Police in-charge of Police Lines who was assaulted and chased to his residence by a mob that ransacked his house and misbehaved with his family members," Khan said. He denied the allegations levelled by the agitators that the deputy SP was responsible for Pathak's death. "We suspect that the agitators were instigated by some disgruntled personnel, against whom the officer might have taken action in the past," the IGP said. chief minister Nitish Kumar has sought a detailed report on the incident from Director General of Police (DGP) KS Dwivedi. The DGP told a television news channel that the troublemakers had hardly undergone training for a few days and were not yet familiar with the police work culture and discipline. Manoj Tiwari had gone to the inaugural event of Signature bridge to stage a protest for allegedly not being invited to the inauguration despite being Member of Parliament from the area. New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday demanded the arrest of Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari for "rioting" and "posing a threat" to the security of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Tiwari and his supporters allegedly got into a scuffle with AAP members and police at the inaugural event of the newly-built Signature Bridge in Delhi on Sunday. The BJP leader had gone to the event to stage a protest for allegedly not being invited to the inauguration despite being Member of Parliament from the area. AAP's East Delhi Lok Sabha seat in-charge Atishi Marlena alleged Tiwari had gone to the venue for "rioting". "Police was directly or indirectly involved in it and allowed Tiwari and his supporters to reach the stage where the chief minister and other ministers were present, thus posing a threat to their security," she said. Senior AAP leader Dilip Pandey said a party worker, who was injured in Sunday's incident, has filed a police complaint. The Delhi government is also exploring legal options in view of the Delhi police's "failure" to keep "BJP's hooligans" away from the venue, he added. Pandey said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh should salvage the image of the BJP and the Delhi Police by ordering Tiwari's arrest. The BJP had on Sunday said that AAP MLA Amantullah Khan used abusive language and pushed Tiwari. Panday said Khan did it to prevent Tiwari from getting onto the stage. "Khan should not have pushed him. He was only trying to stop him from coming onto the stage, where Kejriwal and other leaders were present," he said. Apart from Delhi, cities of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu also record poor air quality levels. Pollution levels in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) have gone from 'poor' to 'hazardous' in matter of days with the air quality index in the region deteriorating tremendously. While the Supreme Courts verdicts on prohibiting the plying of 15-year-old petrol and 10-year-old diesel vehicles in the NCR and putting a two hour window on bursting of firecrackers in Tamil Nadu have been welcomed by activists and doctors, such measures have remained largely unhelpful as the issue of air pollution is not only restricted to both the states. Cities in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu also record poor air quality levels. The question remains on how the states are prepared to handle deteriorating air pollution levels ahead of Diwali. Delhi-NCR and Uttar Pradesh Several areas in Delhi had recorded hazardous levels on the air quality index. Srinivaspuri, Narela, Mundka, Patparganj recorded alarming levels in air quality on Monday morning. This was two days after Delhis air quality significantly improved due to increased wind speed and control measures implemented by the government although authorities had warned of severe deterioration from Monday, PTI reported. An aggressive 10 day-long "Clean Air Campaign" was also launched by Union Environment minister Harsh Vardhan. The Delhi Pollution Control Committee, directed the transport department and the traffic police to intensify checking of polluting vehicles and control travel congestion in the region during 1-10 November. On 4 November, PTI reported that teams deployed to monitor anti-pollution measures, a total fine of Rs 83,55,000 was imposed on violators by the teams deployed to monitor implementation of measures to combat pollution in the Delhi NCR under the campaign. Delhi authorities have stepped up efforts to combat pollution which includes measures like halting construction activities and regulating traffic. There is a halt on all construction activities involving excavation. Civil construction has also been suspended in Delhi and other NCR districts, besides closure of all stone crushers and hot mix plants generating dust pollution. An expert panel headed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), has advised residents to avoid strenuous outdoor activities like jogging or running between 1 and 10 November. The Delhi Metro too pressed into service 21 additional trains on its network to boost public transport and the pollution control board has asked public to report complaints about pollution on their social media accounts. The Uttar Pradesh government asked the state's western districts, in and around the National Capital Region, to suspend all construction activities between 1and 10 November and shut for a week industries using coal and biomass fuel to check pollution, PTI reported. The government has also asked the districts to raise awareness among the public for the need to minimise their exposure to pollution and also advice people to reduce their travel using private vehicles as much as possible. Maharashtra As per the AQI website, Mumbais air quality varies between moderate and unhealthy for groups category and Pune varies between good and moderate. Following the Supreme Courts order on restricting time for bursting crackers and allowing only use of green crackers, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and Awaaz Foundation conducted a joint testing of firecrackers on 25 October, reported Mumbai Mirror. For Pune, the MBCP has issued directions for an extensive 14 day air quality monitoring protocol for this years Diwali, reported The Times of India. Punjab and Haryana Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Harsh Vardhan on 1 November had directed the officials from Punjab and Haryana to ensure strict action against incidents of stubble burning. After the conclusion of the meeting, the Union Minister, while addressing the media, said: "Punjab and Haryana have been informed to take stricter and stringent action on stubble burning. To put a full stop on the practice a financial aid of Rs 591 crore has already been provided." Stubble-burning in agrarian Punjab and Haryana in October and November leads to environment pollution over north India, particularly in national capital New Delhi, with smog in the winter months (November to January). Although incidents of stubble burning have reportedly declined due to awareness and farmers adhering to governmental policies in mitigating the farm fires, the dip in stubble burning is slight. The Punjab government has embarked on a massive programme for management of paddy straw, without burning by the farmers. As many as 24,315 subsidized agro-machines are being supplied to the farmers, cooperative societies and Custom Hiring Centres to achieve zero burning of paddy straw. Neighbouring Haryana has also claimed a steep decline in number of stubble burning cases this year. But Haryana seems better prepared to handle the issue of stubble burning than Punjab. NGOs and villagers in some of the districts have taken novel steps to dispose paddy straw residue in an eco-friendly way, rather than just burning it. The villagers arrange for tractor-trollies and labourers to collect paddy stubble from the fields and sell it to local gaushalas, where the straw is chopped and used as cattle feed. Some farmers make ropes out of the paddy residue or use eco-friendly farming equipment to move paddy stubble. Tamil Nadu On 23 October, the Supreme Court ruled that that there would not be a complete ban on the firecrackers and instead opted to regulate their sales. The court in its order put restrictions on the timings between which firecrackers can be burst on the occasion of festivals. Six days later the Tamil Nadu government approached the court seeking extension of cracker bursting time on Diwali. But the top court refused to extend the two-hour duration it had allowed. The state government then said that people would be allowed to burst firecrackers between 6 am and 7 am and 7 pm and 8 pm on Diwali, in line with the Supreme Court directive. The manufacturers of firecrackers from Sivakasi expressed concern about the top court's decision to ban firecrackers reported PTI. The manufacturers had said they would file a review plea against the order allowing only the use of green crackers. After the government ordered the permanent closure of the Sterlite plant at Thoothukudi (also known as Tuticorin), the ambient air quality around the plant also improved, reported The Hindu. As per the Air Quality Index website, Chennai varies between good and moderate. According to a Quartz report, despite being an industrial powerhouse with heavy industrial units, petroleum refineries, coal plants and having production units of cars, heavy vehicles, motorbikes and tractors, the city has breathable air and moderate levels of particulate matter due to its location. Being a coastal city, the pollutants in Chennai are carried away by the winds. The Tamil Nadu government also said that it would soon launch 100 electric buses in the state to minimize carbon emissions and to ensure cleaner air, reported Mirror Now. A two-day conclave of the Samiti, which saw participation of over 3,000 seers from across the country, deliberated on a number of issues, including a central legislation for cow protection, cleaning of the Ganga river and construction of the Ram Temple. ' The Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti, an umbrella body of Hindu seers, on Sunday "directed" the government to bring in a law or an ordinance to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya, on the conclusion of a two-day conclave. The Samiti also batted for the re-election of the BJP in the general elections in 2019, stating that the party needs to be brought back to 'save the country'. The conclave, which saw the participation of over 3,000 seers from across the country, deliberated on a number of issues, including a central legislation for cow protection, cleaning of the Ganga river and construction of the Ram Temple. "We direct the government to either bring in a law or an ordinance (for the construction of the Ram temple). There will be no compromise on this," Ramanandacharya Hansdevacharya, the patron of the organisation, said in his concluding remarks at the conclave. He also announced that the 'sant samiti' would hold religious conclaves in Ayodhya, Nagpur and Bengaluru on 25 November, to be followed by one in Delhi on 9 December. Former BJP MP and working president of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas Ram Vilas Vedanti, however, did not favour enacting a law or promulgating an ordinance to facilitate the Ram temple construction, saying this would lead to communal riots. "The matter should be sorted out through mutual consensus as the court will not be able to give any decision on Hansdevacharya the issue for the next 10 lakh years," he said. The demand for a law for construction of the Ram temple has been growing after the Supreme Court last month said an "appropriate bench" would decide in the first week of January the schedule for hearing of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had on Monday pressed for the construction of the temple, saying it would lead to an atmosphere of "goodwill and harmony" in the country. The Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti (ABSS) also pitched for the re-election of the BJP in the general elections 2019. "We are very hurt that there has been no resolution to the Ram Mandir issue, but we are satisfied with the Central government's work for the country, religion, culture and national security," said the Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti in its list of "directives" to the government. The ABSS said people should vote for those who protect "Gai (cow), Ganga and Govind (god)". Agar jeevit rehna hai, math-mandir bachana hai, behen-beti bachani hai, sanskriti aur sanskar bachana hai to iss sarkar ko dobara se laana hai (If we have to protect our lives, temples and maths, daughters and sisters, culture and tradition, then this government must be brought back), Indian Express quoted Hansdevacharya as saying. "Apna desh bhi bachao, apni sanskriti bhi bachao, aur phir se iss Bharat ke andar yahi sarkar ko 2019 me wapas lao, lao, lao Jai Shri Ram!" (Save the country and its culture, bring back this government in 2019)! Hansdevacharya said that India is currently experiencing 'achche din' referring to Narendra Modi's slogan, reported Deccan Herald.What else is this if not achche din. Had there been any other government in place, section 144 would have been clamped here and we would have been in jail, he said. The organisation also demanded a central legislation for cow protection. To ensure that there is an uninterrupted and continuous flow of Ganga, a law should be enacted for the protection of the river, it said. Justifying the rechristening of Allahabad as Prayag, the Sant Samiti also demanded to change the name of Delhi to Indraprastha. It also sought early completion of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process in Assam and said the Centre should assert diplomatic pressure on Bangladesh to take back their illegal migrants to India. An appeal was also made to citizens to identify Rohingyas and inform the security agencies about them. The ABSS also demanded a Uniform Civil Code and a 'National Population Policy' to control the "imbalance" of the population. Giving a call to unite the Hindu society, Hansdevacharya said it was necessary to bring together Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and people of other sects of Hinduism. Terming NOTA as an "insult" to democracy, ABSS appealed to the people to choose their candidates. Speaking on the Sabarimala issue, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the head of 'Art of Living' said he was confident that the Supreme Court would look into the public sentiments and do a rethink on its decision. In a landmark decision in October, the apex court had allowed entry of women in the Kerala shrine, a move that has led to violent protests in the state. With inputs from agencies Over 2,000 cops, commandos on guard as Sabarimala opens today, Congress releases second list comprising of 17 candidates in Madhya Pradesh, Signature Bridge in Delhi inaugurated amid ruckus - and more Sabarimala temple re-opens today; heavy police security deployed for special puja As the Lord Ayyappa temple opens on Monday for a special puja, a thick security cover has been put in place after violent protests were witnessed last month against the entry of women of all ages into the shrine. Around 2,300 personnel, including a 20-member commando team and 100 women, have been deployed to ensure smooth 'darshan' and security of devotees, a move that came in for criticism from the erstwhile royal family of Pandalam, the BJP and the Congress. Ayyappa devotees from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have already reached Erumeli and they will be permitted to go to 'sannidhanam' only on Monday. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPc, banning assembly of four or more people, is in force at Pamba, Nilackal, Elavungal, and Sannidhanam for 72 hours from Saturday midnight. Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections: Congress releases second list comprising of 17 candidates The Madhya Pradesh Congress on Sunday announced its second list of 17 candidates for the polls to the 230-member state Assembly slated for 28 November. The party on Saturday had declared the names of 172 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. Of the 17, four candidates are for the reserved seats. The names of Congress state unit chief Kamal Nath and poll campaign committee in-charge Jyotiradtiya Scindia are not on the list as they are being touted as the frontrunners for the chief minister's post if the party wins. Signature Bridge in Delhi inaugurated amid ruckus The much-awaited Signature Bridge, connecting Wazirabad across the Yamuna to the inner city, was inaugurated amid a surcharged atmosphere on Sunday as a scuffle broke-out out between the Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and AAP supporters. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal attacked the saffron party for creating a ruckus at the event, which he termed as "unprecedented". During the event, Kejriwal attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the nation needed bridges, schools and hospitals and not temples and statues. Meanwhile, Tiwari alleged that an AAP MLA threatened to shoot him and a few policemen also misbehaved with him. Delhiites breathe easy as air quality improves; authorities warn of deterioration from Monday Delhiites breathed easy on Sunday after air quality significantly improved due to increased wind speed and control measures implemented by the government, even as authorities warned of severe deterioration from Monday. On Sunday, a total fine of Rs 83,55,000 was imposed on violators by the teams deployed to monitor implementation of measures to combat pollution in Delhi-NCR. The overall air quality index (AQI) on Sunday was recorded at 181, which falls in the 'moderate' category. The improvement in air quality can be attributed to the increase in surface wind speed to five kilometres/per hour. CIC issues show-cause notice to RBI governor for non-disclosure of wilful defaulters' list The Central Information Commission (CIC) has issued a show-cause notice to RBI Governor Urjit Patel for "dishonouring" a Supreme Court judgment on disclosure of the wilful defaulters' list. The CIC has also asked the Prime Minister's Office, the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to make public the letter of former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on bad loans. Irked over the denial of information on disclosure of names of wilful defaulters, who have taken bank loans of Rs 50 crore and above, by the RBI in spite of a Supreme Court order, the CIC has asked Patel to explain why a maximum penalty should not be imposed on him for "dishonouring" the court verdict. Petrol prices decline Petrol price has been cut by over Rs 4 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.33 in the last 18 days on softer international rates, a pace faster than the spike in prices witnessed in the two-month period beginning mid-August. Petrol price on Sunday was cut by 21 paise a litre and diesel by 17 paise, according to a price notification issued by state-owned fuel retailers. In Delhi, petrol now costs Rs 78.78 per litre while diesel is priced at Rs 73.36, it said. While in Mumbai, petrol costs Rs 82.28 and diesel Rs 76.88. With this, the reduction in rates in the last 18 days now totals Rs 4.05 per litre for petrol and Rs 2.33 for diesel. Rates have been on the decline since 18 October. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday expressed his sadness over the decision to kill tigress Avni, stating that they will probe to see if there were any lapses in the procedure followed. His comments come after Union minister Maneka Gandhi attacked the BJP-led Maharashtra government for the ghastly murder of Avni, saying a shooter who was sent behind bars for illegally supplying arms to terrorists was sent to kill the animal. The Maharashtra Forest Department may be celebrating its successful operation in shooting down "man-eater" tigress Avni in the forests of Yavatmal district, but animal rights activists and several other quarters are anything but pleased with her killing. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday expressed his sadness over the decision to kill Avni, saying they will launch an investigation to check for lapses in the procedure followed. He made the statement after Union minister Maneka Gandhi criticised him and his Maharashtra government for the "ghastly murder" of Avni, saying a shooter who was sent behind bars for illegally supplying arms to "anti-nationals" was sent to kill the animal. Maneka had said she would "legally, criminally as well as politically" take up Avni's killing "very strongly" with Fadnavis. Tigress Avni, believed to have been responsible for 13 deaths in Maharashtra in the past two years, was shot dead in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district on Friday night as part of an operation in the forests of Borati. The Maharashtra Forest Department had been looking for the "man-eater" tigress for nearly three months, in an operation that involved sniffer dogs, trap cameras, drones and a hang-glider, expert trackers, sharp-shooters and around 200 ground personnel. PETA, on Saturday, demanded that Avni's killing, which the animal rights group said was a "wildlife crime", be investigated. The tigress is survived by two 10-months-old cubs. Maneka also accused Maharashtra forests minister Sudhir Mungantiwar of overlooking "several requests from many stakeholders" and giving the order to kill Avni. On shooter Shafat Ali Khan, she pointed out that he has killed three tigers, at least 10 leopards, a few elephants and 300 wild boars in Maharashtra's Chandrapur. "He is a criminal known for supplying guns to anti-nationals and for a suspected case of murder in Hyderabad," she had tweeted on Sunday. Mungantiwar on Monday took strong objection to Maneka's criticism of the Maharashtra government over Avni's killing, claiming she "lacks information" on the case and can order a high-level investigation if she wants to. Avni's killing garnered reactions from political parties, as well. Congress president Rahul Gandhi invoked Mahatma Gandhi, saying, "The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated." The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi#Avni Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 5, 2018 Congress leader Sanjay Jha also hit out at the government, wondering whether anyone was surprised at the "lynchings". "We are governed by 'as long as nothing happens to me, why bother?", he tweeted. Does #Avni 's brutal killing surprise anyone? When a society becomes cold, cruel and callous, its moral standards become elastic. Empathy dies; we are governed by " As long as nothing happens to me, why bother? ". How many people are truly disturbed by the horrific #lynchings? Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) November 5, 2018 Former Union minister and Congress leader Milind Deora demanded stern action against the perpetrators and questioned what would happen to Avni's two cubs now. Tigress #Avnis brutal & tragic murder exposes our inability to manage human-wildlife conflicts. One wonders about the fate of the orphaned tiger cubs. We demand stern action against the perpetrators pic.twitter.com/1HOLYL9dD2 Milind Deora (@milinddeora) November 5, 2018 The Shiv Sena, heavily criticised government authorities for killing Avni and called for the adoption of adequate measures to avoid human-animal conflicts. In its editorial mouthpiece Saamana, the party acknowledged that the tigress ha killed 13 people in the past two years, but blamed the rampant human intrusion into wildlife inhabited areas for it. Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray also attacked the Maharashtra government for shooting the tigress dead, calling it "poaching and trophy hunting". In a strong statement, Thackeray said that instead of protecting animals and forests from poachers and trophy hunters, the government was inspired by them. Lets rename the Ministry of Forests as Ministry of Poaching. Its anyway a sham! #Avni pic.twitter.com/NPFg9KLLz4 Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) November 3, 2018 Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Preeti Sharma-Menon accused Mungantiwar of "murdering Avni in cold blood". "Who cares about a tigress when industrialists are on the prowl for forest lands," she remarked sarcastically. Writer, poet and animal activist Pritish Nandy also condemned Avni's killing, stating that it was time to sack Mungantiwar who "loves to sanction killing of wildlife". He asserted that the tigress "was no 'man-eater' and was "just a mother trying to protect her kids". The brutal killing of T1, or #Avni as she was lovingly called, the mother of two 10 month old tiger cubs, the man-eater of Pandharkawda as her killers named her, violated every single protocol. She was no man-eater; just a mother trying to protect her kids. pic.twitter.com/MAwwfTTmxa Pritish Nandy (@PritishNandy) November 4, 2018 With inputs from agencies Extreme opinions and provocative statements by some over the Citizenship Amendment Bill have worsened this linguistic divide in Assam, of which the Dhola massacre is proof. The killing of five Bengali-speaking civilians near Dhola in Assam's Tinsukia district by Kalashnikov-totting gunmen and the political developments that followed have indicated that linguistic polarisation over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, has reached a flashpoint in the state. Mixed responses to the bandh in Assam called by several Bengali organisations on 3 November to protest the massacre only indicated the volatility of the situation caused by sharp linguistic polarisation over the bill. The strike affected normal life in the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley, but in the Brahmaputra Valley its effects were partial. Sporadic incidents of stone pelting and attacks on passenger vehicles by miscreants marred the bandh. The Assam Police has claimed that the massacre was the handiwork of the Paresh Barua-led United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) [ULFA(I)]. A special branch of the Assam Police, on 29 October, had issued an alert against such a possible attack by the outfit. ULFA(I), however, denied involvement in the Dhola incident, even though its "commander-in-chief" Paresh Barua had claimed the outfit's hand in a low-intensity blast in Guwahati on 13 October, in which four persons were injured. Barua had called local television channels to claim that the outfit had carried out the blast "in protest against the Assam state executive of the BJP adopting a resolution in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and to sound a warning to those supporting the settlement of Hindu Bangladeshis in Assam". He had also said that ULFA(I) had "adopted new plans" to resist the bill. The police has arrested two leaders of the pro-talk faction of the ULFA, Mrinal Hazarika and Jiten Dutta, as well as a leader of the Sadou Asam Bengali Yuva Chatra Federation, Sujit Sarkar, on charges of making provocative and objectionable statements vis-a-vis the bill. However, the police has yet to act on complaints against ruling BJP legislator Shiladitya Dev, who has also been accused of making provocative statements. The court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Kamrup district remanded the two arrested ULFA leaders to 14 days in judicial custody. Sarkar was arrested hours after pro-talk ULFA leader Prabal Neog lodged a First Information Report (FIR) at the Tinuskia Police Station against him, as well as Dev and other leaders for their allegedly provocative statements. Hundreds of supporters of the ULFA faction and activists of several other organisations had accompanied Neog to the police station, also demanding release of the two arrested ULFA leaders. Assam BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Das has said on record that Dev had been cautioned twice to refrain from making provocative statements, failing which he would be compelled to lodge a complaint against the MLA with the BJP Parliamentary Board. "Such violence has taken place simply because of provocative and controversial statements made by different people and organisations on sensitive issues," Das tweeted, while condemning the Dhola massacre. Furthermore, police action has given rise to the allegation that the Sonowal government in Assam has adopted a partisan attitude to deal with incidents of public peace being disturbed by some supporters and opponents of the bill through provocative statements. The Assam BJP chief's statement lends credence to the allegation levelled against Dev and provides the state government the grounds to act on the complaints against him, but the police inaction has shaped the perception of a partisan approach. This perception has added to the linguistic and religious polarisation of communities over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The apprehension of Assamese groups is that the bill, if enacted, would threaten their linguistic identity as it would encourage more migration of Bengali-speaking Hindu Bangladeshis, besides providing citizenship to post-1971 Bangladeshis who had already entered India and have been living here illegally in violation of the Assam Accord. A majority of Bengali organisations, however, support the bill on the grounds that it will protect those Bengali-speaking Hindu refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan, who have not been able to prove their citizenship for inclusion in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, as well as the post-1971 Hindu Bangladeshis, who migrated illegally and are ineligible to get their names included in the updated NRC. The 1951 NRC has been updated with midnight of 24 March, 1971, as the cut-off date for migration to India for inclusion in the latest NRC. Political parties and organisations against the bill have clarified that their opposition has nothing to do with genuine Indian Bengali speakers in Assam, and they want all post-1971 illegal Bangladeshi migrants, irrespective of whether they are Hindus or Muslims, to be identified and excluded from the updated NRC. They also said they are opposed to granting of Indian citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis as proposed in the bill. However, the narrative that the bill will protect illegal Bangladeshi Hindus in Assam and encourage more Bengali-speaking Bangladeshi Hindus to migrate to Assam has given rise to the fear that Bengali-speakers may overwhelm speakers of Assamese and other ethnic languages, reduce them to a minority and pose a grave threat to the existence of Assamese and other ethnic languages, culture and heritage. A rise in the number of Bengali speakers and a decline of Assamese speakers recorded in successive census operations added to this narrative. This has pushed the Assamese/indigenous-Bengali binary to a flashpoint of inducing a sharp polarisation on linguistic lines. Extreme opinions and provocative statements by some over the bill have only worsened this linguistic divide. The BJP and other members of the Sangh Parivar have been making attempts to turn this linguistic binary of Assamese/indigenous-Bengali into a Hindu-Muslim binary by campaigning for Assamese speakers to embrace Hindu Bangladeshis so that illegal Bangladeshi Muslims don't outnumber them. Besides Dev, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain have been in the forefront of this BJP campaign. The party hopes to gain from both linguistic and religious polarisation over the bill. Spin doctors in the ruling BJP believe that Assamese-Bengali polarisation will help the party woo Bengali voters in the state with the bill, and that religious polarisation will help the party use the updated NRC as a shield against Bangladeshi Muslims to win the support of both Assamese Hindus and Muslims. It is the incoherent narratives the BJP has built around the bill that has made speakers of Assamese and other ethnic languages more apprehensive about the fallout. Initially, the BJP tried to push the perception that the bill does not say that Hindu Bangladeshis are going to be settled only in Assam, and that the burden would be shared by all other states. The ruling party then pushed the campaign that the bill talks about only those Hindu Bangladeshis who had migrated to India by 2014, and that it was not going to encourage new migrants. However, the bill has not mentioned any cut-off date, which is why opponents of the legislation are not convinced about this assurance. At the same time, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar are pushing the narrative that Hindus in Bangladesh are being subjected to religious persecution, and that they are not to be treated as foreigners or illegal migrants in India. Meanwhile, 70 organisations that met under the aegis of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti and the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad on 3 November have decided to intensify the stir against the bill, calling to have November and December observed as "Resistance Months". They also decided to organise a "Sankalpa Yatra" on 11 November, which will culminate into a rally in Guwahati on 16 November to mount pressure on the Centre to withdraw the bill. The All Assam Students Union (AASU) and 28 other organisations representing ethnic communities have also announced a series of agitations in November to intensify their protest against the bill. As a result, multiple challenges of maintaining law and order, curbing the rise of insurgent activities and ensuring peace and harmony will put to test the political acumen and governance skills of Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal as the BJP pushes for the bill amid growing protests. The fire at Apeejay House in Kolkata's Park Street broke out around 11 am, after which the building was evacuated. The blaze appears to have been doused, but smoke is still emanating from the structure, which houses several office buildings. A fire broke out at Apeejay House in Kolkata's Park Street on Monday morning. Ten fire tenders are at the spot trying the douse the flames, which spread from the building's server room in the fifth floor of the eight-storeyed building, reports said. No casualties have been reported yet. The cause of the blaze has not been ascertained, but News18 reported that the fire was growing and that a short circuit may have triggered it. A hydrolic ladder is being used to reach the fifth floor of Apeejay House and put out the fire and plumes of black smoke emanating from the room. Local residents are also trying to help in the firefighting operations. "Initially, light smoke was seen around 11 am, but by 11.30 flames were seen gushing out of windows with thick black smoke," eyewitnesses said. Fire breaks out in #ApeejayHouseKolkata in #ParkSteet. 12 fire engines at the spot. Avoid Park Street and Camac street due to slow moving traffic. @KolkataPolice assisting fire dept. Building evacuated. pic.twitter.com/ySzVBy03cu Sreyashi Dey (@SreyashiDey) November 5, 2018 Fire at APJ House Park Street. 10 fire engines at spot , disaster management team on spot @ECKolkata pic.twitter.com/pAqsWM0bK1 Taanusree (@tanvibose) November 5, 2018 The fire broke out around 11 am, after which the building was evacuated, Fire Department officials said. The blaze appears to have been doused, but smoke is still emanating from the structure, which houses several office buildings. "We have located the seat of fire at the server room and our firemen are trying to arrest the blaze at the spot by spraying water from multiple points, including the hydraulic ladder, to prevent further damage," a senior official was quoted as saying by The Times of India. The Kolkata Traffic Police temporarily blocked traffic to Park Street from the Mullick Bazar Crossing, making necessary diversions. It also tweeted that traffic movement was slow on on Park Street towards Jawaharlal Nehru Road. With inputs from PTI The allies have agreed to accommodate smaller parties from their respective zones. Mumbai: The Congress has acceded to the Nationalist Congress Partys (NCP) demands for an equal number of Lok Sabha (LS) seats in Maharashtra. Both parties will contest 24 seats each in the coming elections. Earlier, the formula was 26 for Congress and 22 for NCP. Now, both will accommodate smaller parties from their quota. As talks over an alliance between Congress and NCP started, the latter party demanded an equal number of seats. In 2014, both parties contested the LS elections together and at the time the NCP had contested 21 seats whereas Congress had contested 26 seats. One seat out of Maharashtras 48 was left for a smaller alliance partner. The NCP won four seats while the Congress managed to bag only two. This time, NCP made the argument that since it had won more seats than the Congress, it should have an equal number of seats this time around. Looking at the need for an alliance to take on the might of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Con-gress leadership did not draw out the matter and accepted the NCPs dema-nd. Now, Congress and NCP will both get 24 seats each. This is happening for the first time since the inception of the NCP 20 years ago, said an NCP leader. It has been also decided that both parties will have to accommodate smaller parties from their zones. Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana will get one seat, Hatkanangale, whe-re its leader Raju Shetti is a Member of Parliament. This seat will be adjusted from the NCPs quota. On the other hand, Hitendra Thakurs Bahujan Vikas Aghadi will get Palghar from the Congress quota. Communists and other parties have also demanded LS seats. We are trying to convince them that it is not possible. They will be given Assembly seats in an alliance, said a Congress leader. Political implications Prakash Ambedkars Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh will have to deal with the Congress directly now. He wanted the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to be kept out from the Opposition alliance, but that was not practical. Mr Ambedkar was asking for 12 Lok Sabha seats from Congress. There is buzz that though the demand is high, Mr Ambedkar will settle for two Lok Sabha seats: Akola and Solapur. The Congress will have to find a way to get him on board now. Akola has been a bastion of Mr Ambedkar but Solapur was contested by last time Sushilkumar Shinde. In that case, giving this seat to him will be the bigger challenge before Congress. Few leaders are trying to convince Mr Ambedkar in a personal capacity, said a Maharashtra Congress leader who preferred to remain anonymous. The Centre told a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur that the work of framing detention manual or guidelines was being taken up 'very seriously'. New Delhi: The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that the guidelines for keeping foreign nationals in detention centres across the country were "under preparation". The Centre told a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur that the work of framing detention manual or guidelines was being taken up "very seriously". It also stated that in the meanwhile, some circulars have been issued to the state of Assam in this regard. The bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and R Subhash Reddy, said the Centre would ensure that requirements of the circulars or guidelines issued by the Central government be adhered to by Assam. The issue of framing of detention manual for keeping foreign nationals had cropped up when the apex court was hearing a matter related to the condition of detention centres in Assam. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Assam, told the bench that necessary steps would be taken by the state to implement "faithfully" the circulars issued by the Centre. Mehta told the bench that tenders have been invited by Assam for setting up of a new detention centre in Goalpara and the work is expected to be completed using pre-fab technology by 31 August, 2019. "We expect the state of Assam to adhere to the timeline, more particularly since the executing agency is the Assam Police Housing Corporation Ltd," the bench said. The state government also said there were 47 declared foreign nationals or their family members that were proposed to be transferred for being reunited and the transfer process would take about 15 days. "We are of the view that it would be inappropriate to keep the families separated without any valid reason, more particularly since many of them have already been separated for a considerable period of time," the bench said. "Therefore, we require the state of Assam to speed up the process and complete it within a period of seven days and in any event within a maximum period of ten days since sufficient time has already elapsed," the bench said in its 2 November order. The bench has posted the matter for further hearing in February next year. In September, the Centre had told the apex court that it was in the process of framing guidelines for keeping foreign nationals in detention centres across the country and the process would take around three months. The court had said that the detention manual should be prepared within two months. The apex court had on 12 September expressed displeasure that foreign nationals kept in detention centres in Assam were "separated" from their families and had asked the state to look into the issue with urgency so that the families are "not broken up". INS Arihant is capable of carrying nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, the class referred to as Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear (SSBN). Indian nuclear submarine INS Arihant has successfully completed its first deterrence patrol, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday while stressing that the underwater war boat is a "fitting response" to those who indulge in "nuclear blackmail". The prime minister was effusive in his praise on Twitter for the war boat saying, "Dhanteras gets even more special!" The success of INS Arihant enhances Indias security needs. It is a major achievement for our entire nation. True to its name, INS Arihant will protect the 130 crore Indians from external threats and contribute to the atmosphere of peace in the region. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 5, 2018 What makes INS Arihant so 'special'? The Union government has reason for celebrating the achievement. The previous year had brought unpleasant news for the defence sector in this regard, when reports surfaced that Arihant's propulsion compartment suffered damage after water entered the area over ten months ago, possibly because of human error. Following the accident, the submarine underwent repairs and did not sail for months. Now that it has completed its first deterrence patrol, it can be referred to as a fully functional underwater ballistic missile delivery platform, as NDTV reports. INS Arihant is capable of carrying nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, the class referred to as Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear (SSBN). These are designed to cruise the waters carrying nuclear weapons and provides a nation with an assured second strike capability. This means that with the war boat, a country can retaliate after taking a nuclear hit. India now joins the elite squad of countries like Russia, China, France that possess nuclear-powered submarines. 'Nuclear triad' With the success of INS Arihant, Modi has announced that India has completed the 'nuclear triad.' To put it simply, a nuclear triad gives a country the ability to launch nukes from land, air and sea. This is important, because if a country initiates a nuclear attack, it cannot destroy all three components of the triad at once, and thus, the component which is intact can launch a retaliatory strike. Mirage 2000 jets and Agni ballistic missiles are India's air and land components of the nuclear triad respectively. History The 6,000-tonne Arihant was built under the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project at the Ship Building Centre at Visakhapatnam. Launched on 26 July, 2009 by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the submarine was commissioned in August 2016 after a series of extensive sea trials. In the late 1970s, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi sanctioned the submarine using secret funds after the country's first nuclear test in 1974, as per an article in The Indian Express. Work on the submarine began in 1998, and its complete construction took nearly 11 years. Importance India has two nuclear-armed countries (China and Pakistan) on both its eastern and western fronts which makes it particularly imperative for the country to possess adequate deterrence. The absence of INS Arihant came to attention during the Doka La standoff with China, when Beijing had flexed muscle in the Indian Ocean. China's navy had at that time held a rare live-fire drill in the Indian Ocean to improve its fleet's performance under real combat circumstances. The exercise had followed the Malabar Naval exercises held in the Indian Ocean by the navies of India, the US and Japan. The Indian Ocean Region, crucial for India's strategic interests, has in general been witnessing an increasing presence of Chinese ships and submarines. In March, Pakistan had conducted a test of its nuclear-capable, submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM), Babur, which also said to have been aimed at providing a 'second strike capability', according to a report in Hindustan Times. This may be seen as a step forward for it to complete the nuclear triad. At that time, Pakistan had blamed India, albeit without naming it, for disturbing the strategic balance in the region by acquiring nuclear submarines and nuclear-capable missiles. With inputs from agencies The claim was made by state BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai while speaking at a closed-door meeting with workers of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has put the Sabarimala thantri (high priest), as also various outfits protesting the Supreme Court verdict permitting women of all ages to enter the Ayyappa temple, in an embarrassing position by claiming that the latter had surrendered to the saffron partys political agenda. The claim was made by state BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai while speaking at a closed-door meeting with workers of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the party, at Kozhikode on 4 October. In the audio and video clips of the speech leaked to the media, Pillai was heard claiming that the protests against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) governments move to implement the apex court order had proceeded according to the partys agenda. He claimed that the police had dropped the move to take women between the age group of 10 and 50 to the temple after the thantri, Kandararu Rajeevaru, had announced his decision to close the shrine if the women brought to the hill top by the police during the monthly pooja last month were to enter the temple. Pillai was quoted in the video clip as saying that the thantri had taken the decision after he assured him of all protection. The high priest was worried about the contempt of court proceedings the action may entail. He agreed to announce the decision after I allayed his fears about the legal proceedings," said Pillai. The BJP leader, who is a leading criminal lawyer in the high court, said that he had assured the thantri that he and thousands of his party workers were ready to rally behind him if any action was initiated against him. He took the bold stand following this support, Pillai claimed. The state BJP chief disclosed that the protests were coordinated by a youth leader of the party. He said that the Supreme Court verdict was a golden opportunity for the party to implement its agenda in the state and added that the youth leaders intervention had helped the party in making best use of the opportunity. Pillai's revelation has been viewed by leaders of rival parties as an open admission of the conspiracy hatched by the BJP to use the apex court verdict for communal polarisation. Communist Party of India state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that the violent incidents during the monthly pooja were part of an agenda, and urged the government to order a high-level inquiry into it. The BJP leader had initially supported the Supreme Court verdict. He changed his stand after devotees came out against it. The BJP has hijacked the protests and tried to fuel communal passions for its political gains. The party has cheated the devotees and the priests, Balakrishnan said. The CPM leader said it was unfortunate that the thantri, who is supposed to be above politics, had played into hands of the BJP. He further said that the thantri owes an explanation to the devotees for becoming party to the BJPs political game. The thantri could not be contacted as he has been barred from talking to the media by the police, who have also installed a mobile jammer near his office at annidhanam. Balakrishnan also urged the state Congress leadership to examine whether it had fallen into the BJP's trap by extending support to the devotees. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala denied the charge. He pointed out that the party had decided not to use party flags for the protests as it did not want to garner political capital from Sabarimala. He claimed that his partys support to the devotees was consistent with its stand on the issue. The previous government had opposed womens entry into Sabarimala when the petition was taken up by the Supreme Court for hearing. The subsequent CPM-led government reversed the stand and supported the petitioners, without realising the religious sentiments of the devotees, he added. Ramesh said that both the BJP and the CPM have been cheating the devotees, who have had a harrowing time while making the trip to the shrine following the Supreme Court verdict. While the protests, spearhead mostly by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar outfits, have kept many devotees away from Sabarimala, the massive police deployment has caused a lot of hardship to those who came to the shrine. The devotees who came for the Chithira Atha Visesham pooja on Tuesday had to face several questions and checking by the police at multiple places. Hundreds of devotees who came from faraway places in Kerala and the neighbouring states remained stranded at Erumeli, Nilackal and other entry points due to restrictions imposed by the police on their movements. The police allowed private vehicles to proceed from Erumeli to the main gateway at Nilackal only after the devotees, who had been camping there since Sunday night, staged protests. They, however, had to wait for several hours at Nilackal as the police did not allow the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation buses to go to Pampa until 11 am. After heated arguments with the police, many proceeded to Pampa by foot. The police had initially allowed only those with irumudi kettu (a travel kit of Sabarimala pilgrims) to go to Pampa. They relaxed the condition in the wake of protests. However, they allowed the devotees to go only after showing identity and address proof. Many devotees expressed their anger towards the police. We came to Sabarimala due to its spiritual ambience. It has been marred by the police. This is the first time in 45 years that I have found the condition in the holy place so depressing, said Suresh, a devotee who came from Kollam district. The massive police security has also made life difficult for people living near Sabarimala. Rajesh, who lives in Attathodu colony, said he was stopped by the police at several places on his way to Pampa for his work, and was asked to provide his identity proof. He said that many like him in the colony have been facing this problem whenever the temple has been opened after the Supreme Court verdict. Sreekumar Varma of the erstwhile Pandalam royal family, the custodian of the jewellery of the Sabarimala temple, said he was hurt by the way the police have taken control of the hill shrine. "Earlier, the pilgrimage to Sabarimala used to be a peaceful one. But today, the temple has been turned into a police station. It pains us all," said Varma. In the backdrop of the #MeToo movement, Leena Doley, who serves as the Additional Superintendent of Police (APS) in Assam, has taken to Facebook to talk about workplace harassment meted out to her by a senior official. She says she is going to take her 'fight to the next level' after she failed to get justice from the enquiry commitee set up under Vishakha guidelines in the year 2012. In the backdrop of the #MeToo movement, Leena Doley, who serves as the Additional Superintendent of Police (APS) in Assam, has taken to Facebook to talk about workplace harassment meted out to her by a senior official. She says she is going to take her "fight to the next level" after she failed to get justice from the enquiry commitee set up under Vishakha guidelines in the year 2012. Doley, an officer from the 2002 batch of the Assam State Public Service, has said through her post that Mukesh Agrawal, IPS, currently serving as the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) in Assam, had sexually harassed her. The post also highlighted how her complaint was dismissed and called a 'sheer misunderstanding' by the enquiry committee set up afterwards. At the time of the incident, Doley was serving as Additional Superintendent of Police, Dial 100, Police Control Room, Guwahati city, while Agrawal, an IPS officer from the 1989 batch, was Inspector General of Police (Logistics). In her complaint to the office of the Director General of Police (DGP), which was later referred to the office of the Chief Secretary, Doley had stated that on 13 March, 2012, after the inauguration of the Dial 100 project at the office of the Director General of Police, Assam, which was also attended by Agrawal, Doley visited his office to discuss a work-related matter. The senior officer, on finding her alone in his office, suggested that she go with him on a vacation. After a verbal complaint made to the office of the DG the same day, Doley, on 15 March two days after the incident had filed a written complaint too. A committee was set up as per Vishakha Guidelines regarding the complaint, but the complaint was dismissed. She wrote, "My case was dismissed as a misunderstanding, although the perpetrator himself admitted to what he did. The perpetrator had asked me to accompany him to a holiday destination, without, of course, telling my husband." Doley, who feels that the #MeToo campaign has given her the "opportunity to tell her the story in her words", said that six months after filing the complaint, her husband committed suicide by shooting himself. Even at the time of the incident, I did not speak to the media" said the officer. According to her, the media reports were quite distorted and incorrect. The death of Nitolpal Lahon, Doley's husband, was said to be linked to the harassment. A case of unnatural death was registered at the Jalukbari Police station in Guwahati. My husband committed suicide after about six months of my submitting complaint against Mukesh Agrawal. Following which, the Enquiry Officer, Emily Choudhury, IAS, the then Additional Chief Secretary of Assam, came to my house right away to assure me that my husband's death was not due to the complaint," her post read. I didn't react I was beyond any reaction. But the enquiry procedures had not started till then, she further wrote. Doley hopes that the #MeToo movement continues to fight workplace harassment as she is up for the second phase of fight for justice." Syeda Ambia Zahan is Guwahati based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters, a Pan-India network of grassroots reporters Cultured meat will change all that, freeing up grain and making it cheaper, making water available, making land available for the poorest. A long time ago, I realised what McDonalds and KFC had understood quite a while back that for an average person, the gratification of his taste buds if only for ten minutes was more important than saving the world, being compassionate, stopping global warming or even looking after his own health. So, I mentally gave up on trying to make everyone vegetarian even though I point out the health hazards, week after week. Thank God, I saved my mind from despair. Instead of diminishing, FAO has estimated that the worldwide demand for meat will rise and rise an increase of 76 percent by 2050. Here, 76 percent more animals taking up 76 percent more space, more water, more grain, more dredging of an already over-fished ocean and finding more species to eat like insects. A world of pain and hunger, on the brink of destruction. About 20 years ago, Linda McCartney tried to change the world by inventing and promoting simulated meat by making plants taste like it. It had no effect. It remained a charming curiosity and it was eaten by vegetarians, who wanted to explore the world of meat. Even though companies, like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, have used biology to identify the molecules that give meats their flavours and textures (for example: protein myoglobin, which gives meat its colour) and reproduced them exactly using non-animals, this becomes just another dish on the table. So, nothing has excited me more in the last five years than the knowledge that real meat is being made by scientists and entrepreneurs without using animals. The first disruption of the world, as we knew it, came with the computer, the email, all the artificial intelligence gadgets. I cannot even remember the world without the cell phone. This changing of the world was due to just a handful of dreamers who went on to become billionaires though that was never their intention. The second disruption will come with the replacing of animals for meat with clean meat. Meat made from the multiplication of meat cells in meat serum. And, wonderfully enough, the giants of the First Disruption have invested their billions into creating this Second Disruption. Microsoft, Virgin, Google, Facebook are some of the companies. And even more importantly, millions are being poured in by the largest meat selling companies in the world, Tyson Foods and Cargill, which see this as an inevitable future and want to get into it in the beginning. Imagine, a world without violence. A study conducted in America on which were the most violent and unsafe areas in the county, showed that these were the places around slaughterhouses. In India a survey done last month showed that the least liveable city in India is Rampur, the city of slaughterhouses and knives. Imagine, a world without slaughterhouses, with no animals grown forcibly and killed viciously. Imagine, a world where animals are out of animal husbandry and yet there is meat for all. The answer is cultured meat. No waste, no disposal of offal, no sickening smells and terrifying screams, no overloaded trucks carrying dying animals, no calves being separated from their crying mothers, no mafia of butchers. Imagine, a world where you could eat all the meat you wanted without getting sick of all the diseases that the body carried, the antibiotics, the hormones. Imagine, blue skies and fresh breezes besides no water shortage and plenty of forests to bring the rains on time. Imagine, a world that was not heating up at this pace, bringing drought, floods and tsunamis with it. How far away is this dreamlike future? It is upon us: I will see it in my time. It is called the clean meat future. In 2013, the first meatless burger was made (paid for by Google cofounder Sergey Brin). In 2018, hundreds of start-up companies have been able to make this cellular multiplication, and companies like Memphis Meats have been able to make varieties of duck and chicken that are the real thing. Now, the only problem is of economics and scale. But that will also happen. After all, the first laptop probably cost a million dollars. As did the light bulb. Why do I say that the future is upon us? Because the US Food and Drug Administration has decided to make rules and standards for companies growing meat in labs, not in farm factories. No hooves, fins or feathers. No anuses and eyes to throw away. Just edible meat. In Maryland, in July 2018, the FDA and Department of Agriculture convened the first public hearing to discuss the regulation of food grown. Hundreds of people attended. The World Bank has convened a meeting of clean meat entrepreneurs to explain their vision at a meeting of international economists at the headquarters of the World Bank. When we used horses for transport, we didnt love the horse. We simply wanted to get from one place to another quickly. And if we had to put up with feeding it and cleaning up the excrement and housing it, we resigned ourselves to doing it. But when the car came and manure and care was unnecessary, we switched quickly and horses are now kept for religious tourism. Likewise, no one loves the slaughterhouse, the bloodied rivers, the greenhouses gases and the huge environmental damage. But they want the mutton, beef, pork, chicken, milk and eggs. While everything has changed, including the way in which we irrigate and grow plants, meat production today is the same as it was 20,000 years ago. How inefficient is the energy ratio: 11 kilogrammes of grain has to be fed to get one kilo of meat. About 60 ,000 litres of water is needed for one cow or buffalo. Thousands of people starve because there is no cheap grain. Every 7th kilogramme of meat in Europe is created from Indian grain. Look at our own levels of malnutrition and water shortage. There can be no humanity, no good governance, while we continue to eat and export meat. It is the largest way in which we affect the lives of our people. Cultured meat will change all that, freeing up grain and making it cheaper, making water available, making land available for the poorest. One company called BlueNalu has started cellular aquaculture and, once it comes in the market, you can have fish without formalin, human faeces and chemical dyes that make it looks fresh. Modern Meadows is working on creating real leather without animal skin. The tissue culture journey has been complicated. Creating appropriate bio-reactors, which mimic the animals temperature, so that meat growing can become a village industry. But top scientists and cell biologists have left their well-paid jobs and have applied their expertise in it. Many people involved are Indians. Memphis Meats is founded and headed by Dr Uma Valeti, a heart surgeon. The key executives of milk-without-cows venture, Perfect Day Foods, are two Indians Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi. Animals will not disappear. Cells will have to be collected from them and then put into a bio-reactor. Nutrient culture serum will have to be collected. But they will be a small fraction of what they are now. It is time the Indian government has to get into this. If the process is patented, then it will not be economically viable. So we need to have open source research that makes the science available to all. Big marketers in India, like Future Foods, have already shown huge interest, and many American companies are in India looking for partners. But we need to have those Nehruvian temples of science under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) get off their hammocks, where they have been sleeping for many years, and actually do research that will change the face of the Indian economy. I am going to write more on this. Watch this space. And imbibe my excitement!! Irked over the denial of information on disclosure of names of wilful defaulters who have taken bank loans of Rs 50 crore and above by the RBI in spite of a Supreme Court order, the CIC has asked Patel to explain why a maximum penalty should not be imposed on him for 'dishonouring' the court verdict, which had upheld a decision taken by then information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, calling for disclosure of names of wilful defaulters. New Delhi: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has issued a show-cause notice to RBI Governor Urjit Patel for "dishonouring" a Supreme Court judgment on disclosure of the wilful defaulters' list. The CIC has also asked the Prime Minister's Office, the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to make public the letter of former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on bad loans. Irked over the denial of information on disclosure of names of wilful defaulters who have taken bank loans of Rs 50 crore and above by the RBI in spite of a Supreme Court order, the CIC has asked Patel to explain why a maximum penalty should not be imposed on him for "dishonouring" the court verdict, which had upheld a decision taken by then information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, calling for disclosure of names of wilful defaulters. Patel, speaking at the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on 20 September, had said the guidelines on vigilance, issued by the CVC, were aimed at achieving greater transparency, promoting a culture of honesty and probity in public life and improving the overall vigilance administration in the organisations within its purview, the CIC pointed out. "The commission feels that there is no match between what RBI governor and deputy governor say and their website regarding their RTI policy, and a great secrecy of vigilance reports and inspection reports is being maintained with impunity, in spite of the Supreme Court confirming the orders of the CIC in the Jayantilal case," Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said. He concluded that it would not serve any purpose to punish the CPIO for this defiance, because he acted under the instructions of the top authorities. "The commission considers the governor as the deemed PIO responsible for non-disclosure and defiance of Supreme Court orders and CIC orders and directs him to show cause why a maximum penalty should not be imposed on him for these reasons, before 16 November," Acharyulu said. He rejected the arguments of Santosh Kumar Panigrahy of the RBI that section 22 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act would not override various laws he quoted, prohibiting disclosure of names and details of wilful defaulters and hence, the RBI should be discharged from the obligations of disclosure. "His contention that unless the above referred enactments are repealed, the RBI cannot disclose the details of defaulters is also absurd," Acharyulu said. He added that another contention of Panigrahy that the pendency of a PIL before the Supreme Court on the issue would prevent him from disclosure was also baseless as he did not present any interim order passed by the Supreme Court preventing the disclosure of names of wilful defaulters or against the proceedings before the CIC. "These submissions of the RBI show that its legal wing did not bring to the notice of the CPIO that in the RBI vs Jayantilal N Mistry case, a Supreme Court bench consisting of M Y Eqbat and C Nagappan JJ, on 16 December, 2015 [Transferred Cases (Civil) Nos. 91 to 101 of 2015], gave a landmark decision, upholding the direction of the CIC to disclose the inspection reports of the RBI and the names of wilful defaulters in many cases, rejecting all the above referred contentions of the RBI," Acharyulu said. The information commissioner said in that case, the counsel for the RBI had raised the same contentions, referring to the same cases referred by Panigrahy, and those were straightaway rejected by the Supreme Court. "The commission finds no merit in hiding the names of, details and action against wilful defaulters of big bad loans worth hundreds of crores of rupees. "The RBI shall disclose the bad debt details of defaulters worth more than Rs 1,000 crore at the beginning, of Rs 500 crore or less at a later stage within five days and collect such information from the banks in due course to update their voluntary disclosures from time to time as a practice under section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act," he said. Acharyulu asked the RBI governor to remember, at least once, one of the three lakh farmers who died in the field as he failed to sustain his crop or sell his produce for an appropriate price and hence, could not pay of the debt before defying the transparency law and directions, and discontinue the non-disclosure policy which will seriously harm the economy of the nation The Kerala High Court on Monday said that devotees and media personnel trying to enter the Sabarimala Temple premises should not be stopped. The court also told the Kerala government to not interfere in the day to day activities of the temple as it ordered for a department level inquiry on the policemen who had damaged at the shrine. The Kerala High Court on Monday said that devotees and media personnel trying to enter the Sabarimala Temple premises should not be stopped. The court also told the Kerala government to not interfere in the day to day activities of the temple as it ordered for a department level inquiry on the policemen who had damaged at the shrine. Meanwhile, Kerala Police deployed heavy security with over 23,000 policemen on guard to oversee the pilgrimage. The police deployed face detection machines at Sabarimala to prevent protestors from going to the hill shrine disguised as devotees. This is the first time that the state used the latest technology for security. Apart from the face detection machines, high-quality CCTV cameras were also installed at every nook and corner at the Nilakkal and Pampa base camps. However, all guest houses belonging to different government departments at Sannidhanam were locked up by the police and media was not allowed to talk to the Sabarimala temple thantri Kandararu Rajeevaru at Sannidhanam. A group of media persons had approached him following reports in a section of the media that he had threatened to close the temple if women of menstruating age entered the temple in violation of the temple customs. But, a senior police officer prevented the reporters and cameraman from talking to the thantri citing the prohibitory orders in force in the hill shrine. Mobile network jammers were also installed in the Sannidhanam. Earlier in the day, BJP protested at the Thiruvananthapuram main bus station after buses were not allowed to go to Pamba base camp after which the police allowed KSRTC to operate service from Nilakkal to Pamba. Earlier, private vehicles carrying devotees were allowed up to the Pamba base camp but the permission was withdrawn following extensive damage the base camp suffered in the flood. BJP leader PK Krishnadas said that such a clampdown in Sabarimala is unheard of in the history of the state. "This an infringement on the rights of devotees. Pinarayi Vijayan government is creating a war zone in Sabarimala," he said. However, the tension at Nilakkal eased with the state-run Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) beginning services. The first bus carrying devotees who came for the Chithira Atha Visehsham pooja left Nilakkal around 11 am. The devotees, who had come to Nilakkal from various places, had staged protests when police refused to give nod for the bus service. Following heated exchanges, they were allowed to proceed to Pamba by foot. Buses from Erumeli, a major entry point, also operated after 10 am following protests. The devotees, which included many who had come from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, launched protests by chanting Ayyappa songs after a heated argument with the police. There were also reports of the priests at the Lord Ayyappa temple having threatened to close the temple if women between the age of 10 and 50 years entered the sanctum sanctorum. According to local media reports, the thantri (high priest) and melshanthi (chief priest) made their position clear to Inspector General of Police S Ajit Kumar when he called on them to discuss the arrangements for the Chithira Atha Visesham pooja. On the other hand, Ayyappa devotees and the police engaged were engaged in a wordy duel at Nilakkal as the police sought identity proof, phone number and address from the devotees going to Pamba. Meanwhile, though the police had agreed to allow the media to go to the temple in the morning, they were later detained at Pamba. In a first, policewomen entered the Lord Ayyappa temple for the first time in the history of the Sabrimala pilgrimage. Reports from the hill shrine said that 15 women police above the age of 50 reached the temple premises and were deployed to deal with the women protestors. The Sabarimala hill shrine will open its doors to devotees at 5 pm on Monday for a special ritual celebrating the birthday of erstwhile Travancore King Sree Chithira Tirunal. With inputs from TK Devasia Once the Supreme Court allowed women of all ages entry into the Sabarimala temple citing the constitutional morality and values, one would have expected the political parties across the spectrum to honour it and lend their support to the Kerala government in implementing it. Once the Supreme Court allowed women of all ages entry into the Sabarimala temple citing the constitutional morality and values, one would have expected the political parties across the spectrum to honour it and lend their support to the Kerala government in implementing it. But the two main political parties the BJP and Congress are opposing it and there are organised protests, violence and violation of the order. This is shocking to say the least. Sub-section 5 of Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act (RP Act), 1951, which governs registration of political parties, very specifically asks political parties to given an undertaking declaring their true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established, and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy, and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India. But the conduct of the BJP and Congress is quite the contrary. The BJP has not only galvanised its cadre to prevent womens entry into the temple, it has announced a six-day rath yatra against the verdict which would be led by its state president PS Sreedharan Pillai. The Congress, too, has taken a stand against the court verdict and no less than its national president has said that he backs the Kerala PCCs stand opposing the verdict. The Supreme Court verdict had, among other things, cited its own earlier judgement to drive home why it placed so much reliance on the Constitution of India: When a country is endowed with a Constitution, there is an accompanying promise which stipulates that every member of the country right from its citizens to the high constitutional functionaries must idolize the constitutional fundamentals. This duty imposed by the Constitution stems from the fact that the Constitution is the indispensable foundational base that functions as the guiding force to protect and ensure that the democratic setup promised to the citizenry remains unperturbed. (emphasis added) While the onus to honour the constitutional morality and values is on all the citizens and institutions, the political parties have a far greater and more critical role to play and hence, the subject of this article. This role can be summed up in what a Law Commission of India report of 1999 on Reforms of the Electoral Laws said: It is the political parties that form the government, man the Parliament and run the governance of the country. Eminent academic Pratap Bhanu Mehta once elaborated on the significance of political parties in these words: Democracy performs its most salient functions through (political) parties. The selection of candidates, the mobilization of the electorate, the formulation of agendas, the passing of legislation is all conducted through (political) parties. (Political) Parties are, in short, the mechanisms through which power is exercised in a democracy. Need one say more? The irony is nobody is even approaching the Election Commission of India (ECI) to seek de-registration of these political parties for violating their oath of allegiance to the Constitution which is a logical course or at least issue show cause notices to explain their behaviour. Why so? Well, the answer is even more ironical: While the ECI has the power to register a political party, it does not have the power to de-register it. Ironies of irony, the Supreme Court said this in a judgement in 2002, without even stating who does or seeking such a provision. While denying the right to the ECI, its order had this to say about the ECIs powers: The Election Commission while exercising its power to register a political party under Section 29A of the (RP) Act, acts quasi-judicially and decision rendered by it is a quasi-judicial order and once a political party is registered, no power of review having conferred on the Election Commission, it has no power to review the order registering a political party for having violated the provisions of the Constitution or for having committed breach of undertaking given to the Election Commission at the time of registration. The order provided the following three exceptions though: (a) when registration was obtained by fraud or forgery (b) when nomenclature of association, rules and regulations amended abrogating their conforming to the section 29A or (c) a party is declared unlawful. Since 1998, the ECI has been asking the Government of India for power to de-register political parties for many valid reasons but all in vain. Its last attempt was in February this year when it asked the Supreme Court to give it the power since the political parties and the Parliament are reluctant to do so and nobody has the power to de-register if not for the three exceptions the Supreme Court had provided in its 2002 judgement. The ECIs plea has been foregrounded with several such recommendations by the Law Commission, National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution and the Ministry of Law at various points in time, which, among others, specifically mentions that declaration to adherence to democratic values and norms of the Constitution in their inner party organisations should form a part of the rules and bylaws of the parties seeking registration. The Government of India did make an attempt in 1994 by introducing a Bill to amend the RP Act, which proposed to introduce Section 29-B in the RP Act whereunder a complaint to be made to the High Court within whose jurisdiction the main office of a political party is situated for cancelling the registration of the party on grounds including violation of section 29A (5) but it lapsed on the dissolution of the Lok Sabha in 1996. Nothing more has been heard of it. Now, it is for the Supreme Court to step in and expand its 2002 order to include the failure to honour and uphold the Constitution as a ground for de-registration as well. Who does it give the power to the ECI or a High Court is for its fine sense of judgement to decide, but decide it must, for no such power has meant that the political parties make a mockery of the Constitution or the Supreme Courts judgement itself, as is the case with the Sabarimala episode now. Around 7,000 devotees arrived at the sanctum sanctorum to climb the 18 holy steps and offer prayers at the Sabarimala temple. Amid heavy security, the doors of the Lord Ayyappa temple in Kerala's Sabarimala opened on Monday evening for a special puja. No woman between the age of 10 and 50 years was reported to have entered the temple premises on Monday. Times Now reported that around 7,000 devotees arrived at the sanctum sanctorum to climb the 18 holy steps and witness the rituals. Hundreds of police personnel, armed commandos, surveillance cameras and mobile jammers guarded the area in the backdrop of protests from 17 to 22 October opposing the Supreme Court verdict permitting women of all age groups to offer prayers at the hill shrine. Anju, a 30-year-old woman from Cherthala in Alappuzha district, sought police protection to offer prayers at the hill shrine. She, along with her husband Abhilash and children aged 7 and 4 years, approached the Pamba police soon after the temple gates opened. "She is at the police control room in Pamba now. She says she wants to trek to the hill shrine. No decision has been taken so far on whether to take her to the temple or not today," a police official told PTI. A protest broke out at the Ganapathi temple in Pampa after Anju sought police protection. Large group of devotees raised slogans despite prohibitory orders. The temple opened at 5 pm and will close at 10 pm on Monday for the "Sree Chitira Atta Thirunal" puja slated for Tuesday, marking the birthday of the last king of the princely state of Travancore, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. After Tuesday, the temple doors will open for five-day monthly prayers on 17 November. Kerala: Devotees climb the sacred Pathinettam Padi to enter #SabarimalaTemple to offer prayers. The temple, which opened this evening, will be closed after the 'Athazha puja' tomorrow evening. pic.twitter.com/jfLfc0A6jt ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 The government and police machinery is on high alert to avoid any untoward incidents in and around the shrine, where ban orders under Section 144 of the CrPC are in force till Tuesday night. Pathnamthitta superintendent of police T Narayanan had told PTI on Sunday that all arrangements have been made for devotees to ensure smooth 'darshan'. Around 2,300 personnel, including a 20-member commando team and 100 women, were deployed for the security of the devotees. At least 15 women police personnel, who are over 50 years of age, were deployed at the 'Sannidhanam' (temple complex). The security arrangements did not go down well with the devotees and right wing activists who protested at several places. TV footage showed devotees locked in a war of words with police at several places on Monday along the route from Nilakkal to Pamba, the key base camps on way to the shrine. Besides being unsettled by the intense checking by the police, the pilgrims also complained about the lack of amenities at the base camps, which had witnessed widespread damage during the August deluge. A group of devotees, who arrived at Erumeli since Sunday evening, protested on Monday morning when they were not allowed to leave for Pamba. They blocked road traffic chanting 'Ayyappa Saranam' mantra. Another batch of devotees complained that women police personnel asked their names and identity cards while travelling to Pamba in a state-run bus. "They stopped the bus and asked our names and demanded that we show the identity cards. I said my name is Ayyappa... everyone in our group said the same (as the Ayyappa devotees are called). "In Sabarimala, everyone is Ayyappa... devotees call each other as swamy," a devotee, carrying the sacred 'irumudikettu' (offerings to Lord Ayyappa) on his head, told a TV channel. Another young devotee said he was not allowed to chant 'Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa' by the security officials. Several devotees could be seen walking to Pamba after waiting for the Kerala State Transport buses at Nilakkal. Around 500 devotees, who reached Pamba after walking for several hours, blocked road traffic en route in protest. Media personnel were also not allowed to leave Nilakkal for Pamba, the last entry point, and 'Sannidhanam' in the morning but the restriction was lifted later. Some women journalists proceeded to Pamba with police escort. Hindu outfits, agitating against entry of women into Sabarimala, on Sunday had urged media houses not to depute women journalists under 50 to cover the issue. The BJP and various Hindu outfits are on a warpath against the Left-front government over its decision not to seek a review of the top court verdict. So far, 3,731 people have been arrested and 545 cases registered in connection with October's protests and violence. Around a dozen women in the age group of 10-50 were prevented from reaching the temple and police and the agitators fought a pitched battle last month over the LDF government's decision to implement the court order. With inputs from PTI and Naveen Nair With the Lord Ayyappa shrine opening for a day on Monday, the temple town of Sabarimala has been virtually taken over by some 2,300 Kerala Police personnel after protests marred the last pilgrimage season. The pilgrims will be allowed to go up the pathway only on Monday afternoon With the Lord Ayyappa shrine opening for a day on Monday, the temple town of Sabarimala has been virtually taken over by some 2,300 Kerala Police personnel after protests marred the last pilgrimage season. The pilgrims will be allowed to go up the pathway only on Monday afternoon, an official said. The temple opens its door at 5 pm and closes on Tuesday at 10 pm. Orders banning assembly of four or more people have been imposed in Sabarimala and nearby areas, police said Sunday. Around 2,300 personnel, including a 20-member commando team and 100 women, have been deployed to ensure smooth 'darshan' and security of devotees, a move that came in for criticism from the erstwhile royal family of Pandalam, the BJP and the Congress for such fortification. If necessary, around 30 women police personnel in the rank of circle inspector and sub inspector and above the age of 50 would be deployed at 'Sannidhanam' (temple complex) for security, they said. Ayyappa devotees from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have already reached Erumeli and they will be permitted to go to 'sannidhanam' only on Monday. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPc, banning assembly of four or more people, is in force at Pamba, Nilackal, Elavungal, and Sannidhanam for 72 hours from midnight Saturday. This is the second time the hill temple would open for 'darshan' after the Supreme Court allowed entry of women of all age groups into it. The temple had witnessed high drama last month following frenzied protests leading to around a dozen women in the age group of 10-50 being prevented from reaching it and police and the agitators fighting a pitched battle over the LDF government's decision to implement the court order. The shrine would open at 5 pm Monday for the "Sree Chitira Atta Thirunal" special puja slated for the next day, marking the birthday of last king of Travancore Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, and close at 10 pm on that day. Meanwhile, several Hindu outfits in Kerala agitating against the entry of women of menstrual age into the famous Sabarimala Temple have urged media outlets not to depute women journalists to cover the issue. The 'appeal' was issued by Sabarimala Karma Samiti, a joint platform of right-wing outfits, including the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Hindu Aikyavedi, ahead of the temple's brief opening, which will be the second time after the Supreme Court allowed entry of girls and women in the age group of 10-50 into it. The samiti has been spearheading the agitation against the apex court order lifting an age-old ban on entry of women in menstrual age group into the temple, whose deity Lord Ayyappa is a celibate. When the temple opened for monthly puja for five days last month, the first time after the court order, women reporters, on their way to cover the occasion, were heckled, their vehicles attacked and young female devotees forced to turn back as protesters, including activists of Hindu fringe groups, laid a siege to the road leading to Sabarimala. In its letter to editors, a copy of which was released to the media, the samiti said even the entry of women journalists belonging to this age group as part of their job was also likely to aggravate the situation. "Recognising your right to support or oppose the devotees stand on this issue, we hope you will not take a stand which would aggravate the situation," it said. The doors of the temple will be opened Monday evening for puja on the occasion of "Chithira Aattavisesham" on Tuesday, the birthday of the last King of Travancore, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. Objecting to the samithi's appeal, the Network of Women in Media, India said it was 'unjustified' and 'unacceptable interference' in the functioning of the media and an 'unfair obstacle' in the way of journalists who happen to be women wishing to cover an important story of public interest. "We believe that the Samithi's stand amounts to depriving women journalists of their right to respond to the call of professional duty and responsibility. It also goes against the freedom of expression and right to information that are fundamental rights to which all citizens are entitled," it said. Pathanamthitta District Collector PB Nooh has declared prohibitory orders in and around the temple town banning the gathering of four or more persons to foil street protests. The Bharatiay Janata Party (BJP) and numerous Hindu groups are up in arms against the 28 September verdict of the Supreme Court that allowed women of all age groups to enter the temple. The Kerala government has said it will implement the ruling, pitting it against the protesters. All the roads leading from Nilakkal to the base camp of the temple town Pamba are barricaded and have been declared out of bounds till Monday morning by the police. The police are checking each and every vehicle that passes in and around the temple town. On Sunday, after protests, the police allowed the media to travel till Nilakkal. Kerala BJP spokesperson MT Ramesh warned the police against examining the holy kit (Irrumudi Kettu) that is carried on the head by the pilgrims. Former chief minister Oommen Chandy said that there appeared to be some shady goings on as the media had never before been banned into the temple town. "If the media is kept away, then the authorities want to hide something," he said. State congress president Mulapally Ramachandran said: "Parties like CPI, academics, intelligentsia and socio-cultural icons should prevail upon (Chief Minister Pinarayi) Vijayan to see that he handles this very sensitive issue in a more mature way." The Sabarimala Karma Samithi has written to media groups not to depute lady journalists to cover Monday's events at the temple that are generally out of bounds for women in the age group 10 to 50. The Samithi is angry that when the temple opened for the monthly prayers last month, attempts by two women journalists to do their job from the temple top were thwarted by protesters. The representatives of the Pandalam Royal family, the custodian of the jewellery of the Sabarimala temple, said the temple was passing through "tough times" as the temple town had been taken over by the police. "We will hold a special prayer and singing of hymns when the temple opens," said Sreekumar Varma. Pathanamthitta district Superintendent of Police T Narayanan said on Sunday that as of now, there had been no request from women to enter the shrine. Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru and chief priest Unnikrishnan Namboodiri would jointly open the temple doors and light the lamp at the 'Sreekovil' (sanctum sanctorum). Devaswom minister, Kadakampally Surendran, said the government would ensure complete protection to believers. So far no women in the 'barred' age group had approached police for protection to offer prayers at the hill shrine, he said. A high level meeting of senior police officers was held to take stock of the situation. During last month's pujas, media persons were attacked by a section of protesters and police had to face criticism. Dismissing reports that media was being restrained from going to Sabarimala, Kerala Director General of Police Loknath Behara said there was no bar on entry of journalists. No restriction of any sort has been imposed on media persons, the top cop added. "To ensure necessary protection to the media, we are not allowing them now. As soon as security arrangements are complete, media will be allowed in Sabarimala and nearby places." The Pandalam royal family, closely associated with the Ayyappa shrine, said it was "pained" at the heavy security in and around Sabarimala. "Saddened that devotees will have to offer prayers at the shrine amid thick police cover," it said. Protesting the apex court verdict, a 'prayer yagna' will be held, the family said. Meanwhile, activist Rahul Easwar, president of Ayyappa Dharma Sena that is among the outfits spearheading the protests, in a video message said, "Like police, we are also fully prepared". Easwar, belonging to the Thazhamon family of Sabarimala thantris, was arrested twice last month in connection with the protests in and and around Sabarimala against the government's decision to implement the court verdict and also for making certain remarks. He is out on bail. Noting that the situation in Sabarimala was "explosive," Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Mullapally Ramachandran accused the CPI(M)-led LDF government of 'failing' to handle it. Thousands of police personnel had been deployed in Sabarimala which was akin to "challenging and suppressing" the devotees, he alleged. BJP leader M T Ramesh warned that any attempt by police to hinder devotees from visiting Sabarimala would lead to "serious repercussions." Police would not be allowed to inspect the 'irumudikettu' (offerings devotees carry for lord ayyappa), he said. BJP and various Hindu outfits are on a warpath against the Left-front government over its decision not to seek a review of the top court verdict. As of Sunday , the police have registered 545 cases and arrested 3,731 persons who protested last month when the temple opened for six days. Only around 100 are still in jail, while the rest have secured bail. With inputs from agencies He said the probe would find out if the tigress was first killed and later darted. Speaking to reporters at his residence Varsha on the occasion of Diwali Milan, the chief minister said that everyone was saddened by the death of Avni. Mumbai: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday ordered a probe into the controversial killing of the tigress Avni. Reacting to the allegations against the state government by Union Cabinet minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) colleague Maneka Gandhi, Mr Fadnavis said that apart from being a minister, Ms Gandhi is an animal rights activist. Though the minister has been critical of the state government, we should understand her feelings for animals, he said. Speaking to reporters at his residence Varsha on the occasion of Diwali Milan, the chief minister said that everyone was saddened by the death of Avni. The forest department decided to kill the tigress as she had killed 13 to 14 people. Whatever had happened, some dou-bts have been raised. We will certainly inquire into it, he added. Mr Fadnavis also said, An inquiry will be conducted into whether the proper procedure was followed or not. He said the probe would find out if the tigress was first killed and later darted. In a series of tweets on Sunday, Ms Gandhi denounced the government, stating, It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, Sh@-SMungantiwar, Minister for Forests, #Maharas-htra, gave orders for the killing. She also said, I am deeply saddened by the way tigress Avni has been brutally murdered in #Yavatmal, #Maha-rashtra. Every time he has used Hyderabad-based shooter Shafat Ali Khan and this time his son has also appeared at the scene illegally to murder the tigress. His son was not authorised to kill. This is patently illegal. Despite the forest officials being committed to tranquillise, capture and quarantine the tigress, the trigger-happy shooter has killed her on his own under orders of Sh@Smungantiwar. The chief minister further said, We are working hard to preserve wildlife, especially to increase the numbers of the tiger population. A tiger becomes a man-eater when its habitat is violated Hence, the sad decision was taken to eliminate her. At the same time, if she could have been captured and kept in a zoo, we could have rehabilitated her, but what I have been told is that she had attacked (the person trying to dart her). On the stinging statements made by Ms Gandhi, Mr Fadnavis said, Manekaji is an animal activist from her heart. She has been fighting for the cause of animals. Citing an example, he said, I once received several calls from her to give immediate relief to an elephant, which had been troubled. She kept calling me every five minutes until our forces reached to rescue the elephant. Asked about Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackerays sarcastic suggestion that the name of the forest ministry be changed to the ministry of poaching, Mr Fadnavis said that animal lovers feelings are intense over this issue, but sometimes a harsh decision needs to be taken as on the one hand people were killed while on the other we have to conserve them (tigers). The Barak Valley wing of the United Front of Former ULFA filed the FIR against seven people for their allegedly provocative statements. Former leaders of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) have lodged an FIR over the tension in the state following the recent killings in Tinsukia. The Barak Valley wing of the United Front of Former ULFA filed the FIR against seven people for their allegedly provocative statements. Those named in the FIR are: All India Mahila Congress president and Silchar MP Sushmita Dev, Karimganj MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, Hojai MLA Shiladitya Dev, Gauhati High Court lawyer Pradip Dutta Roy, Minister of State of Railways Rajen Gohain, Congress leader Siddique Ahmed and Congress leader Chandan Sarkar. In the FIR, the wing's general secretary Anamul Haque Laskar said, "These seven, along with some other people, have incited violence through their public speeches and they are equally responsible for Tinsukia killing. The killing incident took place immediately after some venomous statements of Pradip Dutta Roy came out in media. We demand immediate arrest of the mentioned for being indirectly involved in the killing of five people in Dhola." Five people were killed in Bishnoimukh village near Dhola-Sadiya bridge in Tinsukia district on 1 November by alleged ULFA militants. Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal condemned the attack and directed the law enforcement agencies to take stern action against the perpetrators. On Friday, Union home minister Rajnath Singh assured strict action against the militants. "I have talked tot he chief minister and asked him to investigate the matter. I have told him that strictest action should be taken and culprits should not be spared," he had told reporters in Lucknow. The state government also handed over cheques of Rs 5 lakh as compensation to families of the victims. With inputs from ANI and 101Reporters The TMC leadership also decided to take those family members to President Ram Nath Kovind to get them justice. Tinsukia: A four-member Trinamool Congress delegation on Sunday met the family members of the five Bengali-speaking men who were killed by suspected militants in the district, and demanded that the perpetrators of "the hate crime" be immediately brought to book. The TMC leadership also decided to take those family members to President Ram Nath Kovind to get them justice. The Assam government welcomed the TMC delegation, which was led by TMC parliamentary party leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brien, and asked them to refrain from making any provocative statement which could vitiate the atmosphere in the state. The other members of the delegation were Lok Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur, Rajya Sabha MP Nadimul Haq and MLA Mahua Moitra. "It is a sad day. I am at a loss of words. But in all sadness, it needs to be heard... To find out who is behind this (the killings), we will do whatever it takes in Assam, in Bengal, in the country and in Parliament," O'Brien said. Assam BJP MLA Bolin Chetia accompanied the TMC team to the homes of the victims in Kheronibari village of Dhola area. "We will do whatever it takes to find the perpetrators and whoever is responsible for this. We will go to the bottom of this," O'Brien told reporters after meeting the victims' families. Such incidents are happening across the country and the killings are an outcome of the divisive politics of the BJP-led Centre, he said. Wondering who is benefiting from these incidents, O'Brien said, "There is more than what meets the eye according to the stories that I am hearing from families and locals." He said the ruling party of West Bengal would keep fighting on behalf of the victims' families so that at least they come to know who was behind this crime. According to TMC sources, the party has given Rs 1 lakh to each family as aid. "A delegation comprising members of the five bereaved families and Trinamool leaders to meet the President. An appointment has been sought from Rashtrapati Bhawan," TMC said on its official Twitter handle. Unidentified gunmen in battle fatigues shot dead five Bengali-speaking people, including three members of a family, near Kheronibari village on Thursday night. "We want justice for these families and will not stop our fight until the perpetrators of the hate crime are punished," O'Brien said. Earlier in the day, welcoming the TMC delegation, Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appealed to the Trinamool leaders to refrain from making any "provocative statement". "We welcome the TMC team to visit the victims of the terrorist attack. Our only request to them is please do not give any provocative statement, which will vitiate the atmosphere of Assam," he told reporters in Guwahati. O'Brien said the most deprived and poorest Indian citizens were murdered in cold blood. "This is a humanitarian visit. This is a visit to stand with grieving families. "Our chief Mamata Banerjee has given us some directions. These people are Bengalis. They are the poorest. They are Hindus," he had said after landing in Assam. On Friday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed anguish over the killings and said an "environment of violence" was prevailing in the country. On 2 August, another TMC delegation of six MPs had gone to Bengali-majority Silchar to assess the situation there after the publication of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on 30 July but was stopped at the airport. They were not allowed to leave the airport and were sent back the next day. With or without Congress on his side, Chandrababu Naidu's electoral fate would be probably hanging by a thin margin. So Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has finished telling us about the latest unflinching mission of his life that of unifying the Opposition. And what must he do now? He must go ahead and unify the Opposition, of course. But wait a minute. Naidu has remembered that, before embarking on the task of uniting parties in distant nooks of India, he owes a word or two of explanation to people nearer home in Andhra Pradesh. He finds it increasingly necessary to take time off to tell his own core voters why he is doing what he is doing. He is acknowledging that not only the workers of his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) but even the people at large who support him are finding it tough to overcome the shock of his sudden bungee-jump into the camp of arch enemy Congress. What matters is not the fact that he has ditched BJP but that he has allied with Congress, a move that can qualify as one of the biggest political turnarounds in Indias post-Independence history. Naidu has a right to do what he has done, guided by a democratic compulsion, as he put it. But his critics have been quick to point out the bizarreness of his newfound love for Congress, and the social media is replete with some embarrassing screenshots of his past utterances tearing Sonia Gandhi and her party to pieces. KT Rama RaoKTR, as the son of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao is better knownwas one of the first off the mark with this: No comments other than echoing those of @ncbn Garu pic.twitter.com/gUoV6DakhN KTR (@KTRTRS) November 2, 2018 Its true that regional leaders have made breathtaking U-turns before in their political affiliations. Jayalalithaa, Nitish Kumar, Deve Gowda are only some examples. But their parties were not born out of anti-Congressism the way TDP was. The very raison d'etre for TDP was its pathological allergy to Congress. This writer was at the press conference that TDP founder NT Rama Rao called on 21 March 1982 in Hyderabad to announce his entry into politics and was witness to the unprecedented anger he whipped up across the state against Congress in the months that followed. Telugu pride still the theme NTRs slogan of Telugu self-respect and his theme that Congress was an anathema to Andhra pride were so convincing that just eight months after he floated the party he swept to a historic victory. If there was ever an election wave against a party, there it was. His son-in-law Naidu staged a coup against NTR and succeeded him in 1995 but made good use of the self-respect slogan later. He used the same slogan with such compelling effect in the 2014 election against the Congress for dividing Andhra Pradesh into two states that the party didnt win a single seat. And now he has joined hands with Congress ostensibly to save India or, as his critics would say, to save himself. Naidu is aware of the need to be on the defensive about his volte-face. Its not surprising that he now attacks Narendra Modi as much as he defends his action in switching to Congress. The essence of what he waxes eloquent at meeting after meeting now is this: This writer am still follows NTRs path of confronting Delhis hegemony. BJP is now giving us the troubles which Congress gave us earlier from Delhi. We have already punished Congress for what it had done to the state. It has been reduced to zero. This is not our alliance with Congress. Congress will be part of an anti-BJP alliance along with us. We waged a struggle against BJP to protect the interests of five crore Telugus. BJP refused to grant the special status to Andhra after bifurcation. That party struck a blow to Telugu self-respect. Besides, Congress is promising to give us special status if it wins 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Naidu is telling TDP workers to go from door to door and spread this gospel to people. He knows that, in the run-up to the state Assembly elections, which will be held at the same time as the Lok Sabha polls a few months from now, his rivals will harp on his political opportunism and his governments alleged failures with the same emphasis. What will also be part of the campaign against Naidu is the accusation that he is sacrificing the very Telugu pride he is supposedly protecting by hitching on to Congress with the sole intention of making space for himself in national politics and for his son Nara Lokesh to succeed him in Andhra Pradesh. Self-preservation Its difficult as yet to say whether Naidus traditional supporters will swallow his line of defence hook line and sinker and continue to back him or whether at least some of them will reject this argument, causing an erosion in his vote base. But whats easier to understand is that, despite Naidus talk of political and democratic compulsions, its the local needs that drove him to abandon NDA and join forces with Congress. Its the same principle of self-preservation that guides all regional parties that goaded Naidu to make his latest political move. With or without Congress on his side, his electoral fate would be probably hanging by a thin margin. Even in the 2014 Assembly election, with the BJP and Jana Sena of actor-politician Pawan Kalyan backing it, TDPs margin of victory was a mere two percent of the popular vote over the nearest rival, YSR Congress Party led by Jaganmohan Reddy. And this party continues to be Naidus biggest threat. But in the next election in Andhra Pradesh, Naidu will have the backing of neither BJP nor Pawan Kalyan. All that he can bank on is whatever is left of the traditional Congress vote bank in the state. The Kapu caste vote of Pawan Kalyan that he may lose may be at least in part compensated by the Reddy vote of Congress. Naidu also knows that, at least with some voters, caste calculations will outweigh development considerations. Besides, Naidu must necessarily contend with anti-incumbency in some degree, despite the fact that, as one of Indias most dynamic and hard-working chief ministers, he has been executing a wide range of schemes, aimed both at the real development and voter appeasement. In the 7 December Telangana Assembly election, TDP is expected to make gains from the Mahakutamithe grand alliance announced in Septemberof which it is a part along with Congress, CPI and Telangana Jana Samithi. But it is in Andhra where the stakes for Naidu are of a do-or-die kind. And thats where he is taking a calculated gamble to retain power. And thats what makes it important how Naidu packages and sells to voters his latest somersault to Congress. He must tell voters that its a move to save the nationwhich it isnt. And he must tell them that it isnt a move to save himselfwhich it is. The author tweets @sprasadindia The BSP is contesting the election to be held in two phases on 12 and 20 November in alliance with the JCC-J and the Communist Party of India (CPI). Bilaspur: Dalit leader Mayawati, whose Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting this month's Chhattisgarh Assembly polls in alliance with former chief minister Ajit Jogi's Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC-J), Sunday accused the "casteist" BJP and the Congress of trying to "abolish" the reservation system. Addressing a rally in Taraud village in the Akaltara constituency in Janjgir-Champa, the BSP chief alleged that both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress had worked towards making reservation "ineffective" and were trying to gradually "abolish" it. "Dalits, Adivasis and the other backward castes people have been getting the benefits of reservation, particularly in government jobs, as a result of the efforts of BR Ambedkar," Mayawati said. She accused the Congress and the BJP of having a "casteist mentality". "Right from the beginning, those parties had a casteist mentality...they have worked towards making reservation ineffective and (are trying to) gradually abolish it," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said. The BSP is contesting the election to be held in two phases on 12 and 20 November in alliance with the JCC-J and the Communist Party of India (CPI). Of the 90 Assembly seats in Chhattisgarh, the BSP will contest 33, the JCC-J 55 and the CPI two. Jogi has been named as the chief ministerial candidate of the coalition. His daughter-in-law, Richa Jogi, is contesting from the Akaltara seat on a BSP ticket. "The Congress was in power for a long time in the country. Now, the incumbent BJP governments at the Centre and in the state have failed to fully comply with the quota norms as provisioned in the reservation policy. A similar situation is prevailing in Chhattisgarh as well," the BSP chief said. She also accused the Congress and the BJP of having an "internal nexus" to make reservations in job promotions for Dalits and tribals "ineffective up to a great extent". Mayawati further said the BSP had fought for reservation inside Parliament and on the streets, apart from running a campaign for the implementation of the recommendations of the Mandal Commission to ensure a quota for the OBCs. She also lashed out at the BJP and the Congress over the SCs, STs and OBCs not getting a reservation in the private sector. "If the coalition of the BSP, JCC-J and CPI comes to power in Chhattisgarh, it will do its best to ensure that Adivasis, Dalits, backwards, minorities, labourers and farmers get their rights. "Uplift of the poor, farmers, labourers, tribals and Dalits is only possible in the state when this alliance comes to power. They will be able to lead a life with respect and dignity, besides Naxalism will also be contained," Mayawati said. Eighteen constituencies in the eight Naxalism-affected districts of the state will go to the polls on 12 November and the rest in the second phase on 20 November. The results will be declared on 11 December. In the 2013 state Assembly polls, the BJP had won 49 seats, the Congress 39, the BSP and an Independent candidate had won one seat each. Scheduled Castes (SCs) account for around 12 per cent of the population of Chhattisgarh. Triangular fights among the BJP, Congress and the BSP-JCC(J)-CPI coalition are expected in the Bilaspur division. It becomes important for Congress to introspect and think aloud when Omar Abdullah questions Rahul Gandhi's strategy to call Prime Minister Narendra Modi a thief. Omar Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi have been friends for long. They are of the same age, 48, and enjoy their current high positions in their respective parties because they are dynasts who have inherited their familys commanding political legacies. In January 2009, Rahul backed Omar to become the youngest chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, preferring him over his father Farooq Abdullah. He remained chief minister for six years because Congress remained consistent in its support to him. At a function in October 2012 in Kashmir when the Congress-led UPA was ruling at the Centre and Omar was chief minister, Rahul recalled that the relationship between the two families goes back to the times of Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah. The National Conference (NC), headed by Omar, continues to be a prospective partner of the Congress-led coalition. It thus becomes important for the Congress to introspect when Omar questions Rahul's strategy to call Prime Minister Narendra Modi a thief. Consider what Omar said at The Indian Express' Idea Exchange programme about the possibility of the Congress as the lead Opposition player, the mahagathbandhan (grand coalition) and Congress leaders' rising tendency to call Modi names. First, Omar said, We need to guard against making personal attacks. Demeaning the prime minister allows him to shift the narrative to being a victim whether it was Mani Shankar Aiyars comment or people saying that the prime minister is a thief. The Congress president has been consistently calling names to Modi, Hindustan ka chowkidar chor hai. PM a chor was Rahul Gandhis coinage to target Modi. Though the Congress leader had used various other derogatory words against Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat or since the time became prime minister but calling him a thief was taking the issue to an entirely new level. The BJP initially reacted to Rahuls usage of this name-calling for the prime minister, but now has stopped reacting to it. The ruling party perhaps thinks that this would prove to be counterproductive to the Congress. In successive Assembly elections, voters have rejected Rahul's campaigns in which he has compared Modi to a modern-day dacoit Gabbar Singh. Modi swung popular sentiments in last years Gujarat elections by responding to Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's remark calling him "neech". It remains to be seen whether Modi responds to Rahuls chor remark against him in the coming Assembly elections in five states. Second, Omar is right when he said, somehow, the prime ministers credibility is seen differently from the credibility of the BJP. When we attack the prime minister as a person, rather than the BJP as a party, we are actually helping him in this election campaign. Various opinion polls and results of Assembly elections clearly point to what Omar has said in public. Third, his skepticism about the mahagathbandhan was not unfounded. About the 2019 elections, I dont think anybody knows what the heck is going to happen. It is such a fluid situation. Is a mahagathbandhan going to happen? Who knows, what will Mayawati do in Uttar Pradesh, will Chandrababu Naidu succeed in rallying anti-BJP parties?," he remarked. The most critical player in the proposed grand coalition, Mayawati, has decided to take a separate path and form her own front rather than being a part of the Congress-led front at least that is what the current status is. Neither she nor Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is inclined to have an alliance with Congress in Uttar Pradesh for 2019. An alliance with Congress proved to be hugely detrimental to Samajawadi Party in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee is not showing any keenness to tie up with Congress. The Chandrababu Naidu-led TDPs emerging equations with the Congress will be dependent on the Telengana Assembly election results. Fourth, Omar questioned the Congress' strategy of giving prominence to several leaders from different times whether at the time of the presidential election or the swearing-in of Kumaraswamy or during iftar parties or protest rallies in Delhi. He has been quoted as saying, Sometimes, I have disagreements in terms of strategies. When we make it look like we are all ganging up against Prime Minister Modi, we are actually playing to his advantage. It allows him to be the victim. Its the biggest favour that we can do for him. I dont think it helps our case when 14-16 of us sit together on a stage and then blast him." This stance of the NC leader would pinch the Congress. For instance, Sharad Yadav, a leader often seen with Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, is a leader without a party, without any mass base and without any influence over others. Yet, he is always given a prominent position. Fifth, although Omar did not say it as many words, he insinuates that most of the leaders who have ganged up against Modi and the BJP have serious corruption cases against them and it does not make for good optics when they go ballistic against Modi with the single-minded pursuit of somehow dislodging him. It will allow the prime minister to claim that these guys are ganging up against me because I have stopped their corruption, he said.. The Congress has so far not reacted to Omars contentions. However, if it wants to be a worthwhile challenger to Modi in 2019, then it needs to take serious note of the advice which has come from the leader of a friendly party. Hiphei resigned as the Mizoram Speaker and Congress MLA and said Deputy Speaker R Lalrinawma had accepted his resignation. Mizoram Speaker Hiphei on Monday resigned from the post and as a Congress MLA in the Assembly, joining Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The seven-time Congress legislator said he submitted his resignation letter to Deputy Speaker R Lalrinawma who accepted it. From there, he went to Congress Bhavan to resign from primary membership of the party. In Guwahati, convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma said Hiphei, 81, will join the saffron party in his presence in the Aizawl. "He is a very senior leader. His joining the saffron party will greatly strengthen the organisation," Sarma, who is also Assam finance minister, said. The senior BJP leader, however, did not comment on whether the party will field Hiphei from any constituency in the forthcoming Assembly polls in the hill state. A veteran politician, Hiphei was elected to the Rajya Sabha for two terms, from 1990 to 1996, and from 1996 to 2002. He was elected to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly from the Palak constituency in 2013. On 1 November, the Congress had dropped Hiphei from its list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections. The party had replaced him as its candidate from Palak with former legislator and Congress general secretary KT Rokhaw for the seat. He is the fifth Congress MLA to resign from the 40-member House since September. Mizoram, the only state in the North East currently under Congress rule, will go to the polls on 28 November. The challenge for the BJP ahead of the Madhya Pradesh elections is evident. It is going to be tough to accommodate leaders of all castes in Indore district's nine seats, all while ensuring that no rebel candidate surfaces. Indore: Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday declared its first list of 177 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections on 28 November, higher-ups started mulling over the controversial seats in Indore district, and "social engineering" was the focus of a number of meetings in New Delhi on Monday. "We held meetings on this. The candidates will be selected based on the voters' equation in each constituency, but that doesn't mean we will ignore the popularity of the candidate in that particular constituency, just to make sure that members of a community or caste are satisfied," said Gopi Krishna Nema, the BJP's Indore district president. The nine constituencies in Indore district, include Indore 1 to 5, Rai, Mhow, Depalpur and Sanwer. People from upper-caste communities and those against reservation have openly confronted leaders of both the BJP and Congress in various parts of Madhya Pradesh. A caste battle has begun in the state, where individuals from reserved Assembly seats and tribal regions have begun to form their own organisations, swearing to contest reserved seats independently. Additionally, Sindhis, Patidars and Rajputs have also threatened to contest independently, if the candidates they support are not given tickets. Keeping in mind the fourth front, with the formation of parties like the Samanya Pichda Alpsankhyak Kalyan Samaj (SAPAKS) and Jay Adivasi Yuva Shakti (JAYS) in the state, leaders of the larger political parties want to make sure that they don't leave out candidates from any caste. "If I get a ticket from Mhow this time, it will be because of the work I have done for the party," said Kavita Patidar, a contender from the Mhow Assembly seat. "We all stand for the 'lotus' and will receive support not only from the community, but from all BJP supporters. Party leaders will decide the rest." In the Indore-3 Assembly constituency, if the incumbent Rajput MLA, Usha Thakur, is sidelined to give tickets to rebel candidates like senior party leaders Gopi Nema and Rajendra Shukla, the situation will be such that there will be no Rajput candidate to counter Antar Singh Darbar, a senior Congress leader from the same community who is likely to get a ticket from the Mhow constituency. Ramesh Mendola, a Brahmin MLA from Indore-2, might be moved to another seat to make way for BJP supremo Kailash Vijayvargiya's son Aakash's political debut. In this case, he will be given either Indore-3 or the Rau constituency, where there are a higher number of Brahmin voters. The Vaishya community enjoys a hold on two important seats in the Indore district Indore-1 and Mhow leaders Sudarshan Gupta and Kailash Vijayvargiya have strong support in both. Senior BJP leader Gopi Nema is also expecting a ticket this time from Indore-3, bringing the number of Vaishya leaders to three. Although the Murai community does not have that a significant vote bank in Madhya Pradesh, there is a long list of leaders from this community expecting a ticket. While Pankaj Sanghvi, the MLA from Indore-5, remains a strong nominee from the Murai community, politicians like Madhu Verma, Amardeep Morya, Balram Verma and Mohit Verma cannot be ignored. Voters from Indore-4, which has the maximum number of Sindhis in the city, have demanded one of their own as a leader. Vouching for Shankar Lalwani, the Sindhi community has threatened to contest the Assembly polls independently if he does not receive a ticket. Leader of the Patidar community Hardik Patel, who had influenced the Gujarat Assembly elections to a great extent, has been highly visible in Indore and is now seen as a threat by the BJP. There is a possibility that the party might field Kavita Patidar from the Mhow constituency to give the community a chance and win their votes. The Balai community, which has a major vote share in the Sanwer constituency reserved for candidates from Scheduled Caste communities, asserted that it is important that their own candidate gets a ticket. The fate of the Maharashtrian community will also be tested, as Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is backing her daughter-in-law Trupti Mahajan to contest from the Rau constituency, where the number of Maharashtrian voters is high. If 'Tai' is able to secure a ticket for her daughter-in-law, there are chances of a tough fight for Rau. The challenge for the BJP is evident. It is going to be tough to accommodate leaders of all castes in Indore district's nine seats, all while ensuring that no rebel candidate surfaces. At a function organized in Patna on Saturday Nitish Kumar had said - in the context of seat sharing issue among NDA constituents having become a thorny one, 'please do not lower the level of discourse so much. Patna: Ruling JD(U) on Monday said it attached no importance to "prejudiced and provocative" remarks by Union minister Upendra Kushwaha against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The war of words between Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), the two constituents of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), indicates that the notes of discord continued to emanate from within the coalition. The RLSP, which is headed by Kushwaha, hit back saying the JD(U) was jittery over Kumar's declining popularity and the growing appeal of Upendra Kushwaha, especially among the backwards and the Dalits. "We do not wish to comment on a remark that is prejudiced and provocative. It is well-known that Nitish Kumar has always maintained high standards of public discourse," JD(U) state president Vashishtha Narayan Singh told reporters. He was reacting to remarks made by Kushwaha on Sunday wherein Kumar was accused of having called the Union minister neech (lowly). At a function organized in Patna on Saturday, the chief minister had said in response to queries about his uneasy relations - in the context of the issue of seat sharing among NDA constituents having become a thorny one, "please do not lower the level of discourse so much (bahas ka star itna neeche mat giraiye)." Taking affront to the remark, Kushwaha in Muzaffarpur district on Sunday had said, "I have always called Nitish Kumar my elder brother but he calls me neech." The RLSP chief also taunted his former mentor for having expressed outrage, three years ago, over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark that Kumar's political vacillations indicated something is wrong with his DNA. Kushwaha's remarks were also disapproved by senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey who said "the RLSP chief must give a chief minister the respect that is his due. He is himself a Union minister and should avoid indulging in a slanging match." Maintaining that Kumar's remark was meant to belittle Kushwaha, RLSP national general secretary Madhaw Anand said in a statement "our leader has always treated Kumar with great respect but the same has never been reciprocated." "If he holds such poor opinions about Kushwaha, why did he make the latter the leader of the Opposition in Bihar assembly and sent him to Rajya Sabha later on," Anand said. "Consistency has never been Nitish Kumar's virtue but this time he has hurt the party and shocked the people of Bihar as well," he said. "Kumar is worried about his own falling popularity and jittery over Kushwaha's efforts like the Halla Bol Darwaza Khol campaign which has taken the important issue of reservations in the judiciary to the masses, thereby earning him the goodwill of Dalits and OBCs," Anand claimed. Kuswaha, a close aide of Kumar fell out with the JD(U) national president and later launched his own party RLSP on the eve of 2014 general election and became a member of the NDA. Kushwaha, whose party won all three Lok Sabha seats it had contested in Bihar in last Parliamentary polls, was made Union Minister of State for Human Resource and Development (HRD). The RLSP chief has been feeling uneasy within NDA after return of Kumar to the coalition in July, 2017. The simmering hostility between the two leaders escalated after BJP chief Amit Shah in the company of Kumar announced in Delhi recently that the two parties would fight equal number of seats in Bihar in Lok Sabha 2019 election which was taken in the political circle as an indication of Kushwaha's marginalisation in the coalition. Whichever way these election results go, they are expected to help all three parties to fine tune their strategies for the mega fight in the April-May 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The impending results of five by-elections from Karnataka, due to be announced on Tuesday, are expected to help the Congress-JD(S) combine to evaluate the effect of its maiden electoral partnership. Simultaneously, they will also put under scanner BS Yeddyurappas leadership of the state BJP. The three Lok Sabha and two Assembly seats which went to polls across the state on Saturday, hold the key to political alignment and the selection of candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which are less than six months away. In both Ramanagaram Assembly and Mandya Lok Sabha seats which the JD(S) is trying to retain while the local Congress leaders campaigned reluctantly for their traditional rivals, the party workers minced no words in expressing their resentment at the imposed alliance with those whom they had fought for decades. But, fortunately for the JD(S), as the BJP has negligible presence in both the constituencies, it could well be a walkover with Anitha Kumaraswamy, Chief Minister Kumaraswamys wife, easily entering the Assembly and LR Shivarame Gowda being elected to the Lok Sabha for a short stint of five months. In a huge embarrassment to the BJP, just two days before the campaigning ended, its candidate L Chandresekhar retired from contest and rejoined the Congress, of which he was a member until a fortnight ago. With egg on their faces, the BJP leaders cried betrayal and use of money power by the JD(S), but irreversible damage had been done. Chandresekhars contention was that he was left to fend for himself as no senior BJP leader came to campaign for him while Yeddyurappa said he ignored Chandrasekhar as he smelt that there was something wrong with his candidature. The central BJP leaders have taken umbrage at the faux pas and begun an inquiry as to how such a serious blunder was committed. The focus is on Yeddyurappas role as state president, as in May 2018, he had similarly embarrassed the party by getting sworn-in as chief minister but failing to mobilise the support of at least eight MLAs to stitch together a majority. Yeddyurappa faces another sterner test as he has fielded his son, BY Raghavendra from Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat vacated by him. Raghavendra had been elected once earlier, but now he is facing a tough fight from JD(S)s candidate, Madhu Bangarappa. Shivamogga was traditionally a Congress bastion as its candidates have won 11 out of 15 elections, until Yeddyurappa emerged as a leader from this Malnad region. Former chief minister Bangarappa, apart from getting elected to the Assembly eight times, had won Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat thrice, once each from the Congress, the BJP and the Samajwadi Party. Banking on late Bangarappas popularity, JD(S) staked claim over this seat as Madhu happens to be a member of the party. In the recent Assembly elections, Madhu had been defeated by his elder brother, Kumar Bangarappa of the BJP in Sagara constituency. It was a reversal of fortunes, as in 2013 Madhu had defeated Kumar from the same constituency. The campaign turned nasty when Kumaraswamys personal barb at Kumar accusing him of shabbily treating his father in his last days, was returned by Kumar who spoke of Kumaraswamys actress-second wife, Radhika Kumaraswamy potentially resorting to Me Too to embarrass him. The by-election to Ballary Lok Sabha seat also produced a lot of heat and dust as BJPs Sriramulu, on getting elected to the Assembly, has put up his sister J Shantha, who is being opposed by VS Ugrappa of the Congress. Though Ugrappa is an outsider to this constituency, he is being strongly backed by Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar, who are playing the backward class card. Ballary had seen an intense battle between Sonia Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj in late 1990s, which Sonia won, but it is no longer a safe seat for the Congress. The JD(S) has extended support to the Congress, though its presence here is minimal. At Jamkhandi, the Congress has put up Anand Siddu Nyamagouda, son of Nyamagouda, who died in an accident soon after the May election. Srikanth Kulakarni of the BJP, who had lost narrowly last time, is also seeking sympathy from the voters. Whichever way these election results go, they are expected to help all three parties to fine tune their strategies for the mega fight in the April-May 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The TDP, TJS and CPI are reportedly seeking 18, 14, and at least five seats respectively as part of seat-sharing with Congress in Telangana. Hyderabad: The Congress, which is leading the "grand alliance" of Opposition parties for the 7 December Legislative Assembly elections in Telangana, Monday said seat-sharing among the parties would be finalised by 9 November. "Talks are on with all. It has nearly concluded. You will come to know by 9th (November). There is no problem in seat sharing of the alliance," RC Khuntia, AICC in-charge of party affairs in Telangana, told reporters. The "grand alliance" comprises Congress, Telugu Desam party, CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS). "Talks are on with TJS (Telangana Jana Samithi), TDP (Telugu Desam Party), CPI (Communist Party of India)... All the lists (of candidates) will also be released," Khuntia said. He was replying to a query about seat-sharing among "grand alliance" partners and the TJS reportedly seeking more seats than what it was offered. The gazette notification for the elections will be issued on 12 November and the last date of nominations is 19 November, according to the schedule released by the Election Commission. There are a total of 119 Assembly seats in the state. The TDP, TJS and CPI are reportedly seeking 18, 14, and at least five seats respectively as part of seat-sharing. Earlier, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) Telangana unit leaders announced support to the Congress. The resemblance goes beyond Pakistans first law and labour minister and Bangladeshs former chief justice both being Hindus. Sheikh Hasina is in no mood to yield. Haunted by the brutal killing of almost her entire family, she cannot forget that Begum Zias husband was not only the eventual beneficiary of that bloodbath but that he did nothing to punish the murderers. (Photo: PTI) As Bangladeshi politicians squabble their way to another act in the Battle of the Begums, one can hear echoes of Jogendra Nath Mondals historic letter of resignation in published excerpts from Surendra Kumar Sinhas autobiography, A Broken Dream: Rule of Law, Human Rights and Democracy. The resemblance goes beyond Pakistans first law and labour minister and Bangladeshs former chief justice both being Hindus. Their testaments indict the state and its high functionaries for lacking in democratic propriety or accountability. Reflecting their despair, the veteran Kamal Hossain declared at a recent Chittagong election rally: People are the owners of this state and the government is nothing but a servant of the people. (But) they have taken it for granted that state power is their ancestral property. They are considering themselves as owners of the country. Thats why they are clinging to power. People can make the impossible possible if they are united. As a young barrister in 1971, Dr Hossain was Bangladeshs first foreign minister. Falling out later with Sheikh Mujibur Rahmans daughter, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Bangladeshs Prime Minister, he now leads the Oppositions Jatiya Oikya Front (JOF), which includes the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by the imprisoned Begum Khaleda Zia, widow of Zia-ur Rahman, the assassinated former President. Dr Hossains stricture might apply to both the begums, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, as well as posthumously to Mujib himself, whose so-called Second Revolution in February 1975 outlawed all political parties and established the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (Baksal) as a national political front comprising the Bangladesh Awami League, the Communist Party of Bangladesh, National Awami Party (Mozaffar) and the Jatiyo League. Established by presidential order, this one-party state was dissolved six months later when Mujib, his wife, sons and nephew were murdered on August 15, 1975. The shortcomings of the Bangladeshi polity do not, however, concern India unless there are cross-border repercussions. Similarly, whether the ruling party is secular or communal in Indian terms is of little concern here if it doesnt lead to a flood of refugees. Strategic and economic inter-dependence, even more than diplomatic propriety, oblige New Delhi to deal in the same spirit of wholehearted cooperation with whoever is elected in Bangladeshs 11th general election in late December. India also needs stability in a sensitive region that adjoins both its own Northeast and Myanmar with its Rohingya crisis. Harmonious pre-poll arrangements, peaceful voting and the emergence of a broad-based government committed to growth that enjoys the confidence of a majority of Bangladeshis are the best guarantees of that. Much seems to hinge on the Oppositions demand for a non-party caretaker government to preside over the voting, which the constitutions 15th amendment ruled out, although the Awami Leagues Obaidul Quader says the Prime Minister has promised a free, fair and neutral election, the recent three-and-a-half hour meeting between Sheikh Hasina and a 20-member Opposition team led by Dr Hossain failed to break the stalemate. Begum Zia must rue her decision to boycott the January 2014 election which enabled 153 Awami Leaguers to be elected unopposed to Bangladeshs Parliament. Already serving a five-year sentence for embezzling funds from an orphanage, the ailing 73-year-old former Prime Minister suffered a major setback when she was handed a seven-year sentence in a second corruption case relating to a charitable trust. The Oppositions seven-point charter includes her release (together with other political prisoners), an impartial government to hold the election, the Jatiyo Sangsads dissolution before the election schedule is announced, the governments resignation, a ban on electronic voting machines, deployment of the Army with magisterial powers, and the reform of the Election Commission. Sheikh Hasina is in no mood to yield. Haunted by the brutal killing of almost her entire family, she cannot forget that Begum Zias husband was not only the eventual beneficiary of that bloodbath but that he did nothing to punish the murderers. Moreover, his claim to have made the first independence announcement in 1971 seemed to steal her fathers thunder. The Jamaat-e-Islami collaborated with Pakistanis in 1971, supported Mujibs assassination, and was hand in glove with the BNP.The Jamaat and important BNP office-bearers, including Begum Zias son, Tarique Rahman, are also accused of a grenade attack on an Awami League rally that Sheikh Hasina was addressing on August 21, 2004. She survived the attack with only partial hearing loss, but 24 people were killed and 500 others left injured. While there is no question of another Baksal, the Jamaats de-registration as a political party and punitive action against BNP leaders suggest she might be trying to achieve the same end informally. Mondals passionate 8,000-word 14-page letter of October 8, 1950 to Liaquat Ali Khan (then Prime Minister of Pakistan) emphasised that Hindus whose horrendous sufferings he described in graphic detail were not the only sufferers. Lamenting that East Bengal had been reduced to a colony, he added that local Muslims who wanted bread have by the mysterious working of the Islamic State and the Shariat got stone instead from the arid deserts of Sind and the Punjab. Sinha, Bangladeshs first Hindu chief justice, clashed with Sheikh Hasina over a high court verdict nullifying the 16th constitutional amendment allowing Parliament to impeach judges. When the ruling party appealed to the Supreme Court, an appellate division bench headed by Sinha unanimously rejected the appeal upholding the high courts decision. He was sent on leave, and resigned from the United States, claiming to have done so in the face of intimidation and threats to my family and friends by the countrys military intelligence agency, which he accused of exerting pressure on the judges for delivery of a judgment in favour of the government. All these grievances, old and new, are echoed in Bangladeshs election rhetoric as the daughter and widow of slain leaders prepare for yet another round of yesterdays battle. tech2 News Staff The Google Doodle for the day celebrates what would have been the 82nd birthday of computer scientist Michael Dertouzos. Dertouzos was the first one to predict the popularity of personal computer in our daily lives. As early as 1980, Dertouzos wrote the concept of The Information Marketplace, which he explained in his book What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives. It was published in 1997. If we strip the hype away, a simple, crisp and inevitable picture emerges -- of an Information Marketplace where people and their computers will buy, sell and freely exchange information and information work, the Google Doodle website quotes from his writings. The computer scientist consistently insisted on the importance of the internet in our lives. He aimed at his project to make computers "as natural a part of our environment as the air we breathe." As also highlighted in his final book, The Unfinished Revolution: Human-Centered Computers and What They Can Do For Us, Dertouzos belief in technology was always grounded in his desire to unleash the full potential of humanity. Dertouzos was born in Athens, Greece in 1936. He graduated from Athens College, post which he attended the University of Arkansas on a Fulbright Scholarship and earned a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Eventually, he become the Director of the institute. tech2 News Staff When Snap Inc launched the second edition of its Spectacles, everybody was surprised, considering the poor response the first edition of the smartglasses got. And now, Snap-investor Tencent has also launched its own take on the Snap Spectacles, and they call it Weishi smartglasses. Further, the glasses will apparently also start selling in markets soon, with its first sale starting 11 November, which also happens to be shopping carnival in China. #Tencent's version of Snap Spectacles will go on sale Nov 11th pic.twitter.com/sNuSezdVgS Matthew Brennan (@mbrennanchina) November 2, 2018 The purpose of these smartglasses is same as that of the Snap Spectacles. They will help users create videos from the first-person perspective. And the Tencent glasses name itself implicitly describes its purpose. Weishi, means micro videos in Chinese. There is also a short-video sharing app by Tencent by the same name. So we are assuming, that the Weishi glasses are meant to work in sync with the Weishi app. Alongside the smart sunglasses, Tencent has also rolled out a GoPro-like action camera that links to the Weishi app. Reuters Europes Airbus on Friday delivered the powerhouse for NASAs new Orion Spaceship that will take astronauts to the Moon and beyond in coming years, hitting a key milestone that should lead to hundreds of millions of euros in future orders. Engineers at the Airbus plant in Bremen, Germany on Thursday carefully packed the spacecraft into a special container that will fly aboard a huge Antonov cargo plane to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a first step on its way to deep space. In Florida, the module will be joined with the Orion crew module built by Lockheed Martin, followed by over a year of intensive testing before the first three-week mission orbiting the Moon is launched in 2020, albeit without people. Future production of Orion and the European module could result in billions of dollars of new orders for the companies involved in coming years, said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for human exploration and operations for NASA. This is the system that will enable humans to move sustainably into deep space ... and leave the Earth-Moon system for the first time ever, he said. Current plans are for a first crewed mission in 2022, but NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) then plan to launch a manned mission every year, making the Orion project both politically and economically important at a time when China and other countries are racing to gain a foothold in space. Airbuss European Service Module will provide propulsion, power, thermal control and consumables to the Orion crew module, marking the first time that NASA will use a European-built system as a critical element to power an American spacecraft. This is a very big step. The delivery and the flight to America are just the beginning of a journey that will ultimately take us to 60,000 miles beyond the moon, further than any human has ever flown before, Oliver Juckenhoefel, vice president of on-orbit services and exploration for Airbus, told Reuters. Orion is part of a growing push to put humans back on the Moon, where the unexpected discovery of water has energized scientists, with rapid technological developments such as 3D printing paving the way for lunar-based infrastructure, such as data server relay stations, in coming years. It sounds like science fiction, but Im convinced its coming, and the only question for us in Europe is whether we want to be part of it or not, Juckenhoefel said. In industry, we have to be careful that we dont miss the boat. NASAs Gerstenmaier said ESA was interested in participating in a so-called lunar gateway with an eye to landing humans on the Moon again around 2028, and providing a base for travel to Mars and beyond. Airbus won a 390 million euro ($446.12 million) contract to build the first ESM module in 2014 and is working on a second order valued at 200 million euros. Now it is negotiating with ESA for further orders that could add up to a billion euros, Juckenhoefel said. Mike Hawes, who runs the $11 billion Orion program for Lockheed, underscored the importance of the program for future exploration of deep space. He said Lockheed was negotiating with NASA for up to 12 follow-on missions that could result in billions of dollars of new orders while working to halve the cost of future spacecraft. By James Oliphant BETHESDA, Md. (Reuters) - Beyond the vegan meatballs and Medicare For All T-shirts, there was something else notable at a Democratic rally last week in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Maryland: direct, no-holds-barred condemnation of the president By James Oliphant BETHESDA, Md. (Reuters) - Beyond the vegan meatballs and Medicare For All T-shirts, there was something else notable at a Democratic rally last week in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Maryland: direct, no-holds-barred condemnation of the president. We need somebody who can stand up to Trump! one candidate for local office told the crowd. Another compared Donald Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But they were just warmup acts for the main event, the blunt former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who while technically an independent is a champion of causes held dear by liberal progressive Democrats. Trump, Sanders said, was the most racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted president in history, adding later for good measure that Trump was a pathological liar. The crowd thundered in approval. Sanders, a U.S. senator from liberal Vermont, is expected to win re-election easily in Tuesdays congressional elections, so he took little political risk in bashing the president. Still, his rhetoric on the stump made for a stark contrast with most Democratic candidates. Democrats have largely resisted excoriating Trump on his words and actions, although he has denounced the party at his political rallies as an angry, dangerous "mob." As recently as last week, when Trump was accused of sowing division with his response to the synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh and harsh rhetoric on migrants traveling to the U.S. border from Central America, voters heard little about that from Democrats running for Congress. Democratic candidates were much more likely to be talking about healthcare or economic inequality. That was by design. The party, early in this congressional election season, made a collective determination not to regularly confront the president, according to multiple party sources. That has left many Democrats, particularly those from the party's liberal progressive wing, frustrated. They accuse the party of being too timid, too afraid of alienating moderate voters. They argue that the party needs to find its critical voice during what they see as a national crisis and that they risk not making a clear case to voters about the values for which the party stands. Its a sign of their weakness. Its a sign of their ineffectiveness that theyre afraid to do it, said Ed Mattos, 70, of Rockville, Maryland, who attended the Sanders rally. Linda Sarsour, a party activist and an organizer of the nationwide Womens March, which was fueled by anger over Trump's 2016 victory, argued that Democrats must unapologetically call out the president while providing their own vision for the country. We have to have a very clear alternative, she said. We have to give America two choices here. BAKED IN By and large, however, Democratic candidates and party elders such as David Axelrod, the former top campaign aide to President Barack Obama, contend that sticking to kitchen-table issues is a better way to win over voters than being drawn into culture wars and the swirl of controversy that Trump regularly generates. Independents and moderates, they say, want candidates who exhibit maturity and stability. Besides, Trump certainly is never far from voters minds, they add. Trump is just so baked into the equation, said one Democratic strategist working on House of Representatives campaigns, who asked to remain anonymous so he could freely discuss the partys thinking. Candidates have been remarkably disciplined about not being distracted by shiny objects. Frank Sharry, a longtime advocate for immigrant rights at the advocacy group Americas Voice, said candidates are in a really tough spot. If you engage, you give Trump what he wants, a debate about a topic that he wants to be discussing. Even so, Sharry said he would like to see more Democrats address Trumps divisiveness and demagoguery. Two who have tried are Beto ORourke, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Texas, and Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidate for Florida governor, both of whom regularly criticize the presidents policies and tone. Nevertheless, electoral projections support the restrained approach. Polls show Democrats on Tuesday should win the 23 seats they need to assume control of the House of Representatives and perhaps as many as 15 or 20 seats beyond that. Democrats are expected to fall short of the two seats they need to reach the majority in the Senate. NEW ROAD MAP The party believes it has heeded a lesson from Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign, which is now viewed by strategists as overly focused on finding fault with Trump rather than affirming Clintons own agenda. The road map for this year's strategy was drawn last year by Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, who handily defeated Republican Ed Gillespie by emphasizing economic issues while Gillespie stoked fear among voters over immigration and crime much like Trump at his late-stage campaign events. With Trumps every provocative word seemingly splayed across cable news daily, the strategy has often led to a jarring juxtaposition outside of Washington. It has not been unusual for a Democratic campaign event to occur with no reference to the president. The Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks campaign ads by subject matter, said in September that the president was mentioned negatively in less than 5 percent of TV ads to that point - rarer than in the previous three congressional midterm elections. The small minority of ads that do attack Trump includes those by "Need to Impeach," an advocacy group founded by California billionaire Tom Steyer. Kevin Mack, the lead strategist for the group, said voters it had surveyed were more motivated by antipathy for Trump than anything else, and that Democrats remained too risk averse. If they fall short on Tuesday in any regard, he said, it will be because they held their tongue on Trump. You can hold the president accountable and say youll fix healthcare at the same time," Mack said. (Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Jason Szep and Peter Cooney) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. A joint statement, issued in Beijing after Prime Minister Imran Khan's talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, said that China backed Pakistan's efforts to improve ties with India Beijing: China on Sunday said it supported Pakistan's "quest for peace through dialogue" to settle the outstanding disputes with India as it backed Islamabad's "engagement" with the Nuclear Suppliers group (NSG). A joint statement, issued in Beijing after Prime Minister Imran Khan's talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, said that China backed Pakistan's efforts to improve ties with India to settle "outstanding disputes", without directly mentioning the Kashmir issue. "China appreciates Pakistan's quest for peace through dialogue, cooperation and negotiation, on the basis of mutual respect and equality, and supports Pakistan's efforts for improvement of Pakistan-India relations and for settlement of outstanding disputes between the two countries," the joint statement said. The ties between India and Pakistan had strained after the terror attacks by Pakistan-based groups in 2016 and India's surgical strikes inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. In recent years, China has refrained from taking a public stance on the India-Pakistan ties, expressing hope for resolution of the disputes through dialogue. On the Kashmir issue, China's oft repeated stand was that it should be resolved peacefully through dialogue. India too supports dialogue as the way to resolve the issue with Pakistan but maintains that the talks and terrorism cannot go together. For its part, Pakistan supported active participation of China at the platform of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Also significantly, China tacitly expressed its backing for Pakistan's efforts to secure the NSG membership. India has also been seeking entry into the 48-member elite nuclear club, which controls nuclear trade, but China has repeatedly stonewalled its bid. While India, which is backed by the US and a number of western countries has garnered the support of a majority of the group's members, China has stuck to its stand that new members should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), making India's entry difficult as the group is guided by the consensus principle. India is not a signatory to the NPT. China's repeated stonewalling on India's membership bid in the NSG has become a major stumbling block in bilateral relations. "The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to multilateral, non-discriminatory arms control and non-proliferation endeavours," the joint statement said. "They noted with concern the continued pursuit of double standards in the application of non-proliferation norms and procedures and called for policies upholding rule of law and long-standing rules," it added. China appreciates and supports steps taken by Pakistan for strengthening the global non-proliferation regime, the statement said. China also heaped praise on Pakistan for its efforts to counter terrorism and said it recognised Islamabad's efforts in actively strengthening financial regulations to combat terrorism financing, and called on all relevant parties to view Pakistan's counter-terrorism efforts in an objective and fair manner. But at the same time China is pressing Pakistan to crackdown on Uyghur Islamic militants crossing in and out of the volatile Muslim-majority Xinjiang province bordering Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. "The Pakistani side reaffirmed its support to the Chinese side in safeguarding its sovereignty and security, and combating separatism, terrorism and extremism including East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM)," the statement said. China blames the separatist ETIM, an al-Qaeda linked group, for the violent attacks in Xinjiang and elsewhere in the country. Both China and Pakistan agreed to further enhance cooperation against "three evils' of extremism, terrorism and separatism", the statement said. Both sides, however, underscored the need for all states to avoid "politicisation" of the UN sanctions regime and the work of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF has placed Pakistan in its grey list for not doing enough to counter terror financing. All-weather friends, China and Pakistan also agreed to enhance their defence cooperation. Both sides have agreed to make full use of the China-Pakistan Defence and Security Consultation mechanism, deepen cooperation in areas such as military exercises, training cooperation, personnel exchanges, and equipment and technology cooperation, it said. On the controversial $60 billion CPEC over which India has raised objection as it passes through PoK, the statement said China and Pakistan have "complete consensus" ruling out differences. "The two sides reaffirmed their complete consensus on the future trajectory of the CPEC, timely completion of its ongoing projects and joint efforts for realisation of its full potential with a focus on socio-economic development the statement said. On the debt concerns over the CPEC projects, it said "both sides dismissed the growing negative propaganda against CPEC and expressed determination to safeguard the projects from all threats." The CPEC is the flagship project of China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and includes a maze of roads and port projects. Once completed, it aims to connect China's largest province Xinjiang with Pakistan's Gwadar port in Balochistan, allowing Beijing access to the Arabian Sea. Donald Trump also told reporters that Iran was not the same country it was two years ago. US president Donald Trump has said that the US sanctions will hit Iran in a "big way" from 5 November, asserting that the "toughest-ever" punitive measures have been put in place for a "corrupt regime" in Tehran. Speaking with the reporters at the White House on Friday before leaving on a campaign trail, Trump said Iran was not the same country which it was when he started almost two years ago. "Iran is a much different country since I terminated that deal. That was one of the most ridiculous deals ever made by any country, at any time: the Iran nuclear deal," he said. "They're very serious sanctions. They're very big. They'll be elevated from there. But, as you know, sanctions are starting on Iran and, Iran is taking a very big hit," he said. In May, Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) terming it as disastrous". Under the Obama-era deal, involving five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, Iran agreed to stop its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. After the US' withdrawal from the deal, Trump signed fresh sanctions against Iran and warned countries against any cooperation with Tehran over its controversial nuclear weapons programme. Iran has dismissed these charges and maintains that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. "And just today, we riposted all sanctions that were lifted under that horrible deal. We now have in place the toughest ever sanctions on a corrupt regime in Iran," Trump told his supporters at an election rally in West Virginia. Earlier in an interview with the Sean Hannity Show, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged that Iran was the world's largest state sponsor of terror. "We're trying to change the ayatollah and Qasem Soleimani's behaviour to keep the American people safe and secure. That's the mission, these sanctions are a part of our effort, and they're already being felt by the Iranian leadership," he said. On Monday, 5 November, the US will not only be re-imposing the sanctions that were in place before the crazy Iranian nuclear deal was entered into, but there'll be over several hundred designations, Pompeo said. "We will ultimately move Iran to zero crude oil. That'll take us some number of months to do that. We've been able to do that in a way that hasn't had a huge impact on crude oil prices. That's a good thing for American consumers," Pompeo said. However, the US is expected to give a short-term waiver to eight countries which could include India because of its commitment to significantly reduces the import of oil from Iran. The waiver would be granted for six months period and then would be re-evaluated by the United States, Special US Representative on Iran, Brian Hook told reporters. These eight countries are among the top 20 oil importers from Iran, he told reporters. "Our goal remains getting countries to zero imports of Iranian oil. In 2019, our projections are that oil supply will exceed demand, and that creates a much better atmosphere for us to bring remaining nations to zero as quickly as possible," Hook said. "Unlike in prior administrations, we will ensure that the money is not spent on illicit activities, that there isn't any leakage in these escrow accounts, and we will work closely with countries to encourage the sale and purchase of humanitarian goods to benefit the Iranian people. "Our sanctions regime has very clear exceptions for the sale of food, medicine, and medical devices," he said. "The United States remains open to reaching a new, more comprehensive deal with Iran that forever blocks its path to a nuclear weapon, addresses the entire range of its malign actions, and is worthy of the Iranian people," Trump said in the presidential statement. "Until then, our historic sanctions will remain in full force," he said. In his presidential statement, Trump called on the regime to abandon its nuclear ambitions, change its "destructive behaviour", respect the rights of its people, and return in good faith to the negotiating table. It was in May, that Trump had announced that the US had withdrawn from what he described as "the horrible, one-sided" Iran nuclear deal. "On Monday, 5 November, the termination of United States participation in the Iran nuclear deal will be complete. The last set of sanctions lifted under the terrible nuclear deal will come back into force, including powerful sanctions on Iran's energy, shipping, and shipbuilding sectors, and sanctions targeting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran and sanctioned Iranian banks," the president said. "Our objective is to force the regime into a clear choice: either abandon its destructive behaviour or continue down the path toward economic disaster," he added. Later a senior State Department official told reporters that the US was ready for talks with Iran. "Secretary Pompeo has been very clear that we have an ear open to what is possible. We very much want to begin work on a new and better deal to replace the insufficient Iran nuclear deal that the president left in May, and our campaign of maximum economic pressure is a critical tactic to achieve that goal," Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said. Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that President Donald Trump has "disgraced" US prestige and would be the ultimate loser from renewing sanctions on the Islamic republic. "This new US president... has disgraced the remnant of America's prestige and that of liberal democracy. America's hard power, that is to say, their economic and military power, is declining too," he said on his Persian Twitter account, quoting a speech in Tehran. A defiant Khamenei dismissed the renewed US sanctions including an oil embargo that take effect on Monday. "The challenge between the US and Iran has lasted for 40 years so far and the US has made various efforts against us: military, economic and media warfare," he said. "There's a key fact here: in this 40-year challenge, the defeated is the US and the victorious is the Islamic republic," Trump announced in May he was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposing sanctions, sparking outrage among world powers who say Iran has been complying with commitments to restrict its atomic programme. Washington says it wants a new deal with Iran, curtailing its regional interventions and missile programme demands which have been flatly rejected by Tehran. "America's goal in taking all these measures has been to regain the domination it had" prior to Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the pro-Western shah, Khamenei said. The renewed sanctions are designed "to paralyse the (Iran's) economy and keep it backwards. However, it has resulted in encouraging a movement towards self-sufficiency in the country," Khamenei added. "Our youth, across the country, support independence. Some may not be so religious but they are sensitive towards domination by foreigners." On Friday, the US said it would add 700 individuals and entities to its Iran blacklist and push the SWIFT global banking network to cut off Tehran as Washington applies "maximum pressure" to cripple the country's economy. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said eight countries believed to include India, Japan and possibly China would be given waivers to continue importing Iranian oil in order to avoid upsetting the global crude market, but only on condition, they slow their purchases. The reimposition of sanctions "is aimed at depriving the regime of the revenues it uses to spread death and destruction around the world", Pompeo said. "Our ultimate aim is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw activities and behave like a normal country." Britain, France, Germany and the European Union strongly condemned the latest actions from Washington in a joint statement, and have vowed to preserve the nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). "The JCPOA is a key element of the global nuclear non-proliferation architecture and of multilateral diplomacy," they said. "It is crucial for the security of Europe, the region, and the entire world. The JCPOA is working and delivering on its goal." The US wants Iran to withdraw from war-ravaged Syria, where the Shiite clerical regime is a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad, and end longstanding support to regional militant movements Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as Yemen's Houthi rebels. With inputs from PTI By Joseph Ax PRINCETON, N.J. (Reuters) - For Democrats, Tuesday's New Jersey U.S By Joseph Ax PRINCETON, N.J. (Reuters) - For Democrats, Tuesday's New Jersey U.S. Senate election should have been a breeze. Bob Menendez, 64, has held the seat for more than a decade in a state that has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 46 years. But June's Democratic nominating contest exposed his potential weakness following his federal corruption trial last year: 40 percent voted for a virtually unknown challenger who spent zero dollars in the race. Menendez is locked in a tough and expensive race with a Republican who has hammered Menendez as unethical, former pharmaceutical executive Bob Hugin, also 64. Top Democrats in the state, including New Jersey's other U.S. senator, Cory Booker, seen as a potential 2020 White House contender, and Governor Phil Murphy, were scheduled to appear at several campaign events on Monday with Menendez, telling voters that re-electing their colleague would help block Republican President Donald Trump's agenda. The Cook Political Report, an independent group that analyzes congressional races, moved the race to "toss-up" from "leans Democrat" 10 days ago. Opinion polls have shown Menendez with a small but consistent lead, but Democrats sounded the alarm by pouring millions of dollars into the race in its final weeks. The effort may have paid off: a Quinnipiac University poll on Monday gave Menendez a 15-point lead. That was the biggest lead any public poll has found for the Democrat since April. The contest is crucial to the Democrats' slim hopes of taking control of the Senate, which depend on winning two Republican-held seats while defending 10 Senate seats in states that Trump won in 2016. A loss in New Jersey, a Democratic bastion in the U.S. Northeast, could be a fatal blow to those chances. Democrats remain favorites to win the 23 seats they need to capture the U.S. House of Representatives. Menendez's corruption trial ended in November 2017 when the jury could not reach a verdict. U.S. prosecutors dropped the case, but Menendez was censured by a Senate committee for accepting gifts from a wealthy friend in exchange for favors. Hugin, a Marine Corps veteran and the former executive chairman of Celgene Corp, has poured $36 million of his own money into a barrage of television commercials attacking Menendez. "If there were any other normal candidate who was not self-funding, I think Menendez would be ahead by 20 points," said Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University. The Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC has spent more than $7.5 million to boost Menendez, including running ads in the waning days of the campaign, a signal the party is concerned about the incumbent's position. Another super PAC, Patients for Affordable Drugs Action, has spent nearly $3.5 million to attack Hugin, saying he kept cancer drug prices artificially high. "We feel really good about our position right now," said Steven Sandberg, a spokesman for Menendez's campaign. A Democratic strategist involved in the race expected Menendez to win but said the close campaign had drawn Democratic dollars that could have been used in other crucial Senate races. 'CHOKE IT DOWN' The state's biggest newspaper, the Star-Ledger, reluctantly endorsed Menendez in an editorial headlined: "Choke it down, and vote for Menendez." "The people of New Jersey recognize that we can and we will do better than Bob Menendez," said Nick Iacovella, a Hugin campaign spokesman. A Hugin commercial repeats allegations that Menendez hired underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic. The FBI investigated those claims years ago and never brought charges. Menendez, who noted that fact-checkers had deemed the ad false, called Hugin a "slimeball" for running it. Hugin, who donated money to Trump's 2016 campaign, has tried to distance himself from the president's more incendiary rhetoric, disagreeing with Trump's proposal to end birthright citizenship. But Democrats have portrayed Hugin as a crucial vote for Trump's agenda, aiming to convince Democratic and independent voters to support Menendez as a check on the president. "I don't particularly like Menendez but I feel that I have to vote for him because I think the alternative is worse," said Jess Kilpatrick, a retired paralegal from West Amwell who disapproves of Trump. Kilpatrick said she has voted for Republicans in the past. "But this year Ill be voting strictly Democrat," she said. For all Reuters election coverage, click: https://www.reuters.com/politics/election2018 (Reporting by Joseph Ax; Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Peter Cooney and Grant McCool) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. In conclusion therefore, Imran returned home empty handed. As the The Dawn observed, it is surprising that a prime minister should visit an important ally with expectations that were clearly belied by reality. Imran Khan is back from his first official visit to China. Imran's nervousness was apparent in his first interview to the Chinese media in which he repeated himself several times over, and he certainly did not come across as the head of a sovereign state. For a person of Imran Khans temperament, a visit primarily structured around a begging bowl couldn't have been all that pleasant. For that is what it was in reality. Worse still, it was something which could hardly be hidden from the public gaze. First, in the matter of the urgent need to get financial assistance, his meeting with Premier Li Keqiang was not propitious. Xinhua quoted him at a press conference as saying that China was willing to provide assistance to Pakistan within our capability, a statement unlikely to provide any relief to his guest. The same tone echoed in the following meeting with vice-foreign minister Kong Xuanyou where it was said that China had made it clear in principle that (it) will provide necessary support and assistance to Pakistan in tiding over the current economic difficulties". It was also made clear that the actual amount of "assistance" will be discussed in subsequent meetings. Not a word about the rumoured $6 billion package, which was doing the rounds in the Pakistan media. The mood in Beijing was well encapsulated by Cheng Xiaohe, deputy director of the Centre for International Strategic Studies at Renmin University in the South China Morning Post. He rather tartly noted while China was willing to assist Pakistan, it was finally Islamabads responsibility to take care of its own people. Coming to the crux of the matter, he observed that China had a liquidity problem due to its trade war with the US. Therefore Pakistan must seek all kinds of assistance. Thats as crisp as it gets. Second is the issue of the nature and goals of Chinese loans and project assistance. Imran is no fool, and even before his election to the top post, the newly-elected prime minister had been stressing that Chinese assistance must also address the basic concerns of the people in terms of cheap housing, basic utilities and other aspects. In this he may get some reprieve. The joint statement stated "Chinese assistance will also be directed towards agriculture, education, health, poverty alleviation, safe drinking water, and vocational training". Even that quote has unwieldy strings attached. The "agriculture" aspect is entirely aimed at achieving Chinese goals. Remember the "CPEC Master Plan" leaked mid last year, which indicated that Chinese enterprises would operate their own farms across thousands of acres in Pakistan, with an end to end plan ranging from seeds, logistics and market. That's not assistance. That's a take over. Third, is the most ticklish aspect of a "re-negotiation" of Chinese loans that Imran and his team have been batting for. Nothing at all emerged on that front, and presumably, is going to be part of future discussions. The boiler plate joint statement did have some effusive language on Pakistans search for peace, and appreciated Pakistans engagement and adherence to the guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. No promise of membership as claimed by Indian media. Worse, the rest of the statement essentially commits Pakistan to the Chinese view on the Iran-US nuclear deal, and demanded ( as before ) a greater Chinese role in SAARC. None of this addresses Pakistans immediate concerns. In conclusion therefore, Imran returned home empty handed. As the The Dawn observed, it is surprising that a prime minister should visit an important ally with expectations that were clearly belied by reality. Normally, a dozen preparatory meetings should have laid the ground for such a visit and its expected outcomes. Instead, it appeared that the prime minister was negotiating his own way out of debt, that too at a time when his country was virtually on fire due to the antics of an extreme right wing group bent on violence. Somewhere, somebody blundered. For India or for anyone with an interest in South Asian stability, there are some aspects of interest. One aspect is that US-China trade confrontation has led to a state where China is reluctant to extend even minimal aid ( not assistance, which has conditions) to a valuable ally. Trade sanctions are therefore clearly biting. Thats interesting to say the least. A second aspect is that Pakistan will have now have to rely on the IMF for its largest ever loan package. While this is certain to bite, it is less dangerous than a Pakistan virtually bought up by China. Thats not in anyones best interests, least of all Islamabad itself. A third aspect is that the higher than a mountain, and deeper than the seas friendship between the two countries seems to have come up against the earthy taste of reality. Beijing is clearly not falling over itself to oblige Pakistan in terms of generous aid or social projects to any great degree. That last aspect will play itself out to the full only in the coming months. Wait and watch. This is only likely to get more interesting. The joint statement China and Pakistan released also had a few glaring red flags for India, besides all the talk on CPEC, which New Delhi has been opposing since the route passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan is in China as the guest of honour at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, and naturally, India is keeping a close watch on the developments, especially ones related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This is Imrans maiden visit to China since being elected to the office of the Prime Minister of Pakistan. On Sunday, the two countries released a joint statement, which the media houses of both China and Pakistan scrutinised. Economic aid from China In Pakistan, newspapers paid particular attention to the lack of mention of economic aid from China to help Pakistan recover from the financial crisis it is in. The country has been mulling over seeking a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund as it faces an economic crisis marked by a climbing balance of payments deficit and dwindling foreign currency reserves. Dawn wrote that the joint statement talks of expanding bilateral ties, but makes no mention of any immediate support for Pakistan. In another editorial, it wrote: In the joint statement, there is no assistance package announced, just boilerplate diplomatic language reaffirming the deep strategic ties between China and Pakistan. As Mr Khan comes home empty-handed, he will return to a country recovering from days of protests and yet another state capitulation to violent religious extremists, the newspaper added. While The Nation wrote that diplomatic ties between Pakistan and China have been strengthened by the commitment to the 15 accords that have been signed, it added that the economic aid that was expected out of this tour is still pending. A lenient bailout package would certainly be a huge boost for economic planning, help Pakistan bridge current account deficit and build foreign exchange reserves. Perhaps most importantly it would take the pressure off Pakistan from going to the International Monetary Fund, The Nation wrote before the joint statement was released. The South China Morning Post, on Saturday, reported that though China is willing to provide Pakistan economic help, Islamabad must seek all kinds of assistance as China is not in the strongest position in terms of liquidity, given its trade war with the US. The report quoted Cheng Xiaohe, deputy director of the Centre for International Strategic Studies at Renmin University as saying that China would offer economic assistance, but it was the Pakistan governments responsibility to tackle its economic problems. CPEC and deeper ties An op-ed in Pakistani daily The Express Tribune notes the criticism Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and CPEC is under. The US calls BRI a Made in China, Made for China initiative, while India says this initiative does not respect sovereignty. It calls the issue a power struggle instigated by the US and India against China and Pakistan, adding that the strategy to malign the project has become part of the greater hybrid warfare for dominance in global affairs. However, Dawn noted that the language used in the joint statement in reference to CPEC appears to be aimed at rolling back some of the commitments of Imrans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had made to review CPEC projects, as well as some of the criticism it has levelled at the energy projects in the past. The joint statement shows that the evolution of CPEC has now come to a point where these cooperative steps are ready to be activated, the Dawn analysis read. Imran, too, couldnt help but heap praise on the project. At the CIIE opening ceremony on Monday, he said CPEC will result in forging even closer connectivity in the region by reducing distances between countries, lowering costs and also opening up new investment opportunities. He also pointed out that Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will impact not only Pakistan but all economies of the entire region. In an op-ed titled 'Khans visit infuses momentum in ties', The Global Times wrote: Imrans visit to China will set the tone for deepening of China-Pakistan cooperation in the next five years. While the article added that before assuming office, Imran had criticised the corridor, it noted that his PTI was not opposed to the corridor itself but had differences with former prime minister Nawaz Sharifs administration over how to construct it. Because of this opposition, media reports had expected Imrans election to pose a roadblock to the development of the corridor, but Khan is well aware that CPEC is a golden opportunity for Pakistan to boost its economy and achieve development, The Global Times highlighted. No matter who assumes power as Pakistan's prime minister, the relationship with Beijing will always be Islamabad's most important diplomatic partnership. The China Daily wrote that Imrans visit to China helped him better understand BRI and the importance of CPEC. A consensus was developed to strengthen ties between the two countries. Political and strategic relations were bolstered and commitment on CPEC was reaffirmed by both sides, the newspaper said. Anti-India China-Pakistan joint statement The joint statement China and Pakistan released on Sunday also had a few glaring red flags for India, besides all the talk on CPEC, which New Delhi has been opposing since the route passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. China appreciates Pakistan's quest for peace through dialogue, cooperation and negotiation, on the basis of mutual respect and equality, and supports Pakistan's efforts for improvement of Pakistan-India relations and for settlement of outstanding disputes between the two countries, the statement read. This is likely to irk India as it had maintained that Pakistans support for terrorism as well as its armys continued cross-border attacks in Jammu and Kashmir are the obstacles to holding talks to settle decades-old disputes between the two. New Delhi has reiterated time and again that there will be no dialogue unless Pakistan checks terrorism on its soil and puts an end to the violence it funds across Jammu and Kashmir. In addition to support for this supposed quest for peace, China also made mention of its backing for Pakistans membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). In an apparent reference to India, they said in the statement: The two sides...noted with concern the continued pursuit of double standards in the application of non-proliferation norms and procedures and called for policies upholding rule of law and long-standing rules... China supports Pakistan's engagement with the Nuclear Suppliers Group and welcomes its adherence of NSG guidelines. Beijing has been opposing Indias bid for membership to the NSG primarily on the grounds that New Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. China has said it will not budge from its stand, even though the US, UK, Russia and France all agreed that India has the right credentials to join the NSG. What may particularly dismay Imran Khan is that instead of getting any money, he was made to listen to a boatload of sermons in China. After securing $6 billion in financial assistance from Saudi Arabia to boost Pakistans dwindling forex reserves, Imran Khan has gone to another country to seek another bailout package this time in China. Khan is nothing if not consistent. He told the Saudis that he is desperate for help, and pleaded with Xi Jinping that Pakistan is really at a low point and in urgent need of funds. The Chinese, though, are a different kettle of fish. Even after spending three days in Beijing, Khan didnt see the colour of money. What he did get, however, for genuflecting before Emperor Xi is a treatise in iron brotherhood. Given Pakistans dire needs the country barely has enough foreign exchange to last even two months of imports the stopgap finance package from Saudis was never going to be enough. With China offering little more than words and promises, it looks increasingly likely that Khan will have to approach the International Monetary Fund for a bailout, a move that is likely to turn the spotlight on Chinese infrastructure projects in Pakistan and the opaque financing around it. If the IMF puts the CPEC projects under scanner as it is likely to do when its delegation reaches Islamabad on 7 November and evaluates Pakistans debt crisis before loosening the purse strings there is a possibility that CPEC projects could face some curbs. China doesnt like this prospect, and it has sounded jittery over IMF scrutinising the terms of Chinese loans for the $62bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. With the US, which holds a large voting share in the IMF, sounding increasingly skeptical about the rationale of a bailout that essentially pays off Chinese loan to Pakistan, pressure has grown on the IMF to do a reality check on Chinas expansive infrastructure projects in Pakistan. This has resulted in two countervailing churns over the Belt and Road Initiative. Khan needs not less than $7.5 billion to mitigate the immediate crisis, but the global lender has, in preliminary talks, made it conditional on tough decisions, such as increase in gas and electricity rates, currency depreciation, increase in the central banks policy rate, additional taxation measures and structural reforms, according to a report in Dawn. The IMF has also requested for the CPEC's contract details, which Pakistan has been reluctant to share. The organisation has also warned Islamabad against CPECs looming bill. In its latest review of CPEC-related investments, the IMF has noted that during the investment phase, as the early harvest projects proceed, Pakistan will experience a surge in FDI and other external funding inflows. To this, China provided the counter churn. It dismissed concerns about CPEC projects and issued a veiled threat to Pakistan that if it follows the IMF's prescription in sharing details of loans or imposing curbs on investments, then bilateral relations could be affected. At a Chinese foreign ministry briefing held on 15 October, spokesperson Lu Kang said debt incurred by CPEC only constitutes a very small proportion of Pakistans debt composition and it is surely not to blame for the current financial difficulty in Pakistan. China called upon the IMF to objectively and professionally evaluate the situation and added that relevant measures should not affect the normal bilateral cooperation between China and Pakistan. It stressed that choice of the projects and financing arrangements are decided by our two sides through equal-footed consultation. What this veiled threat did was lob the ball in Pakistans court on courting the IMF and pressurising the Imran Khan administration against agreeing to all of the IMFs terms and conditions on the bailout package. Pakistans reaction was swift. Khan, who until recently was emitting signals on reviewing the planned network of roads, railways and energy projects under CPEC promptly declared CPEC to be a blessing for Pakistan during his trip to China. It is in this context that we must see the joint statement where China, instead of delivering the funds that Khan had hoped for, pushed to widen the scope and scale of BRI projects. After signing 16 deals with Pakistan, Chinese vice foreign minister Kong Xuanyou told reporters that there has been no change in the number of CPEC projects. If there is going to be any change, there will be an increase (in projects) going forward and CPEC will be introduced to more areas of Pakistan. This note of defiance on BRI is also evident in the joint statement. The two sides reiterated that BRI represents a win-win model of international cooperation and provides new opportunities for economic rejuvenation and prosperity of all countries, read the document, adding: both sides dismissed the growing negative propaganda against CPEC and expressed determination to safeguard the CPEC projects from all threats. One way of looking at Chinas defiant attitude on BRI is to place it in the context of souring global opinion on Xis grand strategy of using infrastructure investments as a geopolitical tool to purchase global heft and shape the world order in accordance with its rise. China is laying a marker that bad press and pushbacks notwithstanding, BRI is here to stay and the world must adjust and accommodate it as it makes space for China. But the bullish note also carries another hint, one that is exclusively meant for Pakistan. By laying down the ground rules before a prime minister who came begging for funds, China told Khan that CPEC projects are non-negotiable if Pakistan hopes to receive any bailout package. The promise of financial boost is kept alive, but not overtly so. The two sides have made it clear in principle that the Chinese government will provide necessary support and assistance to Pakistan in tiding over its current economic difficulties, Chinese foreign vice-minister Kong Xuanyou told reporters after Khan had a meeting with his counterpart Li Keqiang. As for specific measures to be taken, the relevant authorities of the two sides will have detailed discussions, he said. Tied with the focus on timely completion of ongoing projects and joint efforts for realisation of its full potential with a focus on social development, job creation and livelihoods and accelerating cooperation in industrial development, industrial parks and agriculture it indicates a shift in Chinas signaling. What may particularly dismay Khan is that instead of getting any money, he was made to listen to a boatload of sermons. One 'timely' editorial in China's state-controlled Global Times "helpfully" suggested that "Beijing wont hesitate to aid Pakistan, but efficient use of funds is crucial issue." It is an unkind cut. Khan didnt return completely empty-handed though. His travails were rewarded with the reinforcement of the strategic alignment component of the ties, and China issued liberal certificates on Pakistans fight against terrorism and its credentials for inclusion in the NSG mechanism. Chinas certificate would have been an excellent example of satirical comedy had it not been for the grave security implications that it holds for India. In one area, however, it serves India well. It reflects the hollowness of New Delhis "reset" with Beijing. The Wuhan spirit didnt take long to fade away. Saudi Arabia in particular has had a special relationship with Pakistan, with Islamabad getting described as Saudi Arabias closest Muslim ally. Pakistan is the sixth-largest military in the world and the only nuclear power with the most powerful military among Muslim-majority nations giving Islamabad a certain leverageable asset. At one time in the 1980s, Pakistan had military missions in 22 countries and had become the largest military troop-deployer among Third World countries. Even under the UNs blue berets, it remains one of the longest serving and largest contributors to the UNs peacekeeping missions. However, it is the strategic politico-religious alignment of Pakistan with the West Asian nations that has seen Islamabad provide invaluable military support to the Gulf regimes in the form of combat troops or under the guise of trainers and advisers to countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, etc. The Pakistani military contingent in these countries has proved its professional mettle in various combat actions like during the seizure of the Grand Mosque at Mecca in 1979, the heroics of Air Commodore Sattar Alvi in shooting down an Israeli fighter plane in Syria and in the role of then-brigadier Zia-ul Haq (later Chief of Army Staff and President of Pakistan) in the operation Black September in Jordan establishing a perception of reliability, convenience and affordability of the Pakistani military as a protective cover for these cash-rich regimes. Saudi Arabia in particular has had a special relationship with Pakistan, with Islamabad getting described as Saudi Arabias closest Muslim ally. This had led to nearly 20,000 Pakistani troops protecting the wary and nervous House of Saud before the start of the first Gulf War. The ostensible mandate of joint military exercises, training, advisory roles and information-sharing barely concealed the obvious fact that while the Saudi armed forces were equipped with the latest technology, weaponry and equipment they lacked the battle hardiness and rigour that a more bloodied, deployed and active force like the Pakistani military offered. At one time it was even murmured that the Saudis had funded the first Islamic bomb by Pakistan. Maj. Gen. Feroz Hassan Khan, in his book Eating the Grass, had acknowledged that, Saudi Arabia provided generous financial support to Pakistan that enabled the nuclear programme to continue. Whether the Pakistani nuclear arsenal is on-call for the Saudis is a matter of speculation, even though both regimes vehemently deny it. However, Pakistan has historically provided a military umbrella to the Saudis in exchange for generous financial and material aid. The recent performance of Saudi troops against the ragtag Houthi militia in Yemen or against the Iran-propped forces in the Syrian swathes, leaves a lot to be desired, and therefore retains the relevance of the professional Pakistani military. Importantly, the recently-cobbled alliance of 41 nations under the Saudi aegis of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition, has also been entrusted to the former Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif. The Saudi influence and leverage over the Pakistani government was visible in the safe exit provided to the Nawaz Sharif family following Gen. Pervez Musharrafs coup in 1999. Today, both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are cornered and isolated for mismanagement of their affairs Riyadh is paying the price for Prince Mohammad Bin Salmans misadventures and the Jamal Khashoggi-like recklessness, while Islamabad is yet again facing the very real threats of an embarrassing sovereign default on its bloated debt-servicing requirements. In both countries, the traditional ally, the United States, has been forced into taking a tough stance of forestalling either a diplomatic bail-out in the case of Saudi Arabia or a financial bailout in the case of Pakistan, which is virtually on the doors of an economic meltdown. While there are considerable strategic interests both ways, a potential freeze or non-cooperation from the US can make both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan extremely vulnerable, in their own ways. US troops are deployed in various places like the Eskan Air Base, King Abdul Aziz Air Base, King Fahd Air Base, Khamis Mushayt, Riyadh Air base, etc, ensuring the sovereignty of Saudi Arabia and the survival of the Saud regime, which was echoed by Donald Trumps rant against the Saudi King that he might not be there for two weeks without US military support! This nightmarish spectre for both Riyadh and Islamabad could lead to the further convergence of the Saudi-Pak framework of bartering military support for financial aid, to tide over their respective crises. Till earlier this year, there were approximately 1,650 Pakistani troops on Saudi soil, and following a trip by the Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Qamar Bajwa, speculation was rife about the additional deployment of a full-fledged Pakistani brigade on the sensitive Saudi-Yemen border. Given its own sectarian issues, Pakistan had resisted earlier pressures from the Saudis to intervene militarily in Yemens sectarian civil war. Therefore, this brigade could possibly be on a defensive position only. Now, Imran Khans desperate pitch to raise money from the Saudis had led him to attend the Future Investment Initiative Conference, even when many others preferred avoiding the conference, given the infamous unravelling of the Saudi handiwork in the Khashoggi case. While Mr Khan did manage a sizeable $6 billion package ($3 billion for the immediate balance-of-payments crisis and $3 billion for a one-year deferment in oil bills), the reciprocal terms of the package on behalf of the Pakistanis, remains mired in secrecy. The current dispensation in Saudi Arabia, effectively led by Prince Mohammad Bin Salman is known for its hard stance on security, decisiveness (even if misplaced) and on extreme paranoia, on matters concerned with his formal ascension to the throne there is only one thing that the Pakistanis can offer the Saudis in these desperate times enhanced military cover and security commitments! Additional Pakistani presence on account of the supposed training and advice mission could give away the latest quid pro quo, as neither are the Saudis in the mood to bluff and pontificate on security nor are they wont to throw away good money behind bad commercial deals in the given scenario. Security-for-cash is the only plausible and logical quid pro quo. Investigators retrieved hours of data from a crashed Lion Air jet's flight recorder as Indonesian authorities on Sunday extended the search at sea for victims and debris. Jakarta: Investigators succeeded in retrieving hours of data from a crashed Lion Air jet's flight recorder as Indonesian authorities on Sunday extended the search at sea for victims and debris. National Transportation Safety Committee deputy chairman Haryo Satmiko told a news conference that 69 hours of flight data was downloaded from the recorder including its fatal flight. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet crashed just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta on 29 October, killing all 189 people on board in the country's worst airline disaster since 1997. The flight data recorder was recovered by divers on Thursday in damaged condition and investigators said it required special handling to retrieve its information. The cockpit voice recorder has not been recovered but searchers are focusing on a particular area based on a weak locator signal. National Search and Rescue Agency chief Muhammad Syaugi said on Sunday the search operation, now in its 7th day and involving hundreds of personnel and dozens of ships, would continue for another three days. Syaugi paid tribute to a volunteer diver, Syahrul Anto, who died during the search effort on Friday. The family of the 48-year-old refused an autopsy and he was buried Saturday in Surabaya. More than 100 body bags of human remains had been recovered. Syaugi said the number would continue to increase and remains were also now washing up on land. He said weak signals, potentially from the cockpit voice recorder, were traced to a location but an object hadn't been found yet due to deep seabed mud. Flight tracking websites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude during its 13 minute flight and a previous flight the day before from Bali to Jakarta. Passengers on the Bali flight reported terrifying descents and in both cases the different cockpit crews requested to return to their departure airport shortly after takeoff. Lion has claimed a technical problem was fixed after the Bali fight. Syaugi said a considerable amount of aircraft "skin" was found on the seafloor but not a large intact part of its fuselage as he'd indicated was possible Saturday. He and other top officials including the military chief plan to meet with families on Monday to explain the search operation. The Lion Air crash is the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since 1997, when 234 people died on a Garuda flight near Medan. In December 2014, an AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea, killing all 162 on board. Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, though several were allowed to resume services in the following decade. The ban was completely lifted in June. The U.S. lifted a decadelong ban in 2016. Lion Air is one of Indonesia's youngest airlines but has grown rapidly, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations. It has been expanding aggressively in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing region of more than 600 million people. In the eastern district of Sadr City, two people were killed and four wounded in two explosions in the conservative Shiite neighbourhood. And two other blasts went off on busses in other parts of Baghdad's northeast, wounding seven. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for any of the explosions. Baghdad: Explosions in several Shia-majority districts in Iraq's capital late Sunday killed six people, most of them civilians, and wounded several others, police and medical sources said. In northern Baghdad's Aden roundabout area, two civilians were killed and another six wounded by a blast near a bus stop, the sources told AFP. A bomb in the nearby Tarmiyah neighbourhood targeted a military convoy, killing a soldier and wounding two others. A government employee was killed in the southwestern area of Al-Sahha when explosives attached under his car were detonated, according to a police officer and medical source. In the eastern district of Sadr City, two people were killed and four wounded in two explosions in the conservative Shia neighbourhood. And two other blasts went off on busses in other parts of Baghdad's northeast, wounding seven. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for any of the explosions. Sadr City is the former bastion of the Mahdi Army, which fought US troops and was blamed for the killings of thousands of Sunni Muslims. The militia was led by Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose political alliance triumphed in this year's parliamentary elections. Violence peaked in Iraq during 2006 and 2007, when sectarian tensions were at their highest. But it has fallen across Iraq and particularly Baghdad since the government declared victory over the Islamic State group in December. Clandestine jihadist cells remain across the country and have waged guerrilla-type attacks against government posts. JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Six people were arrested in Israel on Monday on suspicion of helping to smuggle about 300 million shekels' ($81 million) worth of diamonds into the country since 2010. The case focuses on the diamond company LLD, which is owned by billionaire dealer Lev Leviev, according to court documents. The suspects were remanded in custody until Sunday and their identities placed under a gag order JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Six people were arrested in Israel on Monday on suspicion of helping to smuggle about 300 million shekels' ($81 million) worth of diamonds into the country since 2010. The case focuses on the diamond company LLD, which is owned by billionaire dealer Lev Leviev, according to court documents. The suspects were remanded in custody until Sunday and their identities placed under a gag order. Israel is a world centre for diamond cutting and polishing, with one of the biggest exchanges in the world. Israel's tax authority and police said they suspected each of the six of a role in a conspiracy to smuggle the diamonds. Officials at LLD were not reachable for immediate comment. "The investigating units intend to carry out more arrests of suspects in Israel and abroad," police said in a statement. (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Kevin Liffey) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Sons of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi asked Saudi authorities to return body of their father so the family can properly grieve. Washington: The sons of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi have asked Saudi authorities to return the body of their father so the family can properly grieve, they told CNN in an interview aired on Sunday. Khashoggi was killed inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul by a team sent from Riyadh on 2 October, a murder Turkey's president said was ordered from "the highest levels" of Saudi Arabia's government. "I really hope that whatever happened wasn't painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death," Abdullah Khashoggi told the US network during the interview in Washington. His brother Salah said, "All what we want right now is to bury him in Al Baqi in Medina with the rest of his family," referencing a cemetery in Saudi Arabia. "I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon." Turkey's chief prosecutor said recently that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and also confirmed the body was dismembered. Yasin Aktay, an advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hinted in an article published on Friday that the body may even have been destroyed in acid. Khashoggi's killing has provoked widespread outrage and sharp criticism from Washington, usually the staunchest of allies. Khashoggi's sons voiced worry that the work of their father, a columnist for The Washington Post, was being distorted for political reasons. "I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don't agree with," Salah told CNN. "My fear is that it's being over politicized." "Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy, that it is the thing that is keeping the country together." The brothers said they have relied primarily on news reports to piece together an understanding of their father's death. "There's a lot of ups and downs.... We're trying to get the story bits and pieces of the story to complete the whole picture," Abdullah said. "It's confusing and difficult." "It's not a normal situation and not a normal death." Salah emphasized that "the King has stressed that everybody will be brought to justice. And I have faith in that." The murdered journalist's fiancee meanwhile has called on US President Donald Trump to back Turkey's efforts to probe the death. Trump is bombarding voters with tweets and speeches that make out the caravan of migrants as a bunch of criminals who threaten the safety of the United States. Editor's note: Men like Trump is a series of dispatches that tell of how a reckless president is steering the White House, and the manner in which his actions are fundamentally altering the office he holds. The writer, being a woman political journalist from India, now transplanted to the US, is in a unique position to observe the three aspects that are critical to defining this presidency: chauvinism, gunslinger politics, and immigration. Tempers and emotions are at fever pitch all across the United States as President Donald Trump has worked hard to rouse passions, fears and insecurities of the people ahead of a crucial mid-term election that is being seen as a referendum on him. The elections on 6 November to the 435-member Congress and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will decide if the Republican party, which Trump represents, continues to control legislation in both Houses or whether it will go into the hands of the Democrats. Along with these, a host of local posts are also up for elections in various states. Both parties are working frantically as the election is being seen to be crucial to halt or support Trumps protectionist policies, considered regressive by the Democrats and valid by his supporters. Trump has been beating the drum against a caravan of migrants from Central America that is vending its way through Mexico to the US border. The size of the caravan is changing daily with the latest estimate supposing it to be anywhere between 3,500 to 7,000 people, who are reportedly fleeing poverty and oppressive conditions in their home countries of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, seeking a better life in the United States. Trump, however, has seized this allegedly unconnected-to-the-elections caravan in his inimitable style. He is bombarding the voters with tweets and speeches that make out the caravan as a bunch of criminals who threaten the safety of the United States, with particular emphasis on the welfare of women. A conspiracy theory has also been put out that Jewish billionaire George Soros, a philanthropist and Democrat supporter, has facilitated the caravan to arrive in the United States and this theory has not only Trumps stamp of approval, but also widespread acceptance. Despite reports from the ground by the media of the struggles of the people walking nearly 5,000 miles to the American border, queries are raised on how come they appear so clean and not tired at all. These queries buy into the general suspicion against migrants that Trump is fanning with great exuberance. We have to have a wall of people (against the caravan). It can be considered an invasion. We cant have that, he said in an ABC interview. And there are reports since that besides the US army, several militia groups are headed to defend the border. Trump is also hammering away at the anxieties of women voters. He has claimed that he got the support of 52 percent of women in the United States in the 2016 Presidential polls, which he won against Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton and he keeps raising the pitch on how migrants provide an unsafe environment particularly for women and for the prospects of their children. Fact-checker sites state that Trump got 41 percent of the female vote in that election, though he did get 52 percent of votes from white women. A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll indicated that the female support to him had gone further down to 38 percent. But similar polls in the 2016 election had underrated Trumps appeal and there has been a strong female presence in his rallies, all sporting pink hats and signs supporting his Make America Great Again slogan. His current approval rating among Republican voters has reportedly touched a whopping 89 percent. Of the 35 Senate seats that are facing polls, 26 were held by the Democrats. Republicans currently hold 51 against the Democrats 49 (with two independents). So the Democrats are in the tough position of having to retain all 26 seats and add two more, if they need to wrest control and counter Trumps positions in the Senate. In the House of Representatives (the Congress), elections are on for all 435 seats. Currently 235 are held by the Republicans and 193 by the Democrats with seven vacancies due to deaths. Five of those seven seats were also held by Republicans. If the Democrats have to gain control, they have to win 23 seats more than what they did in the last mid-term poll in 2014. Democrats appear hopeful that Trumps histrionics and harsh tongue will convince their voters to come out and vote in large numbers this time and ensure a victory for their candidates to control both houses. But Trump appears to have put his finger on a very contentious spot in the American mind-space: people are worried that the liberalism of the Democrats may work completely against the interests of those already living in the country. And Trump is appealing strongly to the conservative mindset of the white people, who are still in majority in the country and dont want their way of life in both economic and social terms to change. Trump is being seen as a man who fosters the economy and does not impose taxes on all to support the welfare measures for the poorer. Simultaneously, there are reports, like in Georgia, that restrictions are being put through various measures including cancellation of voting rights if different government IDs don't match, on voters who come from poorer regions. A federal court threw out this attempt in Georgia, allegedly a planned effort by Republican candidate for the post of governor, its current secretary of state Brian Kemp. Trumps response to the court decision was to call Kemps campaign extraordinary and attack his Democrat opponent Stacy Abrams. If Abrams wins, she will be the first black woman to become the governor of the conservative Southern state of Georgia. Trump declared in his typical style: If she gets in, Georgia goes backwards. If he gets in, Georgia goes forward." With just a day to go for the polls, the caravan and the economy seem to have become the biggest issues for the nation, though there is some concern on healthcare for all, which the Democrats have been pushing as their main agenda. If Trump manages to pull off a victory in terms of retaining control of one or both Houses, it will be seen as a validation of his stand that poor migrants and refugees from other countries are a threat to the peaceful life of the American people and send out a clear message to the world on what the original "country of migrants" currently thinks on that issue. It will also be seen as a validation of the Republican stand that the recent troubling sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court associate justice Brett Kavanaugh, whom Trump defended and pushed through, were invalid or not a matter of genuine concern for the general public. The Democrats, however, are also going better armed than before in this election, as many of their candidates have managed to raise million dollar campaign money chests, unlike earlier polls. According to the local media, the gaffe has become particularly ironic since Khan is in China to secure a package from Beijing to try and stall the impending economic crisis Pakistan is facing. Islamabad: Pakistan's state-run news channel has apologised after it ran "Begging" dateline instead of "Beijing" on screen during the live broadcast of Prime Minister Imran Khan's speech at the Central Party School of the ruling Communist Party of China. Khan, who is on an official trip to China to secure an economic package for his cash-strapped country, was addressing a ceremony on Sunday at the Central Party School in Beijing which was shown live by the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). During Khan's speech, PTV had written "Begging" instead of "Beijing" in the top left corner of the screen. The word remained on screen for 20 seconds and was then changed. "Today, during a live address of the Prime Minister during his ongoing visit to China, a typographical error took place, which remained on screen for 20 seconds & later removed. This incident is regrettable. Strict action has been initiated under rules against concerned officials," the official twitter handle of PTV News tweeted. According to the local media, the gaffe has become particularly ironic since Khan is in China to secure a package from Beijing to try and stall the impending economic crisis Pakistan is facing. Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry has ordered an inquiry into the widely criticised dateline slug displayed by the PTV, The News reported. The PTV's gaffe came under criticism on social media with screenshots shared with #begging becoming a top trend on Twitter in Pakistan. During his visit, Prime Minister Khan held talks with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang mainly focussing on seeking China's loans to tide over serious financial crisis faced by Pakistan. China while stating that it would extend necessary support to Pakistan reportedly committed $6 billion funding but did not so far officially confirmed it. The biggest challenge in conflict resolution in Afghanistan has been Pakistans duplicitous policy. Almost three decades after Moscows disgraceful exit from Afghanistan, Russia has been stepping up its efforts to resolve the seemingly intractable Afghan conflict. Russias foreign ministry must be elated that the Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani has eventually relented to send a group of senior Afghan politicians to peace talks scheduled to be held in Moscow on 9 November. A delegation from the Talibans political office in Doha will also be in attendance in the high-profile meeting in which India and the United States have been invited, besides China, Iran and Pakistan. The Moscow talks underline the increasingly active role Russia seeks to play in Afghanistan. However, Russia needs to realise that long-term stability in Afghanistan cannot be ensured without forcing Pakistans security establishment to crack down on terrorism. When the US with NATO allies moved into Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, Russian president Vladimir Putin solidly supported the Bush administrations war against terrorism. Russia had also agreed to allow transit of cargoes, including heavy weaponry, to Afghanistan. But Putins frustration grew as the war went on without any visible success on the counterinsurgency front in Afghanistan. There were added concerns in Moscow when rumours began to circulate of Americas intention to set up permanent military bases in its strategic backyard. Russia initiated a series of meetings in 2016 among countries neighbouring Afghanistan. The initiative is known as the Moscow Process. President Ghani was already sceptical of this initiative. And when the Afghan government was not invited in the first such meeting which was attended only by Russia, China, and Pakistan, it not only enraged the Ghani government but also raised alarm bells ringing in Kabul, Washington and New Delhi. In 2017, Afghanistan, India, and many Central Asian countries were invited for subsequent meetings. Though, the US refused to participate in any of the meetings which were viewed in Washington as an overlapping effort without any purpose and clarity. Another meeting was planned in September this year in which Russia had invited the Afghan Taliban. But the Ghani government refused to attend on the grounds that talks with the Afghan Taliban should be led by the Afghan government. For Kabul, Moscows move undermined the Afghan-led, Afghan-owned initiative and gave the Afghan Taliban new avenues of support, thus reducing their incentive to cut a deal with Kabul. Russia had no option but to postpone the meeting. However, despite widespread disagreements about the utility of Moscow-backed initiative, Russia is determined to continue with its own efforts on the Afghan front. However, transparency in these negotiations is essential. Moscows contacts with the Taliban are not new. Russia has conceded that it has shared intelligence with the Taliban. With Russias growing profile in the Afghan theatre, there have been rumours of Moscow arming the Taliban. Irrespective of the veracity of these claims, Russias links with the Taliban have given the group a semblance of legitimacy. Russia has countered these allegations by blaming the US for the rise of Islamic State in Afghanistan. Russia has also been in contact with some Afghan warlords. For instance, Atta Mohammad Noor, a former governor of Balkh province, is likely to attend the forthcoming meeting. Moscows main concerns in Afghanistan include securing Russias southern flank from the IS emergence in Central Asia, hedging against the possibility of an abrupt American exit from Afghanistan, and the flow of narcotics. Concerned with the expansion of the IS-Khorasan, Russia claims that its contacts with the Taliban are meant for the safety of its citizens present in Afghanistan. But this claim seems superfluous since Russia does not have a sizable footprint in Afghanistan. The Afghan government wants the peace process to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned, but has also shown a flexible attitude. It has cautiously supported attempts that may help kick-start peace process involving the Taliban. In February 2018, Ghani announced a landmark offer to recognise the Afghan Taliban as a political party in return for permanent peace. Another ceasefire was announced a few months later, which was also reciprocated by the Afghan Taliban. These efforts display the Ghani governments realisation of the significance of creating a regional consensus on peace and bringing the Afghan Taliban into the political mainstream. On the other hand, the US, which is struggling to reverse a prolonged Taliban resurgence, is running parallel negotiations under Zalmay Khalilzad, the new US Special Advisor for Afghanistan Reconciliation. Khalilzad has recently held direct talks with the Talibans political office in Doha while keeping the Ghani government in the loop regarding his engagement with the insurgent group. However, parallel peace processes that seek different outcomes can be counterproductive. There has not been a breakthrough as far as US-Russia coordination on Afghanistan is concerned. The US has avoided the Moscow process, and understandably so. There is a feeling in Washington that Moscows intervention will only complicate the ongoing efforts to foster peace talks by reducing the Talibans incentive to cut a deal. Many Afghans seem worried that their country is again becoming a geopolitical battlefield between the US and Russia. This could take Afghanistan to a more dangerous level of conflict than the current one. The situation is already fragile. The Afghan government is struggling to recover control of districts lost to the Afghan Taliban while casualties among Afghan security forces have reached record levels. At a time when US-Russia competition is heating up on several contentious issues, the resolution of the Afghan conflict could be an area where cooperation is possible. In Afghanistan, Russias security interests broadly align with American aims as there are immense possibilities of cooperation between Moscow and Washington. Instability in Afghanistan has provided an enabling environment for other terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda, IS-Khorasan, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Haqqani Network and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), to launch terrorist attacks across the region. But the failure of Russia and the US to come together to chart a course toward peace shows the degree to which Afghan issue continues to be held hostage to larger global tensions. However, the biggest challenge in conflict resolution in Afghanistan has been Pakistans duplicitous policy. Pakistan remains the epicentre of global terrorism and violent extremism, as exemplified by recent violent protests by hard-line Islamist parties over the acquittal of a Christian woman Asia Bibi accused of blasphemy. Who knows it better than New Delhi and Kabul that each time Islamabad has inserted itself into the Afghan political process, it has been for subverting it. If the Moscow-driven peace process is exploited by Pakistan for helping the Taliban penetrate the Afghan governing institutions, a majority of the Afghan population will be at the mercy of Pakistans geopolitical manipulations. This outcome would be another cycle of warfare and chaos inside Afghanistan. Afghanistan is an area where both India and Russia must cooperate. Working on a peace process while strengthening the Ghani government can surely provide an opportunity for Moscow to work closely with New Delhi for increasing its benign footprints in Afghanistan. Pakistan is no longer a key American partner in the region as the strategic interests of Washington and Islamabad continue to diverge in Afghanistan. With Pakistans security establishment refusing to change its dangerous Afghan policy, Rawalpindi keeps on expanding its cooperation with Russia and China. The new rapprochement between Russia and Pakistan, as reflected in the purchase of Russian military equipment by Pakistan as well as joint military exercises between Russia and Pakistan, threatens prospects of Afghan peace and reconciliation. It is thus important for Moscow to clearly define what its ultimate aims in Afghanistan are. Moscow needs to consult India to formulate a carefully layered policy structure to contain the export of Islamist terrorism from Pakistan into Afghanistan, India and the nearby regions. Engaging with the Taliban is inevitable, but how the insurgent group should be engaged is the real question. If Moscows contacts with the Taliban can convince the latter to come at the negotiating table, Russias Afghan diplomacy needs to be encouraged. However, all such efforts must not undermine the legitimacy of the Afghan government. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a top international businessman from the kingdom, said on Sunday that an official investigation into the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi will exonerate the country's leader. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a top international businessman from the kingdom, said on Sunday that an official investigation into the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi will exonerate the country's leader. On the Fox News program "Sunday Morning Futures," he asked Saudi Arabia to make public as soon as possible the results of the investigation. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the Saudi government and its de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in early October. Prince Alwaleed told Fox News that an official Saudi investigation would show that the crown prince was not involved in Kashoggi's killing. "Please let's give some time for the investigation to finish," he said. "I ask Saudi Arabia now publicly, through your program, to have the investigation made public as soon as possible so whereby I believe the Saudi Crown Prince will be 100 percent vindicated and exonerated." (Reporting by Patrick Rucker; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Lisa Shumaker) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The students were enrolled at the Presbyterian Secondary School in Bamenda, capital of Cameroon's Northwest Region - one of two regions hit by attacks by anglophone militants. Yaounde: Seventy-nine school students were kidnapped on Monday in an English-speaking region of Cameroon where separatists are fighting an armed campaign for independence, a government source said. "The students were abducted along with their principal, a teacher and a driver, the official said," as a source at the school confirmed the kidnapping of the pupils. They were enrolled at the Presbyterian Secondary School in Bamenda, capital of Cameroon's Northwest Region - one of two regions hit by attacks by anglophone militants that have met with a brutal crackdown by the authorities. "The search for the hostages has been launched - every man has been called in," the government source said, speaking after a crisis meeting. The kidnapping - the gravest incident so far in 13 months of unrest - coincides with an upsurge of political tensions in the majority French-speaking country. It comes after elections on 7 October that saw President Paul Biya, 85, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for 35 years, secure a seventh term in office. Biya was credited with 71.3 percent of the vote, although the ballot was marred by allegations of widespread fraud, low voter turnout and violence. He takes his oath of office on Tuesday. Around a fifth of Cameroon's 22 million people are English-speaking - a minority whose presence dates back to the colonial period. Cameroon, once a German colony, was divided between Britain and France after World War I. The French colony gained independence in 1960, becoming Cameroon. The following year, the British-ruled Southern Cameroons was amalgamated into it, giving rise to the Northwest and Southwest regions. But resentment at perceived discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority, especially in education and the judiciary, began to build. In 2016, demands for greater autonomy grew but met with a rebuff by Biya. As radicals took ascendancy, the anglophone movement declared the creation of the "Republic of Ambazonia" in the Northwest and neighbouring Southwest Region on 1 October, 2017. No country has recognised the self-declared state. The separatists have gunned down troops and police, boycotted and torched schools and attacked other perceived symbols of the Cameroonian state. The authorities have responded with a massive crackdown by police and troops. At least 400 civilians have been killed in 2018 as well as more than 175 members of the security forces, according to a toll compiled by non-governmental organisations. According to UN figures, 246,000 people in the Southwest Region have fled their homes, and 25,000 have sought shelter in neighbouring Nigeria, many of them living hand-to-mouth in the forests. Estimates of displaced people in the Northwest Region are not available. The Trump administration said it is confident that 'the toughest ever' sanctions against Iran which came into force on Monday will have the intended effect of altering Iranian regime's behaviour. Washington: The Trump administration has said it is confident that "the toughest ever" sanctions against Iran which came into force on Monday will have the intended effect of altering the Iranian regime's behaviour, even as it dodged a question on whether the US has firm commitments from India and China to stop all oil purchases from Tehran within six months. The sanctions cover Iran's banking and energy sectors and reinstate penalties for countries and companies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere that do not halt Iranian oil imports. India and China the two biggest buyers of Iranian crude, so far appear to have skipped the punitive American sanctions targeting the Iranian oil and financial sectors. The two Asian giants are believed to be among the eight countries that have been given the rare exemptions from the Iranian sanctions that kicked off on Monday. The Trump administration said it has asked these countries including Turkey, Iraq, Italy, Japan and South Korea to bring down their oil purchase to zero as soon as possible. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during a a talk show on Fox News, repeatedly parried questions when asked about the commitment from India and China on zero-oil purchase from Iran. "Watch what we do. Watch as we've already taken more crude oil off the market than any time in previous history. Watch the efforts that President Trump's policies have achieved. We've done all of this, too, while making sure that American consumers don't suffer, he said, as he avoided giving a direct answer on India and China. I am very confident that the sanctions that will be re-imposed this Monday, not only the crude oil sanctions, that the financial sanctions that are being put in place by the Treasury Department and over 600 designations of individuals and companies in Iran will have the intended effect to alter the Iranian regime's behaviour. That's our expectation. It's the reason for President Trump's policy, he asserted. India, which is the second biggest purchaser of Iranian oil after China, is willing to restrict its monthly purchase to 1.25 million tonnes or 15 million tonnes in a year (300,000 barrels per day), down from 22.6 million tonnes (452,000 barrels per day) bought in 2017-18 financial year, sources in New Delhi had said last week. The re-imposition of US sanctions on Iran, Pompeo asserted are the toughest ever on this country. They're aimed at a singular purpose, denying the world's largest state sponsor of terrorists the capacity to do things like they did this past couple weeks, attempted assassination campaign in the heart of Europe, he said. These sanctions have already had an enormous impact. We've already reduced Iranian crude oil experts by over a million barrels per day. That number will fall farther. There's a handful of places were countries that have already made significant reductions in their crude oil exports need a little bit more time to get to zero, and we're going to provide that to them, he said. The State Department did not respond to a PTI question as to what will happen if India does not bring down its oil purchase from Iran to zero, as being demanded by it, in next six months. It also did not respond to a question on the fate of the the strategically crucial Iranian port of Chabahar, which India sees as critical for reaching landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia. In May, President Donald Trump had pulled US out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) terming it as disastrous. Under the Obama-era deal, involving five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, Iran agreed to stop its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Iran has dismissed these charges and continues to keep its stand that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. In another interview to CBS News, Pompeo said the European companies will not be permitted to do business with both the United States and with Iran. Frankly since May, since the President's announcement of withdrawal from the ill-fated agreement, European companies have fled Iran in great numbers. Hundreds of businesses have departed Iran, he said. The whole world understands that these sanctions are real, that they are important, that they drive the Iranian people's opportunity to make the changes in Iran that they so desperately want and stop Iran from having the wealth and money that they need to continue to foment terror around the world, Pompeo said. Brian Hook, the special adviser to the secretary of state and special representative for Iran, told PBS News that the US is not looking to give any exceptions or waivers to its sanctions regime. Going forward, next year, we anticipate a much better supplied oil market, and that will help us accelerate, I think, the path to zero, he asserted. Chinese semiconductor maker Fujian Jinhua planned to drive a shift towards locally made chips and end a heavy reliance on imports. Chinese state-backed semiconductor maker Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co Ltd billed itself as a national leader in the tech industry. It planned to drive a shift towards locally made chips and end a heavy reliance on imports, especially from the United States. The era of Chinese chips has arrived, it said in a recent promotional online pamphlet to attract chip industry talent. Underneath was a picture of a circuit board emblazoned with the Chinese flag. China once relied on chip imports, but the tireless work of untold numbers of chip experts has meant that from 90 per cent imports we have been able to attain localised production, it said, highlighting a high-skilled global workforce harking from the United States, Japan and South Korea. Jump with us into a chip era that belongs to China. That bold ambition now faces major hurdles. The US Justice Department on Thursday indicted Fujian Jinhua and Taiwan-based United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) for industrial espionage. The indictment said the companies conspired to steal trade secrets from US semiconductor company Micron Technology Inc relating to its research and development of memory storage devices. Under a technology cooperation agreement signed in 2016, UMC develops memory-related technologies for the Chinese firm. The charges came after the US Commerce Department banned US companies from selling hardware and software components to the Chinese firm and UMC. The Taiwan firm said shortly afterwards that it will temporarily halt its research and development activities with Fujian. The Commerce Department action could deal a significant blow to the Chinese semiconductor maker, given its reliance on US supplies, and Chinas technology ambitions. On Saturday, Fujian Jinhua said in a statement posted on its website that it had not stolen any technology and that it always attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights. Chinese government officials have said privately that Fujian is of high strategic importance to China, which is looking to boost home-grown technology under its Made in China 2025 plan, a bid to catch up technologically in key areas such as semiconductors, where it has long been reliant on imports - notably from America. You cant build a fab (fabrication plant) without US equipment companies. You just cannot do it, said Risto Puhakka, a semiconductor industry expert at VLSI Research. The worlds most important suppliers of the tools needed to make memory chips Applied Materials Inc, KLA-Tencor Corp, and Lam Research Corp - all hail from the United States. TOP THREE CHIP MAKER China imported $270 billion in semiconductors in 2017, more than its total imports of crude oil, highlighting the countrys lack of a true rival to US chipmaking giants such as Micron, Intel or Qualcomm. To close the gap, analysts said earlier this year money was raining down from Beijing and state-backed funds, like the countrys state chip Big Fund, to support firms such as Fujian Jinhua. The Chinese firm has been working to open a giant $5.7 billion chip factory in October to produce 60,000 semiconductor wafers per month in its first stage of production, and 120,000 in its second stage, according to domestic media. Fujian is just one of a handful of Chinese semiconductor firms that have in recent years looked to crack the global chip industry. They are working on chips that can be used in smartphones to missile guidance systems. Two officials at a state-linked semiconductor fund said Fujian Jinhua was working with highly specialised semiconductor materials to make circuits, a high priority for Beijing and the countrys chip fund. You could consider Fujian Jinhua a top three China chip company in terms of their research and development, one of the people said. Both asked not to be identified because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter. STATE TIES Fujian Jinhua was established in 2016 with funding from state-owned Fujian Electronics & Information Co and Jinjiang Energy Investment Co. Other backers include municipal governments from the southern cities of Quanzhou and Jinjiang. Fujian Jinhuas former board chairman served as a provincial-level party secretary. The firms focus was to become a manufacturing leader in DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, a chip commonly used in personal computers, workstations and servers. The sector has been long dominated by US firm Micron and South Koreas SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics. Once completed, the project will fill the gap in the field of DRAM memory in China, the company said in a news post last year. It added the factory had been included in a list of the countrys top engineering projects supported by the state. In the information age, integrated circuits have been a strategic basic industry for China, it wrote. Future prospects are bright. Fear, the reigning idiom of the Donald Trump presidency, isnt about to roll over quietly, no matter what the results of the US midterm election on 6 November. Itll likely get louder. New York: Fear, the reigning idiom of the Donald Trump presidency, isnt about to roll over quietly, no matter what the results of the US midterm elections on 6 November. Itll likely get uglier and fiercer. Donald Trump likes to talk about immigration, caravans, gangs, repeal of birthright citizenship, crime and a "big, beautiful" wall that can stop all the bad stuff from seeping into what he calls America's porous borders - "a country without tough border security isn't a country at all!" His top agenda, immigration, is one where his footsoldiers in the bureaucracy can keep moving the needle to where Trump wants it to be via internal memos - even if Congress never agrees to legislate on anything. "It's all fragile. Everything I told you about, it can be undone and changed he warned his base Monday. Trump doesnt use that word often - fragile - but as he draws closer to his own 2020 reelection campaign, the contours of the cultural war he has ignited are coming into sharper focus. Real power is - I dont even want to use the word - fear, Trump told Bob Woodward before he won the 2016 elections. Political messages that deviate from stoking fear hold no charm for Trump. Officials in that leaky vessel called the White House are saying Trump was raging about an election ad harping on the economy and decided the only thing he wanted to do is beat the drum on immigration. The plan to include a citizenship question in the census, which has drawn widespread ire, has Trumps blessings. Top science and tech researchers are complaining that the best and brightest in their field are so put off by Trumps hard immigration policy that theyre not coming to America at all. More foreign workers are reporting outright visa rejections. For a tight knit clique of senior staffers in the Trump White House, this mayhem is what put Trump in the White House; everything else is weak tea. So, even if Republicans suffer House losses on Tuesday, the midterm election campaign would have stress-tested a fresh set of immigration tinder boxes far ahead of Trumps 2020 run. For the immigration hard-liners inside the Trump administration, its all good. If moderates are aghast at Trumps constant appeal to the fringe, his loyalists believe that Trumps success speaks to the more mundane, structural causes of inequity and racial polarisation. What his opponents call election season stunts or distractions are central not just to Trump's strategy but to a feeling of racial anxiety that is more palpable today in ordinary American neighborhoods just as much as it is in the country's boondocks. Although the visuals Trump uses to push his agenda are all about illegal immigrants, the skewering is equally for all manner of immigrants. Limits to legal immigration are central to the White House crack team's thinking. The Department of Homeland Security is planning to significantly limit legal immigration and naturalisation by changing the rules on immigration and welfare that have been cast in stone for more than 400 years. The new interpretation will govern how the US government considers migrants' use of almost any government benefit as criteria for determining who may enter or remain in the United States. Trump, probably for the first time, officially lined up the ducks this week in a packed stadium bursting with red MAGA hats. Its not good for us, he said about (illegal) immigrants. They draw on our resources, our schools, our public spaces, our hospitals and we are paying for all that!, he said, cementing the connections between immigration and welfare payments. But don't mistake this for economic justification - because it isn't. For all the outpouring about economic anxiety as a possible reason for Trump's rise, new research suggests that the "left behind" theory pales against a more powerful feeling: a threat to group dominance and the resulting group-led anxiety among whites. "When the people have spoken, the post- election narrative decides what it is they have said. Based on these results, it would be a mistake for people to understand the 2016 election as resulting from the frustration of those left behind economically. Instead, both experimental evidence and panel survey evidence document significant political consequences from a rising sense of status threat among dominant groups in the United States", writes Diana Mutz of the University of Pennsylvania in her paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences in the US. This insecure white tribe is Donald Trump's base; there's no confusion in his mind about his message or his target audience. The midterms won't change anything about how Trump persuades and who he persuades. The US midterm elections on 6 November close by 7 pm EST and early results should begin trickling in by midnight when we'll likely know if Democrats have been able to flip the 435 member US House. Here's your bucket list of key races and polls to watch before a high stakes election spiked by Donald Trump's fiery rhetoric stoking immigration fears. New York: The US midterm elections on 6 November will decide who controls US Congress plum in the middle of the Donald Trump presidency. As things stand exactly 24 hours before the action begins, poll forecasts show the US House (435 seats) and the US Senate (35 seats on the ballot) moving in opposite directions. Democrats are tipped to take back the House while the Republicans are looking stronger in Senate races. As late trends solidify, Donald Trump is distancing himself from the fate of House Republican candidates and devoting his final hours before Tuesday's midterm elections to helping Senate and gubernatorial candidates: "I think we're going to do well in the House but as you know, my primary focus has been on the Senate, and I think we're doing really well in the Senate." Worries have deepened that Trump's charged immigration rhetoric that rose to fever pitch in the last two weeks will cost the Republicans more seats that earlier feared. Polls begin closing by 7 pm EST, last ones will close at midnight That's 9:30 am IST on 7 November. Most polling places will close between 7pm EST and close at midnight - especially Alaska, Hawaii, California, many parts of Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Of the states with earlier closures, Florida, Pennsylvania and New York have a number of House seats which Democrats consider winnable. On the internet, you can watch ad-free election results on C-SPAN from 8 pm EST (6:30 am on 7 November IST). Watch for 'immigration' turnout Trump finally explained why he's ditching the economy for immigration as his hot button talking point at his bare-knuckle style rallies. "Of course I can talk about the economy, we're doing great but the economy isn't such an interesting topic, is it", he said to wild cheers as he trained his guns, yet again, on the dangers of illegal immigration. At least as far as Google search surge is concerned, Trump has succeeded already. In late September, immigration was only within the top 10 or 20 political Google searches across congressional districtsand perhaps surprisingly, it ranked higher in districts that supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. By the end of October, immigration was consistently among the five most-searched political topics, with only a few exceptions. What 6 November will tell us is this: Do more people wooed by Trump's fiery rhetoric on immigration turn up to vote or has he also succeeded in angering more immigration moderates to vote against him? "Dems will make life hell for immigration officials" We asked immigration attorney Cyrus Mehta for his view on where immigration policy goes from here. Here's what he had to say: "Even if the Democrats control both houses, Trump could veto immigration legislation that is not to his liking. However, I believe that if the Democrats take over one chamber of Congress, such as the House, they will hold oversight hearings and make life hell for immigration officials who have been responsible for separating children from parents or other heavy handed enforcement actions." How many seats must Democrats flip to win the House? In the US House, currently held by Republicans, Democrats need to flip 23 Republican-held seats to take control. If Democrats succeed here (they need a total of 218 seats for a majority), they can severely restrict Trumps elbow room to act on key election promises, like the border wall, apart from being a major embarrassment to Trump. Republicans would have to sweep all of the 22 races currently rated as toss-ups to hold onto their House majority a nearly insurmountable challenge says Politico. Generic poll forecasts to watch If you want to veer away from all the talking heads and go straight for the numbers ahead of polls, you can find a longlist of individual polls here or generic poll-of-polls for the House here and a similar curation for the Senate here. Results? By midnight on 6 November, definitely by early 7 November The "official" stuff will likely come out in the early hours of Wednesday but we'll likely know who's going to control the House by midnight on 6th November EST. Some states could take weeks to announce the winners, especially where winners must get more than 50% of the vote. It happened in California in 2014. Which of the 435 House races matter more? The path to power in the US House of Representatives runs through barely a few dozen districts where Republicans are defending their majority and Democrats looking to flip those and get the 23 seats they would need to win control. Watch these races closely: Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Kansas, New Mexico, Washington State, California. The Cook Political report rates 17 Republican-held seats as likely to flip to the Democratic party, or leaning towards the Democrats. Senate races to watch Republicans want to expand their 51-49 Senate majority, their battle runs mostly through states that Trump won in 2016. Out of the 35 Senate contests Tuesday, 10 involve Democratic incumbents seeking re-election in states that Trump won big. This is where Trump is focusing his energies on the final stretch. Democrats will have to win all of their incumbent races and flip seats in a few others - notably Arizona, Tennessee and Texas - to take the Senate. Very tough. They'll need a systematic polling error in all of the races to take this one. The morning after: If Democrats take the House... Monitor Donald Trump's twitter handle at 3 am - that's the go-to place for reactions if Democrats take the House. Trump's already set the stage for both options saying "I'm on the ballot, I'm not on the ballot", he'll pick the one that aligns best if House and Senate go in opposite directions; in fact he may begin a new distraction even now. There's still 24 hours to go and that's plenty of time for a final churn in the Trump election playbook. LG Electronics has inked an agreement with E-mart Inc., a retail giant in South Korea, to develop a new type of service robot that can assist shoppers at supermarkets. Under the agreement, the two companies will develop a smart-cart robot that can automatically identify obstacles and follow shoppers as they walk through aisles. The company said that these new robots will free visitors from the hassle of pushing heavy carts by themselves. These will be developed by the companys research lab. LG so far has released eight different products under the brand, which are suited for different tasks, including guiding, cleaning and even mowing the lawn. The company already introduced the CLOi SuitBot, a robot which will help workers lift and move heavy objects easier. LG as a company has been actively partnering with different clients to bolster its robot business. This includes airports, bakeries, and retail shops. The company says that CLOi stands for clever, clear, close operating intelligence. The company has been making investments in robotic firms, including Robotics, AI startup Acryl and U.S.-based robot maker Bossa Nova Robotics. Source Meat, dairy and eggs that misuse antibiotics could still be making their way onto UK supermarket shelves due to inadequate policies, according to a new report from the... Read More What is a 401(k) and How Do They Work? A 401(k) is a retirement savings plan sponsored by employers. You fund the account with money from your paycheck, you can invest that money in the stock market, and you earn some tax perks for participating. That's the basic (and slightly boring) definition of a 401(k). The more interesting angle is what a 401(k) can do for you. The 401(k) is a powerful resource for achieving financial independence, especially when you start using it early in your career. Said another way, if you like money and wish to have more of it in the future, you can use a 401(k) to make that happen. Read on for a closer look at how the 401(k) works, when you can withdraw funds from a 401(k), and what happens to your 401(k) if you change jobs. In this article: How a 401(k) works Contribution limits for 401(k)s Withdrawing from your 401(k) What a 401(k) rollover is How does a 401(k) work? Eligibility to participate in your company 401(k) usually involves a minimum employment period. Many employers allow you to participate in the 401(k) within a month or two of your hire date. The amount you deposit into your 401(k) with each paycheck is calculated from your contribution rate. Your contribution rate is the percentage of your salary you will contribute. Say you make $45,000 annually, or $3,750 gross monthly. A 10% contribution rate would mean you contribute $375 from your monthly paycheck towards this retirement plan. Don't panic if that seems like too much money to carve out of your income. Thanks to the 401(k)'s tax advantages, a $375 paycheck deferral will cost you something less than $375. The contributions from your paycheck are tax-deductible. Known as paycheck deferrals, these amounts are taken from your pay before income taxes are applied. That lowers your taxable income, which, in turn, reduces your income taxes. Some 401(k) plans offer matching contributions, also known as an employer match. These are deposits to your 401(k) account that are funded by your employer -- basically free money. Matching contributions follow a formula that your employer defines. A common structure is for the employer to deposit $0.50 for every $1 you contribute, up to 6% of your salary. Those are just a couple of the rules for 401(k). You also get tax-deferred investment earnings. Normally, you'd owe taxes annually on interest, dividends, and profits earned on investments you've sold. You don't have to worry about any of that in a 401(k). You can make as much as you want on your 401(k) investments and you won't pay taxes until you withdraw funds from the account. 401(k) contribution limits Even if you wanted to, you probably cant put all of your paycheck into your 401(k). This is because the IRS sets limits on 401(k) contributions. There are caps on how much you can contribute from your paycheck and on how much you and your employer can contribute in total. The numbers can change from year to year, but the limits for 2021 and 2022 are below. You can normally contribute up to $20,500 ($19,500 in 2021) from your salary to your 401(k). Exceptions apply to highly compensated employees, or HCEs. If you are 50 or older, you are allowed additional paycheck deferrals of $6,500 per year. These are called catch-up contributions. Total contributions cannot exceed your pay, or $58,000, whichever is less. Total contributions include your paycheck deferrals, matching contributions, and any other employer-funded contributions. If you over contribute to your 401(k), make sure to contact your plan administrator. You can contribute to both a 401(k) and IRA or Roth IRA, but there are certain limitations. How much should you contribute to your 401(k)? Understand how much you need to save for retirement The Roth option Some 401(k)s allow you to make Roth contributions. A Roth 401(k) contribution has a different tax structure than your standard 401(k) deposit. While the traditional 401(k) contribution is tax-deductible up front and taxable when you withdraw funds, the Roth contribution is the opposite. You get no tax deduction for a Roth contribution, but your withdrawals in retirement are tax-free. Withdrawing from your 401(k) The 401(k) is intended to be a retirement plan, so withdrawals are restricted in your younger years. There are a few exceptions, but most withdrawals before age 59 1/2 come with a 10% penalty. Retirement withdrawals: You can start taking retirement withdrawals once you've reached age 59 1/2. You may be able to begin withdrawals at age 55 without penalty if you no longer work for the company. These withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. Required minimum distributions: If you don't need the money, you can leave it in the account until you are 72. In the first quarter of the year after you turn 72, the IRS requires you to take taxable withdrawals annually. These are known as required minimum distributions, or RMDs. The amount of your 401(k) RMD for each year is based on your age and your year-end account balance. 401(k) loan: Your plan may allow you to borrow against your 401(k) balance, which would not incur a penalty. You do pay interest on the loan; however, youre paying interest to yourself. And, if you change jobs, you normally must repay the loan by the time your next tax return is due. Read more Understand all the ways you can take money out of your 401(k) 401(k) rollovers Your job may not be a keeper, but your 401(k) balance is. If you change jobs, you can take your retirement money with you. Depending on your account balance, your former employer may even require you to take your funds out of the plan. Either way, you'll want to do what's called a 401(k) rollover so you can avoid any taxes or penalties. There are two main types of rollovers: Direct rollover: You ask your plan administrator to send your funds directly to a different retirement account -- either an individual retirement account (IRA) or a 401(k) plan with your new employer. No taxes are withheld from your funds. 60-day rollover: If your old employer sends your 401(k) funds to you directly, you have 60 days to deposit those rollover funds to an IRA or a different 401(k). This gets tricky because your plan will withhold 20% in taxes from the direct payment. But the amount you must deposit in a new account is the full account balance, including the withheld taxes. If you deposit a lesser amount, you will report the difference as taxable income on your next tax return. Here's an example to clarify the 60-day rollover. Say your 401(k) balance is $5,000 when you leave your job. Your employer sends you a check for $4,000, with $1,000 withheld for taxes. You have 60 days to deposit the full $5,000 into another retirement account. If you deposit only the $4,000 you received, you will report $1,000 as taxable income. Youd also owe a 10% penalty if its an early withdrawal. 401(k) for financial independence in retirement The 401(k) makes it easy to build wealth for retirement. Once you set your preferences, the work of saving and investing happens behind the scenes. Plus, you have tax savings and, possibly, matching contributions that expedite your savings momentum. Here's what it comes down to: The earlier you start contributing to a 401(k), the more you'll get from its benefits and the richer you can be when you retire. Retirement Plans Check out other retirement plans that may be right for you 403(b) Learn about this retirement plan for teachers and non-profit employees IRAs Learn the basics of individual retirement accounts. Self-Employed Retirement Plans Planning for retirement when you're your own boss. FAQs The foldable Galaxy smartphone is expected to be made public at the upcoming Samsung Developer Conference. Samsung has been pulled into the limelight after internal leaks put out the details related to the Galaxy S10. Rumours have been also pouring in regarding the foldable smartphone that Samsung has been promising us for a few years now. Leaked information already says that it will have a form factor similar to flip phones of the yesteryears. And now, Samsung has confirmed the same thanks to their updated logo before their Developer conference kicks off. Prior to the Developer Conference slated to begin this Wednesday, Samsung updated their logo for all their social platforms. Through the new logo, they have teased the upcoming foldable Galaxy smartphone that we have been long waiting for. The logo suggests that phone will fold from the middle, similar to what the rumours have been describing until now. Nothing else is derivative from the logo for now. According to leaked information from a Samsung insider a few days ago, the foldable Galaxy F is supposed to feature a dual display setup a 7.3-inch foldable display inside and a smaller 4.6-inch non-bendable display on the outside. Therefore, you could be able to probably use the normal display while on the move and switch to the foldable unit when you want your canvas to be big. The Galaxy F is rumoured to run on a specially developed software co-created by Google to make sure that the newer form factor gels well with the Android OS. There wont be an in-display fingerprint sensor due to technical limitations too. The Foldable Galaxy F is expected to be launched alongside the S10 and will demand a hefty price. (source) The jihadists died during a gun battle with military in a desert area west of the province of Minya. Amid massive security measures, the funeral of the victims of the November 2 attack took place. The condolences of President Al-Sisi. Government compensation to family members. Cairo (AsiaNews) - The Egyptian security forces have killed 19 Islamic extremists responsible for the attack on the Coptic pilgrim bus last November 2, in which seven people (including children) died, and at least 12 were injured. According to sources in Cairo's interior ministry, militiamen died in a firefight with the police who had been on the trail of "fleeing terrorists" in a desert area west of the Minya province for a few hours. Yesterday at the Angelus, Pope Francis expressed "sorrow" for the Coptic pilgrims, killed "because they are Christians". Some jihadists linked to the Islamic State (IS, ex Isis), who claimed responsibility for the attack, hit the faithful on board three buses headed to the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor. The November 2 attack is only the latest in a series against the Coptic Christian minority, which represents about 10% of the total population. The ministry explains that the security forces engaged in an intense gun battle with "terrorists" on the run, even without specifying when the incident occurred. In confirmation of the operation, Cairo disseminated images of the bodies and a tent in which they would find refuge immediately after the attack. Next to the corpses guns, rifles and propaganda leaflets of the Islamic State were found. The same evening of the attack and the following day the funeral of the victims took place; during the ceremonies there were moments of tension, with the participants who showed their anger for the new attack immediately. "What do these terrorists want? Why do they want to push us to hate Muslims? "Asks 23-year-old Michel, who lost a neighbor. At the funeral of November 3, attended by hundreds of people, there were four Coptic bishops, sent by Pope Tawadros II to concelebrate the function together with Bishop Makarios of Minya. The ceremony took place at the church of Al-Amir Tadros in Minya, amid massive security measures. Meanwhile, the Egyptian government has decided to compensate the families of the victims with a sum of money. Ghada Wali, Minister of Social Solidarity, has also ordered the payment of a monthly pension. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi called Pope Tawadros to express the condolences of the government and of the country. On his Facebook profile he therefore expressed sorrow for "the killing of the martyrs", a murder that intends to "undermine the fabric of the nation". Wayback Burgers Adds to 2018 Franchise Sales Momentum in Q3 One of the Nations Fastest Growing Burger Franchises Awards 7 New Restaurants in Q3 [starat]Cheshire, CT - Wayback Burgers, Americas Favorite Hometown Burger Joint and one of the nations fastest growing burger franchises, added to its franchise-development success during Q3 2018 with restaurant openings and construction across the globe, awarding new domestic restaurants and expanding further in international markets. As a result, leading industry publications, like QSR and Franchise Times have recognized Wayback Burgers tremendous growth. QSR penned a magnificent feature story offering an inside look into Wayback Burgers Blazing Growth. Also, Franchise Times highlighted Wayback Burgers as the #2 fastest growing burger brand in its annual Top 200+ list. Dynamic international expansion activity is fueling even bigger ambitions for Wayback Burgers. After a busy second quarter in which Wayback Burgers expanded its reach into Canada, Asia and Europe, the brand extended its worldwide footprint in Q3 by: Opening a second location in the DHA district in Lahore, Pakistan. Adding a second location in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Starting business with a location in Salmiya, Kuwait. Introducing a Wayback Burgers food cart to the market in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Signing a lease for a restaurant in Breda, The Netherlands. Concluding a Master Franchise agreement with a new owner in British Columbia, Canada. Were becoming a household name in more corners of the world, said Wayback Burgers Executive Vice President Bill Chemero. That is because we have earned a worldwide reputation for the best burgers and the best service. This reputation, earned by our phenomenal master franchisees in corners all over the world, has sparked rapid international development as we continue to grow fast in multiple states across the US. In the U.S., Wayback Burgers introduced itself to more guests in new restaurants, opening new restaurants in Milford, Delaware; Reno, Nevada; and Irving, Texas. The Irving location is the first in Wayback Burgers domestic network with a new building design that promises to make the guest experience at Wayback even more exciting, satisfying and efficient. Wayback Burgers awarded seven new U.S. franchises in Q3 2018 with 19 more under construction. In addition, four lease signings stretched across the country, in Broadview Heights, Ohio; San Antonio, Texas; Daytona Beach, Florida; and Fresno, California. Chemero says the company expects to sign more than a dozen new leases and award even more domestic and international franchise locations in Q4. Everyone at Wayback Burgers is eager to finish 2018 on a positive note, and thanks to the momentum weve built throughout the year, it looks like were ready to deliver that kind of performance, Chemero said. Were also setting ourselves up for what promises to be another great year of growth in 2019. For more information on Wayback Burgers, please visit their website (https://waybackburgers.com/) and social media profiles Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For more information on the Wayback Burgers franchise opportunity, please visit https://franchise.waybackburgers.com/. About Wayback Burgers Founded in 1991 in Newark, DE, Wayback Burgers is a Connecticut-based fast-casual franchise with a reputation for fresh, never frozen, cooked to order burgers and thick, hand-dipped milkshakes, served in an environment that hearkens back to a simpler place and time when customer service meant something, and everyone felt the warmth of the community. Wayback Burgers currently operates in 30 states with over 161 restaurants nationally and internationally in Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Pakistan. Through its executed master franchise agreements, Wayback Burgers plans to open in 37 provinces/countries in the Middle East, South Africa, Argentina, Bangladesh, Ireland, Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada, British Columbia and the Netherlands. For more information about Wayback Burgers, please visit https://waybackburgers.com/. For franchising information about Wayback Burgers, please visit https://franchise.waybackburgers.com/. Media Contacts: Graham Chapman 919-459-8157 gchapman@919marketing.com Patrick Conlin 203-649-3387 pconlin@waybackburgers.com SOURCE Wayback Burgers ### Add to Request List Added Request Information Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Dickeys Barbecue Pit is not just for Americans anymore. The largest barbecue franchise chain in the world is taking its smoked meats and wholesome sides to the Middle East this fall and Canada next year. The international expansion is just one more reason for entrepreneurs to consider becoming a part of the fast-growing Dickeys system. The very first international Dickeys Barbecue Pit opened in Abu Dhabi in October. Its the first of 45 locations scheduled to open throughout the Middle East and operated by Serenity Hospitality, a Middle Eastern hospitality group. The group, led by CEO Youssef El Habbal, plans to open Dickeys locations in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Lebanon. Since 1941, Dickeys Barbecue Pit has served guests across the nation Legit. Texas. Barbecue. and we are proud to say we have officially opened our first international location, says Roland Dickey, Jr., CEO of Dickeys Capital Group. Our partnership with Serenity Hospitality was the perfect fit for our first venture internationally. We look forward to our joint success in Abu Dhabi and to future growth throughout the Middle East. The Abu Dhabi restaurant features an open kitchen that allows customers to watch the Pit Masters at work. The menu has been customized for the Abu Dhabi market and includes Dickeys barbecue favorites such as 14-hour slow-smoked beef brisket, smoked chicken and turkey, and savory sides such as mac and cheese, barbecue beans, and creamy spinach. Added to the Middle East menu are beef ribs, an array of beef sausages, and regional favorite, smoked lamb. Three state-of-the-art smokers were imported from the U.S. to the Abu Dhabi location, each bringing the taste of authentic hickory-smoked Texas barbecue to the Middle East. The Canadian market will be the brands next international push as it gets set to open its first store there in late 2019. The rapidly expanding brand will bring its Texas-style barbecue north of the border, eventually opening 20 stores in the Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, and Saskatoon areas. Consumer confidence continues to increase, and people are willing to let others handle the cooking, said Dickey, Jr. The fact that Dickeys is able to expand at this rate internationally without taking any private equity is a testament to hardworking Dickeys franchisees, both nationally and internationally, Dickeys Barbecue Pit commitment to quality, and to our ability to find the right partners. Dickeys Barbecue Pit has been serving up Texas-style barbecue for more than seven decades. The third generation family-owned business now has more than 500 locations across the United States. Dickeys considers every owner operator a part of the family and looks forward to embracing new owners and introducing Dickeys delicious barbecue to different cultures throughout the world. Find more information about franchising opportunities at Dickeys Barbecue Pit here. by Bernardo Cervellera Two priests belong to the ancient Diocese of Xiwanzi; the other two to that of Xuanhua. All four refuse to register in the Patriotic Association. For this they are subjected to indoctrination and isolation. In Shangcai (Henan), the cross of the bell tower and some spires are destroyed. Rome (AsiaNews) - Four priests from the underground community of the diocese of Zhangjiakou (Hebei) were taken away by police because they refused to join the Patriotic Association. The diocese of Zhangjiakou was formed by the government and includes two ancient dioceses, that of Xiwanzi and Xuanhua Two priests belong to the Diocese of Xiwanzi: Fr. Zhang Guilin (photo 1) and Fr. Wang Zhong (photo 2). The other two belong to the diocese of Xuanhua and are Fr. Su Guipeng and Fr. Zhao He (photo 3). All priests were taken from their churches to a nearby hotel to be indoctrinated on the religious policy of the Chinese government. They are being subjected to this because they refuse to enroll in the Patriotic Association, which aims to create a Church independent of the Holy See. According to some sources, Fr. Zhao He is instead under house arrest, where he is also subjected to indoctrination. Since China and the Vatican signed an agreement on the appointment of bishops, with which - at least in theory - the Pope is recognized as head of the Catholic Church - the Patriotic Association and the United Front have been waging a campaign to remind all priests that the Church in China "despite the agreement", is "independent" and for this it obliges the underground priests not registered to join the Patriotic Association. Many underground priests want to be recognized by the government, but do not want to belong to the PA, which according to Benedict XVIs Letter to Catholics, has statutes that "are irreconcilable" with Catholic doctrine. The Message that Pope Francis sent to Chinese Catholics, immediately after the agreement, does not deal with this burning theme among the underground faithful. AsiaNews sources state that the Vatican's position towards the PA has not changed and the Vatican delegation hopes to face the issue of the statutes of the PA in the future. Wang Meixiu, a religion expert at the Academy of Social Sciences, suggested that the PA should be an association with an optional membership. In the meantime, however, both in Hebei and in Henan, the number of underground communities suppressed and unable to gather is growing. Many crosses and decorations of the sacred buildings are destroyed in the name of the sinicization of the submission of the Catholic faith to the Chinese culture, but above all to the PA and to the United Front, undermining every attempt at evangelization. On the first of November, the Cross from the bell tower of the church of Shangcai (Henan) was destroyed, along with the spiers of the building. The church has been sealed and nobody can use it as a place of worship. Many underground Catholics, observing the media silence on their suffering, feel "abandoned", "forgotten" and even "betrayed". For the next few weeks, Rick will be out and about discussing his new edited volume, Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned . While hes away, several of the contributors have agreed to stop by and offer their reflections on what weve learned from the Bush-Obama era. This week, youll hear from Josh Dunn, a professor of political science at the University of ColoradoColorado Springs. Hell be discussing the implications of the Bush-Obama emphasis on school reform as a civil rights issue. First, many thanks to Rick for letting me crash at his place for the week. Before I leave, Ill put the furniture back where you had it. Also, thanks to Rick and Mike McShane for the opportunity to contribute to Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned . My assignment for this volume was to look at how the Bush and Obama administrations framed many of their reforms as civil rights initiatives and see whether doing so improved policy outcomes. Spoiler alert! It didnt. This week, I will focus on what I think are the primary lessons we can learn from these efforts. The first lesson is that labeling a policy reform as a civil right does not overcome the difficulties of managing and reforming coping organizations like schools. Baptizing a policy as a civil right might improve its political prospects, but its not a magic incantation guaranteeing policy success. In fact, it might make success more difficult. George W. Bush, of course, signaled that he was going to sell his education agenda as an extension of civil rights when he attacked the soft bigotry of low expectations and called the lower test scores of Latino and African-American students discrimination. Politically, this had the advantage of creating a bipartisan coalition for No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in Congress. Civil rights groups rallied around NCLB largely because it required the disaggregation of student-achievement data that made federal funding contingent on states breaking student performance out by race and other categories. As well, if students were in a school that failed to make adequate yearly progress for two years, they could transfer. Data plus choice would drive improvement. When NCLB proved to be unworkable, the Education Department (ED) used its waiver provisions to extract even more reforms out of states seeking relief. As Mike explained last week, those reforms largely didnt work either. During the Obama administration, civil rights activity only accelerated. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a raft of Dear Colleague Letters (DCLs) on school discipline, school finance, and transgender students. All these DCLs faced legal and practical problems. Legally, they rested on at best shaky foundations. But even if one overlooked OCRs dubious legal reasoning, they faced practical problems of implementation. That was particularly true of the school discipline DCL that said that if students in one racial group are punished more than their percentage of the student population, a district or school could be subject to a federal investigation. Clearly, the underlying goal was to improve conditions for minority students. Suspensions did decrease, but that didnt mean that minority students were better off. Many school districts responded to the DCL by relaxing their discipline policies. But teachers across the country, particularly in large urban systems serving largely minority populations, reported that it made their schools less safe. Schools simply started tolerating more disruptive behavior. But doing that harmed minority students the most since they had their education disrupted by troublemakers. John Kinsler has shown that, in turn, increases the racial achievement gap. The best explanation for why this civil rights focus led us astray, I think, can be found in the work of the late political scientist, James Q. Wilson. In his justifiably famous book Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It, he defined coping organizations as ones where managers have difficulty monitoring employees or measuring outcomes. Basically, you dont know what your employees are doing and whether theyve done what theyre supposed to do. Schools and the police are the quintessential examples. Many, if not most, education reforms, including those of the Bush and Obama administrations, are attempts to overcome the problems of managing a coping organization. Framing a policy as a civil rights initiative lends it a moral urgency that not only helps generate political support but also should help cut through the managerial fog. Rights, after all, are trump cards. They demand protection regardless of the cost. The focus on accountability was supposed to make it easier to measure outcomes, and demanding statistically equal rates of punishment was a proxy for not being able to observe school officials enforcing school discipline policies. But as we have seen, its hard to argue that either of those had their intended outcome. As well, dressing up policy preferences in civil rights drag makes it difficult to cut your losses if it turns out that your reforms arent working. Rights and remedies are tightly linked. If a remedy has been declared essential to protect a right, the remedy becomes nearly as sacrosanct as the right. This connection helps explain EDs intransigence when states asked for relief from NCLBs impossible requirements. It also suggests that we should be cautious about labeling reforms as civil rights initiatives in the first place. Josh Dunn by Nirmala Carvalho Held since 2007, the initiative is promoted by the Office for Caste and Disadvantaged Tribes of the CBCI. The former "untouchables" suffer from discrimination both in the Church and society. Mumbai (AsiaNews) India's Catholics and Protestants will celebrate Dalit Liberation Sunday on 11 November. The event is organised by the Office for Caste and Disadvantaged Tribes of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) and the National Council of Churches in India, which represents the countrys Protestant and Orthodox Churches. The initiative has been held since 2007 and as of last year, it falls on the second Sunday of November. The theme of this edition "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15) was chosen to mark the 10th anniversary of anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal, Odisha (Orissa). For Fr Raj, secretary of the Office for Caste and Disadvantaged Tribes, the event is "a clarion call to the whole Christian community to renew our faith, and to awaken our consciousness to be the voice of the voiceless and to stand with the vulnerable Dalits in the society. The aim of the day is to draw attention to discrimination against Christian Dalits, both within the Church and in society. Our constitution gives us the freedom to profess to practice and to propagate ones religion, Fr Raj says. But in reality, our Dalit sisters and brothers are denied the Scheduled Castes rights just because they convert to Christianity, thus denying their religious freedom. In India caste divisions were abolished under the Constitution, but discrimination is still rooted in society. What is more, under the Constitution (Scheduled tribes) Order, 1950, Christian and Muslim Dalits are denied access to reserved jobs and schools, which are instead guaranteed for Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh Dalits. In order to counter the marginalisation of the former "untouchables" in Church institutions, the CBCI also approved an action plan in 2016 for the inclusion of the Dalits. The goal is to use the waterways for tourism, environmental protection and collecting construction aggregate. A navigation map should be ready by next January. Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) South Koreas Defence Ministry announced this morning that North and South Korean military, maritime and civil authorities have begun a joint survey of the Han and Imjin River estuaries, on their western border, to study how they can be used for tourism, environmental protection and the collection of construction aggregate. Access to the area has been highly restricted because of military tensions between the two sides. Now, "The joint survey of the Han River estuary is a measure taken for the first time since the Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953," the Defence Ministry said in a press release. A 20-member survey team will include ten people from each side, including military and maritime government officials and waterway experts. The team members will carry no weapons and are banned from doing any provocative acts during the joint survey with the South deploying six ships for the joint survey. Under the September inter-Korean military accord, the team will conduct the survey until the end of the year. After the latter is complete, they will provide the Defence Ministry with a navigation map by January next year. The 70-kilometre-long waterway that the Koreas agreed to jointly use spans around 280 square kilometres. Under the inter-Korean accord, people and ships that want to use the areas must notify the military authorities a day before their entry. Between April and September, people will be allowed to use the estuaries from 7 am to 7 pm, whilst they will remain open from 8 am to 6 pm between October and March. In a meeting with a delegation of rabbis from the World Congress of Mountain Jews, Francis reiterated that a Christian cannot be an anti-Semite and that commemorating the Holocaust was necessary. Friendship between Jews and Catholics, he noted, is based on a fraternity grounded in the history of salvation and it finds concrete expression in concern for one another. Vatican City (AsiaNews) Today, for the first time, Pope Francis received a delegation from the World Congress of Mountain Jews from the eastern Caucasus, in particular Dagestan and the northern regions of Azerbaijan. In addressing them, the pontiff stressed that religious freedom was a fundamental right to be protected against totalitarian attitudes. He also noted that a Christian cannot be an anti-Semite. The Holocaust, he explained, must be commemorated so that there will be a living memory of the past. Without a living memory, there will be no future, for if the darkest pages of history do not teach us to avoid the same errors, human dignity will remain a dead letter. Speaking of the Shoah, I would like to recall two other tragic events. Another dramatic seventy-fifth anniversary took place on 16 October last: that of the raid on the Roman ghetto. Just a few days from now, 9 November will mark the eightieth anniversary of the Kristallnacht, when many Jewish places of worship were destroyed, not least with the intent of uprooting from the hearts of individuals and a people that which is absolutely inviolable: the presence of the Creator. The attempt to replace the God of goodness with the idolatry of power and the ideology of hatred ended in the folly of exterminating creatures. Consequently, religious freedom is a supreme good to be safeguarded, a fundamental human right and a bulwark against the claims of totalitarianism. Sadly, anti-Semitic attitudes are also present in our own times. As I have often repeated, a Christian cannot be an anti-Semite; we share the same roots. It would be a contradiction of faith and life. Rather, we are called to commit ourselves to ensure anti-Semitism is banned from the human community. Francis also stressed the friendship between Jews and Catholics, based on a fraternity grounded in the history of salvation and it finds concrete expression in concern for one another. Together with you, I would like to offer thanks to the Giver of every gift for the blessing of our friendship, which is a reason and an impetus to mutual dialogue. In these times, we are called to promote and to expand interreligious dialogue for the sake of humanity. In this regard, I readily think back with you to the moving interreligious encounter in Azerbaijan two years ago, where I remarked that the religions can be builders of harmony based on personal relations and on the good will of those responsible. This is indeed our path: a path of dialogue with others and a path of prayer for all. These are our means of turning spears into pruning hooks (cf. Is 2:4), so as to give rise to love where there is hatred, and forgiveness where there is offence, without ever growing weary of imploring and tracing the ways of peace. For now is not the time for violent or abrupt solutions, but rather an urgent moment to engage in in patient processes of reconciliation (2 October 2016). It is to this fundamental task that we are called. Available November 2nd Although, for a short minute, we questioned if this series would continue, we can gladly say that this season is the one we're most excited for. With the show announcing it will soon come to an end, what better way to do it than with Claire Underwood (played by Robin Wright) as the leading role/boss ass bitch. because guess what? She's now President. (lataz Kevin Spacey) If it's not just the curiousity of seeing how it will really all end that makes you want to get amongst season 6, it should be the total change in power we see mid-season from Frank Underwood's reign to the start of Clair Underwood's very own epilogue. What better place to get right into the races than at the racecourse itself?! Just like every year, Ellerslie Racecourse is putting it ON. This event isn't really a sit down one, and is a really good excuse to dress up if you're into it. With a massive live broadcast, live performances and plenty of opportunities to socialise, this is more of a chinwag event than anything. This sells out most years, and is a slightly boujee-er occasion, with people really dressed to the nines. All details are here. Instagramable rating: Show off the outfit you spent too much on out of 10. "When we read the news of wars, we think of the news of the hunger of children in Yemen, the result of war: it is far, poor children ... but why do not they have [enough] to eat? But the same war is made at home, in our institutions with this rivalry: start there, the war! And peace must be made there: in the family, in the parish, in the institutions, in the workplace, always seeking unanimity and harmony and not one's own interest ". Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Selfishness, rivalry and vainglory are at the origin of rivalries and conflicts, because they destroy unanimity and harmony that are the basis of coexistence according to the teaching of Jesus, said Pope Francis at Mass at Casa Santa Marta this morning, inspired by the passage of the Gospel (Lk 14: 12-14) in which Jesus exhorts the head of the Pharisees not to seek "something in exchange" for his actions. The Pope explained that Jesus teaching is clear: do not do things out of [self-]interest, do not choose your friendships on the basis of convenience. He said that reasoning on the basis of one's own advantage is a form of selfishness, segregation and self-interest whilst Jesus message is exactly the opposite. And referring to the first reading in which St. Paul speaks to the Philippians, he urged the faithful to do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory Do not do things out of interest, do not reason only on the basis of your own advantage and be selective in your friendships. This is a form of selfishness, of segregation and of interest, the Pontiff explains. Quite the opposite of what is instead the message of Jesus which is gratuitousness, universality, which broadens life and lengthens the horizon. He therefore warned against the two dangers to unity: Rivalry and vainglory Rivalry is ugly: you can perpetrate it openly, in a direct way, or with white gloves. But it always aims to destroy the other and to raise oneself up by diminishing the other. Rivalry, he said, stems from self- interest. Equally harmful, the Pope continued, is someone who prides himself on being superior to others. This attitude, he said, destroys communities and families: Think of the rivalry between siblings for the fathers inheritance for example, it is something we see every day. Christians, Pope Francis said, must follow the example of the Son of God, cultivating gratuitousness: doing good without expecting or wanting to be repaid, sowing unity and abandoning rivalry or vainglory. Building peace with small gestures paves a path of harmony throughout the world he said.When we read of wars, he concluded, of the famine of children in Yemen caused by the conflict there, we think thats far away, poor children why don't they have food? The same war is waged at home and in our institutions he warned, stemming from rivalry: thats where war begins! And thats where peace must be made: in the family, in the parish, in the institutions, in the workplace, always seeking unanimity and harmony and not one's own interest. Samsung Galaxy Note9 might soon launch in Classy White finish: Leak News oi-Vivek Professional, high-end classy white smartphone seems like a nice pair up Samsung is always known for launch smartphones with different shades or color profiles, and now, the company is slated to launch a new Samsung Galaxy Note9 in a classy white finish. According to a tweet by @evleaks the company might launch the Galaxy Note9 in white color with a white colored S-Pen. Samsung has not launched a pure white color flagship smartphone in a long time (after the Galaxy S6 with an all-glass design), and the Galaxy Note9 could be the first all-glass smartphone that might launch with a white finish. Got tipped on this. Eagle-eyed Photoshop detectives, what say ye? pic.twitter.com/KXp4inQtL2 Evan Blass (@evleaks) November 4, 2018 In terms of either the pricing or the specifications, the Samsung Galaxy Note9 will offer a similar set of specifications as of the standard Samsung Galaxy Note9. However, this could be a limited edition model, which is expected to launch with 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. As of now, there is no information on the price or the availability of the white Samsung Galaxy Note9 what so ever. Samsung Galaxy Note9 offers The Samsung Galaxy Note9 with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage is available in India for Rs 67,900 on and the Galaxy Note9 with 8 GB RAM and 512 GB storage is available for Rs 84,900. The Galaxy Note9 is the first smartphone from Samsung to launch with up to 512 GB of internal storage with a micro SD card slot, which supports 512 GB micro SD card, offering a whopping 1 TB of storage. At the price of Rs 67,900, the Samsung Galaxy Note9 is one of the best flagship smartphone that anyone can buy in India. The smartphone comes with a QHD+ Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2960 x 1440p, protected by 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on both sides. Under the hood, the device runs on the Exynos 9810 Octo-core chipset with 6/8 GB of RAM and 128/512 GB of internal storage with a micro SD card slot for additional storage expansion. The mobile does offer dual SIM card slots with 4G LTE and VoLTE on both slots with Bluetooth 5.0, dual-channel Wi-Fi, and NFC support. The Galaxy Note9 also has the biggest battery compared to other flagship smartphones from Samsung, a mind-boggling 4000 mAh Li-ion battery with support for fast charging via USB type C port and also supports wireless charging. The Galaxy Note9 is also one of the last few premium flagship smartphones to retain 3.5 mm headphone jack. 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 Foldable smartphone A company named Rouyu Technology recently launched a foldable-smartphone cum tablet, so Samsung will not be the first company to launch a foldable device. However, Samsung will be the first major brand to launch a smartphone/tablet with a foldable display, which is most likely to launch in early 2019. 5G ready The upcoming foldable smartphone from Samsung will also offer 5G networking capabilities. Just like the Galaxy S9 or the Note9, the Samsung Galaxy X will launch with either Exynos or Qualcomm chipset with a 5G model (Qualcomm X50 modem). In-display fingerprint sensor The Samsung Galaxy X is also expected to come with an in-screen fingerprint sensor. Unlike the other smartphone, the Galaxy X will have an ultrasonic sensor, which should offer faster and more accurate fingerprint reading compared to the light sensor used on smartphones like the OnePlus 6T. No notch no bezel The Samsung Galaxy X or the Samsung Galaxy S10 will also offer an almost bezel-less and notch-less display design with a selfie camera hidden under the display (just like the one on the sci-fi movies). Expected specifications Just like the previous generation Samsung smartphone, the Galaxy X will come with a foldable OLED display with a resolution of QHD+ UHD, protected by foldable 2.5D curved tempered glass. Corning might develop a foldable screen glass for Samsung. The Galaxy X could also be the first Samsung smartphone to offer up to 10 GB of RAM. Samsung might launch its first foldable phone Galaxy F on November 7 News oi-Sandeep Sarkar Samsung might announce its first foldable smartphone, the Galaxy F at the company's upcoming developer conference which will be held in San Francisco starting November 7, 2018. The foldable smartphones are the future of the mobile phones which we will be able to see in the coming days. While Rouyu Technology has already introduced the first foldable phone (FlexPai) in the market, the South Korean tech giant Samsung is also all set to bring its own foldable smartphone for the masses. As per a report from The Wall Street Journals, the South Korean tech giant is apparently in talks with the online media streaming platforms including YouTube and Netflix to deliver the best quality content for an enhanced user experience. If the reports are to be believed then the company might release its first foldable smartphone as early as November 7, 2018. It is being further said that the company might name the upcoming mystery foldable smartphone as Galaxy F. Apart from the foldable design the Galaxy F will also sport a secondary display at the rear similar to that of the Nubia X which recently made its debut in China. It is further being speculated that Samsung might announce its first foldable smartphone, the Galaxy F at the company's upcoming developer conference which will be held in San Francisco starting November 7, 2018. The Samsung Galaxy F will feature a Super AMOLED display panel which will act as a phone when it is folded and as a tablet in its original form. The rumor mill suggests that the Samsung Galaxy F will sport a 7.29-inch primary display when it is in tablet mode and a 4.58-inch secondary display when the display is folded and it is used as a smartphone. This dual functionality should take the smartphone user experience to next level. As for the hardware and software, it is not immediately clear as to what the upcoming Samsung Galaxy F will offer in terms of specifications. It is also not clear at the moment that on which Android version will the smartphone run on and how much battery will it pack. However, it is being said that the display which the device will offer will not break even after it has been realigned. This will assure the durability of the display even with it being folded a number of times. If Samsung reveals the Galaxy F at its developer conference then we can expect that the device will make its way in the market soon. It would be interesting to see the features offered by the Samsung's foldable smartphone and after all the hype which the tech giant has created, we expect something exciting from the company. We will keep you posted with the updates on the same, so stay tuned with us. Image Source Best Mobiles in India Samsung's new patent reveal an edge-to-edge smartphone News oi-Vishal Kawadkar Samsung has a new smartphone in works A new Samsung patent describing an edge-to-edge smartphone has been published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on October 24. First spotted by LetsGoDigital, the patent shows all sensors and the camera placed underneath the display. The biggest highlight of the of the patent is the full-screen front panel, "As a user would like to view various contents with a larger screen than that of a conventional device, a display area increases; and, in order to enhance the aesthetic sense, a display is disposed at an entire front surface of the electronic device." Additionally, the smartphone's selfie camera will be set directly in the middle of the printed circuit board (PCB), using the hole in the display and leaving the whole panel intact. The device also features numerous sensors and components set right under the cover panel including the fingerprint scanner, microphone, the camera, and a transparent antenna all being placed under the front cover glass. "In an antenna device and an electronic device including the same according to various embodiments of the present invention, by enabling an antenna to have unity through a processing while securing an antenna performance by reducing the effect of an extended display, the aesthetic sense can be enhanced," says Samsung's WIPO patent. Moreover, the company has also added a hologram device that is designed to allow the users to project 3D image content in the air using either light interference or a projector. "The hologram device may show a stereoscopic image in the air using interference of light. The projector may project light on a screen to display an image," according to the patent. "The screen may be positioned, for example, at the inside or the outside of the electronic device." Besides, a designer named Ben Geskin has shared a concept of the Galaxy S10, based on the rumors released so far. The concept shows a near bezel-less which can be achieved if the company uses a hole in the display, instead of using the notch. The concept also shows curved edges, similar to its precursor. Best Mobiles in India Xiaomi Mi 9 to be the first smartphone to feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 SoC News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Xiaomi Mi 9 to feature Snapdragon 8150 and a triple camera at its rear. The recently launched Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 is definitely an innovative device as it is the first smartphone to feature 10GB of RAM. With the next flagship smartphone - the Mi 9, the company is said to bring in many more innovations. The 2019 flagship from the Chinese brand is expected to be the first one to use the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 SoC. While the Mi Mix 3 came with a dual camera modular at its rear, the Mi 9 is said to feature a triple camera module. In addition to these, we can expect other improvements too. Notably, Xiaomi is known for launching smartphones with Snapdragon processors ahead of its rivals. While this has already happened several times over the years, the company is expected to repeat the same next year with the launch of Mi 9. A triple camera module As per a report by iGeekPhone, the Xiaomi Mi 9 is expected to come with a triple camera setup at its rear. The primary camera at the rear is believed to be a 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor. The device is expected to come in multiple variants - 6GB, 8GB and of course the 10GB RAM variants. This Sony sensor has a 1/2.0-inch CMOS and makes use of a Quad Bayer 4-pixel color filter. Eventually, the sensor arranges four pixels of the same color next to each other to get 12MP and 1.6 sensor pixel size. This way, the sensor has exceptional good night shooting ability. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 This smartphone is likely to be the first smartphone to be launched with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 SoC. This processor is said to be based on the 7nm FinFET process technology. It features a three-cluster core design, which is similar to Huawei's Kirin 980 chipset. As per a recent Geekbench listing, the Snapdragon 8150 is said to have a base frequency of 1.78GHz, 3697 single-core performance and 10,469 multi-core performance. Also, this processor will have a separate neural processor to handle the artificial intelligence capabilities. Given that the Mi 9 might be the first smartphone to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 SoC, we can expect it to be unveiled in the first quarter of 2019. 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 by Vladimir Rozanskij The collaboration was decided in order to create an independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The patriarch of Constantinople will compile the Tomos of autocephaly and deliver it to the primate elected by a local synod. Importance of the Constantinople primacy on the Orthodox Churches reiterated. The reactions of Moscow. Moscow (AsiaNews) - Two days ago, on November 3, the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I (Archontonis), signed an agreement in Istanbul "On cooperation and interaction between Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ". It explicates agreement to collaborate in the creation of an independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine; the ecumenical patriarchate should draft the tomos of autocephaly and consign it to the primate elected by a local synod. The Ukrainian president has defined the agreement "historical": "What we have undersigned meets all the conditions for the start of the process that will lead to the synod, strictly adhering to the canons of the Orthodox Church. I congratulate the patriarch who wanted to agree to sign the agreement; I would like it to be remembered as a historic date for the creation of the Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox Church on November 3, "said Poroshenko. The Ukrainian leader also added that "this historic day brings to completion a process that began in the first days of Ukrainian independence, when the Ukrainians began to pray to the Lord for an independent Church". Patriarch Bartholomew also stressed the historical importance of this agreement for the bilateral relations between Kiev and Constantinople, but also for the whole of Orthodoxy: "just like the other Balkan nations, which received autocephaly from the Mother Church, even the Ukrainians have obtained the recognition of their right. It is in fact an exclusive right of the mother Church to grant autocephaly when it becomes necessary, and all the conditions for this procedure are fulfilled ". Immediate reactions from Moscow: the head of the Church's synodal department for relations between the Church and society, Vladimir Legojda, said that the agreement signed at the Phanar, as part of Poroshenko's visit to Turkey, "does not yet mean the creation of an independent Ukrainian Church ". After days of accusations against Constantinople for its schismatic behavior, the comments coming from the Moscow Patriarchate intend to be more sober, underlining that autocephaly has not yet been effectively completed. This suggests that there is work "behind the scenes", perhaps negotiations between Moscow and Constantinople, to find a solution that recomposes the fracture. On the other hand, the patriarchate of Moscow counts on the "resistance" of its own priests and faithful in Ukraine, to nullify the steps taken in the direction of autocephaly. 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. Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited (MMAL) has announced it will build its new national headquarters in Adelaide, with the new site at the airport set to open for business from late 2020. Ending months of speculation, the announcement reaffirms the companys commitment to the City of Churches, which has been the Australian home of Mitsubishi for nearly four decades. The company considered moving its headquarters interstate, but opted to remain in Adelaide partly in order to retain its local workforce. Moving its head office from the current location in Clovelly Park to the citys airport would allow the company to meet its future business requirements and better support its interstate dealers and staff, according to Mitsubishi Motors Corporation COO Trevor Mann. Present at the announcement was South Australian premier Steven Marshall MP, who on behalf of the state government offered a $2 million grant to MMAL to assist in the construction and fit-out of the new facility. Mr Marshall said the government was delighted about MMALs decision to remain headquartered in Adelaide. South Australia has been home to Mitsubishi for over 38 years and in that time has contributed significantly to our state and likewise, South Australia has been a major supporter of Mitsubishi, he said. This decision is a significant vote of confidence in South Australians and the State Government looks forward to continuing a productive and positive partnership with Mitsubishi. The facility will be located at the entrance to Adelaide airport, with construction set to commence in 2019. The Road to Recovery podcast series NEW Zealands new-vehicle market set a new monthly sales record in October due to strong rental demand, with the 16,670 units sold during the period eclipsing the previous benchmark (15,985) from June 2017. Sales in October increased by 7.3 per cent over the corresponding month last year, helping to push the markets year-to-date volume to 136,261 units (+1.7%) and placing a fifth consecutive annual record further within reach. Sales of passengers cars and SUVs topped 11,767 units (+5.9%) last month, while light-commercial vehicles (LCVs) lifted their volume even further (4903, 11.0%). Commanding a market share of 18.0 per cent, mid-size SUVs were the most popular vehicles in October, followed by small passenger cars (15.5%) and small SUVs (13.3%). According to NZ Motor Industry Association (MIA) chief executive officer David Crawford, the markets new monthly sales record was mainly due to its buoyant tourism industry. The strong result in October is off the back of car rental companies renewing their stock and is a vote of confidence by that sector in the strength of the New Zealand tourism market, he said. With a massive 30.0 per cent market share, Toyota was the best-selling brand in October (4998 units, +12.1%), setting its own monthly sales record due to rental dominance. The Corolla small car was the best-selling model in October, down 1.6 per cent to 1744 sales, 1539 of which came from rental companies that also opted for the second-placed RAV4 mid-size SUV (996, +107.9%) and eighth-placed Highlander/Kluger large SUV (332, -0.6%) in large numbers. Toyotas HiLux ute had another strong showing in fourth position, but its 810 sales were not enough to eclipse its main rival, the third-placed Ford Ranger (876 units, +2.7%), despite being up by 6.3 per cent. The Blue Oval did, however, have to settle for third position on the brand ladder, with its sales backtracking by 15.8 per cent, to 1288 units, giving second-placed Holden (1435, +7.0%) the upper hand. While the Lion brands Commodore mid-size car is finding some traction (252 units, +1.6%), its sixth-placed Colorado pick-up continues (398, +29.2%) to do most of the heavy lifting. Mazda finished in fourth position after its sales improved by 14.1 per cent, to 1251 units, thanks to healthy returns from the seventh-placed CX-5 mid-size SUV (265 units) and 10th-placed Mazda3 small car (306). Mitsubishis fifth-position effort was even stronger, with its sales up 19.3 per cent to 1158 units as it rode the coattails of the fifth-placed Triton ute (402) and the ASX small SUV (268). Hyundai put in a poorer performance (718 units, -16.7%) for sixth position, while seventh-placed Nissan fired back with impressive growth (682, +13.8%) led by the Navara (289). Thanks to its ninth-placed Sportage mid-size SUV (318 units, -10.2%), Kia (611, +4.4%) fared better in eighth position than a declining Suzuki (515, -8.0%) in ninth position, even with the apparent popularity of its Swift light hatch (250). Meanwhile, Volkswagen recorded the largest increase in volume among the leading brands, assuming 10th position with its sales up 24.5 per cent, to 498 units. In the year-to-date sales races, Toyota (32,282 units) and the Ford Ranger (8306) lead their rivals in the brand and model stakes respectively. NZ top 10 makes October 2018 Ranking Brand Sales Share% 1 Toyota 4998 30.0 2 Holden 1435 8.6 3 Ford 1288 7.7 4 Mazda 1251 7.5 5 Mitsubishi 1158 6.9 6 Hyundai 718 4.3 7 Nissan 692 4.2 8 Kia 611 3.7 9 Suzuki 515 3.1 10 Volkswagen 498 3.0 The Road to Recovery podcast series TORONTO, Nov. 5, 2018 - Guyana Goldfields Inc. (TSX: GUY) (the "Company") announces that its Board has approved the Company making an application to implement a normal course issuer bid ("NCIB"). Notice of Intention to commence the NCIB together with the terms and conditions has been filed with the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX") and awaits approval. It is estimated that the approval process can take up to seven business days. Management and the Board of Directors believe that the current market price of the common shares of the Company does not reflect the Company's underlying value and future prospects. The Company's strong balance sheet coupled with consistent cash flow from operations provides the financial flexibility to align with shareholders by implementing an appropriate share repurchase program. The NCIB will not impact the Company's development plans or intention to make an accelerated voluntary payment of US$20 million toward its loan facility by the end of the current quarter. Additionally, the Company continues to explore alternatives to restructure the balance of the facility. About Guyana Goldfields Inc. Guyana Goldfields Inc. is a Canadian based mid-tier gold producer primarily focused on the exploration, development and operation of gold deposits in Guyana, South America. Forwarding-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral resources. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as "plans," "expects," "is expected," "budget," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates," or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and are based on various assumptions. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals, average production grades, future production and earnings guidance, the timing and costs associated with underground development activities, the number of Common Shares which may be purchased under the NCIB, if any, and the terms and timing of any such purchases, available funding for purchases under the NCIB, the proposed renegotiations and repayment of the project loan facility in respect of the Aurora Gold Project, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; political instability; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual information form. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. SOURCE Guyana Goldfields Inc. Telangana: Congress Pushing Allies To Corner! With the elections to Telangana assembly just a month away, the opposition in the state seem to be still clueless with regard to forging a grand alliance or Maha Kootami to put up a common fight in the elections. By dodging on the number of seats to be allotted to the alliance partners the Telugu Desam Party, the CPI and Telangana Jana Sena, the Congress party appears to be pushing them to a corner and forcing them to agree for the paltry share in the number of seats. The Congress wants to contest in 95 assembly seats, giving 14 seats to TDP, eight to the TJS and two to the CPI. This has caused a lot of disgruntlement among the three allies. But having come to this stage, they cannot walk out of the alliance because at the grassroots level, the message has already gone that they are fighting together. If they come out of the alliance and contest independently, the people will have no faith in them and there is a possibility of all the parties losing even their winnable seats. On Saturday, the CPI issued an ultimatum to the Congress party saying it would go it alone, if it is not granted at least five seats. The Congress leaders are trying to pacify them. The CPI has to be part of the Mahakootami, since it was part of the Telangana Joint Action Committee for quite long time. The Congress should play the role of big brother and decide the alliances at the earliest. We are already lagging behind in campaign by a month, TJS president Prof M Kodandaram said. But, the Congress which is taking its own sweet time in finalizing the list, is of the view that the alliance partners would definitely come down on their knees and agree for whatever it would give it to them. Click Here for Latest Direct-to-OTT Releases (List Updates Daily) The Volkswagen Group is progressing with its work with quantum computers (earlier post). For the first time, Volkswagen researchers have succeeded in using a quantum computer to develop a traffic management system that will replace forecasting for urban traffic volumes, transport demand and travel times with precise calculations. As a result, public transportation organizations, taxi companies, and transport service providers will be able to deploy their fleets considerably more efficiently while minimizing waiting times for passengers. Volkswagen and its quantum computing partner D-Wave are presenting the project at the WebSummit technology conference in Lisbon. Quantum computers can solve highly complex tasks such as traffic optimization much faster than conventional supercomputers. In some cases, a solution is only possible using quantum computers. Volkswagen sees considerable potential in using this cutting-edge computing technology for building new applications and business models within the company. Volkswagen is forging ahead with practically-oriented research on quantum computers and is gaining essential specialist knowledge. We want to gain an in-depth understanding of applications of this technology which could be beneficial to the company, including traffic optimization. Public transport organizations and taxi companies in large cities are highly interested in managing their fleets efficiently. Our quantum-optimized traffic management system could help make that a reality. Florian Neukart, Principal Scientist at Volkswagens CODE Lab in San Francisco The next era of quantum computing is application development, and D-Wave has been focused on enabling practical quantum application development since day one. Volkswagens innovative work using D-Wave quantum computers to pursue applications in traffic optimization is an example of the real-world impact quantum computing can have on both business operations and peoples everyday lives. Bo Ewald, D-Wave President To develop the new traffic management system, Volkswagen experts first analyze anonymized movement data (from smartphones or transmitters in vehicles) with conventional computers to calculate traffic accumulation and the number of people involved. The second step, optimization, is completed with a quantum algorithm. For example, its possible to assign precise numbers of vehicles to different destinations (demand spots) on a predictive basis to provide transportation for all waiting passengers. This would eliminate such costly transportation inefficiencies as taxis and buses driving considerable distances without passengers, long passenger wait times, or a shortage of vehicles in high-demand locations. Public transportation operators could add additional trips to fixed timetables to better align with demand. For Volkswagen, this quantum-optimized traffic management system could be offered as a new commercial service. Volkswagen experts also see application possibilities for their algorithm in traffic infrastructure and vehicle networking, especially as it relates to autonomous vehicles. The Volkswagen experts first want to test the algorithm in Barcelona as they have an adequate database for this city. They are cooperating with the telecommunications service provider Orange and the data science specialist Teralytics. As a general principle, the algorithm could be scaled up or down for any city. Volkswagen and quantum computing. Highly specialized IT experts from Volkswagen, including data scientists, computer linguists and software engineers, are working together at the IT labs in San Francisco and Munich to develop the potential of quantum computers for applications which will be beneficial for the company. The main focus is on the programming of algorithms on quantum computers. These are subject to different laws than in the case of conventional computers. In the field of quantum computing, the Volkswagen Group is cooperating with technology partners D-Wave and Google, who provide the Volkswagen experts with access to their systems. D-Wave Leap Quantum Application Environment. In October, D-Wave Systems announced the immediate availability of free, real-time access to the DWave Leap Quantum Application Environment (QAE). Leap is the first cloud-based QAE providing real-time access to a live quantum computer. In addition to access, Leap provides open-source development tools, interactive demos and coding examples, educational resources, and knowledge base articles. Leap builds on D-Waves continuing work to drive real-world quantum application development. Todate, DWave customers have developed 100 early applications for problems spanning airline scheduling, election modeling, quantum chemistry simulation, automotive design, preventative healthcare, logistics, and more. Many have also developed software tools that make it easier to develop new applications. Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd. has supplied the design for an autonomous shuttle bus in Finland with the aim of rolling out this public transportation in 2020. The Gacha Shuttle Bus is the first autonomous bus designed for all weather conditions. Finland-based Sensible 4 is providing the autonomous driving technology with the support of three Finnish cities (Espoo, Vantaa, Hameenlinna). Weather plays a critical role in opening the market for autonomous buses or robotaxis. Currently heavy rain, fog, and snow prevent autonomous vehicles from driving, as the existing technologies are mostly being tested and developed in warm climate conditions. Sensible 4 has focused on technology tests and validation under arctic Lapland conditions. The highlights of the design are its shape, which is friendly and designed with no front or back, the LED light belt, which is made from the combination of the headlights and communication screen, and the seating that follows the soft rounded square shape of the bus. Finland has a perfect environment for the autonomous vehicle testing, because it is legally not required to have a driver on the vehicle running on public roads, the company noted. The prototype will be unveiled to the public in Helsinki, March 2019. After the unveiling, the Gacha shuttle bus will start its final phase of testing, operating a passenger service in three Finnish cities. The Gacha Autonomous Shuttle Bus has 10 seats, with room for 6 standing. The 4WD electric powertrain supports a maximum speed of 40 km/h and a range of 100+ km. Fast charging is standard, wireless charging will be optional. High school and college students around the country are organizing class walkouts on election day this Tuesday. Their efforts, which mimic large youth walkouts in the spring, aim to draw attention to their concerns about gun violence and to encourage young people to vote. Students pouring out of classrooms can create some logisitical challenges and safety concerns for schools. Heres what administrators should know. Why are students walking out on election day? The walkouts are organized by a group of youth-led gun violence and climate change organizations called the Future Coalition. The walkout plans follow months of activism and voter registration efforts aimed at teens and young adults, who typically have anemic turnout, especially in midterm elections. On November 6th, the voice of young people in this country will be heard loud and clear when we cast our ballots together, David Hogg said in a press release about the walkouts. Hogg helped found March for Our Lives, an anti-gun violence organization, after he survived the school shooting in Parkland, Fla. You will hear us marching to the polls, and you will see the impact we have when we cast our ballots. And well make this impact because were not afraid to work together to make it happen. The youth movement isnt about one issue or one group. Its about working together for a better future. Do students at my school plan to walk out on election day? Organizers have invited students around the country to add their planned walkouts to a searchable map , which you can explore by clicking on the image below. Its hard to predict whether the election day walkouts will come anywhere close to matching the student-led efforts last spring, especially at the high school level. Voting-age students obviously make up a small portion of K-12 enrollment, but younger students may participate as well. Education Weeks Denisa Superville wrote a helpful guide on student walkouts in February that provides some advice for administrators about issues like safety and discipline. The National Association of Secondary School Principals advised teachers and principals not to endorse or participate in walkouts, Superville wrote. Specifically in the case of a walkout, school officials participation sets a harmful precedent for endorsing a flagrant violation of school or district policy, the group wrote in a February blog on its website. Moreover, students with differing views might feel alienated or compelled to participate against their will if school officials are perceived as supporting the protest. Teachers can, however, reduce the negative academic effects of the protest by, for instance, not assigning tests or work that cannot be made up if an absence is unexcused. More appropriately, teachers can provide opportunities for remaining students to have their voices heard as well by writing a letter to a legislator, leading a structured conversation about the topic of protest, and so forth. Administrators should work to keep students safe, away from busy streets, and on campus if possible, the organization advised. Educators should also remind students that, although they have the right to walk out, they may also face consequences for doing so, education organizations have said. The bottom line: Schools must issue the same discipline to students who walk out for political reasons (regardless of the cause) as they would for students who leave the building without permission for any other reason, the ACLU says. Because the law in most places requires students to go to school, schools can discipline you for missing class, the organization advises students. But what they cant do is discipline you more harshly because of the political nature of or the message behind your action. Photo: Millbrook High School students demonstrate against gun violence outside their school in Frederick County, Va., on Feb. 21, following a school shooting in which 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. --Jeff Taylor/The Winchester Star via AP Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox. The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later will be presented at the Wooster School Theater in Danbury on Nov. 16 and 17. This provocative play is a follow-up to The Laramie Project, which was inspired by the death of Matthew Shepard, a college student who was brutally murdered 20 years ago last month in Laramie, Wyo., because he was gay. Shepard was just 21 when he was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. The tragedy led to renewed cries for anti-hate crime legislation. Members of the New York-based Tectonic Theater Project, whose plays have been performed around the world, traveled to Laramie to interview local residents and created The Laramie Project, which became one of the most-performed plays in the country. The sequel performed by Wooster Upper School students and directed by Andrea Barrett is based on what members of The Tectonic Theater Project found when they returned to Laramie. They went to see what, if anything, had changed, as far as peoples attitudes toward the crime, and were surprised with what they found. Shepard has been in the news recently, as his ashes were interred last month at the Washington National Cathedral, following a remembrance service. With the two-decade anniversary of his death, people have been looking to see what progress has been made in the area of LGBTQ hate crime protections. Many states still lack them. To learn more, see matthewshepard.org. According to the website, The life and death of Matthew Shepard changed the way we talk about, and deal with, hate in America. Since his death, Matts legacy has challenged and inspired millions of individuals to erase hate in all its forms. Although Matts life was short, his story continues to have a great impact on young and old alike. His legacy lives on in thousands of people who actively fight to replace hate with understanding, compassion, and acceptance. The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later contains strong language which may not be suitable for children under 13 years old. Seating is extremely limited, so organizers ask that you please honor your reservation. Wooster School, Black Box Theatre, 91 Miry Brook Road, Danbury. Friday, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 17, 2 and 7:30 p.m. $15. 203-830-3900, woosterschool.org/laramie Japanese railroad officials earlier this year apologized for a huge mistake: One of their trains left a station 25 seconds early. This was the second time such an egregious error had been made and I imagine the offenders were severely disciplined. Meanwhile back on Metro-Norths New Haven line, the railroads latest on-time performance (OTP) statistics stand at about 82 percent a new low. To make matters worse, what the Japanese railroads and MNRR consider on time are two different things. On time in Japan means the 7:12 a.m. train departs at 7:12, not 7:11 (as in this horrendous incident that prompted the apology) nor at 7:13. On time means ON TIME. Metro-North, however, defines a train as being on time if it arrives or departs within five minutes and 59 seconds of the scheduled time. So the train due in Grand Central at 8:45 a.m. is still on time in Metro-Norths record keeping if it pulls in just before 8:51 a.m. On a train ride averaging an hour from Connecticut to GCT, thats about a 10 percent margin of error, so the 82 percent on time record could really be much, much lower. Metro-North has not revealed its actual on-time stats. But Metro-North is not alone in such squishy record keeping. Most U.S. commuter railroads also observe this 5:59 standard. And on Amtrak, its even worse. On a short run (less than 250 miles), a train is on time if its 10 minutes late. Long-distance trains (over 550 miles) are given a 31-minute leeway. When trains are late, there is usually a good reason. For Metro-North, it could be switch problems, overhead power lines, track conditions and, of course, weather. And when one train is late, delays can cascade, just like a fender-bender on Interstate 95 can create a huge backup. But all of this is OK with me. Id rather be safe than on time. We used to be able to always count on Metro-North to be on time and would schedule our travel accordingly, assuming no delays. And yes, the trains were on time something like 98 percent of all runs. But they were also unsafe and we didnt know it. So if my train now is 5 or 10 minutes late, thats OK. Because I took an earlier train just to be safe, I can handle the delay and still keep to my personal schedule. Over the years, Ive realized theres usually a valid explanation for issues on Metro-North. While commuters tweets are quick to assume its incompetence on the part of the railroad, it usually isnt. Its aging equipment or things beyond Metro-Norths control. The men and women who work at Metro-North may not be rocket scientists, but I honestly believe most of them are trying their best. While OTP on the railroad has been slipping, there is one area where we have seen a huge improvement: communications. A small army of railroad people now work 24/7 to tweet and email every problem on every line. And they update the information, keeping us posted on delays. Thats valuable information riders can use to make decisions, find alternatives and alert colleagues that they may be late. Lets give the railroad credit for doing this much right. Jim Cameron is a longtime commuter advocate based in Fairfield County. Contact him at CommuterActionGroup@gmail.com Entrepreneurs and business owners are in a war for hourly workers. Hourly workers are a major driver of the economy in the United States. Seventy-eight million people, or 59 percent of the workforce, are hourly workers. However, hiring hourly workers is challenging. Hourly workers of restaurants, bars, stores and other local businesses change jobs frequently. Related: As Restaurant Chains End 'No-Poach' Policies, How Will Franchisees Retain Trained Employees? Today, turnover of hourly workers is one of the industry's biggest workforce problems. In a survey by Society of Human Resource Management, respondents reported that the average annual turnover for hourly workers is 49 percent, at an average cost of $4,969 per employee. In addition, this is increasing rapidly with an annual increase of 39 percent for hourly workers and a staggering 314 percent increase in turnover for managers. In addition, with the growth of the gig economy with companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and more, there is increased competition with local businesses for hiring hourly workers. In October 2018, the number of job openings in America reached over 7 million, and will exceed the number of job seekers. Here are share some strategies and techniques for hiring hourly workers. 1. Set up an employee referral program. As with many industries and sectors, referrals work! One strategy for business owners is to create an incentive scheme for successful referrals which can take the form of a small cash bonus or other rewards. For example, whenever a new hourly worker is hired, immediately ask her or him for three introductions or names that can be introduced to the company. This is very helpful as you will be able to create leverage and reach more hourly workers who are of similar backgrounds that you like to hire. 2. Share on closed communities like Facebook Groups and Yelp. There are many closed communities and trusted networks of people who may be looking for work. For example, there are many Facebook Groups in each local city, sectors and industries where Facebook users come together to offer support and advice for job seeking. Some examples of Facebook Groups could include "Uber drivers in San Francisco" or "Baristas in Boston." As this is a trusted network, potential hourly workers are more likely to respond to messages that are posted in the group or to respond to job postings. Related: How These Franchisees Keep Their Young Workforce Motivated 3. Post on Craigslist and Indeed.com every day in the early morning. Online job postings on Craigslist, Indeed.com and other job boards remain some of the best ways to reach out to hourly workers. However, the key is to be persistent and to re-post these job ads every morning, in order for the job postings to appear at the top of the job boards. In addition, it is important to structure the job postings to be attractive, including highlighting monetary compensation, strong culture or flexible working hours. It is important to engage with potential job hourly workers with your online job ads and differentiate yourself from the thousands of other employers who are also trying to hire in today's competitive market. 4. Organize a jobs fair or event. Host a fun job fair! Offer free food, coffee or free company products to potential applicants who take the time to show up at your job fair. It is very helpful for potential hourly workers to meet you and your managers in person, and to understand your brand, culture and product better. In addition, one of the key things you should do that will help in organizing a job fair is to build up an internal database of candidates. You can host periodic career fairs or events, and send out messages to these potential applicants for the event. 5. Put up job posters in your neighborhood and in your stores. You need to find hourly workers where they are. Put up attractive job posters where hourly workers can text to apply easily from their mobile phones. The best places to put up job posters can be your own physical stores, or local coffee shops, supermarkets, churches and coworking spaces. There are often bulletin boards at these locations where you can put up marketing materials for free and attract potential hourly workers. Related: Why MOD Pizza Loves Hiring Ex-Cons 6. Put advertisements in local newspapers and magazines. Offline channels can be extremely effective for hiring hourly workers. Local newspapers and magazines are still widely read by potential job applicants who are looking for hourly work. You can look for local newspaper and magazines that are distributed among different ethnic groups or languages that could also help you to broaden your reach into more communities. 7. Partner with local community colleges and schools. There are many students at local community colleges who have recently finished high school and are eager to get their first working experiences. All of these community colleges have career centers and career fairs, and employers can often sign up or connect with them to access potential job applicants. Another strategy is to get to know the instructors in the fields that you are looking to hire, for example at culinary schools, as the instructors may be able to make recommendations. Hourly recruiting is similar to the positions one is hiring for -- it is hands-on, difficult and sometimes it can be grinding and laborious work. However, hourly workers play a significant role in many companies today. From technology companies like Amazon to retail companies like Walmart, Starbucks and more, hourly workers are the heartbeat of millions of companies that is transforming the economy today. Hiring hourly workers is indeed a very different process than hiring white-collar workers. Therefore, it is important for us to recognize the different techniques to engage with hourly workers, and to connect with them in those channels. Related: The 7 Best Ways to Find Hourly Workers For Your Business After Realizing He'd Hired All the Wrong People, This Food Startup Founder Hit Reset 5 Signs a Candidate Is Lying or Exaggerating Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Fourteen properties sold last week in Greenwich, according to our local Multiple Listing Service. The 12 single-family homes and two condos totaled $25 million and our median sale jumped to almost $1.8 million from last weeks $1.4 million. The real surprise, though, was that the median sale was at full asking and the average of all sales came to 97 percent of their collective original asking prices. In fact, six of the 13 sales that were listed on our MLS sold for their original asking price or higher. Thats huge. The median and average days on market dropped precipitously to 41 and 61 days respectively. Thats moving! My buy of the week selection is a shore colonial home on Sound Beach Avenue just south of the village of Old Greenwich. You pass it on your way to the beach at Greenwich Point. My sale of the week selection is a colonial home above Palmer Hill Road in Cos Cob. It sold for 12 percent over asking in less than a week. Its a renovators dream. Buy of the week Purchased for $3.075 million in 2003 as new construction, this 5,700-square-foot shore colonial home sold for $150,000 less last week after spending six months on the market. With five bedrooms and four-and-two-half baths, this beauty is easy to get lost in yet its layout is superb. The kitchen opens to a level expansive backyard through a mudroom. The first floor living room and family room have back-to-back fireplaces that heat the core of the house and open to wonderful outdoor views. Closings reported Oct. 22-28 Address Sold for Days on market Percent of original asking price Percent of tax appraised value 6 Bonwit Road 722,000 35 103% 99% 5 Brown House Road 2,150,000 100 86% 106% 103 Connecticut Ave. 937,000 8 104% 121% 19 Deer Park Meadow Road 4,500,000 41 N/A* 117% 21 Fletcher Ave. 795,000 39 100% 127% 120 Hillcrest Park Road 865,000 6 112% 95% 18 Lexington Ave., #B 2,135,000 57 90% 203% 151 Lockwood Road 900,000 16 101% 74% 1 Milbank Ave., #3H 1,625,000 20 102% 103% 110 Patterson Ave. 2,079,000 N/A* N/A* 72% 63 Sherwood Place 1,950,000 115 98% 95% 347 Sound Beach Ave. 2,925,000 181 84% 91% 16 Sunshine Ave. 750,000 78 89% 97% 271 Valley Road 3,150,000 103 96% 125% Total 25,483,000 Average 1,820,214 61 97% 109% Median 1,787,500 41 100% 101% * For reporting purposes only; information not available. See More Collapse The architecture of this home is unique and very appealing. Its easy to fall in love with and given its location in Old Greenwich it will surely delight the lucky family thatll be moving in soon. Sale of the week My sale of the week selection jumped at over asking, going to contract after only six days on the market. This four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath unrenovated estate sale home sits on over a quarter acre and was built in 1970. With taxes of only $7,529, its an affordable alternative for a family or a contractor looking to build new construction. Its in the North Mianus Elementary School and Eastern Middle School districts so families will naturally jump at an opportunity to get their children into these great schools. Thus the bidding war. Greenwich is the safest city in America! Thats not just me saying it. An independent source, www.safehome.org, has ranked all the cities and towns in America with populations of more than 50,000 and published their results of the 101 safest cities on their website. Connecticut had four of its cities make the list: #1 Greenwich #65 Fairfield #70 West Haven #71 Stamford Safehome.org is a useful site when comparing home security systems and monitoring services. This ranking used criteria including, in order of importance: FBIs latest report of how many and what types of crimes occurred over one year Whether crime is on the increase or decline The number of law enforcement officers compared to the population Demographic metrics, while only having a small impact on the safety score, include population density, population trends, unemployment rate, median income and education level. According to safehomes.org, Greenwich with a population of 62,942 experienced 403 property crimes (down 14.4 percent), 11 violent crimes (down 39.1 percent), and a citizen-to-officer ratio of 351. Kudos to the men and women of our excellent police force, Police Chief James Heavey and the Selectmans office. What does this have to do with real estate, you ask? Plenty. Finding a safe community within a reasonable commuting range of NYC is a common search criterion that now has a definitive answer: Greenwich. What can you do to increase your own security? One answer is to join a neighborhood watch program with Rings free Neighbors app at the Apple App Store or on Google Play. Optionally, adding Ring devices to your home kicks it up several notches for your own property. Go to Ring.com for more information. Voters to decide two ballot measures Dont be surprised by two very wordy and complex ballot measures when you vote on Tuesday, Nov.6. Study up on them beforehand. The second one deals with our (the state of Connecticuts) real estate and how it can be sold or given to other entities. The state constitutions proposed amendment, if approved by voters, will give more transparency to the sale of state real estate holdings which are sometimes tacked onto other bills at the end of legislative sessions and passed to new owners late at night without public hearings. This could become extremely important if Bob Stefanowski is elected governor and he follows through on the privatization of such things as the DMV, for example. We, the taxpayers, will get a windfall of revenue from sales of state-owned buildings and land. These will also move to the tax rolls of the towns theyre in once they transition to private hands. Transparency is a good thing. This Weeks Success Quote At the end of the day, the goals are simple: safety and security. Former Connecticut governor Mary Jodi Rell Ken Edwards is the principal Broker for Edwards & Associates Real Estate and has lived in town since 1974. All opinions expressed are entirely his own and not those of this publisher. Comments and questions may be sent to K_W_Edwards@ Yahoo.com or call (203) 918-4444. Haiti - FLASH : 176 Haitians repatriated from Chile, expected this week Following the launch on October 17 by the Chilean Government of its "Humanitarian Plan for an Orderly Return" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25395-haiti-flash-chile-announces-voluntary-return-plan-for-haitians.html intended for the voluntary return of Haitians living today in Chile, who have failed to settle in this country, because they can not master the language, get used to the climate or find a job, already close to a thousand compatriots are registered in order to benefit from a free return to Haiti confirmed the Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Rodrigo Ubilla adding that this first flight will allow the Chilean government to make adjustments if necessary for the continuation of the repatriation operation. Wednesday, November 7, the first flight of the voluntary return plan, a Boeing 767 plane, will leave Chile for Port-au-Prince with 176 Haitians on board "All are Haitian adults who live in Chile for several months in a situation economic precariousness. Basically, they are not able to finance their return to Haiti because they want to return for personal and family reasons in their home country," said Ubilla. He said like all other commercial flights, there is a waiting list and if one does not show up, another will be considered to fill the quota. Recall that Haitians in Chile, who wish to return to Haiti, can register since October 17 on the website of the Department of Immigration: https://tramites.extranjeria.gob.cl/etapas/ejecutar/2984 To qualify for this program, Haitians must not have a legal situation in progress and they must sign a notarized declaration in which they undertake not to return to Chile in the next 9 years. If migrants have a spouse, partner or children, they must complete the process jointly and travel in groups. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25877-haiti-flash-chile-launches-its-free-voluntary-return-plan-to-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23276-haiti-flash-nearly-105-000-haitians-arrived-in-chile-in-2017.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25474-haiti-flash-voluntary-return-of-haitians-of-chile-by-presidential-plane.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25395-haiti-flash-chile-announces-voluntary-return-plan-for-haitians.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25381-haiti-flash-family-reunification-in-chile-iom-opens-its-first-visa-service-center-in-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24839-haiti-flash-visa-available-for-family-reunification-in-chile.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24387-haiti-social-the-number-of-haitian-migrants-to-chile-drops-by-62.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24055-haiti-flash-chile-requires-a-visa-for-haitians.html SL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Music : PAPJAZZ 2019 to 75 days of the opening The 13th edition of the PAPJAZZ, one of the largest international jazz events in the Caribbean, will be held from January 19 to 26, 2019. 17 countries are represented (Germany, Benin, Canada, Chile, Congo, Spain, United States, France, Great Britain, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Israel, Mexico, Panama, Sweden and Switzerland). Grammy Award winners Terence Blanchard and Cecile McLorin Salvant, French Emile Parisien, Victoire du Jazz, a duo of pianists Laurent de Wilde and Ray Lema on the stage of the Triumph, Antonio Serrano, who will represent Spain country of honor this year, Barbra Lica of Canada. In total about forty groups from all over the world are scheduled as well as a very good participation of Haiti with local and diaspora artists like BIC, Paul Beaubrun, Phyllisia Ross, Akoustik, Claude Carre or the young Fatima... Early Bird tickets and PAPJAZZ PASS are already online at : https://www.lakayiti.com/event-ticket/ International media partnership with the Radio France Group: with all the European network of the group, Haiti will benefit from more than 350 million listeners during the promotion upstream and the 8 days of festival; a real opportunity for Haiti, its culture, its music and its Creole jazz, to make themselves known and appreciated around the world. 4 tourist packages offered by the PAPJAZZ partners, signed "Mennenm la et Haitian Nomad", "Haiti Roots", "Zoom sur Haiti" and "My Haiti Travel" offer "all-inclusive" packages that will introduce festival-goers to Haiti's sites, culture and gastronomy. Thanks to the support of partners such as Wallonie Bruxelles International and the OIF, the PAPJAZZ becomes "eco-responsible" with : A conference by a Belgian expert, specialist in eco-responsible events; Promotion of reusable shopping bags to replace plastic bags; More efficient waste management on open access sites; A partnership with the Seguin Foundation to encourage the public to adopt a tree; The sale of 4Ocean bracelets for cleaning the oceans; Fewer flyers and more communication on social networks. In addition, PAPJAZZ is committed to encouraging succession. In addition to the 17 free workshops and lectures given by invited artists,] PAPJAZZ will donate $1 per ticket sold to the College Catts Pressoir which trains students in music and specifically in Jazz music and will be present on the stage Discoveries at the FOKAL. To be continued... HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Social : Barbados refuses entry to 13 Haitian travelers On Friday, 13 travelers of Haitian origin arrived in Barbados around 5:50 pm on flight 260 of Copa Airlines (which serves Barbados twice a week). After controlling for their situation, all 13 passengers were denied entry into Barbados and were held in administrative detention in the evening, pending repatriation to Haiti, confirmed Sargeant Michael Blackman, Acting Public Relations Officer for the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF). On Saturday, at around 1.50 am, a security guard reported that two Haitian passengers in detention, Daniel Mauvais (50) and Frandy Calixte (23) had managed to escape. Immediately research operations were launched as well as calls for the collaboration of the population. On Sunday evening Sergeant Michael Blackman of the RBPF announced that the two Haitian nationals who had fled had been caught and detained. Recall that until measures are taken in the future to allow the free movement of people throughout the Caribbean, Haitians are now entitled to stay (6 months) WITHOUT VISA, with only their passport, in member countries. the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). However, entry into a member country automatically entitling to 6 months of stay without a visa, all Haitians wishing to travel to one of the CARICOM countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica , Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, will have to prove that they hold resources sufficient financial resources to live for a period of 6 months, without becoming a burden for the country visited. In addition, all CARICOM Member States reserve the right to refuse entry to any person whom they consider undesirable on their territory... See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/article-25982-haiti-flash-libre-circulation-sans-visa-dans-les-pays-de-la-caricom-pour-les-haitiens-sous-condition.html https://www.haitilibre.com/article-24859-haiti-flash-la-caricom-se-penche-sur-la-libre-circulation-des-haitiens.html https://www.haitilibre.com/article-24722-haiti-flash-la-barbade-aboli-les-visas-pour-les-haitiens.html https://www.haitilibre.com/article-23683-haiti-flash-libre-circulation-des-haitiens-dans-les-pays-de-la-caricom.html S/ HaitiLibre Published on 2018/11/05 | Source Actor Kang-Shin Sung-il's widow Um Aing-ran greets visitors at his funeral in Seoul on Sunday. Actor Kang-Shin Sung-il, one of the biggest figures in Korean cinema in the 1960s and 1970s, died of lung cancer on Sunday, about a year and a half after being diagnosed with the disease. He was 81. Advertisement His widow, actress Um Aing-ran, said, "His last words for me were, 'Good work. Thank you and I'm sorry'". Born in Daegu in 1937, Shin almost accidentally attended an audition for a film company in 1959 and was chosen out of 2,640 competitors. With his debut in the 1960 film "Romaenseu Ppappa", he instantly became a star and changed the landscape of Korean cinema, which until then had been dominated by historical drama. Shin instead brought a breath of the fresh air of modernity with his trademark leather jackets and blue jeans. Shin appeared in 524 films and starred in 507, a record that has never been broken. In his heyday, he made 65 films in a single year. He acted until the 1990s, when he switched to politics and became a lawmaker in 2000. He returned after 18 years of absence in 2013 with "Passion Flower" to an underwhelming reception. Shin's private life was turbulent as he openly admitted multiple extramarital affairs. His memorial altar at Asan Medical Center in Seoul has been visited by a stream of friends, colleagues and fans. Published on 2018/11/05 | Source Red Velvet Girl group Red Velvet will embark on a U.S. tour early next year. Advertisement The girls will perform their first solo U.S. concerts in five cities -- Los Angeles on Feb. 8, Dallas on Feb. 10, Miami on Feb. 13, Chicago on Feb. 15 and Newark on Feb. 17. The U.S. leg is part of a world tour that began in Seoul in August and has included concerts in Bangkok, Taipei and Singapore. Their U.S. tour will be followed by performances in Fukuoka, Kobe, Yokohama and other Japanese cities in January. By Vasia Orion | Published on 2018/11/04 It is nearly time to pull the plug on a story that has dragged past its heroes' own mental and emotional capacity, but also past its plot's capabilities. With very few solutions provided by the writing aside from more of the same, a devastating call is made. At the same time the return of some of our heroes' earlier traits feels almost like a homage to the original potential that "The Ghost Detective" once had. Advertisement It feels odd seeing writer Han Ji-wan-I return to a case of Da-il (Choi Daniel) and Chae-won (Lee Joo-young) using the calm, collected intelligence that had taken a break as of late. Noticing Hye's (Lee Ji-ah) deception feels like the exception to the rule now, and I wonder if this was a final push of the writer through what has no doubt been a tiring process. We will never know the reasons behind these issues, but the writer clearly sees them. There is little wiggle room left with some of the elements that have been eating away at this story, however, and the noble idiocy is one of them. It has been a long time since "The Ghost Detective" has been about Hye's reign of terror. From the minute the survival baiting started, Da-il and Yeo-wool's (Park Eun-bin) battle over who gets to die in order to protect has been everyone's alpha and omega on the list of 'what we are all fighting to avoid.' As such, Da-il losing his life feels particularly grating. Dangling a carrot one never intends to give is rarely welcome in stories, because that carrot called hope is dangled for a reason. Hope was very deliberately built as the drama's message, by creators aiming for viewer investment. At the same time, Da-il's body reveals itself as a 'cheap tragedy'; a way to present dramatic sacrifice without having to construct external causes for it. "Da-il was dead before, so it is fine if he is dead again" does not cut it, when his survival came back as the main course of this drama dinner half way through. This thought process assumes that viewers have not built a bond to the future and well-being of these characters, despite this bond having been very thoroughly encouraged by the same people making this assumption. Perhaps they trust in the audience's capacity to forget and move on. This is exactly what I will do after the final episodes. "The Ghost Detective" has been an overall good work. This series did not have the luxury of pre-production, nor did it have the viewer support it deserved to begin with. Starting a premise with a ghost lead is not an easy sell, so I can see the reasons behind this becoming more "palpable" as it progressed. May a series like it one day find the strength to hang on. "The Ghost Detective" is directed by Lee Jae-hoon-II, written by Han Ji-wan-I, and features Choi Daniel, Park Eun-bin, Lee Ji-ah and Kim Won-hae. Written by: Orion from 'Orion's Ramblings' Watch Episode 29 on Viki Watch Episode 30 on Viki Note: Due to licensing, videos may not be available in your country With some high-profile races in the nation happening in Montana and some hotly contested local races, the polls open in north-central Montana Tuesday. Late registration and absentee registration closed today at noon, with same-day registration opening at 7 a.m. Tuesday at local clerk and recorder offices. People with absentee ballots must return the ballots by 8 p.m. Tuesday at the clerk and recorders office or their votes will not count. The ballots must be received by 8 p.m., ballots postmarked by or earlier than Tuesday which do not arrive by 8 p.m. Tuesday will not be counted. People who have not yet returned their absentee ballots should hand-deliver them to their clerk and recorders office. People who have lost their absentee ballot must go to their clerk and recorders office to have the original voided and a new ballot issued. Replacement ballots filled out at the polling places will be provisional ballots and will not be counted until the Monday after election day. For people who did not vote absentee, polling places are the same as they were in Junes primary election. In Blaine County Precinct 1, voting is in Turner School with polling open from noon to 8 p.m. The other locations are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. with precincts 3 and 9 voting in the Sacred Heart Church at Fort Belknap, Precinct 8 voting at Harlem High School, precincts 10, 11 and 12 voting at Chinook High School and Precinct 15 voting at Hays-Lodge Pole High School. In northern Chouteau County, polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Big Sandy Town Hall for precincts 8 and 9 and from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Stone Child College on Rocky Boys Indian Reservation for Precinct 5. In Hill County, Precincts 2, 10, 14 and 15 will vote in St. Jude Parish Center. Precincts 1, 7, 8 and 9 vote in Havre High School. Precincts 3, 13, 15 and 16 vote in Havre Middle School. Precinct 18 votes in Box Elder School, Precinct 28 votes in the Chippewa Cree Wellness Center, and precincts 20, 21 and 22 vote in the Hi-Line Community Center in Hingham. All Hill County polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. In Liberty County, precincts 1, 2 and 3 vote at CJI School in Chester and Precinct 4 votes at Joplin Community Hall. Polls are open at both locations from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. In local races, Blaine County Undersheriff Frank Billmayer, a Republican, and Sheriffs Lt. John Colby are running for sheriff. Democrat Ken Kim Hansen and Republican Miles Hutton are facing off for the commissioner seat in Blaine County. Treasurer Tori MacLean and County Attorney Kelsie Harwood, both Democrats, are unopposed in their bids for re-election. Clerk and Recorder/Assessor Tammy Williams and County School Superintendent Valerie White, both Democrats, are running unopposed for full terms after being appointed by Blaine County commissioners last year to finish out the terms of their predecessors. Blaine County Justice of the Peace Perry Miller is unopposed in his non-partisan race. In Chouteau County, Chouteau County Commissioner Robert Pasha is unopposed in the general election after winning the Republican primary. Chouteau County Attorney Stephen J. Gannon; Sheriff Vern Burdick; Clerk and Recorder Lana K. Claassen, all Republicans, are unopposed, as is non-partisan Justice of the Peace Susan Spencer. Republican Toni Frieling-Eckhoff is unopposed in her race for the open treasurer/assessor seat. Hill County has three contested races, with incumbent Democratic Treasurer Sandy Brown facing Republican Penny Hadford and incumbent Democratic Commissioner Mark Peterson running against challenger Dale Hansonl, an independent. Incumbent Judge Audrey Barger faces a challenge from Bruce Grant in the non-partisan race for Hill County justice of the peace. Democratic Hill County Attorney Karen Alley, who was appointed after she won the primary and the previous county attorney later resigned, is unopposed in the general election. Hill County District Judge Daniel Boucher is unopposed in his non-partisan race, although he has submitted his resignation effective Friday. Clerk and Recorder Susan Armstrong, Auditor Cathy Olson, Sheriff Jamie Ross and County Superintendent of Schools Maureen Odegard, all Democrats, are unopposed. In Liberty County, Gavin Buffington, who won the Republican Primary in the race for clerk and recorder, is unopposed in the general election, as is incumbent Republican Primary winner Treasurer Denise Wanken. County Commissioner Larry Hendrickson, County Superintendent of Schools Kathy Armstrong, County Attorney Robert Padmos and Sheriff Doug Riggin, all Republicans are unopposed in the primaries and general election. Justice of the Peace Holly Fredrickson is also unopposed in her non-partisan bid for re-election. In legislative races, incumbent Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, is facing a challenge from Libertarian Conor Burns and independent candidate Bob Sivertsen, also both from Havre, in the race for House District 28. The House District 27 race has Republican Joshua Kassmier and Democrat Dan Nelson, both of Fort Benton, facing off in the general election. In House District 32, incumbent Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, is facing a challenge from G. Bruce Meyers, a former Box Elder Republican representative. Incumbent Rep. Casey Knudsen, R-Malta, is unopposed in his bid for re-election to the seat in House District 33. Incumbent Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, faces Havre Democrat Paul Tuss in his bid for re-election to the seat in Senate District 14. Havre Police Department Friday at 11:40 a.m. a Second Street caller reported a domestic disturbance; the dispatch log says someone was taken to the hospital. -- A 16th Street West caller Friday at 2:27 p.m. requested to speak to an officer regarding a possible disturbance. -- A Jefferson Avenue caller Friday at 2:49 p.m. requested a well-being check. -- Friday at 4:29 p.m. officers assisted another agency at a First Street location. -- A caller from a U.S. Highway 2 Northwest business reported shoplifters Friday at 4:37 p.m. -- Geno Valdez Menard of Havre, 21, was issued a summons on a charge of criminal contempt related to a 24/7 Sobriety Program drug patch violation Friday at 6:45 p.m. -- Kristen Marie Sarracino of Havre, 28, was arrested on a Justice or City court warrant during a vehicle stop Friday at 8:07 p.m. -- James Fry of Havre, 20; Chandler Wayne Faulk of Havre, 18, and Dan Garrett Hauge of Havre, 19, were each issued a summons on charges of minor in possession and "other" after a caller from a First Street establishment reported fake IDs being used. -- James Henry Morrow Jr. of Have, 46, was arrested on a charge of aggravated driving under the influence after an officer invested suspicious activity on Fifth Street Saturday at 3:34 a.m. -- Rachel Michelle Dean of Havre, 38, was issued a summons on charges of "other" and dog at large after a Sixth Street caller reported that they would like a dog to be removed from their property Saturday at 10:47 a.m. -- Saturday at 12:34 p.m. at Sixth Avenue and Fourth Street a caller reported a non-injury vehicle crash. -- A Second Avenue caller reported Saturday at 4:51 p.m. a hit and run accident. -- Joshua Kay Blatter of Havre, 28, was arrested Saturday at 7:59 p.m. at the Have Police Department on a charge of criminal contempt related to a 24/7 Sobriety Program violation at 8:30 that morning. -- Allan Fred Alexander of Havre, 30, was arrested on a charge of trespassing after a caller from a First Street business reported an intoxicated male coming back after being asked to leave, bugging customers and almost starting a fight Saturday at 8:49 p.m. -- Cole Martin Keller of Havre, 21, was arrested on a charge of unlawful transactions with children and on a Justice or City court warrant; Chase Deboo of Havre, 20, was issued a summons on charges of MIP and social host; Sablle Marie Erickson of Havre, 18, Cristian Calleja Meza of Havre, 18, Megan Chandler of Box Elder, 18, Tyler Kole Judd of Havre, 19, Layton Andrew Zwermeman of Choteau, 20, Curtis Taylor Humpherys of Harlem, 18, and Andrea Ackerman of Havre, 19, were each issued a summons on a charge of MIP; David Jake Hagan of Scobey, 22, Cody John Lawrence of Columbia Falls, 25, and Zachary Hunt of Havre, 21, were each issued a summons on a charge of unlawful transactions with children; two 17-year-olds were each issued a summons on a charge of MIP. All arrests and summonses were related to a Third Avenue and 10th Street caller reporting a party Saturday a 11:47 p.m. -- Kirsten Elizabeth of Havre, 21, and Michael Jay Stump Jr. of Havre, 21 were each arrested on a charge of partner or family member assault after Jacobson reported a physical altercation Sunday at 12:48 a.m. from Fourth Street. -- Gina Marie Griggs of Havre, 23, was arrested on two Justice or City court warrants during a vehicle stop on Fourth Street Sunday at 2:27 a.m. -- Jolene Faith Standingrock of Box Elder, 47, was arrested on charges of open container within city limits and endangering the welfare of children after a caller at a Second Street business reported a female yelling at kids Sunday at 2:45 p.m. -- A Saddle Butte Drive caller reported a dog bite Sunday at 4:24 p.m., and said a male was going to the hospital. -- Madison Leigh Kelley of Havre, 20, and a 15-year-old were each arrested on a charge of MIP after a First Street caller reported a noise complaint at 2:11 early this morning Hill County Sheriff's Office Taylor James Wiegart of Waupaca, Wisconsin, 29, was arrested on a state District Court warrant at the Hill County Detention Center Friday at 12:10 p.m. -- William Ray Snell of Dodson, 23, was arrested on a Justice or City court warrant and a state District Court warrant at the Hill County Detention Center Friday at 5:08 p.m. -- Ronald Dale Stump Sr. of Rocky Boy, 57, was arrested on a Justice or City court warrant at the Hill County Detention Center Friday at 5:45 p.m. -- Larae Ann Sunchild of Havre, 37, was arrested on charges of trespass to property and violation of conditions of release after an 11th Street North caller reported a man wants a woman removed from house Friday at 9:56 p.m. -- Mitchell Carl Grant of Hays, 30, was arrested on a Justice or City court warrant at the Hill County Detention Center Saturday at 3:17 a.m. -- Lydell Meyers of Box Elder, 46, and Monica Sue Morsette of Havre, 43, were each arrested on a Justice or City court warrant durring a vehicle stop Sunday at 7:27 p.m. Havre Fire Department Emergency medical personnel responded to three calls Friday, three calls Saturday, two calls Sunday and one call this morning. -- Firefighters responded to a garbage can fire Friday at 2:11 p.m. on the 200 Block of First Street. There was no damage and the fire was extinguished. Havre Animal Shelter The Havre shelter this morning held one medium-hair cat and two short-hair cat of unknown gender and six 6-week-old kittens being fostered until ready for adoption. Another 16 cats and two kittens, all of unknown gender, were listed separately as being held in the shelter or at a volunteer shelter. -- The Havre shelter this morning also held a female Australian cattle dog-blue heeler-border collie dog, a male German shepherd dog, a female mixed-breed dog, a female pit bull-terrier-German shepherd dog, a male shepherd 24-week-old puppy, a female mixed-breed 9-month-old puppy and a female mixed-breed 11-month-old puppy. Amidst the celebrations, employers need to be mindful of risks associated with seemingly harmless workplace parties. Being aware of these risks can help employers avoid the sobering effect of liability. Even though many workplaces will stop for the race, some employers might argue that the loss in productivity will undermine the overall business and disruption to clients may look unprofessional. However, Willis said there are benefits in allowing employees to take the afternoon off to celebrate the festivities. By allowing employees time away from work to attend events like a Melbourne Cup lunch, teams will benefit from bonding time together outside work, getting to know each other in a more casual environment, said Willis. Foreign workers who hold working holiday visas will no longer be required to switch jobs every six months, while the age cap for certain countries will be lifted from 30 to 35 years old. Pacific Islanders on a 416 visa to do seasonal work will also be allowed to extend their six-month stint by three months. 462 visa holders, who were once restricted to working in northern Australia, will soon be given the option to work in agriculture in the regional areas of New South Wales, Western Australia, Victoria, and Queensland, as well as Tasmania, South Australia, and the Northern Territory. Australians filling Australian jobs is my number one priority, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the Courier Mail. But when this isnt possible, we need to ensure our farmers arent left high and dry with rotting crops, especially in the strawberry industry. SEATTLE September 12, 2018 Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have found a specific strain of Helicobacter pylori strongly correlated with stomach cancer. The research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, could eventually be used to shape treatment and screening strategies for patients. Collaborating with researchers at Zhengzhou University, the Fred Hutch team ran tests on 49 patients stomach endoscopy and stool samples, looking for H. pylori with a variant of the cagA gene, known as EPIYA D. They found 91 percent of the patients with the EPIYA D strain also had cancer. Weve known the H. pylori bacterium has a strong correlation to stomach cancer, but its been difficult to pinpoint why certain patients, especially in areas like Northeast Asia, are more susceptible to stomach cancer, said Dr. Nina Salama, senior author of the study and a member of Fred Hutchs Human Biology and Public Health Sciences divisions. While its preliminary in nature, these results could be the first step towards identifying the highest risk groups and improving screening and treatment plans. H. pylori is a spiral-shaped bacterium that grows in the mucus layer that coats the inside of the human stomach and causes ulcers. More than 50 percent of the worlds population is believed to have the infectious disease, which is the primary identified cause of stomach cancer. According to the World Health Organization, stomach cancer was the fourth most common cause of cancer death in 2015, killing over 750,000 people globally. Unfortunately, infections like H. pylori directly or indirectly, cause up to 20 percent of cancers worldwide, added Salama. But knowing the cause gives us a clear target to develop vaccines for prevention or tools to better recognize risk. The research team acknowledges the small number of participants in the study and limits the conclusions that can be drawn. The research teams from Fred Hutch and Zhengzhou University are hopeful to collaborate further on a much larger study. The full study can be found here. ### At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, home to three Nobel laureates, interdisciplinary teams of world-renowned scientists seek new and innovative ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. Fred Hutchs pioneering work in bone marrow transplantation led to the development of immunotherapy, which harnesses the power of the immune system to treat cancer. An independent, nonprofit research institute based in Seattle, Fred Hutch houses the nations first National Cancer Institute-funded cancer prevention research program, as well as the clinical coordinating center of the Womens Health Initiative and the international headquarters of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. A chemical that highlights tumour cells has been used by surgeons to help spot and safely remove brain cancer in a trial presented by a University of Bristol academic at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference. The research was carried out with patients who had suspected glioma, the disease that killed Dame Tessa Jowell, and the most common form of brain cancer. Treatment usually involves surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possible, but it can be challenging for surgeons to identify all of the cancer cells while avoiding healthy brain tissue. Researchers say that using the fluorescent marker helps surgeons to distinguish the most aggressive cancer cells from other brain tissue and they hope this will ultimately improve patient survival. The research was presented by Dr Kathreena Kurian, a Reader/Associate Professor in brain tumour research at the University of Bristol and consultant neuropathologist at North Bristol NHS Trust. The study was led by Colin Watts, Professor of Neurosurgery and chair of the Birmingham brain cancer programme at the University of Birmingham. Dr Kurian from the Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences, explained: Gliomas are difficult to treat with survival times often measured in months rather than years. Many patients are treated with surgery and the aim is to safely remove as much of the cancer as possible. Once a tumour is removed, it is passed on to a pathologist who examines the cells under a microscope to see if they are high-grade, fast growing cells, or low-grade slower growing cells. And we can plan further treatment, such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy, based on that diagnosis. We wanted to see if using a fluorescent marker could help surgeons objectively identify high-grade tumour cells during surgery, allowing them to remove as much cancer as possible while leaving normal brain tissue intact. The researchers used a compound called 5-aminolevulinic acid or 5-ALA, which glows pink when a light is shone on it. Previous research shows that, when consumed, 5-ALA accumulates in fast growing cancer cells and this means it can act as a fluorescent marker of high-grade cells. The study involved patients with suspected high-grade gliomas treated at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, Kings College Hospital in London or Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. They were aged between 23 and 77 years, with an average (median) age of 59 years. Before surgery to remove their brain tumours, each patient was given a drink containing 5-ALA. Surgeons then used operating microscopes to help them look for fluorescent tissue while removing tumours from the patients brains. The tissue they removed was sent to the pathology lab where scientists could confirm the accuracy of the surgeons work. A total of 99 patients received the 5-ALA marker and could be assessed for signs of fluorescence. During their operations, surgeons reported seeing fluorescence in 85 patients and 81 of these were subsequently confirmed by pathologists to have high-grade disease, one was found to have low-grade disease and three could not be assessed. In the 14 patients where surgeons did not see any fluorescence, only seven tumours could be subsequently evaluated by pathology but in all these cases, low-grade disease was confirmed. Professor Watts said: Neurosurgeons need to be able to distinguish tumour tissue from other brain tissue, especially when the tumour contains fast-growing, high-grade cancer cells. This is the first prospective trial to show the benefits of using 5-ALA to improve the accuracy of diagnosing high-grade glioma during surgery. These results show that the marker is very good at indicating the presence and location of high-grade cancer cells. The advantage of this technique is that it may highlight more quickly high-grade disease within a tumour during neurosurgery. What this means is that more of the tumour can be removed more safely and with fewer complications, and thats better for the patient. The researchers caution that the study looked at patients who were already suspected to have high-grade tumours, and a larger study in which more patients have low-grade disease would provide more information on the use of this technique. They say that other types of markers may need to be tested for detecting low-grade glioma cells. Next steps could include testing the 5-ALA in children with brain tumours, or to help surgeons distinguish between tumour tissue and scar tissue in adult patients whose brain cancers have recurred following treatment. Professor Anthony Chalmers is Chair of NCRIs Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy Research Working Group and Chair of Clinical Oncology at the University of Glasgow, UK, and was not involved in the research. He said: There is a desperate need for better treatments for brain tumours and to achieve that we need more high quality research in this area. The benefit of using a fluorescent marker is that it helps neurosurgeons see more accurately where the high-grade cancer is within the brain, in real time. In treating cancer, we are trying to improve survival by tailoring treatments to each individual patient. This technique provides on-the-spot information to help surgeons tailor the operation according to the location, size and grade of the tumour. We know that patients who have near total removal of their tumour have better outcomes, so we are optimistic that, in the long term, these new data will help to increase survival times for glioma patients. Paper: Improving the intra-operative diagnosis of high-grade glioma using a fluorescence biomarker result of the UK NCRI GALA-BIDD study by Kathreena Kurian et al presented at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference 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 'On average, a Dublin household with children up to the age of 14 was spending 36pc more in 2016 than it had been five years earlier.' Photo: Stock photo The average Dublin family's annual childcare spending has risen by almost 1,800 in the space of just five years. The yearly cost for families outside the capital jumped by 770 in the same period, according to official figures. Data from the Central Statistics Office highlights the spiralling financial burden on working parents around the country since the 2008 crash. Costs have soared to rank among the highest in Europe. Figures compiled from the latest household budget surveys reveal the extent that spending on childcare has risen faster in the capital than the rest of the country. On average, a Dublin household with children up to the age of 14 was spending 36pc more in 2016 than it had been five years earlier. Outside the capital, families were forking out an extra 20pc. Recovery The rise in spending was likely to have been driven by higher childcare costs but may also reflect the fact that parents needed more childcare as employment and working hours grew during the recovery. The CSO said the average size of families remained roughly the same so this is unlikely to have pushed up spending. The average weekly spend on childcare was 95 in Dublin between 2009 and 2010. But this had jumped to 129 during the survey in 2015 and 2016 - a hike of 34 a week, or 1,783 a year. This meant the average Dublin family was footing a bill of 6,727 a year some two years ago. Their spend had been less than 5,000 five years earlier. Outside Dublin, families who had been spending 74 a week in 2010 had increased their expenditure to 89 by 2016. The increase works out at 770 a year, taking the annual spend to 4,629 in 2016. The figures include spending on childcare outside the home and after-school care but not au pairs or Montessori schools. Children and Youth Affairs Minister Katherine Zappone and the childcare providers' body Early Childhood Ireland both blame decades of underinvestment by successive governments for the high childcare costs. However, a Department of Children and Youth Affairs spokesman said since the last CSO budget survey, investment has risen by 117pc. "The measures introduced by Minister Zappone last year have benefited the families of more than 80,000 children and this number continues to grow," he said. "Supports for families who need support have increased by 50pc in value." The spokesman added that next year will see the introduction of a new Affordable Childcare Scheme. The thresholds for this new scheme were increased in Budget 2019 and will benefit families with gross family incomes of up to 100,000. "A recent OECD report has predicted that the introduction of the scheme will move Ireland from one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world to near the top 10 most affordable for lone parents," said the spokesman. Frances Byrne, director of policy and advocacy with Early Childhood Ireland, said the big gap in the cost of childcare both inside and outside of Dublin was down to much higher building costs, leases, expenses and commercial rates. "Due to the lack of investment over many years, salaries are low and contracts are often part-time in nature," she said. "The result is that skilled professionals are leaving the sector. "Despite increased investment under Minister Zappone's leadership, childcare providers are still struggling to recruit and retain qualified, experienced educators, with low pay a significant factor." Six children with autism will start secondary school today - after building delays left them stuck at home for nine weeks. An extension to St Conleth's Vocational School in Newbridge, Co Kildare, which includes two new units for children with autism, was due to be completed by September 1 in time for the school's reopening after the summer break. However, delays in signing off on the new building by the Department of Education and council meant the school could not fully reopen in time, leaving the six children at home for the first half of the term. Invisible Cecilia Semple, whose 13-year old daughter Kelly will attend the school from today, said parents felt their children had been "forgotten about" and were treated as "invisible" by officials. "The day I got the letter I was devastated. I sat down and cried, and I just felt like Kelly was unwanted because of her disability," she said. "We had all bought the uniforms. We were getting them ready and doing social stories with them to get them prepared for school. "The pure and simple fact is they have a right to education just like their peers." A shortage of spaces in the area led the National Council for Special Education to grant permission for the two ASD units to open, with all spaces being filled immediately. But with two months of the school year lost for the pupils affected by the delay, some parents fear their children are now at a disadvantage. "They're going in now with seven weeks to Christmas and it is going to take that for them to settle in so they have missed the term," Ms Semple said. "Because they've been at home this long they might not be able to settle in now. The wheels seem to turn very slowly. "We were promised that if any delay occurred, alternative accommodation would be put in place but instead we were just left hanging and hanging." A spokesperson for the department said the teaching team would "assess their needs and adapt their teaching programme so that any deficits can be addressed". Rapist Eoin Berkley, who was jailed for 14 years for his crimes A rape support expert and Fine Gael candidate has called for bail laws to be properly applied to prevent serious crimes. Ellen O'Malley Dunlop's call came in the wake of the trial of Eoin Berkley, who held a teenage Spanish student captive and repeatedly raped her. Ms O'Malley Dunlop, the former chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC), said the case was "unacceptable" and "terribly sad". It emerged that Berkley (25) was awaiting trial for another offence and breached his bail conditions at least five times before the horrific rape. Warnings Gardai have ordered a review into the handling of the multiple bail breaches by Berkley, amid an outcry over him being free to commit the rape. Ms O'Malley Dunlop said yesterday that she came across similar incidents when she was in charge of the DRCC, and recalled in particular the case of Manuela Riedo, the Swiss teenager who was raped and murdered in 2007. "Manuela Riedo sticks out in my mind around that time," she said. "It was a violent case in Galway and the perpetrator of that crime was on bail at the time. "I do think that the guards certainly have a lot to do in terms of applying the bail laws. They have the power to do that." She welcomed the internal garda review of the Berkley case which is being led by Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy, saying: "I hope it can prevent other crimes being committed by people out on bail." In an interview on RTE radio, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan was asked about the Berkley case. He said it was a "particularly dreadful" case and added: "I hope that the victim in time will recover from what was a dreadful, traumatic and personal experience perpetrated on her in what was a shocking crime." Mr Flanagan was also asked if an internal garda review of the Berkley case is good enough. He replied that the inquiry should be allowed take its course. He explained that it will have to look at whether the law is adequate and if the procedures and the protocols were "sufficiently robust as far as gardai were concerned". Mr Flanagan added that the Government moved to strengthen the law last year "introducing a wide range of pretty stringent conditions that may be attached". However, he said, someone on bail has yet to be convicted of a crime and they are "entitled to liberty... entitled to a presumption of innocence". Accelerated The minister added that it is "open to the court to refuse bail in given circumstances" and pointed out that the courts operate independently. Meanwhile, Ms O'Malley Dunlop - an FG candidate in Dublin South-West - also called for the process of compiling a second Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland (SAVI) survey to be "accelerated". The first one was published in 2002 and the Government plans to conduct another SAVI study soon. Ms O'Malley Dunlop said that Ireland has "changed hugely since 2002" and pointed to the rise of social media and the dangers it brings, including the online grooming of potential victims. She said a new report is needed "so as we can properly inform policy going forward". Brendan OGorman says potato yield may be down by a quarter. Photo: INM Potatoes are likely to double in price over the next year because of the summer heatwave, according to suppliers. The scorching weather means the crop is down 25pc on last year. While the country basked in sunshine throughout the summer months, the potato crop became dormant in the soil as it was too hot and dry for the vegetables to grow. The plants conserved their energy during the dry spell and as a result, a smaller quantity of potatoes are being harvested with potato size also shrinking. There were also approximately 8pc less potato seeds planted this year, as the seed has become more expensive. Extremes Grower Brendan O'Gorman, of Johnstown Produce, Co Kildare, said yesterday that he also expects to have one less person working for him this year, with less work to be done in the harvest. "The quantity will be down dramatically, possibly 20 to 25pc," he told the Herald. "In my opinion, that was the driest summer that I've ever seen. It is highly unlikely we will see it again but you do get other extremes. "In 2010, we had -18C so we do deal with extremes in Ireland. I don't forget because I have crops, but the general public forgets." Fears of spud price increases were echoed by Ronan Sullivan, of Vernon Catering, who said chipping potatoes will be 60pc up on last year's price and 100pc up after Christmas. Rooster potatoes will be 100pc up, with "extreme shortages" until the 2019 harvest. It isn't all bad news for growers though, according to Mr O'Gorman, who says that more people tuck into potato-based meals, such as stew, in the winter months. He thinks the consumption of potatoes could see an increase, with shoppers loading bags of spuds into their trolleys as the winter months come in. "Hopefully in two to three weeks all the crop will be up," he added. "The cold weather that is forecast helps consumption too - you eat more when it is cold. "Everyone heads for the potatoes and comfort food." His positive attitude was mirrored by another grower, Michael Hoey of Country Crest in Lusk, Co Dublin. "Size in most parts is a lot smaller this year. But on the plus side, the taste of Irish potatoes is fantastic this year due to the dry climate giving higher dry matters," he said. "So what this means is that you will get the same goodness from a much smaller potato." However, whether potato purchases will be as popular as ever remains to be seen as a big price increase is already being seen across Europe. Cyril Curley, of Curley's Quality Foods, is a Galway-based food supplier who estimates potato prices will remain high until after the harvest in 2019. Higher "It's all over Europe that they have doubled in price. They're also coming in later," explained Mr Curley. "It will have price increases. I'd say there is a 50pc increase so far and it will go higher. "We don't know when it'll get better, it will be next August or September before the new crop and it will be October next year before there is any change." Other vegetables were affected by high temperatures too. "Broccoli didn't grow properly," said Mr Curley. "We don't have irrigation systems for small Irish companies. We don't need them usually. "It's not too bad as you can get broccoli across Europe but it's sad when you can't get the Irish crop." For Subscribers Seven days of horror end with two ex-cops and two little girls dead 20 Hindu families attacked on at Savar upazila of Dhaka district while immersing murtis of Shri Durgadevi Act : Right to religion. Crime : Physical attack on religious minority, attack on Temple and houses of Hindus. Date of occurrence : 19th October, 2018 at about 12.00 (Friday) at night. Name of informant : Shri Nittananda Rajbongshi (40) Name of perpetrators : More than 100, but as per F.I.R. lodged the attackers would be 16 persons. Name of attackers arrested : Two accused persons arrested 1) Md. Shaheen (41) son of Manzil, 2) Md. Aslam (32) son of late Keramatullah of the same village. Place of occurrence : Mazipara -Porabari of Savar Upazila of Dhaka District, Bangladesh. Case in brief More than 100jihadi fanatics equipped with deadly weapon, physically attacked Hindu families located at Porabari Mazipara Area of Savar Upazila of Dhaka District after Dashami (Durga Puja) celebration day. Perpetrators also attacked Hindu temple and houses belonging to Hindus of that area. At least 20 Hindu families have been subjected to seriously assaulted. Some of them admitted into local Hospital for treatment. A sense of insecurity among religious minority within the area were prevailing. The incident took place after the day of immersion of Durga Protima in the river. On a tripling matter those perpetrators attacked the Hindus. Investigation I, Adv. Rabindra Ghosh of Bangladesh Minority Watch (BDMW) contacted with Md. Abdul Awal, Officer in Charge of Savar Police station over his mobile who gave me to understand that two perpetrators namely 1) Md. Shaheen (41) son of Manzil and 2) Md. Aslam (32) son of late Keramatullah were arrested by police on 20th of October,2018. The O.C. Savar also said he is trying to arrest more perpetrators in connection with the incident. OUR HUMAN RIGHTS TEAM IS GOING TO SPOT FOR FACT-FINDING : Legal Action Savar P.S. Case No.65 dated 20.10.2018 under section 143/323/325/326/307/379/506 /427 of Bangladesh Penal code has been started against 16 (sixteen ) accused persons. The case has been filed by Shri Nittananda Rajbongshi one of the victims of the area. Police arrested two attackers out of 16 attackers. Recommendations Bangladesh Minority Watch (BDMW) is very much concerned about religiously motivated on Hindus, their temple and houses at Savar. BDMW also demand all the perpetrators responsible for such attack should be arrested and be tried as per law of the land. It is also recommended that the section 143/323/325/326/307/379/506 /427 BPC put forward by O.C. Savar is not in accordance with the report published in the national daily. Section 295 or 295 (Ka) with regard to assault on Hindu deities and temple were not incorporated in the F.I.R. and that should be incorporated during submission of charge sheet. before the court of law. The right to religion should be established and practiced for peaceful co-existence. Source : Facebook post by Adv. Rabindra Ghosh Prime Minister Narendra Modis third official visit to Japan started at a lakeside hotel near Mount Fuji, surrounded by tinted autumnal leaves. Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spent an entire day together, having strategic discussions at a lunch with restricted members, visiting the FANUC robot factory and joining a ride on the express train to Tokyo. Modi became the first foreign leader to be invited to PM Abes private holiday home, where the two leaders enjoyed a cosy one-on-one dinner beside a fireplace. The next day in Tokyo, Modi tirelessly met senior political and business leaders, followed by official events at Prime Minister Abes residence. I can say with confidence that the visit was the best ever, both in terms of substance and enhancement of mutual trust between the leaders. The strategic discussions, which the two leaders have held at every annual summit over maps of the Indo-Pacific region, reached a new depth. The outcome of the visit was so extensive that we ended up releasing a 7,400-word fact sheet on 12 areas, in addition to the Japan-India Vision Statement and 24 MoUs/ MOCs. The success of the visit cannot be measured by the length of documents or the number of MoUs, but there were genuinely transformational agreements and announcements. The phrase which comes to my mind when talking about the substance of this years summit is Shared Security, Shared Prosperity and Shared Destiny. As mentioned in the vision statement, Japan and India have made enormous progress in fostering joint efforts towards shared security. This year, we have come to demonstrate that the security and defence cooperation are rapidly catching up with the already robust economic partnership. The highly symbolic achievement was the agreement to institute the foreign and defence ministerial 2+2 Dialogue. It will oversee and give political guidance to our security cooperation towards achieving a free and open Indo-Pacific. The two leaders welcomed the commencement of the formal negotiations to conclude the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA). The ACSA will provide a framework concerning the reciprocal provision of supplies and services, and enhance joint exercises and other cooperation between all three services. The Implementing Arrangement for deeper naval cooperation was signed. It will enhance maritime security and domain awareness cooperation, establishing the means and framework for information sharing and other maritime engagements, including the exchange of shipping information. The new momentum was added to our economic partnership by the announcement of the largest ever currency swap arrangement, various connectivity projects and new partnerships in wide-ranging socio-economic sectors. The Bilateral Swap Arrangement (BSA) of $ 75 billion was agreed with a view to enhancing financial and economic cooperation between the two countries. A BSA of $ 75 billion is the largest ever for Japan. Regarding the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project, the two leaders reviewed with satisfaction the progress made on this landmark project, including the signing of the Exchange of Notes for a 150 billion yen loan. Japan remains committed to this project, which will change the landscape and induce economic transformation in India. The list of outcomes in the economic field goes on to encompass digital partnership, healthcare, food processing, International Solar Alliance and so forth. The convergence of our strategic vision and objectives was further deepened, based on the conviction expressed by both leaders: Strong India is in Japans interest; strong Japan is in Indias interest. The destinies of the two countries are intertwined and our cooperation holds the key to the future of the entire Indo-Pacific region. Based on their shared Indo-Pacific vision, the two leaders reiterated unwavering commitment to working together towards a free and open Indo-Pacific, with special emphasis on Aseans centrality. As concrete actions based on their shared vision and principles of quality infrastructure, the two leaders welcomed the collaborative projects to enhance strategic connectivity in the Indo-Pacific region, including in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Africa, as well as Indias North Eastern Region. The concrete projects are highlighted in the fact sheet. Based on this robust outcome of another historic visit by Prime Minister Modi to Japan and the unshakeable trust between the two leaders, I look forward to working with Indian friends to consolidate the India-Japan partnership as the cornerstone of a free and open Indo-Pacific. Kenji Hiramatsu is Japans ambassador to India The views expressed are personal Having declared candidates for 193 of the 230 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is battling unrest in its ranks with two senior leaders declaring their intention of contesting the polls as rebel candidates, and district offices witnesses sustained protests by those denied a chance to contest the polls. The BJP is looking to secure a fourth straight term in the state, and has dropped 39 MLAs and six ministers in the two lists of candidates that have been declared so far, in a bid to stave off anti-incumbency. But supporters of many of these leaders MLAs have been staging protests in six districts , such as Tikamgarh, Sehore and Guna, and the state BJP headquarters in Bhopal. In comparison, there are fewer protests in the Congress. The state goes to the polls on November 28. To quell the dissidence, the BJP has asked Union mines minister Narendra Singh Tomar to hold talk with leaders not happy with ticket distribution and allay their apprehensions. His first assignment was in Indore on Monday, where the party had to hold back on declaring candidates in nine assembly seats after differences cropped up between Lok Sabha speaker and local MP Sumitra Mahajan and sitting legislator and national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya over certain seats, said party leaders on condition of anonymity. Tomar ji has gone to sort out differences between them (Mahajan and Vijayvargiya) over nomination of candidate in a certain seat, said a senior BJP leader familiar with the matter. Former chief minister Babulal Gaur, 88, whom Shivraj Singh Chouhan replaced in 2005, has expressed his intention to contest from Govindpura seat in Bhopal, from where he has been winning since 1974, but claimed that he is a loyal soldier. I am waiting for the partys decision. When the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has said to me Babulal Gaur, Ek baar aur then there is nothing left for speculation,he said on Monday, adding that he won the last assembly election with a margin of 70,000 votes. Another senior leader Sartaj Singh, 78, has reportedly told the party leaders that they were risking a seat if they fielded another candidate from his constituency, Seoni Malwa in Hoshangabad district, said leaders in the BJP. I have conveyed my feeling to the party, he said on Monday, when asked about it. Both Gaur (88) and Singh (78) were dropped from the state cabinet in 2016, apparently because of the BJPs unwritten rule that bars anyone beyond 75 from holding public office. The dissidence has spread lower down the ranks as well. Sitting BJP MLA from Guna, Panna Lal Shakya, said on Sunday in the state BJP office, I have come to ask the party leaders why I have been denied ticket. Another BJP legislator from Tikamgarh, KK Shrivastava, said that despite working for the party for more than 25 years, he was denied a ticket. I am a committed worker of the BJP and have strengthened the organisation with my sweat and blood. I will not allow unscrupulous and crooked persons to destroy the BJP, he said. BJP spokesperson Prabhat Jha said, Nobody is superior to the party. Once the party takes its decision we have to comply with it. The opposition Congress is facing most of its infighting from the tribal-dominated region of the state. A group of party workers said to be supporters of party leader Xavier Meda burnt an effigy of Congress MP Kantilal Bhuria at Jhabua on Sunday to protest his son Vikrant Bhurias candidature while another protested against the candidature of Hiralal Alawa from Dhars Manawar seat. Alawa is the president of a new organisation Jay Adivasi Yuva Sangthan (JAYS) which had said that it would contest more than 70 seats on its own. State Congress spokesperson Bhupendra Gupta said, Party workers have their right to express their views. We are in talks with them. Political analyst Girija Shankar said Gaurs and Singhs protests were of significance to the BJP but both leaders had damaged their prospects by their defiance. In Congress, all factions have understood unity is a must for regaining power whereas in the BJP, there is a lot of infighting and this may affect the partys poll prospects, said political analyst LS Hardenia. Indias IT outsourcing giant Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. needs to offer a good explanation for why engineers hired at its American outposts are 13 times as likely to be fired if theyre not South Asian. The company is set to go on trial on Monday in California over racial discrimination claims by American workers who lost their jobs at TCS offices in the US because they hadnt been assigned to any of its clients. The trial will cast a spotlight on work visa programmes companies use to bring overseas workers to the US, a practice President Donald Trump has criticised in his protectionist push. TCS, Asias largest outsourcer, and rival Indian information technology staffing firms Infosys Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. have all been squeezed by the Trump administration to hire more Americans on US soil. Mumbai-based TCS denies any unlawful bias in its U.S. operations and says in court filings that the Caucasian American leading the lawsuit was removed from one of its projects and ultimately terminated over performance concerns. TCS said it cant comment specifically on the pending litigation, but believes it has a strong case and will prevail at trial. Our success is based on our ability to provide the best talent available, both in the US and globally, based purely on the individuals specialized experience, skills and fit for each clients specific needs, a company spokesman said. TCS also strictly adheres to all federal and state equal employment opportunity laws and regulations. The jury is expected to be shown statistical evidence that the odds of race and national origin not being a factor in TCSs termination decisions are less than one in a billion. Thats because, since 2011, the company fired 12.6 percent of its non-South Asian workers in the US, compared with less than 1 percent of its South Asian employees, according to the complaint. Bloomberg intelligence: High-skill visas targeted in immigration overhaul A unit of the Tata Group, Indias largest industrial conglomerate, TCS employs more than 400,000 people worldwide, is valued at about $100 billion and posted revenue of $19 billion for the fiscal year that ended in March. Most of its revenue comes from the U.S. and its primary customers are in the financial services sector. Still, these are challenging times for the company that pioneered the India tech services model five decades ago. The outsourcing industry barreled along at 20 percent-plus growth with little trouble until recently, but easy deals are now gone and customers are looking for price cuts. TCS Chief Executive Officer Rajesh Gopinathan said in a May interview that the industry needs to adapt to seize bigger opportunities than ever. While TCS has won awards as a top employer in North America, the lawsuit paints a different picture. The case was brought as a class action on behalf of about 1,000 non-South Asians -- most of them U.S. citizens -- who were fired by TCS while on benched status, meaning they were laid off by the company while they were between job assignments. The plaintiffs allege TCS has engaged in a systematic pattern and practice of discrimination by favoring Indian ex-pats and visa-ready workers from India for U.S. positions. That has resulted in a workforce thats almost 80 percent South Asian, far greater than the 12 percent representation of South Asians in the U.S. IT workforce, according to the complaint. Daniel Kotchen, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the aim of the litigation is to stop outsourcing firms from violating U.S. anti-discrimination laws. Kotchens firm is suing a half dozen other outsourcing firms over alleged discrimination, including Infosys and Wipro. The U.S. has the worlds strongest economy, he said. Foreign corporations that seek to profit from our economic strength have to respect the law of our land. Behind the push to reform US work visa programmes: QuickTake Q&A Kotchen said he couldnt estimate damages the jury may award if it finds that TCS violated U.S. civil rights law. Hes also seeking a court order requiring the company to adopt non-discriminatory practices. US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland scaled back the case to focus only on allegations about bias in firings, after concluding there was insufficient evidence to back up the claim that TCS discriminated against non-South Asian job applicants. The trial is slated to take about 18 days. The case is Buchanan v. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., 15-cv-01696, US District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland). Taking up a case that may have implications for how its church-state rulings are applied in public schools, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it would review a lower-court ruling that a 93-year-old cross on public land that memorializes a Maryland countys World War I dead is unconstitutional. The case involves a 40-foot-tall memorial, known as the Peace Cross, erected in the median of a three-highway intersection in Bladensburg, Md., by the American Legion to honor 49 men from Prince Georges County, Md., who died during World War I. In 1961, the cross and the land in which it sits was acquired by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, a state entity. Last year, ruling on a 2012 challenge brought by the American Humanist Association, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Va., ruled 2-1 that the cross on public land has the primary effect of endorsing religion and excessively entangles the government in religion. The Latin cross is the core symbol of Christianity, the majority said. And here, it is 40 feet tall; prominently displayed in the center of one of the busiest intersections in Prince Georges County, Maryland; and maintained with thousands of dollars in government funds. Therefore, we hold that the purported war memorial breaches the wall of separation between church and state. The appeals court did not rule on a remedy for the violation, but the humanist group has sought the crosss removal, while one judge suggested that the arms could be cut off to render the statue an obelisk that would no longer violate the Constitution. The full 4th Circuit voted 8-6 against rehearing the case. Both the American Legion and the Maryland-National Capital park commission appealed to the Supreme Court, joined by friend-of-the-court briefs from some groups that sometimes do battle with the public schools over religious expression, including the Center for Law and Justice and the Thomas More Law Center. The high court granted review on Nov. 2 after weighing the appeals for several weeks. The cases are American Legion v. American Humanist Association (Case No. 17-1717) and Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission v. American Humanist Association (No. 18-18). While any display of crosses in public schools probably declined sharply after the Supreme Courts school prayer decisions of the early 1960s, the new case could be felt in public education if the court decides to issue a broad ruling about its legal tests for analyzing potential violations of the First Amendments clause prohibiting government establishment of religion. The American Legion, in its appeal , says the courts establishment clause jurisprudence is in shambles. The courts of appeals disagree even over what test to apply to passive displays that include religious symbols, the brief says. But under any of the courts various establishment clause tests, the Bladensburg cross should be upheld, it argues. The American Humanist Association, in its brief , cites several of the Supreme Courts school prayer decisions in arguing that the 4th Circuit decision was correct. When the power, prestige, and financial support of government is placed behind a particular religious belief, the indirect coercive pressure upon religious minorities to conform to the prevailing officially approved religion is plain, the groups brief says, in a direct quote from Engel v. Vitale , the 1962 decision that struck down the official prayer composed by New York state for daily recitation in the public schools. But the American Center for Law and Justice, in its brief in support of the cross , said it is difficult to see how passive and symbolic displays create a risk of infringement of religious liberty. Cases involving public school children are inapplicable here, the brief added. The two cases granted review will be consolidated, with oral arguments likely early next year. Until recently, Rakesh Sharma wanted parivartan (change) in Chhattisgarhs Rajnandgaon but has now changed his mind. He feels he cannot switch his vote from the incumbent Raman Singh to a complete outsider, the Congress candidate Karuna Shukla, niece of late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Why should I vote for someone I dont know? said Sharma, a small trader in the city. Polling is just about a week away in this high-profile seat that the chief minister has represented three times -- in 2008, 2013 and 2018. To ensure the CMs victory, the BJP, which is looking for a fourth straight term, has dubbed the local election as one between a local and an outsider. Singh hails from Kawardha district, which was in undivided Rajnandgaon and his son Abhishek Singh, who is managing the campaign for his father, is the sitting MP from Rajnandgaon. The campaign appears to have hit a note with some people in a city that sits on the edge of the Maoist-affected region in the state. We have just heard about Karuna Shukla through media coverage. Most of my friends still dont know her. Secondly, when we vote for Raman Singh we vote for the CM and this is a matter of pride for us, said Jitendra Deva- ngan, a marketing executive. Not everyone is convinced. Karuna Shukla is national figure and hails from Chhattisgarh. By this argument, many BJP candidates are outsiders in their constituency. This time it will be a close fight, said Atul Yadav , a 24-year-old student. We are in strong position in Rajnandgaon and we will win. Our candidate has got domain in all the communities in this seat , said Jarnail Singh Bhatia, president JCC Rajnandgaon. But what everyone seems to agree on is that it is an unusually high-pitched campaign. Shukla has repeatedly attacked Singh for doing selfish politics and criticised the CM for calling her his sister. Raman Singh is MLA from Rajnandgaon but nowhere can development be seen. People of the city are suffering, she said. Shukla also counters the local vs outsider campaign. This is propaganda circulated by Raman Singhs team. He knows that no tactics will work against me in this election. The BJP has hit back with Abhishek saying that Shukla was resorting to personal attacks because she had no agenda to fight the BJPs promise of development. People of this constituency believe the CM has done significant work and is only fighting on the agenda of development. In 2013, Singh defeated the Congress candidate by 35,866 votes but post-poll analysis showed urban segments propelled his lead and that the Congress did much better in rural areas. Experts say to have a fighting chance, Shukla has to focus on the rural areas. Shukla should concentrate on rural booths because the Congress can give a fight to Singh from there only, said Jitendra Mishra, a political commentator. Another factor this election could have been former chief minister Ajit Jogis Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC). When he launched his new party, Jogi had said he would fight against the CM but has now nominated a local corporator who is not expected to put up much of a fight. Experts say Jogis candidature could have made a difference as his caste base of Mahars and Satnamis make up a major chunk of the voters. Congress leaders say this shows Jogi is acting as a B-team of the BJP. The BJP says most JCC workers joined the BJP, prompting the decision. We are winning from huge margin and Jogi could have not any impact on election if he fought from here, said Rajnandgaon BJP president Santosh Agarwal. Atul Mudaliyar, a local Congress leader and deputy general secretary of the partys Chhattisgarh unit, said, This is only election in which all leaders of Rajnandgaon are united against Raman Singh. The booth level workers are now charged. We are winning the elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Kedarnath on Diwali (November 7) to review the progress of the Kedarpuri reconstruction project, the foundation stone of which he laid last October, four years after the fabled shrine town in Uttarakhand was struck by calamitous floods. The Prime Minister is slated to visit Kedarnath on November 7. He (Modi) is likely to stay on the temple premises for two hours during which he will review the Kedarnath reconstruction project, Rudraprayag district magistrate Mangesh Ghildiyal said. Clarifying that he was yet to receive details of the PMs proposed visit, the official said he (Modi) would also watch an exhibition and a documentary which will highlight the progress of the reconstruction project. Ghildiyal denied reports that Modi might inaugurate few of the five projects pertaining to Kedarpuri reconstruction. The official cited the Election Commission of Indias Model Code of Conduct being in force in view of the November 18 civic body polls, as the reason. He said that the prime minister might also address a public meeting during his visit. He (Modi) may address a public meeting at Kedarnath as the shrine town doesnt fall in an urban local body area, Ghildiyal said. There were reports that the Trivendra Singh Rawat-led BJP government had sought the poll panels permission to let the Prime Minister inaugurate some of the projects during his visit to Kedarnath. No such request was made at my level, he said, adding that the state government might have done that. During his Kedarnath visit last year, PM Modi laid the foundation stones of five projects---the shrine area and the approach road, a protection wall and a bathing ghaat along the rivers Saraswati and Mandakini, the residential area of Teerth Purohits (priests) and the mausoleum of Adi Shankaracharya (that was washed away by flash floods). Out of these (five) projects, two have been completed, Ghildiyal said referring to the shrine area and the approach road and the protection wall along the Mandakini. The rest three projects, including, the mausoleum of Adi Shankaracharya will be completed before the next Chardham yatra, he said. The official was referring to the six-month long annual pilgrimage to the four fabled shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamnotri in Uttarakhand, which starts from April. He further said that the exhibition on the Kedarpuri reconstruction project would comprise photographs of the related works being carried out on the temple premises and the area around it. These photographs will be of the time before the reconstruction work began and after it progressed to this stage so that the Prime Minister could assess the difference, he said. The documentary that would be shown to him (Modi) would serve the same purpose. The display will also give the Prime Minister an idea of the tough conditions in which labourers have been working to implement the project, he said referring to the frequently occurring snowfall in the shrine area located on a tough terrain. He (Modi) will also be taken to the project areas if he wished to have an idea of the works being undertaken on the spot, Ghildiyal said. Officials said three all-terrain vehicles had been kept in reserve, which could be used to show the Prime Minister around the sprawling project area. There are reports that Modi might launch the ruling BJPs campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Kedharnath. One of Delhis most wanted gangsters, Ashok Pradhan, gave Delhi Polices special cell sleuths the slip while his 40-year-old hitman was shot at and caught during a shootout at east Delhis Ghazipur paper market on early Sunday morning. More than a dozen bullets were exchanged between the two men and a 16-member special cell team, which raided the area after a tip-off, police said. While Pradhan, who carries a reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head, managed to flee taking advantage of darkness after firing at the police personnel, his hitman, Vinod Pandit alias Dada, received a bullet in his left leg and was arrested. A stolen motorcycle on which the duo was riding was seized, along with a semi-automatic pistol and six cartridges. Two of the six bullets fired by the two men hit the bulletproof jackets of two head constables, but they escaped unhurt. The police said Pradhans gang has a longstanding rivalry with another gang led by Neeraj Bawana, a jailed gangster. Around six years ago, Pradhans brother, Dilbagh Singh, was allegedly killed by Bawana and his men in Delhi. According to the police, the two men were plotting to kill Bawana and his key associates to take revenge for Dilbaghs murder. Deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah said his team received information that Pradhan and Vinod would come near the Ghazipur paper market to meet their associates and they would have firearms with them. Our team laid a trap. Around 4.30 am, the suspects arrived on a motorcycle and were blocked by a police gypsy. When the two were asked to surrender, they opened fire at the police party. Our team members retaliated and fired six bullets in self-defence. One of the bullets hit Vinods leg while Pradhan managed to flee, said Kushwah. Kushwah said during the interrogation, Vinod revealed that he was first arrested in 2001 in an attempt to murder case and was lodged in Rohtak Jail. Another gangster, Neetu Dabodhia (now dead), and Pradhan were also in the same jail. Vinod joined Dabodhias gang and after coming out of jail, they committed several cases of kidnapping for ransom and extortion. Dabodhia was killed in an encounter with special cell sleuths in 2013. His death weakened his gang and two other key members, Paras and Pradeep Bhola, were killed by Neeraj Bawana and his aides in a moving jail van in 2015. Vinod then joined Pradhans gang, said Kushwah. The police said that after jumping parole, Pradhan killed Bawanas relative, Kale, in April last year. Kale was the brother-in-law of former Delhi MLA and Bawanas uncle, Rambir Shokeen, who recently fled from police custody while being taken to a hospital from Tihar jail. Vinod had recently procured illegal firearms from Madhya Pradesh to execute the killings of Bawana and his other gang members, said a police officer, associated with the operation. Pradhan is involved in more than 20 serious crimes such as murder, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, attempt to murder, among others. Apart from the Delhi Police, he is also wanted by the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh police, officers said. Vinod has over a dozen similar cases against him. The Uttar Pradesh Police was also looking for him in a case of attempt to kidnap a businessman from Agra for Rs 10 crore ransom, in which his five associates were arrested on November 1 this year, said the police. With festivities and a nip in the air, October was once the best month to be in Delhi. Today, of course, it is dreaded as the grim harbinger of the smog season. Around the time we celebrate Dushera, the city sky turns soot grey, the air starts smelling of burnt paper and the spiralling air quality index becomes the top news headline. Despite the recent restrictions on firecrackers, many residents now leave Delhi to escape the Diwali blitzkrieg that smothers an already choking city. Under Delhis Graded Response Action Plan to fight air pollution, mitigation measures range from spraying water on unpaved roads and penalising garbage burning to raising parking fees, halting construction work, shutting down polluting factories, power plants, and limiting cars on roads. While GRAP was meant to be a year-long exercise to check polluting activities even when the air is moderately clean, we have reduced it to a calendar event to be observed when winter pollution peaks. But ad hoc firefighting after having stoked the fire round the year is not a winning strategy. To curb air pollution, Delhi must stop treating it as a seasonal problem. Our business-as-usual creates enough pollution round the year to keep the baseline very high. During the non-winter months, Delhi gets by due to favourable weather conditions. But freak weather buildups can easily shatter that illusion of comfort. Remember the dust storm this summer that added to the citys pollutants, pushing the AQI levels to the severe zone? Yet we wait for the winter to be reminded that Delhi has been waiting on the edge. It is because our baseline pollution is so high that adverse winter conditions and seasonal factors such as stubble burning can so quickly push it to hazardous levels. Only because we freely pursue all kinds of polluting activities round the year that we feel so inconvenienced when asked to pause every winter. Because our systemic callousness has created a permanent air emergency, ritualistic breaks for a week or two achieve little more than cosmetic relief. For example, how much respite can restrictions on cars provide when more cars than any other metro still ply on Delhis roads even during the famed odd-even rationing? Or what use are those tools-down phases at construction sites when uncovered building material and excavated soil dumps anyway keep blowing in the wind? Look at China, arguably considered the worlds pollution capital. This August, residents of Beijing breathed the cleanest air in a decade, according to data gathered by the US Embassy in Beijing, thanks to the five-year action plan rolled out in 2013, Bloomberg reported. By 2017, the Chinese capital had started four gas-fired power plants to replace outdated coal-powered ones, reported China Daily. Delhi shut down its most polluting Badarpur thermal power plant last month but, according to Centre for Science and Environment, many other such facilities in the national capital region will not be able to enforce stringent emission norms even by the next year. Dust is a major pollutant but contractors in Delhi make no effort to keep construction sites clean and enforcement teams get active only after winter alerts are sounded. Travelling out of Beijing by train recently, I could see even the most distant construction sites in the hinterland covered with tarpaulin sheets and fine nets. Like Delhi, Beijing also employs the odd-even car rationing scheme but it does more. The Chinese capital introduced a lottery system in 2011 where it imposes annual quotas on the issuing of new licence plates. The odds of winning fell from 6% in February 2011 to an all-time low of 0.2% this year, the Economist reported in April. Restrictions on private cars could be enforced because Beijing has a robust public transport system comprising 25,000 public buses and more than 600 kilometres of mass rapid transit. In Delhi, the fleet size has shrunk to 5,443 and awaits fresh procurement. China has gone to the extent of placing less emphasis on GDP growth to prioritise combating air pollution. Only last week, a Chinese environment ministry official told reporters in Beijing that Chinas battle against toxic air pollution was becoming increasingly difficult but the government would not relent in its efforts even as the economy slowed. Battling air pollution is neither cheap nor convenient. It cannot be fought with knee-jerk measures. Unless we acknowledge the iceberg that we help nourish round the year, making a big deal over fighting the tip every winter will not save Delhi. The Congress appointed Praveen Chakravarty as the chairman of its newly constituted data analytics department this February. In an interview with Roshan Kishore, he talks about the role of the department in the partys functioning; especially in context of the forthcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram. His departments internal survey shows anti-incumbency in Madhya Pradesh is double than that of Rajasthan. Data analysis also played an important role in the (unsuccessful) alliance negotiations with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Madhya Pradesh. Edited excerpts: This is the first big set of elections for Congress after the data analytics wing came into being. What difference has it brought to the functioning of the party? The focus of our effort is to help the party evolve a much better ground game at the booth level. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh can be seen as 200- and 230-seat assembly elections, or 50,000 and 60,000 booth-level elections. Ours is the latter approach. We launched Project SHAKTI creating a database of booth-level Congress workers/sympathisers by their voter-card numbers in April this year. This has been described as a much needed MRI for the party by the Congress president. The attempt is to cater to natural human incentives: aspiration for recognition and reward. The party assigns tasks to persons on the SHAKTI database and a SHAKTI points system is in place to objectively measure performance. Winners get tangible rewards like appointment in bodies such as block level committees of the party. The top three performers in states were given certificates by the Congress president. In a political system, this is a big incentive. While such initiatives are a useful way to keep the party on the same page vis-a-vis the views of grassroots workers, such an empiricist approach can also dilute the partys larger politics. For example, the Congress in Kerala is opposing the entry of women in Sabarimala temple. This is not in keeping with liberal values. Youre right. That is why I insist that what such initiatives basically provide are a lot more views and opinions than just a few people sitting in a room to make political decisions. But data is not the sole determinant of any political decision. Its just one more seat on the table where people with different political opinions and experiences are sitting to decide on something. But we also have to acknowledge that at least now the view of the cadre is being taken into account, which sometimes brings things which the leadership might have overlooked. For example, we have collected 400,000 responses on candidate selections in just Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. We collected 100,000 respons- es before going for an alliance with the Telagu Desam Party in Telangana. Has the party conducted surveys in the poll-bound states? What do they show? Yes, we continuously run large polls using a fairly scientific polling engine within the party. I can tell you what the data is telling me, and this is not my individual view. While everybody understands that the anti-incumbency against the BJP government in Rajasthan is very high, what is surprising is anti-incumbency share of respondents who do not want the government to be re-elected in Madhya Pradesh is two times higher. The angst in Madhya Pradesh is the highest among youth, and specific communities largely within the other backward classes (OBCs). The Congress was trying to build an alliance with the BSP in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. But these efforts did not succeed. Did your department give inputs for the negotiations on behalf of the Congress party? Yes, we were closely involved in doing some of the analysis. The pros and cons of an alliance depend on more factors than just adding up headline vote-share numbers. In our model, we look at two key parameters: core vote share for each party at the constituency level and transferability tests to see whose votes can be transferred to another party. For example, our model could exactly predict that when Uma Bharti split from the BJP and formed her own party in the 2008 Madhya Pradesh elections, 90% of her votes were transferrable to the BJP. Because we follow- ed this approach, we had a very clear sense of where the Congress and BSP votes would have transferred to each other and where they may not have transferred. I think there was a very earnest attempt by the Congress to build an alliance with the BSP. I dont think it was only about the number of seats, but also about which seats should be shared. The whole point about having an alliance is that it should do better and win more seats than parties contesting alone. This was our key parameter in the negotiations. Your main political adversary, the BJP, is galvanised around Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership. In contrast, the Congress is still hesitant about announcing Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate or even naming chief ministerial candidates in states such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. What bearing does this have on the party-cadre? Has SHAKTI given you some insights on this issue? There are two ways to look at this question: effect on voter preferences and effect on the party cadre. Naming of some leader has never been a big tradition in the Congress party, except in specific cases. As a data scientist, I do not accept the assumption that naming a leader has a big impact on voter choices. Neither do I think that it should be seen as a strategic weakness for the Congress party. A 15-year-old girl onboard a New Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express train was allegedly molested by an army man early on Sunday near Bihars Gaya town, police said. The army personnel was arrested at the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay junction in Uttar Pradeshs Mughalsarai, they added. Officials of the Government Railway Police (GRP) said the girl boarded the New Delhi- bound train at Ranchi along with one of her family members. The army personnel Gurmit Singh allegedly molested the girl near Gaya station. She immediately informed her relative about it. They then contacted the travelling ticket examiner (TTE) and told him about the incident. The police said the TTE alerted the control room at Deendayal Upadhyay junction. As the train reached there, sub-inspector Jeetendra Kumar and his team took the army personnel into custody. GRP inspector RK Singh said a case was registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code following a complaint by the victims relative. The army personnel was handed over to Gaya government railway police for further action and investigation. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will set up over 200 call centres to monitor and amplify its voter outreach programme ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, two leaders familiar with the plan said. The 543 parliamentary constituencies will be divided into clusters with each comprising two to three Lok Sabha segments as part of the plan, one of the leaders said. Each of these clusters will have a dedicated call centre from where professionals and party workers will seek feedback about the partys programmes, events, and probable candidates. They will reach out to the beneficiaries of the government schemes to secure their support and address possible grievances. The leader said 20 such call centres have come into existence at the level of various states. Rajya Sabha member and BJP national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav has been made the in-charge of the outreach. Each call centre will have 12-15 trained professionals, who are being hired for the job, a second leader said. There will be a couple of party workers, too, for each of the call centres. A third leader said that feedback from the beneficiaries of Prime Minister Narendra Modis schemes will be passed on to the partys district units, which will share it with the booth level units for follow up. Each of these beneficiaries will be approached personally before the election, he added. The BJP polled 171.7 million votes in 2014, when it won a majority on its own with 282 seats. It is trying to reach out to 330 million-plus voters this time. They include an estimated 220 million beneficiaries of the government schemes, 90 million verified BJP members and about 20 million new voters. Five other national parties polled 177.5 million votes, which was only a little more than our tally. If we can ensure support from even 70% of these 330 million voters, we will return to power with a majority probably greater than 2014, the second leader said. The call centre exercise is also to supplement a booth action plan that BJP chief Amit Shah has chalked out to reach out to voters for the 2019 general elections. The plan includes compiling a list of voters with smartphones, deploying at least five motorbike-riding party workers at each polling station besides contacting temples and mutts priests and heads and poaching workers from rival parties. A separate to-do list includes grading booths under the A, B, C, and D categories. An A category booth will be the one where most of the votes were cast in the BJPs favour in the last election. The booths where the BJP hardly got any votes would be categorised as D. The responsibility for the management of the D-category polling stations will be assigned to grassroots workers, while officer bearers will have the responsibility of manning the category C booths. Shah has been credited with creating robust party units at each polling station. There were 927,000 lakh polling booths in the previous election. Gilles Verniers, assistant professor of political science at Ashoka University, said, The setting up of call centres to reach out to beneficiaries of government schemes is yet another channel of communication that the BJP set up for the 2019 campaign. They constitute in no way the kind of feedback mechanisms that public schemes so desperately need. If anything, if one wishes to set up such feedback mechanism, they would do it sufficiently in advance so as to take corrective measures and not on the eve of an election, when there isnt time for any actual policy adjustment. A fire broke out at an eight-storey commercial building at the crowded Park Street area in Kolkata at around 11 am today. Ten fire engines are trying to douse the blaze at Apeejay House. No casualty has been reported so far, confirmed city Mayor and fire services minister, Sovan Chattopadhyay. Cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, he said. Locals helped fire-fighters is dousing the blaze, an eyewitness said. The fire officials are now trying to locate whether anyone is still trapped in the building. The fire started from the server room of the building at around 11 am, an eyewitness said. Apeejay House is barely 100 metres away from the Stephen Court building, where a major fire broke out on March 23, 2010 in which 40 people were killed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday triumphantly announced that Indias first indigenous nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, INS Arihant, has successfully completed its first deterrence patrol and that the success of the submarine gives a fitting response to those who indulge in nuclear blackmail, in his first comments on the top-secret Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project. The fully operational submarine completes the sea leg of Indias nuclear triad, giving it enduring nuclear strike and counterstrike capabilities. Today is historic because it marks the completing of the successful establishment of the nuclear triad. Indias nuclear triad will be an important pillar of global peace and stability, Modi wrote in a series of tweets on Arihant. Dhanteras gets even more special! Indias pride, nuclear submarine INS Arihant successfully completed its first deterrence patrol! I congratulate all those involved, especially the crew of INS Arihant for this accomplishment, which will always be remembered in our history. pic.twitter.com/tjeOj2cBdX Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 5, 2018 The United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China are the only countries that can deliver nuclear warheads from a submarine. The 6,000-tonne Arihant, which means destroyer of enemies, is armed with 12 B-05 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) capable of delivering nuclear warheads up to 750km away. The range, however, is a limitation and India needs to deploy SLBMs capable of striking targets thousands of kilometres away, experts said. True to its name, INS Arihant will protect the 130 crore Indians from external threats, Modi said in another tweet on Indias newest nuclear delivery platform, after meeting the boats crew on Monday. The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) said INS Arihant had recently returned from its maiden deterrence patrol. What does this actually mean? The submarine is fully operational now, the crew has worked and the missiles are loaded. It will stay on continuous deterrence patrols and when the signal goes out from New Delhi to INS Arihant, it should be able to launch a nuclear missile, explained Admiral Arun Prakash, a former navy chief. India already has the capability to carry out nuclear strikes with fighter planes and land-launched missiles. The Agni series of ballistic missiles and warplanes such as Sukhoi-30s and French-origin Mirage-2000s can deliver nuclear warheads. The Rafale fighters ordered from France are also nuclear capable. INS Arihant has completed Indias nuclear triad and I would say its the biggest development of the century so far in the maritime domain, said Admiral Robin Dhowan, also a former navy chief. India needs to deploy more SSBNs (ship submersible ballistic nuclear) to reinforce its strategic deterrence force at sea. The second Arihant-class submarine, called INS Arighat, was secretly launched last year and is likely to join the naval fleet in 2021. Navy officers are not authorised to speak about the secret programme to build SSBNs, a subject directly handled by the PMO, but people familiar with the matter said India could deploy a total of five Arihant-class boats. The last two Arihant-class submarines are expected to be bigger and capable of launching longer range missiles. These boats could be armed with K-4 SLBMs capable of striking targets up to 3,500km away. It is critical to have SLBMs that have a range of 3,000km to 4,000km. The current range is not good enough. But yes, it is a deterrent. Its a message to our adversaries, dont even think about launching a pre-emptive nuclear strike against India because we are fully ready to hit you back instantly, said Prakash, a decorated 1971 war hero. He said the next objective should be to deploy at least three SSBNs for continuous patrols in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. Remember, one SSBN may be under refit at any given time. And refueling it can take up to a year. You have to cut up the submarine, remove the Uranium rods, add fresh Uranium fuel and weld it up again, Prakash added. The first functional patrol undertaken by INS Arihant is a significant landmark in Indias continuing and steady development of its nuclear triad of land-based, air-delivered and submarine-launched nuclear weapons, said Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary and ex-chairman of the National Security Advisory Board. However, for a true triad India will need at least three to five such submarines and longer range SLBMs. There is still some distance to cover for a true triad, Saran added. A top government functionary reaffirmed the governments commitment to a Ram temple at Ayodhya a week after the Supreme Court deferred the hearing of the Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi case to January, provoking calls for a law or an ordinance from Hindu groups to facilitate the building of a temple at the disputed site. Just as the courts are authorised to rule on a matter of dispute, the government of the day can change the premise on which a judgment is based to render it null and void, the senior government functionary said on Monday, responding to questions on whether a law or an ordinance for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya is possible before the next parliamentary election. The functionary, who didnt want to be named, said he was making the remarks independent of the temple issue, and just to explain the limits to which the judiciary and the executive can go. However, he said, a Ram temple will indeed be built at Ayodhya. A temple already exists there (at the disputed site in Ayodhya), he said. We only have to make it grand. Talk of the government considering an ordinance or a bill to construct a temple in Ayodhya in the remainder of Parliaments term has gained momentum after the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideological mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded a law to build Ram temple and threatened a 1992-like campaign for its construction. In October, the Supreme Court fixed the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute cases for the first week of January next year before an appropriate bench, which will decide the schedule of hearing. RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said on Friday that RSS was upset with the delay in the Supreme Courts verdict. We expected a positive development before Diwali, but the court has indefinitely prolonged it, he said. The faith of crores of Hindus is linked to the issue. If it is not on top of the Supreme Courts priority list, it is an insult to the Hindu community. Union minister Uma Bharti said any talk of constructing a mosque within the periphery of Ayodhya can make Hindus intolerant,Her colleague Giriraj Singh has said no one can stop the construction of a Ram temple. Minister of state for law and justice PP Chaudhary suggested that legal option must be explored as the title suit has been pending in the court for years, and Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya was the desire of crores of Hindus. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath plans to construct a 151-metre tall Lord Ram statue in Ayodhya. The functionary also commented on the Rafale deal and hinted that the government will oppose disclosure of the cost to the Supreme Court (which has asked for it) on grounds that it would compromise national security. Last week, while hearing a bunch of petitions seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the fighter jet deal, a three-judge bench led by chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi , justice UU Lalit and justice KM Joseph ordered that details of pricing be submitted to the court in a sealed cover within 10 days. The governments top law officer, attorney general KK Venugopal, opposed the order and told the court that it would not be possible for the government to provide pricing details to the court, noting that the information had not been provided to Parliament either. The first-ever woman conductor employed by the Haryana Roadways has lost her job after roadways employees called off their 18-day strike and joined duty. Rewari resident Sharmila, 32, a differently abled mother of two daughters, was given a three-month contractual job by the government when the states public transport service was paralysed due to the strike. However, Sharmila was sacked from her job on Sunday, a day after the striking employees returned to work. The government has ruined my Diwali. I was hoping to get a permanent job since the government talks about Beti Bachao Beti Padhao. Two more women joined as conductors in roadways after me. The government could have made an exception and saved the jobs of three of us. But it did not even let us work for three months, said Sharmila, who suffers 40% disability in one of her legs. We helped the government in their time of crisis. But the government paid no heed to crisis in our lives and fired us in the blink of an eye, she added. Sharmila said she comes from a poor background and had been searching for a job for the past eight years to support her family. When I saw a vacancy here, I applied and got the job. I had learnt the work and was able to do it without any problem. The passengers were so helpful and warm to me. I thought I could secure the future of my family. But now everything looks shattered, she said. Sharmila, who is differently abled, said she comes from a poor background and had been searching for a job for the past eight years to support her family. (HT Photo ) Despite the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) being in force, the roadways employees had been on strike since October 16 against the governments move to induct 700 private buses, which they alleged was a move towards privatisation of the department to benefit a few chosen ones. The Rewari depot has 130 roadways buses. During the strike, the depot hired 105 drivers and 130 conductors, all of whom have been sacked after the protesting employees joined. This was what we feared the most. We did not stand in long queues since midnight so we could be fired like this, said Rajesh Kumar, another conductor who lost job. Rewari depot general manager Balwant Singh maintained it was governments decision to replace the temporary staff as the regular staff joined duty after calling off the strike. They (new staff) were hired on contractual basis and policy of their employment was made clear before joining, he said. At many other places in the state, sacked employees staged dharnas and protested against the government for firing them. In Bahadurgarh, some protesters said they had quit their regular jobs to apply for roadways as it mentioned a possible permanent job after three months. But they did not let us work for even a week. Now we are completely jobless, said Rahul Singh. Cruise ships operator Carnival UK has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior members of his cabinet, cautioning against a high tax regime that it said may destroy the cruise industry in India. David Dingle, chairman of Carnival UK, pointed to the customs duty imposed last month on cruise ships operating between Indian cities. The new measure was put in place amid a clamour for reducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the sector to make cruise tourism more attractive to Indian travelers. We are aware that cruise companies want lower tax regime. I have spoken to finance minister Arun Jaitley and transport minister Nitin Gadkari, among others. I am hopeful that the issue will be amicably resolved, union tourism minister KJ Alphons told HT. According to the Centres own estimate, some 174,000 Indian tourists went on cruises last year; globally 25 million travelled on cruise liners. Just one cruise ship operates from India; 169 had come to Indian shores last year. India imposes 18% GST on cruise passengers with an additional 5% tax for reservation of cruise holidays, according to officials in the tourism ministry. The new customs duty has come on top of the GST rate, making India one of the highest taxed ports of call for cruise ships. In its letter, Carnival, which has deployed ships to India, said: Unless (customs duty is) repealed, this instruction will lead not only to cruise companies deploying their ships away from India in the future, but also to the cancellation of currently scheduled Indian calls the view is held most, if not all, other cruise companies, said Dingle of Carnival UK. Inside a secret war room of an army mountain division, some 15 feet underground in the basement of a building on a hill, a two-star general in combat fatigues details the long-running security challenges Manipur faces and how insurgent safe havens across the border in Myanmar imperil the states stability. Phones are not allowed in Kautilya, the war room. It was in this ops room, more than three years ago, that an Indian Special Forces officer briefed the military brass about the surgical strikes he had led against three insurgent camps in Myanmar. The cross-border attack in which 40 to 50 insurgents were killed was ordered by the Modi government to avenge the massacre of 18 Indian Army soldiers in an ambush by Myanmar-based militants on June 5, 2015. New Delhi later publicly acknowledged the combat action on foreign soil for the first time, announcing Indias muscular military response to the world. But three years on, the threat to Manipurs security from safe havens on Burmese soil is still a reality. Major General VK Mishra, who heads the division, did not reveal the number of insurgent camps in Myanmar in his three-hour presentation in the war room last week, though he did touch upon the insurgents hit-and-run tactics in Manipur that shares a 398-km border with the neighbouring country. Two officials familiar with the matter in New Delhi, however, said on the condition of anonymity that there are 38 insurgent camps scattered across the border. Such camps allow insurgents to carry out strikes in the state and go back to Myanmar territory. That precludes the Indian armed forces from pursuing them there, said Lieutenant General SL Narasimhan (retd), who commanded a corps in the north-east and is currently a member of the National Security Advisory Board. The first account of the 2015 cross-border raid, led by a lieutenant colonel, was documented in Indias Most Fearless, a book authored by this correspondent and military affairs journalist Shiv Aroor. The book, which identifies the lieutenant colonel as Oscar Delta, says the officer spent the day (June 9) briefing the military leadership about the mission in the war room at the Leimakhong-headquartered 57 Mountain Division. With digital clocks flashing Indian and Chinese local times above a giant screen behind him, Mishra shared details of the insurgent groups active in the state, how they generate funds through extortion, the frontal organisations pushing their cause, the infighting among the insurgent cadres and, most importantly, the challenges that the security forces face daily. There cannot be a one-size-fits-all strategy in this fight. We calibrate our operations based on the scenarios that are unfolding. The main aim is to degrade the combat potential of the insurgent groups, said Mishra, an old north-east and Kashmir hand. The motto of the 57 Mountain Division on a plaque overlooking the war room perhaps sums up the armys strategy: Fight Clever, Fight to Win. Huge charts depicting the positions and layout of Chinese Peoples Liberation Army camps stand out in the spacious war room. Sun Tzu and General George S Patton wall quotes are also hard to miss. It was from a helipad not too far from the war room that two army Dhruv helicopters took off on June 9, 2015 to fly the victorious commandos back to the base from a village bordering Myanmar. A 30-year-old woman returned from Sabarimala due to protests as the hilltop temple in Keralas Pathanamthitta reopened for a few hours Monday with thousands of police personnel, including women, on vigil to prevent any recurrence of the large-scale violence seen at the shrine last month against the Supreme Court ruling allowing entry of women of all ages. The tantri (supreme priest) opened the doors of the ancient temple to Lord Ayyappa at 5 pm. At least 5000 devotees waited in long, winding queues as people were only being allowed in small batches due to prohibitory orders imposed in the area banning large gatherings. While no woman pilgrim was seen initially despite a senior police official assuring anyone willing to trek to the temple would be escorted there, Anju, who was accompanied by her huband and two children, later approached the police at the Pambha base camp. But as the news spread, hymn-chanting devotees blocked the trekking path. The protest was led by Hindu Aikya Vedi leader Sasikala. The woman later told police that her husband had forced her to come along with the children and she was returning. The Sree Chithira Attathirunal pooja, an offering to honour the last king of the erstwhile Travancore dynasty Sree Chithira Tirunal Balarama Varma, was held today before the temple closed at 10 pm. The temple will also be open Tuesday. No untoward incident was reported from two base camps, Nilakkal and Pambha, and other areas. However, in Erumeli, pilgrims blocked roads chanting hymns Ayyappa Saranam in the morning, saying the state transport authority was deliberately delaying buses to the base camps. The reopening comes two weeks after the temple and surrounding areas witnessed violent protests carried out by several Hindu outfits opposing the verdict of the Supreme Court allowing women of all ages to worship at the shrine. The base camps had witnessed large-scale violence during which many including women journalists were injured when the temple opened on October 17 for the first time after the top courts verdict allowing women of menstruating age into the shrine. Many Hindu outfits have once again threatened to prevent women aged between 10 and 50 years from entering the temple. The Sabarimala Karma Samiti, an umbrella organisation of many outfits including Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Hindu Aikya Vedi, had even urged media houses to not send women journalists to the area, saying that it might aggravate the issue. Police have clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code, which restricts a gathering of more than four people, since Saturday night, said state police chief Loknath Behra, adding the temple and surrounding areas are under a three-tier security ring. Around 2,300 personnel, including a 20-member commando team and 100 women, have been deployed for the security of the devotees. Earlier, journalists were not allowed entry to the two base camps Pambha and Nilakkal. Later, the DGP denied there was any restriction for the media. As the temple issue raged, the president of the Bharatiya Janata Partys state unit PS Sreedharan courted trouble after a video clip of his speech at a party meeting was leaked. In the video, Pillai is purportedly heard saying that he was in touch with the tantri when two women came close to the temple in October. Pillai is also heard saying that the Sabarimala issue was a golden opportunity for the BJP and other players were caught unaware by the agenda set by the party. He later admitted that the tantri had called him as a lawyer to seek a legal opinion from him. He asked me whether shutting the doors of the temple will invite the contempt of court. I told him if customs were violated he was free to do it, he said. The tantri has, however, denied he had sought any legal advice. The senior BJP leader said his speech at BJYM conference in Kozhikode was deliberately leaked to create confusion among devotees. CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has sought action against the tantri for conspiring with the BJP leader. The temple tantri and officials had said they would close the shrine if any female devotee from the age group 10 to 50 tried to enter the sanctum sanctorum from October 17 to 22, when the temple was open for the monthly puja, saying it was against the centuries-old temples tradition. The Left government in Kerala has announced it will implement the top courts ruling pitting it against the BJP and numerous Hindu groups which have been up in arms against the September 28 verdict. Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Assam are the large states lagging in terms of performance in the National Democratic Alliance governments ambitious Saubhagya household electrification scheme with 18.8 million households electrified since October 11 last year with another 11 million awaiting electrification. The scheme was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 25, 2017. The numbers mean 62% of the households without electricity as of October 10 last year, now have electricity. India has around 250 million households. While Karnataka is ruled by an alliance of the Janata Dal (S) and the Congress, UP and Assam are ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party governments. According to data available with the power ministry till November 1, the government has spent Rs 10,544 crore on the scheme with 10 states achieving 100% electrification. The Centre has allocated a total of Rs 16,320 crore for electricity connections and infrastructure support. The states which have achieved their targets are Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Puducherry, Punjab and Tamil Nadu. However, the government is concerned with the pace of household electrification in Uttar Pradesh and Assam with only 44 and 40 per cent of the unelectrified households as of last year being electrified. Prime Minister Modi has said that all households across India will be electrified by 2019. Karnataka has only completed 37% of its work. The NDA made electrification one of the main achievements it touted when it completed four years in power in May and analysts say that this will be one of the main developmental achievements it talks about in the campaign for the parliamentary elections next year. The attackers involved in the killings of senior BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajit Parihar have been identified and will be brought before the people soon, Jammu and Kashmirs governor Satya Pal Malik said on Monday. It was a terrorist attack and they (attackers) will soon be in front of you, Malik said. The governor was fielding media queries in Jammu after inspecting a guard of honour on the re-opening of government offices in the states winter capital of Jammu for the next six months. He said the acts of violence and terror were being committed out of sheer frustration because the four-phase local body elections were conducted peacefully. Their (terrorists) mentors across the border (in Pakistan) are not comfortable with the peaceful conduct of the local body elections and hence militants are being pushed for terror activities, the governor said. Anil Parihar, 53, and his brother Ajit were returning home after closing their stationery shop late on Thursday when two unidentified gunmen shot them at point-blank range in Kishtwar town. The killings, ahead of the panchayat elections starting November 17, triggered angry protests in the communally sensitive district. Authorities imposed a curfew in parts of Kishtwar and Doda districts on Thursday following the killing of the Parihar brothers and the Indian Army was also called out to maintain law and order. Kishtwar town remains under curfew and was relaxed in phases for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday. The curfew was, however, lifted from Doda district, including the main town and Bhadarwah along with Paddar and Chatroo sub-divisions of Kishtwar district on Saturday. But prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) continued to remain in force in these areas as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order. When asked about the challenges in conducting the panchayat elections, Malik said that living in Jammu and Kashmir and being the governor of the state itself was a challenge. But we will manage these elections as well. The weather has to stay stable and we will tackle militancy. We are not going to allow militancy to hamper democratic process, he said. The governor said there has been no major incident of stone pelting in the past two months because I addressed the issue very honestly. Only 10 to 20 youth got involved. Not even a bird was hurt in the past two months during the local body elections, he said. On the Rohingyas issue, he said the state government was working on them and that the process of recording their biometric details will be completed in the next two months. The governor also said his first visit will be to the border areas to listen to the grievances of the villagers of Jammu region, who could not cultivate their crops due to hostilities from Pakistan. I keep sharing their issues with the home minister, he added. The Supreme Court collegium has sent back names of all eight advocates recommended for elevation as judges to the Orissa High Court five of them because they did not meet the minimum annual professional income criterion that Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi has been insisting on since taking over last month. Gogoi mentioned the income criterion in his video interaction with high court chief justices soon after coming into office, and sent back another recommendation to the Kerala high court on similar grounds last month. He said in the video conference that only advocates with a good high court practice be considered for elevation as it improves the quality of judges in the higher judiciary. According to a decision taken by the collegium comprising the top three judges of the Supreme Court CJI Gogoi and justices Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph uploaded on the courts website, the reason for sending the file back was the average net professional annual income for the preceding five years being less than the prescribed income limit applicable in case of Bar members. The eight advocates recommended for elevation were Rudra Prasad Kar, Pranaya Kishore Harichandan, Kali Prasanna Mishra, Bimbisar Dash, Narasingh V, Tushar Kanti Satapathy, Bishnu Prasad Pradhan and Sameer Kumar Das. The recommendations were made by the then chief justice of the Orissa High Court on May 18, 2018. The five who were found not to meet the income criterion were Kar, Dash, Satapathy, Pradhan and Das. The collegiums order recorded that we have carefully scrutinised the material placed on record, including certain complaints against some of the recommendees and the observations made by the Department of Justice in the file. Apart from this, we invited three of the above-named recommendees with a view to have an interaction with them. On the basis of interaction and/or having regard to all relevant factors, the Collegium is of the considered view that... [the proposal] be remitted to the Orissa High Court since he does not qualify the existing norms, his average net professional annual income for the preceding five years being less than the prescribed income limit applicable in case of Bar members. Even though there is no fixed income parameter for elevation of an advocate as a judge, it is unofficially fixed at around ~10 lakh per annum, according to an official in the justice department of the law ministry who asked not to be named. It is generally expected that an advocate who is recommended for elevation needs to at least have an annual income of ~10 lakh and he is expected to submit professional income for the last five years while submitting his application for consideration as a judge, said an official. Besides the income criteria, the Supreme Court collegium takes into account the age, academic attainment, standing and experience, ability to deal with complex legal problems, grasping capacity, judicial potential and other abilities, before confirming the candidates as judges. Recently, the Supreme Court collegium also started the practice of personal interaction with the potential candidates before giving a final clearance to the names of the advocates to be elevated as judges. Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar Monday took strong objection to Union minister Maneka Gandhis criticism of the state government over the killing of a tigress called Avni, saying she lacks information on the issue and can order a high-level probe if she wants to. Mungantiwars statement comes a day after the Union Women and Child Development minister lashed out at the Maharashtra government over the ghastly murder of the tigress, T1, as she was known officially, calling it a straight case of crime. The tigress, survived by her two 10 months old cubs, was believed to be responsible for the deaths of 13 people in the past two years. She was shot dead by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali in the Borati forest in Yavatmal district Friday as part of an operation. In a series of tweets, Gandhi had stated, It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, minister for morests, gave orders for the killing. The Union minister had said she is going to take up the matter with Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Mungantiwar said Gandhis criticism stems from her lack of information on the issue and asserted neither he, as a minister, nor any of the secretaries in his department have the right to order such killings. Such decisions are taken as per the guidelines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, he said. She (Gandhi) loves animals. She is, however, minister for Women and Child Development. I have to consider the women who have been killed by the tigress, Mungantiwar said. If she deems fit, she can suggest changes in the NTCA guidelines, the senior state minister said. The Maharashtra minister said orders to capture the tigress were given when she killed five people. But animal activists approached the high court and obtained a stay, which resulted in the big cat killing more people. With less than a few hours left for Sabarimala shrine to be opened for one-day pooja, several Hindu outfits opposing the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all ages to worship at the hill temple have written to media houses not to depute women journalists to cover the one-day event. In a letter to editors, Sabarimala Karma Samiti, an umbrella organisation of many outfits, including Viswa Hindu Parishad and Hindu Aikya Vedi, urged the media houses to not send women journalists to the area, saying that it might aggravate the issue. We recognise your right to support or oppose devotees stand on the issue, but the issue is highly emotional and we expect you will not take a stand that will aggravate the situation, the letter said. When the temple opened for the first time after the apex court verdict on October 18, the base camps had witnessed large-scale violence hurting many including women scribes. The hill temple and its base camps looked like a fortress with heavy police deployment even as many Hindu outfits have threatened to prevent women aged between 10 and 50 years from entering the temple. Police have clamped prohibitory orders (Section 144 of IPC) since Saturday night and all vehicles passing through the areas are checked randomly for possible troublemakers, said state police chief Loknath Behra, adding the temple and surrounding areas are under a three-tier security ring. Earlier, journalists were not allowed entry to the two base camps Pambha and Nilakkal. Later, the DGP issued a statement, denying any restriction for the media. Meanwhile, strict orders have been given to the police to arrest anyone preventing women from entering the temple. If a woman is willing to trek to the temple, if needed, women cops will escort them, a senior official camping at the hilltop said. Besides, 2,000 police officers and a team of commandos has been deployed in and around the Sabarimala. Opposition Congress and BJP have decried the heavy deployment of police, saying it will disturb the serene atmosphere of the temple and curb free movement of pilgrims. It is nothing but fascism. Even media movement was curbed, said Pradesh Congress Committee president Mullappally Ramachandran. No other temple in the country might have faced such an ignominy. Devotees will have to go through five check posts. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan is in hurry to allow women to the temple and he will be fully responsible for its outcome also, said BJP state chief P S Sreedharan Pillai, adding he will go to the temple on Monday for a darshan. The Pandalam royal family, considered to be the custodian of the temple, also said heavy deployment of security personnel will affect the divinity of the shrine. Situated in the midst of a tiger reserve it is one of the peaceful shrines of the country. Now it looks like a police camp. It is sad to have a darshan under police cordon, said Sasikumar Varma, scion of the royal family. The Sabarimala Karma Samiti said though the Supreme Court had decided to hear the writ and review petitions, the state government was intentionally ignoring the mass movement against the verdict and hastily trying to enforce it using brutal force. Devotees stage protest, block trekking path Devotees stage sit-in protest, blocking the trekking path. They are also singing hymns, defying the prohibitory orders, led by Hindu Aikya Vedi leader Sasikala, at Pamba ganapati temple. Woman approaches police seeking to trek to the hilltop shrine A woman approaches police in Pamba base camp seeking to trek to the hilltop. Police are verifying her credentials. Anju, a native of Cherthala, came with her husband and two children Made adequate security arrangements for facilitating darshan : IG Ajith Kumar Weve made adequate security arrangements for facilitating darshan of all devotees. We have various threats in this area, taking into consideration various threat perceptions, weve provided security arrangements for everyone: IG Ajith Kumar, security in-charge of Sabarimala. We've made adequate security arrangements for facilitating 'darshan' of all devotees. We have various threats in this area, taking into consideration various threat perceptions, we've provided security arrangements for everyone: IG Ajith Kumar, security in-charge of #Sabarimala pic.twitter.com/ncyDeSNYYN ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 Devotees complain of non-availability of basic amenities Some devotees complained that even the basic amenities were not in place Winding queue of devotees outside Sabarimala shrine At least 5000 devotees were present when the gates of Sabarimala reopened for a special pooja. The devotees are being allowed inside the temple in small batches as section 144 has been imposed. The Ayyappa devotees will not be allowed to stay in the temple during night as a means of precaution. Temple to remain open till Tuesday night Sabarimala temple, which was reopened by Tantri in presence of others, on Monday will remain open till Tuesday night. The temple will remain open till 10 pm on Monday night. Sabarimala shrine opens Sabarimala temple reopened amid high security, for five hours for a special pooja amid high security. BJP creating trouble: Vijayan The odious politics and perfidious ways of BJP stand exposed. Evidence has surfaced that BJP leaders in the state connived to create trouble in Sabarimala. It must be noted that their state president himself was involved in the ruse. This is highly condemnable: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan tweets. Jammers near temple Kerala Police instal mobile jammers near Sabarimala temple to prevent tantri and other shrine officials from interacting with the media and to dissuade live visuals. Devotees, media should not be blocked: Kerala high court Kerala high court says that devotees and media at Sabarimala temple should not be blocked. It said that the government should not interfere in the temples daily activities and a departmental level inquiry must be conducted on policemen who had damaged vehicles, reports ANI. Pilgrims block roads Pilgrims block roads in Erumeli saying state transport authority was deliberately delaying buses to the base camps. They block roads chanting hymns Ayyappa Saranam. Devotees protest Many devotees seen protesting, shouting slogans as police stopped them for checking en route to Sabarimala. Private vehicles carrying pilgrims were stopped. BJP protest Kerala BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai will go to the hilltop at 11am. He is likely to be arrested. Base camps and hilltop peaceful so far. Women cops above 50 deployed Women cops deployed at hilltop. But all are above 50 years, police officials said. Many pilgrims stranded as police make restrictions on vehicular movement. Heavy police deployment A large number of police personnel have been deployed at Nilakkal base camp where violence broke out following the Supreme Court order allowing girls and women of menstrual age to visit the Sabarimala temple. #Kerala: Police deployed at Nilakkal base camp as #SabarimalaTemple is scheduled to open for prayers today evening. pic.twitter.com/iq7LWFD237 ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 Devotees begin trek Devotees begin trek from Nilakkal base camp to Sabarimala temple. #Kerala: Devotees begin the trek from Nilakkal base camp to #SabarimalaTemple. The temple will open today evening and will be closed after the 'Athazha puja' tomorrow evening. pic.twitter.com/nK47UGMang ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 Devotees begin to gather Devotees begin to gather at Nilakkal base camp. Police say they are not restricting movement of devotees. #Kerala: Devotees begin to gather at Nilakkal base camp as #SabarimalaTemple is set to open today. Nilakkal base camp in-charge Manjunath H says, "There is adequate police deployment here. We are not restricting the movement of devotees." pic.twitter.com/OzJDGABRfU ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 Union textiles minister Smriti Irani continues to engage with Congress chief Rahul Gandhis Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, sending 10,000 sarees as gifts for the BJPs women activists as a Diwali gift. Buoyed by the narrowing of Gandhis victory margin in 2014 LS polls, the BJP plans to field Irani from the Congress pocket borough again. The union ministers continued association with Amethi lends credence to this possibility, party workers say. So, unlike previous occasions like in 2014 when despite her poll loss in Amethi, she had sent sarees for those women whose villages had voted for her, this time the festival consignment was intended to cheer party women active in Amethi. The recipients had no knowledge of what brand of saree it was and appeared delighted at the fact that the Union minister remembered them during the festival. More than the saree per se, its the gesture that matters more. In 2019 LS elections, we would ensure that didi springs a surprise here, said Asha Bajpai, the partys women wing chief in the district and a recipient of what she described as didis love. She has regularly been active in Amethi and its only natural that she has emerged as a strong contender for the seat. Dont see sarees with political glasses. They merely reflect that the leader wants to share joy with people, said BJPs district chief Uma Shankar Pandey. In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had campaigned in Amethi, breaking the unwritten code of top leaders of parties not campaigning in each others constituencies. The Congress had retaliated by holding a Rahul road show in Varanasi, Modis constituency. This time, leaders of both the BJP and the Congress admit, the campaign would be a lot more intense. Irani is expected in Amethi again post-Diwali after which both the Congress and the BJP would get into poll mode. The Congress is ready to target the BJP with a list of projects that were either stalled, scrapped or unduly delayed by the Centre. The BJP is readying a list of projects initiated by Irani despite her loss. Sarees wont be able to save her humiliating defeat but we will welcome her here after her loss next year. Doing something for masses despite losing is a noble thing and we would like her to keep losing elections without losing her love for Amethi, Congress secretary Devendra Pratap Singh said. The success story of Indias first tiger relocation from Ranthambore National Park (RNP) to the Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) a decade ago has been dampened. A poacher, Sarfuddin Mev, has confessed to having poached a tigress for sale of body parts. This is the first such incident here since 2004. STR had 12 big cats until poacher Sansar Chand wiped out the entire tiger population in the early 2000s. Various committees, including a Supreme Court-appointed panel, identified five factors that lead to poaching including the presence of villages inside the reserve. The Rajasthan government had agreed to address the issues, and as a safety measure, relocated eight tigers from RNP in 2008. Within a decade, the number of tigers there increased to 17, including five cubs. This inspite of a resident allegedly poisoning a tiger in 2009 and a cub dying after getting entangled in a barbed wire around a farm in April this year. STR deputy forest conservator Nitin Singh said Mev was arrested for killing a sambar and a blue bull (nilgai) on October 27, and confessed to killing the tigress in February. He said the department has nothing except his confessional statement to link him to the poaching. Mevs arrest has also raised questions over the tiger monitoring programme. The tigress was killed on February 25 and her skin and body parts were reportedly sold to an unidentified Gurugram-based trader, an official said. Yet, her movements based on signals from a radio collar were reported until March 10. That (the radio collar signals) is a matter of investigation now, said chief forest conservator Govind Sagar Bhardwaj. He admitted something went wrong with the monitoring mechanism. We informed the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) that a tigress was missing. After some days, they told us that a signal from her radio collar has been recorded. By the end of March, the signal went dead and we thought she may have strayed out and died. We have asked WII to submit a report. The tigress killing would have remained a mystery had Mev not confessed to killing the big cat in Sariskas Akbarpur range. The killing happened in the critical core of the reserve, which, as per Supreme Court guidelines, should be most protected, said NGO Wildlife Cat Conservations Nishant Singh Sisodia. Mevs confession was recorded before the additional forest conservator, which is admissible before a court under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. He admitted to having killed the tigress along with his four associates and removed her skin inside the reserve before smuggling it. He was able to do so because his village is close to the place where the killing happened, Singh said. This has highlighted the failure of authorities in relocating residents of most of the 29 villages around its core tiger habitat. Residents of only three villages have been moved out of the reserve since 2005. This was because the villagers resisted the move. Residents of around 10 villages have free access to STR since their farmland is located inside the reserve, an official said. Most of those residing inside the reserve are from the cattle-rearing Gujjar and Meo communities. They are reluctant to move out as the reserve provides them free fodder for their animals. There will be no grazing land and our livelihood will be impacted if we move out of Sariska, said Ramdev Gujjar, who lives inside the reserve and earns about Rs 10,000 per month by selling milk and its products. What the government is offering for relocation is not enough. Sisodia said the easy access enables some of the villagers to hunt deer and blue bulls. The forest department has found snares used to hunt these animals inside the reserve which shows that hunting does happen, he said. Gujjar called such instances an aberration and said the tiger population would not have increased had that been the case. According to a forest department study, the dependence of tigers on cattle as prey has increased from 19% in 2004 to 72% in 2018, though the habitat has deer and blue bull population. Killing slow moving cattle is easier for tigers. But it also exposes them to poaching. Officials blame the shortage of forest guards for it. The strength at STR about 100 is half of what it was in 2005. Sariska is a tough area to manage with a lot of vehicular movement, said Wildlife Protection Society of Indias Tito Joseph. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday sought to target the BJP government over the killing of tigress Avni in Maharashtra by invoking Mahatma Gandhi. The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi #Avni, the Congress president tweeted, two days after the killing of the tigress, which along with its two cubs, had been blamed for the deaths of 13 people in the forests of Yavatmal district in Maharashtra since June last year. The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi#Avni Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 5, 2018 But the grand old party leaders attack drew a sharp comeback from Union environment minister Harsh Vardhan, who told him that the NDA government did not need his certificate. Vardhan, in his counter to the Congress leader, said no previous government has worked with the kind of depth and seriousness as this dispensation, apparently referring to earlier Congress regimes. He said his department has sought a report on the killing which was ordered by the state forest department and approved by the Supreme Court and had triggered a huge backlash among animal lovers, who claimed that it was done against norms. Union minister Maneka Gandhi, also an animal rights activist, had lashed out at the Maharashtra government and called the killing a straight case of crime. Stating that she was deeply saddened by the way the tigress was brutally murdered, the minister said she would take the matter up very strongly with Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Defending the decision to kill the big cat on the grounds of threat to humans, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said a probe would be ordered into the killing. Officials have launched an operation to find and tranquilise the two 10-month-old cubs of Avni. Days after acknowledging Bihar chief minister as bade bhai (elder brother), Union minister of state and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha took a U-turn to train his guns on Nitish Kumar, asking him to share the status and content of his DNA test. With this, Kushwaha has tried to plough into Kumars warm relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had taken a jibe at the chief minister during a rally in Muzaffarpur in July, 2015 questioning his political DNA after the former had snapped ties with the 17-year-old ally in 2013. Kushwaha was apparently put off by the chief ministers remark during a function organised by a media house in the state capital Saturday, where he had parried a question on the Union ministers recent claim about his unwillingness to continue as CM after 2020. Batchit ka star itna neeche mat giraeeye (dont allow the level of debate to dip so low), Kumar had said, while stating that he enjoyed a very warm relationship with the PM and BJP chief Amit Shah. Union minister Kushwaha not only brought the DNA jibe back into currency but also took a dig at Kumar, questioning how the descendants of Luv-Kush (two sons of Sita) be high and low born at the same time. Traditionally, Kurmis trace their ancestry to Luv while Kushwahas claim to be the descendants of Kush. How can bada bhai Nitish Kumar be a high born (uchch) and younger brother Upendra Kushwaha a neech (low born)? he asked, while speaking at the partys Halla bol, darwaza khol campaign at Muzaffarpur. I am hurt by your remark. If I am a neech, it is not for you to decide. You must explain the reason for your insinuation. Is it because I vouch for social justice or is it because of issues like reservation in judiciary and status of education? he said, adding, Such an issue has to be settled by the people. Kushwaha said it was now for the chief minister to come clean on the DNA issue as JD(U) leaders had sent the samples of their hair and nails, as a mark of protest, to Delhi for test. I am asking you, on behalf of the people, to bring the results of DNA test in public domain, he said, casting doubts over the entire exercise. By choosing Muzaffarpur for raising the DNA issue, Kushwaha not only brought the PM into play, but also took a leaf from Narendra Modis take on Manishankar Aiyars neech kism ka insaan barb, which was presented as an attack on his caste during Gujarat elections. With elections round the corner, the unease among smaller allies in NDA camp, after BJP held a joint press conference with JD(U) to declare that the two senior partners would be contesting equal number of Lok Sabha seats in the state, has become more than apparent. The smallest ally - RLSP - has been demanding a bigger share, commensurate to the expansion in its base since 2014 when it had contested on three seats and won all of them. Kushwahas claim to constitute the second largest vote bank of 8%, after Yadavs, in the state. Kushwaha, who parted ways with Kumar to form his own party in 2013, has shared a chequered relationship with bade bhai that also saw him heading the state NCP and resigning from Rajya Sabha membership in the past. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has defended changing the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj, saying the names hold a great significance in India and connect everyone with the countrys glorious tradition. When I changed the name of Allahabad, some people raised question over it. Some also said what is there in the name. So, I said why didnt their parents name them as Ravan and Duryodhana in that case, Adityanath said while addressing the gathering on the second day of the Gyan Kumbh in Haridwar. In this country, the name holds a lot of significance. In this country, maximum names are related to Rams and in Scheduled Caste, most people have attached Ram with their names. The name connects us with our glorious tradition, he said according to news agency ANI. Allahabad was renamed Prayagraj on October 16 after the proposal to change it was approved by the Uttar Pradesh cabinet, triggering protests from the opposition parties over the decision. Adityanath also highlighted that his government has improved the law and order situation in his state. We brought crime under control, broke the spine of organised crime. No kidnapping can take place, no riots can happen, festivals are being celebrated peacefully, he said. He also raked the Jawahar Lal Nehru University issue and criticised those who shout slogans dividing India at the higher education institute run by Indian taxpayers money. When the whole country celebrates Durga Puja with devotion, then attempts are being made to mark Hirankashyaps anniversary in that university. When during Vijay Dashami, the country celebrates the euphoric win of Lord Ram, the people in that university attempt to glorify Ravan. Have we ever thought about how did this situation arise? He asked. Adityanath also said demanding the proof of the existence of Lord Rama is nothing but a travesty of our education system. There could not be the worst example of the bad state of education when people start demanding the proof of the symbol of our own religion. The evidence is still there and we have also provided them with that. Still, there is some hesitation in taking a decision, which means that it is not about evidence but there is some other issue, a solution of which the people have to find by themselves, he said. Earlier in the day, Adityanath made a veiled reference to the ongoing Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid case and asserted that the wishes of scores of Hindu devotees of building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya will soon come true after Diwali. Its the festival of Dhanteras today and a jewellery shop in Surat has found a unique way to attract customers. The shop is selling special gold and silver bars with pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee embossed on them. It is considered auspicious to buy gold or silver on Dhanteras, celebrated two days before Diwali, and the shops special offering has won over many. Lord Laxmi and Ganesh are worshipped on every Diwali and Prime Minister Modi is also like God to us. This year I will buy these bars and worship Modi Ji, a customer told news agency ANI. Gujarat: A jewellery shop in Surat is selling gold&silver bars with faces of PM Modi&former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee engraved on them.A customer says,"Lord Laxmi&Ganesh are worshiped on every #Diwali &PM Modi is also like God to us.This year I'll buy these bars & worship Modi Ji." pic.twitter.com/aSyUuWjfXO ANI (@ANI) November 4, 2018 In fact, shop owner Milan told ANI that several people have placed orders for the special gold and silver bars. Diwali is an auspicious occasion. Since the time Narendra Modi ji took over as the Prime Minister of the country there has always been development and welfare. There has been widespread development in the country and hence I thought of making these to mark the occasion, he said. This isnt the first time that the shop has manufactured such jewellery. Earlier, rakhis made of gold with photos of PM Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani engraved on them were also made by the shop. (With inputs from ANI) A first information report (FIR) was lodged against six people by name and several unidentified people in connection with the killing of a tigress, which was beaten and crushed under a tractor in Kishanpur sanctuary of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve on Sunday evening, DTR field director Ramesh Pandey said on Monday. Pandey also said an autopsy revealed that villagers inflicted injuries on the big cat before and after its death. They also tried to pull out its nails and canine teeth, he said and ruled out the tigress having been a man-eater. He said stern action will be taken against those who killed the tigress in the core zone of the tiger reserve. The core zone is the area of a reserve conserved solely for tigers with no human intervention. Inspector Atar Singh confirmed the FIR was lodged at Sehramu in Pilibhit against Bablu, Mukesh, Lal Bahadur, Chauthi, Subhash and Omprakash and several unidentified people. All those booked by name are residents of Chaltua village in Pilibhit near which the incident occurred. Chaltua village is part of the Kishanpur sanctuary. The inspector also said the FIR was lodged under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (armed with deadly weapon), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty, 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to public servant), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 427 (mischief), 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and Sections 9/27/31/51(1) of the Wild Life Protection Act. The tigress, estimated to be around five years old, was beaten and crushed to death under a tractor in Kishanpur sanctuary of DTR Sunday evening after it mauled a 50-year-old man of Chaltua village of Pilibhit district. The village is located in the core zone of DTR. Angry over the killing, villagers attacked the DTR field staff, who were combing the area on elephants and a specially desig- ned tractor since Oct 27 when the tigress had injured a youth Ramman, another official said. Deputy director, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, Mahavir Kaujlagi, said the villagers manhandled the mahouts and held back the elephants. They seized control of the tractor, cornered the tigress on a route in the forest and ran the big cat over with the tractor, the official said. Field director Pandey said this sequence of events had been incorporated in the FIR. During the autopsy, it was revealed that the villagers caused not only ante-mortem but also post-mortem injuries to the big cat. The first hand observation of the carcass revealed that attempts were made to pull out the tigresss nails and its canines were found broken, which indicated the brutality inflicted on the big cat, he said. Asked why the tigress became aggressive, Pandey said, The tigress was not the least aggressive but had grown sluggish and irritated due to a parasite load in the abdominal area and a porcupine quil which had penetrated its nasal cavity and throat, as observed during the post-mortem. Pandey added, Owing to irritation in its body, the tigress preferred to stay in one place and it only attacked those whom it feared was approaching it (the tigress). A team of experts of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izzatnagar and Lucknow zoo conducted the autopsy at the Dudhwa headquarters in Pallia on Monday in accordance with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines. Four gangmen working on a railway line were run over by a speeding train in Uttar Pradeshs Hardoi district on Monday, officials said, as the families of the dead accused the railways of turning a blind eye to the security of its employees. Officials of Moradabad division of Northern Railway (NR), under whose jurisdiction the accident site falls, said the four gangmen were run over by the Kolkata-Amritsar Akal Takht Express (12317) while they were working on the tracks between Sandila and Umartali stations. The gangmen were reportedly doing drilling work on the track without any prior block, a statement from the northern railway said. So far, three deaths have been confirmed in the incident. The victims have been identified as Rajesh Kumar, 35, Ram Swarup, 45, and Kaushal Kumar, 32, senior divisional commercial manager (DCM) of Moradabad division Vivek Sharma said. Our team that comprises additional divisional railway manager (ADRM), safety officer and other heads of the departments concerned had rushed to the spot to gather further information, he said. Hardois additional superintendent of police Gyananjay Singh identified the fourth deceased as Rajendra, 42. The bodies have been sent by the Railway Police for post mortem examination, the ASP said. DCM Sharma said a probe has been ordered into the accident. Any repair or maintenance work should be done on tracks with prior blocks taken from the concerned zone. Specific blocks or time is taken for repair to ensure that workers are not caught in between the two approaching trains, officials said. Local residents alleged that the train was running at a high speed and a few bodies were found at a distance of around 40 metres from the accident site. Family members of the deceased blamed the railways for laxity in ensuring the safety of its staff. Its sheer negligence. How can they put the staffers to task without taking caution on the route? Its an unpardonable offence. The railways seem to have turned a blind eye towards the safety of its staffers, Sankata Prasad, the uncle of victim Ram Swarup, said. The incident comes after a speeding passenger train mowed down 61 people in Amritsar and left many injured on October 19 when the crowd was watching an effigy of Ravan going up in flames during the Dussehra celebrations. (With inputs from PTI) The terror attack on Mumbai on November 26, 2008, a military-style operation planned and executed from Pakistan, relied heavily upon the reconnaissance ability of one man the Pakistani-turned-American David Coleman Headley, alias Daood Gilani. In 2016, eight years after one of the worst terror attacks on India, Headley turned approver in the case and deposed in a Mumbai court from an undisclosed location in the United States where he had already been convicted and sentenced to a 35-year prison term by a Chicago court for his role in the same attack. Headley was 52 years old at the time. Although Indian agencies had gleaned useful information from Ajmal Kasab the lone terrorist to be captured alive on November 26, 2008 at Marine Drive and other sources such as intercepted conversations, it was Headleys deposition to a court in Mumbai in February 2016 that laid bare the extent of the attack. Lashkar-e-Taiba had attempted to attack Mumbai twice before 26/11, but had failed on both occasions, he told the court via video conference. He confessed that he had joined LeT after being influenced by the speeches of its leader Hafiz Saeed, the 26/11 mastermind. Born to a Pakistani father and an American mother in June 1960, Headley spent his early days in Pakistans Attock district in Punjab. It was upon his parents separation that he relocated to the US with his mother Serril Headley, who ran a pub in Philadelphia. Headley began studying at a community college there and later operated a video store Fliks Video with his mother in New York. But his life would take a turn for the evil during a visit to Pakistan in 1998, when he saw an LeT poster calling for funds to fight jihad against India. He called up the LeT office in Model Town, Lahore, and donated 50,000 Pakistani rupees. There, he met Saeed, head of the now-renamed Jamaat-ud-Dawah, a UN-designated terrorist organisation. Headley joined LeT in 2001 and participated in various training camps in Pakistan between 2002 and 2004. Headley changed his name in the US so that he would not be viewed with suspicion in India. According to his statement, Headley, armed with his mother-in-laws camera, two credit cards, and US$4,000, landed in Mumbai on September 14, 2006. For three months, Headley photographed and videographed the BMC headquarters, Haji Ali, Gateway of India, the Taj Mahal Hotel, and the state police headquarters. He handed over visual documentation to one Major Iqbal, his ISI handler, and to Sajid Mir, a key 26/11 conspirator. Headley made another trip to India in February 2007 and procured a new SIM card. He left India on March 15, 2007, only to return five days later with his wife Faiza. They booked rooms at the Taj and the Trident. After a reconnaissance of the hotels and surrounding areas, he left for Dubai on May 15, 2007. After spending three days there, he returned to India on May 20, 2007. Though this wasnt a productive reconnaissance trip, Headley travelled to Pakistan and handed over the photos he had taken of various Mumbai landmarks to Major Iqbal and Sajid. The 26/11 terrorists relied on this reconnaissance to ensure that they dont get lost while the terror operation was on. Headley returned to Delhi in September 2007, and after a quick reconnaissance of the National Defence College, arrived in Mumbai on September 4. It was during this visit that he extensively photographed the Taj Mahal Hotel and Shiv Sena Bhavan, and even visited the guards posted outside Sena leader Bal Thackerays house in Bandra. After a quick visit to Lahore for Eid, Headley returned to Mumbai for more. With specific instructions to check for landing sites in Mumbai, Headley visited India once again in 2008. He conducted surveillance of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and took boat rides from Colaba to various potential landing points. On April 11, 2008, Headley visited Badhwar Park at Cuffe Parade. He found it to be the ideal landing spot and marked it on his GPS device. After passing on the information to his handlers in Pakistan, he spent some time in the US before returning to India on July 1, 2008. On this visit, he went to the Taj again, and then the police headquarters, the state legislature building, the El-Al Airlines office, Siddhivinayak temple, Chabad House and Bombay Stock Exchange, among other places. It was during this visit that he bought the saffron wristbands from Siddhivinayak temple that Ajmal Kasab and his nine fellow attackers wore during the attacks. Ameya Kunder, a Class 12 student at RN Podar School, has been passionate about physics all through school. When he was in Class 9, Kunder learnt of the Geneva-based European Organisation for Nuclear Research, also known as CERN the worlds largest particle physics laboratory known for its discovery of the elusive Higgs Boson or God particle. Three years later, Kunder was among a team of nine student-researchers from the Santacruz school to visit CERN. The team won at the Beamline for Schools competition, 2018, which CERN has been conducting since 2014. RN Podar, along with the International School of Manila, Philippines, became the first Asian teams, to win the competition since its inception. The Beamline for Schools initiative caters to high school students from across the globe. This year, 1,500 students from 42 countries participated. Eight others were part of the RN Podar team, called Cryptic Ontics Kiranbaskar Velmurugan, Pulkit Malhotra, Aditya Dwarkesh, Satchit Chatterji, Jinal Shah, Anushree Ganesh, Aayush Desai and Roshni Sahoo. CERN will work with the winning teams to get their findings published in an international peer-reviewed journal. Sarah Aretz, who works at CERN and is a project leader at Beamline for Schools, said Cryptic Ontics project had great potential. It was feasible, and thus got picked. The team was extremely good at the subject and had great ideas, she said. The Cryptic Ontics team tried to study the interactions between various muons or elementary subatomic particles and magnetic fields that may lead them to some conclusions about how such cosmic muons behave in the earths magnetic field. For the competition, each team sent a written proposal to address a physics question, using a particle beam at CERN, and a video explaining their methodology. A panel of scientists and senior researchers at CERN shortlisted 30 teams, of which two teams spent two weeks at CERN in October, where experts mentored them to perform an experiment on the beamline accelerator. Visiting CERN and getting an opportunity to perform hands-on research was the most enriching experience, said Kunder, who aspires to be a physicist. Over the two weeks, we interacted with top physicists from across the world and got deeper insights into the realm of science. We were all treated like independent researchers, which also got us acquainted with the lives of a researcher working in the field of physics. While Avnita Bir, principal of the school, said getting to visit the laboratory in Geneva has been extremely rewarding for the students, Pulkit Malhotra, another budding physicist from the winning group said, Coming up with an experiment, and struggling to make it a success was a tough task. By putting us in their shoes, it helped us understand what the life of a scientist is like. Shyam Wuppuluri, the research associate at the school who guided students for the competition, said, Meeting Fabiola Gionatti (CERNs director) was a dream come true for all the budding physicists. After this experience, the moment is not far when we see one of the students making a huge name in science and bringing reforms in the field, he said. The organisation is also trying to get more Indian students to participate. Through a network of local partners, we are trying to reach out to students from underprivileged schools in the country, as we know there is immense talent there said Markus Joos, technical coordinator, CERN. More than 170 personnel of Bihar Police, most of them women, were dismissed, two days after hundreds of newly-recruited constables went on a rampage at Police Lines in Patna to protest the death of a woman trainee constable early Friday. Some senior officers were injured and police vehicles were damaged in the violent protests. It is the first time that an action on such a scale has been taken against the constables. The women constables had been recruited as part of the chief ministers quota scheme for women in government jobs. Inspector general of police, Patna zone, NH Khan on Sunday issued a directive to this effect to senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj. The SSP is empowered to remove the constables. Besides dismissing 167 newly recruited constables, Khan also ordered dismissal of eight other police officers. In addition, 27 havildars and constables have been put under suspension on charges of negligence, misconduct and delayed action, which led to the ruckus at Patna police lines and later spilled over to the streets in a first of its kind police vs police battle. The action was taken after long deliberations at the highest level and inquiry, examination of video footage and statements of policemen. A senior official said strong action was necessary to prevent any such recurrence in future. Chief minister Nitish Kumar had taken cognizance of the flare up and sought detailed report on the matter. The police headquarters is expected to submit its report to the CM on Monday. The Patna police had lodged three separate FIRs against 170 named and 500 unknown policemen at the Buddha Colony police station on the charges of creating ruckus and resorting to hooliganism. The first FIR was lodged by the injured sergeant major-cum-DSP, Mohammad Mashluddin and the second FIR was filed on the basis of the statement of station house officer, Buddha Colony police station. The third complaint was lodged by Pirbahore police station for rioting and attacking the cops during protests against the death of their colleague. The Patna IG has also identified 50 such policemen - from constable to sub-inspector rank - who have been stationed in the police lines for years. The police headquarters has recommended to shift them outside Patna. Among those who face dismissal, many are named accused in the FIR and the case against them would continue. Hundreds of police constables had revolted against senior officers on Friday and created ruckus in and outside the police lines after trainee constable Savita Pathak, who was suffering from dengue, died. The protesting constables alleged that Pathak had been denied leave. Over 900 newly recruit constables 300 of them women are undergoing training in state capital. According to them, they were barely trained for 5-10 days and then deputed on police patrol car, at different traffic intersections and for managing VIP movement. They were kept as reserve police force and assigned duty owing to shortage of policemen in every districts. A 33-year-old official of a construction company based in Katraj was booked for allegedly sexually assaulting a colleague on Saturday. The accused has been identified as Digambar Agawne of Phaltan, Satara who works with the company located on Satara Road. According to the complaint filed by the 23-year-old woman from Sadashiv peth, the accused had raped her twice in Pune and Mumbai. She was first allegedly raped at the office of the company at Katraj on March 8 and second time, she was raped at Park Inn Hotel in Panvel on April 15, police officials said. The woman who works as a subordinate was raped as against her wishes during official trips and was given marriage offers after the incidents. However, she later mustered courage and chose to file a complaint at the police station. The accused has been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 376 for rape, 506 for criminal intimidation and section 37 of Bombay Police Act for violating the commissioners order aimed to preserve public safety. We flew out to Rwanda, only to discover that it takes less time to get to the Rwandan capital Kigali than a drive from Mumbai to Ratnagiri. With a direct connection four times a week, more travellers are discovering the wonders of this tiny yet remarkable country in East Africa. Rwanda is one of the worlds last refuges of the mountain gorilla and the invitation to Kwita Izina 2018, a naming ceremony for baby gorillas born the previous year, was irresistible. We made the most of our time in Kigali before the official programme. En route to our hotel, Jullesse, the Rwandan Development Board representative highlighted the citys landmarks. That building decked up in colourful lights is the Kigali Convention Centre, often lit up in the colours of the visiting head of state, he said. When Indian PM Narendra Modi visited Rwanda, earlier this year, it wore the hues of the Indian tricolour. Gaddafi Mosque was home to the Islamic Centre and a place of refuge during the genocide. (Photo: Anurag Mallick And Priya Ganapathy) We soon reached our hotel, which opened two years ago, one of the first international chains with a presence in Rwanda. Sauntering downstairs to the restaurant, we admired the wall decorated with traditional woven agaseke baskets. Besides a massive spread, we were intrigued to find Faratas and Chickpeas in their dedicated African breakfast corner. We tried the local staple Kaunga (steamed corn stew) and Matoke (green banana and beef stew). It was surprising to learn that Kigali was founded only as recently as 1907 by German explorer and administrator Richard Kandt. His house, now a museum, was just a short walk away. Strolling past the local moto taxi stand (bike taxis like in Goa) and the gorilla statue opposite Kigali City Hall, we reached what was the first European-style house in the city. Local beans shop at Kimironko market. (Photo: Anurag Mallick And Priya Ganapathy) In the colonial scramble for Africa in late 19th century, Germany established a presence in Rwanda by forming an alliance with King Yuhi V Musinga in 1897. Kandt arrived in 1899 while exploring Lake Kivu in search of the source of the river Nile. In 1907, Germany separated the administration of Rwanda-Burundi and Kandt was appointed the countrys first President. He moved the administrative headquarters from the Kings Palace in Nyanza to a more central location. Reaching this large hilly tract, he called it Kigali, literally expansive. The name rang true as we looked at the city stretching around a chain of hills. It was Kandt who first allowed the entry of Indian and Swahili traders into the country in 1908. During World War I, Belgium took control of Rwanda-Burundi in 1916 and it wasnt until 1962 that Kigali became the capital upon Rwandan independence. In April 1994, President Habyarimanas plane was shot down near Kigali Airport, triggering the Rwandan genocide. The Kigali Genocide Memorial is a reminder of Rwandas tragic past. Fried Sambaza (local fish) sourced from Lake Kivu. (Photo: Anurag Mallick And Priya Ganapathy) We stopped by at Kigalis iconic hotel, Hotel des Mille Collines, named after the Belgian appellation for Rwanda during colonial rule Pays des Mille Collines (Land of a Thousand Hills). It became famous after 1,268 people took refuge here during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. The story of the hotel and its manager Paul Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle) was immortalised in the film Hotel Rwanda (2004). Today, Rwanda is one of the cleanest countries in Africa. The last Saturday of every month is dedicated to community service work called Umuganda when the whole society comes together to clean or rebuild. Back at our hotel, we grabbed some Question Coffee and also tried the Fried Sambaza (local fish) sourced from Lake Kivu and brochettes (skewered meat cubes with roasted Ibirayi or Irish potatoes). Interestingly, German soldiers and Belgian missionaries brought the potato to Rwanda in the early 20th century and Ibirayi is derived from Uburayi meaning that which comes from Europe. Must Do Take a city tour with local tours that cost around $60/person. Pay your respects at Kigali Genocide Memorial. Try the local Question Coffee and Rwandan Tea, besides local beers like Mutzig, Primus and Virunga. Feast on Rwandan cuisine at Tamu Tamu restaurant. Shop for agaseke and souvenirs at Ikaze and Kimironko Market. Go clubbing at Riders, Fuchsia, Coco Bean, Envy, K Club and Bougainvilla Go for gorilla trekking Our next stop was the Gaddafi Mosque, home to the Islamic Centre and a place of refuge during the genocide. Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi was a popular figure here and roads, mosques and bakeries were named after him. The suburb of Nyamirambo was the second part of the city to be settled. Belgian colonists established it in the 1920s for civil servants and Muslim Swahili traders. Though most of the country follows Christianity, Nyamirambo is the Muslim Quarter. Masjid al-Fatah, better known as the Green Mosque, is the oldest mosque in town, dating back to the 1930s. We ended our tour with a traditional meal at Tamu Tamu Ugali (cassava porridge), Stewed Cassava Leaves, Goat Curry, Fish and Aubergine Curry. That evening, we dropped by at Ikaze, a boutique for traditional Rwandan handicrafts and discovered little treasures to take home. We bought some agaseke peace baskets; symbolic of this tiny nation driven by the philosophy of ubumuntu or greatness of heart, teaching the world about the values of forgiveness, humanity and compassion. Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Armed men have kidnapped at least 78 students and their principal from a Presbyterian school in Nkwen village in Cameroons restive northwest region, a governor said Monday. The kidnapping late Sunday took place near Bamenda, the capital of the troubled English-speaking region, according to Governor Deben Tchoffo. A video purportedly of the kidnapped children has been release on social media via men who call themselves Amba boys, a reference to the state of Ambazonia that armed separatists are trying to establish in Cameroons northwest and southwest regions. In the video, the kidnappers force about six of the children to give their names and the names of their parents. The children say they were kidnapped late Sunday, and they dont know where they are being held. The men who identify themselves as the kidnappers say they will only release the children when they achieve what they want. We shall only release you after the struggle. You will be going to school now here, say the men who identified themselves as Amba boys. While the video could not be independently verified, parents have been reacting on social media saying they recognize their children in the video. Hundreds have been killed in Cameroons Anglophone regions in the past year, where violence between armed separatists and the military have increased since a government crackdown against protesters in the northwest and southwest regions who claim that as the English-speaking minority they are marginalized by the French-speaking government. Violent separatists took up arms to destabilize the Anglophone regions to win independence for the areas they want to declare a separate state, which they call Ambazonia. Last week separatist militants attacked workers on a state-run rubber plantation in restive southwestern Cameroon, chopping off their fingers because the men had defied an order to stay away from the farms. An American missionary also died in the northwest region around Bamenda after he was shot in the head amid fighting between armed separatists and soldiers in northwestern Cameroon. The turmoil in Cameroon comes as President Paul Biya, who has led since 1982, easily won a seventh term last month in an election that the United States says was marked by irregularities. The government did away with presidential term limits several years ago, part of a trend in Africa that has dismayed many. When self-inflicted damage left Donald Trumps poll numbers sagging shortly after the Republican National Convention in 2016, the solution was to reframe the race around an incendiary issue that has animated Trump for decades: immigration. Trump went to Arizona, where a year before he had first embraced the families of people killed by unauthorized immigrants, to give a major speech endorsing policies coveted by the most extreme immigration hard-liners. Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation, Trump vowed. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise, we dont have a country. The person who helped crystallize Trumps long-standing impulses around immigration into a political platform was Stephen Miller, his chief policy adviser. Now, as Trump searches anew for an electoral advantage, this time with his partys control of Congress at stake in Tuesdays midterm vote, Miller is again at his side. In the past two weeks, Trump has followed an instinct, one nurtured by Miller, that a foreboding message on immigration can galvanize his supporters. The president has sought to sow fear of immigrants by focusing on a caravan of people fleeing violence and poverty in their Central American countries, deploying active-duty members of the military to the border with Mexico and extolling the beauty of barbed wire as a deterrent. Trump has also resurrected one of his hardest-edge campaign proposals, calling for an to end birthright citizenship. It is an agenda Miller has pushed tirelessly inside the West Wing, where he has consolidated his power around the issue, even as several other aides have split into factions or left the administration. In Trumps world, no one has merged policy details and politics more forcefully than Miller. Miller, 33, has become known in that orbit for amassing frightening news articles and isolated statistics about immigration that he is aware might fuel a presidential declaration on Twitter. He has helped install a group of like-minded aides across the government, including at the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Justice Department, who have helped him pursue his agenda. The result is that Trump and Miller have thrust immigration long an issue that conservatives felt was ignored by establishment Republicans into the spotlight again and again. In 2016, the anti-immigration platform that the two men pushed was consistently tethered to an argument that unauthorized immigrants cost Americans jobs and were a drain on resources. But as the economy has continued to improve, it remains to be seen whether Trump and Miller will have the same effect with the issue this time. Trumps fiery words and attempts to push constitutional boundaries have sparked a strong reaction among Democrats and some independents. And as for Miller, his push to end protections for young immigrants under the program known as DACA and to separate children from their undocumented parents at the border have met with a public backlash. Trump was less enamored of the first policy change, but embraced the latter, until it became controversial. It isnt just that DACA repeal and the zero tolerance family separation policy are incredibly unpopular politically, it is that they motivated an entirely new demographic group, college-educated women, against the administrations immigration policies, said Todd Schulte, president of the pro-immigration group FWD.us. In Millers mind, though, those policies should be just the beginning. He has long advocated curbing the flow not just of unauthorized immigrants, but of legal ones as well, through measures like reducing refugee numbers. He has also pushed to change the rules by which immigrants who are legal residents can receive public benefits. Miller helped draft a policy plan posted on Trumps campaign website and taken down after he became the nominee in summer 2016 that called for eliminating automatic citizenship for those born inside the United States, tripling the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and defunding sanctuary cities. The seeds of his hard-line views had been planted in his teenage years: As a high school student in liberal Santa Monica, California, he railed against announcements that were delivered in both English and Spanish. He honed those views over several years in Washington working as a press aide to Sen. Jeff Sessions, an immigration hard-liner who is now the attorney general. In 2016, Miller began serving as a warm-up act for the president at his rallies, supplying a hypercharged, more polished version of Trumps immigration talk. Youve seen what it does to living standards, youve seen what it does to wages, you see what it does in terms of transnational cartels, Miller warned at a rally in Texas in June 2016. You have seen the heartbreak, you have seen the heartache, you have seen the needless death. Everybody everybody who is trying to stop Donald J. Trump wants that border to be wide open, he boomed, later asking, When did we forget that a country exists to serve its own citizens? A few days later, in Las Vegas, Miller asked the crowd, How does it help America or lift up America or support America to bring anyone into this country who rejects our values, rejects our way of living? Once inside the administration, Miller drew notice for declaring on a Sunday morning television program, after he and Steve Bannon, then chief strategist in the White House, had pushed through a travel ban targeting Muslim countries, that the presidents powers will not be questioned. To be sure, Miller is not the only person around Trump who has seen the immigration debate as having political value. With Trumps grip on his party tightening in the past year, he has pulled many Republicans toward his and Millers views on policies they might not have supported before, such as reductions to legal immigration. Other advisers saw the issue gaining traction beyond the Republican base in the years before the 2016 election, particularly in relation to the economy. A 2014 polling memo from Kellyanne Conway, now the counselor to the president, took note that deportations of unaccompanied children crossing the border had seized national attention. The time appears ripe for a national immigration conversation. There is a new open-mindedness to populist approaches, regardless of partisan or ideological preferences, Conway wrote in the memo, which was issued during a midterm cycle in which the immigration debate added to Democratic losses in the Senate. At a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in October 2016, Miller delivered a populist message of his own, taking aim at the elites who he said were making policy in Washington. Miller, who now lives in a sleek condominium building sheathed in glass in a trendy area of Washington, said people had no idea how corrupt the system was. They look down from their glass-windowed condominiums at all of you, he said. As bad as you think it is, it is so much worse. Thousands of Sri Lankans marched Monday in support of a new government led by the countrys former strongman, highlighting the political polarization in the Indian Ocean island nation. The rally near Parliament comes amid a constitutional crisis sparked by President Maithripala Sirisenas move to oust Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, replace him with ex-leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and suspend Parliament. Wickremesinghe has refused to vacate his official residence, insisting he is the lawful prime minister and that the president had no constitutional right to replace him. Thousands of his supporters have been keeping vigil. Supporters of Rajapaksa at the rally chanted Whose power is this? Mahindas power! As patriotic songs blared over loudspeakers, thousand shuffled through heavy rain toward a makeshift stage. Police and Sri Lankan special forces with semi-automatic rifles stood guard. Pradeep Kariyawasam, the head of Rajapaksas party in Colombo, said that although Wickremesinghe continued to maintain that he was the countrys legitimate leader, the people are with us. Give people a chance to choose their government and not hide behind constitutional interpretations, he said. Sirisena and Rajapaksa arrived at the rally amid loud cheers. Sirisena told the crowd that the change he initiated was more than a shift of people. I ousted a vision that is incompatible with our local culture and values, and that works according to foreign agendas, Sirisena said. For the past 3 years, poor people were suppressed by Ranil Wickremesinghes economic and political vision. Local thoughts were rejected and an extreme neo-liberal form of governance was carried out. He was referring to Wickremesinghes free-market economic policies and plans to set up partnerships with foreign countries to operate strategic centers such as ports and airports. Critics say the suspension of Parliament was meant to give Rajapaksa time to gather enough support to survive a no-confidence vote when lawmakers reconvene Nov. 14. Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said on Monday that he wont recognize the new appointments until either side is able to prove it has a majority. It means that the speaker still recognizes a Wickremesinghe-led Parliament. I wish to emphasize that I am compelled to accept the status that existed previously until such time that they (the pro-Wickremesinghe lawmakers) and the new political alliance prove their majority in Parliament, he said. The statement angered Rajapaksas camp and lawmaker Susil Premjayantha told the rally that electing a new speaker could be the first order of business when Parliament reopens, suggesting they could bring a no-confidence motion against Jayasuriya. Wickremesinghe said in an interview with The Associated Press last week that there is credible evidence that Rajapaksas party is attempting to buy support in Parliament. Palitha Range Bandara, a United National Party lawmaker, has said that he was offered millions of dollars and a minister portfolio if he crossed over. Lawmakers from Rajapaksas party have denied the allegations. Seven members of Wickremesinghes United National Front have defected to Rajapaksas government. On Saturday, the Tamil National Alliance an ethnic minority Tamil party said it will support a no-confidence motion to be brought against Rajapaksa, after one lawmaker from their party joined Rajapaksas government. The Tamil partys 15 votes could give Wickremesinghes camp a decisive edge over Rajapaksa. Both Sirisena and Rajapaksa attempted to woo Tamil lawmakers in their speeches at the rally. Speaking in the Tamil language, Rajapaksa promised to fulfill the Tamil peoples needs. What I ask from all Tamil and (Tamil-speaking) Muslim people and their political parties is to help to build up our country. I trust you and you can always trust me, Rajapaksa said. Among the crowd Monday was Basil Ros, 58, a fisherman from the village of Negombo. Ros said a local lawmaker from Rajapaksas United Peoples Freedom Alliance bused him and his wife in with many others, pledging to give them 1,000 rupees (about $5.80), food and alcohol. He said he hadnt received any money yet. You cant trust politicians, he said. They might pay; they might not. After sacking Wickremesinghe, Sirisena announced that he made the replacement in part because Wickremesinghe and a Cabinet colleague were behind an alleged assassination plot against him. Details of the alleged plot have not been disclosed and Wickremesinghe has repeatedly denied the accusation. Tensions had been building between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe for some time, as the president did not approve of economic reforms introduced by the Prime Minister. Sirisena was also critical of investigations into military personnel accused of human rights violations during Sri Lankas long civil war, which ended in 2009. Rajapaksa is seen as a hero by the ethnic Sinhalese majority for ending the conflict. The US has announced that India is among eight countries granted temporary allotments from sanctions targeting Irans crude oil exports that went into effect on Monday. Irans Chabahar port, which India has helped develop and operates as a gateway to Afghanistan and Central Asia, was also apparently exempted as it didnt figure in a comprehensive list of sanctioned individuals and entities released by the US treasury department. People involved in negotiations said a waiver for Chabahar was part of the arrangement. A response to a request for clarity was awaited from the administration. Announcing the sanctions, secretary of state Mike Pompeo warned: I promise you that doing business with Iran in defiance of our sanctions will ultimately be a much more painful business decision than pulling out of Iran andbeing connected to Iran entirely. He added, It should be noted that if a company evades our sanctions regime and secretly continues sanctionable commerce in the Islamic Republic, the US will levy severe, swift penalties on it, including potential sanctions. US officials indicated on Friday that India would be among the eight countries that were granted the Significant Reduction Exemptions (SREs) under the second and final round of sanctions that target Irans shipping and financial sectors. The others exempted from sanctions are China, Italy, Greece, South Korea, Japan, Turkey and Taiwan. Pompeo said each of the eight countries has demonstrated significant reductions in crude imports from Iran and the temporary allotments were granted in view of specific circumstances and to ensure a well-supplied oil market. We continue negotiations to get all nations to zero, he said. In an interview on Sunday, Pompeo hadnt answered a question on whether the US had a firm commitment from India and China that they would stop all Iranian crude purchases in six months. Watch what we do, he had said. The US announced sanctions against more than 700 individuals, entities, aircraft, and vessels. Over 300 of those sanctions are new targets, said treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin, who accompanied Pompeo at the announcement. He said hundreds of previously sanctioned individuals and entities that were granted relief under the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 were being re-listed. The US has previously said these temporary exemptions are being granted only against evidence that countries have already significantly cut Iranian crude imports and to help them go to zero for as long as US sanctions are in force. Pompeo said 20 countries had completely stopped buying Iranian crude and two eight given waivers on Monday had ended imports as well. China and India are the two top buyers of Iranian crude. New Delhi sought an exemption in view of the large volumes it imports, saying it needs time to switch to alternate sources, a process with which Washington has said it helped India and others to keep oil prices under control. India also sought an exemption for Chabahar port, arguing it is being used to help in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, a key element of President Donald Trumps South Asia policy. Since the ports inauguration in 2017, India has shipped roughly 110,000 tonnes of wheat and 2,000 tonnes of pulses to Afghanistan. Monday marked the full snap-back of sanctions lifted after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that Trump had opposed and called the worst deal in history. He pulled the US out of it in May, disregarding personal appeals from allies such as France and the UK. The US has announced 12 demands for lifting the sanctions, including an end to Irans nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes and an end of malign activities in West Asia, which the Trump administration has described as support for terror. The first round of sanctions went into effect in August, targeting Irans exports of gold, precious metals, steel, aluminum, pistachios and caviar and the automotive sector. The second round targets Irans key foreign exchange earners crude, shipping and the financial system. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has said the Trump administration is committed to reducing Iranian crude imports by its major buyers China and India to zero and warned ominously, but without specifics, watch what we do. The second, and final round of, US sanctions go into effect on Monday, specifically targeting Irans crude oil exports, shipping and ports and the financial system. Eight countries, described as jurisdictions, will be granted a temporary exemption as they reduce their orders, Pompeo had announced last Friday without identifying them. India and China are among them, according to officials, but an announcement is expected on Monday. Watch what we do, Pompeo said in an interview to Fox News in response to a direct question if the United States has a firm commitment from China and India that they will reduce their intake to zero in six months, the duration of the exemption. Watch as we have already taken more crude oil off the market than any time in the previous history, he added, referring to the one million barrel reduction in Iranian oil exports already. Watch the efforts that President Trumps policies have achieved. He added that the march to zero continues. The secretary of state dismissed suggestions from experts, cited by the Fox New interviewer, that India and China will never stop buying oil from Iran. There are a lot of experts that said President Trumps policy wouldnt have any impact because it was just the United States and other countries werent participating, Pompeo said. I am very confident that the sanctions that will be reimposed this Monday will have the intended effect to alter the Iranian regimes behaviour. Thats our expectation, he added. In another interview that also aired on Sunday, this one to CBS News, Pompeo made clear that secondary sanctions for violating the Iran curbs will apply only to specific entities and not their countries. Thats right, he said to a question if the US actions will apply to companies that do business with Iran and not countries. These sanctions apply to those who conduct sanctionable transactions. The treasury has a set of sanctions, the state department has its own set of sanctions, and those will all come back into place on Monday. Sri Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuriya Monday slammed President Maithripala Sirisenas unconstitutional and undemocratic actions to sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and suspend Parliament, saying he will not recognise Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new premier unless he wins a floor test. The tough statement from Jayasuriya came after Sirisena announced on Sunday that parliament would reconvene on November 14, a week later than he had promised. The Speaker said Sirisena had gone back on previous commitments to recall parliament on November 7. In the statement released on Monday, Jayasuriya said 116 Members of Parliament have submitted a petition to him stating that the changes made in Parliament recently by President Sirisena are unconstitutional and undemocratic. Their call for Parliament to be summoned immediately was also extremely reasonable, he said. In the name of justice and fair play I have to declare my position to the world that when a majority has pointed out that rights of the MPs have been usurped by preventing the lawful convening of Parliament, Jayasuriya said. A majority in parliament has requested that all changes made have been unconstitutional and against the traditions. They have urged me to recognise the status quo which prevailed prior to these changes. As such I have to recognise the status quo which prevailed before until the new party would be able to prove their majority, Jayasuriya said, making it clear that he wants a parliamentary floor test. As a result, Rajapaksa will not be given the Prime Minister seat in Parliament as the current government members will need to sit in the opposition seats, reports said. Sirisena suspended parliamentary proceedings until November 16 after abruptly firing Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and replacing him with Rajapaksa, a controversial former president, on October 26. The Speaker had expected parliament to reconvene on November 7. However, Sirisena Sunday issued notice to reconvene Parliament on November 14. Jayasuriya said he had made several requests for Parliament to be reconvened early in order to resolve the political crisis. The civil society organisations have demanded that Jayasuriya re-summon parliament on his own. Jayasuriya, however, refused to do so saying he was powerless unless the president consented. The decision announced last night by President Sirisena to summon the Parliament two days ahead of its scheduled opening wont lead to resolving of the constitutional crisis, ousted prime minister Wickremsinghes United National Party (UNP) senior Vajira Abeywardena said on Monday. We cant treat November 14 as the date on which we can settle this issue. The law has been violated. They have delayed the date for reconvening parliament so that they could buy over MPs. The public must protest the way the MPs are being brought for money, Abeywardena said. Wickremsinghes UNP on Monday said Sirisenas decision to summon parliament on November 14 will not lead to the resolving of the constitutional crisis. Analysts say Sirisenas move to suspend parliament to engineer defections from the UNP and its allies appears to have succeeded. New prime minister Rajapaksas parliamentary strength has now been bolstered to 105 from 96 when the crisis began. The UNP has lost eight of its legislators while one member from the main Tamil party TNA has defected. Rajapaksa needs 113 to prove his majority in the 225-member House. Wickremesinghe who branded Sirisenas October 26 action to sack him a constitutional coup maintains that he holds majority. The UNP has handed over a motion of no trust against Rajapaksa. Meanwhile, both parties organised public protests on Monday. Thousands of supporters of Rajapaksa headed for the capital to rally in support of his nomination as the prime minister. The political crisis in Sri Lanka began after Sirisenas broader front United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) announced that it has decided to quit the unity government with Wickremesinghes UNP. The unity government was formed in 2015 when Sirisena was elected President with Wickremesinghes support, ending a nearly decade-long rule by Rajapaksa. Now Open 5 November 2018 The All Suites brands by Hilton (NYSE: HLT), consisting of Embassy Suites by Hilton, Homewood Suites by Hilton and Home2 Suites by Hilton, today announced a major milestone: the opening of the innovative brand category's 1,000th property, Homewood Suites by Hilton Pleasant Hill Concord. This accomplishment arrives in anticipation of Hilton's 100th anniversary and showcases the All Suites brands' contributions to spreading the warmth and light of hospitality to travelers around the globe. With a collective 588 properties in the pipeline, the All Suites brands are poised for continued rapid growth throughout North America, the Caribbean, Mexico and South America. In the All Suites portfolio, Homewood Suites by Hilton leads the way with more than 470 properties currently open. Embassy Suites by Hilton currently boasts 251 locations, featuring full-service, upscale two-room suite accommodations and inviting atriums where guests can socialize while enjoying complimentary made-to-order breakfast and a nightly Evening Reception. The young but rapidly growing Home2 Suites by Hilton offers modern, stylish and environmentally-friendly extended stay accommodations for cost-conscious travelers at more than 255 properties, where everything from the in-suite furniture to complimentary breakfast can be highly customized to guests' unique tastes and preferences. Designed for guests who want to travel on their own terms, Homewood Suites by Hilton Pleasant Hill Concord offers guests all the comforts of home in its 115 suites, whether they are traveling for work or enjoying a well-earned getaway. Developed, owned and managed by WRSJG, LLC., Homewood Suites by Hilton Pleasant Hill Concord offers a combination of studio and one-bedroom accommodations, featuring fully-equipped kitchens, and separate living and sleeping areas. Guests are also provided all the essentials needed for a smart, reliable and convenient stay, including complimentary daily full hot breakfast, evening social Monday-Thursday, Wi-Fi and a grocery shopping service*. Homewood Suites by Hilton Pleasant Hill Concord makes it easy for travelers to unwind with an outdoor pool area, an outdoor patio, BBQ pits, a fitness center and a spacious lobby lounge. The property also offers flexible space that is ideal for meetings and social events of up to 50 guests. Located at 650 Ellinwood Way, Homewood Suites by Hilton Pleasant Hill Concord offers guests convenient access to the Bay Area's main freeways. The property is just a short drive from major cities, including San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Napa Valley. Homewood Suites by Hilton Pleasant Hill Concord participates in Hilton's award-winning customer loyalty program, Hilton Honors. Hilton Honors members who book directly through preferred Hilton channels have access to instant benefits, including a flexible payment slider that allows members to choose nearly any combination of Points and money to book a stay, an exclusive member discount, free standard Wi-Fi, as well as digital amenities that are available exclusively through the industry-leading Hilton Honors app, where Honors members can check-in, choose their room, and access their room using a Digital Key. Now Open 5 November 2018 Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced today the official opening of Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi, turning the iconic 'Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi' into the first Andaz branded hotel in the Middle East. Represented across the globe in destinations including London, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai, Hyatt's luxury lifestyle brand celebrates distinctively local culture and delivers an elevated experience that awakens the senses. Aligned with the brand ethos of authentically bringing the local neighborhood to life, Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi offers inspiring experiences, helping guests immerse themselves in their surroundings and feel like a local from the moment they arrive. Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi occupies floors 18 to 33 within the iconic Capital Gate building and is the world's furthest leaning hotel at an impressive 18-degree incline. Synonymous with the brand's intention to immerse guests in the local culture, the property takes guests on a journey through the United Arab Emirates' unique identity. Design elements are multi-layered and span various textures and techniques in order to represent both the country's modest beginnings and traditional elements, as well as the current ultra modern facade of the city. At each touchpoint, guests can discover the stories of four cultural symbols appreciated by locals for generations, chosen for the power and respect they command within Emirati culture. These symbols include 'Mashrabiya', intricate wooden window adornments; 'Khatt', poetic Islamic calligraphy; 'Al Sadu', traditionally woven fabrics; and iconic Date Palms motifs. ARTISTIC APPEAL Upon entering Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi, guests are greeted by an array of creative, thought-provoking masterpieces crafted by skilled local artists to introduce them to the local culture. The ground floor serves as a permanent art space for guests to explore throughout their stay, and within each guestroom features its own individual artwork to familiarize them with the region. GUEST EXPERIENCE All aspects of the 189 contemporary, luxurious guestrooms and suites have been designed for today's traveler and exude a sense of warm Arabian hospitality. Floor to ceiling glass paneled windows offer sweeping views of the city, and each guestroom is outfitted with specially curated amenities such as the hotel's bespoke Andaz Loungewear created by award winning locally-based designer Essa Walla. Walla was commissioned to develop an exclusive line of bold and colorful loungewear pieces intended to evoke Arabian flair. Guests can wear these pieces on property and have the option to purchase them as a memento from their visit. The sense of creativity and local influence celebrated by the Andaz brand extends to each of the dining outlets situated within the property. The restaurant, 18 Degrees, offers diners the chance to savor delicacies from across the Mediterranean, using fresh, local produce. Additionally, The Lounge offers a more casual environment designed for both hotel guests and local residents alike with a menu of small, flavorful bites and refreshing beverages. To inspire guests to explore like a local, elements of the city are woven into the property's Rayana Spa. Located on the 19th floor with expansive views of the vibrant city, the spa offers a rejuvenating array of treatments and amenities, including a suspended outdoor pool, whirlpool and fitness center. As guests relax poolside, they can enjoy a freshly prepared beverage and a healthy snack from the Pool Bar. Appointment 5 November 2018 Hyatt Regency Lake Washington, a 347-room, 12-story waterfront hotel at Seattle's Southport, proudly announces the appointment of Pina Purpero, as the new General Manager of Hyatt Regency Lake Washington, Pina Purpero is responsible for all hotel operations, overseeing the hotel's management team, and delivering an excellent guest experience. Purpero joins Hyatt Regency Lake Washington from her most recent role as General Manager of Hyatt at the Bellevue in Philadelphia, where she oversaw a multi-million-dollar property renovation. A hospitality and Hyatt veteran, Purpero began her career with Hyatt Hotels Corporation over 20 years ago at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale and has been a key team member at eight different Hyatt Hotels across the country, leading renovations and launching new concepts for a variety of food & beverage outlets as well as overseeing operations for multiple dining venues and extensive banquet space. Appointment 5 November 2018 Hyatt Regency Lake Washington, a 347-room, 12-story waterfront hotel at Seattle's Southport, proudly announces the appointment of Jennifer Grosclaude as Director of Sales, Marketing and Events. Previously, Jennifer Grosclaude was the Director of Events at Hyatt Regency Lake Washington. This combined role includes the responsibilities of developing, facilitating and overseeing the sales team, managing existing client relationships while generating new business, and overseeing all events operations, including corporate meetings and weddings. With more than 20 years in customer-facing service and planning roles, over 15 of those have been dedicated to Grosclaude's career with Hyatt Hotels. Prior to coming to Hyatt Regency Lake Washington, Grosclaude contributed to the success of Hyatt Regency Calgary, serving from June 2012 to October 2016 as its Director of Events. Past professional credits include Associate Director of Catering and Convention Services for Hyatt Regency Bellevue, and ascending roles in events, including the Hyatt Regency Resort Lost Pines and Spa and the Grand Hyatt Seattle, where she started in 2003. Appointment 5 November 2018 Melia Hotels International, Spain's leading hotel company, is excited to announce the appointment of Mauricio Patino as the new General Manager of its INNSIDE by Melia New York hotel. Mauricio, a celebrated hospitality professional with over 28 years of industry experience, most recently served as the Complex General Manager of Highgate Hotels, where he oversaw two properties in the Boston area. Mauricio brings great knowledge of the US market, having started his career in 1990 with Hilton Hotels Corporation in New York City in which he held several Food and Beverage leadership positions. In 2005, he was promoted to the Assistant General Manager of Doubletree Guest Suites by Hilton. In 2007, Mauricio assumed his first role as General Manager at Hilton Newark Penn Station in Newark, New Jersey. He maintained his position of General Manager at varying Hilton, Marriott and IHG locations, using his expertise to lead these properties in New York City, Westchester, Miami Beach and Boston. With his familiarity in the market having led several hotels in NYC including the Hilton Fashion District, Mauricio is poised to help with the localization of INNSIDE by Melia New York. In his new position, Mauricio will oversee all aspects of property management, ensuring excellence in all operational and strategic initiatives as well as leadership team development. Mauricio plans to use his skill set to proactively spearhead operational improvements to drive hotel growth. Launched in March 2016, INNSIDE by Melia New York is a North American flagship property for the brand. The hotel features 313 spacious and modern guestrooms, including eight suites, with three offering spacious terraces and views of the Midtown skyline, that cater to both savvy business travelers and leisure guests. With a prime central location in the heart of the city, the hotel delivers smart and efficient service, contemporary design and exceptional technology to guests. Supplier News 5 November 2018 London, 5 November 2018 - Fornova, a leading provider of distribution intelligence and automation solutions for hotels, have released their 2nd edition of Worldwide Distribution Trends for Meta Search Engines, for Q3 2018. The report analyses and highlights key trends that are impacting hotels on Meta Search Engines, and a new battle brewing between contracted and non-contracted OTAs. In November 2017, Phocuswright reported nearly a one-third increase in travellers in United States using MSEs to find flights and hotels online compared to 2016. MSEs have lowered the barrier-to-entry for many small and regional OTAs. Many such OTAs will source inventory indirectly - typically from wholesalers. We refer to such OTAs as non-contracted OTAs. The key findings in the report revealed that hotels' contracted OTAs were undercut by non-contracted OTAs on Meta Search Engines in nearly one in five shops. This is worse for hotels in Asia-Pacific in Europe, where non-contracted OTAs presented cheaper rates than hotels' contracted partners in nearly 25% of all shops - indicating a different battle brewing in MSEs beyond just the battle for direct bookings. Dori Stein, CEO at Fornova, said, "Meta Search Engines have long been viewed as the battleground for direct bookings and our Q3 analysis reveals a new story." He continued, "Hotels can no longer ignore MSEs, even if they are not participating directly. When their contracted OTAs are being undercut by other non-contracted OTAs, it can deeply impact the hotels partner relations and yield from that channel." India Point of Sale (PoS) reported the worst performance for contracted OTAs, who were being undercut by non-contracted OTAs in nearly every other shop. The full report provides breakdown by key PoS as well as how hotels based in different regions compared during Q3. "Most leading OTAs are regularly monitoring activity on Meta Search Engines. When they find that they are not getting the best rates, it means they are not able to deliver the best value to their audience, and they take this very seriously." said Nir Dupler, Chief Revenue Officer at Fornova, "MSE is critical for hotels pursuing direct bookings. But now we can see that hotels can not ignore MSE even if they choose a partner-led strategy. It is critical to monitor and ensure that all partners - contracted OTAs and wholesalers - are acting in good faith to ensure their distribution remains aligned with their strategy." In both Q2 and Q3 2018, hotels based in North America consistently outperformed in all areas compared to hotels based in other regions. The Q3 report is based on data gathered from monitoring 20,000 properties worldwide and 30 million shops performed on five leading MSEs. The detailed report which contains trends, analysis of contracted and uncontracted OTAs including PoS highlights and breakdown by region is available from Fornova as a free download. Press Release 5 November 2018 After 15 exciting and exhilarating days riding through 68 cities across mainland China and Hong Kong, Ride for Hope 3 has finally reached its final destination. A closing ceremony was held at Pudong Shangri-La Hotel, East Shanghai to celebrate the riders' safe and successful journeys and to present the cheque to the beneficiary - China's Ai You Foundation. Through the generous support of all partners and participants, sponsors and media, 5,689,029.49 CNY was raised. This money will go to help at least 150 orphaned and financially disadvantaged children with developmental dislocation diseases. Ride for Hope 3 is a community outreach project organised by Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts to help raise more awareness and funds for children with hip disabilities under the Ai You Foundation's Morning Star Project. The logistics and preparation for the event took several months of work and involved over 1,000 staff from 30 Shangri-La hotels to colleagues from its regional and corporate offices in the planning. Collectively 32 core riders, over 5,000 local riders participated in the ride and clocked 5,000 kilometres across 68 cities along four different routes. Ride for Hope 3 programme reinforces Shangri-La's core CSR values of operating a responsible business to help enhance the lives of surrounding communities. Ride for Hope 3 is organised by Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts. The event is sponsored by Perfect China Group Co., Limited. As the major sponsor, Perfect China is committed to strengthening its support to sustainability and public health by contributing to meaningful causes. Ai You Foundation is a 5A-level foundation registered in China and is engaged in child health care, child welfare and venture philanthropy.Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, one of the world's premier hotel owners and operators, currently manages over 100 hotels globally in 76 destinations under the Shangri-La, Kerry, Hotel Jen and Traders brands. Prominently positioned in Asia, the group has established its hallmark of "hospitality from the heart" over four decades in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe, North America and the Indian Ocean. The group has a substantial development pipeline with upcoming projects in Australia, Bahrain, mainland China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. For more information, please visit www.shangri-la.com. Supplier News 5 November 2018 Pegasus Solutions is pleased to announce that AMERON Hotels has signed a multi-year agreement for a variety of products including the Pegasus Reservations Platform, Pegasus Connect, and Utell Voice Services. AMERON Hotels are part of the Althoff Hotel Collection whose founder and owner is Mr. Thomas H. Althoff. The family-owned company runs a collection of 5-Star and 4-Star hotels and is well positioned for growth. Their expansion plans include increasing the 7 hotel portfolio to eleven properties over the next 2 years and the addition of a new brand, Urban Loft. Angelika Viebahn, AMERON's Director of Revenue and Distribution, is looking forward to implementing Pegasus' software solutions so she can manage all distribution channels in one place, using Pegasus Connect. AMERON will also benefit from Pegasus strong corporate and consortia sales capabilities to increase business and leisure travel. Visitors have come to expect elegance mixed with comfort in each of AMERON's unique hotels or 'homes' in Germany and Switzerland for the past 10 years. "[Pegasus] is the right solution to help us achieve our business goals," says Mrs. Viebahn, who has been with AMERON for eight years. Pegasus is a leading global technology provider empowering independent hotels, hotel groups and chains to grow their businesses in a digital world. The company provides a comprehensive offering of cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) systems and services that are designed to help hoteliers connect with their guests, increase profitability and maximize productivity. Find out more at www.pegasus.io. The brand AMERON is part of Althoff Hotels managed by Thomas H. Althoff, the founder of the company. The seven 4 star Hotels in Germany and Switzerland combine a common understanding of quality, brilliant location, first class architecture and internal design, which is stylish and cozy alike, however each hotel has its own character in agreement with the motto "A World of Many Worlds". The hotels are located in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Bonn as well as in Lucerne and Davos. As part of the expansion a new resort will be opened in February 2019 at the foot of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castle and in spring 2019 a boutique hotel will be opened in the finance metropolis Frankfurt. Beginning 2020 a themed hotel will follow in the new MOTORWORLD Munich. For more information please visit www.ameronhotels.com. Opinion Article 5 November 2018 Industries across the globe are witnessing the consumer transition into what we like to call the experience economy. Perhaps influenced by the impressive buying power and sheer numbers of the millennial generation, modern consumers are showing a definitive preference for experiential purchasing over material goods. As the Harvard Business Review describes it "within an experience economy, a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event." This puts the travel and hospitality industry, specifically, in an exciting position to maximize influence and guest connections. It's not necessarily about B2B or B2C anymore, or even the best 'deal' on paper it's about the creation of value, and a company's ability to demonstrate that they share values and beliefs with their target consumer. This becomes especially evident as we embrace the consumer-generated push for sustainable commerce and, even more-so, sustainable travel and eco-friendly hospitality. This past year, it found that 84% of Canadian travelers have a desire to go green on future vacations and then two-thirds (64%) said they intend to stay in an eco-accommodation in 2018, which is an increase from both 2017 and 2016. Even further, 58% of Canadians said they would pay at least five per cent more on their travel to ensure it had a lighter environmental footprint. This allows them to feel good about the accommodation they've selected, while also engaging in locally relevant experiences. Millennials are also noted as being twice as likely to support brands with strong management of environmental and social issues and expect brands to not only manage their impact but communicate it. Still not convinced? Studies show that 43 million U.S. travelers are "ecologically concerned" and 70% of travelers prefer hotels with sustainability credentials With this in mind, popular destinations around the globe are looking for ways to limit the environmental footprint/impact that tourists may have on the surrounding environment, heritage sites and local populations. Further, hotel properties within those destinations are striving to reach a new standard of sustainability across each touchpoint of the guest experience. We've rounded up some of our favorites: 1. QO Amsterdam QO is a one-of-a-kind, living hotel property positioned alongside the Amstel River in Amsterdam. QO believes that travel should be a pleasure, but one which is still committed to the world around us. With this core value intact, QO has found a way to weave luxury with sustainability throughout their lifestyle destination seamlessly. Each aspect of the QO has been designed to significantly reduce environmental impact, including intelligent windows, a rooftop greenhouse and so much more. From an aesthetic perspective, every element of the property has been deliberately chosen to celebrate and respect the planet's resources and every space has been designed to bring the outside in. 2. 1 Hotels 1 Hotels has been making a name for itself as a sustainable luxury hotel destination. 1 Hotels aims to create a one-of-a-kind experience, naturally, every stay. Each hotel property (located in NYC, Brooklyn, and Miami) is thoughtfully designed with reclaimed wood, natural light, hemp mattresses and live green moments. They believe that the future of the world and the future of hospitality are one in the same and can be a catalyst for change. With this in mind, 1 Hotels aspires to be a platform to spark conversations, between innovators and guests, that transform the industry and our lives. 3. Proximity Hotel Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, North Carolina takes sustainability seriously, with more than 70 sustainable practices in place throughout its 146-room property. Their LEED platinum-rated location has 100 solar panels on the roof, an elevator that re-generates power and geothermal energy for the refrigerators just to name a few eco-friendly features. Rooms and suites are described as loft-style with floor-to-ceiling windows, soaking tubs, in-room dining, filtered air systems and artwork from a local artist. They even include free bike rentals to inspire eco-friendly transport during guests' stay. 4. ARIA Resort and Casino Las Vegas might not be the first destination to come to mind when considering sustainable hospitality, but ARIA Resort and Casino has deemed it possible to maintain the Las Vegas experience in a more eco-friendly manner. The 4,004-room Aria Resort and Casino is the largest building in the world to have a LEED gold status, while also offering the first fleet of natural-gas-powered stretch limos. 5. Accor Hotel The Accor Hotel family recently launched its Accor's Planet 21 program, which demonstrates the group's ambitious goals for 2020, based around four strategic priorities: work with its employees, involve its customers, innovate with its partners and work with local communities. Each Accor property prides itself in the implementation of eco-certified products and design, sustainably sourced food and programs in place to combat food waste. In the past, it was assumed that if it's sustainable, it can't be luxurious but these noteworthy, eco-savvy hotels (to name a few) are turning that misconception on its head by marrying eco-friendly sustainability practices with modern luxury. So what do you say, are you ready to join the luxury sustainability trend? Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi Opens Doors in the Middle East Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced today the official opening of Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi, turning the iconic Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi into the first Andaz branded hotel in the Middle East. As we weave in the sights, sounds and tastes of the local Abu Dhabi culture, the opening of Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi marks a significant milestone for Hyatt, reinforcing its standing with visitors and residents of the city, said Stuart Deeson, hotel general manager and area vice president for Hyatt Abu Dhabi, Egypt and Jordan. The citys abundant history and culture is reflected throughout the property, most notably in its artistic representation. Exemplified through thoughtful design and the addition of a permanent art collection, the property celebrates the spirit and culture of the United Arab Emirates. Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi occupies floors 18 to 33 within the iconic Capital Gate building and is the worlds furthest leaning hotel at an impressive 18-degree incline. Synonymous with the brands intention to immerse guests in the local culture, the property takes guests on a journey through the United Arab Emirates unique identity. Design elements are multi-layered and span various textures and techniques in order to represent both the countrys modest beginnings and traditional elements, as well as the current ultra modern facade of the city. At each touchpoint, guests can discover the stories of four cultural symbols appreciated by locals for generations, chosen for the power and respect they command within Emirati culture. These symbols include Mashrabiya, intricate wooden window adornments; Khatt, poetic Islamic calligraphy; Al Sadu, traditionally woven fabrics; and iconic Date Palms motifs. Upon entering Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi, guests are greeted by an array of creative, thought-provoking masterpieces crafted by skilled local artists to introduce them to the local culture. The ground floor serves as a permanent art space for guests to explore throughout their stay, and within each guestroom features its own individual artwork to familiarize them with the region. All aspects of the 189 contemporary, luxurious guestrooms and suites have been designed for todays traveler and exude a sense of warm Arabian hospitality. Floor to ceiling glass paneled windows offer sweeping views of the city, and each guestroom is outfitted with specially curated amenities such as the hotels bespoke Andaz Loungewear created by award winning locally-based designer Essa Walla. Walla was commissioned to develop an exclusive line of bold and colorful loungewear pieces intended to evoke Arabian flair. Guests can wear these pieces on property and have the option to purchase them as a memento from their visit. The sense of creativity and local influence celebrated by the Andaz brand extends to each of the dining outlets situated within the property. The restaurant, 18 Degrees, offers diners the chance to savor delicacies from across the Mediterranean, using fresh, local produce. Additionally, The Lounge offers a more casual environment designed for both hotel guests and local residents alike with a menu of small, flavorful bites and refreshing beverages. To inspire guests to explore like a local, elements of the city are woven into the propertys Rayana Spa. Located on the 19th floor with expansive views of the vibrant city, the spa offers a rejuvenating array of treatments and amenities, including a suspended outdoor pool, whirlpool and fitness center. As guests relax poolside, they can enjoy a freshly prepared beverage and a healthy snack from the Pool Bar. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Park Inn by Radisson announced the opening of a 166-room hotel in Poznan, Poland. Park Inn by Radisson announced the opening of a 166-room hotel in Poznan, Poland. This brings the group's Polish portfolio to 16 hotels and more than 3,500 rooms in operation or under development. Radisson Hotel Group's international brands are represented in almost all key cities of Poland including Warsaw, Krakow, Katowice, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Szczecin, Swinoujscie, and now also in Poznan. Poznan is Poland's fifth-largest city, and a lively destination bursting with culture, architecture and life. It's also growing in popularity as a place to enjoy city breaks. According to the Poznan Statistical Office, the Greater Poland Province of which Poznan is the capital has seen an increase of up to 25% in overnight stays over the last three years. One of the few cities to retain buildings from different historical eras, Poznan presents a unique opportunity to explore Central European heritage. Yilmaz Yildirimlar, Area Senior Vice President, Central & Southern Europe, Radisson Hotel Group, said: "We're pleased to add a new Park Inn by Radisson hotel to Poland, where our brand awareness and portfolio are growing rapidly. Poznan is a key secondary city for our growth strategy in the region. Park Inn by Radisson is designed to offer an ideal base for travelers wishing to explore one of Poland's largest, oldest and most prosperous cities, which is also a rising economic hub." Hanan Mor, Chairman of the Hanan Mor Group, owner of the property, said: "Our partnership with Radisson Hotel Group is a great honor and a clear demonstration of our core values: professionalism, outstanding service orientation and commitment to a customer-first culture. I'm proud to be involved in this exclusive new hotel in Poznan with one of the leading hotels groups of the world, and thank Radisson Hotel Group for their exceptional support and cooperation." Park Inn by Radisson Poznan has 166 rooms (all featuring free wireless high-speed Internet), an all-day restaurant and lobby bar, parking spaces and a fully equipped gym. Five modern meeting rooms offer flexibility for small creative sessions or a larger event for up to 70 delegates. Situated in the heart of the city, the Park Inn by Radisson Poznan is located along Garbary Street near the Old Town. The nearby Renaissance town hall, charming side streets, historic market square, and other sights create a unique atmosphere for our guests, who just need to step out the hotel to explore this beautiful city. The hotel is easy to access by car, public transport and on foot. awica Airport is located only 7km away. Roman Riedel, General Manager of the Park Inn by Radisson Poznan, said: "Poznan is an important business and cultural hub with a strong academic heritage. Our lively Park Inn by Radisson Poznan team is looking forward to welcoming all our guests and delivering an outstanding experience." The Park Inn by Radisson Poznan will be operated by Radisson Hospitality AB under an international management agreement. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Does social media impact where and how you travel? From looking to favourite social media influencers for genuine travel inspiration, to considering making a career out of travel itself and sometimes falling into the pressures of having a compelling online presence, it seems that travel and social media work hand in hand. Does social media impact where and how you travel? From looking to favourite social media influencers for genuine travel inspiration, to considering making a career out of travel itself and sometimes falling into the pressures of having a compelling online presence, it seems that travel and social media work hand in hand. Booking.com surveyed 21,500 travellers across 29 countries to find out just how social media will continue to change the way we travel in 2019. Past time or full-time For most, the odd check-in, beach selfie or family snap upload is enough of a social media fix, but for many who dream of travelling the world as a social media influencer, its not. 10% of Canadian travellers admit that its an ambition of theirs to use travel to launch a social media career. 17% see travel as a potential opportunity to earn a living as an influencer or travel blogger, as opposed to having a traditional, full-time job. Social Stimulus In todays world, travelling with social media at our fingertips is visibly very different to the days before it was so accessible. People no longer rely on guidebooks and oversized paper maps to navigate a new location. Instead they have instant access to real-time information and look for inspiration from real people via social media. 11% of Canadian travellers look at where celebrities stay and try to find accommodation that looks similar. Many go so far as to recreate a pose from one of their favourite celebs or Instagrammers. #Unattainable Instagram The year of 2019 will see an increased focus on travel influencing that is genuine and honest. The most popular social media travel channels will be those creating practical, useable content more so than inaccessible or fake imagery. While travellers want to view content that they feel is real, there are some who fall to the pressures of social media. Many are guilty for having used an older, more flattering photo of themselves on holiday from a previous trip, for the trip they were on, while others will snap a photo of an accommodation pretending they were staying there when in fact they were staying elsewhere. Booking.coms study also found that over one quarter of travellers say that they prefer unique and quirky accommodation (26%) over more traditional places. Two fifths value being unique in their travels, looking to visit a destination that none of their friends have been to (43%). And though all good things must come to an end, some travellers pretend to still be on vacation when in fact, theyre home sweet home. Maybe sometimes living vicariously through our own social media pages beats living in reality? Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Constructed in the mid-1400s by Filippo Calendario, the master architect of the stunning Palazzo Ducale, the Palazzo Dona' Giovannelli is steeped in history, having served as the home of the Duke of Urbino as well as the venue for his son's wedding to Princess Vittoria Farnese. Rosewood Hotels & Resorts has been appointed by Italian real estate company Gruppo Barletta to manage Rosewood Venice, which is set to open in 2020 as the ultra-luxury brand's second property in Italy and eighth in Europe. Located in the heart of the bustling Cannaregio neighborhood, Rosewood Venice will be housed within the magnificent fifteenth century Palazzo Dona' Giovannelli and located near many of the city's most legendary landmarks, including the Strada Nova, Piazza San Marco, Basilica di San Marco, and Palazzo Ducale. Constructed in the mid-1400s by Filippo Calendario, the master architect of the stunning Palazzo Ducale, the Palazzo Dona' Giovannelli is steeped in history, having served as the home of the Duke of Urbino as well as the venue for his son's wedding to Princess Vittoria Farnese. The palazzo has since undergone two renovations, the first in the 1800s by famous architect Gian Battista Meduna and the second in the mid-20th century. Throughout its storied history, the palazzo has been owned by both the Dona' and Giovannelli families and has remained a one-of-a-kind treasure within the heart of Venice. Designed to preserve the building's stunning original detailing and rich heritage while simultaneously incorporating refined and modern amenities, Rosewood Venice will feature approximately 50 guestrooms and suites inspired by the palace's rich history and featuring stunning water views due to its dual canal frontage. The hotel's dramatic main entrance on the Rio di Noale is an incredible gothic feature that provides convenient water access to the first internal courtyard and to the octagonal staircase created by the celebrated architect Gian Battista Meduna, whose other work includes the renovation of the Cathedral of San Marco. The building's main floor, or piano nobile, is richly adorned with breathtaking frescos, stuccos, and coffered ceilings as well as magnificent fireplaces and tapestries. A defining feature of the property are two walled courtyards, a rarity in Venice, which will offer an inviting outdoor space for dining and relaxing. Advertisement Rosewood Venice will feature two signature dining venues, including a charming piano bar. Additionally, the hotel will include the brand's renowned Sense, A Rosewood Spa, a state-of-the-art fitness center, and extensive meetings and events space. "As one of the most romantic cities in Europe, beloved for its breathtaking architecture and beautiful canals, Venice is an ideal location for Rosewood's newest property in our rapidly expanding European portfolio," says Sonia Cheng, chief executive officer of Rosewood Hotel Group. "Celebrated for its integral role in the development of Italian commerce, culture, and arts, Venice is ripe with history and natural beauty. We look forward to providing guests with unrivaled access to its many treasures." "With its exceptional design, history and heritage, Palazzo Dona' Giovannelli is destined to become a landmark destination in Venice," says Paolo Barletta, chief executive officer of the Barletta Group. "This project strengthens once again the appeal of our country as a major hospitality destination. The Barletta Group is extremely proud to undertake this exciting project. Together with a brand representing absolute quality like Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, the Barletta Group is fully aligned with its strategy to develop unique hospitality projects across Italy." "We are delighted," continues Mr. Barletta, "to work together with the Rosewood team, and in particular, with Sonia Cheng, chief executive officer of Rosewood Hotel Group and Radha Arora, president of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, with whom we have established a great affinity of views. Their expertise and experience will take the Italian luxury hospitality experience to a new level of excellence." "The opening of Rosewood Venice will mark a significant moment for the Rosewood brand as we continue to build out a prominent presence in Europe," says Radha Arora, president of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts. "We are excited to bring our Sense of Place philosophy to this landmark property so as to provide new opportunities of exploration not only for affluential explorers visiting from afar, but also for members of the local community who are looking to experience their city in a fresh way." Rosewood Venice will join Rosewood's network of distinctive European properties including Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco in Tuscany, Rosewood London, and Hotel de Crillon, A Rosewood Hotel in Paris. Additional upcoming properties in Europe include Rosewood Edinburgh, Rosewood Vienna, Rosewood Munich, and Rosewood Hotel, Grosvenor Square in London. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource You may be surprised to learn that United States President Donald Trump and television mogul Oprah Winfrey were reportedly once good friends. Their relationship is said to have formed in the mid-1980s just as Oprah's show was in its developmental stages. In fact, during a 1988 appearance on the show, a young Trump expressed presidential aspirations. During a campaign run for Brian Kemp, a Georgia governor hopeful, Tump divulged details about his friendship with Winfrey who has been campaigning for Kemp's opponent, Stacy Abrams. Trump revealed that the dynamic of his relationship with Oprah purportedly changed once he began his bid for the presidency. Once I ran for office she diverged," he said. "[She] has been down to Mar-A-Lago...until I ran for office we did very well. We had a good relationship. I like Oprah. Trump went on to express suspicions that Oprah's team was working very hard to bury a tape of his 2011 appearance in one of the Oprah Show's pivotal, final episodes. Oprah, when she ended her show, had the five most important people. I assume. Her last week, he said. Remember her last week. Well, I was on her full show in the last week. I think they are trying the burn the tape. The admission comes after Trump condemned Oprah for her involvement in a 60 Minutes segment in which she interviewed both Trump voters and non-Trump voters. The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect. Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others! he tweeted after commenting that Winfrey was "very insecure." Oprah was here endorse Stacey and I am here to endorse Brian," Trump said during the campaign run for Kemp. "And you know what? I hope you are going to listen to my endorsement." According to Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former counsel, the chief of state's racist language extended to private conversations held between the two men before the presidency. In June, Cohen, who was primarily responsible for handling all of Trump's legal matters was fired and has since pleaded guilty to federal charges while cooperating with Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian intervention during the 2016 presidential election. Most recently, Cohen spoke with Vanity Fairabout Trump's private words and actions and he is now speaking out against the harmful language used by his former boss. It was during this interview that Cohen recalled a moment at Trump Tower in which he addressed the predominantly white crowd gathered at a rally at which Trump had spoken, extending the observation to his client. I told Trump that the rally looked vanilla on television." To that remark, Cohen says Trump responded: "Thats because black people are too stupid to vote for me." According to Cohen, the exchange reminded him of a conversation the two had shortly after Nelson Mandela's death in which Trump allegedly implored Cohen: "Name one country run by a black person thats not a shithole," adding, "Name one city." Cohen who is Jewish tells Vanity Fair that it was his father, a Holocaust survivor who warned him to distance himself from the president. He also expressed that he regretted working for Trump for the amount of time that he did, especially after numerous offensive remarks. I should have been a bigger person, and I should have left, he revealed. A few months back, amid rumors that Drake was leaving Nike for Adidas, the Toronto-native took to instagram with an all-new "Stage Use" Nike Air Max Plus suggesting that he's sticking with the Swoosh. During the latest stop of the "Aubrey & the Three Migos" Tour in Vancouver, British Columbia, Drake broke out another brand new colorway of the "Stage Use" Nike Air Max Plus. Like the black pair Drake debuted back in August, this new white rendition is highlighted by the exposed lacing system covering the entire shoe. It's still unclear whether this sneaker is a new collaboration between Drake and Nike or an exclusive pair that will never release. Take a closer look at the new "Stage Use" Nike Air Max Plus in the IG posts embedded below and stay tuned for more details. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpxypiSBROG https://www.instagram.com/p/BpxN37yhuR9 https://www.instagram.com/p/BpxCtoMho_m Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is at the center of a high-profile trial. The legal proceedings begin with its jury selection on Monday, November 5, in Brooklyn. The required security to ensure each parties safety is unprecedented and it expected to cause the Brooklyn Bridge to be closed twice a day until the end of the trial. The length of this process is estimated to 4 months. An emphasis is being placed on security as some witness plan to testify under aliases for their safety. Jurors will also be escorted by US marshals to court daily while remaining anonymous throughout the trial. These measures are being implemented in spite of Guzman's promise to refrain from killing the jurors. The courthouse is also being guarded with heavily armed officers and bomb-sniffing dogs. The 61-year-old drug lord is facing 11 felony charges in relation to drug trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering, and weapons charges, which he is accused to engaging with during his time as the leader of one of the worlds most infamous drug trafficking organizations. He founded the Sinaloa Cartel in 1980. Guzman managed to escape from prison in Mexico twice before being extradited to the US on January 19, 2017. He was first apprehended by Mexican authorities in 2016. The charges he currently faces can earn him a lifelong prison sentence. Opening statements are scheduled to begin on Nov. 13. [via] Kanye West announced that he would be taking a step back from politics after realizing he was being used to propagate ideas that weren't his and that didn't represent his actual beliefs. Candance Owens' politically-fuelled fashion apparel was tied to this announcement as Ye's name was attached to her project against his desires. After issuing an apology to both Kanye West and the Trump administration for the misrepresented information, Candace reportedly claims that her relationship with the rapper is still positive and that her "Blexit" efforts have garnered great results. Owens claims that the movement she is promoting with the apparel is growing strong, encouraging Black Americans to leave the Democratic Party. Apparently, the "Blexit" sales have been on the incline ever since the line was launched. Its creator claims that no refunds have been requested after Kanye West called her out publicly. She also says that thousands of emails have been pouring out to her in support of the cause. Her words might be received with skepticism by some considering the apparent lies she told before this moment. The first one being that Kanye West had designed the "Blexit" logo followed by her claim that she had never said that he created the logo. https://twitter.com/_/status/1057667428770107392 We recently highlighted Peewee Longway as one of the stars in our "On The Come Up" series and he's continuing to grow as an artist. The man has influenced so many in Atlanta's flourishing trap scene and he will only further cement his status as one of the best when he releases his upcoming album. State of the Art is expected to arrive on November 30 and the artist is pushing a brand new freestyle to get people ready. "On Dat Freestyle" has been released in advance of the full album to give people a taste of what to expect. Peewee goes hard here, rocking a ski mask in the video and taking on "hood Luchador" duties. Alongside the new song, the tracklist for the project was revealed as Quavo, Offset, Gucci Mane, and more are all set to appear on SOTA. Young Nudy, Maxo Kream, and Plies fill out the offering as a list of fifteen new songs is being publicized. This particular freestyle was produced by Cicero On The Beat but the album will have names like Mustard, 808 Mafia, ATL Jacob and others at the helm. Check out the tracklist below and let us know your thoughts on the new track. Tracklist: 1. Ice Cube 2. Bout It Bout It 3. Craigslist 4. Fuck It (feat. Gucci Mane) 5. Get Me One (feat. Lo Life Blacc) 6. James Harden 7. Shootem Up Bang (feat. Young Nudy) 8. Let's Be Real (feat. Maxo Kream) 9. Lituation 10. Gookin 11. Top Of The Bank 12. Get Money 13. Gutta B*tch (feat. Plies) 14. On Dat Freestyle 15. Trapper Gone Be A Trapper (feat. Quavo & Offset) Quotable Lyrics: Blue Lagoon brick from Iceland Punching bags like I'm Tyson Redbone mighty feisty Sipping Hi-Tech mixed with Waiki Kick my pimpin like Mr. Miyagi Foreign Italy trapping exotics Ain't no slipping pocket rocket poppin Saturday Night Live actor and comedian Pete Davidson has come under fire for a myriad of statements in the past. Back in 2017, Davidson joked about the tragic bombing that occurred at Ariana's Manchester concert laughingly telling an interviewer, Even Britney Spears didnt have a terrorist attack at her concert." Earlier this year, during an SNL segment, Davidson sparked outrage with a comment about tampering with Grande's birth control while they were still romantically involved. "Last night I switched her birth control with Tic-Tacs...I believe in us and all, but I just want to make sure that she can't go anywhere," he said. This weekend, Davidson was once again faced with immense backlash after joking about GOP congressional candidate Dan Crenshaw's appearance. Crenshaw, a war veteran, wears protective covering over an eye he lost to a war-related injury. In SNL's "Weekend Update", Davidson joked that Crenshaw resembled a hit man from an adult film. "I'm sorry, I know he lost his eye in war, or whatever," he added. "Whatever." Several members of the public immediately demanded that Davidson apologize. Crenshaw however, evidently feels differently. In speaking to TMZ, Crenshaw shared, "I want us to get away from this culture where we demand apologies every time someone misspeaks. We don't need to be outwardly outraged, I don't need you to demand an apology from them. [SNL] can do whatever they want." He went on to ask SNL and Davidson to be more considerate in the future. "But I would like [Pete Davidson] and SNL to recognize something which is that veterans across the county probably don't feel as though their wounds that they received in battle should be the subject of a bad punchline, for a bad joke. " Catch the full clip below. Hugh Jackman's role in the film The Front Runner is looking like one to watch in the forthcoming awards season, and Ryan Reynolds is among the many who know it. So, as Reynolds is so skilled in doing, he's decided to do nothing else but launch a smear campaign against his friend in an effort to convince others as to just why Jackman doesn't deserve the praise he's been getting. Flipping the theme of the film, in which Jackman plays 1988 presidential candidate Gary Hart, Ryan Reynolds creates a political ad in which he alleges that Hugh Jackman's Australian accent isn't even real, reviving his favorite rumor that Hugh is actually a product of Milwaukee. "Hugh Jackmans upcoming performance in The Front Runner fooled some people into thinking he deserves an award. But before voting begins, some people should consider these facts, Reynolds says in the comedic clip. Hugh Michael speaks with a charming accent, but hes actually from Milwaukee. He goes on to suggest that his Deadpool role is much more deserving of a statue than Hugh Jackman, adding: "Is this type of amazing actor and nice person we want delivering a preachy liberal speech this awards season? Or maybe theres a real foreigner from a border country who would really love it a lot." Only time will tell how Jackman responds to these startling allegations. TDE's Punch has come through with a new banger by the name of "Relax," proving that a label president can indeed put in work behind the mic. Joining forces with Willie B, aka The Ichiban Don, "Relax" features an appropriately zenlike instrumental, reminiscent of a post-yoga cooldown period, only the gurus are spitting bars. "It's my podium now, we get it jumping like a Deacon," raps Punch, "all my Southern Baptists throwing fire and brimstone at Heathens." Overall, it's refreshing to see a label president who can actually put in work; perhaps that's what makes TDE such a dominant label. It might be difficult for an artist to take constructive criticism from somebody who never wrote a lyric. Luckily, Punch can back it up, and ably at that. Check out "Relax" below, and sound off. Are you looking to see Punch further expand his repertoire? Quotable Lyrics It's my podium now, we get it jumping like a Deacon All my Southern Baptists throwing fire and brimstone at Heathens Pardon the false teachings, I'm just making a point, it's not misleading I don't want beef, I've gone vegan But if a n***a need a reason it still gon be clean eatin' Travis Scott collaborated with Jordan Brand on a handful of Air Jordan 4s this year, including exclusive grey and purple colorways, as well as the Houston Oilers-inspired pair that recently in limited quantities in June. It remains to be seen if the grey and purple "Cactus Jack" 4s will ever release, but rumors suggest 2019 will feature yet another La Flame x Air Jordan project. As previewed by the man himself last month, a Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 is in the works and sneaker source @Py_rates is reporting that the kicks will arrive in April of 2019. The limited edition 1s feature a "Sail/Dark Mocha/University Red/Black" color scheme, highlighted by a backward Nike swoosh embroidered onto its lateral side and a hidden money velcro pocket on the inner liner. Nike has not yet released official images but you can check out an early rendering, as well as some videos, in the IG posts embedded below. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpzkUfWl3T9 https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo-DrFkHIpk https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo-GBGBF2ma Stream Realty Partners plans to break ground on a five-story medical office building at 1001 Katy Freeway in Spring Valley Village early next year. The project, which is being developed in partnership with Wellington Development, consists of a 125,000-square-foot office building connected with a seven-story parking garage at the northwest corner of Interstate 10 and Campbell Road. Kirksey Architecture designed the building, which is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2020. "We've seen tremendous demand in the area for off-campus medical office space," Stream vice president Richard Barbles said in an announcement. RELATED: Hewlett Packard Enterprise plans move to Springwoods Village The project represents Stream's second medical office development in the Houston area since launching its health care platform two years ago. The company is also developing Hedwig Place, a five-story medical office building in the city of Hedwig Village. The building 1001 Katy Freeway, near communities in the Memorial area, is close to Memorial Hermann's health care facilities at Memorial City. A joint venture of Stream and Wellington closed on the purchase of the 2.5-acre site on Oct. 31. WASHINGTON A two-year campaign by the Trump administration to roll back environmental regulations to boost oil and gas drilling and other industrial activity is facing the prospect of a drawn-out congressional investigation should the Democrats win a majority in the House of Representatives. With national polls indicating that outcome, lobbyists in Washington are already gearing up for an oversight process expected to delve into how the administration went about moves such as easing limits on methane emissions and the expansion of lease sales on federal lands. That would likely include looking not only at officials in the White House, Environmental Protection Agency and departments of Energy and Interior but what role energy companies and their representatives might have played, said Scott Segal, an energy lobbyist at the Washington law firm Bracewell. If theres a lot of back and forth with energy companies, then what ends up happening is House Oversight call the EPA administrator and officials and the people on the other side of those communications, he said. The question is, if you create a narrative, will that stay the hand of the administration? Democrats are not telegraphing how such an oversight process would play out yet, but they are eagerly campaigning on their disdain for Trumps environmental policies. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., who is expected to lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee should Democrats gain a majority, could play a critical role in checking Trumps environmental action. Pallone said climate change is a critical issue for the party, along with the economy and jobs, and Democrats would focus on holding the Trump administration accountable for dangerous policies that only make it worse. We also have serious concerns with how Trumps EPA has consistently sided with the special interests over peoples health and the environment, he said in a statement. We will look to restore the environmental protections that have been gutted over the last two years. Since coming into office, Trump has taken repeated action to boost U.S. fossil fuel production and move away from the Obama administrations efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. EPA has repealed the Clean Power Plan, designed to reduce reliance on coal plants, a leading source of the most prevalent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. The Interior Department has increasingly allowed oil companies onto federal lands to drill, while simultaneously pulling restrictions on their emissions. And at the Energy Department, led by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, there is an as yet unsuccessful effort to find a way to raise wholesale power rates for coal plants. Democrats are coming under increasing pressure from environmental activists to take a harder line on climate change, an issue the party has showed mixed enthusiasm for in past elections. Even in Texas, where climate change remains far from a hot-button issue, Democratic candidate Gina Ortiz Jones has been vocal on the topic as she tries to unseat Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio. In September she tweeted, Hurd claims to believe in climate change but he consistently votes to undermine our environment. We are seeing a historic number of candidates running ads on clean energy and climate change and the devastating impacts its having, from wildfires in the West to hurricanes that devastated Texas and Florida, said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president for government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. They know its what their voters care about. With Republicans expected to retain control of the Senate and President Donald Trump holding veto power in the White House, Democrats would be limited in how much they can do. Legislation to address climate change, such as through a carbon tax that Exxon Mobil and other large oil companies are supporting, would face staunch Republican opposition and likely even turn away some Democrats. Were always hesitant to vote tax increases, whether youre a Republican or Democrat. Its always going to hurt someone, said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston. Even a bipartisan issue such as rebuilding U.S. infrastructure to aid clean energy, through modernizing the power grid or building charging stations for electric vehicles, is expected to be a tough slog in a hyperpartisan political climate, against a backdrop of ballooning budget deficits. With a divided government, I dont see a path forward, Matt Nugen, director of government relations at the Milwaukee-based power company WEC Energy Group, said at an event hosted by the American Gas Alliance last month. Not a lot has happened on (Capitol Hill) in the last year, and we expect that to continue. The Houses oversight authority presents a clear opportunity to not only try and slow Trump but to score some points with liberals ahead of the 2020 presidential election. In the meantime, executives at energy companies that have been beneficiaries of Trumps deregulatory campaign are already preparing themselves for the possibility of being called before Congress to explain their interactions with the administration, according to Segal, the Bracewell lobbyist. We have had discussions, Segal said. We are already staffing up to assist clients facing this exact scenario. james.osborne@chron.com twitter.com/osborneja Amazon has held advanced discussions about the possibility of opening its highly sought-after second headquarters in the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia, including how quickly it would move employees there, which buildings it would occupy and how an announcement about the move would be made to the public, according to people close to the process. The discussions were more detailed than those the company has had regarding other locations in northern Virginia and some other cities nationally, adding to speculation that the site in Arlington County is a front-runner to land the online retail giant's second North American headquarters and its 50,000 jobs. The company is so close to making its choice that Crystal City's top real estate developer, JBG Smith, has pulled some of its buildings off the leasing market and officials in the area have discussed how to make an announcement to the public this month, following the midterm elections, according to public and private-sector officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Amazon has asked that the selection process remain confidential. The company may be having similar discussions with other finalists. Two people close to the process said that if Crystal City was selected, Amazon was likely to move an initial group of several hundred employees into 1851 S. Bell Street or 1770 Crystal Drive, two dated office buildings that have been targeted for redevelopment but could be readied for occupancy by their owner, JBG Smith, in nine months or less. The bid also includes sites in Potomac Yard, in Alexandria. "There's a lot of activity," one individual close to the process said. The person added that people "seem really positive, and they seem pretty confident. . . . What we don't know, maybe there are two or three other sites, and they're doing the same thing. That's what's scary to people around here." At a conference in New York on Thursday, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos told the crowd: "Ultimately the decision will be made with intuition after gathering and studying a lot of data - for a decision like that, as far as I know, the best way to make it is you collect as much data as you can, you immerse yourself in that data but then you make the decision with your heart." (Bezos also owns The Washington Post) Spokesmen for Amazon and JBG Smith declined to comment, as did Arlington County Board ChairKatie Cristol. Alexandria Mayor Allison Silberberg declined to discuss whether advanced talks were taking place but said, "We think we've put forward a very competitive option, and we're certainly honored to be considered." Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, asked on WTOP Radio on Wednesday about speculation that Crystal City was the front-runner said, "A lot of us are anxiously awaiting a decision, an announcement from Amazon. . . . A lot of [Virginia government] resources are being expended right now, and I think for good reason." A spokesman for Northam declined to comment further on Friday. - - - After launching a reality show-like sweepstakes for a second home in late 2017, Amazon has effectively shut down disclosures about the search in the past nine months. Twenty finalist cities - many of which have spent considerable time and money pursuing the company - have little information about where they stand, according to officials in four other finalist jurisdictions. But stock market investors, online betting sites and corporate relocation experts have all declared northern Virginia the favorite to land the so-called HQ2. Washington-area leaders believe the project is theirs to lose, and that Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia would all benefit economically. Crystal City, with easy transit access, proximity to Reagan National Airport, and ready-to-occupy office buildings, has long been considered a strong contender. The District and Montgomery County, Maryland, also are among the 20 finalists. Betting sites give northern Virginia the most likely odds of landing the project, and stock analysts have sweetened their view of JBG Smith - owner of most of Crystal City - as Amazon's announcement has approached. Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus recently upgraded the company from "Sell" to "Hold" and say just the possibility that Amazon chooses Crystal City has added four or five dollars to the company's stock price. In the Washington area, the anticipation is growing as hints filter out that Amazon is in the final stages of making a decision. The company tentatively considered making an announcement by the end of October, but has now put it off until November, according to individuals close to the process. "They have said publicly they want HQ2 operating in 2019," one person said. "Starting to work on that level of detail with the finalists is something they absolutely are doing. . . . I think it's a very small number of finalists. . . . [The announcement] requires some level of coordination and advance notice." Sharon Bulova, chair of the board of supervisors in Fairfax County, Virginia, where one of the sites is located, has felt the vibe. "What I pick up from residents is enthusiasm," she said. "They're excited about the jobs that Amazon would bring." It's also anxiety. Months of waiting have not quelled concerns about the potential pressure Amazon could place on the region's already steep housing prices, congested roads and yawning divide between its wealthy and low-income residents. When Bezos spoke at an Economic Club of Washington event in September, more than a dozen protesters occupied the sidewalk outside and civic groups - sometimes joined by union activists - have raised concerns about what the addition of such a fast-growing company would mean for the region's schools, roads and housing prices. Even without Amazon, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has estimated that the region needs to add 235,000 housing units by 2025 to keep pace with expected job growth. Amazon's arrival could push the goal to around 267,000 by 2026, according to a recent analysis by the Urban Institute. Right now the region is only on pace to add about 170,000 new units by then, and the shortage threatens to exacerbate inequality." "Whether Amazon comes or not we have a challenge there," said Peter Tatian, of the Urban Institute. "The economic growth that has been going on has been benefiting some people and causing problems for others." Amazon says it plans to make $5 billion in capital investments alone in the city it chooses, and that its headquarters injected an additional $38 billion into the local economy in Seattle, generating an additional $1.40 for every dollar the company spent. But its growth has led to fissures between the company and Seattle. Homelessness in the city has escalated and Amazon vowed to cancel some of its expansion plans if the city passed a new tax on big businesses to raise money to address the problem. - - - Bezos and the company have made several recent announcements that could soften Amazon's public image as it moves to open H2Q. Now the world's wealthiest person, Bezos announced in September that he would donate $2 billion of his own money to support groups battling homelessness in the United States and create a network of preschools in underserved communities. "I don't think it's a coincidence that one of those issue was homelessness," said Joe Parilla, a Brookings Institution fellow. "I think you can draw a pretty clear link between the debate that is unfolding in a lot of these tech hubs and how this gives a little bit of cover to Amazon as it is investing in these hot markets." In October - after bearing months of criticism from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., over its treatment of workers - Amazon announced it would raise its minimum wage for all employees to $15 per hour. But the company's request for secrecy has kept a potentially thorny discussion, about how much states and cities should be willing to offer the company for its jobs, in the background. Few of the public subsidies being offered to Amazon from states, cities and counties for the project have been made public, which some analysts say could result in blowback from taxpayers if they are announced as fait accompli. Maryland has offered an incentive package worth an estimated $8.5 billion while the Newark, New Jersey, subsidies are estimated at $7 billion. On Wednesday, a judge in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, ordered the release of Pittsburgh's proposal after a legal fight with a local television station. The decision is expected to be appealed. "I would question why cities weren't more forthcoming [with their proposals], and I suspect it's because there would have been some push back to what the cities were offering," said Heidi Learner, chief economist for the advisory firm Savills Studley. "From the public's perspective the question is what is the city hiding or why shouldn't they share how [those proposals] would actually lead to more tax revenue down the line?" After Amazon initially pressed for more information, some leaders were expecting to hear the list of finalists narrowed down publicly, to give economic development teams from the eliminated cities a chance to move on. "I think the process got away from them a little bit. They probably were planning for some kind of down-selection and changed their position on that," said Jason Miller, chief executive of the Greater Washington Partnership, a business group. In addition to tax breaks, some cities have offered to build or expand roads, transit, data networks or airports if Amazon arrives. Parilla, of Brookings, said it's preferable to "maximize the broader benefit of these investments as much as possible." He also doesn't think it makes sense for Amazon, a $816-billion company, to press a city or state for an enormous subsidy package that could cut into money for other services. "My sense is that Amazon doesn't want to repeat some of the antagonism in Seattle," Parilla said. "It's not great for the brand to be viewed as oblivious to the existing economic and racial inequities in the city where it's going to invest." The ultimate decision is likely to rest with Bezos. He has a history of showing independence in such matters, such as when he needed a headquarters for The Washington Post shortly after he purchased it. The preferred choice among Post executives and consultants was a planned office building near Union Station, which they touted to Bezos during a tour of potential locations. That site was the favorite - until Bezos weighed in, and chose a downtown building. Now that Bezos is nearing a decision on the far more consequential HQ2 search, Washington area leaders are hoping he does not throw another curveball. --- Video Embed Code Video: Amazon is reportedly in the advanced stages of placing its second headquarters in the Northern Virginia suburb of Crystal City. If the city is ultimately the location that is chosen --- 50,000 jobs are expected to come to the area.(Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post) Embed code: For years, Oprah Winfrey's campaign rally appearances and political endorsements have posed a difficult question for anyone who happens to be advocating for the candidate on the other side: How do you contend with the star power of a billionaire Queen of All Media who is also one of the world's most influential people? For one robo-call producer speaking into a microphone in what we can only assume is a dark basement, the answer is clear: an 11th-hour infusion of good old-fashioned racism. "This is the magical Negro Oprah Winfrey asking you to make my fellow Negress Stacey Abrams the governor of Georgia," the robo-call begins, before spewing nearly 60 seconds of racism coupled with a dash of anti-Semitism. Georgians began hearing the call last week, according to the Hill. The robo-call apparently was made by TheRoadToPower.com, an anti-Semitic video podcasting website that the Anti-Defamation League says "has zeroed in on divisive political campaigns across the country," including both races that feature a black candidate for governor. It's unclear how many Oprah Winfrey robo-calls have been received. The robo-call labels Abrams "a poor man's Aunt Jemima," a reference to the black woman on the front of the pancake mix box, an image that has itself been derided as a racist symbol. It suggests that Winfrey is a media construction made to trick fat, white women into voting. And it mocks what Winfrey has called one of her all-time happiest moments in media. "And so I promise that every single person who votes for Stacey Abrams, you're going to get a new car! So you get a car! And you get a car! And you get a car! And you get a car! Everybody gets a car!" In a statement, the Abrams campaign called the robo-calls a desperate and "vile" attempt to sway voters using "poisonous thinking." "It is not surprising that in a race that has consistently been very close, we've seen several weeks of increasing desperation from many dark corners trying to steal the election, cheat, lie, and prey on people's fears rather than having the respect to listen to voters and speak to their hopes," Abrams spokeswoman Abigail Collazo said in the statement, which tried to link the robo-calls to a tone set by President Donald Trump and Abrams' Republican opponent, Brian Kemp. In a statement emailed to the Hill, Kemp called the robo-call "vile," "racist" and "absolutely disgusting." "I stand against any person or organization that peddles this type of unbridled hate and unapologetic bigotry," he said. The insidious tone of the poor-audio call was at odds with Winfrey's words on the campaign trail. She and Abrams are both black women from Mississippi, and the media titan spoke of the sacrifices their ancestors had to make to obtain the right to vote. "Make your voice heard on Nov. 6. We have this incredible opportunity to make history. We have our inalienable right because the one place that all people are equal is at the polls," she told voters. " ... And I'm here today because of the men and because of the women who were lynched, who were humiliated, who were discriminated against, who were suppressed, who were repressed and oppressed, for the right of the equality of the polls. And I want you to know that their blood has seeped into my DNA, and I refuse to let their sacrifices be in vain." If the voice and the overtly racist tone on the robo-call sound familiar, it's because it's from the same studio that stuffed a "We Negroes" robo-call down the throats of Florida voters, who are deciding whether they want Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum to be the state's first black governor. "Well, hello there," that call begins, as the sounds of drums and monkeys can be heard in the background, according to the New York Times. "I is Andrew Gillum." "We Negroes ... done made mud huts while white folk waste a bunch of time making their home out of wood an' stone." The speaker goes on to say Gillum will pass a law letting African-Americans evade arrest "if the Negro know fo' sho' he didn't do nothin'." In a statement emailed to The Washington Post, Gillum campaign spokesman Geoff Burgan said: "This is reprehensible - and could only have come from someone with intentions to fuel hatred and seek publicity." A suspicious device that was brought to the Freeport Police Department Monday morning and led to an evacuation there was determined not to be an active bomb, authorities said. Freeport Police Chief Ray Garivey said city employees evacuated the department as a precaution, as authorities did not yet know whether the device was an active bomb. SUTHERLAND SPRINGS Julie Workman was watching Disney movies with her 3-year-old granddaughter, Eevee, when she saw the news blaring on her television: 11 shot and killed at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. I just froze, stared at the TV in disbelief. And going through my head was Not again, not again, not again, Workman said, standing outside the First Baptist Church after Sunday services. Workman is a survivor of the First Baptist Church shooting, which killed 26 people and wounded 20 others Nov. 5, 2017. She was injured by shrapnel and flying glass. It was the deadliest shooting at a church in the U.S. Your heart sinks knowing some people are going through the same thing youve been through. Your body aches from the pain that theyre feeling, said Michelle Shields, a church congregant and the mother-in-law of the gunman, Devin Kelley, 26. As theyve struggled to come to terms with the deaths of so many loved ones, the Sutherland Springs community has also had to grapple with the trauma of watching similar mass shootings play out, again and again, in the nearly one year since their own. Congregants were overwhelmed with heartbreak in February, when they learned of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 students and staff members were killed. In May, a gunman killed eight students and two teachers at Sante Fe High School near Houston, and the survivors of Sutherland Springs had flashbacks to their own tragedy. Now, they feel it again: the re-traumatization, the secondhand grief, the pain in knowing that more people in the world will have to go through the kind of suffering theyve experienced. Every time I hear about one of these shootings, its like a punch in the gut, said Stephen Willeford, a congregant who confronted and shot at the gunman as he fled the church. (Church) is a place where you dont expect something like this to happen. And then it keeps happening more and more often, he said. Willeford said that when he heard the news Saturday, he issued a quiet prayer for the people of Pittsburgh. The shooting at Tree of Life synagogue came a little more than a week before the one-year anniversary of the Sutherland Springs massacre, and Sundays services at First Baptist included prayers for the Pittsburgh congregation. May your compassion, your grace and your mercy be in Pittsburgh with that synagogue and those folks there as well. Father, I thank you that you can be both here and there. I pray a hedge of protection for all of those families, Pastor Frank Pomeroy said in the opening prayer at the Sunday services. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the city stands in solidarity with the people of Pittsburgh. Our hearts go out to the families who are suffering because of this act. We mourn their loss with them, he said in a statement Sunday. People of all faiths must be able to worship without fear of violence, and we must resolve to ensure their security. Our communities and the nation as a whole must stand strong against intolerance and strive toward a path of compassion and understanding that heals the deep animosities that are plaguing our society. Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham of Congregation Agudas Achim in San Antonio will be hosting a public memorial service at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Temple Beth-El to show that we will not give into the hatred and anti-Semitism in our world, he said in a statement. The Tree of Life synagogue victims ranged in age from mid-50s to a 97-year-old woman. A criminal complaint said that as the gunman was taken into custody, he said he wanted all Jews to die. How dare a human being shoot another human being when its not for defense? said Tambria Read, the local historian for Sutherland Springs and chair of the towns museum. She knew almost everyone who died in the First Baptist shooting. Read said the news of similar shootings affects her on a deeper level than it did before she experienced it in her community. It brings the quiver in my voice a lot quicker than it used to, she said. Workman said she had just been talking Thursday about the inevitability of another shooting. To see her foreboding confirmed so quickly made me sick, she said. The heartache and everything we have gone through is going to be in their lives, too, she said. When something horrible happens to you, you hope it stops with you. And its not. Shields had advice for the Tree of Life community: Stay strong in your faith, and stay strong as a family. Take it day by day. Dont let anybody tell you how you should heal. She said she hopes they know that the Sutherland Springs church is thinking of them and praying for them; and if they reach out to us, were more than happy to be there for them, in any way we can. sfosterfrau@express-news.net | @SilviaElenaFF A Family Recovers After losing nine of their own during the Sutherland Springs church shooting, the Holcombe family slowly finds joy again. A Family Recovers After losing nine of their own during the Sutherland Springs church shooting, the Holcombe family slowly finds joy again. SUTHERLAND SPRINGS In the soft morning light, John Holcombe walks into his daughter's room, picks up her wooden harp and plays a melody. Evelyn, 8, emerges from a pile of blankets and grins. Two empty beds sit next to hers. Most mornings she wakes up like this, alone in a room she used to share with her sisters Megan, 9, and Emily, 11. Her father plays a harp that once belonged to his mother, Karla Holcombe. Evelyn says she knows where they are now: "In Heaven." Her two sisters, her 13-year-old brother Greg, her pregnant mother, Crystal, and her grandparents were all killed in the Nov. 5, 2017, mass shooting at the First Baptist Church. John's brother, Danny Holcombe, and Danny's 1-year-old daughter also perished. They were among 26 worshipers who died that day. Twenty others were wounded. The Holcombes lost nine of their own, the most of any family. "The only way I could get them back is with a time machine," John, 40, said last Sunday as he prepared a bacon-and-egg breakfast. "I wish I could. I relied so heavily on my mom and dad and Crystal. They were my inner circle. And my whole inner circle went away Nov. 5." Many of the congregants were related, with families that went back generations. In a matter of minutes, the shooting took children from parents and parents from children. John and Evelyn were at the church that day. His oldest son Philip, then 15, stayed home. When the gunman opened fire into the church, John was in the sound booth, where shrapnel pierced his body. Out in the sanctuary, Evelyn was shielded by her wounded mother, who laid over her before she died. Without Crystal, John has had to learn how to cook, brush Evelyn's hair and take care of Crystal's chickens, ponies, goats and cats. They were in the middle of remodeling their kitchen, and he continues to work on it, determined to finish the plans she'd sketched on a piece of paper. It's still hanging on the refrigerator. KEEPING FAITH: Sutherland Springs relies on church to cope with shooting's aftermath John's life revolves around trying to maintain her projects and filling the void left by the loss of Crystal and three of their children. "I can't replace her. But I'm trying to follow her wishes with the children the best I can," he said. Some people have told John, "God won't give you more than you can handle." He disagrees. "You can be given more than you can handle. And a lot of people who go through something like this never come out of it," he said. "But I think that through Christ, who strengthens me, it is possible to get through it." Faith has always been this community's moral compass, the church its unifying force. "They've been there for us, they've prayed for us, they've hugged us when we needed it, and they've stood back when we're doing OK," John said of the congregants. He's gone to church almost every Sunday since the shooting. He films every service and posts it on YouTube. Sometimes Evelyn will clamber onto his shoulders while he's recording. Other times, she'll prance around with the other kids her age, eager to make friends. Without her mother to teach her at home, Evelyn has begun going to school for the first time. And without her sisters to play with, the house often goes quiet. Her father, who works in information technology, has enrolled her in ballet classes. They go to therapy at the Ecumenical Center about once a week. Philip is a senior cadet airman with the Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary of the Air Force. He trains once a week with the Air Patrol's Alamo Composite Squadron based in San Antonio. He takes high school classes through a private, online school. The Holcombe family has dealt with their grief in different ways. John's sister, Sarah Slavin, is taking an inventory of their parents' business, American Canvas Works, and looking after their now-empty home. Jenni Holcombe, Danny's widow, volunteers at the church, often filling the role Karla Holcombe, her mother-in-law, once played in organizing activities such as Vacation Bible School and Fall Fest. She also started working part-time at a nonprofit for at-risk children. Scott Holcombe, the brother of Sarah and John, relapsed into alcohol abuse and checked into rehab in August. He was released last Sunday. John Holcombe's life revolves around his two surviving children, Evelyn and Philip. "I want to take care of them and be there for them, and I want to raise them the best I can," he said. "They're both doing very well." A quiet man, John gets a kick out of Evelyn's feistiness. Bored at church one Sunday, she demanded he hand over his car keys so she could drive home. When John awoke Evelyn from her slumber before church recently, she switched into high gear. "Do you know how rude it is to interrupt my sleep?" she said. "Seriously?" said John, his favorite response to his daughter's sassy comments. "Were you having a good dream Evelyn? I'm sorry we interrupted your dream," John said as she stretched in her emoji-patterned pajamas. "It's none-ya," she shot back. As in, none of your business. He laughed, and she wrapped him in a hug. They've grown closer in the past year, relying on each other for support. John can't dwell on dark thoughts with Evelyn around she's too bright a light, and her games are too demanding for him to think about anything else. "He's my favorite dad," she said. "He prays for me and I just love him." Losing a husband and only child Jenni Holcombe's 1-year-old daughter, Noah Grace, would disappear into her mother's closet and reappear with Jenni's grown-up shoes on her feet. She'd sit on the lap of her father, Danny, and cover his face with a blanket, saying "Where's Noah?" When she'd wake in the middle of the night, Jenni would fetch some Jell-O and they'd slurp it together on the kitchen floor. "She was such a happy person, you can't not be happy remembering her," Jenni said. Noah was killed in Jenni's arms on Nov. 5, alongside Danny. "We joke (Noah) never slept because she had too much life to put into that little bit of time that she had, that she had to just get everything she could out of it," Jenni said. Church members remark on Jenni's inner strength. David Colbath, another survivor, tears up when he talks about her. They revel in her ability to find joy, and how her sense of humor seems to never have left her. Jenni chalks it up to faith in God. "This is like a gift God has given our family, to be able to be this way, so we can show other people that you can get through things," she said. "That it will still hurt, but you can have joy again, and laugh, and have peace about what you've been through. After years of fertility treatments, Jenni and Danny considered Noah's birth a blessing. At night, Jenni writes lists in her notebook of favorite memories with her daughter. One list is titled "Foods she liked" marshmallows from Lucky Charms cereal, mandarin oranges and peanuts, which Noah called "neenuts." "Foods she didn't like" included bread, potatoes and cake. When Jenni has trouble sleeping, she'll post photos and videos of her daughter and husband on Facebook. They show Noah climbing on her father's lap, playing with her cousins and crawling mischievously through the kitchen with a trail of toys behind her. "I want to remember the good things, not what happened," Jenni said. The hardest part is being alone. She'll call Sarah Slavin, her sister-in-law, and they'll run errands, clean out the shop of her late in-laws, anything to stay busy. "Some days I have to force myself to do stuff at home," Jenni said. Jenni volunteered at the Alto Frio Youth Camp this summer, started working at Floresville's All City Youth Programs and has begun babysitting in the nursery during Sunday services. During Sunday services, Jenni used to sit in the back of the sanctuary, just going with the flow, she said. But last November changed her. "We wanted to raise Noah up to stand up for what she thought was right and what she believed in," she said. "So I have to do that now. For her, for Danny." Letting go "one piece at a time" Bryan and Karla Holcombe's old canvas upholstery shop, once filled with tarp and the whirring of sewing machines, is now stacked with boxes of ukuleles, clothes and shoes. "You know how he always had a 'thing?' His last was shoes. Look at these," said Sarah Slavin, surveying boxes of her father's old shoes. She picked up one shoe, ran her hands over it and sighed. "I need to do something a little more brainless today," Sarah said. FORGIVENESS: Danielle Kelley focuses on forgiveness one year after the shooting What should be done with the shoes, the shop, her parents' home? Sometimes the weight of the decisions is overwhelming. "I was always indecisive, even before Nov. 5. But now I'm super-indecisive," she said. "I'm scared that something I decide will hurt someone, somehow. They've already been hurt so much, and I don't want to add to that." Her daughter Elene, 3, interrupted. "Mommy, mommy, can I take this home? That way we can catch butterflies!" she said, holding up a small net from what they jokingly called the "baby jail" a penned-off play area for Elene and Noah at the canvas shop, filled with toys and a TV. Sarah said of course she could. "This is also something that helps me. If I start to get too into a dark mood or a negative thought, she won't let me stay there," Sarah said. It's hard to dwell on death when there's butterflies to catch and swings waiting to be swung on. When Sarah's family visited John, Evelyn and other family members in the hospital in the days after the massacre, Elene offered small moments of joy. "I remember Elene running down the halls, just laughing, and I remember even in that moment thanking God that there was still going to be laughter," Sarah said. Like John, Sarah is doing the emotional work of preservation. She's caring for her mother's honey dew plant, which attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. She's also tending the mimosa plant and the fig tree, grown from a cutting her brother Danny Holcombe took from the fig tree at the church. "It's like a piece of them I'm not ready to let go of," Sarah said. "We have to let go of them one piece at a time." Bryan had a habit of collecting things, and Karla made those items into art. A collection of mixers decorates the tops of the kitchen cabinets, and the bathroom is fisherman-themed, with boots and sinkers carefully arranged. In the yard, the trees hold a run-down tree house, a frayed rope for pinatas and four ukuleles. "She turned broken ukuleles into birdhouses. Isn't that cool? I loved that about my mom," said Sarah. "She just took what she had and made it into something beautiful." Sarah tries to do the same thing every day to get through her grief. She'll crack open her mother's old Bible and resolve that though she'll cry for those she's lost, she'll also smile at the way her mother annotated the verses, "like a school girl." "Even in these days, there are moments of joy and love and peace and hope. There's a lot of memories that bring me comfort. And there's a lot of blessings," Sarah said. SECONDHAND GRIEF: Sutherland Springs church congregants say 'Not again' A box full of mementos includes a tablecloth signed by members of her family on Thanksgiving Day 2016. For many nieces, a nephew, her parents, her sister-in-law, her brother it was their last Thanksgiving. Among the donated gifts is a collection of children's cards from the world over that she keeps in a binder. One card bears a drawing of a cross, with the inscription "No matter how dark it is, there is always light two thoughts away." "They remind me that even though the children that we lost are gone, there are still children that are here and that are going to grow up and live and love," she said. "It reminds me that not all is lost." Recovering, from addiction Scott Holcombe, 31, was home on Nov. 5, 2017, high on methamphetamine. He lived with his parents, Karla and Bryan, and looked forward to Sundays, when his family would go to church and he could get high in secret. His wife, Jessica, learned of the shooting from a text message. Over the course of hospital visits that day, they grasped the scope of the devastation visited on their family. "I could not stop crying that whole day. I don't think there was one second I wasn't crying my heart out," he said. Before the shooting, Scott was constantly getting high, blacking out, losing a job. In the aftermath, it got worse. He added pot and alcohol to the mix. Every day. "I felt entitled. I was like 'Who are you to tell me I can't use? ... You have your family get killed in a mass shooting, and then tell me something about not using,'" he said. "I felt real sorry for myself." RECOVERY: Sutherland Springs congregants gather for fall festival Earlier this year, he failed a mandatory drug screen and spent three weeks in jail for violating terms of his probation for a robbery he committed years ago. He entered rehab in August and transferred to a halfway house last Sunday. Scott said he has been sober for 82 days. He said he was proud to have gotten clean in time to honor his parents on the one-year anniversary of the massacre. "After they got killed and I was doing drugs, I didn't feel them. It didn't feel like they were around," he said. "But now that I'm sober, I feel like they're here." Scott wonders if the tragedy forced him to hit bottom, so he could finally get better. "I'm on the right path. So I don't have to be miserable about it anymore. And they're building a big church now," he said, eyes wide at the thought. "I can't feel sorry for myself when I'm seeing so much good and so much love everywhere. I didn't know that there was such a beautiful life out here." *** Silvia Foster-Frau is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. Send her tips at sfosterfrau@express-news.net. Follow her on Twitter at @SilviaElenaFF. Lisa Krantz is a staff photographer for the San Antonio Express-News. Design by Rachael Gleason Subscribe Real news. Real trust. Real community. Subscribe to the San Antonio Express-News to support quality local journalism. *** Whats life like after yours and many others lives are torn apart? Its a journey full of personal torment and overcoming obstacles. The First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs was a sanctuary. A second home for many. The rooms filled with laughter and love. We worshipped to the highest of praises to our God. When I first heard the news, I was in shock. The thought of something like this happening never once crossed my mind. I never thought my tiny little church, the church that raised me with endless amounts of love, would have to ever endure the amount of pain it did. EXPRESSNEWS.COM EXCLUSIVE: Tied to her bed, Danielle Kelley could do nothing to stop her husband, Devin Kelley, from committing the Sutherland Srpings church massacre. Danielle Kelley spoke exclusively to the San Antonio Express-News to recall emotional account of that day. Read it here. What made things even more unimaginable is that the person I had children with had murdered my second family. I have struggled with being the widow of Devin, struggled with losing so many church members who I have loved from the very first moments of being a part of the church. I feel like it was me who brought him to my church. If I hadnt married him, he would have never known the church. I miss everyone so much. My Na-Na (grandmother Lula White) was a tough but loving cookie. She loved to crack jokes and always put smiles on everyones faces. She was a beautiful, stubborn woman who loved to dip her lemon cookies in her black-as-night coffee and call it breakfast. Shed also burn things in the microwave and call it her cooked snack. Saying, Scat, kitty cat when anyone would sneeze, or saying you were barking when you coughed. She would call me her little dragonfly, and I would call her my dinosaur. Theyre moments that I miss more and more, but will forever be grateful that I have them. Then theres the silliness of Karla and Bryan Holcombe. Their love story and their marriage were ones I wanted, so full of faith and love. I have so many memories with so many people who lost their lives, it becomes unbearable to write about them. After losing nine of their own during the Sutherland Springs church shooting, the Holcombe family slowly finds joy again. Read about how they've coped with their massive loss in the year since the shooting on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. I worried I wouldnt be welcomed back to my tiny little church. But I built up the courage and decided to go back, to give my never-ending amounts of love and to tell people how sorry and ashamed I felt. I was welcomed back with open arms. The amount of love that poured out from my church has truly been the work of God. We are standing strong, united as a congregation. Weve had a rough journey from Nov. 5, 2017, till now. But beauty will rise out of tragedy. Sutherland Springs strong. Much has been written about the beauty and biodiversity of the borderlands, especially the Rio Grande Valley, as the Trump administration moves to bulldoze through it to build new border walls. But resistance to the walls isnt just coming from activists and communities in the path of construction. Many of the best arguments against Trumps destructive project actually come from his own federal experts and Texas officials. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge as one of the most biodiverse regions in North America and offers a 16-page tally of the hundreds of birds spotted there. The agency also provides a list of imperiled species, like the ocelot and Texas ayenia, which need wild places along the Rio Grande to survive. According to federal planning documents, thousands of acres of this wildlife habitat will be lost to Trumps wall. Texas is rightly proud of its Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, an international bird-watching destination. Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park alone has an impressive list of 358 species recorded within the parks boundaries, boasts the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Some birders travel to the Bentsen to see bird species they cant find anyplace else in the country, from the Green Jay and the Buff-bellied Hummingbird to the Great Kiskadee and the Altamira Oriole. But most of the park would end up on the south side of the proposed wall. If that happens, state officials warned last year, the 766-acre park might have to forfeit the land and close its doors to the public. That would mean giving up the 30,000-plus visitors it brings to the region each year. It could end the parks role as a teaching center for generations of children and wall off one of the last places in the region where families can camp by the banks of the Rio Grande. The barriers to park use would weaken the ability of Bentsen-Rio Grande to perform one of its primary missions, providing access to the outdoors for local scout groups and serving as an outdoor classroom for school groups, parks officials wrote. Planned border walls will also cut through the National Butterfly Center and the grounds of historic La Lomita Chapel. The Trump administration will even seize land from hundreds of private properties and family farms. Trump recently waived 28 environmental and public health laws in the Rio Grande Valleys Hidalgo and Cameron counties to rush wall construction. The Center for Biological Diversity, where I work, sued to challenge Trumps reckless attempt to ignore these protections for clean air, clean water and endangered wildlife. Our case notes that Congress did not intend to give the Trump administration, or any administration, unlimited power to build border walls wherever it wants, without following federal laws. Texas wildlife officials certainly understand the damage these walls can do in the Rio Grande Valley, which already has 54 miles of border barriers. Theyve seen it before. In 2009, less than a year after new walls were built, the Rio Grande flooded, as it often does. Fleeing animals were trapped by a concrete border wall, unable to escape the rising floodwaters. After the flood, wildlife officials found hundreds of waterlogged shells from the Texas tortoise a state-listed threatened species pushed up against the wall, full of muck and rot. The agency expected the same fate for other animals, saying any ocelots or jaguarundis would have likely perished in the floodwaters. The bottom line: This is no place for border walls, and not only because they dont stop people from crossing. This is some of the most biodiverse, breathtaking country in North America, where people and animals have lived for millennia. With so few wild places left, we have to protect these last havens for wildlife and outdoor recreation in the Rio Grande Valley. Texans shouldnt let Trumps wall smash these natural treasures. Jordahl works at the Center for Biological Diversity, focused on protecting wildlife, ecosystems and communities throughout the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. The Arizona-based center has filed three lawsuits challenging border wall waivers in Texas, New Mexico and California. Vectors chief risk officer, Kate Beddoe, said diverse, inclusive, and accessible workplaces are win-win situations, as employees feel valued and accommodated, which boosts productivity, raises morale, and results in a more successful business. Making our workplace even more welcoming will benefit these employees and means we can also tap into a talented pool of prospective employees, said Beddoe. Being awarded the Accessibility Tick, alongside our Rainbow Tick and accreditation as the only large corporate business in New Zealand committed to the Living Wage, demonstrates Vectors commitment to providing an accessible and equitable workplace for everyone. Accessibility Tick programme lead, Tanya Colvin, congratulated Vector for its commitment to accessibility, and for its willingness to get involved at an early stage to co-design a programme that will resonate with the business community. Colvin said that while there has been great appetite from New Zealand employers to be inclusive of people with disabilities for some time, the missing piece for many has been the how. Pharrell, Decidedly Un-Happy About Trumps Use Of His Song, May Actually Have A Case No election cycle is complete without a politician using a song at a rally to the consternation of its creator, and while blanket performance licenses usually prevent the artist from doing much other than complaining, Trump's use of the song "Happy" at a recent rally could result in some very real legal blowback from Pharrell Williams. __________________________ Guest post by Mike Masnick of Techdirt It happens basically every election cycle: at a political event or rally a politician that a musician dislikes uses one of that musician's songs to get the crowd excited. The musician gets upset and speaks out about it, and maybe even sends a legal threat letter. We've written about this many, many times before going back many years. And in most cases, the complaints are bullshit. Most event venues and and most competent campaigns have the appropriate blanket performance licenses from BMI and/or ASCAP, and that allows them to play whatever they want at the events, and the musicians really can't do much about it (other than complain publicly, which makes lots of news and which is why we're still amazed that campaigns don't first check to make sure they play music of musicians who support them). But there are some rare exceptions to this general rule, and not only have we found one, but it involves quite an impressive legal threat. It appears that on Saturday evening, just hours after 11 people were murdered in Pittsburgh, President Donald Trump decided to still hold a political rally, because when the choice is put in front of Trump between "appropriate silence" and "pointless spectacle that makes Trump feel worshiped" he will always choose the latter*. But at this highly inappropriate rally, Trump apparently played Pharrell Williams' incredibly upbeat earworm of a pop song "Happy." * Hey, I get that some of you are going to be upset about this line, and will come up with all sorts of bullshit rationalizing and excuses for why the rally was appropriate, and all I will say to you is: make better life choices, and maybe, take a serious look at yourself in the mirror and ask "what the fuck happened to me?" And, yes, such a song on such a day at such a stupid rally certainly feels inappropriate to anyone with even the slightest sense of decorum or empathy. But, for Williams, it went a bit further. Because, as reporter Eriq Gardner notes, unlike most popular musicians, Pharrell ditched ASCAP four years ago and moved all his music to Irving Azoff's "Global Music Rights" organization (GMR). GMR is kind of sketchy, and feels like a giant shakedown play for internet sites, but, ignoring that, what is known is that neither the venue nor the campaign have a license from GMR. And that enabled Pharrell's lawyers to send quite the letter to President Trump. It doesn't just talk about the infringement, but the sheer insanity of playing such a song on such a day. Dear Mr. Trump: We write you on behalf of our client, Pharrell Williams, composer and performer of the hit song "Happy." On the day of the mass murder of 11 human beings at the hands of a deranged "nationalist," you played his song "Happy" to a crowd at a political event in Indiana. There was nothing "happy" about the tragedy inflicted on our country on Saturday and no permission was granted for your use of this song for this purpose. Pharrell Williams is the owner of the copyright in "Happy," with the exclusive right to exploit same. Pharrell has not, and will not, grant you permission to publicly perform or otherwise broadcast or disseminate any of his music. The use of "Happy" without permission constitutes copyright infringement in violation of 17 U.S.C. 501. This also violates Pharrell's trademark rights under the Lanham Act. I guess it's possible that Trump could claim fair use in the use of the song, but I doubt that would fly. The trademark claim seems incredibly unlikely, but if the lawyers actually pursued the copyright claim, it seems like they'd have a chance to make it stick. Share on: Puerto Vallarta Revving Up for Winter Tourist Season Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Jalisco has long been famous as the birthplace of tequila and mezcal, but tourism officials are about to begin promoting another, lesser-known agave spirit: raicilla. Javier Aranda Pedrero, director general of the Puerto Vallarta Tourism Board, filled us in on what's planned, as well as other tourism updates from the destination. "We're going to feature raicilla at the International Gourmet Festival," Pedrero says. That event runs from November 23-December 2 in Puerto Vallarta. Sometimes also called "green agave," raicilla has is said to a have a stronger vegetable flavor than other agave-based spirits, such as tequila or smoky mezcal. In addition to the Gourmet Festival promotion, resorts in the Puerto Vallarta area are also working to incorporate it into cocktails. "We're recovering a lot of different, historic recipes from the area," Pedrero says. For clients who wish to try a tasting or distillery tour, two small towns within easy day trip distance of Puerto Vallarta - La Ponderosa and San Sebastian del Oeste - are a good bet. Local destination management companies can make the necessary arrangements, Pedrero says. The move to bring raicilla in the spotlight will cap a strong year for tourism in Puerto Vallarta and the state of Jalisco. "It's been a very good year," Pedrero says, noting that hotel occupancy has been up 4 percent year over year for the first half of 2018, and that arrivals from the United States in particular have grown 50 percent. In terms of air travel, the airport in Puerto Vallarta has seen an increase of almost 4 million passengers over the past three years as airlift has grown. For example, Finnair launched a new flight from Helsinki last year, and this December will see the addition of a new direct flight from Panama. "That really opens up the South American market for us," Pedrero says. From the United States, this year also sees the debut of new flights from San Diego and Los Angeles, as well as additional frequencies from American Airlines. In hotel news, the 55-room, adults-only boutique Hotel Amapa, which is part of Design Hotels, is set to open this winter in the Colonia Amapas neighborhood of Puerto Vallarta. Many of its guest rooms will have private balconies, and there will also be a wellness pavilion for meditation, reflexology and massages on site. iciHaiti - Montreal : Sit-in for a moratorium on deportations to Haiti Dozens of protesters, mostly of Haitian descent, held a rally in front of Citizenship and Immigration Canada offices in Montreal last week to call on the Canadian government to declare a moratorium on deportations to Haiti because of the socio-political instability in Haiti. According to a sit-in organizer, "the federal authorities should not expel Haitian citizens while at the same time they warn Canadians to avoid any non-essential travel to Haiti because of political unrest and the risk of violence" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24903-haiti-politic-canada-concerned-by-the-situation-in-haiti.html adding, "In some cases, these Haitian citizens may not have a place to go or enough money to start a new life [...] Some borrowed money, others are indebted to people in Haiti." Many immigrant Canadians feel that by expelling Haitians in the current situation in Haiti, the Canadian government does not respect its image as a warm and welcoming country .. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24903-haiti-politic-canada-concerned-by-the-situation-in-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24894-haiti-notice-warnings-to-canadians-traveling-to-haiti.html PI/ iciHaiti iciHaiti - Social : Exhibition Dictatorship and resistances As part of the project "Access to Justice and Fight against Impunity in Haiti", led by Lawyers Without Borders Canada, the Knowledge and Freedom Foundation (FOKAL), supported by Global Affairs Canada, will present from November 6 to December 21, 2018 the exhibition "Dictatorship and Resistance". This exhibition traces the history of the Duvalier father and son regime (1957-1986), the crimes and human rights violations perpetrated during these decades, all too often ignored by Haitian youth and which still have repercussions today in Haiti. The fight against impunity and historical revisionism is a fundamental issue in the advancement of responsible and respectful human rights governance and in the creation of a real transitional justice process in Haiti. The exhibition, which will be presented in the FOKAL atrium (143 Christophe Avenue, Port-au-Prince), will be accompanied by related activities : the "32 years after" theater show, hosted by Pinas Alcera, as well as discussions with activists and specialists of the period in different places of the capital. IH/ iciHaiti Nigeria: FAO seeks inclusion of nutrition analysis in Masters' degree curriculum by Juliana Agbo November 05,2018 | Source: AllAfrica The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN-FAO) has called for partnership with the federal government and some universities on the inclusion of food and nutrition security analysis in their Master's Degree curriculum. FAO Country Representative, Mr. Suffyan Koroma, made the appeal in Abuja at the presentation of October 2018 Cadre Harmonised (CH) Analysis Outcome for 16 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Koroma, who was represented by the FAO's Programme and Liaison Officer, Mr. Patrick David, explained that the inclusion of analysis in the higher degree curriculum would facilitate the training of experts in food and nutrition analysis. He said that the training of experts would also ensure the sustainability of the Cadre Harmonised Analysis and boost the gathering of data on food and nutrition in Nigeria. According to him, "FAO Nigeria will continue to provide the technical support for the regular conduct of the Cadre Harmonised Analysis as well as the expansion of the process to the remaining states. "We believe that there is also the need to increase the commitment of the states and federal government to financially support data collection," he said. Koroma, however, pledged that the FAO would continue to support the government by providing emergency and resilient livelihood assistance, including nutritious food crops, cash crops and livestock. The Cadre Harmonised Analysis is facilitated by FAO, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). 2018 AllAfrica Theme(s): Others. The Brazilian coastal community that stood united against a mega thermoelectric plant November 04,2018 | Source: The Beam The year 2018 started with a great celebration for the community of Peruibe, in the Southeast region of Brazil. Home to around 64,000 people, Peruibe is now free from polluting projects. After a complicated legislative process, the municipal council finally approved an amendment to local bylaws that will prevent the construction of a thermoelectric plant in the municipality, which was projected to be one of the 50 largest in the world. This was a big victory for the people, who mobilized and fought for months to protect their home. If materialized, the project would have been one of the largest of its type in an urban area, in a region that is one of the last reserves of continuous Brazilian Atlantic Forest in the world. This victory was only possible thanks to residents and various local groups coming together to put pressure on city councillors to block the project. The community of Peruibe demonstrated awareness and strong articulation against the project since it was first presented to the society. Debating on the amendment to the municipal law started in late 2017 and the fight has been arduous. The amendment had to be presented several times to Peruibes local council, because of obstructionism by some of the councillors opposing the amendment and inexplicable changes of heart by some elected in between sessions. Hundreds of residents attended the voting sessions, pressuring councillors to guarantee the quorum and finally approve the amendment. A month earlier we did not have all the necessary votes, but we were able to reverse the scenario thanks to the people who knew how to demonstrate their will to the councillors, said lawyer Enio Pestana, a member of the Raizes group, one of the movements that started the fight against the thermoelectric. The population of Peruibe made clear what they wanted: true and fair development, with 100% clean, renewable and accessible energy for all. On the final voting session, it was finally unanimously approved. It was an historic day for the future of the city. Hundreds of residents witnessed the vote and could finally celebrate the result. Between laughs, tears of joy, and hugs, everyone knew the value of this victory. While it was not easy, the community never stopped raising its voice and persisted from beginning to end. Indigenous Guarani also strengthened the voices against the power plant, which would directly affect their territories. We do not accept anything that harms our mother Earth. Our mission is to protect our environment and our home, and we will be united to the people fighting this project, said Paje Guaira, leader of the Tanigua village of the Piecaguera Indigenous Land. 2018 Sustainable Enterprises Media, Inc. Theme(s): Communities and Organisations. Imperial Valley News Center Attorney General Sessions Issues Statement on Judicial Ruling Declaring California Senate Bill 50 Unconstitutional Sacramento, California - Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued the following statement regarding the courts ruling in the Eastern District of California declaring California Senate Bill 50 (SB 50) unconstitutional: The courts ruling is a firm rejection of Californias assertion that, by legislation, it could dictate how and when the federal government sells federal land. This was a stunning assertion of constitutional power by California, and it was properly and promptly dismissed by the district judge. It is unfortunate that, in the interim, California forced both the Justice Department and the court to spend valuable time and resources to dispose of its baseless position. This is the third time in the last few months that a federal court has struck down as unconstitutional all or parts of a law that California designed to frustrate federal law. This trend is concerning, and the Department of Justice will continue to vigorously defend the rightful duties of the federal government in court, and ensure that no state, including California, subverts the enforcement of federal law. In April this year, the Department of Justice filed a civil action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California against the State of California, Governor of California Edmund G. Jerry Brown Jr., and the California State Lands Commission, seeking a declaration that California Senate Bill 50 (SB 50), enacted in October 2017, is unconstitutional and seeking an injunction against implementation of this state law. The California law purported to give a state agency the power to block the sale, donation or exchange of federal lands by the federal government to any other person or entity. SB 50 also sought to penalize (up to $5,000) any person who knowingly filed real estate records pertaining to a federal land transfer unless the California government certified that the transfer complies with state law. The District Court for the Eastern District of California found that SB 50 interfered with the federal government's constitutional authority to convey federal land in the State of California. Under a range of federal laws, Congress has empowered federal agencies with the responsibility to determine when, to whom, for what purpose, and under what conditions federal interests in property will be conveyed. Federal conveyances serve a broad range of purposes such as supporting national defense, promoting local economic development, furthering land conservation, or otherwise providing important public benefits. Imperial Valley News Center Remembering USS Cole: One Sailor's Emotional Experience Newport News, Virginia - On a cold January day in Virginia, men and women of the guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cooks (DDG 75) engineering department stood at attention both somber and quiet. The bitter cold chills of the wind broke the silence of their awards-at-quarters on the ships flight deck. While most service members eagerly await receiving awards, this was certainly not true for Electricians Mate 3rd Class John Chavez-Sanchez. This was the day he did not anticipate - being awarded for his bravery and assistance in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on USS Cole (DDG 67) on October 12, 2000. You figure my first NAM [Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal] is that one that I am most excited for, but I didnt smile, said Chief Electricians Mate John Chavez-Sanchez, from Bay Shore, New York, now assigned to USS Gerald R. Fords (CVN 78) engineering department. Nobody smiled. Nobody clapped. Myself and the crew from the Cook didnt want any type of praise. We played a key role, but we didnt want to take any credit. On that fateful day, Cole pulled pier-side in Aden, Yemen to begin refueling. It was mid-day when two suicide bombers pulled a small boat along Coles port side and detonated explosives leaving a 40 foot-by-60 foot hole at the waterline of the ship. Seventeen Sailors died and another 39 were injured. While on its maiden voyage, a mere two nautical miles away, USS Donald Cook got word on the events that had took place. We got sent to GQ [general quarters] and no one knew why at first, said Chavez-Sanchez. I was going through my checklist as the repair locker electrician when the CO [commanding officer] came on the 1MC and announced that the Cole was attacked. He told us, This is what we train for. Get ready for war. Chavez-Sanchez said a quick prayer. Shortly after, the CO announced Cooks air-wing was going to provide air support. A few more hours passed, now he and the engineering department were to muster on that same flight deck in which he was awarded his first NAM. We were asked to volunteer to be a part of the first group to help assist with damage control efforts, said Chavez-Sanchez. Everyone raised their hand. Everyone wanted to help. It was the single most example of comradery I had ever seen. Ten hours after the attack Chavez-Sanchez was on the first rigid-hull inflatable boat to be sent to aid the vulnerable Cole. The waters were clear; there was no debris, said Chavez-Sanchez. You couldnt tell an attack just happened until we passed right by the hole. I could see clear into the ship. Thats when I smelled it the rotting, decaying, foul smell of death. Aboard Cole, Chavez-Sanchez and his group were asked if they could handle the situation. Again, everyone raised their hands in agreement. Some grabbed a flash light or a radio, but all of them applied a small amount of vapor rub right under their noses to combat the smell. We were making our way around to assess what we needed for the damages, said Chavez-Sanchez. The only light or ventilation in the ship came through that hole where the blast happened. We knew we were by the galley; it looked like crumpled up aluminum foil. Then I saw bodies, thats when everything hit me. At that sight, the 21-year-old Chavez-Sanchez realized the magnitude of the situation. He responded with a sense of duty by volunteering for anything he could do fighting fires, dewatering flooded spaces, standing shoring watch, and security watch. However, his primary mission as an electricians mate was to bring up the generators and restore power to the ship. Throughout the day and night, there was constant flooding, said Chavez-Sanchez. We were getting woken up to combat the flooding. It was hard to sleep most nights. Chavez-Sanchez and the many who volunteered from the Cook began a watch rotation of 48-hours on, 48-hours off, serving time and standing watch on both missile-guided destroyers. A week into his new watch rotation, Chavez-Sanchez and his engineering team restored power and ventilation aboard Cole. Two more weeks passed and Chavez-Sanchez and his Cook team finished their damage control efforts and headed back to the Cook permanently. The Norwegian semi-submersible dry-dock ship Blue Marlin came to transport the Cole back to the United States after the on-site repairs. Alongside the Blue Marlin, Cook was again tasked to aid the ship this time escorting Cole back to the U.S. The day we heard USS Cole, underway was emotional for our crew, said Chavez-Sanchez. We all celebrated because we knew we did our job for the ship to be ready to make her way back to the states. Once the Cole was home she began her intensive repairs and eventually became deployable again. After 18 years, I still remember that day, that time period, said Chavez-Sanchez. I carry that story with me. It became a motivation to stay in the Navy and I continue to train everyone around me. Train how you fight became personal to me. Within the same year of the 18-year anniversary, Chavez-Sanchezs story came full circle. While in Norfolk, the Cole was moored on the same pier [as the Ford], said Chavez-Sanchez. I froze for about two minutes. In that time everything rushed back the memories, the emotions. I saw it and I prayed. I didnt want to tell my story because I didnt want the recognition, so I had to keep moving. While Chavez-Sanchez may never forget, he is now ready to share his story so that it may inspire his newest shipmates on the Ford with the comradery and brotherhood he formed with his former shipmates in the wake of the Cole tragedy. Imperial Valley News Center Former Union Treasurer Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement Of Money From A Labor Organization Oakland, California - Susan Elizabeth Kyle pleaded guilty in federal court in Oakland to embezzlement of money from a labor organization by an officer, announced United States Attorney Alex G. Tse and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge John Bennett. The plea was accepted yesterday by the Honorable Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr., U.S. District Court Judge. In pleading guilty, Kyle, 61, admitted to embezzling approximately $490,338 in funds that belonged to the union representing East Bay Regional Parks employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 2428. Kyle served as the Treasurer of AFSCME Local 2428 between 1999 and 2014, with fiduciary responsibility for managing its funds. Kyle admitted she stole the money from AFSCME Local 2428 by instructing a payroll processing company to issue unauthorized payments to herself to which she was not entitled. Kyle admitted that she concealed her embezzlement from AFSCME Local 2428 by preparing reports that did not reflect the true expenditures. On October 5, 2018, Kyle was charged by Information with one count of embezzlement of money from a labor organization by an officer, in violation of 29 U.S.C. 501(c). Under the plea agreement, Kyle pleaded guilty to the count and agreed to pay full restitution to AFSCME Local 2428. Kyle is currently released on bond pending sentencing. Judge Gilliam scheduled Kyles sentencing hearing for February 4, 2019. The maximum statutory penalty for a violation of 29 U.S.C. 501(c) is five years and a fine of $10,000, plus restitution. However, any sentence will be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. 3553. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina McCall is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Vanessa Quant and Katie Turner. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI. Imperial Valley News Center Officials Confirm Recent Sighting in South Carolina of Greg Carlson, Top Ten Fugitive from Los Angeles Wanted for Armed Sexual Assault Los Angeles, California - On September 27th, 2018, FBI Assistant Director in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office Paul D. Delacourt, and Chief Michel Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), announced the addition of alleged sexual predator, Greg Alyn Carlson, to the FBIs list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Today, November 2, 2018, officials are reporting a recently confirmed sighting of Carlson. This information is being shared with the public in order to generate tips that lead to Carlsons arrest. A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered in exchange for information leading to the arrest of Carlson. Approximately two weeks ago, the FBI received information of a confirmed sighting of Carlson in the Mount Pleasant area of South Carolina where Carlson has known ties. Based on this information, investigators believe that Carlson is likely still in the southeast area of the United States. Agents have conducted additional investigation in the area but to date, have not located Carlson. Carlson was seen in a late model white Hyundai Accent vehicle, which he had been driving on previous occasions. The state and number of the license plate on the vehicle seen by eye-witnesses two weeks ago is unclear but investigators suspect Carlson may have stolen a plate from another vehicle. At this time, investigators have reason to suspect that Carlson may be traveling in the states listed below, but have not ruled out travel by Carlson in additional states, nor even that Carlson may have by now crossed the border: South Carolina North Carolina Georgia Florida Alabama Texas A photograph of a vehicle similar to the one Carlson may be driving is being provided. Below is a press release issued on September 27, 2018, when officials in Los Angeles announced that Carlson had been added to the FBIs List of Top Ten Fugitives. Carlson, 46, is the 520th fugitive to be named to the FBIs List of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, which has been in existence since 1950. Carlson is being sought for his alleged involvement in an armed sexual assault in the Los Angeles area. He should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. In July 13, 2017, Carlson allegedly committed a burglary in Los Angeles during which he attempted to sexually assault a woman while using a weapon. A local arrest warrant was issued for Carlson by the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles, on September 6, 2017, and he was charged with burglary, assault with intent to commit rape, and assault with a deadly weapon. He was arrested by the LAPD in September 2017; however, Carlson posted bond and was released. After posting bond, Carlson fled to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. At some point thereafter, investigators believe Carlson left South Carolina with a stolen handgun, a rental car, and a significant amount of cash. Carlson was seen in Hoover, Alabama, on November 22, 2017, where he led police on an erratic, high-speed pursuit that was terminated by the police due to the potential danger to the public. He was later seen in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 28, 2017, and in Daytona Beach, Florida, on November 30, 2017. While the FBI publicizes hundreds of fugitives at any given time, the List of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is reserved for a select few who need to be taken off the streets based on their horrible crimes and where widespread publicity can play an important role, said Assistant Director in Charge Paul D. Delacourt of the FBIs Los Angeles Field Office. Greg Alyn Carlson joins the notorious Top Ten list because he is considered an enemy to the public and we believe his violence may escalate. My hope is that his photograph will be viewed by many on the Internet, on every phone, in every newspaper, and on television sets across the world until he is caught. Based on their investigation, detectives believe Carlson is likely responsible for additional sexual assaults. Anyone who believes they were victimized by Carlson but did not report it at the time is urged to do so by contacting LAPD Robbery Homicide at (213) 486-6910. We believe this collaborative effort will lead to the apprehension of Greg Carlson, an individual who has viciously attacked women and threatened the public safety over the past decade, said Captain Billy Hayes with the Los Angeles Police Departments Robbery Homicide Division. After it had been established that Carlson had fled the state of California, LAPD Detectives requested the assistance of the FBIs Fugitive Task Force in apprehending and returning Carlson to Los Angeles to face prosecution by the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office. On December 12, 2017, a federal arrest warrant was issued by the United States District Court, Central District of California, after Carlson was charged in a criminal complaint with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Carlson may be in possession of a stolen pistol. He was last seen traveling in a stolen white, four-door, 2017 Hyundai Accent rental car with South Carolina license plate NKI-770. Carlson had previously resided in Santa Monica and Redondo Beach, California. Carlson also uses the aliases Greg A. Carlson and Greg Alym Carlson. Carlson has indicated that he will not return to Los Angeles to face prosecution. He is described as follows: DOB Used: November 2, 1971 Place of Birth: Washington, District of Columbia Hair: Brown/Graying Eyes: Green Height: 511 Weight: 170 pounds Race: While Nationality: American As previously indicated, Carlson has been known to travel within Florida, Alabama, and South Carolina. At this time, he could be in any state or may have fled internationally. Investigators do not have a clear understanding of whether Carlson was employed or how he may have earned money, although investigators have information suggesting he has worked as an actor in the past. Additional information and wanted posters in English and Spanish can be found at this link: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten The FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list was established in March 1950. Since then, 486 fugitives have been apprehended or located; 162 of them were apprehended as a result of citizen cooperation. Since its inception, there have been 25 fugitives wanted from the Los Angeles region placed on the list. In addition, 35 fugitives that have been placed on the list were arrested in the Los Angeles region. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading directly to the arrest of Greg Alyn Carlson. Anyone with information concerning Carlson should take no action independently but should immediately contact the nearest FBI office or local law enforcement agency. All information can remain anonymous and confidentiality is guaranteed. Individuals calling from outside of the United States should contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. The FBIs Los Angeles Field Office can be reached 24 hours a day at 888 CANT-HIDE (888 226-8443). This fugitive investigation is being conducted by the FBIs Fugitive Task Force in Los Angeles. The task force is a collaboration that has been in place for more than two decades with full time participation by FBI agents; detectives and officers with the Los Angeles Police Department; agents with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Parole Division; and officers with the Los Angeles County Probation. The task force receives considerable assistance from agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including agents with ICE-Homeland Security Investigations. The FBIs Fugitive Task Force specializes in finding fugitives who are suspected of crimes that occur in the Los Angeles area, or suspects who flee from another jurisdiction to the Los Angeles area. Imperial Valley News Center FTC Halts Purveyors of Sham Health Insurance Plans Washington, DC - At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a federal judge temporarily shut down a Florida-based operation that allegedly collected more than $100 million by preying on Americans in search of health insurance, selling these consumers worthless plans that left tens of thousands of people uninsured. Many of these consumers have incurred substantial medical expenses and have been stuck with thousands of dollars in unpaid medical bills. A federal court temporarily halted the operation pending resolution of the case. The FTC seeks to permanently stop the defendants practices and return money to consumers. In a complaint filed in federal court against Simple Health Plans LLC, the companys owner, Steven J. Dorfman, and five other entities, the FTC alleged that the defendants misled people to think they were buying comprehensive health insurance that would cover preexisting medical conditions, prescription drugs, primary and specialty care treatment, inpatient and emergency hospital care, surgical procedures, and medical and laboratory testing. Consumers who enrolled reported paying as much as $500 per month for what was actually a medical discount program or extremely limited benefit program that did not deliver the promised benefits and effectively left consumers uninsured, the FTC alleged. Many consumers were misled into thinking they had purchased comprehensive health insurance, but when they needed to rely on that insurance, they learned they had none of the promised benefits, said Andrew Smith, the Director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection. The plans defendants were selling are not health insurance and they arent a substitute for health insurance. Get the details in writing and take your time before signing up for any of these plans. According to the FTCs complaint, the defendants behind Simple Health lured consumers through a network of deceptive lead generation websites that claimed to provide information about comprehensive health insurance. On the sites, the defendants falsely held themselves out as experts on and providers of government-sponsored health insurance policies, such as those offered under Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. In many cases, the sites also misleadingly featured the logos of the AARP or well-known insurance carriers, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, when in fact the defendants were not affiliated with such entities. For example, one of the websites, www.trumpcarequotes.com, deceptively claimed to offer Health Insurance for Smart People from the Nations Leading Carriers at Low Affordable Premiums with Prescription Drug Coverage. Another Simple Health website, www.simplemedicareplans.com, promoted Medicare Health Plans for Your Needs and Budget. According to the FTCs complaint, consumers who submitted their contact information to one of the defendants websites or called one of the toll-free phone numbers on the sites ended up on the phone with telemarketers working for the defendants. The telemarketers often falsely identified themselves as insurance agents licensed in the consumers state. The defendants telemarketers led consumers to believe that for a one-time enrollment fee, ranging from approximately $60 to $175, and a monthly payment, ranging from approximately $40 to $500, Simple Health could provide them with a PPO health insurance plan that was comprehensive and widely accepted by doctors in the consumers geographical areas, the FTC alleged. In many cases, they promised that the plans would have no copays or deductibles. Those who enrolled subsequently learned that the plans they had purchased from Simple Health are not comprehensive health insurance and do not provide the promised coverage and benefits. A typical plan provides no coverage for preexisting medical conditions or prescription medications, pays only $50 toward physician visitscapped at three visits per yearand covers a maximum of $100 per day for hospitalization. The maximum benefit a consumer could realize from the plan is $3200 per person, per year, and only if that person were hospitalized for 30 days. The FTC alleged that as a result, tens of thousands of consumers who thought they had purchased comprehensive health insurance found themselves uninsured, some saddled with substantial medical expenses that they assumed would be covered by the purported health insurance they had obtained from Simple Health. On top of that, because the defendants limited benefit plans and discount memberships do not qualify as health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, some people who enrolled were subject to a fee imposed on those who can afford health insurance, but choose not to buy it, the FTC alleged. The defendants are charged with violating the FTC Act and the agencys Telemarketing Sales Rule. The defendants named in the complaint are Steven J. Dorfman, Simple Health Plans LLC, Health Benefits One LLC, Health Center Management LLC, Innovative Customer Care LLC, Simple Insurance Leads LLC, and Senior Benefits One LLC. The Commission wishes to thank the Broward County Sheriffs Office, the Miami-Dade Police Department, The Transportation Security Administration Miami and Fort Lauderdale Office, the IRS Financial Crimes Task Force Orlando Division, and the Dallas County Constable Precinct 3 for their support in this matter. The Commission vote approving the complaint was 5-0. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered a temporary restraining order against the defendants on October 31, 2018, and a preliminary injunction hearing is currently scheduled for November 14, 2018. Man Sentenced To 10 Years For Conspiring To Commit Murder In Aid Of Racketeering Fresno, California - William Lee, 41, of Fresno, was sentenced Wednesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. ONeill to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced. According to court documents, the defendant conspired with other members of the Dog Pound Gangsters (DPG) enterprise to kill a rival gang member for the purpose of gaining or maintaining status within the DPG organization. DPG is a criminal street gang based in southwest Fresno. DPG engaged in criminal activities, including conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, prostitution, drug trafficking, and access device fraud. After DPG member and co-defendant Kenneth Wharry was shot by rival gang members, Lee and others conspired to conduct a retaliatory shooting against rival gang members. The conspiracy culminated in an April l7, 2018, shooting at Fink White Park in Fresno, where a DPG member opened fire in the park. This case is the product of an investigation by the California Department of Justice, California Highway Patrol Special Operations Unit; Fresno Police Department; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations; the Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium (MAGEC); the Fresno County District Attorneys Office; and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kimberly A. Sanchez, Jeffrey A. Spivak, and Christopher D. Baker prosecuted the case. This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reinvigorated PSN as part of the Departments renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorneys Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally based strategies to reduce violent crime. Texas Businessman Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering Charges in Connection with Venezuela Bribery Scheme Houston, Texas - A former procurement officer of Venezuelas state-owned and state-controlled energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), pleaded guilty Tuesday for his role in an international money laundering scheme involving bribes paid by the owners of U.S.-based companies to Venezeulan government officials in exchange for securing additional business with PDVSA and payment priority on outstanding invoices. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick of the Southern District of Texas and Special Agent in Charge Mark Dawson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston Field Office made the announcement. Ivan Alexis Guedez (Guedez), 47, of Katy, Texas, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christina A. Bryan of the Southern District of Texas in Houston to one count of conspiracy to launder money. Guedez is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 20, 2019 by U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller of the Southern District of Texas. According to admissions made in connection with Guedezs plea, Guedez agreed with other PDVSA officials and businessmen who were employed by a Miami-based PDVSA supplier that, in exchange for bribe payments, Guedez and the other PDVSA officials would direct PDVSA business toward the supplier. The co-conspirators who were employed by the PDVSA supplier also received kickbacks. Guedez and his co-conspirators concealed the corrupt payments by, among other things, communicating using fictitious email addresses, creating false invoices to justify the payments, and directing the bribe payments to a Swiss account in the name of a shell company before being disbursed to the co-conspirators. As part of his plea agreement, Guedez has agreed to forfeit the proceeds of his criminal activity. Guedez becomes the latest individual to plead guilty as part of a larger, ongoing investigation by the U.S. government into bribery at PDVSA. Including Guedez, the Justice Department has announced the guilty pleas of a total of 15 individuals in connection with the investigation. HSI Houston is conducting the ongoing investigation with assistance from HSI Boston and Madrid, as well as from IRS Criminal Investigation. Trial Attorneys Jeremy R. Sanders, Sarah E. Edwards and Sonali Patel of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Pearson and Robert S. Johnson of the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristine Rollinson of the Southern District of Texas is handling the forfeiture aspects of the case. The Criminal Divisions Office of International Affairs and the Cayman Islands Mutual Legal Assistance Authority and Office of the Director of Public Prosecution also provided assistance. Panama's Independence Day Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo: "On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, I extend best wishes to the people of Panama as you celebrate 115 years of independence on November 3. "The United States and Panama share a special history of close ties, shared values, and mutual understanding. In my October trip to Panama, I reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to remaining steadfast partners and friends, collaborating to promote thriving and sustained economic growth, regional security, and strong democratic institutions. Panama is not just a key partner but also an increasingly strong regional leader, and the United States applauds Panamas advocacy for democracy in the hemisphere. Let us work together, as we always have, to build on your regional leadership in these areas, shunning corruption and committing to transparency. "We look forward to many more years of friendship and cooperation between our two countries and celebrate with you on this special day." Dominica's Independence Day Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo: "On behalf of the Government of the United States, I offer my congratulations to the people of Dominica as you celebrate 40 years of independence on November 3. "The people of Dominica exemplify strength, perseverance, and determination as your country continues to recover from last years natural disasters. The United States remains a committed partner in supporting your recovery efforts. We look forward to working together to strengthen prosperity in Dominica and throughout the region as we implement the Caribbean 2020 strategy together. "The United States conveys our warmest regards and best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous year to come." In 2009, workout buddies Justin Quinn and Joe Rakoski were in the entrepreneurship program at Towson University, outside of Baltimore, when they went looking for all-natural alternatives to the popular fitness supplements that then dominated the market. They've since built Natural Force with a product line that includes organic protein powders, oils, and teas. The company grew 1,161 percent from 2014 to 2017 and generated $3.4 million in revenue last year, earning it a rank of No. 431 on the 2018 Inc. 5000 list. --As told to Aleanna Siacon Justin: I worked at a GNC, and Joe was a trainer at a gym, and I was bringing in all these supplements that we called "bubble bath." Joe: The "bubble bath" was basically our definition of what the current pre-workout market looked like. It was these bright red or bright blue workout drinks that were supposed to be healthy, but looked like fizzy bubble bath. Justin: We were like, "Man, this stuff can't be good for you." I remember sitting on the weight bench in the gym, and Joe looked at me and said, "Well, man, we should make it." We called a manufacturer and actually borrowed my parents car and drove there to pick it up from them. They thought it was a joke. The guy actually sat us down in a room and demanded that we give him a check for the product before he would even show us the product. Joe: I don't blame him. I mean, a 20- and a 22-year-old showed up at their manufacturing facility. Justin: We brought that product home, carried it up the stairs to our second-floor apartment and got the most basic website you've ever seen. Like, you could pay only with PayPal, but we ended up shipping out. Joe: Six months later, we reordered, and then we reordered again, and we were like, "We're kind of onto something here," and we started branching off into other products. Justin: We actually applied to Shark Tank, and I didn't think anything of it when Joe and I submitted the application, but they said, "You're in. It's down to you and one other person. You need a video in to us at our studio by Thursday." So we put the whole plan together, because they wanted to know what you want the money for, and we realized that we didn't need that much. We were like, "We can find that." We told Shark Tank, "No, thank you," and we asked anybody we knew if they would lend us money to do this. We put in $5,000 each in 2009 when we ordered our first batch of product. Recently, we were able to consolidate a lot of those loans with one backed by the Small Business Administration. Joe: A lot of our friends and family gave us money because they did believe in us, and they did receive interest payments for their money. There was definitely a trust relationship going on as the numbers got larger and larger, and with the SBA loan, we were actually able to pay everybody off. It was an ultimate "thank you." Justin: About three and a half years ago, we really starting cooking with fire. That's when we started our hiring, when we really got serious about our social media and our marketing. Now we have a team of ... How many is it now, Joe? Joe: Six, and then counting independent contractors and others, there's probably almost a dozen people working on this business every single day. Justin: There are people in three different states, different countries, and everyone works remotely. Even Joe and I. Joe is in Maryland and I'm in Florida. We lived near each other in Maryland and we had an office above one of my high-school friend's parent's insurance company, but we got to a point where we both wanted to go different places. Joe: When we communicate daily, we use tools like Slack and Freedcamp Project Management. We're actually planning our second annual summit right now. We fly everybody to one central location, and we spend some time face-to-face, getting to know everybody better. Justin: This year, we're going to hike the Appalachian Trail. If you have a distributed team, one of the keys is getting the right people on the bus. Justin: We hire remotely, and when we do that, one of the first key steps is we'll have them come to Florida to meet with us, to indoctrinate them into our culture. We do some work for a couple days and set some objectives, and then they go back home. We still see each other, but the time that we do see each other is either right when they come on or every year at the summit, and then we go to events throughout the year. Justin: When we started making this company, Joe and I both knew that we didn't want to have a boss. We wanted to be the boss, build a team, and build something that we were really proud of. EXPLORE MORE Inc. 5000 COMPANIES President Donald Trump insists his new North American trade deal will deliver a victory for U.S. factory workers by returning many high-paying jobs to the United States. Maybe. But a review of the agreement suggests that it could also mean higher prices for consumers and more inefficiencies for businesses. And the biggest winners might end up being robots and the companies that make them. As Americans vote in the midterm elections, Trump is heralding the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement as a triumph for his antagonistic trade policy -- an approach he says will usher in "a new dawn for the American auto industry and the American autoworker." The pact, unveiled Sept. 30, does appear to meet some of Trump's goals: It could shift more factory production to the United States, thereby reversing a long-standing flow of jobs to lower-wage Mexico. And it could result in better working conditions and perhaps higher pay for Mexico's long-suffering laborers. But shifting away from a business model that relies on Mexican labor would likely mean higher-priced cars for American consumers. And North America's automakers could become less competitive compared with rivals in Europe and Asia. "It's going to be harder to keep North America competitive as a manufacturing hub," said Michael McAdoo of the Boston Consulting Group. What's more, much of the manufacturing work that does return to the United States would likely be done by robots in America's increasingly automated plants, not by human workers. The deal -- known by its acronym, USMCA -- is meant to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump had long condemned the 24-year-old NAFTA as a killer of American jobs. He even banished its name once the new deal was struck. NAFTA had erased most trade barriers separating the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Trade among the three surged. But many U.S. manufacturers moved factories and jobs to Mexico to capitalize on cheaper labor. Those manufacturers could then ship cars and other goods back to the United States and Canada, duty-free. Trump demanded a new deal more favorable to American workers. Negotiations began in August 2017 and eventually produced USMCA. "These measures will support many hundreds of thousands of American jobs," Trump declared early last month. USMCA isn't a done deal. It has yet to be signed by the leaders or ratified by the legislatures of the three countries. Some Democrats have expressed support for the pact. But if their party regains control of the U.S. House in Tuesday's elections, it's far from clear that its leaders would want to hand Trump a victory. What's more, Canadian and Mexican lawmakers might think twice about ratifying the deal unless Trump frees them from the import taxes he's imposed on steel and aluminum in a separate dispute. To qualify for duty-free benefits, USMCA requires car makers to acquire 75 percent of auto content from within North America -- up from 62.5 percent under NAFTA. That means more content would have to be homegrown in higher-wage North America, not imported more cheaply from elsewhere. At least 40 percent of vehicles would also have to originate in places where workers earn at least $16 an hour. That would likely benefit the United States or Canada -- not Mexico, where auto assembly workers earn an average of just $7.34 an hour and parts workers $3.41 an hour. Gladys Cisneros of the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center, which advocates for unions, said she doubts the $16-an-hour wage requirement would do much for Mexican workers. "Not a single auto parts or auto assembly plant pays that much" in Mexico, Cisneros said. "You're not going to get them... to $16 anytime soon." Tony Payan, director of the Mexico Center at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, noted that for years Mexican governments sought to keep wages low to give their country a competitive edge. "Most American leaders understood that," Payan said. "They simply didn't address it because it was good for business. Cheap labor was good for business." But President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office December 1, wants to reform Mexican labor practices and raise wages. "What Trump is finding here is a more receptive environment in Mexico to do exactly what he wants Mexico to do," Payan said Under USMCA, Mexico is supposed to formally authorize workers to form independent unions. Mexican unions have traditionally been co-opted by employers and the government and done little for workers. Laborers have been fired for trying to bargain on their own for better pay and working conditions. A weak labor movement is one reason NAFTA didn't much help Mexicans despite the influx of jobs there. A study by the Colegio de Mexico found the wage gap between the U.S. and Mexico actually widened under NAFTA. U.S. autoworkers made 5.4 times as much as their Mexican counterparts in 1994. By 2016, they were earning 9.1 times more. Under NAFTA, workers were represented by "bogus trade unions -- very corrupt," said Jesus Seade, who represented the incoming Lopez Obrador administration in the USMCA talks. "Now, all that is going out the window." Well, maybe. Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Videgaray told The Associated Press that the agreement doesn't oblige Mexico to do much beyond implementing a vague constitutional amendment requiring workers to have a say in labor contracts. Whether conditions truly improve for Mexican workers depends on whether the Lopez Obrador administration pursues "robust and really thoughtful labor reform that allows workers to collectively bargain," Cisneros said. In the meantime, businesses are studying the agreement to determine what it could mean for their operations and supply chains. Some companies may move operations from Mexico to the United States. Others might decide the USMCA's duty-free benefits aren't worth the cost of complying with the 75 percent North American content requirement and producing more cars in higher-wage factories. And they have an alternative: They can ignore USMCA rules and just absorb the 2.5 percent car tariff that most countries pay to export to the United States under World Trade Organization rules. It's unclear whether those companies could continue to pay only the 2.5 percent WTO tariff should Trump carry out a threat to impose tariffs of 20 to 25 percent on all autos imported to the United States. The U.S. and Mexico agreed that 2.6 million Mexican cars would be exempt from any such auto tariffs. But whether these exemptions would apply to cars that failed to meet USMCA standards isn't clear. In such ways, the new trade pact -- and any corporate maneuvering to bypass its requirements -- could raise manufacturing costs in North America and put its factories at a disadvantage to Asian and European rivals. "Companies are evaluating where they can produce competitively in order to access emerging markets in Asia, South America and elsewhere," Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in an assessment of the deal. "Clunky new rules and higher costs make America, Mexico, and Canada a considerably less attractive hub." Even if the new pact does help return some production to the United States, it's unclear that it would produce many jobs. America's factories are increasingly automated. "The United States continues to be a manufacturing powerhouse, but manufacturing jobs are increasingly rare," said Rice's Payan. "Robots are doing the work." After studying USMCA, in fact, investment strategists at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute predicted that "the long-term winners will be companies in the automation and robotics space." Amazon is reportedly planning on crowning two winners of the company's search for a second headquarters, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The e-commerce giant "plans to split its second headquarters evenly between two locations rather than picking one city for HQ2," a person familiar with the matter told The Journal. Each location would host roughly 25,000 Amazon employees. According to the source, the decision to have two HQ2 locations is related to the company's ability to recruit enough tech talent. Splitting the second headquarters would also ease issues related to housing, transit, and other issues. Amazon is in the final days of its journey to make a decision, with the company saying its pick will be made before the end of 2018. The company has said it plans to invest over $5 billion in the expansion. Over the weekend, The Journal reported that cities including Crystal City, Virginia, New York City, and Dallas are still in active talks with Amazon regarding HQ2. Amazon did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Update: While ballots are still being counted in some states--making those elections still undecided--the results overall are known. Democrats retook the U.S. House of Representatives, while Republicans maintained control of the Senate. On election day, 36 governorships, the entire House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, and a host of ballot measures are at stake. Which polls beyond your own local races should you be paying the most attention to? Here are five votes that could have big consequences for business owners. Arizona: Health care Love or hate it, if you're interested in the future of the Affordable Care Act, you'll want to watch the U.S. Senate race in Arizona. While the late Senator John McCain (R., Ariz.) famously blocked a repeal of the health law known as Obamacare last year, his successors could play a role in its fate, if given the chance. Representative Martha McSally (R., Ariz.), who is running for the retiring Republican Senator Jeff Flake's seat, voted to repeal the law in the House. As Senator, McSally could once again vote for a repeal should a new bill be taken up. Even if she loses, she may get another shot. Jon Kyl, the Republican Senator who holds McCain's old seat, has said he plans to stay on in that role until January, although he could stay on through 2020. If he leaves in January--and McSally loses her Senate bid--Governor Doug Ducey is expected to appoint her. Update: A week after this year's midterms, McSally conceded to Democratic candidate Krysten Sinema. In December, Arizona Governor Ducey appointed McSally to fill McCain's former senate seat. Arkansas: Minimum wage The outcome of an Arkansas ballot measure to raise the statewide minimum wage could reverberate nationally. Arkansas will vote on Issue 5, which would raise the minimum wage there to $11, from the current $8.50, by 2022. The measure is nearly sure to pass, according to Dean Baker, a senior economist at the nonpartisan Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. Long stalled, U.S. wages seem set to push higher. Giant companies, such as Walmart and Amazon, are playing a role. Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, raised its minimum pay to $11 an hour earlier this year. Last month, Amazon said it would bring its lowest-paid workers to a $15 minimum wage. Missouri voters will vote on whether to boost their state's minimum wage to $12 by 2023, up from $7.85. It's telling that two states in the conservative South are considering the change, Baker says. "The South is the last place on earth you could expect a minimum wage bill to pass," he says. Update: Voters in both Arkansas and Missouri approved ballot measures raising their state's minimum wage. Utah: Marijuana legalization Entrepreneurs in the cannabis business will want to pay attention to the voter initiative in Utah to legalize medical marijuana use. Several states have ballot decisions on marijuana legalization, including North Dakota, which is for recreational use, and Missouri, which is about medical use. However, the Utah vote is seen as pivotal. Under the proposition, patients with such diseases as cancer and HIV would be able to grow up to six cannabis plants. It would also legalize the growth and production of the plant by licensed vendors. While the initiative has been popular, it lost some vigor when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints came out in opposition to the measure. A yes vote would be a big win for the cannabis industry, says Robert Litan, an economist and non-resident senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution.. "If it can pass in Utah, it could probably pass anywhere," he says. Update: Voters in Utah and Missouri approved a measure to allow for medical marijuana use in the state. North Dakotan voters rejected an initiative to approve recreational use. Michigan: Right to work Following right-to-work legislation? Keep an eye on the governor's race in Michigan. Some states are starting to sour on right-to-work laws, which, among other things, prevent unions from issuing contracts or agreements requiring employees to pay union dues. If Michigan Democrat Gretchen Whitmer bests rival Bill Schuette, a Republican and two-term State Attorney General, which some polls expect, she would likely push for a repeal of the law. Whitmer, a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006, helped organize protests of Michigan's right-to-work legislation at the state capitol ahead of its passage in 2012. Currently 27 states have right-to-work laws. But right-to-work laws are vulnerable in some places. Missouri voters approved a recent ballot measure rejecting its right-to-work law in August. "If Democrats were to get unified control [of the Nevada legislature], you could see efforts at repeal in Nevada," says Jacob Smith, a political scientist and lecturing fellow in the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University. Unions are likely to continue to push to suppress further adoption in other states. Lawmakers in Ohio and New Hampshire, for example, have failed to pass right-to-work legislation. Update: Whitmer bested Schuette in the race for Michigan governor, with 53.1 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent going to her opponent. Nevada: Immigration If you're an immigrant--or you employ immigrants--Nevada's U.S. Senate race is clutch. In Nevada, a state where nearly one in five people were born outside the U.S., and which went to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, incumbent Republican Senator Dean Heller is facing tough odds. To win, the Hispanic vote will be pivotal, and these voters will want to see action on immigration. Heller has expressed support for DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which defers the deportation of "Dreamers," those who moved to the U.S. as children. But it's unclear whether he would favor new legislation. In 2010, he voted against the DREAM Act, which would have given Dreamers a pathway to permanent residency. His challenger, Rep. Jacky Rosen (D., Nev.), would likely vote for the program if elected. Rosen has called for a comprehensive bipartisan solution that provides a pathway to citizenship. Moreover, the upset could signal a shift in political winds, offering a renewed emphasis on larger immigration reforms. "If there is a clear mandate that comes out of the elections, then maybe things change," says Ronil Hira, an associate professor of political science at Howard University, where he studies high-skilled immigration policies. "At this stage, [business owners] are facing huge uncertainty--and that's not good for them or the U.S economy. There should be some kind of resolution. Not having any resolution is the worst thing." Mac Miller's cause of death has been revealed. The rapper, who died aged 26 last month, passed away due to a drug overdose, according to a coroner's report published on Monday. Miller died of "mixed drug toxicity" with fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol in his system, the Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner said in a release. Recommended Donald Glover and Miguel lead tributes at Mac Miller memorial concert An autopsy was conducted on 8 September, the day after his death. The manner of death has been certified as an accident. Miller, whose full name was Malcolm James McCormick, was found unresponsive at his home on Valleycrest Drive in Studio City. The rapper had openly discussed his struggles with substance abuse throughout his career. Twitter tributes to Mac Miller "It started by me just sitting inside all day and then it's like, then you get bored. Then you're like, 'Well I could just be high, and I could have a whole adventure in this room,'" he told The Fader in 2016. "I'm always like, if someones like, 'You wanna try this?' I'm like, 'Yeah sure.' And then it just kind of f***s you up when you have a bunch of money because you try a drug, you like it, then you can buy a lot of it. So, I went through about everything." Miller released his last album, Swimming, the month before his death. His memory was honoured last week during a tribute concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Chance the Rapper, John Mayer, Travis Scott, SZA and Ty Dolla $ign were among those who performed during the event, which benefited the recently formed Mac Miller Circles Fund for youth from underserved communities. If you or anyone you know is dealing with substance abuse issues, you can find help: https://www.talktofrank.com https://www.mind.org.uk Claims by the Indonesian government that populations of critically endangered orangutans are recovering have been dismissed by scientists as impossible. A recent report from the nations environment ministry concluded orangutan populations in Indonesia had increased by more than 10 per cent in just two years. However, international scientists have concluded these figures are not accurate, and the great apes continue to be threatened by deforestation and hunting. Dr Erik Meijaard, from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said all three species of orangutan are on a steep decline. Their numbers are not increasing as indicated by the Indonesian government report," he said. One recent study concluded that the island of Borneo lost more than 100,000 individuals between 1999 and 2015. Another found the population had dropped by a quarter in a decade. Activists warn food and toiletry giants are failing on pledge to save orangutans, as Indonesia steps up palm oil output Surveys have found that vast swathes of the apes habitat has been destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations, a change that is bound to affect their numbers. Dr Meijaard and colleagues applauded the Indonesian authorities for transparently documenting the impact of forest management on wildlife, but questioned the methods used. Not only did the 10 per cent rise far exceed the governments own target of a 2 per cent population increase, it was also reported for 19 other priority species for conservation, including Sumatran rhinoceros. British mammals fight for survival Show all 11 1 /11 British mammals fight for survival British mammals fight for survival The Mammal Societys assessment of Britains mammal populations is the first such review in over 20 years. The results reveal winners and losers, and highlight some of the key threats facing the countrys wildlife such as habitat loss, invasive species and the spread of diseases. British mammals fight for survival Hedgehogs Populations of the much-loved insectivore may have declined by as much as 73% Richard Bowler British mammals fight for survival Greater mouse-eared bats Only one of these flying mammals has been recorded in the whole country, in a railway tunnel in West Sussex Andrew Harrington British mammals fight for survival Rabbits Despite being a common sight across the countryside, rabbits have decreased in number by nearly 10% Danni Thompson British mammals fight for survival Black Rats Though not generally considered threatened animals, black rats number have collapsed in recent years due largely to pest control measures. However their far more common cousins, the brown rats, are thriving. Tim Melling British mammals fight for survival Red Squirrels Though it is difficult to measure changes in squirrel numbers, their range has shrunk considerably due largely to the spread of squirrel pox virus by invasive grey squirrel Alistair Marsh British mammals fight for survival Wildcats There has been a marked decline in wildcat populations, with only around 200 left in Scotland Rachel Profit British mammals fight for survival Badgers Due to legal protections badgers have recovered from past persecution and the density of their setts (holes) has increased by over 100% in recent decades Phil Mumby British mammals fight for survival Otters The banning of persistent organic pesticides has had a positive population effect on otters Allan Chard British mammals fight for survival Fallow Deer The 2018 review estimates a population size of fallow deer almost three times the size of that estimated in the 1995 review a positive trend that is seen in other deer species. James Shooter British mammals fight for survival Eurasian Beavers These aquatic mammals were nearly extinct in Europe at the start of the 20th century, but their reintroduction to the UK have been largely successful Paul Scott The scientists said such positive progress was simply not feasible given known breeding rates and threat levels. To track orangutan numbers, the government used information from nine monitoring sites, in which the 2015 population was recorded as 1,153 orangutans. They then estimated the population doubled to 2,451 individuals by 2016. Using this figure, officials then extrapolated a 10 per cent figure for all orangutans across Indonesia. Recommended Borneo has lost half its orangutans due to hunting and habitat loss But the scientists stated it is biologically impossible for an orangutan population to double its size in a year. They attribute some of the recorded rises to orangutans being moved between national parks, an act which would clearly mean loss in one area at the same time as gain in another. Finally, they noted the government-sampled area covered less than 5 per cent of the Bornean and Sumatran orangutan ranges, and none of the Tapanuli orangutan habitat, making the governments conclusions scientifically unjustified. The report, which was supported by the UNs Food and Agricultural Organization and Norways International Climate and Forest Initiative, will now inform the development of a 10-year action plan for orangutan conservation. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Dr Meijaard added: If the government thinks that orangutan populations are increasing, it calls for completely different strategies compared to those required for dealing with rapidly decreasing populations. It is important that the government realises that populations remain in decline. Therefore, a new approach to orangutan conservation is needed. The scientists pointed to the Indonesian governments recent successes in implementing policies to reduce fires and restore peatlands, and said they must step up to meet the challenge of orangutan conservation in a similar way. Their analysis was supported by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and published in the scientific journal Current Biology. The Independent has contacted the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry for comment. Along with polar bears and elephants, orangutans are the poster children of global wildlife decline. In photos their sad, adorable, and very human faces gaze out at us from the splintered wreckage of a forest cut down to make way for palm oil plantations. So it caused some surprise when the Indonesian government recently announced these animals are in fact bouncing back their populations increasing by 10 per cent within the space of just two years across Indonesias forested islands. It certainly surprised wildlife scientist Erik Meijaard, who together with a small team of colleagues has written a letter explaining categorically why they think the Indonesian authorities are wrong. They say a rosy picture has been painted based on unrepresentative data and wild assumptions the orangutan numbers reported by the government were biologically impossible. The ozone layer is finally beginning to heal from all the damage caused by aerosol sprays and other man-made chemicals, a new United Nations report has revealed. The protective shield in Earths atmosphere had been thinning out before scientists raised the alarm about the impact of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the 1980s. As a result of bans introduced by global governments, the upper ozone layer above the Northern Hemisphere should be completely restored in the 2030s. A gaping hole in the ozone over the Antarctic wont disappear until later sometime in the 2060s, according to a scientific assessment released on Monday at a conference in Quito, Ecuador. The ozone layer in the Southern Hemisphere should be repaired by mid-century. Its really good news, said report co-chairman Paul Newman, chief Earth scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. If ozone-depleting substances had continued to increase, we would have seen huge effects. We stopped that. 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 The ozone layer starts around six miles above the Earth and protects the planet from the Suns cancer-causing ultraviolet rays. Use of CFCs in aerosol sprays and refrigerator coolants began eating away at the ozone in the 1970s. But in 1987, countries around the world agreed in the Montreal Protocol to phase out CFCs and businesses came up with replacements for spray cans and other forms of the harmful chemicals. At its worst in the late 1990s, about 10 per cent of the upper ozone layer was depleted. Evidence presented by the authors shows that the ozone layer in parts of the stratosphere has recovered at a rate of 1 to 3 percent per decade since 2000, said the UN Environment and the World Meteorological Organization. If nothing had been done to stop the thinning, the world would have destroyed two-thirds of its ozone layer by 2065, said Mr Newman. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events However, the University of Colorados Brian Toon, a climate scientist who was not part of the UN report, urged caution. We are only at a point where recovery may have started, said Mr Toon. One potential problem is that new technology has found an increase in emissions of a particular kind of banned CFC in east Asia, the report noted. And replacements now being used to cool cars and refrigerators need to be replaced themselves with chemicals that dont make global warming worse, Mr Newman said. An amendment to the Montreal Protocol that goes into effect next year would cut the use of some of those gases. I dont think we can do a victory lap until 2060, Newman said. That will be for our grandchildren to do. Additional reporting by agencies Wind turbines can act as top predators in ecosystems by driving down populations of birds and triggering knock-on effects across food chains, according to a new study. Scientists found that predatory raptor birds were four times rarer in parts of an Indian mountain range covered in wind turbines, suggesting they were avoiding the structures. The same areas saw an explosion in numbers the raptors prey, fan-throated lizards, which also became more confident and less scared of humans due to the lack of predation. We have basically added a new apex predator a wind turbine, Dr Maria Thaker from the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru told The Independent. What that predator does is remove the level below it not kill it, but the outcome is the same. These cascading effects on ecosystems suggest that care should be taken to ensure that wind turbines do not have dangerous and far-reaching consequences for nature. Scientists have become increasingly aware of the impact these massive structures can have on wildlife, with studies showing birds and bats can be killed or scared away by their spinning blades. 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke filled with the carbon that is driving climate change drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan However, this wind power playing a significant role in driving the transition away from fossil fuels to reduce the impact of climate change, experts say there is a need to establish a compromise and ensure turbines are built in areas with the lowest impact possible. The bottom line for me is that I will pick wind energy over fossil fuels any day, said Dr Thaker. We just have to be smart about where we put them, so can we minimise our impact on the ecosystem by picking areas that are not unique in ways that we cannot replace. She suggested putting wind turbines in places that we have already disrupted, such as on top of buildings, and said there must be a dialogue between ecologists and the renewables industry. Recommended Wind power overtakes nuclear in UK for first time Dr Thakers findings were published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. In the UK, the RSPB has examined the issue of wind farms and concluded this kind of strategic approach is required to ensure that harm is kept to a minimum. While noting that climate change poses the single greatest long-term threat to our wildlife, they say wind farms should be located away from major migration routes and important feeding, breeding and roosting areas of vulnerable bird species. Wind farms, while they have a crucial role in mitigating the effects of climate change, must be built in the right places so they dont harm bird populations, said Dr Aly McCluskie, a conservation scientist at the RSPB. In places such as the North Sea, we are beginning to see an unprecedented industrialisation of the marine environment. The cumulative effects of ever more poorly sited wind farms are likely to have dire consequences for our seabirds, adding to the pressures from a changing climate. It is a picture that at first glance looks like just another example of the kind that brighten up fridges across Britain, stuck there by proud parents to celebrate the work of their son or daughter. But this is no typical primary school drawing. Black-clad stick figures patrol the street in an armed truck as prisoners dressed in orange kneel in front of sword and pistol-waving jihadis and the flag of Isis waves above. It provides a harrowing insight into the horrors that its 12-year-old artist has already had to endure. For Ahmeds school is not in the UK but in a displacement camp in northern Iraq. He is a Yazidi, and his family were among those who fled as Isis overran their communitys ancient city of Sinjar in August 2014. It was an assault that saw many of Isiss most barbaric excesses. Some 7,000 women were seized and taken into captivity as sex slaves. The total number of Yazidis killed is still not known as mass graves continue to be uncovered. Recommended Vanessa Kirby calls on PM to support children traumatised by war Four years later, many of the children in the 6,000 families now living in United Nations tents at the camp outside the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, in Kurdistan, are still at risk of being traumatised by the memory of that time. It is why War Child, the UK charity The Independent and Evening Standard are supporting in our Learn to Live campaign, is running special schools at the camp. One lesson encourages the children to address what they experienced through the pictures they draw. What came to my mind I drew as this is the reality of what happened to us, said Ahmed, who dreams of being a professional artist when he grows up. A lot of children draw what happened to them to express what they feel. The top section of his picture shows Sinjar before Isis came, the middle what unfolded while they were there, and the bottom Ahmeds hope of how Sinjar will be again once he and the other families feel safe enough to return. The Evening Standards editor, George Osborne, travelled to Iraq to visit War Childs schools for refugee children so he could see for himself how our Learn to Live campaign is impacting on their lives. It has already seen more than 330 British schools sign up to twin with a school abroad, has raised up to 1m to support children in war zones, and launched a petition to demand the British government act to address the mental health challenges these children now face. A London school that joined the initiative, Betty Layward Primary School in Stoke Newington, has been twinned with a War Child school in one of the northern Iraq displacement camps. It is for families who fled Mosul when vigilante mobs roamed the city after it descended into chaos as soldiers fought brutal street battles with Isis militiamen to end Isis control. Osborne brought with him letters from Betty Layward school, and showed a video of the children in London talking about how they wanted to know more about the Iraqi schoolchildrens lives. Learn to Live: Joss Stone says The Independent's campaign teaches children around the world to 'empathise' with each other The two schools have already exchanged examples of their favourite playground games, with the children at Betty Layward providing a step-by-step guide to their favourites including Musical Chairs, Grandmas Footsteps and Cut the Cake. Almost 40 Iraqi children were present as Osborne read them the latest letters, and they immediately started to decide what to write back to their new friends in London. Despite the fact they are living so far from here, in such a faraway place, they have not forgotten about us, said one of the students, 14-year-old Mohammed. It gives me hope for the future. War Childs chief executive Rob Williams, who accompanied Osborne on the visit, said he had been touched by how excited the Iraqi children were to have further contact from the UK. Its been genuinely life affirming during the Learn to Live campaign to see children in London get to know those we support in war zones and develop a deeper sense of empathy and understanding for their friends abroad, he said. Seeing the sheer delight and excitement from the children in Iraq made it feel more real, and I know that this will be an experience these children will be able to cherish for years to come. As Remembrance Day approaches, many people choose to wear a red poppy to commemorate the soldiers who have died in war. It is worn as a symbol of memory and hope, for those who gave their lives in battle. A poppy is worn is because, despite years of fighting and destruction of the countryside landscape in western Europe during World War One, poppies continued to grow. But today, some people choose to wear white, purple and black poppies instead. Why do some people feel uncomfortable wearing a red poppy? Some people believe that the red poppy has become politicised over the years. When it was first adopted, it represented mourning and served as a pledge that war must never happen again. However, in recent years it has increasingly become utilised by political organisations, including Britain First, to promote their cause. Others choose to eschew wearing poppies because of poppy policing or poppy fascism in which people are lambasted for not wearing the flower. In Northern Ireland, for example, it became regarded as a Protestant Loyalist symbol because of its connection with British patriotism, Peace Pledge Union (PPU), a pacifist organisation, says on its website. A growing number of people have been concerned about the poppys association with military power and the justification of war. The Royal British Legion has a neutral attitude towards the alternative symbol. The organisations website says: We have no objection to white poppies, or any group expressing their views. We see no conflict in wearing the red poppy alongside the white poppy. We do ask that the items are not offered alongside each other however as this would confuse the public. What are white poppies and why do people wear them? The White Poppy symbolises the belief that there are better ways to resolve conflicts and embodies values that reject killing fellow human beings for whatever reason (Nankai/Wikimedia Commons) While the red poppy is worn specifically in honour of the armed forces and is distributed by the Royal British Legion, the white poppy, given out by the PPU. According to the PPU, it is intended to remember all victims of all wars, rather than just those in which British service people were involved. It also demonstrates a commitment to peace and to challenging any attempt to glamourise or celebrate war. The white poppies were first conceived by the Co-operative Women's Guild - a national organisation set up to provide women working in co-operatives a voice - in 1933, and they became used by non-violence and faith organisations. They were also frequently worn by the widows and children of dead soldiers. While it is common to see red poppies worn in the UK during the Remembrance period, with millions sold each year, only around 100,000 white poppies are sold annually and they are more difficult to get hold of. You can buy white poppies from the PPU website here and red poppies from the Poppy Shop here. What do purple poppies mean? A field of purple poppies (Getty Images/iStockphoto) The purple poppy is worn in remembrance of animals that served and lost their lives during war. Horses and dogs were used during wartime to haul weapons and supply carts, while carrier pigeons transported messages between home regiments and those on the front line. Animal Aid, a charity that campaigns to end animal abuse, has created a purple paw badge. The organisation aims to rewrite the narrative of animals as valiant servant of people, and that the badge is a symbol of how they were exploited by humans during wartime. You can buy a purple paw badge here. What do black poppies mean? A Black poppy remembers African/Black/Caribbean/Pacific Islands communities that served in wars (BlackPoppyRose.org) The black poppy, launched in 2010 by Selena Carty, acknowledges the contributions that African, Black, Caribbean and Pacific Islands communities have made to various wars since the 16th century. The Black Poppy Rose organisation said the poppy signifies pride, honour and glory. Black Poppy pins and wreaths can be bought from the organisations website, with proceeds going towards the collection, documenting and preserving of untold narratives of the different communities. You can shop the collection here. The mysterious rock that flew past Earth could actually have been an alien spacecraft sailing past us using light, according to a new paper. When Oumuamua flew past Earth, scientists rushed to learn about it: it was the first known object ever to have made it into our solar system from another. But as they scrambled to research it, the rock made its way out of the other side of our solar system, giving researchers only a glimpse to make the most of. In that short time, astronomers established that the object was moving strangely. It was spinning very quickly as it flew through the solar system, and seemed to speed up rather than slow down as it went. 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 Now a new paper suggests that could be because the object is acting as a "light sail", gliding through space and using the sun as its energy source. If so, that might have happened by accident or the object might in fact be a spacecraft made by an alien race, they said. Recommended Alien asteroids could have brought life to Earth from space The object might be "a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilisation", the researchers write. It is not the first time that astronomers have suggested the rock could potentially be an alien spacecraft. Soon after it was discovered, researchers with the Breakthrough Listen project announced they would be monitoring it and seeing if it was sending out radio signals. The new study, written by Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb from the Harvard Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, looks at the way that solar radiation could be used to power the object as it flies through space. They calculate that it would have to be very thin but very wide and that such a shape would be possible. If they are right that the object is being propelled by radiation pressure from the sun, then it will be a breakthrough even if it is entirely natural. Such an object would be of a kind never before seen, most likely formed by an entirely unknown process happening deep in space. But it might in fact be artificial in origin, they write. "One possibility is that Oumuamua is a lightsail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment", the authors claim, and it might be unused debris that has been thrown out into space from a planetary system. Such an explanation would account for the various strange characteristics of Oumuamua, including the unusual shape it seems to have. Scientists on Earth have already looked to develop that kind of technology, which would be used to make tiny spacecraft that could be shot through space at intense speed and be pushed only by light. It might already have been developed elsewhere, they write, and could be used for transporting cargo between planets or even between stars. But even more strange is a theory that the rock could have been sent here on purpose. "Alternatively, a more exotic scenario is that Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization," they write. Oumuamua is now too far away from Earth for scientists to understand any more about it. But more could be found by looking into the solar system for more objects of this type, the authors say which could happen more in coming years, as new ways of surveying the sky are turned on. The term "plus-size" has once again come under scrutiny after Hungarian model Barbara Palvin announced her appointment as a "Victoria's Secret Angel", prompting fans to praise her as the lingerie label's "first plus-size" model. But critics have been quick to point out that, as a UK size eight, the 25-year-old is not in fact plus-size. The term also made headlines last November, when Rebel Wilson proudly claimed to be the first ever plus-sized girl to be the star of a romantic comedy. Speaking on The Ellen DeGeneres show, the Australian actor was talking about her role in the film Isnt It Romantic, which she also produced, but she was widely criticised after viewers pointed out that both Queen Latifah and MoNique had fronted rom-coms before. Lets please not allow this business to erase our talent with giving grey areas and technicalities, MoNique wrote in a tweet addressed to Wilson. Take a moment and know the history, she continued, DONT BE A PART OF ERASING IT. I wish you the best. Wilson replied by taking back her comments, writing: it was never my intention to erase anyone elses achievements and I adore you and Queen Latifah so so much x I support all plus size ladies and everything positive we are doing together. But what exactly does plus-size mean and where did the term come from? What is plus-size? Plus-size means different things to different people. In fashion terms, it is used to refer to models who are above a size eight, though this definition is heavily disputed and steeped in controversy, with body positivity campaigners pointing out that most plus-size clothing doesnt start until a size 16. A number of famous models have been labelled plus-size, including Kate Upton, Ashley Graham and Tess Holliday. Its used less frequently in film and TV, but some actors have also been described as plus-size, such as Gabourey Sidibe and Melissa McCarthy. Evidently, Wilson herself also identifies as plus-size. In 2016, Amy Schumer criticised Glamour for inferring that she was plus-size by including her in a special "Body Issue" of the magazine that also featured McCarthy and Adele. "Young girls seeing my body type thinking that is plus size? What are your thoughts? Mine are not cool glamour not glamorous," the Trainwreck actor wrote on Instagram. The magazine eventually issued an apology to Schumer. Where did it come from? The label plus-size is thought to have originated in the 1970s when modelling agencies began taking on models who didnt conform to the typical size requirements imposed upon them by the industry. In 1978, the major US agency Ford Models started representing plus-size women. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Then, in 1994, New York-based agency Wilhelmina launched its 10/20 division, which was recently rebranded as W Curve, to specifically accommodate clients requesting plus-size models. Now, there are a number of specialist agencies dedicated to representing plus-size models, such as Milk, who count Tess Holliday and Robyn Lawley as some of the most prolific names on their books. Why do body positivity advocates reject it? Some people find the term plus-size problematic because it is sometimes used to mean someone who is larger than average, which prompts the thorny question of what size you define as average. Speaking to The Independent, body acceptance campaigner Clementine Prendergast explains why she refrains from using the term, which she argues doesn't inherently promote body positivity. Any kind of labelling puts people into boxes and then they must craft their identity around these definitions. In the case of actresses - can we not focus on their talent and their fit for the role, rather than fetishise their body size? she says. Meanwhile, style blogger Stephanie Yeboah, who refers to herself as plus-size on Twitter, doesnt see anything wrong with the term because she associates it solely with clothing rather than identity. "I dont really have a strong opinion on plus-size, as it doesnt really hold that much meaning to me," she tells The Independent. I identify with fat more than anything." More than 100 female politicians from around the world will gather in the House of Commons chamber on Thursday for a conference to celebrate the centenary of womens suffrage in the UK. Female parliamentarians will come together to acknowledge the historical landmark in a bid to address some of the issues facing women around the globe. The fundamental aim of the event, according to the minister for women and equalities, Penny Mordaunt, who will make a speech on the day, is to make womens empowerment a global priority. Recommended Five incredible women who deserve to be commemorated with blue plaques The event, named the International Women MPs of the World, will gather prolific politicians from across the globe, including Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, the first female speaker of the Bangladeshi parliament and Ya Kumba Jaiteh, who is a leader of the Gambias female lawyers association. British MPs expected to be in attendance include the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, the leader of the Commons, Andrea Leadsom and Dawn Butler, the shadow equalities minister. In her opening speech, Mourdant will highlight what needs to be done at a governmental level in order to achieve gender equality. The day will then split into morning, mid-morning and afternoon sessions, the first of which will pay tribute to women who have helped shape the political agenda in recent years. In the mid-morning session, participants will address different issues facing female politicians, such as bullying and harassment. This will be followed by an afternoon policy session which will examine tackling gender inequality through promoting womens economic empowerment, ending violence against women and girls, championing access to voluntary family planning, and breaking the barriers to girls education. The event almost wasnt allowed happen, after the Tory MP Christopher Chope shouted object when it was first mentioned in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Mims Davies in July, however, he was overruled after a spokesperson for Theresa May voiced support for the conference. Recommended Shortlist announced for novels which do not feature female violence Chopes objection came just a few weeks after he sought to block a bill that would see upskirting - whereby someone takes an unsolicited photograph up a womans skirt - become a criminal offence. After Chope was widely criticised by campaigners, the government announced it would be taking on the bill and its expected to pass through parliament soon. But the International Women MPs of the World isn't the only parliamentary event celebrating women's suffrage this month. On 21 November, an event named Ask Her To Stand, will see women across the UK flock to Westminster in a bid to inspire others to stand for elected office, marking 100 years since the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 was passed, which allowed women to be elected into the House of Commons. The event will be co-hosted by Harriet Harman, MP for Camberwell and Peckham and Labours former deputy leader. The trained solicitor has been a prolific campaigner for womens rights throughout her political career and is the longest-serving female MP. It has been organised by a number of women's rights groups, including the Jo Cox Foundation, 50:50 Parliament, Fawcett Society and Centenary Action Group. It will take the form of a conference with a full programme of events to discuss issues such as bullying, harassment and the need to empower female MPs. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events One panel event, hosted by activist Helen Pankhurst, Conservative MP Vicky Ford and Labour MP Rosie Duffield, will give attendees the opportunity to meet female MPs and discuss how women are making a difference in Westminster. Other sessions will examine topics such as family planning and ending violence against women. Women can apply to attend as delegates by contacting their MP and asking for an invitation. Confidence among UK services firms slumped to its lowest since the aftermath of the Brexit referendum in October, the latest survey snapshot of the sector showed. The Purchasing Managers Index indicated that companies expectations for stronger activity over the next 12 months in October were the weakest since July 2016. The overall activity index dropped to 52.2 in the month, the weakest since March, and below City of London analysts expectations of 53.3. The disappointing server sector numbers bring mounting evidence that Brexit worries are taking an increasing toll on the economy, said Chris Williamson of IHS Markit, which compiles the PMI survey. Along with the October construction and weak manufacturing PMIs, released last week, the latest services reading is consistent with overall quarterly rate of UK GDP growth slowing to just 0.2 per cent. That would be down from a rate of 0.7 per cent in the three months to August. Weakest since July 2016 Services account for around 80 per cent of UK GDP. The PMI covers sectors such as transport, communication, business services, hotels and restaurants, but not retail. The services PMIs shortfall in October ... adds to evidence that the economy is heading for a weak end to the year, due to slowing global growth and heightened risk of a no-deal Brexit, said Samuel Tombs of Pantheon. Until the risk of a no-deal Brexit lifts we still expect to wait until the end of Q1 [2019] growth in economic activity looks set to remain lacklustre. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events In last weeks Budget the chancellor, Philip Hammond, suggested that if the government successfully concluded a withdrawal agreement with the European Union in the coming weeks, the economy could get a boost. The Office for Budget Responsibilitys current forecast is for GDP growth to come in at just 1.3 per cent in 2018 and the Bank of England warned last week that many firms are freezing investment due to concerns over the possibility of a no-deal Brexit. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new treatment using opioid painkiller medicine that is one thousand times as strong as morphine and five to ten times as strong as fentanyl. The treatment, called Dsuvia, is a pill containing 30 microgrammes of a synthetic opioid called sufentanil, which was approved in 1984 for use in injections. Dsuvia will not be legally available outside of a hospital setting. The FDA published a long statement on their decision to approve the drug in the midst of an opioid crisis. According to Healthline, Pamela Palmer co-founded the company that created Dsuvia, to address the issue of doctors administering doses of painkillers that were too high. Because the drug is given in tablet form to dissolve under a patients tongue, Ms Palmer said it reduced the risk of a doctor over-administering an intravenous drug and accidentally causing their death. The new treatment makes it easier to take opioid painkillers, and the decision to approve it is a controversial one, as opioids are known for being highly addictive and dangerous. Data suggests that opioids killed nearly 49,000 Americans in 2017, whereas gun violence killed fewer than 39,000. (Most gun violence deaths are suicides.) The US Department of Health and Human Services has declared the opioid epidemic a National Emergency. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Massachusetts senator Ed Markey has criticised the decision to approve the drug, claiming that abusing opioids will be even easier in the form of a tablet. Although it is only approved for use in hospitals, Mr Markey fears that the drug could end up in recreational markets. He called Dsuvia a new super-charged painkiller that would only worsen the opioid epidemic. Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a third fatal stabbing in south London in less than 72 hours. The suspects, aged 19 and 21, were detained following a knife attack in Samos Road, Anerley, at around 12.30pm on Sunday. A 22-year-old man, who was found by emergency services at the scene suffering from stab wounds, was later pronounced dead. The Metropolitan Police said enquiries to establish the victims identity continue in order to inform his next of kin. Lewisham West and Penge MP Ellie Reeves said she was devastated to hear of what was a second fatal stabbing in her constituency in the space of three days. I am waiting for further details but my thoughts are with the victim and their family, she wrote on Twitter. This has to stop. The killing is the third fatal knife attack in south London in a matter of days, following the death of 15-year-old Jay Hughes in Bellingham on Thursday evening and Malcolm Mide-Madariola, 17, outside Clapham South station on Friday. Police have yet to make an arrest in connection with either killing. The latest stabbings come towards the end of what has been a year of violence in the capital, with the Met forced to open more than 100 murder investigations. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events London mayor Sadiq Khan has previously blamed rising knife crime on 700m cuts to police budgets in the city over seven years, which is expected to be trimmed further still in coming years. On Friday, Mr Khan announced the latest measure in the public health approach to tackling violence, with a review of the most serious offences since 2014 to discover the trends behind attack. Met commissioner Cressida Dick said on the same day that forces must focus on traditional threats to community safety such as serious violence and drug gangs rather than non-criminal acts of misogyny. Remember, remember, the fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot! We see no reason, Why gunpowder treason, Should ever be forgot! Every 5 November we remember the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 a thwarted act of terror in which a cabal of Catholic conspirators planned to blow up the House of Lords to rid England of King James I. The plot is commemorated every autumn with the burning of an effigy of Guy Fawkes, its mastermind, an oddly pagan act of gloating sanitised by the addition of fireworks, sparklers and toffee apples. The scholarly and superstitious James VI of Scotland had ascended to the English throne in 1603 following the death of Elizabeth I, ending the reign of the Tudors and uniting the monarchies of the two nations as Britains first Stuart king. Had they succeeded in assassinating the Protestant James at the state opening of Parliament, the plotters, led by Fawkes and Robert Catesby, hoped to install the Catholic Philip III of Spain in his stead. James himself was broadly sympathetic to Catholics as both his mother and his wife, Mary Queen of Scots and Anne of Denmark, were of the faith, but the prevailing climate in England was hostile. Recusants who refused to attend Church of England services on a Sunday were fined 20 a month. Catholic hopes of a more tolerant England under the king were dashed when he announced his utter detestation of its adherents in February 1604 following the foiling of the Bye and Main Plots against him. The former saw Catholic agitators plan to kidnap him, the latter to replace him with his cousin, Lady Arabella. Catesby, a nobleman who had been pardoned for his part in the Earl of Wessexs abortive coup detat of 1601, had visited Spain in a bid to encourage Philip to invade England but was unsuccessful. Frustrated, he returned to London and recruited 12 men to carry out an attempt on Jamess life. One of these was Fawkes, a zealous Catholic convert from York who had fought for Spain against rebellious Dutch Protestants in the Low Countries during the Eighty Years War. Guy Fawkes (Hulton Archive/Getty) Here he had encountered soldier Thomas Wintour, who had recommended him to his cousin Catesby for his valour and experience with explosives. Fawkes has been described by the historian Dame Antonia Fraser as a tall, powerfully built man, with thick reddish-brown hair, flowing moustache, and a bushy reddish-brown beard. Originally intending to dig a tunnel under the streets of Westminster to Parliament, the plotters had to abandon the scheme and entrusted another of their number, Thomas Percy, to rent a cellar directly below the Lords. Fawkes posed as a caretaker under the name John Johnson to conceal his visits there to stow the powder kegs. On 26 October, Lord Monteagle - a member of the House received an anonymous letter warning: They shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament; and yet they shall not see who hurts them. The author is thought to have been Francis Tresham, his brother-in-law and one of Catesbys accomplices, apparently entertaining grave doubts. Monteagle passed the letter onto the king and the men were discovered on 4 November, when Fawkes himself was caught red-handed by royal guards below ground with the 36 tell-tale barrels, a fuse, a box of matches and a small iron lantern. Questioned before James, Fawkes impressed the monarch with his Roman resolution when he frankly declared his intention was to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains. English conspirator Guy Fawkes is interrogated by King James I after his arrest for planning to blow up the House of Lords (Getty Images) He was subsequently imprisoned in the Tower of London and interrogated under torture on the rack by Sir William Waad, the administering of which extracted a full confession from Guido scrawled in the spidery writing of a soul in torment. The rest of the plotters fled the capital for the Midlands but were pursued by Richard Walsh, the High Sheriff of Worcestershire, after raiding Warwick Castle for supplies. Catesby, Percy and the brothers John and Christopher Wright were shot dead by musket fire at Holbeche House in Staffordshire on 8 November. The corpses were ransacked and Catesby and Percys bodies would subsequently be exhumed and decapitated. Fawkes and his surviving co-conspirators were reunited in London, where they were tried at Westminster Hall on 27 January 1606 and found guilty of treason, sentenced by the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham. Four days later, they were dragged through the streets of London to Old Palace Yard in Westminster where they were hanged, drawn and quartered. An eye-witness account recorded that Fawkes was almost too weak to reach the hangmans noose and died before he could be castrated, disembowelled and dismembered like his friends: He made no speech, but with his crosses and idle ceremonies made his end upon the gallows and the block, to the great joy of all the beholders that the land was ended of so wicked a villainy. The execution of Guy Fawkes by Claes (Nicolaes) Jansz Visscher The persecution of British Catholics only intensified after the thwarting of the Gunpowder Plot. Parliament passed the Observance of 5th November Act 1605, ordering that prayers be uttered and church bells rung every 5 November to remember, remember the conspiracy, which stood until 1859. The Popish Recusants Act 1606 meanwhile increased fines on Catholics who refused to attend Anglican services and barred them from entering the legal profession or military and denied them the right to vote. Some historians have called the affair a conspiracy on the part of the British government, a false pretext staged to justify new anti-Catholic legislation, pointing out that no half-dug tunnel was ever found, that only the state had the right to sell gunpowder and to the suspicious nine-day delay between Monteagle receiving the warning and the mens ultimate apprehension. Protestors in the UK are seen wearing the Guy Fawkes mask commonly associated with the Anonymous group. (Rex Features) The memory of the plot lingers in British politics to this day: the Yeoman of the Guard still peer into the cellars beneath the Houses as part of the state opening of Parliament to check for gunpowder. Fawkes himself lives on in the 21st century not as a proto-terrorist but as an all-purpose icon of protest and defiance, a plastic mask from the 2005 film adaptation of Alan Moores graphic novel V for Vendetta worn by the cyber-activists of Anonymous, members of the Occupy movement and Million Mask marchers as a symbol of opposition to Big Government. Brexit backer Arron Banks is facing fresh pressure to explain the source of 8m of funding for the Leave campaign amid claims from a senior MP that he had contradicted his own evidence. The millionaire businessman is facing a criminal probe over millions of pounds of loans and donations to Leave.EU a group he co-founded which has been linked to possible Russian interference in the EU referendum. Mr Banks sowed confusion when he told the BBCs Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that all the cash came from a UK-registered company, Rock Services. He insisted he was being targeted by politicians trying to overturn the result of the Brexit vote. Recommended The Arron Banks debacle is a threat to our democracy However Damian Collins, the influential Tory chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said Mr Banks had previously given evidence to parliament that the company generated no cash of its own and only existed to provide services to his other businesses. The National Crime Agency launched an investigation into suspected criminal offences by Mr Banks and Leave.EU when the elections watchdog said it had reasonable grounds to suspect that Mr Banks was not the true source of the cash. The Electoral Commission also suspects the money came from Rock Services parent, Rock Holdings, which is registered in the Isle of Man. This would be impermissible under finance rules, the watchdog said. Mr Collins told the BBCs Today programme: Basically Arron Banks said the money came from a holding company that he told the select committee provides services to the other companies he owns. Whats not clear is where the money came from to get to that holding company in the first place, because this is a business that in and of itself doesnt generate cash. The question is where did the money come from? It is a discrepancy because what he told us was that Rock Services really just provides services to other companies that he owns provides cash, makes payments. It doesnt make any money itself. Its not selling products and services and generating cash. For Rock Services to have money to give to Leave.EU or anyone else, that money has got to have been put in that bank account by another company or another individual. If Rock Services made the donation, where did the money come from for Rock Services to do that? That is still not clear. No matter how many times he was asked that question, he didnt answer it. The Conservative MP rejected Mr Banks claims that the probe was about trying to stop Brexit, saying it was a matter for parliament, not another referendum. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events He added: There are two issues here. There is the Brexit process which is ongoing and there is what should be a full and proper investigation into Mr Banks and the source of his funds. The row stems from a review of referendum finances by the Electoral Commission, which centres on 2m reported to have been loaned to Better For The Country which ran Leave.EU by Mr Banks and his insurance companies. The review also looked at a 6m donation, which he made alone. Mr Banks and Leave.EU chief executive Liz Bilney deny any wrongdoing. On Sunday, Mr Banks said: There was no Russian money and no interference of any type. I just want to be absolutely clear about that. The money came from Rock Services, which was a UK limited company. It was generated out of insurance business written in the UK. A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Show all 65 1 /65 A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit An estimated 700,000 people marched through London to demand a final say on the withdrawal agreement Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Red smoke from a canister hangs in the air as around 100,000 demonstrators march through London during a People's Vote anti-brexit demonstration savings banners and placards Anti-Brexit People's Vote March for the Future in London Rex A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Mayor of London Sadiq Khan takes part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum. PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Final Say campaigners take part in the peoples vote march for the future in London 20/10/2018 Protesters wearing final Say shirts and holding placards Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit MP Chuka Umunna (left) and MP Vince Cable (right) as MP Anna Soubry (centre) addresses Anti-Brexit campaigners at a rally after the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum. PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit A Peoples Vote march attendee calls for a Final Say Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators with banners 'We're with EU' during the People's Vote March for the Future in London, Britain, 20 October 2018. Reports state that the 'March for the Future' is to be led by a column of young people and call for a Peopleas Vote on the Brexit deal. After marching through central London, there will be a rally on stage in Parliament Square, including speeches from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. EPA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Protesters at Londons march for the future in October The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Editor of The Independent Christian Broughton speaks to demonstrators in Parliament Sqaure after they take part in a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit A poster at the March for the Future in October The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum. PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Final Say campaigners take part in the peoples vote march for the future in London 20/10/2018 Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum. PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators hold placards as they take part in a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Final Say campaigners take part in the peoples vote march for the future in London 20/10/2018 campaigner wrapped in EU flag Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Final Say campaigners take part in the peoples vote march for the future in London 20/10/2018 Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators pass Trafalgar Square as they take part in a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators wave Union and European flags and hold up placards as they pass Trafalgar Square, taking part in a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators hold placards as they take part in a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit A demonstrator holds a message during a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum. PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators take part in the 'People's Vote March for the Future,' in central London, Britain, 20 October 2018. Reports state that the 'March for the Future' is to be led by a column of young people and call for a Peopleas Vote on the Brexit deal. After marching through central London, there will be a rally on stage in Parliament Square, including speeches from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan EPA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit A protester brandishes an Independent t-shirt during the Brexit March Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Tens of thousands of people take part in People's Vote March for the Future in central London. The march organised by the People's Vote campaign is led by young people calling for a People's Vote on the Brexit deal Rex A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum PA Contrary to some of the press reports in the FT and other Remain-leaning publications, we insure nearly half a million customers a year the size of Manchester. We turn over 250m of premiums, its a sizeable business. He claimed the media was attempting to undermine the Brexit result and had joined forces with a group of vicious MPs. Boris Johnson has urged MPs to defy the prime minister over her appalling Brexit blueprint amid reports the UK is close to striking a deal with Brussels. In a strongly-worded intervention, the leading Brexiteer said Theresa Mays apparent plan to keep the whole of the UK in a customs union was an absolute stinker. Downing Street and Brussels have pushed back against reports that Ms May is close to a deal with the EU to create a customs agreement that would avoid the need for the Northern Ireland border backstop that has been at the heart of the impasse in negotiations. The prime minister is due to brief her top team on Tuesday on the progress in the talks, as expectations rise that negotiators are pressing hard to seal a deal with Brussels this week, which would allow the EU to green light a special Brexit summit later this month. Reports emerged over the weekend that the EU could contemplate concession to keep all of the UK in a temporary customs union and Ms May was hoping for the possibility of a Canada-style free trade deal sought by Brexiteers. The ex-foreign secretary dismissed the plans a Christmas present of the finest old Brussels fudge which left Britain forced to accept EU laws without shaping them. From social policy to the environment, from agriculture to industrial standards to immigration, when Brussels says Jump, the British answer will be How high? he wrote in The Sun. If this is indeed the deal that is to be placed before Cabinet on Tuesday, it is an absolute stinker. It means we are proposing to hand over an amazing 40bn for absolutely nothing in return. Mr Johnson dismissed suggestions that the arrangement would lead the way to a Canada-style trade deal, arguing that the joint UK/EU political declaration on the future relationship due to be released alongside the withdrawal agreement will be worthless. We are being asked to choose between the break-up of the Union at least for economic purposes or the subjugation of the whole country, he said. We are choosing wholesale subjection. We need to stop before it is too late. He urged ministers to oppose the plans and said MPs would throw this deal out once they understand what was at stake. In a sign of the nerves in the cabinet, Ms May reportedly held conference calls with members of her top team on Sunday to reassure them that she had not stuck a secret deal without their knowledge. A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Show all 65 1 /65 A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit An estimated 700,000 people marched through London to demand a final say on the withdrawal agreement Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Red smoke from a canister hangs in the air as around 100,000 demonstrators march through London during a People's Vote anti-brexit demonstration savings banners and placards Anti-Brexit People's Vote March for the Future in London Rex A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Mayor of London Sadiq Khan takes part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum. PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Final Say campaigners take part in the peoples vote march for the future in London 20/10/2018 Protesters wearing final Say shirts and holding placards Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit MP Chuka Umunna (left) and MP Vince Cable (right) as MP Anna Soubry (centre) addresses Anti-Brexit campaigners at a rally after the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum. PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit A Peoples Vote march attendee calls for a Final Say Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators with banners 'We're with EU' during the People's Vote March for the Future in London, Britain, 20 October 2018. Reports state that the 'March for the Future' is to be led by a column of young people and call for a Peopleas Vote on the Brexit deal. After marching through central London, there will be a rally on stage in Parliament Square, including speeches from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. EPA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Protesters at Londons march for the future in October The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Editor of The Independent Christian Broughton speaks to demonstrators in Parliament Sqaure after they take part in a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit A poster at the March for the Future in October The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum. PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Final Say campaigners take part in the peoples vote march for the future in London 20/10/2018 Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum. PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators hold placards as they take part in a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Final Say campaigners take part in the peoples vote march for the future in London 20/10/2018 campaigner wrapped in EU flag Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Angela Christofilou/The Independent A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Final Say campaigners take part in the peoples vote march for the future in London 20/10/2018 Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators pass Trafalgar Square as they take part in a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators wave Union and European flags and hold up placards as they pass Trafalgar Square, taking part in a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators hold placards as they take part in a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit A demonstrator holds a message during a march calling for a People's Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. - Britons dreading life outside Europe gathered from all corners of the UK to London on Saturday to try to stop their country's looming breakup with the EU. AFP/Getty A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum. PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Demonstrators take part in the 'People's Vote March for the Future,' in central London, Britain, 20 October 2018. Reports state that the 'March for the Future' is to be led by a column of young people and call for a Peopleas Vote on the Brexit deal. After marching through central London, there will be a rally on stage in Parliament Square, including speeches from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan EPA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit A protester brandishes an Independent t-shirt during the Brexit March Angela Christofilou A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum PA A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Tens of thousands of people take part in People's Vote March for the Future in central London. The march organised by the People's Vote campaign is led by young people calling for a People's Vote on the Brexit deal Rex A historic moment: thousands march to demand Final Say on Brexit Anti-Brexit campaigners take part in the People's Vote March for the Future in London, a march and rally in support of a second EU referendum PA A Downing Street spokeswoman said: The Prime Minister is clear we are leaving the customs union. We are making good progress on the future relationship, and 95% of the withdrawal agreement has been settled. Negotiations are ongoing. However Steve Baker, a leading member of the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteers, told the Today programme that EU withdrawal must mean departure from the customs union in a timely way. Mr Baker said: If we are going to regulate our own economy, if we are going to have our own independent trade policy, if we are going to be a normal independent country which is what I understood the referendum result to have decided then we need to be out of the customs union and we need to get out of the customs union in a timely way. Fourteen hundred of the UK's top lawyers have urged Theresa May and MPs to back a second Brexit referendum, saying that democratic government is not frozen in time. Labour peer Baroness Kennedy QC, former Court of Appeal judge Konrad Schiemann and David Edward, a former judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, are among those who have called for a people's vote on EU membership. In a letter to Mrs May, they say parliament should not be bound by the 2016 vote any more than it should be by the 1975 referendum that took Britain into the EU, especially when there are question marks over its validity. They wrote that voters are entitled to know what they are voting for, and said: There was a key difference between 1975 and 2016. The earlier referendum was held after negotiations were complete, so voters knew what they were voting for. In 2016, the nature of the negotiation process and its outcome were unknown. Voters faced a choice between a known reality and an unknown alternative. In the campaign, untestable claims took the place of facts and reality. Human rights specialist Jonathan Cooper, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, said: The current state of the Brexit negotiations is worrying people throughout the UK and the legal profession is no exception to that. We represent people from across industry and society and we see every day the way the prospect of a catastrophic Brexit deal is already causing real harm. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events This letter to the prime minister has been signed by over a thousand of my colleagues who are convinced that not only is a people's vote the right thing to do, it is the most democratic thing to do as well. A Department for Exiting the EU spokeswoman said: The people of the United Kingdom have already had their say in one of the biggest democratic exercises this country has ever seen and the Prime Minister has made it clear that there is not going to be a second referendum. We remain confident we will agree a mutually advantageous deal with the EU. Press Association Theresa May called the Irish prime minister on Monday in order to calm anger in Dublin over comments made by her Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab. Mr Raab reportedly tried to backslide on a commitment the UK had made to prevent a hard border with the Republic, suggesting the backstop policy should expire after just three months. The taoiseachs office said the prime minister had sought the call after the comments, said to have been made in a private meeting with officials, emerged. Leo Varadkar told Ms May he was open to a review mechanism for the backstop, which is controversial with Eurosceptics, but that this could not amount to a unilateral decision to end it by the UK. Ms May told her counterpart she was still committed to a full backstop, despite Mr Raabs comments. Speaking earlier in Dublin Mr Varadkar had said a time-limited backstop as suggested by Mr Raab would not be worth the paper it was written on. As a government were working very hard to get an agreement, ideally by the end of the year, but you know one thing we cant countenance is any idea that thered be a three-month limit on the backstop, he told the Irish media. You know a backstop with a three-month limit on it or an expiry date of that nature isnt worth the paper its written on, and what the UK government has signed up to is a legally operative backstop that will apply unless and until we have a new agreement to supersede it and I think its reasonable for us to expect a country like the United Kingdom and a government like the UK government to stand by its commitments. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had reacted angrily to Mr Raabs suggestion (Reuters) Many Tory Eurosceptics are adamant that any backstop must be limited in time, to avoid the UK being signed permanently to a customs union with the EU after it leaves. The EU has said a time-limited backstop would not be a backstop because it would not prevent a hard border in all circumstances. Giving an account of the two leaders conversation, a spokesperson for the taoiseach said: Both leaders emphasised their commitment to avoiding a hard border and the need for a legally operable backstop. The prime minister raised the possibility of a review mechanism for the backstop. The taoiseach indicated an openness to consider proposals for a review, provided that it was clear that the outcome of any such review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop. He recalled the prior commitments made that the backstop must apply unless and until alternative arrangements are agreed. European Council president Donald Tusk tells UK to stop 'wasting time' and find Irish border solution within two weeks A Downing Street spokesperson also gave an account of the call, providing less detail. They said: The prime minister spoke to the taoiseach this morning to take stock of the progress being made in the negotiations, including on the Northern Ireland backstop. In a constructive conversation, the prime minister and the taoiseach discussed the remaining issues. They agreed that the intention was that the backstop should only be a temporary arrangement and that the best solution to the Northern Ireland border would be found by agreeing a future relationship between the UK and the EU. In order to ensure that the backstop, if ever needed, would be temporary, the prime minister said that there would need to be a mechanism through which the backstop could be brought to an end. 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 She affirmed the UKs commitment to the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and to avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. The prime minister and the taoiseach agreed that discussions should continue. Mr Raab does not intend to resign over the backstop duration row, sources were later reported as having said. Ms May must now face her cabinet to gain the backing of her top ministers, and update them on her talks with her Irish counterpart. The meeting on Tuesday comes after justice secretary David Gauke said a no-deal EU exit would be very bad for the UK economy. Mr Varadkar warned that the United Kingdom was in many ways is a divided kingdom, noting that the cabinet seems divided, the government seems divided, parliament is divided and that has made it very difficult to come to an agreement. He added that he would prefer to negotiate with a country that was not divided, but that we dont, so we have to work through. Late on Monday, a report in The Times suggested the EU was planning to offer Ms May a compromise on the vexed Irish border question. The UK would be allowed an independent mechanism it could use to end a temporary customs agreement with the remaining 27 EU countries, the paper said. Close Brexit deal will be agreed within three weeks, Dominic Raab tells MPs Ireland has made clear it will "never accept" a Brexit deal that allows the UK to unilaterally end a Northern Ireland "backstop". On his Twitter account, Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, said a "time-limited backstop" to the Irish border that could be ended unilaterally by the UK "would never be agreed to" by the Republic of Ireland or the EU. It comes following reports that Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the EU's proposed backstop after just three months. On Monday, Theresa May also held a phone call with Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, who said he was open to a "review" mechanism for the backstop. Ms May told her counterpart she was still committed to a full backstop, despite Mr Raabs comments. Speaking earlier in Dublin Mr Varadkar had said a time-limited backstop as suggested by Mr Raab would not be worth the paper it was written on. As a government were working very hard to get an agreement, ideally by the end of the year, but you know one thing we cant countenance is any idea that thered be a three-month limit on the backstop, he told the Irish media. See how the day in Westminster unfolded below Voters in Georgia have been receiving racist and anti-semitic automated phone calls ahead of the midterm elections which will see Democrat Stacey Abrams attempt to become the US state's first black governor. The racist robo-call impersonates talk show host Oprah Winfrey who campaigned for Ms Abrams last week ahead of the 6 November ballot. It appears to have been paid for by a white supremacist group. Using racial slurs to describe both Winfrey and Ms Adams it asked people to make her the governor of Georgia. It also describes Ms Abrams as a poor mans Aunt Jemima, referring to the woman on the popular pancake mix box, an image now frequently condemned as racist. The narrator later explains that the message that it was paid for by The Road to Power, a white supremacist and antisemitic group with a history of support for neo-Nazi candidates. It is run by Scott Rhodes of Idaho, who has been linked to several other racist robo-calls, including one sent out recently to voters in Florida, where Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum is also aiming to become the first black governor in his states history. The calls in Georgia were condemned by Ms Abrams and her Republican rival Brian Kemp but it has put racism at the centre of a fraught, closely-fought contest dominated by accusations of voter suppression. Mr Kemp, who oversees elections in Georgia as the current secretary of state, has strongly denied Ms Abrams claims he has a history of using his office to make it more difficult for minorities to vote. Stacey Abrams on the campaign trail (Getty) He issued a statement calling the Oprah-related robo-call contrary to the highest ideals of our state and country. The Abrams camp also made clear its disgust. It is not surprising that in a race that has consistently been very close, weve seen several weeks of increasing desperation from many dark corners trying to steal the election, cheat, lie, and prey on peoples fears rather than having the respect to listen to voters and speak to their hopes, said her spokeswoman Abigail Collazo. Secretary of State Brian Kemp campaigns in Georgia (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images) She also condemned President Donald Trump for promoting a political climate that celebrates this kind of vile, poisonous thinking. Much of the final stretch of the race in Georgia has been consumed by a bitter battle over access to the polls. In early October the Associated Press reported that more than 53,000 voter applications nearly 70 per cent from black applicants were on hold with Mr Kemps office ahead of the election. Many of the applications were flagged for failing to pass the states exact match verification process, which requires that ID on voter registration applications precisely match information already on file. Mr Kemps office says that eligible voters on the pending list can still vote if they bring a proper ID that substantially matches their registration information. He called the controversy manufactured. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events In response to a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups, federal judges have ruled the state unfairly burdens about 3,000 possible voters whose registration was flagged for citizenship issues. Last week's court rulings means Georgia must start allowing poll managers to clear flagged voters who show proof of citizenship. Over the weekend, one of Mr Kemps campaign stops was disrupted protesters. Two men protesting his immigration policy were forcibly removed from a Cuban restaurant in Atlanta. Another person wearing a giant chicken suit held a sign that read too chicken to debate, alluding to Mr Kemp withdrawing from a debate scheduled for Sunday in favour of appearing alongside President Trump. Additional reporting by agencies We aim to provide a world-class product for free (digital) or for an affordable price (in print) so its a great vote of confidence when we find people who have enough money to buy more expensive books still purchasing or reading Book Dash books because theyre of equal or higher quality and far more relevant to their kids. Were also thrilled to see the amount of young children and babies reading our books. It shows that youre never too young to love stories.Were nearing in on having a hundred original titles and that makes our vision of every child owning a hundred books by the age of five much more real. Its astonishing that weve achieved that in four years. The pooling of funding to do print runs together is our major potential growth avenue: it can mean the difference between ten funders each separately spending R10,000 to print 300 books at about R30 per copy or those funders putting R100,000 together and printing 10,000 books at R10 per copy. Economies of scale are everything in printing.Were hitting our targets, but wed obviously always like to do more. Just as important as cash, though, is impact. Were in the process of laying out a hundred more translations of our books. Wed also be keen to talk to sponsors interested in funding the creation of new African storybooks.We produce beautiful, proudly African storybooks for African children; thats something that few publishers are doing at the moment. We can afford to do this because we are driven by what South Africas people need and not what they can afford to buy. Other publishers are dictated to by what the current South African book-buying market likes. That means innovation is limited to what will sell well. As a non-profit organisation that gets funding from other sources, we dont have that issue. We do retail our books, but its one of a few different revenue streams.I love the general positivity that local writing is receiving at the moment, especially young writers. Its awesome to see Africans valuing African content. Thats a big for Book Dash as well. It means were on the right track and that others are on board.The easiest places to get the free digital versions are on our website or download the Android app. Physical books can be purchased through our stockists listed on our website for smaller quantities. Non-profit organisations can apply to receive free copies and any organisations that work with kids or want to fund books are welcome to buy directly from us at bulk discounts.Our primary objective will always be to build up a whole new future book-loving market by giving away thousands of books for free right now. Wed love to work with government and more corporates to make this a reality. Brett Ramsden is a soft-spoken, unassuming Florida father and political organiser who in many ways embodies the community spirit crucial to the American electoral system except for the fact he cannot vote himself. For the past year or so, Mr Ramsden has been helping to organise a massive effort to convince voters in the state to approve amendment 4. That would restore the right to vote to more than a million people roughly one in 10 of the eligible voters in Florida who have been disenfranchised following criminal convictions. The measure will be voted on as part of the midterm elections in the state. Those affected include many people like Mr Ramsden, a man caught up in a criminal justice system after a string of petty thefts five years ago while in the throes of opioid addiction, who spent a court-ordered year in substance abuse treatment, and who has put his life together. It is near impossible to avoid the 2018 midterm elections in southern Florida, where one of the most expensive Senate races in US history is coming down to the wire with both candidates in an all-out sprint to convince voters to send them to Washington. Outside most polling places, virtually every inch of grass is packed full of wire signs with names voters will see up and down the ballot. Nearby, volunteers have been setting up shop beyond the required one hundred foot perimeter from the doors that lead to the polls to hand out pamphlets and urge voters to support ballot initiatives to end things like greyhound dog racing or to give voting rights back to felons who have completed their court sentences. Flooding the airwaves are adverts featuring Governor Rick Scott and Senator Bill Nelson as they battle for the latters seat in Congress. Warnings and praise are also ubiquitous for gubernatorial candidates Ron DeSantis a Republican and former US representative and Andrew Gillum the Democrat and current mayor of Tallahassee. If you live live anywhere in the Miami metropolitan area, you would be hard pressed not to encounter a call to civic responsibility towering on billboards above your morning commute: Vote November 6. Those adverts are a costly endeavour in Floridas expensive media markets, and has made the Senate race one of the most expensive contest in history as the candidates try to negotiate through difficult political issues in the state from the devastation caused by Hurricane Michael, state expansion of Medicaid, and the concerns created by red tide algae blooms that have touched coastlines in both Republican and Democratic precincts this year. Thats not to mention the long shadow that President Donald Trump has cast on the midterms. Hes a breath of fresh air. I like everything hes been doing, William Johnson, a boat vibration analyst from Fort Lauderdale, said when asked about the president. He voted for Mr Scott, he said, alongside other Republicans on the ballot. Meanwhile: I hate the son of a b****. Ive hated him all my life, said Brent Nichelin, a property manager in Fort Lauderdale who voted for Democratic candidates, said of the 45th president after voting. Hes a professional liar. Not just pathological. Professional. US midterm elections: the voters Show all 10 1 /10 US midterm elections: the voters US midterm elections: the voters Ross Kershey of Exton, Pennsylvania objects to President Trump's recent threat to unilaterally suspend the constitutional protection of birthright citizenship as a way to control undocumented immigrants AP US midterm elections: the voters Thomas Jakel of Eveleth Minnesota is a former miner. The economy is the most important thing to voters in his town AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the voters Jerry Mcneff of Exton, Pennsylvania intends to split his ballot between the parties for Pennsylvania's House, Senate and governor elections AP US midterm elections: the voters Jean Hoffman of Exton, Pennsylvania has concerns about the cost of her daughters' college education. She thinks that voting Republican might help extend the economy's rise AP US midterm elections: the voters Supporters attend a rally of President Trump in Rochester, Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the voters Supporters attend a rally of President Trump in Rochester, Minnesota Reuters US midterm elections: the voters Supporter Jenny Haley and son wait in line to see a Trump Rally in Rochester, Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the voters Dick Calef of Exton, Pennsylvania is a life-long Republican. He credits the economic gains in suburban Philadelphia to longer-term factors beyond Trump's policies, such as the growth of internet and health care companies. He's not yet sure how he will vote AP US midterm elections: the voters Markus Fasel of Mendota Heights, Minnesota attends a campaign event for Democrat Angie Craig, his favoured congressional candidate AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the voters Supporters attend a rally of President Trump in Rochester, Minnesota Reuters All told, a record $181 million has been spent in the Florida Senate race, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission reporting by the Centre for Responsive Politics. That includes over $91 million spent by the candidates themselves, and another $90 million spent by outside groups on the election. That figure is only rivalled by the spending in the Texas Senate race, where the battle between Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O'Rourke has racked up a $117 million tab. That spending in Florida is fuelled in part by Mr Scott, who has spent nearly $40 million of his own money to support his campaign. All told, the Scott campaign has outspent the Nelson campaign $66 million to $25 million, according to CRP data. The spending in Florida is coming close to the $188 million spent on the Pennsylvania Senate race in 2016 which is widely seen as the most expensive such race in history. The election has come to be seen, as many races in the 2018 midterms have, as something of a referendum on Mr Trumps first two years in office. Mr Scott has appeared alongside the president at rallies in the state, praising him for his help after Michael made landfall in the Florida panhandle last month. Mr Nelson, meanwhile, has aligned with the most recent Democratic administration a frequent bogeyman of Mr Trumps. Were at an important inflection point right now, Mr Nelson said at a recent rally in Orlando with former Vice President Joe Biden. Now more than ever folks in Florida need somebody they can trust. They need public servants that know right from wrong. Heading into the final days of the campaign, the two have remained neck and neck in the polls with Mr Nelson a third term senator leading by just 1.4 points in averages compiled by Real Clear Politics. Mr Scott is currently the governor of Florida, and is term limited to that job. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Either way, voters understand why so much dough has been spent in the Sunshine State: The American political climate that elevated a contentious figure like Mr Trump to the White House has done anything but heal in the two years since November 2016. Right now, unfortunately, our country is divided, and I think people are only thinking Democrat or Republican, Jeanette, a Republican voter and insurance professional who asked that her last name not be published, said. Jeanette, referring to the presidents frequent attacks on the news media and the confusion that has been planted as a result, said that people are thinking in a non-existent binary things are more complicated than pro-Trump or anti-Trump, she said. There is no black and white, she said. Theres a lot of grey. Barack Obama effectively accused Donald Trump of lying and "fear-mongering" about the migrant caravan making its way towards the US and warned Democrats not to be distracted during an appearance in Indiana days before the midterm elections. Without using his name, the former president warned the Republican administration was "telling us that the single most grave threat to America is a bunch of poor, impoverished, broke, hungry refugees a thousand miles away". Mr Trump responded by accusing his predecessor of leaving behind a trail of broken promises on trade and the economic recovery. With opinion polls showing dozens of tight US congressional and gubernatorial races in Tuesday's election, the current and former presidents said the results would determine what kind of country Americans live in for the next two years. "This election will decide whether we build on this extraordinary prosperity we have created," Mr Trump told a cheering crowd in Macon, Georgia, warning that Democrats would "take a giant wrecking ball to our economy". Recommended Democrats hold shrinking lead in poll two days before midterms Mr Trump campaigned with Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is in a tight race with Democrat Stacey Abrams for the governor's office. Mr Obama condemned Mr Trump, without addressing him by name, and Republicans for what he described as their divisive policies and repeated lies. He hammered Mr Trump and Republicans for repeatedly trying to repeal his signature healthcare law while at the same time claiming to support the law's protections for those with pre-existing conditions. "The only check right now on the behaviour of these Republicans is you and your vote," Mr Obama told supporters in Gary, Indiana, during a rally for endangered Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly. "The character of our country is on the ballot," he said. Referring to the migrant caravan of mainly Hondurans men, women and children making their towards the US-Mexico border, Mr Obama said: Now, two weeks before this election, theyre telling us that the single most grave threat to America is a bunch of poor, impoverished, broke, hungry refugees a thousand miles away. Former President Barack Obama speaks during a Get Out The Vote rally to campaign for Illinois gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker in Chicago (AP) Look, look, look caravan, caravan while theyre giving tax cuts to their billionaire friends. Opinion polls and election forecasters have made Democrats favourites to pick up the 23 seats they need to capture a majority in the US House of Representatives, which would enable them to stymie Mr Trump's legislative agenda and investigate his administration. Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Show all 11 1 /11 Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Barack Obama's best moments in the White House May 19, 2009 The President was leaving the State Floor after an event and found Sasha in the elevator ready to head upstairs to the private residence. He decided to ride upstairs with her before returning to the Oval Office, Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Oct. 26, 2012 President Barack Obama pretends to be caught in Spider-Man's web as he greets the son of a White House staffer in the Outer Oval Office Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House A National Security staffer, Carlton Philadelphia, brought his family to the Oval Office for a farewell photo with President Obama. Carltons son, Jacob, softly told the President he had just gotten a haircut like President Obama, and asked if he could feel the Presidents head to see if it felt the same as his. Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House March 21, 2010 The President, Vice President and senior staff applaud after watching on television the House vote on H.R. 4872 for health care reform, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Dec. 3, 2009 President Barack Obama fist-bumps custodian Lawrence Lipscomb in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building following the opening session of the White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Sept. 22, 2015 "The Obama family and Biden family greet Pope Francis as he arrives in the United States for the first time at Joint Base Andrews," Sept. 22, 2015. Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Feb. 21, 2014 President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden participate in a "Let's Move!" video taping on the Colonnade of the White House, Feb. 21, 2014 Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Feb. 18, 2016 President Barack Obama watches First Lady Michelle Obama dance with 106-Year-Old Virginia McLaurin in the Blue Room of the White House prior to a reception celebrating African American History Month, Feb. 18, 2016 Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Jan. 21, 2013 "The President and First Lady wave to supporters as they ride in the inaugural parade. I had asked the President if I could ride in the presidential limousine and the President joked, 'But Michelle and I were planning to make out," Jan. 21, 2013. Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama share a private moment in a freight elevator at an Inaugural Ball, January 2009 all pics: Pete Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Barack Obama rests his hand on the bible that President Lincoln used for his swear-in, being held by his wife Michelle Obama as he is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America Rex Republicans are favoured to retain their slight majority in the US Senate, currently at two seats, which would let them retain the power to approve US Supreme Court and other judicial nominations on straight party-line votes. In the final stages of the campaign, Mr Trump has ramped up his hard-line rhetoric on immigration. He repeated those themes in Georgia, urging voters to "look at what is marching up - that's an invasion". Mr Obama also appeared later on Sunday in his old home state of Illinois, which hosts a competitive governor's race and several tight US House of Representative races. His appearance on the campaign trail is his second in three days. As of Sunday morning, almost 34.4 million people had cast ballots early, according to the Election Project at the University of Florida, which tracks turnout. That is up 67.8 per cent from the 20.5 million early votes cast in all of 2014, the last federal election when the White House was not at stake. Additional reporting by agencies Florida finds itself host to one of the most heated and ill-tempered of all the midterm election races. Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, 39, is running for governor against Ron DeSantis and hopes to become the first African-American to win the office in the Sunshine State. Heres our introduction to one of the defining contests of the autumn. Who are the candidates? Mr Gillum is hoping to bring the blue wave to the beaches but is having to fight dirty against ex-congressman Ron DeSantis, 40, in the battle to succeed Rick Scott. Recommended Five key races to watch in the US midterm elections Hes presided over a crime-ridden city. Hes involved in corruption. Hes not the guy to lead our state, the Republican Iraq War veteran said of his rival in their first debate. Mr Gillum has found himself embroiled in a bizarre scandal apparently involving an undercover FBI agent posing as a contractor offering him tickets to the Broadway musical Hamilton as part of a sting operation. The candidate has laughed off the affair. In the state of Florida we have many issues. And tickets to Hamilton aint one of them. For his part, Mr Gillum has worked to paint Mr DeSantis as a Trump acolyte while insisting he himself would be happy to work with the president, despite considering him a bully. This is not Russia. You shouldnt have to kiss the ring of the president of the United States for the president to see to the goodwill of the third largest state in all of America, Mr Gillum said at the podium. As with Stacey Abramss battle against Brian Kemp in Georgia, the contest between these two is being read as emblematic of the national situation. Like Beto ORourke in Texas, Mr Gillum has called for President Trumps impeachment. He enjoys the support of billionaire Tom Steyer and veteran Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who has campaigned with him. What are the key issues? In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland earlier this year, gun control will be firmly on the minds of the voters, in no small part thanks to the courageous opposition to the NRA displayed by the classmates of the victims on the national stage. Mr Gillum has backed tighter controls but been criticised for doing so as dangerous by Andrew Pollack, grieving father of one of the slain students. DeSantis and Gillum shake hands during their final debate in Davie, Florida (Reuters) (REUTERS) Healthcare and the future of Medicaid will be a major talking point here too, as will climate change with the Florida panhandle regularly bearing the brunt of tropical storms developing in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, most recently suffering considerable damage as a result of Hurricane Michael making landfall. Andrew Gillum was strong on the subject in a recent TV debate, cuttingly referring to his opponent as an election year environmentalist and declaring: What Florida voters need to know is that when they elect me governor, they are going to have a governor who believes in science. US midterm elections: the campaign trail Show all 20 1 /20 US midterm elections: the campaign trail US midterm elections: the campaign trail President Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Missoula, Montana AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders endorses Democrat Congressional candidate Randy Bryce at a campaign rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin EPA US midterm elections: the campaign trail Oprah Winfrey interviews gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in Marietta, Georgia Reuters US midterm elections: the campaign trail Democrat US Senator Bob Menendez stands with representatives from local police and fire departments during a campaign event in Jersey City, New Jersey EPA US midterm elections: the campaign trail Democrat candidate for Senate Beto O'Rourke addresses supporters in Carrollton, Texas Reuters US midterm elections: the campaign trail Democratic congressional candidate Angie Craig and US Representative Tim Walz at a campaign event in Mendota Heights, Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Protesters of President Trump outside a campaign rally in Rochester Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Supporters of President Trump outside a campaign rally in Rochester Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, left, shakes hands with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum after a debate on CNN AP US midterm elections: the campaign trail President Trump takes the stage at a rally in Elko, Nevada Reuters US midterm elections: the campaign trail President Trump addresses a rally in Elko, Nevada AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Donald Trump T-shirts for sale at a rally in Rochester, Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail John Lombardo talks with voters on the doorstep in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Democrat Senator Joe Manchin hugs supporters as he marches in a homecoming parade in West Virginia AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail A supporter holds up a sign at a Trump rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee EPA US midterm elections: the campaign trail Supporters of Republican congressional candidate Pete Stauber attend a campaign event in Crosby, Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Former President Barack Obama joins Democrat Congresswoman Jacky Rosen on stage in Las Vegas at a rally for her Senate candidacy EPA US midterm elections: the campaign trail Members of the Culinary Union prepare packets for canvassing for the Democrats in Las Vegas AP US midterm elections: the campaign trail Republican volunteer Jess Morgan, 69, campaigns for her party in Shavertown, Pennsylvania AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Native American candidate Deb Haaland who is running for Congress in New Mexico AFP/Getty The economy is another key battleground, with Mr DeSantis arguing his opponent would reek devastation of his own by raising corporate tax and the minimum wage, driving investment away. Mr Gillum, potentially the states first African-American governor, has also repeatedly called out Mr DeSantis for making the contest about race, taking particular offence at the latters incredibly ill-considered use of the phrase monkey up. He has only continued in the course of his campaign to draw all the attention he can to the colour of my skin. The truth is, Ive been black all of my life. So far as I know, I will die black, Mr Gillum joked in Fort Lauderdale. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Im not calling Mr DeSantis a racist. Im simply saying the racists consider him a racist, he repeated at their next encounter in Davie. Mr DeSantis has also faced criticism for stoking fear over law and order, suggesting in debate that undocumented immigrant child molesters could stalk the streets of sanctuary cities, a claim rubbished by his opponent. Georgia is on the brink of history ahead of November's midterm elections. Democrat Stacey Abrams, 44, is seeking to become the state's first black female governor but faces a tough challenge in the shape of Georgia's secretary of state, Brian Kemp. Heres our introduction to one of the defining election races of the autumn. Who are the candidates? The significance of a Stacey Adams victory in a state once at the centre of slavery and segregation cannot be understated. Recommended Five key races to watch in the US midterm elections Achieving it will depend on her winning the votes of liberal residents of Atlanta, the birthplace of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Much of the rest of Georgia remains fiercely Republican. Actually hailing from Madison, Wisconsin, and raised in Gulfport, Mississippi, Ms Abrams is a Yale law graduate and the author of eight romance novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery. Her opponent is the unabashedly Trumpian Mr Kemp, 55, Georgias secretary of state, who has called the contest a battle for literally the soul of our state. A self-styled politically incorrect conservative, Mr Kemp has proudly brandished a shotgun in a TV spot for his campaign and boasted of owning a big truck, just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take em home myself. His appeal to knee-jerk right-wingers as the antidote to the progressive force represented by Ms Abrams is clear. If she can inspire the African-American vote, a Democratic victory would echo that pulled off in last years special election when scandal-hit Republican Roy Moore was toppled by Doug Jones. What are the key issues? Education, immigration, gun control and healthcare are all at the heart of the contest in Georgia, particularly the lack of hospitals and jobs in rural areas. Stacey Abrams (Getty) Another cause of particularly pressing concern is voting itself, with the states exact match law seeing 534,000 registrations scrubbed from the electoral roll since 2016. According to the Palast Investigative Fund, 340,000 were improperly removed on the mistaken assumption that the person concerned had moved house. The purging process also means that 53,000 registrations are currently pending with less than two weeks to go before the vote, often as a result of typos or minor grammatical technicalities, 70 per cent of which relate to black voters who might be expected to turn out for Stacey Abrams, according to The New York Times. US midterm elections: the campaign trail Show all 20 1 /20 US midterm elections: the campaign trail US midterm elections: the campaign trail President Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Missoula, Montana AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders endorses Democrat Congressional candidate Randy Bryce at a campaign rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin EPA US midterm elections: the campaign trail Oprah Winfrey interviews gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in Marietta, Georgia Reuters US midterm elections: the campaign trail Democrat US Senator Bob Menendez stands with representatives from local police and fire departments during a campaign event in Jersey City, New Jersey EPA US midterm elections: the campaign trail Democrat candidate for Senate Beto O'Rourke addresses supporters in Carrollton, Texas Reuters US midterm elections: the campaign trail Democratic congressional candidate Angie Craig and US Representative Tim Walz at a campaign event in Mendota Heights, Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Protesters of President Trump outside a campaign rally in Rochester Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Supporters of President Trump outside a campaign rally in Rochester Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, left, shakes hands with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum after a debate on CNN AP US midterm elections: the campaign trail President Trump takes the stage at a rally in Elko, Nevada Reuters US midterm elections: the campaign trail President Trump addresses a rally in Elko, Nevada AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Donald Trump T-shirts for sale at a rally in Rochester, Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail John Lombardo talks with voters on the doorstep in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Democrat Senator Joe Manchin hugs supporters as he marches in a homecoming parade in West Virginia AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail A supporter holds up a sign at a Trump rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee EPA US midterm elections: the campaign trail Supporters of Republican congressional candidate Pete Stauber attend a campaign event in Crosby, Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Former President Barack Obama joins Democrat Congresswoman Jacky Rosen on stage in Las Vegas at a rally for her Senate candidacy EPA US midterm elections: the campaign trail Members of the Culinary Union prepare packets for canvassing for the Democrats in Las Vegas AP US midterm elections: the campaign trail Republican volunteer Jess Morgan, 69, campaigns for her party in Shavertown, Pennsylvania AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the campaign trail Native American candidate Deb Haaland who is running for Congress in New Mexico AFP/Getty Civil rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit over the issue but Mr Kemp whom Ms Abrams called the architect of voter suppression on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - has insisted the matter is a diversionary tactic on behalf of her supporters to distract from her extreme agenda. The right to vote is a right. My father was arrested helping people to register, she has retaliated. Critics of the Ms Abrams have attacked her over what they characterise as her tax and spend approach to policy, particularly in light of the revelation that she herself owes $50,000 (38,680) to the Internal Revenue Service and more than $170,000 (131,500) in debt from credit cards and student loans, incurred supporting her parents after they suffered losses because of Hurricane Katrina and suffered serious illness. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events I have paid my taxes, unlike Ms Abrams, when they were due, Mr Kemp jibed in a recent debate in front of the Atlanta Press Club. President Trump has made his opinions known here too, telling his Twitter followers: Brian Kemp will be a GREAT Governor of Georgia. Abrams will destroy the State. Close Barack Obama: 'we have seen repeated attempts to divide us with rhetoric designed to make us angry and make us fearful' Barack Obama is taking his star power to the campaign trail in a final push to get out the vote as Democrats seek to deliver a blow to Republicans and take control of at least one of the chambers of congress. Having spent the weekend criss-criss-crossing the country and he exchanged barbs with his successor, Donald Trump, the 44th president made an eve of election day appearance in Fairfax, Virginia. Speaking at the campaign office of senator Tim Kaine, Mr Obama said people had become disenchanted after his 2008 win and found that things did not become perfect overnight. But he said that by electing people such as Mr Kaine and Jennifer Wexton, a Democratic candidate for congress, progress would be made. How we talk to each other gets better. Better is good. Better is a start, he said. When you do that everything is going to shine. Appearing over the weekend in Indiana and Illinois, Mr Obama attacked Republicans for blatantly, repeatedly, baldly, shamelessly lying about their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Acts protections for those with pre-existing conditions. He also accused Trump of stoking fear over a group of migrants headed towards the US-Mexico border. America is at a crossroads. The character of our country is on the ballot, he said. This is how his appearance played out Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load Donald Trump and Barack Obama the president and his predecessor have hit the campaign trail in a final effort to energise and inspire their supporters, delivering very different visions of the nation on the eve of the midterm elections. Having spent the weekend criss-crossing the country and exchanging barbs with Mr Trump, Mr Obama, 57, appeared at a small event at the offices of Democratic senator Tim Kaine in northern Virginia. Meanwhile, Mr Trump, 72, was holding hold rallies in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri, a final blitz of heartland appearances that echoed his tactics in 2016, when he won the White House. Urging party workers and others listening to ensure they voted for the man who had been Hillary Clintons pick for her vice presidential candidate in 2016, Mr Obama said people had become disenchanted after his own 2008 win and found things did not become perfect overnight. He said that by electing people such as Mr Kaine and Jennifer Wexton, a Democratic candidate for congress, progress would be made. How we talk to each other gets better. Better is good. Better is a start, he said. When you do that everything is going to shine. Meanwhile, as Mr Trump left Washington for his rallies in the midwest, he told reporters: I think were going to have a good day ... I think were gonna do very well. Shortly afterwards, speaking in Cleveland for the best part of an hour, the president stumped for Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine and said the Democratic candidate, Richard Cordray, was a radical socialist ... [and] not a good person. He told the crowd when they cast their ballots, they should imagine him on the ticket. In a sense, I am on the ticket, youve gotta go out to vote, he said. You have to protect your rights and your freedoms. Mr Trump then repeated a catchline he has made before, saying Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs, and telling the crowd: If crying Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and the legendary Maxine Waters gain the majority, they will try to raise your taxes, restore job-killing regulations, shut down your coal mines and your steel mills ... take away your healthcare. There is a lot at stake on Tuesday. Most analysts predict that while Republicans will do enough to hold the Senate and may even add a seat two, there appears to be a consensus that the Democrats are in a strong enough position to flip the 23 seats they need to win the House. It is the lower chamber of congress where any effort to impeach the president would start out, an issue that Democrats have for tactical reasons played down during the campaign season, but which would likely reemerge if they win. Campaigning for Democrat Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Mr Obama said: America is at a crossroads. In two days, you get to vote in what I believe will be the most important election of our lifetimes. I know politicians always say that, but this time its really true. Change is gonna happen. Hope is gonna happen. With each new step we take, hope will spread. Goodness will spread. And you will be the ones who will have done it. It starts with you. Lets go vote. Lets go make change. Lets go make hope. US Midterms 2018: The five big questions By contrast, Mr Trump told supporters that Mr Obama represented the past. In remarks that drew attention to Mr Obamas middle name, Hussein, a tactic that over the years many such as Mr Trump have used to suggest the 44th president was not born in the US, he said: Its no surprise that Joe Donnelly is holding a rally this weekend with Barack H Obama. CNN said the crowd at an Indianapolis high school booed as Mr Trump added: We dont want to go back to the Obama days. US midterm elections: the voters Show all 10 1 /10 US midterm elections: the voters US midterm elections: the voters Ross Kershey of Exton, Pennsylvania objects to President Trump's recent threat to unilaterally suspend the constitutional protection of birthright citizenship as a way to control undocumented immigrants AP US midterm elections: the voters Thomas Jakel of Eveleth Minnesota is a former miner. The economy is the most important thing to voters in his town AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the voters Jerry Mcneff of Exton, Pennsylvania intends to split his ballot between the parties for Pennsylvania's House, Senate and governor elections AP US midterm elections: the voters Jean Hoffman of Exton, Pennsylvania has concerns about the cost of her daughters' college education. She thinks that voting Republican might help extend the economy's rise AP US midterm elections: the voters Supporters attend a rally of President Trump in Rochester, Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the voters Supporters attend a rally of President Trump in Rochester, Minnesota Reuters US midterm elections: the voters Supporter Jenny Haley and son wait in line to see a Trump Rally in Rochester, Minnesota AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the voters Dick Calef of Exton, Pennsylvania is a life-long Republican. He credits the economic gains in suburban Philadelphia to longer-term factors beyond Trump's policies, such as the growth of internet and health care companies. He's not yet sure how he will vote AP US midterm elections: the voters Markus Fasel of Mendota Heights, Minnesota attends a campaign event for Democrat Angie Craig, his favoured congressional candidate AFP/Getty US midterm elections: the voters Supporters attend a rally of President Trump in Rochester, Minnesota Reuters Mike Fraioli, a veteran Democratic strategist and fundraiser, told The Independent people were holding tight for the next 36 hours. Yet said he believed Democrats had done enough to win the house. He said Mr Trumps approval rating was very low, perhaps just 39 or 40 or 41. Then you look at the generic vote there is an advantage of between eight to 13 points. A lead that is in the high single digits or low double digits, is very good for Democrats, he said. Mr Trumps approval rating has been historically low during his presidency, but has bumped up in recent weeks. CNN suggests the presidents approval rating stands at 41 points; others put it higher, while some polls place it even lower. Mr Obamas was at around 45 per cent at this stage in 2010. In the 2010 midterms, the Democrats went on to lose both the House and the Senate. The website Axios said strategists from both parties had predicted the Democrats would win up to 35 House seats. If so, that would be a better than history predicts for Mr Trump; presidents with approval ratings below 50 points for a midterm election, lose an average of 37 House seats, it said. Close Barack Obama brands deployment of troops to border a 'political stunt' Donald Trump was making his last plea to the American people on Monday, attending three rallies in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri just hours ahead of polls opening in crucial midterm elections. With control of Congress at stake, former President Barack Obama was also out at an event in Fairfax, Virginia, to try and give the Democrats a boost. Voters will go to the polls on Tuesday with all 435 seats of the House of Representatives up for re-election as well as 35 Senate seats, hundreds of state legislature, local mayoral races, and special ballot provisions. Republicans currently control both the houses of the US congress, although Mr Trump has warned about what a change would mean or his agenda. It's all fragile. Everything I told you about, it can be undone and changed by the Democrats if they get in, Mr Trump told supporters in a conference call. He has also admitted Republicans could lose control of the lower House, but has not shown anything but his characteristic bombastic confidence at his numerous political rallies. Some of the key races are also the most expensive in what is the most expensive overall election in US history, clocking at $5bn plus in spending. In Texas, Democrat Beto O'Rourke and Republican incumbent Ted Cruz face off for a US Senate seat. In Florida there are two races of note: Republican Governor Rick Scott vies for a US Senate seat against Democrat Bill Nelson and Democratic Mayor of Tallahassee Andrew Gillum looks to become the state's first African-American governor against Republican Ron DeSantis. In Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams looks to become the country's first African-American female governor as she runs against Republican Brian Kemp. Mr Kemp has been called to resign from his state government post of secretary of state since his office is tasked with monitoring elections, particularly should neither of them garner 50 per cent of the vote and a runoff occurs. Mr Kemp has been accused of voter suppression and is also investing Democrats over a possible cybersecurity vulnerability of the state's voter registration page they reported to his office. Republican Mike DeWine was joined by the president in Ohio as he runs against a former director in Barack Obama's administration, Richard Cordray. There are numerous tight House races across the Midwest as well. Democrats will need to pick up 24 more seats in order to "flip" control to them. You can see how the events of the last day of campaigning before the midterms unfolded in our live blog below Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load Election day is fast approaching as the world awaits to find out who will become the next president of the US. Although at least 36 million Americans have already cast their ballot ahead of the election, millions of Americans will be making their way to the polls across the country on 3 November. So where and how can you cast your vote in the 2020 election if you haven't done so already? When is the election? The 2020 United States elections will be held on the 3 November, 2020. Voters are set to head to the polls on the day to select the next president, much of Congress and thousands of state-government candidates. Read more: Americas electoral college system, explained What are the different ways of voting? There are two main ways that Americans can cast their vote in the US election this year: in person and by mail. In person voting In person voting involves attending your local polling booth station to cast your vote then and there. Most people will do this on Election Day on 3 November. You may be able to vote in person ahead of the election, which is called early voting. Most states allow voters to cast their votes early at specific locations if you cant make it on Election Day. Check guidance on early and in-person voting from your state or territorial election office here. Absentee or mail in voting Absentee, or mail in, voting allows you to send your ballot from home without attending a polling station. There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation in this year's election around the difference between absentee and mail in voting. The two terms are often used interchangeably and there is not much difference between them as both refer to the method of using the mail to deliver ballots to voters. To receive an absentee ballot, a registered voter often has to request one through their state government. Each state has absentee mail in voting but some allow you to take part only in certain circumstances. Many states have relaxed their guidelines to allow more mail in voting amidst the pandemic. Read more: When do polls close on US election night? A state-by-state guide Some states automatically send out absentee ballots to residents addresses before Election Day, a practice which has also been increased by some during the coronavirus pandemic. This has sometimes been referred to as all-mail voting. You can return your ballot by posting it into local ballot drop boxes or by mail, but anyone voting absentee should check in advance for deadlines in respective states for posting and returning of ballots. Where can I find my nearest polling station? The US government encourages citizens to check their polling place close to Election Day. Changes to polling places may have occurred due to the coronavirus pandemic such as different locations, layouts, procedures, and availability of extra assistance. You can find your local election office contact for information about your nearest polling place and its hours here. What do I need to bring? Two-thirds of states expect you to provide identification to let you vote at the polls, according to the US government. In-person and early voters will need to check whatever identification is required locally and bring this with them to the polling station. For those voting absentee, places with photo identification requirements may require you to upload an image of acceptable identification electronically or send a photocopy in with your paper application when requesting your ballot. What might be different this year? Due to restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, polling stations may have more guidelines in place to ensure the safety of voters such as social distancing measures and mask-wearing recommendations. Voting in person may take more time as a result of social distancing measures, so it's important to plan in advance and give yourself enough time to vote. It's worth remembering that in most areas, if youre in line to vote after polls close, youre still entitled to wait and cast your vote as long as you remain in line. China's president Xi Jinping has issued a veiled criticism of Donald Trump during the opening of a major trade fair in Shanghai, saying China will reduce tariffs and "open up its market to the world". Mr Xi's comments come as China and the US have hit each other with new trade tariffs worth around $360bn (280bn) in total, as well as amid heightened tensions with some of China's other trading partners. Opening the China International Import Expo, or CIIE, Mr Xi hopes to show foreign companies that the ease and potential of exporting to Chinese consumers is shifting. Mr Trump has railed against China for what he sees as intellectual property theft, entry barriers to US business and a wide US trade deficit. No senior US officials were set to attend the Shanghai event. Mr Xi said the import expo showed China's desire to support global free trade, adding that countries of the world must pursue open policies and oppose protectionism. He said "economic globalization is facing setbacks, multilateralism and the free trade system is under attack, factors of instability and uncertainty are numerous, and risks and obstacles are increasing." Mr Xi also promised to accelerate opening of the education, telecommunications and cultural sectors, while protecting foreign companies' interests and enhancing punitive enforcement for infractions of intellectual property rights. China expects to import $30 trillion worth of goods and $10 trillion worth of services in the next 15 years, Mr Xi said. But experts are concerned the expo will lack bold new policies, favouring symbolism over substance. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The EU, which shares US concerns over China's trade practices if not Trump's tariff strategy to address them, on Thursday called for China to take concrete steps to further open its market to foreign firms and provide a level playing field, adding that it would not sign up to any political statement at the forum. Trump is expected to meet Xi this month, but has said that if a deal is not made with China, he could impose tariffs on another $267 billion in Chinese imports into the United States. Presidents or prime ministers from 17 countries were set to attend the expo, ranging from Russia and Pakistan to the Cook Islands, though none from major Western nations. Government ministers from several other countries were also coming. Additional reporting by Reuters Narratiive is your go-to partner for actionable insights and intelligence that simplify and guide better partnerships between brands, marketers, publishers and providers. Spin the globe to India and youll see its lit up like Diwali: the #MeToo movement is rising, and like its US predecessor it is largely being played out on social media, with very real consequences for well-known public figures. The campaign is not confined to large cities; among the top areas searching the term are small towns across India. This moment has been a long time coming. The public accounts of violence shared by women using the #MeToo hashtag stretch back to memories of growing up, entering the workforce, walking on the streets, using public transport and other settings typically encountered throughout the course of life. Recently, the Indian state attempted to use smart technologies to deliver safe cities for women. The strategies used to address both online and offline violence include installing surveillance systems, such as CCTV cameras, facial recognition, number plate recognition and social media monitoring. What makes these strategies smart is that they are integrated into centralised police command and control centres, to monitor and increase response rates. Yet one of the flagship smart safety apps, Himmat launched by Delhi police in 2013 to enable women to alert police control centres of the location of violent incidents in real-time had only 30,000 users in a city of 19 million, and was declared a failure by a parliamentary panel in 2018. A right to technology Clearly, technology has divergent outcomes: it can escalate a global movement for gender justice, but it cannot be taken as a panacea for deep-rooted social problems such as violence against women. This raises further questions about who has access to technology, and how it can be used to document violence. In India, these questions are significant because 26 per cent of the population has access to the internet, compared with the US and the UK where it is 88 per cent and 90 per cent respectively. The demographic of people who use the internet is also skewed in terms of age, gender and geography: 75 per cent of mobile internet users in India are aged 20 to 30, while only 5 per cent are over the age of 35. Whats more, 89 per cent of mobile internet users are male, and only 27 per cent live in smaller cities. A recent study highlighted that although more people of different ages and incomes are starting to use mobile phones across India, there are still barriers to access: currently, only 45 per cent of people in lower income groups have a mobile phone. Working women often use mobile phones that belong to male household members, and can be used to monitor their movements. The lower purchasing power of these families means they mainly have access to older models bought secondhand, with little capacity to download data-intensive apps and other web content. When they do use the internet, working class women often do so for practical purposes searching for employment, transport options, childcare and so on. Mobile phones themselves can even be seen as harmful mediums of violence against women, by means of abusive texts or cyberstalking as #MeToo has shown. 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling Show all 20 1 /20 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling Someone celebrates underneath a rainbow-coloured flag as the Supreme Court in India rules that gay sex is longer a crime. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling People celebrate in the street following the ruling. The Chief Justice of India stated that the outlawing of gay sex had been "irrational, arbitrary and indefensible". AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling Up until now, gay sex in India had been punishable by up to 10 years in prison under Section 377 of the Indian constitution. AFP/Getty 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling The law was originally imposed during the Victorian era while India was still under the rule of the British Empire. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling "Any consensual sexual relationship between two consenting adults - homosexuals, heterosexuals or lesbians - cannot be said to be unconstitutional," said Dipak Misra, Chief Justice of India. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling Members and supporters of the LGBT+ community in India were overjoyed by the decision, with the celebrations awash with rainbow-coloured paraphernalia. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling "They have opened the door to discussing rights," Anjali Gopalan, founder of the Naz Foundation charity that has been fighting against Section 377 told The Independent. "They have apologised to the gay community, and they have said copies of the judgement will be handed to every police station. It is the best judgement we could have hoped for." AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling People were dancing and smiling as the Supreme Court's ruling was announced. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling Bismaya, an activist with the Delhi brand of LGBT+ advocacy group Impulse, told The Independent: "I'm so happy, it's overwhelming. I cried when we heard the news. I'm gay and I'm not afraid of that. It's something I used to say, but now for the first time I have the legal backing." AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling The rain did little to dampen people's spirits as they celebrated the historic ruling in New Delhi. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling A woman exclaims with joy as she holds hands with others on the day of the ruling. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling Members of the LGBT+ community in India hold a placard reading "Love is genderless" while standing outside the Supreme Court in New Delhi. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling The celebrations in India were bright, colourful and full of happiness. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling Bismaya, activist for LGBT+ advocacy group Impulse, said: "It's great for me but it's also a great day for the whole of India. Acceptance in wider society will take time, because we cannot expect change overnight. It has been a battle for two decades for this judgement. If now we get full acceptance in a couple of years, that would be great." AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling Members and supporters of the LGBT+ community in member celebrate the landmark ruling in Siliguri with a cake and confetti. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling People join in the jubilant festivities in Kolkata. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling A woman cries with happiness in Chennai as the ruling made by the Supreme Court in India is announced. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling The celebrations in Kolkata were full of happiness and energy. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling A group of people stand in heavy rainfall in New Delhi as they celebrate the outlawing of the outdated ban on gay sex in India. AFP/Getty Images 20 best pictures of India celebrations following gay sex court ruling The movement to reconsider Section 377 started in 2001 with a legal challenge made to the Delhi High Court from the Naz Foundation. AFP/Getty Images Speak, witness, curate We three academics are part of a larger group of researchers and social organisations, who have been examining the links between access to digital technology, urban infrastructure and violence against women in India, as well as considering how women themselves speak about and document these connected issues. Based on our research, we see the right to technology as a key means of fighting gender injustice, in all its forms, in the 21st century. A right to technology means developing womens capacity to speak about violence. More than simply giving women the freedom to speak via mobile phones, a right to technology would expand their use of safety apps and global hashtags to include text messages, pictures and videos shared between private support groups. It also means developing the potential of low-cost, lightweight mobile technologies to enable women to speak of violence, giving them the confidence to locate their violence in the home, street, bus, workplace and name its perpetrators, whether thats family members, colleagues, friends. The purpose of this speech? To be believed, to not be shamed, to remove their perpetrator or to claim justice through the courts. A right to technology is also about developing a societys capacity to witness violence through technology. This means expanding how violence is seen and heard, from the #MeToo hashtags to the range of social, legal, policy and infrastructural blind spots that enable violence to continue on an everyday basis and be perceived as normal. It means seeing violence in the absence of safe spaces, lack of access to safe and reliable public transport, safe drinking water or public toilets. It means perceiving violence in stories of everyday struggles with mobility, unemployment and education. It means witnessing violence in womens inability to speak without a #MeToo movement, or even despite a #MeToo movement. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events A right to technology also means building womens capacity to curate violence through a variety of media. This means women can actively select and present a variety of personal stories of violence in their daily lives monsoon rain floods, waiting for public transport, moments of panic in buses filled with men and restrictions on mobility. The maps and pictures shared by women living in the urban margins show the mundane ways in which violence against women and other forms of injustice are interwoven in their everyday lives. This bottom-up viewpoint disrupts the Google worldview of #MeToo trends, seen from a global perspective, and allows women who are too often overlooked and excluded from urban technology to curate their experiences of violence, within or without the #MeToo movement. Ayona Datta is a reader in urban futures and Nabeela Ahmed is a postdoctoral research associate at Kings College London, and Rakhi Tripathi is an associate professor in information technology at Fore School of Management. This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com) Irans president has warned the Islamic republic faces a war situation, as he vowed the country will sell its oil and break reimposed US sanctions. The sanctions end all economic benefits Washington granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and targets its vital energy and banking sectors. Brian Hook, the US State Department point person on Iran, called the new restrictions the toughest sanctions that have ever been imposed on Iran. The purpose of the sanctions is to diminish the regimess capacity to threaten the region, he told reporters in a conference call on Monday. Although Iran continues to abide by the accord, which saw it limit its enrichment of uranium, officials have lately made a point of threatening that it could resume enrichment at any time at a faster rate than before. American wanted to cut to zero Irans oil sales ... but we will continue to sell our oil ... to break sanctions, Irans president, Hassan Rouhani, told economists at a meeting broadcast live on state TV on Monday. On Friday, the US said it would temporarily allow eight importers to keep buying Iranian oil after the reimposition of sanctions. China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkey all top importers of Iranian oil are among the countries set to be given temporary exemptions from the sanctions to ensure crude oil prices are not destabilised. However, oil prices still fell on Monday. President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time Show all 12 1 /12 President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time President Hassan Rouhani speaks at the Iranian Parliament in the capital Tehran AFP/Getty President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time It was the first time Rouhani had been summoned by parliament in his five years in power EPA President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time Getty President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time MPs demanded answers on unemployment, rising prices and the collapsing value of the rial, which has lost more than half its value since April AFP/Getty President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time AFP/Getty President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time AFP/Getty President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time AFP/Getty President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time AFP/Getty Images President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time AFP/Getty President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time AFP/Getty President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time AFP/Getty Images President Rouhani summoned to Iran parliament for first time EPA The restoration of sanctions forms a part of a wider effort by Donald Trump to force Iran to curb its nuclear and missile programmes, as well as its support for proxy forces in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East. But few experts believe that pressuring Irans economy will change its regional posture. In the 1980s, Iran launched Hezbollah in Iran, the Badr Brigade in Iraq, and numerous assassinations abroad while it was at war with Iraq and under embargo by many world powers. Theres no correlation in Iran between dwindling resources of the state and foreign policy, said Ali Fathollah-Nejad, an Iran expert who divides his time between Qatar and Berlin. In a bizarre message on Twitter designed to emphasise his maximum pressure policy towards Iran, the US president posted a photo of himself modelled on a Game of Thrones poster with the headline: Sanctions are coming. Iran responded with air defence drills, with state TV airing footage of air defence systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military manoeuvres underway across a vast stretch of the countrys north. We are in a war situation, Mr Rouhani said. We are in an economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win. Both Russia and China vowed to continue purchasing Iranian oil and ignore US sanctions. The golden ticket Iran holds today is the unilateral nature of these sanctions, and the fact that the EU, Russia, China and many other European and Asian countries are against such actions against Iran at a time when Iran has illustrated its commitment to constructive engagement with the international community, said Mehran Haghirian, an Iran researcher at the University of Qatar. Mr Hook told reporters that he has travelled to many countries around the world and sought to convince them to curtail business activities with Iran. He noted that scores of companies have chosen to halt their Iran operations rather than risk access to the American market. "Theres no reputational risk for working with the United States, unlike Iran," he said. In May, President Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six powers, and Washington reimposed its first round of sanctions in August. Irans president, Hassan Rouhani, has vowed the nation will continue to sell oil and break US sanctions (Reuters/Brendan McDermid) (Reuters) The deal saw most international financial and economic sanctions on Iran lifted in return for Tehran curbing its disputed nuclear activity under UN observation. The reimposed penalties are the toughest sanctions ever put in place on the Islamic Republic of Iran, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said on Sunday. However, Irans clerical rulers have dismissed concerns about the impact of sanctions on the countrys economy. This is an economic war against Iran but ... America should learn that it can not use the language of force against Iran ... We are prepared to resist any pressure, Mr Rouhani said. Donald Trump calls on nations to isolate Iran's regime at United Nations Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis. Its international currency, the rial, currently trades at 145,000 to $1, down from 40,500 a year ago. The economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year, which resulted in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Small, sporadic demonstrations still continue. In comparison to the sanctions under President George W Bush where we have seen a kind of rallying around the flag, the picture now is much more complicated, said Mr Fathollah-Nejad, a researcher at the Brookings Doha Centre. But there is also a growing understanding that Irans economic hardship cannot be solely or even mainly attributed to US policy and US sanctions. What is new is a growing disenchantment. Slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggis sons made an anguished, emotional appeal for the return of their fathers body in their first interview since the murder of their father at the hands of operatives connected to the office of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdoms de facto ruler. Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi praised their father as a kind and moderate man who believed in the Saudi monarchy, and said they continued to seek answers about their fathers death as they grieved his loss and hoped to bury him at Jannat al-Baqi cemetery in the Saudi city of Medina. Everybody is seeking information just as we do and they think that we have answers; unfortunately we dont, Salah, a 35-year-old economist who had until recently been barred from leaving Saudi Arabia as punishment by Crown Prince Mohammed for his fathers writings, told CNN. All we want right now is to bury him in Medina with the rest of his family, he said in the interview, aired early on Monday London time. I just hope that it happens soon. Its an Islamic tradition. Its a basic humanitarian issue. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meeting with Salah bin Jamal Khashoggi (EPA) On Monday, the Turkish daily newspaper Sabah reported allegations that Saudi Arabia dispatched a team of chemical specialists nine days after Mr Khashoggis disappearance in what they allege was an attempt to clean up the crime scene after the murder. A senior Turkish official confirmed the veracity of the report, which cited airport arrivals and included photographs of the suspects. A senior Turkish official, speaking to The Independent, said: We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of Jamal Khashoggis murder before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises. The fact that a cleanup team was dispatched from Saudi Arabia nine days after the murder suggests that Khashoggis slaying was within the knowledge of top Saudi officials. Salah was allowed to leave Saudi Arabia and rejoin the rest of the family in the US after shaking hands with Crown Prince Mohammed and King Salman. Abdullah, and the rest of his family, living until recently under Saudi surveillance in the United Arab Emirates managed to slip away to the US as well, said a source close to the family. Touted by a multimillion dollar public relations campaign as a moderniser and reformer, Crown Prince Mohammed launched a widespread crackdown on dissent that included arrests of rival members of the royal family, womens rights activists, clerics, liberals, and even mild critics of the regime at home and abroad. Forbidden from writing or even tweeting by Crown Prince Mohammeds enforcers, Mr Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia for the US in what he described as a self-imposed exile. The murder of Mr Khashoggi has brought Saudi Arabias human rights record under the spotlight. The country will come under scrutiny this week in Geneva at a periodic review by the UN Human Rights Council. Bandar al-Aiban, who heads the Saudi delegation at the council, said that King Salman has instructed the countrys public prosecutor to investigate the case according to applicable laws and to bring perpetrators to justice. But more than a month after Mr Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October and disappeared, the mystery of his remains continues to dog the case. After denying knowing anything about his fate for weeks, Saudi authorities admitted he was killed by regime agents but claimed his body was handed off to a local collaborator. Then the Saudis changed the story again, claiming there was no local collaborator, but without explaining what became of Mr Khashoggis remains. On Friday, an official close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a friend of the slain Washington Post columnist told a newspaper that his body had been cut up and dissolved in acid, but cited no evidence. On Sunday, the newspaper Sabah, close to the Erdogan government, cited unnamed officials as saying that Mr Khashoggis body was dismembered and placed into five suitcases that were taken to the residence of Saudi consul general Mohammed al-Otaibi, who departed the country for Riyadh under pressure from Ankara. The officials alleged that Maher Mutreb, an aide to Crown Prince Mohammed, Salah Tubeigy, chief of forensics in Riyadh, and Thaar al-Harbi, were three key members of the 15-man kill team that murdered Mr Khashoggi and got rid of his body. Something bad happened, Abdullah told CNN, when asked what he imagined happened to his 59-year-old father. I really hoped that whatever happened wasnt painful for him, that it was quick, that he had a peaceful death. Mr Erdogan said that the orders to murder Mr Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi state, but excluded King Salman, pointing the finger squarely at Crown Prince Mohammed, the 33-year-old heir to the Saudi throne. In response, the Crown Princes defenders have begun attacking Mr Erdogan over his own nations human rights record. The pro-Saudi Okaz newspaper on Sunday derided all the fuss about Mr Khashoggi and the torrent of lies trying to undermine the reputation of Saudis. The Khashoggi brothers said the family including their sisters Noha, 27 and Razan, 25 continued to be in shock over the killing, aggravated by a stream of what they called misinformation smearing their father as an extremist. Shortly after Mr Khashoggis disappearance, Crown Prince Mohammed called the White House and branded the journalist a dangerous Islamist, according to reports. A chorus of hardline pro-Israel voices, eager to bolster the anti-Iran partnership between Riyadh and Washington, has also joined the campaign to describe him as unworthy of sympathy because of his political beliefs. Its just labels and people not doing their homework properly, Abdullah said of those calling his father a hardline Islamist. King Salman's brother Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz lands in Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi's murder rocks Kingdom Salah said his father would want to be remembered as a moderate man who has common values with everyone and believed in the potential of Saudi Arabia. He believed in the monarchy that it is the thing that is keeping the country together, he said. Abdullah said he managed to visit his father before his death in Istanbul and met Hatice Cengiz, the journalists fiancee. He was happy, Abdullah said. I think I was very lucky to have that last moment with him. After the journalists death, Abdullah was the family member who first entered his Washington apartment, and was surprised to see pictures of all three of his grandchildren prominently at his bedside. Going to the apartment was the most emotional moment, he said, gesturing towards a picture of the three grandchildren. His grandchildren was the last thing he looked at before he went to bed, he said. It put an emphasis on his gentle, tender side of loving his family, his grandkids. It touched me personally. Britain will urge the United Nations Security Council to act over a devastating humanitarian crisis in Yemen, marking a stark reversal in British policy and the end to the UKs controversial refusal to call on a Saudi Arabia-led coalition and the Houthi rebels to halt the conflict. Theresa May faced accusations of trying to curry favour with Riyadh, one of the largest buyers of UK weapons, when she stopped short of backing a US call for a ceasefire last week and instead supported de-escalation in the country. This is despite the fact that the three-and-a-half year conflict between a Gulf alliance and Iran-backed rebels has sparked the largest humanitarian crisis in the world and pushed the country to the brink of famine. On Monday foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said there now appears to be a window for a peace deal. He said he agreed with Martin Griffiths, the UNs Yemen envoy, that the time was right for the council to act to bolster the UN-led process. It indicated the UK would finally back a UN resolution to pile pressure on both sides. For too long in the Yemen conflict both sides have believed a military solution is possible with catastrophic consequences for the people. Now for the first time there appears to be a window in which both sides can be encouraged to come to the table, stop the killing and find a political solution that is the only long-term way out of disaster, the foreign secretary said in a statement. Recommended Yemen fighting around key port kills 150 over weekend He added: The UK will use all its influence to push for such an approach There is a small but real chance that a cessation of hostilities could alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people. This must be the first priority as we seek to put in place a longer-term solution. UN secretary general Antonio Guterres on Friday called for a halt to violence in Yemen to pull the country back from a precipice and build momentum towards talks on ending the war. Ms May had however told parliament a few days beforehand that while she supported calls for de-escalation, a nationwide ceasefire would only have an impact if it is underpinned by a political deal between the conflict parties. Since the war erupted in the spring of 2015, the UK has authorised the sale of $5bn (3.8bn) worth of arms to Saudi Arabia, sparking calls for an end to the weapons deals. The war in Yemen erupted in the spring of 2015 when Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, began a bombing campaign to oust the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group, that had swept control of the country ousting the recognised president Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. Well over 10,000 people are been killed in the conflict, and two-thirds of Yemens 28 million-strong population rely on aid to survive, according to the UN, which has warned that as many as 13 million people could die from starvation. Aid agencies have accused both sides of creating the humanitarian crisis. The Saudi-led coalition has faced allegations it has bombed civilian infrastructure and impeded the delivery of food and medical supplies because of a crippling land, sea and air blockade. The Houthis meanwhile have been accused of bombing aid convoys, intercepting supply chains, laying thousands of landmines and laying siege to pro-government areas. The United Nations Childrens Fund regional director said over the weekend both sides were making it impossible to deliver and distribute much-needed humanitarian aid to the country, which will lead to famine. Focus has now been drawn to the Red Sea port of Hodeidah where tens of thousands of Yemeni government troops are rallying for an expected offensive to retake the strategic city from the rebels. More than 150 combatants were killed over the weekend from both sides as fighting flared around the port. Yemeni boy Ghazi Ali bin Ali, 10, suffering from severe malnutrition lies on a bed in the outskirts of the city of Taiz, on 30 October 2018 (AFP/Getty) A source within the coalition told The Independent the Gulf alliance would hold off on fresh fighting in Hodeidah if the Houthis come to the negotiating table. The last series of talks collapsed in September. However, US secretary of defence Jim Mattis last week set a deadline of 30 days to begin a fresh round of negotiations. The Gulf coalition source said they were entering the endgame and that should the Houthis refuse to participate, the alliance would not hesitate to restart Hodeidah offensive operations. To facilitate the UN special envoys work over the next 30 days, the coalition will hold a mainly defensive posture, the source told The Independent. Right now in Hodeidah the coalition is reinforcing its position on the ground to protect troops and assets and to enlarge the security perimeters. But it will, as necessary, respond to any Houthi Attacks. We will maintain the option to renew offensive operations quickly. The sources acknowledge that the humanitarian situation in the country is completely intolerable. We are creating space for UN envoy to get some quick momentum. Next move is up to Houthis to de-escalate in turn and commit to new talks in Sweden. The Houthis meanwhile blasted the US calls for peace as disingenuous because of an uptick in military operations by government forces over the weekend. We regard the military escalation as proof of the disingenuousness of American calls for an immediate halt to the fighting, which are no more than an attempt by the US to pose itself as a neutral mediator while it is [in fact] the true leader of the war, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the rebels interim Supreme Revolutionary Committee, said on his Twitter account on Monday. He added: The coalition of the US-Saudi-Emirati aggressors has launched an intense military escalation to invade the city of Hodeidah. And when it failed to achieve any progress in the field it launched airstrikes on residential areas and committed new massacres against civilians. Aid agencies have warned of a devastating humanitarian crisis if the offensive does go ahead. On Monday, Save the Children said it could put tens of thousands of children in the line of fire and further choke delivery of food and medicine to the country where they estimate extreme hunger and disease is already killing an average of 100 children a day. A father gives water to his malnourished daughter at a feeding centre in a hospital in Hodeidah, Yemen (AP) Every convoy blocked from the port or unable to leave it because of the violence means more malnutrition and more children dying needlessly, the group said. They added: The weekends attacks show that what world leaders say have no meaning if theyre not backed up by concrete actions. I like to call this the biblical wine tour, says Alon Yitzhaki with rehearsed aplomb, as our SUV tackles the undulating Judean Hills, 45 minutes drive from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The car is weeks old, the landscape rolling by unfathomably so. Squint and it could be Tuscany, vineyards unspooling beneath sun-dappled limestone formations topped by pines. One difference: the area was making wine way before that Italian upstart. At one point we believe it was the regions main industry, says Yitzhaki. The Romans loved the local wine and exported it across their empire. It was the Gatorade of ancient times. But with alcohol production banned for a millennium under Muslim rule, until the mid-19th century, the native grapes withered. Wines rebirth here dates from the return of European Jews to Palestine in the 19th century. Edmond de Rothschild, owner of Frances Chateau Lafite, founded Carmel Winery still Israels second biggest wine producer in 1882, with the bar-raising Golan Heights Winery following a century later. Recommended This is the vegan capital of the world Fast-forward to today, and Israeli wine, spread over 350 wineries and five regions, is the toast of oenophiles, with exports mainly focused on the US. A tour is the best way to try it. Im in good hands with sommelier Yitzhaki, founder of Israel Wine Tour, who took to the drink aged six. My Lithuanian grandma thought I should know about wine, he explains. She created a monster. While northerly winemaking regions Galilee and Golan Heights dominate Israels 55-million-bottle-a-year output, the boutique wineries of the Judean Hills (or Bordeaux of ancient Israel) are leading the quality revolution. At the first stop on our tour, Clos de Gat, I admire a 3,000-year-old wine press (gat in Hebrew) resembling a stone paddling pool. Such sites abound across the country. The vineyards flagship 2012 Ayalon Valley, a Bordeaux-style red with a peppery Mediterranean kick, embodies Israels blend of old and new world. Wine is key to Jewish rituals, so most Israeli bottles are kosher (handled by observant Jews). It doesnt affect flavour, but a history of dire kosher wine has left a sour aftertaste that Clos de Gat (non-kosher) wants to eradicate. Were trying to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best wineries in the world, not get lumped in with Brooklyn kosher shops, says marketing manager Gidi White. Clos de Gat wants to compete with the best wineries in the world (Clodagh Kinsella) Clos de Gat inhabits a former HQ of ex-Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin, three miles from the West Bank. The wineries of the Judean Hills, which also extend into the West Bank, are attracting praise for wines using native grapes, as opposed to Israels dominant French varietals. One standout winery is Recanati, which is run by Israelis using grapes grown by Palestinians in Hebron. Thats not to say Palestinians arent creating their own fair share of quality wines. Cremisan, run by Italian priests, has been harvesting wine since 1885 and its bottles are stocked at Ottolenghi restaurants. Its right on the border; while many of the grapes are grown on the Israeli side, production happens on the Palestinian side. One particular thorn in Israeli winemakers sides is having to lease plots from the state, which owns almost all land and snubs the countrys wine scene. The Australian government puts AS$8m [4.4m] into marketing its wine, says Yitzhaki. What do we get? A kick in the butt. Nonetheless the future looks fruitful. With [chef] Ottolenghi, suddenly Israeli cuisine is popping up everywhere, says White. Through that people are discovering the wine. The landscape is reminiscent of Tuscany (Clodagh Kinsella) While monoliths dominate elsewhere, with Israels big three Barkan, Carmel, Golan Heights making 80 per cent of the countrys wine, the Judean Hills 30-odd vineyards have a long history of cooperation. Last year four of them formed the Judean Hills Quartet. The idea was to tell the story behind this beautiful region that almost no one outside of Israel knows about, says Eran Pick of Tzora Vineyards although the area has experienced a slightly raised profile since wine critic Jancis Robinsons visit. Israels only Master of Wine, Pick symbolises the new wave driving its revival, having trained abroad at the University of California, Davis. All five of Tzoras terroir-focused wines got an outstanding rating of 90-plus in Wine Spectators October 2016 Israel special. Today were making much more fascinating wine, says Pick. People are amazed how quickly the quality has increased. Reds historically dwarfed whites but Quartet youngster Sphera (tagline: white wine professionals) has wowed Israeli sommeliers, doubling production since 2012. Oddly for a grape that flourishes in cool climes, its Riesling is a standout. In this region weve got a microclimate, with cold wind coming from the Jerusalem Hills, says founder Doron Rav Hon. Breezes from the nearby Mediterranean also ventilate grapes, harvested by night for further cooling. Israels boutique wineries are on the up (Clodagh Kinsella) Warm and down-to-earth, Rav Hon is a contrast to calm, collected ex-military helicopter pilot Pick. Everybody put their egos aside, tastes together, travels together, says Rav Hon of The Quartet (theyll grace Londons Decanter Fine Wine Encounter in November). Its a first here and really exciting. Meanwhile, domestic wine consumption, albeit paltry, is increasing. Tel Aviv has a wine bar scene and, latterly, branch of top international wine school Wine and Spirit Education Trust. Not so long ago Rav Hons Friday night dinners were 15 minute eat-and-runs. Now with wine they can go on for hours, he says. In Israel we see that changing a lot, mostly in big cities. There was no wine in our culture, so its something that we have to learn from scratch but were learning fast. A tour gives visitors the opportunity to explore several of the smaller wineries (Clodagh Kinsella) Six more must-visit Israeli wineries Domaine du Castel A boutique pioneer founded in 1988 by Eli Ben Zaken, father of the Judean Hills scene, with epic views. Try the red blends (the grand vin is a classic). Open Sunday to Thursday by appointment; 27 tour and tasting with cheese. Pelter In the Golan Heights but inspired by Australias quality, accessible wines, Israels biggest non-kosher winery (plus boutique distillery) produces 300,000 bottles a year. Try the sparkling wine. Open daily, 10am-4pm; 10 tour with tasting. Somek By pretty Zikhron Yaakov, south of Haifa, fifth generation vintner Barak Dahan leads hour-long tours visiting the old-school barrel press. Try the incredible varietal carignan. Open daily, 9am-4pm, reserve in advance; 16 tour with tasting. Galil Mountain In the Upper Galilee, a high-tech winery co-run by Golan Heights Winery. Try rich reds (the 2013 yiron galilee is one of Wine Spectators top Israeli wines). Open Sunday to Thursday, 9am-5pm (Friday until 2pm); 4 tour with tasting. Nevo This winery has an epic backstory: dealing with wine helped winemaker Nevos aunt beat cancer, converting him. Open daily by appointment except Saturday (closes early Friday); tours 13. Yatir An acclaimed winery by the ancient Tel Arad Fort in the Negev: the next frontier of Israeli wine. Grapes from the nearby Yatir forest result in aromatic, fruity wiogniers. Open by appointment; contact winery for hours and pricing. Travel essentials British Airways flies to Tel Aviv from 294 return. A bespoke day tour with Israel Wine Tour costs from 460 for two including tastings and a cheese plate, as well as being picked up and droped off anywhere in Israel. If you dont want to get bogged down in the the nitty gritty of the post-Brexit status of EU nationals living in the UK after Brexit, its best just to think of Caroline Nokes as the Minister For Her Own Arse, whose performance last week before the Find It With Both Hands Committee was so bad she was forced to do it all over again at the House of Commons on Monday afternoon, and with precisely the same results. Some background: Now, this might shock you, but when the UK voted to leave the European Union, there were some Brexit voters, not many but a few, for whom it wasnt all about ending the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, or the UK at last being able to submit its own independent schedules to the World Trade Organisation. No, there were, and Im as stunned by this as you are, one or two people who were concerned about a minor EU policy known as the free movement of people. I mean were talking ten voters, probably, maybe as many as a dozen. But they really care about this stuff, they do, and theyve got rights too you know. Which was why, when, with five and a half months till Brexit, the immigration minister Caroline Nokes accidental admission that the Home Office has got no idea whether free movement of people will continue after the UK has left the European Union, caused something of a stir. Last week she told Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, employers would have to check whether staff they wanted to hire had arrived in the UK before or after Brexit. This was later clarified by her boss, Sajid Javid, who said there would have to be a sensible transition period, thus confirming what had not yet been said, that Ms Nokes is anything but sensible. It was then further clarified by the Home Office, whose clarification made it as clear as the Icelandic glacial melt water through which scuba divers occasionally report being able to see four hundred metres or more. Employers will not be expected to differentiate between resident EU citizens and those arriving after exit, it said, clarifying the truth to be the complete opposite of what the immigration minister had said. So what exactly will happen to free movement then, because that infinitesimally small constituent of Brexit voters who are bothered about immigration really want to know. Because if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, and after this point, employers require no more in the way of proof of eligibility for work from an EU national than their EU passport, then guess what: free movement of people has not come to an end, as the Brexit Select Committee chairman Hilary Benn pointed out. The minister has in effect told the House that free movement will continue, he said, pointing out that under such circumstances, the right to work in the UK could be secured simply with an EU passport, thus rendering the last two years of division and hate all but worthless. Free movement will end, Ms Nokes said back. The government is committed to it. And on the tiny off-chance that wasnt enough to convince you, she even pointed out that, Theresa May has said so in a speech. So thats that then. Someone has said it will happen so therefore it will. Of course, the wider, more depressing truth was the only thing Ms Nokes made clear, albeit by accident. That the chaos, the cluelessness, the brutality, and the vicious rows over it are yet to even start in earnest, and they assuredly will. The cold, hard rain was forming rivers down the mud streets of the refugee camp near Mosul when I visited. Shivering in the entrance of the tent she calls her school, 12-year old Lana proudly showed me her drawing of a forest. Except it was a field full of tree stumps. Each one, she calmly explained to me through a translator, represented a member of her Yazidi community cut down by the fanatics of Isis when they murdered and raped their way through her town four years ago. Her classmate Ahmeds drawing was more direct. It was a picture of kneeling captives in orange jump suits and the men in black about to kill them with guns and swords. These children had seen things no person should see. Here I was in Iraq the foreign country whose tragedy imprinted itself more than any other on my two decades in British politics, but a place which until two weeks ago I had never visited. I had come with War Child, the brilliant UK-based charity that helps those children caught up in conflicts around the world. Their trained therapists use art as one way to help with childhood trauma. This autumn, the Evening Standard and Independents Learn to Live campaign has been supporting the charity, and connecting schoolchildren in our capital with those in refugee camps like the ones I visited. The charity was founded back in the early 1990s to help victims of the Yugoslav civil war. That terrible slaughter on our own continent provided a backdrop to my years as I left university and started work. Srebrenica, then Rwanda, these were the places that shamed a western world that did nothing to stop the killing. It shaped my view that intervention for humanitarian reasons and against evil regimes, where possible, was the right approach. A decade later, in 2003, I was a new member of parliament when I was asked to vote to back the invasion of Iraq, and did. Robin Cooks resignation speech, Tony Blairs impassioned appeal on the eve of the crucial division, I watched it all from the opposition benches. The then prime minister told us MPs in that highly charged Commons debate that the decision we took would determine the pattern of international politics for the next generation. He was right, but for the wrong reasons. The failure to find weapons of mass destruction, the chaos and killing that followed, did set the course of international politics for a generation. It set America on a course of retreating from the rest of the world. It poisoned politics in our country. And it made it much harder to argue the case for intervention in other humanitarian cases. Yes, the immediate threat of a massacre in Benghazi spurred the government I was part of, with French allies, to take action to stop Gaddafis murdering forces. I met the children who had lived under Isis and whose families are now interned in a camp near Irbil, suspected of collaboration and abandoned by most charities except War Child George Osborne, editor of the Evening Standard Libya was in a state of civil war before we intervened; the fact it was still a mess after we left was taken as proof by the isolationists who say the west should never get involved. When I argued inside the National Security Council in 2012 that we should intervene aggressively to stop the slaughter of the emerging Syrian civil war, I was met with the reply by anxious colleagues: no, not another Iraq. When David Cameron asked parliament in 2013 to back limited strikes against the Assad regime to deter its use of chemical weapons against civilians, he was met with the reply by a cynical opposition: no, not another Iraq. On each occasion, we were told about the cost of getting involved the loss of life that could follow, the financial burden that would incur, the inherently unpredictable outcome. What wasnt so clear was the cost of not getting involved in Syria: the horrific loss of life that we didnt prevent, the chaos we didnt try to end, the door we opened for Russia, the mass refugee flows we failed to stop, the poisoning of the politics of Europe that followed and the ungoverned space we left and which the fundamentalist terror cult Isis emerged to occupy, and then expand over the border into Iraq. Mr Zain knows the cost of our failure to get involved. I was invited into the tent he shares with his family. He told me about the life they used to have, with his house, his own shop and their small plot of farmland. Then he recalled the night in 2014 when Isis arrived. He and his family ran and ran, up the nearby mountain. There on the top they remained, he told me, exposed to the elements and listening in fear as the Isis killers approached in the dark. Recommended We have been connecting children from UK schools and war zones After seven days, Kurdish Peshmerga forces arrived to save them and they have lived under their protection in this refugee camp ever since. To this day, he and his family do not know the fate of their relatives and neighbours who did not escape. They assume all the men are dead. But the women and children were taken into slavery, and many remain trapped with their captors. This is a story that almost no one tells, for we here in the west think that Isis has been defeated. Yes, it has been decimated and drastically pushed back, out of towns like Mosul and Raqqa. I saw for myself some of the charred hulks of the homemade Isis tanks like bizarre props from a Mad Max movie that the Peshmerga had destroyed. I met the children who had lived under Isis and whose families are now interned in a camp near Irbil, suspected of collaboration and abandoned by most charities except War Child. What no one knows is how many women and children remain the slaves of Isis, as they retreated into northern Syria. All we can imagine is their misery and suffering. We are long past the point where Britain might intervene in Syria. When the presidents of Turkey and Russia met with the French and German leaders last month in Istanbul to discuss that poor countrys fate, we were not even invited to the meeting. But my trip to the refugee camps of Iraq was a reminder that we cannot walk away forever from obligations we have to provide a safer and better world for victims of our self-satisfied inaction. As of right now, both main parties are bitterly divided, the country is bitterly divided, we stand on the brink of a seismic event in the nations history but have very little clue where it might register on the Richter scale. We have no real idea when or how we might get a new prime minister, nor when there might be a general election. It is, in short, a tricky time to be gauging the national mood, yet a large number of detailed bits of political polling have been published that intimate the near future has the potential to be every bit as bonkers as the past. Firstly, according to 3,000 voters asked by the website Politico, 47 per cent of voters want Theresa May to compromise and reach a deal with the European Union, compared to 35 per cent who would rather she walked away without one. Indeed, 53 per cent of voters to 47 would rather we stayed in the European Union than exited with no deal in place. Recommended May forced to call Varadkar to calm Irish anger over border But Conservative voters take the opposing view. 65 per cent prefer leaving without a deal to remaining in the EU. Which is to say that Theresa Mays current strategy, of inching towards a deal, and gladly throwing off hard Brexit ballast in the form of David Davis, Boris Johnson and others as she does so, is popular with the public. If she achieves a deal, she will win support, broadly enough, from the kind of coalition of the public that you need to win an election. Except for the fact that her own party is turning against her for the very same reasons. Once upon a time, the Conservative Partys stranglehold over British politics, which is roughly two centuries old depending how you choose to count it, could be put down to that partys correct deduction that winning power was its prima facie duty. Breaking oneself upon the ideological wheel was rightly, and successfully, always best left to others. And the indications are that she is indeed inching towards a meaningful deal. There are indications the EU is willing to compromise on what was once a red line of its own, which was the whole of the UK remaining in the EUs customs union while the future trading relationship could be worked out. There appears to be some progress on the thorniest issue of all, namely the backstop to the backstop, on the future status of Northern Ireland and the Irish border, depending on the UKs future trading relationship with the EU. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events There is every chance that, within a few weeks, Theresa May will, in the face of impossible pressure from a febrile party made all the more febrile via the parliamentary majority she lost, have produced a deal that is acceptable to Brussels, to Northern Ireland, to large numbers of Remain voters and large numbers of Brexit voters. Of course, it is not at all clear whether this delicate deal, brokered in super slow motion in the full public glare, will be approved by the House of Commons, nor is it clear what happens if it is not. Jeremy Corbyn will only be able to bring it down with the acquiescence of most of his MPs. Most of them will not want it brought down, nor do they, for the most part, want him to be prime minister. So what of the future beyond that point? Theresa May, probably, wants to go on. She constantly fails to resist the temptation to talk of the burning injustices she spoke of when she first became prime minister. There cant be much doubting she would like to have a proper turn at dealing with some of that stuff. And yet, if she delivers an outcome to Brexit that is electorally palatable for the whole country, the chances are her party will break her anyway. Who they replace her with is very hard to say. The chance to reshape Brexit in a more hardline way will be as good as gone. So will the chance to remain in Europe. There are precious few figures in the Conservative Party who have shaped themselves around anything other than their position on Brexit over the past few years. Arguably, the only one that has is Theresa May. Its just about feasible she could be in this for the long term. If her party decide otherwise, they might just reveal themselves to have given up on the business of politics. In normal times, such decisions produce predictable results, and not normally for Conservatives. Mary Robinson said the transition to decarbonisation must support peat producing communities (PA) Former president Mary Robinson has called on Bord Na Mona to undertake a just transition as they prepare for major job losses. Speaking at the Creative Responses to Climate Change event at Dublins Trinity College, Ms Robinson compared fossil fuel companies to those who produce tobacco. The UN Special Report released last month heralds the end of the fossil fuel era. They have lost legitimacy to operate, like tobacco. Selling a product known to cause harm is not acceptable, she said. Bord Na Mona announced last month that as they move towards decarbonisation and winding down their peat business, there would be around 430 jobs lost. The need for the urgent end of peat extraction mustn't undermine the rights of the communities whose lives are dependent on the bogsMary Robinson Unions were told that the company plans to close 17 of 62 bogs where peat is harvested, affecting a large swathe of Midlands communities. Ms Robinson said that the transition to decarbonisation must be undertaken to protect the rights of the communities affected. For decades the people and communities in the Midlands have served the people of Ireland by harvesting peat to heat our homes, however we now know that peat is the worst of fossil fuels we burn for energy, she said. A just transition has origins in the labour movement, aiming to secure the future and livelihoods of workers, based on social dialogue and commitment to human rights. Its an economy-wide process that leads to a future where all jobs are green and decent, greenhouse gases are at net-zero and poverty is eradicated and communities are thriving and resilient. This transition has already begun, it will be down to national and local government to work with unions and fossil fuel companies to ensure that workers are not forgotten. Expand Close The Bord na Mona Enderry plant is now co-fired with a mixture of peat and carbon neutral biomass (PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Bord na Mona Enderry plant is now co-fired with a mixture of peat and carbon neutral biomass (PA) The challenge we face is to design and manage the next industrial revolution, with minimal negative effects on workers and communities. The need for the urgent end of peat extraction mustnt undermine the rights of the communities whose lives are dependent on the bogs, there needs to be a long-term strategy, she said. Ms Robinson added Bord Na Mona has the opportunity to plan and deliver a just transition strategy to end the use of peat for energy by offering workers support to re-skill or gain early access to their pension. She said that social protection from the government would be critical for those who lose their jobs due to reducing carbon emissions. Referencing the Spanish governments plans to shut all coal mines at the end of this year, with 250 million euro being invested in mining regions in the next decade, Ms Robinson hailed the leave no one behind approach. Bord Na Mona previously said it is developing new businesses to support a low carbon economy and has identified potential to create up to 500 jobs across the Midlands in the medium term. Former British prime minister Tony Blair has said "there is simply no answer to the Irish issue" around Brexit. Mr Blair, an outspoken opponent of Britain's exit from the EU, believes there is now no deal that current British Prime Minister Theresa May can secure that can be good, or even reasonable, for Ireland. Writing in the 'Observer', Mr Blair said the UK government has tabled a series of "incompatible demands" which has led to a negotiating impasse. "They want a frictionless Border in Ireland. That can only happen if Northern Ireland remains in the customs union and single market, at least for goods and agricultural products. But they want the UK to leave the customs union and single market. "However, they also want Northern Ireland and Britain to be in the same relationship to Europe as each other. "And they made a rash commitment last December that the Northern Ireland issue would be resolved as a part of the Withdrawal Agreement, with the Border frictionless and with a backstop to guarantee it. There is simply no answer to the Irish issue," he added. Describing Mrs May's Chequers plans as "madness", he added: "Time has not lessened my sense of the catastrophic effects of Brexit. It has increased it." Mr Blair, a key architect of the Good Friday Agreement, urged all MPs to vote down whatever deal Mrs May presents and to push instead for another referendum on Brexit. He warned MPs that if they fail to do so, they will face a backlash from voters. "Everyone is going to come under intense pressure to agree a 'reasonable deal', Labour MPs especially. They should resist. There is no 'reasonable deal'," he wrote. "I promise them as someone who used to win elections: no one will lose their seat on this basis. But vote through a botched negotiation that you don't believe in and the backlash will last a political lifetime." THE Taoiseach has indicated that Ireland is willing to consider proposals for a review clause in relation to the backstop for the Irish border. However, Leo Varadkar has insisted that the outcome of any review cannot involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop. Expand Close British Prime Minister Theresa May is dancing on head of pin. Photo: PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp British Prime Minister Theresa May is dancing on head of pin. Photo: PA A spokesperson for the Taoiseach said he spoke to British Prime Minister Theresa May this morning by phone. "She sought the call in order to update the Taoiseach on the current state of the Brexit negotiations. Both leaders emphasised their commitment to avoiding a hard border and the need for a legally operable backstop," the spokesperson said. "The Prime Minister raised the possibility of a review mechanism for the backstop. The Taoiseach indicated an openness to consider proposals for a review, provided that it was clear that the outcome of any such review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop. "He recalled the prior commitments made that the backstop must apply unless and until alternative arrangements are agreed. Expand Close Simon Coveney Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Simon Coveney Photo: Steve Humphreys "They both expressed the hope that the negotiations could conclude in a satisfactory manner as soon as possible." Earlier, Mr Varadkar said that the United Kingdom is "in many ways a divided kingdom." Asked to respond to demands from Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab for the backstop to have a three month expiry date, Mr Varadkar said Ireland would never agree to such a proposal. "One thing we cant countenance is any idea that thered be three month limit on the backstop. A backstop with a three month limit on it, or an expiry date of that nature, isnt worth the paper its written on, he told reporters in Dublin this morning. Mr Raab made the suggestion during a robust secret meeting with Tanaiste Simon Coveney last Tuesday. However, it has been dismissed as an attempt by the Secretary to curry favour with hardline Brexiteers. Expand Close UK Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab. (Aaron Chown/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp UK Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab. (Aaron Chown/PA) Mrs May is expected to bring proposals to Cabinet tomorrow which would see the whole of the UK locked into a customs arrangement with the EU, not just Northern Ireland. This will ensure there is no need for a border on this island. Speaking about the latest developments, Mr Varadkar said the UK has already signed up to a legally operable backstop that will remain in place unless and until a new agreement to supersede it is reached. Its reasonable for us to expect a country like the United Kingdom to stand by its commitments, he said. The Taoiseach said it has been a problem all along that the UK is arguing with itself over how to approach the Brexit negotiations. The Irish position remains consistent and v clear that a time-limited backstop or a backstop that could be ended by UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by IRE or EU. These ideas are not backstops at all + dont deliver on previous UK commitments #Brexit pic.twitter.com/y7AQ8V1jMo Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) November 5, 2018 The United Kingdom is in many ways a divided kingdom. People are split 50/50 on whether they want to leave the European Union or not, the Cabinet seems divided, the Government seems divided, parliament is divided. That has made it very difficult to come to an agreement, Mr Varadkar said. Meanwhile, Mr Coveney insisted he made it "crystal clear" to Mr Raab during the meeting last week that Ireland will not accept any time-limited Brexit back-stop arrangement. Mr Coveney's warning, issued as he opened a Fine Gael constituency office in Kanturk, Co Cork, came as Mr Raab was reported to have privately demanded that Prime Minister Theresa May sanction a clause allowing the UK to terminate any backstop arrangement at just three months notice. The Tanaiste warned that Ireland's position with the back-stop to protect a no-infrastructure Northern Ireland border has been clear, consistent and remains fully supported by the EU. But he said that the potential remains for the draft of a UK withdrawal agreement to be reached with the EU by the end of November. "I had dinner with Dominic Raab in London last week," he said. "It was a robust exchange of views but it was a respectful exchange of views." "It is true that Dominic Raab outlined some thoughts that he had in relation to the back-stop and the review mechanisms for the back-stop." "But I made it absolutely crystal clear to him that Ireland and, in my view, the EU could never support a time limited back-stop or a back-stop that could be ended unilaterally by the UK alone after any review mechanism in the future." "That wouldn't be a back-stop at all." The hardline stance adopted by the British stunned Irish officials, and was viewed as a setback to clinching a Brexit deal this week. British Prime Minister Theresa May will bring plans to avoid a hard Border to her divided cabinet tomorrow. The plan sees the whole of Britain remaining in the EU customs union not just Northern Ireland. This would negate the need for checks at the Border. Mr Raabs proposal to Mr Coveney was that within three months of the backstop coming into force or six months at the very most Britain would have the right to trigger a review mechanism in which the backstop would persist only by mutual consent. British media reports that Mrs May had already concluded a secret deal, were dismissed by negotiators. If anything, things are now going backwards, one official said. Amid a fightback from the Irish government, speculation is mounting that Dominic Raab may resign if there is no time limit applied to the backstop. Tory Party Brexiteers have expressed their support for Mr Raab in this current stand-off. "Dominic is right on this and his position is a very practical reading of the Brexiteer view," Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman told The Daily Telegraph, warning that "the issue is powerful enough to take us into possible resigning territory." "If the Government wants to pursue [the deal being reported] then it can't, it shouldn't and every cabinet minister arguing for it should resign because they're not going to deliver on the result of the referendum and that's not acceptable," Tory MP Marcus Fysh said. Speculation about Mr Raab's future was prompted by HuffPost's Paul Waugh and ITV's Robert Peston. "What none of us know is whether [the backstop row] is theatre for the benefit of the ERG, so he can say to them that he did his best to rein in the PM", an MP told ITV. Or whether he is really on the point of quitting. Sources close to the Brexit Secretary poured cold water on speculation that he might be on the verge of resigning, telling the Telegraph that idea he might was "not recognised". This morning, Mr Coveney took to Twitter to say that Ireland's position "remains consistent". "The Irish position remains consistent and v clear that a 'time-limited backstop' or a backstop that could be ended by UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by IRE or EU. These ideas are not backstops at all and dont deliver on previous UK commitments," he tweeted. Later this morning, Mr Coveney said: "I don't think I could have been any clearer. I think it is unfortunate that the content of that (Raab) conversation has been leaked but that is politics. "That is why I felt the need to clarify the position this morning." Mr Coveney insisted Ireland's position has been consistent and is staunchly supported by the EU. "If you look at the EU deputy chief negotiator, she has retweeted my Tweet this morning." "This is making a very clear but respectful message in the retweeting of that. This is the Irish position and it is the EU position too." Mr Coveney stressed that Ireland has absolutely no issue with a UK-wide customs union for the EU. In fact, he said Ireland would prefer no checks between Ireland and the UK. The Cork TD said he couldn't predict when a deal would be hammered out - but he said the potential to reach a deal by the end of November was clearly there. "I don't control the time levers here," he said. "What I would say is that it is possible to get these issues resolved in terms of a draft text on the terms of a withdrawal treaty this month." Ahead of Mrs May's cabinet meeting, sources here said the situation was at its "most sensitive yet" and she will be "dancing on the head of a pin" to secure agreement on the deal in her government. The temporary customs arrangement believed to be on the table would see all of the UK remain closely aligned to EU trade rules for a time period. However, in order for the EU to accept this compromise, Mrs May must convince her colleagues and the DUP to agree that Northern Ireland can only opt out of the customs union when another mechanism of ensuring a soft Border is agreed. The Irish Government is opposed to any suggestion the backstop would have an "exit clause" as suggested in the 'Sunday Times' report. The article quotes a senior Whitehall source as saying: "The PM will be able to say there's no more backstop, we've got rid of that - success. There's an exit mechanism - success... The small print is that Ireland is f*****." Downing Street claimed the report about the deal is "all speculation". A spokesperson said: "The prime minister has been clear that we are making good progress on the future relationship and 95pc of the Withdrawal Agreement is now settled and negotiations are ongoing." Here, Labour leader Brendan Howlin said he remained "very fearful" Irish interests could be sacrificed by Europe to secure a deal and said Ireland has to be "vigilant". Mr Howlin said he was concerned Ireland had been "boxed into a corner where the backstop issue is the one remaining issue" and faced incredible pressure as a result. He told RTE's 'The Week in Politics': "Unfortunately that's the position that we find ourselves in now." Junior minister Damien English dismissed the suggestion that Ireland was "going to be shafted", insisting it was "not true". Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said he wouldn't add to what he described as "speculation". He said there was a "rapidly ticking clock" but that minds were now being focused with a view to concluding a deal and he welcomed that. Mr Coveney's spokesperson said the EU had been united through the Brexit process and the UK had given written commitments that the Withdrawal Agreement would give a legal guarantee of no return to a hard Border in Ireland in any circumstance. "This is the backstop," he added, saying the UK had agreed that it would apply "unless and until" a close future relationship eliminated any need for Border infrastructure and checks. The statement said that senior EU figures like Donald Tusk, Jean-Claude Juncker and chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier "and indeed Theresa May herself" have all said there will not be a deal "without a legal guarantee of no hard Border in Ireland". He added: "We hope a deal can be done but we're not there yet." There is the prospect of a special EU summit later this month if a deal on the backstop can be reached later this week. Like all good soap operas, viewers of Brexit wonder whether there will or won't be a deal by 11pm Irish time on Friday, March 29, 2019. The odds are in favour of a deal. This is partly because so many politicians are calling out the possibility of a no-deal scenario to dampen expectations. This is also because the track record of the EU is to do deals very late in negotiations - often after the deadline has passed. The Grexit, Lisbon, Maastricht, Euro-Crisis, Empty Chair Crisis and other negotiations all point to a deal being done. The deal done at the last minute is often an imperfect one in which the can is kicked down the road. Most politicians don't want to be seen to be incapable of doing the deal, so the odds are good the European Council will pull it off. Theresa May's comment that 95pc of the deal is agreed is encouraging. The text published on March 19 is also encouraging because there has been seven months of work since. What could cause problems is not the officials or the EU, but the lack of agreement on the UK side - rarely has one country been in such disarray about its negotiating stance. The contrast between one state at sixes and sevens with itself, and the seemingly united 27 member states will be a case study for diplomats forever. But why no deal now? First, a deal can come too soon. A deal now would be susceptible to political, legal and media attacks. There is time for one, if not two, UK general elections if the deal is done too early. This is about corralling all the parties at the last minute, with Brexiteers pleased the UK is finally leaving, and Remainers glad that it is not so bad. But few in the UK will be happy and that is one of the enormous future challenges for the UK post-March 29. Secondly, deals in the EU tend to be done by the European Council - the prime ministers of 27 states and the French president. This is the final court of political appeal in the EU. It was always improbable Barnier and Davis/Raab were going to be let clinch the deal. But what type of deal? It took the UK two attempts and 12 years to join a simpler European Community in 1973. Unravelling 46 years of EU law in the UK could not be done in less than two years. There will not be a comprehensive deal. That was always impossible and it became less likely given the disunity on the UK side. It will be a skinny deal. Indeed, the original EEC Treaty was not complete when it was signed on March 25, 1957 - the six founding states took a chance it would be ready by January 1, 1958, when it entered into force. They were right. We may see the same again. Instead, there will be a series of deals over time. In some ways, that is not a bad thing. More might be achievable in calmer, cooler times. To return to the soap opera analogy, there will be a box set of agreements which will run and run. The Irish issue might be partly resolved with more to be done later - one can recall that Ireland had to be resolved before last Christmas, otherwise talks would not progress. The EU would be wise not to long-finger, or leave unresolved, the Irish question. The point that there will be many agreements to be concluded over time, and for as long as the EU and the UK exist, has been lost on most people. This is not the beginning of the end. It is barely the beginning of the beginning. Norway and Switzerland have to conclude agreements with the EU over time and the same will apply between the UK and the EU, whether those agreements are on transport, financial services, security, data or whatever - the neighbours will have to agree on issues which have not yet been imagined. So there will probably be a deal, but a skinny one and the first of many to come. It will also be very late - even beyond the deadline of 11pm on the fascinating Friday night. Dr Vincent Power is EU & Competition Partner with A&L Goodbody. Brexit remains a big focus with prospects of a breakthrough by midweek but it's also a busy week for corporate results. Associated British Foods is due to announce its annual results tomorrow, while First Derivatives releases interim figures. Also tomorrow, gambling giant William Hill will issue a trading update. On Wednesday, Kerry Group is set to release its interim management statement. And on Thursday, Permanent TSB is due to report, followed by IPL Plastics' update on Friday, when it may guide on merger talks. Greencore holds an EGM on Wednesday, with Polaris Capital, a 9pc shareholder, already against the structure of a return of proceeds from the $1bn (878.5m) sale of its US arm. In Europe, finance ministers are due to meet today in Brussels. While on Wednesday, the European People's Party (EPP) holds a summit to decide on its top candidate to serve as EU Commission president. Meanwhile, Paddy Cosgrave's Web Summit is taking place this week in Lisbon. Michael Bloomberg hosts the New Economy Forum, a gathering of more than 400 world and business leaders in Singapore in the next two days. The group is also looking the 12c QA payment to be allowed on cattle sold in mart without any retention period and the four movements rule to be scrapped. Photo Brian Farrell The Beef Plan Movement has organised a series of meetings to drive membership and detail its plans for the beef industry in the coming weeks. Group spokesman Eamon Corley said the first meeting will take place this Wednesday in Roscommon mart, with a couple of hundred farmers expected to attend. It comes after the first National Livestock committee meeting of the Beef Plan Movement took place last week, with nearly 40 county representatives attending. A National Livestock Committee was elected at the meeting the first three meetings were scheduled, including Ratheinska Hall, Laois, Tuesday, November 20 at 8pm and the Cavan Crystal Hotel, Wednesday, November 21 at 8pm. According to Corley, the independent group has the backing of the Charolais Society, the Irish Blonde Cattle Society and the ICSA. It's understood the IFA National Livestock committee will discuss the organisation's plan tomorrow (Tuesday) and will discuss whether the IFA will back the farmers and their plan for the sector. However, according to Corley, organisations backing the plan will only happen on a "no strings attached" basis. Membership, he said has now reached over 3,500 and includes farmers from Northern Ireland. "Our target is to get 40,000 farmers to sign up to the plan," he said. "A big part of our plan is to unite farmers and take back control of our beef industry. We see it as a mathematical equation where at the moment we have 80,000 divided farmers selling cattle individually to a very united small group of factories." The group is planning to organise farmers into producer groups around the country, which can negotiate on farmers behalf. It is also looking the 12c QA payment to be allowed on cattle sold in mart without any retention period and the four movements rule to be scrapped. "This will allow finished cattle to be again sold in the marts. "We are also looking for the export regulations to be relaxed which will allow more cattle to be exported," he said. Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed launched a new National Water Quality Initiative on the Allow River, Duhallow near Kanturk. Minister Breen is photographed above with on left Kieran Murphy, Community Water Officer at Local Authority Waters and Communities and Dr.Paul OCallaghan, Local Authorities Waters Programme. Photograph Liam Burke Press 22 The Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed announced the roll-out of an innovative collaboration between Government and industry delivering 30 new Agricultural Sustainability Advisors to work with farmers across the country. These advisors will oversee the implementation of a Programme aimed at encouraging sustainable farming, while meeting stringent water quality requirements on over 5,000 farms nationwide. The initiative will support a free one-to-one sustainability advisory service to more than 5,000 farmers to encourage behavioral change, facilitate knowledge transfer and achieve better on-farm environmental outcomes. Of the 30 new Agricultural Sustainability Advisors assigned to the programme, 20 are located in Teagasc while 10 who have undergone the same programme of training, will operate within the dairy processors' organisational structures. Staff have been recruited and trained by the EPA and Teagasc and are now commencing their work programme. The Agricultural Sustainability Support & Advisory Programme (ASSAP) arises from the River Basin Management Plan for Ireland 2018-2021. The plan identified that agriculture is a significant pressure in over 50% of waters at risk of not meeting their ecological target of good status by 2027. In accordance with the Water Framework Directive , this Plan sets out a comprehensive programmes of measures to enhance the quality of water in Ireland's rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal waters and groundwater. The objective is to support best farming practice and minimise its impact on water quality. Commenting on the programme, Sean Keating of Tipperary County Council, on behalf of the local authorities, welcomed the collaboration and the commitment to making this happen and which is now being rolled out today. A series of public meetings is commencing shortly in identified at risk water catchments which will be aimed at the wider public and not just farmers. Separately a series of river and stream visits will take place for farmers only to show the impact of agriculture on water and advise on possible remedial actions. Pat Murphy, CEO of Kerry Ingredients and current chair of Dairy Industry Ireland said the Dairy industry is committed to sustainable production and our commitment to the programme is evidence of this. It is critical that dairy production enhances its current positive image and delivers on its sustainable objectives. Professor Tom Kelly, Director of Knowledge Transfer in Teagasc said; Teagasc is committed to supporting farmers to maintain and improve the quality of our waterways. This new Agricultural Sustainability Support & Advisory Programme, will help farmers to farm sustainably from an environmental, economic and social perspective. The proportion of unpaid work by family members on Irish farms is among the highest in the EU at about 95pc, according to newly released data by the European Commission. In terms of the proportion of unpaid working hours, Slovenia, Ireland and Austria take the lead (about 95pc of work is unpaid work by family members), while the proportion is around 50pc in Denmark, the Netherlands and Bulgaria. There is significantly higher variability in the share of family and paid labour across newer EU Member States due to the predominance of very large farms in many eastern European countries, such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Often these large farms are organised as legal entities (i.e. companies). With Irish farming so dependent serious concerns have been raised over the future availability of labour. Approximately 37,700 or 27pc of Irish farmers are over 65 years and 8,200 (6pc) aged under 35. In a recent survey, almost half (48pc) of farmer respondents did not have a farming successor identified. The issue is of particular concern for the dairy sector which saw 1.4 million dairy cows milked in Ireland in 2017, up from 1.05 million in 2010. Importantly, nearly half of all dairy cows are now milked in herds of >100 cows (as of 2016). The industry has seen a big change in structure as well as scale over a relatively short period of time. Teagasc research indicates that approximately 6,000 people will need to join Irish dairying between 2016 and 2025. This demand for people is occurring at a time when the unemployment rate nationally has fallen below 6pc for the first time in a decade with careers on Irish farms in direct competition with other career offerings. Average family farm income was the highest on record at almost 31,400 in 2017, a 32pc increase on 2016 mostly driven by higher returns on dairy farms. US President Donald Trumps America First slogan had caused only economic trouble for the country, including US soybean farmers. Since the mid-2000s, North Dakota farmer Paul Thomas has planted more of his land with soybeans as Chinas demand for the oilseed grew. The shift culminated this year when Thomas planted 1,600 of his 5,000 acres with soybeans, the most ever. But Thomas and many farmers like him plan to return to the old U.S. farm belt staples in 2019: corn and wheat. The change will reverse a trend that saw U.S. farmers plant more acreage this year with soybeans than corn for the first time in 35 years. The expected shift to other grains comes as farmers struggle to sell the soybean crop because of President Donald Trumps trade war with China. China typically buys 60pc of U.S. soybean exports but has bought almost none for months due to the trade war, pushing prices to a decade low. Thomas plans to plant more wheat next year, hoping he can earn more by decreasing his reliance on the crop dependent on Chinese demand. Soybean prices are kicking our butts, said Thomas. Without China, Thomas said local cash prices near his farm are $7.10 per bushel of soybeans, below the $8.50 necessary to cover costs. The trade war has hit U.S. farmers at a vulnerable time. They had planted more acreage than ever with soybeans this year and are harvesting the largest ever U.S. crop. But Beijing slapped an import tax on U.S. soybeans in July in retaliation for Trumps taxes on Chinese imports into the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in the agencys first estimate for next years planting to include the impact of the tariffs, on Friday estimated 2019 corn plantings to rise about 3 million acres to 92.0 million acres. Wheat acres would rise to 51.0 million acres, up from 47.8 million this year, while soybean acres would fall to 82.5 million acres. Acreage of soybeans, planted before retaliatory tariffs were imposed, rose to 89.145 million this year, up about 15 million acres from a decade ago. Corn acres are up by less than 5 million acres since 2008 to 89.1 million acres while wheat acres of 47.8 million this year were near the lowest in a century. Aron Carlson, president of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, devoted nearly half of his 3,600 acres to soybeans this year but plans to cut back. He said he may increase corn planting by up to 20pc at his farm in northern Illinois. The state is the biggest U.S. soy producer. Soybeans yield fewer bushels per acre than corn but also require less fertilizer, making them generally cheaper to grow. A switch to corn could raise costs for farmers but benefit some companies including fertilizer sellers like The Andersons Inc. The firms Chief Executive Pat Bowe told Reuters he expected a switch to corn would be good for fertilizer use. Bayer AG, too, expects to benefit from a switch to corn. Corn has a longer growing period, more issues with weeds and fungi ... This is a benefit for our overall business, Liam Condon, president of the companys Crop Science division, said at an event in St. Louis this week. DEMAND DYNAMICS While soybean prices tumbled to a decade-low on Sept. 18, corn is not frequently exported to China and slumped to merely a 22-month low. Wheat prices are up 19pc this year as reserves in many exporting countries have fallen to their lowest since 2007-08. Corn demand has benefited from long-term growth in the livestock industry and grain-based ethanol. Drought in Brazil and Argentina also made corn importers more reliant on the United States. A record 3.2 billion bushels of U.S. corn were consumed from June to September, the USDA said on Sept. 28. Illinois farmer Eric Honselman said his family farm planted about equal amounts of corn and soybeans on their 5,600 acres. But corn acres next year will likely increase by up to 5 percent. Next year, we will be longer corn than soybeans, Honselman said. Every time the market tells me to grow corn, I will do it. Dublin and London-listed Draper Esprit has seen the value of its primary portfolio increase by 45pc to 354m (404m) in the six months to 30 September. In a trading update today the venture capital firm reported a 20pc return to investors during the six-month period, driven by a strong performance in its core portfolio. Core portfolio holdings have increased in value by 33pc to 235.1m and represent approximately 70pc of the gross portfolio value. The company invested 65m over the six months, with a further 10.6m invested from enterprise investor scheme (EIS) and venture capital trust (VCT) funds. In total the company has invested in 11 new companies and six existing companies during the six month period. Commenting on the results, Simon Cook, CEO of Draper Esprit, said that the company continued to successfully execute the strategy of providing early and growth-stage technology companies with the capital, network, and support they need to pursue their global growth plans. "We remain on course to exceed our stated objective of a portfolio return of 20pc per annum for the full year, with a 20pc fair value increase delivered in the six months period ended 30 September 2018," Mr Cook said. "The ongoing and rapid advances in key technology subsectors such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, digital healthcare and fintech continue to shape our investment strategy and, having invested as a group 75.6m, with over 45m to close in the near-term by the company, Draper Esprit remains one of the most active VCs in Europe." Looking forward the company said it was committed to maintaining a "prudent" approach to new opportunities. "The uncertainty around Brexit is something we are mindful of and the ability for UK-based companies to access the best and brightest talent from around the world remains critical," Mr Cook said. "However, being dual listed in both London and Ireland provides us with continued flexibility to access Europe in a post Brexit environment." The harsh reality is Ireland does not have the underpinning infrastructure or public service provision necessary to underwrite the economic vision which it has signed up to, said Neil Gibson, chief economist for EY Ireland Strong economic growth and a buoyant jobs market are set to push wages higher, according to the latest report from consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY). It said businesses were moving to a more hands-on approach to dealing with the potential fallout from Brexit. EY increased its growth forecast for the State to 8.2pc this year, when Ireland will again be the fastest-growing economy in Europe, and to 4.4pc in 2019. The strong growth this year will see the State create 70,800 new jobs, driving the country towards full employment and generating strong wage growth which EY forecast would be 3.6pc this year. While economic data here is heavily skewed by the presence of US companies, the State has seen a series of upgrades in its outlook. EY said Brexit and the worsening global outlook would both hit Ireland and the country needed more infrastructure investment. "The harsh reality is Ireland does not have the underpinning infrastructure or public service provision necessary to underwrite the economic vision which it has signed up to," said Neil Gibson, chief economist for EY Ireland. "This means that spending is required, but accompanied by a continued focus on cost control - which will not be easy in the face of growing salary pressures across the economy," he added. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe's recent Budget was criticised by some economists for its lack of ambition on infrastructure. Expense: Siobhan and Brian Redmond and their children Christopher (2) and Pearse (3 months). Photo: Caroline Quinn Mother Siobhan Redmond will soon be paying more than her monthly mortgage for childcare for her two children. Ms Redmond, from Killester, Dublin, believes the Government should further assist families and the childcare industry in tandem to create a well-run system for all. The 35-year-old financial professional is currently on maternity leave after giving birth to her three-month-old son Pearse. In August next year, Pearse will join older brother Christopher, aged two-and-a-half, in childcare when Ms Redmond returns to work. "Full-time childcare is 850 for one," Ms Redmond said. "As far as we know, that will be doubled next year when Pearse goes into childcare. "That's more than our monthly mortgage payments, despite subsidies. It's a costly figure. "Where my two children will be in childcare is cheap compared to friends, who are paying up to 1,300 a month in southside Dublin. "Such expense is putting some parents off having a third child. "The financial costs of childcare are just too high." Ms Redmond and her husband Brian, who runs Redmond Electrical in East Wall, Dublin, have acknowledged that due to the cost of childcare, they will have to cut spending. However, Ms Redmond feels those who work in childcare should be paid well for the "important job of looking after the most precious people in our lives, our children". She believes many aren't paid fairly at all. Eamon Sikafi, Commercial Counsellor - Middle East & North Africa, Enterprise Ireland; Eoin O Broin, CEO, Solar AdTek; Jamil Qureshi, CEO, Poweregion; and Aidan Cronin, The Irish Ambassador to the UAE Solar AdTek, which develops solar powered and LED lighting systems for outdoor advertising, has entered an agreement with Dubai-based Poweregion to bring its technology and expertise in solar lighting systems to a wider market. Poweregions customers are based in the Middle East and Africa region, and the group has over 1,000 clients. Under this agreement with Solar AdTek, Poweregion will be now in a position to offer an extended and enhanced range of services to its customers. Commenting on the partnership, Eoin OBroin, CEO of Solar AdTek, said that the company was "delighted" to be extending its international footprint to the Middle East and Africa. "In Poweregion, we have found the optimum channel partner, whose business is clearly strategically aligned with ours," Mr OBroin added. "The agreement will enable us to bring our solar and energy-saving LED lighting technologies to a wide market and we are confident that it will be of significant mutual benefit to both of our companies." Jamil Qureshi, CEO of Poweregion, agreed that the partnership would bring benefits to both companies. "[Solar AdTeks] expertise, experience and innovation in energy-saving solar powered lighting technology is of considerable interest and Poweregion is looking forward to promoting these positive offerings to our customers and the wider market," he added. Projects completed in Ireland so far in 2018 by Solar AdTek include the upgrading of the lighting in advertising displays across CIEs Out of Home advertising estate on the national rail network, and the upgrade of 1,800 bus shelter units across Ireland with JCDecaux, decreasing their carbon emissions. If Brexit is added to the conundrum along with a possible economic downturn, the idea of investing in the UK retail sector might best be avoided. Stock image If there is one theme that has been more than adequately explored in this column in the last couple of years, it's the ongoing plight of the retail trade. The structural shift to e-commerce has been such a mountainous leap that companies which a decade ago were top of the heap, are now either struggling or have already fallen by the wayside. Many believe the once world-beating Marks & Spencer formula may never be the same again. Debenhams is said to be in the emergency ward and it is too late for House of Fraser, BHS and many more. If Brexit is added to the conundrum along with a possible economic downturn, the idea of investing in the UK retail sector might best be avoided. However, some more interesting retailing options exist in Europe and one is the Spanish group, Industria de Diseno Textil SA, also known as Inditex. We know it better as the holding company for the Zara chain and other fashion brands including Massimo Dutti and Pull & Bear. The company was set up in La Coruna in north west Spain, 55 years ago, by Amancio Ortega, a man you certainly will not know from the gossip pages or 'Hello' magazine. Inditex's septuagenarian majority shareholder is notoriously secretive and is hardly ever photographed. Expand Close Keeping retail in fashion: Spanish company's route to the top / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Keeping retail in fashion: Spanish company's route to the top His company's style is to spend as little as possible on advertising and even less on central marketing. Ortega won't be seen at flashy events, because his company never throws one. He also steers clear of high-profile designers, which marks the group out among its retail counterparts. Despite this rather odd approach to modern business, Inditex has managed to become the world's largest clothing retailer. It is a pioneer and powerhouse in fast fashion that operates in 96 markets, generating more than half its sales in non-euro currencies. It has an array of brands like Zara Home, Bershka (urban styles), Stradivarius (casual), Oysho (lingerie) and Uterque (accessories). While the company is considered the best in class in terms of bricks and mortar retailing, the real challenge it faces is e-commerce. What sets Inditex apart from its rivals is its supply chain. It controls the chain from factory to retail and Ortega wisely kept production close to home while his competitors moved to Asia. Today, Inditex has plants in Portugal, Turkey and Morocco and a highly automated factory in La Coruna. As a consequence, it allows the company to turn out trendy clothes in small batches at startling speed. As the pioneer of fast fashion, it can respond to new fashion trends in a fraction of the time other retailers can. From design to retail outlets, it can take Zara as little as two weeks. In contrast, some of its competitors can take six to nine months. Inditex was floated on the stock exchange 18 years ago and valued at the time at 9bn. Today its value is 78bn - happy days for the original investors. In the past decade, the group's progress has been very impressive. In 2008, the company had sales of 10bn, profits of 1.8bn and 4,200 company shops. Last year, sales were 25bn; net profits were nearly double that of a decade ago and the number of outlets jumped 80pc in the same period. Online growth is also encouraging, jumping 40pc last year, and now accounts for 10pc of group sales. The company will offer online sales across all brands in all markets by 2020. The group's share price peaked last year at 34 but has since retreated to 25. An added advantage for the company is its low stock levels, estimated at 10pc of sales, in contrast to its Swedish rival H&M which is 17pc. Thanks to its size and margins, Inditex is a cash-generating machine with almost 5bn on the balance sheet. The group recently reported strong half-year results but the sell-off in emerging market currencies is of some concern. Inditex is the apple of the fashion world. It is a slick and resilient company with a winning business model. As an investment, it has style and worth considering. Nothing in this section should be taken as a recommendation, either explicit or implicit to buy any of the shares mentioned. File photo dated 03/07/15 of Drake. The music video for the Canadian rappers latest hit single will be released on Thursday. Canadian rapper Drake shared an emotional tribute on Instagram after a young fan who he met through the Make-a-Wish Foundation died. Drake admitted that he was sorry to have missed a text from the fan, named Kay, on the artists birthday, but that he had been looking forward to seeing her after his tour finished. Posting a photo of the two together by Kays bedside, Drake said: Gonna miss you a whole lot I dont know why I am writing this on (Instagram), I just need to get it out cause its sitting heavy on my heart. Drake said: We met through Make-A-Wish and we built a genuine bond, you would text me and check on me while I was on tour and tell me positive things and share your dreams and goals. I am crying in this pic but it was tears of joy cause we just prayed for you with your father Will remember you forever K! The rapper recently visited another young fan in hospital. Sofia Sanchez, 11, met Drake in Chicago on the day that she found out she would be getting a life-saving heart transplant. Joseph O'Connor (58), from west Dublin, arrives at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court where he has pleaded not guilty to five counts of possession of child pornography at his home in 2011. Pic Collins Courts. A garda accused of possessing child pornography told investigators "somebody else" must have downloaded child sex images onto his laptop, a trial has heard. Joseph O'Connor (58) of west Dublin has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five counts of possession of child pornography at his home in west Dublin on dates between July 30 and August 2 in 2011. Detective Superintendent Colm O'Malley told the jury that on June 21, 2012 he arrested the defendant and later interviewed him about images found on a Dell laptop seized from his home during a search in August 2011. Videos found on the seized laptop showed boys under the age of ten subjected to sexually explicit acts. 12 movies retrieved showed boys between the age of ten and 17 with two files depicting children being subjected to explicit sexual acts with a male adult. As garda interviewers took the accused through the child sexual images and videos, he repeatedly denied knowledge of them. He told investigators: "I've never downloaded any of those images". Expand Close Joseph O'Connor (58), from west Dublin, arrives at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court where he has pleaded not guilty to five counts of possession of child pornography at his home in 2011. Pic Collins Courts. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Joseph O'Connor (58), from west Dublin, arrives at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court where he has pleaded not guilty to five counts of possession of child pornography at his home in 2011. Pic Collins Courts. He repeatedly said he'd never seen many of the images, which included children having sex with children, and described them as sick. "I have never downloaded or viewed child pornography. Somebody else must have downloaded them," he told detectives. He said his laptop had no password and could be used by anyone coming into his house. The defendant said he would bring men, who he met on "hook up" websites like Manhunt, back to his home and they would often use the laptop. He said that in the days before the laptop was seized by gardai a man named Patryk (sic) Farrell met him at his home for sex. He said the next day his laptop "started going ballistic" and he was convinced Mr Farrell corrupted the computer. The hard drive seemed to be spinning and "if you typed anything, what you typed wasn't appearing on the screen", he told Supt O'Malley. He told gardai he spent most of the day ringing technical support in Pakistan and invited gardai to check his telephone records. Paul Carroll SC, defending previously told the jury that his client was not challenging that the files found on the laptop amounted to child pornography but that "the real issue is how they got there". The trial continues before Judge Elma Sheahan and a jury of ten men and two women. Evidence The defendant told investigators that in some of the images the people looked over age but denied having downloaded the images. He identified some of the people in the images as adult friends of his, saying of one image; "That's Samuel, he's 28. That was put up in 2010". Mr O'Connor told detectives that on the night of Thursday July 28 Mr Farrell came to his house and they had consensual sex. He said he knew Mr Farrell from before and that he had assaulted a man he knew but he "had never done anything to me". He said Mr Farrell stole his official garda ID and 20. He said he realised after Mr Farrell had left his home and he got into his car and found Mr Farrell at a bus stop. He confronted Mr Farrell and searched him and found the item as well as his handcuffs. He said Mr Farrell came after him saying the cash was his and he pushed Mr Farrell back. "The f***ing eejit was still high or drunk. He fell back on his arse. Several people saw that," he said. Mr Farrell got a bus into town and collapsed in a public place. The jury heard of texts between the two men, with Mr O'Connor texting "why did you have to destroy a good night?" and Mr Farrell replying "I've been to the hospital" and saying that gardai were shocked by the bruising on him. The court heard that the defendant wrote back: "Are you claiming rape now and all?" and Mr Farrell replying "I'm very bruised, I will go to gardai". The court heard a complaint was made by Mr Farrell to the Garda Ombudsman and Inspector Colm Fox, since deceased, also carried out an investigation into allegations of rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment. Garda Sergeant Kevin Menchen told Paul Carroll SC, defending, a report by Inspector Fox concluded that there was no evidence of these offences. He said the alleged physical injuries were consequences of sexual acts. The garda report detailed that Mr Farrell had 21 previous convictions for minor offences. A previous allegation of assault was found to be inconsistent with CCTV footage. There was also details on the Garda Pulse records system of a named man calling gardai to have Mr Farrell removed from his home and details of barring orders taken out against Mr Farrell. Calvin Cullen (20) on crutches at Naas District Court where he was charged with murder. Photo: Garrett White/Collins Photo Agency A 20-year-old man said he "never meant for him to die" after being charged with the murder of a man following an altercation in the wake of a Halloween party. Calvin Cullen, of Greenhills, Athy, Co Kildare, was remanded in custody by Judge Desmond Zaidan at a special sitting of Naas District Court after arriving on crutches. He is charged with murdering David Boland in Athy town centre early last Thursday morning. It is alleged that the victim was stabbed three times and later died from his wounds at Portlaoise Hospital. Detective Garda Niall Bambrick told the court that after being charged, Mr Cullen told gardai: "I never meant for him to die. I'm sorry for his family. I hope they believe I didn't mean that to happen." When asked about the alleged details of the incident, gardai told Judge Zaidan there had been a number of people on the street at the time. They said Mr Boland had been driving when he stopped and parked his car before becoming involved in an altercation with the defendant. "He was stabbed three times and the wounds were fatal," said Det Gda Bambrick. Judge Zaidan granted Mr Cullen free legal aid but held off on a request for a psychiatric evaluation. He said he would neither accede nor refuse the application but he needed to be provided with a basis for one. Mr Cullen was remanded in custody to Naas District Court on Thursday. Mr Boland was from Nurney, Co Kildare. Local Fianna Fail councillor Martin Miley, who knew Mr Boland, said: "He had an engineering business. He worked extremely hard to build up his business." A Meath man jailed for abusing three young relatives has been refused extra time to appeal his sentence, with the Court of Appeal holding that victims were entitled to closure. The 45-year old man, whose details cannot be published to protect the victims identities, was 16 when he raped his 13-year-old cousin in 1989 and in his twenties when he later abused his two nieces aged eight to 13. He pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to representative counts of rape, sexual assault and anal rape on dates between 1989 and 2001. Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said the children were preyed upon over a significant period of time. He said the effects on the victims had been devastating but they appeared to be people of great resilience and determination. He gave the man consecutive sentences totalling 14 years on November 11, 2016. The man was refused an extension of time to appeal against the severity of his sentence on Monday by the Court of Appeal. His barrister, Roderick OHanlon SC, said his client had formed an intention to appeal within the required time of 28 days but that he was overwhelmed by the sentencing process and being in prison for the first time. President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham said the mans application to extend time was lodged in March 2018, around 16 months late. Mr Justice Birmingham said the interests of each of the three victims had to be considered. They were entitled to closure and reopening the case way out of time would deny them the closure to which they are entitled. There must come a time when victims are entitled to get on with their lives and put matters behind them, the judge said. They had been abused over a significant period of time - 13 years - and much time has passed since the offending occurred. He said no discrete grounds of appeal had been identified apart from a somewhat formulaic statement that the sentence was severe and disproportionate. He said the interest of justice was served by having regard to the public interest in finality and maintaining closure for victims. Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice John Edwards and Ms Justice Maire Whelan, refused the application. A 50-year-old woman charged with the murder of a man in his 20s in south Dublin has requested a psychiatric assessment during her first court appearance. Grace Miano, with an address at Tudor Lawns in Foxrock, appeared at a special sitting of Dublin District Court yesterday morning in connection with the killing of Malawian national Limbani Mzoma (27), also known as Robert. The young man died of stab wounds at the Foxrock property at around 11.30pm last Thursday. Ms Miano was driven into the back entrance of the Central Criminal Court at around 9am for her court appearance. Before proceedings started, the Kenyan native slumped forward in her seat and briefly held her hands to her head. Praying Expand Close Limbani Mzoma / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Limbani Mzoma She then appeared to be praying silently to herself. Detective Sgt Colm O Giollain told the court Ms Miano made no reply when she was charged at 9.35pm at Dun Laoghaire garda station on Saturday. The defendant, dressed in a navy jumper, white tracksuit bottoms and black trainers, confirmed her name to Judge Grainne Malone and nodded when asked if she wanted solicitor Jonathan Dunphy to represent her. Mr Dunphy informed the judge his client had been living in Ireland for a number of years and in receipt of social welfare. He also stated it was her wish that a psychiatric assessment be carried out. However, Ms Malone said she did not have the authority to grant this request, saying it was a matter for the Dochas Centre to consider. The court then heard Ms Miano had complained of pains in her head and legs since being taken into custody. She had been seen by a doctor at the station "on several occasions". Ms Miano was granted free legal aid and was remanded in custody to appear before Dun Laoghaire District Court on Friday morning. No application for bail was made. A post mortem on the body of Mr Mzoma has been completed. It is understood he suffered a number of stab wounds to his neck, chest and back in an upstairs room in the Foxrock house. Emergency services attended the house late on Thursday night. The victim's body was removed from the rented house at 1.20pm on Friday. Local residents of the quiet neighbourhood spoke of their shock as they learned a man had died in the house. Mr Mzoma is understood to have been living in Ireland for the past five years. His brother Ambrose described him as a "brave, courageous, young man" who was friendly to everyone he met. Mr Mzoma had been planning to return home to his native Malawi at some stage next year. Following his death, tributes were paid to Mr Mzoma online. "May (your) soul Rest in peace Robert," one friend wrote. Six children with autism are to start their long-awaited first day of secondary school today after building delays left them without a classroom for nine weeks. An extension to St Conleth's Vocational School in Newbridge, Co Kildare, which included two new units for children with autism, was due to be completed by September 1 for all pupils to return from the summer break. However, delays in signing off on the new building by the Department of Education and the local council meant the school could not fully reopen in time, leaving six children at home for the first half of the term. Cecilia Semple, whose daughter Kelly (13) will attend the school from today, said parents feel their children had been "forgotten about" and were treated as "invisible" by officials. "The day I got the letter I was devastated. I sat down and cried, and I just felt like Kelly was unwanted because of her disability. We had all bought the uniforms. We were getting them ready and doing social stories with them to get them prepared for school. "The pure and simple fact is they have a right to education just like their peers," she said. With two months of the school year lost for the six pupils affected, parents have raised concerns their children are now at a disadvantage. "They're going in now with seven weeks to Christmas and it is going to take that time for them to settle in, so they have missed the term," Ms Semple said. "And because they've been at home this long, they mightn't be able to settle in now. The wheels seem to turn very slowly for the department getting this sorted." A spokesperson for the department said the "teaching team will assess their needs and adapt their teaching programme so that any deficits can be addressed". Weve met before: Dr Kathleen Nallen (centre) was delighted to call Emily Campion (left) to the podium to collect her parchment when she graduated with her Bachelor in Science in Midwifery from DkIT, watched by Emilys mum Dolores (right). Photo: Ciara Wilkinson. It was an extra special delivery for one midwife when a baby she helped deliver 23 years ago graduated as a midwife herself and from a course she now oversees. Newly qualified Emily Campion's second name is Kathleen - after midwife Kathleen Nallen, who cared for her and her mother when she was born in 1995. Now Dr Nallen is the acting head of section of midwifery in Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT). She said she was thrilled that one of her deliveries was studying midwifery. This week she was delighted to call Emily to the podium to collect her parchment as she graduated with her Bachelor in Science in Midwifery from DkIT. "We were in our second year of studies here when I asked Kathleen if she had worked in the labour ward in Drogheda in June 1995," Emily explained. Expand Close New arrival: Emily Campion 23 years ago with her proud mother Dolores / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp New arrival: Emily Campion 23 years ago with her proud mother Dolores Emily became curious about this as her mother Dolores said the name of her midwife was Kathleen and her middle name was given in tribute to her. When Dr Nallen was next visiting the maternity unit in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital she mentioned it to the director of midwifery. They checked the birth register for June 16, 1995, and found Emily's birth details, entered by staff midwife Kathleen Nallen. Kathleen said: "It is a unique privilege to have been present at Emily's birth and to now see her graduate as a midwife herself and to be involved in her graduation ceremony. It felt like the story of Emily's birth had gone full circle." Emily's mother Dolores added: "It is a wonderful and incredibly special opportunity to meet the midwife who supported me at Emily's birth 23 years ago and who has now supported Emily in her own midwifery studies. "Such things don't happen very often but when they do they should be celebrated," she said. Students at two primary schools in west Dublin where structural defects have been found in their buildings will not be returning to class this morning as planned. St Luke's National School and Tyrrelstown Educate Together schools had planned to reopen the ground floors of their schools today. However, last night officials from St Luke's announced that remedial works to the school were not sufficient. Principal Vivienne Bourke announced on the school's website that "the building simply will not be ready by Tuesday". Following a meeting with the school's board of management (BOM) and the engineering team at the school, they were given a tour of the new scaffolding and support structures yesterday evening. "These support structures do not look good and the BOM and patron did not feel that the site was finished to a high enough standard to ensure the safety of everyone who would be using the building. "There were still some sharp edges, unfinished woodwork and exposed surfaces which could potentially be a hazard," she wrote. School representatives will meet officials from the Department of Education today to ask "that the building should be finished to a more satisfactory standard and cleaned before it is returned to us". "If we are happy with what we see then the BOM will hopefully open the school for everyone on Wednesday morning - not Tuesday as we had initially hoped," she added. Meanwhile, it's understood that neighbouring school, Tyrrelstown Educate Together, will also not reopen today. A source said the school's principal, staff and BOM would meet at the school this morning to determine when the school could reopen. Officials from the school could not be reached for comment last night. However, in its most recent post on its website last Thursday, the school announced that its BOM "will assess the work undertaken in the coming days and seek assurances as to the health and safety of the building before committing to its use before the children are due to return to school". The Department of Education, meanwhile, said 22 schools undergoing what it called "precautionary measures" following structural defects found in schools built by Western Building Systems over the past decade were due to be handed back to school management last night. However, it is ultimately up to the school's management to give the green light for pupils to return to class. In total, 42 schools across the country were examined for structural defects after issues were found at Ardgillan Community College in Balbriggan, Co Dublin. The department said over 250 workers had been on site at the 22 schools over the weekend to facilitate the reopening of the schools today. Former IRA man John Downey was arrested by Garda in Donegal on Monday Former IRA man John Downey was arrested by Gardai in Donegal on Monday on suspicion of the murder of two Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers in 1972. He was also arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting an explosion. Lance Corporal Alfred Johnston, a father of 4, and Private James Eames, a father of 3, died when a device exploded in a car they were checking on the Irvinestown Road, Cherrymount, Enniskillen on August 25, 1972. Downey (66) was arrested under a European Arrest Warrant as part of a joint operation with the PSNI. He is expected to appear at Dublin High Court on Tuesday afternoon. Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has said that a decision has been taken to prosecute a 66-year-old man for the murders. In 2014 Downey stood trial for the 1982 Hyde Park bombings in which four soldiers were killed and a number of people were injured. An IRA car bomb exploded as the soldiers made their way from their Kensington barracks to a Changing Of The Guard ceremony at Horse Guards Parade. The trial collapsed because Downey had been mistakenly awarded an "on-the-run" letter by the UK Government which said he was not wanted by police. Trial judge Mr Justice Sweeney ruled that Downey could not be prosecuted in relation to the bombing. Families of the victims of the IRA bombing are currently taking civil action against Downey. He has always denied being involved in the Hyde Park attack. Downey was one of nearly 200 republicans given assurances they were not wanted in connection with crimes as a result of a deal done between Sinn Fein and Tony Blair's Labour government as part of the Northern Ireland peace process. Following the collapse of Downey's trial then Prime Minister David Cameron ordered the Hallett Review, which concluded that the scheme was not an amnesty, but had no proper structure or policy in place. In 2014 then Secretary of State Theresa Villiers told Westminster that people who received such letters should no longer place any reliance on them. Police and the UK government have previously said that new evidence could lead to charges against those who received the letters. Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell, from the PSNIs Major Investigation Team, said: The PSNI has been liaising closely with An Garda Siochana and todays arrest demonstrates the benefits of joint working between police forces and other national partner agencies. The PSNI investigation into these murders remains active. A Northern Ireland PPS spokesperson said: "Following careful consideration of all available evidence, a decision has been taken to prosecute one person for the offence of murder and for aiding and abetting the causing of an explosion. "Extradition proceedings were initiated in the High Court in Dublin on Monday November 5, to seek the extradition of one man from the Republic of Ireland for trial in Northern Ireland. "One man was subsequently arrested in County Donegal this evening and is due to appear in court in Dublin tomorrow. "As proceedings are now live and before a Court, we will not be making further comment on this case at this point." Outraged: Stephen Teap and Lorraine Walsh have both criticised Tony OBriens remarks in a Sunday newspaper. Photo: Frank McGrath Victims of the cervical cancer scandal have expressed their fury at former HSE boss Tony O'Brien amid claims he hasn't taken responsibility for failures in his leadership. Mr O'Brien gave an interview where he accused Health Minister Simon Harris of behaving like a "frightened little boy" during the crisis. He also claimed the Dail's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) - which probed the CervicalCheck debacle - acted like a "kangaroo court". His remarks prompted an angry reaction from victims of failings in the cancer screening service. Lorraine Walsh, one of 221 women who had smear tests incorrectly read, said she was "appalled" by his interview and claimed he wasn't taking responsibility for his leadership of the HSE. Stephen Teap, who lost his wife Irene to cervical cancer, accused Mr O'Brien of being "bitter" and "irrelevant". Expand Close Vicky Phelan said Tony OBrien had got it very wrong. Photo: Frank McGrath / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Vicky Phelan said Tony OBrien had got it very wrong. Photo: Frank McGrath Vicky Phelan, whose High Court case revealed the CervicalCheck scandal, said Mr O'Brien had "presided over one of the worst health scandals to hit this country". In the 'Sunday Business Post' interview, Mr O'Brien criticised Mr Harris's response to the scandal and said: "I would have hoped he'd have been able to show more courage." He hit out at the treatment of witnesses at the PAC - where he himself was grilled - saying it can be "rude, aggressive and inhumane" and saying no one is "entitled to appoint itself as prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner". Mr O'Brien said he was "horrified" at the non-disclosure of the results of an audit into smear tests to women and described the cases as "tragedies". He admitted that the HSE's initial response to the issue was "a train-wreck". He argued that the organisation was "blind-sided" and the screening service was "ill-prepared and operating under the false illusion that it dealt with the issue of disclosure". Mr O'Brien stepped down as HSE boss in May at the height of the controversy. Ms Walsh told the Irish Independent she was enraged by Mr O'Brien's comments. "Leaders are there to ensure that the correct systems are put in place, to ensure that an organisation or a company runs properly," she said. "To me it's just the lack of responsibility for his failures is what annoys me so much - that he's coming out now as choirboy, that 'poor me I was the one that was taken to the slaughter by the politicians'." Asked what she believes survivors feel about Mr O'Brien's comments, she replied: "Anything I feel is inappropriate to print... I'm just so mad about it. How dare he?" Meanwhile, Mr Teap branded Mr O'Brien's remarks as "a display of bitterness". He added that the former HSE boss was "taking swipes at everybody and yet still doesn't address his leadership in all of this". Mr Teap seized on Mr O'Brien's comments about the initial HSE response being a "train-wreck" and said: "But who was driving the train here? It was him." He referred to how information on issues in the screening service emerged during PAC meetings and praised the committee for its work. Mr Teap said he didn't think "it was their place to get that information" but that "unfortunately they were the only ones at the end of the day who could". He said patients and families were "glad there was someone there to get us information on what was going on". Mr Teap said that for him, Mr O'Brien's opinion is "irrelevant" and said when he stepped down earlier this year "he should have just disappeared from this". Writing on Twitter last night, Ms Phelan said: "By his own admission 'you should be judged by what you do when you get it wrong'. And with the CervicalCheck debacle, I am afraid, Tony got it very wrong. "As the head of the HSE, he presided over one of the worst health scandals ever to hit this country." Asked about Mr O'Brien's comments, Mr Harris's spokesperson said: "The minister doesn't believe in engaging in the politics of personalised attacks. "The CervicalCheck situation was a difficult time for women in Ireland. The women were and are the minister's priority. Tony O'Brien took the decision to step down. The minister believes that was the right decision. He wishes him well." The Irish Independent made a number of attempts to contact Mr O'Brien for comment last night, but he did not respond. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar defended Mr Harris, saying: "Health is a really tough ministry. He's handling it with ability, empathy and maturity." Some 51,409 have availed of the payment since September 2016. Stock Image More than 50,000 fathers have taken the two-week paternity payment since it launched in September 2016, new figures have shown. Some 51,409 have availed of the Paternity Benefit provided by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, including 4,100 self-employed people. The 240 per week payment allows fathers to receive payment covered by covered by pay related social insurance (PRSI) for two weeks. Some 26,559 fathers availed of the payment in 2017, with 2,102 parents availing of the payment in October 2018 alone. Of these, Dublin and Cork received the highest number of applicants last month, with 593 being awarded in Dublin and 259 people in Cork. The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, said she was "delighted" to see fathers availing of the payment. "I am delighted that working parents, both employees and self-employed, are availing of their PRSI to get two weeks paid Paternity Benefit following the birth or adoption of their baby," she said. "The Government recognises the importance of providing support for parents of young children and is very much aware that the first year in a childs life is of particular importance. This is very much emphasised in the programme for Government." Ms Doherty also welcomed 2019 pay increase as a result of Budget 2019, which will see the weekly payment rise by 5. "I was particularly pleased to secure a new Parental Benefit scheme which will allow both parents to access additional paid Parental Leave in the first year of their childs life. "This means that both parents will have access to an additional two weeks each of Parental Benefit, which will also be paid at the rate of 245 per week." It was announced in September that new mothers and fathers will each get two extra weeks off work to spend with their baby as part of reforms in Budget 2019. The scheme will offer two weeks for both a mother and father, which must be taken in the first year of a child's life. The Social Protection Minister praised the new initiative for offering fathers more time with their children. "This new scheme is designed to be family-friendly and flexible. Parents will be able to take the new paid leave any time and at the same time if they so wish during their childs first year," she said. "The first 12 months of life are incredibly formative for a child and the benefit of allowing parents greater time with a new baby will be beneficial to individual children, families and society as a whole. "I am particularly happy that, with both paternal leave and this new parental leave scheme, we are creating more opportunities for fathers to have the time to spend with their new arrivals as this greatly benefits both child and parent." An artist's impression of the final design for the planned College Green plaza in the heart of Dublin, looking towards the Bank of Ireland (Dublin City Council/PA) Plans for a pedestrianised civic plaza at College Green should still proceed - with some tweaking - Dublin city councillors agreed this evening. Despite some opposition to the controversial plan by some councillors - including Dublin Lord Mayor Nial Ring - many councillors attending tonight's monthly council meeting expressed their support for the plan. This is despite a decision by An Bord Pleanala last month to refuse planning permission for the project, which means the proposed civic plaza at College Green is on hold for the time being. The 10m plaza would have seen all cars banned from the heart of the city centre. It would also have placed major restrictions on the movement of buses and taxis in the area. The planning board said the proposed civic plaza would "produce a quality public realm that would significantly enhance the amenity and attractiveness of this city centre location." But it said the analysis of traffic by Dublin City Council didn't take into account the impact on general traffic as well as bus transportation, pedestrians, cyclists and taxi drivers. It also noted the "unresolved capacity issues on the quays in their capacity to accommodate the scale of bus re-routing" as well as the increased number of pedestrians that would be re-directed to the quays as a result of bus re-routing." Dublin City Council's assistant chief executive Dick Brady said that while the decision by the planning board was "regrettable", the council is still considering what course of action to take. "We're still studying the report," he told councillors. Possible options include seeking a judicial review of the decision, lodging a new application to An Bord Pleanala or abandoning the plaza concept and going back to the drawing board over traffic issues. Meanwhile, Green Party Councillor Ciaran Cuffe said he would support a judicial review of the decision, which must be lodged by December. "Most progressive voices in this chamber would like to see a car-free College Green," he said. "A car-free College Green would be a real game-changer." Fine Gael councillor Paddy McCartan went a step further. "I think it would be a dereliction of duty not to pursue it," he said. However, he said the plan needs to be tweaked and that Dublin Bus, which is opposed to the plan, needs to come on board before they proceed further. "Just because the traffic analysis was a failure doesn't mean we have to abandon the plan," he said. Yet some councillors remain bitterly opposed to the plan. Independent councillor Mannix Flynn went as far as demanding that Dublin City Council Chief Executive Owen Keegan "fire himself" for what he called "a catastrophe". "This was a disaster from the start," he said, noting the process has already cost the council 2m. "This will never see the light of day. They spent 2m on a grandiose scheme. You should fire yourself Keegan," he said. Dublin Lord Mayor Nial Ring said he was 'delighted' when the planning board rejected the application. "I think the soul of the city has been saved," he said. The body of a woman who got into difficulty while kayaking in Co Kerry has been recovered after an extensive search. The alarm was raised shortly after noon yesterday near the village of Kilgarvan where the woman, who was aged in her mid-30s, had been kayaking on a river. It is understood she was part of a group of five people who were kayaking on the river that flows into Kenmare, which is said to be a very popular spot among kayaking enthusiasts. The group had been kayaking between the Loop Bridge and Kilgarvan village when the woman got into difficulty. Expand Close University Hospital Kerry. Picture: Domnick Walsh / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp University Hospital Kerry. Picture: Domnick Walsh Members of the Coast Guard, fire service, gardai and paramedics rushed to the scene to assist in the search operation. The rescue crews searched the river for two hours until her body was found in the water about 2km from Kilgarvan. It is understood the young victim was originally from Co Cork. She will not be named until all of her relatives have been informed of the tragedy. Her remains were brought to University Hospital Kerry, where a post-mortem examination will take place. Local TD Deputy Danny Healy-Rae said it was an "appalling tragedy" that had left everybody in the village shocked and saddened. He said he was driving from his home towards Killarney when an ambulance and fire engine, believed to be travelling to assist in the search operation, passed him in the opposite direction. A Garda spokesperson told the Irish Independent that enquiries into the tragedy were ongoing. They have described the young woman's death as "a tragic accident". "Gardai and emergency services attended the scene of a fatal drowning incident which occurred in the Roughty River, Kilgarvan, Co Kerry, on November 4, 2018," said a spokesperson. "At approximately 12pm a female in her 30s got into difficulty while kayaking. "She was later pronounced dead at the scene and her remains were taken to University Hospital Kerry. Enquiries are ongoing." Johnny Healy-Rae, who is also a local representative in Kilgarvan, offered his condolences to the young woman's family. "My heart goes out to this poor woman who lost her life in this tragic way. "The river is very popular for kayakers because of its fast rapids, but you would never expect something like this to happen. "Although it's understood that she was visiting from Cork, it's still very upsetting to lose anyone so close to home," he added. Gardai in Killarney are investigating the tragedy and have appealed for witnesses to contact them on (064) 667 1160. Clare Smyth was named best female chef in the world, and spoke about "Fair Trade In The Food Trade" at Galway's Food On The Edge recently. Clare Smyth, voted the best female chef in the world, has dealt with her fair share of kitchen bullies. The 40-year-old, who was awarded two Michelin stars this year for her restaurant Core, tells Independent.ie that kitchens were places of "fear" when she trained to be a chef. Smyth was the first female chef from the island of Ireland to hold and retain three Michelin stars when she worked as Gordon Ramsays Chef Patron. Smyth, who describes Ramsay as a mentor, says the TV chef is very different to how hes portrayed on TV. Its really important that theres a good environment [in professional kitchens now]. I like it to be calm and peaceful so theres good concentration. I like people to be happy, its very important that everyone comes in to work happy. The chefs dont have to be creative, were the creative people, but they need to come in to work happy and not fearing it. There was a lot of fear in kitchens those days, and it wasnt pleasant in those days. It was very much a part of when we grew up in kitchens, it was the normal culture. It wasnt necessarily the head chef, it could have been the sous chef, it could have been the chef de partie, and that was happening everywhere - in France, in Britain. But she added: I would never have left, I would never have let anyone else ruin what I wanted or ruin my opportunities. One of the things Gordon told me, she adds, was dont worry about me, dont worry about other people, focus on yourself. Why would I lose my opportunities for them? But it never took long before they were gone and you had beaten them. All those people just fall by the wayside. I detest bullying, I hate it. Ive been cooking for over 20 years and Ive never seen people like that succeed. She added: [Now] I just feel like everyone is a bit more focused now on the love of food and what we do. But it wasnt just the hospitality industries, it was all industries at the top level. Ramsay, Smyth insists, is very easy to work with and is a brilliant businessman. There is a TV thing. Theres always going to be shouting in kitchens, but its never bullying, its always about the food, its always for a reason. It was never picking on someone for no reason. I always found Gordon very easy to work with, you know where you stand with Gordon. Hes taught me a lot in my career at various stages. Ive known Gordon for 16 years, hes been a great mentor for me and all the way through. Theres a TV persona and thats for making TV. The businessman behind that is very different. He keeps changing all the time. Last time I counted he had 34 restaurants globally. Hes done so much. Hes got so much knowledge. Smyth left Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in 2016 to open Core in London's Notting Hill in July of last year. Within a year, it had claimed two Michelin stars. Core was about being a modern British fine dining restaurant. British food isnt necessarily fine dining, its more rustic, and its not necessarily an art form I really wanted to make British food, fine dining. Core is all about the story of the producers and the growers and what we do. I got Gordon to come and look at the site, I was sharing the business plan, various elements of the design with him. For the food, I had him come in and do tastings. At all stages, he gave me good feedback. It was difficult [telling him that I was leaving his restaurant]. He was obviously disappointed but happy at the same time. He always thought I was going to stay, hed given me partnership. Smyth, who was in Ireland recently to discuss "Fair Trade In The Food Trade" at Food On The Edge, says her upbringing on a farm in county Antrim meant she had the resilience and work ethic that was suited to hospitality. I grew up on a dairy farm, we also had sheep. My family were potato farmers as well. I grew up with something that was quite typical of Ireland. We cooked three meals a day at home. For me it was just normal, I didnt know any different. When I started to cook and move away from home, I realised how valuable growing up in that background was for me. A chore every day was to wash and boil the potatoes, every day. We would cook stews and soups and potatoes and champ and chips; wed have whole animals butchered and then use all the parts of the animal. Wed use all the offal and different braising cuts. A lot of our food was things that were slow cooked. Mum would slow cook over night, she was cooking for a family and the people working on the farm. So there had to be a good quantity of it, and it needed to be hearty. It gave me a good work ethic, being a farmer. You work all the time, you dont stop. When you were lambing sheep you worked all night, and you worked 365 days of the year. That work ethic, I grew up with. Hospitality, for many people, is difficult for some people but for me it wasnt; I was already used to it. Ive always worked all the time, I never really dont work to be honest I really love what I do, and its something thats just very much a part of who I am. Smyth, who lives in London with her husband and west highland terrier, says she has no plans to open a restaurant on this side of the Irish Sea, but she loves to support events like Food On The Edge, which is a gathering of top international chefs for a two-day Food Symposium in Galway city every year in October. still cooks the hearty stews and soups at home that her mother cooked. In my home life, definitely, I often cook big pots of soups and stews and slow cook. A) its delicious, and B) its good for you, and its practical. I wish people would have a few basic cooking techniques at home. To be able to buy a load of root vegetable and put those together in a soup with pearl barley, is delicious, but it costs absolutely nothing. Smyth worked in her first kitchen at 14, left school at 15, and finished her professional culinary training by the time she was 17. She still remembers how she became inspired to be a chef. I was working on my school holidays in a local restaurant and they always had chefs come over from England, because they couldnt find enough talent locally. Those chefs had worked in Michelin star restaurants and I started to read about chefs and restaurants which were normally based in London at that time. Thats what made me want to leave and also, I love food, Im quite greedy. I left as soon as I could. I absolutely hated school, and I went to catering college as soon as I could. I knew it was what I wanted to do. I was very head strong. I did apprenticeship for two years in Grayshott Hall in Surrey, a five-star exclusive health farm. I just couldnt wait to finish college either. I was in college but really wanted to get in full-time to a restaurant. As soon as I finished college, I was still only 17, I went to London to start working in Bibendum in south Kensington, which at the time wasnt Michelin star but has two Michelin stars now. It was one of the best restaurants in London at the time as well. Michelin star cooking is something that is learned over the course of a decade, she insists. You cant even compare what you learn at college to doing that or even working in Michelin star kitchen. Its a good ten years work to training under the best chefs in the world. Youve got to learn it from the best chefs in the world. Its ten years worth of work before you can have training and head up your first kitchen. I didnt just take over any kitchen, I took over the only three Michelin star kitchen in London, so youve got to take all the time first to learn everything. Give us this day our folic acid, is a prayer the United Kingdom will recite before Ireland, writes Maurice Gueret, as he opens a can of worms with no expiry date. Daily bread It's over two decades since Irish doctors called for fortification of the nation's flour with folic acid. Ireland still has too high a number of babies born with spina bifida and anencephaly. Yet evidence is incontrovertible that taking folic acid before conception and during the early months of pregnancy substantially reduces the number of cases. For 25 years the State's policy has been to encourage all women of child-bearing age to take folic acid supplements. But the campaign is half-hearted, and just over one-third of women now attain the required folate level to prevent neural-tube defects. In October it was announced that the UK is to make it mandatory for folic acid to be added to flour. Much of the research and clinical work on the role and dosage of folic acid in reducing neural-tube defects was done in Ireland. So it's more the pity that our neighbours beat us to the finish line. Doubtless we'll copycat them down the road, as we so often do. Blow out A loyal reader has been in touch with a story his mother used to tell about her doctor in the 1930s. One day she joined a fairly long queue outside his surgery. The GP had been delayed and, when he arrived, he raced towards the clinic's door. As he did so, he broke wind extremely loudly and everyone in the queue burst out laughing. He turned to face them and they stopped in their tracks. "Listen, if half of youse could do that, youse wouldn't be standing here!" he roared. Can of worms Patients often ask about the expiry date on medicines, what it means, and if it can ever be ignored. This is a can-of-worms issue and I defer individual product queries to the pharmacist, who is more expert in the formulation and shelf life of particular drugs. Though it was interesting that in a recent shortage of epipen allergy injectors, authorities said patients could use some devices beyond the expiry date. Drugs have expiry dates because the manufacturers are obliged to have them. The potency and safety profile of medicines cannot be guaranteed beyond their expiry date. This is especially true for antibiotic syrups, eye drops, nitroglycerine heart treatments and insulins for diabetes. However, work conducted on stockpiled medicines owned by the US military over many years suggests that many medicines do survive intact for a good few years. Then a Californian study examined eight unopened medicines with 14 different ingredients that were up to 40 years after the expiry date. They had been found in the rear of a retail pharmacy. Twelve of the 14 ingredients were found to be present near enough to the original potency on the label. Our throwaway society is only now getting to grips with food waste. I suspect medicine waste may not be far behind. End of life Ireland has dealt with a lot of big issues in recent times, with bans on gay marriage and abortion cast aside in our more outward-looking state. I expect the euthanasia debate to rekindle soon, though it would appear that doctor-assisted deaths may not be new to all families in the state. The late Dr Paddy Leahy said that he assisted many deaths by injection, but principally in the UK, where he worked during the war years and into the 1950s. Dr Paddy also admitted to giving a lethal jab to a personal friend, who requested one after a large stroke. There are family stories the length and breadth of Ireland of doctors being called to assist those dying in discomfort. One such case happened on Christmas Day many years ago. A man lay dying at home and in extreme pain. The local doctor came out promptly at the request of the son, who asked if something could be done to relieve his father's distress. The doctor opened his bag, filled a syringe, and said to the son, "Now, you know what this means." The son nodded and the doctor gave the injection. The wife and daughters were in the kitchen at the time and were never told by the son in his lifetime what had happened. As he packed his case to leave, the doctor told the son that his father may come around a bit an hour later, and be like his old self, but he wouldn't be, really. The doctor left and what took place was exactly as he predicted. The father passed away peacefully that Christmas Day. Those days of mutual trust and confidence in doing the humane thing are still omnipresent in veterinary medicine, but have vanished from human practice, perhaps to its cost. If you follow Karl's plan for the next five weeks, you can look your best at that Christmas party Welcome to my new five-week plan to get you into the shape of your life - in time to let your hair down for Christmas-party season. After the success of the recent back-to-school challenge here in Health & Living, I now bring you a plan that is built for everyone. I will be starting right from the very basics, teaching you everything you need to know about food, exercise and motivation. Dry November has just kicked off, with many people giving up alcohol for the month, ahead of Christmas - so why not use this month as the perfect kickstart to health and fitness? What you need to do each week: * Take some simple measurements and fill in a measurement sheet * Move more, with the simple exercises I give you each week * Cook more - but don't worry, it won't be anything too scary and complicated * Set some targets and check in each week to see if you are on track * Get a friend involved - you will always work better when you have someone to help you That doesn't sound too scary now, does it? My goal for this plan is to make health and fitness friendly, easy and doable, by each week giving you information that you can understand, that will help you get results and improve your life at the same time. Over the course of these five weeks , you will * Get fitter * Lose inches * Lose weight * Gain health tips * Lower your body fat/increase muscle mass * Improve your mood and your sleep OK, so no pressure for me to deliver! Today, on day one, make two worksheets. Place them on the fridge or on your desk, somewhere visible, as they will give you direction and keep your focused when times get tough. The first worksheet should contain your goal list for the next five weeks and should include these sections: personal, work, family & relationships. The other sheet is your measurements list (see below). Today is really about thinking about what you want to achieve, setting those targets and working towards them. That is what the first worksheet is for. I want you to take 10 minutes out of your day, before you start anything else, and use this time to develop five simple goals for you, for your work and for your family or relationships that you want to improve over the coming five weeks. I want to get you in shape for Christmas physically, but also emotionally and mentally, so let's take a look at these three areas of your life. Make the goals small but realistic, so that with a little bit of effort you will be able to achieve them. Once you've set your goals, its time to measure your body. The three measurements below will provide a simple, yet important track record for how you are doing. I want you to measure at the same time on the same day each week - Monday is always a good one - and jot the results down on a sheet. You are measuring three simple things: * Waistline: This is actually really important for health. Waistlines over 40 inches mean you are at a higher risk of health-related diseases. Simple. Take a tape measure, place it around the body, meet it at your bellybutton and take down the number. * Weight can be a good guide - to a point. Yes, the ratio of muscle to fat is important, but still a general number is a good thing. Ideally weigh yourself in the morning. * Resting heart rate: This tells us about your fitness. Generally the lower the number the better, but between 60-80 beats is a good guide. To get the number, take your pulse at the base of your wrist or your neck - if you have a smartwatch, you can also use it for this purpose. Ideally take this in the morning as well. So that was a mind workout all in itself. Now for the food and exercise part. Let's make this just as simple - it's a five-week plan, so this week I want to give you five crucial exercise and food tips (see above right). * Every week, Independent.ie features The Real Health podcast with Karl Henry, in association with Laya Healthcare. In this week's podcast, Karl answers listeners' top five questions and it's available at www.independent.ie/realhealthpodcast 1 Intensity : So you need to work a little harder to get the benefits. Get slightly out of breath and get results, it's really that simple. 2Resistance is key:Resistance is lifting any form of weight. It is so important for everything to do with health. Standing up and then sitting is a form of resistance, its basically a squat. 3 Sleep: Yes sleep is exercise. You should be getting at least eight hours a night, in a tech free bedroom. 4Stand more, walk more, use the stairs more: Get exercise into your day in any way that you can,it all helps 515 minute mile: You should be able to walk a mile in 15 minutes, as a good gauge of your fitness , can you ? Your food plan... 1 Eat more colour: Yes colourful unprocessed foods are super healthy and will make you healthy too 2 Drink more water: Water is crucial for health. 2Litres a day is a good guide and aim for clear urine when going to the toilet 3 Cook more from scratch: Cooking isn't really putting a ready meal in the over, its chopping, dicing and cooking foods from scratch. 4 Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner: Want a healthy daily guideline? There you do. Ideally eating every three hours. Make those snacks healthy though. 5 No food after 8pm: Aim to eat within twelve hours and give your body 12 hours to process and digest your food. Your exercise plan... 1 Do a kitchen spring clean and get rid of any junk food, or anything that will tempt you. Instead, fill your kitchen cupboards with healthy food - food that you have to cook yourself and with lots of colour. 2 Cook our recipe of the week: Each week I will bring you a simple recipe that is easy to cook, good for you and delicious. 3 Do five 30-minute walks - remember to work hard enough to get the benefits. If you find this is too hard, then simply break up the walks throughout the day into 10-minute segments. 4 In bed by 10pm: Sleep is a crucial part of health, so this week I want you to sleep more and sleep better. That starts with getting to bed early! 5 20 squats per day: Each week I will be adding exercises to this plan and for this week it's the classic squat. Remember anyone can squat and the movement can be as much or as little as you like. Start with your feet shoulder-width apart, push all the power through your heels and bend at the knees, ensuring your knees never go over your toes. Bend the knees as much as you feel comfortable and then stand up again. If you feel any back pain or knee pain, stop straight away. If this really scares you, then try a sit/stand. Stand in front of your favourite chair, now sit down and stand back up - it's the very same thing. Week 1 to-do list Start in the kitchen... Recipe - Thai chicken soup Ingredients 1 tbsp rapeseed oil 1 bunch of spring onions, thinly sliced 1 large clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped 2cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped 1 red chilli, deseeded (if you prefer less heat) 1 tbsp Thai green curry paste 650ml chicken stock 1 stick of lemongrass, crushed 1 tbsp fish sauce 1 red pepper 50g wholewheat noodles 1 cooked chicken breast, shredded or finely diced 1 tbsp lime juice Handful of fresh coriander Method 1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the spring onions, garlic and ginger and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened. 2. Add the carrots and chilli and cook for a further 2 minutes. 3. Add the curry paste, stock, lemongrass and a tablespoon of fish sauce and bring the mixture to the boil. Add the red pepper and noodles, then reduce the heat and simmer for a further 2 to 3 minutes. 4. Add the chicken and simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes, until the noodles are fully cooked (they should still have a tiny bite to them and not be soggy) and the chicken is heated through. 5. Add a tablespoon of lime juice and the chopped coriander and taste. Add more lime juice (for a more fragrant flavour) and/or more fish sauce (for a deeper, saltier flavour) if you like. Prep time - 10 mins Cook time - 15 minutes Serves 2 Picture shows, the arrival of H.R.H. The Duke of Sussex and H.R.H. The Duchess of Sussex to Aras an Uachtarain greeted by President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina Higgins. Just back from the park with your dog? Planning a snooze later since the Boss - your cat - left you clinging to the edge of the bed all night? Wondering how you or your children would manage without that whiskered powderpuff or muscular 15kg of unconditional love? If you're saying yes to any of these questions, spare a thought for the pet owners who are having to surrender their dog or cat so they can rent somewhere to live. Expand Close UNCERTAIN FUTURE: Sausages owner faces No Pet dilemma / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp UNCERTAIN FUTURE: Sausages owner faces No Pet dilemma The international online campaigners change.org are now petitioning the Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy in the matter, since animal sanctuaries are reporting experiencing a "surge" in pet surrenders, as would-be renters face landlord intransigence in the application of the 'No Pet' clause in rental contracts. Last Hope Animal Sanctuary in Navan is one of those reporting increases. Founder Hilary Bartley says the housing crisis is causing trauma to numerous individuals, couples and families forced to find new accommodation and who consequently surrender their pets. "They ring us and they are devastated. These are responsible pet owners, the good people who should have animals. They have had their cat or dog for years but now to have a place to live, they have to give them up. Mothers are distraught, the children crying in the background. Animal lovers will know it's like saying to a couple 'you can come and rent this house, but you have to leave your children behind'." She believes the 'No Pet' clauses and their effects on animals and humans reflect what she calls "the changing Ireland". She says; "We're here since 2005 and we see that animals now are down the list of priorities, but so are people themselves and their needs as human beings. We see now that a small group of people are deciding how a big number of people can live". She continues; "What we are seeing is heartbreak. The pain is enormous for the animal and the human. Because animals are no different to us. They feel the pain of separation from their families, their owners. And for what?" All animals taken by Last Hope are in what is called 'soft care', fostered out to families until they can be adopted. The refuge requires a letter signed by a landlord for every animal it adopts out. Gillian Bird, director of communications at the DSPCA, told me; "We have a list of people wanting to adopt from us but always say to them what about your next move? Your current landlord might allow a pet, but if you move, what then?" Gillian is pragmatic about the 'No Pet' rule, advising prospective tenants to open up dialogue with landlords, offering perhaps, either a 'Pet Deposit' or a written undertaking that an animal would access only specific areas of the property. Like Hilary Bartley and Last Hope, for Gillian and the DSPCA responsible pet ownership is critical. Her number one rule for tenants? "Don't lie. If you do, it's the animal that will suffer." Last week, I spoke to somebody who I will call Grim, a long-term tenant facing eviction due to the sale of their apartment. Grim would like to stay in the local area that has become home, but with rents having risen dramatically, there is nothing they can afford. However, to compound Grim's financial difficulties, there is now the social, emotional and psychological jeopardy of the 'No Pet' clause. "I adopted my dog when he was a puppy, one of 12, who would have been put down if I hadn't," says Grim. "He's known to half the town as Sausage. Now I couldn't even consider giving him up. "My dog changed my life in a period where all I wanted to do was to lock myself away. He has given me a new lease of life, forcing me to get up and exercise, go out into the fresh air and mingle. When you think about it, people having their pet is saving the government a fortune on services." Grim has a point. The link between pet-keeping and mental and emotional well-being has long been established. Equally, it is widely known that pet owning can reduce blood pressure and make people more resilient in the face of stress, grief or loss. Officially, the benefits are recognised, globally, in the rise of the registration of Emotional Support Animals. Last year, Time magazine published scientific research on the benefits of dog owning from the university of Uppsala in Sweden. Even adjusted for factors such as BMI and socio-economics, the study showed that people living alone with a dog showed a 33pc decrease in risk of death and an 11pc decrease in risk of cardiovascular disease. Not since the Famine have homelessness and eviction impacted so strongly on the Irish consciousness. Today, hired balaclaved heavies, protected by balaclaved gardai - think about that - might have replaced the battering ram in enforced removals and clearances of properties. But that a dog or cat could be a barrier to finding a home in the first place, when the animal might be a person's sole companion, seems unnecessarily cruel, particularly in a world where we have never been so interconnected and isolated simultaneously. In these circumstances, people's love for their pets strengthens them but it also makes them vulnerable. Brian McLoughlin, head of communications for Dublin Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) points to how having a pet can deter people homeless on the streets from using a hostel. Dealing with people who are homeless day in day out, he says he can understand why. "OK, you might get a long-term place for a few months, or an overnight stay, but your dog is your best friend, there with you every day and people won't give that up," he says. He points out that the ICHH teams which go out at night, also pack dog food in their supplies. "Put money in someone's cup and they'll feed their dog first, then themselves. They love their dogs, their dogs love them, that's how it is." For Grim and his family, loving their dog is cold comfort in their search for a new place. The 'No Pet' clause reduces them to an income source benefiting an investor in a property, with no regard for the quality of life they as the tenant will have in it. "From a previous medical condition, I suffered years of depression and though medication and therapy were useful, nothing brought me out of myself like my dog," says Grim. For people in Grim's situation, the idea of a Pet Deposit might sound like yet another barrier to those struggling to find accommodation in the first place and then paying exorbitant rent. But I suspect there are many animal lovers, heart-scalded by the homeless and housing crisis, and who value the centrality of pets to a human life, who would be willing to pay into a fund for tenants with animals. If you are one of them, let me know. Clearly, landlords have the right to protect their assets, just as tenants with pets have the responsibility to protect the property they are renting. But with the State now giving 30m a month - yes 30m - to private landlords for private tenants, this has to give the Government some sway and say in the application of the 'No Pet' rule. Considering the positive impacts of pets on our physical, emotional and mental health it cannot be the case that owning a pet means first owning a home. In the presidential elections, the Higgins's dogs Brod and Sioda had a big impact. Luckily, at Aras An Uachtarain the 'No Pet' clause doesn't apply. But the magic of the Aras dogs is in what they signify - comfort, family, joy, loyalty, happiness and above all, love. The very things that make us human. The very things we must abandon now, to find a home? A councillor is demanding answers following the contamination of Sandycove Beach by shards of plastic fibres used in the construction of a new pier at nearby Dun Laoghaire baths. Melisa Halpin, a Dun Laoghaire Rathdown county councillor, said it was crucial those responsible for the contamination of the popular Forty Foot bathing site deploy all necessary staff to clean up the mess and prevent further contamination. She said serious questions remain over how the mishap had happened. "They absolutely have to put in as many workers as necessary to see if there's further seepage," she told the Irish Independent last night. Ludicrous "But the big question is how the hell did they get this so wrong? At the point where we're trying to stop using plastics, pouring it into the sea on purpose seems ludicrous." Officials from the SIAC/Mantovani Group - which was contracted by the council to build the new pier - promised to send a marine specialist and divers to the site yesterday to inspect the shoreline. The company had also said it would deploy at least 50 staff on Saturday to clean up after locals found 4cm-long shards of sharp plastic littering the sand and shoreline of Sandycove Beach on Friday morning. Officials from the company could not be reached for comment last night. The rigid plastic fibres, estimated to weigh 100kg in total, escaped from underwater foundations for the pier last Tuesday. The company said the fibres normally bind with concrete but something went amiss and the fibres detached. On Saturday, the council said the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Parks and Wildlife Service had been advised and that it continued to "closely monitor the developing situation". Parents in Dublin's commuter belt and beyond readily describe their monthly childcare fee as "a second mortgage". Along with early years providers, they are left bearing the brunt of a historical imbalance in the way we fund care and education during the most critical period of our children's lives. To add to parents' concerns, there was some anecdotal evidence of fee increases last September when Children's Minister Katherine Zappone's department introduced an interim programme ahead of the full introduction of an Affordable Childcare Scheme next year. Most creches did not put their fees up in the end and of those who did, many had not done so for the previous five years. The average increase was low, at about 2pc, though in some areas this was higher owing, for example in Dublin, to higher costs of living. Commercial rates, which private early years providers, who make up most of the sector, are required to pay, also play a part in putting providers under financial pressure. To address the wider money question though, it is important to note that while some very welcome progress has been made in recent years, Ireland's level of investment remains poor. We invest only 0.2pc of GDP in early years care and education each year; the lowest amount in the EU. On average, EU countries invest 0.8pc of GDP in this area, while countries identified as leaders in early years provision (the Nordic countries) invest between 1.3pc and 1.9pc of GDP. Inevitably, parents feel they are left to make up the difference. Another, often invisible, impact is on the educators who work in childcare settings, where average pay is 11.93 an hour, barely above the living wage of 11.90 per hour. However, despite providers wishing to pay more, years of historical underinvestment mean that the sector in Ireland is enduring a staffing crisis. Despite increased funding in the past two years by Ms Zappone's department, childcare providers are still struggling to recruit and retain qualified, experienced educators, with low pay the most significant factor, though most report that 80pc of their income is spent on pay. Earlier this year, as was previously reported in the Irish Independent, one member of Early Childhood Ireland lost two valued staff members because the salary scale that was guaranteed by her local supermarket was greater than any wage she was able to pay. In the recent Budget, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs announced measures which, from 2019, will bring both poorer parents and the more well-off into the existing schemes and the forthcoming Affordable Childcare Scheme. We need much more though, and while GDP expenditure provides us with an important measure, the important factor is how it gets spent. In Nordic countries, the provision is universal in its quality regardless of where families live or what their economic circumstances are. This is achieved by prioritising investment in staffing, including in their education and professionalisation. In Ireland, we don't even have a leaflet for school leavers about a career in childcare. We need to value early years highly. As well as affecting these workers and their families, Ireland's ongoing early years staffing crisis will have a lasting impact if it isn't addressed fully. Why? Because all the available research shows early years educators are the magic ingredient when it comes to quality for babies and children. This needs to be our shared priority. Frances Byrne is director of policy and advocacy with Early Childhood Ireland, which represents 3,800 early years providers, who support more than 100,000 children and their families every day. If you need a suitable antidote to these dark evenings, look no further than tomorrow's midterm elections in the US. Not normally an event that would excite too much interest this side of the pond, the 2018 congressional slug-fest has morphed into a Conor McGregor pre-fight extravaganza, complete with the stump-pounding present occupant of the White House doing a red state rope-a-dope for wavering Republican voters. When WB Yeats observed in 1918, "I have a horror of modern politics and its manipulation of popular enthusiasm by false news", the poet little knew how telling the statement would be a century later. Trump has outdone even his previous standard of fibs and fabrications over the past few weeks with statements accusing the Democrats of engineering the Honduran migrant caravan while clapping his own back as the most popular president in US history. But even his most ardent supporters have found some of the bloopers hard to process, as shown recently by the ever-faithful Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted 11 days as White House communications chief: "If you want me to say he's a liar, I'm happy to say he's a liar - he definitely has a reality distortion field around himself." Beautiful. Next time I'm caught rotten in a web of balderdash and baloney, I'll definitely be pleading the 'reality distortion' defence. However, the midterms do offer other more uplifting angles on the state of US politics. Beto O'Rourke, whose forebears emigrated to Texas from Ireland in the 19th century, has demonstrated an evolving Democratic image in his ability not just to draw massive crowds, but also in attracting record levels of campaign contributions in his bid to wrest the Lone Star State from its 30-year Republican stranglehold. Of mixed Irish and Mexican parentage, he sees the border in a very different light to the man who wants to build a wall there. "El Paso in many ways is today's Ellis Island for Mexico and much of Latin America," is an O'Rourke credo that resonates dynamically with the new American immigrant, imbued as they are with the same ambitions that fired his own ancestors to cross the Atlantic from Cobh 200 years ago. Boston is also offering a new Democratic champion in the ultra photogenic congressman Joseph Patrick Kennedy III, grandson of Robert and great-nephew of JFK. Another individual filling stadiums with the faithful, he stands as a reminder just how powerful a weapon honesty can still be in an age of fake news. And proving he has the trademark Kennedy humour, here's his recollection of his first month on Capitol Hill: "I had a tough time learning how to act like a congressman - one day I accidentally spent some of my own money." Crowds chanting 'JPK' are giving voice to the dreams of a new generation. In 2020, the latest Kennedy scion will be almost the same age as Bobby was when he ran for the White House in 1968... watch this space. Strap yourself in, it's going to be another week of Brexitmania where fact and fiction are hard to tell apart. The Sunday newspapers were always going to play an agenda-setting role in UK Prime Minister Theresa May's battle to get her latest Brexit plan to cabinet this week. She needed to own the narrative, thereby preventing Boris Johnson or David Davis from grabbing the headlines as they have done so often in the past. 'May's secret Brexit deal' was the headline in Murdoch's pro-Brexit 'Sunday Times' in London yesterday. The introductory paragraphs told us, courtesy of British government sources, that Mrs May had "secured private concessions from Brussels" that will keep the whole of the UK in a customs union for a time, helping to avoid a hard border in Ireland. So far, so good. Officials in Dublin were pleased with the story. Then they came to the bit where a "senior Whitehall source" explained: "It's UK-wide - success. There's an exit mechanism - success. And you've got Canada. The small print is that Ireland is f***ed." While the line initially led to some deep intakes of breath in Dublin, it was ultimately dismissed as "spin". What did they mean "Ireland is f***ed?" Well, the translation which officials here decided to adopt was that the UK believes Ireland is "f***ing annoying because they won't back down". A spokesperson for Tanaiste Simon Coveney was unusually candid when I rang him yesterday: "Brexit negotiations are for serious people, not anonymous clowns." The statement which came from the Foreign Minister's office was a little more diplomatic, pointing out that the 'Sunday Times' piece (a rewritten version of which appeared in the Irish edition) "is obviously aimed at a UK audience". The statement also noted: "The UK has given written commitments last December and March that the Withdrawal Agreement will give a legal guarantee of no return to a hard border in Ireland in any circumstances - this is the backstop." Indeed Mrs May's deputy, David Lidington, said on a visit to Dublin last Friday: "I cannot emphasise strongly enough that the prime minister feels absolutely committed to her pledge not to have under any circumstances a hard border on the island of Ireland." In that scenario, it's hard to see exactly how Whitehall believes Ireland is "f***ed" - but perhaps these are the things that need to be said in order to get this across the line. Sources here noted they would actually have been more concerned if the hard-line Brexiteers or the DUP had been out yesterday talking about their "precious union" and "red lines". For a long time now, the EU, including Ireland, has been holding up Theresa May as those within her own party sought to knock her over. The view from Brussels has been that she is the only person in the UK cabinet who understands the reality of what is at stake. But the time has come for the prime minister to take a leap. The Brexit bomb is about to detonate and she can limit the damage by jumping on top of it. "She needs to make a politics move," one Dublin-based source said. With the divorce bill settled at 44bn and a deal done on recognising the rights of EU/UK citizens, the Irish question should never have taken so long to resolve. We live in strange times. Had Mrs May's government not been propped up by the DUP, then it's likely she would have signed off on an agreement long ago. Some form of customs checks would have sprung up in the Irish Sea and life would have moved on for most people. Instead, we are now hearing about the birth of a more complicated fudge whereby the UK will stay inside a "customs arrangement". Mrs May will say this is only temporary which then means it must include a "sub-clause" acknowledging Northern Ireland can't leave "unless and until" another mechanism for avoiding a hard border is found. And that, folks, is the "Irish backstop" hidden inside a "UK-wide backstop". The hope is Arlene Foster won't notice the detail because it'll be packaged in shiny Union Jack wrapping paper. Everybody will say the Northern Ireland element of the "insurance policy" will never be required. However, Mr Coveney (through the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier) will insist that we require it to be written down. If Mrs May manages that, then we will know the final shape of the Withdrawal Agreement this week. Europe remains very much in a state of hope rather than expectation when it comes to the prime minister's ability to deliver. But all sides know the time for reality to replace rhetoric has now come. Maybe the comments about Ireland being f***ed can be viewed in that light: A final slice of mud cake thrown across the Irish Sea before we all decide to be friends again. Of course, the Taoiseach probably didn't help the situation with his remarks on RTE radio over the weekend. He spoke the truth, saying: "Brexit has undermined the Good Friday Agreement and it is fraying relationships between Britain and Ireland. "Anything that pulls the two communities apart in Northern Ireland undermines the Good Friday Agreement and anything that pulls Britain and Ireland apart undermines that relationship." Northern Ireland is like the abused child in this relationship as its parents row over their divorce. Leo Varadkar didn't need to point out the obvious breakdown in Anglo-Irish relations at this key moment. His comments were replayed time and again on the British media yesterday. The substance of his statement was lost in the sneering and jeering from Brexiteers. In any event, it's now understood all ministers have been effectively banned from the UK airwaves until they see how tomorrow plays out. There will be plenty more twists and turns before the deal gets across the line. All the signs are that there will be one because the alternative is too scary even for those most anti-EU of Brexiteers. It's now two years and five months since Britain voted to leave the EU. Some still argue the public should get a second chance to decide on whether that was the right result - but we are about to pass the point of no return. The consequences of a 'no deal' scenario for this island would be catastrophic in terms of trade. But, perhaps more importantly, these torturous negotiations should serve as a warning that a no-deal Brexit would leave Anglo-Irish relations hanging by a thread. To steal a phrase, they would be f***ed. So all eyes are on Theresa May. Let them eat fudge. Queen Paola and King Albert II of Belgium visit Liege on July 19, 2013 in Liege, Belgium. (Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images) King Albert II of Belgium and Queen Paola of Belgium seen during the Civil and Military Parade during the Abdication Of King Albert II Of Belgium, & Inauguration Of King Philippe on July 21, 2013 in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images) Queen Mathilde of Belgium and King Albert II of Belgium attend the Civil and Military Parade during the Abdication Of King Albert II Of Belgium, & Inauguration Of King Philippe on July 21, 2013 in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images) Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Princess Paola of Belgium, King Albert II of Belgium and King Philippe of Belgium are seen greeting the audience from the balcony of the Royal Palace during the Abdication Of King Albert II Of Belgium, & Inauguration Of King Philippe on July 21, 2013 in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images) The Brussels appeals court has ordered the retired king of Belgium to take a DNA paternity test, overturning an earlier ruling in a suit brought by 50-year-old artist Delphine Boel. Under the judgment, reported by Boel's lawyers on Monday, King Albert II must take the test within three months or risk being presumed to be her father -- although his lawyers could seek to challenge the court's legal argument. The 84-year-old monarch, who in 2013 abdicated in favour of his son Philippe after 20 years on the throne, has contested Boel's claim for more than a decade. Court-ordered DNA tests have proved that she is not the daughter of Jacques Boel, scion of one of Belgium's richest industrial dynasties. The court could not be reached, and there was no immediate comment from the royal house. Boel's lawyers said in their statement that they were pleased with the "strong affirmation of the principle of acting in the interests of the child" as she seeks legal confirmation of her true identity. Expand Close Queen Paola and King Albert II of Belgium visit Liege on July 19, 2013 in Liege, Belgium. (Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Queen Paola and King Albert II of Belgium visit Liege on July 19, 2013 in Liege, Belgium. (Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images) Read More That identity became a topic of public debate after the publication in 1999 of a biography of Queen Paola, Albert's Italian wife, which alleged that he had had a long extra-marital relationship from which a daughter was born in the 1960s. Albert, who has no formal public role, has acknowledged that he and Paola had marital difficulties. Their three children are all older than Boel. Next in line to the throne is 17-year-old Princess Elisabeth, daughter of Philippe and Queen Mathilde. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Kevin Liffey) Debbie with her daughter Sophie and her new son-in-law Tom on the couples wedding day in Ballynahinch Castle To Children With Love charity goddess Debbie Deegan - who has done so much for children in Russia for 20 years - had her unique child-with-love moment at Ballynahinch Castle, Galway, on Thursday. Her beautiful daughter Sophie got hitched in front of 130 guests. "Sophie married Tom Aspell, her Connemara man," she told me last Thursday, adding that they met and fell in love in Clifden at an event for Debbie's charity four years ago. "Ballynahinch Castle was their first date and so the wedding is here today. Sophie is the most beautiful special girl, inside and out. We were blessed with her. She's the calmest bride I've ever seen." The mother of the bride might have a good reason not to be so calm, though. While Sophie and Tom jet off on their honeymoon, Debs flies this morning to Russia. Tonight in Moscow, she will be awarded the highest accolade a westerner can receive in Russia, The Order of Friendship. "Putin sends a car to the airport to get me at 4am and take me to his private hotel," Debs told me. "Four westerners are getting it, three business people from Spain, Italy, Cuba, and me! I'm thrilled and honoured. It's a huge deal there to get it." On the subject of celebrations, restaurateur Ronan Ryan recently celebrated his birthday in the Algarve with his lovely wife Pamela Flood and the kids. Deirdre Kelly also joined them at the villa. Still on the subject of celebrating, Rosanna Davison and husband Wes were in Rasam in Glasthule last Friday with her papa Chris de Burgh and mother Diane. The occasion? The belated birthday celebrations for Chris's 70th. Neven turns up the heat in Algarve with Amelda Expand Close Taking a break... Neven and Amelda Maguire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Taking a break... Neven and Amelda Maguire A certain village in west Cavan went quiet for a few days last week. Leaving their award-winning establishment in Blacklion, MacNean House & Restaurant in very capable hands, Neven Maguire and his stunning wife Amelda flew to Portugal's Algarve. For once, Neven wasn't filming for one of his TV food shows. It was strictly a holiday with their kids Connor and Lucia because the children were off school. Next week, the famous chef (whose new book Neven Maguire's Home Economics for Life is already a huge success) is heading south-east. To mark Kilkenny being "Foodie Destination of the Year", Neven and his producer David Hare have, happily, decided to record Neven's two Christmas specials in the city. I'm also reliably informed that Neven will be filming with local food producers, cooking in Kilkenny Castle and at The Hole in The Wall, and is very much looking forward to the hospitality of the Newpark Hotel, and to turning on the city's Christmas lights. Video of the Day As if that wasn't enough, Neven recently gave a cooking demonstration in Dublin in aid of The Down Syndrome Centre for 500 people - hosted by Miriam O'Callaghan - at Leopardstown Racecourse. No wonder he needed a quick break... Heigh-ho: Rita and Harry as Snow White & Happy Expand Close Rita Crosbie / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rita Crosbie Mae West quipped that she used to be Snow White but she drifted. On Halloween night, Rita Crosbie (above), who never drifts, dressed up as the beauty who takes refuge in the forest in the house of seven dwarfs. Rita took refuge in Cafe H on Grand Canal Dock. The fairest restaurateur of them all held a bash in her hip establishment for family and friends. "There was dancing in the restaurant. It was hilarious. All of us in Halloween outfits." Rita's famous husband Harry dressed up as Happy. Elsewhere, one-time Hollywood actress, the beautiful Alison Doody (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, A View To A Kill) dressed her dog Coco up as a ghost. I've always said Alison's bark is way worse than her bite (joke!). Michael D's fan club holds AGM at the Solomon Expand Close Michael D shakes hands with actor Stephen Rea / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michael D shakes hands with actor Stephen Rea It was a bit of a foregone conclusion he'd walk it, anyway, wasn't it? So last Thursday week - on the night before the presidential election vote - Michael D could totes chillax as he pitched up at the Solomon Gallery with his wife Sabina for the John Behan Seven Ages of Man exhibition. It was formally opened by the artist Mick O'Dea, who coincidentally also painted the official portrait of Michael D two years ago. During his speech Mick flashed his "vote for Michael D" badge...well, it was the eve of the unveiling of Michael D's second term... sorry, I mean, the election. From the reaction at the Solomon you'd think it was the rather colourful AGM of Michael D's fan club. Of which Michael D is, of course, the president. Only teasing, Michael. The crowd to witness it all included the actors Stephen Rea and Stephen Brennan, the renowned Australian artist John Kelly (now living in West Cork), the sculptor Rowan Gillespie (whose sculptures of Irish convict women were launched by Michael D Higgins in Tasmania last year during his State visit to Australia) plus one of my favourite authors at the moment, Emily Hourican. This is to say nothing of Marie Heaney and her sister Ann Devlin. Marie had scooted up to the opening from their house in Wicklow where she was being filmed for a documentary on Seamus. She was telling John that the Human Chain sculpture he made for herself and Seamus was their most prized possession. An old neighbour of mine, RTE's Bryan Dobson, who also owns some of Behan's work, was also present. Iconic Eddie brings drive to Skoda's fashion show Expand Close Muireann O'Connell / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Muireann O'Connell SKODA, the car company that kept Pope Francis so fashionably mobile on his recent visit to Ireland, is sponsoring its first fashion show in Dublin later this month. The Skoda Czech Fashion Show, in partnership with the Czech Embassy, is set to be a great night on November 29 at Dublin City Hall, not least because the show (to promote emerging and established Czech design talent) is produced by the iconic Eddie Shanahan. Expand Close Des Cahill / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Des Cahill The Czech Ambassador to Ireland Petr Kynstetr is expected, along with 200 of Ireland's most stylish people, led by Today FM's Muireann O'Connell and beauty guru Ellen Kavanagh, and possibly RTE's Des Cahill. Tickets are limited so visit skoda.ie/skodaczechfashion to avoid disappointment. One Ryanair customer took matters into his own hands in hilarious fashion after the airline changed its hand luggage rules for the second time this year. From November 1 the Dublin-based airline introduced charges for passengers flying with a small suitcase, saying the measure is necessary to reduce delays. And while customer Lee Cimino told the Press Association: I love Ryanair, he also added: Its just this new charge is a bit too far really. Lee was flying to Belfast with Ryanair for a birthday night out with a friend, and it was on this journey he decided to perform his own minor protest. I fly with them a lot and theyre always great, its just a bit annoying, said Lee of the charge. I just thought: I wonder if theres anything I can do to get around it? I found an old coat and took it to a tailors in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent called Sew Wot? They were brilliant. They came up with most of the ideas. They must have thought: What on Earth is this all about?! but they did an amazing job. With the coat prepared and the idea in place, Manchester Airport was the location of Lees stunt. But was there ever a moment the plan looked doomed to fail? We got to Manchester Airport at about 6am and I didnt get as many funny looks as I thought I would, said Lee. My mate said I just looked like a hipster! The coat only had a few clothes in it and I just put it in the tray like you normally would. I dont know how close I came but as I understand it, Im not doing anything wrong with wearing the coat. Airport charges are a common source of irritation for tourists, so how has his video been received? The reaction has been good, Lee said. Some people think Im tight but its not about that. I think it strikes a chord with people as everyone has had an experience with the airlines. Id encourage more people to try it, otherwise how far will they go? As I say, this is not me having a go at Ryanair. I love them, its just raising a point. Lee also told the Press Association he is considering auctioning the coat to raise money for charity, offering to give an amount to a charity of Ryanairs choice. In response, Ryanair told the Press Association: Thanks to our larger free small bag allowance (40% bigger) and cheaper checked-in bag option (8 for a 10kg bag), Ryanair customers can bring all they need without having to board the aircraft looking like the Michelin Man or Joey from Friends. Weve received lots of positive feedback from customers and airports across Europe on our new bag policy, which is leading to faster check-in, security and boarding, and improved punctuality. Is this the last over-sized coat Ryanair will have to deal with? Sometimes the small things in life can be the most rewarding. So when Reddit user Mikey Morgan realised he was nearing a momentous occasion on his trucks odometer, he knew he had to capture it on camera. Yep, thats an odometer that has racked up 123,456 miles, with the trip meter beneath it on 789.0 miles. Numerical perfection in odometer form: 1234567890. Mikey first had the idea when his 2007 Frontier reached the 100,000-mile mark. I was commuting daily to my university so I was starting to stack miles reasonably fast, he told the Press Association. I quickly did the math that I would need to reset my trip meter at and patiently waited for the day to come. I even had alarms set on my phone to keep me alert to my mileage so I wouldnt miss my chance. Finally, when my odometer got to 122,666 miles I was on the highway and had to pull over to the shoulder and drive slowly until it flipped to 122,667. After that it was a waiting game to the magic moment. And it was a doubly auspicious occasion, coming as it did on the same evening he graduated from college. He said in a Reddit comment: Im not sure which one I was more excited for. That attack galvanised a country where widespread violence against women had long been quietly accepted. Stock image Police in India are investigating allegations a four-year-old girl was gang-raped while being treated in an intensive care unit at a hospital in the country's north. Local police official Mahesh Srivastava said the girl told her grandmother she was raped by a hospital attendant and four others when she was alone on Saturday night. He said one man was in custody and police were looking for others. Police also have asked for CCTV footage and are trying to determine why the girl had been left alone. The girl had been in the hospital for four days and was being treated for a snake bite. The hospital is 250km south-west of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. India has been shaken by a series of sexual assaults in recent years, including the gang-rape and murder of a student on a moving New Delhi bus in 2012. That attack galvanised a country where widespread violence against women had long been quietly accepted. While the Indian government has passed a series of laws increasing punishment for rape of an adult to 20 years in prison, it's rare for more than a few weeks to pass without another brutal sexual assault being reported. Officials in Jakarta supervise the body bags of passengers recovered from the Lion Air flight. Photo: Beawiharta/Reuters Investigators succeeded in retrieving hours of data from a crashed Lion Air jet's flight recorder as Indonesian authorities extended the search at sea for victims and debris. National Transportation Safety Committee deputy chairman Haryo Satmiko said 69 hours of flight data was downloaded from the recorder including its fatal flight. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet crashed just minutes after take-off from Jakarta last Monday, killing all 189 people on board in the country's worst airline disaster since 1997. The flight data recorder was recovered by divers on Thursday in damaged condition and investigators said it required special handling to retrieve its information. The cockpit voice recorder has not been recovered but searchers are focusing on a particular area based on a weak locator signal. National Search and Rescue Agency chief Muhammad Syaugi said the search operation, now in its seventh day and involving hundreds of personnel and dozens of ships, would continue for another three days. Mr Syaugi paid tribute to a volunteer diver, Syahrul Anto, who died during the search effort on Friday. The family of the 48-year-old refused an autopsy and he was buried on Saturday in Surabaya. More than 100 body bags of human remains have been recovered. Mr Syaugi said the number would continue to increase and remains were also now washing up on land. He said weak signals, potentially from the cockpit voice recorder, were traced to a location but an object hadn't been found yet due to deep mud. Flight tracking websites show the plane had erratic altitude during its 13-minute flight and a previous flight the day before from Bali to Jakarta. Passengers on the Bali flight reported terrifying descents. In both cases, crews requested to return to their departure airport after take-off. In this May 12, 2012 file photo, a Lion Air passenger jet is parked on the tarmac at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia. Indonesia's Lion Air said Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, it has lost contact with a passenger jet flying from Jakarta to an island off Sumatra. (AP Photo/Trisnadi, File) Rescuers carry body bags containing the remains of the victims of Lion Air crash at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia (Binsar Bakkara/AP) Distraught: Relatives of passengers on Lion Air flight JT610 wait at the airport in Jakarta. Photo: Reuters A woman, who had family on the crashed Lion Air flight JT610, walks as she holds her son during a news conference about the recovery process at a hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 5, 2018. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan Relatives of the victims of an Indonesian jet that crashed into the sea off Jakarta last week killing all 189 on board demanded answers on Monday as to why the plane had been passed fit to fly and called for no letup in the search for loved ones. Indonesian authorities on Sunday extended by three days the search for victims and a second black box recorder from wreckage of a nearly new Boeing Co. 737 MAX that slammed into the sea a week ago only minutes after it took off from Jakarta. At a news conference charged with emotion, relatives addressed questions to Indonesian officials including transport minister Budi Karya Sumadi and the head of the country's transportation safety committee (KNKT). "We are the victims here. Imagine if you were in our position," said Najib Fuquoni, a relative of a victim, demanding an independent investigation into the crash. Muhammad Bambang Sukandar, the father of another victim, said Lion Air technicians needed to take "full responsibility" if it was proved they had not properly attended to technical issues following the jet's previous flight from Bali to Jakarta. "This is not an unimportant thing. These are peoples lives," he said, as he sought to choke back tears. Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Relatives began to gather at the airport on Monday (AP/Hadi Sutrisno) Distraught: Relatives of passengers on Lion Air flight JT610 wait at the airport in Jakarta. Photo: Reuters Rescuers conduct search operation in the waters of Ujung Karawang, West Java (AP) Rescuers search for victims of a Lion Air passenger jet that crashed in the waters off Tanjung Karawang, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. The Lion Air flight crashed into the sea just minutes after taking off from Indonesia's capital on Monday in a blow to the country's aviation safety record after the lifting of bans on its airlines by the European Union and U.S. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim) Relatives of passengers of the Lion Air plane that crashed into the sea are seen at Depati Amir airport in Pangkal Pinang, Belitung island, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. Antara Foto/Hadi Sutrisno via REUTERS Rescue personnel prepare to dive at the location where a Lion Air plane crashed into the sea in the north coast of Karawang regency, West Java province Indonesia, October 29, 2018. Antara Foto/Handout/Basarnas via REUTERS A rescue personnel prepares a ROV before starting to find the location of the Lion Air plane crash in the sea in Karawang regency, West Java province Indonesia, October 29, 2018. Antara Foto/Handout/Basarnas via REUTERS Relatives of passengers of the Lion Air plane that crashed into the sea cry at Depati Amir airport in Pangkal Pinang, Belitung island, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. Antara Foto/Hadi Sutrisno via REUTERS Recovered debris are seen of what is believed from the crashed Lion Air flight JT610, that took off from Jakarta and crashed into the ocean, Indonesia October 29, 2018 in this image obtained from social media. Basarnas/via REUTERS Relatives of passengers of Lion Air flight JT610 that crashed into the sea arrive at Soekarno Hatta International airport near Jakarta, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan In this May 12, 2012 file photo, a Lion Air passenger jet is parked on the tarmac at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia. Indonesia's Lion Air said Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, it has lost contact with a passenger jet flying from Jakarta to an island off Sumatra. (AP Photo/Trisnadi, File) In this photo released by Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) rescuers inspect debris believed to be from a Lion Air passenger jet that crashed off West Java on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. (BNPB via AP) In this photo released by Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) a rescuer inspects debris believed to be from Lion Air passenger jet that crashed off West Java on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. (BNPB via AP) In this photo released by Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) rescuers inspect debris believed to be from Lion Air passenger jet that crashed off West Java on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018.. (BNPB via AP) In this photo released by Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) rescuers inspect oi slick debris believed to be from Lion Air passenger jet that crashed off West Java on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. (BNPB via AP) Workers of PT Pertamina examine recovered debris of what is believed from the crashed Lion Air flight JT610, onboard Prabu ship owned by PT Pertamina, off the shore of Karawang regency, West Java province, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. Antara Foto/PT Pertamina/Handout via REUTERS Workers of PT Pertamina stand onboard Prabu ship owned by PT Pertamina as they watch what is believed to be debris from the crashed Lion Air flight JT610, off the shore of Karawang regency, West Java province, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. Antara Foto/PT Pertamina/Handout via REUTERS Passengers wait for their flight in front of a Lion Air office at Soekarno Hatta International airport near Jakarta, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan Workers of PT Pertamina examine recovered debris from what is believed to be the crashed Lion Air flight JT610, onboard Prabu ship owned by PT Pertamina off the shore of Karawang regency, West Java province, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. Antara Foto/PT Pertamina/Handout via REUTERS Workers of PT Pertamina examine recovered debris of what is believed to be from the crashed Lion Air flight JT610, onboard Prabu ship owned by PT Pertamina, off the shore of Karawang regency, West Java province, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. Antara Foto/PT Pertamina/Handout via REUTERS A policeman helps a woman who is a relative of a passenger of Lion Air flight JT610 that crashed into the sea, as she arrives at a crisis center at Soekarno Hatta International airport near Jakarta, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan Relatives of passengers of Lion Air flight JT610 that crashed into the sea, arrive at crisis center at Soekarno Hatta International airport near Jakarta, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan Relatives of passengers of Lion Air flight JT610 that crashed into the sea, cry at Depati Amir airport in Pangkal Pinang, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. Antara Foto/Elza Elvia via REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Relatives began to gather at the airport on Monday (AP/Hadi Sutrisno) "Don't let something like this keep happening in Indonesia," he added. Indonesia is one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets, but its safety record has been patchy. Its transport safety panel investigated 137 serious aviation incidents from 2012 to 2017. The search effort has involved 151 divers, five helicopters, 61 ships, ranging from fishing boats to ships with advanced sonar scanners, as well as underwater drones. An Indonesian rescue diver died during the search for a second black box, parts of the plane, and human remains on the muddy seabed. The head of KNKT Surjanto Tjahjono has said 69 hours of recorded data from 19 flights, including the one that crashed, had been downloaded successfully from a partly damaged flight data recorder recovered on Thursday. As of Monday, 138 body bags containing human remains had been recovered and handed to police for forensic identification, yet only 14 victims had been identified. Among the larger parts of the plane found have been a mangled engine and a damaged aircraft wheel. Tjahjono said based on initial analysis the "engine was running with fairly high speed" when it hit the water. While there were no signs of an explosion in the air, the plane appeared to have hit the water with huge force, he said. "When the plane hit the water, the energy released was extraordinarily large." The day of reckoning for US politics approaches as Americans prepare to go to the polls. On Tuesday, US voters will decide between President Donald Trumps take-no-prisoners rhetoric and the Democratic Partys super-charged campaign to end the Republicans monopoly in Washington and state legislatures across the nation. There are indications that a so-called blue wave may help Democrats seize control of at least one chamber of US congress. However, two years after an election that proved pollsters and political commentators wrong, nothing is certain on the eve of the first nationwide elections of the Trump presidency. All 435 seats in the US house of representatives are up for re-election. Another 35 US senate seats are in play, as well as almost 40 gubernatorial votes and the balance of power in virtually every state chamber. While he is not on the ballot, Mr Trump has acknowledged that the 2018 mid-term elections represent a referendum on his presidency. Expand Close Former president Barack Obama has been galvanising support for the Democrats (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former president Barack Obama has been galvanising support for the Democrats (AP) Should Democrats win control of the house of representatives, as strategists in both parties suggest is likely, they could derail Mr Trumps legislative agenda for the next two years. Perhaps more importantly, they would also win subpoena power to investigate the presidents many personal and professional mis-steps. Tuesdays elections will also test the strength of a Trump-era political realignment defined by evolving divisions among voters by race, gender and especially education. Mr Trumps Republican coalition is increasingly becoming older, whiter, more male and less likely to have a college degree. Democrats are relying more upon women, people of colour, young people and college graduates. The political realignment, if there is one, could re-shape US politics for a generation. Expand Close Former vice president Joe Biden campaigns in Pennsylvania (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former vice president Joe Biden campaigns in Pennsylvania (AP) Just five years ago, the Republican National Committee (RNC) reported that the partys very survival depends upon attracting more minorities and women. Those voters have increasingly fled Mr Trumps Republican Party, turned off by his chaotic leadership style and xenophobic rhetoric. Blue-collar men, however, have embraced the unconventional president. A nationwide poll released on Sunday by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal details the depth of the demographic shifts. Democrats led with likely African-American voters (84% to 8%), Latinos (57% to 29%), voters between the ages of 18-34 (57% to 34%), women (55% to 37%) and independents (35% to 23%). Among white college-educated women, Democrats enjoy a 28-point advantage: 61% to 33%. Expand Close Ceding control to the Democrats in the US house of representatives will grant them power to investigate Mr Trump (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ceding control to the Democrats in the US house of representatives will grant them power to investigate Mr Trump (AP) On the other side, Republicans led with voters between the ages of 50 and 64 (52% to 43%), men (50% to 43%) and whites (50% to 44%). And among white men without college degrees, Republicans led 65% to 30%. Democrats hope to elect a record number of women to congress. They are also poised to make history with a number of LGBT candidates and Muslims up and down the ballot. Former president Barack Obama seized on the differences between the parties in a late scramble to motivate voters across America. One election wont eliminate racism, sexism or homophobia, Mr Obama said during an appearance in Florida. Its not going to happen in one election. But itll be a start. Expand Close America goes to the polls on Tuesday (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp America goes to the polls on Tuesday (AP) Mr Trump has delivered a very different closing argument, railing against Latin American immigrants seeking asylum at the US border. With a walking caravan of immigrants weeks away from reaching the border, Mr Trump dispatched more than 5,000 troops to the region. The president also said soldiers would use lethal force against migrants who throw rocks, before later reversing himself. The charged atmosphere is expected to drive record turnout in some places, but on the eve of the election, it is far from certain which side will show up in the greatest numbers. While Mr Trump is prepared to claim victory if his party retains senate control, at least one prominent ally fears that losing even one chamber of congress could be disastrous. If they take back the house, he essentially will become a lame-duck president, and he wont win re-election, said Amy Kremer, a Tea Party activist who leads the group, Women For Trump. Theyll do anything and everything they can to impeach him, she said. Powerful Democratic forces are already pushing for Mr Trumps impeachment, even if Democratic leaders are not yet ready to go that far. Air Force One taxis past a large crowd as President Donald Trump arrives for a rally in Georgia (John Bazemore/AP) President Donald Trump has implored his supporters to vote on Tuesday, saying the media will treat the midterm results as a referendum on his presidency. Meanwhile, some Democrat supporters admitted they were haunted by the spectre of 2016 when Mr Trumps triumph confounded the pundits and opinion polls which had predicted a Hillary Clinton victory. Even though Im not on the ballot, in a certain way I am on the ballot, Mr Trump said during a tele-town hall meeting organised by his re-election campaign on Monday to encourage Republicans to get out and vote. The press is very much considering it a referendum on me and us as a movement. I don't think there's a Democrat in this country that doesn't have a little angst left over from 2016 deep downStephanie Schriock The comments came as Mr Trump prepared for a final, three-state rally blitz as he tries to keep Congress in Republican control and stave off losses that could profoundly change his presidency. Expand Close PA Graphics / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp PA Graphics Mr Trumps closing argument has largely focused on fear, warning, with no evidence, that a Democratic takeover would throw the country into chaos, spurring an influx of illegal immigration and a wave of crime. And on Monday, he made the case that if Democrats win, they will work to roll back everything he is tried to accomplish. Expand Close President Donald Trump returns to the White House after campaigning (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp President Donald Trump returns to the White House after campaigning (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) Its all fragile, he said on the call. Mr Trump will be holding his final three get-out-the-vote rallies Monday in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri, a day after stops in Tennessee and Georgia, where the presidents closing argument to voters was on stark display as he sought to motivate complacent Republicans to the polls by stoking fears about the prospects of Democratic control. You want to see Georgia prosperity end? Mr Trump told the rally crowd in Macon, Georgia. Vote for the Democrat. Mr Trumps remarks included ominous references to the Antifa far-left-leaning militant groups and a migrant caravan marching toward the US-Mexico border that he has called an invasion. There are indications that a blue wave may help Democrats seize control of at least one chamber of Congress. But two years after an election that proved polls and prognosticators wrong, nothing is certain on the eve of the first nationwide elections of the Trump presidency. We have to give Georgia our all today so we can leave everything on the field tomorrow. Leave no door un-knocked, no conversation unfinished, and no question unanswered. Our victory is in the air we just have to work for it. https://t.co/ycUcy0ZVkk #gapol pic.twitter.com/h8Y2mVTZWi Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) November 5, 2018 I dont think theres a Democrat in this country that doesnt have a little angst left over from 2016 deep down, said Stephanie Schriock, president of Emilys List, which spent more than ever before, nearly 60 million US dollars in all, to support Democratic women this campaign season. Everything matters and everythings at stake, Ms Schriock said. All 435 seats in the US House are up for re-election. Expand Close Former President Barack Obama, left, campaigns for Illinois gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker (Ashlee Rezin/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former President Barack Obama, left, campaigns for Illinois gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker (Ashlee Rezin/AP) And 35 Senate seats are in play, as are almost 40 governorships and the balance of power in virtually every state legislature. One key race in Georgia for the states governorship has attracted much attentions and visits from Mr Trump, his vice-president Mike Pence and, on the Democrat side, former president Barack Obama and talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Expand Close PA Graphics / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp PA Graphics Republican candidate Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams are locked in a tight race that could head to a run-off if neither wins a majority on Tuesday. Ms Abrams would be the first black woman elected governor in any US state and can also count another former president and former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, as a supporter. Mr Kemp looks to defend his partys control of a state Democrats believe could be a presidential battleground in 2020. Both candidates have called their match a battle for Georgias soul. Damage: A fireman walks towards a motorhome in a ditch near the house where two families drowned in Casteldaccia, near Palermo. Photo: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters Floods in Sicily have killed at least 12 people, including nine members of two families who were spending a weekend together when water from a swollen river overran their rented villa. After visiting the stricken Mediterranean island by helicopter, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said the other victims included a German couple whose car was swept away by flood waters near Agrigento, a tourist town known for Greek temples. A one-year-old, a three-year-old and a 15-year-old were among the flood victims from the family get-together in Casteldaccia, near Palermo. A survivor, Giuseppe Giordano, lost his wife, two of his children, his parents and a brother. Mr Giordano was about to step outside on Saturday night when the torrent rushed in. When he opened the door, "there was a river of water, I was knocked down and grabbed hold of a tree," Mr Giordano said between sobs. "I was yelling, 'Help, help.'" "My son Federico tried to save his little sister, but both died," Mr Giordano said. Expand Close A view of the flooded house where nine people lost their lives in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Italy. Photo: Mike Palazzotto/ANSA via AP / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A view of the flooded house where nine people lost their lives in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Italy. Photo: Mike Palazzotto/ANSA via AP Then "I saw the windows go dark, the light go out, a layer of mud was moving across the floor," Mr Giordano said, adding he was swept away from the house by the force of the water. The two families had gathered in the villa during Italy's long weekend centering on the November 1 All Saint's Day national holiday. Casteldaccia mayor Giovanni Di Giacinto said the flood water reached two metres high inside the home. Rescuers retrieved the bodies from the home and a Sicilian prosecutor opened an investigation to determine if neglect, such as possible inadequate drainage of the river, played a role in the deaths or if the home was built illegally close to the river. Pino Virga, the mayor of the neighbouring town of Altavilla Milicia, said other local authorities told him the house had been slated for demolition because it stood too near the river. Only days earlier, other storms battered much of northern Italy, killing at least 15 people, uprooting millions of trees near Alpine valleys and leaving several Italian villages without electricity or road access for days. Mr Conte said a special cabinet meeting could be held in the coming days to deliberate aid for storm-ravaged communities, as well as to approve 1bn to ensure safe hydrogeological conditions in Italy, including proper cleaning of riverbeds. The other known casualty in Sicily was a man whose body was found on a guardrail along a Palermo-area road after floodwaters swept away his car. A Sayyad 2 missile is fired by the Talash air defence system during drills in an undisclosed location in Iran. (Iran Defence Ministry/AP) Iran greeted the re-imposition of US sanctions with air defence drills and a statement from President Hassan Rouhani that the nation faces a war situation. The sanctions end all economic benefits America had granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, though Iran for now continues to abide by the accord that saw it limit its enrichment of uranium. While at the moment not threatening to resume higher enrichment, Iranian officials in recent months have made a point to warn the controversial process could resume at any time, faster than before. Expand Close PA Graphics / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp PA Graphics Expand Close PA Graphics / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp PA Graphics The new American sanctions particularly hurt Irans vital oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency for its anaemic economy. Its national currency has plummeted over the last year, sending prices for everything from mobile phones to medicine skyrocketing. Today, Iran is able to sell its oil and it will sell, Mr Rouhani vowed as the sanctions kicked in. However, the noose of American sanctions appeared to be tightening. Expand Close Representations of the US and British flags are walked on by demonstrators (Vahid Salemi/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Representations of the US and British flags are walked on by demonstrators (Vahid Salemi/AP) Iranian officials, meanwhile, reported a cyber attack targeting the countrys communication infrastructure, blaming the purported attack on Israel. Iranian state television aired footage of air defence systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military manoeuvres under way across a vast stretch of the countrys north. It included surface-to-air missiles shooting down a drone. The drill was to continue through Tuesday. Iranian army General Habibillah Sayyari said both the national army and the countrys paramilitary Revolutionary Guard were taking part in the exercise. Mr Rouhani, meanwhile, pledged to government officials in comments aired on state TV that Iran would overcome the sanctions. We are in the war situation, Mr Rouhani said. We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win. He further stepped up the rhetoric, comparing Irans situation in the 1980s war against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with the current one and President Donald Trumps move to reinstate US sanctions. Yesterday, Saddam was in front us, today Trump is front of us. There is no difference. We must resist and win, he said. Expand Close Irans President Hassan Rouhani (Presidency Office/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Irans President Hassan Rouhani (Presidency Office/AP) Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis. Its national currency, the rial, now trades at 150,000 to one US dollar, down from when it traded around 40,500 to one dollar a year ago. The economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year which resulted in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Sporadic demonstrations still continue. Mr Rouhani separately said leaders from four powers met with Iran on the sidelines of the September meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to try to save the deal, including brokering a possible meeting with Mr Trump. He did not name those countries, but was likely referring to China, France, Russia and Britain, which along with Germany made up the world powers involved in the 2015 nuclear deal. This issue does not require a mediator, Mr Rouhani said, blaming America for unilaterally pulling out of the accord. Irans foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi also predicted the sanctions will actually work against Americas interests. Expand Close Demonstrators attend a rally in front of the former US Embassy in Tehran (Vahid Salemi/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Demonstrators attend a rally in front of the former US Embassy in Tehran (Vahid Salemi/AP) Many countries from Europe to Russia and China have opposed the sanctions, Mr Ghasemi told journalists, adding that Iranians have experienced more extensive sanctions and that they are not a new issue. The United States says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. However, Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton, the presidents national security adviser, both have made public statements supporting overthrowing Irans theocratic government. Irans Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Javad Azeri Jahromi and his deputy, Hamid Fatahi, both tweeted about a cyber attack targeting the countrys communications infrastructure, without elaborating. They blamed Israel for the attack and both referenced Stuxnet, which destroyed thousands of centrifuges involved in Irans contested nuclear programme in 2011. Stuxnet is widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation, though neither country has acknowledged being behind the attack. Israels Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the Iranian claim. Last week, General Gholam Reza Jalali, the head of countrys military unit in charge of combatting sabotage, said Mr Rouhanis mobile phone was tapped recently. Israels defence minister Avigdor Lieberman welcomed the newly restored US sanctions, saying in a tweet that they will deal a critical blow to Irans military presence around the Middle East. The Trump administrations decision to restore sanctions is the sea change the Middle East has been waiting for, he said. The US has reimposed all sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, grinding further down on the Islamic Republics already ailing economy. President Hassan Rouhani said a war situation was facing Tehran as the country ran televised air defence drills showing soldiers cheering the downing of a drone, but otherwise held back from any military response over US efforts to curtail malign activities across the Middle East. While previously warning it could ramp up its nuclear programme, Iran still honours the atomic accord now limiting its enrichment of uranium, according to the United Nations. The US Treasury Department imposed penalties on more than 700 Iranian and Iranian-linked individuals, entities, aircraft and vessels in the new sanctions, including 50 banks and subsidiaries, more than 200 people and ships, Irans state-run airline Iran Air and more than 65 of its planes. Companies risk their reputation engaging with #Irans regime, which spreads violence and instability in the region and around the world. Companies that evade our sanctions and continue sanctionable commerce with the Iranian regime will face severe penalties. pic.twitter.com/sGbl5I5UpH Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 5, 2018 The new sanctions particularly hurt Irans vital oil industry, which provides a crucial source of hard currency. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told journalists in Washington the sanctions has already cost Iran the sale of more than a million barrels of crude oil a day. Our objective is to starve the Iranian regime of the revenue it uses to fund violent and destabilising activities throughout the Middle East and, indeed, around the world, Mr Pompeo said. The Iranian regime has a choice: It can either do a 180-degree turn from its outlawed course of action and act like a normal country, or it can see its economy crumble. The administration of Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise of tearing up the nuclear deal, insists it does not seek regime change in Iran through the sanctions. It says it wants Tehran to radically change its policies, including support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. Expand Close Donald Trump (Evan Vucci/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Trump (Evan Vucci/AP) However, Mr Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his national security adviser John Bolton have both given speeches advocating overthrowing Irans theocratic government. Analysts feared in the run-up to the sanctions that global oil prices could spike on tight supply and increasing demand. However, the Trump administration allowed some of its allies Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey as well as rival China to continue to purchase Iranian oil as long as they work to reduce imports to zero. That caused prices of benchmark Brent crude to dip down from over 80 dollars a barrel in recent days. It traded up over 73 dollars a barrel on Monday after the sanctions took effect. We have the toughest sanctions ever imposed but on oil we want to go a little bit slower because I dont want to drive the oil prices in the world, Mr Trump said on Thursday. I could get the Iran oil down to zero immediately, but it would cause a shock to the market. Mr Rouhani, whose signature achievement was the nuclear deal, promised that Iran would still be able to sell its oil on the international market. Its national oil company has started selling crude oil to private companies who can sell to anonymous buyers abroad as a means to get around the sanctions. We are in an economic war situation. We are standing up to a bullying enemy, he told government officials in televised remarks, invoking Irans ruinous 1980s war with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Yesterday, Saddam was in front us; today Trump is front of us. There is no difference. We must resist and win. Iranian state television broadcast video of air defence systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military manoeuvres under way across a vast stretch of the countrys north. It included surface-to-air missiles shooting down a drone. Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis. Its national currency, the rial, now trades at 150,000 to one US dollar. A year ago, it was about 40,500. The economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year, resulting in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Sporadic demonstrations still continue. Gholamali Khoshroo, Irans UN ambassador, accused the US of brazenly and boldly violating a UN Security Council resolution that unanimously endorsed the nuclear deal by reimposing sanctions, and he called for a collective response by the international community. The scene of the shooting (Tori Schneider/Tallahassee Democrat via AP) The man who shot and killed two women at a yoga studio had been fired from his job as a substitute teacher for inappropriately touching a middle school girl, a Florida school district has said. Paul Scott Beierle, 40, posed as a customer during a yoga class on Friday, then began shooting, authorities said. A 61-year-old faculty member at Florida State University and a 21-year-old FSU student from Georgia were killed, and five others were injured. Beierle then killed himself. It is unclear why Beierle chose that yoga studio in the Florida capital. He had lived in Tallahassee from 2011 to 2013 but had recently been living several hours away. Police have not released information on a motive. Expand Close Paul Scott Beierle (Leon County Sheriffs Office/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Paul Scott Beierle (Leon County Sheriffs Office/AP) Beierle had a history of harassing women and acting inappropriately, from pinching womens buttocks to tickling a middle school student to appearing to make misogynistic videos, there were several red flags surrounding his behaviour. Kelly Schulz, a spokeswoman for Volusia County School District, said Beierle was fired in May after he asked a female student if she was ticklish and then touched her at the top of the stomach below the bra line, a district report said. Student was frightened and hid behind another student, the report said. School personnel records show that students and a parent complained about Beierles conduct at a different school before the May incident. Nicole Gillespie said her twin eighth-grade daughters told her on the first day of school in August 2017 that Beierle, who was teaching language arts, was creepy. She encouraged her daughters to give him a chance, but they insisted his behaviour of calling only girls to the front of the room was inappropriate. When Ms Gillespie looked him up on the internet, she found pictures of burlesque dancers, inappropriate sexual discussions and photos of him with weapons on his Facebook page. Her daughters told school authorities of their discomfort, and he was moved to a different school. We are heartbroken but we are strong. We are a community united against violence. Our thoughts and prayers stay with the victims of the tragic act of violence at Hot Yoga. Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the shooting.https://t.co/7A3bPDw1EJ #TallyStrong #OurCityOurHome pic.twitter.com/NLBFnpWrUO Tallahassee Police (@TallyPD) November 3, 2018 Ms Schulz said Beierle was hired in 2017 after he passed a federal and state criminal background check with Volusia County Schools and the Department of Education. He was issued a teaching certification by the DOE in July 2015, she said. Beierle was a military veteran with degrees from Binghamton University and Florida State University. Raised in Vestal, New York, he appeared to have made videos detailing his hatred of everything from the Affordable Care Act to girls who had allegedly mistreated him in middle school. The videos were posted four years ago, and were removed from YouTube after the shooting. Beierle, who had moved to the central Florida town of Deltona after getting a graduate degree from FSU, appeared to post a series of videos in 2014 where he called women whores if they dated black men, said many black women were disgusting and described himself as a misogynist. A Tallahassee police spokesman would not confirm the videos were Beierles, but the man speaking in the films looks like him, and biographical details mentioned in the videos match known facts about Beierle. In 2012, he was arrested twice for grabbing women on FSUs campus, but charges were dropped. Four years later, he was arrested for battery after a woman said he approached her at the swimming pool of a Tallahassee apartment complex, complimented her bottom and offered to rub sunscreen on it, records show. The woman said she declined the offer and Beierle then slapped her on the buttocks and grabbed her. Court records indicate prosecutors agreed to dismiss the battery charge after Beierle completed a six-month diversion agreement requiring him to stay out of trouble, not drink alcohol to excess and to follow a psychologists recommendations. Iran will sell its oil and break sanctions reimposed by the United States on its vital energy and banking sectors, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told economists at a meeting broadcast live on state television on Monday. The country has greeted the re-imposition of US sanctions with air defence drills and an acknowledgement from President Hassan Rouhani that the nation faces a war situation. The move has raised tensions in the Middle East as Americas maximalist approach to the Islamic Republic takes hold. The sanctions end all the economic benefits America granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. For now, Iran continues to abide by the accord which saw it limit its enrichment of uranium. While not threatening to resume higher enrichment, Iranian officials in recent months have said this could resume at any time and faster than before. Expand Close A demonstration in Tehran (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A demonstration in Tehran (AP) The new American sanctions particularly hurt Irans vital oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency for its struggling economy. Its national currency has plummeted over the last year, sending prices for everything from mobile phones to medicine skyrocketing. Mr Rouhani said: Today, Iran is able to sell its oil and it will sell. Iranian state television aired footage of air defence systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military manoeuvres which got under way across a vast stretch of the countrys north. Iranian army general Habibillah Sayyari said both the national army and the countrys paramilitary Revolutionary Guard are taking part in the exercise. Mr Rouhani, meanwhile, pledged that Iran would overcome the sanctions. We are in the war situation, he said. We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win. Expand Close Irans Revolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Ali Jafari (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Irans Revolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Ali Jafari (AP) Irans economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year which resulted in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Sporadic demonstrations still continue. The US says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. However, US leader Donald Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton, the presidents national security adviser, have both made public statements supporting the overthrowing of Irans theocratic government. Tired, swollen and blistered feet are among the biggest challenges for the thousands of Central American migrants making their way through southern Mexico in the hope of starting new lives in the United States. Three weeks of pounding the highways every day takes a toll. Whenever possible, the migrants discard damaged footwear, replacing them with donated shoes found at stops along the way or with spare pairs they carry in backpacks. The most gruelling days demand treks of more than 100 miles. Migrants eager to find strength in numbers must maintain that pace to remain with the group. And they do so in cheap shoes and sweat-drenched socks, which they eagerly peel off at the end of each day. Expand Close Migrants bathe in the rain water outside a temporary shelter set up in Veracruz. Mexico (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Migrants bathe in the rain water outside a temporary shelter set up in Veracruz. Mexico (AP) Blisters are a nasty foe for migrant feet, young and old alike. Red Cross personnel at waystations bandage swollen feet or apply antisceptic to broken blisters. Children wince as their wounds are treated. Flies gather on open sores, and the risk of infection is high. These are extreme conditions, says Ignacio Escotto, a Mexican vascular surgeon. Unrelenting contact with hot pavements will cause the feet to swell, he said, while dehydration and malnutrition also wreak havoc on soft tissue. The Mexican government said around 3,000 migrants have applied for refuge in Mexico in recent weeks and about 500 have asked for assistance to return to their countries of origin. Expand Close Shoes have been donated for the migrants as they continue their long journey on foot (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Shoes have been donated for the migrants as they continue their long journey on foot (AP) Many of the about 4,000 migrants still with the caravan have now covered more than 800 miles since setting out from Honduras on October 13, hitching rides on flatbed trucks whenever possible. They face another more than 800-mile trek to the nearest US border crossing. Calls have grown in recent days for buses to transport scores of people from the caravan to the Mexican capital, where the fatigued travellers hope to find respite and medical treatment. Those buses have not arrived. The group now finds itself in the Gulf state of Veracruz, traversing what some call the route of death because of the large number of migrants who have disappeared in the state in recent years. It is unclear what part of the US border they will aim for eventually, but their latest overnight stay in Veracruz could be one of their last before they head to Mexico City, a potential launching spot for a broader array of destinations. Inspired by their progress and an outpouring of support from townspeople along the way, several smaller caravans of migrants have formed in Central America in recent weeks in an attempt to improve their odds of making it to the US. A British sailor who reported his new wife missing from their sinking catamaran off the coast of Cuba has pleaded guilty to her manslaughter. Lewis Bennett, of Poole in Dorset, admitted a charge of involuntary manslaughter at a change of plea hearing in Miami, Florida, on Monday, following the death of Isabella Hellmann in 2017. Bennett entered the plea after US prosecutors reduced a charge of murder for the 41-year-old to one of unlawful killing without malice. Attorney Fajardo Orshan said: "Although nothing can ever erase the pain and suffering caused by Lewis Bennett's criminal acts, the US Attorney's Office and our law enforcement partners hope that the defendant's admission of guilt is a step toward justice for the victim, Ms Isabella Hellmann, and her family. "The federal government remains committed to the safety and security of our US citizens, whether they are at home in South Florida or travelling on the high seas." The couple - who married three months earlier - started their expedition in St Maarten in April 2017, before sailing the catamaran Surf Into Summer to Puerto Rico and Cuba. They then left for their home in Delray Beach, Florida. According to court documents, experienced sailor Bennett was awoken on May 15 2017 when he heard a loud noise while resting in their cabin. He said he climbed to the exterior of the boat and observed that the sails and rigging were loose, the helm of the vessel was unmanned, and his wife - who had limited emergency sailing procedure knowledge - was not there. Expand Close Undated US Coast Guard handout file photo of the catamaran Surf into Summer which Lewis Bennett and wife Isabella Hellmann were sailing on before her disappearance. US Coast Guard/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Undated US Coast Guard handout file photo of the catamaran Surf into Summer which Lewis Bennett and wife Isabella Hellmann were sailing on before her disappearance. US Coast Guard/PA Wire Bennett said he could not recall whether he called out for his wife, he did not deploy flares to illuminate the area in order to look for Ms Hellmann or to signal his position in the open water. The court heard Bennett - a dual British-Australian national - did not search for his wife with either the catamaran or the attached dinghy, nor did he immediately activate any emergency equipment or raise the alarm. He later abandoned the 37ft vessel and boarded the life raft. Expert testimony found the vessel had been deliberately sunk by allowing water into the hull. It was not until Bennett boarded the life raft that he called for help and reported his wife missing, approximately 45 minutes after he woke up in the cabin. Ms Hellmann's body has never been found. Prosecutors initially alleged he murdered her and deliberately scuttled the vessel to end his "marital strife", thus inheriting her apartment where they lived in Delray Beach and the contents of her bank account. Investigators also discovered that Bennett was smuggling rare coins during his rescue, which they alleged could have been a further motive to kill her. Bennett had reported the coins, worth nearly 30,000, as being stolen from a former employer in St Maarten a year earlier. He admitted transporting the coins and is currently serving a seven-month jail sentence. Bennett faces a maximum eight-year prison term when he is sentenced next year. Ive been a witness to the way the world processes American political dialogue. As a young speechwriter, I was puzzled when my boss erased an applause line that could have been misinterpreted overseas. When I arrived at the State Department, I learned he was right: foreign diplomats consume our news voraciously. A great line in Dubuque might not be worth the headache in Dubai. The whole world always watches Americas elections, but few will keep them glued to their televisions like the one on November 6, when voters go to the polls in congressional midterm elections. Conventional wisdom has it that a Democratic wave is soon arriving, to change control of at least one house of Congress two years into the Trump administration. The American political deck will likely be reshuffled and with it the geopolitical one as well. How will it resonate beyond our shores? The answer is, more and less than you might think. First, some context. Donald Trumps low approval ratings have been an anchor around Republicans necks. But he would be far from the first American president to receive a failing midterm grade. Read More In fact, US politics, dating back to 1974 when Democrats took 49 seats from the Republicans in a repudiation of Nixon and Watergate, has been punctuated by "wave" elections delivering a message of discontent including 1982 for Democrats unhappy with Reagan, 1994 for the anti-Clinton Republicans, and 2010 for the Tea Party Republicans who opposed Obama. Yet Presidents Reagan, Clinton, and Obama were all reelected when they next faced the voters. A tsunami could wipe out Trumps majority in the House of Representatives, but the map of Senate races still favors the Republican Party. Trump is likely to still have a Senate backstop after the election, and time to recalibrate. But if Trump loses the House the world would assess a realigned Washington very differently. Obama headed to Asia right after the 2010 midterm losses. His appearance on the world stage implicitly reminded the public at home of something Bill Clinton felt compelled to express explicitly after his partys losses in 1994: the American president is always relevant. What would Trump do in a new dynamic? Trump faces two immediate international tests. First, when he sees Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris on November 11, he must avoid a repeat of the Helsinki fiasco, where the US president received widespread condemnation for praising his Russian counterpart and rejecting the US intelligence agencies finding that Moscow had meddled in the 2016 US election. Trumps post-midterm challenge will be complicated: he cant afford to again appear tone-deaf about Russia and further alienate his ever-more important Republican base. But he needs to demonstrate that his outreach to Moscow has borne some fruit. Putin may be inclined to throw Trump a lifeline. National Security Adviser John Bolton will be under pressure to determine whether any Putin offering such as greater cooperation on Syria, Ukraine, or Iran is real, or a ruse. At the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires November 30, Trump faces an even bigger test: a meeting with Chinas Xi Jinping. If he suffers significant electoral losses, Trump will be under pressure to deescalate a trade war thats always been a sore spot for his Republican supporters. But will Beijing, with its patient command and control authoritarian system, rush to resolve a trade war begun by a president it may now see as permanently weakened? China is more insulated and better able to function as a "resistance economy", but a "freeze for freeze" on tariffs while the two countries return to negotiations may benefit mutual interests. Trump may also seek greater Chinese cooperation on North Korea, but is unlikely to get it if his administration doubles down on a growing anti-China narrative. Was Vice President Mike Pences tough-talking China speech on October 4 a preview of escalation against Beijing, or will Trump instead pursue strategic cooperation? These are among the vital questions a weakened president would have to answer. If Republicans lose power, his North Korean diplomatic gambit will be tested: Kim Jong Un may perceive that Trump will now be even more desperate for a "win" on the world stage. Will Trump continue to base his North Korea policy on his personal relationship with the dictator with whom he says he "fell in love" or reach out for greater leverage from the allies he often finds frustrating? Certainly, at home and abroad all of these calculations will be affected by political jockeying, which will only intensify. On the day after the midterms, an "invisible primary" among Democrats will begin in earnest to choose a candidate capable of winning in 2020. The Democrats will have to define a foreign policy for that campaign, navigating thorny issues that include articulating an alternative to Trumpism globally while still reconnecting with persuadable Trump voters who feel left behind by globalization. In other words, Trump is not the only one with a difficult dance to perform. Americans rarely vote on foreign policy, and certainly issues from healthcare to jobs and immigration are on the ballot in bold font, looming far larger than Americas place in the world. But the outcome will nonetheless set the stage for how Trump navigates the next two years of his presidency, both among voters and international leaders. Will Trump be emboldened, or undermined, as he pursues his foreign policy? By November 7, we will begin to have our answer. The day of reckoning for US politics approaches as Americans prepare to go to the polls. On Tuesday, US voters will decide between President Donald Trump's take-no-prisoners rhetoric and the Democratic Party's super-charged campaign to end the Republicans' monopoly in Washington and state legislatures across the nation. There are indications that a so-called "blue wave" may help Democrats seize control of at least one chamber of US congress. However, two years after an election that proved pollsters and political commentators wrong, nothing is certain on the eve of the first nationwide elections of the Trump presidency. All 435 seats in the US house of representatives are up for re-election. Another 35 US senate seats are in play, as well as almost 40 gubernatorial votes and the balance of power in virtually every state chamber. While he is not on the ballot, Mr Trump has acknowledged that the 2018 mid-term elections represent a referendum on his presidency. Expand Close Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Missouri, ahead of tomorrow's midterm elections. Photo: Charlie Riedel/AP / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Missouri, ahead of tomorrow's midterm elections. Photo: Charlie Riedel/AP Should Democrats win control of the house of representatives, as strategists in both parties suggest is likely, they could derail Mr Trump's legislative agenda for the next two years. Expand Close US President Donald Trump is bolstering the border. Photo: Getty Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp US President Donald Trump is bolstering the border. Photo: Getty Images Perhaps more importantly, they would also win subpoena power to investigate the president's many personal and professional mis-steps. Tuesday's elections will also test the strength of a Trump-era political realignment defined by evolving divisions among voters by race, gender and especially education. Expand Close U.S. President Donald Trump rallies with supporters at Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon, Georgia, U.S. November 4, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp U.S. President Donald Trump rallies with supporters at Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon, Georgia, U.S. November 4, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Mr Trump's Republican coalition is increasingly becoming older, whiter, more male and less likely to have a college degree. Democrats are relying more upon women, people of colour, young people and college graduates. The political realignment, if there is one, could re-shape US politics for a generation. Just five years ago, the Republican National Committee (RNC) reported that the party's very survival depends upon attracting more minorities and women. Those voters have increasingly fled Mr Trump's Republican Party, turned off by his chaotic leadership style and xenophobic rhetoric. Blue-collar men, however, have embraced the unconventional president. A nationwide poll released on Sunday by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal details the depth of the demographic shifts. Expand Close Mr Trump has made migration a central part of his US mid-term election campaign (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr Trump has made migration a central part of his US mid-term election campaign (AP) Democrats led with likely African-American voters (84% to 8%), Latinos (57% to 29%), voters between the ages of 18-34 (57% to 34%), women (55% to 37%) and independents (35% to 23%). Among white college-educated women, Democrats enjoy a 28-point advantage: 61% to 33%. On the other side, Republicans led with voters between the ages of 50 and 64 (52% to 43%), men (50% to 43%) and whites (50% to 44%). And among white men without college degrees, Republicans led 65% to 30%. Democrats hope to elect a record number of women to congress. They are also poised to make history with a number of LGBT candidates and Muslims up and down the ballot. Former president Barack Obama seized on the differences between the parties in a late scramble to motivate voters across America. "One election won't eliminate racism, sexism or homophobia," Mr Obama said during an appearance in Florida. "It's not going to happen in one election. But it'll be a start." Mr Trump has delivered a very different closing argument, railing against Latin American immigrants seeking asylum at the US border. With a walking caravan of immigrants weeks away from reaching the border, Mr Trump dispatched more than 5,000 troops to the region. The president also said soldiers would use lethal force against migrants who throw rocks, before later reversing himself. The charged atmosphere is expected to drive record turnout in some places, but on the eve of the election, it is far from certain which side will show up in the greatest numbers. While Mr Trump is prepared to claim victory if his party retains senate control, at least one prominent ally fears that losing even one chamber of congress could be disastrous. "If they take back the house, he essentially will become a lame-duck president, and he won't win re-election," said Amy Kremer, a Tea Party activist who leads the group, Women For Trump. "They'll do anything and everything they can to impeach him," she said. Powerful Democratic forces are already pushing for Mr Trump's impeachment, even if Democratic leaders are not yet ready to go that far. Bitter U.S. political campaigns thundered to a hectic, unpredictable finish on election eve on Monday, as candidates scoured the country for votes in dozens of crucial races that opinion polls showed were still razor-close. Control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress and 36 governor's offices are up for grabs on Tuesday in an election widely seen as a referendum on the first two years of Republican President Donald Trump's leadership. In the final stretch, Trump has ramped up his hard-line rhetoric on immigration and cultural issues, including warnings about a caravan of migrants headed to the border with Mexico and "liberal" mobs, and touted a growing U.S. economy that he said would be threatened by Democrats. He amplified that message with an advertisement linking Democrats and immigrants to violent crime, which aired on NBC on Sunday night. Even fellow Republicans had criticized the spot as racially divisive when it first debuted online last week. Expand Close Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp on Monday said it would no longer run the 30-second spot. CNN had earlier refused to run it, calling it "racist." "After further review we recognize the insensitive nature of the ad and have decided to cease airing it across our properties as soon as possible," a spokesperson for the network said in a email. Trump planned to spend a final day on the campaign trail on Monday, hitting the Midwestern states of Ohio, Indiana and Missouri at the end of a six-day pre-election sweep focused mostly on competitive U.S. Senate races. "It's all fragile. Everything I told you about, it can be undone and changed by the Democrats if they get in," Trump told supporters in a conference call on Monday aimed at getting out the vote. Expand Close President Donald Trump returns to the White House after campaigning (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp President Donald Trump returns to the White House after campaigning (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) Opinion polls and election forecasters favor Democrats to pick up the minimum of 23 seats they need on Tuesday to capture a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, which would enable them to stymie Trump's legislative agenda and investigate his administration. But Republicans are favored to retain their slight majority in the U.S. Senate, currently at two seats, which would let them retain the power to approve U.S. Supreme Court and other judicial nominations on straight party-line votes. Expand Close Donald Trump (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Trump (AP) But 75 or more of the 435 House races remain competitive, forecasters said, and control of the Senate is likely to come down to a half-dozen close contests in Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, North Dakota, Indiana and Florida. Democrats also are threatening to recapture governor's offices in several key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania, a potential help for the party in those states in the 2020 presidential race. Trump, who frequently warns of voter fraud and has claimed without evidence that millions of fraudulent votes were cast in 2016, said on Twitter on Monday that law enforcement should be on the lookout for "illegal voting." Democratic former President Barack Obama delivered donuts to campaign volunteers in a House district in suburban Virginia, where Democrat Jennifer Wexton, a state senator, is challenging Republican incumbent Barbara Comstock in a fiercely contested race Obama said the country's character and its commitment to decency and equality are on the ballot on Tuesday. "All across the country, what I'm seeing is a great awakening," he said. "People woke up and said 'Oh, we can't take this for granted. We've got to fight for this.'" Trump's polarizing style has spurred record turnout, cranking up enthusiasm in both parties as voters cast ballots to oppose or support the president. Approximately 40 million early votes including absentee, vote-by-mail and in-person ballots will likely be cast by Election Day, according to Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida who tracks the figures. In the last such congressional elections in 2014, there were 27.5 million early votes. The numbers suggest turnout will be very high for a non-presidential election, McDonald wrote on his U.S. Elections Project website. He estimated turnout would reach 45 percent; that would be the highest for a midterm election in 50 years. For Democrats, the midterm elections have been a beacon in the dark, a chance to re-emerge from the political wilderness and repudiate a president they view as a dangerous force. But on the cusp of tomorrow's vote, many Democrats are as anxious as they are hopeful. Their memories from 2016, when they watched in disbelief as Donald Trump defied polls, expectations and political norms, are still fresh. And as Trump travels the country armed with a divisive and racially charged closing campaign message, the test for Democrats now feels at once similar and more urgent than it did two years ago: They failed to stop Trump then, what if they fall short again? This year, history is on Democrats' side. The sitting president's party often loses ground in the first midterm after winning office, and for much of 2018, polling has favoured Democrats. Primary contests filled the Democratic roster with a new generation of candidates, including several minority candidates who could make history in their races. While the fight to regain control of the Senate, largely playing out in conservative states, may prove out of reach for Democrats, the party has been buoyed by its ability to run competitively in Republican-leaning states such as Texas and Tennessee. Democrats' focus is largely on snatching back the House and picking up governors' seats in Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere. The party is also seeking redemption in the Midwest where Trump won over white, working-class voters who had backed Democrats for years. In Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Democrats appear poised to regain ground. Such victories would build momentum behind the party's shift toward a new generation of candidates who are younger, more diverse, with greater numbers of women and more liberal than Democratic leadership. They would also signal that Trump's hard line on immigration and his penchant for personal attacks turn off more voters than they energise. A good night for Democrats tomorrow would provide a blueprint for how the party can successfully run against Trump in the 2020 presidential race. At least two dozen Democrats are waiting in the wings, eager to take Trump. But the president has proved once again to be a powerful political force late in a campaign. Even with an approval rating below the average for his recent predecessors at this point, he has almost single-handedly put Republicans in a stronger position. He's aggressively appealed to his loyal, core supporters with a sharply anti-immigrant, nationalist message and by casting Democrats as outside the mainstream. "A vote for any Democrat this November is a vote to really put extreme far-left politicians in charge of Congress and to destroy your jobs, slash your incomes, undermine your safety and put illegal aliens before American citizens," Trump said at the weekend. Tears: A Trump supporter cries as he arrives for a campaign rally at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport in Belgrade, Montana. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP Photo/Evan Vucci An automated call to voters by a white supremacist group has highlighted the increasingly bitter rhetoric in the US midterms as the campaign enters its final stages. Voters in Georgia were targeted with the message that impersonated Oprah Winfrey, a prominent supporter of Stacey Abrams, who is running to become the first black female governor in the US. It compared the Democratic candidate to "a poor man's Aunt Jemima" who "white women can be tricked into voting for, especially the fat ones", and mocked Ms Winfrey as a "magical negro". Aunt Jemima refers to a brand of US pancake mix linked to southern plantation racism. The message was reportedly funded by TheRoadToPower.com, a video-streaming site that has been described as white supremacist by campaign groups. It is unclear how many people received the automated call. The run-up to tomorrow's vote has been marred by violence. A series of pipebombs was last month sent to prominent critics of US President Donald Trump, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, and a massacre in a synagogue in Pennsylvania left 11 dead, for which a white supremacist was charged. Expand Close Democrat Senate candidate Beto ORourke helps his sister Charlotte erect a yard sign as they canvass door-to-door in Carrollton, Texas. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Democrat Senate candidate Beto ORourke helps his sister Charlotte erect a yard sign as they canvass door-to-door in Carrollton, Texas. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Outrage over the racist phone message came as Mr Trump campaigned in Georgia as part of his whirlwind tour of the US. He has visited 20 states since the start of October in an attempt to shore up support for "at-risk" Republicans in key areas. Over the weekend, Mr Trump tweeted: "If you want to protect criminal aliens - vote Democrat. If you want to protect law-abiding Americans - vote Republican!" Anti-migrant sentiment has grown during the campaign, with Mr Trump targeting a group of Central Americans attempting to reach the US border. The caravan of 4,000 migrants was yesterday making its way up through Mexico in the hope of being given asylum. Early-voting figures for the midterms show record-breaking numbers in the tightly fought states of Tennessee, Texas and Florida. In one of the country's most divisive races, Ms Abrams is vying to become the country's first African-American female governor. Her opponent, Brian Kemp, the current secretary of state for Georgia, condemned the call as "absolutely disgusting" and a message of "unbridled hate and unapologetic bigotry". Similarly racist "robocalls" targeted voters in Florida, where black Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum is running for governor. It featured a man speaking in minstrel-style voice as monkeys screeched in the background. Meanwhile, Mr Kemp - who holds a slight lead - has been accused of orchestrating his own dirty tricks campaign. A total of 53,000 people, around 70pc of them black, had their voter registrations suspended by his office. On Friday, a judge ruled that Mr Kemp must unblock more than 3,000 of those flagged as ineligible. The US Supreme Court upheld a law passed in North Dakota, which requires voters to produce ID showing their current address at polling stations. Democrats said the rule could stop American Indians from voting, as they often live on reservations. Mr Trump isn't on the ballot tomorrow, but midterm elections are typically a referendum on the occupant of the White House. A new NBC/ 'Wall Street Journal' poll yesterday showed Mr Trump's approval rating at 46pc, up a tick from 45pc in October. But 40pc say their vote tomorrow will be a signal of opposition to Mr Trump against 32pc who intend to vote to show support. Some 59pc of registered voters say they want a "great deal" or "quite a bit" of change in the country's direction. Mr Trump has rejected the idea that the election was a referendum on his presidency and that Democrats reclaiming the House would be a rebuke of him and his policies. "No, I don't view this as for myself," Mr Trump said, before making the case that his campaigning has "made a big difference" in a handful of Senate races across the country. "I think I've made a difference of five or six or seven. That's a big difference," he said, crediting his rallies for the influence. "These rallies are the best thing we've done. I think that the rallies have really been the thing that's caused this whole big fervour." ( Daily Telegraph, London) Famous artwork stolen during the biggest art heist in history was given to the IRA by notorious mob boss James 'Whitey' Bulger, a private investigator has claimed. The theft at the Gardner Museum in Boston in March 1990 saw masterpieces including 'The Concert' by Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt's 'Christ in the Storm' disappear, along with other works of art worth a combined half-a-billion dollars. It has gone down as the biggest art theft of all time, with Vermeer's painting alone valued at $200m (176m). However, the man behind some of the biggest stolen art recovery operations has said he believes the works could be hidden somewhere on this island. Former Scotland Yard detective turned private investigator Charles Hill has developed a theory the valuable paintings reached Ireland after being given to the IRA by Bulger. "On the new morning of 18 March 1990 even the dogs in the streets of South Boston must have known that Whitey was involved in some way, before, during or after the robbery," Mr Hill said in an interview with 'The Observer'. "Whitey was an IRA sympathiser, he loved to associate himself with 'the cause', and was involved in arms deals and drug shipments to the Republic. After a shipment of weapons and ammunition was intercepted by the Irish Navy off the coast of Co Kerry in 1984, Whitey felt he owed one to his friends in the Republic. I believe he offered them the paintings. "Even if Bulger did not order the robbery originally, he would have muscled in and taken control of the haul." The private investigator was involved in the recovery of other famous works of art, including Edvard Munch's 'The Scream'. Closer to home, he led the recovery of artwork from Russborough House, Co Wicklow, in 1993, which had been stolen by Dublin criminal Martin 'The General' Cahill. Bulger (89) was found dead last week in the cell where he was serving a life sentence for the murder of 11 people. Two buildings have collapsed into a pile of rubble and beams in the French city of Marseille and authorities are in a race against time to find people possibly trapped in the ruins. The buildings one condemned and supposedly vacant, the other containing apartments gave way after 9am. In the spot where they had stood, a large gap appeared once the dust and debris settled. Fire services said two people who were in the street when the buildings collapsed were treated for light injuries. President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday evening that it was unknown if anyone was killed or trapped. Expand Close Emmanuel Macron (Michel Euler/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Emmanuel Macron (Michel Euler/AP) Fire officials deliberately brought down most of a third building due to concerns the unstable structure might cave on top of search crews and sniffer dogs combing the rubble of the other buildings. Authorities said one building had been condemned as substandard and was assumed to be unoccupied, but the other was inhabited. Housing minister Julien Denormandie said at the scene he could not rule out that people were trapped in the collapse. Its a race against the clock, he said. The urgent task is to determine whether there are people we can save. Expand Close Firefighters work at the scene (Claude Paris/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Firefighters work at the scene (Claude Paris/AP) Thick dust covered cars around the site near Marseilles famous Old Port. Amateur video broadcast on BFM-TV featured bystanders covering their mouths with their sleeves to avoid the dusty air. Images of the buildings before they collapsed, visible on Google Street View, showed that one had five floors and the other six. One of the buildings was clearly in poor repair, with boarded-up windows and large visible cracks on the facade. Sabine Bernasconi, the local mayor for that part of Marseille, said one of the buildings was subject to an evacuation order, but could not say for sure that squatters were not using it. The regional prefecture urged people to avoid the area and make way for emergency services. Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena, right, and his newly appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) Thousands of Sri Lankans have marched in support of a new government led by the countrys former strongman, highlighting the political polarisation in the Indian Ocean island nation. The rally near Parliament came amid a constitutional crisis sparked by President Maithripala Sirisenas move to oust prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, replace him with ex-leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and suspend Parliament. Mr Wickremesinghe has refused to vacate his official residence, insisting he is the lawful prime minister and that the president had no constitutional right to replace him. Expand Close A Sri Lankan police officer tries to control the crowd (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A Sri Lankan police officer tries to control the crowd (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) Thousands of his supporters have been keeping vigil. Supporters of Mr Rajapaksa at the rally chanted Whose power is this? Mahindas power! As patriotic songs blared over loudspeakers, thousands shuffled through heavy rain toward a makeshift stage. Police and Sri Lankan special forces with semi-automatic rifles stood guard. Pradeep Kariyawasam, the head of Mr Rajapaksas party in Colombo, said that although Mr Wickremesinghe continues to maintain he is the countrys legitimate leader, the people are with us. Expand Close Supporters of Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena and his newly appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Supporters of Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena and his newly appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) Give people a chance to choose their government and not hide behind constitutional interpretations, he said. Mr Sirisena and Mr Rajapaksa arrived at the rally amid loud cheers. Mr Sirisena told the crowd that the change he initiated was more than a personnel shift. I ousted a vision that is incompatible with our local culture and values, and that works according to foreign agendas, Mr Sirisena said. For the past three and a half years, poor people were suppressed by Ranil Wickremesinghes economic and political vision. Local thoughts were rejected and an extreme neo-liberal form of governance was carried out. Expand Close Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena, right, and his newly appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa wave to supporters (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena, right, and his newly appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa wave to supporters (Eranga Jayawardena/AP) He was referring to Mr Wickremesinghes free-market economic policies and public-private partnerships with companies from China and India to operate strategic centres such as ports and airports. Mr Rajapaksas supporters have accused Mr Wickremesinghe of selling Sri Lankas assets, citing a 99-year lease agreement his government struck with Hong Kong conglomerate China Merchants Port Holdings Co Ltd last year to operate a failing port developed with Chinese debt during Mr Rajapaksas decade-long presidency. Foreign countries are trying to take our resources, take our land, said Mithra Kumara Jayasinghe, a wedding photographer at the rally who said he had voted for Mr Rajapaksa the two times he was elected president, in 2005 and 2010, and when he lost a re-election bid in 2015. Critics of Mr Sirisenas actions say Parliament was suspended to give Mr Rajapaksa time to gather enough support to survive a no-confidence vote when politicians reconvene on November 14. Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya has said he will not recognise the new appointments until either side is able to prove it has a majority. It means that the speaker still recognises a Wickremesinghe-led Parliament. Donald Trump has said he probably will not meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris, but will meet him at the G20 gathering of world leaders later this year in Argentina. White House national security adviser John Bolton had said previously the US president would meet his Russian counterpart this week when he travels to Paris for the Armistice Day 100th anniversary. But Mr Trump told reporters as he departed for a trio of midterm election rallies on Monday that he was not sure the venue was right. Expand Close John Bolton, right, meets Vladimir Putin (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp John Bolton, right, meets Vladimir Putin (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) He said: Im not sure that well have a meeting in Paris. Probably not. He said they will meet at the G20 and have probably plenty of meetings after that. Mr Trump has tried to reset relations with Russia despite the countrys 2016 election meddling efforts. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Russian news agency Interfax saying the schedule of the Paris festivities would not allow for a real meeting, but he added: Putin and Trump will be able to cross paths and decide when they will meet in full format. Mr Trumps last meeting with Mr Putin earlier this year in Helsinki was a public relations nightmare, as the US leader declined to confront the Russian leader over the countrys meddling in the 2016 election. He also seemed to side with the Russian leader over his own American intelligence agencies, declaring: President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial. Notes from Indian Country We need Native American judges sitting on the benchBy Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji Stands Up For Them) First of all let us express our sincerest condolences to the family of South Dakota State Supreme Court Justice Steven Zinter who passed away unexpectedly last week. We think it would be a great tribute to Justice Zinter if Governor Dennis Daugaard (R-South Dakota) would appoint a Native American to fill that position. Needless to say there has never been a Native American serving on the South Dakota Supreme Court and we say, its about time one was appointed. But its not only the Supreme Court that sorely lacks Native American judges. Nearly every court in the State of South Dakota is lacking in that respect. There are plenty of highly qualified Native American judges and attorneys capable of filling those seats. There is the former Chief Judge of the Pine Ridge Reservation Patrick Lee, Oglala, and Tribal Attorney Mario Gonzalez, Oglala, Gonzalez has tried cases for the Oglala Sioux Tribe in the 9th Circuit Court as well as before the U. S. Supreme Court. Mark Van Norman, Cheyenne River, Terry Pechota, Sicangu, and although he is not Native American, Charles Abourezk knows more about the law, especially Indian law, than nearly all other attorneys in South Dakota combined. And we mustnt forget Tatewin Means, daughter of Russell Means, and a law school graduate who served as judge on the Pine Ridge Reservation. But thats just a start. Nearly every court in the state could use a qualified Native American to serve as judge. They would bring a different perspective on justice to the court, but they would also bring a fair and balanced approach to justice. Their unique experience of growing up as a Native American gives them a deep insight into the culture, religion and psychology of the Native American population and those are the things so sorely lacking in South Dakotas justice system. Native Americans have believed for generations that the justice system in South Dakota is stacked against them and we believe they are not wrong in believing this. Too often we have seen gross miscarriages of justice that could only happen in this state. When 35 percent of the prison population in South Dakota is Native American it is high time to review and revamp the justice system especially since Native Americans make up only 10 percent of the total population of the state. Patrick Lee served as Chief Judge on the Pine Ridge Reservation in one of the toughest courts in South Dakota. He had to learn to balance all of the Lakota factors that had to be considered when meting out the dictates of the law. Abourezk has served as a judge on the reservation and has had to walk a tight rope at times. Tatewin Means, a Lakota lady, helped set up the Supreme Court on the reservation. Terry Pechota has served as lead attorney on many cases involving tribal individuals and tribes. We are sure there are other Native American attorneys in South Dakota that we have not mentioned, but we know they are out there. All of the nine reservations in South Dakota have tribal courts. There are tribal attorneys, often without law degrees, and tribal attorneys with law degrees, but all are doing the job of meting out justice. African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans took upon themselves to make sure that members of their races were included whenever it came time to find a judge. They began to sit on the benches and bring some semblance of realistic justice to members of their race. And that is a key point. How many white judges know what it is to grow up on an Indian reservation, to be forced into boarding schools where the abuse of Indian children was horrific? The trauma suffered by so many Indian children for the loss of their culture, religion and freedom was, in some cases overwhelming and only another Indian subjected to the same trauma would understand these things. So there you have it. We believe it is high time to open the doors of the court houses in South Dakota to be inclusive of the Native Americans. We believe it is something that Justice Zinter would have found to be appropriate at this time and place in our history. Its up to Gov. Daugaard and our next governor to start this process from the top down. There will never be equal justice in South Dakota until the courts become all-inclusive. Tim Giago was born, raised and educated on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He is the recipient of the H. L. Mencken Award from the Baltimore Sun, the Honor Award for Distinguished Service to Journalism by the U. of Missouri School of Journalism and the Golden Quill Award from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. He can be contacted at najournalist1@gmail.com. Join the Conversation The Ute Tribe has reclaimed a portion of its ancestral homelands. Rich Snyder signed over the deed for the land in Colorado to the tribe in late September. The property is located near San Luis, in the southern part of the state. The Utes lived throughout Colorado before being forced out in the 1880s. While many still remain, Duncan's tribe was pushed into neighboring Utah. Every tribe has its own Trail of Tears, said council member Shaun Chapoose. This was ours. The tribe also recently acquired about 1,150 acres within its reservation in Utah. The tribe plans to have the land placed in trust. according to a press release. In Colorado, the Southern Ute Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe are based in the southern part of the state, near the New Mexico border. Read More on the Story Colorado Landowner Returns Land to Ute Indian Tribe (KOOL 107.9 November 5, 2018) Join the Conversation This good man reached out to the Ute Tribe, on his own, to return this land to us," Chairman Luke Duncan said in a press release . "We hope it can inspire others to take similar actions. When it comes to Amitabh Bachchan, not just commoners even Bollywood stars get starstruck or rather intimidated by him. Well, Aamir Khan too was extremely nervous while working with him for the first time in Thugs Of Hindostan. He was concerned about a lot of things including whether he can smoke on sets when Amitabh Bachchan is around or not. Twitter So, Aamir went to the right person who could guide him, and that person was none other than Shah Rukh Khan. SRK has done a couple of films with the megastar and so his buddy Aamir decided to seek his advice. In an interaction with us, Aamir revealed he had gone to meet SRK only to ask whether he smokes in front of Amitabh Bachchan or not and his answer and advice to him was hilarious. Aamir narrates, "I smoke, but I was worried if I can smoke in front of Amit ji, so I decided to meet Shah Rukh, I went to meet him and asked , Shah, Do you smoke in front of Amit ji?. He said, Yes, there is no problem, I smoke in front of him. I asked him, Did you ever asked him, he is like, No, but he hasnt stopped me ever, I questioned him, what if he tells me anything on smoking. He then suggested, Pehli din tu thodha door se pee, uske baad thodha thodha nazdik jaa, go smoothly. Twitter Aamir even revealed how this conversation between him and SRK reached to Amit ji, thanks to photographer Avinash Govarikar, One day after shooting in Malta I went to Amit ji and asked him if we can go and watch a movie together. While walking towards the theatre, he said, Aamir, I heard you went to Shah Rukh and asked whether you can smoke in front of me. I said, Who told you this?. He said, Avinash, I immediately asked, Sir, whats your answer, he said, you can smoke in front of me, but its not good for your health. I then asked him, sir, you smoke? He said, Yes, I do . Could it get more hilarious than this? Twitter Aamir and Amitabh Bachchan will be seen together on the silver screen for the very first time in Thugs Of Hindostan. It also features Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh in the pivotal roles. The film will be releasing on this Diwali, November 7, 2018. While the country is still under shock after the killing of tigress Avni in Maharashtra, yet another big cat has been killed mercilessly, this time in Uttar Pradesh. According to police, the incident took place in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve on Sunday. It has been reported that the villagers were angry after the tigress allegedly killed a 50-year-old man in Pilibhit district. The villagers crushed the tigress under the tractor in the Kishanpur sanctuary of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve. Mahavir Kaujlagi, Deputy Director, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve said the villagers killed the tigress in retaliation. While we were busy in rushing the injured man to the hospital, the villagers surrounded the big cat and crushed it to death under a tractor, he told HT. The 50-year-old Devanand was attacked by the tigress on Sunday morning and he succumbed to the injuries later during the day. Field director of the tiger reserve, Ramesh Kumar Pandey said the action will be taken against the villagers who are involved in the killing. An FIR will be lodged under the Wildlife Protection Act and appropriate action taken (sic). The killing of a tiger inside the protected area is a serious offence, he said while confirming that the location where the tigress is killed falls in the core of the reserve and it was a clear case of trespassing. Kaujlagi, further added: The carcass of the tigress has been recovered and the autopsy will be carried out under the NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority) guidelines on Monday. The tiger is Indias national animal and is categorised as a Schedule One species of endangered animals under the Wildlife Protection Act. The World Wildlife Fund says that large-scale habitat destruction is the cause why the tiger population has seen a massive decline in India. As tigers continue to lose their habitat and prey species, they are increasingly coming into conflict with humans as they attack domestic animals and sometimes people. In retaliation, tigers are often killed by angry villagers, according to WWF. After a days respite, Delhi has woken up to a gas chamber as air-quality in the national capital transcends all bounds and slumps to beyond severe levels. Most parts in the city and other satellite cities have PM2.5 and PM10 levels at an average of 600 which is nothing lesser than inhaling a slow death. ITI Shahdra, Jhilmil Industrial Area in east Delhi is the most polluted area in Delhi with PM10 levels crossing 731 mark. aqicn.org Usually, Anand Vihar remains the most polluted area in the city, but today with PM 2.5 556 and PM 10 676 respectively. The Supreme Court has banned the bursting of the crackers this Diwali and the stubble burning in neighbouring states is almost done. But yet the pollution levels are going higher and higher turning the citys air into an omnipresent poison. aqicn.org Though there is no place in Delhi which has healthy air to breathe in, the least polluted area is Najafgarh where the PM2.5 levels reaching 408. Dwarka surprisingly has PM 2.5 levels at 212 which to the resident of the area a great respite as rest of the city is breathing air toxic beyond imagine. aqicn.org Satellite City Gurgaon also has pollution levels in slight control as the city PM2.5 level is 252 which compared to other parts of the Delhi NCR a bliss. The SC has banned the bursting of the crackers and only a small window of 2 hours has been given for the bursting of crackers on Diwali. But going by the levels of pollution in the capital today, the city is certain to have a tough morning on Thursday. aqicn.org While Delhi breathes the literal poison, the politicians are busy in blaming one another. Yesterday, CM Kejriwal blamed farmers in Punjab and Haryana for Delhi pollution and Punjab CM Amarinder Singh returned the favour by question Kejriwal's education credentials and asked whether Kejriwal is an IIT graduate or not. We are all familiar with the hassles of airline baggage process. While many items have to be left to ensure the weight of the luggage is as per the guidelines of the airlines, we look for that perfect size of bag that can be put in aircraft cabins. Long queues while a collection of luggage wears the passengers out and many a time, scare some of them as well. In an ignorant incident, an aeroplane reached Jammu from Srinagar without the baggage of all its passengers. The incident took place on GoAir flight on Sunday. One of the passengers, Abdul Hamid told PTI, "We reached Jammu from Srinagar by GoAir flight G8-213 but the airline staff had not loaded our luggage." @goairlinesindia OFFICIALLY THE WORST AIRLINE IN INDIA-RUDE STAFF, INCOMPETENCE AND A MANAGEMENT THAT DOES NOT CAREhttps://t.co/hL2kojmCck Saurabh Saha (@neocortex666) November 4, 2018 He also alleged that several passengers were kept waiting for their luggage. A staff member from the GoAir flight later told the passengers that their luggage will be brought from Srinagar in another airline, later in the day. "After waiting for more than an hour, we have just been told to come and collect our luggage tomorrow," Hamid added. Reportedly, media houses attempted to reach out to the airlines however, an executive at the customer call centre informed that he was not authorized to comment on the issue. Earlier this month, Delhi Police arrested two executives of GoAir for allegedly stealing a consignment of 53 mobile phones. In small boroughs of Haryana, conservative mindset and rigid practices are still a part of day-to-day living. Honour killing, lynchings or communal disharmony continues to remain prevalent in rural areas of India. However, tides seem to be turning. In India, marrying outside of ones caste or particularly marrying someone from a backward, scheduled caste or scheduled community is considered a sin in many parts of the country. A couple Naresh and Poonam when decided to get married last year in Chandigarh were anticipating negative consequences. Why? Perhaps, Naresh was an electrician who hails from the states native Jatt community whereas Poonam belonged to an SC family. Photo: Associated Press However, they fought cross-caste barriers and now they have emerged victorious. The Indian Express reported that several couples are steering the wave of change in Haryana. The statistical data revealed that 608 inter-caste marriages had taken place in 2017-18 where at least one partner hailed from the SC community. Moreover, 585 inter-caste marriages have already taken place in 2018 between April and September as compared to only 249 marriages in the year 2014. The Express reported that an increase in inter-caste marriages have been recorded due to benefits that are provided under the Mukhyamantri Samajik Samrasta Antarjatiya Vivah Shagun Yojana. This also included financial aid which was increased to Rs 1.01 lakh from Rs 50,000. Krishan Kumar Bedi, Haryana Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes told media, This year, this aid was increased to Rs 2.5 lakh. We have also extended the time limit from one to three years for couples to avail benefits under this scheme. Photo: The Conversation The amount is submitted like a fixed deposit in the joint account of the couple with a prescribed period of three years. The ministers also agree that now there is less interference of Khaps in matrimonial matters. However, the state still has a long way to go given a total population of 2.8 crore, the number of such marriages is very few in number. The state culture still remains predominantly traditional and after marriage, social acceptability still remains an issue. A 10-foot bronze statue of a turbaned Sikh soldier has been installed outside the largest gurdwara in Europe to recognise the contributions made by Sikhs in World War I. The monument, Lions of the Great War, was unveiled on public land outside Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Smethwick near Birmingham on Sunday, just days ahead of the centenary of the end of the war. It was funded by the gurdwaras congregation. Preet Gill, the MP who represents Birmingham, Edgbaston, said, When I was a councillor two and a half years ago, local sculptor Luke Perry suggested it and we got together with the community and the council to collaborate and make it happen. Despite being small in number in British India, Sikhs played an important part in the war, making up more than a fifth of the British Indian Army, she said. This statue will serve as a reminder to Sikh soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the defence of democracy. A 3-metre statue of a Sikh soldier has been unveiled in Birmingham, UK to commemorate 100 years since the end of World War 1. Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Smethwick commissioned the 30,000 work by Black Country sculptor, Luke Perry, which has been paid for by the local Sikh community. pic.twitter.com/VLHb5krgWm Harjinder Singh Kukreja (@SinghLions) November 4, 2018 Thousands of British Sikhs, as well as local leaders and British soldiers, attended the ceremony. In all, 1.5 million Indians fought for Britain in World War I, more than 20% of whom were Sikhs. Many were farmers from Punjab and known as Black Lions in the war. Every religion in the world has its own set of teachings, yet none of them teach hatred and all of them teach love. However, as human beings, we often misinterpret these teachings and use our differences as tools to build walls and shut each other out. In our heads, we make rules that threaten our unity and make us weaker. So, when Jalaluddin - a Pakistani national - who was released from the prison after 16 years from Varanasi Central Jail, walked out with a Bhagavad Gita in his hands, it made people sit up. Jalaluddin was arrested from Varanasi Cantonment in 2001 with suspicious documents like maps of the cantonment area and maps of various important places. He got 16 years of imprisonment after he was nabbed. He hails from Sindh province, Pakistan. Varanasi Jail Superintendent said that "He was imprisoned under the Official Secrets Act and Foreigner's Act. He has been handed over to the local police. He has taken a copy of (Bhagavad) Gita with him." Varanasi:Pak national (pic1) imprisoned for 16 yrs was released today.Jail Superintendent says,"He was imprisoned under Official Secrets Act&Foreigner's Act.He has been handed over to the local police, they'll take him to Attari-Wagah border.He has taken a copy of Gita with him." pic.twitter.com/16LiBa5c34 ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) November 4, 2018 A special team of police has taken Jalaluddin to the Wagah-Attari border, following which he will return to Pakistan. In a perfect world, this should not have been surprising, but the world we live in is anything but perfect. Hasib Golamrabbi (far right) was found guilty Oct. 25 of murdering his parents, Golam Rabbi and Shamina Begum Golamrabbi (center), in 2016. During the trial, Hasib Golamrabbi, who represented himself, frequently tried to blame his younger brother Omar (left) for the slayings, characterizing him as a psychopath. (Facebook photo) Chicago Alderman Ameya Pawar. I am running to be your next city treasurer to enact a bold progressive agenda to harness the power of 2.7 million Chicagoans and invest in our neighborhoods and each other, he said. (pawar2018.com photo) From the Open-Publishing Calendar From the Open-Publishing Newswire Indybay Feature Publish to Newswire Add an Event March on the Polls Highlights Early Voting by Sharat G. Lin Monday Nov 5th, 2018 12:48 AM March on the Polls mobilized voters to vote early in Santa Clara County which provides 8 early voting centers. It particularly targeted poorer communities that may not be aware of early voting as an alternative to voting on Election Day which is a working day. [Cover photo: Teresa Castellanos, Cindy Chavez, and Teresa Gomez show their mail-in ballots before delivering them to the Registrar of Voters.] "Go! Vote! Go! Vote!" was one of the chants of the March on the Polls. A coalition of South Bay groups organized the March on the Polls on Saturday, November 3, 2018 to not only draw attention to early voting centers, but to actually provide free rides to bring voters to vote early at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. As the March on the Polls reached the early voting center at the Registrar of Voters on Berger Drive in San Jose, Assemblyman Ash Kalra and County Supervisor Cindy Chavez led the way and were received by Registrar Shannon Bushey. Participants either brought their mail-in ballots to be handed in, or went to the early voting center to cast regular ballots. The first challenge of the March on the Polls is to get voters to actually vote. At the rally Milan Balinton, executive director of the African American Community Service Agency, narrated that in the morning he had asked a young African American brother, "Are you registered to vote?" The young man answered, "No, because it is rigged." Balinton responded, "If it is rigged, then you need to unrig it by voting and getting others to vote!" In response to people who don't bother to vote because they think it doesn't make a difference, lawyer Valerie McGinty, founder of Fund Her, pointed out, "In 1984 there was an Indiana Congressional election that was won by four votes. And in 1974 a New Hampshire U.S. Senate election was decided by two votes. Did they know it was going to be that close going in? Of course not. And you can't know that until it's too late to vote." California is leading the nation in making it easier for people to vote by easier voter registration, multi-lingual ballots, and early voting. Santa Clara County has taken extra measures not required by the Secretary of State of California, such as providing early voting centers all around the county and paying the postage for mail-in ballots. Most other counties only provide early voting at the registrar's office, which may be a long distance away for most residents. Santa Clara County now provides 8 early voting centers: the Registrar of Voters office, Milpitas Library, Joyce Ellington Library, Cambrian Library, Santa Clara City Library, Rinconada Library in Palo Alto, Morgan Hill City Hall, and the Willey Cultural Center in Gilroy. All early voting centers are open October 27 - November 5, 2018 from 10 am to 6 pm daily. This is in contrast to some other states like Kansas, Georgia, and Florida that are making it harder to vote by attempting to purge voter rolls, restrict early voting, and reduce the number of polling places. Teresa Castellanos, trustee of the San Jose Unified School District, reflected on how we got here: "If we look at communities of color, they have really only had 50 years of the right to vote. ... And it has been under attack for 20 years. And if we look at Native American communities, it is less than a hundred years that they have been considered U.S. citizens. And they are also under attack. And so it's really important that we remind our communities what we have fought for to make sure they have the right to vote. And the only way we can protect it is by voting." The March on the Polls rally on Saturday, November 3, 2018. Teresa Castellanos, emcee, spoke to a crowd of 60-70 people from the back of a truck. The March on the Polls proceeded from the rally along Berger Drive in San Jose to the Registrar of Voters office. Some people came on this bus to the rally and early voting throughout the day. The rides were free. Registrar of Voters Shannon Bushey welcomed the March on the Polls as it arrived at the early voting center. Assemblyman Ash Kalra (left) looks on. Ruth Silver-Taube drops off her mail-in ballot at the Registrar of Voters in San Jose. The Registrar of Voters office contains an early voting center. Computerized access to the electronic roster of registered voters enables voters from anywhere in the County to vote at any early voting center. The early voting center in the Milpitas Library accepts voters from throughout Santa Clara County. Poll workers have access to the electronic roster of all registered voters in the County. The key element in all early voting centers is the ability to print ballot types for all localities within the County. These ballot printing machines print ballots on the spot when a voter walks in. Voters marking their ballots at the early voting center in the Registrar of Voters office. Milan Balinton speaks to the March on the Polls rally. He is flanked by Teresa Castellanos and Ash Kalra to the left and Cindy Chavez to the right. Ask Kalra addresses the rally for the March on the Polls. Teresa Castellanos and Valerie McGinty are at his side. Nanorobots injected into the eye on their way towards the retina Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Researchers of the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, together with an international team of scientists, developed propeller-shaped nanorobots that, for the first time, are able to drill through dense tissue as is prevalent in an eye. They applied a non-stick coating to the nanopropellers, which are only 500 nm wide exactly small enough to fit through the tight molecular matrix of the gel-like substance in the vitreous. The drills are 200 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, even smaller than a bacteriums width. Their shape and their slippery coating enable the nanopropellers to move relatively unhindered through an eye, without damaging the sensitive biological tissue around them. This is the first time scientists were able to steer nanorobots through dense tissue, as so far, it has only been demonstrated in model systems or biological fluids. The researchers vision is to one day load the nanopropellers with drugs or other therapeutic agents and steer them to a targeted area, where they can deliver the medication to where it is needed. The molecule-matrix is like a tight mesh of double-sided adhesive tape Targeted drug delivery inside dense biological tissue is very challenging, especially at these small scales: Firstly, it is the viscous consistency of the inside of the eyeball, the tight molecular matrix which a nanopropeller has to squeeze through. It acts as a barrier and prevents the penetration of larger structures. Secondly, even if the size-requirements are fulfilled, the chemical properties of the biopolymeric network in the eye would still result in the nanopropeller getting stuck in this mesh of molecules. Imagine a tiny cork-screw making its way through a web of double-sided adhesive tape. And thirdly there is the challenge of precise actuation. This latter the scientists overcome by adding a magnetic material, like iron, when building the nanopropellers, which allows them to steer the drills with magnetic fields to the desired destination. The other obstacles the researchers overcome by making each nanopropeller not larger than 500 nm in size, and by applying a two layered non-stick coating. The first layer consists of molecules bound to the surface, while the second is a coating with liquid fluorocarbon. This dramatically decreases the adhesive force between the nanorobots and the surrounding tissue. For the coating we look to nature for inspiration, the first author of the study Zhiguang Wu explains. He was a Humboldt Research Fellow at the MPI-IS and is now a postdoc at the California Institute of Technology. In the second step, we applied a liquid layer found on the carnivorous pitcher plant, which has a slippery surface on the peristome to catch insects. It is like the Teflon coating of a frying pan. This slippery coating is crucial for the efficient propulsion of our robots inside the eye, as it minimizes the adhesion between the biological protein network in the vitreous and the surface of our nanorobots. The principle of the propulsion of the nanorobots, their small size, as well as the slippery coating, will be useful, not only in the eye, but for the penetration of a variety of tissues in the human body, says Tian Qiu, one of the corresponding authors of the paper, and who is a group leader in the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems Lab at the MPI-IS. Both Qiu and Wu are part of an international research team that worked on the publication with the title A swarm of slippery micropropellers penetrates the vitreous body of the eye. Also, the University of Stuttgart, the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, Aarhus University in Denmark and the Eye Hospital of the University of Tubingen contributed to the groundbreaking work. It was at the eye hospital, where the researchers tested their nanopropellers in a dissected pigs eye and where they observed the movement of the propellers with the help of optical coherence tomography, a clinical-approved imaging technique widely used in the diagnostics of eye diseases. Across the eye towards the retina With a small needle, the researchers injected tens of thousands of their bacteria-sized helical robots into the vitreous humour of the eye. With the help of a surrounding magnetic field that rotates the nanopropellers, they then swim towards the retina, where the swarm lands. Being able to precisely control the swarm in real-time was what the researchers were aiming for. But it doesnt end here: the team is already working on one day using their nano-vehicles for targeted delivery applications. That is our vision, says Tian Qiu. We want to be able to use our nanopropellers as tools in the minimally-invasive treatment of all kinds of diseases, where the problematic area is hard to reach and surrounded by dense tissue. Not too far in the future, we will be able to load them with drugs. For the Stuttgart scientists, this is not the first nanorobot they have developed. For several years now, they have been creating different types of nanorobots using a sophisticated 3D manufacturing process developed by the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems research group led by Professor Peer Fischer. Billions of nanorobots can be made in only a few hours by vaporizing silicon dioxide and other materials, including iron, onto a silicon wafer under high vacuum while it turns. This is how the helix structure is created. See the video explaining the fabrication technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCTPWW7XSS0 The full scientific paper can be found here: A swarm of slippery micropropellers penetrates the vitreous body of the eye, Zhiguang Wu, Jonas Troll, Hyeon-Ho Jeong, Qiang Wei, Marius Stang, Focke Ziemssen, Zegao Wang, Mingdong Dong, Sven Schnichels, Tian Qiu, Peer Fischer, Science Advances, 2018, DOI/10.1126/sciadv.aat4388 http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/11/eaat4388 About us Dr. Zhiguang Wu obtained his doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering and Technology at Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 2015. Between 2013 and 2015, he was a visiting student in the department of Nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego. Wu was a Humboldt Research Fellow and a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems lab and is now a postdoc at Caltech, the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Tian Qiu is group leader of the Biomedical Microsystems Group in the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart. He received a Ph.D. from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He serves as an associated fellow of the Max Planck-ETH Center for Learning Systems, and an instructor for the International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems (IMPRS-IS). He won the National Award for Outstanding Self-financed Chinese Students Abroad and the Best Microrobot Design Award at Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics. Prof. Dr. Peer Fischer heads the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems research group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart and he is a Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart. He was a Rowland Fellow at Harvard University. Prof. Fischer received an ERC starting grant, won a World Technology award, and he holds an ERC Advanced Grant. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/11/eaat4388 https://is.mpg.de/en/news/nanorobots-propel-through-the-eye For more than ten years, the Borexino Detector located 1,400 meters below surface of the Italian Gran Sasso massif has been exploring the interior of our Sun. During this time, the project has provided amazing insights into how the star at the center of our solar system generates its energy. The scientists involved, including physicists from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), have now published a general analysis of the data they have collated on solar neutrinos. Neutrinos can penetrate all matter almost without leaving a trace and are thus difficult to detect. As a result, they have become known as 'ghost particles'. They originate from a variety of sources, ranging from radioactive decay to astronomical objects and, in the case of solar neutrinos, from the Sun. The current paper in Nature not only describes the results of measurement of the solar neutrino spectrum but also uses this to deduce details about processes at the Sun's core, giving us an insight into the mechanism that has kept our Sun shining for billions of years. The Borexino experiment is running at the Gran Sasso subterranean laboratory, which is maintained by the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). Deep below the Earth's surface, the experimental facilities are well-shielded from cosmic rays. Thus, the experiment is able to detect the weak signal produced by solar neutrinos. Borexino was originally conceived 30 years ago and began recording data in 2007. This extensive collaborative project involves institutes from Italy, Germany, France, Poland, the USA, and Russia. Our understanding of the Sun's interior once again confirmed The project's scientific success is primarily due to the outstanding radiopurity of the experiment. At the innermost core of the facility only infinitesimal amounts of natural radioactivity are present, i.e., only one trillion times fewer atoms per gram of the elements uranium and thorium than in the surrounding rock. This extraordinary purity is crucial for precisely measuring the energy spectrum of solar neutrinos. It makes it possible to determine the rates of the fusion processes taking place inside the Sun, which are highly dependent on the temperature and elemental composition of the Sun's core. Alongside this glimpse into the conditions deep within our star, the results also provide detailed insights into the oscillation process the neutrinos undergo inside the Sun. Oscillations describe the transformation of the three different types of neutrinos into each other, a process that was only conclusively confirmed for solar neutrinos in 2001. Borexinos findings far exceed the most optimistic predictions we made when we first started, said Gianpaolo Bellini, one of the pioneers of the INFN experiment. Professor Michael Wurm, a physicist at JGU and a Borexino partner, affirmed this: The new results generated by Borexino impressively confirm our current understanding of fusion processes inside the Sun. Our measurements of the complete neutrino spectrum clearly demonstrate the effect solar matter has on the oscillations of the neutrinos produced at the Sun's center. While, at the lower end of the spectrum, neutrinos leave the Sun unaltered, at the upper end of the spectrum, the effect of the oscillations is intensified. The Mainz Borexino team is mainly concerned with studying the background conditions caused by cosmic muons in the detector. These muons are the only cosmic ray particles that make it through the 1.5-kilometer-thick mountain shield above the underground laboratory, said Wurm. Reducing this background signal is crucial to detecting the solar neutrinos. The work of the group from Mainz is supported by JGUs Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions and Structure of Matter (PRISMA) Cluster of Excellence. Other German partners involved in the Borexino Collaboration and the latest paper in Nature are the Technical University of Munich, Forschungszentrum Julich, Universitat Hamburg, RWTH Aachen University, and the Technische Universitat Dresden. Image: http://www.uni-mainz.de/bilder_presse/08_physik_etap_borexino.jpg Interior view of the Borexino detector photo/: Borexino collaboration Professor Dr. Michael Wurm Experimental Particle and Astroparticle Physics (ETAP) Institute of Physics Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz 55099 Mainz, GERMANY phone +49 6131 39-23928 fax +49 6131 39-20210 e-mail: michael.wurm@uni-mainz.de https://www.etap.physik.uni-mainz.de/research-groups/ex-borexino/ The Borexino Collaboration, Comprehensive measurement of pp-chain solar neutrinos, Nature 562, 505-510, 24 October 2018, DOI:10.1038/s41586-018-0624-y https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0624-y https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb08-iph-eng/ JGU Institute of Physics ; https://www.prisma.uni-mainz.de/ PRISMA Cluster of Excellence ; http://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/20002_ENG_HTML.php press release German Research Foundation approves new research group to determine neutrino mass hierarchy (4 Jan. 2016) ; http://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/18016_ENG_HTML.php press release Particle physicists from Mainz University participate in JUNO neutrino experiment (28 Jan. 2015) Switch the Market flag Open the menu and switch the Market flag for targeted data from your country of choice. for targeted data from your country of choice. The firms P&C operations net written premiums decreased by 1% compared to the prior year quarter, but overall since January 01, 2018, net written premiums grew by 5% compared to last year. Net investment income, after tax, was US$1,221 million for the nine months ending September 30, 2018. Im pleased with the third quarter's strong core income of US$1.17 per share, our best quarterly result since 2010, commented Dino E. Robusto, chairman and chief executive officer of CNA Financial Corporation. While our P&C business continues to perform well with a combined ratio of 94.2% for the quarter and 93.7% year-to-date. Like many insurers CNA took a hard hit in Q3 of 2017 due to the string of natural catastrophes - notably hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, and the California wildfires which caused devastating losses in North America. The firms combined ratio increased by 3.9% for Q3 2018 compared with the prior year quarter. Net catastrophe losses for the third quarter of this year were $16 million, or 2.4% of the loss ratio, as compared to US$35 million, or 5% of the loss ratio, for the prior year quarter. A company release states: Favourable net prior year development improved the loss ratio by 7.7 points in the quarter as compared with a 14.5 point improvement in the prior year quarter. For the year-to-date period, the combined ratio improved 1.7 points. In an appeal not to underwrite the Ledvice project, supporters of the environmental campaign wrote to the chief executives of 17 insurers about four months ago. The letter was signed by campaigners from the likes of Greenpeace and Re:Common. Insurers Generali and Vienna Insurance Group just insured a Czech coal plant, signalling that theyre not ready to end coal and protect hundreds of thousands of lives from the impacts of coal-related air pollution and climate change, commented Katya Nikitenko, Insurance Campaign lead at Greenpeace. They will continue facing public pressure unless they finally choose people over coal profits. Lignite, according to Unfriend Coal, is the dirtiest form of the fossil fuel. Its a huge shame for Generali to get into bed with CEZ, one of Europes most aggressive coal developers, at a time when Europe should be closing down coal, stated Re:Common campaigner Alessandro Runci. We have been calling Generali to stop underwriting coal and we will maintain pressure on the company until it adopts a strict policy that supports a 1.5C target in line with the IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report. Earlier this year, Generali unveiled a climate change plan which not only commits to continuing its policy of minimal insurance exposure to coal-related activities but also aims to increase the percentage of the premium portfolio related to renewable energy. Arron Banks faces new claims of misleading MPs over Brexit https://t.co/bDDtnnwkgk Toby Helm (@tobyhelm) November 4, 2018 One such email, allegedly sent by a Rock Services employee to stock photo agency Getty Images in March 2016, was quoted as saying: One of the adverts will have a reach of 10 million over the three weeks we would like to use it, meaning a potential of 30 million to 40 million impressions, with it referring to an image of refugees. According to The Observer, insurance staff were forced to drop their actual work to prioritize Brexit-related requests. Some of these images were really horrible, the immigrants and refugee stuff, an ex-Eldon Insurance worker was cited as saying. But there were always these urgent requests coming in. You were told to stop what you were doing and do something for Leave.EU. Another former employee told the publication: I made it absolutely clear that I didnt want to work on the political stuff. I wasnt comfortable with it. I didnt want to be complicit in it. There were quite a lot of spats about it. People were frozen out if they refused to work on it. Meanwhile Banks has been busy calling out the likes of Henry Mance of the Financial Times. For innumerate FT journalists and others we will be publishing an idiot guide to the money flow Monday. Ive made it clear the money came from a U.K. company where profits were produced in the U.K. https://t.co/fesZNR2qvb Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) November 4, 2018 As for the leaked correspondence, Damian Collins MP will be including them in his inquiry into disinformation. If Eldon employees were being paid to work on the campaign during the regulated period, it should have been a declared expense, both reports quoted Collins as stating. We asked him directly if hed used his insurance employees to work on the campaigns and he said they didnt. The NFIP years ago created the WYO program and pretended that these were private market participants and that the private market was participating, which was a bit of a joke because the private market was assuming no risk literally they were just insurance agents for the US government, and they were well compensated for that but it did achieve distribution for the NFIP, said Craig Poulton, CEO of Poulton Associates and a speaker at the upcoming Flood Risk Summit in Miami, adding that now, the NFIP has taken the WYO participants and, in addition to guaranteeing them a profit when they write for the US government because they bear no risk, theyve allowed them to compete on their own book of business. Now, a WYO company can offer a lower rate to folks that they deem to be better risks. Non-WYO insurers in the space are meanwhile not seeing any benefits. Weve developed some better products and functions and capabilities than the WYOs have at this point, and so the NFIP is essentially saying, were going to leave the non-compete, but were going to make it go away for the WYOs in such a way that it gives them a competitive advantage against non-WYO purveyors of private flood insurance, and thats the real rub there, explained Poulton. A fairer option would have been to require WYO companies to expose insureds to multiple quotes, added Poulton, which would increase consumers choices when theyre purchasing the coverage. But, with the WYOs being part of the NFIP club, the NFIP has, in my opinion, treated the rest of the market unfairly and has not taken the consumers interest as its first priority, he said. The mid-term cancelation issue, meanwhile, has been a marked improvement, though Poulton told Insurance Business that its a return back to what was put in place by the NFIP in 2013, which was a cancelation code that allowed a private policy to replace an NFIP policy if a policyholder bought duplicate coverage from another non-government-backed source. Less than two years later, the NFIP walked the code back. Banks were instructed by the NFIP that if they paid the program a flood premium and their client then wanted to replace an NFIP policy with a private one, the NFIP would not give the premium back. Now, policyholders can switch policies at other times, beyond just at renewal. I applaud the NFIP for reinstating the code, said Poulton. They should have never undone it really, once they did it in 2013. At least they now have gone back and theyre treating the consumer with a more even hand. This change will also have an impact on the work of agents and brokers. It will allow the producers who are actively soliciting business to take a homeowners and an auto, and if they can save this person money, to write the entire account as opposed to leaving this little orphan flood insurance policy off to the side, explained Poulton. That will make a huge difference. Once they do that a few times to their neighborhood competitor, then he starts to realize that he better insulate his folks, and he starts to quote private flood. We dont know how big the effect will be, but there will be a positive effect on consumer choice based on the NFIPs reinstatement of this code. Take a deeper dive into this issue at the Flood Risk Summit on November 29. Michael McNerney, a cyber threat intelligence product manager at NETSCOUT, believes that these sorts of cyberattacks could rear their ugly heads come the midterm elections this week. DDoS attacks aimed at election infrastructure such as voter databases can prevent officials from accessing crucial information about who is qualified to vote, McNerney explained to Forbes. Similarly, DDoS attacks against election websites can prevent accurate and timely results from being shared with the public, undermining credibility and sewing confusion. McNerneys concerns are not misplaced DDoS attacks have already hit several US systems in recent months. In September, a DDoS attack took down California Democratic congressional candidate Bryan Caforios website during the primaries. Also this year, the Knox County election commission website was flooded by DDoS attempts just as the primary election results were being announced. Not only did the attack prevent the results from being posted on the website, the attacks also allowed another separate data breach to slip through, affecting a county server. For McNerney, DDoS attacks should be considered another form of information warfare. While a great deal of recent focus has been on disinformation campaigns, DDoS is about denial of information, which can be just as - if not more - dangerous, he remarked. An actual DDoS attack could not only cause confusion about the results of an election, it could also potentially undermine public faith in our entire democratic system. McNerney gave a hypothetical scenario in which a massive DDoS attack hit the state of California, which has 53 congressional districts. Such an assault would prevent the entire country from knowing which party would sit in Congress. In highly anticipated global events like influential US or major world power elections, the implications grow higher for broader global impact, the security expert warned. Related stories: Facebook ordered to buy insurance for overseas hacked customers D.C. government falls for phishing, pays nearly $700,000 to scammers Untimely claims handling and failure to provide required compliant claims, underwriting, and policyholder service disclosures are the U.S. insurance industrys top compliance shortcomings. Thats according to a review by Wolters Kluwer of U.S. insurers market conduct actions published by state insurance regulators during 2017 along with data compiled by the company. The review identifies the business areas that were not only examined by regulators, but also proved to be most challenging for the industry in terms of compliance, according to the government and compliance experts at Wolters Kluwer. Effectively and sustainably embedding regulatory requirements into claims, underwriting and distribution processes continues to pose challenges for insurers, said Kathy Donovan, senior insurance compliance counsel, Wolters Kluwers. As routine as many of these compliance challenges may appear, these findings underscore the need for a sound compliance program management system, where regulatory requirements and changes along with compliance risks and controls are consistently integrated into an insurers exam management program in ways that empower it to strengthen its enterprise controls and audit practices. The top market conduct actions taken against U.S. property/casualty insurers during 2017: Failure to acknowledge, pay, investigate or deny claims within specified timeframes Failure to cancel, non-renew, renew policies in accordance with requirements Failure to issue correct payments and/or compliant denial notices Failure to provide required compliant disclosures in claims processing Using unapproved/unfiled rates and rules, or misapplying rating factors Failure to process total loss claims properly Failure to adhere to producer appointment, termination, records and/or licensing requirements Improper/incomplete documentation of underwriting files Failure to provide required compliant disclosures in underwriting processes Improper/incomplete documentation of claim files. Topics USA A Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled in favor of an insurer in a case involving an automobile accident in which the injured plaintiff sought to obtain underinsured motorist coverage under a policy held by the mother and stepfather of his long-term partner, with whom he has a child. The court upheld a Superior Courts ruling that the plaintiff could not be considered a household member under the policy, as he is not related by blood to either policyholder. This comes after a July 18, 2014 accident, when plaintiff Derrick Martins Oliveira was injured in a single-automobile crash as a passenger in a vehicle owned and operated by a third party. He sustained fractures to his spine and ribs, tore ligaments in his knee and suffered lacerations and scarring on his scalp. He was hospitalized for four days, required long-term disability and incurred medical bills of more than $40,000. The driver of the vehicle involved in the accident was insured under her own policy, and Oliveira accepted a settlement with the driver and the drivers insurer to the full extent of that policy, which was $100,000. Since 2012, Oliveira has lived with his long-term partner in a single-family unit with her mother and stepfather. He is not married to his partner, but they have a minor son together. The Commerce Insurance Co. provided coverage for the two vehicles used by the residents of Oliveiras home neither of which was involved in the accident under a policy issued to his partners mother and stepfather. The Commerce insurance policy provided $250,000 of coverage per person in underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage for damages for bodily injury to people injured or killed as a result of certain accidents caused by someone who does not have enough insurance. Oliveira claimed coverage under the policy as a household member of the policyholders. The insurer denied the claim, however, contending that he was not eligible for coverage because he did not meet the definition of a household member under the policy. In the policy, the term household member is defined as anyone living in your household who is related to you by blood, marriage or adoption. This includes wards, step-children or foster children. In response to the insurers denial of his claim, Oliveira filed a complaint in Superior Court, alleging breach of contract and seeking a judgment declaring that he was a household member under the policy and was eligible for coverage. Oliveira argued that he was related by blood to the policyholders through his biological son and entitled to coverage. After a hearing, a Superior Court judge denied his motion and granted Commerces motion. Oliveira then appealed. Appeals Court Decision Although in the lawsuit Oliveira requested an expanded definition of related by blood, the Appeals Court found that the policy language was not suited to further expansion beyond its usual and ordinary meaning. The plaintiffs construction of related by blood is breathtaking in its breadth and yet remarkably disconnected to the asserted policy goal of covering a broad range of family relationships, Associate Justice Joseph M. Ditkoff wrote in his opinion. Under the plaintiffs theory, any two persons with a common blood relative are themselves related by blood. Thus, a person with a niece is a blood relative of his or her brother-in-laws parents (and grandparents and, for that matter, any genetic relatives). Indeed, a couple with a biological child would be surprised to find themselves to be blood relatives. With this in mind, Ditkoff determined the words related by blood represent a genetic relationship. He stated in his decision that Oliveira does not have a genetic relationship with either of the policyholders, and that the Superior Court judge had properly granted summary judgment to the insurer. In his opinion, Ditkoff added a warning that individuals need to know whether they are covered by another individuals policy to determine whether they should obtain their own insurance, and insurance companies need to know who is covered to determine the proper premium and how to process claims. In the insurance context, waiting until an accident and subsequent case-by-case determination of coverage by a judge is not an adequate solution, he wrote in his opinion. Dissenting Opinion Associate Justice Edward McDonough, however, offered a dissenting opinion, stating that in Massachusetts, automobile insurance is both statutory and policy driven. In terms of who is eligible for UIM coverage, the statute does not use the phrase household member like the policy does, he wrote. Instead, the statute states that someone in Oliveiras position is eligible for UIM coverage from the policy of a resident relative, McDonough added, stating that the word relative is commonly understood to refer to a person related by blood or marriage. It is simply wrong to suggest, as the majority effectively does, thatthe court is required to view the usual and ordinary sense of the phrase related by blood in a vacuum, without considering the underlying statute and its purpose, he wrote. To these changing realities of the modern American family, the majority turns a blind eye, thereby limiting UIM coverage to accident victims belonging to conventional familiesto the exclusion of Oliveira, an unmarried parent and household member victimized by an underinsured intoxicated driver. He stated that because modern society presents an almost infinite variety of possible domestic situations and living arrangements, the term household member can have no precise meaning and analysis needs to proceed on a case-by-case basis. Although he agreed that the phrase related by blood seems to imply two people that share a common bloodline and are descended from a common ancestor, he added there is also a commonsense appeal to the idea that the biological father of a child is related to the maternal biological grandmother of the child, even if the father is not married to the biological mother of the child. He stated that it can be assumed the severe injuries Oliveira suffered in the accident have had a significant impact on his family and his child. It would seem anomalous, therefore, that coverage for the childs loss also could be denied merely because his father and mother did yet not marry as recently as a day or hours before the accident, he said. With this in mind, McDonough called for a reversal of the appeals courts judgment in which Oliveiras motion for summary judgment is allowed, Commerces motion for summary judgment is denied and Oliveira is found to qualify as a household member under the policy issued by Commerce to the grandmother and stepgrandfather. The case is Derrick Martins Oliveira vs. The Commerce Insurance Company. Topics Carriers Legislation Massachusetts TEAM approach. TEAM member. Dynamic TEAM of innovative thinkers. TEAM culture. TEAM Poirrier. Team spirit is not a just concept at Lafayette, Louisiana-based Poirrier Group. TEAM is the living, breathing embodiment of the way the agency and its employees operate all day, every day, according to staff members who responded to Insurance Journals 2018 Best Agencies to Work For survey. And its those employees teamwork that led to IJs recognition of the agency as the Bronze 2018 Best Agency to Work For South Central. In nearly every written commentary submitted by Poirrier Group employees, the word team was used to describe their agency, their relationships with co-workers and management, and their service to customers. As one employee put it: There are many agencies who purport a team environment, but Poirrier Group actually lives it. Everyone in our agency has a voice in every decision made from the paper products to how to propose our largest account. Our agency principal is a strong believer in working as a team; he values everyones experience and opinion. Another wrote: We build each other up and celebrate large and small successes together. I have never worked with a group of people who are so real. We are honest and up-front with one another, including the agency principal. Led by CEO Keith Poirrier, Poirrier Group is a young agency it marked its three-year anniversary on Nov. 1, 2018 and creating a team was the goal from the very beginning. When we opened, we immediately established a TEAM culture, where all employees are MVPs in that they each bring a unique asset/skill set to the table, Poirrier said. Everyone has the autonomy to recommend improvements that will better our processes and operational efficiencies. Frequently, our employees are engaged in many facets of sales, service, and operations this is a difference maker in building a team culture and great work environment everyone on the team has to have a part. In our agency, our employees embrace the idea of full participation and fully exude ownership in Poirrier Group, he added. Currently, the group has eight staff members, including Poirrier, and the group hopes to hire two more in the Houston-area, he said. Fitting with the team ethos, all Poirrier Group employees are given a say in who they might be working with in the future. Our agency principal and operations manager completely involve us in this process, one employee wrote. Everyone in the agency meets the prospective employee and we discuss our feelings about how they would fit within the agency and if we believe they will be successful. All opinions are taken into consideration before a decision is made. This continues once the individual is hired so the new employee is afforded the most efficient training and guidance. This goes back to working as a true team. Said another employee: Team effort powers this agency. The mutual support and respect we each have for each other is apparent in how we work together on the behalf of our customers. There is no thats not my job mentality here, its all hands on deck with everyone pulling in the same direction from the top of the company on down. Keith Poirrier described the operational philosophy as: TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More! He said hes excited, honored and humbled, but not surprised, that Poirrier team members worked together to nominate their agency as one of the best. His advice to other agency owners who wish to create a workplace where employees are eager to come to work every day? Keep it simple, be humble, work hard, have fun! Employees embrace autonomy, being treated as important team members, being thanked, being appreciated, and most importantly being respected for their unique value adds to the betterment and growth of the agency. A 33-year-old pilot, formerly of Kemah, Texas, was sentenced in early October to more than five years in prison and ordered to repay nearly $1 million in an insurance fraud-related case. Theodore Robert Wright III previously pleaded guilty on Dec. 7, 2017, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit arson. Among other things, Wright has admitted that he intentionally crashed a plane in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana in 2012 and recorded the event on an iPad. According to an Associated Press report, in October 2012, Wright appeared on NBCs Today show to describe the crash, which occurred on a flight from Baytown, Texas, to Sarasota, Florida. Wright was sentenced on Oct. 4 to 65 months in federal prison, ordered to pay $988,544.83 in restitution and told to report to prison on Nov. 8. According to state and federal officials, Wright and three co-conspirators operated a multi-jurisdictional fraud and arson scheme that spanned from Hawaii to the Gulf of Mexico and involved the destruction of various luxury goods, including vehicles, aircraft and vessels. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Texas reported that Wright and his co-conspirators, Shane Gordon and Raymond Fosdick, both of Houston, and Edward Delima, of Honolulu, Hawaii, acquired luxury goods, insured them for more than they paid for them, and subsequently destroyed the items in order to reap insurance proceeds. The various assets destroyed in the scheme included a 1966 Beechcraft Baron, a 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo, a 1971 Cessna 500, and a 1998 Hunter Passage. The Beechcraft Baron made an emergency landing in the Gulf of Mexico, sank in deep water and was not recovered. The Lamborghini Gallardo crashed into a ditch full of water, causing the vehicle to flood. The Cessna 500 was completely destroyed when Fosdick set it on fire at Wrights direction at an airport in Athens, Texas. The Hunter Passage sank in a marina in Hawaii. Fraudulent insurance claims were filed in relation to each of these incidents. Wright and his co-defendants also filed a fraudulent $1 million personal injury lawsuit related to the crash in the Gulf of Mexico. The suit was settled for $100,000. In May 2017, Wright, Gordon, Fosdick and Delima were charged with various counts related to the fraud scheme. Wrights co-conspirators have all pleaded guilty and have been sentenced. Delima pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and was sentenced to a five-year term of probation. Fosdick pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and conspiring to commit arson and on Jan. 24, 2018, was sentenced to 39 months in federal prison. Gordon pleaded guilty to making false statements to a federal agent and was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison today and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $440,000. This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the FAA Law Enforcement Assistance Program, the Texas Department of Insurance, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathaniel C. Kummerfeld and L. Frank Coan, Jr. with the assistance of Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Wells. Topics Texas USA Fraud Mexico Uber Technologies Inc has asked Pennsylvania for permission to resume self-driving car testing on public roads and has improved the autonomous vehicle software, the company said on Friday, more than seven months after it suspended testing following a deadly crash in Arizona. The company disclosed in a report to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it would resume testing with two employees in the front seat, enable an automatic braking system at all times, and more strictly monitor safety employees. Uber has been testing self-driving cars in manual mode on public streets. In June, police in Tempe, Arizona, said a back-up driver behind the wheel of a self-driving Uber was distracted and streaming a television show on her phone right up until about the time the car struck and killed a pedestrian walking across a street, deeming the crash that rocked the nascent industry entirely avoidable. The crash was the first death attributed to a self-driving vehicle and was seen as a significant setback for the industry, which is racing to get vehicles into commercial use. Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement Friday the company would resume road tests only after implementing improved processes. Uber said it now has real-time third party monitoring of back-up safety drivers, sets limits on the time drivers can work per day and has improved training. In July, Pennsylvanias Department of Transportation said it was issuing new guidelines asking companies to submit details about testing, and that it expected companies would comply. A spokeswoman for the agency said Friday it had received the application and would review it. The state said it would send companies an authorization letter after approving their submissions. Uber said it would not resume testing in Pittsburgh until it received that letter. Alphabet Incs Waymo unit plans to launch a commercial ride-hailing service in Arizona this year, while General Motors Co is on track to roll out a similar service next year with vehicles without steering wheels or brake pedals. Authorities in Pittsburgh, where Uber debuted its self-driving vehicles in 2016, have said they welcome the cars back on city streets. I think we have increased confidence, said Karina Ricks, director of the citys Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, citing the addition of a second employee in cars being tested and more transparency from Uber. Following the Tempe accident, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto balked at allowing Uber to resume autonomous driving before a full federal investigation of the crash. One of the problems with Uber was they appeared to be moving just a bit too fast, Ricks said. They got a little cocky about their technology. The crash raised significant questions about the performance of Ubers software. Uber said a key recommendation of an internal review after the Tempe crash was to improve the self-driving vehicles overall software system design. Uber said in its safety report released Friday the vehicle had improved system latency, allowing it to detect objects and actors sooner and execute safe reactions faster. The National Transportation Safety Board, which has an ongoing investigation, said in May that Uber registered observations of the pedestrian about six seconds before impact, but the system did not determine that emergency braking was needed until 1.3 seconds before impact. The NTSB said the vehicle had registered the pedestrian who was walking a bike across the road first as an unknown object, then a vehicle and lastly a bicycle. Uber said it had a new approach to handling uncertainty within the self-driving system. Uber also has a new separate systems engineering testing team and plans a self-driving safety advisory board of outside experts. If a vehicle is uncertain about something in its view the software is now better positioned to reason over many possible outcomes to ultimately come to a safe response, it added. The NTSB also said Uber had disabled an manufacturer-installed automatic emergency braking system in the 2017 Volvo XC90 while the car was under computer control in order to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior. That braking system is now active whenever Uber is testing on public roads, it said on Friday. It has also filed a voluntary safety assessment with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on its self-driving efforts and made public a report from an outside law firm that reviewed the safety culture at Uber. The agency has an ongoing probe of the Tempe crash. (Reporting by David Shepardson. Additional reporting by Heather Somerville in San Francisco. Editing by Nick Zieminski and Richard Chang) Topics Auto Personal Auto Arizona Sharing Economy Autonomous Vehicles Ridesharing Arron Banks, the insurance businessman whose millions of pounds of donations to a pro-Brexit campaign are being investigated by police, denied Russia was involved and said the funds came from his U.K. business. There was no Russian money and no interference, Banks said in a sometimes heated interview on the BBCs The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. Its U.K.-generated cash from my group of companies. The U.K.s National Crime Agency said Thursday it will investigate donations made to pro-Brexit groups, including Bankss Leave.EU, after the Electoral Commission said it may have knowingly concealed the source of 8 million pounds ($10.3 million) given to the campaign. The furor is bolstering a drive by anti-Brexit forces to hold a second referendum, though its unlikely any evidence of meddling would be enough to derail Britains departure from the EU. U.K. officials have said intensive negotiations with Brussels could deliver a divorce agreement within the next few weeks. Nevertheless its awkward for Prime Minister Theresa May, who regularly accuses Russia of meddling in foreign elections but never includes the Brexit referendum in the list. The election commission said it believed criminal offenses had been committed after uncovering details that Isle of Man-incorporated Rock Holdings, in which Banks is a majority shareholder, was involved in the donations. Under British election law, only U.K.-based companies and people can fund campaigns. The Isle of Man is a British dependency. Banks said his U.K. company Rock Services not Rock Holdings was the source of the funding via the insurance companies it owns. This is about undermining the Brexit result by a group of vicious MPs, Banks said in the interview. Rock Services has all sorts of revenues we insure half a million people. Dark Money At issue is whether Banks and his associates broke election law to secure a narrow victory for the 2016 Brexit campaign. The commission began its investigation into the Leave.EU campaign and Banks after lawmakers called for a probe into whether dark money including from Russia played a role in the referendum. Banks has acknowledged meeting Russian officials, though has been adamant throughout the process that hes received no foreign money. Banks also denied a report in the Observer newspaper that said he may have misled members of Parliament about the staff at his Eldon Insurance and Rock Services companies working on the Leave.EU campaign from their company offices. The arrangement would violate election law because any work carried out before the election should have been declared, according to the newspaper. In his interview, Banks said the work had been reported in the right way and that Eldon employees had been legally transferred to the political work on short-term contracts. Extra Security When he appeared before lawmakers in June for questioning on his business interests, Banks accused the panel of trying to discredit Brexit campaigning. The House of Commons hearing was supervised with extra police security because of Bankss controversial and divisive opinions. I like to think Im an evil genius with a white cap that controls the whole of western democracy but clearly thats nonsense, he told the panel. Banks was in typically combative mood on Sunday. You just want to smear me, Banks said when Marr pushed on the source of funds for the donations. I think I know my business affairs better than you. Related: Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Europe Uk Brexit Russia BHP Billiton Ltd. was forced to derail a runaway train that traveled almost 60 miles without a driver across the Pilbara, a major iron ore producing area in Western Australia. The worlds top mining company halted all train operations in the region, where it produces and ships iron ore, a key steelmaking ingredient. BHP, which runs trains that are almost 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) long from its giant iron ore mines, said its working with local authorities to investigate the incident. The company said the driver was inspecting an issue with the train when the locomotive ran away. The loaded train, which consisted of four locomotives and 268 wagons, then traveled 92 kilometers toward Port Hedland before being deliberately derailed from BHPs remote operations center in Perth. Iron ore producers in Western Australia run some of the worlds longest trains. BHP transports material from its large mines which make up almost 40 percent of its profits to Port Hedland, where it ships to customers in China and Japan. The company has more than 1,000 kilometers of rail infrastructure in the ore-rich Pilbara region. BHP said operations continue at its mines, but didnt give any details on the potential impact on production. The shares rose 1.3 percent in London amid broader gains among miners. If there is significant track damage, it could be that train loadings and speeds could be constrained post repairs and restarting of shipments, BMO Capital Markets said in a note. The bank said BHPs operations account for about 20 percent of the global iron ore trade. The top miners have been looking to increasingly automate logistics. Rival Rio Tinto Group earlier this year completed its first driverless train in Western Australia when it delivered 28,000 metric tons of iron ore along a 280-kilometer route. BHP earlier this year reported reliability issues with port car dumpers. The producers Western Australian operations include five mines and four processing hubs, including joint ventures with Mitsui & Co. and Itochu Corp. While the likely length of the rail stoppage remains unclear, any disruption to shipments from the port could pressure iron ore prices. The raw material used to make steel soared in October, with the benchmark 62 percent grade advancing about 10 percent as Chinese steel mills ramped up production before anti-pollution curbs kick in. Port Hedland is the worlds largest iron ore export port with a total annual throughput of 519 million metric tons in 2017/2018, according to Pilbara Ports Authority. As well as BHP, its used by miners including Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. and Roy Hill Holdings Pty. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Australia A.M. Besthas downgraded the financial strength rating to A+ (Superior) from A++ (Superior) and the long-term issuer credit rating to aa- from aa+ of Tokio Millennium Re AG (TMR) (Switzerland). In addition, A.M. Best has placed these credit ratings under review with developing implications. The rating actions follow the recent announcement that Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has entered into a definitive agreement with Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., under which it will acquire Tokio Marines reinsurance platforms, which include TMR and Tokio Millennium Re (UK) Ltd. At the same time, the ratings agency also announced it has placed under review with developing implications the financial strength rating of A+ (Superior) and the long-term issuer credit ratings of aa- of Renaissance Reinsurance Ltd., Renaissance Reinsurance U.S. Inc., RenaissanceRe Specialty U.S. Ltd., and Renaissance Reinsurance of Europe Unlimited Co. (Dublin, Ireland). Additionally, A.M. Best has placed under review with developing implications the long-term ICR of a- and all long-term issuer credit ratings of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. A.M. Best also has placed under review with developing implications the FSR of A (Excellent) and the long-term ICR of a+ of two RenRe subsidiaries: DaVinci Reinsurance Ltd. and the long-term ICR of bbb+ of DaVinci Re Holdings Ltd. All aforementioned companies are domiciled in Bermuda unless otherwise specified. Under terms of the sale agreement, if closing tangible book value is unchanged from June 30, 2018, Tokio Marine would receive US$1.469 billion in a combination of cash and stock, or 1.02x TMRs tangible book value, explained A.M. Best. The agreement has been approved by each sides board of directors and the transaction, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first half of 2019. The transaction is being financed with RenaissanceRes cash on hand and equity. As part of the acquisition, Tokio Marine will receive $250 million worth of RenaissanceRe shares. Additionally, Tokio Marine has agreed to provide RenRe with a $500 million adverse development cover that will protect TMRs book of reserves for five years. RenaissanceRe also announced that State Farm will acquire $250 million in RenaissanceRes stock and become a 4.8 percent owner of the company, in an investment transaction which is not conditioned on the closing of the Tokio Marine reinsurance platforms acquisition. The ratings of Tokio Millennium Re have been downgraded as A.M. Best believes that TMR is no longer strategic to the Tokio Marine group, although the parental guarantee and net worth maintenance agreement will remain in place until the closing of the transaction. Additionally, the downgrades align TMRs ratings with those of RenRe. RenRes ratings will remain under review pending completion of the transaction, said A.M. Best, noting that it will continue to monitor the companys risk-adjusted capitalization, operating performance, business profile and enterprise risk management. Related: Topics USA Reinsurance AM Best The U.S. reimposed sanctions on Irans critical oil industry Monday, raising pressure on the Islamic Republic to scale back its ballistic missile program and involvement in conflicts across the Middle East. The sanctions on Irans energy, shipping and banking sectors, lifted as part of the 2015 accord to curb its nuclear enrichment, snapped back at midnight New York time. They are the second round of measures imposed on the country of 80 million since President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in May, saying he wanted a more comprehensive deal. Our objective is to force the regime into a clear choice, Trump said in a statement released on Friday evening. Either abandon its destructive behavior or continue down the path toward economic disaster. After hitting four-month highs last month on supply fears, oil prices have receded as its become apparent the U.S. would still grant temporary sanctions waivers to major buyers of Iranian crude. Its the Iranian Oil Guessing Game. And the Bears Are Winning The impact on Irans economy, however, is already being felt. Uncertainty over the future and a U.S. ban on dollar and gold transactions imposed in May have seen the rial fall 70 percent, sending prices soaring. Imported goods are becoming scarce, businesses are struggling and the measures have deepened political divisions, emboldening hardliners who opposed moderate President Hassan Rouhanis grand bargain with the West. War Situation As the measures went into force, a defiant Rouhani said his country would keep selling oil and warned of a war situation as economic conditions worsen. Trumps decision to abandon the nuclear accord, the fruit of years of negotiations involving Russia, China and European countries, has eroded trust that the wider deal Trump seeks would be respected. Respect your commitments, then we will talk, Rouhani said in a meeting with economy officials, according to state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. Bolstering the mood of defiance in a country that has faced punitive measures of some form since its 1979 revolution, Irans army, air force and Revolutionary Guards conducted military exercises and tested air defense systems. On the eve of Mondays sanctions, thousands rallied in Tehran for an annual commemoration of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy, chanting death to America and stomping on U.S. flags. This year, oversize posters of $100 bills were also strewn on the ground for a largely conservative crowd to trample, Benjamin Franklins face replaced by Trump behind bars. Oil Steady Oil was trading near a six-month low Monday. In addition to the waivers, OPEC has signaled it would make up any shortfall, and in October, its output jumped to its highest since 2016. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is scheduled to announce the list of countries that will receive waivers at 8:30 a.m. Washington time. Bloomberg reported last week that major importers of Iranian oil including India, Japan, and South Korea are among those getting waivers. China, the top purchaser of Iranian crude, is in talks for a waiver, while other requests were expected from Taiwan and Turkey. More than 700 individuals, entities, vessels and aircraft will be sanctioned, according to the White House. They include Iranian banks, shipping companies and oil exporters. The U.S. has also warned that it could target the Swift financial messaging network if it doesnt halt transactions with sanctioned Iranian financial institutions. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday said the U.S. is intent on ensuring that global funds stop flowing to the coffers of the Iranian regime. While the other signatories to the accord have refused to walk away, Trumps campaign to drive companies out of Iran appears to be working. Total SA, Boeing Co. and Munich Re are among dozens of companies that have sworn off Iran, fearing of running afoul of U.S. penalties. Sanctions Effective? European governments have struggled to come up with solutions that adequately address business concerns that doing any work in Iran will expose them to secondary sanctions, essentially freezing them out of the U.S. financial system. Irans oil exports already have fallen by about a million barrels a day. The way the measures are designed mean that shipping insurers, for instance, may be unable to make payments or provide guarantees if an incident is linked to Iran. This will most likely be the result even if the trade as such is legal and there are no blacklisted parties involved, ship insurer Gard P&I said in an alert on its website. Both Iran and the EU have said they will soon announce details of their plan to protect multinational companies from falling afoul of American measures. Efforts to inflict maximum pain on Iran are also a gamble for Trump, increasing the risk of a trans-Atlantic rift. European nations share Trumps concern over Iranian missile tests and regional policies, including military and financial support for Syrias Bashar al-Assad, Lebanons Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels fighting in Yemens devastating civil war. But they reason that the accord remains the most effective way to contain and monitor Irans nuclear activities. The U.K. said Monday it regretted Trumps decision and was committed to fully supporting our trade relationship with Iran and encourage British businesses to take advantage of trade opportunities that arise. Related: Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics USA Europe Energy Oil Gas A Nebraska judge has ruled that an insurance provider doesnt have to cover the legal debt of a Nebraska county that wrongfully convicted six people in a 1985 rape and murder. Lancaster County District Judge Jodi L. Nelson ruled on Nov. 1 that the liability policies Gage County purchased in 1989 do not cover the countys mishandling of the so-called Beatrice Six case, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. Gage County faces a $28.1 million federal judgment after it lost a lawsuit filed by the six people who were wrongfully convicted and served a combined 75 years in prison for the murder of 68-year-old Helen Wilson. The six were exonerated by DNA evidence in 2008 and won their lawsuit in 2016. A federal appeals court rejected Gage Countys appeal earlier this year, leaving local officials with few options other than paying the judgment. The policies in question were purchased through Employers Mutual Casualty. Attorneys for the county asked a judge to determine whether a series of liability insurance policies would pay all or part of the damages or legal fees from the case. Nelson ruled in October that insurance policies Gage County carried through the Nebraska Intergovernmental Risk Management Association, a risk-sharing pool, were not in effect when the six were arrested. That coverage went into effect in 1997. On Thursday, Nelson reached the same conclusion on the Employers Mutual Casualty policies, which carried the countys insurance from Feb. 2, 1989, until Feb. 2, 1990. The states appellate courts have not yet heard the issue. Nelson said the language of the Employers Mutual Casualty policy excluded any and all professional services, but did not define what those services were. Attorneys for Gage County argued that law enforcement was an occupation, not a professional service, but Nelson said Nebraska case law defines professional acts and services as those requiring special learning or attainments of some kind. The allegations in the Beatrice Six complaints involve decision-making based on an officers training and experience, Nelson wrote. The Gage County sheriff and his deputies investigated the rape and murder of Helen Wilson by using law enforcements specialized decision-making process. Related: Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Carriers Legislation Commercial Lines Business Insurance Nebraska The Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) announced the launch of a new insurtech accelerator program, PROTO InsurTech, to inspire and stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship in the insurance industry. Two major insurance companies, Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan and Delta Dental of Michigan, join LEAP as significant investors and founders in launching PROTO InsurTech. Both companies are headquartered in the Lansing area and share a passion for insurance industry innovation. PROTO InsurTech has been built to help them and other insurance carriers in Michigan understand and leverage opportunities with insurtech companies. The PROTO InsurTech program will provide startup companies with up to $60,000 in exchange for a small equity stake in the company. Beginning in early 2019, each company selected will participate in an intensive four-month program that provides access to critical business development resources including product development and design consulting, business plan development, marketing and branding, legal support, accounting support, continued mentoring and guidance from insurance carrier executives and others, as well as additional access to capital. Upon completion of the program, the participating companies will be poised to go to market with a product via proof of concept with an insurance carrier partner or will already be in the market. Companies and entrepreneurs can submit applications to PROTO Accelerators 2019 InsurTech program from Oct. 1 until Nov. 16, 2018. Selected applicants will be announced in December with an anticipated start date in early 2019. Source: LEAP Topics InsurTech Tech Michigan It might be time for carriers and agents to encourage their clients to buy flood coverage even if theyre not living and working inside a flood zone. Such an action is long overdue, according to insurance commissioners from Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee who spoke about the matter during a panel discussion at the Property Casualty Insurers of America (PCI ) annual Meeting on Oct. 29 in Miami. Ray Farmer, director of the South Carolina Department of Insurance, said that the state tallies more than 200,000 flood insurance policies in force, concentrated mainly on the coast. The thing is, much of the states flooding from storms such as Hurricane Matthew and last falls Hurricane Florence have been mainly inland, he explained. We have got to get away from saying that because you are not in a high-hazard zone you dont need flood insurance, Farmer said. We have got to do a better job ofconvincing people that if it rains at your house you are probably in a flood zone. Julie Mix McPeak, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance and president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said her work for the NAIC has focused on creating long-term stability of the National Flood Insurance Program. She emphasized, however, that the private market would do a much better job of spreading the word about flood insurance and why it matters. The more we have the private market come in and have competitive rates come through the better, McPeak said. She added that companies would be more effective at letting customers know that bringing flood protection is a necessity to consumers. David Altmaier, insurance commissioner for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, said that consumers often think that they are covered for flood insurance when they really arent. Most consumers dont realize this is an issue until flooding strikes, Altmaier said. Farmer added: A better job is needed to communicate that homeowners insurance does not cover flood. Topics Carriers Flood A fire destroyed a south Louisiana gym and thousands of dollars in donations being held there ahead of a charity fundraiser. WVUE-TV reported that a fire Wednesday night destroyed the Garyville Recreation Center gym in St. John Parish. A fundraiser was to be held in a few days to benefit the nonprofit Perrys Posse, which was started by Tanya Roccaforte in memory of her godchild who died of leukemia. They hold a twice-a-year garage sale to support the organization, and proceeds from the sale benefit other cancer patients. Four months we collected and went out and emptied out houses, trailer loads and storage bins, said Roccaforte. But Wednesday night she watched as hard work and donations burned inside the gym. We sat here for four hours and just watched, just watched in disbelief, and then this morning when we looked at the building, it was like, nope, not a dream, this really happened, said Roccaforte. The fire marshal is investigating but early indications are the blaze started as an electrical fire in the kitchen. Roccaforte says her group is still figuring out its next steps but shes vowing to continue the organizations mission. Garyville Fire Chief Cain Dufrene called the buildings destruction heartbreaking because so many people in the community had a strong connection to the building. We have several guys on the department that played rec here, or their family, dads, uncles played rec here. Its a staple of the community, said Dufrene. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Louisiana Workers compensation provider, Texas Mutual Insurance Co., is partnering with The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) Naveen Jindal School of Management for a brand-new Risk Control and Safety Engineering class. This course is currently exclusive to UT Dallas and only offered at the Jindal School. Bill Jackson, regional vice president of Texas Mutuals Dallas office, introduced the new course to attendees at the Jindal Schools Emerging Risk Forum, where risk management and insurance (RMI) and actuarial science students learned about the various curriculum on RMI that UT Dallas offers. The event also featured Steven Badger, a partner at Zelle LLP in Dallas, and served as an opportunity for students to network with RMI professionals in attendance from across the DFW area. With the announcement of this new course, Texas Mutual is now the largest RMI partner at UT Dallas. Source: Texas Mutual Insurance Co. Topics Mergers Texas Risk Management North Carolinas insurance commissioner said hes handing over to the federal government a contribution thats the subject of a citizens complaint alleging improper campaign giving by a leading state donor who also faces scrutiny from federal investigators. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey told WRAL-TV last week it was the FBIs idea to send in the $240,000 he received in July from the state Republican Party. He said the agency told him he couldnt return it to the GOP because it was part of their investigation. The handoff was neither part of any deal nor a federal government seizure, Causey told the station. Our campaign is simply sending them a check, Causey said Wednesday. A FBI spokeswoman in Charlotte declined to comment Thursday. A state elections complaint filed Oct. 29 by ex-Wake County Democratic Party leader David Bland alleges the contribution to Causey came from $1.5 million that Durham investment firm founder Greg Lindberg donated to the state GOP in the 18 months ending June 30. Lindberg founded a Durham,N.C., investment company that controls several insurance firms. The complaint claims Lindberg gave the money to the Republican Party as way to bypass individual donation limits to campaign committees of $5,200 per election. Parties can give unlimited amounts to candidate committees. Blands complaint alleges donations to Causey were earmarked from Lindbergs party giving, citing comments made by state GOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse about Lindberg to a television station. Routing the contribution to Causey through the GOP was an end-run around the contribution cap, Bland wrote in his complaint. He said the board should force Causey to forfeit the donation and determine violations occurred. Woodhouse said in early October he hadnt spoken to Lindberg about how his recent large donations to the GOP but was told Lindberg had an interest in helping build up the commissioners campaign, and we took that under advisement. But Woodhouse told The Associated Press it was ultimately the partys decision and the money was fully under (our) control. The party would never consent to how such a donation would be used before accepting it, he said. Causey, who was elected in 2016 and is not on the ballot this fall, and Woodhouse said state campaign finance laws were followed. We made a legal donation, Woodhouse told WRAL. What Mike Causey decided to do with it is up to him. Federal investigators subpoenaed the North Carolina Department of Insurance last month seeking information on Lindberg and insurance companies associated with Lindberg. Causey said the department is cooperating with federal investigators and he and the department are not targets of the federal inquiry. Lindberg, who hasnt commented publicly about the elections complaint or federal subpoena, has given more than $5 million since 2016 to North Carolina candidate and party committees and independent expenditure groups, according to campaign finance reports. Some of the money has gone to the Democratic Party. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics North Carolina Authorities say a fire broke out in a South Florida nursing home, injuring two residents and a staff member. The SunSentinel reports more than 100 people were evacuated when the fire started in a residents room after 11 p.m. Thursday in Plantation, which is a suburb of Fort Lauderdale. Plantation Fire officials say one nursing home resident was being treated for burns and another for smoke inhalation. There was no immediate word on the injuries to the staff member. Firefighters say the found heavy smoke in the hallway outside the room that was on fire. The newspaper reports that by early Friday, most residents had returned to their rooms. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Florida Senior Care A California man convicted of practicing medicine without a license must pay more than $105 million to a woman who said he falsely promised to cure her breast cancer. KNSD-TV says San Diego jurors decided Wednesday that Robert O. Young must pay medical expenses and damages. Young says hell appeal. Young wrote The pH Miracle and other best-selling books promoting an alternative theory of fighting illness. Dawn Kali sued Young for fraud and negligence, saying she delayed regular cancer treatment and spent thousands on baking soda infusions and other therapies at Youngs Valley Center retreat. She finally sought medical help in 2013 after cancer spread to her bones. Shes been given four years to live. Young was sentenced last year to nearly four years in prison for illegally practicing medicine. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics California An eastern Washington man found not guilty of three counts of involuntary manslaughter in a criminal trial following a boating crash on Lake Coeur dAlene in northern Idaho has been ordered to pay $600,000 in a civil case. A jury determined Dennis Magner of Spokane, Washington, is 30 percent responsible for the crash. The July 2016 nighttime collision killed 34-year-old Justin Luhr of Medical Lake, Washington, 21-year-old Justin Honken of Post Falls, Idaho, and 21-year-old Caitlin Breeze of Spokane. The jury awarded $300,000 to Breezes family, and $150,000 each to the parents of Honken. The jury determined Luhr was 70 percent responsible for the crash for allowing his boat to drift into a traffic lane without navigation lights. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Washington A western Montana school district has agreed to pay $350,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed school officials did not adequately protect a student from being harassed and groped by a music teacher. KTMF-TV reported the notice of settlement was filed in Missoula County last week, ending the complaint filed in December 2017 against the Frenchtown School District. Superintendent Randy Cline says the district does not admit to any liability and the reason to settle before trial made economic sense. The lawsuit claimed the district knew about complaints against former high school teacher Troy Bashor, and the school did not do its part to stop harassment directed at the girl after she reported the allegations. Bashor was convicted earlier this year of misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of children. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Education Montana Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B), led by billionaire investor and CEO Warren Buffett, is a diversified holding company whose subsidiaries are involved in insurance, freight rail transportation, energy generation and distribution, manufacturing, and retailing. Berkshire Hathaway also holds a large investment portfolio of equity securities and derivatives. The top shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway class B shares are Warren E. Buffett, Ronald L. Olson, Meryl B. Witmer, Vanguard Group Inc., BlackRock Inc. (BLK), and State Street Corp. (STT). Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett's unofficial successor will be Greg Abel, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and vice chair in charge of noninsurance operations, according to an announcement from vice chair Charlie Munger on May 1, 2021. No date was suggested for the succession. Berkshire Hathaway, which has been looking to spend its large cash stockpile on major acquisitions, announced in July that subsidiary Berkshire Hathaway Energy agreed to acquire the natural gas transmission and storage business of Dominion Energy Inc. (D). Berkshire paid an estimated $9.7 billion. Berkshire Hathaway's 12-month trailing net income and revenue are $10.0 billion and $237.2 billion, respectively. The company's market cap is about $456.4 billion. These financial data are as of July 14, 2020. We look in more detail below at Berkshire Hathaway's top 6 shareholders. "Insider" refers to people in senior management positions and members of the board of directors, as well as people or entities that own more than 10% of the company's stock. In this context, it has nothing to do with insider trading. Top 3 Individual Insider Shareholders Warren E. Buffett Warren Buffett owns a total of 10,188 Berkshire Hathaway class B shares, representing less than 0.01% of the company's total shares outstanding. Mr. Buffett also owns an additional 15% of Berkshire Hathaway based on his holding of 248,734 class A shares, according to the company's SEC Form 4 filed on July 8, 2020. Regarded as one of the world's most successful investors, Buffett is chair and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Berkshire, as well as at a number of Berkshire Hathaway's subsidiaries. After his investment group took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, Buffett built it into one of the world's biggest and best performing companies. He achieved that in two ways: by buying undervalued companies through numerous acquisitions, and by investing in the shares of scores of public companies. Berkshire's giant investment portfolio has equity holdings worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Buffet today also serves as manager for Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC, another subsidiary of the company. Buffett has a net worth of $71 billion. Ronald L. Olson Ronald L. Olson owns a total of 2,435 Berkshire Hathaway class B shares, representing less than 0.01% of the company's total shares outstanding. As a Berkshire director for the past 23 years, he and the board have approved many of CEO Warren Buffett's major acquisitions into diverse industries, sharply boosting Berkshire's revenue and net income. Mr. Olson co-founded and is a senior partner at law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson. Meryl B. Witmer Meryl B. Witmer owns a total of 2,000 Berkshire Hathaway class B shares, representing less than 0.01% of the company's total shares outstanding. Ms. Witmer has served as a director for Berkshire Hathaway since 2013. She is a general partner at investment company Witmer Capital Management LLC, and a managing member at Eagle Value Partners LLC, a portfolio advisory firm, which she founded. Top 3 Institutional Shareholders Institutional investors hold the majority of Berkshire Hathaway's class B shares at about 70% of total shares outstanding. Vanguard Group Inc. Vanguard Group owns 145.9 million class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway, representing 6.0% of total shares outstanding, according to the company's 13F filing for the period ending March 31, 2020. The company is primarily a mutual fund and ETF management company with about $6.2 trillion in global assets under management (AUM). The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) is one of the company's largest exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with about $152 billion in AUM. Berkshire Hathaway is one of VOO's top 10 holdings, comprising 1.39% of the fund's total holdings. BlackRock Inc. BlackRock owns 109.9 million class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway, representing 4.5% of total shares outstanding, according to the company's 13F filing for the period ending March 31, 2020. The company is primarily a mutual fund and ETF management company with approximately $6.47 trillion in AUM. The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) is among one of BlackRock's largest ETFs with approximately $200 billion in AUM. Berkshire Hathaway is one of IVV's top 10 holdings, comprising 1.35% of the fund's total holdings. State Street Corp. State Street owns 76.5 million class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway, representing 3.1% of total shares outstanding, according to the company's 13F filing for the period ending March 31, 2020. The company is primarily a manager of mutual funds, ETFs, and other assets with approximately $2.7 trillion in AUM. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) is among one of State Street's largest ETFs with approximately $279 billion in AUM. Berkshire Hathaway is one of SPY's top 10 holdings, comprising 1.37% of the fund's total holdings. Diversity & Inclusiveness of Berkshire Hathaway As part of our effort to improve the awareness of the importance of diversity in companies, we offer investors a glimpse into the level of transparency of Berkshire Hathaway and how that reflects its commitment to diversity, inclusiveness, and social responsibility. We examined the data Berkshire Hathaway releases. It shows Berkshire Hathaway does not disclose any data about the diversity of its board of directors, C-Suite, general management, and employees overall. It also shows Berkshire Hathaway does not reveal the diversity of itself by race, gender, ability, veteran status, or LGBTQ+ identity. In 1958, Cuba was an investment powerhouse. Their workers were paid the eighth highest wages in the world, and the country's per-capita income exceeded that of Austria and Japan. It was such a hot expat destination that more Americans lived there than Cubans in America. The golden days passed, however, when Fidel seized power, and it wasn't until President Obama lifted sanctions against the island nation that investors became interested in Cuba's potential. The Trade Embargo Prior to Fidel Castro coming to power, Cuba was a popular tourist destination for Americans. The original goal of the trade embargo was to get rid of Fidel Castro, but that didnt happen. Instead, Cuba implemented socialist policies. In Dec. 2014, 80%-85% of the economy was controlled by the government. In 2014, former President of the United States Barack Obama initiated measures to ease (not eliminate) the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba. However, three years later, then-President Donald Trump re-enacted steeper embargo measures, seeking to eradicate the "open door" policy of Obama. President Trump's plan was to cut U.S. aid to Cuban companies that funneled money into the military, but it worried investors about the overall effect the tightening will have on Cuba's trajectory. According to Peterson Institute of International Economics, U.S. exports to Cuba ranged from $330 million to $510 million over the five years preceding June 2015. In 2017, exports totaled more than $291 million. If the trade embargo were to be eliminated, that number could increase to as high as $4.3 billion. However, as stated above, there are headwinds in both the political and military landscape. Further Complications Venezuela is one of the largest suppliers of Cubas oil. As oil prices decline, Venezuela finds itself in a delicate situation. Another factor is demographics. Theres a reason why China and the United States are the strongest economies in the world: They have the most consumers. It goes deeper than that, of course, but population is a big factor. To put things in perspective, when it comes to emerging markets, China has a 2020 population of 1.43 billion; Cuba has just 11.32 million people, and it would be safe to say that there's a dearth of disposable income. At the same time, if Cuba experiences a cultural resurgence as it did in the 1950s, then there would be ample opportunity to get in on the ground floor. Investing in Cuba What you have likely read about most is the Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund (CUBA), which is comprised of about 44 securities of non-Cuban companies that have exposure to growth in Cuba. Its a closed-end fund. Therefore, theres a fixed number of shares. This limited supply can lead to parabolic price-per-share moves when demand increases. You might have missed a big move in 2016 when news broke of Fidel Castro's death, but that doesnt mean CUBA will soon head back in the other direction. In October 2020, the Herzfeld Fund was trading at a low of $3.82 and was experiencing a downward trend due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For some, they would consider the long slide in price as an opportunity to buy long, collecting dividend distributions along the way. Still, with the recent policy change, there might be more upside potential than downside risk. Thats for you to decide, but you need more information prior to making that decision. The largest holdings for Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund are: MasTec Inc. (MTZ) Popular, Inc. (BPOP) Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RC8.SG) NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE) First BanCorp. (FBPRO) All of the above companies stand to benefit from the elimination of the trade embargo, whether due to increased tourism, consumer consumption, agriculture, or construction. Of course, you can invest in these companies all in one place by using the Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund, but you can also invest on a pick-and-choose basis. If the latter is the case, then lets look at some key metrics. The Bottom Line If you do choose to invest, it might be wise to limit exposure. Cuba's significant risks, not to mention the politics that are involved, make Cuban investment speculative at best. If youre correct, you make a little money that has the potential to compound on itself over the long haul with the aid of dividend payments, but there appear to be smarter emerging market plays as of Oct. 2020. LAS VEGAS - November 5, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Australis Capital Inc. (CSE: AUSA) ("Australis" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has completed its previously announced investment in Body and Mind Inc. (CSE: BAMM, US OTC: BMMJ) ("BaM") and acquisition of Rthm Technologies, Inc. ("Rthm"). BaM is a publicly traded company with numerous years of experience as one of Nevada's first medical cultivators, producers and brands. BaM has recently expanded into Ohio and invests in high quality medical, recreational cannabis cultivation and production and retail. Pursuant to the terms of its investment, Australis acquired (i) 16,000,000 units of BAM, each comprised of one common share and one common share purchase warrant, at a purchase price of $0.40 per unit for $6,400,000, and (ii) $1,600,000 principal amount 8% unsecured convertible debentures of BaM maturing two years following the date of issue. Rthm is a private company that has developed a complete suite of proprietary technology including advanced heart rate tracking and analysis algorithms and comprehensive circadian rhythm mapping techniques, which is among the most advanced digital health platforms in the world. Pursuant to the terms of the Rthm acquisition, the Company has paid the following consideration to the shareholders of Rthm: (a) CAD $800,000 in cash payments, (b) an aggregate of 1,742,611 common shares of Australis, and (c) and aggregate of CAD $200,000 in promissory notes, which become payable upon certain patents being granted to Rthm. In addition, the Company will issue common shares of Australis to the shareholders of Rthm with an aggregate value of CAD $1,250,000 upon the achievement of certain milestones. For additional information relating to the Rthm and BaM transactions, please see the Company's news releases dated October 29th and 30th, 2018, respectively. About Australis Capital Inc. Australis Capital identifies and invests in the cannabis industry predominately in the United States, a highly regulated, fragmented, rapidly expanding and evolving industry. Investments may include and are not limited to equity, debt or other securities of both public and private companies, financings in exchange for royalties or other distribution streams, and control stake acquisitions. Australis Capital adheres to stringent investment criteria and will focus on significant near and mid-term high-quality opportunities with strong return potentials while maintaining a steadfast commitment to governance and community. Australis Capital's Board, Management and Advisory Committee members have material experience with, and knowledge of, the cannabis space in the U.S., extensive backgrounds in highly regulated industries, adherence to stringent regulatory compliance, public company and operational expertise. In addition to the Company's expertise and strong execution on strategic M&A, which to date includes Body and Mind Inc. and Rthm Technologies Inc., Australis has developed strategic partnerships with companies such as Wagner Dimas. Australis' Common shares trade on the CSE under the symbol "AUSA". For further information about Australis, please visit the website at ausacap.com or contact the Company by e-mail at ir@ausacap.com. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "Scott Dowty" Scott Dowty Chief Executive Officer Forward-Looking Information Statement This news release contains statements and information that, to the extent that they are not historical fact, constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information is based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking information. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company's management to predict all of such factors and to assess in advance the impact of each such factor 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 statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect information, events, results, circumstances or otherwise after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law including securities laws. The CSE has in no way passed upon the merits of the Transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Australis Capital Inc. Contact: Michael J. Carlotti, Chief Financial Officer, IR@ausacap.com Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp November 5, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Unless India does not make any policy changes, it will not realize the ambitious target of installation of 175 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2022, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. Recently, India's effort to accelerate the green energy capacity through auction for 1,200 megawatt (MW) hybrid' projects suffered a major setback as the bidders stayed away from the procedings. This is the second renewable auction to have failed in October 2018, forcing the state-run Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to extend the deadline for the fifth time. The tender for hybrid projects, which encompasses both wind and solar units at the same site, has now been extended till 14 November 2018. Mohit Prasad, Power Analyst at GlobalData, says: "In spite of SECI reducing the tender capacity to half of the earlier announced capacity, investors kept away on account of policies associated with it. Policy mandates like tariff ceiling, safeguard duty and mandated manufacturing capacity are responsible for the investors staying away from the auctions." The government has set a tariff ceiling of $0.035/unit for the hybrid projects. Developers, on the other hand, feel that there should not be any ceiling since the tariff should be driven by the wind density, solar irradiance and the associated competition. Another deal-breaker is that the tender is forcing developers to enter into the manufacturing sector, which is definitely not their core competence. In order to bid for a project of minimum 2,000 MW of power purchase agreements, the developers are required to set up a 600 MW of manufacturing facility. In addition, the government has offered a power off-take commitment for two years. Project developers feel that the commitment should be at least for five years so that there is a continuous flow of revenue. Prasad concludes: "India is currently dependent on 85% of imports of solar products from China. However, the safeguard duty (SGD) of 25% on imports of solar components from China is driving investors away from tenders announced by government bodies. Furthermore, the decision to pass the impact of SGD to consumers while setting a tariff ceiling is also making the investors to channelize their investments in a different direction rather than investing in solar auctions. "Unless the government does not make any policy changes, the developers would not be participating in auctions, which ultimately can derail India's ambitious target of installing 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022." For more information To gain access to our latest press releases: GlobalData Media Centre Analysts available for comment. Please contact the GlobalData Press Office: EMEA & Americas: +44 (0)207 832 4399 Asia-Pacific: +91 40 6616 6809 Email: pr@globaldata.com Notes to Editors Comments provided by Mohit Prasad, Power Analyst at GlobalData, This report was built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, primary and secondary research, and in-house analysis conducted by GlobalData's team of industry experts. About GlobalData 4,000 of the world's largest companies, including over 70% of FTSE 100 and 60% of Fortune 100 companies, make more timely and better business decisions thanks to GlobalData's unique data, expert analysis and innovative solutions, all in one platform. GlobalData's mission is to help our clients decode the future to be more successful and innovative across a range of industries, including the healthcare, consumer, retail, technology, energy, financial and professional services sectors. More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp Your morning's headlines. GET INFORMED ... IRELAND: The Marine Casualty Investigation Board is to carry out an investigation into the death of a female kayaker who drowned in Kerry yesterday afternoon. IRELAND: Alcohol advertising bans near schools or play areas, coupled with new separation rules for drink sold in shops, come into effect next November. IRELAND: 7 out of 10 of all personal injury motor cases assessed by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) during the first half of 2018 were whiplash-related. IRELAND: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been urged to defend Irish citizens in Northern Ireland over Brexit. IRELAND: 19 schools have been cleared to open fully today as the schools building controversy continues. BUSINESS: Self-employed people must stop seeing tax returns as a chore, says the director of public policy and taxation at Chartered Accountants Ireland. WORLD: 4 in 10 British people back a second referendum offering an in-out Brexit choice, according to a new poll. ANALYSIS: Divided by hate, will US voters turn the tide? The electorate has the chance to break the Republicans lock on government in possibly the most consequential midterm elections in US history, writes Elizabeth Drew. SPORT: Containing Gooch was easy compared to this: Former Cork defender Kieran O'Connor's nightmare cancer battle. SPORT: Cork City manager John Caulfield: Well have to build a new team ... SOME DISTRACTION FEATURES: Irelands only child-free coffee shop is brewing up a storm, writes Nuala Woulfe. LIFESTYLE: What happens when mum's not the word: The reaction to Margaret OConnors decision not have kids was so extreme, she decided to write a thesis about it, she tells Pat Fitzpatrick. OUTDOORS: Islands of Ireland: What constitutes an island? Shawn Donnan President Donald Trump often seems to be caught between his ideological desire to rewrite Americas trade relationship with China and a businessmans instinct to cut a deal. And with tomorrows mid-term elections looming and financial markets coming off a rough October, the dealmaker appears to have the upper hand. Well make a deal with China, and I think it will be a very fair deal for everybody, Trump said on Friday after asking aides the day before to begin drafting ideas for an agreement to take to his planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina in late November/early December. The two sides are getting much closer to doing something, he said. Still, to satisfy Trumps own inner ideologue and the China hawks in his administration that something is going to have to hang on substance. And thats where things are likely to get complicated. Xi may fill out the picture today, when he is due to address a trade fair in Shanghai. Analysts familiar with White House discussions, however, say any deal struck at the G20 is likely to take the form more of a temporary truce than anything that will bring a final peace in the trade wars. Such a ceasefire could, they said, see a commitment to forgo additional tariffs, and possibly even to remove some, while high-level officials negotiate a broader pact. Any of those things would in the current context be a significant achievement and be welcomed by markets. But they would also leave Beijing and Washington facing arduous negotiations ahead. If theres goodwill and agreement, at least personal agreement between the two presidents of the two biggest economies, well move forward after it and try to work with the Chinese on details - said Larry Kudlow, the head of Trumps National Economic Council. But even if conversations go well between Trump and Xi in Buenos Aires, Kudlow said, it will still be a long, tough process The reason for that, analysts argue, is that the structural and economic complaints Washington has with Beijing are far more consequential than those the US is confronting with any other trading partner. If anything, the Trump administration has also been embarking on a more confrontational path with China of late, with recent speeches and comments by officials such as Vice President Mike Pence causing rumblings of a new Cold War. The distance between a leaders statement that they would like to work something out and would like to make some progress and actually reaching a deal is ginormous, said Scott Kennedy, an expert on US-China relations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The Trump administration has repeatedly labeled industrial policies, such as Beijings Made in China 2025 plan, to lead the world in areas such as robotics acts of economic aggression meant to undermine Americas place in the global economy. Abandoning or even weakening the state subsidies and other incentives behind that plan is a concession Xi is unlikely to make, analysts said. Likewise, leadership in Beijing is unlikely to respond favorably to US demands for it to dismantle the network of state-owned firms that control much of the Chinese economy. One possible area of progress is protecting intellectual property, with Beijing potentially agreeing to do more to rein in hackers or to co-operate with US authorities who have intensified a crackdown on Chinese theft of trade secrets. But making the sort of meaningful long-term changes to Chinese economic policy that Washington has been demanding is likely to be far more difficult for Beijing. It is difficult to see what sort of commitments China could credibly make to address concerns that the US has about a host of complicated issues, said Eswar Prasad, a former China expert at the IMF. Bloomberg Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has raised the spectre of criminality being linked to uncertainty around Brexit on top of a lack of a functioning executive in the North. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, he said his fear was that the political vacuum alongside the uncertainty of Brexit can create instability. Anecdotal evidence will show that the uncertainty around Brexit and the concerns around Brexit are feeding into this culture of crime and concern, said the Fine Gael minister. His remarks come as the Government played down reports of a secret Brexit deal to keep all of Britain inside an EU customs union. The Department of Foreign Affairs insisted a legally enforceable backstop clause guaranteeing no hard border was still needed. Mr Flanagan told the Irish Examiner that uncertainty around Britains EU exit was now feeding into a climate of instability and even fuelling criminality. My fear is the political vacuum alongside the uncertainty of Brexit can create instability. Looking at the report of the Independent Reporting Commission, it is quite clear that the highest priority for both governments must be tackling terrorism and the root causes of terrorism. The challenge is to tackle the residual of paramilitaries, which has morphed into criminality and organised crime on both sides of the border. On the Northern side, the absence of an executive feeds into this instability. The report highlights the importance of restoring the executive and an assembly to address the issue of organised crime, address the issue of criminality which communities in Northern Ireland have expressed concern that these issues are escalating. Asked if he thought uncertainty around Brexit somehow fed into that criminality, the minister said I do, adding: It [the report] is clear, the report points out that the threat of terrorist violence from dissident paramilitary groups, both loyalist and republican, continues to impact in a negative way on communities in northern Ireland. It talks about the insidious culture of paramilitarism and the fact that it continues. Mr Flanagan reiterated that the Independent Reporting Commission, which reported earlier this month, had warned that Brexit had created a lot of uncertainty. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was recently criticised for using an EU leaders summit to highlight the threat of renewed violence in the North if there were fresh borders. Despite this, Mr Flanagan is adamant, speaking to the Irish Examiner, about the disorder being created by the Brexit chaos: Vacuums in Northern Ireland are always filled and thats a concern. Political uncertainty around Brexit has fed into a turbulence. For example, in the border area, people not knowing what Brexit is going to look like, people seeking border polls, people conflating a United Ireland with Brexit. All of this feeds into an uncertainty. It feeds into political uncertainty which leads to a certain undermining of order, he explained. The overall vacuum was making it unhelpful to eradicate paramilitary-linked activity, including drugs, crime and racketeering, he added. Mr Flanagan also reiterated the Irish position on Brexit yesterday, insisting that solid written agreement for a backstop to prevent a hard border must be brought forward. It must be seen as a rapidly ticking clock as we move towards the end of the year and as we move towards timelines needing to be met. It is essential now that we seen the written legal text that is the backstop, he said, given the Irish priorities, he added. Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has said the application of the bail laws rather than the law itself may lie at the root of the failings around the handling of rapist Eoin Berkeley. Mr Flanagan pointed out that the courts had the power to grant or deny bail, and gardai were in charge of implementing it. The minister was speaking on RTE radio where he was questioned about concerns raised by the case which concluded in the Central Criminal Court last week where Berkeley, aged 25, was jailed for 14 years for the repeated rape and false imprisonment of an 18-year-old Spanish student in 2017. It emerged at his sentencing hearing that he had been arrested and convicted of a series of incidents involving violence or threatened violence over the three years prior to the rape and was on bail at the time of the attack. Part of his bail conditions required him to stay away from Dublin city centre but he routinely flouted those restrictions. He encountered his victim just yards from OConnell St before holding her captive for 21 hours, raping her repeatedly and graphically describing how he would kill her. Just weeks earlier, a garda had tried to have him committed to a psychiatric unit but a doctor called to examine him would not sanction the move. The court heard that a few days later, family members pleaded with gardai to have him detained under the Mental Health Act but this was not acted on. Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has appointed Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy to review of the forces handling of the case. Mr Flanagan said he welcomed the move. This was a particularly dreadful case and I hope that the victim will in time recover from what was a dreadful and traumatic personal experience perpetrated on her in what was a shocking crime, he said. But he added that Mr Leahy should be allowed to complete his work before any conclusions were drawn about the need for stricter bail laws. Let the inquiry take its course. It will have a look in the first instance to see was the law adequate or not but secondly, and perhaps even more important in this case, were the practices and procedures and protocols sufficiently robust as far as the gardai were concerned. Mr Flanagan pointed out that amendments to the bail laws were introduced last year to allow more stringent condititions to be attached. It is open to the court to refuse bail in given circumstances and of course the courts operate independently of government, he said. The mother of Eoin Berkeley has meanwhile spoken of her sympathy for the Spanish teenager raped by her son and for her family. Joyce Butler told a Sunday newspaper she prayed every day for the victim and her family and hoped that she would recover and be able to live her life in peace. I will be at peace when I know the girl and know her father are at peace. I wont be quite at rest until I know there is healing coming to her family, she said. She added that her son, who was in care most of his life and in trouble from the age of 12, was also a victim. By Ann O'Loughlin A woman who claimed her ex-husband sexually abused their young son as part of a number of failed efforts to prevent the child being returned to the father has also failed to get a further appeal over the matter. The Supreme Court, in a written determination, refused to allow the woman appeal a Court of Appeal decision which ordered the boy should be returned to the European country his father is from. The woman, who is Irish, met the father in Ireland and the boy was born in Ireland. They married in 2013 and in 2015 the family went to live in the father's home country. They lived there for two-and-half years until the marriage irretrievably broke down. She left the family home with the boy and divorce proceedings began. The mother made allegations the ex-husband had abused the boy. The father obtained supervised access to him until the local courts in the father's native country decided there was no further necessity for supervision of access. Those courts later decided full custody should go to the father with access for the mother. Ms Justice Maire Whelan, giving the Court of Appeal decision last month on the woman's appeal, noted that the court of the other European country found the mother's "preoccupation and fears" about sexual abuse "stems from her own familial experience". Those fears predated the birth of the child, the other court found. There was also an investigation in 2015 by police in the other country into her first sexual abuse allegations and it resulted in a decision "to take no further action". She made a fresh allegation in January 2017, that the boy had told her of a sexual assault during an unsupervised visit by the father the previous New Year's Eve. A social worker investigated this and produced a report that was inconclusive but said it was a matter that should be investigated by the police. After the decision to give full custody to the father, the mother took the boy to Ireland where she lives with her family. The father brought Hague Convention proceedings here over child abduction which last July resulted in the High Court ordering the return of the boy to his father's country. The mother brought an appeal to the Court of Appeal claiming, among other things, the High Court failed to make a determination of a grave risk of psychological harm to the boy or of him being placed in an intolerable situation if returned. She also sought a stay on the return order because, she said, she had now instituted proceedings in the father's country seeking to vary the custody order and to permanently relocate to Ireland. The Court of Appeal found the High Court had not erred and the orders of the trial judge were comprehensive and addressed all reasonable issues relating to the child's welfare. The woman then sought leave for a further appeal to the Supreme Court. In their written determination refusing leave to appeal, Chief Justice Frank Clarke, Mr Justice John MacMenamin and Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan, said the Supreme Court did not consider the treatment of the facts or issues in the Court of Appeal decision involved a matter of general public importance. Free books throughout a childs life and new initiatives for childrens early learning will form part of a campaign to boost family supports. Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone will announce the measures later this month as part of a 10-year plan for the development, education and well-being of children Parents and families will receive a book bag with resources to support childrens playful early learning. The bags will be made available free to families with young children at key points in a childs life, including at infancy, transition to pre-school, and when they enter primary school. A 1m pilot project will initially see 2,500 two-year-olds and 2,500 four-year-olds involved in the book bag initiative as part of Ms Zappones plan. Her department is keen that this begins in the first half of next year. A national information campaign will be launched to build awareness of the role parents and families play in supporting childrens early learning with advice on creating playful learning environments. A bedtime reading campaign will be carried out as part of this initiative. Child-friendly events at local libraries to encourage an interest in books from an early age will also go ahead. The measures will be announced on November 19, alongside other funding and plans for early development supports for parents. Ms Zappone, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and other ministers will oversee elements of the 10-year-plan, which is being targetted at newborns to children aged five. There is evidence linking access to books and early reading with educational attainment and future positive livelihoods. The books initiative is expected to benefit families family where low incomes prevent parents buying books. The Department of Children says there are gaps in vocabulary of children starting school between children from low income and middle/high income families According to a report from Unicef, Ireland ranks second of 41 wealthy nations in promoting educational equality between children. Nonetheless, despite positive findings, the review found vulnerable groups are still in danger of being left behind. Results for Ireland reveal that inequality in education among children decreases as they move from early childhood education to primary school and eventually on to secondary school. However, with one in 10 students not reaching basic proficiency in reading by secondary school, there are still gaps. Ms Zappones officials want funding to address these. Labours olive branch offer of support for like-minded opposition parties has been snubbed by the Social Democrats and Greens despite an appeal to maximise progressive voices in the Dail. Labour leader Brendan Howlin urged supporters at a national conference on the weekend to give preferences to other parties after his own in future elections. The party also debated womens health, housing and potential coalitions after the next general election, although a motion on the latter was rejected by delegates yesterday. In his main TV speech, Mr Howlin said Labour if in government would introduce a digital service tax to ensure internet giants pay their fair share. Labour supporters should vote for other parties or candidates too, he also explained: To maximise the progressive voice, at the next election, I will call on all Labour voters to give their next preferences to progressive candidates, from the Green Party and the Social Democrats, and to progressive independents. But the offer for Labour voters to give their twos or threes to the Social Democrats and the Greens will not be reciprocated, those party leaders told the Irish Examiner yesterday. Social Democrats co-founder Roisin Shortall, formerly of Labour, said: No we wouldnt [do the same]. It is somewhat naive of Brendan to suggest that you can control transfers. People make up their own minds. It is a matter for the electorate. There is no question about us doing it. We would be delighted to get transfers from any party. But there is no question about us entering any agreement, she added. The Greens also look unfavourably at returning the offer from Labour about recommending preference voting to the electorate. Greens leader Eamon Ryan said: Historically we havent done this. It is not out disrespect for another party. We just leave it to voters discretion. We have agreed with the Social Democrats and Labour on Dail matters, but we usually leave it to voters. Nonetheless, he said the idea of recommending preferences be given to Labour would be discussed by the Greens electoral task-force, headed by up party chairman Roderic OGorman. Mr Howlin had made it clear such a voting strategy would not involve a pre-election pact. Nonetheless, he and the leadership are open to post-election coalitions as long as an alliance satisfie certain redline issues. One such demand would be housing. Labour is proposing building 80,000 affordable homes with 16bn in public money over five years. Mr Howlin reiterated the voting pledge at a press conference yesterday. A separate party motion to consider coalitions or confidence and supply arrangements was voted down by delegates. A motion was defeated on the weekend to allow future leadership candidates to come from the Seanad. Currently, only TDs can run for the leadership. By Ailin Quinlan A peninsula community is investigating the tourism potential of a medieval school in West Cork where local folklore suggests a king of Spain had sent his sons to be educated. The ODaly Bardic School in the 1300s was located near the village of Kilcrohane on the Sheeps Head peninsula. LEADER funding of 18,000 has allowed the local community council to hire heritage experts to conduct archival research and hold public consultations as part of a tourism assessment of the ruins of a famed ruin. The objective is to assess any work to date on the bardic school tradition, both locally and nationally, said Anne ODonovan of the Muintir Bhaire Community Council. We understand that the Sheeps Head school was one of a number around the country and this would be a unique project. A public meeting will be held and the researchers may link in with local schoolchildren as well. There will be broad consultations with people about the potential to develop a year-round attraction. The professional assessment project is due to be completed by March next. The school was run by a family of bardic poets, the ODalys, from around the 14th century. Bardic poets were professionals hired by clan leaders, said Caroline Crowley, a volunteer researcher with the Muintir Bhaire group. They were essentially chroniclers of history and politics. In a way, they were the journalists of their day and, also, very much the PR people of their day for their chieftains. They wrote elegies praising the chieftain and his family, she said. The ODalys were poets to MacCarthy Reagh and OMahony the Western and the last known professional poet of the Sheeps Head clan was Conchobhar Cam ODaly who was still writing elegies in 1660. The role of the bardic poets was to sing the praises of these families to demonstrate their status and power to those who would have been beneath them in social status. Local folklore has it, she said, the king of Spain sent his sons there but two of his sons drowned when their boat struck a rock while mackerel fishing. What is special about the school on the Sheeps Head Peninsula is it is one of the few places where we know, for sure, a bardic school existed, she said, with its ruins constituting a wall and a window. We know that in the 1840s, an Ordinance Survey was carried out and this is the first documented evidence about a structure identified as a bardic school, Ms Crowley said. What is really special about the bardic schools is they show a side of our history in medieval times many of us are not familiar with. They give an insight into a very structured society where places of learning were available, where people studied for seven years learning Latin and Greek and rigorously training to become bardic poets. The fact that that sort of education, which had an international dimension and happening in a very remote part of Ireland is fascinating, she added. Peter Casey has claimed he was "set-up" in his Late Late Show appearance last Friday. He claimed Ryan Tubridy behaved in an "unprofessional, patronising and insulting" manner during the interview. Speaking from Mumbai, Mr Casey told Niall Boylan on Classic Hits: "The biggest challenge was trying to get my wife under control, she was so annoyed. She thought it was an absolute disgrace. She was fit to be tied. "We [Casey and Tubridy] said we were going to spend maybe three to four minutes, but absolutely cut it off at four, on the traveller situation. I said that's fine and I want to make clear my position so people understand that I'm absolutely not a racist." Mr Casey, who finished second to Michael D Higgins in the Presidential election, has been caught up in controversy over his comments about the Traveller community. He criticised Mr Tubridy's handling of questions from the audience and his subsequent questioning during the appearance. "You don't create inclusion by marginalising a community" Peter Casey believes "a weak government" recognised the travelling community as an ethnic minority. #latelate pic.twitter.com/FCxC9bZwqN RTE One (@RTEOne) November 3, 2018 "I was surprised and taken aback. It shocked me to be quite honest. I really felt that he was supposed to be impartial and professional. "I've no problem getting attacked by the audience. I'd people before telling me I should pull out because this had been a set-up." When asked if he believed he was set-up, he replied: "without a shadow of a doubt". "The way he was so unprofessional in how he behaved and very patronising throughout. He was insulting. "It was such a big contrast to the reasonable, friendly person in the green room." Mr Casey also said he plans to get a DNA test done "to see exactly where my ethnic background is" and if he has any connection to the Traveller community. RTE refused to comment on Mr Casey's claims. Digital Desk RTE bosses have been told to go back to the drawing board over their plans for a large carpark at the stations headquarters in Montrose in Dublin. Dublin City Council has urged the broadcaster to revise its proposals for the construction of a surface carpark for 143 vehicles on the former main access road to the RTE campus from Nutley Lane which currently provides 41 parking spaces. Council planners have expressed concern that granting planning to the state broadcaster for the development would set an undesirable precedent. They said there was also a serious concern that additional parking at the RTE campus would undermine the capacity of the junction at the new entrance to the station off the N11 dual carriageway. The council says the number of parking spaces on the RTE campus is excessive and contrary to the objectives of its development plan which seeks to achieve a shift in transport modes away from car usage as well as discouraging commuter car parking. Furthermore, there appears to be no rationale for the level of car parking other than the historic supply of parking on the site, it said. The council has now sought more detailed information from RTE including a breakdown of staff numbers by core and shift workers as well as how RTE employees currently commute to work. The station has also been asked to provide details of cycle parking, shower, changing and drying facilities at Montrose as well as a mobility management plan and to clarify if it has a dedicated mobility manager for supporting and encouraging staff to switch to more sustainable modes of transport. Council planners have asked RTE to address their concern before they issue a final decision on whether to permit the proposed new car- park. The revised configuration of the RTE campus arises from the sale of over eight acres of land to the construction firm, Cairn Homes, for 107.5m last year. Around 500 houses and apartments are expected to be developed on the site. Health Minister Simon Harris has hit back at criticisms levelled at him by the former HSE chief, saying Tony OBrien took the right decision to step down. Mr Harris was responding to an interview Mr OBrien gave to the Sunday Business Post in which he describes the minister as a frightened little boy. In the interview, Mr OBrien is reported as describing Mr Harris as a weak minister, who is obsessed with media coverage and runs scared of headlines. He said Harris behaved like a frightened little boy during the recent CervicalCheck controversy. I would have hoped hed have been able to show more courage in the face of a difficult political and media onslaught, Mr OBrien said. A spokesperson for Mr Harris said: The Minister doesnt believe in engaging in the politics of personalised attacks. The spokesperson added that it was Mr OBriens own decision to step down and that The Minister believes that was the right decision. He wishes him well. Last night Taoiseach Leo Varadkar defended his health minister, saying Simon Harris had handled his department with ability, empathy and maturity. Mr OBrien stepped down in May, ahead of schedule, after six years in charge of the HSE, at the height of the CervicalCheck controversy. He accepts that mistakes were made by the HSE, describing his organisations initial response to the crisis as a trainwreck. Yesterday Stephen Teap, whose wife Irene died in July last year, after two false negative smear tests in 2010 and 2013, asked in a tweet "Who was the leader of this trainwreck?". He described Mr O'Brien's interview as a "bitter response" to his fall from grace as head of the HSE. "Where are the questions on his poor leadership skills?" Mr Teap asked. Mr O'Brien said in the interview that he believed leadership was his legacy to the HSE. Mr Harris' spokesperson said he was "working very closely with officials in his department" to ensure women affected by the CervicalCheck scandal were supported and on eradicating cervical cancer through the best possible screening and vaccination programme. Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan defended his Cabinet colleague on RTE radio yesterday, and criticised Mr OBriens no-holds-barred interview. I think it was totally out of order on the part of Tony OBrien," Mr Flanagan said. He said the ex-HSE boss had done himself no favours by descending into personal attacks. This is Tony who stepped down after a pretty rapid fall from grace himself, Mr Flanagan said. The CervicalCheck controversy came to light during a court case taken by Limerick woman Vicky Phelan when it emerged she was one of a number of women who had not been told their screening history was part of a retrospective audit by CervicalCheck, following a cancer diagnosis. It has since emerged that at least 221 women with cervical cancer could have potentially benefited from more timely/more appropriate intervention if their smears had been correctly read. To date, at least 20 women caught up in the CervicalCheck controversy have died. Latest: The Taoiseach has stepped in to defend Minister for Health Simon Harris after a former health boss accused him of behaving like a frightened little boy during the cervical cancer screening scandal. Leo Vardakar went on to accuse the HSE of passing its problems on to the Department of Health a practice he said needs to stop. In an interview with the Sunday Business Post, former HSE chief Tony OBrien accused Mr Harris of being a weak minister. Mr OBrien, who resigned in May as head of the HSE over the cancer controversy, claimed Mr Harris was obsessed with media coverage and also attacked politicians who probed the issue. In a move to defend his Cabinet minister, Mr Varadkar said: The past six months alone, he brought through the referendum to repeal the Eighth amendment and at long last has enacted the public health alcohol bill legislation that is going to save a lot of lives. Those are two pretty big achievements by a Health Minister in six months. I believe anything he may lack in terms of experience or age he makes up in his commitment and compassion. Well done Simon. This law will save lives https://t.co/OWZwI7jdB9 Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) November 5, 2018 He said that on balance Mr OBrien was a good public servant who gave the country some good service. But lets not forget the circumstances under which he decided to step down early and that was the HSEs very bad handling of the CervicalCheck controversy which he admits himself was a train wreck I think he was right to step down early, he continued. Lorraine Walsh, who received an incorrect smear test (Brian Lawless/PA) Lorraine Walsh, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer after previously receiving inaccurate test results, said it was a pity Mr Tony OBrien couldnt take responsibility for the disaster that is the HSE, that he had led. Mr Varadkar admitted there has always been difficulties in health, but added it is not good enough for the HSE to write letters passing on the problems to the Department of Health. Thats not what people are paid a lot of money to do, he added. Most agencies accept it is their responsibility to come in on budget, but the HSEs practice for many years now has been to pass the problem on to the department and that is something that has to change and it will certainly have to change now that we have a record budget for health, an extra 1 billion next year. If the Department of Education, if pretty much every government agency and government body can come in under budget it isnt too much to ask the HSE to do so and its not good enough they just write letters passing the problem on to the department. As I always say, we have a lot of problems in health, nobody denies that. We have serious problem in overcrowding in our emergency departments, weve got a lot of people who are waiting for too long for the appointment they need or the treatment they need. We shouldnt lose sight of the bigger picture, and that is the fact we have made enormous progress in health over the last couple of years.- Press Association Earlier: The Taoiseach has defended Health Minister Simon Harris and says the HSE needs to stop passing its problems on to the Department of Health. In an interview with The Sunday Business Post, the ex-HSE boss accused Mr Harris of being a weak minister, who behaved like a frightened little boy during the recent health scandal. The Taoiseach said people should not forget Mr O'Brien was head of the HSE at the time of its 'train wreck' response to the issue. Leo Varadkar also defended his Health Minister. "Look at that guy's [Harris'] record. In the past six months alone, he brought through the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment and at long last has enacted the Read More: "That's two pretty big achievements by a health minister in six months and I believe anything he may lack in terms of experience or age, he makes up in his commitment and his compassion." Yesterday, a number of CervicalCheck scandal victims criticised Mr O'Brien after the interview. Tony O'Brien Lorraine Walsh, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer after previously receiving inaccurate test results, said it was a pity that Mr OBrien couldnt take responsibility for the disaster that is the HSE, that he had led. She tweeted: Pity after all this time he couldnt take responsibility for the disaster that is the HSE, that he lead and desperately failed at leading! Shame on you Tony OBrien, you made me sick and now 6 years later you make me feel sick! The Galway woman is one of the more than 220 women affected by failures in the CervicalCheck screening system. It emerged earlier this year that 221 women and families were not told about misreported smear tests. The husband of one of the victims also hit out at Mr OBrien. Stephen Teap, whose wife Irene died last year, tweeted along with a link to the story: Head of the Old Boys Club gets taken out, read his bitter response here in this interview. In the article, Mr OBrien described the HSEs initial response to the crisis as a trainwreck with Mr Teap asking: Who was the leader of this trainwreck? Where are the questions on his poor leadership skills. Mr Harris appointed Mr Teap and Ms Walsh as patient representatives to a steering committee tasked with overseeing changes to the CervicalCheck programme. - Digital Desk & PA With only five (5) weeks left before Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) elective congress, the union might find itself embroiled in a controversial congress in Kasane. The congress is expected to be held from the 10th to the 13th of December this year, with two warring factions eyeing the leadership of the union, now unleashing war on each other by the pass of every week. One faction is led by BOPEU President Masego Mogwera while the other is led by Zibani Philemon, who has been tipped to challenge Mogwera for the presidency. In July this year, Philemon was controversially appointed acting president at a Cresta Lodge meeting in Gaborone. The two warring factions have torn BOPEU into two since July in a power struggle that has culminated into legal battles. The legal battle has pitted BOPEU as 1st Applicant followed by Ogaufi Masame, Zibani Philemon, Mosalagae Tlhako and Motswaledi Monaiwa against union President, Masego Mogwera as 1st Respondent followed by Tlhabologo Galekhutle (Treasurer), Martin Gabobake (1st Deputy President), Topias Marenga (General Secretary) and Ketlhapelang Karabo (Deputy General Secretary). It has emerged this week that as the fight between the two continues, Mogwera has pulled the plug on her nemesis and slapped them with letters of disciplinary hearing. The four members who were appointed interim as National Office Bearers (NOB) are said to have refused to appear before a three-member Commission on Disciplinary. The other seven (7) have been given letters to show cause why disciplinary action cannot be taken against them. Eleven NEC members participated in the July meeting that suspended Mogwera and team. According to observers, this could cause more tension and members facing disciplinary hearing according to the Constitution would not be part of the December congress and would not contest any National Office Bearers (NOB) positions. NOB is composed of the President, 1st Deputy President- Collective Bargaining, 2nd Deputy President- Gender and Human Rights, General Secretary, Deputy General Secretary and Treasurer General. According to Article 25.1.2 of the BOPEU Constitution to be eligible to hold office as NOB, a member shall have served at least one full term in Regional Executive Committee (REC) or any other national statutory structures of the union and also have been a member of the union in good standing for a period of not less than 4 years. Article 20.1.3 states, to be eligible to be elected to the REC, a member shall have served in any other union structure for a period of not less than 3 years and shall have been a member of the union in good standing for a period of not less than 4 years. This, according to some sources, means key NEC members who were serving in various regional committees are facing disciplinary action and could not be able to contest for NOB as the disciplinary process would not have been completed by the December congress this year. The suspended members are also part of the two cases that were launched against Mogwera at the high court, which she won. The remaining seven (7) members were written letters, dated 15th October 2018 referenced Show cause why disciplinary action cannot be instituted and or taken against yourself. The letters signed by Mogwera states, You are hereby requested to show cause why disciplinary action cannot be taken and or instituted against you in respect of allegations of serious misconduct levelled against you. It is alleged that on or about 28th of July 2018, at Cresta Lodge acting in concert with other members of the National Executive Committee, you purported to have continued with an adjourned meeting of the NEC without any lawful authority. It is further alleged that the members signed, without authority, a power of attorney instructing an attorney to institute legal proceeding in the name of BOPEU against President Masego Mogwera Tlhabologo Galekhutle (Treasurer), Martin Gabobake (1st Deputy President), Topias Marenga (General Secretary) and Ketlhapelang Karabo (Deputy General Secretary) of BOPEU. It is alleged that you knowingly signed the power of attorney despite being aware that you possess no authority and or power to do that. It is further alleged that you participated in an illegal meeting which purportedly suspended the president, 1st Deputy President, General Secretary, Treasurer General, and Deputy General Secretary of BOPEU. On this basis, it is alleged that you are working against the interests of the union. The purported resolutions of the illegal meeting are annexed hereunder for ease of reference. Mogwera further asks the affected NEC members to show cause within seven days of service of the letters. When contacted, Philemon who is leading the pack of the suspended members and has been linked to challenging Mogwera said any member who qualifies is eligible to contest. He would not want to be drawn into discussing the union matters with the press. He has however indicated that he heard about letters of disciplinary hearing but he has not been served. According to Philemon, it is not his job to continue fighting the leadership of the union but it is up to members of the union to stand up for their rights and protect the union they have worked so hard to build. It is now time for the membership to rise to the occasion. If they believe something is not right they have to seek answers. This is not about Philemon, it is about the union and its legacy, he said.For her part, Mogwera rubbished claims that she is trying to purge people who want to challenge her. She explained that the union has a membership of 35 000 and the congress would be attended by 500 delegates. Mogwera revealed that just because people have been suspended, they should not think there are no capable BOPEU members who can contest in the December congress, adding that this would be taking BOPEU members for granted. She has however confirmed that the seven NEC members have received their letters. As for the four who once instituted a case against me they are playing hide and seek to come for disciplinary hearing. We will however give them time and allow the work of the commission to go on uninterrupted. The 11 members were found to have acted grossly by a commission of inquiry in the July meeting. The commission was made up of two lawyers and an honorary member of BOPEU, said Mogwera. She said BOPEU members know exactly what is going on as they have been briefed during the various regional congresses that have been held. She is optimistic of a calm and successful congress. Seven out of 10 of all personal injury motor cases assessed by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) during the first half of this year were whiplash-related. Drivers with whiplash-related injuries represented 79% of all motor cases. Similarly, injured passengers represented 69% of the cases. The average PIAB award for a whiplash case was 18,581 in general damages (pain and suffering), plus 1,456 in special damages (medical expenses, loss of earnings, and other costs). The statistics, based on an analysis of around 4,500 awards, are published today by the board, an independent State body that assesses personal injury compensation claims. The first report of the Personal Injuries Commission (PIC) had recommended that the board produce information on the incidents of whiplash injuries. The PIC found personal compensation payments for soft tissue injuries in Ireland were running at 4.4 times higher than those in Britain. The PIABs analysis was based on the World Health Organisation system for categorising injuries, known as ICD-10. The average whiplash award for a male was 18,126 in general damages, plus 1,460 in special damages. For a female, the average award was 19,016 in general damages, plus 1,456 in special damages. The award for a driver was 19,066 in general damages and 1,734 in special damages. It was 17,026 in general damages and 857 in special damages for a passenger. Numerically, the awards were split almost 50/50 between males and females. Claimants in 55% of whiplash cases received a total award of between 10,000 and 20,000 in total damages. In 88% of whiplash cases, the claimant received a total award of under 30,000. However, the average total award for injuries not classified as whiplash was higher than the whiplash average at 27,386. Such awards are likely to be higher because the injuries involve fractures or other more serious injuries. The average total award for all motor cases in the study was 20,472 in general damages and 2,326 in special damages. A new judicial council that will compile guidelines for personal injury awards is expected to replace the Book of Quantum published by the board, a move that is supported by the PIAB. The Government is confident that proposed legislation establishing the council will be passed by the end of the year. PIC chairman, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, said asking the judicial council to compile guidelines for personal injury awards was the best approach to take. He said that, over the years, compensation awards had got out of hand. The PIC recommended that the judicial council, when established, would produce guidelines on appropriate levels of damages in Ireland similar to what exists in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. A PIAB spokesperson said the commissions recommendations represented an opportunity for a step-change in improving the personal injuries compensation system in Ireland. PIAB hopes that the positive momentum towards achieving a sustainable and predictable personal injury compensation system in Ireland will continue, he said. PIAB makes its awards in line with current levels of personal injuries compensation in Ireland. PIAB has assessed more than 130,000 cases since it was established in 2004 and over 60% of claimants have accepted its awards. By Conor Kane The 800-year-old Hook Lighthouse in Co Wexford has been presented with a "highly commended" prize at the prestigious World Tourism Awards in London. Described as a "world class" tourist attraction, the lighthouse took the honour in the Best Tourism Project in the UK and Ireland 2018 category at the awards held by the British Guild of Travel Writers at their event in the Savoy Hotel, London. Hook Lighthouse was the only Irish attraction to be shortlisted, having been nominated by award-winning global travel writer and guild member Isabel Conway, and went through a rigorous judging process since September. The final stage of judging saw Isabel Conway showcase the lighthouse attraction to her peers via a video presentation which was captured during one of her visits to the lighthouse. Within the video, she said it is "world-class, unique and deserves further recognition". Speaking from the awards ceremony in London, Hook Lighthouse manager Ann Waters said everyone involved is thrilled. The entire team at Hook lighthouse are dedicated to ensuring a top-quality visitor experience for every visitor, from ensuring fun for the little ones to sharing the local knowledge and historical insights and heritage of the 800-year-old lighthouse. "This is a real team award. We have been working hard on developing new product experiences and travelling to trade tourism events sharing these with global tour operators for the last 18 months, this work is really paying off and this hugely high profile award will certainly help in this area now too." She pointed out that Hook Lighthouse has a "100% eco and sustainable tourism policy" and that the global guild of travel writers aim to highlight "diverse attractions from all over the world which will ensure a greater experience for visitors, while also seeing a move away from over-populated tourism destinations". We are honoured ... what an achievement, thank you to the British Guild of Travel Writers and especially to the guild member @conwayisabel for nominating us. Everything at Hook is a team effort, well done and thank you to all of the team at #HookLighthouse #BGTWAawards pic.twitter.com/T2KlThyGEx Hook Lighthouse (@hooklighthouse) November 4, 2018 The high-profile awards ceremony is held annually in London on the eve of the World Travel Market tourism event, which the Hook Lighthouse team will be attending to promote the world heritage attraction and their region within Irelands Ancient East, encouraging more visitors and tour operators to visit and highlight the area. Travel Writer journalist Isabel Conway said she was "delighted" for all the team at Hook Lighthouse. The 800-year-old lighthouse has undertaken a strategic review and development of its tour and facilities in recent years, developing a new visitor experience and additional evening and early morning tour and food offerings. It is also starting a three-year development plan with Failte Ireland and Wexford County Council to develop its brand as part of Irelands Ancient East. By Dan MacCarthy A reader, Paul Hassett, has inquired if size is the only determining factor. Goat Island near Ardmore, Co Waterford, is tiny but is known locally as an island, rather than an isle, and that is as good a qualification as any. It measures just 20m by 20m and has a very small grassy area on top. No one could ever have lived there but there is one manmade sign in evidence, namely an iron hoop driven into the ground, and therein lies a story. This scrap of land has an important place in Irish maritime history. The area is very popular in the summer with swimming, fishing, abseiling and rock climbing among the activities played out. Pauls family has been holidaying there for many decades. When Ardnacrusha was built in the 1930s it was the single biggest engineering project in Europe designed and built by the Germans and to house the workers they had canteens, effectively wooden bungalows. Pauls father bought one of the canteens and plonked it beside to Goat Island for his family. It had no electricity, no running water, three small bedrooms, a little kitchen and an outdoor loo. We were all reared there as kids and we loved it, he says. It is possible to walk the 80 or so metres to Goat Island most of the time as it is in deep water only at spring tides. Its steep cliff has a counterpart in the cliffs on the mainland and these features were perfect for the Irish Coastguard to carry out rescue drills using breeches buoys. The buoy was similar to todays ziplines and involved a line being shot over to a foundering boat from a rocket. The line was secured and then individuals could be rescued by stepping into a harness and brought ashore. For the drills at Goat Island the island acted as a ship and a volunteer was needed to test the harness. To be chosen to come across on the breeches buoy was a major score It was a rope which you sat into, the equivalent of a bosuns chair on a boat Nowadays with all-weather helicopters, lifeboats and ribs, the breeches buoy system has become obsolete. The use of the buoy was credited with saving many lives over the years such as three men rescued at Summercove, Kinsale, Co Cork, from the Thomas Anselm trawler in 1939. Around four full-scale exercises a year were carried at each coastguard station. Men would set out from the Coastguard station at Ardmore about 3km from Goat Island with the rocket carriage. The Coastguard would shoot a rocket from what is now the carpark beside Goat Island. It was attached to a huge post which is now gone. And they would set up the breeches buoy. If a ship had foundered on rocks within 100 yards of the coast thats what they would use from a cliff a rocket on the ship to bring the personnel back from the ship. And to make sure that the rocket worked and the breeches buoy worked, they would do that exercise using Goat Island as a stand-in for a ship. All the kids would be gathered around in anticipation wondering whos going to get the chance of it, you couldnt bring everybody. I was selected once, I thought I was a hero. Ardmores Goat Island is one of six in the country. There are two off Schull, Co Cork, Mor and Beg, and three more in lakes: Lough Gill, Co Sligo, and Lough Derg and Lough Corrib, Co Galway. As for Paul, his experience of Goat Island passed through the alembic of time and became memories instead. My father later sold the canteen, and every time I pass I wonder why didnt we keep it, but as my mother said the ceilidhs were in the village and thats where ye wanted to be. Later then as you get older you regret it. Despite wide acclaim for their new album, O Emperor are calling it a day. The Cork-based quintet tell Ellie OByrne the breakup is not just about the tricky finances of running a band. Theres not enough institutional support. Rents are too high. Punters wont buy albums. Irelands too small a market. Musicians, like the rest of us, can now self-publish at length on social media. From Fight Like Apes heartfelt parting shots on the impossibility of making a living in Irish music to David Kitts recent outburst over meeting Dublin rents on a musicians income, theres a corresponding tendency to build a broader narrative about the state of the Irish music industry when quality Irish acts hit the rocks. O Emperor are having none of it. Theyre the Waterford quintet who met in secondary school, although some have been friends since primary. They officially formed following an en masse move to Cork for college, their critically acclaimed 2010 debut album was released through Universal Records, and their follow-up, Vitreous, saw the band build their own studio to record in. Theyve just announced that their freshly pressed third album will be their last. Theyre reticent about the reasons for their split, saying its just a case of life getting in the way. Its easy to blame why were finishing up on external things, lead guitarist Alan Comerford says. But it just feels like the right time to move on. Comerford and drummer Brendan Fennessy have met up for a chat about their final album, Jason: the rest of the band cant make it because Comerford and Fennessy are the only two members who remain living in Cork. Bassist Richie Walsh moved back to Waterford, vocalist and keyboard player Phil Christie teaches music in Dublins BIMM and vocalist and guitarist Paul Savage moved to Bray for a multimedia job. Its this atomisation that has been largely responsible for the bands decision to call it a day, Comerford and Fennessy explain: its just too difficult to get together these days. But surely even this speaks to a broader narrative than just a bunch of lads happy to quit while theyre ahead? If we had a music industry where musicians of this calibre didnt have to maintain a day-job, wouldnt the challenges be fewer? Its true that if we were depending on O Emperor to make a living, we wouldnt have a hope Comerford, who has what he describes as a night-job playing with other bands and is dad to a four-year-old daughter, says But Fennessy says the truth is complex, a double-edged sword. Its interesting that this narrative is getting attached to bands breaking up, he says. Obviously artists are making less money because of whats happened in the digital world, but its also made it possible to make a really good-sounding album on your own laptop and I think thats often overlooked. There are certain aspects to the bands split that arent being discussed: long-time bassist Richie Walsh has been replaced by Paddy Freeman for the bands final three gigs. Yeah, hes just really busy and thats how things are, Fennessy says. A track, Japan, on their new album, seems to chart frustrations with the machinations of the music industry, doling out in lyrics a set of nonsensical instructions to achieve the stereotypical big in Japan goal. Its funny that that comes across, because that is actually a song about a fairly specific situation we encountered, Fennessy admits. I cant really go into because we could get in trouble, but in a roundabout way, yes, thats what the song is about. Enough said, then: the truth is complex and thats all were getting. Eclectic Scope Another thing thats complex is Jason, a highly experimental album three years in the making. With the stated intention of paying homage to early 70s African psychedelia, its an album of breathtakingly eclectic scope, where tantalising echoes of everything from the Beta Band to Prince can be heard. Glued together with distorted, trippy vocal samples, for the most part, its too darn clever to be radio-friendly, but it will delight existing O Emperor fans. Singles Effort, Girl and Make It Rain are the most accessible offerings amidst an exciting mishmash of largely improvised songs, including several instrumentals. Why is the album called Jason? Comerford and Fennessy look at each other and laugh. Fennessy: It was a last-minute attempt to name the album and we just went, well, we need to name the album so lets just give it a name. Lets call it Jason. We thought it was really funny. That was what appealed to us, that its so ridiculous, Comerford adds. It may have taken three years to be mixed, mastered and released, but 80% of Jason was recorded in just three days in a self-constructed studio off York Street, Fennessy, whos the bands main recording technician, says. Some additional vocals, with typical O Emperor idiosyncrasy, were recorded in Paul Savages toilet. It was sort of ridiculous, Comerford says. All Pauls housemates seemed to have really high-powered jobs, like doctors and stuff, and they were coming home on their lunchbreaks and were there with a microphone in the jacks: Just recording our rock and roll album there, lads. Dont mind us Exploding the usual recording process, where band members would arrive in to record with outlines of songs prepared, Jason was largely improvised. There were no preconceived ideas, so things would start out as a joke, Comerford says. Wed start off playing something sounding like an eighties computer game theme tune and everyone would be laughing, and then a few minutes later it would be turning into a song. Its strange to realise that you can work in a different way, Fennessy cuts in. A lot of it was not good but then every so often, youre like, wow, thats really good. Its very striking, to improvise like that and not really apply so much effort and still get results. Results for no effort, its great! Still Friends Finding a fresh way to work at the end of O Emperors lifecycle will not have been in vain: having been band-mates and friends since childhood, Comerford and Fennessy say that they cant conceive of a time when members of O Emperor wont want to play with each other in different outfits. Fennessy already plays in Phil Christies minimalist brainchild, The Bonk, and Fennessy and Comerford harbour hopes of working on, of all things, a country music project together. Were talking proper country, Buck Owens, Western Swing type stuff, Comerford says. In any case, therell definitely be continuations. Were all really looking forward to jamming together, without the pressure. Three dates in Dublin, Cork and Waterford in November spell out the last hurrah for O Emperor. Fittingly, their Cork gig is in Dali, the venue formerly known as The Pavilion, where they had their first gig. And then, theyll wrap up back where it all started in Waterford; their set will include material from Jason, but also earlier songs, their classic hits, Comerford says with tongue-in-cheek aplomb. Its going to be really nice to bookend it that way, Fennessy says. Ive thought about how its going to feel, but I think itll just be really normal, weve played together so much. O Emperor play in Dali, Cork on Nov 16, and Project in Waterford on Nov 23. Jason is out now can be ordered on Vinyl via oemperor.bandcamp.com/album/jason The reaction to Margaret OConnors decision not have kids was so extreme, she decided to write a thesis about it, she tells Pat Fitzpatrick. Margaret OConnor doesnt want to have kids. I dont like roller coasters, I dont want to watch a horror film, I dont plan to have children, she says. Its just not something that appeals to me. The 35-year-old counsellor and psychotherapist isnt alone. A recent OECD study found that 19% of Irish women in the 40 to 44 age bracket are childless, placing us third in the developed world. Not all these women choose to be childless; some experience fertility issues while others dont find a suitable partner, but the research and anecdotal evidence suggests that the number making an active choice is on the rise. The latest figures from the US suggest almost 20% of childless women in the 40 to 44 age bracket have decided not to have kids. This isnt an easy choice to make - polite society has always been quick to judge childless women. According to the book, Six Women of Salem, which examines the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s, women with few or no children were highly vulnerable to accusations, arrest and in some cases, the gallows. They mightnt hang women for this any more, but there is still a lingering taboo around women who dont have kids. Andrea Leadsom even brought it into the latest Tory leadership race in the UK., implying that as her rival Theresa May didnt have kids, she didnt really have a stake in the future. In a sign that attitudes are changing, the backlash to this claim forced her to withdraw from the race. But you can be sure the message chimed with a section of her audience. (If you doubt this, just count page after page of results when you put childless women Daily Mail into Google.) The various emotions surrounding this are in plain view on a Facebook page called, I Regret Having Children. Initially a site for people struggling with kids in their lives, it is now a forum for people to share stories and views on the decision to become a parent. Judging by one or two of the posts, it also shows the dangers of going on Facebook after cracking open a bottle of red. But its a good window into how people approach the idea of having kids. Margaret OConnor knows this is a sensitive area, particularly for women who decide to go public with their choice not to have kids. Its not an easy decision to make. It can cost relationships and it can cause difficulty with family relationships if there is an expectation of grandparents. This is more than a personal issue for Margaret. Since she was a teenager, she has struggled to understand how people could be so sure they wanted to have kids. So, she decided to study it as part of her thesis, asking 15 women from all walks of Irish life how they made the decision to become a mother. Nobody found it a positive experience, she says of her research. "Everybody, regardless of their decision, found it a really isolating, negative thing to think about. It wasnt something they felt they were able to talk about, the fact you would even be questioning it was seen as a strange thing to do" In addition, she points out there is no support for people going through the process here in Ireland. The assumption here is that you will have children, you want to have children, and if you dont there is something wrong She has decided to address the lack of support with a range of counselling services, detailed on her website Arekidsforme.ie. Along with one-to-one and online services, she will also offer a service to couples, to help them deal with the decision-making process. Margaret says she has no agenda either way and will just act as a guide, exploring whether the client really wants kids and examining why they think they might not make good parents. (For example, if they had a negative family experience themselves.) Its interesting that she is offering the service to couples. Most of the focus has been on women, but its obviously an issue for men as well. You only have to look at the attention Ricky Gervais got when he announced that kids werent for him to appreciate that men are supposed to want kids as well. This is despite the fact that most men over 40 in Ireland dont really know what its like to have kids. Most of us grew up watching our Dads mastering the art of hands-off parenting and expected it to be a few sleepless nights followed by a trip to Old Trafford for their fourth birthday. We dont have the information network that women have, from relations, sisters, friends, that tells them what a child does to your life (good or bad.) As a result, the first time most Irish men really think about fatherhood is when they are forced to spend a whole Saturday looking at baby-buggys in Smyths, and by then its too late. This isnt to put men off having kids Id recommend it to anyone. But that doesnt make it right for everyone. So it isnt just good for women that people like Margaret OConnor are there to help them through such an important decision. Its a conversation that men should be having as well. To understand Charlottesville is to understand the divisive, divided, and vitriolic America we now know, writes Joyce Fegan. The question we are all asking what has happened to America? And how do you stem this global flow of hate? A small town, with cobbled streets and coffee houses, maple trees and southern charm, holds the answers to both of those questions. To understand Charlottesville, Virginia is to understand the divisive and divided, violent and vitriolic America we now know. First things first: nothing happened to America. Trump, yes, is a key player in the validation and promulgation of hate and bigotry, but the current state of American affairs goes far beyond, and before, a reality TV star, with six bankruptcies to his name. You ever see the movie Ghostbusters? Don Gathers asks me, with his soft southern drawl in a bar in downtown Charlottesville. Hes trying to answer the question: where has all this hate, bigotry and racism come from, the one that brought death and destruction to his town at the hands of torch-carrying white supremacists in August 2017? Remember that scene where theres that river of slime running just below, thats what has happened here. That river of slime has been running through this town, just below the surface, for a while, and they just waited for their catalyst to bubble up, he explains. And what was that catalyst? I guess 2008, was what caused many of them to bubble back up to the surface again with the election of President Obama and the hatred and the vitriol that was espoused through that eight-year window has just never stopped, he adds. But 2008, is far too close a date to stop at. Former president Barack Obama points to Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams at a rally in Atlanta. Picture: John Bazemore/AP The popular story of America has three distinct parts. The first, and the one we all know, is one of adventure. In 1492, a man by the name of Christopher Columbus went on an epic voyage, and on his journey he discovered a new and magical land. Nowhere in this story are we told about the mass genocide of the natives, the Indian Americans. Part two, the English and the French begin to colonise the new land. A while later, in 1776, these colonies declare independence and the United States of America is formed. Next is a civil war. The part that gets left out is: it was over slavery. Abraham Lincoln is elected president in 1860 vowing to abolish slavery. A group of southern states, including Virginia, are not happy because they want their slaves and so they form the Confederacy in 1861, and break away from the rest of America. Theyre defeated in 1865. And all is supposedly well. And part three slavery gets abolished and in the 1900s we have the civil rights movement that ends the segregation of black people. Again, all is supposedly well. Then in 2017 America, when images of white-hooded men carrying torches and flags through Charlottesville, were broadcast around the world, we were aghast. We were further aghast when it resulted in the fatality of a white woman Heather Heyer. We thought it was a one-off, an isolated incident over some statue or other, in small town America. Those statues, that tower over Charlottesville to this very moment, are of men called Robert Lee and Jonathan Stonewall Jackson men who believed in, and argued for, the supremacy of the white race and the inferiority of the coloured. I stand at those large statues with Jalane Schmidt, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia. She gives me a test. My weak American history is going to let me down. No, she wants me to find the memorial dedicated to the slaves, amongst these adjoining parks and their enormous statues. I draw a blank. We walk a few dozen feet and she brings my attention to a plaque, about the size of a laptop computer screen, that mentions slaves. Thats it, she says. And I start to get why these statues, and their vast presence, and their nod to white supremacy, might upset the black population of this quaint red-brick town. Back in the bar, Don tells me about the local girl who sparked a national debate. In 2016, we had a 15-year-old young lady, at the high school, Zyahna Bryant, who dared step up and say: This isnt right. She started the petition to have those statues removed. She said they made her feel uncomfortable, he explains. This is where the story is no longer about a small town kerfuffle. She wrote a letter to her town council and local paper in March 2016. When I think of Robert E Lee (one of the statues) I instantly think of someone fighting in favour of slavery, she wrote, thoughts of physical harm, cruelty, and disenfranchisement flood my mind. I am offended every time I pass it. I am reminded over and over again of the pain of my ancestors and all of the fighting they had to go through for us to be where we are now, she wrote. I totally get it. Black people were burned and hung as recently as 60 years ago, they are killed with impunity by American law enforcement to this day those statues do not serve to heal. Who doesnt get it though, are three white women, who pose for selfies at one of the statues during my history tour. In their jeans and fleece tops and dyed blonde hair, they giggle over the photos. One woman says: Im going to put this up [on social media] and people can say what they like. There is no doubt that there is a mental block between those women, who see those statues as part of their heritage and history, and Zyahna who sees only oppression. Lara Harrison is a therapist and a mother of three. She is also an activist who goes into schools to try and tackle this very disconnect. Not only are the confederate statues an issue in this town, as they are elsewhere in America, but school kids have worn caps and tops with the confederate flag on them to class. Do I think some of those kids absolutely know that theyre intimidating students of colour and want to do that? Absolutely. But do I think some of those kids have been ingrained with this argument that its heritage not hate? Yes, absolutely. And I think its our responsibility to educate them beyond that because whatever their intention is, the impact is harm and the impact is trauma, Lara says. As a white woman, she talks repeatedly about the need to step into someone elses shoes, that we, white people, need to listen. Instead of reacting from a place of white fragility. A lot of it just comes down to is the person willing to decentre themselves? We can give you the data. We can give you the legal precedence. Can you look at another human being and believe their lived experience? Its about believing, and humanising and valuing [others] equally, she says. So, as this statue debate played out in small town America, less than two months later, in May 2016 Donald Trump becomes the Republican partys presumptive presidential nominee. The parallel between this small town and the American nation continues. On Wednesday November 9, the world wakes up to find out Trump is the 45th President of America. In Charlottesville, he is simply referred to as 45, even 46 minus 1. Then, on November 10, the final meeting took place over the statue issue in Charlottesvilles city council. A moderate position, to move, not remove, one of the statues was arrived at. This has been standard, when we revise history and realise that the person we celebrated may have oppressed others and the statues are moved to museums where they can sit in context, not written out of history. However, in Charlottesville, Virginia, the statue never gets moved and in July 2017, the Ku Klux Klan comes to town, with full police protection. This was done in the name of freedom of speech and public safety. Counter protesters stare them down, tensions rise and the police deploy tear gas on their own townspeople. After this assembly, another permit is applied for, this time for a Unite the Right rally in August 2017. This is where torches, guns and Nazi and confederate flags are flown and where one woman dies. But where this ceases to be a local issue once again, is when Donald Trump makes victims of the persecutors and says there was hate, violence and bigotry on many sides, many sides. If he perhaps studied the footage he would see who arrived wielding weapons and fire. As an academic historian, Jarane is sure of the damage that 45 is doing. Even if hes only in for four years the damage hes doing, that he can inflict, because democracy is something that has to be cultivated, its not something that runs on autopilot. It actually has to be continually nurtured and cultivated, she says, but doesnt stop there. In Charlottesville you hear the F word a lot F for fascism, and hence the emboldening of these alt-right hate groups under the principle of free speech. I think now, just now, with whats happened in the past two weeks, the Proud Boys (white supremacists) rioting in Portland and New York. Then we had the two black people that were killed in the grocery store and then we had the mail bomber and then we had synagogue shooter. I think now more Americans are starting to say: Oh fascism, maybe theres a word for this, maybe there is a problem. Maybe these people arent crazy whove been saying this for the last two years. Weve been the canary in the coalmine here in Charlottesville. Were on our own here, thats what we realised A 12 (August 2012), she says. What Jalane means by on their own is the idea that racism never really went away, just the visible parts of it did, the buses and the toilets being segregated. Racism is baked into the institutions of America, its courts, its police force, its government and banks, and hardwired into the psyche. Tanesha Hudson, a 37-year-old, local woman is testament to that. Aside from working full-time and raising two children, she works to help black children stay in school and out of prisons. People dont understand the colour of being black. Its a huge struggle being black and I woudnt expect people to understand. [They think] being black is just go to school, do good work, make good grades, go to college, get a job. No. I compete every day. Im viewed merely because of the colour of my skin, Im looked at crazy all the time just because Im black. If you and I had the same job, Ive got to work ten times harder than you and Im still getting paid less I promise you, she tells me in a packed bagel shop she used to work in. She is the only black person eating in the restaurant. But its not just talk, she has examples. A friend of mine was going through the business loan process, they denied her. And its not just banks, its schools too. We meet this on every level anything to advance you in society its a million times harder for a person of colour to get it done, she explains. She also tells me of a recent story where it was one law for the white students and another for the black ones. White students were caught drinking vodka in the school library underage drinking is a criminal offence. Nothing, bar suspension happened to them. Meanwhile, three black schoolgirls got into a schoolyard fight and assault charges were pressed. As Don, of the Ghostbusters analogy says: Their poisonous tree has many branches. Talk to white people around the town, in the parks, business owners, and they say they have their locals backs and understand comprehensively that it is not about free speech for the white supremacists, another phrase people readily interchange with fascists. But just as the story of Charlottesville can help us to understand what is happening in America right now, it also holds solutions. On my last night in the town I sit outside in a restaurant working. A black man suddenly appears beside me. We chat. Hes just out of penitentiary for murder he says he killed his mums abusive partner. He cant get a job and needs $18 to get a bus to Lexington. I have no cash on me. Its dark and he suggests we walk to an ATM. I decline. He walks off and approaches another woman. I overhear her say: I gave you money for that Lexington train before. I dont have any cash on me now, but I will give you some when I bump into you again. He leaves altogether, and we get talking. She finds it hard how powerless she is to help him. She sees what he is up against, but still she isnt impressed that he lied or tried to get a woman to go to an ATM late at night. But she still doesnt condemn the man. And for the hundredth time over the last two years I think of Harper Lees 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird, but I think of its core line specifically. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of viewuntil you climb in his skin and walk around in it. By Steven Kelly Its complicated. We should be happy but theres a palpable dread about how this ends because of others. Well, one other For my generation, its even more bizarre. Liverpool in the 1970s and 1980s irked the heck out of everyone; always just a little too good, annoyingly omnipotent. Supporters of many clubs reminisce about their greatest team never finishing top because of us. Now look where were heading. Spurs at an NFL-ravaged Wembley must surely take something from City, but no; not even close. Commentators sounded bored out of their skulls with the brain-freeze mundanity of it all. See, I dont remember this in our golden era. Maybe its different when youre at the epicentre, but it felt like others at least had a chance to catch up. The Emirates has always been a frustrating place for us. Highbury wasnt much better, admittedly, but the new place feels like kryptonite sometimes. An odd statement perhaps about a team that hasnt beaten us for three years, but even Klopps games there have been unnerving. Almost squandering a 4-1 lead, going from 2-0 up to 3-2 down in five minutes last time, now this; plenty of chances to make it a cakewalk yet never the better side at any stage. Truly weird. Arsenal and Liverpool had turned into the class clowns from our school days. Great fun, almost everyone loved them but never a real sense they had the gravity/gravitas to make it big in the harsh real world. All those high-scoring draws kept tv companies sniffing around but the serious business of titles would always be going on elsewhere. With Wenger gone and Klopp working a minor miracle on our defence, theres a feeling those nicey nicey days may soon end. Fat lot of good itll do either of us if City keep this up and this game still could (should?) have been 3-3. How much has really changed? Before the match thered been more speculation about a super league, presumably because each of the major countries has a clear competition flaw i.e. there isnt any. Maybe the big English clubs will falter when winter kicks in? Bright sunshine against Cardiff, 5.30 and floodlights at Arsenal, darkness is descending in more ways than one. It was a good match, one where you sensed everyone was relieved with avoiding defeat but wary that one point wasnt going to be enough. Van Dijk should have had goals, but its hard to be critical when he effortlessly glided through another defensive masterclass alongside the increasingly confident Gomez. Not so Alexander-Arnold, who was the focus of Arsenal pressure from the off like it was planned. Chelsea had done something similar. Fabinho was also out of sorts, if hes ever been in them. Theres still been nothing from Keita either. Which is the straw everyones clutching; for a side so well placed, you cant honestly say theyve hit many if any heights thus far. I could moan (again) about offside. Bad enough when a centimetre gap chalks off a perfectly good goal (that happened to Arsenal in fairness) but when the officials dont even know the rules on whos active or not youre in trouble. Manes goal stands at Anfield, with weak linesmen worrying about how theyll look rather than whats actually correct. You can also complain about Klopps substitutions, which hes never got a grip of in all his time here, but essentially it was a fair result. And a good point, which some were in danger of forgetting afterwards. Until we get the mythical level playing field, there wont be much chance of passing City at this stage. The whole league needs to be looked at. Ask Southampton what they think of Liverpool fans complaining about fairness; hospitals will overflow with bust guts. Were doing fine. Somebody else is doing finer. Deal with it. The electorate has the chance to break the Republicans lock on government in possibly the most consequential midterm elections in US history, writes Elizabeth Drew. Ahead of this weeks US midterm elections, domestic terrorism is starting to dominate the political landscape. First, barely two weeks before election day, an angry supporter of US President Donald Trump began sending 14 bombs to prominent Democrats and others whom Trump has frequently attacked. None of the bombs exploded. Then things became much worse, with the murder of 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Today, a polarised and anxious American public finds itself with a president totally unsuited to, and not very interested in, comforting the nation, much less trying to lead it away from the hate and deadly partisanship that he has stoked. Had the 14 crude bombs, which the FBI called potentially destructive devices, worked as intended, the bombmaker could have killed or gravely injured a whos-who of Trump adversaries. The list included two former presidents (Bill Clinton and Barack Obama), Hillary Clinton, former attorney general Eric Holder; a former CIA director; a former director of National Intelligence; two likely Democratic presidential candidates in 2020; a black congresswoman whom Trump frequently describes as low IQ (a common racist charge); two prominent Jewish billionaire philanthropists, one of whom, George Soros, is a frequent target of Trump and the subject of various right-wing conspiracy fantasies; and the actor Robert De Niro (who began his speech at this years Tony Awards ceremony by declaring, Fuck Trump). Though Trump had frequently singled out many of the bombers targets at his rallies still attacking Hillary Clinton, his election opponent in 2016, for example, and then smiling as his audience chanted Lock her up Trumps defenders tried to throw the spotlight elsewhere. The mail bombs, they claimed, were a false flag operation by the left, with some of the Democrats even sending the bombs to themselves in order to blame Trump. So it was highly inconvenient for true believers when the would-be bomber turned out to be a fanatical Trump supporter who lives in Florida and drives a white van covered in hate-filled depictions of his targets. US law enforcement agencies another frequent target of Trump are extremely good at tracking down miscreants: The suspect was arrested four days after the first bomb was discovered in Soross mailbox. The most disheartening aspect of the entire episode was Trumps utter incapacity as a national leader. But that should surprise no one. How could a president who has thrived politically on dividing the American people, who has been spewing hate, sowing resentment, and at times even encouraging violence at his rallies, suddenly be, or even pretend to be a healer? Trumps pattern of incitement and routine denunciations of the media as the enemy of the people had convinced many that some of his followers might resort to violence against members of the press. The day after the discovery of the bombs sent to the Clintons and the Obamas, among others, a subdued Trump read a prepared statement at a prescheduled White House ceremony, condemning acts or threats of political violence and saying that the nation must unify. It didnt last. By that evening, at a rally in Wisconsin, he was making fun of his trying to be nice act and blamed the media for the violence. And soon he was back to whipping up fear of a caravan of refugees from Honduras. Though still roughly 1,000 miles from the US border, Trump portrayed the refugees as an imminent national security threat, warning, without evidence, that Middle Easterners were among them. Trumps rallies are now almost a daily event, and his lies even more frequent than before. With the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate to be chosen tomorrow (Tues), the midterm election is widely regarded as the most consequential in memory, perhaps ever. The Republicans two-year lock on the entire US government the House, the Senate, the presidency, and, with the recent addition of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court could be broken. The midterm election following the election of a new president is often considered a verdict on the incumbent, and his party usually loses strength, particularly in the House. But Trump has made the midterms about himself to an unprecedented degree. He tells audiences that though hes not on the ballot, they should vote as if he were (though his approval ratings are in the low 40s). It has long been believed that the Democrats are more likely to win the House than the Senate, because several of the Senate seats in play are held by Democrats in traditionally conservative states. Trumps determination, or anxiety, that Republicans maintain control of both chambers is understandable. Should the Democrats take over the House, newly-empowered committee chairmen, armed with subpoenas, will launch investigations of a broad range of administration actions and agencies where corruption is suspected. But the real, almost palpable, fear on Trumps part is that a Democratic-controlled House will focus all manner of investigations on him personally: His acceptance of constitutionally forbidden emoluments from foreign countries; his failure to separate himself sufficiently from the family business; his tax returns; unauthorised wars in Yemen and Syria; and his official and private dealings with Russia. At least the House is likely to have the conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller to consider. In other words, no more lapdog Congress. But if the Republicans maintain control of the Senate, there will be limits on what the Democrats can achieve. Even if the House were to impeach Trump no sure thing convicting him in the Senate would be extremely difficult. Whether a Democratic House would even proceed in that direction has been the subject of intra-party debate. The nightmare election possibility for the Democrats is continued Republican control of both chambers. In that case, Trump will feel vindicated and more liberated than ever. He might then fire a raft of officials, treat immigrants still more harshly, and try to shut down Muellers investigation of his campaigns possible collusion with the Kremlin and Trumps probable obstruction of justice. The conventional wisdom may prevail, with the Democrats winning the House but not the Senate. But the polls have been fluctuating. And since Trumps stunning election victory in 2016, most observers have become more cautious about predicting outcomes. Elizabeth Drew is a contributing editor to The New Republic and the author, most recently, of Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixons Downfall. Food Sample the Freshest Catch at Novotel Yangon The Fish Market counter serves different types of fish and grilled seafood at the Hooked on Seafood buffet by Novotel Yangon Max. / Htet Wai YANGONIn Yangon, hotel buffets are fiercely competitive, and all the popular hotels try to outdo one another by adding special foods, services and different styles to promote their buffet packages. Most recently, Novotel Yangon Max relaunched its popular seafood buffet on Friday nights with a new concept, Hooked On Seafood, on Nov. 2 at The Square restaurant on the fifth floor of the Novotel Yangon Max. The buffet is only available on Friday nights. My partner and I were invited to attend the relaunch of the special buffet night with other in-house guests at The Square on Friday night. What makes this seafood night special are the chefs stations including the Fish Market, Sushi and Sashimi, Peking Duck and Steak Table. All the chefs are ready to prepare the dishes fresh, right in front of you. This kind of service is only to be had at the Novotel Yangon Max. Unlike most buffets, in which pre-cooked dishes are transferred from the pot to your plate, this one is more of a fine-dining experience. We started our long buffet tour at the Cold Bar, which was full of all kinds of the freshest seafood including Alaska king crabs, Ngapali lobsters, large oysters, mussels, clams, smoked salmon, salads and other cold foods. The popular king crabs and Ngapali lobsters were huge and amazingly fresh. Various sauces including mint and tamarind were available at the Cold Bar. At the next counter, a chef was busy preparing sushi, and cutting salmon, tuna and octopus sashimi. The orange color of the salmon proved how fresh it was and drew crowds of people to the counter. There were many different sushi rolls to choose from as well, and these featured top quality soy sauce and wasabi. At the steak counter, chefs served lamb and beefsteak sliced to order and presented on the plate in fine-dining style. Another popular chefs station was the Peking Duck. At the table, a chef rolled Peking-style duck pancakes in front of the guests, and roast duck and roast-duck salad were served as well. I fully recommend the Peking-style duck pancake. Guests can order the dish at the counter. The Peking Duck Table adjoined a Scallop Table. If you are not a fan of the Cold Bar, no worries. A Fish Market counter serves various kinds of fresh fish of different sizes, along with grilled tiger prawns and other seafood. All you need to do is choose what you want and they will grill it in front of you. If you cant wait at the counter, just give the table number to the staff and head to the other counters; it will be waiting at your table. The dessert counter was heaven as well after all this seafood. Their homemade ice cream, cakes, bread, mousses and puddings were beautiful and made for a happy ending to the seafood tour. Hooked on Seafood is not exclusively about seafood: You can partake of the free flow of beer, wine and cocktails as well. The buffet has two options: USD37 net with unlimited soft drinks, coffee and tea; and USD45 with unlimited wine, beer and cocktails. Overall, Novotel Yangons seafood night is a fabulous time and its worth spending a Friday night at the hotel buffet with your friends and family. Burma Analysis: By-Election Results Suggest Increased Role for Ethnic Parties in 2020 Myanmar President U Win Myint casts his ballot during Saturdays by-election at a polling station in Yangon's Tamwe Township. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy In the wake of the National League for Democracy (NLD)s modest success in the by-election on Saturday, The Irrawaddy talks to officials from some of the political parties that contested the election, as well as political commentators, to get their views on the outcome and where the NLD went wrong. Yan Myo Thein, political commentator If we consider the by-election to be a mock test, the NLD no doubt failed it. And the USDPs [Union and Social Development Partys] performance has improved to a certain extent. The likelihood of ethnic parties winning [elections] has also increased. In politics, underestimating your opponents is suicide. Noticeably, the USDP won in Yangons Seikkan and Sagaings Tamu, constituencies previously held by the NLD. A similar outcome was seen in [Mon States] Chaungzon by-election last year. The NLD needs to objectively review the by-election results with farsightedness, and make sweeping reforms of the government, Parliament and within the party before the 2020 election. Again, the NLD should review how widely and effectively its lawmakers are working with the public, especially how much NLD lawmakers keep in touch with rural people and rally their support in townships outside Yangon. Also, people are not satisfied with the NLD, as their economic burden has not been relieved, but become even heavier. The 2020 general election will surely become more closely contested between the NLD, USDP and ethnic parties. Ethnic parties, I think, will be much stronger by 2020, unlike the 2015 elections. In particular, MPs elected from ethnic parties will play a more important role in the election of the president beyond 2020. Therefore, the NLD should think long-term and form strategic alliances with ethnic parties before 2020, and consider not running in ethnic constituencies. It should not contest constituencies where its allied parties plan to run, and should prepare to work with them as partners in forming the cabinet after the election. U Thein Tun Oo, USDP spokesperson The results fell short of our expectations [of winning all 10 of the seats the party contested]. So, this shows that we have to try harder. But we are happy that the ethnic parties have achieved a certain success. We will learn lessons from our experiences in the by-election and make the necessary changes. We will try by serving the interests of the people to win every election, which is the goal of every party. We expect to achieve a respectable result in 2020, and well keep trying. (The USDP won three of the 10 seats it contested in the Nov. 3 by-election. The three constituencies were previously held by the NLD.) U Win Myo Thu, director of EcoDev Myanmar It is undeniably the wish of everyoneincluding mewho wants our country to stand tall on the international stage to see the [NLD] remain the peoples party and provide political leadership for the unfinished processes of democratization and nation building. [The NLD] should seriously review what lessons to take [from the by-election]. In my opinion, there are a few lessons to learn. First and foremost is the need to build democracy within the party. There is a need to fight the practices of patronage and nepotism. There is a need to enable a merit-based system. That fact that those who are not even in the lower level executive committees are directly appointed to the Central Executive Committee goes against the rules. Democracy is based on rules. One has to follow the rules adopted by the majority. It seems that freedom of expression and freedom of criticism within the party have withered. One of the reasons for the decline of democracy within the party is that the government has weakened the democratic forces. Its repression and control of the media and civil society organizations are worse than under U Thein Seins government. It has failed to systematically unite farmers and labor unions. And it has failed to keep in touch with those forces. As it refuses to listen to critical voices, it has been unable to bring about constructive changes. Secondly, the party lacks programs to support the social wellbeing of the people. In this nation building period, it is more important to improve the country than to rise against the dictatorship. It is important that the party collaborates with the government and Parliament, and that party members on the ground cooperate with other allied civil society organizations to fulfill the requirements of the people. The Daw Khin Kyi Foundations activities alone are not enough. To create public support programs, there is a need to organize a youth committee and support committee within the party and adopt systematic plans. The party can win public support if it serves the public interest. Such works can be a training ground for future leaders of the party. The problem is that those who would do so are viewed with suspicion and there is an effort to control them. Over-centralization is suicide. It can only become a real peoples party by serving the interests of people, and this has nothing to do with the partys particular leader. The third most important thing is preparation. [The NLD] entered Parliament in 2012, but the reality is that it still has not recruited enough able people to assume the necessary responsibilities. It has been criticized for lacking policies. Does it have one now? Will it call the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan [MSDP] developed by the government its party policy? Do party members and lawmakers know much about the MSDP? Does it have people to replace the ex-military officers? Has it chosen to replace the permanent secretaries [of ministries] who put spokes in [the ministers] wheels? It should have prepared for them by now. There are many people who will support the NLD like they did in 2015. [The NLD] now knows that its assumption that it has a large talent pool [to draw from] is wrong. It is important that it doesnt make the same mistake again. To summarize, the democratic government has not only failed to build democracy, but stamped on it. It will be able to save the situation if it can address this problem. U Sai Leik, SNLD spokesperson We contested two seats, and won one. So, we neither won nor lost. The voter turnout has declined a lot, indicating that public trust in political parties has declined, and that people are not very satisfied with the current government. If the NLD is serious about democratic change and believes it is necessary to build the genuine federal Union to which everyone aspires, it needs to collaborate with democratic forces with greater transparency. Though the NLD believes itself to be a party that represents the entire Union, others think it is a Bamar-based party. So rather than arguing about whether it is really a party that represents the Union, if it can make compromises with ethnic people ahead of 2020, it can achieve a result better than it did in the by-election. But if it doesnt change, its 2020 election outlook isnt very promising. Rather than cooperating, there must be political give and take. My assessment is that there has never been give and take since 1990. There was also no political negotiation in the 2015 general election, or in the by-elections in 2017 and 2018. But if this trend continues, and a coalition government has to be formed [in 2020], then it will become more complicated for the country. (The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy won one of the two seats it contested in the Nov. 3 by-election.) U Myo Nyunt, NLD spokesperson We are a democratic party. We always trust in the people. When people judge our actions, we want them to look to the long term rather than the short term. We want the people to understand our attitude toward them. Weve never done anything to please the people [with short-term favors]. We only work to bring about healthy changes and improve the country in the long term. In so doing, people may not like some of our actions. So, Id like to request the people judge our actions from various perspectives. Regarding the by-election results, I think people have taken their daily lives into consideration a lot. It is important to improve their daily lives. We never go back on our promises. We always try to realize them. But we admit that our progress has been slow because certain things cant be done by us alone. And we admit that people are frustrated with the slow progress after they pinned high hopes on us. (The NLD won seven out of 13 contested seats in the Nov. 3 by-election.) Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) might fail to put forward its name at the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to contest for 2019 general elections.This is because of the internal fights in the coalition which will soon be fought in courts of law. Reading between the lines from the statements uttered by the enraged Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), their colleagues in the UDC- Botswana Congress Party (BCP), Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) should brace themselves for a protracted legal battle. BMD, which has since been expelled from the UDC and given 30 days to appeal the decision to the UDC National Congress, has since revealed that it is taking the matter to court. We are going to court and that is where we will fight for our rights. We would lay out all the truth that Batswana need to hear. We cannot appeal to the National Congress which is a body that is controlled by people who have expelled us. Remember this is not happening for the first time because during the February 2018 congress at Boipuso Hall they attempted to expel us. The situation was saved by UDC President Advocate Duma Boko so the expulsion is nothing new but something that they have been working on for a long time. We have faith in our courts. We want people who will be objective and honest when dealing with our matter, BMD President, Advocate Pilane stated this week. While it was highly expected that the BMD would launch the case as soon as this week, the party has revealed that there is no rush. According to sources, the BMD will delay the case until elections, next year. The case is expected to reach the Court of Appeal if any of the parties loses at the high court. The case if it follows normal procedure is highly likely to be heard sometimes next year at the high court since it would not have been launched through urgency application. Responding to a question on when the case is anticipated to reach the court, Advocate Pilane stated that they are not in any hurry. He said all they are engaged in is to collect all the necessary information and evidence that they would be using in court. We are preparing our papers for court. We are not in a hurry and when we are ready, we will let you know and will be heading to court. In the meantime, the real UDC is here and we are moving forward. We will be working around the clock to ensure that we get candidates for Parliament and council seats across the country. We want to teach our friends at BCP and BNF that honesty and trustworthiness are key in liberating Batswana. It is now crunch-time and the question of rights arises and we will argue this in court. We will also in detail while in court, demonstrate how processes and procedures were not followed, the BMD leader stated. BCP and BNF are also on the other hand, addressing rallies around the country, updating members on what has transpired to trigger BMD expulsion. BMD still regards itself a UDC member in good standing. Recently, Advocate Boko stated that they are ready to handle the matter in court. This week he also took to social media to accuse their colleagues of feeding people with lies, stating that Some of the lies they tell would actually be comical if they werent so farcical! We will put them to the sword, you just wait and see. They, that have lived by the sword will perish by it. Burma Military Frees Last of Baptist Group Members in Kachin, NGO Says Members of the Kachin Baptist Convention, including some of the 12 people recently released by the Myanmar military, gather in Myitkyina, Kachin State, on Sunday. / Kachin Youth Movement / Facebook Mon State The Myanmar military on Sunday released the last 12 of 15 members of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) it detained last month in Kachin State, according to a local non-governmental organization. Lamai Gum Ja, spokesman for the Peace-Talk Creation Group, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the 12 were released at 2:30 p.m. at a police station in Myitkyina, the state capital. He said Brigade 101 handed them to the police unharmed after determining they had no links to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). They suspected that those 12 people were linked to the KIA, so they arrested them. But they were innocent, so the Tatmadaw [military] released them, Lamai Gum Ja said. The KBC had asked the Peace-Talk Creation Group, which mediates peace talks between the military and KIA, to help secure the release of its members. The 12 people were detained along with three others who were released earlier. They were all detained while heading to Myitkyina by motorbike for allegedly traveling in a conflict zone without permission. The group comprised eight women and seven men. Two of the women were senior KBC members, one a schoolteacher and the other an aid worker at a refugee camp near the border with China. The area where they were detained is near Laiza, where the KIA has its headquarters. Travel in the surrounding area is subject to heavy restrictions by the military, according to the KBC. Lamai Gum Ja said the military had also detained some people in the area last year and put them in prison. The KIA is an ethnic armed group based in Kachin. It signed a ceasefire with the military junta in 1994, but the agreement collapsed in 2011. Since then, fighting between the KIA and the military has forced more than 100,000 residents of the state to flee their homes and take refuge in camps across the region. The government does not allow international aid groups to supply the camps in KIA-controlled areas, which get most of their support from the KBC. Burma Shan Armed Group Claims Military Warned Locals of Arrest For Association RCSS troops take part in a military parade in Loi Tai Leng, Shan State, in 2014. / Kyaw Kha / The Irrawaddy YANGON/Mon State The Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) claims that the Myanmar military last week warned ethnic Shan living in northern Shan State that they could be arrested under the Unlawful Associations Act if they interact with the armed group. The RCSS first made the claim via its media outlet, Tai Freedom. It reported that officers from Military Operation Command No. 1, based in Kyaukme Township, called residents from four township quarters with large Shan populations Mong Tin, Mang Khar, Sakandar and Naung Bein to a meeting on Wednesday to issue the warning Colonel Sai Oo, a spokesman for the RCSS, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that he could not understand why the military would make such a threat and that the group would contact the command center to find out. The RCSS is a legal organization and it is not unofficial anymore. They should not threaten our local people, he said. Sai Tun Win, who represents Kyaukme in the state legislature, told The Irrawaddy that he had heard that the military had called a meeting with the areas Shan residents but did not know the details. He said residents live in constant fear of the military, RCSS and other armed groups active in the area. Our people have to be afraid of every armed group, including the Tatmadaw [military]. They have to provide them with food every time those armed groups ask for it because they are afraid, he said. When the RCSS signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in 2015, the government announced that its members would no longer be subject to the Unlawful Associations Act, meaning anyone could make contact with the ethnic armed group without fear of arrest. But the two have periodically clashed over territory, and tensions between the RCSS and military have been on the rise lately. Last week the RCSS said it would no longer attend every single meeting of the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee after accusing the military of serial violations and the committee of not following the rules. News Losers Question Legitimacy of Early Votes in Kachin Military Bases A man leaves a polling station after casting his ballot in Myitkyina, Kachin State, on Saturday. / Htoi Aung CHIANG MAI, Thailand Politicians in Kachin State have raised questions about the early voting inside military bases ahead of Saturdays by-election for an Upper House seat, which went to the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Six candidates contested the seat for constituency No. 2. Three of them including the candidates for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) and the Kachin Democratic Party (KDP) did not sign Form 19 endorsing the declared winner, claiming the vote was not transparent. Many local residents have also raised doubts about the results and questioned the transparency of the early voting, as the monitoring of polling stations inside military bases is heavily restricted. Of the more than 3,000 early votes cast inside military bases for the race, the vast majority went to the USDP. A Kachin State Electoral Commission officer, however, told local media that any doubts about the poll were unfounded. USDP spokesman U Thein Tun Oo also rejected suggestions of vote tampering and said his party would have won even without the early votes. Such criticism is funny and I would say that they are the type to find fault with others, he said. The USDP candidate, U Hsi Hu Dwe, officially received 23,186 votes and was declared the winner by the Union Election Commission (UEC) on Sunday. The KDP candidate received 19,112 votes, and the NLD candidate received 18,999. KDC candidate Gumgrawng Awng Hkam, the partys chairman, said he would be filing a complaint with the UEC objecting to the fact that military personnel have the right to vote in general and by-elections while the military also gets to appoint 25 percent of the countrys lawmakers as per the military-drafted Constitution. The electoral system needs to change and it wont be fair so long as military personnel have voting privileges and also the right to sit in parliament, he said. Gumgrawng Awng Hkam said he would gather evidence of wrongdoing before lodging his complaint. It is not because we lost the race; it is because we want to highlight that the election must be fair for all candidates, he said. Candidate who lost an election can file complaints with the UEC up to 45 days after result are announced. Kachin State has more than 230,000 eligible voters, but less than a third of them about 69,000 cast ballots on Saturday. The NLD candidate, Daw Yam Hkawn Hpauyam, told The Irrawaddy that she would not file a compliant because she finished third, but added that the early voting inside military bases needs to be reviewed. U Kyaw Kyaw Oo, an Upper House lawmaker representing Kachin State, told The Irrawaddy that the public and the candidates should have raised their concerns well before election day, while the voter lists were still being verified. We did not object then, and now it has all been confirmed by the UEC, he said. Additional reporting by The Irrawaddys San Yamin Aung in Yangon. News Suspects Father Gave Slain Facebook Comedians Family 150 Million Kyats, Court Told Former Yangon Region attorney general U Han Htoo is brought to a trial hearing on Nov. 3, 2018. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy YANGONThe family of one of the accused in the murder of a popular Facebook comedian gave 150 million kyats to his family in exchange for dropping the case, an official of the national anti-graft body said in court on Friday. U Moe Naing, an inspector with the Myanmar Anti-Corruption Commission, told the court during a trial session that the father of one of the three suspects in the case gave the father of comedian Aung Yell Htwe 130 million kyats, and 10 million kyats each to his uncle and brother, to drop the case. The three detained murder suspects were released on July 25 before any charges could be brought against them, after the Yangon Eastern District Court accepted an appeal from the victims family asking them to settle the case. As the case came under the spotlight, the Anti-Corruption Commission launched an investigation and in August filed a lawsuit against then Yangon Region attorney general U Han Htoo, a judge of the Yangon Eastern District Court, and five other law officers accused of taking bribes from the father of a suspect in exchange for their roles in dropping the case. The commission said law officers intentionally built the murder case in such a way that it would be adjudged as lacking sufficient grounds to warrant further investigation, and that the since-removed regional attorney general approved a request from the victims family to drop the case without making a full assessment. The Yangon Eastern District Court has since reopened the murder case against the three suspects. According to U Moe Naing, U Khin Maung Lay, the father of the accused, approached U Myint Lwin, the uncle of Aung Yell Htwe. Through U Myint Lwin, the parents of the suspects met with the parents of Aung Yell Htwe, who offered them a personal pardon. U Khin Maung Lay paid U Myint Oo, the father of Aung Yell Htwe, 130 million kyats by check. He also gave 10 million kyats each to U Myint Lwin and U Thant Zin Oo, the brother of Aung Yell Htwe. The accused rejected the plaintiffs testimony, and the next trial session will be held on Nov. 9. Aung Yell Htwe died after allegedly being kicked and beaten by the three suspects while attending a party last New Years Eve in Yangons Thingangyun Township. Monday, November 5th, 2018 (3:58 pm) - Score 3,660 Openreach (BT) has today announced that the next UK cities and towns to benefit from their Fibre First programme, which aims to roll-out a 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 3 million premises by the end of 2020, will be Nottingham and Belfast. So far the national telecom operators new full fibre network, which takes their optical fibre cable all the way to your home or business, has covered 682,000 premises (homes and businesses) across the United Kingdom and thousands more are expected to benefit from todays expansion (as usual they havent given us a solid premises passed figure). The roll-out in Nottingham (East Midlands of England) has already begun around Gedling, while over in Belfast (Northern Ireland) their initial focus will be on the Crumlin, Falls, Shankill, Shore, Malone, Ormeau, Lisburn and Upper Newtownards Road areas. Both locations join Openreachs existing FTTP roll-out locations including Coventry, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and The Wirral. Kay Cutts, Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, said: Our partnership work with Openreach through the Better Broadband for Nottinghamshire programme in recent years has helped make us one of the best connected counties in the country, with more than 98 percent of homes and businesses able to access superfast broadband. Being part of the first Fibre City roll out will ensure Nottinghamshire remains at the forefront of digital infrastructure, with all the economic and social benefits that provides. Having access to the fastest and most reliable broadband is not only great for today, but future-proofed for generations to come. I am delighted that Openreach is supporting our ambitions for growth in Nottinghamshire. Cllr Donal Lyons, Chairman of Belfasts City Growth Committee, said: It is brilliant news that Belfast will be the first full fibre city in Northern Ireland. At the heart of our Belfast Region City Deal vision is a drive to deliver inclusive growth and to focus efforts on areas such as the digital sector where we can become genuinely world class. Improving our infrastructure is absolutely vital to our future success, so it is very exciting to know that Belfast is leading the way again in becoming a fibre city. In laying fibre optic cables directly to peoples front doors, Openreach is supporting the next generation of faster broadband technology, and helping to secure our digital future for years to come. Kim Mears, Openreachs Managing Director, said: This announcement in Nottingham is building towards our target of reaching three million premises by the end of 2020/21 and we want to get to 10 million by the mid-2020s, if the conditions are right. Openreachs commitment to Belfast comes just weeks after the announcement of a Belfast Region City Deal, which separately proposes significant co-investment in a range of catalytic digital innovation projects across the city and wider region to help embed a culture of innovation and drive increased productivity. As usual the biggest problem for Openreach in both areas is that Virgin Medias 363Mbps cable network, which will reach Gigabit speeds once the DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade arrives, can already cover the vast majority of premises in both cities. Not to mention the presence of rival full fibre networks from Hyperoptic and Cityfibre etc. in Nottingham. NOTE: Openreach has a target of connecting 25% of homes and businesses in Northern Ireland to ultra-fast broadband by the end of 2019, although theyre also aiming to go beyond this. November 1, 2018 Idaho State Universitys faculty and President Kevin Satterlee have approved a new proposed Faculty Senate Constitution, the document that outlines the facultys role in shared governance at the University. ISU faculty voted on Oct. 23 and 24 to ratify the new constitution. The vote was 274 in favor and 6 opposed. The Faculty Senate sent the constitution to the presidents office Oct. 29, and Satterlee approved the document Nov. 1. Next, the proposed constitution will go to the Idaho State Board of Education for approval. Satterlee said he is grateful for the facultys shared commitment to working together, and is excited to continue to work together to further the mission of Idaho State University. The core of this document represents a basic commitment to the relationship that we need to build together. We must build a relationship that allows us to work together to move towards a shared vision for the future of Idaho State University, Satterlee said. I support this document. I believe in shared governance because it lets us strive to move beyond the base requirements of this document and build something more. Faculty Senate Co-Chair Laura Ahola-Young said she and fellow faculty members are ready to continue to move forward. Faculty are excited. It represents change. It represents moving forward. And it represents the commitment of faculty and administration for shared faculty governance, she said. Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) has accused Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) of betraying them in their survival struggle within the coalition movement.BMD was last week expelled from Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), following its suspension in September this year. BMD, which has been enjoying the support of BPP within the UDC especially at leadership level has now found itself out in the cold fighting as a lone ranger. The relationship between the two has been one of the stumbling blocks for other contracting partners- Botswana Congress Party (BCP) and Botswana National Front (BNF) to bulldoze the BMD especially during National Executive Committee meetings.Things have now taken a nasty twist when a decision to suspend BMD was taken in September. The BMD, following the suspension, has maintained that BPP was on its side until BPP President publicly declared that they stand by the NEC decision. This week BMD President Advocate Sidney Pilane could not describe what really happened to their good friends. He revealed that BPP is better placed to explain what really went wrong.They are the ones who can tell you what really happened. As BMD, we have played a great role in the recognition of BPP and making it active in UDC activities. When we arrived at the UDC following our Lobatse congress, we enquired as to why BPP was not visible in UDC activities. We approached them to find out what could be the problem. They laid out their issues with us but we convinced them that they have to be involved in UDC activities even NEC meetings while they pursue their grievances, Advocate Pilane stated.BPP refrained from UDC activities, including attending NEC meetings on grounds that their queries were not attended to by the party leadership. One of the issues that the BPP had raised was that they were only allocated four (4) constituencies. The BPP wanted an additional four. While the UDC leadership was reluctant to attend to the matter the BPP turned the tables and never attended the UDC activities. At one point the BPP leader questioned one of the meetings that was sanctioned by UDC President Advocate Duma Boko, saying the meeting was illegal. The meeting resulted in two of the BPP central committee members being suspended from the party as they were said to have unlawfully attended the meeting and a rally purporting to be representing the BPP. The relationship between BPP and BMD got strengthened then and was cemented when the latter gave the former Francistown West constituency on a silver platter. This was after BMD negotiated for a swap with BCP, in exchange for Maun West. The new developments, according to Pilane came as a surprise that their friends have joined others to betray them. He said they trusted the BPP as much as they trusted the BNF, whom they have built the UDC together to be the brand it is today. BPP Secretary General Venter Galetshabiwe said there is no betrayal that has been done by his party. He said the decisions that were taken, from the suspension to the expulsion of the BMD was a collective, following robust deliberation on matters on the table. You were there when UDC president made the announcements. It was a collective decision and cannot be used against the BPP by other contracting partners as if it was a BPP decision. We abide by that decision and BPP cannot add or subtract anything, said Galetshabiwe. Microsoft Australia has officially launched its traineeship program, which it says is part of its commitment to helping the pursuit of careers in the technology industry. Launched on Monday for NSW, the initial program will facilitate more than 150 trainees taking part in the Microsoft Traineeship Program which will combine a Certificate IV in Information Technology with paid work experience at some of Australias leading organisations. Microsoft says plans for further expansion of the training program in Australia are dependent on the success of the first year pilot. Under the pilot program, trainees will also undertake a core set of the latest Microsoft Azure certifications to ensure they obtain relevant skills aligned to some of the industrys most in demand jobs. The training program focuses on helping aspiring trainees, including school-leavers and career-changers, to enter the IT industry, and Microsoft says more than 50 traineeship opportunities have already been secured with both large and small businesses participating in the program, including ANZ, Datacom, DXC, MOQdigital, oobe, TD Logicalis, Veritec and XCentral as well as Microsoft Australia. The company says it will work with strategic delivery partners MEGT, Prodigy Learning and TAFE NSW to source, train and manage trainees through the 12 to 24-month program. According to the Australian Computer Societys Digital Pulse 2018 report, Australia needs an additional 100,000 tech workers in the next five years, yet there are less than 5,000 local graduates coming out of university with an ICT-related degree each year, leaving a huge and growing shortfall of skilled tech talent. As an industry we need to develop alternative paths to encourage more people to pursue a career in IT. We believe Vocational and Educational Training (VET) is a great alternative to a more traditional degree for people who want to embark on a tech career and the strong initial take-up from our clients and partners is testament to the demand that exists today for tech talent, Steven Worrall, managing director, Microsoft Australia said. In February we launched our National Skills Program to help Australians develop the skills required to thrive in the digital age, as we move from a resources rich economy to one where tech talent is in huge demand. Todays announcement further demonstrates our commitment to tackling the growing skills gap in Australia through a combination of skills-building and on the job training. Trainees will be employed by group training organisation, MEGT, a not-for-profit that specialises in supporting trainees, who will recruit, screen and support the trainees for the duration of their traineeship. TAFE NSW and Prodigy Learning have co-designed and developed the training program, which blends the latest Microsoft Azure Certifications with a customised Certificate IV in Information Technology. Delivered by TAFE NSW, the qualification is also eligible for NSW Government subsidies under the Smart and Skilled program, and combines subsidised training with a paid traineeship, ensuring the program is accessible to students of all backgrounds. TAFE NSW managing director Dr Caralee McLiesh said, TAFE NSW has a strong track record of working with industry to provide students with the practical training they need to be job-ready. Were proud to be partnering with Microsoft to roll-out this Traineeship Program to help deliver the skilled IT workforce Australia needs now and into the future. In addition, Microsoft Australia will organise further training and events, allowing partners to benefit from direct access to new and emerging talent, with an opportunity to align participants to their business needs and processes. Microsoft is inviting its ecosystem of customers and partners to sign up to the program and host a trainee for the duration of the traineeship, including the ANZ Bank which it says is making an early commitment to the program by taking on fifteen trainees. We need to build great everyday banking experiences for our customers to compete in a challenging and rapidly changing environment. Taking a sustainable approach to developing talent will help us do this, said Gerard Florian, group executive, Technology, at ANZ. We prize diversity and believe that one of the best ways to solve business problems involves collaboration and different ways of thinking. The trainee program is a great way for us and all Australian companies to access emerging talent from different backgrounds and to support them as they work towards being the next generation of technologists. Recent research conducted by Microsoft identified that amongst its Australian technology partners, many are facing difficulties in recruiting individuals with the required skills, with the most common shortages being in Cloud Performance and Infrastructure, followed by Data Management and Analytics. Microsoft says the Traineeship Program will increase the pool of Microsoft Certified Professionals within the local industry. Victorias RMIT University is partnering with innovAGEING, Australias first innovation network for the aged care industry, to create a knowledge alliance to link research with product and service development in the aged care industry. The collaboration will explore the importance of design and the role of innovation in aged care, disseminate RMIT research to the industry and collaborate on research translation and commercialisation initiatives. And the partnership will also see RMIT Professor and director of the Design and Creative Practice Platform, Larissa Hjorth, join the forthcoming innovAGEING Experts-In-Residence program. Were excited with this partnership, said Merlin Kong, principal adviser for innovAGEING. Having consulted with industry in developing innovAGEING, there was strong interest in translating research into practice and validating progressive models of care with research evidence. There was also interest in demand-driven design in aged care and developing sustainable new business modelsin this regard, our alliance with RMIT marks a meaningful step in addressing ongoing industry interests. Aged care is a broad industry and RMIT is strategically positioned as a leader in cross-disciplinary, practice-based research with a focus on putting people first through innovative design and creative practice. RMIT deputy vice-chancellor Research and Innovation and vice-president, Professor Calum Drummond, said the university was proud to be working with innovAGEING to build links between academia and the aged care industry. It is said that if we design well, we are designing for all ages and abilities. Designing homes, environments and services so that people can transition through stages of life is about supporting independence and socially supportive environments. Within this context of design and innovation in aged care, we are applying technology and the arts to ageing and wellbeing projects, and this has proven to be powerful in helping organisations understand the experiences of those who are often the subject of care. The new collaboration is not the first time that RMIT and innovAGEING have worked together, with the two organisations partnering with Peak15 HealthTech in September to co-host a meetup between start-ups and the aged care industry, attended by approximately 159 people. Global smartphone vendors' shipments in the third quarter of 2018 showed a year-on-year decline of 6%, preliminary statistics from analyst firm IDC show. IDC said its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker recorded a fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year declines. But the company said it was of the view that growth would return by 2019, though it was not possible to predict what shape it would take. In Q3, Samsung saw a drop of 13.4% in shipments, down to 72.2 million units. This was one of the main factors contributing to the downward trend in the quarter. And secondly, China, the biggest market for smartphones with about a third of global shipments, also showed a fall for the sixth straight quarter. Samsung faced pressure from many directions, IDC said, especially from Huawei which kept second position for the second quarter running. The South Korean giant also faced pressure in other markets like India and Indonesia where Chinese brands like Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo had been growing rapidly. Domestic shipments in China had shown a drop, down 11% in the first half of 2018, and continuing into the third quarter. IDC said it expected this decline to slow, with flat growth returning in 2019. "China's domestic market continues to be challenged as overall consumer spending around smartphones has been down," said Ryan Reith, program vice-president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "High penetration levels, mixed with some challenging economic times, has slowed the world's largest smartphone market. "Despite this, we believe this market will begin to recover in 2019 and beyond, driven in the short term by a large, built up refresh cycle across all segments, and in the outer years of the forecast supported by 5G migration." "The race at the top of the market continues to be a heated one as Huawei once again slipped past Apple to the second position," said Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. "Although Huawei may have beat out Apple in Q3, the holiday quarter could have Apple as the market leader thanks to the launch of three new bezel-less devices. "No matter who leads in the overall market the holiday quarter should be an exciting one with a wide selection of new flagship devices available. "With the new iPhones, Mate 20, Pixel 3, V40, Note 9, and OnePlus 6T, we can expect consumers will have a plethora of options when upgrade time approaches. The vast selection of high-priced handsets should move ASPs in a positive direction come next quarter." Chart: courtesy IDC The Spacetalk kids watch is to be distributed and sold in New Zealand by telco Spark under a new master services agreement with MGM Wireless. MGM describes the agreement as another significant milestone for the company with CEO Mark Fortunatow saying We are tremendously excited to add our first international Mobile Network Operator to our growing network of bricks and mortar distributors. Further we see it as a huge endorsement by a leading international telco of the calibre of SPARK. Thanks to SPARK, New Zealand parents will now be able to go to any one of their 73 stores across New Zealand, to look, touch and feel our revolutionary kids watch and GPS wearable device. Spacetalk is currently available in Australia online via JB Hi-Fi and allmytribe.com and is stocked by regional electronics retailer Leading Edge, and from Friday November 9, 2018, SPACETALK will be stocked by 195 JB Hi-Fi Australian stores and in New Zealand in all 73 SPARK stores. According to MGM, the company continues to receive significant interest from other distributors and mobile cellular network companies in Australia and abroad. MGM says Spacetalk has been independently verified by leading international cyber security experts as unhackable, and has worlds best practice security and privacy features built in, and will also meet the European GDPR regulations. Today Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low around 55F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low around 55F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Tomorrow Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 82F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. 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. It is at this point that the nation expects to hear and understand the presidents roadmap. In his inaugural speech in April this year, the President was full of promises, which have largely become just simple talk and less action. The president, upon assuming office had Batswana with high hopes that at least after 100 days, his Out tray would carry peoples hopes and morale, tenets that have been dampened in the past 10 years of iron fist rule. Observers maintain that so far the president has been more vocal on simply reversing Khamas policies, firing people from the public service and cabinet and focusing on the internal fights of his party Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). While there was hope that there would be a clear roadmap from the president, nothing has come to the fore. The Monday address is the opportunity for the president to prove that indeed he is fixing things by focusing on issues of national importance and restoring Batswanas confidence in his administration, which some are now beginning to doubt. Corruption He has to stick to his statement that he hates corruption and would not tolerate it. This is not a new statement as his predecessor sang the same song. Little, if not nothing, has been done to deal with corruption especially at government enclave. We still have high profile cases of corruption where people occupying high offices of leadership are not being prosecuted. During oversight Parliament committees such as the Statutory Bodies and State Enterprise and Public Accounts Committee, it has been revealed that corruption is the order of the day. The president should take this seriously and act and not hang on the usual praise of international rating agencies who claim corruption is low in Botswana. As promised by the Minister of Presidential Affairs, Nonofo Molefhi the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Bill should be brought before Parliament during the SONA session. The minister must also make his commitment in strengthening and empowering the institutions that deal with these matters. Unemployment As you all know, Botswana faces a myriad of challenges such as unemployment, poverty, crime, HIV and AIDS, alcohol and drug abuse, amongst others. Therefore, one of my top priorities as the President of this country will be to address the problem of unemployment especially amongst the young people who constitute the majority of our population. The young people, who make 60 percent of the population of this country, are the future leaders and therefore investing in them is building the bridge to the future, President Masisi said in April. This is yet to get underway. Nothing much has been done and Batswana await the implementation of a combination of strategies required to stimulate economic growth which was to be implemented as a matter of urgency. We have new graduates who recently joined other unemployed youth. The issue of unemployment is a ticking bomb and needs the attention it deserves. Unemployment has in some quarters been associated with most of the social ills in the country. These are the future leaders who demand answers now. There is still skills mismatch and this has made the industry to shun new graduates; therefore, the president has to firmly speak about the countrys vocational education. Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) This is one animal that is yet to be understood. Results are still to be realised and tangible proof be availed to the effect that indeed the programme is benefiting Batswana. The EDD has been introduced as an important strategy that is aimed at giving Batswana an opportunity to set up industries, to empower themselves and, in turn, create the much-needed employment. But where are we? Where are our success stories and what is being done to improve the programme? The president explained early this year that in order to give concrete effect to the economic diversification aspirations, Government will prioritise the implementation of Cluster Development across various sectors, particularly the prioritised sectors of diamond beneficiation, tourism, beef, mining and financial services. He said Government will also expedite the implementation of the Special Economic Zones which will contribute immensely to the socio-economic development of this country. It has however been observed that even SPEDU is struggling to get things running. It has emerged that companies in the SPEDU area are failing to sustain themselves. The SPEDU revitalisation strategy has taken time to be implemented. It was reported recently that so far around 750 jobs have been created but the number continues to fluctuate because of challenges faced by companies that operate in the SPEDU region. There is lack of serviced land which makes it difficult to attract investors to set up businesses in the region. Land and housing Land allocation acceleration is also key and thousands of people are still waiting to be allocated land, especially for residential use. Others have already died before they could have a place they call home. This has depressed many citizens and it now seems to be igniting tribal fights as some tribes especially those in the periphery of the capital city feel cheated over their rights to own land. The problem in the delay of allocation of land which all along has been an urban issue has now spread to rural areas. The Botswana Land Policy, which was adopted in 2015, has to be implemented. Governments promise to give priority to the youth when allocating land for agriculture and business purposes still remains a dream for most of the young people who want to go into business. Labour movements His commitment in working with labour movements, and not against, has to come out clear. After promising to resuscitate the Public Service Bargaining Council (PSBC) the government moved swiftly to derecognise most of the public service sector unions. This left thousands of public servants without a place to deliberate on their salaries and conditions of service. Government being the largest employer has the responsibility to protect the countrys economy. For the past 10 years, public servants have been disgruntled and with the recent developments, trade unions have started to think they were sold a dummy, as the current administration is just a continuation of the past one, after all. Media As a guarantee for a free press, the laws that were promised, especially the Freedom of Information should reach parliament with the same urgency that the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities is likely to. The media industry has through various structures such as Editors Forum and Botswana Media and Allied Workers Union placed their pleas before the President. The industry is also on the brink of collapse because of the unwritten policy of advertising ban, which has to be lifted. If the industry is allowed to collapse because of this policy, democracy would be jeopardised as checks and balances and accountability would have no one to act on. TORONTO, Nov. 5, 2018 /CNW/ - Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (TSX:WM, FWB: WC7) ("Wallbridge" or the "Company") is pleased to announce continued positive results from its underground drill program and to provide an update on the ongoing development as part of the 35,000-tonne bulk sample and underground exploration program at its 100%-owned Fenelon Gold Property ("Fenelon"). Highlights Visible gold was observed to be present in 48 of 80 holes drilled to date. Since the last press release (see Wallbridge Press Release dated October 23, 2018 ), highlights of received assay results are as follows: 18-1000-004: 54.79 g/t gold over 2.36 metres in the Naga Viper zone 18-1000-005: 19.92 g/t gold over 3.25 metres in the Naga Viper zone 18-1000-006: 24.28 g/t gold over 4.35 metres in the Naga Viper zone and 16.40 g/t gold over 6.80 metres in the Habanero zone 18-1000-007: 14.67 g/t gold over 3.80 metres in the Paprika zone 18-1000-009: 87.63 g/t gold over 2.16 metres in the Fresno zone and 13.97 g/t gold over 0.71 metres in the Chipotle zone 18-0990-018: 4.46 g/t gold over 9.95 metres in the Paprika zone and 12.08 g/t gold over 2.50 metres in the Habanero zone 18-1010-003: 16.99 g/t gold over 1.60 metres in the Habanero zone ), highlights of received assay results are as follows: 18-1000-004: in the Naga Viper zone 18-1000-005: in the Naga Viper zone 18-1000-006: in the Naga Viper zone and in the Habanero zone 18-1000-007: in the Paprika zone 18-1000-009: in the Fresno zone and in the Chipotle zone 18-0990-018: in the Paprika zone and in the Habanero zone 18-1010-003: in the Habanero zone Two of the above highlights are from intersections where visible gold was not observed. Surface drill program with one drill rig now fully underway and a second surface drill rig is mobilizing this week. Current surface drilling is focusing on building resources in the top part of the Tabasco zone and targeting all zones to depths of 300-400 metres Assay results from 25 underground drill holes and three surface drill holes are pending. Production from the third stope (CH-02) is underway and the fourth stope (NV-02) is ready for production. Over 16,000 tonnes of ore has been mined of which 13,500 tonnes have been shipped to the Camflo mill. Processing of the second batch is planned for the end of November. "We have now reached the 5165 Level where at least one stope is planned to be extracted. Our priority is now to reach the 5150 and 5135 levels where the Habanero and Naga Viper West areas can be tested." stated Frank Demers, Vice-President, Mining & Projects of Wallbridge. "Our grade expectation of the bulk sample remains to be the range of 18 to 25 grams per tonne of gold and we are looking forward to reaching those lower levels not only to test some of the richer zones but also to develop platforms for deeper drilling from those areas." "These results from the West extension area released today, not only continue to add to the mineralization in the Naga Viper, Habanero and Paprika zones, but also provide unexpected high-grade intersections in Fresno and Chipotle zones along the way adding proximal ounces in the vicinity of the existing infrastructure," stated Attila Pentek, Vice-President, Exploration of Wallbridge. "Our drilling in the East extension area, between sections 1120 and 1140 has also encountered strong shear zones with visible gold observed in two intersections. Surface drilling is focusing on building resources in zones that are further away from the mine workings and exploring for mineralized zones down to 300-400 m depth." The bulk sample is expected to produce 19,000 to 26,000 ounces of gold with close to 50% of gold priced at C$1,720 per ounce. The expected cash flow upon completion of this bulk sample, net of all bulk sample costs and including the financing costs, is expected to be sufficient to cover the budgeted working capital requirements. The bulk sample program is designed to test a few stopes in several zones. The geology team has developed an extensive sampling program to characterize the mineralized material during this bulk sample. Chip samples are collected from a sampling line across each development face and muck samples are also taken in a regular pattern on surface. In the next few weeks, underground drilling will target the main high-grade shoots down-plunge to 200 m depth. Surface drilling will follow known mineralized zones and expand resources to 300-400 m depth and further away from the mine workings. A summary of the drill hole results from the underground drilling are reported in Tables 1 and 2 and also shown on the Figures below as well as on the Company website. Table 1. Wallbridge Fenelon Gold Property 2018 Underground Drill Assay Highlights Drill Hole From To From To Length True Width Au Au Capped* VG** Zone Press Release (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) 18-1030-006 27.79 30.20 2.41 2.20 15.91 15.91 VG Chipotle July 25, 2018 18-1030-006 Including... 28.50 29.11 0.61 0.56 59.10 59.10 VG Chipotle July 25, 2018 18-1030-009 77.58 81.00 3.42 2.70 35.91 35.91 VG Paprika July 25, 2018 18-1030-009 Including... 78.90 80.60 1.70 1.34 63.33 63.33 VG Paprika July 25, 2018 18-1030-011 80.10 85.50 5.40 4.37 10.05 10.05 Naga Viper Aug 14, 2018 18-1035-002 49.20 54.00 4.80 3.26 29.23 28.35 VG Chipotle Aug 14, 2018 18-1035-002 Including... 49.97 52.95 2.98 2.03 46.30 44.89 VG Chipotle Aug 14, 2018 18-1035-004 24.94 26.02 1.08 0.73 65.70 65.70 VG Fresno Aug 14, 2018 18-1035-004 70.00 74.16 4.16 3.27 9.37 9.37 Naga Viper Sept 19, 2018 18-1035-005 58.77 64.90 6.13 5.86 48.81 24.35 VG Naga Viper Aug 28, 2018 18-1035-010 30.45 34.08 3.63 2.72 30.47 30.47 VG Chipotle Aug 28, 2018 18-1035-010 Including... 32.90 34.08 1.18 0.89 91.94 91.94 VG Chipotle Aug 28, 2018 18-1035-010 64.40 65.40 1.00 0.75 28.80 28.80 VG Paprika Sept 5, 2018 18-1035-011 27.75 30.00 2.25 1.78 65.76 42.89 VG Chipotle Sept 5, 2018 18-1035-013 27.36 29.48 2.12 1.77 144.96 78.10 VG Chipotle Sept 5, 2018 18-1035-013 41.00 42.00 1.00 0.91 94.54 94.54 VG Anaheim Oct 02, 2018 18-1035-013 Including... 27.99 29.15 1.16 0.97 262.18 140.00 VG Chipotle Sept 5, 2018 18-1035-013 51.40 58.35 4.28 3.58 40.69 40.09 VG Naga Viper Sept 5, 2018 18-1035-017 56.00 66.13 10.13 5.51 50.31 25.18 VG Chipotle Aug 28, 2018 18-1035-018 52.99 56.50 3.51 2.38 12.68 12.68 VG Chipotle Sept 5, 2018 18-1035-018 63.70 69.00 5.30 3.60 9.04 9.04 VG Chipotle Sept 5, 2018 18-1035-018 Including... 66.00 66.96 0.96 0.65 35.79 35.79 VG Chipotle Sept 5, 2018 18-1035-019 47.00 55.00 8.00 5.56 27.10 24.69 VG Chipotle Sept 5, 2018 18-1035-019 59.30 60.30 1.00 0.69 39.10 39.10 VG Chipotle Sept 5, 2018 18-1035-019 72.50 77.35 4.85 4.10 137.63 88.38 VG Naga Viper Sept 5, 2018 18-1075-001 26.14 28.41 2.27 1.82 18.54 18.54 Naga Viper Sept 19, 2018 18-1080-001 21.00 21.50 0.50 0.40 611.00 140.00 VG Naga Viper Sept 5, 2018 18-1080-003 35.70 37.20 1.50 1.00 19.24 19.24 VG Naga Viper Sept 5, 2018 18-1080-003 Including... 35.70 36.18 0.48 0.32 58.20 58.20 VG Naga Viper Sept 5, 2018 18-0990-006 104.52 109.10 3.50 2.33 39.47 23.32 VG Naga Viper Sept 19, 2018 18-0990-007 101.30 101.90 0.60 0.40 204.00 140.00 VG Naga Viper Sept 19, 2018 18-0990-007 106.95 111.00 4.05 2.70 35.21 31.36 VG Naga Viper Sept 19, 2018 18-0990-007 132.02 134.97 2.95 2.20 122.35 35.45 VG Habanero Sept 19, 2018 18-0990-009 91.85 98.74 6.89 3.60 5.73 5.73 VG Naga Viper Oct 02, 2018 18-0990-009 115.26 115.75 0.49 0.31 242.00 242.00 VG Paprika Oct 09, 2018 18-0990-010 94.70 99.25 4.55 3.50 12.42 12.42 VG Paprika Sept 19, 2018 18-0990-010 111.40 116.92 5.52 4.99 41.02 41.02 VG Habanero Sept 19, 2018 18-0990-010 Including... 112.6 114.23 1.62 1.46 109.79 109.79 VG Habanero Sept 19, 2018 18-0990-011 104.41 112.20 7.79 7.17 54.45 41.51 VG Habanero Oct 02, 2018 18-0990-013 106.32 121.33 15.01 11.01 13.92 13.92 VG Oct 23, 2018 18-0990-013 Including... 106.3 111.71 4.89 3.59 10.31 10.31 VG Paprika Oct 23, 2018 18-0990-013 Including... 115 121.3 6.37 4.67 24.30 24.30 VG Habanero Oct 09, 2018 18-0990-014 115.86 117.54 1.68 1.39 19.37 19.37 VG Habanero Oct 23, 2018 18-0990-017 106.83 108.53 1.70 1.02 134.57 127.00 VG Paprika Oct 09, 2018 18-0990-017 114.22 118.12 3.90 2.34 11.23 11.23 VG Paprika Oct 09, 2018 18-0990-017 124.02 126.73 2.71 1.63 98.90 47.45 VG Habanero Oct 09, 2018 18-0990-018 110.80 120.75 9.95 6.57 4.46 4.46 VG Paprika Current Release 18-0990-018 Including... 110.8 112.30 1.50 0.99 16.39 16.39 VG Paprika Current Release 18-0990-018 132.30 134.80 2.50 1.65 12.08 12.08 VG Habanero Current Release 18-1000-002 107.75 109.84 2.09 1.10 19.60 19.60 VG Naga Viper Oct 23, 2018 18-1000-003 83.00 87.56 4.56 3.15 21.00 21.00 VG Naga Viper Oct 23, 2018 18-1000-003 109.36 114.62 5.26 3.59 37.91 37.91 VG Habanero Oct 23, 2018 18-1000-004 98.60 100.96 2.36 1.42 54.79 54.79 VG Naga Viper Current Release 18-1000-005 91.00 94.25 3.25 2.05 19.92 19.92 VG Naga Viper Current Release 18-1000-006 77.55 81.90 4.35 2.84 24.28 24.28 VG Naga Viper Current Release 18-1000-006 106.60 113.40 6.80 4.44 16.40 16.40 VG Habanero Current Release 18-1000-007 95.60 99.40 3.80 2.66 14.67 14.67 VG Paprika Current Release 18-1000-009 31.23 33.39 2.16 1.86 87.63 68.61 VG Fresno Current Release 18-1000-009 48.74 49.45 0.71 0.61 13.97 13.97 Chipotle Current Release 18-1010-003 110.10 111.70 1.60 1.01 16.99 16.99 Habanero Current Release *Au capped at 140 g/t following InnovExplo's 2016 Mineral Resource Estimate. **Intervals containing visible gold ("VG"). Table 2. Wallbridge Fenelon Gold Property 2018 Underground drill hole information* Drill Hole ID Local grid E Local grid N Elevation Length (Metres) Azimuth Dip VG** Note 18-1075-003 10592 10955 5214 48 208 -25 Further Assays pending 18-1000-007 10540 11014 5215 126 202 -38 VG Further Assays pending 18-1020-005 10556 11005 5214 141 205 -47 VG Further Assays pending 18-1020-006 10556 11005 5214 132 204 -44 VG Further Assays pending 18-0990-019 10532 11019 5215 162 230 -34 Assays pending 18-0990-020 10532 11019 5215 170 218 -48 VG Assays pending 18-0990-021 10532 11019 5215 138 220 -35 VG Assays pending 18-0990-022 10532 11019 5215 184 226 -46 VG Assays pending 18-0990-023 10532 11019 5215 163 223 -51 Assays pending 18-0990-024 10532 11019 5215 200 217 -55 VG Assays pending 18-0990-025 10532 11019 5215 216 233 -45 Assays pending 18-0990-026 10532 11019 5215 141 226 -26 Assays pending 18-1160-001 10679 10934 5216 51 200 0 Assays pending 18-1160-002 10679 10934 5216 60 200 -23 Assays pending 18-1130-002 10654 10948 5215 90 201 -47 Assays pending 18-1130-003 10654 10948 5215 81 191 -27 Assays pending 18-1130-004 10654 10948 5215 75 202 -17 Assays pending 18-1120-002 10644 10954 5214 87 202 -44 Assays pending 18-1120-003 10644 10954 5214 75 208 -30 Assays pending 18-1120-004 10644 10954 5214 72 202 -17 Assays pending 18-1110-002 10636 10959 5214 102 204 -41 VG Assays pending 18-1110-003 10636 10959 5214 75 205 -17 Assays pending 18-1110-004 10636 10959 5214 75 207 11 VG Assays pending 18-5175-001 10581 10985 5179 210 239 -36 Assays pending 18-5175-002 10581 10985 5179 123 242 -26 VG Assays pending * Table includes only underground holes for which assays are pending. For earlier holes please refer to tables in previous press releases. **Intervals containing visible gold ("VG") Wallbridge's Fenelon Gold Property is located in northwestern Quebec proximal to the Sunday Lake Deformation Zone ("SLDZ") which hosts the Detour Gold Mine in Ontario, and Balmoral Resources' gold deposits at Martiniere. The Fenelon Gold Property hosts the Discovery Zone gold deposit and surrounding 4 km strike length of a gold-hosting secondary splay of the SLDZ. Since acquiring the property in late 2016, Wallbridge has completed an updated resource estimate and a positive pre-feasibility study on the existing resource (see Wallbridge Press Release dated February 02, 2017). In addition, Wallbridge has completed surface exploration drilling campaigns and is currently drilling from underground as part of its 35,000-tonne bulk sample at Fenelon. Drilling to date has significantly extended existing zones and discovered several new parallel zones. Drill core samples from the ongoing drill program at Fenelon were cut and bagged on site and transported to SGS Canada Inc. Samples, along with standards, blanks, and duplicates included for quality assurance and quality control, were prepared and analyzed at SGS Canada Inc. laboratories. Samples are crushed to 90% less than 2mm. A 1kg riffle split is pulverized to >95% passing 106 microns. 50g samples are analyzed by fire assay and AAS. Samples >10g/t Au are automatically analyzed by fire assay with gravimetric finish or screen metallic analysis. To test for coarse free gold and for additional quality assurance and quality control, Wallbridge requests screen metallic analysis for samples containing visible gold. These and future assay results may vary from time to time due to re-analysis for quality assurance and quality control. The Qualified Persons responsible for the technical content of this press release are Marz Kord, P. Eng., M. Sc., MBA, President & CEO and Attila Pentek, P.Geo., Ph.D., Vice President Exploration for Wallbridge Mining Company Limited. About Wallbridge Mining Wallbridge is establishing a pipeline of projects that will support sustainable production and revenue as well as organic growth through exploration and scalability. Wallbridge is currently developing its 100%-owned high-grade Fenelon Gold property in Quebec with ongoing exploration and a bulk sample in 2018. Wallbridge is also pursuing other additional advanced-stage projects which would add to the Company's near-term project pipeline. These discussions benefit from the operating capabilities Wallbridge demonstrated by safely and efficiently mining the Broken Hammer deposit in Sudbury, which was completed in October 2015. Wallbridge is also continuing partner-funded exploration on its large portfolio of nickel, copper, and PGM projects in Sudbury, Ontario, with a focus on its high-grade Parkin project. Wallbridge also has exposure to exploration for copper and gold in Jamaica and British Columbia through its 11.3% ownership of Carube Copper Corp. (CUC:TSX-V, formerly Miocene Resources Limited, a Wallbridge spin-out of its BC assets). This press release may contain forward-looking statements (including "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) relating to, among other things, the operations of Wallbridge and the environment in which it operates. Generally, 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". Wallbridge has relied on a number of assumptions and estimates in making such forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, the costs associated with the development and operation of its properties. Such assumptions and estimates are made in light of the trends and conditions that are considered to be relevant and reasonable based on information available and the circumstances existing at this time. A number of risk factors may cause actual results, level of activity, performance or outcomes of such exploration and/or mine development to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements including, without limitation, whether such discoveries will result in commercially viable quantities of such mineralized materials, the possibility of changes to project parameters as plans continue to be refined, the ability to execute planned exploration and future drilling programs, the need for additional funding to continue exploration and development efforts, changes in general economic, market and business conditions, and those other risks set forth in Wallbridge's most recent annual information form under the heading "Risk Factors" and in its other public filings. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and such information is inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and may be beyond the control of Wallbridge. Although Wallbridge has attempted to identify important risks and factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors and risks that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Consequently, undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements. In addition, all forward-looking statements in this press release are given as of the date hereof. Wallbridge disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, save and except as may be required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified by this disclaimer. TORONTO, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alamos Gold Inc. (TSX:AGI; NYSE:AGI) (Alamos or the Company) today reported new results from surface and underground exploration drilling at the Island Gold Mine from the second half of 2018. Ongoing drilling continues to extend high-grade gold mineralization along-strike and down-plunge from existing Mineral Reserves and Resources across all three main areas of focus: the Main Extension, the Eastern Extension, and the Western Extension. All reported drill widths are true width of the mineralized zones, unless otherwise stated. Main Extension: best surface directional drilling intersection to date (MH13) extending high-grade gold mineralization 60 metres (m) east of the nearest intersection. High-grade mineralization now extends nearly 1,000 m east of current mine workings and remains open to the east and down-plunge. New highlights include: 118.58 g/t Au (39.99 g/t cut) over 6.66 m; 21.50 g/t Au (13.70 g/t cut) over 7.80 m; and 31.70 g/t Au (14.51 g/t cut) over 3.81 m. High-grade mineralization now extends nearly 1,000 m east of current mine workings and remains open to the east and down-plunge. New highlights include: Western Extension: high-grade mineralization extended laterally and down-plunge from existing Inferred Mineral Resources. New highlights include: 78.26 g/t Au (67.74 g/t cut) over 2.29 m; and 19.69 g/t Au (19.69 g/t cut) over 2.79 m. New highlights include: Eastern Extension: high-grade mineralization extended below and east of existing Inferred and Indicated Mineral Resources and remains open down-plunge. New highlights include: 46.13 g/t Au (44.17 g/t cut) over 2.83 m; and 13.72 g/t Au (13.72 g/t cut) over 7.60 m. New highlights include: Note: Drillhole composite intervals reported as cut may include higher grade samples which have been cut to 225 g/t Au, 100 g/t Au, or 80g/t Au depending on the zone. Refer to drill hole composite interval summary tables in this release for more information. Island Gold continues to impress. In less than a year since we acquired the mine, weve seen a 17% increase in Mineral Reserve grades and significant growth in Mineral Reserves and Resources across all categories. Ongoing exploration success across all three extensions of the ore body, including the best surface directional hole drilled to date, demonstrate strong potential for this to continue, said John A. McCluskey, President and Chief Executive Officer. 2018 Drilling Program Island Gold Mine The focus of the 2018 exploration drilling program is to expand the down-plunge and lateral extensions of the Island Gold deposit with the objective of adding new near mine Mineral Resources. Drilling continues to be conducted across three main areas of focus along the two-kilometre long Island Gold Main Zone including; the Main Extension; the Eastern Extension; and the Western Extension (Figure 1). Year-to-date drilling has been successful in extending high grade gold mineralization across all three areas resulting in significant growth in both Mineral Reserves and Resources as detailed in the mid-year 2018 update (see press release dated September 5, 2018). Since the acquisition of Island Gold in November 2017, Mineral Reserves have increased 28%, or 207,000 ounces, net of mining depletion, and Mineral Reserve grades have increase 17% to 10.69 g/t Au. Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources have also increased 142%, or 130,000 ounces, and Inferred Mineral Resources have increased 18%, or 184,000 ounces. A total of 102,500 m of drilling in 556 holes was completed during the first three quarters of 2018, including 37,100 m since the mid-year Mineral Reserve and Resource update. Year-to-date drilling has included 37,200 m of surface directional exploration drilling, 2,700 m of regional exploration drilling and 22,800 m of underground exploration drilling. New highlight intercepts since the mid-year Mineral Reserve and Resource update can be found in Figures 1 to 4 and Tables 1 to 3 at the end of this release. A further 42,900 m of drilling has been budgeted for the remainder of 2018 with the primary objective of extending high grade mineralization and adding near-mine Mineral Resources across all three areas of focus. A significant portion of the surface exploration drilling in the second half of 2018 is either too broadly spaced to define Inferred Mineral Resources or focused on regional targets. 2018 Drilling Program Island Gold Mine Main Extension As detailed in the mid-year 2018 Mineral Reserve and Resource update, a total of 390,000 ounces of Inferred Mineral Resources were added within the Main Extension area. The bulk of the increase was down-plunge from existing mine workings where gold mineralization has been extended nearly 1 kilometre. Exploration drilling continues to target the lateral and down-plunge continuation of gold mineralization below existing Mineral Reserves and outside of the Inferred Mineral Resources reported in the mid-year Mineral Reserve and Resource update. Drilling since the June 30, 2018 update has been successful in further extending gold mineralization with a drill hole spacing ranging from 75 to 100 m (Figure 2). Highlights from the new drill results include (Table 1): 118.58 g/t Au (39.99 g/t cut) over 6.66 m (MH13); 21.50 g/t Au (13.70 g/t cut) over 7.80 m (MH12-2); 31.70 g/t Au (14.51 g/t cut) over 3.81 m (MH9-12); 9.67 g/t Au (9.67 g/t cut) over 4.60 m (MH10-10); and and 15.08 g/t Au (15.08 g/t cut) over 2.66 m (MH12-1). This east-plunging high-grade ore shoot remains open both laterally and down-plunge. Drill holes MH12-1 and MH12-2 are of particular interest because the intersections confirm that gold mineralization extends vertically below a currently known Inferred Mineral Resource block containing 372,600 ounces grading 10.22 g/t Au. Hole MH13 is also significant in that it returned the best intersection to date from the surface directional drilling program at 118.58 g/t Au (39.99 g/t cut) over 6.66 m. It also confirms extension of the high-grade mineralization to the east with the nearest previously drilled intersection located 60 m to the west. The ongoing exploration program is focused on further extending high-grade mineralization with the objective of defining additional Mineral Resources. Four diamond drill rigs are active in the Main Extension target area. Western Extension Surface drilling in the Western Extension area (Figure 3) was successful in adding 30,000 ounces of Inferred Mineral Resources as reported in the mid-year Mineral Reserve and Resource update with only two holes completed during the first half of the year. Drilling completed since then has continued to extend high-grade mineralization laterally and down-plunge from existing Inferred Mineral Resources. Highlights from the new drill results include (Table 1): 78.26 g/t Au (67.74 g/t cut) over 2.29 m (MH7-5); 19.69 g/t Au (19.69 g/t cut) over 2.79 m (MH5-7); and and 13.11 g/t Au (13.11 g/t cut) over 2.44 m (MH4-8); Holes MH5-7 and MH7-5 confirmed that gold mineralization is present between two previously defined Inferred Mineral Resource blocks. The Company has two drill rigs focused on the Western Extension area using 75 to 100 m spaced step-out drilling with the objective of expanding the high-grade mineralization where it remains open both laterally and down-plunge. Eastern Extension An objective of the 2018 underground exploration drilling program is to expand the high-grade zone defined from exploration drifts established at the eastern extent of the Island Gold Mine underground infrastructure (Figure 4). Drilling during the first half of the year was successful in adding 77,000 ounces of Indicated Mineral Resources. Since then, drilling from the 620 exploration drift has continued to intersect high-grade mineralization at depth and to the east. Highlights from the new results include (Table 2): 46.13 g/t Au (44.17 g/t cut) over 2.83 m (620-605-06); and and 13.72 g/t Au (13.72 g/t cut) over 7.60 m (620-605-04). Hole 620-605-06 is the eastern most hole drilled at depth from the 620-level. It intersected high-grade gold values (44.17 g/t Au cut over 2.83 m) between existing Mineral Resource blocks in the Eastern portion of the Island Gold Mine (between the 340 and 840 levels) and previously reported high grade intersections from surface drill holes drilled further to the east, (Figure 4), which include: 17.85 g/t Au (14.25 g/t cut) over 2.18m (GD-620-01); 57.43 g/t Au (25.37 g/t cut) over 4.37 m (GD-630-01); 18.03 g/t Au (14.16 g/t cut) over 11.53m (GD-640-05); 15.20 g/t Au (8.16 g/t cut) over 2.06 m (GD-640-04); and and 43.26 g/t Au (11.72 g/t cut) over 2.13m (GD-640-05-5). Drilling will continue to test this area for the balance of the year from underground drill bays established on the 620-level exploration drift. In addition, directional drilling from surface is also planned in the Eastern Extension area between 850 and 1150 m vertical depth to further explore this area which cannot be drilled from existing underground exploration drifts. Underground Delineation Drilling Underground delineation drilling is also being carried out from the 620 and 840 levels with the focus on converting Inferred Mineral Resources to Indicated Mineral Resources. New highlight drill intercepts include (Table 3): 84.02 g/t Au (28.71 g/t cut) over 2.61 m (620-574-51); 23.53 g/t Au (23.53 g/t cut) over 2.79 m (840-542-02); 17.20 g/t Au (17.20 g/t cut) over 2.60 m (840-542-09); 16.46 g/t Au (16.46 g/t cut) over 2.52 m (840-542-13); and and 16.05 g/t Au (16.05 g/t cut) over 4.76 m (840-542-22). The results from the infill definition drilling within existing Inferred Mineral Resource blocks confirm the continuity of the high-grade gold mineralization and are expected to support the conversion of the Mineral Resources in these areas. Other Zones The Island Gold Deposit consists of a number of subparallel mineralized zones, with the majority of Mineral Reserves and Resources being defined in the C Zone and E1E Zones which constitutes the main production horizons at the Island Gold mine. Highlights of new intersections in parallel zones and zones in which the lateral continuity is not yet established (Unknown) include (reported composite intervals are core lengths): 127.16 g/t Au (73.66 g/t cut) over 3.10 m (620-598-18); 34.25 g/t Au (18.06 g/t cut) over 3.71 m (620-598-10); 11.88 g/t Au (10.84 g/t cut) over 3.78 m (620-598-03); 16.17 g/t Au (15.36 g/t cut) over 2.69 m (620-604-06); and and 11.46 g/t Au (11.46 g/t cut) over 3.61 m (620-598-15). Additional drilling will be required to further evaluate these high-grade intersections and their potential in both the footwall and hanging wall of the main C and E1E Zones. Surface Regional Exploration Drilling A 12,000 m regional exploration drill program commenced in September to drill test targets along the Goudreau Deformation Zone to the west of the main Island Gold Mine deposit. Drilling is also planned to test a previous high-grade intercept of 9.71 g/t Au over 5.95 m below the Kremzar gold deposit. Qualified Persons Chris Bostwick, FAusIMM, Alamos Golds Vice President, Technical Services, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release. Chris Bostwick is a Qualified Person within the meaning of Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). Exploration programs at the Island Gold Mine are directed by Raynald Vincent, P.Eng., M.G.P., Chief Geologist at the Island Gold Mine and a Qualified Person within the meaning of NI 43-101. Quality Control Assays for the delineation and exploration drilling were completed at LabExpert in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. The Corporation inserts at regular intervals quality control (QC) samples (blanks and reference materials) to monitor laboratory performance. Cross check assays are done on a regular basis in a second accredited laboratory. The Quality Assurance / Quality Control procedures are more completely described in the Technical Report filed on Sedar by Richmont Mines, July 13, 2017. Upcoming Catalysts and News Flow Q4 2018 La Yaqui Grande EIA Submission Q4 2018 Cerro Pelon EIA Approval Q1 2019 Q4 2018 Production and 2019 Guidance Q1 2019 Q4 2018 Earnings and 2018 Mineral Reserve and Resource Update Q1 2019 Lynn Lake Optimization Study H1 2019 End of 5% NSR Royalty at Mulatos Q2 2019 Island Gold Exploration Update Q2 2019 La Yaqui Grande EIA Approval About Alamos Alamos is a Canadian-based intermediate gold producer with diversified production from four operating mines in North America. This includes the Young-Davidson and Island Gold mines in northern Ontario, Canada and the Mulatos and El Chanate mines in Sonora State, Mexico. Additionally, the Company has a significant portfolio of development stage projects in Canada, Mexico, Turkey, and the United States. Alamos employs more than 1,700 people and is committed to the highest standards of sustainable development. The Companys shares are traded on the TSX and NYSE under the symbol AGI. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Scott K. Parsons Vice President, Investor Relations (416) 368-9932 x 5439 All amounts are in United States dollars, unless otherwise stated. The TSX and NYSE have not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note This News Release includes certain statements that constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws "forward-looking statements". All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, which address events, results, outcomes or developments that Alamos expects to occur are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally, but not always, identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expects", is expected", "anticipates", "plans" or is planned, trends, "estimates", "intends" or potential or variations of such words and phrases and similar expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved or the negative connotation of such terms. Forward-looking statements in this news release include the statements with respect to planned exploration programs, costs and expenditures, changes in Mineral Resources and conversion of Mineral Resources to Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves, and other information that is based on forecasts and projections of future operational, geological or financial results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Exploration results that include geophysics, sampling, and drill results on wide spacings may not be indicative of the occurrence of a mineral deposit. Such results do not provide assurance that further work will establish sufficient grade, continuity, metallurgical characteristics and economic potential to be classed as a category of Mineral Resource. A Mineral Resource that is classified as "Inferred" or "Indicated" has a great amount of uncertainty as to its existence and economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that any or part of an "Indicated Mineral Resource" or "Inferred Mineral Resource" will ever be upgraded to a higher category of Mineral Resource. Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves. The risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from Alamos' expectations include, among others, risks related to obtaining the permits required to carry out planned exploration or development work, the actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of economic and geological evaluations and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, changes to the price of gold, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Alamos' Annual Information Form and other disclosures by Alamos and its predecessors available on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com or on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Although Alamos has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements which are not guarantees of future events, and speak only as of the date made. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors Mineral Reserve and Resource Estimates All Mineral Resource and Reserve estimates included in this news release or documents referenced in this news release have been prepared in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (the "CIM") - CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, adopted by the CIM Council, as amended (the "CIM Standards"). NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators, which established standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. The terms "Mineral Reserve", "Proven Mineral Reserve" and "Probable Mineral Reserve" are Canadian mining terms as defined in accordance with NI 43-101 and the CIM Standards. These definitions differ materially from the definitions in SEC Industry Guide 7 ("SEC Industry Guide 7") under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Exchange Act. Under SEC Industry Guide 7 standards, a "final" or "bankable" feasibility study is required to report reserves, the three-year historical average price is used in any reserve or cash flow analysis to designate reserves and the primary environmental analysis or report must be filed with the appropriate governmental authority. In addition, the terms "Mineral Resource", "Measured Mineral Resource", "Indicated Mineral Resource" and "Inferred Mineral Resource" are defined in and required to be disclosed by NI 43-101 and the CIM Standards; however, these terms are not defined terms under SEC Industry Guide 7 and are normally not permitted to be used in reports and registration statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into Mineral Reserves. "Inferred Mineral Resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred Mineral Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of Inferred Mineral Resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies, except in very limited circumstances. Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an Inferred Mineral Resource exists or is economically or legally mineable. Disclosure of "contained ounces" in a Mineral Resource is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations; however, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute "reserves" by SEC standards as in place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. Table 1: Island Gold Previously Unreleased Select Composite Intervals from Surface Exploration Drilling Composite intervals greater than 3 g/t Au weighted average, capping values per zone: Zone C @ 225 g/t Au; Zone E1E @ 100 g/t Au; Zone Unknown @ 70 g/t. Target area: Main Extension (Main Ext), Western Extension (Western Ext). Hole ID Zone Target Area From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) True Width (m) Au Uncut (g/t) Au Cut (g/t) Vertical Depth MH9-12 E1E Main Ext 1497.70 1503.30 5.60 3.81 31.70 14.51 1416 MH10-6 E1E Main Ext 1536.80 1541.50 4.70 3.93 6.59 6.59 1420 MH10-10 E1E Main Ext 1518.00 1523.10 5.10 4.60 9.67 9.67 1397 MH12-1 E1E Main Ext 1521.50 1524.50 3.00 2.66 15.08 15.08 1395 MH12-2 E1E Main Ext 1523.00 1532.10 9.10 7.80 21.50 13.70 1391 MH13 E1E Main Ext 1537.60 1544.70 7.10 6.66 118.58 39.99 1346 MH4-8 C Western Ext 1281.60 1284.60 3.00 2.44 13.11 13.11 1054 MH5-7 C Western Ext 1315.90 1319.45 3.55 2.79 19.69 19.69 1087 MH5-9 C Western Ext 1378.00 1380.70 2.70 2.06 12.17 12.17 1171 MH5-11 C Western Ext 1415.00 1419.10 4.10 2.28 5.94 5.94 1232 MH7-3 C Western Ext 1454.70 1459.60 4.90 4.19 5.15 5.15 1139 MH7-4 C Western Ext 1438.00 1441.00 3.00 2.61 4.18 4.18 1130 MH7-5 C Western Ext 1451.40 1454.00 2.60 2.29 78.26 67.74 1126 MH5-6 G1 Western Ext 1237.70 1248.10 10.40 9.18 3.83 3.83 1003 MH5-7 G1 Western Ext 1278.00 1280.00 2.00 1.66 10.23 10.23 1059 MH10-10 Unknown Main Ext 1566.80 1569.50 2.70 3.19 3.19 1437 MH14 Unknown Main Ext 1463.70 1466.00 2.30 9.98 9.98 1319 MH5-8 Unknown Western Ext 1394.80 1397.65 2.85 5.85 5.85 1156 Note: Unknown zone corresponds to gold intercepts outside known ore zones and for which continuity is not yet established and therefore true width has not been calculated. Table 2: Island Gold Previously Unreleased Select Composite Intervals from Underground Exploration Drilling Composite intervals greater than 3 g/t Au weighted average, capping values per zone: Zone C @ 225 g/t Au; Zone E1E @ 100 g/t Au; Zone Unknown @ 70 g/t. Target area: Main Extension (Main Ext), Eastern Extension (Eastern Ext), Western Extension (Western Ext). Hole ID Zone Target Area From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) True Width (m) Au Uncut (g/t) AuCut (g/t) Vertical Depth 730-464-20 C Western Ext 133.00 136.00 3.00 2.08 17.58 17.58 597 620-598-06 E1E Eastern Ext 101.00 105.10 4.10 3.32 4.42 4.42 598 620-598-11 E1E Eastern Ext 228.50 237.40 8.90 3.73 6.32 6.32 725 620-598-18 E1E Eastern Ext 299.90 306.50 6.60 2.61 9.05 9.05 795 620-604-01 E1E Eastern Ext 206.00 213.50 7.50 3.77 6.29 6.29 691 620-604-06 E1E Eastern Ext 215.70 221.50 5.80 2.78 4.61 4.61 710 620-604-11 E1E Eastern Ext 235.10 240.00 4.90 2.50 3.05 3.05 721 620-605-01 E1E Eastern Ext 206.00 215.10 9.10 4.95 3.65 3.65 679 620-605-04 E1E Eastern Ext 103.00 112.00 9.00 7.60 13.72 13.72 546 620-605-05 E1E Eastern Ext 258.00 269.40 11.40 3.39 6.50 6.50 738 620-605-06 E1E Eastern Ext 302.90 309.60 6.70 2.83 46.13 44.17 778 840-542-01 E1E Main Ext 267.90 271.60 3.70 2.18 3.75 3.75 1029 840-542-05 E1E Main Ext 227.70 231.00 3.30 2.43 8.63 8.63 983 620-598-09 Unknown Eastern Ext 53.93 60.20 6.27 5.97 5.97 613 620-598-10 Unknown Eastern Ext 60.98 65.20 4.22 34.25 18.06 555 620-598-15 Unknown Eastern Ext 70.80 76.50 5.70 11.46 11.46 529 620-598-18 Unknown Eastern Ext 131.00 136.00 5.00 127.16 73.66 683 620-598-20 Unknown Eastern Ext 63.10 70.40 7.30 3.34 3.34 609 620-604-05 Unknown Eastern Ext 92.33 98.00 5.67 18.27 17.31 665 620-604-06 Unknown Eastern Ext 27.00 30.70 3.70 16.17 15.36 610 620-604-06 Unknown Eastern Ext 96.65 101.10 4.45 9.11 8.34 647 620-605-06 Unknown Eastern Ext 109.15 113.20 4.05 7.52 7.52 663 Note: Unknown zone corresponds to gold intercepts outside known ore zones and for which continuity is not yet established and therefore true width has not been calculated. Table 3: Island Gold Previously Unreleased Select Composite Intervals from Underground Delineation Drilling. Composite intervals greater than 3 g/t Au weighted average, capping values per zone: Zone C @ 225 g/t Au; Zone E1E @ 100 g/t Au; Zone Unknown @ 70 g/t. Target area: Main Extension (Main Ext), Eastern Extension (Eastern Ext), Western Extension (Western Ext). Hole ID Zone Target Area From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) True Width (m) Au Uncut (g/t) Au Cut (g/t) Vertical Depth 660-467-01 C Western Ext 50.10 55.60 5.50 2.59 9.77 9.77 635 660-467-04 C Western Ext 28.60 32.90 4.30 3.63 18.79 18.79 661 660-470-01 C Western Ext 31.20 34.60 3.40 2.61 3.00 3.00 657 660-470-05 C Western Ext 46.00 55.20 9.20 4.70 11.61 11.61 635 660-470-06 C Western Ext 35.00 42.70 7.70 4.74 8.80 8.80 648 660-470-01 B Western Ext 8.20 15.00 6.80 5.24 6.06 6.06 667 620-574-48 E1E Eastern Ext 160.10 163.50 3.40 2.32 3.34 3.34 653 620-574-49 E1E Eastern Ext 183.10 186.60 3.50 2.15 5.58 5.58 678 620-574-50 E1E Eastern Ext 240.00 246.00 6.00 2.30 6.80 6.80 745 620-574-51 E1E Eastern Ext 272.03 276.00 3.97 2.61 84.02 28.71 775 620-574-52 E1E Eastern Ext 223.50 228.60 5.10 2.11 3.78 3.78 727 620-598-25 E1E Eastern Ext 295.50 301.50 6.00 2.02 7.55 7.55 789 620-598-27 E1E Eastern Ext 187.00 190.50 3.50 2.07 5.00 5.00 675 620-598-29 E1E Eastern Ext 258.90 265.20 6.30 3.00 8.60 6.25 755 620-598-30 E1E Eastern Ext 215.20 221.00 5.80 3.98 7.19 7.19 711 620-543-65A E1E Main Ext 214.10 217.80 3.70 2.81 6.44 6.44 718 840-542-02 E1E Main Ext 238.30 243.00 4.70 2.79 23.53 23.53 989 840-542-03 E1E Main Ext 178.60 181.60 3.00 2.46 8.44 8.44 897 840-542-09 E1E Main Ext 217.90 221.20 3.30 2.60 17.20 17.20 957 840-542-13 E1E Main Ext 186.30 190.80 4.50 2.52 16.46 16.46 912 840-542-14 E1E Main Ext 175.00 178.00 3.00 2.76 4.50 4.49 890 840-542-15 E1E Main Ext 223.00 226.00 3.00 2.13 11.56 11.56 977 840-542-16 E1E Main Ext 255.80 258.90 3.10 2.04 9.63 9.63 1026 840-542-18 E1E Main Ext 235.00 239.80 4.80 3.52 6.94 6.94 995 840-542-21 E1E Main Ext 141.60 144.00 2.40 2.36 4.22 4.22 840 840-542-22 E1E Main Ext 149.10 154.60 5.50 4.76 16.05 16.05 860 840-542-23 E1E Main Ext 189.90 195.50 5.60 4.73 3.28 3.28 919 840-542-24 E1E Main Ext 210.00 214.00 4.00 2.99 6.84 6.84 959 840-542-25 E1E Main Ext 283.45 288.20 4.75 2.14 5.35 5.35 1057 840-542-29 E1E Main Ext 152.35 155.25 2.90 2.77 3.15 3.15 807 620-598-03 Unknown Eastern Ext 77.80 85.00 7.20 11.88 10.84 515 Note: Unknown zone corresponds to gold intercepts outside known ore zones and for which continuity is not yet established and therefore true width has not been calculated. Table 4: Surface exploration drill holes; azimuth, dip, drilled length, and collar location at surface (UTM NAD83). HOLE-ID Azimuth () Dip () Drilled Length (m) Easting Northing Elevation (m) Comments MH10-10 347.8 -72.9 548.7 692033.4 5351123.2 395.4 cut from MH10-9 at 1160 m downhole MH10-6 347.8 -72.9 684.5 692033.4 5351123.2 395.4 cut from MH10-5 at 1166 m downhole MH12-1 341.8 -64.2 1052.0 691310.1 5350974.7 394.5 cut from MH12 at 578 m downhole MH12-2 341.8 -64.2 746.0 691310.1 5350974.7 394.5 cut from MH12-1 at 903 m downhole MH13 336.9 -71.6 1700.0 692074.0 5351046.0 389.0 mother-hole MH14 359.0 -67.3 1571.0 691521.9 5351123.4 393.6 mother-hole MH4-8 336.5 -58.2 650.0 690949.1 5350863.5 392.1 cut from MH4-7 at 864 m downhole MH5-11 333.9 -62.3 623.0 690818.5 5350823.7 393.1 cut from MH5-10A at 897m downhole MH5-6 333.9 -62.3 717.0 690818.5 5350823.7 393.1 cut from MH5 at 695 m downhole MH5-7 333.9 -62.3 567.0 690818.5 5350823.7 393.1 cut from MH5-6 at 884 m downhole MH5-8 333.9 -62.3 729.0 690818.5 5350823.7 393.1 cut from MH5-7 at 921 m downhole MH5-9 333.9 -62.3 723.0 690818.5 5350823.7 393.1 cut from MH5-6 at 777 m downhole MH7-3 333.0 -61.4 769.0 690526.5 5350564.1 381.0 cut from MH7-2 at 695 m downhole MH7-4 333.0 -61.4 947.0 690526.5 5350564.1 381.0 cut from MH7 at 645 m downhole MH7-5 333.0 -61.4 689.0 690526.5 5350564.1 381.0 cut from MH7-4 at 876 m downhole MH9-12 338.1 -71.8 789.6 691536.4 5351166.1 393.3 cut from MH9-11 at 957 m downhole Table 5: Underground drill holes; azimuth, dip, drilled length, and collar location (UTM NAD83) Hole-ID Azimuth () Dip () Drilled Length (m) Easting Northing Elevation (m) 620-543-65A 159.0 -31.0 237.0 690967.3 5351871.9 -226.5 620-574-48 148.0 -20.0 192.0 691256.6 5351965.6 -217.2 620-574-49 148.0 -26.0 219.0 691256.6 5351965.7 -217.4 620-574-50 161.0 -37.0 282.0 691256.2 5351965.4 -217.8 620-574-51 159.0 -41.0 381.0 691256.3 5351965.4 -217.7 620-574-52 148.0 -35.0 279.0 691256.5 5351965.7 -217.6 620-598-03 170.0 70.0 147.0 691475.4 5352063.9 -209.2 620-598-06 162.0 -4.0 141.0 691476.0 5352061.4 -212.1 620-598-09 155.0 -19.0 201.0 691476.3 5352061.7 -212.8 620-598-10 155.0 35.0 123.0 691476.2 5352061.7 -209.7 620-598-11 153.2 -34.6 264.0 691476.4 5352061.9 -213.2 620-598-15 141.0 57.0 135.0 691477.2 5352063.2 -208.7 620-598-18 159.0 -41.0 420.0 691476.4 5352061.9 -213.3 620-598-20 157.0 -13.0 183.0 691476.2 5352061.7 -212.7 620-598-25 167.0 -42.0 351.0 691477.1 5352062.0 -213.0 620-598-27 163.0 -27.0 225.0 691477.1 5352062.0 -213.0 620-598-29 160.0 -39.0 309.0 691477.1 5352062.0 -213.0 620-598-30 159.0 -33.0 265.0 691476.5 5352061.7 -212.9 620-604-01 146.0 -29.0 366.0 691531.5 5352086.4 -212.1 620-604-05 158.0 -48.0 591.0 691531.4 5352086.5 -212.4 620-604-06 158.0 -33.0 342.0 691531.5 5352086.5 -212.2 620-604-11 146.0 -33.0 309.0 691531.5 5352086.5 -212.2 620-605-01 141.7 -25.1 279.0 691539.0 5352103.1 -211.0 620-605-04 130.0 25.0 141.0 691539.0 5352103.3 -209.8 620-605-05 145.1 -34.0 372.0 691538.8 5352102.8 -212.2 620-605-06 144.0 -39.0 375.0 691539.0 5352102.6 -212.6 660-467-01 311.0 42.0 84.0 690323.4 5351451.2 -288.4 660-467-04 342.0 22.0 48.0 690324.6 5351451.5 -290.3 660-470-01 338.0 28.0 45.0 690346.0 5351457.7 -290.1 660-470-05 8.0 46.0 87.0 690346.0 5351457.7 -289.6 660-470-06 12.0 37.0 75.0 690346.3 5351457.9 -289.9 730-464-20 181.0 61.0 162.0 690244.5 5351545.1 -332.4 840-542-01 149.0 -42.0 315.0 690972.7 5351831.4 -465.9 840-542-02 149.0 -35.0 280.0 690972.7 5351831.4 -465.7 840-542-03 150.1 -16.2 205.0 690972.9 5351831.1 -465.0 840-542-05 162.0 -35.0 261.0 690972.2 5351830.9 -465.8 840-542-09 148.0 -30.0 246.0 690972.9 5351831.4 -465.5 840-542-13 154.0 -20.0 210.0 690973.3 5351831.4 -465.0 840-542-14 153.5 -14.3 199.4 690972.8 5351831.0 -464.9 840-542-15 163.9 -35.4 252.0 690972.3 5351831.0 -465.7 840-542-16 165.2 -43.3 300.0 690972.3 5351831.1 -466.0 840-542-18 164.0 -39.0 270.0 690972.3 5351831.1 -465.9 840-542-21 161.0 2.0 174.0 690972.7 5351830.9 -464.4 840-542-22 161.0 -6.0 183.0 690972.7 5351830.9 -464.6 840-542-23 161.0 -22.0 210.0 690973.0 5351831.1 -464.5 840-542-24 161.0 -32.0 234.0 690972.6 5351831.2 -465.5 840-542-25 158.0 -47.0 336.0 690972.7 5351831.4 -466.1 840-542-29 148.0 14.0 174.0 690973.2 5351831.2 -463.4 Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Regional reconnaissance and drainage geochemical sampling underway Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 5, 2018) - Royal Road Minerals Limited (TSXV: RYR) ("Royal Road" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on its gold and copper exploration activities in Colombia. Royal Road is the largest application holder in Colombia's Narino Province with in excess of some 350,000 hectares under Concession Contract application. Narino is widely considered to be one of the last remaining, highly prospective and under prospected regions of the Andes mountain chain. The province hosts numerous high-grade gold occurrences and a largely unexplored porphyry copper belt, which was identified by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency in the 1980's (Figure 1). Figure 1: Narino region southern Colombia. Location of Royal Road Concession Contract Applications (black outline), interpreted copper and gold belts, current activity. Royal Road is a signatory to the British Embassy's Peace and Business Initiative and is committed to aligning its exploration and development activities with the post-conflict aspirations of the Colombian Government and the international community. In December 2017, Royal Road executed a landmark Collaboration Agreement with ECOMUN (see Press Release December 18, 2017), a body established in May 2017 under Presidential Decree and in accordance with the terms of the final peace agreement executed between the Colombian Government and FARC-EP in November of 2016. The Collaboration Agreement establishes the terms and conditions under which ECOMUN will assist the Company in attaining social license for exploration and mining projects which are environmentally responsible and socially sustainable and which contribute to the reincorporation of ex-combatants and the development of local communities. As anticipated under the terms of the Collaboration Agreement, ECOMUN and Royal Road have established a Management Committee, comprising two representatives from each party and an Independent Chairman. Dr Alvaro Leyva has been appointed to the role of Independent Chairman. Dr Leyva is a lawyer and economic scientist; he was formerly a government minister and Senator in the Colombian Congress and since 1980 he has played a pivotal role in peace negotiations between the Colombian Government and armed guerilla groups including, M-19, FARC-EP and the ELN. The Management Committee has established Community Liaison Committees (CLC's) in each of the eleven municipalities covered by Royal Road's applications in Narino and the CLC's have in-turn coordinated community and indigenous community consultations in various of these municipalities with a view to securing permissions for the Company to commence regional drainage geochemical exploration and negotiations on existing mine occurrences. In general, Royal Road's current exploration activities in Narino are focused on reconnaissance exploration and drainage geochemical sampling for porphyry copper and gold targets (see Figure 1) and on joint-venture and acquisition opportunities for gold only targets. "As we close in on the first anniversary of our Collaboration Agreement with ECOMUN, we are pleased to see that field operations are underway, that the management structure is functioning and that the time invested in attaining social license at this early-stage of our exploration program appears finally to be paying off." Said Tim Coughlin, Royal Road Minerals President and CEO. "It is our view and we believe it is generally well-accepted, that the exploration potential in Narino speaks for itself, the challenge is primarily on the social side and in order to secure our investment and ultimately realize full potential, we believe that is where our initial efforts must focus." 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. The information in this news release was compiled, reviewed and verified by Dr. Tim Coughlin, BSc (Geology), MSc (Exploration and Mining), PhD (Structural Geology), FAusIMM, President and CEO of Royal Road Minerals Ltd and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. More information can be found on Royal Road Minerals web site at www.royalroadminerals.com Cautionary statement: This news release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements") including statements relating to the ECOMUN agreement and those describing the Company's future plans and the expectations of its management that a stated result or condition will occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or developments in the Company's business or in the mineral resources industry, or with respect to the ECOMUN agreement, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include all disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or results of operations that is based on assumptions about, among other things, future economic conditions and courses of action, and assumptions related to government approvals, and anticipated costs and expenditures. The words "plans", "prospective", "expect", "intend", "intends to" and similar expressions identify forward looking statements, which may also include, without limitation, any statement relating to future events, conditions or circumstances. Forward-looking statements of the Company contained in this news release, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, those related to the ECOMUN agreement, and the Company's exploration plans. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. There is no guarantee that the Company's business plans or operations will be achieved. The risks and uncertainties that may affect forward-looking statements include, among others: economic market conditions, anticipated costs and expenditures, government approvals, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with Canadian provincial securities regulators or other applicable regulatory authorities. Forward-looking statements included herein are based on the current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions of the Company management and, except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change. For further information please contact: Dr. Timothy Coughlin President and Chief Executive Officer USA-Canada toll free 1800 6389205 +44 (0)1534 887166 +44 (0)7797 742800 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ashanti Gold Corp. (Ashanti or the Company) - (TSXV: AGZ) announces it will exercise an earn-in option for 51% of the Anumso Project in Ghana (the Project), as per the earn-in agreement previously announced and amended (see press releases of September 15, 2016 and January 15, 2018). Currently, Goldplat PLC, the vendor, is conducting a review of Ashantis work on the license as a formal part of the earn-in agreement, and both parties are working on a development plan to advance Anumso further. Tim McCutcheon, Ashantis CEO, said: We are excited to reach this milestone in Ashantis development and we believe Anumso has great potential. We look forward to working with Goldplat to further add value to this project. ABOUT ANUMSO Geology: The Project is a 29.63 km2 mining lease within two blocks that cover approximately 13 km of strike length of the well-known auriferous Tarkwaian Banket strata within the highly productive Ashanti Belt of Ghana. This portion of laterally continuous Tarkwaian conglomerate strata has produced gold for over 100 years from the colonial Ntronang Mine 7 km to the east of Anumso and from artisanal miners in more recent years. These same beds are famous in the southern Ashanti Belt for gold produced from the Iduapriem and Teberebie mines of AngloGold Ashanti and the Tarkwa and Damang mines of Goldfields. The Anumso Ntronang area is the only location outside of the Tarkwa vicinity where gold has been mined from Banket conglomerate. Gold in these rocks is considered similar to that in the conglomerate-hosted gold deposits of the ~2,800 million year old Witwatersrand of South Africa, except these rocks are younger, being approximately 2,115 million years old. Ashanti completed a 2,000m drill program in early 2017 (see press releases March 8, 2017 and March 22, 2017), the results of which were consistent with historical drill results and supported general understanding of the nature of gold mineralization on the Project. Results from soil geochemical samples collected in 2017 and 2018 significantly broadened the target area for gold mineralization and reveal a new anomaly area approximately 1500m by 500m (Figures 1 and 2). The anomaly pattern suggests that controls on gold mineralization are both stratigraphic and structural and could reflect a much larger mineralized zone within the Banket stratigraphy than previously understood. Previous understanding of the mineralization at Anumso called on a paleoplacer origin thesis for the gold in association with large, rounded, highly concentrated quartz pebbles in the Banket conglomerate. The soil sample data suggest that other stratigraphic horizons along with structural features host gold in a manner similar to the Damang deposit, owned by Gold Fields in the southern Ashanti Belt. Regardless of genesis, numerous soil samples form a coherent anomaly which correlates from line to line (Figure 2). Quartz veining within material recovered from past drilling suggests that Anumso also has structurally controlled gold mineralization. Given the topography of the soil anomaly area, material transportation does not explain the results. Figure 1 Figure 2 Metallurgy: The Company received the final report of the metallurgical test work conducted in 2017 (see press release October 12, 2017). Master composite gold recoveries averaged 94.3%, with a maximum observed recovery of 97.7%. Oxide composite gold recoveries averaged 96.9% with a maximum observed recovery of 98.8%. Variability composite gold recoveries ranged from 96.2% to 99.6%, with an average recovery of 98.0%. Importantly, a single extended gravity recoverable gold test was conducted on the master composite, where gravity gold recovery was 72.9%. Plans: In the foreseeable future management intends to complete its previously announced four hole drill program on the soil sample anomaly (press release October 5, 2018), which is to the north of the historic resource estimate (see Figures 1 and 2). In 2019 Ashanti intends to conduct trenching and drilling to demonstrate that gold mineralization extends beyond the area of the historic resource, so that Anumso could have the scale to be a stand-alone project or a source of feedstock for neighboring operations. Note that the Project has a NI 43-101 report filed on October 17, 2016 on SEDAR. 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 Qualified Person and Quality Assurance / Quality Control Dr. Paul Klipfel, CPG (AIPG certification #10821), Ashantis COO and Chief Geologist is a Qualified Person as defined by Canadian NI 43-101 and has supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Dr. Klipfel is responsible for all aspects of the work including the Quality Control/Quality Assurance programs. Dr. Klipfel is not an Independent Person, as he is a shareholder of Ashanti. 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. November 5, 2018 / TheNewswire / Vancouver, Canada - Guyana Goldstrike Inc. (the "Company" or "Guyana Goldstrike") (TSXV: GYA, OTC: GYNAF, FSE:1ZT) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Sandy McVey as an Advisor to the Board of Directors. Mr. McVey joins Dr. Tony Guo on the Advisory Board and will advise the Company on engineering and project management aspects relating to the development of the Marudi Gold Project ("Marudi" or the "Property") located in the Guiana Gold Belt, Guyana, South America. Mr. Peter Berdusco, President and CEO states, "With operations ramping up at our Marudi Gold Project, the need to grow our team with industry experts and professionals has never been more important. Mr. McVey's 30 years' experience as a mining engineer in the base and precious metals resource sectors brings to Marudi the required operational acumen needed for success. Having Mr. McVey available to us will be invaluable. We welcome him onboard." Mr. McVey (M.Sc., P.Eng., PMP) has over 30 years' experience in base and precious metal mining, and mine and heavy civil construction in Canada, USA, UK, and Africa. He is currently chief operating officer of West Kirkland Mining which is involved in the development of the Hasbrouck Gold Property in Nevada and in the acquisition of further gold properties. He is responsible for that company's operations, projects and project evaluations, safety, permitting, and corporate social responsibility. Prior to joining West Kirkland, Mr. McVey held positions in MMG Minerals & Metals Group, Aurcana, Wardrop Engineers, Chamber of Mines of SA, and the Iron & Steel Corporation of SA. He is a Professional Mining Engineer and a Project Management Professional. Current Gold Zones and Mineral Resource Estimates at Marudi The Toucan Ridge area is located approximately one kilometre east of the Marudi North zone and one kilometre north of the Mazoa Hill zone. The Mazoa Hill zone contains the project's current mineral resource estimate. Data analyzed suggests that the mineralized zone is open at depth and to the southeast. Mazoa Hill zone Mineral Resource Estimates: 259,100 indicated gold ounces within 4,428,000 tonnes grading 1.80 g/t; and, 86,200 inferred gold ounces within 1,653,000 tonnes grading 1.60 g/t About the Marudi Gold Project The Company is developing the Marudi Gold Project located in Guyana, South America. The project has 18-year mining license in good standing, all-season road access, infrastructure in place, with an established camp serviced by employees, service buildings, and a full-time camp manager. The Property has three known gold bearing areas: the alluvial areas, the saprolite, and the underlying hard-rock. There has been 42,000 metres of historic diamond drilling (141 holes) completed on the project by prior operators that have delineated two zones of mineralization: Mazoa Hill and Marudi North zones. The Company has recently completed a mineral resource estimate on the Mazoa Hill zone containing 259,100 indicated gold ounces within 4,428,000 tonnes grading 1.8 g/t and 86,200 inferred gold ounces within 1,653,000 tonnes grading 1.6 g/t. The Company has recently discovered a third mineralized zone: Toucan Ridge. This zone is the current focus of the Company's 2018 trenching program. There exists excellent exploration upside for the further discovery of mineralized zones through the development of previously and newly identified mineralized bedrock targets on the project. For information concerning the mineral resource estimate and the project, readers are encouraged to review "Technical Report: Marudi Property Mazoa Hill Mineral Resource Estimate", a technical report prepared for the Company by Global Mineral Resource Services and is available at Click Hereand under the Company's profile on SEDAR www.sedar.com. About Guyana Goldstrike Inc. Guyana Goldstrike Inc. is a Canadian based junior gold company focused on the exploration, development, and operation of the Marudi Gold Project in Guyana, South America. Please visit us at: www.guyanagoldstrike.com About Guyana The Republic of Guyana is located in South America adjacent to Suriname. The country is English speaking and under British Common Law with a democratically-elected government. It has an established mining act and a rich history of gold production. In 2016, 690,000 ounces of gold was produced by operators mining in the country. The Fraser Institute's 2016 Annual Survey of Mining listed Guyana as the third best mining jurisdiction with regards to investment attractiveness in the Latin America and Caribbean Basin sub-group. The Guiana Shield is the geographic gold-hosting region, and is world-recognized as a premier gold region that is highly prospective, under-explored and has geological continuity with West Africa.* In 2016, two mines in Guyana declared the commencement of commercial production: the Aurora deposit (Guyana Goldfields) and the Karouni deposit (Troy Resources). * Independent Technical and Environmental Review Karouni Gold Project - Guyana, Behre Dolbear Australia Pty Ltd, April 29, 2016 Qualified Person Locke Goldsmith, M.Sc., P. Eng, P. Geo, Chief Geologist and Exploration Manager for the Company, is a Qualified Person in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Goldsmith has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content of this news release. On behalf of the Board of Directors of GUYANA GOLDSTRIKE INC. Peter Berdusco President and Chief Executive Officer 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 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 future prices of commodities, accuracy of mineral or resource exploration activity, reserves or resources, regulatory or government requirements or approvals, the reliability of third party information, continued access to mineral properties or infrastructure, fluctuations in the market for gold, changes in exploration costs and government regulation in Guyana, status of artisanal mining activities and associated rights, and 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. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Velocity Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: VLC) (Velocity or the Company) announces that it has delivered notice of option exercise (the Option Notice) to Gorubso-Kardzhali AD (Gorubso) for the Tintyava Property (the Property), which includes the Rozino gold project (Rozino or the Project). The Option Notice was delivered together with the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) entitled Preliminary Economic Assessment Rozino Project, Tintyava Property, Bulgaria (dated October 26, 2018) prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and filed on SEDAR (see previous news releases dated September 17, and October 29, 2018). With delivery of the PEA, Velocity is deemed to have earned a 70% interest in the Tintyava Property and to be in Joint Venture with Gorubso for the further development of the Property. Exercise of the Option at Rozino through delivery of the PEA is a major milestone for the Company that has been achieved 14 months after initiating exploration at Rozino, stated Keith Henderson, Velocitys President & CEO. The Company looks forward to updating shareholders as we ramp up exploration activities at Rozino project in Joint Venture with Gorubso. Appointment of Vice President, Corporate Communications The Company also announces that it has appointed Ms. Joyce Musial to the position of Vice President, Corporate Communications. Joyce has over 35 years of investor relations and corporate development experience with various junior and senior resource companies including Teck Resources Ltd., Lundin Group, Hunter Dickinson Group, Viceroy Resources Ltd., and 10 years at Placer Dome Inc. More recently, Joyce was Manager of Investor Relations at Cumberland Resources Ltd., Vice President Corporate Development at Batero Gold Corp., and is currently Vice President Corporate Affairs at InZinc Mining Ltd. Joyces role at Velocity will focus on developing institutional, investment banking and analyst relationships, as well as developing general corporate communications strategies. Chala Withdrawal Since beginning exploration at the Chala Mine in June 2018, the Company has completed exploration work including 23 diamond drill holes for a total of 3,016m with 1,009 samples sent for analysis. Velocity has now received results for drill holes CDD-016 to CUD-023. A summary of all Chala drill results is included in Table 1. Management has decided to withdraw from the Chala option, allowing the Company to focus on potential resource expansion at Rozino. Notice of withdrawal from the Chala option has been delivered to Gorubso. Stock Option Grant The Company also announces that it has granted 1,550,000 common share stock options (each, an "Option") to various employees and consultants of the Company and its affiliates. The Options entitle the holder to purchase Shares at a price of $0.17 per Share for a period of 24 months from the issue date. Note that results from drill holes CUD-001 to CUD-015 were disclosed previously (news release dated September 13, 2018). Table 1 About Velocity Minerals Ltd. Velocity is a gold exploration and development company focused on eastern Europe. The Companys management and board includes mining industry professionals with combined experience spanning Europe, Asia, and the Americas as employees of major mining companies as well as founders and senior executives of junior to mid-tier public companies. The team's experience includes all aspects of mineral exploration, resource definition, feasibility, finance, mine construction and mine operation as well as a track record in managing publicly listed companies. About Rozino Velocity began exploring and drilling at Rozino in August 2017 and published a maiden Inferred Mineral Resource estimate in March 2018. The Company completed additional drilling in 2018 and published results of an updated mineral resource estimate and Preliminary Economic Assessment in September 2018. The PEA provides a base case assessment of developing Rozino by open pit mining, on-site crushing, milling and simple flotation to produce a 30 g/t gold concentrate. The concentrate would then be trucked 85km on existing roads to the currently operating CIL plant where saleable gold dore would be produced. Mineralization remains open for expansion. Having delivered the PEA, the Company has exercised its option for a 70% interest in the project and will move forward in joint venture with its Bulgarian partner, with Gorubso-Kardzhali AD. About Bulgaria Bulgaria is a member of NATO (2004) and a member of the European Union (2007). The local currency (BGN) has been tied to the Euro since 1999 (1.956 BGN/EUR). The country is served by modern European infrastructure including an extensive network of paved roads. Bulgaria boasts an exceptionally low corporate tax rate of only 10%. The countrys education system is excellent with good availability of experienced mining professionals in a favourable cost environment. Foreign mining companies are successfully operating in Bulgaria. The countrys mining law was established in 1999 and updated in 2011. Mining royalties are low and compare favourably with more established mining countries. On Behalf of the Board of Directors Keith Henderson President & CEO For further information, please contact: Keith Henderson Phone: +1-604-484-1233 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Web: www.velocityminerals.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release includes certain forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: future exploration and testing carried out on the Tintyava property; use of funds; and the future business and operations of Velocity. Often, but not always, forward looking statements can be identified by words such as pro forma, plans, expects, may, should, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates, believes, potential or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. 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 differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development and mine development activities for the Tintyava property, including the geological mapping, prospecting and sampling programs for the projects, the fact that the Companys interests in the Tintyava property is only an option and there is no guarantee that the interest, if earned, will be certain, actual results of exploration activities, including the program, estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, the availability of a sufficient supply of water and other materials, requirements for additional capital to fund the Company's business plan, future prices of precious metals, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, possible failures of plants, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental and regulatory approvals (including of the TSX Venture Exchange), permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, hedging practices, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, risks related to joint venture operations, and risks related to the integration of acquisitions, as well as those factors discussed under the heading. "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual management's discussion and analysis and other filings of the Company with the Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be found under the Company's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking information in this news release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law. Living Gospel Equality Now: Loving in the Heart of God: Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests High-grade, visible-gold bearing mineralization identified at shallow depths at Lady Alice Deposit, Union Reefs o Key intercepts: 8.9 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) over 7.2 metres (m) (Estimated True Width (ETW) 3.4 m) (including 86.0 g/t Au over 0.45 m (ETW 0.2 m)); 7.5 g/t Au over 7.5 m (ETW 4.1 m), and 23.8 g/t Au over 0.9 m (ETW 0.5 m) Key intercepts: 8.9 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) over 7.2 metres (m) (Estimated True Width (ETW) 3.4 m) (including 86.0 g/t Au over 0.45 m (ETW 0.2 m)); 7.5 g/t Au over 7.5 m (ETW 4.1 m), and 23.8 g/t Au over 0.9 m (ETW 0.5 m) Discovery of high-grade mineralization at depth to the south of existing Mineral Resources at Union Reefs o Key Intercept: 60.4 g/t Au over 0.6 m (ETW 0.3 m) from 547 m downhole Key Intercept: 60.4 g/t Au over 0.6 m (ETW 0.3 m) from 547 m downhole Underground exploration development into Lantern Deposit at Cosmo Mine continuing with future bulk sampling planned Exploration activities at Lantern and Union Reefs supporting efforts to resume mining operations in Northern Territory. TORONTO, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. (Kirkland Lake Gold or the Company) (TSX:KL) (NYSE:KL) (ASX:KLA) today announced further exploration success at Union Reefs (UR) and the continued development advance into the Lantern Deposit at Cosmo Mine. UR is the location of the Companys processing plant in the Northern Territory. Mining at the Cosmo Mine and processing operations at the UR Mill were suspended on June 30, 2017, with exploration drilling and development work since then focusing on establishing a five-year production plan that is sufficiently attractive to support a resumption of operations. At UR, new drilling is reported for 40 holes, comprising 30 diamond and 10 reverse circulation (RC) percussion holes for a total of 15,192 m. The results successfully defined the continuation of Prospect Deposit (Prospect) to the south of the Prospect pit, discovered highgrade near-surface mineralization to the south of Lady Alice pit, and confirmed the down-plunge continuity of the Crosscourse Deposit (Crosscourse) mineralization. Mineralization was also identified at depth to the southern end of UR, where two holes intersected mineralization associated with the Lady Alice structural trend over a 250 m dip extent below the 320 m depth. The Lady Alice mineralization, approximately 250 m to the east of the identified Prospect Mineral Reserve (see December 31, 2016 Technical Report on the Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves of The Northern Territory Operations, dated March 30, 2017 and filed on SEDAR), has the potential to be accessed from the planned Prospect underground ramp infrastructure at depth. The proposed underground infrastructure will be less than 100 m from the Lady Alice mineralization. Tony Makuch, President and CEO of Kirkland Lake Gold, commented: The new results at UR are encouraging, as they demonstrate the continuity of mineralization to the south of the Prospect Pit, and identify new areas of mineralization at the southern end of the UR land position. We are also making progress with underground drilling and development into the Lantern Deposit at Cosmo and are working towards commencing a bulk sampling program in the near future. The continued exploration success we are achieving at UR, as well as with underground drilling at the Lantern Deposit, is increasing our confidence that an attractive five-year mine plan can be established, which could lead to the resumption of operations in the Northern Territory in 2019. Lantern Underground Development update Lantern underground development commenced during April 2018, and has successfully established drilling platforms to the south from the 920 Level, and to the west of the Lantern Deposit on the 610 Level. Drilling commenced from both locations, known as the 880 diamond-drill drive and the 610 drill platform respectively, during the third quarter of 2018. Two diamond drill rigs are operating from the 610 drill platform, where they are targeting the down-plunge extension of the Lantern mineralization. A third drill rig has been operating within the advancing 920 Level development, which has now completed the 880 diamond-drill drive. A fourth rig recently moved into the most southern platform within the 880 diamond-drill drive and is testing the southern extents of the known Lantern mineralization. Additional underground development is underway from the existing Cosmo Deeps 730 Level drill drive, to drift along and across the Eastern Lantern stratigraphy. The development is currently progressing south within the Howley Anticline axial plane, to establish additional drilling locations with further development set to commence along the mineralized structures on the 920 Level for bulk sampling as part of continued exploration of the Lantern Deposit. Union Reefs Drilling Highlights Surface drilling at UR was accelerated after the discovery of gold mineralization at depth, as reported in the Companys News Release dated April 30, 2018, and two surface diamond drill rigs continue to operate at UR, where they are testing several targets. Since the April 30 News Release, an additional 40 drill holes, comprising 30 diamond and 10 RC percussion holes have targeted the Prospect, Crosscourse and Lady Alice deposits as well as exploration of southern extensions of the major structures at depth. Key intercepts include, with further details provided in the commentary that follows: 8.9 g/t Au over 7.2 m (ETW 3.4 m), incl. 86.0 g/t Au over 0.45 m (ETW 0.2 m) in hole URNDD0122 (Lady Alice) 7.5 g/t Au over 7.5 m (ETW 4.1 m) in hole URNDD0163 (Lady Alice) 60.4 g/t Au over 0.6 m (ETW 0.3 m) in hole URSDD0029 (Union South) 23.8 g/t Au over 0.9 m (ETW 0.5 m) in hole URNDD0167 (Lady Alice) Drill results are presented in Table 1 and drill collars listed in Table 2. The key highlights of the new drill results is the discovery of high-grade mineralization associated with Lady Alice to the south of the existing Lady Alice pit, and high-grade mineralization at depth at Union South. High-grade diamond drill intercepts associated with Lady Alice occur in 26 (three RC & 22 diamond) drill holes. There are 102 drill intercepts above 2.0 g/t Au (with 15 intercepts >10.0 g/t Au) recorded for the Lady Alice drilling. The gold mineralization occurs across multiple closely-spaced, near-vertical shear structures, located along axial planes of parasitic fold closures on the Lady Alice Anticline. The completed drilling has also indicated the continuation of the Prospect mineralization to the south of the existing Prospect pit, where the RC drilling program focused on delineating and further defining the mineralized trends of the Prospect mineralization. Deeper diamond drilling also confirmed the depth extent of the Prospect Deposit, returning several narrow, high-grade intercepts associated with the sub-vertical Prospect shears. Two deep diamond drill holes were completed, one (URNDD0147) targeting the Crosscourse mineralization beneath the Crosscourse pit, and upplunge of the drill holes previously reported in the Companys News Release, dated April 30, 2018. The second hole, URNDD0120, targeted up-dip of the drilling previously reported. The Crosscourse mineralization was successfully intersected in URNDD0147 with 17 results >2.0 g/t Au over an approximate 190 m downhole length, which is indicative of the very wide, stockwork quartz style of the Crosscourse mineralized corridor. Both deep drill holes also intersected the Lady Alice Deposit and the Prospect Deposit at depth. Two further deep diamond drill holes were completed in the southern part of the UR Project, beneath the historic Millars pit. Drilling has identified the continuation of shear hosted high-grade mineralization associated with the Lady Alice Anticline at depth. The successful identification of mineralization extends the known depth of mineralization to over 500 m depth over a strike length of 1.8 km from Lady Alice Pit in the north, to south of Millars pit in the south. Lantern Mineralization Background Studies in early 2016 revealed potential for the underlying Lantern metasediments in the core of the Cosmo-Howley fold to host gold mineralization similar to the Callie Deposit in the Tanami region of the Northern Territory. On March 6, 2017, the Company announced the discovery of the Lantern Deposit based on historical information as well as the result of 25 underground drill holes completed in 2016 to test the down-plunge extension of the Cosmo open pit (see Kirkland Lake Gold News Release dated March 6, 2017). The Lantern mineralization is hosted within iron-rich, weakly-carbonaceous, siltstones and dolomitic siltstones with common intense carbonate, sericite-pyrite-chlorite and blood-red Fe-oxy-hydroxide hypogene alteration, associated with quartz-carbonate veining. Geological studies strongly suggest most gold was introduced to the rock after the metamorphic peak, which has produced a chlorite-biotite-magnetite-tourmaline-garnet mineral assemblage. Although partly stratabound, gold mineralization occurs in a quartz-sulfide-carbonate vein network of steeply-dipping sub-linear shear veins, and associated sub-horizontal dipping tensile vein arrays. The mineralization for most lodes is still untested and downplunge (deeper) to the north. Study of the Lantern and Cosmo alteration zoning suggests that the western fold limb acted as the main conduit for gold-bearing fluids to become trapped in the fold hinge and eastern limb effectively against a blanket of thick and highly-sulfidic carbonaceous black mudstone. The Lantern sequence is structurally thickened by local folding and shears with a moderate 40-55 plunge to the north for the overall mineralized zone, and hosts internal local steeply-plunging high-grade corridors where quartz veins are locally at an oblique angle to overall Lantern structure and are likely to have high gold content. Union Reefs Region Background Union Reefs is hosted in the regionally-significant Pine Creek Shear Zone, as a northwest trending strongly gold-mineralized structure. Gold mineralization at Union Reefs is focused within two sub-parallel quartz reef and shear zone systems, known as the Lady Alice Line (eastern line) and the Union Line (western line). Both lines have extensive gold mineralization that trends north-northwest through tightly folded siliciclastic rocks of the Burrell Creek Formation. Gold mineralization along the Lady Alice Line is hosted within sub-vertical axial, planar shear zones along the western limb of the Lady Alice Anticline. Important gold deposits along the Lady Alice Line include Millars, Ping Que, Big Tree and Lady Alice. The Union Line dips steeply-east and hosts several significant gold deposits, including Union South, Prospect, Union North and Alta. Crosscourse, the largest known deposit at Union Reefs, occurs between the Union and Lady Alice lines. A cross-cutting mineralized shear zone and complex vein system links the locally shorter distance between the Union and Lady Alice lines at Crosscourse, creating a large dilatational damage zone exploited by mineralizing fluids. The Union Reefs region was a center of significant gold mining between 1994 and 2004, with approximately 1 Moz of gold extracted from 11 open pits. Mining was generally from shallow oxide pits (<80 m), with the exception of the Crosscourse pit, which was mined to a depth of approximately 240 m and produced approximately 880 koz of gold. Mining has not occurred at Union Reefs since 2004, however, the processing facility at the site continued operation until mining at the Cosmo Mine was suspended, effective June 30, 2017. To view the figures referenced in this News Release, visit the links below. Figure 1: Lantern Deposit Plan and Long Projection Figure 2: Location Plan of Union Reefs Mineralization Figure 3: Longitudinal Projection of Crosscourse, Prospect and Union South, Union Reefs Figure 4: Longitudinal Projection of Lady Alice, Union Reefs Figure 5: Union Reefs Cross Section Section 7125 mN Qualified Person Owen Greenberger, MAIG, Geology Manager, NT Operations, is a "qualified person" as such term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information and data included in this News Release. Drilling and Assay QAQC Kirkland Lake Gold has in place quality-control systems to ensure best practice in drilling, sampling and analysis of drill core. All drill hole collars are accurately surveyed using a Leica Total Stations instrument and diamond drill hole down hole deviations are measured using a down-hole gyro instrument. Down hole deviations of RC drill holes were surveyed using a Globaltech Pathfinder Electronic Single Shot tool. All reported drill intercepts are from RC percussion chips and NQ2 or HQ sized diamond drill core. RC percussion chips were subsampled using a 2/3 to 1/3 sampling cyclone, with 1/3 split sent for assay and the 2/3 retained for reference. Diamond drill core was either full core sampled or cut longitudinally in half with a diamond saw, where one-half of the drill core was sent for assay and the other half retained for reference. Drill core sample lengths are between 0.15 m and 1.4m in length as determined from logging of sulfide and visible gold and conform to logged lithological and alteration boundaries. Assay results are based on 25 gram charge fire assay. Union Reefs intercepts calculated based on a 2 g/t Au lower cut-off and having a maximum 2 m internal dilution with a minimum width of 0.3 m. No upper gold grade cap has been applied to the data. However, during any mineral resource work the requirement for capping assay grades will be assessed. Drill samples from Union Reefs are routinely assayed at North Australian Laboratories Pty Ltd, an independent laboratory in Pine Creek, Northern Territory. Site audits and reviews of the laboratory are conducted from time to time as well as routine assessment of intra-laboratory analyses to ensure quality of reported results. About Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. is a mid-tier gold producer with 2018 production targeted at 655,000 670,000 ounces of gold from mines in Canada and Australia. The production profile of the Company is anchored by two high-grade, low-cost operations, including the Macassa Mine located in Northeastern Ontario and the Fosterville Mine located in the state of Victoria, Australia. Kirkland Lake Gold's solid base of quality assets is complemented by district scale exploration potential, supported by a strong financial position with extensive management and operational expertise. For further information on Kirkland Lake Gold and to receive news releases by email, visit the website www.klgold.com. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to planned exploration programs, costs and expenditures, changes in mineral resources and conversion of mineral resources to proven and probable reserves, and other information that is based on forecasts of future operational or financial results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to future exploration potential, project economics, timing and scope of future exploration, anticipated costs and expenditures, changes in mineral resources and conversion of mineral resources to proven and probable reserves, and other information that is based on forecasts of future operational or financial results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Exploration results that include geophysics, sampling, and drill results on wide spacings may not be indicative of the occurrence of a mineral deposit. Such results do not provide assurance that further work will establish sufficient grade, continuity, metallurgical characteristics and economic potential to be classed as a category of mineral resource. A mineral resource that is classified as "inferred" or "indicated" has a great amount of uncertainty as to its existence and economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that any or part of an "indicated mineral resource" or "inferred mineral resource" will ever be upgraded to a higher category of resource. Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into proven and probable reserves. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Companys expectations include, among others, risks related to international operations, risks related to obtaining the permits required to carry out planned exploration or development work, the actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined as well as future prices of gold, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Companys Annual Information Form and other disclosures of "Risk Factors" by the Company and its predecessors, available on SEDAR. Although Kirkland Lake Gold has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT Anthony Makuch, President, Chief Executive Officer & Director Phone: +1 416-840-7884 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Mark Utting, Vice-President, Investor Relations Phone: +1 416-840-7884 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Table 1: Drill Assay Intercepts for Surface Diamond and RC Percussion Drilling at Union Reefs (The results are an update to the December 31, 2016 Technical Report on the Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves of The Northern Territory Operations, dated March 30, 2017, and available on sedar.com) Hole ID From (m) To (m) Downhole Interval (m) Gold Grade (g/t Au) Estimated True Width (m) Geological Structure/ Area Crosscourse URNDD0120 509.4 509.8 0.4 3.1 0.2 Crosscourse URNDD0120 675.2 678.3 3.1 2.9 1.9 Crosscourse URNDD0147 503.9 504.2 0.3 11.1 0.2 Crosscourse URNDD0147 505.2 506.4 1.2 2.8 0.8 Crosscourse URNDD0147 511.0 511.7 0.7 4.3 0.5 Crosscourse URNDD0147 513.9 518.0 4.1 3.6 2.8 Crosscourse URNDD0147 526.0 527.0 1.0 2.9 0.7 Crosscourse URNDD0147 543.0 543.9 0.9 7.3 0.6 Crosscourse URNDD0147 547.5 548.3 0.8 4.7 0.5 Crosscourse URNDD0147 553.0 553.3 0.3 2.3 0.2 Crosscourse URNDD0147 554.5 554.8 0.3 6.3 0.2 Crosscourse URNDD0147 557.0 557.4 0.4 2.0 0.3 Crosscourse URNDD0147 577.6 579.4 1.8 7.9 1.2 Crosscourse URNDD0147 583.5 585.4 1.9 4.7 1.3 Crosscourse URNDD0147 639.8 640.2 0.4 4.5 0.3 Crosscourse URNDD0147 662.2 663.3 1.1 12.5 0.8 Crosscourse URNDD0147 665.7 666.2 0.5 4.5 0.4 Crosscourse URNDD0147 667.7 668.0 0.3 3.9 0.2 Crosscourse URNDD0147 677.7 678.0 0.3 2.7 0.2 Crosscourse URNDD0156 553.2 553.5 0.3 4.0 0.2 Crosscourse URNDD0157 636.75 638.05 1.3 4.7 0.8 Crosscourse URNDD0157 643.0 643.6 0.6 5.4 0.4 Crosscourse URNDD0157 696.35 696.75 0.4 3.7 0.3 Crosscourse Lady Alice URNDD0122 77.6 78.0 0.4 2.3 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0122 154.75 155.42 0.67 2.7 0.3 Lady Alice URNDD0122 161.15 161.6 0.45 4.2 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0122 167.0 167.9 0.9 2.2 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0122 168.8 175.97 7.17 8.9 3.4 Lady Alice Including 168.8 169.25 0.45 86.0 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0122 202.6 203.0 0.4 3.6 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0122 258.2 258.88 0.68 5.0 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0139 216.1 216.6 0.5 3.4 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0139 220.35 220.97 0.62 5.2 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0139 271.0 271.95 0.95 18.1 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0139 291.25 291.6 0.35 2.4 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0139 320.8 321.25 0.45 20.5 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0139 323.05 324.0 0.95 3.6 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0139 336.1 336.45 0.35 3.2 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0144 76.7 77.1 0.4 18.3 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0144 184.3 185.2 0.9 4.6 0.3 Lady Alice URNDD0144 248.0 249.0 1.0 3.1 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0144 286.0 287.2 1.2 2.7 0.5 Lady Alice URNDD0145 56.5 57.0 0.5 2.0 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0145 219.0 220.0 1.0 2.2 0.3 Lady Alice URNDD0145 292.8 293.1 0.3 19.6 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0145 317.6 318.6 1.0 3.1 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0146 222.1 222.4 0.3 4.7 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0146 234.8 235.1 0.3 2.6 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0146 252.9 254.2 1.3 2.3 0.5 Lady Alice URNDD0146 264.0 265.0 1.0 16.9 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0146 276.0 276.7 0.7 4.6 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0146 303.8 304.1 0.3 2.1 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0146 334.2 334.5 0.3 39.4 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0146 337 337.9 0.9 2.8 0.3 Lady Alice URNDD0147 758.0 759.0 1.0 3.8 0.7 Lady Alice URNDD0147 760.7 761.0 0.3 2.9 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0147 769.5 770 0.5 2.4 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0148 15.0 16.0 1.0 2.1 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0149 63.8 65.0 1.2 5.8 0.0 Lady Alice URNDD0151 82.0 82.5 0.5 2.0 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0153 88.2 88.5 0.3 9.3 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0153 139.6 142.0 2.4 5.8 1.6 Lady Alice URNDD0153 179.1 180.3 1.2 2.8 0.8 Lady Alice URNDD0153 241.2 242.0 0.8 13.4 0.5 Lady Alice URNDD0153 242.9 243.3 0.4 2.4 0.3 Lady Alice URNDD0154 233.0 234.1 1.1 4.7 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0154 331.0 332.1 1.1 2.1 0.5 Lady Alice URNDD0155 250.6 251.0 0.4 8.4 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0156 470.2 470.9 0.7 3.0 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0156 511.7 512.1 0.4 6.1 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0157 320.35 320.75 0.4 3.8 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0157 365.0 366.35 1.35 2.2 0.7 Lady Alice URNDD0157 549.15 549.45 0.3 11.3 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0157 553.5 554.15 0.65 5.1 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0157 606.0 606.55 0.55 3.6 0.3 Lady Alice URNDD0158 11.8 12.4 0.6 14.4 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0158 287.4 288.0 0.6 2.9 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0158 329.1 329.8 0.7 5.2 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0158 344.0 344.75 0.75 2.5 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0158 352.2 353.0 0.8 10.4 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0158 376.7 377.0 0.3 4.2 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0158 392.8 393.2 0.4 4.3 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0159 158.3 159.6 1.3 4.6 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0159 169.0 169.9 0.9 3.6 0.3 Lady Alice URNDD0159 282.5 282.8 0.3 10.0 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0159 286.0 286.6 0.6 11.4 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0159 314.4 314.95 0.55 5.1 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0159 323.0 324.2 1.2 3.7 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0160 251.0 251.4 0.4 9.0 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0160 276.1 276.4 0.3 2.1 0.1 Lady Alice URNDD0162 22.4 23.6 1.2 3.4 0.6 Lady Alice URNDD0162 37.0 38.8 1.8 5.2 0.9 Lady Alice URNDD0162 51.3 52.2 0.9 16.5 0.5 Lady Alice URNDD0162 150.8 151.3 0.5 2.3 0.3 Lady Alice URNDD0163 33.7 34.7 1.0 16.3 0.5 Lady Alice URNDD0163 36.8 37.7 0.9 3.4 0.5 Lady Alice URNDD0163 40.0 47.5 7.5 7.5 4.1 Lady Alice URNDD0163 131.4 132.0 0.6 6.0 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0163 150.5 151.7 1.2 2.3 0.7 Lady Alice URNDD0167 155.4 155.9 0.5 2.8 0.3 Lady Alice URNDD0167 175.0 175.6 0.6 4.0 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0167 215.2 216.1 0.9 23.8 0.5 Lady Alice URNDD0170 132.7 133.9 1.2 3.1 0.7 Lady Alice URNDD0170 135.2 136.2 1.0 2.0 0.6 Lady Alice URNDD0170 189.0 189.6 0.6 2.2 0.4 Lady Alice URNDD0170 203.8 205.1 1.3 2.4 0.8 Lady Alice URNDD0170 209.7 210.0 0.3 3.1 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0172 124.8 125.2 0.4 3.5 0.3 Lady Alice URNDD0172 140.2 141.6 1.4 2.1 0.9 Lady Alice URNDD0172 142.3 143.3 1.0 3.6 0.6 Lady Alice URNDD0172 202.6 202.9 0.3 62.3 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0173A 111.9 113.0 1.1 2.5 0.7 Lady Alice URNDD0173A 116.6 117.0 0.4 2.8 0.2 Lady Alice URNDD0173A 150.8 151.9 1.1 4.8 0.7 Lady Alice URNDD0173A 169.0 170.9 1.9 2.9 1.2 Lady Alice URNRC0102 4.0 5.0 1.0 2.1 0.5 Lady Alice URNRC0102 32.0 33.0 1.0 2.3 0.5 Lady Alice URNRC0102 97.0 98.0 1.0 4.3 0.5 Lady Alice URNRC0102 99.0 100.0 1.0 2.7 0.5 Lady Alice URNRC0115 58.0 59.0 1.0 2.1 0.5 Lady Alice URNRC0115 126.0 128.0 2.0 5.9 1.0 Lady Alice URNRC0115 145.0 146.0 1.0 2.7 0.5 Lady Alice URNRC0115 148.0 149.0 1.0 2.6 0.5 Lady Alice URNRC0115 159.0 160.0 1.0 2.0 0.5 Lady Alice URNRC0117 181.0 183.0 2.0 2.5 1.1 Lady Alice URNRC0117 189.0 191.0 2.0 2.9 1.1 Lady Alice Prospect URNDD0100 138.3 139.0 0.7 2.6 0.4 Prospect URNDD0100 276.45 277.0 0.55 5.4 0.3 Prospect URNDD0100 282.36 282.7 0.34 15.1 0.2 Prospect URNDD0105 240.0 242.0 2.0 2.9 0.9 Prospect URNDD0105 278.1 279.45 1.35 2.4 0.6 Prospect URNDD0105 282.9 283.5 0.6 4.2 0.3 Prospect URNDD0105 288.9 289.36 0.46 2.0 0.2 Prospect URNDD0105 290.0 290.5 0.5 3.0 0.2 Prospect URNDD0105 299.0 300.25 1.25 2.3 0.6 Prospect URNDD0105 362.6 363.18 0.58 2.1 0.3 Prospect URNDD0120 739.0 740.75 1.75 9.8 1.1 Prospect URNDD0120 764.0 765.3 1.3 5.9 0.9 Prospect URNDD0120 785.9 787.3 1.4 6.9 0.9 Prospect URNDD0120 790.1 790.45 0.35 2.5 0.2 Prospect URNDD0138 60.0 60.6 0.6 3.3 0.1 Prospect URNDD0138 326.11 337.0 10.89 2.5 2.7 Prospect URNDD0138 347.85 348.23 0.38 4.3 0.1 Prospect URNDD0138 442.11 442.95 0.84 2.4 0.2 Prospect URNDD0138 449.95 450.28 0.33 2.4 0.1 Prospect URNDD0138 451.95 452.25 0.3 7.7 0.1 Prospect URNDD0138 470.55 471.0 0.45 2.3 0.1 Prospect URNDD0138 481.45 482.0 0.55 4.6 0.2 Prospect URNDD0138 492.28 492.75 0.47 9.1 0.1 Prospect URNDD0138 535.26 535.56 0.3 2.3 0.1 Prospect URNDD0147 407.2 407.6 0.4 2.4 0.3 Prospect URNDD0147 418.2 418.6 0.4 9.6 0.3 Prospect URNDD0147 422.0 422.8 0.8 6.7 0.5 Prospect URNDD0152 132.8 133.1 0.3 4.3 0.1 Prospect URNDD0152 316.0 316.3 0.3 3.6 0.1 Prospect URNDD0152 317.7 318.1 0.4 4.2 0.2 Prospect URNRC0106 105.0 107.0 2.0 2.5 0.9 Prospect URNRC0109 189.0 190.0 1.0 3.3 0.6 Prospect URNRC0109 191.0 192.0 1.0 3.8 0.6 Prospect URNRC0109 229.0 230.0 1.0 2.1 0.6 Prospect URNRC0110 67.0 70.0 3.0 2.1 1.4 Prospect URNRC0110 125.0 126.0 1.0 6.0 0.5 Prospect URNRC0110 155.0 156.0 1.0 2.2 0.4 Prospect URNRC0110 157.0 158.0 1.0 3.6 0.4 Prospect URNRC0114 194.0 195.0 1.0 2.3 0.7 Prospect URNRC0114 200.0 201.0 1.0 3.0 0.7 Prospect URNRC0114 203.0 204.0 1.0 3.2 0.7 Prospect URNRC0114 229.0 230.0 1.0 9.5 0.7 Prospect URNRC0114 244.0 245.0 1.0 4.3 0.7 Prospect URNRC0114 256.0 257.0 1.0 2.1 0.7 Prospect URNRC0116 131.0 132.0 1.0 2.3 0.6 Prospect URNRC0119 174.0 175.0 1.0 2.1 0.5 Prospect URNRC0120 235.0 236.0 1.0 7.4 0.4 Prospect URNRC0120 253.0 254.0 1.0 2.1 0.5 Prospect Union South URSDD0027 295.75 296.5 0.75 2.1 0.4 Union South URSDD0027 420.0 420.3 0.3 11.9 0.2 Union South URSDD0027 427.1 428.0 0.9 5.2 0.6 Union South URSDD0027 455.25 456.3 1.05 2.8 0.7 Union South URSDD0027 458.0 461.75 3.75 2.8 2.4 Union South URSDD0029 547.0 547.6 0.6 60.4 0.3 Union South URSDD0029 671.0 672.2 1.2 4.0 0.6 Union South Notes: Drill intercepts greater than 12 Gram-Metres (gold grade x estimated true width) are shown in bold text. Drill intercepts less than 12 Gram-Metres, but having a gold grade greater than 20 g/t Au are shown in bold italics text. Table 2: Surface Diamond and RC Percussion Drill Hole Collar Locations, Union Reefs Hole ID Northing (m) Easting (m) Elevation (m) Collar Azimuth () Collar Plunge () Hole Length (m) Surface Diamond Drill Holes URNDD0100 4,935.8 7,296.9 1,207.8 244.6 -62.2 456.56 URNDD0105 4,932.1 7,423.6 1,208.5 244.4 -67.4 457.85 URNDD0120 5,196.2 7,124.1 1,199.4 244.5 -65.9 1,128.6 URNDD0122 4,937.3 7,401.7 1,208.8 62.0 -65.0 423.1 URNDD0138 4,922.5 7,776.3 1,197.2 241.8 -79.7 639.8 URNDD0139 4,926.1 7,779.4 1,197.3 64.0 -77.0 533.7 URNDD0144 4,939.4 7,297.7 1,207.8 64.6 -70.3 456.3 URNDD0145 4,933.1 7,351.1 1,208.6 66.3 -71.6 430.4 URNDD0146 4,939.7 7,398.5 1,208.6 60.5 -72.4 460.2 URNDD0147 4,509.6 6,945.2 1,186.8 75.0 -54.5 888.8 URNDD0148 4,935.6 7,319.4 1,208.1 3.7 -72.0 92.7 URNDD0149 4,930.4 7,319.6 1,208.0 157.0 -72.5 101.7 URNDD0150 4,935.0 7,297.3 1,207.8 172.9 -58.8 119.7 URNDD0151 4,928.7 7,399.9 1,208.1 20.2 -55.4 92.0 URNDD0152 4,926.8 7,507.3 1,206.6 265.3 -67.9 527.6 URNDD0153 4,928.4 7,428.5 1,208.1 30.2 -55.1 312.1 URNDD0154 4,928.4 7,428.5 1,208.1 30.2 -68.6 387.5 URNDD0155 4,928.9 7,507.6 1,206.5 28.9 -71.0 462.7 URNDD0156 5,248.2 7,237.1 1,186.8 243.4 -58.9 576.5 URNDD0157 5,277.0 7,311.3 1,187.7 244.0 -64.8 737.0 URNDD0158 4,933.6 7,399.7 1,208.5 57.0 -75.9 436.5 URNDD0159 4,928.0 7,351.8 1,208.8 59.4 -75.8 455.9 URNDD0162 4,943.4 7,272.9 1,207.0 103.1 -58.9 200.7 URNDD0163 4,939.0 7,268.0 1,207.5 103.6 -56.4 185.6 URNDD0167 4,927.9 7,325.4 1,208.4 89.4 -59.2 277.6 URNDD0170 4,935.6 7,376.8 1,209.0 61.4 -55.6 269.8 URNDD0172 4,935.0 7,400.6 1,208.4 63.0 -55.6 263.4 URNDD0173A 4,932.6 7,430.0 1,208.2 57.7 -55.5 266.6 URSDD0027 4,702.2 5,589.0 1,193.1 92.6 -64.5 567.8 URSDD0029 4,702.0 5,589.0 1,193.0 75.5 -74.7 759.6 Surface Reverse Circulation Percussion Holes URNRC0102 4,950.9 7,063.3 1,192.3 65.4 -61.0 198.0 URNRC0106 4,748.5 7,069.4 1,192.3 64.8 -66.8 168.0 URNRC0109 4,911.8 7,101.7 1,191.9 240.1 -61.5 250.0 URNRC0110 4,852.3 7,090.2 1,191.4 240.5 -62.3 258.0 URNRC0114 4,667.2 7,116.4 1,192.6 50.5 -62.0 282.0 URNRC0115 4,925.5 7,120.7 1,191.5 63.0 -60.1 174.0 URNRC0116 4,924.0 7,126.2 1,191.2 237.8 -61.8 202.0 URNRC0117 4,865.9 7,134.6 1,189.8 64.0 -61.7 204.0 URNRC0119 4,731.1 7,129.8 1,192.3 66.9 -61.3 218.0 URNRC0120 4,684.4 7,125.5 1,192.8 65.3 -63.9 270.0 Notes: Collar locations are in Union Reefs local grid coordinate system. France has issued international arrest warrants for three senior Syrian intelligence officials in connection with the deaths of two Franco-Syrian nationals, legal sources said Monday. The warrants, which target National Security Bureau director Ali Mamluk and two others, were issued for complicity in acts of torture, complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes. The warrants were issued on October 8 but made public only on Monday, according to the International Federation for Human Rights advocacy group (FIDH). The other high-ranking officials sought are Jamil Hassan, head of the Syrian air forces intelligence agency, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, in charge of the air force intelligences investigative branch at the Mezzeh military airport in Damascus. They are wanted in connection with the disappearance of Mazen and Patrick Dabbagh, a father and son, who were arrested in November 2013 and went missing after being detained in the Mezzeh detention centre, according to the FIDH. The Syrian regime has been accused of various crimes during the conflict that started in 2011, including torture in prisons, summary executions and the use of chemical weapons. Damascus denies the allegations and has pointed to gross abuses by its opponents both jihadists and other rebels who are also accused of executions and allowing thousands to die in their prisons. Some European countries have meanwhile launched investigations into alleged crimes by the Syrian regime, such as France which announced Monday international arrest warrants for three senior intelligence officials over the deaths of two Franco-Syrian nationals in a Syrian jail. Here is an overview: Torture archipelago The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 60,000 people have died from torture or harsh conditions in regime custody since the conflict began. Already in 2012 group Human Rights Watch said Syria was holding tens of thousands of detainees in a torture archipelago. It documented 27 detention facilities nationwide used to hold people swept up in the governments crackdown on protesters. Witnesses described torture, including beatings, the use of electricity or car battery acid, sexual assault and mock executions. Photographer reveals abuses In 2014 a former Syrian military photographer codenamed Caesar fled the country taking with him 55,000 images of abuses committed in its jails between 2011 and 2013. The digital images of 11,000 people alleged to have died in detention showed emaciated bodies. The evidence has been used in investigations in Germany and France. Extermination In February 2016 UN investigators said the mass scale of deaths of detainees suggests that the government of Syria is responsible for acts that amount to extermination. A year later Amnesty International said as many as 13,000 people were hanged between 2011 and 2015 at the notorious Saydnaya military-run prison near Damascus. This came on top of the 17,700 people it had already recorded as having perished in regime prisons since the start of the conflict. In May 2017 Washington claimed that Damascus had built a crematorium at Saydnaya to cover up thousands of prisoner deaths. Chemical weapons Human Rights Watch has since 2012 accused the Syrian armed forces of using banned incendiary weapons against its opponents. The Britain-based Observatory and other activists also claim the regime has dropped TNT-packed barrels from aircraft. There have also been several allegations of the use of chemical weapons, including sarin and chlorine, which the regime denies. Rape A UN inquiry published in March 2018 and based on 454 interviews said that Syrian troops and government-linked militia systematically used rape and sexual violence against civilians. Rebel fighters committed similar violations but at a considerably lower rate, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry for Syria said. Investigations A French court opened in 2016 its investigation into the deaths of two Franco-Syrian nationals, father and son Mazen and Patrick Dabbagh, who were arrested in Syria 2013. The three warrants issued in the case early October but only made public Monday are for complicity in acts of torture, crimes against humanity and war crimes. In Germany in March 2017 seven Syrian torture survivors, two lawyers and a human rights group filed a criminal complaint against secret service officials of President Bashar al-Assads regime. And in November 2017 Syrian refugees in Germany filed new criminal complaints accusing the regime of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In June 2018 German prosecutors reportedly issued an international arrest warrant for a top Syrian intelligence officer accused of overseeing the torture and murder of hundreds of detainees. The UNs International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism, set up in 2016, is also preparing war crimes charges against individuals over the conflict, saying in September it aimed to open at least two cases by years end. At the beginning of every week, the same scene plays out at the High Court in Banjul. At midday, a bus drops a group of accused persons and their security guards at the foot of a blindfolded statue bearing a pair of scales and representing justice. These men have come for hearings in the trial of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the former intelligence service. They have been coming to court for a year and a half and being questioned on the murder in custody of political opponent Solo Sandeng, who was arrested in April 2016 during a demonstration. They have all pleaded not-guilty before Judge Kumba Sillah-Camara in his white wig, inherited from British court traditions. Since mid-October there are only eight of them after Louis Gomez, former NIA number 2, died following a brief spell in hospital. The causes of his death are not yet known. The NIA trial is the only criminal trial linked to the former regimes crimes that is currently taking place in Gambia. Jammehs intelligence service was known for arbitrary detentions and many cases of torture in its jails. This group of former NIA leaders was arrested hurriedly a few weeks after former president Jammeh went into exile in January 2017, at a time when the judicial system was struggling to recover from 22 years of dictatorship. The trial has been marred by bungling and postponements. Justice system not ready The remains of Solo Sandeng, exhumed in April 2017, are still at the morgue pending the results of a police forensic analysis. According to a film broadcast on November 1 by international organization Justice Rapid Response, which sent a team of forensic experts, the identity has been confirmed. The victims son Muhammed Sandeng was angry at the slowness of initial procedures, but now knows he must be patient. I am now aware that these processes take a lot of time, he says. We are moving in the right direction. But it is difficult not to be able to reclaim the body. And if the government could speed things up, so that we know who was responsible and what is their punishment, it would help us to turn the page. It seems this trial is still very hard for the Justice Ministry to manage. Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou has already admitted several times that his teams were not ready for a trial on this scale. For the moment, therefore, it is out of the question to open new cases. What should we do with this group of men who have all admitted committing terrible crimes, when the justice system is not ready in terms of staff and structures? There are nevertheless other suspects in detention. According to the army, there are six Junglers (Yahya Jammehs death squad) in military prisons. We recognize that they have been in detention for a long time without being brought before a judge, said the Justice Minister at a press conference on October 9, recognizing also that this violates the Gambian constitution. But what should we do with this group of men who have all admitted committing terrible crimes, when the justice system is not ready in terms of staff and structures? International trials in view? The NIA trial thus remains the only one in the country, but victims of the dictatorship can also place their hopes in another case pending outside Gambia. Since January 2017, Switzerland has been keeping in detention former Gambian Interior Minister Ousman Sonko, who went into exile after the former president was removed from power. His presence in Switzerland was signalled by Trial International, a Swiss NGO which assists victims of international crimes. Ousman Sonko held top positions for 15 years. He is a pure product of the Jammeh school, and appears to have been implicated in several very serious incidents, says Benedict de Moerloose, head of the Investigations and Criminal Law Division at Trial International. So with him we are very close to the top. He was probably one of the main executors. It is important that those most responsible be tried, and to show that it is possible. Jammehs former minister is under examination by a Swiss prosecutor for suspected crimes against humanity. Investigations are continuing, witnesses are being called to shed light on the facts, and we hope that the case will be sent for trial in eight months to a year, explains De Moerloose. The third prong of efforts to get criminal trials concerns Yahya Jammeh himself. The Jammeh2Justice campaign, launched a year ago by victims associations with the support of international NGOs aims to collect evidence against the former president. It is working primarily on a massacre of mainly Ghanaian migrants perpetrated in 2005. The hope is that one day the judicial authorities of Ghana or another country will take up the case and launch proceedings against the former dictator, who is now in exile in Equatorial Guinea. Two directors join Department of Diversity and Multicultural Student Affairs Two new directors are joining Kansas State University's Department of Diversity and Multicultural Student Affairs in the Division of Student Life. Effective Nov. 19, Debra Bolton will serve as director of intercultural learning and academic success and Trumanue Lindsey Jr. will serve as director of diversity and multicultural student life. Bolton and Lindsey will report to Adrian Rodriguez, associate vice president for student life for diversity and multicultural student affairs. "I am incredibly grateful to a dedicated team of faculty, staff and students who gave an amazing amount of time, energy and effort to identify the very best candidates to meet the needs of our students and community," Rodriguez said. "Together we will continue to move Kansas State University forward in our quest for unity, multicultural student success and intercultural learning." As director of intercultural learning and academic success, Bolton will play a key role in fostering cultural advocacy, civility and intercultural learning, education and training development at the university. She also will collaborate with faculty and staff to promote efforts to improve success rates for students of color and other marginalized communities. Bolton will expand campus capacity to track student progress, and to monitor and report on student success as it relates to cultural competency development. Bolton previously served as an extension specialist for K-State Research and Extension, based in the Southwest Region, for 13 years. Her specialty was on engaging multilingual populations in localized research focused on education, health, well-being, integration and social connectedness. Her work helped health care, nonprofit and educational systems working with multiethnic populations. Bolton has been a workshop presenter and trainer who helped those in education and human services with building relationships in multicultural communities, logic-model design and grant writing. "These past 25 years, working, playing, building relationships and studying multicultural populations prepared me for this next chapter in my life," Bolton said. "In my research, parents and their youth made a regular practice to inform me about barriers to education. I hope to apply what I've learned, and I look forward to working with students in assuring their academic successes." As director of diversity and multicultural student life, Lindsey will promote student engagement. He will provide academic and social integration opportunities for students of color and marginalized communities including direct support to multicultural student organizations and the various leadership councils for these organizations and identity groups. Additionally, Lindsey will collaborate with faculty and staff to promote efforts to enhance cultural celebration, diversity and inclusion efforts across the academy, and student success initiatives to improve student success for students of color. Lindsey has worked in higher education for 12 years as an advocate and champion for access, equity and inclusion for traditionally marginalized students. He began his professional career providing academic advising and success programming for underrepresented students at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where he also earned his bachelors and masters degrees. After transitioning from the University of Minnesota, Lindsey spent the last eight years leading and developing diversity, equity and inclusion retention efforts within community colleges, including a Minnesota state systemwide retention initiative on providing leadership development opportunities for male students from diverse backgrounds. "I am excited to join the K-State family in this new role and being able to provide support for the students," Lindsey said. "I hope that I am able to bring new insight to the students and the campus as a whole and I am looking forward to learning and growing with them as well." We are two days away from Election Day and Jackson County Clerk Chris Walker, says we are seeing ballot returns at a "presidential election level". However if you haven't returned your ballot yet there is still time. While you can no longer mail back your ballot, you can drop it off at one of the many drop off sites in Southern Oregon. You have until 8 P.M. on November 6th to get it dropped off. Below is a list of drop off sites in Southern Oregon broken down by county: Lake County: -Lake County Clerk's office -Paisley Community Center (Election Day only) -Christmas Valley Community Center (Election Day only) Klamath County: Check Klamath County website for hours -Bonanza Town Hall -Chiloquin Community Center -Klamath Basin Senior Center -Klamath Community College, Building 9 -Klamath County Clerk's Office -Klamath County Government Center (Parking lot behind building) -La Pine Library -Malin City Hall -Merrill City Hall -OIT College Union Info Desk -Walker Range FPA Josephine County: Hours -County Clerks Office -Cave Junction City Building -Josephine County Courthouse -Umpqua Bank -Hidden Valley Market -Washington Federal Bank -Josephine Community Library Curry: Hours -Curry County Courthouse -Brookings City Hall -Port Orford City Hall Jackson County: Hours -Eagle Point Library -Rogue River Library -Central Point Library -Jackson County Election's Office -Phoenix Library SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on California election activity (all times local): 4:15 p.m. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has canceled an appearance at a gun control rally in Orange County. Feinstein's campaign manager Jeff Millman says she is getting over a cold. She was scheduled to speak Sunday evening at an event alongside student activists from the Florida high school where 17 people were killed in February. Gun control is one of Feinstein's signature issues. She authored the now-expired 1994 assault weapons ban. Feinstein's most recent event was on Friday in Silicon Valley. Millman says she has an event planned Monday in the San Francisco Bay Area but did not provide immediate details. Feinstein faces a challenge from state Sen. Kevin de Leon, a fellow Democrat. At 85 she is the oldest U.S. senator. De Leon has repeatedly called for a "new voice" in Washington but has not directly focused on her age. __ 3:30 p.m. Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox is pledging to make California "more affordable and livable again." That's one of Cox's California-themed takes on President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan. He's also pledging to make California "golden again," a play on the state's nickname. Cox is campaigning Sunday afternoon in Sacramento alongside U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock. Republicans from the area brought lawn chairs and held signs while they waited for Cox outside a GOP office. His rival is Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom spent Sunday afternoon firing up volunteers at a labor-organized barbecue and phone bank in Los Angeles. Newsom told the crowd that California's diversity is its strength. He's traveling around the state in a giant blue bus that says "VOTE" along the side. Cox's green bus says "Help is on the way." ___ 1 p.m. Republican U.S. Rep. Mimi Walters says she's confident she can hold onto her seat because of the strong economy. Walters is facing a tough challenge from Democrat Katie Porter in an Orange County district that Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential contest. Her remarks come during a Sunday stop at one of her campaign offices in the city of Irvine. Volunteers are making hundreds of calls in English and Mandarin encouraging Republicans and Republican-leaning independents to vote. The district has a large population of Asian-American voters. Retired real estate broker Bill Esbit has been making calls for six weeks on behalf of Walters and Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox. The 74-year-old Esbit says he's looking for candidates that will lower taxes and limit government. The 45th Congressional District is one of four in Orange County targeted by Democrats. ___ 11:55 a.m. Orange County is at the center of activity heading into Election Day. Democrats including state Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and California Democratic Party chairman Eric Bauman are rallying volunteers Sunday in Anaheim as they prepare to fan out across the area to encourage people to vote. Rendon says he remembers when "you couldn't get a Democrat elected in Orange County." The county has some Democrats in the state Legislature and the party is hoping to flip U.S. House seats in Tuesday's contest. Orange County voters are casting early ballots at a pop-up mobile voting location near a weekend swap meet packed with vendors selling everything from potted orchids and fishing poles to watch batteries and shiny pinatas. The outdoor market is popular with the area's Vietnamese American and Latino communities. Some people voting early say they want to be sure their vote counts and avoid any Election Day lines. ___ 10:30 a.m. Californians will help determine which party controls the U.S. House and choose a successor for the state's longest serving governor in the midterm election. Candidates are making their final pitches Sunday as campaign volunteers furiously work to make sure their voters show up at the polls or postmark ballots. More than 3 million people have already voted by mail. Orange County is seeing an unusual amount of attention from Democrats as the party works to flip Republican-held U.S. House seats. In the battle for governor, Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and businessman John Cox are rallying with state and federal candidates. Voters are being inundated by advertisements on California's 11 ballot measures. About $367 million has been raised in support or opposition of the campaigns. ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) 11/4/2018 4:39:59 PM (GMT -8:00) 181 Shares Share Two years ago, when I was still in residency I happened to be on overnight call the day prior to election day. An associate program director of my residency program asked me if I wouldnt mind being a doctor of record who evaluates whether I agree a patient is too sick to go to the polls. They forwarded to me names of patients who expressed interest in voting and were already registered to vote. I evaluated their hospitalization, and if I agreed they would not be discharged from the hospital and make it to the polls, I signed an emergency ballot request form with a notary present, which formalized a request for an emergency ballot. At that time, a medical student named Dorothy Charles, who organized the voting effort, ran the ballots over to City Hall and famously had to confront Vito Canuso , a Republican lawmaker, who was trying to block hospitalized registered voters from having their votes count. Now, Penn law students, have taken over the effort at Presbyterian Hospital with Dr. Judd Flesch, and are helping more hospitalized voters get their votes count. As I reflect on this the week before the midterm elections I realize I dont work at a hospital that has procedures in place for hospitalized patients to be able to vote on election day. Admittedly, even having been a part of the effort to help patients previously, I was intimidated by my lack of knowledge of what exactly it was that Dorothy Charles did to organize the vote for hospitalized voters. For a couple days, I latched on to the excuse that a few dozen votes was not worth the effort to arrange emergency ballots. But the progressively worsening stories about the yet another atrocity that cycle by the hour are simultaneously overwhelming and impossible to ignore. The upcoming midterm elections represent one of the most important for our nation and possibly our worlds future. In the last few years alone, we have had the politicians that represent the majority in the House and Senate ignore the impending doom of global warming , gun-related mortality that exceeds war-related mortality , and the utility of health care for those with pre-existing conditions . These politicians dont have the backing of major physician groups. Why? Because physicians not politicians are the ones who have to explain to patients, your insurance did not cover this, so we will do [subpar, clinically inferior care] instead, because that is what that patient can afford. On a personal level, as a doctor who serves many African American veterans who lived through the civil rights movements, I feel frustrated when I walk into a room and see a veteran watching news about lawmakers blocking primarily African American votes . If certain lawmakers are going to even with innocent intention enact policies that happen to precisely target a group by race, the least I can do to combat this is to ensure a hospitalization does not become another barrier in that persons way. All voters, regardless of race, hospitalization status, or political affiliation, deserve the chance to vote. With this in mind, I took the quick step to look up how to do what Dorothy Charles helped us do at Presbyterian Hospital two years ago, and found the paperwork to arrange emergency ballots. It took five minutes to find the paperwork (Pennsylvania is remarkably organized), ten minutes on a smartphone to get a mobile notary, and five minutes to print the paperwork. A patient-designated volunteer will bring ballots to City Hall. On Tuesday, Ill be another doctor alongside many in Philadelphia who helps hospitalized patients get their votes counted by arranging emergency ballots. During the midterm elections next week, I want to make sure my patients vote because they deserve the right to choose what their future looks like. I hope to encourage other physicians who read this to look up how to arrange emergency ballots for their patients as well. And at the very least, if a state creates barriers for hospitalized patients to vote, hopefully physicians can encourage colleagues to vote. This may only help a handful of patients, but every vote counts and as I found out, its not as intimidating to arrange emergency ballots as it may seem. Priya Joshi is a hospitalist. Image credit: Shutterstock.com OREGON -- Election day is Tuesday, and one Oregon lawmaker said he is concerned some mailed ballots may not be counted. Senator Brian Boquist said he is concerned some mailed votes may arrive past the deadline because of cutbacks to the U.S. Postal Service that have slowed mail delivery is some rural areas. Multnomah and Clackamas counties still have postal service hubs, but elections officials in those areas have already taken measures to reduce the risk of ballots arriving late. Those county elections officials visit the postal sorting facilities and mark all ballots received by the deadline. The election officials then send them to the proper counties, where they are processed. With the election Tuesday, many officials suggest using a drop box instead of mailing in your ballot, to ensure your votes are counted. If you want to know the status of your ballot, you can track it. The descendant of a Kilkenny man who was involved in a dramatic and violent incident in Kilkenny in the 1830s is appealing for your help to complete her family tree. Linda Connors lives in Newfoundland, Canada where her great, great grandfather Patrick Morrissey emigrated in the 19th century. Linda knows little about Patrick Morrissey other than he was born around 1809 and, according to his obituary, he was "a hero of the Carrickshock Incident." She doesn't know where exactly he was born, but he left Ireland some time after the Carrickshock Incident and he emigrated to Brigus, Newfoundland, Canada, where he lived until the ago of 80. He had at least two children - William and James. "We think there is another son John, to the best of our knowledge they were born in Ireland with a sister Bridget," Linda told The Kilkenny People. The Carrickshock Incident, also known as the Carrickshock Massacre or the Battle of Carrickshock, was a confrontation between the Irish Constabulary and local Catholic tenant farmers near Carrickshock, Hugginstown, on 14 December 1831, during the Tithe War in Ireland. Seventeen were killed: 14 of a party attempting to collect tithes and three of the crowd of locals who confronted them. Eleven men were charged with murder following the incident and appeared at the Kilkenny County Assizes in 1832. If you can shed any light on Patrick Morrissey please contact Linda Connors by email on greeeneyes@nl.rogers.com The Irish Greyhound Board is warning greyhound owners to be vigilant after two dogs were reported stolen in Kilkenny. The dogs, who went missing from their kennels between late Sunday night and early Monday morning, are both 13 months old. One of the greyhounds is a brindle dog and the other is a blue and fawn dog. Their ear markings are RX RXB and RX PJY. It is important for greyhound owners to ensure they have secured any property where their greyhounds are kept," said Racing Operations Manager with the IGB, Barry Coleman. "Regular checks on the property are vital together with using appropriate gate/door locks and alarm systems where possible. Thieves are deterred by good security measures. It is important for owners to report any suspicious activity around their own property or that of another greyhound owner to the Gardai immediately." In September, the IGB warned owners after at least seven dogs were reported stolen in the South-East. Greyhound welfare and keeping greyhounds safe and well is a top priority for the IGB as part of continued regulation of the industry. The IGBs Strategic Plan 2018-2022 cites welfare as a key priority for Bord na gCon. The IGB is concerned that stolen greyhounds may be held in an environment that is detrimental to their welfare," said Mr Coleman. The Irish Greyhound Board is liaising with local animal rescue organisations on this matter. AUSTIN, Minn. A duo that got probation for one drug crime is pleading not guilty to another. Patricia Jane Boonreuang, 23 of Austin, and Cristian Andres Wilborn, 19 of Austin, are both charged with 1st degree sale of methamphetamine. Theyre accused of selling 28.177 grams of the drug to a confidential police informant on December 21, 2017. Boonreuang is scheduled to stand trial in Mower County District court on February 25, 2019, and Wilborns trial is set for December 17, 2018. Both received five years of probation after previously pleading guilty to 5th degree drug possession for another incident on December 21, 2017. Boonreuang pleaded guilty in July and Wiborn entered a guilty plea in that case in October. DES MOINES, Iowa A member of the Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health has been named the Public Health Ambassador for the State Hygienic Laboratory. Brian Hanft is the 10th to take up that position. It is a great honor and privilege to be selected as the 2018-2019 Public Health Ambassador for the State Hygienic Laboratory, says Hanft. I am humbled and eager to help promote and advocate on behalf of SHL. The SHL is a wonderful institution that offers Iowans critically important services and support. The Deputy Director of Public Health and Environmental Health Service Manager, Hanft was worked in Cerro Gordo County for 16 years. He says he plans to focus on strengthening emergency response planning and developing more connections with local public health agencies and boards of health. My vision is that SHL leadership will work with Brian to promote the mission of the lab in these two focus areas, says SHL Director Michael Pentella. DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds was flying around the state Monday holding rallies at eight airports including Ankeny, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Waterloo, Clear Lake, Fort Dodge, Council Bluffs and Sioux City before ending the tour Monday night at a final stop in Sioux Center. State Auditor Mary Mosiman, in a competitive race of her own against Democrat Rob Sand, was on the plane with Reynolds. U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst is appearing with Reynolds at most events and Sen. Charles Grassley was attending some. A campaign spokesman confirmed Rep. Steve King was appearing with Reynolds at the final stop of the day in Sioux Center. King, a co-chairman of Reynolds' campaign, is in a competitive race with Democrat J.D. Scholten. King has been the center of criticism in the final days of the midterm election campaign for extreme views on race and immigration. Some top Republican officials have distanced themselves from King and an increasing number of companies that have contributed financial support have dropped him, but Reynolds has stood by him. "We're feeling pretty good that the energy and momentum is on our side," Reynolds campaign spokesman Pat Garrett said. The campaign wouldn't say who was providing the airplane Reynolds is using. A state ethics board in September dismissed a complaint about her use and payment of flights on private airplanes donated by wealthy business supporters, some whom conduct business with the state. The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board concluded the flights were "legitimate in-kind campaign contributions and allowable under Iowa's gift law." Democrat Fred Hubbell and his running mate Sen. Rita Hart planned seven stops as they continued to drive around the state before ending their day at an election rally in Des Moines. Hart was scheduled to be in Clinton, Eldridge, North Liberty and Ottumwa while Hubbell had stops in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and West Des Moines. Recent polls have shown Hubbell with a slight edge and he's collected endorsements from at least 10 newspaper editorial boards, campaign spokeswoman Remi Yamamoto said. The response at the rallies has been overwhelming with standing room only in recent days, she said. ROCHESTER, Minn. - On Sunday, people came out to The Reading Center's annual Bright Stars event. It raises awareness of dyslexia and raises money for students at The Reading Center. Douglas Wood is a Minnesota-native and a best-selling author, musician, and speaker. As the guest speaker at the event, he shared his experience with dyslexia and ADHD, and how he was able to be successful. He hopes people attending leave knowing reading is important, and even if it's hard, they can still do it. "We can still learn to read. Even if figuring out abstract symbols on a page isn't the easiest thing to do, we can still do it," he said. "Even if it's difficult for you like it was for me, or for some of the kids here today just stick with it. Many many people can read faster than I can. I'm not a fast reader at all but I'm a good reader. And reading is not a race." The money raised at the event will go to scholarship money for students of The Reading Center. So far, 16% of the organization's students have recieved almost $59,000 in scholarhips. At this year's event, the first $10,000 in donations will be matched by Mayo Clinic and the Rochester Scottish Rite Children's Foundation. WINNESHIEK COUNTY, Iowa A northeast Iowa man is accused of going armed with intent and stabbing himself before having to be Tased. The Winneshiek County Sheriffs Office said 30-year-old Joshua Draves was arrested after an incident was reported around 3 a.m. Saturday from a Freeport residence. Draves allegedly slashed the tires on a vehicle belonging to the victims sister before entering the residence and jumping on the victim as she was sleeping, according to court documents. He then allegedly held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her before putting a knife to his own throat. Authorities say he eventually stabbed himself and wouldnt comply with order when authorities arrived. In addition to the going armed with intent charges, Draves is facing charges for domestic abuse assault displaying or using a weapon and third-degree criminal mischief. ROCHESTER, Minn. The American Red Cross is urging people to not just turn back their clocks this weekend, but also check their smoke alarms. It said the colder weather this time of year increases the risk of deadly home fires, which takes seven lives daily according to the National Fire Protection Association. To protect against this, the Red Cross encourages everyone to check smoke alarm batteries, install smoke alarms, and create a home fire escape plan. Its all part of the organizations Home Fire Campaign, which started in 2014. Since the campaign started, the Red Cross has installed 1.4 million smoke alarms, replaced more than 68,000 smoke alarm batteries, and helped more than 521,000 families create escape plans. Katie Jirik is a mom in the Rochester area and said she thinks of the weekend more as a smoke alarm test than a clock change. "It is a good reminder, you know twice a year, maintenance type of thing, that's kind of what I use it for," she said. "If people don't have smoke alarms and aren't prepared those are the people that have accidents and injuries in their homes." Her family also has an escape plan. The Red Cross said families should have two ways to get out of every room in a house and should be able to get out in less than two minutes. It also said the weekend is a good time to check carbon monoxide detectors. If people want to learn more on how to protect against home fires or create an escape plan, they can contact their local Red Cross. Kiplinger's Economic Outlooks are written by the staff of our weekly Kiplinger Letter and are unavailable elsewhere. Click here for a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or for more information. If you already subscribe to the print edition of the Letter, click here to add e-mail delivery and the digital edition at no extra cost. The trade deficit widened in September to a new record high. The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services rose to a seasonally adjusted $80.9 billion, from a revised $72.8 billion in August an increase of 11.2%. The deficit has widened in eight of the past 12 months because of solid domestic demand. Its sharp growth should soon start to reverse, as oil exports recover from the disruption caused by Hurricane Ida. Supply disruptions stemming from the global spread of the Delta variant could weigh on trade in both directions and result in some volatility in the month-to-month movement of the trade balance. Total exports plunged after rising during the past several months: they fell 3% in September. Weakness in exports was broad-based, with every major category of goods moving lower during the month. Goods exports fell 4.7%. Industrial supply exports plummeted 9.9%, while exports of capital goods fell a more modest 3.6%. Automotive exports, hurt by the semiconductor shortage, were down 2%. Exports of consumer goods were the only category that rose during the month. Total imports increased 0.6%, thanks to strength in imports of consumer goods and capital goods. Imports were broadly positive, despite some supply headwinds causing bottlenecks at some of the nations largest ports. Exports of travel services should start to rise much more strongly in November, now that most remaining restrictions on fully vaccinated inbound tourists from most foreign countries have been lifted. Exports of services rose 0.9% in September. Exports of financial services and other businesses services both climbed to all-time highs and led the rebound in services exports. Sources: Department of Commerce, Trade Data BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) - The European Union has so far failed to find a country to host a special mechanism to trade with Iran and beat newly reimposed U.S. sanctions, three diplomats said, as governments fear being targeted by U.S. counter measures. Voicing opposition to U.S. policy on the day Washington announced a new raft of sanctions on Iran, the European Union reissued its Nov. 2 statement on Monday saying it was still setting up the so-called special purpose vehicle (SPV). The European Union had hoped to ready its SPV, which is designed to circumvent the U.S. sanctions, by Mondays sanctions announcement by the United States. However, no EU country has so far volunteered to host the entity, the EU diplomats said. Several states have been asked by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to consider being the headquarters, as the bloc tries to uphold the arms control accord, which U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from in May. While the European Commission declined to comment on Monday, European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said the European Union does not approve of the reimposition of U.S. sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. Brian Hook, Washingtons special representative for Iran, underscored the risks for European companies, warning that any EU country hosting the SPV could potentially be sanctioned. The United States will not hesitate to sanction any sanctionable activity in connection with our Iran sanctions regime, Hook told a telephone call with European reporters when asked about the vehicle. The SPV, which could incorporate a barter system, aims to sidestep the U.S. financial system by using an EU intermediary to handle trade with Iran. It could ensure, for example, that Iranian oil bought by Europeans could be paid for with EU goods and services of the same value. A senior French diplomat said Paris was confident the mechanism would be legally in place soon, but things needed to be fully cemented first. We hope the legal instruments will be put in place in the coming days. It will then be a few weeks or months to finalize its modalities, and its implementation will be during 2019, he said. He added there was no way any trade with this mechanism could be done before year-end. Hook said he had not seen demand from European companies to use the SPV because they preferred to invest in the United States. If you take a look at the over 100 corporations that have decided to choose the United States market over the Iranian market, they are not looking to avail themselves of any type of vehicle, they are very pleased to continue working with the United States, he told reporters. The EU, with support from China and Russia, hopes to keep Tehran in the nuclear non-proliferation deal by allowing trade to flow despite U.S. penalties. The SPV will follow several other EU initiatives to try to shield European business with Iran from U.S. sanctions that Trump is reimposing, as he seeks to punish Tehran for what the West says is Irans role in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Angelina Jolie, third from left facing row, speaks during a meeting at the United Nations Refugee Agency's Seoul office in Jung-gu, Seoul, Nov. 4. Photos courtesy of UNHCR Korea By Ko Dong-hwan The United Nations Refugee Agency's Special Envoy Angelina Jolie, who visited Seoul last week, met with the justice minister and the organization's celebrity goodwill ambassador Sunday. The top American actress and activist expressed concern about Yemenis who have fled their country in fear of a long-standing war there and a cholera epidemic. She urged the international community to embrace all displaced Yemeni people which now number over two million. Noting the 500 Yemenis who arrived on Jeju Island in May and sought asylum, she stressed Korea's global role in helping them. "As an international community we have been shamefully slow to act to end the crisis in Yemen," Jolie said at the UNHCR Korea's office in Jung-gu, Seoul. "We have watched the situation deteriorate to the point that Yemen is now on the brink of a man-made famine and facing the worst cholera epidemic in the world in decades. When conflict develops to this extent, many people have no choice but to flee if they are to have any chance of survival." She was joined by Justice Minister Park Sang-ki, who is in charges of the country's refugee policies, and actor Jung Woo-sung, who has been a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in Korea since 2015. Angelina Jolie talks with Korean Justice Minister Park Sang-ki at the UNHCR Korea's office, Nov. 4. She said that "ending the conflicts themselves" was the only way to help refugees return home and reduce their numbers worldwide. "I hope there can be greater understanding of the human realities causing people to flee, the strict legal criteria and process by which refugee status is determined by the UNHCR, working with national authorities, and our shared responsibility to assist refugees until they can return home," said the special envoy. Jolie came to Korea to promote the international organization's message that global support for refugees is vitally needed. Her Seoul visit follows that of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, Oct. 23 and 24. Jolie, the mother of six children including three adoptees from Cambodia, Vietnam and Ethiopia, thanked the Korean government for helping the Yemenis on Jeju Island. On Oct. 17, the ministry that oversaw interviews of 484 Yemeni asylum seekers there said it has granted humanitarian stay to 362 of them. Jolie and Jung Woo-sung, second from left, share their personal stories of working for the UNHCR at the agency's Korean office, Nov. 4. A memorial hall for the late actor Shin Sung-il is set up at the Asan Medical Center in Seoul, Sunday, following his death from lung cancer. Korea Times By Kang Aa-young Actor Shin Sung-il died of lung cancer Sunday. He was 81. Widely regarded as the "godfather" of Korea film, he was considered a legendary figure in the Korean film industry as he witnessed the rise of the industry and played a key role in it. He also served as a national legislator in the early 2000s, in his efforts to support the Korean movie industry. He was diagnosed with stage-three lung cancer in June 2017 and had been undergoing chemotherapy at a hospital located in South Jeolla Province. According to local media reports, he died at 2:25 a.m. Sunday. It is not publicly known where Shin died, but it is believed to be the hospital where he had been staying. "If there is Toshiro Mifune in Japan, Marcello Mastroianni in Italy, Gregory Peck in America and Alain Delon in France, we have Shin Seong-il here," star director Park Chan-wook recalled in a book published by the Busan International Film Festival to honor Shin. "Without understanding Shin Seong-il, it is hard to get a grasp of film history or modern culture of Korea." Shin, an undeniably top actor here, appeared in total of 530 movies, starring in 506 of them. Shin Sung-il, right, in a scene from 1970 file "Two Woman in the Rain" Korea Times file Debuting in director Shin Sang-ok's 1960 comedy film "Romantic Papa," Shin soon rose to stardom with "Only for You" in 1962. Then drama films such as "The Barefooted Young" in 1964, "Keep Silent When Leaving" in 1964, "Dangerous Youth" in 1966 and "A Burning Youth" in 1966 made him a major star. He also gained attention after marrying renowned actress Um Aing-ran in 1964. In the same year alone, the couple starred in 26 movies, dominating Korea's film industry. The two remained one of the most notable married couples among Korean celebrities. In addition to his wife, Shin partnered with different top actresses like Kim Ji-mee, Yoon Jeong-hee, and Moon Hee in a variety of movies. He appeared in 51 movies in 1967. Shin's career reached its peak when he starred in movies made by renowned directors of the 1960s, including Kim Kee-duk, Lee Man-hee, Kim Soo-yong, Chung Jin Woo and Lee Seong-gu His solid career continued through the 1970s. Movies such as "Heavenly Homecoming to Stars" in 1974, "Winter Woman" in 1977 and "Gilsoddeum" in 1985 well presented his appealing and diverse acting skills. Shin's last film was "Door to the Night" in 2013. He is survived by his wife Um, 82, one son and two daughters. The memorial service will be held at the Asan Medical Center in Seoul. According to The Korea Film Actors Association, a special funeral will be held to honor him but they are still discussing details with his family. U.S. Ambassador to Korea Harry Harris visits the back alley of Seochon, an area west of Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul, to try out a traditional Korean rice alcoholic beverage called "makgeolli" for the very first time. While sitting in a tiny, cozy hanok, Harris carefully sipped on samplers of makgeolli with all different flavors served with beautifully crafted Korean traditional dishes that go well with it. And he immediately fell in love with makgeolli. All is captured on a video posted on the embassy website. President Moon Jae-in speaks during a tea meeting with generals from the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), including outgoing commander Gen. Vincent Brooks, third from right, at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap By Kim Yoo-chul President Moon Jae-in said a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, if it happens, will "hugely" advance denuclearization talks. "A second summit between Washington and Pyongyang is near at hand. Also, the fourth inter-Korean summit will take place soom. If the second U.S.-North Korea summit happens, then that will clearly help the Korean Peninsula see rapid progress toward complete denuclearization," the President said during a tea meeting with generals from the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) including outgoing commander Gen. Vincent Brooks at Cheong Wa Dae, according to press pool reports, late Monday. Mentioning a series of measures taken by the North to prevent any provocative actions, the President Moon said the military alliance between South Korea and the United States will remain strong despite any variables relating to the North's nuclear programs. "Let's go together. The U.S.-South Korea alliance is the alliance that can bring lasting peace on the peninsula. It is an alliance that can bring prosperity and peace to the United States and South Korea. The alliance is also developing in terms of bringing peace and stability to Northeast Asia. Thank you General Vincent for your sincere contribution during your term," Moon said. USFK Commander General Vincent Brooks was appointed in April 2016, and is being replaced by General Robert Abrams. Regarding the anticipated second Trump-Kim summit, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he will meet his North Korean counterpart later this week in New York. Cheong Wa Dae said it couldn't comment on the upcoming high-level meeting "for the time being." The meeting will focus on "additional progress" that the North may take toward its "final, fully verified denuclearization" in exchange for sanctions relief from the United States and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). A representational photo. KOLKATA (PTI): Armies of India and Japan have begunn their first ever joint military exercise 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-2018" will be to enhance tactical skills against global terrorism and increase inter-operability between the two forces, the Army said in a statement last Thursday. The Japanese contingent is represented by 32nd Infantry Battalion, while the Indian side by 6/1 Gorkha Rifles, it said. "The objective of the exercise is to build and promote Army to Army relation in addition to exchange skills and experiences of both the armies," the statement said. The exercise will comprise a balance of indoor classes and outdoor training activities. Both the armies 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, it said, adding that the exercise will contribute immensely in developing mutual understanding and respect for each other's military. NEWTOWN >> Newtown will celebrate the holiday season on Sunday, Dec. 5 with a festive, hometown holiday parade. Presented by the Newtown Business Association (NBA), the annual McCaffreys Newtown Holiday Parade is scheduled to step off at 2 p.m., rain, snow or shine, with an estimated 1,600 participants. Featured in this years parade will be the Council Rock High School... A competition to find the countrys dirtiest trade van will reward the winner with a free re-wrap of their offending van. Selco Builders Warehouse is coming to the rescue as the winter weather leaves vans caked in mud and grime. It will pick out Britains dirtiest van, and then provide it with a re-wrap by specialist wrapping company Totally Dynamic. To enter, tradespeople can submit a photo of the filthy interior or exterior of the van at www.selcobw.com/dirty-van before 31 December. Ricky Minns, otherwise known as Ruddy Muddy, is a Norfolk-based artist who specialises in creating eye-catching artwork from vans covered in mud. He got the campaign off to a great start by creating an eye-catching Selco Needs You image on a dirty van. He said: For my kind of art, there is no better sight than seeing a van literally covered in mud and Selco have come up a real treat with this campaign. The re-wrap of a van will be a dream prize for a tradesperson and help them begin 2019 with literally a clean start. Carine Jessamine, Marketing Director of Selco, added: With a busy workload, tradespeople often clear their windows but havent got time to give the rest of their van a regular clean. We are doing our bit to help the trade community and ensure that they dont get stuck in the mud. Douala, Nov 4 (AFP) Police in Cameroon arrested 19 supporters of opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who disputes the results of October presidential elections, at protests against President Paul Biya on Sunday, local authorities and witnesses told AFP. The arrests happened at two different places in the town of Bafoussam in the country's west where Kamto backers were picketing, they said. Kamto, who according to official results came second with 14 per cent of the vote behind incumbent Biya with seven percent, called Friday for an independent vote recount. He claimed victory in the October 7 polls, and has been declared an "outlaw" by the government. But Kamto, one of seven candidates seeking to unseat Biya who has ruled the West African country for 36 years, insists the process was marred by widespread fraud. Members of Kamto's Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) posted images on social media Sunday of their protest against what they called an electoral "hold-up". Sixteen MRC members who had protested the election results in the capital Yaounde, were freed two days after their arrest on October 28. (AFP) SCY (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kolkata, Nov 4 (PTI) In continuing raids in the run-up to Kali Puja and Diwali, around 125 kg of crackers were recovered from two different parts in Baguihati and New Town areas of the city on Sunday, police said. Bidhanagar Police Commissionerate sources said 50 kg of crackers, worth over Rs 40,000, were seized from a house at Hanapara area in Baguihati. The huge stock of fireworks were found in a godown of the house following a tip-off, the sources said, adding, no arrests have been made in this regard so far. In another raid, banned firecrackers, weighing 75 kg, were seized from Edenshop area in New Town, as part of a special drive, they said. Meanwhile, as part of a recent notification, banning sky lanterns and laser lights in the vicinity of N S C Bose International Airport, police were conducting raids in eight areas under Bidhannagar and Barrackpore Police Commissionerate limits. Around 1,400 sky lanterns were recovered from a house at Ashwininagar in Baguiati recently, the sources added. PTI (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) US Military Cancels 300 Million USD Financial Aid to Pakistan. (Photo Credit: ANI) Lilongwe, Nov 5 (PTI) Vice President Venkaiah Naidu who was on a six-day three-nation visit to Africa concluded his tour in Malawi on Monday and enplaned for New Delhi. Naidu, accompanied by a high-level delegation, including Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishan Pal Gurjar, embarked on his Africa tour from October 31 that aimed at deepening India's strategic cooperation with Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi. On the first leg of his tour, the Vice President visited Botswana's capital Gabarone and inaugurated the Global Expo Botswana 2018, which saw a participation of 25 Indian companies and business houses covering a range of sectors. Naidu also met President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his deputy Slumber Tsogwane. He also interacted with the approximately 7,000-member strong Indian community in Botswana. From Bostwana, Naidu arrived Zimbabwean capital Harare on November 2. He was the the first high-ranking Indian Government official to visit the country in 21 years. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda had visited Zimbabwe in 1996. During Naidu's visit, India and Zimbabwe signed six signed agreements in the fields of mining, Information and communications technology (ICT), visa waiver, traditional medicine, broadcasting and art and culture. India also announced that it would extend a USD 310 million loan to Zimbabwe to finance a rehabilitation project for Hwange thermal power plant that would entail upgrading the station and extending its lifespan. Hwange is Zimbabwe's second biggest power plant with an installed capacity of 920 MW. Naidu also met Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Kembo Mohadi. He also addressed members of the Indian community in Zimbabwe. According to Indian Embassy in Harare, there are about 9,000 Zimbabweans of Indian origin, who are predominantly from the province of Gujarat. The expatriate Indian community in Zimbabwe is very small numbering around 500 members. Some of them are on long term business or work permits, while most are professionals engaged in IT, accountancy and banking sector. Naidu reached Malawi on Sunday in the last leg of his Africa visit. During the visit, India announced to extend a new line of credit of USD 215.16 million for 18 water projects in the landlocked African nation. The two sides also signed three MoUs on extradition, cooperation in atomic energy and visa waiver as Naidu met Malawian President Arthur Peter Mutharika in the country's capital Lilongwe. The Vice President also met the Indian community here. According to the Indian Embassy here, there are about 8,500 Malawians of Indian origin who predominantly originated from Gujarat and are concentrated in major cities like Lilongwe, Blantyre, Limbe, Zomba and Mzuzu. The number of Indian nationals (NRIs) in the African country at present is about 2,500. Most of them hail from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. They are primarily engaged in trading, agriculture and agro business, pharmaceutical and hospitality. Rajya Sabha member V Muraleedharan and Lok Sabha MP Kodikunnil Suresh were also part of the delegation accompanying Naidu. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Under fire from international regulatory bodies, including the United Nations, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday said he would uplift the suspension of Parliament within 10 days. The announcement assumes significance as ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had demanded a special session of the Parliament to be convened where he would undertake a vote of confidence. Senior Congress leader Raj Babbar has purportedly landed his party in soup in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, as he compared Maoist insurgents to "revolutionaries" while addressing the press in Raipur on Saturday. Turning his remarks into political fodder, BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday trained guns at his Congress counterpart Rahul Gandhi. Some big developments that are expected to happen today are Madhya Pradesh: Devi Singh Patel, BJP candidate from assembly constituency of Rajpur passed away due to a heart attack, early morning today. We at LatestLY will bring all the breaking and latest news and updates around the world. Stay with us for the latest updates of the day. Delhi's Mandir Marg at 707, Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium at 676 & Jawaharlal Nehru stadium at 681 under 'Hazardous' category in Air Quality Index. Petrol and diesel prices in Delhi are Rs 78.56 per litre (decrease by Rs 0.22) and Rs 73.16 per litre (decrease by Rs 0.20), respectively. Petrol and diesel prices in Mumbai are Rs 84.06 per litre (decrease by Rs 0.22) and Rs 76.67 per litre (decrease by Rs 0.21), respectively. We at LatestLY will bring all the breaking and latest news and updates around the world. Stay with us for the latest updates of the day. Saharanpur, November 5: The influential Islamic seminary Darul-Uloom Deoband on Sunday issued a fatwa (a ruling on a point of Islamic law) banning Muslim women from using nail polish. Calling use of nail paint 'un-Islamic' and 'illegal', Darul-Uloom Deoband asked Muslim women to apply Mehndi instead on their nails for cosmetic purposes. "Darul-Uloom Deoband has issued a fatwa against Muslim women using nail polish because it is un-Islamic and illegal. Rather, women should use Mehendi on their nails," Mufti Ishrar Gaura of Darul-Uloom Deoband told news agency ANI. This is not the first time when a controversial fatwa is issued by the one of leading Islamic seminary of Asia. Uttarakhand High Court Bans Fatwas After Clerics in Haridwar District 'Ask Rape Victim to Leave Village'. In July, Darul-Uloom had issued a fatwa banning waxing and shaving. It had said the practices were against the Sharia law. In another fatwa, the religious organisation had asked Muslims not to work for banks for their livelihood. It had asked Muslims not to accept a marriage proposal from the family whose member is associated with the bank. UPMC Asks Admn to Seize Properties of Those Who Issued Fatwa to Triple Talaq Victim. Saharanpur: "Darul-Uloom Deoband has issued fatwa against Muslim women using nail polish because it is un-Islamic and illegal . Rather women should use mehendi on their nails,"Mufti Ishrar Gaura, Darul-Uloom Deoband (4.11) pic.twitter.com/u6TnE8ADy7 ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) November 5, 2018 Earlier, Darul-Uloom had issued a fatwa, banning Muslims from posting pictures on social media. It also banned sharing selfies on WhatsApp and Facebook, calling it 'un-Islamic'. Founded in 1866, the institution has a significant place in Islamic history. It also played an essential role in the independence of India. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 05, 2018 10:35 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). New Delhi, November 5: A major mishap was averted on Monday after an IndiGo flight 6E 7123 operating on Rajahmundry-Chennai route developed a technical problem. According to a tweet by ANI, the incident took place during the final approach while landing at Chennai airport. Reports inform that a full emergency was declared at the Chennai airport as the aircraft did a go around and finally landed. All passengers onboard are reported to be safe. Reports informed that IndiGo said in a statement that the pilot was forced to send the distress call after the aircraft suffered a technical glitch while landing. The flight eventually landed at the airport after conducting a go around. Two IndiGo Planes Come Too Close, Narrow Escape For Passengers as Mid-Air Mishap Averted. IndiGo flight 6E 7123 operating on Rajahmundry-Chennai route developed a technical problem during the final approach while landing at Chennai airport. A full emergency was declared at Chennai airport as the aircraft did a go around and finally landed. All passengers safe. ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 In the last week, IndiGo's Kolkata-bound A320 neo plane returned to Lucknow, with initial inspection showing that the aircraft suffered bird strike, according to the airline. An IndiGo spokesperson said the aircraft that was involved in the air turn back to Lucknow airport was powered by PW1100G-JM engines. On November 1, several passengers had a narrow escape when two IndiGo planes came too close mid-air. The mishap was averted following swift action by an official at the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower in Kolkata, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) informed. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 05, 2018 03:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Agra, November 5: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Sunday issued an order banning daily namaz offered by Muslims at a mosque in Taj Mahal premises. According to the ASI order, Muslims can offer namaz at the Taj Mahal mosque only on Fridays. While the ASI cited a Supreme Court order, the management of the mosque said an 'anti-Muslim' mindset of the government at the centre and state is behind the controversial move. Until now, visitors who had bought a ticket were allowed to offer namaz at the mosque in Taj Mahal premises except on Fridays. Taj Mahal remains closed for public on Friday. However, local residents are allowed to offer namaz between noon and 2 pm without paying any entry fee. On Sunday, the ASI restrained Muslims from offering namaz at the mosque and locked the vazu tank where namazis clean themselves up before prayers. Taj Mahal Ranked 6th in World and 2nd in Asia's Top 2018 Landmarks. The ASI also asked the imam Syed Sadiq Ali and staff of the mosque to organise only the Friday prayer. Namaz can only be offered on Fridays and that, too, by local residents only," Superintending archaeologist, ASI (Agra circle), Vasant Swarankar told a newspaper, adding that the body was implementing an order of the Supreme Court. Notably, the apex court had barred non-residents from offering Friday prayers in the mosque for security purposes. Taj Mahal in Bhopal Built by Sultan Shah Jahan to Be Converted Into Heritage Hotel. Syed Ibrahim Hussain Zaidi, president of Taj Mahal Intezamia Committee, said there was no reason to ban daily prayers at the Taj Mahal mosque as it had been happening for the past many years. He said the governments at the Centre and state have an 'anti-Muslim' mindset and vowed to raise the issue with the ASI today. In January this year, the additional district magistrate of Agra passed an order which said that those who are not residents of Agra, would not be allowed to enter the mosque situated at the Taj Mahal for offering customary prayers on Fridays on the grounds of security. The order was challenged in the Supreme Court, which upheld it. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 05, 2018 08:29 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Amritsar, November 5: A Pakistani national was apprehended on Sunday by Border Security Force (BSF) at Border Out Post (BOP) Rania in Amritsar. One US made rifle, two magazines and 28 live rounds were recovered from him. In further search, the BSF also seized three packets of heroin within 100 metres of the International Border. The identity of the Pakistani national held by the BSF has not been revealed yet. On October 28, two Pakistani Nationals were arrested near the BOP Punjabs Ferozpur. The arrested Pakistani nationals belong to the Baloch Regiment of the Pakistan Army. The Pakistan army soldiers arrested near the BOP, Ferozepur are identified as Siraj Ahmed (31) and Mumtaz Khan (38). The security forces also recovered Rs 3,660, a mobile phone and a SIM card from Mumtaz and two Pakistani army ID cards, four photographs, a smartphone, and Rs 1,040 from Ahmed. Amritsar: A Pakistani national was apprehended by BSF at Border Out Post Rania yesterday. One US made rifle, 2 magazines and 28 live rounds were recovered from him. In further search, 3 packets of heroin were also recovered within 100 m of International Border. #Punjab pic.twitter.com/7tlxangKwe ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 Earlier in April, The Punjab Police's Counter-Intelligence wing arrested four men, allegedly trained by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), who were planning to highlight the Khalistan issue in IPL matches to be held in Mohali. The men were allegedly trained by an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent through social media to disturb communal harmony in the state. Recently, Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat while addressing a seminar in Delhi on 'Changing Contours of Internal Security in India: Trends and Responses' said that external linkages are trying to revive "revive separatism" in Punjab. On August 12, hundreds of people had turned out at Trafalgar Square in London in support of a pro-Khalistan rally. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 06, 2018 12:11 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Pune, November 5: In a shocking case from Pune, a 23-year-old woman has filed a police complaint alleging that she was raped on two occasions by the senior official of the company, she was working for. The victim has filed a police complaint in Bharati Vidyapeeth Police Station on November 3, reported Mirror now. The victim was working for a construction company in Katraj area of Pune. Mumbai: Man Rapes Woman He Met on Dating Site, Clicks Nude Pictures & Makes Videos of Sexual Assault. The woman had alleged that company's partner, Digambar Agawane, raped her at a gunpoint. The accused also threatened her and said, "If you tell anyone about this, I will kill your family. The victim had been working with the company for the last few days," police officials were quoted as saying. "The accused is been absconding since a police complaint has been filed against him. We are trying to nab the accused and further investigation is going on," they further added. Earlier last week, a 30-year-old autorickshaw driver was held for allegedly kidnapping and raping a teenage girl from Pune's Mahape. The incident took place on March 23 but the accused was arrested on November 4. The girl was an orphan and was living with her grandmother. After completing her SSC, the girl started working in a company at Mahape MIDC. The accused knew her office timing and reacher her office gate to take her. Later, he took her to the forest and raped her. The victim remembered auto's registration number which helped police to nab him. The accused was arrested under sections 376 (rape), 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 05, 2018 07:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Muzaffarpur, November 5: Calling Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as 'bade bhai' (elder brother), Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) president Upendra Kushwaha took a pot shot at Kumar over his DNA controversy three years back. While addressing a rally in Muzzafarpur on Sunday, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Kushwaha asked the Bihar Chief Minister to share the "status and content" of his DNA test. "During election campaign rally in Bihar, Prime Minister Modi had said about the DNA in a very different context. But Nitish Kumar took it upon himself that Modi ji questioned his DNA, and asked all JD(U) workers and people of Bihar to collect samples of nails and hair for DNA testing and send it to Delhi. We are still waiting for the report of the samples. If it has come, we want to know the report of the result," he said. BJP Ally Upendra Kushwaha Clarifies on 'Kheer Recipe' Remark, Denies Hinting at RJD-RLSP Pact. "Nitishji, you have said that you are my elder brother. If we both are from the same family then how am I from a low (caste)? I want to ask Nitishji, how can 'bada bhai' Nitish Kumar be uchch (higher caste) than his younger brother Upendra Kushwaha?" Kushwaha added. Kushwaha's DNA jibe came in the backdrop of a recent function, organised by a media house, where Kumar was asked to respond on Kushwaha's recent claim that the Kumar is unwillingness to continue as the chief minister after 2020. Kumar reportedly said, "Batchit ka star itna 'neeche' mat giraeeye (don't bring down the level of discussion so low). In Bihar assembly polls in 2015, when the Janata Dal (United) and Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) were contesting the election as coalition partners, Prime Minister Modi in his election run-up speech targeted Kumar by saying that his inability to respect others showed that there was something wrong with his DNA. Reacting to this, Nitish had said that 'it is an insult to Bihar' and decided to send samples of nail and hair of one crore people to Prime Minister Modi for DNA testing. Reversing a previous acquittal, Bahrains Court of Appeals has sentenced the countrys top opposition leader to life in jail on charges of spying for Qatar. A public prosecutors statement said the court sentenced Sheikh Ali Salman, secretary-general of the opposition al-Wefaq group, and Sheikh Hassan Sultan and Ali Alaswad, members of the same group, to life in jail for transferring confidential information and receiving financial support from Qatar. The trio was sentenced for "acts of hostility" against Bahrain and "communicating with Qatari officials... to overthrow constitutional order", the public prosecutor's statement said. The ruling comes just months after the Bahraini High Court of First Tier acquitted Salman of the charge of "colluding" with the rival state. Salman is already serving a four-year prison sentence for inciting hatred and insulting the interior ministry after he was arrested in 2015. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut off ties to Qatar last year and accused the emirate of supporting terrorist groups and of being too close to Iran - allegations Qatars emirate has vigorously denied. Human rights group Amnesty has described the decision as a "travesty of justice" amid Bahrain's "continued crackdown on dissent". "This verdict... demonstrates the Bahraini authorities' relentless and unlawful efforts to silence any form of dissent," Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director Heba Morayef said. Today, the #Bahrain-i Appeal Court overturned the acquittal of opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman and sentenced him to life in prison. Sheikh Ali Salman is a #PrisonerOfConscience held solely for peacefully exercising his right to #Freedomofexpression. https://t.co/3ntixScH6N Amnesty Bahrain (@aibahrain) November 4, 2018 "Sheikh Ali Salman is a prisoner of conscience who is being held solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression." Sima Watling, Amnesty International's campaigner on Bahrain, said that Salman had phone conversations with the foreign minister of Qatar in 2011, urging Doha to mediate in Bahrain's political crisis, and the interaction was used six years later as a proof for spying charges. "The new charges are absurd," Watling said. "It appears to be linked to the Qatar crisis and the Bahraini authorities are going forward with their crush on dissent. Any opposition or opposing voice is being crushed." Sunday's verdict comes days ahead of Bahrain's November 24 parliamentary elections. Members of dissolved opposition parties, including al-Wefaq and the secular al-Waad group, are banned from running. The Sunni-ruled Gulf state has been hit by protests since 2011 when security forces crushed Shia-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 05, 2018 08:54 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Bamenda, November 5: At least 78 school children and their principal was kidnapped by suspected Ambazonia insurgents in the troubled north-western province of Anglophone. The abduction was carried out on Sunday from a Presbyterian school in Nkwen village. The kidnappers released a video today, featuring five of the abducted children who appeal their parents to adhere to whatever the demands tabled by the militants. Preliminary probe so far indicate that the kidnappers are Ambazonia insurgents, who will be using the kidnapped students as tool of negotiation with the Paul Biya-led government. Cameroon Athletes Went Missing from Commonwealth Games. Ambazonia is the term used to refer to the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions, which have been seeking independence from the rest of French-speaking nation. Around a fifth of Cameroon's 22 million people are English-speaking -- a minority whose presence dates back to the colonial period. Cameroon, once a German colony, was divided between Britain and France after World War I. The French colony gained independence in 1960, becoming Cameroon. The following year, the British-ruled Southern Cameroons was amalgamated into it, giving rise to the Northwest and Southwest regions. But resentment at perceived discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority, especially in education and the judiciary, began to build. In 2016, demands for greater autonomy grew but met with a rebuff by Biya. As radicals took ascendancy, the anglophone movement declared the creation of the "Republic of Ambazonia" in the Northwest and neighbouring Southwest Region on October 1, 2017. The separatist movement gained momentum again after President Paul Baya, who has been leading the nation since 1982, recently won a seventh term to power. The elections, according to the United Nations, was marred with irregularities. (With agency inputs) (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 05, 2018 09:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Joint Military Drill with Pakistan and Russia Has Reinforced Ties Between Armies of the Two Countries: Gen Qamar Bajwa. (Photo Credit: Getty) Islamabad, November 5: The just-concluded joint military exercise between Pakistan and Russian armies has reinforced the existing relationship between the two militaries, according to Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Bajwa. The Pakistan and Russian armies concluded the third joint military drill on Sunday during which troops from both the countries took part in various exercises and also exchanged mutual counter-terrorism experiences. A Russian Army contingent arrived here on October 22 to take part in the third edition of a joint bilateral military training exercise, Druzhba-III. The two armies conducted various drills in the mountains in Nowshehra district of northwestern Pakistan till November 4, which was also witnessed by Gen Bajwa. "This exercise is great forum to reinforce existing relationship between the two militaries," the Pakistan Army Chief said. Gen Bajwa also visited the National Counter Terrorism Centre in Pabbi in Nowshehra. Pakistan, Russia Finalise MoU to Study Undersea Gas Pipeline Project. "The exercise focused on counter-terrorism training of the Special Operation Forces of Pakistan and Ground Forces of Russian Federation while exchanging mutual counter terrorism experiences," the Pakistan Army said, adding the Chief of Army Staff appreciated the participating troops for their dedication, skill and professionalism. Russian Deputy Head of Mission in Pakistan, Valadamir Betezyuk was also present. Pakistan and Russia are trying to bolster defence ties and in August this year they inked an agreement allowing Pakistani troops to train in Russia. The two countries have been holding the 'Friendship' drills since 2016. In October 2016, they held their first-ever joint military exercise in Pakistan. In 2017, over 200 servicemen took part in the drills, hosted by Russia at Minralney Vody in the North Caucasus at an altitude of 2,300 meters above sea level. Pakistan's defence ties with Russia have moved past the bitter Cold War hostilities in recent years and the chill in the relations between Pakistan and the US has further pushed the country towards Russia and China. Over the past three years, Russia has supplied four Mi-35M combat and cargo helicopters to Pakistan. Islamabad, November 5: Pakistan's state-run news channel has apologised after it ran "Begging" dateline instead of "Beijing" on screen during the live broadcast of Prime Minister Imran Khan's speech at the Central Party School of the ruling Communist Party of China. Khan, who is on an official trip to China to secure an economic package for his cash-strapped country, was addressing a ceremony on Sunday at the Central Party School in Beijing which was shown live by the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). Spotlight on CPEC Projects, IMF Bailout as Imran Khan All Set to Embark on Maiden China Visit. During Khan's speech, PTV had written "Begging" instead of "Beijing" in the top left corner of the screen. The word remained on screen for 20 seconds and was then changed. Watch Video of Pakistan State-Run News Channel Accidently Writing 'Begging' During Imran Khan's Speech: "Today, during a live address of the Prime Minister during his ongoing visit to China, a typographical error took place, which remained on screen for 20 seconds & later removed. This incident is regrettable. Strict action has been initiated under rules against concerned officials," the official twitter handle of PTV News tweeted. According to the local media, the gaffe has become particularly ironic since Khan is in China to secure a package from Beijing to try and stall the impending economic crisis Pakistan is facing. Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry has ordered an inquiry into the widely criticised dateline slug displayed by the PTV, The News reported. The PTV's gaffe came under criticism on social media with screenshots shared with #begging becoming a top trend on Twitter in Pakistan. During his visit, Prime Minister Khan held talks with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang mainly focussing on seeking China's loans to tide over serious financial crisis faced by Pakistan. China while stating that it would extend necessary support to Pakistan reportedly committed USD six billion funding but did not so far officially confirmed it. Damascus, November 5: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has discussed the formation of the constitutional committee with the visiting Russian President's Special Envoy on Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev. Lavrentiev's visit came days after Russia, Turkey, Germany, and France held a summit in Turkey's Istanbul to discuss the formation of the committee. The media office of the Syrian presidency on Sunday said that Assad met Lavrentiev and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin in Damascus, during which the Russian guests put Assad in the picture of the development at the quartet summit that took place on October 27, Xinhua reported. The Russian envoy also discussed with Assad efforts exerted by Moscow with regional and international parties to remove the obstacles to progress on finding a political solution for Syria. According to the report, both sides agreed to continue joint work to remove all the obstacles facing the formation of the constitutional committee. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hopes that by the end of 2018, Syria's constitutional committee will start functioning. The constitutional committee is expected to include 150 members, equally divided into three groups, one chosen by the government, the second by the opposition and the third by UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. Over 1,500 Bodies Found in Syria Mass Grave. The formation of the constitutional committee was agreed upon during inter-Syrian talks in Russia's Sochi this January that were brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey. In his recent remarks, Putin said that "now we need to agree on the third part with the participation of public organizations and representatives of various public bodies." He also noted that the work was not easy as each side would be striving to "fill this part with those people who they trust". (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 05, 2018 09:56 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). | BY Lynchy | The results of the London International Awards judging, that took place early last month in Las Vegas, have been released and Japanese agencies lead Asias performance claiming 23 of the 88 statues awarded to Asia. Japan won 6 Gold, 9 Silver and 8 Bronze. 4 Gold statues were awarded to Dentsu Inc Tokyo and 2 to TBWA\Hakuhodo Tokyo. Japans statue winners were: Beacon/Leo Burnett Tokyo, Tokyo Silver Verbal Identity Naming for Bacon Potato Pie titled Hahon Hohaho Hie Dentsu Inc., Tokyo Gold Design Art Direction Campaign for Kabuki: Art & Artifacts exhibition in Kyoto Eating Kabuki with Your Fingers Campaign Gold Design Poster Campaign for Kabuki: Art & Artifacts exhibition in Kyoto. Eating Kabuki with Your Fingers Campaign Gold Design Use of Illustration Campaign for Kyoto Tango Railway titled Mistery Train Poster, Mistery Train A Dragon, Mistery Train An Ogre, Mistery Train Picture Book Gold Music & Sound Music Adaptation Instrumental for Technics/ SL-1200 titled The Philharmonic Turntable Orchestra Silver Design Art Direction Campaign for 3rd_PAGE Only for Aesthetic Eyes Campaign titled The Screw, The Doorknob, The Gear Silver Design Brochures/Catalogues Consumer Campaign for 3rd_PAGE Only for Aesthetic Eyes Campaign titled The Screw, The Doorknob, The Gear Silver Design Brochures/Catalogues Consumer Campaign for Heartland Beer titled Art Book, Catalogue of Exhibition, Posters, Shoppers, Gift Box Silver Design Client Promotion for Kobe newspaper titled Since 1995 Silver Design Use of Photography Campaign for Tohoku Shinkansen titled Get Back, Tohoku Campaign Silver Print Art Direction for Kobe Newspaper titled Since 1995 Bronze Design Poster Campaign for SDGs Japan titled Beginnings Dont Happen. We Create Them., Differences Multiply Possibilities., Good Things Come To Those Who Change., Whats Rejected Today, Might Be Praised Tomorrow., One Plus One. Bronze Design Use of Photography Campaign for JINS Time Slip Glasses titled Optical Odyssey 1930s, Optical Odyssey 1950s, Optical Odyssey 1980s Bronze Digital Branded Content for Technics/ SL-1200 titled The Philharmonic Turntable Orchestra Bronze Digital Music/Sound Design for Technics/ SL-1200 titled The Philharmonic Turntable Orchestra HAKUHODO Kettle, Tokyo Silver Digital Branded Content for Y!mobile titled 720 Hours of Youth Silver Digital Use of Social Media for Y!mobile titled 720 Hours of Youth PYRAMID FILM INC., Tokyo Bronze Design Product Development for Plarail titled Craft Train R/GA, Tokyo Bronze Digital Retail for MUJI titled Tokyo Pen Pixel TBWA\HAKUHODO Inc., Tokyo Gold Design Product Design for AIG Japan CSR titled Pride Jersey Gold Integration Business-to-Consumer for AIG Japan CSR titled Pride Jersey Bronze Design Innovative Use of Design for AIG Japan CSR titled Pride Jersey Bronze Digital Weird Wonderful Work for ProPILOT titled ProPILOT Hotel This year, twelve GRAND LIAs for the best of categories were awarded see all of them here. The following companies were honored with the 2018 Global Of The Year Awards: Global Network of the Year: McCann Worldgroup Global Agency of the Year: BBDO New York Global Independent Agency of the Year: Jung von Matt, Hamburg Global Health & Wellness and Medical Network of the Year: FCB Health Global Production Company of the Year: MJZ Global Post-Production Company of the Year: The Mill Global Music & Sound Company of the Year: Rumble Studios, Sydney The following companies were honored with the 2018 Regional Of The Year Awards for Asia: Regional Network of the Year for Asia: Dentsu Regional Agency of the Year for Asia: Dentsu Inc., Tokyo Regional Production Company of the Year for Asia: Illusion, Bangkok DOWNLOAD ALL THE WINNERS HERE: 2018LIA_WinnersList.xls View all the Winners and Finalists with media and full creative credits. | BY Lynchy | Reprise Malaysia and IPG Mediabrands have once again presented a quirky, yet charming short film for Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), this time to celebrate Deepavali, the Festival of Lights. Kurumbu Kudumbam is a light-hearted film that is based on the Indian cultural tradition of Thalai Deepavali, which is the first Deepavali celebrated by an Indian couple after their marriage, in the brides family home. The film follows a young groom Ramesh as he is left feeling slightly bewildered by strange behaviour on the part of his in-laws. However, a surprising reveal at the end makes for a heart-warming moment as Ramesh expresses his gratitude for the greatest gift received that being his cheeky new family, or Kurumbu Kudumbam. Stanley Clement, Managing Director of Reprise said, Thalai Deepavali is something that is practiced, but isnt known widely, even amongst Indians. We wanted to take the opportunity to highlight this practice as it demonstrates values of family ties and acceptance, and digging deeper, helps us see that we have lots more similarities than differences between cultures. It is these similarities that give us a better sense of connection and togetherness, and allows us to forge deeper understanding amongst each other as Malaysians. As a keen proponent of nation building, TNB believes we all have a responsibility to foster unity, so the central theme of togetherness is shown in all three films. Viewers will also love the fact that beloved characters from before have little cameos, added Clement. Fans of Jero the cat who originated from TNBs 2017 Raya film Dugaan Aida have been happy to see Jero in this years Raya film, and once again for Deepavali. Credits Executive Creative Director: Kevin Le Creative Director: Sharin Shahimi, Im Im Cheah Film Director: Quek Shio Chuan Creative team: Lawrence Loh, John Kanapran, Thanendran Thanesvaran, Vikram Raja, Uncle Raja, Ashini Thankarajo Agency Producer: Denis Gonsalvez Client Service Director: Adrian Cheah Account Manager: Nicole Lee Production team: Ryan Khoo, Elle Chang The gorgeous actress Yvonne Nelson is the pride of Ghana. She has so many talents which she has proven over the years. Fans are still unable to get over her classic movies, so they watch them again and again. This lady is not just beautiful she is intelligent, brave, and more. Read this Yvonne Nelson biography and learn new things about this classy actress! Yvonne looking dashing in orange. Photo: yvonnenelsongh Source: Instagram What made Yvonne so famous? Maybe it is her endless charm, or her ability to stay professional in every situation, or her multi-faceted acting talents. The fact remains that she is a household name when it comes to Ghanaian movies, and so many admirers want to know more about her early life and the establishment of her career. Read this biography of Yvonne Nelson and find out how it all started for this phenomenal woman. Profile summary Date of birth: November 12, 1985 November 12, 1985 Birthplace: Accra, Ghana Accra, Ghana Yvonne Nelson age: 35 years old (as of 2020) 35 years old (as of 2020) Birth sign: Scorpio Scorpio Parents: O. Nelson and Margaret Gaddy Yvonne Nelson's early years and family Yvonne was born in the city of Accra, even though she originates from Cape Coast. Her birthday is on November 12th, 1985. She is the last sibling out of four. The first school she attended was St.Martin De Porres School, which is in Accra, and later, she proceeded to study at the Aggrey Memorial Senior High School. She then studied Human Resource Management at the Central University College. The actress recently graduated with a Masters Degree in International Relations and Diplomacy. Yvonne and her siblings were raised by a single mother. Their father abandoned the family when she was still a little girl, and since then, all the responsibility was on the shoulders of her mother. She even congratulates her mom on Fathers Day on social media, emphasizing on how she had to fulfill the role of both parents at once. As Yvonne remembers, she was always into music, and at the beginning, she did not have any interest in acting. Unlike many other actors, she did not dream of starring in movies. Back in her university days, she used to perform rap songs on stage, and overall, she was really into music and singing. However, she now says that she is not surprised at all that she chose the acting career, just because it is a huge part of show business, and it got her in the spotlight. Career Before becoming a popular actress, Nelson used to be a beauty pageant queen. She started participating in beauty contests when she was in high school. After a few long years of mastering her talents and getting ready, she got a chance to take part in the Aggrey Memorial High School beauty pageant, and she succeeded in winning the Miss Aggrey title. Yvonne in workout gear. Photo: yvonnenelsongh Source: Instagram Afterwards, she decided to aim for bigger chances and became a participant of Miss Ghana beauty pageant in 2005. She did not win, but she got a special recognition award- Best Talent - because she performed the best original rap song, which touched on the topic of HIV/AIDS. The actress also managed to win the Miss Photogenic title as well as a few other awards. After she received the much-needed exposure from the Miss Ghana beauty pageant, she quickly started gaining popularity. She even won a two-year-contract with Maxim Cosmetics. However, the most valuable prize she got for participating in the Ghanaian beauty pageant was a role in the TV series called Fortune Island. This was the TV production that brought Nelson to the limelight and earned her the initial fame she needed to kick off her acting career. Even though Fortune Island did not last long, the series became the actress' stepping stone into mainstream acting and exposed her natural talent to big movie producers. Her real fame began when she began her work with Venus Films. This production house is one of the best known in West Africa, and it has worked with many celebrities. In order to pursue her career and follow her dreams, Yvonne even decided to drop out of the university. The first major production that Yvonne took part in was called The Return of Beyonce, where she starred alongside such Ghanaian movie giants as Nadia Buari, Van Vicker, and Jackie Appiah. According to Yvonne, she was not even going to audition for big movie productions. She got her first big role completely accidentally, without even planning it. As she remembered, she went to have lunch at her favourite place, and the audition for the movie was going on there at the same time. The young beauty was spotted by the producer of the movie, who asked her if she was there to audition for the role. Yvonne said that she did not want to audition, but the producer asked her if she was certain. Even though Yvonne rejected the proposition, the producer later got her number and gave her a call, asking her to come. The actress thought that it would not hurt if she went, and once she got the role, she never had any regrets about it. Her first lead role was in Princess Tyra in 2007. This movie brought her to the public eye and made film producers realize that she is a talented actress. Her next great production was called Playboy, and it came out in 2008. As she appeared in many new movies, she became a more recognizable name in Ghana. But she did not stop on Ghallywood she thought that she had to expand her horizons to become a superstar. She became the first actress from Ghana to act in Ivory Coast movies. This happened when the Ghanaian movie industry collaborated with Nigeria and Ivory Coast. Later, she also moved to Nollywood, where she appeared in her first production with the famous actress Genevieve Nnaji. Yvonne Nelson movies The actress has been featured in many movie productions. Some of the most popular movies which include her appearance are: Deadly Passion Desperate to Live The Queens Pride Yvonnes Tears Blood is Thick One Night in Vegas The Mistresses Deadly Plot, and many, many others. For all of her movies, she has won plenty of Best Actress, Favourite Actress, and Hottest Actress awards, as well as Best Picture awards at various Nigerian and Ghanaian award ceremonies. Her outstanding talent has been recognized and acknowledged by the academy and the fans. The actress usually plays the role of the bad girl in movies she is really great at portraying negative characters. However, in real life, she is very far from this archetype. The actress has admitted that she does not smoke or drink, and in general, she is nothing like her characters in movies. She has said that people have to understand that she is an actress, which means that she receives scripts and acts them on screen in a certain way. The actress considers herself a professional and says that she does not turn down scripts just because in real life people put unrealistic expectations on her. She also enjoys doing all the romantic scenes that movies require but notes that she would not go any further than kissing. Producing movies Apart from being an actress, she is also a successful movie producer. She first decided to try her hand at producing films in 2011. The first movie she produced was called The Price, and it was released in 2011. Afterwards, she produced such movies as Single and Married (2012) and House of Gold (2013). Businesses Apart from acting and producing, the star is a well-known and hardworking businesswoman. She opened a fashion store named YNs Closet, where all the most fashionable designer clothes are shipped from all over the world. She also has a production company, YN Productions. Philanthropy and activism The actress is very big on charity and fighting for human rights. In 2010, she launched a foundation called Yvonne Nelson Glaucoma Foundation, the purpose of which was educating people on the eye ailment and its harmful effects. The main inspiration for this was her family members death from glaucoma. Nelson is very aware of how this disease can affect people and knows that it is hereditary, which means that everyone can inherit it from their family members. Unfortunately, Yvonne Nelson Glaucoma Foundation was quickly forced to shut down, because it met unexpected financial challenges. Besides that, she was also one of the celebrities who protested against the energy crisis in Ghana. She took part in the peaceful protest, which took place on May 16th, 2015. The official hashtag of this protest was #DumsorMustStop, which was used to describe the concerns of Ghanaian people about the energy crisis in the country. Nelson and a few other celebrities decided to drive more attention to this problem and challenge the government for the quickest solution. Nelson is one of the it-girls of the Ghanaian movie industry, being a popular actress and the idol of many people. Even though she has taken breaks from acting, she has never stopped being incredibly popular Many people are not only watching her movies and admiring her on-screen but also discussing her private life. And there is really a lot to discuss. Now, that you have learned everything about her career, checkout what she's like off-screen. Yvonne Nelson taking a selfie. Photo: yvonnenelsongh Source: Instagram Who is Yvonne Nelson husband? This actress does not disclose a lot of information about herself. This only fuels all the gossips about her. Once, there were rumours about her dating the famous actor Chris Attoh because there were pictures leaked from their supposed wedding. However, this Yvonne Nelson and Chris Attoh wedding was only for a movie that they both starred in, and it was confirmed that they have never been in a relationship, especially taking into account that fact that Chris had a wife. In 2017, the Ghanaian movie industry was caught by surprise when the public found out that Yvonne was pregnant. The actress had always said that she wanted to have a child. She also displayed an opinion that it was not necessary to be in a relationship to have a child, and that every woman is capable of raising her baby without help. There were different assumptions about her pregnancy because the actress never gave any hints about the identity of her baby daddy. The media found out his name anyway a British photographer who goes by the name Jamie Roberts was revealed to be the father of Yvonne's baby. Fans were happy that Yvonne had finally found someone special, and could not wait for their marriage. However, not everything was so smooth. It turned out that Jamie was supposedly married to another woman! There was a lot of proof that he was in a relationship with a Nigerian lady named Keela Harrison, and that he even had children with her. Still, Ghanas favourite actress did not pay any attention to the rumours and was posting a lot of photos with Jamie, indicating that they were in love. The union between the British photographer and Ghanaian actress did not last long, even with the arrival of their child, Ryn Roberts. Even though the start of their relationship was very promising, they could not work out the differences between each other. Nelson deleted all the romantic photos of herself and Jamie from her Instagram, and they both unfollowed each other. The actress, however, said that she and her baby father were still on good terms, but it is clear that they are not a couple anymore. Yvonne Nelson taking a selfie for her IG. Photo: yvonnenelsongh Source: Instagram Yvonne Nelson child Yvonne Nelson baby is a little girl, Ryn Roberts, who was born on October 29th, 2017. The actress was on cloud nine when she first held her baby. She even revealed that she would never forget the experience. For her baby's first birthday, the actress decided to throw her a huge party with all the most famous celebrities coming to visit, such as John Dumelo, Prince David Osei, Sammy Forson, and Yvonne Okoro. Jamie Roberts, the father of Ryn, was also present, and Yvonne was friendly with him. Even the former president of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufour, had a chance to play with little Ryn and spend time with her. The birth of her little daughter truly changed Nelsons life. She always speaks very highly of her girl and promises that she would always protect her, no matter what. She also believes that she will be able to raise her even if she does not have a husband by her side. Yvonne always encourages women to have children whenever they want, and not be afraid of public opinion. She faced a lot of criticism for having a baby out of wedlock since it goes against African traditions, but she says that she never lets negativity get too close to her heart, and all that matters to her is for her little daughter to be healthy and happy. This was the fascinating biography of one of the most famous and acknowledged Ghanaian actresses, Yvonne Nelson. This actress is truly one of a kind. She is a bold woman who is confident about what she wants and is never afraid to speak up her opinions. We hope that her story was an inspiring one and that you enjoyed it. READ ALSO: Regina Daniels: Nigerian actress biography Legit.ng recently reported about the life of Regina Daniels, a Nigerian actress well known for her roles in Broken Chakkels, Hand of Fate 2, and Brave Mind. The actress, who is just 20-years-old (as of 2020), is one of the biggest icons in the Nigerian entertainment industry. At just 20 years old, Regina Daniels has managed to become one of the biggest and most popular actresses, not only in Nigeria but also all over the world. Source: Legit Newspaper - NNPC has spoken about Nigeria's organised labour unions proposed strike - It explained that the strike wont cause fuel scarcity in Nigeria - The corporation it currently has 39 days petroleum products sufficiency The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said it currently has 39 days petroleum products sufficiency and about 25 days products availability on land, stressing that motorists and other consumers of petroleum products are assured of adequate stock to meet their energy needs. Vanguard reports that the corporation that disclosed this in Abuja on Sunday, November 4, while reaction to the threat of strike action by the Nigerian Labour Congress advised motorists not to engage in panic. This is contained in a statement by the group general manager, group public affairs of the NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, said the corporation would do all it could to ensure the strike action, if embarked upon, does not impact negatively on fuel distribution nationwide. READ ALSO: Senator Sani warns WAEC over President Buharis certificate Ughamadu advised Nigerians to remain vigilant and volunteer information to the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, or to any law enforcement agency around them, on any station that attempts to take advantage of any prevailing situation in the country at the expense of the consumers. In the downstream sector, the NNPC report revealed that the corporation continued to ensure increased PMS supply and distribution across the country to sustain seamless distribution of petroleum products and zero fuel queue across the nation. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda The NNPC added that a total of 230.35 billion Cubic Feet, BCF, of natural gas was produced in the country in July 2018, averaging a daily production of 7.678 billion Standard Cubic Feet, SCFD. According to the NNPC, the sum represents 8.81 per cent increase compared to the previous month of June 2018. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the organised labour said there was no going back on the November 6 proposed strike over non-implementation of N30,000 minimum wage. The three labour centres, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress of Nigeria ( TUC) and the United Labour Congress ( ULC) confirmed this after a meeting of their joint central working committee in Lagos. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Recall that the Nigeria Governors Forum on October 30 announced that states would only pay N22,500 minimum wage. The organised labour in reaction called for the implementation of the tripartite committee report concluded on October d 5 or it would go on a nationwide strike. Minimum Wage: Is N30,000 Too Much for FG to Pay Workers? - on Legit TV: NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We keep evolving to serve our readers better. Source: Legit.ng - Some displaced persons attacked aide workers in Niger state - The IDPs smashed the vehicles of these non governmental organisation officials - It was gathered that the mob was not unconnected with the trauma the IDPs are going through Aggrieved youths at Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Muye, Lapai local government area of Niger state on Sunday, November 5, attacked officials of ActionAid Nigeria in the community after distributing relief materials to recent flood victims there. A witness who pleaded anonymity, said though none of the officials was injured, a Hillux van with registration number Abuja BD826KWL belonging to ActionAid had its windscreen smashed. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there are about 10,000 families in six IDPs camps in Niger state. A total of 2,160 households will benefit from the assistance, out of which 1,850 will receive material supports and 310 household in hard-to-reach communities will get N30,000 each from the ActionAid. READ ALSO: Former Police chief Tsav writes letter to Buratai over killed Army General The IDPs and camps arose as a result of the last floods which sacked the people from their ancestral homes." Anicetus Atakpu, programme manager, told newsmen in Minna that the mob was not unconnected with the trauma at the camp the IDPs are going through. We are not disturbed, we always expect this kind of thing. The irate youths in IDPs were disappointed that only women were selected to be given relief materials by the ActionAid, whereas all of them were affected by the flood. The youths expressed their disappointment at the beginning of the distribution of the relief materials but we told them the segment of the intervention was primarily for women. They waited for us to finish the exercise and as we were leaving, they started throwing stones and other objects at us. Some of us were hit but the real damage was to the windscreen of the vehicles in which we traveled to the IDP camp, we had to run for our lives, he said. READ ALSO: Hope for APC as Buhari meets 3 south west governors overs party crisis He, however, assured the youths at the camp that the organisation would very soon implement another programme for them, saying that the proposed scheme would target how they would be gainfully employed. Atakpu pleaded with the federal and state governments to improve the standard of infrastructure, especially roads in the rural areas of the state because they served as hindrance in the discharge of their assignments. NAN reports that ActionAid Nigeria has distributed rice, semovita and blanket worth N18 million to flood survivors in four IDP camps in the state. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that some displaced persons from Fufore and Malkohi camps in Adamawa staged peaceful protests over lack of food in their camps. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read best news on Nigerias #1 news app The IDPs, mostly women and children, on Wednesday, March 7, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in their plight. Adamawa has only two designated camps managed by NEMA and they are situated at Fufore and Malkohi villages with a total number of about 3,000 IDPs. Survivors of Boko Haram - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Nigeria - A 15-year-old boy identified as Ernest has reportedly defiled a 4-year-old girl in Ebonyi state - Reports reveal that the young girl was entrusted in the hands of Ernest who she revealed inserted his genital in her while no one was around - The victim, Jennifer Iteze, was taken to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development by her father after a physician affirmed that she had been abused - Ernest who is said to be child of a co-tenant was, however, released because there was no N4,000 available to open a case file Reports reaching Legit.ng reveal that a 15-year-old boy identified as Ernest has defiled a 4-year-old girl in Ebonyi state. The culprit was said to have been kept in charge of safe-keeping the victim, Jennifer Iteze and her siblings while her parents left to their different places of work. It was during his watch that he allegedly abused Jennifer who reported to her father that the 15-year-old had inserted his genital in her and she was feeling several pains as she tried urinating. Her dad, Sunday Iteze immediately rushed to see a physician at Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki who confirmed that she had been abused. Accompanied by the physician, the case was reported to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development who raised the alarm on the growing case of abuse in the state. READ ALSO: A plastic generation: Women and fake bodies by Seun Durojaiye (Opinion) 15-year-old boy allegedly freed after defiling 4-year-old girl Source: UGC The victim's father, Sunday revealed that the case was reported to the police who later referred the matter to the Family Law Centre, Abakaliki. He, however, regretted that the culprit was eventually released because his wife was not able to pay the sum of N4,000, which according to those there, was to be used for opening the case file. Recall that a 13-year-old girl identified as Ochanya Ogbanje suffered a worst fate after being constantly abused by her uncle and his son for five years. Ochanya died as a result of complications from Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) caused by the constant abuse since she was eight. Her burial was held November 2 in her home town, Ogene Amejo Okpokwu local government area of Benue state. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app Women march against gender-based violence on Legit TV: Source: Legit - The US ambassador to Nigeria, William Symington, said Nigerias greatest resource is her youths - Symington said the country is respected by the world because of her youths, not oil - He, thus, advised the youths to take learning seriously, stressing that they are the one to develop the country The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, William Symington, has said that contrary to the general assumptions, the countrys greatest resources are the youths and not petroleum. Symington said this on Sunday, November 4, during his visit to Makoko community, The Punch reports. Addressing some of the pupils of Adekunle Anglican Primary School, Makoko, Symington said: If you have oil and you dont have people, you have nothing. The most important resources of Nigeria are her youths. The reason the world cares about Nigeria is because of the youths of the country, he said. READ ALSO: APC reconciliation: Buhari meets 3 APC southwest governors The US ambassador urged the pupils to be selfless in their quest to learn, stressing that what they learn would be used to develop the country. He said: You are not just learning for yourself; you are learning for all of us. One of you will discover a cure for a disease. Another person will find a way to encourage farmers and herders to live in peace. One of you will take a picture and that picture would be worth more than a million words. Some of you will become great authors and you will take people to places where they have never been. Symington also commended the leaders of the community for allowing their children to attend school, saying that Nigeria would benefit in the long run if every citizen could read and write. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a former minister of aviation and lawmaker representing Anambra North in the upper chamber, Senator Stella Oduah, disagreed with the saying that youths are the leaders of tomorrow. Oduah stated that the youths are leaders of today. According to her, all the youths need is the necessary support and enabling environment. The former minister, who said this at a youth convention in Anambra, said the youths can reach their full potential if they are productively enabled. She said: They say that the youths are the leaders of tomorrow but I believe the contrary. I believe that youths are leaders of today. All they need is the necessary support and enabling environment. Also, the youths can reach their full potential if they are productively enabled. This is one of the underscoring points of my action for what I call Fundamental Human Capital Development." NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better How Nigerian youths protest made the National Assembly pass the 'Not Too Young To Run' bill Legit TV Source: Legit - Senator Shehu Sani says Dr Bukola Saraki could not be removed as Senate president because it was not constitutionally possible - He said it is technically impossible to remove Saraki because the APC does not have two thirds majority in the National Assembly - Sani also opined that the PDP senators are more united and more formidable in their resolve to keep the Senate president than the APC are, in their plot to remove him (Saraki) Senator Shehu Sani has disclosed that senators were unable to remove Dr Bukola Saraki from his position as Senate president because it was constitutionally impossible. He made the disclosure in a chat with newsmen on Sunday, November 4, Premium Times reports. Legit.ng gathers that Sani, who defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), said the ruling party did not have the number of lawmakers required (two-third majority) to carry out its plan. After Saraki defected from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling party and its national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, had called for his resignation or forceful removal. READ ALSO: APC reconciliation: Buhari meets 3 APC south west governors The Senate president, however, vowed not to step down; stating that he enjoyed the support of majority of the senators. When the upper legislative chamber finally resumed from a 10-week recess, APC senators eventually abandoned their plans to remove Saraki. Explaining why, Sani stated: It is technically impossible to remove Saraki because the APC does not have two thirds majority in the National Assembly. Secondly, Saraki has been able to carry everybody along and provide a leadership to the extent that he is able to accommodate those who are critical of him. I can tell that APC backed out from the plot to remove Saraki because they dont have the number to do that and it is impossible to do that through constitutional means. According to Sani, the PDP, where Mr Saraki now belongs to, is more united than the ruling APC senators in the National Assembly. He continued: The opposition are more united and more formidable in their resolve to keep the Senate president than the ruling party in their plot to remove the Senate president. So, I can tell you that removing Saraki through constitutional means is very much impossible because the APC is not united to do that. The APC is not having the number to do that and the APC does not have the kind of support it needs to be able to carry out the plot. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported how Dr Bukola Saraki who has remained actively in politics, plans to retain his position as Senate president. A close aide to the Senate president said although it was not clear which party between the ruling and the opposition controlled majority of lawmakers in the Senate, the 1999 Constitution (as amended) does not prevent anyone from a minority to lead the upper chamber. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: We have updated to serve you better! Here's what Saraki and Tambuwal's defection means for the APC? - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit - Chinese companies are said to be forcing African-owned firms out of market due to unfair competition - Ebrima Faal, senior director of African Development Bank, said with access to capital and better technology, the Chinese firm have gained market power and dominance - He says Chinese firms operate across many sectors of the African economy The senior director of African Development Bank (AfDB), Ebrima Faal, has said African-owned firms are forced out of the market due to unfair competition from Chinese companies. Vanguard reports that Faal made this disclosure during the weekend at the African Economic Merit Awards (EAMA) World Plaque and Award Nominees unveiling ceremony in Abuja. Legit.ng gathers that the senior director stated that 31 percent of Chinese firms in Africa are involved in manufacturing, 25 percent in services, 22 percent in trade and 15 percent in construction and real estate. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Faal, who was represented by AfDBs regional procurement coordinator, Baba Abdullahi, said: Chinese firms operate across many sectors of the African economy. With the freedom to operate in all sectors and with access to capital and better technology, the Chinese firm have gained market power and dominance in recent times. As such, many African-owned firms are forced to drop out of the market due to competition. This has forced several African firms to close down. There are growing concerns that lending rather investments dominates Chinas relations with Africa. With the downturn in commodity prices, some countries that borrowed heavily from China have turned to the IMF (Angola and Ghana, for example). Others have suspended, failed to draw down, or cancelled their credit lines from Chinese banks (Niger, Ghana, and Chad). At the September 2018 FOFAC Summit, China pledged US$60 billion in loans, aid and investment. This amount was the same as that pledged in 2015, which was three times the figure announced in 2012. The latest financing brought the total support to Africa countries to US$120 billion in three years. There have also been additional concerns that most of the project financing has focused on transportation and energy, and Chinese state-owned enterprises have been key actors behind such projects. Among Chinas large scale projects in Africa for 2015 and 2016 especially those requiring more than $1 billion, about 13- 15 of such deals were initiated by China State-owned enterprises rather than private firms. Critics also argue that Chinas investment in Africa is mainly resource seeking rather than transformational. There are concerns that announced mergers and acquisitions by China in Africa were less than $1billion, below Chinese merger and acquisition deals in Latin America known to be well over $10billion." PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Faal, however, said the few China merger and acquisition deals in Africa are in energy and infrastructure sectors only, which suggests that Chinese corporates are not interested in acquiring companies in Africa. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the federal government through the Debt Management Office (DMO) explained that Nigeria borrowed from China in order to take advantage of a cheaper source of finance. The DMO in a statement sent on Tuesday, September 11, stated that the government also took loans from China in order to diversify the sources of borrowed funds. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better What does Nigeria need right now? (Nigerian Street Interview) | Legit TV Source: Legit - Paul Arkwright, the outgoing British high commissioner to Nigeria, has cautioned Nigerians seeking visas to the UK, to avoid presenting forged documents - He said British officials know when a document is forged; and that the action attracts an automatic 10-year ban - Arkwright further advised those seeking visas to apply in good time and also ensure they had the required documents ready The outgoing British high commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright, has cautioned Nigerians seeking visas to the UK to avoid presenting forged documents. Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, Arkwright warned that anyone caught flouting the rule would be denied entry into the UK for at least 10 years. Legit.ng gathers that he said: I know there is a feeling in Nigeria that we refuse visas more often than we accept them. That is not the case. We are not trying to keep Nigerians out but it is important Nigerians stick to the rules when they are there, in the same way that you in Nigeria would expect British people to obey the rules here. READ ALSO: Why APC senators could not overthrow Saraki - Shehu Sani Sadly, there are a few Nigerians who provide forged documents. We know when a document is forged; and that is an automatic 10-year ban. According to the envoy, Nigerians are welcome in the UK, as some Nigerians living there are making very serious contributions to the British economy and other sectors. He said that the British High Commission received about 80,000 visa applications annually, adding that about 70% of those applications were successful. He said that 90% of visa applications were from students wanting to study in the UK. Arkwright further advised those seeking visas to apply in good time and also ensure they had the required documents ready. He stressed that it was important for an applicant to have sufficient funds in their bank accounts which should have been in the account for a minimum of 28 days. The British high commissioner noted that the visa application was an online process and the High Commission was working hard to streamline the process. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Lagos state, expressed concern over the increasing number of Nigerians allegedly involved in using fake documents to seek for Italian visas. Spokesman of the unit, ASP Lawal Audu, noted that before now, Canada used to complain of such high numbers of fake documents; adding that attention had now shifted to Italy. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: We have updated to serve you better! Which country would you leave Nigeria for? - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit - The Oba of Benin is set to visit Abuja ahead of Prince Charles's arrival - The first class monarch, Omo NOba Ewuare 11, would engage the UK prince on the stolen Benin artefacts - It was gathered that the monarch would be in Abuja on the request of the visiting Prince Charles The Benin monarch, Omo NOba Ewuare 11, has arrived in Abuja ahead of Prince Charles visit to Nigeria. Oba Ewuare, who is visiting the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) a second time since he ascended the throne, was received at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport by elated sons and daughters from Edo state. In an interview with a lawmaker, Johnson Agbonayinma, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), gathered that the monarch was in Abuja on the invitation of the British High Commission (BHC). Legit.ng notes that the lawmaker also expressed belief that during discussions, the Oba will throw up the issue of stolen Benin artefacts. READ ALSO: APC reconciliation: Buhari meets 3 APC south west governors He said: The Omo Noba NEdo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare 11, is here on a visit as he has been invited by the British High Commission for the fact that Prince Charles is coming to Nigeria. They found our Oba worthy and Prince Charles requested that he should be invited to have a private discussion with our monarch. Dont forget that our monarch is one of the oldest monarchs in Africa and Oba Ewuare 11 is doing everything possible to bring dividends of democracy to empower the youth, the women and the men. So that Nigeria can be safe not only about security but also about our tradition and our culture among others. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda I know personally that our Oba will also discuss the issue of those artefacts that were stolen long ago. We deserve to have them back. I believe the Oba will do the needful by projecting the Edo Kingdom and Nigeria in general." Also Senator Mathew Urhoghide told NAN that the Oba was on an official engagement as he was one of the few traditional rulers to meet with Prince Charles. NAN reports that Prince Charles, his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, have begun African tour and one of the countries to visit is Nigeria. Britains Prince Charles and his wife Camilla landed on October 31 in the Gambia for the first leg of a week-long African tour aimed at strengthening ties with Commonwealth nations. The Prince of Wales, heir to the throne, took over as head of the 53-member Commonwealth of Nations (CoN) in April 2018, succeeding his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. He and Camilla are later expected to visit Ghana before ending their trip in Nigeria on November 6 to 8. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news update Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright, announced in Abuja on Sunday, November 4, that Prince Charles would engage in peace-building activities, including addressing the persistent attacks of herdsmen on farming communities in Nigeria. The Prince of Wales and his wife, Princess Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall are expected in Nigeria from November 6 to November 8 in a high profile visit during which the royals would also have audience with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) upgrades to Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better Election 2019: President Buhari Proves He is Fit to Run in 2019 | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Ever since Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi welcomed his new bride into the palace, social media have been buzzing about the latest couple. Instagram users have shared all sorts of pictures of Prophet Naomi Oluwaseyi as many passed good comments about the queen. Ooni of Ife and Queen Naomi were recently spotted at an event together in Lagos. The couple made their first appearance at the West Africas 1st International Art Fair which took place at Civic Center, Victoria Island. Sharing pictures of the event on Instagram was @artxlagos. In the picture, Ooni of Ife and Olori Naomi Oluwaseyi were seen standing with the CEO of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe, the Lagos state governorship aspirant, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and others. READ ALSO: Alaafin of Oyos wife summons man who reportedly abused secondary school student to the palace The picture was captioned: From L-R: Atedo Peterside, Tokini Peterside, The Ooni of Ife, the Olori of Ife, Herbert Wigwe CEO of Access Bank, and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in front of Enwonwus iconic painting, Tutu 1974, made available by our Gold Sponsor Access Bank (@myaccessbank). The public display of Tutu at #ARTXLagos2018 marks a hugely significant moment in Nigerias art history, as the painting makes its first public display in Nigeria since 1975, when it was last shown in Lagos. With the Ooni of Ife as the fairs guest of honour, connecting with the rediscovered artwork of his kinsman, the public display of Tutu carried even greater cultural and historical significance. This moment will certainly remain a landmark moment in Nigerian history and art history worldwide. Tutu is at the fair for one more day only. Come by The Civic Centre, Victoria Island, to view this historical painting. Tickets for today are no longer available online but limited tickets will be available at the fair. See posts below: PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group Legit.ng earlier reported that Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi on Thursday, October 18, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi showed off pictures of Shilekunola Moronke Naomi and introduced her as his new bride. Beautiful couple! Omobaba Interview at Legit Star Chat: How to Be a Successful Nigerian Comedian | Legit TV. Source: Legit - President Buhari has been commended by Samuel Adjogbe, executive director of Projects EDP - He said the president's priority on infrastructure across the country is unmatchable - Adjogbe also assured people of the Niger-Delta region that projects left uncompleted would be finished soon The executive director of Projects EDP on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Samuel Adjogbe, has expressed satisfaction on President Muhammadu Buhari's projects in the state, and across the federation, adding that president's numerous completed and ongoing projects are unmatchable. Vanguard reports that Adjogbe expressed this enthusiasm on Sunday, November 4 while answering questions from newsmen immediately he was honoured the 'Outstanding Performance in Leading Change' award. READ ALSO: APC reconciliation: Buhari meets 3 APC south west governors Legit.ng gathers that Adjogbe, who was represented by his technical assistant, Nelson Onwo commended President Buhari's priority on provision of infrastructural facilities in the Niger Delta region and the nation wide as a whole. He said: "With the spate of completed projects so far, one must agree that such commitment to infrastructural project development has never been demonstrated before now. Just like the newly commissioned Port Harcourt International Airport Terminal and several other mega projects by the federal government, NDDC shall continue in the likes of the recently completed Ogbia Nembe road project. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest new update "Furthermore, the Okerenekoko-Omadino-Escravos road project which is currently at contracting stage, is a reflection of this relentless drive on the part of NDDC." Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the G-23, a pro-Buhari group, had said that Igbos would vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, so that power would be zoned to the south-east in 2023. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng to serve our readers better The group made the assertion via its south-east convener, Johnbosco Onunkwo, during a chat with newsmen in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, on Saturday, September 1. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better Election 2019: President Buhari proves he is fit to run in 2019 - on Legit TV Source: Legit.ng - Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would be travelling to the Unites States of America soon - Doyin Okupe, former senior special assistant on public affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed this on Twitter - According to him, the former vice president will be travelling to the United States by the end of November Former senior special assistant on public affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe, has revealed that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would be travelling to the Unites States of America by the end of November. Okupe who was also a former spokesperson to former president Olusegun Obasanjo disclosed this on his Twitter page on Sunday, November 4. READ ALSO: APC reconciliation: Buhari meets 3 APC southwest governors Recall that some critics of Atiku claimed that the former vice president could not travel to the United States because he has a criminal case in the country. "Concerning the little understood but copiously exaggerated supposed travel ban on Atiku. His Excellency and In coming President of the federal republic of nigeria, Alhadji Atiku Abubakar will be travelling to the US for official and some public engagements by the end of Nov 2018. "Atiku contested Presidency in 2007 under AC.Nobody called him a thief then.Neither was he known then 2 be corrupt.I often wonder if d atiku running for President today is the same that ran in 2007.This orchestrated campaign of calumny against Atiku will not stand bcos it's false," Okupe tweeted. Legit.ng had reported that Nigeria's former vice president Atiku Abubakar who was unable to travel to the United State of America since he left office in 1999, declared that he was prepared to travel America, if the countrys diplomatic authorities approve his application for visa. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app If America says come today, I will board the flight and go there soonest, Abubakar told political columnist Dele Momodu. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We keep evolving to serve our readers better. 2019 Presidency: Nigerians reveal why they prefer Atiku to Buhari - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit Emerging reports have claimed that members of the tripartite committee set up to come up with a new national minimum wage for the country are currently meeting at the office of the secretary to the government of the federation, Abuja. The Punch reports that the meeting was attended by officials of the federal government, representatives of the organised private sector and representatives of labour unions. It was learnt that the meeting was held few hours to the commencement of the nationwide industrial action called by the labour unions. READ ALSO: Buhari meets 3 APC southwest governors Members of the committee are expected to sign the final report at todays meeting and thereafter forward it to the SGF, Boss Mustapha, for onward transmission to President Muhammadu Buhari. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the ASUU on Sunday, November 4, announced that it has begun an indefinite strike action following the inability of the federal government to respond to their demands. ASUU said its strike would be total as all federal and state varsities would join the strike. Punch reports that the union accused the federal government of not implementing the Memorandum of Action signed with it. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Speaking after its National Executive Council meeting held at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo state on Sunday night, the national president of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, said they have waited patiently for the federal government to act, all to no avail. In a related development, labour leaders, on Sunday, November 4, failed to attend the meeting set up by the Federal Government to continue negotiations on the national minimum wage for workers in the country. The federal government representatives in attendance included Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha, Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige and the Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed. Representatives of organised private sector were however present at the meeting which was held in the office Mustapha in Abuja. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We keep evolving to serve our readers better. Parents advice government over ASUU strike | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Oladipupo Adebutu has declared that he would not be frustrated by the antics of some chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and abandon his mandate - Adebutu who is a factional PDP governorship candidate said he would not allow some purported state party executives led by Bayo Dayo to strip him of the party ticket - A Federal High Court order has asked Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise list of candidates presented by the Kashamu-backed faction Oladipupo Adebutu, a factional gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun state has declared that he would not be abandon his mandate as the legitimate governorship candidate of the party. READ ALSO: Atiku will travel to United States by end of November - Okupe He said activities of Senator Buruji Kashamu backed faction of the party to strip him of the gubernatorial ticket would amount to nothing. He insisted that he would fly the partys governorship flag in 2019 because he was produced through a primary conducted by the national officials of PDP, Sahara Reporters reports. Recall that a Federal High Court order has asked Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise list of candidates presented by the state party executives led by Bayo Dayo - a faction backed by Senator Buruji Kashamu. Im a member of the PDP constitutionally recognised even by the Supreme Court of the land, and backed by the national secretariat of the party. The people now fighting desperately to upturn the wishes of the people deliberately refused to participate in the primary, how then could they emerge in a process they didnt participate in. The constitution of our great says only the primary conducted and supervised by its officials would be accepted. You dont dash people political positions in a democratic process, it must be keenly contested for which informed why former governor, Gbenga Daniel rejected the senatorial position given to him by Buruji Kashamu and his co travelers. All these litigations here and there orchestrated by Buruji Kashamu and his cohorts are only side attractions and delay tactics. We will soon start our campaign in a grand-style. Im not going to leave the party we all laboured to build. Forget the insinuations about names in those fictitious lists. We will campaign vigorously to make our presidential hopeful, Atiku Abubakar wins in a landslide victory as well as all candidates on our party platform, he said. Recall that Legit.ng had reported that the Adebayo Dayo-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun state reacted to the stance of the national publicity secretary of PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, in which he condemned the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to comply with the orders of court in respect of the crisis of the partys primaries in the state. The state executives committee loyal to the embattled Ogun East lawmaker, Senator Buruji Kashamu, in a press statement issued by the state chairman, Adebayo Dayo, pointed out that INEC did not accept the list of candidates from any state chapter. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Rather, he said INEC merely complied with several judgments and orders of court on the matter. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better Nigeria Latest News: Father Mbaka On Buhari, Atiku In Nigeria Election 2019 | Legit TV Source: Legit - Transport workers have said they will join the nationwide strike action by the organised labour if negotiation does not yield result - The district manager of the Nigeria Railways Corporation (NRC), Jerry Oche, announced that the company will not operate during the strike - Also, the Nigerian Union of Teachers in Niger state said it received information from the national headquarters to get set for the strike The chairman of the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Lagos branch, Tajudeen Agbede, has revealed that the body would join the planned strike action if government and labour failed to resolve their differences. This is as Legit.ng reports that the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Niger chapter, also instructed all teachers in the state to join in the strike. The News Agency of Nigeria quoted Agbede as saying: We are an affiliate of the NLC, we shall obey its directives. So, we have no choice than to join the strike anytime were called upon to do so. READ ALSO: Breaking: Government officials, labour meet again over minimum wage The strike action is to begin on Tuesday, November 6, over a N30,000 minimum wage demanded by the organised labour. While the state governments agreed to pay N22,500, the federal government said it can only afford N24,000. The district manager of the Nigeria Railways Corporation (NRC), Jerry Oche, also announced that the company would not operate if the proposed strike got commences. We are not going to operate if there is strike. But if there is no strike we will operate but we wish the situation is resolved before tomorrow, Oche said. Legit.ng reports that Ibrahim Umar, the state chairman of the NUT in Niger, on Monday, November 5, called for an approval for the increase in the retirement age of teachers to 65 years. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app We received a directive from the national body that by 12 midnight of Monday, if nothing happens in the affirmative, we should join in the national strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress. We want Governor Abubakar Bello to send an executive bill to the state House of Assembly for the express approval to increase the retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65 years and 35 to 40 years of service, he said. Legit.ng earlier reported that the National Industrial Court (NIC) of Nigeria on Monday, November 5, in Abuja dismissed a prayer for a fresh order barring organised labour from proceeding on its planned nationwide strike slated for November 6. The court had on November 2, restrained the organised labour from proceeding on the nationwide strike scheduled for November 6, over new national minimum wage. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better 'Nigeria Needs a Leader That is Not Bigger Than the Country' - Nigeria Street Gist | Legit TV Source: Legit - Dana Air has announced readiness to satisfy its customers as the country prepares to witness an industrial action by the organised labour - The airline company's spokesperson, Kingsley Ezenwa, said the organisation would reschedule customers - The airline pleaded with its customers to bear with it as it regrets the inconveniences resulting from the strike Dana Air on Monday, November 5, assured its customers of its commitment toward ensuring that they do not bear the impact of the imminent strike by labour unions scheduled to begin on November 6. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the United Labour Congress (ULC) had called for the indefinite strike following disagreement over a new national minimum wage. Legit.ng understands that Dana Air, in a statement signed by its media and communications manager, Kingsley Ezenwa, said the airline would be available to reschedule or reroute its passengers at no cost to them. READ ALSO: Breaking: Government officials, labour meet again over minimum wage Ezenwa said the airline rued the inconvenience of the likely effects of flight disruption on its passengers and the huge loss of income on its part. He, however, appealed to the federal government and the organised labour to find a middle ground and resolve the issue in the overall interest of Nigerians and the economy. Ezenwa said:We regret the inconveniences on the part of our guests who are already on our scheduled flights for the week, and the likely loss of income on our part. We appeal to the federal government and the labour groups to find a middle ground and resolve the issue in the overall interest of Nigerians and the economy." PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app He said the airline would be available on phone, mail, and on all its social media handles to attend to requests from its guests. On Monday night, government and labour officials were still at a meeting in last-minute efforts to avert the strike. Legit.ng earlier reported that the chairman of the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Lagos branch, Tajudeen Agbede, revealed that the body would join the planned strike action if government and labour failed to resolve their differences. This is as Legit.ng reports that the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Niger chapter, also instructed all teachers in the state to join in the strike. Legit.ng also reported that the National Industrial Court (NIC) of Nigeria on Monday, November 5, in Abuja dismissed a prayer for a fresh order barring organised labour from proceeding on its planned nationwide strike slated for November 6. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have updated to serve you better. Top 3 Worst Blunders In Africa | Legit TV Source: Legit.ng A local coffee roaster wants the Lehigh Valley to get out the vote. Bethlehem-based Monocacy Coffee Co. is offering one free 12-ounce coffee to customers on Tuesday who have voted or will to commit to vote on Election Day, Nov. 6. The promotion will take place at the coffee roaster's two cafes, Lit Coffee Roastery and Bakeshop at 26 E. 3rd St. in Bethlehem and Cosmic Cup at 520 March St. in Easton. To get the free coffee, Monocacy said in a release that customers can either present an "I Voted" sticker or pledge to vote. Matthew Hengeveld, who co-owns Monocacy Coffee Co. with Dan Taylor, said he has seen apathy about the midterm elections and hopes the offer will help to engage the community. Such promotions have prompted some scrutiny recently: According to WHYY, the coffee chain Saxby's amended a similar free-coffee-for-voters promotion after it was informed that federal law forbids incentives for voting in elections where federal candidates are on the ballot. Now, Saxby's will offer free to coffee to anyone on Election Day with or without proof of voting. However, such freebies have been common elsewhere, and The New York Times reported in 2016 that companies are rarely penalized for them. Asked about the legal risk, Hengeveld said he thought the law didn't forbid freebies given to all voters. He added that Monocacy had no way to enforce the voting pledge, so anyone could hypothetically take advantage of the offer. In any case, he said, encouraging people to vote was important enough to continue with the offer. "I'm willing to take the risk," Hengeveld said. "I feel like it's important." Hengeveld and Taylor started Monocacy Coffee Co. in 2015. Along with its own cafes, Monocacy's coffee can be found at local businesses like Jumbars, Molinaris, Bonn Place Brewing, Coffee House Without Limits. Andrew Doerfler may be reached at adoerfler@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @adoerfler or on Facebook. The civil rights division of the Department of Justice will be in Lehigh County on Election Day again, part of monitors being placed in 35 jurisdictions in 19 states this year. Personnel will watch to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws, and have been visiting Lehigh County polls since 2011, Lehigh County's Chief Clerk of Elections Tim Benyo said. Lehigh County is the only Pennsylvania location on the list this year. Lehigh County is one of three counties in the state that meet the threshold of having 5 percent of the population of voting age, or 10,000 people, that need voting information or services in another language. Berks, Lehigh and Philadelphia must provide assistance in Spanish. Benyo said printed information is provided in Spanish; ballots (including audio ballots) are offered in Spanish; and his office is using 97 interpreters on Election Day at polling locations. Voters can also have someone assist them in the voting booth if they choose, but must fill out a form and identify the person helping them, Benyo said. Department of Justice staff will observe at polling sites: Whether voters are subject to different voting qualifications or procedures on the basis of race, color or membership in a language minority group Whether jurisdictions are complying with the language minority provisions of the Voting Rights Act Whether jurisdictions permit a voter to receive assistance by a person of his or her choice if the voter has a disability or is unable to read or write Whether jurisdictions provide polling locations and voting systems allowing voters with disabilities to cast a private and independent ballot Whether jurisdictions comply with the voter registration list requirements of the National Voter Registration Act Whether jurisdictions comply with the provisional ballot requirements of the Help America Vote Act. Benyo said he provides the department personnel with certificates, the same he gives to poll watchers, but that voters may not even realize the DOJ watchers are at their polling site. "They don't try to be conspicuous," he said, adding the watchers will speak with poll workers. "We've had a good relationship with them." Voters with complaints about ballot access problems or discrimination allegations can call 1-800-253-3931 toll free or 202-307-2767 or TTY 202-305-0082. Reports can also be made by fax to 202-307-3961; via email voting.section@usdoj.gov; or by completing a complaint form on the DOJ's website here. Election fraud allegations are handled by the local U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the FBI. This year, assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Barrett will be on duty as the district election officer for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which includes Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton and Philadelphia counties. The public will be able to reach Barrett at 215-861-8420, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office. The FBI will have special agents available in each field office to handle allegations of election fraud and other claims on Election Day. The local FBI field office can be reached by the public at 215-418-4000. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. In his recent letter, James M. Policelli dismisses the impact of global warming on hurricanes. However, in its report "Catastrophe Modelling and Climate Change," Lloyd's of London states that the eight inches of sea-level rise off the tip of Manhattan increased Superstorm Sandy's surge losses by 30 percent, and that "further increases in sea level in this region may non-linearly increase the loss potential from similar storms." This document also asserts that there is conclusive evidence that climate change is human-caused. Moreover, in it's 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, the U.S. Department of Defense warns: "As greenhouse gas emissions increase, sea levels are rising, average global temperatures are increasing, and severe weather patterns are accelerating. These changes, coupled with other global dynamics ... will devastate homes, land and infrastructure." The U.S. military has expressed concern about climate change since the George W. Bush Administration, and dozens of Defense Department documents on this issue can be accessed at climateandsecurity.org. It's important to look to independent organizations like the insurance industry and the military when evaluating the threat posed by climate change. Because they depend on scientific evidence to assess risk, they are less amenable to politicized science. We must urge our politicians to heed these voices and take a leadership role with regard to climate action. Terry Hansen Hales Corners, Wisc. A man holed up Sunday night in a home on East Chrisman Road in Blairstown Township was taken into custody about 4 a.m. Monday when tactical teams went in, township police report. The man, who wasn't named due to the domestic nature of the charges of simple assault (two counts) and terroristic threats, was "located upstairs and quickly arrested," Capt. Scott Johnsen said. A mother and her son were assaulted by the man before police were called about 9 p.m., according to the department's Facebook post. The man at that point was locked in an upstairs room along with guns, police said. The woman and child, who weren't badly hurt, followed police directions to get out of the house, Johnsen said. "The male also made statements that he would kill the family, himself and law enforcement," police said. Officers, along with New Jersey State Police, set up a perimeter and local police requested the Warren County Tactical Response Team. Hunterdon County's SWAT as well as the Warren County Prosecutor's Office also responded, police said. The tactical personnel were not able to make contact with the man before the breach, police said. The man was housed in Warren County Jail on charges from the incident but more counts were expected, Johnsen said. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. The purchase a large Laois nursing home could be followed by a major extension ane extensive rennovation. Brindley Healthcare, a privately-owned nursing home group, has announced the acquisition of Kilminchy Lodge Nursing in Portlaoise off the Dublin Road. Kilminchy Lodge, which has 44 single and four twin rooms, employing 77 staff. The acquisition brings to eight the number of HIQA registered residential care centres owned and operated by the Brindley Healthcare in Donegal, Galway, Mayo, Kildare and now Laois. Brindley currently has over 400 nursing home beds, with an acquisition pipeline of more than 200 nursing home beds over the next 12 months and aims to increase this number to 1,000 over the next 24 months with the support of a 25m finance facility from Ulster Bank. Donegal woman Amanda Torrens is founder and CEO of Brindley Healthcare. Our acquisition of Kilminchy Lodge Nursing in Co Laois is the next step in our ambitious growth plans and we are delighted to have the support of Ulster Bank as we seek to expand further to meet the needs of those in residential care, she said. The Health Information and Quality Authority regulates nursing homes. It says the single-storey purpose-built centre is staffed by qualified nursing and care staff at all times and caters for residents whose dependency levels range from low to maximum. HIQA says it accommodates both female and male residents over the age of 18 years with a wide range of care needs. It can accommodate up to 52 residents. Of its 44 single rooms, 36 of which have ensuite facilities. HIQA'S most recent inspection report on the home was published on November 2. "Overall, a good service was being provided to the residents. The centre had an established management team in place and was well run for the benefit of the residents who lived there," said the report. It was found to be compliant with nearly all areas apart from the premises category. HIQA reported that plans are in place to address this. "The registered provider representative discussed plans afoot to address the shortcomings in the premises. This included a major extension to, and complete renovation of, the existing premises," said the inspection report. Laois Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming called on the new owner to ensure investment is maintained in Kilminchy Lodge and that conditions for residents and staff will continue unaffected. He said a local group of people connected with the medical profession have agreed to sell the nursing home which they have successfully operated for a number of years. Deputy Fleming said that as Kilminchy Lodge will now be part of one of the largest nursing home groups in the country he looks forward to the benefits that such a large group can bring to the provision of care and services in Laois. Eddie Cullen, Managing Director, Commercial Banking Division, Ulster Bank said Brindley is an important part its business. Ulster Bank is a strong supporter of the residential care sector in Ireland and Brindley Healthcare is a significant part of that. Our sectoral experts listened to Brindleys specific requirements and tailored finance to meet their unique needs, while also offering support on future expansion plans, he said. The funding and acquisition process was supported by Neal McGroarty (PKF OConnor, Leddy & Holmes) and Neil Keenan (Byrne Wallace). Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. The trade union that represents thousands of teachers has written to the Department of Education and Skills seeking urgent assurances on behalf of its members teach at schools in Laois and elsewhere caught up in the Wester Building Systems controversy. On behalf of our members who are working in the affected schools, and the pupils attending them, we are extremely concerned at these developments particularly coming so soon after the identification of fire safety issues in a number of recently built schools, said the Irish Nation Teachers Organisation (INTO). We are also concerned at the Ministers very recent comments in the Dail regarding the schools having been 'built too quickly'. All teachers, and ancillary staff, are entitled to a place of a work which is safe. We called on the department to urgently provide an assurance in relation to the safety of our members at work, said a statement. It said the Department has agreed to ensure INTO was kept abreast of developments and convened a briefing session with key stakeholders to take place shortly. Nearly 1,400 children in Laois and Offaly were greeted by steel fencing and scaffolding on their return to schools in Portlaoise and Portarlington after the mid-term break. Gaelscoil Phortlaoise, Educate Together Portlaoise and Presentation Primary School Portarlington are among 22 schools that will require repairs. Manorhamilton heart throb Sean Fox set fans into a frenzy when he appeared on RTE's Taken Down on Sunday night. The show which started on Sunday night, November 4 focuses on Detective Jen Rooney (Lynn Rafferty) as she investigates the violent death of a Nigerian girl whose body is found close to a Direct Provision Centre, where refugees wait for political asylum. Her investigation brings viewers into a twilight world of the new Ireland where slum landlords and criminals prey on the vulnerable. While guard Fitzy drew a mixed reaction for his behaviour towards residents at the direct provision centre where victim Esme had lived, fans were delighted to see new faces on our screens. While some talked about how he was "easy on the eye" others said he could be Ireland's next rising star. Sean who is a vetern at The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton appeared in Ken Loach's "Jimmy's Hall" had the part of Sean MacDiarmada in "Rebellion" and had previous roles in Gerard Barrett's "Smalltown" and Padraig Conaty's "No Party for Billy Burns." The second episode of the six-part series will air next Sunday, November 11 at 9.30 pm on RTE One. Also read: North Leitrim Women's Centre celebrates 100 years of women's votes Minister of State Kevin Boxer Moran has announced 8 million in capital funding for Flood Relief Works in Leitrim. This follows the 1m announced by the Minister for Leitrim in May this year. It is understood that Carrick-on-Shannon will benefit from the first traunche of funding, while Leitrim Village and Dromod will get the second traunche of the 8m fund. The Department are in discussions with Waterways Ireland to automate Jamestown Weir. Minister Moran also announced that they expect to conduct an environmental study on Lough Allen. Speaking today at a meeting with Leitrim County Council, the Minister of State for the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief, Kevin Boxer Moran T.D. complimented Leitrim and all Local Authorities for working with the Office of Public Works and taking a proactive approach to address flood risk in their areas as part of the 1bn investment in flood risk measures over the coming decade. The Minister said,I am delighted to be here in Leitrim today and to meet with Leitrim County Council to discuss arrangements for the advancement of flood relief schemes in the county and the various other initiatives to better manage flood risk on the Shannon. "We had a very good meeting and we agreed the way in which the flood relief schemes will be progressed for Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim, Mohill and Dromod. The schemes will be advanced by Leitrim County Council as the lead agency working in collaboration with the OPW. Funding of approximately 9 million will be provided by the OPW for the capital cost of the schemes as part of the Governments investment of 1 billion on flood relief over the next decade under Project Ireland 2040 to support Leitrim County Council in the implementation of the projects. The Minister went on to say, Good progress has been made to date between the OPW and Local Authorities in agreeing the arrangements to progress the schemes nationally to ensure that the delivery of flood relief solutions in the shortest possible timeframe and here today we have mapped a way forward for the advancement of flood relief schemes in Leitrim. I look forward to the delivery of the schemes for the benefit of the affected communities in Leitrim. The Minister also took the opportunity to set out the other co-ordinated initiatives by members of the Shannon Flood Risk State Agency Co-ordination Working Group, to help to further manage the flood risk for those living and working near the River Shannon. At its meeting on October 12, the Group was updated on the targeted maintenance activities involving the removal of silt and emergent vegetation and the removal of trees, in three locations. These works will enhance the conveyance capacity and navigation along the River Shannon. The Group at its next biannual meeting will consider a planned programme of similar works in the future. Consultants are being appointed to examine the removal of the pinchpoints resulting in lower summer water levels through the Shannon Callows, to help address the summer flooding in this area while maintaining the appropriate navigation requirements. Consultants are also being appointed for a study on the cause, degree and rate of restriction downstream of Parteen Weir, and pilot again this winter the lowering of lake levels in Lough Allen to help alleviate any significant flooding event that may occur. The Group is also completing an environmental assessment of this pilot to help inform any decision to target a reduction in lake levels. Minister Moran said, Together with my announcement on 3rd May this year for 34 new flood relief projects to protect towns and villages along the Shannon, these initiatives will help to open up our towns and villages for further investment and economic benefit. Ahead of the launch of Be Winter Ready this week, the Minister highlighted that the recruitment of the specialised expertise to support the development of the National Flood Forecasting Service is well advanced. The five-year development plan for the establishment of this critical service is being implemented by Met Eireann, the OPW and local authorities. "When established this service will be a significant resource to support the management of flood risk, especially those areas that it is not feasible to protect through major flood relief schemes", the Minister said. Also read: Extra 500,000 for Leitrim's storm damaged roads The HSE are currently advertising for a full time GP for Carrigallen after the previous candidate interviews were cancelled. Fianna Fail Deputy Eamon Scanlon recently queried what the HSE were doing to fill the full time position in Carrigallen. Dr Antoinette Gregan retired in August this year after working practicing in Carrigallen since 1985. This week the HSE explained the GP post in Carrigallen was advertised in May and June 2018 and interviews, which were scheduled to take place on July 18th, were cancelled at short notice as both short listed candidates withdrew. According to the HSE, Since the 13th August 2018 the HSE has had a locum GP arrangement in place ensuring that a full range of GP Medical Services are available to the community in Carrigallen. Also read: Full time permanent GP needed in Carrigallen This GP post was re-advertised in October 2018 across a number of mediums including the HSE website, the Sunday and Irish Independent and the Irish Medical Times. The closing date for receipt of completed applications is Wednesday 7 th November with interviews due to take place before end of November. The HSE are hopeful they will attract a suitable candidate and restore a permanent GP to service the Carrigallen Area. Deputy Scanlon welcomed this development and hopes a suitable candidate can be employed in this vital position for Carrigallen Health Centre and the large area it services. Also read: Congratulations flood in for Seamus O'Rourke IT will likely be February before a move is made on plans to expand Castletroy Town Centre. An Bord Pleanala confirmed to the Limerick Leader that it will be in and around February 12 before the multi-million euro proposals are adjudicated upon. It comes as management at Castletroy Town Centre said they are sad and a little frustrated that Limerick councillors have rejected its multi-million euro plans to expand. And they have also questioned one of the key pillars of the councils argument that the development of the centre would negatively impact on the city centre offering. It is unfortunate that for Limerick city to prosper, we cant be ambitious here in Castletroy, management said in a widely shared post on the centres Facebook page. We live in a thriving community that we love being a part of. Businesses are expanding locally, the University of Limerick is expanding, Troy Studios is doing incredibly well, and we want to be ambitious with our plans to become an even more integral part of the local community, but were told we cant! UGP Castletroy had applied to the local authority to effectively double the size of the facility, previously known as the Castletroy Shopping Centre. The proposals would see two new anchor tenants move in and the centre increase to two storeys. The anchor tenants, it is planned, would be joined by 10 smaller shops, four service outlets and one cafe at first floor level. Over 600 car parking spaces are planned, with approximately 75 jobs created. But the proposals were shot down in a short response from local planners, who said the development would adversely affect the vitality and viability of the city centre. As revealed by our sister newspaper, the Limerick Leader. agents working for the shopping centre have appealed this decision to An Bord Pleanala, a move which local Fine Gael councillor Michael Sheahan said he provided supervision on. At his partys convention, which confirmed he is to run in City East, Cllr Sheahan said he wants to make the expansion a doorstep issue ahead of Mays election. I am totally committed to the expansion of the Castletroy Shopping Centre. I hope they will be successful with the next stage of their plan, which is An Bord Pleanala. While we are waiting for our city fathers to scratch their head to decide what to do with the city centre, we cannot choke suburban communities, whether they be in Caherdavin, Dooradoyle, or Castletroy, he said. Cllr Sheahan, who has represented the area since 2009, added: There is room for all commercial interests, and I dont see why Castletroy Shopping Centre cannot expand as it needs be. Hopefully, An Bord Pleanala will see the sense in allowing the Castletroy Shopping Centre to expand naturally. One person wrote: The council needs to wake up and realise there is life outside the city centre. Castletroy needs this development with all the expansion taking place in Plassey. Another added: Heres hoping An Bord Pleanala looks at what will benefit our community instead of expecting us to traipse into the city centre with all its incumbent costs. But another added: One only has to look at Clonmel to see how much shopping centres at the edges are sucking the soul out of once vibrant town centres. A GUINEAN national was sentenced to one months imprisonment for his role in a bizarre incident during which a garda car was damaged. Ousmane Baah, aged 29, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to a criminal damage charge relating to an incident which happened at OConnell Street on December 31, 2017. Inspector Dermot OConnor told Limerick District Court, Mr Baah, had jumped onto the bonnet of an unmarked patrol car while it was stopped at traffic lights. The bonnet, he said, was dented and around 250 worth of damage caused to the vehicle. The defendant, who received a three month prison earlier this month for a theft offence in Dublin, also admitted stealing a bottle of Huge Boss perfume, worth 79, from Debenhams, OConnell Street on February 16, last. Solicitor Sarah Ryan said her client, who has more than 60 previous convictions, was not in a position to pay compensation given his circumstances. Mr Baah, who has lived in Ireland for more than a decade, is well known to the gardai as he gets into difficulty when he drinks. He has been in the direct provision system for some time and is the subject of a deportation order, which has never been executed. Having considered the matter, and noting the sentence that was imposed in Dublin, Judge OMarian OLeary imposed one month prison sentences in relation to each of the Limerick offences. The sentences are to be served consecutively to each other and to the sentence imposed in Dublin. She imposed a 100 in relation to his previous non-appearance in court. THE ANNUAL Bin It! campaign has taken to the streets again, in a bid to educate students on the correct way to bin your gum when youre done. The Bin It! campaign includes a workshop aimed at first and second year students, as well as an education session to encourage students to dispose of gum litter, and litter in general, in a responsible manner. Students from Colaiste Nano Nagle were among the first students in the country to take part in this years workshops when the Bin It! campaign visited their school on Sexton Street. The campaign also forms an important part of the Gum Litter Taskforce (GLT), an education campaign seeking to encourage students to bin their chewing gum correctly. Started in 2006, the Gum Litter Taskforce includes members of the chewing gum industry, represented by Mars/Wrigley Ireland, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Food Drink Ireland, local authority representatives and civic society. This is the twelfth year the campaign has toured across the country, with 463 schools visited. More than 51,100 students have taken part since the campaign first began in 2006. Chairman of the GLT, Paul Kelly said: The latest report of the National Litter Monitoring Pollution System has shown that the percentage of chewing gum as a proportion of litter has dropped to 8% in 2017 from 15% in 2016. Such a drop makes us all the more confident that our awareness raising of issues surrounding gum litter is really resonating with the public. Enthusiastic and active participation amongst our young people in initiatives such as Bin It! is a key driving force behind these positive results and I am delighted to see the campaign take to the road once again this year. The Bin It! workshop tour is supported www.biniteducation.com, which includes games and quizzes for students, lesson plans, teachers notes, posters and activity cards to help integrate the theme of responsible litter disposal into the curriculum. The GLT education campaign also includes outdoor poster, TV and online advertising. More information can also be found on www.gumlittertaskforce.ie. THE Environmental Protection Agency has requested further information from Irish Cement Limited on its plans to use recovered waste at its Limerick plant. A decision was due this week on whether the EPA would allow the 10m proposals to switch away from fossil fuels to burn solid recovered waste and used tyres at the Castlemungret facility. There had earlier been a delay on the plans, which have caused much controversy after An Bord Pleanala gave the green light to the physical aspects of the Irish Cement proposal earlier this year. The sole remaining hurdle for the firm is to secure a licence from the EPA to operate. The EPA said it had received over 3,500 individual public submissions on the application for a reviewed licence. It said in a statement this Monday: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a notice to Irish Cement Limited that requires the applicant to provide the EPA with further details on the proposed use of alternative fuels and raw materials (including by-products and waste) in their cement manufacturing installation at Castlemungret. The EPA has requested further information on a number of elements of the licence application, namely; Waste Acceptance Capacity, Raw Materials, Intermediates, Products, etc. used or generated on-site, Best Available Technology, Emissions to Atmosphere, Human Health, Hydrology and Hydrogeology, Appropriate Assessment, Accidents and Disasters, and Baseline reports. Once the EPA has received and assessed all the required information, it will move to publish a proposed determination on the request by Irish Cement to review the conditions of their licence. As this is a statutory licensing review process, the EPA is not in a position to provide further comment at this time. Reacting to the news, Irish Cement Communications Manager Brian Gilmore said: Irish Cement is happy to address the additional queries received from the EPA as part of the licence review application to allow for the fossil fuel replacement programme at the Mungret factory. Requests for further information are a regular feature of the EPA licence review process. This programme will reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels, reduce CO2 emissions by up to 40,000 tonnes per year, and will help recover valuable resources that might otherwise end up in landfill. Of the four cement factories in Ireland, the Mungret factory is the only one not using alternative fuels and one of the last in Europe still totally reliant on imported fossil fuels. Extensive experience over four decades in Europe demonstrates that replacing fossil fuels with these new fuels will not increase emissions from the factory. LIMERICKS sparkling hurling year continues, with seven of the Liam MacCarthy winning panel experiencing yet more glory over the weekend. Six of the Limerick team who ended 45 years of pain on that glorious day in August were named on the PwC All-Star hurling team of 2018. Cian Lynch was named hurler of the year, while Kyle Hayes won the title of Young Hurler of the Year at the glittering event in Dublins Convention Centre. This team has inspired boys and girls right across Limerick, said Mayor James Collins who will host a civic reception for the panel tomorrow night. Ahane star Dan Morrissey was named in the defence, along with Bruff man Sean Finn, Doons Richie English and Treaty captain Declan Hannon of Adare. Patrickswells Cian was named in midfield, and Kilmallocks Graeme Mulcahy completed the full forward line. There are people out there who would have expected more than six names on the team thats the measure of where we are as a county now, said Mayor Collins. The whole summer has given Limerick such a lift, its given such positivity to the county and it will maybe push us on to reach higher levels again. The mayor added: Its just amazing to see we have the hurler of the year in Cian and the young hurler of the year in Kyle from Limerick. They and their families will be absolutely delighted. Cllr Sean Lynch was in the capital with his wife Valerie to witness his son win the top prize of the night. It was an emotional night, he said, with the sad news that legendary hurler Leonard Enright, himself a three-time All-Star winner, had passed away. There was a clip showing when Leonard was inducted into the Hall of Fame, and then when Cian got player of the year, he spoke very emotionally and included Leonard. The fact he is from Patrickswell and the links it has with Leonard. He and Leonard would have been very close. He would have known him very well from his time at Mary Immaculate College, Cllr Lynch said. We were so happy Cian mentioned him, and they played that clip. Its great his family have that little something to treasure. A total of 53 All-Star awards have been given out to Limerick players, with the 2018 tally one better than the five they received when they beat Kilkenny back in 1973. All of Limericks players won for the first time, and they were joined on the panel by players from Kilkenny, Galway, Clare and Cork. Nickie Quaid, Mike Casey, Diarmaid Byrnes, Darragh ODonovan, Gearoid Hegarty, Kyle Hayes, Tom Morrisssey, Aaron Gillane and Seamus Flanagan were all also nominated for All-Stars, but didn't make it this time. MINISTER for Health Simon Harris has announced that 19.5m funding has been committed for the construction of a delivery of crucial 60-bed modular block at University Hospital Limerick. Minister Harris made the announcement at the unveiling of a new 12m inpatient specialist palliative care facility at Milford Care Centre this Monday morning. The Minister has also launched a new cataract centre at Nenagh General Hospital, which will assuage the large waiting lists for procedures in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary. He said he feels the region has been let down over the decades in respect of bed capacity. Just opened cataract theatre in Nenagh. 2000 cataract procedures here in 2019. This will not just benefit Mid West region but also nationally. 1 million investment. 2017 - more than 10,000 patients awaiting cataract surgery. 2018 - reduced to 6,600 & falling. Down 33% so far. pic.twitter.com/aHyKbzrgxF November 5, 2018 Previous governments said, oh were going to reconfigure hospitals and we promise more beds will come in the future. Of course, the beds never came. So the people of the Mid-West are owed hospital beds. They need them, they need them as quickly as possible. The procurement process for the 14m contract to construct the modular build is currently underway, following planning approval by Limerick City and County Council. However, all progress was put on hold when a Dooradoyle resident brought his objection to An Bord Pleanala. This was later withdrawn following intense talks between the resident, the UL Hospials Group and the HSE. Minister for Health Simon Harris arrives at Milford Care Centre for the unveiling of the new inpatient palliative care facility in Limerick @Limerick_Leader pic.twitter.com/tU4Arm3uQ8 Fintan Walsh (@FintanYTWalsh) November 5, 2018 When asked by the Leader if he intervened after this objection, Minister Harris said: Not at all. Certainly not to be the best of my knowledge. I mean, people have a right under our laws to make objections, and certainly it would be inappropriate as Minister to comment on anybodys right in that regard. He added that he needs UHL to manage capacity in the interim and to ensure that patients are discharged into the community as quick as possible. A number of Oireachtas members expressed delight at the Ministers announcement this Monday. Fine Gael colleague Sen Maria Byrne and Labour TD Jan OSullivan issued statements shortly after Harris Limerick visit. Speaking ath Milford Care Centre, Minister Harris welcomed the radical transformation of the site since he turned the sod in October 2016. The unveiled development comprises 34 single bed rooms, four overnight rooms for families at the inpatient care facility. The nursing home also sees an increased bed capacity from 47 to 69 beds. The HSE invested 1.5m in the project. The new hospice will better meet the needs of the changing model of palliative care, which is more community based. As more of us live longer, we need more palliative care services and we are meeting this demand, with expansion of bed capacity and introduction of single occupancy rooms where people's needs are looked after, and their dignity is respected. These are important aspects of palliative care, placing patients at the centre, and I am confident that the new hospice will result in an even better experience for patients and their families, Minister Harris said. Speaking on behalf of his team, Milford Care Centre chief executive Pat Quinlan said: Todays official opening is the culmination of decades of dedication to providing palliative care in the Mid-West, from the Hospices foundation in 1977 when there were only 9 hospice beds to today, where we have 34 beds and an add-on capability of 4 additional bedrooms. The driver for this new development is our objective of ensuring respect and dignity at all times for each individual patient and that we have extra bed capacity to meet growing demand. The move to an all single-room configuration in both the expanded Hospice and Nursing Home will ensure that we can achieve this aim going forward. We are also pleased to have the additional overnight accommodation for families in the Hospice as palliative care is about caring for the patient but also supporting the family. From a service perspective, we have witnessed a significant increase in activity levels since we moved into the new Hospice in February; bed occupancy year to date has increased from 83% in 2017 to 89% year to date in 2018. Given that the recommended national norm for average bed occupancy levels is 85%, and that only 30 of the 34 beds have been commissioned, these increased activity levels have warranted us seeking additional funding from the HSE to commission the final four beds on a phased-in basis in 2019. This is something that we hope will be given favourable consideration by the HSE for 2019 as such a development would make a major difference in our ongoing capacity to be able to meet patients needs in a timely and responsive manner at a time when there is growing demand for our services. Speaking ahead of the opening, HSE Mid West Chief Officer Bernard Gloster said: This is a wonderful development which we are delighted to be associated with. It is testament to the well-deserved positive national reputation that Milford has as a provider of both inpatient and home-based palliative care. A RECRUITMENT firm has offered to fly emigrants home from Australia for jobs in Limerick. FRS Recruitment is offering a free flight back home from Australia to any expat who they help secure a job in Limerick or another part of the country. The incentive has been introduced to help encourage people who moved Down Under during the recession to re-evaluate the job opportunities available in Ireland, particularly those operating in the construction, IT and healthcare sectors. It comes ahead of a specially organised Ireland is Hiring recruitment roadshow organised by FRS Recruitment, which is taking place in Australia this week, where the Limerick jobs and other Irish opportunities will be outlined. The flights deal will be offered to anyone who successfully secures a job through FRS Recruitment. While the offer extends to all sectors, FRS will be targeting personnel who wish to work in the construction, IT, healthcare, medical device/ pharmaceutical and financial sectors during the roadshow, in light of particular demand for qualified staff across these industries. As the country is moving closer to full employment it is becoming more difficult to find suitably qualified personnel. Companies in Limerick and all across Ireland are increasingly looking further afield to find people to fill important roles. For these companies it is not just about filling the vacancy, it is about finding the right candidate that meets their needs, said Colin Donnery, General Manager of FRS Recruitment. During the recession a lot of qualified, educated people left these shores to seek out opportunities that simply were no longer available in Ireland. Australia was a particularly popular location, given the thriving jobs marketplace Down Under at that time. Many of these expats have since gone on to develop strong careers in Australia, growing their experience and maintaining impressive CVs. Having had extensive dealings with the Irish community in Australia we are aware of a significant number of expats who harbour hopes of returning home. The point of the Ireland is Hiring roadshow is to help these people understand just how significant the opportunities are back in Ireland at the moment. We hope that by providing people with job details, giving them the key salary and logistical information, while also providing them with the incentive of free flights, it will encourage more people to seriously consider applying for roles back in Ireland. We have a significant number of roles available in every part of Ireland, including a wide range in Limerick. There is a particularly strong demand for personnel in the construction, IT, healthcare, medical device/ pharmaceutical and financial sectors at the moment. There are plenty of Irish people working in these sectors in Australia who would be of great interest to employers back in this country. We know just how badly their skillsets are needed in this market and how these great positions could provide a fantastic opportunity for returning home, Mr. Donnery concluded. The roadshow will visit Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and will run from Thursday, November 8 to Tuesday, November 13. LIMERICK City and County Council has put in place an internal project delivery team for the 1bn M20 project. The news was revealed this Monday afternoon by the Limerick Chamber, which held meetings with the group alongside its counterparts in Cork. Its widely hoped the Limerick to Cork motorway is open by 2027, with the tender now out for the designers of the project, which will be managed from Limerick councils offices at Dooradoyle. Limerick Chamber chief executive Dee Ryan said: The appointment of the project delivery team in Limerick City and County Council is a key milestone in getting this strategic infrastructure moving to unlock new social and economic opportunities along the Atlantic Corridor. We look forward to working with the delivery team and the appointed project contractors to ensure the M20 gets moving as quickly as possible. A Limerick Chamber-Cork Chamber report last year found the 80km motorway could trigger up to 5,300 additional jobs in the region, and increase the labour force within a 45-minute commute of major employment centres by 23%. The report also confirmed that the existing N20 between Cork and Limerick has significant capacity constraints that inhibit economic development and compromises safety. Conor Healy, Cork Chamber chief executive added: At time of growing international uncertainty, it is critical that we progress this project promptly to improve the competitive environment of Irish business. The M20 has the capacity to positively influence balanced regional development on the island like no other project with 98% of all chamber members across the region favouring its construction. HUNDREDS of mourners from the worlds of GAA and politics have attended the funeral of Limerick hurling legend Leonard Enright. The 65-year-old, who was inducted into the GAA Hall of Fame earlier this year, died at Milford Hospice on Friday following a lengthy illness. The village of Patrickswell came to a standstill this Monday lunchtime as the local community paid a final tribute to the All Star hurler who won eight county titles with his club. Members of Patrickswell GAA club past and present attended the funeral and formed a guard of honour as the coffin carrying Leonards remains was carried from the Church of the Blessed Virgin. Members of the All-Ireland winning team, including team captain Declan Hannon, attended and Patrickswell clubmen Cian Lynch, Diarmuid Byrnes and Aaron Gillane helped shoulder the coffin to the local cemetery. Prominent GAA figures from across the country including Cyril Farrell (Galway), Brian Cody (Kilkenny) and legendary RTE broadcaster Micheal O Muircheartaigh were also in attendance along with several politicians some of whom served with Leonard Enright during his time on Limerick County Council. Gifts presented during the Funeral Mass included a hurley and sliotar; a crossword puzzle, a family photograph and a freshly pulled pint of Guinness. In his homily, Fr Michael Cussen said Leonard Enright was a never a man for too many words and unassuming in his ways. There is huge sadness at his loss, he told mourners adding there is also a sense of relief that his suffering has come to an end. While not perfect, he said Leonard was a special person who touched the hearts of many people during his life. Saint Leonard would not ring a bell in our hearts but Leonard who was, and who forever will be, special touches all our hearts, he said. Following the Funeral Mass, Leonard Enright was laid to rest at St Mary's new cemetery in Patrickswell. He is survived by his wife Birdie and their children Alan, Thomas, David and Mary. People who experience a rare condition known as "broken-heart syndrome" need immediate medical attention, but often make a quick recovery. But the problem can be particularly deadly if these patients also develop a complication in which their heart can't pump enough blood to the body, a new study finds. What's more, the risk of death for broken-heart syndrome patients with this complication known as cardiogenic shock remains high not only while they are in the hospital, but for years afterwards. "Beyond the higher short-term mortality, for the first time this analysis found people who experienced broken heart syndrome complicated by cardiogenic shock were at high risk of death years later, underlining the importance of careful long-term follow-up especially in this patient group," Dr. Christian Templin, lead author of the study and head of acute cardiac care at the University Heart Center at University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland, said in a statement. The findings will be presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions meeting in Chicago, and simultaneously published in the journal Circulation. [9 New Ways to Keep Your Heart Healthy] Broken-heart syndrome, also known as takotsubo syndrome, is a condition in which the heart's main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, temporarily becomes enlarged and weakened so that it doesn't pump properly. (The syndrome is named for the odd shape the heart takes when the ventricle becomes enlarged. It resembles a "takotsubo," a Japanese fishing pot used to trap octopuses.) The condition is often triggered by emotional stress, such as the death of a loved one or the loss of a job, according to the Mayo Clinic. But it may also be triggered by physical stress, such as an asthma attack or major surgery. Symptoms of broken-heart syndrome can resemble those of a heart attack and include chest pain and shortness of breath. But unlike a heart attack, there is no blockage of the heart's arteries, and patients usually make a full recovery within days to weeks, the Mayo Clinic says. But about 1 in 10 patients with broken-heart syndrome experiences cardiogenic shock, a life-threatening complication in which the heart suddenly cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. A complicated broken heart In the new study, the researchers aimed to better understand how patients fare when they develop broken-heart syndrome with cardiogenic shock, and what treatments could help these patients. The researchers analyzed information from a database of more than 2,000 patients with broken-heart syndrome, called the International Takotsubo Registry. Among these patients, about 200 developed cardiogenic shock. The researchers found a strikingly high rate of death for broken-heart syndrome patients with cardiogenic shock. While in the hospital, nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of patients with cardiogenic shock died, compared with just 2 percent of patients without cardiogenic shock. Even among patients who survived cardiogenic shock, the higher risk of death persisted for years. After five years, the mortality rate among patients who had initially survived broken-heart syndrome with cardiogenetic shock was around 40 percent, compared with just 10 percent for those patients who did not experience cardiogenic shock. (This mortality rate excluded the patients who died within 60 days of their diagnosis.) The study also found that: Patients with cardiogenic shock tended to be slightly younger, 63 years old on average, compared with patients who did not develop cardiogenic shock, whose average age was 67. Patients with cardiogenic shock were more likely to have their broken-heart syndrome triggered by physical stressors, compared with patients who did not develop cardiogenic shock. Patients with cardiogenic shock were more likely to have a type of an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation; and had higher rates of diabetes and other risk factors for heart disease, such as smoking, than patients who did not develop cardiogenic shock. The high rate of death for patients with broken-heart syndrome who develop cardiogenic shock highlights the need to identify signs of cardiogenic shock as early as possible, the researchers said. Examining factors such as whether a patient with broken-heart syndrome also has diabetes, atrial fibrillation or a physical-stress trigger of their condition may help doctors identify those patients who are at risk of developing cardiogenic shock, the researchers said. "For such patients, close monitoring could reveal initial signs of cardiogenic shock and allow prompt management," Templin said. The study also found that patients with cardiogenic shock were less likely to die in the hospital if they were treated with devices that provided mechanical support to their hearts, such as an inflatable device that helps boost blood flow. "Although these devices should be used with caution, it could be considered as a bridge-to-recovery in patients without contraindications," Templin said. Future studies are needed to examine the best treatments for broken-heart syndrome patients with cardiogenic shock, both over the short and long term, the researchers said. Originally published on Live Science. An elevated view of Bellingshausen Station and Frei Base on King George Island in Antarctica, where the stabbing allegedly took place. At a remote research station in Antarctica occupied by only 14 people, rising tensions between two Russian colleagues recently escalated into violence, ending with one man stabbing the other in the chest. On Oct. 9 at about 3 p.m. local time, engineer Sergei Savitsky, age 54, allegedly attacked welder Oleg Beloguzov, age 52, in the canteen at Bellingshausen, a Russian research station on King George Island, Russian media site 47News reported. Savitsky stabbed Beloguzov with a knife; the injured Beloguzov was then evacuated to a hospital in Chile, where he was said to be in stable condition. A history of "strained relations" and long-standing hostility between the two men led to the knifing, according to 47News. [10 Mysterious Deaths and Disappearances That Still Puzzle Historians] It has been widely reported that Savitsky "snapped" because Beloguzov repeatedly revealed the endings of the books that Savitsky was reading. However, it is unclear where this detail originated; an unnamed source told Russian news agency Interfax that tensions likely sparked from the men spending six months together in close quarters, but the source offered no further insights into what may have led Savitsky to pick up the knife and plunge it into Beloguzov's chest. Researchers endure isolation and punishing conditions while conducting their work in Antarctica, though the time generally passes without dangerous incidents flaring up. However, there have been exceptions. In 1996, FBI agents visited Antarctica to investigate a fight that broke out at McMurdo Research Station, when one man attacked another with a hammer, The Spokesman reported that year. And in 2000, an Australian astrophysicist named Rodney Marks died of methanol poisoning "under mysterious circumstances" while at the AmundsenScott South Pole Station; his death was investigated by authorities but was not labeled a homicide, according to the New Zealand Herald. According to the terms of the Antarctic Treaty drawn up in 1959 and now representing 53 nations people who live and work at research bases in Antarctica who commit criminal offenses are subject to the jurisdiction of their home countries, the New York Times reported in 2016. After the attack, Savitsky surrendered to the director of the research station. He traveled back to Russia, returning to St. Petersburg's Pulkovo International Airport on Oct. 20, where he was met by police officers. Two days later, officials with the Vasileostrovsky District Court in St. Petersburg charged Savitsky with attempted murder and sentenced him to house arrest until Dec. 8, 47News reported. Originally published on Live Science. Sit back, clear your mind, and let this imagery sink in: "buckets and buckets and buckets full of tiny octopi." That's what Devin Dumont curator of the UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium in Savannah, Georgia said he found when he showed up to work last Tuesday, according to an interview with local news site Savannah Morning News. "I noticed this cloud of moving dots and I realized, 'Oh my God... There are babies. There are babies everywhere,'" Dumont told Savannah Morning News. "I immediately started scooping them out and putting them in buckets." Octavius, the aquarium's sole octopus resident, had apparently given birth to a brood of tens of thousands of tiny, confetti-size babies overnight. When Dumont found the brood swirling like a blizzard in Octavius' tank, he was surprised for a few reasons. [Photos: Ghostly Dumbo Octopus Dances In the Deep Sea] Octavius, the Georgia aquarium's sole octopus, gave birth to a brood of tens of thousands of tiny, octopus babies. (Image credit: UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant) For starters, nobody at the aquarium knew Octavius was pregnant. The full-grown female Octopus vulgaris had been donated to the Marine Education Center on Aug. 8 by the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston, and had been living alone in her tank for more than two months, according to Savannah Morning News. More importantly, nobody at the aquarium knew Octavius was a female when they adopted her (hence her masculine name, chosen via social media poll). This is not a hard mistake to make male and female members of O. vulgaris look very similar, save for some minute differences on their third right arms. But, in retrospect, Dumont said he should have recognized the signs that Octavius was preparing for motherhood. About a month ago, the octopus went from being a social darling keen on slapping her tentacles against the side of her tank to being a recluse, retreating into a cave near the back of her enclosure. Because female octopi can store sperm in their bodies for weeks before laying their eggs under optimal conditions, it's likely that Octavius was sizing up the safety of her tank before deciding to bring her babies into the world, Dumont said. In any case, the UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium suddenly became about 10,000 octopi richer overnight. Some have since been installed in nursery tanks (not on public display). Others have been donated to a nearby shellfish research lab, while still others were released into the adjacent Skidaway River. Hopefully, some will grow to fill their mama's eight wiggly shoes. As with most octopus moms, Octavius gave her all to ensure her eggs had a safe place to hatch, and she will soon enter into an octopus death spiral that culminates with her demise once her final babies are hatched. RIP, Octavius. We hardly knew ye. Originally published on Live Science. ALBANY Despite its obvious echo of a decidedly partisan slogan, the "Make Comedy Great Again" Tour promises that it will be an evening of five comics who work in an older tradition, namely one free of politics and vulgarity. Saturday's show at The Egg ran for more than two hours, yet it never got stronger than PG-13 in language and innuendo, and it was a clear hit with a freely laughing audience that had an age range as broad as any I've seen for stand-up comedy, from about a kid about 11 to a couple in their 70s. The Albany stop was the final of six across a narrow stripe of the Northeast, including Glens Falls; Pittsfield, Mass.; and Tarrytown, which on Friday night was the site of an eight-camera, high-def taping for a special that will be shown on CRTV, a channel affiliated with the right-wing Conservative Review media company. (Slogan: "No ads, no censors, no hateful liberal media.") Even before the national exposure of the special, interest in MCGA has been so strong that the tour, produced by The Comedy Works in Saratoga Springs, is already looking at booking 30 to 40 weekends' worth of dates next year, according to owner Tommy Nicchi. The comedians' material isn't explicitly political, but it is fundamentally conservative, in the larger sense of the word. Implicit in much of the humor from all five comics was a desire to preserve older values and traditions, a suspicion of change and a longing for an America that was, at least from the white majority's point of view, simpler and less fractious. (From another perspective, that means more homogenous.) On the stage this manifested itself in a pair of grandpa personas: Brad Upton as the genial, slightly goofy one who's younger than his age and Jeff Allen as the only-62-but-already-a-geezer guy who walks effortfully and complains about his declining health and about everyone in his life. For Upton, getting older means sitting in the mall food court and staring longingly at plates going by, not the attractive young women carrying them. While this is to him a sign of deterioration, it's representative of MCGA that Upton would never consider that the food-carrying women think it's a major improvement. Allen is more explicitly sour, having crossed over into that late-middle-age period where men are so hen-pecked that it gets a big laugh when Allen says something like, "I've been married 32 years, so it's not like I'm a man anymore anyway." If they're the grumpy gramps of the tour, Ross Bennett is the weird uncle, with sproingy hair, thick glasses and a persona he describes as "the science teacher that (all the students) suspected smokes pot." Though sentimentality was thickest with Bennett, it was also gentlest, culminating with a hilarious set-closing routine about sledding, the differences between toboggans and flying saucers and being mummified in scarf wrapped around his head so many times that it felt as if his mother was planning to pull-start a lawnmower. The only woman on the tour, Tina Giorgi is the funny aunt of the crew. She gets much humor from the contrasts between her Sicilian family with an evil grandmother who uses the horn on her head to grate Parmesan, and her husband's all-blond kin from Virginia, where Southern-accented exclamations pass for conversation; near the end of her act, Giorgi gleefully brags about having seared the audience's memory with "Izzat raaahht?" and "Innat sumpin'?" (Translation: "Is that right?" and "Isn't that something?") Comedy review "Make Comedy Great Again" Tour With Jeff Allen, Ross Bennett, Tina Giorgi, Earl David Reed and Brad Upton When: 8 p.m. Saturday Where: Swyer Theatre at The Egg, Empire State Plaza, Albany Length: 25 minutes per comic, no intermission; two hours, 10 minutes overall The crowd: About half full, or 225 people, from preteen to seniors, almost exclusively white See More Collapse Absolutely necessary to this mix is the ostensible opener/emcee, David Earl Reed, a black comic and morning-radio host in York, Pa., who is supremely skilled at zinging white audiences just up to their comfort levels. In a set that was as long as each of the others', Reed was masterful in his crowd work, riffing brilliantly on interactions with the audience, from late-comers to a monosyllabic 20something who, when asked about his career, said only, but enthusiastically, "Concrete!" Noting a black-white interracial couple sitting near the front, Reed said, "You know what they say: Once you go black ...." He trailed off, letting the audience mentally fill in what they thought was coming. What he actually said was far more pointed than a a rhyming, sexually based cliche: "Once you go black, your family leaves." sbarnes@timesunion.com 518-454-5489 blog.timesunion.com/tablehopping @Tablehopping On Friday, corporate giant AT&T joined the growing list of companies to withdraw support of Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, - the white nationalist sympathizer seeking reelection to a ninth term. AT&T, completing its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, assumed the role as HBO's parent company in June. Yet that did not deter TV host John Oliver from chiming in. Oliver laid into the company during Sunday's edition of "Last Week Tonight," calling the timing of the announcement "a little weird, because King has been exactly this racist for years now." But AT&T, Oliver said, never excelled in the skill of picking up on business signals, which explains its failure to catch on. Continuing his assault, the host mocked: "How do you like dem apples, business daddy? I bet you don't like dem apples, do ya?" A handful of prominent companies have distanced themselves from King in recent weeks, including Intel, Purina and dairy company Land O'Lakes. Following suit, in a two-part tweet, AT&T said that its Political Action Committee had concluded that continued support of King "would not be consistent with one of our core values . . . 'Stand for Equality.' " The announcement came days before Tuesday's congressional midterms in which King seeks reelection. In the aftermath of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, criticism of King has increased. But the representative has a history of publicly associating with individuals and parties with strong ties to white supremacists - more recently, Toronto mayoral candidate Faith Goldy and the Austria Freedom Party. Neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer has also called the Iowa candidate "basically an open white nationalist." FiveThirtyEight nevertheless projects the incumbent having more than an 85 percent chance of beating his Democratic challenger, J.D. Scholten. On air, Oliver continued to voice his disdain about AT&T's backing of King for this long, commenting on a recent outburst in which he lashed out at a reporter who inquired about the lawmaker's support of white supremacists at a news conference in Iowa. Oliver called King's response "spectacular." People who are not white nationalists would simply say "no," Oliver noted. "The news really shouldn't be these companies bailed on him, so much as they were okay with him for a shockingly long time." Organizers of the eighth annual Katy Thanksgiving Feast are planning on 1,200 for dinner on Nov. 22 at Katy First United Methodist Church. For the first time, people can visit www.katyfeasts.org to register online for the event. People who lack access to a computer or smart phone, may call Rhonda at 281-384-0288 for reservations. Spanish speakers may call Claudia at 832-651-2650 to make a reservation. Information fliers are distributed at Katy Christian Ministries (KCM), St. Vincent de Paul at Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Church, Christ Clinic and Texas Childrens Pediatrics Katy. People also may email katythanksgivingfeast@gmail.com for information. Kathy Fraser, event spokeswoman, said folks can dine at the church for fellowship. We also have meals that they can pick up if theyre waiting on family members who are working that day and want to share that meal together. We also will deliver to shut-ins. We have done that every year. She encourages people to sign up by Nov. 20. Its a wonderful way to start the holiday season by sharing with those who have much less or who do without, she said. Plenty of people still are not in their homes (after Harvey). Our homeless community is invited to attend, added Fraser, whos been involved with the event since the beginning. Tina Hatcher, director of Hope Impacts, a Katy nonprofit that works with homeless, will again escort homeless to the feast and have food provided for those unable to attend. It is one of five nonprofits working with a cadre of a dozen churches and businesses. The other nonprofits are KCM, Clothed by Faith, Christ Clinic and the Pregnancy Help Center. Nonprofits will be on hand so people can get connected to services, explained Fraser. More Information Partners Churches: Alief Baptist Church, Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, The Church at Cane Island, Epiphany of Our Lord Catholic Church, First Baptist Church of Katy, First United Methodist Church of Katy, Grace Fellowship United Methodist Church, Holy Covenant United Methodist Church, Kingsland Baptist Church, New Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Peter's United Methodist Church and Trinity Baptist Church Businesses: Brammers, Good Ole Boys, Katy Budget Books, Lifetime Christian Store, Midway BBQ, Panera Bread (two locations), Photography Fray, Randalls, Steven Jones professional pianist, Westside Chevrolet and Westside Kia Organizations: Boy Scout Troop 557 and Katy First United Methodist Church Rejoice Sunday School Class Nonprofits: Christ Clinic, Clothed by Faith, Hope Impacts, Katy Christian Ministries and Pregnancy Help Center See More Collapse Clothed by Faith volunteers will provide clothing to those in need. Last year, the nonprofit served about 500 people. Joanie and Bud Ramser of Katy First United Methodist Church are co-chairs this year. Fraser and Steve Meadows of Holy Covenant United Methodist Church had co-chaired the event since the beginning. Joanie Ramser said, Volunteers all come from different churches. We pull from the congregations. The coolest thing about this is it is all denominations; its not one particular denomination. There are ways the community can help, too. Ramser said financial donations can be made payable to Holy Covenant United Methodist Church, 22111 Morton Ranch Road Katy, 77449. Or, people can donate directly through the www.katyfeast.org website. Were also collecting diapers, new/gently used coats and food products as people come there to get a meal they also can get supplies, Ramser added. Donations of new blankets, coats, nonperishable food items and baby diapers/wipes may be dropped off between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Nov. 19-21 at the Family Life Center of Katy First United Methodist Church, 5601 Fifth St., Katy. New business supporters this year include Sierra Classic Homes, which is providing financial support, and Igloo Corp., which is donating large coolers to contain side dishes. Jay Cooper of Candlelight Video Productions has volunteered to take photos.Westside Chevrolet and Westside Kia have been supporters from the beginning, said Fraser, as have Midway, which donates ham; Randalls, which donates turkeys, Good Ole Boys, which cooks the turkeys; and Panera Bread which donates bread. Katy Budget Books will provide childrens books for the event, she said. Well have a childrens area that will involve holidays crafts and things for the kiddos to do, including face painting. Well also have folks available for prayer if people are in need of prayer, said Fraser. We had a lot of takers on that last year. People are going through some tough situations. Fraser and her family have been involved since 2008 in the Katy Thanksgiving Feast. We were looking for somewhere to participate in some sort of outreach on Thanksgiving but did not want to go to the George R. Brown (Convention Center in Houston). She learned about Antioch Missionary Baptist Churchs effort since 2003 to feed their neighbors in need. She contacted Pastor Tyrone Freeman who said she and her family could join the tradition. Next year more people came to help. After announcing the event at church another year, even more volunteers came and tents were added to accommodate the larger numbers. We grew and grew till we outgrew that kitchen, Fraser said. Organizers looked to move to a larger venue somewhere in Katy. After discussions with the Katy mayor, organizers decided to keep churches as event hosts. We wanted it to rotate around so its not any one churchs outreach but its the community. Thats why it moves every year from church to church, explained Fraser. But Antioch remains a part of the event with congregation members Rosa Kelly and Rita Williams on the committee and the Rev. Freeman attending every year to give the blessing, she added. karen.zurawski@chron.com RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Somewhere in this kingdom, Prince Turki bin Abdullah is locked away. Turki, 47, was once a golden scion of Saudi Arabia's gilded royal family, a prominent son of former King Abdullah and a fighter pilot with advanced degrees who trained in the United States and Britain. He was the powerful governor of Riyadh province, then chief executive of the multibillion-dollar King Abdullah Foundation, which funds charitable work around the world. He is now among an unknown number of superwealthy Saudis who remain detained a full year after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman startled his country by turning Riyadh's posh Ritz-Carlton hotel into a 5-star jail for some of the nation's most prominent citizens in what he called an anti-corruption sweep. Prince Turki, who officials have reportedly accused of graft related to construction of the Riyadh subway, remains detained without any formal charges. His chief of staff, Gen. Ali al-Qahtani, was also arrested and died in detention under circumstances that have never been fully explained. Early this year, the Saudi attorney general said 56 men remained locked up, some the subject of criminal investigations, with more than $106 billion in cash, real estate, businesses, securities and other assets recovered in the Ritz operation. Mohammed said in interview last month with Bloomberg only eight men were still detained. He offered no other details, except to say, "They're with their lawyers and facing the system that we have in Saudi Arabia." But other people familiar with the detentions said the number is much higher, with 45 Ritz detainees still locked up. One of those may have won his freedom Friday when Saudi authorities released Prince Khaled bin Talal, 56, a cousin of Mohammed and Prince Turki. Khaled is a businessman and noted religious conservative who reportedly opposed the crown prince's decision to strip power from the country's notorious religious police. Human rights activists and other analysts said Mohammed may be preparing to release more of the some detainees to help cool the international furor over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Oct. 2. Khashoggi's murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul at the hands of Saudi agents has strained relations with Washington and Europe and drawn attention to the crown prince's human rights practices, including his record of locking up scores of his critics. "They don't want to do it, but they are under pressure, and they will do it to release some pressure," said Yahya Assiri, a Saudi human rights activist living in self-exile in London. But he cautioned against overstating the importance of the release of Prince Khaled, suggesting it was mainly done to shore up support for Mohammed within the royal family at a time when the crown prince and his father, the current monarch, King Salman, are under stress. "I think this is trying to show family unity in the face of scrutiny," said Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch who closely monitors the kingdom. Mohammed's roundup of wealthy Saudis a year ago helped cement his control over many of the country's most powerful individuals and neutralized potential political rivals within royal family. "It's about money and power," said a person close to the Saudi royal family. "Mohammed bin Salman understands that if you take away their money, you take away their power." Faced with long detentions or other punishment, some of the Ritz detainees agreed to hand over the demanded cash, which often amounted to most of their net worth, according to accounts from family, friends and human rights groups. Many Saudis and foreign observers have applauded Mohammed for what they view as a long-overdue reckoning for the clubby culture of royals and well-connected families, who have long treated Saudi Arabia's land, oil and riches as their own. But others see the detentions - and reports of torture and at the Ritz - as a brutal move by Mohammed to settle scores and solidify his personal power. Critics say that explanation fits with his record of arresting scores of human rights and women's right activists and even clerics who disagree with his policies. Saudi officials strongly deny anyone has been tortured: "That is not who we are," one official said. "We do not torture. That word has never been in our vocabulary in Saudi Arabia." The crown prince appears to have targeted the family of former King Abdullah in particular. Several observers said this was the product of tensions between the Salman and Abdullah wings of the family that go back many years but became especially pronounced because of Mohammed's rapid rise to power. Prince Turki in recent years had grown increasingly concerned at the signs of Mohammed's accumulation of power, especially his control of an investigative unit in the Ministry of Interior "that could be used to make all sorts of accusations," said one of the people close to the royal family. In addition to jailing Prince Turki, Mohammed also arrested three of Abdullah's other sons, including Prince Muteib bin Abdullah, 65, head of the National Guard, who was fired from his job. Two other sons, Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, 40, a former head of the Saudi Arabia Red Crescent Society, and Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah, a former governor of Mecca province, were briefly detained after they complained about the death of Qahtani, 55, who had been "in the peak of health," when he was arrested, according to the person close to the royal family. Also detained two months after the initial Ritz roundup was Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz bin Salman, 36, who is married to a daughter of King Abdullah. His father was also arrested, and the two remain in detention with no formal charges filed, according to his lawyer. Several people with ties to the royal family said Mohammed's focus on Abdullah's family seemed designed to sideline potential rivals for power and to seize control of the King Abdullah Foundation fund, overseen by Prince Turki, which is estimated to be worth $20 billion to $30 billion. Salman, while still governor of Riyadh province, began grooming his son for leadership roles, naming him as a top adviser while Mohammed was still in his early twenties. When Salman became crown prince in 2011, also serving as defense minister, Mohammed was again installed as a top adviser. At the time, King Abdullah was worried about Mohammed's rapid ascent, according to a former Western diplomat with decades of experience in Riyadh. "King Abdullah was concerned about what kind of authority being given to the young fella, who was not even 30 yet," the diplomat said. About a decade ago, Mohammed drew King Abdullah's ire when a top economic adviser complained to the monarch about Mohammed's stock market investments, prompting the royal court to "censure" Mohammed, according to a person close to the royal family. Later, Mohammed again angered King Abdullah by firing a series of deputies in the defense ministry, that person said. Abdullah moved to ban Mohammed from the ministry. The resentments ran both ways. Salman became upset when King Abdullah named another of their brothers to succeed Salman as Riyadh governor, the diplomat said. Salman had held the governor's post since 1963 and wanted to keep it in his family line, the diplomat said. - - - According to numerous media reports, some of the detainees are being held in al-Hair high-security prison south of Riyadh. Others are reportedly locked in private homes and are tracked with ankle-monitors. Those being detained, according to media reports and accounts from family members, friends and others close to the royal family, include: - Adel Fakeih, 59, the former mayor of Jiddah and former minister of economy and planning. - Walid Fitaihi, 54, a prominent physician who hosted a popular television show dealing with health and wellness, founded a hospital in Jiddah and holds American citizenship. - Amr al-Dabbagh, 52, chairman of the Jiddah-based Al-Dabbagh Group and former head of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, one of the top economic positions in the country - Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, 72, a Saudi-Ethiopian businessman who had a net worth of $8.1 billion last year from his diversified interests in a Swedish oil refinery, Saudi gas stations and an Ethiopian conglomerate involved in gold mining, farming and construction, according to Forbes. - Bakr bin Laden, Jiddah-based chairman of the powerful Saudi Binladin Group, a multibillion-dollar conglomerate, has been one of country's most successful and influential companies. Beyond any bad blood between the Salman and Abdullah wings of the royal family or effort to bring wealthy Saudis to heel, some observers also see historic regional rivalries at play in the detentions, noting those locked up have been disproportionately from the Hijaz region on the Red Sea, including Jiddah and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. "These are the families that helped Abdul Aziz unify and build the country in the 1920s and '30s," said Robert Lacey, a British historian who has written extensively about Saudi Arabia and the royal family. "Now they are treated as criminals." - - - Fahim reported from Istanbul. In the left-of-center universes where I have mostly lived, worked and been politically active, it is now awkward to introduce oneself as a Democrat who supports the choice for life over that of abortion. The reaction is often polite but perplexed. I have regularly had people greet this news with a shocked silence - as though supporting universal health care, economic redistribution, minority rights, strong unions, environmental regulation, gun controls, criminal justice reform and freedom of expression but balking at abortion is so illogical that it can be explained only by some psychological deficit or religious dogmatism beyond rational discussion. A few outraged interlocutors have suggested that to be both a liberal and an abortion opponent is a form of insidious false advertising, just short of claiming to sell oneself as a benign Nazi. My view is different. I joined the NAACP as a kid, picketed Woolworths in Chicago in solidarity with student sit-ins in the South, helped expose a segregated facility at my university, started in journalism as an intern at a labor and civil rights monthly, spent a week in jail as a Vietnam War protester, edited one liberal journal and wrote for many others, have never pulled a lever for a Republican and joined democratic socialist Michael Harrington in launching the group that eventually became today's resurgent Democratic Socialists of America. But credentials like those seem insufficient where abortion is concerned. Millions of Americans with liberal commitments and anti-Trump convictions, but who oppose abortion, feel they are being treated as something between an alien life form that should be uprooted from Democratic Party ranks or merely an endangered species that can happily die of its own accord. Time ran an essay last year titled "The Case for Keeping the Democratic Party Away from Anti-Abortion Candidates." As Cosmopolitan put it, "Abandoning Abortion Rights Means Abandoning Women." A Politico headline sounded the death knell: "If You're a Pro-Life Democrat . . . You Know You're Standing Alone," Consider the storm that blew up last year after Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez declared that an affirmative stance on abortion was "not negotiable" as a condition for party support. Pressed by pragmatists, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the party finally clarified that it had no official "litmus test" on abortion, after which leaders of Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America called the flip-flop "shocking" and "folly." Writing under the headline "Of Course Abortion Should Be a Litmus Test for Democrats," an op-ed writer in the New York Times called the party's decision a "morally putrescent idea" worthy of "cringing, bewildered invertebrates." This summer, the Missouri Democratic Party passed a platform affirming "a woman's right to choose," but with an amendment recognizing that "members of our party have deeply held and sometimes differing positions on issues of personal conscience, such as abortion." The provision welcomed "all Missourians who may hold differing positions on this issue." "Sickening," was the reaction of Alison Dreith, the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, who called such "anti-choice language . . . a slap in the face to the base." A month later, the Missouri Democrats removed the language from their platform. Obviously abortion is no simple matter. I've known women who felt compelled to seek abortions and those who chose otherwise, often resisting pleas from families and friends, even though giving birth meant upending their lives. I knew the children and, later, adults whose lives had been spared. And I knew that some of these women, whatever their own decisions, supported Roe v. Wade. Not simple. Because I spent the better part of a decade in the burgeoning field of bioethics and altogether over three decades covering religion and politics, my circles have included abortion rights and antiabortion advocates appalled at the demonizing slogans to which both sides reduced this complexity. These people produced thoughtful moral, legal, political, and sociological arguments, probably more from abortion rights than antiabortion perspectives. Their analyses often altered my thinking. But when all was said and done, I found it impossible to convince myself that the unborn offspring of two humans was not, morally speaking, in an utterly different category than say a dearly beloved pet or even a crucial bodily organ that I might, with pain and regret, sacrifice to the surgeon for my well-being or survival. Here, instead, was a distinct organism with his or her unique genetic code and by eight weeks a beating heart, incipient brain waves, and a discernible human appearance. He or she was no less a member of the human community than an infant. During the civil rights battles of the 1960s, when liberals were accused of "legislating morality," they replied that law could not, in fact, be distanced from morality. But after the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, liberals agreed with the justices - that moral beliefs about abortion were so contradictory and irresolvable and what was at stake so personal that the law should stand back and leave moral judgments to the individual. The pre-Roe status quo really was untenable, and the issue of morality and law in a pluralistic society could not be dodged or disregarded. But even many abortion rights advocates believe this overreach invited the backlash that has roiled American politics ever since. I knew that the law also had to accommodate as many differences as possible without completely abandoning moral concerns and, like a few others, proposed a compromise. My argument for revising Roe by pushing back the date for access to abortion to an earlier point in fetal development while setting aside the goal of repeal got no traction in the conservative camp or any notice in the liberal camp, where compromises like mine remained a distinctly minority position. This was tolerable as long as there seemed to be room for disagreement - when Democratic presidential platforms still acknowledged the "deeply held" differences on abortion within the party, before the abortion rights movement simply shut down any discussion of the moral standing of unborn lives. But eventually polarization triumphed. Abortion became a wedge issue for Republicans and, in reality, a litmus test for Democrats. Many Democrats morally uneasy about abortion have often clung to "rare," in the Clintons' old formula, "safe, legal and rare," as a common ground where liberal policies supporting women might converge with recognition of the moral standing of unborn lives. Today, pro-choice voices increasingly scorn "rare" as a weasel word and unacceptable concession. "Get rid of the 'rare' word," Fran Moreland Johns insists, praising columnist Katha Pollitt for challenging this "apologetic strategy." The onetime Democratic mantra, Pollitt explains, "contains the idea that abortion is a bad thing, we want as little of it as possible." The formula is wrong because it stigmatizes and ultimately undermines abortion rights. And yet I urge voters who support the choice for life to ignore the "not welcome" and "keep quiet" signs that liberal Democrats have hung on their party's door; I tell them we should send Democrats, of whatever stripe, to Congress. Of whatever stripe means supporting - energetically - what will inevitably be largely candidates who support abortion rights. The blue wave I hope for would mean a House, and maybe even Senate, that supports abortions. A troubling prospect, I admit, for someone with my perspective. But this isn't just about the lesser of two evils, although it's true that only a significant Democratic victory will check the president's relentless assault on our nation's political norms, its vulnerable people and its moral and material environment. Those who oppose abortion have their own moral reasons for looking beyond near-term abortion right advocates' victories and throwing themselves into a blue wave. Put very simply, Donald Trump is the worst thing that has ever happened to the antiabortion movement. Roe v. Wade, I believe, will survive, even with the unfortunate seating of Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice. If it didn't, it would create a far greater backlash than what occurred in 1973. And, returned to the states, access to abortion will remain legal for the vast bulk of the population. In states where polls show personal opposition to abortion is strong, posturing Republican legislatures and governors promise to enact nearly total bans to abortion, which is a lot easier in the abstract than when faced with hard cases, political firestorms and dissenters willing to be jailed. In 2006 and 2008, such bans were put to referendums in strongly antiabortion South Dakota. They were rejected by a 10-point margin. Without a deep change in our culture, in our trivializing sexual mores and in our unequal and abusive treatment of women, any antiabortion advocate victories will be short-lived. The antiabortion movement will not advance its cause yoked, as it has become, to the repulsive misogyny, dangerous machismo, racial bias, hypocritical religiosity and throwback economics of Trump and the party that is recasting itself in his image. Making a human case against abortion under a banner like that is worse than hopeless. It will only entrench the acceptance of abortion as a harsh necessity in a harsh society. - - - Steinfels, a former editor of Commonweal, was a religion reporter and columnist for The New York Times. On Feb. 14, 2018, our lives were forever changed by a gunman who killed 17 of our classmates and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In just 11 minutes, our childhood ended. Our eyes were opened to a harsh reality: Mass shootings happen more frequently in America than any place else on the planet, and the gun lobby buys the silence of too many of our elected officials. Over eighteen months before the shooting at our school, 49 people were killed at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. Four months before Parkland, 58 people were killed at a concert in Las Vegas. And just last week, 11 people were killed at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. In all that time, not a single federal law has been passed that addresses gun violence. Not a single law. Our nation's leaders have failed to protect citizens where they live, where they learn and where they pray. On March 24, we and 22 fellow students organized March for Our Lives, the largest mobilization of young people this country has ever seen. Millions joined us for rallies in Washington, D.C., and in other cities and towns across the nation. Since then, we've traveled to over a hundred communities to talk about common-sense reform. Our tour took us to deeply conservative parts of the country, where people staunchly disagreed with us. When we visited Bismarck, North Dakota, the mayor and state representative arrived at our town hall meeting to lead a counter-rally right outside. Other times, people have shown up at our events armed to the teeth, shouting our names and accusing us of being "crisis actors." We've gone out to meet them. We've explained that we're not the gun-grabbing communists they think we are - that when people advocated for safer roads and cars, they weren't anti-vehicle. We're just trying to keep people from dying. Sometimes, the people we talk to end up in tears. Usually, we end up finding common ground. The gun debate has begun to shift. National Rifle Association spending for 2018 is down 90 percent from 2014, and Reuters reports that gun-control groups have outspent gun rights groups by 40 percent in the midterms, "unraveling the NRA's longstanding dominance in spending on gun politics." Once considered too polarizing to touch, gun control has become a major campaign theme for gubernatorial races in Ohio and Florida, congressional races in Virginia and Nevada and the Senate race in Texas. A recent study notes that young Americans - called the "Columbine Generation" - rank school shootings as the top issue facing America's future. On Election Day, we can turn that conviction into lasting change. When young people are told to vote, it's often from an outside, almost parental, perspective - it's a lecture about their civic responsibility, as if casting a ballot is some chore they've forgotten. But for the past month, we've visited college campuses across the country, walking up to strangers who don't recognize us or know our story, and talking to them as peers. We tell them what they already know: Politicians don't care about young people. (In a country where students are saddled with massive debt and have to live in fear of getting shot in their classrooms, they don't usually take much convincing.) Then we talk about why: It's because young people don't vote. On Nov. 6, we can change that. We can make our democracy truly representative, ideologically and demographically. More than 40 percent of surveyed 18- to 29-year-olds say they will "definitely vote" Tuesday, according to Harvard's National Youth Poll. This number represents a significant increase from 2010, when only 27 percent indicated they would. But we all need to show up. How many more shootings must there be before our leaders listen to us? We have a simple answer: Young people must vote - all 62 million of us. We must vote because the day after the election, the real work begins. - - - Hogg and Gonzalez are student activists and survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018. FALFURRIAS, Texas - Gun-carrying civilian groups and border vigilantes have heard a call to arms in President Donald Trump's warnings about threats to American security posed by caravans of Central American migrants moving through Mexico. They're packing coolers and tents, oiling rifles and tuning up aerial drones, with plans to form caravans of their own and trail American troops to the border. "We'll observe and report, and offer aid in any way we can," said Shannon McGauley, a bail bondsman in the Dallas suburbs who is president of the Texas Minutemen. McGauley said he was preparing to head for the Rio Grande in coming days. "We've proved ourselves before, and we'll prove ourselves again," he said. McGauley and others have been roused by the president's call to restore order and defend the country against what Trump has called "an invasion," as thousands of Central American migrants advance slowly through southern Mexico toward the U.S. border. Trump has insisted that "unknown Middle Easterners," "very tough fighters," and large numbers of violent criminals are traveling among the women, children and families heading north on foot. The Texas Minutemen, according to McGauley, have 100 volunteers en route to the Rio Grande who want to help stop the migrants, with more likely on the way. "I can't put a number on it," McGauley said. "My phone's been ringing nonstop for the last seven days. You got other militias, and husbands and wives, people coming from Oregon, Indiana. We've even got two from Canada." Asked whether his group planned to deploy with weapons, McGauley laughed. "This is Texas, man," he said. And yet, the prospect of armed vigilantes showing up beside thousands of U.S. troops - along with Border Patrol agents, police officers and migrants - is considered serious enough that miliary planners have issued warnings to Army commanders. According to military planning documents obtained by Newsweek, the military is concerned about the arrival of "unregulated militia members self-deploying to the border in alleged support" of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The assessment estimates that 200 militia members could show up. "They operate under the guise of citizen patrols," the report said, while warning of "incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments." The military report provided no further details about the alleged thefts. Manuel Padilla Jr., the top Border Patrol official in the agency's Rio Grande Valley sector, the nation's busiest for illegal crossings, said he has not issued any instructions to agents in the field or to landowners whose properties are adjacent to the river. But he plans to meet with community members next week, he said, to address their concerns. "We don't have any specific information about the militias," said Padilla, reached by phone along the border. "We have seen them in the past, and when things start getting really busy, we have to make sure to let the community know they're out there." "But they're doing that on their own," Padilla said. McGauley said that in addition to weapons and camping gear, his group will have night-vision goggles and aerial drones with thermal sensing equipment, capable of operating in darkness. He emphasized that the group would report any suspicious activity to authorities and would heed any instructions from Border Patrol agents or military personnel. Several landowners in the area said they do not want the militias around. Michael Vickers, a veterinarian and rancher who lives an hour north of the border in Falfurrias, said that he will not let militia members from outside the area onto his property and that he doubts most area landowners would trust outsiders. "They are a bunch of guys with a big mouth and no substance to them," said Vickers, a Republican who heads the 300-strong Texas Border Volunteers. The group doesn't call itself a militia, although it patrols ranchland to intercept migrants who hike through the brush to attempt to avoid Border Patrol checkpoints. The group uses ATVs, night-vision goggles, spotlights and trained dogs. "People on the [Rio Grande] have been calling us," Vickers said. His group is in a "holding pattern," he said, adding, "We can have 100 volunteers in a hot area in four to eight hours. "We've already talked to a bunch of landowners who wanted to know if we'll be operating if the Border Patrol can't be there to keep their property from being vandalized and their crops from being messed up." "We're ready to move," he said. Others in South Texas are less enthusiastic. Lucy Kruse, 96, said immigrants often stop on her property as they walk through the bush country, sometimes breaking into a small cabin to sleep. Her family's ranch lies amid the thorny mesquite brush, cactus and tawny dry grass 80 miles north of the border. As the migrant caravans head north, she and other landowners in the area worry that the number of trespassers walking through their ranches will increase dramatically. But many say the militias coming to the area also pose a threat. "I will not let militia on my land," Kruse said. "They're civilians stepping into a situation where the Border Patrol is supposed to be in control and make decisions. They could damage property or harm workers. I would guess they would be trigger-happy. If they shot someone, they might just say the person they shot was reaching for a gun." Joe Metz, 80, lives in what looks like a pastoral tropical paradise near Mission, a town of 84,000 in the Rio Grande Valley. Tall, green sugar cane grows beside the wide river, and citrus trees dot the sandy small hillocks away from the banks. The Rio Grande is less than a mile from Metz's living room window, and a section of border wall crosses his property. He has watched for years as border-crossers ford the river and walk onto his land, their first step on American soil. The wall has slowed the flow significantly, he said, but between 50 and 100 people a day still cross through the farm next door. He worries that the caravan, which includes many women and children, will surge through the area, but he doesn't want armed vigilantes on his farm. "The militia just needs to stay where they are," said Metz, a Republican. "We don't need fanatical people. We don't need anybody here with guns. Why do they have guns? I have dealt with illegals for 30 years, and all of them have been scared, asking for help. The militias need to stay up north where they belong. We have no use for them here. They might shoot someone or hurt someone." But the heir to the state's largest and most influential ranch disagrees. Stephen "Tio" Kleberg, who has lived most of his life on the 825,000-acre King Ranch outside of Kingsville, said that he will allow militia groups on his ranch, which is larger than the state of Rhode Island. "I think if the [caravan members] get across the river, they need to be caught and sent back," said Kleberg, who wears a bushy handlebar mustache and chews an unlit cigar. "Once they get on U.S. soil, they need to be stopped and detained. We don't have enough Border Patrol, ICE and Highway Patrol to handle them. If we get 2,000 or 3,000 people, we will need the militia," Kleberg said. - - - Miroff reported from Washington. President Donald Trump indicated he's bracing for the midterm results expect by most prognosticators: Democrats retake the House even as Republicans slightly pad their Senate majority. If he - and they - are right, the outcome will represent the first midterm since 1970 in which the president's party gained ground in one chamber while losing it in another. In that race, Republicans were deep in the minority in both chambers and ended up gaining ground in the Senate while losing House seats. That election, halfway through Richard Nixon's first term, is a potentially useful point of comparison to 2018. Then, as now, the economy was late into a historically lengthy expansion. And while growth turned negative that year, as CNBC's Jeff Cox recently noted, "by the time November 1970 rolled around, the economy was back on its feet en route to a three-year expansion that saw GDP growth average 5.1 percent a year." And then, as now, the president turned to polarizing cultural issues in the campaign's homestretch, vilifying the Democratic opposition as the Vietnam protest movement raged. "I say that the answer to those that engage in disruption, to those that shout their filthy slogans, to those that try to shout down speakers, it's not to answer in kind, but go to the polls in Election Day, and in the quiet of that ballot box, stand up and be counted, the great silent majority of America," Nixon said Oct. 19, 1970 while stumping in Kansas City, Missouri. (Trump even co-opted Nixon's "silent majority" coinage during his 2016 run, and some have said it has racist overtones.) Nixon's message didn't pan out. Then, as potentially now, the GOP's success in Senate contests owed more than anything to a favorable map: Democrats were defending 25 of the 33 seats in play, and 13 were in states that Nixon had carried two years before (Democrats this year are on defense in 10 Trump states). The situations aren't purely analogous. As Cox noted, economic fundamentals are much stronger now than in 1970, with profits soaring and business and consumer confidence riding high. The Friday jobs report also handed Republicans a potent closing argument: It showed the typical worker's earnings rose 3.1 percent over the past year; the jobless rate remained at 3.7 percent, a level it hasn't seen early in Nixon's first term, as the economy added 250,000 jobs last month, the 97th month of consecutive gains. Those conditions have voters expressing increasingly positive attitudes about the economy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News national poll. The survey - which found House Democratic candidates slipping to a 7-point advantage over Republicans, half the edge they enjoyed in August - showed 65 percent of Americans rate the economy as good or excellent. Optimism hasn't ranked that high since January 2001. House Republicans fighting for their political lives in suburban districts are seizing on the economy's performance in their closing pitches to voters, as my colleague Mike DeBonis reports. And Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., apparently called Trump over the weekend to urge the president to focus on the economy in the campaign's final days. "But Trump, unsurprisingly, had another issue on his mind. He boasted to Ryan that his focus on immigration has fired up the base, according to a source familiar with the call," Politico reported. On the other hand, while the economy likely feels stronger now than it did nearly 50 years ago, the president is weaker. Nixon enjoyed a 57 percent approval rating heading into the 1970 midterms; the Post-ABC poll shows Trump's popularity stands at 40 percent. "All midterm elections are a referendum on the incumbent president, and Trump has made this election about himself more than most presidents have, insisting in his campaign rallies that voters should approach the election as if he is on the ballot," The Post's Dan Balz and Scott Clement write. "But elections also tend to reflect views of the economy, and Tuesday's provides a test of the tension between perceptions of the president and perceptions of the economy. Rarely has there been as great a distance between views about the economy and a president's ratings as there is this year." Democrats are encouraged by polling showing their side is more enthusiastic about voting. The party claims a nine-point advantage among those who say they're certain to vote or have voted already, according to the Post-ABC poll. Early voting points to remarkably high turnout, with forecasters predicting the final tally could approach 50 percent of the electorate. That would constitute participation not seen in a midterm since - you guessed it - 1970. Tuesday's midterm election is about many things. It's about health care and immigration. It's about the economy. It's about power and who will hold it, both in Washington and in the states. Above all, it's about something more elemental: what kind of country Americans see today and want to see in the future. That makes these midterms unlike any in the recent past. Talk to voters almost anywhere about what this election means to them, and the answer almost invariably involves personal feelings about President Donald Trump and perceptions about the overall state of the country. This debate about America's divisions has been underway for some time, but Trump has raised the emotional level to something not seen before. This is an election that is being fought in individual districts and states, with traditional tools: money, advertising and boots on the ground. Television ads by Democrats hammer Republicans on this or that issue; Republican ads hammer Democrats. Money is coursing through congressional campaigns at levels not seen before. Voter mobilization is as sophisticated and robust as it has ever been. At the margins, those weapons can make a difference. But it is the larger question about the values of the nation that has produced what we've seen over weeks and months. It is that unsettling, and unsettled, issue that has generated the record amounts of money raised and spent, and the remarkable outpouring of volunteers never before active who are walking precincts and making calls in these final hours - as they have been for months. It is what has motivated record numbers of people in many states to cast ballots ahead of Election Day. Together, those indicators have stamped this campaign as a once-in-a-generation event. This is a divided country, growing more so under this president. Hostility from those in one party toward those in the other has risen. Divisions between urban and rural America have widened. Men and women are on opposites sides in assessments of the president - including in some marriages - and the gender gap has been at record levels. Education has become a new and significant fault line, dividing those with college degrees and those without. One of the beauties of American politics is its diversity - from one region to another, from one state to another, and even within states. Each state or region has its own political history and culture. Each has its peculiarities, its good or bad candidates, its local conditions. A midterm election is like a pointillist painting, each individual race a dot that by Wednesday morning will add up to an image that will provide some answer to the question of the moment: the identity of America as it is today, its aspirations and values, the tone and tenor of the debate. Trump has decided views on these things. Many Americans are thrilled by what he has done or tried to do to shake up a political status quo that left them feeling like outsiders. They see his opponents the same way he often describes them, as enemies of him and of the country. But his presidency also has triggered a powerful backlash that is being felt on this final weekend before Election Day as it has been felt from the day he was inaugurated. His presidency has been a time of raw political anger. The clash of these values and perceptions will produce a rendering on Tuesday. Because of geographical differences in a divided America, what happens on Tuesday could hit with unequal force. If things break as now appears possible, the election could wash away the Republican majority in the House and boost Democrats in gubernatorial and state legislative races. But it could leave Democrats still short of a majority in the Senate because nearly all of the most competitive races are now in red states. Polls show close races for the Senate, the House and governorships. Polls have been wrong before. This could be a wave election, which is to say an election that produces results that overcome structural obstacles and impediments facing the minority party. In this case, it is the strength of the economy that could help Republicans avoid the worst and another factor that makes Tuesday's election different from those past. Look back to 1982, to 1994, to 2006 and to 2010. Those midterms saw the parties of two Republican presidents and two Democratic presidents suffer significant setbacks, but the ingredients were different than they are today - more customary, more understandable. The 1982 midterm election was all about the economy. The country was in a deep recession, and the unemployment rate hit 10 percent in September of that year, the first time it had been in double digits in four decades. Democrats picked up roughly two dozen seats in the House, adding to their majority and dealing a blow to then-President Ronald Reagan. In 1994, anger with government, corruption scandals in the House and legislative missteps by then-President Bill Clinton and congressional Democrats led to a historic revolt by the voters. After 40 years of Democratic rule in the House, Republicans led by soon-to-be-speaker Newt Gingrich swept to power on a tide of anti-government sentiment. By 2006, the focus of the midterms was on the issue of war and peace, namely the growing unpopularity of the Iraq War, coupled with declining confidence in the leadership of then-President George W. Bush, over both the war and his administration's handling of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. The combination cost Republicans their House majority. Four years later, Republicans rode a huge groundswell of dissatisfaction to take back the House. In that case, Democrats under the leadership of then-President Barack Obama were done in by the slow pace of recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression and deep political divisions over the Affordable Care Act, which had passed without Republican support. As with so much else about the Trump presidency, this midterm election is in a class of its own, given that it is taking place at a time of economic prosperity. The country's economic engine is running at peak power, and yet much of the electorate is consumed instead by the style, behavior and personality of the president. Friday's employment report from the Labor Department couldn't have brought better news. All the indicators were moving in the right direction - job growth, wage growth, the unemployment rate and labor force participation. Yet in the midst of one of the best economies in decades, at a time of rising economic and consumer confidence, the campaign has been about almost anything but that. It has not been, however, about nothing. Trump has gone back to spreading fear and division over immigrants, particularly a caravan of migrants hundreds of miles from the southern border. He has chosen to play down good news. Finally, on Saturday night in Florida, he spoke at some length about the economy. Mostly, however, he favors broadsides about law and order and what he calls Democratic "mobs." Which is why the choice for many voters is not about personal finances or the economy or the tax cuts but about whether the country needs change. Tuesday's results could produce surprises. Elections like this often do. The outcome could change the balance of power in Washington, or it could leave Democrats wondering how they missed out again. It will provide a partial answer to the question of what kind of America this is and should be. A more definitive answer will come later, and by Wednesday, people will shift their focus toward another campaign two years from now. Moscow is watching. At least, that's the task of two of its emissaries. Members of Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, will be in the United States this week to help certify the integrity of the midterm election, ensuring that the crucial vote on Tuesday lives up to international democratic standards. It may seem like a curious portfolio for parliamentarians from a country that, two years ago, used cyberwarfare to undermine faith in the democratic process. Russia's own elections are hardly models of integrity. But Artyom Turov, a member of the ruling United Russia party, and Alexei Korniyenko of the Communist Party, are serving as election observers with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Russian news agency TASS reported. They will examine cybersecurity, gerrymandering, voting rights and campaign financing - in a divisive contest that serves, in part, as a rematch of the bitter 2016 battle. The issue of Russian interference has been on the back burner this fall, as special counsel Robert Mueller lays low and as Kremlin-aligned operations seem to shun outright hacking in favor of more run-of-the-mill efforts to inflame debate on social media. But President Donald Trump himself - notoriously skeptical of the determinations of his own intelligence community on Russian meddling - has brought the issue back into public focus in the final days before the election, widely seen as a referendum on his first two years in the White House. Stumping on Saturday in Montana, he promised that the health of the economy would underwrite GOP gains and warned that the Democrats would again seize on an outlandish theory to justify their losses. "They'll think of something like, uh, Russia," he said, as if imitating Democratic deliberations and suggesting contrary to evidence that concerns about foreign interference had been cooked up to explain Hillary Clinton's loss. "We won't say that she was a lousy candidate and we won't say, certainly, that he was a very good candidate." The same day, Trump attacked Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana for running ads touting the record of his Libertarian opponent, apparently as a means of siphoning votes away from his Republican challenger, Mike Braun. Accusing the first-term Democrat of "trying to steal the election," the president added, "Isn't that what Russia did?" The president's tongue-in-cheek affirmation that Russia tried to "steal" the 2016 election is a distinctly awkward backdrop for the visit by the two Russian parliamentarians, given their mandate to assess the legitimacy of the American vote. The midterm campaign has been marked by concerns of voter suppression, from North Dakota to Georgia. Turov and Korniyenko are among 71 parliamentarians deployed nationwide on election day, according to the assembly's leaders. Korniyenko told TASS that he and his Russian colleague would be working in D.C. and Maryland. Observers evaluate the election for its adherence to democratic norms outlined in the OSCE's Copenhagen Document of 1990. The document requires a political climate free of "violence" and "intimidation" and enshrines principles such as "universal and equal suffrage." The affiliations of the two Russian lawmakers, as well as prior statements that they have made, raise questions about their faith in OSCE's mission. Turov has previously called the intergovernmental organization, founded in Helsinki in 1973, a "political farce" and threatened to suspend Russia's participation. He has lent support to the right-wing Democratic Party of Serbia, and he has been a leader in the pro-Kremlin youth wing of United Russia, known as the Young Guard. He sponsored a Young Guard mobilization effort in 2011 that elevated Maria Butina, the young woman charged this summer with acting as a covert Russian agent, to national prominence. "Together we can make the world better for the profit of all," Butina wrote as part of the youth contest coordinated by Turov, according to the news website Russia Beyond. Korniyenko has been hailed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as an expert on youth issues, and he was a moving force behind the Communist youth group's suit against OSCE for $40 trillion in 2009. At issue in the dispute, before the European Court of Human Rights, was an OSCE resolution that appeared to draw a parallel between Nazism and Stalinism. Korniyenko said his aim was to defend "patriotic upbringings." The parliamentary assembly's first mission was in Russia in 1993, when 40 legislators from 20 countries monitored the federation's first genuine, multi-party elections and the referendum on the constitution. "They met with authorities, many candidates, the media and voters and visited about two hundred polling-stations," according to a news release from the time. On the whole, the election was free and fair, the observers concluded. This year's American election presents unique challenges, acknowledged leaders of the delegation in an op-ed in the Hill. "In one sense, the mission is routine for us - having observed elections in the U.S. a half-dozen times since 2004 - but we are also keenly aware that this election is taking place in a context of deep polarization, concerns over election security, and an ongoing investigation into foreign interference in the 2016 presidential contest," observed George Tsereteli of Georgia and Isabel Santos of Portugal. They also acknowledged the tension between Russia's interference in the 2016 American election and the inclusion of Russian representatives in safeguarding the very next nationwide vote. "We understand that in a political climate that for the past two years has been dominated by news of alleged Russian meddling, it might come as a surprise to Americans that Russians are involved in monitoring U.S. elections," the authors wrote. "It should be understood, however, that as members of the OSCE, both the Russian Federation and the United States have for decades welcomed each other's citizens into their countries as international observers." In fact, however, Russia declined to send observers to the U.S. as part of the OSCE mission in 2016. The Russian Embassy said in a statement at the time that it was "obvious that ... our American colleagues are lacking transparency for this kind of work." And when Russia offered to send poll monitors to individual states, American officials declined. Josh Earnest, then-White House press secretary for the Obama White House, said skepticism on the part of states was well-placed. "It's appropriate that people might be suspicious of their motives or at least their motives might be different than what they have publicly stated, given the nefarious activities that they've engaged in in cyberspace," he told reporters at the time. https://youtu.be/hEVRcnYt6_M I write about the decision of the City Council to support the Alamo master plan, and in doing so would note the procedural question that was raised during the discussion. Could the City Council amend the lease agreement with the state of Texas? The curious observations of the city attorney are worth noting. He said that as a matter of procedure, the members of the council could offer amendments, and the council could vote to amend the lease. But in offering this legal opinion, he noted that as a practical matter, doing so would kill the deal. That perspective was reinforced by the representative of the General Land Office, which simply said that if the council amends the lease, the state would walk away. And shortly thereafter, the CEO of the Alamo Trust, Douglass McDonald, got down to business. The wealthy people on the Alamo Endowment were good for $200 million. And he did not have to say again what he has said many times: The plan on the table is their plan, and if the council does not give them what they want, well, no money. Forget all the public hearings and input of concerned residents. The money had spoken early on, and there was no doubt who was going to dance to their fiddle. City Manager Sheryl Sculley took the political lead, and Councilman Roberto Trevino provided the political cover. Ignoring what was obvious, albeit only ghosted on the drawings after the loud objections to a glass wall around Alamo Plaza, Trevino repeatedly said Alamo Plaza would be open to the public, and by open, he meant that the plaza would be closed residents could wait in the same line as tourists to enter through a single gate. Except for Councilmen Clayton Perry and John Courage, who objected to closing the plaza, the council voted for the lease. And in voting yes, council members Rebecca Viagran and Shirley Gonzales took cover behind their desire to tell the full story. The rest just mumbled. The heroism of those who battled at the Alamo provides a stark contrast to those who sat on the dais and waved the white flag to the state. We have occupied Alamo Plaza for 300 years. Alas, no mas. The state of Texas has won this battle for Alamo Plaza. But let me not be bitter in defeat. From the ashes of the Alamo came victory at San Jacinto. So, lets look toward a victory. And in doing so, I close with some observations that might surprise. I hope that the endowment and Mr. McDonald now will be free to act boldly. The depiction of the battleground behind the glass walls was true to history. No trees. Ground. Y nada mas. So, Mr. McDonald, lower the ground to the historic level, and cover the battlefield with decomposed granite, or some other surface that will give us a sense of history. And, please, put up that glass wall, a clean unvegetated divide between history and urbanity. And recognize that the area south of the battlefield will be well-treed, like the plaza is today, and function as a holding ground for tourists. And the residents of San Antonio? Where is our public plaza? Travis Park is a programmed space, devoid of a lively edge. Main Plaza? Also a programmed space, serving as a yard for San Fernando Cathedral. Can we enliven these public spaces with cafes, bars and shops? Or create other civic places downtown? Certainly, the civic plaza at Hemisfair might become the gathering place for residents. But we need to look at downtown carefully, and think about what we can make happen for the people of San Antonio. Surely, our political leaders should be thinking about how to replace the civic space they have taken from us. R. Michael Berrier is the owner of La Tuna Ice House and a San Antonio resident. 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. Not only have more states been abolishing the death penalty in recent years, death sentences in the states that still have it have been declining. There were 300 death sentences imposed in 1995. In 2012, that had dropped to 82. Last year, there were 39 death sentences. One reason is that states have been giving judges and juries options in the form of life without parole sentences. 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. Interesting company we keep. 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. At the same time, there is concern about getting it right. Just under 40 percent expressed confidence that the criminal justice system sentences to death those who are truly guilty. Three-quarters believe that because mistakes are made, there should be a higher standard of proof in death penalty cases. The Innocence Project is the primary driver of exonerations in the U.S. 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 recent Gallup poll indicated that they believe the death penalty does deter; two-thirds do not believe that is 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? In light of the ever-present potential for error and bias, the absence of a deterrent effect and the extraordinary cost to prosecute, appeal and execute someone, we are left with the basic question: Is the death penalty worth it? Its a question more states ought to ask. William R. Kelly is a professor of sociology at The University of Texas at Austin and the author of four books on criminal justice reform. Local News, Press Releases, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: November 05 2018 Attorney Generals Hotline Troubleshoots Range of Election Day Issues. New York, NY - November 5, 2018 - Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood announced her offices Election Day Hotline, which is available to help troubleshoot and resolve a range of issues encountered by voters at the polls during the general election on Tuesday, November 6th. The Attorney General urges voters experiencing problems or issues at the polls to call the offices hotline at 800-771-7755 or email Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood announced her offices Election Day Hotline, which is available to help troubleshoot and resolve a range of issues encountered by voters at the polls during the general election on Tuesday, November 6th. The Attorney General urges voters experiencing problems or issues at the polls to call the offices hotline at 800-771-7755 or email civil.rights@ag.ny.gov at any time between 6:00 AM and 9:00 PM on Tuesday. The hotline will be staffed by attorneys and staff in the Attorney Generals Civil Rights Bureau. All eligible New York voters should be able to freely exercise their right to vote, said Attorney General Underwood. If any New Yorker encounters barriers to voting or other problems at their poll sites, please contact my office immediately. Voters registered in New York City can click here to find their poll site. Voters registered in New York outside New York City can click here to find their poll site. The Attorney Generals office has operated the voter access hotline since November 2012. During previous elections, the office fielded hundreds and sometimes thousands of complaints from voters across the state and worked with local election officials and others to address issues. Last year, the Attorney Generals office sued and secured a consent decree with the New York City Board of Elections regarding voter registration purges The Election Day hotline is part of the offices ongoing effort to reduce barriers to voting. To avoid any potential conflict of interest, inquiries regarding any campaign for Attorney General will be referred to the local Board of Elections or an independent voter helpline. Attorney General Underwood reminds all registered voters that they have the right to accessible elections. In addition, all registered voters have the right to vote free from coercion or intimidation, whether by election officials or any other person. Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: November 05 2018 Girls. Inc. of Long Island provides school and community based programming that serve the unique needs of girls ages 5-18. Woodbury, NY - November 5, 2018 - Nassau County Legislator Arnold W. Drucker (D - Nassau County Legislator Arnold W. Drucker (D - Plainview ) honored Girls Inc. Long Island during their seventh annual gala at the Crest Hollow Country Club on Thursday, Nov. 1. for their ongoing efforts to cultivate a new generation of young female leaders. According to its mission statement, Girls. Inc. of Long Island provides school and community based programming that serve the unique needs of girls ages 5-18 living in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Girls Inc. Long Island, like similar regional chapters throughout the country, strives to help girls achieve their full potential and pave the way for a brighter future. Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: November 05 2018 Lafazan congratulated young anti-bullying advocate Shayna Sakhai for raising $5,000. Syosset, NY - November 5, 2018 - Nassau County Legislator Joshua A. Lafazan ( Nassau County Legislator Joshua A. Lafazan ( Woodbury ) joined the Long Island Coalition Against Bullying (LICAB) to celebrate their achievements in the fight against bullying during the organizations fifth annual gala on Saturday, Oct. 20. During the festivities at the Woodside Club in Syosset , Legislator Lafazan presented a Nassau County Citation to LICAB Executive Director Joseph Salamone in recognition of his critical and life-saving work to eradicate the scourge of bullying in Long Islands schools. LICAB and Salamone were key partners in Legislator Lafazans successful push to create www.NassauStopBullying.org , the Countys new bullying prevention resource website. For more information, please contact Danny Schrafel at 516-571-4214 or dschrafel@nassaucountyny.gov . In addition, Legislator Lafazan congratulated young anti-bullying advocate Shayna Sakhai for raising $5,000 in support of LICAB as part of her Bat Mitzvah project - funds Sakhai and her parents formally presented to Salamone and LICAB during the gala. Tech & Science, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness, Press Releases By Chris Boyle Published: November 05 2018 Dr. Zysman is the founder of Employee Assistance Resource Services, Inc. and author of a book entitled Successful Heroin and Opioid Addiction Treatment. Long Island, NY - November 5, 2018 - Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Simon A. Zysman, a pioneer in the field of addiction treatment, was honored this week by his Alma Mater, City University of New York at Queens College, for the recent successful publication and industry-wide impact of his book, Successful Heroin and Opioid Addiction Treatment . Dr. Zysman is the founder of Employee Assistance Resource Services, Inc. ( EARS ), a Smithtown -based medically supervised outpatient substance abuse treatment program with one of the highest success rates in treating heroin and opioid addicts on an outpatient basis in New York State. Dr. Zysman developed a Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) based program in conjunction with behavioral intervention (psychotherapy) which has proven to be very successful in treating Heroin & Opioid addicted patients, which inspired Dr. Zysman to chronicle his life-saving techniques by writing a book entitled Successful Heroin and Opioid Addiction Treatment Heroin & Opioid addiction induces depression that does not adequately respond to traditional psychiatric medication due to a condition known as Dopamine Deficiency Disorder. According to Dr. Zysman, the crux of opioid addiction is that it reduces the body's ability to generate dopamine, a vital neurotransmitter; the less dopamine your body generates, the more opioids you need to compensate for it. Buprenorphine treatment allows the body to fill the void associated with dopamine deficiency in conjunction with conventional psychotherapy techniques until the patients are able to function as relatively normal, healthy, individuals once again. Many families have thanked Dr. Zysman and the medical staff at EARS for giving them back their family members, restored to the way they were before they became addicted to drugs. Since its release, Successful Heroin and Opioid Addiction Treatment has been doing exceptionally well in terms of both sales and the overall reception by the medical community. In order to support the release of the book, Dr. Zysman noted that he has been doing a series of personal appearances. I started doing presentations at libraries, universities, and I'm also hoping to be able to get some network television spots. I also spoke at a recent Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, as well as for a group of parents of addicted childrensome of their stories were heartbreaking, he said. It's very important to get the word out, and the sooner we get the word out, hopefully the more lives we're going to save. That's really the most critical issue. We need to be more aggressive in terms of educating and promoting a treatment approach that has been saving the lives of Heroin and Opioid addicted individuals. Dr. Zysman has also been invited to attend book signing events at libraries, bookstores, guest speaking engagements about the current Heroin & Opioid epidemic, and other promotional events throughout Long Island in the New York metropolitan area. Dr. Simon A. Zysman holding a copy of his book, Successful Heroin and Opioid Addiction Treatment. Photo Credit: Chris Boyle Due to the growing influence of Successful Heroin and Opioid Addiction Treatment , Dr. Zysman said that more physicians and medical facilities have been adopting his methods, including those who may have been initially resistantuntil they saw the exceptional results, that is. We not only need to educate the general public, but we need to educate doctors, counselors, treatment facilities...we really need to spearhead this whole thing, he said. The book has already had a big impact on Long Island...many of the facilities that previously rejected the use of Buprenorphine are now utilizing it. However, many of them don't have that level of expertise yet that allows them to use it more effectively. It takes time for doctors to be able to use this treatment method, but when they do they can save more lives." Dr. Zysmans work has also attracted the attention of an independent film director who is currently working on a documentary about the opioid epidemic that is currently running rampant throughout the country. The director is interested in following my career and what led me to providing substance abuse treatment for opioid addiction, he said. The director is currently in the process of raising funds for the project ...because of the opioid epidemic, he feels that this film is desperately needed, especially when it comes to documenting my treatment procedures so that it can be more effectively duplicated. However, the most recent and to Dr. Zysman, the most personal accolade his book has received is in the form of a request from his alma mater, Queens College. After he informed the college of the publication of Successful Heroin and Opioid Addiction Treatment, officials from the institution requested a copy of the book for presentation in the Alumni Authors display in the campus Rosenthal Library. This distinction, naturally, is seen as a huge honor by Dr. Zysman. The Queens College alumni magazine has a section dedicated to books written by graduates, so I informed them of my book because part of my goal is to get the word out as quickly as possible, he said. After they learned about it, they wrote me a letter congratulating me on the book and requested that I send them an autographed copy to display at the campus Library. When I was a student at Queens College I used to work in the library, not knowing one day that my very own book would be on display there! I was very moved by the level of enthusiasm on the part of Queens College in regard to my book. The exposure that Dr. Zysman is receiving as of late, with speaking engagements and possible television appearances on the horizon, are all simply the means to a vitally-important end- to raise awareness of his book and the life-saving techniques contained within, and to deliver those techniques into the hands of the medical community and the general public at large. This way, he said, hopefully these techniques can be used in order to help curb - and hopefully significantly reduce the devastation that the national opioid epidemic is responsible for. Again, the main goal is to get the word out there in order to save lives, and to improve the quality of the lives of the people that we treat, he said. Photo: Contributed Almost two-thirds of Canadians dont use financial planners. When asked why, the most common reason among survey respondents was that they simply felt their portfolios were too small to qualify. The Financial Planning Standards Council released the results of their Cross County Checkup survey in early October and they showed that far too many Canadians are not accessing professional help and are falling farther behind (or not even starting) in their retirement planning process. Sure, you can point at higher taxes, a lack of wage growth and many other reasons as your excuses for not taking control of your retirement, but the job still falls on you to take the first steps. The survey found that 60 per cent of Canadians rarely or never maximize their RRSP contributions and a third of Canadians dont regularly pay off their credit card balances each month. It also showed that one-in-three rarely or never set aside any savings at the end of the month after all their expenses have been paid. This number jumps as high as 42 per cent in Atlantic Canada. The FPSC survey showed that almost two thirds of Canadians do not have access to an employer-matching RRSP program, which means their long-term savings planning is even more critical. When put through a financial stress test to see if their bank account could withstand a financial emergency, one third of Canadians failed. A similar number of Canadians admitted that they will quite likely not meet their financial life goals. Yet, Canadians still arent seeking professional help to get things back on track. As stated above, almost two thirds of Canadians are not using the services of a professional financial planner. In addition to feeling that they dont have a large enough portfolio, a whole host of other reasons or excuses were offered. The next most common reason was not knowing who to trust. This is certainly understandable given the confusing market place and predatory salespeople who sell products disguised as advice. But its not a good enough reason to do nothing; it just means you must do your homework to find the right resources. Interestingly enough (though not surprising), the number of respondents who were unsure of whom to trust was much lower in Quebec, the only province with legally defined job titles and title restrictions. Only someone fully certified and properly licensed can call themselves a financial planner there, a rule not yet in force anywhere else. Let's hope we will have this established across Canada soon. Other common reasons for not using a certified planner professional included embarrassment over their financial situation being too overwhelmed or confused not knowing where to find one simply not knowing where to start The FPSCs find a planner tool is a great place to begin. No matter what reason or excuse you might have for not getting started, I can assure you that its not a good one. The responsibility for taking control of your financial well being sits squarely with nobody but you. Financial planning is not just for the wealthy and in fact, those struggling to make ends meet and save adequately are often the ones who need the most help and can benefit the most from a professional planner. November is financial literacy month here in Canada and Nov 18-24 is the national Financial Planning Week. This years awareness campaign should be your call to action to start down the path to creating your financial plan. Venezuelan Communist Party leader, Luis Fajardo, was killed on the evening of Wednesday 31 October, as he was returning home with his brother-in-law, Javier Aldana, who was also killed in the attack. Both men were riding a motorbike at 9pm when they were struck by a burst of gunfire from a moving vehicle. They were peasant activists and communist militants involved in the struggle for agrarian reform in the South of the Maracaibo Lake region and had already asked for protection as they had received death threats. Read this article in Spanish on Lucha de Clases Fajardo, 49, had been born in Portuguesa, but had lived in the Panamerican region across Merida and Zulia, in the west of the country, for many years, where he had become one of the main peasant leaders. In 2001 he played a leading role in the struggle for the expropriation of Fundo Santa Ana estate, belonging to one of the main families of the oligarchy in Zulia. Luis Fajardo had played a leading role in the recovery of the Cano Rico estate, spanning more than 500 hectares, from landowners who had left it fallow. Some 250 families of landless peasants had decided to occupy the estate and were fighting to get legal recognition from the Land Reform Institute (INTI). The Communist Party had on several occasions denounced death threats against Fajardo, providing very specific information about those making the threats. In June this year, the party had denounced intimidation and death threats against its member on the part of members of the National Guard (GNB) led by captain Jose Villasmil Toro, commander of the Border Post 32 in El Batey, in the Sucre municipality (Zulia) and adjunct sergeant Freddy Ojeda. In July, the PCV again denounced death threats and specifically named the regional director of INTI, the PSUV [National Constituent Assembly] deputy Guly Bert Antunez, GNB captain Jose Villasmil Toro and Agrarian Judge number 4 for their responsibility in harassing the agrarian movement and threatening the life of Luis Fajardo, peasant leader and member of the PCV CC. Death threats and intimidation The Communist Party (PCV) general secretary Oscar Figuera explained how the national leadership of the party had denounced on countless instances death threats against our militant comrade Fajardo, but the authorities failed to take any adequate protection measures. He added that the South of the Lake landowners, members of the National Guard and corrupt politicians who publicly threatened him are responsible for the killing. Luis Farjardo (pictured) and his brother-in-law, Javier Aldana, were peasant activists and communist militants involved in the struggle for agrarian reform and had already asked for protection as they had received death threats Fajardo was also a leading figure in the Admirable Peasant March (Marcha Campesina Admirable) in July and August this year. Hundreds of peasants marched 450km from Guanare (Portuguesa) to the capital Caracas, to highlight the problems facing peasant activists, among them death threats and killings. After initially ignoring the march and preventing any mention of it in the state media, President Maduro met with the marchers in a meeting, which was broadcast live on national TV. A number of commitments were made to the peasants at that meeting, but they were quickly forgotten. The marchers then started a hunger strike in September which forced new commitments on the part of the government to fulfil the peasants demands. A few hours after the meeting between President Maduro and the peasant marchers on 2 August, three leading peasant activists were killed in Barinas. The three killed had participated in the first stretch of the campesino march. The peasants were kidnapped by armed men, taken to another estate and shot dead. Spokespersons for the March pointed the finger at Ricardo Mora, a regional landowner. Two weeks later three people were arrested in connection with the murder, including Ricardo Mora, who was detained in Bogota. The South of the Lake region, spanning along the Panamerican road across Merida and Zulia states, has seen some of the most violent conflicts over agrarian reform. This is also a route for Colombian paramilitary infiltration into Venezuela. The leadership of the PCV has demanded from the authorities an exhaustive investigation and exemplary punishment for the culprits. However, the struggle for agrarian reform in Venezuela is littered with examples of peasant activists killed with impunity. Earlier this month, another PCV activist faced an attempt on his life. On 9 October, Robinson Garcia, a communist and peasant leader in Barinas, was driving towards the regional capital from the plot of land he tends to denounce threats against his life. He was set upon by a car and three motorbikes from which he was shot at. Garcia is part of a group of families cultivating land in the Los Cerros estate, in Obispos, Barinas. This is a 400-hectare, state-owned landed estate that has been left idle. The peasants are demanding legal recognition of their right to cultivate the land. Days before the attack, Robinson Garcia had attempted to lodge a case with the Secretariat of Security of the regional Governor as he had identified several suspicious cars following him and feared for his life. The regional police refused to file his case. The car that led the attack against him was the same he had seen previously and wanted to report. Situation deteriorating For many months now, the situation in the countryside in Venezuela has worsened. As we explained in July, in the countryside, there is a coordinated offensive to dismantle the gains of the agrarian reform that was carried out under Chavez with the expropriation of big landed estates, which were given to peasant communes. Private capitalist landowners buy off local judges, officials at the Land Reform Institute (INTI) and National Guard officers to violently dispossess peasant collectives from land they had been legally granted by the INTI itself. In some cases, peasants have been arrested by the National Guard, in others threatened or killed by the hired goons (sicarios) of the landowners, which in some cases are connected to the state bureaucracy and in others to the reactionary opposition. An unholy alliance of landowners, judges, regional INTI officials, army and National Guard officers is waging an assault against the measures of agrarian reform already taken and preventing any more estates from being expropriated, at a time when food scarcity is a major issue affecting Venezuelan workers and the poor. The class struggle in Venezuelas countryside is part of a more general struggle that confronts the Bolivarian revolution with the interests of capitalism, landlords and imperialism, and demonstrates the need to build a new revolutionary leadership that is firmly committed to the interests of the working class and the peasants. HOLYOKE -- Matthew S. Sosik, president and CEO of bankESB, expressed his hope Monday that the new branch at 170 Sargeant St. is just one more step in a continuing redevelopment of the neighborhood. "We've been doing business in Holyoke with Holyokers for a long time," Sosik said at a brief ribbon cutting ceremony. "We are just happy to be able to plant roots in this town." The bank, which markets itself as bankESB but still has the formal Easthampton Savings Bank official name, bought this vacant lot in the city's Churchill neighborhood from the city in 2016. The bank paid $5,000. The entire project -- land , construction and removing buried debris from the school that once stood there -- cost $1 million, Sosik said. "Now it is something, as I drive by, to look at and be really proud of," Sosik said. The new bank is near a CVS drug store, the senior center built in 2012 and Wistariahurst, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse said. "When you drive on Beech Street, it looks really inviting and really good," he said. Sosik joked that the city would love for him to sell the former National Guard armory a few doors down on Sargeant Street and keep the revitalization going. Easthampton Savings Bank was founded in 1869 and has 11 bankESB branches throughout Western Massachusetts. Mutually owned, it's part of Hometown Financial Group, a $2.1 billion mutual holding company headquartered in Easthampton. Hometown Financial has two banks, bankESB and bankHometown, which total 24 branches in Western and Central Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut. The Holyoke branch is bankESB's third in Hampden County, following ones in Westfield and Agawam, said Thomas Brown, head of retail banking. Brown said Holyoke made sense for expansion because bankESB already had 1,000 customers from Holyoke with $18 million in deposits and $28 million in loans before it turned over a spade of dirt. Branches are still important, he said, because while customers might prefer ATMs or remote banking of routine transactions, they like to open accounts and do major things, like home or business loans, at a branch. "We might not see them that often," he said. "But they want us to be here, close by, when they want to see us." The shift away from in-person banking is reflected in the way the branch is designed. It's smaller -- only 2,400 square feet instead of 3,000 or 3,500. And it has only four teller windows. The bank would have built more in the past, Brown said. The bank is running promotions this week, including a drawing for a Hyundai from Gary Rome Hyundai in Holyoke. The new branch has six employees. Photo: The Canadian Press A former CFL player is facing second degree-murder charges for the death of his ex-girlfriend. Josh Boden, who played briefly with the BC Lions and the Hamilton Tiger Cats, is accused of killing Kimberly Lynn Hallgarth. She was found dead in her Burnaby home in 2009. Boden has had previous brushes with the law, including theft, domestic assault, sexual assault and assaulting police officer, reports CTV Vancouver. He was cut by the Lions in 2008. Boden is expected to appear in court Monday. with files from CTV Vancouver "The Walking Dead' bid farewell to series star Andrew Lincoln on Sunday night in epic fashion. (It goes without saying there are spoilers ahead). The more than hour-long episode focused on central character Rick Grimes (Lincoln) leading a herd of zombies away from the communities of survivors. During his trek, he is reunited though a fever dream with a trio of popular characters who have died in the past nine seasons. Grimes ended up dynamiting a bridge as the herd of the undead makes its way across, blowing them -- and seemingly himself -- to bits in front of his horrified friends. Later, Grimes, barely clinging to life, is found downstream and a mysterious helicopter whisks him away. In a post-episode chat on "Talking Dead," executive producer Scott Gimpole revealed that while Lincoln will no longer be on the long-running weekly series, he will reprise the Grimes role in a series of spin-off films for AMC. Gimpole told The Hollywood Reporter there will be at least three big-budget, feature-length TV movies for AMC. "The story of Rick will go on in films," Gimple says. "Right now, we're working on three but there's flexibility in that. ... Over the next several years, we're going to be doing specials, new series are quite a possibility, high-quality digital content and then some content that defies description at the moment. We're going to dig into the past and see old characters. We're going to introduce new characters and new situations." Production on the first film is expected commence next year. Provence. Just saying or writing this word instantly brings a smile to many people's faces. Mention this beautiful corner of France and many people likely imagine lush lavender fields swaying in the breeze, lazy summer afternoons lounging in the shade and wine glasses overflowing with chilled rose wine. But there's much more to discover in Provence - from its vibrant culture and diverse landscapes bathed in warm, golden sunlight to its astounding array of affordable wines, including its world-famous dry rose wines. That's why I leapt at an invitation recently to spend a week in Provence tasting wines and exploring this area long adored by artists, writers and many others around the world. My 5-day tour of Provence hosted by Vins De Provence in early October took me from the shimmering shores of the Mediterranean Sea to charming villages nestled amidst rolling hills. Throughout the week, I constantly felt like I was stepping straight into a painting created by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Matisse and countless other artists who called Provence home. So how can I share this story? How can I capture the essence of Provence and its wines without boring you to death? In the spirit of "Sideways," "The Trip" and other gluttonous, week-long road trip movies, I decided to divide this story into five parts - one article for each day of my tour. The other four parts will appear occasionally in the coming months. This might seem like overkill. But this beautiful, charming corner of southern France deserves all the attention. And not just because of Provence's jaw-dropping beauty. It's because Provence's wines frankly don't get enough respect. Sure, everyone knows about their world-famous roses or perhaps the stunning reds from the seaside village of Bandol. But as a region, Provence often doesn't get the same exposure as many other wine producing areas around the world or even in France. That's a shame. I was absolutely blown away by the outstanding white wines, sparkling wines and often-overlooked reds produced by fascinating winemakers in Provence. Some wines are hard to find. But they're well worth looking for at a wine store near you. And of course you can't forget the roses. There's a reason why Provence is famous for these delightful, dry wines. And I was reminded why again and again by one wonderful wine after another. DAY ONE Saint Raphael, France A small fishing boat slowly moves through the calm, early-morning water close to a wooden dock along the shore. I run on the dock, keeping pace with the boat until it veers out to sea. An hour or so later, I'm racing to keep up with everything I'm learning at the Centre Du Rose in Vidauban about wines made throughout the Provence region - what makes them so unique and their growing, world-wide popularity. Provence by the numbers Provence is one of the fasting growing wine regions in France. In 2017, sales of Provence wines in the United States increased by 30 percent. This year, sales are expected to grow another 40 percent, according to Vins De Provence. The United States is largest export market for Provence wines. Overall, the US consumes 43 percent of wine exported from Provence. The United Kingdom's the second largest export market at 13 percent, followed by Germany (7 percent) and Belgium (7 percent). And when it comes to Provence, rose wine dominates production. Overall, 89 percent of all wines made in Provence are rose wines. The remaining 11 percent is divided between red wine (7 percent) and white wine (4 percent). None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who knows and loves Provence's dry rose wines. (By the way, 5 percent of all rose wines in the world come from Provence.) What did surprise me was how much blending plays a part in the character of Provence rose wines. By law, Provence rose wines must be made with a blend of at least two grapes. Grenache is the most popular grape used to make Provence rose wines. The other four grapes often blended with Grenache to make these wines are Cinsault, Mourvedre, Syrah and Tibouren. As you might have noticed from the list above, rose wines are made with red wine grapes. So why do rose wines look pink or lighter in color compared to red wines? Because after being picked, the grape skins in rose wines are in contact for less time with the grape juice used to make the wine. Sugar levels and alcohol levels are lower in many Provence rose wines compared to other rose wines from around the world. That's why many Provence roses often have such a light, pale color. The type of soil (mainly schist or limestone) also makes a big difference. But there's another reason why wines from Provence taste so different which I witnessed the first day - the Mistral. Chateau Des Demoiselles (La Motte, France) Recommended Wines 2017 Chateau Des Demoiselles Cuvee La Chapelle De Sainte Roseline (Rose) - Smooth, aromatic, floral, dry, clean, crisp flavors. 2015 Chateau Sainte Roseline Cru Classe Lampe De Meduse Cotes De Provence (Red) - Well balanced, dry, slightly tight at first, opens up beautifully after an hour. 2015 Chateau Des Demoiselles Cotes De Provence (Red) - Light, bright, refreshing, long aftertaste. Delightful wine ready to drink now. A strong wind blows through the dusty parking area at Chateau Des Demoiselles, the first winery on our tour. Our wine association guide, Valerie, apologizes for the powerful wind but I'm thrilled. That's because windy days like this one help shape the way Provence wines taste. This powerful, cold northwest wind is known as the Mistral. This weather phenomenon often exceeds 40 mph and can last for days in Provence. The Mistral helps keep the grapevines and soil dry. The Mistral also often bring bright, sunny weather to Provence. All of which helps make the region's wines taste so dry and so refreshing. That's certainly the case at Chateau Des Demoiselles. The five rose wines we taste in the winery's tasting room have a crisp, dry, chalky flavor that makes sense when you see the wind outside rustling the trees and blowing through the fields. Later, during lunch at winery, we taste three reds and one white wine. Like the best roses we taste, my favorite red wines at Chateau Des Demoiselles have a light, refreshing taste. There's nothing cloying or sweet about them. They perfectly express the dry, bright weather swirling around outside. Venet Foundation (Le Muy, France) After lunch, we stop at the Venet Foundation, a sprawling modern art museum created by artist Bernar Venet. Part of the museum features Venet's large, metal sculptures in the museum's buildings, where Venet himself also lives. You can also find Venet's spiral-like sculptures outside on the foundation's beautiful grounds. Along with being a great artist, Venet's a savvy art collector. And his grounds and buildings contain a vast array of paintings, sculptures and art installations by a iconic artists such Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Ellsworth Kelly and Robert Indiana. But the highlight for me was seeing one of James Turrell's famous works and the reaction to everyone in my group to Turrell's piece. The California artist mostly creates artworks that seem like nothing more than an empty room with light coming from one wall. Don't be fooled. In the Turrell piece at the Venet Foundation called "Prana," the room is completely dark except for one wall with a rectangular shaped wall of soft purple light. We walk towards the light. Our guide tells us we can touch the light. We reach out. But there's nothing there. The wall of light's simply an empty space. There's another wall further in the distance. But we can't reach it and we can't see where the purple light's coming from. It's surreal and other worldly - not what I was expecting to find in the French countryside after lunch. Domaine du Jas D'Esclans (La Motte, France) Recommended Wines 2016 Jas D'Esclans Cru Classe Cuvee Du Loup (Rose) - Aged 6 months in oak barrels, the wine has complex, butter-like flavors mixed with sea salt, saffron and apple pie. 2014 Jas D'Esclans Cru Classe Cuvee Du Loup (Red) - Long, soft finish. Ready to drink straight out of the bottle. Delightful, floral flavors and aromas. 2013 Chateau De Vaucouleurs Le Lizard (Red) - Simple, straightforward, delicious wine. Blend of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, this wine tastes best after a half hour or so in the glass. 2017 Jas D'Esclans Cru Classe (White) - Tart, apple-like flavors. Fresh, clean finish. Fragrant, floral-like aromas. Jas D'Esclans Sparkling (Sparkling Wine) - Clean, delightful, strawberry-like flavors. Soft, refreshing finish. If you talk to any winemaker in Provence, all of them know exactly who you mean when you say you went to a winery with a very tall winemaker. That winemaker is Matthieu De Wulf, who owns Domaine du Jas D'Esclans with his wife, Gwenaelle. They also own Chateau de Vaucouleurs a few miles away. Former corn and potato farmers from Bordeaux, the couple visited 72 wineries before they decided to purchase Domaine du Jas D'Esclans in 2002. It's easy to see why. People have been making wine here since the 13th century. Parts of the winery feels old, especially one of the underground cellars where artifacts found on the winery's grounds are on display. But most of the winery has a modern, relaxed atmosphere. Part of that's due to the bright, airy design, especially in the tasting room. But mostly, it's due to the De Wulf's welcoming attitude. They make us feel right at home in the winery and sound like proud parents as they talk about each wine from their two wineries. And like many wineries around the world, Domaine du Jas D'Esclans has two dogs who roam the property and follow Matthieu around the grounds. One of the dogs, a large black one, reminds me of my own at home. Watching the large dog walk around the winery, I keep thinking I wish my dog - and my wife - were here with me. They'd love the winery and the rugged, hilly landscape around it. Actually, anyone probably would. Cheers Wine Press by Ken Ross appears on Masslive.com every Monday and in The Republican's weekend section every Thursday. Follow Ken Ross on Twitter and Instagram. Forty years ago, this week, Stockbridge artist Norman Rockwell died in his sleep at the age of 84. From the November 10, 1978 edition of The Morning Union Ten years earlier, three Western Massachusetts towns voted to allow alcohol sales within their borders making the switch from 'dry' to 'wet.' Question 5 consisted of four parts allowing voters to choose between remaing 'dry,' allowing beer and wine only, all sales in package stores, or licenses for bars and restaurants. From the November 6, 1968 edition of The Springfield Union On the previous day, the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front announced that Mrs. Nguyen Thi Binh would lead their delegation at the Paris peace talks. The NLF said that they would participate in talks that included the "puppet Saigon administration," but this wouldn't mean that they would recognize this administration. From the November 4, 1968 edition of The Springfield Union These are some of the headlines you'll see from Page 1 of The Republican and its predecessors over the past fifty years for the week of November 4 - November 10. Each week I'll put together a slideshow of Page 1 images from selected years over the course of that week. We're starting with a look back at one, five, thirty, forty and fifty years ago, with Page 1s from each day of the week for those years. The slideshow for November 4 - November 10 is embedded at the top of this article. We'll also find some humor printed out on page one over the years. In 1968 'Dennis The Menace' could be found on the bottom of page one six days a week. From the November 5, 1968 edition of The Springfield Union Back in 1968, this week, Richard M. Nixon was elected president of the United States. To celebrate his victory, he visited former president Dwight Eisenhower under whom he served as vice-president for eight years. Eisenhower was a patient at the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. recovering from heart problems. From the November 7, 1968 edition of The Springfield Union And five years ago, this week, the residents of Palmer voted down the $1 billion resort casino proposal put forward by Mohegan Sun. From the November 7, 2013 edition of The Republican As you'll find with looking through the slideshow, that while many stories come and go, many of the issues and topics that affected lives in the past, continue to have an impact on our lives today. Copies of these and other stories can be found in the online archives. The Historic Archive includes stories from 1824 to 1989, and the Newsbank Archive covers 1988 through the present day. Report a digital subscription issue If you are being blocked from reading Subscriber Exclusive content, first confirm you are logged in using the account with which you subscribed. If you are still experiencing issues, please describe the problem below and we will be happy to assist you. Submit Police in Boston are searching for a suspect in a reported sexual assault involving a child. The reported sexual assault took place Saturday in the common hallway of a building located in the Hammond Street area in the South End, according to Boston police. Officers responded to the area around 6:45 p.m. A girl spoke to police about the alleged sexual assault. Police released the suspect's picture and are asking the public's help in locating him. The man is light-skinned, Hispanic, and in his 20s. He about 5 feet 7 inches tall and wore a gray sweat suit. Anyone with information is asked to contact Boston Police Sexual Assault detectives at 617-343-4400. The New Hampshire man killed in a Chelmsford crash Sunday has been identified as 63-year-old Kenneth A. Rossi. Rossi, of Bristol, New Hampshire, was driving on Route 3 south in Chelmsford just after 5 p.m. when he went off the right side of the highway and into a body of water, State police said. An off-duty trooper reported the single-vehicle crash. The trooper went into the water to try to help the driver. On-duty troopers Paul Langone and Christopher Call met with the off-duty trooper, Christopher Fantasia, as well as other responders who removed the driver from the vehicle. Rossi, the only occupant inside his 2011 BMW X3, was unresponsive. He was taken to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead. "Preliminary investigation has revealed that the driver may have had a medical incident which caused the crash," authorities said. The crash remains under investigation. WEST SPRINGFIELD - Police are asking for help to identify a man who stole from a liquor store on Riverdale Street. The man may live in Connecticut but is known to frequent the Table and Vine Liquor Store, on 1119 Riverdale St., He was caught on the store camera stealing, police said. Anyone who can identify the man or has information about the theft is asked to call investigators at 413-263-3210 ext. 229. Callers can remain anonymous. A mother who is accused of fleeing Massachusetts with her 3-year-old son in 2016 after a court awarded the child's father temporary sole custody is being held on $50,000 cash bail. The bail amount, ordered by Dudley Judge Andrew L. Mandell, is double that requested by Worcester County Assistant District Attorney Scarlett A. Scannell at Dudley District Court Monday morning, where Christina M. Hale was arraigned on charges of parental kidnapping. Hale, 40, was arrested in Florida on Oct. 18, nearly two years after she fled Massachusetts with her then 3-year-old son. In court Monday, Hale was ordered by Mandell to wear a GPS tracking unit should she make bail and be released. According to police reports, the child's father, Rodrigo Da Silva Rocha, was awarded temporary sole legal and physical custody by the New York State Probate Court on Dec. 6, 2016. More than two weeks later, on Dec. 23, court records show Hale was served at her mother's home in Webster with the custody order as well as a warrant notice to appear in court. Hale had been staying at her mother's home, records show. The following day, on Christmas Eve., authorities allege Hale "packed up her stuff and moved out, with the child," according to a police report. According to court documents, Rocha went to the Webster Police Department twice in early 2017 seeking the help of authorities in locating his son. After Hale's mother told police her daughter and grandson had moved out, an arrest warrant was issued for Hale. Two years later, Scannell said police received an anonymous tip that Hale and her son were living in Orange County, Florida. A Webster police detective was able to locate a possible address, Scannell said, and contacted authorities in Florida who observed Hale for two days, then arrested her. She was transported back to Massachusetts on a fugitive warrant. The now 5-year-old boy was inside the home and in good health, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. The boy was turned over to the Department of Children and Families to be reunited with his father. Hale's attorney, Stephanie Lorusso, said her client had been working as a receptionist at a taxi cab company. "Ms. Hale advises me that as far as she is aware she had an order awarding her sole legal and physical custody of her child," Lorusso said. Hale was ordered taken to the Western Mass. Regional Women's Correctional Center. She is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing on Dec. 3. The night before Election Day, across eight networks in the Boston and Springfield areas, Gov. Charlie Baker's campaign is blocking out 90 seconds of ad time at 6 p.m. The upbeat ad, which will air just over 12 hours before Massachusetts voters go to the polls, features First Lady Lauren Baker as part of the campaign's closing argument, sitting with her husband as campaign trail footage plays in between shots of them talking. "Charlie and Karyn and their team, they've really hit their stride and they're getting a lot of great stuff done, but there's more to do," Lauren Baker says in the ad, referring to the governor and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito. "I think the biggest one for me is the opioid issue," the governor adds. "We've made a lot of progress on this but we still have a really long way to go." Baker and Polito are running on the same Republican ticket. They're seeking second four-year terms and facing challenges from Democratic candidate for governor Jay Gonzalez and his running mate Quentin Palfrey. In the Monday night ad, Baker mentions working with Democrat-dominated state Legislature and touts investments to modernize the MBTA, the troubled public transit system. Gonzalez has criticized Baker as slow to act in fixing the MBTA. The 90-second ad will air in Boston on WBZ (CBS), WBTS (NBC), WCVB (ABC), WFXT (Boston 25), and WHDH (7 News). In Springfield, the ad will air on WGGB, WWLP and WSHM. The Baker campaign did not provide spending details, but 90 seconds of airtime doesn't come cheap. According to publicly available advertising files, the WCVB rate is $6,300 for the ad, while the WHDH rate is $2,550 and the WSHM rate is $1,200. The Baker campaign in 2014 aired a similar 90-second ad that featured Lauren Baker and daughter Caroline. Baker won the race by 40,000 votes out of more than 2 million votes cast, besting then-Attorney General Martha Coakley. Jamestown Associates, a political strategy firm, worked on both the 2014 and 2018 ads. According to Baker's public campaign schedule for Monday, Baker and Polito will join Democrats backing the campaign at the Owl Diner in Lowell, before Baker heads to the Lowell Senior Center. He ends the day with Lauren Baker, at a 6:30 p.m. rally inside a seafood restaurant a short walk from his home in Swampscott, Hawthorne by the Sea. Gonzalez's schedule has a slew of events: A ride on the Green Line to downtown Boston from Newton, pouring coffee for commuters, greeting voters in Somerville's Diesel Cafe, meeting up with Democratic Congresswoman Katherine Clark in Malden, and joining up with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton in Lynn. He ends the day with a 5:30 p.m. pre-election rally at the Dudley Cafe in Roxbury with incoming Democratic Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Attorney General Maura Healey. Roughly 2.4 million Massachusetts voters will head to the polls on Tuesday, the state's elections chief estimated. If that prediction bears out and 52 percent of registered voters pull the lever, that will be higher turnout than in the most recent comparable elections, when there were ballot questions and a race for governor: In 2010, 2.3 million showed up at the polls, while 2014 saw 2.2 million people. Bill Galvin, who as secretary of state serves as the elections chief, said both Democrats and Republicans are viewing this year's ballot through a national lens. "That is truly driving the turnout, I think," Galvin said. "It's not necessarily the intensity of some of the statewide contests, because candidly some of them aren't very intense." Republican Gov. Charlie Baker is seeking a second four-year term and facing Democratic candidate Jay Gonzalez. Republican state Rep. Geoff Diehl is running against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Cambridge Democrat seeking a second term while weighing a 2020 presidential run. Recent public polls show Warren and Baker with big leads heading into Election Day. Attorney General Maura Healey and Galvin are also fielding GOP challengers in Bourne attorney Jay McMahon and Gardner Museum security director Anthony Amore, respectively. Galvin said the three ballot questions are also likely to factor into the turnout. Voters will decide questions on nurse staffing ratios, a campaign finance commission, and transgender protections. There are also local ballot questions that could draw interest. For example, Newton voters will consider a citywide ban on recreational marijuana shops. But neither state lawmakers nor most members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation are seeing many competitive races. In the Third Congressional District, Democrat Lori Trahan is competing with Republican Rick Green and independent Michael Mullen for an open seat, while Democratic Congressman Bill Keating, who represents the Cape in Massachusetts' Ninth District, faces Marshfield Republican Peter Tedeschi. Galvin said roughly 585,000 voters cast early ballots. Out of that number, 55 percent were unenrolled, 36 percent were Democrats, and 9 percent were Republicans. The percentages are in line with the voter make-up in Massachusetts. More than 124,000 voters applied for absentee ballots, Galvin added. On Election Day, polls are open statewide from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Photo: CTV Vancouver The owner of a pitbull that attacked and injured four people at a party Saturday on Vancouver Island doesnt blame her pet for the incident. With her hands and forearms wrapped in fresh bandages, Kyla Johnson said Sunday her rescued pitbull, Rex, is still a good dog. That wasnt him that night, she said. She told CTV Vancouver Rex started getting worked up by two people playing shooter video games in the living room, and eventually started yelping. Just as the dog started to calm down, she said, it attacked. Something in him just switched, she said. He went after my dad and he just jumped on my dadI jumped on top of the dog and I was trying to pull my dads skin from under him. He wouldnt stop. The screams - they were horrible. Johnson eventually jumped out of a window with bite wounds and flagged down arriving police, begging them to not shoot her dog. In addition to herself and her father, her fiance and aunt were also treated for bite wounds. When RCMP arrived, 13 adults and children were barricaded inside a room away from the dog. The chief bylaw officer with the Capital Region District said Rex will almost certainly be put down because of the severity of the attack. Because the pitbull is a rescue from an another area, officials do not know its past history. with files from CTV Vancouver Massachusetts will distribute $1.5 million in aid to rural schools, the first awards made under a new education funding program. State education officials announced the grants Monday at an event at Wahconah Regional High School in Dalton. "We cannot allow our commitment to students, ensuring their access to equal educational opportunities across the state, to be undermined by where they live," said state Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, in a statement. "This is a deliberate effort to confront the unique challenges our rural schools face." Rural schools in the state have been struggling to pay for fixed costs in the face of declining populations. As industries leave rural towns, the school-age population dwindles. A recent study found that between 2008 and 2017, rural schools in Massachusetts lost 4,200 students, a decline of 14 percent. In response to these challenges, Hinds advocated in the state budget this year for a new category of state aid earmarked for rural schools. The amounts allocated are based on population density and area incomes, with low-density, low-income districts getting more money. Lawmakers set aside $1.5 million for rural aid this year, and Hinds has said he envisions lawmakers spending more in the future. The aid will be distributed to 33 school districts, primarily in Western and Central Massachusetts and on Cape Cod. The largest award, $246,056, will go to Central Berkshire Regional School District. Other schools getting large awards include $183,774 to Ralph C. Mahar Regional School in Orange; $157,048 to Gateway Regional School District; and $132,932 to Mohawk Trail / Hawlemont Regional School Districts. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education also plans to work with these districts to increase regional collaboration, consider consolidation and develop efficiencies to make the districts more financially sustainable. "Rural school districts face the same fixed costs as school districts throughout Massachusetts, but these costs become more difficult to manage with a declining population and the need to regionalize over large geographic areas," Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, said in a statement. "Rural School Aid is intended to help level the playing field for these school districts where need is great and resources are scarce." The Massachusetts elections website has seen an increase in attempted intrusions, Bill Galvin, the state's elections chief, said Monday. "We monitor our system constantly," Galvin told reporters the day before voters head to the polls for the 2018 midterm election. "We've had I would say minor efforts to penetrate but none of them have been successful." The attempted intrusions, which Galvin described as amateurish, are directed at parts of the site where voters can look up their polling location, whether they're registered and a way to track their ballot. Galvin noted that Massachusetts uses paper ballots and the state's voter registration database is not on the internet but rather on a closed network. US intelligence agencies say in 2016, Russia hacked and interfered with the presidential election. Galvin downplayed the attempted intrusions in Massachusetts, saying they weren't linked to a foreign power. They were more likely people looking for personal data to use for opening credit cards. "We detected minor efforts," Galvin said. "When I say minor, they don't appear professional, or [from] overseas, or anything coordinated. But periodically we have efforts. This is not unusual." Elections officials occasionally get phishing email scams, and they've been trained on handling the issue, according to Galvin's office. Elections officials are in contact with law enforcement "all the time," according to Galvin. Galvin, a Democrat who has held the secretary of state's office since 1995, has a challenger in the 2018 election. Republican Anthony Amore, who works as the security director for the Gardner Museum in Boston, has criticized Galvin, saying he could be doing more in office. "Voters should know that Secretary Galvin had every opportunity since 2016 to safeguard our elections against hacking but instead chose to let the midterms pass by without any improvements to our election security systems," Amore said in a statement Monday. "I encourage all those voting in person to bring an ID just in case it's needed, and volunteer to poll watch so voters receive the safe and secure election they deserve." Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin dismissed as "political propaganda" research from the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance related to potentially incorrect voting addresses. "It's obviously political propaganda by a political organization," Galvin said Monday. The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a fiscally conservative nonprofit, mailed a letter to every address of a person who voted in the Massachusetts primary this September from eight cities: Lawrence, Haverhill, Brockton, Framingham, Methuen, Lowell, Milford and Franklin. Of 63,246 letters that were mailed, 571 were returned, as of Oct. 23. Around half of those came from Lawrence, a heavily minority city. Carl Copeland, interim executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, provided the data to Galvin's office with a note saying the group is prepared to work with Galvin's office to prevent voter fraud in the November election. "With early voting starting, it is imperative that your office and others ensure that only appropriate voters vote in the upcoming election," Copeland wrote. Paul Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said the organization wrote the letter two weeks before the election, and when it did not hear back from Galvin's office by a week before the election, it submitted the data to the U.S. Attorney's office. Asked about the letter at a pre-election press conference on Monday, Galvin said the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance is a Republican-leaning political organization, and there is nothing to the claim other than "trying to make political statements." He said his office will respond promptly if there is any effort to target minority voters to prevent them from voting. Debra O'Malley, a spokeswoman for Galvin's office, said the office had confirmed that some of the mailings were addressed incorrectly, and some of the voters used alternate addresses from the ones provided by the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. She noted that state laws allow someone who moved from one city to another to vote at their old address for up to six months. Someone who moves within the same city can vote at their old address until they update their voter registration. Christina Sterling, a spokeswoman for Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, said, "We do not confirm or deny investigations." SPRINGFIELD -- Although polls for the 2018 election will officially open across the United States on Tuesday, thousands of Western Massachusetts voters have already cast their ballots for governor, statewide officials, members of Congress and ballot questions. Secretary of State Bill Galvin announced Monday that 584,000 Massachusetts residents had requested ballots between Oct. 22 and Nov. 2 -- the second time the state has allowed early voting. Of those early voters, nearly 3,000 hailed from Springfield, where 2,410 cast ballots in-person and 415 others requested them by mail, the city clerk's office reported.More than 110,000 people are registered to vote in Springfield. Another 2,565 voted early either in person or by mail in Northampton -- representing about 15 percent of the city's registered voters, according to the city clerk's office. In Holyoke, meanwhile, 1,160 residents took advantage of early voting, as did 1,989 residents in Pittsfield, according to local election officials. By contrast, more than 28,000 Boston voters cast their ballots early -- about 7 percent of the city's registered voters, the City of Boston's Elections Department reported Monday. Massachusetts Town Clerks Association President and Great Barrington Town Clerk Marie Ryan said the state's second foray into early voting went relatively smoothly for local election officials. "It's a lot of work, but I think everyone did a great job," she said, noting that her office alone saw about 500 to 600 voters cast early ballots during the two-week-long period. Ryan, however, said while early voting has seemed to "work out well for everyone," she hopes it remains an option just for statewide elections. "It's too exhausting to do every election. It's just me and one part-time person (overseeing voting in Great Barrington). Cities don't mind ... but for small towns, it's really a huge burden," she said. Ryan added that said the number of ballots cast before the election, does not necessarily indicate that voter turnout will be up in the 2018 election. "We did a study of early voting for the presidential election and it didn't really bring out more voters than who normally vote in those elections -- still a lot vote, but it didn't increase turnout," she said. More than one million Massachusetts voters cast their ballots before the 2016 election, the first election in which the state allowed early voting under a law former Gov. Deval Patrick signed in 2014. Galvin told reporters Monday that although turnout is always lower in non-presidential cycles, he's seen significant interest in the 2018 midterms as an "important national election." Massachusetts voters will decide Tuesday on a series of statewide races, including contests for governor, attorney general, auditor and treasurer. They will also weigh-in on races for U.S. Senate, Congress and various state legislative seats. Polls for the 2018 election will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Photo: The Canadian Press Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos The federal Liberals are set to enshrine into law a plan to lift more than two million people out of poverty. The government notified MPs before the weekend that it planned to introduce anti-poverty legislation as early as today that will set for the first time an official poverty line for the country. Poverty reduction targets already appear in the Liberals' latest budget implementation bill. The government's strategy sets reduction targets of 20 per cent from 2015 levels by 2020 and a 50 per cent drop by 2030. Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos is expected to outline the new law to a group of anti-poverty activists. There are also expectations that Duclos will outline federal funding to roll out through a new centrepiece homelessness program. Johannes Weertman, Walter P. Murphy Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, passed away at age 93 on October 13. He will be remembered as a pioneering researcher, devoted teacher, and esteemed colleague and friend. During more than four decades of research and scholarship, Weertman made several noteworthy contributions to the study of the mechanical properties of materials, particularly to the fatigue and fracture of metals, the high-temperature creep of crystalline solids, and dislocation theory. After serving three years in the United States Marine Corps, Weertman attended the College of Science and Engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned his bachelors and DSc degrees in physics. Following graduation, he worked at the US Naval Research Laboratory, where he applied his interest in geophysics to the study of glacier flow and ice sheets. His research contributions were honored by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-names Committee, which established Weertman Island in 1960, a 3.5-mile-long island off of the Antarctic coast. Weertman joined Northwestern in 1959 as an associate professor within the newly formed Department of Materials Science. He taught materials science courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and served as chair of the department from 1964-68. Weertmans continued research into dislocations atomic-scale defects in materials led to his 1964 textbook, Elementary Dislocation Theory (Reprint, Oxford University Press, 1992), which he co-authored with his late wife, Professor Emerita Julia Randall Weertman. The work stands as the first book written specifically for undergraduate students on dislocation theory, an important factor in the study of fracture mechanics. Hans was a quiet man with a powerful intellect whose work had a profound impact on both geology and materials science and engineering, said Peter Voorhees, Frank C. Engelhart Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. His unfailing good cheer and sharp insights into the mechanical properties of materials will be greatly missed. Weertman also held a joint appointment in Northwesterns geological sciences department, now the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences within the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, where he continued his interest in glaciology, studying the migration of subglacial lakes under ice sheets. Weertmans career has been marked by several accolades. In 2014, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering established the Johannes and Julia Randall Weertman Graduate Fellowship in honor of the couples impactful contributions to materials science and to Northwestern. In 2017, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) renamed its TMS Educator Award to the TMS Julia and Johannes Weertman Educator Award, celebrating an individual who has made outstanding contributions to education in metallurgical engineering and/or materials science and engineering. His other honors include membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the National Academy of Engineering. He received the International Glaciological Societys Seligman Crystal, the Acta Metallurgica Gold Medal, the Champion H. Mathewson Gold Medal, the American Geophysical Unions Robert E. Horton Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Fulbright Fellowship. He was a fellow of the Geological Society of America, ASM International, American Physical Society, American Geophysical Union, TMS, and the American Academy of Mechanics. Weertman is survived by his daughter Julia (Nicholas Zerebny); son Bruce (Leslie Miller); and grandson Willem. He was preceded in death by wife Julia Weertman, and grandson Johannes Weertman. The Department of Materials Science and Engineering will host the Johannes and Julia R. Weertman Symposium and Remembrance on Friday, November 16 at Guild Lounge on the Evanston campus. A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 17 at Alice Millar Chapel, followed by a reception at 11:30 a.m. at the Hilton Orrington Hotel. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Field Museum. Wet weather over the weekend looks like it will continue for the next few days at least in the Okanagan. It may have been a little wet here but it was much damper along the coastal regions and some areas got snow as well. Environment Canada issued a heavy downpour warning ahead of possible flash flooding and water pooling on roads across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley on Sunday. Environment Canada was predicting between 40 and 60 millimetres of rain as a moist Pacific frontal system moved across the south coast over the weekend. Here are the total rainfall amounts from Friday to Sunday morning in millimetres: Downtown Squamish: 65 Squamish Airport: 63 West Vancouver: 61 Burnaby Mountain: 56 * Hope Area: 52 Vancouver Harbour: 48 Pitt Meadows: 47 Coquitlam Area: 43 * There was some snowfall in the province as well, here's the 24-hour total snowfall accumulation from Saturday to Sunday in centimetres: Chetwynd Airport: 26 Fort St. John Airport: 17 73 Mile Highway Station: 17 Braden Road Highway Station: 16 These numbers are unofficial and do not constitute a complete or final report. Ayurveda Market, although a traditional Indian healing system, worldwide, it has long been recognized as an effective alternative treatment, being offered in therapeutic practices. It takes a holistic approach to health, promoting daily maintenance of the mind, body, and soul, striking a balance between the two which further reduces the risk of needing major medical intervention in the future. The global Ayurveda market is led by some of the fervent players including Patanjali Ayurved Ltd., Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd, Dabur, Baidyanath Group, Charak Pharma, Hamdard laboratories, Vicco Labs, and Emami Group Key players are more focusing on the expansion of Ayurveda business across the globe which is contributing around 40% of strategy share. After expansion, key players are acquiring companies to strengthen their presence and to get an edge over increasing competition. R&D, partnership, and product launch contribute equally (~10%) in the strategic share of key players in Ayurveda market. Get Sample Copy of Research Report: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6166 Global Ayurveda Market Information; by application (medicinal, personal care and other), by disease pattern (respiratory system, nervous systems, gastrointestinal track, cardiovascular system, infectious diseases, skeletal system, skin and hair, others), by source (vegetable, animal and mineral), by form (herbal, herbomineral, mineral and others), by end users (academia and research, hospitals and clinics, and others), by distribution (organized, over the counter and others) Forecast to 2023 Global Ayurveda Market Segmented into Seven Key Dynamics By Applications : Medicinal, and Personal Care among others. By Disease Pattern : Respiratory System, Nervous Systems, Gastrointestinal Track, Cardiovascular System, Infectious Diseases, Skeletal System, Skin & Hair among others. By Sources : Vegetable (leaves and fruit, seeds, roots, bark and other), Animals (oils, bones, and other) and Minerals. By Forms : Herbal, Herbomineral, and Mineral among others. By End-Users : Academia & Research Centers, Hospitals, and Clinics among others. By Distributions : Organized, and Over the Counter among others. By Regions : North America, Europe, APAC and the Rest-of-the-World. Industry/innovation/Related News: April 25, 2018 Hanna, LLC (US), an Ayurvedic-influenced company announced the launch of its new product HANAH Cordyceps+, wild-harvested from the Bhutanese Himalayas. The new product is a powerful combination of wild Bhutanese Cordyceps sinensis, a rare Himalayan medicinal mushroom, with eight other herbs and minerals all wild harvested from the untouched Bhutanese Himalayas. August 14, 2018 India Ministry of AYUSH introduced new Central Sector scheme for promoting pharmacovigilance of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy (ASU&H) Drugs. The prime objective of the scheme is to develop the culture of documenting adverse effects and undertake safety monitoring of these alternative therapies including Ayurveda and Homoeopathy alongside surveillance of misleading advertisements appearing in the print and electronic media. The scheme intends to facilitate the establishment of a three-tier network of National Pharmacovigilance Centre (NPvCC), Intermediary Pharmacovigilance Centres (IPvCCs) and Peripheral Pharmacovigilance Centres (PPvCC). Browse Complete 108 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with 121 Respective Tables and Figures at: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/ayurveda-market-6166 Regional Analysis The Asia Pacific region is estimated to dominate the market with the largest market share in terms of revenue and size both, followed by North America and Europe respectively. Led by China and India, the region is expected to emerge as the fastest growing market for Ayurveda, owing to their rich traditions of herbal medicines. Besides the APAC region is the largest producer of ayurvedic products including medicinal products which is undoubtedly impacting the regional market growth positively. North America accounts for one of the growing markets for Ayurveda owing to the high per capita income and healthcare expenditures, the U.S. and Canada are major markets for Ayurveda in the region. Strong potential of Ayurveda products, rising application areas and therapeutic applications in cosmetics and personal care are supporting market growth in the region. Whereas, in Europe, another promising market for Ayurveda, France, Italy, and Germany are major Ayurveda products market. Increasing popularity of Ayurveda as therapeutics and pharmaceuticals is supporting the Ayurveda market in the region. High disposable income and the presence of large facilities especially in France and Germany drive the regional market growth. Inquire for Discount at: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/6166 About Market Research Future: MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact: Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Madison Erhardt Winter is closer than you may think. "After a really balmy weekend with highs upwards of 13 C, we are now in a cooling trend," says Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald. "There is the first chance of valley-bottom snow on Friday. It will probably start off as snow sometime Friday morning and then become mixed with rain in the afternoon. We could see about two to four centimetres fall." Today should be the warmest day of the week, with a forecast high of 10 C and 70 per cent chance of showers this afternoon. Tuesday, more rain is in the forecast and a high of 8 C. Wednesday and Thursday should see sunshine but highs of just 3 C. Environment Canada is calling for a high of only 2 C on Friday and a low of zero with more flurries overnight. The weekend is looking wet. Saturday should reach a high of 6 C with rain. Overnight, the temperature will drop to -1 C. Sunday will be cloudy with a high of 5 C. The global CT Scanner Market report for the forecast period of 2018 2023 is a key insight into the CT Scanner Market across various parameters. The solid research on the CT Scanner Market is prepared with the aim to meet the requirements of the customer in terms of the availability of data, analytics, statistics, and an accurate forecast of the CT Scanner Market. The research has been conducted keeping a base year as reference to identity the CT Scanner Market trends and hence accurately project the forecast of the CT Scanner Market. Request Sample of CT Scanner Industry @ http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/493943 Some of the key players covered in the global CT Scanner Market report include: GE Healthcare DIGIRAD Gamma Star Medtronic HITACHI Medical Systems Europe Koning Corporation Mediso CT Imaging Neurologica Neusoft Medical Systems Philips Healthcare PointNix Scanco Medical Shenzhen Anke High-Tech The global CT Scanner Market report covers the overview of the market which provides the customer detailed information about the CT Scanner Market such as the different types of products, the applications of the products and their performance in the market. This can help the customer relate to the market and gain requisite insights into the CT Scanner Market for better understanding and planning. The report further covers the various drivers, challenges, and trends in the global market as well as in the regional markets. It is necessary to understand all the drivers and restraints one might face in the market to plan the growth campaign effectively and realize substantial benefits. Moreover, the value and volume production, revenue generation, and other similar parameters regarding the CT Scanner Market are also covered in the global CT Scanner Market report. The global CT Scanner Market is segmented into various regions. Each region is individually analyzed and then pitted against one another to conclude as to which region is the leading region in the CT Scanner Market in terms of value, volume, and market share. Furthermore, the region which is recording the fastest growth rate is also covered. Browse Full Report @ http://orbisresearch.com/reports/index/ct-scanner-global-market-status-and-trend-report-2013-2023-top-20-countries-data The Regions covered in CT Scanner Market Report are: North America Europe China Japan Rest APAC Latin America By types, the CT Scanner Market is segmented into the following: Low-slice Scanners (< 64 slices) Medium-slice Scanners (64 slices) High-slice Scanners (>64 slices) By Applications, the CT Scanner Market is segmented into the following: Oncology Cardio and Vascular Neurology Others The type with the fastest growth rate for the forecast period and the type holding the highest market share are mentioned in the report along with a detailed analysis of each type in the global CT Scanner Market report. The report also covers the key companies fighting it out in the CT Scanner Market across the globe. With the intense competition present in the CT Scanner Market, the customer should be well informed of the competition and what is to be faced ahead. Apart from this, the report also covers the rest of the CT Scanner Market analysis such as market analysis, downstream customers, consumption, sales, price, and gross margin. Customer looking to buy this report presented by Orbis Research will receive the best collation of data and statistics about the CT Scanner Market and can gain actionable insights through the well prepared report. Make an Enquiry @ http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/493943 Major Points included in CT Scanner Industry Report : Chapter 1 Overview of CT Scanner Market Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types Chapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry Chapter 5 North America Market Status by Countries, Type, Manufacturers and Downstream Industry Chapter 6 Europe Market Status by Countries, Type, Manufacturers and Downstream Industry Chapter 7 Asia Pacific Market Status by Countries, Type, Manufacturers and Downstream Industry Chapter 8 Latin America Market Status by Countries, Type, Manufacturers and Downstream Industry Chapter 9 Middle East and Africa Market Status by Countries, Type, Manufacturers and Downstream Industry Chapter 10 Market Driving Factor Analysis of CT Scanner Market Chapter 11 CT Scanner Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers Chapter 12 CT Scanner Market Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data Chapter 13 Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis of CT Scanner Market Chapter 14 Cost and Gross Margin Analysis of CT Scanner Market Continued List Of Tables present in the CT Scanner Industry: Table Advantage and Disadvantage of Low-slice Scanners (< 64 slices) Table Advantage and Disadvantage of Medium-slice Scanners (64 slices) Table Advantage and Disadvantage of High-slice Scanners (>64 slices) Table Production Volume of CT Scanner by Regions 2013-2017 Table Production Value of CT Scanner by Regions 2013-2017 Table Demand Volume of CT Scanner by Regions 2013-2017 Table Production and Demand Status of CT Scanner in Region One 2013-2017 Table Production and Demand Status of CT Scanner in Region Two 2013-2017 Table Production and Demand Status of CT Scanner in Region Three 2013-2017 Table Production and Demand Status of CT Scanner in Region Four 2013-2017 Table Import Volume of CT Scanner by Regions 2013-2017 Table Export Volume of CT Scanner by Regions 2013-2017 Table Production Volume of CT Scanner by Types 2013-2017 Table Production Value of CT Scanner by Types 2013-2017 Table Production Volume Forecast of CT Scanner by Types 2018-2023 Table Production Value Forecast of CT Scanner by Types 2018-2023 Table Demand Volume of CT Scanner by Downstream Industry 2013-2017 Table Demand Volume Forecast of CT Scanner by Downstream Industry 2018-2023 Continued About Us: Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients. Contact Information: Hector Costello Senior Manager Client Engagements 4144N Central Expressway, Suite 600, Dallas, Texas 75204, U.S.A. Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +9164101019 Email: sales@orbisresearch.com Glucose Tolerance Test Market Scenario A glucose tolerance test measures how well a bodys cells is capable to engross glucose, or sugar, after a patient consume a given amount of sugar. Doctors and specialists use fasting blood sugar levels and haemoglobin A1C values to identify type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and pre-diabetes whereas a glucose tolerance test can also be used. Doctors primarily use a glucose tolerance test to diagnose gestational diabetes in patients. The global Glucose Tolerance Test market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.4% during the forecast period 2017-2023. Specialists and doctors often diagnose type 1 diabetes swiftly because it frequently develops quickly and includes high blood sugar levels. Type 2 diabetes, on the other hand regularly develops over years. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, and it generally develops during adulthood. Gestational diabetes arises when a pregnant woman who do not have diabetes before pregnancy, thus has high blood sugar levels as a result of the pregnancy. The American Diabetes Association estimates that gestational diabetes occurs in 9.2 percent of pregnancies. Request Sample copy at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4921 The global glucose tolerance test market is expected to reach high growth figures in 2023, this market is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR of 10.4% during the forecast period 2017-2023. Factors such as Increasing prevalence and incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM), Rise in technological innovations, Research funding in diabetes diagnosis and treatment, and rising awareness and screening for Diabetes Mellitus are some of the major factors driving the growth of the market. Further Stringent reimbursement and insurance policies in developing nations, High cost associated with diagnosis and treatment of diabetes can hamper the market growth in coming future. Competitive Dashboard: Dexcom Panasonic Medtronic Hoffman-La Roche Abbott Laboratories, and others. Global Glucose Tolerance Test Market Segmentation: The global Glucose Tolerance Test market is segmented on the basis of products, indications, end user. On the basis of the products, it is further segmented into intramedullary Blood glucose testing kit (Lancet, Meters, Test strips and others), Smart sensors and other. On the basis of the indication, the market is segmented into Diabetes, Gestational diabetes, Insulin resistance, Reactive hypoglycemia. On the basis of the end user, the market is segmented into Diagnostic Clinics, Hospitals, Home, and others. Glucose Tolerance Test Market Regional Analysis: The Americas dominate the diabetes monitors market owing to the presence of patient population, a well-developed technology, high healthcare expenditure, and the presence of the leading players. Due to high prevalence of the condition, companies, private organization, and government associations actively participates to improve diabetes care. For instance, The Merck Foundation provided funding of USD 10,000,000 for the projects designed to improve access to diabetes care and to reduce health disparities for vulnerable populations with type 2 diabetes in the United States. Europe holds the second position in the diabetes monitors market. It is expected that the support provided by the government bodies for research & development, along with a well-developed technology drives the market in European region. According to the German maternity guidelines, every pregnant women can undergo glucose-challenge test for early diagnosis of Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). The charges for the test are completely covered by womens health insurance. Major TOC of Glucose Tolerance Test Market Research Report Forecast till 2023: 1 Report Prologue 2 Market Introduction 3 Research Methodology 4 Market Dynamics 5 Market Factor Analysis 6 Global Glucose Tolerance Test Market By Products 7 Global Glucose Tolerance Test Market By Indication 8 Global Glucose Tolerance Test Market By End Users 9 Global Glucose Tolerance Test Market By Regions 10 Competitive Landscape 11 Company Profile 12 Conclusion 13 Appendix 14 List of Tables 15 List of Figures Browse Complete 105 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with 30+ Respective Tables and Figures at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/glucose-tolerance-test-market-4921 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Contact Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Medical Imaging has become the core of modern medical diagnostics. The advanced imaging technologies that are available today have certainly improved the efficiency of diagnostic systems to a significant level. In recent years, the number of people undergoing diagnostic procedures has increased substantially with the rise in prevalence of acute and chronic diseases. Consequently, the demand for effective and more accurate diagnostic technologies has also gone up. Factors as such have reflected favorably on the Global Market for Medical Imaging. The Global Medical Imaging Market is growing rapidly and is expected to grow more. Medical imaging techniques are providing accurate diagnosis of disorders and ailments. There has been huge demand for medical imaging in healthcare companies, hospitals, clinics, and laboratories. Numerous benefits offered by medical imaging, is increasing demand of the same highly in the market. Global Medical Imaging Market Key Players Major participants of this market are Carestream Health, Inc. Esaote SpA Fonar Corporation Fujifilm Holdings Corporation GE Healthcare Hitachi Medical Corporation Hologic, Inc. Narang Medical Limited Philips Healthcare Samsung Medison Co. Ltd Shimadzu Corporation Siemens Healthcare Toshiba Corporation Get Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1995 Latest Industry Trends and News Leading technology Nvidia has reportedly expressed its intentions of introducing a new AI platform Clara in the recently held GPU Technology Conference. The AI will be mainly used for creating virtual medical imaging platform. With this move, the tech firm will set its foot in the healthcare sector. TriHealth, a healthcare provider based in Cincinnati is reportedly set to invest $10 Mn to integrate a part of IBM Watson Health Enterprise Imaging solution. The move will allow TriHealth to bolster its picture archiving and communication system infrastructure as well as engage AI capabilities for medical imaging. Global Medical Imaging Market Segmentation The Medical Imaging Market has been segmented on the basis of modality which includes ultrasound, computed tomography, x-ray, radiography, MRI, nuclear imaging, tactile imaging, echocardiography, thermography and more. On the basis of end user, market is further segmented into hospital/clinics, diagnostic centers, laboratories, and others. Global Medical Imaging Market Regional Analysis The American region holds the major share of the global medical imaging market, owing to the existing well-established healthcare system, technological advancements, and the geriatric population. Due to the increasing acceptance of advanced imaging equipment multitude of products have been introduced by leading players. For instance, Vantage Galan 3.0T XGO Edition MRI by Canon Medical Systems USA, Inc. received approval from Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Galan 3T XGO Edition offers the ability to conduct high-quality neuroimaging exams, and higher-resolution images. Europe holds the second position in the global medical imaging market. It is expected that the government support towards research & development expenditure. The Asia-Pacific medical imaging market consists of countries namely China, Japan, Republic of Korea, India, Australia and the Rest of Asia-Pacific. The rising prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is propelling the growth of the market. According to a study published in the Circulation Journal in 2017, 80% of CVD deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries. The Middle East and Africa holds the lowest share of the global market due to low development, lack of technical knowledge, and poor medical facilities. Browse Complete 80 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with 30+ Respective Tables and Figures @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/medical-imaging-market-1995 Major Table of Content Chapter 1. Report Prologue Chapter 2. Market Introduction 2.1 Definition 2.2 Scope of the Study 2.2.1 Research Objective 2.2.2 Assumptions 2.2.3 Limitations Chapter 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Primary Research 3.3 Secondary Research 3.4 Market Size Estimation Chapter 4. Market Dynamics Continued. About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact: Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com Assessing the electrical activity of a fetal heart is extremely difficult, since ECG is not an option. Ultrasound is not a substitute for electrical conduction study like ECG, so theres always a search for a better alternative. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen believe that a new technology theyre working will give clinicians an unprecedented diagnostic tool for fetal cardiac assessment. Published in journal Nature Scientific Reports, the technology relies on a cloud of cesium atoms that is very sensitive to magnetic fields, and therefore able to discern faint electromagnetic signals coming from the fetal heart. While these so-called optically pumped magnetometers have been developed in the past, they required to either be cooled to near absolute zero or be heated to high temperatures. The new magnetometer from University of Copenhagen works at room temperature and is therefore much more applicable to being integrated into clinical equipment. The device was tested on guinea pig hearts suspended behind a thick layer of plexiglass. The new instrument was placed near the plexiglass and allowed to monitor the magnetic fields created by the heart. The researchers were able to modulate the hearts rhythms in order to test whether their system was able to detect any arrhythmias, which it did exceptionally well. The researchers believe that their technology will be turned into a medical device and tested on humans within three years. Though ambitious, the researchers may not be experts on the medical device regulatory process, but we wish them well and hope this technology does prove itself as soon as possible. Study in Scientific Reports: Magnetocardiography on an isolated animal heart with a room-temperature optically pumped magnetometer Via: University of Copenhagen Zika Virus Testing Market had held over the populace in recent past has a far-reaching impact on governments in terms of initiatives undertaken. FDA had recently made it mandatory for zika virus testing of all the blood testing done across the U.S. in hospitals and laboratories just to keep the virus at bay. Borne by Aedes genus of mosquitoes, this disease can be easily transmitted to another person even via sexual intercourse and pregnant women, if affected, can forward that to her newborn child as well. Prominent companies playing a significant role in the zika virus testing market are Luminex Corporation, ARUP Laboratories, Roche Molecular Systems, Hologic, and Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. The World Health Organization (WHO) is also quite aware of the impacts of the virus and has taken steps accordingly. For instance, in 2016, it had declared a health emergency in the Americas, where the disease was spreading its wings. Subsequently, testing kits for the disease found a significant market and started growing in leaps and bounds. These precautionary decisions can act like a global market booster for the zika virus testing. Get Sample Copy of Research Report: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5662 The market is witnessing constant evolution owing to companies launching innovative technologies to detect the virus and cure the effects. However, collaborations are also abounding such as technology firm Inovatechs collaboration with Sao Paolos Research Foundation. Few among many clinical symptoms of this disease are myalgia, headache, fever, maculopapular rashes, and arthralgia. Only upon further diagnosis and confirmation, are the treatments recommended to patients. Sometimes, similar symptoms can be mistaken for other illnesses. Thus, its best to go to the doctors and have it ruled in/out. These initiatives have resulted in the growth of zika virus testing market, and the market is all set to witness a considerable hike during the forecast period (2017-2023), asserts Market Research Future (MRFR) in an extensively analyzed report. FDA and the U.S. government have taken considerable steps to outclass this disease by having it properly tested and developing drugs that can contain the virus. The outcome is quite overwhelming. The global zika virus testing market can be segmented by tests and end-users. By tests, the market can be further sub-segmented into serological/Zika virus antibody and molecular/nucleic acid amplification. The latter is the most commonly used test for zika virus detection. Based on end-users the market includes diagnostic units, hospitals, pathology labs, and others. Industry Trend: Researchers from Brigham and Womens hospital have recently come out with their discovery where they have used nanotechnology and digital health systems to detect zika virus. In the process. They have involved smartphones as necessary equipment for the testing. The method is known as nanomotor-based bead-motion cellphone (NBC) system, which can have considerable impacts in afflicted regions. Technology firm Inovatech, in collaboration with the Sao Paulo Research Foundation, developed a test at the Butantan Institute that can detect antibodies against zika virus in samples with great precision to declare infection, if any, caused by the virus previously. Browse Complete 108 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with 121 Respective Tables and Figures at: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/zika-virus-testing-market-5662 Significant investments by the FDA and US government to introduce Zika testing in the hospitals and banks of the United States would also drive market sales in the near future. Moreover, attempts by vendors and producers to come up with Zika virus testing will assist the market in gaining more traction. Most of the demand for these tests are predicted to stem from Florida. The citys burgeoning Zika-affected population will contribute to the same. Wrong results from faulty diagnostic procedures and shortage of awareness across emerging nations can negatively impact the Zika virus testing market. Region-specific analysis of the global market has regions Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, Americas, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) under its coverage. The Americas are in-charge of the market and Latin American countries, where the outbreak of the disease hit massively, are contributing more than the regions far in the distance. Projects initiated by Health and Human Services (HHS), and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to deter the disease from further growth and cure the affected populace can be seen as a market influencer. Brazils National Development Bank (BNDES) has also infused USD 136.6 million for further researches that can help the market grow considerably. Inquire for Discount at: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/5662 About Market Research Future: MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact: Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com by Sean Hargrave , Staff Writer, November 2, 2018 It has not been a great week to be a tech giant. At Google staff walked out because of treatment of female workers, and at Apple shares slumped on the news that iPhone sales are not as positive as hoped. Facebook's founder is again being summoned to defend the social network to British MPs, and all companies grossing over GBP500m sales have been told they will be hit with a 2% tax in a year and a half. Beyond that, there is also the growing threat to the social media networks, in particular that they will be held more accountable for the content that is published on them. Ofcom even told MPs this week that the social giants are expecting stronger regulation -- it is just up to politicians to draw up the necessary laws. And then we have Tim Berners-Lee, the British inventor often associated with creating the World Wide Web, talking about the ultimate sanction. The internet giants are so massive that they may need to be broken up, he suggests. The last straw, The Guardian reports, was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw personal information from 87m Facebook customers misused. It showed to Berners-Lee that not only are the internet giants too huge, they are not using their power wisely and responsibly. There are two answers, he suggests. We either wait to see whether smaller companies come along and disrupt them -- or they should be broken up. The Guardian article in which Berners-Lee make the point has done some number-crunching. The combined market capitalisations of Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Apple is around $3.7 trillion. Between them, they generate more revenue than Germany's annual GDP. With that in mind, it's hard to imagine how the tech giants can be brought to heel. Facebook and Google, in particular, are old hands at buying new promising platforms, such as Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube, to name just three. If you are in their sphere and have a Google-beating idea, guess which will be the first company slamming down a huge pile of cash on the table? Personally, I'm not a fan of breaking up companies. It just sounds like the state is taking too much power. And how do you break up a global company, anyway? No, the way forward has to be an absolute clamp-down on accountancy practices that move far too much revenue to be taxed in regimes with lower tax rates. That has to be stamped out through international agreement or a shift entirely to a sales tax, similar to the Digital Services Tax announced by Philip Hammond on Monday. Secondly, the tech giants have to be made responsible for the content on their services -- and given deadlines by which to remove fake news and harmful content. Progress is being made here, but more needs to be done if the tech giants are actually going to be compelled to clean up their services like any other publisher. If the job is too big, then maybe that will be what cuts the platforms back down to size. by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, November 5, 2018 The Trump administration has been considering antitrust proceedings against Amazon, Facebook, and Googles parent Alphabet. President Donald Trump revealed the move in a taped interview with Axios Jonathan Swan and Jim VandeHei that aired Sunday. HBOs four-part news show Axios debuted this past weekend. Part of the discussion centered on the European Unions decision to fine Google $5 billion for abusing the dominance of the Android operating system. Frankly, I dont like they are doing that because its an American company, he said. "I don't think it's good that they're doing that. But if anybody does that, it should be us doing it." advertisement advertisement Regulating the internet is not out of the question, but Trump said then you get into the whole thing with freedom of speech. Swan also asked Trump whether his administration would direct the Justice Department to look into the company as a monopoly, and Trump responded that it was "certainly something we're looking at." Trumps administration is not the only one to consider action against these tech companies. He said past administrations have been talking about taking action against these monopolies for years. A lot of people thought it was going to happen, but than a previous administration stopped it from happening, Trump said. by Sara Guaglione , November 5, 2018 Brit + Co today launched a curated online store with gifts for the holidays, in partnership with online marketplace Etsy. Hosted on Brit + Cos site, the shop features over 1,000 items curated from Etsy, a platform that allows independent creators to sell their wares. The site utilizes a shopping tool created for Brit.co. Once a shopper finds something they like through the Brit + Co store, the link to purchase takes them to the item on Etsy, where they can buy the product. advertisement advertisement The Etsyitems range across a number of themes, personalities and price points. Gifts can be found for That Hygge Life and Plant Lady, as well as personas like Creative, Techie, Hostess, Food and Fashionista, among others. Home goods and decor products are for sale, as well as jewelry, soaps, treats, phone cases and personalized gifts, such as custom family portraits and monogrammed passport holders. Shoppers can also browse through gifts For Him and price ranges from Under $25 to Under $200. Brit + Co, a media company founded by CEO Brit Morin, appeals to millennial women with DIY and lifestyle content. It claims to reach an audience of more than 125 million women who are higher-than-average converting shoppers. Etsy has a community of 2 million creators, with over 45 million items. The holiday shop will be up through January. Last month, Brit + Cos annual #CreateGood event series partnered with Oaths live Build Series to reach a wider audience on its online platforms, including AOL, HuffPost, Makers and Yahoo. The five-day event was live-streamed from the Build Series studios in New York City. MENLO PARK, Calif. Nov. 5, 2018 University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Frank Sciurba Roy Semaan November 1, 2018 Frank Sciurba Pittsburgh Paris September 2018 the United States the United States July 2018 the United States the United States Jonathan Waldstreicher the United States United States Menlo Park, CA New York /PRNewswire/ -- Gala Therapeutics (Gala), a clinical-stage developer of medical devices to treat pulmonary disease, today announced that the first two patients in the Early Feasibility Study of RheOx for Chronic Bronchitis were treated atMedical Center (UPMC) in, Pennsylvania. Drs.andperformed the procedures, in the first US patients to undergo RheOx Bronchial Rheoplasty, on"We are pleased to partner with Gala in treating the first US patients and thus continuing the contribution of UPMC as a leader in the development of novel devices for our patients with COPD" said, MD, FCCP, Director of the Emphysema/COPD Research Center at UPMC in, Pennsylvania. "RheOx offers a potential solution for an unmet need for so many patients who suffer with the persistent symptoms of chronic bronchitis, representing a personalized therapy for our patients with one type of COPD."RheOx, an electrosurgical system developed by Gala Therapeutics, targets the abnormal, mucus-producing cells in the airways. In a minimally invasive procedure, a pulmonologist guides an endoscope into the airways and inserts the RheOx catheter, delivering short bursts of electrical energy to the airway walls. Within days, the abnormal cells that produce large volumes of mucus are replaced by new cells, which produce less mucus. At the European Respiratory Society inin, data presented from studies outsidedemonstrated RheOx significantly improves Quality of Life scores, reduces the mucus-producing cells on biopsy specimens and resolves mucus plugging on CT scans.Chronic bronchitis is the most common subtype of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a condition which impacts over 15 million people, mostly smokers and former smokers, in. Secondhand smoke, vaping, exposure to airborne chemicals, pollution, and other irritants can contribute to the disease. Chronic bronchitis is associated with increased cough, excessive phlegm and shortness of breath for greater than 3 months of each year. Despite treatment with inhalers many patients have persistent symptoms.In, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) approval to conduct an Early Feasibility Study (EFS) to examine the safety of RheOx in subjects with chronic bronchitis. Fifteen subjects at 5 clinical trial sites inwill undergo Bronchial Rheoplasty. The procedure is performed in two treatments sessions, the first to treat the right lung airways and the second, one month later, to treat the left lung airways. The primary endpoint of the study is safety. Secondary endpoints include changes in Quality of Life as measured by the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire and COPD Assessment Test, as well as pulmonary function testing and CT scans."Treatment of the first subjects inthrough the novel EFS pathway is a significant milestone for Gala Therapeutics," said, MD, Founder and CEO of Gala. "We look forward to enrolling additional patients at new US clinical sites in the coming weeks."Individuals indiagnosed with chronic bronchitis who are interested in participating in the study can assess eligibility at www.bronchitisstudy.com. RheOx is an investigational medical device limited bylaw to investigational study only.About Gala TherapeuticsGala Therapeutics is a privately-held medical device company based inthat was formed by Apple Tree Partners, a life-sciences focused venture capital firm based in. Gala is dedicated to developing disease modifying therapies that improve survival, quality of life, and outcomes for patients with lung cancer, COPD, asthma, and other pulmonary diseases. Gala is building a portfolio of technologies to address the needs of interventional pulmonologists, thoracic surgeons, and all physicians who treat pulmonary disease. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gala-enrolls-first-subjects-in-an-early-feasibility-study-of-rheox-for-chronic-bronchitis-in-the-united-states-300743610.html SOURCE Gala Therapeutics Jessica Zong in Shanghai, Serife Durmus in Bursa, Cem Turken in Mugla, Fiona Lam in Singapore and Felipe Peroni in Sao Paulo contributed to this report. On one hand, an ongoing increase in import scrap prices in Turkey was rendering support to local and foreign billet suppliers, in the Commonwealth of Independent States in particular. On the other hand, CIS suppliers faced increased freight costs that complicated trading.Besides that, the demand for billet in some markets was rather weak due to the lack of support from the finished long steel segment and consuming industries.Domestic billet prices in northern China were 3,950 yuan ($569) per tonne on Friday, down by 50 yuan per tonne week on week.The inventory for the product in Tangshan was at 180,000 tonnes on Friday, down 60,000 tonnes from a week earlier, said a regional billet trader, who received the information from an industry information provider.The sharp inventory drop was due to traders destocking. Traders were pessimistic on steel demand and prices in the coming two or three months due to bad weather.Meanwhile, no export offers were heard last week. Market sources calculated the export offers to be around $515-520 per tonne fob based on the domestic price, down $5 per tonne from the prior week.AsiaIn Asia, the demand for billet was rather strong at the beginning of the week, with a number of cargoes from the CIS, Iran and Malaysia heard sold within the range of $490-508 cfr.Around 20,000 tonnes of billet from the CIS were sold to the Philippines at $508 per tonne cfr Manila on October 30.Another CIS-origin cargo of similar tonnage was sold to Taiwan at $503 per tonne cfr.Malaysia-origin materials were sold to buyers in Thailand at around $495-500 per tonne cfr early in the week.Iran-origin material was heard booked at $490-495 per tonne cfr Indonesia.By the end of the week, few bids were reported, with market participants in the Philippines largely inactive on November 1 and 2 due to the countrys national holidays. Those buyers were expected to return to the market on November 5.There are very few offers because exporters know it is useless to offer billet to us before our long weekend, a trader in the Philippines said.The rest of the Southeast Asian market also stayed away, sources said.Indonesian buyers have been very quiet, watching the billet price downtrend, a Vietnam-based trader said on Friday.Indonesian re-rollers indicated their interest at $500-505 per tonne cfr, while bids from Thailand were around $495-500 per tonne cfr.Offers in the Philippines were reported at $505-510 per tonne cfr from the CIS, Turkey, the Middle East and Kuwait.In Vietnam, export offers were sparse last week. Vietnamese billet sellers are not interested in competing with the current low prices from Turkey and the Black Sea, the Vietnam-based trader said.By the end of the week, when demand in Southeast Asia softened, CIS producers switched to the Turkish market, which started to show more interest in import billet due to the ongoing rise in import scrap prices.Fastmarkets calculated the daily index for Northern European HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $331.67 per tonne cfr on October 31 [LINK], up from $322.80 per tonne on October 24.In the middle of the week, offers for CIS-origin billet were heard in Turkey in the range of $470-490 per tonne cfr, depending on the supplier; bids did not exceed $465 per tonne cfr.By the end of the week, several cargoes were heard sold within the range of $470-480 per tonne cfr, or around $455-460 per tonne fob Black Sea. In Egypt, CIS billet was offered at $477-480 per tonne cfr, but no deals were confirmed.Big projects are not paying... and buying has [slowed] for this reason, one trader said.Meanwhile, market participants reported that export from the CIS has been complicated by higher freight costs resulting from increased oil prices and reduced availability of vessels during grain shipping season.Freight from [Azov Sea port] Mariupol is over $20 per tonne now if you ship 10,000 tonnes of billet - normally it is $16-17 per tonne, one source said.Meanwhile, the cost of freight from Mariupol to Egyptian ports increased to $30-32 per tonne against $22 per tonne, according to another market participant.The cost of freight from the Azov Sea is traditionally $6 higher than from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.The cost of freight for a 10,000-tonne cargo from Russian Black Sea port Novorossiysk was said to be around $22-23 per tonne, according to another source.No new prices were heard for billet imports in the United Arab Emirates because local rebar mills had enough material in stock to fill their needs for at least two months.Besides that, the UAE decided to restrict imports of goods from sanctioned nations such as Iran, North Korea and Crimea.Customers [in the UAE] were signing documents confirming they will not buy any more sanctioned material, a UAE-based trading source told Fastmarkets.Buyers got permission to bring their last cargoes, another Middle East-based source told Fastmarkets. Therefore, no new bookings were heard done last week.For Iranian suppliers, this means that the circle of their customers will now be even more limited. The country is facing severe economic sanctions from the United States, so buyers from the GCC and Europe don't want to touch Iranian material.The Iranian market is almost closed now and banking issues are not the biggest problem here, a Middle East-based source told Fastmarkets.Shipping problems are the major issue at the moment, since no company wants its vessels to call at Iranian ports, the source added.Mills still offer and you can book, but you may never ship the material, he said.Offers for Iranian billet were reported at $430-440 per tonne fob on October 31.One source reported a cargo for late-November/early-December shipment being sold to Southeast Asia at $440 per tonne fob, but it could not be widely confirmed in the market.We hear offers at $430-440 fob for Iranian billet, but this price is too high considering the risks that are involved in its trading, a Middle East-based trader told Fastmarkets.I guess in a week or 10 days they will be selling at around $400 fob, as they do not have any other choice but to cut prices, another source said. JOURNALIST: I welcome now the Alternate Foreign Minister, Mr Giorgos Katrougalos. Good evening Minister. G. KATROUGALOS: Good evening. JOURNALIST: I would like a brief comment on the latest Turkish provocations. They have declared - and they did so in a truly shocking manner - that they intend to be present - as they put it - wherever there is energy work, or to put this simply, either in the Aegean or in the Eastern Mediterranean. By which they probably mean that they will force their way in, to secure their own share, even in areas that do not belong to them. How does the Greek side react to this? G. KATROUGALOS: The difference between us and the other side does not reside in the fact that we have diverging interests. It is in the way we choose to deal with these international disputes. Our way of resolving them is indeed completely different. We are insisting on the implementation of International Law, and on diplomacy. In this way, not only do we rely on the international Convention on the Law of the Sea, but we have developed, in a systematic way, trilateral cooperation with other countries, with the Republic of Cyprus first and foremost, but also with Israel and Egypt. We have supported the Republic of Cyprus in its effort to entrust the exploitation of its wealth to large multinational corporations. As you can see, they also have the support of the states they come from. On the other side, we are confronted with a revisionist and verbalistic policy, which clearly shows that it is not paying off. For our part, we shall steadfastly continue to defend not only our national interests, but also the implementation of international law, and a manner of settling disputes that remains respectful of International Treaties and diplomacy. JOURNALIST: Minister, are you worried about the possibility that Turkey might provoke a "heated incident", either in the Aegean or the Cypriot EEZ, with the aim of dragging us to the table, forcing us into a conversation we have no reason to get involved in? G. KATROUGALOS: We are always vigilant so that we are prepared to face any eventuality. Personally, I do not believe that the other side will make such a choice precisely because it is a time when it is trying to overcome its difficulties on its domestic front by healing its economy. And it seems to be trying to effect a rapprochement with both the West and Europe. It is obvious that the normalization of relations with Europe passes through Greece. I believe that, at this stage, it would amount to suicide if the Turkish side pursued any rash adventurism, of the kind you mentioned. JOURNALIST: Now, to broach the other important issue, the question of the Prespa Agreement, a short time ago, Bujar Osmani stated that by the end of the year, Skopje will have completed the ratification of the agreement, and then will come our turn. The question is: Timewise, what does this mean for the Parliamentary assembly which will ratify the agreement in Greece, and what does this imply in terms of political developments? G. KATROUGALOS: To be accurate, what he said is that the most optimistic scenario is towards the end of the year or the beginning of the new year. JOURNALIST: Yes, that's what he said. G. KATROUGALOS: We are still holding on to our prediction that, around January, the other side will have fulfilled its respective obligations. Thus, from then on, it will be our turn. There will be no delays in meeting our obligations under the Prespa Agreement. From this point onwards, we can reasonably expect that the parliamentary procedures in Greece will be set in motion. JOURNALIST: March? Early March? G. KATROUGALOS: March is the deadline. So we have in front of us a chronological scope that cannot accurately be determined at this moment, because we do not know precisely when it will begin, since it depends on the other side. JOURNALIST: Ratification of the agreement and then elections in May? G. KATROUGALOS: Under no circumstances. Precisely because, for our part, we do indeed want to ratify the agreement, we are certain that we have the parliamentary majority for it, and we are also certain that we have the confidence of Parliament. And about the other important front, the economic front, since there are other open fronts beside the national ones, it is in the interest of our country not to interrupt this upward course. And after all, Mr Hatzinikolaou, it is time for Greeks to see a difference in their pockets, and for them to stop hearing that only the financial indicators are improving. JOURNALIST: Minister, one last brief comment to conclude this interview, please. The affair of the death of the Greek national in Northern Epirus. It would seem that, in Albania, the authorities do not wish to shed light on this case. And I say this because, as we saw, his wounds were stitched. My colleague, Panos Sobolos, who has been a police reporter for over forty years, was telling me that he has never seen such a practice before. We may see delays, as they may try to wash the corpse, obviously to wipe away any traces of gunshots, so that it becomes impossible to measure the distance of the shots, or who knows what else. We may expect a delay in the return of the body to the family. I want to ask how the Greek Government intends to protect the family's right to learn the truth about what happened to their son? Whoever he was, whatever his behaviour was, the family has a right to learn why they killed him instead of following the civilized practice of arresting him. G. KATROUGALOS: We are in constant contact with the diplomatic authorities of the neighbouring country, and our priorities are, as we said from the beginning, to shed abundant light on this case. To protect the rights of our Greek brothers there, and, of course, while respecting the first two priorities, to safeguard relations between the two countries. Because, Mr Hatzinikolaou, whereas on October 28th we had planned a big celebration, to honour our dead soldiers who fell on the Albanian front, who found peace for the first time with their burial, while a celebration was organised to truly honour their memory, and in the presence of hundreds of Greeks as well as that of the Greek Minister of Culture, in a village decorated with flags, alas instead of leaving us with the joyous memory of two countries reconciling and honouring their dead, we tasted the bitter death of one of our nationals. JOURNALIST: Minister, how is the Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs responding to your request for an in-depth investigation to find out what truly happened? G. KATROUGALOS: They too have affirmed the need to shed abundant light on this affair, because they too are interested in preserving the good level that our bilateral relations have reached. They have raised the question of the independence of the Judiciary, and of course we have retorted to them that we are well aware of the proper functioning of the rule of law, but we have pointed out to them that they should... JOURNALIST: Of course, Minister, we cant ignore the fact that Edi Rama, their Prime Minister, was quick to condemn the deceased, calling him crazy and an extremist. G. KATROUGALOS: As you have seen, I have referred carefully to the need for both sides -for reciprocity is needed here- to maintain the good level of our relations. This is done while respecting the principle of the rule of law and the principle of good neighbourliness. We have begun also with this country -as we did with the neighbouring former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia- an effort to resolve our differences. That said, obviously, we also want to render justice to everyone and shed abundant light on the death of one of our nationals. However, we also need to look at these matters from a bigger perspective, and that is the need to protect the rights of our expatriates and the good relations with the neighbouring country. JOURNALIST: Yes, though the Albanian side and the Albanian Prime Minister must see it that way too. G. KATROUGALOS: To date, Mr Hatzinikolaou, we had made good progress in our diplomatic negotiation. The way in which this story develops is indeed a test. Personally, I do not want to prejudge. I hope that things will progress the way we are all expecting and hoping for. JOURNALIST: Indeed. Thank you very much, Minister. G. KATROUGALOS: Thank you. JOURNALIST: Will the recent death by police fire of the Greek national negatively impact Greek-Albanian relations, and what developments does this lead to? G. KATROUGALOS: I would like to hope that the recent tragic death will not hinder the positive trajectory of Greek-Albanian relations. Unfortunately, on 28 October, we expected things to go differently; to witness, in Bularat, during a large celebration, our fallen soldiers on the Albanian front being honoured, finding peace after having been recently buried. There were Greek flags everywhere, hundreds of Greeks were there, together with the Minister of Culture, Ms. Zorba. Unfortunately, instead of this peaceful image, we were left with a bitter taste as a result of the death of our national. From the beginning, we clarified our priorities: to shed ample light on the case; to protect the rights of our Greek brothers; finally, with respect, and without making any concessions with regard to the first two priorities, to protect our bilateral relations. We did not stop at hoping for these things. We proceeded with the necessary demarches, and we continue to closely monitor developments, with the implicit respect for Justice. It is a positive thing that our request was accepted, for a Greek police officer to be present in Albania when the related investigations are conducted, and we are also awaiting that the human request by the family be fulfilled, that the remains be returned. With regard to how the investigation will be proceed, I do not wish to prejudge anything. We must be extremely careful, though, on both sides of the border, clearly not only on the level of government authorities. Banners such as the one raised at Partizans field about the dead Greek bastard or the front page of the well-known newspaper claiming that we are thirsty for Albanian blood, albeit that this originates and is expressed by few people, it nonetheless poisons the climate between the two nations. And clearly, the extremism of the former fuels the extremism and intolerance of the rest. JOURNALIST: Minister, with its stance, is the Albanian leadership helping for good neighbourly relations to exist? G. KATROUGALOS: As we have sought to do with all the countries in the region, we have worked systematically with Albania to resolve our bilateral issues, and we are very close to fully resolving them. The Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the diplomatic authorities of both countries have consistently worked towards this goal, at least recently. I hope that we will continue, in the same atmosphere, in the future as well, with the obvious condition of showing reciprocal respect, refraining from making provocative statements, and not prejudging, as regards this tragic incident, the decisions of the justice system. JOURNALIST: Since much is being heard, how connected is the Greek State with the Northern Epirotes who live in Albania? G. KATROUGALOS: Systematically and over the long-term, one of the constants of our foreign policy is the protection of our nationals everywhere, and especially wherever we have historical minorities with an age-old presence, such as in Northern Epirus. A few days ago, I personally received the newly elected President of Omonoia at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and we spoke together in an especially warm atmosphere. Protecting the rights of this minority represents one of the goals we have set with our partners as a criterion for Albania's European perspective. In this context, we are awaiting, from the authorities of the neighbouring country, the establishment of regulatory acts for full implementation of the recent law on the protection of minorities. JOURNALIST: With regard to the major recent political issue, what does the Constitutional Revision represent for SYRIZA? G. KATROUGALOS: The first revision proposal of the Left already represents a significant historical event. Revision represents the pinnacle of our progressive reform work, with two main objectives: first, for the client state of the post Junta period to be structurally reformed, towards its democratization through strengthening of the Parliament and introduction of institutional balances that are not the property of the elite, but which will be activated through popular participation; and second, to strengthen the protection of personal and political freedoms and social rights, as well as the mechanisms of the social state, as a levee in the attack against these by neoliberalism. JOURNALIST: With your proposal for the election of President, is the country not held hostage? Isnt a six-month electoral process extreme? G. KATROUGALOS: All political parties seek, and rightfully so, for the election of the President of the Republic to be separated from the dissolution of Parliament. On the other hand, we must maintain the symbolic unifying role of the President of the Republic in the Constitution. This second priority is not permitted if the latter can only be elected by a ruling majority. According to the old formula, the constitutional legislator sought to force the parties to reach a consensus with the threat of elections. This did not work. We therefore feel that the process we are proposing represents such an incentive, if the required majority of three-fifths is not reached, for it to be repeated every month until a majority of three-fifths is reached, or until a six-month period has elapsed from the beginning of the election process, at which point automatic election will take place. Precisely because six months is extreme, as your question phrases it, we feel that the parties will avoid this by selecting candidates who can garner a political consensus from the start. JOURNALIST: Following the proposal for revision, what is the relationship, at this point, between the Government and the Church? G. KATROUGALOS: The relationship between the State and the Church is at last as dictated by modern republics, as well as the Bible: "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's". The religious neutrality of the State is expressly protected, while the Orthodox religion continues to be recognised, for historical and factual reasons, as our countrys dominant religion. JOURNALIST: Did your fear complete failure? Is this why you hesitated in abolishing Article 3 of the Constitution? G. KATROUGALOS: On the contrary. We have proven, on many levels, that we do not lack courage. But we are also a mature power which exhibits prudence. Completely abolishing Article 3 would not have a different legislative effect than the amendment we are proposing, while it would create the danger of a war of symbolism and not substance. Beyond the obvious respect for the Church, we do not wish, under any circumstances, for there to be political expression on the part of the religious arena in Greece, as had existed during the period when the indication of religion on national identity cards was being abolished. Jay Babina of Branford is exhibiting his acrylics, oils and watercolor paintings through Nov. 28 at The Gallery at The Orchards in Southington. Babina is a painter with 40 years of experience as a graphic designer and illustrator with his own graphic design and advertising agency. He is involved in various art societies throughout Connecticut and he paints both plein air and studio. He is a painting instructor at The Arts Center Killingworth in Killingworth. On Nov. 28 at 7 p.m., he will give a painting demonstration for the Southington Arts and Crafts Association in the Community Room at The Gallery at The Orchards. The public is invited to attend. The Gallery at The Orchards is located in the Community room, on the second floor, at The Orchards; call 860-628-5656 for available day and evening viewing hours. Pictured is Gloucester Work Boat by Babina. MIDDLETOWN Police have issued a missing-person alert for a 44-year-old local man. Richard Stoute was described by State Police as a male white, bald, five-feet, seven inches tall, and weighing 230 pounds. He was last seen on Sunday. The Connecticut State Police released a statement Tuesday reminding residents of the real reason troopers give motorists tickets because theyre trying to keep the roadways safe. Some people believe that when they get a ticket from a trooper that the trooper is just picking on me or that the trooper has a quota to fill, state police said. But the truth is we dont give out tickets because we have quotas and we certainly dont pick on people. State police said troopers give out tickets with the hopes of slowing drivers down and keeping all other drivers safe. We give out tickets in hopes that your families will never have to hear that youre not coming home today, state police said. With the statement, state police provided a photo of the Collision Analyses Reconstruction Squad investigating the site of a fatal car crash. State police said the specialized unit responds to fatal motor vehicle accidents almost every day and assist troopers with the lengthy, often complicated investigations. The CARS unit gets called out from their homes at all times of the day and night, sometimes multiple times a day, in any type of weather to reconstruct accident scenes, state police said. Often when there are extended highway delays because of a fatal accident, members of the public might not realize why those extended delays are needed. But state police said once the CARS unit gets to the site of a fatal crash, it takes them an estimated three hours to investigate, depending on the type of scene and the conditions. This is why there may be road closures for hours on your route home from work or school, state police said. CAMP NOVO SELO, Kosovo -- After picking up bread for her mother, a thirteen-year-old Iraqi girl was approached by three bearded men as she rode her bicycle home. The men told the girl that she belonged at home with her mother and that she would bring shame to her family. From that moment on the girl was not allowed to ride her bicycle or play outside ... that young girl was U.S. Army Cpl. Hala Kadhem. "The bicycle for me was a representation of my freedom," said Kadhem. "From that day on I would either stay in my room or help my mom in the kitchen. I was 13 years old, but I was no longer a little girl." As the years passed by, Kadhem said, she found herself disconnecting from her peers. "In high school the girls would all talk about finding a husband and dreaming about becoming wives and mothers," she said. "I was stuck on the stories my parents would tell me of back in the day when women had more freedom to follow their dreams. I wanted to be a college professor." Those dreams were put on hold in 2003, according to Kadhem. "I was 16 when the invasion happened, school was put on hold and we weren't able to finish our finals," she said. "There was a phase of calm when the invasion of Iraq initially happened but shortly after that bombings and attacks began to start, it was scary." Although confused and scared, Kadhem said her and her Family, especially with her father being an Iraqi military officer, were happy to see a potential change. "My Family was pro war because we were against and wanted out of the old regime," said Kadhem. "We weren't allowed to have satellite or cell phones, we felt disconnected with what was going on in the world, and travel was impossible especially for a Family with a military member. We wanted change." With the first stages of the Iraq War surrounding her, Kadhem said she continued to focus on her studies, finished high school, and graduated from college with a Masters in Physical Science. "After getting my masters I worked for the U.S Army at the department of state. I worked with an amazing diverse crowd from the United Nations," said Kadhem. "Joining the Army always interested me. I wanted to serve the United States and wanted to belong to an organization that would make a difference, and for me that was the U.S. Army." While working at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, Kadhem received her visa and moved to Washington, D.C. In April of 2015, with the support of her family and her father's encouragement to join the Army, Kadhem enlisted in the U.S. Army as a unit supply specialist. "My whole life I have never felt equal to men and in the Army I was able to liberate my body and mind by the equality they demonstrated," she said. "I was 28 when I went through basic and advanced training. It was very physically challenging for me but I wanted it, so I pushed myself and it has changed my life in so many great ways." After completing her initial entry training, Kadhem was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado. "I feel lucky to have been stationed at Fort Carson, it's a beautiful area and the installation is great," she said. "Being in a cavalry unit is such an amazing and unique experience, the unit pride and history is truly one of a kind." Upon her arrival to the unit, her senior leadership quickly noticed her drive and motivation. "Cpl. Kadhem's life story is inspirational for others," said Command Sgt. Maj. Jasan Weaver, senior enlisted leader for 3rd Sqdn., 61st Cav. Reg. "She is a resilient individual who takes actions against those who need assistance to have a life of freedom and the ability to choose on how one will live." Weaver, who was a staff sergeant and conducted counterinsurgency operations in Baghdad during the surge in Iraq, said having Kadhem within the formation gives him and other Soldiers who were involved during the surge a sense of pride that their efforts and work in Iraq made a difference. "To have a citizen of Iraq or Afghanistan, move to the United States, and join the United States Army reinforces our purpose of relieving oppressed citizens in the world [to] have an opportunity of a better life," he said. "There is honor and pride in (the 3rd Sqdn., 61st Cav. Reg.) to have a Soldier, like Cpl. Kadhem, who stands up for what she believes in, to ensure she pays it forward for Soldiers that previously assisted her in gaining a better life." Since February, Kadhem has gained her own experience in assisting citizens of another country. She deployed with her unit to become part of the Multi-National Battle Group-East in Kosovo who work alongside NATO forces to conduct security operations and engage with local populace in the country. "My main job in this deployment is to ensure my unit has everything supply-wise that they need but I have had the opportunity to go out with the (liaison monitoring teams) and get exposed to the engagements they have with the local people," said Kadhem. Kadhem's personal experience made her a perfect candidate and asset for the deployment according to Weaver. "Cpl. Kadhem provides a perspective of the local populace, which Soldiers sometimes take for granted growing up in the United States," he said. "Her viewpoint allows the Soldiers who have not deployed before have a clear understanding of the higher purpose of why the NATO Forces ensure peace between two major ethnic groups within Kosovo." According to Kadhem, the deployment has been a unique and eye opening experience. "The citizens here have problems with unemployment and travel restrictions which I can relate to from when I was growing up in Iraq," she said. "To hear a school principle or a 15-year-old girl talk about how much they love to see U.S. Soldiers help and how grateful they are to have us here is rewarding and reminds me exactly why I wanted to join." With a few years left in her contract, Kadhem said she does not know what her next step will be but she is grateful for such an amazing experience thus far. "I went from a place where women are second class citizens to a place where male leaders see me as a dynamic individual and hold me to a high position regardless of my gender," said Kadhem. "I have been lucky to have amazing men and women through my journey and they have become my role models for the rest of my life." A Russian Su-27 Flanker intercepted a U.S. EP-3 Aries signals reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea on Monday, posing a risk to the plane and crew, according to officials with U.S. 6th Fleet. Although aircraft intercepts happen often, Monday's incident over international waters was deemed unsafe because the multirole Russian Sukhoi fighter conducted "a high-speed pass directly in front of the mission aircraft," 6th Fleet said in a release. "The intercepting Su-27 made an additional pass, closing with the EP-3 and applying its afterburner while conducting a banking turn away," the release said. "The crew of the EP-3 reported turbulence following the first interaction, and vibrations from the second. The duration of the intercept was approximately 25 minutes." The EP-3 crew captured video of the event, showing the Su-27 banking right of the aircraft. While the Russian aircraft was free to exercise in the airspace, U.S. officials said the maneuvers were "irresponsible." Related content: "We expect them to behave within international standards set to ensure safety and to prevent incidents, including the 1972 Agreement for the Prevention of Incidents On and Over the High Seas (INCSEA)," the release said. Such moves increase the risk of collision, which could result in loss of life, officials noted. In January, an Su-27 flew within five feet of a U.S. Navy EP-3 over the Black Sea, crossing directly into the EP-3's flight path and forcing it to fly through the Russian jet's turbulence wake. Meanwhile, an Su-30 fighter jet buzzed a Navy P-8 Poseidon flying over the Black Sea last November. Its full afterburner also caused "violent turbulence," Fox News reported at the time. Since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, intercepts have become more common in the region. Russian jets have made multiple passes over U.S. surveillance planes over the Black Sea, as Russian forces build up equipment and new training outposts in Crimea. Similar instances have occurred in the Baltic, where the U.S. and NATO rotate to conduct the Baltic Air Policing mission over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. U.S. Air Forces Europe (USAFE) in January published videos showing two specific intercepts of Russian aircraft over the Baltic Sea in 2017, one Nov. 23 and the other Dec. 13. In each case, neither of the Russian Su-30 Flanker jets broadcast flight codes required by air traffic control, nor did they file a flight plan. USAFE classified the scrambles as routine. While there has been increased political tension near Russia's borders, "There [has been] no violation of Baltic countries' territory -- not even the airspace," Gen. Petr Pavel, then-chairman of the NATO Military Committee, told reporters in January. "All we have [seen] in the region is increased military presence, more exercises, more flights of long-range aviation, more use of intelligence. But I wouldn't call it 'aggression.' "Sometimes, we don't distinguish between airspace violation or a need to call what is known as 'alpha scramble,' " he said, referring to times when pilots sit alert, ready to jump into fighters and escort unidentified or bellicose jets out of sovereign airspace. "Most of these so-called violations are because of a loss of communication or human or technical mistake. ... I would say 90 percent of these so-called violations are technical mistake[s]," such as omitting transponder signals, flight plans or properly communicating with air traffic control. "Very few are deliberate or provocative," Pavel said. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Runners know that it is not a question of whether you have pain or injury, but when that pain or injury will occur. "Astounding" is author Alec Navala-Lee's groundbreaking history of science fiction in America. Rather than give a cursory overview to the entire history of how stories published in pulp magazines transformed into an important literary genre, Nevala-Lee takes an in-depth look at "Astounding" magazine editor John W. Campbell and three of his most famous disciples: Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbard. Campbell didn't write many stories himself, instead assigning most of his best ideas to his writers at the magazine, although his brilliant novella "Who Goes There? inspired the 1951 sci-fi movie classic "The Thing From Another World" and its 1982 and 2011 remakes as "The Thing." Asimov and Heinlein remain on the short list of science fiction's greatest authors, while Hubbard mostly abandoned the genre after World War II when he developed that ideas that eventually led him to found Scientology as a religion. Both Heinlein and Hubbard are Navy veterans and Asimov worked as a civilian researcher in support of the war effort. What happened during World War II plays a huge role in Nevala-Lee's story and we've got an excerpt that details Heinlein and Asimov's time working at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Health issues prevented Heinlein from returning to active duty during the war and his wife Leslyn worked alongside him at the complex. Hubbard was pursuing a checkered Navy career that's heavily detailed in "Astounding." Other characters mentioned in this excerpt include Asimov's wife Gertrude, science fiction author Frederik Pohl, Lt. Cmdr. Buddy Scoles (assistant chief engineer for materials at the Navy Yard), science fiction author and fellow Navy Yard worker L. Sprague de Camp and Campbell's daughter Peedee. Selection from Chapter 7: A Cold Fury During the war, one issue that was never far from anyone's mind was the problem of rationing. Gertrude smoked, but neither she nor Asimov drank, and they became used to their friends asking if they had any extra liquor stamps. Their lack of interest in drinking was another quality that kept them socially apart. Asimov's idea of indulging himself after moving to Philadelphia had been to consume a huge bottle of soda on his own, which only made him sick, and Gertrude wrote to Pohl, "Try as I may, propriety and dullness must be my lot." Another object of rationing was gas. The preferred mode of transportation at the Navy Yard was by bicycle, and Heinlein could often be seen pedaling between the buildings in his suit and tie. One day, as a joke, a coworker removed the tags from a few tea bags and stopped Heinlein in the hallway, offering to sell him some illicit gasoline stamps. After examining the paper slips, Heinlein handed them back coldly. "You're lucky they weren't real." He wasn't inclined to make light of wartime sacrifices, and there were moments when the courtly mask that he cultivated so carefully seemed to crack. On his arrival at the Navy Yard, he had been assigned to the Altitude Chamber and Cold Room, which were used to test materials under conditions of low pressure and temperature. He supervised their construction before handing them over to de Camp, who was a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve. Heinlein was suffering from his usual medical problemshis back and kidneys were acting upand he felt buried by paperwork. Scoles, who admired his competence, assigned him additional administrative duties, which Heinlein accepted against his will. He wrote to Campbell, "I hate my job. There is plenty of important work being done here but I am not doing it. Instead I do the unimportant work in order that others with truly important things to do may not be bothered with it." He derisively called himself "the perfect private secretary," but he was also good at it. Tension between civilians and officers often ran high, and Heinlein was respected by both groups, advising the inexperienced de Camp, who could irritate others, to "clip those beetling brows." De Camp recalled, "It must have irked Heinlein to be working as a civilian while I, green to Navy ways, went about with pretty gold stripes on my sleeve. But he was a good sport about it, and I am sure his advice saved me from making a bigger ass of myself than I otherwise might have." Heinlein's basic troublewhich Hubbard shared to an even greater degreewas that he was too imaginative to fully commit himself to the work that had to be done, even as he feared that they were losing the war. He learned to deal with it, but only by consciously willing himself into the attitude of patience that came naturally to Asimov. "A war requires subordination," Heinlein wrote to Campbell, "and I take a bitter pride in subordinating myself." This remark was aimed directly at the editor. Months after their meeting with Scoles, Campbell's status was still up in the air. Early on, he had been enthusiastic about the Navy Yard, writing to Robert Swisher that Scoles was recruiting science fiction writers "as the type of men wanted for real research today." The editor added, "I have the satisfaction of already having succeeded in contributing a suggested line of attack that yielded results on one project." He even reached out to del Rey about taking over the magazine in the event that he was drawn into war work. Campbell remained unsure of his prospects for getting a reserve commission, however, citing a list of ailments, including bad vision in his left eye, a poorly healed appendectomy scar, an irregular heartbeat, and what he called "fear syndrome" in his psychiatric records. Ultimately, he didn't even take the physical. His attempts to find a position at the National Defense Research Committee falteredhis contact was often out of townand it became clear that his limited lab experience made him less desirable than the most recent crop of engineering graduates. Heinlein told him that if money were an issue, he and Leslyn would be happy to contribute a stipend for Peedee, but he conceded, "Truthfully, we aren't shorthanded enough to recommend it." But he also advised: I strongly recommend for your own present and futurepeace of mind and as an example to your associates that you find some volunteer work. . . . I predict that it will seem deadly dull, poorly organized, and largely useless. . . .I am faced with that impasse daily and it nearly drives me nuts. He anticipated many of Campbell's objections: "Remember, it does not have to be work that you want to do, nor work that you approve of. It suffices that it is work which established authority considers necessary to the war." And he concluded pointedly, "But find yourself some work, John. Otherwise you will spend the rest of your life in self-justification." Campbell never did. He found it hard to subordinate himself to duties that didn't utilize his talents, and he was disinclined to make the sacrifice that Heinlein had bitterly accepted. In the end, he decided to stay with his magazines, a civilian role with a high priority rating because of its perceived importance to morale. Heinlein never forgave him, speaking years later of "working my heart out and ruining my health during the war while he was publishing Astounding." The Heinleins still remained outwardly friendly toward the Campbells, as well as the de Camps, and they occasionally walked the two miles to visit Asimov and Gertrude. At work, their social life centered on the Navy Yard cafeteria, which was known without affection as Ulcer Gulch. Heinlein and Leslyn worked in different buildingsshe had landed a job as a junior radio inspector but they ate together every afternoon. Asimov became part of the lunch crowd when Gertrude left on a trip to clarify her immigration status, and after her return, Heinlein asked him to stay. Asimov resented the pressure, but finally consented "with poor grace." At the cafeteria, the food was terrible, and Asimov didn't get along with Leslyn. She struck him as brittle and tense, and her constant smokingshe used her plate as an ashtraysoured him forever on cigarettes. Leslyn didn't care for him, either. His years at the candy store had left him with the habit of devouring his food in silence, and when he popped half of a boiled egg in his mouth, she couldn't contain her disgust: "Don't do that. You turn my stomach." Asimov thought she was speaking to someone else. "Are you talking to me, Leslyn?" When she confirmed that she was, he asked what he had done wrongand swallowed the second half. She shrieked, "You did it again!" His comments about the food grated on Heinlein, who decreed that anyone who complained had to contribute a nickel toward a war bond. Asimov knew that this was a message to him. "Well, then, suppose I figure out a way of complaining about the food that isn't complaining. Will you call it off?" After Heinlein said that he would Asimov tried to think of ways to get around it. One day, as he sawed through the haddock on his plate, he asked, in mock innocence, "Is there such a thing as tough fish?" It was another battle of wills, and Heinlein wasn't about to back down. "That will be five cents, Isaac." This time Asimov held his ground. "It's only a point of information, Bob." "That will be five cents, Isaac," Heinlein repeated. "The implication is clear." Asimov was saved when another employee, unaware of the rule, took a bite of ham and remarked, "Boy, this food is awful." Rising to his feet, Asimov pronounced, "Gentlemen, I disagree with every word my friend here has said, but I will defend with my life his right to say it." Heinlein dropped the system of fines. It was a victory, but a small one. On September 25, 1943, the Soviets marched back into Smolensk. Two days later, a communique said that Petrovichi had been retaken after years under German rule. When Heinlein heard the news, he shook Asimov's hand and congratulated him gravely. For the moment, at least, they were equals. Word finally came of Leslyn's family in the Philippines. Her sister, Keith, was interned with her two sons in Manila, but her brother-in-law, Mark Hubbard, had vanished. Until then, Leslyn had liked her job, but she began working so hard"Just doing everything she could to shorten the misery of her sister," a friend recalledthat it affected her health. She became the personnel manager for a machine shop with six hundred employees, and although she was suited for itshe was the only administrator who made a point of wearing the same uniform as the female workers it caused her to drink more heavily. Heinlein was also feeling the pressure. He sometimes felt like returning to fiction, and when he mentioned this to Campbell, the editor thought that it implied that his work was either going well or "shapfu," in which the "hap" stood for "hopelessly and permanently." It was closer to the latter, and in the end, he didn't do any writing at all. He developed hemorrhoids that his doctor treated with injections, leading to an abscess "in a location where I could not see but was acutely aware of it." The Navy clearly had no intention of reactivating him, so he decided to try for the Merchant Marine, undergoing an operation to resolve his medical issues that he compared to "having your asshole cut out with an apple corer." He was left with "no rectum to speak of," and he was recovering in the hospital in January 1944 when Leslyn heard from the Red Cross. Mark Hubbard was missing, but Keith and her sons were aboard the Swedish mercy ship MS GripsholmLeslyn had been sending money to pay for their safe passage. It took them seventy days to get from Goa to New York. After their arrival, the two boys were sent to New Jersey to live with the Campbells, where they stayed for months, until their mother had recovered. The stress led Leslyn's weight to fall below ninety pounds, and she began sleeping for up to twelve hours a day. From ASTOUNDING by Alec Nevala-Lee, published by Dey Street Books. Copyright 2018 by Alec Nevala-Lee. Reprinted courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers. https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062571946/astounding/ ANN ARBOR, MI - For the past several days, there's been a steady stream of voters making their way to Ann Arbor's city hall to cast absentee ballots ahead of the Tuesday, Nov. 6, election. As in the past, voting booths are set up outside the city clerk's office on the second floor, and voters are lining up to make in-person requests for absentee ballots and then voting on the spot. The clerk's office reports the early turnout is strong, suggesting there may be more interest than usual in this midterm election in which Democrats are hoping for a blue wave at the state and national level. "We've issued just over 14,000 absentee ballots and have about 80% returned now, around 11,300," City Clerk Jackie Beaudry said in an email Monday morning, Nov. 5. "This compares more to a Presidential Election. We issued about 15,000 in 2016 and only 8,000 in 2014. We have had about 5-10 people in line waiting for ballots pretty consistently since last week." Sometime around noon on Monday, Washtenaw County's city and township clerks surpassed the total number of absentee ballots issued during the November 2016 general election, said Ed Golembiewski, the county's elections director and chief deputy clerk. "Across the county, 48,859 absentee ballots have been issued as of this moment," he wrote in an email shortly after 2 p.m. Monday, noting about 48,600 absentee ballots were issued during the November, 2016 election, and 27,121 issued during the November 2014 midterm. See what's on the ballot in Ann Arbor and elsewhere in Washtenaw County and find out where to vote On-the-spot absentee voting is continuing at the Ann Arbor clerk's office until 4 p.m. Monday, after which no more absentee ballots will be issued. All absentee ballots must be returned to the city clerk's office by 8 p.m. on Election Day. For those voting at polling locations in their precinct, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Those lining up to vote early via absentee ballot include everyone from University of Michigan students to senior citizens. UM student Nik Klampfl, who cast his ballot on Monday morning, said he's pretty excited about this election. "I just have a lot of stuff going on tomorrow and I wanted to make sure that, since this is an important election, I got out and voted," he said. UM law student Brandy Ryan also cast her ballot at city hall on Monday morning, expressing hopes for a blue wave on Tuesday. She voted early because she'll be working as a greeter at the polls on Election Day, encouraging people to vote for Samuel Bagenstos and Megan Cavanagh, the two Democrats running for Michigan Supreme Court. Since the ballot does not show party labels for Supreme Court candidates, Ryan said, it's important to inform voters. "Since it's nonpartisan, a lot of people don't realize they need to vote and who they need to vote for, so I'll be out there all day," she said. "And you know, this election, I think it's obvious that people my age and liberals kind of want to change everything." With straight-ticket voting now banned in Michigan, Ryan said it took about five or 10 minutes to go through the ballot and fill in all the bubbles for the Democratic candidates she's supporting. She compared it to taking an SAT test and said she supports bringing back straight-ticket voting to make things easier and faster. Voters in Ann Arbor are deciding a local proposal for a downtown park and civic center commons and opinions on it are mixed. "I've sort of heard a lot of arguments about it and I'm not really sure where I should stand. I think I've heard compelling arguments on both sides," Ryan said, indicating she voted against the park proposal for lack of a specific plan. "I landed on no because there didn't seem to be any proposal for longterm plans for the park. It was just sort of 'give it to the city,' but the city doesn't have a plan for it, so I voted in favor of waiting until there's something definite." Ann Arbor resident Eric Martinson, who voted at city hall on Monday, said he didn't know too much about the park proposal, but he did some reading up on it and didn't see any reason not to approve it. In some respects, he said, it doesn't make a huge difference which way the vote goes. He had stronger feelings about three statewide ballot proposals, which ask whether to legalize recreational marijuana, approve election reforms and create an independent redistricting commission. "The marijuana one I think is crap. I wish it wasn't on there," he said, indicating he's against legalizing marijuana. "But the other two, I think, are really important for increasing voting numbers, making it easier for everybody to get out there and vote, and of course improving the representation." Martinson said he was voting early via absentee ballot because he'll be out of town on Election Day. "So, I wanted to make sure I got in here and voted," he said. "I think it's pretty important." As a registered voter in Michigan, you can obtain an absentee ballot if you are: 60 years old or older unable to vote without assistance at the polls expecting to be out of town on election day in jail awaiting arraignment or trial unable to attend the polls due to religious reasons appointed to work as an election inspector in a precinct outside of your precinct of residence Proposal 3 on the ballot would allow Michigan voters to obtain an absentee ballot without providing a reason and vote straight-ticket, among other reforms, including automatic voter registration when applying for, updating or renewing a driver's license or state-issued personal ID card, unless the person declines. TAYLOR, MI - Electing John James to the U.S. Senate will benefit the economy, veterans and maintain support for President Donald Trump's vision for the country, said Kellyanne Conway to a crowd of Michiganders on Sunday, Nov. 4. Conway, who is White House counselor and said she was speaking Sunday in a "personal capacity," took the stage before a crowd of about 250 people at a Republican "Get Out the Vote" rally at Top Gun's archery range in Taylor. "In John James, we have a reliable vote for military, for veterans, for first responders, for law enforcement," Conway said. "We have a reliable vote for lower taxes and fewer regulations. We have a reliable vote for someone who's not going to apologize for America, but somebody who appreciates America, applauds America." Bill Schuette and Lisa Posthumus Lyons, who are running for governor and lieutenant governor; attorney general candidate Tom Leonard; and Mary Treder Lang, who is running for Secretary of State, also took the stage Sunday, although Conway's remarks focused heavily on James. She previously was set to headline a rally in Macomb County on Nov. 1 but was unable to make it due to issues with her flight. Conway cited Brett Kavanaugh's narrow confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court as an example of the importance of Republicans maintaining control of the Senate. She touted the strong economy and creation of new jobs during Trump's presidency and said electing James would help continue that momentum. "We need John James there to vote aye and not nay for everything that benefits you economically," Conway said. James emphasized his military service and business experience. He said Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow has been "ineffective" in her 18 years in the U.S. Senate. "You have a choice between someone who spent the past 18 years getting results in the toughest of environments, from the battlefield to the boardroom, and you contrast that with someone who has over and over left the people behind in favor of her party," James said. The crowd chanted, "Send her home," in reference to Stabenow at various times during the rally. Dorian Thompson, 20, of Plymouth, said James has been a "rock star." Phyllis Risdon, 62, of Dexter, has been campaigning for James since the primary, and she said she's impressed by his military record, pro-life stance and dedication to maintaining secure borders. "He's very sincere," she said. "He's the real deal." Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6. ANN ARBOR, MI - A pimp who admitted to collecting prostitution money and assaulting a woman in an Ann Arbor hotel in January was sentenced Monday to at least two years in prison. Keith Perry, 29, Romulus, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of prostitution-accepting earnings, one count of prostitution-transporting and one count of aggravated domestic violence. Washtenaw County Trial Judge David Swartz on Monday, Nov. 5 issued a 2-to-20-year prison sentence in the case, with credit for 292 days served. "My mom and my family didn't raise me like this, but my mom did raise a man," Perry said during his sentencing hearing. "I know certain actions come with consequences. I'll take my consequences as they come." Perry was accused of hiring a 22-year-old woman from Georgia to work as a prostitute at the Victory Inn Suites, 3750 Washtenaw Ave. Investigators said he beat her with a cellphone charging cord, leaving welts on her back, when she expressed that she wanted to leave him. The two were arrested Jan. 17 after police received a tip about human trafficking and prostitution at the hotel. Swartz ordered Perry to stay at least 500 feet away from the woman, her residence, school or place of employment. At a March court hearing, Assistant Washtenaw County Prosecutor John Vella described Perry as manipulative, and "clearly a controlling pimp." He called him a devious, "sneaky pimp," despite testimony that Perry frequently bragged about his pimping activities on Facebook, calling himself a "hoe boss" and writing "The world belongs to a pimp and his bitch." ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan has no plans to terminate research partnerships with Saudi Arabia in the wake of the killing of a journalist the Saudi regime acknowledges was a premeditated act of murder. The university has received more than $5.3 million from Saudi Arabian sources since 2013. According to the Associated Press, U.S. colleges and universities have received more than $350 million from the Saudi government this decade. Yet, some are rethinking their arrangements in the wake of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi that has ignited a global uproar against the oil-rich nation. Each of the grants and contracts UM received from Saudi Arabian sources over the past six years have been for research and training led by members of the UM faculty, UM Spokesperson Kim Broekhuizen said. "It is worth noting that these grants and contracts are for joint research efforts or to pay for training at UM," Broekhuizen said. "These are not donations from the Saudi government." The Associated Press analyzed federal data and found that at least $354 million from the Saudi government or institutions it controls has flowed to 37 American schools since 2011. Much of the money was provided through a scholarship program that covers tuition for Saudis studying in the United States, but at least $62 million came through contracts or gifts from the kingdom's nationally owned companies and research institutes, the AP found. Most of the funding to UM has come from either King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology or King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Saudi Arabia, Broekhuizen said. "All of these awards go to the College of Engineering to support joint research between these Saudi institutions and the UM College of Engineering," Broekhuizen said. Other funding from the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission pays for Saudi physicians to participate in various clinical training programs at the UM Medical School and to enhance their skills in their particular medical specialties, Broekhuizen said. Contracts between UM and Saudi sources ranged from $101,000 to $2.1 million. Those benefiting the most from Saudi contracts include Northwestern University, which has received $14 million from a top Saudi research center since 2011, and the University of California, Los Angeles, which accepted $6 million from the same institute, known as the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's national oil company, Saudi Aramco, has channeled $20 million to American universities, including $9 million to Texas A&M University and $4 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A national chemical company known as SABIC steered another $8 million to U.S. schools. Although some of the contracts halted before last year, questions surrounding Khashoggi's death at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul have spurred some schools to reconsider current or future deals. America's ties with Saudi Arabia have come under intense scrutiny in the wake of Khashoggi's killing in Turkey, which President Donald Trump called "the worst cover-up ever." Activists and some politicians have called on the U.S. and its industries to break with the nation, and some have. On Oct. 22, MIT announced it will undertake a "swift, thorough reassessment" of the institute's partnerships with Saudi Arabia, calling Khashoggi's disappearance a "grave concern." Richard Lester, an associate provost, said faculty who work with the kingdom can "make their own determinations as to the best path forward," according to the AP. The institute pairs with Saudi universities on numerous research projects and has a long history working with Saudi Aramco. In March, the oil company pledged $25 million to MIT for research in areas including renewable energy and artificial intelligence. At Babson College near Boston, which has received $2.5 million through a contract with the SABIC chemical company, officials told the AP they are "monitoring events closely and gathering input from our community regarding potential paths forward." The school's deal provides leadership training to Saudi business managers, and it joins several other research and training partnerships between Babson and Saudi universities, the AP reported. But many other schools have given no indications they're reconsidering ties. Officials at the University of California, Berkeley, said they are not reviewing their Saudi funding, which includes a $6 million contract to develop nanomaterials that can be used to support renewable energy. Spokesman Roqua Montez said the kingdom's support represents only a small fraction of the contracts and grants that go to campus researchers, according to the AP. Northwestern University refused to say whether any of its funding is under review. Spokesman Bob Rowley said only that the "vast majority" of the $14 million is for science grants but did not respond to further questions. Besides money directly from the Saudi government or entities controlled by it, U.S. universities received a combined $140 million from private Saudi sources, universities and hospitals. Another $114 million could not be accounted for because schools did not report the specific source of the funding within Saudi Arabia. That included about $40 million at Johns Hopkins University and $28 million at Harvard University. Officials at Johns Hopkins and Harvard did not provide further details. BAY CITY, MI - Returning soldiers and veterans will soon have a place in Bay City to help them transition back to civilian life and a place to keep active during the day. Keith Markstrom, a Vietnam veteran and president of the Bay Veterans Foundation, is working with his organization and others to establish a Veteran's Makers Space and Learning Center. The goal is to have a place where they can feel safe and be with others who understand what they have gone through. The building, located at 1009 N. Madison Ave., also will allow veterans to make things like bird houses or do things like small engine repairs to help keep them busy. Markstrom and Mike Jamrog, a former colleague and Vietnam veteran, said they helped to found the nonprofit organization in 2015 and, even though the veterans building was their first priority, they hit the ground running with other projects in downtown like redeveloping Battery Park and establishing the Michigan Gold Star Families Memorial in Bay City. After those two events, they finally were able to get started on purchasing the 5,700-square-foot building and start renovating it. "The idea is camaraderie," Markstrom said. "As I said when we got out of Vietnam, you went under cover, you couldn't get a job... some come back thinking that, 'Hey I'm gonna go back to my home life and everything's going to be the same' (but) the community's changed, they have changed." Markstrom said if they can bring veterans in for care, it could help them in that transition period from coming back from war to civilian life and he feels the Veteran Affairs agency doesn't do much to help returning soldiers. "These kids are confused, there's still confusion as we were. In 50 years, nothing's really changed (with the VA)," Jamrog said. "In my case, I had been up for 48 hours, I just got back from a very intense environment, the only thing I want to do is get the hell out of that uniform." Markstrom echoed similar sentiments in that he didn't know he was eligible for his VA benefits until just before he retired. At the building, which used to be a former warehouse, bird shop, where Wings and Things was located among other places, veterans will be able to talk with colleagues and do activities. "We know there are homeless vets in the community, here's a place they can come during the daytime and do something," Markstrom said, adding that Bay County roughly has 7,300 to 7,800 veterans. Markstrom said they have a lot of support, including organizations like the Boys and Girls Club, Bay County Veterans Council, Bay City Commission, Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency among others. Currently, they are working with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which has authorized a $70,000 grant to remediate the parking lot -- which at one point had gas station pumps -- but they suggested to also test for asbestos in the building and, if there is, the grant limit might increase. They are getting ready to renovate the building soon and have architects developing a floor plan because they will eventually gut most of the building. "We're doing this all on volunteer effort (for cleaning up the building)," Markstrom said, adding that at some point they will have staff. "If we can get veterans in here who are having issues as well, it's gonna be easier to refer them for services." FLINT, MI - The owner of a bar was arrested and charged in a six-month investigation that uncovered thousands of pills and $770,000 in cash. Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell said his office received a tip that the Fenton Road Tavern was dealing drugs. Pickell said an undercover officer was able to purchase Vicodin at the bar and an investigation ensued. Gene D. Reid, 71, of Flint, owns the Fenton Road Tavern near Fenton Road and Lincoln Avenue and has been charged with five felonies in connection to the investigation, Pickell said. After the undercover purchase, Pickell said, a six-month-long investigation ensued. When investigators raided the bar, they found 2,000 Vicodin pills, $300,000 in cash and Michigan food benefit cards - commonly referred to as Bridge cards. Reid was allegedly withdrawing $100,000 cash from his bank each Friday in order to cash personal checks for people who would come into the bar. "Not very many bar owners can do that," Pickell said. "It wasn't just a local bar." Pickell said investigators seized an additional $470,000 from two different credit union accounts that belonged to Reid. Investigators believe the pills were stolen from pharmacies and doctor's offices and then sold at the bar at a discounted rate, according to Pickell. Detectives believe the bar was involved in selling pills and buying bridge cards for four or five years. Reid is charged with possession with intent to distribute hydrocodone, conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver hydrocodone, food stamp fraud over $1,000 and two counts of felony firearm. He was arraigned in Genesee District Court on Sunday, Nov. 4, according to court records. Reid is held in the Genesee County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. Reid faces up to 30 years in prison on the drug charges. Two women who worked in the bar also were charged in connection to the investigation, Pickell said. Ashley N. Goold, 28, and Amy K. Ingraham, 41, were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to deliver hydrocodone and conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver hydrocodone. Both women are held in the Genesee County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail each. They each face up to 30 years in prison on the drug charges. Pickell said the bar is still open, but he is working with Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton to close the business. MLive-The Flint Journal could not immediately reach Leyton for comment. GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- It may take some time for the county to replace its Department of Veterans Services director. It's a little out of practice. After 29 years on the job, Jeanne Thick has told the county she's leaving her position and offering a final salute to the the soldiers and sailors she's been working with for all those years. Thick retired from the county in February 2012 but agreed to return on a contract basis almost immediately after. "I don't regret a minute of having done this job," she said. "I absolutely love loved it." Formed in 1975, the department was created to help local veterans and their families obtain benefits and to assist veterans who are indigent or in need. Its services expanded in 2012 after voters approved a 0.1-mill, 10-year property tax to support the department. Board of Commissioners Chairman Mark Young said the county will likely put an existing employee in charge of the department on an interim basis while it decides on a permanent director. "The board is looking at some slight restructuring" as one possibility and creation of an advisory board as a potential new way to open up the process, Young said. The chairman called Thick dedicated and excellent at her job. "The Board of Commissioners is very thankful she came out of retirement" to return to the position, Young said. A Flint native, Thick graduated from St. Mary's High School and the University of Michigan before coming to work for county. Prior to working for the county, she and her husband started a tucking company business. Thick said three brothers and many uncles in her family served in the military, giving her an immediately appreciation for the service. Thick said her decision to resign on Veterans Day wasn't coincidence but a tribute. "My last day -- I wanted it to be (then) to honor all our veterans," she said. FLINT, MI -- In January, residents of Flint voted in a new city charter that allotted $250,000 for an ombudsperson, money the board commissioned to hire the ombudsperson says the city won't let it touch. The ombudsperson's office is comprised of an ethics and accountability board and the EAB is responsible for hiring a person using the $250,000 the charter requires the city to budget for the office, according to Chairperson of the Flint Charter Review Comission, Cleora Magee. Along with the EAB, the ombudsperson would operate as a non-political third party fielding complaints from residents and overseeing ethics among officials in the council, mayor's office and other city employees. "I mean, that was the whole point of it," Magee said. "That is why we made sure that the office would have a budget because we knew that if we didn't place a budget with funding in it, it would never happen." However, EAB Chairman John Daly says the city will not allow the board to touch the $250,000 required to hire the ombudsperson. "We're at the stage where we've been told is this the only money that is available to you and you can't spend it," Daly said. "That's all we've been told." The city of Flint has not reponded to calls from MLive-The Flint Journal for comment. "There is $250,000 budgeted for ombudspersons expenditures, clearly the hiring of an ombudsperson is an ombudsperson expenditure," Daly said. "We tried verbally for a little more than a month, we had three conversations with the finance director." According to the city charter, the EAB is solely responsible for hiring an ombudsperson. The city previously stated the position hasn't been filled because a job description hasn't been created or posted by its human resources department. The EAB is comprised of 11 volunteers selected from each of the city's nine wards by each councilperson. Two of the 11 members were appointed by Mayor Karen Weaver. The EAB and the chief financial officer for the city, Hughey Newsome, developed a processs, Daly said. "We would make a request for the expenditures through the finance department, the finance director would review that and approve the expenditure," Daly said."Somehow, the city attorney (Angela Wheeler) became involved and she rendered the decision that 'No money can be spent by anybody but the ombudsperson,'." "So, we're in catch 22. How does the ombudsperson spend money, where do we get the money to hire an ombudsperson?" Daly said. In attempt to solve the issue, the EAB sent a memorandum to the city on Oct. 23. "We stated we need $66,000 to get through this fiscal year, which is already a quarter gone," Daly said. According to the memorandum, the $66,000 would cover the costs of a part-time clerical help, outside legal counsel, computers, office supplies and training. "We're saying there are certain costs that we're going to have to have in order to operate," Daly said. "How do you expect us to fulfill our responsibilities under the charter without these resources?" Since being seated in June after Flint City Council established it with an 8-1 vote, the EAB has been outsourcing training with the city of Detroit's Ethics and Accountability board on a voluntary basis. Detroit's EAB didn't charge for the workshop. "The Michigan transit authority provided a bus to us at no cost to go to Detroit," Daly said. The memorandum also requests $14,000 from the ombudsperson's $250,000 budget to conduct an outside search in order to find and interview people for the position. Their goal is to fill the position by April 2019. It also asks the city to authorize the chairperson of the EAB to approve expenditures from the budget allotted for the ombudsperson's office. The charter states the $250,000 is for the use of the ombudsperson and their office. "That's what we intended to happen," city charter commission review member Jim Richardson said. "We intended that the EAB are part of the office of the ombudsperson." If the city doesn't approve the EAB's request to use some of the $250,000, Daly said the board will do whatever it can to fill the position. "The residents of the city want and deserve to have that person," Daly said. "I'm going to do what I gotta do to bring this ombudsperson on board in a timely manner, even if that means reaching out to nonprofits for help." According to Daly, about $3,250 of the $250,000 budgeted for the ombudsperson's office has already been used by the city. "We were told this money was taken out because this was the ombudsperson's share that had to go to retirement," Daly said. "I said well how can you take money out if we don't have an ombudsperson?" The Ombudsman's Office was vacated in 2011 after former emergency manager Michael Brown axed both the Ombudsman's Office and the Flint Civil Service Commission. The EAB hopes to begin interviewing for the position in January, 2019. GRAND HAVEN, MI - Wendell Popejoy's life sentence for killing neighbor Sheila Bonge brought justice but can't replace the loss to her family. "He will not get out but it doesn't bring her back," a sister, Val Flaherty, said outside of a courtroom. Popejoy, 64, who hasn't been in trouble before, was sentenced Monday, Nov. 5, to life in prison without parole in the Dec. 26, 2017, killing. He shot Bonge in the back of her head while she was snowblowing. A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. The victim's family is still struggling. "No matter how old we are, we need to have a mother to call. Her children no longer have her there," Flaherty said. Testimony showed that Popejoy and others considered Bonge a nuisance to the neighborhood on 104th Avenue in Ottawa County's Crockery Township. Popejoy shared an easement with Bonge who would blow snow into his driveway and another couple's driveway to get under their skin, he said in police interviews. Bonge believed that her boyfriend owned the property used as an easement, her family said. Other neighbors considered Bonge the problem. "Me and Wendell lived in hell," his girlfriend, Rhonda Clark, told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press outside of the Grand Haven courthouse. "We were caught between a nightmare that was horrible ... . There are two sides to every story." She insisted that he Popejoy snapped when he got a pistol and shot her. Clark said that Bonge tormented her neighbors, and would yell and call them names whenever they stepped out of their homes. After the shooting, Popejoy returned Bonge's snowblower to her home, then put her body on a sled and pushed down a hill behind his house. Her burned her clothes in a burn barrel. Clark said he was a good man who didn't deserve to be locked up the rest of his life. She felt like a victim, too. Flaherty, the victim's sister, disputed any notion that her sister was a troublemaker. She was a mother to three, grandmother to six, and a great-grandmother. Every morning, she talked to her sister, Pam Crumley, who lives in Florida, by telephone. Bonge worked as a nurse's aide at a nursing home. She enjoyed working with elderly patients, Flaherty said. "She was a very selfless person," Flaherty said. "Her loss cannot be put into words." She shared a picture of her sister and family with Ottawa County Circuit Judge Karen Miedema. Ottawa County Prosecutor Ronald Frantz said that it was difficult "to imagine a more premeditated crime." He said that despite Bonge's disputes with her neighbors, she left a "loving, warm family." Defense attorney Jeffrey Kortes said that despite the time it took for Popejoy to get dressed, get his gun and walked to the woods behind Bonge, it was a "spur-of-the-moment decision. It wasn't thought out. It wasn't given any consideration before he acted." He said his client regretted his actions the moment he fired the gun and didn't know what to do. Popejoy declined to address the court. There is animosity between the victim's family and Popejoy's girlfriend, family and friends. Sheriff's deputies escorted both sides out separately. As Popejoy left the courtroom, a man suggested he should look out for himself in prison. In response, a woman said that there are "two sides to every story, too." WYOMING, MI - Some students at Wyoming Junior High School ingested marijuana laced brownies that were brought to school last week, according to a Monday, Nov. 5 press release from the Wyoming Police Department. Lt. Eric Wiler said staff at the junior high made police aware of the incident on Friday, Nov. 2. He said it is an ongoing investigation and the department has not yet confirmed the number of students affected. Wiler said their department is unaware of any students going to the hospital or getting ill. He said those students known to have ingested the brownies on Friday were turned over to their parents. "Safety of the students and staff in our schools is paramount and this incident is being taken seriously,'' he said. Wyoming Superintendent Craig Hoekstra said the district became aware of the incident late Friday afternoon. He said the appropriate action will be taken once the investigation has been closed. "Student safety is a top priority in our district,'' Hoekstra said, in a statement. "Actions that threaten the safety of our students are taken seriously and will not be tolerated.'' The police department is working closely with school staff to investigate the incident. Once the investigation is completed, if appropriate, Wiler said the case will be presented to the Kent County Prosecutor's Office Juvenile Division for review. In March, Wyoming Police investigated a similar situation at Wyoming High School. In that case, two high school students were treated and released from a hospital after feeling ill not long after eating brownies that may have contained marijuana, police said. HIGHLAND PARK, IL - One person is dead, and another is missing after they disappeared while swimming in Lake Michigan near a Chicago suburb. According to a statement released by the City of Highland Park, Illinois on Sunday, Nov. 4, a 52-year old Elgin woman has been missing since she disappeared beneath the waves around 9:15 a.m. A 46-year old Itasca man, who was brought to shore by rescue personnel at Park Avenue Beach, was immediately transported to Highland Park Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Ten individuals that are part of an independent cold-weather swim group were part of the initial rescue team, but they encountered difficulty due to lake conditions. The United States Coast Guard is providing aerial support with a helicopter in the search for the missing woman, however, lake conditions are such that search boats have not able to enter the water. Police departments along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Illinois and Wisconsin have been advised to monitor their beaches for the missing swimmer. Highland Park officials are asking anyone along the lakeshore with information about the missing swimmer to please contact the City of Highland Park Police Department at 847.432.7730. It's Election Day on Tuesday, and millions of Michigan residents will be going to the polls to choose a new governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state Legislature and vote on a range of other candidates and ballot issues. Officials are predicting record turnout for a mid-term election, which means it will draw many new or infrequent voters. Polls will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. To make Election Day a little easier, try to avoid these common mistakes. Mistake No. 1. Going to the wrong polling place. A surprising number of voters think they can go to any polling place in their city or township; they don't realize each voter has a designated polling place. Unsure of where to vote? It's easy to check at www.michigan.gov/vote -- just type in your name, birth date and ZIP code, and the database will give you the address and a map of your polling location. You can also do a Google search on the phrase "where do I vote." A database will pop up where you can type in your address and your polling place will pop up. Even if you're a frequent voter, it doesn't hurt to double check since polling places can change. Mistake No. 2. Failing to fill out both sides of the ballot. Michigan has a two-sided ballot. Election workers say a common mistake is for voters to fill out only the front side, not realizing there are more races plus ballot issues on the back. Mistake No. 3. Marking the ballot improperly. Some voters end up with ballots that don't get counted because they fill out the ballot incorrectly. It's important to fill in the ovals on the ballot to mark your choices. Circling the ovals or writing "yes" or "no" doesn't work -- the ballot tabulators only read markings within the ovals. Also, pay attention to the number of candidates you can choose for each office. Choose too many and your vote for that office will be invalidated. Mistake No. 4: Failing to leave enough time to vote. Some would-be voters show up at a polling place only to leave before voting because the lines are too long. So leave enough time. A record turnout is expected this midterm election, likely means there will be lines. Moreover, this is the first Michigan election in more than a century where straight-ticket voting is not an option, which means it will take many people longer to fill out their ballot. Bottom line: Anticipate that voting will be not be a quick trip to the polling place. If you're short on time, don't go first thing in the morning, lunch hour or early evening, when the lines will be longest. Mistake No. 5. Failing to do your homework. Don't be that person who shows up at the poll planning to make decisions on the fly. The best way to approach this: Print out a sample ballot from your precinct (available at www.michigan.gov/vote or vote411.org by typing in your address) and mark it up as a cheat sheet. And for those who figure they'll just vote straight Republican and Democratic -- realize the ballot also includes some nonpartisan contests such as judicial and school board contests. Incidentally, the Michigan Supreme Court race is technically a nonpartisan race, but the candidates are nominated by political parties. Click here for a story about the candidates and their political affiliations. Mistake No. 6. Failing to bring a photo identification. You don't need your voter's registration card, but you should bring a photo ID. Acceptable IDs include driver's license; state-issued ID card; ID issued by another state; federal or state-issued photo ID; U.S. passport; military ID; student ID or tribal ID card with photo. Voters who do not have an acceptable form of ID or failed to bring it with them to the polls still can vote. They simply sign a brief affidavit stating that they're not in possession of a photo ID. Their ballots are included with all others and counted on Election Day. Mistake No. 7. Wearing clothes or buttons with political messages. Leave your MAGA hat or Blue Wave button at home. Michigan bans election-related materials at polling places. This includes clothing and buttons as well as materials such as pamphlets, fliers and stickers. You cannot display such items in the polling place or within 100 feet of an entrance to a polling place. If you go to the polls with a shirt or button bearing election-related images or slogans, you will be asked to cover or remove it. 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. M A man remains in a coma more than two weeks after being reportedly nearly beaten to death while attending a bachelor party at a Downtown Detroit strip club. WDIV-TV reports Brandon Lyons, 30, was at Bouzouki Gentleman's Club downtown on Oct. 20 with a group of family and friends. His girlfriend tells the TV station that after he went to the restroom he failed to come back, and that their group couldn't find him anywhere. After trying to reach Lyons on his cellphone several times, a police officer finally answered the phone and told the confused group that they had the 30-year-old and were waiting on an ambulance. The Detroit Police Department tells FOX 2 that no arrests have been made, and that the investigation remains ongoing. The family remains convinced the assault happened at the strip club, while Bouzouki's is declining to comment while maintaining it didn't happen under its roof. There is a GoFundMe account set up for Lyon's recovery that has helped raise more than $6,000 by 152 people in 11 days, so far. The sister of Lyons' girlfriend, Madison Felt, claims on the GoFundMe that "he was brutally attacked by 2 bouncers at a club in Greektown" who left him in the alleyway. Courtney Felt tells WDIV that Lyons has suffered multiple brain bleeds and had to have half of his skull removed. She says that they have been told that recovery could take a couple of years, and that "it's just sad." ST. CLAIR SHORES, MI - City officials have confirmed a police K-9 named Axe died in a shooting Sunday, according to WXYZ. The 4-year-old German Shepherd and his handler were among the police who responded when there was a report of a man with a gun near the Lakeland Manor Banquet Hall in the 26000 block of Harper Avenue, Click On Detroit reported. There was reportedly a baby shower there at the time. When police arrived, a suspect fled from police and Axe was used to track him. The dog was fatally shot. Police returned fire. The suspect was shot and later died, the station reported. Macomb County sheriff's officials have taken over the investigation. The dog, obtained from Germany, began training with St. Clair Shores Police in 2016. He was given his name in memory of Navy SEAL Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew Axelson, 29, of California, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005 during a Taliban ambush, according to the St. Clair Shores Sentinel. < We are saddened to hear that AXE, a St Clair Shores K-9 was killed in the line of duty this evening. Please say a... Posted by Macomb County Sheriff's Office on Sunday, November 4, 2018 p> CLARK TOWNSHIP, MI - A 44-year-old woman was killed in workplace incident in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Michigan State Police posts in St. Ignace and Sault Ste. Marie are investigating the incident which occurred at Carmeuse Lime and Stone on M-134 in Cedarville around 1:50 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3. Upon arrival, police discovered that two Carmeuse vehicles had been involved in an incident in the limestone pit, resulting in the death of Jill Klein from Cedarville. Police say the investigation in the incident is ongoing. The woman was employed by Carmeuse Lime and Stone. Troopers were assisted at the scene by the Mackinac County Sheriff's Department and Clark Township Fire/EMS. The Macomb County Sheriff's Office has identified the man who shot and killed a police dog Sunday morning as 29-year-old Theoddeus Gray of Detroit. Gray was killed by police in a shootout after he allegedly shot Axe, a four-year-old German shepherd who had been with the St. Clair Shores Police Department since 2016. Police say they were called to Lakewood Manor banquet hall for complaints of a man outside with a gun. When police arrived, Gray allegedly fled the scene leading to officers bringing in Axe to hunt for Gray. From there police say Gray shot the dog before police returned fire, striking Gray. After he was shot, Gray was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. The investigation into the case in now being handled by the Macomb County Sheriff's Office. Millions of Michigan residents are heading to the polls Tuesday. Voters will pick a new governor, secretary of state and attorney general; vote on members of Congress and the state Legislature and determine the fate of three statewide ballot initiatives, including a proposal to legalize medical marijuana. There are also other candidates and issues on the ballot, including county, school and library board races. Here is what voters should know. Polls will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The best way to avoid lines is to avoid first thing in the morning, lunch hour and early evening. People standing in line at 8 p.m. will be allowed to vote. Double-check the location of your polling place. Infrequent or new voters: Be aware every voter is assigned a polling place; you can't just go to any polling place in your city or township. Unsure of where to vote? It's easy to check at www.michigan.gov/vote -- just type in your name, birth date and ZIP code, and the database will give you the address and a map of your polling location. You can also do a Google search on the phrase "where do I vote." A database will pop up where you can type in your address and your polling place will pop up. Even if you're a frequent voter, it doesn't hurt to double check since polling places can change. Deadlines for absentee voters Absentee ballots are available until 4 p.m. Monday at city and township clerk offices. At this point, the ballots must be filled out and returned on the spot. Voters who already obtained an absentee ballot have until 8 p.m. Tuesday to return it to their city or township clerk's office. (Postmarks don't count; ballots received after the deadline are thrown out.) If you lost your absentee ballot, you can go to your polling place and vote after election workers verify that your ballot hasn't been returned. You can see a copy of your ballot online to plan out your decision-making. You can see your ballot online at www.michigan.gov/vote -- just type in your name, birth date and ZIP code. There's also an online database at vote411.org, the website operated by the League of Women Voters. It's a long ballot, with lots of decisions to be made. Many voters print out a sample ballot, mark it up and take it with them to the voting booth. Straight-ticket voting is not an option in this election. For the first time in more than a century, voters can't fill in a single bubble to vote for all the members of one party. That option was eliminated by a new law that is going into effect for the first time with this election. Almost half of voters have taken advantage of that option in recent elections. Those voters will need more time to fill out their ballot. Fill out both sides of the ballot and mark it correctly. It's a two-sided ballot. Make sure to flip it over. If you don't fill in the ovals correctly to mark your vote, you risk having a spoiled ballot. The ballot tabulators only read markings inside the oval; circling the oval or other incorrect indications of your choice means your vote won't count. That's also true if you vote for more candidates than allowed. Make sure to check how many candidates you can choose for an office. Bring a photo identification to your polling place. You don't need your voter's registration card, but you should bring a photo ID. Acceptable IDs include driver's license; state-issued ID card; ID issued by another state; federal or state-issued photo ID; U.S. passport; military ID; student ID or tribal ID card with photo. Voters who do not have an acceptable form of ID or failed to bring it with them to the polls still can vote. They simply sign a brief affidavit stating that they're not in possession of a photo ID. Their ballots are included with all others and counted on Election Day. No selfies are allowed in the voting booth. Michigan law bans photographs of voter ballots. The penalty for taking a ballot selfie is your vote is not counted. Incidentally, the ban extends to use of video cameras, still cameras and other recording devices in polling places when they are open for voting. This includes still cameras and other recording features built into many cell phones. The ban applies to all voters, challengers, poll watchers and election workers. Exceptions are made for credentialed members of the news media, though certain restrictions remain. Leave your candidate T-shirts or buttons at home. Michigan bans election-related materials at polling places. This includes clothing and buttons as well as materials such as pamphlets, fliers and stickers. You cannot display such items in the polling place or within 100 feet of an entrance to a polling place. If you go to the polls with a shirt or button bearing election-related images or slogans, you will be asked to cover or remove it. What to do if you experience or see problems. Voting is a public process and anybody is allowed to observe. However, poll watchers cannot interact with voters. Anybody who sees a problem at a polling place on Tuesday should alert the poll workers. If that doesn't work, call the city or township clerk. Citizens seeking to report voter fraud can contact their county clerk, the Michigan Secretary of State office at 517-373-2540 or local law enforcement. 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. Results from a collaborative study by Tokyo Tech and Tohoku University, Japan, raise prospects for large-scale production of algae-derived starch, a valuable bioresource for biofuels and other renewable materials. Such bio-based products have the potential to replace fossil fuels and contribute to the development of sustainable systems and societies. A "switch" controlling the level of starch content in algae has been discovered by a research team led by Sousuke Imamura at the Laboratory for Chemistry and Life Science, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Tech. The study focused on the unicellular red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae. The researchers demonstrated that starch content could be dramatically increased in C. merolae through inactivation of TOR (target of rapamycin), a protein kinase known to play an important role in cell growth. They observed a notable increase in the level of starch 12 hours after inactivation of TOR through exposure to rapamycin, and this led to a remarkable ten-fold increase after 48 hours. Importantly, the study details a mechanism underlying this profound increase in starch content. Using a method called liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), the researchers examined subtle changes in the structure of more than 50 proteins that might be involved in "switching on" the process of starch accumulation. As a result, they pinpointed GLG1 as a key protein of interest. GLG1 acts in a similar way to glycogenin, an enzyme found in yeast and animal cells, which is known to be involved in the initiation of starch (or glycogen) synthesis. The mechanism will be of immense interest to a wide range of industries seeking to scale up biofuel and value-added biochemicals production. For example, the findings could accelerate the production of environmentally friendly fuel additives, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and bioplastics that are now in high demand with the phasing out of single-use plastic bags and straws in many parts of the world. Algae, compared with land plants, are very appealing due to their high photosynthetic productivity and relative ease of cultivation. Starch, triacylglycerols (TAGs) and other algal biomass constituents are increasingly viewed as a promising and powerful way to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined by the United Nations. The research team notes that more studies using other algal species, as well as higher plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana, could yield further information about the fundamental molecular mechanisms behind starch accumulation. "This information will help to develop technologies to improve starch biosynthesis productivity and concomitantly improve sustainable biomass and bioenergy production," Imamura says. FRANKENMUTH, MI -- Two businesses in mid-Michigan are hosting jobs fairs. One event is at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth and the other is at the Soaring Eagle and Casino and resort in Mount Pleasant. Soaring Eagle is hosting a community career fair from 1 p.m.- 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6 at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort Ballrooms, 6800 Soaring Eagle Boulevard. Businesses such as I-Ride, Avalon, Graff of Mount Pleasant, Tahoe Manufacturing, Trillium Staffing and Merrill Technologies and others are expected to attend the event, according to a Soaring Eagle press release. All job seekers are welcome and are encouraged to bring resumes. Businesses will hold on-the-spot interviews. The Bavarian Inn is seeking people to fill full and part-time positions. The fair is 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 13. Positions include servers, water-slide attendants, retail sales clerks, sales and reservations secretaries, team leaders and special events. The Bavarian Inn offers medical, dental, vision and life insurance, a tuition reimbursement program and annual bonus opportunities. To see a detailed list of job descriptions, visit here. ALMA, MI -- The Alma Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram dealership is closed this week after a fire tore through the building on Saturday, Nov. 3. "The building is heavily damaged," said Jill Malloy, co-owner of the dealership. Malloy said only a few cars were damaged. Fire departments responded to a report of flames at the dealership, 2280 W. Monroe, about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, including the St. Louis Fire Department. "There was smoke coming from the east side of the building," said Chief Richard Apps. "There was obvious smoke from the inside the building." Apps said no one got hurt and the building was unoccupied at the time of the fire. The cause of the fire has not been determined. Today, doors and windows are boarded up and fire damage is apparent from several sides of the building. The smell of smoke still lingers on the property. Malloy said the business is closed this week but plans are in motion so it can reopen next week. Malloy plans to purchase mobile sales offices that employees will work out of until the business can find a more permanent solution. A fire investigator and insurance representative assessed the damage on Monday, Malloy said. "Many have asked what will happen next and what will happen with our great team members. We have a lot of unknowns right now, but please know our entire staff will be taken care of during this time of rebuild. They are the core of what makes our business so special," Malloy said in a Facebook post on the business' website. Agencies that assisted with fighting the fire include Alma Fire Department, Ithaca Fire Department, Breckenridge Fire Department, Shepherd Fire Department, Gratiot County Sheriff's Department and MMR. For nearly 30 years, Bill Campbell, of Middleville, has been organizing the Pearl Harbor Memorial Service at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans. Most calendars, he said, don't even mention the attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, which brought the United States into World War II. The Pearl Harbor ceremony he organizes, along with many other projects he has undertaken for veterans in West Michigan, gives him an opportunity to remind the community about the contributions of the men and women in the armed forces. "There is a need for the community to remember what the community forgets," Campbell said. Campbell, 76, grew up in New England. He and his wife, Virginia, went to high school together and have two grown children. Campbell served in Vietnam in an administrative role for two years, 1966-67. He was the executive officer, known as an XO, of a company, doing all the paperwork and other work supporting a brigade. He was in charge of 325 enlisted men and 45 field grade officers in the second brigade of the 25th infantry division based in Cu Chi, Vietnam. "My responsibility was to the health and welfare of the troops," Campbell said. Campbell said his role in Vietnam was much different from the roles of the people he is now working to give recognition to - the veterans at the American Legion posts, Veterans of Foreign Wars posts and in Disabled American Veterans chapters. "These are the guys who are wounded. They have lost limbs - certainly experienced other things as far as combat," Campbell said. "Somebody like myself, I'm in Vietnam, I come out and I don't have any wounds and I don't have any injuries or anything like that." Although he has received media attention for some of the work he has done over the years in Grand Rapids, Campbell works mainly behind the scenes, helping to give veterans of combat the credit they deserve. At a Grand Rapids City Commission meeting in the late 1990s, he suggested naming a roadway around the Veterans Memorial Park on Fulton Street in Grand Rapids after Dirk Vlug, who earned a Congressional Medal of Honor, the military's highest decoration, for his service in the U.S. Army in World War II. The section of roadway is now called Dirk Vlug Way. "These people are unique. Not everybody receives a medal of honor," Campbell said. "We wanted to honor him." Campbell said he initiated the annual Woman Veteran of the Year award back when he was chair of the committee for services to military families and the Kent County chapter of the Red Cross. He also served for a time as the communications contact between the media and veterans from Kent County, and helped plan Veterans Day and Memorial Day parades in Kent County. Campbell graduated from Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont, the oldest private military college in the United States. "That prepared me, because Norwich University is recognized as the founding institution of the Reserve Officer Training Corps known as the ROTC." He enrolled in the school in1960 and graduated with a bachelor of arts in English in 1964. The intention of schooling at Norwich meant a degree, but also knowing a future of active duty was on the horizon, he said. "The idea is that when you are going through Norwich you're going to be going on active duty, so everything is geared to that end," Campbell said. In his senior year at Norwich, Campbell was a lieutenant in the Corps. "I was at company level and interestingly enough I was the executive officer of a company at Norwich," Campbell said. "The structure of Norwich would parallel what it would be like on active duty." When he was on active duty, he said, "I was very often executive officer wherever I was stationed." Like his current work organizing events, Campbell's role in Vietnam as an executive officer was also somewhat behind the scenes. His work at that time, he said, was "part of a major team for a bigger purpose." When asked if he had a lot of responsibility during his service in the war, Campbell responded, "Yes, there's some truth to that." But, he added, "I just did my job. I didn't think of it as being a lot of responsibility. I knew what I had to do. I knew that I could do it, and I did it." While decisions that impact our associates are never easy, the store closures are a necessary step in our strategic reassessment as we focus on building a stronger business, Marvin Ellison, Lowes president and CEO, said Monday in a news release. We believe our people are the foundation of our business and essential to our future growth, and we are making every effort to transition impacted associates to nearby Lowes stores. A Florida native who previously played for the Philadelphia Eagles, including in the Super Bowl in February, Burton, 27, joined the Bears in March when he signed a four-year, $32 million contract with the team. A cake is not something you make for yourself; its something you share, Turshen said in an interview. Theres something celebratory about cake, but it doesnt necessarily have to be. Try making a cake for no reason, and you create a moment to celebrate. I think theres a parallel to queer culture we as a community celebrate as many moments as we can, because certain things arent always guaranteed. I think taking joy and pride in a moment and all the implications of that for me, cake physically embodies that. Amazon will soon acquire minority stake in Future Retail, whose supermarket chains Big Bazaar and Nilgiris will give it exposure to nearly a third of Indias organised food and grocery market. The e-commerce giant is routing this investment, worth Rs 2,500 crore, as a foreign portfolio investor (FPI), sources told The Economic Times. "Amazon will acquire about 9.5 percent stake in Future Retail which has over 1,100 physical stores in India and has already signed a term sheet. The deal will be announced after board approval on November 14," sources told the paper. The talks between the two companies started in January when heads of the two companies Kishore Biyani and Jeff Bezos met at Amazons Seattle headquarters, the report said, adding that many meetings were held between the executives of Future Group and Amazon in following months. India allows up to 51 percent overseas investment in multi-brand retail. However, Amazon is picking up a stake in Future Group through its arm, which is registered as an FPI. An FPI can acquire stake less than 10 percent in an Indian entity as a single firm, while an Indian company can dilute up to 49 percent stake to multiple FPIs. Amazon holds a 5 percent stake in Shoppers Stop, which it picked up through a similar route last year. Along with Samara Capital, the Jeff Bezos-led company also bought a stake in More supermarkets from Aditya Birla Retail Group. The company is clearly trying to enter offline retail in India, Harminder Sahni of retail consultancy firm Wazir Advisors, told the paper. "It can't just be a financial investment. They will surely leverage Future Group's network and back-end facilities for supply chain and other operations," he added. Indias food and grocery market is expected to become the fastest-growing retail segment in the country, expanding at a compounded annual growth rate of 141 percent, according to a Morgan Stanley report. The Gujarat government stands to lose around Rs 1,150 crore if the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) upholds the committee of creditors recommendation to accept ArcelorMittals resolution plan to acquire Essar Steel, a Mint report states. These dues are classified as operational creditors and ArcelorMittals proposal does not make any provision for payment to such creditors, the report suggests. Essar Steel owes around Rs 1,150 crore to a number of state government companies including Rs 872 crore to Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation. According to the resolution plans details, the dues pertain to various agencies of the Gujarat government including collector of electricity duty, sales tax department, local authorities and state maritime regulator. The resolution plan proposes upfront payment of Rs 42,000 crore to lenders. Additionally, it proposes payment of Rs 8,000 crore towards capital expenditure. The total admitted claims of operational creditors is around Rs 4,995 crore. ArcelorMittal has offered to settle it at Rs 214 crore. On October 25, over 92 percent of Essar Steels creditors voted in favour of handing over the debt-laden company to ArcelorMittal. Social networking giant Facebook has teamed up with news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), expanding third-party fact-checking programme in India, as it looks to combat the spread of "fake news" on its platform ahead of general elections in 2019. Facebook, which in April this year had partnered with BOOM, said the move will "bolster" its ongoing efforts to "clamp down on manipulated posts including photos and videos" on its platform. Speaking to PTI, Facebook News Partnership Lead (India) Manish Khanduri explained that AFP has been certified through the Poynter Institute's non-partisan International Fact Checking Network. "One of our key objectives is to engage and combat misinformation and broadly that has been a part of our efforts for a while now... There are many things we do... (the aim is to) reduce, remove (fake news) and inform our audiences," Khanduri said. He added that "AFP is becoming a part of third-party fact-checkers and will essentially bolster efforts to crackdown on misinformation" via text stories, photos and videos" on Facebook's platform. "We will continue to seek partners, we will continue to expand the programme," he said adding that the company will also look at adding support for more Indian languages as well. At present, its partnership with BOOM covers content in English and Bengali. Facebook and WhatsApp, also owned by the social media giant, have been facing the menace of rumours and fake news floating on their platforms. Both organisations have taken a number of steps, including sensitisation programmes among users across the country. More recently, WhatsApp - which drew flak from the government over circulation of certain fake and sinister messages that incited mob-fury in different parts of the country - has initiated measures to curb the circulation of misinformation on its platform. Detailing out the process, Khanduri said after a story is rated as false by the fact-checker, it will figure lower in News Feed, "significantly reducing its distribution". He explained that this, in turn, stops the hoax from spreading and reduces the number of people who see it. Begin with the dining room, which gives off a German beer-hall vibe, albeit one thats warmer and less noisy than youd expect. Ceiling lights of clustered globes and tableside votives give the room a soft glow, unless youre seated close to the open kitchen in back, whose brightness is reflected by white glazed-tile walls. Decorative wood beams, which dont actually support anything, add to the rustic look, as does a brick wall hung with various tchotchkes (Some of them family hand-me-downs, some from my travels to Europe, some, honestly, eBay, Steuer says), travel posters of the Alps and South Carolina and several cuckoo clocks. Employees and security staff work at the reception area of Cipla at its headquarters in Mumbai, India June 17, 2015. Cipla Ltd, India's fourth-largest drugmaker by sales, is planning to enter Latin America and Eastern Europe to tap into growing demand for generic drugs in emerging markets, Chief Executive Subhanu Saxena said. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui - RTX1GUXV live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Cipla, on Monday, reported a fall of 11 percent (year-on-year) in its net profit for the September quarter at Rs 377 crore. The company had reported a profit of Rs 422.9 during the same period of last year. The revenue fell marginally to Rs 4,012 crore from Rs 4,082.41 crore during the corresponding quarter of last year. The earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell 13 percent year on year at Rs 702 crore from Rs 804 crore during the same quarter of last year. The operating margin was reported at 17.5 percent against 19.7 percent last year. The company had received various notices of demand from the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), Government of India, on account of alleged overcharging in respect of certain drugs under the Drugs (Prices Control) Orders. The total demand against the Company as stated in NPPA public disclosure amounts to Rs 2,610.09 crore, the company said in its exchange filing. The stock has fallen 7 percent in the past one month. In the past three days, it fell around 4 percent. At 12:50 hrs Cipla was quoting at Rs 604.90, down Rs 3.60, or 0.59 percent. It touched an intraday high of Rs 616.60 and an intraday low of Rs 599.05, on the BSE. Four and a half years ago, Varanasi witnessed a surge in political attention with Prime Minister Narendra Modi contesting the general elections from the constituency. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader entered the city with a basket of promises relating to the welfare of the city and its residents. The then chief minister of Gujarat kick-started his political campaign in the city of salvation with the promise to clean the river Ganga. The promises extended to the welfare of handloom weavers through technology upgradation, development of Kashi as the spiritual capital of India, boosting tourism, and other developmental projects. It was followed up with further project announcements after the Modi's landslide victory. In Varanasi, he brushed aside challengers including Congress Ajay Rai and Aam Aadmi Partys Arvind Kejriwal. However, a closer look at what the BJP and Modi set out to do in the run-up to the 2014 elections reveals that there are certain areas where the government struggled to live up to its poll promises. With the country heading towards the next Lok Sabha polls, it is apt to take stock of the promises which are yet to be fulfilled. Ganga clean up The pet project and the poll campaigns leading promise, the clean up of Ganga, was a major factor behind Modis win in Varanasi. The BJP committed to ensuring the cleanliness, purity and uninterrupted flow of the Ganga on priority. However, the Modi government seems to have failed in fulfiling it. It has been over four years but the river has not been cleaned yet. Sewage water seeps into the Ganga due to the absence a proper sewage plant in Varanasi. Moreover, the river bank continues to be covered with filth as remnants from religious rituals that are often toxic, continue to be thrown into the river. The Congress raised the issue of increased pollution of the Ganga in August this year, and accused the Modi of betraying the people of Varanasi by failing his promise to clean up the river held sacred by many Indians. The party accosted the government, citing an RTI that revealed that the pollution levels in the river are higher than the levels recorded back in 2014 when the Modi government launched its most ambitious 'Namami Gange' initiative. Trade Facilitation Centre Another ambitious project undertaken by Modi in Varanasi was the Trade Facilitation Centre and Crafts Museum. On November 7, 2014, Modi laid the foundation stone of the centre. The first phase was completed and dedicated to Varanasi weavers in December 2016 and the final phase of the centre was completed on September 22, 2017. Spread across 43,445 square metres, the sprawling campus is situated at Bada Lalpur. The centre-cum-museum has been constructed for Rs 305 crore. The primary purpose of the centre was to bring all the weavers and artisans under one roof and provide them with the necessary assistance for bolstering their marketing activities in domestic as well as international markets, and carrying forward the rich tradition of handlooms in Varanasi. The government had further anticipated that buyers would come, select and buy from the varieties available at one place. It was also decided to bring tourists to the place to popularise local handloom products. However, it has nearly been a year, and the weavers and artisans are far and away from the centre. The place is currently being used for exhibitions and other events organized by the government. It has not yet started serving the purpose for which it was built, said Nitesh Dhawan, Assistant Commissioner, Handloom and Textile Department of Uttar Pradesh. E-boats In 2016, Modi visited Varanasi's famed Assi ghat on the occasion of Labour Day, and made the announcement that battery-powered e-boats would be distributed to boatmen. He said that the move was not only aimed at boosting the economic growth of the city, but would also make the environment cleaner. However, the environment-friendly boats doled out by the government are yet to traverse the muddy waters of the Ganges. Of the 11 boats distributed on the occasion, none are currently in use. Talking to Moneycontrol, a boatman Virendra Nishad one of the beneficiaries of the initiative - said that the boats have turned into showpieces due to the lack of charging points. Just two weeks after the launch, the boatmen started facing trouble in getting the batteries recharged. Several times, the boats halted in the middle of the ride and they were left with no options but to use ores. It has been more than two years and the boatmen are still suffering from the problem. Even the eco-friendly boats present with the boatmen are not original, as the ones distributed by the PM were taken back by the manufacturing company under the pretext of repairs, said Nishad. Nearly 1.5 years after distribution of the boats by the PM, the manufacturers took them for repairs. They said that the boats will be returned after servicing but they have not been returned to this day. A new company, however, came in June this year and distributed some solar-powered boats, but it is also not serving the purpose, said the boatman. Kashi-Kyoto project Another major announcement, the Kashi-Kyoto project, was to develop Varanasi into a city like Kyoto in Japan. Nearly three months after winning from the Varanasi constituency, Modi visited Japan. He commenced the trip by signing a pact to develop the ancient temple town as a smart city, with the cooperation and experience of Kyoto. The Japanese city is often touted as a prime example of how urban centres can meld heritage and modernity, giving rise to a confluence of motifs from both the past and the present. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the two countries in the presence of Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe. The MoU provided for cooperation in heritage conservation, city modernisation and cooperation in the fields of art, culture and academics. A year later, Abe visited Varanasi with Modi. Officials from Kyoto also visited the city to analyse the prospects of development and a reciprocal visit was undertaken by the Indian side to learn how the local authorities in Kyoto function. Almost four years have passed and the city still awaits development on the lines of Kyoto. All that has been done so far is the commencement of construction work on a convention centre near the city municipal office. We are getting a convention centre Rudraksh under the Kashi-Kyoto pact. The entire centre is being built by Japanese firms working under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said the Varanasi Municipal Commissioner Nitin Bansal. There have been several cultural programmes going on in the city with people of Japan visiting our country and vice versa to understand the existing culture. No other development work, at present, has been going on in the city except Rudraksh, said Bansal. Other promises that are yet to be fulfiled Apart from the mentioned promises and projects, there were some other off the page promises which included a metro rail project, six-lane highways, flyovers, ring roads, satellite towns, round-the-clock water, electricity and broadband, solid waste management systems, a Bhojpuri film city, an international spiritualism-cum-philosophy centre, battery operated cars, and a global e-commerce-driven mart for handloom and handicrafts, among others. More than four years have passed and the country is once again gearing up for the forthcoming general elections in 2019. However, it is not yet known whether Modi will contest the polls from Varanasi yet again, or whether the political circus will shift its tent to another venue come 2019. Nevertheless, the way the vote swings in Varanasi will undoubtedly have a strong bearing on the legislative performance of Narendra Modi in a city whose history is inextricably enmeshed in the Hindu tradition. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England from 1920 to 1944, had once said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has to be like a wife in a Hindu joint family, who advises but does exactly as she is told. He had bluntly said the relationship between the Bank of England and RBI must be like a 'Hindoo marriage', where the former is the dominant spouse and latter the subservient wife. The RBI functioned under the Bank of England prior to independence. Frictions between the central bank and the government are known to exist since its first governor Osborne Smith took charge from April 1935 to June 1937. Norman's views hold value today as in the past few weeks, the disagreements between the North Block and Mint Street has been the talk of the town. Two speeches by RBI Deputy Governors -- Viral Acharya and NS Vishwanathan -- made a call to defend RBI's autonomy and stance on its stringent capital and lending norms. On several occasions since the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam was unearthed in February, the government has blamed the banking regulator for lapses in the banks. However, RBI Governor Urjit Patel in a public speech hit back at the government for not having enough power or control over public sector banks. The RBI has also faced public criticism after the Narendra Modi-led government announced demonetisation on November 8, 2016, for mishandling its implementation. In the last 4-5 speeches, RBI's top management has vehemently expressed the need to protect its balance sheet, tighter prompt corrective action (PCA) norms, capital requirements and ensuring depositors' interest over and above borrowers. The central bank also placed in public a dissent note on the government's proposal to set-up a separate payments regulator. Some of these issues on which the public cannot be expected to have an informed opinion, but may be required in public interest. "Governments that don't respect the independence of central banks will sooner or later incur the wrath of financial markets, ignite economic fire and come to rue the day they undermined an important regulatory institution," Acharya said in his speech on October 26, which was a firing salvo that got several experts and non-experts debating the fight between Delhi and Mumbai. On behalf of the government, Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Finance, tweeted on November 2, a sarcastic comment following the positive reaction of the rupee, equity markets and oil prices, asking if it was the 'wrath of the markets'. However, the debate has made the market participants wonder if the government has used or will use the most-dreaded Section 7(1) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, which empowers the government to give directions to the central bank on matters of 'public interest'. While some argue that this always gives more power to the government, the RBI, by law, functions under the control of the government. Also, the government has always given directions to get its work done without using that Act per se. The Centre has reportedly sent letters to Patel in recent weeks, exercising its powers under this section, on various issues like liquidity crunch in the NBFC sector, capital requirement for banks and lending to small and medium enterprises. Reports have also indicated that Patel could step down as differences between the RBI and the government escalate. The recent unceremonious removal of Nachiket Mor from RBI's board and the surprise appointment of RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy to the board has already made the trust deficit between the two institutions more evident than before. Further, there has been a delay in filling the vacancies of the non-official directors as the 21-member RBI board still has 3 vacancies. As of now, the government has stated that the independence and autonomy of the RBI is 'an essential and accepted governance requirement' and that the government has 'nurtured and respected it'. Market is yet to react negatively to the developments, but both the government and central bank have assured that any action to be taken will be in 'public interest'. "A correct portrayal of the situation would be: public interest (i.e. depositors and taxpayers) versus borrowers' interest," Vishwanathan said in his speech on October 29. The government's definition of 'public interest' is yet to be ascertained but if history were to go by, RBI will always remain an independent institution 'under' the government as per Norman's views. Ports and shipping In many ways, there are similarities between Great Eastern Shipping (GE) and Shipping Corporation of India (SCI). Both are great survivors of the Indian shipping industry. Despite turbulent times in global markets, both the companies continue to hold their heads above water. One reason for this is that they have well diversified fleets. Take a look at the fleet that GE has. It has crude oil carriers, product carriers, LPG carriers and dry bulk carriers. Collectively, it has 49 ships which account for 3.98 million DWT (dead weight tonnage). SCI too is well diversified. It too has tankers (for crude oil, products, LPG, LNG, and VLCCs). It has bulk carriers, liners and offshore supply vehicles. Collectively, it has 63 vessels with a combined DWT of 5.68 million tonnes. But some of its vessels are quite old and are now being scrapped. Having a diversified fleet helps because when one type of cargo faces difficult market conditions, another vessel type helps keep business afloat. Both companies have been astute in the selection of vessels they own, and both have shown tremendous resilience in charting their course during tough times for global shipping. Both are beneficiaries of India's coastal traffic. This has grown in recent years essentially as more ports and terminals have begun to dot India's 7,500 km coastline, and because linkages with the hinterland have become effective and meaningful. The role of the newly-formed Indian Ports Rail Corporation Ltd (IPRCL), which was created by the Shipping and Ports Ministry under Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, cannot be underestimated. However, there are undeniable differences between GE and SCI. GE remains a darling in the stock market. Its share price has enjoyed market confidence and has moved by not more than 1.8 times from its lowm during the past four years. SCI, on the other hand, has had a more turbulent stock market reception. Its shares have moved 2.86 times from their low levels. This is despite SCI having a larger tonnage and more ships (some are being scrapped), and accounts for a higher turnover of Rs 347 crore last year, compared to GE which had a turnover of Rs 206 crore. But when it comes to operational financial parameters, GE beats SCI on many fronts (see chart). There are three reasons why GE has performed better than SCI. First, SCI is a government owned company, yet does not get the slightest benefit from the government in terms of orders or tariff preference. It is possible that private sector GE could afford to be nimbler and faster to cater to market demand even with a smaller fleet. Anoop Kumar Sharma of SCI disputes this. "On the operational front, we match the best ratios that the shipping industry can boast of," he said. But the fact remains -- GE has performed better. Second, and this could be the key reason, SCI is a lot more vulnerable than GE. This is because it lacks the ability of sailing ships under foreign flags, because it is government-owned. If the government removed the little reservation that Indian ships enjoy for carrying coastal cargo, SCI would be a sitting duck. It would find itself out-priced and out-manoeuvred by ships plying the coastal waters under foreign flags. Indian flag vessels face three disadvantages. First, they must pay GST on acquisition of ships. Foreign flag vessels are exempted. The latter, thus enjoys a 5 percent price advantage on the capex for new vessels. This adds to the capex for Indian flag vessels. Second, unlike international aircraft, the finance ministry insists that crew of Indian flag ships must pay income tax. Crew of foreign flag vessels are exempt from such taxes. This adds to the crew cost of Indian flag vessel owners by as much as 30 percent. Third, foreign flag vessels can buy cheaper bunkering overseas, while Indian flag vessels have to purchase more expensive bunkering in India. As long as India's coastal cargo is reserved for Indian flag vessels, these handicaps can be coped with. But once the reservation of Indian shores for Indian flag vessels is removed, companies like SCI may have to fold up and become economically unviable. GE still has the option of converting its ships to foreign flags, but SCI doesn't. That is where being the flag bearer of the nation can be a great disadvantage. True, whenever there is a disaster evacuation of Indians from a war torn area, or bringing in oil from volatile areas like the Hormuz Strait near Iran -- SCI is called upon by the government to help the nation out. But it does not get any concessions for doing this. Its payments are in accordance with industry standards. SCI does not even have the flexibility of buying ships when prices are low and sell them in international markets when prices are high. Trading in ships is frowned upon by the finance ministry. Despite that, SCI has managed to invest in four (secondhand) LNG tankers in association with Mitsui OSK, K Line and QShip. But whether it will be allowed to sell them at a profit remains to be seen. That is why, to date, almost all ships scrapped by SCI have been sent to scrap-yards. One reason is that the ships were too old to get re-certified as vessels fit for sailing. Another reason could be the finance ministry's distaste for trading operations by government owned companies. The government's reluctance to protect Indian shores for Indian vessels is one reason why shipowners have seen an increase in fleet size, but many of the ships remain under foreign flags. GE has chosen to keep all its ships under Indian flags for now. But it too will switch over to a foreign flag should the protection for Indian ships go. SCI may have to close shop. That will be a terrible misfortune, because it is one PSU that has managed to remain profitable year after year (except for four years). The finance ministry's inability to consider these financial handicaps that Indian ships face, will end up hurting the country's interests in a big way. It will be a reversal of Make in India, and could be terribly shortsighted strategically. Market conditions for the shipping industry have been terrible in the past few years. But India just made the climate riskier and the environment inimical for the Indian shipping industry. The author is a Consulting Editor with moneycontrol.com. If the recent correction seen in Indian equity market scared you, then sit tight as achche din might have already started, suggest experts who feel that Sensex is likely to move in a 10,000-point range from current levels till Diwali 2019. The S&P BSE Sensex witnessed a volatile 2018 but it has so far recorded gains of little over 8 percent from last Diwali. If the momentum sustains, the S&P BSE Sensex should be able to hold on to 35,000 at the lower end while at the higher end, analysts feel that Mount 45K is in reach, a poll showed. We spoke to 21 analysts, fund managers and money managers to assess the momentum of markets till Diwali 2019. Almost 50 percent of the poll respondents feel that the S&P BSE Sensex is likely to hover in the range of 35,000-40,000 while the rest 50 percent feel that the index could move in the range of 40,000-45,000. For Nifty, almost 57 percent of the respondents feel that the index is likely to hover in the range of 11,000-12,000 while the rest 38 percent are of the view that index could surpass 12K-mark and head for 13,000-levels in the next one year. Only 1 analyst out of 21 feels that the index might break the 14,000-mark in the next one year. VK Sharma, Head PCG & Capital Markets Group, HDFC Securities, told Moneycontrol that the index is headed for 13,000 by Diwali 2019. Investors should use the current sale to buy the leaders at a discount. They should catch all the missed trains, he said. Benchmark indices saw double-digit fall from their respective highs which have brought down valuations to a more comfortable level for investors who are looking to invest for more than 5 years. Majority of analysts polled by Moneycontrol recommend investors to buy at current levels, as Sensex has fallen more than 10 percent from its high of 38,989, recorded in the month of August, As many as 48 percents of the analysts feel that it is the right time to buy, while 38 percent are of the view that investors should hold on for a while. The rest 14 percent did not comment. The ongoing turmoil led by liquidity crunch fear in the NBFC space, global risk-off sentiment, trade tensions between the US and China, fall in rupee and worries over upcoming state elections as well as general elections next year are some of the factors which will keep markets on the edge till next Diwali (2019). However, analysts feel that investors should use the current dip to buy into quality stocks if they have an investment horizon of more than a year. For mutual funds, investors can use the dip to top-up funds and stay put with an investment horizon of about 5 years. As many as 62 percent of the respondents feel that investors should avoid panic-selling, and should stay put in the funds they have invested in for a period of more than 5 years. As many as 29 percent of them feel that investors should use the dips to top-up their funds while the rest recommend investors to use the dip to add new thematic SIPs to their portfolio. It is a smart period to be rational and look for high-quality stocks which are available at attractive gains in the long-term. It will be wise to start with a mix of high-quality sectors and stock ideas available at cheaper valuation compared to the averages of last 3 years, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services told Moneycontrol. We advise exposure in stable sectors like IT, pharma, consumption and also in an export-oriented sector like a chemical. If an investor has risk-taking ability, 15 to 30 percent of the equity exposure can be spread on multibagger ideas in auto, pharma and NBFC sector, these are high-risk and high reward, with a view that equity market will stabilise in the next 2 quarters, he said. Where is rupee headed? The rupee, which has depreciated by about 12 percent against the US dollar from last Diwali and about 14 percent so far in 2018, could stabalise in the next 12 months or so, suggest experts. As many as 48 percent of the poll respondents feel that the currency could hover in the range of Rs 73-75/USD, while 19 percent are of the view that it could depreciate further towards Rs 78-80/USD, and the rest 33 percent are of the view that rupee could rise, below Rs 73/USD. "The rupee may, however, not be out of the woods just as yet. How the oil market reacts when the US sanctions on Iran actually come into effect from November 4 remains to be seen. The crude prices could rally again if the supply is constricted," Abhishek Goenka, CEO of India Forex Advisors said. "The outcome of the US mid-term elections on November 6 will set the tone for the US dollar. The Republicans are expected to retain control of the Senate but concede the House to the Democrats. A stronger than expected show by the Republicans would be positive for the US dollar and negative for EM assets, he said. Goenka further added that the Rupee consolidates over the next few trading sessions in the 72.60-74.00 range before we see the next decisive move. However, the broad trend of the USDINR pair is still up. State Elections The big trigger for markets would be the outcome of state elections, suggest experts. As many as 81 percent of the poll respondents feel that the outcome of the state elections will impact equity markets while the rest 19 percent feel that markets are unlikely to get impacted. During November and December, five states will go to polls and could impact the sentiment for general elections. Most experts feel that the outcome of the polls are in fact precursor to the big 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The election period is only going to make Indian equity market more volatile and the increased volatility will create more opportunities for many savvy investors. We believe corporate earnings, movement of the Indian rupee and crude price, political as well as global factors will play a crucial role for the market movement in near term, Sanjeev Jain, AVP, Ashika Stock Broking told Moneycontrol. We advise investors to stay focused on and do investment in the companies, which are fundamentally strong and sound management, he said. List of participants: Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research. Motilal OswalDipan Mehta, Founder Director, Elixir CapitalHarendra Kumar, Managing Director, Institutional Equities, Elara CapitalDharmesh Kant Head -Retail Research, IndiaNivesh SecuritiesNitasha Shankar, Senior Vice President and Head of Research, YES Securities.Vinod Nair, Head Of Research at Geojit Financial ServicesSumeet Bagadia, Executive Director at Choice BrokingMazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist Technical Research & Trading AdvisoryDinesh Rohira, Founder & CEO, 5nance.comUmeshkumar Mehta - Head of Research, Samco Securities ltdMustafa Nadeem, CEO, Epic ResearchVK Sharma, Head PCG & Capital Markets Group, HDFC Securities.Sanctum Wealth Management.Vineeta Sharma HOR at Narnolia Financial AdvisorsVijay Singhania, founder-director, Trade Smart OnlineRitesh Ashar Chief Strategy Officer, KIFS.Sanjeev Jain, AVP, Ashika Stock BrokingShubham Agarwal, CEO at Quantsapp AdvisoryAK Prabhakar, head of research, IDBI CapitalJaikishan Parmar, Equity Analyst at Angel BrokingAtish R Matlawala, Senior Analyst at SSJ Finance & Securities Pvt Ltd The Central Information Commission (CIC) has issued a show-cause notice to RBI Governor Urjit Patel for "dishonouring" a Supreme Court judgment on disclosure of wilful defaulters' list. The CIC has also asked the Prime Minister's Office, the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to make public the letter of former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on bad loans. Irked over the denial of information on the disclosure of the names of wilful defaulters who have taken bank loans of Rs 50 crore and above by the RBI in spite of a Supreme Court order, the CIC has asked Patel to explain why a maximum penalty be not imposed on him for "dishonouring" the verdict which had upheld a decision taken by then Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, calling for disclosure of names of wilful defaulters. Patel, speaking on September 20 at the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), had said the guidelines on vigilance, issued by the CVC, were aimed at achieving greater transparency, promoting a culture of honesty and probity in public life and improving the overall vigilance administration in the organisations within its purview, the CIC pointed out. "The Commission feels that there is no match between what RBI Governor and Deputy Governor say and their website regarding their RTI policy, and great secrecy of vigilance reports and inspection reports is being maintained with impunity in spite of the Supreme Court confirming the orders of the CIC in the Jayantilal case", Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said. He concluded that it did not serve any purpose in punishing the CPIO for this defiance, because he acted under the instructions of the top authorities. Recap bonds for bank recapitalisation | Acting on its plan announced in October 2017, the central government issued recap bonds worth Rs 88,000 crore in Januarythe first instalment of committed Rs 2.11 lakh crore. This was prompted by banks that were reeling under NPAs and were short when it came to meeting their capital adequacy and provisioning targets. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Shares of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), particularly in the housing finance (HFCs) segment, were under pressure as government is said to have raised concerns. PNB Housing Finance, Indiabulls Housing Finance and DHFL along with Repco Home Finance and HDFC are all down 1-11 percent on an intraday basis. Moneycontrol had earlier reported that The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) had feared a significant default from large non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs) in the next 6 weeks if additional liquidity support is not forthcoming. In a October 26, 2018 letter to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) discussing the financial stability impact of the IL&FS default, the DEA described the financial situation (as) still fragile. The letter points out that a prolonged liquidity crunch could hurt fund mobilisation in the debt market, impact productive sectors and affect economic growth at a time when India has emerged as one of the fastest growing major economies in the world. According to the DEA, about Rs 2 lakh crore of NBFC/HFC debt is due for redemption or rollover by the end of December 2018. The department estimates a funding gap of as much as Rs 1 lakh crore by the end of the year if the pace of fundraising seen in the first half of October (about Rs 20,000 crore or 68 percent lower than the same period in August) is sustained. A further Rs 2.7 lakh crore of commercial paper and non-convertible debetures will be due for redemption over January -March 2019, the letter said. Without additional liquidity support a significant default from among the largest NBFC and HFC could occur within six weeks and the financing cycle of productive sector would be adversely affected, the letter states. Further, CNBC-TV18 on November 5, 2018 reported that the MCA raised concerns with regards to PNB Housing, Indiabulls Housing and DHFL This report has been submitted to the finance ministry, RBI and other stakeholders. They further added that PNB Housing, Indiabulls Housing and DHFL are facing severe cashflow issues. Option selling is considered a big boys game and it surely is given the margin required to sell one. Retail traders generally do not like to sell options due to the margin requirement but also because of the myth that option selling entails unlimited risk. But risk management is the key to success in any form of trading. No wonder then the option sellers are level headed and successful. Even in the elite club of option sellers, most traders stick to a limited number of non-directional strategies. They stick to those with a high probability of success. They are happily taking the singles with higher frequency rather than aiming for the fences. Manish Dewan can be considered the all-rounder of option sellers. He is as comfortable taking directional trades as he is in taking non-directional ones. He is equally at comfort trading a strangle or straddle as he is creating credit and debit spreads or attempting the more exotic ones like a Jade Lizard. This Delhi-based full-time trader comes from a business family, which is why he is so adept in taking advantage of every opportunity he sees. In an interview to Moneycontrol, Dewan speaks about the various strategies he deploys and his journey in becoming a full-time trader from a marketing person in a brokerage firm. Edited excerpts A: My introduction to the market was near the peak of the technology boom in 2000. I was studying in a college in Delhi when a family friend met my brother and told him about the opportunities in the market. At that time, my brother was looking after the business, so he asked me to sit with this person and learn the tricks of the trade. I had no idea of the markets when I entered it. All I knew was the indices that I saw on TV. But as markets were booming, making money was easy for even a rookie like me. However, as is the ways of the market, it takes away money just as easily. When the dust settled after the crash, we had wiped out nearly 98 percent of our capital. It was a reasonably sized capital, which could have bought a decent sized real estate in those days. After the incident, I stayed away from the markets, focused on my studies and graduated in commerce from Delhi University. I worked on testing the Yahoo messenger and from the money saved I financed my Masters in Business Administration. In the final semester of my MBA, I was again interested in markets as they had picked up again and people were making money. But now I wanted to be better equipped before I approached the market again. I started studying technical analysis. Though we were taught fundamental analysis during our MBA, I took to technical analysis more easily. I am a person who is more comfortable with being exposed to the market for the short term, so technical analysis and trading was my comfort zone. After my MBA and an 18-month stint with a portfolio management services firm --PN Vijay Financials -- I worked for JM Financial as a trader. My job involved acquiring high net-worth clients and making them trade through my trading strategies, which were non-discretionary in nature. A non-discretionary account is one where the client is advised but the final call rests with the client. In January 2009, I was overlooked for a much-deserved promotion, though I was given a hefty salary hike. I did not take the incident well and decided to quit. Later I joined a start-up founded by a South African investor who wanted to set-up a financial services company in India. I was heading the equity broking part of the business. But the company had to close down in a years time as the person had a huge trading position in global agricultural commodity markets which took a big hit. By this time the markets were in the doldrums and jobs in the broking industry were not sought after. I too was not keen on taking a marketing job anymore. I decided to enrol for a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) course and trade using my savings. A: Over the next 3-3.5 years, I managed to trade with a nominal return of 18-20 percent, while honing my skills. As I got better at my craft, I started taking trading seriously, increased my trading size and dabbling with futures and options. In 2013, I made the trade of my life. Just before the 2014 elections, I took a sizeable call option position. The election result saw the market surge and my account size increased considerably. Though at that time it looked like I had great logic in placing the trade, now when I look back I realise luck was also at play. But this trade got me more focused on options. I was an option buyer in those days. Having seen two really bad bear markets of 2000 and 2008, I was risk-averse. I did not want to lose my capital. Given the myth about option selling having unlimited risk, I stayed away from the selling part of the business. A: At that time, the markets were steadily rising. Bull markets are generally gentle and slow. As an option buyer, even though if you are right, you may end up losing money as the option loses its value with time. I then tried selling options using various strategies like Iron Condor or Butterflies. Iron Condor and Butterfly are a limited risk, non-directional option trading strategies. My experience with these strategies was different. There were times I was making money, but a loss would take away the profit of 2-3 trades. Thats when I decided to structure my trades and gather more knowledge on the subject. I attended a class on options by Santosh Pasi. Here I gained a much better understanding of volatility as well as using different strategies in different market conditions, how to manage a trade when it moves against your position as well as position sizing. For the next two months, I observed if the learnings were actually translating into profits. After I gained confidence, I started ramping up my trading size aggressively. Having said that, I still use technical analysis in my trading decisions. I do not take decisions looking at Option Greeks. Greeks determine the value of an option. I imbibe learnings from technical analysis in my options trading decisions. My decision depends on how I expect the stock to behave going forward, whether it will be rangebound or directional. I am also taking more directional trades rather than non-direction ones, which option writers generally do. Directional trading is based on predicting the direction of a underlying security and taking an option strategy based on that. Even in a neutral trade, if I spot an opportunity I include a directional bias. In a recent trade in Reliance Industries, I entered a Ratio Strangle where I wrote more calls than puts. My view was that though RIL will move in a range, it would do so near the lower part of the range. A: I trade using multiple strategies, but deploy a Bank Nifty strangle every week. Traders deploy a Strangle strategy when they think there will be a large price movement, but within a range, in the near future but are unsure of which way prices will move. These I exit when the price reaches 80-85 percent of my profit target. I prefer to exit these trades a day before expiry, so that I have room left (margin) to trade on expiry day. In the case of stocks, I compulsorily look at charts and employ an options strategy depending on what the charts tell me. In technical analysis, I mainly use Relative Strength Index (RSI), moving averages, Fibonacci and Elliot Waves to arrive at a conclusion. This week, I employed a Jade Lizard strategy (a premium collection strategy deployed by selling options while limiting risk on one side of the trade) in a Tata Motors trade. This trade would not yield any profit or loss between Rs 150-190. I will only start to earn in case the price goes below Rs 150 and incur a small defined loss if the price moves above Rs 190. Technically speaking, I dont think a bottom has been made in Tata Motors, but if my premise is wrong I will exit the trade. Expiry day is the most important trading day for me. On other days, I am a seller of out-of-money (OTM) options, but on expiry day I trade at-the-money contracts (ATM). On expiry day, I deploy capital more in directional trades rather than non-directional ones (most traders deploy non-directional strategies on expiry day). On this day, volatility is generally high and the bulk of premium is in ATM contracts, so I shift from strangles to straddles. In straddles, a trader initiates two transactions of the same security at the same strike price with positions that offset one another. After establishing a straddle I wait for the market to make a move on either side, off-late it is on the lower side. I move my position in sync with the market move. If it is trending lower, I will aggressively sell call options and cut my put position that was initiated when a straddle was established. So, from a non-directional position, I have now moved to a directional trade. I am nibble in my position till around 1 pm and then I aggressively start to build my position. Around 2.30 pm I start taking a position on the opposite side. I am now looking at the 3 min and 15 min charts. In the last 30 minutes, I take signals from a 1-minute chart. At 2.30 pm, I look for probable areas where the market will not be breached. Say if the Bank Nifty has fallen by 350 points, then I sell puts of say 100 points lower. But if it still continues to fall, then I employ a stop-loss of 50 percent of the max profit of the option price while simultaneously selling more call options. On expiry day, I am trading entirely based on charts rather than option Greeks. Though it is a busy day, expiry days account for nearly 40 percent of my weekly profit. A: October has been a learning experience since I began selling options. The month surprised everyone with volatility shooting up sharply. In the first week of the month, I was sitting on a profit of around Rs 7 lakh, but had to struggle to stay in the black by the end of the month. Though the month ended profitably, the amount of effort and emotional capital needed was very high. But at the end of it, there were important lessons to learn. Technical analysis relies too much on indicators. If an indicator shows that the market is oversold, it does not mean that the market will rebound from this area, the market can go down further. One needs to learn to manage risks under such circumstances as well as how to stay more hedged. A: I always have a target with respect to the stop-loss. I will book a loss if my position has moved against me by 50 percent of the maximum profit potential. I will not try to firefight in this situation. Traders generally get emotionally attached to their trade. If a trade goes against them, then the focus shifts from earning a profit to protecting capital, but that was not the initial premise for entering the trade. The trade has now changed your priorities. You end up spending a lot of emotional energy to protect your capital. I prefer to get out of the trade and think clearly. I generally do not get bothered if I am losing money, the key to me is to take the learnings from these losses home. A: Over the last two years, I have managed a 65 percent return on my capital. I initiate trades with a risk-reward anywhere between 1:1 and 1:3. Credit spreads account for 80 percent of my trades. A credit spread involves selling a near-the-money option and buying an out-of-the-money option. The last two years have been profitable with nearly 82 percent of my trades working in my favour.Reliance Industries Ltd is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd A number of CEOs bowed out unceremoniously this year. They were either sacked, or they resigned after a controversy. Here are some of the top corporate honchos who fell from grace due to their conduct this year. (Image: Reuters) Gaurav Choudhury An oft-raised question in Indias corporate regulatory architecture is about control. The battle over control has seen many iconic episodes in modern Indias corporate history. After all, control is a key determinant of ownership. An assortment of legislations and their respective definitions have, however, queered the pitch. The Companies Act, 2013, the Takeover Code of capital markets watchdog Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the governments Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy, anti-trust body Competition Commissions stipulations and the banking regulator Reserve Bank of Indias (RBIs) all have defined control. One can dare say that the plethora of definitions, most of these backed by laws, have only resulted in ambiguous interpretations, particularly in the banking sphere. Sample this. The SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 Regulation 2 (1) (e), commonly known as the 'Takeover Code,' defines control as: including the right to appoint majority of the directors; or to control the management or policy decisions exercisable by virtue of shareholding or management rights. De-jargoned, this makes the shareholding proportion, the principal, not the sole, parameter of controlling interest. A shareholder who ends up buying a quarter (25 percent) of the companys stake, has to make a mandatory open offer to acquire at least 26 percent additional stakes from the other existing shareholders at a specified price. The Companies Act 2013, on other hand, gives a wider, and more inclusive, definition of control. Anyone can have controlling rights either through any or all of the following: majority shareholding; management rights, shareholders agreement or a voting agreement. According to Accounting Standards 21 (AS-21), a contemporary code for presenting financial statements in India, control can come through ownership, directly or indirectly, through subsidiary (ies), of more than one-half of the voting power of an enterprise, or control of the composition of the board of directors. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) Act, the legislation that created Indias anti-trust body, says that a group which, directly or indirectly, have 26 percent or more of the voting rights, can appoint more than 50 percent of the board members or can control the management or affairs, will have control of the enterprise. While Companies Act, 2013 is the overarching legislation governing corporate affairs in India, the CCI Act definitions on control, one would assume, will largely be applicable to instances of abuse of dominance in mergers and acquisitions, where amalgamations of corporations can lead to monopoly-like situations. But what about banks? The oversight of Indian banks lies with RBI, which is guided by the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. This law has seen many changes over the years to factor in changing conditions in the business and financial sector. RBI has, over the last 15-20 years, have brought in a plethora of guidelines and rules pertaining to bank ownership. The prime code supporting these guidelines is the belief that diversification of ownership is the primary pillar of bank governance. Implicit in this is the assumption that ownership is synonymous with voting rights, for it is voting rights that are needed to control a bank. India, perhaps, is the only country that regulates the banking sector (the private banking sector because RBI has limited oversight powers over the public sector banks) through a cap on voting rights (defined in the Banking Regulation Act), and also through ownership caps (through RBIs administrative circulars). RBIs universal banking guidelines state that promoters holding in banks should progressively come down to 15 percent within 15 years of starting operations. The rationale for such an approach is that a widely held/diverse ownership would lead to better governance through lack of concentration of power in the bank. Promoters voting rights are, however, capped at 15 percent, implying that a promoter group cannot 'control' the board or push through decisions even if it enjoys greater shareholding. It is unclear whether ceiling on promoter shareholding were intended by Parliament, considering that voting rights alone have been capped in law. In the current state of affairs in India, the banking industry has no correlation with ownership patterns. As much as public sector banks have had issues, even so-called banks with well diversified ownership holdings have had issues concerning governance and bad loans. These multiple prescriptions on ownership and control, at times contradictory and ambiguous, as well as different rule books for banks licenced at different times under different economic conditions have resulted in a peculiar possibility. Some banks Kotak Mahindra and Bandhan are now staring at a seemingly insurmountable problem: to dilute owners stakes (through fresh issuance of equity) by as much as their entire market capitalisation. Rules on control and ownership in banks should apply to all equally. After all, whats sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander too. For more Opinion pieces, click here Gaurav Aggarwal Education plays a crucial role in the economic development of all societies. While there is a universal acknowledgement to the need for public funding of primary and secondary education, public funding of higher education in a developing country like India is not feasible. Thus, recognising the importance of higher education and the role of institutional funding to deal with rising cost of higher education, the policymakers came out with tax deduction on education loans under Section 80E. The objective was to relieve interest burden from education loan borrowers through tax incentives. However, to claim the tax deduction, the borrowers have to meet certain conditions. Here is a list of must-knows regarding tax deduction on education loans: Principal component does not qualify for tax deduction: Borrowers often misunderstand tax exemption provisions available on education loan. This stems from tax exemptions available on home loan where both principal and interest components of EMIs qualify for tax deductions under Section 80C and 24b, respectively. However, in the case of education loans, the repayment of principal amount does not qualify for tax deduction. Only the interest component of education loan EMI qualifies for tax deduction under Section 80E. The lack of tax deduction for principal repayment in education loan has been somewhat compensated by the absence of an upper cap on claiming tax deduction on interest payment. You can claim the entire interest component for tax deduction. Not all education loans qualify for tax deduction: The tax deduction available under Section 80E is applies only to education loans availed from banks, financial institutions notified under the Income Tax Act and approved charitable institutions. You cannot claim tax deduction on funds borrowed from family members or friends for higher education. Similarly, not all NBFC education loans will qualify for tax deduction. Only those education loans availed from non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) notified by the central government through official Gazette as a Financial Institution for the purpose of education loan tax deduction will qualify for the deduction. This is especially relevant as banks are increasingly getting cautious with education loans due to the rising non-performing assets in the segment. Since the NBFCs are aggressively pushing to fill in this gap, students may get education loans from NBFCs with relative ease. Hence, to ensure that you do not miss out on the Section 80E tax deduction later, check out whether that NBFC has been notified as such through the official Gazette. Tax deduction period is capped for 8 years: Tenures of education loan can go up to 15 years. However, the period of availing tax deduction under Section 80E has been capped at 8 years. You can claim the tax deduction from the year of the commencement of your repayment period. For example, even if you complete the repayment of your education loan within 12 years, the tax deduction under Section 80E can only be claimed for the interest repaid within 8 years of the commencement of your repayment period. Only loans taken for higher studies qualify for tax deduction: Tax deduction under Section 80E is only available for loans taken for pursuing higher education. Section 80E defines 'higher education' as any full-time course pursued after passing the Senior Secondary Examination or its equivalent from any educational institutes, board or universities recognised by the government or local authorities. Even vocational studies and courses pursued outside India would qualify for deduction under Section 80E. However, the courses need to be post-senior secondary education. Education loans taken for certain relationships will qualify for tax deduction: Education loan taken for pursuing higher studies for self, children, spouse or for a student for whom one is a legal guardian would qualify for tax deduction. Thus, parents and legal guardians are eligible to claim the deduction for the interest component paid by them. However, one cannot claim this deduction for education loans taken for his sibling or other relatives. Moreover, only the borrower who has availed the education loan can claim the tax deduction. For example, if a person takes an education loan for his child, spouse or his legal ward, only he can claim the tax deduction. The student, i.e. the child, spouse or his legal ward, cannot claim the deduction even if the loan is repaid from his funds after the completion of his studies. However, if the loan is taken in the joint names of parent/legal guardian and child/legal ward, then both of them will have the flexibility to claim the tax deduction based on their tax liability. Lauren Streicher is medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Sexual Medicine and Menopause. She chose to have her portrait taken in Macys on State Street, which for her will always be Marshall Fields. She says, Most people might assume I chose Marshall Fields is because I love to shop. The actual reason is that this building holds not only a huge piece of Chicago history, but also my family's history. My father was the medical director of the long gone medical bureau, which in its heyday supplied free medical care for every Fields employee. Abigail and I spent hours talking about the city and my experiences as a child growing up behind the scenes of this iconic department store. We also had a great time dishing about sexuality. I can pretty well guarantee that none of her other interviews discussed orgasmic dysfunction in Chicago women. Cant wait to hear what part of my interview is in the exhibit. Sumitra Mahajan, an Indian parliamentarian and a leader of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), drinks water after she rushed out of the parliament in New Delhi February 13, 2014. India's parliament erupted in mayhem on Thursday when a legislator fired pepper spray in the lower house in protest against a bill on a new state. Television footage showed pictures of lawmakers coughing, sneezing and holding scarves to their faces. Shouting protesters also broke a glass table and snapped the wire of an official's microphone. A few legislators were rushed away in an ambulance while others were given first aid treatment in the assembly. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi (INDIA - Tags: POLITICS) - GM1EA2D1H8002 Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar and BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe met Lok Sabha Speaker and local MP Sumitra Mahajan in connection with ticket distribution for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls. The polls for the 230-member state assembly will be held on November 28. Counting of votes will take place on December 11. Indore district has nine assembly constituencies. "Tai (Sumitra Mahajan) is our senior leader. As she was abroad, we could not hold talks over the Assembly poll tickets with her. Following her return, we called on her," Gwalior Lok Sabha MP Tomar told reporters here. Tomar and Sahasrabuddhe held talks with Mahajan for about 90 minutes, party functionaries said. Tomar denied that Mahajan was upset over the process of picking party candidates. "Mahajan is not unhappy at all," he said. BJP sources have said the ticket distribution for seats in Indore were getting delayed due to a reported tussle between Mahajan and BJP general secretary and Mhow MLA Kailash Vijayvargiya. The Lok Sabha Speaker refused to comment on the matter. "I have no knowledge of the tickets (row)," she said. Vijayvargiya, speaking to reporters recently, had refuted such talks and said there was no tussle between him and Mahajan. Tomar, meanwhile, in reply to a query on the Ram temple said, "We are going to celebrate a historical Diwali in Ayodhya". Harsh Vardhan1 Union minister Harsh Vardhan said on Monday that the Centre was making all possible efforts to maintain air quality and no leniency would be shown towards those who violated the norms. Delhi's pollution level sharply spiked Monday as a thick haze engulfed the national capital due to high impact of stubble burning and pushed the air quality in the 'very poor' category, authorities said. The Union Environment minister said legal actions were being initiated against those who violated the pollution regulations. "The Centre is making all possible efforts to maintain the air quality and to protect the environment. No leniency will be shown towards those who violate the pollution norms," Vardhan said on the sidelines of an event organised by the AYUSH Ministry to celebrate the third 'Ayurveda Day'. He said that the Centre has given a financial aid of over Rs 550 crore for farmers who are indulging in stubble burning. Vardhan also appealed to the people to indulge in green good deeds and also ensure environment-friendly behaviour to maintain the air quality which has deteriorated to alarming levels. The minister recently called a meeting of environment ministers of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi to discuss the deteriorating air quality. Except Delhi Environment minister Imran Hussain, all other ministers skipped the meeting, and instead sent their senior officials to participate in it. On Sunday, a total fine of Rs 83,55,000 was imposed on violators by the teams deployed to monitor implementation of measures to combat pollution in Delhi NCR under the campaign. An aggressive 10-day-long 'Clean Air Campaign' from November 1-10 has also been launched to monitor and report polluting activities as well as to ensure quick action. Based on 368 complaints, a total fine of Rs 83,55,000 was imposed on Sunday itself by 52 teams in the national capital, said the CPCB. It said a total of 119 complaints of construction and demolition activities were received. Other complaints included that of vehicular emission, traffic congestion, industrial emission, open or garbage burning, leaf burning, road dust, unpaved road, fire in landfill sites, air pollution from generators among others, the CPCB said. It said a total of 52 complaints were received through social media and e-mails while 316 complaints through the 'Sameer app' that has been developed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Officials said about 43 teams attended to 248 complaints in Delhi. Two teams attended to 11 complaints in Gurgaon, two teams to 31 complaints in Faridabad and two teams to five complaints in Noida and Greater Noida. Three teams attended 21 complaints in Ghaziabad. On Friday and Saturday, a total penalty of Rs 80 lakh was imposed on violators. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Midnapore, West Bengal July 16 Indian nuclear submarine INS Arihant has successfully completed its first deterrence patrol, marking the completion of the country's nuclear triad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced. In a veiled attack on Pakistan, Modi, in his address to the crew of Arihant, said the development was a "warning to the enemies of the country and peace" that they should not resort to any adventurism against India. Asserting that India is a peace-loving country and does not instigate anyone, Modi said it does not spare those who needle it. "Our nuclear arsenal are not a part of an aggressive policy, but it is an important means for peace and stability," he said. India's nuclear triad will be an important pillar of global peace and stability and INS Arihant will be the "harbinger of fearlessness" for the country, he said. The Army's Agni ballistic missiles and the Air Force's fighter jets are capable of carrying nuclear war heads. And INS Arihant completes the maritime strike capability of the Navy. The development assumes significance as India has two nuclear weapons states as its neighbours. India's eastern neighbour China became a nuclear weapons state way back in the 1970s. The Indian Ocean Region, crucial for India's strategic interests, has also been witnessing an increasing presence of Chinese ships and submarines. The prime minister noted that the achievement has put India among a handful of countries having the capability to design, construct and operate Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarine (SSBN). The development is a major achievement for the country, he said, adding that INS Arihant will help in protecting the country from external threats and contribute to the atmosphere of peace in the region. "In an era such as this, a credible nuclear deterrence is the need of the hour. The success of INS Arihant gives a fitting response to those who indulge in nuclear blackmail," he tweeted. Modi commended the commitment of soldiers and the talent and perseverance of its scientists for transforming the scientific achievement of nuclear tests into establishment of an immensely complex and credible nuclear triad. This, he said, dispelled all doubts and questions about India's capability and resolve in this regard. Security expert Commodore (retired) C Uday Bhaskar said the completion of Arihant's first deterrence patrol signals the credibility of India's underwater nuclear deterrent capability. "The first operational patrol of Arihant sent out a signal about India's strategic capability and resolve," he said. India has put in place a "robust" nuclear command and control structure, effective safety assurance architecture and strict political control, under its Nuclear Command Authority. It has a doctrine of Credible Minimum Deterrence and No First Use, as enshrined in the decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on January 4, 2003. New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-sook ahead of a meeting, in New Delhi, Monday, Nov 5, 2018. (PTI Photo/Manvender Vashist) (PTI11_5_2018_000003B) South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-sook met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and interacted with school students here on Monday, the first of her official engagements during her India visit. Kim, who arrived here Sunday on a four-day visit, will also participate in Diwali festivities and the ground-breaking ceremony of a memorial for a Korean queen in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. "Affectionate bonding. EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on the First Lady of the Republic of Korea, Mrs Kim Jung-sook. India and ROK (Republic of Korea) share a special strategic partnership since 2015 and our relations have deepened and diversified in recent years," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. After her meeting with Swaraj, the first lady visited the ASN Senior Secondary school in East Delhi where she interacted with students. The school has a tie up with South Korea's Jeonnam (Chonnam) Foreign Language High School since 2015 and the institutes have an exchange programme for their students and teachers. Addressing a group of students, Kim urged them to study hard and help in the growth of their nations. The future generation will help in further cementing the Indo-Korean ties, she said. With the political leadership in India and Korea working to strengthen ties, the students will get more opportunities to visit each others countries, she said. The Korean first lady will visit Lucknow and from there, on Tuesday, she will leave for Ayodhya where she will attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the Queen Suriratna (Heo Hwang-ok) memorial. "The First Lady's participation in the festivities in Ayodhya will showcase our close civilisational links as well as the ongoing deepening engagement between our two countries," the MEA had said last week. According to Korean legends, Princess Suriratna from Ayodhya had travelled to Korea and married King Kim Suro and became Queen Heo Hwang-ok some 2000 years ago. The South Korean First Lady will also attend the 'Deepotsav' event in the evening on Tuesday. Kim will leave for Agra on Wednesday for a visit to thee Taj Mahal before heading home. SabarimalaHindu devotees wait in queues inside the premises of the Sabarimala temple in Pathanamthitta district in the southern state of Kerala, India, October 18, 2018. REUTERS/Sivaram V - RC1BCF1C98D0 As the Lord Ayyappa temple opens on November 5 for a special puja, a thick security cover has been put in place after violent protests were witnessed last month against entry of women of all ages into the shrine. Orders banning assembly of four or more people have been imposed in Sabarimala and nearby areas, police said Sunday. Around 2,300 personnel, including a 20-member commando team and 100 women, have been deployed to ensure smooth 'darshan' and security of devotees, a move that came in for criticism from the erstwhile royal family of Pandalam, the BJP and the Congress for such fortification. If necessary, around 30 women police personnel in the rank of circle inspector and sub inspector and above the age of 50 would be deployed at 'Sannidhanam' (temple complex) for security, they said. Pathnamthitta Superintendent of Police T Narayanan told PTI that all arrangements have been made for devotees to have smooth 'darshan.' Ayyappa devotees from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have already reached Erumeli and they will be permitted to go to 'sannidhanam' only tomorrow. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPc, banning assembly of four or more people, is in force at Pamba, Nilackal, Elavungal, and Sannidhanam for 72 hours from midnight Saturday. This is the second time the hill temple would open for 'darshan' after the Supreme Court allowed entry of women of all age groups into it. The temple had witnessed high drama last month following frenzied protests leading to around a dozen women in the age group of 10-50 being prevented from reaching it and police and the agitators fighting a pitched battle over the LDF government's decision to implement the court order. The shrine would open at 5.00 pm on November 5 for the "Sree Chitira Atta Thirunal" special puja slated for the next day, marking the birthday of last king of Travancore Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, and close at 10.00 pm on that day. Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru and chief priest Unnikrishnan Namboodiri would jointly open the temple doors and light the lamp at the 'Sreekovil' (sanctum sanctorum). Devaswom minister, Kadakampally Surendran, said the government would ensure complete protection to believers. So far no women in the 'barred' age group had approached police for protection to offer prayers at the hill shrine, he said. A high level meeting of senior police officers was held to take stock of the situation. During last month's pujas, media persons were attacked by a section of protesters and police had to face criticism. Dismissing reports that media was being restrained from going to Sabarimala, Kerala Director General of Police Loknath Behara said there was no bar on entry of journalists. No restriction of any sort has been imposed on media persons, he said. "To ensure necessary protection to the media, we are not allowing them now. As soon as security arrangements are complete, media will be allowed in Sabarimala and nearby places." The Pandalam royal family, closely associated with the Ayyappa shrine, said it was "pained" at the heavy security in and around Sabarimala. "Saddened that devotees will have to offer prayers at the shrine amid thick police cover," it said. Protesting the apex court verdict, a 'prayer yagna' will be held, the family said. Meanwhile, the Sabarimala Karma Samiti, a platform of right-wing outfits, including VHP, appealed to media houses not to depute women journalists in the menstrual age group to cover the developments in Sabarimala. In its letter to editors, a copy of which was released to the media, it said even the entry of women journalists belonging to this age group as part of their job was also likely to aggravate the situation. The samiti alleged that even though the Supreme Court has decided to hear the review and writ petitions on the issue on November 13, the state government was intentionally ignoring the "mass movement" against the judgement and was trying to "hastily" enforce it using police force. "In such a situation, the devotees are left with no other choice but to continue with the peaceful agitation," it said. Objecting to the samithi's appeal, the Network of Women in Media, India said it was 'unjustified' and 'unacceptable interference' in the functioning of the media and an 'unfair obstacle' in the way of journalists who happen to be women wishing to cover an important story of public interest. "We believe that the Samithi's stand amounts to depriving women journalists of their right to respond to the call of professional duty and responsiblity. It also goes against the freedom of expression and right to information that are fundamental rights to which all citizens are entitled," it said. Meanwhile, activist Rahul Easwar, president of Ayyappa Dharma Sena that is among the outfits spearheading the protests, in a video message said, "Like police, we are also fully prepared". Easwar, belonging to the Thazhamon family of Sabarimala thantris, was arrested twice last month in connection with the protests in and and around Sabarimala against the government's decision to implement the court verdict and also for making certain remarks. He is out on bail. Noting that the situation in Sabarimala was "explosive," Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Mullapally Ramachandran accused the CPI(M)-led LDF government of 'failing' to handle it. Thousands of police personnel had been deployed in Sabarimala which was akin to "challenging and suppressing" the devotees, he alleged. BJP leader M T Ramesh warned that any attempt by police to hinder devotees from visiting Sabarimala would lead to "serious repercussions." Police would not be allowed to inspect the 'irumudikettu' (offerings devotees carry for lord ayyappa), he said. So far, 3,731 people have been arrested and 545 cases registered in connection with last month's violence. BJP and various Hindu outfits are on a warpath against the Left-front government over its decision not to seek a review of the top court verdict. Statue of Unity, India | Height : 182 metre (L&T) The NDA government at the Centre is in the eye of a storm for building the worlds tallest statue a 182-metre tall statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, which was inaugurated on October 31. The recent criticism came from Britain that provided 1.17billion (Rs 11,000 crore approximately) in foreign aid to India, reports Daily Mail. The UK has been donating money to India since 2012 when the work for the Statue of Unity had begun. The first aid of about 268 million (Rs 2,540 crore approximately) came in 2013. Then, in 2014 and 2015, the UK gave India 278 million (Rs 2,635 crore approximately) and 185 million (Rs 1,752 crore) respectively. The paper quoted Tory MP Peter Bone who said that taking 1.1billion in aid from us and then at the same time spend 330million on a statue is a total nonsense and it is the sort of thing that drives people mad. What it proves is that we should not be giving money to India. It is up to them how they spend their money but if they can afford this statue, then it is clearly a country we should not need to be giving aid to, said Bone. According to official figures, as much as 1.17 billion of UK taxpayers money was given as foreign aid to India. According to the paper, the aid from the UK was used for projects that India could have afforded had it not spent an exorbitant amount in building a structure twice the size of the Statue of Liberty. The UK has been funding Indian projects to boost the countrys economy. It has given money for improving womens rights, invested in solar panels and low-carbon transport. In 2014, 14,000 (Rs 13.27 lakh) was used to increase religious tolerance among young people. Other than this, UK also funded schemes that included testing whether yoga helps people who have had heart attacks for which 86,616 (Rs 82.13 lakh) was spent. The UK had also sent Indian women scientists to visit Cambridge University which included an investment of 100,000 (Rs 94.85 lakh). The UK has also provided aid to India to tackle climate change. While the UKs Department for International Development said it had ended traditional aid to India in 2015, the country continues to fund projects in India. Last year, the UK gave India 92.6million. A similar debate had taken place in 2012 when the unease over aid to India was increasing among the Britons. At that time, the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had stated in the Rajya Sabha that India did not want British aid. "We do not require the aid. It is a peanut in our total development exercises (expenditure)," Mukherjee had said. On Twitter, opinions have been divided. While some said that India could have used the money to end poverty, others commented that it is up to India how the financial aid is used. Someone needs to tell the Brits about the festive season's many cash-back offers.https://t.co/TiVtTQ84Mz Aman Sethi (@Amannama) November 3, 2018 Here are some of the reactions- Fascinating! 1. India got 1 BILLION POUNDS in aid over last 5 years More shockingly 2. 14,000 of aid money was spent in Gujarat in '14, to increase religious tolerance among young people Finally we have fooled the British & avenged colonialism https://t.co/BBaAxGMHqC Akash Banerjee (@akashbanerjee) November 3, 2018 What Britain needs to give India is not aid but reparations for colonial rule. What we do with it is our problem. https://t.co/F9pRantxxS Shivam Vij (@DilliDurAst) November 3, 2018 The statue was built by Larsen & Toubro Ltd at a cost of Rs 2,989 crore. It was built with 1.80 lakh cubic metres of concrete, 18,500 tonnes of reinforced steel, 6,500 tonnes of structured steel, 1,700 tonnes of bronze and 1,850 tonnes of bronze cladding. It has been claimed that Patels memorial was the quickest such statue to be completed. Construction of the structure began on December 19, 2015. Chinas Spring Temple Buddha statue had taken 11 years to complete. Representative Image Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal Monday said the Congress was "troubled" over the Rafale deal as the BJP government at the Centre had "kicked out" middleman Sanjay Bhandari, a close aide of Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra. Meghwal alleged that the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre was more concerned about Bhandari than the Indian Air Force (IAF). Despite the IAF's repeated requests for advanced fighter jets, the UPA regime kept dragging its feet on the important matter from 2006 till 2013. "With complete information and responsibility, I am saying that Congress is troubled as the Rafale aircraft deal did not have middleman Sanjay Bhandari," he said in a press conference here. "We kicked out the middleman and the deal was done between two countries," he added. He claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government proposed to purchase the fighter aircraft at a much lower price than what was fixed by the previous UPA regime. "Congress is discussing the prices of UPA-1 dispensation and not the price fixed by the UPA-2 during 2012-13. The price for a standard and fighter Rafale aircraft fixed by BJP government is 9 per cent and 25 per cent lower than the UPA deal," Meghwal said. telangana,telangana assembly polls 2018,tdp,assembly elections 2018,tdp telangana manifesto If there is a common thread in campaign theme of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the BJP in the December seven Assembly polls, it's certainly their unsparing attack on the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu. The pre-poll pact of TDP, the ruling party of the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, and the Congress for election to the 119-member Telangana house, has also come under fire by the TRS and BJP, which have repeatedly dubbed it "unholy." Afterall, how can TDP, a party formed in 1982 by actor-turned-politician NTR on an anti-Congress plank and to uphold Telugu self-respect in 1982, join hands with the very outfit, they ask. TRS and BJP leaders allege that if the Congress-TDP alliance comes to power in Telangana, it would be Naidu who would be calling the shots from the Andhra Pradesh capital of Amaravati. Congress and TDP leaders strongly counter their arguments, saying they joined forces to fight the "divisive and destructive politics" of the BJP and end the "misrule" of the TRS government, which let all sections of people down with its "false promises." "Congress is sold out to TDP," Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao claimed, and alleged that Telangana Congress was being run by Naidu. "Candidates for the Congress and TDP alliance is being dictated by Naidu. He seems to be the chief sponsor of Telangana Congress Party both financially and also administratively," he told PTI. If there is a possibility of formation of government under Congress, then the de-facto CM will be in Andhra Pradesh, not in Telangana. And Chandrababu Naidu will be running Telangana through remote control with his de-facto powers, Rao alleged. TDP spokesperson Lanka Dinakar reminded the TRS that it had an alliance with TDP in the 2009 elections in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. TDP was formed in Hyderabad, now capital of Telangana, he recalled. Describing as 'political gimmick' the TRS contention that Naidu opposed irrigation projects in Telangana, Dinakar said the K Chandrasekhar Rao government, instead, should tell people what development and welfare measures they initiated during their tenure. He claimed that there has been no problem between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on sharing of water resources, and charged the BJP-led NDA with delaying resolution of procedural issues for political gains. On TRS-BJP allegation that Naidu would 'control' Telangana affairs if Congress-TDP alliance comes to power, Dinakar dismissed it as 'inconceivable.' Those who make such a charge have no respect for federal spirit, constitution and democratic values, he said. Senior Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy, also former Vice-Chairman of National Disaster Management Authority, defended the Congress-TDP electoral pact, saying the alliance was a 'compulsion' and need of the hour. On charges that Naidu was putting hurdles on Telangana irrigation projects, Reddy, son of former Chief Minister Marri Chenna Reddy, told PTI that Telangana people have been opposing AP's Polavaram project. "These are all things which were different situation altogether. When we (Congress-TDP) come together (to form Government), there will be a common agenda, there will be a common understanding, what happened in the past cannot prevent us from moving ahead. We will come out with common agenda. If any aberration of the past, will not be repeated," he said. Reddy, Chairman of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee's Election Commission Coordination Committee, said the BJP is panicky about the moves made in the last few days by Naidu to bring together all forces opposed to the BJP. "The alliance is to save the people from misrule.... falsehood...promises, people of all sections feel let down," he said. "It's a compulsion and need of the hour. It's to fight divisive and destructive politics (of the BJP)." TRS leader K T Rama Rao, who is son of caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, said "By chance, if they (Congress-TDP alliance) win the elections, decisions pertaining to Telangana will be made in Amaravati". The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has said it will play a key role in the formation of the next government in Madhya Pradesh as it expects a fractured verdict in the November 28 assembly polls. Madhya Pradesh BSP president Pradeep Ahirwar said the party will vastly improve its tally and win 32 seats, and can even think of heading the next government. The state has a 230-member assembly. "Neither the BJP nor the Congress is going to get a majority. In this case, the Congress would support us to form the government in Madhya Pradesh," he said without elaborating. The Dalit party, which refused to enter into a pre- poll alliance with the Congress, is going it alone in the central state, where the BJP is in power since 2003. "We are going to win 32 assembly seats and create a record in our history of 34 years in Madhya Pradesh due to strong anti-incumbency wave against the BJP and Dalit unity," he told PTI in an interview. "The key to next government formation will be with Behenji Mayawatiji (the BSP president)," he said. "Our first priority is to form government in MP. We want Behanji to call the political shots in the state," Ahirwar said. The BSP leader ruled out backing the BJP post-poll. Ahirwar said Mayawati will address rallies in the state between November 18 and November 26. The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister will address three public meetings each in Rewa and Chambal divisions and one each in Bhopal and the Mahakoshal region, he said. Asked about Congress leader Digvijay Singh's remark that the BSP could not enter into an alliance with his party in MP due to the Centre's pressure on Mayawati, he dismissed the statement as a "total lie". "Whatever the former state chief minister (Singh) had stated was totally wrong. The BSP's history in MP is that it fights elections on its own strength. The Congress is going to pay a price in the polls due to Digvijay's comment," he said. Ahirwar said his party has pockets of influence in MP, where it won 11 assembly seats each in 1993, 1998 and two in 2003, seven in 2008 and four in 2013. According to estimates, Dalits account for 15 percent of the population in Madhya Pradesh. "We are sitting pretty on 32 seats and in 75 other assembly segments our position is very strong," he said. "The BSP emerged strong in Morena, Rewa, Satna, Datia and Gwalior districts in the last assembly polls," he said. "We are going to open our accounts in Chhatarpur, Panna, Shivpuri, Sheopur, Damoh, Katni, Balaghat and Singrauli districts," Ahirwar claimed. The party's vote share was 8.97 percent in 2008 which dipped to 6.29 percent in the 2013 polls. He said the people in MP, especially farmers, are unhappy with the BJP government following the police firing on cultivators at Pipaliya Mandi in Mandsaur district that left six farmers dead last year. "The youth are peeved at lack of job avenues in MP. Vyapam, a massive admission and recruitment racket, had shattered their dream of getting government jobs," he added. In the last assembly polls, the BJP had won 165 seats, while the Congress bagged 58. Their vote share was 44.48 percent and 36.38 percent, respectively. Moneycontrol Contributor On the eve of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khans first state visit to China came the announcement that the two countries were starting a bus service along the Karakoram Highway between Kashgar in Xinjiang and Lahore. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was quick to protest on the grounds that the bus service passed through Indian territory under occupation by Pakistan. The MEA statement leaves out the fact that this is not the first bus service between China and Pakistan. The first was launched in June 2006 between Gilgit and Kashgar, used by both traders from Pakistan and Chinese tourists and traders. Just a month earlier, a truck service had also begun with Chinese traders allowed to bring their vehicles up to Karachi and Gwadar. There is no record of the MEA having protested these Sino-Pak connectivity services in 2006. Of course, that year was also something of a high noon in India-Pakistan relations with the composite dialogue in full swing. India and Pakistan began the second of their own bus services across the Line of Control (LoC) between Poonch and Rawalakot after the first between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad began in April 2005. One could argue ad nauseam about the sincerity of the Pakistani deep state and the ability of the civilian government to sustain a peace process with India. However, as the MEA spokesperson suggested in June 2006, We cannot give up the option of dialogue and a peaceful settlement. Clearly, war is not a viable option. It is therefore, not the case that the Indian government cannot think out of the box and ignore pin-pricks like the latest Sino-Pak bus service in the larger scheme of things. But since 2006, the Indian economy has grown considerably in size and capacity. Alongside, the belief has also grown that Pakistan could be safely ignored and that the Kashmir issue and terrorism were all under control. Thus, it is not surprising that in addition to political and ideological reasons, Prime Minister Narendra Modi finds it easy to dismiss overtures by his newly-elected Pakistani counterpart. Modis initial attempts at friendliness inviting Khans predecessor Nawaz Sharif to his swearing in and the surprise visit to Lahore in December 2015 are exceptions that prove the rule. Further, with the Kashmir political situation now the worst it has been in some years, the Indian economy struggling under the weight of structural problems, and with general elections around the corner, the need to use Pakistan as a whipping boy and diversion only increases. While protesting the Sino-Pak bus service on legal and political grounds is legitimate, New Delhis habit of protesting without offering alternatives or solutions must stop. Why, for instance, were bus routes and trade between both sides of the LoC not expanded as the Indian economy grew in strength? There is still great interest in Jammu and Kashmir for this expansion today as there is in Ladakh for access to Tibet for religious and commercial reasons, potentially through Demchok on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). While China is reluctant to allow religious pilgrimage, especially by Buddhists through Ladakh, it is quite happy to engage in trade, which New Delhi simply does not have any interest in. This position is a bit of a mystery, given that smuggling goes on merrily with products flasks, blankets, flashlights and other cheap electronics, etc made in areas on Chinas east coast several thousands of kilometres from the LAC finding willing buyers on the Indian side. Here the failure of mainland Indian entrepreneurs to serve the needs of Indias border communities should be noted. Leh, Kargil and Srinagar were not long ago in history major centres of commercial and political activity connecting Central and South Asia. Chinese activity in PoK should be a reminder of the potential of Indias border areas and of the need to revive their broken links with not just Gilgit-Baltistan, Xinjiang and Tibet but also further afield with Central Asia. These links can be revived without prejudice to Indias positions on its disputes with its neighbours. And Chinas desperation to make the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) work in the face of problems it is facing across the world, including in all-weather friend Pakistan, offers an opportunity. New Delhi should incentivise its border communities by believing in and building on their central role in history as entrepreneurs and diplomats. India needs to work on overcoming the disadvantages of geography in its border areas with the help of entrepreneurship, technology and political will and vision. Diplomatic protests are easy but not a solution. (Jabin T Jacob is a China analyst at the National Maritime Foundation, New Delhi. Twitter: @jabinjacobt. Views are personal) Elliott had told The Post in August: "Ms. Franklin said, 'I love the film.' Unfortunately for all of us, she passed before we could share that love. 'Amazing Grace' is a testament to the timelessness of Ms. Franklin's devotion to music and God. Her artistry, her genius and her spirit are present in every note and every frame of the film. We look forward to sharing the film with the world soon." New Delhi: Union Minister for Textiles and Information & Broadcasting Smriti Irani speaks during the release of an online edition of a book during an event in New Delhi on Tuesday. PTI Photo by Shahbaz Khan(PTI2_27_2018_000055B) Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani on November 4 flayed caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for not implementing the Centre's ambitious PMJAY health insurance scheme in Telangana. Addressing a BJP workers meeting at Amberpet assembly constituency here, she said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise to help the poor tackle health problems had led to the launch of the Ayushman Bharat scheme, which provides Rs five lakh insurance cover. "It is sad why this scheme was not accepted in the state. Party workers tell me that there are several other schemes of the Central government which the TRS government is scared of implementing because they feel Modi will become more popular. Modi is popular and remains popular and that's why he became the Prime Minister," Irani said. Also read | BJP releases second list of candidates She alleged that some programmes of the Central government were 'disrespected' and the TRS government wanted to politicise the schemes. "Was Ayushman Bharat implemented? The question arises what kind of fear does KCR (as Rao is popularly known as) and TRS have? Why was this help not extended by the state government to poor families, which protects them from high medical treatment costs?" she asked. Irani said that if people were deprived of such health schemes, then they would ensure that the TRS government was defeated, not just in the coming assembly election, but in next year's general elections as well. "I have come here to give this message," she said. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (previously Ayushman Bharat), touted as the world's largest health insurance programme, was launched pan-India by the prime minister from Jharkhand on September 23. The Telangana government had in Septemeber said it would not implement the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme for the time being, citing a state scheme that covered nearly 80 lakh families, drawing flak from opposition BJP. Also read | BJP fields Muslim woman candidate against Akbaruddin Owaisi One of the reasons for not rolling out the scheme was that Telangana would continue to implement its own Aarogyasri' Health Scheme, which covers nearly 80 lakh families in the state, official sources had said. Irani accused the TRS government of going back on its promise of not providing houses to poor people. She also slammed the TRS government for not celebrating 'Hyderabad Liberation Day' and said that after coming to power, the party had forgotten to celebrate the day. "BJP is always with the party workers... whether it is Diwali or Danterash...BJP is one party which has dedicated itself to the service of the public," Irani added. China President Xi Jinping China's imported goods and services are set to exceed USD 40 trillion in the next 15 years, President Xi Jinping pledged Monday as he kicked off a major import fair in which India and 80 other countries are participating. An Indian delegation led by Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan is taking part the first China International Import Expo inaugurated in the eastern metropolis of Shanghai. A total of 81 countries are taking part in the fair and hoping to gain access to China's tightly closed import market. China, the top global exporter, plans to become a major importer. China's imported goods and services are estimated to exceed USD 30 trillion and USD 10 trillion respectively in the next 15 years, Xi said in his inaugural address, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. "India has built a pavilion at the expo highlighting its focus areas of agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, information technology and tourism," Prashant Lokhande, Counsellor Economic and Commerce of the Indian Embassy here said. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was among leaders of the countries who took part in the inaugural function of the Expo. Xi said measures announced in April to relax access to Chinese market have so far been implemented. China has further simplified negative list of foreign investments, reduced investment limits and lifted the level of free investment. China is taking solid steps to expand financial opening-up, continue to advance opening-up in the service sector, deepen opening-up in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and accelerate the opening-up process of sectors including telecommunications, education, medical treatment and culture, Xi said. He said there was every reason to be fully confident in the future of the Chinese economy, which in recent years has slowed down. At present, China's economy remains generally stable and is making good progress, Xi said, citing data including the GDP growth of 6.7 per cent in the first three quarters of 2018. "China's economy is truly performing well within the reasonable range, giving us a solid foundation for delivering the development goals for the whole year," Xi said. Compared with other major economies, China still ranks among the world's top in terms of GDP growth, he said. The fundamentals for sound and stable economic growth remain unchanged, the necessary production factors for high-quality development remain unchanged, and the overall momentum of long-term economic stability and progress also remains unchanged, Xi said. China's capacity of macroeconomic regulation is growing, and efforts to deepen reform across the board have unleashed new drivers of growth, he added. With the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) being further implemented, two-way investment and trade between China and countries along the Belt and Road have continued to gather pace, Xi said. "All in all, the favourable conditions are in place for the long-term, healthy and steady growth of the Chinese economy," Xi said. This is China's first international import expo. All major countries in the world including the US have massive trade deficits with China which is the leading exporter of the world. US President Donald Trump launched trade war with China in June by slapping additional tariffs on USD 250 billion worth of Chinese imports. Trump has been insisting that China should cut down USD 375 billion trade deficit by providing more access to the American goods by ensuring IPR protection. India too has been pressuring China to take measures to bring down over USD 51 billion annual trade deficit, which was one of the main focus areas in the informal meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Wuhan in April this year. Since then, officials of the two countries held several rounds of talks for India to export its agricultural products like sugar and rice as well as its pharmaceuticals and IT in which the country has an upper hand in the global exports. Though the expo, which would be held till November 10, has evoked much interest in global industry, China is yet to liberalise its import market, officials said. It is the world's first import-themed national-level expo, covering an area of about 30,000 square metres, and will feature enterprise and business exhibitions, country pavilions for trade and investment. Twelve countries - Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Vietnam and the UK - will be the "Guest of Honour" at the mega business event. India and Malawi on November 5 signed three MoUs on extradition, cooperation in atomic energy and visa waiver for diplomats and officials as Vice President Venkaiah Naidu met Malawian President Arthur Peter Mutharika and held wide-ranging talks. During the meeting between the two leaders, India also offered specialised training programmes for Malawi defence forces, T S Tirumurti, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs, said. An MoU on cooperation in the field of atomic energy for peaceful purposes was signed between the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership and Malawi's Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, he said. The two sides also signed an MoU for an extradition treaty between the two countries and a visa waiver agreement for diplomatic and official passport holders, Tirumurti said. "The Vice President also conveyed our agreement to extend the new line of credit of $215.16 million for 18 water projects in Malawi," he said. India will also construct a Mahatma Gandhi Convention Centre in Malawi. It will also gift a cancer treatment machine to the Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi. India has agreed to allow import of mangoes from Malawi, Tirumurti said, adding that the country will also set up a pan-African training institute in agriculture under grant assistance in the landlocked nation. Malawi has also ratified the framework agreement of the International Solar Alliance, he said. Naidu arrived on November 4 on the concluding leg of his six-day three-nation tour to Africa, which aims at deepening India's strategic cooperation with Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Underling that India and Malawi shared cordial relations and a similar colonial past, Naidu recalled the India visit of former Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika, who was also the brother of the current head of the African nation. Bingu, an economist, was the president of Malawi from May 2004 till his death on April 2012. He was also an alumnus of the Delhi University, where he studied in the 1960s. Mutharika said he consider Naidu "as a brother". On November 4, addressing a gathering of the Indian community, Naidu said the strong bilateral ties between the two nations are cemented by a common vision of developing the citizenry. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic republic "will proudly bypass sanctions" by the United States that took effect on Monday targeting the country's oil and financial sectors. "I announce that we will proudly bypass your illegal, unjust sanctions because it's against international regulations," Rouhani said in a televised speech. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on November 5 claimed he has the support of 113 parliamentarians to prove the premiership of Mahinda Rajapaksa. His comments came after Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuriya earlier in the day slammed Sirisena's "unconstitutional and undemocratic" actions to sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and suspend Parliament, saying he will not recognise Rajapaksa as the new premier unless he wins a floor test. "We have already got our 113 MPs, I will not take back the step I have taken forward...I have taken all steps in accordance with the constitution," Sirisena told a public rally, referring to his decision to sack Wickremesinghe. Sirisena suspended parliamentary proceedings until November 16 after abruptly firing Wickremesinghe and replacing him with Rajapaksa, a controversial former president, on October 26. The Speaker had expected parliament to reconvene on November 7. However, Sirisena on November 4 issued notice to reconvene Parliament on November 14. Wickremesinghe, whose party dubbed the move a "constitutional coup", refused to vacate his official residence, saying he is the lawful prime minister and that the president has no constitutional right to replace him. The rally, attended by thousands of supporters, was the first public show of Sirisena and Rajapaksa together after the island nation plunged into a constitutional crisis. With eight United National Party and one Tamil National Alliance legislators defecting to Rajapaksa camp, he is now just eight seats short of the 'magic number' 113 to prove his majority in the 225-member House. While addressing the rally, Sirisena said before opting for Rajapaksa as his prime ministerial choice, he had offered the premiership position to Speaker Jayasuriya and deputy PM Sajith Premadasa. "However, both of them refused to challenge their leader," Sirisena said. The "black box" data recorder from a crashed Lion Air jet shows its airspeed indicator malfunctioned on its last four flights, investigators said, just hours after distraught relatives of victims confronted the airline's co-founder at a meeting organised by officials. National Transportation Safety Committee chairman Soerjanto Tjahjono said the problem was similar on each of the four flights, including the fatal flight on October 29 in which the plane plunged into the Java Sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. Erratic speed and altitude on the plane's previous flight, from Denpasar on Bali to Jakarta, were widely reported and "when we opened the black box, yes indeed the technical problem was the airspeed or the speed of the plane," Tjahjono told a news conference. "Data from the black box showed that two flights before Denpasar-Jakarta also experienced the same problem," he said. "In the black box there were four flights that experienced problems with the airspeed indicator." Indonesian investigators, the plane's manufacturer, Boeing, and the US National Transportation Safety Board are formulating a more specific inspection for Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes related to the airspeed problem, Tjahjono said. "If there are urgent findings to be delivered, we will convey them to the operators and to the manufacturer," he said. Lion Air has said a technical problem with the jet was fixed after problems with the Bali to Jakarta flight. Investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said investigators need to review maintenance records, including what problems were reported, what repairs were done including whether components were replaced, and how the repairs were tested before the 2-month-old plane was declared airworthy. "Currently we are looking for the cause of problem," he said "Whether the trouble came from its indicator, its measuring device or sensor, or a problem with its computer. This is what we do not know yet and we will find it out," he said. At the meeting with family members, Tjahjono had said that information downloaded from the jet's flight data recorder was consistent with reports that the plane's speed and altitude were erratic after takeoff on its final flight. Searchers are still trying to locate the cockpit voice recorder. Rusdi Kirana, Lion Air's co-founder, was not invited to speak by Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi, who moderated the meeting between relatives and the officials who are overseeing the search effort and accident investigation. But he stood and bowed his head after angry and distraught family members demanded that Kirana, who with his brother Kusnan Kirana founded Lion Air in 1999, identify himself. "Lion Air has failed," said a man who identified himself as the father of passenger Shandy Johan Ramadhan, a prosecutor in a district on the island where the flight was headed. "I want Mr Rusdi Kirana and his team to pay attention," he said. "Since the time of the crisis, I was never contacted by Lion Air. We lost our child, but there was no empathy that Lion Air showed to us." After the meeting, Kirana left in a hurry, avoiding questions from reporters. Many families face an agonizing wait for missing relatives to be identified. Police medical experts have received nearly 140 body bags of human remains and have identified 14 victims. Relatives questioned why the plane had been cleared to fly after suffering problems on its Bali to Jakarta flight on October 28 that included a rapid descent after takeoff that terrified passengers. "Lion Air said the problem was fixed, is it true the problem was cleared?" asked Bambang Sukandar, whose son was on the flight. "If not, technicians in charge must be responsible," he said. "The law is absolute, because they have stated that the plane was cleared to take off again. These bad technicians must be processed by law to prevent plane accidents from continuing in Indonesia." Tjahjono said the large amount of small debris and the relatively small area the debris was found in showed the plane hit the water at a very high speed. "The plane was intact when it plunged to the sea, it did not explode in the air, and the aircraft engine was running when it touched the water at high RPM it's marked by the loss of all blades of the turbine," he said. The Lion Air crash is the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since 1997, when 234 people died on a Garuda flight near Medan. In December 2014, an AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea, killing all 162 on board. Lion Air is one of Indonesia's youngest airlines but has grown rapidly, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations. It has been expanding aggressively in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing region of more than 600 million people. A human rights activist holds picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a protest outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 9, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal Saudi Arabia sent two experts to Istanbul with the specific aim of covering up evidence after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its consulate in Istanbul, a Turkish official said on November 5. More than a month after the Saudi royal-insider-turned critic was killed inside the mission on October 2, Turkey has still yet to recover the remains amid claims that his body was dissolved in acid. The killing of the 59-year-old has severely dented the kingdom's image in the West and put powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the defensive. "We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of Jamal Khashoggi's murder before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises," a senior Turkish official said, asking not to be named. The official confirmed a report in the Sabah newspaper saying that chemicals expert Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were among a team sent from Saudi Arabia purportedly to investigate the murder last month. The report said they visited the consulate every day from their arrival on October 11 until October 17. Saudi Arabia only allowed Turkish police to finally search the consulate on October 15. After weeks of allegations in pro-government media, Turkey's chief prosecutor last week confirmed Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and the body was dismembered. But despite intensive searches by Turkish police, there is still no trace of his remains. The sons of Khashoggi, Salah and Abdullah, told CNN they wanted Saudi Arabia to return the body so that he could be buried in Medina with the rest of his family. Turkey's allegation of the deployment of a "clean-up" team came after Yasin Aktay, an advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hinted that the body may even have been destroyed in acid. Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told the official Anadolu news agency that "all those reports should be investigated". Although Riyadh has arrested 18 individuals on suspicion of involvement, the key question remains over who gave the order to kill Khashoggi. In an editorial published in The Washington Post, Erdogan said it came from "the highest levels" of the Saudi government, while he did "not believe for a second" that Saudi's King Salman had ordered the crime. Turkish media have pointed the finger at powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and analysts have said Ankara is keen to have the heir sidelined from the nexus of power in Riyadh. "Yes, a murder was committed and it was premeditated. Who gave the command for this murder to be carried out on Turkish soil?" Oktay echoed the president's question in an interview. However, Erdogan has yet to directly accuse Prince Mohammed, who has condemned the murder "a repulsive incident". The unnamed Turkish official said, "The fact that a clean-up team was dispatched from Saudi Arabia nine days after the murder suggests that Khashoggi's slaying was within the knowledge of top Saudi official." Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb met with Turkish authorities last week in Istanbul. But this visit appeared to be a fiasco, with the Saudi official refusing to share information from Riyadh's own investigation, according to Turkish officials. Prince Mohammed had been heralded in some quarters before the murder as a modern Arab reformer spearheading a bold vision to transform the country and make it less dependent on energy resources. That image has now been severely battered. There is also a new international focus on Saudi's involvement in the war in Yemen where 14 million people now stand at the brink of famine in Yemen in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The outrage has alarmed business leaders seeking a foothold in the crown prince's reform drive but many have insisted they have no intention of pulling out. Masayoshi Son, the head of Japanese firm SoftBank which has major investments in Saudi Arabia, condemned the killing but indicated he would continue to do business with the kingdom. "As horrible as this event was, we cannot turn our backs on the Saudi people as we work to help them in their continued efforts to reform and modernise their society. A human rights activist holds picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a protest outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 9, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal Saudi Arabia insisted at the UN that its investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi would be "fair", amid a barrage of criticism from countries over the brutal murder. The half-day public debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva comes just over a month after the royal insider-turned-critic was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkey confirmed last week that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate on October 2 as part of a planned hit, and his body was then dismembered and destroyed. The so-called Universal Periodic Review -- which all 193 UN countries must undergo approximately every four years -- came as a Turkish official charged on November 5 that Saudi Arabia had sent experts to Turkey to cover up the journalist's murder before allowing Turkish police in to search the consulate. The murder has placed huge strains on Saudi Arabia's relationship with the United States and other western countries and has tarnished the image of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler. During the review, Western countries especially voiced outrage at the killing, with many calling for a "credible" and "transparent" investigation, and some, like Iceland and Costa Rica, going further and demanding an international probe. British Ambassador Julien Braithwaite told the council his country was "gravely concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in Saudi Arabia," pointing to women's rights, mass arrests of rights defenders and extensive use of the death penalty. "But most concerning is the murder of Jamal Khashoggi," he said, urging Saudi Arabia to "ensure comprehensive and transparent investigations into the murder" and to make sure "those responsible are held to account, and that measures are put in place to prevent any possibility of recurrence." The US representative, Mark Cassayre, meanwhile said his country strongly condemned "this premeditated killing." "A thorough, conclusive and transparent investigation carried out in accordance with due process with results made public is essential," he insisted. The Saudi delegation meanwhile barely mentioned the case, choosing instead to highlight the "progress made towards the protection and promotion of human rights", including reforms that among other things have allowed women to drive in the ultra-conservative country. But the delegation chief and head of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, Bandar Al Aiban, did touch on the case briefly, stressing at the end of the review that "our country is committed to carry out a fair investigation." "All persons involved in that crime will be prosecuted," he said, stressing that "the investigation is continuing in line with our domestic laws." Diplomats urged Saudi Arabia on November 5 to take concrete steps to promote freedom of expression and protect human rights defenders and journalists. The review also focused heavily on the use of the death penalty in the country, especially for alleged crimes committed when the perpetrator was under the age of 18. The kingdom has one of the world's highest rates of execution, with suspects convicted of terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking facing the death penalty. Many countries urged Saudi Arabia to introduce a moratorium on the death penalty or to abolish it altogether, and to explicitly ban its use for juvenile offenders. Women's rights were also high on the agenda. While many countries hailed some progress in this area, including the fact that the country now permits women to drive, they warned that much more reform was needed. The country especially faced criticism over its male guardianship system which allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives. Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's brutal civil war also faced criticism, with a number of countries urging it to halt the devastating bombing campaign there. The Saudi delegation meanwhile highlighted that it has provided more than USD11 billion in aid to Yemen since it and its allies intervened in the war in 2015 to bolster Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Huthi rebels took over the capital Sanaa. According to the UN, nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has also created the world's biggest humanitarian crisis and left millions of people on the brink of famine. SoftBank Japan's SoftBank Group Corp Chief Executive Masayoshi Son will face questions on Monday about his company's dependence on Saudi Arabia, in his first public appearance since the murder of a journalist by Saudi security forces sparked global outrage. Presenting SoftBank's June-September earnings results, Son will also want to assuage concerns over the firm's domestic telecoms business ahead of its mammoth IPO - potentially the world's biggest - as the industry faces government pressure to cut prices. While the results are expected to show solid profit and the Tokyo Stock Exchange is reportedly set to approve the telecoms listing next week, Son will be in the rare position of seeking to reassure investors about his strategy. Saudi Arabia is the largest investor in SoftBank's $93 billion Vision Fund, giving Son firepower to make big bets in late-stage startups such as shared office space provider WeWork Cos and hotel chain OYO hotels. But against the backdrop of the murder case, that dependence is now seen as a risk to SoftBank's plans to raise further funds. Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist critical of the Saudi state, was murdered early last month in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the order to kill Khashoggi came from the "highest levels" of the Saudi government. Son and other global executives cancelled speaking engagements at the kingdom's investment conference in the weeks after the killing. Son is due to speak in Tokyo at 0700 GMT. For now there are few signs SoftBank's Saudi links are deterring startups from accepting Vision Fund capital, with internet-connected window company View on Friday announcing a $1.1 billion investment from the fund, saying the deal will allow it to accelerate growth plans. Still, worries about the Saudi fallout and a broader downturn in global technology stocks have weighed on SoftBank shares in recent weeks. They closed on Friday at 8,699 yen, down almost 30 percent from September's high of 11,500 yen. Another recent concern has been the initial public offering (IPO) of SoftBank's mobile phone network provider. Market participants said the offering could surpass the $25 billion worth of shares sold by China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in New York in 2014, which in turn beat the $22 billion raised by Agricultural Bank of China Ltd in Hong Kong in 2010. The IPO is widely expected to draw Japan's cash-rich retail investors attracted to SoftBank's image as a successful tech company and the prospect of steady returns. Yet it comes as the steady profit the industry has enjoyed has been brought into question. Facing government calls to lower prices, NTT Docomo Inc said last week it will cut service charges by as much as 40 percent, affecting its earnings from the next fiscal year. Separately, competition is set to increase as e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc enters the mobile market in a year's time with the help of a tie-up with telco KDDI Corp. Sri Lanka's former President Mahinda Rajapaksa smiles during a news conference after winning the local government election in Colombo, Sri Lanka February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte - RC12B12677B0 Sri Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuriya on Monday slammed President Maithripala Sirisena, saying it was "anti-democratic" to sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and suspend the Parliament, and asserted that he will not recognise Mahinda Rajapaksa as the premier unless it is proved by a floor test. The tough statement from Jayasuriya came after Sirisena announced on Sunday that parliament would reconvene on November 14, a week later than he had promised. The speaker said Sirisena had gone back on previous commitments to recall parliament on November 7. In the statement released on Monday in Sinhala, Jayasuriya said a majority of members in Parliament have submitted a petition to him stating that the changes made in Parliament recently by President Sirisena are unconstitutional. In the name of justice and fair play I have to declare my position to the world that when a majority has pointed out that rights of the MPs have been usurped by preventing the lawful convening of parliament," Jayasuriya said. A majority in parliament has requested that all changes made have been anti-constitutional and against the traditions. They have urged me to recognise the status quo which prevailed prior to these changes. As such I have to recognize the status quo which prevailed before until the new party would be able to prove their majority," Jayasuriya said, making it clear that he wants a parliamentary floor test. As a result Rajapaksa will not be given the Prime Minister seat in Parliament as the current government members will need to sit in the opposition seats. Sirisena had suspended parliamentary proceedings until November 16 after abruptly firing Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and replacing him with Rajapaksa, a controversial former president, on October 26. The Speaker had expected parliament to reconvene on November 7. However, Sirisena Sunday issued notice to reconvene Parliament on November 14. Jayasuriya said he had made several requests for Parliament to be reconvened early in order to resolve the political crisis. The civil society organisations have demanded that Jayasuriya re-summon parliament on his own. Jayasuriya, however, refused to do so saying he was powerless unless the president consented. The decision announced last night by President Maithripala Sirisena to summon the Parliament two days ahead of his scheduled opening won't lead to the resolving of the constitutional crisis, ousted prime minister Ranil Wickremsinghe's United National Party (UNP) senior Vajira Abeywardena said on Monday. "We can't treat November 14 as the date on which we can settle this issue. The law has been violated. They have delayed the date for reconvening parliament so that they could buy over MPs. The public must protest the way the MPs are being brought for money," Abeywardena said. Wickremesinghe's suporters alleged that large sums of money had been offered to change sides. Wickremsinghe's United National Party (UNP) on Monday said Sirisena's decision to summon parliament on November 14 will not lead to the resolving of the constitutional crisis. "We can't treat November 14 as the date on which we can settle this issue. The law has been violated. They have delayed the date for reconvening parliament so that they could buy over MPs. The public must protest the way the MPs are being brought for money," UNP leader Vajira Abeywardena said, Wickremesinghe's supporters alleged that large sums of money had been offered to change sides. Anaylists say Sirisena's move to suspend parliament to engineer defections from the UNP and its allies appears to have succeeded. New prime minister Rajapaksa's parliamentary strength has now been bolstered to 105 from 96. The UNP has lost eight of its legislators while one member from the main Tamil party TNA has defected. Rajapaksa needs 113 to prove his majority in the 225-member House. Wickremesinghe who branded Sirisena's October 26 action to sack him a constitutional coup maintains that he holds majority. The UNP has handed over a motion of no trust against Rajapaksa. GL Peiris, a leading Rajapaksa backer, however said the no confidence motion cannot be taken up in a hurry. Meanwhile, both parties organised public protests on Monday. Thousands of supporters of Rajapaksa headed for the capital on Monday to rally in support of his nomination as the prime minister. The political crisis in Sri Lanka began after Sirisena's broader front United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) announced that it has decided to quit the unity government with Wickremesinghe's UNP. The unity government was formed in 2015 when Sirisena was elected President with Wickremesinghe's support, ending a nearly decade-long rule by Rajapaksa. Madeleine Grynsztejn, director of the MCA Chicago, said, I can imagine it was a difficult decision, but they are on the right side of history. The value of a painting in a public space like a library for the city of Chicago has no equivalent in terms of its ability to educate and inspire. I am thrilled that the mayor has found a way to honor Kerry James Marshall, one of Chicagos and even this countrys greatest living artists by retaining it. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who addressed the gathering by video message because of the pandemic, warned that "the only way to totally eliminate nuclear risk is to totally eliminate nuclear weapons". Transfer of technology and important drugs from Indian entities to Cuba has been adversely impacted due to the decades-long US embargo on the caribbean island nation, according to a report by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) had in a resolution titled 'Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the US against Cuba' requested the UN chief to prepare, in consultation with the appropriate organs and agencies of the UN system, a report on the implementation of the resolution. India was among the 189 UN member states that voted last week in the UNGA in favour of condemning the US' economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba -- a call that has made every year since 1992. Only the US and Israel had voted against the UNGA resolution. The report noted that not only has the embargo against Cuba remained in force, it has been tightened, as demonstrated by examples of the effects of the policy on Cuban entities and on third parties. On November 9, 2017, the US arbitrarily banned direct financial transactions with 179 Cuban institutions in various sectors, which has a negative impact on the country's economic development and an intimidating effect on companies in the US or third countries that wish to establish economic, commercial and banking relations with Cuba. According to the report, some specific examples of the implementation of this policy include instances of Indian entities. On February 12, 2018, it was reported that five Indian banks had refused to carry out a transfer from the office of the UN Development Programme in Cuba to the Indian company Ankur Scientific Energy Technologies, because of the regulations of the US embargo. In March 2018, MediCuba, the Cuban company that imports and exports medical products, was informed that the Indian company Aculife had refused to make direct shipments to Cuba of levofloxacin, a drug used to treat bacterial skin infections, bronchitis and pneumonia, among other diseases. "This was because the Indian company's bank would not authorise the payments made by Cuba, since the shipping documents supporting the payment had a country under embargo as the final destination," the report said. The instance of the case between Aculife and MediCuba has been cited among "examples of the damage resulting from the embargo in the health sector". The report also includes replies from various governments and UN organs to the request of Guterres for information on the matter. According to India, it has not promulgated or applied any laws of the type referred to in the preamble of the UNGA resolution on Cuba, and, as such, the necessity of repealing or invalidating any such laws or measures does not arise. "India has consistently opposed any unilateral measure by countries that impinge on the sovereignty of another country. These include any attempt to extend the application of a country's laws extra-territorially to other sovereign nations," the country's reply said. India further urged the international community to adopt all necessary measures to protect the sovereign rights of all countries. The report noted that the embargo has had a direct impact on all UNDP development projects and emergency activities as it increases the transaction costs of obtaining project inputs and also the cost of transporting the imported goods. "Finding alternative shipping companies requires additional time and effort. As a result, projects have been affected by significant delays in the purchase and distribution of project inputs, which has had a negative impact on the timely implementation of project activities and results," the report said. It said the situation has been particularly worrisome in the case of projects related to food security and local development, given the lengthy process to access and import agricultural inputs such as irrigation systems, machinery and agricultural tools. It cited the example of an ongoing development project that aims to implement measures to adapt to climate change in food production, a gasification plant that uses rice husks was contracted. The technology was received by the beneficiaries of the project. "However, as of today, it has not been possible to realize the bank transfer to the supplier. According to the supplier Ankur Scientific Energy Technologies, the State Bank of India has refused to receive the funds because the transaction is related to a project implemented in Cuba. In this context, it has been impossible to fulfil the payment to the supplier and the implementation of the project has been delayed," the report said. The Cuban companies responsible for manufacturing food products in the country are forced to import approximately 70 percent of their raw materials from different markets like Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, India, Italy, Mexico and Spain. Moreover, as a result of the blockade, Cuba has not been allowed to buy from the US market, which happens to be very attractive, given its prices and its proximity to Cuba, the report said. Amid a trade war with the US, President Xi Jinping on November 5 urged the international community to oppose protectionism as he vowed to step-up China's imports of goods and services to over $40 trillion in the next 15 years. Inaugurating the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai in which India along with 172 other countries, regions and international organisations took part, Xi, in a thinly veiled attack on President Donald Trump, called for staunch opposition to protectionism and unilateralism. Leaders of 18 countries, including Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, are taking part in the mega event which is aimed at showcasing China's import potential. "In a world of deepening economic globalisation, practices of the law of the jungle and winner-takes-all only represent a dead end. Inclusive growth for all is surely the right way forward," Xi said. "Countries need to pursue an open policy, explicitly oppose protectionism and unilateralism, and strive to enhance the level of opening-up at both multilateral and bilateral levels, so that we could make our economies interconnected and build an open world economy," he said. Trump has launched a trade war with China in June slapping additional tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports. Trump has been insisting that China should cut down $375 billion trade deficit by providing more access to the American goods by ensuring IPR (Intellectual property rights) protection. India too has been pressuring China to take measures to bring down over $51 billion annual trade deficit, which was one of the main focus areas in the first informal meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi at Wuhan Summit in April. Xi also said China which is the largest exporter of goods piling up huge trade deficits with most of the countries will import more. China's imported goods and services are estimated to exceed $30 trillion and $10 trillion, respectively, in the next 15 years, Xi said. All major countries in the world including US and India, have massive trade deficits with China which is the leading exporter of the world. Indian pavilion at the expo showcased country's strong areas like Food and Agro Products, Pharmaceuticals, IT and IT Enabled Services (ITES), Tourism and Services Sectors to gain market access to China, an Indian Embassy press release said. Xi said measures announced in April to relax market access to Chinese market have so far been implemented. China has further simplified negative list of foreign investments, reduced investment limits and lifted the level of free investment. China is taking solid steps to expand financial opening-up, continue to advance opening-up in the service sector, deepen opening-up in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and accelerate the opening-up process of sectors including telecommunications, education, medical treatment and culture, he said. He also sought to allay concerns about the continued slowdown of Chinese economy, saying that there is every reason to be fully confident about it. At present, China's economy remains generally stable and is making good progress, Xi said, citing data including the GDP growth of 6.7 percent in the first three quarters of 2018. "China's economy is truly performing well within the reasonable range, giving us a solid foundation for delivering the development goals for the whole year," Xi said. Compared with other major economies, China still ranks among the world's top in terms of GDP growth, he asserted. "All in all, the favourable conditions are in place for the long-term, healthy and steady growth of the Chinese economy," he said. More than 3,000 companies participated in the enterprise and business exhibitions at the expo, with a total a total exhibition area of 300,000 square metres. Twelve countries - Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Vietnam and the UK - will be the "Guest of Honour" at the mega business event. The prominent corporate headquarters of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), one of the earliest to come up in the bustling financial district of Bandra-Kurla in Mumbai, is on the block. Selling its headquarters is one of minor options for cash-strapped IL&FS , which has a debt of Rs100,000 crore, to raise funds. The circular IL&FS headquarters has attracted the interest of two bidders at leastprivate equity firm Blackstone group of the US and Canada-based Brookfield Asset Management, one of the largest global real estate investment firms. Both Blackstone and Brookfield are two of the largest foreign players in the real estate business in India. It appears that Blackstone is willing to pay Rs950 crore for the building. Sometime ago, when Hari Shankaran was the managing director, IL&FS was demanding Rs1,200 crore for the property. The reason why IL&FS has demanded a much higher price is because all the buildings in the Bandra-Kurla area now enjoy a higher floor space index(FSI), the measure of how much floor space that can be constructed. However, this extra FSI is only on paper. Due to proximity to the airport, it is unlikely that buildings in BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex) area will be able to utilise the increased FSI and go much higher. The sale of IL&FS headquarters would be the first publicly visible action marking the dismantling of a maddeningly complex and highly leveraged IL&FS group. The group, comprising as many as 347 subsidiaries and associate companies, has emerged as the new template of mis-governance of public funds under the garb of public-private partnership and the personal enrichment of the senior officials, many of whom were drawn from the ranks of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Brookfield has been an aggressive acquirer of marquee assets. In April this year, it bought Equinox Business Parks, a prime commercial property also at BKC, for Rs2,400 crore from Essar group. The 10-acre business park comprises four towers, with a leasable office space of about 1.25 million sq ft. Earlier in 2016, Brookfield bought 4.5 million sq ft commercial properties from the Hiranandanis in Powai area of Mumbai and 17 million sq ft of Unitech Corporate Parks in 2014. Blackstone is also quite active in India. According to reports, Embassy Office Parks, a joint venture between Blackstone and Embassy group, is looking to float the public issue of its real estate investment trust (REIT) early next year. Embassy Office Parks holds a portfolio of 33 million square feet across Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Noida. About 24 million sq ft of this portfolio is completed and out of this around 95% is leased out. Annual rental income of the portfolio is over Rs2,000 crore. Blackstone Real Estate has committed to $5.3 billion across 31 investments in India. Of this, $3.9 billion is in office assets; it has invested in more than 100 million sqft of office space, says a report from Business Standard. IL&FS has rented out several floors of its headquarters. It advertises itself to prospective clients as one of the biggest commercial buildings in BKC and is the most noticeable upon entering G Block, 300 metres away from BKC food court. Standing 10 floors high, it has a floorplate measuring 40,000sq ft. Someone once said, migrating to another country is akin to learning how to walk all over again. Migrating from India to Canada may not be that hard, but it is certainly a lot more than just a change in time zones. Fundamentally, it is about understanding the magnitude of change required to live in a totally different culture, even for Indians who consider themselves global citizens. The difference is evident as soon as you start hunting for that first job, which is, arguably, the most important part of "settling down. In this column, I will take forward my discussion on immigrating to Canada and the barriers to finding a job , by focusing on strategies that can make the job search easier. Lack of access or contacts with prospective employers is one of the biggest challenges. Annet Thomas, an IT developers, who has been job hunting for the past seven months says, "I have no clue where I stand when I send my resumes, as I have to constantly leave messages on answering machines, with rarely a human response. In India, one could usually talk to a live person in HR." Thomas has now abandoned that mode of job hunting. Resume writing is different here, says a Vancouver-based HR manager in the banking sector. "I cannot stress enough why a one-size-fits-all type of resume is not appropriate here. Instead, pen one solid resume, and tweak it to match a job posting, every single time you apply for a job'', is his advice. This is extremely important, because most companies use an Application Tracking System (ATS). This is a software that automatically filters thousands of resumes according to key words, even before it goes to the recruiter. While matching key words to job postings is time consuming and challenging, for applicants, it is important enough to get that interview call. https://www.jobscan.co/blog/8-things-you-need-to-know-about-applicant-tracking-systems/. Some companies take a look at each resume (irrespective of the ATS). But recruiters spend seconds on each, not even minutes, so they need to be short, precise and stand out. In Canada, it is all about playing up ones personality and skills rather than educational qualifications or experience. Job hunters need to ensure that they also word their experience differently. For instance, a sales person's resume may be well advised to avoid focusing on how he "visited 20 different stores to sell his product, but rather on how "those 20 vendor calls had led to increased sales for his company," says the HR manager. "It is all about pitching the benefits a candidate can bring to a company and how it makes sense to hire him over others." In some fields, a brilliant resume is not enough. A software developer who moved to Toronto from Silicon Valley offers this feedback: "Most developers make their own brand, they work on open source projects, they contribute to things, write blogs on their understanding of issues and tweet about it. Recruiters who are out there and smart enough to track this, hire such people over others." Cultural differences too are an important factor, says Annie Singh, senior manager for the Mentoring Partnership Program at the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC). The TRIEC has networking programs to help professional newcomers connect with people in their own field. North America is a very marketing-led culture, and in India, perhaps, we are a little timid in our approach. "Why do we have to blow our own trumpet, when our work will speak for itself? asks Ms Singh, but goes on to add that a self-effacing attitude may not work. "We really have to position ourselves correctly. North America is a very marketing-led culture, and in India, perhaps, we are a little timid in our approach. "Why do we have to blow our own trumpet, when our work will speak for itself? asks Ms Singh, but goes on to add that a self-effacing attitude may not work. "We really have to position ourselves correctly. This involves talking about our accomplishments and achievements to employers and recruiters, while ensuring that one does not come across as haughty or over-confident. Making connections is important, because almost 75% of the jobs in Canada are in the hidden market. This means they are not actively advertised and happen through networking. The adage, Your network is your net worth is what works in the Canadian job market. So, even though TRIEC does not function as a traditional employment agency, its mentorship program for professionals pairs newcomers with mentors to help them gain insights into the job market, build their resume and introduce them to others in the field to help secure a job. This program runs for three months or 18 hours and mentoring conversations can also happen over email. This program has been running for over a decade and did very well in the last fiscal (April 2017 to March 2018) year, when TRIEC mentored 1800 professionals of whom 77% found jobs in their own or related fields. You can also become a member of one of the professional organisations listed on TRIECs Professional Immigrant Networks (PINS) to enhance your networking contacts. Interestingly, TRIEC was set up after a 2002 Toronto City Summit where community leaders analysed the city's strengths and challenges to chart the future growth of the city. This led to the Greater Toronto Civic Action Alliance to address the integration of immigrant professionals into the labour market and the challenges they faced. In 2003, the Alliance along with Maytree (an organization that looks into some of the city's social problems) formed TRIEC, to tackle barriers facing immigrant professionals. According to the 2016 Census, immigrants make up 46.1% of the population of Toronto. Of these, 52.1% have a bachelors degree as opposed to 24% of people born in Canada. And yet, data shows that immigrants are more likely to be underemployed or in jobs that are way below their education levels. A whopping 29.6% of immigrants are overqualified for the jobs they are doing, as compared to only 12% of people born in Canada (Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative, York University). Women have it even worse. Statistics Canada (which provides data on Canada) shows that recent female immigrants, with an unemployment rate of 13.2% in 2017, are disproportionately affected, as compared to 8% for recent male immigrants. Experts who study employment barriers for immigrants say that things will not change overnight. It is as much a social issue, as it is about integration and changing a country's decades old mindset. One smart way of networking is to join community groups. South Asian groups, such as Network of Indian Professionals, or community specific such as the Goan Overseas Association are just two examples in a laundry list of such organisations in Toronto and Vancouver. Surranna Sandy, CEO of Skills for Change , works directly with immigrants and refugees. She recommends making self-introductions, tapping sources like LinkdIn for jobs and advice, and not being afraid of rejection. "There are people who will say no; your job is to focus on making connections and the people who say Yes, she says. Both Sandy and Singh suggest volunteering as an important tool. ''The concept of volunteering is not so developed or appreciated, back home. But here it's so much more important," says Singh. She suggests that job seekers can volunteer at a temple or the YMCA. Some Indians ask here, " Why should I give my time for no reward?" Her answer is, the reward is gaining "Canadian experience" or building networks -- these can land you jobs or get you invaluable word-of-mouth referrals. I wrote about bridging programs in my previous column. Skill for Change works with the government to conduct these bridging programs , where newcomers pay $400 while the government pays most of the fees. Finally, experts say that employers look for soft skills such as adaptability, initiative, flexibility, confidence, quality of interactions with a team or customers and the ability to adapt to a new situation. It is also important not to be rigid, because only the very lucky ones get the exact position in Canada that they had in India. Often, one has to be prepared to join at a level lower than the one in India and hope to grow by proving oneself. On the other hand, Sandy suggests that professionals should not hesitate to apply for jobs at a senior level if you think you are qualified for it there is no need to sell yourself short if you are super talented. The major indices of the Indian stock markets were range-bound on Monday and closed with small losses over Fridays close. On the NSE, there were 870 advances, 887 declines and 318 unchanged. The trends of the major indices in the course Mondays trading are given in the table below: Negative Asian markets and profit booking checked the upmove of equity indices on Monday. Except for IT (information technology), selling pressure was witnessed in almost all the counters led by the oil and gas stocks. Consumer durables, banking and finance stocks also traded lower. The investor sentiments were also weighed down ahead of the release of the key macro-economic data (PMI service data) and a declining rupee. The domestic currency was trading 59 paise lower, at 73.03 to a US dollar, from its Friday close of 72.44. In addition, the benchmark Brent crude was below the $73 a barrel. The US on Monday unleashed its "toughest ever" sanctions against Iran, a move that has already sparked mass protests in the oil-rich nation. US President Donald Trump's administration reinstated all sanctions removed under the 2015 nuclear deal, targeting both Iran and states that trade with it, reports the BBC. More than 700 individuals, entities, vessels and aircraft were now on the sanctions list, including major banks, oil exporters and shipping companies. The Trump administration has granted exemptions to eight countries to continue importing Iranian oil, without naming them. They are reported to include US allies India, Italy, Japan and South Korea. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has vowed to sell his country's oil and break the sanctions. Iran's military has said that it would hold air defence drills on Monday and Tuesday to prove the country's capabilities. Before travelling to a campaign rally for the US midterm elections, President Trump said Iran was already struggling under his administration's policies. Banking and financial services major HSBC and Reliance Industries Ltd on Sunday said that they have executed a first-of-its-kind blockchain trade finance transaction, validating the commercial and operational viability of blockchain as an alternative to conventional exchanges for paper-based documentation. Reliance Industries shares closed at Rs1,092.00, up 1.59% on the NSE. The coming week is truncated on account of festivities in India, but (dotted with an) important series of events within and outside the country. Trading at stock exchanges won't take place on November 7th and 8th on account of Diwali, other than the brief traditional Muhurat Trading on Diwali day. Silicon Valley-based online education platform, Udacity announced its collaboration with Pune-based KPIT Technologies to upskill and also, build its engineering talent ecosystem for autonomous technology in India, including self-driving cars and autonomous flight. KPIT Technologies shares closed at Rs217.00, up 3.43% on the NSE. The Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) reported a standalone profit after tax of Rs553.69 crore for the second quarter of 2018-19. The company had posted a net loss of Rs539.06 crore in the July-September period of the previous financial year. "The numbers indicate a fast recovery in the company's profitability, operational performance and a collective effort towards driving the full advantage of modernisation and expansion," the company said in a statement. The company's turnover during the period under review rose 23% to Rs16,541 crore. SAIL shares closed at Rs66.30, down 4.67% on the NSE. State Bank of India (SBI) reported Q2FY19 standalone results with net interest income (NII) at Rs20,905.69 crore (Rs18,585.90 crore), up 12.5% year-on-year. Net profit was at Rs944.87 crore (Rs1,581.55 crore), down 40.3% year-on-year. Provisions were at Rs10,184.50 crore (Rs16,715.20 crore). Gross non-performing assets (GNPA) were at 9.95% (9.83%) and Net non-performing assets (NNPA) were at 4.84% (5.43%). SBI shares closed at Rs295.30, up 3.45% on the BSE. Indraprastha Gas reported Q2FY19 results with revenues at Rs1,568.73 crore (Rs1,231.35 crore), up 27.4% year-on-year. Profit after tax was at Rs187.23 crore (Rs168.87 crore), up 10.90% year-on-year. Earnings per share were at Rs2.68 (Rs2.41). Indraprastha Gas shares closed at Rs284.25, up 0.85% on the NSE. Natco Pharma reported Q2FY19 consolidated results with revenues at Rs543.50 crore (Rs426.70 crore), up 27.40% year-on-year. Net profit was at Rs182.50 crore (Rs84.80 crore), up 115.20% year-on-year. Earnings per share were at Rs9.89 (Rs4.82). Natco Pharma shares closed at Rs757.00, down 2.29% on the NSE. Exide Industries reported Q2FY19 results with revenues at Rs2,720.35 crore (Rs2,58.37 crore), up 15.30% year-on-year. Net profit was at Rs268.41 crore (Rs135.52 crore), up 98.81% year-on-year. Earnings per share were Rs3.16 (Rs1.60). Interim dividend of Rs1.60 per share was declared. Exide Industries shares closed at Rs250.90, down 1.05% on the NSE. The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below: The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below: Latex design courses are increasingly popular with cosplayers. Create your own latex clothing and learn a skill for life no sewing required. Latex design queen Lucy Brown, also known as Laced up Lucy, offers something weve not come across before: workshops where you can design and create your own latex clothing. In fact, Lucys latex workshops are becoming increasingly popular with cosplayers seeking to make their own comfortable and authentic costume because, as Lucy says, Its the ideal fabric to get a second skin look, and the stretch means you can move around freely. Next stop party city The zenith of anime latex couture. As a beginner, you can still achieve more than you dreamed. Glue gun virgins and non-sewing experts may be somewhat relieved to know that the courses and workshops are suitable for the rank beginner and experienced sewer/crafter alike. Your level of experience need not be a barrier to turning your imagination into a high-sheen reality. Lucys background lay in fashion, styling and couture. She moved on to specialise in corsets, lingerie and leather but ultimately she was attracted to the gloss, feel and smell of latex. Still a creatrix working on her own designs (Im most proud of the inflatable suits, they take effort), Lucy has opened latex design to the masses with her workshops. Lucys inflatable suits are next-level latex couture. We were thrilled to catch up with Lucy and find out more about what her latex design workshops involve Can someone attend your beginners workshop if theyve never done any sewing before? No experience is required at all, just some motivation. In the beginners workshop we cover all the basics of working with latex and more. We start the day by drawing onto the latex and getting to grips with a rotary cutter. Then we start assembly by cleaning and gluing the latex. Students will learn the different finishes of latex hems and learn to master flat and curved seams. We have found that people with dressmaking experience pick up working with latex quicker than those without, but everyone is welcome. Londonsubculture shows off the top she made at one of Lucys beginner workshops. Photo used with permission. Students will go home from the beginners course with a skirt and a halterneck top, or a vest and a pair of shorts they can wear. They will have gained the skills to make many more at home. These frilly latex knickers are utterly adorable. Example vest top made in the beginner latex workshop This halterneck latex summer dress is ice-cream cool and super cute. And made at a beginners workshop. The latex beginner workshop is our most popular workshop. It costs 140, and all materials, tools and refreshments are included. Its a one-day workshop which starts at 10am and runs till around 5 or 6 pm. And the advanced latex design workshop? On this course the students will learn to fit zip and press studs. They will learn to put sleeves into a garment and improve their skills. Example of a top students can make on the advanced course. Fierce. They will go home with a top or shirt with sleeves which they choose themselves. And how about the latex summer school? This is an intensive 3 or 4 day workshop in which students can choose a variety of projects to make. They can also learn to cut their own patterns. It is suitable for all levels of experience, so you can let your imagination run wild! Do people come to you with bespoke ideas, or do your workshops stick to creating set pieces? On the half day and 1 day courses we have set items that people can choose between, but this still leaves them with a wide variety of finished creations and colours. On multiple day workshops, or with private tuition, people can go all-out to the skill level they have acquired. We make the patterns to fit the students or whoever they would like to make something for. Workshop examples showing just some of the variety of pattern layout, colour and edging choices available to students. Its your life, body, choice. If you want it, go for it. Is working with latex different to sewing cloth? Latex is mainly glued so no expensive equipment is needed. You can layout your patterns in any direction as latex stretches equally all round. Just take your time, be accurate and use very little glue. You can study with friends as a group. You can create custom wear that fits you personally like a second skin. To book a latex design course or find out more: Lucy Browns School of Latex design courses run throughout the year, Monday-Saturday. They are all held at the School of Latex Wasp Couture studio in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 1BP. This is 20 minutes by train from London Kings Cross, near Luton Airport and just off the A1. More information: Lucys intro to School of Latex courses: After years of speculation, The Spice Girls have finally confirmed they are getting back together... Although they will be missing one member. Geri Helliwell, Emma Bunton, Mel C & Mel B will come together without Victoria Beckham to perform a string of concerts next year throughout the UK. Rumour has it that a world tour will be announced shortly. The girls created a fake 'news report' which they shared on Twitter to announce the news... Representatives for ABC said Obama surprised some students at her alma mater, Whitney Young Magnet High School, on Thursday with free tickets to her book tour. Live Nation said 10 percent of the tickets for each of Obamas shows would be donated to charities, schools and community groups in each city. Tickets for the United Center stop start at $575 each, according to a Monday check of the Ticketmaster website. But in campaign's final weeks, many Republicans appeared to reverse their stances on multiple votes to repeal and replace Obamacare. "After years of owning the health-care issue in the aftermath of the [ACA's] nearly immediate unpopularity, Republicans largely ceded [the issue] to Democrats after [the GOP's] failed attempt to repeal the law last year," my Washington Post colleague Colby Itkowitz reported. "How to handle preexisting conditions was a major flash point in the debate last year. The bills voted on did not eliminate protections for preexisting conditions, but they did weaken them considerably by giving power to the states to waive certain requirements for insures - a demand from the GOP's most conservative members." Updated numbers from the Bank of Canada showed that the balance of insured mortgage debt suffered its largest decline in history. In Q2 2018, the amount of insured mortgage debt in Canada fell by 2.61% from the first quarter, and by 8.52% year-over-year. The overall insured mortgage debt balance as of the end of that quarter stood at $508.82 billion. In 2014, the investor pulled his money out of Apple stocks and invested it a Fortress Real mortgage for a development called Capital Point in Regina. He earned quarterly dividends of $2,504, the last of which arrived in Nov. 2016. A $12 monthly fee is still being drawn from the investors bank account. A mortgage agent, who worked for Centro Mortgage Inc.which eventually became Building Development and Mortgages Canada, a brokerage controlled by Fortress Realis alleged to have convinced the investor to invest in Capital Point. The agent, reached by MortgageBrokerNews.ca, refused to answer questions and abruptly hung up the phone. The early days were fine, said the investor. They were paying us interest and the money was growing for probably the first two years, and then I started seeing news releases about Fortress. Id reach out to (the agent) and he said theres nothing to worry about, everyone is getting their money back. The last email I got from him was in June. Around 2016, I started reading the news articles and asking questions about getting my money back. It was a locked investment, not liquid; it was supposed to mature in 2017, and nothing. Now its 2018, and nothing. Theyre not even paying quarterly dividends, yet theyre still taking money out of my account. The former CEO of an organization linked to a $1.2 billion hard-money lending scam has agreed to pay $120 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Robert Shapiro, former head of the Woodbridge Group of Companies, agreed to pay the penalty to settle allegations that he scammed investors in a Ponzi scheme that drove his company into bankruptcy, according to a Bloomberg report. Shapiro didnt admit or deny the allegations. According to the SEC, Shapiro and the Woodbridge Group, a group of unregistered investment companies, scammed more than 8,400 investors who thought they were investing in a hard-money lender. Woodbridge advertised its primary business as issuing hard-money loans to commercial property owners who paid Woodbridge 11%-15% annual interest. In return for their investments, Woodbridge allegedly promised to pay investors 5%-10% annually. Among these older women, the risk of preterm labor was about 6 percent among those who got pregnant within six months of giving birth. That risk dropped to 3.4 percent among those who waited 18 months before starting a new pregnancy. Those Who Knew By Idra Novey Viking. 256 pp. $26 --- Novels written to fit into particular cultural moments often end up feeling dated, sometimes even as early as when they hit bookstores. But then there are novels that fall into relevancy by accident, allowing them to feel both immediate and timeless. Idra Novey's second novel, "Those Who Knew," is such a book. Coming out the day of the midterm elections and soon after our newest Supreme Court justice was accused of assaulting several women - and then got confirmed anyway - the novel's obsession with silence, its damnation of false liberalism, and the fine line it draws between complicity and trauma feel eerily prescient. The book opens with death. It is the early 2000s, a week after Maria P., a young activist and student, is killed by a passing bus on an unnamed island - cultural clues imply it to be Cuba, or a version of it. Lena, a professor on the island, finds herself in possession of a sweater with mysterious origins that resembles the one gracing Maria P.'s figure in her obituary. Panicking, she rushes to tell her friend Olga that Maria P. is trying to communicate from the afterlife: "Maria must be stuck in some kind of way station for murder victims and found out there what I let Victor get away with," Lena tells Olga. Olga, a once-exiled revolutionary who watched members of the island's now-vanquished dictatorial regime torture her lover, rolls Lena a fat joint to calm her nerves. Victor is the island's most popular young senator, and Lena was involved with him some 10 years prior, before the regime was toppled. Their relationship ended after he nearly choked her to death in a move that calls to mind recent testimony regarding allegations of male violence: "When he pushed her against the wall and grabbed her throat, she'd thought he was just panicking for a second. But then he'd smashed his palm over her nostrils." Charismatic, espousing all the correct liberal ideals - free tuition, income equality - Victor is a political animal, and Lena suspects him of having been involved with Maria P.'s apparently accidental death. But she says nothing, because who would believe her? And besides, she has no proof, other than mysterious garments and the traumatic memories that keep resurfacing as Victor's rise to power is profiled in one newspaper article after another. The novel unspools over several years, as Lena becomes pregnant, moves off the island and then moves back, and while her story is central, Victor; his wife, Cristina; his brother Freddy; Olga; and a northerner (read: American) named Oscar all get their own sections. Novey manages in brief, poetic chapters to capture each of these characters' defining features: Victor's simple cruelty and complex desire for power; Cristina's privileged upbringing and lack of curiosity; Freddy's frustrated talent as he writes an experimental play about Victor that he can't bring to light out of a troubled sense of loyalty; Olga's frozen existence as she refuses, for a long time, to change anything about her bookstore-cum-weed-dispensary; and Oscar's naive, well-meaning yet bumbling nature. Somehow, though the book is slim, we know these characters and their desires intimately by the end. Perhaps even more central than Lena's story is the book's focus on power and silence, how the former is so often achieved by securing the latter. Olga's silence is the result of witnessing and experiencing terrible violence that sent her into exile, yet followed her there - once, on a bus, she thought she saw the man who tortured her lover, and so she trailed him, "because trauma made a kite of the mind and there was no telling what kind of wind might take hold of it." Lena's silence is secure, Victor assumes, since the longer she remains hushed, the more power Victor gains, and the less chance she has of being taken seriously. Freddy, meanwhile, suspects his brother of being far less charming than he seems in public, but as a gay man and penniless artist, he isn't entirely sure of his power to act. Moreover, his and Victor's uncle was killed by the regime, and their father instilled in them a loyalty to brotherly connection. Cristina's silence begins with a lack of knowledge befitting the privileged, which becomes a necessary protective measure as she tries to shield her son from his father's growing scandal. And Oscar, the northerner, though he knew nothing of Victor, also knew next to nothing of the island and its past, and his ignorance becomes the breaking point of his and Lena's budding relationship. A disaster in his homeland occurs just after they meet - strongly implied to be 9/11 - and in his shocked state, watching the news, he murmurs, "It's incomprehensible," to which Lena, having grown up with a brutal regime, replies, "Is it, though?" Novey - a poet and translator as well as a novelist - is a skillful wordsmith with descriptions that are poetic yet never overwrought: "Once the sun emerged," she writes of the island, "the port city looked less like a soiled and forgotten heap of laundry." "Those Who Knew" is not only an important book about silence and its consequences, but also a sheer pleasure to read. --- Masad is a writer and editor in New York. We couldn't lock the room, because with doors and windows closed it would have been even more uninhabitable. The screen door did not close entirely. We had bugs galore in the room. There was no TV in the room, but there was a common area outside with a TV. However, a disabled person would need constant supervision there. Also, nothing on Booking.com mentioned that the Villa Las Estrellas was an "eco-friendly" property, where ocean water was used in the sink and for bathing. For our daughter, that is completely unsafe since she would gulp down water during bathing. Attorney General Lisa Madigan has joined a coalition of 16 state attorneys general to defend New Jerseys ban on large-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. In an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Madigan and the coalition said the Second Amendment permits states to enact reasonable firearm restrictions that protect public safety, prevent crime and reduce the harm caused by gun violence. PETERSBURG The board of directors of Athens Bancorp Inc., the parent company of the Athens State Bank, and the board of directors of NBP Financial Services, the parent company of the National Bank of Petersburg, have completed a merger of their holding companies and banks. The merged bank holding company, AC Bancorp Inc., is the parent company of the newly merged bank, Alliance Community Bank. I n the 158th year of the n the 158th year of the American civil war , also known as 2018, the Confederacy continues its recent resurgence. Its victims include black people, of course, but also immigrants, Jews, Muslims, Latinos, trans people, gay people and women who want to exercise jurisdiction over their bodies. The Confederacy battles in favor of uncontrolled guns and poisons, including toxins in streams, mercury from coal plants, carbon emissions into the upper atmosphere, and oil exploitation in previously protected lands and waters. Its premise appears to be that protection of others limits the rights of white men, and those rights should be unlimited. The Brazilian philosopher of education Paulo Freire once noted that the oppressors are afraid of losing the freedom to oppress. Of course, not all white men support extending that old domination, but those who do see themselves and their privileges as under threat in a society in which women are gaining powers, and demographic shift is taking us to a US in which white people will be a m inority by 2045 If you are white, you could consider that the civil war ended in 1865. But the blowback against Reconstruction, the rise of Jim Crow, the myriad forms of segregation and deprivation of rights and freedoms and violence against black people, kept the population subjugated and punished into the present in ways that might as well be called war. Its worth remembering that the Ku Klux Klan also hated Jews and, back then, Catholics; that the ideal of whiteness was anti-immigrant, anti-diversity, anti-inclusion; that Confederate flags went up not in the immediate post-war period of the 1860s but in the 1960s as a riposte to the civil rights movement. Another way to talk about the United States as a country at war is to note that the number of weapons in circulation is incompatible with peace. We have 5% of the worlds population and 35%-50% of the guns in civilian hands , more guns per capita than anywhere else and more gun deaths, too. Is it any surprise that mass shootings an almost entirely male and largely white phenomenon are practically daily events? Many synagogues, Jewish community centers, black churches and public schools now engage in drills that are preparations for the gunman who might arrive, the gunman weve met in so many aftermath news stories, who is miserable, resentful, feels entitled to take lives and is well equipped to do so. The psychological impact of drills and fear, and the financial costs of security, are a tax on other peoples access to guns. So are the deaths. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were killed. Photograph: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images We had an ardent Unionist president for eight years, and now we are 21 months into the reign of an openly Confederate president, one who has defended Confederate statues and Confederate values and Confederate goals, because Make America Great Again harks back to some antebellum fantasy of white male dominance. Last weekend might as well have been Make America Gentile Again. And then came the attack, last Tuesday, on one of the signal achievements after the end of all-out war between the states: the 14th Amendment , which extends equal right of citizenship to everyone born here or naturalized. So much of what is at stake is the definition of us, ours and we. We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, says the preamble to the constitution. It was murky about who we were, and who the people were. That document gives only some white men the vote and apportions each states representation according to whole Number of free Persons, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. All other persons is a polite way of saying enslaved black people, who found the union pretty imperfect. Whos your us? could be what we ask each other and our elected officials. You will not replace us, shouted the mobs of white men marching through Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 in a rally organized in response to the planned removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee. When Dylann Roof murdered nine black people on 17 June 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina, he declared: Yall are raping our white women. Yall are taking over the world. His us was white people, perhaps white men, since our women seems to regard white women as white mens possessions. The US constitution was murky about who 'we the people' were, giving only some white men the vote Taking over the world: there is a great deal of fear and rage about an increasingly non-white nation. The US subtracts from its population a million of our babies in the form of abortion, Representative Steve King told a far-right Austrian magazine. We add to our population approximately 1.8 million of somebody elses babies who are raised in another culture before they get to us. We are replacing our American culture two to one every year. (He ignored that, also, almost 4 million babies are born in this country annually; factual accuracy is not a pursuit of many on the far right.) The current president has harped on for almost three years with the idea that immigrants and refugees are criminals who pose a danger to the rest of us. He has preached the gospel of a monumentally restrictive we. A Florida Trump enthusiast sent bombs to leading figures of the Democratic party and to prominent liberals, some of them Jewish, the other week. In Kentucky, two elderly black people were shot by a white supremacist who had earlier tried to enter a black church. After the attacks, the president ranted about globalists , an antisemitic code word for Jews, and when part of his cultic crowd shouted George Soross name after Soros had been among the bombers targets and then lock him up, the president repeated the phrase appreciatively. Then came last Saturdays synagogue massacre. The man who allegedly killed 11 people in the Tree of Life synagogue last Saturday morning was focused on what the far right president, Fox News and the like pushed him to focus on the Central American refugees in southern Mexico: the caravan . He bought into it as a threat and blamed that threat on Jews in general and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in particular. All Jews must die, he reportedly shouted as he allegedly shot elderly worshippers with the high-velocity bullets of his AR-15. He had posted just before: I cant sit by and watch my people get slaughtered my people meaning that restrictive us the white nationalists urge people such as him to identify with. (The alleged killer also posted photographs of my Glock family on social media.) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Depicted as a menacing horde a caravan of Central Americans in Mexico, bound for the US. Photograph: Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images Rightwing media and the president himself have depicted the refugees as a menacing horde. Trumps suggestion that Middle Easterners had joined the group came shortly after a guest on the Fox & Friends news talkshow raised the specter of Isis fighters embedding themselves in the group, reported the Hill. The vice-president, Mike Pence, justified the baseless speculation with his own luridly counterfactual speculation. Its inconceivable that there are not people of Middle Eastern descent in a crowd of more than 7,000 people advancing toward our border, he said . Latin Americans, who are also Muslims, who are also the fault of Jews. Refugees who Fox News, reviving an ugly old tradition, warn might infect us with deadly diseases (including smallpox, which is functionally extinct, and leprosy, which is perhaps the least contagious of all contagious diseases). Refugees who are aggressors. A distant them to rally a fearful idea of us against. We never cleaned up after the civil war, never made it anathema, as the Germans have since the second world war, to support the losing side. We never had a truth and reconciliation process like South Africa did. Weve allowed statues to go up across the country glorifying the traitors and losers, treated the pro-slavery flag as sentimental, fun, Dukes of Hazzard, white identity politics. A retired general, Stanley McChrystal, just wrote a piece about throwing out his portrait of Robert E Lee that hed had for 40 years, and why a US soldier should celebrate the leader of a war against that country says everything about the distortion of meaning and memory here. The Washington Post reported the other week that a senior Veterans Affairs official finally removed his portrait of a Confederate general who was also the first grand wizard of the KKK after employees, many of them black, protested at having the image in their workplace. There were death threats against the contractors hired to take down Confederate statues in New Orleans, and an epic battle over the sale of Confederate flags at county fairs in New York state. The Confederacy, which should have died a century and a half ago, is with us still, and the recent attack on the 14th amendment is an attempt to return us to its vision of radical inequality of rights and protections. So much of what makes this country miserable is imagined poverty, the sense that there is not enough for all of us Even before the United States was founded, great conflicts arose between the Puritans and other Christians who wanted to live in a segregated, homogeneous society, and the pluralists, between narrow and broad us. In what is now New Mexico, crypto-Jews J ews who had survived the Spanish Inquisition by hiding their faith found refuge in the mid-17th century. In 1657, Quakers in what is now Queens, New York, issued the Flushing Remonstrance, a manifesto in favor of religious tolerance countering the Dutch colony of New Amsterdams attempt to drive out Jews and anyone else outside the Dutch Reformed church. That pluralistic, inclusive impulse never vanished. Its in a recent Muslim fundraiser for the victims of the massacre at the synagogue and Muslim work to guard Jewish cemeteries in recent years; in the work of relatives of Japanese-American survivors of internment to stand up for targeted Muslims in the wake of 9/11. Its in all the work of inclusion and liberation and solidarity made since, in abolition and human rights work, including by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Mark Hetfield, head of the society, tweeted the other weekend: We used to say we welcomed refugees because they were Jewish. Now we say we welcome refugees because *we* are Jewish. We know what persecution and terror is. We are a refugee people. You dont have to be oppressed or come from a history of oppression to stand with the oppressed; you just have to have a definition of we that includes people of various points of origin and language and religious belief and sexual orientation and gender identity. A lot of us do: many large US cities are places of thriving everyday coexistence across difference. A lot of Americans have married across racial and religious lines, some have devoted themselves to the work of solidarity, and a lot subscribe to a grand inclusive we, the people. Those who dont are not a majority but they have an outsized impact, more now than in a very long time. The Confederacy didnt win in the 1860s and it is not going to win in the long run, but inflicting as much damage as possible seems to be how they want to go down. In the short term, it is immensely worth trying to win as much as possible in this weeks elections . Some politicians support gun control; some belong to the NRA. Some want to take away reproductive rights; some are ardent defenders of those rights so essential to women being free and equal members of society. Some oppose taking refugee children from their refugee parents and putting them in baby gulags; some are enthusiasts for this child abuse. The differences are clearcut. And in the long run we need to end the war with a decisive victory for an idea of a pluralistic, e pluribus unum union, with an affirmation of inclusive values and universal human rights, and of equality across all categories. Pittsburghs Jewish leaders wrote : President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you cease your assault on immigrants and refugees. The Torah teaches that every human being is made btzelem Elohim, in the image of God. This means all of us. Long after Trump is gone, we will have these delusional soldiers of the Confederacy and their weapons, and ending the war means ending their allegiance to the narrow us and the entitlement to attack. As Michelle Alexander reminded us recently: The whole of American history can be described as a struggle between those who truly embraced the revolutionary idea of freedom, equality and justice for all, and those who resisted. She argues that we are not the resistance; we are the river that they are trying to dam; they are the resistance, the minority, the people trying to stop the flow of history. Perhaps peace means creating so compelling a story of abundance and possibility and wellbeing that it encourages people to wander out of their bunkers and put down their weapons and come over. It means issuing invitations, not just rebukes, and thats a long, slow complex job. All week Ive had the title line from Johnny Cashs song Like a Soldier in my head. How does a soldier get over the war? I dont know, but it helps if the war is over. I do know that so much of what makes this country miserable is imagined poverty, the sense that there is not enough for all of us, that we need to become grabbers and hoarders and slammers of doors and ad hoc border patrols. Wars are fought over resources, and this is a fight over redistribution of resources and who decides about that distribution. We are a vast land, a country of unequaled affluence albeit with obscene problems of distribution a country that has always been diverse, and one that has periodically affirmed ideas of equality and universal rights that we could actually someday live up to fully. That seems to be the only real alternative to endless civil war, for all of us. The general public is not left out either. While they are not allowed in the thick of things as we were, they can stake out a spot for optimal viewing as the herd comes thundering down the hill. (FYI: About 14,000 people attend every year; if you want to make plans for next year, the roundup is always held on the last Friday in September; which in 2019, is the 27th.) We understood it then and we understand it now, said Moss Jr., who was around 10 years old at the time. We were eagerly awaiting his return home. And we were hurt, we were pained. We were saddened that he had not had the chance to cast his vote. But transit-oriented developments tend to have high rents, with 10 percent of units in projects of 10 units or more reserved for affordable housing. Ironically, developments intended to promote transit may be helping to increase average rents in already gentrifying neighborhoods, forcing lower-income people to less convenient city neighborhoods or to suburbs, where they are more dependent on cars. Some community advocates are asking the city to allot higher percentages of housing for low-income people. Alpine County, CA Tragically the body of a Sacramento hiker who had been missing for nearly a week was discovered at the bottom of a cliff in Alpine County. Alpine County Undersheriff Spencer Case details that 55-year-old Bradford Dozier died as a result of his injuries after falling about two-hundred feet while he was free climbing in steep terrain on the north side of Peak 9626 near the Blue Lakes area. As reported here earlier this week, Dozier headed to the area, which is southwest of Markleeville, to hike a week ago Saturday (Oct. 27) and when he did not return that Sunday, his wife called authorities to report him missing. His vehicle was found that afternoon at the Blue Lakes Campgrounds prompting an air and ground search, which included Mother Lode search and rescue teams (SAR) from Tuolumne, Calaveras and Amador for a period of time. Alpine County Sheriffs officials also turned to the public for help and released a picture and description of Dozier that included what he was last seen wearing. As two helicopters, scent tracking dogs and even a three equestrian teams combed the area by Wednesday, Halloween, sheriffs officials relayed that no clues had been found regarding Doziers whereabouts, as reported here. That did not stop SAR teams across the state from volunteering to join the search. Some from as far away as San Diego helped in covering the rugged terrain to look for Dozier. Undersheriff Case adds that on Saturday (Nov. 3) when his body was found, one hundred forty searchers were scouring the scene trying to locate him. DCFS initially balked at requests for an investigation. Amid pressure from advocacy groups and four lawmakers, the agency contacted to the Seattle-based Casey Family Programs for a list of national and Illinois-based experts for the independent review. A timeline also was set up to try to get an outside expert picked within about two weeks. Agency officials also pledged an internal review of its handling of the 16 hotline complaints to see whether patterns of problems can be found. Carter fled the scene in his 2013 Ford Fusion and was headed north on Ashland Avenue near 70th Street when a police sergeant tried to pull him over for a traffic stop, Gersch said. Carter sped away and the sergeant deactivated his emergency lights within five seconds and quit the pursuit, she said. A group of disabled veterans has come up with some creative ways to heal. Christine Rose Hazucka of Selkirk, an Air Force veteran; Felix Bernardo of Westchester, a Navy veteran; Sandra Cimorelli of St. Albans, Vt., an Air Force veteran, and Penny Lee Deere of Colonie, a retired Army sergeant first class and a Persian Gulf War veteran, founded Art4Vets through the Supporting Our Troops Committee at the Zaloga American Legion Post in Colonie in 2016. Each week more than 30 veterans meet from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Troy Senior Citizens Center on Fourth Street in Troy and/or from 9 a.m. to noon Fridays at the Zaloga Post on Everett Road. More than 200 other veterans participate in Art4Vets programs online. The group offers wellness and alternative therapy programs that are community based, says Deere, a veterans liaison advocate. "The intention of our programs is to draw recluse and other veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other disabilities out of their houses and be creative as they interact with others," adds Deere. "We are a group of veterans interested in using the arts to heal," she adds. "We do not limit ourselves, using many different vehicles to accomplish the goal of choosing healthy pathways to wellness." A lot of their creations, including landscapes, portraits, photos, writings, and crafts will be exhibited in the second annual Art4Vets Art Show from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday at C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios, 137 State St., Schenectady. "The group of veterans gets together to help provide support for one another," said retired Army Sgt. First Class Joy Innace, Deere's sister, who also is disabled. "We work on (art) projects all year long. We also participate in the Create Community Studio Music Speaks festival each year." Art4Vets offers music, dance, writing, drama and art programs and projects during meetings. Innace has helped edit and assemble Rose Hazucka's book of art and essays. Innace and Deere are in the process of publishing a similar book, as well as a traditional autobiography. The group also offers participants a choice of Helping Heal Veterans therapeutic craft kits. The group also offers therapy through an Aftercare Continued Thoroughbred Training (ACTT) Naturally Equine therapeutic horse program, and through Kayaking with David Fisher Upper Hudson Heroes, which helps PTSD veterans de-stress through paddling. "Art4Vets is a great opportunity to mingle, network, learn and create art with other veterans," Deere says. "Other opportunities include music, creative writing, equine therapy and theater events. These expressive arts programs promote healing and wellness in a safe, non-judgmental atmosphere, facilitating personal growth and awaken(ing) individual creativity." Sponsors of the Nov. 10 show are C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios, Zaloga American Legion Post, Veterans Miracle Center, Troy Branch of Disabled American Veterans and Help Heal Veterans. A booklet highlighting the veterans' work will be on sale at the event at $20 per copy. Also, the group is accepting orders for 2019 calendars, which cost $20 each. Proceeds benefit the group's projects. For information and to order calenders, contact Penny Lee Deere at 607-437-1732 or pennylee56@yahoo.com. Volunteers are always welcome. One such volunteer, Terry Bennett of Colonie, a retired BOCES teacher's assistant, shared why she helps at meetings: "Veterans did so much for us when they were on duty, so this is my way of giving back to them." Volunteers help with classes, events and transportation. Veterans Law Day A Veterans Law Day will be offered from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Albany Law School, 80 New Scotland Ave., Albany. Veterans and their families can receive free legal information and assistance during the event. The student-led Veterans' Rights Project and Albany Law School Pro Bono program is open to all veterans seeking general legal help related to employment, family law and more. Free breakfast and lunch also will be offered. For information or to register, visit http://albanylaw.edu/veterans or call 518-445-2328. A community resource fair will be from 8:30 a.m. to noon. At noon, panelists Mario Cometti, partner with Tully Rinckey and VETCON founder; Benjamin Pomerance, state Division of Veterans' Affairs deputy director for program development; and Rebecca L. Newton, a social worker and veterans' justice outreach coordinator, will discuss legal issues facing veterans. Attorneys will met with veterans between 1 and 4 p.m. News of your troops and units can be sent to Duty Calls, Terry Brown, Times Union, Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212 or brownt@timesunion.com. Q: What kind of construction is coming in downtown Albany? It looks like part of Orange Street will be closed. What's the roadwork that they're doing? Dave Newton, Albany A: A portion of Orange Street in Albany is closed for at least three months to accommodate a construction project, city officials said. As the city Water Department works to address the persistent issue of rainwater contamination, the street will be closed between the 625 Broadway Garage entrance and Water Street. A screen facility for "floatables" will be located at Maiden Lane, Steuben Street, Orange Street, Quackenbush Square and Jackson Street. During heavy rains, water that overwhelms the sewer system will be diverted to the control facility, where debris, grit and sediment will be screened out. The project which received grant funding from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation WQIP Program and financing through the Environmental Facilities Corporation Clean Water State Revolving Fund will also treat urban stormwater runoff by reducing phosphorus, nitrogen, metals and other suspended solids. In addition, a new ADA-compliant crosswalk and curb ramps will be constructed at the intersection of Orange Street and Water Street, to improve pedestrian traffic to the existing sidewalk. During the first phase of construction, a portion of Orange Street between the 625 Broadway Garage entrance/exit and Water Street will be closed. More Information Hot spots What to watch for this week: Northway between Western Avenue (Albany) and Twin Bridges: Watch for daytime off-peak rolling lane closures in both directions to seal pavement joints before winter. Hamburg Street, Rotterdam: Traffic open in both directions. Watch for flaggers and alternating traffic during continuing roadwork eastbound (Route 146). Michigan Avenue bridge, Schenectady: Left turns prohibited onto I-890. Detour by turning right onto eastbound or westbound I-890, then loop around at next exit. Columbia Street (routes 9 and 20) over South Street and railroad tracks, Rensselaer and East Greenbush: Reduced to two lanes through the fall for a rehabilitation project. Watch for lane shifts. Detour for tractor-trailers arriving from Route 9J over the Dunn Memorial Bridge to I-787 northbound, then I-90 eastbound to Exit 9, south on Route 4, and back to routes 9 and 20. County Route 9, West Berne: Bridge construction and rehabilitation will close the intersection of Dutch Settlement Road and County Route 9 through Thanksgiving. While repairs are made to the approach of the bridge over Fox Creek, a detour will run 16 miles along Rickard Hill Road and state routes 30 and 443. Thacher Park Road (Route 157): Closed through Nov. 27 to replace two culverts near the Thacher Park Visitors Center and Paint Mine Picnic Area. Posted detour to accommodate large trucks includes routes 157, 85 and 85A through Voorheesville, Route 156 through Altamont and then back to Route 157. Routes 4 and 32, Waterford and Halfmoon: Paving between Higgins Road in Waterford and South Main Street south of Mechanicville. Watch for single alternating lanes controlled by flaggers Monday-Saturday through the end of November. See More Collapse Traffic entering the Broadway Garage and Quackenbush Garage from Water Street will be detoured to Columbia Street, Broadway and then to Orange Street. Vehicles leaving either garage toward I-787 southbound will be detoured westbound on Orange Street to Broadway, Columbia Street and Water Street. Phase 2 will begin in the spring. Do you have a question about transportation? Email gettingthere@timesunion.com. Please include your name, town and telephone number. WASHINGTON Connecticuts race for U.S. Senate gives voters a clear ideological choice between Chris Murphy, a progressive Democrat seeking re-election for the first time, and Matthew Corey, a conservative Republican who has never held public office and is running on his outsider status. The race is a sleeper compared with the hand-to-hand combat that marks other Senate races in the midterm. But it is notable for the sharp contrast between the candidates in their backgrounds, political philosophy and campaign strategies. Political analysts rate the Connecticut U.S. Senate race solidly Democratic in a contentious midterm where more than a dozen Senate races a considered highly competitive. The results of those races will determine whether the GOP can add to its slim 51-49 majority in the chamber or less likely whether a blue wave will propel Democrats into the majority in the Senate. Murphy has largely ignored Corey, who owns a commercial window cleaning company and has tried three times, unsuccessfully, to unseat U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn. I havent really focused on my opponent, Murphy said. Instead, the senator has been promoting, in stump speeches and television commercials, his work in Congress, including the passage of mental health legislation and a bill that aims to expand a database used in FBI background checks of gun purchasers both with bipartisan support. But while he touts his ability to work across the aisle, Murphy has also been a sharp critic of President Donald Trump, especially when it comes to the presidents efforts to repeal or weaken the Affordable Care Act and his foreign policies, including the overtures to North Korean President Kim Jung Un. Health care is a big issue and its on the ballot this year, Murphy said. He said his Republican challenger seems like a real decent guy, but noted that during a recent debate, Corey gave Trump an A grade for his performance in office. I dont think Connecticut wants to send someone to Washington who wants to stand with the president, Murphy said. I just dont think it matches with the people of the state. Corey, meanwhile, has spent much of his campaign attacking Murphy. His television commercial knocks Murphy for what has become an annual rite the senator walks across Connecticut each summer to meet and greet constituents. Murphy, who has two young sons, moved his family to the Washington, D.C., suburbs a few years ago, but has kept his home in Cheshire and spends his time there on weekends and when the Senate is not in session. Sen. Murphy has moved his entire family to Washington, Corey says in his ad. He has no vested interest in Connecticut other than your voteas Sen. Murphy is walking across the state, I am working across the state. Corey, who did not respond to requests for interviews, also campaigns on what he calls a working class background and his experience as a business owner. I get my leadership skills through being a small business owner. You know, Im responsible for peoples families and livelihoods, Corey said during the only U.S. Senate debate that was held this year. In a series of press releases, Corey has blasted Murphy for raising money for Democrats who are campaigning in favor of stricter federal gun laws, for opposing the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and for voting against a massive GOP tax overhaul. What weve achieved finally getting this economy to grow could all go by the wayside if we smother the economy with higher taxes, more regulation and more litigation, Corey said in a release. Murphy said the Trump-backed tax plan is one reason the president is a disaster for Connecticut. He said the tax plan singles out blue states like Connecticut by capping the deductibility of state and local taxes when filers prepare their federal taxes, a move Murphy said will result in higher federal taxes for state residents. I think you want somebody whos going to work with Trump when hes doing something right for the state, and work against him when hes doing something wrong, Murphy said. Unfortunately, most of the time, Donald Trump is doing things to hurt us. Corey, meanwhile, is a strong supporter of Trump policies, including the presidents crackdown on immigration and his controversial trade and foreign policy initiatives. We have one president and one foreign policy, especially when it involves sworn enemies of the U.S. like Iran and North Korea. We need to stand firm and united and protect our best interests, Corey said. Murphys fundraising advantage The candidates are also distinguished by how much money theyve been able to raise and spend on their campaign. Murphy reported raising more than $12 million as of Oct. 17; Corey raised a little more than $129,000. Murphy said a key difference between this race and his first bid for Senate six years ago, when he ran against billionaire Linda McMahon, is not having someone spending millions of dollars on the other side. McMahon, now the head of Trumps Small Business Administration, spent about $50 million of her own money on her unsuccessful bid for the Senate. To try to raise his profile, Corey traveled to Washington this summer to attend a book signing for controversial conservative pundit Ann Coulter and for an interview with the conservative website Breitbart News, which is run by former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon. Meanwhile, Murphy has spent a lot of time recently campaigning with other Democratic candidates. He traveled to Florida to campaign for embattled Sen. Bill Nelson and for Andrew Gillum, who is running for governor in that state. But most of his campaigning in the days leading up to the election has been on his own or with Connecticut Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont and other Democratic candidates in the state. He has focused his appearances in the voter-rich larger cities, including Stamford, Bridgeport and New Haven. Recent Quinnipiac polls show Murphy has a 15-point advantage over Corey when it comes to support from likely voters. But one of those polls, taken at the beginning of October, gave Murphy a 58 - 37 percent favorability rating and determined that 57 percent of those polled hadnt heard enough about Corey to form an opinion. Despite the advantage his campaign war chest and name recognition give him, Murphy said Ill be fighting for every vote. TRUMBULL-A heroin deal set up by undercover police detectives nearly ended in tragedy after the dealers car rammed a K-9 police officers car in attempting to escape before being immediately arrested. Now John Matthews, 33, of Trumbull Avenue, the driver, and his brother Christopher, 36, of Louisiana Avenue, both in Bridgeport, face charges while they are being detained on bond pending a Nov. 9 appearance in Superior Court. Trumbull Police Capt. Keith Golding said police are investigating the brothers possible role in a drug-related overdose death that took place earlier Friday. That investigation may be turned over to federal authorities who have prosecuted numerous dealers for opioid, heroin and fentanyl related deaths in recent years.. Both Matthews brothers and the officer operating the K-9 van were taken to St. Vincents Medical Center where they were treated for minor injuries and released. The incident began around 6 p.m. Friday when the brothers allegedly arrived in 2018 BMW apparently hoping to complete a drug deal with undercover cops. As police moved in, John Matthews who was driving the BMW put it in reverse forcing it to crash into the cruiser, Police Capt. Keith Golding said. The collision disabled both vehicles and the Matthews brothers were arrested immediately. Golding said police recovered 247 packets of suspected heroin, six cell phones and nearly $2,000 in cash during the arrest. Trumbull police charged both brothers with possession of narcotics with intent to sell while John Matthews is accused of assault on a police officer as a result of the crash. He is being detained on $250,000 bond while a $100,000 both was set for his brother, Christopher. Nine-year-old Yutia Li has already been published three times. Recognized by the iWrite Literacy Organization, Yutia said autographing copies of her work made her feel like a celebrity and that she enjoyed it. The iWrite luncheon Saturday, Oct. 27, at downtowns Hyatt Regency celebrated 78 student authors and illustrators and gave them the opportunity to sign the book published with all their submissions. Yutia is a fourth-grader at West University Elementary School and was first published in the second grade in the childrens magazine Stone Soup and in West University Buzz. Yutia originally started working on her story Sweet Stunning Skyscraper during a summer writing workshop a couple of years back. Her mom Yue Tian enrolled her after going through Yutias daily school journals and realizing that she had a talent for writing. The idea for the story came from seeing a picture of a golden tower. Yutia thought, What if that was made out of chocolate? So its about this meltable chocolate tower. Its the first one ever, Yutia said. So four mischievous girls, they decide to go and like eat the chocolate off the tower basically. And the director of the building keeps telling them to stop, but they keep finding ways around what he says, like when he tells them like not to eat it, they start licking it. And they have to figure out a way to stop them. HUMBLE ISD: Student, star author verses her way to writing award Yutia has enjoyed writing from a young age and said she is currently working on a poem to submit for a contest. She also plans to submit some future work to Stone Soup. She loves reading as well. Tian said her daughters success so far as a writer has encouraged her to keep reading, writing and learning. I think, yeah, all these things kind of give her confidence, that I can get my things printed and people like it, she said. Its kind of a positive feedback to keep writing and also when shes stuck or feels frustrated or having difficulty, she can gain courage or motivation from these things and keep going. Yutia said when she grows up she is thinking about being an either an author or a professor. Asked what she would teach, she smiles and said she has no idea but perhaps science. Since 2009, iWrite has published the work of more than 500 students. Luncheon Co-Chair Arun Mani said encouraging young minds to read and write is critical to their success. Literacy is important. Literacy matters, he said. Children who read learn two things: first, that reading and writing are worthwhile but second, most importantly, that they are worthwhile. tracy.maness@hcnonline.com From head to toe, he is ready for war. The M4 semiautomatic rifle in his hands is tipped with a suppressor favored by Special Operations to muffle gunshots during clandestine missions. Just above that is a PEQ-15 laser targeting device, which projects an infrared beam visible with night-vision goggles so the shooter can fire at night or point out targets for comrades and helicopters above. A tactical flashlight and holographic sight round out the rifle. Magazines are at his hip for quick reloading during a firefight. A mask obscures his face, and he wears a noise-canceling tactical headset that would look natural for scouting an Afghan valley for Taliban insurgents. But photos taken Monday of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents training weeks before a potential arrival of a caravan of Central Americans reveal a southern border already militarized - even before the arrival of thousands of active-duty soldiers. There are no indications that the mostly Honduran migrants, many of them women and children, pose a threat that would necessitate long- and short-range tactical engagements. But CBP agents have drilled with armored vehicles, riot gear, helicopters and more, photos from the border have shown. The preparations come amid questions about how much force active-duty soldiers and agents along the border can and should use. President Donald Trump had suggested that troops should treat rock-throwers as combatants and that rifle fire would be an appropriate response, but he later backtracked on his comments. Agents wielding military gear may belong to CBP's Border Patrol Special Operations Group - the agency's premier tactical-response team. CBP did not return a request for comment about which unit was shown training on the Texas-Mexico border. Law enforcement agencies since 1990 have requested billions in military-grade equipment thanks to the 1033 program - a Pentagon initiative that diverts surplus military equipment to civilian authorities. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq created a high-water mark in available equipment, and subsequent drawdowns from each nation have meant law-enforcement operations have browsed everything from excess bayonets and uniforms to sniper rifles and vehicles designed to absorb IED strikes. Critics have maintained that the weapons produce an overly aggressive posture suitable for combat but not interactions with civilians. The Obama administration restricted the program late in his second term after images of officers atop armored vehicles pointing rifles at protesters in Ferguson, Mo., drew severe criticism. Trump rolled back those restrictions in August 2017. That requests have included CBP, which received nearly $40 million in tactical gear from the Defense Department through 2014, the Marshall Project reported. It is unclear whether tactical gear has been recently acquired from the Pentagon for border operations or if other equipment has been purchased directly by the Department of Homeland Security. Photos from Getty Images also showed CBP agents wearing Operational Camouflage Pattern uniforms originally designed for Army use. Green Berets and some Navy SEALs have worn the pattern, which now extends to local police departments. The agency also operates unmanned drones to combat drug-smuggling activity and helicopters such as the UH-60 Black Hawk for transporting agents, though photos from Getty Images show agents in an helicopter shoulder to shoulder, as troops would sit for tactical insertions. CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - President Donald Trump is painting an astonishingly apocalyptic vision of America under Democratic control in the campaign's final days, unleashing a torrent of falsehoods and portraying his political opponents as desiring crime, squalor and poverty. As voters prepare to render their first verdict on his presidency in Tuesday's midterm elections, Trump is claiming that Democrats want to erase the nation's borders and provide sanctuary to drug dealers, human traffickers and MS-13 killers. He is warning that they would destroy the economy, obliterate Medicare and unleash a wave of violent crime that endangers families everywhere. And he is alleging that they would transform the United States into Venezuela with socialism run amok. Trump has never been hemmed in by fact, fairness or even logic. The 45th president proudly refuses to apologize and routinely violates the norms of decorum that guided his predecessors. But at one mega-rally after another in the run-up to Tuesday's midterm elections, Trump has taken his no-boundaries political ethos to a new level - demagoguing the Democrats in a whirl of distortion and using the power of the federal government to amplify his fantastical arguments. In Columbia, Missouri, the president suggested that Democrats "run around like antifa" demonstrators in black uniforms and black helmets, but underneath, they have "this weak little face" and "go back home into mommy's basement." In Huntington, West Virginia, Trump called predatory immigrants "the worst scum in the world" but alleged that Democrats welcome them by saying, "Fly right in, folks. Come on in. We don't care who the hell you are, come on in!" And in Macon, Georgia, he charged that if Democrat Stacey Abrams is elected governor, she would take away the Second Amendment right to bear arms - though as a state official, she would not have the power to change the Constitution. Unmoored from reality, Trump has at times become a false prophet, too. He has been promising a 10 percent tax cut for the middle class, though no such legislation exists. And he has sounded alarms over an imminent "invasion" of dangerous "illegal aliens," referring to a caravan of Central American migrants that includes many women and children, is traveling by foot and is not expected to reach the U.S.-Mexico border for several weeks, if at all. With his breathtaking cascade of orations, tweets, media appearances and presidential actions, Trump has dictated the terms of the political debate in the final week of the campaign even though he is not up for reelection for two years. "He goes out and says crazy, horrible things, blows race whistles and sits back and watches his topic of craziness dominate cable TV for the next 24 hours," said Republican strategist Mike Murphy, a Trump critic. "Everybody repeats his charge, and then there's a lot of pearl-clutching and tsk-tsking, and then repeating it again." Trump's omnipresence has frustrated Democrats, who are attempting to stay focused on their campaign messages of health care and other pocketbook issues. "It's really important not to take the bait from the president, with his scare-a-thon and his this-and-that," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview this weekend. "That diverts people from what is really important in their lives and how this election will make a difference." Trump has had only one formative political experience: His 2016 race for president, which he won against odds by galvanizing his conservative base around nativist themes. Two years later, he is returning to the same playbook. "This freneticism at the end . . . him ratcheting up to a new level of histrionics and fear, the question is, 'Is there a point of diminishing returns?' " asked David Axelrod, who was former President Barack Obama's chief strategist. "Do these tactics at once offend some people but also appear so fundamentally contrived that even some who are inclined to vote for Republicans say, you lost me here?" "His gamble is that this will work," Axelrod added. "Certainly the veracity doesn't bother him, and the optics don't bother him. The only thing that would bother him is losing." Trump is campaigning as if his presidency were on the line - and in a way, it is. Should Democrats win the House majority, as public polling suggests, they probably would use their subpoena power to launch investigations into the president and his behavior and, perhaps, begin impeachment proceedings. "All his bad characteristics get amplified when he's in a crunch," Murphy said. "He doesn't have any allegiance to the truth or reality to begin with, so he's drunk on crowds, in a corner and under great political pressure." Trump's campaign maneuvers - which Vice President Mike Pence and many Republican candidates are reinforcing and defending - are not only rhetorical. The president last week deployed thousands of U.S. troops to the border, ostensibly to protect the United States from the coming caravan, and has gloated on the stump about the "beautiful barbed wire" they have installed there. Several prominent former military leaders have denounced the deployment as a political stunt. Trump has been fueling the baseless conspiracy theory that the caravan is being funded by George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and Democratic mega-donor who was the target of a mail bomb last month. The same conspiracy theory allegedly motivated the suspect in the mass slaughter at a Pittsburgh synagogue eight days ago. "They want to invite caravan after caravan, and it is a little suspicious how those caravans are starting, isn't it?" Trump asked at a Saturday night rally in Pensacola, Florida. "Isn't it a little? And I think it's a good thing maybe that they did it. Did they energize our base or what?" Trump also has floated the idea of signing an executive order to end birthright citizenship. Many legal experts argue he does not have that power because the 14th Amendment to the Constitution protects the right to citizenship for any child born in the United States. "These ideas are mostly stunts that serve to act as a semaphore," said Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law and a former chief speechwriter in the Clinton White House. "The executive order is flatly unconstitutional. The tax cut that is going to be passed by Election Day is nonexistent. And the generated panic over the caravan and sending up to 15,000 troops to the border is expensive political theater and not much more." Trump's focus on immigration and nationalist appeals is part of a strategy to counter high voter enthusiasm on the left by mobilizing all of his 2016 supporters to turn out for other Republicans. As Pence says in his stump speech, "That blue wave is going to hit a red wall." "Their calculus is that every voter that surged for Trump is a Trump person first and foremost and not a DeSantis person or Scott person, so they're leaning in on full Trumpism," Steven Schale, a Florida-based Democratic operative, referring to the state's GOP candidates for governor and Senate, respectively. At his Saturday rally in Belgrade, Montana, Trump told a cheering crowd, without a hint of irony, "I'm the only one that tells you the facts." But Trump's flood of misinformation has swelled to epic proportions in recent weeks, according to an analysis by The Washington Post's Fact Checker. In the seven weeks leading up to the election, the president made 1,419 false or misleading claims, an average of 30 a day. That compares with 1,318 false or misleading claims during the first nine months of his presidency, an average of five a day. Each of Trump's rallies usually yields 35 to 45 suspect claims, which he has repeated in media appearances, according to The Fact Checker analysis. Trump's supporters say they don't much care about the falsehood meter. At his rally Wednesday in Estero, Florida, one Trump fan after another explained away the president's disregard for the truth. Hope Heisler, an emergency room doctor: "I'm not a fact-checker. All of the candidates, whether they be Republican or Democrat, don't say things completely accurately all the time. But I trust in President Trump." Linda Sears, a housewife: "Presidents should tell the truth, but sometimes they make mistakes. . . . At least Trump tells it like it is. Trump is a truth teller." Pat Banker, a retired registered nurse: "I don't think he lies. He gets excited when he's talking, and he likes to exaggerate a little bit. But that's just his way." Trump has never had much of an appetite for nuance, and he has been framing the choice before voters on Tuesday in terms of black and white, right and wrong. "This election is a choice between Republican results and radical resistance," Trump told a rally crowd Thursday in Columbia, Missouri. "It's a choice between greatness and gridlock. It's a choice between jobs and mobs. And it's a choice between an economy that is going strong and the Democrats who are going crazy." When it comes to assailing Democrats, Trump - who for years was a registered Democrat - has adopted a kitchen-sink strategy. On Friday night in Indianapolis, he told thousands of red-capped supporters, "If Cryin' Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and the legendary Maxine Waters, if they take power, they will try to erase our gains and eradicate our progress. "The Democrats want to raise your taxes. They want to restore job-killing regulations. They want to shut down your steel mills. And that will happen." He kept going. "They want to take away your real health care and use socialism to turn America into Venezuela," Trump continued. "Lovely place, lovely place. And Democrats want to totally open borders." The crowd reacted, just on cue, with loud boos. --- The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report. The big question: Is all this surge in early voting, is it just just to get it out of the way? Or has it more to do with a bigger turnout?" Orr said during a news conference with city officials Monday. "The buzz clearly is we're going to have a bigger turnout. We see so many signs, but they're not necessarily provable at this point. We'll see that tomorrow. The fierce battle for control of Congress and the nation's governorships has turned toward blatant and overtly racial attacks rarely seen since the crivil rights era of the 1960s. A new robo-call going out to voters in Georgia features a voice impersonating Oprah Winfrey and calling Stacey Abrams, who is running to become the nation's first black woman elected governor, "a poor man's Aunt Jemima." In Florida, the Trump administration's Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue urged voters not to elect Andrew Gillum, who would be the state's first black governor, with a colloquialism widely seen as having racial connotations: "This election is so cotton-pickin' important." Some Republicans drew a line on what words they found offensive when they suddenly scrambled, following the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, to distance themselves from Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. The moves came after King defended his ties to a far-right Austrian party with historical Nazi ties, only the latest in a years-long alliance by King with white nationalist individuals and groups. But much of the party was silent. The 2016 election confirmed that a potential president could run - and win - after stoking racism. Now, in their closing days, the midterms are shaping up as a demonstration of whether the entire Republican Party can succeed by following his lead. By running so overtly on racially tinged messages, the GOP is putting that explosive form of politics on the ballot. If Republicans maintain control of the House, the notion of running a campaign built on blunt, race-based attacks on immigrants and minorities will have been validated. A loss, on the other hand, might prompt a number of Republicans to call for a rethinking of the party's direction - but that would collide with a sitting president who, if anything, relishes over-the-edge rhetoric. The stakes for the party's future are immense. Republicans now are an overwhelmingly white party, whereas Democrats represent a multiethnic coalition. The problem for Republicans is that the nation is moving swiftly in the direction of Democratic demographics. "The long-term risks are obvious. The country is rapidly becoming more diverse, and appealing to a more diverse electorate requires a much more inclusive message," said Whit Ayres, a longtime Republican pollster and strategist. "Those who are firmly committed to Donald Trump are not the least bit concerned. But people in the party who are concerned about how Republicans might actually win a majority of the popular vote or win swing states and districts . . . then they're very concerned." King is perhaps most emblematic of how far out the lines of offensiveness are being drawn. The eight-term congressman has spent most of his career playing on the racial and xenophobic fringes, drawing praise from Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, blocking efforts to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, and displaying a Confederate battle flag on his congressional office desk. He said in 2013 that most children of undocumented immigrants "have got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert." "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies," he tweeted in 2017. King's campaign did not return several messages seeking comment. It was only recently, after The Washington Post reported that he met with the far-right Austrian party and when he endorsed a white nationalist mayoral candidate in Toronto, that Republicans denounced him. But the denunciations came after the synagogue shootings; beforehand, the remarks had raised little fuss. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, who is head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, last week issued a broad condemnation of King, calling his comments "completely inappropriate" and saying "we must stand up against white supremacy and hate in all forms." The conservative National Review ran a piece headlined, "Conservatives Need to Draw the Line at Steve King." "He used to be just simply problematic, prone to saying outrageous things particularly about Latinos and immigration," said Karl Rove, the veteran Republican strategist. "But he's gotten worse over time. Now he's hanging around with neo-Nazis in Austria and aligning himself with anti-Semitic fringe figures in Canadian politics. His rhetoric has gotten similarly worse." As Rove's comment implied, the party had not cracked down hard on King's earlier objectionable statements. Top party leaders for the most part have attempted to portray him as an outlier, rather than a symbol of a larger problem within the party. The president, too, has escaped much criticism, even though he salted his 2016 campaign with racial insults to Mexicans, Muslims and others, and has continued in that vein as president. Part of the danger for would-be critics: Alienating Trump by calling out his rhetoric risks losing the support of the voters who overwhelmingly chose him as their party nominee two years ago. "It's harder to deal with Trump," said Craig Robinson, who runs a political blog called the Iowa Republican. "In some ways with Trump being president you would think a guy like Steve King would have more room to operate. You have a president who is out of bounds sometimes. You'd think it'd give King more latitude. But it's actually the opposite." Trump has hardly been cowed by the criticism of King or occasional pleas to tone down his language. As the campaign has barreled toward the final hours, the president expanded his nativist appeals, proudly calling himself a "nationalist" and trying to drive his base with threats about a caravan of Central Americans creeping toward the U.S. border with Mexico. "Barbed wire used properly can be a beautiful sight," he said on Saturday afternoon while touting the work of the military troops he'd ordered to the border. Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel made the case Sunday that the midterms should focus primarily on the economy, not immigration. "The president has not said that he wants it just to be about the caravan," she said, speaking on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos. "He's saying, 'Let's look at the record, and are you better off than you were two years ago?' He's talking about the economy. It's just not getting the same coverage. The economy should be first and foremost in a lot of people's minds when they're going to the polls." McDaniel declined to answer whether she was concerned about a backlash to Trump's heated rhetoric about immigration, which on Thursday included a suggestion that U.S. troops stationed at the border could open fire on migrants if they threw rocks. He backed off that idea on Friday. Candidates in the past have tapped obliquely into racial undercurrents during political campaigns. Ronald Reagan talked of "welfare queens" and George H.W. Bush played on racial fears with an ad in his 1988 campaign about a black convict, Willie Horton. But the attacks are now much more blatant and out in the open, at a level not seen since the 1950s and 1960s, according to Alan Abramowitz, a professor of political science at Emory University. "It's quite extraordinary. It goes beyond criticizing their views," he said. "This is using very racially tinged language. It's very remarkable to hear from a president, and now it's seeping down to candidates running below the presidential level. And it's spread beyond the small fringe now." The most blatant charges of racism have come in the South, where candidates Abrams and Gillum are attempting to become the first black governors of their states. The president has led the charge against them, calling Gillum "not equipped" and Abrams"not qualified" to be governor despite their long experience in government. Gillum is the mayor of Tallahassee and Abrams is a longtime legislator. "There is certainly a throwback element to the language we're hearing coming out of the Republican Party that is unfortunately disparaging to communities," Abrams told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday. "It may be unintentional, but it signals a deeper misinformation about what Andrew Gillum can accomplish, what I can accomplish." The robo-calls that have gone out in Georgia purport to be from Winfrey, who campaigned last week for Abrams. "This is the magical Negro, Oprah Winfrey, asking you to make my fellow Negress, Stacey Abrams, the governor of Georgia," the message says, according to a copy obtained by WSB-TV in Atlanta. "Years ago the Jews who own the American media saw something in me - the ability to trick dumb white women into thinking I was like them. And to do, read and think what I told them to." "I see that same potential in Stacey Abrams," the message continues. "Where others see a poor man's Aunt Jemima, I see someone white women can be tricked into voting for - especially the fat ones." Similar calls have gone out in Florida, with a voice mimicking Gillum as jungle sounds and chimpanzee noises can be heard in the background. One Republican group - called Black Americans for the President's Agenda - released a radio ad in Arkansas that warned: "White Democrats will be lynching black folk again." "Trump has made clear that [the nativism and bigotry] gene hasn't gone away, and Trump's candidacy and victory marked its liberation from many prior constraints," said Bill Kristol, a veteran conservative commentator and editor-at-large of the Weekly Standard. "The Republican establishment has been floundering in its attempts to respond to this new moment." In King's district in Iowa, his Democratic opponent, J.D. Scholten, feels as if he's been given a gift. He's raised more than $1 million over the past week, and a district that Trump won by 27 points suddenly seems competitive. "He's given us every opportunity to win," Scholten said of King on Sunday. "I feel almost like he's trolling me. Like at the end we're going to have a beer and he's going to say, 'J.D., I've been trying to lose this seat for 14 years and finally you've done it.' " NORWALK A Stamford man was arrested Friday night after, police said, he drunkenly drew a handgun in a crowded bar and pointed it at customers. Witnesses at VZ Bar and Restaurant, 40 Van Zant St., told police that an intoxicated male walked into the bar around 11:18 p.m. and pulled out a Glock. Apparently, the man entered the bar, pointed the gun at people and began racking rounds in the firearm, said Lt. Terry Blake, a police spokesman. Blake said the suspect did not fire any shots, though officers were able to recover a number of live rounds from the ground at the scene. Police said the man, who was later identified as Jorge Norberto Samper, 50, of Maple Avenue, Stamford, with the aid of video surveillance at the bar, fled the scene before they could arrive. The footage showed Samper leaving the bar in a car that was located around the corner at Fiesta Mexico, a restaurant at 21 Fort Point St. Samper was found inside at the bar and was arrested. Police found the handgun used in the earlier incident sitting in his car. Samper was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree threatening, illegally carrying a firearm while under the influence and second-degree breach of peace. He was held on a $100,000 bond and given a court date of Nov. 13. He engaged in the lengthy standoff with police in March 2017. He was described as distraught at the time, but few other details were released. He was not criminally charged after the standoff, police said Monday. TORRINGTON The family of Micheal Kirk sent photos of a family of turkeys that visit their home in Torrington annually. They show up around this time of year as well as in the summer. An image of the turkeys in July showed a female turkey and her chicks. When they returned to the back yard on Oct. 28, the chicks were fully grown. WINCHESTER The 41-year-old driver involved in an accident Saturday night during which two cars hit the Winsted Senior Center is in stable condition at Hartford Hospital, after he was airlifted by LifeStar helicopter for possible spinal injuries, according to Police Chief William T. Fitzgerald Jr. The injured driver, Jason Rogers of Torrington, was driving a Lexus on Holabird Avenue near the intersection of Fruit Street when his car and a Volkswagen van collided, according to police. The two vehicles then crashed into the front vestibule of the Senior Center, smashing it to pieces. The center remains open. Thomas Kirkwood, 58, of Winchester, was driving the van, which had three passengers inside, Fitzgerald noted. A female passenger in the van, whom Fitzgerald didnt name, has been released from Hartford Hospital after she was also taken Saturday night by helicopter to the emergency room. Two other injured passengers, whose names were not released, were separately taken to Waterbury Hospital and Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, according to the police. All of the injured, except Rogers, were released by Monday, Fitzgerald said. At first we thought they were drag racing, the chief said, but now we believe one vehicle struck the rear of the other vehicle and pushed it. We were told the bumpers were hooked together. Speed was an issue, he added. The speed limit on the residential road is 25 mph . Blood tests from the victims have not yet been received from the hospitals, Fitzgerald said. Were still piecing it together, he said. More for you Several injured, Winsted Senior Center damaged in crash One passenger ran from the scene, Fitzerald said. We found him and talked to him. Some people are afraid when they see police. The testimony of two of the witnesses doesnt make sense, the chief said. He says one thing, the other says another. A neighbor who lives across the street from the senior center said he called 911. We heard the cars screech. We heard them come up the road, said the witness, who asked not to be named. One car went through the (vestibule) entrance, they had to pry him out, the neighbor said. One car was side-swiped and spun out. The front of the van was facing out. The accident didnt damage the main portion of the building, Town Manager Robert Geiger said. The repair cost for the entryway, which hasnt yet been assessed, will be filed with the drivers insurance first, he added. The impact of the cars on the entryway is noticeable with most of one wall destroyed. A nearby pile of debris contains strips of insulation and pieces of drywall that was cleared away from the building. The crash knocked out the heat to the building, said Senior Center Director Jennifer Kelley. It was fixed around noon Monday, she added. Workers are shoring up the entryway, she said, to make it safe, until repairs can be made. The center received many calls (on Monday) to see if we were still open, Kelley added. They were curious about the situation after seeing the news, about the crash. She said despite the accident, programs were held as usual on Monday as members attended the morning fitness class and others arrived for lunch. Chavez, Michael DOB: 10-22-80 Height & weight: 5 foot, 11; 195 pounds Stalking Violation of Probation --Warrant #CR46596 --Wanted as of 11/2/18 --$500 Cash Reward to the first person who calls Midland Crime Stoppers this week with information that leads to this fugitives arrest. --Call 694-TIPS or 1-800-7-LOCKUP --Online at www.midlandcrimestoppers.com --Mobile App P3 TIPS or go to www.p3tips.com --As always you will remain anonymous --NEVER attempt to apprehend this subject yourself. Subject may be armed or dangerous. Emanuele and the girl began a sexual relationship, prosecutors said, and on May 3, 2016, she ingested methadone that she had received from Emanuele. The drug was supposed to help her fake illness so she could stay home from school, authorities said, but she suffered an overdose and died. Officials said Emanuele had methadone in his possession because he was a recovering heroin addict. Most of us got an extra hour of sleep Sunday morning. Don't think that spares you from the pain that is daylight saving time. Despite many folks -- Washington state lawmakers, the European Union, science -- campaigning for the end of the bi-annual time change, daylight saving time persists. The DST-celebrating world is about to "fall back," as the adage goes, and we'll gain an hour at (what would be) 3 a.m. on Sunday morning. For those who might be confused about how the whole thing works, you're not alone. Daylight saving time stretches from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, or about 2/3 of the year. The change was originally enacted to save energy (something research has counteracted over the years) by shifting the daytime hours for when people "need" them. And while your phone's clock will update itself (and become the guide for the rest of the appliances in your house that will need to be reset), your body is not so lucky. RELATED: Proof daylight saving time is dumb, dangerous and costly Research has shown an uptick in car crashes and heart attacks in the days after the March change as people lose sleep, and even the oft-welcomed extra hour in the autumn can result in a shift in your sleep that is detrimental to your health. Researchers have charted that hour shift in your circadian rhythm linked to an increase in cluster headaches. Most recently, the researchers at 23andMe have posited that while your caffeine-use is linked to your genes, Washingtonians may consume more caffeine than average, based on their genes. In fact, we consume the second most out of all the 50 states that the company studied. Granted their results are being pulled from 23andMe consumers, but it's not exactly far from the truth: caffeine is everywhere in Washington, and our region can feel pretty dramatically different before and after a DST jump. RELATED: Europeans flirt with ending daylight time, imperiling us all But that's not exactly the only reason we partake in the caffeinated goodness that is coffee or tea. Wedding guests were still gushing over the "magical" nuptials of William and Bailee Byler when news of their fatal helicopter crash started spreading. Saturday, the bride and groom, both 24, celebrated "the best day of their life," not knowing it would be their last. The couple and their helicopter pilot, 76-year-old Gerald Douglas Lawrence, were killed when the small aircraft crashed into a 400-foot hill about 10 miles northeast of Uvalde shortly after leaving their wedding reception. EXPRESS-NEWS: Newlyweds and their veteran pilot mourned after chopper crash The newlyweds were en route to a nearby airport where they were supposed to leave for their honeymoon, said Judge Steve Kennedy, Justice of the Peace for Precinct 1 in Uvalde County. Family and friends remembered the happy times that unfurled just hours before the couple died by posting photos from the evening. Some of Bailee Byler's bridesmaids shared photos taken moments before she walked down the aisle and remembered her as the "most beautiful bride." "How awesome to spend your honeymoon with Jesus," wedding guest Caroline Flippin, or @trippin_flippin, captioned a series of Instagram photos taken on Saturday. RELATED: Newlyweds killed on their wedding night in Uvalde County helicopter crash; pilot also reported dead One of the most-shared tributes to the young couple was penned by Madi Wagner Photography, who captured their engagement shots earlier this year. The photographer remembered how the two smiled and giggled at one another as they discussed their upcoming wedding with her. "These two spent their last day on this earth celebrating their most cherished loved ones - I believe it was truly the best day of their lives," the photographer wrote in a Facebook post. "I am so saddened by this news, but now Mr. & Mrs. Byler will join our Jesus in heaven and have the most abundant marriage with no troubles, no temptation, no worries." The Byler's wedding site on The Knot shows photos shot by Madi Wagner, showing Bailee Byler snuggled up next to her husband. A message from the wedding-planning website replaces reception and ceremony details that once greeted guests of the Bylers. "Our deepest sympathies and thoughts are with this family at their great loss," said in an online statement. "We know both families appreciate all your love, support and kindness during this time." The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration. Madalyn Mendoza is a breaking news and general assignment writer. Read her on our breaking news site, mySA.com and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | mmendoza@mysa.com |@MaddySkye Deputies with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office recovered a loaded AK-47 and drugs from a suspect that allegedly led them on a five-mile car chase through the South Side early Sunday morning, officials said. Hugo DonJuan, 30, was arrested after the pursuit and will face several charges, including evading arrest and felony possession of a firearm, according to a BCSO Facebook post. San Antonio police arrested a 21-year-old man Saturday accused of shooting and wounding two people during a drug deal. Kevin Eaton, 21, is charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection to the shooting reported on Aug. 27. That night, police were called to the Admiral Apartments, in the 8000 block of Midcrown Drive, around 11:25 p.m. READ MORE: 17-year-old killed in NE side triple shooting is ID'd Officers found Jacore Rodriguez Hendricks, 17, shot to death in between two apartment buildings. They also found two other teenagers in the area with gunshot wounds. Both survived, according to Eaton's arrest affidavit. One of the victims told police Eaton shot them inside a black Mustang, according to Eaton's arrest affidavit. The teenagers planned to buy narcotics from him, police said. Officers obtained surveillance footage that appeared to back up the victim's account of what happened, according to the affidavit. Eaton has not been charged in connection to the death of Rodriguez Hendricks, which remains under investigation. There's "another possible suspect" in the death, according to a police spokesman. Eaton was arrested on a $150,000 bond, jail records showed. Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | fsabawi@mysa.com|@FaresInSA Space enthusiasts spent more than $5.2 million on NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong's personal collection of memorabilia last week. "Thank you to the enthusiasts out there, the supporters of NASA, the lovers of science and the dreamers of impossible dreams," Armstrong's son, Mark, said in a statement. "Thank you for your unwavering support of space exploration. It's my hope that you continue to do what you do to boldly propel us forward into the future." PIECE OF HISTORY: Armstrong's Gemini flight suit goes for $87,500 The auction was put on Thursday and Friday in Dallas by Heritage Auctions, which has held auctions for 20 astronaut families. First man on the moon Neil Armstrong, however, is the "holy grail," auctioneer Mike Sadler said Thursday. It is the first major sale of Armstrong's personal collection that comes amid a growing demand for space collectibles as the 50th anniversary of the July 20, 1969 moon landing approaches. Two other auctions of Armstrong's collection are planned in the next year: one in May and another in November. The top seller was a plaque that held the Apollo 11 lunar module's ID plate, which went for $468,500. Other big-ticket items were a 12-by-18-inch flag, a medal honoring the astronauts who died in the Apollo 1 fire two years prior and a piece of the Wright Flyer. All three went to the moon with Armstrong in 1969 and all three sold for $275,000 each. Mark Armstrong told the Houston Chronicle on Thursday that some of the money will go to charities and organizations and some of it will go toward an environmentally focused foundation he is creating. It was a cause Neil Armstrong believed in wholeheartedly, Mark said. MOVIE REVIEW: 'First Man' takes you from outer space to Armstrong's Houston kitchen, only on HoustonChronicle.com "Even though he was a scientist, dad was really environmentally conscious," he added. "He always said Earth was our spaceship ... We couldn't build a better one so lets take care of the one we have." Other items sold included a blue flight suit worn by Armstrong during the Gemini program that went for more than $109,000, a Navy Aviator notebook for $18,750 and a crayon drawing of flowers Armstrong created for his mother that sold for $15,000. Armstrong's Boy Scouts of America patches and cap, as well as his NASA patches, also were popular. "Working with the family to share objects near and dear to Neil Armstrong with his fans and space memorabilia collectors is a shining point in the history of Heritage," Heritage President Greg Rohan said in a statement. "We are excited for the spring, when we have the pleasure of bringing more never-before-seen artifacts and private mementos to the world." Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. He later focused most of his attention on the Black Star Project, a nonprofit he founded that focuses on improving educational services for black and Latino communities in Chicago. The group organized the national Million Father March, which encourage fathers to take their children to school on the first day. Gloria Smith, his sister and executive director of Black Star Project, said in email that the organization plans to continue. In a statement, Black Star Project described Jackson as someone who dedicated his life to others. AUSTIN Candidates running for attorney general raised big money to fuel their bids for office in the last month, injecting a total of $4.4 million into the final stretch of a race pundits have long expected would make for an easy Republican win. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democrat Justin Nelson have now collectively raised $10 million since 2017 in their campaigns for the job of Texas top lawyer. The late fund-raising push demonstrates that both candidates see the race as competitive, a political analyst said. After raising less than $500,000 in the final months of summer, Paxton ramped up his fundraising efforts in the last month. He pulled in $2.3 million, according to records filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. Nelson, a first-time candidate, raised just under $1.1 million and loaned his campaign $1 million. Although no Democrat has won statewide in Texas since 1994, a surge of enthusiasm for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto ORourke and frustration among some toward the Trump administration has caused some worry about whether a so-called blue wave of voters could wash out vulnerable Republicans down the ticket. The Paxton campaign recognized that the blue wave was at least potentially dangerous and they couldnt just lay back and let the surf carry them in. If they didnt act, they were going to drown, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor and author at the University of Houston. Paxton and Nelson both have TV ads and are spending close to the same amount of money on political advertising this month: Paxton spent $2.8 million, compared to Nelsons $3.2 million. Paxton spent another $3 million on advertising expenses over the summer. The last-minute fund-raising is no indication that Paxton feels threatened, his campaign spokesman said. Its typical for campaigns to raise significant funding in the home stretch when supporters see they are working hard, said Jordan Berry. Im confident General Paxton will be re-elected on Tuesday. Paxtons race sets him apart from other Republican incumbents this election cycle. He has spent more money than four statewide Republican incumbents combined. Still, poll numbers from a University of Texas and Texas Tribune poll show him with a a 12-point lead over Nelson. A Dixie Strategies Texas Poll released Tuesday found Paxton with a tighter 9 point lead. By comparison, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick both lead their Democratic challengers by at least 18 points. Nelson has spent his campaign focusing on Paxtons chief vulnerability: unresolved criminal charges accusing Paxton of securities fraud and failing to register as an investment adviser. Paxton, indicted by a grand jury in 2015, says he is innocent and is awaiting trial. The truth is that from record voter registration and record early vote to Paxton having to launch desperate and false attack ads, everyone can see this race is tightening and Justins in a good position to win, said Margaret Justus, spokeswoman for Nelsons campaign. Paxton sounded an alarm to Republican voters Tuesday. In an email to supporters, his campaign said Democratic turnout is stronger than that of the Republicans. His campaign cautioned that Democrats have a 1.2 percent advantage at the polls, although the analysis was based on turnout among loyal voters who have cast ballots in all four of the most recent Democrat and Republican primaries. For subscribers: 2018 Houston Chronicle Voter Guide For subscribers: 2018 San Antonio Express-News Voter Guide One of Paxtons biggest political donors in the last month was the Republican Attorney General Association, a Washington D.C.-based group. Paxton is its vice-chairman. The group cut him a check for $500,000. Texans for Lawsuit Reform gave him nearly $700,000, according to campaign finance reports. Much of Nelsons contributions came in the way of small donations, some as little as $1. His biggest donations are $100,000 checks from Austin-based Archer Systems, the Houston-based El Franco Lee Fund and San Antonio attorney Mikal Watts. Early voting ends Friday, Nov. 2 and election day is Tuesday, Nov. 6. In an interview for Axios on HBO, President Donald Trump announced he will sign an executive order ending birthright citizenship. When challenged on the constitutionality of doing this by executive order, Trump replied: You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now theyre saying I can do it just with an executive order. This is simply untrue. The 14th Amendment which declares, All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside cannot be changed by executive order, or even by an act of Congress. It would require a constitutional amendment. Not long ago, Trump revoked President Barack Obamas Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, because, as he correctly pointed out, it was an unconstitutional executive overreach. Now he wants to attempt to change the Constitution by executive order? Some conservatives justify his proposed action by taking a loose reading of the 14th Amendment, arguing that the phrase subject to the jurisdiction thereof leaves birthright citizenship subject to interpretation. Funny, just a few weeks ago, many of these same conservatives during Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearings were defending the originalist approach to the Constitution, which holds that we should interpret the plain words of the Constitution according to their original public meaning. They were right the first time. Many of these same conservatives (correctly) bridle at the idea that the phrase A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State in any way undermines the fundamental right of private citizens to keep and bear arms. Apparently, some on the right are strict constructionists when its convenient but suddenly discover their belief in a living Constitution when it serves their policy preferences. As my American Enterprise Institute colleague John Yoo explains, the originalist reading of the 14th Amendment is the correct one: The 14th Amendments reference to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof refers to children who are born in US territory and are subject to American law at birth. Almost everyone present in the United States, even aliens, come within the jurisdiction of the United States. If the rule were otherwise, aliens present on our territory could violate the law with impunity. The original public meaning of the 14th Amendment which conservatives properly believe to be the lodestar of constitutional interpretation affirms birthright citizenship. Yoo further points out the high court has upheld this view of the 14th Amendment: United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) upheld the American citizenship of a child born in San Francisco to Chinese parents, who themselves could never naturalize under the Chinese Exclusion Acts. The Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment affirms the ancient and fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the territory, in the allegiance and protection of the country, including all children here born of resident aliens. It also explicitly rejected the argument that aliens, because they owed allegiance to a foreign nation, were not within the jurisdiction of the United States. The precedent is so clear. So if Trump moves forward, he may find that the Supreme Court in all likelihood with the votes of his own nominees declares his action unconstitutional. That would be quite a rebuke. And even if Trump could change the 14th Amendment in Obama-esque fashion with his pen and phone, that is the last thing Republicans should want to do both as a matter of law and a matter of principle. Because, as Yoo points out, the 14th Amendment is one of the Republican Partys great historic achievements: After the Civil War the 14th Amendment directly overruled Dred Scott by declaring that all born in the U.S., irrespective of race, were citizens. It also removed from the majoritarian political process the ability to abridge the citizenship of children born to members of disfavored ethnic, religious, or political minorities. Republicans should not be seeking to restore any elements of Dred Scott. They should not be weakening the Constitution with the same kinds of loose interpretive doctrines that liberals use to justify their favored policy outcomes. The way to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining birthright citizenship for their children is prevent them from entering the country illegally in the first place. Strengthen border security. Build the wall. But leave the Constitution alone. Sending 5,200 troops to the border up to 15,000 ultimately, says President Donald Trump represents an escalation intended to convey a war footing. And the presidents own words reinforce this. The approaching caravan (actually, more than one) represents an invasion. And without proof, the president has claimed that among the Central American migrants are unknown Middle Easterners, gang members and other criminals. Got it? Armed federal troops not just National Guard members are needed because dangerous invaders approach. We are at war!!! But if these migrants are armed, this has escaped notice despite extensive news coverage and scrutiny by Mexican authorities. The travelers are mostly destitute families, with children, seeking better lives and fleeing violence in their own countries. They are traveling together because there is strength in numbers, protection against the traditional predators arrayed against them on journeys through Mexico. And, yes, one group of them recently stormed the Mexico-Guatemala border. And Hondurans clashed with Mexican police. That signals the desperate straits from which they are fleeing. And none of this warrants the largest peacetime deployment of U.S. troops at the border since Pancho Villa led a violent incursion into Columbus, N.M., in 1916. The United States has an obligation to safeguard its borders. It has the largest law enforcement entity in the federal government the Border Patrol to do that, already aided by the National Guard. And thats the point. This is a law enforcement duty, not a military one. There will be rules of engagement. The troops, less bellicose elements in the administration than the president himself insists, will be there only in supportive roles not to engage or administer the migrants. But using such a blunt instrument as the military to, essentially, enforce civilian law carries a risk. With blunt instruments, things have the potential to get hammered, exacerbated now that the president has essentially said troops should fire on rock-throwers. The fact is that, with some 50,000 apprehensions at the border monthly, these traveling migrants represent only a fraction. Moreover, while apprehensions have been up lately, they are still part of a downward trend since 2000. And walking up to the border to seek asylum is legal, though the president says he will make it harder for immigrants to apply for asylum and erect huge tent cities to house those detained. Stay tuned for all the legal challenges. It is not at all clear that the asylum limitation in particular is legal. Mr. President: We are not at war. With this fearmongering, you are playing with fire. Last month, Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard issued a report on his investigation into the bizarre SUV controversy. The probe determined that during the early morning hours after the 2016 election, a Chevy Tahoe assigned to Preckwinkles security team was found abandoned near suburban Lemont. On that Election Day, the security chief drove Preckwinkle to campaign events but said he did so in his personal car, according to the report. Farmers cant find field hands, nor ranchers, cowboys. So, why are we preparing to turn back all these well-motivated people? Texas alone could absorb 7,000 immigrants in a month to the benefit of us all. Of course, among them might be criminal or foreign agents, but just as likely is the nice Anglo couple next door. Henry Hare Would he lie? There is a caravan of robbers, rapists and Islamic radicals marching through Mexico planning to invade our country. You can spot their lecherous grins as they march along. Then there are others rubbing their hands together with greed as they contemplate robbing, burglarizing and mugging us. But thats not all! A lot of them are Islamic radicals who are looking forward to spreading death and terror in our streets. You may be able to see them throwing out their prayer rugs and bowing toward Mecca. Then there are others who are determined to take away the jobs we Americans treasure so much, like plucking chickens, washing dishes, mopping floors and cleaning toilets. They may claim theyre oppressed in their own countries, but dont you believe them. Theyre all paid to take this march. You may see Hillary and Bill Clinton, Barrack Obama and George Soros handing out money every day. You just have to look close. Im not making this up. This is what our president tells us, and surely he wouldnt lie. Steven Botts, San Antonio Bad machines The voting machines in Texas are as crooked as the Guadalupe River. Only the machines arent pretty; in fact, theyre the perfect example of the muddied business of politics at its sleaziest. On Oct. 25, I voted a straight Democratic ticket in New Braunfels. Just as I was going to push the final button I noticed Republican at the top of the ballot. At the same moment, the woman in the next booth called over an elections worker because of the exact problem. I asked him to also help me revise my vote. A minute of online research says its been happening since the beginning of this century. Supposedly, the culprit is the Hart InterCivic eSlate voting machine. (The Texas secretary of state says it isnt the equipment, but user error). The glitch has long been shrugged off, and the current complaints are dismissed with the statement that the straight-party ticket will no longer be available with the 2020 election. Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill in June 2017. Not soon enough, considering my personal experience. Noticeably, the voting machines problem has been with the straight Democratic ticket. Does anyone believe this glaring defect would have been merely blinked at if it was a straight Republican ticket? Texas boasts it is a red state. I can only presume that scarlet hue must be from blushing. Mary Alice Altorfer, New Braunfels Define diversity Re: A nationalist doesnt despise half his people, by David Brooks, Other Views, Oct. 30: I agree with Brooks column until the end when he supports diversity over our nation being a melting pot. The div in diversity is the root of divide and since the 1960s has been breaking down our national society into tribal groups of all kinds who progressives are using to push our capitalist republic into socialism. This is a very dangerous path we must reverse. Durand C. Waters, Windcrest Glass house, sir! Re: Voters, hold Trump accountable, by Richard Cherwitz, Another View, Oct. 29: This is just a reminder to Mr. Cherwitz about divisive rhetoric. Maybe you should take a good hard look at the hate and violent trash-talking that Maxine Waters, Eric Holder, Barack Obama, John Brennan, Hillary Clinton, etc., do in their public discourse. Remember, Mr.Cherwtz, a good rule of thumb is not to throw stones while living in a glass house! C.K. Black, Helotes Trump the source Everybody wonders how the recent spate of American hate crimes could possibly have happened, and many have tried to excuse Donald Trump from having any connection to these events by asserting that discontent and prejudice have always been there. I just wonder how people can be so blind? Trumps avowed role models are Rodrigo Duterte, Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin. From the moment he declared his candidacy, Trump has worked tirelessly to divide the people of this country. He has continuously demonstrated boorish behavior (mocking, name-calling, bullying, belittling, even encouraging violence at his rallies). He praised a U.S. congressman for body-slamming a reporter. The list of hateful words and actions is long and depressing. Its true that hate has always been present in our society. Finally, the federal government stepped in and outlawed official manifestations of prejudice and hate, and with time and much bloody effort, plus more time, attitudes began to change. Obviously, you cant outlaw learned prejudices and feelings, but you can make it socially unacceptable to display such emotions in public. For decades now, our stated goals have been equality and integration, and the haters were (mostly) quiet. As a schoolteacher, I always felt that change would happen as generations of children learned to get along in a more tolerant, diverse society. Over my 34 years in the classroom, I saw the rewards of that effort: tolerance and civility advanced. Now teachers report that even little children, and certainly older children, are engaging in name-calling, threatening and bullying behaviors. They have decided that their brown- and black-skinned peers, the people who should be their friends, need to get out or go home. This trend did not start in a vacuum; the dormant seed of hate was revived and nourished by the candidacy and election of Donald Trump. Prejudice and boorishness have a loud and powerful new voice on the world stage, and there is no denying the difference that voice has made. Julie Love, Rio Medina SEYMOUR Whether theyre performing The Star-Spangled Banner at the Memorial Day parade, learning about PTSD in health class, lighting a candle in memory of a fallen hero or being pen pals with soldiers, students at Seymour Middle School know the importance of honoring veterans. Thanks to the numerous programs and events the school holds that brings students and veterans together, the state Department of Education and state Department of Veterans Affairs has honored SMS as a School of Distinction. SMS was among nine schools across the state to receive an award in the inaugural Teaching about Veterans School Recognition Program, and was one of only three that significantly exceeded the criteria, according to teacher Harvey Catlin. The award program was created in response to the state legislature passing Public Act 16-188, which calls for veterans and schools to work together to benefit students. What Im most proud of is that SMS didnt do anything special to try to earn this award, said Catlin. Everything is routine for us. We have a long tradition of working with our veterans community to benefit both the students and the veterans. Catlin, a social studies teacher, said SMS prides itself on working with veterans. The students benefit greatly from the firsthand knowledge and experiences that the veterans bring to the classrooms, he said. I can get on a soap box and preach all day long about the brave men and women who have earned our freedoms. That is at best a poor substitute for meeting the real heroes. When veterans work with the students, we dont have to talk to them in advance about being grateful and showing respect. Catlin said many veterans have told him that sharing their stories with the younger generation is part of their duty to the community. The veterans stood ready when called by our nation, said Catlin. These amazing people still stand ready when called by the community to share their experiences. Seymour voted several years back to hold school on Veterans Day, rather than have a day off, and the day features a flag-raising ceremony, along with veterans visiting classrooms. Other student/veterans events include an annual candlelight vigil; a Wall of Heroes display in the schools foyer featuring pictures and biographies of students family members with active or past military service; a pen pal program pairing students and soldiers serving in Afghanistan; a veterans benefit concert; Memorial Day essay contest; wreath-laying ceremony; and a Flag Day program in which students visit American Legion Post 10 to learn flag etiquette and other traditions. Al Yagovane, an Army veteran and commander of VFW Post 12084, said he was very proud to hear about the award and lauded students and Catlin for going above and beyond to honor the men and women of the military. Superintendent of Schools Michael Wilson concurred. We are very fortunate to have such a strong partnership with our local veterans groups in Seymour and we thank them for their service as well as for their support in helping us to educate our students, he said. School Principal Bernadette Hamad said of the state recognition: We are humbled to be recognized for something we do just because its the right thing to do. Our school community honors our veterans throughout the year in appreciation of their sacrifices and dedication to our country, she said. Its important that our students understand what it means to be a veteran and our teachers do an outstanding job accomplishing that goal. The school will hold a Veterans Day flag-raising ceremony at 8:05 a.m. Nov. 12. jean.sos@snet.net Its a record few would want. But, nonetheless, Connecticut has a new weather record. With nine officially confirmed tornadoes this year, Connecticut can now be called Tornado Alley East. According to weather.com, the states previous record in a calendar year was eight tornadoes in 1973. Tornadoes in 1973 touched down in Greenwich, southern Litchfield County and Hartford County. The most recent tornado in Connecticut was last Monday in Stonington and North Stonington. Since 1950, there have been 49 tornadoes in Connecticut, according to the National Weather Service. Connecticuts tornado season began on May 15, when four twisters touched down in Southbury, Oxford, Hamden, Winsted and Barkhamsted. The first, with winds exceeding 100 miles an hour, touched down in Southbury and traveled more than four miles into Oxford before dissipating. Another tornado touched down in Beacon Falls and traveled nearly 10 miles before breaking up over Hamden. Another tornado struck in Winsted, causing damage over about eight city blocks, while a tornado spotted over the Barkhamsted Reservoir apparently didnt make landfall. During the summer, there were also tornadoes in Ashford and Woodstock. Then on Oct. 2, a tornado was confirmed in New Canaan and Norwalk. That twister spawned at 5:29 p.m. and lasted to 5:41 p.m., the weather service said, with estimated wind speeds reaching 100 mph. It had a path of nearly 4 miles about 300 feet wide. More for you Rain, again, to start off the week It frightened many in their homes or traveling in cars, but there were no reported injuries. The tornado began near the intersection of Weed Street and Marshall Ridge Road in New Canaan, and continued southeast for almost 4 miles, lifting at the intersection of Scribner Avenue and Gillies Lane in Norwalk, the National Weather Service reported. Damage was primarily to trees and cars. The weather service said the tornado had 100 mph winds, categorizing as an EF2 event. The Enhanced F Scale ranges to 0 to 5, 5 being the most violent. On average, Connecticut sees a tornado once every two to three years, said Pat Maloit, lead meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Upton, N.Y. The Connecticut figures are dwarfed by the numbers for Texas, the most tornado-prone state in the country, where more than 5,500 twisters occurred during the same time period. Weather.com says across the U.S. this year, there have fewer tornadoes than average. As of last Tuesday, 989 tornadoes had been reported to the NWS this year, more than 300 reported tornadoes below average. Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) Ministries founder Prophet Walter Magaya yesterday said he was ready to work with the Ministry of Health and Child Care who will conduct clinical trials on his Aguma herb following several engagements last week. Prophet Magaya, who said he was happy Government had given him a chance, also said the Ministry of Health and Child Care would look into the report findings by an Indian company which conducted initial research on the herb. According to what the ministry has assured us, we are going to run very intense trials until they have come up with a position on the plant, he said. This announcement follows a joint Press conference by the Ministry of Health and Child Care and Prophet Magaya in Harare last Thursday. At the Press conference, Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Obadiah Moyo said relevant local bodies would conduct clinical trials to test the efficacy of Aguma Onco, a herbal supplement which Prophet Magaya discovered and based his claims on. The clinical trials will be funded by Prophet Magaya and both his team and several independent bodies and Government will conduct them for transparency, while a timeline for release of findings was not given. Dr Moyo said any other person willing to have clinical trials in future would also fund them. Dr Moyo said when he returned from Kazakhstan where he was attending a WHO meeting on primary health care, he engaged Prophet Magaya, the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ), the Secretary for Health and the National Institute of Health Research. We had a very good meeting and were very open with each other with Prophet Magaya. At the end of the day, he apologised for having gone a bit too fast and had not realised his popularity and the impact of his message to the general population of Zimbabwe. Normally you have other prophets who are of a small calibre, who will talk to a small congregation and there will be no distortions to what they say. He might have been under some form of pressure, but naturally he is now back in the fold, Dr Moyo said. He said they would ensure transparency. Prophet Magayas people will be part of the team. Everyone will be checking each other so that we do not come out with any falsification of results. We are an authority, a ministry, we are genuine and will make sure that whatever we do will be in line with laid-down laws. We will ensure the ministry and himself will carry out this clinical trial, explained Dr Moyo. He said it was not the Ministry of Health and Child Cares responsibility to thwart anyones ideas and discoveries. We want discoveries in Zimbabwe. We have been using herbal concoctions from other countries. They come here and we accept them. We have so many of them coming from outside Zimbabwe, but they are not going through rigorous processes. But for this particular one because it started as a controversial product it is in everyones interest that it goes through a through testing process, a rigorous and scientific process so that at the end of the day we can say it was relevant or not, he added. He said Prophet Magayas popularity and the speed with which the breakthrough was announced might have causes some unease in medical cirxles. However, he now appreciates that there are regulations to be followed which is very good, said Dr Moyo. He emphasised that people should continue taking their ARV medications. He also said new discoveries should got though scientific processes. Herald Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News President Mnangagwa yesterday exhorted Zimbabweans to unite and remain strong in the face of prevailing economic difficulties saying the challenges confronting the country will soon be overcome, paving way for an epoch of prosperity. Addressing thousands of Zion Christian Church congregants gathered at the churchs cathedral at Mbungo Estates to celebrate Bishop Nehemiah Mutendis 79th birthday and also pray for good rains in the forthcoming farming season, President Mnangagwa said challenges facing Zimbabwe required resilience. The President, who shares the same birthday with Bishop Mutendi September 15 was also honoured with his own birthday cake at the church gathering, making the event a double celebration. The President turned 76 while Bishop Mutendi turned 79 on the same day. The President told the colourful ZCC faithful that Zimbabwes economic challenges will soon be a thing of the past. Things might have been difficult or might still be difficult but I liked what Bishop Mutendi said while talking about what pregnant women go through in childbirth. He said pregnant women (during labour) are encouraged to persevere under pain during that time and after a child is finally delivered mothers become very happy and will be smiling all the way, he said. It is the same situation to a country. We are currently in problems, but let us unite and persevere saying push, push; we must continue moving forward as a nation fully aware that the current challenges are temporary and good times will soon roll, he said. President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe will only speedily overcome its economic challenges if the country speaks with one voice, saying a divided lot cannot stand. We must always preach love and unity not to be always at each others throat if we are to develop as a nation. Of course, there will be always be some elements bent on spoiling the soup but such characters will not stop our country from moving forward. The Head of State called on Zimbabweans to love their country,describing those bent on instigating demonstrations and sowing the seeds of instability in the country as ill-adviced and languishing in darkness away from Gods grace. This comes as embattled MDC-Alliance leader Mr Nelson Chamisa, who narrowly lost to President Mnangagwa in the July 30 presidential election, has threatened to spearhead nationwide demonstrations in a bid to gain political power through the backdoor. There are some of us who see but they do not see clearly and others who hear but do not hear properly. We have some amongst us in our country who do not want our country to go forward and prosper but the good thing is that the majority of our people want this country to prosper, said the President. President Mnangagwa reiterated that he will always remain a listening President leading a Government that was subservient to the wishes and aspirations of the majority of Zimbabweans. He pledged to continue consulting Zimbabweans to find solutions to some of the countrys nagging problems. The President said he will always remain indebted to Zimbabweans for voting him President during the July 30 presidential contest where he emerged numero uno from a list of 23 presidential aspirants. I have actually found a perfect opportunity in broad daylight today to tell to all Zimbabweans in the four corners of the country that I am very grateful, very grateful for voting me President. All earthly leadership positions need Gods anointment. Of course, there are others who did not vote wisely but I hope there will see the light at the end of the day and come back home, he said. President Mnangagwa challenged the present generation of Zimbabweans to be at the forefront of finding solutions to some of the countrys challenges. You have heard about Zimbabwes time under colonial rule and how men and women waged the war of liberation to remove colonial rule but right now can we plan to go back to war again or sow the seeds of conflict, no, we need to plan about how to economically develop our country. This is a generation that has a task, a task to develop our country and to make our life better. A task to bring glory to Zimbabwe that is the task that this generation has, said President Mnangagwa. He hailed the ZCC church for spearheading prayers for a good rainfall season in the country saying Zimbabwes economy was agro-based hence the importance of good rains every year to ensure production on farms. The President said if the country received good rains Government will be spared the painstaking burden of importing food, leaving money in its coffers to be used for developmental projects that improve lives of ordinary Zimbabweans. President Mnangagwa praised Bishop Mutendi for urging his congregants and Zimbabweans at large to hold on to their land dearly saying land was a national treasure which should be jealously guarded. All of you in your thousands here cannot get jobs even if you ask for them but if you have land in your possession then you have a good starting point and I am happy that most of us now have land in our hands which we can use to produce food, said President Mnangagwa. The President paid tribute to the ZCC for nurturing morally upright citizens and helping Government to develop the country through building facilities such as schools. He pledged to be always on hand to help the church to carry out its developmental projects in future. In his remarks, Bishop Mutendi also urged Zimbabweans to be resilient in the face of economic difficulties facing the nation. He equated President Mnangagwa to the biblical Joshua who led the children of Israel into Canaan. Bishop Mutendi said economic challenges facing Zimbabwe were caused by illegal sanctions imposed by Zimbabwes enemies to break the spirit of its people. What we are experiencing now is not something new, we have seen this before but it will soon be over. The enemy no longer has any new weapons in his armoury. That is why he is using weapons that have been used before. The country is on the verge of a breakthrough and we should remain strong and focused, he said. The ZCC leader said Zimbabwe has undergone rapid socio-economic transformation since 1980 with most Zimbabweans now in a far much better economic position than during colonial rule. He said while during colonial rule there were no problems such as fuel queues as most indigenous people were wallowing in the murky waters of poverty. Bishop Mutendi also reminded Zimbabweans on the importance of jealously guarding their land saying his church hoped for good rains in the forthcoming farming season for the nation to produce its own food. President Mnangagwa, who was accompanied by First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, donated a tractor to Bishop Mutendi, five tonnes of top dressing fertiliser, another five tonnes of Compound D fertiliser and a tonne of maize seed to the ZCC. After delivering his speech, President Mnangagwa and Bishop Mutendi led the cutting of their birthday cakes amid jubilation from delirious ZCC congregants. Present at the event were senior Government and Zanu-PF officials among them State Security Minister Cde Owen Ncube and Masvingo Minister of State Cde Ezra Chadzamira among others. Herald Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Former special adviser to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Christopher Mutsvangwa has denied reports that he was fired from his post by the president. Mutsvangwa insists that he has a valid three-year contract despite the fact that President Emmerson Mnangagwas spokesperson George Charamba has said that he was relieved of his duties. Mutsvangwa seems to have clashed with Charamba after he made allegations in which he claimed that Sakunda Holdings owner Kuda Tagwirei has a virtual monopoly on the fuel industry and is involved in State Capture. Charamba has dismissed the allegations and accused Mutsvangwa of having sour grapes after he failed to make it in the fuel industry. Speaking with The Standard, Mutsvangwa said Those who say I am fired thought my appointment was tied to me being an MP, that is why they sponsored a rival candidate so that I lose hoping that I would be automatically fired from being an advisor. They are sulking bitterlyI will not comment on a matter of public office. Just that it is not an elected office, thus is beyond my purview. However, in another interview, referring to Mutsvangwas apparent criticism of the militarys involvement in Command Agriculture, Charamba said We dont think the former advisor meant it, we dont think so. Does he really want to share the same argument with (former minister) Jonathan Moyo? That is Jonathan Moyos argument and I dont think he wants to because I know he doesnt want to. Mutsvangwa Now Linked to The Lumumba, Mthuli Ncube-RBZ $40 000 Scandal Whistle-blower Gerald Mutumanje admitted he was being paid to frame Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) officials. Four officials were suspended after Mutumanje, who had been engaged by the Finance Ministry as a communications consultant, went on Facebook Live and accused them of industrial-scale corruption. Now Mutumanje, also known as Acie Lumumba, says it all was choreographed by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube and Christopher Mutsvangwa, a former adviser to President Emmerson Mnangagwa. In secret recordings leaked over the weekend, Mutumanje tells Zanu PF MP Tinoda Machakaire, a close associate of Sakunda boss Kudakwashe Tagwirei, that he desperately needed US$40 000 to send his father for treatment in India. He needed the money, and Mutsvangwa and Ncube needed him to carry out a hatchet job against RBZ directors Norman Mataruka (bank supervision), Azvinandava Saburi (financial markets), Mirirai Chiremba (financial intelligence) and Gresham Muradzikwa (head of security). RBZ governor John Mangudya had also been targeted for smear, but Lumumba says he spared him because the former CBZ chief had given him his first business loan. Do you really think RBZ directors can be suspended at my say-so? Lumumba asks Machakaire, as he went on to describe himself as a tool. Agencies Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Bakers say they have been forced to increase the price of bread due to a five-fold rise in input costs. The price of bread rose marginally to $1,40 from $1,10 last week, after government committed to avail to the bakery industry at least 80 percent of its monthly foreign currency requirements from a current maximum of 35 percent allocation. Industry and Commerce minister Mangaliso Ndlovu approved the increase, which came amid remonstrations by the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (Gmaz) that said it was impossible to attribute any bread prices to flour, which is the main ingredient. Gmaz head Tafadzwa Musarara had said support by government to millers through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had ensured prices remained stable. The current wheat bakers flour prices to bakers is indexed on 1:1 on the USD to bond. This has been possible due to the nostro payment support we receive from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, to which we are most grateful, Musarara said. We urge our colleagues in the baking industry to observe standing consultations and notifications protocols should there be need to increase bread prices in the future. National Bakers Association of Zimbabwe (NBAZ) said yesterday its industry has not been spared from the unprecedented price increases on key raw materials and other operational costs. Despite respective members internal cost reductions and improved operational efficiencies, the magnitude of the cost pressures has made it impossible for the bakery industry to remain viable given the current challenges, NBAZ said in a statement yesterday. The imported inputs in the bread manufacturing and distribution processes recorded the highest increases, at times exceeding 500 percent. Among other imported items which have increased drastically are, enzymes, baking fats , improvers , gluten, calcium, kwiklocks, premix and spare parts for the factories and distribution vehicles. It said it recognises that bread has become the most affordable staple food for Zimbabweans in the current difficult economic conditions, and has made every effort to keep the bread price affordable. We therefore notify the public that the price of a standard loaf should not exceed $1.30 and $1.40 to the wholesale and consumers respectively, flour being at a maximum price of $36,50 per 50kg bag, the bakers said. DailyNews Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Zimbabwe must drop bond notes and adopt the rand as the major instrument of trade after prices of imported commodities from South Africa shot up by more 1 000 percent between September and October, former Economic Planning and Investment Promotion minister Tapiwa Mashakada has said. The main cause of price hikes is the deepening shortage of foreign currency, at a time demand, by far, outstrips supply. Mashakada said this has created a breeding ground for corruption, with importers connected to the corridors of power getting forex at the official rate while other importers have to resort to exorbitant parallel market rates. The recent exposure of the parallel market forex trading involving the Reserve Bank goes to show that the ruling party and its government deployees are solely to blame for the current economic hardships Zimbabweans are facing, Mashakada, who is the MDC secretary for finance and economic affairs, said. The economic crisis is self-inflicted. Yet wages and salaries are fixed. An ordinary civil servant earns an average salary of $300 bonds in form of RTGS or virtual money which by the way now attracts 2 cents charge for every dollar, he said referring to a new tax on money transfers partly blamed on a spike in prices. This means that wage earners, the majority of whom are civil servants, are now sinking in poverty. From a disposable income point of view, wage earners are trapped in poverty and are on the verge of starvation. Households are resorting to one meal per day. Its like fiction but this is happening in Zimbabwe. Mashakada said this poverty was juxtaposed against a new breed of politically-connected money barons who he said are known and are involved in money laundering and illicit financial flows. These are not arrested and they import luxury goods including state-of-the-art vehicles under the watch of monetary authorities. This is called state capture by all measures. Therefore, the current economic crisis has been fuelled by corruption and avarice. Its roots of course is a confidence and legitimacy crisis caused by the contested harmonised elections of July 31, the senior MDC official said. The Constitutional Court confirmed President Emmerson Mnangagwas disputed July 30 election victory on August 24, brushing aside an opposition challenge that has left the nation polarised, with Nelson Chamisa, who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), branding the elections the theft of the century. In a unanimous ruling of the nine judges of the countrys top court, Chief Justice Luke Malaba said Chamisa had failed to provide direct and substantial evidence to allegations of vote rigging, which would be sufficient for the court to invalidate the election (results). Quoting a famous saying by American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army Collin Powell that Capital is a coward suggesting it flees from corruption and bad policies, conflict and unpredictability and shuns ignorance, disease and illiteracy, Mashakada said the implosion in Zanu PF was accelerating the economic collapse. Economists know very well that capital is a coward. The implosion in Zanu PF does not help things. It is now very clear that there is no cohesion within the top echelons of Zanu PF. There is a leadership crisis which is eating Zanu PF from inside like a cancer. Its a fierce contestation about controlling the soul of Zanu PF. Its again a factional fight. On the other hand, there is a strong bourgeois class that curries favours from politicians and survives of rent seeking, clientelism, arbitrage and tenderprenuership, Mashakada said. He said in order for Zimbabwe to move on again, it must decommission the bond note and arrest parallel market arbitrage. Adopt the rand as dominant or proxy currency and denominate prices in rands, Mashakada said, If the above cannot be done, then government has no choice but to involuntarily introduce local currency.. He also called for the dissolution of Cabinet and enter into negotiations on a Political-Economy Accord. He said the envisaged Political Economy Accord will address national convergence, political legitimacy, emergency economic recovery measures based on currency reforms, emergency humanitarian intervention and establish a Transitional Authority to vaccinate against an indecisive government that is dysfunctional due to factionalism based on the race to control the key economic pillars. This is quite different from the factionalism under the Mugabe regime which was about political hegemony. This time the factionalism under president Mnangagwa is all about economic hegemony. Who gets what and who controls what, is the question, Mashakada said. DailyNews Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Wilson said he would take new revenue from those initiatives and spend it on city pensions and to create jobs in economically depressed neighborhoods. Wilson, however, did not specifically address any of the citys fiscal challenges, including the need for the next mayor to come up with nearly $1 billion per year in additional money for the citys public employee retirement funds. Embattled Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries (PHD) leader Walter Magaya has poured his heart out about his legal woes, but said the silver lining was that government has agreed to put his controversial HIV/Aids drug through clinical tests to ascertain its safety and authenticity. Speaking at his Waterfalls church during a Friday service held just after attending court where he was charged with distributing and advertising his medicine without regulatory approval, Magaya said he was happy he has been given a chance to prove the efficacy of his product. His arrest came moments after he appeared at a press conference in Harare with Health and Child Care minister Obadiah Moyo, where he apologised for making a much criticised claim that he had discovered a cure for HIV/Aids, through a herbal mix called Aguma. After I had given my public apology, with the minister, when I was going down from the ministry building, I saw a lot of police, riot, but after talking to them, they responded well and we went to the police camp. So, I went to the police, gave my statement, after giving my statement, they asked me some questions, around 12 midnight, I was then released, came back home, went to court today (Friday). I am not allowed to speak (on why he was arrested) and to comment on the matter because its already in the courts, but I will just tell you one sentence. The reason why I was arrested is because of the announcement, they said I did break the law by announcing what I have without a licence, but the good news of it is that I met the government yesterday, the minister, the deputy ministers and other officials and we have agreed, they have agreed to test, he said amid uproarious applause from his congregants. So, the stage we are getting into now, my cry has always been, give me a chance, so I thinkthrough the voice of the minister, they have agreed to give the product a chance, Magaya said to wild and animated guffaws from his congregants. Moyo yesterday told the Daily News there are certain processes that need to be followed for the drug to be tested. No one is above the law when dealing with clinical processes, they should follow the countrys laws, even when he (Magaya) apologised we said its okay, but we cannot stop the raids. Let me stress no one is above the law. The countrys laws have to be respected by everyone. He has to apply through the permanent secretary and then a team will be set up to look into his drug, Moyo said, insinuating the process has not yet started. Magaya, who is out of custody on $300 bail, is alleged to have destroyed some of the exhibits by flushing his herbs down the toilet and burning their containers, but some half-burnt containers were allegedly recovered during a search at his Marlborough premises. According to court papers, the charismatic preacher is accused of announcing on his television channel that he had discovered Aguma, which he claimed was a cure for HIV/Aids, cancer and other ailments. These sensational claims triggered a fierce backlash from both authorities and medical experts, who robustly criticised the claim, saying it had the potential of destabilising the governments fight against HIV/Aids as some people were likely going to default on their medication. However, Magaya on Friday said he was willing and able to have the product tested. Not even a single person is allowed to have it until they have (been) satisfied. My words still stand the same, I have never, there was never any day that I have said people must stop taking ARVs. I have neversaid that. People must take their medication and its very, very important. Remember, I have always said that medicine is a blessing from God, so they are going to give what I have a very tight test, very tight one to see if what I said is there. So, today, we are actually preparing the schedule of how we are going to do it. I dont know how the scientists are going to decide, but (based) on my general knowledge, we are going to choose volunteersits a process that needs the scientists to describe, so I will give them a chance to describe how the process goes. But the good newsafter all thisis they have agreed to test. To mejust for them to agree to testthats the good news, thats the best news I received yesterday (last Thursday).. Please forgive whoever needs to be forgiven, educate whoever needs to be educated. What the police did was okay in terms of the law, he said. Magayas claims, however, comes at a time when government is currently on an ambitious $103 million five-year HIV-testing strategy to raise the number of people who know their status. Zimbabwe has an HIV prevalence rate of 13,7 percent according to 2016 national estimates and has been making strides to fight the disease through procuring essential drugs for people living with the virus. DailyNews Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Figuring out what if anything is happening with Brexit is becoming even more difficult due to the decay in the caliber of reporting, which wasnt so hot to begin with. I hope to post on some structural issues that the press has ignored later this week, but a bit of catch-up first seemed to be in order. One has to wonder if the frequency of bogus stories about Brexit progress and breakthroughs are simply intended to keep the pound aloft. Recall we had a blizzard of optimistic stories before the October summit, when the push to reach closure came to naught. Then we had the flurry on a UK-EU financial services deal, which was much less connected to reality. The idea that the press might be manipulated to support the currency would be particularly unfortunate since as vlade and other readers have said, one thing that might jolt even the fabulously rigid Theresa May into reconsidering some of her red lines. However, time now getting so limited she is boxed in by that as well. The headfake of the weekend was a cover story in the Sunday Times about Mays secret Brexit deal. And in particularly misguided reporting, the writers werent even working off rumors of a deal. The connected the dots between different snippets they had heard and concocted a deal from it. No. 10 quickly denied the story, but the major UK press outlets were oddly slow to pick up on that. We saw it only in Reuters: Asked about the Sunday Times report, a spokesman at Mays office said: This is all speculation. The prime minister has been clear that we are making good progress on the future relationship and 95 percent of the withdrawal agreement is now settled and negotiations are ongoing. Moreover, if you read the Sunday Times story, it made no sense. For instance, it claimed that the EU had agreed to let the UK make customs checks (which in context meant regulatory compliance checks) at farms and factories. Huh? That means accepting EU regulations, and its hard to see the EU not insisting on the jurisdiction of the ECJ (theres not enough time to agree on how a joint supervisory apparatus would work even if the EU were game). As Richard North wrote: it looks unlikely that this plan has been formally presented to the EU. More likely, Mrs May is hoping that, if she can get it past the cabinet, the EU might be prepared to accept it as the basis for a formal UK offer which can then, with the blessing of Michel Barnier, be presented to the European Council later this month. May has a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and Dominic Raab would meet with Barnier later in the week if there is something to meet about, and that meeting being a success is a precondition for holding a special EU summit on November 21. But the Telegraph has a sighting that if anything suggests that things are getting worse: Dominic Raab has privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the EUs Irish backstop after just three months, the Telegraph has learned, setting back the prospect of clinching a Brexit divorce deal this week. The hardline pitch by the Brexit Secretary to the Irish government early last week is understood to have stunned Irish officials and exposed the continued deep divisions in Cabinet over how to prosecute the Brexit talks. The Guardian isnt too cheery either: The chances of Theresa May striking a deal with Brussels on the Irish border that she can sell to the cabinet and parliament are said by EU officials to be 50-50 as the fraught talks enter their final stretch. The British negotiating team and the European commissions taskforce, led by Michel Barnier, are to enter a secretive phase known as the tunnel this week, but senior EU figures involved in the talks warned the competing redlines remain incompatible in key areas. And PlutoniumKun pointed out that fishing rights may prove to be a new sticking point. Again from the Guardian: Theresa May is facing fresh opposition from EU countries that have large fishing communities to her demands for an agreement before Brexit day on a temporary customs union to solve the Irish border problem. A number of key member states are expected to oppose a commitment to an all-UK customs deal on the basis that negotiations are yet to start on what access European fishing boats will have to British waters after Brexit. The EU has repeatedly said it will only allow British seafood exporters tariff- and quota-free access to the European market in return for an agreement that its fishing fleets can continue to operate around the UK. Agreeing to a customs union in the withdrawal agreement would mean the EU had ceded its leverage by providing tariff-free trade on seafood into the internal market without reciprocal guarantees on access to British waters. PlutoniumKun added by e-mail: Fishing communities in countries like Spain and Portugal have a very disproportionate level of political clout. If someone gets it into their head that a deal will impact on, say, some north Spanish fishing towns, then expect lots of hand waving and threats from the Spanish government. But this is a known unknown so to speak, I doubt if its something the EU delegation wont have addressed to some degree. Finally, the Financial Times describes how the Hauts-de-France region has asked for special breaks from France and the EU to cope with a crash out Brexit: It is not only the north of France that would be impacted by a no-deal but rather all of France and all of Europe, Mr [Xavier] Bertrand told the Financial Times in an interview. The trucks, companies and factories that will be blocked will be those of the north of France, the whole of France and Germany. The Hauts-de-France region includes Calais, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Dunkirk, respectively Frances largest passenger port, its biggest fishing port and number three cargo hub. If we have two minutes of extra customs controls for trucks, it will mean 27 kms of traffic jams on both sides and this will result in complete paralysis, Mr Bertrand said. This is one of the busiest commercial arteries in the world . . . We must do everything to avoid chaos. Mr Bertrand argued that, with no certainty about what the repercussions of a no-deal would be, we therefore need as much flexibility as possible at all levels to cope with the difficulties. He added: For example, we could ask for exemptions from the European Commission to reduce customs and regulatory controls based on risk analysis. But he cautioned that his call for flexibility on UK-French border checks did not extend to sanitary controls. We cannot compromise with food security, he added. Instead, Mr Bertrand called for more help from the French central government on this and other issues, even as he acknowledged a move by Paris to recruit 700 new customs officers. What about the recruitment of veterinarians and agricultural experts for sanitary and phytosanitary controls? Mr Bertrand. What about help to businesses to deal with cash flow problems that will inevitably arise? What about the risks to the security of property and people, if we have tens of kilometres of traffic jams? The government must respond quickly to these very concrete questions, there is very little time, there is urgency! Too bad not very many people on the other side of the Channel seem to feel the same way Jerri-Lynn here: This post makes clear the connection between the US petrochemical industrys plan to create a plastics belt, using natural gas derived from fracking, and climate change. I cited this piece in my post yesterday, Plastic Watch: Five Flaws in the EUs Single-Use Plastics Plan. I crosspost the complete piece here, as I think its important that readers understand, not only is the United States not doing very much to arrest or clean up its existing plastics problem, but our home-based plastics pushers are doing their best to ramp up demand for their product. These efforts are aided and abetted by the Trump administrations pro-fossil fuels policies. (See also my post from earlier this year, Fracking Boom Further Spurs Plastics Crisis.) The current post addresses the argument that plastics are necessary, because to ship things now encased in plastics instead in other packaging forms glass, etc. would exacerbate global warming. Instead, it argues that cutting plastics production and mitigating global warming are not incompatible goals. The more plastics we consume, the more we encourage the growth of fossil fuel production. I mention this because a few commenters on my post yesterday understood me to be saying that I endorsed (implicitly) a supply chain argument i.e., plastics are necessary, because to ship things now encased in plastics instead in other packaging forms- glass, etc. would exacerbate global warming when instead, Id meant to dismiss it. Apologize for yesterdays ambiguity, but my position is: the climate change costs of ramping up plastics production using fracked natural gas dwarf the possible increase in shipping costs of using alternative packaging. And I also suggest, that the (weak, subsidiary) claim about increased shipping costs itself deserves further scrutiny. Is this really the case? And indeed, we need to engage in the far more important larger discussion, which I hope to encourage through my writing, of whether the planet can maintain the current insane system of shipping goods from farfetched locations when those goods could and should be locally sourced. By Sharon Kelly, an attorney and freelance writer based in Philadelphia. She has reported for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, National Wildlife, Earth Island Journal, and a variety of other publications. Prior to beginning freelance writing, she worked as a law clerk for the ACLU of Delaware. Originally published at DeSmogBlog. The petrochemical industry anticipates spending a total of over $200 billion on factories, pipelines, and other infrastructure in the U.S. that will rely on shale gas, the American Chemistry Council announced in September. Construction is already underway at many sites. This building spree would dramatically expand the Gulf Coasts petrochemical corridor (known locally as Cancer Alley) and establish a new plastics and petrochemical belt across states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. If those projects are completed, analysts predict the U.S. would flip from one of the worlds highest-cost producers of plastics and chemicals to one of the cheapest, using raw materials and energy from fracked gas wells in states like Texas, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Those petrochemical plans could have profound consequences for a planet already showing signs of dangerous warming and a cascade of other impacts from climate change. The gathering wave of construction comes as the Trump administration works to deregulate American industry and roll back pollution controls, putting the U.S. at odds with the rest of the worlds efforts to slow climate change. Trump announced in June 2017 that the U.S. had halted all implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement and intends to fully withdraw. America is now the worlds only state refusing participation in the global agreement to curb climate change (after Syria, the final holdout, signed in November 2017). This petrochemical industry expansion much of it funded by foreign investors makes Americas refusal to participate in the Paris Agreement all the more significant, because much of this new U.S. infrastructure would be built outside of the greenhouse gas agreement affecting the rest of the globe. If American policy makers approve this wave of new plastics and petrochemical plants with little regard to curbing climate change and reducing fossil fuel use, environmentalists warn, theyll be greenlighting hundreds of billions of dollars of investment into projects at risk of becoming stranded assets. From Rust Belt to Plastics Belt Some of the largest and most expensive petrochemical projects in the U.S. are planned in the Rust Belt states of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, a region that has suffered for decades from the collapse of the domestic steel industry but that has relatively little experience with the kind of petrochemical complexes that are now primarily found on the Gulf Coast. In November 2017, the China Energy Investment Corp., signed a Memorandum of Understanding with West Virginia that would result in the construction of $83.7 billion in plastics and petrochemicals projects over the next 20 years in that state alone a huge slice of the $202.4 billion U.S. total. Those plans have run into snags due to trade disputes between the >U.S. and China and a corruption probe, though Chinese officials said in late August that investment was moving forward. The petrochemical industrys interest is spurred by the fact that the regions Marcellus and Utica shales contain significant supplies of so-called wet gas. This wet gas often is treated as a footnote in discussions of fracking, which tend to focus on the methane gas, called dry gas by industry and not the ethane, propane, butane, and other hydrocarbons that also come from those same wells. Those wet fossil fuels and chemical feedstocks are commonly referred to as natural gas liquids, or NGLs, because they are delivered to customers condensed into a liquid form like the liquid butane trapped in a Bic lighter, which expands into a stream of flammable gas when you flick that lighter on. Ethane can represent a surprising amount of the fossil fuel from a fracked shale well, particularly in the Marcellus. For every 6,000 cubic feet of methane (the energy equivalent of the industrys standard 42 gallon barrel of oil), Marcellus wet gas wells can produce up to roughly 35 gallons of ethane, based on data reported by the American Oil and Gas Reporter in 2011. And U.S.ethane production is projected to grow dramatically. By 2022, the region will produce roughly 800,000 barrels of ethane per day, up from 470,000 barrels a day in 2017, according to energy consultant RBN Energy. That supply glut is driving down ethane prices in the Rust Belt. The lowest price ethane on the planet is here in this region, Brian Anderson, Director of the West Virginia University Energy Institute, told the NEP Northeast U.S.Petrochemical Construction conference in Pittsburgh in June. Chemicals and the Climate Image projected onto Houston petrochemical plant during the Houston Toxic Tour, 2017. Credit: Backbone Campaign, CC BY 2.0 The petrochemical and plastics industries are notoriously polluting, not only when it comes to toxic air pollution and plastic waste, but also because of the industrys significant greenhouse gas footprint affecting not only the U.S., but the entire world. The chemical and petrochemical sector is by far the largest industrial energy user, accounting for roughly 10 percent of total worldwide final energy demand and 7 percent of global [greenhouse gas] emissions, the International Energy Agency reported in 2013. Since then the numbers have crept up, with the IEA finding petrochemicals responsible for an additional percentage point of the worlds total energy consumption in 2017. Carbon emissions from petrochemical and plastics manufacturing are expected to grow 20 percent by 2030 (in other words, in just over a decade), the IEA concluded in a report released October 5. A few days later, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that by 2030, the world needs to have reduced its greenhouse gas pollution 45 percent from 2010 levels, in order to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to a less-catastrophic 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The petrochemicals industry has so far drawn relatively little attention from oil and gas analysts and policy makers. Petrochemicals are one of the key blind spots in the global energy debate, especially given the influence they will exert on future energy trends, Dr. Fatih Birol, the IEAs Executive Director, said in a statement this month. In fact, he added, our analysis shows they will have a greater influence on the future of oil demand than cars, trucks and aviation. The new investments, which will rely on decades of continued fracking in the U.S, offer the oil and gas industry a serious hedge against competition from renewable energy, even in the event that climate policies push fossil fuel energy to the margins. Unlike refining, and ultimately unlike oil, which will see a moment when the growth will stop, we actually dont anticipate that with petrochemicals, Andrew Brown, upstream director for Royal Dutch Shell, told the San Antonio Express News in March. The planned infrastructure could also help bail out the heavily indebted shale drilling industry financially by consuming vast amounts of fossil fuels, both for power and as a raw material. The American Chemistry Council has linked 333 chemical industry projects, all announced since 2010, to shale gas that is, gas that is produced using fracking. Forty-one percent of those projects are still in the planning phase as of September, according to the council, and 68 percent of the projects are linked to foreign investment. State regulators in Texas and Louisiana have already issued permits that would allow a group of 74 petrochemical and liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects along the Gulf Coast to add 134 million tons of greenhouse gases a year to the atmosphere, an Environmental Integrity Project analysis found in September. The group said that was equal to the pollution from running 29 new coal power plants around the clock. The expansion of plastics manufacturing in America also has environmentalists worried over a plastics pollution crisis. We could be locking in decades of expanded plastics production at precisely the time the world is realizing we should use far less of it, Carroll Muffett, president of the U.S. Center for International Environmental Law, told The Guardian in December 2017. This story is part of Fracking for Plastics, a DeSmog investigation into the proposed petrochemical build-out in the Rust Belt and the major players involved, along with the environmental, health, and socio-economic implications. Petrochemical Paradox The petrochemical industry transforms ethane and other raw material into a huge range of products, including not only plastic, but also vinyl, fertilizers, Styrofoam, beauty products, chemicals, and pesticides. The petrochemicals industry itself straddles an uncomfortable fence when it comes to renewable energy and climate change. A significant portion of its revenue comes from clean technology sectors, as it provides materials used to make batteries and electric cars. One report last year concluded that roughly 20 percent of the industrys revenue comes from products designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, the American Chemistry Council cited the industrys role supplying materials and technologies that improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions, as it opposed Trumps decision to drop out of the Paris Agreement. But petrochemical manufacturers are also heavily reliant on fossil fuels. They need them to power and supply a dreamed-of manufacturing renaissance, as the ExxonMobil-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute explained as it pushed for Trump to abandon the Paris Agreement. Plans to use American shale gas would also link petrochemicals to the expansion of fracking, which carries its own environmental concerns. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys landmark study on fracking and drinking water concluded in 2016 that fracking has led to water contamination and poses continued risks to American water supplies. In addition, though conversations about climate change usually focus on carbon emissions, the gas industry has such a bad methane leak problem that using natural gas can be even worse for the climate than burning coal. We share IEAs view that the production, use and disposal of petrochemical-derived products present a variety of environmental challenges that need to be addressed, the American Chemistry Council said in a statement sent to DeSmog, which also cited the use of petrochemical products in the renewable energy industry and the manufacture of products that raise energy efficiency like home insulation and lighter auto parts. We are committed to managing energy use in our companies and manufacturing facilities. Pittsburgh and Paris Climate implications make a petrochemical build-out risky, not only from an environmental perspective, but also from a fiscal perspective, Mark Dixon, co-founder of NoPetroPA, which opposes fracking-based petrochemicals projects, told DeSmog. One plant, Shells $6 billion ethane cracker plant currently under construction in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, has permits to pump 2.25 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year into the air near Pittsburgh, roughly equal to the annual carbon pollution from 430,000 cars. Industry advocates say the region can produce enough ethane to support up to seven more ethane cracker plants like Shells. Were trying to drop our emissions 50 percent by 2030, Dixon said, referring to Pittsburghs highly touted plans to comply with international climate targets despite the federal governments withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. The Shell cracker alone will decimate that. A kayaker protests against Shells cracker project outside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in June 2018. Credit: Mark Dixon, CC BY 2.0 Stranding Assets International negotiators met in Bangkok in September to hash out details on how the Paris Agreement will be implemented. The U.S., which participated in talks despite the Trump administrations intention to withdraw from the accord, faced criticismover working to delay clarity over the agreements financing (nonetheless, a top UN negotiator praised good progress from the talks). While the Paris Agreement is not directly binding, globally there has been discussion of using trade agreements and tariffs to pressure countries that fail to keep up with their carbon-cutting commitments. In February, the European Union (EU) declared that it will not sign new trade agreements with any country that refuses to get on board with the Paris Agreement. One of our main demands is that any country who signs a trade agreement with EU should implement the Paris Agreement on the ground, Frances foreign affairs minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told the French Parliament. No Paris Agreement, no trade agreement. Theyre already shooting across the bow, saying look, youve got to implement the Paris climate agreement, Dixon told DeSmog. We could very well spend 10 years building an infrastructure to support fracking all over the region, crackers, ethane, plastics, everything, then have Europe say, sorry, you cant do that. You have to shut it down. In other words, whether or not the U.S puts its signature on the climate pacts dotted line, the pressure from trading partners to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and the underlying concerns about the rapidly warming climate could remain the same. That said, while the U.S. is the only country to reject Paris on paper, it is far from the only country on track to miss its targets aimed at warding off catastrophic climate change. Only Morocco and The Gambia are projected to hit Paris Agreement Compatible targets, according to the Climate Action Tracker (whose rating tracker includes many major polluters but not all countries worldwide). The EU itself currently earns a rating of insufficient from the group (China is ranked highly insufficient, while the U.S.> and four other nations earned the worst critically insufficient grade). Closing Windows The next several years will determine the future of petrochemical production for decades to come, crucial years when it comes to the fate of the climate, if industry gets its timing right particularly in the Rust Belt. The window to make this all work is not forever, Charles Schliebs of Stone Pier Capital Advisors told the NEP Northeast U.S. Petrochemical Construction conference in June. Its maybe two to five years. That means key decisions may be made while Donald Trump remains in office though state and local regulators will also face important calls over permits and construction planning. For some living near the center of the planned petrochemical expansion, the problem is readily apparent. Were not going to be able to double down on fossil fuels, Dixon said, and comply with the Paris climate agreement. Follow the DeSmog investigative series, Fracking for Plastics, and get your questions answered with our Field Guide to the Petrochemical and Plastics Industry UPDATED: This piece has been updated to include an additional statement from the American Chemistry Council. The former Bethlehem Steel Plant in the Rust Belt city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is now open to tourists. The decaying plant is a relic of an era when coal and steel, closely linked like shale gas and plastics, were dominant industries in the region. Credit: 2018 Julie Dermansky By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans. The US Copyright Office on October 26 issued a final rule that extended the right to repair, nationwide. The new framework went into effect virtually immediately, on October 28. Many companies, including Apple and John Deere, have tried and thus far largely succeeded in thwarting customer attempts to repair products they have purchased, either by their own efforts or by using third-party services. (See these posts for further background: Right to Repair Redux: The Economist Gets with the Program, While Alas, Apple Continues to Lag; Four Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, andRepair ;Apple Battery Debacle: Yet Another Reason to Support a Right to Repair; US Copyright Office Wimps Out on Right to Repair; Supreme Court Lexmark Patent Decision A Win for State Right to Repair Legislation; Apple Spends Big to Thwart Right to Repair in New York and Elsewhere; Waste Not, Want Not: Right to Repair Laws on Agenda in Some States). There new rule only covers smartphones, home appliances, or home systems or motorized land vehicles meaning boats and airplanes are still excluded. And as this post published by iFixit, one of the major entities pushing for the right to repair, made clear in Copyright Office Ruling Issues Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms, the rule is not a panacea, and further legislation by Congress will be necessary to create a robust right to repair. As an aside, I note this gives the anti-right-to repair Empire an opportunity to strike back, but at the moment, I wont develop that thought. (Although when it happens as Im virtually certain it will I promise readers an update.) Over to iFixit: the Copyright Office went as far as they could in granting access to the repair community. There are still significant limits, though, that will need to be addressed by Congress. One of those being the law against trafficking in circumvention tools. From todays filing, limiting the exemption to individual owners threatens to render it effectively meaningless for those who lack the technical knowledge to access and manipulate increasingly complex embedded computer systems. Now that circumvention is required to perform repairs, and most repairs benefit from tools, we need to open up a market for developing and selling those tools. Legislation like Congresswoman Zoe Lofgrens Unlocking Technology Act would provide the clarity that tool developers need. It would also be helpful for service providers to codify the ability of third-parties to perform service. And, another problem, again as summarized by iFixit: Nowadays, just about everything has software. Your ability to fix and maintain the products you own is contingent on being able to modify that software. But our tooling hasnt kept up. For fear of prosecution, farmers and independent mechanics havent developed their own software tools to maintain their equipment. Now, they can. This ruling doesnt make that tooling available to the publicwere going to need actual Right to Repair legislation for that. But it does make it legal to make your own tools. And thats a huge step in the right direction. Or, as Motherboard explains,In Groundbreaking Decision, Feds Say Hacking DRM to Fix Your Electronics Is Legal : Specifically, [the new rule] allows breaking digital rights management (DRM) and embedded software locks for the maintenance of a device or system in order to make it work in accordance with its original specifications or for the repair of a device or system to a state of working in accordance with its original specifications. I read it as the ability to reset to factory settings, Nathan Proctor, head of consumer rights group US PIRGs right to repair efforts, told me in an email. Thats pretty much what weve been asking for. While this is a huge win on a federal level, this decision does nothing to address the practicalities of what consumers and independent repair professionals face in the real world. Anti-tampering and repair DRM implemented by manufacturers has gotten increasingly difficult to circumvent, and the decision doesnt make DRM illegal, it just makes it legal for the owner of a device to bypass it for the purposes of repair. Despite these limitations, the new Copyright Office rule will allow consumers to repair their own devices or turn them over to third parties. This means that consumers wont necessarily have to pony up for a replacement or lay out beaucoup bucks for manufacturers to repair a defect. The new rule promises to save consumers money- just how much, I cannot hazard a guess at this time. For as Motherboard warns: The Copyright Office decision also does nothing to address the many ways that manufacturers have monopolized repair that have nothing to do with copyright or software. Companies have made it difficult to acquire parts or repair tools needed to fix the things you own, and many companies have weaponized the Department of Homeland Security to crack down on grey market and aftermarket parts that are imported from places like China. Two prominent right to repair activists, Louis Rossmann and Jessa Jones, have had their Apple repair parts seized by customs in recent months. Another Benefit: Waste Reduction Another obvious side benefit of the rule: waste reduction. As regular readers know, Ive written about the problem of waste before, not only in the context of the right to repair, but also about the issue of plastics fouling the environment. This recent Citizen Truth post makes clear, Why E-Waste is so Dangerous and How the Right to Repair Will Save the Environment, advancing the right to repair will reduce the generation of e-waste, estimated to comprise 50 tons in 2018 alone: The costly expense of repairing many electronics has developed a throwaway culture where people just throw away appliances once they break down rather than fixing them. Others will just throw them away because a newer model with more enticing features has been released into the market. With no knowledge of how to properly dispose of these appliances, they just dump them, and this has led to a toxic pile of electronic waste. E-waste is the next big environmental challenge in todays digital society, a time bomb waiting to explode, says Jean-Pierre Schweitzer, an officer with the European Environmental Bureau (EEB). As recyclers struggle to deal with the growing amount of waste, our smartphones and white goods are buried in landfills or illegally exported to developing countries where theyre often treated in informal or dangerous conditions, he added. E-waste harms human and animal health and also degrades the environment. Specifically, according to Citizen Truth: According to the United Nations, electronics with batteries or plugs such as mobile phones, laptops, TVs, fridges, electrical toys, etc. contain toxic chemicals such as lithium, mercury, lead, etc. which, if improperly disposed, can leak into the environment. Such chemicals are carcinogenic to humans. In the U.S., e-waste is not only the fastest growing stream of waste but also makes up 70 percent of all toxic waste in landfills all over the country. Sometimes e-waste is burnt, an unsafe method of disposal because it releases toxic gases into the air that can cause respiratory diseases. What Is To Be Done This doesnt mean this war is over. Those forces that oppose a right to repair are undoubtedly exploring what they can do to get Congress to overturn the new rule. And, as I mentioned, the new rule isnt a panacea, and further legislation would be necessary to move beyond the Copyright Offices rule on what consumers can now do and providing dissemination of necessary tools to create robust third party repair services. In the interim, before any final Congressional action, state right to repair initiatives will remain important and I promise another post, sometime soon, summarizing such initiatives, and letting readers know how they can help support their enactment. I would mention that Gizmodo is even more underwhelmed by the Copyright Office decision, and also emphasizes the importance of pending state initiatives, as discussed in Its Now Legal to Hack DRM to Repair Your Own Devices: Practically speaking, the repercussions of this decision arent that big of a deal. Nathan Proctor leads consumer advocacy group US PIRGs right to repair initiatives. He told Motherboard that his reading of the new rules essentially gives people the ability to restore their devices to the factory settings. Making modifications to the firmware is still prohibited and hackers are only allowed to break the DRM in order to bring the product back to a state of working in accordance with its original specifications. Its a small victory. And the wider effort to get right to repair laws for hardware on the books in multiple states continues. But, for the time being, although its not perfect, the Copyright Offices new rule is to be applauded and, I would add, is somewhat unexpected, given the agencys past actions (as I discussed in this post from last year, US Copyright Office Wimps Out on Right to Repair). One of the countrys leading recruitment specialists, FRS Recruitment, is offering a free flight back home from Australia to any expat who they help secure a job in Tipperary or another part of the country. The special incentive has been introduced to help encourage people who moved Down Under during the recession to re-evaluate the job opportunities available in Ireland, particularly those operating in the construction, IT and healthcare sectors. This announcement comes ahead of a specially organised Ireland is Hiring recruitment roadshow organised by FRS Recruitment, which is taking place in Australia this week, where the Waterford jobs and other Irish opportunities will be outlined. The roadshow will visit Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and will run from Thursday 8th November to Tuesday 13th November. Attendees at the roadshow will be provided with a range of information about moving back to Ireland, insights on the current Irish jobs market back including salary details, as well as practical advice on how to handle the logistics and paperwork involved. The flights deal will be offered to anyone who successfully secures a job through FRS Recruitment. While the offer extends to all sectors, FRS will be targeting personnel who wish to work in the construction, IT, healthcare, medical device/ pharmaceutical and financial sectors during the roadshow, in light of particular demand for qualified staff across these industries. Speaking about why they have decided to take this step, Colin Donnery, General Manager of FRS Recruitment said, As the country is moving closer to full employment it is becoming more difficult to find suitably qualified personnel. Companies in Waterford and all across Ireland are increasingly looking further afield to find people to fill important roles. For these companies it is not just about filling the vacancy, it is about finding the right candidate that meets their needs." During the recession, a lot of qualified, educated people left these shores to seek out opportunities that simply were no longer available in Ireland. Australia was a particularly popular location, given the thriving jobs marketplace Down Under at that time. Many of these expats have since gone on to develop strong careers in Australia, growing their experience and maintaining impressive CVs." Having had extensive dealings with the Irish community in Australia we are aware of a significant number of expats who harbour hopes of returning home. The point of the Ireland is Hiring roadshow is to help these people understand just how significant the opportunities are back in Ireland at the moment." We hope that by providing people with job details, giving them the key salary and logistical information, while also providing them with the incentive of free flights, it will encourage more people to seriously consider applying for roles back in Ireland. We have a significant number of roles available in every part of Ireland, including a wide range in Waterford." There is a particularly strong demand for personnel in the construction, IT, healthcare, medical device/ pharmaceutical and financial sectors at the moment. There are plenty of Irish people working in these sectors in Australia who would be of great interest to employers back in this country. We know just how badly their skillsets are needed in this market and how these great positions could provide a fantastic opportunity for returning home, Mr. Donnery concluded. GENERAL PROGRAMME MEDIA ACCESS TO MEDIA EVENTS POOLS AT NATO HEADQUARTERS ONLINE / BROADCAST ACCREDITATION AND SECURITY CHECKS MEDIA FACILITIES OPENING HOURS PARKING CONTACT POINTS By e-mail only: TV & Radio arrangements on site and via satellite Annex 1 How to create a new profile in MIT https://my.hq.nato.int/ : To create a new profile, please select the New user option in the home page: https://my.hq.nato.int/ (Chrome or Mozilla Firefox work better with the platform) Avoid using special characters (with accents, etc.) when you upload your information on your profile, and ensure that the filename of your photo also does not contain special characters Note that for your address, you must insert your street name and house number in separate fields. Both fields are mandatory and cannot be left empty The size of the picture you wish to upload must be less than 100 KB . Using larger pictures can stop the application from working . Using larger pictures can stop the application from working In case our site is blocked by your provider (most likely because of a firewall), its best to use a device that uses a different channel to connect to the internet (4G or connection at home) Existing profiles: On Tuesday, 6 November 2018, the NATO Deputy Secretary General, the Honourable Rose Gottemoeller, will meet the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Moldova, Mr. Eugen Sturza. There are no media opportunities. Still images of the meeting with the Deputy Secretary General will be available on the NATO website after the event. Follow the Deputy Secretary General on Twitter (@Gottemoeller). Also follow us at @NATOPress. The Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach visited Portugal from 1 to 4 November 2018. The trip included visits to NATO Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre, the Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, the Joint Command for Military Operations as well as meetings with the Portuguese Minister of Defence, HE Joao Gomes Cravinho and the Chief of Defence, Admiral Antonio Silva Ribeiro. Upon his arrival in Lisbon, the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach was escorted by Admiral Antonio Silva Ribeiro, Portuguese Chief of Defence to the famous Torre de Belem for a short military ceremony with the traditional inspection of the troops. The Chairman of the NATO Military Committee then headed to the Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO), NATOs premier Maritime Battle-staff and the Alliances primary link for integrating U.S. Maritime Forces into NATO operations. Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach highlighted that for the last 65 years STRIKFORNATO has stood ready to use its maritime capabilities to provide assurance, deterrence and collective defence. The meeting with HE Joao Gomes Cravinho, Portuguese Minister of Defence was an opportunity for Air Chief Marshal Peach to discuss NATOs Maritime Posture, the ongoing NATO Command Structure Adaptation and commend Portugal for being a staunch Ally. Portugal actively contributes to all of NATOs domains. On land, your troops serve with NATO's multinational brigade in Romania. In the air, your jets have kept the skies secure over the Black Sea region. At sea, your ships have strengthened NATO's maritime forces. And in cyberspace, NATO's state of the art cyber academy is being built right here in Portugal, emphasized the Chairman. Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach also visited the NATO Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC) which is responsible for analyzing NATOs operations, training, exercises and activities, and identifying areas of improvement. The Chairman thanked the JALLC for its exemplary work, NATO cannot adapt effectively without the valuable work that JALLC does. For example, our defence spending metrics are based on proposals made by this centre. They are a key tool for NATO. The Chairman concluded his trip to Portugal by attending the Military Ceremony organized to commemorate the Centenary of the end of the First World War. More than 4500 troops, from each branch of the Armed Forces, the Republican Guard and the Police, marched on the Avenida da Liberdade (Freedom Avenue) to honour the sacrifices made by so many. French, German, Amercian and British troops were also present for the parade. (Natural News) You have to hand it to James OKeefe and his group of undercover journalists: Time and again they have caught Left-wing Democrats red-handed doing immoral, improper, and often illegal things. And now its Robert Beto ORourkes turn or, at least, some of his campaign staffers. According to a series of newly posted videos, staffers for the Texas Democrat trying to unseat GOP Sen. Ted Cruz appear to be using campaign funds to provide assistance to migrants currently traveling in one or more caravans in Mexico on their way to the United States. If, in fact, staffers have done what they appear to be claiming on video, that could amount to several violations of federal election laws. Project Veritas said in an online post: Project Veritas Action Fund has released undercover video from current Congressman and US Senate candidate Beto ORourkes campaign. The video exposes how his campaign staff appear to be illegally using campaign resources to buy supplies and help transport Honduran aliens. This is the eighth undercover video report Project Veritas has released in a series revealing secrets and lies from political campaigns in 2018. Charity and helping your fellow man are things we applaud at Project Veritas, said founder James OKeefe. The problem is you cant break the law when you do it. The video shows ORourke campaign staffers Dominic Chacon and AnaPaula Themann talking about helping Honduran migrants, allegedly with campaign funds: Chacon: The Hondurans, yeah Im going to go get some food right now, like just some stuff to drop off Themann: How did they get through? Chacon: Well I think they accepted them as like asylum-seekers So, Im going to get some groceries and some blankets Themann: Dont ever repeat this and stuff but like if we just say that were buying food for a campaign event, like the Halloween events Chacon: Thats not a horrible idea, but I didnt hear anything. Umm, we can wait until tomorrow for that. Themann: Well thats exactly the food we need. And I will just mark it as, I do have dozens of block walkers. Fines and prison The pair appears to be using pre-paid credit cards and therefore it would, according to an attorney with Project Veritas who viewed the footage, be likely the pair violated Federal Election Commission rules. (Related: Bombshell Project Veritas undercover investigation reveals how government bureaucrats are ENEMIES of the people, working from the inside to weaponize government.) At one point Themann said that they can conceal their actions because some stores are not specific on receipts regarding what was purchased, such as food items. To that, Chacon says, I think we can use that with those [campaign pre-paid] cards to buy some food, all that s**t can be totally masked like, oh, we just wanted a healthy breakfast! Themann says that when going to distribute the food to the migrants she did not want to make it seem like staffers were from the ORourke campaign, adding, I just hope nobody thats the wrong person finds out about this an indication they knew what they were doing was wrong. Chacon also discussed the possibility of using campaign vans to provide rides for the Honduran aliens. We could probably get away with using the vans Nobody needs to know, adding, For me, I can just ignore the rules and Im like f**k it. I dont mind breaking the rules and I can defend any position. When showed the footage, the Project Veritas attorney said spending campaign funds in that matter and intentionally misreporting the activity violates the FECs rule against personal use and misreporting. In addition, it violates Section 1001, making a false statement to the federal government, the attorney said. The FEC violations impose civil penalties, including fines of up to $10,000 or 200 percent of the funds involved. Violations of that same section amount to criminal activity and could also include imprisonment of up to five years, said the attorney. Watch: Read more about Democratic corruption at Corruption.news. Sources include: TheNationalSentinel.com ProjectVeritasAction.com (Natural News) After coming out against the legalization of cannabis in the past, Former House Speaker John Boehner now says his stance was wrong. He now believes that medical marijuana should be legalized nationally, and he says many of his fellow Republicans are having a similar change of heart. In 2011, Boehner said that he was unalterably opposed to cannabis, but he claims that the seven-year-old comment was borne of ignorance. Back then, like a lot of folks, I was getting faulty information, he said when addressing the American Cannabis Summit seminar organized by the National Institute for Cannabis Investors. He went on to say that not only was he wrong, but that lots of his colleagues on the Hill have told him their views are changing and that includes some of the most conservative politicians he knows. Boehner cited an interaction he had with a Navy SEAL as being a turning point. The veteran was dealing with the after-effects of concussions and vision-altering migraines. After refusing to take risky prescriptions, he found relief with cannabis. Boehner said hes heard countless variations on this story, with vets using the drug to safely manage everything from pain to PTSD and depression. Cannabis is not going away any time soon, he says, and now is the time to go all in on it. Although President Trump has stated in the past that states should decide on the matter, current Attorney General Jeff Sessions has come out in opposition to legalization. Nevertheless, Boehner thinks that Trump agrees with his stance. Legalization will help the economy, Boehner says He added that legalization could spur the creation of 1.1 million new jobs. While he says that what hes heard privately about the possibilities is pretty sensitive, he has a strong suspicion the government will legalize cannabis in less than five years. At that point, he believes the industry will double almost overnight to reach $100 billion. The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Vice President of Investor Relations, Danny Brody, also sees tremendous potential, saying that legalization could cause cannabis to turn into a $1.1 trillion global industry in America. It would also affect industries like agriculture, food and pharmaceuticals. The tide is turning The public is also on board, with 62 percent of Americans saying they believe marijuana use should be legalized. This figure is twice the 31 percent who said the same in the year 2000. According to the Pew Research Center, 69 percent of Democrats feel marijuana use should be legal. When it comes to Republicans, however, just 45 percent are in favor of legalization although this does represent an increase from the 39 percent who said the same in 2015. At the 2018 Republican Party Convention in June, nearly 10,000 conservative Texas politicians voted in favor of revising the party platform on marijuana to decriminalize possession of small amounts, support industrial hemp, and urge the federal government to move cannabis to the Schedule 2 drug category. Republicans in other states have gone further, but the move nevertheless signals a big change from the partys previous position in a very short period of time. Former Republican National Committee member David Flaherty told Newsweek that it is now politically advantageous for Republicans to support marijuana given the growing public support for it. More than 80 percent of Millennials say they feel marijuana is safer than alcohol, and this group is about to become the nations biggest block of voters. Sources for this article include: PJMedia.com PewResearch.org Newsweek.com "Our hearts are broken for the girls and families of the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes," CEO Sylvia Acevedo of Girl Scouts of the USA said in a statement Sunday. "The Girl Scout Movement everywhere stands with our sister Girl Scouts in Wisconsin to grieve and comfort one another in the wake of this terrible tragedy." U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein canceled a Sunday appearance at a gun control rally in Orange County. Feinstein's campaign manager Jeff Millman says she is getting over a cold. She was scheduled to speak Sunday evening at an event alongside student activists from the Florida high school where 17 people were killed in February. Gun control is one of Feinstein's signature issues. She authored the now-expired 1994 assault weapons ban. Feinstein's most recent event was on Friday in Silicon Valley. Millman says she has an event planned Monday in the Bay Area but did not provide immediate details. Feinstein faces a challenge from state Sen. Kevin de Leon, a fellow Democrat. At 85 she is the oldest U.S. senator. De Leon has repeatedly called for a "new voice" in Washington but has not directly focused on her age. Authorities say a 15-year-old Florida boy was charged in his mother's strangulation death after her body was found buried at a nearby church. Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood told news outlets the teenager was arrested early Saturday after the body of his 46-year-old mother was found under a church fire pit. Investigators say the boy killed her after they argued about his school grades. After the killing, authorities say the boy called friends to help him make it look like someone had burglarized the home. The boy initially told deputies his mother was missing. On Sunday, Volusia County Judge Angela Dempsey said the teen will face a first-degree premeditated murder charge and remain jailed. Public Defender Larry Powers is representing the 15-year-old. Powers told the Daytona Beach News-Journal he agreed with the judge's decision that probable cause existed to detain his client on a murder charge. The two 17-year-olds who Chitwood said helped the boy conceal the crime were released Sunday into home detention, where they'll wear ankle monitors. The Associated Press typically does not identify juveniles charged with crimes. Assistant State Attorney Tammy Jacques says prosecutors are deciding whether to try him as an adult. Rhode Island's representatives in the U.S. House say they're asking voters for another term so they can continue to fight for the state. Both Democratic Reps. James Langevin and David Cicilline said they feel they have unfinished business in Washington, whether that's making health care and prescription drugs more affordable, rebuilding the nation's infrastructure or trying to reduce gun violence. On Tuesday, Langevin faces Republican Salvatore Caiozzo (ky-OH'-zoh), a retired businessman from West Greenwich, and Cicilline faces Republican Patrick Donovan, a stay-at-home father of four grown children who lives in Newport. Langevin, of Warwick, is seeking a 10th term to represent the 2nd Congressional District in western Rhode Island. Cicilline, of Providence, is seeking his fifth term in Congress representing the 1st Congressional District, which covers the easternmost part of the state. With just one day until Election Day, Chicago voters have already set records. As of early Monday morning, 195,184 ballots were cast in the city, according to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. For locations where you can vote early across the Chicago area click here. Thats compared to the 113,885 recorded with one day left in the 2014 midterms. The number still falls short of the 325,112 seen at this time during the 2016 presidential election, however. According to Marisel Hernandez, chairwoman for the Chicago Board of Elections, the city has 1.5 million reigstered voters. That's over 100,000 more than the midterm elections in 2014. "More younger voters are participating in this election than in the 2018 primary. There aren't the 15 and 20-point gaps in participation between the younger and older voter groups," she said. "However, we know you can do better and we're hoping you can close the gap." More than 116,000 voters have applied to vote by mail, an all-time record in Chicago. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 6 or the ballot can be brought to the main office on the sixth floor of the of the building at 69 W. Washington St. before 7 p.m. Tuesday. Women are dominating the votes by mail seen so far, Hernandez said. "It's mostly women- 59 percent to 41 percent - that's notable given the fact that women constitute 54 percent of our voters," she said. Early voting lines stretched outside buildings, winding around corners and leaving many waiting for hours to cast their ballots. "Many of our ward sites for early voting have been overwhelmed these last couple of days with turnouts that are closer to a presidential election than a midterm," Hernandez said. The weekend saw a major push from both sides in Illinois as rallies for both Democrats and Republicans drew big crowds. Former President Barack Obama was on hand at the UIC Pavilion as he continued his support for Democrats in the state. He urged the crowd to support a Democratic ticket that includes attorney general candidate and state Sen. Kwame Raoul, congressional candidates Lauren Underwood and Sean Casten and gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker. Meanwhile, Republicans held a get out the vote rally at a Square Celt in Orland Park, where Attorney General candidate Erika Harold and Gov. Bruce Rauner spoke. The fact that Speaker Madigan just gave my opponent a million dollars shows me how concerned he is about having independent checks in Springfield and shows me that my message is gaining traction, Harold said. No longer reluctant to speak out, former President Barack Obama is delivering a closing argument for Democrats that seeks a firm check on President Donald Trump's policies in Tuesday's midterm elections. These Are the Candidates Running for Illinois Governor Obama and Trump were offering competing visions for the country in a split screen of campaigning on Sunday, seeking to galvanize voter turnout in the fight to control Congress and governors' mansions. Obama was traveling to Gary, Indiana, on behalf of Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who faces a stiff challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. Later in the day, the former president was campaigning in his hometown of Chicago for businessman J.B. Pritzker, Democrats' nominee for Illinois governor. Obama has taken on a more public role this fall after refraining from offering a full-blown counterpoint to Trump's policies, which have sought to dismantle Obama's legacy. Without invoking his name, Obama has accused Trump of lying and "fear-mongering" and warned Democrats not to be distracted. Trump has punched back, accusing Obama of leaving behind a trail of broken promises on trade, the economic recovery and a promise during his presidency that patients could keep their doctors under his health care law. Trump was holding Sunday afternoon rallies in Macon, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, in support of Republican Brian Kemp, who is running for Georgia governor, and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who is seeking an open Senate seat in Tennessee. 10 Races to Watch in Illinois' Midterm Elections Former President Barack Obama has rallied voters in Chicago to support governor candidate J.B. Pritzker and other Democrats. Obama's Sunday event at the University of Illinois at Chicago came as Gov. Bruce Rauner and other Republicans campaigned across Illinois before Tuesday's election. These Are the Candidates Running for Illinois Governor Obama urged the crowd to support a Democratic ticket that includes attorney general candidate and state Sen. Kwame Raoul and congressional candidates Lauren Underwood and Sean Casten. Raoul faces Republican Erika Harold. Casten is challenging GOP Rep. Peter Roskam while Underwood is up against Rep. Randy Hultgren. Their races are among four Illinois congressional seats Democrats are targeting as the party tries to win control of the House. Governor Bruce Rauner held a get out the vote rally in Orland Park Sunday evening. NBC 5s Christian Farr has the preview. Rauner made stops at cafes from Decatur to St. Charles and was holding an evening rally in Orland Park. RNC spokesperson Kevin Knoth said Sunday evening in a statement, after years of slow growth under Obama, Republican policies have led our nation to new economic heights and a favorable environment for Illinois small businesses. Illinois voters know Sean Casten and Lauren Underwood would turn back this progress and will reject their agenda on Tuesday. 10 Races to Watch in Illinois' Midterm Elections Joshua Quick spoke to ABC's "Good Morning America" on Sunday and said he grabbed Scott Paul Beierle's gun after it jammed, and hit him. Tallahassee Police have identified Beierle as the man who posed as a customer to get into the studio Hot Yoga Tallahassee during a Friday night class and started shooting, killing two and wounding six. Police say Beierle, 40, then turned the gun on himself but authorities have offered no motive in the attack. Pope Francis on Saturday defrocked two more Chilean bishops accused of sexually abusing minors, and to show greater transparency about how he's responding to the church's global sex abuse crisis, he publicly explained why they were removed. The Vatican's unusually detailed statement announcing the laicization of retired Archbishop Francisco Jose Cox Huneeus and retired Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez signaled a new degree of transparency following past missteps by Francis that showed he had grossly underestimated the gravity of the abuse scandal. The statement said the two were defrocked for abusing minors with evidence so overwhelming that a canonical trial was unnecessary. The Vatican said the decision cannot be appealed. Cox, 87 and suffering from dementia, is a member of the Schoenstatt religious order and had served as a bishop in Chillan, Chile before becoming the No. 2 official at the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, a high-profile position during St. John Paul II's papacy. He returned to Chile and became bishop in La Serena until he left in 1997 under unclear circumstances, but took on administrative jobs in Rome and at the Latin American bishops' conference in Colombia. In 2002, the Vatican office for bishops asked the Schoenstatt Fathers to take him in one of its houses, apparently because of abuse allegations. He has been living in Germany since then but last year a new, formal accusation was received by the Vatican about an alleged case of abuse that happened in Germany in 2004. The Schoenstatt Fathers said Saturday the Vatican had asked that Cox remain in their custody. The order said it would cooperate with the justice system, given that victims in Chile have made criminal complaints against him. "We receive this news with much shame for the damage caused to the victims," the community said. "We show solidarity with them and their profound suffering. Today more than ever, we deplore every act of abuse that offends the dignity of people." Given the favor that Cox enjoyed by John Paul's inner circle, his fall is yet another stain on John Paul's legacy. It also calls into question the senior Schoenstatt cardinal in Chile, Cardinal Javier Errazuriz, an adviser to Francis who has long been accused of covering up for abusers. Ordenes Fernandez, 53, for his part, was made bishop of Iquique, in northern Chile, in 2006 at the young age of 42. He retired six years later allegedly for health reasons. But subsequently allegations of abuse were leveled against him. Previously, the Vatican has rarely, if ever, announced laicizations of individual priests and only issued a single-line statement if a bishop had resigned, without further explanation. Before Francis' papacy began in 2013, it was Vatican practice to reveal if resignations were retirements due to age, or for some other 'grave' reason that made them unfit for office. But Francis early on removed even that minimum amount of information. Advocates for abuse survivors have long complained about the Vatican's secrecy in handling such abuse cases, and the lack of transparency when it arrived at judgments. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said Saturday's more detailed statement suggested a new trend in the way the Vatican will announce the results of investigations of bishops accused of abuse. A similarly detailed statement was issued when Francis defrocked Chile's most notorious abuser, the Rev. Fernando Karadima, several weeks ago. Francis has been under fire for his handling of abuse cases for years, but the issue now is threatening his credibility and his legacy. The church's abuse scandal has exploded anew in the U.S., Chile, Germany and elsewhere, and decisions made early in Francis' papacy made it appear that he did not grasp the gravity of the trauma done to abuse victims. In May, all active bishops in Chile offered to resign over their collective mishandling of the abuse scandal. So far, Francis has accepted the resignations of seven. Francis discussed the issue during his Vatican audience Saturday with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera Echenique, who also met with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The Vatican said both meetings discussed "the painful scourge of abuse of minors, reiterating the effort of all in collaboration to combat and prevent the perpetration of such crimes and their concealment." Chilean survivors of abuse applauded the defrockings, saying the two bishops had used their power to abuse children and gotten away with it. A group of lay Catholics from Cox's old diocese in La Serena said they hoped he would be extradited to face justice in Chile, saying he had abused children as young as five. "We want to let it be known that the Schoenstatt order has in its hands a criminal, a predator," who should be "judged and punished like any other delinquent," said Juan Rojas, a spokesman for the John XXIII lay group of La Serena. Chilean abuse victim Juan Carlos Cruz, who has long denounced the abuse cover-up orchestrated by the highest echelons of the Chilean church, said the "circle was getting tighter" around Errazuriz, the retired archbishop of Santiago who is a member of Cox's order. Francis is under pressure to distance himself from Errazuriz, who remains a member of his kitchen cabinet of nine cardinal advisers. AP journalist Patricia Luna contributed to this report. The U.S. re-imposed all sanctions Monday on Iran that once were lifted under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, grinding further down on the Islamic Republic's already-ailing economy in what President Hassan Rouhani described as a "war situation" now facing Tehran. Iran ran televised air defense drills showing soldiers cheering the downing of a drone, but otherwise held back from any military response over U.S. efforts to curtail what Washington calls its "malign activities" across the Middle East. While previously warning it could ramp up its nuclear program, Iran still honors the atomic accord now limiting its enrichment of uranium, according to the United Nations. As Iranian officials struck a martial tone, the strain could be felt on the streets of Tehran. It lurked in shops emptied by the country's rapidly depreciating currency. It could be felt in the lines at currency exchange shops. And it could be heard in the stress of the voices of people struggling to buy medicine. "When the dollar rate went up, prices for medicine went up by 80 percent," said a man who identified himself only as Amidi, who suffers from mental illness and has a son with cancer. "I can't buy my own medicine anymore. I haven't taken my medicine for two months, because I can't afford it." The U.S. Treasury Department imposed penalties on more than 700 Iranian and Iranian-linked individuals, entities, aircraft and vessels in the new sanctions. Among those are 50 Iranian banks and subsidiaries, more than 200 people and ships, Iran's state-run airline Iran Air and more than 65 of its planes. The new sanctions particularly hurt Iran's vital oil industry, which provides a crucial source of hard currency. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told journalists in Washington the sanctions already had cost Iran the sale of over 1 million barrels of crude oil a day. "Our objective is to starve the Iranian regime of the revenue it uses to fund violent and destabilizing activities throughout the Middle East and, indeed, around the world," Pompeo said. "The Iranian regime has a choice: It can either do a 180-degree turn from its outlawed course of action and act like a normal country, or it can see its economy crumble." The administration of President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise of tearing up the nuclear deal, insists it does not seek "regime change" in Iran through the sanctions. It says It wants Iran to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. However, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his national security adviser John Bolton both have given speeches advocating overthrowing Iran's theocratic government. Analysts feared in the run-up to the sanctions that global oil prices could spike on tight supply and increasing demand. However, the Trump administration allowed some of its allies Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey as well as rival China to continue to purchase Iranian oil as long as they work to reduce imports to zero. That caused prices of benchmark Brent crude to dip down from over $80 a barrel in recent days. It traded up over $73 a barrel Monday after the sanctions took effect. "We have the toughest sanctions ever imposed but on oil we want to go a little bit slower because I don't want to drive the oil prices in the world," Trump said on Thursday. "I could get the Iran oil down to zero immediately, but it would cause a shock to the market." Rouhani, whose signature achievement was the nuclear deal, promised that Iran would still be able to sell its oil on the international market. Its national oil company has started selling crude oil to private companies who then can sell to anonymous buyers abroad as a means to get around the sanctions. "We are in an economic war situation. We are standing up to a bullying enemy," Rouhani told government officials in televised remarks, invoking Iran's ruinous 1980s war with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "Yesterday, Saddam was in front us; today Trump is front of us. There is no difference. We must resist and win." Iranian state television broadcast video of air defense systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military maneuvers underway across a vast stretch of the country's north. It included surface-to-air missiles shooting down a drone. Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis. Its national currency, the rial, now trades at 150,000 to one U.S. dollar; a year ago, it was about 40,500 to $1. The economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year, resulting in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Sporadic demonstrations still continue. Gholamali Khoshroo, Iran's U.N. ambassador, accused the U.S. of "brazenly and boldly" violating a U.N. Security Council resolution that unanimously endorsed the nuclear deal by re-imposing sanctions, and he called for "a collective response by the international community." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China regretted the U.S. decision, adding the accord "should be comprehensively and effectively implemented" despite the fact that the United States pulled out of it in May. European nations still a part of the nuclear deal have sought to offer protection for its firms to continue trading with Iran. However, many international firms already have backed out of the country, fearful of facing American sanctions. That fear also has kept shoppers out of the stores in Tehran. "Check the shops here one by one. There are no customers," said Hossein Ahmadi, who sells purses. "People have kept their money for rainy days out of fear of sanctions." Meanwhile, there are fears of other threats. Iran's Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Javad Azeri Jahromi and his deputy, Hamid Fatahi, both tweeted about a cyberattack targeting the country's communications infrastructure, without elaborating. They blamed Israel for the attack and both referenced Stuxnet, which destroyed thousands of centrifuges involved in Iran's contested nuclear program in 2011. Stuxnet is widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation, though neither country has acknowledged being behind the attack. Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the Iranian claim. Last week, Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali, the head of the country's military unit in charge of combating sabotage, said Rouhani's cellphone was tapped recently. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime foe of Iran, lauded the sanctions as "historic," saying they will "strangle" what he described as Iranian state-sponsored terrorism. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman tweeted that the U.S. decision to restore sanctions "is the sea change the Middle East has been waiting for." Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Tia Goldenberg, Edith M. Lederer, Amir Vahdat and television producer Mehdi Fattahi contributed. Lowe's, the home improvement store chain, is closing several stores, including one in Connecticut. The company announced Monday morning that it is closing 20 underperforming stores in the United States, including the one at 48 Boston Post Road in Orange, and 31 Canadian stores and other locations. A statement on Lowes website says it expects to close the impacted stores by Feb. 1, 2019 and hold store closing sales for most of the impacted locations with the exception of select stores in the U.S., which will close immediately. While decisions that impact our associates are never easy, the store closures are a necessary step in our strategic reassessment as we focus on building a stronger business, Marvin R. Ellison, Lowes president and CEO said in a statement. We believe our people are the foundation of our business and essential to our future growth, and we are making every effort to transition impacted associates to nearby Lowes stores. Lowe's is also closing one store in Quincy, Massachusetts and two in New York City. The closure of the Lowes store in Orange, Connecticut is a blow to the local New Haven economy, but it is not surprising, Fred McKinney, the directors of the Peoples United Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Quinnipiac University said in a statement. Large-box retailers continue to be hard hit by dramatic changes in how consumers are shopping for goods, particularly products that can be bought and sold over the internet. Stores in New Haven and Milford will remain open and McKinney said he suspects that senior leadership at Lowes believes that closing one store in Connecticut will not have dramatic impact on overall sales because of the proximity of other stores and an increased push to move sales to the internet. He went on to say he anticipates other large chain retailers will continue closing and consolidating. One of the lessons that is not lost on large retailers is the lesson of the bankruptcy of Sears. Many analysts believe that Sears waited too long to close stores and move more sales to the internet. This is a lesson that does not want to be repeated by other retailers, McKinney said in a statement. See the full list of stores the company will be closing here. A popular pizzeria chain in New England has abruptly closed several locations in Connecticut. Patrons and workers at Papa Ginos locations tweeted Sunday about the surprise closures, which included several locations in Connecticut, throughout the Boston-area and neighboring New Hampshire. NBC Connecticut reached out to the locations in Vernon, Windsor Locks and Waterford, which all had a voice recording announcing the stores were permanently closed. The chain's website only listed its Willimantic location as of Sunday evening under Connecticut locations. The company hasnt provided a full list of the closures and a company spokeswoman didnt immediately comment to the Associated Press. The Dedham, Mass. company previously said it had 150 stores. As of Sunday, its website only listed 97 locations. Papa Ginos was founded in 1961 in East Boston as Piece O Pizza. It changed its name to Papa Ginos in 1968 and expanded throughout Boston, other parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The company also owns DAngelo Grilled Sandwiches. Patrons reported some of those restaurants also had signs saying they were permanently closed Sunday. Connecticut State Police are trying to identify a man who is accused of inappropriately touching a female at a store in Lisbon on Sunday. Troopers said the man touched the private area of a female victim inside of the Walmart on River Road in Lisbon around 8 p.m. He then fled in an unknown direction after exiting the building. In a photo provided by police, the man can be seen wearing glasses, a dark-colored hoodie and dark-colored pants with white and red shoes. Anyone with information on the man's identity is asked to contact Troop E at (860) 848-6500. Calls may be made anonymously. Crews with backhoes and other heavy equipment scooped up splintered boards, broken glass, chunks of asphalt and other debris in hurricane-flattened Mexico Beach on 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 19 Sunday as crews worked to clear building debris along with the rubble from a collapsed section of the beachfront highway. Mayor Al Cathey estimated 250 residents stayed behind when the hurricane struck, and he said he remained hopeful about their fate. He said search-and-rescue teams in the beach town had already combed areas with the worst damage. "If we lose only one life, to me that's going to be a miracle," Cathey said. He said enough food and water had been brought in for the residents who remain. Even some cellphone service had returned to the devastated community. A framed portrait of Jesus was propped Sunday facing out of the window of Diana Hughes' home in Mexico Beach. She rode out the hurricane on the couch huddled with her dog and her ex-husband. The storm peeled off a small section of the roof and a few inches of water got in the single-story house. But the pickup truck wouldn't start after getting swamped with water. Hughes still had her home, but no way to leave it. "We need a generator, but we just lack transportation," Hughes said on her front porch. "We've got food and we've got water. But we've got to keep ice in the refrigerator so the food won't spoil. You can only eat so many crackers." President Donald Trump plans to visit Florida and Georgia on Monday to see damage. Four days after the storm struck, a large swath of the Panhandle was suffering, from little beach towns to the larger Panama City to rural communities miles from where the hurricane came ashore. More than 190,000 homes and businesses in Florida were without electricity, along with about 120,000 in Georgia. "There are a lot of inland areas, some of these poor rural counties to the north of there. These counties took a devastating hit," Sen. Marco Rubio said on NBC's "Meet The Press." "And we are talking about poor people, many of them are older, miles from each other, isolated in many cases from roads, including some dirt roads that are cut off right now. We haven't been able to reach those people in a number of days." In downtown Marianna, Florida, the facades of historic buildings lay in pieces on the ground across from the courthouse. Jill Braxton stopped with a pickup truck loaded with hay, saying many people in rural areas nearby had trapped animals and needed supplies for their livestock. "We're just trying to help some other people who may not be able to get out of their driveways for a couple of days," Braxton said. "There was a girl that had trapped horses, horses that were down, and horses that really needed vet care that could not get there. There's been animals killed. People lost their cows." Some victims stranded by the storm managed to summon relief by using logs to spell out "HELP" on the ground, officials in Bay County, which includes Mexico Beach, said in a Facebook post Sunday. Official said someone from another county was using a mapping app, noticed the distress message and contacted authorities. No details were released on who was stranded and what sort of help was needed. Meanwhile, Sen. Bill Nelson said Tyndall Air Force Base on the Panhandle was heavily damaged, but he promised it would be rebuilt. The Florida Democrat and member of the Armed Services Committee said older buildings on the base were demolished, while newer ones will need substantial repairs. The base is home to some of the nation's most advanced fighter jets, and Nelson said some hangars were damaged severely. But he gave no information on how many planes were on the base during the storm or how many were damaged. For the few residents remaining in Mexico Beach, conditions were treacherous. Steve Lonigan was outside his home, talking with neighbor Jim Ostman, when a loud cracking sound made both men jump. It was just a small wooden block shifting in the sand beneath the weight of the front end of Lonigan's camper trailer. "All this stuff is just dangerous," Ostman said, glancing at the destruction all around. "It's so unstable." Lonigan and his wife returned Sunday after evacuating to Georgia. Seawater surged into his home, leaving a soggy mess of mud and leaves, even though the house stands 12 feet above ground on concrete blocks. The single-story house had broken windows, and part of its roof and front steps were missing. Lonigan used a ladder to climb inside. "We've got a lot more left than other people," he said. "We were able to sleep in the bedroom last night." In hard-hit Panama City, pastor John Blount held Sunday services at St. Andrew United Methodist Church outdoors, in front of a wall demolished by the storm. Afterward, the church held a large cookout for the storm-weary. Untold numbers of people across the region have damaged homes and no power and don't have the means to relocate, either to a new or temporary place. More roads were becoming passable as crews cleared trees and power lines, but traffic lights remained out and there were long lines at the few open gas stations. Florida officials evacuated nearly 3,000 inmates from two hurricane-damaged prisons the Gulf Correctional Institution and Annex and Calhoun Correctional Institution. They had damage to the roof and the infrastructure critical for security, authorities said. No inmates or staff members were injured. One way to help people affected by Hurricane Michael is by donating to the Red Cross. Find more information on how to donate here. A newlywed couple was killed late Saturday in a helicopter crash just hours after exchanging vows in Uvalde, Texas, about 80 miles west of San Antonio, officials said. The helicopter carrying Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman Byler crashed on a hillside in a remote area about 15 miles northwest of Uvalde, officials from the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Authority said. The helicopter's pilot also died in the crash. Officials have not identified the pilot, but NBC affiliate KPRC has identified him as Gerald Douglas Lawrence, 76, of Houston. Craig Hatch of the National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot was "very experienced." The cause of the crash is unknown, and authorities are still working to recover the helicopter from its precarious position on the side of the hill where it crashed, NBC News reported. Authorities were notified of a crash late Saturday night, but first responders had to wait for daylight to search the remote area for the crash site. Hatch estimated the couple was in the air for only 5 to 10 minutes before the crash. The couple's wedding portal on the website The Knot had said their nuptials were taking place on Nov. 3 on Will Byler's family ranch in Uvalde. By Monday afternoon, the wedding information had been removed from their portal on The Knot, replaced with the message: "Our deepest sympathies and thoughts are with this family at their great loss. We know both families appreciate all your love, support and kindness during this time." Will and Baille were both seniors at Sam Houston State University, according to The Houstonian, the school's student-run newspaper. The university's student body president posted a statement on social media Monday offering condolences to the couple's families and friends and offering support to the student community. "As we move forward through this hard time it is important to remember that we should all live life like Will and Bailee," reads the post signed by David Eller. "Live every day not fearing the unknown but putting your best foot forward to make an impact wherever your path leads you." Family and friends took to social media over the weekend to share touching tributes to the newlyweds and posted photos and videos showing the happy couple dancing at the reception just hours earlier. The Bell 206B helicopter was registered to W.T. Byler Co. Inc., according to FAA records. The aircraft was manufactured in 2005. Its current certification was issued in 2012 and due to expire in 2021. Today is Election Day and the polls opened at 6 a.m. and will be open until 8 p.m. for Connecticut residents to make some important decisions in the midterm elections, including choosing the next governor, one U.S. Senate seat, five Congressional seats and several state offices. For full Election Day coverage, visit our Decision 2018 section and download our free NBC CT app. Voting: Check here to see where you should vote. Check to see if you are registered to vote. When you arrive at your polling place, the poll worker will ask for your ID. If you do not have any, you may sign an affidavit instead in most cases, according to the Secretary of the States website. They said you are several options for identification and they do not need to be a driver's license or have a photo. Learn more here about requirements for voter identification. Governor: Gov. Dannel Malloy decided not to run for re-election, so voters will be deciding who will succeed him. Ned Lamont is the Democratic candidate for governor, Bob Stefanowski is the Republican candidate and Oz Griebel is the unaffiliated candidate. The three candidates on the ticket have been hitting as many stops as they can this weekend, trying to make sure their messages are reaching as many people as possible. U.S. Senate: Voters heading to the polls for the midterm elections will also be voting for one United States Senate seat. The incumbent, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, is running against Republican Matthew Corey. Sen. Chris Murphy and his Republican opponent visited with voters on Friday just days from Election Day. Proposals to Amend State Constitution Voters will also be deciding whether to make two changes to Connecticut's constitution. One ballot question asks whether the constitution should be changed to ensure transportation revenues are spent on transportation projects. The second amendment calls for placing limits on the General Assembly when it attempts to transfer or sell state-owned property to a non-state entity. U.S. House of Representatives: Connecticut voters will also be asked to choose U.S. Representatives in the states five Congressional Districts. District One: The incumbent, John Larson, a Democrat, is running against Republican Jennifer Nye. District Two: Joe Courtney, the incumbent and Democratic candidate, is running against Republican Danny Postemski Jr. District Three: Rosa DeLauro, the incumbent and Democratic Party candidate, is running against Republican Angel Cadena. District Four: The incumbent, Jim Himes, is the Democratic Party candidate and Harry Arora is the Republican Party candidate. District Five: U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty announced she would not run for a fourth term in the wake of allegations of abuse in her office and decided to retire after her handling of those allegations became public. Manny Santos is the Republican Party candidate for the seat and Jahana Hayes, is the Democratic Party candidate. 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. Secretary of the State: The incumbent, Denise Merrill, is running as the Democratic Candidate and Susan Chapman is running as the Republican Party Candidate. Treasurer: Denise Nappier opted not to run for re-election after 20 years in office. Shawn Wooden is the Democratic Party candidate and Thad Gray is the Republican Party candidate. Democrat Shawn Wooden and Republican Thad Gray took questions from moderator Max Reiss. Comptroller: The incumbent, Kevin Lembo is the Democratic Party candidate and Kurt Miller is the Republican Party candidate. Attorney General: William Tong is the Democratic Party candidate and Sue Hatfield is the Republican candidate. The debate, which was moderated by political reporter Max Reiss, gave Republican Susan Hatfield and Democrat Rep. William Tong an opportunity to share their platforms with voters. Local Races: Other races include all 36 State Senate and 151 Assembly seats. See the candidate list here. Ballot Questions: See which questions you will find on your ballot here. Town-by-Town Ballots: Check your town ballot here. Report Issues at the Polls: Call NBC Connecticut Investigates at 855-NBC-CT30. Or you could call the state's Election Day hotline at 1-866-733-2463 or email elections@ct.gov. vit.load({ modal: true, officialOnly: false, title: 'Voting Information Tool', subtitle: 'Enter your address to find out your polling place and ballot information', width: '728px', height: '480px', colors: { 'header': '#229acd', 'landscapeBackgroundHeader': '#228a9d' }, language: 'en', }); A suspect wanted in a 2010 Texas slaying has been arrested in Arkansas. The U.S. Marshals Service says Antonio Evans was arrested Friday without incident at a Bentonville, Arkansas, apartment complex by officers from multiple law enforcement agencies. He was wanted in Tarrant County, Texas, on charges of capital murder and aggravated sexual assault of a child. He was booked into the Benton County jail, where he awaits extradition. The lights are back on at Bradley International Airport and TSA screening has resumed after a power problem caused multiple outages on Monday morning. Authorities at the airport in Connecticut said it experienced a power loss from its main source of power. Terminal A had been operating on backup power, the airport said. Some areas were operating with lights and others were not. Airport officials are working with Eversource to determine the cause of the power loss. The power problems impacted the airport's TSA screening area and no screening was taking place for hours. A crowd of people could be seen standing in the dark near the TSA checkpoint around 4 a.m. A power problem has been reported at Bradley International Airport on Monday morning. Some lights flickered back on around 4:45 a.m. before fully returning around 5 a.m. The lights are back on at Bradley International Airport after a power problem on Monday morning. Around 5:20 a.m., the lights went out again. Power was restored around 6 a.m. before going out again around four minutes later. The lights are off at Bradley International Airport again after being restored following a power problem on Monday morning. Officials restored power again shortly after. Hundreds at @Bradley_Airport stranded in terminals waiting to get tickets & go through TSA after this mornings power outage. More on #NBCCT @NBCConnecticut pic.twitter.com/OSle5zNNWB Alessandra Martinez (@AlessandraNBC) November 5, 2018 Hundreds of people were stranded in the terminals waiting to get their tickets and go through TSA. Passengers were allowed to enter the TSA checkpoint around 7:30 a.m. More than 20 flights are delayed because of the power problems. DELAYS! Several flights are delayed because of power issues at @Bradley_Airport. The LIGHTS are OUT & passengers are not able to get through security or get to their gate. LIVE UPDATES @NBCConnecticut #NBCCT @AlessandraNBC #FlightDelays pic.twitter.com/VpyQHa0rpv Jennifer Joas NBC CT (@JenniferJoas) November 5, 2018 Inbound roadway access to the airport was temporarily closed, but has since reopened. If you are scheduled to fly this morning, you're urged to contact your airline to find out the status of your flight. "Here are the facts," non-candidate Daley wrote. "The meter system was generating only $19 million a year before the lease was made. The city simply did not have the resources to adequately invest in the antiquated system. The private operator, however, completed a wholesale modernization ahead of schedule. In California's 10th Congressional District, a sprawling patchwork of farms and small cities east of San Francisco, a tight congressional race is coming down to the wire. Democrat Josh Harder, a 31-year-old former venture capitalist, is running to represent his native district after making millions through Silicon Valley. He is challenging Republican Jeff Denham, a local farmer and Iraq War veteran who has spent most of his life in the district's Central Valley. The two are vying for a district, made up of rural Stanislaus County and parts of San Joaquin County, that has voted for Denham to represent them since 2010, but went for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by 2 points in the 2016 presidential election. "This race is representative of what we're seeing all over the country," said Melinda Jackson, a political science professor at San Jose State University. "Elections will hinge on voter turnout, specifically whether Democrats are motivated to push back against President Trump." The nonpartisan Cook Political Report puts the race as a toss-up. A few public polls have shown Harder with a slight edge over Denham. The Democrat raised over $2.5 million more than his opponent and spent about $3 million more, according to federal election data from mid-October. The race is asking tougher questions than just opinions on policy, said Thomas Reeves, a nonpartisan spokesman for the city of Modesto, the district's largest city. He said residents will have to decide whether to side with Denham's GOP, whose rhetoric on immigration, health care and the environment has become increasingly abrasive under Trump's leadership, or take a chance with Harder, who lived until recently out of the district. "How do you balance the larger politics of the nation with the realities of California?" Reeves said. This article, part 10 in a series, examines one of the key battleground races for control of the House of Representatives in the Nov. 6 midterm elections. Carried by grassroots momentum, Democrats must take 23 seats from Republicans to win the balance of power. They are contending with Republicans' experience and organization, and an outspoken but polarizing president. Who Knows the District? The Denham campaign has tried to make the election about who really knows the district and its needs. Denham has attacked Harder for his ties to Silicon Valley, claiming that Harder is only interested in flipping the district for Democrats rather than helping the district itself. "This is a local campaign," Denham told The Associated Press. "This is the fifth time they've moved somebody into this district to run against me." Denham was not available for an interview with NBC in the last few days of the campaign, but Denham's campaign manager, Joshua Whitfield, said the race boils down to "who is local and who is not." Less than 3 percent of Harder's campaign donations have come from inside the district, compared to about 18 percent of Denham's, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Harder countered that his family "settled in this district over 180 years ago, I was born here and graduated from the public school system here." He pointed to Denham's voting record, which aligned with Trump's almost 98 percent of the time, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis. To Harder, that shows that Denham is content with siding with his party over his constituents. "If you really want to show you understand a community, you've got to make sure you fight for it not only when it's convenient, but when it actually matters," Harder said. A Diverse District Immigration is an integral issue for California's 10th District, where immigrants make up a large portion of the district's farm workers and over 40 percent of the population is Hispanic. Reeves said the communities in the district are often proud to have such a diverse population, and local support for immigrants' rights and protections is driven by necessity. "Our district sees workers that come from all parts of the world. That is a population that we absolutely rely on," he said. Fluent in Spanish and with a wife of Mexican heritage, Denham has been outspoken in his support for "Dreamers," people brought to the country illegally as young children who are pushing for citizenship, and protections for immigrants. He has repeatedly nudged Congress to find pathways to citizenship for immigrants with efforts such as his ENLIST Act, which would allow "Dreamers" to gain lawful resident status by serving in the military. (The bill, cosponsored by many Democrats, has yet to receive a vote.) Denham's efforts often clash with the anti-immigration sentiments of Trump and many others in the Republican party. Days before the election, Trump said he plans to issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship for those born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents, despite that right being enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. For Denham and his campaign, there is little room for these attitudes. Being pro-immigrant is "simply a matter of right and wrong," Whitfield said. On this front, Harder agrees. "I think this district is divided by political party, but we are also united on whether or not we should be protecting immigrants and 'Dreamers' that attend our school system," Harder said. Water More than 23 million California residents are experiencing drought, about two-thirds of the state's population, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System. In Stanislaus County, the largest county in the district, the land is "abnormally dry." Both Denham and Harder oppose a proposal by California's State Water Board regionally known as the "water grab," which would redirect some of the district's water into the ocean to boost fishing stocks along the way. The district had more than 7,000 farm operators and close to 5,000 farms as of 2012, according to the Department of Agriculture. If the water grab is enacted, the Modesto Irrigation District forecasts losses of $1.6 billion in output, $167 million in revenue, $330 million in labor income and 6,576 jobs. Denham has endeared himself to the district as a farmer who leads on water issues, according to the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau, which endorsed the congressman. Legislation Denham wrote making it easier to fund water storage in the region was part of America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, signed into law last month. "Water is the lifeblood of our agricultural community," Whitfield said. Harder's understanding of the water crisis comes from his family's roots in the farming community, he wrote in an August op-ed in the Modesto Bee. Harder stressed the importance of building "water security" through long-term water conservation and sustainability plans. Health Care Health care has been a point of contention in the race for the 10th District, as it has been in many close races across the country. Health care was the issue most voters called important in a Gallup poll released Friday, and more Democrats thought it was important than Republicans. Denham's vote for the American Health Care Act in 2017, the nearly successful effort to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, could be a deciding factor in how residents of the district vote. Harder believes in Medicare for all, pledges to fight for lower health care prices, and pointed out that more than 50 percent of the district is on Medicaid. He said that when Denham voted for the AHCA, he voted to gut Medicaid, potentially leaving over 100,000 constituents without affordable health care. "Every person in this community has a loved one that would be hurt by that bill, by that vote, by our member of Congress," Harder said. Denham said he is proud of his votes and has spoken of different ways to improve health care for the district, such as increasing access to doctors through expanded medical residency training programs. In a September debate with Harder, Denham asked how Harder plans on paying for a Medicare-for-all system and portrayed Harder as having "Bay Area" plans for a rural district. "When you talk about Bay Area principles, this is one of their biggest principles," he said. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, in what she said was her strongest condemnation to date, has called on President Donald Trump to stop his "divisiveness" and try to unify the nation. "I dont particularly respect this President, particularly the things he says, the demeaning, the name calling. I don't like it in a president. I dont like the divisiveness, I dont like the result of the divisiveness." Feinstein made the comments Sunday during an interview for NBC4's "NewsConference" program. She is running for re-election against fellow Democrat, state Sen. Kevin De Leon. While she didnt blame the president directly for the recent mass shooting at the "Tree of Life" synagogue in Pittsburgh, Feinstein appeared to hold the president responsible for rhetoric she believes feeds into extremism. "By the things we say we enable people to do certain things," she said. "What you want is to enable people to be good Americans... provide a unifying force... instead he goes to rally after rally of just his own people. I've never seen a sitting president do that, not in my lifetime. What about everybody else?" As for working with the administration Feinstein says she will "resist when I must and cooperate when I can." Feinstein says her staff is working on a new immigration reform bill that would codify DACA into federal law. She also expressed hope of seeking another assault weapons ban and while saying she opposed government-run health care known as "single-payer" she did advocate for a government option to private health insurance. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Feinstein does not believe the partisan vote on Justice Brett Kavanaugh following his contentious confirmation process would damage confidence in future rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. "Kavanaugh is now on the court and he will be judged the way every Supreme Court justice is judged and I think that is fair. And we will watch, and we we'll wait and we'll see." If elected, Feinstein, who is 85, would be 91 by the end of her next term. She says she still has the stamina for the job/ "I work a very long day. I've produced, I get things done. I have a good staff. They work hard, and I work hard. As long as my health and my brain continue on, I would like to continue on." United States Customs and Border Protection is looking to hire in Southern California during the month of November, and will be holding several job fairs. Job-seekers can get their questions answered by expert recruiters and apply at several job fairs in Torrance, Culver City, Long Beach and beyond. Border Patrol is looking to fill entry level and experienced positions. Typical tasks include: Enforce the laws and regulations of U.S. customs, immigration and agriculture Facilitate the flow of legitimate commerce and travel Inspections of people and means of transport Determine the eligibility of individuals to enter the U.S. Prevent illegal entry of people, prohibited goods, the smuggling of illegal drugs and other types of contraband To apply, certain prerequisites must be met: Pass a polygraph exam Pass a background check Cannot have convictions for minor crimes of domestic violence Be a citizen of the U.S. Live in the U.S. for the past 3 years Comply with medical, physical fitness and drug test standards related to work Must work in regular and recurring shifts Must carry a firearm Have a valid driver's license Job Fairs Nov. 5, 6, 13, 14, 20, 21, 29 and 30 Time: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Place: 1 World Trade Center Drive, Suite 534, Long Beach Nov. 6 Time: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Place: 6333 Bristol Parkway, Culver City Nov. 8 Time: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Place: Ontario Airport Hotel: 700 N Haven Ave., Ontario Nov. 8 What to Know "Outlander" season 4 premieres Nov. 4th "Outlander" Season 4 filmed in Scotland The show has been renewed through season 6 "Outlander" is back on Starz and the Frasers are facing new challenges in the 18th century. This time it's on American soil. Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) and Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) arrive at another turning point in history - the cusp of the American Revolution. When we last see them, a storm has swept their ship to the Georgia coast and it seems both metaphorically and physically, the slate has been wiped clean and they will get a fresh start. But any fan of "Outlander" will tell you, the Frasers won't be so lucky. At least not this season. The TV series is based on a popular book series by author Diana Gabaldon, the first of which came out 27 years ago. Fans have waited a long time to see this story play out, and they know that many dark days are ahead before the Frasers find peace. But we watch it anyway because it has romance, action and time travel and that's a winning combination. "This is a season where we really see Claire and Jamie form a true partnership. There isn't any of those, will they or won't they, cliffhangers anymore." Balfe tells me. This season, Jamie and Claire find themselves in the middle of a very dark time in American history. From Georgia, they make their way to North Carolina and encounter a notorious pirate and smuggler in a fateful meeting that will come back to haunt them. As they start to build their lives together on Fraser's Ridge, they also try to navigate the issues of slavery, strained encounters with Native Americans, and a tenuous loyalty to the British ruling class. As much as "Outlander" is a story about the passionate love this couple has for one another, it's also about time travel which makes it even more entertaining. During season 2, Claire went back to 20th century through a stonehenge, had Jamie's baby, and raised her with another man as her father. Brianna Fraser (Sophie Skelton) is all grown up now and facing her own challenges with her love interest Roger Wakefield (Richard Rankin). But a new discovery has Brianna and Roger thinking about following in her mother's footsteps, and going back in time. Heughan and Balfe say despite the heavy subject matter in "Outlander" we will see Claire and Jamie have happy moments together. Balfe says, "There's a lot of things happening around them that are quite difficult and put them in jeopardy. But as a couple, I think they're in a good place." We are rooting for Claire and Jamie as they carve out their own American dream, but know it's a rough road ahead and will be watching every step of the way. "Outlander" season 4 premieres on Starz November 4th. A yoga student is being lauded as a hero for wrestling with a gunman who posed as a customer to get into a yoga studio in Florida and started firing. Joshua Quick spoke to ABC's "Good Morning America" on Sunday and said he grabbed Scott Paul Beierle's gun after it jammed, and hit him. Tallahassee police have identified Beierly as the man who entered the Hot Yoga Tallahassee during a Friday night class and started shooting, killing two and wounding six. Police say the 40-year-old Beierle then turned the gun on himself but have offered no motive in the attack. Quick said Beierle was able to grab the gun back and then pistol-whip him. "I jumped up as quickly as I could," said Quick, who had visible injuries on his face. "I ran back over and the next thing I know I'm grabbing a broom, the only thing I can, and I hit him again." It created a window of opportunity for some people in the studio time to flee. "Thanks to him I was able to rush out the door," Daniela Garcia Albalat told "Good Morning America." She was in the class and thought she was going to die when the shooting broke out. "He saved my life." Two women a 61-year-old faculty member at Florida State University, and a 21-year-old FSU student from Atlanta who was due to graduate in May were fatally shot. Dr. Nancy Van Vessem was an internist who also served as chief medical director for Capital Health Plan, the area's leading health maintenance organization. She was also a faculty member at Florida State and a mother. Maura Binkley grew up in Atlanta, was a member of a sorority and was studying for a double major in English and German. Yoga teachers in the small capitol city and around the country were stunned and horrified that such a violent act could unfold in a place intended for tranquility, healing and nonviolence. "It's a place that brings me joy and peace, and I think it's ruined," said Katie Bohnett, an instructor at the yoga studio who skipped her normal Friday practice to meet a friend for dinner. "This monster ruined it." Other yoga studios around Florida scheduled classes to help raise money for the victims, and the Florida Yoga Teachers Association set up a GoFundMe campaign. The news was front and center on Yoga Journal's website: "Now, yogis around the world are questioning whether the place they go when events like this happen (read: their yoga studios) are a safe retreat after all." Some teachers wondered what they would say to their next class of students. "As an instructor when you start every class, you ask students to close their eyes to relax, because you're in such a safe space," said Amanda Morrison, a 35-year-old yoga instructor in Tallahassee. She's scheduled to teach a class Monday, and the safety of her students is on her mind. "I'm already thinking about locking the doors once class starts," she said. Beierle was a brooding military veteran and former teacher who appeared to have made videos in which he detailed his hatred of everything from the Affordable Care Act to girls who'd allegedly mistreated him in middle school. The videos were posted four years ago and have been removed from YouTube in the wake of the shooting. Numerous disturbing details about him emerged over the weekend. He'd once been banned from FSU's campus and had been arrested twice for grabbing women even though the charges were ultimately dropped. Beierle, who had moved to the central Florida town of Deltona after getting a graduate degree from FSU, appeared to post a series of videos on YouTube in 2014 where he called women "whores" if they dated black men, said many black women were "disgusting" and described himself as a misogynist. A Tallahassee police spokesman would not confirm or deny the videos were Beierle's. However, the man speaking in the videos looks like Beierle and biographical details mentioned in the videos match known facts about Beierle, including details about his military service. Also, the poster's YouTube username included the word "Scott," Beierle's first name. The existence of the videos was first reported by BuzzFeed. In another video, the man who appeared to be Beierle likened his adolescent self to Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old who killed six students and wounded more than a dozen others near the University of California, Santa Barbara, before killing himself in 2014. A woman who filed a police report against Beierle told The Associated Press on Sunday that she's never forgotten how "creepy" he was. Courtnee Connon was 18 in 2012 when Scott Paul Beierle grabbed her buttocks in the dining hall at Florida State University. She declined to press charges, however, thinking that he would be scared after an arrest and that she didn't want to face him in court. The bruising race for governor of Georgia has been roiled by unsupported, eleventh-hour allegations from Republican candidate Brian Kemp, who is also the state's chief election official, that Democrats sought to hack the voter registration system. His Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, said he is making a baseless accusation to deflect attention from an apparently severe security flaw in the system Kemp is responsible for overseeing. Here's a look at the dispute, how it unfolded and what's at stake. THE ALLEGATION Kemp asked the FBI on Sunday to investigate the Democratic Party, accusing it of trying to hack the system he controls as secretary of state. He offered no evidence in support of his request for a probe of the opposition. The FBI declined to comment. Kemp leveled the allegation after an attorney for election-security advocates notified the FBI and Kemp's office on Saturday that a private citizen alerted him to what appeared to be a major flaw in the database used to check in voters at the polls. Independent computer scientists told The Associated Press that the flaw would enable anyone with access to an individual voter's personal information to log on to Georgia's MyVoter registration portal and alter or delete any voter's record, potentially causing havoc. THE DEMOCRATS' RESPONSE Abrams on Monday called him a "bald-faced liar" who cooked up the allegation to deflect attention from his record of incompetence as secretary of state presiding over an antiquated, vulnerability-laced elections system. "There was never a hack," she told a gathering at a Savannah union hall. "What was wrong is that he failed to do his job. He is abusing his power." THE BACKGROUND The finger-pointing is the latest turn in a campaign whose final weeks have been dominated by charges of voter suppression and countercharges of attempted voter fraud. Polls suggest Kemp and Abrams are locked in a tight race in a contest that has taken on historic significance because Abrams could become the nation's first black female governor. She has accused Kemp of using his post as secretary of state to make it harder for certain voters to cast ballots. Kemp has countered that he is following the law and that Abrams and advocacy groups are trying to help noncitizens and others cast ballots illegally. Last month, a federal judge endorsed plaintiffs' arguments that Kemp has been derelict in his management of the state election system and that the setup is lacking in reliability. The atmosphere has left partisans and good-government advocates alike worrying that the losing side will not accept Tuesday's results. HOW THE LATEST ALLEGATION UNFOLDED According to AP interviews and records released by the Georgia Democratic Party, a lawyer for election-security advocates, David Cross, notified both the FBI and Kemp's counsel Saturday that a citizen had alerted him to the flaw. The citizen also separately informed the Georgia Democratic Party, whose voter protection director then sent an email to two Georgia Tech computer security experts, one of whom sits on a commission created by Kemp. "If this report is accurate, it is a massive vulnerability," wrote the director, Sara Tindall Ghazal. The online news outlet WhoWhatWhy obtained copies of some of the correspondence and published a story about the system flaw on Sunday just as Kemp's office issued the first of two statements accusing Democrats of a "failed cyberattack." That statement bereft of specifics remained prominent on his office's main web page late Monday afternoon. THE FLAW Four security experts independently confirmed to the AP that the voter registration site is highly vulnerable to hacking. They said they could not duplicate the worst vulnerability identified by the "private citizen" because that would require illegal tampering. But they said the flaw would let any user logging onto the system to access and alter the records of anyone in the system. The experts were also able to identify additional flaws. One would allow an attacker to inject malicious code into the voter registration site that could spy on visitors or steal or alter data. Another flaw: The site lacks "URL sanitizing," standard code for preventing infections from visitors. "This is the easiest part of an assignment that we give to undergrad students in a security class. It's unbelievable how they didn't do this," University of Michigan computer scientist Matthew Bernhard told the AP. Another computer expert who reviewed the vulnerability, Kris Constable of PrivaSecTech in Vancouver, Canada, said the system "clearly has never been audited by any computer security professional." During a campaign stop Monday, Kemp acknowledged "a potential vulnerability that we found about" but insisted without offering details that the state's election systems are secure. GEORGIA'S PAST PROBLEMS The state is one of just five that continue to rely exclusively on aged electronic voting machines that computer scientists have long criticized as untrustworthy because they are easily hacked and don't leave a paper trail that can be audited in case of problems. In 2015, Kemp's office inadvertently released the Social Security numbers and other identifying information of millions of Georgia voters. His office blamed a clerical error. His office made headlines again last year after security experts disclosed a gaping security hole that wasn't fixed until six months after it was first reported to election authorities. Personal data was again exposed for Georgia voters 6.7 million at the time as were passwords used by county officials to access files. Kemp's office blamed that breach on Kennesaw State University, which managed the system on Kemp's behalf. Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Colleen Long, Jill Colvin, Russ Bynum and Ben Nadler contributed to this report. What to Know Monday is here, South Florida and NBC 6 has the top six stories you need to know for November 5th. Monday is here, South Florida and NBC 6 has the top six stories you need to know for November 5th. Weather wise, its a dry start to the work week across South Florida with temperatures slightly above average for this time of the year, reaching the mid-80s No. 1 In a little more than 24 hours, polls across the country and right here in South Florida will open with millions of people casting their vote for lawmakers, important state and local laws. More than two million people took part in in-person early voting across the state, with another 1.9 million people voting by mail in ballot. No. 2 There are more than a dozen proposed amendments to the Florida constitution on this year's ballot, many of them written in legal jargon. Our NBC 6 app has each amendment broken down for you to make sure you make an informed decision when you head to the polls tomorrow. No. 3 A child is recovering in the hospital after a shooting in Brownsville. It happened near Northwest 20th Avenue and 60th Street. Police say someone started firing shots from a dark colored car, hitting the boy in the hip. No. 4 Two of the three Miami officers facing federal narcotics charges are set to be arraigned this week. Schonton Harris and James Archibald are due in court, accused of taking money to distribute drugs, and provide protection for drug dealers. No. 5 Several South Florida law enforcement agencies are teaming up to collect relief supplies for the victims of Hurricane Michael. The relief drive is already underway at Dolphin Mall and continues today until 9 pm. No. 6 We are bragging about another South Florida school today! Education on 6 reporter Ari Odzer is heading to Miami Carol City Senior High School. He will be showcasing their various programs, including their unique law program with live reports starting at 11 am. The Miami-Dade Police Department said a child was shot in the Brownsville neighborhood Sunday night. The boy was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center after the shooting happened around 6:45 p.m. in the area of Northwest 60th Street and Northwest 20th Avenue. Miami-Dade Police officials said a suspect shot the child in the hip from within a vehicle before fleeing. "Angered by this senseless violence, resulting in the shooting of a teenage boy. It should anger us all - every single time. Our young people deserve better," Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho said in a statement. Please return to NBC 6 for updates to this developing story. A man with dual British and Australian citizenship whose newlywed wife went missing at sea as the couple sailed off the Bahamas on a belated honeymoon pleaded guilty Monday to an involuntary manslaughter charge in federal court. Lewis Bennett, 41, entered the plea at a hearing Monday in Miami. He faces a maximum eight-year prison sentence in the May 2017 disappearance of Isabella Hellmann, his wife of just three months. U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno set sentencing for Jan. 10. "Although nothing can ever erase the pain and suffering caused by Lewis Bennett's criminal acts, the U.S. Attorney's Office and our law enforcement partners hope that the defendant's admission of guilt is a step toward justice for the victim," U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan said in a statement. Bennett, a mining engineer, had told the FBI and British journalists that he and Hellmann, a South Florida real estate agent, took their 37-foot (11-meter) catamaran, Surf Into Summer, for a Caribbean cruise. They left their infant daughter, Emelia, with her family in Florida. As the catamaran passed the Bahamas on the return to Florida, Bennett sent out an emergency radio signal. When the Coast Guard found him on a life raft three hours later, he told rescuers he left Hellmann on deck as he retired for the night to their cabin. He said he was jolted awake when their craft hit something and that Hellmann was gone when he went outside. He said he abandoned the catamaran in a life raft because it was sinking. A sworn document signed by Bennett and filed in court says that he could not recall whether he called out for his wife. He did not deploy any flares and did not search for Hellmann in the water with either the catamaran or an attached dinghy. Nor did Bennet immediately activate any emergency equipment or call for help using his satellite phone. It was not until Bennett boarded the life raft that he called for help and reported his wife missing, about 45 minutes after he was awakened. Prosecutors said Bennett is an experienced sailor who received a certification from the Royal Yachting Association in the United Kingdom as a "Coastal Skipper." The training included instruction on emergency procedures such as man-overboard protocols and night-sailing safety. His wife was not nearly as experienced. The Coast Guard eventually located the boat. The FBI says an inspection of the catamaran before it sank showed portholes below the waterline had been opened and damage to the twin hulls appeared to have been caused from the inside, meaning the boat may have been intentionally scuttled. Also investigators found Bennett on the life raft with $100,000 worth of coins stolen from a yacht he had worked aboard in 2016. Bennett pleaded guilty to the coin theft charge and received a seven-month prison sentence. While serving that sentence, he was charged in February with Hellmann's death and has remained jailed. What to Know Numbers released Sunday afternoon by the states Division of Elections show a total of 4,840,405 people had cast their ballots. Nearly 13.2 million people are registered to vote in the state of Florida according to the Division of Elections as of September 30th. With early voting now over across the state of Florida, numbers show over one out of every three people registered to vote in the state have cast their ballot according to officials. Numbers released Monday morning by the states Division of Elections show a total of over 5.1 million people had either taken part in early voting or had mailed in their absentee ballots. Another 1.1 million absentee ballots that were requested had not been submitted as of this weekend. Nearly 13.2 million people are registered to vote in the state of Florida according to the Division of Elections as of September 30th. Democrats have cast 2.06 million ballots. Republicans have cast 2.04 million. More than 948,000 voters with no party affiliation have also voted. This year's totals far exceed those of 2014 midterms, but are still short of the 6.6 million who voted ahead of Election Day in 2016. Early Voting Turnout: 2018 vs. 2014 Just one day before Election Day, 2018 early voting numbers in 27 states have already surpassed early voting in the previous midterm elections, according to data collected by Michael McDonald of the United States Elections Project. Early ballots submitted for six states doubled compared to ballots submitted for 2014. Click on each state to see the number of early votes cast there so far. Some states may not have data for both years. Democrats outnumbered Republicans across the state in terms of those who voted early in person, while Republicans held a slight edge among those who submitted absentee ballots early. In Broward County, close to 466,000 voters casted their ballots early with nearly 58 percent of them being registered Democrats and almost 23 percent being registered Republicans. In Miami-Dade, almost 545,000 people voted early with the numbers being slightly closer among the two major parties as 44 percent were registered Democrats and nearly 32 percent were registered Republicans. Voters who did not get a chance to cast their ballots during the two week period can do so on Tuesday at locations across South Florida starting at 7 a.m. and ending at 7 p.m. In Illinois, it turns out the check on this behavior is you. You and your vote. On Tuesday, you can vote for a politics that is decent and a politics thats honest and a politics that is lawful and a politics that tries to do right by people. And thats what Im asking all of us to stand up for, with purpose and patriotism and moral clarity, he said. Members of a team from Saudi Arabia sent to help Turkish authorities investigate the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi worked instead to remove evidence of the slaying, a senior Turkish official said Monday. The official confirmed a report in Turkey's Sabah newspaper that an 11-member team of Saudi investigators that arrived in Turkey nine days after Khashoggi was killed to take part in a joint Turkish-Saudi probe included experts on chemistry and toxicology who were reportedly charged with obfuscating the evidence. The official said Turkey believes that two members of the team "came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence" before Turkish police were allowed to search the Saudi Consulate, where Khashoggi was killed on Oct. 2 after he entered to collect a document he needed to marry his Turkish fiancee. The official said the fact that a clean-up team was dispatched suggests that Khashoggi's killing "was within the knowledge of top Saudi officials." The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with government rules. The official also confirmed the Sabah report which identified the two experts as Ahmed Abdulaziz Al-Janobi and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani. The information was the latest in a series of leaks from Turkish officials apparently aimed at keeping up the pressure on Saudi Arabia and ensuring that the killing is not covered-up. Istanbul's chief prosecutor, who is leading the investigation, announced last week that Khashoggi, who lived in exile in the United States, was strangled immediately after he entered the consulate as part of a premeditated killing and that his body was dismembered before being removed. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an op-ed in the Washington Post last week that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest level of the Saudi government and added that the international community had the responsibility to "reveal the puppet masters" behind the slaying. Turkey is seeking the extradition of 18 suspects who have been detained in Saudi Arabia, so they can be put on trial in Turkey. They include 15 members of an alleged Saudi "hit squad" that Turkey says was sent to Istanbul to kill the Washington Post columnist who had written critically of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Saudi Arabia acknowledged last month that Turkish evidence indicates that the Khashoggi's killing at the consulate was premeditated, shifting its explanation in an apparent effort to ease international outrage over the death. On Saturday, Sabah newspaper, which is close to the Turkish government, said Khashoggi's body which still hasn't been found was dismembered and removed from the Saudi Consulate in five suitcases. A senior official of Turkey's ruling party and a friend of Khashoggi's has suggested his body may have been dissolved in acid or other chemicals. Turkey's vice president, Fuat Oktay, told state-run Anadolu Agency that such reports need to be investigated. Meanwhile, two of Khashoggi's sons appealed for his remains to be returned so that he may be buried in Saudi Arabia. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, the sons also said they hoped he did not suffer when he was killed. "All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina with the rest of his family," Salah Khashoggi said. "I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon," he said. What to Know Karina Vetrano's strangulation death shocked the city; her body was found by her father and police hours after she went missing Chanel Lewis, of East New York, is charged with murder and sexual abuse in her strangulation death; he has pleaded not guilty Lewis was connected to the case via DNA evidence that was obtained from underneath Vetrano's fingernails The mother of Karina Vetrano, the young woman strangled as she went for a run in a Queens park two years ago, sobbed and clutched a cross as the prosecutor described in detail how her daughter was killed. Vetrano's killing was vicious, the prosecutor said in his opening statements Monday at the trial of Chanel Lewis. She was grabbed as she ran along a secluded, marshy section of Spring Creek Park in Howard Beach on Aug. 2, 2016. Her killer punched her in the face, threw her to the ground and violently sexually assaulted her before strangling her, authorities have said. Vetrano died in that marsh, about a block from her own home. She was just 30 years old. Authorities have said she fought ferociously for her life. Her father was part of the search party that discovered her body, face down, 15 feet off the trail. It would be nearly six months before DNA evidence found underneath her fingernails led to an arrest. The man arrested was Lewis. He has pleaded not guilty to murder in Vetrano's death. His attorneys have said a taped confession -- during which Lewis admits killing and beating her but denies a sexual assault -- was wrongly obtained and should not be admissible in the upcoming trial. Lewis faces life in prison if he is found guilty. His family was in court Monday for the opening statements. Lewis, wearing a suit, looked at them briefly. What to Know Monday was a fairly damp day, with slick roads for much of the day, especially during both commutes The weather stays unsettled Tuesday, with afternoon thunderstorms predicted as voters head to the polls for Election Day Crisp fall weather is expected to return Wednesday and Thursday, along with mostly sunny skies Showers dampened the Tuesday morning commute for many, and Storm Team 4 says the action is expected to ramp up later. Thunderstorms are expected to arrive midday ahead of an approaching cold front, blasting the region with whipping winds and heavy rain throughout most of the afternoon, Storm Team 4 says. Parts of the tri-state could see a few stronger storms produce locally heavy downpours and gusty winds, though it will be a milder day with temperatures climbing back into the mid-60s. Flood advisories are in effect for Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth and Somerset counties in New Jersey through mid-afternoon. Click here to see the latest weather alerts for your neighborhood. Don't want to get wet en route to the polls? Storm Team 4 says your best bet is to head out before noon or wait until after dinnertime. (Heads up: the city's Board of Elections says rain is contributing to the problems at polling places, so make sure you at least try to dry off your hands before you get a ballot). [NATL] Extreme Weather Photos: Record Heat Threatens Europe What to Know Numerous ride and bike share companies are offering free or discounted rates Tuesday The discounts are in an effort to make sure that lack of transportation does not hinder voters from getting to the polls Election Day Citi Bank, Uber and Lyft are all participating in providing free or discounted rides Tuesday In an effort to make sure that lack of transportation does not hinder voters from getting out to the polls this Election Day, a number of ride and bike share companies are offering free or discounted rates Tuesday. Motivate, a national bike-share company that operates Citi Bike, will be offering free rides in nine urban bike share systems, including New York City and Jersey City, New Jersey, across the country Tuesday. Riders across almost every Motivate system can use code BIKETOVOTE in their bike share app to access a free day pass. However, in Chicago, Divvy riders must use the code VOTE18 to access the free day pass, while in Portland, Oregon, which has a vote-by-mail system, BIKETOWN riders can use the code BIKE2VOTE to access 30 minutes of free ride time on Nov. 6. We want to make it easier than ever to pedal to the polls this Election Day, Julie Wood, Motivate spokesperson, said in a press release. Too many Americans dont vote because they lack reliable and affordable transportation options. The ride share company Lyft will also be offering all riders to the polls a 50 percent discount Tuesday through a special promo code in partnership with Buzzfeed, the company announced via Twitter Monday morning. Additionally, Uber is partnering with #VoteTogether and Democracy Works in engaging voters to help ensure that transportation isnt a barrier in getting to the polls and will offer $10 off a single ride to the polls on Election Day on the most affordable Uber option available in the area. Election Day is upon us, with voters across the tri-state area heading to the polls on Nov. 6. Where do you vote? What are the big races? And what's the deal with those ballot questions? We've got you covered. KEY RACES TO WATCH In New York, Democratic incumbent Gov. Cuomo is expected to defeat Republican challenger Marc Molinaro, based on latest polling. Another national race of interest -- U.S. House District 1, where Democrat Liuba Grechen Shirley would have a major upset if she could defeat incumbent Republican Peter King. On Staten Island, the city's only Republican congressional district, the state's 11th Congressional District, could fall if young combat veteran and political newcomer Max Rose can convince many of the district's Democrats to vote for their party, for a change. He'll try to unseat GOP Rep. Daniel Donovan, who is seeking a third time. More on the battleground House races here. In Connecticut, the gubernatorial race between Republican Bob Stefanowski and Ned Lamont has been surprisingly tight. As for New Jersey, most eyes will be tuned to the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democrat Bob Menendez and GOP challenger Bob Hugin. Menendez has held his seat since 2006, though allegations of corruption have for many, overshadowed his politics of late. A new poll shows him with a significant lead over Hugin, though. Either way, New Jersey races won't be finalized until the end of the week because of this revision to voter law. Other Jersey races to watch include high-money races between Republican Jay Webber and Democrat Mikie Sherrill for U.S. House District 11 and Democrat Tom Malinowski and GOPer Leonard Lance for U.S. House District 7. WHAT ARE THE BALLOT QUESTIONS Nearly every election includes some sort of referendum, and this year is no different. In New York City, voters will be asked to weigh whether the maximum amount donors can contribute to political campaigns should be reduced. They'll also be asked about the creation of a Civic Engagement Commission and to decide whether community board members should max out after eight years. New Jersey voters will have just one ballot question -- they'll be asked about the Securing Our Children's Future Bond Act, which, if passed, would allow the state to borrow a total of $500 million to provide school grants. Connecticut voters have two questions -- one about safeguarding state-owned lands and one about a "lockbox" to protest funding for transportation. FIND YOUR POLLING PLACE If you prefer to cast your ballot on Election Day, you have just one option: your designated polling place. If you don't know where that is, enter your address below to find it, as well as other information you'll need on Election Day [[499679251, C]] WHAT TIME ARE POLLS OPEN In New York, polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. In New Jersey and Connecticut, they're open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. WHAT SHOULD YOU BRING It's important to remember: you legally do not need any form of identification to cast your vote unless you are registering for the first time or changing your registration. HOW TO GET LIVE RESULTS Live Election Day coverage will air on News 4 throughout the evening and at 11 p.m. You can also track up-the-minute race results live right here or in the NBC New York app, where you can turn on notifications to get alerts on winners of the biggest races. An elaborate hoax in New Hope, Pennsylvania, caused streets and businesses to close for several hours Sunday night, police said. Officials investigated reports of a possible shooting and barricade situation near Ferry Street, only to later learn an anonymous call to 911 was actually a prank. Several residents told NBC10 that they received calls from police to shelter in place. The Bucks County District Attorney's Office said the fake emergency call was made around 5 p.m. and that authorities from multiple jurisdictions responded. The all clear was given around 9 p.m. Authorities are now working to track down the caller. It is illegal to knowingly raise a false alarm in Pennsylvania and doers can face a misdemeanor charge under state law. Reports of long lines, broken machines and power outages at polling locations throughout the region greeted voters Tuesday. More than 100 people in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, were given incorrect ballots Tuesday morning, according to Mayor Peter Urscheler. The issue came to light after several people noticed that candidates from a different district were named on their ballots. Urscheler urged the first 108 voters who placed their ballots at the Phoenixville Senior Center Polling Place between 7 a.m and 8:30 a.m. to return to their polling place before they close at 8 p.m. and speak to the judge of elections for an opportunity to vote again. It might be a good thing that this happened in Chester County; it's the only county in the region that still uses paper ballots, which makes addressing this problem easier for officials. There were several reports throughout the region of voters who said they were not listed in election books and denied a chance to cast a provisional ballot, which is a violation of election rules. However, these problems were not considered out of the ordinary for a busy Election Day, which this midterm turned out to be. A spokesman for the Philadelphia District Attorney's office said this was nothing out of the ordinary, with no major issues reported. Those and other tips were sent to ProPublica's Electionland project, which monitors voting problems around the country. NBC10 has partnered with Electionland. If you had trouble voting, or if you saw something you want to tell us about, click here to report it. Meanwhile, at a firehouse in the 7800 block of Frankford Avenue in Philadelphia, voters complained that wait times were exacerbated by three of four voting machines not working. Only two poll volunteers were on site. A separate firehouse in Havertown was relying on generators to keep on the lights while Peco scrambled to fix power lines throughout the morning. And in Chester County, a sign was posted inside a polling place insinuating that a vote for Democrats was a vote for "mobs," while a vote for Republicans was a vote for "jobs." There were also reports of "problems" that turned out not to be problems. The Pennsylvania GOP sent out an email with a picture that showed two people inside a voting booth in North Philadelphia. "Without a documented disability ... this is illegal," the email read. However, it is legal to ask for help voting if needed. In this case, the extra feet belonged to a translator. Voters and volunteers reported some issues at polling places around Bucks and Montgomery counties Tuesday morning, including one in Warwick that required the court to get involved. Bucks County Judge C. Theodore Fritsch Jr. on Tuesday ordered the removal of signs that were posted outside the Warwick Township Building polling place for Precincts 1 and 4 after a petition was filed on behalf of the Bucks County Democratic Committee in the Court of Common Pleas. Dan Cohen, a Warwick resident and Democratic committee volunteer, was at the polling place Tuesday morning when several voters came in and told him about the signs, which he described as "racist" and "offensive." Across the state, seven counties had reports of broken or malfunctioning machines, including Philadelphia, Delaware, Lehigh and Montgomery counties, said the non-partisan, national group the Election Protection Coalition. In five counties, including Philadelphia, Delaware and Lehigh counties, there were reports of polling places not opening on time. Three counties in New Jersey and Pennsylvania received extra Election Day safeguarding oversight from the federal government, in addition to the usual local and state law enforcement. Middlesex and Union counties in New Jersey and Lehigh County in Pennsylvania are among the 35 counties in 19 states where federal officials will provide compliance help. State attorneys general and State Department officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey also provided law enforcement officials as compliance officials throughout their respective states on Election Day. Voting is one of the linchpins of our democracy, and we take seriously our role in making sure the rights of those eligible to vote are protected, New Jersey Attorney General Grewal said. As our office has done in the past, we will be stationing attorneys throughout the state to ensure the integrity of our election. Our attorneys will be on hand to help resolve any voting-related legal issues that might arise, and to ensure these issues are resolved promptly and fairly. Here are other ways for voters to file complaints about issues they encountered on Election Day: New Jersey: Any person who believes his or her right to vote has been interfered with, or who wishes to report other voting-related problems or concerns, can call the states Voter Information and Assistance line toll-free at 1-877-NJVOTER. Members of the public also can direct election-related questions to their County Superintendent of Elections and county Board of Elections. A list of county-level election office contacts, as well as other useful elections-related information, can be found on the New Jersey Division of Elections web site. Pennsylvania: Call the voter hotline at 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772). For election-related scams, call the Office of Attorney Generals Bureau of Consumer Protection at (800)441-2555 or file a complaint online. Philadelphia: 85 staffers from the District Attorney's office will provide all-day responses to callers at (215)686-9641. Officials will respond to voter intimidation complaints, illegal ballot help and electioneering at polling places. Voters fanned out across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware Tuesday, casting their ballots in races that could change the power balance in Washington, D.C. Polls close at 8 p.m. In Philadelphias 30th Ward, voting started strong. Dozens of people lined up outside the Scottish Rite retirement community when the polls first opened and more than 50 ballots were already cast by 7:30 a.m. By 10 a.m. more than 200 people had voted at that location. Poll workers said they were excited by the voter enthusiasm. Across the river in Camden County, one voter told NBC10 that she woke up early to visit her precinct before heading to work in New York. "From what I hear, this is the most important [election] so I had to come," Natasha Kornegay said. Another person said people who don't vote, don't have a right to complain about politics. "I just feel like I have to try to make a change," voter Jeffrey Lyons said. And others were just excited to make their voices heard. "I'm excited to vote and, hopefully, make a big difference," Camden voter Luz Lyons said. [[499837241, C]] Here's a look at some essential resources to help you on the big day. WHAT ARE THE RACES TO WATCH? From an incumbent twice-acquitted of fraud to a historic number of women running in hopes of changing the gender balance in Congress, there are several races that we'll be watching closely throughout the day. We've broken them all down by district in our special politics section. Click here to explore. Voters waited in line in Swarthmore, Delaware County, Tuesday morning as voters decide a key congressional race. HOW TO FIND YOUR POLLING PLACE If you prefer to cast your ballot in person, you have just one option: your designated polling place. If you don't know where that is, enter your address below to find it and other information you'll need on Election Day (For those utilizing the tool on mobile, please click HERE) [[492726041, C]] For a full sample ballot, be sure to visit your local election authority's website. WHY WE VOTE: A SPECIAL PROJECT NBC Owned Television Stations asked voters why they are or arent inspired to vote in the 2018 midterm elections. See the responses. We asked voters why they are or arent inspired to vote in the 2018 midterm elections. See the responses WHO ARE THE CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR? There are two candidates running for Pennsylvania governor: incumbent Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican challenger Scott Wagner. Click here to read a profile of each of them, and here for a rundown of where they stand on the issues. WHO ARE THE CANDIDATES FOR U.S. SENATE? There are two candidates running for Senate in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey: incumbent Democrat Bob Casey Jr. and Republican challenger Lou Barletta and incumbent Democrat Bob Menendez and Republican challenger Bob Hugin, respectively. WHAT TIME POLLS ARE OPEN New Jersey has officially taken the first few voters in our area. New Jersey polls opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday, a full hour earlier than Pennsylvania and Delaware. Polls opened at 6 a.m. in New Jersey and 7 a.m. in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and will stay open through 8 p.m. in all three states. But remember - if you are IN LINE when polls close, you can still vote! So if you're rushing to your polling place at the last minute, don't worry if you see a line - and don't let anyone try to dissuade you from casting your ballot. NBC10 First Alert Weather meteorologist Brittney Shipp is watching showers moving our way that have the potential to impact voting in the midterm elections Tuesday. It is recommended to vote before you head out to work or get home as there will be heavy rain in parts of our area during the lunch hour. WHAT TO DO IF YOU RUN INTO PROBLEMS While millions of people will cast their ballots without any problems, some may be challenged on their voting eligibility, experience voter intimidation, or have trouble at their polling place. New Jersey: Any person who believes his or her right to vote has been interfered with, or who wishes to report other voting-related problems or concerns, can call the states Voter Information and Assistance line toll-free at 1-877-NJVOTER. Members of the public also can direct election-related questions to their County Superintendent of Elections and county Board of Elections. A list of county-level election office contacts, as well as other useful elections-related information, can be found on the New Jersey Division of Elections web site. The midterm elections have arrived. For anyone that still has questions regarding the elections we have information on NBC10. Pennsylvania: Call the voter hotline at 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772). For election-related scams, call the Office of Attorney Generals Bureau of Consumer Protection at (800)441-2555 or file a complaint online. Philadelphia: 85 staffers from the District Attorney's office will provide all-day responses to callers at (215)686-9641. Officials will respond to voter intimidation complaints, illegal ballot help and electioneering at polling places. The entire nation is preparing for the midterm elections as politicians make their final push. TRACKING VOTER FRAUD: AN INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT NBC10 is partnering with ProPublica, and their project called Electionland, to chart and respond to Election Day voter problems. Click here for more details. HOW TO GET LIVE RESULTS Live Election Day coverage will air on NBC10 throughout the evening and at 11 p.m. with an hourlong special news broadcast. WATCH the livestream HERE. You can also track up-the-minute race results live in the NBC Philadelphia app - where you can turn on notifications to get alerts on winners of the biggest races - and right here on NBCPhiladelphia.com. What to Know It won't be an Election Day washout but severe storms could hit while polling places are open Tuesday. A First Alert is issued until 7 p.m. as storms push across the area from north and west to south and east. Once the rain moves out, expect clear conditions for a couple days. Potentially strong storms could put a damper on part of Election Day but wont wash out the entire day. The NBC10 First Alert Weather Team issued a First Alert until 7 p.m. for strong to severe storms packing potential damaging winds and heavy rain for the entire Philadelphia region Tuesday. An isolated tornado can't be ruled out. Were talking damaging winds and downpours that could cause localized flooding, NBC10 First Alert Weather meteorologist Bill Henley said. Power outages could also occur. As of 10 a.m., flooding problems had forced New Jersey Transit to suspend River Line service between the Walter Rand Transportation Center and the waterfront entertainment complex in Camden. In the afternoon, flooding caused closures along Route 47 in Westville, Gloucester County, on U.S. Route 130 in Brooklawn, Camden County, and along the Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Camden. Flooding also closed portions of the Kelly and Martin Luther King drives in Philadelphia. The rain, which moved in shortly before 10, will move out from northwest to southeast. The Lehigh Valley dries first, around 5 p.m. Philadelphia will begin clearing around 6 p.m., and everything aside from isolated showers exists at the Jersey shore by 7 p.m. This may cause a few people a delay getting to the polls at some point during the day but its not going to be a calamity for Election Day, Bill said. The system has the potential to cause more flooding issues in the Pennsylvania neighborhoods, and has a better chance of triggering strong to severe thunderstorms over South Jersey and southern Delaware in the early to mid afternoon. These sweeping storms follow storms over the weekend that caused damage in some neighborhoods and light to moderate rain on Monday. As a result, the ground is saturated. That makes flooding occur more quickly. Once the rain moves out we are in for some clear fall weather for a couple days as you will see sunshine and highs in the low 60s Wednesday. Rain doesnt return until Friday. The NBC10 First Alert Weather Team will keep you updated on the storms on air and on the app so keep checking back. The owner of a Dunkin' franchise in Portland, Maine, has apologized to a woman who said she was banned from the store for speaking Somali with her family this week, NBC News reported. Hamdia Ahmed, a 20-year-old refugee from Somalia and local college student, said she and her family were speaking in Somali while waiting in the drive-thru at the Dunkin' on Monday when the employee asked them to stop yelling, which she said they weren't doing. "You're going to disrespect me cause I speak a different language than you. Is that what it is?" Ahmed said in a video she posted to Twitter. The employee threatened to call the police, which she did after Ahmed went inside to resolve the issue. Officers gave her a notice barring her from the premises for a year. But Ahmed said it was rescinded after the store's owner apologized. In contrast, a handful of FOP officials spoke against the decree itself and also took issue with specific elements of it, including its call for the department to investigate anonymous complaints and its mandate for officers to report incidents in which they point guns at people. They also suggested that further oversight would restrain cops from doing their jobs. In addition, union officials highlighted rampant violent crime in many of the citys poorest neighborhoods and pointed to social problems that have little to do with policing. Officers shot and wounded a suspect who shot at them with a rifle in Woodbridge, Virginia, Sunday night, police say. Prince William County police said the officers responded to a home in the 1100 block of Laurel Street about 5:41 p.m. to investigate reports of shots fired. As they arrived, police say a suspect started shooting at them and struck their police cruiser multiple times. Police Chief Barry Barnard described the shooting as an "ambush." Audio captured the moments the officers realized they were being fired upon. "Subject is actively shooting on Laurel," the dispatcher says on police audio obtained by News4 says. An officer replies, "He's on the roof of 1102 with a rifle!" Two of the officers on the scene returned fire, striking the suspect in the upper body, police said. No officers were injured, but several police cars were struck. The suspect, a 29-year-old man, was flown to a hospital with serious injuries. Neighbors who spend time with the suspect said his behavior had recently changed. "He was acting kind of weird," neighbor Louis Wilkins said. "Hed been acting strange lately, and, uh, tired of life." "I don't know why he did this," another neighbor, Kory Wilkins, said. "It's a sad memory I have to live with." Other homes in the area were struck during the incident. No one else was injured, according to police. The officers involved will be placed on routine paid leave during the investigation. Two people were killed in a double shooting a short time later in the 16800 block of Brandy Moor Loop in Woodbridge, police said. Officers found two men suffering from apparent gunshots inside a vehicle that had driven over a curb into a wooded area, police said. They were pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the double shooting is unrelated to the officer-involved shooting. Jury selection began Monday for the U.S. trial of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman with potential jurors, including a self-described professional Michael Jackson impersonator, quizzed about how much they knew about Guzman's reputation as a ruthless drug lord in Mexico. They were also questioned in Brooklyn's federal court about their views on the legalization of marijuana, their fluency in Spanish and their feelings toward both law enforcement and cooperating witnesses. Guzman sat at the defense table listening through an interpreter and wearing street clothes a dark suit and a white shirt with an open collar instead of a jail uniform for the first time since he was extradited to the United States early last year. Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges that his Sinaloa cartel smuggled tons of cocaine and other drugs, laundered billions of dollars and oversaw a ruthless campaign of murders and kidnappings. He faces life in prison if convicted. Opening statements in the trial are expected Nov. 13. Potential jurors arrived at the courthouse Monday to find it under tight security that included heavily armed officers, some doing sweeps with bomb-sniffing dogs. Prosecutors have also sought to hide the identity of cooperating witnesses out of concerns the cartel could seek retribution, while a judge is keeping the jury anonymous to protect them from intimidation. Most of the would-be jurors questioned at the outset said Guzman's name "sounded familiar" to them. Some mentioned they were aware he had escaped from prison in Mexico. Others recalled how he did an interview with actor Sean Penn while he was on the run. One potential juror was excused after she indicated the case made her feel unsafe. Another was sent home after she said she couldn't be impartial, saying, "I feel very bad about drugs." One man mentioned that a local deli near where he works has on a menu featuring a bagel sandwich with a name that was a reminder of Guzman. "I don't know why it's called the 'El Chapo,'" he said. "But it's delicious." And as for the Michael Jackson impersonator, prosecutors expressed some concern his identity couldn't be kept secret because there are so few people in his profession. Both he and the sandwich-lover were kept in the jury pool for the time being. What to Know The president's move to deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border is shaping up to cost $220 million, according to two U.S. defense officials Trump, who has made the caravan one of his prime targets in campaign speeches, said he is prepared to send as many as 15,000 troops A Pentagon risk assessment found that the caravan did not pose a threat to the United States, a source said President Donald Trump's move to deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border is so far shaping up to have a cost of $220 million, according to two U.S. defense officials who were not authorized to speak publicly. The initial cost estimate, a figure that could change based on the ultimate size and scope of the mission, comes as nearly 4,000 troops moved to the border Saturday as Trump has repeatedly warned of a caravan of migrants from Central America. In a briefing Monday, however, the Pentagon said it had no cost estimate at the moment. In mid-October, a caravan of at least 3,500 Central American migrants seeking asylum left Honduras for the United States border. The caravan is currently in southern Mexico. Trump has made the caravan one of his prime targets as he campaigns for Republicans down the stretch of the midterm election campaign. The president has referred to the caravan as an "invasion" while claiming that Democrats want open borders, which Democrats deny. Critics have called the deployment a political stunt. Defense Secretary James Mattis, however, downplayed that criticism last week. "The support that we provide to the secretary for Homeland Security is practical support based on the request from the commissioner of customs and border police. We don't do stunts in this department," he said Wednesday. A Pentagon risk assessment found that the caravan did not pose a threat to the United States, according to a person with direct knowledge of U.S. intelligence. This person also said that the caravan would take about a month and a half to get to the U.S. border. A second caravan of about 1,000 to 1,500 people from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, crossed the border into Mexico last week. The Department of Defense estimates that more than 7,000 troops will be positioned in California, Arizona and Texas in support of the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection. In which case, the border mission, dubbed Operation Faithful Patriot, will have a larger U.S. military footprint than the combined efforts in Iraq and Syria. However, last week, Trump said he was prepared to deploy as many as 15,000 service members to the border, a move that would be on par with the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan, which remains America's longest war. The Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. The Washington Post previously reported that the border deployment could end up costing $200 million by the end of the year. This story first appeared on CNBC. More from CNBC: President Donald Trump has been acting like a candidate on the ballot this week, staging daily double-header rallies and blasting out ads for Republicans up for election on Tuesday. Given the stakes for his presidency, he might as well be. A knot of investigations. Partisan gridlock. A warning shot for his re-election bid. Trump faces potentially debilitating fallout should Republicans lose control of one or both chambers in Congress, ending two years of GOP hegemony in Washington. A White House that has struggled to stay on course under favorable circumstances would be tested in dramatic ways. A president who often battles his own party would face a far less forgiving opposition. On the flip side, if Republicans maintain control of the House and Senate, that's not only a victory for the GOP but also a validation of Trump's brand of politics and his unconventional presidency. That result, considered less likely even within the White House, would embolden the president as he launches his own re-election bid. White House aides insist the president doesn't spend much time contemplating defeat, but he has begun to try to calibrate expectations. He has focused on the competitive Senate races in the final days of his scorched-earth campaign blitz, and he has distanced himself from blame should Republicans lose the House. If that happens, he intends to claim victory, arguing his efforts on the campaign trail narrowed GOP losses and helped them hold the Senate, according to a person familiar with Trump's thinking who was not authorized to discuss White House conversations by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Throughout the campaign, Trump has been testing out other explanations pointing to historical headwinds for the party of an incumbent president and complaining about a rash of GOP retirements this year. He told The Associated Press last month that he won't bear any responsibility should Democrats take over. At a rally in West Virginia on Friday, a defiant Trump brushed off the prospect of a Democratic House takeover. "It could happen," he said, adding, "Don't worry about it. I'll just figure it out." Meanwhile, his staff has begun preparations to deal with a flood of subpoenas that could arrive next year from Democrat-controlled committees, and the White House counsel's office has been trying to attract seasoned lawyers to field oversight inquiries. Should they take the House, Democrats are already plotting to reopen the House intelligence committee's investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. Other committees are plotting aggressive oversight of Trump's administration and his web of business interests. Some Democrats are looking at using the House Ways and Means Committee to obtain copies of the president's tax returns after he broke with decades of tradition and withheld them from public scrutiny during his campaign for the White House. A slim Republican majority in the House would also present challenges, likely inflaming simmering intraparty disputes. First among them would be a potentially bitter leadership fight in the House to replace retiring Speaker Paul Ryan. But a narrowed majority would also exacerbate divisions over policy and continued unified control could leave the GOP facing the blame for gridlock. "Clearly there's an awful lot on the line in terms of the legislative agenda," said Republican consultant Josh Holmes. "The prospect of a Democratic controlled House or Senate puts a serious wrinkle in getting anything through Congress." Some in the White House think losing to the Democrats might actually be preferable. They view Democrats' eagerness to investigate the president as a blessing in disguise in the run-up to 2020. They view House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as a potent foil for Trump and believe they can tag the party responsible for Washington dysfunction. Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush's press secretary, said Democratic control of the House "has both peril and promise for the president." "The peril is subpoenas, investigations, legal bills and headaches," he said. "The promise is Trump will have an easy foil to run against: Pelosi and Democratic leadership." White House aides have discussed floating popular legislative issues, such as infrastructure, to tempt Democrats and test the unity of the Democratic opposition. While keeping the House remains an uphill battle for the GOP, Trump and Republicans have tried to sell voters on the possibility of another two years of GOP control. They promised hard-line immigration policies and more tax cuts, arguing that Democrats would erase two years of progress. In the closing weeks of the midterms, Trump has unleashed a no-holds-barred effort to boost Republicans as he dipped into the same undercurrents of unease that defined his 2016 campaign from stoking fears about illegal immigration to warning of economic collapse if Democrats are victorious. But a House loss will prompt GOP hand-wringing about the divides in the party and the struggles for moderate Republicans to run in the Trump era, as well as raise questions about whether the Democratic gains point to a path for presidential hopefuls in 2020. Democratic consultant Jim Manley said Tuesday may reveal if Democrats are having any success recapturing white working-class voters in the Midwest who backed Trump in 2016. "Trump is helping. He's becoming more and more radioactive," Manley said. "There's a chance to try and win them back over." But while the results may reveal weaknesses in the Republican coalition, midterm elections are very different than presidential years. Republicans were quick to point out that the party in power typically suffers defeats in midterms. Former President Barack Obama was, in his words, "shellacked" in 2010 and went on to win re-election in 2012. Said Fleischer: "In the aftermath, people will exaggerate its meaning and in two years' time, everything will have changed." Waiting on the southern end of a bridge that leads to the United States, Humberto Alvarez Gonzalez warily follows the progress of the caravan winding through Mexico with the goal of reaching the border. Alvarez and about two dozen other people are waiting in Matamoros, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, because U.S. customs officers say there's no space to process them. They sleep on cots near the bridge and rely on donors who bring them food and clothing. Some have waited for two weeks. Now, Alvarez, a 32-year-old from Cuba, is worried that large waves of migrants in a caravan still more than 800 miles away from the border might provoke the U.S. government to reject them altogether. "Our idea is to enter before the caravan," he said. "We are afraid that the group of migrants will reach us and that they will judge us together with them." Asylum seekers already camping at border crossings worry that how the Trump administration responds to the caravan of some 4,000 Central American migrants and three much smaller ones hundreds of miles behind it could leave them shut out. President Donald Trump last week threatened to detain asylum seekers in large tents and send as many as 15,000 active-duty soldiers to the border. He's also spoken of closing the border. U.S. government officials say the bridges remain open to asylum seekers. But in South Texas, the busiest corridor for unauthorized border crossings, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stand at the center of bridges to check documents and stop most asylum seekers. And in San Diego, people at the San Ysidro crossing wait more than a month, and volunteers operate an informal take-a-number system to spare migrants from having to wait in line or sleep out in the open. Inspectors there typically process about 100 claims a day. "It's not turning people away, it's asking them to wait," CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said recently. "We are taking people in as we have capacity to do so." At the bridge where Alvarez and dozens of others wait, security guards on the Mexican side hold back asylum seekers until U.S. border inspectors tell them how many people they will accept. Some days, five or 10 people are allowed. On other days, the asylum seekers said, no one is. At another bridge separating Brownsville and Matamoros, four women and their children slept under a blue tarp on the bridge. The tarp had been left behind by previous asylum seekers. One of the women said she had waited there for two days. Seeking asylum at a port of entry is legal under U.S. law, as government officials have reaffirmed this year. Trump has proposed banning people crossing illegally between ports of entry from claiming asylum something many immigration experts say he can't do under the law. The U.S. fielded nearly 332,000 asylum claims in 2017, nearly double that of two years earlier and the highest of any country in the world, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. And many asylum seekers wait for years to have their claims adjudicated, a delay criticized by administration officials and immigration lawyers alike. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ruled in June that fleeing gang or domestic violence would generally not be considered grounds for asylum, a decision that would affect many people's claims. Jodi Goodwin, an immigration attorney in Harlingen, Texas, said she believes the government was trying to frustrate asylum seekers into giving up. "I think they're using a lot of ruse and double-speak to try to circumvent the law," she said. Two women and three children were waiting Saturday at the center of the bridge between McAllen, Texas, and Reynosa, Mexico, a day after soldiers had installed concertina wire on the bridge and the riverbank below. After some time, an official from Mexico's migration bureau came up to the group of five and directed them off the bridge, away from U.S. customs. Associated Press journalists followed as the official and then a private security guard led the group back into Mexico and into a migration bureau office. An employee inside the building would not let the AP interview the group, and U.S. border inspectors on the bridge declined to comment. At the bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, Alvarez continued to wait with others from all over the world: Honduras, Peru, Venezuela and Cameroon. They insisted they will only enter peacefully and lawfully, waiting their turn at the bridge. Javier Mederos Mendez, a 44-year-old from Havana, said he was fleeing political repression because he disagreed with the ruling Castro family. He said he had flown from Cuba to South America, then crossed through jungles and violence-torn areas of Central America and Mexico to reach the bridge. He and others had seen people drown or starve along the way. Asked what he thought of Trump's announcements about asylum, Mederos said, "It would be unfair of me to decide what is good or bad for a country." But, he said, "I will wait as long as necessary until they receive me." Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat contributed to this report. An investigation continues into what caused a Boston restaurant facade to collapse, injuring two people. Firefighters responded to the single-story commercial building on Harvard Avenue that houses Common Ground in the city's Allston neighborhood for a report of a facade collapse shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday. "It sounded like an earthquake, I went running upstairs and went to go run out the door and was like uh, oh stop not going anywhere," Common Ground owner Bob Oguin said. Inspectional Services Commissioner William Christopher, who was out with a team assessing the Harvard Avenue building on Monday, says the focus at this point is on the building's sign, which was attached to the facade of the building. Investigators inspected the building from the outside, inside and from the roof top and determined that everything that failed is on the exterior of the building. Christopher says he believes a recent freeze/thaw cycle may have had something to do with the collapse as well as the position of the restaurant sign. "It's called a blade sign. The sign was perpendicular to the building, that was tied to the masonry, and so we had some extreme winds the past two weeks and there was vibration and movement of that that we think could have dislodged one of the blocks," Christopher said. "Once one block is dislodged, and falls then it's a domino effect for all the rest of the pieces to come down." Photos of the scene tweeted out by the department showed large chunks of the restaurant's roof and facade had crashed onto the sidewalk in front of the brick building. The department said two people were injured, one of them critically. It said everyone in the restaurant was safely evacuated. "In many ways, it's amazing that there weren't more injuries," Deputy Boston Fire Chief Stephen McNeil said. Fire officials said the building sustained $500,000 in damage. They said all utilities have been shut down to the buildings affected and it will take some time for officials to assess the structural integrity of the buildings. The owner says the restaurant will be closed for six months and employees are going to lose their wages. He's hoping insurance will cover it. Fire officials also reported on Sunday that a dozen residents in the nearby Brighton neighborhood were placed in temporary housing after a tree toppled by Saturday's high winds partially collapsed of a four-story building's fire escape. No injuries were reported in that incident. According to ISD records, the facade of this building was last inspected when Kimchi Papi Kitchen applied for a sign in April of this year, and there were no issues detected at that time. Crews will begin working on removing the brick panel and getting at least some of the businesses back open soon. An appeals court has upheld the 2016 conviction of a Massachusetts man found guilty of cyberstalking a teenage girl from New Hampshire. David Ackell, of Seekonk, was sentenced last year to 33 months in prison. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston recently affirmed his conviction for using facilities in interstate commerce to stalk the 16-year-old girl. Prosecutors said Ackell solicited her through social media and coerced her into sending him explicit photographs of herself. When the girl wanted to end the relationship, Ackell threatened to harm her by making the images public. Ackell's lawyers argued that the federal stalking statute was a violation of the freedom of speech under the First Amendment and that the evidence present by the government was insufficient. The major-party candidates for Vermont governor spent the day before Election Day laying out their closing arguments and asking voters for support. Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, barnstormed Vermont, hitting each of the states 14 counties Monday, including a stop in Brattleboro, asking for another two years. We have so much to look forward to, Scott said in an interview with necn and NBC 10 Boston. We have a great statea great quality of life. We just need it to be more affordable. Political novice Christine Hallquist, a former utility executive, has been on her own tour of the state over the past several days. One of Hallquists stops Monday saw her speaking to a standing-room-only crowd in Bellows Falls. Its a choice about a compelling vision about a prosperous future, versus stagnation or decline, Hallquist said of the race for governor. The Democrats platform includes raising the minimum wage, getting much more aggressive on reversing climate change, and rural redevelopment. Were going to connect every home and business with fiber optic cable so Vermonters can connect to the internet at the same speed as cities, Hallquist told necn and NBC 10 Boston. If she wins, Hallquist would also make history: becoming the nations first governor who is transgender. According to the secretary of states office, roughly 12 percent of eligible Vermont voters already cast ballots, through early or absentee voting. The incumbent, who has long been critical of President Trump, said he hopes his message of frugality and living within a small states means, while also protecting the most vulnerable, connects with people from beyond his GOP base. I have been encouraged by the number of Independents and many Democrats whove come and said theyre going to support me again this year, Scott said of people he has met on the campaign trail. Along with the major-party candidates, the race also features five other names on the ballot for Vermont governor. They are Independents Trevor Barlow, Cris Ericson, and Charles Laramie, Liberty Union candidate Emily Peyton, and Earth Rights candidate Stephen Marx. Authorities are searching for a masked man who allegedly robbed an Easton, Massachusetts, gas station at gunpoint early Monday morning. Police received a call of the robbery at 5:20 a.m. and responded to New World gas station on Turnpike Street. At the scene, they learned that the robber demanded the gas station employee to empty the cash register at gunpoint. The masked man took off with an undisclosed amount of cash and fled on foot eastbound on Foundry Street. The gas station employee was unharmed during the robbery but was taken to an area hospital for evaluation. Officials say the thief wore a rubber Halloween mask and all black clothes. Officials are continuing their investigation on the robbery. Anyone with information on the incident or who witnessed any suspicious activity near the area is encouraged to contact the Easton Police Department at 508-230-3322. Two people were killed and a third person was injured in a New Hampshire crash involving a telephone pole that split open the vehicle, police said Monday. Nashua officers responded to the scene of the crash at the intersection of Bridge and Sanders streets just after 10 p.m. Sunday. When they arrived, they found that the three people inside of the vehicle had been ejected from the car from impact of the crash. The two victims who were killed died at the scene, police said, while the third victim was taken to a local hospital and then to a Boston-area hospital with serious injuries. The third victim's current condition is unknown. The names of those killed and of the hospitalized victim have not been released. The investigation into the fatal crash is ongoing. PHOTOS How to negotiate a salary Talking about salary with a potential or current employer can be intimidating. While 81% of employees surveyed by Glassdoor in 2019 believed they deserved a raise, 40% accepted their initial salary offer and did not negotiate in their current or most recent job. Rather than wallow in low wages, leverage these tips to overcome the sweaty palms and self-doubt that come with salary negotiation. The popularity of our one-mile race is pretty unique, she said. We have 500 runners in the 10K and 500 runners in the mile race. Families see this as an opportunity to participate in something healthy together. A study has shown that the showerheads contain slime that can be home to potentially dangerous bacteria which lead to severe lung disease. Mycobacterial bacteria are responsible for lung diseases explain experts. The study titled, Ecological Analyses of Mycobacteria in Showerhead Biofilms and Their Relevance to Human Health, is published in the latest issue of the American Society for Microbiology's journal mBio. Dirty showerhead: Salaryman / Shutterstock The team of researchers from University of Colorado Boulder found that mycobacterial species of bacteria are found in the municipal tap water and well water across United States and Europe. These bacteria are more common in areas where certain lung diseases caused by them is more prevalent. Researcher Noah Fierer said that there is a fascinating microbial world that lives in the shower heads and every time an individual takes a shower, he or she is exposed to these bacteria. Fierer said that most of these bacteria are harmless but some of them can be dangerous. He added, this kind of research is helping us understand how our own actions-from the kinds of water treatment systems we use to the materials in our plumbing-can change the makeup of those microbial communities. Mycobacteria are special species of bacteria that contain three major types. One of them is Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex that causes tuberculosis, another is Mycobacterium leprae and M. lepromatosis that causes leprosy while another major group is Nontuberculous mycobacteria that can cause lung disease, lymph node inflammation, skin conditions and widespread infections. For this study the Showerhead Microbiome Project team of researchers looked at DNA from 656 household showerheads in the U.S. and from 13 countries across Europe. The insides of the showerheads were swabbed with special kits and the samples were bagged in sterile backs and sent to Boulder for assessment. The team noted that there was a higher prevalence of mycobacteria in the showerhead swab samples in regions where lung diseases were more common. This included regions of South California, New York and Florida. This shows that water works and showers could play an important role in transmission of these infections. U.S. households were worse affected compared to European households and those receiving municipal tap water were also worst affected, the researchers found. Dr. Matthew Gebert of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder and lead researcher said, Bacteria grow and persist in biofilms coating the inside of showerheads and shower hoses despite the seemingly inhospitable conditions found in these habitats. He added, These bacteria must tolerate rapid temperature fluctuations, long intervals of stagnation or desiccation followed by high-shear turbulent flow events, and the low nutrient and organic carbon concentrations typical of most drinking water. By harnessing DNA sequencing technology, we were able to identify which bacterial species that lived in showerhead slime, and how abundant they were, the study authors said. The experts explain that the problem could be in the differences in the chlorine disinfectants used to purify the water. The team explains that the mycobacterial species have become resistant to chlorine based disinfectants in the US where they are used to a greater extent. In Europe the mycobacteria have still not developed too much of a resistance and thus they are outnumbered by other harmless bacteria they add. Authors explain, Our results highlight the public health relevance of mycobacteria in showerhead biofilms and advance our understanding of NTM transmission dynamics. The results will help develop strategies to reduce exposures to these emerging pathogens, they write. A clinical trial has shown that a special chemical makes brain tumours glow pink. This can help neurosurgeons operate easily on them and remove them completely and safely say the researchers. The results of this study would be presented at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference in Glasgow between 4th and 6th November 2018. Improving the intra-operative diagnosis of high-grade glioma using a fluorescence biomarker result of the UK NCRI GALA-BIDD study, Kathreena Kurian et al. M According to the scientists the brain tumours called gliomas are specific. When patients with them consume a drink containing 5-aminolevulinic acid or 5-ALA, it accumulates in the tumour. 5-ALA is known to accumulate in cancer cells that are fast growing. The reason behind this is the fact that the tumours do not contain an enzyme that is necessary to break down the chemical. This chemical contained a pink colour that appeared in the tumours that are most aggressively growing. While operating the surgeon would be able to clearly visualize the tumour tissues and differentiate it from the healthy brain tissues, they add. This can make the operation easier and safer. Glioma patients are usually treated with a surgery to completely remove the tumour. The chances of survival remain poor in these patients. In this clinical trial 99 glioma patients were included to participate at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, Kings College Hospital in London and Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. They all had high-grade or aggressively growing gliomas. The patients were given a drink with 5-ALA just before surgery. When operating the surgeons looked at the fluorescent tissues of the brain that contained the tumour tissues. In 85 patients they were clearly able to see the tumour tissues as glowing pink. Among these 81 were actually high grade gliomas as confirmed from pathological specimens removed from the brain. One of the glowing tumours was found to be actually low grade tumour. Among the 14 patients in whom there was no glow of the tumours, seven were found to be low grade and seven tumours could not be assessed for their severity. According to researcher Dr Kathreena Kurian, associate professor in brain tumour research at the University of Bristol, this kind of a operative marker was urgently needed. She said it would help guide the neurosurgeons to find the worst bits. The beauty of 5-ALA is that they can see where high-grade glioma is, while they're operating, she said. Lead researcher Colin Watts, Professor of Neurosurgery and chair of the Birmingham brain cancer programme at the University of Birmingham said it was important that neurosurgeons distinguish cancer tissues from healthy tissues. He said, This is the first prospective trial to show the benefits of using 5-ALA to improve the accuracy of diagnosing high-grade glioma during surgery. These results show that the marker is very good at indicating the presence and location of high-grade cancer cells. The advantage of this technique is that it may highlight more quickly high-grade disease within a tumour during neurosurgery. What this means is that more of the tumour can be removed more safely and with fewer complications, and thats better for the patient, he explained. As a next step the team wants to look at patients with low grade tumours and analyse how this tool could be used among them. They explain that for low grade tumours other markers could be useful. The researchers are also planning clinical trials of this marker for children with gliomas. They also plan to assess if this marker can help detect tumours that have come back in the brains after having been successfully removed earlier. Dr Paul Brennan, from Cancer Research UK in a statement said, Highlighting the more aggressive tumour cells in real-time could help doctors achieve the delicate balance between removing as much of the tumour as possible while preserving surrounding healthy tissue. The fluorescent marker may also ease the burden of follow-up treatment, as cancer cells left behind after surgery require additional radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has also given its approval for use of 5-ALA in patients with brain tumours before surgery this year. International guidelines recommend direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) over warfarin to prevent stroke for most patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, a substantial portion of patients in Canada, who would benefit from anticoagulation, do not receive it adequately or at all. Experts review the evidence for the use of DOACs in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, discuss reasons for the large gap between guidelines and clinical practice, including policy and funding barriers, and propose strategies for the future. AF affects about 350,000 patients in Canada and about 10 times as many in the United States. AF is the most common heart rhythm disorder in the world with major impact on public health, especially due to increased risk of stroke. Stroke due to AF still comprises up to 15 percent of all stroke cases, and disabling stroke remains disproportionately more common in patients with AF than in patients without. Although anticoagulation drug therapy is an effective treatment, its use in Canada is slow to reflect evidence-based guidelines. "Despite the evidence and near unanimity of clinical practice guidelines, these drugs go unprescribed for many, perhaps even most, eligible patients," noted lead author Chris S. Simpson, MD, of the Queen's University-Kingston Health Science Center, Kingston, ON, Canada. "The result is that many preventable strokes are still happening every day in Canada." DOAC indications for stroke risk reduction were initially incorporated into the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) guidelines in 2010. This recommendation has subsequently been included in the guidelines of other major societies such as the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the American Heart Association (AHA). The CCS then recommended a preference for dabigatran over warfarin because of dabigatran's greater efficacy and safety. The 2014 CCS guidelines strongly recommended with "high-quality evidence" that DOACs should be preferred over warfarin when an OAC is indicated for stroke prevention in AF but highlighted the lack of governmental approval of DOACs and saw the lack of reimbursement in Canada as a "major challenge" to following the recommendations. The authors call attention to patient-physician factors in DOAC decision-making and identify barriers to using DOACs in Canada: Perceived cost is a major, if not the main barrier to prescribing DOACs. High initial cost due to temporal gap between guidelines recommendation and funding approval. Antiquated perception among physicians that aspirin is a suitable alternative to DOAC, lack of experience in managing DOAC, and fear of bleeding complications. Mandatory trial with warfarin in some Canadian provinces. Lack of experience and limited availability of specific reversal agents to manage bleeding. Lack of patient awareness of stroke risk in AF and information regarding DOAC usage and access. Concurrent release of multiple DOACs and patient-targeted information on DOAC profiles and dosing schedules may delay patient-physician decision to start DOAC. Limited use coverage that denies patients who are eligible based on guidelines, forcing suboptimal therapy or paying out-of-pocket if not covered by private insurance. Physicians required to justify clinical decision in providing evidence-based guideline-recommended treatment. Physicians' lack of guideline awareness contributing to reduced confidence in starting DOAC therapy. Guideline awareness may be part of the reason why cardiologists (more than other specialists) are more likely to start DOAC treatment. Recognition of this "guidelines-policy gap" is the first step, say the authors, in developing a strategy to improve implementation of DOAC usage in Canada, including: Improving awareness of the risk and preventability of stroke. Enabling physicians to provide evidence-based DOAC usage. Empowering patients to improve adherence and persistence. Collecting real-life data that encourage patient self-monitoring and physician outcomes auditing, and build evidence that is useful for policy makers. Using post-marketing data in negotiating shared risk-management between pharmaceuticals and government to improve access to DOACs. "This discussion highlights a significant conflict between clinical practice guidelines processes and governmental regulatory and approval processes," commented Dr. Simpson. "Both processes aim to act in the best interests of patients and the public and should therefore work in concert rather than in conflict. The result of this conflict is a delay in the uptake of a beneficial therapy which saves lives and prevents significant morbidity." Observations of other government-funded universal healthcare systems may be helpful in providing solutions to managing the policy and funding barriers in Canada. The authors point out that the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK is considered to be a good peer comparator to the Canadian health system. The NHS bases its practice on ESC guidelines and its funding policy is guided by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE guidelines emphasize individualized assessment and discussion with patients regarding benefits and risks of each OAC option and recommends against a "trial of warfarin" because this would prolong the time to find the best therapy. The UK also employs several strategies to increase access to guideline-recommended therapies that are awaiting approval or have insufficient funding, such as the Patient Access Scheme, which allows expensive, non-approved therapies to be more accessible through discount negotiations between manufacturer and the Department of Health. Similar schemes in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia have also improved access. "Every doctor wants their patient to have the best treatment possible. Every provincial government has a duty to their citizens and taxpayers to spend public money in a way that provides the best value. Only by working together can we hope to achieve both goals," Dr. Simpson concluded. Source: https://www.elsevier.com/ Health professionals require more guidance to prepare and support children when a parent is dying, a new study in the journal Palliative Medicine reports. In the first study of its kind, researchers from the University of Surrey and the Princess Alice Hospice carried out a review of studies examining the experiences of over 300 health and social care professionals when supporting parents who are dying and preparing their children for what is happening. After analyzing responses, researchers identified a number of key barriers preventing health professionals connecting with parents to help them support their children. Many perceived themselves to be lacking relevant skills, such as age-appropriate communication and counseling, preventing them from engaging with parents and children. Fear of making things worse for the children and causing distress in families by saying the wrong thing was also a concern amongst health professionals. It was also found that some professionals, to manage the pain of over identifying with parents and children, developed distancing behaviors such as focussing on the physical care of the patient and avoided talking to the parents about their children. Approximately 23,600 parents with dependent children died in the UK in 2015. Previous research in this area shows that if not prepared for parental death, or supported afterwards, children whose parents die are more likely than their peers to have higher levels of referral to psychiatric outpatient and specialist services, and experience absence from school. To overcome this health professionals have called for more guidance and training in this area and for patient records to 'flag up' the presence of young children in the immediate family. Lead author of the paper, Penny Franklin, a post graduate researcher from the University of Surrey, said: "Losing a parent at any age is a devastating experience however as a young child, unsure of what is happening, the occurrence can be particularly traumatic and can have a long-lasting impact. "More guidance and training is needed by health professionals who need to hold discussions with parents about preparing their children for their Mum or Dad's death. Such discussion - when conducted well - can make this devastating situation more bearable for families. Support systems also need to be in place for professionals delivering such care allowing them to manage their own emotions. "The UK needs to look to countries like Sweden, where it is mandatory for nurses to involve children in their dying parents' care. In the UK, there is no such requirement. Disappointingly NICE guidelines only generally acknowledge supporting patients' children resulting in them being at risk of being overlooked or forgotten by the system." Source: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/more-training-required-health-professionals-help-children-terminally-ill-patients Betsy Foster and Doug Dillon are devotees of Josh Harder. The Democratic upstart is attempting to topple Republican incumbent Jeff Denham in this conflicted, semi-rural district that is home to conservative agricultural interests, a growing Latino population and liberal San Francisco Bay Area refugees. To Foster's and Dillon's delight, Harder supports a "Medicare-for-all" health care system that would cover all Americans. Foster, a 54-year-old campaign volunteer from Berkeley, believes Medicare-for-all is similar to what's offered in Canada, where the government provides health insurance to everybody. Dillon, a 57-year-old almond farmer from Modesto, says Foster's description sounds like a single-payer system. "It all means many different things to many different people," Foster said from behind a volunteer table inside the warehouse Harder uses as his campaign headquarters. "It's all so complicated." Across the country, catchphrases such as "Medicare-for-all," "single-payer," "public option" and "universal health care" are sweeping state and federal political races as Democrats tap into voter anger about GOP efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act and erode protections for people with preexisting conditions. Republicans, including President Donald Trump, describe such proposals as "socialist" schemes that will cost taxpayers too much. They say their party is committed to providing affordable and accessible health insurance, which includes coverage for preexisting conditions, but with less government involvement. Voters have become casualties as candidates toss around these catchphrases sometimes vaguely and inaccurately. The sound bites often come across as "quick answers without a lot of detail," said Gerard Anderson, a professor of public health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School Public Health. "It's quite understandable people don't understand the terms," Anderson added. For example, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) advocates a single-payer national health care program that he calls Medicare-for-all, an idea that caught fire during his 2016 presidential bid. But Sanders' labels are misleading, health experts agree, because Medicare isn't actually a single-payer system. Medicare allows private insurance companies to manage care in the program, which means the government is not the only payer of claims. What Sanders wants is a federally run program charged with providing health coverage to everyone. Private insurance companies wouldn't participate. In other words: single-payer, with the federal government at the helm. Absent federal action, Democratic gubernatorial candidates Gavin Newsom in California, Jay Gonzales in Massachusetts and Andrew Gillum in Florida are pushing for state-run single-payer. To complicate matters, some Democrats are simply calling for universal coverage, a vague philosophical idea subject to interpretation. Universal health care could mean a single-payer system, Medicare-for-all or building upon what exists today a combination of public and private programs in which everyone has access to health care. Others call for a "public option," a government plan open to everyone, including Democratic House candidates Antonio Delgado in New York and Cindy Axne in Iowa. Delgado wants the public option to be Medicare, but Axne proposes Medicare or Medicaid. Are you confused yet? Sacramento-area voter Sarah Grace, who describes herself as politically independent, said the dialogue is over her head. "I was a health care professional for so long, and I don't even know," said Grace, 42, who worked as a paramedic for 16 years and now owns a holistic healing business. "That's telling." In fact, most voters approached for this article declined to be interviewed, saying they didn't understand the issue. "I just don't know enough," Paul Her of Sacramento said candidly. "You get all this conflicting information," said Her, 32, a medical instrument technician who was touring the state Capitol with two uncles visiting from Thailand. "Half the time, I'm just confused." Paul Her, 32, a medical instrument technician from Sacramento, says he's "just confused" by the conflicting health care pitches he hears from politicians. (Samantha Young/KHN) The confusion is all the more striking in a state where the expansion of coverage has dominated the political debate on and off for more than a decade. Although the issue clearly resonates with voters, the details of what might be done about it remain fuzzy. A late-October poll by the Public Policy Institute of California shows the majority of Californians, nearly 60 percent, believe it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have health coverage. Other state and national surveys reveal that health care is one of the top concerns on voters' minds this midterm election. Democrats have seized on the issue, pounding GOP incumbents for voting last year to repeal the Affordable Care Act and attempting to water down protections for people with preexisting medical conditions in the process. A Texas lawsuit brought by 18 Republican state attorneys general and two GOP governors could decimate protections for preexisting conditions under the ACA or kill the law itself. Republicans say the current health care system is broken, and they have criticized the rising premiums that have hit many Americans under the ACA. Whether the Democratic focus on health care translates into votes remains to be seen in the party's drive to flip 23 seats to gain control of the House. The Denham-Harder race is one of the most watched in the country, rated too close to call by most political analysts. Harder has aired blistering ads against Denham for his vote last year against the ACA, and he sought to distinguish himself from the incumbent by calling for Medicare-for-all an issue he hopes will play well in a district where an estimated 146,000 people would lose coverage if the 2010 health law is overturned. Yet Harder is not clinging to the Medicare-for-all label and said Democrats may need to talk more broadly about getting everyone health care coverage. "I think there's a spectrum of options that we can talk about," Harder said. "I think the reality is we've got to keep all options open as we're thinking towards what the next 50 years of American health care should look like." To some voters, what politicians call their plans is irrelevant. They just want reasonably priced coverage for everyone. John Byron, a 73-year-old retired grandfather from Modesto, wants a government-run health care system that doesn't include private insurance companies. What politicians call the program is irrelevant to him, he says. (Samantha Young/KHN) Sitting with his newspaper on the porch of a local coffee shop in Modesto, John Byron said he wants private health insurance companies out of the picture. The 73-year-old retired grandfather said he has seen too many families struggle with their medical bills and believes a government-run system is the only way. "I think it's the most effective and affordable," he said. Linda Wahler of Santa Cruz, who drove to this Central Valley city to knock on doors for the Harder campaign, also thinks the government should play a larger role in providing coverage. But unlike Byron, Wahler, 68, wants politicians to minimize confusion by better defining their health care pitches. "I think we could use some more education in what it all means," she said. This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation. City of Hope, a world-renowned independent cancer research and treatment center, and its affiliate, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), have announced a letter of intent to develop a state-of-the-art cell therapy manufacturing facility in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, a move that would improve the speed at which stem cell research and cancer treatment is delivered. The Phoenix facility would model City of Hope's three Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) facilities in Duarte, California, which have produced well over 1,300 cell and gene therapy products and oncology drugs for many cancer clinical trials across the nation. City of Hope is one of a small number of select cancer centers in the U.S. to provide both biological and chemical GMP manufacturing at a single institution. Its facilities have the ability to produce both gene therapy viruses and cells needed for CAR T therapies. "City of Hope is dedicated to innovation in biomedical science and has one of the most comprehensive CAR T cell programs in the world with 16 ongoing CAR T clinical trials," said Robert W. Stone, president and chief executive officer of City of Hope as well as vice chairman of the TGen board of directors. "Cancer patients need effective treatments now. City of Hope and TGen are working to quickly move effective therapies from the laboratory to patients' bedside. Additional cGMP facilities will help us expand our capabilities to serve people in Arizona and across the nation." Demand for clinical cell therapies is expected to grow 42 percent annually over the next decade, according to "Cell Therapy Manufacturing Market." Most cell therapy manufacturing facilities are at capacity or over capacity because demand is outpacing production rates. "This significant investment further enhances Arizona's reputation as a hub for bioscience and health care innovation," said Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. "Our state offers a strong concentration of talent ready to meet the needs of this facility. The work being conducted by City of Hope and TGen is critical in the fight against cancer, and Arizona is proud to play a role in it." The planned facility would meet an urgent need of accelerating cures for patients in Arizona, Southern California and elsewhere. The facility would also provide additional opportunities to partner and collaborate with scientists in Arizona, an important objective for TGen, an affiliate of City of Hope. At this future facility, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, which have demonstrated durable cancer remission in blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, would be among the cells that are produced. The new facility could also support the cell therapy production needs of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies who need this kind of specialized GMP capability to move clinical trial programs forward. "The road to future cancer cures requires genomic-enabled medicine and the type of immune-system enhancements that would result from this cell therapy manufacturing facility, which will provide local access to new treatments for Arizona patients," said Jeffrey Trent, Ph.D., TGen president and research director. "City of Hope's clinical and manufacturing expertise in immunotherapy is at the forefront of this field, and combined with TGen's genomic testing, offers patients new hope for their future." The Arizona Commerce Authority will work in partnership with City of Hope and TGen to provide workforce development assistance through its Navigator and local One-Stop programs. Inside the best The Flash story of all time with Mark Waid, Greg Larocque, and Brian Augustyn Looking back at the greatest Flash story of all time Sorry! This content is not available in your region New Delhi: Gold and jewellery sales are expected to have gone up by up to 15 per cent on the auspicious occasion of Dhanteras on Monday as consumer demand revived on reports of further jump in the yellow metal rates in the coming weeks. The buying during the morning trade remained subdued, but it picked up later as eager shoppers indulged in token buying, while some took delivery of their wedding jewellery. There was more demand for coins compared to jewellery. Even organised players like P C Jewellers and Kalyan Jewellers are expected to have seen better sales as quality and better designs at competitive prices attracted more footfalls. Unorganised jewellery players in Indiathe worlds second biggest buyer of the precious metalmake up for roughly 70 per cent of the countrys gold sales. Also Read | Ahead of Diwali, Government releases Rs 113 crore to six border states Dhanteras is considered to be an auspicious day for buying gold, silver and other valuables and is largely celebrated in northern and western parts of India. The buying continues till late night. Consumer demand has revived on reports of further increase in gold rates up to Rs 35,000-40,000 per ten gram in the coming weeks due to weak rupee. We estimate sales to be higher by up to 10 per cent than the year-ago, All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC) Chairman Nitin Khandelwal. Gold prices are ruling high at Rs 32,690 per 10 gram Monday in the national capital as against Rs 30,710 per 10 gram on the Dhanteras day in 2017. Anecdotal feedback from the industry suggests that though footfalls seems to be good, demand could be moderate, World Gold Council (WGC) India Managing Director Somasundaram PR said. Among organised players, P C Jewellers Managing Director Balram Garg said, We are seeing 10 per cent growth in volumes and 15-18 per cent in value terms compared to last Dhanteras. Read More | Karan Johar has a unique phobia; HERE's why There was demand for both gold and diamond jewellery at its 95 stores spread across the country, he added. Kerala-based Kalyan Jewellers Chairman and Managing Director TS Kalyanaraman said, We have seen positive momentum this Dhanteras and are expecting 8-9 per cent increase in revenue over last year based on early data. The key contributors for this increase is the steady shift of clientele from unorganised to organised players like Kalyan, he said. The jewellers operates 100 stores in India. We are seeing growth all across our stores. Footfalls are gaining momentum from late afternoon. We are expecting better sales and a healthy double digit growth, Titan Company Senior Vice President (retail and marketing jewellery division) Sandeep Khulhalli said. As gold prices are ruling high, the demand is more for small to medium size jewellery, especially finger rings, earrings, bangles among others, he added. Echoing a similar trend, WHP Jewellers Director Aditya Pethe said that the company has met the expected sale target with 10-20 per cent growth in footfall, while Anmol Jewellers founder Ishu Datwani said he sees 15-20 per cent jump in sales on the Dhanteras day. Stating that there was surge in gold and silver coins despite liquidity crunch and high prices, Kundan Group Director Vidit Garg said the company sees its coin sales to double this time from 75,000 pieces sold in the year-ago. The city-based Khanna Gems Pvt Ltd Managing Director Pankaj Khanna said the company has got into the bullion business this year and sold 20 kg of silver coins Monday. The sales were better than expectations. India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA) director and PNG chairman and managing director Jewellers Saurabh Gadgil said: We are expecting 10-12 per cent growth in gold and jewellery sales in volume terms and 25 per cent jump in diamond jewellery sales. Appreciating gold price is also prompting costumers to opt for gold, he added. However, gold refiner MMTC-PAMP India Managing Director Rajesh Khosla said that market was subdued as there was a general reluctance to enter the market. Much of our demand for coins is from corporate this time. Ideally, gold rates should have been around Rs 30,000 per ten grams, but the prices are ruling over Rs 32,000 per ten gram because of rupee depreciation. The market is not able to adjust the increase of Rs 2,000 per ten gram, he added. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A major fire broke out at the high-rise Apeejay House building in Kolkata's famous Park Street area on Monday morning. As per the reports, 10 fire tenders rushed to the spot and have been trying to put out the blaze at the Kotak Mahindra office in Apeejay House. "Fire breaks out at in a high rise building on Kolkata's park street. 10 fire tenders at the spot," the news agency ANI reported. Fire breaks out at in a high rise building on Kolkata's park street. 10 fire tenders at the spot pic.twitter.com/oU1bxBxfQr ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018 According to fire department officials, the incident took place at around 11:15 am and the people in the building were evacuated by 11:45 am. Going by the preliminary reports, no casualties have been reported in the incident so far. Read | Majerhat bridge collapse: Suo-motu case registered at Alipore police station Prima facie, officials suspect that the fire may have started from the server room of one of the offices on the fifth floor but the actual reason behind the accident is yet to be ascertained. Apeejay House, which is adjacent to Park Hotel, houses offices of several multinational companies. Meanwhile, social media has been flooded with a series of dramatic video footages and pictures, showcasing the black smoke billowing out of several windows of centrally air-conditioned building. Following the mishap, the Kolkata traffic police has stopped the vehicle movement at the crowded Park Street area. New Delhi: Shah Rukh Khan's upcoming movie Zero has landed the star in a controversial pit, after Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) General Secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Monday filed a criminal complaint against Shah Rukh and others for hurting religious sentiments of the Sikh community in the Zero promo by showing the actor wearing Kirpan in one of the sequences. Also Read | Deepika Padukone-Ranveer Singh wedding venue in Italy: All you need to know about The complaint has been lodged at North Avenue police station in Delhi after receiving a number of complaints from Sikh Sangat for hurting their sentiments in the trailer of the upcoming Aanand L Rai directorial venture. The complainent mentions that SRK is spotted wearing a Gatra Kirpan (Article of Sikh Faith) in the trailer which has led to a raging controversary among Sikh community worldwide. Manjinder Singh futher added that according to the Sikh customs, Gatra Kirpa can only be worn by the Amritdhari sikh person. He protested that the trailer where SRK is spotted wearing a Gatra Kirpan should be stopped immediately. Manjinder Singh also exclaimed that Sikhs will not tolerate that any movie star or the film itself shows the Sikh tenants or their articles of faith in a bad light. He further said that in the trailer, Shah Rukh not only wears the Kirpan but also the poster shows the star in a lighter mood, which asserts that the Sikh article of faith is alos taken in a lighter sense. He said that Sikh Guru Sahiban has blessed enough power and strength to the Sikhs to fight with such atrocities. Also Read | Celebs who turned heads at Shilpa Shety's Diwali bash Sirsa also went ahead to make personal requests to the Central Board Of film Certificate and Shah Rukh Khan for the sequence to be removed from the trailer with immediate effect. Here's the poster of Shah Rukh's 'Zero' that stirred controversies among the Sikh community: Aanand L Rai directorial Zero, also starring Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif is slated to release on December 21, 2018. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Diwali 2018, the festival of lights and happiness is here. The Diwali messages you send will be cherished forever and help to spread untold joy. Hindus celebrate the festival with great fervour as a triumph of good over evil across the country. People decorate their houses and workplaces by lighting lamps, drawing colourful rangolis, and many different antiques. Guests are welcomed with great enthusiasm and a variety of snacks and sweets are relished during the occasion. Read | Diwali 2018: Five simple beauty hacks for glowing skin In India, Diwali is considered to be the most important Hindu festivals celebrated across the nation and this year, Diwali falls on November 7, 2018. Prior to Dilwali, we celebrate Dhanteras and Choti Diwali. Diwali commemorates Lord Rams return from 14 years of exile following a battle against Ravana. Hence, Diwali is known as a victory of light over darkness. Also Read | Diwali 2018: These fat substitutes make for a healthy Diwali Be it Holi or Christmas, Indians celebrate festivals with utter joy and spirit and wishing their family and friends with happiness on these festive occasions. To make things easier for you, we have rounded up a list of Whatsapp Messages, Pictures and SMS in English that you can send to your family and friends. 11 Diwali wishes and quotes Cherish the good times and the timeless memories made with friends this Diwali. Have a lovely festive time. Happy Diwali! May thousands of lamps light up your life, With endless happiness, richness, health, and wealth forever. Wishing you and your family a Happy Diwali. This Diwali, may you be blessed with: Good Fortune As long as Ganeshjis trunk, Wealth and Prosperity As big as his stomach. Happiness As sweet as his ladoos and Troubles As Small As His Mouse. Happy Diwali! Just like the colors of Rangoli, hope this Diwali brings fresh smiles, undiscovered avenues, a different perspective, and unbound happiness. Have a wonderful Diwali and a great New Year! Hope the festival of lights brings your way bright sparkles of peace, contentment, joy, and happiness which stays with you throughout this year and also in the years to come. May the lamp of joy remain illuminated in your life now and forever. Have a joyous Diwali! Pal Pal Sunhare phool Khile, Kabhi Na Ho Kaanto Ka Saamna, Jindagi Aapko Khushiyo Se Bhari Mile, Dipawali ke pawan absar par yehi hain humari Shubhkamnayen May this Diwali not only your house light up but also your spirit, dreams, and hope. May Lord bless you with health and happiness and all your ventures fulfilled. Wishing you and family a very Happy Diwali! Separated by distance, Joined by hearts. Sending you Diwali wishes, From miles apart. Have a happy and safe Diwali! May thousands of lamps light up your life, With endless happiness, richness, health, and wealth forever. Wishing you and your family a Happy Diwali. A festival full of sweet childhood memories, A sky full of lights, Mouth full of sweets, And a heart full of joy. Wishing you a very Happy Diwali! For all the Latest Lifestyle News, Religion News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Chinas support for Pakistans quest for peace through dialogue with India articulated in a joint statement issued after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans first bilateral visit to Beijing after assuming power is a clever ploy on the part of both to look reasonable and peace-loving. This is not the first time Imran has made peace overtures to India. But even as he does so, terror groups backed by his countrys army have been setting up new launch pads along the Line of Control in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). Clearly, all such overtures lack the will and in Imrans case the power to work for peace by dismantling training camps for terror recruits and not infiltrating those recruits for subversive action in Jammu and Kashmir. According to intelligence sources, some 250 terrorists are waiting to infiltrate into J&K from 27 launch pads in POK. Imran is really talking without due sincerity and the Chinese are looking to convince the world that they mean well for India which they do not. It is all an eyewash that must be taken with more than a pinch of salt. Imran indeed has realised that the Pakistan economy is in doldrums and needs huge injection of funds for which it feels Pakistan needs to look as though it has broken with the terror haven past and seem peace-loving under Imran. The Pakistan Army also is willing to go along with the sham of Imrans reasonableness to attract more funds from the likes of China, Saudi Arabia and the International Monetary Fund. Yet, it is not ready to stop subversion in India as a price for peace in the sub-continent. Significantly, as a trial balloon, the joint statement called for a greater role for China at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation which was dominated by India but turned inactive and dormant over the last couple of years as New Delhi deprecated Islamabads negative role in the grouping. By seeking to admit China into the group, Pakistan is clearly looking to replace Indias supremacy with Chinas. It goes without saying that India is not so naive as to succumb to such obvious stratagem. Also, the Chinese supported Pakistans engagement with the Nuclear Suppliers Group even as it has been cold-shouldering Indias bid for greater acceptance by the NSG. Indeed, China is all sugar and honey with the Pakistanis because Imran has shown a predilection for going slow or even abandoning some of the projects associated with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which he feels are driving Pakistan into a debt trap slowly but surely. It is inconceivable that New Delhi would bend over backwards to ingratiate itself to China but since Chinese prime leader Xi Jinping has staked everything on making a success of the CPEC and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it is relentlessly wooing this country to come round to at least a level of non-hostility towards these masked neo-colonial initiatives. China is indeed desperate to draw India away from a US-Japan-Australia-India axis which has the potential to frustrate Chinese designs of becoming a maritime power which would substantially control trade through the sea-lanes of the world. The Chinese have consistently blocked efforts to designate the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar as an international terrorist at the UN Security Council but cleverly acquiesced at the grey-listing of Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force to stave off being isolated. At the talks with the Pakistanis the Chinese sought Pakistani action on Uygur Islamic terrorists who are proving a headache for it in its Muslim-majority province of Xinjiang bordering Pak-occupied Kashmir. All in all, the first official Imran visit to China brought him many goodies and promises but the real proof of the pudding would be in whether Pakistan allows the Chinese to tighten their grip on the Pakistan economy at grave cost to itself. For more Opinion: Click Here Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 5) The decision of Villar-led Streamtech Systems Technologies Inc. to back out from joining the bidding for third major telecommunication player was a "strategic" move, a telecommunications expert said Monday. Pierre Galla, cofounder of advocacy group Democracy.net.ph, said by purchasing the 1-million bidding documents from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), Streamtech has acquired market intelligence and publicity, which the company can use for its expansion in the country. "I would say that it could possibly be strategic for them. Since they released a statement that they will enter the wired space instead of the mobile space, quite likely they got a lot of information that will give them powerful business decisions," Galla told CNN Philippines. "1 million for market intelligence direct from the NTC is actually very cheap. So the amount of information that they got, in so far to being able to ask questions through the bid bulletin, gain access to NTC statistics, and all those numbers, being able to have a sense of what a telco market is like in the country. 1 million would be a cheap price for all those information," he added. In a statement Sunday, Streamtech, owned by the family of Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, announced that it will no longer vie for the third telco slot as it focuses on its expansion plans. The company, according to reports, bought bidding documents from the NTC on October 8 but requested not to be disclosed for unknown reasons. Streamtech is headed by Manuel Paolo Villar, the son of business tycoon and former Senate President Manuel "Manny" Villar Jr. and reelectionist Senator Cynthia Villar. President Rodrigo Duterte in October signed a law granting a 25-year congressional franchise to the company, allowing it to "construct, install, establish, operate, and maintain telecommunications systems throughout the Philippines." The government earlier said the bidding for the slot will begin on November 7. The Department of Information and Communications Technology and NTC will receive bids on November 5 and 6 from 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and November 7 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Some of the presumptive bidders include businessman Dennis Uy-led Udenna Corp., Davao-based TierOne Communications (a consortium that includes former Ilocos Sur Governor Luis Chavit Singson), Philippine Telegraph and Telephone, Now Telecom, Norway's Telenor Group, China Telecommunications Corp. Ltd., Autralia's Mobiltel Holding GMBH, and an undisclosed firm. CNN Philippines business news producer Jil Danielle Caro contributed to this report. New Delhi: A new development of a new kind of extraterrestrial life detection system has attracted NASAs attention so much that the space organization has awarded nearly USD seven million to an effort aiming at it. This invention could be used in Mars, scientists say. Also Read | Shah Rukh Khan Diwali Bash had THIS little fella twinning with SRK, check pictures The Laboratory for Agnostic Biosignatures will have the power to perform a new class of life detection approaches from the subsurface of Mars to the farthest of our solar system. The interdisciplinary project will be used on planetary missions. Time and again, we have been bowled over by the indescribable foreignness of other worlds, said Sarah Stewart Johnson from Georgetown University in the US. Yet the search for extraterrestrial life often defaults to assumptions that arise from experiences with life detection on Earth, said Johnson, the projects principal investigator. The NASAs aim is to explicitly throw out the notion that life out in space will be like life here on earth, at home. The Astrobiology Program has awarded the USD seven million grant to serve this very purpose. Also Read | US issued strongest sanctions on Iran ever: Donald Trump Detecting life in an agnostic fashion means not using characteristics particular to Earth life, said deputy principal investigator Heather Graham of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Graham added that the team may consider states of disequilibrium with the surrounding environment, such as of conspicuous chemical complexity or unexpected accumulations of chemical elements. The aim is to also look for patterns of energy transfer in the hope that they will also look for patterns of energy transfer in the hope that such peculiarity could signal the researchers about the existence of life. The project lies on indentifying indicators that are not biased towards the particular type of biochemistry found on Earth. The life detection methods must also be suitable for eventual implementation on flight missions. Our goal is to go beyond what we currently understand and devise ways to find forms of life we can scarcely imagine, Johnson said. The Laboratory for Agnostic Biosignatures will try exploring different ways to think about the discovery of life in terms of probabilities and thresholds, as opposed to seeking a simple yes or no as to whether life has been discovered. Also Read | Texas governor Greg Abbott hosts Diwali celebrations at his residence When you are looking for extraterrestrial life, results may be messier than just yes we found life or no we didnt, Johnson said. To do that, well need to think less about whether life fits our preconceptions of what life is, and more about how to quantify the difference between what we see and what we might expect from an abiotic environment, she said. Researchers are optimistic that this project will support computational efforts to develop probabilistic and theoretical models, some of which will depend on advanced algorithmic and machine learning techniques. It will also oversee the analysis of a wide array of organic and inorganic substrates, including abiotic extracts from meteorites, which will be used to develop and refine these tools and algorithms, they said. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A mysterious cigar-shaped object 'Oumuamua, that astronomers had spotted in the solar system last year might have been an ancient alien relic, researchers have suggested. Two Harvard astronomers have suggested that it could be an artefact from an alien civilisation sent to explore the Earths neighbourhood. The researchers said the non-gravitational acceleration displayed by the object called Oumuamua could be explained through the effect of solar radiation pressure on a light-sail, a sail pushed forward as it reflects light from the sun. Oumuamua means scout in Hawaiian. Read More | Fuel prices continue to be slashed, petrol at 78.56, diesel at 73.16 in Delhi Abraham Loeb, professor and chair of astronomy, and Shmuel Bialy, a postdoctoral scholar, at the Harvard Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics have now brought a new angle in a paper submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Our paper suggests that the first evidence for extraterrestrial technology may have just passed by the Earth last year, Loeb, who is also director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at Harvard, told The Telegraph via email. The Harvard astronomers paper shows that a light-sail with a thickness of just 0.3mm to 0.9mm could survive a long journey through interstellar space, unharmed by the likely collisions with atoms or dust particles. Also Read | Sabarimala reopens today, media houses warned not to depute women journalists One possibility is that Oumuamua is a light-sail floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment, they wrote in their paper, citing how earlier studies had proposed light-sails for interstellar travel. Alternatively, a more exotic scenario is that Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilisation, they said as quoted by The Telegraph. A group of Hawaiian astronomers had first spotted the object on October 19 last year and with its unusual features a dark-red hue and a highly elongated shape, about 800m long and a trajectory that indicated an origin outside the solar system. While, groups of astronomers in Europe and America who watched the fast-fading object debated whether it was an asteroid or a comet. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday India, China and Japan are among eight countries temporarily allowed to continue buying Iranian oil as they showed "significant reduction" in oil purchase from the Persian Gulf country over the past six months after the US reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran. "We have decided to issue temporary allotments to a handful of countries responsible to specific circumstances and to ensure a well-supplied oil market. The US will be granting these exemptions to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey," Pompeo told reporters in Washington. Two of those eight have already completely ended imports of Iranian crude and will not resume as long as the sanctions regime remains in place, he added. "We continue negotiations to get all of the nations to zero," he said. Also Read | Day before Ind vs WI 2nd T20 match, newly built Ekana Stadium in Lucknow renamed after Atal Bihari Vajpayee On Friday, Pompeo had said the US would temporarily allow the eight countries to continue buying Iranian oil even after enforcing its sanctions on Tehran. However, he didnt mentions Indias name. The US had previously wanted countries, including India, to completely stop oil purchases from Iran by November 4 when its full sanctions against Tehran come into force. India, which is the second biggest purchaser of Iranian oil after China, was willing to restrict its monthly purchase to 1.25 million tonnes or 15 million tonnes in a year (300,000 barrels per day), down from 22.6 million tonnes (452,000 barrels per day) bought in 2017-18 financial year, sources in New Delhi said. Also Read | INS Arihant creates history; here are other active Indian submarines In May, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 landmark nuclear the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) terming it as disastrous". Under the Obama-era deal, involving five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany, Iran agreed to stop its nuclear programme in exchange of relief from economic sanctions. After the US' withdrawal from the deal, Trump signed fresh sanctions against Iran and warned countries against any cooperation with Tehran on its controversial nuclear weapons programme. Speaking with the reporters at the White House on Friday before leaving on a campaign trail, Trump said Iran was not the same country which it was when he started almost two years ago. "Iran is a much different country since I terminated that deal. That was one of the most ridiculous deals ever made by any country, at any time: the Iran nuclear deal," he said. "They're very serious sanctions. They're very big. They'll be elevated from there. But, as you know, sanctions are starting on Iran and, Iran is taking a very big hit," he added. More than 20 importing nations have zeroed out their imports of crude oil already, taking more than 1 million barrels of crude per day off the market. The Iranian regime to date since May has lost over $2.5 billion in oil revenue, he said. Additionally, today, 100 per cent of the revenue Iran receives from the sale of oil will be held in foreign accounts. Iran can only use this money for humanitarian trade or bilateral non-sanctioned goods, he asserted. The US on Monday imposed "the toughest ever" sanctions on a defiant Iran aimed at altering the Iranian regime's "behaviour". The sanctions cover Iran's banking and energy sectors and reinstate penalties for countries and companies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere that do not halt Iranian oil imports. (With agency inputs) For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: US President Donald Trump on Sunday said that his country has placed the strongest-ever sanctions on Iran. This statement comes a few hours before the sanctions on the West Asian nation comes into effect. Earlier on Friday, tweeted a "Game of Thrones" image of himself with the words "sanctions are coming". Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump was quoted by CNN saying, "The Iran sanctions are very strong. We'll see what happens with Iran (after that). But, they are not doing very well. It's a big difference since I have been in office." Read More | Cigar-shaped object spotted in Solar System could be an 'alien relic' He added, "When I came to office, if you go a day before, it looked like Iran would take over the Middle East. And now nobody's talking about that. Iran sanctions will go into effect and they are strongest sanctions that our country has ever issued." On Friday, the Donald Trump administration announced the return of all US sanctions on Iran that were lifted by former president Barack Obama under the 2015 nuclear deal. The United States has vowed to end all sales of Iranian oil, the country's crucial export, as well as international banking transactions. However, the US decided to exempt eight countries, including India, from new Iran oil sanctions, had said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He said the exemptions would be temporary. The US is to issue temporary exemption to eight "jurisdictions" from Iranian sanctions recognising their significant reduction in imports of oil from Iran. The names of the jurisdictions would be released on Monday, Pompeo said. Also Read | Anup Jalota has another shocking revelation after BB12 eviction India, which is the second biggest purchaser of Iranian oil after China, is willing to restrict its monthly purchase to 1.25 million tonnes or 15 million tonnes in a year (300,000 barrels per day), down from 22.6 million tonnes (452,000 barrels per day) bought in 2017-18 financial year, sources in New Delhi said. In May, US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 landmark nuclear the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) terming it as disastrous". Under the Obama-era deal, involving five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany, Iran agreed to stop its nuclear programme in exchange of relief from economic sanctions. (With agency inputs) For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. WASHINGTON - Jonathan Swan landed a big scoop about President Donald Trump last week, another in a series of big scoops the young reporter has landed since Trump took office. The reaction? Brutal. Swan,who covers the White House for the online news site Axios, was first to report that Trump intended to propose terminating "birthright citizenship," the constitutionally protected guarantee of citizenship for anyone born in the United States. Swan was so far ahead of the press pack on the story that even Trump expressed surprise that Swan knew about the proposal when Swan brought it up during a White House interview, which HBO will air on Sunday. Nice work ... except for a few things online critics weren't shy about pointing out. For one, Axios's story and headline - "Exclusive: Trump to terminate birthright citizenship" - failed to note that Trump can't just override the Constitution with the stroke of a pen (the story and headline were later amended to reflect this). For another, a clip of Swann's encounter with Trump drew an angry backlash on social media for Swann's failure to push back on Trump's claim that other countries don't have birthright citizenship (in fact, dozens do) or the notion that the proposal might just be a stunt by Trump to stir up anti-immigrant sentiment days before an election. "This is less a news story than it is a press release," wrote one critic, beneath a headline calling Swan "a bootlicker." "This is a news outlet willingly staging a press event for a racist administration." The triumph-to-fiasco nature of Swan's story marked a rare bit of turbulence for a reporter who has been on a sustained hot streak since Trump took office. Swan has broken story after story about Trump, drawing traffic and attention to Axios, a site founded just two years ago by a team that started Politico in 2007. Among his greatest hits: Swan was first to report that Trump intended to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord; that Trump planned to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem; that White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon would be fired; that House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., wouldn't seek re-election; that Trump would end President Barack Obama's executive order protecting children brought to the United States by undocumented immigrants; that Anthony Scaramucci would be named White House communications director; and that Trump had accepted Nikki Haley's resignation as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. A few days after he broke the birthright citizenship story, Swan broke the news that Trump was "strongly" considering State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert as Haley's replacement. Trump later confirmed the story, saying Nauert was "under very serious consideration" for the job. The run of stories puts Swan "in the top tier" of reporters covering Trump, says Bob Woodward, the veteran Washington Post reporter and author of the recent bestseller, "Fear," about the Trump White House. "I don't get the sense that he's soft at all," Woodward says. "Walking that line of being tough but fair while also listening to the people you're covering is a delicate one, particularly in daily reporting. He's in that class that's hitting Trump pretty hard but listening to him and giving him" a chance to air his side. Woodward says Swan belongs with the best of a rising group of Washington reporters that includes Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, Michael Bender of the Wall Street Journal and Robert Costa, Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker of The Post. What's noteworthy about Swan, 33, is that he's been a journalist for only a few years and a journalist in Washington for even less time than that. Born and raised in Australia, he didn't get started in the profession until he was 25, despite journalism running in his family. Swan's father, Norman Swan, is famous down under as a health and science broadcaster. An aunt and uncle are also reporters in his native country. After short stints covering politics and other topics for the Sydney Morning Herald, Swan came to the United States in 2013 on an academic fellowship and served briefly as an aide on Capitol Hill. His first real American reporting job was with the Hill; he joined the publication in 2015, covering campaign finance and, occasionally, a candidate named Donald Trump. (Swan is an Australian citizen who holds a work visa; he intends to seek American citizenship after he marries his fiance, Daily Beast political reporter Betsy Woodruff.) His career accelerated after he joined Axios soon after its launch in early 2017. There he fell under the tutelage of the site's co-founders, chief executive Jim VandeHei and writer-editor Mike Allen, whom the site describes as "the world's most-wired reporter." VandeHei and Allen evidently saw in Swan the kind of plugged-in, high-metabolism journalist they have been in the course of working at The Washington Post and at Politico, which Allen and VandeHei left in 2016 after falling out with co-founder John Harris. "You won't find a tougher, more thorough or harder-working reporter," says VandeHei of his protege. "I could not be more proud of him, as a reporter and person. I would give my right arm for an army of Swans." VandeHei won't provide figures, but Swan's Trump scoops have undoubtedly played a major role in Axios' early traffic-building efforts. The site had 8.3 million unique visitors in September, according to the web-tracking firm ComScore. That's a mere fraction of much larger competitors (Washington Post: 85.6 million; Politico: 32.4 million) but an impressive number for a young site with just two dozen editorial employees. Swan himself produces a weekly newsletter that has become a franchise unto itself. The newsletter, Axios Sneak Peek, has about 150,000 subscribers, according to VandeHei. Swan has also leveraged his TV appearances on "Morning Joe" and "PBS NewsHour" into a lucrative speaking career; he reportedly receives as much as $25,000 per speech, although his speakers' agency listing says his fees "vary". Swan himself declined to comment on the record for this story. He had that in common with about a half-dozen of his competitors on the White House beat, all of whom spoke about him on the condition that they not be identified or quoted directly. Even accounting for competitive jealousies among reporters, the take on Swan among his peers is generally positive. Rivals on the beat say he earns his scoops fair and square, through an extensive network of contacts and connections and a seven-days-a-week work ethic. Notwithstanding the birthright citizenship episode, they describe Swan as a rigorous and independent reporter. The one knock on Swann is that he isn't Washington's deepest reporter or finest writer; his stories sometimes read like news flashes or blurbs, shorn of context, depth or larger connections. His scoop about Trump's plans for the U.S. Embassy in Israel, for instance, was literally 55 words long. Nevertheless, Woodward, for one, remains a fan. "I don't know if Jonathan Swan gets the MVP award" for reporting on Trump, he says. "But he's in that group worth watching. Maybe he's the rookie of the year." --- Trump immigration executive order: President to terminate birthright citizenship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0d21nQBY8o It was early on Halloween eve when small superheroes, princesses and wizards began knocking on the doors of seaside Westport homes. Will Haskell, a newly minted college graduate, was out there zigzagging the streets, too but unlike the trick-or-treaters, he was after votes, not sweets. Haskell, a 22-year-old Democrat, has been campaigning relentlessly in an effort to do something some political pundits thought improbable: flip the 26th Senate district seat where Republican incumbent Toni Boucher has served for Haskells entire life. The race is one of the key state legislative contests, as Democrats and Republicans vie to tip the scale on the current 18-18 party split in the Senate on Tuesday. Boucher has maintained steady control of her seat for two decades, despite local support for Democrats in national elections. Connecticut voters went for Hillary Clinton by more than 20 percent in 2016, and former President Barack Obama before that. This gives Haskell some hope that he will prevail Tuesday, he said. In fact, Haskell said it was the farewell address delivered by Obama, who handed him an endorsement in early October, that partially inspired him to run for the seat. It was a light bulb moment for Haskell when he heard Obama say, If youre disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures and run for office yourself. Those words are even inscribed at his campaign office, a recently shuttered Chinese restaurant with no heat where he works alongside high school volunteers. It is unusual that a young person runs for office but it shouldnt be if representative democracy (is to) be representative, Haskell said, as he walked along white picket fences in the Westport neighborhood. And every day Hartford makes decisions that are going to impact Connecticut for generations to come, largely without the input of the next generation. Thats crazy. I think its ill advised. A 68-year-old Republican state senator with considerable seniority, Boucher said she feels positive, but very cautious, about the outcome of the race, noting it is anyones game. She serves on the Senates Republican leadership, and is a co-chair on the education and transportation committees two that her opponent is eager to join. Boucher does not believe her opponents age disqualifies him from running for office: If you have the energy, the drive and the passion to do it then you should go do it no matter what age it should be age-blind. But I do have to say that having the broad life experiences does form your positions and your ability to interact, said Boucher, leaning close to the wheel of her gray Honda HRV as she drove around Westport. And even more than that, lets forget about age, it is about establishing the networks and the relationships to help your districts problems get (solved). Haskell, who describes himself as a fiscal moderate, is hoping to fire up voters on both sides of aisle and corral support from moderate Republicans who dont identify with President Donald Trump. For Stacey Henske, a registered Republican in Westport, Haskell represents needed change. Henske, who bumped into Haskell while he was door knocking, told him he 100 percent has her vote. This is welcome news to Haskell, who said he began his campaign with some self doubt. I was so nervous when I started that I was just one voice and that I was too young to make a difference, but you go out and knock on doors, you hold meet-and-greets, you show people that youre willing to put in the work and listen to their concerns and you can win over their respect, Haskell said. State Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said Haskell has displayed a sophisticated mastery of the issues and proven to be an extraordinary candidate in a district that hasnt usually been competitive for Democrats. Thats at least partially because of his early experience in politics including an internship at the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., and work on campaigns for U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn. Both lawmakers, together with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, have endorsed him. If he wins, Haskell plans to fight for further gun control regulations, a paid family leave law and improvements to the areas transportation grid, he said. Haskell has repeatedly criticized Boucher for not supporting a move toward stricter gun laws, claiming she has said Connecticut went too far in enacting regulations after the Sandy Hook massacre. But Boucher has said her opponent is trying to distort her record, and noted she supported that legislation and other gun control reforms, such as the recently enacted ban on bump stocks. The recent Georgetown University graduate is also an advocate of tolls, arguing that out-of-state drivers of trucking companies should have to contribute to the upkeep of the states roads. Thats the overarching thing about tolls, were leaving money on the table at a time when Connecticut just cant afford to do so, Haskell said. He feels similarly about legalizing recreational marijuana which, although not one of his priorities, is another way he said he thinks Connecticut can generate additional needed revenue while eliminating the need for people to purchase it illegally. Boucher campaigns most days throughout her district which includes Bethel, New Canaan, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston, Westport and Wilton from 5:30 in the morning until late at night before heading home to answer emails. According to her own estimates, Boucher sleeps roughly four hours a night. On a recent afternoon, Boucher zipped around her district, starting at the Westport train station before heading to local businesses and a diner, and then went door knocking with pamphlets and a zip-lock bag of dog treats in hand. Boucher, who immigrated to Connecticut with her Italian family at the age of 5, said she considers herself an education zealot often referring to her fathers belief that education is the path out of poverty and toward freedom. The Republican said her number one concern going into the next legislative session would be Connecticuts economy. Some of my very top priorities have to do with solving our budget crisis, Boucher said. We really are teetering on economic insolvency for our state. J.R. Romano, the Republican state chairman, said he thinks Haskell has misrepresented a lot of Bouchers record and is trying to capitalize on dissatisfaction with the Trump administration. Westport resident Brian Senatore told Boucher he is supporting her because he does not think Haskell would help Connecticut become competitive or promote business growth. I like seeing young people getting involved, I think thats a wonderful thing, Senatore said. But I just feel like the direction hes trying to go is more about being negative and anti-Trump and peoples frustrations with that versus whats really good for this state. Boucher considers herself fiscally conservative and socially moderate. She supports some traditionally Democratic positions like a womans right to choose, environmental protections and gay marriage, and would also support a ban on ghost guns and 3D-printed firearms. But Boucher opposes tolls and raising the minimum wage, and supports phasing out the income tax. The Republican voted against medical marijuana, but said she likes seeing that finally there is some science around extracting the positive components of that in a way that doesnt destroy any of your brain cells or wiring that is a big concern. And Boucher opposes legalizing it recreationally, taking the opposite position from her opponent. We should be looking at different ways to improve our economic situation, different ways to increase our revenue, Boucher said. For me, I only see a higher downside than a plus, and for money to be the reason to do this, I think that is not moral. Boucher said negative feelings many Connecticut residents have about Trump has made the race much more competitive and will likely motivate voters who want to send him a message. She believes Haskell probably would have had a tougher time if Trump wasnt in office. But I think that also a tremendous amount of feedback Im getting is that this administration has led us down a negative road for the state and we need to turn it around, Boucher said. Neither candidate has decided whether they would run again in two years if they lose on Tuesday, they said. I dont know about this race and this seat but I know that Im dedicated to Connecticut being in public service and talking to people and listening to people, trying to make their lives better is certainly what I want to do for the rest of my life, Haskell said. STAMFORD Visitors to Shelby Heads third solo exhibition are encouraged to put on a pair of the white gloves displayed near the entrance. The gloves serve a practical purpose guests can handle some of the art but Head is up to something more provocative: the garments reference the same-colored ones worn by slaves once owned by her family. Heads family history is at the heart of her new exhibit, An Infrastructure of Silence, which opens on Saturday at the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery in downtown Stamford. The institution of slavery has affected my family throughout the generations, Head said. They had plantations and owned slaves. It was a very small community, and everybody married everybody else. You can see why I have such a deep history into slavery, because that was the community. Gallery patrons wont need to read between the lines to learn of Heads history, as its all written down, in a collection of frames that include images of her ancestors, and their ties to slavery. One image is of Head as a child, alongside her mother and father, and two brothers, though the heads of each of her siblings is cut out of the image. Heads work deals with the shame of her familys strong connection to the institution of slavery, which she only recently discovered. After her mother died, Head found files in their home on the familys history, going back multiple generations. Head traced her familys slave ownership history all the way back to her great-great-great-great-great-grandfather William Warren, a slave owner in Kentucky in the 1700s. She also discovered her ancestors lived on a plantation named Eothen, later Malvern Hill in Kentucky, and that more than 10 slaves were documented to have worked and lived there for the 103 years her family called it home. Head said her immediate family never discussed their ancestors connection to slavery, which made the discovery even more shocking. We didnt talk in my family, she said. We didnt say anything about anything. Fernando Alvarez, the gallery owner, said Heads work is challenging and deep. Nonetheless, Alvarez said several associates of the gallery have told him the subject matter of Heads work is too controversial. I didnt believe so, Alvarez said. I thought that it was an important topic to talk about. Others have wondered if presenting an exhibit by a white woman about racism toward blacks is problematic. Again, Alvarez disagrees. History is everybodys. It happenedit needs to be told as many times as possible. Its the only way were going to push the needle forward for change, he said. Alvarez, the mastermind behind the giant heroin spoon sculpture protest at Purdue Pharma over the summer, is not one to shirk from controversial or provocative art. If I went as far as getting arrested for the spoon, I will go as far as giving the artists we represent a platform, he said. Besides the personal details about Heads family history, the exhibit also grapples with institutional racism in the United States. One of Alvarezs favorite pieces in the exhibit is called, Dynamic Entry, and is simply a collection of nine fiberglass panels made by Head, with washers and screws attached to them, mimicking the construction of police shields and riot gear. One of the reference points for the piece is a painting by Robert Longo that depicts riot police behind shields in the aftermath of the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014. This is very much with the times, Alvarez said. Another of his favorites is The Wall, a collection of three cement panels, meant to symbolize the Detroit Eight Mile Wall, a longstanding symbol of segregation in that city. Head described her own work as uncomfortable. Its in your face and it really confronts critical issues, she said. I want people to be uncomfortable. Since she started working on the exhibit, Head said two people have told her about their familys ties to slavery, a subject they had not broached with others in the past. Having that discussion is exactly what Head is hoping to accomplish. We need to start talking, as white people, she said. African Americans are speaking and have been screaming I welcome the conversation. I think we need to do more of it. The opening reception for An Infrastructure of Silence is from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, and will feature spiritual music from Brooklyn-based singer Sheniqua Trotman. The exhibit runs until Nov. 17. ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com BRIDGEPORT Two city council resolutions meant to address bullying in city schools may have been tabled as out of bounds but they managed to get school officials and council members talking. I know historically there have been tensions between the board and city council, Christina Smith, co-chair of the City Councils Education and Social Service Committee said, describing the resolutions as a hopeful thing, not meant to dictate. We can change the narrative and outcomes for our young people by working together, added Kyle Langan, the committees other co-chair. We are attempting to build amity between our boards by communicating more often. One resolution would have established a Bullying Prevention Task Force in the school district. The other would have authorized the district to provide a safe school climate and report on bullying, harassment, discrimination and intimidation. Both resolutions were introduced by Council member Karen Jackson last week, who said when her three sons were bullied in school there was little recourse. She said her motivation, however, was driven more by the school district reporting last June of just 19 confirmed cases of bullying in the 2018-18 school year. Parents in my district are bellowing for help, Jackson said. Jackson said she modeled her measures on similar resolutions passed recently by the city council in New York City. As it turns out, the district already has a safe school coordinator its Director of Social Work Dee Young and a newly formed District Bullying Prevention Committee. The committee was put in place by Schools Superintendent Aresta Johnson at the direction of the school board, which was also troubled by what it considered highly underreported bullying statistics. We have a strong solid plan in place, Johnson told council members when she met with them. She brought with her several members of the committee with her, including Young. The District Bullying Committee has been meeting twice a month, working to make sure principals and teachers know the state definition and reporting requirements of bullying, she said. They are also promoting more positive school climates. In October, a Bully Awareness Campaign was launched. Other interventions are in the planning stages. I am pleased you want to know about bullying, Johnson said. She reminded council members they cant tell the board or her what to do. I take my directives from the nine-member board. If the council really wanted to help, Johnson added, it should be concerning itself with $250,000 in funding it approved for the district but which city officials have yet to release. I think that that takes precedence, she said. The council voted to give us a $1,039,000 (increase). The city chose to keep $250,000 of that. Council Member Michele Lyons said she felt bullying was an educational responsibility not a council matter. The best council members could do, she said, is seek information. I dont want to cross lines, Lyons said. Jackson said she was not trying to direct anyone. Langan said it seemed the school board was already taking the action on bullying, making the resolutions unnecessary. The resolutions were tabled. We will definitely look into the $250,000, he added. MIDDLETOWN As temperatures hovered in the nippy mid-40s with a light mist falling and gray skies overhead, the Connecticut River at Harbor Park, swollen from recent rains, was almost entirely unpopulated Monday afternoon. The river flowed by at a good clip as waters flooded the southern end of the boardwalk near the Mattabassett Canoe Club on Harbor Drive. Levels are high near a small inlet there, nearly reaching the edge of the retaining wall, and also rising slightly above the docks at the boathouse. The river would have to rise another six feet from projections by [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] for us to start to get worried, said Dylan Cronin, who helps management run the operations at the waterside restaurant. With the streamgage no longer in place in Middletown, which lies between the Hartford and Middle Haddam river gauges, Cronin said he and the owners rely on the water gage in the Capitol city. Twenty-one is where it starts to come into play. We start to get worried, and we start to prepare where it might flood. The last projection we saw was 17.8 (feet), Cronin said Monday afternoon. When it peaks today and hits flood stage, you can start to see the water coming up, he added. The river is expected to recede to 14 feet by Thursday in Hartford. As much as Cronin relies on NOAA projection data, there are times when forecasts are a little off. Its tricky. You still have to watch it sometimes. The last time we flooded, it was over the winter, when we got that huge ice jam. That was one of those curve balls, because in Hartford, it said we werent anywhere near the danger of flooding, and we had this massive ice jam here, Cronin said. He is referring to the six-mile-long ice jam that backed up the Connecticut River this spring. There were two blockages at the time: running north of the East Haddam Swing Bridge through Higganum and into Middletown, and a smaller ice field in Essex, just north of Hamburg Cove. Massive chunks, some as much as a foot thick, forced their way onto the banks, creating a breathtaking sight and drawing the curious from miles around. Eerie creaks, the sound of the ice blocks being forced on top of one another, filled the air until the water began flowing again after the Bollard, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter, broke up the frozen water. Middletown Fire Chief Robert Kronenberger said he expects waters to recede by some time Tuesday. It looks like well finish up (the height of the flooding) just over 8 feet, which is just above flood stage, he said. The public safety dock off River Road, near the sewage treatment plant, is still in good shape, Kronenberger added. It should be cresting sometime late today and tomorrow, the chief, who examined the area Sunday, said . The fact that the Connecticut is a tidal river, does have a little bit of bearing on us, he added. Over in Portland, the road was blocked off to eastbound traffic Monday afternoon in front of the Gildersleeve Spirit Shop at 644 Main St. due to flooding. The low-lying fairgrounds there often fill with water. Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day@hearstmediact.com or on Twitter @cassandrasdis. https://twitter.com/cassandrasdis The Unitarian Society of New Haven is looking for ways to welcome and provide resources to immigrants. That was the message at a weekend symposium, organized by the Hamden-based societys mental health awareness and immigration and refugees task forces, and sponsored by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. The symposium attracted about 70 people and focused on the mental and physical health of immigrants and lack of resources they face. Nancy Brown, chairwoman of the Immigration and Refugee Task Force, said the societys principles affirm and promote the dignity of every person and social justice is at the core of the faith. Welcome the stranger, she said. The Rev. Megan Lloyd Joiner, Unitarian Society minister, told those in attendance never to forget the reason they are here: For the love of humanity and to lift up those who are most vulnerable. She said it was hard not to talk about the 7,000 people making their way to the U.S. border and asked people to pray for their safety and that cool heads would prevail. Speaker Mark Costa, psychiatrist and associate research scientist with the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health, who has been living in the U.S. for seven years, said even immigrants with legal status face challenges and feel out of place. Speaker Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, a civil rights activist who lost within 10 percentage points in the Democratic primary for states lieutenant governor this year, and would have been the first Latina elected in state public office, told the group: Rather than build a wall, we should extend our hands out. She said undocumented individuals are a benefit, not a burden to society. For instance, she said, they pay taxes, but dont get social security or health care. They are buying property, working at jobs that Americans dont want to do and paying into our system on our behalf, she said. Both speakers encouraged creating community for immigrants on a local level as a way to effect change here and in the nation. Zimmerman noted people can talk to their representatives, invite someone from the immigrant community to a meeting, volunteer in a group involved with immigration, use social media or just have conversations. She suggested inviting an activist to a dinner party, adding that she wouldnt be available until after the election. During a discussion about trauma, Elaine Kolb of West Haven suggested that cultural events could serve to bring people together. Artistic expression is one of the most powerful means of healing, she said. I encourage the idea of using the arts. Anna-Sabina Soggiu of Norway, who was a visiting scholar working at Yales Program for Recovery and Community Health, said she had dealt with the immigrant community in Europe, but she didnt feel she was fully equipped to deal with people from diverse backgrounds. She said the current helping system is not representational of the people they serve. As part of the healing process, she feels, Representation is part of it and understanding another cultural setting. Seeing someone you can recognize yourself in is really important, she said. As an example, she noted how in Norway, she is considered loud, but thats not the case in Italy, where she is considered shy. She also noted that not using her mother tongue in other countries means not being fully herself and can change how people perceive her. Martha Plazas, program manager for the Outpatient Clinic, Latino Services and the CATCH program, Clifford Beers Clinic, who ran the trauma group, also noted that language was a barrier. She said she used interpreters, but its not the same as talking directly to a clinician in your native tongue. She noted, after some discussion, how immigrants can be traumatized by both leaving their homes, as well as arriving in a new place and the trauma doesnt always get dealt with due to other pressing needs, such as housing and food. So we are dealing with a pretty complex picture here, she said. She noted people might go to a doctor or school, but not a mental health professional. Its very hard for someone to walk into a mental health clinic, said Plaza. The stigma is not the same as walking into a physicians office. We are all responsible to identify these traumas, she said. All of us can ask the right question to find out what we are dealing with. She noted, Immigrants and refugees most healing part is to be in community, where they can see they are dealing with the same thing as others. Daniel Reyes, executive director of Junta for Progressive Action, who was the facilitator for the community engagement group, noted that there is a lot of misinformation on the local and federal level about immigration and it can result in fear and helplessness and can paralyze people. But, he said, There is a lot of community happening. He noted that Gethsemane Church in Danbury, members of which were present, has been doing a lot of work in their community. Its all about us connecting together, he said, to share knowledge, assets and resources. Additionally, he said that all immigrants are not the same so its OK to have all these different resources, but the organizations need to think beyond our walls. The society hopes to continue to meet and discuss immigration issues with a goal of developing action plans. Among the ideas developed at the symposium are: to communicate the advantages of having a diverse population through public service announcements, focusing on bills to protect immigrants , promoting understanding that people who experience the trauma of leaving their country and living in a new one need help, providing cultural and artistic events for immigrants to gather, eliminating misinformation and connecting resources so immigrants have access no matter what organization they use. Zimmerman was born and raised in Hartford, the child of activist parents who moved here from Puerto Rico, graduated high school at 16 and went to Brazil for a year-long service project with Rotary International, which began her activism. After running for lieutenant governor, she is now back representing childcare workers for the Service Employers International Union. She has also served on the legislative council in Newtown and as secretary of the Democratic State Central Party. Costa said he was born and raised in Brazil, with an American mother, went back and forth to the United States, worked as a psychiatrist for several years in Brazil and then decided to move to the United States, which he described as an interesting journey and experience. The topic of immigration is very important to me, said Costa. In spite of his familiarity with the U.S., he said it was a good and rich experience, but challenging as well, and wonds about how to decrease those challenges. After seven years in the country, five in Connecticut, Costa said, due to his accent and being unfamiliar with social cues, I still encounter those challenges. He said he thinks its much worse for people who are not American citizens. What Dr. Ilhan Yildiz thought would just be a few years in a small West Texas town ended up being 26 years of unforgettable moments, he said as he reflected on his tenure serving in Plainview. "Just a lot of great memories and a lot of great people," said Yildiz, who is moving on to the next chapter of his life. In mid-November, Yildiz and wife, Hillary, will relocate to the mountainous New Mexico town of Ruidoso. "It's bittersweet," said Yildiz as he thought about the town his family fell in love with nearly 30 years ago. "We only had plans to stay here for a few years. But when that time came, my family was just so happy." But things don't seem to always follow Yildiz's initial plans. "I kind of decided to become a doctor very last minute," said Yildiz. Born in a small village in Turkey, Yildiz explained he always assumed he was going to be some sort of engineer when he grew up. "I was very good at math and was very interested in physics and chemistry," explained Yildiz. However, as his high school graduation approached, Yildiz said he noticed there were already so many engineers in Turkey. "I thought it would be hard to get a job, let alone make a good living," he said. Thinking of a job that had just as much esteem, Yildiz decided he would enroll into medical school at the University of Istanbul. After completing the six-year program, Yildiz opted to go the surgical route and began Ear, Nose and Throat training in Izmir, Turkey. "I was always good with my hands so I thought surgery would be a good fit," said Yildiz. "Also, I like surgery because there is almost instant satisfaction. Once you do a procedure, you can see the results quickly in the patient. That's the difference from say, medicine, where you don't really have something tangible for some time." After 30 years of being a surgeon, Yildiz has been revered for his steady hand and focused precision. Yildiz contributes this to growing up watching various family businesses. "When I was growing up, one of my uncles was a tailor and I remember watching him do things and I would try to do it myself," said Yildiz. "I had another uncle who was a shoemaker and I would help him when I could get the chance. And my brothers were mechanics so I would watch them rebuild engines." After completing the Ears, Nose Throat program, Yildiz started a surgical residency in Buffalo, New York in 1983. Yildiz said he enjoyed America and almost stayed after the residency program was over. But eventually, Yildiz returned back to Turkey where he opened a private practice but also worked for a U.S. Air Force clinic in Izmir. Keeping his connections in the States, Yildiz worked for four years in Turkey, but eventually was called by an American physician recruiter looking to fill some spots in Texas. Yildiz, who was already heading back the United States for a conference, decided to tour the area with the recruiter. "Texas is a whole different culture than in New York," said Yildiz. "The area was different, the people were different, even the language was different. It took a little getting used to." Yildiz said he toured hospitals in the Austin, San Antonio and the Hill Country areas, but found something special when the recruiter brought him to Plainview. "I guess it was the people," said Yildiz. Yildiz said the hospital were trying to replace retiring surgeons, Dr. Jack Long and Dr. Ralph Thomas. Yildiz figured he could stay in Plainview for a short while and then eventually move. So in 1992, the young surgeon opened his private practice in the now Edgemere Medical Center. Yildiz worked well in the community and enjoyed the small town atmospheres of West Texas. "He's such a great teacher and mentor," said Kristi Mull, RN, manager for Covenant Health Plainview's surgical department. Mull started working in Yildiz's office at the age of 19, shortly after she completed nursing school. "Kristi started with me right after I started in Plainview. She is so smart and if she sees something, she can learn it just like that," said Yildiz. Yildiz said he has worked with so many talented surgical staff through the years. "Some have just been so wonderful," said Yildiz. After working in Plainview for a few years, Yildiz came to a cross roads on whether he should stay in the Panhandle or find adventure somewhere else. But things were perfect in Plainview, as his two, then elementary school daughters, Isil and Deniz, were very happy. "So we just stayed," added Yildiz with a smile. And Plainview and the area has greatly benefited from that decision as Yildiz has helped thousands of our family, friends and neighbors. But, Yildiz said it is now time to go on that adventure as he says goodbye to his adopted hometown. "I'm going to take a lot of good memories from here," added Yildiz. SHORELINE There were social media taunts, isolation at school, and tears, lots of tears for Mia Vuolo, a Madison teen. That is how her mom, Heidi Frazier, recalled it. Frazier vividly remembers the years of bullying her daughter endured in the Madison Public Schools. At the lunch table she sat down with a group of girls I wouldnt really say were friends, but that she was friendly with and she got up to get something at the lunch line and came back and all the girls got up and left her, said Frazier. She spent many lunches in the bathroom, she said. This kind of social shunning was accompanied by cyberbullying. They told everybody that she sent nudes out, Frazier said. She would never send nudes out, she wasnt even 100 percent comfortable with her body. The bullying started in elementary school, according to Frazier, but the family was discouraged from filing any official paperwork by a school official at Island Avenue School, she said. Shes like, if we put it in as bullying it goes on the record and its on her record forever, said Frazier. We never ended up doing that because she made it sound like it was the worst thing that could have happened to her, she said. When reached for comment, Madison Superintendent of Schools Tom Scarice said he could not comment on the case, based on federal privacy laws governing student records. Theres not really much I can speak to on one individual matter like that, without jeopardizing my job, he said. So what is bullying? By definition it is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time, according to stopbullying.gov. The bully may have been a victim, too, according to Loren Sterman, a licensed clinical social worker in Guilford. In her experience, she said, invariably theres always someone who has been bullied thats behaving like that. It was at Walter C. Polson Middle School that the bullying for Mia reached a crescendo. While she did continue her local schooling at Daniel Hand High School, she only lasted three months there before first transferring to Branford High School, then back to Madison and ultimately making the decision to move to Florida to live with her father. When it first started I knew I wanted to leave, she writes via text. But my final straw was when my friends were joining in on the bullying. Asked why this happened, she writes, I dont really know. Maybe they thought it was cool or made them more popular or even maybe they got enjoyment out of making me cry and seeing me upset. Her mother said that her daughters decision was heartbreaking. Frazier recalled, Watching her drive away nearly broke me. While it was hard, Mia, 16, settled in nicely and is now a junior in a Florida school. I have a great boyfriend who has helped me overcome a lot of my anxiety and supports me, which is what Ive been looking for in my friends, she writes. I also have a great group of friends down here and they also support with everything I do. Im in a chorus group which we just got invited to sing at Disney which is so much fun and I made a ton of friends from that. I also am on the weightlifting team at my school which is where my passion is and helps me get through my bad days with the girls on the team making me so happy, she adds. Moving from school to school like Mia did, is not always the best solution for everyone, said Sterman. We see kids that go from school to school to school, Sterman said. In each school they end up being bullied. Its because they have an expectation and that expectation perfumes the air for the person who could go in that direction and then, I dont want to say the victim is at fault, but I think we know that there are things that are self-fulling prophecies. We have to teach those kids how to act differently, she added. Its not just plunking them into a different school, because the same thing may happen again. Sterman believes children need to be taught to be more resilient and self-confident. I think theres a fine balance between always rescuing kids and teaching them how to deal with the fall, says Sterman. I think its really important that children learn how to fail gracefully. For Guilfords Kaileigh Roby, the bullying started freshman year at Guilford High School, continued through her sophomore year and started subsiding in her junior year, she said. Senior year was very, very smooth sailing, she said. I just cut so many people out of my life. Finally, I was getting to know really good people who werent like that. This, according to Sterman, is something she discusses with her clients. While there is boy bullying, it is very different from girl bullying, explained Sterman. Boy bullying is easily identifiable, like consistently being chosen last for team sports, while girl bullying is much more isolating and secretive, such as posting rumors on social media. Roby, 19, decided to go public, with a letter the editor, which was published Aug. 29 in the New Haven Register. I think its a really legitimate issue, she writes. Theres a post on Facebook, where I opened up this discussion and I cant even explain to you the amount of support Ive gotten. So many people who experienced the same thing as I did when they went to high school and whos kids have experienced the same thing, she adds in her letter. Roby talked about this past abuse via phone from Pace University where she is now studying psychology. There was a girl who made it very clear that she did not like me, Roby said. For a little while she just did this through texting. She explained that the texts were nonstop and involved insults and barely masked death threats. Roby described: I was told I should kill myself and that rats like me would burn in hell. It wasnt until an altercation in a hallway at the high school, where screaming, name calling and threatening language was used, that three teachers had to intervene and a school investigation ensued. During that time, I gave them every single resource that I could, Roby recalled. They had my phone, they had everything I had about that and they basically found out that my experience was very valid and it was happening and it was not stopping. The thing was even after they found out, they didnt do anything, she said. To this day, Roby is bewildered by the way the issue was handled by school officials. She is quick to add that she does not place any blame on Superintendent of Schools Paul Freeman. Ive already talked to the superintendent, he called me and we talked about things, said Roby. He was by far the most supportive person I have talked to in the school system. He responded with not just only professionalism, but outright concern and care. Freeman said in an email, I am sure you will understand that I cannot comment on any specific cases or discuss any specific students. Freeman, however, added, We take any report of bullying or any inappropriate behavior seriously, and we respond appropriately to any reports we receive, Freeman said. Say Something provides one more vehicle for students to be able to make such a report. Sponsored by Sandy Hook Promise, Say Something Anonymous Reporting System is an anonymous reporting system to help identify and intervene with bullying, fighting, gun violence, substance abuse and suicide threats, among other at-risk behaviors This also includes cyberbullying, which has become a huge issue in bullying cases. Now its really a lot of social media bullying and the schools often, in my experience, will say this isnt a school issue because its on social media so its not a school issue, said Sterman. That may be changing as responsibility becomes clearer, maybe the schools are stepping to the plate more, she added. Say Something may be the vehicle to change this. Not surprisingly, Frazier said she knows the power of social media. You have Snapchats, so things disappear quickly, she said. They can say mean, wretched things and then make it disappear. Roby is convinced that bullying is still happening at Guilford High School and she has heard from people who confirm this. Ive heard many stories that are exactly the same. I know a few kids that have left the school system, just because of this, she said. I was really surprised by how many other people have experienced this, she said. It kind of validated my own stance that Im not just a random blip on the system, what happened to me isnt just my story. Its the story of many other people and thats what really concerns me. MADISON After months of discussions and meetings, residents have voted to lease Island Avenue School to Our Lady of Mercy Preparatory Academy for the 2019-20 school year. The agreement will be in effect for one year, with no negotiation or renewal. The payment to the town will be $535,000. As a triple net lease, we have no financial obligations to the property whatsoever, said First Selectmen Tom Banisch. OLM Prep must obtain all insurance coverage requirements for use of the building. In addition, they will be responsible for all utilities, maintenance and capital. Our Lady of Mercy School, at 149 Neck Road, Madison, merged with St. Mary School in Branford to form the East Shoreline Catholic Academy at the site of St. Mary School in Branford. OLM Prep was created by a group of OLM parents, students, alumni and community supporters interested in forming a new, independent Catholic-based school. As the Madison public school system reconfigures the school district due to declining enrollment, Island Avenue will no longer be used as a public elementary school. What we needed to do was protect the taxpayers, said Banisch. So, the lease that we constructed was one that we felt protected the taxpayers first and created an opportunity for them (OLM Prep) second. Future plans are to put the property on the market. This is an opportunity for us to grow our grand list and to grow our tax base, said Banisch. OLM Prep Spokesman John Picard said the school is looking forward to the possibility of purchasing the property. With this in mind, the group plans to form a for-profit entity so that the town gets their taxes. The last appraisal for the property, done about a year ago, was $2.9 million, Banisch told the ShoreLine Times in May. We have to consider the fact that its Island Avenue, and from my cursory look around town, Island Avenue is the hottest area in town, he said. Theyre building big houses down there. Theyre knocking down little houses and building huge houses. So, I have to think that if we put it up for sale, we could get over our asking price offer, he added. Picard said while OLM Prep is pleased with the outcome, he believes it is also very beneficial for the town. They went from having another vacant building, once occupied will give them half a million dollars, he said. Lets not kid ourselves, it was going to cost them money to keep that school. They would have to heat it in the winter and plow it and landscape it and everything else. So, as happy as we are, its a good deal for us, I think you could argue its an even better deal for the town. Currently, OLM Prep has students at two separate campuses. In June, the group purchased property at 503 Toll Road in Madison, the former Learning Village preschool, across from Roberts Food Center. This property, the main campus, is for students from Pre-K to third grade. Students from fourth grade to eighth grade are being educated at 37 Soundview Road, Guilford. While still in the planning stages for the next school year, initial discussions include grades K through eight at the IAS campus, while Pre-K students will continue their education on the Toll Road property. Madison resident Kelly Piagentini has three children currently enrolled at OLM Prep in Pre-K, grade one and grade four. Next school year they will all be on the same campus, in Madison, which Piagentini is very happy about. Right from the beginning it was like, OK, this sounds like what we want, she said. We dont want to have to uproot the kids and move out of town. I certainly didnt want to sit 40 minutes in traffic to get to Branford. My backup plan was public schools, to be honest with you, if this miracle hadnt happened. Enrollment at OLM Prep is currently about 60 students. We have about five or six families looking at our school every week, Picard said. I will also say we have a lot of younger families looking at the Pre-K on Toll Road and theyre from Clinton and Killingworth and north Madison. I think theres a definitely need out there. Picard said this is a win-win for both OLM Prep and the town. I think its great for the town and its great for us, said Picard. It brings a lot of people to the downtown. I dont think the neighbors want 20, 30 or 40 condos. Were on a one-year lease agreement, he added, but were going to be one of the institutions that bid for purchase of the property, for profit, so the town gets their taxes, but then we occupy the school for the next 30 years. SEYMOUR The Seymour Police Department has joined forces with the local animal shelter to create an adorable year ahead. A new 2019 calendar hot off the presses, created by Seymour CARES (Cocos Animal Rescue Efforts of Seymour), features 12 months of photos of officers posing with a variety of cats and dogs available for adoption at the shelter, or ones lucky enough to already have found their forever homes. This is the second year Seymour CARES has teamed up with a town organization to generate a calendar for a cause. Last years calendar featured members of the Seymour Fire Department with animals, and raised nearly $3,000 in sales to benefit the shelter, according to CARES volunteer/spokesperson Tina Santiago. Santiago said CARES volunteer Samantha Barracca again worked her magic and captured the officers and the cats and dogs in cute and clever poses. The cover of the calendar, for example, features Officer Brian Friedlander posing with a black and tan Chihuahua named Lula perched in the front seat of the departments pink cruiser to support breast cancer awareness. Santiago said it was only fitting to feature Lula in the pink patrol car, since she had several mammary tumors when she came to the rescue shelter. Lula was a neglected case with a happy ending, said Santiago. She had multiple surgeries to remove over a dozen rotten teeth and multiple mammary tumors. Lula has since been adopted to a wonderful home. Deputy Chief Roberto Rinaldi can be seen gracing the month of April in the calendar, posing with Hazel the kitten, behind bars and sporting a tiny black-and-white prisoners hat. Rinaldi actually ended up adopting Hazel after his wife and kids fell in love with the tiny gray furball during the photo shoot. Rinaldi said it took Hazel and the family cat, Bethany, a week or so to get used to each other, but everyone is now content under one roof. Its for a really great cause, and Id be happy to do it again to help out, Rinaldi said of the calendar. Police Chief Paul Satkowski said the calendar not only showcases the officers in a different light and lets the public see them doing good things in the community, it raises awareness and funds for the animal shelter. Building relationships with the community is very important to us, and were happy help CARES get their message out because of the important work they do, Satkowski said. This a great project. Santiago said 100 percent of the calendar proceeds will go to the caring, feeding, housing and vet care of cats and dogs at the shelter. Animal lovers and supporters can get their calendars, while supplies last, for $15 by stopping by CARES, 115 Silvermine Road, from noon to 1 p.m. Online orders for home delivery are also are available at https://seymourcares.org/order-form. More information can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/seymourcares.org . jean.sos@snet.net For almost a month, federal prosecutors said, therapist Diane Sylvia planned a violent assault on a Massachusetts man with a stranger she believed to be a hitman. "He needs his pretty little face bashed in, that's what I really want," she allegedly said of the victim during a meeting last month in her Linwood office. The hitman, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, was actually an undercover agent from the FBI, which arrested Sylvia Monday on a charge of soliciting the violent attack on a man she claimed had bilked her for money for years. Sylvia, 58, of Somers Point, was introduced to the undercover agent by a patient with past connections to an unspecified "organized criminal gang," an FBI agent wrote in a criminal complaint, after she told the patient in September of her desire for revenge. Sylvia, a licensed clinical social worker, told the undercover agent her intended victim "ended up with some stuff on me that he was gonna report me to the licensing board, which means I have no job," according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court. "How 'bout we break one arm, and just mess up his face, but not with acid?" she allegedly told the agent while making a slashing motion on her cheek. "Something that makes him not so cute ... something so he can't do push-ups, so he can't work out." Investigators said Sylvia went as far as to buy a pre-paid cellphone to communicate with the undercover agent, and provided the "hitman" with her victim's license plate. She ultimately paid the undercover agent $5,000 to carry out the assault, prosecutors said. During an audio and video-recorded meeting at her office on Halloween, the complaint says, she suggested she might throw the pre-paid phone off the Ocean City bridge once the job was complete. Sylvia's professional profile on Psychology Today says her therapy practice treats individuals, couples, families and children. "Our words and thoughts are powerful and help create the life we desire," she wrote on the profile. "The most important component of therapy is the relationship between the client and therapist and the client's willingness to make the decision to change." Sylvia was slated to make her initial appearance before a federal magistrate in Camden Monday afternoon, prosecutors said. Her attorney could not immediately be reached for comment. 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 Q. My daughter has a part-time job at college and she's being paid under the table. I know any income could hurt her for financial aid but I don't feel right about it. What should she do? -- Mom A. Paying income taxes can be a shock for young people who get their first job, and they're often happy when an employer is willing to pay them on the side. But your instincts are correct. it's illegal. And, your daughter's income may not be as significant as you think in terms of financial aid and income tax. Your daughter should report the income for both income tax purposes and financial aid purposes, said Howard Hook, a certified financial planner and certified public accountant with EKS Associates in Princeton. Hook said for purposes of calculating financial aid, the income will be counted. "Fifty percent of a student's income counts when determining the amount that the student can contribute to paying for college," he said. "However, the first $6,660 of student income is not counted when calculating the 50 percent of income number." So if she is only earns $6,660, then there is no penalty at all, he said. Also remember that for FAFSA purposes, the federal government and the school will consider tax returns from two years ago, so depending on when she graduates, the income may have no impact at all. From an income tax perspective, Hook said, the first $12,000 of earned income for a child who is a dependent of their parents is not subject to income tax. "So depending upon the part-time income, the amount of tax is likely minimal," he said. Email your questions to Ask@NJMoneyHelp.com. Karin Price Mueller writes the Bamboozled column for NJ Advance Media and is the founder of NJMoneyHelp.com. Follow NJMoneyHelp on Twitter @NJMoneyHelp. Find NJMoneyHelp on Facebook. Sign up for NJMoneyHelp.com's weekly e-newsletter. A fifth child has been infected in a viral outbreak at a long-term care facility in Camden County, state Health Commissioner Shereef Elnahal announced Monday. The outbreak at the Voorhees Pediatric Facility in South Jersey is unrelated to the one that has claimed 10 young lives at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in northern Passaic County. The hospital-acquired adenovirus is to blame in both locations, but the strain detected at Voorhees is not as virulent as the one in Haskell, the health department said. Vooehees and Wanaque serve children who require around-the clock care and usually rely on technology to help them breathe and eat. "The Department and local health partners have been working with the facility to provide infection control recommendations and identify other possible illnesses since the facility notified the Department of a case of adenovirus in a resident on October 26," Elnahal said. More cases may develop, the department said. So far, the onset of the illness began Oct. 20 and the most recent illness was reported Oct. 29, the department said. A message left for Voorhees' Administrator Scott Goldberg was not immediately returned. A Nov. 2 press release on the facility's website said three of the four residents of the facility had recovered. "Voorhees Pediatric Facility is working aggressively to control the spread of the virus," according to the press release, which described the strain of adenovirus as "mild." The health department the specific strain, though not yet identified, is not type 7, which can lead to death and has been identified at the Wanaque facility, the press release said. Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. JERSEY CITY -- A Jersey City police cruiser was struck by gunfire Sunday night but no one was injured in the incident, Jersey City spokeswoman Ashley Manz said. Just before 8 p.m., the door of the police vehicle was hit by gunshots at Wilkinson and Ocean avenues, Manz said, adding that the incident remains under investigation. Two police officers were taken to the Jersey City Medical Center to be evaluated after the vehicle was struck, according to police radio transmissions, although it was not clear if they were inside the vehicle when the gunfire erupted. The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, which investigates any instance when an officer uses his or her firearm, did not respond to the scene. About 40 minutes earlier, officers responded to Orient Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive on a report of shots being fired. No victim was located there, and that incident remains under investigation as well, Manz said. BAYONNE -- A man and woman were arrested after robbing the Walmart on Route 440 and threatening an employee with a loaded handgun, authorities said. Seth D. Hoffman, 30, of Jersey City, and Unique M. Daymon, 22, of Staten Island, were arrested just before 2 a.m. on Sunday after fleeing the store, police said. The two had stolen more than $400 in merchandise and, when confronted by a loss prevention officer, threatened the employee with a handgun, authorities said. They fled the scene in their car, but were eventually tracked down by police on Route 440 after getting identification from the loss prevention officer. Authorities found the loaded handgun and ammunition, as well as the proceeds stolen from the store. Hoffman and Daymon were charged with conspiracy and robbery, while Hoffman was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon and other weapons charges. Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. SECAUCUS -- Early voting has been heavy in Hudson County in the run-up to a midterm election that experts say is a referendum on President Donald Trump. Hudson County election officials have already received 9,000 walk-in and vote-by-mail ballots, nearly as many as in 2012 when the region went to the polls on the heels of Hurricane Sandy, Hudson County Board of Elections Clerk Michael Harper said Monday morning. In 2012, when President Barack Obama ran against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, there were 9,900 early votes cast in Hudson County, Harper said, adding that Hurricane Sandy likely influenced the number of early votes by people who were not sure if polling places would be open. While there are a number of local races on the ballot in Hudson County, the Senate contest between Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, and his Republican challenger Bob Hugin is the state's highest profile race. The three members of the U.S. House of Representatives who represent Hudson County -- Albio Sires (D-8th), Bill Pascrell (D-9th), Donald Payne Jr. (D-10th) -- and are also seeking reelection Tuesday. Matthew Hale, a professor of political science at Seton Hall University, said there is clearly a lot of excitement among voters who eye Tuesday's election as a chance to put a check on Trump by electing Democrats to Congress. "I think it's all about Trump," Hale said. "It's a referendum on Donald Trump and at the end of the day, it's Democrats wanting to take back the House and put up a roadblock to Trump." Harper said the number of early votes cast has been "closer to presidential election numbers," adding that the tally has been exceptional for a midterm election All walk-in and vote-by-mail ballots will be tallied by Tuesday night and added to the votes that are cast at polling places. Harper said his office will continue to accept mail-in ballots until Thursday, provided they were posted on or prior to election day. Election results are generally certified by Friday, but the counting of any late mail-in votes could push official certification back to Monday or Tuesday, he added. The 9,000 early ballots that Harper's office has receive constitute approximately 2.5 percent of the 364,000 registered voters in the heavily Democratic Hudson County "A big turnout in Hudson is definitely good for the Democrats," Hale said. "There's no question this election is a mandate on the Trump presidency," added Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science at Montclair State University. "For many New Jerseyans who feel passionate about President Trump, whether they love him or hate him, they're coming out to the polls." Harrison said a large number early voters across the state have been young people who tend to vote for Democratic candidates. She said it's possible that many young voters may have stayed home in 2016, assuming Hillary Clinton would win. They "were quite surprised when she lost in 2016 and have been more likely to turn out this year to make sure their voice was heard," said Harrison. Clare Erwin won the annual Voice of Democracy speech contest, which is sponsored by the Frenchtown-Milford VFW. Clare is a Delaware Valley High School sophomore from Holland Township. The honor comes with a check for $500, presented to her on Nov. 2 by William Testa, quartermaster for the local VFW. This year's theme was "Why My Vote Matters." Receiving the second prize of $300 was Milford junior Karla Jenkins, and $100 for third prize went to Kingwood sophomore Nicole Planer. According to history teacher Jim Kluska, there were almost 70 entries from the Del Val district, which corresponds to the local VFW's turf. He is supervisor of the Social Studies and World Languages Department at Del Val, and the school's Voice of Democracy coordinator. He is a former Army Ranger captain. Dr. Testa is a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, his service including duty as a helicopter door gunner. Clare's speech will go on to compete at the county level. Here is what she wrote: "Why My Vote Matters" By Clare Erwin It's August of 1920, and activists of the National Women's Party gather as Alice Paul sews a 36th star on the Party's banner of ratification, later to be hung from their Washington headquarters in celebration of the Nineteenth Amendment. It was by only one vote that the amendment was ratified. One vote, and the voices of women all across America could be heard. Because to vote is to be given a voice. It is a right and a privilege, an obligation and a responsibility. Although I may not be able to yet, I'm aware of the power my vote holds, and of the issues that linger over our nation. My vote matters because it is my voice, fought for by the men and women who recognized its potential, and preserved by those who continue fight in the name of democracy. Today, voting is something we take for granted. In the 2016 Presidential election, almost half of all eligible citizens did not vote. Why is it that there's never a shortage of criticism within our country, yet when given the opportunity to strive for change, we choose not to? Political messages can be seen in every aspect of our daily lives, attempting to persuade us one way or another. Who to vote for, who not to vote for, and so on. As diverse as each is, they all revolve around one thing; your vote. A right every American citizen possesses, regardless of gender, race, or religion. And, to a certain degree, age. During the Vietnam War, the voting age was lowered from twenty-one to eighteen when President Nixon signed the 26th amendment into law. Of those killed in Vietnam, 11,465 were younger than twenty years old. That boys as young as a eighteen, and sometimes younger, could go off to fight in war they had no control over, with no say in who sent them there, was unfair and unjust. That they could hold a gun, but not a ballot. The amendment took exactly three months and eight days to be ratified, the shortest period of ratification for any amendment to the Constitution. Yet the youth of today, the future of this country, continue to have the lowest voter turnout of any demographic. My hope is for every young person to feel empowered, whether it be by the challenges that divide our nation, or the everyday issues that affect our communities. It is a unique time to be young in America, and to witness firsthand the events that will reshape the world we live in. From immigration to abortion, gun control to gay marriage. It is crucial to remember, however, that your vote is more than just where you stand on these controversial topics, or whether you are a Republican or Democrat, or neither. It is a reflection of your character, as well as your morals. Voting allows you to express who you are, and what you believe in. My vote will speak for the children, separated from their families at our border. It will speak for the students, killed within the walls of their own school, and for the women, who wish to be given a choice. My vote is my part in democracy and my contribution to America's history. I refuse to ignore the women who fought for suffrage, who fought to be seen for their ideas and options rather than their gender. Nor can I forget the young people, who led the protest against the injustice they faced during a period of war. My vote is a tribute to them, but also a step towards my vision of America. Where ignorance and bigotry are silenced through education and tolerance. My vote matters because as long as I vote, I will always have a voice. Authorities have identified the kite surfer whose body washed up in Sandy Hook on Saturday as a 52-year-old Staten Island, New York resident. The death of Robert Trzaskoma is not considered suspicious, State Police said Monday. Trzaskoma was found in Horseshoe Cove. His parked truck was located not far away, Sgt. Jeff Flynn said. The initial call about Trzaskoma came from someone reporting a kite surfer needing help at 5 p.m. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A 25-year-old Manahawkin man was sentenced Friday to 90 days in jail for killing a service dog owned by a U.S. Navy veteran. Joseph Russo. (Ocean County jail) Joseph J. Russo pleaded guilty in June to killing Diesel, a 3-year-old Pomeranian that was in training to become a service dog for his owner. Russo rented a room to the dog's owner. On May 25, the owner contacted Stafford police to report Diesel's death. Russo had apparently told the owner that Diesel died after having a seizure. But a necropsy report -- the animal equivalent of an autopsy -- showed that Diesel had a "pattern of bruising in the left temple region of the skull." The report noted that Diesel died of "atlantoaxial dislocation and severance of the spinal cord." Russo was charged with causing serious bodily injury and death to the dog, a third-degree offense. Along with the jail time, Russo must complete 30 hours of community service, undergo anger management and is not allowed to own or work with animals during his five-year probation period. Diesel, a 3-year-old Pomeranian In 2013, former Gov. Chris Christie signed "Patrick's Law," which instituted tougher penalties for defendants charged with animal cruelty. The law was inspired by Patrick, an emaciated pit bull found after it had been thrown down a trash chute. Patrick's owner, Kisha Curtis, was sentenced to 18 months probation and a $2,000 fine for neglecting the dog in 2011. Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Police are asking for the public's help as they try to find a 65-year-old man with dementia and other medical issues who has been missing since he left an Ocean County nursing home Friday morning. Bu Quach (New Jersey State Police) Bu Quach was seen on surveillance camera walking out of the Manahawkin Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Route 72 in Stafford at 11:30 a.m., according to State Police and Stafford police. Quach has dementia, Parkinson's Disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and is diabetic, officials said. The 5-foot-5, 120 pound Quach has brown eyes, chin-length salt and pepper hair, a beard, and has "black Asian symbols" tattooed on both forearms, according State Police. He was wearing a red T-shirt, grey pants, socks, and a yellow wrist band. Quach's driver's license lists an address on the 100 block of South 36th Street in Camden. He has family in Pennsauken. Anyone with information is asked to contact the New Jersey State Police Missing Person's Unit at 609-882-2000 extension 2050 or Stafford police at 609-597-8581. Anonymous tips are welcome. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Health officials in Ocean County are continuing to monitor a measles outbreak after four cases were confirmed in Lakewood and another four are suspected. And those without the vaccine, or unsure of their status, are turning out in big numbers to seek it. The first case involved a person who had traveled to Israel and contracted the disease. It was reported to the Ocean County Health Department Oct. 26. Three additional cases have been confirmed, all of which followed exposure to the traveler. Two more people had undergone testing Friday, but the results of those test were not yet available Monday, according to Brian Rumpf, the director of administration at the Ocean County Health Department. He said the department was aware of two additional suspected cases, and those individuals had been tested as well as of Monday afternoon. CHEMED Health Center announced it would set up an outdoor triage area to examine anyone exhibiting measles symptoms, which include fever, coughing, pink eye and a rash which typically starts on the face and neck and spreads elsewhere. "In accordance with the recommendations of the CDC and our physicians, patients exhibiting measles symptoms cannot enter our facilities until further notice, as they could potentially expose other CHEMED patients to the virus," CHEMED said in a statement released Friday. CHEMED diagnosed the first case, Rumpf said. The health department has sent around five employees to assist the center with its vaccinations and testing, as concerned residents have flocked there upon hearing news of the outbreak. Officials said the first person visited the following locations, and advised others there to remain cautious: Schul Satmar, 405 Forest Ave. from Oct. 13 to Oct. 21 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Eat a Pita, 116 Clifton Ave. on Oct. 15 between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. CHEMED Health Center, 1771 Madison Ave. on Oct. 17 between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. and Oct. 18 between 10:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The vaccination is recommended for those born after 1957, and most people receive the two doses by the time they turn 4. Those shots are around 97 percent effective. But in Lakewood, which has a population of just over 100,000, even a small percentage of unvaccinated people scrambling to get checked can put a strain on the health system. "We believe [Lakewood's] vaccination rate is pretty high, but there are some who came here from abroad, or were otherwise unsure," Rumpf said. The number of people seeking vaccinations is "more than an uptick," he said, but hasn't overwhelmed caregivers, who are handling the influx well. Measles can be spread through contact or even through the air, and remains contagious for up to two hours after exposure to an ill person. The virus particularly thrives in indoor areas. Those who believe they have measles should call the office immediately and describe their symptoms. The CHEMED offices remain open to patients seeking other types of care. Administrators with CHEMED could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. Anyone unsure of their vaccination status should call their doctor as well. Blood tests can be used to test for immunity. Some local businesses have taken precautions to stop the spread by banning those without proof of immunization, including Snaps Kosher, a restaurant, and The Gym Lakewood. Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips By Alexis Karteron I was especially excited about voting this year because my county made early voting an option on a weekend. As a busy working parent, a leisurely trip to a county building about 20 minutes from my home on a weekend morning sounded like a much better idea than heading to my polling place at 6 a.m. -- the only time on Election Day I could be sure the polls would be open and I wouldn't have competing work and family obligations. Karteron: My experience on Saturday, when I was turned away from an early voting location, illustrates just one reason why New Jersey should expand early voting programs. (Photo by Ehren Joseph, for Rutgers University) So I was shocked and dismayed when I arrived at Essex County's early voting location on Saturday-- 30 minutes before it was supposed to close -- only to be informed by sheriff's deputies that I and at least a dozen others would not be allowed inside to vote because the clerk's office couldn't handle the volume of people. (Turning away people who get in line to vote while the polls are open on Election Day is unquestionably illegal.) It seems very likely that some will have to sit out this election because they were turned away on Saturday. New Jersey needs to update its election system to make voting as easy as possible for all citizens. My experience on Saturday, when I was turned away from an early voting location, illustrates just one reason why. Given record low turnout in this state just last year, barriers to voting are the last thing we need. Instead, New Jersey should expand opportunities to vote. My experience and research as a civil rights lawyer and law professor suggest we should start by taking the three following steps. 1) New Jersey should have real early voting. Early voting in New Jersey is an awkward and time-consuming substitute for the Election Day experience. Instead of voting by machine at your regular polling place, voting in person before Election Day requires the submission of an application for a mail-in ballot at a clerk's office. Some county clerks make this process available at satellite locations, but not all. Hours are also extremely limited, with few opportunities to vote on weekends in some counties and none at all in others. Numerous states do early voting much better. They don't require applications and, for two weeks before Election Day, voters can show up at numerous locations during extended hours, including on weekends. When implemented well, early voting is enormously popular. It not only increases the likelihood that people vote, but reduces lines -- and stress -- on Election Day for voters and poll workers alike. It also gives voters a chance to identify any problems with their registration records before Election Day and, if necessary, correct errors. 2) We should make registering to vote as easy as possible. The Legislature took an important step toward that goal this year by adopting automatic voter registration, which will streamline voter registration at motor vehicle commissions and social service agencies. The next step is to adopt Same Day Registration, which would eliminate the requirement that a citizen register at least three weeks in advance of an election. Instead, one can register for the first time or update their registration record on Election Day (or at an early voting location). Interest in elections peaks very shortly before Election Day. Our voter registration system should recognize this reality and facilitate participation by those who are especially likely to have outdated registration records, including frequent movers, young people, and those with low incomes. 3) We should expand the pool of people who can vote. New Jersey bars people in prison, on probation, and on parole from voting. As a result, more than 70,000 people, who are disproportionately black and Latino, are living freely in our communities and not allowed to vote. These restrictions do nothing to protect the integrity of our voting system. Even worse, they undermine the successful reentry into the community for citizens who have served their time. New Jersey's ban on voting for people on parole and probation makes it an outlier in the Northeast. New York has allowed people on probation to vote for decades, and just this year extended the franchise to parolees. New Jersey should follow suit. It will be tricky, but I will be able to make the time to vote on Tuesday. Unfortunately, not everyone who wants to vote will be able to say the same. New Jersey should do what it can to encourage participation and give everyone a voice in our democracy. Alexis Karteron is an assistant professor of law and director of the Constitutional Rights Clinic at Rutgers Law School. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Two years ago, my friend Janet came to me in a state of panic, worried that Donald Trump might win the presidency. I'm the only political columnist she knows, so she knew I'd have profound insight. I stood in front of her, placed one hand on each shoulder, and looked her directly in the eye. "Don't worry," I said. "I promise you Trump will lose. There's no chance he'll win. Relax." Some timid souls might have drawn a lesson from that. But what fun is humility at a moment like this? Here are my predictions for tomorrow. You may note that I am not promising to light my hair on fire if I'm wrong, as I occasionally do. Call that the lesson of 2016. But I will risk my dignity. So here goes: * Sen. Robert Menendez will win big, by 8 points, over Bob Hugin. Menendez doesn't deserve to win, after escaping prison on corruption charges by an inch. But Hugin deserves to lose. He's spending huge sums of money spreading a vicious lie, that Menendez patronized child prostitutes. He got rich by keeping drug prices high. And he loves Trump, no matter how much he tries to deny it. And he knows very little about public policy, a newcomer who hasn't done his homework. * Rep. Leonard Lance, R-7th, will lose decisively, by 6 points, to Democrat Tom Malinowski. I take no personal joy in this one, because Lance is a decent person. But he's weak and ineffective in a Congress dominated by Team Trump. And I still can't fully forgive him for flipping on climate change. He knows better. Malinowski, meanwhile, is a hidden gem in this race. He's soft-spoken, almost meek. But he has razor sharp intelligence, Washington experience, and people who listen to him come away impressed. * Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-3rd, will squeak out a win over Democrat Andy Kim. I pray that I'm wrong, because MacArthur is such a phony. If you have a pre-existing condition, like cancer or diabetes, MacArthur is the guy who wants to rip away your protections by letting insurers charge you a zillion dollars for coverage. He keeps denying that, and groups like the American Medical Association and the American Association for Retired Persons keep pointing out that it's true. He's also the lone Republican who supported the tax plan. But MacArthur's district went for Trump by six points, and Kim is a newcomer swimming upstream. He's got impressive foreign policy experience, including service in Afghanistan as a civilian adviser, and as a Rhodes Scholar, has solid policy chops all around. * Democrat Mikie Sherrill will win big, by 7 points in the 11th District, over GOP Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-Morris. That's because Sherrill is a rock star, a former Navy helicopter pilot in the Mideast and federal prosecutor at home, a mother of four with ample smarts on policy and politics. Webber is a pinched and humorless character who is unpopular among the Republicans who know him best, and therefore unable to raise much money. And when he claims that Sherrill wants to eliminate ICE, he's making stuff up. He's a Trump loyalist, down to his style. * Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th, will win by 12 points over Democrat Josh Welle in a district that went for Trump by 16 points. Most people know Smith only as an anti-abortion crusader, but folks in the district know he's a lot more. He gave up his chairmanship of the Veteran's Affairs Committee rather than go along with cuts demanded by party leaders, a rare act of conscience. He's pro-labor, a leading crusader for human rights abroad, and he wins every race with numbers that would make Saddam Hussein jealous. Welle hasn't been able to break through. The other races are easier: State Sen. Jeff Van Drew, a Democrat, will win big in the 2nd district over Seth Grossman, a miserable little bigot whose foot has been jammed in his mouth since the campaign began. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th, will win big, too. He's a centrist Democrat, always on the lookout for common ground, a perfect fit for the district. His opponent, John McCann, is a sacrificial lamb who adores Trump. In the other races, Democratic incumbents will win, leaving the state with 10 Democrats and two Republicans. That's a net gain of three seats for Democrats, with newcomers Sherrill, Malinwoski and Van Drew. Democrats need 23 to take control of the House, so if that happens, New Jersey will have done more than its share to stop the Orange Menace. The ocean of anti-Trump volunteers out there ought to take a bow. If I'm wrong about all this, and am missing another Trump storm, I hope readers will forgive me. Janet has, sort of, I think. More: Tom Moran columns Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. It isn't as much fun shopping online as it is wandering through our local shopping districts and malls, fingering fabrics, assessing quality, searching for bargains, and seeing new things you never thought about buying. But it sure can be easier than trudging through bad weather and lugging home all those packages. Until now online shopping was probably cheaper, too. But-- except for clothing -- not any more. In October New Jersey joined most other states in enacting a new law requiring e-commerce websites to collect and remit state sales taxes. Before, they collected taxes only when they had a physical presence in a state. Governor Murphy acted after the US Supreme Court ruled last summer that states have a right to demand companies collect sales taxes wherever they sell products online and remit taxes to states where the items are shipped. However, New Jersey did put a limit on that requirement, so we're not hurting start-ups and small sellers. Only companies with gross revenues over $100,000 a year or with an in-state sales volume of more than 200 transactions annually will have to collect and turn in New Jersey sales taxes. Similar bills had been kicked around Trenton for more than a decade but never even came close to passage. Representatives of local businesses argued it was only fair that online sellers charge taxes to consumers since they had to do it. They said it was a matter of equity. Others arguing on the same side said equity didn't matter nearly as much as the millions New Jersey could reap from e-commerce. But e-commerce lobbyists, especially for large sellers, countered there was no need for them to adhere to tax laws in states where they didn't have a retail outlet or even a warehouse. They said it would be costly to them and to consumers to have to figure out taxes for each individual state. And frankly, so many legislators and their family members were frequent shoppers on line, they were happy to quietly and legally save a few dollars themselves, so there never was a groundswell to force e-sellers to add taxes to the cost of goods. It was pretty much the same everywhere until South Dakota decided to go for the money. That state established a sales tax especially for online sales, noting technological advances made it much easier for sellers to track and process taxes. E-sellers sued to stop the South Dakota law from going into effect. The case dragged on for years. However, the Supreme Court eventually ruled against the e-retailers and issued that ruling just one day before New Jersey's budget was finalized. The new money was factored into it although no authorizing law had yet been passed here. It took two attempts to get legislation that met Governor Murphy's standards, but eventually Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester) got it right on the second try. The new law will be in effect before Black Friday. Amazon has been collecting and remitting New Jersey taxes since 2013 when it opened its first warehouse here, but now such retailers as E-Bay and Apple must collect taxes, as well. There's an exemption for travel agencies and websites that arrange transportation and hotel accommodations. Official fiscal estimates are $188 million a year but more optimistic unofficial estimates go as high as $350 million annually. Local retailers are rejoicing, certain that the newly leveled playing field will benefit them and that the sights, sounds and scents of the holidays will entice people into their stores for in-person shopping once again. Now if only we can find parking nearby. A former assemblywoman from Jersey City, Joan Quigley is the president and CEO of North Hudson Community Action Corp. Submit letters to the editor and guest columns at jjletters@jjournal.com WASHINGTON -- Tuesday's election will take place without restrictions on Republican National Committee voter activities for the first time since a New Jersey voter intimidation case set them in motion 36 years ago. And that has Democrats worried. U.S. District Court Judge John Michael Vazquez in January ended the court-sanctioned agreement, or consent decree, limiting GOP efforts to target minority voters. That means there will no restrictions on Republican Party activity when New Jersey voters go the polls. GOP spokesman Michael Ahrens said there was no need to impose any rules on the party. "It's the RNC's job to get more people to vote, not less," Ahrens said. "Any concern over voting activities is baseless." Vazquez's decision may not be the last word, however. The Democratic National Committee appealed the ruling to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. "This has never been a more important time than now to protect New Jersey voters from voter suppression tactics of the Republican Party," said the Democrats' lawyer, Angelo Genova. "There is a reason the GOP was forced to enter into a consent order, and the protections of that order need to be resurrected." Should Republicans resurrect the banned practices, they could find themselves back in court with another decree, said Allegra Chapman, director of voting and elections for Common Cause. "The GOP, particularly in the past couple of elections, has appeared to clean up their act," Chapman said. "Their aim was to achieve this very result. The question is: Are they going to behave? Just because the consent decree isn't in place now doesn't mean a lawsuit wouldn't be filed if they return to those bad practices." A lot is stake on Tuesday. U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez is in a surprisingly close race for re-election against former Celgene Corp. executive Bob Hugin, and as many as four Republican-held House seats could fall to Democratic challengers. What concerns Democrats is that President Donald Trump has resurrected claims of voter fraud, which studies have shown is virtually non-existent but could lead to efforts to keep people away from the polls. All levels of government and Law Enforcement are watching carefully for VOTER FRAUD, including during EARLY VOTING. Cheat at your own peril. Violators will be subject to maximum penalties, both civil and criminal! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2018 Trump never retracted his false claim that millions of illegal voters backed Hillary Clinton in 2016, depriving him of a popular vote win. He set up a commission to investigate allegations of voter fraud, but later disbanded it following bipartisan opposition from states. Many Republican-led states have addressed concern about fraud by enacting voter identification laws that courts have found make it harder for minorities to cast ballots. In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 58 percent of Americans said it would be a major problem in a place with 1 million voters if one eligible voter was blocked from the polls, far more than the 41 percent who said the same about allowing one ineligible voter to cast a ballot. "Generations of Americans have sacrificed their blood, sweat, and in some cases, lives, for the right to vote," said U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who introduced legislation to kill Trump's commission before the president did it. "We must do everything we can to protect that right and make it more, not less, secure," Booker said. "Yes, I continue to have serious concerns about voter disenfranchisement and restrictions, and in a state like New Jersey, which has seen its fair share of close elections, the stakes could not be higher." The RNC had been under the court-imposed restrictions since after the 1981 New Jersey gubernatorial election, narrowly won by Tom Kean. During that election, state GOP officials sent letters to residents of communities with large numbers of black or Hispanic voters, and then challenged anyone whose mail was returned as undeliverable, even though they were working off outdated registration lists. The consent decree had been extended many times since then, but Vazquez declined to extend it again. Democratic officials had argued that the GOP violated the order in 2016 when its presidential nominee asked supporters to "volunteer to be a Trump election observer" and "help me stop crooked Hillary from rigging this election." Former White House spokesman Sean Spicer testified that Republican Party officials were kept separate from the Trump campaign's vote-counting operations as not to violate the consent decree. Democratic officials said they weren't going to relax now that the order has been dismissed. "Democrats and their allies will be vigilant," Genova said. "Lawyers are prepared to respond under the law to the reprehensible tactics of the party of Trump here in New Jersey." Poll watchers have been told to look out for intimidation tactics, said Jim Beach, chairman of the Camden County Democratic Committee. "We just want to make sure this doesn't happen here," he said. Ditto with congressional campaigns. Scott Salmon, a lawyer with former Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Tom Malinowski's congressional campaign, said he will be checking to see if people waiting on line to vote are being questioned. "Unless you're just saying hello to them, they get nervous as soon as they're being questioned," said Salmon, whose candidate is running against Rep. Leonard Lance, R-7th Dist. "It's going to increase the likelihood that some voters are being challenged." In Monmouth County, the Board of Elections was aware of the order's expiration, though did not change procedures in response, said secretary Allan Roth, a Democratic member. To guard against any problems, Attorney General Gurwir Grebal will station deputy attorneys general in all 21 counties, spokesman Leland Moore said. "Our commitment - in any circumstance - is to help ensure the integrity of the voting process, and to assist county election officials in resolving any voting-related legal issues that may arise," Moore said. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. A Tangipahoa Parish judge has modified the bond for one of the suspects in a horrific human trafficking case in Amite, paving the way for the young woman to enter a drug treatment facility in New Orleans. State Judge Douglas Hughes in Amite made the change Monday morning (Nov. 5) at the request of Taylor Knopes attorneys, who have portrayed her as a victim in the case, in which authorities said an autistic woman was kept in an outdoor cage and abused. Hughes kept Knopes $150,000 bond intact, but added a provision that allows her to be sent to a treatment center. Knope, 20, one of several family members arrested in the case in 2016, is scheduled to appear Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Karen Wells Roby, who wants to place the woman in a treatment facility in New Orleans, Knopes federal public defender, Claude Kelly, told the court in Amite. Assistant District Attorney C. Britain Sledge opposed the change, arguing that Knope was the point person for the abuse and caging of the autistic relative. She was not a victim. Sledge said there would be no guarantee Knope would show up for trial. Its inappropriate to have her released, he said. But Kelly and co-counsel Michale Fawer argued Knope was as much a victim as the autistic woman. She was fed methamphetamines and forced to do labor, Kelly said. Its unconstitutional . . . theyre holding her because they want her to plead guilty. Sledge denied the state is keeping her in jail to force a plea. Is Taylor Knope a victim or an accomplice? Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Knope and four other family members were arrested in June 2016 after Tangipahoa authorities said they found a 22-year-old autistic relative being held prisoner in a locked cage and forced to do chores in exchange for food and water. They are accused of forcing the woman into harsh manual labor and abusing the woman physically and mentally. In addition to the state charges of human trafficking and cruelty to the infirmed, a federal grand jury charged them on similar federal charges in July. At a federal court detention hearing in August, defense attorneys portrayed Knope as a second victim in the case, saying her parents forced the teen to quit school, cook and use meth and live in a shed behind the familys trailer. She followed orders in fear of receiving even worse treatment, they said. Magistrate Roby ruled that Knope belonged in a treatment facility, not jail. For me to incarcerate Taylor pending her trial, in my opinion, compounds the abuse that she has already suffered, Roby said at the hearing. When I looked at the indictment and I listened to the testimony, most of the conduct that she engaged in was at the direction of an adult who was in -- whose control she was in, and that weighs heavily with me, she said. But Roby could not order Knope released because of the $150,000 bond on the state charges in Tangipahoa. Judge Hughes ruling Monday clears the way for Roby to order that Knope is released to a treatment facility. Kelly said Knope would be under the supervision of the in-patient facility and the U.S. Office of Probation. After Mondays hearing, Kelly said he was pleased Judge Hughes agreed with Robys conclusion that Knope was a victim and needs help. This will give her an opportunity to get the help and treatment that she deserves and needs, Kelly said. Childrens Hospital and Tulane University will partner to train aspiring pediatricians and conduct research, part of an effort to increase access to high-quality pediatric health care for children across Louisiana. Last week, Childrens and Tulane signed an affiliation agreement to work together on clinical, academic and research activities in pediatrics, according to a news release. Under the partnership, Tulane medical school students and residents will start caring for Childrens Hospital patients in 2019. Starting early next year, Tulane pediatric faculty, residents and medical students will see pediatric inpatients at Childrens Hospitals Uptown campus and at the systems network of satellite specialty clinics across the region. Families who take their children to Tulane pediatricians for outpatient clinic services in Metairie and other clinic locations will continue to receive care from the same Tulane physicians under the new partnership, Dr. Samir El-Dahr, chair of pediatrics at Tulane University School of Medicine, said in a statement. In a statement, Greg Feirn, CEO of LCMC Health, said the collaboration will help ensure the states health system is providing the "best possible training experience for the next generation of pediatricians. Childrens Hospital is a founding member of the LCMC Health system, which also includes Touro, University Medical Center, New Orleans East Hospital and West Jefferson Medical Center. Tulanes School of Medicine is the largest pediatric research organization in the state, receiving more than $5 million annually in federally funded pediatric research, according to the release. Its partnership with Childrens Hospital will give Tulane the opportunity to significantly expand clinical research in pediatrics to give families greater access to the latest innovations in medicine," the release said. Children's Hospital plans a more family-centric facility as renovations progress Wilborn P. Nobles III is an education reporter based in New Orleans. He can be reached at wnobles@nola.com or on Twitter at @WilNobles. Georgia voters received a racist robocall targeting the states Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, according to a report by CNN. The call features a voice impersonating Oprah Winfrey, who appeared on the campaign trail Thursday (Nov. 1) in support of Abrams. In about a 60-second pre-recorded message, racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric is used to mock the media titan and attack Abrams. The message was created by a white supremacist group called The Road to Power, CNN reported. The group is known for anti-Semitic video podcasts. It previously attacked Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum after he won the nomination in the August primary and again in October. According to the report, its unclear how many potential voters received robocalls. Read the full story on CNN. Norris Henderson wasnt waiting until Election Day to vote for Amendment 2, which would require unanimous jury decisions for all felony convictions in Louisiana starting in 2019. He voted Oct. 27, during the early voting period, and cast what he calls the most important ballot of his life. The Obama elections one and two were monumental, but this is personal, Henderson said after leaving a voting booth at New Orleans City Hall. That was for a candidate. This is to change the system. This would literally change what mass incarceration looks like in Louisiana, he went on to say. Truly, this is Jim Crows last stand. Henderson certainly knows about Louisianas split jury law. In 1974, he was convicted of murdering a 19-year-old college student in New Orleans and sentenced to life in prison as a result of a 10-2 jury vote, At a later trial, he was kept in prison when the jury came back 11-1, he said. He maintains he didnt commit the crime and was wrongfully convicted, and those jury votes couldnt have kept him behind bars for nearly three decades almost anywhere else in the country. Louisiana is one of only two states -- the other is Oregon -- that dont require unanimous juries for all felony convictions, and its the only state where a jury that isnt unanimous can send a person to prison for the rest of their life. The current split-jury law in Louisiana has racist roots. It was implemented in the late 19th century at a state constitutional convention when white supremacists were trying to find ways to disenfranchise black people, who had not long before earned the right to sit on juries. Its part of the reason Henderson, an African American, is working so hard to mobilize support for Amendment 2. He is the head of the Unanimous Jury Coalition and runs Voice Of The Experienced (VOTE), a group that advocates for the formerly incarcerated and their families. Louisiana's Jim Crow-era jury law will go to the public for a vote Few people know more about mass incarceration in Louisiana than Henderson, a fixture of the movement to overhaul the states criminal justice system for the past 25 years. He started advocating for changes to Louisianas criminal laws and policies while he was still in prison. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up His work as an inmate impressed the legal community so much that when Henderson was released from prison in 2003, Orleans Parish Judge Laurie White, a defense attorney at the time, hired him to work at her law firm. More recently, Gov. John Bel Edwards put Henderson on an advisory committee overseeing how state money meant to prevent incarceration is spent. Should Amendment 2 pass, it wont directly affect Henderson or other people who have already been convicted. Split jury verdicts that have already come down will still stand. Only people convicted in 2019 and after will benefit. Still, Henderson isnt the only person pushing for Amendment 2 who has been personally affected by a split jury already. Thad Tatum of New Orleans is helping out, too. He was convicted of armed robbery and attempted murder with a 10-2 jury vote in 1984. It was the third trial of his case. The first two had resulted in a hung jury and a mistrial because of prosecutorial misconduct, according to The Times-Picayune. Tatum, who is black, believes race was a factor in his conviction. He said the two jurors who found him innocent in the third trial were black, and the 10 others who deemed him guilty were white. Ive told everyone in my immediate family that you need to vote for this, said Tatum, who now works as a drug counselor. If you dont, dont come asking me for any help. Tatum, himself, cant vote. Neither can Kiana Calloway, a Harvey resident who was convicted of killing two people with 11-1 and 10-2 votes in two jury trials in the 1990s. Calloway said he didnt commit the crimes. Both Tatum and Calloway are on parole and wont be eligible to cast a ballot until March, when a new law the Louisiana Legislature enacted takes effect. It will restore voting rights to some 3,500 people. That doesnt mean they cant help with the Amendment 2 campaign. Ill be spending the day driving people to the polls, Calloway said. The New Orleans Saints are the hottest team in the NFL, and FOX is trying to take advantage of their recent success. The Saints' Week 11 matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles is being flexed into the 3:25 p.m. slot, according to a league source. An announcement is expected later Monday (Nov. 5). The matchup against the reigning Super Bowl champions was originally scheduled for noon. With a win over the previously-undefeated Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, the Saints improved to 7-1 and are on a seven-game winning streak. After a road game against the Cincinnati Bengals next Sunday, the Saints will return home to host the Eagles at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The Eagles are 4-4. The Saints arrive at NFL mid-terms as the best team in the league The New Orleans Saints handed the previously undefeated Rams their first loss Sunday afternoon and are currently on a seven-game winning streak following the 45-35 win. The Saints now head to Cincinnati to face the Bengals. Oddsmakers have New Orleans as a 3.5-point favorite in the matchup. Take a look the NFLs Week 10 odds below. Thank you for reading The Cascadia Advocate, the Northwest Progressive Institutes journal of world, national, and local politics. Founded in March of 2004, The Cascadia Advocate has been helping people throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond make sense of current events with rigorous analysis and thought-provoking commentary for more than fifteen years. The Cascadia Advocate is funded by readers like you and trusted sponsors. We dont run ads or publish content in exchange for money. Help us keep The Cascadia Advocate editorially independent and freely available to all by becoming a member of the Northwest Progressive Institute today. Or make a donation to sustain our essential research and advocacy journalism. Your contribution will allow us to continue bringing you features like Last Week In Congress, live coverage of events like Netroots Nation or the Democratic National Convention, and reviews of books and documentary films. Become an NPI member Make a one-time donation SHANGHAI Faced with mounting American tariffs that could slow Chinas already weakened economy, President Xi Jinping is pressing the case to the rest of the world that China can be a positive force for global trade. The challenge will be convincing the world he means it. Mr. Xi, the countrys top leader, on Monday kicked off a six-day expo intended to show China as a big buyer of foreign goods. He extolled Chinas appetite for what the rest of the world makes, and he reiterated promises that Beijing would lower import tariffs and improve intellectual property protection to help make that happen. Openness has become a trademark of China, Mr. Xi said. China has grown by embracing the world, and the world has also benefited by Chinas opening up. Today, as economic globalization deepens and develops, he added, the ideas of the law of the jungle and winner take all increasingly lead to a dead end. And yet life in Budapest doesnt feel authoritarian. It feels Western. It feels familiar. Which, as I reflected on my trip and on the midterm campaign that I returned home to left me deeply unnerved. Orban is no Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping. He doesnt put opponents in jail or brutalize them. There arent secret police listening to us, one Orban critic told me over dinner. Zselyke Csaky of Freedom House, the democracy watchdog, told me, There is no violence, not any kind of political violence. What Orban has done is to squash political competition. He has gerrymandered and changed election rules, so that he doesnt need a majority of votes to control the government. He has rushed bills through Parliament with little debate. He has relied on friendly media to echo his message and smear opponents. He has stocked the courts with allies. He has overseen rampant corruption. He has cozied up to Putin. To justify his rule, Orban has cited external threats especially Muslim immigrants and George Soros, the Jewish Hungarian-born investor and said that his party is the only one that represents the real people. Does any of this sound familiar? I cannot imagine the United States or a Western European country turning into Russia or China. But I can see how a major democracy could slide toward Hungarian autocracy. Orban clearly has such ambitions, and the far right across much of Europe views him as its model. Steve Bannon has praised him as the worlds most significant politician. Most alarming, the Republican Party has shown multiple signs of early Orbanism. No, the party is not as bad as Fidesz, and, yes, American democracy remains much healthier than the Hungarian version. But the parallels are there for anyone willing to see them: Like Orban, Republican leaders have repeatedly been willing to change the rules and customs of democracy for the sake of raw power. Mr. Wofford has promised to prosecute the corruption that has plagued Albany, including within the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But he seems unenthusiastic about challenging financial impropriety on Wall Street, an important focus for the office in recent years, and he appears less willing than Ms. James to challenge the policy excesses of President Trump, whom he supports. The Trump administration has abandoned the federal governments regulatory role, enacting policies on the environment, immigration and reproductive rights that hurt New Yorkers, and the president himself has scorned the rule of law. The state needs an attorney general who embraces the full responsibilities of the office. Opinion Debate Will the Democrats face a midterm wipeout? Mark Penn and Andrew Stein write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. Tory Gavito and Adam Jentleson write that the Virgina loss should "shock Democrats into confronting the powerful role that racially coded attacks play in American politics." write that the Virgina loss should "shock Democrats into confronting the powerful role that racially coded attacks play in American politics." Ezra Klein speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. Ross Douthat writes that the outcome of the Virginia gubernatorial race shows Democrats need a new way to talk about progressive ideology and education. Ms. James has frequently said that she has worked for the powerless while Mr. Wofford has worked for the powerful. Its an easy political slogan. Its also true. And since Ms. James has pledged to use the offices powers vigorously, we endorse her for attorney general. She has a lengthy record of defending New Yorkers from special interests, beginning with her earliest work as an attorney for the Legal Aid Society. From 1999 to 2001, she led the state attorney generals Brooklyn office under Eliot Spitzer, enforcing environmental laws and investigating predatory lenders. In 2003, Ms. James was elected to the City Council, where she waged a vocal campaign against Bloomberg administration development policies she said were pricing out low and moderate-income New Yorkers. She also challenged the Bloomberg administration on the policing policy known as stop and frisk. As public advocate since 2014, she has sometimes been overzealous in her use of lawsuits to address what she sees as inequities in government. Still, her efforts have aimed at using the true power of her office the bully pulpit for good, especially when it comes to tenants rights and the needs of vulnerable children. In the Democratic primary, we picked Zephyr Teachout over Ms. James. Ms. Teachout is an evangelist for ethics, and rooting out corruption is a central challenge for the next state attorney general. In her primary campaign, Ms. James presented herself as part of Mr. Cuomos team and accepted his fund-raising, acts that raised doubts about her independence. But Ms. James has promised to push for a law that would allow her to pursue prosecutions without first getting approval from the governor and the Legislature. This would be important if the office is to be truly independent in fighting corruption. She has also wisely said she would ask the highly experienced and capable Barbara Underwood to stay with the office. Ms. Underwood has been acting attorney general since Eric Schneiderman resigned after he was accused of abusing women he dated. Two Asian countries have agreed to the repatriation of the Rohingya people displaced to Bangladesh by violent attacks on their homes. Authorities made the plan just days after the United Nations reported that genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar hasnt stopped. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram, and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. Have you ever paused to consider the spiritual and physical affinities between the desolate universe of Samuel Beckett and the wacky world of vintage Warner Brothers cartoons? Me neither. Or at least not until I saw the Druid Theaters production of Becketts Waiting for Godot, part of the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center. Watching Garry Hyness highly stylized and very funny staging of this classic of modern literature which opened over the weekend at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College in Manhattan I found myself transported to Saturday mornings with Looney Tunes from my childhood. Little did I know then, as I chuckled over the frantic antics of Daffy and Bugs and company, that I was taking an extended course in existential futility. Just think about these elements, for example: An unchanging landscape (often with a boulder and a tree or two) that its exasperated denizens keep returning to no matter how far they think theyve wandered or how hard theyve run; badly battered bodies, subjected to random and whimsical acts of violence, that rebel against their owners commands; and the sense that no matter how hard and cruel the day has been, those who lived through it are ready to begin the same old punishing routine the next morning. Then theres the suspicion, which freezes into certainty, that those who work so ardently to achieve their elusive goals will never, ever be rewarded: not Wile E. Coyote in pursuit of the fleet Road Runner, nor Sylvester the Cat, hungry eyes forever trained on the unreachable Tweety Bird. They may be determined and industrious, these poor souls, but their existences are nothing but waiting games. Two months ago, The New York Times asked readers to send in examples of election-related misinformation they saw online. Readers responded. In all, more than 4,000 examples of misinformation were submitted to The Times from social media feeds, text-messaging apps and email accounts. Each legitimate submission was vetted by reporters and editors at The Times, and many have influenced our journalism in the lead-up to the midterm elections. We are grateful for readers submissions, and dedicated to continuing the work of fighting digital misinformation. Here is a review of some of the major types of misinformation submitted by readers, as well as some discovered in our own reporting. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. This is what its like being Nancy Pelosi: Republicans are running ads against you again, morphing your face into a monster mask of a big-spending, amnesty-loving San Francisco liberal. Democratic candidates are running from your leadership, declaring it time for a new generation in Washington even as they welcome endorsements from Joe Biden, whos been around nearly two decades longer. David Hogg, the chiseled-jaw face of the teenage Parkland shooting survivors, lectured you about Harvey Milk and social activism Yes I know; he was my friend you replied, with your Catholic school manners and told New York magazine you were old. Now comes a young Harvard man, a graduate student, turning your exhortation on the power of public sentiment back on you you have just quoted Abraham Lincoln to ask about the Democrats running on a platform of not supporting you. How does one deal with this negative public sentiment, and reorganizing your coalition and bringing them back under your leadership and support for you? he says in front of the standing-room crowd at the John F. Kennedy School of Government here. In the last two weeks, Mr. Trump has followed an instinct, one nurtured by Mr. Miller, that a foreboding message on immigration can galvanize his supporters. The president has sought to sow fear of immigrants by focusing on a caravan of people fleeing violence and poverty in their Central American countries, deploying active-duty members of the military to the border with Mexico and extolling the beauty of barbed wire as a deterrent. Mr. Trump has also resurrected one of his hardest-edge campaign proposals, calling for an end to birthright citizenship. It is an agenda Mr. Miller has pushed tirelessly inside the West Wing, where he has consolidated his power around the issue, even as several other aides have split into factions or left the administration. In Mr. Trumps world, no one has merged policy details and politics more forcefully than Mr. Miller. Mr. Miller, 33, has become known in that orbit for amassing frightening news articles and isolated statistics about immigration that he is aware might fuel a presidential declaration on Twitter. He has helped install a group of like-minded aides across the government, including at the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Justice Department, who have helped him pursue his agenda. The result is that Mr. Trump and Mr. Miller have thrust immigration long an issue that conservatives felt was ignored by establishment Republicans into the spotlight again and again. NORTH OGDEN, Utah The call had come again. Brent Taylor, the mayor of North Ogden and a major in the Utah National Guard, would be going to Afghanistan for his fourth deployment. He told his constituents about it on Facebook in January, leaning into the camera to explain that he had been called to serve his country whenever and however I can and that he would be gone for a year, as part of a team helping to train an Afghan Army commando battalion. Service is really what leadership is all about, he told them. [Read: The wife of Major Taylor on the return of his remains.] He said goodbye to his wife, Jennie, and their seven children, and turned over his municipal duties to his friend Brent Chugg. You need to keep safe, Mr. Chugg told him. I will, Major Taylor replied. He did not make it home. Major Taylor, 39, was killed on Saturday in an insider attack, apparently by one of the people he was there to help. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 5) Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones is not resigning over the recent massacre of nine farmers in Sagay, Negros Occidental. "We cannot please everyone," Castriciones told CNN Philippines' The Source. The secretary was responding to the call of National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) for him to step down. The groups slammed Castriciones for "victim-blaming" after he said the murdered farmers were not agrarian reform beneficiaries. Both he and the Armed Forces of the Philippines believe the victims were new recruits to the NFSW, which the military says is "a front organization" for the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the National People's Army. On October 27, the police filed murder charges against two members of the sugar workers' association. The left decried the move, with human rights group Karapatan saying that it "absolved the real perpetrators" of the massacre. The activist youth group Anakbayan pointed to a private army serving Negros landlords as the killers. But Castriciones is sticking to his allegations, claiming that the victims were "lured into occupying the land." "I don't have to lie to protect them," Castriciones said in response to the accusation that he was not protecting farmers. "I would have to tell the truth. The truth hurts. The truth is a reality." As the secretary maintained that the farmers did not have a potential right to the land, left-leaning groups said otherwise. The Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura said in a statement that the farmers worked there for three decades and petitioned for the land in 2003. It accused the Agrarian Reform Department of approving a landowners' deed of donation in 2004, which it said prevented the hacienda from being covered by and distributed under the agrarian reform program. "That's an allegation that they made," Castriciones said of the accusation. "As per our records, it would appear that they were not." The secretary went on to claim that others in the agricultural sector were satisfied with the government's performance. "But there are so many farmers who are pleased at this time because of the very many hectares of land distributed to [them]," he said. Castriciones also backed military claims that communists were out to "to impute a negative image on the President and malign the [AFP]." "The [AFP] and the [PNP] have information which we cannot access," he added. "It would appear there is a semblance of truth in what they are saying." But left-leaning groups say the government is red-tagging them. "This is not the first time that NFSW and the organized peasant movement was attacked by the government," KMP Chair Danilo Ramos said in a statement. "This had been going on for decades." CHICAGO Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller and Ishmael Houston-Jones have been friends for a long time, since at least the early 1980s. But until a few days ago, these celebrated choreographers had never danced with one another in front of an audience. How had this not happened before? And will it happen again? To wish for more is perhaps to miss out on the full beauty of Relations, a program lasting just two nights, Friday and Saturday, in which the artists came together to improvise at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Like any improvisational work, this one was about being there then, both for the performers and the audience about making choices in the moment and watching that process unfold, as unpredictable and unrepeatable as life. The program grew out of a conversation between the curator Tara Willis and Mr. Houston-Jones, a longtime improviser in New Yorks experimental dance scene. In 1982 Mr. Houston-Jones organized Parallels, a groundbreaking series featuring black choreographers who, like him, were working outside of the modern-dance mainstream. Among those colleagues were Ms. Miller and Mr. Lemon. Now in their 60s, the three are like family, or so it seemed on Saturday as they supported, teased, challenged, embraced, evaded and grappled with one another. (I didnt see Fridays show, but Mr. Lemon described it as the more kumbaya of the two.) Like most familial relationships, theirs were complicated, at least as they played out onstage, capable of holding affection and aggression, intimacy and distance, compassion and conflict, all at once. Back in February 2014, the eminent American photographer Abelardo Morell found himself getting tired of the same old thing that thing being his annual ritual of gifting Lisa A. McElaney, his wife and partner of almost 40 years, with a bouquet of flowers on the occasion of her birthday. (Truth be told, Lisa, herself a distinguished filmmaker and social worker, may not have been all that thrilled at the prospect either.) So instead he hazarded something altogether fresh: a photo of a gift of flowers. Naturally it wasnt going to be just any ordinary photograph: Such would not have been Mr. Morells style. Best known for his sly modernist redeployments of the venerable camera obscura tradition, in this instance he brought a plain glass crystal vase into his studio and against a flat white backdrop slotted a few simple flower stems into its mouth, photographed and then removed them, put in another few flowers stems, photographed and then removed them did this a dozen or so times, emerging with many separate photos of different flower bunches variously arcing out of the same unmoving vase. Then he fed all the resultant images into his computers Photoshop program, effectively throwing up his hands and saying, You figure it out. His laptop churned for a few minutes, and out popped a truly astonishing image, an erupting splay of colorful exuberance, and a perfect figure, he says, of his still fervent feelings for his beloved. A beloved painting by an artist who has become synonymous with Chicago wont be sold at auction by the city after all. Kerry James Marshalls Knowledge and Wonder was set to be sold at Christies on Nov. 15. Mr. Marshall, a Chicago-based artist who rose to prominence because of his lush depictions of black culture, finished the painting in 1995 for display in the Legler branch of the Chicago Public Library. In early October, Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, announced that the city would sell the work, with the proceeds going toward upgrading the library, a decision met with fierce criticism from public-arts advocates. The artist himself criticized the move in the aftermath of the decision. I am certain they could get more money if they sold the Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza, Mr. Marshall said in a statement to ArtNews, adding, You could say the City of Big Shoulders has wrung every bit of value they could from the fruits of my labor. In May, his painting Past Times, which hung in a Chicago convention center, sold for $21.1 million at Sothebys in New York, bringing in an unexpected windfall for a small municipal agency in Chicago, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority. Knowledge and Wonder, a mural depicting several black figures of varying ages staring at larger-than-life books, had been estimated to sell for $10 million to $15 million. Then war veterans decide to camp around Washington in pursuit of their wartime bonuses. Cals father, fearing the situation wont be safe for Cal, drops two bombshells: First, he and Cal are not white. Theyre Creek Indians. Second, he wants Cal to go to Challagi, the Indian boarding school in Oklahoma that he himself ran away from three times. While the education and the living conditions will be subpar, theyre better than what Cals getting now and if his father can get his bonus they could go back to having a permanent home. 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. At Challagi, the days of draconian punishments are past, but still far more students run away than graduate. Its not an easy place but it gives Cal a community, and a tribal identity he didnt realize he was lacking. He joins a band of boys, begins to learn to speak Creek and takes part in stomp dances at night in the woods. Cals cleareyed first-person narration drives the novel. Meticulously honest, generous, autonomous and true, he sees things for what they are rather than what hed like them to be. The result is one of Bruchacs best books. Cal comes to see himself as a gentleman of two roads: one he travels with his father, and the other, a Creek road, that he negotiates himself. A detailed afterword explains sources for the story. THE WAR OUTSIDE (Little, Brown, 318 pp., $17.99; ages 12 and up), by Monica Hesse (The Girl in the Blue Coat), also takes a setting we think we understand and shifts it in an important way. Seventeen-year-old Haruko is a nisei, an American-born child of Japanese immigrants. In 1944, along with her younger sister and her mother, she travels from Denver to Texas, to join her father in a World War II family internment camp called Crystal City. Unlike the camps where West Coast Japanese-Americans were imprisoned en masse, Crystal City houses enemy aliens suspected of actually spying and not just Japanese. Germans live in Crystal City, too. On her first day of high school in the camp, Haruko meets Margot, a first-generation German-American teenager whose family farmed in Iowa. Margots father attended a Nazi meeting there. Margot hates Hitler but shes not sure what her increasingly unstable father actually believes. Meanwhile Haruko doesnt know why her father was sent to the camp, but she knows hes hiding something from her. Her brother, Ken, is fighting in the United States Army. Has her father somehow endangered him? Image Crystal City is divided, literally and metaphorically Japanese on one side of the camp, Germans on the other. Neither side trusts the other; neither side is entirely trustworthy. Because the government considers the families to be prisoners of war, who might be repatriated to their birth countries and complain about their treatment, the facility is reasonably comfortable, with a well-appointed school and a vast community swimming pool. But its still a prison, and both girls feel changed by their confinement. Haruko and Margot quickly forge an intense, wholly believable, somewhat erotic secret relationship. As the war careens to an end, tensions in the camp lead to violence. One of the girls is forced to betray the other. Its a tightly plotted exploration of the consequences of fear. A fierce fight to the last. Voting in a dizzying array of congressional and statehouse races will still be underway when you get tomorrows briefing, and the tide could break red, blue or who knows. Our polling expert explains why even modest late shifts among undecided voters or slightly unexpected turnout numbers could significantly affect results. Heres the latest from the reporters and photographers weve spread out across the country. Some are attending Republican rallies in President Trumps final three-state swing, closing out what our White House correspondent describes as an us-against-them midterm campaign built on dark themes of fear, anger, division, nationalism and racial animosity. Our Abroad in America writer looks at an election that for many is nothing less than an epic battle for the soul and future of the country. One proof: Some Americans have quit jobs, delayed school or moved across the country to work without pay for a campaign. 1. Election Day is in sight. Control of Congress is at stake. The outcome is anything but clear. At the polls across the U.S., voters will choose thousands of of congressional, state and local officials. All 435 House seats are in play. In the Senate, 33 of 100 seats have races. Thirty-six states will elect governors. And thousands more state and municipal offices and local initiatives are on the ballots. Were all over it. Heres the latest from the dozens of journalists we have crisscrossing the U.S. Some are attending Republican rallies in President Trumps final three-state swing, closing out what our White House correspondent describes as an us-against-them midterm campaign built on dark themes of fear, anger, division, nationalism and racial animosity. Get the DealBook newsletter to make sense of major business and policy headlines and the power-brokers who shape them. __________ American companies are giving the countrys politicians a civics lesson. Walmart, Tyson Foods, Levi Strauss and hundreds of other companies are encouraging their employees to cast a ballot in this weeks congressional elections. They are acting largely because a jumble of state laws and the lack of a national holiday will make voting a challenge for many workers. United States federal law designates the first Tuesday of November for national elections, which is an inconvenience to many people because it falls on a workday. Thats why more than 370 companies have signed on to the Make Time to Vote initiative. They are easing the path in various ways, including giving employees paid time off to vote on Nov. 6. Walmarts participation is notable because the retailer is the largest private employer in the United States, with 1.5 million staff. Voter turnout in the United States is remarkably low. During the last congressional midterm elections in 2014, only 36 percent of people eligible to cast a ballot did so the lowest rate since World War II. The 56 percent turnout in the 2016 presidential contest ranked the United States 26th out of 32 leading developed countries, according to Pew Research. Good Monday. Want this by email? Sign up here. Masa Son justifies doing business with Saudi Arabia Masayoshi Son, SoftBanks C.E.O., finally spoke out today against the killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. But he added that his company wouldnt distance itself from Saudi Arabia the biggest investor in its nearly $100 billion Vision Fund. From the FTs write-up of SoftBanks earnings call: We have accepted funds from the people of Saudi Arabia that will be critical to diversifying the economy so that it will not be dependent only on oil, Mr. Son said at the beginning of an earning briefing in Tokyo. It is true that this was a tragic case, but we also have a responsibility that we must uphold for the future of the people in Saudi Arabia. SoftBank is trying to walk a fine line between criticizing the Saudi government, which has been accused of orchestrating Mr. Khashoggis death, and losing its support. Given the importance of the Vision Fund to SoftBank, Mr. Son may feel he has no choice. Hes not alone. Big consulting firms like McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group have kept Saudi contracts. And Larry Fink of BlackRock said at the DealBook conference last week that doing business with the Saudis was not something Im ashamed of. Get the DealBook newsletter to make sense of major business and policy headlines and the power-brokers who shape them. __________ An important cog in the global financial system has succumbed to pressure from the Trump administration and severed ties with Iranian banks. Belgian-based Swift, whose messaging service connects more than 11,000 financial institutions as they transfer money around the world, said it was disconnecting from Iranian banks after the United States announced sanctions against 50 of the countrys financial firms on Monday. The service declined to say whether it was cutting off all the targeted banks. But on Friday, Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said Swift must cut off any Iranian bank on the list. Few companies seriously contemplated severing their contracts with Saudi clients, however. At The New York Timess DealBook conference last week, Laurence D. Fink of the investment management giant BlackRock said that it was a hard decision to withdraw from the Saudi conference. But he unapologetically defended keeping the Saudi government as a client, saying that doing business there was not something Im ashamed of. At issue are the billions of dollars that Saudi Arabia has spread around the corporate world. The country has pledged to buy nearly $110 billion worth of arms from the United States, though so far it has spent only a fraction of that. Business from Saudi Arabia constitutes at least 15 percent of the revenue of BAE Systems, the British defense contractor. And consulting firms have courted the Saudi government for years, earning hundreds of millions in fees to the point that the countrys planning ministry has been nicknamed the Ministry of McKinsey. For SoftBank in particular, Saudi Arabia is a crucial part of its future. The company, a Japanese internet, energy and financial conglomerate, has increasingly staked its future on its nearly $100 billion Vision Fund. The biggest technology investment firm in the world, the Vision Fund owns stakes in Uber, the co-working space provider WeWork and more. The success of the Vision Fund has bolstered its parents earnings. SoftBank on Monday reported a second-quarter profit of 526.4 billion yen, or $4.6 billion, up fivefold from the same time a year ago, thanks to the Vision Funds sale of its stake in the Indian e-commerce company Flipkart to Walmart. Mr. Son said on Monday that he predicted the Vision Fund to propel even more growth at SoftBank. Next year, we will far exceed the scale we are seeing this year and maybe a scale that Japanese economy has never experienced before, he told analysts. ARTHUR, N.D. This is harvest season in the rich farmlands of the eastern Dakotas, the time of year Kevin Karel checks his computer first thing in the morning to see how many of his soybeans Chinese companies have purchased while he was sleeping. Farmers here in Cass County have prospered over the last two decades by growing more soybeans than any other county in the United States, and by shipping most of those beans across the Pacific Ocean to feed Chinese pigs and chickens. But this year, the Chinese have all but stopped buying. The largest market for one of Americas largest exports has shut its doors. The Chinese government imposed a tariff on American soybeans in response to the Trump administrations tariffs on Chinese goods. The latest federal data, through mid-October, shows American soybean sales to China have declined by 94 percent from last years harvest. Image Kevin Karel, the general manager of the Arthur Companies, which has long sold soybeans to China. With that market now largely shut off, Mr. Karel said his firm has started to stockpile soybeans. Credit... Dan Koeck for The New York Times Mr. Karel, the general manager of the Arthur Companies, which operates six grain elevators in eastern North Dakota, has started to pile one million bushels of soybeans on a clear patch of ground behind some of his grain silos. The big mound of yellowish-white beans, already one of the taller hills in this flat part of the world, will then be covered with tarps. Look at the photos and caption above, which were posted on Twitter by the news reporter Joe Parris. What is your reaction? Why? Does it matter to you that the people shown are teachers and that the photos were taken at an elementary school? In School District Apologizes for Costumes of Mexican Stereotypes and Border Wall Prop, Sarah Mervosh writes: The two photos were among several costume pictures posted to the school districts Facebook page before being taken down. One showed a group wearing sombreros, ponchos and dark mustaches; the other included staff members dressed in American patriotic gear standing behind what appeared to be a cardboard border wall. The pictures exacerbated a racial divide in a state that is predominantly white but where Hispanic people are the largest minority group. The episode also came at a time when the president has stoked anti-immigrant animus just before the midterm elections. Josh J. Middleton, the superintendent of Middleton School District, has said the school district was investigating what had happened. Do I think there was a malicious intent in this poor decision? No, I dont, he said in Facebook video posted Friday. Was there a poor judgment involved? Absolutely. He added that he was deeply troubled by the decision by our staff members to wear those costumes that are clearly insensitive and inappropriate. Students, read the entire article, then tell us: Do you think there should be limits to what people can wear as Halloween costumes? If so, how do you define those limits? Why do you define them as you do? Does your answer change when the people in question are teachers dressing up for a school costume party? Why or why not? Are you offended by the teachers costumes or the theme they chose to represent? Do you think people in their community are justified in their anger? What punishment, if any, do you think the people involved in the border wall themed Halloween costumes should receive? Should this theme be off-limits at schools? What about other public places? Explain. Do you think this incident has the power to negatively affect race relations in Idaho and elsewhere? Do you think it may lead to positive outcomes? Explain your stance. Do you hold teachers to different standards than other adults when it comes to speaking and behaving appropriately? Why or why not? Jon Yorgason, whose children attend the school where the costume party occurred, draws a line between dressing up as another culture and depicting a border wall because the wall is one of the countrys most sensitive and contentious political issues. Do you think, first, that dressing up as a member of a culture different from ones own is sometimes, always or never acceptable? Second, do you think that if the wall were not a topic of fierce debate, this incident would have made national news? In 2013, the Catholic Church launched a huge movement, very conservative movement, against marriage for everyone, she recalled. They were at the forefront. You had bishops on TV. The thing was, marriage for everyone was only about civil ceremonies. It had nothing to do with religion. But they loaded buses from the churches to go protest in Paris. Struck by the progressive nature of the Swedish church, she and Ms. Bauer, a colleague in the Youpress freelance collective, began seeking out subjects. Among them were some of the first women to be ordained, who Ms. Robert said had longed for a greater role than the traditional one of pastors wife. They really wanted other responsibilities, she said. They wanted to be fully recognized as priests. They said the first thing they had to do was to study theology and be equal to men in those studies. And then they found the theological foundation to say women should be allowed to be ordained. That was their first fight. From a handful of pioneers, the role of female clergy has grown, including the appointment of an openly lesbian bishop and a woman named the churchs first woman archbishop. The church, she added, continued to pursue a more liberal approach, even if it has faced some pushback from other faith leaders abroad for its stance on female ordination and causes like immigration. The churchs evolution, she said, reflected bigger shifts that occurred in Swedish society after World War II. Republican donors are hedging their bets Republicans, backed by moneyed interests such as real estate, have for years consistently out-raised the Democrats. They still lead the Democrats in campaign funds this year but the gap could have been larger, had it not been for some outside groups that seem to be sitting this year out. New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, a well-funded PAC that supports charter schools, donated close to $7 million to Republicans in 2016, with nearly $6.6 million already infused by the end of October. But this year, as of the same time, the group had spent only $1.2 million. Some traditional Republican donors have also started giving to Democrats, perhaps to make sure they are in the good graces of the party that comes out on top. For example, the Real Estate Board PAC, which gave more than $260,000 to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee in 2016, had given them only $120,000 this year, as of the most recent filing. And it has donated $95,000 to the Democrats committee, after giving nothing in 2016. Scott Reif, a spokesman for the Senate Republicans, dismissed the lower spending totals, pointing to other groups that have ramped up their spending, such as Balance New York, a PAC funded by real estate, that had spent $1.8 million as of Nov. 1. Voters are feeling the blitz The flood of campaign cash has meant that voters in competitive districts are seeing a torrent of television and digital advertisements, mailers and paid canvassers. Mr. Gaughran said he had opened four campaign offices across the district, hired twice as many staff members and was flush enough to be able to reimburse the expenses of a squadron of volunteers 20 to 25 times larger than in his last unsuccessful run in 2016. He looked like just another straphanger, traveling from Kensington, Brooklyn, into Manhattan. But authorities claimed his intentions were to terrorize, and even kill, his fellow commuters. Because of widespread security surveillance, with thousands of public and private security cameras on the streets, and in subway stations and apartment buildings, it was possible to witness the journey he took on that frightening day. On Dec. 11, 2017, cameras tracked Akayed Ullah, a Bangladeshi immigrant who the authorities said had strapped a homemade pipe bomb to his chest, from his Brooklyn apartment, onto the subway and into Manhattan, where he detonated his device in a crowded passageway between the Times Square and Port Authority stations. It was the first attempted suicide attack in New York since Sept. 11, 2001. Mr. Ullah was convicted at trial in 2018 on charges that included using a weapon of mass destruction, bombing a public transportation system and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, ISIS. NASHVILLE Emblazoned on the front page of the website for Vote.org, which was founded in 2008 to increase voter turnout, theres a quotation from Ronald Reagan: For this Nation to remain true to its principles, we cannot allow any Americans vote to be denied, diluted, or defiled. The right to vote is the crown jewel of American liberties, and we will not see its luster diminished. The Party of Reagan no longer shares this particular ideal, at least not here in the South. In Tennessee, transparent voter suppression efforts have included an array of tactics: Confiscating the drivers licenses of citizens who cant afford to pay traffic fines. This onerous law prevents the impoverished not only from voting but also from working 93.4 percent of working Tennesseans need cars to get to their jobs and being unable to work prevents them from paying their fines. Since 2012, at least 250,000 drivers licenses have been suspended for nonpayment of traffic fines and costs, according to a class-action lawsuit filed against the state. Last month, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in the case, ordering Tennessee to stop the practice of revoking licenses and requiring the state to allow people to apply to get their licenses back. The state is appealing the decision. Effectively disenfranchising college students. Its not permissible to mail in a ballot in Tennessee unless you registered to vote in person before an election commission official, or have voted in a previous election. This law makes it extremely difficult for students to vote in national elections, which are, of course, held in November and thus in the middle of a school term. The rules about voting by mail in Tennessee are so complicated that the campaign staff of United States Representative Jim Cooper, a Democrat, created a graphic to help explain it. Even the graphic is complicated. Disqualifying voter registration applications for specious reasons. Shelby County is Tennessees largest county. It is also a county where African-Americans are in the majority. Last month, the Memphis branch of the N.A.A.C.P. and the Tennessee Black Voter Project sued the Shelby County Election Commission over a backlog of more than 10,000 voter registration applications that had not yet been processed because, according to election officials, they were incomplete. (The election commission considered an application incomplete even if only the field designating the citizens title Mr., Ms. or Mrs. was left blank.) A Chancery Court judge ordered the commission to allow citizens to complete the forms and vote on Election Day. The Tennessee Supreme Court subsequently ruled that such voters could cast provisional ballots only. In the early decades, only a handful of initiatives reached the ballot. By the 1930s, the nations first political consultants, Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter, began to carve out a niche business, handling 65 initiative campaigns over 15 years. Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Baxter, and the political-consultant industry they spawned, fueled a rapid growth in initiatives by the 1970s. Paid signature gatherers driven by financial incentive rather than moral conviction replaced volunteers who had once circulated petitions for their causes. The initiative is very rapidly becoming a tool of the special interests, Jerry Brown, then the secretary of state, testified at a 1972 state hearing where signature gatherers detailed a range of deceptive practices. The last initiative that got on the ballot through the effort of volunteers was a 1990 measure to protect mountain lions. Since then, petition gatherers wielding multiple clipboards have become ubiquitous at shopping malls, outside retail stores and at farmers markets. They are paid per signature, rates that fluctuate as high as $6 per name, depending on how many initiatives are in circulation, how soon the petitions must be turned in and how difficult the sell. Signature gatherers who handle multiple initiatives have an incentive to push the ones that pay the most. The bidding wars and campaign high jinks can be fierce. They have included attempts to sabotage petitions by flooding them with false or duplicate names. As governor, Mr. Brown has vetoed several recent attempts to amend the process, principally by outlawing a fee-per-signature payment. While he acknowledged the propensity for manipulation, he argued that the per-signature system remains the cheapest. Eliminating this option will drive up the cost of circulating ballot measures, thereby further favoring the wealthiest interests, he wrote in a veto message. Mr. Brown has had more experience with initiatives than most. In his first campaign for governor in 1974, he piggybacked on a popular initiative he had crafted, the Political Reform Act, which established a commission to to regulate campaign finances, lobbying and ethics. Four years later, he was caught in the swirl of Proposition 13, the tax cut measure that remains the most far-reaching initiative in modern times. Like most elected officials, Mr. Brown opposed Prop 13, but then embraced it enthusiastically when it passed. Since his return to the governors office in 2011, he has mastered the art of using initiatives to further his priorities. He devised and campaigned for measures that raised taxes, created a rainy-day fund and made major changes to the criminal-justice system. He has also amassed funds to fight off attempts to undo policies or hamper his objectives, learning from the experience of Prop 13, when such tactics were not yet in vogue. He has helped fend off ballot challenges to criminal-justice reforms and efforts to block his plans for high-speed rail. This year, he has helped fight a proposition on the November ballot that would repeal a recently enacted gas tax that funds highway repairs. To the Editor: What sets democracy apart from every other form of government is the input of ordinary citizens into their countrys future. While the period in between elections remains owned, perhaps, by the rich or otherwise powerful, it is on Election Day that the largely powerless have their say. By simply marking a ballot, ordinary citizens can tell a president to get packing and to welcome a new tenant to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This year, it is the turn of congressmen and women, governors and all the rest to sweat the outcome of this election. Outside of an asteroids hitting the earth, Wednesday mornings headline will report how things turned out and just who have the jobs going forward. At that moment, you can shred all the polling results. The American people will have spoken. It is why the most serious crime of all may be to prevent or deter someone from voting. Such efforts are like attempted murder, the murder of a nation. We take care of our jewels and the finishes on our cars. We should take better care of our right to vote. It is our most precious possession, our potential source for better tomorrows. The key weakness of early online voting systems was the inability to solve what cryptographers called the double spend problem. When we send a file on the internet, were actually sending a copy of that file; the original remains in our possession. This is acceptable for sharing information but unacceptable for recording votes in elections. The possibility that individuals could cast their ballots multiple times for a candidate made these systems useless just as vulnerable as paper ballot systems. Points of failure included susceptibility to hackers, coding bugs, and human error. With enough resources, any rogue could stuff a digital ballot box with illegitimate votes. The good news is that building a workable, scalable, and inclusive online voting system is now possible, thanks to blockchain technologies. A blockchain is a peer-to-peer network for exchanging anything of value, from stocks, money, intellectual property, and, yes, votes. In a blockchain-based system, public trust in the voting process is achieved not by faith in one single institution, but through cryptography, code, and collaboration among citizens, government agencies, and other stakeholders. Traditionally in elections, trust is concentrated in the hands of state and federal agencies and other civic institutions, which are prone to hacking, fraud, or human error (think the Democratic National Committee, the Election Assistance Commission, or the California Department of Motor Vehicles). On a blockchain, a distributed network of computers works to verify transactions, with batches of them ordered and recorded in blocks. Each block is linked cryptographically to the preceding block, forming a secure chain or ledger that anyone in the network can see but no single entity can hack or manipulate. An attacker who wanted to spend the same dollar twice or cast the same vote twice would need to take command of 51% of the computers in the network simultaneously and rewrite the entire history of each dollar or vote on the blockchain in a short time frame, which is exceedingly difficult. Since the network is widely distributed, it could survive a natural disaster or an attack on critical infrastructure. Thus, blockchain prevents double-spending, enabling us to run secure, trustworthy online transactions including voting. In elections run on blockchains, citizens use digital voter IDs to prove who they are. Each digital ID is unique to each person, cryptographically secured with a private key (a unique password) on the persons device, and made up of multiple data points, or factors: proofs of residence and citizenship, biometric data, and voter registration, to name a few. Citizens open their app with their thumbprints or retinal scans and then cast their vote with their private key. The more data points used to create the digital ID, the harder the identity is to replicate and hack. Though voter registration is still required in most states, a robust multi-factor voter ID could eventually replace the registration altogether, as the combination of many data points would make it highly reliable. If anything, that sense of European normality has made me all the more worried as I reflected on my trip and on the midterm campaign in this country. Like Viktor Orbans Fidesz party in Hungary, todays Republican Party has repeatedly been willing to subvert democracy for the sake of power. Its the single biggest reason that Republicans need to be held accountable in tomorrows elections. My column this week tells the story of my trip. Opinion Debate Will the Democrats face a midterm wipeout? Mark Penn and Andrew Stein write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. Tory Gavito and Adam Jentleson write that the Virgina loss should "shock Democrats into confronting the powerful role that racially coded attacks play in American politics." write that the Virgina loss should "shock Democrats into confronting the powerful role that racially coded attacks play in American politics." Ezra Klein speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. Ross Douthat writes that the outcome of the Virginia gubernatorial race shows Democrats need a new way to talk about progressive ideology and education. Related: If the column makes you want to learn more about Hungary, I recommend Zselyke Csaky in Foreign Policy, from September or April; Zack Beauchamp in Vox; and my colleague Roger Cohen. To go deeper, the book Orban, by Paul Lendvai, is excellent and accessible. Orbanism in Georgia. The latest example of Republicans subverting democracy to gain power is happening in Georgia. There, Brian Kemp is both overseeing the governors election, as a secretary of state, and running in that election, as the Republican nominee. And hes behaving shamefully. On Sunday, he leveled an apparently false allegation against Democrats: that they hacked into a state voter database. In Slate, the legal scholar Richard Hasen called Kemps move perhaps the most outrageous example of election administration partisanship in the modern era. Michael McDonald, the data-minded University of Florida elections expert, called Kemps move an appalling abuse of power and beyond the pale of what is acceptable in a well-functioning democracy. That description captures why the parallels between Hungary and the United States have left me unnerved: one of our two political parties is behaving in ways I never expected to see in this country. It is discarding basic standards of democracy for the sake of holding power. Wall Streets elite, clearly guilty of systemic self-dealing that amplified the disaster, was on its knees, but instead of Old Testament justice, Mr. Obama slyly offered to stand between Wall Street and the pitchforks, a perilous stance of enormous political cost from which he extracted no concessions. He assessed policy by what he called Hippocratic risk a first, do no harm tact that was civilized, conflict-light and let the banks earn their way back to health. And they sure did, with billions of zero-interest funds from the Fed, while homeowners suffered. The economy began to recover. Business as usual resumed. But a Rooseveltian moment to create fundamental change had passed. While he left office accomplished and popular, he failed to fulfill the core dictum of reversing the Reagan drumbeat of government as problem not solution. Mr. Obama seemed stretched thin by his two central tenets: a preternatural dedication to civility and a promise to fundamentally change corrupt systems. To both get the urgent business of governing done and uphold civility, he needed a partner across the aisle to broker deals. But the modern Republican Party is built to fight, not govern. It respects only a bloody nose. In the early Obama years, some administration officials would pass notes under the acronym WWLD (what would Lyndon do?) when they grew frustrated that Obama wouldnt twist arms, and maybe break a few, to get a return on his stunning political capital. But its unclear whether President Johnson, were he exhumed, revived and asked to reconsider Senator Dick Russells warning that passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act would lose the South for a generation, would still say, Dick, if thats the price for this bill, then I will gladly pay it. Power, too forcefully wielded in a divided and diverse nation, can carry stunning costs. Still on the most salient issues, or in a crisis, maybe thats the risk worth taking. A brilliant man and prudent president, not embracing risk when he had the chance, partially set the table for Donald Trump his tapping into outrage, his attacks on governments gutlessness and his misdirection of populists via rhetorical embrace of the working man. Now, rather than a careful professor, a reckless bully owns Washington a lover of backlash, the embodiment of it. Courting it with every tweet and maneuver, like a matador waving his red cape before the crowd. And civility is at a nadir, buried. Mr. Obama was a believer in our constitutional construct of balance, that ambition must be made to counteract ambition, as Madison wrote. But there needs to be enough ambition connected to compromise in order for it to be productive. Dr. Hu may be the first third-generation (in terms of scientific pedigree) Ig Nobel winner, because Dr. Mahadevan studied under the late Joseph Keller, a mathematician at Stanford University. Dr. Keller won two Ig Nobels. One was for studying why ponytails swing from side-to-side, rather than up and down, when the ponytail owner is jogging. The other was an examination of why teapots dribble. After M.I.T., Dr. Hu did research at the Courant Institute at New York University, another hotbed of real-world mathematics. He moved to Georgia Tech, after Jeannette Yen, a biologist there, told the university they ought to take a look at him. From ants to self-assembling robots Dr. Hus research may seem like pure fun, but much of it is built on the idea that how animals move and function can provide inspiration for engineers designing human-made objects or systems. The title of Dr. Hus book refers to the robots of the future, and he emphasizes the way animal motion offers insights that can be applied to engineering Bio-inspired design. When Brazils Pantanal wetlands flood, for instance, fire ants form rafts so tightly interlaced that water doesnt penetrate their mass. When he picked up suc h a mass in the lab , Dr. Hu writes , it felt like a pile of salad greens. The raft was springy, and if I squeezed it down to a fraction of its height, it recoiled back to its original shape. If I pulled it apart, it stretched like cheese on a pizza. He found out that the ants were constantly moving even though the shape of the mass stayed more or less the same. They were breaking and making connections all the time, and they became, in essence, a self-healing material. 3. Masc Femme Butch Kween Theres a hashtag for everything on Instagram; when you type #gayballet, you will come across men in tights and training shorts, and eventually you might find James Whiteside, most likely bare-chested with a large scratch tattooed on his ribs. Whiteside, 34, is a principal dancer with New Yorks American Ballet Theater and, since joining the company in 2012, one of its major stars; critics applaud his power and energy and the depth he brings to his characters. For the choreographer Lar Lubovitchs 2015 production of Othello, Whiteside didnt want to waste the opportunity of working with a gay collaborator his Iago was infused with what he calls queer rage. This month, at New Yorks Joyce Theater, Whiteside opened the celebrated choreographer Arthur Pitas new ballet, The Tenant, based on Roland Topors 1964 French novel and Roman Polanskis film adaptation of the same name, which questions ideas of identity and gender. My personality was maybe something that ABT hadnt encountered before, Whiteside says. I would come in yaass kween-ing everyone and doing drag queen walks, and that could have been so easily misconstrued as not taking the work seriously. But Whiteside takes his work very seriously because he doesnt want to, as he puts it, go back. Back to his late teens in South Boston when people regularly threw rocks at him and called him the F-word on his way to and from Boston Ballet. I found myself a target anywhere I went, he says. Like anyone whos danced through fire and come out burnished, Whiteside can now laugh at his past and turn it into a personal statement and meta joke on Instagram. In one post, hes flexing his biceps while wearing a pink bandanna, a black tutu and a tank top that says Milks Gym (Milk is the drag name of his boyfriend, Daniel Donigan, who appeared on two seasons of RuPauls Drag Race). Whitesides caption: Masc femme butch kween horse peasant monarch wealthy broke realness. Then a shrugging-guy emoji. What he hears most from his 171,000 Instagram followers is that he looks like hes having fun. And he is. Dancing with ABT has been his dream since he was a boy, when he attended a gala and visited the principals red-velvet hallway backstage. He loves ballet and wants others to fall in love with it, too, and he hopes his feed will bring more people into the theater. But it bugs him that so much of ballet Instagram his own at times, too is dancer thirst trap. The twerking and the tights and the belts are a misleading representation of the work, the almost inhuman physical effort behind a dancer doing splits in the air. No ones going to understand what we really do from Instagram, where everything has a smile on it and a cigarette in its mouth, he says. Ballet is one of the most physically demanding things in the world, but you have to seem like youre just taking a whiz. Whiteside has a point. But like any protagonist, he cant see himself as we do. Before social media, ballet on video think of those tame PBS broadcasts appealed to a specialized audience. One reason is its perspective: The cameras, way up in the auditorium, show ballet from a limited point of view. But on Instagram, the close-up angles, taped ankles, the veins and arteries flooded with blood, give us ballet as the dancer experiences it. Rather than removing the magic of a darkened theater, this intimacy brings us closer to the my-God-how-does-the-human-body-do-that awe that ballet inspires. In one post, we see Whitesides backside, naked but for the straps of a well-worn dance belt. But this isnt just a thirst trap. Its a hard, strangely shaped, almost gnarled piece of flesh. The caption Dancer butt tells us were looking at decades of sacrifice knotted up in muscle and skin. It shows us the feat behind the art, reminding us that the foundation of dance is physical strength a quality associated with traditional masculinity. Whiteside is an athlete-artist restless with ideas and energy, and Instagram gives him a space arguably bigger than a companys stage to experiment with what it now means to be a great dancer. In 2014, Tom Gottelier and Bobby Petersen, young designers who had graduated from Londons Royal College of Art, visited a friend whose family has lived for generations on Gotland, a rugged island four hours south of Stockholm. Instantly smitten with the exposed limestone and the dense juniper trees, as well as the carpets of wildflowers that bloom in July the only month Sweden is reliably warm the duo dreamed of starting a creative getaway there for artists and designers. The island, which was first inhabited in 7000 B.C., has its share of rich vacationers, especially along the coasts. But Gottelier and Petersen, who are now in their 30s and design stores and products together in Los Angeles, were enamored with the raw farmland of Gotlands less glamorous interior. Charmed by their enthusiasm, their friends mother offered them a good deal on a 1.5-acre rocky plot in the islands rural center. With Americans going to the polls on Tuesday, it is down to the wire for social media companies to show that they have clamped down on disinformation and foreign interference through their sites. The companies want to prove that the midterm elections will not be a repeat of 2016, when Russian operatives used Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to spread divisive messages in an attempt to influence how the American electorate voted. Facebook, which has borne the brunt of scrutiny over election interference, has introduced measures to limit who can buy political ads, has hired more people to monitor what gets posted, and has constructed a war room to root out false information and stop it from spreading. Last week, Facebooks chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, told investors that the company was getting better and better at detecting election interference but that there are going to be things that our systems miss no matter how well tuned we are. A close look at Twitter also suggests that disinformation and election interference are far from under control. Even as the company has taken steps to reduce problems, new instances of misinformation campaigns continue to surface. Our work on this issue is not done, nor will it ever be, Jack Dorsey, Twitters chief executive, told Congress in September. He said that the company had learned valuable lessons since the 2016 election and that it was now removing 214 percent more accounts a year for violating its policies against manipulation. [Heres a guide to everything you need to know about the November elections.] Twitter began looking more closely at election interference after the 2016 presidential vote. Late that year, it assembled a data science team to use technology to detect malicious and misleading behavior on its service. In particular, the team tries to identify oddities, like a cluster of accounts that were registered with the same email address or phone number, or accounts that were engaging in spammy behavior like tweeting constantly at high-profile accounts to amplify their posts. In the last two years, the state of California, where I live, has been ravaged by fires so unprecedented that a once rare term has now become routine: megafire. A megafire is a fire that consumes more than 100,000 acres. A few months ago, in an area near Yosemite National Park, the Ferguson fire raged through the Sierra Nevada mountains, burning 86,000 acres of forest before jumping Highway 41 into the park and scorching another 11,000 acres within its boundaries not technically a megafire, but just shy of it. Three thousand people from around the world were dispatched to help fight the blaze, which choked the valley in an impenetrable wall of smoke; two firefighters died. For three weeks during peak season, much of one of the most popular national parks in the country was closed to the public. Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Heres the sign-up.) There is a lot of suspense going into tomorrows elections in California. Well, at least in the seven Republican-held congressional seats Democrats are trying to capture as part of their effort to win back the House. By contrast, the two high-profile state races seem likely to go to Democrats. Polls show Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom with a strong lead over John Cox, the Republican challenger, in the race for governor. And Senator Dianne Feinstein seems to be gliding to re-election over her Democratic opponent, Kevin de Leon. We caught up with Ms. Feinstein last week in Salinas to talk about why she was running again and what she was hoping to do in Congress. Here are some excerpts, which have been edited for clarity and space. Q. Was the election of President Trump a factor in your decision to run again? A. Its really about the state for me. This is the state of my birth. Its the state of my education. My opponent always uses seniority derogatorily. But it has advantages in the Senate. HERSHEY, Pa. On a recent Friday night, Pennsylvania Republicans tucked into a catered meal at the Hershey Lodge as Donald Trump Jr. took the stage, following his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, in what has become their pattern on the campaign trail this fall. If theres one question that Donald Trump lied to all of you in this room about the presidents eldest son said to the hundreds of party officials at the annual fall state G.O.P. dinner. He trailed off as the room seemed to quiver with nervousness at the use of the word lied. Dont worry, dont worry, Im getting somewhere its not a gaffe, promise, Mr. Trump said to laughter. If theres one thing he lied about, its that youd all be sick of winning. The line has become a staple at many of the 60 events the younger Mr. Trump has held since May for Republican candidates and committees, as he has emerged as one of the G.O.P.s most visible headliners in a challenging midterms climate for the party. It feels different, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the Democrat running against Mr. Curbelo, said over a plate of ceviche in a campaign office above a sushi-Thai restaurant at a strip mall. Gillum, maybe, is getting people more excited. This much enthusiasm is a departure. In past years, the party has struggled to raise money and field credible candidates in many districts. So thin is the Democratic bench, according to Mr. Buckhorn, the Tampa mayor, that even staffing a Gillum administration could be challenging. Weve been out in the wilderness for so long that many of the folks who normally would step in are too old, out of politics or doing something else, he said. This is a challenge Democrats would be happy to have. The day after Mr. Obamas visit, the partys candidates gathered in West Palm Beach to appear with a more overtly Floridian campaign closer: Jimmy Buffett, summoned to preach peace, love and shakers of salt. But first came the undercard. Mr. Nelson strode onstage, looking out on a lawn of beach towels and avian-casual button-downs, and promised to be quick. Rather than giving a speech, he said, Im going to introduce Andrew Gillum. The divide is clearly driven by views toward President Trump. Only 39 percent of voters approve of the presidents job performance, but among women it is even lower: just 31 percent of women believe Mr. Trump is doing a good job as president, while 63 percent do not approve of his performance. Think the 2018 campaign will be over after all the ballots from Tuesday are counted? Think again. Some Republican officials now believe that the Georgia governors race is destined to go to a Dec. 4 runoff because neither Stacey Abrams, the Democrat, nor Brian Kemp, the Republican, is likely to capture a majority of the vote. The race is that close in their private polling and, while Mr. Kemp enjoys a slight advantage in the G.O.P. surveys, the libertarian on the ballot, Ted Metz, could take about 2 percent of the vote. (In Georgias 2014 gubernatorial race, the Libertarian nominee earned 2.36 percent of the vote.) That could keep either major candidate from reaching 50 percent on Election Day if the race remains neck-and-neck. The furor over the new inquiry by Mr. Kemps office of the Georgia Democratic Party threw a curveball into the final days of this tight race. New York Times journalists are reporting from around the country as candidates make their final pitches to the voters who will help reshape the United States for the next two years. Heres a guide to how, when and where to vote on Tuesday. Make sense of the people and ideas shaping the election and its aftermath with our politics newsletter. Storms expected on Election Day Storms are expected to hit much of the Eastern United States on Tuesday, which could depress turnout in some places. A strong cold front could cause rain and wind anywhere along the Eastern Seaboard, from the Florida Panhandle all the way up to Maine, said Tim Loftus, a data scientist and meteorologist at AccuWeather. Several nonpartisan groups provide unvarnished voter information, too. Ballotpedia, a nonprofit encyclopedia written by a staff of researchers and writers, contains a wealth of information and maintains a sample ballot lookup. Similar tools are available through other organizations, including Vote411.org, Vote USA and BallotReady, to name a few. ProPublica, the nonprofit newsroom, maintains tools such as ElectionBot and Represent to help readers find information and articles on local issues and candidates. Voters can also seek out endorsements from sources they trust, such as local newspapers, special interest groups and professional organizations. At the polling place Dont be intimidated. The federal government and many states ban voter intimidation, which can take many forms. Examples include aggressively questioning an individuals citizenship or qualifications to vote, falsely claiming to be an election official and spreading false information about voting requirements, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. To report intimidation, voters can notify local and state officials and call or text the Election Protection Hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE or 888-VE-Y-VOTA in Spanish, or the Justice Department at 800-253-3931 and TTY line 877-267-8971. [Read more about voter intimidation and what you can do about it.] Many states do allow certified poll monitors to observe the voting process, though. The monitors, who are trained, may have the authority to challenge a persons voting qualifications, though they are not typically allowed to interact with individuals directly. A voter whose qualifications are challenged may still be allowed to vote after giving a sworn affidavit that they satisfy said qualifications. Ask for help. Generally, election officials are prepared to accommodate the needs of all voters, including those with disabilities and those who need language assistance. Voters with disabilities, for example, have the right to accessible polling places and voting booths; to bring a service animal into the polling place; to seek assistance from polling place workers; and to bring someone with them to vote, as long as that person is not an employer or union representative. Good Monday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ From Miami to Cleveland to Los Angeles, candidates in the midterm elections made their final pitches to the voters who will help shape the United States for the next two years. Read about the closing arguments in these dispatches from around the nation. Brian Kemp, the Georgia secretary of state and Republican nominee for governor, said Democrats were under investigation for allegedly trying to hack the states voter registration files. Democrats called the inquiry a political stunt and abuse of Mr. Kemps power. Republicans are bracing for midterm losses in governors offices and the House, but they are more hopeful about the Senate. Heres how both parties feel about their chances Tuesday. Suspicious Texts Text messages are the breakout technology of the 2018 campaign, and many campaigns have been using peer-to-peer texting apps to encourage voters to turn out on Tuesday. If you are on a campaign or party committees voter list, you may receive legitimate text messages on Tuesday encouraging you to vote, offering you a ride to the polls, or telling you where your polling place is. But beware any text messages that tell you that voting hours or locations have changed, that new forms of voter ID are required, or that your voter registration is not valid. Voters across Indiana who filed absentee ballots last month have been receiving text messages purporting to be from President Trump and claiming their votes have not been registered. The texts included a link to a Republican National Committee website that asks users to enter their names, addresses and phone numbers and then provides information about their polling locations. This is President Trump, read one message received by a voter in Elkhart County, Ind., who had voted by absentee ballot. Your early vote has NOT been RECORDED on Indianas roster. Voters in Georgia, Kansas and Michigan have reported receiving similar messages from President Trump. Voters have also reported receiving texts from Democratic organizations, telling them that their absentee ballots have not been returned. Voting Machine Malfunction Rumors Reports of broken, rigged or technically compromised voting machines are common on Election Day. You may even see videos of malfunctioning voting machines going viral on social media. Unless you have rock-solid evidence that the claims are true, its usually best to be skeptical. Major television networks and Facebook have taken the unusual step of rejecting an inflammatory ad by President Trumps political team that effectively closes a fiercely fought midterm campaign with a message portraying immigrants as a violent threat. The 30-second political spot, which mirrors the presidents apocalyptic warnings about a caravan of asylum seekers in Mexico, was widely denounced as racist and misleading after Mr. Trump shared a longer version of it last week. NBC and Facebook, both of which had run the ad over the weekend, reversed course after a backlash on Monday and announced that the commercial would be removed, saying it fell short of their in-house advertising standards. CNN had refused to air the ad from the start, calling it racist. Even Fox News, which has made warnings about the migrant caravan a staple of its prime time coverage of the midterms, felt compelled to distance itself from the ad. The networks president of ad sales, Marianne Gambelli, said in a statement that the network had stopped airing it on Sunday. It will not appear on either Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network, she wrote. PHOENIX The Southwest has emerged as a key battleground for control of the United States Senate in the final days of the turbulent midterm election, with off-the-charts early voting numbers giving Democrats hope that they can win tight races in Arizona, Nevada and maybe, just maybe, the bank shot of them all, Texas. Republicans have been dominant for years in Arizona, which has not elected a Democratic senator since 1988, and senators have a good track record at winning re-election in Nevada, where Dean Heller, a Republican, is now seeking a second term. But Nevada polls recently have shown Mr. Heller and the Democratic nominee, Representative Jacky Rosen, trading off in the lead; Arizona polls have shown a neck-and-neck race between the Democrat, Representative Kyrsten Sinema, and the Republican, Representative Martha McSally. The mere fact that the Republican Senate candidates havent put away the race in those two states has been enough to lead some Democrats to think that Tuesday's election could lead to a very late night, with the East Coast waiting for the results out West to see who controls the Senate. Republicans now have a single-seat majority. [Take a look at the Senate races to watch] As for Texas, there are signs that Beto ORourke, the Democratic nominee, has tightened his race against Senator Ted Cruz, the incumbent Republican. Still, Mr. Cruz holds a lead in recent polls, and no Democrat has won statewide in Texas since 1994. WASHINGTON When the largest known deposit of uranium in the United States was discovered in the 1970s in Pittsylvania County, Va., state lawmakers were wary. After some investigation, they imposed an indefinite moratorium on uranium mining. On Monday, the Supreme Court considered whether that was lawful. A majority of the justices seemed inclined to say yes. The case, Virginia Uranium v. Warren, No. 16-1275, concerns a possible clash between a federal law, the Atomic Energy Act, and the state moratorium. The federal law regulates what can be done with uranium and the radioactive waste it generates after it is extracted from the earth. If the federal law applies, it would displace the moratorium and allow mining to proceed. But the federal law regulates only the second and third steps in uranium mining. The first step is extracting the raw ore from the ground. The second is separating the ore from waste rock, or tailings, and concentrating it into so-called yellowcake, which is sold. The third step is storing the tailings, which are radioactive. CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. President Trump on Monday closed out an us-against-them midterm election campaign that was built on dark themes of fear, nationalism and racial animosity in an effort to salvage Republican control of Congress for the remaining two years of his term. Mr. Trumps fiery, invective-filled campaigning produced what may be the most polarized midterm contest in modern times as he played to tribal rifts in American society in a way that no president has done since before the civil rights era. The divisions exposed and expanded over the past few weeks seem certain to last well beyond Election Day. On Tuesday, voters will choose a new House, decide one-third of the seats in the Senate and select new governors for battleground states that will be critical to the 2020 presidential campaign. On the line for the president will be his ability to legislate, build his promised border wall, appoint new judges and ultimately set the stage to run for a second term. Voting shouldnt be hard. But in some states, restrictive voting laws, typically passed by Republicans and disproportionately affecting minorities, can make it difficult. A recent report from the United States Commission on Civil Rights found that the federal government has taken less action to enforce voting rights for minorities in the five years since the Supreme Court struck down the core of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which had required nine states to seek federal approval before changing their election laws. In Georgia, the exact match law, which was passed by the states Republican-led Legislature in 2017, mandates that personal information on a voter registration form exactly match government databases. A missing hyphen could be grounds for a registration to be suspended, and the law has held up the processing of 53,000 new registrations mainly of African-Americans. In Ohio, thousands of voters were purged from the voting rolls in 2016 because they hadnt voted in recent years and didnt respond to a mailed postcard from election officials, a policy upheld by the Supreme Court. (In October, federal judges ordered the state to allow people who had been kicked off the rolls for not voting to participate in this years election.) [Read about how the numbers were calculated.] The S.E.C. has said that it should be judged by the overall impact of its cases, not by financial penalties alone, and that its enforcement efforts have been undercut by recent Supreme Court rulings and budget restrictions. In a statement, the S.E.C. disputed The Timess approach to assessing the agencys record, suggesting that the conclusions were based on deeply flawed methodology. The Justice Department has said that the number of defendants prosecuted for white-collar crime trended downward during the second half of the Obama administration. The department has also highlighted its focus on other priorities, like violent crime. Here are four key takeaways from The Timess reporting: After President Trump took office, some companies and banks under investigation looked to his administration for a more sympathetic ear and they got one In the final stretch of the Obama administration, a number of companies felt that the Justice Department and the S.E.C. were pursuing investigations and settlements that were unreasonable. Walmart was under pressure from federal officials to pay nearly $1 billion and accept a guilty plea to resolve a foreign bribery investigation. Barclays was facing demands that it pay nearly $7 billion to settle civil claims that it had sold toxic mortgage investments that helped fuel the 2008 financial crisis, and the Royal Bank of Scotland was ensnared in a criminal investigation over its role in the crisis. In the case of Walmart, it became increasingly difficult at the end of the Obama administration to get the companys lawyers to schedule meetings. Walmart had reason to hope that the Trump administration might be more sympathetic. After the Walmart bribery scandal first came to light in an investigation published in The Times in 2012, Mr. Trump, then a real estate mogul with international holdings, said on CNBC that it was unfair to expect a company like Walmart not to engage in bribery when doing business overseas. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, he said, was a horrible law, and it should be changed. Federal prosecutors and the S.E.C. have yet to charge Walmart. The Justice Department did reach a settlement with Barclays, but it was for a much lower amount ($2 billion) than the Obama administration had sought. The banks decision not to settle with the Obama Justice Department paid off. Ive often heard people decline the vaccine because they once got flulike symptoms after the injection, or they came down with the flu despite it. Facts: 1) The vaccine does not, and cannot, cause the flu. Either they were infected before they were immunized or before immunity took hold, or the fever and aches they experienced were side effects of the vaccination, not the flu itself. 2) As currently formulated, the vaccine is far from perfect. In some years, it has been as little as 20 percent effective in preventing the flu, although it may still lessen the severity of the illness and likelihood of complications. The biggest problem with flu vaccine is the need to determine months in advance of flu season which of the virus variants to include. The flu virus is a moving target, highly subject to mutations; even the way the vaccine is made often involving growing the virus variants in eggs can cause them to mutate. If the variants included in the vaccine differ from those that are ultimately responsible for seasonal outbreaks, protection is likely to be greatly reduced, which is what happened in the 2004-05 and 2014-15 flu seasons, when vaccine effectiveness was only 10 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Last seasons vaccine was about 36 percent effective. There is also a difference in the protection afforded by the same vaccine given to people in different age categories. For example, the vaccine used against flu in 2012-13 had an overall effectiveness of 49 percent, but was only 11 percent effective for people 65 and older. A higher-potency vaccine is now available for older men and women. There is now a concerted effort to create a new universal flu vaccine that would protect against all manner of variants and not require an annual shot. The goal, Dr. Osterholm said, is a vaccine that can handle many new changes in the virus and that needs to be given only once every five or 10 years. The basic research needed to develop such a vaccine could cost $1 billion a year for the next five to seven years, he estimated. However, Congress allocated a mere $100 million for the coming fiscal year. No one was killed during the kidnapping, officials said. Separatists in Cameroon have been pushing for English-speaking regions to secede for decades, arguing that they lack political clout in the government, which is centered in French-speaking areas. Their movement was largely peaceful until about a year ago when security forces opened fire on unarmed protesters. Violence in English-speaking regions of Cameroon has killed more than 400 civilians and sent tens of thousands of people fleeing across the border into Nigeria or into the forest. An American missionary was recently caught up in the violence and shot to death as he rode in his car. Cameroons security forces have been accused of a heavy-handed response to the rebels, who are disorganized and carry homemade weapons. The military has burned dozens of villages and fired large caliber weapons indiscriminately, killing bystanders, according to human rights groups and numerous citizens. Separatists have been accused of killing soldiers and carrying out violence against regular citizens who dont support their actions. Students have been caught in the middle during the upheaval. Many havent been in school for more than two years. The party celebrated the 30th anniversary with great fanfare in 2008, but official plans to commemorate the 40th anniversary this year have been scaled back considerably, according to a veteran journalist with a state news outlet. Once you dredge up these matters, its very easy to lose control and set off new debate, the journalist said, speaking on condition of anonymity. During Mr. Xis visit to southern China last month, he noted the coming anniversary, attended an exhibition devoted to it and vowed to continue the economic transition that Deng began, but did not mention Deng at least in the remarks chronicled by the state news media. Inevitably, many compared the trip to the famous southern tour in 1992 that Deng used to steer the nation back toward market-oriented policies and out of the diplomatic isolation and economic retrenchment that followed the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Xi Jinping has been pickpocketing policies from the Deng era, Geremie R. Barme, an Australian scholar of China, wrote this summer. He does so while diminishing the man hailed for decades as the Architect of Reform and the Opening Door Policies. At the same, he crucially overrides aspects of Dengs legacy that might limit his afflatus and sense of mission. Mr. Barme, in an interview, said Mr. Xi was eager to position himself as the greater unifier after Mao, relegating Deng and the leaders who followed him to an era of economic transition leading to a new era of strength that only he can achieve. Tellingly, Mr. Xis trip included a visit to Chinas southern military command, where he urged commanders to strengthen the mission and focus on preparations for fighting a war. SYDNEY, Australia Australian military veterans recoiled at a government-backed policy that would allow them to board some commercial airlines ahead of other passengers, calling the move a political stunt that smacked of tokenism. The government announced over the weekend that Virgin Australia would offer priority boarding to veterans and also make in-flight announcements to acknowledge their service, part of a broader push to give veterans, who use a new national ID card, discounts at supermarkets and department stores. Critics, including many veterans, said the policy was at odds with Australias egalitarian national ethos. The notion of a veteran singling himself or herself out for special treatment, some critics said, was distinctly un-Australian. Others described it as something even worse: an Americanism. Its a very American thing to do. Were not quite as loud or noisy as that, said Mike Carlton, the author of several books about Australias military history. Australians are a little more subtle. BRUSSELS Delphine Boel grew up certain that she should be a princess. Now a court ruling and a DNA test could make it true. Ms. Boel, 50, is a Belgian visual artist who claims that she was conceived during an extramarital affair between King Albert II of Belgium and Ms. Boels mother, Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps. The court ruling, published Monday, gave credence to her claim and ordered Albert to submit DNA evidence to determine whether he is Ms. Boels biological father. Like some countries in Europe, Belgium still has a king who is theoretically above the law, and cannot be arrested, prosecuted or convicted. Protocol stipulates that no one can even ask him a question in public. But the court ruling shows that even a king can be held accountable once he relinquishes the throne which Albert did in 2013. KIEV, Ukraine Three months ago, an attacker splashed a liter of sulfuric acid over Kateryna Handziuks head, burning 30 percent of her body. But Ms. Handziuk, an anticorruption activist, continued to speak out from her hospital bed about unsolved attacks on dozens of civic activists in Ukraine this year. On Sunday, after 11 surgeries and numerous skin grafts, she died from complications from her wounds. Her scarred face had already become a rebuke of the foot-dragging of the government of President Petro O. Poroshenko on anti-corruption measures a key demand of the protesters who ushered him to power in 2014. Yes, I know that I look bad, but at least I am being treated, Ms. Handziuk told Hromadske Television from her hospital bed in September, two months after the attack. And Im sure that I look better than fairness and justice in Ukraine, because they are not being treated by anybody today. WARSAW Despite making major gains in provincial assemblies, Polands populist ruling party suffered a sweeping defeat in municipal voting in a set of elections that concluded on Sunday, confirming that Poland is a nation ever more deeply divided between its liberal cities and its conservative countryside. In elections for local and regional offices around the country, the governing Law and Justice won just four of 107 mayoral races, down from the 11 it won four years ago. Yet the party secured the most seats in nine out of 16 provincial assemblies and won outright majorities in six of them a significant gain from the one provincial government it controlled after the elections in 2014. The recent elections, which were the first nationwide vote since Law and Justice swept to power in a parliamentary vote in 2015, had the highest turnout in local contests since the fall of communism in 1989. The turnout in the first round of balloting was 17 to 20 percentage points higher than that four years ago, and the turnout in the runoff round, which is usually lower, was in many places almost identical to that from the first round, said Lukasz Pawlowski, the head of the Institute of Local Government Studies. LONDON The 10-floor viewing terrace of the Tate Modern art gallery in London has a 360-degree view of the city, including some of its most famous landmarks. But since the museums 211-foot-tall wing known as the Blavatnik Building opened in 2016, another aspect of the view has become well known to visitors. Stroll around the enclosed walkway and, at one point, youll be staring into the private lives of residents of luxury apartments in a neighboring glass-and-steel building that was completed in 2012. The owners of four apartments in the building, part of a development called NEO Bankside, are less enamored of the view, and so they sued in 2017. On Friday, a court began hearing their case against the gallery, in which they claimed a relentless invasion of privacy. They are seeking an injunction that would require the gallery either to restrict access to parts of the terrace adjacent to their homes or to erect a screen. Arash is one of the many Iranians I spoke with on Telegram to see how theyre dealing with U.S. sanctions. He says hes having trouble buying the bare essentials his family needs. The U.S. was the only country to leave the multilateral nuclear deal, and quickly moved to put pressure on Iran. We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction. Economic pressure is nothing new for Iranians, but many say this is the most hopeless theyve ever felt. Many Iranians I spoke with seemed exhausted by this back-and-forth with the West and frustrated by the gridlock. One person was against the Iranian government altogether and saw Trumps exit from the nuclear deal as a blessing. And it could get worse: The U.S. imposed a second round of sanctions on Iran on Nov. 5. This round is focused on stopping the sales of Iranian oil and petrochemical products. It could be a big hit to Irans economy because oil generated $50 billion in revenue last year. Irans foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, isnt backing down despite sanctions and tough talk from the U.S. We have, in fact, survived in spite of the U.S. pressure for 40 years. If they try to put pressure on Iran, if they try to threaten Iran, Iranians respond very negatively to pressure and threats. And it will further strengthen the resolve of the Iranian people to resist. International companies started to cut ties with Iran after Trump left the nuclear agreement in May. In the face of U.S. sanctions, many companies got cold feet and got out of the Iranian market. But some countries, like India, China and Turkey, say they are committed to buying Iranian oil despite the threat of U.S. sanctions. And Zarif says the U.S. posturing impacts how Iranians want to interact with the West. Well, the Iranians have lost some hope in engagement. But the international community has failed. So, that has long-term consequences for Irans foreign policy behavior. For now, both countries are steadfast in their positions and people are continuing to be caught in the middle. In the wake of the killing, international companies have come under pressure to cut ties to Saudi Arabia, but on Monday, the chief executive of SoftBank of Japan said it would continue to do business with the kingdom. Speaking on Monday in Geneva, the president of Saudi Arabias human rights commission, Bandar al-Aiban, vowed a full investigation and punishment of those responsible, but shed no new light on the case. His remarks, before the United Nations Human Rights Council, came in a review of the kingdoms human rights record. Turkey has demanded, to no avail, that Saudi Arabia disclose what became of Mr. Khashoggis body, that it name the local collaborator who a Saudi official has said helped dispose of the remains, and that it turn over the 18 suspects to face the Turkish justice system. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Mr. Khashoggis two sons, Salah and Abdullah, called for their fathers body to be returned for a burial in Saudi Arabia. Salah Khashoggi said that he had faith in the Saudi investigation of the killing and that everybody involved will be brought to justice. The Saudi cleanup team arrived in Istanbul on Oct. 11, nine days after Mr. Khashoggis death, and visited the consulate every day from Oct. 12 to Oct. 17, according to Sabah. Turkish investigators were not allowed into the consulate, which is considered Saudi sovereign territory, until Oct. 15. Sabah published photographs of Mr. Junabi and Mr. Zahrani emerging from the entrance of the consulate and also published photographs that the newspapers investigative editor, Abdurrahman Simsek, said were head shots from cameras at airport passport control. The men arrived on the same day as a Saudi delegation that met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Oct. 11, as Turkish officials demanded to know what had happened to Mr. Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government who lived in the United States and wrote opinion articles for The Washington Post. He had entered the consulate on Oct. 2 for a prearranged meeting to collect papers that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancee, and was never seen again. When the group identified as a cleanup team was in Turkey, Saudi officials were still insisting that Mr. Khashoggi, 59, had left the consulate safely, and that they did not know where he was. They later acknowledged that he had been killed in the consulate, at first describing his death as the accidental result of a fight, and later calling it premeditated. Ronn Torossian After briefly returning to the headlines in light of horrific revelations coming out of Pennsylvania, the Catholic Churchs child sexual abuse scandal has once again dropped out of the top stories. At least one French priest is trying to change that. Speaking to the Associated Press, Rev. Pierre Vignon said hes been targeted and punished by church leadership in France for collecting more than 100,000 signatures on a petition calling for the forced resignation of a cardinal who oversaw some of the abuse cases. According to Vignon, he received an email informing him that hed no longer be allowed to serve as a judge for the church court, a position hes held for more than 15 years. Vignon said this decision underscores the division in the church regarding how to deal with the ongoing scandal, as well as how it should be handled in public. They say, We want to do everything, Vignon said, but to whistleblowers, We want to shut you up. This seemingly contradictory messaging has played as a constant undercurrent during a series of scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church across the globe. In many cases, local church leaders have said more could be done and would be done, but those who came forward claimed they were or would be punished for speaking out. Similar allegations even reached all the way to the current pope, forcing Pope Francis to make public statements, not about the scandal in general, but specifically in his own defense. Meanwhile, Vignon said he has no regrets regarding his petition to demand the resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was in charge when allegations surfaced of a pedophile priest under Barbarins authority, allegedly abusing Boy Scouts in the 1980s. Pope Francis has publicly praised Barbarin, calling him brave even as Vignon continues his efforts to see the cardinal removed from power. He said the popes support of Barbarin changes nothing and that he will continue to fight, despite what he sees as punishment for speaking out. From a public relations perspective, this clash reflects the current public divide surrounding how the Church is handling this ongoing scandal. While, internally, the Church messaging seems to be consistent, there also appears to be a growing number of dissenting clergy who are willing to speak out and demand more action be taken. The public appears to be split along these lines as well. While some believe the Church is doing whats necessary, many others believe both the actions taken and the messaging offered by local and global church leaders arent nearly enough. *** Ronn Torossian is CEO of NYC based PR firm 5WPR. Josh Holly The Embassy of Iraq is ironing out a written agreement with Holly Strategies Inc. for strategic counsel and outreach to US officials in Congress and the Trump Administration. The pact is expected to be worth about $7K per-month and cover a broad range of geopolitical matters that impact the US-Iraq bilateral relationship. Josh Holly launched his firm in December 2017 following the implosion of The Podesta Group, where he did a six-year stint. Prior to joining Tony Podestas firm, Holly served as a communications director in Congress and deputy press secretary for Tennessees former Republican Senator Lamar Alexander. RENUA leader and Offaly County Councillor, John Leahy, has said the attack on a local Church of Ireland Church in Tullamore is "an assault on all our civic values." St. Catherine's Church in Tullamore sustained around 70,000 of damage last week, prompting gardai into an investigation. "The breaking of 104 windows is indicative of the coarsening of our society by a liberal elite who teach us its fine to attack Churches and a failed legal system which imposes no sanctions on criminals," Leahy claimed. "This attack sends a terrible message to our fellow Irish Protestants across the border who believe they will become a threatened minority in a united Ireland," he added. "It is, of course, the creature of a scenario where even the common vandal is becoming brave because there are no consequences to committing a crime anymore." "The Gardai need more resources to catch criminals, judges wont jail the ones we do get and there are no prisons to accommodate them." "The desecration of this church is the culmination of the tolerance for lawlessness which has been characteristic of this government." "Their message to criminals is that court is a place for counselling tea and sympathy for the guilty and a slap in the face for victims," Leahy continued. "The current policy of the Justice system is one of as many strikes as you like, closing Garda stations, a police force in retreat from rural Ireland in order to police urban areas, bail not jail and open unpoliced roads that allow criminals to attack rural Ireland and then retreat with impunity," he claimed. "If we are to stop attacks such as the desecration of our Churches we must become tougher on crime, equip the Gardai with real powers and review our sentencing legislation." The right to personal safety is a greater right and we should be having a referendum on this, not blasphemy. Towns should not have to turn into armed camps with CCTV on every building representing the only deterrent." "The real deterrents should instead consist of capture and punishment." "If we fail to create such an ordered society these acts of blasphemy will become the norm rather than the exception," Leahy concluded. Irish Water today announced it has signed a contract for major upgrades to the Tullamore and Birr Water Supply Schemes. The 21.5 million investment will result in significant improvements to water quality and security of supply for 18,000 people and businesses in Offaly. The contract for the works has been awarded to Murphy Process Engineering Ltd. for the design, construction and commissioning of three water treatment plants and additional treated water storage reservoirs. The work is due to start in the coming weeks and is expected to be completed by 2020. The construction works will be spread across three locations at Ardan, Clonaslee and Birr. The works will be primarily located on lands recently acquired by Irish Water from local landowners with little construction impact on public roads. Speaking at the contract signing, William McKnight, Infrastructure Programme Regional Lead at Irish Water said, "We are delighted to sign this contract for the works and get them underway as quickly as possible." "Due to this investment by Irish Water, by 2020, both Tullamore and Birr will have drinking water that is significantly improved. A dependable and secure drinking water supply will ensure that both towns have the required water infrastructure to support ongoing economic growth and social development," he added. "The Irish Water project team will work closely with business and residents in Birr and Tullamore for the duration of the works to ensure minimum disruption to local water supplies," Irish Water concluded. One of the countrys leading recruitment specialists, FRS Recruitment, is offering a free flight back home from Australia to any expat who they help secure a job in Offaly or another part of the country. The special incentive has been introduced to help encourage people who moved Down Under during the recession to re-evaluate the job opportunities available in Ireland, particularly those operating in the construction, IT and healthcare sectors. This announcement comes ahead of a specially organised Ireland is Hiring recruitment roadshow organised by FRS Recruitment, which is taking place in Australia this week, where the Offaly jobs and other Irish opportunities will be outlined. The roadshow will visit Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and will run from Thursday 8th November to Tuesday 13th November. Attendees at the roadshow will be provided with a range of information about moving back to Ireland, insights on the current Irish jobs market back including salary details, as well as practical advice on how to handle the logistics and paperwork involved. The flights deal will be offered to anyone who successfully secures a job through FRS Recruitment. While the offer extends to all sectors, FRS will be targeting personnel who wish to work in the construction, IT, healthcare, medical device/ pharmaceutical and financial sectors during the roadshow, in light of particular demand for qualified staff across these industries. Speaking about why they have decided to take this step, Colin Donnery, General Manager of FRS Recruitment said, As the country is moving closer to full employment it is becoming more difficult to find suitably qualified personnel. Companies in Offaly and all across Ireland are increasingly looking further afield to find people to fill important roles. For these companies it is not just about filling the vacancy, it is about finding the right candidate that meets their needs." During the recession, a lot of qualified, educated people left these shores to seek out opportunities that simply were no longer available in Ireland. Australia was a particularly popular location, given the thriving jobs marketplace Down Under at that time. Many of these expats have since gone on to develop strong careers in Australia, growing their experience and maintaining impressive CVs." Having had extensive dealings with the Irish community in Australia we are aware of a significant number of expats who harbour hopes of returning home. The point of the Ireland is Hiring roadshow is to help these people understand just how significant the opportunities are back in Ireland at the moment." We hope that by providing people with job details, giving them the key salary and logistical information, while also providing them with the incentive of free flights, it will encourage more people to seriously consider applying for roles back in Ireland. We have a significant number of roles available in every part of Ireland, including a wide range in Offaly." There is a particularly strong demand for personnel in the construction, IT, healthcare, medical device/ pharmaceutical and financial sectors at the moment. There are plenty of Irish people working in these sectors in Australia who would be of great interest to employers back in this country. We know just how badly their skillsets are needed in this market and how these great positions could provide a fantastic opportunity for returning home, Mr. Donnery concluded. Fine Gael Councillor in the Edenderry Municipal District, Noel Cribbin has said he is heartened and encouraged by the people of Edenderrys response to his decision to join Fine Gael. At a meeting of Fine Gaels Executive Council last Tuesday evening, Cllr Cribbins application to join the party was unanimously approved. Cllr Cribbin has said, I have since met with the local Fine Gael Edenderry District members and I am delighted with the warm welcome that I have received from them." I was always planning to contest next Mays Local Elections and seek a mandate from the people of Edenderry again to represent them on Offaly County Council. However, when I was contacted by the party and after consideration with my family and supporters, it was a no-brainer for me and Edenderry," Noel added. Whilst it was no doubt a coincidence that the much-needed road restoration works were carried out this week on both Francis Street and on Assumption Road, it was very encouraging. Francis Street saw 500 metres of surface dressing and Assumption Road saw 250 metres completed." "As the residents are aware I gave them a commitment that I would deliver on this and I have been to the forefront in securing funding for both of these projects particularly on Francis Street where the surface was left in a desperate condition following substantial water mains works," Noel added. "After prolonged negotiations with Irish Water, I refused to accept the condition that the street was left in and I managed to secure a substantial sum of money from the company to enable the restoration works. As Chairman of Edenderry Tidy Towns, I was determined to ensure that the main thoroughfare into Edenderry would not be left in such an unsightly state." My main reason for joining Fine Gael was the manner in which the party has delivered for Edenderry and North Offaly since the party entered Government in 2011. The investment that this Government has directed to the town is clear for all to see, we just need to look at the new state of the art schools, new ambulance base and the substantial investment at Ofalia House. In 2011, the provision of respite care was suspended in this wonderful facility," Noel explained. I am determined to work with my Fine Gael colleague on the Edenderry Municipal District, Cllr Liam Quinn and our local Government TD, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy to secure long-awaited projects in the town are prioritised." "I have worked closely with Offaly County Council in relation to the derelict Tesco site on JKL street and a very comprehensive application for an ambitious 13-hectare project known as the Edenderry JKL backlands plan has been submitted to the Department of Rural and Community Developments Rural Regeneration Development Fund." This funding application will allow for a proper plan to be developed to regenerate the centre of Edenderry where currently the old Tesco site lies derelict on our towns main street which continues to take away from the significant investment and public realm works carried out in the last year on the square in Edenderry. The plan envisages the development of new commercial and civic spaces to include new library, theatre etc." After only joining Fine Gael on Tuesday evening I had our TD for Offaly in Edenderry, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy in town on Thursday where we had a tour of the town and we had a 3-hour meeting and walkabout. I appraised Marcella of my priorities in the months and years ahead and I am delighted with the support that I continue to receive from Marcella," Noel commented. Already I can see how my membership of Fine Gael will greatly assist me with my work on behalf of the people of Edenderry and North Offaly. It was a busy week and I look forward to continuing my work with the support of the Fine Gael membership and our local Government TD, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 5) Malacanang said there is no reign of terror in the country, except for those who refuse to abide by the law. The Palace's statement was in rebuttal to Australian nun Patricia Fox's criticism of the government and its "reign of tyranny." "Perhaps what she refers to is reign of fear on part of those who violate the law. They know for a fact that there is a reign of strict enforcement of the law against violators of the law," Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Monday. The 72-year old Fox left the country on Saturday after losing a long legal battle against the cancellation of her missionary visa and for the extension of her stay in the Philippines. She had been serving the urban poor, farmers and other marginalized groups in the country for almost three decades. Her visa was eventually demoted to a visitor's visa which expired on November 4. She petitioned for an extension however this was denied by the Bureau of Immigration, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevara said on October 31. Panelo said Fox was one of the violators of the country's laws, warranting her eviction. "Well, she was a violator. That's precisely why she departed from this country. But that is not to say that we are not thankful of her services," He said. Panelo reiterated that foreign citizens are limited to specific rights that do not include joining political protests. "They cannot be joining rallies and join the mass action and speak against the government. They cannot do that. They have to first become citizens of the land to enjoy such rights," He said. Fox was accused of participating in partisan politics which is in violation of the terms of her missionary visa. She was detained and released in April this year but maintained that she did not join any anti-government activities. The BI downgraded Fox's visa to a temporary visitor's visa on October 26. Her counsel said Fox intends to return to the country once President Rodrigo Duterte is no longer in power. READ: Sister Patricia Fox to Duterte: Listen to voices of ordinary people SYRACUSE, N.Y. A Utica Chiropractor plead guilty to faking medical examinations and reports that facilitated fraudulent workers compensation claims by Central New York Psychiatric Center employees. Eric Szatko, 47, of Sauqoit, who formerly had a chiropractic practice in Utica, plead guilty in the City of Utica Court on Nov. 5 to second-degree falsifying business records in full satisfaction of all charges pending against him. As part of Szatkos plea agreement, he surrendered his license to practice as a chiropractor and must pay nearly $5,000 in restitution for fees he charged an insurance company for bogus appointments as well as for the time the psychiatric center employees were able to take off because of Szatkos fraudulent reports. This former chiropractors medical mill was a shameful malpractice on New York taxpayers who ultimately subsidized illicit paid vacations for public employees feigning work-related injuries, said Inspector General Leahy Scott. The integrity of the Workers Compensation system is crucial to protecting honest, hard-working New Yorkers, and I will continue working with all of my law enforcement partners to pursue and root out anyone who corruptly abuses it. The guilty plea covers Szatkos criminal actions that occurred in early 2016 involving three separate employees of the psychiatric center, including one who was convicted last March of feigning a debilitating injury to obtain paid time off as if he was too injured to work while he was in fact kayaking in Puerto Rico and vacationing with his girlfriend in California. The case against Szatko was part of the inspector generals long-standing and ongoing investigation into workers compensation fraud in central New York. An investigation by Scott found that Szatko, acting as an authorized medical provider for the workers compensation system, submitted to the State Insurance Fund fraudulent medical progress reports indicating he examined and treated psychiatric center employees on several separate occasions in early 2016, when in fact no such examinations or treatments occurred. With those reports, Szatko was also billing for medical services that were not provided. In one instance, Szatko submitted to CNYPC a medical excuse for Ryan Haley, a former employee who worked at the facility at that time, to be out of work with pay for two days in February and between March 31 and April 15, 2016 when no examination was performed. Haley was not injured at the time and used the paid time off for a kayaking excursion in Puerto Rico and a trip to California with his girlfriend. Haley was separately prosecuted for Workers Compensation fraud and pleaded guilty, paid restitution and resigned from State service last March. Szatko also provided a medical excuse for another CNYPC employee to be out of work with pay for two weeks in February 2016 when the employee had not been examined by Szatko and was not injured at the time. An additional employee received nearly three weeks of paid time off that same February under similar allegations. The Inspector Generals investigation is continuing. Canastota, N.Y. For his lifetime of service to the United States and to God, William Yorton of Canastota was named the 2018 Madison County Veteran of the Year. I feel very humbled and honored, Yorton said as he accepted the award from the Madison County War Veterans Memorial Committee Saturday evening. As I look at everyone here, I see a lot of familiar faces. I also see people no longer with us. They were World War II vets, most of them. They spurred me on to accomplish the kind of things I accomplished. Ill always remember them and see their faces as we look forward. A veteran of the Korean War, Yorton joined the military in 1953 and went to Sampson Air Force Base for basic training. He earned the rank of ammunition specialist at Lowrie Air Force Base and was part of the Far Eastern Air Logistical Force at 546th Ammunition Supply Depot in Okinawa, Japan. While at Bunkerhill Air Force Base, he served with the Air Defense Command and the 319th Flying Intercept Squadron and performed inspections on the planes, such as the ejector seat. At Otis Air Force Base, Yorton earned the rank of staff sergeant at the munitions depot. Yorton finished his service in 1960 and by then, he was stationed at Griffiss Air Force Base as a maintenance chief for the special weapons area. But before serving his country, Yorton served his community in the Boy Scouts, earning the rank of Eagle Scout in 1951. Yorton even earned the right to serve as honor guard for New York Gov. Thomas Dewey. The thing you see in the American Legion magazines, it says For God and country, Yorton said. As a Boy Scout, it was part of our oath. On my honor, I will do my duty for God and country. I happened to receive an award from the Boy Scouts. Yorton displayed for the crowd a medal awarded to him that he said stood for God and country, given to him by the Boy Scouts for Bible study. Yorton said he was the first person in Canastota to receive the award. Rev. Hess, a Methodist minister, and I would sit down at the old castle where the Greystone is now and go over the Bible to earn this medal, Yorton said. Its something to look up to. After Yortons service in the military, he became an active member of the church community and serves with the the Canastota Area Association of Churches. Besides singing in his local choir, Yorton donates time and equipment to the Whitelaw Old Home Day. Yorton has escorted World War II veterans in the Old Home Day parade, served as grand marshal in 2016, and has arranged for military equipment to participate and provided meals to the drivers. Yorton is the first Madison County resident to earn the Veteran of the Year Award since it was discontinued in the early 2000s. WAVEM committee members have been working since March of this year to revive the tradition, originally hosted by the former Oneida Moose Lodge. One of its last winners was Benson Barrett, who now chairs the Veteran of the Year committee. This years nominees included Yorton, Donald Conley of Bridgeport, Norman McGowan of Chittenango, Reginald Emmons of Canastota, Joseph Palmisano of Canastota, and Donald Smith of Canastota. Criteria for the award included combat experience, service to the community and participation in local programs. To keep the vote fair, Barrett told the more than 100 people attending the award dinner that the committee held a blind vote, just as the former Oneida Moose Club did. The panel of five judges would have to vote on a scale of one to ten based on a biography of the candidate. We thought we would have a great time doing this, but Ill tell you what, the toughest part was trying to make a decision, Barrett said. It was so close, we were sweating bullets. We thought we were going to have more than one person. The point total between the winner and the runner up was one point. Thats how highly respected these gentlemen are. They are all wonderful guys with not only a terrific military record but in their community, theyre there for you. Emmons, 97 and a World War II veteran, was glad he came to the event and said he had a wonderful time. To Emmons, its important to honor those who came before and those who are coming home. There a lot of veterans who sacrificed their life, Emmons said. And others who went through an awful lot. Yorton was presented a proclamation recognizing him as Madison County Veteran of the Year from the office of Sen. David Valesky, D-53, and Assemblyman William Magee, D-121. McGowan was awarded a plaque with his name for runner up for Veteran of the Year. An honorable mention certificate was awarded to Smith, Palmisano, Emmons and Conley. Im so pleased everyone took time out of their day or evening to attend, Barrett said. Were really looking forward to making this a yearly event. WAVEM has a real good thing started, Yorton said. People ask who are these people and what are they doing. Theyre honoring all the veterans of Madison County. Its a big thing thats been done. This is the second best police station in the country 5 naxals killed in encounter in Malkangiri district India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Bhubaneswar, Nov 5: At least five Naxals were killed during an encounter with security forces in Malkangiri's Kalimeda on Monday. According to reports, the encounter took place during a combing operation which was being undertaken in the Bejingwada Forest under Kalimela police limits early this morning. A group of Red rebels of Kalimela Dalam Division of Maoists led by Ranadev opened fire at the 2 Special Operation Group (SOG) teams of Odisha Police which was taking part in the combing. Odisha lost 179 elephants to electrocution since 2000 Police also seized a number of SLR and 303 rifles from the spot along with a huge cache of Maoist items and seized those. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 10:36 [IST] Are Congress infighting boon for the BJP in 3 states where it wants to return to power India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 5: It is not just any particular state but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is banking more on infighting in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan than anything. The BJP is more hopeful with the Congress infighting even in the state where every survey disappointed the party - Rajasthan. Recently there was a face off between the two senior Congress leader in Madhya Pradesh when Lok Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia and former chief minister Digvijay Singh that was a major set back for the party in the state which is hoping to form the government after 15 long years. Also Read | Modi, Shah and Yogi Adityanath in maximum demand in Rajasthan elections However, the Congress is claiming that the matter has now been resolved and just before the election a better coordination will be visible in the state. In Chhattisgarh, former Congress leader Ajit Jogi has been humiliating the Congress quite often and in such a situation Rajasthan is the only place where there is palpable anger against chief minister Vasundhara Raje and the party is confident of returning to power. But infighting in the Congress is troubling the party in the state too. Sources said that Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot will contest Assembly election and it is learned that he is the first preference of the Congress for the post of chief minister in the state while state Congress president Sachin Pilot is also aspiring to become chief minister. This is a big challenge for the party. Gehlot is seeking ticket for his supporters in large number and likely to get also. On the other hand there is control of supporters of Sachin in the organisation in Rajasthan. Sources said that before the Congress fights it out with the BJP in Rajasthan Assembly elections, it has to pass through internal war which is even bigger. The strategy of the BJP to change maximum number of candidates might bring some dividend to the party. And due to lack of clarity and indecisiveness in the Congress, the BJP has been able to make its position slightly better than what it was around a month or a fortnight ago but the Congress is still ahead in every survey. Also Read | In Rajasthan Assembly polls: Ashok Gehlot as CM is the bet for the Congress! There is a lot on stake in these elections which are happening barely six months earlier from the general elections of the country. So the BJP is trying every bit to return to power in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan so the opposition could be demoralized as well for the hustings in 2019. The RSS is also well behind the BJP to clinch these victories. Actually there has always been differences between the RSS and Vasundhara Raje but this time round things on that count are much better giving some more hope to the BJP. Four years since demonetisation, what PM Modi said on the move Five years of demonetisation: Notes in circulation on rise; so are digital payments Congress to observe Black Day on second anniversary of demonetisation on Nov 8 India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Nov 5: The Congress party will observe 'black day' across the nation on November 8 to mark the second anniversary of demonetisation, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016, said an ANI report while quoting sources. On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Modi had announced that the then existing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 would cease to be legal tenders. The government in one swift move withdrew over Rs 15 lakh crores of cash from the system causing acute cash crunch. The government issued new notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 to replace the withdrawn currency. The government said that the move was aimed at curbing black money menace, corruption and funding of terror activities. [Highest quality fake Indian currency seized since demonetisation and Pak has perfected it] The announcement of demonetisation was followed by prolonged cash shortages in the weeks that followed, which created significant disruption throughout the economy. The Congress has been criticising the Modi government's demonetisation move. The Congress criticised the move as being poorly planned and slammed the government for causing great inconvenience to people... For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 21:34 [IST] Dhanteras 2018: Best messages, wishes, quotes to share with your loved ones India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Nov 5: Dhanteras 2018 or Dhantrayodashi marks the beginning of Diwali. 'Dhan' means wealth and 'teras' means the thirteenth day of the moon cycle. Hindus devotees pay their respects and worship Lord Kubera, also known as the God of wealth, and Goddess Lakshmi, on the auspicious day of Trayodashi. This year, Dhanteras falls on November 5. Dhanteras has come to be known as the most auspicious occasion for buying gold, silver and other metals especially kitchenware. The day also sees heavy purchases of appliances and automobiles. On the evening of Dhanteras, the diya is offered to Yama, host of death , to avert death or any negative incident. Interestingly, in villages, farmers worship their cattles as they are the main source of their income. This Dhanteras 2018 greet your family with these messages: May goddess Laxmi bless your business to do well in spite of all odds like, the enduring charms of gold and diamonds... Happy and Prosperous Dhanteras May this Dhanteras Celebrations endow you with opulence and prosperity... Happiness comes at your steps Wishing a bright future in your life Shubh Dhanteras. Iss Dhanteras kush kash ho, Dilo mein khusiyan, Ghar mein sukh ka vaas ho, Har moti pe aapka taj ho Mite duriya, sab aapke pas ho Yeh Dhanteras aapka khas ho! Dear Goddess Lakshmi Bless the recipient of this message with thirteen times Dhan on this Dhan Teras Happy DhanTeras! On this auspicious festival, may your life: Shimmer with Silver; Shine with Gold; And dazzle like Platinum! Happy Dhanteras! Happy Dhanteras 2018 ! For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 9:27 [IST] Gaddam Dharmendra appointed as India's Ambassador to Iran India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Nov 5: The Ministry of External Affairs on Monday (November 5) announced that senior diplomat Gaddam Dharmendra has been appointed as India's next Ambassador to Iran. Gaddam Dharmendra will be replacing Saurabh Kumar, who was appointed India's ambassador to Myanmar in October. Dharmendra is a 1990-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer and at present, additional secretary in the MEA in New Delhi. Dharmendra is expected to take up the assignment shortly, an MEA statement said. His appointment comes at a time when the global focus is on oil imports from Iran as the US on Monday imposed "the toughest ever" sanctions aimed at altering the Iranian regime's "behaviour". India and China -- the two biggest buyers of Iranian crude, have so far appear to have skipped the punitive American sanctions targeting the Iranian oil and financial sectors. [India, 7 other countries exempted from US sanctions on Iran] India and China are believed to be among the eight countries that have been given the rare exemptions from the Iranian sanctions that kicked off today. Iranian oil exports have fallen by about a million barrels a day in that time, though India and China have continued to purchase it. Most Europeans, as well as Japan and South Korea, have stopped. OneIndia News with PTI inputs For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 19:17 [IST] It is on: In a bid to gain traction, the Khalistan terrorists have not only used Punjab, but held events in other parts of the world as well. One of the most spoken about events was the one held in London in August this year. The event was held at the Trafalgar Square on August 12 and was organised by the SJF or the Sikhs for Justice. Officials in India tell OneIndia that the the SJF has been acting as a front for terror activities. The SJF is a New York based organisation which is organising the event and several reports in India prepared by the various agencies clearly suggest that it is a pro-Khalistan front. It has been instrumental in undertaking both pro-khalistan and anti-India activities, both in the US and other countries. IB officials say that while the ISI backs this movement heavily, most of the funding has come from countries such as UK, Canada and even Italy. Recently the Punjab police busted a Khalistan module in Punjab in which attempts were being made to revive the movement through a slogan known as Referendum 2020. The referendum was being promoted by some Punjab youth at the behest of the ISI on the social media. Reviving Punjab terror, how UK, Italy, Pakistan is playing a role in Referendum 2020 The beginning of something big: Counter Intelligence officials tell OneIndia that this was the beginning of something big and was part of the overall plan to revive terrorism in Punjab. With regard to Referendum 2020, the police learnt that the four youth who were arrested were planning on going big during the IPL matches to be held in Mohali. The plan was to get together all like-minded persons and make a declaration during the IPL matches. They were planning a mass movement and were inviting people for the same on Facebook, investigations also revealed. During the protest and declaration, the youth had also planned on setting buses and shops of fire. With this they proposed to begin a mass movement and they had fixed the 2020 deadline to declare Punjab as a Khalistan nation. They were getting support from Europe and Pakistan as well. The Facebook page Referendum 2020 was set up by an ISI agent who went by the alias Fateh Singh, the police also learnt. It was he who roped in the four youth to popularise the page. Further it was also learnt that the four youth were in talks with like minded people and were attempting to spread the word around in various parts of the state. What is Referendum 2020,' the ISI plot, AAP was accused of backing Communal disturbances: In a bid to revive terrorism, these groups had also undertaken the killing of several Hindu leaders. Recently when the National Investigation Agency took over the probe into the killing of an RSS worker in Punjab, it made a startling revelation. The central agency said that this was a plot that was hatched in Pakistan. Funds came from Canada, UK and Italy, the NIA had also said. In Punjab, the ISI-Khalistan forces which work together have specifically targeted religiously important persons. On their radar was a Christian Priest Father Sultan Masih who was killed in Ludhiana on July 15 2017. In Punjab there have been such murders galore and the year 2017 has seen five such incidents. In 2016, there were two such incidents. The NIA probe into these incidents suggest that the mastermind is a person called Gursharanbir Singh who is a British national. He is the one who roped in Ramandeep and Hardeep Singh and directed them to kill Hindu leaders. The handlers who directed the killing of RSS and other Hindu leaders have been traced to Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom. The Punjab police which is probing the case learnt that there is a systematic approach that has been followed to eliminate Hindu leaders by ISI agents. The motive behind the killings is to destabilise the state, the police say. The ISI wants to cause communal tension in Punjab. Once the state becomes volatile then it could be used as a platform to launch the Khalistan forces, the police also said. The police got information about the modus operandi following three very high profile arrests. Destabilising India: Recently the NIA took over the probe into the killing of two persons-Satpal Sharma and his son Ramesh Kumar at Ludhiana. An NIA officer explained to OneIndia that the during the investigation it was found that killings of Satpal Sharma, his son Ramesh Sharma and Durga Gupta were part of trans-national conspiracy hatched by senior leadership of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF). Eight incidents of such killings were executed as part of this conspiracy between January, 2016 and October, 2017 in Punjab. The objective of the conspiracy was to destabilise the law and order situation in Punjab and to revive the fledgling terrorism in the state. It was found that the conspiracy had its foot-prints in several countries including, Pakistan, UK, Australia, France, Italy and UAE. As part of the conspiracy, large amounts of funds were supplied through Italy, Australia and the UK to the perpetrators of the Killings/ Attempted Killings, viz. Hardeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh. These funds were used by them to purchase weapons for executing the killings and other logistics. The conspiracy included recruitment and training of Hardeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh in Italy, Dubai and UAE. Accused Hardeep Singh is the permanent resident of Italy while accused Ramandeep Singh belongs to Ludhiana. Both these persons were trained by one Gursharanbir Singh, a UK national. Another UK national, Jagtar Singh Johal, who has been arrested in the case was involved in the funding of the conspiracy. Day to day co-ordination of the conspiracy was done by Pakistan based Harmeet Singh @ PhD. Gold price: High rates take sheen out of Dhanteras sales India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Nov 5: Gold and jewellery sales in the morning trade remained subdued this Dhanteras Monday owing to sluggish demand from consumers amid high prices, according to industry players. However, organised players like P C Jewellers are expecting better sales later during the day as quality and better designs at competitive prices are likely to attract more footfalls. Unorganised jewellery players in India -- the world's second biggest buyer of the precious metal -- make up for roughly 70 per cent of the country's gold sales. Also Read | Dhanteras 2018: Best messages, wishes, quotes to share with your loved ones Dhanteras is considered to be an auspicious day for buying gold, silver and other valuables and is largely celebrated in northern and western parts of India. "Footfalls are good but sales are moderate so far. Till few days back, we were thinking gold demand on the day of Dhanteras would be down 10-15 per cent, but looking at the pre-booking and footfalls, there should be least 5-7 per cent jump in sales today," All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) Chairman Nitin Khandelwal told PTI. Both gold and silver are being purchased. Most buyers are restricting their purchase to tokens as gold prices are ruling high over Rs 32,000 per ten grams, he said. Gold prices are ruling at Rs 32,690 per 10 grams today in the national capital as against Rs 30,710 per 10 grams on the Dhanteras day in 2017. According to Delhi Bullion Association's Surender Jain, gold demand is sluggish because of higher prices. Consumers are buying gold and silver coins. Stating that the market is subdued, gold refiner MMTC-PAMP India Managing Director Rajesh Khosla said: "There is a general reluctance to enter the market. Much of our demand for coins is from corporate this time." Ideally, gold rates should have been around Rs 30,000 per ten grams, but the prices are ruling over Rs 32,000 per ten gram because of rupee depreciation. "The market is not able to adjust the increase of Rs 2,000 per ten gram," he added. P C Jewellers chief operating officer R K Sharma said the company expects better sales this Dhanteras when compared to the last year on the same day. Also Read | Gold price may increase by Diwali At its stores, maximum gold jewellery is being bought, while 25 per cent is diamond jewellery. Some are buying wedding jewellery on this auspicious day, he added. More footfalls are expected later during the day as many consumers will enter the market after the office hours. The buying today will continue till late night, he added. Meanwhile, state-run Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has urged consumers to buy only hallmarked gold from its licensed outlets to ensure guarantee of purity or fineness which is consumers' right. There are more than 4 lakh jewellers in the country. Around 22,000 jewellers have taken hallmarking licences so far. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 14:29 [IST] Google Doodle celebrates New Years eve with twinkling lights and confetti poppers Mothers Day 2021: Google Doodle wishes mothers all around the world with adorable pop-up card Happy Independence Day, India!: Google captures spectrum of diversity, its dance forms with unique doodle Google doodle honours computer scientist Michael Dertouzos India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Nov 5: Google Doodle, the search giant on Monday honoured Greek computer scientist Michael Leonidas Dertouzos on his birth anniversary The doodle shows Dertouzos with a chalk in his hand, facing away from a black board. This picture is flanked by few other small pictures of computers and internet. Born in Athens, Greece on this day in 1936, Dertouzos was the son of a concert pianist and an admiral in the Greek navy. Also Read | Halloween 2018: First-ever multiplayer interactive game Doodle Upon graduation from Athens College, he attended the University of Arkansas on a Fulbright Scholarship and earned a Ph D from MIT, joining the faculty in 1968. He was the Director of MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) from 1974 to 2001. During his tenure, MIT LCS did some groundbreaking work in ArpaNet, and RSA encryption, an algorithm used to ensure secure data transmission. He later co-founded Computek Inc. in 1968 which created graphics and intelligent terminals with Marvin C. Lewis and Dr. Huber Graham Dertouzos died on August 27, 2001. He was 64. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 8:44 [IST] Rahul Gandhi's old tweet goes viral: 'Mark my words, govt will take back anti-farm laws' 'Greatness of nation judged by the way animals are treated': Rahul on tigress Avni India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Nov 5: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday joined the growing chorus of people who have protested the killing of man-eating tigress Avni. Taking to Twitter, the Congress chief said that greatness of the nation is judged by the way its animals are treated. Tigress Avni, who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of 13 people in the past two years, was killed in Maharashtra's Yavatmal on Friday as part of an operation. Avni is survived by her two cubs who are 10 months old. Tigress Avni, believed to be responsible for deaths of 13 people, shot dead in Maharashtra She was shot dead by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali, son of famous sharp-shooter Nawab Shafat Ali, at compartment no 149 of Borati forest under the jurisdiction of the Ralegaon police station. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Sunday lashed out at the BJP-led Maharashtra government over the "ghastly murder" of man-eating tigress Avni, calling it a "straight case of crime". Maneka Gandhi slams Maha for 'Brutal Murder' of Tigress Avni; Govt says it was last resort Reacting to the killing of Avni, Gandhi in a series of tweets lashed out at the Maharashtra government for giving the orders to kill her despite opposition from several stakeholders. "I am deeply saddened by the way tigress Avni has been brutally murdered in Yavatmal," she said in a tweet. "It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing," she said in another tweet. She said she is going to take up the matter "very strongly" with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 12:28 [IST] No protection, no hearing until we know where you are, SC tells Param Bir Singh In public interest: Norms for political parties while giving tickets to candidates India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Nov 5: A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, had on September 25 2018, given five main directions to the candidates and the political parties distributing tickets to these candidates for contesting elections. They are: Each contesting candidate shall fill up the form as provided by the Election Commission and the form must contain all the particulars as required therein. It shall state, in bold letters, with regard to the criminal cases pending against the candidate. If a candidate is contesting an election on the ticket of a particular party, he/she is required to inform the party about the criminal cases pending against him/her. The concerned political party shall be obligated to put up on its website the aforesaid information pertaining to candidates having criminal antecedents. The candidate as well as the concerned political party shall issue a declaration in the widely circulated newspapers in the locality about the antecedents of the candidate and also give wide publicity in the electronic media. When we say wide publicity, we mean that the same shall be done at least thrice after filing of the nomination papers. CBI not a divine organisation, says Justice Chelameswar This circular, apart from highlighting the changes made to the format of the affidavits of the contesting candidates, had also directed all candidates with criminal cases against them, either pending or cases of conviction in the past, to publicise this information in newspapers with wide circulation. This direction of the Election Commission was also to all the political parties that set up candidates with criminal cases against them. Directions to the contesting candidates The ECI had insisted that a format (Format C-1) be followed ..."at least on three different dates from the day following the last date for withdrawal of candidatures and up to two days before the date of poll." While insisting that the order of the Apex Court be followed in letter and spirit, the ECI had also recommended that "The declaration in newspapers should be published in font size 12 and should be placed suitably in the newspapers..." CVC violating rules, PMO trying to influence autonomous bodies: Kharge The ECI had also directed the contesting candidates to submit copies of the newspapers in which their declarations about criminal cases were published to the District Electoral Officers at the time of filing their election expenditure statements (within 30 days of declaration of results of Assembly Elections). Contesting candidates are required to "...publish the above declaration on TV channels in the State concerned on at least three different dates..." In order to adhere to the Model Code of Conduct, such declarations should be completed before 48 hours of polling date. The candidates are also required to declare before the Returning Officers that they have informed their political parties of their criminal antecedents. This declaration has been included in the newly amended format of affidavit (Form-26) for contesting candidates. Directions to the Political Parties Similar to the format for declaration of criminal antecedents by contesting candidates, the ECI has also recommended a format (Format C-2) for political parties (recognised and unrecognised) to "... publish declaration giving details in this regard, for wide publicity, on their website as well as in TV channels and newspapers having wide circulation in the State concerned." This declaration by political parties is also required to be done at least thrice on three different dates before the date of poll, in the same format and font size recommended for contesting candidates. Kharge in SC to challenge govt decision on CBI chief Verma Political parties are required to "... submit a report to the Chief Electoral Officer of the State/ UT..." so as to confirm that the direction of the ECI had been followed, along with relevant newspaper cuttings. The ECI has also stated that "... failure to abide by these directions would be treated as failure/ refusal to carry out a lawful direction of the Commission for the purposes of paragraph -16A of the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order, 1968. This release is being circulated by ADR for larger public interest and wider voter awareness. We appeal to the print, electronic and online media to monitor and highlight the fact whether the above mentioned directions of the Supreme Court and the ECI are being followed and implemented by the Political Parties and their candidates. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 6:54 [IST] An act of terror: Bharatiya Janata Party state secretary Anil Parihar, 52, and his brother, Ajeet Parihar, 55, were killed on November 1 by terrorists when they were walking towards their home in Parihar mohalla at around 8.40 pm. The accused involved in killing senior BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother in Kishtwar district have been identified and will be brought to book soon, Malik said. It has been proved that it was an incident of militancy, he said, adding that it "was an act of frustration on the part of militants and Pakistan". "Those people (killers of BJP senior leader and his brother) have been identified. Soon, results will be before you (media)," Malik told reporters after a function at the Civil Secretariat. Jammu and Kashmir: BJP's state secretary Anil Parihar, his brother shot dead in Kishtwar The Jammu and Kashmir government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the killing and directed it to expedite the investigation and submit its report as early as possible. An indefinite curfew was imposed in parts of Kishtwar and Doda districts on Thursday following the killing of the Parihar brothers. The curfew was, however, lifted from Doda district, including the main town and Bhadarwah along with Paddar and Chatroo sub-divisions of Kishtwar district Saturday, but Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) continued to remain in force in these areas as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order. The motive: The motive according to investigators prima facie suggested that the Hizbul Mujahideen under the directions of Pakistan wanted to create communal tension in the Valley. The outfit also wanted to send out a strong message to the BJP, officials feel. The investigations also show that pistols were used to kill the two persons. The Hizbul Mujahideen, which has often complained about the lack of sophisticated weapons had recently spoken about the use of pistols in their operations. They had also suggested that Pakistan is not aiding them enough where the weapons are concerned. This attack could have also been a message to Pakistan to suggest that the Hizbul Mujahideen is still relevant in the Valley. Accused involved in killing of J&K BJP leader, his brother identified: Governor Satya Pal Malik On Friday, the police had also questioned two personal security officials of the BJP leader. A Special Investigation Team has been constituted to probe the case. The police has detained two personal security officials -- Om Prakash and Sahil Kumar -- who are being questioned, Senior Superintendent of Police Kishtwar Rajinder Gupta said. The tragedy could have been averted had the officials been with him, the police said. The probe: "The SIT has been constituted by police to probe the killings. It is headed by Assistant Superintendent of Police Prabeet Singh," Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar Angrez Singh Rana said. "We urge all the political leaders and protected persons to keep their PSOs (personal security officials) with them and do not allow them leave them unguarded," he added. J&K: Hizbul killed BJP leader, wanted to create communal tension In this backdrop, one must take note of an Intelligence Bureau report, which spoke about heavy movement of terrorists in Kishtwar in the past 15 days. The report spoke about the movement of 15 terrorists in the area. They had moved in from Anantnag district of South Kashmir into Kishtwar. Questioning the polling process: There are several aspects to the ongoing probe. The police suspect that this could have been an act of terror ahead of the November 17 panchayat elections. Various reports have suggested that Pakistan and its terrorists would up the ante. Moreover several terror groups have been trying to target and disrupt the elections. The J&K administration had said that Pakistan is particularly upset that the election process is underway and was also successfully completed where the urban local body polls were concerned. UP BJP chief to workers: Have tea with Dalits, make them understand votes are cast on nationalism, not caste Explained: How will repeal of farm laws impact UP, Punjab polls? Karnataka By-Election Results: Its 4:1 victory for Congress-JD(S) alliance India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bengaluru, Nov 6: It was a prestige test for the JD(S)-Congress alliance in Karnataka and the ruling alliance have won four out of five seats while the BJP's sole victory was in Shivammoga Lok Sabha seat. Congress's VS Ugrappa won from Ballari -- a Bharatiya Janata Party bastion -- with a massive margin. While the JD(S)'s Shivarame Gowda won from Mandya. The Shivammoga Lok Sabha seat was the only battle where the BJP had an edge with the party's BY Raghavendra leading. The Ramanagara and Jamkhandi Assembly seats were both won by Congress-JD(S) candidates. Reacting to the crushing defeat that JD(S) and Congress meted out to the Bharatiya Janata Party, former chief minister Siddaramaiah said, "The victory in the by-elections is Diwali gift to Congress and JD(S) from people of Karnataka. The outcome of the by-elections is an indicator for the Lok Sabha elections. I am thanking the voters in three Lok Sabha seats and two Assembly seats." Counting of votes in the Karnataka by-polls began at 8 am. By-elections were held for the three Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies on Saturday. [Ramanagara Assembly By-Election Results 2018: Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha wins crucial seat] Polling in Karnataka took place on Saturday for three Lok Sabha constituencies - Shivamogga, Mandya and Ramanagara - and two Assembly constituencies - Ballari and Jamkhandi. [Cong candidate Anand Siddu Nyamagouda wins bypoll for Jamakhandi assembly seat] Here are the Highlights: Where has 'vishwas' gone? Azad's dig at PM over Karnataka crisis Never left Mumbai, says rebel Karnataka lawmaker, now in different hotel No one kidnapped me, says MLA Shrimant Patil as Congress claims otherwise No MLA has sought my protection, says Speaker Ramesh Kumar Karnataka by-polls: Will the JD(S)-Congress combine survive its first big test against BJP? India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Bengaluru, Nov 5: The results of the by-elections in Karnataka will be keenly watched. Counting takes place for the elections that was conducted on Saturday. While by-elections are generally not an indicator of the common mood, the ones in Karnataka are expected to have a larger bearing ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Karnataka by-poll: A litmus test for Cong-JD(S) coalition The results are significant as the coalition partners of the JD(S) and Congress who contested the elections together termed it as a "prelude" to the May 2019 general elections and called for a similar "grand secular alliance" against the BJP at the national level. The BJP, which has been questioning the longevity of the coalition government, has predicted its fall once the by-poll results are out. Polling to three Lok Sabha seats - Ballari, Shivamogga and Mandya and Ramanagara - and Jamkhandi assembly segments were held on Saturday. Congress and JD(S), who came together in a post-poll alliance after the assembly elections in May this year threw up a hung House, faced the polls unitedly against the BJP, which they perceive as their common enemy. While the Congress fielded its candidates in Jamkhandi and Ballari, JD(S) contested in Shivamogga, Ramanagara and Mandya under an electoral understanding. The outcome of the bypolls is expected to have a bearing on the alliance between Congress and JD(S) for the 2019 polls and also be a factor in determining the respective bargaining power of the two parties. The bypolls brought to fore family politics with kin of several leaders being fielded. In Jamkhandi, Congress candidate Anand Nyamagowda, son of former MLA Siddu Nyamagouda, is pitted against Srikant Kulkarni of the BJP. In Shivamogga, state BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa's son BY Raghavendra tested his fortunes against another former chief minister S Bangarappa's son Madhu Bangarappa of the JD(S). Ramanagara fiasco: The lesson for BJP is use your own people In Ballari, senior BJP leader Sriramulu's sister J Shantha fought against V S Ugrappa of the Congress, considered anoutsider. In the Vokkaliga bastion of Mandya, JD(S)'s Shivarame Gowda, was pitted against a fresh face in Dr Siddaramaiah, a retired Commercial Tax officer from the BJP. The by-elections were necessitated after Yeddyurappa (Shivamogga) and Sriramalu (Ballari), and CS Puttaraju of JD(S) (Mandya) resigned as MPs on their election to the assembly in May this year. By-polls to Jamkhandi assembly seat was caused by the death of Congress MLA Siddu Nyamagouda, while Ramanagara fell vacant after Kumaraswamy gave up the seat preferring Chennapatna, the other constituency from where he had won. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 17:56 [IST] No Bitcoin scam, says ruling BJP; No foul play in investigation: Bengaluru police Bengaluru Apartment Fire Accident Today: Fire breaks out at building in Electronic City, no causality reported KPSC employee stabs female colleague in Bengaluru India oi-Deepika S Bengaluru, Nov 5: A KPSC employee has stabbed a female colleague near KPSC office in Bengaluru. Victim Jayalakshmi has been admitted to Mallige hospital. The accused Nataraja has been arrested by the police. Accused Nataraj reportedly stabbed a man named Ramu before attacking KPSC employee Jayalakshmi. Ramu and Nataraja worked in the same office but were not in good terms. Vidhana Soudha police have registered a case and reason for the attack is not known. An investigation is underway. Businessman in Kolkata shot at after his car was stopped by 18 men Like Sabarimala, this Kolkata temple doesn't allow women to perform Kali Puja India oi-Madhuri Adnal Kolkata, Nov 5: The shadow of the Sabarimala temple row over the entry of women into the shrine has also cast its spell on a temple in Kolkata's Chetla Haat Road which still doesn't allow women of menstruating age or widows to perform Kaali puja. Ever since the worship of the idol began 34 years ago by priests of the Tarapith, a Shakti pith in Birbhum district, women were not allowed to enter the pandal. The priests of the temple have set some rules for women that nobody questions and women are led to believe that their presence in the puja is inauspicious. Also Read | Kerala HC says devotees, media at Sabarimala Temple should not be blocked "I got married 15 years ago. Since then I have never participated in a single Kali puja celebration. We believe something bad will happen if we were to take part in them now. We would never want that," a female resident of the locality told. The male members of the puja committee and the locality prepare 'prasad and bhog' (food) for the deity besides undertaking other tasks. Also Read | As Sabarimala temple opens up today, 2,000 security personnel stand guard However, the women residents of the area seem least bothered about the restrictions as they don't want to break the age-old tradition. Kali Puja - which is celebrated as Diwali in Bengal - is scheduled to be held on November 6. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 15:28 [IST] Kamal Nath likely to be the new CM of Madhya Pradesh: Reports Madhya Pradesh elections: Congress releases list of 13 candidates India oi-Vikas SV Bhopal, Nov 5: The Congress on Monday (November 5) released a list of 13 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections 2018. This comes two days after the grand old party released a list of 155 candidates. The Bharatiya Janata Party had on Friday released a list of 177 candidates for Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections 2018. Winning the Madhya Pradesh elections is very crucial for the Congress as it is the biggest states among the five which are going to polls this year. The Congress would be mindful of the fact that this state is important in the context of the 2019 poll as well. [Madhya Pradesh matters and why the Congress is going all guns blazing here] There is reportedly an intra-party rift in the Congress over the distribution of tickets. With less than 10 days left for filing the nominations, there were reports suggesting all is not well for the Congress between the top leaders and their supporters. The last time the Congress came to power in MP was in 1993 when Digvijaya Singh became the chief minister and he continued in power for a decade. UP BJP chief to workers: Have tea with Dalits, make them understand votes are cast on nationalism, not caste Explained: How will repeal of farm laws impact UP, Punjab polls? Mizoram Legislative Assembly Speaker Hiphei joins BJP India oi-Madhuri Adnal Aizawl, Nov 5: Hiphei, the Speaker of Mizoram Legislative Assembly who had resigned from his post earlier today joined BJP. Hiphei, a veteran leader, was elected to the Assembly from the Palak constituency. He handed over his resignation to the Deputy Speaker of the state assembly Deputy Speaker R Lalrinawama. He was accompanied on the occasion by senior BJP leader B D Chakma, also a former Congress leader, among others. The development marks an end to all speculation. Security of the chief electoral officer of poll-bound Mizoram has been beefed up following demand for his exit from the state by Monday, police said yesterday. Also Read | BJP to ensure 100% voting of its own voters besides taking other measure to ensure 51% votes A senior leader of the saffron party that Hiphei had recently met the central leaders of the saffron party. Mizoram, the only state in the north-east under Congress rule, will go to the polls on November 28. Modi and Bhagwat in Varanasi; possible meeting on Nov 12 gives sleepless night to Opposition India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 5: If the task is very much cut out for the Sangh Pariwar as such that is working towards getting another term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi then there is unrest among the opposition political party for obvious reasons that Prime Minister's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi is going to be the hub of most of the activities in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections. The Prime Minister will address a meeting in Varanasi on November 12 in which he is likely to gift Rs 2412 crore project for people of the city. He will be addressing the meeting at Wazidpur. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat will be in Koirajpur for three days to discuss ideology and nationalism with the swayamsevaks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi likely to spend Diwali in Kedarnath The Prime Minister visited Varanasi for as many as 15 times in the past four and half years but this will be for the first time when Modi and Bhagwat will be in Varanasi together. Bhagwat will be in Varanasi for three days from November 11 while Modi will be in the city just for one day on November 12. It is expected that the RSS chief and Modi might meet in Varanasi for a shot while. But the most interesting thing is that the possible meeting of the PM and RSS chief in Varanasi in a situation when political environment of the country is surcharged on the issue of temple construction in Ayodhya before 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This is giving sleepless night to opposition political parties. The BJP has made Varanasi the focal point for its success for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Opposition parties are well aware about this fact on Varanasi and political heavyweight of the opposition political parties are keeping a tab on this. So just before the visit of Bhagwat and Modi former chief minister of the state will be present at the Govardhan Puja function organised at Ram Manohar Lohia Ghat in Varanasi. He will also try to vow Yadav community of entire Poorvanchal by attending this programme. It has become a difficult task for the Yadav family to keep the community together. Programme of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and leaders of other political parties are also getting finalised. New archaeological museum in PM Modi's hometown, 6 years after approval During his Varanasi visit, the RSS chief will teach swayamsevaks the lesson of nationalism in a school in the city. The RSS workers are involved in preparation to welcome the chief of the organisation and many other exercise. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 12:35 [IST] MP CMs allegedly corrupt, failed actor brother-in-law joins Congress for his utility in Party India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 5: Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath is considering bringing in brother-in-law (wife's brother) of Madhya Pradesh chief minister to the Congress' fold as a big achievement. However, the Congress used to call him as the alleged middleman (dalal) of Shivraj Singh Chouhan but he has been brought in to the Congress with the argument that he will serve the party the way he had served the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Is ex-MP CM Babulal Gaur planning to dissent in BJP if denied ticket? Now, the Congress is not talking about his action like he being an unknown partner of Chouhan in contracts of mining and road construction works. The Congress had made him ill famous for his all these actions. What has not been said about Sanjay Singh Masani by former Congress chief minister Digvijay Singh and spokesperson of the party K K Mishra. The Congress demanded inquiry into his disproportionate assets. Sources said, "In politics utility matters. So this is the reason that the Congress has forgotten all charges against him." Sources said that Masani was demanding Assembly ticket from Barasivani in Madhya Pradesh but the BJP did not entertain him because the chief minister himself was not in favour of giving him ticket because of late both of them were not getting along due to differences over some financial transactions around one and half year ago. The differences caused between them due to financial transactions were somehow managed by Masani's sister Kokila (Original name of Shivraj Singh Chouhan's wife Sadhana Singh is said to be Kokila). This is very interesting to note that when Chouhan was a Lok Sabha MP and used to live in South Avenue, his brother-in-law had just two taxis. He used to work with driver of former BJP general secretary and Union minister late Pramod Mahajan who had 8-10 taxies. Later on his proximity grew with Vivek Moitra who was assistant of Pramod Mmahajan. So by taking benefits of these relations, he became familiar to people in the political circle. However, it is said that his interference started in the government bidding after Chouhan took over as MP CM. Are Congress infighting boon for the BJP in 3 states where it wants to return to power Sources said that he became a known figure in sand and bauxite mining and his interference was considered to be the indirect support of Chouhan. Once he was financially well off, he tried his hands in film industry but couldn't make any mark instead of doing one or two small roles but huge money was invested in those films. People who had invested money on Chouhan's insistence started poisoning ear of Chouhan against him, so he made a distance from him and told officers not to give any contract on his recommendations. PM Modi to host President Putin: What to expect from the bilateral Prime Minister Narendra Modi likely to spend Diwali in Kedarnath India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Nov 5: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has a special affinity for the Kedarnath temple, is scheduled to offer prayers on November 7. Preparations are on at Kedarnath in full swing ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit at the famous Hindu temple. Meanwhile, Shrine hill town of Kedarnath was completely covered with thick layer of snow after the spell. Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and State Disaster Response Force began the process of clearing snow from the trek route. The Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) removed snow from the temple premises. A team of Special Protection Group reached Kedarnath on Sunday. Also Read | Kedarnath Temple reopens, laser show among new features for devotees Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had twice visited the shrine situated at 11,755 feet above the sea level - on the opening of the temple doors and the day before closing. This time he is expected to visit on 7 November. Much will depend on weather. Heavy snowfall have created challenging situation for the local administration. Very recently Ruderpayag district magistrate Manglesh Ghildiyal hosted a meeting in the district headquarters discussing plans for the Prime Minister's trip to Kedarnath. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 11:33 [IST] Rajasthan polls: CM Vasundhara Raje may file nomination on Nov 16 India oi-Shubham Ghosh Jaipur, Nov 4: Chief minister of poll-bound Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje on Sunday, October 4, finished her three-day campaigning for the December 7 Assembly election. She conducted a public relations exercise in her own constituency Jhalrapatan on Sunday before leaving for Jaipur. Raje has been winning from Jhalrapatan constituency in southeastern Rajasthan's Jhalawar district since 2003. During the day, Raje met officials, family of deceased BJP leader Rajkumar Rathore and also common man including businessmen, doctors, senior citizens, students, representatives of social bodies and told all that whatever they expect the government to fulfil, will be completed in the days to come. He also told the people to ensure that the pace of development did not get hindered. She also spoke with booth-level workers during her three-day campaigning. Also Read | Modi, Shah and Yogi Adityanath in maximum demand in Rajasthan elections It was learnt that Raje could file her nomination papers from her constituency on November 16, a report in Patrika said. The notification for the December 7 polling will be issued on November 12 and the last day for filing nomination is November 19. The results of the election will be declared on December 11, along with those in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 8:54 [IST] This man from Muzaffarnagar village helped Muslims, who fled during 2013 riots, return home India oi-Shubham Ghosh Muzaffarnagar, Nov 5: Five years ago, Muzaffarnagar in UP was in the headlines for bad reasons. Because of intense polarisation and reverse polarisation ahead of the Lok Sabha election the next year, the district in eastern UP saw Hindu-Muslim riots. However, there is a village in the district named Dulhera, which is about an hour's drive from the district headquarters Muzaffarnagar, where not a single incident of violence was reported. However, around 70 Muslim families left their homes in the Jat-dominated village fearing a backlash. Those families have now started returning, thanks to one man who belongs to the majority community. Also Read | By earning goodwill of Muslims, Lashkar trying to set up major base in India According to a report in Inuth.com, Sanjeev Pradhan, a former village head, has made it a mission to bring back the families that had left the village in 2013. Thirty-four families have already returned in the last five years and Pradhan wants all of them back. Pradhan said nothing had happened in Dulhera but yet, Muslim families left out of fear since riots took place in the neighbouring village. He said it was only them who had dropped those families in other villages like Shahpur and Palda. The exit of the Muslim families created economic problems for Dulhera as there was a shortage of daily wage labourers. It was then decided that those who left will be brought back. Pradhan, however, had a challenging task in his hand. On one hand, he had to overcome the initial resistance from the villagers while on the other, he had to convince those Muslim families to return. The villagers kept in touch with the families that left and also took care of their belongings and this way, a trust was built again, the Inuth report added. Also Read | For the sake of development, Hindus, Muslims break barriers Those who have returned say the situation is peaceful now. However, the current pradhan Arvind Kumar is of the opinion that those who have returned to their homes had done so within a few days of the riots, the report added. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 10:31 [IST] Tigress Avni shot dead, now question looms large on her cubs India oi-Deepika S Mumbai, Nov 5: Tigress Avni, the elusive "maneater" of Pandharkawda lost over a year's battle of survival to the bullet on Friday mired in controversy over violation of protocols. The tigress, survived by her two 10 months old cubs, was believed to be responsible for the deaths of 13 people in the past two years. She was shot dead by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali in the Borati forest in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district as part of an operation. The tragedy does not end with Avni's death. The next step is the capture of her cubs, who are a little over a year old. The cubs, a male and a female, seem to be searching for their mother in the same area. Tigress Avni, believed to be responsible for deaths of 13 people, shot dead in Maharashtra Are they going to be killed point blank like their mother was? Or, are they going to be rehabilitated, with proper state presence? This is the most pressing question of all. "We cannot say the mission is complete because we have to take care of T1's cubs," said Virendra Tiwari, chief conservator of forest (Mantralaya), state forest department. "They cannot be left in the wild. But they are not to be shot, only tranquillised and this needs to be done at the earliest to ensure their good health." A bullet finally ends tigress Avni's fight for survival: A look at Man-eaters eliminated since 2012 Officials will try to tranquillise the cubs and keep them in captivity, he said. Dr Jerryl A Banait, who had approached the Supreme Court and the Bombay high court in this matter, said, "The frightened cubs are waiting for their mother to return. They are young, fragile and are currently starving. If tranquillised, they will not be able to withstand the sedative effect and succumb to it." "The forest department's intention was never to tranquillise her. We will take the government head on and expose the real reason why Avni was killed," said Anand Siva, activist. If the cubs are rescued by the forest department, they will have a miserable life because they will be kept in captivity, Banait said. "Whatever be the case, what we do know is the cubs have been orphaned now." Maneka Gandhi slams Maha for 'Brutal Murder' of Tigress Avni; Govt says it was last resort The Maharashtra forest department's order, issued by chief conservator of forest A.K. Mishra and subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court, the two cubs were to be tranquilised and shifted to a rescue centre in the eventuality of Avni's death. According to the World Wildlife Fund, tiger cubs remain with their mothers for at least two-three years, before which they cannot fend for themselves. The cubs cannot hunt until they are 18 months old, and it is only after two to three years that they begin to move away to find their own territory. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 13:44 [IST] DNA of those who burst firecrackers in India on Pakistans win cannot be Indian: Anil Vij When and how to burst crackers in Bengaluru on Deepavali India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bengaluru, Nov 5: The Karnataka government will strictly implement the verdict of the Supreme Court on bursting of firecrackers. The government has asked the people to burst crackers only between 8 pm and 10 pm. Deepavali falls on November 6 in Karnataka. The government in its circular directed the people to burst crackers only between 8 pm and 10 pm between November 5 and 8. Further it said that firecrackers that are less pollutant should be used. They should also be of low decibel levels, the circular also added. No ban, but SC sets time limits to burst crackers on Diwali, Christmas, New Year Chief Minister of Karnataka, H D Kumaraswamy has directed the police to monitor the implementation of the cracker guidelines and ensure that the order of the Supreme Court is strictly followed. Further the BBMP has been directed to explore the feasibility of community cracker bursting during the festival. Further a ban on the sale and bursting of laris ( series of joint fireworks) has been imposed. Only authorised and licences dealers can sell crackers, the government has also said. On October 30, the Supreme Court had modified its order on the fixed time slots (8 pm to 10 pm) in southern states, but not exceeding two hours a day. Tamil Nadu had urged the court to allow bursting of firecrackers on Deepavali in the morning in accordance with religious practices in the state. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 7:47 [IST] The bitter rivalry with Kodavas History records that the Kodavas and Tipu Sultan have had a bitter rivalry always. Tipu wanted to capture Kodagu as he felt he could use it as a gateway to Mangalore which has a port. Not just Tipu, but his father Hyder Ali too made several attempts to capture Kodagu. Various attempts by father and son were a failure as they found it hard to battle in Kodagu which has vast tracts of land and mountains which was very familiar to the locals. The Kodavas who pride themselves for contributing immensely to the Indian army thanks to Field Marshal K C Kariappa and General K S Thimmaiah were good at guerrilla warfare which gave them an advantage of Tipu's army. Tipu driven back A Wikipedia entry suggests that the Kodavas despite being outnumbered 1:3 always managed to defeat the Tipu army. There were a couple of times that Tipu and his army managed to reach Madikeri, the capital of Kodagu, but was beaten. The Kodavas have sworn never to bow to the Sultan. However, Tipu once managed to capture Kodagu on one ocassion and is said to have uttered the words, "if you ambush my men, I will honour you all with Islam." The Kodavas did not take this lying down and beat Tipu and drove him back to Mysore. The treachery Tipu by now realized that his war was going nowhere and beating the Kodavas was not easy. He decided to offer his hand of friendship. The Kodavas made a grave error in trusting Tipu. The Kodavas were in fact happy to offer their hand of friendship as the battle against him was being won, but at a huge cost and the warriors were tired. The Kodavas are said to have welcomed Tipu. However, they were caught completely off guard when Tipu's men launched an attack against the Kodavas who were unarmed. He took many as prisoners. Tipu had even sought the help of the Nawab of Kurnool to launch the attack. Several thousand Kodavas were captured and taken to Srirangapatana where it is believed they were forcibly converted. Stories of conversion and torture have been narrated by the Kodavas who were in captivity of Tipu. Various historians have given different figures about the number of Kodavas who were converted. Figures range between 60,000 to 85,000. The problem with the Catholics In the year 1784 it was Tipu who had destroyed the Milagres Church in Mangalore. The Church, which was built in the year 1680, is a landmark in Mangalore. Tipu had imprisoned over 50,000 Catholics on the suspicion that they were spies of the British. Many contend that there is widespread hatred for Tipu Sultan across the state which includes a large number of Catholics as well. Several Catholics have also raised the point that Tipu was responsible for the death of nearly 4,000 Catholics. Tipu had captured the Catholics and made them walk to Mysore from Mangalore which resulted in the death of many. The Catholics till date observe one day of mourning for those who died as a result of Tipu Sultan's actions. Asia Bibi row: Twitter suspends protesting leader Rizvis account International oi-Shubham Ghosh Islamabad, Nov 5: Social micro-blogging site Twitter came under criticism for refusing to block the account of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi after he was seen spearheading violent protests against the Supreme Court of Pakistan's verdict reversing the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, who was handed a death sentence earlier on charges of blasphemy. It was subsequently reported, however, that Twitter suspended the account of Rizvi (@KhadimRizviReal. On visiting the handle, one would see the notification that 'Account suspended'. Something good happened, says Jemima Goldsmith. Pakistan: Asia Bibi's husband appeals to Trump, May to help them go to safety The move left many glad, including former wife of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Jemima Goldsmith who applauded Twitter saying "Something good happened today". Goldsmith, who was married to Khan in the early 1990s and was elated when her former husband became the country's premier after doing good in the July elections, was disappointed over the Asia Bibi row and said it was not the "Naya Pakistan" that everyone had hoped for. Digital rights activist Nighat Dad said that Twitter accepted her request to take a step. "Okay great humans of twitter seems Khadim Hussain Rizvi's twitter handle is gone," she said in a tweet. The social media made the move hours after Pakistan's Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said on Sunday that despite a request from the Pakistan government, Twitter had refused to block of the firebrand cleric's account. Replying to notable author and political commentator Ayesha Siddiqa who asked whether the ministry had contacted with social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to take action against Rizvi's accounts, Mazari was quoted as saying by Pakistan Today: "PTA was asked to do this by the relevant minister on Friday and I am shocked it hasn't happened as I was present when PTA bureaucracy was finally found available and tasked!" Will decision on Asia Bibi help bail out Pakistan from financial mess? The TLP ended its protests on Friday after entering an agreement with the national government as Punjab provincial government that Asia will be put under travel restriction and that the latter will not object to a review of the court's judgment. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 12:45 [IST] China has never taken one inch of land from other countries: Xi tells Biden Where is Peng Shuai? Missing Chinese tennis star safe, will appear in public soon: editor of Global Times China will help Pak but latter needs to use funds efficiently, says Chinese media International oi-Shubham Ghosh Beijing, Nov 4: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's first visit to China has generated a lot of vibes. The two all-weather allies have seen the visit as a positive one. On Sunday, November 4, a report in China's Global Times said although Beijing has not yet divulged the details of an economic aid package to the South Asian country which is struggling financially, there has been little change in its stance on the issue of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. On November 2, China promised to support Pakistan economically though on November 3, some Chinese officials informed the media that negotiations were still on over the details of any aid package to Islamabad, according to the Financial Times. The report even called the move a "departure from Beijing's usual practice" and left the international community guessing. Also Read | How Pakistan fell into China's debt trap According to the Global Times report, the western media "perhaps read too much into the news" and said even though details were still under consideration, China was still committed to give Pakistan the much awaited economic aid. "Pakistan's growing fiscal problems have raised concerns about its ability to repay foreign loans, but China's attitude toward the CPEC has never changed. The question is how to maximize the effectiveness of Chinese aid and investment to bring tangible benefits for economic development. It will take some time to negotiate with the Pakistani side," the Global Times report said. Pakistan's foreign reserves have reportedly nosedived 42 per cent since the beginning of 2018. The country is in urgent need of impetus for economic development. Recently, Khan visited Saudi Arabia and managed to get a rescue package of $6 billion. Also Read | Pak-China bus service through PoK violative of our territorial integrity says India "Offering a similar-sized package to Pakistan won't be difficult for China, but talking with Pakistan about making Chinese aid and investment a real impetus to improve its economy's efficiency and productivity is perhaps more important," the report said. The economic aid is likely to be China's effort to help Pakistan increase its debt repayment ability and such helping measures are likely to focus on: helping Pakistan tap its economic potential through means like poverty alleviation and bolstering Pakistan's exports to reduce its debt burden, the Global Times added. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 8:38 [IST] India on the move: Venkaiah Naidu tells diaspora in Malawi International pti-PTI Lilongwe, Nov 4: Praising the Indian community in Malawi for making "significant contribution" in economic activities, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu Sunday said India is on the move and global organisations like the World Bank and the IMF have also appreciated the country's economic progress. Naidu reached here earlier in the day on the last leg of his six-day three-nation tour to Africa, which aims at deepening India's strategic cooperation with Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi. "India is on the move. It is not Naidu which says so but World Bank and IMF also say so," the Vice President said while addressing the Indian community here. Not only banks but rating agency Moody's has also given good ratings to India, Naidu said, adding this is a happy news for the country. Citing the success of the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, Naidu said in October the GST collection crossed record Rs one lakh crore. "That is how transformation is happening...One tax one slab throughout the country, that is the ultimate aim," he said. Melania Trump's white hat in Africa lands her in 'colonial' controversy India, one of the fastest growing major economies in the world, is on the course to become a 5 trillion economy by 2025, he said, adding that the India story, as it is unfolding today, is a promising one. Naidu quoted the World Banks 'Doing Business 2019' report which said that India, which advanced to 77th place in the global ranking, is now the region's top-ranked economy. "Starting a business was made easier through consolidation of multiple application forms and introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (GST)," the report stated. Some people were sceptical of Jan Dhan accounts and demonetisation but these moves have achieved their purpose, Naidu said. In the world of nature, too, women remain a deprived class... Watch! Praising the Indian community, the Vice President said, "I am happy to note that you have made significant contribution to find a place of leadership, in the economic activities of the country. Some of you have attained positions of excellence, in your respective professions." The Indian community enjoys a reputation of being peace-loving community and has been able to assimilate well with the locals, he added. According to the Indian Embassy here, there are about 8,500 Malawians of Indian origin who predominantly originated from Gujarat and are concentrated in major cities like Lilongwe, Blantyre, Limbe, Zomba and Mzuzu. The number of Indian nationals (NRIs) in the African country at present is about 2,500. Most of them hail from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. They are primarily engaged in trading, agriculture and agro business, pharmaceutical and hospitality. Earlier, on his arrival at the Lilongwe airport, Naidu was received by Malawi's Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Dr Emmanuel Fabian, Education Minister Bright Msaka and High Commissioner of India to Malawi Suresh Kumar Menon. PTI Iran oil sanctions: US issues temporary waivers to India, China and 6 other nations International oi-Vikas SV Washington, Nov 5: Asserting that America would continue to exert pressure on Tehran, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday (November 5) temporary waivers from sanctions have been issued to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey. The Trump administration had earlier said it is confident that "the toughest ever" sanctions against Iran which came into force from today (November 5) will have the intended effect of altering the Iranian regime's behaviour. India has so far remained defiant and maintained that it would not completely stop oil imports from Iran. India has, however, reduced the quantity of crude imports from Iran. The sanctions cover Iran's banking and energy sectors and reinstate penalties for countries and companies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere that do not halt Iranian oil imports. "Iranian regime can either do 180 degree turn from its course of action and act like normal country or see its economy crumble. Hope new agreement with Iran's possible but until it makes changes in 12 ways I listed in May, we will be relentless in exerting pressure on it," Pompeo said today. India and China are the two biggest buyers of Iranian crude. Pompeo had earlier avoided giving clear answer when asked about the commitment from India and China on zero-oil purchase from Iran. [India's role in Afghanistan saved it from US sanctions for importing oil from Iran] "We have decided to issue temporary allotments to a handful of countries due to specific circumstances. The US will be granting these exemptions to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey," reports quoted Pompeo as saying. The Trump administration earlier said it has asked these countries to bring down their oil purchase to zero as soon as possible. In May, President Donald Trump had pulled US out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) terming it as disastrous". Under the Obama-era deal, involving five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, Iran agreed to stop its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Pakistan hit my mysterious viral fever: All you need to know Pakistan: Asia Bibis husband appeals to Trump, May to help them go to safety International oi-Shubham Ghosh Islamabad, Nov 4: As Pakistan continues to cope with the seeing anger of protesters who are unhappy with the country's Supreme Court acquitting a Christian woman eight years after being sentenced to death for blasphemy, the husband of Asia Bibi has appealed to the western leaders to help the family exit Pakistan, Associated Press reported. Asia's husband Ashiq Masih spoke about the danger they are facing in Pakistan in a brief video message and sought help. He has appealed to US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May to help get out from trouble. "Please help us, we are in trouble in Pakistan," Masih appealed to Trump and May, according to the report. Also Read | Will decision on Asia Bibi help bail out Pakistan from financial mess? Masih had earlier told AP over phone that he and Asia feared for their lives. Asia's lawyer Saiful Malook has already left Pakistan for safety. The protesting Islamists, who have sought that Asia be publicly hanged, also demanded death for the three judges who acquitted the woman, including Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, the AP report said. Asia was arrested in 2009 following accusations against her of blasphemy after an argument with two women farm workers who refused to consume water from a contained used by a Christian. Soon after, Asia was accused of insulting Islam's Prophet and she was convicted in 2010 even though her family kept on supporting her. Insulting Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan. Pakistan court releases woman from facing death row for blasphemy Last week, the country's apex court reversed the eight-year-old decision and it led to massive protests from the hardliner Islamists and it ended only after the government agreed to impose a travel ban on Asia and allow her case to be reviewed again. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, November 5, 2018, 9:00 [IST] Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 5) President Rodrigo Duterte has formed an inter-agency task force to "integrate, harmonize, and coordinate" efforts towards federalism and constitutional reforms. Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea signed Memorandum Circular No. 52 on October 31 and was released to the media on Monday. Interior acting Secretary Eduardo Ano will lead the task force as chairman. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra will be vice-chairman. The group will have as members heads or designated members from the Office of the Cabinet Secretary, Presidential Management Staff, Presidential Communications Operations Office, Office of the Presidential Spokesperson, Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, Office of the Political Adviser, Commission on Higher Education, Development Academy of the Philippines, and University of the Philippines Law Center. The task force will develop strategies and implement ways to properly raise awareness on federalism and constitutional reform. It will hold consultations with the former members of the Consultative Committee (ConCom) and the public. It will also liaise with Congress to initiate the process and address roadblocks to constitutional reform. In July, the ConCom tasked to review the Constitution submitted its final draft to Duterte. On October 8, the draft charter in a bill authored by House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo puts the Senate President, and not the Vice President, as successor to Duterte should he step down during the transition to a federal government was approved in plenary. Days later, it was reverted to the committee to restore the Vice President in the line of succession. ConCom and the DILG believes the shift in the form of government will cost 13 billion. You are here: China A truck driver who caused a major car accident that killed 15 people and injured 36 on Saturday evening in Lanzhou, Northwest Chinas Gansu province, has been detained, according to local police. Traffic control on the Lanzhou-Haikou expressway had been removed by 11 am Sunday and traffic was restored on the Lanzhou-Lintao highway, where the accident happened yesterday. The 45-year-old truck driver Li Feng, originally from Northeast Chinas Liaoning province, crashed a tower-crane truck into a line of 31 vehicles 50 meters away from the Lanzhou South Toll Station on the expressway at 7:21 pm in Lanzhou. Primary investigations found that the accident happened due to brake failure on the continuous downhill sections of the expressway. It was also the first time the driver had driven on the Lanzhou-Haikou expressway. After the accident happened, the Lanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau sent more than 260 policemen on-site for rescue. The local traffic police and the district police also worked closely to rescue the originally injured 37 people, sending them to local hospitals. At 2:30 am on Sunday morning, the area where the accident occurred had been cleaned up, local police said. Related: At least 15 dead in a 31-vehicle pile-up in NW China The death toll in a 31-vehicle pile-up on an expressway in northwest China's Gansu Province on Saturday evening has risen to 15 with 44 injured as of Sunday morning, local authorities said. Ten of the 44 injured people were seriously injured, according to local government. A tower-crane truck lost control and crashed into a line of vehicles 50 meters away from the Lanzhou South Toll Station on the Lanzhou-Haikou Expressway at 7:21 pm in Lanzhou. The truck driver, who was slightly injured in the crash, is under police watch and is being investigated. The driver said the vehicle had a brake failure in the continuous downhill section of the expressway. Cause of the accident is under investigation. The Gansu provincial authorities demanded examination on dangerous sections of expressways across the province. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet on Sunday evening in Shanghai to welcome distinguished guests from around the world, who will attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) opening Monday. Xi and Peng took group photos with foreign leaders and their spouses. On behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, Xi extended a warm welcome to foreign leaders and other guests. Shanghai is the largest economic center of China and is at the frontier of China's reform and opening-up. It has witnessed the historical course of China's opening-up and cooperation since modern times and has written a splendid chapter of China's 40 years of reform and opening-up, Xi said. The CIIE is hosted by China but for the world, Xi said, stressing that it is not an ordinary expo, but a major policy for China to push for a new round of high-level opening-up and a major measure for China to take the initiative to open its market to the world. The CIIE will make Shanghai a more shining city, he said. In the next six days, a total of 172 countries, regions and international organizations from the five continents will showcase their development achievements and international image to the world, he said. More than 3,600 companies from different countries will hold discussions and seek common development with purchasers from China and overseas. Guests will also exchange views about major issues concerning international economy and trade and global economic governance, Xi said. This will be a grand event with great expectations, set to create fruitful results for friends from various countries, he said. "I believe that, with strong supports and joint efforts of all sides, the CIIE will surely become a high-level international expo which will provide a new platform for deepening international economic and trade cooperation, advancing the joint development of the Belt and Road, and promoting economic globalization, and make greater contribution to boosting the well-being of all people and building a community with a shared future for humanity," Xi said. Guests from various countries wished the first CIIE a full success. You are here: China Samuel from Brazil discovers the secret recipe of Longyou Fagao as he travels to the home of the traditional Chinese rice cake in Zhejiang province. Follow his footsteps and learn how to make this delicious snack. A total of 1,361 illegal wharfs along the main channel of the Yangtze River have been demolished or renovated, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. Increasing human activity has damaged the ecological environment in the Yangtze River water area, as well as endangered rare species and biological resources over the years, said Xiong Qiquan from the commission. Xiong said 1,254 wharfs had been torn down to make room for greenbelt areas, and the remaining 107 had been upgraded. In the meantime, crackdowns on illegal sand mining, chemical pollution and sewage disposal have been carried out to restore the river environment and protect the water source. Nearly 900 nature reserves had been established along the main channel of the Yangtze as of the end of 2017. All eyes are on next week's mega event, the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai which opens on November 5. The world's first import-themed expo, the CIIE is going to be a path-breaking event in the process of China's opening-up which not only represents China's sincere strategy to further open its market to the world, but also reflects the win-win spirit of the Belt and Road Initiative. According to media reports, the six-day import fair will draw the participation of more than 2,000 government officials, international organization leaders, renowned entrepreneurs and academics from over 130 countries and regions. The CIIE will not only provide opportunities for 3,000 companies around the world to explore the Chinese market, but also create a platform for countries to share business opportunities with each other. Such levels of participation from the international community is a clear vote of confidence on China's leading role in globalization and free trade at a time when the developing and developed worlds both face challenges in trying to overcome a tendency during tough economic times to turn toward protectionism. As such, the CIIE is an example of China's global insight as well as its long-term goal of creating a global society that works together. During his visit to New Delhi on March 26 this year, Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan invited Indian companies to attend the CIIE and suggested that India might be able to increase exports to China via the expo. At least 100 Indian exporters are expected to take part in the global fair. The exclusive event will open new avenues for Indian goods entering China's vast market along with goods from all over the world. Last year at Davos, President Xi announced that in the coming five years, China is expected to invest US$750 billion abroad and will import US$8 trillion of goods and services from other countries and regions. The door of China is being wide open, and India should not miss it. From an Indian perspective, the success of the informal summit in Wuhan between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 27-28, 2018, has created a new platform for economic and trade engagement between the two countries. There is ample scope for India to cut a big pie of the Chinese investment in order to narrow India's trade deficit with China. As Trump ramps up harsh protectionist measures towards both countries, China's trade surplus with India narrowed. From January to July this year, bilateral trade reached nearly US$55 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 15 percent. China has lowered tariffs on some of Indian goods exported to China, increased imports of sugar, non-Basmati rice and other agricultural products from India, facilitated the export of Indian medicines to China, and further improved the trade structure. In recent years, Chinese consumers have shown an increasing desire for Indian red tea, coffee, fruit and seafood. On the other hand, China is the biggest importer of soybean in the world. The U.S.-imposed trade war has opened a new door for India to avail export opportunities of soybean to China, particularly since April 4, when China announced plans to slap a 25 percent tariff on 106 U.S. products, including soybean. If China increases its market access for Indian food, the latter's traditional basmati rice, mango, red tea will surely win the hearts of food-loving Chinese people. A note of optimism in economic ties between the two countries has been uttered by Gao Feng, spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce, saying: "As two large developing countries and major emerging market economies, China and India both have a huge domestic market." He added that, "The economies of both countries are highly complementary to each other, creating enormous potential for cooperation." On the other hand, China can play a significant role in Prime Minister Modi's ambitious project "Digital India." Chinese internet companies such as Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent invested a whopping US$5.2 billion in 30 Indian start-up companies in 2017, which reflects China's great interest in the Indian market. Trade is a very important aspect of bilateral ties between India and China. It is normal to have some trade differences between the two major developing countries, but the first-ever China-oriented import expo has offered an opportunity for both countries to create a new chapter in trade, sharing common interests in defending the multilateral trading system and free trade. Chinese products have greatly benefited Indian consumers over the years, and the CIIE will offer a platform for many Indian companies to expand exports to China, furthering trade ties between the two countries. Rabi Sankar Bosu, Secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club, West Bengal, India Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. The First China International Import Expo (CIIE) opens on November 5, 2018. The giant event is the first ever national exhibition in the world themed on imports. Announced at the Belt and Road Summit for International Cooperation on May 2017 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the CIIE differs from other trade fairs and expos in three stand-out ways. First, it demonstrates the Chinese government's commitment to globalization. The China International Import Expo is a symbol of the Chinese government's firm support to trade liberalization, economic globalization and actively opening the Chinese market to the world. While China has organized the Canton Import and Export Fair (previously known as the Chinese Export Commodities Fair) and later the East China Trade Fair, the CIIE is the first expo in the world which is aimed at boosting imports. Amid growing trade protectionism and trade tension across the world, this event affirms the Chinese government's commitment to opening up to the world and its determination to rely on the multilateral trading system. Second, it is not just a trade fair. The CIIE consists of a Business Exhibition, Country Pavilion and Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum. The Business Exhibition invites companies from oversea to exhibit their advanced products and businesses. There are seven categories of products and services. They include Consumer Electronics & Appliances, Apparel, Accessories & Consumer Goods, Automobiles, High-end Intelligent Equipment, Food & Agricultural Products, Medical Equipment & Health Care Products, and Trade in Services. Country Pavilions are exclusively reserved for country exhibitions, not for business transactions. Countries and regions can show their development achievements in trade and investment, including trade in goods and services, industries, investment and tourism, as well as representative products of the country or region with distinct features. The First Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum consists of an opening ceremony which will raise the curtain on the First China International Import Expo as well as the three parallel sessions and the Hongqiao International Business Media and Think Tank Forum. The three parallel sessions are "Trade and Investment," "Trade and Opening-up" and "Trade and Innovation," discussing significant and frontier topics in global trade and economics. Third, it creates a "6+365" one-stop trading services platform and online-offline model. Shanghai, the host city of the CIIE, has made the solemn commitment that the CIIE would "never close." The "6+365" One-Stop Trading Services Platform of the CIIE has been launched online to enable the China International Import Expo, with "6+365" professional services, to be "the Expo lasting six days with the platform serving all year round." Meanwhile, the platform provides efficient public services to transform exhibits into products, and offers all-direction, multi-mode and channel trading promotion services for companies, products, technologies and services all around the world to enter the Chinese market, serving as the main engine of services for CIIE exhibitors. Shanghai has also opened offline platforms in Hongqiao CBD and Shanghai Free Trade Zone the imports exhibition and transaction centers to host the exhibited products. Citizens can buy products from all over the world in these centers. After over one year's preparation Shanghai is ready, China is ready for the First China International Import Expo to be open on Monday, November 5, 2018. The author is a professor from School of Economics, Shanghai University Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 5) The sight of rescuers crowded around rubble was not new to the miners of Itogon, Benguet, but this time they find themselves on the giving end of a similar tragedy. Around 24 miners from the landslide-hit town volunteered to help in search and retrieval operations in Natonin, Mountain Province. 14 people remain missing after a landslide buried a Department of Public Works and Highways building on Tuesday. Jake Gayog, one of the volunteers, said they want to help in any way they can after his fellow residents suffered the same fate not too long ago. "Kahit na nabagyo din kami dun, true spirit talaga ng mga Cordilleran, they make sure na nobody is left behind. Naramdaman na namin yan doon noong Ompong kaya dinala din namin dito. Kailangang-kailangan kami dito," Gayog shared. [Translation: Even though we were hit by a typhoon there, it is the true spirit of the Cordilleran to make sure nobody is left behind. We felt that during Ompong that's why we brought it here.] In September, following the wrath of typhoon "Ompong", a landslide buried 100 people who were seeking refuge in a bunkhouse-turned-church. 91 bodies were retrieved but nine remained missing before search and retrieval operations were temporarily suspended on September 30. Gayog said they are having a difficult time rescuing survivors in the landslide area of Natonin since its point of impact was more widespread than in Itogon. "Doon sa Itogon, iisa lang na lugar. Ito kalat-kalat. Sobrang mahirap. Kita niyo kanina yung na-rescue namin, hirap na hirap kami kasi naipit siya. Maraming bakal, maraming poste," he described. [Translation: In Itogon it was only one place, here it is widespread. It's really difficult. You can see the ones we've rescued, we had trouble because they were trapped. There were lots of metal and posts.] Search and retrieval operations in Natonin were extended until Friday upon the recommendation of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD). OCD-CAR Regional Director Ruben Carandang said they are expecting more groups and equipment to arrive on Tuesday. "The new or fresh search and retrieval groups or organization will be coming from Tuguegarao and Isabela. Care of Director Balao of OCD Region 2. They will be coming here by Tuesday," he told CNN Philippines. Lt.Col. Narciso Nabulneg, Commander of the 54TH Infantry Battalion stationed at a neighboring barangay, added that they still have to inspect the rest of the building that was buried in the debris, before they call efforts off. "Hindi pa nagagalaw yung mismong site ng building, yung first floor. Out of six floors, yung first floor ang naiwan. Parating pa lang ngayon ang heavy equipment kaya ngayon pa lang sisimulan," Nabulneg said. [Translation: The first floor of the building has not been moved yet. Out of six floors, the first floor is left. The heavy equipment are just about to arrive so we have yet to begin inspecting it.] The search, rescue and retrieval operations now go as far as Sifu River in the neighboring town, Paracelis. CNN Philippines' correspondent Gerg Cahiles contributed to this report. You are here: Travel Flash The number of Chinese visitors to Australia has grown 13 percent in a single year, latest data showed. The latest International Visitor Survey (IVS), released by Tourism Research Australia (TRA) on Friday evening, revealed that a record-high 1.3 million Chinese people visited Australia in the 12 months to June 2018. The 1.3 million visitors spent 11.3 billion Australian dollars ($8.1 billion) in the country, up 15 percent from the previous year. According to the IVS, Chinese visitors accounted for 81 percent of the growth in tourism spending for the year. The total number of international visitors was 8.4 million, up 5 percent, and the total spending was 42.5 billion Australian dollars ($30.6 billion), up 6 percent. Chinese visitors spent an average of 8,692 Australian dollars ($6,262) during their visit to Australia, doubling the 4,394 Australian dollars ($3,166) spent by other foreign visitors on average. New South Wales, Australia's most populous state and home of Sydney, was the most popular destination with 4.3 million international visitors spending 10.5 billion Australian dollars ($7.58 billion) in the state. The island state of Tasmania experienced the biggest growth in both visitors and visitor spending, both figures rising 21 percent from the previous year. Concerning for the Northern Territory (NT), which has actively tried to attract more Chinese visitors, was that the number of visitors fell 7 percent and the visitor spending dropped 15 percent. The NT government in April launched direct flights from the territory to China for the first time in the form of a Donghai Airlines flight from Shenzhen to Darwin. But the tourism gains derived from the new flight corridor have been offset by Malaysian Airlines, Air Asia Indonesia and Philippine Airlines abandoning the NT. "While we understand why the numbers are down, we think the future is much brighter than what the current numbers reveal," NT Airports chief executive Ian Kew told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, referring to opportunities brought by growing Chinese tourists. Flash An exhibition of digital copies of China's Palace Museum artifacts held in Los Angeles Saturday has offered U.S. audience an opportunity to feast on Chinese culture. Over 30 copies of the Palace Museum artifacts were on display for American audience at the Beverly Hills City Hall, including calligraphy and paintings back to Sui, Song and Ming dynasties. The audience could, by using a smart phone APP called Artivive, view 3D animation of the artifacts and hear their stories in both Chinese and English languages, presented by AR technology. Wang Jin, cultural consul of the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles, said the artifacts in the Palace Museum are not only treasures of the Chinese nation, but also cultural heritage of the whole world. She voiced her hope that the audience would appreciate the beauty of the Palace Museum and the Chinese culture through the exhibition. "I have been to China many times, and I am a fan of the Palace Museum," said Jesse Weiner, who works at a local law firm. He said he was very excited to see the digital copies of works of the Palace Museum, and expected to see more exhibitions about the Chinese culture in the United States. Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who will attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) opening Monday in Shanghai. Xi said this year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries. China and Vietnam should uphold the tradition of close high-level exchanges between both parties and states, press for the dovetail of China's Belt and Road Initiative and Vietnam's "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" plan and confirm priority areas in cooperation, Xi said. As China's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, Vietnam will participate in the first China International Import Expo as a guest of honor, Xi said, stressing China will import more Vietnam products that are marketable in the Chinese market. Xi also said both sides should work together to maintain maritime peace and stability, and advance maritime cooperation. Phuc said Vietnam will engage in pragmatic cooperation with China and enhance connectivity of the Belt and Road Initiative and the "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" plan. The international import expo shows China's commitment to opening up and free trade, Phuc said, adding that Vietnam will properly address maritime issues according to the consensus and principles reached by the leaders of both countries. Aluminum Alloys Market Revenue & Growth Analysis 2024 By Top Players United Company RUSAL Plc, Rio Tinto Alcan, Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd., and Alcoa Inc Aluminum Alloys Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1527 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1527 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/aluminum-alloys-market https://www.gminsights.com Aluminum alloys market, based on product types, is segmented into wrought and cast alloys. Wrought alloys will likely have a considerable share owing to its superior strength and lighter weight than cast alloys. They find major applications in the automotive and aerospace industries.Aluminum alloys market application segments are categorized into construction, transportation, packaging, electrical, machinery, and others including consumer goods, etc. Construction industry, driven by the increasing need for shelters for the continuously growing population in the urban areas, will generate revenue above USD 35 billion in 2024.Request sample copy of this report @According to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. Aluminum Alloys Market size is slated to cross USD 150 billion by 2024Aluminum alloys market is primarily dependent on the availability of aluminum along with other alloying materials including zinc, copper, magnesium, manganese, tin, etc. Fluctuation in the prices of aluminum owing to its application in various end-user industries may inhibit global aluminum alloys market growth in coming seven years. Price volatility of other alloying elements such as copper, zinc, and magnesium due to competitive market may also pose hindrances to the industry growth.Rising air travel trends for domestic as well as international commuting and rising global trade activities will boost the aluminum alloys demand in the aviation industry. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), number of flyers witnessed a steep increase from less than 3 billion in 2011 to more than 3.7 billion in 2016 and this number will double over the next two decades. U.S., China, and UK accounted for majority of the total with more than 1 billion flyers in 2016, but India is likely to surpass UK and other countries including Germany, Japan, and Indonesia in the coming years. Annual delivery of commercial aircrafts is gradually increasing to successfully serve the high number of flyers, hence propelling the overall aluminum alloys market.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Rapidly rising population and increasing urbanization in the BRICS nations will be an important driver for the global product market during the forecast years. These nations are gradually shifting their focus towards investments for industrial developments in order to create job opportunities to the increasing number of young as well as middle age population. Government initiatives to develop the infrastructure and housings in these countries, especially in China and India, will further catalyze the aluminum alloys market growth.The construction industry was worth beyond USD 3 trillion in 2016 in the BRICS countries and this number will reach close to USD 8 trillion by 2024. Growing usage of advanced materials in building construction as well as infrastructures such as flyovers and bridges will drive the global aluminum alloys market in the near future.Asia Pacific will hold sway the global aluminum alloys market, accounting for more than two-third of the overall share in 2024. High growth in manufacturing and construction industries in China, Japan, and India will augment the regional growth during the forecast period.Browse Report Summery @Some key aluminum alloys market participants include Rio Tinto Alcan, Alcoa, United Company RUSAL, Aluminum Corporation of China, Constellium, Aluminium Bahrain, Kobe Steel, Norsk Hydro, Dubai Aluminium Company, Kaiser Aluminum Corporation, Aleris International, UACJ Corporation, ERAMET, Magna International Inc., and IBC Advanced Alloys Corp.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: Glass Reinforced Plastic Piping Market 2018 Global Research & Top Manufacturers: HOBAS, Plasticon Composites, China National Building Material Company, Sarplast SA, TECHNOBELL Ltd., etc. Glass Reinforced Plastic Piping Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2696 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2696 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/glass-reinforced-plastic-grp-piping-market https://www.gminsights.com According to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. Glass Reinforced Plastic) Piping Market size will surpass USD 8 billion by 2024.Few significant players in the glass reinforced plastic piping market include: HOBAS, Plasticon Composites, China National Building Material Company, SUPERLIT Boru San. Sarplast SA, TECHNOBELL Ltd., etc.Request for a sample copy of this report @Glass reinforced plastic piping market will have high demand in wastewater treatment area in the next 7 years. Only 2% of the 165 billion m3 of wastewater that is collected and treated throughout the world is currently reused. Managing storm water and urban wastewater have been highly challenging, wherein Glass reinforced plastic piping market will prove to be a sustainable solution by 2024.Irrigation increases crop yields by 2-5 times and about 40% of the worlds food comes from irrigated agriculture. Irrigation will be another significant segment propelling the overall glass reinforced plastic piping market in the near future.Vinyl ester resins will observe the significant gains surpassing CAGR 5% in global Glass reinforced plastic piping market by 2024. These are less absorbent of water than polyester resins due to a more tightly bonded structure of the side groups and are suitably used in the organic solvent environments. Vinyl ester-based Glass reinforced plastic piping market are used mainly in the aboveground applications with temperature up to 850C. Polyester resins glass reinforced plastic piping market held a share close to 30% in 2017. These are used instead of vinyl ester and epoxy resins in some cases for their low cost and a faster curing time.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Sustainability will essentially be the foundation of the future piping industry. Glass reinforced plastic piping market have been emerged as the optimal solution which not only involve innovative engineering, but increase the investment returns, as compared to the conventional pipe materials. These glass reinforced plastic pipes combine the benefits of durability, strength and corrosion resistance, and offer great design flexibility. These pipes are 10 times lighter as compared to concrete and result in an improved efficiency with lesser stresses, superior mechanical and chemical properties.Glass reinforced plastic piping market meet the most stringent requirements as far as the chemical resistance and mechanical strength are considered. A recent study by the Norwegian University of Life Sciences concluded that on account of the high efficiency of Glass reinforced plastic piping market, they have a minimal negative environmental effect, in contrast to the other pipe materials. Such trends will encourage glass reinforced plastic piping market growth by 2024.Hydropower has been the foremost renewable source of generating electricity across the globe, supplying as high as 71% of the renewable electricity. In 2016, about 16.4% of the global electricity was generated by hydropower, thereby reaching 1,064 GW of installed capacity. In hydroelectric power plant projects, pipe installations are realized in rough and steeply inclined terrain conditions.Glass reinforced plastic piping market are easier to transport to, stow and install in such areas as they are much lighter than other products. Moreover, Glass reinforced plastic piping market pipes resistance against water hammer pressure is higher than steel and ductile pipes, as they absorb 40% of the additional pressure. The Glass reinforced plastic piping market will witness substantial demand from the power sector by 2024.Browse Complete Summary of this report @The escalation in demand for Glass reinforced plastic piping market shall be associated with higher manufacturing waste in the coming years. The waste disposal concerns in turn might hamper the overall glass reinforced plastic piping market growth during the forecast timeframe.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: Danone Dairy, General Mills, Profiled In Non-dairy Ice Cream Market Forecast 2018-2024 | Top Players - Unilever, NadaMoo, Booja-Booja, Trader Joe's Non-Dairy Ice Cream Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-toc/upcoming/1786 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/non-dairy-ice-cream-market https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1786 https://www.gminsights.com http://algosonline.com/news Non-Dairy Ice Cream Market Worth Over USD 1 billion by 2024. Growing vegan population along with inclination towards healthy lifestyles are among key factors propelling the non-dairy ice cream market growth. Increasing consumer spending on desserts, confectionery and other functional food items will support the industry demand. Rising awareness regarding lactose intolerance will further fuel the business development.Request Sample Copy of This Report @Company Profiles1. Unilever2. General Mills3. Danone Dairy4. Booja Booja5. Tofutti Brands Inc.6. HAPPY COW DAIRY COMPANY PRIVATE LIMITED.7. Bliss Unlimited8. Eden Creamery LLC.9. Over The Moon10. Swedish Glace11. Dream12. NadaMoo13. Van Leeuwen14. Trader Joe'sShifting consumer preference towards innovative products and flavors due to changing social trends will drive the non-dairy ice cream market size. Technological advancements in machineries and product innovations using avocado and hemp milk will augment the product adoption. Increasing raw material availability along with convenient production process are among major factors supporting the industry growth.Coconut milk accounted for over 30% of the global non-dairy ice cream market share in 2017. Significant health benefits, ease in production along with texture compatibility are among key factors driving the product demand. Rising count of brands offering coconut-based products has enhanced the industry demand. However, almond milk is expected to witness higher CAGR owing to changing taste preferences and increasing number of product launches.Rising penetration of renowned brands in non-dairy ice cream segment to gain competitive advantage will propel the industry demand. Innovative fruit-based flavor offerings through new product launches to improve consumer base are among key trends among manufacturers. Expanding distribution networks coupled with attractive packaging will boost the product penetration during the forecast timeframe. However, changing raw material costs along with relatively high product prices may hinder the industry growth.Browse key industry insights spread across 300 pages with 373 market data tables & 13 figures & charts from the report, Non-Dairy Ice Cream Market Size By Source (Coconut Milk, Almond Milk, Cashew Milk, Soy Milk), By Flavor (Vanilla, Chocolate, Butter Pecan, Strawberry, Neapolitan, Cookies & Cream, Mint Choco Chip, Caramel), By Product (Impulse, Artisanal, Take Home), By Form (Singles, Blends), By Distribution Channel (Supermarkets, Convenience Stores, Food & Drink Specialists, Restaurants, Online Stores) Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia, Spain, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, UAE, Saudi Arabia), Growth Potential, Price Trend, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018 2024 in detail along with the table of contents:Chocolate flavor is projected to witness CAGR at over 14.5% from 2018 to 2024. Extensive product offerings with multiple chocolate flavor variants including dark chocolate and chocolate chips is proliferating the non-dairy ice cream market. However, flavor portfolio largely varies on country level, due to changing taste preferences. For instance, lemon-based flavors are highly prevalent in specific European countries.Artisanal products are expected to witness significant growth rate during the forecast timeframe. Growing disposable incomes coupled with increasing number of artisanal franchisees particularly in emerging economies is fueling the segment growth. Whereas take home segment dominates the non-dairy ice cream market due to shifting preference for off-premise consumption. High product availability through supermarkets particularly in developed regions along with penetration of online stores will support the industry growth.Blended flavors are anticipated to register over 20 million liters demand by 2024. Flavor innovations along with rising consumer spending on premium flavors majorly in North America and Europe will supplement the business revenue. Increasing consumer preference for mint choco chip, cookies & cream, neapolitan, and mocha chocolate has stimulated the non-dairy ice cream demand.Supermarkets will register sales at over USD 400 million by 2024. Changing shopping trends along with inclination towards one stop shopping has stimulated the supermarket counts globally. Rising demand for take home products is significant factor supporting the segment share. Multiple brand availability along with competitive costs are among key factors positively influencing the industry demand.Europe non-dairy ice cream market is expected to witness CAGR at over 14% from 2018 to 2024. Higher vegan products demand owing to rising health consciousness and growing vegan population are primary factors driving the regional industry growth. Large number of products launches among European as well as global brands mainly including Ben & Jerrys, Swedish Glace, and Booja Booja will support the industry demand.Global non-dairy ice cream market share is highly fragmented with presence of both regional and global companies. Notable players include General Mills, Unilever, Talenti, Booja Booja, Danone, Tofutti Brands, Bliss Unlimited LLC, Swedish Glace, and NadaMoo. Merger & acquisitions along with product innovations are among key strategies adopted by manufacturers. For instance, in April 2017, Danone completed acquisition of WhiteWave Foods, an American packaged food manufacturer to expand its industry share.Inquiry before buying @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 @ Insurance Market Is Booming Worldwide | ENSA Seguros de Angola, AAA Seguros SA Insurance Market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/request-discount/1378194-the-insurance-industry-5 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1378194-the-insurance-industry-5 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1378194-the-insurance-industry-5 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1378194 https://www.linkedin.com/company/13388569/ https://www.facebook.com/htfmarketintelligence/ https://twitter.com/htfmarketreport https://plus.google.com/u/0/+NidhiBhawsar-SEO_Expert?rel=author A new independent 107 page research with title 'The Insurance Industry in Angola, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2022' guarantees you will remain better informed than your competition. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions and important players/vendors such as ENSA Seguros de Angola, AAA Seguros SA, Saham Angola Seguros, Global Seguros SA, Nova Sociedade de Seguros de Angola SA, Mundial Seguros SA, Garantia Seguros SA, Tranquilidade - Corporacao Angolana de Seguros, Triunfal Seguros SA, Confiance Seguros SA. With n-number of tables and figures examining the The Insurance Industry in Angola, the research gives you a visual, one-stop breakdown of the leading products, submarkets and market leaders market revenue forecasts as well as analysis to 2022Get customization & check discount for report @SummaryThe Insurance Industry in Angola, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2022HTF MI "The Insurance Industry in Angola, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2022", report provides detailed analysis of the market trends, drivers and challenges in the Angolan insurance industry.It provides key performance indicators such as written premium and claims during the review period (2013-2017) and forecast period (2017-2022).The report also analyzes distribution channels operating in the segment, gives a comprehensive overview of the Angolan economy and demographics, and provides detailed information on the competitive landscape in the country.The report brings together HTF MI research, modeling and analysis expertise, giving insurers access to information on segment dynamics and competitive advantages, and profiles of insurers operating in the country. The report also includes details of insurance regulations, and recent changes in the regulatory structure.Inside this report, we look at the top themes, its predictions and identify winners and losers.This report provides in-depth market analysis, information and insights into the Angolan insurance industry, including -- The Angolan insurance industry's growth prospects by segment and category- A comprehensive overview of the Angolan economy and demographics- Details of the competitive landscape in the Angolan insurance industry- The various distribution channels in the Angolan insurance industry- Details of regulatory policy applicable to the Angolan insurance industry- Analysis of natural hazards in the Angolan insurance industryKey Highlights- As of March 2018, the insurers operate through 98 branches, 36 agencies and 340 brokers in the country.- In 2016 and 2017, insurers in association with ARSEG conducted annual financial literacy campaigns in Angola.- In 2016, ARSEG, in association with the Ministry of Finance, announced the establishment of the countrys first domestic reinsurer, the National Reinsurance Company (AngoRe).Request a sample report @ScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the insurance industry in Angola -- It provides historical values for the Angolan insurance industry for the reports 2013-2017 review period, and projected figures for the 2017-2022 forecast period.- It offers a detailed analysis of the key segments in the Angolan insurance industry, with market forecasts to 2022.- It covers an exhaustive list of parameters, including written premium and claims.- It analyzes the various distribution channels in Angola.- It profiles the top insurance companies in Angola, and outlines the key regulations affecting them.Reasons to buy- Make strategic business decisions using in-depth historic and forecast market data related to the Angolan insurance industry and each segment and category within it.- Understand the demand-side dynamics, key market trends and growth opportunities in the Angolan insurance industry.- Assess the competitive dynamics in the Angolan insurance industry.- Identify the growth opportunities and market dynamics in key segments.- Gain insights into key regulations governing the Angolan insurance industry and their impact on companies and the industry's future.Companies Mentioned in the ReportENSA Seguros de AngolaAAA Seguros SASaham Angola SegurosGlobal Seguros SANova Sociedade de Seguros de Angola SAMundial Seguros SAGarantia Seguros SATranquilidade - Corporacao Angolana de SegurosTriunfal Seguros SAConfiance Seguros SAView Detailed Table of Content @Table of Contents1 Key Facts and Highlights2 Executive Summary3 Economy and Demographics4 Industry Outlook4.1 Industry Indicators4.1.1 Direct written premium4.1.2 Insurance density4.1.3 Gross claims5 Life Insurance Outlook5.1 Segment Indicators5.1.1 Direct written premium5.1.2 Gross claims5.1.3 Penetration6 General Insurance Outlook6.1 Segment Indicators6.1.1 Direct written premium6.1.2 Gross claims6.1.3 Penetration6.2 Property Insurance6.2.1 Direct written premium6.2.2 Penetration6.2.3 Claims6.3 Motor Insurance6.3.1 Direct written premium6.3.2 Penetration6.3.3 Claims6.4 Liability Insurance6.4.1 Direct written premium6.4.2 Penetration6.4.3 Claims6.5 Marine, Aviation and Transit Insurance6.5.1 Direct written premium6.5.2 Penetration6.5.3 Claims6.6 Personal Accident and Health Insurance6.6.1 Direct written premium6.6.2 Penetration6.6.3 Claims6.7 Miscellaneous6.7.1 Direct written premium6.7.2 Penetration6.7.3 Claims....ContinuedPlace a Purchase Order for this Market Study (Single User License) at:Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact US :Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218sales@htfmarketreport.comConnect with us at Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Market 2018 SWOT Analysis by Major Eminent Players: Abbott Diagnostics, Quest Diagnostics and Roche Holding AG Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Market https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report-sample/HC10279 https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report/carcinoembryonic-antigen-cea-market https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/check-discount/HC10279 A research study titled, Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Market by Application - Global Industry Analysis and Forecast to 2022 published by Crystal Market Research, states that the Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Market Is Projected To Be Around $2.51 Billion By 2025.Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Market Industry Trend AnalysisThe Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Market was worth USD 1.36 billion in the year of 2012 and is expected to reach approximately USD 2.51 billion by 2022, while registering itself at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.64% during the forecast period. The Global carcinoembryonic antigen market is anticipated to encounter significant development over the estimate time on account of factors like increasing predominance of cancer and the advancement of novel biomarkers. Evaluations distributed by the World Health Organization, recommend that in 2012, the overall cancer occurrences were almost 14.1 Million, which included 7.4 million male and 6.7 million female patients. The world Age-Standardized (AS) rate reflects that there are about 205 new cases of cancer for each 100,000 men globally, and 165 for each 100,000 women.Access sample copy of this report @Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Market Regional AnalysisLeading regional segments in of carcinoembryonic antigen market are Latin America, Europe, MEA, Asia Pacific and North America. The global market was dominated by North America on the basis of revenue in 2014 with a share of 46.3 percent due to high occurrence rates of cancer, existence of advanced healthcare framework and increasing awareness in patients. The existence of undiscovered opportunities, continuously enhancing healthcare framework, monetary improvement, and growing awareness in patients are a few elements representing this fast development. Moreover, yearly rates of colorectal cancer all around are more than 1 million and this rate is additionally anticipated to increase. The death rate recorded was around 490,000 of every 1990 and 715,000 out of 2010. Asia Pacific holds the most elevated rate of mortality, joined by North America. As indicated by the information distributed by the American Cancer Society in 2013, it has been assessed that the death rate of all types of cancers has kept on declining which began in mid-1990s. Asia Pacific has had a major influence on the market on the basis of cancer occurrence rates that affect a vast population at a rate that is changeable in 2012.Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Market Competitive InsightsMajor players in the market are Abbott Diagnostics, Quest Diagnostics and Roche Holding AG. Industry competition levels for this market are relied upon to stay at a respectably high level amid the estimate time frame. The market is united in nature and is therefore, set apart by a broad existence of acquisitions and mergers. These efforts are relied upon to raise the level of competition among key players. Makers confront thorough cost based rivalry and are likewise under steady pressure to present new and technologically propelled items.Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) Market By Application CEA Based Pancreatic Cancer CEA Based Ovarian Cancer CEA Based Thyroid Cancer CEA Based Colorectal Cancer CEA Based Breast Cancer OthersBrowse Full Report With TOC @Key findings of the Carcinoembryonic Antigen Market Colorectal cancer was one of the biggest profit producing application section of the carcinoembryonic antigen market and in 2014. Expanding pervasiveness of colorectal disease and use of carcinoembryonic antigen tests at different stages is one of the basic variables representing its substantial share. For example, in 2012, new instances of colorectal cancer were assessed to be more than 93,000 and passing because of colorectal cancer is required to be more than 49,700 in the United States alone. Carcinoembryonic antigen based breast cancer determination is distinguished as the most lucrative application fragment of the market. The market is driven by components, for example, developing number of female populace over 50 years, developing interest for cosmetic surgeries and Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). Besides, developing levels of awareness in patients and the existence of supportive government activities are relied upon to enhance treatment rates over the estimate time frame. In 2014 North America was the biggest regional market attributable to the existence of high frequency rates, good repayment structure, and high customer awareness levels combined with generally higher human services consumption levels. Asia Pacific is foreseen to witness significant development over the figure time frame. The existence of undiscovered opportunities, continuously enhancing human services systems, monetary advancement, and enhancing awareness levels of patient are a few elements representing this fast development.To avail discount, please click on the link @About Crystal Market Research:Crystal Market Research is a U.S. based market research and business intelligence company. Crystal offers one stop solution for market research, business intelligence, and consulting services to help clients make more informed decisions. It provides both syndicated as well as customized research studies for its customers spread across the globe. The company offers market intelligence reports across a broad range of industries including healthcare, chemicals & materials, technology, automotive, and energy.Contact:Crystal Market ResearchJudy304 South Jones Blvd, Suite 1896,Las Vegas NV 89107,United StatesToll Free: +1-888-213-4282Email: sales@crystalmarketresearch.com Veterinary Drugs Market Boost the Global Industry with Top Vendors (Bayer AG., Ceva Sante Animale, Elanco Animal Health (Eli Lilly and Company), Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH) https://www.reportconsultant.com/request_sample.php?id=1649 https://www.reportconsultant.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=1649 https://www.reportconsultant.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=1649 www.reportconsultant.com The rising popularity of a variety of companion animals and so the growing demand for several meat product are thought of because the key factors that square measure anticipated to encourage the growth of the world Veterinary Drugs Market within the next few years. in addition to this, the growing financial gain of customers, significantly in developing economies has further allowed a significant rise among the expenditure on animal care, that's probably going to accelerate the growth of the market in the close to future.The Geographical sector of the Veterinary Drugs Market Research Report 2018 comprises the leading regions in the market during the forecast tenure. Facts and figures that are given on the region leading this market are some of the features emphasized under this section of the report. The competitive landscape section of the statistical report presents information on major key players in the United States Veterinary Drugs Market. On the basis of product profile, introductions, SWOT analysis and contact information, these key players are selected.Get a Sample Report: @Veterinary Drugs Market Segmentation:Application:- Private Clinic- Nursing Home- Hospital- Personal CareProduct Type:- Anti-infective- Anti-inflammatory- ParasiticidesAnimal:- Companion- LivestockRoute of Distribution:- Oral- Parenteral- TopicalRegion:- North America- EU- China- Japan- Southeast Asia- India- South America- Middle East and AfricaKey Players:- Merck & Co.Inc.- Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC.- Virbac- VetoquinolEnquiry before Buying: @This surveyed report is collated by conducting both primary as well as secondary research. The data comprised in the Veterinary Drugs Market Research report has been consulted from top industry leaders and the topmost sectors of the market have been underlined. These sectors have been offered by giving numbers on their projected state by the end of the prognosis.Table of Contents:Chapter 1. Veterinary Drugs Market OverviewChapter 2. Veterinary Drugs Market Competition by Players / SuppliersChapter 3. Sales and revenue by regionsChapter 4. Sales and revenue by TypeChapter 5. Veterinary Drugs Market Sales and revenue by ApplicationChapter 6. Market Players profiles and sales dataChapter 7. Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 8. Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Down Stream BuyersChapter 9. Veterinary Drugs Market Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 10. Veterinary Drugs Market effective factors AnalysisChapter 11. Market Size and ForecastGet a Discount of 30% on Buying this Report: @If you need anything more than these then let us know and we will prepare the report according to your requirement.About Company:Report Consultant, The Global Ruler in Analytic, Research and Advisory which will encourage you to renovate your business and reshape your approach. With us you can take courageous decision for your business. Using variety of methods and experienced skills we provide you the appropriate analysis figures.You will have a great experience of innovative solutions and outcomes with our Reports. Our Business is spreading all over the world with our Market Research reports and Digital Transformation skills. Thus, we provide greater value for clients by presenting advanced opportunities in the Global Market.Contact us:Rebecca Parker(Report Consultant)Akasaka biz tower,5-3-1 akasaka minato-ku,Tokyo, JapanContact No- +81-368444299sales@reportconsultant.com Biopharmaceuticals Market Comprehensive Analysis 2018 & 2019: GSK, Roche, Biogen, Bayer, Abbott, Amgen, Biogen, Amgen, AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Biopharmaceuticals Market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-biopharmaceuticals-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-biopharmaceuticals-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/speak-to-analyst/?dbmr=global-biopharmaceuticals-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-biopharmaceuticals-market There are several brands and key players that are driving the Biopharmaceuticals Market and in turn changing the face of Biopharmaceuticals industry. This report consists of several Company profiles of the key players which give an idea about what actual markets trends are as well as letting you know about all the recent product launches, their researches, joint ventures, merges, and accusations are by them, so that you stay ahead of the curve in this competitive Biopharmaceuticals Market.For In-Depth Review | Get Sample Copy@Biopharmaceuticals Market is expected to growing at a CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2014 & 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.Key Developments in the Market: In January 2018, AbbVie Inc. which is one of the major key players has a Bioresearch Center in Worcester, Massachusetts where scientists are forging a new path for treating autoimmune diseases. Their vision is a bold one. To stop autoimmune diseases in their tracks. To discover the true cause of these diseases. In August 2017, Abbkine launched released its latest antibody named the Anti--Tubulin Monoclonal Antibody (3G5). The product joins the illustrious list of scientific tools and products from the research giant. The antibody has a recombinant protein that is immune with human, mouse and rat reactivity. The different applications of the antibody include IF, IHC, IP, WB and users are advised to determine the best working dilutions after series of experiments.Market Key Competitors: Abbvie Inc., Amgen Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Eli Lily & Co., Johnson & Johnson, Novartis AG, Novo Nordisk Inc., Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc., Roche Holding AG, Biogen Idec, Bayer AG, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Abbott Laboratories, Amgen Inc. Biogen Idec among others.Competitive Analysis:The global biopharmaceuticals market is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of biopharmaceuticals market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South AmericaTable Of Contents: Introduction. Research Methodologies. Premium Insights Executive Summary Market Trends. Market Segmentation Biopharmaceuticals Market -By Product Type Biopharmaceuticals Market -By Application Biopharmaceuticals Market -By Type Biopharmaceuticals Market -By Region Market Key Company Analysis By:o Business overviewo Biopharmaceuticals Sales & Forecasto Recent Developments / Strategy Market Driving Factors Market Challenges Market Opportunist Related ReportsGet Detail TOC For More Insight @Drivers and Restraints: Increasing acceptance for biopharmaceuticals Ability of biopharmaceuticals to treat previously untreatable diseases Huge market demand Increasing demand for affordable biopharmaceuticals High-end manufacturing requirements Complicated and cumbersome regulatory requirementsSTRATEGIC KEY INSIGHTS OF THE REPORT: Facilitates decision making in view of noteworthy and gauging information also the drivers and limitations available of the market. Competitors In this section, various Biopharmaceuticals industry leading players are studied with respect to their company profile, product portfolio, capacity, price, cost, and revenue. Analytical Tools Biopharmaceuticals Market report consists the precisely studied and evaluated information of the key players and their market scope using several analytical tools, including SWOT analysis, Porters five forces analysis, investment return analysis, and feasibility study. These tools have been used to efficiently study the growth of the major industry participants. Production Analysis Production of the Patient Handling Equipment is analyzed with respect to different regions, types and applications. Here, price analysis of various Biopharmaceuticals Market key players is also covered. Sales and Revenue Analysis Both, sales and revenue are studied for the different regions of the Biopharmaceuticals Market. Another major aspect, price, which plays an important part in the revenue generation, is also assessed in this section for the various regions. Supply and Consumption In continuation of sales, this section studies supply and consumption for the Biopharmaceuticals Market. This part also sheds light on the gap between supply and consumption. Import and export figures are also given in this part. The 360-degree Biopharmaceuticals overview based on a global and regional level Market share, value, volume, and production capacity is analyzed on global, regional and country level A complete and useful guide for new market aspirants Other analysis Apart from the information, trade and distribution analysis for the Biopharmaceuticals Market.Speak To Industry Experts, Request For Details Report@Biopharmaceuticals Market Segments:The global biopharmaceuticals market is segmented based on: product type, application, geographical segments,On the basis of product type the global biopharmaceuticals market is classified into: monoclonal antibodies, recombinant growth factors, purified proteins, recombinant proteins, recombinant hormones, synthetic immunomodulators, and vaccines.On the basis of application the market is segmented into: inflammatory infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, metabolic disorders, hormonal disorders, disease prevention, cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases, other diseases.On the basis of Key Stakeholders market is segmented into: Biopharmaceuticals Manufacturers Biopharmaceuticals Distributors/Traders/Wholesalers Biopharmaceuticals Subcomponent Manufacturers Industry Association Downstream VendorsBased on geography: North America & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa.Note: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Make an Inquiry for Discount On this Report@About Us:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-281Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com North America Microgrid Market Growth Rate Analysis By GE, ABB, Schneider Electric, Alstom, Siemens, Honeywell, Caterpillar Inc, Tesla, Virdity Energy Solutions, EnSync Inc, Toshiba, Hitachi, Advanced Microgrid Solutions https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/1230587/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/1230587/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/north-america-microgrid-market https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/united-states-energy-storage-battery-for-microgrid-market-report-2017/?utm_source=RR&utm_medium=DC https://www.marketstudyreport.com MarketStudyReport.com offers 2018 report on North America Microgrid market that evaluates industry growth trends through historical data and estimates future prospects based on comprehensive research. The report extensively provides the market share, growth, trends and forecasts for the period 2018-2024.North America Microgrid Market is predicted to reach over USD 7 billion by 2024. Aging grid infrastructure coupled with stringent government policies toward adoption of sustainable power technologies will stimulate North America microgrid market. Economic competitiveness, low power cost & transmission losses and reliability are key the parameters that will encourage the product penetration. In addition, ongoing funding toward the development of distributed generation technology will enhance the industry landscape.Eminent participants in the North America microgrid market include GE, ABB, Schneider Electric, Alstom, Siemens, Honeywell, Caterpillar Inc, Tesla, Virdity Energy Solutions, EnSync Inc, Toshiba, Hitachi, Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Lockheed Martin, Exelon and Power Analytics Corporation.Request a sample of this premium report at:Increasing high-end power consumption across the industries on account of development of new HVAC systems and heavy load machineries will foster the microgrid market. Growing electricity demands across hospitals, retail outlets, automotive, manufacturing operations, offices and industries will encourage product penetration across commercial and industrial application. For instance, as per EIA, the commercial and industrial sector in 2017 accounted about 4.5% and 22.4 % of the primary energy consumption respectively.Ongoing adoption of captive power plants across the manufacturing and industrial sector for ensuring regulated power production will foster North America microgrid market. Increasing investment toward the expansion of decentralized grid coupled with rising investments for the expansion of infrastructure and power sector will accelerate the business growth. For instance, in 2016, the government of Canada, announced an investment of about USD 900 million were financed toward installation of numerous energy sources and R & D across the country.Natural gas microgrid market will grow on account of stringent government measures pertaining to the adoption of lower emission fuel as a replacement for conventional fuel sources. Ongoing investment toward exploration of unconventional fuel reserves owing to escalating gas demand will enhance the industry outlook. Amren Corporation in 2017, developed an advanced microgrid which utilizes, solar, natural gas and wind energy as a source along with an integrated battery storage and automation system.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Canada microgrid market is predicted to reach deployment of over 400 MW capacity by 2024. Growing electricity demand across remote and off grid areas along with upsurge in investments toward the adoption of clean energy technology will complement the business growth. Furthermore, ongoing development of distributed energy sources to minimize the dependency on conventional grid will enhance the industry outlook. In 2016 Canada government made an investment of USD 2.4 billion for developing wind and solar energy sources.Flow batteries accounted for over 5% of North America microgrid market in 2017. Ongoing investment pertaining to the integration of sustainable grid coupled with innovations toward the development of cost-effective and efficient storage technologies will propel the industry growth. key features including long life cycle and higher efficiency will further encourage the product adoption over available substitutes.Complete report for 2017-2024 on North America Microgrid market is now available atRelated Report:United States Energy Storage battery for Microgrid Market Report 2017United States Energy Storage battery for Microgrid Market research report is added by Market Study report by covering all major market aspects. The report also touches the key scenarios like top players, competition, types, applications, regions, recent developments and future market predictions.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: Pulse Oximeter Market Explore with Global Top Players - CAS Medical Systems Inc., Covidien Plc, Masimo Corporation, Nihon-Kohden Corp., Nonin Medical Inc., Opto Circuits Ltd., Criticare Systems Inc., Mediaid Inc., Pulse Oximeter https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/467 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-pdf/467 Pulse oximeter is a noninvasive device used for monitoring a persons oxygen saturation (SO2). In its most common application mode, a sensor device is placed on thin part of the patient body, which is usually a fingertip or earlobe in adults and in case of infants it is placed across a foot. The pulse oximeter displays the percentage of blood that is loaded with oxygen. Pulse oximeter specifically measures the percentage of hemoglobin, the protein in blood that carries oxygen. Pulse oximeter is particularly convenient for continuous measurement of blood oxygen saturation noninvasively. Pulse oximeter can be used in any setting where patients oxygenation is not stable such as in intensive care, recovery, operating, emergency and hospital ward, pilots in unpressurized aircraft, patient at high altitude for assessment of any patients oxygenation and to determine whether there is need for supplemental oxygen. Furthermore, the simplicity of use and ability to provide continuous and immediate oxygen saturation values makes pulse oximeters of critical importance in emergency medicine or first aid.Get HOLISTIC Request Sample Copy Of This Business Report:Driving forces for the growth of pulse oximeter market in the near future:Enhancement in healthcare workers to efficiently adopt the improved and reliable detection algorithms, increasing awareness and high prevalence of diseases that require continuous monitoring are the driving forces of pulse oximeter market.Moreover, increase in aging population according to International Journal of Health Policy and Management showed periodic increase during 2004-2012 of aging associated increase in hospitalization, which was pegged at 1.03 million globally. This in turn is expected to favor growth of the pulse oximeter market. Standardization of patient monitoring in clinical practice creates a highly conducive environment for growth of the global pulse oximeter industry. Growing use of alternate care facilities and development in R&D also drives the market of pulse oximeter. However, according to National Sleep Foundation, in 2012, around 40 million people in the U.S. suffered from chronic sleep disorder which suggest the increased use of pulse oximeter.Download the PDF brochure:About Us: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 Troopers have publicly identified the man who was killed Sunday after leaving his lane on a Clackamas County highway and colliding with a truck. The Oregon State Police said 49-year-old Christopher Meyn of Lake Oswego was driving east on Oregon 212 near Damascus when he crossed into the westbound lanes and into the path of a "dump style truck" carrying a load of animal feed. He was killed in the crash. Troopers said they don't know why he crossed the centerline. Three boys in his car, a 2018 Chevrolet Suburban, were taken to hospitals for their injuries, according to the state police. Troopers didn't say how badly they were hurt. Troopers said the truck driver, 59-year-old Richard Albrecht of Gresham, was treated for minor injuries. Authorities initially responded to the crash about 7:55 a.m. -- Jim Ryan You are here: World Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday met with Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, who will attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) opening Monday in Shanghai. Xi expressed welcome to Thongloun and said that the China-Laos relationship is at its best in history. The two countries should carry out closer strategic communication and enhance exchanges on party and state governance experiences, Xi said. He said the two sides need to promote the optimizing and upgrading of practical cooperations and advance the construction of the China-Laos economic corridor. He called for efforts to ensure the smooth progress in the building of the China-Laos railway, strengthen cooperation in fields regarding people's livelihoods and disaster relief, and hold a well-organized China-Laos year of tourism next year. The president also noted that the two sides should work together to promote the Lancang-Mekong cooperation. Thongloun said major projects such as the China-Laos railway are being steadily carried out. Laos has gained practical benefits from the joint efforts in developing the Belt and Road Initiative, Thongloun said, expressing thanks to the support and help provided by the Chinese side. Deep in the heart of Old Town lives a vestige of Portland's original comedy scene. Housed at Ground Kontrol, the classic arcade, the monthly comedy showcase No Pun Intendo was a hot spot for local comics long before Portland became one of the best comedy cities in the country. November's installment of No Pun Intendo will feature Kate Murphy, Anthony Robinson, Nick Walker and Ken Hamlet. Produced by Raishawn Wickwire and hosted by Chris Johnson, No Pun Intendo is a throwback to the roots of Portland comedy, back when comedians would put up a show anywhere they could find space. More than just calling back to the boot-strap attitudes of the less professionalized comedy scene of the recent past, No Pun Intendo is a direct line to a number of the comics who put Portland on the map. "The first No Pun was actually put on by Ron Funches," Wickwire said. That was back in 2011 - later that year, Funches made his first stand-up appearance on "Conan." Funches was the first of his generation of Portland comics to move to Hollywood, and when he left, Wickwire took over his show. "Funches said the venue and show were all mine, as long as I kept the name," Wickwire said. "(Portland comedian) Whitney Streed came up with the name for him and it really is perfect." Wickwire produced the show without a permanent host for awhile before recruiting Steven Wilber, winner of the Portland's Funniest Person contest in 2014, to be the full-time host. When Wilber moved to Los Angeles, he was replaced by another Portland's Funniest Person winner, Nariko Ott. The revolving door of hosts kept up after Ott moved to New York and was replaced by veteran comedian Anthony Lopez. Earlier this year, Lopez, who co-hosted one of Portland's best weekly shows, Earthquake Hurricane, stepped away from comedy, and Wickwire found herself in a bit of a bind. One of the city's longest-running showcases was once again without a host. "I was actually beginning to panic, because over the last couple years I've taken a few steps back from the scene," Wickwire said. "Luckily I'd been paying attention to Chris for awhile." A graduate of Grant High School, Johnson is among the group of new local comedians who never knew Portland without a comedy scene. Even so, he was somewhat unaware of the history of the show he'd inherited "I didn't know a lot about Portland's comedy history in terms of where the shows were and who was operating in the scene," Johnson said. "I'd seen Ron (Funches) on Comedy Central, but when I started stand-up I didn't know he'd come up in Portland." Even if Johnson didn't know he'd been asked to take over a show started by one of Portland's most well-known comedy exports, Johnson, like Funches before him, fits right into a comedy show in an arcade. "I love talking about video games. I always try to wear something nerdy, so I'm kind of adding to the vibe of the arcade itself," Johnson said. As for whether or not he'll follow in the footsteps of the creator of No Pun Intendo and the hosts who came after him, Johnson's energy is focused on maintaining and building one of Portland's longest-running shows. "I'm still settling in to the work behind putting on a good show and trying to come up with ideas on how to make it better," Johnson said. "I want to leave it better than I found it, just in case the next host crashes it into the ground." *** No Pun Intendo When: 9:30 p.m. every third Thursday of the month. The next show is Nov. 15. Shows are 21 and older. Where: Ground Kontrol, 115 N.W. Fifth Ave., groundkontrol.com or 503-796-9364. Admission: $3, at the door We are Oregon lawyers who urge you to vote "no" on Measure 105. Measure 105 would result in civil rights violations and would not prevent crime. It would empower local law enforcement to profile our neighbors based on skin color, accent, or perceived immigration status. Measure 105 would allow local resources to be used to arrest law-abiding people, regardless of whether they are immigrants or legally present in the United States. We have witnessed the harm caused by an arrest. Criminal proceedings regularly last more than a year, are expensive, and consume significant public and private resources. The person arrested may be subjected to physical and emotional trauma, lose their job and housing, and incur substantial legal fees to prove their innocence. The family members of the person arrested can suffer emotional and economic pain, including loss of resources and support. The communities of the person arrested lose the contributions from a valuable member, leading to further disenfranchisement of immigrant communities and communities of color. Measure 105 would also further discourage immigrant survivors of domestic and sexual violence from seeking safety or legal protections. Unsurprisingly, given those facts, counties with sanctuary laws like Oregon's have lower crime and unemployment rates, higher incomes, and less poverty than counties without these types of laws. We believe that everyone has the right to be free from unwarranted government interference. Keeping Oregon's sanctuary law by voting No on 105 provides basic protections that are necessary for such freedom. Kristen A. Chambers, Northeast Portland This letter was also signed by Portland-area attorneys: J. Ashlee Albies, Lindsey Burrows, Megan Dorton, Shannon Garcia, Phil Goldsmith (retired), Sarah Hanneken, Kathy Hessler, Theresa M. Kohlhoff, Jesse Merrithew, Jane L. Moisan, Banafsheh Nazari, Francie Nevill, (inactive), Ryan Newby, Kasia Rutledge, Michael Schumann, Corinna Spencer-Scheurich and Garrett Wright BEND The family of an Oregon man killed when a cannon shell exploded in his World War II-era tank has filed a $12.8 million lawsuit. Steve Preston's family is suing Chuck Hegele, the contractor who supplied powder for the shell, The Bulletin reported. Preston, 51, and his assistant Austin Lee, 22, were killed inside Preston's 1944 M-18 Hellcat, a tank destroyer, at a gun range outside of Bend in 2015. They were attempting to fire a round when it exploded. Lee died instantly and Preston survived for 27 minutes. Both men were from Oregon City. Tim Williams, the attorney representing Preston's family said one of the reasons for the high amount the lawsuit seeks is because Preston, knew he was going to die during the nearly half-hour he lived after the explosion. Preston contracted with Hegele to supply and supervise use of ammunition for a firing demonstration being filmed for the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum in Everett, Washington, the lawsuit said. Hegele used old propellant, the lawsuit said. Hegele told the Bend newspaper Preston is responsible for his own death. He said Preston made mistakes, including overloading the shell. "I told him, 'If you put one more ounce in there, you're going to blow yourself up," Hegele said. "He put 8 more ounces in." Hegele said his insurance companies will likely settle, but for far less than $12.8 million. "Steve loved attention," Hegele said. "That's what killed him." Lee's estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit in February against Hegele and others. In 2016, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel announced he wouldn't bring charges. "We followed the evidence where it led, and at the end of the day, we do not know the cause of this explosion," he said at the time. The Associated Press A toddler died Sunday after being shot at his Baker City home, authorities say. Baker City Police said authorities responded to a home on Birch Street about 11:15 a.m. on the report of a 2-year-old boy with a gunshot wound. He died of his injuries that afternoon at a Boise, Idaho, trauma center. The county district attorney's office identified the boy as Liam Mankins. The agency said his parents, Pete Mankins and Diana Goodman, were home when he was shot. Neither police nor prosecutors have said how the boy was shot. The Baker County Major Crime Team is still investigating the incident. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday. Jim Ryan As of Monday morning, at least 40 percent of registered Oregon voters had returned ballots to their county elections offices ahead of Tuesday's general election. That's a big jump from the previous statewide turnout estimate of 32 percent, which reflected ballots tallied as of the close of business Thursday. The 8 percentage point jump reflects ballots tallied in each of Oregon's 36 counties Friday. But the bigger reason it increased so dramatically: Elections workers in the state's four most populous counties Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas and Lane toiled Saturday to process 10,000 (Lane) to 20,000 (Washington) ballots that reached their offices on Friday and Saturday. Those counties lean Democratic, which probably helps explain why Democrats held a tiny edge in turnout rates, as tallied by the Oregon Elections Division at 8:30 a.m. Monday. According to that office, 49.3 percent of registered Democrats had returned ballots compared with 49.0 percent of Republicans. Nationwide, voting has also surged at this point in the elections cycle. At least 28 states and the District of Columbia have already surpassed their total early-vote tally from the last midterms, University of Florida professor Michael McDonald told Bloomberg News. There was unusually high turnout in special and primary elections this year and that's continuing, he said. "People are engaged and voting in this election." One has to be careful when looking at early voting, however. In many cases, it can just simply be a shift in timing by people who would otherwise head to the ballot box on Election Day. However, Bloomberg reports there are indications that this year's surge isn't just cannibalizing Tuesday voters, but instead bringing out new voters who wouldn't normally vote in a midterm election. In Oregon, ballots must reach elections offices or official dropout boxes by 8 p.m. Tuesday in order to be counted. The Oregonian/OregonLive, with the state's largest team of reporters, editors and results-gatherers, will bring you complete up-to-the minute results Tuesday starting at 8 p.m. Betsy Hammond A man wanted by federal authorities shot and killed himself as agents raided a Portland home to arrest him over the weekend, authorities said Monday. Portland police detectives are investigating. The man was sought as a fugitive by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, but federal authorities haven't released his name or said why he was wanted. The man was taken to a local hospital with injuries from an apparent self-inflicted wound and died, sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive. The federal bureau was carrying out an arrest warrant at the home in the 3200 block of Southeast 174th Avenue about 7 p.m. Saturday. Portland police provided support to the ATF but weren't on the property when the federal agents tried to make the arrest, said Jason Chudy, an ATF spokesman. -- Maxine Bernstein mbernstein@oregonian.com 503-221-8212 @maxoregonian The Portland City Council is scheduled to have a public hearing on an ordinance at Mayor Ted Wheeler's request Thursday that would place new restrictions on protests in the city. The proposal, dubbed the Protest Safety Ordinance by Wheeler's office, is a direct response to the many political demonstrations that have devolved into violent street clashes in the last two years, which have caused injury and property damage and drawn unfavorable attention to Portland. If adopted, Wheeler would be allowed broad powers over when and how people may speak their minds in public. He could order demonstrators to restrict the length of a rally and order it be held at a specific place. He could limit movement within a zone of the city. And he could order public buildings be closed to curtail protesters' access to high-up vantage points, given worrying use of a public parking garage rooftop by armed protesters in August. Violators would be subject to arrest and fines. Wheeler could order the restrictions only under certain circumstances, including if protesting groups have a history of violence, or if there is a "substantial likelihood of violence" at a planned protest, according to a draft of the ordinance. Yet Wheeler's ordinance lays out no method to challenge such an order. And Wheeler has near complete power over city law enforcement personnel because he is police commissioner, though nearly all of that authority is delegated to the police chief, Danielle Outlaw. A legal challenge is all but certain to follow if the restrictions become city law. When the mayor's office announced the proposal in October, the state American Civil Liberties Union chapter said it may be unconstitutional and noted the city already has laws banning street violence. Wheeler has maintained the ordinance is a lawful tool modeled upon laws in other cities that allow officials to crack down on violent demonstrators. Passage of Wheeler's ordinance is uncertain. Only Commissioner Dan Saltzman has made statements supporting it, and the other three commissioners on the city council have made their skepticism clear in public statements. The city council is scheduled to debate Wheeler's ordinance and take public comment at 2:15 p.m. Thursday in the council chambers in City Hall. Council meetings may be watched online live at www.portlandoregon.gov/video. Gordon R. Friedman This article has been updated to reflect that the City Council will hold a hearing on the protest ordinance Thursday, but not a vote. Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who will attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai. Xi recalled the meeting between the two presidents during the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in September and the consensus reached, calling on both sides to push for new progress in deepening the comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership while implementing the outcome of the summit and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China and Kenya should maintain high-level exchanges, expand cooperation in all areas, and continue to support each other on issues involving respective core interests and major concerns, said Xi. Xi welcomed Kenyatta to the import expo and said that China is ready to help increase the added value and competitiveness of Kenyan products and expand imports from Kenya. On projects of railway construction, Xi said China is willing to work with the Kenyan side to conduct feasibility studies and hopes Kenya will provide a good business environment for Chinese companies operating there. Xi said both sides should strengthen communication and coordination in regional and international affairs and jointly defend the multilateral system and order. Kenyatta thanked China for hosting the expo, which he dubbed a major innovative move to open its market. He also thanked China for making Africa an important direction in its opening-up. He spoke highly of Xi's proposal of the BRI and his efforts in promoting the FOCAC, calling them "China's important contribution to world peace and common development." Kenya is ready to work with China in safeguarding multilateralism and the free trade system and contribute to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, said Kenyatta. Goose Creek, SC (29445) Today Clear to partly cloudy. Low near 45F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. Low near 45F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Flash Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan on Saturday met with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. Wang said that Pakistan is China's only all-weather strategic cooperative partner. The friendship between the two countries has stood the test of time and has always enjoyed strong vitality. China will continue to place Pakistan in the priority direction of neighboring diplomacy, said Wang, pledging to work with Pakistan to maintain frequent exchanges of high-level visits and meetings, strengthen strategic communication and further enrich and expand the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor construction. Wang said that China expects to strengthen communication and coordination with Pakistan on major international and regional issues, jointly safeguard the rules-based multilateral system, and constantly strengthen all-weather mutual trust and all-round cooperation so as to build closer community with a shared future between the two countries in the new era. Khan said that Pakistan is deeply proud of the bilateral friendship and always adheres to a friendly policy towards China. He said that the Pakistani side admires China's achievements in reform and development and looks forward to learning from China's experience in governance, strengthening coordination with China on international and regional affairs and continuously enriching the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership. Last Thursday after Apple's financial conference call Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Surprisingly Announces that it will no longer report iPhone, iPad or Mac Unit Data on Quarterly Financial Reports." It was obvious that Apple's revelation would be the story the day for Friday. Now Fox News has dug up a time when Steve Jobs took a swipe at Amazon.com Inc.s Kindle in 2009, by pointed out that the online retailers decision not to report unit sales of its reading device was evidence it wasnt selling many. A Fox News report cited a New York Times report wherein Steve Jobs had criticized Amazon for not reporting sales of the Kindle tablet stating that "Usually, if they sell a lot of something, you want to tell everybody." Mike Levin, co-founder of Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) told Fox News that "When Apple was doing great, unit sales told a wonderful story. Now that the story isnt so good, theyre saying, Lets change it." Amit Daryanani of RBC Capital Markets wrote in a note to investors he stated that Apples "privacy commitment now extends to iPhone unit disclosure." In an interview, he said the change means many shareholders now believe Apple is hiding something. "Its a monkey on their back." Under Apple's new CEO Tim Cook, another major shift away from Apple's co-founder positions is that Steve Jobs didn't believe in getting involved in politics to divide the Apple community whereas Cook uses the Apple brand as a shield for his personal views and agenda. A 2011 CNBC report titled "Steve Jobs Heroically Resisted Politics" touched on this topic. MacDailyNews touched on a Walt Mossberg Steve Jobs interview in 2004. The report pointed to Jobs stating: "Some people have said that I shouldnt get involved politically because probably half our customers are Republicans maybe a little less, maybe more Dell than ours. But I do point out that there are more Democrats than Mac users so Im going to just stay away from all that political stuff because that was just a personal thing. On Friday Patently Apple posted a report titled "In Samsung Country Apple Fans lined up overnight to get their hands on the latest iPhones and Apple Watch 4." The news of South Koreans lining up around the block to purchase iPhones has apparently set some heads on fire. This morning a wildly angry Korean report using anonymous wireless carrier and industry sources lashed out at Apple for not subsidizing iPhones like Samsung does. Just days after Apple's new iPhones went on sale in Korea and Apple announced another record breaking Quarter, an angry Korean report lashed out stating that "Apple is going against the South Korean governments policy to reduce consumers telecom expenses, while making huge profits in the South Korean market. An increasing number of local consumers are complaining about the companys business practices." The Korean report further stated that "Apple recently released new high-priced iPhone models -- the iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone Max. The company provides no subsidies to consumers who purchase these expensive devices. This is in stark contrast to South Korean smartphone manufacturers, who provide subsidies to consumers together with mobile carriers. The jealousy from competitors was recorded in the Korean report as well when they quoted an "industry source" complaining: "When it comes to Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, the ratio of smartphone subsidies they provide to consumers ranges from 10% to 50%," said an industry source, adding, However, Apple provides no subsidies to consumers, shifting the burden to local mobile carriers." A conveniently unanamed South Korean analyist stated that "Besides, Apple is continuing to raise the prices of the iPhones, going against the governments policy to reduce households telecom expenses. The latest iPhones are priced at almost two million won. The company is taking advantage of the Korean governments policy to reduce consumers telecom expenses. In South Korea, a mobile carrier is required to provide a discount of up to 25% when a customer purchases a smartphone at its store. The purpose of this policy is to block mobile carriers from raising the prices of their services. Apple is currently taking advantage of this policy to shift the cost burden to mobile operators. As a result, local mobile carriers are witnessing a decline in profitability while Apples profits are increasing. Under the circumstances, experts point out that the application of the policy should be limited to inexpensive phones. 'Then, mobile phone manufacturers will provide subsidies to customer who purchase their expensive phones and wasteful mobile phone consumption will be reduced on the part of consumers." The report added that "Apples business practices against the governments policy are witnessed on the Apple App Store as well. At present, controversy is heating up due to inadequate taxation on the companys annual App Store profits, which are estimated to reach one trillion won to two trillion won in the South Korean market alone. Based on international tax treaties, the South Korean government currently imposes corporate and income taxes related to Internet business profits only on business operators that have their servers in South Korea. Apples App Store servers are located abroad." An unnamed Wireless Carrier told the publication that "Apple has paid little regard to its business partners and consumers in South Korea, too. 'The company has put pressure on us by saying that it cannot allocate new iPhones unless we preorder the products a couple of years ahead.'" In the bigger picture, Patently Apple posted a report last December titled "Korean Telecoms Complain they're Unduly Pressured by Apple to pay for a new Computer System just for selling iDevices." So this is now becoming an annual complaint fest by Apple's adversaries when new iPhones are released in South Korea. It's probably worse this year because Apple's first Flagship store opened earlier this year. Witnessing the huge line-ups around the block last Friday must have had their adversaries heads pop at the wild popularity of the new iPhone line-up over those form Samsung or LG. Last year it was reported by us that Apple was under investigation by the South Korean Fair Trade Commission. You'd figure by now that if there was something illegal going on with Apple that it would have been reported on by now. As to some of their whining, Samsung has for years offered 2-for-1 sales deals to make it appear that they could compete with Apple. It's to make their "volume shipments" appear to be vastly ahead of Apple. It's a marketing ploy which has nothing to do with new subsidies in South Korea as today's Korean report suggests. Samsung has given away their phones in the U.S. as a marketing ploy for years and not because it's a U.S. government imposed demand. Two thumbs up to the Apple fans in Seoul for standing in line last Friday to pick up new iPhones and two thumbs down to Korean businesses who can't stop whining about Apple's success every year. UPDATE: Autopsy results in on hours-old infant found dead in Pa. home The death of an hours-old baby born in a home Friday in Luzerne County is under investigation by multiple agencies, according to the Citizens Voice and WNEP. The child was found deceased at a Shickshinny residence Friday evening. The baby was born Friday afternoon, state police tell the media. The baby was discovered after the mother, who was not identified in initial reports, went to a hospital in Wilkes-Barre Friday evening. After a medical exam determined she had recently given bith, authorities were called in to locate the baby, which was found dead at the Shickshinny residence. An autopsy is planned for today. Meanwhile, the Wilkes-Barre police, the Luzerne County Coroners Office and the Luzerne County District Attorneys Office are assisting with the state police investigation, which is focusing on the home were the baby was born. Flash Iran will continue selling its crude oil in the international market despite "cruel" U.S. new sanctions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday. Iran will break the sanctions imposed by Washington on Tehran in the "appropriate" way, Rouhani said shortly after a round of fresh anti-Iran sanctions by the United States took effect on Monday. "With the help of the people, and the unity that exists in our society, we have to make the Americans understand that they must not use the language of force, pressure, and threats to speak to the great Iranian nation. They must be punished once and for all," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Press TV. The U.S. officials have come to the understanding that they could not replace the Iranian oil on the market, he said, adding that even if they did not grant waivers to some countries to keep trading oil with Iran, "we would still be able to sell our oil and we have adequate capabilities to do that." All the U.S. sanctions against Iran that had been removed under the 2105 Iranian nuclear deal were returned by the United States on Friday and came into force on Monday. The U.S. embargo targets many of the country's "critical sectors" like energy, shipping, shipbuilding, and finance. Washington has accused Iran of agitating regional instability and exporting violence, which has been denied by Tehran. The U.S. President Donald Trump, who terminated the hard-won Iran nuclear accord on May 8, said that it was "one of the worst and most one-sided deals the United States has ever entered into." Once again, bottles of Pappy Van Winkle bourbons and whiskeys are up for grabs. In order to nab one, youll have to try your luck in the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Boards annual limited-release lottery. More than 2,000 of the sought-after bottles, produced by the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky, will be part of the LCBs drawing. Residents and licensees have until 11 p.m. Nov. 10 to opt into the lottery. This years lottery includes several collections, with one five-bottle set priced at about $1,900. Drawings will start the week of Nov. 12 and winners will be notified by Dec. 7. The annual Pappy Van Winkle release prompts a near-frenzy among whiskey aficionados around the nation. Fans have been known to enter raffles, wait in long lines and even risk Pappy Van Winkle scams to buy bottles. Only so many bottles are allocated annually, so they are limited and in high demand. The sough-after Rip Van Winkle bottles have led to arrests by those who turn around and resell the booze. We know our whiskey can be difficult to find, so our advice is to ask retailers in your area if they expect to receive stock, and if so, how they plan to sell it. Many retailers use a lottery or a waiting list to sell our stock. We recommend you get on as many waiting lists and enter as many lotteries as you can," the distiller advises on its website. Products in the LCB lottery include: Four packages (two for individual consumers, two for licensees) will include one each of five expressions of the 2018 Pappy release: Pappy Van Winkles Family Reserve 23 Year, Pappy Van Winkles Family Reserve 20 Year, Pappy Van Winkles Family Reserve 15 Year, Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Year, and Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Year. The price for each five-bottle package is $1,899.99. Six packages (three for individual consumers, three for licensees) will consist of four Pappy Van Winkle bottles each: Pappy Van Winkles Family Reserve 20 Year, Pappy Van Winkles Family Reserve 15 Year, Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Year, and Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Year. The price for each four-bottle package is $1,199.99. Thirty packages (15 for individual consumers, 15 for licensees) will consist of three bottles each: Pappy Van Winkles Family Reserve 20 Year, Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Year, and Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Year. The price for each three-bottle package is $999.99. Individual bottles: Four people have been displaced by an early-morning house fire in Harrisburg. The fire broke out around 3:50 a.m. today in an alley between two row homes on the 300 block of 15th St, CBS 21 is reporting. The American Red Cross is assisting the four residents. The other home was vacant, according to reports. The fire is under investigation. An explosion leveled a mansion near Philadelphia Sunday night, shaking homes around the region. Crews responded to the incident on the 600 block of Dodds Lane, Gladwyne, around 8 p.m. Sunday, NBC 10 of Philadelphia is reporting. Lower Merion police say what appears to be a gas explosion destroyed 75 percent of the house, which was undergoing renovations. The homeowners were in their guest house at the time, and no one was injured in the blast, according to reports. In a similar situation last year in Lancaster County, a UGI worker was killed and three others were injured when a house exploded in Manor Township. This incident occurred in July 2017 as UGI workers responded to a report of the odor of gas. And last week in Clarksville, a suspected methane leak was to blame for an explosion that destroyed a home and sent a family to a hospital burn unit for treatment. The Harrisburg School District said in a Facebook post that two employees at the John Harris campus are reported to have viral meningitis, but it is not a school-wide outbreak. IMPORTANT HEALTH UPDATE: Attention Parents, Guardians and Staff, Today, we learned that two employees at John Harris... Posted by Harrisburg School District on Monday, November 5, 2018 Social media posts about adults and/or students being quarantined or put in isolation at John Harris Campus are NOT true, the post states. The district said it is taking precautions and affected classrooms are being sanitized Monday. The Districts Lead School Nurse spoke in depth with the Pennsylvania Department of Health concerning this matter, the statement said. DOH recommended that we all treat this incident like any other virus. The district went on to say the DOH recommends good hand washing habits and covering coughs as the cold and flu season is here. The DOH did not say any other measures needed to be taken, and said that it is not a reportable disease, the district said. Aseptic Meningitis is a viral infection of the meninges, which is a system of membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, according to the DOH. It is common, but the DOH said almost all cases occur as an isolated event, so outbreaks are rare. Symptoms occur within one week of exposure and can include fever, headache, stiff neck and fatigue, the DOH said. Rash, sore throat and intestinal symptoms may also occur. The DOH said some of the causes of AM could be contagious person to person, while others are not, but most infections are passed through stool. People with AM should wash their hands thoroughly after using the bathroom, but isolation is not necessary. There are no specific medicines used to treat AM, the DOH said. The widow of a UGI employee who was killed in a July 2017 natural gas explosion that destroyed a Lancaster County house is suing over her husbands death. Kim Bouder of Lancaster lodged the case against Honeywell International Inc. in Philadelphia County Court, claiming a defective part made by the firm caused the blast. PPL is named as a defendant as well. Richard Bouder, 54, was killed by flying debris when the explosion occurred as he investigated a gas leak at the Manor Township home. In Kim Bouders suit, her attorneys, Ross Feller Casey LLP of Philadelphia, claim the blast can be traced to a defective T coupling made by Honeywell. That coupling connected the home to the gas supply line, the suit states. The gas was leaking from that tee, according to the suit, which also names Contractors Group Inc., the Wilkes-Barre firm that installed the tee, as a defendant. Kim Bouder claims PPL was at fault for not turning off the electricity to the home until after the blast. Honeywell takes the safety of our customers very seriously," company spokesman Scott Sayres said in responding to the suit. "We believe there is no merit to the claim and will defend ourselves vigorously in court. Last month, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissions Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement filed notice that it wants to fine UGI $2.1 million over the explosion. The investigators claim UGI failed to properly react to the leak by shutting off the gas main to the neighborhood. A 25-year-old Pennsylvania mother killed her 5-year-old daughter by pushing the child down a set of concrete stairs, Berks County officials said Monday. The announcement dovetailed with the filing of third-degree murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault and child endangerment charges against Ciara Robinson, a home health aide from Parkesburg. Investigators said scars and bruises found on the body of Robinsons daughter, Amatulah Amy McLaughlin, indicate the child had been chronically beaten for at least a year. This little girl was severely abused, culminating in her death, District Attorney Tom Hogan said. No child should have to live like this. Parkesburg police said the little girl was cold to the touch and had been dead for some time when medical crews responded to a 911 call at Robinsons Walnut Street home around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday. They said an investigation showed Robinson angrily pushed her daughter down an 9-foot-high flight of stairs. The childs head struck the concrete landing. After the incident (Robinson) notified a friend, I knocked (the victim) outShe wont wake upI am going to jail, arrest papers state. Robinsons 2-year-old son, who wasnt harmed, has been placed with a Chester County childrens agency, police said. What may have been a threat on social media has closed a Cumberland County school today. Harrisburg Academy officials said the school is closed due to a social media message one of the schools students received. The East Pennsboro Township Police are in the process of investigating the threat, Jim Newman, head of school, said in a news release today. Classes and after-school activities were canceled today in what we hope will prove to be an excess of caution, he said. The message indicated students should not go to school today and came from someone the receiving student does not know, according to the school. It may have been sent to the student inadvertently. Former Vice President Joe Biden did his best to nationalize Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District race Sunday with a searing critique of President Donald Trump and his GOP Congressional majorities. "We all know in our gut there's something different about this year's elections," Biden told a crowd of more than 1,000 who waited through the afternoon to hear him tout Democrat George Scott's candidacy in a packed concourse at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. "It's bigger than politics," Biden said, detailing what he called abuses of power by Trump that not only threaten programs like Medicare and Social Security but give license to latent racism. "This is the most important election you've ever been part of, no matter how old or how young you are," Biden said. "The very character of our nation is on the ballot ... Who we are as a people." Biden's speech, two years after he visited the region stumping for Hillary Clinton, headlined a rally that was extraordinary in itself: a top-flight national Democratic Party leader coming to central Pennsylvania to stump for a regional candidate in what has long been perceived as fly-over country for state Democrats. Never before has a Congressional candidate had a national Democratic headliner like Biden coming in primarily to bat for him. That was reserved for places like suburban Philly, or the Lehigh Valley. That's because in most of the newly drawn 10th, which encompasses all of Dauphin and parts of Cumberland and York counties, there hasn't been a Democrat representative in Congress since 1964. The race pits incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry against Scott in a new district. All recent public opinion polling has the race, while showing Perry with a lead of two or three percentage points, well within the statistical margin of error. "This just shows you that this election (for the 10th) has so much meaning at such a local level for the national direction of this country," said Michael Fedor, a state Democratic Committee member from Cumberland County. "I wonder: 'Are we really at this moment?' " Fedor continued. "But it's so exciting to see such an opportunity, and I think about all the potential that could come if George is successful on Tuesday." "I am happy to see people energized, and I am happy to see people out," but there's a lot more work to be done over the next 48 hours, cautioned Nacole Moore, a Democratic Party Committeewoman from Penbrook, Dauphin County. Sunday's event was a classic get-out-the-vote rally designed to energize the troops to talk up Scott and other Democrats with family and friends through the next two days. Biden's job was to make sure everyone understood the stakes, and in that regard he did not disappoint. "We hold these truths self-evident; that all men are created equal," Biden said, reciting from the Declaration of Independence. "We never met the standard completely. But we've never, never, never ever Democrat or Republican before abandoned that standard," as he declared Trump did in assigning a moral equivalency to the opposing sides in the Charlottesville demonstrations of 2017. The divisions have been manifested, he said, in the pipe bombs sents to Trump's critics, the Pittsburgh synagogue shootings, and other events "We are in a battle for America's soul," Biden declared, and the House majority that Scott seeks to be a part of can be part of that vanguard. "Good Republicans, independents, Democrats: this is not who we are," Biden said to rising applause. "We have to reset the moral compass of this nation," Biden said, claiming that until this year he's never used that language that stark before. "We have to choose hope over fear; choose unity over division; choose our allies over enemies; and most of all, we choose truth over lies.... "This is still the United States of America. We can take it back," Biden closed. The former vice president was joined by Gov. Tom Wolf - seeking his second term Tuesday - and just about every other state and local elected Democratic officeholder from the county level on up. Only one, Dauphin County Commissioner George Hartwick, referenced what Democrats have labeled an 11th-hour smear job by Perry and his campaign: Its promotion of a circa-1989 photo from Operation Just Cause in which then-Capt. George Scott is holding a gun at the head of a fellow soldier playing the part of the just-deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. Scott's campaign staffers shared texts Sunday of the photo that they claimed the Perry camp is sending to GOP voters; it was also used in a television ad. Hartwick, referencing "last-minute shenanigans" by the Perry campaign, appealed to potential Scott supporters, "don't let anyone else define his record of service... or what his election could mean to this region and this country." In the Democrats' battle to retake a majority in the U.S. House, the party has hopes of turning at least four seats held by Republicans in the state's 18-seat delegation. Scott's effort is part of a last-ditch effort to drive that number to five or six. The House candidate, sandwiched between Wolf and Biden, declared himself eager to do his part. "I will tell you that in the beginning of this race, few people believed that we could win, but that has changed," Scott said. "And when folks ask me why, I tell them it's because we believe that we deserve better leadership in Congress. "We believe that we're in this together and that what unites us is far greater than what divides us." Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday. History museum to host 'market at the museum' for holiday shopping The Harbor Springs Area Historical Society will soon be hosting two holiday markets to help shop local this holiday season. Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who attended the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai. China and Hungary should deepen mutual political support and trust, continue to understand and support each other on issues involving their respective core interests and major concerns, and increase coordination and cooperation on international affairs, Xi said. Xi called on the two sides to promote the policy alignment of the Belt and Road Initiative with Hungary's Eastern Opening policy, make sound top-level planning for cooperation in various areas, and push forward the construction of a new railway line between Hungary and Serbia, an important cooperation project. The two countries should also increase cooperation in business, investment, finance, agriculture, tourism and innovation, among others, Xi added. Noting that the year of 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, the Hungarian prime minister said it would be an important opportunity to promote the development of the Hungary-China relations under new circumstances. The Hungarian side is ready to work with the Chinese side to increase high-level exchanges, actively participate in the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, and expand practical cooperation in various fields, said Orban. November 1018 , the National Ballet of Canada presents the North American premiere of John Neumeiers Anna Karenina at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto. Co-produced with Hamburg Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet, NBoC is the last of the three companies to present the new two-act production. Anna Karenina: Inside the Studio | 2018 | The National Ballet of Canada www.youtube.com Neumeiers adaptation condenses Leo Tolstoys 19th-century masterpiece and sets it in the present with minimalist sets and costumes. The score melds selections by Tchaikovsky with modern choices by Alfred Schnittke and Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, juxtaposing the storys emphasis on Russian tradition with its modern retelling. Setting the story in the present day challenges the notion that society has progressed since the time of the novel. We are no better at dealing with the double standard for men and women or the destruction of private lives by public office than Tolstoys characters were in the 1870s, says NBoC principal ballet master Lindsay Fischer. Hamburg Ballets Edvin Revazov and Anna Laudere in Anna Karenina. Photo by Kiran West, Courtesy NBoC. Neumeiers most recent successes at NBoC include Nijinsky and A Streetcar Named Desire. According to Fischer, the company keeps returning to Neumeier because his ability to capture the essence of a relationship and to show us what his characters want makes us care deeply about their lives. *** Include a contact email address if you want a response *** Please tell us about the problem you are having... See your usage details You will also be sending us basic usage details to help us fix this problem. Details about your session Javascript: not enabled. Submit my Problem Please tell us about your problem before you click submit. Thank you for flagging this problem, we very much appreciate your time and helping us improve the site. 927 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Bryan Woolston SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) About 300 white nationalists and neo-Nazis took to the streets of the small Tennessee city of Shelbyville on Saturday to protest refugee resettlement in the state, which sued the federal government over the issue earlier this year. The White Lives Matter rally, organized by some of the same groups involved in a Virginia march in August that turned violent, drew an equal number of counter-demonstrators and a heavy police presence. After Shelbyville, the protesters were due to travel about 35 miles north to Murfreesboro for a second rally. The two cities are just southeast of Nashville, whose metropolitan area has become home to refugees from Somalia, Iraq and elsewhere. The days protests were organized by the Nationalist Front, a coalition including the League of the South and Vanguard America, considered neo-Nazi or neo-Confederate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. We dont want the federal government to keep dumping all these refugees into middle Tennessee, said Brad Griffin, a League of the South member who has written about his desire to create a white ethnostate. To help keep the peace, Shelbyville police used temporary fencing to separate the white nationalists from counter-demonstrators in a central protest area. Anyone seeking to enter the area was searched. Guns, sticks, backpacks and items that might double as weapons were banned. The white nationalist demonstrators gathered behind a half dozen white shields emblazoned with red crosses. Counter-protesters carried signs with slogans including Dont Hate and Veterans for Peace. Local officials and faith leaders have denounced the gatherings. Over the last 15 years, about 18,000 refugees have been resettled in Tennessee, less than 1 percent of the states population, according to the Tennessean newspaper. A lawsuit filed against the government in March by Tennessee said the state had been unduly forced to pay for refugee resettlements. It was the first state to bring such a case on the basis of the 10th Amendment, which limits U.S. government powers to those provided by the Constitution, though other states have filed similar suits on different legal grounds. When they say refugees, what they really mean is Muslims, said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, referring to Saturdays protesters. He noted that a Murfreesboro mosque has been a source of controversy and vandalism for years. Tennessee is one of the states that has seen a rise in anti-Muslim bigotry in recent years, particularly since the election, Hooper said. President Donald Trump has sought to ban travel from six Muslim-majority countries since he took office and called during his 2016 election campaign for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. (Additional reporting by Chris Kenning; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Richard Chang and Tom Brown) 3.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) made it clear in a Sunday night interview that if Democrats win back the House, they are going to release Trumps tax returns. Schiff said on MSNBC, I think that any candidate for president should release their tax returns. One way of enforcing that norm and frankly we never thought this was a norm that would be broken. It has been by this president, one way to enforce that norm is to use the statutory power of Congress to obtain a tax return for a presidential candidate who refuses to disclose it. This is particularly important where there are credible allegations that the president of the United States may have a financial conflict of interest that is driving U.S. Policy. Is our policy vis-a-vis Russia driven by Russian money in the Trump Organization? Is our policy vis-a-vis Saudi Arabia and particularly Qatar being driven by business interests with respect to the Trump Organization? The American people deserve answers to these questions. We deserve to know and indeed need to know whether the president is making decisions in our interests or in his familys financial interest. Video: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) made it clear in a Sunday night interview that if Democrats win back the House, they are going to release Trump's tax returns. https://t.co/z4eu2l8pp0 pic.twitter.com/WeCsXszId9 PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) November 5, 2018 If Democrats win control of the House in less than two days, they are going to be investigating Trumps finances and making his darkest secrets public. Democrats are going to do the job that House Republicans should have done. They are going to hold this president accountable and uncover the scope and depth of his corruption. Trump is already losing it over the possibility that Democrats take back the House and the reason why is that he will have a co-equal branch of the government investigating him. As long as Democratic voters do their part, House Democrats will be Donald Trumps worst nightmare. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 635 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Joseph Ax and Jim Finkle (Reuters) The Republican candidate in Georgias governors race, who also oversees the states elections, accused Democrats on Sunday of trying to hack voter registration systems, a move analysts said highlighted the inherent conflict between his twin roles. The contest between Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is vying to become the United States first black female governor, had already become a flashpoint for allegations of voter suppression. Kemp drew more national attention to the contest early on Sunday with a statement making the hacking allegation but offering no supporting evidence. State Democratic Party officials quickly denied the charge. They called it an abuse of power two days before Tuesdays elections when Americans will determine which party controls the U.S. Congress as well as pick governors in 36 states including Georgia. It looks pretty suspicious, and I would say that regardless of which party it was, said Alan Abramowitz, a professor of political science at Emory University in Atlanta. Its just one more example of the kinds of problems that can occur when the person who is in charge of running the elections in the state is not only a partisan elected official but is a partys candidate for the highest office in the state. Voter suppression allegations became an issue in the campaign partly because of a state law requiring an exact match of voters names on ID cards and rolls, down to hyphens. Two federal courts on Friday issued rulings rejecting some of Kemps election enforcement moves. Kemps charge on Sunday appeared to result from a report made to his office and the FBI on Saturday by a Georgia businessman with an expertise in software, according to David Cross, a lawyer representing several Georgia voters who have sued the state over its decision not to use paper ballots. We expected the secretary of state would take that seriously and would take whatever remedial actions needed to be taken, and we were surprised to see that the response was to accuse the Democrats of hacking, Cross told reporters on Sunday. Cross said the businessman, Richard Wright, had approached him with the information, which Cross turned over to Kemps office on Saturday morning. He also said Wright had passed the details to the state Democratic Party. Wright could not be reached for comment on Sunday. Kemps office did not respond to questions on Sunday about Cross statements. NOT KEMPS FIRST HACKING CHARGE Kemps office said in a statement on Sunday it launched the investigation late on Saturday and that it had notified the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI. We opened an investigation into the Democratic Party of Georgia after receiving information from our legal team about failed efforts to breach the online voter registration system and My Voter Page, Kemps office said. We are working with our private sector vendors and investigators to review data logs. It was not the first time that Kemp alleged that Georgias voting systems had been hacked. In 2016, he said a DHS computer made an unsuccessful attempt to breach the firewall guarding Georgias voter data. He complained on Facebook at the time that the agency had been less than forthcoming in responding to his allegation. The DHS inspector general in June 2017 said Kemps complaint was without merit. A DHS official said in an email that the department was aware of the latest allegation. The official declined to say if the agency was investigating. The FBI declined to comment. Democrats rejected Kemps charge. They contend he has been lax on securing voter data and that his office previously improperly disclosed private information on 6 million Georgians. This is yet another example of abuse of power by an unethical Secretary of State, Rebecca DeHart, executive director of the Georgia Democratic Party, said on Sunday. Kemps latest allegations were met with skepticism from cyber security experts, who noted that identifying who is behind a particular hack was time-consuming and extremely difficult. Does the Georgia Secretary of State have the forensics capability and expertise necessary to investigate their own potential breach? Alex Stamos, Facebooks former security chief, asked on Twitter. Stamos said he believed FBI and Justice Department specialists would be better positioned to investigate any hack. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, urged Kemp last month to step down from his election oversight role, saying keeping it while campaigning runs counter to the most fundamental principle of democratic elections. Kemp has refused to step down and has said he is fairly applying Georgias laws. For all Reuters election coverage, click: https://www.reuters.com/politics/election2018 (Reporting by Joseph Ax and Jim Finkle in New York; Additional reporting by Christopher Bing in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Peter Cooney) 3.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Rachel Maddow interviewed the former head of security for Facebook and wrecked Georgia Sec. of State Brian Kemps claim of Democratic cybercrimes. Maddow asked, This was an explosive claim today. But weve been looking into it this afternoon and into this evening. From a distance, it seems like what may have happened here is that Kemps office got notified that there were problems there were evident problems in terms of the security of the Georgia voting system that he oversees. He responded to that notification by claiming that the Democrats must have been trying to hack into the system. If they found all of those vulnerabilities. Thats what were sort of discerning from a distance. Can you help us understand what actually happened here? Video: Rachel Maddow interviewed the former head of security for Facebook and wrecked Georgia Sec. of State Brian Kemp's claim of Democratic cybercrimes. https://t.co/3QO9EyBUNt pic.twitter.com/8UgDMXXbcG Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) November 5, 2018 Stamos answered, Thats right. Theres a history here in Georgia of independent third parties reporting possible vulnerabilities to the secretary of states office. In this case within hours of getting notification of a new vulnerability on their website, they came out with this press release, possibly blaming the democratic party. You know its part of a tradition here of not taking these vulnerabilities seriously, and in this case, making a really reckless claim before that could possibly be any data to back it up. He later added, Georgia is only one of five states in the United States that does not have a paper back-up to their voting. This means if theres a direct attack against the voting infrastructure, we will not be able to recreate what happened in that state with any certainty. Thats unacceptable with the level of risk our elections are facing these days. The second is theres been a history over the last two years of a number of groups coming to Georgia and saying weve found vulnerabilities in your system and the way responsible organizations deal with this in 2018, is they say thank you for turning that over. Well investigate it and they work to fix the flaw. Instead, the secretary of state has continuously threatened those researchers, in this case, specifically pointing the finger to political opponents. Without having any evidence to back it up. Brian Kemp pulled a page out of Trumps playbook. While he and the Republican Party are trying to rig the election in Georgia, he blamed Democrats for trying to rig the same election. Kemps accusation is totally bogus and he has no evidence to back it up. As Stacey Abrams said, the Republicans in Georgia are desperate, and they are resorting to extreme measures to try to hold on to power in the Peach State. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 1.4k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The Washington Examiner said in a tweet early Monday that President Trump is going to hell and that the conservative paper is garbage. The identity of the person who posted the tweet was not disclosed although there is speculation that it may be a post by a disgruntled employee, or possibly a hacker. The tweet was sent to the Examiners 140,000 Twitter followers begins. It said, Trump is going to hell. Anyone who ever read the bible can tell you where it stands on rich adulterers. The key to Gods forgiveness is repentance. Trumps entire political career has been about the exact opposite of that, it continues before adding, Also this paper is garbage for promoting Trump and God.' The tweet was later taken down, but a copy of it was posted by senior Washington Post political reporter Aaron Blake who wrote: Happy Monday morning to the editors at the Washington Examiner! Happy Monday morning to the editors at the Washington Examiner! pic.twitter.com/AzVLIgI7nL Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 5, 2018 Before the tweet was taken down at around 7:00 a.m., it was noticed by a lot of shocked observers and commentators. If you had told me last night that The Washington Examiner would be making headlines today I would have said for what, telling the truth? And you would have said yes. If you had told me last night that The Washington Examiner would be making headlines today I would have said "for what, telling the truth?" And you would have said "yes." John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) November 5, 2018 Many people have wondered how a serial adulterer like Donald Trump could get such strong support from Christian Evangelicals who supposedly have strong moral values. So the tweet from the Examiner led to speculation that maybe some Christian conservatives were finally turning against the president. Few people thought that a man who has admitted to extra-marital affairs with porn stars, and admitted to paying them hush money to keep them silent, would ever be the darling of right-wing Christianity. But somehow Trump has pulled off that feat, to the surprise of tens of millions of unhappy Americans. NOTE: After the first draft of this article was written, The Washington Examiner posted the following tweet: The Washington Examiners Twitter feed was hacked and a tweet was posted that did not come from our staff. We are taking appropriate action and will issue a further statement if necessary. The Washington Examiners Twitter feed was hacked and a tweet was posted that did not come from our staff. We are taking appropriate action and will issue a further statement if necessary. Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) November 5, 2018 Even this speculation has been met with skepticism by social media commentators, but until additional information comes out, well have to accept their explanation that they were hacked. It may have been a missed opportunity by them to for once tell the truth about President Donald Trump. By John Whitesides WASHINGTON (Reuters) Bitter U.S. political campaigns thundered to a hectic, unpredictable finish on election eve on Monday, as candidates scoured the country for votes in dozens of crucial races that opinion polls showed were still razor-close. Control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress and 36 governors offices are up for grabs on Tuesday in an election widely seen as a referendum on the first two years of Republican President Donald Trumps leadership. In the final stretch, Trump has ramped up his hard-line rhetoric on immigration and cultural issues, including warnings about a caravan of migrants headed to the border with Mexico and liberal mobs, and touted a growing U.S. economy that he said would be threatened by Democrats. He amplified that message with an advertisement linking Democrats and immigrants to violent crime, which aired on NBC on Sunday night. Even fellow Republicans had criticized the spot as racially divisive when it first debuted online last week. NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp on Monday said it would no longer run the 30-second spot. CNN had earlier refused to run it, calling it racist. After further review we recognize the insensitive nature of the ad and have decided to cease airing it across our properties as soon as possible, a spokesperson for the network said in a email. Trump planned to spend a final day on the campaign trail on Monday, hitting the Midwestern states of Ohio, Indiana and Missouri at the end of a six-day pre-election sweep focused mostly on competitive U.S. Senate races. Its all fragile. Everything I told you about, it can be undone and changed by the Democrats if they get in, Trump told supporters in a conference call on Monday aimed at getting out the vote. Opinion polls and election forecasters favor Democrats to pick up the minimum of 23 seats they need on Tuesday to capture a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, which would enable them to stymie Trumps legislative agenda and investigate his administration. But Republicans are favored to retain their slight majority in the U.S. Senate, currently at two seats, which would let them retain the power to approve U.S. Supreme Court and other judicial nominations on straight party-line votes. But 75 or more of the 435 House races remain competitive, forecasters said, and control of the Senate is likely to come down to a half-dozen close contests in Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, North Dakota, Indiana and Florida. Democrats also are threatening to recapture governors offices in several key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania, a potential help for the party in those states in the 2020 presidential race. Trump, who frequently warns of voter fraud and has claimed without evidence that millions of fraudulent votes were cast in 2016, said on Twitter on Monday that law enforcement should be on the lookout for illegal voting. Democratic former President Barack Obama delivered donuts to campaign volunteers in a House district in suburban Virginia, where Democrat Jennifer Wexton, a state senator, is challenging Republican incumbent Barbara Comstock in a fiercely contested race. Obama said the countrys character and its commitment to decency and equality are on the ballot on Tuesday. All across the country, what Im seeing is a great awakening, he said. People woke up and said Oh, we cant take this for granted. Weve got to fight for this.' Trumps polarizing style has spurred record turnout, cranking up enthusiasm in both parties as voters cast ballots to oppose or support the president. Approximately 40 million early votes including absentee, vote-by-mail and in-person ballots will likely be cast by Election Day, according to Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida who tracks the figures. In the last such congressional elections in 2014, there were 27.5 million early votes. The numbers suggest turnout will be very high for a non-presidential election, McDonald wrote on his U.S. Elections Project website. He estimated turnout would reach 45 percent; that would be the highest for a midterm election in 50 years. For all Reuters election coverage, see: https://www.reuters.com/politics/election2018 (Additional reporting by Joseph Ax and Kenneth Li in New York and Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis) 858 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Georgia voters are flat out rejecting and not being distracted by Republican Brian Kemps last-minute allegation that Democrats tried to hack the voting system in Georgia. When asked by MSNBC if she believed the allegations one Georgia voter said, I dont think theyre true. I think its a distraction. I think hes trying to get everyone confused right before the election, and I think he should have stepped down as secretary of state for overseeing this since he was also running. Video: Georgia voters are flat out rejecting and not being distracted by Republican Brian Kemps last-minute allegation that Democrats tried to hack the voting system in Georgia. https://t.co/Ee1suwsFww pic.twitter.com/nE7cN2jXFV PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) November 5, 2018 An Independent Georgia voter who voted for Obama and then voted for Trump wasnt all in on Kemps claims either, I think theres something in the middle. There always is. What has to happen is not happening across America. We got to bring people together for compromise, and we dont do that very well, and to be blunt, I have not voted. I always wait until the day of. Im still reading things. Im an Independent voter. One year I voted for Barack Obama and one year I voted for Donald Trump. It depends on the issues. What bothers me the most about it is is that we have distractions and need to get on with the vote and get on with healing our country. Its not been that way in the last two years. Theres always something out were always dealing with something so just get it out there, tell us what to worry about and get focused. As Rachel Maddow recently discussed with the former head of Facebook security, Kemps allegations are bogus because there is no way that he has enough data to accuse anyone of trying to hack the voting system so soon. Also, Georgia Republicans have a long history of attacking and accusing people who point out flaws in their voting machines. The upside of having a president who lies to the country an average of 10 times a day is that people more skeptical of Republican dirty tricks and last minute claims. The stunt that Kemp pulled was straight out of Trumps greatest hits. Kemp is trying to give himself an excuse if he loses while disrupting the momentum of Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams. Judging for the reactions of these voters, his desperate gambit isnt working. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 15k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston is now reporting that an international human rights organization has requested that prosecutors in The Netherlands open a criminal investigation into several multi-billion dollar money laundering schemes that were facilitated by Donald Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and a law firm where he used to work. #HumanRights Group Calls For Investigation Of #Giuliani, #Trump Money-Laundering Scheme According to Johnston, the goal of the complaint is to examine how much money stolen from a former Soviet satellite benefitted Trump. The president is named 16 times in the complaint. He said that: The complaint describes one of the biggest fraud cases ever in which some of these money flows ultimately ended up in the Netherlands because Dutch service providers helped to cover up the money laundering acts. Details uncovered so far show that the illegal money laundering network began in the former Soviet satellite of Kazakhstan. It is estimated that $10 billion was stolen through embezzlement. The complaint states that: This money was subsequently circulated by two Kazakh oligarch families via a worldwide network of shell companies. A number of these companies were established in the Netherlands. The money was subsequently invested in real estate projects in the United States and Europe, after which it was paid out as profits via once again a network of shell companies. And they are clearly saying that the real estate projects involved in the illegal scheme are associated with President Donald Trump. The complaint also alleges that part of the missing billions was run through shell corporations in The Netherlands with help from the law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, where the presidents lawyer was a partner until 2016. The complaint demanding a criminal investigation was filed by Avaaz, a global human rights organization in Washington which claims 48 million members. They have issued an open call to prosecutors around the world to investigate the giant web of corruption that propelled Trumps rise. The complaint was filed with the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service in Amsterdam. It uses information discovered by investigative journalists doing research through court records from several countries. According to Johnston, the complaint is aimed at uncovering the full details of Russian money flowing to various Trump projects using so-called anonymous wealth companies. Those are shell companies created to hide the identities of the owners. Trump and his family are known to have received vast sums from shell companies and have bragged about how much of it came from people in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet empire. Trump contends the deals were all lawful and he has no knowledge of any money laundering. The $10 billion theft in Kazakhstan was discovered by CPA firm PricewaterhouseCoopers during an audit of BTA Bank, the countrys largest. There is an additional $300 million missing from Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan. Court documents have identified the suspected thieves as Viktor Khrapunov and Mukhtar Ablyazov, oligarchs with ties to both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. According to Johnston: Trump has done business since 1983 with Russian oligarchs and wealthy former officials and business people in former Soviet satellites, including Kazakhstan, Georgia and Azerbaijan. A number of mobsters American, Russian and others live in Trump Tower apartments. The building has long been known to local, federal and international law enforcement as a nest of criminal residences. One known Trump associate, Felix Sater, is named in the complaint. He has worked for many years with Trump on real estate deals all over the world. Sater is believed to be cooperating with special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who is investigating Trump for various financial crimes as well as collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia. While the world waits for the findings of Robert Muellers probe to be released to the public, it will be interesting to follow the status of the new criminal complaint filed in The Netherlands. It appears that the global criminal enterprise of Donald Trump may soon come crashing down around him. 358 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Kris Kobach, the Republican candidate for Kansas governor who has close ties to Donald Trump, has been accepting money from white nationalists for more than a decade, says a new report in The Guardian newspaper. According to The Guardian, financial disclosure records show that Kobach has accepted large amounts of money from white supremacist groups ever since he began his political career over ten years ago. In recent years Kobach has gained fame due to his nation-wide effort to suppress minority voting rights and restrict immigrant rights. The white supremacist guys, they love Kris Kobach because he can put on a suit, have the fancy degrees, and translate their ideas into something that is more palatable, said Zachary Mueller, of the immigrant rights group Americas Voice. Kobach is currently running in a close race against Democrat Laura Kelly in red-state Kansas. If he loses it would be a major blow to the Republican Party. But Kobach has always been controversial. He began his career by receiving a $10,000 donation from the U.S. Immigration Reform PAC, which is closely associated with the founder of the modern anti-immigrant movement, John Tanton. Ive come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that, Tanton wrote in 1993. Tantons wife has donated $2,000 to Kobachs gubernatorial campaign. Kobach has also been endorsed by Peter Brimelow, the founder of the VDARE website, which has been described as overtly racist by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has also received large donations from VDARE contributor Paul Nachman. And he has also accepted donations from K.C. McAlpin, who heads the Tanton-founded U.S. Inc. publishing company, which produces the racist and anti-immigrant Social Contract Press. Other Kobach supporters are known to be anti-Semitic views and have ties to white supremacists.Three men identified as white nationalists have reportedly worked on Kobachs campaign. Kobach was in charge of the Trump administrations election-fraud commission which was disbanded when they found no evidence of election fraud in the 2016 elections. As Secretary of State in Kansas he has taken controversial steps designed to suppress the voting rights of minorities. His staunch support for voter ID laws have gotten him into trouble because courts have held that they unfairly and illegally target minority voters. He is also loved by right-wingers for his zero-tolerance approach to undocumented migrants. Kobach has avoided overt white nationalist language in his speeches but he has never refused the endorsement of white nationalists or refused to take their money. Early in his career Kobach worked for more than a decade for a Tanton-founded group, the Federation For American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR has worked to deny immigrant rights, but Kobach defended the work, saying they just want to enforce strong rules against illegal immigration. The longstanding ties that Kris Kobach has to white nationalists is more proof that Donald Trump keeps the best people around him. But to Trump the best people are those who fight to take away the rights of immigrants and minority voters. And Kris Kobach fits that description perfectly. It is now up to the voters of Kansas to write his political obituary, and end a political career that should never have begun in the first place. 491 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The 2018 midterm elections have turned into a referendum on President Donald Trump. He has made sure of that by holding dozens of campaign rallies all over the country. But the elections will also be a referendum on his brazen campaign strategy, where he has taken lying to an entirely new level. In every rally he tells 35 40 falsehoods. His crowds seem to believe everything he says, although almost nothing that he says is true. His gamble is that this will work, said David Axelrod, who was Barack Obamas campaign strategist. Certainly the veracity doesnt bother him, and the optics dont bother him. The only thing that would bother him is losing. Him ratcheting up to a new level of histrionics and fear, the question is, Is there a point of diminishing returns? Axelrod added. Do these tactics offend some people but also appear so contrived that even some who are inclined to vote for Republicans say, you lost me here? As Phil Rucker from The Washington Post wrote this morning: President Trump is painting an astonishingly apocalyptic vision of America under Democratic control in the campaigns final days, unleashing a torrent of falsehoods and portraying his political opponents as desiring crime, squalor and poverty. As voters prepare to render their first verdict on his presidency in Tuesdays midterm elections, Trump is claiming that Democrats want to erase the nations borders and provide sanctuary to drug dealers, human traffickers and MS-13 killers. He is warning that they would destroy the economy, obliterate Medicare and unleash a wave of violent crime that endangers families everywhere. And he is alleging that they would transform the United States into Venezuela with socialism run amok. Rucker then adds, Trump has taken his no-boundaries political ethos to a new level demagoguing the Democrats in a whirl of distortion and using the power of the federal government to amplify his fantastical arguments. Here are some specific examples of Trumps recent lies: He said that Democrats run around like antifa demonstrators in black uniforms and black helmets, but underneath, they have this weak little face and go back home into mommys basement. He called predatory immigrants the worst scum in the world but accused Democrats of welcoming them by saying, Fly right in, folks. Come on in. We dont care who the hell you are, come on in! He said that if Democrat Stacey Abrams is elected governor of Georgia, she would take away the Second Amendment right to bear arms. In that lie he was insulting his audience by assuming that they were ignorant of the fact that governors cant change the U.S. Constitution. He said there would be a 10 percent tax cut for the middle class, which is untrue. He has inflamed fears over an imminent invasion of dangerous illegal aliens, referring to the caravan of Central American migrants in Mexico. (The caravan is walking over 1,000 miles and may never reach the U.S. border.) Both Republican and Democratic candidates are frustrated that Trump has dictated the terms of the political debate in the final week of the campaign even though he is not up for reelection for two years. He goes out and says crazy, horrible things, blows race whistles and sits back and watches his topic of craziness dominate cable TV for the next 24 hours, said Republican strategist Mike Murphy, a Trump critic. Everybody repeats his charge, and then theres a lot of pearl-clutching and tsk-tsking, and then repeating it again. Its really important not to take the bait from the president, with his scare-a-thon and his this-and-that, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in an interview this weekend. That diverts people from what is really important in their lives and how this election will make a difference. Trumps presidency is on the line, and over recent weeks he has become increasingly desperate. If Democrats win the House majority they will use their subpoena power to begin many different investigations. The might even start impeachment proceedings. All his bad characteristics get amplified when hes in a crunch, Murphy said. He doesnt have any allegiance to the truth or reality to begin with, so hes drunk on crowds, in a corner and under great political pressure. During the first 649 days of his presidency Donald Trump has told 6,420 lies. His rate of lying increased dramatically over the past month. He is truly a desperate man who believes that his lying will save him, but this is very unlikely to happen. And on Tuesday we will find out for sure that this is true. On October 30, just a week before the U.S. midterm elections, RIA Novosti and several other Russian news outlets published stories predicting a civil conflict in the U.S. The spate of stories, more than 30 according to Foreign Policy Magazine, come ahead of a hotly contested congressional election in the United States next week. According to RIA Novosti, American political scientists were making this prediction, not Russians. However, upon closer examination, the authors of the articles cited by Russian media were far more nuanced, and cannot be said to have made serious predictions of a coming U.S. civil war. One of the first opinions cited by the RIA Novosti piece is from the historian Niall Ferguson, who wrote an op-ed on the topic for the Boston Globe. The excerpts of the op-ed published by Foreign Policy show that Ferguson was writing more about the topic of political polarization. Instead of a shooting civil war, Ferguson is quoted as saying that a cultural civil war is already being waged in the U.S. across social media. The Foreign Policy piece points out that Ferguson ultimately concludes an armed conflict in the U.S. is not imminent. Another article cited in the RIA Novosti piece comes from Task & Purpose, a military veterans news site, and was authored by Emily Whalen, a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Texas at Austin. Whalen compares the situation in America today to that of Lebanon, which suffered a devastating civil war in 1975. While she notes some similarities between 2018 America and 1975 Lebanon, she also points out key differences, and ultimately makes no prediction that a new American civil war will take place in the near future. Russian predictions about a new American civil war have been commonplace since the fall of the Soviet Union. One of the most popular theories was devised by Igor Panarin, a former Soviet KGB colonel, Russian intelligence officer and political science professor who declared in 1998 that the United States would split into six nations around 2010. Panarin has been flexible about that timetable, however. For example, in one of several appearances on the state-owned channel RT, Panarin predicted civil war in America by 2009. After both 2009 and 2010 passed without any civil war or breakup of the United States, Panarin saw the Occupy Wall Street movement in the fall of 2011 as the potential harbinger of the imminent American collapse. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 47F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 47F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. The assault case against former South Carolina treasurer and "Southern Charm" reality television star Thomas Ravenel will proceed toward trial, a judge ruled Monday. Ravenel, 56, was arrested in late September after a woman who worked for him as a nanny reported to Charleston police in May that he sexually assaulted her three years ago at Ravenel's Charlotte Street home. Ravenel faces a charge of second-degree assault and battery, a misdemeanor that carries up to three years in prison. A trial date has not been set. During a preliminary hearing in front of Charleston County Magistrate Stephen Harris, Detective Christopher Malinowski of the Charleston Police Department took the stand to answer questions from a prosecutor and Ravenel's defense team. Ravenel, whose attendance was not mandatory, was not present during the proceeding. The woman who reported the incident was in attendance. The Post and Courier typically does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault. The woman who accused Ravenel of assault said that in January 2015, Ravenel returned home and appeared to be under the influence, Malinowski said. "Let's get you to bed," the nanny told Ravenel, according to the detective. She told investigators that in a bedroom, the man undressed her and made sexual advances toward her by grabbing her hand and pressing it to his body, according to an affidavit. As Ravenel removed the woman's shirt, it became wrapped around her neck, which made it difficult for her to breathe. Then, Ravenel pulled down the woman's pants and fondled her, the affidavit alleged. She crouched down to avoid being further assaulted, but Ravenel put his body in the woman's face while making sexually explicit remarks, the detective testified. During the assault, the woman reported that she suffered injuries to her chest, neck and upper thighs. The woman told police that she was able to break away from Ravenel and flee the house. Malinowski testified that shortly after the assault, the victim took photographs of her injuries with a cellphone and told at least four people what happened. But investigators struggled to get access to the photos, the detective testified without giving further explanation. When they finally did in September, they found that the quality of the photos was not good enough to let them make out any visible injuries, he added. Malinowski said the time stamps on the files corroborated the victim's claim as to when the assault occurred. Under questioning from Mount Pleasant defense attorney Cameron Blazer, who declined to comment after the hearing, the detective said at least one of the individuals interviewed told police that the account the victim relayed to her differed from the account given to investigators. Malinowski did not elaborate. Ravenel hails from a prominent Charleston-area family and briefly served as state treasurer until a federal grand jury indicted him in 2007 on cocaine possession charges. Ravenel, known as "T-Rav" to some fans of the Bravo reality series "Southern Charm," was a regular cast member on the show that premiered in 2014. Bravo said at the time of Ravenel's arrest that the network and Ravenel had cut ties. The series chronicles the lives of Lowcountry socialites. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Some passing clouds. Low 47F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some passing clouds. Low 47F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018, photo, voters cast their votes in Salt Lake City. If a Utah race is too close to call on election night a distinct possibility in the slugfest between Republican Rep. Mia Love and Democrat Ben McAdams residents and candidates will have to wait patiently because the state's deliberate vote release schedule recommends counties wait three days before posting more results. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations. (CNN) Divers searching for the wreckage of Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 can no longer hear a signal from the aircraft's missing cockpit voice recorder, the head of Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency said Sunday. Diving teams have been working to locate the device, commonly known as a black box, which could help investigators piece together the final moments of the brand-new Boeing 737 before it crashed, killing all 189 people on board. Muhammad Syaugi, head of Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency, Basarnas, told reporters in Jakarta Sunday that a "ping" from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was heard Saturday but "we don't hear the ping signal today." "We checked that spot, located around 50 meters from the location of finding the first black box. But we can't find the CVR yet," Syaugi said. Meanwhile, the plane's first black box, the flight data recorder, was located Thursday, and investigators said it showed Flight 610 had performed 19 flights including its final flight. Six black box experts from four different countries were now analyzing the flight data recorder to piece together the last moments of the new Boeing 737 before it crashed. Syaugi said that the search operation had been extended and would continue through Wednesday. The focus of continuing efforts will be to recover additional victim remains and to locate the CVR, he said. Analysts say finding the cockpit voice recorder is imperative if investigators are to determine whether the crash has implications for other airlines collectively operating thousands of Boeing 737 flights around the world each day. Search for victims continues Flight 610 was supposed to take its passengers on a one-hour journey from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang on the island of Bangka. Instead it crashed 13 minutes after takeoff. The pilots had asked to turn around but didn't transmit an emergency call. At least 65 body bags have been gathered since the start of the search-and-rescue operation, though each bag could contain remains of more than one person. Investigators will have to rely on DNA samples to identify victims because of the condition and size of the remains found. Police have 181 DNA samples from victims' families and are working to match them to 272 human tissue samples. Lisda Cancer, head of Disaster Victim Identification, told reporters Friday that just one person has been identified so far, a female, through a fingerprint. On Wednesday, authorities started bringing relatives to the port to identify victims' personal belongings, which lay piled up next to cushions and other debris that appeared to be from the aircraft. Epi Syamsul Qomar, whose 24-year-old son was on the flight, broke down in tears when he recognized his son's shoe. "I saw my son's black sneaker," he told CNN. "I also saw his bank checkbook." One diver has died The fast-moving currents and muddy waters of the crash site in the Java Sea have hindered recovery efforts since the plane came down Monday shortly after taking off from Jakarta. On Saturday, Syaugi confirmed that one of the more than 100 divers involved in the search had died. Syahrul Anto, 48, was found unconscious Friday after his diving partner noticed he had disappeared, said Syaugi. He was immediately brought back to shore and was attended by doctors but Syaugi said that "God had a different plan." Anto was a qualified, senior diver "who devoted his life for our country," Syaugi said. Syaugi, who is responsible for the diving team, said those involved "are very qualified divers, outstanding divers, with long experience. They are come from Navy special task forces, from the police, from the Basarnas team, and some are volunteers from diving clubs." Pilot reported plane issues The jetliner had experienced technical issues the day before on another route, passengers aboard that flight revealed to CNN. On Sunday the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft a new plane, which had only around 800 flying hours on the clock had flown Lion Air's Bali-Jakarta route and had experienced a significant drop in altitude, passenger Robbi Gaharu said. "After 10 minutes in the air the plane dropped as if it was losing power. People panicked. It dropped about 400 feet," said Gaharu, adding that he had confirmed the height of the drop on a flight-tracking website. He said the drop felt like falling into "a really, really deep hole." Lion Air confirmed to CNN that the aircraft that crashed on Monday had been used to fly the JT43 Bali-Jakarta route the day before, and Indonesian authorities confirmed that the pilot on Sunday's flight reported a problem with one of the plane's instruments. Capt. Daniel Putut Kuncoro Adi, managing director of Lion Group, said that all information had been handed over to Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Commission and he could not answer any questions about the fault because of a nondisclosure agreement signed to accommodate the investigation. This story was first published on CNN.com "Lion Air crash: Signal from black box lost, searchers say" Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations. Columbia/Myrtle Beach Managing Editor Andy Shain runs The Post and Courier's newsrooms based in Columbia and Myrtle Beach. He was editor of Free Times and has been a reporter and editor for newspapers in Charlotte, Columbia and Myrtle Beach. Political Reporter Caitlin Byrd is a political reporter at The Post and Courier and author of the Palmetto Politics newsletter. Before moving to Charleston in 2016, her byline appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times. To date, Byrd has won 17 awards for her work. South Carolinians from the coast to the mountains go to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in the 2018 midterm election where control of Congress is at stake. The governor's mansion, all the constitutional offices and the state House of Representatives are up, as well. There's also a referendum on whether the state superintendent of education should continue to be elected by voters or be appointed by the governor starting in 2023. Polls are open statewide from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. If you are in line by 7 p.m., you will be allowed to vote. Officials have worked to keep lines shorter this time by encouraging people to vote early or absentee, which the public has been receptive to. When absentee voting ends Monday, more than 243,000 votes will have been cast early this year. All seven of the state's congressional seats are up, but the closest duel is the coastal 1st Congressional District race between Republican Katie Arrington and Democrat Joe Cunningham. Residents from parts of Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester, Colleton and Beaufort counties will decide that one. Neither of the state's two U.S. Senate seats are up this year, which means Republicans Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott are not on the ballot. Heres what else you need to know about voting: Where can I learn more about the candidates on my ballot? A quick and easy online source is the website assembled by the non-partisan League of Women Voters: Vote411.org. On the site you can plug in your address to find which candidates are running to represent your area, such as for school board or Congress. The site includes biographical information on the candidates as well as position statements. Where do I vote? It depends on where you live. Your voting precinct and polling place are determined by your address, and should be listed on your voter registration card. To check your voting location, go to the State Election Commission website at scvotes.org. On the homepage, click the tab that says Voters. Then click Check your voter registration. You can also contact your county voter registration office. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! What should I bring to the polls? To vote in the election, you will need one of the following forms of photo ID: S.C. drivers license U.S. passport Federal military ID S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles ID card S.C. voter registration card with photo If you do not have proper photo ID but are registered to vote, you can cast a provisional ballot. Is it too late to register? Yes. South Carolina does not offer Election Day registration. What is the constitutional amendment on my ballot? In addition to voting for candidates, voters will get to weigh in on whether a change should be made to South Carolinas constitution so that the education superintendent is appointed by the governor. If the vote fails, the method by general election will stay in place. Otherwise, the governor would make the Cabinet pick beginning in 2023. What can I expect at the polling place? Most polling places are familiar gathering hubs such as schools and churches. On Election Day, these locations will be surrounded by a slew of campaign signs for different political races. As you near your polling place, you may find yourself shaking hands with a candidate or talking to campaign staffers. They are allowed to do that right up to the entrance. Their signs have to be at least 200 feet from the polling entrance. Inside the polling place, no campaigning is allowed. Candidates must remove any campaign stickers or buttons they are wearing once they enter a polling place. No one is allowed to intimidate voters or interfere with the election process. If this happens, alert a poll manager immediately. I need a ride to the polls. What do I do? The Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority service will be free on Election Day. For more information on routes and schedules, go to RideCARTA.com, now featuring a live chat option, or call 843-724-7420. 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 On Thursday evening, a comedian named Ilana Glazer was scheduled to perform at a synagogue in Brooklyn as a get-out-the-vote event. The performance was canceled when anti-Semitic graffiti was found scrawled throughout the synagogue. The New York Times reported on the story. The Times article looks to me as though it was initially written from a typically liberal point of view, and then, when the perpetrator was identified and caught, that information was inserted into the story after the fact. The two portions of the article are oddly assorted: A get-out-the-vote event at a Brooklyn synagogue featuring the comedian Ilana Glazer was canceled on Thursday night after anti-Semitic graffiti, including the words Die Jew Rats, was discovered scrawled on the temples walls, the police and officials at the synagogue said. The vandalism, which is being investigated as a hate crime by the Police Department, jarred residents in a deeply progressive area of Brooklyn. It occurred on the heels of the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue last week and a recent spate of similar graffiti incidents in Brooklyn and Manhattan. *** The Police Departments Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the incident, the police said. Other words written on the walls inside the synagogue included: We are here, Hitler, Jew Better Be Ready and End it now, the police said. The Times story includes quotes from New Yorks Mayor: Mayor Bill de Blasio condemned the vandalism on Friday morning on Twitter. This is the vilest kind of hate, Mr. de Blasio wrote, adding: We will fight anti-Semitism with every fiber of our being. The N.Y.P.D. will find the perpetrators of this hate crime and hold them accountable. And Governor: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said he was asking the states Hate Crimes Task Force, which includes the State Police and the State Division of Human Rights, to investigate the incident. The disgusting rhetoric and heinous violence in this nation has reached a fever pitch and is ripping at the fabric of America, and it must stop, the governor said. The Times story also includes a Facebook post by a woman who was invited to the comedians performance. She, too, drew a political moral from the graffiti: But the story soon took a turn. Images of the perpetrator captured by the synagogues security camera were released: The perpetrator was quickly identified, and the Times account was updated (I think) with information about him: The police announced Friday night that they had arrested a 26-year-old man, James Polite, on charges that he wrote the anti-Semitic graffiti. He faces charges of criminal mischief, which the police classified as a hate crime, and making graffiti. Here, the Times is being reticent. The paper refrains from noting that it has featured Mr. Polite before, in a more favorable, but also political, context. Steve Sailer has the story. In December of last year, the Times explained how Mr. Polite became a fixture around New Yorks City Council: James Polite spent much of his childhood in foster care. In high school alone, Mr. Polite estimates, he was placed in 10 different homes. And he received little encouragement from social workers to go to college. But Mr. Polite, now 25, still believed that college was the best next step. He found encouragement as a volunteer in his teens, registering voters and canvassing neighborhoods in New York City during Barack Obamas first presidential bid. Mentors on the campaign trail urged him to pursue higher education. In 2008, at a gay pride rally for Mr. Obama, Mr. Polite met Christine C. Quinn, then the City Council speaker. Ms. Quinn still remembers their introduction on the steps of City Hall. James was telling me his story, she recalled recently in an interview. And I said, Do you have an internship? And he said No. And I said, Well, you do now. He interned with Ms. Quinn, a Manhattan Democrat, for several years, working on initiatives to combat hate crime, sexual assault and domestic violence. He also took part in her re-election campaign in 2009 and returned to help with her unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2013. James was the adopted child of the Quinn administration, she said. And it wasnt just me. It was the entire City Council staff. Mr. Polite attended Brandeis: Ms. Quinn wrote Mr. Polite a letter of recommendation to Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., and followed up with a call to its president. Council staff members even drove him there on move-in day. But as he got older, Mr. Polite, who says he identifies as queer and does not base attraction on gender, said he felt misunderstood at home. After graduating from high school, Mr. Polite enrolled in a preparatory year at Brandeis. Months before that birthday, a Brooklyn couple learned about the possibility of fostering him. The couple, Josh Waletzky and Jenny Levison, said they had wanted to foster an L.G.B.T.Q. youth on the brink of aging out of the system. There is much more, but you get the drift. Sailer sums up: So the arrested suspect is a black, gay, Democratic activist. They just aint making neo-Nazis like they used to One wonders what the Times, Mayor DeBlasio, Governor Cuomo, and the liberal Facebook poster now make of their assertions that Mr. Polites anti-Semitic graffiti, the vilest kind of hate, was a product of the disgusting rhetoric and heinous violence in this nation and shows the need to elect good people into office along with protest[ing] and demand[ing] real, direct action against acts of hate and violence. Would those liberals stand by their characterizations, now that the perpetrator has been identified? Some would argue that they were correct, although not in the way they intended. So far, the Timess reaction has been terse: Mr. Polite was taken to a hospital in Brooklyn for a psychiatric evaluation. It looks like a simple case of mental illness. Remember Trayon White? Hes the Washington D.C. city council member a Democrat who claimed that Jewish financiers control the climate. In his view, a mild snowfall in the District was an instance of climate control by the Rothschilds who create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities. White also opined that the Rothschilds control the World Bank and the federal government. There might have been a time when such rabid anti-Semitism would render White political poison. If so, that time has passed, at least among left-liberals. Far from steering clear of this anti-Semite, two left-liberal politicians in Washington covet his endorsement. The two candidates Elissa Silverman and Dionne Reeder are competing for an at-large seat on the D.C. Council. In other words, they arent seeking votes in just one section of the city, for example the impoverished area that White represents. They will be elected or defeated by the citys entire electorate. Reeder is a friend of White. She backed the insurgent campaign that put the dumb-as-rock anti-Semite on the Council. Silverman serves with White on the Council, supports his far left positions, and declined to criticize him when his blatant anti-Semitism was revealed. White has refused to endorse either candidate. Its the smart move. As the Washington Post points out, White might well pay a price in his Ward if he endorsed Silverman, who is white. He might also pay a price if he endorsed Reeder, as she is backed by D.C.s mayor who is unpopular in Whites Ward. Whats apparent is that White has paid no political price for his blatant anti-Semitism. Far from seeing his career derailed, he has become a power broker. Its also clear that the Washington Post has a double standard when it comes to detecting anti-Semitism. It says that White was portrayed as an anti-Semite for suggesting that the Rothschild banking family controls the weather and for using his constituent fund to subsidize a Chicago event for the Nation of Islam where Louis Farrakhan railed against Jews. (Emphasis added) White didnt suggest his conspiracy theories, he asserted them. That makes him an anti-Semite, not just someone who was portrayed that way. The Post has no problem with portraying President Trump and the GOP as anti-Semitic merely for criticizing a dedicated political enemy George Soros who happens to be Jewish. Yet the Post apparently views Whites anti-Semitism as open to doubt. The Posts political biases infect every aspect of its reporting and undermine its ability to write honestly about virtually any subject, including anti-Semitism. In his great undoing of the accomplishments of the Obama administration, President Trump has withdrawn the United States from the humiliating and destructive Iran nuclear deal. The deal funded a terrorist regime that remains at war with the United States and that continues to avow its dedication to our destruction. There was no bridge too far for Obama in seeking to align the United States with the mullahs of Iran. Michael Doran explained the secret strategy driving this policy. Whatever the explanation, Obamas appeasement of Iran represented part of the fundamental transformation of the United States that he proclaimed in the days before the 2008 election. I am grateful for the intercession of President Trump and his national security team. The Trump administration is also reimposing sanctions on the Iranian regime, effective today. The administration has termed the policy one of maximum pressure on the regime to reform its behavior. The sanctions to be imposed today target Irans oil, shipping, energy and banking sectors. These sanctions only go into effect today, but they have already begun to bite. Caline Malek reports here for Arab News from Dubai on the reimposition of sanctions. Former New York Times reporter Michael Gordon, now with the Wall Street Journal, reports on the related reorientation of American foreign policy in Trump digs in for a long cold war with Iran (accessible here via Outline). Gordon argues, New York Times style, with the effectiveness of the policy. He apparently couldnt find anyone to speak in its favor. I should think that lessening the resources of the regime to fund evil beyond Irans borders is good in itself, but this is a point that escapes Gordon. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has won an internal administration argument about leaving Iranian banks with access to the SWIFT financial system. On Friday Secretary Mnuchin and Pompeo held a conference call with reporters explaining the scope of sanctions. Having lost the argument, National Security Advisor John Bolton professed to have a scheduling conflict. Controversy arose when the sanctions were announced in terms of Irans access to the SWIFT financial system and its potential to bypass the sanctions through it. According to Mnuchin, SWIFT is no different than any other entity, and we have advised SWIFT the Treasury will aggressively use its authorities as necessary to continue intense economic pressure on the Iranian regime. Maleks Arab News article has more on this point. My daughter Eliana has reported for Politico on the dissatisfaction of Senators Cotton et al. with the resolution of the issues regarding SWIFT. Published on Thursday evening in advance of Fridays conference call with Mnuchin and Pompeo, the story is here. Chris Wallace raised the issue with Secretary Pompeo in an interview on FOX News Sunday. He reiterated the point that Mnuchin made on Fridays conference call: The Iranian banks that engage in sanctionable behavior will be sanctioned by the Department of Treasury period, full stop. Asked why Senators Cotton et al. are not persuaded, Pompeo avoided a direct response: I worked with Senator Cotton [in the House]Ive been at this a long time. No ones going to argue that Secretary Pompeo isnt tough on Iran and no one is going to argue that President Trump isnt doing the same. The Journal supports the policy as announced in a short editorial (accessible here on Outline): The U.S. retains the flexibility to tighten sanctions further in coming months[.] The editorial also provides this somewhat more persuasive response to Gordons Wall Street Journal article: [Todays] measures will deprive the rulers in Tehran of more cash for their foreign adventures. While most of the attention during vote counting tomorrow night will be on the House and Senate races and what they mean for Trump, it is worth keeping your eye out for a lot of things on the state and local level. Washington state has another carbon tax initiative on the ballot, Initiative 1631, to fight global warming. It really amounts mostly to a new tax on gasoline (eventually rising to more than 50 cents a gallon), since Washington gets about 70 percent of its electricity from carbon-free nuclear and hydropower. So drivers of evil internal combustion engine cars will bear the brunt of it. A previous carbon tax initiative went down to defeat a couple years back because the left opposedit, on the insane grounds that it didnt increase government spending enough and reward key leftist constituency groups. I havent looked at the details of the new measure, but I am sure the defects of the previous proposal have been remedied to the lefts satisfaction. (Ill just add that in a world filled with intellectual midgets in public office, Washington Governor Jay Inslee has a firm grasp on the lowest rung.) Keep a close eye also on Colorado, where there are two energy-related ballot initiatives to watch. One, Proposition 112, aims to shut down fracking for oil and gas production on private land, while Amendment 74 (Amendment instead of Proposituion because it would change the state constitution) would require compensation to private landowners when regulation reduces the value of their land. Polls show 112 is close, but 74 passing. Amendment 74 is a straight up takings measure, and it doesnt meant the government cant regulate; it just means the government needs to weigh costs and benefits more carefully, and only impose those regulations that pass a cost-benefit test. Liberals love regulation because you supposedly get good things for free, by imposing their entire cost on a private party. California has its usual mix of good and bad propositions. Proposition 6 would roll back the last gasoline tax increase (12 cents a gallon for gasoline, 20 cents a gallon for diesel) that Jerry Brown rammed through the state legislature (and also require a vote of the people for any future gas tax hike), and with gasoline prices in California approaching $5 a gallon in some locations, I think it has a decent chance of passing, since evenespeciallylow income Democratic voters drive a lot in California, and see no good reason why gasoline should cost over $1 a gallon more than most other states ($2 more than some states). And what does Californias high cost of housing most need to help? How about rent control? Proposition 10 would open the door to extending rent control throughout the state. Right now, a state law sensibly restricts local rent control on new construction. If Prop. 10 passes, you may as well give up all hope for California. Not that it has much hope now. Incidentally, Bernie Sanders has endorsed Prop. 10. Isnt that all you need to know? Prop. 10 isnt Californias only madness on the ballot. San Franciscos Measure C would impose a gross receipts tax on large businesses to help pay for more homeless servicessome $300 million worth. Because I guess San Francisco just doesnt have enough homeless people living on the streets right now, and wants to have even more. Heres the funny thing: it is said that there are 7,500 homeless on the streets of San Francisco right now. $300 million comes to $40,000 per homeless person. (And the city already spends near that figure now.) Um, isnt there something beyond absurd about this figure? Why dont we just buy each one of them first class airfare to somewhere else, throw in a used car, and save at least $10,000 for, maybe, filling potholes? Or educating potheads, I dont care. So many things have gone to pot in California that it wouldnt really matter what you spend the money on. Around the country there are several states with initiatives to expand Medicaid, and take advantage of supposedly free money from Washington DC. This is a trap: Medicaid is eating state budgets alive. If voters turn away these measures, it will be a sign that people understand that expanding welfare programs wont work out very well for them. The governors races around the country should be followed. The GOP is certain to lose ground here, just because of the natural cycle of voters wanting to switch up teams after a while. Keep your eye out especially on Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Nevada, and Wisconsin, where Scott Walker is in a tight race for a third term. In Illinois, Rauner is a goner. I think Californias governors race between Gavin Newsom and John Cox will be closer than people think. I sense that there isnt that much enthusiasm for Newsom once you get outside the Bay Area, and I can imagine even some Democratic voters thinking it might be good to have a Republican as a check on a runaway leftist legislature. I have it on good authority that Jerry Brown actually cant stand Newsom, and privately thinks hes going to be a terrible governor. I know this will strike many readers as perverse or out to lunch, but Jerry Brown, for all his certified nuttiness, is the only thing that has kept Californias leftist legislature in check, as he has vetoed a lot of crazy laws (though sadly not all), and has actually restrained spending to some extent. Newsom will have no such restraint, as he looks to build a progressive base to run for president in 2020 or 2024. It is possible, though, that if he crashes and burns, we could have another recall election as happened after Gray Davis crashed and burned in 2002. Though Ill repeat what Ive been saying for a long time: California is so nutty that it deserves a governor named Gavin. Maybe the most interesting governor race to watch is Oregon, where Knute Buehler has a decent shot at becoming the first Republican governor in 40 years. I had dinner with Buehler a year or so ago, and he strikes me as just the kind of Republican who could appeal to independent voters in Oregon. He is low key (a doctor by profession), moderate on social issues which fits Oregons electorate, and is the ideal vehicle for suburban voters dismayed at how out of control Portland has become. Buehler has done one very shrewd thing: in a state where Trump is unpopular, he has eschewed the national spotlight, and has discouraged out-of-state press coverage. I know of at least one conservative national journalist who was going to write about Buehler, but Buehlers campaign said thanks, but no thanks. Think of this as borrowing Tip ONeills advice: all politics is local. Quite a contrast with Beto ORourke, who is much more interesting in becoming a national liberal celebrity than in actually winning the Texas Senate race. The leftist media insists that President Trump is encouraging anti-Semitism even though he has never made a statement that fairly can be considered anti-Semitic. It relies in part on untenable inferences from statements by Trump that have nothing to do with Jews, and in part on claims that anti-Semitic incidents have risen since Trump became president. Such incidents might well have increased since Trumps victory. However, Gina Bellafante of the New York Times acknowledges that in New York City at least, anti-Semitic incidents were already on the rise before Trump was elected. But the most interesting admission in Bellafantes story about the increase of anti-Semitism in New York is this: During the past 22 months, not one person caught or identified as the aggressor in an anti-Semitic hate crime has been associated with a far right-wing group. Bellafante, goes on to note that not everyone who commits a hate crime is caught. She also assures us that white supremacists are driving anti-Semitism. However, one can tell from her article that plenty of perpetrators have been caught. Otherwise, the head of the police departments hate crimes unit would not be able to say its every identity targeting every identity. Every identity? I doubt Jews are committing hate crimes. Bellafante (or is it the police?) tactfully declines to say how many of those apprehended for anti-Semitic hate crimes are Muslims and how many are black. We learn, however, of the Muslim livery driver who jumped out of a car, started beating up a Jew, and yelled Allah. And we just learned that person who wrote anti-Semitic graffiti all over a synagogue in Brooklyn is an African-American and Democratic activist. I dont think you can blame Trump for the Muslim drivers assault. The same goes for the Democratic activist, though I suppose its possible he thought he was helping his Party by contributing to the narrative that Trumpism causes anti-Semitic incidents. Islamists have an obvious beef with Jews. Portions of the African-American community have a beef too (though its source seems less obvious). Otherwise, Ward 8 of the District of Columbia wouldnt be represented on the city council by an anti-Semite, and politicians seeking black votes wouldnt covet the anti-Semites endorsement. Yet, Democrats and their media allies want to rule these populations out of the anti-Semitic equation and to focus on right-wing hate groups and President Trump. The Times article contains one more telling admission: When a Hasidic man or woman is attacked by anyone in New York City, mainstream progressive advocacy groups do not typically send out emails calling for concern and fellowship and candlelight vigils in Union Square, as they often do when individuals are harmed in New York because of their race or ethnicity or how they identify in terms of gender or sexual orientation. To me, this selectivity smacks of soft anti-Semitism on the part of mainstream progressive advocacy groups. And the medias sudden concern about a form of crime that, at least in New York City, was on the rise before November 2016 smacks of naked partisanship and intellectual dishonesty. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 23:26:46 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 860 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 LONDON, ENGLAND / ACCESSWIRE / November5, 2018 / GabrielResources Ltd. ("Gabriel" or the "Company") announces that it has submitted itsReply and counter-memorial on jurisdiction ("Reply") in its arbitration againstRomania under the rules of the International Centre for Settlement ofInvestment Disputes ("ICSID") part of the World Bank ("ICSID Arbitration").The Reply, Gabriel'ssecond substantive written pleading in the ICSID Arbitration case, sets out a comprehensiverebuttal of the legal and factual contentions raised in the Counter-Memorial filedby Romania on February 22, 2018 ("Counter-Memorial") and includes Gabriel'sresponse to Romania's supplemental preliminary objection to the jurisdiction ofthe tribunal ("Tribunal") appointed to adjudicate the ICSID Arbitration ("JurisdictionalChallenge").The Reply wasfiled in accordance with established procedural orders ("Procedural Orders") ofthe Tribunal, including a recent revision to the calendar that now includes thefollowing amended dates:Comments on submissions by non-disputing parties(if any are admitted by the Tribunal) by January 18, 2019Romania to file its response to the Reply("Rejoinder") and its reply on the Jurisdictional Challenge by May 10, 2019Gabriel to file its rejoinder with regard tothe Jurisdictional Challenge by June 14, 2019A hearing on jurisdiction and the merits of theclaim before the Tribunal from December 2 to 13, 2019.A redactedversion of the Reply will be published on the ICSID website in due coursefollowing the completion of a process prescribed by certain Procedural Orders.Dragos Tanase, Gabriel'sPresident and Chief Executive Officer, stated:"The Rosia Montana Project met all of the applicablerequirements for the issuance of the key environmental permit, yet ultimately theRomanian Government unlawfully blocked the permitting process. The Reply highlightsthe abundant, contemporaneous evidence establishing Romania'sliability-creating conduct, which its Counter-Memorial fails to rebut, and unequivocallysubstantiates the factual and legal grounds of our claim, detailed in Gabriel'sJune 2017 Memorial that assessed the damages caused by Romania, with accruedinterest, at US$4.4 billion. Given the passage of time since the Memorial, andinterest continuing to accrue on the damages, that total has now risen toUS$4.75 billion." For information on this press release, please contact:DragosTanasePresident & CEOPhone: +4021223 1351RichardBrownChief Commercial OfficerMobile:+44 7748 760276Neither TSXVenture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is definedin policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for theadequacy or accuracy of this release.About GabrielGabriel is a Canadian resource companylisted on the TSX Venture Exchange. The Company's principal focus has been theexploration and development of the Rosia Montana gold and silver project inRomania ("Rosia Montana Project"). The Rosia Montana Project, one of thelargest undeveloped gold deposits in Europe, is situated in the South ApuseniMountains of Transylvania, Romania, an historic and prolific mining districtthat since pre-Roman times has been mined intermittently for over 2,000 years. Theexploitation license ("License") for the Rosia Montana Projectis held by Rosia Montana Gold Corporation S.A., a Romanian company in whichGabriel owns an 80.69% equity interest, with the 19.31% balance held by MinvestRosia Montana S.A., a Romanian state-owned mining company. Itis anticipated that the Rosia Montana Project would bring over US$24 billion (at US$1,200/oz gold) to Romania aspotential direct and indirect contribution to GDP and generate thousands ofemployment opportunities.Upon obtaining the License in June 1999,the Group (as defined below) focused substantially all of their management andfinancial resources on the exploration, feasibility and subsequent developmentof the Rosia Montana Project. Despite the Company's fulfilment of its legalobligations and its development of the Rosia Montana Project as a high-quality,sustainable and environmentally-responsible mining project, using bestavailable techniques, Romania has blocked and prevented implementation of the RosiaMontana Project without due process and without compensation. Accordingly, theCompany's current core focus is the ICSID Arbitration. For more informationplease visit the Company's website at www.gabrielresources.com Forward-looking StatementsThis press release contains "forward-looking information" (alsoreferred to as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicableCanadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are provided forthe purpose of providing information about management's current expectationsand plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding ofthe Company's operating environment. All statements, other than statements ofhistorical fact, are forward-looking statements.In this press release, forward-looking statements are necessarilybased upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while consideredreasonable by the Company at this time, are inherently subject to significantbusiness, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies that maycause the Company's actual financial results, performance, or achievements tobe materially different from those expressed or implied herein. Some of thematerial factors or assumptions used to develop forward-looking statementsinclude, without limitation, the uncertainties associated with: the ICSIDArbitration, actions by the Romanian Government, conditions or events impactingthe Company's ability to fund its operations or service its debt, exploration,development and operation of mining properties and the overall impact ofmisjudgments made in good faith in the course of preparing forward-lookinginformation.Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties,assumptions, and other factors including those set out below, that may nevermaterialize, prove incorrect or materialize other than as currentlycontemplated which could cause the Company's results to differ materially fromthose expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any statementsthat express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations,beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events orperformance (often%2 PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 12:03:04 TORONTO, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biome Grow Inc. (Biome or the Company) (CSE:BIO) (Frankfurt:6OTA) announced Friday November 2, 2018 that its Newfoundland and Labrador brand, Back Home Cannabis Corporation (Back Home) has entered into a 24,000 kg three-year production and supply agreement (the Supply Agreement) with the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador (the Transaction) pursuant to which the Company anticipates annual revenues of up to approximately $100 million and recovery of $52 million through reduced remittances to the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation (NLC), beginning in 2020. The Company will achieve the expected $100 million in revenue per annum by virtue of wholesale distribution to the NLC at a wholesale price. This wholesale distribution coupled with the quantity to be supplied will account for a significant portion of the total revenue based on the expected prices to be received. A discount premium will be applied providing for an additional revenue stream with such discount premium to be shared initially by the Company and the NLC for a period of five years or collection by the Company of an aggregate of $52 million, following which, the NLC will receive the entirety of the discount premium (as discussed further below). There is also additional revenue to be gained through the retail stream and the operation by the Company of five retail stores anticipated to open prior to 2020, which will account for the remaining portion of expected revenues beginning in 2020. In generating the expected revenue of $100 million, the Company anticipates expenses of $50 million per year. This amount is comprised of (i) $30 million in direct production and operating costs such as direct salaries, power/utility costs, and input costs (including nutrients, water, growing medium); and (ii) $20 million in indirect facility and administrative costs such as administrative and non-production salaries, marketing costs, facility maintenance and balance of facility mechanical costs, retail support costs, financing expenses associated with the planned expansion, and accounting and legal expenses. Please see Forward-looking Statements and Future Oriented Financial Information and Financial Outlook below for further details. Additionally, the Company plans to recover up to $52 million through reduced remittances to the NLC. Specifically, pursuant to the Supply Agreement, Biome can recoup eligible construction costs through reduced remittance to the NLC, with a set term of 5 years. To be more specific, in exchange for new jobs and the construction of a new production facility in the Province, Biome will receive a discount on the revenue it will provide monthly to the NLC. The Company will retain a portion of the NLC commission that will be considered the premium, or reduced remittances to the NLC, up to a maximum of $52 million over a five-year term. The $52 million dollar value is based on the assumption that the Company is able to successfully capture a large portion of the Newfoundland Labrador market for cannabis sales with such sales averaging in excess of $104 million per year (exclusive of tax), assuming competitive pricing and sales in Company-owned stores, third party-owned and licensed cannabis stores, as well as online. In exchange for the reduced remittances to the NLC, the Company will maintain 120 production jobs for a minimum of 20 years. This will be facilitated as a part of the $60 million expansion of Back Homes production facility, which will be funded by utilizing existing cash on hand, as well as a mixture of debt and equity, assuming favourable market conditions, and if in the best interest of investors to do so. For further information, please contact: Alise Mills amills@sussex-strategy.com 778-928-0267 www.biomegrow.com About Biome Biome wholly owns five subsidiaries, including: The Back Home Cannabis Corporation, a company incorporated under the laws of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador and in the late stages of applying for a license under the ACMPR; Great Lakes Cannabis, a company incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario and in the late stages of applying for a license under the ACMPR; Highland Grow Inc., a licensed producer in Nova Scotia under Canadas ACMPR; Red Sands Craft Cannabis Co., a company incorporated under the laws of the Province of Prince Edward Island, and; Weed Virtual Retail Inc., a company incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario in the business of operating a new virtual reality technology platform focused exclusively on the medical and recreational cannabis markets. Biome is a Canadian-based company with national and international business interests. Forward-looking Statements This news release contains forwardlooking statements and forwardlooking 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 forwardlooking statements or information. Generally, forward-looking statements and information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, proposed, is expected, budgets, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forwardlooking statements and information concerning: the Transaction and the expected revenue to be derived from the Supply Agreement; the construction, timing and funding associated with such construction and expansion of Back Homes facility in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador; Back Homes expected timeline for the production of cannabis; the expected operating lifetime of Back Homes facility in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador; investment in, and the development of, Back Homes retail locations prior to 2020; the anticipated creation of jobs at Back Homes production facility and retail locations and for the time periods stated; Biomes expected investment in research and development; the Companys investment in the provincial cannabis ecosystem and its ability to ensure Biomes cannabis products are eligible for sale in the Province through the Newfoundland and Labrador supply chain, and Biomes management and its business plans. Such forward-looking statements and information reflect managements current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to Biome, including, among other things, assumptions and expectations with respect to: Back Homes ability to obtain all necessary regulatory licenses, permits and approvals to produce and sell cannabis and generally operate its business; that labour, construction, and other costs will remain low for Back Homes licensed cannabis production facilities; and that sufficient financial resources will be available. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, including, among other things: a failure to obtain or delays in obtaining the required regulatory licenses, permits, or approvals; changes to legislation; changes in cannabis research or the general publics perception of cannabis; crop failure; labour disputes; increases in labour and/or construction costs; rising energy costs; an inability to access financing as needed; and general economic downturn. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and Biome, or any of its subsidiaries undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Future Oriented Financial Information and Financial Outlook This news release, and in particular the information provided in respect of the Company's expected revenues beginning in 2020, also contains future-oriented financial information and financial outlook information (collectively, FOFI) within the meaning of applicable securities law. The FOFI is subject to the same assumptions, risk factors, limitations, and qualifications as set forth in the above paragraphs, in addition to assumptions with respect to the prices to be paid for the Company's products, the costs and expenditures to be incurred by the Company and the costs associated with production, including direct production costs and indirect facility and administrative costs as detailed above, taxation rates, and other general and administrative expenses. The expected $100 million in revenue is specifically based on the assumption that the aggregate price, consisting of the supplier cost (wholesale), LP discount (premium), excise tax and HST is as expected. Additional assumptions related to this revenue forecast include that the Company will be able to functionally grow the quantity of cannabis at the dates required under the Supply Agreement and that the NLC will acquire the product at the prices expected. Furthermore, the statements relating to the retail sales assumes the retail locations are opened on the terms expected, that the products distributed in those locations will sell at the quantities anticipated and that a variety of products will be available in store and online and at the prices that are competitive in the market. FOFI contained in this news release was made as of the date of this news release and was provided by management for the purpose of providing further information about Biome's future business operations. The Company believes that the FOFI has been prepared on a reasonable basis, reflecting management's best estimates and judgments. However, because this information is highly subjective and subject to numerous risks including the risks discussed herein and above, it should not be relied on as necessarily indicative of future results. The actual results of operations of the Company and the resulting financial results may vary from the amounts set forth herein, and such variations may be material. Biome disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any FOFI contained in this news release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities law. Investors are cautioned that the FOFI contained in this news release should not be used for purposes other than for which it is disclosed herein. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 10:03:01 Italian High Street Restaurant Relaunches Website In Time For Holidays Carluccios Invests in Digital Strategy, Marries Commerce and Content with BigCommerce Big Commerce Kirsty Leighton, 020 3637 7310 or Harriet King, 020 3637 7310 harriet@milkandhoneypr.com or Carluccios Rochelle Cohen, 020 7436 1111 rochelle@roche.com Carluccios, the Italian high street restaurant business, announced today a substantial digital overhaul that will extend the unique Italian food brand online. Partnering with BigCommerce, the leading ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established brands, Carluccios relaunched website brings together for the first time rich content and online shopping in a single web experience. The website, hosted on WordPress with commerce powered by BigCommerce, allows Carluccios to have a best-in-class, content-rich web experience that serves both Carluccios in-restaurant clientele as well as its growing audience of digital consumers. This digital transformation comes as part of a 10 million investment and brand restructuring, designed to reinvigorate the restaurants online and offline presence and elevate the guest experience. This is underpinned by the brand ethos of minimum of fuss, maximum of flavour, which was passionately championed by founder Antonio Carluccio, TV chef and godfather of Italian cooking. Bringing back the magic Established in 1999, Carluccios opened its first cafe in Market Place, London serving deliberately simple, authentic and affordable Italian food and drink made with the finest ingredients. Today the Carluccios brand extends to 85 restaurant locations across the United Kingdom and Ireland, with another 14 in Turkey and the Middle East. James Backhouse, marketing director at Carluccio's, is leading the brand reinvigoration and digital-focused strategy. Carluccios is a brand that is built on brilliant people working in the business, suppliers creating amazing products, and the ingredients themselves, said Backhouse. We are unusual in having both restaurants and delis retailing our products, and we wanted to bring this all to life in our online presence. Our aim was to develop a website that did the fundamentals really well - whilst also demonstrating the stories behind the brand and products, and linking seamlessly into ecommerce. To do this, we needed a platform that could strike the balance between traditional ecommerce and a content-rich website. This newly-launched site has definitely accomplished that. Technical assessment Eighty percent of the business ecommerce volume comes from the two months leading up to Christmas. Knowing the importance of this high-volume period, the team was focused on getting the new site up and ready by the final week of October. The Carluccios team needed a platform partner that understood both commerce and content-driven web design, had the ability to scale and could mobilize quickly. Backhouse explained, A SaaS ecommerce platform was critical to us; we are a small team and didnt want to have to deal with hosting hassles or the need for regular maintenance and upgrades that could interrupt uptime for the site. We also wanted a user interface that was fast and easy to use, with lots of functionality right out of the box. Carluccios ultimately selected BigCommerce for its ability to integrate with WordPress. The ability to seamlessly blend content and commerce enabled us to rapidly develop a modern website with powerful commerce capabilities using our preferred content management system, said Backhouse. Launching a website of this calibre without adding technical complexity or extra people into our team was a massive accomplishment that was only possible through BigCommerce. Mark Adams, EMEA general manager at BigCommerce, adds, Our entire ecommerce platform is built to be open, working in tandem with best-in-class technologies, enabling us to deliver the best possible functionality and capabilities for our customers based on their unique requirements. By levering BigCommerce for WordPress, Carluccios has created an engaging, inspiring, story-driven site with embedded shopping intelligently incorporated throughout. He continues, Fusing WordPress CMS with BigCommerces powerful commerce platform means Carluccios team can easily and efficiently manage product catalogues, inventory, orders, fulfilment and shipping, checkout and payment, all without technical overhead or complexity. This is what retailers expect of a modern ecommerce platform, and we are thrilled to help Carluccios bring this to market in time for the holidays. The new site, which took just three months to develop, launched in late October at www.carluccios.com. To learn more about BigCommerce for WordPress, visit https://www.bigcommerce.com/wordpress About BigCommerce BigCommerce is the worlds leading cloud ecommerce platform for established and rapidly-growing businesses. Combining enterprise functionality, an open architecture and app ecosystem, and market-leading performance, BigCommerce enables businesses to grow online sales with 80% less cost, time and complexity than on-premise software. BigCommerce powers B2B and B2C ecommerce for more than 60,000 brands, 2,000+ mid-market businesses, 30 Fortune 1000 companies and industry-leading brands, including Assurant, Ben & Jerrys, Paul Mitchell, Skullcandy, Sony and Toyota. BigCommerce is a registered trademark of BigCommerce Pty. Ltd. Third-party trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. About Carluccio's Carluccios offers a unique blend of modern Italian all-day dining, deli and food shop retailing artisanal Italian speciality foods. Founded in 1999 and named after the late Antonio Carluccio, the Carluccios group has 75 restaurants operating in the UK and Ireland and operates franchises in Turkey, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The menu features simple, authentic dishes made from impeccably sourced British and Italian ingredients and takes diners from breakfast through to cocktails and dinners. The food shops sell everything from gifts to store cupboard essentials with pesto, pasta, porcini, prosecco and preserves sharing shelf space with olive oils, wines, biscuits and chocolates, all sourced from Italian producers. Carluccios is a founding member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association. The brand has also, since 2008, raised over 1.9m through sales of its best-selling Penne Giardiniera for humanitarian charity Action Against Hunger. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005 PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 09:33:02 All-star Line-up of Analysts, Customers and Partners Explore How Data Virtualization Facilitates the Journey to the Cloud, Self-Service BI, and Data Lakes Denodo Announces DataFest 2018 London: The Annual Agile Data Management & Analytics User Conference Provides Actionable Insight From Enterprise Data Architecture Visionaries Hotwire PR Holly Hunter, +44 (0) 20 7608 4638 holly.hunter@hotwireglobal.com Denodo, the leader in data virtualization, announces its 3rd annual user conference, Denodo DataFest, which will be held in London on 21st November. Today, companies are rapidly adopting cloud, self-service BI, and big data technologies, such as data lakes, to gain greater agility and scalability while enhancing analytic capabilities. However, achieving these goals is not always straightforward. At DataFest, attendees will learn strategies on how to leverage data virtualization to enable highly flexible, agile, and powerful BI architectures that are facilitating the journey to advanced data management and analytics. Denodos DataFest is a great conference for organizations looking to learn about modern ways to integrate their data and modernize their core operational and analytical systems to improve agility and lower total cost of ownership, said Mike Ferguson, Independent Analyst and Managing Director at Intelligent Business Strategies, and speaker at this years event. With this year's focus on Cloud initiatives, attendees will get insights on the challenges they may encounter in a hybrid computing environment and how data virtualization can help overcome them." An immersive, one day conference, Denodo DataFest brings together some of the brightest minds in data to share expertise and insights on the future of data management and analytics. It offers an end-to-end learning experience, starting from foundational concepts and demos, and continuing through ask the experts sessions and hands-on lab, where business leaders, data professionals, and business analysts learn about the latest technologies, trends, and tools that are changing the data landscape. Sessions will feature actionable insights from analysts and some of the top minds in enterprise data architecture, including speakers from Forrester, Tableau, Wipro as well independent analysts Mike Ferguson and Rick van der Lans. Attendees will also hear real world insights from Landsbankinn, GetSmarter and Get who will share how they leveraged data virtualization to enable enhanced analytics and agility. Big data has given rise to data lakes and many other use cases, but companies still need ways to unify the data in real time, or they end up with additional data silos, said Ravi Shankar, Chief Marketing Officer at Denodo. The same is true for companies leveraging cloud or implementing self-service BI. DataFest 2018 focuses squarely on how to achieve a smooth journey to cloud, self-service BI, and data lakes, using data virtualization. We are excited to bring together our customers, partners, and Denodo executives to talk about how data virtualization can bring out the maximum benefits from today and tomorrows technologies. About DataFest 2018: The Denodo DataFest Conference will take place in London and will also be live-streamed for attendees around the world. To Participate: Attend in person: On 21st November from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. GMT at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, 45 Prescot Street, London E1 8GP Register now. Attend the Live Stream: 21st November, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. CET Register now. Please Tweet: https://goo.gl/YqzGQs About Denodo Denodo is the leader in data virtualization providing agile, high performance data integration and data abstraction across the broadest range of enterprise, cloud, big data and unstructured data sources, and real-time data services, at half the cost of traditional approaches. Denodos customers across every major industry have gained significant business agility and ROI by enabling faster and easier access to unified business information for agile BI, big data analytics, Web and cloud integration, single-view applications, and enterprise data services. Denodo is well-funded, profitable, and privately held. For more information, visit www.denodo.com or call +44 (0) 20 3196 4710. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005 Attend #DenodoDataFest on 21st Nov. Learn how #datavirtualization can support your journey to #cloudcomputing #Self-ServiceBI #DataLakes. Register: goo.gl/cSYXb8 PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 21:41:39 Press Information Polaris Market Research & Consulting Contact us- Mr. Neel Corporate Sales, USA Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com Mr.Neel Director 6465689980 email http://www.polarismarketresearch.com/ # 368 Words Contact us-Mr. NeelCorporate Sales, USAPolaris Market ResearchPhone: 1-646-568-9980Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.comWeb: www.polarismarketresearch.comDirector6465689980 Further, the Consumer Network Attached Storage (NAS) Market is bolstering due to easy installation and low-cost of product, coupled with network sharing of data that improves the accessibility of users to data, among the office or in-house network. Furthermore, innovative offerings including cloud backup that is capable of integrating with consumer network attached storage system, is also driving the market growth.Request for a sample copy of this report: -According to a new study published by Polaris Market, the Consumer Network Attached Storage (NAS) Market is anticipated to reach USD 10.2 billion by 2026.Key players operating in the Consumer Network Attached Storage (NAS) Market are: -Western Digital Corporation,Netgear Inc.Synology Inc.ASUSTOR Inc.QNAP Systems Inc.ZyXEL Communications Inc.Buffalo America Inc.Drobo Inc.D-Link CorporationSeagate Technology Public Limited Company among others.Make an Enquiry Before Buying this report: -Consumer Network Attached Storage (NAS) Market Segmentation: -By end-user is dominated by SMEs segment. The demand is highly attributed to the cost-effectiveness as well rising awareness for consumer network attached storage system.By regions, Asia Pacific is expected to notice the highest growth. Further, region Middle East & Africa is also expected to notice considerable growth during the forecast period. Rising awareness among people and their increasing spending capability are the major factors driving the Consumer Network Attached Storage (NAS) Market growth in these regions. The North America region is expected to dominate the market, with US being the major contributor. The market in US is driven by presence of several start-ups in the country also, US in one of the hub for start-ups and a major location of several large technology companies.By design, the market is segmented into 1-Bay, 2-Bays, 4-Bays, 5-Bays, 6-Bays, and 6-Bays & above. The 4-Bays segment is dominating the market by design however, 2-Bay segment is expected to grow at a highest CAGR during the projected period.TOC of Consumer Network Attached Storage (NAS) Market:Chapter 1. Overview and ScopeChapter 2. Market SummaryChapter 3 Consumer Network Attached Storage (NAS) Market Size and ForecastChapter 4. Dynamics and SegmentationChapter 5. Detailed Insight on Key CompanyChapter 6. Research Methodology and ReferenceChapter 7. Competitive LandscapeTOC Continued...!!! PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-06 00:11:15 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 636 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 GUADALAJARA, JALISCO, MEXICO / ACCESSWIRE / November 5, 2018 / Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V., (NYSE: PAC; BMV: GAP) (''the Company'' or ''GAP'') announced preliminary terminal passenger traffic figures for the month of October 2018, compared to traffic figures for October 2017.During October 2018, total terminal passengers increased by 10.3% at the Company's 13 airports, compared to the same period of the previous year. Domestic passenger traffic increased by 12.6%, while international passenger traffic increased by 6.5%.Domestic Terminal Passengers (in thousands):International Terminal Passengers (in thousands):Total Terminal Passengers (in thousands):*Passengers in Tijuana who use CBX in both directions are classified as international.CBX Users:Highlights for the Period:Seats and Load Factors:In October 2018, GAP registered an 11.1% increase in the number of seats available compared to October 2017. Load factors for the month decreased by 0.5 percentage points, from 81.5% in October 2017 to 81.0% in October 2018.Hurricane Willa: As a result of the hurricane passing through the coastal regions of Jalisco and Nayarit, 28 commercial flights were cancelled during the days of October 22, 23 and 24 at the Puerto Vallarta Airport. These cancellations represented a traffic decrease of 1.2%.New Routes:Guanajuato to Chicago OHare by United AirlinesMorelia to Monterrey by VivaAerobusMorelia to Tijuana by VivaAerobusTijuana to Huatulco by VolarisTijuana to Tuxtla Gutierrez by VolarisTijuana to Zihuatanejo by VolarisMontego Bay to Dusseldorf by EurowingsMontego Bay to Moscow by Nordwind23 new routes are scheduled to begin operations in November and December, of which 12 are domestic routes and 11 are international.Company Description:Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V. (GAP) operates 12 airports throughout Mexico's Pacific region, including the major cities of Guadalajara and Tijuana, the four tourist destinations of Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, La Paz and Manzanillo, and six other mid-sized cities: Hermosillo, Guanajuato, Morelia, Aguascalientes, Mexicali and Los Mochis. In February 2006, GAP's shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ''PAC''and on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ''GAP''. In April 2015, GAP acquired 100% of Desarrollo de Concesiones Aeroportuarias, S.L., which owns a majority stake in MBJ Airports Limited, a company operating Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica.This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are statements that are not historical facts, and are based on management's current view and estimates of future economic circumstances, industry conditions, company performance and financial results. The words ''anticipates'', ''believes'', ''estimates'', ''expects'', ''plans''and similar expressions, as they relate to the company, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Statements regarding the declaration or payment of dividends, the implementation of principal operating and financing strategies and capital expenditure plans, the direction of future operations and the factors or trends affecting financial condition, liquidity or results of operations are examples of forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of management and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. There is no guarantee that the expected events, trends or results will actually occur. The statements are based on many assumptions and factors, including general economic and market conditions, industry conditions, and operating factors. Any changes in such assumptions or factors could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.In accordance with Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and article 42 of the ''Ley del Mercado de Valores'', GAP has implemented a ''whistleblower'' program, which allows complainants to anonymously and confidentially report suspected activities that may involve criminal conduct or violations. The telephone number in Mexico, facilitated by a third party that is in charge of collecting these complaints, is 01 800 563 00 47. The web site is www.lineadedenuncia.com/gap . GAP's Audit Committee will be notified of all complaints for immediate investigation.Contact:Saul Villarreal, Chief Financial Officersvillarreal@ aeropuertosgap.com.mx Alejandra Soto, IR & Financial Planningasoto@ aeropuertosgap.com.mx Maria Barona, i-advize Corporate Communicationsmbarona@ i-advize.com SOURCE: Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 13:01:26 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 631 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 5, 2018 / Grande West Transportation Group Inc. (TSXV: BUS; OTC PINK: GWTNF) - November 5, 2018: ("Grande West" or the "Company"), a Canadian manufacturer of mid-sized multi-purpose transit vehicles for sale in Canada and the United States, is pleased to announce new Canadian orders to purchase Vicinity buses for approximately $6,000,000.Grande West received firm orders from The City of Medicine Hat, The County of Grande Prairie and a private operator in Quebec. These orders are for delivery in the next twelve months and are new customers for Grande West.Jean-Marc Landry, CEO of Grande West stated, "The Grande West Team would like to thank our new customers for these orders. This further enhances our Canadian leadership position in our market segment." Total firm orders included in the backlog are for approximately one hundred ninety (190) buses valued at over $67 million CAD. Deliveries will vary from quarter to quarter to account for different build specifications, customer acceptance and revenue recognition.About Grande West Transportation GroupGrande West is a Canadian company that designs, engineers and manufactures mid-size multi-purpose transit vehicles for public and commercial enterprises. Grande West's Best-in-Class heavy-duty Vicinity bus is available in 27.5, 30 and 35 foot models powered by clean diesel or CNG designed with affordability, accessibility and global responsibility in mind. It costs significantly less than a regular 40 foot transit bus, is more maneuverable, burns less fuel and emits less harmful emissions. Grande West will soon be offering a new product which will be the first Crossover Vehicle in the transit space - a medium-duty, monocoque-designed rear engine vehicle.The Company has been successful in supplying Canadian municipal transportation agencies and private operators with new buses and is receiving follow-on orders in many Canadian transit agencies. Grande West is compliant to Buy America certification, and along with Alliance Bus Group ("ABG"), its exclusive US distributor, is actively pursuing opportunities in public and private transit fleet operations that would benefit from Grande West's vehicles.For further information please contact:Grande West TransportationJohn LaGourgueVP Corporate DevelopmentPh: 1-604-607-4000jlagourgue@ grandewest.com Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (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 use of proceeds from the Private Placement, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "potential," "possible," and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will," "may," "could," or "should" occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Grande West's expectations include uncertainties relating to the receipt of final approval from the TSX-V; and other risk and uncertainties disclosed in Grande West's reports and documents filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. Grande West's forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made. Grande West assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.SOURCE: Grande West Transportation Group Inc. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 15:17:03 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 734 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 5, 2018 / GREAT ATLANTIC RESOURCES CORP. ( TSX.v: GR) (the "Company" or "Great Atlantic") announces its optionee Explorex Resources Inc: (EX:TSXv) has completed silt sampling at the Kagoot Brook Cobalt project. Historical work at Kagoot Brook delineated two drainages, two kilometres apart, that exhibit remarkably high cobalt values up to 6,000 ppm* in the silts (see Company news releases dated May 31 and February 14, 2018).An initial steam silt sampling program conducted this summer corroborated the existence and intensity of the cobalt mineralization.The silt sample results also revealed a significant concentration of and a strong relationship of cobalt with manganese and associated base metals (nickel, copper, lead and zinc).The observed suite of elements and local geological units supports a ferromanganese marine environment indicating a strong affinity and trap for cobalt and base metals; a setting similar to the well-known ferromanganese stratiform mineralizing models around the world.The recent follow-up stream silt sampling program designed with tightly spaced sample stations was successful in framing the upstream cobalt grade cut-off that is interpreted to be coincident with the contact of the underlying mineralized horizon.The grade cut-offs align well with stratigraphy adding confidence to the stratiform model and length of mineralization along the geological trend.In addition, the latest results maintain:The amount of manganese and iron in the cobalt enriched silts, upwards to 6.2% and 28.3% respectively, indicates a prevalent source with size potential; andThe relative percentage of the manganese to cobalt indicates a favourable high cobalt tenor (i.e. grade component).To further define the underlying stratigraphy and delineate the drill target, the Company awaits the results from a detailed magnetometer and very low frequency electromagnetic ("VLF-EM") survey performed at Kagoot Brook.Once these additional surveys have been completed and integrated with the historical work, a drill program is planned.No drilling has ever been conducted and no source of the historic geochemical anomalies is known on the property.*Note: The stream silt samples reported in this release are solely designed to show the presence or absence of mineralization and to characterize the mineralization.Silt samples are by definition selective and not intended to provide nor should be construed as a representative indication of grade or mineralization at the projects.Technical information in this news release has been reviewed by David Martin, PGeo, a qualified person as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101.Option agreementThe Kagoot Brook property is 100 per cent owned by Great Atlantic and is subject to an underlying agreement with Explorex Resources Inc. Explorex is acquiring up to a 75-per-cent interest in the project. (See news release dated Feb. 14, 2018.)About Great Atlantic Resources Corp.: Great Atlantic Resources is a Canadian exploration company focused on the discovery and development of mineral assets in the resource-rich and sovereign risk-free realm of Atlantic Canada, one of the No. 1 mining regions of the world. Great Atlantic is currently surging forward building the company utilizing a project generation model, with a special focus on the most critical elements on the planet that are prominent in Atlantic Canada, antimony, cobalt, zinc, tungsten and gold.On Behalf of the board of directors"Christopher R Anderson"Mr. Christopher R. Anderson" Always be positive, strive for solutions, and never give up "President CEO Director604-488-3900 - DirInvestor Relations:Kaye Wynn Consulting Inc.: 604-558-2630, Toll Free: 888-280-8128E-mail: info@ kayewynn.com This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements arebased on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of financing, and general economic, market or business conditions.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.Great Atlantic Resource Corp.888 Dunsmuir Street - Suite 888, Vancouver, B.C., V6C 3K4SOURCE: Great Atlantic Resource Corp. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 20:34:02 SUZHOU, China, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Litens Automotive Group is the proprietor of patented Smartsprocket automotive timing drive components and systems. The Smartsprocket technology enhances timing drive systems by counteracting camshaft torque pulses, resulting in reduced torsional vibration, reduced camshaft timing error and improved belt life. The technology has been utilized in dozens of engine platforms around the world. Litens filed a patent infringement suit in the Suzhou Intermediate Peoples Court for patent infringement of the Smartprocket technology against Gates Unitta Transmission System (Shanghai) Co., Ltd and Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. Litens lost the first instance and appealed to the Jiangsu Higher Peoples Court. The high court recently ruled in favour of Litens, awarding Litens compensation for patent infringement of 490 RMB per infringing timing drive, resulting in a total award of 10,644,033 RMB including attorney fees. Mr. Alex Porat, VP General Counsel of Litens Automotive Group stated that Litens is pleased with the high courts decision, particularly with the courts rejection of Gates defense that it did not infringe because it developed its product based on trial and error as opposed to following the teachings of the specification. Mr. Porat further commented that the damages awarded demonstrate the value of the technology. Many attempts have been made by Gates and others to invalidate Smartsprocket patents before European, German and Chinese authorities. Litens has successfully defended the Smartsprocket patents in all instances, resulting in no changes to the originally granted claims. The validity decisions are listed below: 2018 May 29 German Federal Supreme Court case no. X ZR 51/16 2016 Feb 02 German Federal Patent Court case no. 4 Ni 29/14 (EP) 2013 May 29 China Patent Reexamination Board case no. 20785 2012 Oct 02 EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal case no. R 19/11 2011 Dec 18 Beijing First Intermediate People's Court case no. (2011-1801) 2011 July 07 EPO Technical Board of Appeal case no. T 0248/10-3208 2011 Jan 20 China Patent Reexamination Board case no. 15956 2009 Nov 25 EPO Opposition Division European patent no. 1448916 Litens has devoted a great deal of time, money and effort to researching and developing innovative automotive technology. Its innovations are adopted by automotive manufacturers around the world and the company has been awarded patents by various countries. Mr. Porat stated that in view of the Smartsprocket litigation history, there should be no doubt that Litens will vigorously defend its intellectual property rights and actively pursue violators. About Litens Automotive Group Litens is a full-service designer and manufacturer of engineered power transmission systems and components. An established global leader for over 30 years, Litens has an extensive history of providing innovative, engineered solutions for automotive power transmission challenges. Litens continues to develop and deliver new and innovative products for the global automotive industry, particularly for the new generation of hybrid engines. For more information about Litens, visit www.litens.com . Litens Automotive IP Intellectual Property Department litens.ip@litens.com 905-856-0200, ext 2162 PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 17:33:02 Mindteck Announces the Appointment of Mrs. Monika Faber to the Board of Directors of Mindteck Germany GmbH Mindteck Germany GmbH Monika Faber, monika.faber@mindteck.com Mindteck (India) Limited (BSE: 517344 and NSE: MINDTECK), a global technology company, announced the appointment of Mrs. Monika Faber to the Board of Mindteck Germany GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mindteck (India) Limited. Mrs. Faber previously held the title of Senior Business Development Manager responsible for Continental Europe. She reports to Mr. Arup Banerjee, Senior Vice President and a member of the companys Leadership Team. During her tenure at Mindteck, Mrs. Faber has successfully penetrated new markets in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. In her first year, her expansion of the companys client base directly contributed to a 52% increase in incremental revenues in Europe. Over the course of her 18-year career, Monika has demonstrated extensive business development and relationship management expertise within the technology, engineering, and financial services industries. Australian by birth, Mrs. Faber relocated to Germany in 2002, building a formidable track record working in a variety of sales and business development roles throughout Europe, developing a particular focus on the DACH (German/Austrian/Swiss) region. One of the first of these positions was with a well-known German water technology solutions provider, where she was named Sales, Marketing and Investor Relations Manager. From there, she moved to the financial services industry where she held the position of Group Manager responsible for European compliance and regulatory operations for a global asset management firm. Prior to joining Mindteck, Mrs. Faber was recruited by an AI/Machine Learning technology start-up to become the companys Regional Director for Europe. Mrs. Faber is a committed advocate for women professionals and has actively supported, promoted, and mentored women throughout her career, both formally and informally. She is a long-time member of the International Women's Club of Frankfurt a philanthropic organization established over 70 years ago dedicated to promoting human and cultural understanding and enhancing the lives of women and children. Mr. Sanjeev Kathpalia, Managing Director and CEO, stated: I am delighted to announce the appointment of Mrs. Faber to the Board of Directors of Mindteck Germany GmbH. In two short years she has proved herself to be more than just an asset to our business. Mrs. Fabers dynamism, determination, and drive embody the culture we strive to reinforce throughout the Mindteck franchise. I hope you will join Arup Banerjee, myself, and the rest of the Leadership Team in congratulating Mrs. Faber on this very special professional milestone. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005 PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 21:42:29 Press Information Polaris Market Research & Consulting Contact us- Mr. Neel Corporate Sales, USA Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com Mr.Neel Director 6465689980 email http://www.polarismarketresearch.com/ # 592 Words Contact us-Mr. NeelCorporate Sales, USAPolaris Market ResearchPhone: 1-646-568-9980Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.comWeb: www.polarismarketresearch.comDirector6465689980 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) finds application in various industries including oil & gas, petrochemicals, transportation, food& beverages, power & energy, construction, and healthcare, among others.Among these industries, construction industry is experiencing highest application, and is among one of the largest end-use industry that is driving the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Market. The industry is flourishing in Asia Pacific region, primarily due to the presence of developing nations that are heavily investing in their infrastructural facilities.Request for a sample copy of this report: -By ProductHead Protection, Eye and Face ProtectionHead Protection,Eye and Face ProtectionHearing ProtectionProtective ClothingRespiratory ProtectionProtective FootwearFall ProtectionHand ProtectionOthersAccording to a new study published by Polaris Market Research the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Market is anticipated to reach USD 81.35 billion by 2026. The market growth is propelled majorly by the increasing concerns of employers over the MSA safety of its employees.Employers are highly responsible for offering a healthy and safe workplace to their workers. Employees working at industrial sites are prone to different forms for hazards, they are likely to come across sharp objects, flying sparks, unbearable loud noise, falling objects, and chemicals that could cause them serious injuries.Companies MentionedHoneywell International Inc3MMSADuPontAnsellMake an Enquiry Before Buying this report: -Companies especially those belonging to industrial, manufacturing, and construction sectors have realized that it is better to take precautions and prevent any lethal damage to any of their workers. Many regulatory bodies have laid guidelines to promote the safety and health of workforce. For instance, Occupational MSA Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the U.S. is responsible for formulating standards that are aimed to encourage a safe and healthy environment for employees.OSHA has set requirements for the use of PPE such as 29 CFR 1910.135 (Head protection); 29 CFR 1910.137 (Electrical protective equipment); 29 CFR1910.136 (Foot protection), and29 CFR 1910.138 (Hand protection), among others. OSHA together with few other agencies such as National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), among others standardizes guidelines for work environment.In the end, key Findings from Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Market research study suggest that the largest share of the market in 2017 was of the North American region. Moreover, the market is segmented on the basis of products and end use.On the basis of product, the market can be segmented into eye protection, hand protection, head protection, hearing protection, fall protection, protective clothing, professional footwear, and respiratory protection, among other. Professional footwear is anticipated to foresee highest growth, owing to their wide range of application across various industries. These footwears are largely utilized for protection from sharp edge objects, and helps avoid direct contact from any hazardous chemicals.stabilizing production levels automotive industryRead More @About us Polaris Market ResearchPolaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide our customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 15:19:02 RECORDATI RECEIVES ORPHAN DRUG DESIGNATION FOR ITS INVESTIGATIONAL TREATMENT FOR MSUD Milan, 5 November 2018 Recordati today announced that the European Commission (EC) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to Orphan Europes (a Recordati group company) investigational product REC 0545 for the treatment of maple syrup urine disease (MSUD). This is the first time that an Orphan Drug Designation has been granted in this indication. MSUD is a rare genetic metabolic disorder in which the body is unable to properly process certain amino acids (the building blocks of proteins). Beginning in early infancy, this condition is characterized by lack of appetite, vomiting, lack of energy (lethargy), seizures, abnormal movements and developmental delay. The condition gets its name from the distinctive sweet odour of affected infants' urine. Patients with Maple syrup disease suffer from decompensation episodes that can be life-threatening if untreated. In Europe around 3000 patients are affected by MSUD. Orphan drug designation applies to drugs that seek to treat rare diseases or conditions affecting fewer than 5 in 10 000 inhabitants in the EU while providing significant therapeutic advantage over existing therapies. The designation provides the opportunity for ten years marketing exclusivity upon approval of the product in the designated indication. The European orphan drug designation is a key regulatory achievement that will further facilitate and accelerate our development of REC 0545 for the treatment of MSUD. We are very pleased that the EC granted orphan drug designation to our new treatment, which highlights the unmet medical need for children and adults with this devastating disease and confirms the need for development of novel therapies for MSUD stated Andrea Recordati, CEO. This also represents another important milestone for our company and demonstrates our commitment to the area of rare diseases. Recordati, established in 1926, is an international pharmaceutical group, listed on the Italian Stock Exchange (Reuters RECI.MI, Bloomberg REC IM, ISIN IT 0003828271), with a total staff of more than 4,100, dedicated to the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceuticals. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Recordati has operations throughout the whole of Europe, including Russia, Turkey, North Africa, the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, some South American countries, Japan and Australia. An efficient field force of medical representatives promotes a wide range of innovative pharmaceuticals, both proprietary and under license, in a number of therapeutic areas including a specialized business dedicated to treatments for rare diseases. Recordati is a partner of choice for new product licenses for its territories. Recordati is committed to the research and development of new specialties with a focus on treatments for rare diseases. Consolidated revenue for 2017 was 1,288.1 million, operating income was 406.5 million and net income was 288.8 million. For further information: Recordati website: www.recordati.com Investor Relations Media Relations Marianne Tatschke Studio Noris Morano (39)0248787393 (39)0276004736, (39)0276004745 e-mail: investorelations@recordati.it e-mail: norismorano@studionorismorano.com Statements contained in this release, other than historical facts, are "forward-looking statements" (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). These statements are based on currently available information, on current best estimates, and on assumptions believed to be reasonable. This information, these estimates and assumptions may prove to be incomplete or erroneous, and involve numerous risks and uncertainties, beyond the Companys control. Hence, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All mentions and descriptions of Recordati products are intended solely as information on the general nature of the companys activities and are not intended to indicate the advisability of administering any product in any particular instance. Attachment PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 12:39:10 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 370 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 The New Service is Available as Both a Web Version and Mobile ApplicationLIMASSOL, CY / ACCESSWIRE / November 5, 2018 / MetaQuotes Software Corp. has released a free calendar of macroeconomic events for the fundamental market analysis. The service is available as a web version and mobile application.To learn more about MetaQuotes Software Corp. and the products and services that they offer, please visit https://www.metaquotes.net/ As a company spokesperson noted, the Tradays Economic Calendar, which is available for both iOS and Android, was created by the MetaTrader platform developers.''Inside the Tradays Economic Calendar, you will find financial news and indicators relating to the nine largest global economies: USA, European Union, Japan, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and China,'' the spokesperson noted, adding that over 500 indicators are collected in real time directly from public resources.Historical, current and forecast values, as well as importance characteristics, are available for each calendar event. For efficiency, all economic indicators are provided alongside historical data, outlined in charts and tables.The new application has a number of key advantages for the traders, brokers and webmasters who use it, the spokesperson noted. These include:--The app is free of licensing issues: data is collected from original resources with the help of the specifically designed software.--There is support for nine languages: all events and descriptions are translated into the most popular world languages.--It is free: people can use the calendar and install its widget in any website at no cost to them.--The calendar is updated automatically immediately after a new event appears in a source, and there are no ads.''Install the Tradays calendar and follow global financial news starting today,'' the spokesperson noted.About MetaQuotes Software Corp.:Established in 2000, MetaQuotes Software Corp. is considered as one of the leading developers of software applications for brokerages, banks, and exchanges. The company's representative offices are located in many countries around the world. The company has developed a series of popular software products, from a simple FX Charts platform to the MetaTrader 5 multi-asset trading platform. For more information, please visit https://www.metaquotes.net/ Contact:Bulat Latypovpress@ metaquotes.net +31 10 669 0521SOURCE: MetaQuotes Software Corp. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-05 05:53:30 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 432 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 A leading Culpeper, VA based digital marketing specialist has announced it can help local tree service contractors to get more leads and sales. It offers content marketing, PR marketing, local SEO and more.CULPEPER, VA / ACCESSWIRE / November 4, 2018 / Big Bamboo Marketing, a Culpeper, VA based digital marketing specialist with a focus on helping tree service contractors improve their web presence, has announced it can help clients succeed online. 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Businesses that dont rank on the top page of Google are running the risk of missing out on sales.Big Bamboo Marketing can work with clients throughout the local area to help improve web presence, get more leads, and showcase their services to a wider audience.Full details can be found on the company's Google Maps page https://goo.gl/maps/Yzdne6YkWpL2 Contact Info:Name: Bradley Benner Email: Send EmailOrganization: Big Bamboo Marketing Address: 14457 Kimber Ln, Culpeper, VA 22701, United States Phone: +1-540-216-0670For more information, please visit https://bigbamboomarketing.com SOURCE: Big Bamboo Marketing Cameroon president-elect, Paul Biya, 85, is scheduled to take the oath of office on Tuesday, an official statement released by the National Assembly said on Monday. The swearing-in ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. local time at the National Assembly in the capital Yaounde, the programme indicated. On Monday, the final leg of preparations for the presidents inauguration was underway at the National Assembly. Jean Nkuete, secretary general of the party told reporters that the ruling party, Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM), is mobilising members and sympathisers to honour the official ceremony in a special way. According to the Constitutional Council, 85-year-old Biya won the presidential poll in October. A native of Cameroons south, Biya has been head of state since 1982 when he took over following the resignation of Ahmadou Ahidjo who was in power since independence in 1960. He rose rapidly as a bureaucrat under President Ahmadou Ahidjo in the 1960s, serving as Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1968 to 1975 and then as Prime Minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982. Mr Biya, who has ruled virtually by decree since taking office, got rid of constitutional term limits in 2008, allowing him to run again. The move sparked riots in which no fewer than 40 people were killed. Mr Biya is currently the longest-ruling non-royal leader in Africa and the oldest ruler in Sub-Saharan Africa after Robert Mugabe stepped down during the 2017 Zimbabwean coup detat. Earlier this month, he postponed parliamentary elections also set for October by a year, arguing that the electoral calendar was too cramped. The presidents main rival is 49-year-old Joshua Osih of the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF). (Xinhua/NAN) A Syrian man, who was mistakenly incarcerated in western Germany for over two months, started the fire in which he himself perished, investigators have found on Monday. According to a report by justice authorities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the incident took place, they believe the 26-year-old deliberately started the blaze in his prison cell presumably with suicidal intent. According to State Justice Minister, Peter Biesenbach, his motive remains a mystery. He died in hospital on September 29, some two weeks after the fire left him with serious burns. Due to a mix-up with a thief of the same name, he had sat in prison for over two months, while the mistake only came to light after the fire. Several women had accused him of sexual harassment and stalking, which Biesenbach said perhaps explained why he did not resist imprisonment or demand a lawyer. The full findings of the over-60-page report compiled by an external assessor are to be presented to the judicial committee of the state parliament on Wednesday. Ten other people, eight prison employees and two cellmates, were injured in the fire. (dpa/NAN) A paediatric surgeon, Olori Samson, has shed light on how his team successfully separated a conjoined twins at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada. PREMIUM TIMES reported how a team of Nigerian doctors successfully separated the twins in the Abuja based hospital. Mr Samson, one of the surgeons who carried out the operation, said the parents visited the hospital on June 11 following a referral from another hospital. On their arrival at our facility on June 11, 2018, having been referred from St. Mary Catholic Hospital, Gwagwalada where they were delivered through a Caesarean section, there were different hurdles. But the first hurdle was not on the surgery day but during the pre-surgery days. That is, making sure the babies were kept alive, which we delicately addressed. The other hurdles were anticipated based on our findings because after the initial clinical assessments, there were several CT scan investigations to determine the organs that were joined. So, we discovered their livers were joined. We had five sessions of all the teams coming together to plan and determine the best approach. We had anticipated the bleeding that would take place because the liver is one organ that you cant really tie. So, the hospital management provided some modern gadgets we deployed to make sure the surgery went well. It did go well as we contained the surgery of about five hours. With what we had available to us, we hadnt any fear that we would succeed in getting to the root of separating these babies, Mr Samson said. Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of UATH, Bisallah Ekele, said the babies are in good condition. As we speak, today (Friday) is the fourth-day post-surgery. The babies are stable and in good conditions. We took a decision as to when the operation would be done considering the fitness of the babies and on 29th October, we went to theatre and after four and half hours, the corrective surgery was done, he said. He said the surgery was carried out by two teams of paediatric surgeons, a team of plastic surgeons, two teams of anaesthetics, and specialist nurses. The father of the twins, Ferdinand Ozube, said he is grateful for the assistance and care rendered to his family in its trying moment. He said he had heard about and watched conjoined twins on television but never thought he would have them. Mr Ozube, 36, appealed to the federal government to provide him a job to sustain his family after they are discharged from the hospital. He said he has no job and therefore cannot take care of the children on his own. The federal government illegally diverted $1.05 billion (N378 billion at N360 to a dollar) sourced from the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividend funds to secretly fund subsidy payment on petroleum products, PREMIUM TIMES can report today. The diversion details are coming amidst revelations from accusations the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has a $3.5 billion subsidy fund it is spending without appropriation by the National Assembly. In October, a motion by Biodun Olujimi, (Ekiti-PDP) had triggered debates in the National Assembly on the purported $3.5 billion fund alleged to be managed by the state oil company. But the NNPC said it had no such fund in its custody. Rather, it said it has a $1.05 billion fund it is using to stabilise petrol supply and distribution in the country. While the NNPC, through its spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, initially claimed the corporation sourced the fund from an international agency, Maikanti Baru, NNPC group managing director, admitted last week that the money was sourced from the NLNG dividend fund. Documents in the possession of this newspaper have now shown that the fund was sourced at the height of the fuel scarcity crisis between last December and January and was secretly diverted into payments on petrol supply and distribution. The funds came from dividends paid to the federal government by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) company, a firm in which the government owns 49 percent equity. The Nigerian government is represented in the NLNG shareholding arrangement by the NNPC with 49 percent stake. Other shareholders are Shell (25.6 percent), Total (15 percent) and Eni (10.4 percent). Dividends from the gas firm are meant to be shared by the federal, state and local governments of Nigeria. The funds are supposed to be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation rather than spent unilaterally by any tier of government. But PREMIUM TIMES has now confirmed that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government unilaterally without required consultation with states and the national assembly tampered with the NLNG funds. That was also done without the mandatory appropriation by the National Assembly. Lawmakers say by his action, President Buhari has violated the nations appropriation law, and has therefore committed impeachable offences. NLNG Plant [Photo: NLNG website] Denial The administration has for years paid huge amounts as fuel subsidy (despite increasing the pump price of fuel), while denying making such payments. Federal lawmakers said the payments were surreptitiously and illegally done and have demanded investigation. The lawmakers say spending on fuel subsidy or related spending without the approval of the National Assembly is extra budgetary and illegal. Besides, the lawmakers said they were worried about the transparency of the arrangement, as only the group managing director of The NNPC, Maikanti Baru, and the corporations chief financial officer in charge of Finance & Accounts, Isiaka Abdulrazaq, were managing the secret funds without appropriation. But the NNPC said through Mr Ughamadu that what was in existence was a $1.05 billion revolving fund, which was adopted by the NNPC as a strategy to comply with the directive by the National Assembly to find all ways possible to resolve the fuel supply crisis in the country late last year. File photo of Former GMD of NNPC, Maikanti Baru in a recent interview with State House Correspondents (Photo taken by Sani Tukur, 29/12/2017) He claimed the fund, dubbed the National Fuel Support Fund, is jointly managed by the NNPC, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the Department of Petroleum Resources and the Petroleum Equalization Fund. On the source of funds, Mr Ughamadu claimed the agencies jointly sourced the money from an unnamed international agency. But contrary to his claims, documents seen by this newspaper confirmed Mr Barus position that the source of the fund was the NLNG dividend account controlled by the corporation. The flush fund In a memo dated January 19, addressed to Mr Buhari, the NNPC GMD, Mr Baru, raised concerns over the depletion in the nations strategic fuel reserve. This, he said, was occasioned by massive diversion and hoarding which manifested in the fuel crisis of last year. To arrest the situation, he said there was need to access the NLNG dividend fund to purchase the required petrol volume to flush supply and boost strategic reserve. Mr Baru also complained about the daily consumption of petrol, put at 35 million litres per day at the time, which was becoming problematic for the NNPC to manage after oil marketing companies stopped importing the products. He told the president petrol consumption had exponentially gone up to 47 million litres per day even though the actual national consumption was estimated at 35 million litres. At the current depletion rate, there is the possibility that the available PMS stock that hovers between 18 to 15 days sufficiency will be depleted by the second week of February 2018 to dangerously low levels if no flush funds are secured, the memo read. This may adversely impact the current situation and could lead to social unrest. NNPC GMDs letter to Buhari, apprising him on the measures taken to bridge the gap in PMS sufficiency NLNG dividends NNPC GMDs letter to Buhari, apprising him on the measures taken to bridge the gap in PMS sufficiency NLNG dividends NNPC GMDs letter to Buhari, apprising him on the measures taken to bridge the gap in PMS sufficiency NLNG dividends The memo also advised Mr Buhari on the need to fix the Jebba-Mokwa road to ease distribution of petroleum products, engage the State Security Service in the monitoring of depots selling above NNPC approved prices, among other concerns. The GMD addressed concerns raised by the president in a previous communication by explaining that by the status of NNPCs balance sheet and its free cash position, the corporation would not be able to use its funds to import petrol. He also explained how the governments financing obligations limited the ability of the corporation to supply 13 cargoes of petrol, being what was needed for national consumption in the absence of private marketers. He suggested also that the NNPC be allowed access to foreign exchange at the appropriate rate corresponding to supply of petrol that will ensure stability in price. The letter concluded by advising the president that NNPC did not have the cash flow to finance petrol importation that would meet immediate requirement of flush volumes and strategic reserve replenishment. Mr Baru advised the injection of 42 cargoes of petrol between January and April to flush supply. There is dire need to arrest the erosion of PMS sufficiency with he injection of flush volumes immediately, Mr Baru said in the memo. In view of the foregoing, Your Excellency may kindly reconsider and approve our request to utilize $1.05 billion to finance the 42 PMS cargoes as contained in our letter to you dated 8th January, on the subject matter. In a separate memo, also dated January 19, the NNPC intimated the president on what it had done to deal with the fuel challenge while also advising the president to quickly approve its request for flush fund. Details of Mr Barus memos to the president were regurgitated when the NNPC chief appeared before an ad hoc committee of the Senate on the alleged application of $3.5 billion dollars by the NNPC last week. Speaking at the hearing, Mr Baru claimed that the NNPCs action to source funds to address PMS supply concerns was triggered by the directive of the senate at the height of the fuel scarcity crisis that the corporation must do all it could to address the scarcity problems. He added that it was also because there has been no provision for subsidy in the budget since 2016. Letter to Buhari on provision of flush volumes and the need to Letter to Buhari on provision of flush volumes and the need to Letter to Buhari on provision of flush volumes and the need to NNPC GMDs letter to Buhari, apprising him on the measures taken to bridge the gap in PMS sufficiency NLNG dividends NNPC GMDs letter to Buhari, apprising him on the measures taken to bridge the gap in PMS sufficiency NLNG dividends NNPC GMDs letter to Buhari, apprising him on the measures taken to bridge the gap in PMS sufficiency NLNG dividends This necessitated actions from government and of course in line with the federal government directive which of course was equally endorsed by this distinguished national assembly when during the hearing on the 24th of January 2018 on the fuel crisis, the joint committees of the national assembly directed us and I quote: NNPC should do all it takes to flush the queue and restore normalcy and maintain the minimum of 30 days sufficiency, Mr Baru said in his submission. For us to do that, we took certain actions, Mr Chairman. Kabiru Marafa, the Chairman Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), told PREMIUM TIMES the National Assembly indeed gave the NNPC a written marching order to end the last fuel scarcity. The senator said although the state oil company indicated it was setting up a revolving fund to deal with the problem, the corporation did not indicate how it planned to source the fund. Former APC Senator, Kabiru Marafa (Photo Credit: Daily Trust) Another highly placed source in the National Assembly confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES Sunday that lawmakers never authorised the NNPC to embark on illegal remedial activities devoid of appropriation. The source, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said the National Assembly was looking into the arrangement because it was not aware of its existence. Again, it is now clear state governments were not intimated of the transaction. The NLNG shares belong to the Nigerian federation and the three tiers should share in the dividends. The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Abdulaziz Yari, said his Forum became aware of the utilisation of the fund after the fact. We are now trying to reconcile the balance sheet with the NNPC, Mr Yari, who is also Zamfara governor, told PREMIUM TIMES. We want to determine what has happened to the $1.05billion revolving fund and the situation with the entire NLNG dividend fund. Mr Baru in his submission at the Senate hearing said the $1.05 billion is being administered by a steering committee which is the central approving body and a working committee that is looking at the daily operations of the fund. This committees are comprised of the representatives of the office of the minister of finance, office of the minister of state for petroleum resources, the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, the Petroleum Equalization Funds management board, the Directorate of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, he said. So the fund that we exercise from the Nigerian NLNG fund is being administered, transferred with laid down processes and governance and every cargo that is imported under this programme has gone through a proper checking process through which the most competitive supplier is selected. But a January 31 memo seen by this newspaper indicated the fund was being unilaterally controlled by the NNPC rather than by any steering committee. Memo requesting GMDs approval for delegating authority to process invoices on flush volume cargoes NLNG dividends In the memo, Mele Kyari, the NNPC group general manager in charge of crude oil marketing department, was seen advising the GMD on huge fund transaction and seeking approval to process invoices on flush volume cargoes. The Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari. [PHOTO CREDIT: Daily Post Nigeria] For long, the government has refused to come clean over the payment as the arrangement, considered illegal and unappropriated, has been shrouded in secrecy. Last December, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo raised concerns among stakeholders when he said the NNPC and not the Federal government was paying for oil subsidy. With this revelation, it is now clear the NNPC received the NLNG dividend fund and has continued to use it for fuel supply, as confirmed by Messrs Baru and Ughamadu. Presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, did not answer multiple telephone calls and text message seeking his comment for his story. Mr Ughamadu too did not respond to messages sent to him. The executive secretary, Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Sharon Ikeazor, says the agency will not be distracted from its commitment to continue cleaning up the pensions system to make payment of defined pensions to retirees a painless experience to beneficiaries. She spoke with the Business Editor, Bassey Udo, in Abuja. Excerpts: PT: Can you shed more light on the lingering reports of sacked directors that have refused to go away? SHARON: When I resumed office in October 2016, from my briefings with staff, I could see their attitude to work, the disquiet and the upset. I had to ask: What is going? Why this disenchantment with their work? As we know, pension work should be taken passionately. Most of them said they did not have the confirmation of their appointments. My investigation revealed that started in 2013. PTAD staff started taking over the pension offices in 2014. A lot of them did not have their appointments confirmed since then. Some of them complained of wrong placements above their grade levels. The first thing I did was to write to the Head of Service of the Federation, requesting for a staff audit to be conducted. That was done. During the audit, staff were expected to present their first employment letters, certificates and other documents. The other side of the audit was the vetting of certificates by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission (ICPC). When the report of the staff audit came out, it was found out that four directors were over the age of 50 at the time of their employment. That clearly was in violation of the public service regulation. During the vetting, those found to have forged certificates, resigned and left before ICPC could prosecute them. There is only one the ICPC is actually prosecuting. He had actually gone to court over the issue. After the directors were asked to leave after the staff audit, I invited them to my office and showed them the findings. They said, in fact, they were waiting for it. They said this is what has been dangling over their heads ever since inception. I asked them why they did not bring the issue to my attention since I arrived in October 2016. The staff audit was done in March 2017. I gave them their letters terminating their appointments. In fact, while the staff audit was going on, another personnel audit by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation in 2015 was brought to our attention. The report of that audit pointed out the same issue of age against the directors. The letter terminating the appointments of the directors clearly stated that the salaries they earned throughout the period of their irregular appointments must be recovered and returned to government treasury. However, I told them PTAD could offer them contract appointments for the period, since we were doing verification of pensioners. The next thing we got was court summons from them. We (PTAD) filed our defence. Before the court, they took us before the National Assembly Committee on Establishments (Senate) and the Pensions Committee in the House of Representatives. One of the questions the Committee asked them was: As senior management staff and foundation staff of PTAD, why did they not sort out these irregularities in their employments and ensure they were confirmed? They could not answer. While the matter was still in court, they continued pursuing the matter in the Senate. As Senate was about to come out with the resolution, they quickly withdrew their case in court against PTAD. PT: But, they said you refused to respond to the Senates invitation. Why did you do that? Sharon: I am 33 years at the bar. As a lawyer, I could not have responded when the matter was still before the court, because that could have been subjudice. When they withdrew the matter from court, the senate passed the resolution. If the senate had the true picture of the issues, I am sure they would not have passed the resolution. The people who are still saying I refused to respond to the Senate invitation have chosen to hear one side of the case. PT: What about reports that you also ignored the vice presidents directive to reinstate the directors? Sharon: The sacked directors wrote petitions individually through their lawyers to the vice President alleging irregular termination of appointments. The vice president wrote to us through his Chief of Staff, Ade Ipaye. Of course, I responded. How can I not respond to the vice presidents letter? I attached the staff audit report to my response. I highlighted what was stated in the report. After the staff audit report, the then minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, who was our supervising minister, approved the implementation of the staff audit. That was how the confirmation of the appointment of all the staff were done. So, all the reports in the media about PTAD, including payment of pensioners and other successes recorded are by the same staff. Now, the staff appointments have been confirmed. They have done their scheme of service. There was no scheme of service in PTAD before my arrival. There was no condition of service. These are all we have achieved in a year to get the turnaround we are witnessing in PTAD. After the staff audit, we got that ratified by the Head of Service of the Federation so that everyone is sure of its job. That is what has made PTAD have all these successes. PT: What about this reports of the SSS coming to invite about 30 senior staff of the directorate for investigation? Sharon: Okay, its normal vetting of senior government officials in the service. When one attains a certain level in government, and working a place like the pension office, it is compulsory one must undergo the process. I went for mine as well. It is not for selected persons. So far as you have attained a certain level in government, you must do it. I understand the Federal Inland Revenue Service is also doing its own vetting of its officials. It is not something one should be afraid of. PT: Are you saying it has nothing to do with allegations that you deliberately asked the SSS to invite the staff to harass those who do not share your views or that of your management, to whip them into line? Sharon: Why would I do that? Whip them into line to achieve what? PT: Some say there are a lot of illegal things you are doing that are at variance with the corporate objectives of PTAD. Sharon: Like what? Everything I am doing is absolutely in line with the objectives of PTAD. Pensioners are happy. We have just pay-rolled NITEL workers and Delta Steel. These are agencies that have long been forgotten by the system. The invitation by the DSS is a normal vetting exercise. Why should anybody be frightened that they have to do it? I went for mine. These are some of the things we ought to have done ever since, just like the staff audit. I have just told you we have just done the condition of service and scheme of service, which were not in place. PT: What about allegations online about some alleged illegal activities you are linked to? Sharon: Those ones are by one George Uboh. It still boils down to those directors, because letters attached to those publications included those from the vice presidents office asking for my opinion on the petitions they got over alleged wrongful dismissal. PT: Who is George Uboh? And whats his interest in the matter? Sharon: Thats what I dont know. May be he is acting on behalf of the sacked directors, because what he attached to the publications were letters from the vice presidents office, the senate resolutions and the HGFs office. Some of those publications were not only derogatory, but libelous, which were absolutely unnecessary. PT: But, to be more specific, what about the allegation of illegal employments they said you undertook lately? People say staff have been seeing a lot of people resume in various offices without due process? Sharon: No, no, no. You know we had the staff audit, which started in March 2017. In the process of that audit, some of those indicted left on their own. But, there is one the ICPC is still investigating. It has taken a long while to vet all the certificates. They have to write to all the universities and other institutions all over the world the man claimed to have attended. So, as those staff were resigning, we were doing what we call replacements. There is no way we could have done those replacements without approvals from the Head of Service of the Federation and the Ministry of Finance. So, there is absolutely nothing illegal about that. Once we see a gap, we get approval and fill it, because PTAD is under-staffed. PT: One would have thought the process should have been for those vacancies/gaps to be advertised before filling them? Sharon: We will do that when we are doing the full employment. If not, the Federal Character Commission will come hard on us. Whatever we do, we follow due process. Some of those replacements are even secondments from other agencies. PT: How many of those replacements are we talking about? Sharon: Just nine of them. It is when we move office that we know we will need to employ more people. Again, pension reform sct establishing PTAD says we must have offices in all states of the federation. PT: So, how many are you having now? Sharon: PTAD has offices in only eight states. Lagos (which has become the regional office, where pensioners can walk in there and be verified), Benin, Kano, Sokoto, Yola, Kaduna, Yobe and Enugu. We are going to open Anambra shortly. What we do to save funds for government is, we write to the state governments to request for office space in their secretariats. With these offices, our pensioners would not need to come all the way to Abuja to get verified. This is in line with our motto: Putting pensioners first. We will rather go to them. We want to make pensions as painless and stress-free as possible. Pension payment ought to be a pleasure for our pensioners. That is what PTAD has been doing. We also do mobile verification for those who are very sick and old and cannot travel. We go to their homes and hospitals to verify them. PT: Can you talk a bit about your achievements since assuming office? Sharon: If you go to PTADs website, you will see what we call monthly returns, which are updates about everything we do here on a monthly basis. These are the things we pass on to the ministry of finance, our supervising ministry. If one conducts a background check on me and the activities of PTAD, everything there is true. If anybody has anything specific about what we have done wrong, let such a person come out with them. What I see is that this is what you get when you are in public office. But, we have resolved not to be distracted. PT: The picture we get everyday about the situation with pensioners is a sorry one. What has really changed since 2016 when you took up the job at PTAD? Sharon: A lot has changed. Let us start with the staff welfare. We have sorted out all the things I said made them feel disenchanted, to ensure they will not be tempted to go back to their old ways. I spoke earlier about confirmation of staff appointments. All the verifications carried out so far were to enable us validate the data inherited from the four pension offices. For instance, when we inherited police pensions in 2014, we had about 18,600 on the payroll. After verification, that figure came down to 16,000. Everyone had to come for verification. And when they come, they will show their service records and cross checked with the ones we had. We get their biometrics. The account number must have the bank verification number. These were captured into the PTAD data base. That is where the staff payroll is, so that monthly the true pension is paid. We also have in-house federal auditors, which a lot of people do not realise. PTAD does not just compute and pay pension. After computation, federal auditors audit it. Those that did not show up for verification were taken off the payroll. The same thing applies to civil service pensions. In December 2016, PTAD took about 24,000 pensioners off the payroll. If their bank accounts do not have BVN, how can they operate? We thought the outcry would be so much, but it was only 10 per cent of those we took off that came up. And we placed them back on the payroll, on presentation of their BVN. These are the savings we have been making for government. Also, through our database clean-up, we have seen duplicated account numbers and pensioners. We have also seen people, for instance, who were on grade level 2, earning the pension of grade level 14. PT: How many of such duplications did you record? Sharon: Not more than about 4,000 of them. We are still doing what we call quality assurance. After we finish the verification, we clean up our database by going through every detail we have there. We have been training our staff. Now, they are better at verification. In the past, they will put in wrong figures against wrong grade levels for officers. But, all that have now been cleaned up. Again, as we are now verifying privatised agencies, we develop our expertise. So, it is a shorter period for verification and more accurate. We have four operations departments. There is the parastatals pensions department, which handles about 260 parastatals. This includes agencies like NTA, PRODA, universities, health centres, colleges of education, polytechnics, and so on. There is the civil service pensions department, which has all ministries under it. There is also the police pension department, which is the old police pension office, which was collapsed under PTAD. Also, we have the Nigeria Customs, Immigrations and Prisons service department, now called CIPPD under PTAD. PT: There are certain reports recently about thousands of ghost police pensioners. Are you aware of this? Sharon: Probably not under PTAD. It must be under contributory pension scheme. PTAD is the defined benefits scheme. We cover the pensions of those who retired before 2007, who did not transit to the contributory scheme handled by PENCOM through the pension funds administrators (PFAs). That is why you have transitional in PTADs name. PTAD handles the old defined benefits scheme, which is 100 per cent treasury funded. PT: Am sure it is not all smooth sailing. What are the challenges? Sharon: The number one problem we have is staff strength and office space constraint. We are currently in a rented building. We have been wondering why government should be paying so much in rent when there are so many recovered and abandoned properties all over the place. We have actually written to the federal government to allocate an office building to PTAD, which EFCC handed over. We have not moved in yet, because we have not been able to receive funding under our capital budget. We are hoping next year we will. As for funding for payment of pensions, that has always come in regularly. Government has always met its own side of its obligation. In fact, in a lot of states, the pensioners do not receive their pensions from their governments. PTAD pays the federal share of the pensions. This is what has been keeping a lot of pensioners going. May be we have not been able to do a lot to communicate about what we are doing on many of our verification exercises and other PTADs work so that people would understand what we do. PT: We learnt majority of staff here are on secondment from either the office of the Accountant General and so on. Sharon: No. Its mainly the accounting staff who were on secondment from that office for two years before returning to their parent agency. You know we are treasury funded inter-ministerial agency under the ministry of finance. Majority of the workers here are regular staff. The federal government on Sunday gave reasons why it cannot meet the demand of labour unions that the national minimum wage be increased to N30,000. The labour unions, NLC, TUC and ULC, have vowed to commence a nationwide strike from Tuesday if government does not meet its demand. The workers unions accuse the government of going back on a N30,000 decision reached at a tripartite meeting between labour, government, and private employers. However, the federal government says no agreement was reached at the tripartite meeting and insists on a N24,000 minimum wage, while the state governors say they would only be able to pay N22,500. On Sunday, the labour unions boycotted a reconciliation meeting called by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). Speaking with journalist Sunday evening, the SGF, Boss Mustapha, said the meeting was part of the exercise that ought to be undertaken to ensure that there was a complete report to be submitted to the presidency on the issues relating to the minimum wage. Mr Mustapha said that the tripartite committee has been working assiduously though there were outstanding issues that needed to be dealt with and that was the reason he called for the reconciliation meeting. Basically the only outstanding issue that needs to be dealt with is to harmonise the 5th chapter of the report and get the figures in for the purposes of submission to government, he said. REASONS WE CANT MEET N30,000 The SGF said President Muhammadu Buhari, while inaugurating the tripartite meeting, emphasised the need for a unanimous resolution at the meeting, something that was yet to be agreed to. Mr President went further to emphasise that the concern is not only for the welfare of the workers but also every other thing should be taken on board as it affects the countrys economy. So it is a balance of the welfare of the workforce with the effect of the new minimum wage and the economy, he said The SGF quoting Mr Buhari said, We yearn to go above basic social protection for Nigerian worker but also tie to the ability to pay, because I know that a lot of states are even having difficulty meeting the basic minimum wage. He noted that 27 states were having difficulty in paying the current minimum wage of N18,000, while noting that he was not making any excuses for them. He did not elaborate on why labour unions boycotted the meeting but said the tripartite meeting will continue tomorrow. I want to assure all of you that once the report is concluded and ready, I will personally ensure that Mr President sign immediately on it, he said. Earlier on Sunday, the General Secretary of the NLC, Peter Ozo-Esan, told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview why his union boycotted the Sunday meeting. We (NLC) are not aware of any meeting with the SGF over any matter. A government that gets an injunction against us without putting us on notice until we heard from the press has shown enough bad faith. Even if we were aware, we would not be interested to attend any meeting. The meeting we are aware of, which we are going to attend, is the tripartite committee meeting tomorrow in Abuja. Thats the one we plan to attend. That is the official position, he said. Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has assured of an investigation into why the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) diverted the dividend from the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) to fund petroleum subsidy. Mr Saraki said the Senate, on resumption of plenary, will further probe the claims made before the Senate ad-hoc committee by the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, on how and why the corporation was diverting the dividend to defray the cost of under-recovery in the importation of fuel. Mr Sarakis latest intervention is coming hours after PREMIUM TIMES published documents of how the federal government illegally diverted $1.05 billion (N378 billion at N360 to a dollar) to secretly fund subsidy payment on petroleum products. Documents published by this newspaper show that the fund was sourced at the height of the fuel scarcity crisis between last December and January and was secretly diverted into payments on petrol supply and distribution. Dividends from the gas firm are meant to be shared by the federal, state and local governments of Nigeria. The funds are supposed to be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation rather than spent unilaterally by any tier of government. PREMIUM TIMES, in the report, confirmed that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government unilaterally without required consultation with states and the national assembly tampered with the NLNG funds. That was also done without appropriation by the National Assembly. While reacting to questions from journalists at the Ilorin airport, Mr Saraki said he had been inundated by calls from Nigerians who wanted to know the position of the Senate on the matter. His statement was captured in a press statement by his media aide, Yusuph Olaniyonu, a copy of which was sent to PREMIUM TIMES Monday afternoon. The Senate President stated that the disclosure by the NNPC boss in response to enquiries by the Senate adhoc committee probing the issue of illegal payment of subsidy on fuel, called for further investigation by the Senate and also showed that as alleged in a motion moved earlier by Senate Minority Leader, Senator Biodun Olujinmi, a lot of illegal and unapproved spending are going on in the petroleum corporation. Let me assure Nigerians that there will be no cover up. We are confident the adhoc committee will do a thorough job. All the issues will be unearthed. That is why when the Senate set up investigative committees on issues, we want Nigerians to have confidence in us that we do not act because we want to embark on a wild goose chase. There must be some serious issues to be looked into. The revelations by the NNPC GMD have justified the need for this investigation and they have shown that we are acting in good faith. When in my ruling on the motion raised by Senator Olujimi, I insisted that we want a transparent, honest and non-partisan investigation on the fuel subsidy issue, it was clear to me and my colleagues that there are certain irregularities being perpetrated and we should let Nigerians know the truth. That is why we set up the committee in the first place and to demonstrate the seriousness we attach to the issue, we decided that the adhoc committee should be led by the Leader of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan. We are however shocked that the NNPC GMD was claiming that the illegal diversion of dividends from the NLNG which should be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation for the purpose of funding the fuel subsidy was done in compliance with the National Assembly directive that NNPC as the supplier of last resort should, and has, maintained robust petrol supply. So, if the National Assembly called on NNPC to carry out its legitimate duty of ensuring adequate fuel supply to Nigerians, the GMD logically thinks the corporation by that call has the license to perpetrate illegality, spend money without approval and violate appropriations law. It is my belief that if the National Assembly said the corporation should perform its duty effectively as a supplier of fuel to Nigerians without exposing people to needless suffering, that ought to be done within the ambit of the law. This investigation will require the GMD to produce the approval given by the National Assembly and other necessary approving bodies authorizing the NNPC to divert the dividend from the NLNG investment which ought to be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund belonging to the three tiers of government for the payment of fuel subsidy, he was quoted as saying. The Senate will resume for plenary on Tuesday, November 6 after two weeks of recess. The former governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu, travelled abroad for medical treatment despite submitting his travel documents with a federal court, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said Monday. Rotimi Jacobs, counsel to the anti-graft agency, told a federal judge that they were not aware when Mr Kalu obtained a permission from the court for his travel. The trial of the former governor, who is accused of 7.65 billion fraud allegedly committed while in office, at the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court was stalled on Monday due to his absence. Mr Jacobs, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said the defendants absence is an attempt to frustrate the trial, adding that his inability to appear in court means he had jumped bail. I am not aware when the first defendant wanted to travel, Mr Jacobs said. We only got to know that the first defendant travelled abroad for medical treatment through his media aide, one Kunle Oyewunmi. Things must be done in accordance with the law. In my own view, what happened is that the first defendant has jumped bail. This is an attempt to further frustrate this trial because no application was made to the court to travel. I urge Your Lordship to treat the absence of the first defendant as that he has jumped bail. Earlier, Mr Kalus lawyer, Awa Kalu, told the judge his client had travelled to Germany for a surgical operation, adding that he had been advised to remain abroad to recuperate. Responding to Mr Jacobs arguments, Mr Kalu, a professor of Law, said his client travelled abroad after the court had adjourned the trial indefinitely. Ruling on the matter, Mohammed Idris, the judge noted that although the matter was adjourned indefinitely on September 27, the prosecution served Mr Kalu a notice of the hearing on November 2. The judge also noted that the court received a mail confirming Mr Kalus treatment arrangement but added that the defence counsel failed to attach any medical report to guide the court as to the former governors post-surgery treatment. The judge said in the interest of justice, he would adjourn the case for the last time, stressing that Mr Kalu must return from Germany within seven days and appear before the court. I have always stated that every citizen of this country is entitled to and has the right to seek medical treatment abroad, Mr Idris said. This right is guaranteed by the constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is an inalienable right. However, this right has exceptions; therefore, in exercising this right due regard must be had for the law and due process. Apart from the mail confirming the treatment arrangement of the first defendant, the defence counsel should have obtained a medical report on the condition of the first defendant post-surgery. This would have properly guided the court in the proceedings of today. However, in the light of the entirety of this case and in the interest of justice, I am prepared to grant to the first defendant a final adjournment in respect of this matter. In the light of the provisions of the ACJA, I shall not adjourn for more than seven days from today. It is, therefore, hereby directed that the first defendant shall return to the country within seven days from todays date for the hearing of this matter. The matter was adjourned till November 12 for continuation of trial. The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, has voided the powers of the Presidential Panel on Assets Recovery to prosecute alleged offenders or obtain forfeiture orders for assets belonging to fraud suspects. A five-member panel of the appellate court, led by Hussein Muhktar, ruled that the panel is not empowered to approach the court with any application, relating to the prosecution of a suspect investigated by the panel. The judgement followed a request by a civil servant, working with the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Tijani Tumsah, whose assets were seized, following a court order. The court order was from a case brought to the high court by the presidential panel. In a reaction to the court order, Mr Tumsah approached the appellate court, through his lawyer, Kehinde Ogunwumiju, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Mr Ogunwumiju confirmed the judgement on Monday in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, after part of the court ruling was sent to our reporter. According to the lawyer, the appeal court ruled that the act establishing the presidential panel does not confer prosecutory powers of any kind to the panel. The Recovery of Public Property (Special Provisions) Act does not confer any prosecutorial powers on the SPIP. The powers conferred on the SPIP under the Act is limited to investigation and cannot prosecute under the Act or under the EFCC Act or any other Act. The SPIP, upon conclusion of investigation can only submit its report to the President. The SPIP cannot obtain forfeiture orders from any court whatsoever, the lawyer said of the court ruling. Mr Ogunwumiju also said the courts view of forfeiture orders obtained by the panel is that the presidential panel was usurping the position of the Attorney General of the Federation. The SPIP cannot exercise the powers of the Attorney General of the Federation or the Chairman of the EFCC. The court has inherent powers to set aside an interim order of forfeiture The SPIP cannot act outside its enabling Statute, Mr Ogunwumiju said in statement highliting the details of Mondays judgement to PREMIUM TIMES. Based on this decision of the Court of Appeal, the SPIP can no longer continue seizing properties of public officers, detention of private citizens and filing charges against citizens in court. The powers of the SPIP, according to the court, is now limited to investigation and submission of its report to the President. The SPIP cannot apply for forfeiture of properties or file a charge against any person in court, Mr Ogunwumiju added. The presidential panel has also sought the forfeiture of assets belonging to other notable Nigerians including Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Stella Oduah and Hope Uzodinma, both senators of the Federal Fepublic of Nigeria. Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu Mr Ekweremadu had also challenged the legality of the presidential panels decision to approach the court in a bid to take over properties belonging to suspects. Mr Ekweremadu approached the court after the panel moved to ensure the forfeiture of some assets traced to him. The EFCC, however, took over the matter and has invited Mr Ekweremadu for questioning regarding the said assets. The presidential candidate of the Peoples Trust, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has berated the ruling All Progressives Congress for what he described as the partys poor economic management strategy, which he said has led to greater poverty amongst Nigerians. In a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday, the presidential candidate said the APCs woeful failure has put 88 million Nigerians into acute poverty. He said 1.1 million of that number got into that bracket in the last four months despite relatively high oil price. Mr Olawepo-Hashim said Nigerians were getting poorer because of the woeful economic management strategy or lack of strategy of the APC government. Even though Nigeria was not a prosperous economy when President Buhari took over, the Nigerian economy has now gone from bad to worse, he said. He said the recent revelation by the Brooklyn Institute that 88 million Nigerians now live under acute poverty is disappointing, especially because a new one million more Nigerians moved into the poverty bracket within the last four months. The businessman said the data on youth unemployment and job losses suggested the APC has a covenant with poverty and misery. There is no reason for this when oil prices are high, he said The presidential candidate also promised he would cut down acute poverty by half in the country within years of his election as president and commander-in-chief, and then set the nations economy on the path of modernization and all-round development. Our new Nigerian Economic Development plan will create 4 trillion dollars GDP in 10 years by the Grace of God. We target to net 5percent of Global infrastructure funds in 10 years by removing obstacles to investments and rapidly increase the ease of doing business in Nigeria, he said. We will promote an innovative economy by protecting proprietary rights of innovators and the sanctity of agreement. We will integrate Agriculture, Solid Mineral Sector with industries and increase manufacturing share of the GDP to 40percent and then tackle unemployment through industry based jobs. The transformation of Nigerias economy from a poor 510 billion dollar economy to a 4 trillion dollar economy within 10 years, the reduction in poverty and the restoration of peace, unity and stability in Nigeria, a country that the ruling party has badly mismanaged. I am therefore better placed to bring the country back together. I am most assured I can get the job done given my record of accomplishment he said with a high of confidence, adding I will restructure the economy from a dependent one to a self-reliant economy by investing in iron and steel, research and development, and in other critical sectors. He further said the critical sectors he would tackle include chemical and machine tools, so as to generate the production of capital goods, local capital and to bring in prosperity, through the needed multipliers. Mr Olawepo-Hashim, who has substantial business interest in oil exploration and energy generation, also promised to implement a New Economic Development Programme (NEDP), which he said would lead to the expansion of Nigerias Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Besides, the NEDP will also increase the Per Capital Income (PCI) of the average Nigerian to between 16,000 to18, 000 US dollars within ten years as well, he added This will make Nigeria to be at par with middle-income countries like Malaysia, with whom we had comparable income level at independence. Other than this, the NEDP would target an estimated 2 trillion US dollars into infrastructure within ten years. It will also create jobs from manufacturing, industrialization, and then link up industries with solid minerals and the agricultural sector. The agricultural sector, he also said, would be integrated with the industrial and solid mineral sectors, to create sustainable jobs for youths employment . Mr Olawepo-Hashim is a former student union activist in the 1980s and a pro-democracy activist in the early 90s. The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari to channel the $500,000 and other material donation it intends to make to Guinea Bissau, to the over one million internally displaced persons in Nigeria. In a statement by the former vice presidents campaign organisation, the PDP presidential candidate also urged the Buhari-led government to be more prudent with the nations resources. Foreign affairs minister, Geoffrey Onyema, had last week announced that the federal government approved US$500,000, electoral kits and a number of vehicles to support the conduct of legislative election in Guinea Bissau. The minister said the substantial amount of money and other logistics are to help Guinea Bissau get out of what has been a very difficult situation for a number of years. But Mr Abubakar, in the statement, wondered why a country whose leaders planned to sell its national assets would be donating money. Our response is to ask why a nation that has been officially named as the world headquarters of extreme poverty, will donate her resources to others instead of using them to solve pressing domestic problems. This is the same government that is so cash strapped that it has so far borrowed N13tn in three years. How prudent is it to go about taking loans from whosoever cares and then turn around to give out the money when your own people are suffering the worst form of poverty? We call on the Muhammadu Buhari administration to cut its coat according to its cloth. He should stop donating like Father Christmas. He should attend to the need(s) of Nigerians. Mr Abubakar said having been part of a government that paid off Nigerias entire foreign debt in the past, there was no way he would pretend to be unconcerned with the way Mr Buhari was running the country. He advised the Buhari-led government to use Nigerias resources for the benefit of its people and not for other countries. Nollywood film-maker, Olajide Kazeem, aka, Seun Egbegbe, has spent 20 months in prison custody unable to meet the N5m bail granted him by the Federal High Court in Lagos. The case, which was last heard on Thursday, is billed to resume on Monday (today) for continuation of trial. The erstwhile Lagos socialist, known for his lavish lifestyle, has been incarcerated since February 10, 2017. That was after he was arraigned by the police for alleged fraud involving N39, 098,100; $90,000 and 12,550. The police alleged that Mr Egbegbe, a controversial figure in the Yoruba film industry, fraudulently obtained the money from no fewer than 40 Bureau De Change operators in Lagos over a period of two years 2015 to 2017. He was said to have allegedly swindled the BDC operators by falsely representing to them that he had naira to change into foreign currencies and vice versa. On March 10, 2017, over 30 BDC operators stormed the court for the trial. The film-maker alongside his accomplice, Oyekan Ayomide, was arraigned before Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo for 36 counts bordering on advance fee fraud. The charge sheet was subsequently amended twice, with the counts eventually increased to 40. Three other defendants Lawals Kareem, Olalekan Yusuf and Muyideen Shoyombo were also added to the case. At other times, the case was stalled because the Hausa BDC operators, who were listed as witnesses, complained of their inability to either speak or understand English language and an interpreter had to be arranged. The trial was also sometimes slowed down due to the inability of the investigating police officers, who were listed as witnesses, to attend the court proceedings. The police prosecutor, Innocent Anyigor, had told the court that he had no fewer than 40 witnesses, including the BDC operators, who would testify against Mr Egbegbe and his co-defendants in court. So far, the prosecution has called four witnesses. Mr Egbegbes publicised affair with Nollywood actress, Toyin Aimakhu, a few years ago shot him into limelight. The relationship, however, ended in a controversial manner. Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has appealed to the Federal Government as well as the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to work together in order to avert the proposed workers strike. Mr Saraki, in a statement by his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Yusuph Olaniyonu, urged the two sides to demonstrate sensitivity and concern for the plight of ordinary Nigerians who are already battling with the harsh economic conditions in the country. Despite a court order stopping it, NLC and other trade unions are set for a nationwide strike from Tuesday over their demand for a new national minimum wage. The Senate President urged the two sides to exercise restraint on the planned strike. He expressed appreciation for the patience displayed by the labour leaders as he noted that the issue of the new minimum wage could have been resolved long before now. My appeal is for the two sides to immediately move fast, shift from their extreme positions and create a new middle ground in the negotiations for the new minimum wage. The shift in positions can be done even before the period of the commencement of the proposed strike action so that we do not further create tension within the economy. At this point, the interest of the people should be paramount in our minds. Any labour strike will cause inconvenience and discomfort to our people. While the government and labour are representing the interest of the people, it is important to also ensure we avoid any action that will not show sensitivity and sensibility to the plight of the people, the statement quoted Mr Saraki as saying. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has removed over 300,000 names from its voter register as it continues preparations for 2019 general elections. INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this when he received a delegation of ECOWAS Pre-Election Fact-Finding Mission, led by the chairman of Sierra Leones National Electoral Commission, Mohamed Conteh, on Monday in Abuja. Mr Yakubu said the names were removed from the register after the Automated Fingerprint Identification System was carried out on the biometry data of registered voters. He said the commission had started the cleaning up of the register, adding that the commission would between November 6 and 12 display register of voters nationwide for claims and objections. The INEC Chairman urged Nigerians to make use of the opportunity to assist the commission to identify names of ineligible voters for further clean-up. For the registered voters, we have been cleaning up on our own, using the AFIS. As at last week, before I travelled, I was told that over 300,000 names were dropped after the automatic fingerprints identification system. But the cleaning of the voter register is not the sole responsibility of the commission; it is also the responsibility of every Nigerian. That is why the law says that we should display the register for a period of six days between Nov. 6 and Nov. 12. We will display the voter register in 120, 000 polling units nationwide. I will like to use this opportunity to appeal to the citizens to check when we display the register so that they can draw the attention of the commission to the prevalence of any ineligible voter on the register so that we can further clean up the register, Mr Yakubu told the mission that INEC was well prepared for the 2019 general elections. In fact we can say that the 2019 general election is perhaps the most deliberately well-planned election in our history. We have finished the strategic planning; we have finished our strategic programme of action, and we have completed the election project plan. We have issued the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2019 general elections. INEC Chairman addressing ECOWAS Pre-Election Fact Finding Mission on Monday in Abuja Mr Yakubu also disclosed that the commission would by November 9 or 10 release statistics of political parties that nominated candidates for governorship elections to be conducted in 29 states and the State Houses of Assembly in all states. Speaking earlier, leader of the mission, Mr Conteh, said that they were in Nigeria to gather relevant information and see how prepared INEC was for the general elections. This is a fact-finding mission to the Federal Republic of Nigeria ahead of the elections. As you are aware that it is common before we start any election, organisations such as ECOWAs come and see the conducting under which election is conducted and gather information in respect of the elections More importantly, meet with you as a major stakeholder, as Election Management Body that is responsible for the conduct of election to discuss with you and see how prepared you are for the election, he said. Another member of the delegation and former Chairperson of Ghanas Electoral Commission, Remi Ajibewa, said that the mission would use the visit to meet with other electoral stakeholders in the country. These, according to her, include security agencies, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and political parties to ensure the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in 2019. (NAN) President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday reassured Nigerians that his administration would sustain massive investments to upgrade and develop the countrys transport and power infrastructure. President Buhari gave this assurance when he received members of the Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria (ARCAN) led by Oladapo Fafowora, at the State House, Abuja. The president told the retired ambassadors that Nigerians will never forget the lost opportunity between 1999 and 2015, when the nation had huge resources at its disposal. He said: There is no part of the country I havent been to, having attempted to be president four times. I know the condition of our roads. The rails were literally killed, there was no power despite the admittance of some previous leadership that they spent $16 billion on the sector. Today, we are getting our priorities right and we believe that of the three fundamental issues we campaigned on security, the economy and fighting corruption we have remained very relevant and Nigerians believe we have achieved something. He also used the occasion to appreciate the Peoples Republic of China for financing some of the rail and power projects in the country through concessionary loans. I will do my best to see that where there are possibilities of making a quick improvement on infrastructure, we will do it, he said. Mr Buhari also appealed to the organised labour to consider what this government inherited and the more it is doing with fewer resources in putting the economy right. The president took note of some concerns raised by the retired ambassadors. The concerns include an appeal for the adjustment of their pension entitlements, retention of diplomatic passport for retired career ambassadors, allocation of land for ARCAN headquarters in Abuja and adequate funding of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (NAN) The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has restated his position in support of labour in its struggle for a living wage. The former vice president, however, urged both organised labour and federal government to exercise restraint and avoid creating situations that will plunge the nation into deeper crises. Mr Abubakar implored labour to reconsider its stance on an industrial strike action. He encouraged both sides to go back to the negotiating table and reach an agreement. Our economy is already on its knees and escalation of this crisis into full blown industrial strike action may have dire consequences for our nation, he said in a statement by his spokesperson, Paul Ibe. The NLC has vowed to proceed on a nationwide strike from Tuesday if government does not agree to a N30, 000 minimum wage for workers. The Adamawa State House of Assembly on Monday rejected a request by a political pressure group in the state, Black Cap Revolution Movement, to probe an allegation of certificate forgery against Governor Jibirilla Bindow. The Speaker of the house, Kabiru Mijinyawa, who presided over the plenary said the house had received the letter of request for the probe but would not conduct it as the matter is already before a court. Mr Mijinyawa said the houses Standing Rules do not allow it to dabble into matters that are before a court. We cannot discuss anything before the court. We have no authority to do that, he said. The group had on Friday in a letter addressed to the speaker of the house signed by its chairman, Mustafa Ribadu, urged the assembly to investigate the allegation which has been in the public domain. We write this letter with all sense of responsibility and patriotism to this Honourable House to convey our concern and worry over the deafening silence of Adamawa State House of Assembly on certificate saga of His Excelkency, Gov. Bindow. We sincerely believe the Honourable house is aware of the allegation leveled against the governor on certificate forgery, which is a criminal offense. The case is in public domain, as it was reported by many newspapers.. As a youth group who believes in the rule of law, and tenets of our great party we found the news very disturbing and hence need urgent action from this Honourable house, the letter read in part. The lawyer and rights activist, Femi Falana, on Monday said over 492 member of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, have been killed extra-judicially by the Nigerian Army and the Police between 2014 and 2018. Mr Falana urged the National Human Rights Commission to investigate the killings. Members of the Shia group have been brutally assaulted and killed while confronting security operatives in recent years. The IMN leader, Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, and his wife, Zeenah, were arrested on December 14, 2015, following a bloody clash between soldiers and his (El-Zakzaky) supporters who blocked the army chief, Tukur Buratai, from using a public road. The Kaduna State government then arraigned Mr El-Zakzaky before a state high court judge, Gideon Kurada, same 2015 for criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide punishable with death. The Abuja division of the court on December 2, 2016 ordered that the government to within 45 days set free Mr. El-Zakzaky and members of his family being held by the authorities since the bloody clash of members of the Islamic sect with the Nigerian Army in December. The order by judge, Gabriel Kolawole, was sequel to an application filed by the detainee for the enforcement of his fundamental rights. The judge, while delivering judgement on the matter, said the government should release the applicant and his family members to the police, who shall within 24 hours escort them to a safe place. Mr Kolawole said failure to comply with the order would attract a fresh course of action by the court against the respondents. He further ruled that the respondents; the State Security Service, Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General of the Federation, should pay a fine of N25 million to each of Mr El-Zakzaky and his wife But Mr El-Zakzaky and his wife have remained in detention despite court orders directing that they be freed on bail. The Shiites held a rally, which shut down Abuja last week. During the protest, a PREMIUM TIMES report revealed how dozens of Shiites were killed when soldiers opened fire on them. Amnesty International and other global rights bodies have condemned the bloodbath, calling for an investigation into the violence. Reckless Massacre In a statement Monday, Mr Falana urged the NHRC to investigate the systematic infringements of the fundamental rights and the killings of the 492 Shiites that were recklessly massacred in Zaria, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kano and Abuja by armed military and police personnel from 2014-2018. This is in spite of the duty imposed on the Federal Government to respect the fundamental rights of every person living in Nigeria the Nigeria Army and Nigeria Police Force, it has embarked on the systematic infringements of the fundamental rights of the Shiites to life, personal liberty, fair hearing, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of association and assembly, the statement said. According to Mr Falana, the Federal government and the relevant state governments have deliberately refused to prosecute the well-known violators of the rights of the Shiites. In two separate suits, the Kano and Sokoto judicial divisions of the federal high court have upheld the fundamental rights of the members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria to life, freedom of religion and freedom of expression including the right to engage in peaceful processions. But in utter contempt of the federal high court, the Federal Government has refused to release Sheik Elzazaky and his wife from illegal custody. Both the army and the police have refused to recognise the right of the Shiites to participate in peaceful rallies. As you are no doubt aware, the Federal Government has continued to justify such subversion of the Rule of Law under the pretext of protecting national security. The Islamic Movement of Nigeria has also provided defence counsel for the over 500 of its members who have been dragged to various criminal courts and charged with unlawful assembly and conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace by the Police in Abuja, Sokoto and Kano states. It may interest you to know that the 100 Shiites who were charged with the offence of culpable homicide arising from the alleged killing of a soldier in Zaria on December 12, 2015, have been discharged and acquitted by the Kaduna State high court. Following the dismissal of the frivolous charge, the Kaduna state government has turned round to charge Elzakzaky and his wife with culpable homicide before the high court in Kaduna for the alleged killing of the same soldier! Mr Falana, in the statement, highlighted nine killings carries out by the Nigerian Army since 2014. PREMIUM TIMES is yet to independently verify the figure given by the lawyer. 1. Killing of 35 Shiites in Zaria in July 2014 by the army In July 2014, the Army killed 35 Shiites including 3 children of Sheik Elzakzaky at a religious convention held at Zaria. Mr. Nasir El Rufai (the current governor of Kaduna state) paid a condolence visit to Elzakzaky in his residence in Zaria. Even though a delegation of the National Human Rights Commission led by its former Chairman, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, publicly condemned the killing of the 35 Shiite and apologized on behalf of the Federal Government the culprits were not brought to justice. 2. Killing of 22 Shiites by a bomb in Kano on November 29, 2015 The procession of the Shiites to mark Ashura in Kano on November 29, 2015 was violently disrupted by the Police. Suddenly, there was a bomb explosion which killed 22 Shiites. The Boko Haram terrorist sect was alleged to have claimed responsibility for the bomb attack. 3. Killing of 348 Shiites in Zaria in December 2015 by the army On December 12, 2015, the army killed 348 Shiites at a religious ceremony for allegedly disrupting the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff Lt. General Tukur Buratai. Although Sheik Elzakzaky was not at the religious ceremony the army invaded his house two days later, shot at him and his wife and set the house ablaze. Three of his children were killed in his presence while other family members who survived the violent attack were seriously injured. 4. The killing of 13 Shiites in Kano, Sokoto and Katsina on October 12, 2016, by the Police Thirteen (13) Shiites were killed during multiple attacks on the members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria by the Police and a mob in Sokoto, Kano and Sokoto on October 12, 2016. During the attack, the police injured about 20 other Shiites. 5. Killing of 3 Shiites in Kano On November 6, 2017, by the Police Three (3) Shiites were killed in Kano when the police opened fire on the members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria on November 6, 2017, during an annual religious procession in Kano. 6. The killing of 20 Shiites in Kano On November 14, 2017, by the Police Twenty (20) Shiites and a policeman were killed on November 14, 2017, at Tamburawa on the outskirts of Kano city when the Police violently stopped a procession of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria. 7. Sokoto Shiite leader died from police gunshot injuries on February 9, 2018 The leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in Sokoto State, Malam Kasim Rinintawaye died on February 9, 2018 following injuries sustained by him when he was shot by the police during a peaceful march in Abuja to demand the release of Sheik Elzakzaky from custody. 8. Killing of 1 Shiite at Abuja on April 16, 2018 by the Police On April 16, 2018, the police killed a Shiite while trying to prevent the members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria from staging a protesting in Abuja to demand the release of Sheik Elzakzaky from detention. 9. The massacre of 49 Shiites in Abuja in October 2018 by the army and police Over 50 Shiites have been slaughtered in Abuja in the ongoing violent attacks on members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria by the army and the police. In defending its participation in the official pogrom the army claimed that during the encounter 3 members of the sect were killed. Mr Falana, however, urged the federal government to arrest and prosecute the killers of the Shitte group since the government has not pronounced the Sect group as a terrorist group We urge you to arrest the extermination of the Shiites without any further delay. Since the nation cannot afford to turn the Islamic Movement of Nigeria into another terrorist organization like the satanic Boko Haram sect, we request the National Human Rights Commission to conduct a full-scale inquiry into the gross violations of the fundamental rights of the Shiites highlighted. An Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has awarded a fine of N50 million against the Nigeria Police for the illegal detention of Inalegwu Ochife, a man accused robbery. Mr Ochife was arrested in January by members of the Special Anti-robbery Squad in Abuja for alleged involvement in a robbery at a property owned by the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu. The judgement followed a fundamental rights application by Mr Ochifes lawyers after the detainee was locked up for over eight months without trial. Mr Ochife was also denied bail, despite a court order to that effect in February. According to copies of the court judgement, delivered in October, but obtained on Monday by PREMIUM TIMES, the police also neglected a request to appear in court over the case. Copies of the court document also indicate that police officers told Mr Ochifes wife, Charity David, that they will only arraign her husband at the end of their investigation. The expected duration of the said investigation was not stated by the police officers. It is important to place on record that this application has not been challenged despite the proof of evidence that the respondent were duly served with the originating summons and hearing notices, the court said. The respondents have not made any efforts to justify before this court the detention of the applicant for an inordinately long time having regard particularly to section 35 of the 1999 constitution. The phrase reasonable time is explained in the section 35 (5) as meaning that in the case of arrest or detention in a place where there is a court of competent jurisdiction within a radius of 40 kilometres, a period of one day and in any other case a period of two days or such longer period as in the circumstances may be considered by the court. This provision is mandatary as made manifest by the use of the words, shall be brought before a court of law. It is hence not competent for any person or authority other than a court of law to detain a suspect indefinitely, and or purport to pronounce his guilt no matter how strong the evidence of alleged commission of the offence may be, the judge, John Tsoho, ruled. Suspended EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu [Photo: Channels TV] Mr Tsoho also said the constitutional provision stated above makes it mandatory for the accused to have been arraigned within a day after his arrest on January 30. In this case, the applicants detention is located within the Abuja metropolis where competent courts of law abound within 40 kilometres radius. The respondents were obligated to take the applicant to a court of law, within one day. The law is settled that in fundamental rights action, damages automatically accrue once the respondent has been adjudged to have violated the fundamental rights of the applicant. On this premise, I award punitive and exemplary damages in the sum of N50 million, in favour of the applicants against the respondents jointly and severally, he said. The respondents in the suit are the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, the Federal Capital Territorys Police Commissioner and the Officer in Charge of the intelligence response team for the SARS. Although the court papers indicate that Mr Ochife was arrested in January and granted bail in February, media reports showed that the he was paraded along with other suspects for alleged robbery in April. In a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Ochifes uncle, Fred Ochife, said his nephew had been tortured to the point of admitting to have been involved in the offence. After seeing how people are being killed by the officers, he has been tortured to admitting that he gave information to the robbers, Mr Ochife said. Some petroleum products marketers in Kano State have closed their filling stations in anticipation of the impending strike scheduled to begin on Tuesday by the organised labour. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that long queues of vehicles resurfaced in some petrol stations in some parts of the state on Monday. Most of product marketers in Gwarzo, headquarters of Gwarzo Local Government Area of the state closed their filling stations. There were queues of vehicles at the few filling stations that were selling the product as some of the marketers were reluctant to sell the product. The situation was the same on Zaria road, Kwanar Dangora town, Bebeji Local Government Area. A commercial vehicle driver, Aminu Bello, said he had to be on the queue at one of the filling stations before he could refill the vehicle tank. According to him, he spent about an hour at the filling station before he could buy the commodity. Some people who spoke to NAN on the issue, urged the marketers to have the fear of God and sell the products as the products were available in most filling stations. Most of the filling stations have the product in stock but the marketers are trying to cause artificial scarcity in order to maximise profit, a resident, Adamu Sale said. Another resident, Adamu Isiyaka, called on the federal government and labour to ensure amicable resolution of the dispute over minimum wage. However, in Kano metropolis most of the filling stations were opened and selling the product as some motorists engaged in panic buying. When contacted, the state Chairman of the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Bashir Dan-Malam, attributed the development to recent rumour that made the rounds. According him it was rumoured that the federal government planned to reduce the official fuel pump price from the N145 per litre to N95 per litre. Following the rumour which we however dispelled, some marketers suspended buying the product from the depots across the country. But we have already asked our members to ignore the rumour because it is not true and that is why they resumed business, he said. He expressed optimism that the situation would normalise as from Tuesday as the NNPC depot had taken delivery of over 300 trucks of the commodity and would soon distribute it to filling stations across the state. (NAN) Security agents attached to commercial banks as well as bank staff on Monday found it difficult to handle multitude of customers who took over all available spaces as a result of panic transactions, ahead of the impending strike by the labour union. A Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who went round some of the banks reports that customers had taken seriously the threat by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to begin an indefinite strike from Tuesday, November 6. The labour union is protesting the failure of the Nigerian government at both state and federal levels to implement a new National minimum wage for civil servants. The workers are demanding an upward review of the minimum wage from N18, 000 to N30, 000 but the negotiations had continued to elude the parties involved in the negotiation. When contacted, most of the bank workers in the state capital complained that they were overstretched as the customers had taken over both the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and across the counter transaction. The bankers said, the issue became more serious as the transactions were coming at the end of the month when the customers were being paid their salaries. Similarly, markets and filling stations were recording unprecedented occupation by the customers who had thronged the business areas on panic buying in readiness for the impending strike. A cross section of the customers who spoke to NAN said since no one could say what would actually happen, it was better to prepare for the worse. They, however, appealed to all parties involved in the negotiations to ensure amicable resolution of the crisis in order to save the majority of Nigerians from untold hardship. (NAN) A former Governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on Sunday afternoon rescued a kidnapped victim along the Omoku / Egbeda road in Rivers State, his office said in a statement. Mr. Amaechi was on his way to Ubimini Community of Emohua LGA to address APC supporters when he sighted a Lexus SUV abandoned in a bush. The minister, who was leading his convoy, consequently stopped by and ordered his security team to comb the forest in search of the occupants of the vehicle. It was during the search that the security personnel in the ministers convoy rescued one of the occupants of the abandoned Lexus SUV. The victims turned out to be APC supporters attending the PVC sensitisation rally in Ubimini where the minister was to address party supporters. Narrating his ordeal to Mr. Amaechi, the rescued victim, Edi Chinda Edi, said he and colleagues were on their way to Ubimini for the APC programme when the kidnappers barricaded the expressway and attacked them. He said eight of them were in the Lexus SUV when the kidnappers armed with AK47 riffles and other dangerous weapons struck. We were eight in the car and they succeeded in kidnapping seven others .While they were beating and forcing us into the bush I managed to escape into the other side of the forest, he explained. Worried about the safety of other victims who were yet to be found, Mr. Amaechi directed some of his security personnel to continue the search and ensure that the remaining victims were rescued and their abductors arrested and prosecuted according to law. Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. [PHOTO CREDIT: Official twitter page of Rotimi Amaechi] It woud be recalled that Amaechi, had ceaselessly complained about the high level of insecurity in the state under the watch of his successor, Nyesom Wike, the statement by Mr. Amaechis office said. At least nine people perished on Sunday in a car accident in Enugu, police have said. The crash occurred along the Enugu Port Harcourt expressway, and left 12 people injured, the state police public relations officer told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday. Mr Amaraizu said the accident happened at about 8 pm at the Awgu Local Government Area end of the road. The incident occurred when an articulated vehicle conveying a caterpillar and a 508 mini-bus had a head-on collision. The passengers of the mini-bus were believed to be worshipers, he said. Mr Amaraizu said the bodies of the nine persons had been deposited at mortuary of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku/Ozalla near Enugu. According to him, the 12 persons critically injured had been rushed to the UNTH for medical attention. (NAN) An Imo High Court on Monday quashed the suspension of four members of the State House of Assembly, describing the suspension as unconstitutional. The court also jointly awarded the applicants, Uche Oguwuike (Ikeduru APC), Chiji Collins (Isiala Mbano APC), Israel Nnataraonye (Mbaitoli) and Nkenna Nzeruo (Oru East APC) the sum of N8 million naira in damages and N100,000 in legal fees. Justice Goddy Anunihu in his ruling on the matter also directed the Speaker of the House and the Imo House of Assembly who were the first and second respondents to pay the applicants their salaries, allowances and emoluments for the period they were suspended. Mr Anunihu said the allegations levelled against the four suspended members were vague, adding that the applicants were not given a chance to clear the allegations. He ruled that the House should have defered he matter to hear from the affected members before deciding to suspend them. He also ruled that the suspension of the members was a gross violation of the rights of the constituents of the suspended members and violated their rights of to fair hearing. Reacting to the ruling, the counsel to the applicants, Mike Ohanaka said the ruling was well thought out and very just. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the four lawmakers, were suspended by the assembly on June 27, over alleged un-parliamentary conduct. The Suspension followed a motion moved by the Majority Leader of the House, Lugard Osuji (APC Owerri Municipal) and seconded by Lawman Duruji calling for the immediate suspension or the applicants for alleged un-parliamentary conduct. (NAN) Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State says he will hand over to a governor of Nkanu extraction at the expiration of his second term in office in 2023. Mr Ugwuanyi said this on Monday in Enugu during a solidarity visit by members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Nkanu East Local Government Area of the state. However, the governor said that for power to shift back to Nkanu in Enugu East Senatorial Zone that the people of the area needed to keep faith with the PDP. He appealed to the people of the area to honour what he called a long term agreement they had with the PDP. He said the people of the area supported the party when their son, Chimaroke Nnamani, held sway as governor between 1999 and 2007. He also said when power moved to Enugu West Senatorial Zone during the administration of Sullivan Chime between 2007 and 2015, the people remained firm in the agreement it had with the party. However, the governor said there were certain governorship candidates whose victory at the 2019 election would alter the formula. If you leave me the formula will change, he said. Mr Ugwuanyi said he had remained firm in his commitment to transform the lives of the people of the area. The governor said at the inception of his administration he identified three local government areas that needed urgent infrastructural intervention. He named the councils to include Nkanu East, Uzo Uwani and Awgu Local Government Areas. Mr Ugwuanyi said his commitment to the upgrade of infrastructure in the council areas had not changed. Earlier, the Chairman of Nkanu East Local Government Area, Ikechukwu Ubagu, said the visit was in appreciation of the kind gestures of the governor to the people of the area. Mr Ubagu said they were solidly behind the aspiration of the governor to return for a second term. The chairman said the governor needed not be distracted by insinuations of shifting support to candidates of other political parties. (NAN) The Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE) says there will be a 2km traffic diversion from Magboro to Ibafo on the Lagos/Ibadan expressway starting from Tuesday. The TRACE Corps Public Relations Officer, Babatunde Akinbiyi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the diversion was to hasten the reconstruction of the road. Due to the on-going Road Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ibadan bound carriageway from Magboro km 14 to Ibafo km 17 will be closed for reconstruction. Work and traffic inward Ibadan shall be diverted to the completed section of the carriageway. According to Julius Berger Construction Company, preparatory work for the traffic diversion will commence on Tuesday, Nov. 6, while full diversion of traffic and closure of Ibadan bound carriageway is scheduled for Monday, November 19. In view of the traffic challenge this exercise may cause, TRACE, FRSC, POLICE and the NSCDC will be strategically positioned at the road reconstruction and rehabilitation sites where there are road diversions. This is to regulate, control and ensure free flow of traffic throughout the duration of the activity. In addition, an alternative route will be prepared and made ready for public traffic use (Sagamu bound from Magboro and Buildwell Company RHS) when there is a complete obstruction of the diverted section by a broken down vehicle or road crash. Nevertheless, we thank the public, particularly the motoring public for their understanding, patience, cooperation and spirit of comradeship in this regard, he said. (NAN) Twenty six members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who claimed they won the partys primaries for the state House of Assembly elections have begged the national leadership of the party to publish their names and issue them relevant documents. Addressing a press conference on Monday, the members claimed they won the direct primaries conducted by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. Led by Segun Idowu to the conference at Press Centre, Iwe-Iroyin, Abeokuta, the politicians expressed dismay that the party was yet to issue them the party candidate form (CF001) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to fill even as the submission of candidates names and particulars closed on Friday. This is a curious request because the National Secretariat constituted the panel that conducted the primary election and declared the results of the exercise. The party is therefore in possession of the list of the winners of the election in all 26 state constituencies and we expect CF001 forms to be issued to the winners of the direct primary elections without further ado. They said it was surprising that having not contacted them, the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshihomole, announced on television on Friday that the party had submitted names of candidates to INEC. We have intensified our enquiries at the State Secretariat of the APC. The only explanation we have received from the State Chairman of the party, Chief Derin Adebiyi, is that on Saturday, November 03,2018, 24 hours after the deadline for the submission of names of candidates, he received a call from the National Director of Organisation of the APC, requesting for names of candidates for INEC, explained Mr Idowu. He said APC stakeholders in the state had earlier adopted the consensus arrangement to elect candidates, which was objected to by the national leadership of the party, following which it ordered direct primaries for the election of candidates. This was exactly what we did on October 7, under the supervision of the Col Ali Ciroma-led State Election Committee. We therefore appealing to Nigerians and all men and women of goodwill to impress it upon the APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiohomole, to respect the mandates freely given to us by members of the APC in Ogun State. Former APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomole Photo: DailyPost The hopefuls acknowledged the leadership of Governor Ibikunle Amosun, who they said has raised the bar of governance in the state, and we are confident that history shall record his achievements in gold. It would be recalled that Mr Amosun fell out with some chieftains and stakeholders of the party over his alleged unilateral selection of candidates. This led to the APC conducting parallel congresses in the state by the governors faction and the other by the NWC. The party eventually approved the results of the congresses conducted by the NWC and announced the winners as the candidates for the 2019 elections. The governor has visited President Muhammed Buhahi six times for help in upturning the final decision of the NWC, but yet to no avail. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday re-arraigned former Oyo State Governor, Rashidi Ladoja l. over alleged N4.7 billion fraud. The re-arraignment followed an amendment of the charge by the EFCC. Mr Ladoja was charged with converting N4.7 billion from the state treasury to his personal use. He was re-arraigned along with his former commissioner for finance, Waheed Akanbi, on 11 counts charge of money laundering and unlawful conversion of public funds. They however, pleaded not guilty to the charges. In the amended charge, the EFCC added that Mr Ladoja allegedly compelled a broker to sell the states shares. The prosecution alleged that the former governor did not remit N1.9 billion realised from the sale of the shares. The commission told the court that the money allegedly went to Mr Ladoja, his family and friends and was not refunded. EFCC had closed its case before the amendment, but rather than open their defence, the accused opted to file no-case submissions. Moving the no-case submissions on Monday, Mr Ladojas lawyer, Bolaji Onilenla, said EFCC did not establish a prima facie case against his client. During the trial, a prosecutions witness, Abubakar Madaki, an EFCC investigator, had testified that the shares, worth N6.6 billion, were sold without the state executive councils resolution. According to the investigator, Mr Ladoja engaged Fountain Securities as a portfolio manager to sell the shares at a discounted rate, adding that the shares were acquired by McLace Securities. However, Mr Ladojas counsel had faulted Mr Madakis evidence, arguing that there were no complaints by the state that the shares were sold illegally. We urge the court to hold that there was no prima-facie case against the first defendant and we urge the court to discharge and acquit him accordingly, Mr Onilenla said. Counsel for Mr Akanbi, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), said what the prosecution witnesses testified in their evidences were not sufficient to ask the accused to enter a defence. We urge the court to uphold the no-case submission of the second defendant, he said. But the prosecutor, Olabisi Oluwafemi, urged the court to order the accused to open their defence. He said the evidence given by the prosecution witnesses had raised several questions for which the accused persons should be called upon to answer. Judge Mohammed Idris adjourned until November 12 for a continuation of hearing. In the charge, the accused were alleged to have conspired to siphon and launder N4.7 billion from the coffers of Oyo State Government. The EFCC also accused them of converting N1.9 billion belonging to the state for their personal use through the account of a company known as Heritage Apartments Ltd. The anti-graft agency claimed that the accused retained the money sometime in 2007 in spite of the knowledge that it proceeded from a criminal activity. Mr Ladoja was accused of removing 600,000 pounds from the state coffers in 2007 and sending this to his daughter, Bimpe, in London. In addition, the ex-governor was accused of converting N42 million belonging to the state for his personal use and subsequently used same to purchase an armoured Land Cruiser. The EFCC added that Mr Ladoja converted N728 million and N77 million at different times in 2007 for his personal use and transferred same to Bistrum Investments for the purchase of a property in Ibadan. The offences contravene the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004, according to the EFCC. (NAN) 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. The five local nonprofits will have the opportunity to present their mission to a live audience at the event. The audience will rank their favorite charities according to the popular vote, and the event funds will be presented that very night. A Giving Circle ensures all nonprofit attendees leave with a donation and that all of them have ample opportunity to expose the crowd to their cause. Nick Schlekeway, Founder and CEO of Amherst Madison and President of A Giving Circle says, "As a local company, we owe everything to the Treasure Valley. Our community has blessed us with the opportunity to thrive and it is our distinct pleasure to pay it forward. A Giving Circle is the manifestation of our belief that 'communities deserve more' and of our mission to impact those communities." Unique to this event is the combination of A Giving Circle with the Amherst Madison Holiday Gala & Awards Banquet. This portion of the evening celebrates the accomplishments of the brokerage and the agents, in addition to a giving event thrown in the truest of holiday spirit. Nonprofits in Attendance Boise's Got Faith: Raising awareness and funds for families fighting cancer. More information found here: http://boisesgotfaith.org Dress for Success: Providing professional clothing and support for women from various women's programs. More information found here: https://boisevalley.dressforsuccess.org Feed the Gap: Providing research and programs to end child hunger in Idaho. More information found here: http://feedthegap.org Wyakin Foundation: Preparing men and women who have served our country for fulfilling post-military careers. More information found here: https://wyakin.org Boise Rescue Mission: Transforming the lives of homeless men, women and children in the community. More information found here: https://boiserm.org For more information or to donate or sponsor the event, please visit AGivingCircle.org Event Details December 7, 2018 5pm - 10pm Crystal Ballroom 802 W Bannock St Ste. 202 Boise, ID 83702 AGivingCircle.org [email protected] Contact Information Kirk Bell (208) 391-2391 AmherstLegacy.com [email protected] SOURCE Amherst Madison Real Estate Related Links http://AmherstLegacy.com DALLAS, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Access Healthcare, one of the largest providers of Healthcare revenue cycle business process and IT services, was named a winner in the 2018 SMU Cox Dallas 100 List for the second year in a row. The winners were honored at the 28th Annual SMU Cox Dallas 100 Awards Ceremony and Banquet held at the Omni Hotel on Thursday, November 1 at the Omni Dallas Hotel. "The event recognizes fast-growing privately held corporations, proprietorships or partnerships headquartered in the Dallas area that often don't get attention, but which create economy-enhancing jobs and income for their founders and employees," according to Simon Mak, associate director of the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship at SMU Cox. Dallas 100, co-founded by the SMU Cox Caruth Institute, honors the ingenuity, commitment, and perseverance of the fastest-growing privately held entrepreneurial businesses in the Dallas area. This year's winning companies collectively generated $3.3 billion in sales in 2017, according to Jerry White, the Linda A. and Kenneth R. Morris Endowed Director of the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship at SMU Cox. Collectively, the companies grew at an average annual growth rate of 87 percent from 2015 to 2017. Together, they created 11,096 jobs in that same period. According to Jerry White, "These companies are amazing growth machines. They can create a fantastic number of jobs and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into our economy," said White. "For 28 years, the Caruth Institute at SMU Cox has honored the critical role of entrepreneurship in the DFW economy, which has thrived specifically because of its long history of entrepreneurial spirit." "It's a great honor to continue to be listed among the fastest growing private companies in North Texas," said Anurag Jain, Chairman of Access Healthcare. "This achievement recognizes our technology-enabled service delivery capabilities and consistent high-growth story, which now translated into over 11,000 employees across 19 global delivery centers, and over 1,000 bots." "We are growing at a steady pace over the last 7 years, and now with the recent acquisition of Pacific BPO, we are one of the largest offshore healthcare business process service providers in the industry today," says Shaji Ravi, President and Managing Director of Access Healthcare. "This recognition is a testimony to our growth and success, and also validates our commitment to delivering superior healthcare solutions, enabled by innovative technologies and highly talented people." Access Healthcare is ranked #11 in the 2018 Dallas 100 list, making it to the list for the second year in a row. For more Information, please see the 2018 Dallas 100 List. About SMU Cox Dallas 100 The Cox School's Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship ranks the top 100 Dallas entrepreneurial companies annually based on percentage growth and absolute dollar growth over the previous three years. The Institute, working with the accounting firm BKD LLP CPAs and Advisors examined sales from hundreds of companies for 2015 to 2017, the last year for which complete data is available. The winners represent a broad spectrum of Dallas-area businesses. The ranking of the top 100 fastest-growing companies will be revealed at the awards ceremony. About Access Healthcare Access Healthcare provides business process outsourcing, applications services, and robotic process automation tools to healthcare providers, payers, and related service providers. The company operates from 19 delivery centers in the US, India and the Philippines, and its 11,000+ staff are committed to delivering revenue cycle excellence by leveraging technology, emerging best practices, and global delivery. Based in Dallas, Access Healthcare supports over 300,000 physicians, serve 80+ specialties, process over $70 billions of A/R annually, and ascribe medical codes to over 30 million charts annually. To learn more, please visit accesshealthcare.com. Media Contact: Christina Miranda [email protected] +1 844 533 1307 Manish Jain [email protected] +1 214 809 9096 SOURCE Access Healthcare Related Links www.accesshealthcare.com ACCF will be based in the United States, and its initial primary charitable partner in Africa will be the Grumeti Community and Wildlife Conservation Fund Company Limited (the "Grumeti Fund"), which carries out wildlife conservation and community development work in the western corridor of the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania. Former Starkey Hearing Foundation Executive Director Brady Forseth will serve as CEO of the Foundation. "It's a privilege to partner with the Grumeti Fund who are demonstrated leaders in conservation within the Serengeti ecosystem," says Forseth. The Foundation will also partner with other organizations that have the experience and programs to execute ACCF's objectives. African wildlife is under constant threat from poaching associated with the bushmeat trade, habitat encroachment, charcoal extraction and the illegal trade of wildlife contraband such as ivory and rhino horn. To combat these ecosystem threats, ACCF will support anti-poaching efforts, combining cutting-edge technology with boots on the ground. Wildlife conservation, enterprise development, tourism, community prosperity and the health of the ecosystem are dependent upon and essential for the sustainability of the entire area. Brady Forseth says, "I am thrilled to lead ACCF's programs in Africa! We are positioned well to be the gateway platform that empowers and funds sustainable humanitarian and wildlife conservation initiatives." The Foundation, which is a project sponsored by Friends of Peace Parks, Inc., a United States public charity, aims to raise both awareness and funding for wildlife conservation and community programs in and around the Grumeti Reserve in Tanzania, in addition to other transformative and sustainable conservation and community projects throughout Africa. As background about the Foundation's initial primary partner in carrying out its charitable purposes, the Grumeti Fund was created in 2002 with the support of U.S. investor and philanthropist Paul Tudor Jones during a period of decline in the region's wildlife populations. Excessive hunting and widespread poaching had left the area desolate and the local communities impoverished. Stepping in to reverse the damage, the Grumeti Fund's primary efforts have focused on wildlife conservation and anti-poaching, as well as community development programs centered around education, enterprise development, environmental awareness and girls empowerment programs. The initiatives have had a profound effect on the Serengeti ecosystem, rehabilitating the once degraded area and restoring the Grumeti concessions to their former glory. One of its biggest upcoming projects is the translocation of six to twelve East African black rhinos in 2019. On the establishment of ACCF, Mr. Paul Tudor Jones noted: "African reserves are such iconic places, and they are overwhelmed by population pressure including poaching and competing uses for land. The impact this has on the people living there is massive. We can and will find a solution to these human/environmental problems: engaging scientists, researchers, conservationists, philanthropists, government officials, investors and an army of passionate peacemakers is the way." ACCF will begin its work in Tanzania, but hopes to continue its critical conservation initiatives and community impact in Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. African Community and Conservation Foundation The African Community & Conservation Foundation (ACCF), a project sponsored by Friends of Peace Parks, Inc., was established to raise awareness and funding for transformative and sustainable conservation and community projects throughout Africa, including the Grumeti Fund's wildlife conservation and community programs in and around the Grumeti Reserve in Tanzania. More information can be found on the ACCF Facebook page. SOURCE African Community and Conservation Foundation Related Links https://africanccf.org PASADENA, Calif., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Red Herring announced its Top 100 Global in recognition of the leading private companies from North America, Europe, and Asia, celebrating these startups' innovations and technologies across their respective industries. Red Herring's Top 100 Global list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising companies and entrepreneurs. Red Herring editors were among the first to recognize that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Salesforce.com, YouTube, and eBay would change the way we live and work. "Choosing the companies with the strongest potential was by no means a small feat," said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. "After rigorous contemplation and discussion, we narrowed our list down from hundreds of candidates from across the globe to the Top 100 Winners. BabbleLabs embodies the vision, drive and innovation that define a successful entrepreneurial venture. In just one year since its inception, BabbleLabs successfully introduced product to market and looks poised for a promising future in the marketplace." Red Herring's editorial staff evaluated the companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration. This assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the track records and standing of startups relative to their peers, allowing Red Herring to see past the "buzz" and make the list a valuable instrument of discovery and advocacy for the most promising new business models from around the world. About BabbleLabs BabbleLabs enhances understanding by people and machines. Through speech science and deep learning, we boost speech quality, intelligibility, and personalization to power better audio and video services and devices. To learn more visit www.babblelabs.com . 2018 BabbleLabs, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. BabbleLabs and the BabbleLabs logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of BabbleLabs, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE BabbleLabs, Inc. Related Links http://www.babblelabs.com/ Beaumont selected UHS, one of the nation's largest and most respected mental health hospital management companies, as its partner because of its long-standing commitment to patient and family-centered care, strong clinical outcomes and proven track record of partnering with academic, regional networks and community-based entities. UHS operates more than 200 mental health hospitals serving more than 600,000 patients annually across the country. UHS will be the majority owner of the joint venture and will oversee the day-to-day operations and management of the new mental health facility. "The shortage of resources for mental health is a national problem and very much one here in Southeast Michigan," Beaumont Health President and CEO John Fox said. "Beaumont and UHS intend to substantially fill that gap by providing specialized care for patients, along with investing in medical residencies, clinical training and the latest in telehealth technology." The mental health partnership strategy will include: construction of a new, dedicated mental health hospital a $40 million initiative, expanding more than 100,000-square-feet, that will double Beaumont's current capacity for inpatient mental health care; a continued commitment to highly specialized academic training programs, including the addition of Beaumont graduate medical education programs in psychiatry, psychopharmacology and other clinical training opportunities enhanced and expanded intensive day programs and outpatient care "UHS is extremely pleased to be working with Beaumont Health, a premier organization, to provide these critically needed services in Michigan," Universal Health Services Executive Vice President and President of the Behavioral Health Division Debbie Osteen said. "We continue to expand upon our joint venture partnerships with health care organizations across the country. Our mutual goal is always to provide patients and their loved ones with compassionate and high-quality mental health care, services and support." Construction will begin in early 2019 on the 150-bed, free-standing hospital, which will be located across the street from Beaumont Hospital, Dearborn, on eight acres of vacant land on Oakwood Boulevard, near the Southfield Freeway. The facility is expected to open in early to mid-2021. "We will consider the new building our ninth hospital. However, this endeavor is so much more than bricks and mortar it will be the new 'hub' from which we will coordinate the entire continuum of services for comprehensive inpatient and outpatient mental health care, clinical training and innovative new approaches to accessing care," Fox added. Within three years, inpatient mental health services across Beaumont Health will consolidate and grow into this one location, serving adult, pediatric and geriatric patients. The current outpatient and day programs across Beaumont's system will be enhanced to continue to meet the needs of patients who desire outpatient treatment closer to home. Other features the new facility will include: the collaboration of multidisciplinary teams including psychiatrists, internal medicine physicians, other specialists, certified clinical pharmacists, social workers, psychologists, therapists and other clinical support staff; an integrated assessment and referral center to support the community and Beaumont Health Emergency Centers; and substance use disorder treatment for those who are also receiving care for a mental health diagnosis. Beaumont Hospital, Taylor, President and administrative lead of the mental health initiative, Lee Ann Odom, said, "We are proud to partner with a high-quality organization, with a national reputation, that will greatly enhance our efforts regionally to uphold our commitment to patient and family-centered care." Over time, Beaumont plans to implement a comprehensive telemedicine program that will support its nine emergency rooms and other patient care settings across the system. This advanced technology will offer faster, remote access to health care providers and services. "We are pleased to partner with Beaumont Health to serve the greater Detroit community," said Universal Health Services Regional Vice President Diane Henneman. "UHS brings national resources with a local focus, currently operating four facilities in Michigan, where we have proudly served the community for 35 years. Our long-standing commitment to quality care and expertise in the field of mental health will enable us, in partnership with Beaumont, to enhance the level of care provided to some of this region's most vulnerable patients." Statewide Need Mental health care continues to be at the forefront of societal concerns among health care providers, government officials, legislators and community service organizations in Michigan and across the country. Nearly one in five Americans, or 43.8 million adults, has a diagnosable mental health condition. Between 1999 and 2016, suicide rates in Michigan increased 32.9 percent, and suicide continues to be one of the leading causes of death in the state, according to the National Institute of Mental Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "There have been many conversations at the state level about the increasing necessity for mental health services, and the need outpaced our ability to meet that demand," Odom added. The Michigan House of Representatives released a report earlier this year from the House C.A.R.E.S. Task Force that provides recommendations on ways to improve mental health services across the state. The report focuses on a variety of different settings including health care, education and criminal justice. In addition, the Michigan Health and Hospital Association have also created a task force on behavioral health. Both Beaumont and UHS actively participate in these conversations at a state level. "Mental health care of this caliber requires a team approach all hands on deck," U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, said. "With this project, Beaumont and UHS are taking a monumental next step to address the shortage of mental health care available in Southeast Michigan by increasing access to essential services that will benefit all of Michigan." Fox added, "We listened to our community to learn how we can deliver more meaningful care. With this project, we intend to provide what's needed to benefit those who need our help." Beaumont Health Beaumont Health is Michigan's largest health care system and is most preferred for health care in the tri-county area, according to National Research Corp. survey data. A not-for-profit organization, it was formed in 2014 by Beaumont Health System, Botsford Hospital and Oakwood Healthcare to provide patients with the benefit of greater access to extraordinary, compassionate care, no matter where they live in Southeast Michigan. Beaumont Health has total net revenue of $4.5 billion and consists of eight hospitals with 3,429 beds, 187 outpatient sites, nearly 5,000 physicians, 38,000 employees and 3,500 volunteers. In 2017, Beaumont Health had 175,688 inpatient discharges, 17,789 births and 574,591 emergency visits. For more information, visit beaumont.org. Universal Health Services, Inc. One of the nation's largest and most respected hospital companies, Universal Health Services, Inc. (NYSE: UHS) has built an impressive record of achievement and performance. Growing steadily since its inception into an esteemed Fortune 500 corporation, UHS today has annual revenues of $10 billion. In 2018, UHS was recognized as one of the World's Most Admired Companies by Fortune, ranked #268 on the Fortune 500; and in 2017, listed #275 in Forbes inaugural ranking of America's Top 500 Public Companies. Our operating philosophy is as effective today as it was 40 years ago, enabling us to provide compassionate care to our patients and their loved ones: Build or acquire high quality hospitals in rapidly growing markets, invest in the people and equipment needed to allow each facility to thrive, and become the leading healthcare provider in each community we serve. Headquartered in King of Prussia, PA, UHS has more than 83,000 employees and through its subsidiaries operates more than 326 inpatient acute care hospitals and behavioral health facilities, and 32 outpatient and other facilities in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom. SOURCE Beaumont Health; Universal Health Services Related Links http://beaumont.org MIAMI, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In honor of Veterans Day, Carnival Cruise Line, the line that carries that most active and retired service members, is offering special savings and bonuses in November to members of the U.S. and Canadian Armed Forces. The promotion, which provides up to $50 onboard credit per stateroom, a complimentary two-category upgrade, and 50 percent reduced deposits, can be combined with Carnival's highly attractive Early Saver rates*. In addition, guests who qualify for the promotion can book up to two additional staterooms with the same bonuses and pricing. The promotion can be booked from Nov. 5-12, 2018, and is applicable for a wide range of three- to 24-day sailings departing through 2021 from a multitude of North American homeports. Later this month, the company will be rolling out a new Military Meet & Greet event on cruises of six days and longer, providing members of the Armed Forces an opportunity to connect with their fellow service members. This will be in addition to the military appreciation reception hosted on every cruise. The company is also introducing special commemorative pins that will be given to military members acknowledging their service. "Carnival is a longtime supporter of the military and we are pleased to once again show our appreciation to our brave service men and women as we celebrate Veterans Day," said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. Carnival is a proud partner of Operation Homefront, an organization whose goal is to build strong, stable and secure military families. The line also hosted Humor for Heroes at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego this summer that included an on-site comedy performance for 500 military members and their families in support of Operation Homefront. Earlier this year, Duffy participated in the 88th Joint Civilian Orientation Conference, an intensive weeklong exercise that is the oldest and most prestigious public liaison program in the Department of Defense. To learn more about Carnival Cruise Line, visit Carnival.com. For reservations, contact any travel agent or call 1-800-CARNIVAL. Carnival can also be found on: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Journalists also can visit Carnival's media site, carnival-news.com or follow the line's PR department on Twitter at twitter.com/CarnivalPR. *The two-category upgrade is within like categories (interior to interior, ocean view to ocean view, etc.). The promotion is capacity controlled and certain restrictions apply. About Carnival Cruise Line Carnival Cruise Line, part of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL;NYSE: CUK), is "The World's Most Popular Cruise Line" with 26 ships operating three- to 24-day voyages to The Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, New England, Bermuda, Cuba, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia. The line currently has three new ships scheduled for delivery the 133,500-ton Carnival Panorama set to debut in 2019 and two as-yet-unnamed 180,000-ton ships in 2020 and 2022. SOURCE Carnival Cruise Line Related Links http://www.carnivalcorp.com "The GATR system's expeditionary nature and ability to withstand extreme conditions, make it an invaluable technology during disaster response missions," Bradley H. Feldmann, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Cubic Corporation. "It is important for us to deploy our technology and services to assist Florida's recovery the best we can. The support from our Army customer allowed us to extend our reach even farther." Seven Cubic employees, based in Huntsville, Alabama traveled to Panama City to assist in recovery efforts. Upon the Cubic team's arrival, the need for more antennas led to the partnership with the Army. This partnership enabled the deployment of multiple 1.2-meter and 2.4-meter GATR systems to restore communications for local government and first responder personnel throughout the Florida Panhandle. Locations in which GATR and T2C2 systems have been deployed include the Panama City Police Department; Roads and Bridges building of the Bay County Public Works department; Bay County Fire Department Station 11; Lynn Haven Municipal Complex; Howard Creek Volunteer Fire Department; and South Gulf County Volunteer Fire Department. "Our incredible team on the ground has worked tirelessly to ensure those in most dire need for communications were provided support using GATR systems," said Mike Twyman, president, Cubic Mission Solutions. "We are grateful for our strong partnership with our T2C2 customer and their support of this relief initiative. In the future, we will continue to provide our technology to help restore communication and aid in the reconstruction efforts during these devastating times." The inflatable and ultra-portable GATR system can be transported in two cases weighing less than 100 pounds each and are able to withstand winds up to 75 mph. The GATR system provides superior throughput performance with innovative technology that enables portability, reliability and ease of setup for SATCOM during the most critical military, government and first responder missions. The GATR system is currently fielded by the U.S. Army to support expeditionary communications for warfighters worldwide. Partnering with customers from military to nongovernmental organizations and international humanitarian aid groups, GATR systems and support personnel have been deployed in response to natural disasters since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. About Cubic Corporation Cubic is a technology driven, market-leading provider of integrated solutions that increase situational understanding for transportation, defense C4ISR and training customers worldwide to decrease urban congestion and improve the militaries' effectiveness and operational readiness. Cubic Mission Solutions provides networked Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities for defense, intelligence, security and commercial missions. Cubic Global Defense is a leading provider of live, virtual, constructive and game-based training solutions for the U.S. and allied forces. Cubic Transportation Systems is a leading integrator of payment and information technology and services to create intelligent travel solutions for transportation authorities and operators. For more information about Cubic, please visit the company's website at www.cubic.com or on Twitter @CubicCorp. SOURCE Cubic Corporation Related Links http://www.cubic.com "Dean Foods has been proud to support Feeding America for the last decade. To kick off this year's campaign, our employees volunteered at the North Texas Food Bank in October," said Joe Reske, Senior Director, Marketing, DairyPure. "We are thrilled to continue this long-standing partnership to help drive much-needed awareness to the issue of hunger and to shed light on the work that still needs to be done. Every donation counts!" "Dairy is one of the most requested but least available and donated products at Feeding America food banks," explained Karen Hanner, VP, Manufacturing Product Sourcing at Feeding America. "Dean Foods' support through its DairyPure and TruMoo brands this holiday season will help provide Americans with the nutrition they need. We're grateful for their commitment to fighting hunger as they #SharetheGoodness this holiday season." The half-a-million meal donation, however, is just the start. Milk is always a staple during the holiday season and DairyPure is offering consumers an easy way to give back as they shop, by donating "Kick" points from their Shopkick shopping rewards account. From November 27 through December 21, Dean Foods will gift consumers 15 Kicks for scanning DairyPure and TruMoo brand products while in-store, and 200 additional Kicks for purchasing. These Kicks can then be donated to Feeding America, so customers can give back to their local communities this holiday season with each donated kick providing extra support beyond the 500,000 meals already committed.3 The Shopkick app can be downloaded for free at Shopkick.com. To find out more about the DairyPure and TruMoo partnership with Feeding America, click here. DairyPure is the largest brand of fresh pure milk in the US with a portfolio that includes lactose-free milk, sour cream, creamers, and DairyPure Mix-ins single-serve cottage cheese, to learn more visit DairyPure.com. TruMoo is America's leading national flavored milk brand, to learn more visit TruMoo.com. Both brands are available at most national grocery chains. About Dean Foods Dean Foods is a leading food and beverage company and the largest processor and direct-to-store distributor of fresh fluid milk and other dairy and dairy case products in the United States. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the Dean Foods portfolio includes DairyPure, the country's first and largest fresh, white milk national brand, and TruMoo, the leading national flavored milk brand, along with well-known regional dairy brands such as Alta Dena, Berkeley Farms, Country Fresh, Dean's, Friendly's, Garelick Farms, LAND O LAKES4 milk and cultured products, Lehigh Valley Dairy Farms, Mayfield, McArthur, Meadow Gold, Oak Farms, PET5, T.G. Lee, Tuscan and more. In all, Dean Foods has more than 50 national, regional and local dairy brands as well as private labels. Dean Foods also makes and distributes ice cream, cultured products, juices, teas, and bottled water. Over 16,000 employees across the country work every day to make Dean Foods the most admired and trusted provider of wholesome, great-tasting dairy products at every occasion. For more information about Dean Foods and its brands, visit www.deanfoods.com. About Feeding America Feeding America is the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, we provide meals to more than 46 million people each year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; educates the public about the problem of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Individuals, charities, businesses and government all have a role in ending hunger. Donate. Volunteer. Advocate. Educate. Together we can solve hunger. Visit www.feedingamerica.org, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. 1 Data according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service; current as of 2018 2 *Share the Goodness: Between Nov. 01 and Dec. 31, 2018, Dean Foods will donate 500,000 meals ($50,000) to Feeding America. $1 helps secure the equivalent of at least 10 meals by Feeding America on behalf of its national network of food banks. 3 Between Nov. 27 and Dec. 21, 2018, Shopkick app users can earn reward Kicks for every scan (15 Kicks) and every purchase (200 Kicks) of DairyPure and/or TruMoo products. Via the Shopkick app, users will be encouraged to donate any amount of their earned Kicks directly to Feeding America, to support their local communities and families in need. 4 The LAND O LAKES brand is owned by Land O'Lakes, Inc. and is used by license. 5 PET is a trademark of Eagle Family Foods Group LLC, used under license. SOURCE Dean Foods HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Acting Secretary of State Robert Torres today reminded Pennsylvanians that the Department of State's election night returns website will offer up-to-the-minute statewide results on Tuesday night. "Voters, candidates and the press can find the earliest and most complete picture of the unofficial results at the website," Secretary Torres said. "We collaborate with all 67 county election offices to consolidate and post their results as soon as they are available." The portal's users can customize searches, receive timely updates and view results on mobile devices. The site also provides links to each county's election results website. Results will be posted on electionreturns.pa.gov as the department receives reports from the counties after the polls close at 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. Until then, the site will only show test results. On November 6, Pennsylvania voters will cast ballots for: Governor and Lieutenant Governor U.S. Senator 18 U.S. House members Even-numbered state Senate districts All state House seats For complete information about voting in Pennsylvania, visit votesPA.com or call the Department of State's official election hotline at 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772). Interpreters are available. MEDIA CONTACT: Wanda Murren, 717-783-1621 SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of State Related Links http://www.state.pa.us TotalSocial Now Includes First-of-its-Kind Advanced Analytics for Predicting Brand Equity, Full Reddit Content for Brands and YouTube Video Shares, while Increasing Versatility of Diagnostic Analysis to Guide Better Marketing ROI for Brands NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. and MONTREAL, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Engagement Labs Inc. (TSX VENTURE: EL) (OTCQB: ELBSF) today announced a major development in its TotalSocial platform with the release of Version 3.2 which enables marketers to predict movements in their brand equity metrics months in advance, taking advantage of the predictive power of consumer conversations on long term brand equity. This is a first-of-its-kind capability that quantifies the relationship of conversations, both offline and online, with long-term business results and provides strategic guidance on how to drive performance improvement. "We have already proven the unique ability of our TotalSocial data platform to predict sales trends up to eight weeks in advance. Now we can go further to give marketers a tool to help them build long-term brand value through social performance," said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. "Half of the business impact comes from offline conversations, and half from social media. This combination, which Engagement Labs uniquely measures, is central to our unique selling proposition." In addition to predicting brand equity, TotalSocial has expanded media coverage by including all consumer brand conversations that occur on the Reddit platform, and adding YouTube video shares to its brand sharing metric. Reddit is a platform that attracted 44 million mentions of leading US brands in the first half of 2018, adding substantially to the scope of online conversation coverage in the US. The TotalSocial product has four online and four offline social metrics, including online and offline "brand sharing" associated with the frequency with which a brand's marketing content is talked about face-to-face or shared online. With the addition of YouTube video shares, brands will be able to monitor their performance relative to competitors in producing online video content that consumers want to share with each other. In the first half of 2018, consumers shared videos from leading US brands 15 million times. Besides the US, Engagement Labs presently monitors conversations about client brands in 10 other countries where Reddit and YouTube data are available. Engagement Labs also enhanced the power of time series analysis in its Diagnostics module by increasing the speed with which analysts can pinpoint the causes of recent changes in TotalSocial performance. If a brand sees a major uptick in conversation in Q2 2018 versus a year earlier, the tools will identify which demographic groups, social media platforms, and traditional media channels that are responsible for the improvement. "The new version of TotalSocial delivers on our promise to continually improve the marketers' ability to raise their revenues by tapping the power of social influence. No other data source provides such a comprehensive system for leveraging the entire social ecosystem," Mr. Keller said. In May 2018, the company announced new artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools to enable clients to more quickly and accurately plan growth strategies based on unique social data and analytics. This release extends those capabilities further. The TotalSocial platform continues to lead the market, adding AI and machine learning to an impressive list of firstsincluding being the first and only platform to combine online and offline data, and the first and only with predictive analytics. The TotalSocial platform was awarded the "Best Practitioner Paper of 2017" by the Advertising Research Foundation and was lauded for its innovation regarding its approach towards data and analytics in the social ecosystem. About Engagement Labs Engagement Labs (TSXV: EL) (OTCQB: ELBSF) is an industry-leading data and analytics firm that provides social intelligence for Fortune 500 brands and companies. The Company's TotalSocial platform focuses on the entire social ecosystem by combining powerful online (social media) and offline (word of mouth) data with predictive analytics. Engagement Labs has a proprietary ten-year database of unique brand, industry and competitive intelligence, matched with its cutting-edge predictive analytics that use machine learning and artificial intelligence to reveal the social metrics that increase marketing ROI and top line revenue for its diverse group of clients. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com. About TotalSocial TotalSocial is a premier data and analytics platform that provides brands with unique insights, improved marketing ROI and strategies to grow revenue. Fueled by actionable online and offline data, TotalSocial is the only platform that encompasses and listens to the entire social ecosystem. TotalSocial offers unique, proprietary data about brands, its industry and competitors. With cutting-edge diagnostics, patent-pending predictive analytics and machine learning, TotalSocial identifies business opportunities and provides recommendations and a roadmap to grow revenue and achieve business and marketing goals. Disclaimer in regard to Forward-looking Statements Certain statements included herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, Engagement Labs does not intend, and undertakes no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements to reflect, in particular, new information or future events. 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. For media inquiries please contact: Vanessa Lontoc, Marketing Director / Ed Keller, CEO Engagement Labs 732-846-6800 [email protected] / [email protected] SOURCE Engagement Labs Related Links engagementlabs.com VALLEY COTTAGE, New York, November 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Future Market Insights (FMI) delivers key insights on the global impact modifier market in its upcoming outlook titled, "Impact Modifier Market: Global Industry Analysis 2013-2017 and Opportunity Assessment 2018-2028". In terms of value, the global impact modifier market is projected to register a healthy CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period due to various factors, regarding which FMI offers vital insights in detail. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/677274/Future_Market_Insights_Logo.jpg ) Impact Modifier Market - Overview & Analysis A more streamlined and comprehensive product portfolio offered by the manufacturers has encouraged end users towards the use of impact modifiers. Also, tailor-made offerings in the impact modifier product portfolio have enabled the manufacturers to improve the application portfolio of impact modifiers. It has been observed that weather testing of plastic additives such as impact modifiers during the production of performance of materials has become more crucial than ever. Weathering in-service failures, in which impact modifiers play a major role are becoming increasingly prominent, especially in the case of automotive plastics. Impact modifiers offered improved weatherability in reduced costs. Performance material manufacturers are particularly focusing to address the issue of weathering-related failures. Request a Sample Report with Table of Contents and Figures: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7554 The demand for impact modifiers is especially high in regions such as China and Japan, where the automotive and electronic devices market is growing at a high rate. In these regions, the market is saturated with faded and low quality plastics, whereas the consumers are demanding high quality plastics, and manufacturers in these regions are reaping the benefit of these opportunities by developing plastics incorporated with impact modifiers which are better in quality with respect to attractiveness of the object, durability and sustainability. These trends can be reflected in the fact that many global players in the impact modifiers market are positioning to gain greater share in the impact modifiers market in this region. Impact Modifier Market Segmentation by Product Type - ABS Impact Modifier, EPDM Impact Modifier, MBS Impact Modifier, ASA Impact Modifier, AIM impact Modifier, CPE Impact Modifier : By Application - PVC, Nylon, PBT, Engineering Plastic : https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/impact-modifier-market North America being a matured economy with a well-established manufacturing sector and high awareness towards the quality grade of impact modifiers, end use industries tend to adopt premium quality impact modifiers. Also, high competition in the impact modifiers market in North America has led to development of technically advanced impact modifiers with high durability and increased impact resistance properties under load. Manufacturers are coming up with solutions to include both of these properties in their impact modifiers, as these properties are basically a tradeoff. Sometimes impact modifiers are known to be more of contaminants than stabilizers. For example, they are known to cause polymer degradation in the presence of UV and moisture resulting in adverse chalking in window and door profiles. These effects are accentuated when polymer materials which contain impact modifiers are exposed to extreme weather conditions. The damage is witnessed through undesired coloration in the products. The trend towards sustainability and green products has led to the development of green substitutes for impact modifiers and other polymer additives. Utilization of bio-based additives may slightly hinder the growth of the impact modifiers market and other polymer additives market. Our advisory services are aimed at helping you with specific, customised insights that are relevant to your specific challenges. Let us know about your challenges and our trusted advisors will connect with you : https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-7554 This report covers various aspects of impact modifiers, including key trends adopted by market participants and their specific impact on each segment, and also offers insights and analysis of the opportunity in impact modifiers market in specific regions. North America is expected to register high growth rates between 2018 and 2026 and is also expected to remain the largest market through 2026. Based on market attractiveness, Europe and North America tend to be relatively attractive markets in the impact modifiers market. On the basis of end use, the impact modifiers market is segmented as packaging, construction, and consumer goods and automotive. Detailed profiles of some of the manufacturers of impact modifiers are also included in the scope of the report to evaluate their key product offerings, long-term and short-term strategies, and recent developments in the impact modifiers space. A selection of key players include Kaneka Corporation, Arkema S.A., E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, LANXESS Corporation, BASF SE, Clariant AG, Shandong Ruifeng Chemical Co., Ltd., Akdeniz Kimya San. ve Tic. A.S., Addivant USA, LLC, Akzo Nobel N.V., Evonik Industries AG, Sundow Chemicals and Weifang Tianrui Chemical co. Ltd amongst others. More from Chemicals & Materials Intelligence: Industrial Degreaser Market Segmentation By Basis Of Type - Water-based, Solvent-based; By Basis Of Grade - Synthetic, Bio-based; By End Use - Automotive, Aviation, Electrical, Chemical & pharmaceuticals, Energy & power, Paint, Marine, Others: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/industrial-degreaser-market Segmentation By Basis Of Type - Water-based, Solvent-based; By Basis Of Grade - Synthetic, Bio-based; By End Use - Automotive, Aviation, Electrical, Chemical & pharmaceuticals, Energy & power, Paint, Marine, Others: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/industrial-degreaser-market Polysilicon Market segmentation By Grade Type- Solar Grade, Electronics Grade; Polysilicon Market: Rapid Growth in Solar PV Installations Across the Globe to Drive Revenue Growth: Global Industry Analysis 2013 - 2017 and Opportunity Assessment 2018 - 2028 : https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/polysilicon-market segmentation By Grade Type- Solar Grade, Electronics Grade; Polysilicon Market: Rapid Growth in Solar PV Installations Across the Globe to Drive Revenue Growth: Global Industry Analysis 2013 - 2017 and Opportunity Assessment 2018 - 2028 : https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/polysilicon-market Ammonium Phosphatides Market Segmentation By Origin - Natural, Synthetic; By Usage Type - Emulsifier, Functional Additive, Other; By Application - Bakery, Confectionary, Dairy, Ice Cream, Fine Food, Margarine, Soy, Others: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/ammonium-phosphatides-market About Us Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights and an aerial view of the competitive framework and future market trends. Browse More Chemicals & Materials Contact Us 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 T (UK): +44(0)20-7692-8790 Sales: [email protected] Press Office: [email protected] FMI Blog: http://www.fmiblog.com/ Website: www.futuremarketinsights.com SOURCE Future Market Insights Time-tested turkey tips and digital cookbook Perfect roasting times, brining, carving techniques and more along with 50 delicious Thanksgiving recipes from the big bird to sides and desserts, including: Apple, Fig & Brussels Sprouts Salad; Garlic Mashed Cauliflower; Apple Brandy- and Sage-Glazed Turkey; and even a Chocolate-Glazed Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. Perfect roasting times, brining, carving techniques and more along with 50 delicious Thanksgiving recipes from the big bird to sides and desserts, including: Apple, Fig & Brussels Sprouts Salad; Garlic Mashed Cauliflower; Apple Brandy- and Sage-Glazed Turkey; and even a Chocolate-Glazed Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. Thanksgiving hacks No roasting pan? No problem. Turn any pan into a roasting pan by sitting your gobbler on a bed of onions, potatoes and carrots or placing it on a ring formed out of aluminum foil. Elevating your turkey allows the heat to circulate more evenly. Hungry for more? Try adding baking powder to mashed potatoes to make them extra fluffy. No roasting pan? No problem. Turn any pan into a roasting pan by sitting your gobbler on a bed of onions, potatoes and carrots or placing it on a ring formed out of aluminum foil. Elevating your turkey allows the heat to circulate more evenly. Hungry for more? Try adding baking powder to mashed potatoes to make them extra fluffy. A Poultrypedia A spin-the-wheel dictionary demystifies the terms on your turkey label. Learn what "cage-free," "free range" and "organic" really mean. A spin-the-wheel dictionary demystifies the terms on your turkey label. Learn what "cage-free," "free range" and "organic" really mean. Giving Back For the past decade Foster Farms has provided more than 600,000 holiday meals to families in need. DORI will connect consumers who want to join Foster Farms in fighting hunger to food banks in California , Oregon and Washington . To spread the word about the DORI mobile platform, Foster Farms is launching a social media campaign that will enable consumers to match their Thanksgiving personalities with humorous DORI emojis. Are you the Procrastinator, who puts off Thanksgiving preparations to the last minute; Trendy Wendy, who is always in search of the latest and greatest; or the Guru of Gravy, who has the moves for the smoothest fixin's this side of Plymouth Rock? DORI emojis bring a smile to Thanksgiving festivities. "We know consumers always want their Thanksgiving to be the best ever, and DORI delivers the information in-store or at home that can help," said Ira Brill, director of communications for Foster Farms. "And, if you're a Thanksgiving rookie and run into a jam cooking your turkey, just give a quick call to the DORI holiday helpline." On weekdays from November 1 through December 24, DORI's Thanksgiving Turkey Helpline experts will be on call for turkey advice. Reach them at 1-833-TALKTKY (1-833-825-5859). Helpline hours will be: 11/1-11/9 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST 11/12-11/22 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. PST (including Thanksgiving Day) 11/23-12/24 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST Foster Farms' fresh turkey offerings include Whole Young Turkey for traditional roasts, Young Turkey breasts for shorter cooking times, and pre-marinated Savory Servings Turkey for no-fuss preparation. Foster Farms' Savory Servings pre-marinated Turkey Tenderloins are ideal for households hosting smaller feasts or for consumers who want to experience the taste of a traditional Thanksgiving meal anytime during the year. About Foster Farms Since 1939, West Coast families have depended on Foster Farms for premium quality chicken and turkey products. Family-owned and operated, the company continues its legacy of excellence and commitment to quality established by its founders, Max and Verda Foster. Foster Farms specializes in fresh, all-natural chicken and turkey products free of preservatives, additives or injected sodium enhancers. Based in California's Central Valley, with ranches in the Pacific Northwest, the company's fresh chicken and turkey are produced in or near each region served. Foster Farms also produces delicious pre-marinated, ready-to-cook and fully cooked products that meet the quality and convenience needs of today's home cooks, retailers, warehouse clubs and foodservice customers. The company's commitment to excellence, honesty, quality, service and people is a source of great pride and a longtime family tradition. Food safety is Foster Farms' highest priority and the company would like to remind consumers to always follow safe handling, preparation and storage guidelines for the preparation of fresh poultry products. All fresh poultry products should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit as measured by a meat thermometer to ensure safety. Visit www.fosterfarms.com to learn more. SOURCE Foster Farms Related Links http://www.fosterfarms.com OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Oklahoma City Downtown Lions Club and Feed the Children are partnering this holiday season to provide food, essentials, books and holiday joy to 150 Rancho Village Elementary School students and their families. The six-week program Assisting Communities Together in Our Nation (A.C.T.I.O.N.) is a mentoring and tutoring program for students. As part of the initiative, students will gather each school day to receive shelf-stable meals and enjoy interactive visits from community leaders across OKC. The program will kick off Monday, Nov. 5, as the non-profit organizations team up to provide food and essentials to 400 families at St. Luke's United Methodist Church Asbury campus. During the event, each family will receive a 25-pound box of food such as canned vegetables, peanut butter and macaroni and cheese and a 15-pound box of essentials like personal-care items such as shampoo, razors and toothpaste and additional products. On Nov. 8, Feed the Children will hold a reading night at Rancho Village Elementary where each child will be able to select up to three books to take home. The Oklahoma City Downtown Lions Club will be on-site with their mobile health screening unit where participants can receive tests for glaucoma, diabetes, cholesterol, visual acuity, basic pulmonary (lung) function and high blood pressure. "Our organization is excited to help brighten the holiday season of students at Rancho Village Elementary," said Dale Swiggett, president, Oklahoma City Downtown Lions Club. "We are looking forward to seeing the smiles on the faces of the children we are serving through this initiative. The Lions Club has a rich and deep history of taking an active interest in the moral welfare of the communities in which we serve and our partnership with Feed the Children is a wonderful example of this interest at work." In Oklahoma City, 17.8 percent of residents live below the poverty line and many of these families struggle with food insecurity. Unfortunately, this is a trend that stretches across Oklahoma with nearly one out of every six Oklahomans having incomes below the poverty level. Believing education is the best way to break the cycle of poverty, events like this one bring schools, nonprofits and business leaders together to help vulnerable families. "The holidays can be a stressful time for families. We are excited to partner with Rancho Village Elementary and the Downtown Oklahoma City Lions Club to pilot our A.C.T.I.O.N. program," said Clint McKnight, Feed the Children's Director of Domestic Programming. "By involving both students and parents, we believe that the benefits of this initiative will have a lasting impact on the community." The A.C.T.I.O.N. program will culminate in December when students receive toys and food to take home for the holiday break. This is one of many events Feed the Children has planned during the holiday season to help defeat childhood hunger in Oklahoma and across the United States through its No Hunger Holidays campaign - transforming hunger into hope. About Feed the Children Established in 1979, Feed the Children exists to defeat childhood hunger. It is one of the leading U.S.-based charities and serves those in need in the U.S. and in 10 countries around the world. It provides food, education initiatives, essentials and disaster response. It operates five 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. It is accredited by GuideStar Exchange and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. Visit feedthechildren.org for more information. SOURCE Feed The Children, Inc. Related Links http://www.feedthechildren.org VANCOUVER, British Columbia, November 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Premier Health Group (CSE: PHGI) (CSE: PHGI.CN) (OTCQB: PHGRF) (Frankfurt: 6PH) (the "Company" or "Premier Health"), a Company focused on developing innovative approaches that combine human skill based expertise with emerging technologies for the healthcare industry, is pleased to announce that as a part of its expansion plans it will enter the Pharmacy market via acquisition and/or launching a new Canada based pharmacy in H1-2019. "Pharmacy is a critical component in our commitment to providing patients with best in class primary care that is accessible and efficient in its delivery. Having the ability to prepare and deliver prescription and non-prescription pharmaceuticals and other health products to patients with ease, and having it as a part of our comprehensive technology solution for primary care, is something we are very excited to roll-out to patients," said Dr. Essam Hamza, CEO of Premier. The Company is actively reviewing a pipeline of additional pharmacy partners which include bricks and mortar locations for acquisition and strategic new retail opportunities for pharmacies. "It is our position that the emergence of technology such as the ability for patients to electronically send their prescription(s) to a pharmacy for fulfillment and pick up at a later time or delivery directly to them at home or work will result in increased patient and consumer enrollment in apps that offer this type of functionality," added Dr.Hamza. The Canadian retail pharmacy market is estimated to be $44 billion (Source: IBISWorld). It is expected the industry sector will continue to allow for favourable economics for pharmacy operators as baby boomer's demand increases for prescriptions and operators expand scope of practice to include preventative services. The Company expects to provide additional updates on acquisitions in Q4-18 and Q1-19. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "Dr. Essam Hamza, MD" Chief Executive Officer About Premier Health Premier Health is a Canadian company that is strategically poised to take advantage of business opportunities in the global health care industry. We are developing innovative health care approaches that combine human skill based expertise with emerging technologies, and will set the gold standard for services in locations of interest worldwide. Premier Health's subsidiary, HealthVue is focused on developing proprietary technology to deliver quality healthcare through the combination of connected primary care clinics with telemedicine and artificial intelligence (AI). We currently have an ecosystem of over 100,000 active patients and have plans to rapidly increase that number both domestically and internationally. The HealthVue team has a strong track record of successfully creating value in healthcare and technology enterprises. The Management team has deep clinical, financial and operational expertise and a passion for improving healthcare for all patients. Cautionary Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on Premier Health's expectations, estimates and projections regarding its business and the economic environment in which it operates, including with respect to the implementation of its shareholder communications initiative and the timing thereof. Although Premier Health believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to control or predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements and readers should not place undue reliance on such statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and Premier Health undertakes no obligation to update them publicly to reflect new information or the occurrence of future events or circumstances, unless otherwise required to do so by law. The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For Additional Information Contact: Premier Health Group Inc. Email: [email protected] +604-807-8815 SOURCE Premier Health Group Inc. SHANGHAI, Nov. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- China International Import Expo ("CIIE") is being held in Shanghai with more than 3,000 enterprises from over 130 countries attending. UnionPay International, leveraging on its advantages in network, products and services, is offering smooth payment service to visiting guests and export and import settlement service to traders. Offering payment convenience for exhibitors visiting mainland China To date, over 100 million UnionPay cards have been issued in 48 countries and regions outside mainland China. And in many countries and regions, UnionPay is the No.1 card brand in terms of card-issuing scale. In addition to providing great convenience to overseas residents in local markets, these overseas-issued UnionPay cards also facilitate overseas residents' visits to China. In the third quarter of this year, the volume of transactions made in mainland China with overseas-issued UnionPay cards grew by 12% year-on-year. Exhibitors may use UnionPay cards issued outside mainland at almost all merchants and ATMs in mainland China. If with RMB or dual-currency UnionPay cards that with a RMB account, the spending in mainland China will be settled in RMB, thus effectively lowering the currency conversion cost. In addition, exhibitors are able to apply for UnionPay debit or credit cards in banks in China with effective identity certificates. Currently, many banks in China are offering card application express channels for foreign exhibitors. Since the opening of CIIE to February, 2019, UnionPay International are providing special offers of up to RMB588.00 for cardholders with overseas-issued UnionPay cards at restaurants and hotels in Shanghai. Supporting cross-border trade between China and other countries Over the past few years, UnionPay International is actively offering payment support to the cross-border trade between China and the rest of the world. For instance, about 600,000 UnionPay Commercial Cards have been issued outside mainland China, and UnionPay cross-border remittance service is launched in 45 countries and regions outside the Chinese Mainland. In answer to the digitalization of cross-border trade, UnionPay International has launched its Cross-border B2B Payment Service Platform, to provide enterprises with secure and convenient online import and export settlement services. So far, a number of cross-border e-commerce and traditional export companies in Africa, Central Asia, and mainland China have connected to UnionPay Cross-border B2B Platform. After selecting goods at these e-commerce websites, domestic and overseas purchasers are able to make safe and convenient payment via UnionPay Cross-border B2B Platform. To better serve CIIE, UnionPay International collaborates with several banks to provide one-stop import and export settlement service via the UnionPay Cross-border B2B platform. Enterprises can complete online the whole process of payment, order review, foreign currency purchase and settlement, and declaration, saving the trouble of going to the bank outlet for remittance and filling in the customs declaration materials. Furthermore, UnionPay International is a strategic partner of the official transaction service platform of CIIE, and will deliver long-term services to exhibitors even after the closing of CIIE. SOURCE UnionPay International HERNDON, Va., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Virginia State Approving Agency October 23, 2018 approved Security University's (SU) 2 Registered Qualified/ Cybersecurity Apprenticeship Programs Level I & II (Q/Cybersecurity RAP) to the Virginia GI Bill approved list. Just in time for the 2018 Department of Labor National Apprenticeship Month and in advance of next week's National Apprentice Week November 12-18, as long as they are employed, military, veteran or family member eligible for GI Bill education benefits can participate in SU's Q/Cybersecurity RAP Programs. SU's Q/Cyber RAP 24 month, 288 hours hands-on cybersecurity training program, 4,000 of OJT employment offers phased-cyber educational development pathway courses that align veterans with the needs of employers to address current and emerging cyber threats with validated cyber skills. SU's instructor led courses are held in Herndon VA, with industry leading subject matter experts, accredited by Middle States Association (MSA-CESS) and SCHEV Certified to Operate since 2006. The Q/Cybersecurity RAP programs includes eight 5-day cybersecurity classes, live labs (not simulated), mentoring, and earn industry recognized cybersecurity certifications and 2 Certificate Programs of Mastery Q/ISP (Qualified/ Information Security Professional) or Q/IAP (Qualified/ Information Assurance Professional) pathways. SU courses are NSA- CNSS (National Security Agency) CNSS 4011, 4012, 4013, 4015, 4106, NIST, (National Institute of Standards) and NICE (National Initiative for Cyber Education) approved since 2008. After becoming the first Managed Adult Cybersecurity RAP in Virginia April 2018, SU is an Intermediary Sponsor assisting military, veterans and family members during apprenticeship gathering required OJT, wage data and reports to reduce employer resource burden and manages the entire apprenticeship process streamlining employer approvals and employee trainings. Eligible GI Bill individuals can retroactively enroll and use previously earned cybersecurity certifications. "The quality of training provided by Security University is of the highest standards desired by employers and government agencies. Security University's Q/ISP curriculum provides apprentice employees with extended exposure to tools, tactics, and techniques in a unique systemic manner that I believe is ideal for cyber professional skills development," stated Adam Duby, Captain, US Army, USCYBERCOM. He added, "Security University comes with my highest recommendation for government, military, and civilian employers seeking a training approach to prepare our cyber workforce." "SU is pleased that eligible veterans and family members can now use their well-earned benefits towards our Q/Cyber RAP program," said Sondra Schneider, President of Security University. She continued, "We strive to help veterans succeed in the cybersecurity profession and help employers hire and upskill veterans in IT to build cyber talent for the qualified workforce they neednow we can more easily achieve both." Eligible veterans can receive a monthly housing allowance. Everyone who is GI Bill eligible can attend SU in Virginia. During these eight 5 day classes over 24 months, apprentices earn while they learn (regular salaries), and return to their employer "cyber skilled and ready to work". A SU managed cyber apprenticeship is an employer agreement to upskill and train employees in 8 cyber training classes over 24 months. Come meet us Tuesday, 2-6pm, Nov 13th in Herndon, Cyber Apprenticeship/ VA Job Zone Career Fair, tables are available. Q/Cybersecurity RAP Level I certification training includes: Security+, CISSP, CASP, Linux+, Cloud+, Q/EH Qualified/ Ethical Hacking, Q/SA Qualified/ Security Analyst and Q/PTL Qualified/ Penetration Tester License. Level II adds; Q/FE Qualified/ Forensic Expert, Q/ND Qualified/ Network Defense, ISO 27001 ISMS Lead Implementer, Q/AAP Authentication Access & PKI, Q/CA Authentication, Accreditation and RMF ( Risk Management Framework). About Security University: Security University is the nation's leading provider of Qualified Performance Based Hands-On Cybersecurity Education, Information Assurance Training and Certifications for IT, Cybersecurity Professionals. For more information on SU visit www.securityuniversity.net or 1-877-357-7744 JobZone (an employer/candidate connection resource with a focus on veterans) is recruiting companies and agencies for the upcoming Job Fair on November 13th at 510 Spring Street Herndon VA. JobZone offers an opportunity to meet qualified candidates face-to-face and access to resumes. A significant number of candidates include professionals with military-specific background and/or DoD advanced skills along with security clearances. Please contact to confirm space or register. Email contact - [email protected] or call 434-263-5102 or 540-226-1473. SOURCE Security University Related Links http://www.securityuniversity.net VENICE, Calif. and HILO, Hawaii, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Waiakea Water is giving one lucky contestant the chance of a lifetime to win a trip for two to Oahu, Hawaii. The giveaway prize bundle a 3-night stay at the Laylow Waikiki Resort, a private helicopter tour of the island, and $2,000 in additional travel swag, not to mention a year subscription of Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water . "We are very excited to be collaborating with such an awesome group of local Hawaiian brands such as The Laylow Waikiki, Mauna Loa Helicopter Tours, Sunrise Shack, and Pow!Wow! among others," said Waiakea CEO Ryan Emmons . "We've seen a great response from our community and I think everyone is stoked about the opportunity to win a trip to Oahu!" In accordance with the Hawaiian practice and notion of "malama i ka 'aina" (to protect and care for the land), Waiakea is proud to share awareness of the variety of sustainability initiatives, which include using one of the most sustainable freshwater resources in the world. This giveaway is a way to celebrate Waiakea Water's efforts to use only 100% RPET bottles with a 90% smaller CO2 footprint than competitors, utilizing low emission shipping, and actively participating in regional reforestation. The giveaway will run for 6 weeks, ending on Wednesday, November 7th at midnight. To enter the giveaway, visit aloha.waiakeasprings.com/giveaway or follow the brand on Facebook and Instagram to stay up-to-date on future giveaways and contests. About Waiakea Water Waiakea Water is a Hawaiian volcanic bottled water brand. Founded in 2012 by Ryan Emmons, the unique brand promotes a message of environmental and social awareness, encapsulated in their slogan, "Drink Healthy, Drink Sustainably, Drink Ethically." Along with the use of low emissions shipping for product transport and a partnership with clean water nonprofit PumpAid, Waiakea Water recently announced the eventual implementation of a 98% reduced material lifespan bottle. For media inquiries please contact: Sophia Lotter, Director of Marketing, [email protected] SOURCE Waiakea Water Related Links http://aloha.waiakeasprings.com COPENHAGEN, Denmark, November 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- - Phase 1 data show favourable safety profile - Data support further development of AP30663 for cardioversion therapy Acesion Pharma ("Acesion" or the Company), a Danish biotech company developing novel treatments for atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common cardiac arrhythmia, announces positive results from the Phase 1 clinical trial of its lead compound in cardioversion, AP30663. The results of the study demonstrated that intravenous AP30663 was well tolerated with ascending doses, with no significant adverse events. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, affecting an estimated 10 million people in the US and the EU (30 million people worldwide). The incidence of AF increases with age and it is estimated that 5-10% of the population above the age of 70 have AF. Acesion's novel approach is based on inhibition of SK channels - ion channels present in the atria where they play a role in regulating the cardiac rhythm. Blocking these ion channels with a functionally atrial selective drug helps avoid deleterious effects on the ventricles. Targeting the SK channels thereby constitutes a novel and promising approach for an effective treatment of AF with an expected higher cardiac safety profile. Commenting on the news, Frans Wuite, CEO of Acesion Pharma said: "It is very exciting to see these promising Phase 1 results that indicate safety even at levels above expected therapeutic doses. This is an important milestone for AP30663 and validates the concept of SK-inhibition for atrial fibrillation and thereby the promise of Acesion's portfolio. "We will continue to progress the development of AP30663 for cardioversion therapy and are preparing to initiate a Phase 2 study in the second quarter of 2019." The Phase 1 study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled single ascending dose study to assess the safety and tolerability of AP30663 in 47 healthy subjects, conducted at the Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) in the Netherlands. The subjects were exposed to plasma concentrations within and above the predicted therapeutic range. Based on the encouraging data, Acesion aims to conduct a Phase 2 Proof-of-Concept study in AF-patients who suffer from atrial fibrillation that has lasted up to 7 days. Prof John Camm[i], Scientific Advisor to Acesion Pharma and Professor of Clinical Cardiology at St George's Hospital Medical School, London, added: "Atrial fibrillation is increasingly common, and the medical community must make a special effort to find new and more successful therapies to treat this condition. When the rhythm disturbance begins it is often very symptomatic and distressing - it requires urgent and effective treatment - but to date available therapies are far from optimal. AP30663 has the potential to be the solution that we need. Prompt and effective treatment of this heart rhythm disturbance promises to significantly reduce the long-term consequences of the disease." Frans Wuite, CEO of Acesion Pharma and other Acesion team members will be attending Bio-Europe from November 5-7, 2018 at the Bella Center Copenhagen and hosting meetings. About Acesion Pharma Acesion Pharma ApS is a privately held Danish biotech company developing novel treatments for atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common cardiac arrhythmia. Founded in 2011 and based in Copenhagen, Acesion's compounds are based on a novel target giving a potentially unique efficacy and safety profile for the treatment of AF. Existing drug therapies generally have a limited effect or are associated with risk of serious cardiac adverse events, and there is therefore a considerable patient need for developing better and safer drugs. Acesion aims to develop first-in-class SK channel inhibitors as a more efficacious, safe and tolerable treatment of AF. Inhibition of SK channels with relevance for regulating the heart rhythm constitutes a new and promising approach for the treatment of AF. Acesion is developing a portfolio for both intervention and prevention of AF in hospitals and by patients themselves. Acesion Pharma has an experienced Management Team and Board as well as world leading scientific advisors. It is backed by blue chip investors including Novo Holdings, Wellcome Trust and Broadview Ventures. For more information, please visit http://www.acesionpharma.com/ About Atrial fibrillation Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, affecting an estimated 10 million people in the US and the EU (30 million people worldwide). Estimates indicate that the number of AF patients in Europe will increase by 120,000-215,000 new cases per year. The incidence of AF increases with age and it is estimated that 5-10% of the population above the age of 70 have AF. The lifetime risk for developing AF is 25% for individuals over 40 years of age. Awareness of AF is low, with patients often under-diagnosed and/or referred too late. AF is associated with a variety of symptoms that cause an impaired quality of life, increased rate of hospitalisation, and increased risk of stroke and death. AF-related strokes are estimated to account for up to 20% of all strokes, and the expected dramatic rise in the numbers of AF patients predict a major increase in the economic burden of AF. Patients with atrial fibrillation also face an increased risk of cognitive dysfunction and dementia. In a recent study, 41% patients with AF, but without a history of stroke, had at least one type of previously unknown brain damage as verified by magnetic resonance imaging. To improve awareness and detection, the FDA has approved the Apple Watch Series 4 along with Apple apps to monitor for atrial fibrillation and record the data for a medical professional. i. Prof John Camm is the Professor of Clinical Cardiology at St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London, UK, and Professor of Cardiology at Imperial College, London. Professor Camm is a Fellow of the Medical Academy of Science, the Royal College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the Heart Rhythm Association, and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). He is President of the Arrhythmia Alliance, Founder of the Atrial Fibrillation Association, Editor-in-Chief of Europace and Clinical Cardiology, Editor of European Heart Journal, and an editorial board member of a further 15 journals. SOURCE Acesion Pharma NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ai Media Group has been recognized as one of the 50 Most Admired Companies of the Year 2018 by The Silicon Review. The boutique digital media agency located in New York City specializes in strategizing, implementing, analyzing, and optimizing all aspects of digital media campaigns and has been a recognized leader in the digital space since 2008. Ai Media Group was founded by a group of like-minded professionals with a vision for the future of digital media. The agency utilizes their patented technology to see the entire consumer journey from inception to sale across all networks and devices in real-time. In a time of distrust throughout the agency world, Ai Media Group is bringing accountability and transparency to media buying. This year the company celebrated their 10-year anniversary with many of the founding members still working for the company. Over the years, the company has grown considerably and so have their clients. Ai Media Group's CEO, Sergio Alvarez, attributes their success to focusing on what they excel at, "We learned that focusing on companies that had three main ingredients worked best online commerce, call center or similar, and/or form submission." Moving into the future, Ai Media Group does not plan on slowing down. They were recently backed by The Blackstone Group, as the first digital media agency under their umbrella, and are working towards a "2020 Vision" a vision to have 200 companies under management by the year 2020. Ai Media Group is a leading digital agency in New York City specializing in strategizing, implementing, analyzing, and optimizing all aspects of digital media campaigns using their patented technology. From inception to sale, across all networks and devices, Ai Media Group's patented technology shows the entire consumer journey bringing accountability and transparency to digital media buying. For more information on Ai Media Group, please contact [email protected] or call 212-660-2400. SOURCE Ai Media Group Related Links http://aimediagroup.com CLEVELAND, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 1, AkzoNobel announced that they had acquired Colourland Paints, a leading producer of decorative paints in Malaysia. The purchase of Colourland Paints, which had annual sales of around $20 million, will bolster AkzoNobel's market position in Malaysia and the Southeast Asia region, where it was already a market leader. The market for architectural paint in Malaysia has been booming in recent years. According to Freedonia Group research, growth in the country was just under 9% per year over the last decade. While this growth is expected to slow going forward, architectural paint demand in Malaysia will reach over 300,000 metric tons in 2022. The architectural paint industry has experienced a great deal of consolidation lately, including both blockbuster deals (such as Sherwin-Williams' purchase of Valspar in 2017) and minor ones. However, relative to other decorative paint market leaders, "AkzoNobel had been quiet on the acquisition front in recent years," according to Freedonia Group analyst Kent Furst. The company had instead focused on strengthening their industrial coatings business, while themselves fending off takeover bids from rival PPG, explains Furst. This has changed in the past few months, as AkzoNobel has begun to make moves to boost the decorative business. The Colourland Paints acquisition was the third in a series of purchases, beginning with Spain's Xylazel in September and Romanian market leader Fabryo in October. The three moves add nearly $100 million in decorative paint sales to AkzoNobel's portfolio. For more information regarding global paint trends visit the Global Architectural Paint study page: https://www.freedoniagroup.com/industry-study/global-architectural-paint-by-market-formulation-and-end-user-13th-edition-3598.htm About The Freedonia Group The Freedonia Group, a division of MarketResearch.com, is a leading international industrial research company publishing more than 100 studies annually. Since 1985, we have provided research to customers ranging in size from global conglomerates to one-person consulting firms. More than 90% of the industrial companies in the Fortune 500 use Freedonia Group research to help with their strategic planning. Each study includes product and market analyses and forecasts, in-depth discussions of important industry trends, and market share information. Studies can be purchased at https://www.freedoniagroup.com/ and are also available on www.marketresearch.com and www.profound.com. Press Contact: Corinne Gangloff +1 440.684.9600 [email protected] SOURCE The Freedonia Group Related Links http://www.freedoniagroup.com ENGLEWOOD, N.J., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MarketCounsel announced today that Former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, John "Jack" Bogle, Founder and Former Chief Executive of The Vanguard Group, and Jason Zweig, the personal finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal, will join other organizational and thought leaders speaking at this year's MarketCounsel Summit (#MSUM18), which will take place December 3-6 at the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas. "As we enter our second decade of hosting The MarketCounsel Summit, we continue to assemble a diverse faculty of influencers and experts to provide insights and empower independent wealth management firms to adapt and grow," said Brian Hamburger, MarketCounsel's Founder, President and CEO. "This is our most robust and rigorous program ever, with over 22 hours of intense curriculum and 15 hours of power networking. The MarketCounsel Summit allows leading independent investment advisers to best position themselves for growth and success in the coming year." The year's capstone industry conference has been heralded by the financial press among the "elite conferences" in the industry. The MarketCounsel Summit has a longstanding legacy of delivering trending and visionary topics led by a faculty of industry leaders, national headliners, and MarketCounsel's own staff. Earlier this week, we confirmed this year's headliners will be supported by an incredible array of industry faculty, including: Dave Barton , Vice Chairman of Mercer Advisors , Vice Chairman of Mercer Advisors Sarita Bhagwat , VP, Thought Leadership and Research at Fidelity Investments , VP, Thought Leadership and Research at Fidelity Investments Phyllis Borzi , Former U.S. Department of Labor , Former U.S. Department of Labor Dale Brown , CEO of Financial Services Institute , CEO of Financial Services Institute David Canter , EVP, Head of RIA Segment of Fidelity Clearing and Custody , EVP, Head of RIA Segment of Fidelity Clearing and Custody Ron Carson , Founder & CEO of Carson Group , Founder & CEO of Carson Group Eric Clarke , CEO of Orion Advisor Services , CEO of Orion Advisor Services Louis Diamond , EVP of Diamond Consultants , EVP of Diamond Consultants Amit Dogra , CEO of Third Seven Advisors , CEO of Third Seven Advisors Joe Duran , Founder and CEO of United Capital Financial Partners , Founder and CEO of United Capital Financial Partners Michael Durbin , President of Fidelity Institutional , President of Fidelity Institutional Greg Friedman , CEO of Private Ocean , CEO of Private Ocean Jeff Fuhrman , President of Coastal Bridge Advisors , President of Coastal Bridge Advisors Gabe Garcia , Managing Director of Pershing Advisor Solutions , Managing Director of Pershing Advisor Solutions Rich Gill , Partner at Wealth Partners Capital Group , Partner at Wealth Partners Capital Group Lori Hardwick , Founder and President of AI Labs , Founder and President of AI Labs Aaron Klein , Co-founder and CEO of Riskalyze , Co-founder and CEO of Riskalyze David Kowach , President of Wells Fargo Advisors , President of Wells Fargo Advisors Steve Lockshin , Founder and Principal of AdvicePeriod , Founder and Principal of AdvicePeriod Brian McLaughlin , CEO of Redtail Technology , CEO of Redtail Technology Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis , Executive Director of CFP Board Center for Financial Planning , Executive Director of CFP Board Center for Financial Planning Terrence Mullen , CEO of Truelytics , CEO of Truelytics Jim Patrick , EVP of Envestnet , EVP of Envestnet Mike Reed , COO of Dakota Wealth Management , COO of Dakota Wealth Management Knut Rostad , Founder and President of Institute for the Fiduciary Standard , Founder and President of Institute for the Fiduciary Standard Tricia Rothschild , Chief Product Officer of Morningstar , Chief Product Officer of Morningstar Abby Salameh , Chief Marketing Officer of Private Advisor Group , Chief Marketing Officer of Private Advisor Group David Selig , Founder and CEO of Advice Dynamics Partners , Founder and CEO of Advice Dynamics Partners Pam Stross , CEO of TruClarity , CEO of TruClarity Todd Thomson , Chairman of Dynasty Financial Partners , Chairman of Dynasty Financial Partners Don Trone , CEO of 3ethos , CEO of 3ethos Elliot Weissbluth , CEO of HighTower To register for The MarketCounsel Summit or learn more, visit http://summit.marketcounsel.com. About MarketCounsel MarketCounsel is the leading business and regulatory consultancy to the country's preeminent independent investment advisers at all stages throughout their lifecycle. Since its inception, MarketCounsel has been steadfast in its mission to deliver solutions to the most substantial challenges faced by entrepreneurs in this fast-growing and highly-regulated industry, and it has emerged as one of its most effective advocates. From the initial launch of a registered investment adviser to its compliance management platform, and from its business growth to its succession strategies, MarketCounsel consistently delivers trusted counsel and an extraordinary service model by leveraging the finest minds in the industry, advanced technologies and sound business processes. The consultancy's annual event, The MarketCounsel Summit, has become the premier gathering for the country's leading growth-oriented, independent investment advisers, and serves as both a spark and catalyst for conversation among the industry's leaders. Visit www.marketcounsel.com for more information. Media Contact: Dana Taormina JConnelly for The MarketCounsel Summit (973) 850-7305 [email protected] SOURCE MarketCounsel Related Links http://www.marketcounsel.com SAN CARLOS, Calif., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Alkahest Inc. ("Alkahest"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing innovative therapies to treat age-related diseases, today announced upcoming presentations at the Society for Neuroscience 48th Annual Meeting held November 3 7, 2018 in San Diego. The Alkahest team will present recent preclinical data on the company's novel approaches to the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders today on November 5th and on November 7th. "Findings from these presentations add to the growing body of research supporting our hypothesis that factors in the plasma proteome can play an important modulatory role in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly cognitive dysfunction and neurodegeneration. This presents an entirely new opportunity for therapeutic interventions," said Steven Braithwaite, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Alkahest. Poster Presentation Title: Synergistic effects of a plasma fraction and exercise on neurogenesis Presenter: I. GALLAGER Date: Monday, November 5, 2018 Session Time: 8:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m. PT Session: Neurogenesis and Gliogenesis: Neuronal Development I Poster Presentation Title: Longitudinal characterization of plasma fraction efficacy on neurogenesis in aging mice Presenter: R. A. ESTRADA Date: Monday, November 5, 2018 Session Time: 8:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m. PT Session: Neurogenesis and Gliogenesis: Neuronal Development I Poster Presentation Title: Human plasma fraction prevents age-dependent decline in neuronal activity, neurogenesis, and neuroinflammation in C57BL6 mice Presenter: M. K. CAMPBELL Date: Monday, November 5, 2018 Session Time: 8:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m. PT Session: Brain Wellness and Aging: Pharmacological and Non-Pharmacological Interventions Presentation Title: Multi-modal impact of treatment with a human plasma protein fraction to enhance CNS function Presenter: E. CZIRR Date: Monday, November 5, 2018 Session Time: 1:00 p.m. 2:45 p.m. PT Session: Brain Wellness and Aging: Systemic Factors and Brain Function Presentation Title: Identification and characterization of a beneficial plasma fraction with long term efficacy in the CNS Presenter: V. KHEIFETS Date: Monday, November 5, 2018 Session Time: 1:00 p.m. 2:45 p.m. PT Session: Brain Wellness and Aging: Systemic Factors and Brain Function Poster Presentation Title: Treatment with a CCR3 antagonist rescues neuroinflammation and cognitive dysfunction in acute and chronic LPS models Presenter: S. REGE Date: Wednesday, November 7, 2018 Session Time: 8:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m. PT Session: Neurotoxicity, Inflammation, and Neuroprotection: Neuroinflammation: Animal Models Poster Presentation Title: Human Plasma Fraction reduces the detrimental effects of alpha-synuclein overexpression in mice Presenter: C. TUN Date: Wednesday, November 7, 2018 Session Time: 1:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. PT Session: Parkinson's Disease: Alpha-Synuclein: Models About Alkahest Alkahest is a privately-held clinical-stage company based in the San Francisco Bay Area developing treatments for age-related diseases, with an emphasis on neurodegeneration a key medical challenge for our generation. The company's breakthrough research has elucidated changes in the plasma proteome in healthy aging and age-related diseases, and demonstrated that factors in the blood plasma can be augmented or inhibited in order to reverse detrimental effects of aging in both normal aging and disease models in animals. Alkahest is developing novel plasma-based therapies in collaboration with Barcelona, Spain-based Grifols, a global healthcare company and leading producer of plasma therapies. For further information, see www.alkahest.com. Contact Information: Joe McCracken Vice President Business Development Alkahest, Inc. [email protected] Media Contact: Michael Tattory LifeSci Public Relations [email protected] SOURCE Alkahest Inc. Related Links http://www.alkahest.com TORONTO, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd. (CMRRA) today announced a leadership transition, with Caroline Rioux stepping down as CMRRA President in 2019 but remaining with the company as a strategic adviser to serve both CMRRA and her successor. Prior to being appointed President in 2013, Ms. Rioux served the organization for more than 20 years in a variety of roles. As a strategic adviser, she will continue to play a key role in the company's operations and also provide for a successful leadership transition. The search for her successor is underway. "CMRRA has entered into an exciting new chapter, both as a result of its acquisition by SoundExchange/SXWorks and the important changes that are taking place in rights administration in Canada and internationally," said Ms. Rioux. "There will always be more work to do and fights to be won to ensure the prosperity of our music publisher clients. I look forward to helping CMRRA enter this next chapter of its growth." Michael Huppe, President and CEO of SoundExchange and Chairman of the Board of SXWorks, commented: "Since our acquisition of CMRRA, Caroline has become a valued and trusted member of the SoundExchange family. We are thrilled that, as part of her decision to move on to her next chapter, she has agreed to stay on to advise the company and provide important transition resources for her successor. In this role, she will continue to help refine and expand CMRRA's service offerings." In related news, CMRRA's Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs, Veronica Syrtash has been promoted to Senior Vice President Business Affairs and Corporate Development, reflecting the company's dedicated focus on growing value for its music publisher clients and licensees. "Veronica has been an innovator and a driving force behind new licensing initiatives including our recent agreement with Amazon Music in Canada," added Mr. Huppe. In her new role, Syrtash will oversee all external facing functions including publisher relations, licensee relations, corporate legal affairs, enforcement, as well as all rate-setting negotiations and tariff proceedings. About CMRRA and SXWorks The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd. (CMRRA) represents the mechanical rights of music publishers and administers the majority of songs recorded, sold and broadcast in Canada. SXWorks, a subsidiary of SoundExchange, is governed by a board consisting of leading music publishers and SoundExchange executives. SXWorks provides global administration services to music publishers to support multiple licensing configurations. SXWorks was created in conjunction with the 2017 acquisition of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd. (CMRRA). For more information, visit http://sx-works.com/ and http://www.cmrra.ca. SOURCE Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd. Related Links http://www.cmrra.ca The film premiere was the culmination of the school's biannual, immersive experience, during which students and faculty in the program visit communities often inaccessible by larger news media. Through written and visual storytelling, they are able to bring to light human rights and other challenges their subjects are facing. The event featured a presentation, "Advocacy through Visual Storytelling", by Stephanie Sinclair, a world-renowned, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist known for documenting gender and human rights issues throughout the world. Her work has been featured in National Geographic and The New York Times Magazine , among others. Ms. Sinclair is also a member of Canon's Explorers of Light program, where she shares her experience and expertise with the broader photographic community alongside some of the most influential photographers in the world. The students all reported that this was a life-changing experience for them, expressing deep admiration for the refugees they were privileged to film. When asked about the young women interviewed in the film, Isabelle Senechal, lead story designer for the film and senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, responded, "They lit up the camera. I really expect those girls to change the world someday." "Our mission at Creighton University is to teach and encourage our students to become leaders through service to others," said John O'Keefe, PhD, Professor of Historical Theology and Environmental Theology, Creighton University. "Our Backpack Journalism program provides the opportunity for students to gain real life experience, interacting with and offering help and support to the people behind the stories they tell." "We are honored to have been a part of such an important project," said Valerie Belli, vice president, EMSD, Canon Solutions America. "By shedding light on human rights issues in Uganda and elsewhere, the students and teachers of Creighton University are helping to make a real difference in the world." Creighton University's Backpack Journalism team shot The Displaced using Canon equipment, and will begin sharing the documentary film with film festival audiences, as well as produce a behind-the-scenes recap featuring members of the Backpack Journalism program and Stephanie Sinclair. In addition, Canon Solutions America will be providing large format printing services to capture the essence of the documentary through still images for display at the University. About Canon Solutions America, Inc. Canon Solutions America provides industry leading enterprise, production, and large format printing solutions, supported by exceptional professional service offerings. With the technology offerings of the Canon and Oce brands, Canon Solutions America helps companies of all sizes find ways to: improve sustainability, increase efficiency, and control costs in conjunction with high volume, continuous feed, digital and traditional printing, and document management solutions. A wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc., Canon Solutions America is headquartered in Melville, N.Y. and has sales and service locations across the U.S. For more information on Canon Solutions America, please visit csa.canon.com. About Creighton University Creighton University is a Jesuit, Catholic university bridging health, law, business and the arts and sciences for a more just world. Canon is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. Oce is a registered trademark of Oce-Technologies B.V. in the United States and elsewhere. All other referenced product names and marks are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby acknowledged. 2018 Canon Solutions America, Inc. All rights reserved. Canon Solutions America, Inc. Website: Editorial Contact: http://csa.canon.com Stephanie Caro For sales info/customer support: 631-330-4432 1-844-443-INFO (4636) [email protected] SOURCE Canon Solutions America, Inc. Related Links https://csa.canon.com Scott Wilson, former Global Creative Director for Nike, has also been a design leader for many top consumer organizations including IDEO, Thomson Consumer Electronics, Fortune Brands and Motorola. His work has been recognized with countless international design awards, including the prestigious Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Product Design (2012), an honor bestowed on the top designer in the country. Scott has been featured in WIRED Magazine , ID Magazine 's Top 40, TIME Magazine 's Style+Design100 and Fast Company 's Masters of Design, where he was named one of the 50 Most Influential Designers in America. In 2007, he founded MNML , a globally-recognized product development and brand incubation firm serving clients such as Microsoft, Xbox, Logitech, Dell, Nike, Adidas and Coalesse. Over the past decade he has also founded, invested and partnered with dozens of early stage startups to accelerate and amplify their market entry including sparking the global crowdfunding movement with the first million-dollar Kickstarter in history. "Scott has been designing the 'consumer experience' for decades," said Cresco Labs CEO and Co-founder Charlie Bachtell. "Design can be a powerful tool for educating, guiding, inspiring and on-boarding new consumers looking for effective alternative relief through cannabis solutions that have been, up until now, unregulated and confusing. As our CXO Scott will be a tremendous asset to Cresco, and a game-changer for the cannabis industry, where Scott's ingenuity will offer a world-class perspective on the consumer experience for marijuana." Wilson will be charged with inspiring, defining and overseeing the elevation of all brand touch points across the Cresco Labs portfolio as well as playing a major role in new ventures including product strategy, design, packaging, retail, digital, product forms and future brand sensory experiences and collaborations. He will continue to separately manage MNML, the design studio he founded over a decade ago. While MNML serves clients across numerous verticals, Wilson's dual role will allow him to leverage his award-winning design and engineering teams, as well as top creative talent in his network, to accelerate Cresco's mission to develop industry-leading, integrated product experiences for its brands and customers. "In this early stage of the legitimate cannabis industry, I feel it is critically important to employ strategic design thinking and world-class product development practices to help define, develop and execute thoughtful and meaningful experiences for those looking for alternative relief," said Scott Wilson. "The safe, non-toxic, pain management that medical cannabis can provide is incredibly promising and embedding design strategy at the beginning of an emerging consumer category can significantly improve outcomes for all involved. I look forward to leveraging my background in consumer, lifestyle, and medical product design and development to influence and elevate the user journey in this industry both for the medicinal and recreational use markets." About Cresco Labs, LLC: Cresco Labs, based in Chicago, is a leader in elevating the U.S. cannabis industry through experienced management, access to capital and a demonstrated growth strategy. As a differentiated grower, processor and retailer of premium cannabis with operations in six states (Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, California and Arizona), the company focuses on entering markets with outsized demand potential, significant supply constraints and high barriers to entry. Its unparalleled speed-to-market seven months from license to market gives Cresco a distinct competitive advantage as it replicates its model to expand its national footprint. Cresco's proven ability to execute is complemented by a well-defined brand strategy that is tailored to all major consumer segments: everyday cannabis, medicinally focused, connoisseur grade, and chef inspired edibles by James Beard Award-winning pastry chef Mindy Segal. Learn more about Cresco Labs at crescolabs.com. SOURCE Cresco Labs Related Links http://www.crescolabs.com WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Deloitte and Attest Inc. announced a new collaboration today to assist government clients with digital identity solutions to help solve for a host of government challenges. "In the blockchain pilots we've run with our government clients, digital identity can be a thorny issue," said Wendy Henry, managing director, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and Deloitte's government and public services blockchain leader. "While many companies are looking at using a personal wallet in which the individual has control of their digital identity credential, government must serve the whole of citizens, including those who may not be able to accept the control of their identity credential in a digital form. "Working with Attest, we will be able to help government clients offer solutions using digital identities that better accommodate the needs government has across that wide expanse of abilities." "We are excited to work with Deloitte to bring blockchain-enabled technologies such as decentralized identifiers and verifiable credentials to government," said Cab Morris, co-founder, and chief executive officer of Attest. "Identity is foundational to nearly every government service and is the basis for trust and legitimacy in the public sector. "Combining government's robust identity verification infrastructure with a platform engineered for security, privacy and scale can also unlock tremendous value for both citizens and businesses outside of government. A government-issued digital identity has the potential to reduce costs and risk for businesses in all industries, while also providing citizens with greater security, privacy and control over personal data." Attest's user-centric digital identity platform consists of two products, Attest Wallet and Attest Enterprise. Attest Wallet is a consumer application that provides users unparalleled agency, privacy and security when sharing verified personal data with governments and businesses. Attest Enterprise provides governments and businesses a complete set of powerful authentication, authorization and consent management tools that can be integrated into any system with two simple APIs. Deloitte's Center for Government Insights recently published an in-depth look at blockchain uses in government, "Assessing Blockchain Applications for the Public Sector," which looks at six key factors to consider in assessing the readiness of a government application for blockchain. "Blockchain requires a digital credential and in government, requiring a digital credential gets complicated pretty quickly," said Marc Mancher, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and government and public services practice's automation service business leader. "Attest brings a set of solutions to help address this issue of digital credentials, making the use of solutions that require that digital identity more appealing technology for government clients." 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. About Attest Attest is an identity management company that enables consumers, businesses and governments to securely transact on a shared identity platform. The Attest identity platform allows governments to offer a convenient and secure identity service to citizens at no or with low costs; consumers to regain control of their digital footprint and unlock the value of their personal data; and businesses to extend "government-grade trust" to all transactions with consumers. 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. SOURCE Deloitte Related Links http://www.deloitte.com/us FORT BRAGG, Calif., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation announced today that it awarded Mendocino Coast Clinics, Inc., a $67,832 grant to improve access to oral health in Mendocino County. Mendocino Coast Clinics is a Federally Qualified Health Center located in rural Mendocino County. The grant will support the purchase of new dental and X-ray equipment for its dental clinic that treats low-income individuals and families who would otherwise go without care. "We're delighted to collaborate with Mendocino Coast Clinics in improving the oral health of underserved children and adults in Mendocino County," said Karen Robinson, vice president of corporate affairs for Delta Dental and executive director of the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation. "Our impact is only as strong as our partnerships, and we could not make a difference without the hard work and dedication of the organizations we support." The grant is one of 66 given in California this year by the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation to help improve the oral health of disadvantaged children and adults by removing barriers to quality dental care. Since its inception in 2011, the Foundation has awarded nearly $5.5 million in grants to organizations throughout California. About Delta Dental Community Care Foundation The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Delta Dental of California and its affiliated companies including Delta Dental Insurance Company, Delta Dental of New York, Inc., and Delta Dental of Pennsylvania. Since 2011, the Foundation has awarded nearly $39 million in funding and support to increase access to quality dental care, oral health education, and advance scientific research across the company's 15-state service area and the District of Columbia. Media Contact: Megan Grabos [email protected] 415-808-6946 SOURCE Delta Dental Community Care Foundation Five occurrences of illnesses due to Salmonella are being researched by CDC and FDA as part of this investigation . Salmonella is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis. Several of the individuals reported consuming a cake mix at some point prior to becoming ill, and some may have also consumed these products raw and not baked. Consumers are reminded not to consume any raw batter. Cake mixes and batter can be made with ingredients such as eggs or flour which can carry risks of bacteria that are rendered harmless by baking, frying or boiling. Consumers are reminded to wash their hands, work surfaces, and utensils thoroughly after contact with raw batter products, to follow baking instructions, and to never eat raw batter. The products covered by this recall were distributed for retail sale in the U.S. and limited international exports; the specific product information is listed below. No other Duncan Hines products or Conagra Brands' products are impacted by this recall. Product Description & Brand Product UPC Best If Used By Date (located on top of box) Duncan Hines Classic White Cake 15.25oz. 644209307500 MAR 7 2019 MAR 8 2019 MAR 9 2019 MAR 10 2019 MAR 12 2019 MAR 13 2019 Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Cake 15.25oz. 644209307494 MAR 9 2019 MAR 10 2019 MAR 12 2019 MAR 13 2019 Duncan Hines Classic Butter Golden Cake 15.25oz. 644209307593 MAR 7 2019 MAR 8 2019 MAR 9 2019 Duncan Hines Signature Confetti Cake 15.25oz. 644209414550 MAR 12 2019 MAR 13 2019 Consumers who have purchased these items are advised not to consume them and to return them to the store where originally purchased. Conagra Brands is cooperating with the FDA on this recall and is working with customers to ensure the packages are removed from store shelves and are no longer distributed. Consumers with questions should call our Consumer Care team at 1-888-299-7646, open 9 am through 5 pm EST, Monday through Friday or visit www.duncanhines.com. For more information, please contact: MEDIA: Kristine Mulford 312-549-5522 [email protected] SOURCE Conagra Brands LAS VEGAS, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Barry Grissom, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas, has joined Electrum Partners as Senior Vice President of Global Policy and Corporate Counsel. Electrum Partners is a Venture Management firm, specializing in the cannabis business as well as ancillary services. "I am honored to join such a highly respected and innovative company like Electrum Partners," said Mr. Grissom. "Electrum has helped the nascent cannabis industry grow into a full-fledged market force in a responsible and ethical manner, and I look forward to contributing to the further maturation of legal cannabis market." Mr. Grissom was appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas by President Barack Obama in 2010 and served as such until 2016. As U.S. Attorney, he assessed and resolved a wide array of civil and criminal cases, managed three offices and a large legal workforce of 49 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and 53 support staff, while representing the Department of Justice in diverse communities across his district. Mr. Grissom's law enforcement priorities included national security, violent crime, drug trafficking, financial fraud and crimes against children. As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Grissom was selected by Attorney General Eric Holder to serve as one of 15 members on the Attorney's General Advisory Committee (AGAC), which advises the Attorney General on matters of administration and policy. As a member of the AGAC, Mr. Grissom contributed to efforts to reform the federal criminal justice system through his Smart on Crime initiative. He also served on several sub-committees, including Financial Fraud, Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Team, Terrorism & National Security (Cyber), Native American Issues and Civil Rights. "We are elated to welcome Mr. Grissom to the Electrum Partners family and anticipate his extraordinary background and experience will help us take our business to the next level," said Diane Katz, President of Electrum Partners. About Electrum Partners Electrum Partners adds value to your business through a combination of industry expertise and our extensive network of business associates and contacts. We assist with financing, corporate structure, market strategy, government relations, distribution partnerships and more. For Companies exploring the public markets, our experienced senior leadership team is well-versed in engineering the underpinnings of successful business entries and exits across the full spectrum of cannabis business verticals. Please visit www.ElectrumPartners.com to learn more. SOURCE Electrum Partners Related Links http://www.ElectrumPartners.com LONDON, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Disruptive language service provider Locaria today announced the addition of Allan Hall as Business Development Director. Bringing with him a wealth of experience built during his 20 years at SDL Plc (LON:SDL), Allan is a strong addition to Locaria, which until now has grown almost entirely by inbound leads and referrals. The addition of an LSP industry heavyweight complements the management team's existing digital know-how and shows that the company is looking to actively engage with large-scale language service buyers who are seeking a new model of performance-driven localisation. "Locaria leads a new breed of transcreation companies with customer engagement at their core. When I discovered their radical data-driven approach, built on their unique access to data from Google, Yandex, Baidu and other online platforms, I knew they had something special. Their emergence from a digital marketing agency has created a proactive and ROI-focused culture that established LSPs struggle to recreate. I can see huge value-add in their approach and I can't wait to share their proposition more widely," commented Hall. The company, headquartered in London, sits within The Stagwell Group and was created to address the shortfall in digital marketing performance that sub-optimal translation practices were causing. Leveraging their access to search engine data, processes for multilingual keyword research were built, ensuring consistency and relevancy between website and marketing content. This delivered exceptional returns for online advertisers expanding into international markets, leading to brands such as hotels.com, Autodesk, IG, Graff, Harris and NRG seeking out their services. Founder of Locaria, Hannes Ben, commented, "We are delighted to announce Allan's appointment. Allan was instrumental in building SDL and his extensive experience means he has his finger on the pulse of what matters to localisation buyers. Our offering transforms the translations industry by delivering ROI through a more objective approach. The addition of Allan to the management team will accelerate Locaria's growth across existing and new client sectors." About Locaria: Locaria is a pioneering digital language service provider. Seeking to end subjectivity in language services, it builds search data and engagement metrics into localisation processes across 50+ languages and 90+ markets. Locaria is the only LSP certified with the world's major search engines, and with full access to their data. The company's clients come from a variety of industries including luxury, retail, travel, hospitality, finance and tech. SOURCE Locaria Related Links http://www.locaria.com Persistence Market Research (PMR) delivers the key insights on the global Cushing's Syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market in its upcoming report titled "Cushing's Syndrome and Acromegaly Treatment Market: Global Industry Analysis 2013-2017 and Forecast 2018 - 2026". In terms of revenue, the global Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market is projected to register a CAGR of 9.3% over the forecast period. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661339/Persistence_Market_Research.jpg ) The Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment is segmented based on drug type, distribution channels and regions. Based on the drug type, the Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly Treatment is segmented into Cushing's syndrome treatment and Acromegaly treatment. The Cushing's syndrome treatment is further sub segmented into Glucocorticoid Receptor Inhibitors, Somatostatin, Ketoconazole HRA, and other Off-label. The Acromegaly treatment is further sub segmented into Somatostatin, Glucocorticoid Receptor Inhibitors, and other Off-label. Based on the distribution channels, the global Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market is segmented into hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, and online pharmacies. Request Sample [email protected] https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/24664 The Cushing's syndrome treatment segment is expected to be the leading segment in the Cushing's Syndrome and Acromegaly Treatment market over the forecast period. The Cushing's syndrome treatment segment is expected to witness a high growth at a CAGR of 9.5% over the forecast period. The Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly Treatment market is also segmented based on the distribution channels. The hospital pharmacies segment in the Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market is expected to have a dominant share, while the retail pharmacies segment in the Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.7 % over the forecast period. The growth of the global Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market is primarily driven by its growing prevalence coupled with the growing awareness and the rate of screening. The development of healthcare infrastructure around the world coupled with the governmental support towards orphan and rare diseases is also expected to drive the growth of the Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market. However, the high cost of drugs coupled with the lower screening rates in the developing world are factors expected to hamper the growth of the market. Government support in terms of orphan drug status and the financial and tax incentives have led to a high return on investment for the Cushing's syndrome and acromegaly treatment market. Cushings Syndrome And Acromegaly Treatment Market Research Report Overview @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/cushings-syndrome-and-acromegaly-treatment-market.asp In the U.S., incentives include a 7-year period of market exclusivity following product launch, regardless of patent life, a waiver on Food and Drug Administration fees, and 50% tax credit on clinical studies. In the EU, Regulation offers 10-year market exclusivity, with tax credits offered by individual EU markets. In 2012, FDA Safety Innovation Act that has made rare disease drugs to progress through clinical trials activities. This has translated into driving the global sales of orphan drugs by 10% in a year between 2005-201, and a 400 orphan drugs approvals in the U.S. and EU region. This report assesses the trends that are driving the growth of each segment of the Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market on the global as well as regional level, and offers potential takeaways that proves substantially useful for manufacturers planning to enter the Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market. Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/24664 North America is expected to be the dominant regional market for Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment, accounting for a high revenue share in 2017. The U.S. Cushing's Syndrome and Acromegaly Treatment market is expected to account for a large share and to grow at a CAGR of 9.8 % over the forecast period, while Canada is expected to register a CAGR of 9.0%. Europe and Asia Pacific Cushing's Syndrome and Acromegaly treatment markets collectively are expected to grow at CAGRs of 8.9 % and 10.5%, respectively. The market is expected to shift in favour of developing regions led by Asia Pacific nation of China owing to its fast developing economy and healthcare. Examples of key players covered in the Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market report are Novartis AG, Corcept Therapeutics, HRA Pharma, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Pfizer Inc., Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., among others. The companies are focusing on developing advanced drugs for Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment. However, the higher cost associated with Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment would hamper the growth of Cushing's syndrome and Acromegaly treatment market. Get full Report Now @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/24664 More from PMR's Life Sciences & Transformational Health Intelligence: Automatic Tube Labelling System Market : Segmented by end users - hospitals, blood banks, diagnostic laboratories, Product Type, and by Regions: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/automatic-tube-labelling-system-market.asp Triple Negative Breast Cancer Treatment Market : Segmented Based on Drug Type - doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, paclitaxel, docetaxel, carboplatin/cisplatin and others; Based on distribution channel - hospital pharmacies, specialty cancer clinics: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/triple-negative-breast-cancer-treatment-market.asp High Content Screening Market : Segmentation by product types - Cell Imaging & Analysis, consumables, Software, Services ; based on Applications - Primary & Secondary Screening, Target Identification & Validation, Toxicity Studies, Compound Profiling, Others;based on industry - Pharmaceutical & Healthcare, Biotechnology, Educational Institutions, Independent CRO, Government Organizations, Others: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/high-content-screening-market.asp Persistence Market Research Overview Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes. Contact Persistence Market Research U.S. Sales Office: 305 Broadway, 7th Floor New York City, NY 10007 +1-646-568-7751 United States USA - Canada Toll-Free: 800-961-0353 Email: [email protected] PMR Latest News: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/news SOURCE Persistence Market Research NEW DELHI, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- David M. Luna, President and CEO, Luna Global Networks & Convergence Strategies, LLC highlighted how illicit trade is a national security threat to India and other countries. "It is important to take this issue seriously and make it as a priority to protect India." Luna Global Networks & Convergence Strategies LLC Mr. Luna was speaking on Nov. 2 in New Delhi, India at MASCRADE 2018 (Movement Against Smuggled & Counterfeit Trade), organized by the Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy (CASCADE), under the auspices of The Indian Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI). Mr. Luna said that one only has to reflect back to 2008 and the terrorist attacks in Mumbai when Lashkar-e-Taiba coordinated a bloody and very violent attack in the city, not only killing and wounding hundreds of people but also bringing great harm to India's security at the time. Reports have illumined that the orchestration of these attacks involved elements of criminality and dirty money in financing such terrorism. As threat multipliers, such illicit and converging threats metastasize and imperil national economic and security interests. Mr. Luna also underscored that as a "growing and dynamic economy, and a G20 nation, India has much to lose by not elevating the fight against illicit trade, and the webs of related corruption and organized crime." Before we can develop effective anti-illicit trade responses and approaches, we must first understand the modus operandi of our criminal adversaries. Convergence Crime: Today, sophisticated criminal entrepreneurs are diversifying their portfolios in trafficking everything from narcotics, people, arms, gold, oil and natural resources, and endangered wildlife to counterfeits including fake water (bottles), medicines, and illicit cigarettes and alcohol products. Through such criminality, "we recognize that bad actors are using criminally-derived proceeds to corrupt police, security, and law enforcement institutions that are responsible for keeping people safe," said Mr. Luna. Fighting Networks with Networks: Mr. Luna emphasized that a national anti-illicit trade and comprehensive national security strategy, an inter-agency national IPR coordination center, and a national targeting intelligence fusion center to robustly disrupt illicit markets and dismantle bad actors and illicit networks can be decisive, as well as other important law enforcement tools and capabilities including criminal forensics and analytics that can uncover corrupt and illegal trade practices, and that help inform actionable intelligence in India. "I also believe that making the fight against corruption an integral part of any anti-illicit trade strategy is critically vital. We must break the corruptive influence and economic power of organized crime. Not only does corruption rob communities all across India of their sustainable future, it fuels many of the crimes that we have been discussing this week. One cannot focus solely on the criminal activities alone without examining the centrality that corruption plays in enabling illicit trade." Mr. Luna thanked FICCI for their support over the years during the period that he had the distinct honor of chairing the OECD Task Force on Countering Illicit Trade and strongly encouraged India to partner with the OECD on a country case study on the harms and impacts of illicit trade to the Indian economy. Today, global illicit markets account for several trillion dollars every year including corruption and money laundering, and many experts predict that the value of counterfeit and pirated products alone will double within five years with online sales booming to expand the illegal economy and generating more illicit wealth for criminals and terrorist groups across numerous illicit markets. Illicit trade is enabling violent trafficking gangs to expand their operations, terrorist groups to finance their attacks against our communities, and even rogue regimes to underwrite their nuclear programs. At the conference, speakers referenced an earlier report on illicit trade compiled by FICCI Cascade and KPMG on how terror networks rely on illicit trade to finance their operations and violent attacks. It is not only Lashker-e-Taiba or D-Company, but other terrorist groups also resort to illicit trade in different parts of the world including Hezbollah, the Taliban, Abu Sayyaf Group, Al-Qaida in the Maghreb (AQIM), Al Shabaab, ISIS, and so many others. Community Engagement: Mr. Luna also emphasized how a good public awareness campaign should educate citizens on how smuggling and counterfeiting hurts them on a daily basis, has a heavy toll on human life and our societies, and should demonstrate that the magnitude of the illicit economy in India is a more widespread and significant threat than what may presently be perceived. "This is true regarding fakes and counterfeited goods such as illegally mislabeled food stuff, fake medicines, and other toxic consumer goods that are killing tens of thousands of people every year." In the coming months, Mr. Luna will chair the Anti-Illicit Trade and Brand Protection Summit and Exhibition, Global Trade Development Week (GTDW) Nov. 20-21 in Abu Dhabi, UAE; and the Second Brand Protection Congress, WORLDBI, Dec. 4-5 in Frankfurt, Germany. LGN will participate at the Counterfeiting and Piracy (CAP) Group of the World Customs Organization (WCO) Dec. 6-7 in Brussels, Belgium; and in early 2019, the 7th Meeting of the OECD Task Force on Countering Illicit Trade (TFCIT) in Paris, France. Mr. Luna is the new chair of the Anti-Illicit Trade (AIT) Committee of the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) and is currently a Senior Fellow for National Security at the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. He was previously also the President (Chair) of the OECD TFCIT; Chair of the APEC Anti-Corruption and Transparency (ACT) Working Group and APEC U.S. Coordinator for the ACT Pathfinder Initiative on Fighting Corruption and Illicit Trade; and Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council's Illicit Trade and Organized Crime group. Learn more about Luna Global Networks at https://lunaglobalnetworks.com. A Strategic Advantage: Luna Global Networks is an international security consultancy, well-positioned to help businesses and NGOs tackle the most pressing illicit trade and governance challenges and related security threats across borders, markets and industries through convergence strategies and tactical plans that target an illicit threat environment more holistically. LGN works on developing net-centric partnerships (a network of networks) that harness collective action through strategic alliances, the designing of pragmatic training to counter illicit trade, leveraging of innovative net-centric capabilities and the harnessing of transformative technologies that help produce greater results and more enduring solutions. Related Images mascrade2018.jpg MASCRADE2018 david-m-luna.jpg David M. Luna luna-global-networks-convergence.jpg Luna Global Networks & Convergence Strategies, LLC india.jpg India Related Links Luna Global Networks & Convergence Strategies LLC FICCI CASCADE SOURCE Luna Global Networks & Convergence Strategies LLC Related Links https://lunaglobalnetworks.com NEW YORK, November 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A research paper presented at Yale University reports that the financial world's incumbent classification system, GICS, is inherently flawed, as it omits material sustainability factors. At the other end of the spectrum, the SICS classification system created by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) is faulty in that it overemphasizes sustainability metrics in comparison to traditional financial metrics. Richmond Global Compass Fund's Chief Investment Officer Decio Nascimento presented the paper entitled "Industry Classification and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Standards" at Yale University's Initiative on Sustainable Finance Symposium 2018 on the State of ESG Disclosure Standards on November 2, 2018. Richmond Global Compass concluded that integrating the two systems by overlaying SICS industry groups over those of GICS creates a more accurate classification system, one that significantly decreases the correlations between different sectors. This result is impactful as it demonstrates that a reliance on either inferior system misrepresents certain risk factors within a manager's portfolio, and thus, could be a breach of fidicuary duty. Richmond Global Compass presented conclusive empirical data from its study. First, the GICS and SICS classification systems were tested individually. Of note, Richmond Global Compass demonstrated that GICS fared better than SICS in classifying firms of similar characteristics together. One explanation provided was that GICS is currently used to classify more than 95% of capital markets, reinforcing the feedback loop between the system and those managers deploying it. The firm then took the study a step further and integrated the two systems by merging the 11 GICS sectors with the 10 SICS sectors to create a new classification system with 110 potential sectors - some sectors were null sets so the actual number of sectors was between 30 and 40. Compass then tested this classification system in the same way it did GICS and SICS and the results were astounding: over various datasets, such as S&P500 small and large caps, S&P1500 small and large caps, and UK small and large caps, 95% of sectors saw improvements in their between-sector correlations. In other words, companies that were classified into different sectors proved to be less related to one another in terms of their stock price movements. Furthermore, within the 95% of sectors that saw improvement, the average magnitude of these improvements were 51%. Richmond Global Compass believes more work is to be done in this space, but the initial study's conclusions are promising. As Compass evolves its machine learning platform, the firm's knowledge on materiality will improve and an even stronger classification system can be developed that properly balances all financial and non-financial material metrics. A manager utilizing a more optimal classification system will have a better understanding of the risks contained in his or her portfolio, which will prove especially important in times of turmoil. It is the belief of Richmond Global Compass that the markets will inevitably adopt a refined classification system that will drive the markets and world in a more sustinabile direction. For further information, visit https://rgcompass.com or call +1-212-350-0222. Media Contact: Charlotte Luer. +1-239-404-6785, [email protected] SOURCE Richmond Global Compass Cobre Panama funding complete (in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted) TORONTO, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - "Franco-Nevada's diversified portfolio and business model continues to generate strong revenues and margins," commented David Harquail, CEO. "Subsequent to quarter end, we made the final installment on our $1 billion funding commitment for the Cobre Panama project. Franco-Nevada expects substantial growth in its revenues and EBITDA from assets already in place. Revenues are expected to increase by more than 30% once Cobre Panama ramps-up towards full production, Candelaria returns to normal operations and with the continued development of our U.S. oil & gas assets. We are also pleased to again increase our oil & gas revenue guidance for 2018." Q3/2018 Financial Highlights $170.6 million in revenue in revenue 120,021 Gold Equivalent Ounces 1 ("GEOs") sold ("GEOs") sold $134.7 million of Adjusted EBITDA 2 or $0.72 per share of Adjusted EBITDA or per share $52.1 million of net income or $0.28 per share of net income or per share $54.6 million of Adjusted Net Income 3 or $0.29 per share of Adjusted Net Income or per share $45.0 million of dividends declared in the quarter Revenue and GEOs by Asset Categories Q3/2018 Q2/2018 Q3/2017 GEOs Revenue GEOs Revenue GEOs Revenue # (in millions) # (in millions) # (in millions) Precious Metals Gold 91,820 $110.6 83,870 $108.6 89,240 $114.4 Silver 17,023 20.5 14,147 18.1 20,698 26.8 PGMs 7,635 9.0 7,546 9.6 8,518 11.1 Precious Metals - Total 116,478 $140.1 105,563 $136.3 118,456 $152.3 Other Mining Assets 3,543 4.3 1,770 2.3 5,331 6.7 Oil & Gas 26.2 22.7 12.5 120,021 $170.6 107,333 $161.3 123,787 $171.5 For Q3/2018, revenue was sourced 82.1% from precious metals (64.8% gold, 12.0% silver and 5.3% PGM) and 82.7% from the Americas (43.7% Latin America, 19.9% U.S., and 19.1% Canada). The percentage from precious metals is expected to increase next year as Cobre Panama begins its ramp-up and Candelaria returns to normal operations. Operating costs and expenses for the quarter were in-line with the prior year. Oil & gas revenue increased 109.6% year-over-year, reflecting the additional contributions from the SCOOP/STACK, Midland, Delaware and Orion royalties, higher prices and increased payments from Weyburn. Cash provided by operating activities was $128.2 million, an increase of 10.5% compared to Q3/2017. Corporate Updates Strategic Relationship with Continental Resources, Inc.: On October 23, 2018 , Franco-Nevada contributed $214.8 million to close its previously announced transaction with Continental Resources, Inc. to acquire mineral rights in the SCOOP and STACK plays of Oklahoma . Franco- Nevada has also committed, subject to satisfaction of agreed upon development thresholds, to spend up to $300 million over the next three years to acquire additional mineral rights through a newly-formed company. Acquisition of mineral rights is ongoing and Franco-Nevada now expects to fund additional capital contributions of between $35 and $55 million in 2018 as part of its $300 million commitment. On , Franco-Nevada contributed to close its previously announced transaction with Continental Resources, Inc. to acquire mineral rights in the SCOOP and STACK plays of . Franco- has also committed, subject to satisfaction of agreed upon development thresholds, to spend up to over the next three years to acquire additional mineral rights through a newly-formed company. Acquisition of mineral rights is ongoing and Franco-Nevada now expects to fund additional capital contributions of between and in 2018 as part of its commitment. 2018 Oil & Gas Guidance: To reflect the continued strong performance of the oil & gas assets, Franco-Nevada now expects to generate $75 to $85 million in revenue from oil & gas for 2018. This represents a further increase to our updated guidance in August of $65 to $75 million and our original guidance in March of $50 to $60 million . This guidance assumes the WTI oil price will average $65 per barrel for the balance of the year. To reflect the continued strong performance of the oil & gas assets, Franco-Nevada now expects to generate to in revenue from oil & gas for 2018. This represents a further increase to our updated guidance in August of to and our original guidance in March of to . This guidance assumes the WTI oil price will average per barrel for the balance of the year. Cobre Panama: In late September 2018 , the Supreme Court of Panama announced a ruling in connection with the constitutionality of Law 9 of 1997. According to First Quantum, Law 9 granted the status of national law to the mining concession contract, establishing a statutory legal and fiscal regime for the development of the Cobre Panama project. First Quantum understands that the ruling relates to the enactment of Law 9 and not the legality of the mining concession allowing for the continuation of the development. Following the announcement, the Government of Panama issued a news release in support of the Cobre Panama project and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry considers the mining concession contract in effect. First Quantum indicated that it continues to work with appropriate parties to identify suitable remedies and to clarify the legal position of Law 9 and is confident in a near-medium term resolution. Q3/2018 Portfolio Updates Precious Metals Latin America : GEOs from Latin American precious metals assets decreased 7.2% year-over-year, with 61,967 precious metal GEOs earned in Q3/2018, reflecting decreased deliveries from Candelaria and Antamina which was partly offset by increased deliveries from Antapaccay. GEOs from Latin American precious metals assets decreased 7.2% year-over-year, with 61,967 precious metal GEOs earned in Q3/2018, reflecting decreased deliveries from Candelaria and Antamina which was partly offset by increased deliveries from Antapaccay. Cobre Panama (gold and silver stream) During Q3/2018, Franco-Nevada ( Barbados ) contributed $88.4 million of its share of construction capital for the Cobre Panama project. Subsequent to quarter end, the company contributed $25.6 million representing the balance of the $1 billion deposit for the construction of Cobre Panama. As of the end of Q3/2018, First Quantum estimates that the project is 81% complete and continues to anticipate production during 2019. During Q3/2018, Franco-Nevada ( ) contributed of its share of construction capital for the Cobre Panama project. Subsequent to quarter end, the company contributed representing the balance of the deposit for the construction of Cobre Panama. As of the end of Q3/2018, First Quantum estimates that the project is 81% complete and continues to anticipate production during 2019. Candelaria (gold and silver stream) Candelaria delivered 17,972 GEOs in Q3/2018, compared to 24,961 GEOs in Q3/2017. Precious metals production levels are lower as a result of the temporary processing of lower grade materials. Candelaria delivered 17,972 GEOs in Q3/2018, compared to 24,961 GEOs in Q3/2017. Precious metals production levels are lower as a result of the temporary processing of lower grade materials. Antapaccay (gold and silver stream) Antapaccay delivered 21,725 GEOs in Q3/2018, an increase of 12.2% year-over-year. Antapaccay delivered 21,725 GEOs in Q3/2018, an increase of 12.2% year-over-year. Antamina (silver stream) 10,763 GEOs from Antamina were sold during the quarter. This is in-line with expectations and a decrease compared to 12,575 GEOs in Q3/2017. 10,763 GEOs from Antamina were sold during the quarter. This is in-line with expectations and a decrease compared to 12,575 GEOs in Q3/2017. Cerro Moro (2% royalty ) Yamana declared commercial production at Cerro Moro on June 26, 2018 with Q3/2018 being the first full quarter of production. ) Yamana declared commercial production at Cerro Moro on with Q3/2018 being the first full quarter of production. Guadalupe-Palmarejo (gold stream) Guadalupe-Palmarejo delivered 10,611 GEOs in Q3/2018. Production increased year-over-year but was negatively impacted by the temporary suspension of mining activities. Guadalupe-Palmarejo delivered 10,611 GEOs in Q3/2018. Production increased year-over-year but was negatively impacted by the temporary suspension of mining activities. Precious Metals U.S.: GEOs from U.S. precious metals assets increased by 8.0% year-over-year due to strong quarters from Marigold, Bald Mountain and Fire Creek which was offset by reduced deliveries from Stillwater and South Arturo. 17,866 GEOs were earned from U.S. precious metal assets. GEOs from U.S. precious metals assets increased by 8.0% year-over-year due to strong quarters from Marigold, Bald Mountain and Fire Creek which was offset by reduced deliveries from and South Arturo. 17,866 GEOs were earned from U.S. precious metal assets. Mesquite (0.5-2% royalty) During the quarter, New Gold entered into an agreement with Equinox Gold to sell the Mesquite Mine in California . Equinox Gold also owns the Castle Mountain project in California on which Franco-Nevada has a 2.65% royalty. During the quarter, New Gold entered into an agreement with Equinox Gold to sell the Mesquite Mine in . Equinox Gold also owns the Castle Mountain project in on which Franco-Nevada has a 2.65% royalty. South Arturo (4-9% royalty) Construction of the Phase 1 open pit and the El Nino underground mine have been accelerated with production from both operations now expected in H2/2019. Additional work is planned to assess the potential of further mining opportunities that include a Phase 3 pit and processing of heap leach material from all pits. Construction of the Phase 1 open pit and the El Nino underground mine have been accelerated with production from both operations now expected in H2/2019. Additional work is planned to assess the potential of further mining opportunities that include a Phase 3 pit and processing of heap leach material from all pits. Marigold (0.5-5% royalty) Marigold had a strong quarter with record material movement during the quarter. Previously, SSR Mining provided a new life of mine plan which is expected to support mining for over 10 years and gold production for 15 years. Marigold had a strong quarter with record material movement during the quarter. Previously, SSR Mining provided a new life of mine plan which is expected to support mining for over 10 years and gold production for 15 years. Stibnite Gold (1.7% royalty) Midas Gold provided an updated permitting schedule for the Stibnite Gold project which would allow for a Final Record of Decision in May 2020 . Subsequently, Midas Gold announced that the Nez Perce Tribe, one of three tribes being consulted by the U.S. Forest Service , is formally opposing the project. Midas Gold provided an updated permitting schedule for the Stibnite Gold project which would allow for a Final Record of Decision in . Subsequently, Midas Gold announced that the Nez Perce Tribe, one of three tribes being consulted by the U.S. , is formally opposing the project. Fire Creek/Midas (fixed gold deliveries and royalty) & Hollister (3-5% royalty) Hecla plans on increasing underground development at Fire Creek with the aim to increase throughput by 50% by mid-2019. At Hollister , Hecla has begun an access drift to the Hatter Graben. & Hollister plans on increasing underground development at Fire Creek with the aim to increase throughput by 50% by mid-2019. At , has begun an access drift to the Hatter Graben. Stillwater (5% royalty) The Blitz project achieved first production in September 2017 and is expected to reach full production by late 2021 or early 2022. Blitz is anticipated to increase total PGM production from Stillwater by more than 50% to approximately 850,000 ounces per year. The Blitz project achieved first production in and is expected to reach full production by late 2021 or early 2022. Blitz is anticipated to increase total PGM production from by more than 50% to approximately 850,000 ounces per year. Precious Metals Canada : 13,391 GEOs from Canadian precious metals assets were earned during the quarter, an increase of 15.6% year-over-year compared with Q3/2017, as almost all producing assets had strong contributions. : 13,391 GEOs from Canadian precious metals assets were earned during the quarter, an increase of 15.6% year-over-year compared with Q3/2017, as almost all producing assets had strong contributions. Musselwhite (5% NPI) Drilling and resource conversion added 0.7 million ounces of mineral reserves (partially offset by depletion) which resulted in an increase from 1.9 million ounces to 2.3 million ounces at June 30, 2018 . Drilling and resource conversion added 0.7 million ounces of mineral reserves (partially offset by depletion) which resulted in an increase from 1.9 million ounces to 2.3 million ounces at . Brucejack (1.2% royalty) As of the end of Q3/2018, Brucejack has produced approximately 428,000 ounces of gold since the mine start-up. Franco- Nevada's royalty begins after approximately 500,000 ounces have been produced which is expected to occur towards the end of 2018. As of the end of Q3/2018, Brucejack has produced approximately 428,000 ounces of gold since the mine start-up. Franco- royalty begins after approximately 500,000 ounces have been produced which is expected to occur towards the end of 2018. Canadian Malartic (1.5% royalty) Exploration at the Odyssey and East Malartic properties continues and the JV partners continue to evaluate potential underground mining scenarios. Exploration at the Odyssey and properties continues and the JV partners continue to evaluate potential underground mining scenarios. Dublin Gulch (Eagle) (1.5-2% royalty) Victoria Gold continues to advance construction of the Eagle Gold Project. Full construction commenced in March 2018 with first gold pour scheduled for H2/2019. continues to advance construction of the Eagle Gold Project. Full construction commenced in with first gold pour scheduled for H2/2019. Kirkland Lake (1.5-5.5% royalty & 20% NPI) Continued exploration success at Macassa supports potential for future resource growth and resource conversion. Kirkland Lake Gold has previously announced plans for a new shaft at the Macassa mine which would support higher levels of production and offer more effective underground exploration. The two phase project is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. Continued exploration success at Macassa supports potential for future resource growth and resource conversion. has previously announced plans for a new shaft at the Macassa mine which would support higher levels of production and offer more effective underground exploration. The two phase project is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. Precious Metals Rest of World: 23,254 GEOs from Rest of World precious metals assets were earned during the quarter, essentially unchanged year-over-year. 23,254 GEOs from Rest of World precious metals assets were earned during the quarter, essentially unchanged year-over-year. Duketon (2% royalty) Regis Resources announced plans to proceed with development of an underground mining operation directly below the current Rosemont open pit. Regis Resources announced plans to proceed with development of an underground mining operation directly below the current open pit. Subika (2% royalty) First underground production was achieved in June 2018 with commercial production expected in Q4/2018. The underground project is expected to increase annual production by 150,000 200,000 oz/year for the first five years. The Ahafo mill expansion, which is expected to increase annual production by 75,000 100,000 oz/year during the first five years, is expecting first production in H2/2019. First underground production was achieved in with commercial production expected in Q4/2018. The underground project is expected to increase annual production by 150,000 200,000 oz/year for the first five years. The Ahafo mill expansion, which is expected to increase annual production by 75,000 100,000 oz/year during the first five years, is expecting first production in H2/2019. Agi Dagi (2% royalty) Alamos announced that it has been granted the GSM (Business Opening and Operation) permit required for the development of its Kirazli project in Turkey . This is a positive indication for the permitting of Alamos' two other projects in Turkey , Agi Dagi and Camyurt, on which Franco-Nevada has royalties. Alamos announced that it has been granted the GSM (Business Opening and Operation) permit required for the development of its Kirazli project in . This is a positive indication for the permitting of Alamos' two other projects in , and Camyurt, on which Franco-Nevada has royalties. Tasiast (2% royalty) The Phase One (12,000 tpd) expansion is complete, first ore has gone through the mill and commissioning is in its final stages. Phase Two activities are being paused as Kinross analyzes alternative intermediate throughput expansion options and engages in discussions with the Government of Mauritania . The Phase One (12,000 tpd) expansion is complete, first ore has gone through the mill and commissioning is in its final stages. Phase Two activities are being paused as analyzes alternative intermediate throughput expansion options and engages in discussions with the Government of . Oil & Gas: Revenue from oil & gas assets increased to $26.2 million in Q3/2018 compared to $12.5 million in Q3/2017, reflecting the additional contributions from the SCOOP/STACK, Midland, Delaware and Orion royalties, higher prices and increased payments from Weyburn . Revenue from oil & gas assets increased to in Q3/2018 compared to in Q3/2017, reflecting the additional contributions from the SCOOP/STACK, Midland, and Orion royalties, higher prices and increased payments from . Weyburn (NRI, ORR, WI) Weyburn generated $10.6 million in the quarter versus $8.6 million in the previous year, with the asset benefitting from higher oil prices. generated in the quarter versus in the previous year, with the asset benefitting from higher oil prices. Delaware ( various royalty rates ) The Delaware Basin royalties generated $4.4 million in the quarter. This was boosted by unbudgeted lease bonuses received during the quarter. ( ) The Basin royalties generated in the quarter. This was boosted by unbudgeted lease bonuses received during the quarter. Orion (GORR) Osum Oil Sands Corp. continues with its expansion of the Orion plant to 18,000 bbl/d. Third quarter production was 11,000 bbl/d and Osum plans to exit 2018 at a rate of 14,000 bbl/d. Differentials for heavy oil prices in Western Canada widened during the quarter which negatively impacted revenue. Osum Oil Sands Corp. continues with its expansion of the Orion plant to 18,000 bbl/d. Third quarter production was 11,000 bbl/d and Osum plans to exit 2018 at a rate of 14,000 bbl/d. Differentials for heavy oil prices in widened during the quarter which negatively impacted revenue. Continental Minerals Venture (various royalty rates) The transaction with Continental closed on October 23, 2018 . Initial revenue from the transaction is expected in Q4/2018. Dividend Declaration Franco-Nevada is pleased to announce that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.24 per share. The dividend will be paid on December 20, 2018 to shareholders of record on December 6, 2018 (the "Record Date"). The Canadian dollar equivalent is to be determined based on the daily average rate posted by the Bank of Canada on the Record Date. Under Canadian tax legislation, Canadian resident individuals who receive "eligible dividends" are entitled to an enhanced gross-up and dividend tax credit on such dividends. The Company has a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (the "DRIP"). Participation in the DRIP is optional. The Company will issue additional common shares through treasury at a 3% discount to the Average Market Price, as defined in the DRIP. However, the Company may, from time to time, in its discretion, change or eliminate the discount applicable to treasury acquisitions or direct that such common shares be purchased in market acquisitions at the prevailing market price, any of which would be publicly announced. The DRIP and enrollment forms are available on the Company's website at www.franco-nevada.com. Canadian and U.S. registered shareholders may also enroll in the DRIP online through the plan agent's self-service web portal at www.investorcentre.com/franco-nevada. Canadian and U.S. beneficial shareholders should contact their financial intermediary to arrange enrollment. During Q2/2018, the Company amended and restated the DRIP to allow for certain non-Canadian and non-U.S. shareholders to participate in the DRIP, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions. Non-Canadian and non-U.S. shareholders should contact the Company to determine whether they satisfy the necessary conditions to participate in the DRIP. This press release is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer of securities. A registration statement relating to the DRIP has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and may be obtained under the Company's profile on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov. Shareholder Information The complete Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis can be found today on FrancoNevada's website at www.franco-nevada.com, on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Management will host a conference call tomorrow, Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time to review FrancoNevada's Q3/2018 results. Interested investors are invited to participate as follows: Via Conference Call: Toll-Free: (888) 390-0546; International: (416) 764-8688 Conference Call Replay until November 13 th : Toll-Free (888) 390-0541; International (416) 764-8677; Pass code 181248# Webcast: A live audio webcast will be accessible at www.franco-nevada.com Corporate Summary Franco-Nevada Corporation is the leading gold-focused royalty and stream company with the largest and most diversified portfolio of cash-flow producing assets. Its business model provides investors with gold price and exploration optionality while limiting exposure to many of the risks of operating companies. Franco-Nevada has a strong balance sheet and uses its free cash flow to expand its portfolio and pay dividends. It trades under the symbol FNV on both the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. Franco-Nevada is the gold investment that works. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains "forward looking information" and "forward looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, respectively, which may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to future events or future performance, management's expectations regarding Franco-Nevada's growth, results of operations, estimated future revenues, carrying value of assets, future dividends and requirements for additional capital, mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates, production estimates, production costs and revenue, future demand for and prices of commodities, expected mining sequences, business prospects and opportunities and the remedies relating to and consequences of the ruling of the Supreme Court of Panama in relation to the Cobre Panama project. In addition, statements (including data in tables) relating to reserves and resources and gold equivalent ounces ("GEOs") are forward looking statements, as they involve implied assessment, based on certain estimates and assumptions, and no assurance can be given that the estimates and assumptions are accurate and that such reserves and resources and GEOs will be realized. Such forward looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are 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", "budgets", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "projects", "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. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Franco-Nevada to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking statements. A number of factors could cause actual events or results to differ materially from any forward looking statement, including, without limitation: fluctuations in the prices of the primary commodities that drive royalty and stream revenue (gold, platinum group metals, copper, nickel, uranium, silver, iron-ore and oil and gas); fluctuations in the value of the Canadian and Australian dollar, Mexican Peso and any other currency in which revenue is generated, relative to the U.S. dollar; changes in national and local government legislation, including permitting and licensing regimes and taxation policies and the enforcement thereof; regulatory, political or economic developments in any of the countries where properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest are located or through which they are held; risks related to the operators of the properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest, including changes in the ownership and control of such operators; influence of macroeconomic developments; business opportunities that become available to, or are pursued by Franco-Nevada; reduced access to debt and equity capital; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to interests on any of the properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest; whether or not Franco-Nevada is determined to have "passive foreign investment company" ("PFIC") status as defined in Section 1297 of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended; potential changes in Canadian tax treatment of offshore streams; excessive cost escalation as well as development, permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties on any of the properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest; actual mineral content may differ from the reserves and resources contained in technical reports; rate and timing of production differences from resource estimates, other technical reports and mine plans; risks and hazards associated with the business of development and mining on any of the properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest, including, but not limited to unusual or unexpected geological and metallurgical conditions, slope failures or cave-ins, flooding and other natural disasters, terrorism, civil unrest or an outbreak of contagious disease; and the integration of acquired assets. The forward looking statements contained in this press release are based upon assumptions management believes to be reasonable, including, without limitation: the ongoing operation of the properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest by the owners or operators of such properties in a manner consistent with past practice; the accuracy of public statements and disclosures made by the owners or operators of such underlying properties; no material adverse change in the market price of the commodities that underlie the asset portfolio; Franco-Nevada's ongoing income and assets relating to determination of its PFIC status; no material changes to existing tax treatment; the expected application of tax laws and regulations by taxation authorities; the expected assessment and outcome of any audit by any taxation authority; no adverse development in respect of any significant property in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest; the accuracy of publicly disclosed expectations for the development of underlying properties that are not yet in production; integration of acquired assets; and the absence of any other factors that could cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. However, 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. Investors are cautioned that forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Franco-Nevada cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward looking statements and investors should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. For additional information with respect to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, please refer to the "Risk Factors" section of Franco-Nevada's most recent Annual Information Form filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities on www.sedar.com and Franco-Nevada's most recent Annual Report filed on Form 40-F filed with the SEC on www.sec.gov. The forward looking statements herein are made as of the date of this press release only and Franco-Nevada does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. NON-IFRS MEASURES: Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EBITDA are intended to provide additional information only and do not have any standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. These measures are not necessarily indicative of operating profit or cash flow from operations as determined under IFRS. Other companies may calculate these measures differently. For a reconciliation of these measures to various IFRS measures, please see below or the Company's current MD&A disclosure found on the Company's website, on SEDAR and on EDGAR. Comparative information has been recalculated to conform to current presentation. GEOs include our gold, silver, platinum, palladium and other mining assets. GEOs are estimated on a gross basis for NSR royalties and, in the case of stream ounces, before the payment of the per ounce contractual price paid by the Company. For NPI royalties, GEOs are calculated taking into account the NPI economics. Platinum, palladium, silver and other mining commodities are converted to GEOs by dividing associated revenue, which includes settlement adjustments, by the relevant gold price. The gold price used in the computation of GEOs earned from a particular asset varies depending on the royalty or stream agreement, which may make reference to the market price realized by the operator, or the average for the month, quarter, or year in which the mining commodity was produced or sold. For Q3/2018, the average commodity prices per ounce were as follows: $1,218 gold (Q3/2017 - $1,278 ), $14.99 silver (Q3/2017 - $16.83 ), $814 platinum (Q3/2017 - $953 ) and $953 palladium (Q3/2017 - $901 ). Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA per share are non-IFRS financial measures, which exclude the following from net income and earnings per share ("EPS"): income tax expense/recovery; finance expenses; finance income; depletion and depreciation; non-cash costs of sales; impairment charges related to royalty, stream and working interests and investments; gains/losses on sale of royalty interests; gains/losses on investments; foreign exchange gains/losses and other income/expenses and unusual non-recurring items. Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Net Income per share are non-IFRS financial measures, which exclude the following from net income and EPS: foreign exchange gains/losses and other income/expenses; impairment charges related to royalty, stream and working interests and investments; gains/losses on sale of royalty interests; gains/losses on investments; unusual non-recurring items; and the impact of income taxes on these items. Reconciliations to IFRS measures: For the three months ended For the nine months ended September 30, September 30, (expressed in millions, except per share amounts) 2018 2017 2018 2017 Net Income $ 52.1 $ 60.0 $ 170.3 $ 151.2 Income tax expense 13.8 2.9 38.4 24.4 Finance expenses 0.7 0.8 2.4 2.4 Finance income (0.7) (1.6) (2.4) (3.6) Depletion and depreciation 66.0 70.5 186.2 209.2 Non-cash costs of sales 2.0 0.6 5.7 4.7 Transaction costs on Continental Minerals Venture 0.9 0.9 Foreign exchange (gains)/losses and other (income)/expenses (0.1) 0.9 (0.6) (0.2) Adjusted EBITDA $ 134.7 $ 134.1 $ 400.9 $ 388.1 Basic weighted average shares outstanding 186.1 185.5 186.1 181.9 Adjusted EBITDA per share $ 0.72 $ 0.72 $ 2.15 $ 2.13 For the three months ended For the nine months ended September 30, September 30, (expressed in millions, except per share amounts) 2018 2017 2018 2017 Net Income $ 52.1 $ 60.0 $ 170.3 $ 151.2 Foreign exchange (gains)/losses and other (income)/expenses (0.1) 0.9 (0.6) (0.2) Transaction costs on Continental Minerals Venture 0.9 0.9 Tax effect of adjustments (0.3) (1.1) (0.3) (1.1) Other tax related adjustments: Valuation allowance (0.7) 0.1 Utilization of tax attributes for which no deferred tax asset was previously recognized (3.8) (3.8) U.S. Tax Reform impact 2.0 2.0 Adjusted Net Income $ 54.6 $ 55.3 $ 172.3 $ 146.2 Basic weighted average shares outstanding 186.1 185.5 186.1 181.9 Adjusted Net Income per share $ 0.29 $ 0.30 $ 0.93 $ 0.80 Franco-Nevada Corporation Condensed Consolidated Statement of Financial Position (unaudited, in millions of U.S. dollars) At September 30, At December 31, 2018 2017 ASSETS Cash and cash equivalents (Note 4) $ 76.9 $ 511.1 Receivables 60.7 65.9 Prepaid expenses and other (Note 6) 34.9 39.4 Current assets 172.5 616.4 Royalty, stream and working interests, net (Note 3) 4,436.0 3,939.2 Investments (Note 5) 197.7 203.1 Deferred income tax assets 14.9 14.5 Other assets (Note 7) 13.4 15.2 Total assets $ 4,834.5 $ 4,788.4 LIABILITIES Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 21.2 $ 21.5 Current income tax liabilities 1.4 1.1 Current liabilities 22.6 22.6 Deferred income tax liabilities 67.0 60.3 Total liabilities 89.6 82.9 SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY (Note 14) Common shares 5,136.3 5,107.8 Contributed surplus 18.7 14.2 Deficit (245.5) (310.0) Accumulated other comprehensive loss (164.6) (106.5) Total shareholders' equity 4,744.9 4,705.5 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 4,834.5 $ 4,788.4 Subsequent events (Note 16) The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated interim financial statements and can be found in our Q3/2018 Report available on our website Franco-Nevada Corporation Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income and Comprehensive Income (Loss) (unaudited, in millions of U.S. dollars, except per share amounts) For the three months ended For the nine months ended September 30, September 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenue (Note 10) $ 170.6 $ 171.5 $ 505.0 $ 507.8 Cost of sales Costs of sales (Note 11) 33.4 33.0 93.4 106.8 Depletion and depreciation 66.0 70.5 186.2 209.2 Total cost of sales 99.4 103.5 279.6 316.0 Gross profit 71.2 68.0 225.4 191.8 Other operating expenses (income) General and administrative expenses 5.2 5.2 17.4 17.9 Loss (gain) on sale of gold bullion 0.2 (0.2) (0.1) (0.3) Total other operating expenses (income) 5.4 5.0 17.3 17.6 Operating income 65.8 63.0 208.1 174.2 Foreign exchange gain (loss) and other income (expenses) 0.1 (0.9) 0.6 0.2 Income before finance items and income taxes 65.9 62.1 208.7 174.4 Finance items Finance income 0.7 1.6 2.4 3.6 Finance expenses (0.7) (0.8) (2.4) (2.4) Net income before income taxes 65.9 62.9 208.7 175.6 Income tax expense (Note 13) 13.8 2.9 38.4 24.4 Net income $ 52.1 $ 60.0 $ 170.3 $ 151.2 Other comprehensive income (loss): Items that may be reclassified subsequently to profit and loss: Changes in the fair value of available-for-sale investments, net of income tax (Note 5) 17.7 7.4 Currency translation adjustment 11.2 41.4 (29.3) 81.9 Items that will not be reclassified subsequently to profit and loss: Changes in the fair value of equity investments at fair value through other comprehensive income, net of income tax (Note 5) 13.6 (1.7) Other comprehensive income (loss) 24.8 59.1 (31.0) 89.3 Comprehensive income $ 76.9 $ 119.1 $ 139.3 $ 240.5 Basic earnings per share (Note 15) $ 0.28 $ 0.32 $ 0.92 $ 0.83 Diluted earnings per share (Note 15) $ 0.28 $ 0.32 $ 0.91 $ 0.83 The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated interim financial statements and can be found in our Q3/2018 Report available on our website Franco-Nevada Corporation Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (unaudited, in millions of U.S. dollars) For the nine months ended September 30, 2018 2017 Cash flows from operating activities Net income $ 170.3 $ 151.2 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Depletion and depreciation 186.2 209.2 Non-cash costs of sales 5.7 4.7 Share-based payments 4.1 4.0 Unrealized foreign exchange gain (0.1) (0.6) Deferred income tax expense 7.5 10.2 Other non-cash items (0.9) (2.0) Acquisition of gold bullion (19.4) (17.8) Proceeds from sale of gold bullion 8.1 13.3 Operating cash flows before changes in non-cash working capital 361.5 372.2 Changes in non-cash working capital: Decrease in receivables 5.2 6.2 Increase (decrease) in prepaid expenses and other 10.3 (9.9) Decrease in current liabilities (6.2) Net cash provided by operating activities 377.0 362.3 Cash flows from investing activities Acquisition of royalty, stream and working interests (702.3) (371.1) Acquisition of oil & gas well equipment (1.1) (1.3) Acquisition of investments (12.3) Net cash used in investing activities (703.4) (384.7) Cash flows from financing activities Credit facility amendment costs (0.5) (1.0) Payment of dividends (104.5) (94.0) Proceeds from exercise of warrants 356.4 Proceeds from exercise of stock options 0.1 10.3 Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities (104.9) 271.7 Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (2.9) 31.0 Net change in cash and cash equivalents (434.2) 280.3 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 511.1 253.0 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 76.9 $ 533.3 Supplemental cash flow information: Cash paid for interest expense and loan standby fees $ 1.7 $ 1.8 Income taxes paid $ 20.9 $ 36.6 The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated interim financial statements and can be found in our Q3/2018 Report available on our website SOURCE Franco-Nevada Corporation Related Links www.franco-nevada.com DUBLIN, Nov 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "The Global Artillery and Systems Market 2018-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global artillery and systems market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.04% over the period 2018 -2028. Several developing economies such as India, China, Russia, and Brazil are spending significantly on modernizing the capabilities of their ground forces by procuring modern weapons including howitzers and mortars among others. The need to provide ground forces with increased capabilities pertaining to protection and munitions is expected to spur the artillery and systems market. The threat from neighbouring nations and insurgency issues is expected to be a major factor that will contribute to the increasing demand for artillery systems. Militaries are also aiming to enhance capabilities in guerrilla warfare, counter-insurgency, and counter-terrorism operations, are focused towards developing guided artillery systems to improve accuracy in attacks. Currently, Russia is the process of developing an artillery system capable of firing a target beyond a gunner's line of sight with the help of small drones that assist in its navigation. This is expected to open up a new line of investment in the segment over the coming years. This upgrade of weapons and arms by various militaries is therefore expected to sustain the demand for newer artillery platforms. Furthermore, the large base of existing inventory, as well as new procurements throughout the next decade, will create the need for servicing and maintenance activities, which are anticipated to fuel the artillery systems market to a great extent. The Artillery and Systems market is split into five segments: Turret Systems, Self-Propelled Artillery Systems, Towed Artillery Systems, Mortars and Other Artillery Systems. During the forecast period, Turret Systems is anticipated to account for the largest share of spending, 41.4% of the overall Artillery and Systems market. The market is primarily driven by the on-going procurement of armored vehicles by countries such as Russia, China, India, US, UK, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, among others. With several countries investing their time and resources for modernizing the capabilities of their ground forces, it can be anticipated that the Turret Systems market will derive a parallel growth with respect to its parent armored vehicles market. The Global Artillery and Systems Market 2018-2028 report offers a detailed analysis of the industry, with market size forecasts covering the next ten years. This report will also analyze factors that influence demand for artillery systems, key market trends, and challenges encountered by industry participants. In particular, the report provides an in-depth analysis of the following: Market size and drivers: detailed analysis during 2018-2028, including highlights of the demand drivers and growth stimulators. It also provides a snapshot of the spending and modernization patterns of different regions around the world. detailed analysis during 2018-2028, including highlights of the demand drivers and growth stimulators. It also provides a snapshot of the spending and modernization patterns of different regions around the world. Recent developments and industry challenges: insights into technological developments and a detailed analysis of the changing preferences of artillery systems segments around the world. It also provides trends of the changing industry structure and the challenges faced by industry participants. insights into technological developments and a detailed analysis of the changing preferences of artillery systems segments around the world. It also provides trends of the changing industry structure and the challenges faced by industry participants. Regional highlights: study of the key markets in each region, providing an analysis of the key segments of the market that are expected to be in demand. study of the key markets in each region, providing an analysis of the key segments of the market that are expected to be in demand. Major programs: details of the key programs in each segment, which are expected to be executed during 2018-2028. details of the key programs in each segment, which are expected to be executed during 2018-2028. Competitive landscape and strategic insights: analysis of the competitive landscape of the global market. It provides an overview of key players, together with information regarding key alliances, strategic initiatives, and financial analysis Scope The global artillery and systems market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.04% over the forecast period. The market consists of five segments: Self Propelled Artillery Systems, Towed Artillery Systems, Other Artillery Systems, Turret Systems, and Mortar Systems. The market is expected to be dominated by the turrets segment, followed by self propelled and towed artillery segments. Region wise, Asia Pacific is expected to lead the global artillery and systems market during 2018-2028, followed by Europe and North America . Companies Mentioned General Dynamics Elbit Systems BAE Systems Lockheed Martin Nexter SA Norinco Avibras Uralvagonzavod Hanwha Techwin For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/pbdp2r/global_artillery?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 http://www.researchandmarkets.com DUBLIN, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices (CGM) Market: Analysis By Component (Transmitter & Receiver, Sensor, Integrated Insulin Pump), By Demographics, End-User, By Region, By Country (2018 Edition): Forecast to 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global market is projected to display a high growth represented by a CAGR of 21.25% during 2018 - 2023. Over the recent years, global continuous glucose monitoring devices market has been witnessing growth, on account of several driving factors including rising incidence of chronic diabetes, increasing healthcare awareness amongst consumers, flourishing market for minimally invasive products, new device approvals along with increasing health expenditure in developing countries. Moreover, ongoing demographic shift towards geriatric population with significant population suffering from serious consequences of diabetes, is expected to propel the demand for continuous glucose monitoring devices. In this research report, the market is segmented on the basis of component type, demographics, as well as end user. By component type, the segment of transmitter & receiver is predicted to hold its dominant position in the market, and sensor is the highest growing component. Amongst the regions, North America accounts for the largest regional share in the global continuous glucose monitoring devices market in 2018. However, Asia Pacific is predicted to advance at the highest rate. Presence of vast consumer base, particularly in emerging nations such as China and India, in addition to growing per capita expenditure on healthcare is likely to drive the regional market. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges and opportunities in the global continuous glucose monitoring devices market. Additionally, the report also highlights market entry strategies for various companies across the globe. Scope of the Report Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market (Actual Period: 2013-2017, Forecast Period: 2018-2023) Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market - Size, Growth, Forecast By Component - Transmitter & receiver, Sensor, Integrated Insulin Pump By Demographics- Pediatric, Adult By End User - Homecare, Hospital Report Highlights Market Dynamics - Drivers and Restraints Market Trends Company Share Analysis SWOT Analysis Porter's Five Forces Analysis Supply Chain Analysis Policy and Regulatory Landscape Key Topics Covered: 1. Research Methodology 2. Executive Summary 3. Strategic Recommendations 4. Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Outlook 5. Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market: Growth and Forecast 5.1 By Value (2013-2017) 5.2 By Value (2018-2023) 6. Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market: Segment Analysis 6.1 Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market Size, By Component: Breakdown (%) 6.1.1 Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market Size, By Component, 2017 (%) 6.1.2 Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market Size, By Component, 2023 (%) 6.2 Global Transmitter & Receiver Component Market Size, By Value (2013-2023) 6.3 Global Sensor Component Market Size, By Value (2013-2023) 6.4 Global Integrated Insulin Pump Component Market Size, By Value (2013-2023) 6.5 Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Device Market Size, By Demographics : Breakdown(%) 6.5.1 Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market Size, By Demographics, 2017 (%) 6.5.2 Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market Size, By Demographics, 2023 (%) 6.6 Global Pediatric patient Market Size, By Value (2013-2023) 6.7 Global Adult patient Market Size, By Value (2013-2023) 6.8 Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Device Market Size, By End User: Breakdown (%) 6.8.1 Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market Size, By End User, 2017 (%) 6.8.2 Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market Size, By End User , 2023 (%) 6.9 Global Homecare Continuous Glucose Monitoring Device Market Size, By Value (2013-2023) 6.10 Global Hospital Continuous Glucose monitoring Device Market Size, By Value (2013-2023) 7. Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market: Regional Analysis 8. Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market Dynamics 9. Global Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices Market Trends 10. Porter's Five Forces Analysis 11. SWOT Analysis 12. Supply Chain Analysis 13. Competitive Landscape 14. Policy and Regulatory Landscape 15. Company Profiles 15.1 Medtronic 15.2 Dexcom 15.3 Abbott Laboratories 15.4 AgaMatrix Inc. 15.5 Integrity Applications 15.6 Senseonics Holdings 15.7 GlySens ICGM 15.8 Insulet Corporation For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bmg9jh/global_continuous?w=5 Did you know that we also offer Custom Research? Visit our Custom Research page to learn more and schedule a meeting with our Custom Research Manager. Media Contact: Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com DUBLIN, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Production Monitoring Market by Component (Solutions and Services), Solution, Service (Professional and Managed), Organization Size, Industry (Process Manufacturing and Discrete Manufacturing), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global production monitoring market size is expected to grow from USD 4.0 billion in 2018 to USD 6.4 billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.8% during the forecast period. The rising demand for industrial automation in the manufacturing industry is a major factor driving the growth of the market. By application area, the business process optimization segment is expected to be the largest contributor in the production monitoring market during the forecast period Business process optimization is a management approach that helps construct new processes and develop new resources to make an organization as effective as possible. This approach encourages organizational leaders to get back to basics and get rid of processes that are not working anymore. It creates an environment of ongoing monitoring, analysis, and adjustments when necessary. The production monitoring solutions based on platforms, such as Machine Learning (ML), IoT, and big data, are helping manufacturing organizations in achieving their short-term and long-term goals. These solutions enable manufacturing organizations to reduce the number of costly errors and achieve a vastly improved result by implementing a well-designed set of business process management solutions. Integration and deployment accounts for the largest market size during forecast period. Integration and deployment services is expected to account for the larger market size during the forecast period. These services are the basic and the most important aspect of implementing production monitoring solutions, as they optimize production management, asset monitoring, and maintenance. Deployment services involve the identification of business functions, analysis of operational risks, and development of management plans and policies to improve the operational efficiency of a production process and the performance of assets. The production monitoring vendors assist enterprises in gaining a high Return on Investment (RoI) on their investments by offering multiple application integration based on different platforms and by analyzing the centralized data of manufacturing operations. North America is expected to account for the largest market size during the forecast period North America is expected to be the largest contributor to the production monitoring market in terms of market size, as it is a technologically advanced region. North American countries have developed infrastructure and skilled workforce, which help production monitoring solution providers offer 24/7 support and maintenance to their clients. This factor assures manufacturers to rely on production monitoring solutions and focus on increasing their operational revenues. The advent of SMEs and adoption of digitalization in manufacturing are expected to drive the growth of the market in North America. Due to the early adoption of trending technologies, such as IoT, big data, DevOps, and mobility, manufacturers are keen to adopt new advanced technologies for their production process. Recent Developments: In May 2018 , Rockwell Automation launched Predictive Maintenance-as-a-Service (PMaaS). The service, which is applied on critical assets identified by the customer, analyzes data from connected technologies, such as sensors, control systems, and smart machines, and can identify normal operations and build out data models to help predict, monitor, and mitigate future failures or issues as part of the preventive maintenance strategy. , Rockwell Automation launched Predictive Maintenance-as-a-Service (PMaaS). The service, which is applied on critical assets identified by the customer, analyzes data from connected technologies, such as sensors, control systems, and smart machines, and can identify normal operations and build out data models to help predict, monitor, and mitigate future failures or issues as part of the preventive maintenance strategy. In April 2018 , Hitachi Power Solutions launched a knowledge-based analytics solution for prescriptive maintenance. This enables production managers to develop and speed up operations on assets and equipment maintenance. , Hitachi Power Solutions launched a knowledge-based analytics solution for prescriptive maintenance. This enables production managers to develop and speed up operations on assets and equipment maintenance. In March 2017 , Schlumberger announced a new service Lift IQ, a production life cycle management service. Lift IQ offers monitoring, diagnostics, and optimization of artificial lift systems in real time. Key Questions addressed by the report: Where will all these developments take the industry in the mid to long term? What are the upcoming industry applications for the production monitoring market? Which are the major factors expected to drive the market in near future? Which region would offer a higher growth for the vendors in the market? Which application area would see the largest market share in the market? Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Premium Insights 4.1 Attractive Opportunities in the Production Monitoring Market 4.2 Market Top 3 Process Manufacturing Industries and Regions 4.3 Market By Region 4.4 Market Investment Scenario 5 Market Overview 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Market Dynamics 5.2.1 Drivers 5.2.1.1 Rising Demand for Industrial Automation in the Manufacturing Industry 5.2.1.2 Servitization in Manufacturing 5.2.1.3 Need for Centralized Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance of Assets 5.2.1.4 Rise of Industry 4.0 5.2.2 Restraints 5.2.2.1 Data Security Concerns and Privacy Issues 5.2.3 Opportunities 5.2.3.1 Increasing Adoption of Cloud-Based Solutions 5.2.4 Challenges 5.2.4.1 Lack of Skills and Expertise 6 Production Monitoring Market, By Component 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Solutions 6.2.1 Asia Pacific to Witness the Highest Growth Rate in the Solutions Segment 6.3 Services 6.3.1 North America to Witness the Largest Market Size in the Services Segment 7 Market By Solution 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Asset Management 7.2.1 Critical Need for Asset Performance to Lead the Growth of Asset Management Solutions in the Production Monitoring Market 7.3 Data Management 7.3.1 Need for Predictive Analysis in the Manufacturing Industry to Drive the Growth of Data Management Solutions 7.4 Smart Surveillance and Security 7.4.1 Use of Technology in the Manufacturing Industry and Data Security Concerns are the Factors Driving the Growth of Smart Surveillance and Security Solutions 7.5 Mobile Workforce Management 7.5.1 Rise in Servitization in the Manufacturing Industry Fueling the Growth of Mobile Workforce Management Solutions 8 Production Monitoring Market, By Service 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Professional Services 8.2.1 Asia Pacific to Witness the Highest Growth Rate in the Professional Services Segment Due to the Rising Adoption of Technology Solutions 8.3 Managed Services 8.3.1 Increased Monitoring and Security Requirements, and Improved Compliance Driving the Growth of the Managed Services Segment 9 Market By Professional Service 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Integration and Deployment 9.2.1 Need for Optimized Production Management and Asset Monitoring Fueling the Growth of Integration and Deployment Services 9.3 Consulting 9.3.1 Increasing Awareness of Compliance Requirements in the Manufacturing Industry Driving the Growth of Consulting Services 9.4 Support and Maintenance 9.4.1 Increasing Dependency on Automation and Use of Smart Equipment in the Manufacturing Industry Driving the Growth of Support and Maintenance Services 9.5 Education and Training 9.5.1 Increasing Complexity of Threats and Data Loss Generating the Need for Education and Training Services 10 Production Monitoring Market, By Managed Service 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Infrastructure Management 10.2.1 Advancement of IT Infrastructure in the Manufacturing Industry Driving the Growth of Infrastructure Management Services 10.3 Security Management 10.3.1 Critical Need of Protecting Customer Data Increasing the Demand for Security Management Services 11 Market By Application Area 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Business Process Optimization 11.2.1 Increasing Focus on Productivity and Efficiency Driving the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in the Business Process Optimization Segment 11.3 Logistics and Supply Chain Management 11.3.1 Focus on Reducing the Supply Chain and Inventory Complexities Increasing the Demand for Production Monitoring Solutions in the Logistics and Supply Chain Management Segment 11.4 Automation and Control Management 11.4.1 Asset Condition Monitoring Solutions Help Reduce the Downtime in the Automation and Control Management Segment 11.5 Emergency and Incident Management 11.5.1 Predictive Maintenance and Smart Security Help Enterprises in Achieving Better Efficiency in the Emergency and Incident Management Segment 12 Production Monitoring Market, By Deployment Type 12.1 Introduction 12.2 On-Premises 12.2.1 Advanced IT Infrastructure Driving the Growth of On-Premises Solutions in North America 12.3 Cloud 12.3.1 Reduced IT Infrastructure Cost Leading to the Growth of Cloud Solutions in the Market 13 Market By Organization Size 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 13.2.1 Focus on Niche Areas of the Manufacturing Industry Leading to the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 13.3 Large Enterprises 13.3.1 Availability of Infrastructure and Resources Driving Large Enterprises to Adopt Production Monitoring Solutions 14 Production Monitoring Market, By Industry 14.1 Introduction 14.2 Process Manufacturing 14.2.1 Focus on High Volume and High Efficiency Driving the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in the Process Manufacturing Industry 14.3 Discrete Manufacturing 14.3.1 Focus on Reducing the Asset Performance and Downtime Increasing the Demand for Production Monitoring Solutions in the Discrete Manufacturing Industry 15 Market By Process Manufacturing Industry 15.1 Introduction 15.2 Oil and Gas 15.2.1 Need for Real-Time Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance in the Oil and Gas Vertical Driving the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions 15.3 Chemical 15.3.1 Need for Operational Efficiency Increasing the Demand for Production Monitoring Solutions in the Chemical Vertical 15.4 Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences 15.4.1 Need for Maintaining High-Quality Products Leading to the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in the Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Vertical 15.5 Energy and Power 15.5.1 Increasing Adoption of Smart Meters and Grids Driving the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in the Energy and Power Vertical 15.6 Water and Wastewater Management 15.6.1 Critical Need for Advanced Processes Increasing the Demand for Production Monitoring Solutions and Services in the Water and Wastewater Management Vertical 15.7 Food and Beverage 15.7.1 Rise in Production of Foods and Beverages Increasing the Demand for Production Monitoring Solutions 16 Production Monitoring Market, By Discrete Manufacturing Industry 16.1 Introduction 16.2 Automotive 16.2.1 High Level of Assembly and Focus on Reducing Process Inefficiencies Driving the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in the Automotive Vertical 16.3 Aerospace and Defense 16.3.1 Demand for Quality and Growing Complexities in the Supply Chain Driving the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in the Aerospace and Defense Vertical 16.4 Medical Devices 16.4.1 Need of Reducing Error Patterns in Medical Devices Increasing the Demand for Production Monitoring Solutions in the Medical Devices Vertical 16.5 Electronics and Semiconductors 16.5.1 Focus on Increasing Operational Efficiency Driving the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in the Electronics and Semiconductors Vertical 17 Production Monitoring Market, By Region 17.1 Introduction 17.2 North America 17.2.1 Early Adoption of Technologies and High Focus on Innovation Leading to the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in North America 17.3 Europe 17.3.1 The Growing Need of Virtualized Environment, Analytics, Security, and Digitization in the Manufacturing Industry Leading to the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in Europe 17.4 Asia Pacific 17.4.1 Rising Adoption of New Technologies in the Manufacturing Industry and Aggressive Initiatives to Increase the IT Infrastructure Leading to the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in Asia Pacific 17.5 Middle East and Africa 17.5.1 Increasing Adoption of Digitization in the Manufacturing Industry Fueling the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in Middle East and Africa 17.6 Latin America 17.6.1 Increasing Use of Big Data Technologies in the Manufacturing Industry to Drive the Growth of Production Monitoring Solutions in Latin America 18 Competitive Landscape 18.1 Overview 18.2 Market Ranking 18.3 Competitive Scenario 18.3.1 New Product Launches and Enhancements 18.3.2 Partnerships, Collaborations, and Agreements 18.3.3 Mergers and Acquisitions 19 Company Profiles 19.1 Capgemini 19.2 Infosys 19.3 Oracle 19.4 Hitachi 19.5 Siemens 19.6 Verizon 19.7 Emerson 19.8 Rockwell Automation 19.9 Aspen Technology 19.10 Schlumberger 19.11 IQMS 19.12 Sedapta 19.13 Softweb Solutions 19.14 Ordinal Software 19.15 Infinity Qs 19.16 Tesar 19.17 PCE Instruments 19.18 Lineview 19.19 Monnit 19.20 Coesia 19.21 RT Engineering 19.22 Cannon Automata 19.23 Intouch Monitoring 19.24 Petrodaq 19.25 Vertech For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/qgs3jq/global_production?w=5 Did you know that we also offer Custom Research? Visit our Custom Research page to learn more and schedule a meeting with our Custom Research Manager. Media Contact: Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hotel technology leader Pegasus Solutions is pleased to join Google in a World Travel Market presentation where experts will discuss digital advertising options available to hoteliers to optimise customer marketing and acquisition. The session, "Pay-for-Performance vs Pay for Non-Performance for Hotel Reservations," is 5 November 2018, 10:45 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. in the Travel Forward Product Showcase Theatre. Pegasus Head of Strategic Development, Matt Simes and Google's Partner Manager Siddartha Garg will discuss the merits of pay-for-performance online advertising in the hotel industry. Pegasus is a Google Premier Partner, providing hoteliers with expertly tailored marketing programs to increase website traffic by optimizing Google AdWords to more effectively reach their target audience. According to Google, if hoteliers want to get the most out of their marketing dollars, it is best to work with a certified Google Premier Partner like Pegasus, who can help them deliver better campaigns that stretch every dollar of their budgets. Pegasus is a leading global technology provider that empowers independent hotels, management groups and chains to grow their businesses in a digital world. The company provides a comprehensive offering of cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) systems and services designed to help hoteliers connect with their guests, increase profitability and maximize productivity. The Pegasus offering combines its highly scalable and reliable SaaS platform with representation and demand services, uniquely enabling hoteliers to sell to guests worldwide across all touch points, including their websites, call centers, travel agents (GDS), online travel agents (OTA), tour operators and metasearch partners. While at World Travel Market, visit Pegasus at stand TT205. To learn more on why leading hotels worldwide rely on Pegasus Solutions to grow their direct bookings, drive revenue and optimise their business, visit Pegasus.io. SOURCE Pegasus Solutions Related Links http://www.pegasus.io PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Group K Diagnostics, a healthcare innovator revolutionizing patient care with accurate, fast and affordable diagnoses, announced today it has secured $2 million in Series A funding. The announcement comes on the heels of the company's $425,000 Angel round, disclosed in September of this year. The funding achieved to date has been used to expand GKD's laboratory infrastructure, with new hires made for lab technicians. "The growth and expansion enabled by this investment brings our team closer to making our mission a reality providing reliable, affordable test results to patients, and giving providers the opportunity to take immediate therapeutic action based on those results," said Brianna Wronko, CEO of Group K Diagnostics. "We are looking to the future of both our company and the industry, and expect this funding will open many doors for us." The funding and due diligence process for the Series A round was overseen by Chief Operating Officer Joe Geromini, Chief Strategy Officer Emilia Lopez-Ona and Wronko, who is also overseeing GKD's laboratory infrastructure expansion and improving efficiencies company-wide. Geromini is also managing internal operations, which have realized a 15% expense reduction even amid the company's rapid growth. "The operations efficiencies our team has been able to achieve will ensure that every penny of this funding will be used in a meaningful, productive manner that helps to bring our technology closer to fruition," said Geromini. "We believe the diagnostics tool we intend to bring to market will help to shift the healthcare system from a largely responsive care model to preventative and we're grateful to the investors who are helping to make that a reality." "With this announcement, we are continuing the expansion of our lab facilities, a critical component to the ongoing evaluation of our current clinical trial for liver-function testing," said Russ Van Fossen, Senior Lab Technician at GKD. "This round of funding will also support the work our team needs to complete to obtain 510(k) clearance from the Food and Drug Administration." The company's Series A round closed October 31, 2018. Moving into 2019, Group K Diagnostics plans to begin clinical trials for a comprehensive metabolic panel. About Group K Diagnostics Group K Diagnostics is revolutionizing patient care with accurate, fast and affordable diagnoses. GKD's microfluidic point-of-care device, called the MultiDiagnostic, provides test results in 20 minutes, allowing patients to have direct access to their medical results and enabling doctors to adjust medical treatments in a timely manner. The device has the potential to drastically improve quality of patient care. CEO Brianna Wronko founded the Philadelphia-based company in 2016. Since its invention, GKD's innovation has generated praise in the healthcare and technology industries. GKD was named 2017 Best of the Best by MABA and Most Innovative Company of the 2017 Heart Science Forum. Wronko has also received recognition as the 2018 Spring PACT TiE Top Pitch Event Winner, winner of the technology category of the 2018 Stellar Startup awards, and the recipient of various other grants and awards. Media Contact: Kim Cox [email protected] 215-867-8600 ext. 220 SOURCE Group K Diagnostics, Inc Related Links https://www.groupkdiagnostics.com SAN FRANCISCO, November 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The global halloysite market size is expected to reach USD 50.21 million by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., progressing at a CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period. Booming construction industry in Asia Pacific is leading to increase in the demand for ceramic products, which in turn, is expected to boost the growth of the market. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg ) The market exhibits a high degree of integration from raw material supply to processing and distribution of the product. All major manufacturers in the industry are involved in raw material extraction, which is directed wholly to captive consumption. Key industry players are also involved in collaborations with large clay manufacturing and distributing companies on profit sharing basis. Legal regulations governing the industry approve use of halloysite for use in critical & semi-critical applications such as medical and cosmetics. Buyers in the market are sensitive to product quality and lay minimal emphasis on price. As a result, the product price is found to vary extensively in accordance with application for which it is supposed to be used. The market is subject to regulations pertaining to mining and processing of the product. Increasing concerns regarding impact of unsustainable mining practices for the extraction of halloysite and other clays are expected to result in a limited production, which is further likely to limit the growth of the market over the forecast period. Browse full research report with TOC on "Halloysite Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application, (Medical, Ceramics, Cosmetics, Paints, Cement, Polymers), By Region (APAC, Europe, North America, CSA, MEA), And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/halloysite-market Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest: The medical industry is expected to register a CAGR of 7.1% in terms of volume from 2018 to 2025, owing to increasing use of the product for directed drug delivery on account of its superior physical properties such as tubular structure and high surface area The halloysite market in North America had a valuation of USD 6.05 Million in 2017 due to high product usage in the medical industry coupled with rising use of the product in various cosmetic formulations had a valuation of in 2017 due to high product usage in the medical industry coupled with rising use of the product in various cosmetic formulations The market in China is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2018 to 2025 due to robust growth of the building & construction industry coupled with heightened demand for halloysite-based ceramic ware is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2018 to 2025 due to robust growth of the building & construction industry coupled with heightened demand for halloysite-based ceramic ware The global halloysite market is characterized by presence of a limited number of players. Small-scale companies majorly compete on the basis of product quality, as type of product manufactured depends on the mine from where the material is sourced. Browse related reports by Grand View Research: Automotive Glass Market - The global automotive glass market size was estimated at USD 15.79 billion in 2015 and is anticipated to witness considerable growth over the forecast period. Insulated Glass Market - The global insulated glass market size was valued at USD 1.99 billion in 2015 and is expected to witness substantial growth owing to the rising demand for energy efficient buildings. Textiles Market - The global textiles market size was valued at USD 830.0 billion in 2015 and is expected to witness growth on account of the growing consumption of apparel. Underwater Concrete Market - The global underwater concrete market size was estimated at USD 133.02 billion in 2015 Grand View Research has segmented the global halloysite market on the basis of application, and region: Halloysite Application Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, Thousand USD, 2014 - 2025) Medical Cosmetics Ceramics Polymers Cement Paints Others Halloysite Regional Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, Thousand USD, 2014 - 2025) North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany U.K. France Asia Pacific China India Japan Central & South America Middle East & Africa Explore the BI enabled intuitive market research database, Grand View Compass, by Grand View Research, Inc. About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. Contact: Sherry James Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Grand View Research, Inc. Phone: +1-415-349-0058 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc. PETALUMA, Calif., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Entrepreneurs and business owners alike want their business endeavors to be successful, some even dream of being the next big hit. But getting to that point of wild success can seem to be entirely luck based at times. Brandon Frere, successful entrepreneur and owner of several companies, says that there are many ways for a business to be successful, but that there may be certain factors playing heavily into just how successful a business becomes. "We've all wondered what it takes for a business to become the next big thing," said Frere. Bill Gross, founder of Idealab, which helps incubate new inventions and businesses, analyzed data from 100 Idealab companies and 100 non-Idealab, some of which gained incredible levels of success and others that completely flopped despite seeming to have the right set up. Before the data was analyzed, like many, Gross thought that it was the idea, the focus of a company that would define if it was a success or not. After the data was picked apart, though, it showed that the top factor was in fact timing. Take, for example, AirBnB, the business that lets someone rent out rooms or an entire house to people while they travel, often cheaper than a hotel and with better amenities. When it started, many potential investors passed it up because they thought no one would want to either rent out their house or stay in another person's home when they didn't know them. But when it was released to the public, it was near the worst of the recession in 2008 that came from the housing crisis and many homeowners were desperate for extra cash. Now it's a business that almost everyone knows and it's wildly successful. Startup businesses still need some sort of funding and a solid idea to get them started, but that timing factor plays a huge part, and it's much harder to actively plan for. What seems like the right time, because the idea is completely fresh, may flop because there's not enough groundwork already laid out for it, like with what happened to Z.com. Keeping that in mind, that shouldn't mean an entrepreneur gives up on their goal of running a successful business. "There are different kinds of success. There's financial success, which to me is much less important, and success in providing value to clients. If your business is doing some good for the world, even just as small as your local town, I'd say that's worth doing," said Frere. About Brandon Frere Brandon Frere is an entrepreneur and businessman who lives in Sonoma County, California. He has designed and created multiple companies to meet the ever-demanding needs of businesses and consumers alike. His website, www.BrandonFrere.com, is used as a means of communicating many of the lessons, fundamentals, and information that he has learned throughout his extensive business and personal endeavors, most recently in advocating on behalf of student loan borrowers nationwide. As experienced during his own student loan repayment, Mr. Frere found out how difficult it can be to work with federally contracted student loan servicers and the repayment programs designed to help borrowers. Through those efforts, he gained an insider's look into the repayment process and the motivations behind the inflating student loan debt bubble. His knowledge of the often confusing landscape of student loan repayment became a vital theme in his future endeavors, and he now uses those experiences to help guide others through the daunting process of applying for available federal repayment and loan forgiveness programs. BrandonFrere.com Related Images image1.png successful-business.jpg Successful Business tforgo/Bigstock.com Related Links Brandon Frere website SOURCE Brandon Frere Related Links http://www.BrandonFrere.com TUCSON, Ariz., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Arizona School of Real Estate & Business (ASREB), a division of Hondros Education Group (HEG), proudly announced today that is has acquired Hogan School of Real Estate (Hogan), in a partnership that will further unify real estate, mortgage, and appraisal education in Arizona. This is the third acquisition for HEG in the state of Arizona and helps fulfill its vision to offer professional education solutions in all states. Based in the Tucson area, Hogan will combine its talents with ASREB to represent the largest and most comprehensive real estate education program in Arizona. HEG has been a leading provider of professional education for over 50 years and at the forefront of providing a flexible, hybrid-style of real estate education through dynamic in-classroom and online learning options that meet the needs of today's learners. "We are excited to have Hogan School of Real Estate join us in providing high-quality real estate education in Arizona," said Linda Hondros, chief executive officer of Hondros Education Group. "We are both among the first professional education schools of our kind in the nation, and we have worked side-by-side with the Hogan family for decades. We share the same strong commitment to education and mission to positively impact the lives of our students." "At Hogan School of Real Estate, we remain committed to providing a solid foundation to our students and maintaining our relationships with alumni and industry professionals," says Jim Hogan, owner of Hogan School of Real Estate. "We are looking forward to building on these connections and establishing new ones through our partnership with ASREB." Jim Hogan will continue to serve ASREB as an educator and advisor. His wife, Esther Hogan, will continue in an advisory capacity and their daughter, Jenny Hogan, will manage all the daily operations of the Tucson location. All operations and associates will be transitioned into the HEG organization. "Through these partnerships, we are merging institutions that highly value what quality education means, which will result in an even better customer experience and the ability to meet the constantly growing need for skilled real estate professionals in Arizona," says Nate Hoelzen, president of Arizona School of Real Estate & Business. The unification of ASREB and Hogan gives HEG over 85% of the Arizona market share and will offer students and professionals wider access to leading real estate, mortgage, and appraisal education programs, industry experts, and tools to help them stay ahead of an ever-changing market. This partnership aligns with Hondros Education Group's business plan that includes expansion through meaningful acquisitions and strategic partnerships. About Hondros Education Group Hondros Education Group is a leading national provider of professional education. With over 50 years of experience, HEG has educated over one million students through its family of brands made up of Hondros College, Arizona School of Real Estate & Business, Hondros Learning, CompuCram, Learn Mortgage, and Hondros College of Business. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Hondros Education Group offers online and in-classroom courses, exam prep solutions, and textbooks for the real estate, mortgage, appraisal, insurance, and home inspection industries. For more information, visit hondroseducationgroup.com. About Arizona School of Real Estate & Business Arizona School of Real Estate & Business has offered licensing courses for the real estate, mortgage, home inspection, appraisal, and insurance industries for the past 50 years. The school also supports a leading industry publication, featuring national and local expert writers and columnists. ASREB's classroom courses are available in Scottsdale, Gilbert, Glendale/Peoria, Prescott, Surprise, and Tucson, as well as online renewal courses tailored for Arizona licensees. For more information, visit asreb.com. Name: Sarah Irvin Clark, Irvin PR Phone: 614-296-4057 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Hondros Education Group Related Links http://hondroseducationgroup.com LONDON, November 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ICIS, the world's largest petrochemical market information provider, today announced that the independent assurance review of its price reporting business has been successfully completed for the sixth year running. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/619935/ICIS_Logo.jpg ) The Price Reporting Agency (PRA) principles are set out by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) to ensure that commodity benchmark price reporting meets the highest standards. "ICIS has provided pricing intelligence for over three decades and is fully committed to maintaining the highest standards when producing market reports. We have strong benchmark positions which are trusted and relied upon in markets we operate around the globe, for which we must ensure truthful, honest and unbiased reporting," said Rob Kolkman, Managing Director of ICIS. "I am delighted that ICIS' continued commitment and hard work is reflected by our successful completion of the IOSCO Commodity PRA assurance review for the sixth year," Kolkman said. The areas assured by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) include governance structures, controls, maintenance of Editorial integrity, and conflict management processes in relation to the creation of commodity benchmark price assessments. A full report detailing how ICIS has met and satisfied the IOSCO PRA Principles can be found here. This is accompanied by PwC's findings following an independent review of ICIS processes and policies to provide Reasonable and Limited Assurance conclusions. "We will continue to actively demonstrate consistently high standards across our business. Our customers and wider stakeholders can also continue to have complete confidence in our internal controls, price calculations and robust formation processes," Kolkman added. Find out more about ICIS benchmarks About ICIS ICIS is the world's largest petrochemical market information provider, with divisions spanning energy and fertilizers. Our aim is to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering valuable information and analytics tools which enable our customers to identify and react to opportunities in markets which are constantly evolving. We have more than 30 years' experience of providing pricing intelligence and news, forecast data, market analytics and independent consulting to buyers, sellers and analysts. With a global staff of more than 600, ICIS has employees based in London, Houston, New York, Singapore, Dubai, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Mumbai, Tokyo, Karlsruhe, and Milan. ICIS's team of journalists is engaged in reporting market prices and news, and ICIS is fully committed to upholding the highest journalistic principles of verification, corroboration and authentication. ICIS has a compliance framework that along with its methodologies and business processes adheres to the requirements of the IOSCO PRA Principles. ICIS is a division of Reed Business Information, part of RELX Group. About Reed Business Information Reed Business Information provides information, analytics and data to business professionals worldwide. Our strong global products and services hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day. RBI is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professional customers across industries. About RELX Group RELX Group is a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs about 30,000 people of whom almost half are in North America. The shares of RELX PLC, the parent company, are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX. The market capitalisation is approximately 30.2bn, 34.5bn, $39.3bn. For further information please contact: Christiana Bello RBI Group Compliance Officer M: +44-7827-231-103 T: +44-2079-111-433 E: [email protected] SOURCE ICIS BENGALURU, India, November 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Interns rate InStep highly for opportunities to work on interesting projects, diversity and work culture Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced that its global internship program, InStep, has been ranked number 1 in the best overall internship category by Vault.com's latest survey on Top Internships for 2019. InStep, also earned the first position in the best consulting internship category, second position in the compensation and benefits category, seventh position in the quality of life and employment prospects categories and tenth position in the career development category. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg ) A fully paid international internship program, InStep annually selects around 140 students from the top 100 universities globally to work on projects across business units and business enabling functions. Interns with technical backgrounds are offered opportunities to work on real-time STEM projects in digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data, cloud computing, data security and Internet of things (IoT) among others. For the ratings, Vault surveyed more than 13,000 interns, past and present, from over 120 internship programs about their internship experiences. Respondents were asked to rate their experiences in terms of quality of life, full-time employment prospects, compensation and benefits, career development, and diversity. These ratings were averaged to determine an overall score for each program. "Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of InStep, this recognition validates our continuous effort to nurture an ecosystem that encourages and guides young talent to realize their dreams," said Pravin Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys. "Innovation is at the heart of all we do at Infosys and InStep is one of the foremost initiatives that champions this endeavor. The program aims to provide an unparalleled internship experience to students from across geographies and allows them to collaborate with experts from the industry on cutting-edge research projects." The Editors at Vault said, "Vault's internship rankings are based on the ratings of actual interns and help students identify the best internship programs. This year, above all other internship programs, Infosys InStep ranked as the best overall internship. Its interns rated the firm's internship program higher, on average, than all other participating internship programs in categories such as career development, employment prospects, and quality of life." About Vault Vault is the most comprehensive resource for employer, university, and internship program rankings, ratings and insight. Vault's influential rankings and reviews are sourced from directed surveys of professionals and students, and evaluate companies, schools, and internships in terms of prestige, best place to work, diversity, quality of life, compensation, and other categories. Vault provides users with in-depth information on employers, industries, interviews, and available jobs and internships. In addition, Vault partners with employers to help build their brands and assist with recruiting efforts, as well as with universities to help their students with employment placement and career selection. About Infosys Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over three decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. Visit http://www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this press release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018. These filings are available at http://www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law. SOURCE Infosys Kicking off Prematurity Awareness Month, consumers will now have easy access to a top-performing product line, which has long-served preemie families and healthcare professionals exclusively in NICUs in top hospitals across America. The website also serves as a resource for information, tips, tricks and learnings to support healthy skin and mindful touch. "I've been working with preemies since I was 19-years old and have a deep understanding on the impact that touch has on them and their delicate skin," says BEB Organic founder, Kim Walls. "BEB Organic has been a passion project of mine and I'm thrilled that it has become a vehicle for treating the special needs of preemies, educating families about the opportunity to connect through mindful touch. We also created our Ambassadors of Touch program to provide families with financial support to stay with their babies in the NICU." The BEB Organic line is comprised of a complete ritual for treating preemie challenges like baby acne, scars, dehydration and heat loss. The full product offering, ideal for any sensitive skin, includes Healing Gel, Diaper Balm, Bubbly Wash, Nourishing Oil and Silky Cream using key ingredients like rose and probiotics throughout, which are proven to help balance pH levels of skin, treat inflammation and more. BEB Organic Healing Gel - $64.00 Best used for: Preemie Baby Acne, Inflammation & Irritation Key ingredient sources: arnica, cypress, elderberry, microbiota, myrrh FDA registered to safely treat sensitive & premature baby skin problems like baby acne, inflamed, bothered skin. BEB Organic Bubbly Wash - $72.00 Best used for: Bath Time, Preemie Skincare Key ingredient sources: aloe vera, emollient-coconut, maidenhair, marigold, orange Specialized skincare for, NICU, premature babies & extra sensitive skin. BEB Organic Nourishing Oil - $52.00 Best used for: Touch, Massage, Preemies Key ingredient sources: cranberry, emollient-coconut, rosehip, sunflower Nurtures premature and extra sensitive skin with nutrient rich concentrates to support the health and recovery of a magical touch. BEB Organic Silky Cream - $68.00 Best used for: Dry Skin Commonly Seen on NICU and Premature babies Key ingredient sources: avocado, cucumber, flax, green tea, rosehip Restores & maintains healthy skin tone with specialized care for premature baby's dry, flaky skin. BEB Organic Diaper Balm - $42.00 Best used for: Rash Cream for Preemies, NICU Key ingredient sources: geranium, green tea, marigold, occlusive-coconut, sweet potato Healing protection that's specialized for extra sensitive & premature baby skin, solving rash & chafed skin problems. In addition to BEB Organic individual products, the brand will offer gift bundles for new families, including the Weekender Set, Mighty Fighter Set, We've Got This Set and Rising Star Set which all cater to varying skincare needs, and make the perfect gift for any family, but especially those in need of a NICU care package. BEB Organic offers free shipping and returns on all orders within the US. For more information on the brand, please visit www.beborganic.com. ABOUT BEB ORGANIC Over twenty years ago, while working with preemies, BEB Organic founder and longtime product formulator and skincare professional, Kim Walls, discovered a need amongst parents and NICU nurses for a line that delivered the healing power of touch needed for babies with especially sensitive skin. After Walls' extensive research and studies in touch therapy, the idea for BEB Organic came to life: to be a health-filled skincare brand that would serve preemie families by providing education to both parents and healthcare professionals. The brand has since entered a standing partnership with DandleLion Medical to offer free training to health professionals, as well as in-hospital support and access, to its specialized skincare. BEB Organic is also gearing up to work with Miracle Babies, a non-profit organization that offers financial support to NICU families throughout their hospital stays. With its new consumer endeavor, BEB Organic furthers its mission to share the healing power of touch with not only preemies and their families, but the world. SOURCE BEB Organic Related Links http://www.beborganic.com GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Concordia Maritime welcomes you to participate in a teleconference/ audio transmission November 8 2018, at 03.00 pm CET. The Interim Report for Q3 2018 (published November 8 2018) will be presented and questions answered. Presiding: Kim Ullman, CEO Ola Helgesson, CFO The teleconference will be available at: UK: +442030089802 SE: +46856642696 US: +18558315946 To access the audio transmission, please click on the link below: https://tv.streamfabriken.com/concordia-maritime-q3-2018 Questions can be posed verbally via the teleconference, or in writing via the audio transmission. Participants will subsequently also have the opportunity to review the Interim Report for Q3 2018 as a recorded version on Concordia Maritime's website, under Investor Relations. CONTACT: Kim Ullman CEO Concordia Maritime AB Tel +46-31855003 Mobile +46-704855003 Email [email protected] Ola Helgesson CFO Concordia Maritime AB Tel +46-31-855009 Mobile +46-704-855009 Email [email protected] This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/concordia-maritime/r/invitation-to-teleconference-audio-transmission,c2663891 The following files are available for download: SOURCE Concordia Maritime BAODING, China, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- IT Tech Packaging, Inc. (NYSE MKT: ITP) ("IT Tech Packaging," "ITP" or the "Company"), a leading manufacturer and distributor of diversified paper products in North China, today announced that it will release its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2018, on Thursday, November 8, 2018, after the close of market trading. The Company's management will host a conference call to discuss its third quarter 2018 unaudited financial results at 8:00 am US Eastern Time (5:00 am US Pacific Time/9:00 pm Beijing Time) on Friday, November 9, 2018. Access details are provided below. Earnings Conference Call To attend the conference call, please dial in using the information below. When prompted upon dialing-in, please provide the conference ID or ask for the "IT Tech Packaging Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call." Date: Friday, November 9, 2018 Time: 8:00 am ET International Toll Free: United States: +1-855-500-8701 Mainland China: 400-120-0654 Hong Kong: 800-906-606 International: +65-6713-5440 Conference ID: 7478584 This conference call will be broadcast live on the Internet and can be accessed by all interested parties at https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/yyayqega . Please access the link at least fifteen minutes prior to the start of the call to register, download, and install any necessary audio software. A playback will be available through 11:00 am ET on November 9, 2018 to 7:59 am ET on November 17, 2018. To listen, please dial+1-855-452-5696 if calling from the United States, or +61-290-034-211 if calling internationally. Use the passcode 7478584 to access the replay. About IT Tech Packaging, Inc. Founded in 1996, IT Tech Packaging, Inc. is a leading manufacturer and distributor of diversified paper products in North China. Using recycled paper as its primary raw material (with the exception of its tissue paper products), ITP produces and distributes three categories of paper products: corrugating medium paper, offset printing paper and tissue paper products. With production based in Baoding and Xingtai in North China's Hebei Province, ITP is located strategically close to the Beijing and Tianjin region, home to a growing base of industrial and manufacturing activities and one of the largest markets for paper products consumption in the country. ITP has been listed on the NYSE MKT since December 2009. Safe Harbor Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated, including risks outlined in the Company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's latest annual report on Form 10-K. All information provided in this press release speaks as of the date hereof. Except as otherwise required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements. For more information, please contact: Investor Relations: Tony Tian, CFA Weitian Group LLC Email: [email protected] Phone: +1-732-910-9692 SOURCE IT Tech Packaging, Inc. PATCHOGUE, N.Y., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of their commitment to helping businesses promote their brand, Long Island SEO company, fishbat, discusses four ways to increase website traffic. With how central the online world has become to most everyone's lives, the business world is reliant now more than ever before on effective digital marketing. A company's website is the central hub for their online presence, and the difference between light and heavy traffic to the site can be like night and day in terms of sales. Discussed below are four ways that businesses can increase traffic to their website and effectively secure more sales and a larger market presence. Search Engine Optimization. Perhaps the biggest determining factor when it comes to the amount of traffic any website receives is how well the pages are optimized for search engines. While its possible visitors will visit a company's website directly - or perhaps through clicking a paid advertisement - the vast majority of traffic for most businesses comes from organic search traffic. Customers are far more likely to search for terms related to what they are seeking rather than for a specific company or brand, and businesses need to design their websites in a way that allows for favorable positioning in web searches. Proper keyword research and density can make a world of difference when it comes to traffic. Take Advantage of Social Media. When the topic of marketing through social media comes up, many people immediately think of paid advertisements. While it's true that a well-crafted ad on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram can be an effective way to bring users to a website, simply maintaining a company presence on social media can be incredibly effective at getting the brand in front of more eyes. Learn the ins and outs of each social network, as each platform requires slightly different techniques in order to best take advantage of all the tools they have to offer. Hashtags in particular are a great way for brands to get noticed for specific keywords that would be dominated by industry giants on traditional search engines. Optimize For Mobile. More and more people are using their smartphones and tablets as their primary way to get online, and that trend shows no sign of slowing down. Google has also recognized this fact, and will heavily favor sites that are optimized for mobile viewing when displaying search results. Sometimes simply changing the website design around in order to be attractive and easy to access on every device can be just as effective as paying for advertisements or investing in SEO services. Monitor Website Analytics. All company websites should have some sort of analytics behind the scenes that give detailed information on traffic patterns. It may be difficult to see how to apply information like visitor demographics and bounce rate at first glance, but sometimes these metrics can be very telling of areas where the website can improve. Paying attention to the type of traffic that actually makes it to the company website in the present can give key insight on how to rope in more traffic in the future. Every website is unique, and while there are some general best practices when it comes to online marketing, companies need to take a more holistic approach that is tailored to suit their current needs. Analytics provide a real, actionable picture on the state of a website that can serve as a base for marketing strategies in the future. ABOUT FISHBAT fishbat Long Island SEO company is a full-service digital marketing firm that takes a holistic business approach to their clients' digital marketing programs. The fishbat team understands the importance of business principles just as well as the nuances of the latest digital technologies. fishbat offers every digital marketing service available from digital marketing research and planning to brand development to website and asset creation through social media management and search engine optimization programs - all custom calibrated for both B2B and B2C businesses. Media Contact: Scott Darrohn, fishbat Media, 855-347-4228, [email protected] SOURCE fishbat Related Links http://www.fishbat.com JERSEY CITY, N.J., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. (MTPA) today announced it is now accepting submissions of original visual and written artistic content from teens impacted by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Through a new initiative called ALSO US, MTPA is helping to raise awareness about the challenges teens face when a parent or other family member is diagnosed with ALS. An estimated 5,000 6,000 Americans are diagnosed with ALS each year.1 Teens who have a parent with ALS can experience emotional challenges and may need support to cope with such an overwhelming disease.2 "When people consider the role of caregivers, they commonly think of a spouse or other adult," said Atsushi Fujimoto, President, MTPA. "However, when a person is diagnosed with ALS, they often have children, who may be quite involved in caring for the family member. This is why we are working to raise awareness about the impact of ALS on the whole family and want to provide teens a platform to express what they are going through." To participate in the ALSO US program, teens and young adults (ages 12 to 25) can submit a creative work to be featured at www.alsousart.com and/or a short essay describing why they want to receive guidance and mentoring from a creative expert to help bring their stories to life. Selected participants from the essay submissions will have the opportunity to work with one of the program's advisory partners, who are professionals in the fields of photography, graphic design, poetry and documentary film. Submissions will be accepted until January 22, 2019. "Teens who have a family member affected by ALS face a unique set of challenges as they take on many adult caregiving responsibilities while witnessing someone they love battling a horrific disease," said Jodi O'Donnell-Ames, President and Founder, Hope Loves Company, a non-profit that provides educational and emotional support to children and young adults who have or have had a loved one with ALS. "It's important to listen to the concerns and feelings of young adults and let them know they're not alone. It's important to me to support these teens emotionally and to encourage positive outlets by encouraging them to express thoughts and feelings through art." ALSO US Creative Experts Include: Bom5, Artist Graphic design artist from New York City who has experience working with children in grades K-12 in New York , Japan and several European countries Graphic design artist from who has experience working with children in grades K-12 in , and several European countries David Plakke , Photographer Photographer and videographer with extensive history shooting portraits, celebrity editorials and major events Photographer and videographer with extensive history shooting portraits, celebrity editorials and major events Jason Harvey , Filmmaker Founder and executive producer at Argonaut Films, a Brooklyn -based film production company Founder and executive producer at Argonaut Films, a -based film production company Wendy Angulo , Writer Writer, producer and curator who works to bring opportunities to the New York City literary community through writing, poetry and storytelling About ALS An estimated 5,000-6,000 Americans are diagnosed each year with ALS, a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.1,3 The majority of ALS patients die within two to five years of receiving a diagnosis, but progression of the disease can vary significantly.4 About Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. Based in Jersey City, N.J., Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. (MTPA) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation's (MTPC) 100 percent owned U.S. holding company, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Holdings America, Inc. MTPA is dedicated to delivering innovative products that address the unmet medical needs of patients in North America. It was established by MTPC to commercialize approved pharmaceutical products in North America with plans to expand its product line through collaborations with partners. For more information, please visit www.mt-pharma-america.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Overview of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, which was founded in 1678, has its headquarters in Doshomachi, Osaka, which is the birthplace of Japan's pharmaceutical industry. With business centered on ethical pharmaceuticals, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma is a well-established company and has the longest history of any listed company in Japan.5 In accordance with the corporate philosophy of "contributing to the healthier lives of people around the world through the creation of pharmaceuticals," the Company formulated the key concept of Open Up the Future under the Medium-Term Management Plan 2016-2020. Through the discovery of drugs that address unmet medical needs, centered on its priority disease areas autoimmune diseases, diabetes and kidney diseases, central nervous system diseases, and vaccines Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma will strive to contribute to the health of patients around the world. MTPC is the parent company of MTPA. For more information, go to http://www.mt-pharma.co.jp/ . Media inquiries: Debbie Etchison 908-340-8578 [email protected] 1 Marin B, Boumediene F, Logroscino G, et al. (2016). Variation in worldwide incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a meta-analysis. Int J Epidemiol, 00:1-18. 2 Calvo V, Bianco F, Benelli E, et al. (2015) Impact on children of a parent with ALS: a case-control study. Frontiers in Psychology. 6:288. 3 National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Information Page. https://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/all-disorders/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis-als-information-page. Accessed April 12, 2017. 4 Mehta P, Kaye W, Bryan L, et al. (2016). Prevalence of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis United States, 20122013. MMWR Surveill Summ; 65(No. SS-8):112. 5 Research by TOKYO SHOKO RESEARCH, LTD. SOURCE Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. Related Links http://www.mt-pharma-america.com HOUSTON, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Myrtle Consulting Group, a leading operations consultancy driving operational transformation, announced today that it has been recognized as one of 2018's fastest-growing consulting firms by Consulting magazine. Myrtle ranked 17th on the annual global ranking, which celebrates the industry's top 65 movers and shakers based on three-year revenue growth. With a revenue growth rate of 226 percent Myrtle was also the fastest-growing Texas-based company on the list. "Myrtle's growth is a direct reflection of our team and we wouldn't be on this list or where we are today without their hard work and dedication," said Edwin Bosso, Myrtle founder and CEO. "We're honored to be recognized by Consulting magazine as a rapidly growing firm and look forward to even greater success as we move into 2019." Myrtle has been driving operational transformation in partnership with global manufacturing organizations since 2012 and has built a team with decades of experience in reducing costs, increasing yield, improving asset utilization and boosting labor productivity. In addition to this recognition as one of the world's fastest-growing firms, Myrtle was also recognized for the third consecutive year as one of the fastest-growing companies in America by Inc. magazine. "With this type of growth, there's absolutely no doubt these 65 consulting firms are shaking up the industry from the bottom upwith growth comes opportunitiesand they are the profession's Fastest Growing Firms for 2018," said Joseph Kornik, publisher and editor-in-chief of Consulting magazine. "This recognition and awardConsulting's Fastest Growing Firmsis aimed squarely at these up-and-coming firms that all too often fly below the radar because they're not the biggest or the best-known firms. We want to shine a light on these firms because they are the future of consulting." About Myrtle Consulting Group Myrtle Consulting Group drives operational transformation within manufacturing, processing and distribution organizations. Using a practical, needs-based approach, Myrtle incorporates values, methodologies, and technologies into custom solutions toward specific customer challenges that improve operational performance and generate lasting business transformation. Learn more at www.myrtlegroup.com. Media Contact: Jenn Pratt Carabiner Communications 404.655.2273 [email protected] SOURCE Myrtle Consulting Group Related Links http://myrtlegroup.com WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Showcasing NASA's long-standing partnership with Bermuda in support of human spaceflight and space exploration, NASA formally dedicated its upgraded Bermuda Tracking Station Monday, Nov. 5, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the station's site on Cooper's Island Nature Reserve. "Bermuda has long been a vital strategic partner to NASA going back to the earliest days of human spaceflight," said United States Consul General Constance Dierman. "Today's dedication ceremony further strengthens that partnership in support of NASA's goals to take the next giant leap in exploration and discovery." The site, refurbished as part of a $5.3 million renovation and outfitting project, supports tracking, telemetry, command and control of launches from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. "Our Bermuda Tracking Station will provide critical launch support for missions from the Wallops and Eastern Ranges as we look forward to sending humans to the Moon and forge ahead to Mars and beyond," said Sam Scimemi, director of the International Space Station division at NASA Headquarters. Most notably, the tracking station, operated by NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, supports International Space Station cargo resupply missions and will support upcoming commercial crew launches to the orbital laboratory and NASA's upcoming integrated launches of the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft on missions to the Moon. Additional launches the station will support include NASA's upcoming Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite launch, Minotaur launches and slated flights of Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle from Wallops. "As operations increase from both the Wallops and Eastern Ranges, the Bermuda Tracking Station will continue to provide integral range services, such as tracking and telemetry, to meet the needs of government and commercial sector access to space," said Bill Wrobel, Wallops director. NASA began tracking operations in Bermuda in the 1960s in support of Project Mercury, and operations continued well into the Space Shuttle program. With the development of space-based tracking systems, NASA closed the Bermuda Tracking Station in 1997. NASA signed an agreement in 2012 to reestablish the Bermuda Tracking Station with the commencement of commercial cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station, initially using mobile range tracking and telemetry instruments. The agreement has since been extended to 2026, and the range instrumentation is now part of a permanent facility, dedicated today, on Cooper's Island Nature Reserve. In addition to launch activities, Bermuda has actively participated in NASA's Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program since 2014. GLOBE is a worldwide hands-on primary and secondary school-based science and education program that aims to inspire the next generation of global scientists through research in environmental and Earth system science. See images at https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-renovates-dedicates-bermuda-tracking-station. SOURCE NASA Related Links http://www.nasa.gov HOUSTON, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Parker Drilling Company (NYSE: PKD) today announced results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018, which included a net loss of $71.9 million, or a $7.70 loss per common share on revenues of $123.4 million. Included in the reported net loss is an impairment loss of $44.0 million. Excluding the impairment loss, the adjusted net loss was $2.99 per common share. Third quarter Adjusted EBITDA was $15.0 million. Gary Rich, the Company's Chairman, President and CEO, said, "We continue to see early signs of recovery in several end markets, with our U.S. and International Rental Tools Services segments performing very well again in the third quarter. While the current industry environment for our Drilling Services business remains challenging, we are cautiously optimistic that the growing number of tendering opportunities will translate into increased utilization in select markets where we operate. With that said, we do not anticipate a meaningful recovery in our barge markets; therefore, we felt it was appropriate to assess the carrying value of these particular assets and record an impairment loss for the quarter." Mr. Rich added, "We continue to be judicious with respect to capital spending, and we are giving priority to those opportunities with high return on capital and quick cash payback. Our Rental Tools Services business remains the top focus for our incremental growth capex due to its growing customer demand and ability to meet our capital return requirements. As we have mentioned before, we are proactively working with outside advisers to evaluate multiple options to address our capital structure in light of upcoming debt maturities, and today we disclosed certain material non-public information related to this evaluation. Our third quarter G&A expense was materially higher because of the professional fees we incurred as a result of this effort." Third Quarter Review Parker Drilling's revenues for the 2018 third quarter, compared with the 2018 second quarter, increased 4.0 percent to $123.4 million from $118.6 million. Operating gross margin excluding depreciation and amortization expense (gross margin) increased 9.2 percent to $29.5 million from $27.0 million and gross margin as a percentage of revenues was 23.9 percent, compared with 22.7 percent for the 2018 second quarter. Drilling Services For the Company's Drilling Services business, which is comprised of the U.S. (Lower 48) Drilling and International & Alaska Drilling segments, third quarter revenues decreased 7.6 percent to $52.3 million from $56.6 million for the 2018 second quarter. Gross margin decreased 125.4 percent to a $0.9 million loss from $3.6 million gain, and gross margin as a percentage of revenues was negative 1.8 percent, compared with positive 6.4 percent for the prior period. Contracted backlog was approximately $238.9 million at the end of the third quarter, compared with $215.5 million at the end of the second quarter. U.S. (Lower 48) Drilling U.S. (Lower 48) Drilling segment revenues increased 38.0 percent to $4.5 million from $3.3 million for the 2018 second quarter. Gross margin improved 16.5 percent to a $1.2 million loss, compared with a loss of $1.4 million in the second quarter. Revenues and gross margin benefited from a favorable mix in barge drilling activity and the recent award of an O&M contract offshore California. International & Alaska Drilling International & Alaska Drilling segment revenues decreased 10.4 percent to $47.8 million from $53.3 million for the 2018 second quarter. Gross margin decreased 95.0 percent to $0.3 million, compared with $5.0 million in the second quarter. The decreases in revenues and gross margin were primarily due to one of our rigs in Alaska transitioning to a minimal standby rate after completing its work in early July. However, improvement in our Sakhalin Island, Russia and offshore Canada operations helped to mitigate the gross margin compression. Rental Tools Services For the Company's Rental Tools Services business, which is comprised of the U.S. Rental Tools and International Rental Tools segments, third quarter revenues increased 14.6 percent to $71.1 million from $62.0 million for the second quarter. Gross margin increased 30.1 percent to $30.4 million from $23.3 million, and gross margin as a percentage of revenues was 42.7 percent compared with 37.6 percent for the prior period. U.S. Rental Tools U.S. Rental Tools segment revenues increased 21.1 percent to $50.9 million from $42.1 million for the 2018 second quarter. Gross margin increased 27.4 percent to $29.0 million compared with gross margin of $22.8 million in the second quarter. The increase in revenues resulted primarily from strong activity and volume in U.S. land markets. Gross margin increased as a result of incremental revenues, combined with lower incremental operating costs. International Rental Tools International Rental Tools segment revenues increased 1.1 percent to $20.2 million from $19.9 million for the 2018 second quarter. Gross margin increased 133.2 percent to $1.4 million compared with gross margin of $0.6 million in the second quarter. Revenue and gross margin improvements resulted largely from the continued demand for our tubular running services. Consolidated General and Administrative expenses were $14.5 million for the 2018 third quarter, up from $8.3 million for the 2018 second quarter. The increase was largely due to professional fees. Total liquidity at the end of the quarter was $140.3 million, consisting of $81.7 million in cash and cash equivalents and $58.6 million available under our revolving credit facility. Capital expenditures in the third quarter were $19.5 million. Year to date through September 30, 2018, capital expenditures were $52.0 million. Form 8-K Filing In addition, Parker Drilling today is filing on Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission certain materials that it previously shared with one of its largest equity holders. These materials were provided by the Company under a time-limited non-disclosure agreement with this investor in order to facilitate proactive discussions regarding the Company's capital structure. The Company continues to actively engage in discussions with other stakeholders regarding its capital structure, well ahead of future debt maturities, and has ample liquidity to continue serving customers without interruption while it continues to evaluate opportunities to best position the business for the long term and across industry cycles. Conference Call Parker Drilling has scheduled a conference call for 10:00 a.m. Central Time (11:00 a.m. Eastern Time) on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, to review third quarter results. The call will be available by telephone by dialing (+1) (412) 902-0003 and asking for the Parker Drilling Third Quarter Conference Call. The call can also be accessed through the Investor Relations section of the Company's website. A replay of the call can be accessed on the Company's website for 12 months and will be available by telephone through November 13, 2018 at (+1) (201) 612-7415, conference ID 13684492#. Cautionary Statement This press release contains certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements in this press release other than statements of historical facts addressing activities, events or developments the Company expects, projects, believes, or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our evaluation of options to enhance our capital structure in light of upcoming debt maturities, anticipated future financial or operational results; the outlook for rental tools utilization and rig utilization and dayrates; the results of past capital expenditures; scheduled start-ups of rigs; general industry conditions such as the demand for drilling and the factors affecting demand; competitive advantages such as technological innovation; future operating results of the Company's rigs, rental tools operations and projects under management; future capital expenditures; expansion and growth opportunities; acquisitions or joint ventures; asset purchases and sales; successful negotiation and execution of contracts; scheduled delivery of drilling rigs or rental equipment for operation; the Company's financial position; changes in utilization or market share; outcomes of legal proceedings; compliance with credit facility and indenture covenants; and similar matters. These statements are based on certain assumptions made by the Company based on management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, anticipated future developments and other factors believed to be appropriate. Although the Company believes its expectations stated in this press release are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those implied or expressed by the forward-looking statements. These include risks relating to changes in worldwide economic and business conditions, fluctuations in oil and natural gas prices, compliance with existing laws and changes in laws or government regulations, the failure to realize the benefits of, and other risks relating to, acquisitions, the risk of cost overruns, our ability to refinance our debt and other important factors, many of which could adversely affect market conditions, demand for our services, and costs, and all or any one of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. For more information, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report filed on Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other public filings and press releases. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This news release contains non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G. A reconciliation of each such measure to its most directly comparable U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) financial measure, together with an explanation of why management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors, is provided in the following tables. Company Description Parker Drilling provides drilling services and rental tools to the energy industry. The Company's Drilling Services business serves operators in the inland waters of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico utilizing Parker Drilling's barge rig fleet and in select U.S. and international markets and harsh-environment regions utilizing Company-owned and customer-owned equipment. The Company's Rental Tools Services business supplies premium equipment and well services to operators on land and offshore in the U.S. and international markets. More information about Parker Drilling can be found on the Company's website at www.parkerdrilling.com. Contact: Nick Henley, Director, Investor Relations, (+1) (281) 406-2082, [email protected]. PARKER DRILLING COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED CONDENSED BALANCE SHEETS (Dollars in Thousands) September 30, 2018 December 31, 2017 (Unaudited) ASSETS Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 81,728 $ 141,549 Accounts and notes receivable, net of allowance for bad debts 137,901 122,511 Rig materials and supplies 34,498 31,415 Other current assets 27,673 22,361 Total current assets 281,800 317,836 Property, plant and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation 550,469 625,771 Goodwill 6,708 6,708 Intangible assets, net 5,398 7,128 Deferred income taxes 1,811 1,284 Other noncurrent assets 22,995 31,552 Total assets $ 869,181 $ 990,279 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities: Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 103,241 $ 99,246 Accrued income taxes 4,212 4,430 Total current liabilities 107,453 103,676 Long-term debt, net of unamortized debt issuance costs 579,289 577,971 Other long-term liabilities 12,208 12,433 Long-term deferred tax liability 60 78 Total stockholders' equity 170,171 296,121 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 869,181 $ 990,279 PARKER DRILLING COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED CONDENSED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Dollars in Thousands, Except Per Share Data) (Unaudited) Three Months Three Months Ended September 30, Ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 Revenues $ 123,395 $ 118,308 $ 118,603 Expenses: Operating expenses 93,943 88,120 91,634 Depreciation and amortization 27,520 30,067 27,136 121,463 118,187 118,770 Total operating gross margin (loss) 1,932 121 (167) General and administrative expense (14,495) (7,033) (8,288) Loss on impairment (43,990) Gain (loss) on disposition of assets, net 9 97 (478) Total operating income (loss) (56,544) (6,815) (8,933) Other income (expense): Interest expense (11,350) (11,067) (11,197) Interest income 23 128 30 Other (709) (638) (1,191) Total other income (expense) (12,036) (11,577) (12,358) Income (loss) before income taxes (68,580) (18,392) (21,291) Income tax expense (benefit) 2,371 1,919 1,586 Net income (loss) (70,951) (20,311) (22,877) Less: Convertible preferred stock dividend 906 906 907 Net income (loss) available to common stockholders $ (71,857) $ (21,217) $ (23,784) Basic earnings (loss) per common share: (1) $ (7.70) $ (2.30) $ (2.56) Diluted earnings (loss) per common share: (1) $ (7.70) $ (2.30) $ (2.56) Number of common shares used in computing earnings per share: Basic (1) 9,334,390 9,220,001 9,292,224 Diluted (1) 9,334,390 9,220,001 9,292,224 (1) The Company's 1-for-15 reverse stock split was effective when markets opened on July 27, 2018. All share and per share data have been retroactively restated for all periods presented. PARKER DRILLING COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED CONDENSED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Dollars in Thousands, Except Per Share Data) (Unaudited) Nine Months Ended September 30, 2018 2017 Revenues $ 351,673 $ 326,186 Expenses: Operating expenses 277,111 263,575 Depreciation and amortization 83,205 93,251 360,316 356,826 Total operating gross margin (loss) (8,643) (30,640) General and administrative expense (28,984) (20,576) Loss on impairment (43,990) Gain (loss) on disposition of assets, net (126) (368) Total operating income (loss) (81,743) (51,584) Other income (expense): Interest expense (33,787) (33,032) Interest income 76 160 Other (1,609) 452 Total other income (expense) (35,320) (32,420) Income (loss) before income taxes (117,063) (84,004) Income tax expense (benefit) 5,561 6,004 Net income (loss) (122,624) (90,008) Less: Convertible preferred stock dividend 2,719 2,145 Net income (loss) available to common stockholders $ (125,343) $ (92,153) Basic earnings (loss) per common share: (1) $ (13.49) $ (10.20) Diluted earnings (loss) per common share: (1) $ (13.49) $ (10.20) Number of common shares used in computing earnings per share: Basic (1) 9,292,858 9,030,345 Diluted (1) 9,292,858 9,030,345 (1) The Company's 1-for-15 reverse stock split was effective when markets opened on July 27, 2018. All share and per share data have been retroactively restated for all periods presented. PARKER DRILLING COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARIES SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA (Dollars in Thousands) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended September 30, June 30, 2018 2017 2018 Revenues: Drilling Services: U.S. (Lower 48) Drilling $ 4,530 $ 4,585 $ 3,283 International and Alaska Drilling 47,770 62,726 53,302 Total Drilling Services 52,300 67,311 56,585 Rental Tools Services: U.S. Rental Tools 50,944 35,677 42,083 International Rental Tools 20,151 15,320 19,935 Total Rental Tools Services 71,095 50,997 62,018 Total revenues 123,395 118,308 118,603 Operating expenses: Drilling Services: U.S. (Lower 48) Drilling 5,701 5,052 4,686 International and Alaska Drilling 47,520 50,345 48,278 Total Drilling Services 53,221 55,397 52,964 Rental Tools Services: U.S. Rental Tools 21,949 16,086 19,326 International Rental Tools 18,773 16,637 19,344 Total Rental Tools Services 40,722 32,723 38,670 Total operating expenses 93,943 88,120 91,634 Operating gross margin (loss), excluding depreciation and amortization: Drilling Services: U.S. (Lower 48) Drilling (1,171) (467) (1,403) International and Alaska Drilling 250 12,381 5,024 Total Drilling Services (921) 11,914 3,621 Rental Tools Services: U.S. Rental Tools 28,995 19,591 22,757 International Rental Tools 1,378 (1,317) 591 Total Rental Tools Services 30,373 18,274 23,348 Total Operating gross margin (loss), excluding depreciation and amortization 29,452 30,188 26,969 Depreciation and amortization (27,520) (30,067) (27,136) Total operating gross margin (loss) $ 1,932 $ 121 $ (167) PARKER DRILLING COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARIES ADJUSTED EBITDA (Dollars in Thousands) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended September 30, 2018 June 30, 2018 March 31, 2018 December 31, 2017 September 30, 2017 Net income (loss) available to common stockholders $ (71,857) $ (23,784) $ (29,702) $ (29,599) $ (21,217) Interest expense 11,350 11,197 11,240 11,194 11,067 Income tax expense (benefit) 2,371 1,586 1,604 3,036 1,919 Depreciation and amortization 27,520 27,136 28,549 29,122 30,067 Convertible preferred stock dividend 906 907 906 906 906 EBITDA (29,710) 17,042 12,597 14,659 22,742 Adjustments: Loss on impairment 43,990 Interest income and other 686 1,161 (314) 242 510 (Gain) loss on disposition of assets, net (9) 478 (343) 2,483 (97) Provision for reduction in carrying value of certain assets 1,938 Special items (2) 3,033 Adjusted EBITDA (1) $ 14,957 $ 18,681 $ 11,940 $ 22,355 $ 23,155 (1) We believe Adjusted EBITDA is an important measure of operating performance because it allows management, investors and others to evaluate and compare our core operating results from period to period by removing the impact of our capital structure (interest expense from our outstanding debt), asset base (depreciation and amortization), remeasurement of foreign currency transactions, tax consequences, impairment and other special items. Special items include items impacting operating expenses that management believes detract from an understanding of normal operating performance. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure to review current period operating performance and period to period comparisons. Our Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to a similarly titled measure of another company because other entities may not calculate EBITDA in the same manner. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measures of financial performance under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to operating income or loss, net income or loss, cash flows provided by or used in operating, investing and financing activities, or other income or cash flow statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP. (2) For the three months ended December 31, 2017, special items include a $3.0 million write-off of inventory associated with select international drilling assets. This item is recorded in operating expenses in the Consolidated Statement Of Operations. PARKER DRILLING COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARIES RECONCILIATION OF ADJUSTED EARNINGS PER SHARE (Dollars in Thousands, except Per Share) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended September 30, June 30, 2018 2017 2018 Net income (loss) available to common stockholders $ (71,857) $ (21,217) $ (23,784) Diluted earnings (loss) per common share (2) $ (7.70) $ (2.30) $ (2.56) Adjustments: Loss on impairment $ 43,990 $ $ Net adjustments 43,990 Adjusted net income (loss) available to common stockholders(1) $ (27,867) $ (21,217) $ (23,784) Adjusted diluted earnings (loss) per common share (1) $ (2.99) $ (2.30) $ (2.56) (1) We believe Adjusted net income (loss) available to common stockholders and Adjusted diluted earnings (loss) per common share are useful financial measures for investors to assess and understand operating performance for period to period comparisons. Management views the adjustments to Net income (loss) available to common stockholders and Diluted earnings (loss) per common share to be items outside of the Company's normal operating results. Adjusted net income (loss) available to common stockholders and Adjusted diluted earnings (loss) per common share are not measures of financial performance under GAAP, and should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to Net income (loss) available to common stockholders or Diluted earnings (loss) per common share. (2) The Company's 1-for-15 reverse stock split was effective when markets opened on July 27, 2018. All share and per share data have been retroactively restated for all periods presented. SOURCE Parker Drilling Company Related Links http://www.parkerdrilling.com EL PASO, Texas, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Eight hundred El Paso families in need will receive enough food to supplement meals for a week plus daily essentials, thanks to a partnership between PepsiCo and Feed the Children. The event kicks off at 11 a.m. MDT at 9615 Dyer St., El Paso, TX . This is the first year PepsiCo and Feed the Children have partnered to help feed families in El Paso, where more than 28 percent of the population lives below the poverty line1. This event is part of a larger initiative between the two organizations to help feed communities in cities throughout the United States. The receiving families have been identified and preselected by the Destiny Family Christian Center. "We're very excited to bring our ongoing partnership with Feed the Children to El Paso for the first time this year," said Desiree Yzquierdo, sales zone director, PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division. "We are grateful for the opportunity to not only donate, but also interact with these families, volunteer and spend a day giving back. 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 and Destiny Family Christian Center," 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 15-pound box of personal-care items One box of AVON products Frito-Lay Variety Pack PepsiCo beverages Quaker Life Original Cereal Quaker Oatmeal Quaker Chewy Granola Bars Volunteers from PepsiCo and Destiny Family Christian Center will be onsite serving families and assisting with distribution at today's 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 childhood hunger. It is one of the leading U.S.-based charities and serves those in need in the U.S. and in 10 countries around the world. It provides food, education initiatives, essentials and disaster response. It operates five 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. It is accredited by GuideStar Exchange and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. Visit feedthechildren.org for more information. 1 http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-El-Paso-Texas.html SOURCE PepsiCo Related Links http://www.pepsico.com SINGAPORE, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Personetics, the leading provider of Self-Driving Finance solutions for the banking industry, is expanding its presence in Singapore to support the growing demand for its AI-powered solutions among Asia Pacific banks. Personetics is already partnering with several of the region's leading banks and system integrators, including Singapore-based United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) and Tokyo-based Fujitsu. To support a growing span of relationships with additional institutions in the region, the company is adding local resources, including technical support and field architects, to work with banks' teams on new Self-Driving Finance initiatives. According to Personetics Co-founder and CEO David Sosna, "Many large banks across the region are embarking on customer engagement initiatives that require advanced personalization and Self-Driving Finance capabilities. We also see more neo and challenger banks launched in the region. By placing more of our technical resources in the Singapore office, we will be able to provide our partners in the region with the expertise and best practices we have accumulated in our work with leading financial institutions worldwide." Personetics will also participate and showcase its Self-Driving Finance solutions at the upcoming Singapore Fintech Festival, which will be held November 12-14. To set up an appointment at the event, please contact [email protected]. About Personetics Personetics is the leading provider of customer-facing AI solution for financial services and the company behind the industry's first Self-Driving Finance platform. Harnessing the power of AI, Personetics' Self-Driving Finance solutions are used by the world's largest financial institutions to transform digital banking into the center of the customer's financial life providing real-time personalized insight and advice, automating financial decisions, and simplifying day-to-day money management. Serving over 50 million bank customers worldwide, Personetics has the largest direct customer impact of any AI solution provider in banking today. Personetics now counts among its customers 4 of the top 5 US banks and 6 of the top 12 banks in North America and Europe, as well as other leading banks throughout the world. Led by a team of seasoned FinTech entrepreneurs with a proven track record, Personetics is a rapidly growing company with offices in New York, London, Singapore and Tel Aviv. The company has been named a Gartner Cool Vendor, a Top Ten FinTech Company by KPMG, and a Top Ten Company to Watch by American Banker. For more information, visit http://personetics.com. Self-Driving Finance is a trademark of Personetics Technologies Ltd. SOURCE Personetics Polar Bear Week inspires people to care about polar bears and the Arctic ecosystem CHURCHILL, MB, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Snow, cold. polar bears: Polar Bear Week is here, November 4-10, 2018! Every year, Polar Bears International (PBI) hosts this awareness event to draw attention to polar bears and the threats to their sea ice home from a warming climate. Polar Bear Week coincides with the annual gathering of polar bears on the shores of Hudson Bay, where the bears wait for the sea ice to form so they can return to hunting seals. After months of living off their fat reserves, the bears congregate near Churchill in anticipation of freeze-up and a chance to feed again. During Polar Bear Week, PBI provides live Polar Bear Cams that let viewers see wild polar bears in their natural setting, a partnership with explore.org and Frontiers North Adventures. They also let people learn about polar bears and how they can help through Tundra Connections webcasts and live chats. "Polar Bear Week celebrates these iconic animals and their Arctic home," said Krista Wright, Executive Director of PBI. "Through our live cams and broadcasts, we inspire people to care about polar bears and the Arctic and to get involved in their conservation." As part of this outreach, viewers may see moms and cubs cuddling, hefty male bears wrestling, youngsters curiously exploring the tundra, or a sleepy bear hunkering down for an afternoon nap in the kelp beds. Scientists estimate that we could see dramatic declines in polar bear numbers by mid-century if we stay on a "business as usual" path with carbon emissions. Polar bears rely on Arctic sea ice for hunting their seal prey. As the global climate continues to warm, Arctic sea ice melts, threatening the polar bear's future. "This year's Polar Bear Week focuses on leveraging our power as citizens to effect change," says Geoff York, PBI's senior director of conservation. "The latest U.N. report on climate underscores the fact that action is needed now to reduce carbon emissions, for polar bears and for all of us. One of the most important things that each of us can do is to vote for leaders who support policy solutions." York cited Canada's new carbon pricing plan, with dividends returned to citizens, as an example of the leadership needed. As the only nonprofit organization dedicated solely to wild polar bears and Arctic sea ice, PBI educates the public about polar bears and the challenges they face. PBI's staff includes scientists who study wild polar bears and understand their ecology, habitat, and threats. The organization is a recognized leader in polar bear conservation. Outside of Polar Bear Week, PBI focuses on conservation efforts year-round and relies on global support to make the most impact. In addition to pushing for carbon-neutral policies and reducing their personal carbon footprints, people can take action by supporting community projects such as renewable energy options and environmentally friendly methods of transportation. They can also help by donating to help amplify Polar Bears International's reach on behalf of polar bears while supporting their research and on-the-ground conservation efforts or by symbolically adopting a polar bear. For more information, visit polarbearsinternational.org . About Polar Bears International Polar Bears International's mission is to conserve polar bears and the sea ice they depend on. Through media, science, and advocacy, we work to inspire people to care about the Arctic, the threats to its future, and the connection between this remote region and our global climate. For more information, visit www.polarbearsinternational.org. SOURCE Polar Bears International TORONTO, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Real estate disruptor, RuListing.com soared across the U.S., Australia and Canada, as Founder Susan Joynt switches gears to investment, heading into Property Portal Watch's November Conference in Madrid RuListing.com brings innovation to traditional real estate business models. October usage surged to 12,000 subscribers and 30,000 monthly site visitors with buyers and renters actively posting where they're looking for a home, and sellers are privately messaging them. With a LinkedIn-like concept for real estate, homeowners can connect with buyers and renters privately, ahead of advertising their house on the market. RuListing is the next wave of disruptors to hit the real estate industry and is now seeking strategic investors to leverage assets and drive continued in-market success. RuListing challenges second generation disruptors whose core revenue is derived from agent advertising and memberships. Topping $1B in 2017 revenue, 70% from Premier Agents, Zillow depends on 1.3M agents spending $9B U.S. on advertising annually. Gary Keller Chairman Keller Williams and Brad Inman Chairman Inman News, had a lively discussion on whether third generation tech enables agents, or disrupts second generation classifieds. Brad Inman reported, The lion roared: my talk with Gary Keller, since this round of real estate disruption remains hotly debated. Yet, transacting privately has held steady in the U.S. at 10-13% despite sell-side innovation. Joynt believes real estate is such a personal, high risk investment that "connecting buyers and sellers together privately is only the first step. People will continue to hire agents to facilitate the primary transaction." However, without the advertising expense, agents have more flexibility on fees. Mitula Group Chairman and industry visionary Simon Baker, insightfully encourages the real estate industry to explore beyond the primary transaction, shifting to secondary transactions and alternative monetization models. Mitula's 'getting closer to the transaction' strategy is on track for record Q3 2018 results. Service providers shifting toward secondary transactions, including lucrative financial and insurance services, now have RuListing's buy-sided database to geo-target ads and build a digital footprint. Joynt promotes acquiring both sides of a marketplace with this industry shift to position for the emergence of AI, blockchain and revolutionary new models of homeownership. As disruption unfolds, industry investment continues strong with Softbank's recent $400 million investment in OpenDoor led by Justin Wilson. Canada heats up with Purplebricks acquiring Comfree, Zillow in Canada and powerhouse Realtor.ca's, listedbyseller.ca. SOURCE RuListing Related Links rogers.com CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill has loomed over South African mining firms since 2014 and caused unwarranted uncertainty in a sector already suffering from rising costs and labour unrest. This uncertainty has hampered investor confidence in an industry that is the traditional backbone of the South African economy. "Regulatory uncertainty and the delay in resolution of concerns have harmed South Africa's mining sector, and the formal withdrawal of the bill is optimistically the first step towards legislative clarity," said Justin Malherbe, Consultant at Frost & Sullivan. Mining firms were understandably concerned about some of the vague stipulations made in the bill, which included requiring ministerial sign-off for minerals to be exported and allowing the minister to impose seemingly arbitrary conditions for the export of minerals. Concerns about the bill date back years, and the lack of resolution has made some points in the bill irrelevant to the current industry, contributing to the bill's withdrawal. "The importance of the mining sector to South Africa is well documented and although the country should be doing all it can to diversify the economy, this does not mean that a sector that has been so vital in the past should simply be neglected now," said Malherbe. Mining in South Africa is beset by a number of challenges, and the decision to remove the bill will potentially restore some of the sector's former vigour and help boost corporate tax revenues as well as employment levels. Although the withdrawal of the bill should be seen as a positive, it must be noted that this leaves mining legislation operating under the current Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act without amendment. Furthermore, the petroleum sector will be addressed directly with legislation framework dedicated to the sector. The current strategy of separating the regulation of the mining and petroleum sectors will need to be diligently followed to ensure sensible governance in both sectors. "South Africa relies significantly on coal, and firms such as Sasol have established themselves as global leaders in energy technology processes through their coal- and gas-to-liquid methods," said Malherbe. "The withdrawal of the bill could allow for the development of legislation for the petroleum industry, specifically for gas. South Africa has the potential to be a global leader in coal technologies, and investments into innovative processes such as UCG (underground coal gasification) among others were restrained by the bill." About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, collaborates 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, Frost & Sullivan has been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector, and the investment community. Contact: Donna Liedemann Corporate Communications Africa P: +27 21 680 3574 F: +27 21 680 3296 E: [email protected] T: @FrostSullivanSA http://www.frost.com SOURCE Frost & Sullivan Related Links http://www.frost.com BERWYN, Pa., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- RM LAW, P.C. announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of all persons or entities that purchased Philip Morris International Inc. ("Philip Morris" or the "Company") (NYSE: PM) common stock between July 26, 2016 and April 18, 2018, inclusive (the "Class Period"). Philip Morris shareholders may, no later than November 5, 2018, move the Court for appointment as a lead plaintiff of the Class. If you purchased shares of Philip Morris and would like to learn more about these claims or if you wish to discuss these matters and have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights, contact Richard A. Maniskas, Esquire toll-free at (844) 291-9299 or to sign up online, click here. This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Philip Morris is one of the largest and most recognizable cigarette and tobacco manufacturing companies in the world. The Complaint alleges that during the Class Period, Defendants emphasized a "wide array of benefits" of heat-not-burn products such as IQOS including the "potential to reduce the risk of smoking related diseases" and less harmful than cigarettes. However, Defendants' statements were materially false and misleading because Defendants failed to disclose that there were irregularities in the clinical experiments underpinning Philip Morris' applications to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") for IQOS in the United States. On news of a report detailing irregularities in the clinical trials underpinning the Company's FDA application, the Company's stock price fell $3.75 per share or 3.5 percent, to close at $104.37 per share on December 20, 2017. Then on January 25, 2018, it was reported that the FDA had recommended for the rejection of Philip Morris' bid to market IQOS as safer than traditional cigarettes in the United States. On this news, the Company's stock price fell $3.11 per share or 2.81 percent, to close at $107.49 per share on January 25, 2018. Concurrent with the FDA application for marketing IQOS in the United States, the Company was experiencing negative sales trends due to declining smoking percentages worldwide. During this period, Defendants were reassuring investors that these negative sales trends were being successfully offset by new sales initiatives and touted steady growth mainly attributed to the success of IQOS. However, Defendants failed to disclose (i) that Philip Morris was experiencing a faster decline in overall cigarette and e-cigarette (or heated tobacco) sales volumes than investors had been led to believe, (ii) that its much-lauded sales initiatives had stalled, and (iii) that it was experiencing adverse sales headwinds in key markets. Later, on April 19, 2018, Philip Morris announced disappointing results for the Company's first quarter of 2018. On this news, the Company's stock price fell $15.80 per share, or more than 15 percent, to close at $85.64 per share on April 19, 2018. If you are a member of the class, you may, no later than November 5, 2018, request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff of the class. A lead plaintiff is a representative party that acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member's claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Under certain circumstances, one or more class members may together serve as "lead plaintiff." Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. You may retain RM LAW, P.C. or other counsel of your choice, to serve as your counsel in this action. For more information regarding this, please contact RM LAW, P.C. (Richard A. Maniskas, Esquire) toll-free at (844) 291-9299 or by email at [email protected] or click here. For more information about class action cases in general or to learn more about RM LAW, P.C. please visit our website by clicking here. RM LAW, P.C. is a national shareholder litigation firm. RM LAW, P.C. is devoted to protecting the interests of individual and institutional investors in shareholder actions in state and federal courts nationwide. CONTACT: RM LAW, P.C. Richard A. Maniskas, Esquire 1055 Westlakes Dr., Ste. 300 Berwyn, PA 19312 484-324-6800 844-291-9299 [email protected] SOURCE RM LAW, P.C. Related Links http://www.rmclasslaw.com CHICAGO, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cabinet Makers Association (CMA) featured Savante Wine Cellars in their Fall 2018 issue of PROfiles magazine. Darryl Hogeback and his team create high-end wine cellars for clients in Colorado and beyond. When Hogeback talks about his work, it's obvious this is far more than a job for him. A wine cellar, he believes, is not really about storing the wine a client has collected; it's a home for the stories behind those bottles. Hogeback's projects are typically built around a storya trip to a vineyard in Napa or a wine discovered overseas. Infusing these stories into the cellar is the most enjoyable part of his work, Hogeback says. "I build the rooms not to get the 'wow' about how the room looks, but for the 'wow' the owners feel in knowing they have finally built a space devoted to their love of collecting wine," he says. Hogeback's wine cellars are intricate, incorporating details that he hope will be conversation-starters for years to come. As a small business owner, Hogeback appreciates the opportunities the CMA provides for him to talk with his peers about industry challenges. Hogeback shared the industry's current struggle is to educate the next generation about the rewards of a career in the trade. "Everyone is dealing with the same issue related to finding employees," he adds. "We have a lot of knowledge and skills to teach; it's just a matter of finding people who want to pursue this industry as a career." He hopes that young people realize woodworking offers a great future, reliable work, and a lot of satisfactionthe kind of satisfaction he has found in building wine cellars. "There's something powerful about building something with your hands," Hogeback shares. Read the full article: bit.ly/CMA-savante High resolution photos available by request. About the Cabinet Makers Association Celebrating 20 years, the CMA was incorporated in 1998 by a group of custom cabinetmakers who thought the small to mid-size shop needed to network and help each other grow profitably. Currently, membership is made up primarily of 20 or fewer employee operations, with the vast majority of those being 1-5 person shops. For more information, visit www.cabinetmakers.org. Contact: Amanda Conger (866) 562-2512 [email protected] SOURCE Cabinet Makers Association Related Links http://www.cabinetmakers.org BOSTON, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, welcomes the OPC Foundation recognition of industry efforts to bring interoperable communications to field level industrial operations. In the fast-changing industrial space, operations technology and information technology are becoming increasingly interconnected to enable more flexible and agile manufacturing and processing operations to meet evolving market requirements. The recognition of the importance of standards-based communication between operational technologies and information technologies (OT & IT) across device, machine to machine, process units and cloud infrastructure as the basis for industry to achieve the full benefits of automation is a vital step. "The benefits OT and IT connectivity can only be realised through open, deep interoperability. This drives an urgent need to move away from proprietary communication protocols in favour of open, unified, standards based, Industrial IoT (IIoT) communications between sensors, actuators, controllers and cloud platforms," says Fabrice Jadot, Senior vice president, Technology & Innovation and CTO for Industry business at Schneider Electric. Schneider Electric has been working to bring open interoperable communications between devices and systems with a number of market leader partners and supports the Open Platform Communication Foundation (OPC F) as the organisation sharpens its focus to deliver interoperability, flexibility and security between vendors' automation and control systems at all levels. OPC UA TSN (Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture Time Sensitive Network) is a flexible architecture offering new levels of performance and certified interoperability which will enhance interoperable, standard communication down to the field level. As the layer that unifies the way data is exposed and exchanged, OPC UA is one of the major achievements of the OPC Foundation community. OPC UA along with TSN is a foundational platform for fully secure systems, delivering a new single set of end-to-end natively secure communication profiles for industrial control, safety and motion built on real time Ethernet to drive automation in factory, plant and process environments. By opening secure communication possibilities within devices, process units, across machine to machine and up to major cloud infrastructure platforms, industry customers also benefit from common device services (e.g., discovery, configuration), true open communications and vendor agnostic data models which enable agile business and industrial operations. Fabrice Jadot of Schneider Electric, continues: "At the field level it is connected IT and OT that will be the foundation of the IIoT or 4th industrial revolution. For industrial customers to realise the value of automation at every level requires technology interoperability. We believe open standards-based communications system architectures are key to future success." Schneider Electric is committed to the continued evolution of the OPC Foundation, the open standards body for industry, and welcomes the growing influence and recognition of OPC UA TSN as a de facto standard. As part of its continued belief in open standards as the future for Ethernet-based industrial communications, Fabrice Jadot, Senior Vice President, Technology & Innovation and CTO, Industry Business, at Schneider Electric is to take a seat on the board of the OPC Foundation. About the OPC Foundation: Since 1996, the OPC Foundation has facilitated the development and adoption of the OPC information exchange standards. As both advocate and custodian of these specifications, the Foundation's mission is to help industry vendors, end-users, and software developers maintain interoperability in their manufacturing and automation assets. The OPC Foundation is dedicated to providing the best specifications, technology, process and certification to achieve multivendor, multiplatform, secure, reliable interoperability for moving data and information from the embedded world to the enterprise cloud. The Foundation serves over 600 members worldwide in the Industrial Automation, IT, IoT, IIoT, M2M, Industry 4.0, Building Automation, machine tools, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, and Smart Energy sectors. For more information about the OPC Foundation, please visit https://opcfoundation.org. About Schneider Electric Schneider Electric is leading the Digital Transformation of Energy Management and Automation in Homes, Buildings, Data Centers, Infrastructure and Industries. With global presence in over 100 countries, Schneider is the undisputable leader in Power Management Medium Voltage, Low Voltage and Secure Power, and in Automation Systems. We provide integrated efficiency solutions, combining energy, automation and software. In our global Ecosystem, we collaborate with the largest Partner, Integrator and Developer Community on our Open Platform to deliver real-time control and operational efficiency. We believe that great people and partners make Schneider a great company and that our commitment to Innovation, Diversity and Sustainability ensures that Life Is On everywhere, for everyone and at every moment. www.schneider-electric.com Discover Life is On Discover EcoStruxure Follow us on: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Google Plus YouTube Instagram Schneider Electric Blog Hashtags: #TimeSensitiveNetwork #OPCUA_TSN #Industry40 #IIoT #DigitalTransformation #SchneiderElectric SOURCE Schneider Electric Related Links http://www.schneider-electric.us AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With record-turnout midterm elections underway, Hart InterCivic applauds election workers nationwide on their efforts to ensure all voters' voices are heard. Secure, transparent, efficient elections are top priority for Hart, one of the nation's pre-eminent voting system technology and service providers. "Developing and supporting election technology that earns voter trust is at the heart of our mission," said Phillip Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hart, an Austin-based company with more than 100 years of experience providing election solutions across the U.S. "Our pledge to enable secure, trustworthy voting drives our decisions as we work with jurisdictions coast-to-coast to make every Election Day a success." Whether jurisdictions are using the company's new Verity Voting system, first federally certified in 2015, or our legacy Hart Voting System, Hart works year-round with customers to safeguard the reliability and accuracy of both the technology and the processes election teams use to tally voters' choices. The following are examples of the steps Hart takes to support its customers in protecting the sanctity of the vote: Designing, engineering and manufacturing its voting systems in the U.S. Adhering stringently to the latest security protocols in designing its new Verity system from the ground up Remaining supportive of and engaged in federal and state certification programs Partnering with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the Center for Internet Security (CIS), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and others to ensure the company is doing everything it can to contribute to secure elections and to share important learnings with customers Providing customers with 24 x 7 access to expert support for the company's election technology Equipping customers with security updates and operational recommendations through in-person training, in-depth product and procedure documentation, webinars, knowledge base articles, newsletters, advisory bulletins, daily best practice reminders and more "Citizens' confidence in the electoral process is central to our democracy," said Braithwaite. "Hart is going to continue to do all we can to foster that confidence." About Hart InterCivic, Inc. Austin-based Hart InterCivic is a full-service election solutions innovator, partnering with state and local governments to deliver secure, accurate and reliable elections. Working side-by-side with election professionals for more than 100 years, Hart is committed to helping advance democracy one election at a time. Hart's mission fuels its passionate customer focus and a continuous drive for technological innovation. The company's new Verity Voting system makes voting more straightforward, equitable and accessibleand makes managing elections more transparent, more efficient and easier. SOURCE Hart InterCivic, Inc. Related Links http://www.hartintercivic.com TORONTO, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Against a backdrop of shifting demographics and marked changes in evolving travel trends across generations, Solo Traveler, the definitive resource and community for those who travel alone, today announced the results of the 2018 Solo Travel Awards. Solo travelers can look for these badges as an indicator of a company that serves solo travelers well. Solo travel has been growing since 2013 and shows no evidence of slowing down. A recent report showed that 25% of those surveyed planned to travel alone in 2018, up from 15% only 5 years earlier.* Searches for "solo female travel" grew by 52% between 2016 and 2017**. 40% of global Baby Boomers having taken a solo trip in the last year, and a further 21% are planning to take one in the future.*** The Solo Travel Awards are designed to acknowledge companies that are effectively serving the solo traveler. Today's results show the marketplace trendsetters. This year, for the first time, awards are being given in the River Cruise and Ocean Cruise categories. Judges, Selection Criteria, and Winners With the support of their premier sponsor, World Nomads, Solo Traveler enlisted the expertise of esteemed judges and influencers in the sector to deliver the Solo Travel Awards. The judges of the Solo Travel Awards include: Hilton, travel editor, San Francisco Chronicle Keith Jenkins, CEO, iambassador and publisher, Velvet Escape Tracey Nesbitt, editor and contributor, Solo Traveler Lola (Akinmade) Akerstrom, award-winning writer and photographer Akerstrom, award-winning writer and photographer Su Holler, solo traveler and Destination & Influencer Marketing for Graz Tourist Office The selection criteria for the awards included: How well companies cater to solo travelers in terms of a single supplement Whether prices are published based on single occupancy or only double occupancy. Whether solo spaces are limited and if so, how many are allocated for solo travelers. Whether special services for solo travelers are provided before or during trips. Here are the winners by category: World Nomads Solo Travelers Choice Award- Adventure Canada Tours- Overseas Adventure Travel Specialty Tours(2 Winners) - Pravassa and Experience My France Solo Only Tours- Encounter Travel Ocean Cruises- Celestyal Cruises River Cruises- Vantage Deluxe World Travel Vacation Packages- Transat Solo Collection "We're pleased to see new companies nominating themselves for the Solo Travel Awards this year," says Janice Waugh, publisher of Solo Traveler. "However, there are still too many barriers for solo travelers, despite the overwhelming evidence of the upside for the industry to serve this market. We're going to continue to advocate for the solo market and are looking forward to using the insight we have gained from our global community to help companies capitalize on one of the most important and emerging travel trends." How Companies Can Increase Revenue from Solo Travelers The awards pointed to both best practices and unacceptable practices, according to Solo Traveler. Unacceptable Most tours and cruises are sold based on double occupancy. When solo travelers book such trips, they are frequently penalized by a fee called the single supplement. This additional fee could be up to 100% or more, discouraging many people from traveling. With the number of people traveling solo on the rise, both travelers and travel companies miss out when there is a single supplement. Barely acceptable Room sharing is one way that tour and cruise companies suggest that solo travelers avoid the single supplement. Members of the Solo Traveler community consistently state that they find this objectionable. One person wrote, "I wonder how couples paired with other couples would like sharing with strangers?" Best practice Have a dedicated page on the website for solo travel and make it easily found in the menu. Best practice Price trips for singles and doubles so that it is easy for a solo traveler to determine their expense and whether they are being charged a single supplement. Best practice Special services for solo travelers such as welcome receptions, communal tables, closed Facebook groups for travelers to meet before departure, and extra support during free time on tours are being offered by leaders in the solo travel market. Statistics on the solo travel market: *Roughly one in four people say they will travel solo in the next year (2018) and that's on the rise, according to a survey of 2,300 people by marketing firm MMGY Global. Source ** Searches for "solo female travel" grew by 52% between 2016 and 2017 Source Source ***40% of global Baby Boomers having taken a solo trip in the last year, and a further fifth (21%) are planning to take one in the future. Source Between August 2015 and August 2017 , the number of searches on Google for solo travel grew by 58%. Source and , the number of searches on Google for solo travel grew by 58%. Source The current western proportions of single-person households (e.g. 31 percent in the UK) are wholly unprecedented historically, even reaching to 60 percent or more of households in some modern European and North American cities. Source 17% will try solo travel for the first time in 2016 according to a survey of more than 44,000 travelers by online travel company TripAdvisor. Source Between 2013 and 2015 the percentage of people polled who travel on their own grew from 15% to 24% according to the Visa Global Travel Intentions Study 2015. Source A 2014 Booking.com survey resulted in a Solo Travel Report that revealed 72 Percent of American Women are Taking Solo Journeys Empowered by Social Media. Source 65% of US women polled by Booking.com have vacationed without their partners. Source The awards are sponsored by: Solo Traveler, established in 2009, is regarded as the definitive resource and community for those who travel alone. Over 300,000 travelers from 159 countries engage with the community every month. The Solo Travel Awards were launched in 2017 to recognize companies that are effectively catering to the solo travel market. The 2019 Awards will open in April. World Nomads is a fast-growing online travel company that provides inspiration, advice, safety tips and specialized travel insurance for independent, volunteer and student travelers traveling and studying most anywhere in the world. Their online global travel insurance covers travelers from more than 150 countries and allows you to buy and claim online, 24/7, even while already traveling. While they are not a healthcare provider, their insurance focuses on what is really important to the traveler: emergency medical and evacuation costs, baggage, trip cancellation costs, dental and personal liability (depending on the customer's country of residence ... please read the policy wording for full details on what is covered). They also cover more than 200 adventure activities and tech gear. Their policies are underwritten by a global suite of premier-tier insurers and emergency assistance providers making them the No. 1 choice for many of the world's leading adventure and youth travel brands. Media Contact: Janice Waugh Phone: 416.388.6694 Email: [email protected] Related Links Solo Traveler Solo Travel Awards SOURCE Solo Traveler "With more than 35 years in healthcare, including 22 years in executive roles leading pediatric healthcare enterprises, Paul brings a wealth of experiences and leadership expertise to Stanford Children's Health," said Jeff Chambers, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford Board Chair. King has led C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital since 2013 where his management efforts helped his organization achieve the highest patient satisfaction and employee engagement levels across the entire University of Michigan Health System and consistently rank among U.S. News & World Report's Best Children's Hospitals. "As we plan for the continued growth of Stanford Children's Health and expansion of innovation across the entire continuum of care, Paul's distinguished record of accomplishment and dedication to the critically important role of pediatric and obstetric care will undoubtedly help us achieve our vision of Precision Health at Stanford Medicine," said Lloyd Minor, MD, Dean of Stanford University School of Medicine. Prior to joining C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, King served as president and CEO for the Pediatric Management Group, a 550-physician academic pediatric subspecialty group practice affiliated with Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). Previously he was vice president of clinical programs and professional services in which he helped oversee both the CHLA's pediatric medical center and a pediatric multi-specialty medical group. "I am thrilled to be joining Stanford Children's Health at a time of flourishing innovation in pediatric health care," said Paul King. "The possibilities that are within reach for the world-class Stanford Medicine academic medical institutions are truly limitless. I look forward to working with the board and executive leadership, the physicians and staff, as well as with partners at the School of Medicine and Stanford Health Care, to continue to advance pediatric care and research and raise the bar for patient experience and outcomes not just for our patients, but for children and expectant mothers everywhere." King earned a master's in health administration from University of Iowa and a Bachelor of Science in business administration and economics from the University of Nebraska. He actively serves on several boards including the Children's Hospital Association and the American Hospital Association Maternal & Child Health Council. "As a physician leader it is vital to have executive and board leadership who embrace the voices of our physicians and care teams, as front line providers, researchers and innovators," said Mary Leonard, MD, the Adalyn Jay Physician in Chief at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford. "Paul's experience and understanding of how to nurture growth within academic medical institutions make him a wonderful leader and ally to pursue our goals in science, education and patient care." Mark Wietecha, president and CEO of the Children's Hospital Association, a national organization representing children's hospitals, has known King for many years and said, "Paul is an exceptional leader and brings the deep national experience necessary to support continued growth and preeminence at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford." About Stanford Children's Health and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford Stanford Children's Health, with Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford at its center, is the Bay Area's largest health care system exclusively dedicated to children and expectant mothers. As a top-ranked children's hospital by U.S. News & World Report, we are a leader in providing world-class, nurturing care and achieving extraordinary outcomes in every pediatric and obstetric specialty. Stanford Children's Health continuum of care covers general pediatrics to the highest level of specialty care and can be accessed through more than 60 locations across Northern California and 100 locations in the U.S. western region. As the pediatric and obstetric teaching hospital for the world-renowned Stanford University School of Medicine, we're cultivating the next generation of medical professionals and are at the forefront of scientific research to improve children's health outcomes around the world. We are a nonprofit organization committed to supporting the community through meaningful outreach programs and services and providing necessary medical care to families, regardless of their ability to pay. Discover more at stanfordchildrens.org. Media Contact [email protected] Samantha Beal 650-498-7056 SOURCE Stanford Childrens Health Related Links http://www.stanfordchildrens.org PLANO, Texas, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Toyota Connected North America, a global technology company founded by Toyota to transform how customers around the world experience mobility, announced today it has been recognized as one of the "2018 Top 100 Places to Work" in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by The Dallas Morning News for the second consecutive year. Now in its 10th year, The Dallas Morning News "Top 100 Places to Work" competition honors the best of the best companies in creating hospitable, nurturing and fun environments. The news organization works with its national research partner, Energage LLC, to invite nominated companies to participate, survey employees at each company and ultimately determine the list of 100 winners. According to the Dallas Morning News, the contest is all about continual improvement and making the Dallas-Fort Worth area a more dynamic and employee-friendly community. "We've gone from a humble start up in 2016 to a two-time winner of this award all in just our second year of existence so we're very proud of this recognition," said Zack Hicks, CEO and president of Toyota Connected North America. "We strive to make Toyota Connected North America an inspiring place where our team members are empowered to do things that can literally change world, and to enjoy themselves while they do it. Each of our employees plays an important role in building our special culture, and I thank them for allowing us receive this great honor." Toyota Connected North America was founded in Plano in 2016. It employs more than 150 diverse professionals who are leading the development and deployment of Toyota's telematics and big data services, a range of connected vehicle platforms, as well as the company's Mobility Services Platform a cloud-based digital ecosystem that provides the tools necessary to bring to market mobility services including car sharing, ride sharing and remote delivery. The company is actively looking for talent to join its growing team of software engineers, front- and back-end developers, platform and infrastructure architects, UX designers and more. Please visit careers.toyotaconnected.com for more information. About Toyota Connected North America Based in Plano, Texas, Toyota Connected North America (TCNA) was established in 2016 to drive Toyota's global efforts for an intelligent mobile society. With big data collected from vehicles and analyzed on a cloud platform, TCNA humanizes the driving experience by freeing customers from the tyranny of technology via secure, seamless and contextual services, elevating the customer experience transparently while benefiting dealers, distributors, and partners. Analyzing traffic patterns, driver behavior and connecting drivers with infrastructure and other information is only part of TCNA's work that will open new services and products to keep the car as a beloved companion. Media Contact Craig Keller (214) 970-3399 [email protected] SOURCE Toyota Connected North America KELOWNA, BC, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Valens GroWorks Corp. (CSE: VGW) (the "Company" or "Valens"), a multi-licensed, vertically integrated provider of cannabis products and services focused on various proprietary extraction methodologies, distillation, cannabinoid isolation and purification, as well as associated quality testing is pleased to announce that it has entered into a multi-year cannabis extraction services agreement (the "Agreement") with GTEC Holdings (TSXV:GTEC) (OTC:GGTTF) ("GTEC"). Under the Agreement, GTEC will ship bulk quantities of dried cannabis to Valens for an initial four-year term. The Company will receive and process the cannabis on a fee for service basis into crude, distillate or other cannabis oil derivatives as required by GTEC before bulk shipping the desired product back to GTEC for final processing and sale. "We are excited to announce another material agreement to support a great Canadian and local Okanagan industry peer in bringing high quality, cannabis derivatives to the market. This Agreement shows the start of a shift where companies are beginning to understand the demand and supply shortage for oils and Valens' strategic position in that shift. We have been working diligently to ramp up our processing capacity to support new agreements such as this," says Tyler Robson, CEO of Valens. "In mature cannabis markets, derivative products such as vape pens, edibles and infused beverages account for over half of all products sold at the consumer level. Over the coming years, we anticipate that the Canadian market will evolve to reflect a similar product mix", said Norton Singhavon, Chairman & CEO of GTEC Holdings. "This partnership provides GTEC with the ability to utilize Valens' IP, technology and expertise to immediately develop value added products. We are excited to commence this partnership, given our respective core competencies and the geographic proximity to our facilities, we view this as a well-suited and synergistic relationship". About GTEC GTEC was founded in 2017 to capitalize on opportunities in the nascent and rapidly growing legal cannabis industry. GTEC is a public corporation listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and based in Kelowna, British Columbia. GTEC is focused on growing premium quality craft cannabis in purpose-built indoor facilities. GTEC currently holds a 100% interest in GreenTec Bio-Pharmaceuticals Corp., Alberta Craft Cannabis Inc. Grey Bruce Farms Inc., Tumbleweed Farms Corp., Zenalytic Laboratories Ltd., and Spectre Labs Inc. To view more about the company or to request our most recent corporate presentation, please visit our website at www.gtec.co. About Valens GroWorks Valens GroWorks Corp. is a research-driven, vertically integrated provider of Canadian cannabis company focused on downstream secondary extraction methodology, distillation and cannabinoid isolation and purification, as well as associated quality testing with three wholly-owned subsidiaries located in and around Kelowna, BC. Subsidiary Valens Agritech ("VAL") holds a license to cultivate cannabis and produce cannabis oil under the Cannabis Act, as well as a license to conduct analytical testing for the cannabis industry. VAL also has a supply agreement with Canopy Growth Corporation under their extensive CraftGrow distribution network. Subsidiary Valens Labs 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 Science. 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. SNOQUALMIE, Wash., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Washington State Veterinary Medical Association (WSVMA) held the Pacific Northwest Veterinary Conference in Tacoma, Wash., Sept. 28 Sept. 30. Veterinarians, veterinary staff, and citizens were honored at WSVMA's award ceremonies on Friday, Sept. 28. Dr. Victoria L. Smith, veterinarian at Steamboat Animal Hospital in Olympia, Wash., Army Reserves Veterinary Officer at Joint Base Lewis McChord, and animal cruelty investigator, received the 2018 Veterinarian of the Year Award. The award is presented in recognition of an outstanding career in veterinary medicine and contributions to their practice, their stakeholders, and other service directly benefitting their community. Dr. Smith is an exceptional veterinary professional and a hero to many with her unparalleled leadership qualities and passion for helping others. A Major in the 149th Medical Detachment Veterinary Services at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Dr. Smith deploys worldwide to provide veterinary care to communities in remote geographical areas and was recognized with the Army Commendation Medal for her meritorious service. She began her career in the U.S. Air Force before starting veterinary school, graduating from Texas A&M in 2004. As an associate veterinarian, she is a gifted clinician and surgeon and has a passion for mentoring young veterinarians. In her community, Dr. Smith has contributed countless hours to the local criminal justice system through her advanced training in veterinary forensics and her work on abuse and neglect cases where the victims have no voice. Drs. Pamela Lee, Lynne Nelson, Christina Plante and veterinary technician Raychel Fairchild, LVT, from Washington State University (WSU) College of Veterinary Medicine's Cardiology Department were presented the 2018 WSU Faculty Member of the Year Award. The Cardiology team was recognized for their superior care and treatment of their patients and the valued relationship they share with referring veterinarians across the state. Alexis Adams, licensed veterinary technician at Washington State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital for the last twelve years, received the 2018 Distinguished Veterinary Staff Award. Ms. Adams is recognized not only for her outstanding patient care, responsiveness to clients, and her above-and-beyond dedication to the University Exotics service, but also for her exemplary training of fourth-year veterinary students and her giving spirit and outstanding service to her local community. Sally Halela from the organization South County Cats, Maple Valley, Wash., was presented the 2018 WSVMA Humane Animal Welfare Award in recognition of her tireless work to reduce animal euthanasia rates by providing low-cost spay and neuter options for low income families and for her community education efforts on the importance of spaying and neutering cats. Doug Hoge, territory manager for Henry Schein Animal Health from Vancouver, Wash., received the 2018 Allied Industry Partner Award in recognition of his knowledge, honesty and dedication to Washington veterinarians and their patients. The WSVMA is a statewide, not-for-profit, professional organization for the benefit of veterinary medicine. The WSVMA has over 1,800 members, representing veterinarians, veterinary students and a broad spectrum of veterinary practice. The Association's mission is to "advance the cause of veterinary medicine to better the lives of those touched by it." Visit the WSVMA Web site, www.wsvma.org, to learn more about the association, veterinary medicine, and animal care. SOURCE Washington State Veterinary Medical Association Related Links http://www.wsvma.org Damascus, Nov 5 : Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has discussed the formation of the constitutional committee with the visiting Russian President's Special Envoy on Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev. Lavrentiev's visit came days after Russia, Turkey, Germany, and France held a summit in Turkey's Istanbul to discuss the formation of the committee. The media office of the Syrian presidency on Sunday said that Assad met Lavrentiev and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin in Damascus, during which the Russian guests put Assad in the picture of the development at the quartet summit that took place on October 27, Xinhua reported. The Russian envoy also discussed with Assad efforts exerted by Moscow with regional and international parties to remove the obstacles to progress on finding a political solution for Syria. According to the report, both sides agreed to continue joint work to remove all the obstacles facing the formation of the constitutional committee. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hopes that by the end of 2018, Syria's constitutional committee will start functioning. The constitutional committee is expected to include 150 members, equally divided into three groups, one chosen by the government, the second by the opposition and the third by UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. The formation of the constitutional committee was agreed upon during inter-Syrian talks in Russia's Sochi this January that were brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey. In his recent remarks, Putin said that "now we need to agree on the third part with the participation of public organizations and representatives of various public bodies." He also noted that the work was not easy as each side would be striving to "fill this part with those people who they trust". Washington, Nov 5 : US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has defended the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran, saying the new tough controls on oil, shipping and banking that start on Sunday at midnight will force Tehran to stop sponsoring terrorism. Speaking to Fox News on Sunday hours before the new sanctions went into effect, Pompeo said the move would cut off Iran from its oil market and target 600 individuals and companies in the finance sector, The Guardian reported. He insisted the penalties would not hurt the Iranian people. "These sanctions are the toughest ever put in place on the Republic of Iran," he said. The top diplomat in the US said the new sanctions were designed to "alter Iran's behaviour" and protect Israel and other countries. The re-imposition of sanctions follows Donald Trump's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which provided economic incentives in exchange for a verifiable end to Iran's nuclear programme. The unilateral rejection of the deal has gained very few supporters, though Pompeo claimed "we have built an enormous coalition to keep this world safe". The European Union in particular is setting up a route to bypass US sanctions in return for persuading Iran to continue on its non-nuclear path. The assertion that renewed sanctions will not hurt ordinary Iranians has been questioned. There are signs the Iranian people are on tenterhooks about the impact on their daily lives. Medical groups have warned that the penalties will lead to severe shortages of essential medicines, endangering thousands of lives. Pompeo's belligerent tone was matched by Trump, who announced the new sanctions on Friday with a tweeted picture in the style of the HBO hit series Game of Thrones. It said: "Sanctions Are Coming November 5". As he left the White House on Sunday for an election rally in Macon, Georgia, Trump said the sanctions would damage the Iranian regime. "They are not doing very well, let me tell you," he told reporters. "It's a big difference. When I came in office it looked like Iran would take over the Middle East, it was a question of literally less than years, very quickly, and now nobody is talking about that." The Trump administration has agreed to grant eight nations exemptions to allow them temporarily to continue buying Iranian oil, without naming the countries. It is widely suspected that the list includes some of the biggest importers of Iranian crude, such as China and India. Asked to confirm the presence of those two nations on the list of exemptions, Pompeo sidestepped the question. "Watch what we do," he said. "We have already taken more crude oil off the market than at any time... and the march to zero continues." United Nations, Nov 5 : The US embargo on Cuba is preventing Indian companies from sending medicines and development-related equipment to the Caribbean island nation, according to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. In his annual report to the General Assembly on the US embargo on Cuba, he said that the State Bank of India (SBI) and at least four other banks have refused to carry out transactions to enable the companies to export to that country. The report figured in last week's General Assembly discussions on US sanctions against Cuba. By an overwhelming majority of 189 to two, the General Assembly on November 1 passed a resolution crticising the embargo and asking Washington to lift it. In his report Guterres said that in February, the Indian company Aculife had refused to ship levofloxacin directly to Cuba because its bank "would not authorise the payments made by Cuba since the shipping documents supporting the payment had a country under embargo as the final destination". Levofloxacin is a drug used to treat pneumonia, bacterial skin infections, bronchitis and other diseases, according to the report. The Ahmedabad-based Aculife said on its website that it manufactures "intravenous antibiotics including general and advanced molecules" like levofloxacin. The reluctance of banks to handle payments related to Cuba has also affected a development project with a climate change dimension, Guterres said in the report. It was reported in March that Ankur Scientific Energy Technologies had said it could not export to Cuba equipment for a gasification plant that uses rice husks because five Indian banks had refused to carry out a transfer from the office of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Cuba to it, he said. The Vadodara-based company had reported that the SBI refused to receive the UNDP payment "because the transaction is related to a project implemented in Cuba", the report said. "It has been impossible to fulfill the payment to the supplier and the implementation of the project has been delayed." It is "an ongoing development project that aims to implement measures to adapt to climate change in food production, a gasification plant that uses rice husks", the UN chief said. Ankur Scientific says on its website that its technology converts various waste products into combustible gas that can be burned to produce energy for different uses. India has opposed the US embargo on Cuba enacted after communists under Fidel Castro came to power in 1961. Guterres said in his report that India informed the UN that it "has consistently opposed any unilateral measure by countries that impinge on the sovereignty of another country. These include any attempt to extend the application of a country's laws extraterritorially to other sovereign nations". (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis) New Delhi, Nov 5 : Google on Monday honoured Greek professor and computer scientist Michael Dertouzos's 82nd birth anniversary with a doodle. Dertouzos foresaw how the Internet would impact everyday lives. He predicted the popularity of personal computers and helped to maximise their potential as director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Laboratory for Computer Science. "We made a big mistake 300 years ago when we separated technology and humanism. It's time to put the two back together," he wrote in Scientific American in 1997. Born in Athens in 1936, Dertouzos was the son of a concert pianist and an admiral in the Greek navy. He attended the University of Arkansas on a Fulbright Scholarship, earned a PhD from MIT and joining the faculty in 1968. "Under Dertouzos' guidance, the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science grew into a thriving research centre employing hundreds of people collaborating on innovations like distributed systems, time-sharing computers, the ArpaNet, and RSA encryption, an algorithm used to ensure secure data transmission," Google said. Dertouzos worked to make Laboratory for Computer Science the home of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an alliance of companies promoting the Web's evolution and interconnectivity. Dertouzos recruited Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, to run it. In his 1997 book "What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives," he observed: "If we strip the hype away, a simple, crisp and inevitable picture emerges -- of an Information Marketplace where people and their computers will buy, sell and freely exchange information and information work". Dertouzos died on August 27, 2001. Ahmedabad, Nov 5 : Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth was overwhelmed when he saw cars, auto-rickshaws and bikes criss-crossed causing a traffic jam in front of his car here -- a scene he described as a "beautiful chaos". Nevertheless, he has expressed gratitude for the love he has received in the country. "Beyond thankful for the kindness and generosity that the people of India have extended to us while making our little film here," Hemsworth posted on Instagram along with three photographs in which he is surrounded by fans, especially children. In one image, he is seen clicking a selfie with the crowd, while in one, he has warmly held on to some children's hands. Hemsworth, who famously plays Thor, is in India to shoot Netflix film "Dhaka". A latest Instagram Story shared by him on Sunday night shows him panning the camera to the outside scene from the backseat of his car. "Beautiful chaos," he wrote along with the first Story in which he is also heard imitating the cacophony of the horns by saying: "Beep beep." In another video captioned "Traffic is flowing", he says, "It's a good system this one... Here we are in the intersection, and no one is really moving, except our car going on the wrong side of the road... What is happening? Oh, the tuk tuks are out... The horns are on." Hemsworth flew into India last week. He started shooting for "Dhaka" on November 3, and shared some glimpses from on and off the sets with his Instagram followers. He especially loved a "welcome package" in his hotel room. It included an edible chocolate picture frame with his Thor look, and a chocolate version of Thor's iconic hammer. The actor is likely to also shoot in Mumbai for the film, which is reportedly an action film in which the actor plays a character that has to liberate a kidnapped Indian boy. Physically brave but an emotional coward, the man has to come to terms with his identity and sense of self. Beijing, Nov 5 : A group of 14 non-profits on Monday called on Beijing for the immediate and unconditional release of a Chinese reporter and activist, whose health has severely deteriorated in detention. Huang Qi, who worked for human rights organization 64 Tianwang, was detained by the authorities on November 28, 2016, reports Efe news. "The Chinese government must immediately and unconditionally release Huang, who has been detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression, and end its policy of denying prompt medical treatment to prisoners of conscience, which is a form of torture," the non-profits, including Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. Huang, who had created a website - first in the country - to document cases of forced disappearances and human trafficking in China, was charged with leaking state secrets. He has been suffering from a chronic kidney disease, hydrocephalus and other illnesses including heart problems, and requires daily medical attention. According to his lawyer Liu Zhengqing, who visited him on October 23, the situation poses a direct risk to his life. The non-profits feared Huang could meet the same fate as Liu Xiaobo, Cao Shunli and Yang Tongyan, who in recent years died in prison after they were denied adequate medical attention. The statement calling for Huang's release comes a day ahead of China's 3rd Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council, and hoped that member states would document these cases and call on the Chinese government to end such practices. Huang had won several awards for his journalistic work including the 2004 Cyber-Freedom Prize from Reporters Without Borders. Mumbai, Nov 5 : Actor Ankit Bathla of "Thapki Pyar Ki" fame, who has worked in Indonesian shows, says there are a lot of similarities in the television content of India and the archipelago. "There is a lot in common between the (TV) stories of India and Indonesia. I guess people love to watch romance, drama and horror. So, these are the things which are predominantly common between the two countries and what is also interesting is that the language is pretty much similar," Ankit told IANS in an email interview. "In Bahasa Indonesia (the local language in Indonesia), there are a lot of words that are from Sanskrit. So it was quite interesting as the stories were not really difficult, but still the only problem that I faced is the language which really took some time. But while I can't say I'm a master of it, but yes, I do have a hang of the language," he added. Ankit had first landed in an Indonesian show due to his popularity in an Indian entertainer. "My popular show 'Thapki Pyar Ki', which was aired on Colors channel was dubbed in Indonesian language and it telecast there. It was a big hit, so that's how I managed to be in Indonesia which was just for a meet and greet of seven days. But seeing the fan following and love that Indonesians had for me, I was there for almost seven months instead of seven days... That's how I did their shows. "The language was difficult initially, so we used to speak in English and they would be dubbed in their language Bahasa, but eventually, we did learn the language. I think a it's a pretty interesting and very good language to learn," he said. On the experience of working in Indonesian shows, Ankit said: "Well, cinema is cinema, acting is acting beyond borders... and I loved working in Indonesian shows. The only difference was obviously the language and the way they shoot is really interesting because they make content of more than an hour every day, whereas we make content for just 22 minutes (run)." Ankit is not the only Indian actor to have worked in Indonesian shows. Mrunal Jain, Shakti Arora, Shivin Narang and Shaheer Sheikh have also done their share of shows there. Why are Indonesians keen to work with Indian talent? Ankit explained: "I think they are keen to work with Indian actors and talents because we are popular in Indonesia (as they have seen Indian shows). There is a lot of love that we got from Indonesia. It was really brilliant to see the fans standing for you hours and hours waiting for you to just come down with banners in their hands, with gifts in their hands." He missed his home in Delhi after seven months. "They wanted me to extend even more, so that's when I requested them that I really want to go back to my country because I miss home, I miss my family and I miss working in the Indian market," said Ankit, who is now back in India. "I do keep going back to Indonesia to do meet-and-greets and work for them in their shows. In fact, recently I've come back from London where we were shooting for a web series which is called 'The Man from Bekasi' in which I played the role of an undercover agent and it was again a very interesting experience," Ankit said. He is happy to spend Diwali with his family in Delhi. "I love the Diwali celebrations and enjoy buying new clothes. I love to gift things from Ahujasons... My mom and dad love shawls and stoles and that's what I'm going to gift them this Diwali as well." Seoul, Nov 5 : North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to visit Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin later in November, the South Korean Ambassador to Russia said on Monday. The specific dates of Kim's Russia visit were not announced but Woo Yoon-keun said it was likely to happen later this month. "Russia has asked for Kim's visit within this year and expects it to happen. But North Korea seems to be weighing the time and place while looking into the agenda and possible agreements with Russia," Woo was cited as saying by Yonhap news agency. "With Kim's visit to South Korea also planned this year, North Korea appears to be dwelling long on the time of his Russian trip," he said. Kim is also expected to visit Seoul before the end of 2018, which would make him the first North Korean leader to set foot in the neighbouring country. According to experts, the visit could take place in the first week of December. The two possible meetings will take place before the second summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump on North Korea's denuclearization process. Kim had decided to end Pyongyang's isolation earlier this year and declared that he wanted to work towards achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula and sign a peace treaty with South Korea. The two Koreas have been technically at war for over six decades as the Korean War in the 1950s had ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty. Woo added that Putin was also set to visit Seoul in the first half of 2019. The details of the visit would be finalized soon with Moscow, where Seoul is likely to push for a free trade agreement between the two countries, he added. In June, Putin and South Korean President Moon Jae-in had agreed to initiate a dialogue for signing of the treaty. Kolkata, Nov 5 : Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Monday said it has relaxed norms governing supply of the dry fuel to small consumers, a move that would increase availability of coal for customers who need less than one million tonnes a year. The state-run monopoly eased the Mine-Specific Coal Supply policy, lowering the annual requirement of coal to 0.25 million tonnes for small consumers. "This change would be a boon to consumers having smaller quantities of coal requirement," said an official of the company. CIL took the decision considering the market dynamics, profile of consumers and mines, varying from subsidiary to subsidiary of Coal India. "A need was felt for a flexible mechanism to enable coal companies explore willing consumers of all sectors with whom mine-specific coal supply arrangement can be made from existing and new mines," the official added. The Mine-Specific Coal Supply policy was framed in 2011 to allow customers get assured supply from a preferred source and benefit from reduction in logistic costs. However, the policy was applicable to consumers having a minimum requirement of one million tonnes per annum. Further, the mine from which the coal was to be sourced should have an annual production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes. With the relaxation in norms, the number of mines for participation in the policy has been expanded by lowering the eligibility criterion. Mines with an yearly output capacity of one million tonnes can now participate, as against 2.5 million tonnes earlier. Moreover, the threshold levels of consumer requirement and production capacity of mines could be reduced even further by CIL's subsidiaries, if deemed appropriate. Consumers can lift coal from the existing sidings of coal companies or opt for road-cum-rail mode of transportation of coal. The captive mode of transportation is environment-friendly and cost-effective. Hence, consumers shall be encouraged to develop such infrastructure under separate contract arrangements with the coal companies, the miner said. The revised policy shall be implemented in a transparent manner where all linked/Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) consumers can participate for securing mine-specific allocation of coal. London, Nov 5 : An international team of scientists have developed a propeller-shaped nanorobots that, for the first time, can drill through dense tissue as is prevalent in an eye. The scientists, including from Max Planck Institute in Germany, applied a non-stick coating to the nanopropellers, which are only 500 nm wide -- exactly small enough to fit through the tight molecular matrix of the gel-like substance in the vitreous of the eye. The molecule-matrix is like a tight mesh of double-sided adhesive tape. The drills are 200 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, even smaller than a bacterium's width. Their shape and their slippery coating enable the nanopropellers to move relatively unhindered through an eye, without damaging the sensitive biological tissue around them. "We applied a liquid layer found on the carnivorous pitcher plant, which has a slippery surface on the peristome to catch insects," said lead author Zhiguang Wu, a post-doctoral student at the California Institute of Technology. "It is like the Teflon coating of a frying pan. This slippery coating is crucial for the efficient propulsion of our robots inside the eye, as it minimises the adhesion between the biological protein network in the vitreous and the surface of our nanorobots." This is the first time scientists were able to steer nanorobots through dense tissue, as so far, it has only been demonstrated in model systems or biological fluids. These nanopropellers can be one day loaded with drugs or other therapeutic agents and steer them to a targeted area, where they can deliver the medication to where it is needed. "The principle of the propulsion of the nanorobots, their small size, as well as the slippery coating, will be useful, not only in the eye, but for the penetration of a variety of tissues in the human body," said Tian Qiu, from the "Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems" Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Mumbai, Nov 5 : State Bank of India on Monday reported an over 40 per cent on-year decline in its standalone net profit for the quarter ended September 30. According to the state-run lender, its net profit in the three months through September fell to Rs 944.87 crore from Rs 1,581.55 crore in the same period of the last fiscal year. Washington/Tehran, Nov 5 : The US unleashed its "toughest ever" sanctions against Tehran on Monday, while a defiant Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed to continue selling its crude oil in the international market despite the measures. "We should break the sanctions very well and we will do that," Rouhani said shortly after the anti-Iran sanctions took effect. US President Donald Trump's administration reinstated all sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, targeting both Iran and countries that trade with it, the BBC reported. Tehran had struck the nuclear deal with six world powers and the EU, agreeing to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of restrictions mainly on its oil sales. Accusing Iran of stirring up regional instability and exporting violence, Washington terminated the nuclear accord on May 8 and said called it "one of the worst and most one-sided deals the US had ever entered into". More than 700 individuals, entities, vessels and aircraft were now on the sanctions list, including major banks, oil exporters and shipping companies. The measures will make it difficult to do business with the oil-rich nation. Washington said that it wanted to stop what it calls Tehran's "malign" activities including cyber attacks, ballistic missile tests and support for terror groups and militias in the Middle East. The Trump administration, meanwhile, granted exemptions to eight countries to continue importing Iranian oil, without naming them. They reportedly include US allies India, Italy, Japan and South Korea. "With the help of the people and the unity that exists in our society, we have to make the Americans understand that they must not use the language of force, pressure and threats to speak to the great Iranian nation. They must be punished once and for all," Rouhani said at a meeting of economic officials. "The US officials have come to the understanding that they could not replace the Iranian oil on the market," he said, adding that even if they did not grant waivers to some countries to keep trading oil with Iran, "we would still be able to sell our oil and we have adequate capabilities to do that". Rouhani said Europe, too, was angry at the US policies, Press TV reported. "Today, we are not the only ones who are angry at US policies; even European businesses and governments are angered by US policies, too." Rouhani also said he believed that America had never before seen as lawless an administration as that of Trump's. He said all US administrations had violated international law, but "these (current officials) score on top on the lawlessness rankings". "I don't recall a group assuming power at the White House that was racist as these." The Iranian military said it would hold air defence drills to prove Tehran's capabilities. Before travelling to a campaign rally for the US midterm elections, Trump said Iran was already struggling under his administration's policies. "The Iran sanctions are very strong. They are the strongest sanctions we've ever imposed. And we'll see what happens with Iran, but they're not doing very well, I can tell you." The UK, Germany and France -- which were among the five countries still committed to the nuclear pact -- objected to the sanctions. They promised to support European firms that do "legitimate business" with Iran and set up an alternative payment mechanism that will help companies trade without facing US penalties. On Sunday, thousands of Iranians chanting "Death to America" rallied, rejecting calls for talks. The rallies coincided with the siege of the US Embassy on November 4, 1979. A total of 52 Americans were held hostage in the Embassy for 444 days and the two countries have been enemies ever since. Islamabad, Nov 5 : Two teenaged sisters were strangled to death by their cousins for allegedly meeting boys in a fresh case of honour killing in Pakistan, the police said on Monday. Bisma Bibi, 19, and Naheed Bibi, 17, were killed by their two cousins on Sunday night when they returned home after meeting the two boys, said Jamaldin Wali, police spokesperson for Sadiqabad district where the crime took place. The two accused were waiting for the sisters near their house and later strangled them. "They died on the spot," Wali told Efe news, adding that it was a case of honour killing and that the accused had been arrested. Honour crimes are very common in South Asia and often involve men killing women they believe had brought disrepute to the family name. So far this year, 938 women and men have been victims of honour killings in the country, according to the non-profit Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. The non-profit had also warned that unofficially the numbers might be much higher. In 2016, the Pakistani government had passed a law prohibiting pardons to relatives of victims in such crimes, a legal loophole through which many men would earlier escape punishment after killing a woman, generally a sister or a wife. However, human rights groups and activists warn that the law has been mostly ineffective in curbing these crimes. Kolkata, Nov 5 : Observing the National Ayurveda Day, West Bengal Chief Minister on Monday said that 19 district administration setups have been formed during her tenure for the promotion of AYUSH. "My best wishes to all Ayurveda practitioners on the occasion of #NationalAyurvedaDay. In #Bangla, in the last seven years, 19 district administrative set-ups have been established for supervision and promotion of AYUSH activities," Banerjee tweeted. Union Minister Shripad Naik had recently applauded the state government for developing the infrastructure and promoting health care and education under the National Ayush Mission(NAM) scheme. "Under NAM, the state has been provided Rs 71.64 crore since 2014-15. The West Bengal government has done a very good job in improving the infrastructure and developing other aspects of AYUSH education and health care by utilising funds provided under NAM," he said. Los Angeles, Nov 5 : Actors Rosario Dawson and Julianne Moore have urged voters to elect Democrats to combat the Trump administrations immigration policies. In a video made in partnership with We Stand United, Dawson has said that the Trump administration violated international law by detaining migrants at the border who were legally seeking asylum. Moore said the administration created a humanitarian crisis by separating the families and putting children in cages, reported variety.com. The video also features quotes from a volunteer and a pregnant migrant, who says she walked from town to town until she was grabbed by immigration. Another refugee explains that he and his family left Honduras because of the gang violence and "suffering". Moore urged people to vote for Democrats in the November 6 midterm elections to end the humanitarian crisis at the border. We Stand United is a collective of artistes, storytellers and leading advocates who have come together to unite popular culture and the progressive movement and advance social, environmental and economic justice throughout the US. Islamabad, Nov 5 : Pakistani and Russian troops have concluded their two-week joint anti-terrorism military exercises, the military said on Monday. The exercise focused on counter terrorism training of the Special Operation Forces of Pakistan and Ground Forces of Russian Federation while exchanging mutual counter terrorism experiences, an Army statement cited by Xinhua news agency said. Pakistani Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa attended the exercises at the National Counter Terrorism Centre in Punjab province's Pabbi town on the last day of the drills and appreciated the participating troops for their dedication, skill and professionalism. He said the exercise "was a great forum to reinforce existing relationship between the two militaries". This was the 3rd exercise as part of Pakistan-Russia bilateral training cooperation since 2016, according to the Army. Russia and Pakistan have been holding the "Friendship" drills since 2016. In 2017, over 200 servicemen took part in the drills, which were held in the North Caucasus of Russia at an altitude of 2,300 metres above sea level. Rome, Nov 5 : Several regions of Italy were braced on Monday for adverse weather conditions following a week of deadly storms and flooding that has claimed the lives of over 30 people across the country. The regions of Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna and Lazio remained on orange alert as Italy's Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli announced he would visit some of the worst-hit areas in the country's north, including the region of Veneto, home of the iconic city of Venice. Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Sunday visited the island of Sicily, where 12 people died in flooding over the weekend, including nine members of two families who were killed when a river burst its banks and flooded holiday homes in the town of Casteldaccia, close to Palermo. "It is not tolerable that tragedies like the one caused by the Milicia river occur in Palermo. Taking care of this territory is the first great work to which we must devote maximum effort," Toninelli said on Twitter. In addition, the storm caused the death of another person in the town of Vicari and two more in the region of Agrigento. Italian authorities continued searching for a doctor in Corleone, Palermo province, who disappeared as he drove to work. Mumbai, Nov 5 : Congress activists were detained when they attempted to hoist black lanterns (kandeels) at Mantralaya, the state government headquarters, to celebrate a 'dark Diwali' on Monday. Led by state party secretary Sayed Zeeshan Ahmed and others, the activists attempted to sneak inside the Mantralaya complex with black-coloured lanterns, but were prevented and caught by police and security personnel. They were bundled off into waiting police vans as they shouted anti-government slogans and waved the black lanterns out of the (van) windows. "Only two persons are celebrating Diwali this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shaha. For the rest of the country, it's a Dark Diwali with spiraling prices, exorbitant petrol-diesel rates, job losses after demonetization and Goods & Services Tax implementation, besides other issues," Ahmed said. Accusing Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of creating delays in declaring drought in Maharashtra, he said the loan waiver announced last year was "merely on paper and farmers continued to commit suicides across the state, especially in the worst-hit Marathwada region." Though common people of the country in urban and rural areas continue to suffer, neither Modi nor Shah has time to visit Marathwada and see first-hand the plight of the drought-hit farmers, he said. The activists were taken to a local police station and later released. Chandigarh, Nov 5 : Chandigarh's Mayor Davesh Moudgil on Monday asked the city residents to shun Chinese products and fire crackers, and celebrate the Diwali with traditional fervour. "We will have to refuse not only the fire crackers but also Chinese-made products, especially lighting articles, which will play major role in combating air and noise pollution caused during Diwali. I urge children to also learn about the chemicals present in the fire crackers and the impact of these chemicals on various parts of human body," the mayor said while launching the 'Harit Diwali'campaign on Monday. The Mayor appealed to people to celebrate a pollution-free Diwali this year. He said everyone should not only contribute to reducing pollution but also promote use local made 'diyas' to celebrate a safe Diwali. Municipal Commissioner K.K. Yadav said there was scientific logic behind celebrating Diwali with local made 'diyas' and home-made articles for decoration. Mumbai, Nov 5 : The key domestic equity indices ended on a flat-to-negative note on Monday, as a weak rupee and broadly negative Asian markets weighed down investors sentiments. However, positive macro-economic update, marginal foreign fund inflows and a rise in banking stocks after State Bank reported a profit for the second quarter aided the indices to pare some losses. According to market observers, selling pressure was witnessed in oil and gas, power stocks, whereas buying support was witnessed in IT and banking. Consequently, the S&P BSE Sensex settled at 60.73 points lower at 34,950.92 points. It had opened at 35,118.62 points from its previous close of 35,011.65 points. It touched an intra-day high of 35,123.41 points and a low of 34,811.60 points. Similarly, the NSE Nifty50 closed 24.80 points down at 10,528.20 points. Apart from the main indices, the broader markets like the S&P BSE MidCap index declined by 0.47 per cent, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index was also down 0.28 per cent. The market breadth was positive with 1,290 advances and 1,308 declines. "Despite positive macroeconomic updates, selling pressure persisted and dragged stocks lower," said Abhijeet Dey, Senior Fund Manager-Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund. "On the macro front, the results of a private survey pointed to a stronger improvement in India's service sector, with an accelerated upturn in new work underpinning quicker rises in activity and jobs in October 2018." According to HDFC Securities' Retail Research Head Deepak Jasani: "Technically, while the Nifty has corrected marginally, the underlying short term trend remains up. Further upsides are likely once the immediate resistance of 10,559 points is taken out." "Crucial supports to watch for any weakness are at 10,477 points." In terms of currency, the rupee closed at Rs 73.12 to a US dollar from its previous close of 72.44 to a greenback. "Rupee weakened on account of crunch in domestic liquidity while gradual decline in yield may ease the concern," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said in a statement. "Investors' were bit conservative in the holiday shortened week due to uncertainty regarding US China trade deal and (US) Fed policy." Investment wise, the provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 12.34 crore on Friday while the domestic institutional investors sold scrip worth Rs 621.94 crore. The top gainers on the BSE were led by State Bank of India, up 3.45 per cent at Rs 295.30; Axis Bank, up 2.35 per cent at Rs 624.30; Wipro, up 1.52 per cent at Rs 323.95; Reliance Industries, up 1.33 per cent at Rs 1,088.55; and Bajaj-Auto, up 0.94 per cent at Rs 2,680.90 a share. The laggards were IndusInd Bank down 3.29 per cent at Rs 1,491.70; NTPC, down 1.28 per cent at Rs 153.60; Power Grid, down 2.18 per cent at Rs 185.85; ONGC, down 1.59 per cent at Rs 154.85 and Hero MotoCorp down 1.54 per cent at Rs 2,848 per share. Chandigarh, Nov 5 : The Punjab Police have been put on high alert for the Diwali festival following intelligence inputs that Sikh hardliners were out to foment trouble in the border state. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday directed the police to remain on high alert following recent attempts by hardliners, backed by separatist forces in Punjab and other countries, to create trouble in the state. The Chief Minister reviewed the security situation at a high-level meeting attended by senior officers, including Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora. The DGP shared details of the inputs and developments concerning the state, received from various sources. He also briefed the Chief Minister about the busting of a terrorist module of the Ansar Ghazwat Ul Hind (AGH) by the state police on November 3. The Chief Minister directed the officials to ensure fool-proof security at all vital installations and other key places, such as crowded markets and religious shrines. "He asked the DGP to pull out all men for maintaining the highest level of security during the celebrations," a spokesperson for the chief minister said. "The Chief Minister further ordered the DGP to crack down on, and to take immediate action against, anyone found trying to create trouble in any way," the spokesperson added. Chandigarh, Nov 5 : Punjab Health Minister Brahm Mohindra on Monday said "careless approach" of some government departments was responsible for the outbreak of dengue in the state this year. Mohindra, who chaired a state task force meeting on Monday, said the local government and rural development departments had failed to act, despite repeated calls by the health department, to check the dengue outbreak. "The careless approach of most of government departments in not discharging their administrative duty for curbing the outbreak of dengue has resulted in the present situation," Mohindra said. "Every year, the health department is criticised for the outbreak. Everyone is oblivious of the fact that the local bodies and rural development departments are the key players in tackling the outbreak and other water-borne diseases," Mohindra said. He said the health department has tested nearly 22,000 samples for dengue this year free of cost. "All the cases of dengue are being provided free treatment in government hospitals. The staff of the health department has visited around 15.5 lakh houses to check breeding of mosquito," Mohindra pointed out. He said it is the responsibility of local government department, which is headed by cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, to do fogging in vulnerable urban areas. The rural development department has to do the same in rural areas, the health minister said, expressing serious concern at the attitude of these departments. New York, Nov 5 : US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that Washington was exempting India from the sanctions on importing oil from Iran. He said the US will continue to negotiate with India and the seven other countries receiving the six-month exemption to get them to cut their Iranian imports to zero. The other countries receiving the exemptions Pompeo announced at a news conference with foreign correspondents in Washington were China, Greece, Italy, Turkey, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that his department was imposing sanctions on 700 individuals, entities, aircraft and ships. In July, US President Donald Trump announced he was pulling out of the nuclear deal signed in 2015 by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Germany and the European Union with Iran to end its nuclear weapons programme. Trump said the sanctions that had been lifted after the agreement would be reimposed and the oil trade would be targeted starting Monday. Pompeo said that an important reason for the reimposition of the sanctions was Iran's promotion of terrorism and that it was aimed at curbing its "revolutionary" policies. Pompeo said the payments made by the oil importers under the exemptions would be put in a special account from which Iran could only make payments for purchases for humanitarian programmes. India imported from Iran nearly 10 per cent of the total of 220 million metric tonnes of crude oil it imported during 2017-18. Since the reimposition of sanctions were announced, India has been cutting back on the Iranian imports. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis) Chandigarh, Nov 5 : Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders, led by party president Sukhbir Singh Badal, courted arrest on Monday to protest against the alleged distortion of Sikh history in textbooks of the Punjab School Education Board. The protesting Akali Dal leaders broke two police barriers here while trying to reach the residence of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. The Chandigarh Police took Badal and other leaders into custody. The SAD leaders said that they would continue agitating on this issue till the state Chief Minister apologised to the Sikh community and took action against those responsible for distributing the offending material to school children. Badal told reporters that his party was ready for any sacrifice to protect the honour and dignity of the Sikh gurus and Sikh religion and culture. He said that the Congress government deliberately distorted Sikh history for the second time within a few months, changing it in such a manner that the coming generations would not take pride in their religion and heritage. Chandigarh, Nov 5 : Punjab Police on Monday arrested two engineering students from J&K for their role in grenade blasts at a police station in Jalandhar on September 14, claiming to unearth a major terror network linking a Kashmiri group to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). "The Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), a Kashmir-based outfit, is headed by Zakir Rashid Bhatt, alias Zakir Mussa, who masterminded and guided the attack, involving Shahid Qayoom, 22, and Fazil Bashir, 23 -- both students of St. Soldier College of Engineering and Technology, Jalandhar," said Punjab director general of police (DGP) Suresh Arora. This is the second case of arrest of Kashmiri students linked with AGH in Punjab. Last month the police had arrested three Kashmiri students from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering, Management & Technology, Jalandhar, who had links to AGH and other active militants in Jammu and Kashmir. The DGP said four people were involved in carrying out the hand-grenade blasts in the police station. "They were Shahid, Fazil, Mir Ravoof Ahmed alias Rouf, and Mir Umar Ramzan alias Gazi. While Shahid and Fazil were pursuing B.Tech (Civil) 7th Semester, the other two, who are still absconding, were trained AGH terrorist operatives who flew from Srinagar to Chandigarh on September 13 with the purpose of carrying out these attacks," the DGP said. "Investigations so far have revealed that AGH's recruiter Amir, of Dada Sara Tral in Kashmir, had contacted both the students when they were in Kashmir. He reportedly radicalized the students and also exhorted them to work for AGH," the DGP said. Shahid and Fazil were in contact with the leaders/members of the AGH outfit over different chat applications," Arora pointed out. The DGP said that after reaching Chandigarh, Rouf and Gazi travelled to Jalandhar by bus where they met Shahid and Fazil around Maqsudan Chowk, located near Police Station Maqsudan. Shahid and Fazil took them to their friend's PG in Surat Nagar, Maqsudan. Both Rouf and Gazi, along with Shahid and Fazil, carried out a recce of the police station and nearby areas on September 13. According to the DGP, the operatives earlier planned throwing grenades at CRPF and ITBP Camps located near Bidhipur Railway crossing, and had conducted a recce of CRPF Campus also. "Shahid had borrowed a black colour Pulsar bike with a Himachal Pradesh registration number from one of his friends to facilitate the reconnaissance operation," said the DGP. "On September 14, around 4.30 pm, the four conspirators took the grenades and left for the police station around 5.30 pm. They sported face masks to avoid detection. They decided to meet at Jalandhar bus stand after throwing the grenades at the police station," the DGP said. "Around 7.40 pm, they hurled four grenades at the police station and fled the spot. After the blasts, Rouf, Gaji and Fazil reached the bus stand via DAV College, Patel Chowk, route while Shahid reached there by taking Jalandhar Byepass route." A little later, Rouf and Gazi boarded a bus for J&K from Jammu Counter and fled Jalandhar city," Arora said. The DGP further said that Faizal Bashir was arrested by Punjab Police from Awantipora in Kashmir on November 3 and Shahid Qayoom was arrested from Jalandhar on November 4. An FIR under various sections of the IPC has been registered against them in Jalandhar, 160 km from here. Arora said Punjab Police were working closely with their J&K counterparts and intelligence agencies to arrest the remaining terrorists, and unmansk the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits/individuals. Expressing concern over targeting of police stations and police officers, the DGP appealed to the student community in the state not to fall prey to the designs of militant elements and anti-national forces, which were out to disturb peace and communal harmony in Punjab. Mumbai, Nov 5 : Under fire from various quarters including Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday announced a probe to ascertain if there were any procedural lapses in the killing of an alleged man-eater tigress, Avni, last Saturday. "She (Gandhi) has used harsh words, but her sentiments are understandable. All animal lovers' sentiments are harsh on this incident. It was a very difficult decision, but whether the procedure was correct or not will be inquired into," Fadnavis told mediapersons. Fadnavis' reactions came a day after Gandhi lashed out at Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar for Avni's killing, while ruling ally Shiv Sena has termed it as an "encounter killing", Mumbai Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam called it a "barbaric murder' and Aam Aadmi Party condemned the tigress' elimination in the Yavatmal forests. As per a preliminary report of the forest department, Avni was shot dead by a professional shooter, Nawab Asghar Ali Khan, around midnight after she allegedly turned back and attacked the staff attempting to sedate her. "There is no joy over the killing. The forest department had to take the decision since she had killed at least 13 humans. There are doubts over whether she was first shot and then the tranquiliser injected. This would be probed," Fadnavis said. Speaking to the media this evening, Mungantiwar dismissed the uproar over Avni's killing as arising out of "inadequate information" and said Maharashtra had made maximum efforts towards protecting forests and tiger conservation. "The same shooter (Khan) had killed a man-eater tiger in Pilibhit of Uttar Pradesh in 2009. The criticism is surprising and demoralizing for the forest staff, and might prove counter-productive for the ongoing efforts," the minister said, defending himself against Gandhi's sharp barbs on Sunday. He said the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines were followed. Besides, Mungantiwar said orders were challenged both in the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court and were upheld and the decision was taken only after the terror-struck people of the region stopped going out to fields fearing attacks by the tigress. On Gandhi's questions over the selection of the controversial shooter Khan, Mungantiwar pointed out that he was on the panel of several states and had killed a man-eater tiger in her (Maneka Gandhi's) Pilibhit constituency nine years ago. Gandhi had virtually demanded the sack for Mungantiwar in a series of tweets yesterday: "It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite requests from his own forest department and people, Sudhir Mugantiwar gave orders for the killing. This is the third tiger being killed on his directions." "I am shocked that such a person is continuing to hold a ministerial position. Every time he has used the Hyderabad shooter, Shafat Ali Khan and this time his son has also appeared on the scene illegally to kill the tigress. His son was not authorised to kill. This is patently illegal." Mungantiwar also countered this by saying that instead of complaining to the CM, the Union Minister (Gandhi) could order a high-level probe by a Supreme Court judge or a committee of sitting apex court judges to investigate the matter. In an edit in the party mouthpieces 'Saamana' and 'Dopahar Ka Saamana' today, the ruling ally Shiv Sena slammed the state government and begged for Avni's "forgiveness". Amritsar, Nov 5 : Border Security Force troopers on Monday arrested a Pakistani national near the international border in the Amritsar sector and recovered a US-made 5.56 mm carbine and ammunition from him. "Troops in Ramkot apprehended one Pakistan national along with one 5.56 M4 Carbine (made in United States), two magazines, 28 rounds (of ammunition), three mobiles, one battery and one lighter, while he was hiding in the paddy crops between the security fence and the border," a BSF spokesman said. The Pakistani national is being questioned, BSF officials said. In another incident in the Amritsar sector, around 300 km from Chandigarh, BSF troopers exchanged fire with suspected Pakistani smugglers in the operational area of BoP Ranian early on Monday. A search of the area later on Monday led to the recovery of 3kg of heroin, valued at Rs 15 crore in the international market, from agricultural fields in the Indian territory along the international border. The BSF troopers challenged the smugglers after noticing their activity in the border belt. The smugglers managed to escape taking advantage of the darkness and poor visibility in the area. The BSF has recovered nearly 193 kg of heroin along the international boundary with Pakistan so far this year. Punjab shares a 553-km long international border, with a barbed wire fence, with Pakistan. New Delhi, Nov 5 : Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to celebrate Diwali this year with troops at forward posts in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. "Continuing the tradition of celebrating Diwali with the families of our soldiers, Nirmala Sitharaman will celebrate Diwali this year at Dinjan (Assam), Andra La-Omkar and Anini (Arunachal Pradesh)," the Defence Ministry tweeted on Monday. She will also review the progress of the development of the infrastructure including defence preparedness in Arunachal which shares a long border with China. Last year, Sitharaman celebrated Diwali with the families of tri-services personnel at the strategically important tri-services command at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar islands. New Delhi, Nov 5 : A day after a scuffle broke out between AAP legislator Amanatullah Khan and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari during the inauguration of Signature Bridge, BJP workers on Monday filed complaints with Delhi Police against Khan for assaulting and causing physical hurt to its party MP. Delhi Bhartiya Janata Party leader Vijay Jolly said, "AAP legislator from Okhla Amanatullah Khan is a habitual and criminal offender. The attack on Tiwari by Khan is an assault on entire Purvanchal and Purvanchali society which is unacceptable. AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal should tender apology for unruly and violent acts of his party legislator." He said Khan was earlier also involved in physical violence against Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash in February this year at Kejriwal's residence. "Khan was later arrested and now he is roaming freely on bail," Jolly said. "He is a serial criminal offender and deserves to be sent to Tihar Jail," the BJP leader said. Another Delhi BJP leader Vimal Singh also filed a complaint at Usmanpur Police Station alleging that he on Sunday went to the inauguration of the Signature Bridge and was beaten up by over 10 AAP workers. He also demanded an FIR against AAP workers. BJP worker from Mayur Vihar, Sangam Tiwari, gave a written complaint to Delhi Police about the assault by AAP workers at the inauguration venue. Sangam Tiwari alleged that when he opposed the manhandling on Manoj Tiwari, some AAP workers started assaulting him. They also threatened to kill him. "I want FIR against AAP workers and I can also identify the accused who assaulted me," Sangam Tiwari said in his complaint. Lucknow, Nov 5 : Four railway gangmen were killed on Monday in Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi district when a train ran over them, police said. The men were working on the tracks between Sandila and Umartalai when the incident took place. The deceased have been identified as Kaushal (30), Rajendra (28), Rajesh (32) and Ram Swaroop (59). Railway officials say a probe has been ordered as to why adequate precautions were not taken when repairs were under way by the gangmen. They were run over by Akal Takht Express. Superintendent of Police (SP) Hardoi Alok Priyadarshi along with senior railway officials pacified the irate families who refused to leave the tracks and allow the bodies to be taken for post-mortem. Officials said prima facie the fault seems to be of the permanent way inspector Ram Sanjeevan who was sitting far off from where the repair work was under way. He neither blocked the tracks nor put red flags to alert coming drivers of trains, an official said, adding that a full probe would fix the responsibility. The gangmen had reportedly tightened four bolts on the tracks and had they not done so, the train could have derailed, causing major damage. Kolkata, Nov 5 : A 22-year-old woman in Kolkata's Baguiati area sought justice before succumbing to burn injuries, after which her husband and two others have been arrested, police said on Monday. "Sangita Das suffered burn injuries on October 26 and she died on November 3. Her husband, Amarnath Das, 25, her mother-in-law Rima Das and Tanaya Chattopadhyay (in relation with Amarnath) have been arrested," a police official said. He said the initial investigation reveals an angle of dowry and an illicit relation of the husband. The third accused is the woman who is said to have an affair with Amarnath. "We have managed to take the statement of the deceased based on which the three individuals were arrested," he said. Kolkata, Nov 5 : The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday issued a legal notice against Trinamool Congress MP and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee for blaming the saffron outfit for the killing of five Bengalis in Assam's Tinsukia and warned him of further legal action, a senior state BJP leader said. "The Trinamool Congress is trying to confuse the people over the killing of five Bengalis in Assam. Abhishek Banerjee has directly accused the BJP and the Assam government of the killing. We have sent a legal notice to the speaker seeking his unconditional apology," State BJP leader Mukul Roy said. "The BJP strongly condemns the cowardly and barbaric act of killing those people, but the Bengal government and the ruling Trinamool Congress are trying to ignite tension over it. It may turn out to be dangerous for the whole nation," he said. The five victims, including three of a family, were allegedly gunned down by an unidentified group in Kheronibari village of Dholla late on Thursday. During one of Trinamool's rally in the city protesting the killings last week, Banerjee had claimed the "BJP-backed goons" were responsible for gunning down the five innocent Bengalis in Assam. Roy, once a senior Trinamool Congress leader before he switched to the BJP last year, said Banerjee has seven days to respond to the legal notice. "An NIA probe has been initiated into the killing. The Centre and Assam government have already said that they would take action against the perpetrators. So he should have thought twice before making such allegations," he added. Kolkata, Nov 5 : Tata Steel is targeting a capacity of around 30 million tonne in India by 2025 from its present capacity of 18.5 million tonnes, an official said on Monday. Tata Steel India has manufacturing units at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand with a production capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum and at Kalinganagar in Odisha with a production capacity of 3 mtpa. The steel producer's wholly owned subsidiary Bamnipal Steel Ltd had taken over Bhushan Steel Ltd (BSL) with a capacity of around 5.5 mtpa under corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP). The company is in the process of expanding its capacity of Kalinganar plant by another 5 mt per annum with an estimated investment of Rs 23,500 crore. "We are now at 18.5 million tonne. With expansions and new capacities, we expect to reach 30 million tonne capacity by 2025 in India," company's President (TQM and Steel business) Anand Sen said. The company executed definitive agreements for acquisition of the steel business of debt-ridden Usha Martin for a cash consideration between Rs 4,300-4,700 crore. However, these projections are based on current expansions on the existing plants and the projects including taken-over assets. Taking into European operations of the company, the steel major has the total capacity of 27.5 mtpa. About the newly acquired Bhushan Steel, Sen said the company was evaluating the amount of capital expenditure required for the asset. "The capex would be in the range of Rs 500-1,000 crore to achieve the rated capacity," he said. The steel maker has decided that it would go for "unified branding' for products coming from the taken-over assets only after they are upgraded and matched with its quality, he added. Bengaluru, Nov 5 : The ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and Congress alliance is upbeat on retaining their hold in the Saturday's five by-elections ahead of vote count on Tuesday, an official said on Monday. "Higher voter turnout in the two assembly segments of Jamkhandi and Ramangara and moderate in the three parliamentary seats of Bellary (ST), Mandya and Shimoga indicate that joint candidates of our parties have a clear edge," a JD-S official told IANS here. The JD-S contested from the Ramangara assembly seat and Mandya and Shimoga Lok Sabha seats, while the Congress did from Jamkhandi and Bellary (reserved). Though the opposition BJP fielded candidates in all the 5 by-polls, its nominee L Chandrasekhar from Ramanagara resigned from the party and re-joined the Congress on November 1, making his contest futile, as even his polling agents deserted him. An unfazed BJP, however, claimed that it would not only retain the Bellary and Shimoga parliamentary seats, but also wrest Jamkhandi from the Congress. "The heavy turnout (77.17 per cent) in Jamkhandi clearly signals our candidate Srikant Kulkarni will snatch the seat from the Congress," a BJP official told IANS000 The Congress, on the other hand, dared to retain Jamkhandi where it fielded AAnand Siddu, son of its senior leader Siddu Nyamagouda, whose sudden death in a road mishap on May 28 necessitated the by-poll. With Chandrashekhar out of contest, it will be a cakewalk for JD-S candidate Anitha, wife of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, with a huge majority from Ramangara despite 5 Independents in fray where polling was 71.88 per cent. In the three Lok Sabha seats, Bellary polled 63.85 per cent, Shimoga 61.05 per cent and Mandya 53.93 per cent. Sons of three former state chief ministers are locked in a triangular contest from Shimoga in Malnad region. They are B.Y. Raghavendra, son of BJP's state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa, who was the party's first chief minister in the south from 2008-11, Madhu Bangarappa, younger son of late Congress chief minister S. Bangarappa (1990-92) and Mahima Patel, son of late Janata Dal-United (JD-S) chief minister J.H. Patel (1996-99). L.R. Shivarame Gowda of the JD-S and Siddaramaiah of the BJP are the candidates in Mandya. In Bellary, the Congress fielded its state legislative council member V.S. Ugrappa against BJP's Shantha as both belonging to the dominant Valmiki tribal community. The Lok Sabha by-elections were held to fill vacancies caused by the resignation of its three sitting members -BJP's Yeddyurappa from Shimoga and Sriramaulu from Bellary and C. Puttaraju of the JD-S from Mandya on being elected to the assembly in the May 12 elections. The Ramanagara by-poll was held to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Kumaraswamy, who retained the adjacent Channapatna assembly segment after contesting and winning from both the seats in the May 12 state elections./Eom/470 words. Rome, Nov 6 : All eyes are on Italy during what will be a "challenging" week, populist premier Giuseppe Conte stated on Monday amid an ongoing stand-off with the European Union over Rome's plan to flout eurozone fiscal rules in its free-spending 2019 budget. The country is also reeling from deadly storms and flooding in Sicily and other regions last week. "It will be a very challenging week," Conte wrote on Facebook. "Europe and the world will be watching us closely but as ever, we will rise to the challenge... we do so for the good of the Italian people," his post continued. Twelve people died in flooding in Sicily at the weekend, taking the death-toll from the extreme weather that has ravaged Italy over the past week to 30, according to officials. "My thoughts are constantly back home as I set off on a visit to Algeria, where my talks with its prime minister will include Sicily, which I visited yesterday after the devastating storms which causes so many - too many - victims," Conte wrote. "Our meeting will also cover Palermo, where I will return next Monday for the crucial conference on Libya," he added. Conte was referring to an international summit on stabilising Italy's conflict wracked former colony being held on November 12-13 in Palermo, which is due to be attended by key Libyan and international players. A new growth company campus covering over 50,000 square metres is being planned for the old Maria hospital area. When finished, the campus will be one of the biggest in Europe. The City of Helsinki sought a bold concept with a vision for the project as well as a developer Photos: Aarti Ollila Ristola Arkkitehdit Oy [] Park Inn by Radisson to announce the opening of a 166-room hotel in Poznan. This brings the group's Polish portfolio to 16 hotels and more than 3,500 rooms in operation or under development. The brands are represented in almost all key cities of Poland - including Warsaw, Krakow, Katowice, Gdansk, [] Real I.S. AG has signed a rental agreement with Siemens Mobility GmbH in an office property in Brehmstrasse 12, Vienna, with a term through to June 2024. The total rental area amounts to around 1,800 sq m. Brehmstrae is part of a closed-end real estate fund. Along with the rental Photos: Real I.S. AG [] The Woolworths Metro beneath the soon to be completed Omnia residential block above Kings Cross Station has been listed for sale just a week after opening its doors. It is being marketed as the ultimate inner Sydney supermarket. Kings Cross railway station drives over 22,000 commuters through each day. The brand new state of the art 980 sqm space is tenanted by Woolworths, while there's also two supporting speciality shops spanning 315 sqm. It last traded off the plan in 2016 when reportedly bought for $16.3 million by New Zealand investor Brian Cook. The sale was subject to Woolworths not exercising a final right of refusal to acquire the property. The Woolworths was designed to cater to the area's high volume of pedestrian traffic. The retailers are signed to a 15 year net lease with a net income of $946,000 per annum, with the Woolworths base rate calculated as $505,215 p.a. The $459,710 p.a. speciality shop rental has been guaranteed for two years. The lease has built in fixed annual rent reviews. Its initial base rent is $515 per square metre plus GST per annum. The annual rent increased are CPI capped at 3 percent. The tenant must pay to the Landlord the Tenants Proportion of Outgoings each year, excluding management fees. The trade area just off the busy Darlinghurst Road and King Cross high street is described as highly affluent, with income levels 92 percent above the Sydney Metro average. CBRE retail investments agents Harry George and Nick Willis are marketing the property until November 29. There are $3 million benefits from depreciation over the life of the investment. Omnia is the latest residential and retail development in Potts Point. The $320 million building was developed by Chinese-backed developer Greenland. Sherwood Luo, Greenland Australia's managing director, said the Woolworths Metro store further strengthens one of Omnias key points of difference convenience. Having the Woolworths Metro store on the podium level really is the icing on the cake for our residents," he said. "We are also targeting premium bar and restaurant operators for the ground floor retail tenancies, so Omnia will provide an immense level of lifestyle convenience all within the building itself. Omnia offers the ultimate in convenience on a number of fronts. Firstly, its in an exemplary position, ideally located between Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road, adjacent to the iconic Coca-Cola sign, right in the centre of all the action, you cant get much better. Its also a stones throw from the CBD. Actress Claudia Karvan and longtime partner Jeremy Jez Sparks sold their inner Sydney warehouse on the eve of its scheduled weekend auction. The undisclosed price was above its $2.7 million guidance for the East Redfern warehouse. The four-level laneway residence sold to purchasers who lived in the neighbourhood. Karvan, currently on a film shoot in the Middle East, and Sparks, an engineer, had owned the four bedrooms, three bathrooms space with a garage, for 15 years. The 280 sqm property comes north-facing rooftop terrace with city skyline views, I cant imagine ever leaving Redfern, she told The Sunday Telegraph as they own elsewhere nearby. The Charles St warehouse residence (above) comes with a door from a Clovelly petrol station; railway ceiling lights from Carriageworks; teak doors from Bali and a steel staircase from a 1960s factory. Its among five residences in the former clothing factory purchased by Sparkss family in 1994. The focus was on the Sydney auction market this week as Melbourne has had low auction activity due to the Spring Racing Carnival. Click here to enlarge. The 801 Sydney auctions secured a preliminary 47 percent clearance rate, which is about three percent lower than last week. The most expensive house reported sold was a five-bedroom, mid-century house at 2 Coolawin Road, Northbridge (below). The property with a deep-water jetty was sold for $4.81 million. Sales included five-bedroom hoarders' estate at Roseville Chase. Items dating back more than half a century saw both the home and its yard full of rubbish. Four of the 12 registered parties took the sale price to $1.763 million, some $263,000 above reserve for the 1100sqm holding at 17 Lockley Pd which was was described as a worst house, best street opportunity." The buyers plan to rebuild. In Melbourne's Fitzroy North a house vacated years ago after being gutted by fire sold for $970,000. A young couple from the Fitzroy area won the keys, The Herald Sun reported. There was heritage facade, but the rest of the 200 sqm space would require a full rebuild costing another $400,000 to $800,000. There were just the two bidders on the 106 Queens Pde offering (below). The house was announced on the market at $910,000 by the Sydney-based vendor. Melbourne's top sale was the so-called White House at Wheelers Hill which fetched $2.02 million, well above the $1,690,000 to $1,859,000 price guidance. It was built by the Temelli family on the 832sq m block at 110 Grandview Rd (below) bought in 1986 for $78,000. They finished the grand residence about eight years later. Harcourts Judd White auctioneer Andrew Dimashki saw it sold to a family moving to Melbourne from China. Melbourne saw the most notable dip in volumes coming off the back of the second busiest week for auctions this year last week (1,709). There were only 264 Melbourne homes taken to auction this week, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 50.5 per cent. Last week, a final clearance rate of 48.6 per cent was recorded across the higher volumes. Hollywood actor Rebel Wilson turned up to a Sydney weekend auction. She was there to help one of her two sisters, Annachi hopefully secure a Millers Point terrace. But Annachi, a nurse, was outbid in the dying stages of the onsite McGrath auction with the heritage listed 65 Lower Fort Street (above and below) selling for $2.71 million. It sold to a local young family wanting to buy into the area. The comedian's siblings are named Liberty, aka Libby, Ryot and Annachi. Rebel Wilson spent $3.76 million in 2015 for her occasional Sydney bolthole, a three bedroom harbourside home in Birchgrove. The weekend Millers Point auction was the final terrace being sold off by the NSW State government-owned in Millers Point. Some 190 properties with a total value of over $600 million have been sold since the sales program of the low cost housing began in 2014. Given the demonstrations that met the relocation of tenants, the controversial sellout was accompanied by a rigorously enforced media attendance ban at all its auctions imposed by the NSW State Government, although Channel 7 were given exclusive access to the finale. Property NSW, on behalf of Family and Community Services, has redirected the proceeds to other social housing developments across NSW including Bankstown, Liverpool, Fairfield, the Sutherland Shire, Coffs Harbour and North Richmond. Family and Community Services retained 28 Millers Point properties. The highest price achieved to date was $26 million last year for 33 apartments across four historic workers dwellings block. Sirius, the nearby famous Brutalist-style building, has yet to be sold having been listed with $120 million plus hopes. There were 801 Sydney auctions over the past week, with a 47 percent preliminary clearance rate which is about 3% lower than last week. Blacktown returned a preliminary clearance rate of 75 percent from its 12 listings. But Parramatta had the lowest preliminary clearance rate at just 32 percent from 31 results. Now that weve secured a team of strategic investors, were doubling down on the core values that got us this far: innovative software development, feature-rich automations, and streamlined customer experience. ShipMonk announced today it has closed a $10 million Series A financing round led by SJF Ventures with participation from Grotech Ventures, Supply Chain Ventures, and a strategic group of individual angel investors. The company will use the financing to continue its rapid expansion, including the addition of a New York location in 2019. ShipMonk provides multi-channel order fulfillment services and inventory management software to small and midsized (SMB) e-commerce companies. ShipMonk enables SMBs to focus on building their brands and achieving growth rather than managing backend logistics. API integrations sync directly with customers marketplace platforms and online shopping carts to automatically import orders, which are then processed seamlessly at ShipMonks two bicoastal warehouse locations. The software offers complete product visibility and order controls. ShipMonk saves e-commerce companies money while providing a scalable supply chain solution at service levels that are difficult for SMBs to achieve on their own. ShipMonk CEO Jan Bednar shared, We are proud of all weve accomplished while bootstrapping our growth. Now that weve secured a team of strategic investors, were doubling down on the core values that got us this far: innovative software development, feature-rich automations, and streamlined customer experience. Were continuing to simplify and automate how e-commerce companies control their supply chain operations so they can focus on optimizing their multi-channel sales while we ship their customer orders out in record time. Were very excited about what our partnership with SJF Ventures, Grotech Ventures, and Supply Chain Ventures means for our clients and their customers. Most successful e-commerce companies have a penchant for branding, marketing, and product development, but supply chain management is among the most complex and underestimated components of any e-commerce business. Fulfillment and logistics are not typically a core competency of SMB e-commerce brands, said David Griest of SJF Ventures. E-commerce platforms such as Shopify have simplified the process of selling online, but fulfillment remains antiquated. ShipMonks leading technology and automation enables even small e-commerce businesses to meet ever increasing consumer expectations for faster delivery and flawless logistics. Lawson DeVries of Grotech Ventures added, ShipMonk has quickly emerged as an industry leader by meeting a market need for SMBs with an integrated technology-forward solution and innovative warehouse automation. Having rapidly grown to serve hundreds of customers nationwide while entirely self-financed is a testament to the scalability of their model. ShipMonk provides an easy to use, all-in-one solution for inventory management, orders, and shipping. Its software automatically import orders from all of a customers sales channels with over 100 shopping cart and marketplace integrations. Warehouse automation enables exceptional accuracy through features including the first e-commerce storage and retrieval machines in the U.S., RFID tracking of inventory movement, infrared technology for measuring product dimensions and weight, and complex algorithms optimizing picking routes and overall warehouse performance on each task. ShipMonks heavily discounted shipping rates with every major carrier are shared with customers while providing transparent billing. Happiness Engineers are trained to be fulfillment experts and provide best in class customer support. ShipMonks customers have extolled the merits of the company, including Taylor Offer of FEAT Socks who lauded, We've used multiple different fulfillment partners. There were always issues and it was always top of mind for me as a founder to check on them. ShipMonk is the first fulfillment partner I have trusted. Switching over to them was a blessing by gaining control of our order fulfillment and helping enable our growth. I love ShipMonk! About ShipMonk ShipMonk is a tech-first solutions provider that delivers amazing customer experiences through fulfillment services. From its inception in 2014, ShipMonk has operated with a singular guiding principle: to help small and medium-sized businesses scale by offering technology-driven fulfillment solutions that enable business founders to devote more time to the things that matter most in their businesses. Put simply, ShipMonk helps e-commerce companies stress less and grow more. Headquartered in Deerfield Beach, Florida, ShipMonk has grown to over 200 employees across facilities in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Los Angeles, California areas. ShipMonk self-financed its initial growth to become #29 on the 2018 INC 5000, and CEO Jan Bednar was named to the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. More information is available at http://www.shipmonk.com. About SJF Ventures SJF Ventures mission is to catalyze the development of highly successful businesses driving lasting, positive changes. With offices in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, and Durham, NC, SJF has a 19-year history of assisting visionary management teams build industry-leading firms. For more information, visit http://www.sjfventures.com. About Grotech Ventures Founded in 1984, Grotech Ventures is a leading investor in high-potential technology companies. With more than $1.3 billion under management, Grotech seeks innovative IT companies with particular emphasis on software and SaaS; digital and social media; security and storage technologies; healthcare information technology; and communications technology and services. Grotech continues to invest and add value throughout the growth of its portfolio companies. The firm has offices in Virginia, Maryland, and Colorado. For more information, visit http://www.grotech.com. About Supply Chain Ventures Supply Chain Ventures is an early-stage venture capital partnership. Its preferred investments are in young, revenue-producing companies using information technology to enhance global marketing and supply chain management. Beyond capital, the team brings significant entrepreneurial, operating, and investment experience to help its portfolio companies be successful. For more information, visit http://www.supplychainventure.com. Contact Augustin Kennady, Media Relations Director augustin(at)shipmonk(dot)com Georgia-based social security disability and workers compensation firm The Khaki Law Firm has once again earned a top spot on the Law Firm 500. This year, the law firm ranked 11th overall on the list, with 827% growth over the past three years. The Law Firm 500 is an annual list which showcases the top 250 fastest growing law firms in the U.S. The honorees are ranked based on their percentage of revenue growth over a three-year period. The law firms must also demonstrate innovation, operational excellence, and a commitment to client service. The Khaki Law Firms Founding Attorney and Owner Sara Khaki attributes the success of her firm to its client-focused approach and strong team of advocates: Since opening The Khaki Law Firm in 2013, our team has helped hundreds of claimants navigate the legal maze that is social security disability and workers compensation. I credit the law firms growth to the trust and rapport between The Khaki Law Firm and our clients, as well as the level of trust between the members of The Khaki Law Firm team. I am so proud of our accomplishments and I am honored to once again be included on the Law Firm 500 list. Sara Khaki and The Khaki Law Firm were recognized at the Law Firm 500 Conference & Awards Gala at the Westin Lake Resort and Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference took place in late October. The Khaki Law Firms Hearing Advocate Patrice Callahan, Firm Administrator Stacey Zimmerman, and Firm Intake Specialist Holly Casey joined Sara Khaki in accepting the award. For the full list of Law Firm 500 honorees, visit lawfirm500.com/2018-award/honorees. About The Khaki Law Firm: The Khaki Law Firm is honored to represent those who have worked hard most of their lives, but due to a mental or physical impairment are no longer able to maintain employment and earn an income. Our firms sole mission is to advocate for people with disabilities by providing them the legal and financial security that they need to live the life that they deserve. With offices in Alpharetta, Atlanta, and Marietta, The Khaki Law Firm provides assistance in all matters of Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income, and workers compensation claims. We draw on a wealth of knowledge and deep compassion to provide personalized, attentive assistance to our clients. Picfairs Women Behind the Lens returns this year with images chosen from a longlist of 2500 entries submitted from 52 countries. In the photographic world, the female viewpoint is hugely under-represented. The overwhelming majority of images found within the professional domain are taken by men: Just 2% of photographers on the books at major commercial agencies are women, and for every woman ambassador working for the major camera brands, there are 6 men. (Fox 2017) Picfairs Women Behind the Lens returns this year with images chosen from a longlist of 2500 entries submitted from 52 countries. The exhibition, at the Guardian News & Medias public gallery at the entrance to its London HQ, features five shortlisted images from four categories: Portrait, Architecture, Nature, and Street Level. Picfairs open platforms allows every type of photographer, from any background, to showcase and sell their work - through their own personalised stores and through the Picfair marketplace, where millions of images are curated to give image buyers a more diverse and authentic perspective of the world. After the exhibition closes, the work of every female photographer entered in Women Behind the Lens will continue to be showcased to their global audience of publishers and businesses. The overall winner of the 2018 competition is Mexico-based photographer Maureen Ruddy Burkhart, whose capture of a wedding scene in downtown Guanajuato, Mexico, also won the Street category. The Architecture category was won by Lebanese university teacher Eliane Haykal, with a shot of a small church in the Slovenian countryside. The Portrait category was won by Yvette Barnett, a tour guide from Cornwall, UK, with an image of a Dhobi wallah in Cochin, India. The Nature category was won by Jacqueline Davidson, manager of a scotch egg company in Scotland, with a black and white shot of a fern unfurling in the north west Highlands of Scotland. About Picfair Picfair is a London-based photography platform that allows every type of photographer, from any background, to showcase and sell their work - through their own personalised stores and through the Picfair marketplace, where millions of images are curated to give image buyers a more diverse and authentic perspective of the world. About Women Behind the Lens Women Behind the Lens was launched in 2017, when the inaugural competition was won by Milton Keynes-based paramedic Emma Williams. This years competition and exhibition was curated by Picfair Creative Director Sally Hart, and judged by The Guardians Head of Photography Fiona Shields, The Pools Head of Art & Pictures Deborah Castle, Photomonitor Founding Editor Christiane Monarchi, and VCCP Blues Head of Creative Production Julia Arenson. The exhibition runs until November 30th at Guardian News & Media, 90 York Way, Kings Cross, London, N1 9GU, United Kingdom. Free admission. Nouria Energy Corp. recently announced that it has launched a new retail brandnouria. The introduction of its new brand was celebrated with a grand opening celebration of its new concept store in Lewiston, Maine. The store is first of its kind in the company, featuring Maines favorite fuel brand, Irving fuel and the newly designed company brandsnouria and cafe nouria. The unique brand architecture and offerings of the store, eye-catching, inspiring artwork reflects the retailers quest to appeal to younger adults and female consumers. The in-store design, color scheme, lifestyle and community-inspired graphics; brighter, more spacious layout; a concentration of relevant products such a wide variety of fresh, healthy foods, and new- age beveragesappeals to consumers desire to live healthy, balanced lives said Tony El-Nemr, Founder and CEO. Additionally, the store offers high quality, all-natural meats and poultry; a wide assortment of fresh vegetables; and artisan bread, rolls, and desserts that are freshly baked in-store every day. In short, the stores entire fresh food offerings is designed to provide customers with a one-stop shopping experience that offers them options for grab-and-go foods, snacks and beverages and all of the essentials for creating healthy, fresh take-home meals. Recognizing that the shopping experience is a huge point of interest for consumers today and as a means of really inviting customers to relax and enjoy their meals, we have proudly introduced cafe nouria that features, full-service hot coffee, espresso drinks, iced- coffee, wide variety of pastries, parfaits, fruit cups, beverages breakfast sandwiches, all served in-store or through the drive-thru said Joe Hamza, COO. The cafe area includes 26 seats set against the front windows, offering customers a place to relax and enjoy their meals. Customers looking for delicious, authentic Italian meals are also delighted to find them served by the most sought after Italian food brand in New England, Amatos. The Amatos menu consists of wide variety of mouthwatering Italian sandwiches, pizza and salads. The company plans to upgrade and rebrand all of its 118 locations over the next 3 years. About Nouria Energy: Founded in 1989 by Tony El-Nemr, Nouria Energy is one of New Englands largest and most trusted family-owned and operated convenience stores and fuel retailers. The company owns 137 convenience store locations in 5 New England states of which 116 are company operated and 21 commission and leased dealers. The company also owns and operates 47 car washes under the Golden Nozzle brand. Nouria owns fuel wholesale and transport businesses and supplies its company operated locations and wholesale customers with Shell, Irving, Gulf, and Sunoco branded fuels, as well as private and unbranded fuel throughout New England. The 25th Annual Feast, a sumptuous food and wine tasting extravaganza benefiting the Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC), will take place at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers in New York City November 5th at 6:00 PM and will celebrate CHCs life-affirming services and the transformative power of technology in the lives of people with hearing loss. Proceeds from the event support the programs and services of CHC, a leading hearing health care center in New York providing comprehensive services to over 15,000 people annually. With a theme of Transforming Lives, this years Feast will honor Apple with the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award for its achievements in accessibility that have expanded the world of communication for people with hearing loss. Executive Director, Laurie Hanin, says, Apples commitment to accessibility and inclusion is evident not only in the accessibility features you find in all their products, but also in their leadership role as an advocate for people with disabilities. By embracing a philosophy that technology should serve everyone, Apple has transformed the lives of millions with hearing loss and established a model of inclusion for other companies around the world. Sarah Herrlinger, Director of Global Accessibility and Policy Initiatives at Apple, will accept the award. Founded in 1910, CHC is a historic pillar of support, offering high-quality, comprehensive services to empower New Yorkers affected by hearing loss, deafness or listening challenges. The organizations spectacular annual gala, The Feast, uniquely taps into a caring team of prominent NYC broadcasters and institutions passionately supportive of CHCs services that transform the lives of individuals and families struggling with hearing loss and communication difficulties. Among them is Broadcast Chair Bill Ritter of Channel 7 Eyewitness News and ABC News 20/20 who will be honored with the Edward Nitchie Award in Communications (named after CHCs founder) for his longstanding commitment to CHC and shared vision of communication without limits for people with hearing loss. The Feast, presented in cooperation with Wine Spectator, is a grand culinary gala where NYCs top chefs offer up their specialties to approximately 500 guests. Twenty-six chefs are expected to participate this year including Chef Chair William Gallagher of Becco Restaurant, Fortunato Nicotra of Felidia, John Greeley of The Loeb Central Park and Franck Deletrain of Brasserie 8. Fine wines will be available courtesy of Chateau du Parc, Rutini Wines, Cono Sur and other wineries of distinction. The walk-around layout gives guests the opportunity to interact with the chefs as well as the many television broadcasters who will be lending their support by acting as sous chefs. Broadcasters planning to attend this years Feast include the familiar faces of Bill Ritter of Channel 7, Dana Tyler Livingston of Channel 2, Kaity Tong of PIX11, Sade Baderinwa of Channel 7, Lisa Evers of Fox 5 News, and Tamsen Fadal of PIX11 among many others helping to serve savory signature dishes alongside the line-up of distinguished chefs. This years Feast will feature a seated dessert during which guests will savor an assortment of confections and sip Champagne while bidding in the live auction facilitated by Nicholas Dawes, Vice President, Heritage Auctions and Antiques Roadshow regular and the fund-a-cause that closes the event. Call (917) 305-7702 for tickets or visit http://www.FEASTNYC.GIVESMART.com. Established in 1910, the Center for Hearing and Communication is an accredited nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization committed to providing high-quality, comprehensive services to empower people affected by hearing loss, deafness or listening challenges, regardless of age, ability to pay, and mode of communication. With offices in New York City and Florida, CHC meets consumers hearing and communication needs through the highest level of clinical expertise and technical know-how available in the hearing healthcare field. Learn more at http://www.CHChearing.org. Call (917) 305-7766 to make an appointment for clinical services or request information. Tempore | A.I. for Business Travel Weve been asking ourselves a fundamental question, Why do business travelers still book trips?' Innovative A.I. tech startup Travel Labs, Inc. has closed a $500,000 round of Pre-Seed funding. Weve been asking ourselves a fundamental question, Why do business travelers still book trips? mused Travel Labs Co-founder, and CEO, Parker Schlank. When you think about it, the whole act of going to websites to research flights, book overnight accommodations, and arrange for ground transportation, is time consuming, frustrating, and well... archaic. On a mission to streamline the process required to book business travel, the Travel Labs team has spent the last several months developing their A.I. software solution Tempore. The Latin word for time, Tempore focuses on reinventing the traditional business travel workflow. While there are many travel sites, and countless travel apps collecting dust in the app store, very few cater specifically to the business traveler and those that do are known to spark ire among frequent travelers Schlank stated. Theres actually a whole employee persona out there today that doesnt have to book trips they have executive assistants and coordinators that take care of all their travel for them. If you can imagine software designed to put THAT type of user experience into the hands of every single traveler, then you would have Tempore. Travel Labs ambitious vision involves engineering what they call an artificially intelligent profile engine which understands a business travelers preferences, wants, needs, and desires. While they are staying relatively tight-lipped around the specifics, Schlank revealed Our thesis is that business travel is patterned, and thus predictable. We believe by harnessing the power of user data, we can completely eliminate the need to book trips altogether and were introducing several new and unique interfaces to accomplish that objective. Tempore is designed not only to make arranging travel quick and painless for employees, it also intends to help companies reduce wasteful travel expenditures. For example, the majority of todays employees frequently admit to booking their trips at the last minute. Often not entirely to blame, contemporary professionals are so inundated with tasks and requests that they frequently forget to arrange travel for upcoming meetings until the eleventh hour. Travel Labs believes their technology will be particularly appealing to this corporate audience and cites building specific feature sets to allow entire organizations to utilize their platform. A member of Beta, a Minnesota-based incubator, Travel Labs caught the attention of several angel investors who share in the frustration around the current state of business travel technology. Originally targeting $400,000 in initial capital, Travel Labs secured their round, plus an additional $100,000 from investors passionate about their cause. Companies, and individual travelers, who are interested in gaining complementary access to Tempore's private pilot program (expected to kick off in early 2019) can sign up at https://tempore.com/beta Schlank closed by saying Our A.I. booking functionality is just the beginning of a strategic vision, one which includes upgrading a travelers on-trip experience, reinventing their expense management, and so much more. Travel Labs has made it our mission to engineer the future of business travel in the workplace. About Travel Labs Travel Labs, Inc. (https://travellabs.com) is an innovative A.I. technology startup headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. Building a suite of solutions aimed an improving the business travel experience for both organizations, and the professionals who work for them, Travel Labs' mission is to engineer the future of business travel in the workplace. Stay informed by subscribing to the Travel Labs Newsletter, or by following Travel Labs on LinkedIn & Facebook. Companies and individuals interested in joining Travel Labs private pilot program, can express interest here. 360 Coverage Pros "The impact of not having Cyber Insurance in place to protect against financial loss can be devastating for a small contractor. Contractors now have easy access to affordable solutions that can help them manage their cyber risk." 360 Coverage Pros announced today the launch of a new suite of cyber risk solutions designed specifically for companies under contract with the federal government. With cyber criminals increasingly targeting smaller businesses in the federal government supply chain, the program provides federal contractors access to an affordable package that combines cyber and data breach insurance with NIST 800-171 and DFARS compliance services. Depending on which agencies they work with, federal contractors must comply with NIST 800-171, DFARS, or both, and compliance must be continuous. The program offers cyber risk assessments, compliance and breach prevention tools, and cyber liability insurance to help protect contractors against the high costs associated with a data breach. The products are affordable, simple to purchase and specific to todays cyber and data breach risks. Contractors also have access to data breach response resources including a rapid cyber breach response hotline. The impact of not having Cyber Insurance in place to protect against financial loss can be devastating for a small contractor, states Scott Reid, National Director of Cyber Insurance Programs for 360 Coverage Pros. Not following the specific cyber security guidelines and requirements can cost a business their contract with the federal government. With the cyber insurance and the compliance and prevention tools that we are making available, these mission critical contractors now have easy access to affordable solutions that can help them manage their cyber risk, maintain cyber security best practices and mitigate the damage done to their business by a data breach. To participate in the program, an organization must be under contract with the federal government as a sub to a prime, or a prime in support of the Department of Defense or a non-DOD federal organization. The cost of the cyber insurance plans and data breach support may be reimbursable by the government as a security assistance expense. To learn more please visit https://www.360coveragepros.com/federal-contractor-programs. About 360 Coverage Pros: 360 Coverage Pros is administered by Gallagher, a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm. Founded in 1927, Gallagher has operations in 33 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants. 360 Coverage Pros utilizes innovative technologies to provide turnkey insurance solutions tailored to specific industries. Serving as the program administrator and provider for over 300 national associations and affinity groups, 360 Coverage Pros delivers unparalleled industry expertise and fast, easy access to insurance programs and services. The 47th AAGL Global Congress on Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery Medical devices used in womens health are under increasing medico-legal scrutiny and several devices are subject to increasing regulatory oversight or have been/are being removed from the market. Our expert panel will explore this controversy from recent events to the future. AAGL (American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists) is excited to announce that it will present its first Late Breaking News session during the upcoming 47th Annual Global Congress on Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery (MIGS), November 11-15, 2018 at the MGM Grand Hotel and Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. This session is titled Where Have All the Devices Gone? Presentation and Panel Discussion: The Evolution of Medical Device Regulation and Litigation, and will be presented in a special session on Thursday, November 15, 2018 at 7:00am 9:00am in the Premier Ballroom. It will be followed by the annual Congresss traditional final General Session of live surgeries broadcast from operating rooms all over the world into the ballroom in high definition via cutting edge telesurgery technology. This years international surgical presentations will be performed in Italy, Switzerland, Australia, and Japan, with an additional surgical presentation in Massachusetts. The Late Breaking News session will focus on the ever-increasing scrutiny that medical devices, especially those developed for use in the treatment of womens health, have become subject to in recent years. The session aims to explore the development of medical device regulation and litigation, starting with the silicone breast implant saga to present day controversies including uterine power morcellators, pelvic floor mesh, the Essure device and vaginal rejuvenation. Panel members will additionally discuss the impact of traditional and social media on public perception, regulation, and litigation and how this has potentially created media bias. Further in the area of medical device product liability, the session will aim to explain the emergence of third-party funding and its effect on mass tort/product liability litigation, and will look to scrutinize the disparity between science and the law. The session will feature lectures on the above topics by panel members and will conclude with a panel discussion titled Where Do We Go from Here that will explore the role of the surgeon, the medical device industry, the FDA, the media, professional medical societies and litigators, and a question and answer session. The addition of this Late Breaking News session shows AAGLs commitment to bringing its members the most current developments in the field of womens health and minimally invasive gynecologic surgery. The panel members will be comprised of physicians from across the country: Dr. Amy Brown and Dr. Bruce Kahn from San Diego, California; Dr. Stacey Scheib from New Orleans, Louisiana; and Dr. Eric Sokol from Stanford, California; and attorney Christopher Campbell, a partner at DLA Piper in Atlanta, Georgia. Medical devices used in womens health are under increasing medico-legal scrutiny and several devices are subject to increasing regulatory oversight or have been/are being removed from the market, says Dr. Dr. Marie Fidela R. Paraiso, FACOG, FPMRS, the AAGLs 2018 Scientific Program Committee Chair and Vice President of the AAGL Board of Directors. Our expert panel will explore this controversy from several perspectives, highlighting recent events and where the future may lie. AAGLs congress is the premier scientific conference for gynecologic surgeons from around the world, offering the latest education and best practices in MIGS. This year the congress is expected to welcome over 2,000 physicians, both domestic and international, for the collegial 5-day gathering, which features 2 days of postgraduate (PG) courses offering CME (continuing medical education) credits and 3 days of high-quality, evidence-based presentations in both CME and non-CME sessions. Additionally, almost 80 companies will be exhibiting, and 1,000 industry representatives and executives will be in attendance, as the AAGL global congress is the ideal conference for medical device and technology innovation and product launches. About the AAGL: The AAGL (http://www.aagl.org) is the first and one of the largest organizations in the world dedicated to gynecologic endoscopic surgery. Founded in 1971, AAGL works to advance the safest and most efficacious diagnostic and therapeutic techniques that afford less invasive treatments for gynecologic conditions through the integration of clinical practice, research, and innovation. For the past 47 years, the organization has educated the worlds finest surgeons while improving the lives of women everywhere. For more information visit http://www.aagl.org. Skyway CR "Costa Rica is a favorite warm weather vacation destiination for North Americans who are looking to escape the winters. SkywayCR is ready to plan your trip!" says Kenneth Roquette, CEO. Costa Rica is the Most Popular Destination for North Americans SKYWAY Costa Rica is pleased to announce that they are open for business and ready to serve the travel needs of visitors from North America. Costa Rica has much to offer to travelers from the USA and Canada who love the warm weather, sunshine, beaches, mountains, wildlife and adventures available and at a time when much of North America is in the grips of winter. What a great time to visit this beautiful and diverse country! In order to experience all there is to do, flying from San Jose to various destinations is the best and fastest way to travel. SKYWAYCR can take visitors to the full array of destinations in Costa Rica. Not only can they deliver guests to their chosen location, they also offer all-inclusive packages to experience them. Sun and beaches Flights to Tamarindo and Bocas del Toro Recommended Package Tamarindo: National Parks Flights to Puerto Jimenez and Drake Bay Recommended Package: Mountains and Rivers Flights to Puerto Jimenez and Liberia Recommended Package in Liberia: https://skywaycr.com/costarica-vacation-package/romantic-adventure Wildlife Flights to Arenal and Manuel Antonio Flights to Arenal, Manuel Antonio and flights connecting Arenal with Manuel Antonio, Quepos. Recommended Package Url https://skywaycr.com/costarica-vacation-package/choose-your-family-adventure Families and Culture Flights to Arenal Recommended Package Url : https://skywaycr.com/costarica-vacation-package/luxury-family-resort Weddings and honeymoons We have flights to Arenal, Liberia, and flights connecting Arenal with Liberia. Recommended Package Url : https://skywaycr.com/costarica-vacation-package/deal-romance SKYWAY CR provides a complete array of transportation options from scheduled flights, charter flights, ground transportation, car rental to helicopter flights. Their Concierge Service stands ready to book hotels, restaurants, tours, spas and every element that makes vacations pure pleasure and relaxation. Fully inclusive vacation packages are also available through the helpful staff at SKYWAY CR. Costa Rica invites you to visit and while you are there Fly the Sky Way! SKYWAY CR PR CONTACT: Nancy Harrison TEL: 307.421.4473 EMAIL: nharrison@adventuremedianews.com CORPORATE CONTACT: Maria Lourdes Meneses TEL: 888.524.9396 EMAIL: lmeneses@skywaycr.com WEB: http://www.skywaycr.com ACT.md, a national provider of health collaboration software, today announced a partnership with the Oregon Center for Children & Youth with Special Health Needs (OCCYSHN) based at OHSU Doernbecher Childrens Hospital in Portland, Oregon. OCCYSHN is the states public health agency for this population of children with special needs, and as such provides families and clinicians across the state with resources and information to build and support coordinated systems of care. OCCYSHN has long standing relationships with county public health departments in Oregon to support care coordination for children and families, where public health nurses employed by counties visit families in their homes to assess needs and collect information in the pursuit of care coordination. With the addition of ACT.md, OCCYSHN will equip these nurses with electronic shared plans of care to track a childs health information, continuously coordinate care amongst families and care team members in the community, and maintain real-time, actionable care plans, accessible to all members of the care team, including parents and families. To ensure the success of the shared plan of care model, OCCYSHN will launch ACT.md in parallel with an initiative to establish standing care teams in each community. Care teams will include local primary care physicians and pediatricians, practice-based care coordinators, insurance providers, educational venues such as school districts and Head Start programs, as well as other community health resources, including behavioral health, developmental disability services, and family support. ACT.md will connect all members of the standing care teams, serving as a community health collaboration hub that will help to ensure families receive needed care by all stakeholders in their county and in the state of Oregon. Key to OCCYSHNs success will be the extent to which they can engage parents and families in the shared plan of care model. They are launching first in select counties with the goal of learning the most effective approach to getting families engaged in shared care plans. Ultimately, they will develop a learning collaborative whereby best practice leaders from early counties can support other programs across the state. As we work with OCCYSHN to redesign care for children and youth with special health needs, my hope is that families ultimately will feel more empowered to navigate our extremely complicated healthcare systems, said Ted Quinn, ACT.md CEO. By giving families a seat at the table, OCCYSHN is already on an innovative trajectory. We hope to give care teams the tools to deeply engage families in the care planning and care coordination processes, which we know is key to changing the trajectory, especially for families of children with special health care needs. American IRA CEO, Jim Hitt These are really invaluable presentations for anyone in an industry like ours The NCACPA Symposium, now in its 79th annual edition for 2018, can add another guest to its list of attendees: American IRA, a Self-Directed IRA administration firm based in Asheville, announced their plans to attend. The event, to be held in Greensboro, will cover a wide range of financial issues related to the CPA world, including taxes, business, accounting, and legal compliance. We at American IRA find that attending these events gives us two major advantages, said Jim Hitt, CEO of American IRA. First, it allows us to learn about whats going on in the industry. Regulations are always changing, and an effective Self-Directed IRA administration firm has to stay on top of these changes if its going to offer the highest quality services to its clients. Second, it gives us a chance on a personal level to go out and meet with other people in the same industry. Both are equally important as it relates to being a member of the business community in North Carolina. The NCACPAshort for North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountantshas been holding this symposium for 79 years now. American IRA is currently listed as a gold sponsor of the program, which is expected to cover topics like LLCs, partnerships, S corporations, as well as the latest tax cuts from the Federal government and how they might impact CPAs and other people in the financial industry. The NCACPA will hold the event from November 12-14 at the Grandover Resort & Conference Center in Greensboro. Expected subjects of presentations include federal tax updates for individuals, family tax law changes, updates in the construction industry, and more. These are really invaluable presentations for anyone in an industry like ours, said Jim Hitt. As experts, we have to be able to provide the infrastructure that makes it possible for people to handle an IRA the right way. And on our end, that means that well have to know the answers to their questions. Obviously, were not there to give out investment advicewere there to facilitate and administrate. But events like these help us do our job to the utmost of our ability. For more information, visit American IRAs site at http://www.AmericanIRA.com or call 866-7500-IRA. Those interested in the NCACPA Symposium can also visit ncacpa.org. "About: American IRA, LLC was established in 2004 by Jim Hitt, CEO in Asheville, NC. The mission of American IRA is to provide the highest level of customer service in the self-directed retirement industry. Jim Hitt and his team have grown the company to over $400 million in assets under administration by educating the public that their Self-Directed IRA account can invest in a variety of assets such as real estate, private lending, limited liability companies, precious metals and much more. As a Self-Directed IRA administrator, they are a neutral third party. They do not make any recommendations to any person or entity associated with investments of any type (including financial representatives, investment promoters or companies, or employees, agents or representatives associated with these firms). They are not responsible for and are not bound by any statements, representations, warranties or agreements made by any such person or entity and do not provide any recommendation on the quality profitability or reputability of any investment, individual or company. The term "they" refers to American IRA, located in Asheville and Charlotte, NC." Apostrophe Logo Every day, my team proves that building the health plan that can fix America isnt an empty promise. We have the creativity and grit to slay this wicked problem. A milestone like this tells me were on the right track. Cheryl Kellond, CEO and Co-Founder of Apostrophe, a common sense healthcare savings platform for self-insured employers, has been named one of Denver Business Journals Most Admired CEOs for 2018. The Denver Business Journals Most Admired CEO Awards recognize outstanding chief executives as innovators, standard-bearers, role models and exceptional leaders. Kellond is one of 15 honorees chosen by the Journal for the award. This years nominees were judged by an independent panel representing an array of industries, and the Denver Business Journals editorial staff. Judging criteria included assessing each candidates contributions to company success, civic engagement and career achievement. Kellond holds a long record of entrepreneurial leadership. A concept-to-launch product expert, Kellond has delivered over $750M in revenue from version-one hardware, software and internet products at both startups and marquee brands. "Im honored to receive this prestigious award along with an amazing group of business leaders. I have so much gratitude for my team at Apostrophe for this nomination and, more importantly, for their unstoppable drive to fight for what should be for our customers. said Kellond. Every day, my team proves that building the health plan that can fix America isnt an empty promise. We have the creativity and grit to slay this wicked problem. A milestone like this tells me were on the right track. This years Most Admired CEOs will be recognized at an awards reception hosted by the Denver Business Journal on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. About Apostrophe, Inc. Apostrophe is a common sense healthcare savings platform that delivers better healthcare benefits at lower costs to self-insured employers. Female-founded and guided by simplicity, transparency and love, Apostrophe is radically rewiring healthcare by changing how the money flows between employers, providers and members. With first-class concierge service and a curated suite of digital solutions, Apostrophe delivers benefits that actually feel like benefits and savings of 20% or more in the first year for its customers. Based in Denver, Colorado, Apostrophe is a certified B Corporation and a Techstars graduate, sparked into existence by 10.10.10. For more information, visit http://www.apostrophehealth.com. ### For information or to schedule an interview, contact: Brett Schklar Chief Marketing Officer, Apostrophe 303-883-2449 brett(at)apostrophehealth.com MASRAC CEO - Dr. Marc Gulitz Parkville will be a fantastic location for us. We're looking forward to the build-out of the site being completed and the Grand Opening, which is currently set for January 2, 2019. We're always looking to expand our reach and are currently working on two additional sites around the metro area. Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic, a leading Chiropractic and Physical Therapy practice, today announced a new office location in the Parkville area of Baltimore County. The new location, at 9403 Harford Road, Suite 1, Parkville, MD 21234 will be the company's sixth location around Baltimore, and will become home to a growing team of healthcare professionals. According to CEO, Dr. Marc Gulitz, the expansion has been planned for some time. "Our vision has always been to serve the entire City, and surrounding area. We are excited about serving the needs of the Northeast Baltimore City and Baltimore County population, and our referring Doctors and partners. We're also committed to expanding our team and creating healthcare jobs throughout Baltimore." Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab specializes in the care of acute injuries caused by automobile or work related accidents. Adding a new location is a strategic move that will allow them to have a physical presence in Northeast Baltimore, expanding their patient care and reach to tens of thousands more Maryland residents. "Given the number of residents, and referring partners in Northeast Baltimore, and Baltimore County," says Dr. Gulitz, "we expect this new location to quickly grow in patient visits, and staff. Within six months we believe Parkville will be seeing a similar volume to our five other locations." About Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic specializes in the rehabilitation of acute musculoskeletal injuries, such as those commonly experienced in auto accidents and work related injuries. Our healthcare providers work alongside primary care physicians, pain management physicians, physical therapists, orthopedists, and neurologists to manage care, and provide positive outcomes for patients. Founded in 2012, Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic is one of the fastest growing practices in the Region. For more information visit the website at http://www.midatlanticspinalrehab.com About Growth Solutions Team The Growth Solutions Team is a leading provider of Business Consulting, Sales & Customer Service Training, and Small Business Advisory services. Our team assists companies with revenue generation, profit maximization, business processes, Strategic HR, and business development. Our programs are designed to meet you where you are, and to generate lasting results for your company. For more information visit the website at http://www.growthsolutionsteam.com On Wednesday, October 17, 2018, Bastyr University hosted its first of many special events in celebration of the Universitys 40th anniversary. Bastyr University California hosted more than 140 special guests at a dinner celebration in the ballroom of Coasterra Restaurant. During the event, Bastyr University President Harlan Patterson thanked and honored Dr. Mimi Guarneri, internationally recognized interventional cardiologist, and Ruth Westreich, philanthropist and integrative medicine strategist, for the pivotal roles they played in Bastyrs decision to locate its California campus in San Diego. Attendees were privileged to hear from Bastyr founder Joseph E. Pizzorno, ND, who shared memories of the Universitys establishment and first campus in Seattle, Washington. The dinner was also a fundraising opportunity for student scholarships and raised a record-setting $227,000. We are beyond grateful for the support, collaboration and fundraising efforts for our San Diego campus, said President Patterson. Now in our 40th year, 2018 has already been a time of tremendous change and growth, and Bastyr University is proud to be at the forefront of the naturopathic medicine movement. The 40th anniversary celebratory events will culminate with the annual Founders Day Dinner and Gala in Seattle, Washington, on Saturday, November 17. Pictured above (from left to right): Bastyr University President Harlan Patterson; Bastyr Board Member Barbara Wright, pictured with her spouse, Charlie Wright, both longtime friends and supporters of the University; Bastyr President Emeritus Dr. Daniel K. Church. About Bastyr University: Bastyr is a nonprofit, private university offering graduate and undergraduate degrees, with a multidisciplinary curriculum in science-based natural medicine. Recognized globally for its rigorous curriculum and strong research, the University has a primary campus in Kenmore, Washington, and a second campus in San Diego, California. Bastyr's international faculty teaches the natural health sciences with an emphasis on integrating mind, body, spirit and nature. A pioneer in natural medicine since its inception, Bastyr continues to be at the forefront in developing the model for 21st-century medicine. For more information, please visit: http://www.bastyr.edu/ EDITOR'S NOTE: For more information about Bastyr or to arrange to speak with a company spokesperson, please contact Nancy Trent or Pamela Wadler at 212-966-0024 or pam(at)trentandcompany.com. Federico Robbio, President of Finance and Talent and Co-Founder of Belatrix Software, and Veronica Oliveto, HR coordinator at Belatrix, attended the award ceremony Belatrix Software, a leading software development company, received the ExportAr award for its achievements in expanding its services to the international market. Federico Robbio, President of Finance and Talent and Co-Founder of Belatrix Software, and Veronica Oliveto, HR coordinator at Belatrix, attended the award ceremony. The event took place in Buenos Aires at the Casa Rosada, where the President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, presented the award. The Argentinean Agency of Investment and International Commerce annually grants this recognition to highlight the activities of companies and institutions that have gained visibility in the international market, contributing to the exporting sector. The award is composed of different categories that align with the current activities and dynamics of innovative companies that insert their products and services in international markets. Some of these categories are: Innovation in exporting, global entrepreneur, regional economies and female exporter. On this occasion, Belatrix won the Internationalization category, for expanding its business, and opening new innovation centers in different countries. Belatrix has become one of the most recognized Argentinian firms of software development and it has rapidly built its international presence, opening offices in recent years in Peru, Colombia, the United States, and most recently, Spain. The award consists of a business trip that will count with the assistance of the Argentinean Agency of Investment and International Commerce. The recognition represents an important step for Belatrix in its journey to position itself as a top technology service provider and to have a relevant presence in the areas that generate knowledge and value, which are crucial for Argentinas growth. Federico Robbio, commented, Im delighted to receive the award on behalf of everyone at Belatrix. One of our top priorities is to build an international, world-class organization. In the past few years we have been growing and expanding rapidly, and we have ambitious plans for the future. The award reflects these efforts in expanding our services internationally, while also contributing to Argentinas economy. Since the start of this year, Benzer Pharmacys expansion into new markets has been humming along at a remarkable pace. Now, with the companys latest introduction of its new corporate location in Salyersville, Kentucky, that run continues to gain ground as the rapidly expanding pharmacy chain posts-up for the first time in its 23rd state. Most think of Kentucky for horse racing, bourbon, coal-mining, and so on, but whats not as widely known is that the state is also one of just four in the U.S. to be designated as a commonwealth. In practice, the term doesnt grant any special rights or legal standing, yet it does have a flair that President Alpesh Patel says blends well with the Benzer brand itself. The word dates back to an old traditional English way of referring to a community founded for the common goodan idea that dovetails nicely into what were doing, Patel explained. Benzer Pharmacy has founded a similar principle, which essentially boils down to a pharmacy intended to serve the common good of its customers. Not a radical notion by any means, but Patel sees a big difference between Benzer Pharmacy storefronts and the big-box retailers, emphasizing to locals that while the name on the front door has changed, the people and services theyve come to trust, remain in place. Independents who join the Benzer Pharmacy get the immediate benefit of greater buying power from the collective group; which, in turn, can return greater savings back to the customer, Patel said. At times, the difference really can come up rosesat least in terms of keeping more money in your pocket. Situated toward the east of the state, the Salyersville, Kentucky Benzer Pharmacy is located 441 Parkway Drive and is open for business weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm. Customers can reach the pharmacy by phone at 606-349-6135; and also by fax at 606-349-6140. To find the closest Benzer Pharmacy near you, visit http://www.benzerpharmacy.com/locations. About Benzer Pharmacy. Founded in 2009, Benzer Pharmacy is a chain of independent retail pharmacies specializing in compounding and specialty medication. Currently, there are 66 corporate-owned and 26 franchise locations situated throughout 23 states, including Florida, Michigan, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, Nevada, Louisiana, New York, Missouri, Mississippi, Maryland, Indiana, and Idaho. Projections call for continued rapid growth as the organization seeks to substantially increase its customer base while ensuring experiences match expectations at every touchpoint. Benzer Pharmacy has made four straight appearances on Inc. 5,000 list of the fastest growing private companies in America from 2015-2018; correspondingly, the company earned a 39th place on the 2015 Florida Fast 100 list, while concurrently placing 67th on the 2015 TBBJ 200 list of Tampa Bays largest private companies. Benzer was also voted favorite pharmacy in 2015 Best of Fuquay Varina in North Carolina and achieved PCAB compounding accreditation with the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC). All Benzer Pharmacy medications require a doctor's prescription. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BenzerPharmacy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/benzerpharmacy Instagram: https://instagram.com/benzer_pharmacy We are thrilled to accept DC Innos 50 on Fire award for innovation and success in the technology and cybersecurity category, said Ramu Potarazu, president and CEO of Binary Fountain. Binary Fountain, the leading online reputation management platform for enterprises, healthcare organizations and small and medium-sized businesses, today announced they were selected as a 2018 DC Inno 50 on Fire winner in the technology and cybersecurity category. With the launch of its Binary Review Manager platform, along with its recent partnership with U.S. News & World Report, Binary Fountain secured its position as one of the most innovative companies in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. We are thrilled to accept DC Innos 50 on Fire award for innovation and success in the technology and cybersecurity category, said Ramu Potarazu, president and CEO of Binary Fountain. By continuously making updates and enhancements to our cutting-edge technology, as well as growing our client-base and strategic partnerships into new markets, Binary Fountain has become an industry leader in the reputation management and technology space. In 2018 alone, Binary Fountain achieved significant accomplishments and milestones, setting them apart from other tech startups in Washington, D.C. Through a recently established partnership with U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings and civic journalism, the ranking and news site now publishes patient experience ratings from Binary Fountain on its doctor profile pages. Expanding its technology and services outside of healthcare, Binary Fountain has also recently announced Binary Review Manager, a reputation management platform designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The new platform enables SMB companies to grow their business, create better customer experiences and improve online ratings and reviews in the hospitality, retail, automotive and financial services industries. The annual 50 on Fire award identifies the hottest companies, organizations and people heating up D.C.s innovation economy across six categories. To further commemorate D.C.s biggest game changers, from established leaders to up-and-comers, the list of winners will be celebrated at the annual 50 on Fire event on November 15, 2018 at the National Union Building. For more information about this years 50 on Fire winners, or to purchase tickets for the event, visit: https://www.americaninno.com/dc/inno-insights-dc/dc-innos-50-on-fire-2018/ About Binary Fountain Binary Fountain is the leading online reputation management platform for enterprises, healthcare organizations and small and medium-sized businesses. Anchored in its Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, the cloud-based platform mines customer and employee feedback from surveys, online ratings and review sites, social media and other data sources to equip organizations with actionable insights needed to improve brand loyalty, increase engagement and drive sustainable bottom-line results. On a mission to help companies grow their business and create better customer experiences, Binary Fountain serves various industries including healthcare, hospitality, retail, automotive and financial services. For more information, visit http://www.binaryfountain.com or follow on Twitter @binaryfountain. Jake Saliba You are more than likely to get more home for your money by purchasing rather than renting. Along with the return of money, you will be getting when you sell your property in the future and build with the equity into it with owning. RE/MAX Realtor Jake Saliba recently recorded a North American Speaker Series (NASS) segment in which he discusses the stresses and questions of moving to a new location. The NALAs NASS gives small and medium-sized business owners an exclusive platform to present their stories and industry expertise to a diverse, hyper-local listening audience through astute audio segments. Saliba specializes in residential real estate. As a disabled veteran from the United States Air Force, my primary focus is military relocation, said Saliba in his NASS segment. Two of the questions I get asked the most are What areas of town are closest to my new job but still within the area of the community that I am looking for? and What is the market like in Colorado Springs and the benefits of buying compared to renting? For the first question, it really depends on the individual and what their hobbies are. This is a great city with plenty of different things to do and explore, noted Saliba. One can choose to be closer to downtown with its shopping and restaurants, or have closer access to the nearby mountains for hiking, biking, camping or any great outdoor locations to explore ones interests. Colorado Springs has a great diversity for almost any type of person. For the second question, Colorado Spring has a strong market. Prices are steadily increasing, making it a perfect time to buy and turn a profit on ones property. Two, three, four or however many years you are looking to move to a new location due to getting orders, re-assigned to a new job, or just ready to move to a different part of the country, added Saliba. At that time you can sell and take the equity you built from the property for a down payment for your next purchase or a new location or keep it as a great rental or investment property to make some extra income. Salibas goal is to make your transition as easy as possible for you and your family. On the rental side of it, prices have never been higher. You are more than likely to get more home for your money by purchasing rather than renting, concluded Saliba. Along with the return of money, you will be getting when you sell your property in the future and build with the equity into it with owning. To listen to Salibas NASS segment in its entirety, please visit https://thenala.com/north-american-speaker-series/jake-saliba-residential-real-estate-and-military-relocation-specialist. About Jake Saliba, RE/MAX Properties, Inc. Jake Saliba works with buyers, sellers and investors throughout the Colorado Springs region. He specializes in VA transitions, and is a United States military veteran. For more information, please call (719) 651-9484, or visit http://www.jakesalibarealtor.com. RE/MAX Properties is located at 2630 Tenderfoot Hill Street, Colorado Springs CO, 80906. About the NALA The NALA offers small and medium-sized businesses effective ways to reach customers through new media. As a single-agency source, the NALA helps businesses flourish in their local community. The NALAs mission is to promote a business relevant and newsworthy events and achievements, both online and through traditional media. The information and content in this article are not in conjunction with the views of the NALA. For media inquiries, please call 805.650.6121, ext. 361. DSCC has agreed to a partnership deal with UK-based display research firm Meko, whereby DSCC will transition its weekly Display Supply Chain Monitor (DSCM) into a new publication, to be called the DSCC Weekly Review. The Weekly Review will form a successor publication to Mekos Large Display Monitor (LDM) and Mobile Display Monitor (MDM) weekly newsletters, and it is expected that the Weekly Review will come to be seen as the premier source of news and analysis in the display industry. While the Display Supply Chain Monitor has been published weekly for a little more than two years (it started soon after DSCC itself was formed in the summer of 2016), Mekos LDM and MDM go back much further, and have been the primary work of Mekos founder Bob Raikes. It was Bobs interest to take a small step toward retirement, and his recognition of DSCC as a capable successor, that germinated the idea for this deal. Bob Raikes experience in the display industry pre-dates even DSCCs founders. From 1982 he was involved in the sales, marketing and distribution of computer displays, including seven years with Japanese monitor and graphic board maker Eizo, initially as sales director and later for five years as managing director of the company's UK subsidiary. He established Meko Ltd, a specialist market research consultancy in 1994. As well as being publisher, managing editor of (and a writer for!) Large Display Monitor, Mobile Display Monitor and Display Daily, Bob was for several years the displays editor for The Peddie Report and a regular contributor to Computer Shopper and other titles including the SID Information Display magazine. He has appeared on TV and radio, including BBC World and BBC Radio 4, and he is a regular speaker and keynote speaker at industry and corporate events. Bob started publishing the Display Monitor in 1994, and since 2014 has offered the separate titles Large Display Monitor and Mobile Display Monitor. Meko has also been managing the Display Daily (DD), a free publication, since 2014, and Bob will continue to manage DD and the daily articles will be included in the DSCC Weekly Review. What can subscribers expect from the DSCC Weekly Review? For subscribers of Mekos MDM and LDM, you can expect some features of the DSCC Weekly Review to look familiar, as DSCC is committed to continuing Mekos practice of covering all of the important developments in the industry. For subscribers of both the MDM and LDM, you will see all the items in a single newsletter; for subscribers of either the Mobile or the Large Display versions, you will see items covering the other side of the industry. Either way, you can expect that the DSCC Weekly Review will be at least slightly longer than either of its Meko predecessors. For those Meko subscribers who are not familiar with DSCC, an extensive introduction is available at https://www.displaysupplychain.com/about.html, but here is a short version. Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) is a rapidly growing display market research company offering more insight at a lower cost. Founded by four of the leading experts in the display industry, Ross Young, Bob O'Brien, Yoshio Tamura and Sam Matsuno, our analysis is based on a deeply connected insider network and decades of collective experience covering every layer of the display supply chain. The link also includes more detailed bios of our founders, whose experience includes a cornucopia of display industry names: DisplaySearch, IMS Research, Samsung, Corning, LG.Philips Displays, Philips, IHS, Techno Systems Research, Panasonic, Compaq, and more. In addition to display industry news, Meko subscribers will see analysis and coverage that up to now has been generated in the Display Supply Chain Monitor. In the DSCM, we have covered a huge range of topics, such as: Excerpts from DSCCs valuable monthly, quarterly and annual reports Analysis of all publicly traded display supply chain company earnings results (brand, panels, eqpt., materials) Results of DSCCs weekly Panel Supplier Stock Index Events coverage DSCCs insights on the latest display fab activity Tracking and forecasting of LCD TV panel prices Weekly updates of display equipment purchase orders and awards Latest display chatter from China, Japan and Korea Latest display product news from Mekos editorial team Each weeks most insightful Display Daily article And much more This coverage and analysis will continue. For DSCC subscribers of the DSCM, you can expect the continuing coverage and analysis as above. In addition, you can expect several new features: Additional analysis and industry insight generated from Display Daily contributors An expanded section of news items that affect the display industry, including applications outside of the traditional flat panel space, such as large-format LEDs and AR/VR devices. You can also expect an expanded list of new product launches in a Product News section. This expanded coverage will be presented in a more professional and polished style, as we are bringing on some of the contributors to Mekos MDM and LDM. The first edition of the DSCC Weekly Review will be published on Monday, November 5th. Subscribers to all the publications, both at Meko and DSCC, will have their annual subscriptions transferred to the new DSCC Weekly Review. When your subscription is up for renewal, you will be contacted by a DSCC salesperson with pricing and discount options available for the new publication. DSCC is excited about this transition and confident that you will find the DSCC Weekly Review to be an even more valuable tool for your understanding of the display industry. About DSCC Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) was formed by experienced display market analysts from throughout the display supply chain and delivers valuable insights through consulting, syndicated reports and events. The company has offices in the US, China, Europe, Japan and Korea. DSCC can be found on the web at http://www.displaysupplychain.com and can be reached in the US at info(at)displaysupplychain(dot)com or (512) 577-3672. Dr. Martinez will advance ... knowledge about Alfaxan Multidose injectable anesthetic. Jurox, Inc. announces the addition of Elizabeth Martinez DVM, DACVAA, to its US technical services team. Dr. Martinez is a board-certified member of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia. In addition to training veterinary surgeons and nurses on the use of Alfaxan Multidose injectable anesthetic, she will be tasked with helping to develop the companys Think AnesthesiaTM platform, an initiative that communicates best anesthesia practices to the veterinary community. Jim Van Proosdy, Jurox USA Country Manager, explains, Dr. Martinez is a board-certified anesthesiologist. Currently there are 271 active American Board Certified Veterinary Anesthesiologist and this group is at the forefront of anesthesia science and sets the agenda for advancements in how it is practiced at the hospital level. Dr. Martinez will be invaluable in advancing industry knowledge about Alfaxan Multidose, a next generation induction and maintenance agent. I am beginning a new chapter in my veterinary career and Im thrilled to be part of the Jurox team, said Dr. Martinez. The Jurox vision aligns with mine with respect to developing safe and effective anesthesia products and training the industry in their use. Together, we can raise anesthesia education to a higher level. Dr. Martinez completed her undergraduate degree and attended veterinary medical school at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN. Subsequently, Dr. Martinez completed an internship and residency in Veterinary Anesthesia at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She joined the faculty of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX in 1990 and has practiced and taught anesthesiology there for the past 28 years. Jurox Pty Ltd formulates and manufactures greater than 100 animal health products, including the Alfaxan range, at its FDA-cGMP-compliant facility located in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia. We want rebuilders to know that when they ask for TransTec, they always get the most OE content as part of the most complete kits in the aftermarket and the broadest industry coverage of transmission applications. Today, Freudenberg-NOK, the manufacturer of TransTec brand automatic transmission seal kits for the aftermarket, announced the Ask for TransTec Sweepstakes. Through August 2019, transmission professionals can visit TransTec.com/Ask to enter to win a weekly drawing for free ATRA or ATSG training as well as a grand prize that includes a full seminar package, airfare, accommodations, and spending money at the 2019 PowerTrain EXPO in Las Vegas, valued at $2500. Additionally, all registered participants will receive a discount code for 10% off ATRA or ATSG training. Of the new sweepstakes, TransTec Sales & Brand Manager Patty Richards said, Were excited for the opportunity to give back to the transmission industry while educating techs and shops about the benefits of asking for TransTec seal kits by name. Our mission has always been to help transmission professionals Rebuild It Right. So we want rebuilders to know that when they ask for TransTec, they always get the most OE content as part of the most complete kits in the aftermarket and the broadest industry coverage of transmission applications all critical factors in improving their productivity and their ability to perform a quality rebuild the first time with no comebacks. Registration for the sweepstakes is open to legal residents of 50 U.S./D.C. age 18 and up who must either be employed in or own a transmission specialty shop, employed at a volume remanufacturer, or work as a transmission technician in an automotive repair operation. The sweepstakes begins 11/2/18 and ends 8/31/19 with intervening weekly drawings. There is no purchase necessary to win. For full sweepstakes rules, visit TransTec.com/Ask. About TransTec: TransTec is a brand of Freudenberg-NOK, the worlds largest manufacturer of OE transmission sealing products. TransTec automotive replacement parts offer the highest quality available in the aftermarket and contain the same design and dependability supplied to original equipment manufacturers. Im looking forward to working with other members of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of South Florida to help support the organizations mission and goals, Chiu said. Sandy Chiu, an associate in the Miami office of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, P.A was recently appointed president-elect of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of South Florida (APABA). The APABA of South Florida is a non profit, voluntary bar organization of attorneys in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties who support APABAs objectives and are dedicated to ensuring that minority communities are effectively represented in South Florida. The organizations overriding mission is to combat discrimination against all minorities and to promote diversity in the legal profession. APABA of South Florida is an affiliate of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). Im looking forward to working with other members of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of South Florida to help support the organizations mission and goals, Chiu said. Now more than ever, its important to ensure that the legal profession continues to reflect the diverse communities it serves and provides continued opportunities for the growth of minority lawyers. A member of the Corporate Practice at Greenberg Traurig, Chiu focuses her practice on intellectual property in general corporate and securities matters. She handles intellectual property worldwide portfolio management for many public and private companies and advises on protecting intellectual property and minimizing risks. Chiu also advises clients on copyright protection, brand development, as well as trademark use, registration, prosecution, clearance, cybersquatting, and enforcement. About Greenberg Traurig, LLP Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has more than 2,000 attorneys in 38 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, was named the largest firm in the U.S. by Law360 in 2017, and is among the Top 20 on the 2018 Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law As a Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider, HalcyonFT is positioned to offer clients access to enterprise-level IT at affordable price points. Today Halcyon Financial Technology, L.P. (HalcyonFT) announced its certification as a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider. Participation in the program will allow HalcyonFT to expand its current offerings and provide a complete end-to-end experience for clients in need of managed services. Based in San Francisco, HalcyonFT provides technology to clients with an aggregate AUM of more than $195 billion, delivering customized, outsourced IT solutions as well as consulting, infrastructure and application services. HalcyonFT helps financial services firms enhance employee productivity and improve collaboration by utilizing cloud services, converged compute, storage and advanced security infrastructure. HalcyonFT will leverage its role as a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider to help clients drive new business value through the cloud with high-value offerings that optimize the benefits of cloud computing. HalcyonFT will be able to move beyond reselling licenses to pursue deeper engagement in all aspects of the customer relationship, including solutions, support and billing. HalcyonFT will also be able to add value by bundling IT solutions with industry-leading Microsoft products like Windows, Office 365 and Azure, delivering secure, reliable and cost-effective cloud architectures. Having a closer technical partnership between Microsoft and HalcyonFT will allow us to collaborate on more complex cloud-based solutions, said HalcyonFTs Managing Partner Rodric OConnor. The partnership includes ongoing technical training and certifications to improve our employees knowledge of Microsoft product suites so that we can help our clients take advantage of market shifts to cloud-based solutions to drive growth and profitability. Microsoft reports that the demand for managed services is surging, and almost 75% of CIOs are expected to embrace a cloud-first strategy by the end of 2018. Joining the Microsoft Cloud Service Provider strengthens HalcyonFTs position as an IT leader and gives the firm new tools for meeting clients needs for managed services. For small firms with limited IT resources, cloud computing offers significant cost savings. As a Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider, HalcyonFT is positioned to offer clients access to enterprise-level IT at affordable price points. Clients will benefit from the ability to adopt a robust cloud architecture and service model while obviating the need for a heavy investment in enterprise IT. Clients will also enjoy faster SLA response times from Microsoft if and when technical problems arise. As a member of the Microsoft Partner Network, HalcyonFT already has eight years of experience helping clients implement cloud architecture. Becoming a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider expands on this success and cements HalcyonFTs position as a leader for cloud-based solutions for the asset management industry. For more information about HalcyonFTs role as a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider, visit https://tinyurl.com/yc5rnfw9. About Halcyon Financial Technology Halcyon Financial Technology, L.P. (HalcyonFT) is an information technology services firm founded in 2010 by industry veteran Rodric OConnor. Focused exclusively on serving financial services firms, HalcyonFT delivers outsourced IT solutions with a comprehensive understanding of industry trends, challenges and expectations. HalcyonFT offers an unparalleled degree of professional IT service encompassing top-level strategic leadership from an award-winning CTO, along with deep knowledge and focus of all staff in the specific requirements of the financial services industry. For more information, please visit http://www.halcyonft.com. This is enormously important because simply capturing flares alone doesnt tell the whole story, said Geoghegan. As U.S. Iranian sanctions go into effect today, fears swirl over the immediate impact to oil production from one of the worlds largest producers and exporters. To date, Iran has proved their capacity to produce 4.75 million barrels per day (mmbpd) of petroleum liquids (oil, condensate, and NGLs) and the trickledown effect of the sanctions threaten to cut production by up to ~2.25 mmbpd, leaving critical Iranian oil customers either searching for alternate supply or finding ways to keep Iranian oil flowing. Today, Genscape, the leading global provider of real-time data and intelligence for commodity and energy markets, launched the High-Frequency Oil Production Monitor (The Monitor), the first ever product capable of tracking daily petroleum liquids production in Iran. Unlike companies who just track flaring activity via satellites, Genscape data scientists and oil industry experts developed algorithms that transform satellite data into highly accurate daily production estimates. Global Director, Supply and Demand Analytics, Devin Geoghegan qualified the breakthrough as the equivalent of peering into a home and determining exactly how much wood is stoking the fireplace. This is enormously important because simply capturing flares alone doesnt tell the whole story, said Geoghegan. A flare alone doesnt tell you what oil producers are doing, it simply shows theyre doing something, which could actually be burning off excess gas rather than producing more oil. Understanding actual production levels plays a key role in the market response. Genscapes data publishes daily and monitors activity in near real-time, allowing experts to know when and where oil production rises or falls on any given day. The Monitor covers several countries, including the United States, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Libya,and more, as well as the Neutral Zone. Currently, the Monitor detects 26 mmbpd of global oil supply and is quickly expanding to cover 50 mmbpd. The Monitor launches alongside the Global Oil Supply Report, which provides production history and monthly forecasts for over 100 countries. The Report breaks production down by liquid type, uses individual field and country-level data, and integrates other private and public sources to generate highly accurate forecasts. Both products bolster the Genscape legacy and expand oil insights beyond North America and Europe, to provide big picture coverage in a historically significant period. About Genscape Founded in 1999, Genscape is the leading global provider of real-time data and intelligence for commodity and energy markets. Today, Genscape operates the worlds largest private network of in-the-field monitors, and added satellite reconnaissance, artificial intelligence, and maritime freight tracking to its data acquisition capabilities. Genscape delivers its unique brand of unsurpassed market intelligence across the commodity and energy spectrum including power, oil, natural gas, NGL, agriculture, biofuels, and maritime freight. In an environment that includes privacy and other regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, ePR, HIPAA and more, the ability to discover what data your company has and exactly where it resides is not only a business differentiator, but a requirement." Io-Tahoe, a pioneer in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven data discovery and catalog products, announced its sponsorship of the MDM and Data Governance Summit, being held this week in New York City. Io-Tahoe will sponsor an exclusive session with Anju Jain, Io-Tahoes vice president of technical sales on Tuesday, November 6, from 12:15 1:15pm. She will discuss Data governance, AI and ML; a combination for self-service of data across the organization. Data professionals tasked with managing immense amounts of information have come to understand AI has emerged as a key factor in helping companies gain control of their data, as a major element of a successful data governance strategy, said Jain. In an environment that includes privacy and other regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, ePR, HIPAA and more, the ability to discover what data your company has and exactly where it resides is not only a business differentiator, but a requirement, she noted. Jain will discuss that enterprises continually struggle to successfully implement data governance to gain a holistic view of their information. Combining the knowledge of business domain and IT experts remains a challenge, she will say, and is the most important ingredient to having a successful data governance program. Jain will also tell attendees that having a combined view enables self-service of data across the organization while exercising control. That level of self-service, they will learn, allows all the assets to be brought under governance, and provides a consolidated view to management while still allowing different verticals to work on the technology platform. With the explosion in data being managed by companies of all sizes, the data catalog market has grown exponentially; MarketsandMarkets, an industry analyst firm, estimates the market is expected to grow to $620 million by 2022, a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.2 percent.(1) This explosive growth comes on top of existing research from the firm, predicting that the wider data discovery market will grow from $4.33 billion in 2016 to $10.66 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 19.8%.(2) A report from Gartner says, Businesses of all sizes and in many industries continue to struggle to maintain a consistent, shareable and accurate single version of master data across their organizations a requirement that is growing in importance. With the increasing focus on the digitalization of enterprises, management of their key master data is also becoming more important. The ability to achieve and maintain a single, semantically consistent version of customer master data is crucial for customer-centric organizations. More importantly, trusted data (which starts with trusted master data) sits at the center of a digital business platform, so demand for effective MDM will continue to increase in the next few years.(3) Summit attendees can learn more and view a demonstration of Io-Tahoes data discovery and catalog product at booth 206. Io-Tahoes automated data catalog enables data and business professionals to easily create, maintain and search a business glossary of data sources and critical data relationships identified through Io-Tahoes relationship discovery. Population of the data catalog is automated by using artificial intelligence and leveraging the discovery functionality and natural language analysis to automatically tag data. This automation facilitates smarter crowd sourcing allowing data owners, stewards and subject matter experts to define and govern multiple data rules. The MDM & Data Governance Summit series is the most widely attended IT event focused on modern data management business and IT issues. It is the only conference dedicated to these two topics and provides a mixture of leading industry analyst trend perspectives, a wide and large array of use cases, market-leading issue-specific sessions and best practice panel discussions. (1) https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/data-catalog-market-48918216.html (2) https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/data-discovery-market-132252132.html (3) Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management Solutions, Bill O'Kane, Alan Dayley, Michael Moran, Simon Walker, 30 October 2017 - ID G00325117. About Io-Tahoe Io-Tahoe (http://www.io-tahoe.com) is an enterprise AI-driven data discovery and catalog product that enables enterprises to accelerate to next-generation data management practices, radically improving data governance and regulatory compliance while driving significant advancements in business analytics and technological transformation. Io-Tahoes discovery goes beyond traditional metadata, leveraging ML and AI to look at the data itself, automatically discovering critical, implied and often unknown relationships across an inherently heterogeneous and complex enterprise landscape. Io-Tahoe has been custom-built by a team with a deep understanding of data challenges, giving it first-hand insight and appreciation into our customers diverse and complex data needs. Io-Tahoe is particularly valuable to businesses with large numbers of customers and diverse data sets, such as those in the financial services, utilities, retail, transportation, insurance, healthcare and manufacturing industries. Coller & Evans, Attorneys at Law The Elite Lawyer rating service recognizes attorneys who display a high level of competence in their practice and receive acknowledgment from their peers, community, bar, and committees. Attorneys Jeffrey C. Coller and William Evans, of The Law Office of William F. Evans, have each been honored with a 2018 Elite Lawyer Award for the area of personal injury. The Elite Lawyer rating service recognizes attorneys who display a high level of competence in their practice and receive acknowledgments from their peers, community, bar, and committees. Attorney Jeffrey Coller received a bachelors degree in psychology from Missouri State University in 2006 and a Juris Doctor from the Oklahoma City School of Law in 2011. He practices personal injury and criminal defense law, with a focus on defending clients charged with driving under the influence. Coller is the president and past vice-president of the Campbell County Bar Association. He is a member of the National College of DUI Defense, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Attorney William Evan s received a bachelors degree in accounting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2009 and a Juris Doctor from Lincoln Memorial University in 2013. He practices personal injury and criminal defense law, focusing on vehicle accidents, slip-and-falls, dog bites, and wrongful death. Evans has been named to the National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40. He uses his past experience as an insurance defense attorney to help clients receive the money they deserve from insurance companies. Designed to assist potential clients in finding an experienced legal professional to address specific legal needs, the Elite Lawyer tools and resources provide information on distinguished attorneys throughout the United States. The Elite Lawyer Award assures that each attorney selected to the directory has received a nomination from their peers for displaying excellence and a high level of skill with the law. Awarded only to those who have met or exceeded the criteria of a rigorous, multi-phased selection process, the Award recognizes top-rated attorneys for their excellence and outstanding service in their specific area or areas of practice. Only the most outstanding and experienced attorneys receive the Elite Lawyer Award. A prestigious nomination and presented only to legal professionals who are able to meet or exceed its demanding criteria, it sets these exceptional attorneys apart from their peers when consumers use the directory to search for a top-notch attorney in their area. The Elite Lawyer Award speaks highly of how well each nominated attorney is perceived by their legal community. For more information about Elite Lawyer, or to become a member of the esteemed directory, visit http://www.elitelawyer.com. At The Law Office of William F. Evans, our skilled trial lawyer provides representation to clients facing a wide range of legal matters. We understand how confusing and overwhelming the Tennessee legal system can be, but you do not need to face your concerns alone. Our team works hard to put our clients at ease and to offer reliable guidance at every stage of the proceedings. Whether you are facing criminal charges or are struggling to recover after being injured in an accident, we are ready to help you. To learn more visit:https://www.williamevanslaw.com/ Katie Brewer, CFP has been named as one of D Magazines 2018 Best Financial Planners in Dallas for the fourth year in a row. Katie Brewer is the owner of Your Richest Life, a fee-only financial planning company helping Gen X physicians, attorneys and other high-income earners take charge charge of their financial lives. Katie is frequently sought by the media to provide financial insight into issues affecting this target group. This distinction is listed in the November 2018 issue of D Magazine. Its an honor that my peers consider me one of the best financial planners in Dallas, Brewer says. I am passionate about promoting a fiduciary standard in my service, and working with the highly educated professionals of Gen X, including those in the fields of healthcare, law, technology and finance. Katie Brewer was listed on InvestmentNews 2017 40 under 40. Qualifications for this honor include accomplishments to date, contribution to the industry, leadership and promise. Katie is also a founding member of fee-only financial planning network XY Planning Network. She regularly speaks to womens professional groups and writes financial planning articles for professionals at YourRichestLifePlanning.com/Blog. To choose the best certified financial planners in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area, D Magazine asked CFP professionals in the Dallas/ Fort Worth Chapter of the Financial Planning Association to cast an online ballot. Votes from outside firms weighed more heavily than inside firm votes. Only eligible CFP professionals were considered for the list. The final list was reviewed by esteemed local financial planners. About Your Richest Life Your Richest Life is a Dallas, Fort Worth, and virtual fee-only financial planning firm. The owner, Katie Brewer, CFP, has over 10 years of experience. Her passion is helping clients get their financial lives in order. You can contact Katie Brewer at info(at)yrlplanning.com or schedule a call at YourRichestLifePlanning.com/Schedule. At a time when education systems in wealthy nations are redefining the competencies that matter in a new world, how is the quality of learning being updated and improved in poorer emerging markets? For the third year running, BRAC (the worlds largest NGO, founded in 1972) has been ranked the worlds number one NGO. Roughly 1.1 million students in 8 different countries get an education at a BRAC School. The CEO of BRAC, Donella Rapier, tells C. M. Rubin, founder of CMRubinWorld, in an exclusive new interview that students today need a strong foundation of crucial life skills. These skills are related to social-emotional intelligence such as interpersonal communication, teamwork, and coordinating with others. In addition, todays world demands skills in creativity, critical thinking, and complex problem solving. Without these skills, Rapier believes students will not be capable of flourishing as the digital revolution advances, bringing more job automation and cyclical recession. Read the full interview here Founded in 1972, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, by Sir Fazle Hasan, BRAC, is the number one NGO. Their mission is to take a holistic approach to ending poverty with the use of everything from microfinance to education, healthcare to gender justice and empowerment, to give people the tools they need to take control of their own lives. CMRubinWorlds award-winning series, The Global Search for Education, brings together distinguished thought leaders in education and innovation from around the world to explore the key learning issues faced by most nations. The series has become a highly visible platform for global discourse on 21st century learning, offering a diverse range of innovative ideas which are presented by the series founder, C. M. Rubin, together with the worlds leading thinkers. For more information on CMRubinWorld Follow @CMRubinWorld on Twitter Contact Information: David(at)cmrubinworld(dot)com The Global Arbitration Guide is an interactive tool to help in-house counsel learn more about arbitral institutions in more than 45 different jurisdictions around the world. Lex Mundi has published a new Global Practice Guide, the Lex Mundi Global Arbitration Guide. Developed by members of the Lex Mundi Litigation, Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Practice Group, the Global Arbitration Guide is an interactive tool to help in-house counsel learn more about arbitral institutions in more than 45 different jurisdictions around the world. This complimentary guide also provides a summary of the key international arbitral institutions. Drawing from the expertise of Lex Mundi member firms, the guide addresses the following items in each jurisdiction: details of the structure and organization of the particular arbitral institution; arbitral procedures and regulations; processes around arbitral awards; registration fees; the average costs and duration of arbitration proceedings; and links to specific institutional rules and model clauses. The guides interactive format allows users to search for and download an individual jurisdictions report or compare arbitral institutions from multiple jurisdictions in a side-by-side customizable report. This guide can be accessed free of charge on the Lex Mundi website at https://www.lexmundi.com/lexmundi/Global_Arbitration_Guide.asp. About Lex Mundi Lex Mundi is the worlds leading network of independent law firms with in-depth experience in 100+ countries. Lex Mundi member firms offer clients preferred access to more than 21,000 lawyers worldwide a global resource of unmatched breadth and depth. Each member firm is selected on the basis of its leadership in and continued commitment to its local market. The Lex Mundi principle is one independent firm for each jurisdiction. Firms must maintain their level of excellence to retain membership within Lex Mundi. Through close collaboration, information-sharing, training and inter-firm initiatives, the Lex Mundi network is an assurance of connected, on-the ground expertise in every market in which a client needs to operate. Through its global service platform, Lex Mundi members are able to seamlessly handle their clients most challenging cross-border transactions and disputes. Member law firms are located throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and North America. Through Lex Mundis nonprofit affiliate, the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation, members also provide pro bono legal assistance to social entrepreneurs around the globe. For more information, please visit http://www.lexmundi.com and http://www.lexmundiprobono.org. ### Contact Information: Kathleen Pope-Sance: 1.713.328.4521 Carl Anduri: 1.925.962.0115 The media did not publicize Milton Hersheys gift until five years later. When the media eventually published stories about his gift, some criticized Hershey and believed he had made a mistake, but here we are 109 years later. --MHS School Historian Susan Alger During the month of November, the Milton Hershey School community will celebrate a big milestone100 years since its founder Milton Hershey gifted his fortune to the school. Hershey placed 5,000 shares of equity stock in the Hershey Chocolate Company (now the Hershey Company) in a trust fund for the school. His gift ensured the well-being and future of Milton Hershey School in perpetuity. It was on Nov. 13, 1918 that Hershey officially gifted his stocks. The decision was made after his beloved wife Catherine passed away in 1915, the country was suffering through the end of World War I, and sugar prices increased throughout the world. The media did not publicize Milton Hersheys gift until five years later, said MHS School Historian Susan Alger. When the media eventually published stories about his gift, some criticized Hershey and believed he had made a mistake, but here we are 109 years later. Eventually, Hershey was interviewed for several publications expressing his reasons and plans for the future of the school. He told Liberty magazine in 1923, It was natural for me to think of education and of orphans and boys whose mothers had hard times and wanted them to have the chance other boys had I wanted to get away from the idea of institutions and charity and compulsion, and to give as many boys as possible real homes, real comforts, education, and training, so they would be useful and happy citizens. Today, Milton Hershey School has more than 2,000 current students enrolled in pre-K through 12th grade who are given an exceptional education, a nurturing home life environment, and medical and dental care at no cost to their families. The school will celebrate the milestone with the following events: A special week-long (Nov. 5-9) schoolwide celebration honoring our founders. A Founders Feast on Sunday, Nov. 11 at 4 p.m. at the Hershey Lodge. A Founders Day assembly on Monday, Nov. 12 at 8 a.m. at the Hershey Theatre. ABOUT MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL Milton Hershey School is one of the worlds best private schools, offering a top-notch education and positive home life to children in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade from families of lower income at no charge. Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research is teaming up with a regional higher education center to increase access to science research and education in the Frederick County area. Frederick Center for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST) aims to provide access to STEM-based undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs offered by partnering colleges or universities in response to the needs of local industry. CREST also seeks to facilitate research partnerships and drive technological business development in the Frederick region. Frederick National Laboratory (FNL) and Frederick CREST recently signed a three-year memorandum of understanding to establish a mutually beneficial collaboration that will integrate education and research in current and planned programs sponsored by CREST. CREST is hosting classes locally that are within the curriculum of the Master in Chemical and Life Sciences program provided by the University of Maryland, College Park. The curriculum is aimed at enhancing the qualifications and skills of public-school science teachers, including a hands-on science component. Under the new partnership, Frederick National Laboratory and CREST will work to provide training for University of Maryland graduate students in FNL laboratories. CREST also intends to sponsor Frederick-based classes in other relevant areas of interest, which could include workshops or seminars led by FNL scientists, and FNL scientists may be eligible for future adjunct positions within the University of Maryland masters program. CREST plans to provide targeted training offerings for FNL employees. Additional potential joint activities as part of the partnership include opportunities for students to participate in collaborative research efforts with university faculty and FNL scientists, which may also include FNL employees formally teaching courses at a participating university. The national laboratory will offer speakers for targeted seminars, conferences, and workshops through CREST. We are delighted to partner with Frederick CREST to engage local academic institutions in training the next generation of research scientists, while also providing meaningful research and education opportunities for our own employees, said Ethan Dmitrovsky, M.D., laboratory director of the Frederick National Laboratory and president of Leidos Biomedical Research, the laboratorys current prime contractor and signer of the agreement. "It is with great pleasure that we are formalizing this partnership with FNL. Together we plan to expand educational opportunities in science, engineering, and computation in the Frederick region, while helping to drive our technological industries. Jointly we can help to push Frederick forward to become a vibrant tech hub, where education and research create value and address critical issues," said CREST Executive Director Joanne Horn, Ph.D. The partnership follows collaborations signed earlier this year by the national laboratory with Georgetown University, Hood College, the National Cancer Institute of Mexico, Mount St. Marys University, and Howard University. The agreements are part of a concerted effort by FNL to expand its commitment to educate the next generation of scientists and foster academic research collaborations. About Frederick CREST The Frederick Center for Research and Education in Science and Technology is a non-profit organization formed by state legislative mandate under the Maryland State Department of Education. CREST is tasked with providing science and technology educational programs to the Frederick region that respond to the needs of local industry. CREST thus partners with the larger Maryland public research universities to offer programs not available through local institutions. CREST also facilitates joint research collaborations, and offers workshops and seminars to foster exchange, as well as providing an array of public services (see https://frederickcrest.org). About the Frederick National Laboratory The Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research is dedicated to improving human health through discovery and innovation in the biomedical sciences, focusing on cancer, AIDS, and rapid response to emerging infectious diseases. The facility is currently operated by Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., and sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. OverOps Logo OverOps is making San Francisco more alluring as a desirable place to work in tech. Mandy Walker, Director of Marketing at Tech in Motion OverOps, a software reliability platform, today announced that it was named the Best Tech Startup in San Francisco by the 2018 Timmy Awards. The company was also chosen as a runner-up in the Best Tech Work Culture category. A panel of expert judges and technology community voters selected OverOps based on the companys commitment to fostering a supportive entrepreneurial environment for employees and producing an exceptional product for the DevOps and developer community. With this accolade, OverOps joins the ranks of past Timmy Award winners that include: AppDynamics, Jet.com, LearnVest, Venmo, TripAdvisor, Gilt Groupe, Constant Contact, Casper and Instacart, among others. As the number of startups increases in San Francisco, so does the innovation happening in the city. OverOps is making San Francisco more alluring as a desirable place to work in tech, said Mandy Walker, Director of Marketing at Tech in Motion and Motion Recruitment Partners. The Timmy Awards were created to elevate local leaders like OverOps that make an impact from the beginning. Founded in 2011, OverOps is disrupting traditional log files and application monitoring technology with its software reliability platform. By capturing extensive code-level machine data about applications and services, OverOps not only helps developers troubleshoot issues, but also empowers ITOps and DevOps professionals with the metrics and visibility needed to detect anomalies and regressions, and to evaluate overall software reliability. As more organizations aim to innovate faster and deliver a seamless digital experience for their customers, the OverOps platform is critical in preventing service disruptions that can lead to lost revenue and brand degradation. The OverOps team boasts decades of collective experience from some of the most reputable technology innovators in the world, including companies like Hortonworks, HP, Autodesk, Pentaho, MySQL and Xerox. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with an office in Tel Aviv, and is actively expanding across the globe to support increased enterprise demand for its platform. We take great pride in providing a work environment where employees are empowered to bring new ideas forward and have the right the resources and support at their disposal to execute. It is because of the exceptional team at OverOps that we are able to deliver market-disrupting products and capabilities to our customers, said Rod Squires, CEO at OverOps. We are grateful for this recognition by the Timmy Awards and the local tech community, and look forward to continuing to foster a culture of innovation and collaboration as our team expands around the globe in 2019. To learn more about opportunities to join the growing OverOps team, visit http://www.OverOps.com/jobs About Tech in Motion Events & The Timmy Awards Tech in Motion is a North American event series that brings local tech community professionals together to connect, learn, and innovate. What started as a collaborative project in 2011 between IT recruiting firms Jobspring Partners and Workbridge Associates, part of the Motion Recruitment network, grew into an organization of over 100,000 members across 12 chapters in North America including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, LA, Orange County and Toronto. Please visit techinmotionevents.com for more information about notable speakers, sponsors and events. About OverOps OverOps provides net new machine data from applications and services to help organizations effectively evaluate the reliability of their software and implement a culture of accountability. Operating in all environments, OverOps employs both static and dynamic code analysis to capture unique code-aware insight about every error and exceptionboth caught and uncaughtas well as performance slowdowns. This deep visibility into the functional quality and performance of applications and services not only helps developers more effectively troubleshoot, but also empowers DevOps to build metrics dashboards, implement continuous reliability and enhance the entire software delivery supply chain. As more organizations aim to innovate faster and deliver a seamless digital experience for their customers, OverOps helps avoid costly downtime that can lead to lost revenue and brand degradation. Backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Menlo Ventures, OverOps has over 200 enterprise customers such as Comcast, TripAdvisor and Intuit, and has offices in San Francisco, Atlanta and Tel Aviv. # # # "The two-day conference is designed for owners who want to better understand how alternative project delivery can be used for their next project, identify trends and upcoming procurement opportunities, and connect with other communities and agencies, says Eric Iravani, President, P3C Media. P3C Media is excited to announce the 2018 program for the P3 Federal Conference taking place November 27-28 in Washington, D.C. The agenda includes over 30 P3 training sessions, roundtables, case studies, workshops, RFP announcements, and more. Through sessions focused on procurement, financing, risk transfer, design, asset management, and O&M, attendees will deepen their understanding on the value proposition of P3s, and the role they can play for their transportation, water, energy, and public building projects. Over two days, public leaders and industry practitioners will share first hand recent experiences, and upcoming projects and practices. Expert speakers will discuss current and soon to be opened procurements, financing programs and structure, best practices with contracts, risk management, operations, and key topics shaping today's P3 landscape. The agenda includes: How to best structure your next procurement Using P3s in sustainability and resiliency planning Asset management programs that save owners money from Day 1 Federal grant and loan assistance programs: How your projects can apply? Opportunity zones & value creation under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 Strategies to minimize operating costs and address deferred O&M P3 opportunities for small businesses and local economic development Developing and modernizing energy infrastructure assets with a P3 approach And more This years program provides the essential tools and know-how to successfully plan, deliver, and operate P3 projects of all sizes. The two-day conference is designed for owners who want to better understand how alternative project delivery can be used for their next project, identify trends and upcoming procurement opportunities, and connect with other communities and agencies, says Eric Iravani, President, P3C Media. The conference is a cornerstone for those who need to stay current on project delivery trends, meet with project owners, leaders, and network with development and policy experts. With local, state, and federal agencies looking closely at alternative delivery for the development of public infrastructure; the program emphasizes P3 education, financing solutions, new procurement methodologies, and innovative ways partnerships are helping deliver critical projects of all sizes across the country. Organizations in attendance include city, county, and state public agencies from over 45 states; Federal Highway Administration; U.S. Department of Transportation; U.S. Department of Agriculture; Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Aviation Administration, and more. A complete agenda, including session descriptions and speakers is available online here: https://www.p3federalconference.com/page/1334819/agenda About P3C Media, LLC P3C Media is organizes multiple public-private partnership infrastructure delivery events including The Public-Private Partnership Conference & Expo (P3C), The P3 Water Summit, The P3 Airport Summit, The P3 Higher Education Summit, and The P3 Federal Conference. #ppp #p3 #infrastructure #public-privatepartnership Karun Philip, Co-Founder and President of Tranquilmoney, stresses the need for private practices to utilize electronic health records for documenting patient information. Rather than fight with EHRs, there needs to be user-friendly, navigable practice management software that scans existing patient data, makes the transition to the EHR smooth, removes the bureaucratic nightmare, and enables the doctor to have a higher ratio of physician-patient time. Physician demand continues to grow faster than supply, leading to a projected shortfall between 42,600 and 121,300 physicians by 2030 according to new research released by The Association of American Medical Colleges.(1) Existing practitioners have faced many challenges working with Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. Navigating can become a virtual minefield, peppered with regulations and requirements that frustrate physicians and their staff, with a limited choice of canned systems to choose from. Tranquilmoney founder, Dr. Karun Philip points to the need for physicians to have software that works FOR them in navigating the EHR; not against them and their practice. Reasons for this deficit include an aging demographic of both the patient and physician populations, sprawling medical monoliths that absorb smaller practices by the thousands, and regulatory changes. Americas aging population is expected to grow about 11 percent to 359.4 million by 2030. Population under age 18 will grow by only 3 percent, while population aged 65 and over will grow by 50 percent. (2) America has 2.3 physicians per 1000 people now ranking 52nd in the world and this ratio will become worse as the aging population grows. Forty percent of all currently active physicians will be 65 or older within the next decade; many are readying for retirement by cutting down their hours or actually leaving the workforce. (2) The trend of hospitals buying U.S. physician practices continues, with acquisitions of at least 5,000 independent physician practices between July 2015 and July 2016. From mid-2012 to mid-2016, percentage of hospital-employed physicians rose by more than 63%. In 2016, just 33 percent of physicians identify as independent practice owners or partners, down from 48.5 percent in 2012.(3)(4) Regulations have come into play that restrict and govern medical practice management far more than in any earlier era. Unique for physicians are certain requirements surrounding electronic health records (EHRs) and new reporting regulations regarding patient visits. (5) Problems with EHR Systems There are many problems cited by physicians with using electronic records: they cost physicians an average extra 48 minutes per day. "Surprisingly, a third (33.9%) reported that it took longer to find and review medical record data" with electronic records management than without it.(3) Only 11 percent of physicians said electronic health records improved their interactions with patients, while 60 percent said they "detracted from patient interaction," the Physicians Foundation noted in 2016.(3) More than half of surveyed physicians think electronic health records limit them from providing high quality care to patients. (6) The need for technology that works FOR a practice With the growing population over 50, there is a large need for more private practicing physicians to help meet their health care needs. EHRs should be able to make it easier to manage patients, save them time and deliver high quality care. Rather than fight with EHRs, there needs to be user-friendly, navigable practice management software that scans existing patient data, makes the transition to the EHR smooth, removes the bureaucratic nightmare, and enables the doctor to have a higher ratio of physician-patient time, says Tranquilmoney Co-Founder and President, Dr. Karun Philip. In addition, it may also help avert the massive shortage of doctors. (7) Philip also notes that paper-based billing systems can be preserved for a grace period while implementing EHRs as a standard practice. Our unique transition approach allows physicians to retain their paper-based systems if they want, just scan all paper and send to us every day. By the next morning the data is in the EHR system, but the paper patient charts are also there for the continuation of existing processes. Over a few months, Philip states Tranquilmoney can tailor the customizable user interface and move to complete electronic practice management, while meeting all the EHR requirements. Tranquilmoney provides their software and consulting services free for clients who also use their Medical Billing servicesfor which those services have been proven to yield an average of 20% increase in realized revenues. This makes the transition to EHR a profit center rather than a cost, says Dr. Philip. About Tranquilmoney Tranquilmoney was incorporated in 1995 to provide solutions aimed at reversing the trend of doctors in independent practices feeling at a loss with the increased complexity of the business and regulatory side of the healthcare industry. The pattern of physicians selling their practices to large hospitals is one that is avoidable. Tranquilmoney has the tools in place to provide physician practices with financial management services, such as physician receivables management, pharmacy receivables management, healthcare insurance forms processing, and data capture services. In short, doctors can focus on patient care knowing that their practices are in order. The company is based in South Orange, New Jersey with back office facilities in Chennai, India. Tranquilmoney Inc. operates as a subsidiary of MM Group. For more information, visit http://www.TranquilMoney.com. Sources: 1) New Research Shows Increasing Physician Shortages in Both Primary and Specialty Care. AAMCNews, 11 Apr. 2018. 2) Howley, Elaine K. What Can Be Done About the Coming Shortage of Specialist Doctors? U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 2 May 2018. 3) Tuccille, J.D. How Formerly Independent Doctors Were Pushed Out of Business. Reason.com, 28 Aug. 2018. 4) Young, Kerry Dooley. Analysis Shows Hospital Ownership of Physician Practices Growing Rapidly. Medscape Medical News, Independent Digital News and Media, 19 Mar. 2018. 5) Howley, Elaine K. Is the Independent Doctor Disappearing? U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 13 June 2018. 6) EHRs, financial instability contribute to physicians pessimism. Modern Health Care News. Modern Healthcare.19 October 2018. 7) PRACTICETRACKER, EHR AND PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE. Tranquilmoney.com. 2018. Web. Signing of the Strategic University Partnership implementation agreement Our new partnership will serve as an institutional framework for expanding the scope of our bilateral cooperation including diversifying areas of interdisciplinary academic, research and entrepreneurial collaboration. The Presidents of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and The University of Waterloo signed a Strategic University Partnership institutional agreement today with the objective to foster closer partnership in education, research and entrepreneurship. This historic agreement will see the two universities exploring opportunities for collaboration in research, furthering ties on faculty and student mobility and discussing connections in entrepreneurship, amongst other key areas. University of Waterloo is one of our valued partners. We both are an aspiring university, committed to shaping the future through conducting world-changing research and sending forth graduates who are ready to lead in a global economy. With a solid foundation, our new partnership will serve as an institutional framework for expanding the scope of our bilateral cooperation including diversifying areas of interdisciplinary academic, research and entrepreneurial collaboration; fostering greater mobility between our universities; and paving the way for the development of dual or joint programs together, said Professor Timothy W. Tong, President of PolyU. It is exciting to partner with exceptional institutions like PolyU and we cannot wait to expand on an already fruitful relationship through more international exchanges, joint programs, research projects and more, said Professor Feridun Hamdullahpur, President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Waterloo. The signing of the PolyU-University of Waterloo Strategic University Partnership Memorandum of Understanding and an Implementation Agreement as an addendum marks an important milestone for advancing the initiative of establishing a global Centre for Ocular Research and Development (CORD). The Centre will operate under the umbrella of the Waterloo Biomedical Research and Innovation Node (WBRIN) in Hong Kong. CORD will address vital population health and aging imperatives in Hong Kong by partnering with local and internationally recognized leaders in ocular and vision science, and translating the research to commercial applications. According to the World Health Organization, vision problems cost the global economy US$200 billion annually to lost productivity. The Centre for Myopic Research at PolyU found that 70 percent of people born between 1950 and 1980 in Hong Kong are myopic. The two institutions have broadly agreed on the three possible research areas under CORD, namely aging eye, sight-saving technologies and the eye as a window to the brain. The researchers will explore new approaches in the detection and treatment of eye diseases, study the use of tear fluid as biomarkers to predict and diagnose diseases, and innovate technologies related to myopia prevention and reversal, visual neuro-rehabilitation and nanotechnology-based drug delivery. CORD will also research into early diagnosis and disease monitoring in particular for diabetes and Alzheimer's disease through peripheral retinal imaging or optic nerve examination. One of the key members in the CORD research team is Professor Donna Strickland of the Physics & Astronomy Department at the University of Waterloo, Laureate of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. Professor Strickland will lead a flagship project to treat age-related macular degeneration. She will expand on her award-winning work on chirped pulse amplification (CPA) to develop a laser-based two-photon excitation technique for photodynamic drug therapy to remove abnormal blood vessels in the retina with a high degree of accuracy. Translating research into commercialization will also be a key focus of CORD. The Centre aims to bring the University of Waterloos entrepreneurial culture to Hong Kong, developing spinoffs and multinationals to commercialize research, and creating a sustainable long-term business model. The two institutions intend to submit a proposal to the HKSAR Government under the recently announced Health@InnoHK research cluster initiative, with a plan to establish a research node in the Hong Kong Science Park. About The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has a total student population of about 28,000. Through our faculties and schools, the University connects education and research to the real world as manifested in our motto: To learn and to apply, for the benefit of mankind. Through an innovative education model combining professional knowledge with Service-Learning and real-world experience, PolyU has nurtured many bright minds to serve and contribute to the community. We also challenge boundaries and uncover knowledge, bringing many practical yet world-changing ideas to life for the benefit of mankind. These efforts reflect our commitment as described in the Universitys brand promise Opening Minds Shaping the Future. PolyU website: http://www.polyu.edu.hk About The University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo is Canadas top innovation university. With more than 36,000 students, we are home to the world's largest co-operative education system of its kind. Our unmatched entrepreneurial culture, combined with an intensive focus on research, powers one of the top innovation hubs in the world. Find out more at https://www.uwaterloo.ca Transforms ANY content into Learning Ponddy Reader frees both teachers and students from the static nature of traditional paper textbooks and materials, and genuinely facilitates the development of reading materials tailored to the needs and proficiency levels of each individual student. Ponddy Education Inc., an industry leader in personalized language learning, today announced the release of Ponddy Reader, a web-based application using artificial intelligence to personalize language-learning content for students while saving precious time and resources for teachers and their schools. Ponddy Reader provides AI-based embedded learning tools which level and enrich Chinese content to optimize language acquisition and retention. One of the most significant advances of Ponddy Reader lies in its automated leveling capabilities. Teachers submit Chinese text to the platform and Ponddy AI transforms it into lesson-ready content within seconds, with leveled vocabulary that aligns to various world standards for Chinese language assessments, such as ACTFL, HSK or TOCFL. Powered by the Affinity Knowledge Learning System (AKLS), Ponddy Reader connects language-learning content to a network of 1 billion characters and a large array of embedded language scaffolding tools. AKLS uses Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to identify language patterns and automatically groups similar elements for faster learning and better retention. Ponddy Reader dynamically adds an online dictionary and sample sentences to give students quick access to co-locations of words, characters and radicals. Teachers can also share vocabulary and grammar lists with their students who can then use the provided guidelines to read on their own. Because there are no defined reading levels or widely adopted assessments for Chinese language programs, teachers struggle with finding reading materials for their students. Yet, providing students with content that is in line with their comprehension level is crucial to improving literacy and ensuring successful long-term learning. According to research, when students cannot understand just 1% of the characters in a text, their comprehension goes down to 88%. Comprehension then decreases by 2-4% for every 1% of increase in unfamiliar content, with comprehension at 58% when just 10% of the characters are unfamiliar. The process of levelling and personalizing content is crucial to the success of language learning programs, yet it is currently very labor-intensive and complex, says Franz Chen, Founder & CEO of Ponddy Education. Ponddy Reader is the first technology that really addresses this pain point in a way that is cost-efficient. Now anyone can produce classroom-ready content that is fun and makes learning more effective. Our goal is to significantly increase students success rates with content adapted to their needs, and with tools to fine-tune their comprehension, all through the power of artificial intelligence. This announcement follows a successful Series A funding round of $6 million for Ponddy Education Inc., as well as an approval from the College Board for the company to provide online Advanced Placement (AP) Chinese language and culture courses. Ponddy Reader is a powerful Chinese language pedagogical tool for both teachers and students, says Dr. Scott McGinnis, Academic Advisor & Professor at the Defense Language Institute in Washington (DLIFLC). It frees both from the static nature of traditional paper textbooks and materials, and genuinely facilitates the development of reading materials tailored to the needs and proficiency levels of each individual student. Stephen L Tschudi, Specialist in Technology for Foreign Language Education at the Center for Language and Technology, University of Hawaii, is also impressed with Ponddy Readers personalization tools. For students reaching towards independence in reading authentic materials, Ponddy Reader provides just the right amount of support. In addition, vocabulary belonging to different levels can be filtered for display, helping the learner maintain a sense of control and mastery. From the teacher's perspective, Ponddy Reader offers the chance to truly individualize instruction by allowing individuals or groups of learners to read what they most want and need to read. Ponddy Reader is one of the most exciting AI assisted language learning devices out there, adds Frederik H. Green, PhD, Associate Professor of Chinese at the San Francisco State University. It's phenomenally sophisticated, amazingly user-friendly, and above all, incredibly fun to use! About Ponddy Education, Inc. Ponddy Education, Inc. uses AI-based technology such as machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to create language-learning products and services that improve students success while removing unnecessary costs and pain points for teachers and their schools. Our mission is to give anyone, anywhere, the opportunity to learn or teach a new language with ease using the power of artificial intelligence. We envision a world where language learning is not seen as a barrier to overcome, but as an instrument that unlocks potential and connections for all. To learn more about Ponddy Education, visit http://ponddy.ai. Munro's story is a roller coaster ride of suspense and intrigue with twists and turns that will entertain a lover of mysteries and forensic crime novels for hours. Author and career pathologist Jane Bennett Munro has released five novels in The Toni Day Series, with Grievous Bodily Harm being the third installment. The story follows Toni Day, M.D., crime investigator and Pathologist for Perrine Memorial Hospital. When Perrine welcomes a new administrator, Day immediately feels she cannot trust him. As Marcus Manning begins eliminating any medical staff or employees who oppose him, Day blows the whistle on his track record of lies, blackmail, and sexual abuse, nearly getting him fired. When Manning is found dead, Day becomes a prime suspect. To find who really murdered Manning and to keep herself out of jail, Day delves into the private life of him and those close to him. What she finds forces her to do the unthinkable to save her life and learn the truth. Munro's story is a roller coaster ride of suspense and intrigue with twists and turns that will entertain a lover of mysteries and forensic crime novels for hours. The US Review of Books Bennett Munro, who herself has over four decades in pathology experience, incorporates her own medical and forensic knowledge into her grisly descriptions of her books victims, offering readers a realistic and gritty story that will leave them riveted. Grievous Bodily Harm By Jane Bennett Munro ISBN: 9781532027567 (Softcover), 9781532027574 (Electronic) Available at the iUniverse Online Bookstore, Barnes & Noble and Amazon About the author Jane Bennett Munro holds a medical degree from the University of California, Irvine, and is certified in anatomical and clinical pathology. A hospital-based pathologist for 41 years, Bennett Munro has some experience working in forensics. She currently resides in Twin Falls, Idaho. To learn more, please visit http://www.janebennettmunro.com. John Kearney, CEO of Advanced Training Systems, discusses effective methods to license ex-military truckers on U.S highways. The best approach to licensing qualified veterans would be to allow them to partly bypass costly conventional training programs but require a short simulator course to assure they are fully prepared and U.S. highway-ready." According to the U.S. Department of Commerce Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a military skills test waiver for veterans with appropriate service experience is now being offered in all 50 states. The waiver, a provision of FMSCAs Learners Permit rules, allows veterans to substitute two years of safely operating military trucks or buses for the skills test portion of the commercial drivers license test.1 John Kearney, CEO and President of Advanced Training Systems, says, We totally understand the need to provide employment opportunities for returning veterans, as well as to help alleviate the nations currentand severeshortage of long-haul truck drivers. Kearney, whose company is a leading designer and manufacturer of virtual simulators and training for student and experienced driver training, among other applications, adds, At the same time, as experts in the driver training field, we understand peoples concerns about safety. What we need is a solution that addresses both issues. There is no question, Kearney notes, about the seriousness of the national driver shortage. There are some 50,000 fewer truckers than are needed right now, and the U.S. trucking industry will need to hire almost 900,000 new operators over the next decade simply to maintain the current workforce.2 As a partial response to this situation, legislation was introduced earlier this year to reduce the legal age for interstate cargo transport from 21 to 18an age range that would include many of the veterans covered by the FMSCAs test-waiver proposal.3 The legislation has generated a certain amount of opposition. Myron Shevell, Chairman of the Shevell Group, which operates New England Motor Freight and Eastern Freightways, characterized it as a horrible idea. With the situation with auto accidents, you are just adding to the problem. Anything can happen. Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association, called the legislation absurd.4 Others in the industry, however, are more receptive to the idea. In a poll of ten supply chain and transportation executives, a leading industry trade publication received seven unqualified yes votes for lowering the minimum driver age, two responses supporting both sides of the question, and one apparent no.5 As to the driving test waiver for returning veterans, Kearney notes that the application requirements are designed to screen out unsuitable candidates: a minimum of two years of military driving experience and a clean and stable civilian driving record: no suspended, revoked, or cancelled licenses, no citations for the use of alcohol or drugs, and no serious traffic violations.7 Theres no question that our nations roadways are crowded and potentially dangerous, says Kearney. The best approach to licensing qualified veterans would be to allow them to partly bypass costly conventional training programs but require a short simulator course to assure they are fully prepared and U.S. highway-ready. Just as in military and airline pilot training, the use of a simulator can teach the proper response to events too rare or too dangerous to be part of behind-the-wheel instructionin the case of a truck driver, a blowout of the steering tire, a patch of black ice, sudden high wind, or a similar serious and unexpected problem. About Advanced Training Systems LLC: Advanced Training Systems (ATS) is a high-tech simulator technology and engineering firm that has revolutionized the design and manufacture of advanced training systems to improve training and create safer drivers. ATS, the holder of multiple patents in high-tech training simulation, has as its mission to provide this cutting-edge adaptive training to all involved in the transportation industry at an affordable cost, resulting in safer drivers/operators. For more information, visit http://www.atstrainingsystems.com 1. Military Skills Test Waiver Program, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, November 29, 2017. 2. Raphelson, Samantha, Trucking Industry Struggles With Growing Driver Shortage, NPR, January 9, 2018. 3. Drive Safe Act Aims to Let CMV Drivers Cross State Lines Before Age 21, Go By Truck Global News, March 23, 2018. 4. Berman, Jeff, Veteran trucking exec Shevell rips absurd plan to allow teenage truck drivers, Logistics Management, October 3, 2018. 5. Arabe, Katrina, Good Question: To address the truck driver shortage, should we lower the minimum driver age to 18?, Inbound Logistics, September 24, 2018. 6. CDL Skills Test Waiver Requirements, DMV.org, October 30, 2018. The company, which has been operating in Singapore for almost a decade has managed to have plumbers spread across the city, allowing them to deliver fast and affordable services to their clients. "We have built our network of professional plumbers around Singapore in the many years that we have been operating, and we continue to grow the team as the demand for plumbing services continue to increase, as well," said Debra Tsui of the SG1 Plumber Marketing Team. According to Tsui, one of the contributing factors to their sustained growth and client-base is their innovative ways of reaching out to the client. SG1 Plumber runs their website where all their services are posted. The website also doubles as a booking platform for their clients. One of the testimonials from their website lauded the company the clean job that they do. The plumber was efficient and clean during and after doing his job which I didn't expect. In case my relatives or friends asked for a plumber, SG1Plumber.com will get my vote! a testimonial from Yi Ling Chan states. Apart from that the typical plumbing services, the company also offer roof leaking and waterproofing services, which are noted to be also among the most common problems encountered by properties in Singapore. Forming part of their service package, the plumbers of SG1 also constantly provide tips to their clients on how to maintain the quality of their pipes and the entire drainage system. Among the top services offered by the company include pipe installation, plumbing repair, and pipe clearing. Repair and replacement jobs were one of the first few services that we offered when starting. As the team grew larger, and with more plumbers trained, thats when we were able to expand our services to waterproofing and leak solutions, said Tsui. SG1 Plumber located at 8 Burn Road, #15-13 (Trivex), 369977 Singapore and can also be contacted in various platforms including a direct phone number (+65 9061 0797), Whatsapp, and email. Their contact details can be found on their website. SignUpGenius Increases Giving Tuesday donation to $68,500 Giving back has always been vital to our company, and the personal touch this year makes it even more meaningful! says Amy Tidwell, Senior Testing Analyst. SignUpGenius will donate $68,500 in honor of Giving Tuesday this year, giving $60,000 $15,000 each to four nonprofit partner organizations. The company will also donate $8,500 to nonprofits chosen by employees to encourage charitable giving during the holiday season. Celebrated on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving each year, Giving Tuesday kicks off the giving season by inspiring people to collaborate and give back with time, donations, goods or their voice. The SignUpGenius team will present donations on Giving Tuesday, November 27, and participate in service projects with partner nonprofits around the Charlotte area. The North Carolina-based charities provide crucial services to vulnerable and at-risk children in Charlotte and across the globe. SignUpGenius focuses on helping children through donations to four main partner organizations: Samaritans Purse, a Boone, N.C.-based nonprofit that provides international relief services to victims of war, poverty, natural disaster and disease. The nonprofit is known for its Operation Christmas Child shoebox distribution. Brookstone Schools in Charlotte, a growing K-8 school that provides a private Christian education for financially challenged families. Christian Adoption Services in Matthews, N.C., a nonprofit that places domestic and foreign-born children with adoptive Christian families. African Christians Fellowship International, a nonprofit that helps indigent and orphaned children in Liberia, West Africa. This year, SignUpGenius deepens its Giving Tuesday commitment by announcing a program to give to charities on behalf of its 34 employees. Each team member may select a 501c3 nonprofit to receive a $250 gift from the company. SignUpGenius will announce the full list of charities receiving donations on Giving Tuesday. Giving back has always been vital to our company, and the personal touch this year makes it even more meaningful! says Amy Tidwell, Senior Testing Analyst. I have the opportunity to bless a favorite nonprofit with a $250 donation from SignUpGenius, and also learn about other nonprofits making a difference in our community and the world. SignUpGenius has donated more than $500,000 to charitable causes since the company was founded ten years ago. Along with donating to partner nonprofits, the company regularly supports causes that are important to its workers, matching employee donations to registered 501c3 nonprofits up to $500 per year per employee. About SignUpGenius SignUpGenius simplifies the process of coordinating events and people by providing online sign ups for nonprofits, schools, sports, churches, families, colleges, businesses and organizations. By enabling up to 18 million unique visitors per month to sign up for tasks online, SignUpGenius has done away with the need for paper sign ups, "reply-all" emails and phone trees. Recent peer-reviewed studies by artificial-intelligence powered cybersecurity startup CYR3CON show how patterns in hacker conversations can predict enterprise cyberattacks. Recent peer-reviewed studies by artificial-intelligence powered cybersecurity startup CYR3CON show how patterns in hacker conversations can predict enterprise cyberattacks. The pair of studies and associated provisional patents describe DarkMention and highlight several use cases including the prevention of attacks against various cryptocurrencies and their exchanges. Todays applications of artificial intelligence to cybersecurity tend to focus on identifying if either an attack occurred or if someone is currently attempting an attack, stated CYR3CON CEO Paulo Shakarian, but hackers are people too, and they need to prepare for attacks which presents us with an opportunity to better predict their actions. CYR3CON turned to the darkweb a shadowy part of the Internet where malicious hackers, among other criminals, prepare, develop and conduct their illicit activities. While hackers typically do not discuss specific targets, explains Shakarian, there are definite patterns in conversations that we uncover prior to an attack. However, finding these patterns is no small task darkweb hacker discussions are inherently messy data to deal with. The company also notes that simple keyword searches alone do not provide very predictive attack indicators. We found if you rely on darkweb discussions around certain key terms you end up with a lot of false positives and that false positive rate leads to intense manual effort. We use artificial intelligence to cut a lot of that out, Shakarian explained further. The studies show not only the application of DarkMention to the enterprise but also how it can be used to predict attacks targeting cryptocurrencies. The papers will be presented at the IEEE conference for Intelligence and Security Informatics held Nov. 8-10 in Miami, Florida. Originally funded by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) Cyberattack Automate Unconventional Sensor Environment (CAUSE) Program, the company earned recognition for predictions concerning several major attacks. In October the company announced the completion of a venture-backed fundraising round. About CYR3CON CYR3CON combines machine learning and data mined from hacker communities (i.e. darkweb, deepweb) to predict cyberattacks. The platform-based solution allows for use cases such as attack prediction and vulnerability prioritization. This provides corporate security professionals the means to take early action and avoid cyber-attacks. CYR3CON - Be in the know, now. Jacqueline Cullison has joined heavy-duty vehicle lift leader Stertil-Koni as Operations Specialist Stertil-Koni Director of Operations, Kevin Hymers noted, Stertil-Koni is dedicated to delivering the highest level of customer service and is delighted to welcome Jackie to our team. She is a top logistics pro who shares our vision for advancing a customer-centric culture. Stertil-Koni, the leader in heavy duty vehicle lifts notably bus lifts and truck lifts has announced that Jacqueline (Jackie) Cullison has joined the company as Operations Specialist. In her new position, Cullison will work closely with a broad range of audiences chiefly the companys extensive North American distributor network, sales personnel, engineers, Stertil-Koni manufacturing locations in the United States and Europe, as well as end-users. Her responsibilities include ordering heavy duty vehicle lifts, coordinating deliveries and securing transportation of the lifts to end-users across North America. Cullison is also tasked with streamlining the inground lift ordering process while maintaining world-class communications between Stertil-Konis Stevensville, Maryland headquarters, its distributors, and the companys manufacturing facilities. In making todays announcement, Stertil-Koni Director of Operations, Kevin Hymers noted, Stertil-Koni is dedicated to delivering the highest level of customer service and is delighted to welcome Jackie to our team. She is a top logistics pro who shares our vision for advancing a customer-centric culture. Cullison has more than 14 years managing ground operations at FedEx, and extensive knowledge of logistics, transportation and supply chain management. She is a graduate of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Cullison received numerous awards throughout her career including Administrative Service Manager of the Year and HR Service Manager of the Year, as well as the Bravo Zulu award at FedEx for outstanding performance beyond normal job expectations. She resides in Stevensville with her husband and two children and enjoys traveling with her family. 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. Contact: Paul Feldman, Paul.Feldman(at)Stertil-Koni.com, 410-643-9001 The APSP Board of Directors plays a critical role in helping move the association and industry forward, said APSP President & CEO, Lawrence Caniglia. APSP would not exist if it were not for the efforts of these individuals stepping into these vital volunteer leadership roles. During the International Pool | Spa | Patio Expo (PSP Expo) in Las Vegas, Nevada, The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals (APSP) elected one new member to its Board of Directors, Andrew Levinson, and Donna K. Williams has assumed the role as Chairman of the Board having been elected Chair-elect last year along with a slate of new officers for the 2018-2019 term. The APSP Board of Directors plays a critical role in helping members succeed and are the driving force to move the association and industry forward, said APSP President & CEO, Lawrence Caniglia. APSP would not exist if it were not for the efforts of these individuals stepping into these vital volunteer leadership roles and I thank them for their efforts to make the pool and hot tub industry better for everyone. Donna Williams was named Vice President for POOLCORP in February 2018 and has served as Chief Marketing Officer since May 2015. Ms. Williams joined the Company in 2007 to lead the Sales, Marketing, and Product Management teams. Prior to that, Ms. Williams served as Director, Product Line Management with American Power Conversion (APC) Corporation from June 2006 until August 2007; and as Vice President, Global Product Development at Fedders Air Conditioning from May 2001 until May 2006. From 1988 until April 2001, Ms. Williams held positions at both John Deere, 1998 to 2001; and Poulan brand trimmers (Husqvarna AB), 1988 to 1997. Andrew Levinson is the president of Jet Line Products. Levinson is highly active in the pool and hot tub industry and has held several leadership roles including: Past President and former Board of Director Member of the Northeast Spa and Pool Association (NESPA) and Past President of the Long Island Pool and Spa Association (LIPSA). Currently, he serves on the LIPSA Board of Directors and is highly active on two Swimming Pool Contractors Licensing Task Forces where he serves as Chairman in Suffolk County, New York and Member in Nassau County, New York. In addition to his service to the pool and hot tub industry, he is married and is the father of two teenage children. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from Pennsylvania State University. We are honored to have Donna and Andrew on the APSP Board of Directors, said APSP Immediate Past Board Chairman, Chris Curcio. They both bring substantial experience to the Board and a shared commitment to serve in the interest of our members. Their individual and collective talents position APSP to be able to continue to move the pool and spa industry forward on a local, national and international level. With the appointments of Williams and Levinson, APSPs 2018-2019 board consists of nine members, including: Chairman-Elect, Maurizio Vozza of Nordic Products Inc.; Secretary/Treasurer, Scott Frost of Zodiac Pool Systems; Immediate Past Board Chairman, Chris Curcio of Litehouse Products, LLC; Jeanne Fec of Frank Lynn & Associates Inc.; Richard Garbee of GLI Pool Products; Jack Manilla, CBP, CSP of Portofino Pools and Jon Viner, Bio-Lab, Inc. A KIK Custom Products Company. About APSP The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals (APSP) is the worlds oldest and largest association representing swimming pool, hot tub, and spa manufacturers, distributors, manufacturers agents, designers, builders, installers, suppliers, retailers, and service professionals. Dedicated to the growth and development of its members businesses and to promoting the enjoyment and safety of pools and spas, APSP offers a range of services, from professional development to advancing key legislation and regulation at the federal and local levels, to consumer outreach and public safety. APSP is the only industry organization recognized by the American National Standards Institute to develop and promote national standards for pools, hot tubs, and spas. For more information, visit http://www.APSP.org. Pulsus Group Oral health is the window to our overall health Dentistry is one of the oldest branches of medicine, dating back to 7000 B.C. with the Indus Valley Civilization. However, it isnt until 5000 B.C. that descriptions related to tooth decay and dentistry became available. Ancient Mayans were known to practice dental surgery by filling tooth cavities with precious stones, such as hematite, jadite, quartz, and turquoise, among others. By the 1700s, dentistry had come to be defined as a profession. In 1723, Pierre Fauchard, the Father of Modern Dentistry, published The Surgeon Dentist, a Treatise on Teeth that presented an extensive system for caring and treating teeth, for the first time. It was Fauchard who first identified that acids from our sugar intake resulted in tooth decay. One of the most relevant transformations in the dental-care is the significant alteration in the prevalence of hard-tissue disease. The "dentate status" of the population has altered the blend and the focus of care. Dental implants and other related innovations have completely transformed dentistry in recent years. Implant dentistry currently accounts for approximately 15% of the total dentistry market and is a component of the dental specialties segment. These days applications like aesthetic dentistry, digital dentistry, implant dentistry, laser dentistry, and 3D printing are also available. The field is going to continue to change, especially because of the advances in technology and materials. Omics International is one of the foremost flag-bearers of the open access movement, which publishes more than 1000 peer-reviewed clinical, medical, life sciences, and engineering & technology journals. Dr. Srinubabu Gedela, the CEO of Omics International and Pulsus understands the importance of dentistry in the present day world. Omics publishes some of the most important dentistry journals, such as Dentistry, Oral Health and Dental Management, Journal of Oral Hygiene & Health, Reconstructive Surgery & Anaplastology, Pediatric Dental Care, Oral Health Case Reports, Dental Health: Current Research, and JBR Journal of Interdisciplinary Medicine and Dental Science. These journals while presenting research on the latest developments in the field, also encapsulate the known information in the field in the form of scholarly reviews. The open access format of Omics journals allows for rapid diffusion of knowledge and ensures more visibility to both the research work and the authors. These journals provide insightful, authoritative, and arresting information and interpretation of the latest trends in dentistry to the readers, which include medical professionals, and researchers. Toyota South Atlanta is the right place for Toyota and Scion owners looking for high quality genuine Toyota parts and accessories. Toyota South Atlanta has reaffirmed its commitment to the online automotive parts and accessories market with an updated e-commerce website: onlineparts.toyotasouthatlanta.com. This new website is designed to better meet the needs of consumers shopping for genuine Toyota and Scion products and allows Toyota South Atlanta to compete both locally and nationally in the genuine Toyota parts and Toyota accessories market. Toyota South Atlanta is the right place for Toyota and Scion owners looking for high quality genuine Toyota parts and accessories. We know our customers time is valuable. This is why we strive to make Toyota and Scion genuine products more accessible to the customers who need them, when they need them, said Kyle Edwards, parts manager at Toyota South Atlanta To ensure our customers have the best online experience, we will continue our partnership with SimplePart. "Toyota South Atlanta has been an incredible partner to work with," said Dan DuPree, Vice President of Client Services at SimplePart. "With this updated site, Toyota and Scion owners can browse a better, more comprehensive, and up-to-date genuine parts and accessories catalog for their vehicles with interactive part diagrams." About Toyota South Atlanta Toyota South Atlanta is located in Morrow, Georgia and proudly serves the greater Atlanta area. Toyota South Atlanta also has a genuine Toyota and Scion parts and accessories counter staffed with highly trained and certified industry professionals who will help you get the product you need. Located at 6865 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, GA 30260, the Toyota South Atlanta parts department can be reached at (404) 363-1953. About SimplePart With a client base of automotive, motorcycle, truck and powersport dealerships across every major brand, SimplePart connects OE dealers with owners buying retail parts and accessories online. SimplePart provides turnkey parts catalog solutions, user-friendly websites and digital marketing services. SimplePart currently has official programs with Subaru, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW Motorrad, Volvo, Toyota and more. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, visit http://www.simplepart.com. ALM Intelligence, a division of ALM Media LLC, supports legal, consulting, and benefits decision-makers seeking guidance on critical business challenges. Automation and data analytics play an enhanced role in the North American market and have expanded to all industries. Adopting the technologies of automation and analytics typically results in workforce reductions, said Pitkaeniemi. ALM Intelligence Consulting division, previously known as Kennedy Consulting, has released The ALM Global Forecast - North America Consulting. The report provides trends, market size and provider analysis by the largest industries and nine consulting services in Canada and the United States. Compared with 2017, the US economy looks less healthy; leading indicators signal the possibility of a recession in the next 12-24 months. Companies have started to anticipate this scenario by reducing risk through operational improvements, said Lasse Pitkaeniemi, Senior Director, Research at ALM Intelligence. Meanwhile, new projects involving capital investments are being delayed until there is more clarity on the business climate. In the consulting space this has translated into a decreased demand for corporate and front-office services, but an increasing need for mid- and back-office solutions. The North America Consulting Global Forecast report findings include: The consulting industry spending has changed in focus from the corporate office to the back office. The consulting market growth rates in Canada and the US are converging. The 20 largest consulting firms are growing faster than the market and are continuing to gain market share. Automation and data analytics play an enhanced role in the North American market and have expanded to all industries. Adopting the technologies of automation and analytics typically results in workforce reductions. Those will be most pronounced in manufacturing, retail, and transportation, said Pitkaeniemi. ALM Intelligence has been researching the management, financial and IT consulting industry for over 40 years, studying the global consulting marketplace at multiple levels. The resulting market analyses help buyers of consulting services to effectively target best in class consulting providers to identify and evaluate business opportunities. Firms ranked within the report include: Accenture; Aon; Bain & Company; Booz Allen Hamilton; Capgemini; Cognizant; Deloitte; EY; FTI Consulting; IBM; Korn Ferry; KPMG; McKinsey & Company; Mercer; Navigant; Oliver Wyman; PwC; Slalom; The Boston Consulting Group; Willis Towers Watson. For more information or to obtain the full version of The ALM Global Forecast - North America Consulting visit the ALM Intelligence website: http://at.alm.com/ForecastNA2018. Additional Consulting Intelligence reports for EMEA (Europe, Middle Earth, and Africa), Asia Pacific, and Latin America will be released in the coming weeks. About ALM Intelligence ALM Intelligence, a division of ALM Media LLC, supports legal, consulting, and benefits decision-makers seeking guidance on critical business challenges. Our proprietary market reports and analysis, rating guides, prospecting tools, surveys, and rankings, inform and empower business leaders to meet business challenges with confidence. Please visit http://www.alm.com/intelligence for more information. Travefy - the leading itinerary management and client communication tool for Travel Advisors and Tour Operators - announced a new integration with Tourplanthe worlds leading Tour Operator software. Through this integration, Tour Operators can directly import all customer quotations and bookings from Tourplan into an auto-created Travefy itinerary. Travefy then automatically inserts rich content into the itinerary from the users Travefy Content Library. Ultimately, a client itinerary can be used in a B2B or B2C relationship and can be accessed by the client via web link, PDF or beautiful mobile app. We are thrilled by the opportunity to work with a leader and powerhouse technology company like Tourplan, notes David Chait, Travefys CEO and Founder. This new integration marries the versatility and comprehensiveness of Tourplan with the award winning client-facing tools Travefy offers for itinerary creation and management for a seamless experience. Providing agents and travelers with digital itineraries is quickly becoming a must have requirement for our tour operator clients, says Tourplan Sales & Marketing Director, Craig Gray. We are pleased to work with Travefy who have developed a seamless integration with Tourplan, making it quick and easy for tour consultants to produce quotes and itineraries in exciting new digital formats for their customers. In addition to Travefys announced integration with Tourplan, the company has recently released several other large-scale product enhancements to help its Travel Advisor and Tour Operator users save time. These have included direct integrations with other suppliers, the integration of over 600 new city guides and 70+ new integrated Land Tour and Cruise Suppliers among others. ABOUT TRAVEFY Travefys award-winning itinerary management and client communication tools help Travel Advisors and Tour Operators save time and impress clients. Travel professionals can build dynamic travel quotes and itineraries all in their brand that can be delivered via mobile app, responsive web page, or PDF. Additional time-saving integrations bring key data seamlessly to any itinerary. Travefy powers thousands of travel businesses ranging from small, independent travel advisors to the largest travel organizations like Travel and Transport and the Gifted Travel Network (GTN). Travefy has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes among other publications and has won numerous industry honors including the Brand USA Marketing Innovation Award at Phocuswright and the 2017 ASTA Entrepreneur of the Year Award. For more information please see: https://travefy.com/tour-operator For press assets please see: https://travefy.com/press ABOUT TOURPLAN Tourplan is a specialized, elite system, designed for Tour Operators and DMCs to handle FITs, Groups, MICE, Scheduled Tours, Series tours, Adventure Tours and virtually any specialist tour type. Continually evolving and improving, Tourplans solutions are the distillation of years of intellectual input from some of the best tour operator and DMC businesses worldwide. Tourplan is a highly successful, solution orientated company with offices in New Zealand, Malaysia, England, South Africa and Costa Rica all dedicated solely to the Tour Operator and DMC market. A Tourplan cornerstone is premium quality services provided by experienced consultants with travel industry knowledge in all major regions and time-zones globally. 370 tour operators and DMCs in 70 countries trust Tourplan to run their businesses. For more information please see https://www.tourplan.com I am pleased to welcome Amir Yazdi and the Bastian Group to the UNO family. I look forward to a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship with Amir and his team and to supporting him in the growth of the UNO brand in his markets. UNO Restaurants, LLC (UNO), the owner, operator and franchisor of the UNO Pizzeria & Grill brand, announces the sale of eight company-owned restaurants to MVPizza, LLC as part of a broader re-franchising initiative. The eight restaurants are located in the Maryland and Virginia markets and are the first markets to be sold in connection with UNOs re-franchising initiative. MVPizza, LLC retained all of the management, hourly and field employees offering them a unique growth opportunity under franchise ownership. MVPizza, LLC is an affiliate of the Bastian Restaurant Group, owned by Mr. Amir Yazdi, a successful, California-based operator and franchisee of multi-unit restaurant brands. The Cypress Group is serving as the exclusive advisor to UNO in the re-franchising of company-owned restaurants. Mr. Amir Yazdi, President & Chief Executive Officer of MVPizza, LLC and the Bastian Group, said, I am excited to be part of an iconic brand with such a rich and authentic history as UNO. I am also honored to have such a dedicated team of people who will ensure a smooth transition of the business and to be able to offer them additional opportunities to grow in their careers at UNOs. Mr. Louie Psallidas, President & Chief Executive Officer of UNO, stated, I am pleased to welcome Amir Yazdi and the Bastian Group to the UNO family. I look forward to a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship with Amir and his team and to supporting him in the growth of the UNO brand in his markets. Psallidas went on to say, The re-franchising initiative was intended to facilitate the growth of the UNO brand through its new prototype dubbed UNO Next. The UNO Next design, created in partnership with Synergy Restaurant Consultants, brings forward the rich and authentic history of the UNO brand and combines it with a new contemporary design featuring an open display kitchen, a large bar and community tables designed for groups and socializing, a dedicated area for take-out and a significant technology component. We intend to open a company-owned UNO featuring the UNO Next design in 2019. This is the first of two re-franchising transactions entered into by UNO. The second transaction is with a franchise group that operates over 160 restaurants across two brands in 14 states. The second transaction is slated to close in November for the sale of restaurants in certain Northeast markets. Upon the closing of the second re-franchising transaction, UNO will have 38 company- owned and 54 domestic and 8 international franchised restaurants. The company-owned restaurants are primarily based in New England, Florida and Chicago. The Cypress Group is serving as the exclusive advisor to UNO in the re-franchising of Company-owned restaurants. Cypress provided valuation services, identified potential acquirers, structured the deal terms and advised UNO throughout the transaction process. Parties interested in learning more about the UNO re-franchising program should contact the Cypress Group at 303-680-4141 or via email at Pizzainfo@cypressgroup.biz. About Uno Pizzeria & Grill Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Uno Restaurant Holdings Corporation includes 100 company-owned and franchised Uno Pizzeria & Grill restaurants located in 22 states, the District of Columbia, the United Arab Emirates, Honduras, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. UNO's is all about the joy of sharing a hand-crafted pizza from our famous Chicago Deep Dish, which we invented in 1943, to our Chicago Thin Crust. The Company also operates Uno Due Go, a fast-casual concept and Uno Foods, a consumer-packaged foods business. For more information, visit http://www.unos.com. UWorld has disrupted the EdTech market with products of unsurpassed quality, its intuitive online model, and a singular focus on helping students achieve their dreams, said Elliott. Dr. Pemmasani has built a world-class company and I am delighted to be part of his highly talented team. I envisioned a COO whose skill set would complement our growth plans while keeping UWorlds students as the priority. I sought a candidate with expertise, not just in education, but in technology and publishing, to help maneuver UWorld into the next phase of growth. I found this expertise in Jeff, a recognized pioneer and veteran of the EdTech industry, said Dr. Chandra S. Pemmasani, Founder and CEO of UWorld. Prior to joining UWorld, Elliott was President of Voyager Sopris Learning where he led the companys efforts to provide innovative, evidence-based instructional solutions to help schools surpass their achievement goals. As President/CEO of Massachusetts-based Virtual High Schoolan online learning providerhe led the companys efforts to provide fully virtual and blended learning programs focused on career and college readiness, with a specific emphasis in STEM. Jeff served as President/CEO of Oklahoma City-based Advanced Academics from 2003 to 2012; under his leadership, the organization grew into one of the countrys leading providers of comprehensive, online learning models for public school students, and he led the companys pioneering strategy to serve at-risk students. Prior to his time at Advanced Academics, he oversaw three divisions of Wright Group/McGraw-Hill Education as Vice President of Business Development and successfully integrated and managed international acquisitions in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. UWorld has disrupted the EdTech market with products of unsurpassed quality, its intuitive online model, and a singular focus on helping students achieve their dreams, said Elliott. Dr. Pemmasani has built a world-class company and I am delighted to be part of his highly talented team. About UWorld UWorld is the worldwide leader in online practice question banks. Since 2003, UWorld has helped millions of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students prepare for their high-stakes entrance and licensing exams. At the core of UWorlds mission is an obsession with quality, so that students receive only the best in online resources that enables them to succeed. Baker Electric, a full-service electric, solar and storage contractor serving Southern California, completed a 656.64 kW rooftop solar project this past summer for the Pomona location of Valley Indoor Swap Meet (VISM), just in time to harness peak solar savings. The project is part of VISMs ongoing effort to not only combat continually rising electricity costs, but to also help in the fight against climate change. The new solar system is guaranteed to produce more than 547,700 kWh total in the next 20 years, equivalent to offsetting the carbon dioxide emissions of 446,032 pounds of burned coal. Valley Indoor Swap Meet desired solar not only because they were facing rising utility bills, but also to be a part of the solution, said Troy Strand, Director Renewable Energy Solutions for Baker Electric. They proactively moved forward with renewable energy generation to compete with climate change. The new solar project is estimated to save VISM more than $150,000 in electricity costs within the first year alonean 81 percent reduction in overall energy consumption. Those numbers will add up to a net savings of more than $5.3 million over the course of the modules 25-year life warranty. VISM wanted to tap into the solar savings as soon as possible, and in less than six months the Pomona renewable energy system was up and running. It worked out great, said Ron Wolfe, co-owner and CFO for VISM. Baker is very efficient and responsible. I have nothing but good things to say about the company. VISMs energy renovation project began eight years ago when the owners decided to upgrade the indoor and outdoor lighting of both the Pomona and Panorama City locations to LED. Following the new lighting installations was a complete overhaul of the air conditioning system, completed in just a couple of years. The state-of-the-art rooftop solar system from Baker topped off the renovations. Bakers skilled team of engineers, electricians, consultants and project managers were influential in VISMs decision when selecting a solar company. We were most impressed with [Baker] because of the team they brought together, said Wolfe. We have high expectations. So far the numbers look very good, and were very happy with Baker as a contractor. has upheld its high standards of quality and customer service for the past 80 years. For more information on Baker Electrics work and its company history, visit http://www.baker-electric.com. About Valley Indoor Swap Meet: Established in 1986, Valley Indoor Swap Meet features hundreds of independently-owned stores in two locations near the Los Angeles area. Its Pomona building accommodates 550 retail spaces and is conveniently situated just off the San Bernardino Freeway. Valley Indoor Swap Meet prides itself on bringing a first-class experience to its sellers and the millions of customers that come through each year. Both locations offer extensive advertising for sellers, and often host various promotional events and activities for customers. For more information, visit http://www.indoorswap.com. Wayback Burgers, Americas Favorite Hometown Burger Joint and one of the nations fastest growing burger franchises, added to its franchise-development success during Q3 2018 with restaurant openings and construction across the globe, awarding new domestic restaurants and expanding further in international markets. As a result, leading industry publications, like QSR and Franchise Times have recognized Wayback Burgers tremendous growth. QSR penned a magnificent feature story offering an inside look into Wayback Burgers Blazing Growth. Also, Franchise Times highlighted Wayback Burgers as the #2 fastest growing burger brand in its annual Top 200+ list. Dynamic international expansion activity is fueling even bigger ambitions for Wayback Burgers. After a busy second quarter in which Wayback Burgers expanded its reach into Canada, Asia and Europe, the brand extended its worldwide footprint in Q3 by: Opening a second location in the DHA district in Lahore, Pakistan. Adding a second location in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Starting business with a location in Salmiya, Kuwait. Introducing a Wayback Burgers food cart to the market in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Signing a lease for a restaurant in Breda, The Netherlands. Concluding a Master Franchise agreement with a new owner in British Columbia, Canada. Were becoming a household name in more corners of the world, said Wayback Burgers Executive Vice President Bill Chemero. That is because we have earned a worldwide reputation for the best burgers and the best service. This reputation, earned by our phenomenal master franchisees in corners all over the world, has sparked rapid international development as we continue to grow fast in multiple states across the US. In the U.S., Wayback Burgers introduced itself to more guests in new restaurants, opening new restaurants in Milford, Delaware; Reno, Nevada; and Irving, Texas. The Irving location is the first in Wayback Burgers domestic network with a new building design that promises to make the guest experience at Wayback even more exciting, satisfying and efficient. Wayback Burgers awarded seven new U.S. franchises in Q3 2018 with 19 more under construction. In addition, four lease signings stretched across the country, in Broadview Heights, Ohio; San Antonio, Texas; Daytona Beach, Florida; and Fresno, California. Chemero says the company expects to sign more than a dozen new leases and award even more domestic and international franchise locations in Q4. Everyone at Wayback Burgers is eager to finish 2018 on a positive note, and thanks to the momentum weve built throughout the year, it looks like were ready to deliver that kind of performance, Chemero said. Were also setting ourselves up for what promises to be another great year of growth in 2019. For more information on Wayback Burgers, please visit their website (https://waybackburgers.com/) and social media profiles Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For more information on the Wayback Burgers franchise opportunity, please visit https://franchise.waybackburgers.com/. About Wayback Burgers Founded in 1991 in Newark, DE, Wayback Burgers is a Connecticut-based fast-casual franchise with a reputation for fresh, never frozen, cooked to order burgers and thick, hand-dipped milkshakes, served in an environment that hearkens back to a simpler place and time when customer service meant something, and everyone felt the warmth of the community. Wayback Burgers currently operates in 30 states with over 161 restaurants nationally and internationally in Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Pakistan. Through its executed master franchise agreements, Wayback Burgers plans to open in 37 provinces/countries in the Middle East, South Africa, Argentina, Bangladesh, Ireland, Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada, British Columbia and the Netherlands. For more information about Wayback Burgers, please visit https://waybackburgers.com/. For franchising information about Wayback Burgers, please visit https://franchise.waybackburgers.com/. If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity. PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move. Cookies What are cookies ? How do we use cookies? How to control cookies? Managing cookies in your browser see what cookies you have got and delete them on an individual basis block third party cookies block cookies from particular sites block all cookies from being set delete all cookies when you close your browser X A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. 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READ ALSO: 10 banks in danger of not meeting BoGs GH400m minimum capital10 banks in danger of not meeting BoGs GH400m minimum capital He further assured that the gold dealership firm will continue to operate, insisting Menzgold is here to stay. I would be addressing the public on Menzgold and other related matters on Zylofon fm, 102.1 on Monday, "Time with Menzgold " between 11am & 12noon. Kindly tune in. Menzgold is here to stay, he posted. In recent months, Menzgold, which offers very high returns to customers, has come under the spotlight following several inconclusive tussles with the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the Minerals Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). ece-auto-gen The Central Bank and Minerals Commission maintain that the company has been taking deposits and locally selling gold despite not having the requisite licence to do. However, the seriousness of the issue was confirmed in September when SEC directed Menzgold to shut down its gold trading activities. Currently, the operations of the company remain closed to the public, with several customers agitating for a refund of their investments. Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Finance, Charles Adu Boahen, has hinted that Menzgold could soon be out of business for good. The aforementioned have been sued by Messrs Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah, who both work with accounting and auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Pastor Otabil has come under criticism from a section of Ghanaians over his involvement in the collapse of Capital Bank, where he served as Board Chairman. A detailed investigative report indicates that a GHS610 million liquidity support from the Bank of Ghana to help stabilize Capital bank was diverted into other businesses. ece-auto-gen The ICGC founder together with then CEO of the bank, Ato Essien, have since been under scrutiny over their roles in the diversion of the funds, as well as the subsequent collapse of the Capital bank. In the latest development to this issue, Accra-based Class FM reports that the preacher, his church and 13 other shareholders of the defunct bank have now been dragged to court. The plaintiffs argue that the Capital Bank collapsed as a direct result of the defendants misgovernance and willful breaches of banking regulations. In their writ, they also accused the banks founder, William Ato Essien, of using depositors funds as his personal piggy bank. They, therefore, want Mr. Essien to repay all the loans he took as shareholder, which is estimated at a whopping GHS580 million. The two plaintiffs said ICGC also owes GHS51.6 million being its share of a GHS482 million fund kept by the shareholders in non-existent investments on their books. Another shareholder of the defunct Capital Bank, Oheneba Osei-Akoto, was also accused of using his residential property at Regimanuel Gray Estates at East Legon as collateral to take a loan of GHS2.42 million. According to the plaintiffs, the defendant took the loan in December 2016 but has so far failed to pay it back. To this end, the plaintiffs maintain that Pastor Otabil, ICGC, and all the other listed defendants caused serious financial loss to the Capital Bank, which eventually led to its collapse last year. He said the composition of our security forces is a cause of concern. Speaking about the integrity of the police force on Accra FM, he said: "The morale of the police is down, they are doing the safety work but the political interference in their work is too much for them. ece-auto-gen We are a nation in crisis because we are incapable, unwilling and unprepared to take the tough security-related decisions that we need to take, he said. The two monarchs expressed joy that both the Buckingham Palace and Manhyia Palace have become friends, and have been at peace for many years now, after the numerous pre-colonial wars. Greeting the British Monarch with a mammoth durbar of chiefs and people of Asanteman during the Akwasidae festival, which also saw the Asantehene sitting in state, Otumfuo appealed to the United Kingdom (UK) to actively play roles to help reenergize Ghanas economy. ece-auto-gen According to him, business and other opportunities abound in Ghana, stressing the need for UK investors to troop into the country and do business. He said "There are opportunities in Ghana and there is also the need for proper collaboration between the UK and Ghana to harness these opportunities. "I am therefore inviting UK investors, to as a matter of urgency, rush to the country and do business to help transform the economy and create wealth". ece-auto-gen The Asantehene was speaking when the heir to the UK throne, Prince Charles, paid a visit to him at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi, yesterday. Otumfuo said Ghana is presently faced with a lot of challenges which included poverty, illiteracy and diseases, and entreated the UK to assist Ghana in solving the challenges. On his part, Prince Charles highlighted on the important roles that the Asante Kingdom continues to play in Ghanas transformational processes, and stressed on the need for Ghana and the UK to partner together so that the two countries can work together in their mutual interest. Prince Charles recounted how he was welcomed to the Manhyia Palace in 1977 with a colourful durbar, saying he was always eager to return to Manhyia. ece-auto-gen He said he was particularly thrilled about the colourful Asante culture that was exhibited yesterday to welcome him and his wife, Camilla, to the palace. As a way of showing his appreciation, the Prince said 'Medaase', a Twi word which literally means "Thank you", attracting wild applause from the gathering. ece-auto-gen The first of four events saw hundreds of hopefuls turn up to register and participate in a range of physical and mental obstacle course activities at the Ajax Park in Legon, Accra. Organized by premium malt beverage producer, Malta Guinness Ghana, the competition will move to three other regions to eventually select the top six (6) finalists to represent Ghana in the Pan-African. ece-auto-gen 10 finalists were selected from the Accra Maltavator Challenge and the next event will take place at the Police Reserve Park in Takoradi on Saturday, 10th November 2018, to recruit 10 more contestants. This will be followed by events in Kumasi and Tamale on the 17th and 24th November respectively. The Brand Manager for Malta Guinness Ghana, Roland Ofori explained that the Maltavator Challenge is a way of bringing the essence of the Malta Guinness brand to life, which is fueling peoples greatness. The Maltavator Challenge has tested our patrons physically and mentally, which is symbolic of the challenges we face daily in life. In essence, we are saying that Malta Guinness is your motivator and spurs you on to achieve greatness. In his view, the Director has rather saved the state coffers some money by renovating his official apartment rather than continuing to rent. READ ALSO: The GMA boss, Kwame Owusu, has been the subject of severe criticism in recent weeks after he reportedly spent a whopping GHc 1 million to renovate his 2-bedroom official Cantonments residence. ece-auto-gen However, reacting to the news, Mr. Yeboah leapt to the defence of the Director, insisting he rather saved cost with the renovation. He explained that had Mr. Owusu not renovated the apartment, government would have had to pay more as rent to accommodate future Directors at the Authority. I have also heard issues about him renovating a 2-bedroom house which costs the country Ghc 1 million. Over the years, the Director General of the Maritime Authority did not have a place of abode, the government spokesperson told Accra-based Citi FM. So, as an institution, they were spending about $3000 to $4000 on the accommodation of their various Directors. This man comes in and says, there is no need for us to this. He goes to the Ministry of Lands and asks for land to put up a facility. He had to pull down a wooden structure on the land he was given to reconstruct a four-bedroom house with other ancillary stuff to support the facility. READ ALSO: He further disagreed with claims that the Director overspent in putting up the new 4-bedroom house. According to him, the Ghc 1 million was justified because the reconstruction of an entire structure. This is a reconstruction of an entire structure. So, if someone sits somewhere and says that this is a renovation, when you actually pull down a whole structure and build a fresh one. Starting from the Adentan constituency in Accra, the process for the acquisition of the identification card will move to the Volta, Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Western, Ashanti, Eastern, Western and Central regions in that order. Speaking to Citi FM, the Director of Public Affairs at the NIA, Francis Palmdet said the lack of commissioners of oath have stalled the progress of the exercise so far. Our requirement mandates thatwhen you dont have the necessary documents, you should have a relative who has already registered to vouch for you under oath or two people who know you and can attest to the fact that you do not have the documents must also vouch for you under oath", he said. The Authority has come under some form of criticism over the past months for the insignificant number of people that have been issued a 'Ghana Card' since June 2018. The NIA has so far issued over 80,000 cards within the last four months, mostly to workers of the state institutions. ece-auto-gen READ MORE: Traffic diversion for Tema roundabout interchange The accident happened after a Sprinter Mercedes Benz Bus with registration number GT 3389-17 collided head-on with a Toyota Corolla with registration number CR 416-17. Scores of people sustained different levels of injuries. The bodies of the deceased have been deposited at the Winneba Trauma Hospital morgue while some the victims who were in the Benz bus are being treated at the Winneba Municipal Hospital and the Trauma Hospital. READ MORE: Four killed in fatal car accident in Nkawkaw The Benz bus was heading to Accra from Cape Coast when the driver blasted one of his tyres in an attempt to over take some cars, collided with the Toyota Corolla. Below are the photos of the mangled vehicles. ece-auto-gen ece-auto-gen ece-auto-gen ece-auto-gen ece-auto-gen He said Nketia, who is popularly known as General Mosquito, emboldened the group with his endorsements of vigilantes in the NDC. Over the weekend, a youth group called "Al Qaeda" assaulted the General Secretary of the NDC in the Northern Region. As a result, he sustained multiple injuries. In addition, he had the windshield of his vehicle smashed by the vigilante group. ece-auto-gen Its disgusting and a disgrace to the NDC party especially Asiedu Nketia. He publicly endorsed these vigilante groups in the party, Hadzide said. The aggrieved Invisible Forces members said they are being ridiculed for their unemployment, despite the fact that they worked to bring their party to power. READ ALSO: 13 Delta Force escapees report themselves to police The Ashanti regional Chairman of the Invisible Forces Abdul Karim Mohammed speaking to Accra-based Starr FM said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo must intervene to provide them jobs. He said "In Ashanti region alone Invisible have 2785 menat least we should know what to tell them which would make us calm down." "The person we want to intervene is the President himself because we have heard so many promises from the ministers and others so now we want the government to come out and let us know if they have believe is us and that they can still find somewhere to put the boys. ece-auto-gen "Because most of the ministers they will just give some assurance that they dont believe in it just to manage the situation," he added. The Invincible Forces' concerns with jobs came to the fore just days after Nana Kojo Bamba, the Ashanti Regional organizer of vigilante group, Delta Force was appointed as the Deputy National Director of Operations of the youth wing of the party. Since the President took over the reins of government in January 2017, there were also promised with luxurious life and good living during the NPP campaign as majority of them were struggling to make ends meet. The boys known as the Kandahar boys, Delta forces, Burma Camp Youth, the vigilante groups as well the invincible forces were all promised with a job but none has been achieved yet. READ MORE: 13 Delta Force members back in court to face new charge Earlier, they broke into the office of the Ashanti Region Security apparatus and dragged out the Regional Security Coordinators out of their office. The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has given till the last day in 2018 for commercial banks to increase their minimum operating capital to 400 million cedis. Elsie Awadz, Deputy Governor at Bank of Ghana, stated at the maiden JoyBusiness Financial Services Forum, over the weekend. Awadz said over 20 banks have met the minimum capital requirement so far. Over 20 banks have met the minimum capital requirement and we have 30 banks, so, the rest, we are meeting them on a daily basis to say to know their plans on raising capital. We are confident that they are going to meet it but if for some reason they cannot meet and will not merge, well, then that is another matter altogether, but we cannot allow banks that are not well-capitalised to remain in the system after January 1. The deputy governor did not disclose the names of the financial institutions. Access Bank of Ghana and Republic Bank said they have met the capital requirements while some have already emerged. The monetary authority has placed January 1, 2019, for the enforcement of the new capital requirement. Ghana is not the only African country checking the health status of its financial institutions, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also revealed last week that three banks failed to meet minimum liquidity ratio of 30%. Nigerian visual artist sells her beautiful artwork for $3.4 million (N1.2 billion). This artist is none other than Njideka Akunyili Crosby, one of the daughters of late Dora Akunyili. Originally estimated to sell for up to $800,000 by New York-based art company dealer, Sotheby's, the artwork - the "Bush Babies" - ended up going for a whopping $3.4 million during an auction. This makes it the most expensive art sold at an auction. This masterpiece was auctioned as part of an all-star lineup art exhibition at the Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Auction in England. Face2Face Africa reports that a lot of the proceeds from the auction is expected to go to charity. According to a report by Wall Street Journal, the 2017 botanical piece is Njideka's highest selling artwork at the moment. With this sell, the artist has officially gone from once selling her artworks for $3,000 apiece to joining the league of top-notch artists in the United Kingdom. Who is Njideka Akunyili Crosby? The visual artist in Enugu state to a Surgeon father named J.C. Akunyili and the late Mrs Dora Akunyili - the Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) before her death in 2016. Crosby, now 35, moved to the United States at the age of 16. She initially wanted to be a doctor that is until she fell in love with arts, according to a recent profile by the Wall Street Journal. She has since studied variations of art. She holds an Arts degree from the Swarthmore College, a post-baccalaureate certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the Yale University School of Art. ALSO READ: Daughter of late Dora Akunyili awarded MacArthur Fellowship Njideka Akunyili Crosby's artwork Just three years ago, her works went for an average of $3000. This changed after her 2010 painting of her dancing with her husband, Justin Crosby sold at $5,000 at an auction. It was titled I Refuse To Be Invisible. Three of her works later sold for $8,000 each at an auction in Fredericks & Freiser gallery in New York. In 2016, she sold two of her works "Drown" and the "Beautiful Ones" for $1.1 million and $3.1 million. Concerning Crosby's fast-rising career, the WSJ writes, "It has been a jet-propelled rise to the top of the contemporary art world for Ms. Akunyili Crosby - a far cry from the small town in eastern Nigeria where she grew up. "The artist, 35 years old, has since won a MacArthur "genius" grant. New York's Whitney Museum of American Art and London's Tate Modern have come calling. At least 20 public museums are on a waiting list for works she hasn't painted yet." She is known for her unique style of painting - a balanced mix of African ethnics and Western standards. For the artist Charles Gaines, her work is "the strongest painting I've seen in a long time". "When black people paint, we assume they're dealing with race or politics, and that's a postcolonial problem that was unanswered until Njideka. She's painting her ordinary," he added in the WSJ piece. Prince Charles finally admits to Britain's role in slavery. The Prince of Wales has acknowledged the United Kingdom's involvement in the "most painful chapter" of Ghana's historic relations with Europe. During his landmark speech to members of the Commonwealth, he spoke of the "appalling atrocity" of the slave trade which left an "indelible stain on the history of our world." Prince Charles also highlights Britain's determination to abolish slavery. In his words, "While Britain can be proud that it later led the way in the abolition of this shameful trade, we have a shared responsibility to ensure that the abject horror of slavery is never forgotten, that we abhor the existence of modern slavery and that we robustly promote and defend the values which today make it incomprehensible, to most of us, that human beings could ever treat each other with such utter inhumanity." Prince Charles visits Ghana, Nigeria The Prince of Wales is currently on a four-day visit to Ghana. The purpose of this trip is to strengthen relations between the country and the UK. He is expected to speak at the International Conference Centre on the last leg of the visit. Prince of Wales and his wife, Princess Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall will be visiting Nigeria from November 6 to November 8, 2018. During their stay here, the Royals will speak with President Muhammadu Buhari in an attempt to strengthen the existing ties between Nigeria and Britain as members of the Commonwealth. Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Paul Arkwright said: People do want to come together and if we can provide that kind of environment then hopefully, we can come up with some ideas and solutions to resolving some of these conflicts." Some of the issues like the farmers/herders crisis are deep-rooted and are about the economy, land resource, climate change and cultural issues. The Prince of Wales will be looking at the causes, talking to people who are working in this area and together, seeing if we can find solutions and move on. Kano has about 7.81 million smartphone users out of Nigeria's 60 million smartphone users, according to telecom data seen by Techpoint. In a research conducted by The Conversation Series - an independent source of academic and research community - examined how women in the city leverage on the use of smartphone via the social messaging platform, WhatsApp, to chat, learn, conduct business activities as well as political activism. According to the research, many women said they use WhatsApp to communicate better with friends, families and other groups, such as local politicians. Some women converted their access into opportunity. For instance, they advertised small businesses or services on WhatsApp groups, and earned money as a result, the report states. Others joined religious study groups on WhatsApp and share information and knowledge with other women. Asabe, one of the community group leaders, said WhatsApp has proved to be a valuable source of information on health and safety. She added that the platform has helped many on health practices as information from a member of the group whose husband is a health worker rescued many situations. WhatsApp creates economic prosperity for women According to the research, many participants in a focus group discussion mentioned that WhatsApp groups made them connect with other women and enable them to conduct businesses and sales among themselves. One of the participants said women now have greater access to customers all over Nigeria. I met a lady that lives in Yola (910 km away from Kano) through WhatsApp and now she has become one of my most trusted and loyal customers, I send her products worth thousands of Naira and I have never met her physically before. The study concludes that the use of mobile phones by women in Kano helped them to network and conduct their businesses beyond their doorsteps as well as development in human capabilities of the people. For sure the women folk pounced on them saying we arent your cooks/maids blah blah blah. My thoughts however differ, I think we all have to know and accept fully what we are getting into before marriage. You need to know your partners desires/expectations and capabilities before making it official; after all, you cant plant mangoes and expect to reap oranges. For the men, you are not allowed to desire a career woman to the point of marrying her and then expect her to make breakfast, pack lunch and hustle fresh food for dinner. If after marriage you begin to whine and complain of such then you are plain deceitful. From the onset you knew she was goal-oriented and you should be fine with Chinese or buying food from a reputable food vendor. I am not saying thats a suitable kind of life which is why I advised you know and accept your spouse before tying the knot. Eventually, your nagging might get to her and she drops or cuts down on her job (which of course is her passion) but remember you are taking a part of that woman away and the marriage would still be lacking. If as a lady you are in a relationship with a foodie who tells you that he prefers setting you up so you have all the time in the world to make him home cooked meals and you go on to marry him, please and please, do not complain if he asks you to pound yam three times a week. You heard him praise women who dote on their husbands all the while you were dating and you suddenly want him to accept you are not his cook after you got the ring. My sister, thats just shallow. In a relationship a man/womans expectations are always perceived no matter how faint; and if you discover your partner likes something you cant offer, talk it out and agree or just pull out. Too many marriages are having unnecessary chaos over what she can/cant do. The reason being a lot of spouses feel lied to and deceived into believing what is not. For example I cant cook, I decide to lie I can, and tell him I am just tired tonight. So I offer we have takeout then when Im married I make scrambled eggs that look like watery 'egusi' for weeks on end. My spouse of course would vex, he might be patient to teach me or I am smart enough to hire a maid and learn from her but things would have been easier if I just opened up initially. Guys, too, you know the babe never takes her manicure off, never offers to even brew you a cup of coffee and then you expect her to perform 'American wonder' in the kitchen after your Milan wedding. Always open your eyes even when in love and see who or what you are getting into. Some women are wonder women who can combine both house chores and career well. I know guys too who dont mind making noodles themselves or having pizza every night. Its preference and we should all know how to deal with one anothers needs. Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! The gorgeous actress took to her Instagram page on Sunday, November 4, 2018, where she shared a number of wedding photo shoots with her groom to be, Ibrahim Suleiman. "#APPROVED ," she captioned. In case you don't know, Ibrahim Suleiman is Linda Ejiofor's co-star in the popular TV series, Tinsel. Ibrahim Suleiman also took to his Instagram page where he posted loved-up photos with his bride to be and had some really cute words to say about her. "For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Look at me. I am proof. #approved #ibrahimonimisisuleiman #CaptainQuest #SonOfAisha : the MAINEST man himself," he wrote. Looks like the MNET produced soap opera Tinsel has become a breeding ground for a number of love stories. This is the fourth Tinsel wedding. In 2013, Iyke Okechuckwu and Florence Uwaleke were the first Tinsel pair to get married. In 2014, Damilola Adegbite and ChrisAttoh got married while Osas Ighodaro and Gbenro Ajibade exchanged vows in 2015. Linda Ejiofor's bestie, Adesua Etomi has also reacted to her engagement as she took to her Instagram page she posted a photo from the bridal shower held in honour of Linda. "My sister...My heart is full...So FULL No words. Love you tons.#ISQUARED18." ALSO READ:These 10 sexy photos of Damilola Adegbite will give you the chills Linda Ejiofor isn't ruling out finding love in showbiz world Linda Ejiofor is definitely not ruling out the possibility of meeting or finding a husband and life partner in the Nigerian entertainment industry. Linda neither hesitated nor shied away from the question when she decided to speak with Pulse for a total of 10 minutes during the promotion of DSTV's new campaign, I Am, in Ikeja, Lagos. "I don't know, wherever the heart finds love, I will go to. I am not ruling it out," the pretty actress and model simply dropped. The Tinsel actress, who became popular for her role as Bimpe Adekoya in the Africa Magic production, said she had always loved acting. "There is nothing as beautiful as doing something you love doing and acting makes me happy and all that," Linda told Pulse. The controversial Ghanaian actress took to her Instagram page on Monday, November 5, 2018, where she shared a photo of herself looking all steamy. She went on to caption the photo with a Monday positive vibes quote. "Dont fight meaningless battles. Not every opinion is worth your energy. Know who you are and thats enough. You dont have to explain yourself to people who arent adding any value in your life. #melaninpoppin #princessshyngle #blackisbeautiful #saynotobleaching #ladyinred Have a blessed week Y'all ," she wrote. Princess Shyngle definitely knows how to keep her fans and admirers glued to her social media page with photos like this. However, we all know Princess Shyngle is one actress who is very vocal even though most times she ends up making controversial comments. A few months ago, she was credited to saying that majority of the men she has slept with couldn't satisfy her sexually! Yes, guys, these are the kind of statements Princess Shyngle can actually make. "99.9% of the guys Ive ever dated couldn't satisfy me sexually"-Princess Shyngle says Princess Shyngle says 99.9% of the men she has dated couldn't satisfy her sexually. In a since-deleted post, the voluptuous actress revealed how she has been keeping herself busy sexually for a year now on her Instagram page. "Some of you all wonder how Ive been single over a year well thats the secret You all my s3xy dildo it satisfies me than 99.9% of the guys Ive ever dated," the post read. She has however deleted the post from her page. Princess Shyngle says sex on a 1st date doesn't make you cheap Ghana-based Gambian actress/ model, Princess Shyngle, has asserted that she doesn't see any big deal about having sex on the first date. To the actress, it is just relationship interview and if youre called back then you got the job. Her 2018 effort is about the life and times of Alhaja Eniola Salami (Sola Sobowale), a woman of absolute power and control of the underworld. King of Boysstarts at the point when Salami is about to trade her criminal power for a high political position. Her past, however, hinders her ambition. Also, an underboss Makanaki (played by award-winning rapper Reminisce) makes life more difficult as he makes a play for Salami's crown. It's a political thriller and an ambitious attempt to take on the cesspit that is Nigerian politics. Sola Sobowale once again delivers with trademark bullish force. The world of crime is not for the meek-hearted and Sobowale uses her high-octane energy to breathe life into a cold-hearted anti-hero. Her acting pretty much does it for the movie. Even though her performance isn't new to her long-time fans, seeing Sola Sobowale on the big screen wrestle with political godfathers and killers while being a caring mother is spellbinding, to say the least. She almost practically drags the movie to a level of appreciation. While the veteran actress' talent is nothing new, Reminisce and . Nollywood has struggled to find a bad boy since the days of Hanks Anuku. Well, casting directors worth their salt will most likely give Reminisce a shot after watching this movie. As Makanaki, he delivers a spine-tingling and authentic performance. If Alhaja Salami is evil then Makanaki is pure darkness. For his debut, Reminisce gives a no-holds-barred performance as the underboss who is ready to dethrone his former boss. As an armed thief, he is ready to kill a baby and to become the king of boys he is sells his soul to the devil. Kemi Adetiba struck gold by casting Reminisce in this role. Another gem in this movie is Toni Tones who plays the role of a younger Alhaja Salami, a streetwise vixen who schemes her way to the top of the criminal ladder. With limited screen time, Tones make a stakes a claim on why she should be regarded as an actress to watch out for. If she continues with this type of performance, a big award is not far off. Ambition, power, karma are the themes in this movie and they come out particularly strong. Salami's rise and fall is a modern re-telling of of the consequences of unbridled lust for power. This is an idea we can always resonate with- evil will always self-destruct. ALSO READ: Why Nollywood needs to put more rappers on the big screen The movie also has a slant of women empowerment to it. The title of 'king' or 'Oba' for a woman who rules the underworld is a statement of female domination. In a field dominated by men, here comes a woman ready to crush her opponents with no remorse. The fact that the movie is the brainchild of a woman adds more emphasis to Beyonce's 'Who runs the world? Girls!' mantra. For all its ambition to create a political thriller masterpiece, King of Boys falls short. Even with a reduced screen time, the movie feels too bloated and clunky to properly narrate the life and times of a criminal queenpin. Doing so, requires a delicate act of the most functional of writing, the most brilliant of acting and no-nonsense editing that can cut away the frills and thrills to present a solid film akin to 'The Godfather II' that simultaneously narrates the rise of the Corleone criminal dynasty and the struggles of holding on to power. To be fair, this is a feat even the greatest auteurs have failed to reach. If trimmed of its fat, King of Boys would be a leaner and meaner machine that delivers knock out after knock out. Beyond this excess, many actors also fail to deliver. They roam aimlessly with little conviction or hardly any purpose. For such a large cast, only five or so actors showed up. Lately, Nollywood has been fond of using an all-star cast to score a big hit. It worked excellently in 'Wedding Party' and to some on extent in the sequel. For 'King of Boys', this approach does not work. ALSO READ: Demola Adedoyin speaks on his acting career There are roles in this movie that should have been given to upcoming actors. Casting big names in inconsequential roles does little even if they are meant to drive people to the cinemas. Kemi Adetiba threw the sink at scoring a hit movie by directing an ambitious flick. It's either you go big or you go home. Nigeria's movie industry is at a point where we need bold directors willing to tell our own stories and Adetiba is doing just that. Our cinema screens do not need uncreative movies that should be sold as DVD home videos in the first place. I suspect the flaws in this movie are temporary kinks that Kemi Adetiba will eventually figure out soon to help her create bigger and better movies. Despite the errors, King of Boys will be an enjoyable movie for many, especially movie goers who have been fed with unimaginative Nollywood movies at the big screen lately. Interestingly, prostitution is becoming a legal business across the world, with the Netherlands recently legalizing the venture with stringent age limits and heavy taxation. While that seems slightly far off for Nigeria, some of us have still taken the liberty to take pride in prostitution. In the post accompanying a sexy picture with her face cropped out, Bella tweets, I am a real runs girl, I can travel anywhere as long as you can pay book my flight and pay well for your satisfaction!!! Please kindly Retweet my customer might be on your TL! ALSO READ: Depressed Lekki Pastor moves church to secret location over sex tape scandal Job scams are an infamous part of the Nigerian labour market. It is why a lot of employers now post disclaimers, notifying job seekers that they will never ask for any amount be paid over the internet or in real life. According to Northern City News, the two suspected fraudsters are, 40-year-old Elijah Olawale, a geology graduate from Kwara State, and 25-year-old Timothy Oyewole, a self-employed events manager from Ede, Osun State. The law caught up to them after they duped one George Elada of the National Examination Councils headquarters, Minna. The suspects used the desperation of these job seekers to extort them with claims that they were employees of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Kaduna. Oyewole posed as the Head of Department, Human Resources. ALSO READ: Mentally-challenged family back to life after 6 yrs roaming the street Muhammad Abubakar, Niger State Police Command Public Relations Officer claims the suspects had confessed to their crimes. Oyewole blames his career path on a lack of employment, I cannot remember how this idea of defrauding people came to me. There are no jobs in the country; graduates are roaming the streets without jobs; it is frustration that led me to fraud, honestly speaking. Olawale told Northern City News that, The proceeds from my business were not sufficient to cater for my family responsibility. That was why l am into fraud. I got most of my victims through Facebook and from the moment I started chatting with them, they started paying in installments into my account. Background After the sex tape hit the internet, Apostle Omatsola and Ms. Okpe both blamed each other for the leak; Omatsola claimed Okpe demanded N200m from him while Okpe claimed Omatsola leaked the video to force her into marrying him its been a bloodbath of reaction since then. Punch Metro correspondents confirm that Apostle Omatsoni, a Delta State native had dated Ms. Okpe for about seven months in 2018 and the sex tape was leaked a few months after their relationship had ended. When the sex tape leaked, Omatsola posted this on his Facebook page, Let he or she that is without a sin among you be the first to cast a stone. Friends, pray for the church of God; pray for Zionwealth Church; pray for #ChrisOmatsola.God bless you. #ApostleChrisOmatsola#IstandwithACO #ZionwealthChurch #SatanWillNotWin #John8v7. Speaking to Punch Metro, Omatsola further claims he could not have released the video as he has more to lose from such leak. He also claims depression and interestingly, that he regrets ever having premarital sex. He has since moved his Admiralty Way, Lekki, and Bendid Plaza, Ado Road, Ajah branches of his church. He posted the following message on his Facebook page, First of all, I was wrong to have had a sex date with somebody I was supposed to marry. But this should not be an instrument of blackmail. Its really outrageous. My followers know the truth. They know who they are following. Okpes account In a statement, Okpe, a Computer Science graduate claims that the erstwhile couple liked taking pictures and recording video of their intimate moments, and also claims Omatsola started beating her till she bled. She details, I met Apostle Chris Kevwe Omatsola, the founder and pastor of Zionwealth of Life Assembly (Zola) in Lekki, Lagos, and we started dating in February 2018. It quickly escalated to a sexual relationship and when we had sex the first time, he told me that we should make it right by getting married. We continued our romance and one of the things we did together was recording videos and taking pictures of our intimacy. I informed my mum about a guy coming for my hand in marriage and she said she was going to pray about it. Everything was rosy until he became violent and constantly beat me up till I bled. He came begging after each episode and I forgave him. In August, I called off the relationship and I was surprised that he accepted it in good faith initially, given his penchant for violence. Sometime in August, he asked that we meet to talk on platonic grounds. During the meeting, he became hostile when he realised that I was no longer interested in him. He also refused to drop me off at home. He beat me up, seized my phone, forced me to unlock it and retrieved contacts from it just to track who I was seeing. That was the final straw for me; so I never saw him again till September when he showed up at my place, crying and begging. I refused to fall for his tricks and there was no further communication from both sides till sometime early October when he apologised again. On October 13, he contacted me with an anonymous number via with pictures, videos, and threatening messages, saying if I did not come back to him, he was going to release everything. Okpe claims that later that day, her attention was called to the raunchy pictures and videos of her circling the internet. She says she regrets the relationship which has made her an object of mockery within family and friends. Omatsola was arrested on October 14, 2018, after she reported the matter to the police. He said now that my pictures and videos were out there, no man would want to look my way again; that it was best we got married. After the arrest, in the presence of his dad, he confessed to releasing the pictures and video. He apologised to me, my family, his family, and the public. This was recorded on October 19, 2018, and I am in possession of the video. He even accepted to pay damages. I was wrong to have been involved in premarital sex with a pastor. I was wrong to have allowed him to persuade me to record our intimate moments. I have been fielding questions from my colleagues. I hope that this will pass soon. ALSO READ: Mentally-challenged family back to life after 6 yrs roaming the street Omatsolas account For his part, Omatsola claims he never released the video. He further claims the second video of him confessing was done under duress. I never did anything of that nature and she does not have anything to prove it (assault). How do you, a popular pastor with a church in Lekki Phase One, leak your own sex video with your face on it? How does that work? That video (confessional video) was done under duress because I was picked up by the same lady and she demanded N200m (from me) for leaking the video, which I did not leak. She has it on her phone and I have it on my phone. So, she picked me up. My dad and the lawyer agreed that I should do a (confessional) video and it was under duress. The police were there, the Investigating Police Officer was there; I am supposed to pay that girl N1m before the end of this month. This (sex) video came from an unknown telephone number. I started getting calls on Sunday morning while I was in church and somebody said my sex video was all over the Internet. I called the blog that posted it to take it down. The next day, the police came to arrest me for it. I went to the station and I was detained; my lawyer came to take my bail. I was taken to the police headquarters where I was told that part of the conditions for bail was for me to make that (confessional) video. I needed to do it to come out to defend myself. You cant defend yourself in a cell. CSP Chike Oti, Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer claims investigations are ongoing and that his office is unaware of any settlement made by Omatsola. A case was reported against the pastor who posted a sex video of himself and his girlfriend online. An investigation commenced at the Ajah Police Station and the pastor made a confessional statement that he posted the video. He said he was madly in love and that was why he misbehaved. However, because we see it is a case debasing womanhood and betrayal of trust, it was moved to the Gender Section for thorough investigation. At the end of the day, the man was granted administrative bail, while the investigation continued. Take anything coming from that man with a pinch of salt because we have established that he is a liar and an imposter. We have established that he has committed a heinous crime against a woman that once loved him. If he could commit the offence against the woman, lying against the police is a piece of cake for him. The confessional video he claimed that he was forced to make was done in the comfort of his car. Aftermath of scandal With the disgraceful scandal that would make normal Nigerians lose faith in their pastor, Omatsola has since claimed he moved his Lekki and Ajah churches to a new location, only known to core church members. Upon investigation by Punch Metro correspondents to his Admiralty Way, Lekki, and Bendid Plaza, Ado Road, Ajah locations on Sunday, November 4, 2018, it was confirmed that services never held. When Punch Metro made steps to speak with Omatsola, a spokesperson claimed depressed by the aftermath of the scandal and the size of it all, and is unwilling to speak. When Omatsola finally spoke with the journalists, he claimed he feared for his life. A lot of waters have gone under the bridge. We are trying to protect ourselves from the public because they have not really been fair to us. We still have a lot of our people, although this has affected our ministry grossly. Our church is a ministry. It is an assembly of young people. We have a location where we meet for now because of what happened; we have been receiving a lot of threats; some people are saying they want to burn our church. We had to change the location to a designated place where we meet and we will not share that with the public because we dont want the public; we know our people. Public outrage Replying Omatsolas Facebook posts, One Esther Jack said, Imagine the way he is even saying it. Sorry to everyone, please forgive and forget. This man is a vicious type. So unrepentant, uncut (uncouth), pompous and silly. Does it end with forget right? When the lady was begging you not to release the nudes, you were feeling like Captain America. Upon his arrest, Yakubu blames Sunday for being reluctant to give up his bike, which led to his beheading. The matter, though initially quiet escalated when Emmanuels older brother, Amos Sunday reported to the Police when the deceased didnt return home at the close of business. According to Northern City News, he has since denied he wanted to use his kinsman, Emmanuel Sunday for rituals, but instead blamed the devil, I couldnt have used my kinsmans head for rituals; our culture forbids it; it was the devil that pushed me into killing him. ALSO READ: Nigerian female says she is a prostitute who wants customers on social media It has also been reported that Yakubu was caught in possession of Emmanuels motorcycle when he was arrested at intercepted the suspect at Kagbodu village in Lapai Local Government Area. He claims he was in collaboration with one Mohammed Yunusa. Yakubu is reported as saying, He refused to hand over his motorcycle to me; so, I got angry and we beheaded him and zoomed off with the motorcycle. I dont know what came over me; we are from the same state (Kogi) but we reside in Niger State. How do I explain myself to my kinsmen? News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the mental health activist was awarded at the 2018 MTV EMAs pre-show held at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre, on Sunday in Bilbao, Spain. The newly introduced MTV EMA Generation Change Award was created to elevate and empower the fearless, original young people who are changing the world. Ojeifo was nominated alongside a 21-year old Afghanistan, Sonita Alizadeh; 17 year old Lebanese, Mohamad Aljounde; 20 year old Briton, Ellen Jones and 18 year old Xiuhtezcatl X Martinez. NAN reports that Ojeifos works border on mental health, especially for women and she has been identified as a vibrant voice in creating awareness for mental health in Nigeria. She is the founder of She Writes Woman and Safe Place, the first 24/7 mental health crisis helpline and the first anonymous women-only mental health support group in Nigeria. ALSO READ:Independence Day means nothing to Nigerian millennials Ojeifos mission is to positively influence the misinformed narratives mental health and sexual violence conversations have in Nigeria. Due to the recent flood in some rice planting areas of Nigeria, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has proclaimed that if appropriate measures were not taken to replant, the country may experience rice shortage in 2019. "Rice is the mascot for Nigerian merriment. Add some pepper and tomato to it, and you have a lifestyle." -Fu'ad Lawal. Rice is one of the staple foods in Nigeria, for both the rich and poor. However, since the economic recession in 2016, the quantity of rice the average Nigerians eats has dramatically changed. The price of rice skyrocketed from an average price of N9,000 to double its price at N18,000, due to a high demand and an unavoidable scarcity. According to Agro Nigeria, Nigeria is the largest producer of rice in West Africa and the third in Africa after Egypt and Madagascar. Its average annual production of about 3 million metric tons falls short of meeting its local demand which is placed at about 5 million tons. This makes Nigeria the highest consumer of rice in the West African sub region and also, the second largest importer in the world, buying at least 2 million tons annually. ALSO READ: Why you should have more of Ofada rice in your diet Nigeria imports from other countries like India, China, Thailand etc, spending an estimated 1 billion Naira on rice importation daily and a staggering 365 billion Naira annually. Bear in mind, Nigeria also produces rice itself. Rice is a cereal grain that grows in swampy areas, in regions with high rainfall. The main rice producing states in Nigeria is; Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Benue, Taraba and Borno, others states includes Enugu and Cross River. The estimated amount of locally-milled rice is placed at 1.8 million tons. ece-auto-gen The first ever Rice Mill industry in Abakaliki was established by Ebonyi state after its creation in 1996. The Rice Milling industry still remains as main avenue of revenue for Ebonyi state. However, though Abakaliki rice is quite well-known for its highly nutritive locally made rice, not as many people are as open to purchasing it as they are to imported rice. Why exactly? In recent years, more technologies have gone into making the process of planting, harvesting and milling rice in Abakaliki as smooth as possible. Some rice vendors even claim little to no stones present in the rice. Why more Nigerians should invest in Abakaliki rice Abakaliki rice is just as nutritious as the imported rice, or even more. Its good taste and quality come from the moisture nature and salinity of the land of Ebonyi state. Abakaliki rice is also relatively cheap. Compared to a bag of parboiled rice that goes for N18,000 or more, Abakaliki rice is sold at N5000. ece-auto-gen This is coming on the heels of reports that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar held a meeting with some party leaders in Dubai. According to Punch, this was made known in a statement issued by the APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena. We are mindful of how millions of dollars were confiscated in an aircraft belonging in a Nigerian PDP sympathiser in South Africa in the lead-up to the 2015 elections. Another round of election is here and it is not unlikely that they are playing a repeat performance, under the guise of holding a meeting in Dubai. Our security agencies should be on the watch for a stitch in time saves nine, Nabena said. Probe Atikus Dubai trip He also called on security agencies to probe the recent meeting held by Atiku and his associates in Dubai. According to the partys Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Atiku needs to tell Nigerians his real motive for holding a meeting in Dubai. Nabena, who described the Dubai meeting as comical, alleged that those who attended had sinister motives. There is more to the meeting that meets the eye. Nigeria has enough meeting/conference rooms, many of which meet international standards. It is therefore clear that the Dubai meeting was for other sinister political purposes ahead of the 2019 general elections. Our intelligence, anti-graft and security agencies must be awake to its responsibility of investigating the Dubai meeting. Cash-and-carry politicians must be prevented from moving illicit cash around to induce voters and sponsor election violence and rigging, he added. Stop acting like father Christmas Recently, Atiku Abubakar called on President Buhari to stop donating moneyto other countries. The PDP presidential candidate said Buhari should attend to the needs of Nigerians, adding that the resources of the country should be used for the benefit of its citizens not for others. In an interview with Rep. Johnson Agbonayinma, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), gathered that the monarch was in Abuja on the invitation of the British High Commission. The lawmaker expressed belief that during discussions, the Oba will throw up the issue of stolen Benin Artefacts. The Omo Noba NEdo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare 11, is here on a visit as he has been invited by the British High Commission for the fact that Prince Charles is coming to Nigeria. They found our Oba worthy and Prince Charles requested that he should be invited to have a private discussion with our monarch. Dont forget that our monarch is one of the oldest monarchs in Africa and Oba Ewuare 11 is doing everything possible to bring dividends of democracy to empower the youth, the women and the men. So that Nigeria can be safe not only about security but also about our tradition and our culture among others. I know personally that our Oba will also discuss the issue of those artifacts that were stolen long ago. We deserve to have them back. I believe the Oba will do the needful by projecting the Edo Kingdom and Nigeria in general, he said. Also Sen. Mathew Urhoghide told NAN that the Oba was here on an official engagement as he was one of the few traditional rulers to meet with Prince Charles. For the Obas visit, I feel great, he said. NAN reports that Prince Charles, his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, have begun African tour and one of the countries to visit is Nigeria. Britains Prince Charles and his wife Camilla landed on Oct. 31 in the Gambia for the first leg of a week-long African tour aimed at strengthening ties with Commonwealth nations. The Prince of Wales, heir to the throne, took over as head of the 53-member Commonwealth of Nations in April, succeeding his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The governor has been in the news over the past couple of weeks after the publisher of Daily Nigerian, Ja'afar Ja'afar, alleged that he regularly received bribes from contractors handling projects in the state. In a series of videos in Ja'afar's possession, the governor was alleged to have received a total of $5 million in installments from a certain contractor on several occasions. Four different video clips have gone viral on social media showing the governor accepting bundles of dollar notes from a yet-to-be-identified contractor. In the wake of the scandal, many Nigerians have called on the president to act on the allegations. The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP)recently wrote an open letter to the president urging him to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, or appropriate anti-graft agencies to investigate the allegations. ece-auto-gen However, while speaking during an interview on Channels Television's Politics Today on Sunday, November 4, 2018, President Buhari's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said the president has no business interfering in the matter in its current state. He said the president will take a back seat while the Kano State House of Assembly will investigate the allegations. He also hinted that federal anti-graft agencies might be investigating the governor. He said, "At times in Nigeria, it pays us to ask for true federalism. And then, at some other times, it pays us to ask the federal government to also interfere in state matters in a way that is not in consonance with true federalism. "That is the Kano State matter and it is being investigated by the Kano State House of Assembly. It's not unlikely that some anti-graft agencies are also investigating. "What then concerns the president at this point. Why must the president dabble into it at this point. Wouldn't it be contrary to the kind of federalism some people had always asked for? "I'm sure at some point, SERAP must have asked for true federalism in this country. So, is it in consonance with true federalism if the president dabbles into that Kano matter at this point? "Let's wait for investigation to run its course and then see if the federal government, through the anti-graft agencies, will be involved or not." Ganduje denies allegations ece-auto-gen Ganduje was recently invited for questioning by the state's House of Assembly panel investigating bribery allegations against him Even though he was directed to appear before the committee on Friday, November 2, he failed to show up but sent the state's Commissioner for Information, Mohammed Garba, to represent him. While addressing the committee, Garba said the allegations against the governor are false. He also dismissed the videos as doctored. Ganduje's counsel, Ma'aruf Yakasai, told the committee that the governor has neglected to sue Ja'afar for defamation so as to allow the House of Assembly to handle the issue. Chairman of the committee, Bappa Dan'agundi, disclosed that lawyers of Ganduje and Jaafar will meet with graphic experts to watch the video clips on Tuesday, November 6. How Ganduje was caught on tape When Ja'afarappearedbefore the same committee on October 25, he insisted that the videos are not doctored like Governor Ganduje has claimed. He said the sting operation was conducted after a contractor friend of his complained that the governor had been receiving bribes, ranging from 15% to 25%, for every project executed in the state from contractors. He revealed that spy cameras were planted in the contractor's kaftan lapel to catch the governor in the act. Of the 15 clips he said were recorded during the operation, nine fully showed the governor's face, body and hands collecting bundles of dollars. He said the videos that have been published, two at the time, were certified to be genuine by Daily Nigerian's in-house technical expert, the editor-in-chief and editorial adviser, as well as experts from Amnesty International Nigeria, BBC and Premium Times who have also watched the clips. According to Daily Post, the former Governor said that the government is delaying the increase because of the effect it will have on the 2019 elections. He added that Nigerians have suffered enough in the hands of the APC government and wont accept any further upward review of petrol pump price. They are delaying the increment till March because of its effects on the February 2019 elections. The excuse Fayose also described as an old excuse, the claim by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that maintaining the pump price of fuel at the current rate of N145 is unrealistic. According to Daily Post, NNPC boss, Maikanti Baru told a Senate investigative committee that the corporation set up a $1.05 billion Support Fund to cushion the difference (N40) in the landing cost of the imported fuel and the actual pump price. The Senate committee is reportedly investigating the NNPC for allegedly setting up the support fund without the National Assemblys appropriation. Fayose also wondered why the NNPC will go ahead to spend the $1.05 billion without remitting the money in the governments account first. ALSO READ: Fayose speaks on presentation of attestation of result to Buhari Nigerians are suffering. Millions of jobs have been lost and even many of those still employed are not gainfully employed. The federal government must not add to the burden of the suffering masses by increasing the pump price of petrol as being planned, he added. Former Governor Ayo Fayose was released from Ikoyi Prisonon Monday, October 29, 2018, after his arraignment in court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. NAN also gathered that the learning visit was to expose State and Federal Government officials in the delegation to the mechanisms applied during the post-conflict era in reconstructing and strengthening of public institutions. NAN learnt that the delegation from Nigeria would engage Rwandan officials directly and learn about the peace building and social cohesion challenges in post-conflict context in relation to restoring service delivery in the North-East. NAN recalls that Rwanda was devastated by the genocide in 1994 and had recovered by building a country that was effective in the implementation of development policies. Members of the delegation included Mr Abdul-Ganiyu Obatoyinbo, Administrator, Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN) Mr Dasuki Arabi, Acting Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR). Briefing newsmen in Lagos, Edgal said that men of the FSARS, posing as accomplices, infiltrated the ranks of the suspects who had concluded arrangements to kidnap one Ijeoma Eze-Okafor, a renowned businesswoman. On Oct. 19, our operatives offered to provide arms, ammunition and vehicle while the suspects sent photographs of the target, details of her vehicle and other information to the FSARS team. It took 10 days for the group to plan the kidnapping of the businesswoman. However, on the D-day, Oct. 29, the suspects surfaced and were immediately arrested. During interrogation, it was revealed that two of the suspects were employed as drivers to the victim and her husband. The third suspected had collected the sum of N10,000 from the drivers to enable him hire a native doctor that will protect them after the operation, Edgal said. In another incident, a 46-year-old man was arrested for unlawful possession of firearms by the policemen attached to Alakara Division. Edgal explained that the commercial bus which the suspect and his accomplice were occupying was accosted for routine police check when some men jumped out and took to their heels. The CP said that the suspect was arrested and a cut to size locally made pistol with six cartridges and charms were recovered from him. Babangida, in a statement by Abdulrauf Zubairu, his Media Aide and made available to newsmen in Minna, on Sunday, also described Kolo as a brilliant and hardworking academic and educationist whose footprints in the development of education sector in Niger State and Nigeria would hardly be erased. He said that Kolos death came at a time Nigerias education sector requires the services and input of people like him to develop and facilitate national development. According to Babangida, going by the strategic role of education in nations growth and development, well trained educationists like Kolo would play critical part in saving the dearth of educational sector from totally collapse. He also observed that Kolo, who until his death, was the Chairman, Evaluation and Implementation Committee, El-Amin University, Minna, the committee, designing a blue print for the take-off of the proposed University, Minna. He stated this in Abuja on Monday, November 5, 2018 while bidding farewell to some foreign bikers after weeks of touring eight states; Niger, Kogi, Enugu, Cross River, Rivers, Edo, Oyo and Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The tour, according to the Minister, was to provide the bikers a firsthand opportunity to experience the rich cultural heritage of the Nigeria people. From the report that I have received, this tour is a great success, Mohammed announced. It is also an attestation to the fact that Nigeria is indeed a safe destination for tourists and business people alike. Yes, there are security challenges here and there - and this is not peculiar to Nigeria. But our country is safer today than it was before the advent of this administration in 2015, thanks to the political will shown by the administration and the commitment of our security agencies. The bikers travelled to Gurara Falls in Niger; The coal city of Enugu, the Millennium Park, Slave History Museum, Tinapa Lake Resort all in Cross River; the national museum in Port Harcourt, Rivers State; the ancient city of Benin in Edo State where they visited the National Museum, among others; the ancient city of Ibadan in Oyo State; Lagos Mega City and of course many sites here in the FCT. The great bikers who crisscrossed our country by road are all here, safe and sound! They are not armchair analysts. They are practical men and women who zoomed across the country on their power bikes. No one can tell the story better than them. And the feedback we have received is overwhelmingly positive, he stated. While appreciating the bikers, the Minister urged them to become great ambassadors of Nigeria. In his remarks, the President of the Latin America Motorcycle Association (LAMA), Marip Nieves appreciated the Nigerian government for the tour. The wanted IPOB leader made the public call to solidarity during a radio broadcast on Radio Biafra, from Jerusalem, Israel this weekend. While making his impassioned call, Kanu said all he wants is for his Biafran people to be free from the Nigerian state which he severally referred to as a zoo during the broadcast. He said, "I wish to appeal to every suffering person, you must ignore the established propaganda and join IPOB to boycott Nigeria elections. "If you are tired of the massacre and pains in Nigeria, you must boycott elections. Those of you who want restructuring, employment, then you must boycott elections. "But Biafra will be different. I am not stopping you from joining us in the Biafra quest. I want my people to be free." Kanu's disappearance and resurgence in 1 year Kanu had not been seen in public for one year since an alleged attack on his father's compound by soldiers on September 14, 2017, until he was pictured praying at the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem on October 19, 2018. Since his re-emergence, Kanu has addressed his followers and vowed to return to the country to lead a boycott against the elections just like he did before he disappeared. During this weekend's broadcast, he said he only ran abroad so as to be able to fight the government's tyranny another day. "Prophet Muhammed ran away and came back to conquer everywhere. Jesus did same and came out victorious. Nnamdi Azikiwe ran to Ghana; Nelson Mandela ran to Nigeria. Those of them saying I ran away when they came to kill me, are people who want me dead because, they know I'm their headache," he said. During a recent interview on Israeli TV Channel 1, the IPOB leader said he only escaped death one year ago because he was evacuated from the premises before soldiers could get to his bedroom. The governor denied the allegation adding that he had never had any problem with the catholic community in the state. At a meeting with Archbishop of Owerri Catholic diocese, Bishop Anthony Obinna and representatives of the Christian community in Imo state, Oshiomhole had condemned what he described as the governor's lack of respect for the church. He said that the ruling party is not in support of the misunderstanding between the governor and the Catholic community. In a press statement released on Monday, November 5, by his chief press secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, Governor Rochas said that Oshiomhole's actions and utterances should reflect the dignity of his office. The governor stressed that the APC chairman did not mention the sins he committed against the community as he left his audience guessing. Read the full statement below; In responding to that deliberate blackmail, we wont toe the path of Comrade Oshiomhole. We recognize the fact that he is the National Chairman of a ruling Party which President Muhammadu Buhari is the leader, and we would not therefore throw caution to the wind like he did, when he was abusing or attacking governors in his party as if he is the Publicity Secretary of any of the Political Parties in opposition. If he had asked question, he would have discovered that members of the Catholic Church in the State Constitute the bulk of Governor Okorocha's supporters especially at the grassroots. They voted for him overwhelmingly in 2011 and 2015 respectively. And he has never taken their support for granted. He has shown gratitude in several ways which cannot be catalogued in this response, including making them majority in his cabinet. And for Archbishop Obinna, the governor holds him in a very high esteem and has no personal problem with that outstanding man of God. But the truth is that the Archbishop perhaps expects the perfect Leadership expected in heaven to be established in Imo which is not possible. And that could be the reason he had had issues with Col Tanko Zubairu, Achike Udenwa and indeed Ikedi Ohakim. The Archbishop is the spiritual father of the governor. And the governor has never let him down. And Comrade Oshiomhole should find out from President Buhari whether Governor Okorocha took him to the Archbishop in 2015 when he came on Campaign for a private meeting that lasted more than an hour. To us, that was a high demonstration of respect and regard. But guess what? Two days after, the newspaper owned by the Archbishop came up with a banner headline "Alhaji in Government House" and part of the story was that the governor was taking young Igbos to the North to be Islamized. All these were part of the Campaigns to discourage Imo people from voting for him, APC and President Buhari. These are the issues. So, Comrade Oshiomholes apology was a badly tailored blackmail. And somewhat inciting. He is only trying to justify the blunder he contracted and dispatched Ahmed Gulak to commit in Owerri. And the man has put himself on trial. And that is the reason since that woeful and awful outing he has made more than nine claims to see how he could recover, but all to no avail. He murdered sleep and would remain awake. We want to remind Comrade Oshiomhole that he is the National Chairman of a ruling party. His actions and utterances should reflect the dignity such office carries. For instance, when Governor Okorocha spoke to the media after meeting with Mr. President, one could see maturity in his speech. He didn't start calling Oshiomhole names because calling names is meant for touts. As a matter of fact, the National Chairman didn't treat the concerned governors well no matter his reasons. He should not expect them to go home celebrating. The presiding judge, Justice Goddy Anunihu, described the processes that led to the indefinite suspension of the five lawmakers as "putting the horse before the cart". He also awarded N8m against the defendants. The affected lawmakers, Chiiji Collins, Israel Nnataraoye, Nkenna Nzerue, Uche Oguwuike and Donatus Onuigwe were suspended in July by their colleagues for what the Speaker described as "un-parliamentary conduct". The lawmakers were suspended during the crisis surrounding the impeachment of the state's deputy governor, Eze Madumere. The presiding judge faulted the setting-up of an investigation team to look into the allegations against the now reinstated lawmakers. Anunihu said that based on the evidence before him, the panel was set up even before the "purported indefinite suspension". Okorocha vs Madumere Madumere was impeached by the Imo House of Assembly on July 30, 2018 for gross misconduct and abandonment of the duties of his office. The Imo House of Assembly Speaker, Acho Ihim, hadsaid the decision was taken after careful consideration of a report from a panel constituted by the state's Chief Judge, Justice Paschal Nnadi. Court faults Madumere's impeachment Owerri High Court had declared the impeachment of Eze Madumere as the Deputy Governor of Imo State as "invalid and of no legal effect". The former vice president travelled to Dubai last month shortly after winning the presidential ticket of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) to contest in the 2019 presidential election. He has since been engaged in a series of strategy meetings that have notably included his running mate, Peter Obi, PDP's National Chairman, Uche Secondus, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and several notable PDP members. In a statement signed by the APC's Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, he alleged that the real motive of Atiku's stay in Dubai should be investigated by the relevant agencies. He said the trip might be an elaborate plot by the PDP to move cash illicitly to induce voters for next year's election. The statement read, "The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his running mate, Mr. Peter Obi; Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and the partys National Chairman, Uche Secondus met in Dubai few days ago according to media reports to "plot strategies to oust President Muhammadu Buhari" in next year's election. "The purpose of the said meeting is both comical and ridiculous as they have held several meetings for the same purpose in Nigeria. Clearly, the meetings held in Nigeria did not yield their desired results, hence, a follow up meeting in Dubai. "But we know the way of these set of politicians and the political party they represent. There is more to the meeting that meets the eye. Nigeria has enough meeting/conference rooms, many of which meet international standards. "It is therefore clear that the Dubai meeting is for other sinister political purposes ahead of the 2019 elections. "Our intelligence, anti-graft and security agencies must be awake to its responsibility of investigating the Dubai meeting. Cash and carry politicians must be prevented from moving illicit cash around to induce voters and sponsor election violence and rigging. "Again, relevant agencies must check suspicious movement of cash both locally and internationally by politically exposed persons under the guise of a "Dubai meeting" or any clandestine meeting. "We are mindful of how millions of dollars were confiscated in an aircraft belonging in a Nigerian PDP sympathizer in South Africa in the leadup to the 2015 elections. The case of N250 million cache found in the Mr. Peter Obi's private office in Lagos remains unresolved. "Another round of election is here and it is not unlikely that they are playing a repeat performance, under the guise of holding a meeting in Dubai. Our security agencies should be on the watch for a stitch in time saves nine." The APC called on security agencies to investigate the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakars meeting with some party leaders in Dubai. The ruling partys Deputy National Publicity Secretary, in a statement issued to newsmen, described the meeting as sinister. He said The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his running mate, Mr. Peter Obi; Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and the partys National Chairman, Uche Secondus met in Dubai few days ago according to media reports to "plot strategies to oust President Muhammadu Buhari" in next year's election. "The purpose of the said meeting is both comical and ridiculous as they have held several meetings for the same purpose in Nigeria. Clearly, the meetings held in Nigeria did not yield their desired results, hence, a follow up meeting in Dubai. PDP fires back In its response, the PDP said that the APC has become disoriented. This was made known by the party via its Twitter handle, @OfficialPDPNig. The party said Since the emergence of @atiku as @OfficialPDPNig Presidential candidate, the panic-stricken @MBuhari and the @OfficialAPCNg have abandoned governance for smear campaign and now fret over the strategy meetings because they know that the outcome will dismount their government. @OfficialAPCNg is panicking over our strategy meetings because it did not only fail to deliver on its campaign promises, but is also completely bereft of ideas required to solve the problems it caused, even as it knows that it cannot drive our country in this 21st century. Is it not ludicrous that the @OfficialAPCNg has become so disoriented that it is now issuing statements about the venue of our meetings which does not offend any section of our laws, and for which it has now rented itself to lies and spurious allegations? ALSO READ:PDP reportedly pays US firm N400m to win election for Atiku The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the affected governors included Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun, Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo and Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti NAN gathered that the meeting, held behind closed doors at the Presidents office residence, was part of Buharis efforts to reconcile all aggrieved members of the party. It would be recalled that the President had on Wednesday met behind closed door with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the National Leader of the APC and the partys National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The Presidents meeting with the APC leader and Oshiomhole came less than 24 hours after Buhari hosted aggrieved APC aspirants to a dinner at the State House. The meetings were also part of the presidents reconciliatory efforts aimed at ensuring victory for the party in the 2019 general elections. Atiku stressed that the resources of the country should be used for the benefit of its citizens not for others. In a statement released by his media team on Sunday, November 4, 2018, Atiku urged president Buhari and his cabinet to be more prudent witg the nation's resources. His reaction follows a recent promise made by the president to donate $500,000 to Guinea Bissau, along with other materials. "Our response is to ask why a nation that has been officially named as the world headquarters of extreme poverty, will donate her resources to others instead of using them to solve pressing domestic problems? "This is the same government that is so cash-strapped that it has so far borrowed N13tn in three years" he said. The former vice president frowns at the promise the president took and urges the president to cut its coat according to its size. He asked, "How prudent is it to go about taking loans from whosoever cares and then turn around to give out the money when your own people are suffering the worst form of poverty? "We call on the Muhammadu Buhari administration to cut its coat according to its cloth. He should stop donating like Father Christmas. He should attend to the need of Nigerians he added. Atiku also stressed that there is no way he would pretend to be unconcerned with the way president Buhari is running the country having been part of the government that paid off Nigeria's foreign debts in the past. While speaking during an interview on Channels Television's Politics Today on Sunday, November 4, 2018, the president's spokesperson said Nigerians will decide on the right candidate who'll move the nation forward. He said, "What we know is that a contest is ahead and it is going to be a contest between light and darkness, between integrity and people who have question marks; between a man whose life is plain and transparent and a man with so much opacity that you can't say, well, this is his life, this is his background and this is how he got this and that. "It's going to be a fair contest and, at the end of the day, Nigerians will decide." The 2019 presidential election, scheduled for February 16, 2019, is expected to be closely-fought between President Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, of the People's Democratic Party (PDP). 79 candidates will contest in the election, the highest number ever in Nigeria's electoral history. ece-auto-gen Buhari will win 2019 election with a wide margin - Presidency During Sunday's interview, Adesina also expressed his belief that President Buhari will win with a wider margin than he used to win the 2015 contest. He said he believes Nigerians will vote for continuity so that the president can consolidate on the achievements of his first term. He said, "Our conviction is that the party will win by a wider margin, far wider margin, than in 2015. Look around, what is the alternative? Can we afford to take the country back into the infamous past? It would be very sad. It would be quite shameful to take Nigeria back into the past. "The best option for Nigeria is a continuity of what we have now so that it can be properly consolidated for a better future and Nigerians know it. "The option is President Buhari to be re-elected. Our confidence is that President Buhari will win the election." Mr Abhulimen Marvins, Public Relations Officer, KOWA Party Lagos denied being a member of the coalition backing Sanwo-Olus candidacy. On Nov. 1, 45 political parties under the aegis of Coalition of Progressives Political Parties in Lagos State (CP3) entered a coalition to endorse the APC gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for the 2019 election. Chairman of CP3, Mr Aderemi Fatukasi said that the coalition was against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State. Reacting to the development, Marvin said KOWA party never had a discussion or entered into any coalition to support Sanwo-Olu. It has come to our notice that the APC and its agents are claiming that KOWA Party is in an alliance with 44 other political parties in Lagos state endorsing their candidate for the gubernatorial elections in Lagos state. We want to use this medium to state categorically that KOWA Party in Lagos state has never had any discussion with the APC in Lagos to endorse its candidate for the elections. KOWA Party in Lagos state is focused on its candidates for Legislative Offices at the federal and state levels. We implore all our members, supporters and well-wishers in Lagos state and beyond to disregard all such rumors and keep faith with KOWA Party as we go into the 2019 elections. We promise to deliver candidates that would make a positive difference in the political space in the overall interest of the nation Marvin said. PPA denies endorsing Sanwo-olu The Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) has denied involvement in the endorsement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Mr Babajide Sanwo-olu by some opposition parties for 2019. The state Chairman of the party, Mr Olumide Oguntoyinbo, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos. According to media reports, 45 opposition parties in the state, including Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), Young Democratic Party (YDM), Accord Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and Action Peoples Party (APP) adopted Sanwo-olu for the 2019 polls at a meeting on Friday. PPA, Independent Democrats, Legacy Party of Nigeria (LPN) and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) were also listed as members of the Coalition of Progressive Political Parties (CPPP), that endorsed the APC candidate. Reacting, Oguntoyinbo said PPA was not part of the arrangement as it had an ideology different from that of the APC. He said whoever had attended the endorsement meeting on behalf of the party was on his own, as both the state chapter and the national Secretariat did not approve membership of any coalition. Oguntoyinbo said that the party was fielding a candidate for the governorship poll and could not have been in CPPP or any other coalition against its candidate. Let me state clearly that we are not part of the coalition of the parties that endorsed Sanwo-olu for 2019.We can never be part because we have our candidate. If we are to join any coalition in Lagos, the directive has to come from the national secretariat. We did not get approval from above and the state chapter did not have any deal with any party on the coalition. So, whoever went to the meeting on behalf of PPA is on his own. We are not part of CPPP or any other coalition .We have a candidate and we are currently focused on achieving victory in 2019, he said. Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the endorsement of Sanwo-olu by 45 opposition parties as false and laughable. The Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, Mr Taofik Gani, said that the claim was propaganda and phantom arrangement by APC to portray Sanwo-olu as a popular candidate. He alleged that the endorsement did not have the approval of the parties, both at the state and national levels. reports that the meeting took place on Sunday, November 4, 2018 and that it was a secret meeting held behind closed doors. Photos from that meeting have dominated social media chatter, not least because Ezekwesili has often vowed to dislodge and dismantle the old political order that has held Nigeria hostage for ages. IBB, a self-confessed evil genius, is a member of that old political guard and establishment. Its commonplace to see candidates running for the office of president in Nigeria head to Minna, where IBBs mansion sits perched on a hill, for some kind of blessings. However, a spokesperson for the former Minister's campaign told TheCable that "the discussion (between Ezekwesili and IBB) was about the future of Nigeria and the 2019 elections." The official refused to confirm if Ezekwesili sought for or got IBBs endorsement, TheCable reports. Here are a couple of tweets on the saga. In her response, Dr Ezekwesili said she told IBB that her mission is to get Nigeria off the clutches of that 'old order'. "I had a very candid conversation with former head of state, Ibrahim Babangida in Minna after my speech on Human Capital Development at El Amin School yesterday. I made it clear that Nigeria must be taken out of the clutches of the Old Order. This is our mission", she shared in a tweet. A former Vice President of the World Bank for Africa, Ezekwesili has often made it clear that she is in the 2019 presidential race to win it. She has labelled the APC and PDP Siamese twins who have nothing new to offer the nation. In a statement signed by Ezekwesili on Monday, November 5, 2018, she said the doubts about her party's structure are unimportant because the supposed established structures are not as influential as people believe. Citing data from the 2015 presidential election, Ezekwesili said Tinubu's influence was only able to win Buhari a fraction of votes in Alimosho, the largest local government area in Lagos. She said, "The truth is that you, my fellow citizens, are all the structure that we need to make this happen and this isn't some lofty ideal. It is very possible through difficult but practical steps. "Let us look at the data. Data is something these old order politicians who want to rule forever haven't bothered to engage with. "Alimosho for example, is the largest local government in Lagos state with over 1.2 million persons resident according to official census figures. In 2015, only about 650,000 of these people registered and obtained their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs). "Faced with the rather unattractive choice of voting for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)'s Goodluck Jonathan, or the anyone-but-Jonathan candidacy represented by Muhammadu Buhari, a great many voters chose to abstain. "At the end of the day, the #APCPDP, the twin terrors of Nigeria, only managed to conjure up 140,000 votes between them. In Almighty Alimosho. This says something loud and clear, that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu with all of his 'might' and experience in so-called grassroots politics could, at the end of the day, deliver only 86,897 votes for his candidate Buhari and their party. "Where then does the source of this his widely reported power come from? Isn't he grossly overestimated? Asiwaju Tinubu and his like in #APCPDP control only as much as we let them. And the situation is the same in every other part of the country - from Kano to Ilorin - where any godfather claims to hold sway. "These men are only as powerful as we, the citizens let them be. They have been getting away with this for so long because we outsourced our responsibility as voters to people who do not necessarily represent our best interests. "The biggest trick that these entrenched politicians have played on us is to convince us of their invincibility, and we permitted them. This stops NOW!" The former Minister of Education further disclosed that data has shown her that the unimpressed portion of the electorate who failed to previously vote for the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the base she'll target to achieve victory at next year's polls. "The 500,000 persons in Alimosho who were so unimpressed by the #APCPDP that they refused to come out to vote are the numbers who will probably decide the 2019 elections. They are the numbers my campaign is seeking to activate "Everyone has one vote only and we would work hard to earn the votes of these Nigerians who care enough about their country to be wary of giving their votes to a bunch of self-preserving and recycled polo-trickians who have had several years to deliver dividends to the people but failed woefully," she said. "At the end of the day, 2019 will be decided by the incredible hard work and community that we create together, not the godfathers and their impoverishing brand of politics," she added. I'll lift at least 80 million Nigerians out of poverty - Ezekwesili Ezekwesili, a candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), promised Nigerians that her agenda will transform the nation and make it prosper. With Nigeria currently home to 88 million people living in extreme poverty, the highest in the world, she said at least 80 millions will be brought out of poverty with her government's agenda of prosperity. She said, "Our agenda is about creating wealth - growing the pie exponentially, creating jobs, building shared prosperity and taking at least 80 million Nigerians out of poverty. "The agenda is to mobilize the energies of the people and our private sector, invest in upgrading our capacity capabilities to compete globally, and end the bad policies which have turned Nigeria into Poverty Central. "Importantly, our actions will center on mobilizing the youth, building and adopting science and technology to disrupt the status quo in every sector including governance, implementing the reforms and reorganization to reduce bureaucracy, and making government a partner instead of an enemy of progress. This will in turn create jobs, turbo charge businesses and fight inequality. "I have crafted and implemented multi-sector policy to transform the lives of those at the bottom of the pyramid. I have visited around this country. I have seen the poverty, audited the opportunities, and created solutions that have kept us from crashing. "These men dont know the grassroots like I do. These guys only have experience in compromise and corruption. My own experience is in caring for people and rebuilding nations." "The #Hope2019 movement that I promise, isn't built on fraud or deceit. It will not operate on unfulfilled potential and countless missed opportunities. "Rather it is one of collective effort where every single voter is empowered to fight and take responsibility for fixing the rot in our system. It is about collective action of our citizens," she added. The 2019 presidential election, scheduled for February 16, 2019, is billed to be closely-fought between President Buhari of the APC and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, of the PDP. Alongside Ezekwesili in the chasing pack is Donald Duke of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), Fela Durotoye of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), and Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC). Others are Tope Fasua of the Abundance Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP), Eunice Atuejide of the National Interest Party (NIP), Olusegun Mimiko of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Adesina Fagbenro-Byron of the Kowa Party (KP), Chike Ukaegbu of the Advanced Allied Party (AAP), Hamza Al-Mustapha of the People's Party of Nigeria (PPN), Obadiah Mailafia of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and many more. The public prosecutor said in a statement that the three had been unanimously sentenced by the appeals court for "acts of hostility" against Bahrain and "communicating with Qatari officials... to overthrow constitutional order". Bahrain, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, severed all ties with Qatar in 2017, banning their citizens from travel to or communication with the emirate over its alleged ties to both Iran and radical Islamist groups. Sunday's verdict against the charismatic Shiite cleric can still be appealed. Ruled for more than two centuries by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, Bahrain has been hit by waves of unrest since 2011, when security forces crushed Shiite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. Opposition movements, both religious and secular, have been outlawed and hundreds of dissidents have been imprisoned -- many of them stripped of their citizenship in the process. 'Unlawful verdict' Salman's Al-Wefaq was dissolved by court order in 2016. Another opposition group, the leftist National Democratic Action Society, or Al-Waad, was banned the following year over allegations of links to terrorists. Salman is currently serving a four-year sentence in a separate case -- "inciting hatred" in the kingdom. Human rights groups have said cases against activists in Bahrain -- men and women, religious and secular -- fail to meet the basic standards of fair trials. Advocacy groups like Amnesty International slammed Sunday's ruling against the 53-year-old Salman and his aides, Hassan Sultan and Ali al-Aswad as political reprisal. AFP "This verdict is a travesty of justice that demonstrates the Bahraini authorities' relentless and unlawful efforts to silence any form of dissent," said Heba Morayef, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director. "Sheikh Ali Salman is a prisoner of conscience who is being held solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression." Bahraini activists said Sunday's verdict highlighted a broader regional policy towards freedom -- the same policy that saw Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi murdered this month. "Despite the ongoing scrutiny on the Gulf region, with Saudi Arabia being under the spotlight for its brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Bahrain has made a decision that reeks of arrogance," said Sayed AlWadaei, head of advocacy for the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. Upcoming election The verdict comes ahead of controversial parliamentary elections that Bahrain's King Hamad has called for November 24. Dissolved opposition parties, including Al-Wefaq and the secular Al-Waad, do not have the right to put forward their own candidates in the vote. Bahrain last year ratified an amendment to the constitution granting military courts the authority to try civilians charged with terrorism, a term loosely defined by the country's penal code. In June, Bahrain amended its law on political rights, prohibiting "leaders and members of political associations dissolved for violating the kingdom's constitution or its laws" from running in legislative elections. Bahrain, a key ally of the United States and home to the US Fifth Fleet, accuses Shiite Iran of provoking unrest in the kingdom. Iran denies the allegations. The United Nations and rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticised the Bahraini monarchy over its treatment of protesters. Nine members of a single family, including children aged one, three and 15, drowned overnight Saturday after a river burst its banks in the coastal town of Casteldaccia, submerging their rented villa in water and mud. Survivor Giuseppe Giordano, 35, who had left the house on an errand with one of his children, lost his wife, two other children, his parents, brother, and sister, his nephew and the boy's grandmother. Little Rachele Giordana's open coffin was being watched over by grieving family friends in a church in Palermo. The one-year old will be buried along with her Mickey and Minnie Mouse toys, local media reported. A mass funeral for the family was set to take place in the city's cathedral on Tuesday. Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League, enraged many by blaming "armchair environmentalism" for the widespread devastation, which hit the Veneto region hardest. 'How many deaths?' Critics pointed instead to the scourge of illegal housing. The villa in Sicily had been built too close to the river, violating safety norms, and the owners had been ordered to demolish it in 2008, but were in the process of appealing, Casteldaccia's mayor said. Out of every 100 new builds in Italy, almost 20 are illegal, according to the national statistics institute (ISTAT). While unauthorised construction stands at 6.7 percent in the north, it rises to 19 percent in central Italy and shoots up to 47 percent in southern Italy, meaning almost one in every two houses there are illegal. In the Campania region, a jaw-dropping 64 percent of buildings are thrown up without planning permission. Of the 16,500 or so subject to a demolition order between 2004 and 2018, only 496 were knocked down. Casteldaccia's former mayor Fabio Spatafora said cash-strapped councils cannot afford to deal with the problem. "If the owner does not comply with the demolition order, the council is obliged to buy the property or knock it down, but often -- as in the case of Casteldaccia -- it doesn't have the funds," he said. He rubbished the claim that demolitions would leave people homeless, saying many of the properties were holiday lets. "How many deaths and how many tragedies do there have to be before we realise that the only real public works needed in our country are those to make our territories safe?" said Stefano Ciagani, head of Italy's environmentalist lobby Legambiente. 'Crocodile tears' "We've been saying it for 40 years. Houses built on riverbeds, because in Italy there's always an amnesty around the corner." "Sadly, every tragedy we have to put up with crocodile tears from those who turned a blind eye and favoured illegal construction," he said. Italy's anti-establishment Five Star party (M5S), which is governing in a coalition with the far-right League, pledged during its election campaign to tackle the deadly problem. It insisted it would not support amnesties, which are seen by many as simply encouraging illegal building. The centre-left and right parties that governed Sicily over the past 20 years have suddenly "discovered there is illegal housing there," quipped M5S head and deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio, saying "it makes me laugh". But Di Maio has himself been accused of pushing for a widely-contested amnesty for illegal housing on the island of Ischia. jpegMpeg4-1280x720As the rains continued to fall across central Italy, Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris slammed the government for failing to budget for "the necessary resources to take preventative action" against future tragedies. The Ugandan Department of International Affairs conveyed, in a letter, that there were no records of the governors visit to the East African nation that they could present as evidence of his studies there. We have established no record of travel into and out of Uganda during the said periodas per the details provided in the letter, stated the letter signed by Lynette Bridget Boganza, for the Ministry. ece-auto-gen Court Case at Supreme Court The embattled Governor, challenged a ruling by the Court of Appeal and the High Court, which annulled his August 2017 election win in a suit filed at the Supreme Court. The two lower courts agreed that Governor Mahamud did not possess the necessary qualifications for the position he was elected to. Former Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi, who challenged the case in court, asked the Supreme Court to uphold the two prior decisions as he seeks to return to the post. The case will be heard by the full seven-judge bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice David Maraga, his deputy Philomena Mwilu, Mohamed Ibrahim, J. B. Ojwang, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndungu and Isaac Lenaola. The judges also demanded evidence of the governors previous employment records, as well as his other academic qualifications for their consideration in the case. The People Daily on Monday reported that Baktash Akasha Abdalla and Ibrahim Akasha Abdalla, who recently pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in a US court, had incriminated powerful government officials and businessmen who aided them in their illegal trade. Among those who were named included four judges serving in various capacities in the judiciary, two sitting governors, a former Governor from Mt Kenya, a former Cabinet Secretary, a sitting MP, a retired senior police officer, a prominent city lawyer, a former MP, and a wealthy city businessman. ece-auto-gen According to the People Daily, the named individuals have already been informed that they're subject to investigations being carried out by the FBI with collaboration from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headed by George Kinoti. In late October, the Akasha brother pleaded guilty to pleaded guilty to six drug trafficking charges, corruption to defeat extradition and conspiracy to use guns to facilitate their drug trafficking business. The two are believed to have entered a deal with the US authorities that would see them produce evidence of their co-conspirators in exchange for a lenient sentence. ece-auto-gen The development came at a time when Chief Justice David Maraga has defended two High Court judges from allegations that they took bribes from the Akasha clan. Maraga defended Justices Chacha Mwita and Justice Dora Chepkwony saying they had little or nothing to do with any criminal cases facing the Akashas. Social media guru Peeyoosh Chandra joins RadioLIVEs Vaughn Davis to take a look at the latest in app news. New Nokia 7.1 has arrived ZEISS Optics 12MP/5MP dual cameras Glass front and back Regular security updates and two years of OS upgrades mean Nokia 7.1 with Android One stays secure and features the latest Google innovations like being optimized for the Google Assistant New $2500 Macbook Air looks worth it (well it better be) The new range delivers this week Retina display Touch ID New key design which should avoid problems of last release 12 hours battery life Thunderbolt ports only so youll need $100 worth of adaptors New NZ ride sharing service launches Ola, the global rideshare app has recently launched in Australia and the UK, and has now landed in New Zealand. Originally from India, the app is free to download and rates claim to be lower than Uber and give more to the driver. Its currently available in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, and is half price for the first 30 days. Listen to the full interview with Peeyoosh Chandra above. Sunday Social with Vaughn Davis, 7pm - 8pm on RadioLIVE and streaming live to the Rova app on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. THE German state railway Deutsche Bahn is reported to be in urgent talks with the Department for Transport over revenue shortfalls at the Northern franchise. The franchise has suffered this year from the failure of its May timetable. It blamed late-running electrification work for some of the disruption, when plans to run electric trains had to be abandoned at short notice. It is also embroiled in a bitter dispute about on-train staffing with the RMT, and a series of 24-hour strikes is continuing. The Daily Telegraph claims that DB is trying to renegotiate the subsidy profile included in the contract. Under the terms agreed by DBs subsidiary Arriva, the amount of subsidy is suppose to fall each year, but the continuing disruption on Northern has dented predicted revenues, and the subsidy has allegedly risen to 282 million this year. Passengers are certainly unhappy with Northerns performance. One responder to a Transport Focus survey published last week said: I no longer have any confidence in the Northern network. I have only used the train three times since May and feel trapped in my home because I have not been able to get out and about as I would have done. I feel really depressed about the rail services and am not sure whether I will ever return to routinely travelling by Northern trains. The Department for Transport has refused to confirm or deny the reports of spiralling losses at Northern. A spokeswoman told Railnews that we do not comment on financial discussions with franchise holders, although she did confirm that the Department has regular meetings with all franchisees. She was unwilling to be pressed further on what those meetings involve, even in principle, although it is already known that each franchise has an effective account manager within the Department who is the key contact. However, a spokesman for Northern said: We are delivering on all of our commitments and are investing more than 600 million to transform local rail in the North with new trains, better stations, more services and faster journeys for our customers. This is the biggest investment into rail in the North in a generation. But the franchise has faced a number of exceptional circumstances, notably the ongoing, late delivery of infrastructure upgrades. These delays were out of our control and have impacted growth in passenger numbers. As is standard practice, we are in constant dialogue with the Department for Transport about how to improve journeys for customers in the North. The RMT has been demonstrating outside Parliament in London today on the 25th anniversary of the 1993 Railways Act, which legalised privatisation. The union has just announced more strikes on Northern on every Saturday until the end of the year. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said Northern is a basket case rail franchise sucking up well over a quarter of a billion pounds a year in public bail-outs while wrecking service standards, ripping up the safety rule book and threatening to throw the guards off over half their trains. This scandal needs to end immediately and that means the Government taking immediate action to bring the Northern routes into direct public ownership and control with the services run on the basis of safety, security and access and not private profit. That means a guard on every train and proper staffing at station level as well. With reports that TransPennine Express are in similar dire straits this national disgrace on our privatised railways, coming exactly 25 years after the Act was passed ushering in the Great British Rail Rip-Off, has to be called to a halt before irreversible damage is done. If Virgin can be kicked off the East Coast and the lines returned to public ownership there is no excuse whatsoever for dragging out the death throes of Arriva on Northern Rail. Meanwhile, Labour shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said: Twenty-five years on its clear that rail privatisation has been a catastrophic failure, with the taxpayer putting in even more money to the privatised system than when it was nationalised. Railnews asked the Rail Delivery Group to comment on Labour and RMT claims that rail fares have risen by 20 per cent in real terms since January 1995, but it has not done so. GREECE: The share transfer agreement for the sale of 100% of rolling stock maintenance business EESSTY to the Trainose train operating subsidiary of FS Group for 22m was signed by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund privatisation agency on October 29. GERMANY: Vossloh announced on November 5 that it had agreed a deal to acquire Strabag Rail GmbHs rail milling business, which comprises four milling machines and around 30 employees. SWITZERLAND: Investment group Reichmuth Infrastruktur Schweizs leasing business LokRoll 2 has awarded Alstom a 40m contract to supply 12 Prima H3 diesel-battery hybrid shunting locomotives, which it will lease to SBB Cargo for 10 years. U.S. President Donald J. Trumps administration will reimpose sanctions on Irans central bank, oil sales, and shipping companies on November 5. These sanctions, the last of those the U.S. lifted in 2016 as a consequence of the Iran nuclear deal, are likely to be coupled with new sanctions that are designed to achieve greater pressure than what the Obama administration imposed on Iran to enter negotiations over its nuclear program. The sanctions that snap back into place on November 5 largely mirror those that the Obama administration lifted in January 2016. While fewer in numbers than those reimposed on August 6 by Executive Order (EO) 13846 issued by Trump, they are among the most powerful as they expand the primary blocking sanctions available for U.S. designations and represent the bulk of the secondary sanctions on Iran. These sanctions are: Secondary sanctions on significant transactions for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum, petroleum products, or petrochemical products from Iran; Blocking sanctions on dealings with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO), and the Central Bank of Iran (CBI, or Bank Markazi). Bank Markazi). Blocking sanctions on dealings with port operators in Iran and the Iranian energy, shipping, and shipbuilding sectors; and Secondary sanctions on significant transactions with any Iranian person (individual or entity) on the U.S. Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC) list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (the SDN List). This last provision is particularly important as nearly every Iranian bank will be placed back on the SDN List on November 5. This will make transacting with Iran extremely difficult, even for non-sanctionable trade. Additionally, entities owned or controlled by U.S. persons that have previously been authorized to conduct certain Iran-related business will have to wind down this business on November 5. These entities are largely foreign-registered subsidiaries of U.S. firms, which are not subject to U.S. sanctions in nearly all other U.S. sanctions programs. From November 5 onward, they will be subject to the full sanctions restrictions on Iran that U.S. persons face, and their U.S. parents will face enforcement consequences for any prohibited business they conduct with Iran. In its quest to achieve maximum pressure, it is likely that the Trump administration will try to increase pressure through other new sanctions. The administration appears to calculate that focusing on Irans support for terrorism is the best avenue to exert pressure on the regime. This is, in part, because such designations also carry secondary sanctions and are not eligible for the carve-outs in U.S. sanctions, including humanitarian trade. We have seen designations in previous months target an Iranian bank not previously subject to secondary sanctions and the head of the CBI be designated for the banks support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the IRGCs Quds Force, U.S.-designated terrorist entities. Other designations since Trumps May 8 announcement that the United States was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear dealthe Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOAhave targeted Irans appalling human rights record, its destabilizing activities in the Middle East, and corrupt actors. It seems likely that OFAC will roll out a raft of similar designations on November 5 in an effort to cut off Irans few permissible routes to external trade and to send a message that the United States will forcefully implement its sanctions. The impact of these renewed and likely new sanctions will be far-reaching. The most widely discussed impact is what will happen to Iranian oil exports and the oil market more broadly. Somewhat perversely, the oil market may actually loosen as the specific contours of the sanctions solidify. The Trump administration has been negotiating exemptions for countries that significantly reduce their oil imports from Iran. It is likely that those exemptions will become public on November 5, or shortly thereafter. Any exemptions would likely be welcome news for a market that has tightened in recent months and may have priced in an assumption that the Trump administration would try to drive Iranian oil exports to zero. Another critical petroleum market consideration is what stance the Trump administration will take on Iranian exports of condensate, a byproduct of oil and natural gas production that enjoyed a loophole in the sanctions imposed by the Obama administration. The Trump administration is unlikely to offer that same loophole, which could close off a previous source of Iranian revenue. Renewed banking sector sanctions and the focus on terrorism designations may squeeze Irans ability not only to transact with trade partners, but to import critical humanitarian goods, such as food, medicine, and medical devices, that are generally exempt from U.S. sanctions. The Trump administration is already facing significant headwinds from foreign allies and partners on its Iran sanctions policy, and cutting off humanitarian goods or making their delivery more difficult will only increase European and others displeasure. Finally, the fate of the European Unions two venues for pushback against U.S. sanctionsthe renewed blocking regulation preventing EU firms from complying with U.S. sanctions on Iran and a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for trade with Iranwill determine whether the EU can live up to its trade-related commitments to Iran under the JCPOA. Neither is likely to have any significanteffect, but the EUs inability to deliver economic benefit (and possibly increased EU sanctions in the wake of the Iranian assassination plot uncovered in Denmark) may prompt Iran to reconsider remaining subject to the nuclear constraints in the JCPOA. As I have written before, the Trump administration is unlikely to achieve the same pressure on Iran that the Obama administration used to deliver the JCPOA, given that it is facing broad international opposition to its withdrawal from the deal and the reimposition of secondary sanctions. But that analysis could change dramatically if Iran withdraws from the JCPOA and restarts its nuclear program. The effects of renewed sanctions and Irans reaction to them will be the most important strategic factors to watch in the aftermath of November 5. Brian OToole is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Councils Global Business and Economics Program. He worked at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2009 to 2017. During this period, he served as a senior adviser to the director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Follow him on Twitter @brianoftoole. This article appeared originally at Atlantic Council. Libyans will likely find that winning the war was the easy part. It is not the war but the peace that will define post-Qadaffi Libya. Ronald Bruce St John, 2011 [1] In The Burning Shores: Inside the Battle for the New Libya, Frederic Wehrey picks up where Ronald Bruce St John leaves off in his 2011 historical account, Libya: From Colony to Revolution. In his book, Wehrey seeks to explain how the hope of the Arab Spring in Libya gave way to the frustration and despair of the conflict that still persists today. Drawing from his background as an Arabic speaker, Oxford PhD, and Air Force veteran stationed in Libya who has provided testimony on the crisis to Congressand as the current Senior Fellow for the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceWehrey has both the access and the academic ability to fully explain the history of the conflict. Unlike the more academic tone of St Johns book however, Wehrey writes with an engaging voice that reads, in parts, more like a thriller than a history. Through conversations with a diverse group of domestic and international players, the human element of what Libya has experienced becomes the core of an authoritative and well-researched narrative. Wehreys sense of humanity highlights the messy and complex nature of the conflict and shields it from retrospective simplification. The books unflinching embrace of complexity provides its greatest lessons for thinkers at the operational and strategic level: the perils of a broken civil society, the challenge of trust and alliances in that context, and the chaos of a failing state. It offers a rich source of insight for thinking about conflicts, prospective conflicts, and solutions from a whole-of-government point of view. The book is organized into three parts, beginning with an account of the Libyan experience of the Arab Spring and the fall of Muammar Qadaffi. This is followed by an examination of how the revolution collapsed under its own weight and devolved into civil war. Finally, the book surveys the aftermath of that conflict, recounting the rise (and fall) of the Islamic State in Libya, the conflicts impact on European stability, and the conquest of eastern Libya by Khalifa Hiftar. Despite the section headings however, the book reads as though it has only two sections: those events taking place before the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on 11 September 2012, and those that followed. The Benghazi attack does not take center-stage in the book, but it does highlight a narrative shift, as U.S. officials reduced their role in Libya and both their interest and access withered. A respectful and humanizing characterization of Ambassador Chris Stevens demonstrates Wehreys compassion for the human tragedy of the Benghazi attack, but his coverage of events and ensuing scandal is frank and builds upon the greater Libyan story rather than distracting from it. However, the authors heavy focus on U.S. actions and policies in the effort to manage the growing crisis in Libya does distract from the Libyan story in the first half of the book. Due to Wehreys impressive access to U.S. officials, much of the first half of the book looks outward at Libya from the perspective of the U.S. government. This is to the advantage of those who want insight into the challenges of managing U.S. interests as crises loom and break out, and Wehreys account offers these insights in spades. The depth of this perspective does risk overshadowing other sides of the story, however. To the books credit, other viewpoints are still portrayedpeppered throughout the first halfbut it is only in the second half that they stand on their own, allowing the book to become a Libyan story rather than an American one. Following the Benghazi attack, The Burning Shores pivots to the Libyan story, a helpful reframing of the narrative. At this point, Wehreys coverage of the conflict broadens, and in doing so offers a multitude of differing perspectives and personalities in Libya and beyond. By taking this multifaceted approach the book addressesbut is not overwhelmed bythe regional and ideological fracturing that took place in Libya. Sharing the perspectives of hopeful kingmakers and those on the margins, Wehrey discusses how Libyan societies have been changed through the conflict and how these changes have often entrenched challenges to peace. This breadth of the context shows how much of the conflicts complexity comes from personal identity being pulled between local, tribal, economic, ethnic, and religious influences and how the conflict of these identities is heightened as a result of Libyas early and recent history. Wehreys accounts show how Qadaffis systematic undermining of Libyan civil society worsened existing fault lines and opened the way for civil war after the dictators removal. The resulting social tensions continue to challenge the legitimacy and effectiveness of those who seek to lead the country today. The recent rash of militia conflict in Tripoli in 2018 only re-affirms the tensions Wehrey examines in his book. Ultimately, Wehrey argues the nurturing of Libyan civil society and the development of the social contract among Libyans is a prerequisite for peace. LIBYA SINKS DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO HOBBES STATE OF NATURE, A PLACE WITH NO ARTS, NO LETTERS, NO SOCIETY; AND WHICH WORST OF ALL, CONTINUAL FEAR AND DANGER OF VIOLENT DEATH. In Burning Shores the loss of civil society is shown to have immense destabilizing power. Without the structure of civil society, the specters of fear, honor, and interest disperse from the national level down to the local, to the tribal, and to the individual. In the first half of the narrative, this reminds the reader of Clausewitzs Trinity; of how passion, reason, and chance play and strain at all levels of a conflict.[2] But as the conflict wears on and tribalism and violent extremists take the situation from bad to worse in the second half, the book reminds readers of another author: Thomas Hobbes. In Wehreys account, Libya sinks dangerously close to Hobbes state of nature, a place with no arts, no letters, no society; and which worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death.[3] Sirte and other parts of Libya became destabilized after the death of Moammar Gadhafi. (AP) This book is a valuable lesson for students of war at the operational and strategic level on how wars are won and lost within the deeper contexts of their histories and their societies. For all its guns, bullets, and talk of a battle for Libya, The Burning Shores is not a book about war. It is a book about humanity interacting with chaos, some directed, and some without direction. War is just a part of the social collapse and momentous struggle of rebuilding Libyan society described in the book. In not letting the readers vision narrow to the battles and materiel, Wehrey highlights the importance of context to strategy. Beyond being a retelling of Libyan contemporary history, The Burning Shores is a worthy read for how it vividly presents the inescapable complexity of conflict at the national scale, and the importance of civil society to the pursuit of stable peace during and after conflict. FOR ALL ITS GUNS, BULLETS, AND TALK OF A BATTLE FOR LIBYA, THE BURNING SHORES IS NOT A BOOK ABOUT WAR. IT IS A BOOK ABOUT HUMANITY INTERACTING WITH CHAOS, SOME DIRECTED, AND SOME WITHOUT DIRECTION. Stefan DePaul is an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He has a Bachelors degree in International Affairs and Masters degree in Strategic Leadership. The views expressed in this article are the author's alone, and do not reflect those of the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. This article appeared originally at Strategy Bridge. While walking our dog the other day, my wife and I passed a Ted Cruz 2018 sign. Though it was a familiar lawn ornament in this deep-red Houston neighborhood, this time we stopped in our tracks. As if on cue, we turned to one another and exclaimed: The FN! As you might know, FN is the acronym for Frances extreme rightwing political party: the Front National. Earlier this year, however, at the behest of its leader Marine Le Pen, the party renamed itself the Rassemblement National (National Rally). The reason for the rebranding was simple: Pummeled by the centrist Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 presidential election, Le Pen decided to distance herself and party from the virulently anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant movement that her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, had founded as the FN four decades earlier. Now, my wife and I did not blurt FN because we liken Cruzs politics to Le Pens. Instead, we saw a striking likeness between their logos. Depicting either a preternaturally gifted longhorn or one half of Texas in red flames, Cruzs blue-and-red logo is a ringer for Le Pens blue-and-red flame. (Oddly, while the latter is largely unchanged from its previous incarnation, Cruzs 2016 logo was, in fact, a blue and red flame.) Of course, a great deal separates Ted Cruz from Marine Le Pen. But a brief history of the FN suggests they nevertheless share more than a blue and red logo. Jean-Marie Le Pen made his political fortune by telling it like it was -- or rather, the way his followers thought it was. He is less an ideologue than a provocateur, thrilling his audiences with what they called his political incorrectness, and what critics called his anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic slurs. He was adept at what the French call derapages, or deliberate verbal slips. Among the vile ideas that slip into the elder Le Pens rhetoric is that the Holocaust was a detail of history -- a lie echoed last week when he praised Robert Faurisson, the notorious Holocaust denier who just died. Le Pen has also praised Vichy, the wartime collaborationist regime that assisted the Nazis in sending more than 70,000 Jews -- French and foreign -- to the gas chambers. For good measure, he also mocked the suicide of a French Jewish politician, rhyming his last name, Durafour, with crematoire, French for crematory. But the elder Le Pen is an equal opportunity racist. In a career scorched by incendiary remarks, he has called for Europes Nordic peoples to defend the continent against Islam, prescribed Monseiur Ebola as a cure to the influx of immigrants into Europe, and insisted upon the inherent inequality between races. Even French-born Muslims, for Le Pen, can never become truly French. A goat born in a stable, he explained, is not a horse. Marine Le Pen has rejected her fathers targeting of Jews, but not of Arabs. While she usually avoids his hateful excesses, she has compared the sight of Muslims praying on Parisian sidewalks to a foreign occupation. In vowing to halt both legal and illegal immigration, she has warned that immigrants are transforming France into a squatters resort. In essence, she has traded the Jew for the Arab as the Other-- an eternal foreign presence that poses an existential threat to France. With this clear and present danger confronting France, the nation needs a strong leader who calls them like she sees them. Not surprisingly, President Donald Trump and Le Pen have expressed their admiration for one another. Just as he is making America great again, she promises to make France grande again. The first step to greatness, predictably, is to codify her demand for zero tolerance for immigration. This brings us back to Senator Cruz. While he is neither an ideological racist nor a political arsonist, last Mondays campaign rally with President Donald Trump in Houston reminded us where he has tied his political fortunes. From Trumps birtherism campaign against President Barack Obama to his presidential campaign against rapists sent by Mexico, from his presidential actions like the Muslim travel ban to his presidential words, including his belief that there were fine people on both sides last year in Charlottesville, we cannot doubt the nature of our presidents values. In the end, Cruz is what the filmmaker Ken Burns labeled a Vichy Republican. The label applies to those politicians in occupied France who, in order to further their own goals, accommodated themselves to the Vichy regime. But Vichy is a state of mind, not a place. Cruz has come to terms with Trump in a similar manner. Should the day arrive when French conservative politicians ditch their principles and rally to a President Le Pen, French historians might justifiably call them the Mar-a-Lago Republicans. 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, 11/05/2018 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. featured Jay Smith arriving in the United States and Asuelu Pulaa and Larissa Christina meeting influential parents during Sunday night's Season 6 episode on TLC.features couples separated by land and sea bringing the foreign fiances to the United States so they can tie the knot within 90 days. Otherwise, the American individuals will risk losing love and having their significant others return to their home countries.Season 6 of stars Kalani Faagata , a 29-year-old from Orange County, CA, and Asuelu Pulaa , a 23-year-old from Samoa; Eric Rosenbrook , a 40-year-old from Baraboo, WI, and Leida Margaretha , a 29-year-old from Indonesia; and Jonathan Rivera , a 32-year-old from Lumberton, NC, and Fernanda Flores , a 19-year-old from Mexico.The remaining couples are Ashley Martson , a 31-year-old from Mechanicsburg, PA, and Jay Smith , a 20-year-old from Port Maria, Jamaica; Colt Johnson , a 33-year-old from Las Vegas, NV, and Larissa Christina , a 31-year-old from Brazil; and Steven Frend , a 20-year-old from Bowie, MD, and his fiancee Olga Koshimbetova , a 20-year-old from Russia.Below is the latest on each couple, according to the new episode:Ashley was so excited to bring her man back to America with her. Jay's mother is in the United States but his father is in Jamaica. He felt sad leaving his father, who split from Jayas mom when he was younger.Jay's father had a lot of girlfriends in Jamaica, and while Ashley thought the guys were similar, Jay told the cameras he wanted to become a better man than his father is.Ashley didn't want Jay to regret his decision to come to the United States and resent her for it down the road.Jay then said goodbye to his family at the airport and traveled to America. He hoped he was ready for this new adventure, but he was sad about missing the upcoming birth of his niece.When Jay and Ashley arrived in Baltimore, MD, they were both very excited.Jay didn't know what to expect, but he felt "lifted," acknowledging he was "in a better place." The couple anticipated a lifetime of love ahead of them.Besides the cold weather, Ashley was nervous about how Jay was going to adjust to life in the United States.Not only is he not allowed to have open containers of alcohol outside and pee outdoors, but he was moving into "an all-white suburban area," according to Ashley.Ashley was hoping Jay wouldn't have to deal with racial issues, but she said her community's reaction to their relationship might serve as an "eye-opener" for her.Jay quickly got settled into Ashley's place, which he compared to "a five-star hotel." Jay thought it was amazing, and he even made snow angels in the carpet.Steven hadn't seen Olga in nine months and was flying over 4,000 miles to spend time with her. In about a week, he was going to become a father.The couple had applied for the K-1 visa but didn't hear anything back yet. Steven wanted to be present for the birth of his baby, so he decided to travel abroad for the first time ever. Steven was looking forward to meeting his son and getting to know Olga better.After flying, Steven took a seven hour train ride to see his girl. Steven was so excited to meet her but he was nervous at the same time because a lot was going to change -- and fast. He was hoping to recapture the spark they had established during their summer romance.Meanwhile, Olga from Voronezh, Russia, surprised Steven at the train. She was excited and overwhelmed with emotion to see Steven.And he, in turn noted it "felt like a fantasy, like a dream" to see Olga in person again. Olga and Steven agreed this was the happiest they had been in a long time. Steven, however, only knew a few words in Russian.Olga apparently grew up without parents, and so both individuals came from a difficult past but were looking forward to a brighter future. Olga admitted it was going to be weird to live with Steven because they had only gotten to know each other for three weeks prior to this visit.Steven wanted to be in the delivery when his son was born. He refused to miss the birth, but Olga said he needed special permission. Steven soon discovered the baby could be born any day, not necessarily one week from that point.Steven then sweetly took Olga shopping for baby supplies.Eric said they were going to spend a few days on the east coast, starting with Philadelphia, while waiting for Leida's parents to arrive from Indonesia.Eric feared what Leida's family would think about him because he didn't have much money. Eric said wealth and status is very important in Indonesia, and he also thought Leida's sister Reina was "judgmental."Leida worried Reina would make her come home because her life would be better in her home country.Leida also didn't like that Eric was paying his ex-wife child support. Leida said it needed to stop, and she simply didn't understand why such a setup was necessary.Leida's parents weren't happy about her move to America, so they wanted to make sure Eric was the right person for her. Eric, as a result, felt a lot of pressure to please.Eric met Leida's parents once before and they got along great, but Eric said they weren't aware of his financial situation and living arrangements.When Leida's parents arrived in the United States, her father, Wim, said Eric needed to provide for his daughter, and he was about to find out whether Eric could do such a thing.Colt said Larissa hadn't stopped complaining since she arrived in America, starting with Colt's mistake of not bringing flowers. Colt said there were going to be hurdles to overcome, especially Larissa living with his mother, Debbie.Larissa was "worried" about Colt living with Debbie, and she admittedly didn't love it.When Larissa and Debbie first met, Debbie started crying because she was so happy, but then Larissa confessed Las Vegas looked nothing like the pictures she had seen.Larissa also complained there was no furniture in the living room -- although Colt told Larissa she could pick out a sofa."I don't like the house because it's small. There's no furniture in the living room and there are ugly decorations," Larissa told the cameras, adding that she wanted to move to a bigger house with a pool.Larissa said she hated Las Vegas so she wanted to at least move into a bigger and better house. Debbie told Larissa she could decorate everything the way she wanted so she would feel comfortable and welcome.Larissa then complained about the slot machine in the kitchen that was a gift from Colt's father. Debbie cried because the meeting didn't go smoothly and Larissa didn't seem to like anything about Colt's life.Colt acknowledged the girls needed patience and more time to build a bond. The first meeting went terribly and Colton was a little hurt and disappointed Larissa wasn't more patient, understanding or kind.As for Debbie, she expected to meet a sweet and wonderful person like Colt had described, but she noted Larissa wasn't at all whom she had anticipated.Debbie said Larissa didn't have one nice thing to say, that she condemned everything upon walking into the house. Debbie called her "selfish," "demanding" and "not very nice." Debbie even suggested to her son that Larissa lacked "common courtesy."Debbie and Larissa were clearly at odds right off the bat, and Colt feared about the two sides being at war with each other.The next morning, however, Larissa made breakfast for Colt and his mother in order to make amends for how she had behaved the previously day.Larissa admitted she had lied about her cooking skills, but it was still a nice gesture. Larissa hoped Debbie would no longer view her as a rude person.Fernanda said she loved being in America but hated the visa process because she couldn't work and felt bored and alone in the apartment. Since she's not even 21 years old, Fernanda said she couldn't have fun and go out with Jonathan's friends.Fernanda also didn't find Jonathan's friends to be as fun as her own group from home.Jonathan's close pal, Dani, however, was very nice to Fernanda and decided to take her shopping.Fernanda told Dani she was concerned about their age gap because she didn't have much of a past while Jonathan had an extensive dating history. She also revealed she had found a thong in Jonathan's house.Dani explained Jonathan just moved that dresser from house to house without cleaning out its drawers. Fernanda started crying, saying she thought the worst but wanted to believe Jonathan.Dani admitted it was "typical Jonathan" and he's just a "dumb boy." But Dani assured Fernanda she had nothing to worry about.Fernanda acknowledged she only had 90 days to figure out everything about her man.When Jonathan returned home, they started cleaning his "bachelor" pad. Jonathan's sense of humor and personality distracted her from the pain she felt of leaving her family and friends behind, but she was still having a very tough time.After all, Fernanda took care of her brother and sister a lot at home because her mother worked very hard. Fernanda's family also missed her terribly in return, but the teen's mother assured Fernanda that she would be fine.After video chatting with her family, Fernanda broke down into tears in Jonathan's arms. He did his best to comfort and console her. Jonathan knew their relationship was on the line and she could return to her home country at any point.Kalani hoped Asuelu could make her happy and be a good father, even though he had a young mentality.Kalani's mother had also set high expectations for Asuelu, who admitted his baby was constantly cranky and he wished he would smile.Kalani then prepped her boyfriend for an upcoming dinner with her parents and sister by taking him to a nearby beach and diving into deep conversation.Asuelu always dreamed of coming to America. Although he thought the beach was crowded and cold -- and he noticed the seaweed and lack of coconuts in the trees -- he really liked the scenery and called it "Paradise."Asuelu was nervous about dinner the next day, especially since he'd be meeting Kalani's father Low, who prayed Asuelu was going to be a nice and humble man -- and "not an a-sh-le."Kalani admitted Low was "scary" and "intimidating," and then Asuelu cried about the idea of her family hating him. Asuelu wanted to be good enough for Kalani and their son, and the emotional conversation broke Kalani's heart.The next day, it became time for the big dinner. Kalani's sister, Kolini -- who goes by "Lini" -- was prepared to be nice to Asuelu, but she still wasn't over Kalani's allegations he had cheated on her."I don't really know if he's good enough for my sister and the baby," Lini said.Asuelu apologized to Low for not asking his permission to date Kalani to begin with, and Low said if he disrespected his daughter, they were going to have issues.Asuelu revealed he never went to school but he's a hardworker and has experience with construction. He also insisted he's truly in love with Kalani and wants to get married and have a family.Low told the cameras Asuelu better not get lazy or he'd be in for "loads of trouble." It was also hard for Lini to watch Asuelu be a dad to Oliver, since that's basically the role she had filled for months.It was a tense dinner, and Kalani wasn't sure whether she could marry Asuelu if her family didn't approve of their relationship. Kenya Moore is celebrating the birth of her "perfect" baby girl. ADVERTISEMENT The 47-year-old "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" star took to Instagram Sunday after welcoming a daughter, Brooklyn Doris, with husband Marc Daly. "#BrooklynDorisDaly is here!" the new mom wrote. "She's so perfect and strong! Marc was incredible in the deliver room. I lost a lot of blood so I'm very weak but they both were strong for me." "God is so good. We are blessed and doing well," she added. "My heart is so full at the abundance of love for our family! We love you all. #TheDalys #babydaly #BrooklynDaly #family #love." "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" star told People she gave birth Sunday after experiencing pregnancy complications, including preeclampsia. She also explained the meaning behind Brooklyn's name. FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! "Brooklyn because that's where we met and fell in love, and Doris after my grandmother who passed away last year and who raised me," Moore said. Moore confirmed her pregnancy during "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" Season 10 reunion in April. Her co-stars Porsha Williams, Cynthia Bailey, Kandi Burruss and other friends and family gathered in October to celebrate at a baby shower. "Words cannot express the joy and happiness I feel in my heart. So overwhelming to have a room of people who came to celebrate the impending life of #babydaly," Moore said at the time. Williams herself is expecting with her fiance, Dennis McKinley. , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Recently, RECOIL's Iain Harrison went to Prague to shoot the much-anticipated Alien pistol from Laugo Arms. Check out the quick video below; it sure does look like a flat-shooting pistol. Harrison used multiple types of ammo to test the Alien pistol. In the video above, he used 124 grain +P ammo. The overpressured ammo was used to see if the gun would still shoot flat. Due to the gas piston design, the felt recoil from hot ammo should be comparable to lower pressure rounds. Read more details of the Alien pistol HERE. Follow Laugo Arms on Facebook for updates: https://www.facebook.com/LaugoArms/ All the campaigning, political ads and election-related articles from The Red & Black will near its end come Nov. 6 hopefully. To celebrate the long midterm season, here are the details for election night watch parties you can attend. Eleven candles were lit in honor of the eleven victims of the shooting at a Synagogue, Tree of Life Congregation, in Pittsburgh this past weekend. The vigil had nearly 400 students and members of the Athens community at the event to honor the victims, the event was hosted by Chabad at UGA and Hillel at UGA outside the Tate Center in Athens, Georgia on Tuesday 30, October 2018. (Photo/Kyle Nadler Instagram: @kylenadler). There are no human rights violations in Cambodia, the head of a Cambodian government committee told reporters on Monday following talks with a United Nations rapporteur on the rights record of the autocratic Southeast Asian country that has been run by strongman Hun Sen for 33 years. Accusations that Cambodia violates human rights are, frankly, not true, Keo Remy, head of the Cambodian Human Rights Committee, said in Phnom Penh after meeting with U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Cambodia Rhona Smith. Especially in issues related to Cambodian workers, the Cambodian government has been paying closer attention in recent months, with Prime Minister Hun Sen addressing gatherings of workers on a regular basis, Keo Remy said. Some of our neighboring countries have single-party governments, and their human rights situations are no better than ours, but [the European Union] deals with such countries by giving them trade preferences, he said. Cambodia banned its main opposition party and jailed its leader in 2017, paving the way for Hun Sens ruling party to in all 125 seats on offer in parliamentary elections in July. Also speaking to reporters, Rhona Smith said there remain steps the government can take to improve the human rights situation in the country not just for the EU but for other development partners of choice for Cambodia. I think there are always issues, and there are always challenges, Smith said. But I think the government can certainly, if it chooses, improve the human rights situation in Cambodia, Smith said. In a move aimed at countering European criticism of his rule, Hun Sen has worked recently to persuade leaders from the bloc to forgo threatened sanctions against his government following July 29 national elections widely regarded as rigged. Cambodias Supreme Court dissolved the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in September 2017 for its role in an alleged plot to topple the government amid a months-long crackdown that also targeted NGOs and the independent mediaensuring that Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) emerged victorious from the July ballot. Petitioners held, questioned Meanwhile, Cambodian villagers trying to deliver petitions in land-dispute cases to the residence of Hun Sen were detained by police on Monday and released three hours later after being questioned, with five others later presenting petitions to the Phnom Penh office of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR), sources said. Speaking to RFAs Khmer Service via Skype, one of the detained women, Chray Nim, said This morning, they used violence against us. They threatened to slap our faces and to attack us. We are neither culprits, nor thieves or robbers, she said. We are merely normal citizens. Why did they treat us like this? Also speaking to RFA, Thida Klus--executive director of Silaka, a Cambodia-based civil society organization focused on good governance--voiced disappointment with authorities handling of the detained villagers, saying the women had not come to the capital for pleasure. They have lost their land for farming and have no way to earn their daily living, she said. The government should urgently settle their disputes. Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Richard Finney. A day before the United Nations conducts a review of China's record on human rights, several groups on Monday called for the immediate and unconditional release of a veteran rights activist in its southwestern province of Sichuan. Citizen journalist and rights activist Huang Qi, the founder and director of the Tianwang rights website, has deteriorated to the extent that there is "an immediate threat to his life," the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network said in a statement on its website. "Huang Qi ... is not receiving adequate medical care in detention and his health has seriously deteriorated," the statement, which was co-signed by 13 other rights groups, said. "Huangs condition is so serious that there is an immediate threat to his life," it said, citing his defense attorney, who visited him on Oct. 23. "The Chinese government must immediately and unconditionally release Huang, who has been detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression, and end its policy of denying prompt medical treatment to prisoners of conscience, which is a form of torture," the groups, which included Amnesty International, Freedom House and Human Rights Watch, said. The statement cited the deaths in detention of several human rights activists and members of ethnic and religious minorities in recent years due to a lack of prompt medical treatment, including Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, Cao Shunli, Yang Tongyan, and Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. It said Huang, who suffers from a chronic kidney disease, hydrocephalus, heart disease and other illnesses, may soon suffer the same fate. Huang told his lawyer during the October meeting that Sichuan authorities had purposely understated the dire state of his health and had tried to cover up his actual condition, the statement said. Huang has also reported to his lawyers different forms of torture and other ill-treatment to which he has been subjected in the past two years, including extended interrogations, prolonged periods of being forced to stand, and beatings, it said. Huang's defense attorney Liu Zhengqing, who is himself being targeted by the authorities, told RFA shortly after meeting with his client that his health was very poor. "Huang Qi's condition is very, very poor," Liu said. "His blood pressure is extremely high, but I can't answer any more questions, I'm afraid." Human rights experts at the United Nations will begin China's 3rd Universal Periodic Review on Tuesday. The statement was also endorsed by the International Federation for Human Rights, the International Service for Human Rights and the World Organisation Against Torture. Trial delays Huang was formally arrested by the state prosecution office in Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu in December 2016 on charges of "illegally supplying state secrets overseas." His trial has been repeatedly delayed by the authorities because there is insufficient evidence to proceed to trial, according to his mother Pu Wenqing, who has long campaigned for his release. Pu told RFA in an Oct. 25 interview that the authorities are deliberately falsifying his blood pressure readings. "Their aim is to prove that Huang Qi's blood pressure is normal, as opposed to high, but they aren't actually treating him," Pu said. "They are taking his death as a given, and they are planning to put the responsibility onto him when he actually dies." Amnesty International China researcher Patrick Poon said he also has doubts about the authorities' motives in allowing Huang Qi's health status to worsen. "The authorities have total control over the timing of the trial," Poon said. "Naturally, this adds to the pressure on the family, and they are using this to exact their revenge." Pu has previously said she has documentary evidence that the authorities are deliberately carrying out an act of revenge on Huang after he helped some of the most vulnerable groups in China lodge official complaints against the Communist Party and local governments. Reported by Lau Siu-fung for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Gao Feng for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Authorities in the Chinese capital have imposed a travel ban on a prominent liberal economist who had been invited to take part in a Harvard symposium this month after his independent think-tank was subjected to a series of police raids. Sheng Hong, the director of an independent Chinese think tank, has been barred from leaving the country to attend a seminar at Harvard University on the grounds that he would endanger national security, as Beijing continues to silence liberals critical of its policies. Sheng Hong, executive director of the Unirule Institute of Economics, had been due to attend the event examining Chinas 40 years of economic reforms. But he was barred from boarding a flight to Chicago last week by police at Beijing's Capital International Airport, who said his departure would "harm national security." "They told me I was suspected of 'harming national security'," Sheng told RFA on Monday, adding that he had asked for the reason for the move. "[The policeman] told me he had just been tasked with conveying this decision to me, and so he was unable to answer my question, which was: 'In what way does my attending a symposium harm national security?'" Sheng said. "He couldn't answer me, or didn't want to," he said. "There is no basis for this." Constructive suggestions Sheng said he has still received no explanation for the decision, which was handed down to the Beijing police department by China's cabinet, the State Council. He said his recent articles have offered nothing but constructive economic suggestions, and fall within the freedom of speech that is enshrined in China's constitution. Sheng said he had responded to the travel ban by penning a letter to China's President Xi Jinping. "I wrote asking Mr. Xi to rectify the situation, but I haven't had any response," he said. "I never thought that, 40 years after economic reforms began, attending a symposium would be regarded as harming national security." Constitutional scholar and independent historian Zhang Lifan said the symposium had been planned jointly by Unirule and Harvard. "Obviously, everyone is going to have a different interpretation of the 40th anniversary since the start of economic reforms," Zhang said. "Why is the official view the only one allowed to be heard?" In July, the authorities welded shut the front door of the liberal-minded Unirule Institute of Economics, trapping five members of staff, a move commentators said is part of a long-term strategy by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to limit the freedom of expression of Chinese intellectuals. The staff members were illegally detained for more than an hour, and had to call the police to be able to exit the premises. Nobody has been able to gain access to the offices since. The institute was founded in 1993 by liberal economist Mao Yushi, who has repeatedly challenged the government on its economic policy and was awarded the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty in 2012. Ideological controls Since taking power in 2012, President Xi Jinping has launched an unprecedented set of ideological controls and boosted the institutions needed to enforce them. Xi has repeatedly warned members of the political class not to go off message in public, and set up a nationwide monitoring agency to supervise and detain anyone remotely connected with the government, including civil servants, teachers and academics, journalists, and contractors. The closure of Unirule came after the closure of the liberal political magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu and the outspoken analysis website ConsensusNet, both of which had specialized in wide-ranging political and economic analysis. Unirule's website was also shuttered in January 2016, and the social media accounts of some of its prominent members deleted. Reported by Gao Feng for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Afghan officials say at least 13 members of Afghanistan's security forces have been killed in a battle in Ghazni Province about 150 kilometers southwest of Kabul. Mohammad Arif Noori, a spokesman for Ghaznis provincial governor, told RFE/RL that the battle began early on November 5 when Taliban militants attacked a checkpoint in the Khogyani district near the provincial capital. Noori said six Afghan police and seven soldiers in the Afghan National Army were killed in the fighting. He said at least four other police officers were wounded. He said at least six Taliban fighters were killed and 10 wounded in the three-hour battle. Noori said the checkpoint had been set up in a strategic area on November 3 in an attempt to cut off a supply route used by the Taliban. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed in a statement sent to media that the Taliban were responsible for the attack. The fighting comes three months after hundreds of Taliban militants launched a major assault on Ghazni city and briefly took control of parts of the provincial capital. U.S. warplanes, drones, and helicopters were deployed in that battle to help Afghan government forces repulse the earlier Taliban assault -- which included fighting on the outskirts of the city in the Khogyani, Khwaja Omari, and Zanakhan areas. With reporting by Reuters and AP BAKU -- Authorities say police killed two alleged religious extremists in a confrontation in Ganca, Azerbaijan's second-largest city and the site of past violence blamed on Islamic militants. Famil Alakbarov and Rustam Rzayev were killed on November 4 after they refused to stop their car and opened fire at police, the South Caucasus nation's State Security Service (DTX) said in a statement. It said that Alakbarov and Rzayev were "members of a militant radical extremist group" and that police sought to stop their car after receiving information that the two had purchased weapons and explosive devices and were plotting a terrorist attack. Police found an AK-47 assault rifle, explosives with detonators, and a grenade in the car, the statement said. There was no way of verifying the account given by the authorities in the former Soviet republic, who critics contend sometimes falsely accuse suspects of crimes, plots, and extremist views. Tension has persisted in the western city of Ganca since early July, when its mayor was shot and wounded in an attack outside his office and two police officers were killed in unrest that erupted in the wake of the attack. Police arrested a suspect in the attack on the city's chief executive, Elmar Valiyev. They alleged that the suspect, Yunis Safarov, belonged to a radical Islamist group and was plotting a coup intended to pave the way for the creation of an Islamic state in the mostly Shi'ite Muslim nation that borders Iran. A week later, authorities said two high-ranking police officers were stabbed to death when hundreds of Safarov's supporters clashed with police in Ganca. Two men suspected of involvement in the police deaths were shot dead in two separate police operations, while some 60 other suspects were detained, according to the authorities. Azerbaijani authorities also said in July that 14 people were jailed for terms ranging from 10 to 30 days for online comments about Valiyev's shooting and a nationwide power outage that occurred the same day. President Ilham Aliyev's opponents, Western countries, and international human rights groups say his government has persistently persecuted critics, political foes, independent media outlets, and civic activists. Aliyev, who has ruled the nation of almost 10 million people since shortly before his father's death in 2003, has shrugged off the criticism. Britain says it will press UN Security Council members to take fresh action to end the hostilities in Yemen. Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt in a statement on November 5 said he agreed with the UN's Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths "that the time was right for the Council to act to bolster the UN-led process. He said Britain would "use all of its influence" to help get "both sides" to the negotiating table to end the deadly conflict, which has been described by many as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran and has killed some 10,000 people. He was not more specific, but UN diplomats told the Reuters news agency that Britain was working with the United States on a draft resolution to stop the fighting. Britains call comes after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made similar remarks in recent days. Guterres on November 2 called for a halt to violence in the Gulf country to help pull it back from a "precipice" and pave the way toward peace talks. On October 30, Pompeo urged a swift cessation of hostilities and a return to negotiations. Washington is a close ally of Riyadh, and Britain and France have also supported the Saudis. But recent reports of mass civilian deaths caused by bombings of a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen have stung the Western powers, leading to calls for an end to the war. Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels in 2015 seized control of much of the west of the country, including the capital, Sanaa. Saudi Arabia and eight other Arab states intervened militarily in an attempt to restore the internationally recognized government. Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP mn MOSCOW -- Myriad onion domes fill this city's skyline, a testament to its religious foundations. Yet among the plethora of Orthodox churches, one of Moscow's oldest fears for its status. Tucked behind a Stalin-era skyscraper a short walk from Red Square, St. Nicetas is an "embassy church", or metochi, of Mount Athos, the male-only monastic community in Greece that the world's Orthodox Christians consider a spiritual home. While it belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church, St. Nicetas is symbolically tied to the mother church of Eastern Orthodoxy, the Constantinople Patriarchate, under whose jurisdiction Athos falls. "On paper we're part of the Moscow Patriarchate, but spiritually we represent Athos," says Father Pyotr, a St. Nicetas clergyman who withheld his last name because he is not authorized to speak on the church's behalf. Until now, this arrangement has posed no contradiction: Russian Orthodox priests have served for centuries alongside clergy loyal to Constantinople, whose Patriarch Bartholomew is considered "first among equals" in the Orthodox Church. But on October 15, in a momentous decision, the Russian Orthodox Church forbade its adherents from partaking in religious rituals in churches under Constantinople, which includes all those on Mount Athos. The long-awaited announcement followed Constantinople's decision to approve Ukraine's bid for religious independence from Moscow, moving thousands of Orthodox believers out of Russia's orbit in the process. It was the culmination of a years-long campaign in Ukraine, taken up with new fervor since the country's armed conflict with Russia began in 2014. This leaves the status of St. Nicetas unclear. And it's prompted fears the parish may become collateral damage in what some are calling Christendom's biggest schism for centuries. Unique among Russia's churches, St. Nicetas offers up regular prayers for Bartholomew, the leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, and its services adhere to the schedule followed on Mount Athos. It gathers donations for the restoration of cathedrals on the sacred peninsula and prepares Russian believers for pilgrimage. Each year, it receives the relics of Orthodox saints from Greece, drawing crowds of the faithful who wait hours to kiss the glass behind which the bones of these men are kept. Since the Russian Orthodox Church's decision in mid-October, Bartholomew's name is no longer uttered at St. Nicetas, and agreements on sharing relics are in jeopardy. Priests of the Constantinople Patriarchate who serve at St. Nicetas may be forced to leave. And on Mount Athos, some Russian priests who participate in services are now suspended from their duties. In late October, St. Nicetas head Andrei Smernyagin traveled to Mount Athos in search of answers. Upon his return, with no official announcement yet from Greece, he said he had no comment to give. 'Weeping A Hundredfold' Mount Athos has for centuries been a destination for Russian pilgrims. It is a repository of the most sacred Orthodox icons, and the holiest of relics. Many quote the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov, one of the most revered Orthodox saints, in describing its importance to the faithful: "If we weep here, then to go there means to weep a hundredfold." Each year, an estimated 100,000 Russian Orthodox pilgrims travel to Greece, and around half of them visit the peninsula. The monastic community has also featured in President Vladimir Putin's campaign to exert Russian soft power abroad. Putin was the first Russian president to visit Mount Athos while in office, and members of his inner circle are among its most generous benefactors. The BBC reported in October that Russian businessmen had donated over $200 million for restoration work on the peninsula since 2005. Much of that aid has come through the Russian Athos Society, which was created with state backing that year under an official mandate to strengthen Russia's bonds with Mount Athos, according to the society's page on the website of the Moscow Patriarchate. On October 16, the day after the Moscow Patriarchate's momentous announcement, Athos Society founder Konstantin Goloshchapov told Russian media there'd been little communication from church authorities. "They should give us instructions on how to proceed. Everyone's asking that question now, but no one's able to answer it," he said. The society's website has been down since mid-October, and representatives have not responded to phone calls and e-mail requests for comment. 'Waiting For Nightmare To End' For now, the tourism industry appears to have been unaffected. Various Moscow-based tour agencies offer weeklong trips to Mount Athos, with prices for November starting from 44,000 rubles ($670). Three operators contacted by RFE/RL by phone said they foresaw no damage to business from the rupture in Orthodox relations, though pilgrims would have to adjust to the new restrictions. Nikita Vedernikov, a clergyman at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Rybinsk, takes small groups of faithful to Mount Athos two or three times per year. For a small fee he delivers prayer slips from believers who contact him on social media, in the hope that if they are read out in close proximity to sacred icons and relics they will be answered sooner. Traditionally, Russian churches like the Transfiguration Cathedral have served as conduits for prayers to Mount Athos, but amid the current uncertainty some have temporarily suspended the service. So Vedernikov has actively advertised his latest trip online. On October 20, he set off again from Rybinsk with 10 pilgrims. The group was barred from taking communion, praying in the monasteries, and kissing the relics kept there. Vedernikov used to participate in services on Mount Athos on Sundays and church holidays, but this time he could only watch. No one prevented him from joining in, he said, but until further notice his participation is liable to disciplinary measures upon his return to Russia. "We're all hoping and waiting for a decision," he said by phone from Mount Athos. "But right now it's unclear." Asked whether the mood on the peninsula has soured toward Russians since Moscow's move to cut ties with Constantinople, he said, "quite the opposite. Everyone supports us, and everyone is waiting for this whole nightmare to end." For now, Vedernikov and other Orthodox faithful are left hoping the Holy Community on Mount Athos, a council of representatives from its 20 main churches that governs affairs on the peninsula, will choose to side with the Russian Orthodox Church and help reinstate Russian visitors' rights to participate in rituals there. Some say they expect an announcement any day. But according to Sergei Chapnin, a religious scholar who used to edit the Moscow Patriarchate's official journal, they're waiting in vain -- Mount Athos is unlikely to risk stoking tensions further by coming out in support of one side or the other. As for St. Nicetas, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church's department of external relations said its status was currently secure within the Moscow Patriarchate, but he wasn't able to comment on its future if Athos chooses not to sever ties with Constantinople. On a recent visit to the parish, a calm atmosphere prevailed -- old women swept the grounds while men stood atop scaffolding to repair a chapel roof. Seminaries in long black robes waddled about, casting sideward glances at the cleanup as they headed into the church for prayer. Parishioners are proud of the church's history -- its closure during the atheist Soviet period, when it was repurposed as a storehouse for a local film studio, its resurrection in the 1990s, and its recent transformation with generous government backing. When asked about the current standoff, they refer to God's will and prefer not to immerse themselves in the politics of it. Father Pyotr, who has a kind, childlike smile and a scraggly salt-and-pepper beard, remains optimistic. "Of course we're worried about our Russians on Athos, who are stuck between a rock and a hard place," he said. "But our parishioners support Christ and all those who serve him -- whether on Athos, or here at home." Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmud Alavi has claimed that an alleged Iranian plot to kill an opposition activist in Denmark was an Israeli conspiracy aimed at damaging Tehran's relations with the European Union. Alavi told Iranian state TV on November 5 that the "Zionist regime" was behind the plot. He did not elaborate. Denmark announced last week that police conducted an operation in September stemming from an Iranian plot to kill an Iranian-Arab opposition figure in Denmark. Swedish police arrested a Norwegian citizen of Iranian background on October 21 in connection with the plot and extradited him to Denmark. The Norwegian suspect has denied the charges and the Iranian government also denies involvement. The target of the alleged plot was the leader of the Danish branch of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), Danish authorities said. ASMLA seeks a separate state for ethnic Arabs in Iran's oil-producing southwestern province of Khuzestan. Tehran has blamed the group for a September attack on a military parade in the city of Ahvaz that killed at least 25 people. Arabs are a minority in Iran. Some see themselves as being under Persian occupation and are calling for independence or autonomy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called Iran the "most potent force of militant Islam," and has warned European Union countries about several alleged Iranian plots to carry out attacks on EU soil. Netanyahu's allegations about Iranian plots are part of his campaign to pressure European nations to take a tougher stance toward Tehran. Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned that the United States will exert "relentless" pressure on Iran unless it behaves "like a normal country." Pompeo made the comments on November 5, hours after Washington imposed sanctions targeting key sectors of Iran's economy following President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. Iran urged the United Nations to hold the United States accountable for the sanctions targeting its energy, shipping, shipbuilding, and financial sectors, branding the measures "illegal" and in violation of a Security Council resolution. Officials earlier struck a defiant tone, saying the country would "bypass" the U.S. measures. Labeled by Trump as the "toughest ever," the sanctions took force early in the day as part of U.S. efforts to ramp up pressure on Tehran to "change its behavior." Washington says the terms of the nuclear accord, under which sanctions against Iran were lifted in exchange for curbs on the country's nuclear activities, were not strict enough to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It also accuses Tehran of supporting militant violence in the region and other "malign" activities. Iranian officials have denied the allegations. Eight Oil Waivers The U.S. Treasury Department said the sanctions targeted more than 200 individuals and companies in Iran's shipping and energy sectors -- including the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and its 23 subsidiaries and associated individuals, as well as 50 Iranian banks and their subsidiaries. As part of the round of measures, the White House has warned Iran's customers they must reduce their purchases of oil to zero or face U.S. penalties. However, it has issued 180-day waivers to eight countries -- China, India, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Japan, and Taiwan -- that will allow them to continue importing Iranian oil. Trump said he wanted to impose sanctions on Iran's oil gradually, citing concerns about causing global price spikes. "We have the toughest sanctions ever imposed, but on oil we want to go a little bit slower," he told reporters, according to Reuters news agency. Pompeo said the sanctions will accelerate the rapid decline of Iran's international economic activity, saying over 20 countries had already cut their oil intake from Iran, reducing its exports by more than 1 million barrels a day. "The Iranian regime has a choice: it can either do a 180-degree turn from its outlaw course of action and act like a normal country, or it can see its economy crumble," he told reporters. Iran's economy has been hit hard, with the country's currency, the rial, plummeting in value, leading to some street protests in Iranian cities. The country has lost around $2 billion in oil revenue and lost tens of billions of dollars in investment since May, when the United States pulled out of the nuclear agreement, the U.S. special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, told a conference call. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that despite granting the waivers, Washington will "aggressively enforce" the sanctions. Mnuchin said he expected European countries to honor the U.S. sanctions against Iran. But he said there also are certain transactions, including humanitarian, that will be allowed. In Brussels, the world's biggest interbank-transfer network, SWIFT, announced it was cutting off links with "certain Iranian banks' access," further isolating Iran from the international financial system. The service said in a statement that it had taken this "regrettable" step "in the interest of the stability and integrity of the wider global financial system." It did not mention the U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran, but Washington has told SWIFT it could face sanctions if it fails to comply with the restrictions. Iranian state TV quoted the head of the Central Bank as saying that Tehran had taken necessary banking measures to continue trade with its partners. "We have been in talks with our trade partners and all the necessary actions have been taken for Iran's interactions to continue," Abdolnassr Hemmati said. 'War Situation' At the United Nations, Iran's ambassador wrote in a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the "irresponsible conduct of the United States necessitates a collective response to uphold the rule of law." The United States "not only blatantly defies the Security Council Resolution 2231" that endorsed the Iran nuclear accord, "but also audaciously coerces other states to violate the resolution," according to Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo. "The United Nations and its member-states, in accordance with the charter of the United Nations and the international law, should resist against these wrongful acts and hold the United States accountable for such acts," Khoshroo wrote. In a speech on state TV, Iranian President Hassan Rohani earlier said the country was facing a "war situation" and vowed that Iran will "proudly bypass" U.S. sanctions to sell oil. Meanwhile, state television aired footage of air-defense systems that are involved in two-day military maneuvers across northern Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded the U.S. sanctions as "historic." "Today is the day the U.S. under President Trump's leadership imposed extremely harsh sanctions on Iran, the harshest sanctions imposed on Iran since the effort to curb its aggression began," he said. Israel has been a fierce opponent of the Iran nuclear deal, saying it didn't rein in Iran's regional military activities. Meanwhile, China's Foreign Ministry said Beijing regretted the U.S. decision and said it stood with the countries that have vowed to keep the Iran nuclear deal alive despite the U.S. withdrawal. Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China, which also signed the nuclear deal along with the United States, insist Iran has abided by its commitments and say they are determined to save the agreement. With reporting by CBS, AP, Reuters, Fox News, and Rikard Jozwiak Qasym Zhumaghozhin, a Kazakh stuntman who has performed in Hollywood films with stars such as Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, and Keanu Reeves, has died at the age of 34. The Kazakh State Circus administration in Almaty said on November 4 that Zhumaghozhin, a member of the Kazakhstan-based Nomad Stunts group, died a day earlier after suffering a heart attack. Media reports quoted colleagues as saying that Zhumaghozhin suddenly felt unwell while performing a stunt at a Halloween party in a nightclub on November 3. Zhumaghozhin, also known as Kassym Zhumaguzhin, worked on at least 25 films, including 47 Ronin (2013), The Expendables 2, (2012), and Conan The Barbarian (2011). He was also in several popular Kazakh and Russian movies including Nomad (2005), Day Watch (2006), Racketeer (2007), and Viking (2016). Zhumaghozhin had been working with the makers of an Indian film called Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, which is expected to be released in 2019. Based on reporting by Tengrinews and Caravan Ukraine's government says one of its soldiers has been killed and four wounded as a result of clashes with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Defense Ministry in Kyiv said on November 5 that separatist fighters violated a cease-fire 18 times during the previous 24 hours by firing machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars. It said Ukrainian government forces killed three pro-Russia fighters and wounded four others. Russia-backed separatists, meanwhile, accused Ukrainian government forces of violating the cease-fire 21 times during the previous 24 hours using guns, grenade launchers, and mortars. Since April 2014, more than 10,300 people have been killed in fighting between Kyiv's forces and the separatists who control parts of Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict -- have failed to hold. With reporting by Interfax and TASS Twelve newborns have died at a health center in northeastern Afghanistan amid an outbreak of "an unknown and as yet not determined origin," the Italian nongovernment organization running the facility says. The Emergency NGO said on November 5 that the babies all died the previous day at its maternity hospital in Panjshir Province's Anabah district. A statement said the newborns, who were in critical condition and on antibiotic therapy, passed away at the hospital's neonatal intensive-care unit due to apparent sepsis -- a serious complication of an infection. Emergency said it immediately informed the Afghan health authorities regarding the ongoing outbreak and tasked a private laboratory in the capital, Kabul, to carry out microbiological tests. The group said it will communicate the results of the tests as soon as they are available. Dejan Panic, Emergency's program coordinator for Afghanistan, told the dpa news agency that the 12 babies all experienced the same symptoms. Two other newborns were in critical condition, Panic also said, adding that the neonatal ward was "on lockdown." Meanwhile, Emergency said its staff had applied measures to contain the outbreak and treat the affected patients, insisting that it excluded "any medical negligence in what has happened." The medical coordinator of the maternity center was in constant contact with the provincial and district officials, it also said. The center offers gynecological, obstetric, and neonatal assistance to the population of the Panjshir Valley, and the provinces of Parwan, Kapisa, and Kabul, according to Emergency. It has provided treatment and health care to more than 300,000 mothers and newborns since it was opened in 2003, the NGO added. With reporting by dpa The lawyer of a Christian Pakistani woman acquitted after she was sentenced to death for blasphemy says he was forced to flee to the Netherlands. Saiful Mulook, who defended Asia Bibi in the Pakistani courts, said on November 5 that the United Nations and European Union made him leave the country "against my wishes" because his life was at risk. Mulook told a news conference in The Hague that he contacted a UN official in Islamabad after Islamist violence erupted following the Supreme Court's ruling. "And then they and the European nations' ambassadors in Islamabad, they kept me for three days and then put me on a plane against my wishes," Mulook said. The lawyer earlier said he had left Pakistan "to save [my] life from an angry mob" and because of fears for the safety of his family. Mulook said he did not know whether Bibi had already been released from prison, or where she would want to seek asylum after being acquitted by the Supreme Court on October 31. "Ask the people of the UN", Mulook said. "They are not telling me, for security reasons." Bibi's whereabouts is unknown. Islamists have warned they will resume protests and threatened "war" if the Pakistani authorities allow Bibi out of the country. In a deal with TLP that ended the protests but came under criticism from western countries and human rights groups, the government on November 3 indicated it will bar her from traveling abroad pending a "review" of the Supreme Court decision to acquit her. Earlier on November 5, Pakistan's government said Twitter had suspended the account of a radical cleric for posting inflammatory statements against the Supreme Court, prime minister, and military. The Pakistani Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said it requested that Twitter suspend the account of cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi after his hard-line Tehrik-e Labaik Pakistan (TLP) party blocked roads for three days last week and threatened the judges who acquitted Bibi. PTA officials said they complained that Rizvi incited "hate and violence" by urging the cooks and servants of the Supreme Court judges to kill them. There was no immediate comment from U.S.-based Twitter. Criminal cases have been filed against hundreds of demonstrators and organizers of protests that took place during the past week against the court's decision, the Dawn newspaper reported on November 4. Senior police officer Nayab Haider said that more than 150 people were arrested on charges of arson, vandalism, and violence during the demonstrations. He said that police were using video clips to identify those involved in assaults, torching property and vehicles, and blocking highways. A government official estimated that the protesters caused around $1.2 billion in damages. Bibi, a mother of five, spent eight years on death row for allegedly insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad before being acquitted. Bibi has denied the charges. Her husband, Ashiq Masih, on November 4 pleaded for asylum from Western countries, saying his family is in great danger in Pakistan. "I am requesting that [U.S.] President Donald Trump help us to leave [Pakistan], and I am requesting that prime minister of the United Kingdom help us and as far as possible grant us freedom," Masih said in a video message. He also called on Canadian leaders to help. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan, and the mere rumor of committing the crime has led to lynchings in the past. Approximately 40 people are believed to be on death row or serving a life sentence in Pakistan for blasphemy, according to a 2018 report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and Dawn Russian officials say a bridge in the Khanty-Mansiisk region of Siberia collapsed while undergoing repairs, killing two people and injuring at least five others. A construction crane and a truck plunged into the water when a bridge near the village of Karakteyevy in the Nefteyugansk district collapsed on November 5, regional officials and the Investigative Committee said. At least five people were hospitalized, officials said. Media reports quoted rescue teams as saying that seven people were injured. It is the fourth bridge collapse in Russia in the past several weeks. In early October, the driver of an overloaded truck was injured after a bridge collapsed in the Far East region of Primorye. On October 26, another bridge collapsed in the same region, killing two people. No casualties were reported when another bridge collapsed in October in the region of Mordovia. In all three cases, the bridges collapsed after overloaded trucks tried to cross them. The deadly accident also came a week after a massive floating dry dock sank at an Arctic, injuring four workers and leaving one missing after a crane crashed down on the deck of Russia's only aircraft carrier. Based on reporting by TASS, RIA Novosti, and Interfax The United States has told the UN Human Rights Council that a "thorough, conclusive, and transparent" investigation into what it called the "premeditated killing" of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi is "essential." It says the investigation must be "carried out in accordance with due process with results made public." The U.S. call came as several Western countries attending a UN review of Saudi Arabia's human rights record on November 5 voiced outrage about Khashoggi's killing. Some of the countries represented at the UN rights council meeting in Geneva, including Iceland and Costa Rica, went further with their criticism and demanded an international investigation. The United States quit the 47-member UN rights council in June, accusing it of bias against Israel. But Washington still had observer status at the Saudi review. Turkey says Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2 as part of a planned killing, and that his body was then dismembered and destroyed. Bandar al-Aiban, the head of the Saudi government's delegation at the UN review, told the UN review that the kingdom will prosecute those responsible for killing Khashoggi at the consulate. Aiban told the hearing that King Salman has instructed the Saudi public prosecutor to "proceed with the investigation into this case according to the applicable laws and preparation to reaching all facts and bringing all the perpetrators to justice." Meanwhile, Khashoggi's sons on November 5 demanded the return of the body of the Washington Post columnist and critic of the Saudi government, who disappeared at the consulate on October 2. All 193 UN member countries must undergo the so-called Universal Periodic Review approximately once every four years. Saudi Arabia's last review was in 2013. Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP KYIV -- Dozens of Ukrainian human rights groups and civic organizations have called for the resignation of the country's top law enforcement officials after anticorruption activist Kateryna Handzyuk succumbed to wounds suffered during an acid attack. In an open letter published by the Kyiv-based Center for Human Rights Information on November 5, 75 Ukrainian organizations said they were "outraged" by the state of the investigation into a wave of attacks against Ukraine's civic activists. Handzyuk, who was known for her scathing criticism of police corruption, was doused with sulfuric acid outside of her Kherson home on July 31. The 33-year-old activist died on November 4 in a Kyiv hospital where she was being treated for burns from the attack. Five suspects, including a law enforcement officer, have been arrested for their alleged involvement, but the mastermind of the attack remains unknown. The 75 human rights groups and civic organizations wrote in their joint letter that the attack against Handzyuk was meant to "intimidate" those who "rebel against decades of rooted corruption and organized crime." The groups demanded "the dismissal of the leadership of the Kherson police," which they said "from the very beginning sabotaged the investigation into the attack." They also called for the resignation of Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, saying they have "sabotaged reform of law enforcement agencies" in the country. The offices of Lutsenko and Avakov did not immediately respond to the letter. WATCH: Kataryna Handzyuk died six weeks after making an impassioned video from her hospital bed, in which she listed dozens of attacks on civic activists that police have failed to clear up. A Kherson city-council member and an adviser to the mayor, Handzyuk had often accused local police officers of corruption. She underwent 11 operations in Kyiv after sustaining severe burns to more than 40 percent of her body when an unknown attacker splashed sulfuric acid over her head. The exact cause of her death was not immediately known, but some reports suggested it was a blood clot. The United States, Britain, and Germany are among the countries that have condemned the attack and called for a thorough, independent investigation. President Petro Poroshenko on November 4 urged law enforcement agencies to do "everything possible" to find and punish Handzyuk's killers, while the Interior Ministry said that Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) was now handling the investigation and working on "establishing who commissioned the crime." "The death of this fearless civil-society activist must spur the Ukrainian authorities into providing a credible answer to the question on everyone's lips: who killed Kateryna Handzyuk?" Amnesty International's Ukraine director, Oksana Pokalchuk, said. "This answer will only come through an impartial, effective, and transparent investigation, the type of which we have not seen in so many cases." The attack against Handzyuk was one of the latest in a series of brutal assaults -- including shootings, stabbings, beatings, and chemical attacks -- against Ukrainian civil-society activists over the past year. There have been at least 55 such attacks since the beginning of 2017, according to the Center for Human Rights Information and journalists at the independent Ukraiynska Pravda news site. While there have been some arrests, nobody has been convicted for perpetrating or ordering the attacks, activists say. Pokalchuk said the authorities "have so far chosen to focus on a few individual cases and ignored the wider pattern and numerous specific instances, but this must now change." "These killers, potential and actual, will be stopped only by real actions, not virtual ones," reformist lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem wrote on the Novoye Vremya news site, saying the outpouring of condolences on social media wouldn't be enough. "Whether they will continue to drench us with acid, slaughter us in doorways, and shoot us in the back in our own country depends on how and what we do now," Nayyem added. His brother, Masi Nayyem, a lawyer representing Handzyuk's interests, told RFE/RL that the "very first thing" needed to bring Kateryna's killers to justice was political will. However, he said he did not expect this to happen, as the person who ordered the attack is likely a law enforcement official tied to powerful politicians. Meanwhile, National Police deputy chief Kostyantyn Bushuyev told reporters in Kyiv that he was "convinced" that the material provided to the SBU will allow the agency to find and prove the guilt of "those who hired the hitmen." A Ukrainian woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Malaysia on a drug-trafficking charge. The High Court of Malaysia found Klavdia Lopatkina guilty of trafficking more than 1.5 kilograms of cocaine and sentenced her on November 5. The 24-year-old Ukrainian was detained in December 2015 at the international airport on Malaysia's Penang Island when customs officials found cocaine in several boxes of chocolate in her possession. Lopatkina was acquitted in December 2017 after an initial trial, but prosecutors appealed the ruling. Lopatkina was pregnant at the time of her arrest and gave birth to a daughter while in custody in August 2016. Based on reporting by New Straits Times, Malaymail, and Mashable Xinhua | Nov. 04, 2018 Boeing's 737 Completion and Delivery Center in Zhoushan, a coastal city in eastern China's Zhejiang province, will deliver its first plane in 737 family in December, said Boeing China on Friday. "It is the first time that Boeing has extended the 737 production facilities overseas. The upcoming delivery also marks the first time Boeing has delivered an aircraft at an overseas site," said John Bruns, president of Boeing China. The newly-completed 737 airplane will be delivered to Air China. The Boeing Zhoushan project is made up of two parts -- a Boeing 737 completion center and the delivery center, in which the Boeing 737 aircraft will receive interior installation, painting, maintenance and delivery. Boeing and its Chinese partner Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd (COMAC) will jointly run the completion center, with the 737 delivery center being solely owned by Boeing. "We will deliver the first 737 aircraft in Zhoushan this year, and we will gradually continue the ramp-up, making annual capacity reach 100," Bruns said. Boeing and COMAC signed an agreement in October 2016 to set up the plant in Zhoushan, 287 km southeast of Shanghai. "The 737 Completion and Delivery Center in Zhoushan will only serve our Chinese customers, supporting them to expand the fleet and become more successful in the market," Bruns said. "We will stay focused to make the Zhoushan project successful, growing an aviation industrial system and enhancing the capacity of our suppliers," he added. China is of critical importance to Boeing's performance in the global commercial aircraft market. Boeing delivered a record high of 202 new aircraft to China in 2017, representing its sixth consecutive year of more than 140 deliveries to the country. Boeing's global deliveries of commercial aircraft reached 763 in 2017, with those to China making up 26 percent. China's civil aviation industry saw air passenger volume reach 552 million in 2017, a 13 percent increase year-on-year, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). By the end of 2017, there were 58 airlines in China offering services on 4,418 air routes. The country's civil aviation fleet reached 3,296 aircraft. "Boeing is greatly honored in witnessing and supporting China's aviation growth. We have been in cooperation with China for 46 years and have built a creative strategic partnership of win-win cooperation," said Bruns, adding that Boeing will continue to deepen and facilitate cooperation with China. Navy of Mexico responds to medical emergency for Marshall Islands ship Isla Mujeres, Q.R. The Ministry of the Navy of Mexico as a National Maritime Authority and acting Coast Guard reported the medical evacuation of a male person onboard a boat from the Marshall Islands. An emergency medical call was made to the naval command requesting support for a man aboard the container ship Uasc Bubiyan 11 nautical miles (20 kilometers) east of Cancun. The medical emergency was made for the ships captain who was reported suffering from vertigo. The Naval Search, Rescue and Maritime Surveillance Station of Isla Mujeres quickly deployed a vessel with naval personnel to carry out the medical evacuation. They returned with a 53-year-old male who was moved to Puerto Juarez where he was delivered to medical personnel via a private ambulance. A STUDENT is holding her second major fundraising event to help pay for a mission to Africa. Amelia-Kate Blackburn-Oliver (14) has already run a fashion show and sold bargains at car boot sales to cover the cost of a Camps International visit to Tanzania next year, where her activities will include helping to build schools, put up fences and dig wells. Now, with help from her family, the teenager (pictured) is organising a Christmas fair on Thursday at the Fitzwilliam Arms Hotel, Parkgate, from 5pm to 8pm. There will be a range of stalls selling Christmas decorations, crafts, gift boxes, pampering goodies, candles, candy floss and sweets, as well as a kids lucky dip, raffle and tombola and a doughnut van offering refreshments. Ian Thomas EX-RMBC childrens services director Ian Thomas has agreed to step down as Lewisham Council boss after seven months. The London authority had decided to take a new direction following a change of leadership at Mays elections, a spokesman said. Mr Thomas took up his 145,000 Rotherham Borough Council role in 2015 and led the childrens department turnaround after the Jay report. He departed for the capital to take up Lewishams chief executive position in March this year, with a salary of more than 175,000. The Lewisham spokesman said: With no negative reflection on Ian, it has been decided to take a new direction and following a constructive dialogue with Ian, he has agreed to step aside from his role at the end of this year. The council and the Mayor of Lewisham wish Ian well in his future career and thank him for his contribution during his time as chief executive. RMBC has since appointed Jon Stonehouse as Mr Thomas replacement. DGP Suresh Arora Spokesman News Service: Chandigarh November 5: The Punjab Police on Monday solved the Maqsudan Police Station hand-grenade blasts case of September 14 with the arrest of two college students associated with Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), a Kashmir-based terrorist outfit with reported links to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). The outfit is headed by Zakir Rashid Bhatt@ Zakir Mussa, who masterminded and guided the attacks, involving Shahid Qayoom (22) and Fazil Bashir (23), students of ST Soldier College of Engineering and Technology, Jalandhar. This is the second case of arrest of Kashmiri students linked with AGH in the state. In October, the police had arrested three Kashmiri students from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, Jalandhar. Advertisement Giving details, DGP Suresh Arora said four persons were involved in carrying out the hand-grenade blasts in the police station. They were Shahid, Fazil, Mir Ravoof Ahmed @ Rouf, and Mir Umar Ramzan @ Gazi. While Shahid and Fazil were pursuing B-Tech (Civil) 7th Semester, the other two, who are still absconding, were trained AGH terrorist operatives who flew from Srinagar to Chandigarh on September 13, with the sole purpose of carrying out these attacks. Fazil Bashir Investigations so far have revealed that AGH's recruiter Amir, of Dada Sara Tral in Kashmir, had contacted both the students when they were in Kashmir. He reportedly radicalized the students and also exhorted them to work for AGH. Shahid and Fazil were in contact with the leaders/members of the AGH outfit over different chat applications. Advertisement Giving further details, the DGP said that after reaching Chandigarh, Rouf and Gazi travelled to Jalandhar by bus where they met Shahid and Fazil around Maqsudan Chownk, located near Police Station Maqsudan. Shahid and Fazil took them to their friends PG in Surat Nagar, Maqsudan. Both Rouf and Gazi, along with Shahid and Fazil, carried out the recce of Police Station Maqsudan and others on September 13. According to the DGP the operatives earlier contemplated throwing grenades at CRPF and ITBP Camps located near Bidhipur Railway crossing, and had conducted a recce of CRPF Campus also. Shahid had borrowed a black colour HP number Pulsar bike from one of his friends to facilitate the reconnaissance operation. On September 14, at around 4.30 pm, the four conspirators took the grenades and left for the Police Station at around 5.30 pm. They sported face masks to avoid detection. They decided to meet at Jalandhar Bus stand after throwing the grenades at the Police Station. Advertisement Around 7.40 pm, they hurled four grenades at the police station and fled from the spot. After the blasts, Rouf, Gaji and Fazil reached the bus stand via DAV College, Patel Chowk, route while Shahid reached there by taking Jalandhar Byepass route. A little later, Rouf and Gazi boarded a bus for J&K from Jammu Counter and fled Jalandhar city. Shahid Qayoom The DGP further said that Faizal Bashir was arrested by Punjab Police from Awantipora in Kashmir on November 3 and Shahid Qayoom was arrested from Jalandhar on November 4. An FIR under sections 307, 427,120-B of IPC and 3, 4, 5 Explosives Act, stands registered against them in PS Div.no. 1, Jalandhar Commissionerate. Advertisement He added that further investigations were in progress and the Punjab Police was working closely with J&K Police and intelligence agencies to arrest the remaining Kashmiri terrorists and to unearthed the entire conspiracy and network built by these outfits/individuals in Punjab and J&K. Expressing concern over targetting of police stations and police officers in Punjab, the DGP appealed to the student community in the State not to fall a prey to the designs of militant elements and anti-national forces, which were out to disturb the peace and communal harmony in the border state of Punjab [SYDNEY] Overharvesting and climate change are decimating the medicinally valued Himalayan caterpillar fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis), forcing thousands of collectors in the region to look for alternate sources of income, says a new study. Known in the Tibetan language as yartsa gunbu (summer grass, winter worm), the caterpillar fungus reputation as an aphrodisiac has resulted in its overharvesting. The fungus is found only in the highlands above 4,500 metres in parts of Bhutan, China, India and Nepal regions that have seen warmer temperatures in recent decades. A species that really likes to be cold is losing its coldest temperatures Kelly Hopping, Boise State University Climate data from 1979 to 2013 show that winters have warmed significantly in Bhutan, India and Nepal, with further warming projected, says Kelly Hopping, assistant professor at Boise State University in Idaho but was a researcher at Stanford University when she worked on the study as a lead author, published last month (October) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). A species that really likes to be cold is losing its coldest temperatures, she tells SciDev.Net. Hopping says the fungus, ranked among the worlds most valuable biological commodities, has been a real lifesaver for many communities in the impoverished high-altitude Himalayas. She believes that placing restrictions on harvesting may not reverse the decline of the fungus and that continued harvesting may result in its extinction. The fungus invades caterpillars of the ghost moth in late summer while they are buried a couple of inches in the soil feeding on plant roots. The fungus slowly consumes the caterpillar from within until it emerges out of the head of the mummified caterpillar as a dark-brown stalk and out from the soil as the winter snows melt. Its supposed therapeutic benefits, including in the treatment of cancer and asthma, fetches prices up to US$ 140,000 per kilogramme making it far costlier than gold. While earlier studies of the fungus were based on surveys of collectors and traders, Hopping and her colleagues collated data into a comprehensive assessment of the entire region. They used statistical models to determine how ecological processes affect populations of the rare fungus. The models show that, more than overharvesting, the cause for diminishing parasite populations is climate change disturbing the cold dry winters of higher elevations that foster the growth of the fungus within the caterpillar. The findings give clarity to local people, and support to governments in taking the right steps to intervene, says Uttam Shreshta, environmental scientist at the University of Southern Queensland Communities are trying to find alternative sources of income, says Shrestha. Some collectors have begun to supplement their yields by harvesting other medicinal plants found in nearby areas, he says. This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Asia & Pacific desk. [LONDON, UK] Questionnaires can help to better diagnose and understand autism in countries outside North America and Europe but require care when used in different cultures, a study has found. Rosa Hoekstra, a psychiatry researcher at Kings College London, and colleagues looked at the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ)-Child questionnaire, an open access test that has been shown to effectively predict autism in the United Kingdom. It has already been translated into Japanese and two languages spoken in India. Hoekstra and her team used these tests to assess more than 1,400 children in India, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The researchers analysed which of the 50 questions was most predictive of an autism diagnosis in children with and without the condition between 4 and 9 years old. It is important to do an examination to make sure that a questionnaire works in the countries, the cultural settings and contexts that youre hoping to use it for, Rosa Hoekstra The research, published today (5 November) in Molecular Autism, found that questions that performed well in predicting autism typically did so in more than one country. Five were predictive for autism across all three countries, although four questions indicated potential cultural differences. Hoekstra said she embarked on the research to address the problem that up to 95 per cent of autism cases go undiagnosed in low- and middle-income countries. These countries need globally applicable screening instruments for research and clinical work, she said. The vast majority of autism research is done in high-income western countries, said Hoekstra. It means that we know relatively little about what autism looks like in other settings. Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that can manifest in various symptoms, including speech impairments, repetitive behaviour, and severe learning disabilities. Most cases go undiagnosed in low-income countries. Hoekstra stressed that the AQ-Child questionnaire, in which parents answer questions about their childrens behaviour, is only a medical aid and cannot lead to diagnosis by itself. Still, it could be used to screen a large number of children to identify those that need further assessment, she says. Her study showed that more than 15 questions from the AQ-Child questionnaire provided excellent diagnostic pointers in each country, a validation that Hoekstra called encouraging. It is important to do an examination to make sure that a questionnaire works in the countries, the cultural settings, and contexts that youre hoping to use it for, Hoekstra said. One such cultural difference emerged in the phrasing of a question about whether a child enjoys doing things spontaneously. In Anglophone countries, parents typically interpreted the question to refer to events without prior planning, which would upset an autistic child. But among Indian and Japanese parents, the question was viewed as referring to a child doing things of their own accord, which autistic children generally enjoy. Hemamali Perera, who studies mental health in children at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka, called the attempt to identify questions that are valid across three diverse cultural settings brave. But she said producing a universal screening questionnaire is an impossible task. Questions relating to behaviour and communication cannot be translated and retain a consistent meaning, due to the vast diversity in expression and vocabularies, she told SciDev.Net. Hoekstra agreed to an extent and said she would not use the AQ-Child questionnaire for a rural Ethiopian population, where she is currently investigating autism. Questions like Prefers to go to a birthday party than to a library are completely irrelevant because there is no library, she said. However, Hoekstra said she remained hopeful that a global diagnosis support tool for autism can still be found. I think we can make strides towards developing a measure that can be used in several settings, perhaps with some additional adaptations, she said. If we could find a way to create a sub-Saharan Africa screening scale, or if we can find a screening scale that would generally work well in middle-income country settings, then that would be quite helpful. A new study found that a majority of parents and caregivers, including firearm owners, said they were confident their children could tell a real gun apart from a toy gun. The children themselves also said they thought they could recognize the difference. But when shown side-by-side photos of actual and fake (toy) firearms, only 41 percent of children between ages 7 and 17 years old identified both correctly. The study abstract, "A Comparison of Parental Firearm Storage Patterns and Children's Access to Firearms," will be presented on Monday, Nov. 5, during the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2018 National Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Fla. "One of the most dramatic findings was how easily caregivers and children can confuse real guns with today's realistic-looking toy guns," said Kiesha Fraser Doh, MD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine Physician at Emory University School of Medicine. "Especially considering gun owners surveyed were nearly twice as likely as non-gun owners to let their children play with toy guns, safe storage of firearms in homes where children play is critical." For the study, Fraser Doh and her colleagues surveyed 297 caregiver-child pairs visiting one of three pediatric emergency departments -- 2 suburban and 1 urban -- in the southeastern United States. over a three -month period in 2017. Gun owners represented 25 percent of respondents, and they were significantly more likely to be white, have an annual income of greater than $50,000, and some college education, compared with non-gun owners. Gun owners were also more likely to allow their child to play with toy guns, (51 percent, compared with 26 percent of non-gun owners). In addition to asking about toy guns, the researchers asked all the caregivers how easily they thought their child could access a real gun. Few caregivers (5 percent, overall) felt their child could obtain a gun within 24 hours. However, results show that 14 percent of the children whose caregivers owned guns and 4 percent of children whose caregivers didn't own a gun, said they could access a gun within a day. Among the study's firearm owners, most recruited from the suburban hospitals, fewer than half (34percent) stored their gun locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). In addition, among children who reported having a gun in the home 53 percent knew where it was stored and 45 percent knew where ammunition was stored. The views expressed by political party leaders can change how individual voters feel about an issue, according to findings from a longitudinal study of voters in New Zealand. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "Partisanship is indeed a powerful force in shaping our own attitudes and preferences," says lead researcher Nicole Satherley of the University of Auckland. "Our research shows that the positions taken by political leaders and political parties can have an important impact on peoples' preferences, even on issues that are supposed to reflect personal preferences." Laboratory-based research has shown the effects that partisan cues can have on political issues, but Satherley and colleagues wanted to investigate the phenomenon in a real-world setting by measuring actual voters' attitudes on real-life issues. In 2015, New Zealand held a referendum on changing the national flag, an issue that quickly became polarized along party lines. John Key, then-New Zealand Prime Minister and leader of the centre-right National Party, advocated for changing the flag design, while, Andrew Little, then-leader of the centre-left Labour Party, opposed the change. The New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS) happened to include questions measuring voters' attitudes about changing the flag in 2013, before the referendum was introduced, and again in 2016, after it had been introduced. Satherley and colleagues capitalized on these data, examining participants' support for changing the flag ("yes," "no," or "unsure") and the degree to which participants in the study also supported or opposed the National and Labour parties. As the researchers hypothesized, the data showed that participants tended to shift their opinions to align with those of their preferred political party. Overall, 30.5% of National Party voters and 27.5% of Labour Party voters moved away from the position they originally reported in 2013 to become closer to, or consistent with, the position endorsed by their party leader. advertisement In other words, the researchers found that support for either the National Party or Labour Party predicted whether individual voters remained stable in their views or changed over time. Relative to remaining opposed to changing the existing flag design, strong supporters of the National Party were over three times as likely to shift their opinion in favor of a flag change compared with those who expressed low support for the National Party. At the same time, strong supporters of the Labour Party who originally backed the change were more likely to shift toward opposing the change compared with participants who expressed low support for the Labour Party. And strong party supporters whose opinions were already in line with the party position were less likely to shift their attitudes over time compared with participants who expressed low levels of party support. "Taken together, these findings suggest that heated debate over important, albeit seemingly non-partisan, issues can quickly become polarized along partisan lines and sway public opinion," explains Satherley. "When considering political issues, members of the public should therefore be aware of this potential influence, and carefully consider whether politicians' views and arguments truly align with their own opinions." The researchers note that the findings generate some important questions for future research. For example, what motivates party supporters to change their vote? Do they shift their opinions to align with their party leaders or is it possible they shift in order to combat the opinions of the opposing party? Future research should also explore other factors that are likely to make a difference in the strength of partisan effects, such as political awareness, the perceived importance of an issue, and the degree of polarization on an issue. "In the future, we would like to continue examining other outcomes that partisan cues impact and then identify the factors that reduce such partisan effects in real-world settings," says Satherley. Coauthors on the research include Kumar Yogeeswaran of the University of Canterbury and Danny Osborne and Chris G. Sibley of the University of Auckland. Collection of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study data analyzed in this article was supported by a grant from the Templeton Religion Trust (No. TRT0196) awarded to C. G. Sibley and a University of Auckland faculty research grant (No. 3709123) awarded to D. Osborne. N. Satherley was supported by a University of Auckland doctoral scholarship. Researchers have identified a genetic variation that may influence chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) disease severity. TMEM106B is one of the first genes to be implicated in CTE. It may partially explain why some athletes present with severe CTE symptoms while others are less affected despite similar levels of head trauma. The study provides preliminary evidence that this genetic variation might help predict which individuals are at greater risk to develop severe CTE pathology and dementia, according to the researchers. It also provides insight into the disease mechanism underlying CTE, which could aid in the development of biomarkers for diagnosis during life and in the identification of targets for treatments. Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and the VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) studied 86 former contact-sport athletes whose brains were donated to the VA-BU-CLF brain bank and found to have evidence of CTE, but no other pathology. The athlete brains were examined for genetic variation in TMEM106B, a gene thought to be involved in the brain's inflammation system. Overall, the genetic variation was not different in those with CTE compared to those without. "However, among the athletes with CTE, variation did predict increased CTE pathology and brain inflammation. Additionally, the risk allele increased the likelihood of developing dementia by 2.5 times suggesting the variant might predict an increased risk for developing the symptoms of CTE," explained first author Jonathan Cherry, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in neurology at BUSM. "These findings may help explain why some individuals experience more severe CTE related outcomes while others are spared despite similar exposure to contact sports. By better understanding why some individuals are more at risk for CTE, we can identify novel therapeutic targets to help treat all with the disease," said corresponding author Thor Stein, MD, PhD, neuropathologist at VA Boston Healthcare System and assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at BUSM. The researchers caution that it is still unclear what variation in TMEM106B means on an individual level for people at risk for CTE. Therefore, genetic testing for clinical care is not currently recommended. A chemical that highlights tumour cells has been used by surgeons to help spot and safely remove brain cancer in a trial presented at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference. The research was carried out with patients who had suspected glioma, the disease that killed Dame Tessa Jowell, and the most common form of brain cancer. Treatment usually involves surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possible, but it can be challenging for surgeons to identify all of the cancer cells while avoiding healthy brain tissue. Researchers say that using the fluorescent marker helps surgeons to distinguish the most aggressive cancer cells from other brain tissue and they hope this will ultimately improve patient survival. The research was presented by Dr Kathreena Kurian, a Reader/Associate Professor in brain tumour research at the University of Bristol and consultant neuropathologist at North Bristol NHS Trust, UK. The study was led by Colin Watts, Professor of Neurosurgery and chair of the Birmingham brain cancer programme at the University of Birmingham, UK. Dr Kurian explained: "Gliomas are difficult to treat with survival times often measured in months rather than years. Many patients are treated with surgery and the aim is to safely remove as much of the cancer as possible. Once a tumour is removed, it is passed on to a pathologist who examines the cells under a microscope to see if they are 'high-grade', fast growing cells, or 'low-grade' slower growing cells. And we can plan further treatment, such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy, based on that diagnosis. "We wanted to see if using a fluorescent marker could help surgeons objectively identify high-grade tumour cells during surgery, allowing them to remove as much cancer as possible while leaving normal brain tissue intact." The researchers used a compound called 5-aminolevulinic acid or 5-ALA, which glows pink when a light is shone on it. Previous research shows that, when consumed, 5-ALA accumulates in fast growing cancer cells and this means it can act as a fluorescent marker of high-grade cells. advertisement The study involved patients with suspected high-grade gliomas treated at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, Kings College Hospital in London or Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK. They were aged between 23 and 77 years, with an average (median) age of 59 years. Before surgery to remove their brain tumours, each patient was given a drink containing 5-ALA. Surgeons then used operating microscopes to help them look for fluorescent tissue while removing tumours from the patients' brains. The tissue they removed was sent to the pathology lab where scientists could confirm the accuracy of the surgeons' work. A total of 99 patients received the 5-ALA marker and could be assessed for signs of fluorescence. During their operations, surgeons reported seeing fluorescence in 85 patients and 81 of these were subsequently confirmed by pathologists to have high-grade disease, one was found to have low-grade disease and three could not be assessed. In the 14 patients where surgeons did not see any fluorescence, only seven tumours could be subsequently evaluated by pathology but in all these cases, low-grade disease was confirmed. Professor Watts said: "Neurosurgeons need to be able to distinguish tumour tissue from other brain tissue, especially when the tumour contains fast-growing, high-grade cancer cells. This is the first prospective trial to show the benefits of using 5-ALA to improve the accuracy of diagnosing high-grade glioma during surgery. These results show that the marker is very good at indicating the presence and location of high-grade cancer cells. advertisement "The advantage of this technique is that it may highlight more quickly high-grade disease within a tumour during neurosurgery. What this means is that more of the tumour can be removed more safely and with fewer complications, and that's better for the patient." The researchers caution that the study looked at patients who were already suspected to have high-grade tumours, and a larger study in which more patients have low-grade disease would provide more information on the use of this technique. They say that other types of markers may need to be tested for detecting low-grade glioma cells. Next steps could include testing the 5-ALA in children with brain tumours, or to help surgeons distinguish between tumour tissue and scar tissue in adult patients whose brain cancers have recurred following treatment. Professor Anthony Chalmers is Chair of NCRI's Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy Research Working Group and Chair of Clinical Oncology at the University of Glasgow, UK, and was not involved in the research. He said: "There is a desperate need for better treatments for brain tumours and to achieve that we need more high quality research in this area. "The benefit of using a fluorescent marker is that it helps neurosurgeons see more accurately where the high-grade cancer is within the brain, in real time. In treating cancer, we are trying to improve survival by tailoring treatments to each individual patient. This technique provides on-the-spot information to help surgeons tailor the operation according to the location, size and grade of the tumour. We know that patients who have near total removal of their tumour have better outcomes, so we are optimistic that, in the long term, these new data will help to increase survival times for glioma patients." Water shortages are hitting some areas of the world hard, and with increasing global temperatures, more regions may be experiencing drought conditions. Countries such as Saudi Arabia rely on desalination plants to provide drinking water to their residents, producing 5 million cubic meters of desalinated water per day. The method requires a high amount of energy, which can limit the use of the process in many parts of the world. Researchers have been working on using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind to power desalination plants, and reduce the need for traditional, fossil fuel-powered methods. Now, new research presents an untapped resource for powering desalination: geothermal energy. "We're searching the world right now for better methods, low carbon methods, to create energy," says Thomas Missimer, of Florida Gulf Coast University. "We want electricity that's generated at base load -- in other words, generated 24 hours a day without interruption. Geothermal is one of those types of energies." Missimer says geothermal provides energy in two ways: wet rock and dry rock. Wet areas, like Iceland, use the hot water from deep in the earth to provide the energy to move turbines and produce energy. But this type of geothermal heat is rare. On the other hand, dry rock geothermal potential is more wide-spread globally. Missimer suggests using these areas -- regions like southern California, North Africa, and the Red Sea region -- to heat water that can be used to produce energy. advertisement Dry rock geothermal methods are currently being used in parts of the world for energy production, but Missimer says that the heat can be used in more efficient ways, especially with desalination. Details of the new research constructing a "geothermal energy-water campus" will be presented on Monday at the 2018 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. Usually, geothermally heated water from the ground is converted to steam, that steam powers a turbine to create electricity, then the heated water is vented to the atmosphere while it's still hot -- still over 100 degrees Celcius in most cases. Instead of venting, the team wants to use that hot steam in their desalination processes. The first desalination process is multiple effect distillation (MED), which requires hot water (above 100 degrees Celsius), but the second process, adsorption desalination (AD), can be run on cooler water, says Missimer. As the steam moves through the system and cools, it is still effective for powering desalination. "Now you have an efficient system where you have conserved the latent heat that you've captured in the ground through three processes: turbine electricity generation, MED and AD." At the end of the desalination process, Missimer says that distilled water and chilled water (from the AD process) are the final products. While the distilled water can be consumed, even the chilled water is reused -- the cool water can be recycled through the plant to help with air conditioning. Lastly, the researchers propose to store excess water in aquifers for later use, which Missimer says is a future energy saver. "By storing some of that excess water, you can use that water seasonally when more water is required and sort of even out the changes in demand to the system." The benefits of a system like this are broad: there is no carbon dioxide being produced at the plant, as it is all self-contained and powered by geothermal energy, rather than fossil fuels. It also has an economic benefit. "If you look at the benefit to the place like Saudi Arabia, saving 6 million barrels of oil a day, at $100 a barrel -- that's a bloody fortune," says Missimer. Missimer says it is even more effective than a solar-powered plant, because it can be run 24 hours a day, compared to just daylight hours. He adds that the benefits really come with the efficiency of operation. "In a facility like this, if it's run properly, you're not consuming a resource," says Missimer, adding that the heat keeps flowing and is renewable. For now, the idea is theoretical and hasn't been put into practice. But Missimer adds that the individual parts of the plant and the technology have been around for a while -- it just hasn't been combined all together into one plant. "We've learned that sometimes you don't need new technology to make advances," he says. "Sometimes it's piecing together old technology in a constructive way to provide more efficient operation." He and his colleagues are hoping to put their carbon-neutral desalination ideas into practice in the near future. For more than ten years, the Borexino detector located 1,400 meters below surface of the Italian Gran Sasso massif has been exploring the interior of our Sun. During this time, the project has provided amazing insights into how the star at the center of our solar system generates its energy. The scientists involved, including physicists from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), have now published a general analysis of the data they have collated on solar neutrinos. Neutrinos can penetrate all matter almost without leaving a trace and are thus difficult to detect. As a result, they have become known as 'ghost particles'. They originate from a variety of sources, ranging from radioactive decay to astronomical objects and, in the case of solar neutrinos, from the Sun. The current paper in Nature not only describes the results of measurement of the solar neutrino spectrum but also uses this to deduce details about processes at the Sun's core, giving us an insight into the mechanism that has kept our Sun shining for billions of years. The Borexino experiment is running at the Gran Sasso subterranean laboratory, which is maintained by the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). Deep below the Earth's surface, the experimental facilities are well-shielded from cosmic rays. Thus, the experiment is able to detect the weak signal produced by solar neutrinos. Borexino was originally conceived 30 years ago and began recording data in 2007. This extensive collaborative project involves institutes from Italy, Germany, France, Poland, the USA, and Russia. Our understanding of the Sun's interior once again confirmed The project's scientific success is primarily due to the outstanding radiopurity of the experiment. At the innermost core of the facility only infinitesimal amounts of natural radioactivity are present, i.e., only one trillion times fewer atoms per gram of the elements uranium and thorium than in the surrounding rock. This extraordinary purity is crucial for precisely measuring the energy spectrum of solar neutrinos. It makes it possible to determine the rates of the fusion processes taking place inside the Sun, which are highly dependent on the temperature and elemental composition of the Sun's core. Alongside this glimpse into the conditions deep within our star, the results also provide detailed insights into the oscillation process the neutrinos undergo inside the Sun. Oscillations describe the transformation of the three different types of neutrinos into each other, a process that was only conclusively confirmed for solar neutrinos in 2001. "Borexino's findings far exceed the most optimistic predictions we made when we first started," said Gianpaolo Bellini, one of the pioneers of the INFN experiment. Professor Michael Wurm, a physicist at JGU and a Borexino partner, affirmed this: "The new results generated by Borexino impressively confirm our current understanding of fusion processes inside the Sun. Our measurements of the complete neutrino spectrum clearly demonstrate the effect solar matter has on the oscillations of the neutrinos produced at the Sun's center." While, at the lower end of the spectrum, neutrinos leave the Sun unaltered, at the upper end of the spectrum, the effect of the oscillations is intensified. The Mainz Borexino team is mainly concerned with studying the background conditions caused by cosmic muons in the detector. "These muons are the only cosmic ray particles that make it through the 1.5-kilometer-thick mountain shield above the underground laboratory," said Wurm. Reducing this background signal is crucial to detecting the solar neutrinos. The work of the group from Mainz is supported by JGU's Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions and Structure of Matter (PRISMA) Cluster of Excellence. Imagine building a machine so advanced and precise you need a supercomputer to help design it. That's exactly what scientists and engineers in Germany did when building the Wendelstein 7-X experiment. The device, funded by the German federal and state governments and the European Union, is a type of fusion device called a stellarator. The new experiment's goal is to contain a super-heated gas, called plasma, in a donut-shaped vessel using magnets that twist their way around the donut. The team completed construction of Wendelstein 7-X, the world's most advanced superconducting stellarator, in 2015 and, since then, scientists have been busy studying its performance. "The advantage of stellarators over other types of fusion machines is that the plasmas produced are extremely stable and very high densities are possible," said Dr. Novimir Pablant, a U.S. physicist from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, who works alongside a multinational team of scientists and engineers from Europe, Australia, Japan, and the United States (the U.S. collaboration is funded by the Department of Energy). Using a tool called an X-ray spectrometer, Pablant studied the light given off by the plasma to answer an important question: Did the design of Wendelstein 7-X's twisted magnetic field work? His results indicate that, indeed, the plasma temperatures and electric fields are already in the range required for peak performance. He will present his work at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference in Portland, Ore. If the scientists working on Wendelstein 7-X are successful in optimizing the machine performance, the plasma contained in the donut will become even hotter than the sun. Atoms making up the plasma will fuse together, yielding safe, clean energy to be used for power. This achievement is a major milestone as it shows that it is possible to achieve temperatures of more than 10 million degrees in high-density plasmas using only microwaves to heat the electrons in the plasma. This achievement takes us one step closer to making fusion power a reality. A fungus that does not attack wood, but preserves it. It sounds strange, but it is possible. Elke van Nieuwenhuijzen will be receiving her doctorate next Wednesday 7 November at Eindhoven University of Technology for her study of black fungi on oiled wood that behave like a 'biofinish'. This layer colors the wood and protects it from wood rot and degradation by sunlight. An additional advantage: the fungus automatically repairs damage in the protective layer. The discovery had already been made almost 20 years ago, by chance, by researcher Michael Sailer who investigated whether vegetable oil can conserve wood. He discovered that pieces of coniferous wood impregnated with linseed oil and hemp oil turned black after being exposed to wind and weather. But the discolored wood did not become soft, like rotten wood, it remained hard. The wood was possibly protected by the black layer, which the microscope showed to be fungus. Elke van Nieuwenhuijzen has now thoroughly investigated the natural fungal composition of these layers. She was supervised by, among others, mycologists from the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute in Utrecht. Outdoors, she laid planks of three types of wood (spruce, pine, ilomba), impregnated with three types of oil (olive oil, crude linseed oil, stand oil). The fungi then formed automatically and on some planks formed an opaque black layer. She did the same in Norway. Olive oil worked best in the Netherlands, producing an opaque black protective layer for all three types of wood. Crude linseed oil on pine also worked well. In Norway, the picture was broadly the same, but it took longer for the layer to fully cover the planks. Van Nieuwenhuijzen suspects that this is because of the colder climate. The effect of the protective layer partly results from the discoloration: the black layer blocks UV light, and thus prevents degradation. Van Nieuwenhuijzen also suspects that the dark pigmeneted fungi, due to their exuberant presence, do not give any chance to wood-destroying fungi. That oil repels water is probably beneficial for thedark pigmented fungi. Water then lies in droplets on the wood, which is where the fungus thrives. One of the fungi that was always found was of the genus Aureobasidium. Apparently it thrives in all kinds of climatic conditions. How the fungus survives and what it lives from is not yet entirely clear. Elke: 'It's an enigmatic fungus. It develops in many different ways. Sometimes it behaves like a yeast, sometimes it forms threads, sometimes it turns black, sometimes it doesn't, you could say it is a kind of Barbapapa.' The PhD student does not advise people to treat their outside wood with olive oil themselves. Her research concerned wood impregnated with oil, or permeated. She does expect it to work, however, if the oil is applied with a brush, but it can take months and sometimes even years before the black spots have grown together into a covering layer, especially in sheltered places. Physicists at the University of Alberta in Canada have developed a new way to build quantum memories, a method for storing delicate quantum information encoded into pulses of light. "We've developed a new way to store pulses of light -- down to the single-photon level -- in clouds of ultracold rubidium atoms, and to later retrieve them, on-demand, by shining a 'control' pulse of light," said Lindsay LeBlanc, assistant professor of physics and Canada Research Chair in Ultracold Gases for Quantum Simulation. LeBlanc conducted this research with postdoctoral fellow Erhan Saglamyurek. Quantum memories are an important component of quantum networks, serving much the same role as hard drives in today's computers. And the interest in storing quantum data efficiently and effectively is only growing, with practical applications including a quantum fibre-optic internet and other methods of secure communication. "This experiment involved taking short pulses of light, in which we could encode quantum information, storing the light in the atoms, and then retrieving the original pulse that carries the same information," explained Saglamyurek. The novel method developed by LeBlanc and Saglamyurek, which is best-suited for key applications requiring high-speed operation, also has considerably fewer technical requirements than required in common quantum storage techniques. "The amount of power needed, for example, is significantly lower than current options, and these reduced requirements make it easier to implement in other labs," added Saglamyurek. This discovery will allow for the crucial scaling up of quantum technologies, which has proven the biggest challenge to date in the emerging field. Although dairy pastoralism once made Mongolian steppe herders successful enough to conquer most of Asia and Europe, the origins of this way of life on the East Asian steppe are still unclear. Now an international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History has uncovered evidence that dairying arrived in Mongolia as early as 1300 BC through a process of cultural transmission rather than population replacement or migration. Two thousand years before the armies of Ghengis Khan, populations in Mongolia were already living a pastoralist, dairying lifestyle -- similar to that which would enable future populations to conquer most of Asia and Europe. Although pastoralism has long been the primary means of subsistence on the East Asian steppe, the origins of this tradition have been unclear. Now, an international team of researchers has uncovered the earliest direct evidence to date of dairying in Mongolia -- around 1300 BC -- by tracking milk proteins preserved in tooth tartar. The livestock that were milked -- cattle, sheep and goats -- are not native to the region and were likely introduced by Western Steppe herders. However, ancient DNA evidence from Bronze Age Mongolians indicates minimal genetic contributions from Western Steppe herders, suggesting that the livestock and dairying technologies were transferred by cultural processes rather than a major population migration, in contrast to the pattern seen in Europe. The findings are published in PNAS. Cultural and technological transfer without population replacement Researchers analyzed human remains from six sites in northern Mongolia associated with the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex (DSKC). "The DSKC is well-known for their monumental architecture, including upright stones with deer and other motifs, and large stone mounds, often associated with one or more human burials," explains co-first author Shevan Wilkin of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. "In some locations, these structures are highly conspicuous and visible from great distances." The DSKC is the earliest culture associated archaeologically with pastoralism in Mongolia, with sites containing bones of sheep, goat, cattle and horse as early as the 13th century BC. However, to date no direct observations of dairy consumption had been made in this area. The researchers conducted genome-wide analyses on 22 Bronze Age individuals, whose remains were radiocarbon dated to the late Bronze Age, ca. 1300-900 BC. Whole genome sequencing was further performed on two of these individuals. The results of these analyses showed that these Bronze Age Mongolians were genetically distinct from Western steppe herders of the same time period, indicating that the appearance of dairying in Mongolia was not the result of population migration and replacement. "These findings suggest that neighboring Western steppe herders directly or indirectly introduced dairy pastoralism to local indigenous populations primarily through a process of cultural exchange," explains Choongwon Jeong, co-first and co-senior author, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. "We don't see evidence for the kind of large-scale population replacement by Western Steppe herders that has been observed in Bronze Age Europe or in the nearby Altai-Sayan region." Analysis of dental calculus shows clear evidence of dairy consumption The researchers also analyzed the dental calculus of nine individuals using proteomics. Milk proteins were found in the calculus of seven individuals, confirming that dairy products were consumed as early as 1300 BC. Both whey and curd proteins were recovered, and could be identified as coming from sheep, goats and cattle. Interestingly, none of the individuals was lactase persistent -- genetically capable of digesting the milk sugar lactose. Most Mongolians today are also not lactase persistent, despite consuming a large proportion of their diet as dairy products. "The 3,000-year legacy of dairy pastoralism in Mongolia poses challenging questions to grand narratives of human adaptation and natural selection," explains Christina Warinner, senior author, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. "As a non-lactase persistent dairying society with a rich prehistory, Mongolia can serve as a model for understanding how other adaptations, such as cultural practices or microbiome alterations, may be involved in enabling and maintaining dairy-based cuisines around the world." The news that an all-time high of 19.7 million Californians are registered to vote thats 78.1 percent of all state residents eligible to vote, another record confirmed what we already know. This is not a typical mid-term election. No wonder, considering the intensity of whats at stake at all levels of government. National politics command the most attention, especially from Democrats who fear what lies ahead if the Republicans keep control of Congress. Political reporters Tal Kopan and Joe Garofoli show how California might fare: For starters, either San Franciscos Nancy Pelosi or Bakersfields Kevin McCarthy will likely be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. Our blue-state ballot has less suspense, at least in terms of statewide offices. But theres Proposition 8, one of those arcane disputes revenue limits for kidney dialysis centers? that makes you wonder why its on the ballot. Not that political consultants mind. The two sides have poured more than $130 million into the fray. Regionally, four of the nine seats on BARTs board of directors are up for grabs. The candidates who win on Tuesday will have plenty to deal with, from repairs that are overdue to the deteriorating social conditions in trains and on platforms. Sign up for Bay Briefing Like what you're reading? Subscribe to The Chronicle's Bay Briefing newsletter and get the Bay Area's best journalism in your inbox every weekday. See More Collapse In San Francisco, of course, theres Proposition C a measure that would double the funding for homeless services by hiking certain businesses taxes. Its opposed by Stripe and Square, who say the proposed tax increases arent fairly distributed. But not all their employees agree. Some Stripers, in fact, have gone so far as to pass out Yes on C campaign literature. Head spinning? Thank goodness for The Chronicles user-friendly voter guide. Many of you already have voted by mail. For those of you who havent, Tuesday is the day. Top of the News Terrible treatment: Mental health conditions in California prisons remain abysmal, according to a scathing 161-page report to the federal judge who oversees the prison mental health system. How bad? Consider this gruesome incident: One woman left on her own in 2017 pulled out her own eye, and then swallowed it as guards tried to intervene. Trouble in paradise: A fight is brewing at Point Reyes National Seashore: The National Park Service wants to manage the herd of tule elk so that the picturesque population doesnt grow beyond a certain number, reports Peter Fimrite. This could mean a conflict between two almost sacred Bay Area environmental concepts sustainable organic farming and native wildlife conservation. Public housing 2.0: In a city strained for housing, the opening of 256 public housing units at the Alice Griffith housing project in San Franciscos Bayview district is cause for celebration especially since 80 percent of the people moving in were living at the once-notorious project before its rebirth. Strands in a diverse fabric: Native Son columnist Carl Nolte, the descendent of Irish immigrants, focuses this week on a much different immigrant community. The regions 300,000 or so Indian Americans are about to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of light in cities like Fremont and San Ramon and in nooks like Jai Ho, a grocery on Fillmore Street where you can find 40 varieties of lentils. What the galleries dont show: Thomas Campbell, new director of the de Young and Legion of Honor, has the art training, contacts and hard-earned management experience to make a great director of our beloved museums, writes art critic Charles Desmarais. He also sounds a cautionary note: Campbell and the institutions must survive their overseer, a little-understood organization called the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Dig in: Our free-range Food staff wants to keep you fat and happy, so it has compiled an annotated list of its 18 favorite Italian restaurants in San Francisco from ostentatious to old-school, but always with pasta in the spotlight. Ill have the tagliatelle alla Bolognese. Strung-out citizens, unite: If youre in need of company on election night, City Lights wants to help. The renowned Columbus Avenue bookstore will pair political updates with readings from local writers, including The Chronicles Caille Millner. Literary journal Zyzzyva is the co-host; whatever the outcome, Im betting ennui will be in short supply. Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle 2018 The Kicker Tussles over the romantic-looking but often ramshackle houseboats moored off Sausalito are nothing new: as far back as 1959, a band of floating artists declared This is the last stand to The Chronicle. Now, the cops have placed bright orange 72-hour warning stickers where no warning stickers have ever gone before, our Steve Rubinstein found last week. As he took a pleasant voyage through the floating anchor-out community on Richardson Bay, he also found vessels in good repair, vessels in poor repair and vessels about ready to descend to Davy Jones locker. Bay Briefing is written by John King and sent to readers email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here and contact King at jking@sfchronicle.com California may be the most important state when it comes to national political fundraising, but this years U.S. Senate contest between incumbent Dianne Feinstein and fellow Democrat Kevin de Leon didnt even crack the top 10 Senate races nationwide in political spending, according to tracking by OpenSecrets.org. Feinstein raised a healthy $16.5 million for her race, compared with the paltry $1.6 million former state Senate President Pro Tem de Leon put together. In contrast, the key U.S. Senate fight in Florida between incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Gov. Rick Scott has generated $180.6 million in spending with half coming from outside political action committees. But with two Democrats running in California, neither party has spent big here. And while de Leon managed to win the Democratic partys official endorsement it came with little or no support his campaign all but fizzled in the homestretch with no money for TV advertising. On the other hand, California is very much in play in the battle for control of the House with four of the congressional races in the top 10 when it comes to spending. The most expensive is District 25, featuring incumbent Republican Steve Knight and Democratic challenger Katie Hill. Spending among the two candidates has hit $25.7 million. All told, according to OpenSecrets, federal spending has hit an all time record this midterm, with more than $5.2 billion in spending an increase of 35 percent over four years ago. Then again, Americans spent an estimated $9 billion on Halloween candy this year. I did not know that, said Brendan Quinn, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, which runs the OpenSecrets website. We dont track candy spending here. Too big to fail: The fallout from a deal gone bad to turn BART stations into mini-malls could send the entire Bay Area into a tailspin, according to the transit systems lawyers. BART is fighting a breach-of-contract suit filed by TransMart Inc. and its founder, Alexis Wong, a politically connected San Francisco housing developer. In 2008, Wong came to BART with the idea of filling its 43 stations with businesses and, in the process, create boatloads of cash for the agency. BART bit, and Wong wound up with an exclusive deal. The deal fell apart in 2016, with BART saying that Wong had failed to deliver. Wong and her attorneys, however, say the district acted in bad faith, and cost the enterprising company $95 million in lost business. In court filings BARTs lawyers are claiming TransMarts lawsuit is an attack on an indispensable component of public transportation infrastructure, and that a verdict against BART will have repercussions and consequences that will reverberate throughout the region, affecting BARTs ability to maintain, repair and improve the BART system. Which prompted this retort from Pete Hillan, a spokesman for TransMart: BARTs dilly-dallying on legal responses for more than a year only to hide behind a claim of indispensability right before trial suggests the agencys mismanagement runs deep. The trial has been set for May 20. Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle Sales job: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff looks to be breaking new ground in pressing for passage of Proposition C on Tuesdays ballot in San Francisco. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Not only has Benioff committed $7.9 million in personal and corporate money to the Yes on C drive, but hes also loaned the campaign Salesforce billboard space alongside Interstate 80. If approved by voters, the measure would add some $300 million to homeless spending by taxing the citys biggest corporations including Salesforce. Now comes word that Salesforce Tower has been hosting a phone bank for Yes on C as well, with about 30 to 40 volunteers pitching calls every day. Salesforce has donated office space, phones and laptops to the Prop. C campaign, and they have set up a phone bank in Salesforce Tower, confirmed Gina Sheibley, the companys senior vice president for communications. Sheibley said the callers staffing the bank are volunteers, not Salesforce employees. At least not employees working on company time. But try as Benioff & Co. might to get the measure over the two-thirds threshold needed to withstand a possible legal challenge, No on C campaign spokesman Jess Montejano said they are not moving the needle. Montejano said voters know that doubling the homelessness budget overnight is a poor return on investment. San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross Kelly Thompson slowly hobbled down the rusted metal steps of his camper, the clacking tips of crutches measuring each labored step. Im a mess, but Im still ticking, the retired Vietnam veteran said as we stood in the grassy field off Wood Street in West Oakland where an RV camp has sprouted. A camper on the field near Interstate 880 is where Thompson, 70, now lives. Last month, he lived in his camper a few blocks away, near 20th and Campbell streets. But then the city showed up to tow RVs, trailers and campers from that site. Thompson was lucky he moved his camper the day before. But he wasnt so lucky with his battered pickup truck. The city towed it. Recently, as he rode his bike around the city trying to get his truck back, he hit a pothole and fell, injuring a hip which explains the crutches. Just let me park in a place where I know youre not going to come get me, he said. Photos by Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle The homeless crisis in Oakland is more than people sleeping in tents in sprawling encampments. There are people sleeping in cars and recreational vehicles in West Oakland, North Oakland and East Oakland. These RV camps clog up streets in business and residential areas. Towing the vehicles is devastating for those who live in them. Why would a city that claims to care about its less fortunate residents do that? To deal with the problem of RVs parking in neighborhoods, the Oakland City Council has approved opening three parking sites that will provide up to 150 RVs with secure parking, sanitary facilities and garbage services. The city is negotiating a contract with Peralta Community College District for a fourth site. The parking sites may not open until next spring, but theyre nonetheless good news for people living in RVs and campers around the city who fear getting tickets because of expired registrations or unpaid parking tickets. They know that if the vehicle is towed theyll probably never see it again because many cant afford the fees attached to retrieving their vehicles, including unpaid tickets. Im worried about (the police) all the time, Thompson told me, slumping his body on the shoulder rests of his crutches. You know its hard to rest at night knowing that they may be knocking on your door sometime during the night like they have done to some people. He knew the police were coming on the morning of Oct. 23. Thats why he moved the camper his home for six months now the night before. He got it free on Craigslist, and its in good shape, save for the seams splitting on the roofs edges. Thompson, who has a white beard and stringy white hair, uses solar energy to power the camper. The windows are covered with reflective bubble insulation to keep it cool during the day and warm at night. For me, this is very, very comfortable, Thompson said. A small house on wheels. When the city breaks up trailer encampments, people call Thompson so he can use his pickup truck, with its multiple hitches, to help people move. That was his plan on Oct. 23, but his truck was the first vehicle towed and some people suspect that was not a coincidence. It was over, Thompson said, recalling the ensuing chaos. They towed as many (RVs and campers) as they could get their hands on. Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. People scrambled to start their RVs. Some threw their clothes and other personal stuff out windows and onto the sidewalks stuff they had no way of carrying or storing, so the artifacts of their lives stayed on the sidewalks until the city disposed of them. It cost Thompson $700 and several bike rides to city and DMV offices to get his truck. He was told that because his truck had expired tags, he had to get a moving permit. Thompson, who gets $1,195 in Social Security income the third day of every month, had to borrow to pay the fees. He had planned to buy a $400 catalytic converter for his truck this month, but hell push that back because he has to pay people back in the RV community. For three years, he had lived in a mobile home before the engine died. It had expired tags, and it was towed by the city. Before that, he lived in a minivan, parked at the highway underpass not far from where we stood in the field off Wood Street. I just need a helping hand up out of this slump I find myself in, Thompson said. Im at the age where I like to think my mind is still bright, but my body just doesnt want to do what it used to do without a lot of aggravation and pain. Thompson had a freelance electrical job later that morning so he hobbled back up the steps to get his tools, the clacking tips of crutches measuring each labored step. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Mondays and Thursdays. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr On-the-go fueling service Filld has raised $15 million from investors to help deliver gasoline to fleets and customers in five North American cities. The new investment, led by Parkland Fuel Corp. of Calgary, Alberta, brings Fillds total funding to $27 million. Parkland will help Filld expand in Canada, CEO Michael Buhr said. The Canadian market is a great opportunity for us, and while weve had discussions a lot of discussions with the oil companies in the U.S., the Canadians were far faster to move, Buhr said. The Mountain View company operates on some set routes, though customers can also leave the cap on their gas tank open and schedule a time for a Filld truck to come by and pump fuel into their vehicle. Filld calculates the average gas price in the area and lets customers know how much it will be to fill up their tank beforehand, and it charges a service fee as well. Overnight service typically costs $2.99, but if customers choose a tighter time window, it can cost up to $8. Filld is most popular among people who are time-starved, Buhr said: working parents with kids, people who need to be at work at a certain time in the morning. The average vehicle type for what we service is not what people think, Buhr said. A lot of people assume our business is more high-end its BMWs, its Audis but its not. The company currently provides only gasoline, but it has tested an electric-charging service and says it would offer it if there were to be enough demand. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle The short-term plan is to be incredibly good at fuel delivery, Buhr said, but in the longer term, the company might also expand to car maintenance services, like window cleaning or changing tires. Filld also serves fleets, and as technology moves toward autonomous vehicles, which dont have a person to fill up the tank, Filld would provide that service. The company serves fleet customers in five metropolitan areas: the Bay Area, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Washington, D.C., and Vancouver, British Columbia. It serves consumers in Washington and parts of the Bay Area, and it will add that service in Vancouver soon. San Francisco has only limited fleet service, Buhr said. Mobile fueling services have caught the attention of fire officials, who are concerned about the potential hazards of fueling in apartment-building garages and other spaces. Buhr said the company complies with local regulations. If a municipality doesnt allow fueling, they dont pursue it, he said. Whats more important to us is how regulators feel about what were doing, Buhr said. We would not go into a metro if a fire marshal or a mayors office didnt want us there. In every single metro we roll out to, we have a conversation with the fire marshals and city offices that we need to. To hear more To listen or subscribe on Apple devices: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1316784843 For other devices, search for "Startups of the Week" in your favorite podcast app. See More Collapse Filld hasnt expanded into consumer fueling in San Francisco, Buhr said. The San Francisco Fire Department has said that it is waiting for state standards before it issues permits for mobile fueling, while the state says it does not yet have a standard and local authorities can issue permits if they choose. Filld has fewer than 50 trucks and fewer than 100 employees, the majority of whom are drivers. It plans to double or triple its fueling fleet next year, Buhr said. Deal of the Week: Meetingbird What it does: Meetingbird is a scheduling tool that integrates with websites. What happened: It was acquired by Front, which allows teams to manage shared email in-boxes. Why it matters: Front will combine calendars and scheduling to its tools. The fact that the larger startup has acquired a smaller one suggests that Front is gaining momentum. Headquarters: San Francisco Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Funding: Undisclosed Employees: 1-10 Also trending: Upguard What it does: Upguard is a cybersecurity company that helps businesses uncover security risks both internally and externally. What happened: The company detected a breach in the way wireless service provider PocketiNet used Amazons Web services, TechCrunch reported. Why it matters: Upguard keeps its eyes out for even unknown risks, co-CEO Alan Sharp-Paul said. Data breaches and leaks are becoming more common and more dangerous, and Upguard actively seeks them out so companies can mitigate risk. Headquarters: Mountain View Funding: $27 million Employees: 43 Sophia Kunthara is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sophia.kunthara@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SophiaKunthara A smoky fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains continued to burn Sunday, spreading slowly through tinder-dry timber and growing to 25 acres, according to Cal Fire, while a separate vegetation fire nearby was quickly contained earlier in the day. The Rincon Fire, which ignited Saturday night near the Paradise Park neighborhood northeast of the UC Santa Cruz campus, was 30 percent contained Sunday afternoon, said Scott McLean, a Cal Fire spokesman, despite earlier reports that the fire was fully contained at 6 acres. In summer 2017, the Oakland Fire Department released its definitive report on the Dec. 2, 2016, Ghost Ship warehouse fire, describing in vivid and often harrowing detail how 36 people died after becoming trapped in the burning building during an electronic music concert. The artist space was a tinderbox, its first floor a maze of narrow passageways between makeshift rooms and walls crammed with flammable materials. A rickety stack of wooden pallets served as the only unblocked stairway to and from the second floor, where the party was being held. Many of the victims were found in clusters on both the first and second floors. Eight were found in or near a large area rug that was suspended among partially collapsed debris from the second floor. But absent from the report was a crucial detail: Though investigators located the fires origin on the first floor and noted electrical problems, they were unable to say exactly what ignited the blaze. The cause, and the final word in the report, is undetermined. So its left to the courts decide whos to blame, and now, nearly two years later, there still no legal resolution. Alameda County Sheriffs Office 2017 Criminal prosecutors say two men are responsible for the tragedy: Derick Almena and Max Harris, the warehouses master tenant and creative director, respectively. The defendants point to the buildings owner and the city, whom they say should have better policed the space. And the victims families say all the above: An ever-growing civil case is running parallel to the criminal trial, and both are scheduled to begin in 2019. Heres a look at the tragedys dueling narratives and where each case stands. Prosecutors: Alameda County prosecutors have charged Almena and Harris each with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter, which could carry life sentences if convicted by a jury. After months of promising to go to trial, Almena and Harris both pleaded no contest to all of the charges in August in exchange for reduced sentences: nine years in jail for Almena and six for Harris. But Superior Court Judge James Cramer found that Almena didnt show enough remorse for the victims and scrapped the deal for both altogether. Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2017 Prosecutors David Lim and Autrey James typically discuss procedures only during their public hearings and rarely speak about their arguments on record. But a May court filing offers perhaps the fullest picture of the prosecutions case to date. Prosecutors say Almena breached the terms of his lease by illegally allowing 15 to 25 people to live in the warehouse almost as soon as he took over in late 2013. At a meeting with residents, witnesses recalled him laughing at suggestions to make the warehouse safer, and that following building codes was way too conventional. The warehouse was zoned only for industrial use, and a change to live/work space requires automatic sprinkler systems, automated fire alarms and illuminated exit signs. In addition, the party organizers did not have required permits from the city to hold a concert at the warehouse. Prosecutors pushed back at the defendants claim that the citys lax building inspections were to blame. Under California law, parties cannot rely on a lack of enforcement, they said. In this case, at no time did Defendants have a permit to operate the warehouse either for housing or the type of event held on the night in question. Defendants: Almena and Harris attorneys have long tried to shift blame away from their clients. Brittany Hosea-Small / Special to the Chronicle They have argued that the city was negligent because it failed to inspect the warehouse annually, as state law requires. Almenas attorney, Tony Serra, said a multiplicity of police officers, firefighters, inspectors and child protective services workers saw what was there during visits to Ghost Ship and never flagged the warehouse as unsafe. Harris attorneys say their client didnt share the same responsibilities as the building owner and didnt need to know the buildings legal requirements. He was just operating as an artist, and trying to make the space as livable for himself and the other artists that lived there, said defense attorney Tyler Smith. The defense also said the buildings owner, Chor Ng, and her family share the responsibility. Harris defense attorney, Curtis Briggs, recently pointed to civil court documents that show the Ng family hired an unlicensed contractor named Ben Cannon to upgrade their tenants electrical infrastructure. Briggs said evidence pointed to electrical problems with Ngs properties beyond the warehouse. He said other tenants had complained to the Ngs about the issues. There was an ongoing effort, that none of the Ghost Ship people were even aware of, to upgrade substandard electrical infrastructure, Briggs said. As of this week, the defendants are split on how theyd like their cases to proceed. Almena is asking that his plea deal be reinstated, while Harris wants to be vindicated in trial. The trial is scheduled to begin April 2. Victims families: Running parallel to the criminal trial is a wrongful death civil case filed by families of the victims. They contend that Pacific Gas and Electric Co.,, the city of Oakland, the Ng family and several others bear responsibility for the inferno along with Almena and Harris. The families allege PG&E failed to flag or shut down dangerous electric facilities in the warehouse; that the city of Oaklands police and firefighters had seen the hazards and ignored them; and that the Ng family neglected to inspect and maintain its property. 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. All those suing for damages related to the Ghost Ship fire have been folded into one master complaint. They include 34 of the victims families, an injured survivor and former warehouse residents who lost their belongings. The plaintiffs are asking for not only monetary damages, but reforms to city policies they say could have prevented the 36 deaths. The families do want to see the city change, and to protect people who are forced to live in these kinds of conditions, said plaintiffs attorney Mary Alexander. This would include measures to identify unsafe properties, force the landlords to change them or shut them town. The families believe that what the cities should do is help the artists and musicians who are living in places like this; help them find safe and good housing, she added. Alexander is confident the case will go to trial. It is scheduled for October 2019. Civil defendants: The Ng family publicly responded to the allegations against it in recent court filings. Family members largely blamed the fire on their contractor, Cannon. They said he claimed to be a certified electrician in California, and they believed he was qualified to perform electrical work on the property. These representations were false, the court filing states. Cannon mostly pleaded the fifth during a recent deposition. Attorneys for the city say Oakland should be dismissed from the case and have argued that city liability in such a tragedy would create a dangerous precedent. An Alameda County Superior Court judge permitted some allegations last year, meaning the city could still be held liable. City attorneys have appealed to the California State Supreme Court. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy The news flash from the 122nd annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Oct. 27 to 30 in Chicago, was local: The worlds first public museum dedicated to vision and eye health is coming to San Francisco. The 3,500-square-foot museum will be a permanent part of the headquarters of the Academy on Beach Street, near Fishermans Wharf. This project, begun with a $4 million gift from ophthalmologist Stanley Truhlsen, will highlight the rich history of medical and surgical eye care, said a release, and will showcase the Academys 38,000 artifacts, books and instruments. The museum is planned for 2020. Admission will be free. Former Examiner, then Chronicle columnist Stephanie Salter says she was hiking around a reservoir in Indianapolis, wearing an ancient gray Giants hoodie. A tall, lovely young woman and her appaloosa-colored dog passed me. She smiled, then turned around and yelled, Our dogs name is Buster Posey! My husband is a big Giants fan. She looked at the dog, which she says was sweet-faced, and told the woman, He does kind of look like Buster! Were there love notes hidden in the piano? Did the paddles bear DNA samples? Sign spotted by Beth Eiselman on a walking/biking trail in Lafayette: Home sellers are seeking the buyers of PIANO and PING PONG TABLE on 8/25 garage sale. Please leave message at ... Albert Einstein, who lived before the era of Snapchat and Instagram, seems nonetheless to have been a prolific correspondent. A front-page Chronicle story by Steve Rubenstein on Oct. 25 described the sale (for $32,000) of a 1952 Einstein letter defending his theory of relativity. In New York on Dec. 4, Einsteins The God Letter is to be auctioned by Christies. In preparation for that, the letter was on public view at the Pace Gallery in Palo Alto on Oct. 25; on Friday, Nov. 2, Christies invited guests to the Battery Club for a panel discussion and to view the letter. This letter was written in 1954 to author Eric Gutkind, whod sent Einstein a copy of his book, Choose Life, described in the Christies catalog as presenting the Bible as a call to arms, and Judaism and Israel as incorruptible. Einstein agrees with the author about the need for an ideal that goes beyond self-interest, but as to his main point, he disagrees vehemently. The language of the book is inaccessible to me, he wrote to Gutkind. The word God is for me nothing but the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of venerable but still rather primitive legends. Furthermore, the unadulterated Jewish religion is, like all other religions, an incarnation of primitive superstition. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong, and in whose mentality I feel profoundly anchored, still for me does not have any different kind of dignity from all other peoples. P.S.: As to (peripherally) God and Einstein, a reader called last week to note that theres a Grace Cathedral window, one in a series about people whose contributions have changed civilization, dedicated to Einstein. (Other honorees include Frank Lloyd Wright and Robert Frost.) Elsewhere in the church are images of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber and Rabbi Joseph Asher of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco. Are these the only Jewish people depicted in the Cathedral? We wouldnt put it that way, said Lynn Aylward, since our stained glass windows heavily feature Jesus, Mary, Old Testament prophets, etc. ... all Jewish. The Womens Building in San Francisco has received a $160,000 grant for retrofitting the 108-year-old site. When it opened in 1979 as a community center run by and for women, it was the first such facility for women in the country. The grant is a Partners in Preservation: Main Street Award, financed by American Express, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Main Street America, and selected by votes. The Building, which received 96,120 votes, was in second place, behind the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colo. On the weekend beginning Friday, Nov. 9, it will be the site of artist Ragnar Kjartanssons installation Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy. (Tickets are necessary but free; register at www.eventbrite.com.) And getting ready for election day, two San Francisco State University faculty members were talking about a candidate facing a vote, as overheard by Mitch Turitz: He is the evil of two lessers. PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING I usually like what you wear, I just wouldnt wear it. But with that one, I dont like it and I wouldnt wear it. Woman to woman, overheard shopping at the Alameda Antiques Faire by Karen Mead Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, 415-777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik Californias recent history of easing democratic participation could be a rebuke to politically motivated voter suppression in other states. Unfortunately, a key initiative to expand voter registration has been carried out so carelessly as to discredit such efforts and embolden those who would restrict participation. After a series of errors culminating with some 1,500 improper voter registrations by the star-crossed Department of Motor Vehicles, the states Little Hoover Commission issued a justified call for an independent audit of the Motor Voter program, which is supposed to help eligible residents register to vote when they obtain or renew a drivers license. In large part, the legitimacy of elections depends upon faith in the electoral process, the watchdog agency noted in a recent letter to Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature. Government errors or other failures with the New Motor Voter Program may serve to shake, if not seriously undermine, such faith. True to form, the DMV is struggling with an old concept. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, signed by Bill Clinton, required most states to offer an opportunity to register to vote to those applying for a drivers license. California didnt exactly embrace the idea: It sued to overturn the law the following year, and in 2015, a coalition of advocacy groups sued the state for shirking its Motor Voter obligations, noting, California has one of the lowest levels of DMV voter registration in the country. The state appeared to be off to a promising new start under a subsequent overhaul of the program requiring automatic registration of eligible residents obtaining a drivers license unless they opt out. But problems surfaced soon after the DMV and Department of Technology rolled out the system in April. The first error, affecting 77,000 registrations, produced duplicate forms for the same voter, forcing local officials to scramble to correct them. Another, affecting 23,000, caused errors in information such as party affiliations and vote-by-mail options. Finally, last month, officials acknowledged the 1,500 mistaken registrations, including some who were not eligible to vote because they were noncitizens, younger than 18 or on parole. Secretary of State Alex Padilla, Californias chief elections official, responded by removing the registrations from the rolls and calling for additional oversight as well as an independent audit. Republican lawmakers had requested an independent audit of the DMV in August based on its difficulty complying with federal identification standards, which caused interminable lines and delays. But Brown and Democratic senators blocked the request in favor of an internal audit, which was later expanded to encompass the Motor Voter pileup. The Legislature should correct that mistake when it reconvenes in January by ordering an independent review by the state auditor. The DMV cant be steered out of its ditch without an objective examination of how it got there. 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. Kristina Barker / New York Times While many are working hard to get voters to the polls Tuesday, there is a concerted effort by others to deny citizens their most basic right the vote. Voters scored a small victory, however, on Friday when a federal court overrode Georgias exact match law, which had blocked more than 3,000 naturalized citizens from casting a ballot. Election officials were instructed to reject absentee ballots and voter applications if they determined that signatures on the paperwork didnt exactly match. Voters were neither told whether their ballots were rejected nor offered any opportunity to contest the decision. I want to share some reflections about where weve been and where we are and where were going as a city and as a region. To sketch out where weve been, I looked up what was happening in 1997, the year I started at SPUR. It was the year that: The first Harry Potter book was published. Steve Jobs returned to Apple. Bill Clinton was in his fifth year as president. Willie Brown was in his second year as mayor of San Francisco. We were on the cusp of a lot of big changes then, but the way history works, you dont always know whats right around the corner. We didnt know that same-sex marriage would soon be legal or that Burning Man would still be going 20 years later. We didnt know we were amid something that would later be called the dot-com boom, closely followed by the dot-com bust. We told ourselves, this city has always been a place of boom and bust, maybe things will go back to normal, and we went back to worrying about the future of our economy. But underneath the drama of the up-and-down of the business cycle, the economy of San Francisco and the economy of Silicon Valley were merging. The Bay Area was becoming a single integrated economic unit, and, in one of historys great ironies, this most anti-capitalist of U.S. cities would become a true center of capitalism. It soon became clear that the contrast between this growing, increasingly integrated regional economy and the hyper-localized, hyper-fragmented system for planning and governance was going to cause serious problems. Weve been the reluctant metropolis. Today, the Bay Area is the most important center of economic innovation in the world and yet this is a place that has been very ambivalent about growing. Its a place that has not been willing to add housing or transit in proportion to the jobs its added. As weve scaled up the economy, we have not scaled up the urbanism to match and that divergence is the essence of our planning problem. On the housing side, we have had a hard time welcoming new people. That is the dark side of Bay Area liberalism: We believe in immigration in theory, but in practice we are not willing to allow new buildings in our communities so that actual people have an actual place to live. Because of the choices we have made to protect neighborhood character, every person who comes here pushes out someone who was here already. The same story plays out with transit. The Bay Area has grown too big to function with so many people driving, but we have not been willing to invest in new transit at anywhere near the necessary levels. So its no mystery why housing costs so much, no mystery why its hard to get around. Those are the choices we have made. The only way out of this is to stop being the reluctant metropolis and to become the enthusiastic metropolis to move with energy and commitment to scale up the urban systems of the Bay Area. Im not saying this is our only problem, but all the other things we need to do in the domains of economic inclusion and governance and culture are going to be so much more possible if we become the enthusiastic metropolis. This is why SPUR has put so much emphasis on helping people to imagine what this future metropolis could look like: A place that will have room for the people who are here now as well as for immigrants. A place with economic opportunity for everyone, no matter where they started out. A place that is not just diverse because that is simply a fact about the Bay Area but a place that is putting its creative energy and wealth into the problem of how to build a truly inclusive society. Such a place will have: A truly great transit system, like some of us experience when we go to London or Paris or Tokyo. Roadways that offer livability, like we see in the great European cities, by making it safe to bicycle. We have taken some steps toward such a place. Over the last 20 years, SPUR has done some things of which I am quite proud: Weve worked on transit expansions. Weve gone under the hood to improve the inner workings of public agencies. Weve worked to upgrade buildings to survive earthquakes and replanned our shorelines to survive climate change. Weve promoted ballot measures in public and mediated conflicts in private. But what matters even more, weve changed the way people think. Weve helped people imagine how an urbanized region could work, how it could succeed at solving the problems we face. These days its easy to tell stories about the future that are apocalyptic, whether about climate change or about our country. Its harder to tell stories that show how things could work out the right way. But thats what we need to do: We need to be able to tell stories that show a path from where we are to where we want to be. What has motivated me during my time in this role is that I believe that San Francisco and the Bay Area have a mission within the United States. For me, the story of this region and the story of our country are very connected. The Bay Area is supposed to be: A haven for people fleeing oppression. A place of opportunity for people seeking to better their economic condition. A model that helps America rediscover the lost art of city-building. In short, the Bay Area is supposed to help America become its best self. The work we do here the work that you all will continue matters for us and for the story of our country. Gabriel Metcalf is stepping down at year end as the executive director of SPUR, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, to run the Committee for Sydney, the urban research and advocacy group in Sydney, Australia. This commentary is excerpted from his Oct. 30 farewell speech. In 2015, I marched with a migrant caravan through Mexico that was much like the migrant caravan headed toward the United States today. We marched day after day with pregnant women and babies, grandfathers and precocious teenagers. We marched in 110-degree heat. We marched without food or water, relying on the generosity of Mexicans to feed and shelter us. We usually did not have access to showers or bathrooms. We did not have bandages for the blisters on our feet, or baby formula, or tampons, or medicine. We marched onward anyway, just as todays migrant caravan does, because it was the only option. By traveling together, we found safety in numbers and were finally able to make visible the terrible conditions migrants suffer while fleeing their home countries. Gangs like the MS-13 have taken over vast swaths of Central America. These gangs are not only deadly, they place a stranglehold on life. Children cant go to school for fear of being attacked, and parents cant run the small family business for fear of being extorted. Brayan Hernandez, a 15-year-old from Honduras, had been living on the streets for the past few years. After elementary school, my family kicked me out, he said. So I had to live on the street. One day the gangs came up and shot my best friend in front of me. Thats why I left. This idea that people migrate only for economic reasons, or only for refuge overlooks a much more complicated situation. The people I walked with were both poor and in danger, but the kind of danger the U.S. government refuses to recognize. Along with gangs and drug cartels, the people I walked with did not have access to life-saving medical treatment. Many faced the danger of going hungry, like in Guatemala, which has the fourth highest level of chronic malnutrition in the world. Half of young children there are stunted because they dont have enough to eat. Or of not receiving an education, like in El Salvador, where only education through age 15 is open to all. Or the danger of living under a dictatorial regime that the United States openly supports, like in Honduras. As Mildred Mendoza, a single mother from Guatemala City traveling with her three children, told me, Ten years ago, my husband was murdered in the U.S. in a robbery gone wrong. Since then, I swore I would never set foot in the country. But now the gangs are threatening to kill my children at school, so we have to flee. (Her husband, a farmworker was attacked by two men who had broken into his house.) Cries for these people to simply fix their own country ask the impossible. The United States has covertly sabotaged campaigns for basic economic, educational and social reform in Central America for decades because it would mean that U.S. corporations operating in the region would finally have to pay their fair share of taxes. Migrant caravans are not part of a foreign invasion they are the result of one. Yet President Trump has said he will send up to 15,000 U.S. troops to stop the caravan at the border 5,000 are already on their way. He also said he plans to build tent cities at the border to incarcerate asylum seekers for indefinite periods of time rather than release them pending their court hearing. Such actions are directly against international human rights law, as well as basic human decency. We have a choice: We will either allow U.S. administrations to continue destroying Central American lives and livelihoods, or we can forge a new path and welcome our neighbors in need. Levi Vonk is a Ph.D. candidate in medical anthropology at UC Berkeley/UCSF. WASHINGTON If Democrats flip the House in Tuesdays election, the partys California congressional delegation is poised to benefit. California Democrats are in line for party leadership posts and chair positions on nearly 1 in 5 House committees. Although a divided Washington probably wont agree on much legislation, a number of Californians would nevertheless be positioned to be visible and vocal checks on the Trump administration. The prominence of California is expected to start at the top, with Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. The San Francisco congresswoman is the clear front-runner to be speaker in a Democratic House. Its extraordinarily important to push back against a president who is very anti-California, and you think about the talented delegation we have, said Steve Haro, a lobbyist and former senior staffer for California Democrats Sen. Dianne Feinstein and ex-Rep. Xavier Becerra. The influence and power theyre going to wield and the respect they have of their current colleagues will put California in a great driving position to push back against the White House and potentially get some serious legislation done, Haro said. Pelosi has said she would use control of the House to seek common ground with President Trump on areas such as immigration, infrastructure, drug prices and gun violence protection. And, she noted, it would force Trump to work with some of the Democrats he has antagonized the most. Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call 2017 Among them is Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles, whom Trump has regularly belittled on Twitter and on the campaign trail. She is in line to take over the House Financial Services Committee if Democrats gain a net of at least 23 seats on Tuesday and assume control of the lower chamber. The committee has jurisdiction over Wall Street, banking, federal monetary policy, housing, insurance and urban development. Waters and other Democratic chairs would have plum vantage points from which to call hearings, conduct investigations and exact concessions on any legislation Republicans want to pass. In a recent speech, Waters talked about being in line to be the first African American and first woman to chair the powerful financial services panel. While Waters has a track record of being able to reach across the aisle to negotiate legislation, she also signaled that she wouldnt shy away from using her post to conduct oversight and carry out party priorities. Thats all of Wall Street, thats all the insurance companies, thats all the banks, Waters said, adding that she had CEOs worried. I have not forgotten you foreclosed on our houses. I have not forgotten you undermined our communities. ... Im going to do to you what you did to us. Three other California Democrats are in line to become committee chairs should the party retake the House. Erin Schaff / New York Times Burbank Rep. Adam Schiff would be poised to run the Intelligence Committee, displacing current Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Tulare. Schiff recently authored an opinion piece in the Washington Post laying out his case that a Democratic House would check this erratic president. Given the wealth of disturbing conduct by the Trump administration, our caucus ... will need to ruthlessly prioritize the most important matters first, Schiff wrote. Schiff said he would pick up the investigation into Russian interference to boost Trump in the 2016 election, including looking into serious and credible allegations the Russians may possess financial leverage over the president. His committee would also conduct oversight of the U.S. intelligence apparatus. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc. San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren is in line to take over the House Administration Committee, giving her control over the operations of the House and federal elections. That could position Lofgren to play a major role in shaping any voting legislation Democrats pursue in response to Republican measures billed as fighting election fraud, which Democrats argue suppress voting among minorities and lower-income Americans. Riverside Rep. Mark Takano is expected to chair the House Committee on Veterans Affairs if the Democrats run the House. The panel oversees the Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans benefits. Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call 2017 The power shifts would extend throughout subcommittees. Lofgren would be in position to run the subcommittee that handles immigration policy. Palo Alto Rep. Anna Eshoo has the seniority to lead subcommittees on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which covers the tech sector. St. Helena Rep. Mike Thompson has seniority on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committees health panel. San Rafael Rep. Jared Huffman is the top Democrat on the water, power and oceans subcommittee. Other members of the states delegation are hoping to join Pelosi in the Democratic caucus leadership, including Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland. She and Rep. Linda Sanchez of Whittier (Los Angeles County) have declared their interest in the No. 4 spot in Democratic ranks, which is being vacated by New York Rep. Joe Crowley, who lost his primary. All the leadership positions are voted on within the Democratic caucus, which is expected to hold elections Nov. 28. The speakership must be ratified by a majority of representatives on the House floor as well. Haro, the former Feinstein and Becerra staffer, noted that Californians are also in line to play prominent roles on the chambers minority caucuses. Those could count upward of 100 members depending on the results of the election, which Haro called a serious voting bloc. A Democratic House would cost some California Republicans their power, of course. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield would have to settle for minority leader. That position requires a majority vote only of his Republican colleagues, though its unclear if he would face any resistance over losing the midterm election. Other demotions would include Nunes on Intelligence. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton (Orange County), is retiring, leaving open the spot atop the House Foreign Relations Committee. Tal Kopan is a San Francisco Chronicle Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter @talkopan Proposition A on the San Francisco ballot, which would allow a $425 million bond to strengthen the Embarcadero seawall, has no organized opposition. So why is the Yes on A campaign budget approaching $1.5 million? One answer: Plenty of big developers and corporations are writing big checks. The campaign has netted $1.5 million in contributions so far, according to records filed with the citys Ethics Commission, and the donors include several players with an obvious stake in the result such as the owners at Pier 39 and Waterfront Plaza, who gave a combined $55,000. Their properties are on the front line, as it were. But then there are the Golden State Warriors and Pier 70 developer Forest City, whose projects arent behind the century-old seawall but are located along the bay. Each contributed $50,000. Large checks also came in from Kilroy Realty ($50,000) and One Vassar ($90,000) developers with proposed projects several blocks inland, hardly at risk from rising bay waters. There were also $50,000 contributions from such firms as Jacobs Engineering Group, which is active on a project to rebuild Seattles seawall and might presumably be interested in similar endeavors elsewhere. Maybe the election is tighter than we know. Or maybe, just maybe, some donors are eager to show City Hall that they have the proper civic spirit. Hey, it never hurts to have friends in high places. John King Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle First, now gone: The nations first Navigation Center closed last week after helping more than 2,000 homeless people off the streets and inspiring a proliferation of similar shelters in the city and throughout the nation. The center opened in March 2015 on Mission Street, near 16th Street, under the guidance of then-homeless czar Bevan Dufty. It had the ambitious goal of drawing hard-core homeless people inside and giving them intensive counseling and services for housing, drug rehabilitation and other issues. Admission to the center was set to be low barrier, meaning street people could bring in their pets, partners and belongings, and come or go 24/7. That made the center vastly more attractive than the typical rules-laden homeless shelter. The Mission Street center drew both praise for its programs and criticism for attracting a regular crowd of street people hanging around outside, but it was always intended to be temporary. The original plan was for it to last a year before being replaced by affordable housing, but delays in the housing project let the timeline stretch on. This was the first one, very special, said Randy Quezada, a spokesman for the city Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. What we learned there led to all the others. In its three-plus years of operation, the Mission Street Navigation Center took in 2,204 people, and 68 percent of them exited homelessness, according to city figures. More than half of those people who left the streets 1,177 did so through the Homeward Bound program, which gives bus tickets to people to return home to receptive family or friends. Kevin Fagan Email: cityinsider@sfchronicle.com, jking@sfchronicle.com, kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfcityinsider, @JohnKingSFChron, @KevinChron A missing hiker from Elk Grove, Calif., was found dead at the base of a cliff in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, the Alpine County Sheriff's Office reported Sunday. Bradford Dozier, 55, was reported missing on Oct. 28, and a six-day search effort came to a tragic close when his body was discovered south of Carson Pass in Alpine County. A statement from the sheriff's office says Dozier died when when he fell about 200 feet free-climbing steep terrain on the north side of a mountain identified as "Peak 9626." If you walked into Sproul Plaza today and asked students about the Free Speech Movement, they would probably think you were looking for the Free Speech Movement Cafe, and direct you to the undergraduate library. Inside the theme cafe, wall-size photos show students involved in the first major campus political event of the 1960s. The FSM (as it came to be known) was 50 years ago this fall so we tracked down some of the faces in the photos to hear what they have to say about the events. Most of their recollections all seem to start with an on-leave grad student named Jack Weinberg being removed from a leafleting table to a police car that could not move. Jack Weinberg Age: 74. Residence: Chicago. Then: Had graduated from UC Berkeley and was pursuing graduate studies in math. Now: Semiretired activist. Advises organizations in developing countries that address issues of toxic chemicals and human exposure to it. Q: What is the one thing or event you remember the most? A: "Sitting in a police car for 32 hours, from noon on Oct. 1, 1964, until 8 p.m. on Oct. 2. I was arrested on charges of intentionally violating the ban on campus organizations to set up tables and communicate on off-campus issues. The demonstration ended with a negotiated truce and part of that truce is that I would not be charged. It took four months, but we learned that we could fight for a just cause and win." Q: What does it all mean now? A: "Rights that were won on the Berkeley campus spread to other parts of the country and free speech in America and on university campuses was deepened. There are still attacks on it, but the Free Speech Movement commemorates a victory and is a symbol that encourages people to keep defending that idea." Lynne Hollander Age: 73. Residence: Sebastopol. Then: Senior majoring in English Now: Retired librarian and widow of Mario Savio, who died in 1996 after 18 years of marriage. Q: What is the one thing or event you remember the most? A: "As I was leaving school after class I was walking through Sproul Plaza when I heard a man's voice from a balcony yelling, 'Come join us.' I decided I would not go home and do the paper I needed to do. I went into Sproul Hall. People were lined against the walls. The voice I had heard turned out to be Mario Savio. He led the discussion as to whether we would leave or stay and get arrested. ... We ended up leaving and coming back the next day at noon. That's when we set up the tables in Sproul Plaza. Then Jack was put in the police car. Somebody shouted 'sit down' and I sat down. I didn't get up for 32 hours." Q: What does it all mean now? A: "The reason this is critical now is that recently (UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas) Dirks sent a message to everybody on the Cal campus calling for civility in campus discourse. While this is a value that most people agree is desirable, it cannot be imposed by the university. The victory of the Free Speech Movement established that political advocacy, whether expressed civilly or uncivilly, is covered by the doctrine of free speech. And the university cannot, unless they abrogate that victory, make any regulations that restrict the content of political speech." Kate Coleman Age: 71. Residence: Berkeley. Then: Senior, majoring in English literature Now: Freelance journalist and nonfiction author Q: What is the one thing or event you remember the most? A: "The whole sequence of events surrounding the final sit-in on Dec. 4 in the administration building, Sproul Hall. I marched in with everybody and was on the third floor all night, sitting next to Joanie Baez. She and I were slathering peanut butter on bread for the minions. We got to be buddies. Sometime during the night, several people broke into locked offices and started rifling through the files. They found evidence of university cooperation with California agribusiness. We were being shut down for organizing on campus for off-campus issues, and here came evidence, with dirty hands, of the university involvement with big agriculture. They were secretly doing what they were telling us we could not do." Q: What does it all mean now? A: "It liberalized college rules that were ridiculously paternalistic. The administration was puritanical. They treated us like children and in the years after the Free Speech Movement we won the right to speak and act on campus about issues that concern us. But the nanny state is still operative in protecting the feelings of every individual on campus. Students don't really have free speech because everyone is supposed to be nice." -- Online extras: Read more interviews and see a video of recollections at www.sfchronicle.com. A fire in the Santa Cruz mountains that was spewing heavy smoke throughout the area forced the California Highway Patrol to close Highway 9 in all directions Monday, authorities said. The Rincon fire was about 30 percent contained and spanned 17 acres near the Paradise Park neighborhood as of Monday morning, Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean said. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has found another tech giant to battle over the future of San Francisco's Proposition C. Benioff and Zynga founder Mark Pincus sparred on Twitter over the controversial proposal to fight homelessness in San Francisco. When Pincus blasted the bill that would increase the taxes of big businesses to raise money for homeless services, Benioff questioned the tech giant's personal and financial commitment to solving the problem. Pincus started off, "Prop c is the dumbest, least thought out prop ever. Please get the facts and vote no. Then lets all focus on real solutions for sf." Benioff, one of the city's most outspoken supporters of the proposition, responded, "Mark what's your plan & what's your contribution to helping our homeless? Tell us in detail what @zynga is doing for them now at scale & what your plan is? The homeless have been left behind by You & the other 70 SF billionaires. Yes on C. Big business like mine pay, you don't." The two continued to go back and forth, firing off multiple tweets; at one point, Benioff invited Pincus to give him a call so he could explain the details of the proposition. (You can view all the tweets in the gallery above.) ALSO: Benioff on Bay Area's 70 billionaires: 'You're either for kids and homeless, or you're for yourself' Also known as the "Our City, Our Home" initiative, Prop. C would impose an additional gross receipts tax of about 0.5 percent on corporate revenue above $50 million. A report by the city's Office of Economic Analysis concluded that 300 to 400 of the largest businesses in San Francisco would pay the tax. The bill, appearing on Tuesday's ballot, would raise up to $300 million, doubling the amount the city already spends on programs for the homeless. In October, Mayor London Breed took a stand against the ballot initiative, saying it lacks fiscal oversight and accountability for the money it draws annually from businesses. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Assemblymember David Chiu, D-San Francisco, also oppose the bill. Several other elected officials support of the proposition, including U.S. House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi; Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo; Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco; Public Defender Jeff Adachi and Supervisors Vallie Brown, Sandra Lee Fewer, Jane Kim, Aaron Peskin, Hillary Ronen, Norman Yee and Rafael Mandelman. Benioff has spent about $8 million in personal and company funds on the Yes on C campaign. Last month, he and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey locked horns on Twitter over the proposition with Dorsey voicing his opposition. MORE: Prop. C would raise SF's gross receipts tax. Here's what that means "I want to help fix the homeless problem in SF and California. I don't believe this (Prop C) is the best way to do it," Dorsey, who is also the head of Square, said, adding he supported Mayor Breed and California state Sen. Scott Wiener's "commitment to address this the right way." "Mayor Breed was elected to fix this," Dorsey added. "I trust her." Benioff responded: "Hi Jack. Thanks for the feedback. Which homeless programs in our city are you supporting?" The exchange grew contentious, but Benioff later told the San Francisco Chronicle he and Dorsey are good friends. We went out and talked to people living on the street and asked them: "Is San Francisco a friendly city to the homeless?" Most everyone recognized the services the city and nonprofits provide, offering food, shelter, drug rehabilitation, job counseling, and even haircuts. These, they agreed, make the city a friendlier place and they appreciate the generosity. They said while these services help improve their lives, they don't solve their biggest problem the lack of a permanent home. "I need housing," said Angela Kellum, 57, who has been living on the streets for 10 years since her husband passed away. "It would give me a foundation so I could move myself up. I'd be comfortable and safe. I could be clean. If I got a place, I could stop drinking because I could sleep. The reason I drink is because I have to sleep on the sidewalk at night." Many people also talked about a lack of compassion among the "housed people" and say the people who ignore them and look down upon them make San Francisco an unfriendly place. "Is San Francisco a friendly city to the homeless?" Most people see San Francisco as being both "friendly" and "unfriendly" to the people living on the streets. The city's friendly side always has to do with the services. "I think they have more services than any city I've been to. But the people could be more tolerant. People always scoot you away. There aren't many places we can use the restroom. There's no place you can really rest your head. Showers are hard to come by. There's no place to keep your things. Everything gets stolen. I had my tent stolen, numerous clothes and shoes." Raymond, 54, living on the street one year, became homeless after a divorce, hometown San Francisco "Yes and no. There are a lot of places where they don't let you sleep on the street, but we have a lot of resources for food." Juan, 58, living on the streets for 20 years, became homeless after the death of a son, hometown San Francisco "Yes and no. The yes is the services. The no is the cops who hassle you." Wes, 62, living on the street for two years, has the option to live with family but chooses the street, hometown San Francisco Many talked about the "housed people" who pass by on the sidewalks, see them as invisible and look down upon them. "Most people won't even make eye contact with you. They think you're a junkie or a criminal. People need to have more compassion for those who didn't have the same advantages." James, 34, living on streets for 15 years, hometown Burlingame, recently processed into sober living housing "There's a lack of deep compassion. It's almost scary." Alexis, 33, hometown San Francisco, living on streets for about a year, heroine addict, attended Pepperdine University "The city has become numb to the homeless and don't see them as people in need. They see them as a discomfort to their way of life." Dwayne, 59, living on the streets six years, hometown Oakland-San Francisco "No. The people here are greedy. It's just that it's uncomfortable because they have so much more than us. They're from a different era. We were raised with morals and compassion. But the city does give us something. There are services." Angela Kellum, 10 years living on the street, hometown Florida, lived in SF since 2005, became homeless after her husband died of lung cancer, fighting an alcohol addiction "When you're homeless, people look at you as a derelict. They think you're good-for-nothing. Yes, someone has to step up. The person who is homeless should be doing 75 percent. The community needs to help that's the 25 percent." Robert Alexander, 64, living on the streets for 16 years, hometown St. Louis, recently moved into an SRO hotel A handful of people felt San Francisco is undoubtedly the "friendliest" place to be in the country if you're living on the street. "Yes. They try to accommodate you best they can." Danny, 60, living on the streets for eight years, hometown San Francisco "Absolutely. This is God's city. I just came and what I see, I thank God for. This is my seventh month in San Francisco. I came from Alabama. I left because my father passed, and I came here for the services. California does a lot of things here that other places are not doing, like SRO hotels. San Francisco allows things that aren't allowed in other places, like sleeping in a tent. I have a tent, and I can shower at 24 Hour Fitness." Rickey, 58, living on the street for 30 years, hometown Ozark, Ala. "Yes. Because [the city] has a lot of places that feed people. They help you here. They give you love. I wouldn't trade it for nothing in the world." Annette, 59, living in shelters and on the streets for five years, hometown East Palo Alto One person felt the city could be "friendlier" by doing more to offset the high cost of housing for those with low-incomes. "It's very hard for someone who's not making over $60,000 a year to survive in San Francisco. [The city] is not providing enough resources for a person who is at an economic low level to succumb to the cost of living. There's no advocation for you to overcome these things hindering you from moving into a home." Dwayne, 59, living on the streets six years, hometown Oakland/San Francisco, formerly in the U.S. Marine Corps. A few people find it hard to call the city "friendly," as they're constantly being robbed while living on the street, by both people who are homeless and people who are housed. "When you're out here on the street, there a lot of people who will rob you and they're not even homeless." Shondi, 45, living on the street two years, hometown Arizona, lived in SF since 1995, formerly had a job and lived in Pacific Heights "People steal all day long. One of our largest hassles." Wizdom Williams, 53, living on the street one year, lived in Barbados, West Africa and France before his family moved to San Francisco when he was in high school One man who only recently became homeless after a skateboard accident and the deaths of multiple family members says he finds the people hiring in San Francisco are unfriendly to homeless people. "Once you're homeless, they give you a stink when you're looking for a job. When you apply, don't tell them you're homeless." Elliott, 49, newly homeless, hometown San Francisco, living in his van after a skateboard accident This man who is in a wheelchair due to a lung disease making it difficult to breathe says he finds the cleaning of the sidewalks "unfriendly" at least it's a huge inconvenience if the sidewalk is your bed. "They spray the street too frequently, and then we got to move out of the way. I have COPD, pulmonary disease. It's hard to move because I have trouble breathing. They're always moving us around. We're like part of a chess set." Michael Goodman, 69, living on the street for three years, born and raised in S.F., worked for Howard Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles This man can't think of anywhere else to go. A native, San Francisco is all he knows. "I don't know that it's better than anywhere else." Keith, 48, living on the street off and on for 17 years, recently evicted, hometown San Francisco, became homeless after car accident that put him in a coma and led to opiate addiction *** Living on the streets in San Francisco: A new series on SFGATE Invisible to many who walk by them, more than 7,000 people live in San Francisco without permanent housing. Each of these people face daily struggles living on the street, working jobs while living in a tent or shelter, fighting addiction and mental illness, finding places to shower, and always figuring out where to sleep that night. Their lives are mind-bogglingly difficult, but how how did they get there? Where did things go wrong? For a new series on SFGATE, we're talking with some of these individuals, both men and women of all ages and all walks of life, about their experiences surviving the streets. We hope you'll have ideas for more questions we can ask and you can email those to agraff@sfgate.com. Read more in the series: We've also asked people these questions: What's the best thing that happened to you last week? How did you become homeless? With 35 Senate and 435 House seats up for grabs on Nov. 5, the balance of power in Congress is very much in flux as we enter the final hours of midterms voting. Beyond Congress, 36 states are holding gubernatorial elections. Keep up with the latest election coverage from the Washington Post's special live stream at the top of the page. 3 1 of 3 Jean Pieri / St. Paul Pioneer Press Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Jean Pieri / Associated Press Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Kevyn Perkins stopped cold when he saw the letters scrawled on the door to his dorm: N go back it said, inked in red marker. First he was blinded by confusion. Then rage. And then all he could think about was dropping out, finding a new school, escaping for good. I thought maybe I dont belong here. So I called my brother, and I said, Pick me up, said Perkins, 19, a freshman at the University of St. Thomas, a private and mostly white school in St. Paul, Minn. He said, Thats what they want you to do you have to stay there and stay strong. NORTH OGDEN, Utah The call had come again. Brent Taylor, the mayor of North Ogden and a major in the Utah National Guard, would be going to Afghanistan for his fourth deployment. He told his constituents about it on Facebook in January, explaining that he had been called to serve his country whenever and however I can and that he would be gone for a year, as part of a team helping to train an Afghan army commando battalion. Service is really what leadership is all about, he told them. He said goodbye to his wife, Jennie, and their seven children, and turned over his municipal duties to his friend Brent Chugg. You need to keep safe, Chugg told him. I will, Taylor replied. He did not make it home. Taylor, 39, was killed Saturday in an insider attack, apparently by one of the people he was there to help. News of Taylors death was soon all over Utah, relayed in expressions of remorse by politicians and civic leaders. In a nation riven with anxiety over a heated midterm election, a mass shooting at a synagogue and high-profile bomb scares, Taylors death and the wounding of another service member in the same attack sent up a fresh wave of grief. It was a brutal reminder of a 17-year-old war that has carved gaping holes in communities across the country, with no end in sight. His death hit particularly hard in Utah, where the Mormon faith binds many of its 3 million residents in a way that is rare for the modern era. On Saturday, when Chugg arrived at Jennie Taylors home, they embraced and she began to sob. We are overwhelmed with heartache, but not regret, Jennie Taylors sister, Kristy Pack, said Sunday, standing outside the modest brick house. Even though Taylor died in a suspected insider attack, Pack said, in our view there is not a whole lot of room for anger. Jennie Taylor now faces the task of raising the couples children: Megan, 13; Lincoln, 11; Alex, 9; Jacob 7; Ellie, 5; Jonathan, 2; and Caroline, 11 months. At a news conference at the Utah National Guard headquarters outside Salt Lake City, Gov. Gary Herbert said he knew Brent Taylor personally, calling him the personification of love of God, family and country. Taylor, who grew up in Arizona, enlisted in the military after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. So did his five brothers. Before his last tour, he had served twice in Iraq and once in Afghanistan. He joined the City Council in 2009, was chosen as mayor in 2013 and was re-elected in 2017, building a reputation as a hands-on leader, someone who would be seen in the streets before dawn to direct snow plows on stormy days. When Taylor left North Ogden in January, hundreds of residents lined the street to see him off, and police gave him an escort. Julie Turkewitz is a New York Times writer. NORTH OGDEN, Utah The Utah mayor fatally shot in an insider attack in Afghanistan was targeted by one of his trainees, officials said Sunday. Brent Taylor, 39, a Utah Army National Guard major, had taken a yearlong leave of absence as mayor of North Ogden for his deployment to Afghanistan. Taylor was a military intelligence officer with Joint Force Headquarters and was expected to return to his mayoral job in January. Another U.S. military member whose name was not immediately made public was wounded in Saturdays attack that killed Taylor, who died from wounds from small arms fire, military officials said. Maj. Gen. Jefferson Burton, the adjutant general of the Utah National Guard, said Taylors mission was to help train and build the capacity of the Afghan national army. He was with folks he was helping and training. Thats whats so painful about this. Its bitter, Burton said. I do believe that Maj. Taylor felt he was among friends, with people he was working with. Utah media outlets cited a statement from NATO saying that Taylor was shot by one of the commandos being trained and that the attacker was killed by Afghan forces. Taylor leaves behind a wife and seven children. His remains are scheduled to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday evening. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Taylor was there to help. He was a leader. He loved the people of Afghanistan. ... This is a sad day for Utah, for America. Taylor served two tours in Iraq and was on his second tour in Afghanistan. False stories, misleading ads and suspicious mailers are an unfortunate feature of most modern political campaigns. But there is another type of misinformation to worry about Tuesday: the type that strikes on Election Day, requiring voters to wade through rumors, hoaxes and misleading information on their way to the polls. We break down six of the most common types of Election Day misinformation, as well as some tips for spotting and avoiding it. Polling Place Hoaxes In 2016, several false rumors cropped up around behavior at polling stations. One false rumor, which spread primarily on Twitter and right-wing blogs, claimed that poll workers in Nevada were wearing Defeat Trump shirts, despite being forbidden by election law from wearing partisan apparel. The photo, it turned out, was actually taken at a union event days earlier. Another false rumor in 2016 used doctored photos to claim that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were arresting voters at the polls. The rumor, which was accompanied by threatening language, was meant to intimidate Latino voters. ICE has addressed similar rumors spreading ahead of Tuesdays election by clarifying that immigration officials will not be patrolling polling stations. Remote Voting Options In 2016, false information circulated on social media including some that was spread by Russia-linked accounts that told voters they could cast their ballots by text message, email or over the internet. These rumors may circulate again in 2018, and again, they will be false. Except for certain overseas absentee voters who qualify under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, no state allows ballot submission over the internet, and no state offers a vote-by-text option. Suspicious Texts Text messages are the breakout technology of the 2018 campaign, and many campaigns have been using peer-to-peer texting apps to encourage voters to turn out Tuesday. If you are on a campaign or party committees voter list, you may receive legitimate text messages on Tuesday encouraging you to vote, offering you a ride to the polls, or telling you where your polling place is. But beware any text messages that tell you that voting hours or locations have changed, that new forms of voter ID are required, or that your voter registration is not valid. Voters across Indiana who filed absentee ballots last month have been receiving text messages purporting to be from President Donald Trump and claiming their votes have not been registered. The texts included a link to a Republican National Committee website that asks users to enter their names, addresses and phone numbers and then provides information about their polling locations. This is President Trump, read one message received by a voter in Elkhart County, Indiana, who had voted by absentee ballot. Your early vote has NOT been RECORDED on Indianas roster. Voters in Georgia, Kansas and Michigan have reported receiving similar messages from President Trump. Voters have also reported receiving texts from Democratic organizations, telling them that their absentee ballots have not been returned. Voting Machine Malfunction Rumors Reports of broken, rigged or technically compromised voting machines are common on Election Day. You may even see videos of malfunctioning voting machines going viral on social media. Unless you have rock-solid evidence that the claims are true, its usually best to be skeptical. On Election Day in 2016, a Pennsylvania woman posted a viral Twitter video that claimed that her voting machine was not allowing her to vote for Donald Trump. The video was shared thousands of times online, and set off fears of a rigged election. But it turned out to be user error, as ProPublica reported. Trump also spread voting machine-related misinformation on Election Day, falsely citing reports about isolated problems with voting machines in one Utah county as evidence that problems were being reported across the entire country. There may also be accurate reports of troubles with voting machines. Several weeks ago, Texas election commissioner issued an advisory after some voters reported a problem with the states electronic voting machines. The machines switched the votes of some people who had selected a straight-party ticket but had also pushed another button on the machine before the screen had finished rendering. In the Texas case, only a handful of complaints were received, and all of the complaining voters were able to recast their votes, according to The Washington Post. The best thing to do, in any case, is to take extra precautions. In states that issue a paper record of electronically submitted votes, check the paper record to make sure that your choices are accurately reflected. And in the five states that provide no paper trail of votes Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, New Jersey and Delaware double- or triple-check your choices before submitting them. If you believe your voting machine is malfunctioning, notify a poll worker. Misleading Photos and Videos The 2016 election gave rise to an influx of doctored and mislabeled photos, and this years Election Day could be a repeat. Voters could be shown photos of long lines at polling places to discourage them from voting, or could be shown manipulated videos of malfunctioning voting machines. (This happened in Brazil last month, when a doctored video showing a voting machine automatically casting votes for a left-leaning candidate went viral on social media.) Social networks have tried to combat the spread of false and misleading information about voting. Facebook set up a war room to coordinate responses to suspicious activity on Election Day, and has set up a channel where state election officials can send the company examples of voting-related misinformation they find, according to The Washington Post. Twitter has teamed with state election officials and built a portal to handle reports of voting-related disinformation on Election Day, The Post reported. Still, its likely that someone will try to mislead voters through manipulated photos or videos on Election Day, so its best to be prepared to give extra scrutiny to everything you see. False Voter Fraud Allegations During the 2016 election, Trump claimed without evidence that widespread voter fraud would occur. After he won the presidency but lost the popular vote, he claimed, again without proof, that millions of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally had cast ballots. In the real world, voter fraud is exceedingly rare, but you can expect rumors to fly on Election Day anyway. In Brazil, which held its presidential election last month, viral rumors and hoaxes on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp claimed to show evidence of widespread voter fraud. These hoaxes are often meant to undermine an elections integrity and delegitimize the winners. Unless you witness indisputable evidence of voter fraud, its best to ignore these claims. Tips for Checking Misinformation, and What to Do if You Spot Some Your job on Tuesday is not to debunk misinformation, its to vote! Still, there are things you can do to quickly check the authenticity of any information you find. Whenever possible, its best to rely on official government websites for voting-related information. (Look for the .gov at the end of the website address.) The New York Times published a guide to figuring out how, where and when to vote Tuesday. There are also several sites, including Vote411 and BallotReady, that provide independent and nonpartisan voter information. Before sharing a viral story on Election Day that looks suspicious, check a fact-checking website such as Snopes or FactCheck.org first, to see if it has been debunked. If it is a photo, try doing a reverse image search using a website like TinEye to see if the photo is old or mislabeled, or if it has been manipulated. If you witness voter intimidation, you can tell a poll worker, or report it via the Election Protection Hotline, which is administered by the nonpartisan group Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (in Spanish). You can also report it to the Justice Departments voting rights hotline: 1-800-253-3931. And if you do find misinformation online that has the potential to mislead voters, you can take it directly to social media platforms through their reporting tools, or send it to The New York Times. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Pastor Ji-Il Bang, the oldest and one of Koreas most well-known pastors, passed away of old age on Friday morning at age 103. He was located at Korea University Anam Hospital at the time of his death. His funeral took place at Severance Hospital, located in Sinchon, and his burial service will be on October 14 at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Korea. Pastor Bang served as the senior pastor at Yeongdeungpo Church, and those who had been close to him from his church said that he had been unable to eat or go anywhere outside of his home for four months due to his weak body. However, he had shown signs of recovery and had even recently spoken at several seminars. Though he moved around in a wheelchair, he had always insisted that he remain standing while speaking to an audience. On the day of his passing, he was taken to the hospital when he suddenly lost consciousness. He passed away after nine hours of hospitalization. There has been a tendency of not only the Korean church, but churches all over the world, to lose sight of the gospel and focus too much on programs and events, Pastor Bang said recently. Jesus came to this earth to die. And he rose again from the grave. And he will come again. We must remember this gospel. Pastor Bang was born in 1911 as a pastors son in Sincheon, located in Pyongando Province, which is now a part of North Korea. While studying at Pyongyang Seminary, Pastor Bang was also involved in the great spiritual revival that occurred in Pyongyang at the time. After graduating from seminary, he lived as a missionary in China for 21 years. After returning to Korea in 1958, he has been serving as the senior pastor at Yeongdeungpo Church in Seoul, South Korea, during which time he became well-known in the Korean church sphere and was the president of various Korean church councils and associations. He also wrote several books during his lifetime, even as recently as 2011. A motorcyclist died in a collision with a vehicle in San Francisco's Chinatown neighborhood this morning, a police spokesman said. The collision was reported at 5:57 a.m. in the area of Broadway and Stockton Street, San Francisco police spokesman Officer Robert Rueca said. The motorcyclist was taken to a hospital and has since passed away, Rueca said. The identity of the motorcyclist has not been released. The driver of the other vehicle involved in the collision stayed at the scene and is cooperating with investigators, according to Rueca. Traffic remained closed in the area as of 9 a.m. while investigators process the scene. The cause of the crash is under investigation, Rueca said. A man who died in a solo-vehicle crash in East Oakland last week was identified by the Alameda County coroner's bureau today as 32-year-old Kelvin Govan of Oakland, who had a history of driving violations. Oakland police said Govan was driving a Saturn Vue SUV in the 1000 block of 98th Avenue at about 10:35 p.m. last Tuesday when the vehicle left the roadway and slammed into a tree. Govan was pronounced dead at the scene and the cause of the crash has not been determined. On Dec. 10, 2015, Govan was sentenced to five years' probation for his felony evading police conviction for an incident on Oct. 8, 2015, in which he sped away from San Leandro police who were looking for armed robbery suspects and crashed his car in Oakland, leaving his injured 6-year-old daughter in the wrecked vehicle while he fled on foot. A 20-year-old man was shot while driving in San Francisco's Mission District on Sunday afternoon, police said today. The shooting was reported at 12:17 p.m. in the area of 16th Street and South Van Ness Avenue. The victim was driving along South Van Ness when he was struck by gunfire. He drove to a hospital to be treated for his injuries, which are not life-threatening, according to police. No arrest has been made in the shooting and no suspect information was immediately released by police. Five people suffered major injuries in a head-on crash in unincorporated Napa County Friday afternoon, according to the California Highway Patrol. Christina Cheever, 43, of Encino, was driving a 2018 Ford west on state Highway 128 east of Chiles Pope Valley Road near Lake Hennessey around 1 p.m. when she crossed double yellow lines and collided with an eastbound 2014 Honda, CHP officials said. Cheever and two passengers from Southern California in her vehicle were taken to Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, and a 41-year-old Sacramento woman who was driving the Honda was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to the CHP. A 42-year-old Sacramento man in the Honda was taken to Queen of the Valley Medical Center, CHP officials said. All of the injured were still in the hospital as of Sunday afternoon, CHP Sgt. William Bradshaw said this morning. A 37-year-old man suffered life-threatening injuries late Saturday night in a vehicle collision near San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood. The collision occurred around 11 p.m. at the corner of Van Ness Avenue and California Street, according to police. The victim was taken to a hospital for his injuries. A 50-year-old man was also involved in the crash but police did not say whether he was arrested. Further details about the collision were not immediately available. A 33-year-old Discovery Bay woman has been arrested on suspicion of felony driving under the influence after allegedly causing two separate crashes on state Highway 4 in eastern Contra Costa County on Sunday evening, according to the California Highway Patrol. Meagan Kathleen Campbell was arrested after CHP officers learned at 5:12 p.m. of a crash involving a white Subaru and a motorcyclist on eastbound Highway 4 just east of Byron Highway, CHP officials said. The Subaru driver, later identified as Campbell, allegedly tried to flee but then collided head-on with a Saturn sedan about 500 feet east of the initial crash, according to the CHP. The motorcyclist was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and five people in the Saturn were also hospitalized with injuries ranging from moderate to major, CHP officials said. Campbell suffered minor injuries and was detained by officers at the scene. A 36-year-old man was arrested for allegedly trying to kidnap a woman from her workplace in Redwood City on Thursday, police said today. Santos Estrada allegedly physically removed the victim from her place of employment and tried to put her in his vehicle while threatening to kill her and taking her cellphone, according to police. The victim was able to break free and call 911. Estrada fled and the victim told officers he had been married to her for 13 years and they have two children together, but she currently has a restraining order against him, police said. Police later located Estrada at his home and he had the victim's cellphone in his possession. He was booked into county jail on suspicion of kidnapping, robbery, criminal threats, spousal battery and violation of a criminal protective order. Lowe's Home Improvement stores in San Jose and South San Francisco with under-performing sales are among 51 in the U.S. and Canada that will close in the coming months, company officials announced today. The stores at 750 Newhall Drive in San Jose and 720 Dubuque Ave. in South San Francisco are among four in California and 20 nationwide that will close by Feb. 1. There are also 31 in Canada that will close, according to the company. Employees at the stores will be provided opportunities to transition to similar roles at another Lowe's store nearby. Company officials said the majority of the impacted stores are within 10 miles of another Lowe's store. Contra Costa County is providing a drive-thru option in Martinez for voters who want to drop off their vote-by-mail ballots today or Tuesday. Ballots can be dropped off between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. today and 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesday outside of the county elections offices at 555 Escobar St. Drivers will not have to get out of their car or find a parking spot, and election staff will provide "I Voted" stickers to people turning in their ballots, county officials said. A second drive-thru location will also be available on Election Day in the Rossmoor area. That location at 1001 Golden Rain Drive will also be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. People can also drop off their ballots at 23 drop-off box locations around the county, including one available 24 hours a day outside of the County Administration building at 651 Pine St., Martinez. The city of Mountain View and Google will be hosting a meeting this evening to discuss details of their partnership to help address climate change, according to city officials. The city said that its work with the tech giant using its civic leadership program has streamlined the greenhouse gas inventory process. City officials said that has led to a better understanding of how to address strengths and weaknesses in the sustainability process. The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at the council chambers at 500 Castro St., second floor in Mountain View. Starting today, San Mateo County Superior Court is restoring its previously shortened counter and phone hours for serving the public. Presiding Judge Susan Etezadi said the restoration is due to the addition of significant funding in the state budget for trial courts to restore and enhance court services. "Although cutting back hours was a financial necessity nearly six years ago, with the new funding, we are truly pleased to be able to expand our access to the public we serve," Etezadi said in a statement. The new hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday for the court clerk's office public service counter and telephone hours and for the Records Division counter in Redwood City. The criminal and traffic clerks' offices are now open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through 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. The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management is asking the public to avoid the intersection of Powell and Vallejo streets in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood this afternoon. Police activity is occurring at the intersection, SFDEM officials said on Twitter around 1:05 p.m. Further information was not immediately available. ALSO: 1 dead, 2 injured in rehab center shooting near San Rafael SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) Three people were injured in San Francisco in three separate shootings over the weekend, according to police. The first case occurred just before 1 a.m. Saturday in the city's Mission District in the 1200 block of York Street. According to police, a 19-year-old man was running home when an assailant shot him. The victim was taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening. Officers were unable to locate any suspects and no arrest has been made as of this morning. The second shooting happened at about 2:40 a.m. Sunday in the 200 block of Plymouth Avenue, police said. Prior to the shooting, the 44-year-old victim had met up with two suspects, a woman and a man. When the male suspect brandished a gun, the victim began to run away. The male suspect shot the victim and the two suspects then fled the scene, according to police. The victim was taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening. Officers were unable to locate the suspects and no arrests have been made. In a third shooting, also in the city's Mission District, gunfire struck a 20-year-old man Sunday afternoon as he was driving. According to police, the victim was driving along South Van Ness Avenue at 16th Street around 12:15 p.m. when the shooting occurred. The victim was able to drive himself to a hospital for treatment of his injuries, which are not life-threatening, police said. No arrest has been made in the shooting and police did not release any suspect information. Anyone with information about any of the cases is encouraged to call the Police Department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or to send a tip by text message to TIP411 with "SFPD" in the message. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. BERKELEY (BCN) Amazon is opening a new "Amazon 4-Star" store today in west Berkeley, according to company officials. The store, located at 1787 Fourth Street in Berkeley, sells products from Amazon.com that are ranked by customers as being at least a 4-star item, are top sellers or is new and trending, company officials said. It is the third such store in the United States to open, with one location in New York City and another in Lone Tree, Colo., which is in the Denver suburbs. The store is one of 100 other Amazon stores in the United States. The Berkeley store is scheduled to open for its grand opening today at 10 a.m. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. 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. By any standard except that of unreasonably high expectations, Democrats are going to do well Tuesday. I expect they will gain about 35 seats in the House to take back control. They won't regain the majority in the Senate, but they will keep it close and score a few surprises, with Phil Bredesen in Tennessee and Beto O'Rourke in Texas as the likeliest upsets. Democrats will end the night with about eight more governors, with signature wins likely in Florida and possible in Georgia. After the election, there will also be two under-reported stories: First, Democrats showed strength in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, states crucial to tilting the electoral college to Donald Trump in 2016; and second, once again, millions more Americans will have cast their votes for Democrats than for Republicans, but due to gerrymandering and a Senate map that mostly featured red states, that margin will not translate into even more electoral gains. Trump Chicken is back, just in time for the midterm elections. On Friday, he appeared in San Francisco in new form: sitting atop a 20-foot golden toilet. Modeled in the image of Donald Trump, the bird could be seen "tweeting" from the top of Twin Peaks just as the sun rose over the bay on Friday morning. Later in the day, it popped up or rather slowly inflated for 15 minutes on a rooftop in the Mission. The fowl wears a red tie and a scowl; his feet hover at least 10 feet off the ground. The project is called "Twitturd," said organizer Danelle Morton. The point is to inspire folks to get out and vote. On social media, where the Trump Chicken is especially popular, the new bird is promoted with the hashtags #DefeatTheTweet (one does so, presumably, by #Voting). The chicken will make appearances complete with golden toilet around San Francisco on Tuesday, Election Day, but Morton wasn't sure when or where, as of Monday afternoon. Morton, a writer from Vallejo, has been organizing Trump and chicken-themed stunts since San Francisco's Tax March last year. The demonstration was held in tandem with marches throughout the country in April 2017 in an attempt to influence the president to release his tax returns. The city's march needed a mascot, Morton thought, something "as big and bloated as a Macy's Thanksgiving Parade balloon." She found it on Google, while sitting in a "boring" planning meeting for Tax Day. It was a 33-foot-high chicken, and there were hundreds of them sitting around Guangdong Province in China. There, the birds were used not to resist, but to celebrate the Year of the Chicken on the Lunar Calendar. To fund the Tax March Trump Chicken, Morton started a GoFundMe. It raised $1,000 in an hour, she said, and $10,000 overall. The money has helped purchase additional chickens, and funded a sail around Alcatraz in February. The toilet-topping bird does not belong to the Trump Chicken organization. It's the property of Casey Latiolais, who designed the first Trump Chicken. After the midterms, Latiolais will get his bird back, to do with as he pleases. 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. It is hard to know where to start with the labyrinthine story of Holy City. Those who know it likely remember it as the long-gone tourist trap tucked in the Santa Cruz mountains. Decorated with strange religious signs and a row of larger-than-life Santa Claus statues, it was a whimsical stop for road-trippers. A smaller group might know about Father William Riker, the cult leader who founded it. Perhaps as good a place as any to start is in 1921, when a former member accused Father Riker of running a sex cult. --- Locals always thought something wasnt right about William Edward Riker. Born in 1873 in Oakdale, Riker moved to San Francisco as an aimless young man. He made ends meet by selling wares on the street, but his real passion was proselytizing. Hed preach to anyone who would listen, and plenty who didnt. By 1915, hed gathered a small group of disciples and opened up his headquarters at 674 Hayes Street. He called it the Perfect Christian Divine Way, Inc. Its income stream, like so many cults before and since, came from its members, many of whom signed over their property and possessions to Riker. One of those members was Frieda Schwartz, a married mother of eight. In 1921, allegations made by the Schwartzes sparked a federal investigation into the cult; in short order, Riker was charged with grand larceny, conspiracy against public morals and child endangerment. The Schwartzes' tale was so salacious papers could only hint at some of the particulars. Frieda testified her husband Alexander was gifted two new women as wives, and their eight children were whisked away to be raised by the cult. It was done, according to the Schwartzes, under the guise of getting the family into heaven. I was not allowed to even mention my childrens names again, Frieda said on the stand. If I did, they abused me. Her husband testified the children were beaten and tied between trees to be stretched by other cult members. As part of the investigation, four children, including Rikers son, were taken from the colony by the juvenile court. Life under Riker was a living hell for the women, Frieda said. She claimed Riker forced female members to have sex with him and, when she and another woman became pregnant, he ordered them to obtain abortions. Frieda said they did. After years in the court system, all charges against Riker were eventually dismissed. The children were returned to their families. Although the case was dismissed, a few unsettling lines in the census lend credence to Schwartzs story. According to the 1920 census, Riker was renting a house in San Francisco. The seven boarders were all female cult members, including Frieda. Without their husbands. --- Holy City was neither holy nor a city. It can most kindly be described as a white supremacist hangout attached to a roadside attraction. In order to draw attention and new converts Riker created a must-see tourist stop along the new roads through the Santa Cruz mountains. By the 1920s, Holy City had a service station, restaurant, ice cream parlor, dance hall, airport and print shop. The print shop got regular work; Holy City was full of posters bolding proclaiming Rikers favorite (and mostly deeply racist) aphorisms. OUR CALIFORNIA BELONGS ONLY TO THE WHITE RACE MAN, read one. IT MUST BE PURGED OF THIS DEADLY POLLUTING ORIENTAL DISEASE. Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images On the subject of disease, he said hed found the cure for cancer, heart failure, Brights disease and all other ailments. Riker himself was part of the draw. Dressed in a white suit, sometimes with a small dog at his side, Riker would wander the town shouting at tourists. I offer $10,000 to anybody who can find a flaw in my 100 percent arguments, he said. Tourists, once curious, usually backed away. In 1935, Riker wrote a letter to President Roosevelt, letting him know that he could end the Great Depression and make kings and queens out of all sane-minded white people. Under Rikers direction, the country would be turned into a paradise on short notice. FDR didnt take him up on the offer, so he turned his attention to another government: the Nazis. --- Beginning in the mid-1930s, Riker wrote a series of letters to Adolf Hitler. He viewed him as a like-minded soul, addressing him in fawning terms like his excellency and his honor. Your opportunity is now ripe, Riker wrote in one letter and when it is done, you will prove yourself to be the greatest character that has ever lived since the time of Jesus Christ. You will not only succeed in whipping all enemies but will cause yourself and millions of other people to experience happiness far greater than words will explain, he added. Riker made no secret of his beliefs. When a group of soldiers visited Holy City on a lark in the early 1940s, he approached them and asked them to abandon the fight against Hitler. Instead, they should allow Germany to take over Europe and focus on defeating the threat of the non-white Japanese military. He even handed them pamphlets to distribute at Moffett Field, boasting: Hitler had adopted some of my ideas. Instead, the soldiers turned them over to the FBI, which charged Riker with sedition. The trial was a blockbuster. Representing Riker was young Melvin Belli, an up-and-coming San Francisco lawyer. His defense was not that Riker didnt write the letters; it was that Riker was such a crackpot that his letters were ultimately harmless. His efforts were pitiful and pathetic, Belli said in court. But they were not seditious. The court agreed, acquitting Riker of all counts of sedition and subversive activities. When his victorious lawyer asked Riker for the remainder of his legal fees, Riker declined. "My son, I shall reward you with a seat in my kingdom of Heaven, Belli recalled him saying, and that is far more emolument than a paltry $5,000. San Francisco Chronicle archives Belli did not share this view. He sued Riker, winning the case in 1943. Riker returned to Holy City, if not chastened, at least temporarily quieted. He ran for governor of California in 1942, 1946 and 1950. No one paid him much mind. --- The end was near for Rikers perverse paradise. Highway 17 had opened in 1940, routing traffic away from Holy City. Isolated from the busy road, looky-loos dwindled year by year, and so did his religious converts. In 1947, his son William was found badly beaten after police followed a trail of blood from a San Jose tavern to a shanty where William was living. He told police his severe back and chest injuries, along with facial lacerations and a broken ankle, were inflicted by cult members when he announced he was leaving. "Police believe Riker, fearing the wrath of the cult, never would have reported the beating had not Officer Neece found him at the end of the trail of blood," the Chronicle reported. Sadly, the tale of William ends here, although he is not listed as a relation in his fathers obituary, suggesting William Jr. was perhaps able to ultimately escape his fathers influence. In 1950, Rikers wife Lucille died of a stroke, and in 1961, Riker was removed as Holy Citys leader by the board. A few years later, the Chronicle reported hed converted to Catholicism. Ive been living a celibate life for ten years, the 94-year-old said. I was intelligently converted. He spent his last years at Holy City, allowed to live on the property if no longer in charge of it. Curious locals ventured up every now and then, but there was little to see. Most of Holy City burned down in the late 1950s; local newspapers called the fires "mysterious." Riker, who once boasted of his ability to cure any ailment known to man, died of natural causes at the age of 96. In the end, his healing claims didnt save a soul. Katie Dowd is a senior digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: katie.dowd@sfgate.com JAKARTA, Indonesia Investigators succeeded in retrieving hours of data from a crashed Lion Air jets flight recorder as Indonesian authorities on Sunday extended the search at sea for victims and debris. National Transportation Safety Committee deputy chairman Haryo Satmiko told a news conference that 69 hours of flight data was downloaded from the recorder including its fatal flight. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet crashed just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta last Monday, killing all 189 people on board in the countrys worst airline disaster since 1997, when 234 people died on a Garuda flight near Medan. The flight data recorder was recovered by divers on Thursday in damaged condition and investigators said it required special handling to retrieve its information. The cockpit voice recorder has not been recovered but searchers are focusing on a particular area based on a weak locator signal. National Search and Rescue Agency chief Muhammad Syaugi said Sunday the search operation, involving hundreds of personnel and dozens of ships, would continue for another three days. Syaugi paid tribute to a volunteer diver, Syahrul Anto, who died during the search effort on Friday. More than 100 body bags of human remains have been recovered. Syaugi said the number would continue to increase and remains were also now washing up on land. He said weak signals, potentially from the cockpit voice recorder, were traced but the device hasnt been found yet due to deep seabed mud. Flight tracking websites show the plane experienced erratic speed and altitude during its 13 minute flight and a previous flight the day before from Bali to Jakarta. Passengers on the Bali flight reported terrifying descents and in both cases the different cockpit crews requested to return to their departure airport shortly after takeoff. Lion has claimed a technical problem was fixed after the Bali fight. Syaugi said a considerable amount of aircraft skin was found on the seafloor but not a large intact part of its fuselage as hed indicated was possible Saturday. He and other top officials including the military chief plan to meet with families on Monday to explain the search operation. Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, though several were allowed to resume services in the following decade. The ban was completely lifted in June. The U.S. lifted a decadelong ban in 2016. CAIRO Security forces fatally shot 19 militants in a gunbattle, including the gunmen suspected of killing seven Christians in an attack on pilgrims traveling to a remote desert monastery, authorities said Sunday. The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, said the militants were tracked to a hideout in the desert west of the central province of Minya, the site of Fridays attack, which also left 19 people wounded. It said the alleged militants opened fire when they realized they were being besieged by security forces. It did not say when the shootout took place. The ministry published photographs purporting to show the bodies of the slain militants, as well as rifles, shotguns and pistols. Other images showed the inside of a tent with the black banner of the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for Fridays attack. An Islamic State affiliate centered in the Sinai Peninsula has repeatedly targeted Christians, in part over their support for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. El-Sissi led the 2013 overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president and has since waged a sweeping crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of Islamists and other activists. Fridays attack was the second in as many years to target pilgrims on their way to the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, after a May 2017 assault left 29 dead. Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypts 100 million people and have long complained of discrimination. They have accused police of negligence, and say authorities often go easy on Muslim assailants after outbreaks of sectarian violence. Addressing a meeting of youths in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, el-Sissi on Sunday sought to send out a message of reconciliation. He said Fridays attack pained all Egyptians, adding that his rule has been more tolerant of minorities than that of his predecessors. The state now is tasked with building churches for its citizens, because they (Christians) have the right to worship, he said, alluding to a 2016 law that, in theory, regulates the construction of churches and mosques without bias. If followers of other religions lived in Egypt, we would have built places of worship for them too, said the Egyptian leader who has been in office since 2014. Hamza Hendawi is an Associated Press writer. KABUL Taliban militants attacked a newly established joint Afghan army and police checkpoint in eastern Ghazni province on Monday, killing at least 13 soldiers and police officers, according to a provincial official. Afghan reinforcements were dispatched to the site of the attack in Khogyani district but were repeatedly ambushed along the way. Before the assault in Ghazni, the Taliban struck in southern Kandahar province late Sunday and killed at least four police officers. The assaults came as a resurgent Taliban hold nearly half of Afghanistan, with near-daily attacks on Afghan security forces. The Taliban view the U.S.-backed government in Kabul as a dysfunctional Western puppet and have refused repeated offers to negotiate with it. Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor in Ghazni, said seven soldiers and six police officers were killed in Mondays attack on the checkpoint, and four soldiers were wounded. According to Noori, six insurgents were killed and more than 10 others were wounded during the ensuing three-hour battle with Afghan forces. Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the Ghazni and Kandahar attacks. The joint army-police checkpoint was set up just two days ago in a strategic area to cut off a key supply route for the Taliban. It was completely burned down and destroyed, Noori said. Reinforcements were rushed to assist the forces under attack but they were ambushed by other Taliban fighters at least four times while on their way to the checkpoint, said Noori. The Taliban have stepped up attacks in volatile Ghazni, and in August overran parts of the provincial capital, also called Ghazni. At the time, hundreds of people fled the city amid intense fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban that killed about 120 members of the security forces and civilians. According to Afghan authorities, nearly 200 insurgents, many of them foreign fighters, were also killed. Ghazni is the only one out of 34 Afghan provinces where the countrys October parliamentary elections could not take place for security reasons. Voting was postponed for a year. Elections were delayed for a week in Kandahar after an attack by an elite Afghan guard killed two top government officials. Rahim Faiez is an Associated Press writer. ANKARA, Turkey Members of a team from Saudi Arabia sent to help Turkish authorities investigate the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi worked instead to remove evidence of the slaying, a senior Turkish official said Monday. The official confirmed a report in Turkeys Sabah newspaper that an 11-member team of Saudi investigators that arrived in Turkey nine days after Khashoggi was killed to take part in a joint Turkish-Saudi probe included experts on chemistry and toxicology who were reportedly charged with obfuscating the evidence. The official said Turkey believes that two members of the team came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence before Turkish police were allowed to search the Saudi Consulate, where Khashoggi was killed on Oct. 2 after he entered to collect a document he needed to marry his Turkish fiancee. The official said the fact that a clean-up team was dispatched suggests that Khashoggis killing was within the knowledge of top Saudi officials. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. The official confirmed the Sabah report, which identified the two experts as Ahmed Abdulaziz Al-Janobi and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani. The information was the latest in a series of leaks from Turkish officials apparently aimed at keeping up the pressure on Saudi Arabia and ensuring that the killing is not covered-up. Istanbuls chief prosecutor, who is leading the investigation, announced last week that Khashoggi, who lived in exile in the United States, was strangled immediately after he entered the consulate as part of a premeditated killing and that his body was dismembered before being removed. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an op-ed in the Washington Post last week that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest level of the Saudi government and added that the international community had the responsibility to reveal the puppet masters behind the slaying. Turkey is seeking the extradition of 18 suspects who have been detained in Saudi Arabia, so they can be put on trial in Turkey. They include 15 members of an alleged Saudi hit squad that Turkey says was sent to Istanbul to kill the Washington Post columnist who had written critically of Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Saudi Arabia acknowledged last month that Turkish evidence indicates that the Khashoggis killing at the consulate was premeditated, shifting its explanation in an apparent effort to ease international outrage over the death. Suzan Fraser is an Associated Press writer. Software major Infosys on Monday jointly unveiled the 4.0 version of Artificial Intelligence (AI) framework for industry, utilities and infrastructure enterprises, with Finland-based consulting and engineering firm Poyry plc. "The Kriti 4.0 version AI framework addresses lifecycle management challenges industry, utilities and infrastructure enterprises face in operational technology (OT) systems," said the city-based IT behemoth in a statement here. The Vantaa-based Finnish firm serves clients globally in energy and industrial sectors and provides engineering services in its core markets. "The new version applies AI, cognitive/machine learning and Machine to Machine (M2M) capabilities to the industrial environment by identifying critical enterprise systems and assets and provides better understanding of their behavior to create value for their customers," said the statement. Infosys AI platform executes complex, advanced analytics and machine learning models, exchanging information with Poyry's RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability, safety) methodology. Launched in April 2017, the Nia software collects an enterprise data from people, processes and legacy systems into a self-learning knowledge base and automates repetitive business and IT processes, freeing human role in solving customer problems. The new framework also empowers decision-makers with real-time knowledge for operating and maintaining their OT systems, using predictive and prescriptive analytics. The new platform also reduces system maintenance costs and operation shutdowns and improves reliability, employee and environmental safety. "In digital world, our clients need to leverage their assets to create tangible RoI (return on investment) in a short time. Our IoT services are focused on impacting top line and bottom line, leveraging capabilities to remote-monitor products and assets, prevent breakdowns and analyse data to optimise performance across the production system," said Infosys engineering services head Nitesh Bansal. Poyry's energy business group president Richard Pinnock said in Krti, real-time data from critical assets was converted to information with computing and business intelligent algorithms, enabling proactive prescriptive decision-making. Read more news: Facebook accused of violating children's privacy law Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by 3 scientists for their works on proteins Liz Price is a very determined individual who is known for her past work serving the needs of the poor and homeless, helping individuals with HIV and AIDS obtain Social Security and SSI benefits, and advocating for those who need Medicaid and Medicare benefits and home care, among many other projects. She is persistently civic-minded, and her efforts to better our community and this country are always inspirational and appreciated. Where were you born? When did you come to Staten Island? I was born in Chicago. When I was 4 years old, my parents, older sister and I moved to New York City. I came [here] in 1999 when I married my husband, Tom, a political activist on Staten Island. [Before that] I lived in New Jersey, Ohio, Washington D.C., Connecticut, Illinois and California. Which college did you attend? What did you do after you graduated? I attended Antioch College in Ohio. Antioch is a very liberal school. You spend half of the school year working away from the campus. I obtained my degree in history and communications. I moved to Chicago and worked at the progressive newspaper, These Times, as an editorial assistant. When I left the paper, I became a community organizer for the Lakeview Citizens Council, a neighborhood organization. I organized tenants organizations to fight condo conversion. I moved to San Francisco in 1979. What did you do in San Francisco? I obtained a job as a community organizer for the childrens theater company Make A Circus, which had been founded in 1975 to provide free circus shows in poor neighborhoods in the Bay Area. I became the administrative director in 1980 and remained there until 1986 when I left to become the managing director of the Berkeley Shakespeare Company, until 1988 when I decided I wanted to go back to journalism. Where did you work when you went back to journalism? I became the business manager at the Tenderloin Times, an inner-city newspaper that was started by homeless people in Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian. In addition, I wrote a column highlighting neighborhood businesses. The paper has since folded, but it was wonderful working at a job that combined my love of journalism and helping improve the lives of poor people, especially homeless people. [After working at the paper] In 1991, I went to law school at the New College School of Law. I was awarded my J.D. in 1994. What did you do after you graduated from law school? What was your last job? I went to work at the AIDS Project of the East Bay, representing clients at the height of the HIV epidemic who were turned down for government benefits and home care. I was able to help many of our clients to overturn their denials. My last job was working for Centerlight Healthcare helping people get Medicaid and Medicare benefits and home care. As a result of this job, I became an expert in public benefits. To what organizations do you belong? I belong to the Staten Island Democratic Association and sit on the executive committee. Previously, I served as social secretary. I also belong to the Staten Island Progressive Action Network as chair of the endorsement committee. What do you especially like to do? I love to read, watch movies and travel. I also enjoy doing political organizing. What is one thing, at this time, that is irking you and that you feel needs serious changes? I advocate for stronger gun control laws. I want peace and justice in the world. Tell us about your husband. I met my husband in high school. Tom was ahead of me and he graduated before I did. We didnt date until we met again the day after I graduated, and I was very much taken with him. However, subsequently, I left for college in Ohio and Tom went to Albany. After the first semester, I did not move back to New York and we drifted apart. I thought about him frequently and finally decided to find him. Eventually I found his email address and contacted him. He responded and flew out to California. It only took 18 years, during which we didnt communicate, for us to finally come together in marriage in 1999. How do you see yourself in the future? I believe the world can be a better place if it stands up for what is wrong and what is right. I have spent my life fighting injustice in this world and will continue to do so. --- Get to know Liz Her family: She has three step children who are all grown and are amazing people, and a 3-week-old granddaughter ... She has two cats, Midnight and William, both of whom were strays that turned up on their doorstep. Here travels: She has been to England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Greek, Turkey, Monaco, Czechoslovakia, Hungry, Slovenia, Cuba, Mexico and Nicaragua. What she likes to do in her free time: She loves spending time with her husband. She holds him as the person she most regards, and says he is the love of her life and every day she learns something new from him. What she considers her happiest experience: Marrying her husband 19 years ago. Her love of animals: She is a member of TNR (Trap and Release) and has trapped numerous stray cats and brought them to the ASPCA to be neutered and spayed. Her first job: She worked at American Banker newspaper in Manhattan as a copy girl, and remembers it as one of her first fun jobs. In her opinion: Franklin Roosevelt was our best president. Election Day is tomorrow. You cannot complain about political leadership -- or the lack of it -- if you do not vote. In addition to our endorsement of Ronald Castorina in the Surrogates race, which appears today, here is a roundup of the candidates who we think would serve Staten Island well. United States Congress: Dan Donovan The incumbent, Republican Rep. Dan Donovan, deserves your vote. Though a supporter of the president, Donovan voted against Donald Trump on three of the presidents key agenda items: The tax reform bill, Obamacare repeal, and punishing sanctuary cities. Though priorities for Trump, Donovan said those bills were bad for Staten Island and South Brooklyn. Bucking the president speaks well to Donovans independence and his desire to do what he sees is best for his constituents. Its a credit to him, particularly given Trumps popularity here on Staten Island. His opponent, Democrat Max Rose, has waged a strong campaign with mostly reasonable ideas and proposals (an exception being tossing every politician out of Washington.) But Donovan has served Staten Islanders well. He aligns with the will of most Staten Islanders, yet is willing to say No when he feels he must. We endorse Dan Donovan. South Shore Assembly: Michael Reilly Like his opponent, Republican Glenn Yost, now an attorney who appears on the Reform Party line, Republican Michael Reilly is retired NYPD but made his mark as president of Staten Islands Community Education Council. Whether at public meetings or through his strong social media presence, Reilly has tackled education issues like battling Common Core, pushing school safety and fighting cyber-bullying. We endorse Michael Reilly. East Shore Assembly: Nicole Malliotakis Her opponent maintains that Republican Nicole Malliotakis doesnt serve her districts needs. With all due respect to Adam Baumel, the opponent, he doesnt know of what he speaks. Malliotakis has served the East Shore of Staten Island extraordinarily well and with a passion. She is relentless in her push for property tax reform. Although representing just a portion of Staten Island, Malliotakis fights for the entire borough. Staten Island is fortunate she has chosen public service and the East Shore could not have a better representative in Albany. We endorse Nicole Malliotakis. State Senate: Diane Savino Staten Island seemed not-all-that-concerned that Democrat Diane Savino was one of eight players in the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) that caucused with state Republicans to give that party a majority. Six of the IDC members were defeated in the September primary. Two survived. Savino was one. She is tough and fair. She knows the North Shore and its needs. She was instrumental in hiking the states minimum wage, legalizing medical marijuana and creating paid family leave. Her opponent is Republican David Krainert of Brooklyn, a former FBI agent who now has his own financial investment firm. We endorse Diane Savino. North Shore Assembly: Charles Fall In the September primary, the Advance endorsed Democrat Patricia Kane for this seat, over Democrat Charles Fall. North Shore voters felt differently and chose Fall. We respect that, and after several more meetings with him, we have developed much respect for Fall. Although Kane would make a good state legislator, our choice in November is Charles Fall. He brings youth and new ideas to the job something we have not seen in a while. His issues are the typical ones transportation, education and drug abuse. He also wants to see the cash bail system reformed. Falls campaign was marred this weekend with the arrest of an assistant campaign manager on charges of sexual assault. Fall responded quickly and appropriately to the news, not hiding from it but addressing it head-on and firing the accused immediately. My priority now is the victim and ensuring she is safe, that she is supported, and that I do everything in my power to assist her, Fall said, adding that he will contact other staff and volunteers to see if there were other issues. As troubling as this development is, we think Fall is handling it professionally and with sensitivity. Also on the ballot is Daniel Falcone on the Green Party line. We endorse Democrat Charles Fall. Mid-Island Assembly: Michael Cusick There is no question: Voters must return the dean of Staten Islands Albany delegation to the state Assembly. Michael Cusick, the incumbent Democrat, has served his constituents and the borough well. His command of the legislative process in Albany and his dignified, professional approach to public service are unmatched. His good relationship with the governor has resulted the states attention to increased cancer rates on Staten Island and a year-long study in an effort to trace the cause. His opponent is John Dennie on the Green Party line. We endorse Michael Cusick. South Shore State Senate: Andrew Lanza South Shore voters have a superb representative in State Sen. Andrew Lanza and should send him back to Albany. He has no opponent in the race. Lanza has shown bipartisan collaboration with Michael Cusick in restoring school bus service for middle-schools, the resident toll discount on New Jersey bridges and legislation to check the scourge of prescription drug abuse. He, too, was with the governor when the year-long cancer study was announced and has a good relationship there as well. We endorse Andrew Lanza. The judges Staten Islanders have the opportunity to vote for two judges in this election. As noted, the Democrats were dealt a severe blow when a paperwork snafu caused them to be removed from the Democratic line. However, one Democrat does appear on the Reform line. On the ballot are Marina Cora Mundy, Ralph J. Porzio and Orlando Marrazzo Jr. Mundy and Porzio are Republicans. Marrazzo is a Democrat. Mundy is a Housing Court judge. Porzio was an assistant district attorney and then a Family Court judge before returning to private practice. Marrazzo is a Civil Court judge currently serving as an acting Supreme Court judge. All three are qualified. Porzio holds an edge on the Republican side because of his experience in the D.A.s office. Marrazzo, however, clearly has the most experience and knowledge because he now sits in the Supreme Court. Staten Islanders, who can vote for two and who want to right a wrong, should vote for one of the Republicans and Marrazzo on the Reform Party line. Its a long shot given the penchant to vote party lines in such races. But it would make a statement and give Orlando (Lindy) Marrazzo, an ultimately qualified jurist, the chance to serve on a permanent basis. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Its been one of the loudest and most contentious midterm election seasons that many of us have ever seen. Soon enough, well have all the answers. Soon enough, well know if the Democrats had enough to turn Congress blue. Polls right now give the Democrats a good chance of taking control of the House. Even President Donald Trump has allowed for the possibility during his recent barnstorming campaign effort. Dems need to flip about two dozen seats to get it done. But the polling also indicates that the GOP will hold on to U.S. Senate, and may even pad their majority there. And you thought that politics in America couldnt get more divided. Can you imagine what a Democrat-led House will mean for Trump? Investigation after investigation, for openers. Maybe even impeachment proceedings if enough progressive Dems get into office, and even if conviction is unlikely in a GOP-controlled Senate. So just how big is that blue wave that weve been hearing about for weeks? Will young Democratic voters turn out in big numbers, as the party is planning on? And in terms of Staten Island, will Max Rose be part of that potentially new Democratic majority in Congress? Its been awfully tough for Democrats to grab the Congress seat here over the last 30 years, and tough for them to hold it when theyve had it. But Rose has proven to be a tireless campaigner and a prodigious fund-raiser. His ads are blanketing the airwaves and the internet. Campaign canvassers have been knocking on doors. Hes not a far leftie on the issues, which should make him more palatable to borough voters, including conservative Democrats whove been voting Republican all these years. Hes run a gaffe-free campaign. But GOP Rep. Dan Donovan has been very popular with Staten Island voters, even if his low-key approach doesnt exactly make your heart flutter. He got important backing from Trump during his GOP primary against former Rep. Michael Grimm, and Staten Island, after all, is Trumpland. Will voters desert him for Rose? Who will be more motivated to vote? Democrats whove been thirsting to send a message to Trump for a year and a half now? Or Republicans who got woked by the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings? Staten Island could be an early testing ground for the rest of the nation on election night. And remember, Staten Island can be tough to predict. Democratic President Barack Obama won the Island in 2012, but Grimm still won re-election to Congress that same year. Another big borough story has been the travails of the Staten Island Democratic Party organization. Earlier this year, the party endorsed Public Administrator Anthony Catalano for Surrogate Court judge over veteran North Shore Assemblyman Matthew Titone. The county convention saw longtime Dem supporters of Titone purged from the county committee and replaced by newly minted members willing to follow the lead of chairman John Gulino and endorse Catalano. Titone had the last laugh, though, winning a party primary against Catalano. Then the Dems nominated Catalano for a state Supreme Court seat. He was to be joined by Judge Orlando Marrazzo on the Dem ballot. But the Dem organization screwed up its paperwork. The Republicans challenged, and Catalano and Marrazzo lost their Dem ballot spots. A horrible look for the Democrats. In-house dissent is one thing. Every party deals with that. Failure to carry out the most basic functions of a party speaks to the presence of a deeper rot. Of course, the answers we get this Election Day will only lead to more questions down the road. What will the results mean for 2020, when Trump will be looking to run for re-election? If the Dems win the House, will they overplay their hands and only drive voters back to the GOP? Weve seen whiplash House flips before. Well get to all that soon enough. Like, on Wednesday. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. The race for judge of the Surrogate Court is a marquee matchup of sorts, pitting two sitting lawmakers against each other: Assemblymen Ronald Castorina and Matthew Titone. After careful consideration, and fully acknowledging the positives and negatives that both candidates bring to the table, the Advance believes that Castorina, a Republican, is the right person for the job. Working hand-in-hand with the office of the public administrator, the Surrogates Court serves the most needy among us. The judge handles adoptions and oversees the estates of those who die without a will. The Surrogate appoints guardians for those found mentally incompetent or who otherwise cannot legally fend for themselves. It's a crucial job, even if many Staten Islanders arent even aware of the court. Castorina is known to most borough residents as the Assembly member who represents the South Shore. But he is also a longtime practicing attorney. He served as court attorney for three respected jurists, drafting decisions and handling their attorney conferences and court calendars. In his private practice, he has done work in the Surrogate Court and other courts. He knows the judicial system. Castorina has admirable plans for the Surrogates job, including outreach efforts so that various communities know what resources the court can offer them. And acknowledging that the court has traditionally been the widows and orphans court, Castorina said he will focus on guardianships for those with special needs. Thats a positive given the numbers of special needs families on Staten Island. The Advance acknowledges that there are serious caveats in endorsing Castorina. A bad taste lingers over Castorinas involvement with attorney Richard Luthmann, who allegedly targeted Republican Janine Materna, a Castorina opponent for Assembly in 2016, with a fake campaign website. There was an exchange of Facebook messages between Luthmann and Castorina regarding the page that cast Castorina in a negative light, and called into question his sensitivity to women. Castorina told the Advance Editorial Board that he was trying to placate Luthmann at the time by taking part in the chats, and that he regrets ever having done so. Titone countered that the whole episode speaks to Castorinas maturity level. We agree. It remains a disturbing incident. But Castorinas contrition appears genuine to us, even if some cannot forget the sordid episode and feel that it goes a long way toward disqualifying Castorina for the Surrogates job by itself. We hope that Castorina has indeed learned his lesson. Democrat Titone has spent the last dozen years representing the North Shore in the Assembly. He made history as the first openly gay elected official in borough history. He has worked on courts-related legislation, including bills that affect the Surrogates Court directly. His late father, the esteemed Judge Vito Titone, served on the Court of Appeals, the highest court in New York state. But despite the pedigree, and despite Titones legislative work and advocacy on behalf of the marginalized and the downtrodden, he cant match Castorinas legal resume, a deciding factor in our endorsement. That being said, Titone has good ideas about bringing transparency to the Surrogates Court, including shining a light on fees earned by the attorneys who handle estates, guardianships and receiverships for the court. Theres big money being made there. Staten Islanders should know whos earning it and how those attorneys are chosen. Titone also pledged to take the political patronage out of the system, and we believed him. After all, Titone was forsaken by his own party in the race and is only here because he won a Democratic primary. Titone doesnt owe the party organization anything. We urge Castorina, if elected, to take a page from Titones book and implement these policies. Given the importance of the court, this is not an endorsement that the Advance makes lightly. In fact, the decision on the endorsement in the Surrogates race generated more internal discussion than just about any other endorsement decision in recent memory. Part of that has to do with the Editorial Board meeting itself, which quickly devolved into a heated, political free-for-all. A significant part of the editorial board debate focused on Castorina receiving neither the New York City Bar Association nor the Richmond County Bar Association endorsement, calling him not qualified, a fact Castornia blamed on politics. He maintained that the New York City panel focused on his politically conservative views, calling him controversial. Titone has been declared qualified. The Richmond County Bar did not make its own determination, instead taking the lead from the NYC Bar Association and not doing its own interview, something we find problematic. Given the news that swirled around Castorina during his Assembly race against Materna, and some of the statements Castorina made on the Assembly floor, we do think he is right to think the NYC Bar process was more political than judicial. The candidates also argued over a campaign mailing sent out by the state Democratic Party on Titones behalf. There was a scrum about campaign fundraising. Other issues were angrily batted back and forth. There was yelling. Titone and Castorina got in each others faces. Although Castorina seemed all too eager to join the political battle, he did ask Titone to Please, relax. Titone more than once showed a marked impatience and even petulance with the proceedings. In a campaign for a position where decorum and temperament matter greatly, were sad to say that this meeting fell below the standard expected of those who want to serve on the bench. It was a shock and a shame to us. Election Day is Tuesday. Even though you may not know what the Surrogates Court does, we urge you to cast your ballots in the race. And we believe that Ronald Castorina would serve Staten Islanders well as judge of the Surrogates Court. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! The full-year flat cash earnings result produced by Westpac belies a more worrisome trend in Australias second largest bank - a significant deterioration in earnings in the second half of its financial year. Higher funding costs and increased competition part explained why profits took a step down as the financial year rolled through - these are elements that could play into the results of each of the large banks in 2019. Westpacs consumer bank inked a 17 per cent deterioration in cash earnings in the second half. Much of the blame falls to the costs of fixing up the behavioural issues highlighted during the banking Royal Commission, but not all. It also experienced a lower margin and lower fees. PEXA investors have until this Friday to consider a trade sale of the online property conveyancer which is priced $600 million below what they were hoping to receive from taking the company public this month. The $2.2 billion float was officially cancelled on Tuesday morning in favour of the sweetened offer from a consortium that includes two of its major investors, Link Administration and Commonwealth Bank, which own 32 per cent of Pexa's shares. Link Administration announced to the ASX on Tuesday that the offer from the consortium, which also includes Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, has been accepted by enough investors to give them 55.4 per cent of the share register. PEXA CEO Marcus Price: founder shareholder Link's trade sale offer has been accepted by some shareholders. Credit:Wayne Taylor PEXA chairman Alan Cameron said the consortium had a combined track record of investing in and strengthening infrastructure and technology assets. Virgin Australia has said it will now seek public consultation before going ahead with plans to offer priority boarding and a salute to veterans prior to take-off on its flights. Loading The airline announced its change of position on Monday, stating: We are very mindful of the response that our announcement about recognising people who have served in defence has had today. It was a gesture genuinely done to pay respects to those who have served our country. Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti on Sunday announced the plan to offer priority boarding and to pay tribute to veterans on its flights . But following the response from veterans and public, Virgin stepped back from the commitment. Billionaire Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma called fighting over trade senseless and decried once again a widening conflict between the US and China. China's richest person - who warned just last month that a trade war could last two decades - argued it was pointless to target goods because the Asian nation was on its way to becoming a major buyer of foreign products. Indeed, it's services - such as those on the internet - powering job growth, not old-school manufacturing, the outgoing Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. chairman told a business forum Monday. Ma, whose online commerce empire is China's largest corporation, has been a vocal opponent of tit-for-tat tariffs imposed on hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of US-Chinese goods. Donald Trump is now exerting pressure on the Asian nation to wind back its $US423 billion ($587 billion) trade surplus with the world. New solar and wind farms being planned for NSW have twice the capacity of the state's coal-fired power stations, prompting the state government to set aside $55 million to help smooth their introduction. As of October 29, NSW had 20,000 megawatts of generation capacity either approved or seeking planning approval, worth more than $27 billion in investment, according to government data. Moree solar farm: a lot of these are in the NSW planning pipeline. Proposed solar plants accounted for 11,200MW, dwarfing wind farms with 5100MW, and the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro of about 2000MW. Just 100MW involved coal, with the planned upgrade of AGL's Bayswater power station. Along with the new plants, some eight large-scale battery projects - all with solar farms - with more than 400MW-hours of capacity are also in the planning pipeline as the industry gears up for the bulge in variable energy sources. 200g yellow cherry tomatoes, halved 400g canned chickpeas, drained 100g olives 1 peach, cut into wedges 1 cup mint leaves 2 tbsp lemon juice 2 tbsp mixed roasted nuts Cucumber yoghurt 1 small cucumber, peeled and diced 1 tbsp mint leaves, chopped 200g natural yoghurt 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp lemon juice METHOD 1. Place cous cous and 1 tbsp olive oil, sea salt and pepper in a heat-proof bowl and add 270ml boiling water. Stir until mixed, cover with foil and set aside for 10 minutes, then fluff up with a fork. 2. Core the capsicum and cut the flesh into long strips. Warm 3 tbsp olive oil in a large frypan, and add the capsicum, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas and olives. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, tossing well until the vegetables have softened. 3. Add the peaches, mint leaves, lemon juice, and sea salt and pepper. Toss well and leave to cool. 4. To make the cucumber yoghurt, beat the ingredients together in a medium bowl, seasoning to taste with sea salt and pepper. 5. To serve, tip the vegetables over the cous cous, scatter with roasted nuts and serve with the cucumber yoghurt. Serves 4 Jill Dupleix's old-school lemon bars recipe. Photo: William Meppem. Credit:William Meppem Old-school lemon bars Bring back the slice especially one with a rich shortcrust base topped with a tangy lemon curd that's like eating sunshine. Serve as is, or with sour cream or yoghurt. INGREDIENTS 200g plain flour, sifted 100g cold butter, cubed 75g castor sugar pinch of sea salt 2 tbsp chilled water 1 tbsp grated lemon zest Lemon curd topping 4 large eggs 200g castor sugar 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest 200ml lemon juice (about 3 lemons) 40g plain flour, sifted pinch of sea salt METHOD 1. Line a 20cm x 30cm baking tin with baking paper, leaving overhang to help with removal from the tin. 2. To make the base, whiz the flour, butter, sugar and sea salt in a food processor until it looks like sand. Add chilled water by the spoonful, pulsing, until it starts coming together. Form into a ball, knead lightly and rest, covered, in the fridge for 20 minutes. A Lyneham man entered a family home in Scullin before he got into bed with a woman, put his hand up her shirt and touched her breast, court documents allege. Brandon Ashley Edgerton, 19, had played cricket for a local club on October 13 before going for drinks at the Belconnen Raiders Club. Early the next morning he left the club and walked to Scullin, and police will allege he entered the family home about 3.30am. At the time, the woman was sleeping in the main bedroom while the man was sleeping in the childs bedroom because the child was stirring through the night. The woman allegedly heard the curtain moving and the floorboard creak as Mr Edgerton moved towards the bedroom. Good morning, Canberra. Welcome to the first Tuesday in November - time for the race that stops the nation. I'm not a betting woman, but my favourite horse names in today's Melbourne Cup field are Ventura Storm, Youngstar and Runaway. If you have a win based on that, let me know. Now to Canberra's weather; we're looking at another hot day, with a top of 30 degrees expected, but there's a high chance of rain and maybe even a storm. Wednesday is going to feel like we're not even on the cusp of summer - it will be 21 and rainy. Now let's look at what's making news today. A man serving 25 years for drowning his fiancee in a bathtub more than a decade ago has launched further legal action to clear his name. In 1995, a jury found 51-year-old Henry Vincent Keogh guilty of murdering Anna-Jane Cheney in March 1994, a month before the pair were to be married. The prosecution alleged Keogh killed Ms Cheney to claim her $1 million life insurance. Keogh, who has maintained his innocence, appealed against the conviction in 1996 but had his action dismissed a year later. Defence lawyers on Tuesday applied in the South Australian Court of Criminal Appeal for the case to be reopened. Law students at the University of NSW are furious about having to sit their exam again after the faculty accidentally re-used a paper from the first semester that had since been published online. Some students are considering a boycott of the second exam, according to an open letter that was gathering signatures on Monday night. Students at the University of NSW (UNSW) are angry at having to re-sit their law exams because of an administrative bungle. Credit:Dean Lewins/AAP The fourth-year business associations examination, held on November 3, was already controversial because it was so difficult. Many students immediately worried they had failed and would have to sit the compulsory subject again. But on the afternoon after the exam, the law faculty told students that an administrative error had led to the semester one paper being re-used. That exam had been available for students to download from the library. Police have charged a 35-year-old man over his alleged role in the coordinated theft and distribution of more than 4000 tins of baby formula, which were seized from homes in Sydney's north-west. It's alleged that Ricardo Cerda-Perez, along with his accomplice 48-year-old Lie Ke, stole baby formula from a supermarket in Carlingford before sending it overseas to China. The baby formula haul, seized by police earlier this year. Credit:NSW Police A NSW Police spokeswoman told the Herald in August that Ms Ke, along with another 53-year-old man, were sprung "red handed" by officers in a car park on Lloyds Avenue, Carlingford, at about 10pm on August 22. Both suspects were arrested and taken to Ryde Police Station for questioning before police executed two search warrants at homes in Carlingford. The University of Sydney has been given the green light by the NSW state government to build a $500 million, 25,000-student campus in Westmead. The university first sounded its interest in the site, which encompasses Cumberland Hospital's east and west campuses, in November last year. A proposed design for the University of Sydney's new Westmead campus. Credit:The University of Sydney It has since vied off against 40 international education providers, medical research providers and manufacturers to secure the land. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Sunday that the new campus would be built to "compliment" the government's plans to develop the Westmead health and education precinct. Sydney University's history department has become the latest to publicly oppose a partnership with the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation. The department - which, along with English and philosophy, would be drawn upon to teach the course - is the seventh to write an open letter objecting to a course funded by the centre. In the letter to university management, Professor Chris Hillard, a specialist in modern British history, wrote that most - although not all - academics in the department were opposed to a Ramsay-funded course. Sydney University students protesting against the Ramsay Centre. Credit:Christopher Pearce Historians paid close attention to forces of change, such as trade and the development of market economise, that cut across regional and linguistic borders. A mother and daughter are among four people who have lost their lives after three separate accidents on Queensland roads on Monday morning. In the first incident, a four-wheel-drive burst into flames when a motorist hit a power pole on Oakey Crosshill Road in Oakey, 155 kilometres west of Brisbane, before 1.40am. The scene in Oakey during the early hours of Monday. Credit:7 News Toowoomba - Twitter No one else was injured in the crash and the road was closed as investigators examined the scene. In the most recent crash, a female driver and young girl in the passenger seat died after a semi-trailer and car collided on Bundaberg Gin Gin Road in South Kolan, near Bundaberg, about 7.45am. "This is not a lay down misere," a senior Labor figure tells me. "Ill be keen to see the [latest polls]. If were back to 52-48 Id be worried, and if we were 50, or below, wed be in trouble." Thats the point. Sitting on a majority of 46-38 with three Greens and an independent in the 88-member chamber, Andrews does not have a lot of margin for error if he is to avoid a hung parliament, or even a loss. They cant afford another f-up, is the judgment of the senior Labor figure. Since Andrews prevailed over Denis Napthine in the 2014 poll, with Labor winning four seats and a coalition of the Liberals and Nationals yielding 7 to Labor, the Greens and an independent, there have been more than a few "f-ups". Loading These include a messy handling of a dispute between the United Firefighters Union and the Country Fire Authority over operational control. It was mishandled by Andrews himself in thrall to the firefighters and may well have cost Labor federally on the eve of the July 2016 national poll. Labors battleground lies in the so-called sandbelt seats stretching towards the Mornington Peninsula along Port Philip Bay, in the inner city where it is under siege from the Greens, and in outer suburban areas where enrolments have skyrocketed due to demographic shifts. It won government by virtue of picking up the four bayside, or near-bayside, seats of Frankston, Carrum, Bentleigh and Mordialloc. Loss of any of these, held by margins of 2.1 per cent or less, would be a big blow. Labor can hardly afford to yield any of the above given difficulties it faces wresting opposition marginals, including Ripon on the citys fringes. Loading The opposition needs to win seven seats to force a hung parliament, or eight to form a government. To do this it requires a 2.7 per cent uniform swing. Highly unlikely, but not impossible. As part of its efforts to bridge the gap, Coalition strategy has been to ramp up its rural and regional focus with a pitch to voters outside the cities in the hope of picking up a seat or two, including Shepparton, now held by an independent. Guys Grow Victoria campaign in which $40 million is being provided for a food and fibre exports program to grow international markets is part of the process. What should be kept in mind is that questions about Victoria in the latest Newspoll coincided with a federal poll that showed a slump in the Morrison governments fortunes, and those of Prime Minister Scott Morrison himself. Malcolm Turnbulls knifing, in which senior Victorian Liberals were prime movers, is not helping the local Coalition cause. "How anyone could have believed the removal of Malcolm Turnbull would be good for the Liberal Party in Victoria [where Turnbull remains popular] is a mystery to me," one of the Liberal Partys smarter young federal leaders tells me. This brings us to the big question of whether Andrews deserves another term or, alternatively, whether his opponent is ready for prime time. The Premier might be marked down for a bumpy ride in his first term in office. There have been errors of judgment such as a privacy breach the so-called "document dump" - when the government released 80,000 pages of documents about Guys controversial tenure as planning minister in the Baillieu-Napthine governments. On the other hand, Andrews has presided over a state whose economy leads the country. In July, in its State of the States report, CommSec noted that Victorian growth had edged past NSW in the March quarter due to a robust housing and construction sector. Population growth at 2.3 per cent annually is the highest in the country, but this is proving both a blessing and a curse. It is driving growth, but road congestion, crowded public transport, and infrastructure bottlenecks are weighing on the government. Successive governments from Jeff Kennett onwards have been blindsided by Melbournes demographic bulge. Labor is fighting to get on top of these challenges. It is probably getting less credit than it deserves for its efforts. In Guys case he is waging an underdog campaign by going negative on the Andrews record on crime and gang violence. Polls indicate the opposition is getting traction on this issue, but it is not clear it will cancel out positives for Labor on the economy, health, and education. Lurking in the background for Guy himself are two question marks. The first has to do with his time as planning minister when questionable decisions were made that benefited Liberal Party donors. Second, are Victorian voters ready to entrust a youthful Matthew Guy with a grown-ups errand? What will be keeping Andrews awake at night is the John Brumby debacle of 2010. A competent treasurer in a popular Steve Bracks government, Brumby as premier managed to lose 13 seats to Ted Baillieu and the Nationals to hand the conservatives a one-seat victory. If the standard you walk past is the standard you accept, might I respectfully suggest Lisa Scaffidi raises her standards? On Saturday, the City of Perths suspended Lord Mayor tweeted two photos. One of the images Lisa Scaffidi tweeted of a man sleeping rough on Murray Street. WAtoday chose to blur his face. Credit:Twitter @LisaScafPerthLM Shown in the images were two men, at two different inner city locations. They were both asleep with their meagre possessions nearby. One had a couple of small suitcases with him, the other had not much more than a yoga mat and a dirty old pillow. The most obvious assumption one would make when looking at the photos would be that these two men were homeless. The Morrison government's own threatened species experts say Australia is failing in its plan to save wildlife from extinction and the crisis is damaging the nations reputation overseas. It comes as environment officials pull plans for an international unveiling of the governments widely panned threatened species strategy, after critics derided it as a "global embarrassment" which "reads like a Year 10 school assignment". Australia has the worlds worst record of mammal extinction about one in 10 have disappeared since European settlement. Almost 500 animals and 1300 plants are officially deemed threatened. The federal government's own experts say Australia is failing in efforts to save threatened species, such as the orange-bellied parrot, pictured. Credit:Par Avion A Senate inquiry is examining the faunal extinction crisis. The Threatened Species Scientific Committee, made up of eminent scientists who advise Environment Minister Melissa Price, says Australia has strong environment laws, is signatory to international conservation treaties and leads the world in conservation science. Mario A. Segale, a Seattle-area real estate developer who unwittingly lent his name to perhaps the most famous video game character in history Nintendo's Mario died at a local hospital on October 27. He was 84. Loading Starting in the 1950s, Segale built a small empire in construction and real estate in Tukwila, a suburb of Seattle. Around 1980 he rented a 60,000-square-foot warehouse to Nintendo, a Japanese video-game company, as it sought to expand to the US market. In his book Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World, David Sheff wrote that a small company team had gathered in the warehouse one day and was struggling to come up with American names for the characters in the arcade game Donkey Kong. They were stuck on the character of a squat carpenter wearing a red cap when there was a knock on the door. It was Segale, who had come to berate Minoru Arakawa, then the president of Nintendo of America, for being past due on the rent. Puneet Puneet at a court appearance in September. Credit:Amrit Dhillon New Delhi Runaway driver Puneet Puneet has been declared fit to stand trial for extradition to Australia by a court in the Indian capital. Having read a report by doctors who examined Puneet Puneet to assess his psychological state, Justice Gurmohina Kaur said on Monday at Patiala House Court: "The doctors say he is able to take care of himself and that there is no reason why he is not fit to stand trial as he has no mental disability." The ruling marked a significant moment in a long drawn out process. Puneet fled to India to avoid being sentenced in Australia for the 2008 death of Queensland student Dean Hofstee in Melbourne. He was a 19-year-old learner driver when he killed Hofstee and also seriously injured Clancy Coker in the same crash. While search teams scouring the waters managed to retrieve the flight data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder is still buried under the Java Sea where the plane plunged on October 29. The audio device may be crucial to unraveling what happened during the flight's final moments. In particular, the device may explain why the crew asked to return to base minutes into the journey. Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee is collecting data related to the recovery efforts made during the prior malfunctions, the agency said in a statement on Monday, basing its findings on preliminary data collected from one of the black boxes. Sydney: The Lion Air plane that crashed last week had faulty airspeed readings during its last four flights, Indonesia said, asking Boeing to take corrective measures on the aircraft to prevent similar accidents. "We have said there's a technical problem but we also want to know what they were discussing in the cockpit and what they were doing," Soerjanto Tjahjono, chief of the NTSC, told reporters on Monday. "Cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder are both important to reveal the truth in this case." Questions have been raised about the Lion Air plane's technical problems. Credit:AP With the data recorder in the hands of investigators, the NTSC has recovered about 69 hours of flying data by the crashed jet during its last 19 trips. Because Flight JT610 lasted only a few minutes, the voice recorder is also likely to include at least some audio from the previous night's trip from Denpasar, Bali to Jakarta. The aircraft, which would crash the next day, experienced problems on the flight from Bali with sensors used to calculate altitude and speed. The instruments were checked by maintenance workers overnight and the plane was cleared to fly, according to Lion Air. Even with modern GPS tracking, planes need to calculate their precise speed through the air. To determine airspeed -- which can vary substantially compared to the speed over the ground due to winds -- aircraft rely on Pitot tubes which measure the air rushing into them. Shanghai: Chinese President Xi Jinping has delivered a riposte to US President Donald Trump in a keynote speech in Shanghai, saying countries should not just point fingers at others to gloss over their own problems, and declaring China is here to stay. While not naming Mr Trump, who has fired off numerous Tweets about Xi amid a multi-billion dollar trade war, the Chinese president said countries need to improve their business environments by addressing their problems. Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening ceremony for the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. Credit:AP They should not hold a flashlight in hand, doing nothing but checking out the weakness of others and not their own, he continued. Chinas International Import Expo, which opened on Monday, is being pitched by Beijing as a concrete action to increase foreign imports. It has been described by Chinese media as a matchmaking fair for foreign companies to find Chinese customers. Kaub, Germany: Just after sunrise, Captain Frank Sep turned to his ship's radio for the defining news of his day: the water level in Kaub, the shallowest part of the middle section of the Rhine River, Germany's most important shipping route. The news was bad, as it so often is these days. A freighter and ferry pass near rocks visible on the Rhine in Boppard, Germany. Credit:NY Times One of the longest dry spells on record has left parts of the Rhine at record-low levels for months, forcing freighters to reduce their cargo or stop plying the river altogether. Parts of the Danube and the Elbe Germany's other major rivers for transport are also drying up. Some inland ports are idle, and it is estimated that millions of tons of goods are having to be transported by rail or road. Washington: The sons of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi have issued an appeal for the return of their father's body and said they wanted to return to Saudi Arabia to bury him. In an interview with CNN, Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi said that without their father's body, their family is unable to grieve and deal with the emotional burden of their father's death. Salah Khashoggi shook hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is suspected of being behind his father's death. Credit:AP "It's not a normal situation, it's not a normal death at all. All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi [cemetery] in Medina [Saudi Arabia] with the rest of his family," Salah Khashoggi said. "I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon." Texas: A newlywed couple was killed hours after their wedding ceremony when a helicopter taking them from the wedding reception to an airport to depart on their honeymoon crashed minutes after take off. Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman Byler, both 24, were married on Saturday night at a large Byler family ranch near Uvalde, about 130 kilometres west of San Antonio. They left the ranch aboard a Byler family helicopter shortly after midnight on Sunday, local time, and crashed into a hill in the rugged terrain of southwest Texas. The 76-year-old pilot, Gerald Lawrence, was also killed. ~2012 Indenture agreement signed by Regina Labega gave Bond Holders right to hold on to Insurance money.~ PHILIPSBURG:---Prime Minister Leona Romeo Marlin wants the management of Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) to dismiss at least 49 employees as part of PJIAE cost-cutting measures. SMN News has been reliably informed that the Romeo Marlin did not take PJIAE management serious when they requested the comfort letter which had to be submitted to the bondholders before October 1st, 2018. SMN News learned that government did provide a letter on October 2nd, 2018 but the letter has no value and as such the bondholders held on to the money paid out by NAGICO Insurances. The insurance payout had to be deposited in a Bank of New York restrictive account which can only be accessed by the bondholders. Due to government (Shareholder Representative) negligence has placed the rebuilding of the Airport Terminal Building in real jeopardy. The bondholders even refused to attend a meeting that was called with the World Bank, and the European Investment Bank. SMN News learned that the bondholders did not attend the meeting due to the fact that the Government of St. Maarten did not issue the much-needed comfort letter. 2012 Indenture Agreement. Former Managing Director of PJIAE Regina Labega who is now a staff member in the TEATT Minister cabinet signed an indenture agreement in 2012 when she took out bonds. In that agreement which was sanctioned by the then shareholder representative agreed that the bondholders will hold on to all insurance payouts in the event there is a disaster in St. Maarten or default by PJIAE. At the moment PJIAE is in a technical default regarding their debt service ratio. This default is what gave the bond holders the right to hold on to the insurance money that is now hampering the rebuilding of the Terminal Building. PJIAE management is busy negotiating with Piper Jaffray and the World Bank to secure sufficient funds to rebuild the Terminal Building. However, the investors (financiers) want PJIAE to get full commitment from the government of St. Maarten but so far that is not forthcoming. Just recently PJIAE committed itself $13,000.00 in monthly rent for office space. As of November 1st, the rent for the floor rented from The Vision Private Fund Foundation ( MP Theodore Heyliger) will have to be paid if the office is ready for occupation. Cost Cutting Measures. PJAIE has approximately 280 employees and since the passing of hurricanes, Irma and Maria none of their employees were laid off even though PJIAE suffered immense damages due the passing of hurricane Irma and Maria. However, PJIAE has to cut its overhead costs if they are to secure financiers to rebuild, thus they proposed to the unions to freeze fringe benefits for its employees. PJIAE has sent a proposal to the Unions (WICSU and ABVO) where they proposed to cut employees fringe and other benefits in order to cut cost to attract investors. It is understood that WICSU who are representing the Air Traffic Controllers already agreed to the proposal sent by the management of PJIAE while they are still waiting on ABVO for a meeting and response to the proposal. Roofing PJIAE used Ballas Nedam to rebuild a double roofing that can sustain 180MPH. It is understood that the re-enforced roofing of the Terminal Building costs over $14M. The Terminal Building will have 2 roofs in the event of a disaster PJIAE would still be able to operate from the Terminal Building when its completed in 2020. The Seniors of the Red Cross Building in Belvedere recently had a meeting with Board members of the Sint Maarten Seniors and Pensioners Association. Various complaints were brought to the attention of the SMSPA, such as: The hurricane damages since Irma and Maria passed last year September has not been repaired as yet by the Sint Maarten Housing Foundation Problems with water leakage which increase the GEBE-water bill monthly. the unhygienic environment on the terrain in the back of the building, No proper maintenance service from the Sint Maarten Housing Foundation, whereas the Seniors pay rent and a maintenance fee, which is deducted monthly from their bank account when their pension income is transferred by SZV the income situation of the seniors: low old age pensions and social allowances. Some even complain, that the social allowance was stopped and renewal denied without a reason being given. Too much paperwork and bureaucracy discourages the seniors from reapplying for financial aid, etc. Seniors that have no family members are not getting help. because of their income situation ,they are not having hot meals every day. transportation issues for the seniors: to go to the doctor, to SMMC or to the hospital on the French side to do tests or to see specialists they are referred to. The cost of transportation is also a big problem for the seniors in Belvedere. To go to the SMMC they have to pay a bus fee of $7,=. They have to go to the government administration building several times to make appointments to get papers from the Census Office and Social Affairs. There are no busses going to the Tax Office and SVB so they have to walk or ask someone to drop them there. Gypsies cost $5,= to go and $5,= to come back, which they cannot afford. The SMSPA encouraged the seniors to speak out and on Saturday they were interviewed by the reporter of SXm Daily News. The interviews will be aired during the news broadcasts this week on the Voice of Sint Maarten radio and in SXm daily News on Channel 15 of Cable TV to draw the attention of the public to the neglect of seniors in Sint Maarten. The Seniors Association will attempt to get meetings with the Sint Maarten Housing Foundation, the Ministry of VSA, the Ministry of VROMI, and the Red Cross to address the complaints of the seniors of the Red Cross Building in Belvedere. PHILIPSBURG:--- On Friday, 9 October 2018, the University of St. Martin (USM) will host an evening of public dialogue on the meaning of Saint Maarten Day, the history and future of the islands people and their cultural and socio-economic development. Guest keynote speakers for this event entitled Soualiga: One island, one people, one destiny, including Daniella Jeffry, who will talk about the people of Soualiga from a historical perspective, and Dr. Rhoda Arrindell, who will offer some reflections on the content of the annual 11 November commemoration. USM is hoping to attract a crowd from both the North- as well as the Southside of the island on Friday evening. If we use the word Soualiga to refer to the entire island, and we make a call to civil society organizations from both the French and Dutch sides to mobilize for this event, I think we can stimulate a broad and fruitful dialogue, said USM President Dr. Antonio Carmona in written statements to the press on Monday. It is important to emphasize that although we are divided into two territories, the people of Soualiga are one and we want to talk about development holistically, looking beyond the borders. Following the introduction and the keynote lecture, French-Dutch national Mrs. Claire Elshot-Aventurin from the Windward Island Chamber of Labour will offer her reactions to the keynote talks in order to kick-off the publics participation. The doors of USMs seminar room will open at 6.30 P.M. on Friday, in order for the public to accommodate themselves on time for the 7 PM event. Refreshments will be provided for by the SXM Anti-poverty Platform, a coalition of civil society organizations and groups dedicated to socio-economic justice. PHILIPSBURG:---Leader of the USP, MP Frans Richardson on Monday disclosed that two members of the TBO arresting team stole jewelry from Francesco Corallo during his arrest and the raid on his residence in December 2016 and was subsequently sent back to Holland without punishment. Richardson made the revelations during the meeting of Parliament on Monday in the presence of Minister of Justice Cornelius DeWeever. MP Richardson is in possession of a document to former Chief Prosecutor Ton Maan from the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie (Common Court of Justice) in which the situation was confirmed and outlined. H. Festen of the Common Court informed Maan that officers R.S. and S.L. stole an amount of jewelry from the home of Corallo on December 13, 2016. They were reported by one of their colleagues who saw them with the jewelry in their possession. The jewelry was taken from the two officers and returned to Corallos home. MP Richardson was especially upset at the fact that Festen informed Maan that he did not see where a crime was committed and the two officers were returned to Holland without punishment. This is stated clearly in his letter. Even worse, Richardson said, Festen said in his letter that we are all human and we all make mistakes and that the most important thing was the arrest of Corallo, that is what matters. Imagine that. So two Dutch officers commit a crime, they stole, and all of a sudden they are humans who make mistakes. While on St. Maarten our officers and others are branded criminals and thieves and locked up. We are parade and made a show of. But they get a slap on the wrist and sent back to Holland on a nice KLM flight to continue working. Impossible, MP Richardson said. The MP went on to ask Minister DeWeever to investigate the issue as the letter is apparently part of an existing Landrecherche report. Additionally, MP Richardson said he will seek a Parliamentary inquiry into the Justice system of St. Maarten. How is it possible that only our people are being prosecuted? They went to the property and was filling their pockets with expensive jewelry and did not report it, but was caught by a colleague. Then was simply sent back home. These things are wrong. They should have been arrested for theft, and paraded like they do our people, Richardson said, adding that he will provide the Minister and Parliament with the documents he has. Malaria Day in the Americas 6 November PAHO urges countries of the Americas to rid the continent of malaria Paraguay eliminated local transmission of the disease this year, and seven other countries are on track to do so by 2020. Other countries, however, have recorded increases in the number of cases of malaria, which is putting achievement of the elimination goal at risk. Washington, DC, 5 November 2018 (PAHO)- Paraguay was certified as having eliminated malaria from its territory in June of this year. Argentina is on track to obtain its certification in 2019, and Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Suriname are potentially on their way to achieving elimination by 2020. Other countries, however, have recorded an increase in the number of cases of malaria, which puts at risk achievement of the goals to reduce the number of cases, and eliminate the disease in the region by 2030. On the eve of Malaria Day in the Americas (6 November), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) urges countries of the region to take urgent action to halt the increase in cases, maintain achievements, and free the continent of malaria, a disease which, during the last century, was the leading cause of death in almost every nation in the world. Malaria elimination is now closer than ever, said PAHO Director, Carissa F. Etienne. However, she also warned that we cannot rely or relax on the actions already taken. Efforts must be stepped-up where incidences of the disease have increased, she added. Since 2015, cases of malaria in the Americas have increased by 71%. 95% of the total number of these cases are concentrated in five countries, mainly in specific areas where efforts against the disease have been weakened. Many of those affected are indigenous populations, people living in situations of vulnerability and mobile populations such as miners and migrants. If we want to eliminate malaria, we need to improve investment and expand access to prevention, diagnosis and timely treatment of the disease in communities where the most cases are concentrated, said Marcos Espinal, Director of the Department of Communicable Diseases and Environmental Determinants of Health at PAHO. Many countries in the Region are expanding their efforts to control and eliminate malaria with the support of PAHO, USAID and other partners. In 2013, the Elimination of Malaria in Mesoamerica and the Island of Hispaniola initiative was launched with the aim of eliminating malaria in 9 countries by 2020. Since then, the Zero Malaria Alliance, launched in 2015, has joined the efforts to achieve this aim of eliminating the disease in two of these countries, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This year, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), along with other collaborators and PAHO as the main technical partner, launched another initiative to accelerate efforts to eliminate malaria in Mesoamerica. This week, PAHO will meet at its headquarters in Washington D.C. with members and representatives from the ten municipalities in the Region where the burden of the disease is most concentrated, to analyze best practices to help control malaria. Representatives from the municipalities of Cruzeiro do Sul (Brazil), Quibdo (Colombia), La Gomera (Guatemala), Les Anglais and Les Irois (Haiti), Puerto Lempira (Honduras), Puerto Cabezas (Nicaragua), Andoas (Peru) and Bermudez and Sifontes (Venezuela) are expected to attend. On November 6, the Malaria Champion of the Americas Awards will also be honored. This years awardees include malaria control programs in two municipalities in Brazil (Alto Rio Solimoes y Machadinho DOeste), the Suriname Ministry of Healths Malaria Program, and Paraguays Malaria Control Program for their efforts towards the elimination of the disease and prevention of its reemergence. Malaria Day in the Americas was created by PAHO Member States during the 2008 Directing Council as an occasion to highlight the need to invest in the prevention and control of the disease in the Americas. It is estimated that regional efforts coordinated by PAHO and its partners have saved hundreds of lives by reducing mortality rates by 30% between 2000 and 2017. PHILIPSBURG:---NAGICO Insurances culminated the month of October on a high note when they presented a donation to the Positive Foundation envisioned to assist the St. Maarten Medical Center to purchase a mammogram machine. President of the Positive Foundation, Shelly Alphonso accepted the check on behalf of the foundation and thanked NAGICO for their generous donation. NAGICO has been a consistent partner of the Positive Foundation since its inception and we are grateful for their unwavering support, she said. NAGICO has entrusted this donation to us and we will ensure that the NAGICOs contribution is forwarded to the St. Maarten Medical Center. At the onset of our 2018 Be Breast Aware campaign, the St. Maarten Medical Center, another reliable partner of the Positive and Elektralytes Foundation, who are responsible for organizing the annual breast cancer awareness campaigns on St. Maarten, indicated that mammography machine was unavailable. However, the foundations were assured that everything was being done to get it restored. On hearing this, NAGICO recognized that this was unique opportunity to give back to the community as part of its 1000 Smiles Project. Breast Cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women and as a company, we are committed to doing everything we can to ensure that we help to bring awareness about this terrible disease, NAGICO Insurances said. With this donation, we are pleased to be able to help provide women the opportunity to get tested on the Dutch side of the island. Shelly Alphonso, President of the Positive Foundation added that The Positive and Elektralytes Foundation in collaboration with the St. Maarten Medical Center have now agreed to extend the 100 free mammogram vouchers program into 2019 given that the mammography machine has restored late October 2018. We are extremely grateful to our partners like NAGICO and the St. Maarten Medical Center for believing in our Be Breast Aware campaign to Feel it, Find It and Fight it. HID Global hails the renewed promise of mobile access Its been almost exactly a decade since HID Global launched the world's first university pilot of smartphones carrying secure mobile IDs. A lot has changed in the following 10 years. Todays technology has matured, advanced, and proliferated across a variety of high-value use cases. To catch up on the latest developments in mobile access, we contacted Luc Merredew, Product Marketing Director, Physical Access Control, at HID Global. Q: What has changed since the first pilot implementation of smartphones used for secure mobile identification? Merredew: One of the biggest milestones several years ago was when mobile access solutions achieved certification to the ISO 27001:2013 Information Security Management System (ISMS) standard. With increasing awareness of cloud-based security threats and resulting high expectations from a solution, todays system owners, operators, and users insist on companies being able to demonstrate that they have had their services vetted by independent laboratories and/or agencies. When adopting mobile access solutions that maximise convenience and efficiency, and deliver dramatically improved user experiences, it is neither necessary nor acceptable to compromise security in either the physical or digital domains. Q: Do universities continue to be the biggest users? Mobile IDs on devices eliminate person-to-person credentials when accessing secured areas Merredew: The use cases have grown dramatically, spread evenly across all types of organisations in locations ranging from high-rise buildings to multi-campus global enterprises. But yes, universities continue to be big adopters, and they were among those most eager to leverage the technology so they could bring people back to campus in person during the pandemic. In this environment, mobile IDs on smartphones and other devices eliminate person-to-person credential (e.g., badge or ID card) issuance or revocation, as well as the need to physically touch cards, readers, or keypads when accessing secured areas. Q: How were mobile IDs employed by your customers as they brought people back to physical locations after the pandemic shutdown? Merredew: One example is Vanderbilt University, where the challenges of COVID-19 brought renewed attention to the importance of a modern system for identity management and access control that was compatible with Near Field Communication (NFC) and Bluetooth technologies. Members of the campus community could more conveniently access buildings and services with their mobile devices, and the university could efficiently provision and de-provision credentials remotely without person-to-person contact. More recently, Vanderbilt leveraged HID Mobile Access to deploy campus IDs on iPhone and Apple Watch through Apple Wallet. Q: Is there another example outside the university vertical? Merredew: Another example is the iconic tower Arcos Bosques Torre 1 in Mexico City, where the owners and tenants enjoy the simplicity of using their trusted mobile devices to seamlessly access their spaces. As with the Vanderbilt deployment, the drive for operational efficiency and convenience in the tower was combined with a desire to minimise the need for users to come in physical contact with the system. Having a solution like HID Mobile Access that delivers touchless entry and increased safety and security is important. Q: What have been the biggest mobile access advancements? The mobile credential provides contactless, seamless access to a wide range of devices and services Merredew: One of the most important advancements was simplifying upgrade paths to mobile access. In the Vanderbilt example, our HID Reader Manager was used to upgrade the firmware on the universitys physical access control readers and extend support for NFC-based credentials in Apple Wallet. The university uses the HID Origo Mobile Identities API integrated with CS Gold, a higher education transaction system from CBORD, for credential lifecycle management. Another significant enhancement has been the expanded range of uses cases for the mobile credential, going beyond simply opening doors to include providing contactless, seamless access to a wide range of devices and services such as time-and-attendance terminals, cashless vending machines, printers, computers, workstations, and many other applications. Q: Wearables are also having an impact. Merredew: Contactless mobile experiences are also delivered through wearable wristbands. One example is the Nymi band which, once authenticated, continuously authenticates the identity of the user until its removed from the wrist. This delivers zero-trust security principles and access control using convenient fingerprint and heartbeat biometrics to users seeking touchless authentication. Q: What is the impact of the cloud? Merredew: The move to a cloud-based system to issue and manage mobile identity credentials has unified, automated, and simplified identity issuance at a single facility or across any number of distributed office or remote work locations. Q: What should end users look for in a mobile access solution? Look for solutions that use a secure element in the reader as well as cloud certificates, to ensure security and data privacy Merredew: Solutions should support the largest possible number of popular mobile devices in HIDs case, this includes more than 250. Look for solutions that use a secure element in the reader, and a secure key management process, as well as cloud certificates, to ensure both security and data privacy. Make sure the solution supports Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Near Field Communication (NFC), and both iOS and Android operating systems. Solutions that provide Application Programming Interface (API) and Software Development Kit (SDK) support offer direct access to the solutions access control hardware, speeding deployment while enabling integration partners to continue innovating products that deliver even better user experiences. Q: Wonder what this market will look like in 10 more years. Whats next for mobile access? Merredew: Future innovations are on the horizon with technologies such as Ultra-Wideband (UWB) wireless connectivity, which HID expects will become ubiquitous on mobile devices. It provides unprecedented accuracy and security when measuring the distance or determining the relative position of a target. It is not HIDs expectation that UWB will replace Near Field Communication (NFC) or Bluetooth, but rather supplement Bluetooth and other technologies to provide the assurance, reliability, and granularity of device position that enables truly seamless experiences. Sorry for the delay in reviews guys, but when life happens time flies by too fast. Nevertheless this didn't prevent Charmed from stepping up their game. While the Pilot episode was decent enough in my opinion, the two follow up episodes made a better job in portraying the sisters, their flaws and virtues and building up on their sisterhood. Let This Mother Out Sweet Tooth Sarah Jeffery's Maggie was an underdog in the Pilot episode and even though the quirks and puns with her were fun the emotional focus this episode provided was very much needed. Maggie is at a turning point in her life at a point where she will shape as a person and grew into whoever she will be tomorrow. All of this with the emotional baggage of her powers and the need to fit in is a heavy burden to carry. Being pushed between Mel and Macy was an interesting point of view and being closed off all the time helped in building up her character and stand her own ground.Introducing the Trickster demon at this point was an interesting choice. While it proved like a valid way to establish their girls and tackle their grief it could've worked a lot better further down the line. The way the Demon tricked itself was a very smart move. While it can mimic their feelings and emotions it couldn't repeat the real emotional pattern of their Mother and it was a great way to expose the Demon.Macy's story this week was solid as well but the writers really need to expand on her emotional baggage. She is a loner by nature and just switching things up this rapidly can't go this smoothly. The struggle within her that transfered to her work was obvious and Macy really has a major broom in her behind. Still, all that makes her interesting to watch. Her struggle to be who she is and adapt tothe life with her sisters is well layered at the moment. As said The writers need to build further on that.Last but not least, Mel's stubborn ways put a couple of roadblocks in their Charmed ways. Her distrust towards Harry proved almost fatal for the sisters though. But even that is okay like Harry said. They aren't the first ones to fall for a Trickster demon. They are vulnerable and of course she would do anything possible to talk her mother once more. She inching up to trusting Harry was nice and their relationship just gets better from this point on. But I'll talk about that a bit later.Mel's interaction with Niko was another highlight. Ellen Tamaki's Niko was definitely the weakest part of the Pilot episode so it was a nice surprise to see her step up to this week and deliver some great comedic and framatic moments. Niko on truth serum was hilarious and served as a great way to open her and Mel's relationship and expose the underlining tension Mel was oblivious too. Really looking forward where the writers will take their relationship from here.Meanwhile the Harpincher demon was inching closer to the girls. . .The third episode of Charmed's freshman run was their best to date. It contained a quality story with the sisters facing their first quality Demon and exploring the outs and odds of their characters.The interactions between Harry and Mel are getting jucier by episode. Their clashes are well written and the chemistry between the character is through the roof. Their scenes flow really well and the "witch coming out" pov worked so well.Mel is a powerful and bright character so exploiting her struggle deeper and understanding why she is fighting so strong against Harry's "opression" made up for some good television. Melonie Diaz once again proved she deserved a place in our Characters to Watch out article as her confession to Harry was deeply moving and delivered on point. After Harry's confession I am looking forward to see them interact more.On the otherside, the sisterly bonding between Maggie and Macy was truly delicious. As them being complete opposites it was really good seeing them find common ground. Maggie already has a sister who is completely different so her searching for common ground with Macy was sweet. Maggie meeting Parker and having that those great sparks with him didn't really go in the direction I wanted. I had him rather be another Demon or Witch and not another girl's boyfriend, but maybe he will turn out to be more than meets the eye.While I am not really convinced by Macy and Galvin's big love story, I love how Macy gets all quirky around him. He opens her up or better says makes her wanting to open up. The reveal that Macy is a virgin was a surprise indeed. It suits to her character and to her loner nature.The hunt for the Harpincher was very well executed and the CGI was quite impressive in my opinion. Leah Lewis was perfect as Angela Wu and her fight against the sisters was quite enjoyable. Mel's Solaris bomb was a bomb indeed and knocking out the Harpincher looked amazing. The lessons about magic and personal gain for Maggie were well placed and combined the seriousness and comedic moments really well. This season of Empire is the year of changes and consequences and these two episodes are the perfect representation of these. Firstly, lets summarize what happened in Love All, Trust a Few and The Depth of Grief. In Love All, Trust a Few, finally Andre is released from prison. The Lyon family continues to work on their brand-new project. Cookie is still working full time along with Portia to attempt to recruit new artist as Devon who could be a key new artist. Once again, Andre tries to impress his father with his help on the business side of things. Jamal is in shock: not having heard from Kai, he goes back to the memory lane of his story with his British boyfriend. The episode has another shocking twist: Giselle and Diana Dubois form a dangerous alliance. I saw this coming but Im interested in how they will deal with this new pair. In "The Depth of Grief", Lucious and Cookie reflect on their new artist Devon: they are not sure if hes ready for the upcoming pressure of his listening party. Hakeem wants to convince (ONCE AGAIN) Tiana that he's matured, but she doesnt trust him after all the hard things they have been through as a couple. In emotional flashback, we find out that they lost their daughter Princess, the twin sister of Prince. In the end, as we all expected, Hakeem screws up. This storyline is becoming boring and repetitive. Finally, Jamal has news about Kai: he is at the hospital. He goes there with Cookie and she learns about Kai's condition of being HIV positive. Clearly, she starts worrying about Jamals future, but finally, Empire is giving Jamal a sane love-interest: he convinces her that he will never hurt Jamal and both Jamal and Kai exchange engagement proposals. Meanwhile, Andre continues to try to get freedom for his innocent, inmate, Quincy. I really enjoyed the second episode and I will tell you why: Empires 71 episodes have finally created a change and a maturation in these characters. Except for Hakeem, Lucious, for example, is different and less close-minded as we got to know him. I really loved how he showed support for Jamal when Cookie was lashing out about the Hiv-positive matter. He is becoming the great father he never was. Jamal and Andre are also heading in a new direction. The only one who is stuck with the old repetitive narrative outcomes is Hakeem. Give him a break, and lets move onplease. If, in the next couple of years, there seems to be fewer gray squirrels sitting alertly under your bird feeders, tails and whiskers a-twitch, do not blame fishers and their full-bodied weaselly ways for their absence. Or coyotes. Or owls and hawks. Or your next-door neighbors barking dog. Blame this years paltry acorn crop. For surveys are showing few acorns in Litchfield County. Were not seeing any, said Diane Swanson, director of the Pratt Nature Center in New Milford. There are definitely not as many as in past years, said Cathy Hagadorn, director of the Connecticut Audubon Societys Deer Pond Farm sanctuary in Sherman. Its definitely not a mast year. But a few miles south, theres hope. Northern Fairfield County may have been blessed this year with enough acorns to keep the environment chugging along. What Im seeing is a good, healthy mast, said Sean McNamara, Reddings tree warden. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection surveys bear this out. DEEP wildlife biologist Michael Gregonis said the agency surveys 12 locations in the state for their acorn crops each year. Each site has 25 red oaks, and 25 white oaks. The DEEP rates each years crop on a scale of 1 to 6. The lower the number, the fewer acorns. The Housatonic River Wildlife Management Area in Kent and Cornwall, scored a 1.9 this year. Huntington State Park in Redding nearly doubled that, at 3.8. Jeff Ward, forester for the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, said spring rains may have washed the pollen out of flowering oaks, ruining the chance of those flowers producing fruit. It may also be there was a frost when they were flowering, the DEEPs Gregonis said. East of the Connecticut River, the acorn straits are dire. Gregonis said the oak trees there having been stressed badly by drought and two years of severe gypsy moth infestations produced almost no fruit this year. Theyre struggling, Ward said aid of those acorn-less trees. They dont have the energy to produce acorns. This matters. Acorns may bop you when you hike and rattle the hood of your car, but they are one of the great drivers of the states ecosystems. They feed a host of rodents, including squirrels gray, red and flying mice and chipmunks. Blue jays cache them for winter snacks. Crows eat them. So do deer. Omnivores like wild turkey and black bear chow down on acorns as well. In mast years which occur in five-to-seven-year cycles oak trees produce a huge amount of acorns, blanketing the ground with their hard-shelled, becapped fruit. Squirrels, chipmunks and mice fatten up and have lots of babies. That means in the following year, theres lots of prey for fox, coyote and raptors. The population evens out. Gregonis said the DEEP has found hunters harvest fewer deer in mast years. Thats because deer, with plenty of food in front of their noses, tend to stay in one spot to feed. They arent forced to wander past hunters stands, or walk into fields to eat grass where theyre easily seen and felled. All those animals caching acorns mean the nuts get spread out across the landscape. That increases the chance that at least one acorn, buried in some sunny spot, will take root and become a tree seedling. Hagadorn, of Deer Pond Farm, said its a testament to the stubborn nature of oak trees that they will produce hundreds of thousands of acorns in their long lives in order to produce just a few seedlings that will grow to become trees. Imagine what would happen with humans if they did something thousands of times, but only succeeded twice, she said. Thank God trees are tough. Hagadorn said that oaks attract thousands of insects in the spring. White oaks, especially, she said. They can be home to hundreds of species of insects. In turn, that means hungry songbirds migrating north will flock to those trees for a much-needed meal. We have a section of white oaks here that we call Scarlet Tanager Row, she said. The birds just line up. Hagadorn said she has advised people that, if theyre looking to plant one tree in their yards to benefit the environment, a white oak is a good choice. It feeds the world in a variety of ways, she said, and provides welcome shade as well. Its the epitome of a giving tree, she said. Contact Robert Miller at earthmattersrgm@gmail.com. U.S. and Israeli officials have expressed concern that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may have less leeway to pursue the gradual warming of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors amid the political fallout from the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The fate of the crown prince, the kingdom's de facto ruler, has implications for the Arab-Israeli peace package developed by the Trump administration and for cooperation among opponents of Iran. "We should not allow an action like that to go unanswered," the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, told an audience last week, referring to Khashoggi's killing. "But we also have to be careful about not throwing away a relationship that has strategic value." "I think the administration, when they know all the facts, are going to have to decide, how can they on the one hand make clear that this action is unacceptable, but also not throw out the prince with the bathwater, let's put it that way." President Donald Trump has called Saudi Arabia a key to regional stability and a valuable purchaser of American arms but has said little publicly about what a diminished role for the kingdom or Mohammed might mean for Israel or Arab-Israeli peace. Trump's chief Mideast envoy, son-in-law Jared Kushner, however, has discussed with diplomats and others how the crown prince's position might affect U.S. plans, people familiar with the discussions said. Saudi Arabia has acknowledged that Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist and contributing Washington Post columnist, was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last month. But the kingdom's shifting explanations have angered and worried some Trump administration officials, who say the episode may leave the prince with less leverage to lead politically or culturally difficult shifts. Mohammed has denounced the killing and denies involvement, but U.S. statements have stopped short of exonerating him. Current and former U.S. officials say the lethal operation could not have occurred without the prince's knowledge and approval. The Trump administration revoked the visas or made travel ineligible for 21 Saudi nationals implicated by Turkey and Saudi Arabia in Khashoggi's death. Israeli officials have become more vocal about separating the killing from the kingdom's strategic value. "What happened in the Istanbul consulate was horrendous and it should be duly dealt with," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday. "Yet at the same time, I say that it is very important for the stability of the world, of the region and of the world, that Saudi Arabia remain stable." "I think that a way must be found to achieve both goals, because I think that the larger problem is Iran," he said. Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmad al-Khalifa tweeted that Netanyahu showed "a clear vision to the stability of the region and the role of Saudi Arabia to keep that stability." Mohammed, known by his initials MBS, has been the leading figure in a tentative and risky strategy to become more open about tacit or secret Israeli-Saudi cooperation. U.S. officials have hoped that he could also be the pivot point for a new, transactional Arab relationship with Israel that would undergird the Trump peace program. That was always a long shot, and it was placed in heavy doubt over the summer. Saudi King Salman, the prince's father, reassured Palestinians and their Arab backers in July that he would not accept a peace plan that ruled out a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. The month before, Saudi and other Arab leaders told Kushner that the Trump administration's decision to move the U.S. Embassy to contested Jerusalem had jeopardized their support for a plan that had seemed imminent. "The Israeli perception is that MBS is much better for their own purposes," a Saudi government official said. "It is true that MBS has mentioned several times he would like to see a different Middle East and wasn't as sympathetic with Palestinians as they might have wished for." And on Iran, "MBS did give Israel more security in the sense that he was framing Iran as the biggest threat," the official said. The official as well as others from the Middle East and elsewhere spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect diplomatic discussions. Trump's chief negotiator, lawyer Jason D. Greenblatt, was in Israel this weekend amid signs that the plan, repeatedly shelved in recent months, may be released soon. At the time of his last meeting with Netanyahu, in late September, Trump had said the plan would be made public in two to four months. Khashoggi was killed a week after that meeting, and it is not yet clear whether it altered the White House timeline. The plan is expected to offer the possibility of a package deal for a settlement among Israel and Arab neighbors. Saudi pressure on the Palestinians to accept a settlement is considered crucial. The Trump peace package has undergone several revisions, including a step back from a plan to soften the ground for talks and increase pressure on the Palestinians to accept a deal, said a foreign diplomat familiar with aspects of the White House thinking. The crown prince was supposed to be a key figure in that approach but had already "had his wings clipped" somewhat over the embassy move when the Khashoggi case added new questions about his influence, the diplomat said. "MBS is not going to do the heavy lifting expected before now, and they are deciding what to do next," the diplomat said. An Israeli government official said Saudi Arabia is already playing a main role by allowing or encouraging small diplomatic steps over the past month. Saudi Arabia, the most powerful gulf Arab state, has sent signals to Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain condoning diplomatic overtures to Israel, the official said. "All the current steps between Israel and especially gulf states wouldn't have been possible without the backing of the Saudis," the official said. "And the change of mind inside the Saudi has, from our perspective, a lot to do with MBS. He did open the door for more visible and official relationships with countries in the region." Netanyahu visited Oman late last month, the highest-level contact between the countries since 1996. The talks were focused on the prospects for peace and on Iran, diplomats said. Netanyahu's office called the trip "a significant step in implementing the policy outlined by Prime Minister Netanyahu on deepening relations with the states of the region while leveraging Israel's advantages in security, technology and economic matters." The goal is to combine forces against Iran and open Israel's strong economy to greater Arab investment and partnership. "We welcome the warming ties & growing cooperation between our regional friends," Greenblatt tweeted about the visit. "This is a helpful step for our peace efforts & essential to create an atmosphere of stability, security & prosperity between Israelis, Palestinians & their neighbors. Looking forward to seeing more meetings like this!" Dermer, the Israeli ambassador, told an audience at Congregation Beth Israel in Houston, that he is "more optimistic about the prospects for reconciliation in our region than I have ever been," because of what he called a shift in Arab thinking about the value of a strategic relationship with Israel. "I see a change that is happening in the broader Arab world ... for the first time in 70 years," Dermer said. "Arab governments recognize that Israel is not the enemy, but a potential partner in confronting Iran, in confronting radical Sunni Islam." T he world of beauty brings with it a number of inalienable truths: shiny hair is a good thing; a shiny forehead, less so. As for nails, glossy is also a given for healthy, well-tended talons. But this season the shine has come off lacquered polish as more and more manicure enthusiasts are opting for a matte finish. But while they may lack lustre, matte nails are far from dull. Were loving matte nails at the salon at the moment, says Tina Michael, founder of cult east London parlour Shoreditch Nails. Its the perfect way to transform a mani in a subtle way. Among the most popular styles being requested include multi-coloured pastel matte nails and negative space nail art, which technicians achieve with a matte topcoat from either its vegan LA-export polish of choice, NCLA, or CND shellac gel for a longer-lasting result. Matte nails are perfect for a minimalist style, or people looking to introduce new nail techniques but dont want to go the whole hog with crazy nail art, Michael explains. Hello! My Name is: Matte Gel, $21.00 For an even more low-key style, let Stella McCartneys autumn/winter 18 catwalk show serve as your inspiration. Backstage, manicure maestro Marian Newman created a fresh, healthy and barely-there matte look using non-toxic polish brand Kure Bazaar. First, she applied its sheer Rose Milk pink shade, followed by the Clean matte base coat layered on top in reverse. Stella McCartney autumn/winter 2018 / AFP/Getty Images To try the look at home, Margaret Dabbs Matte Base Coat (14, margaretdabbs.co.uk) features a natural, healthy pink flush and comes with the added benefit of containing strengthening vitamin E and leaving nails softly scented with roses, while top coats from the likes of Nailberry (17, nailberry.co.uk) and RGB Cosmetics (15, net-a-porter.com) will mattify any polish instantly while remaining free from any harmful chemicals. 22, Chanel The velvet formula of Dolce & Gabannas matte top coat (21, harrods.com) also promises to prolong the lifespan of your colour, making it less prone to chips, while Chanel has gone one step farther by introducing two of its most popular shades a deep burgundy and classic red in a velvet finish (22, chanel.com) as part of its new Le Mat de Chanel winter collection which has already sold out. Nailed it. B rittany Ferries on Monday sounded the alarm over Brexit, and said Brits are holding off on booking 2019 holidays until they get more clarity about future travel agreements, including whether pets can come. The transport firm said typically at this time of year families buy trips for the following August. However, bookings are currently down by around 5%. At peak summer times, Brittany Ferries can have 12 departures a day from the English coast, carrying as many as 2500 passengers per vessel. The company, which operates from Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth and whose ships travel to Spain and France, said people are waiting to hear if we get a good [Brexit] deal. A spokesman added: Loyal customers have a number of questions, including whether they can take pets abroad after March 2019, whether they will need a visa and if their European health insurance cards will still be valid. Brittany Ferries, led by Christophe Mathieu, is concerned that a no-deal Brexit could make it more difficult for holidaymakers to take trips, and therefore make trading much tougher. It has previously warned that if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal, that could also impact Brittany, Normandy and the Loire, regions that have benefited directly from the links Brittany Ferries has established. C laudia Lambeth makes starting a business look easy. I was this crazy 22-year-old thinking, Im just going to go and do it. So many people doubted me and said, No, youre ridiculous, you cant do it. Six years ago, unfazed, fresh out of university and with a little bit of savings because my grandfather passed away, Lambeth laid the foundations for Luna Mae, a bespoke luxury lingerie brand. I knew there were a few things wrong with the industry. More than 86% of women wear the wrong bra size. Theres no education surrounding it. At the same time, the way the High Street is geared up for women to shop lingerie it can be very impersonal, very intimidating, says the entrepreneur. I also felt that the words luxury lingerie were thrown around so much and often the material wasnt nice; you could see all the bits of elastic on the inside. Luna Mae opened its flagship store-cum-atelier on Elizabeth Street in Belgravia last year. Lambeths team of seamstresses, cutters and fitters work around the clock downstairs to make lingerie and loungewear from scratch for customers around the world who are prepared to part with a small fortune. A pair of knickers costs 360, while a hand-painted corset with crystals can reach 8,000. Were now fully booked until after January and we cant take more work, says the 28-year-old, who is trying to recruit apprentices from fashion colleges to teach them the tricks of the trade. She did, after all, spent countless hours pulling bras apart to learn how to make them better before she officially launched the business in 2014, . For a silk bra, her team can draw up more than 50 pattern pieces, millimetre by millimetre, to make sure theyre perfect. And her Savile Row approach is paying off. Around 85% of her customers are regulars and the business turns over 1 million. The firm has raised just under 700,000 from a clutch of angel investors, including Luna Maes chairman, Will Hobhouse, who also chairs posh furniture store Heals. Lambeth now owns 70% of the business, But running a lingerie business still comes with some stigma, she admits. People think they can ask you totally inappropriate questions. You just think, Ignore it, thats just their narrow- mindedness that theyre going to try to make you feel small. Its important to enable yourself to have a voice, be strong and resilient and not let that stuff get to you, but it does happen. Lambeth was born in Guildford, Surrey, and grew up in West Sussex with her father, a musician who owns a flooring business, after her parents divorced when she was eight. She went to Wellington College, a boarding school for girls in Berkshire, and then studied law at Kings College London despite her protestations that she would rather start a fashion business than sit in lectures and be bored out of my mind. Her parents said no. Her knack for clothing prevailed. She took evening courses at the London College of Fashion and spent weekends and holidays doing internships in PR, marketing, design, styling and writing for magazines to understand the sector. Lambeth registered her company name in her final year at Kings and, after graduating, spent a few months at lingerie brand Kiki de Montparnasse, in New York. I asked loads of questions. I was the annoying intern. What does this do? Where did you get this from? When she returned to London, she began making and selling bras in hotel rooms, with help from a pattern-maker. It definitely took a while at first [for the business to take off], she says. Lambeth used her contacts in the media to help build momentum and orders started to trickle in. Her biggest order so far has been for 80,000. She recently won the Entrepreneurs accolade at the Barclaycard everywoman in Retail awards. The firm is profitable and lean because it doesn't hold stock. She says: The great thing about a small business is that you can be quite reactive, you can pivot if you need to. You also wont find Luna Maes wares elsewhere for now: exclusive intimacy is part of the appeal. Luna Mae Founded: 2012 Staff: 8 Turnover: 1m Business idol: Jo Malone, Emily Weiss, Natalie Massenet I have a lot of idols, it makes you feel less lonely [as an only founder]. Best moment: I had a client who saved up to buy a bra to transform the way she felt about herself. At the final fitting, she cried. It doesnt matter the price of the order. Its just feeling how happy that woman is. Worst moment: I nvestors looking for a rounded small-cap portfolio dont have many options in the food and supermarket space. One of these, Produce Investments which owns the Jersey Royal Company is in the process of being snapped up by private equity, while butchers chain Crawshaw last week went bust. Investors therefore have to look further afield for exposure, with one stock called Zambeef looking promising. No one is going to walk away with millions investing in Zambeef, but it could offer some steady growth for a rounded small cap portfolio. The firm is the biggest supermarket player in Zambia, with 206 stores under the name Macro, selling beef, chicken, milk, egg and pork. It also farms the products it sells. The Macro stores are aimed at ordinary Zambians, and finance director Craig Harris says the business is very cash-generative. Last year it posted revenues of $255.8 million (196.9 million), up from $219.4 million in 2016. Analysts expect full-year profits to come in at between $4.2 million and $4.9 million. It has plans to move into neighbouring countries, including DR Congo and Tanzania. Zambeef also has concessions in Shoprites, Africas largest supermarket group, headquartered in South Africa. The company runs the butcheries in Shoprites in 24 stores in Zambia, 25 in Nigeria and six in Ghana. The share price has been held back by its debt. It was borrowing money in US dollars and then having to deal with the wild fluctuations in the Zambian kwacha. The company, which floated at 46p in 2011, expects year-end net debt of $59 million, nearly $10 million higher than what the City expects. Harris says it is selling non-core assets to pay down the debt but the City wants the company to do more. On the plus side Zambia is politically stable, known as the Switzerland of Africa. So far it has avoided the violence which has plagued its neighbours. The British government has also invested in the company through its development finance arm, CDC Group. Harris says the investment has helped it become ISO compliant and export certified, meaning it can export to first world economies. A s boardroom bust-ups go, the one at Velocity Composites is shaping up to be as nasty as it gets. On Friday, the aviation suppliers founders wrote to executive chairman Mark Mills via their lawyers demanding he and his board members resign today. Founders Gerard Johnson, Christopher Banks and Jon Bridges, who collectively own 42% of the company, are understood to be unhappy with the way the AIM-listed company is being run and have demanded wholesale change. Former chief executive Bridges, who resigned from the board just last month, wants to return, as does Peter Turner who retired in February. The spokesman for the company, which makes parts for the likes of Boeing and Airbus, said there had been a big falling out and that this was now being played out in public. It is understood that Mills has no plans to resign, with the company describing the potential reappointment of Bridges and Turner as damaging. Shares rose 1p to 30p. At the top end of the market the FTSE 100 was up 3.31 points at 7097.43. Russian steekmaker Evraz, whose largest shareholder is Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, was the biggest riser on the blue-chip index, up 30.8p at 568.9p, closely followed by gold miner Fresnillo, which rose 9.2p to 891p as metal prices improved. But construction supplier Ashstead was leading the Footsie fallers, with its share price down 60.5p at 1903.5p, after Barclays cut its target price for the company to 2200p from 2580p. It was followed closely by luxury fashion house Burberry, 37.5p lower at 1827.5p, ahead of its latest financial results on Thursday. Also among the losers were Barclays and Lloyds, the surprise laggards in the EU bank stress tests, whose results were released after markets closed on Friday. Lloyds shares lost 0.2p to 59.3p and Barclays fell 0.66p to 175.66p. Further down the market, North Sea operator Serica Energy struck a deal with commodities giant BHP Billiton to up its stakes in two fields. Serica said the deals will cement its position as a leading independent offshore operator and producer in the North Sea. Under the deal with BHP, Serica will acquire BHPs 16% interest in Bruce and a 31.8% stake in Keith for an initial 1 million. Serica shot up 10p, or 8.4%, to 129p and BHP rose 3.8p, or 0.24%, to 1615p. T he founder and boss of Saudi-backed tech giant SoftBank on Monday deplored the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi but fell short of severing ties with the kingdom. Masayoshi Son withdrew from a Saudi investor conference last month after the Washington Post employee was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. On Monday, Son said: It is true that a horrible incident happened, but we also have a responsibility that we must uphold for the future of the people in Saudi Arabia. He said SoftBanks executives sincerely hope [Saudi Arabia] will provide a responsible explanation, but added: We have accepted funds from the people of Saudi that will be critical to diversifying the economy so that it will not be dependent only on oil. Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund is the largest investor in SoftBanks Vision Fund after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ploughed $45 billion (35 billion) into it. Sons remarks came after Softbank reported a 78% rise in operating profits to 706 billion yen (4.8 billion) for the quarter to the end of September, exceeding analysts expectations. Its shares, however, have slumped 20% since the murder of Khashoggi. The Japanese investment fund has spent billions on tech firms and start-ups, including its 24 billion swoop on British chip-designer Arm Holdings in 2016. It also backed Improbable, a British virtual reality firm, with $500 million last year and was close to investing in takeaway firm Deliveroo, but walked away because of its existing investment in rival Uber Eats. Speaking in Tokyo, Son added: Next year, I believe we will not only exceed these results, but may even deliver an operating profit on the level that Japan has never experienced before. B rexit fears cast a deep chill over UK growth prospects on Monday as Theresa May desperately gropes for a breakthrough in negotiations with the European Union. The latest alarming snapshot from the biggest slice of the economy, the services sector, showed the pace of expansion at its weakest for seven months and new business wins at a two-year low. Octobers Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply activity index, where a score over 50 signals growth, weakened from 53.9 to a far worse than expected 52.2, the worst since March. If that trend continues, the economy is on track for growth of just 0.2% in the final quarter of the year, less than half the pace of the previous three months. Chris Williamson, chief business economist at survey compiler IHS Markit, said the economys expansion was likely to weaken sharply. He added: The disappointing numbers bring mounting evidence that Brexit worries are taking an increasing toll on the economy. Service covers a clutch of businesses from hairdressers to IT professionals. Consumer-facing sectors such as hotels, restaurants and cinemas saw the weakest performance. Manufacturers also saw stuttering growth over the month, while housebuilders have warned over growing housing market caution in a difficult autumn for the economy. While the Prime Minister is reportedly hopeful of sealing a deal with Brussels, any agreement is unlikely to be voted on until December at the earliest, spelling lingering uncertainty. Cips director Duncan Brock said firms were reluctant to commit, while higher wage bills and energy prices were adding to the pressure. Clarity around Brexit may turn this around but time is running out and this downward slide should be a wake-up call that progress must be made now, he said. The gloom comes after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned last week that nervy businesses were understandably delaying investment. But the UKs Brexit-related woes come against a darkening global backdrop of cooling European growth, worries over China and a belligerent White House ramping up trade tensions with the rest of the world. US growth is expected to cool next year. D owning Street has been letting everyone know that it is close to reaching an agreement with the EU. Why? Well, it beats the alternative headlines about how close Theresa May is to getting the sack from Tory MPs. Having bought some momentum with last weeks Budget (quite literally, at a cost of about 100 billion), Number 10 is eager to sustain it. Here are three things to remember as you follow the twists of the negotiations. First, remember that the deal under discussion is just about the divorce terms for Brexit and the transition that follows it involves little of substance on the key issue of Britains long-term relationship with the EU once we leave. That is not what the Government hoped for. At her Lancaster House speech in January 2017, Mrs May said: I want us to have reached an agreement about our future partnership by the time the two-year Article 50 process has concluded. Thats because she knows that the moment we leave, what little leverage Britain has in negotiating that partnership will disappear. But with just five months left, there is no prospect of reaching that agreement now. Indeed, because the Conservative Party is completely split on what the permanent relationship with the EU should look like (Chequers? Canada Plus? EEA?), it would be fatal for the May premiership if she did settle on one outcome Its now in her short-term political interests, if not the long-term interests of the British economy, to keep it vague. So a political deal on something called a future economic partnership or FEP is under discussion. That is euro code for Britain saying: we cant tell you what we want, so were keeping all options on the table. All that Mrs May is now trying to deliver is an orderly divorce from the EU and agreement to a transition period thereafter in other words, an expensive bridge to nowhere. It is exactly the opposite of what her Government set out to achieve two years ago. Broken bridges Second, remember Mrs May thought she had built that bridge last December. It has fallen apart since. Thats because the price she paid for the agreement with the EU was her commitment to a backstop: unless the UK came up with a credible alternative, then the border would be kept open by ensuring that Northern Ireland, at least, would remain in the customs union. For some reason, the then Foreign Secretary and Brexit Secretary didnt read the small print and realise the significance of that. Nor did the Democratic Unionist Party, whose support Mrs May has depended on ever since she lost the Conservatives their majority. When the powerful block of Scottish Tory MPs understood that the price of leaving the EU would be the carving up of the UK, they rebelled. As a result, plans for a special arrangement for Northern Ireland have been abandoned by Downing Street. Theyre now briefing that, as an EU concession, Brussels will agree to the whole of the UK remaining in a customs union unless and until an alternative plan is agreed. Its not a concession; its a huge climbdown by a British government. Third, remember that the real sticking point that remains is whether this transition period is temporary or time limited. The Brexiteers demand that it must come to an end. As Boris Johnson says today: Brexit was meant to be about taking back control. Under this plan, we surrender control to Brussels. Leading Remainers like Dominic Grieve agree with him. So the Tories are demanding that Mrs May impose a deadline of the end of 2020 for when the transition and backstop ends. When the Prime Minister suggested last month that it might be extended, there was Tory uproar. So she backed off. But this is where reality bites. No one in the real world believes that the transition will be over by 2020. No one thinks that this House of Commons is capable of agreeing what the permanent arrangement we are transitioning to should be. No one, after todays statement from the Irish government and EU Commission, should assume that the backstop will be anything other than permanent. T he cold, hard rain was forming rivers down the mud streets of the refugee camp near Mosul when I visited. Shivering in the entrance of the tent she calls her school, 12-year-old Lana proudly showed me her drawing of a forest. Except it was a field full of tree stumps. Each one, she calmly explained to me through a translator, represented a member of her Yazidi community cut down by the fanatics of Islamic State when they murdered and raped their way through her town four years ago. Her classmate Ahmeds drawing was more direct. It was a picture of kneeling captives in orange jump suits and the men in black about to kill them with guns and swords. These children had seen things no person should see. One of the children in the refugee camp, Ahmed, explains his artwork to Evening Standard editor George Osborne / Claire Thomas Here I was in Iraq, whose tragedy imprinted itself more than any other on my two decades in British politics, but a place which until two weeks ago I had never visited. I had come with War Child, the brilliant London-based charity that helps those children caught up in conflicts around the world. Their trained therapists use art as one way to help with childhood trauma. Hope for the future: the brilliant charity War Child is helping children caught up in conflicts around the world / Claire Thomas This autumn, the Evening Standards Learn to Live campaign has been supporting the charity and connecting schoolchildren in our capital with those in refugee camps like the ones I visited. The charity was founded back in the early Nineties to help victims of the Yugoslav civil war. That terrible slaughter on our own continent provided a backdrop to my years as I left university and started work. Srebrenica, then Rwanda, these were the places that shamed a western world that did nothing to stop the killing. It shaped my view that intervention for humanitarian reasons and against evil regimes, where possible, was the right approach. A decade later, in 2003, I was a new MP when I was asked to vote to back the invasion of Iraq, and did. Robin Cooks resignation speech, Tony Blairs impassioned appeal on the eve of the crucial division, I watched it all from the opposition benches. The then Prime Minister told us MPs in that highly charged Commons debate that the decision we took would determine the pattern of international politics for the next generation. He was right but for the wrong reasons. The failure to find weapons of mass destruction, the chaos and killing that followed, did set the course of international politics for a generation. It set the US on a course of retreating from the rest of the world. It poisoned politics in our country. And it made it much harder to argue the case for intervention in other humanitarian cases. Yes, the immediate threat of a massacre in Benghazi spurred the government I was part of, with French allies, to take action to stop Colonel Gaddafis murdering forces. Libya was in a state of civil war before we intervened; the fact that it was still a mess after we left was taken as proof by the isolationists who say the West should never get involved. When I argued inside the National Security Council in 2012 that we should intervene aggressively to stop the slaughter of the emerging Syrian civil war, I was met with the reply by anxious colleagues: no, not another Iraq. When David Cameron asked Parliament in 2013 to back limited strikes against the Assad regime in Syria to deter their use of chemical weapons against civilians, he was met with the reply by a cynical opposition: no, not another Iraq. On each occasion, we were told about the cost of getting involved the loss of life that could follow, the financial burden that would incur, the unpredictable outcome. What wasnt so clear was the cost of not getting involved in Syria: the horrific loss of life that we didnt prevent, the chaos we didnt try to end, the door we opened for Russia, the mass refugee flows we failed to stop, the poisoning of the politics of Europe that followed and the ungoverned space we left and which the so-called Islamic State (IS) emerged to occupy, then expand over the border into Iraq. Mr Zain knows the cost of our failure to get involved. I was invited into the tent he shares with his family. He told me about the life they used to have, with his house, his own shop and their small plot of farmland. Then he recalled the night in 2014 when IS arrived. He and his family ran and ran, up the nearby mountain. There on the top they remained, he told me, exposed to the elements and listening in fear as the killers approached in the dark. After seven days, Kurdish Peshmerga forces arrived to save them and they have lived under their protection in this refugee camp ever since. To this day, he and his family do not know the fate of their relatives and neighbours who did not escape. They assume all the men are dead. But the women and children were taken into slavery, and many remain trapped with their captors. Children being taught in the school set up in the refugee camp / Claire Thomas This is a story that almost no one tells, for we here in the West think Islamic State has been defeated. Yes, it has been decimated and drastically pushed back, out of towns such as Mosul and Raqqa. I saw for myself some of the charred hulks of the homemade tanks like bizarre props from a Mad Max movie that the Peshmerga had destroyed. I met the Iraqi children who had lived under IS and whose families are now interned in a camp near Erbil, suspected of collaboration and abandoned by most charities except War Child. What no one knows is how many women and children are the slaves of IS, as they retreated into northern Syria What no one knows is how many women and children remain the slaves of IS, as they retreated into northern Syria. All we can imagine is their misery and suffering. We are long past the point where Britain might intervene in Syria. When the Presidents of Turkey and Russia met the French and German leaders last month in Istanbul to discuss that countrys fate we were not even invited to the meeting. But my trip, as Editor of the Evening Standard, to the refugee camps of Iraq was a reminder that we cannot walk away from obligations we have to provide a safer world for victims of our self-satisfied inaction. Join Our Campaign - how you can help A h! Its Guy Fawkes tonight! Doesnt it take you back? Threading through a crowd in the flickering dark with your small mittened hand in the larger mittened hand of your mum or dad. Thick socks, wellies squelching in cold mud, wood smoke in your eyes, taste of toffee apples, smell of baked spuds in ash-covered and blackened tinfoil, and the aftertrails of sparklers gold and purple and green on your retinas. The fizz of Catherine Wheels and the wail and pop and bang of rockets overhead the best bit when a rocket seems to fizzle in the sky, hanging silent at the top of its arc, before bursting thunderously into a waterfall, a weeping willow, a magnesium dandelion clock. Mine is now the bigger mitten. The excitement and wonder are diluted with melancholy these days. But the basic feeling is the same. Its community, continuity, an essence of Englishness transmitted through sensory experience from one generation to the next. And its easy enough to lose sight in that of what a really weird ritual it is, and what sort of Englishness it transmits. I mean, were all worried these days about the tone we take in public discourse. We fret over whether its appropriate to talk about attack dogs and stabs in the back. Yet here, for the kiddies, is the ritual celebration of a vicious judicial murder, and a tribute to the joys of using torture and violence against religious minorities all dressed up as a triumphant affirmation of the sanctity of Parliament. Come on: you cant really pretend wed have kept it up all these years with such gusto if it had simply been a yah-boo to Guy Fawkes himself. Nobody, not even Ted Heath, could bear a grudge that long. Its still with us, surely, because to so many stout-hearted Englishmen over the years it has made a very appealing case for the general jollity of setting fire to Catholics. Poor old Guy Fawkes. He wanted to blow up Parliament, and he imagined his cause was just. Given the popularity of political elites these days, its hard not to think hed poll a high level of support for the general sentiment, though we might cavil at the means. (My colleague points out that it mightnt have been such an unpopular notion back then, either.) And its telling that the face of protest on the streets and on the internet is the Guy Fawkes mask David Lloyd drew for Alan Moores graphic novel V for Vendetta. "Like many campaigners against Westminsters elite then and now, Fawkes was the lower-class cats paw" Like so many campaigners against the Westminster elite then and now, he was the lower-class cats paw of some powerful and entitled vested interests. And how do we celebrate the survival of King and Parliament? We do the next best thing to burning money: we send up fireworks. Hundreds and hundreds and thousands of pounds whooshing into the sky in flames, to put on a pretty but ephemeral display and remind us were British. Theres a metaphor in all that somewhere, but Im damned if I can make it out. You cant bank on Arron for any clarity on Brexit I don't specially join the howl-round of outrage that Arron Banks should not have been given a platform on the BBC while under criminal investigation. The President of the United States seems to be under criminal investigation, and he still gets to go on the telly. Theres an old dear, it emerged yesterday, who was questioned under caution for a hate-crime by Thames Valley Police after beeping her horn at an Afro-Caribbean lady who was dilly-dallying at the petrol pumps and I cant see in principle, that she should be prevented from speaking to the Horsham Advertiser or, for that matter, appearing as a guest on Family Fortunes. No, let spivvy Mr Banks prejudice his own trial if he wants. What I wondered was what the BBC hoped to get out of it. The whole story of Brexit is one of complex and opaque paper trails, fine points of procedure and little-understood details of law. Thats why were in this mess the idea that anything important about it can be encapsulated in a ringing soundbite. Its almost inconceivable that you could expect to get closer to the truth, one way or the other, in a 20-minute chat with Andrew Marr on a sofa. *I was watching one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies with my kids, and a running gag was the music the family played in the car on their road trip. Mum and Dad put on Wannabe, and their pre-teen offspring groaned in mortification. Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell / Rex Features Not the Spice Girls! Thats old-people music! As someone whod been to see the Pixies play Kentish Town a few days previously, this really hurt. I told my brother about this, and he reports having a young colleague who had, genuinely, never heard of the Spice Girls. M use have announced two huge UK stadium shows for 2019. The band will perform dates at the London Stadium and Manchester's Etihad Stadium in June as part of the Simulation Theory world tour. The announcement comes ahead of the groups album Simulation Theory, which is released on November 9. Muse will visit the US and Europe over the course of the tour, beginning in Houston on February 22 and concluding in Madrid on July 26. The group last performed in London back in 2017, when they played an intimate show at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire What tour dates are Muse performing? The band will play the following UK shows. June 1 London Stadium June 8 Manchester, Etihad Stadium How to get Muse tickets Tickets for the UK shows go on sale at 9am on Friday November 16. They can be purchased here. The Supremes Any number of girl groups on the Motown label in the 60s could have made the list, not least Martha and the Vandellas and The Marvelettes, but The Supremes are certainly one of the most influential groups of all time and thoroughly deserve to be recognised as such. The group enjoyed 12 number ones between and 1964 and 1969, becoming the most popular Motowns most successful act of the decade. Songs like Baby Love, Stop! In the Name In Love and You keep Me Hanging On are pop at its purest, and while Diana Ross went on to leave the group and become a huge star in her own right, theres a timeless nature to the music of The Supremes that will endure for decades to come. Breddos Hawker House, Canada Street, SE16; Dinerama, Great Eastern Street, EC2; Dalston Yard, Hartwell Street, E8 @breddostacos Breddos doesnt just do the number one taco in London. It does numbers two and three as well, say fellow street-food traders. Not bad for a former ad exec and stockbroker who got into tacos to keep themselves out of trouble at the weekends. What makes Nud Dudhia and Chris Whitneys tacos such podium-toppers are their ingredients: specials include Galician rib-eye with buttermilk onion rings and kung pao pork belly with jalapenos. As for their classics, Breddos fried chicken is some of Londons best even without a taco cloak. Little wonder theyve got both a cookbook and a restaurant Pocho in Lewisham coming later this year. B BC newsreader Simon McCoy was hilariously taken aback by the Spice Girls reunion announcement and expressed concern over Victoria Beckhams absence from the line-up. The 57-year-old presenter, who has decades of broadcast experience, said the news left him in shock. It came as Mr McCoy was discussing the tour on Monday after playing the groups announcement video on BBC News. As the clip ended, he paused and said: I'm in shock. What struck me there is actually without Victoria, will the music suffer? TODO: define component type apester Ms Izundu began to laugh at his comment, announced in a particularly straight and serious tone, and repeated the will the music suffer? line back to him. She said she did not think the music would suffer, but it wont feel like the original line up. Mr McCoy said well thats good when he was told the music would not be too badly affected. The Spice Girls top 10 fashion moments 1 /10 The Spice Girls top 10 fashion moments 1997 The Brit Awards PA 1997 The MTV Video Awards Getty Images 1997 The Billboard Music Awards Getty Images 1997 Spice World: the movie Spice Productions 1997 With Prince Charles at the Royal Gala PA 1997 The Spice Girls on stage in Spice World Getty Images 1997 At the premiere of Spice World PA Wire/PA Images 1997 During the 50th Cannes Film Festival PA 1998 At the premiere of Spice World in Hollywood Getty Images 1998 The Spice Girls at a press conference PA Continuing to quiz the reporter on the announcement, he exhaled deeply before a stifled laugh then said: I should have prepared for this. Then asked: Principally this is a big deal isnt it? Ms Izundu said yes and spoke of their performance at the Olympic games in London. After this she also explained how the band encouraged girl power. The group made a comedy news video to announce the news / Twitter/ Spice Girls Continuing his straight tone, he asked: Just allow me to slightly cynical for a moment are they short of cash? Whats behind this? He was told how the members had all had successful other projects following and they all have made money in their own right. Mr McCoy also said he had previously seen the group before, then said the excitement is tangible, before telling the camera to point to a laughing Ms Izundu. As well as this comical exchange, on Twitter he replied to a post from the BBC about the tour which said say youll be there with a simple no. The iconic group will reunite for a six-date UK tour in June 2019. The tour will begin at Manchester's Etihad Stadium on June 1 before heading to Coventry's Ricoh Arena, Sunderland's Stadium of Light, Edinburgh's BT Murrayfield Stadium and Bristol's Ashton Gate Stadium. Full list of tour dates: June 1 - Manchester Etihad Stadium June 3 - Coventry Ricoh Arena June 6 - Sunderland Stadium of Light June 8 - Edinburgh BT Murrayfield Stadium June 10 - Bristol Ashton Gate Stadium P imm's, tequila, vodka many countries have drinks which form a huge part of that national heritage. Whilst some can be found all over the globe, others are a secret kept for the locals. An online slots portal has created an interactive new graphic showing 19 obscure drinks from around the world that you probably haven't tried. The list spans beers, spirits, and liqueurs, with unusual ingredients ranging from artichokes to aniseed. Some are so culturally specific that you'd struggle to find them anywhere except the places where they're made, and many have their own drinking rituals and traditions. Although you may have heard of a few, like British mead or Norwegian glgg, this definitely isn't a menu you'll find at your local pub. AMARO, ITALY: The weirdest of Italy's many aperitifs and digestifs. This after-dinner liqueur can be flavoured with walnuts, artichokes, black truffle, and even rhubarb. When you get to the end of one of the best meals of your life and you see your own amaro on the after-dinner menu, you order it. Because it's rare to just get to enjoy your own stuff for itself. A post shared by Skip Tognetti (@lp_distilling) on Jul 29, 2017 at 1:05pm PDT SUZE, FRANCE: An aperitif with earthy and floral notes, Suze is a slightly sweet bitters which works well in plenty of cocktail recipes. It's made from gentian, a root that grows in the French mountains. Verre de #suze - saveur d'autrefois - #nofilter A post shared by Jacob Oppenheim (@jacob.oppenheim) on Jul 31, 2017 at 4:34pm PDT KVASS, RUSSIA: This fizzy drink is made of rye bread, and only just counts as alcohol. Kvass, developed as an alternative to Coca-Cola, typically has an alcohol content between 0.5% and 1%. #edmundsoast #kvass #sourbeer #charleston A post shared by Marlene Quintero (@marquiort) on Jul 21, 2017 at 6:54pm PDT PATXARAN, SPAIN: This sweet liqueur is made with coffee, sloe berries, and cinnamon or anise. It's best served over ice after dinner. Ahora si, empiezan las vacaciones de verdad. Toca dedicarme tiempo a mi y no pensar siempre en los demas antes que en mi mismo. #Vacaciones #Navarra #Patxaran A post shared by Nacho (@nachete1992) on Jul 31, 2017 at 7:33am PDT CHICHA DE JORA, PERU: This is a beer made from jora corn, and the recipe dates back to Inca times. In Peru's Sacred Valley, it is tradition to spill the first sip of this sweet and sharp brew as an offering to the Earth Mother. Airbnb's top solo travel destinations 2017 1 /11 Airbnb's top solo travel destinations 2017 Click through to discover Airbnb's top solo travel destinations for 2017 Shutterstock / baranq 1. Cancun, Mexico Shutterstock / Jenny Sturm 2. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Shutterstock / Sean Hsu 3. Cologne, Germany Shutterstock / 75tiks 4. Playa Del Carmen, Mexico Shutterstock / Patryk Kosmider 5. Johannesburg, South Africa Shutterstock / Ariadna22822 6. Sao Paulo, Brazil Shutterstock / f11photo 7. Auckland, New Zealand Shutterstock / Dmitri Ogleznev 8. Mexico City, Mexico Shutterstock / Kamira 9. Charlotte, North Carolina, USA Shutterstock / CLS Digital Arts 10. Busan, South Korea Shutterstock / Tanwa Kankang JENEVER, NETHERLANDS: This juniper-flavoured liqueur is gin's less famous predecessor. Jenever is usually taken straight, as a shot, or as a chaser after beer. #prostje #prost #deprael #jenever A post shared by Paulo Vitor Bastos (@pv.bastos) on Jul 29, 2017 at 2:33pm PDT MAKGEOLLI, SOUTH KOREA: This semi-sweet milky drink is made by mixing wheat or rice with a Korean fermentation agent. Makgeolli has as much alcohol as a strong beer, between 6% and 8%. Makgeolli please??? #yeas #makgeolli #itwasnttherightone A post shared by Noriko Zaragoza (@missnorikozaragoza) on Jul 29, 2017 at 9:13pm PDT LAKKA, FINLAND: Made by fermenting cloudberries for up to six months, Lakka is a sweet and rich liqueur. Lakka is also the Finnish word for cloudberry a golden fruit similar in shape and size to a raspberry. AKVAVIT, SWEDEN: This spirit has a distinctly herbal taste, and often uses caraway or dill as a key ingredient. Akvavit, which translates literally as "water of life", is a shot saved for celebrations and is often consumed after snapsvisa, or drinking song. #kben #aalborg #akavit #lunch #visitdenmark A post shared by David Dawson (@smokeyvolvos) on Sep 4, 2016 at 5:44am PDT SLJIVOVICA, SERBIA: This plum brandy, found across eastern Europe, is best enjoyed at room temperature. Sljivovica is made from damson plums and often brewed at home. #plumliqueur#sljivovica A post shared by Fatma Tombak (@anfadetoha) on Jul 4, 2017 at 12:58pm PDT ARAGH SAGI, IRAN: This outlawed spirit contains 65% alcohol, and had to be produced as an underground movement after Iran's 1979 revolution ended in a blanket ban on alcohol. Flavoured with raisins and dates, Aragh Sagi can still be purchased in other countries. #AraghSagi #Chai after party... A post shared by Aram Koukia (@arakouk) on Jun 27, 2015 at 12:42am PDT BREM, INDONESIA: This beer-like, made on the island of Bali, plays a role in Hindu temple ceremonies called Tetabuhan. Brem is offered to Kala the Giant the god of the underworld, time, and destruction to bring peace and balance to their relationship with the god. Yup. Im in love with this Brem Bali. #brembali #brem #alchohol #devilsdrink #enjoy #coldbeer #balibeer #colddrink #bali A post shared by Food & Beauty Enthusiast (@jona_pottger) on Jun 29, 2017 at 6:00pm PDT KRAUTERLIKOR, GERMANY: This is a strong and bitter liqueur made with herbs and spices. Usually taken neat, this digestif dates back to Medieval times where it was used as medicine. Killepitsch stright outta Dusseldorf! ;) #killepitsch #krauterlikor A post shared by vladimpa (@vladimpa2) on Feb 26, 2017 at 4:07am PST FENI, INDIA: Made in Goa, this cashew nut or coconut palm toddy is made in small batches to retain the drink's delicate flavours and aromas. #feni A post shared by Jerin Sojan (@jerin_sojan) on Aug 1, 2017 at 5:59am PDT GLGG, NORWAY: Glgg is a variation of mulled wine that's drunk in Norway between Halloween and Christmas. It's flavoured with ingredients like red wine, almonds, cinnamon, raisins, cardamom, and cloves. #glgg #gluhwein #hotwine #enjoying #saturdaynight in #prague A post shared by Lisbeth Skafte (@spisogvarglad) on Feb 25, 2017 at 8:29pm PST MEAD, UK: Known for its characteristic sweetness, mead is one of the oldest alcoholic beverages still produced. It is made by fermenting honey with water, and has an alcoholic content ranging from 8% to 20%. Just tapped something really exciting! . . . Nectar Creeks Sour Mango tart session mead with mango & coconut. Such a refreshing drink for these hot summer days! A post shared by Three Mermaids Public House (@3mermaidspub) on Jul 30, 2017 at 6:04pm PDT HANINI, MALTA: Hanini is a carob-flavoured liqueur consumed across Malta and the Mediterranean. The name of this digestif is also widely used as a term of endearment in the country. Sweetheart #hanini# fortonight #afterdinnerliquer # A post shared by Wendy Mifsud (@wendymifsud) on Jul 25, 2017 at 1:07pm PDT TSIPOURO, GREECE: This distilled spirit is traditionally made from fermented grapes and anise in Thessaly and can be enjoyed either warmed or chilled. ! A post shared by , (@prima.plora) on Jul 31, 2017 at 10:27am PDT GAMMEL DANSK, DENMARK: This bitter liqueur is usually reserved for wedding receptions and other celebrations. Its complicated and unusual list of ingredients include star anise, laurel, angelica, and rowan berry, however the complete recipe is a secret. I t's November 5, which means our minds can now turn to firework displays - even if we wont be standing in muddy fields and eating toffee apples in the cold. We all know that today is when we light a bonfire and set off fireworks, but why do we do this? And who was Guy Fawkes? Here's everything you need to know about Bonfire Night. roven-images/Unsplash What is Bonfire Night? Every year people gather around in early November to celebrate Bonfire Night across the UK. There are firework displays in public parks across the country and people light bonfires with an effigy to represent historical figure Guy Fawkes. This quintessentially British activity each year refers to an event which could have changed the course of British history almost 400 years ago. When is Bonfire Night 2020? Bonfire Night 2018 - In Pictures 1 /13 Bonfire Night 2018 - In Pictures Fireworks over the skyline of Canary Wharf at the Royal Docks, east London. PA Fireworks over the skyline of Canary Wharf at the Royal Docks, east London. PA Fireworks over the skyline of Canary Wharf at the Royal Docks, east London. PA Fireworks light the sky as part of Diwali festival celebrations in Mumbai on November 4, 2018. AFP/Getty Images A lantern puppet is illuminated as part of the River of Light Festival, a free firework and light arts installations event hosted by Liverpool and Wirral city councils. PA Fireworks explode over the Mersey as part of the River of Light Festival, a free firework and light arts installation event hosted by Liverpool and Wirral city councils PA Fireworks in Whitley Bay. PA Participants parade through the town during the annual Bonfire Night festivities in Lewes, Britain, November 5, 2018. REUTERS Participants parade through the town during the annual Bonfire Night festivities in Lewes, Britain, November 5, 2018. REUTERS An effigy of Boris Johnson carrying the head of Theresa May is paraded through the streets of Lewes in East Sussex, southern England, on November 5, 2018, during the traditional Bonfire Night celebrations. AFP/Getty Images Participants parade through the town of Lewes in East Sussex during an annual bonfire night procession held by the Lewes Bonfire Societies. PA An effigy of Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May paraded through the streets of Lewes in East Sussex, southern England, on November 5, 2018, during the traditional Bonfire Night celebrations. AFP/Getty Images Participants parade through the town during the annual Bonfire Night festivities in Lewes, Britain, November 5, 2018. REUTERS This year Bonfire Night falls on a Thursday, but every year it is celebrated on November 5. Who was Guy Fawkes and what was the Gunpowder Plot? In 1605, a group of Roman Catholic activists arranged "the Gunpowder Plot", an attempt to assassinate the Protestant King James I. At the time, King James I reigned over a Protestant England but Robert Catesby and his band of 12 Catholics wanted greater religious tolerance and more freedom to practice their religion. Guy Fawkes, an explosives expert, along with the rest of the group plotted to assassinate the king and blow up the Palace of Westminster during the state opening of Parliament. Fawkes smuggled 36 barrels under the House of Lords into a cellar. However, he was caught and sent to the Tower of London, tortured to give up the names of his co-conspirators and then executed in January 1606 for high treason. A woman is fighting for her life in hospital after she was stabbed in east London. Police and paramedics raced to the scene after being called to reports of an argument in Chadwell Heath on Sunday. Officers had been called to New Enterprise House, off Mill Lane, just before 8.30pm and found a victim on the street with a number of stab wounds. After treatment at the scene, she was taken to hospital. The woman, believed to be in her 30s, had life-threatening injuries. Police cordon: The scene of a separate and fatal stabbing in Anerley, south-east London, on Sunday / Owen Sheppard A man in his 30s was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder. He was still in custody on Monday. The latest bloodshed comes after four fatal stabbings in the space of five days in the capital. H undreds more police officers are to be deployed to tackle the latest wave of violence after four people were murdered in the capital in five days. Scotland Yard Commander Stuart Cundy said additional officers were being deployed in every borough after a terrible few days. He was attacked in a private car park and collapsed in Samos Road, a residential tree-lined street. Emmanuel Manu, 51, who tried to save the victim, said: I was trying to help and so was a man and two women. The man got blankets to put on his wound. He had been stabbed so many times. There was a lot of blood. Malcolm Mide-Madariola A relative told the Standard: He was a straight-A student, a good kid and a lovely sibling. He was his parents pride and joy. I have never seen him upset with anybody. He wasnt involved in any gangs at all he was just a good kid. The teenager, from Peckham, was attacked less than a day after 15-year-old Jay Hughes was killed by a stab wound to the heart in a premeditated attack in Bellingham, south-east London. Father Rocky Djelal, 38, was killed in Southwark Park, Rotherhithe, in a targeted attack on Wednesday. Today Commander Cundy said: Many people will be concerned about this level of violence. We have hundreds of additional duty officers on the streets of every single borough. He said the murders were not connected and appealed for anyone who knows that someone is armed to contact the police, adding: Only together can we bring down the level of violence in London. The death of the 22-year-old in Anerley was the 118th homicide in London this year. A forensic officer examines evidence in Bromley after a 22-year-old man was stabbed too death / NIGEL HOWARD Mayor Sadiq Khan said it could take up to 10 years, or a generation, to make significant progress in tackling the problem. He told Radio 4s Today programme that police had to be tough in terms of enforcement, but young people had to be given more constructive things to do to steer them away from crime. He also called for more police officers to tackle this horror. Two men, aged 19 and 21, have been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the Anerley attack. They were being questioned in custody. The killing happened close to Betts Park, where 17-year-old Michael Jonas was stabbed to death on November 2 last year. His father, also called Michael, told The Sun: I cant believe this. Theres no end in view. Today I was going to ride around with posters of Michael, still pleading with people to come forward, and I was going to drive around with a megaphone, but something has happened again. I feel so sad, I feel very upset. No one is learning, no one is picking up anything from Michaels incident. The way to stop this is to flood the place with police, but police cant be everywhere. Actress Sandra James-Young, who has appeared in EastEnders and lives nearby, said: Its devastating and revolting that this is happening so often. This is such a quiet residential street. The air ambulance landed in Betts Park and the paramedics came. Detective Chief Inspector John Massey, who is leading the hunt for Malcolms killers in Clapham, said the boy was stabbed a few minutes after an altercation between two groups of boys. He added: We do need to speak with more witnesses and I am appealing for anyone with information to come forward. Last week Met chief Cressida Dick said that stretched forces must prioritise serious violence, which was being driven in major part by drug gangs. Meanwhile, a Home Office minister blamed a change in the nature of crime rather than cuts in police numbers for the spike in gang-related violence in London and other cities. Victoria Atkins said that an official review had shown that the claim about police numbers isnt supported by the evidence of previous spikes in serious violence. In the late 2000s there was a similar spike in violence and there were many, many more police officers on the streets in that day and age, she said. Ms Atkins told Radio 4s Today programme: Gangs are much more ruthless than they used to be. The levels of violence which doctors are now seeing in A&Es show that incidents which before perhaps wouldnt have resulted in fatalities now are resulting in fatalities. Gangs are behind the vast majority of these murders, and the gang leaders are using social media to communicate using mobile communications in a way that 10 or even five years ago simply wasnt possible. A man who pretended to be a Grenfell Tower survivor has pleaded guilty to a fraud worth more than 100,000. Sharife Elouahabi, 38, from south-west London, had said he was living in the tower at the time of the devastating fire in 2017. Elouahabi, also known as as El-Wahbe, pleaded guilty to fraud at Isleworth Crown Court on Monday. He admitted making a false representation to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, namely that he had been living in Grenfell Tower and was therefore entitled to housing and financial assistance. Elouahabi, who received assistance worth around 103,000, will be sentenced on November 20. His defence counsel, Graeme Wilson, said Elouahabi did stay in flat 182 on a couple of occasions as he knew one of the residents in that flat which was home to the El-Wahabi family. Faouzia and Abdulaziz El-Wahabi, 42 and 52, died alongside their children, Yasin, 20, Huda, 16, and Mehdi, eight, on the 21st floor of the block. Mr Wilson said Elouahabi would have considered himself to be "close friends" with Yasin and had stayed in the flat for a couple of nights in January and March 2017. Mr Wilson said the defendant was "sofa surfing" at the time. A thief who swiped a crystal-encrusted suitcase containing 20,000 of jewellery and designer clothes from a five-star Mayfair hotel is facing jail. Rebecca Callinan, 37, walked into the reception area of Browns Hotel and stole the bag belonging to Swiss PR guru Carole Kittner. Westminster magistrates heard that Mrs Kittner, who was heavily pregnant, had been in London for a meeting with publisher Conde Nast about the placement of designer brands in magazines including GQ and Vanity Fair. When her bag went missing, she was forced to fly home to Geneva without her diabetes medication. Among the stolen items were boots by Yves Saint Laurent, a Hermes scarf, and designer golden bangles. Browns Hotel in Mayfair / Nigel Howard Prosecutor Julian Pozimski said Callinan is seen on CCTV entering the hotel in the evening of September 3, picking up the suitcase and immediately heading to the exit. The suitcase belongs to a lady staying at the hotel that evening and contained 20,000 worth of the items she owned, he said. There has to be some degree of planning to choose the upmarket hotel with a high likelihood of high-value items being there. The court heard only about half of the designer items stolen from Mrs Kittner have been recovered. After the theft, the executive had to be signed off work when she broke down in tears during a doctors appointment. Callinan was caught when she turned on Mrs Kittners laptop, which had been in the suitcase, revealing that it was at her flat in Highbury. She told officers she had been refused a job at a florists shop moments before she took the suitcase, and was short of money and facing eviction, having been out of work for some time. On Friday, magistrates sent the case to Southwark crown court for Callinan, now living in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, to be sentenced on a date to be set. T he public is being urged to take more responsibility for their own health under new government policy. Health Secretary Matt Hancock will make the call on Monday as part of the latest NHS strategy focusing on prevention. Stopping people slipping into poor health for example by discouraging smoking and eating fatty foods will become a fundamental focus of the NHSs long-term plan, the minister in due to announce. He will say: "Prevention is also about ensuring people take greater responsibility for managing their own health. Part of the strategy will focus on discouraging unhealthy habits such as smoking / Myriams-Fotos/Pixabay It's about people choosing to look after themselves better, staying active and stopping smoking. Making better choices by limiting alcohol, sugar, salt and fat. "But focusing on the responsibilities of patients isn't about penalising people. It's about helping them make better choices, giving them the all the support we can, because we know taking the tough decisions is never easy." He will also criticise the amount currently spent on treatment as opposed to prevention. He will say: "In the UK, we are spending 97billion of public money on treating disease and only 8b preventing it. You don't have to be an economist to see those numbers don't stack up." Matt Hancock, pictured with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge last month, said the strategy is about 'helping people make better choices' / Victoria Jones/PA Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth said that while the plans were laudable", they follow "years of cuts and failed privatisation". He said: "Unless ministers reverse these cuts and start fully funding public health services, these announcements will be dismissed as a litany of hollow promises." Mr Hancock will announce the new strategy, entitled prevention is better than cure, at the annual meeting of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes. A t first glance it looks like just another example of the colourful pictures that brighten up fridges across London, stuck there by proud parents to celebrate the work of their children. But this is no typical primary school drawing. Black-clad stick figures patrol the street in an armed truck, as prisoners dressed in orange stand in a cage or kneel in front of jihadis brandishing swords and pistols and waving the flag of Islamic State. It provides a harrowing insight into the horrors its 12-year-old artist has already had to endure. For Ahmeds school is not in London but in a displacement camp in northern Iraq. He is a Yazidi, and his family were among those who fled as Islamic State overran their communitys ancient city of Sinjar in August 2014. It was an assault that saw many of ISs most barbaric excesses. Some 7,000 women were seized and taken into captivity as sex slaves.The total number of Yazidis killed is still not known as mass graves continue to be uncovered. Four years later, many of the children among the 6,000 families now living in UN tents at the camp, outside the city of Erbil, in Iraqs Kurdish region, are still at risk of being traumatised by the memory of that time. It is why War Child, the London charity the Evening Standard is supporting as part of its Learn to Live campaign, is running special schools at the camp. One lesson encourages the children to address what they experienced through the pictures they draw. What came to my mind I drew, as this is the reality of what happened to us, said Ahmed, who dreams of being a professional artist when he grows up. A lot of children draw what happened to them to express what they feel. Ahmed with George Osborne / Claire Thomas The top section of his picture shows Sinjar before Islamic State came, the middle portrays what unfolded while they were there, and the bottom sets out Ahmeds hope of how Sinjar will be again once he and the other families feel safe enough to return. Ahmeds picture has has three sections the top shows life before the war, the middle Islamic State, and the bottom his vision of the future / Claire Thomas The Standards editor, George Osborne, travelled to Iraq to visit War Childs schools for refugee children so he could see for himself how the Learn to Live campaign is affecting their lives. The project has already seen more than 330 British schools sign up to twin with pupils abroad. Some 1 million has been raised to support children in war zones, and a petition has been launched to demand the UK Government act to address the mental health challenges these children now face. One school that joined the initiative, Betty Layward primary in Stoke Newington, has been twinned with a War Child education project in one of the northern Iraq displacement camps. It is for families who fled Mosul when vigilante mobs roamed the city after it descended into chaos as soldiers fought brutal street battles with IS militiamen to end the jihadis control. Mr Osborne brought letters from Betty Layward with him, and showed a video of the children in London talking about how they wanted to know more about the Iraqi pupils lives. The two schools have already exchanged examples of their favourite playground games, with the children at Betty Layward providing a step-by-step guide to their favourites including musical chairs, grandmas footsteps and cut the cake. Children play in the camp / Claire Thomas Some 40 Iraqi children were present as Mr Osborne read them the latest letters, and they immediately started to decide what to write back to their new friends in London. Despite the fact they are living so far from here, in such a faraway place, they have not forgotten about us, said one student, 14-year-old Muhammed. It gives me hope for the future. War Child chief executive Rob Williams, who accompanied Mr Osborne on the visit, said that he had been touched by how excited the Iraqi children were to have further contact from London. Its been genuinely life-affirming during the Learn to Live campaign to see children in London get to know those we support in war zones and develop a deeper sense of empathy and understanding for their friends abroad, he said. Seeing the sheer delight and excitement from the children in Iraq made it feel more real, and I know that this will be an experience these children will be able to cherish for years to come. Join Our Campaign - how you can help A round 10,000 flames have filled the empty moat encircling the Tower of London to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. A ceremonial Beefeater guard began the lighting ceremony on Sunday evening by bringing a flame down from the tower into the moat, which had been submerged in smoke. Dozens of representatives from the armed forces and volunteers then used the flame to ignite thousands of other torches staked into or placed on the ground underneath the tower, bathing the barren moat in light. Flames were lit on Saturday night as part of a trial run ahead of Sunday's stunning ceremony, named Beyond The Deepening Shadow. Tower of London Beyond The Deepening Shadow ceremony 1 /30 Tower of London Beyond The Deepening Shadow ceremony Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn The moat of the Tower of London is seen filled with thousands of lit torches Reuters The moat of the Tower of London seen filled with thousands of lit torches Reuters Jeremy Selwyn People view thousands of flames in the dry moat of the Tower of London AFP/Getty Images Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Crowds gathered at the Tower of London for the ceremony on Sunday evening Reuters Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn The ceremony will be repeated each night until the final showing on Remembrance Sunday Reuters The moat of the Tower of London seen filled with thousands of lit torches Reuters Thousands of flames were lit in the dry moat of the Tower of London PA People view thousands of flames in the dry moat of the Tower of London AFP/Getty Images Yeoman Warders, commonly known as Beefeaters, light the first of thousands of flames AFP/Getty Images Beefeaters light the first torches in the installation Beyond The Deepening Shadow Getty Images Beefeaters light the first torches in the installation 'Beyond The Deepening Shadow' Getty Images Beefeaters lighting the first of thousands of flames in a lighting ceremony PA Beefeaters light the first of thousands of flames AFP/Getty Images Volunteers light torches that are part of Beyond the Deepening Shadow Reuters Volunteers help to light first thousands of flames in the dry moat of the Tower of London PA The moat was submerged in smoke as the ceremony began AFP/Getty Images Midshipman Balraj Dhanda of the Royal Navy, a volunteer who helped light the flames, described the spectacle as "really, really powerful". "I think it creates the right atmosphere for people to have their own personal reflections and gives people time with their own thoughts," he added. The ceremony, named Beyond the Deepening Shadow, took place on Sunday evening / AFP/Getty Images It took around 45 minutes to light the flames, which burn for roughly four hours. The ceremony was accompanied by a specially commissioned sound installation featuring choral music, as well as words from war poet Mary Borden's Sonnets To A Soldier. The moat of the tower of London seen filled with thousands of it torches (REUTERS) / Reuters The ceremony was "amazing", according to Dick Harrold, governor of the Tower of London. He added: "What is so special about it is it means many different things. "The message with the sound is not focused so much on those that were lost, but those that were left behind, the bereaved and others who were affected by war." The success of the 2014 display of poppies at the tower meant Historic Royal Palaces, who maintain the landmark, were keen to mark the centenary of Armistice. Volunteers light torches as part of the ceremony / PA He added: "But, of course, we couldn't do poppies again." Spectators gathered on vantage points around the tower to witness the spectacle. A minute's silence was also observed. Yeoman Wardenrs, commonly known as Beefeaters, lit the first of the torches / AFP/Getty Images The ceremony will be repeated each night until the final showing on Remembrance Sunday. Members of the public can watch the spectacle for free. H undreds of masked protesters will descend on central London this evening for an annual Bonfire Night protest by activist group Anonymous. The activist group Anonymous are set to march through the capital for the so-called Million Mask March on Monday night. Scores of people are expected to descend on Trafalgar Square and Westminster in protest against the government and capitalism. Police said a policing plan is in place to cope with the expected large numbers of people, but have not confirmed how many officers will be on duty. Demonstrators gather in front of police during the Million Mask March in London in 2017 / REUTERS In previous years, Scotland Yard has urged protesters to work with them to ensure a safe and peaceful protest after past demos were marred by violence. Monday evenings demonstration is expected to take place between 6pm and 9pm on a prescribed route between Trafalgar Square and Whitehall. Police closed off parts of central London during last year's march / REUTERS In previous years, the march has seen crowds light fireworks and flares as a large group gather donned in Guy Fawkes masks. Last year 25 people were arrested during the anti-capitalist Bonfire Night demonstration, and while demonstrators chanted slogans and let off fireworks, there was little trouble. Police said most people were arrested for public order offences and others were held for firework-related incidents or possession of drugs or offensive weapons. First held in 2013, the march has set off from central London every year since with Anonymous calling for people from around the world to join in. The event is held every year on Bonfire Night, as scores of Londoners celebrate by watching firework demonstrations. H undreds of masked protesters descended on central London in an anti-government rally on bonfire night. The annual Million Mask march began forming in Trafalgar Square at around 6pm, as separate groups with masks and banners debated their anti-establishment ideologies. Some chatted quietly among themselves, others gave speeches or handed out flyers, with some occasionally shouting into the crowds. Mondays event was arranged by international hacktivist group Anonymous with some wearing the black and white masks linked to the organisation the same as the one worn by the protagonist in V for Vendetta. There was a prominent police presence throughout / PA However, many different groups supporting a variety of causes attended, with the beginning of the march delayed both by a nearby road closure and people seemingly confused as to who would lead it. Ahead of those gathered embarking on their ad-hoc route, those present expressed their disdain at the government in the UK and establishments nationwide. One anonymous protester, in a silver version of the recognisable mask, travelled from Belgium for the gathering. Crowds waved banners with various slogans He said: It [the march] is against the way things are. Against the government. Its failing the people. We can spend money to do war but we cant get the money to get people off the streets. Its the problem in every major country, they spend money on the wrong things. Green smoke was set off in the crowd Another masked individual, who again declined to be named, said he wanted to stand against government corruption. He told the Standard that friends with the same beliefs were why he was at the protest. Asked to explain those beliefs, he said: Just against all government corruption and being controlled all the time. Though some seemed angry as they expressed their views, some attempted to dissuade this. The recognisable mask was worn by multiple people throughout the crowd / PA One speaker, who addressed crowds with a megaphone, said that they should protest for something not against how things are. A member of a group called The Zeitgeist Movement, giving his name only as Adam, said: I don't think anybody agrees with the act of being violent. This was in reference to disorder which broke out at a previous Million Mask March. "When we are marching against something it's a massive angry energy. If we marched for something imagine the energy that could have," he said. He went on to describe his belief that through scientific advances, all human needs can be met, without the need for a monetary system. The gathering was not as large as that of 2017 / PA At around 7.15pm, the march set off, heading from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Square when a man with a loud speaker shouted: Come on lets go! Once people congregated the turn out seemed larger than it had at first, though some shared disappointment it was less than in years previous. As it first got underway, it was largely quiet, but not before long people began chanting: Whose streets? Our streets! This came loudest when the gathering was near to Downing Street, with many aiming their voices towards it. A green smoke flare was set off in the crowd, seeing a bright cloud billow above. Eventually, the route reached Parliament Square, where it blocked off traffic as police tried to usher them from the road. It then meandered away from the Square, with some confusion as to where it would head, before going into a pitch black St James Park. Police monitored it at every turn with some people being stopped and spoken to at points before it came out and the majority ended up in Piccadilly Circus. After this, people stood and waved flags of various slogans and causes. Some shouted antifascist, others Free Assange while a spectrum of other phrases were hollered around. The flags of various nations were set alight by some, with the US and St Georges flag both going up in flames. After Piccadilly Circus, the march went on to Westminster and Southwark before ending back where it began at approximately 9.30pm before beginning to disperse. A mother whose son took his own life has revealed her plan to offer a lifeline to other young people in distress. Jo Marsdens son Ned Harris died aged 20 when he was hit by a train on the Waterloo to Portsmouth mainline on July 17 last year. The third of her four children, he had become estranged from his family after being excluded from school. Ned had threatened suicide at school aged 16 but no one thought he was suffering from mental ill health and a GP sent him home without any follow-up checks. Today Ms Marsden, 55, a chef, unveiled Neds Fund in his memory, and wants to raise money to help young people who drop out of education to enrol on vocational courses to help them regain a focus in life. Ned Harris died aged 20 when he was hit by a train last year (ES local feed ) She told the Evening Standard: Im wanting to turn his life into something very positive for someone else. Its to try to stop them getting lost in the system, feeling that life is pointless. Its about telling them they are remarkable and there is always a way forward. The whole point with Ned is that he showed no signs of mental illness whatsoever. He was very bright but couldnt compute it to education. Education bored him. Its every parents nightmare. I was desperate that he couldnt talk to me. This is about raising awareness of the chameleon a child who displays no outward signs. Ned, whose siblings are Tom, 27, Henry, 25, and Millie, 19, died at Witley station in Surrey. At an inquest in Woking in July, the coroner recorded a verdict of suicide. Suicide is the leading cause of death for people aged 20 to 34, and accounted for 23.7 per cent of male deaths in this age group last year. After Neds death, Ms Marsden, who lives near Petersfield, Hampshire, asked to see his medical records. There was a blank screen, she said. There was no follow-up or offer of counselling. He spent a lot of time excluded from the classroom for being disruptive. He was difficult but showed no signs of what you would think of as mental illness. At the end I dont think he could see a way out. Ms Marsden, who has been invited to speak to British Transport Police officers about railway suicide, said: My dream is to help as many children as I can by funding vocational training. Im not a fairy godmother but nothing would bring me greater happiness. T housands of London companies will collapse in the wake of a no-deal Brexit, research claims today. It found that firms in the capital and the South-East are at greater risk than those in other regions, largely because of their closer links with Europe. The analysis suggests that 7,900 London companies will fail with the loss of about 41,800 jobs in the 12 months after Brexit, even if a deal is agreed with the European Union. However, if Theresa May fails to reach terms with EU leaders and Britain crashes out of the bloc in March, the total rises to 12,540, with 66,245 jobs lost. The findings emerged when business intelligence firm Populous.World carried out a forensic financial health check on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with between nine and 249 staff across the UK. Steve Nico Williams, chief executive of Populous.World, said: London and the South-East will bear the brunt of the harsh effects of a no-deal Brexit. Even with a deal in place the upheaval, friction and uncertainty of Brexit next year will send thousands of Londons smaller companies into insolvency. Populous.World, which collects data from public sources such as Companies House, found that about three per cent of London SMEs were already struggling. About a quarter of those relied heavily on European business and were likely to be tipped over the edge by Brexit. Combined with a predicted 9,697 business failures in the South-East if there is no deal, the total for the region is 22,237, almost matching the 23,886 forecast for the rest of England. The research also revealed that the number of businesses being created in London had slowed sharply since the 2016 Brexit referendum, with a 14 per cent drop the year after the poll. It predicts that a no-deal could see SME closures outnumber start-ups for the first time since 2009. O f all the former soldiers in the Conservative Party, who would Johnny Mercer MP choose to be on patrol with? Mercer was in 29 Commando (two-nine), did three tours in Afghanistan including time with Special Forces, and I ask this question because there are a lot of ex-army about (some, arguably, on manoeuvres). I begin listing them: Ruth Davidson, Tom Tugendhat... But Mercer interrupts. Um, theres a difference between reservists and regular, he says. And those two are? Reservists. What about Rory Stewart? Gap year commission. He reels off the regulars. Leo Docherty, Bob Stewart, Tobias Ellwood, James Heappey. OK, so of them, who would he go on patrol with? He thinks about this for a second. Then smirks: Nice try. Even if he wont play the political patrol game, he has played the Channel 4 game Celebrity Hunted, for which he and Sky News presenter Kay Burley teamed up as fugitives to evade a crack team of Special Forces (Burley said one was a sniper; Mercer seems less impressed). There are two more episodes so he doesnt divulge much, except to say that he and Burley were immersed in each others lives and that they are wildly different. Are they still friends? Umm. Has he spoken to her since the show ended? No. Did they fall out? Umm. She called him unfailingly calm. Did he like her? She has a kind heart. When he tells me they shared a double bed Im shocked. Why? he asks. Well, wasnt his wife Felicity jealous? Haha! He claps his hands. She was probably pleased to be shot of me. I dont sleep well. Kay Burley and Johnny Mercer / C4/PLANET PHOTOS Today Mercer is fresh from his latest political controversy calling Theresa May an unimaginative technocrat and her Government a s*** show in an interview with The House magazine. He said that if he were a 35-year-old leaving the Army today, he would not be voting Conservative. I just wouldnt vote. He doesnt regret the comments, he says. Someone asked if Theresa May could fight the next election; its obvious that the answer is no. The currency in our trade is winning elections. Was he shocked by the backlash? Exactly the right people were pissed off, he swaggers. Then, more sheepishly, he says that politics is something he is learning every day. Public support, though, was massive: I received thousands of messages, which was brilliant. What about Tories? Id say 80 per cent were supportive, from cabinet ministers down. They said, Youre going to take some bullets, but keep going. Hes heard not a peep from No 10 or the whips. Did anyone give him flak? One person had the courage to say something, he says. But I think they were drunk. He describes an MP coming up to him and saying, Oh Johnny, Im so disappointed. It transpired she hadnt read the piece. Later he Googled the MPs majority and found it was more than 20,000. Theres a vast disparity between safe and frontline seats, he says. I met someone the other day whod never knocked on a constituents door. I said, Bloody hell, your job is completely different from mine. Certainly Mercers mission to become an MP in 2015 was extraordinary. Before being selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Plymouth Moor View, a Labour seat, hed never voted. His chances were 2 per cent, and the party abandoned him with Lynton Crosby dispatching him with a, You aint going to win, mate. So Mercer devised his own strategy: knock on all 35,050 doors in the constituency. He managed 26,000 before polling day. I explained who I was. I listened to their stories. The gamble paid off: he won by 1,026 votes. Given he was ignored by Campaign Headquarters in 2015, its not without irony that while fighting the 2017 election, May went twice to Plymouth. Mercer was horrified, telling her desperate team he was not available for the second visit. He increased his majority by 400 per cent. So whats his magic? Well, he tries to be himself. His honesty is bracing (if at times naive). When I ask if he worries that scenes in his memoirs We Were Warriors which include flicking through pornography, or petulance at his superiors, or drink binges (one which ends with him trying to swim the Hudson, another with him nearly arrested in Phoenix) might come back to haunt him he says: Why? I was an idiot, but I was growing up. Im human. Its a far cry from, say, Gavin Williamsons major admission: a shared kiss in a fireplace showroom. (I mention Williamson because his is the job Mercer would like I want to be a ten-year defence secretary). But then he actively goes against the image of a polished politician. This desire to smash the sham of authority has deeper roots. His Baptist parents used religious devotion to excuse terrible cruelty and psychological abuse towards their children. I sense the book skims the true extent. Older brothers were dispatched into the Navy at 16 and when one returned home for Christmas without money for board he was sent back into the cold. His parents have refused to speak to Mercer since the books publication, but his decision to write about it has brought him closer to his siblings. He was able to use his voice (he was runner up in Choirboy of the Year) to win a scholarship to private school. But the demons of his childhood manifested in OCD, which often struck at night. He would wash his hands obsessively sometimes using an entire bottle of liquid soap and try to quell repetitive intrusive thoughts with prayer: The same prayer, night after night. And if I didnt think of the same thing when I was saying the prayer, [I thought] someone would die. Unsurprisingly, child mental health is a policy priority for him and he has no qualms about disclosing that he has taken the anti-depressant fluoxetine (Prozac) and undergone cognitive behavioural therapy. Speaking out still requires an element of courage, he says. Thats why I do it. When I was 12 or 13 I would have loved to have opened the paper and seen someone like me talking about mental health issues. That would have encouraged me, helped me. I mention Davidsons assertion that her mental health issues as a teenager stood in the way of the top job at Number 10 and ask what he thinks. I fundamentally disagree with that, he says, adding, You dont choose to be PM; other people choose you. If there was a groundswell behind Ruth, knowing her as a person who serves and sees this as a duty and as a calling and something to believe in, Id like to think there would be a different outcome. He often references his service and military jargon seeps in everywhere: end stay and taking a bullet. And he says things like, I will fight til my dying day and If I die doing it at least I tried. Certainly his political career has been littered with incendiaries. Aside from an amusing anecdote about meeting Tony Blair at Sandhurst Blair asked why hed joined up and he replied, For the boys; cue much sniggering from the ranks those politicians hed met were distant and disengaged. In Afghanistan he had gaffer-taped armour to Land Rovers and begged Estonians for ammo that did not fit their guns. I couldnt stand the way the forces were treated by the political establishment, he says. Whether that was in funding or, more acutely, in veterans care. He recalls loading injured colleagues on to helicopters to fly home, knowing that their only hope was charities such as Help for Heroes. The reality of it was that the Government didnt give a s***. I became an MP because I didnt like politicians. Among those colleagues and close friends he lost was Lance Bombardier Mark Chandler, whose lifeless body he cradled for the 40-minute drive back to base. He recalls putting his finger into the exit wound when a bullet ripped through his friends cheek, through his spine, through his cerebellar cortex. Treatment of veterans is the issue seared into my soul, he says, and, unsurprisingly, white poppies make him cross. They say they are campaigning for peace but that suggests soldiers love going to war, which is absolute bollocks. We all want peace. The poppy is there to raise money for veterans causes. Its disrespectful to use it. Choose any other symbol you want and paint it white. So why join the Tories? He thought about both parties, but ultimately felt more closely aligned to the Conservatives, not least on the subject of welfare, which, he feels, saps young people of their ambition to go out and get a job, build a family, build a life. You cant blame people for staying on welfare because Id do the same if I could make more money to give to my kids like that. But you can change the system so that people would always be better off in work. Felicity, with whom he was at primary school in Sussex and remet during a messy time in his life between tours, is now his political agent. They have two daughters, Amalie and Joey, and live in a cottage in Cornwall. I meet her for long enough to see that she is a major asset chatty, funny, smart The problem with Felicity, he admits, is that she is much better than me. I try to keep her under wraps, but I am ever fearful that my Association will wake up and select her instead. Actually hes funny too, saying that Felicity was unashamedly happy when he broke the news that hed quit the army right up until I told her I was leaving to go into politics. He also laughs off his Dove soap advert which he did to raise money for leaflets. Oh dear, he says when I broach it. I just stood in a shower for four hours getting lathered up over and over again. Terrific if one has OCD, as you can imagine. A nt McPartlin has apologised after missing a High Court hearing over his divorce settlement with his ex-wife. Lisa Armstrong attended the hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London on Monday but McPartlin was not present as he was advised by his media barrister that he didnt need to attend court. Through his spokesman, McPartlin said there was absolutely no intent to disrespect the court. It came after Mr Justice Mostyn said the presenter should have been in court, adding there isnt one law for the famous and one for the rest of the community. Ant McPartlin's ex-wife arrives at court in fight over divorce money Ms Armstrong was granted a divorce last month over the TV presenter's adultery and because he was "intolerable to live with". Lisa Armstrong arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice, to start legal arguments with her husband, Ant McPartlin, over money regarding their divorce settlement / PA The Im a Celebrity host, 42, and his make-up artist wife Ms Armstrong, 41, formally ended their 11-year marriage in the Central Family Court on October 16. They were granted a decree nisi in under 30 seconds. The presenter, who is one half of TV duo Ant and Dec, confirmed in January that he and his wife were splitting following months of speculation about their relationship. In June it was reported that he had found love with personal assistant Anne-Marie Corbett, who used to be the couples PA. It is believed the TV star has admitted adultery on the grounds that his relationship with Ms Corbett, 42, began after the break-up - but while he was still married. Reporting restrictions are imposed on the case including the reporting of any future hearings in their fight over money. I nvestigators targeting organised crime were today urged to carry out a probe into Brexit campaigner Arron Banks as quickly as possible amid concerns that their findings may come after Britain quits the EU. Senior MP Damian Collins claimed a TV grilling of Mr Banks had exposed a discrepancy in his account of how he sourced 8 million of funding to the Leave campaign. However, the Electoral Commission referred the matter to the National Crime Agency, which investigates organised crime, amid suspicions the cash was not a permissible donation. Arron Banks... There was no Russian money Yesterday, businessman Mr Banks, a co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign, told BBC1s Andrew Marr Show that all the money came from a UK-registered company, Rock Services. He repeated claims that he was being targeted by Remain-supporting politicians. But Tory MP Mr Collins, chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport committee, said this conflicted with Mr Bankss earlier evidence to his committee. It is a discrepancy ... what he told us was Rock Services really just provides services to other companies that he owns provides cash, makes payments. It doesnt make any money itself, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme. For Rock Services to have money to give to Leave.EU or anyone else, that money has got to have been put in that bank account by another company or another individual. "If Rock Services made the donation, where did the money come from? ... No matter how many times he was asked that question, he didnt answer it. Mr Collins rejected suggestions that Brexit should be put on hold. Questions over the referendum result could be raised only if misconduct was proven to be true as a consequence of the investigation, he said. If there had been a massive breach of the law, that would be a huge concern and we would have to reflect on that and at that point. He said the NCA could examine all the records of Mr Bankss firms, including in areas like the Isle of Man. I want this to be done as quickly as possible, he added. The Electoral Commission focused on 2 million reported to have been loaned to Better For The Country (BFTC) by Mr Banks and his companies, and a 6 million gift he made alone The commission said it had reasonable grounds to suspect Mr Banks was not the true source of the 8 million. It also believes that loans to BFTC, on behalf of Leave.EU, involved a non-qualifying or impermissible company Rock Holdings Limited, incorporated in the Isle of Man. S audi Arabian experts sent to aid Turkish investigators probe the killing of Jamal Khashoggi instead sought to cover up the death and remove evidence, officials have said. Turkish authorities said members of a forensics team sent by the Kingdom to aid Istanbul detectives instead worked to undermine the investigation, and have been charged with obfuscating evidence. Turkey's Sabah newspaper reported that two members of the joint Turkish-Saudi probe, including experts on chemicals and toxicology, "came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence", before Turkish police were allowed to search the Saudi Consulate. Washington Post columnist, Mr Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate on October 2 seeking marriage documents, and was immediately attacked by a team of assailants while inside. Yasin Aktay, an advisor to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a good friend to Jamal Khashoggi spoke to the London-based TV station al-Hewar in October. / AP After an ever-changing official narrative from Saudi representatives, Turkish investigators now say they believe Mr Khashoggi was strangled to death in a premeditated killing, dismembered before being removed, and possibly "dissolved", according to some reports. An official has now confirmed earlier reports that members of the team worked to "remove evidence" of the slaying, and the fact that a clean-up team was dispatched suggests that Khashoggi's killing "was within the knowledge of top Saudi officials." Istanbul's chief prosecutor, who is leading the investigation, announced last week that Khashoggi, who lived in exile in the United States, was strangled immediately after he entered the consulate. Video evidence suggests a team were involved, with imposters shown to dress up in Mr Khashoggi's clothes to give the impression he left the building. Turkey is seeking the extradition of 18 suspects who were detained in Saudi Arabia so they can be tried in Turkey. Mr Khashoggi's body still has not been found, but was believed to be dismembered and removed from the Consulate in five suitcases. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, the sons also said they hoped he did not suffer when he was killed. "All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina with the rest of his family," Salah Khashoggi said. T he Prince of Wales will once again lead the nation in honouring the country's war dead during the national service of remembrance. The Queen has asked Charles to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall on her behalf - the second successive year the heir to the throne will perform the duty. Sunday's open-air service will have added significance as this year is the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. A series of events have been staged throughout 2018 marking the milestone. Prime Minister Theresa May and the Prince William attended commemorations in France marking the Battle of Amiens, which signalled the beginning of the end of the 1914-18 War. The Queen will watch the service from the balcony / PA Wire/PA Images While a series of exhibitions at the Imperial War Museums' Making A New World season have reflected on the impact the brutal killing fields of the conflict had in shaping the modern world. During the cenotaph event, the Queen will view the service from the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office building as she did last year. After Charles has laid a wreath on behalf of the Queen, other floral tributes will be left by members of the royal family, senior figures from the Government, including Mrs May, and opposition party leaders and other figures from national life. Charles' new role is likely to be seen as an example of the subtle shift of head of state duties from the 92-year-old sovereign to the heir to the throne. Prince Charles leads nation in Remembrance Sunday tribute For the first time, a German leader will lay a wreath at the Cenotaph with president Frank-Walter Steinmeier performing the duty on behalf of his nation in a historic act of reconciliation. The service will also be attended by the Duchess of Cornwall, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the Duke of York and minor members of the monarchy. An equerry will lay a wreath on behalf of the Duke of Edinburgh, who has retired from public duties. Politicians arrive for remembrance service 1 /7 Politicians arrive for remembrance service Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip PA Former Prime Minister David Cameron PA Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie PA Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn PA Home Secretary Amber Rudd PA Liberal Democrats leader Sir Vince Cable and his wife Rachel PA Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown PA After the service, 10,000 people, chosen by ballot, will have the opportunity to pay their respects to all those that served in the First World War by taking part in the Nation's Thank You procession past the Cenotaph. During the day, church and other bells will ring out as they did at the end of the First World War - and a Westminster Abbey service will be held along with others in Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast, to give thanks for peace and those who returned. In the evening the Queen, Charles and Camilla, the Cambridges and Harry and Meghan will attend the Abbey service. L ondoners are being encouraged to create photo tributes as part of a celebrity-backed campaign to remember forgotten heroes of the First World War who served in the Labour Corps. Writer Ben Elton is among those who have paid tribute to an individual from the corps, who carried out vital non-combat roles but were often regarded as serving in a second-class organisation. Many were recruited from countries within the British Empire to fill gaps left by the losses during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 or were returned wounded, medically rated below the A1 condition needed for front-line service. Labour Corps units were deployed for work within range of enemy guns with jobs including digging trenches, cleaning, cooking and building and maintaining roads and railways. Many died or were seriously injured, but their contributions were rarely acknowledged. Sacrifice: Writer Ben Elton remembers Labour Corps member (ES local feed ) The initiative, launched today as part of the Unremembered Project, asks people to take a picture while holding the name of a member of the corps. The photographs will then be displayed on billboards at bus stops, railway stations, shopping centres and roadsides throughout this month to mark the centenary of the end of the war. Elton, who co-wrote Blackadder Goes Forth, which was set in the trenches, paid tribute to Private James Henry Moss, who died on February 23, 1918, aged 19. He was not deemed fit enough to serve on the front line. Actor John Kani commemorates a member of the South African Labour Corps He said: Private James Henry Moss is one name out of the tens of thousands of workers who supported the war effort from across the world. Behind every Blackadder, Baldrick and the rest of the troops on the front line, there were people like James Moss. One hundred years on, its important to remember them too. Black Panther actor John Kani picked Isaac Wauchope Dyobha, a member of the South African Labour Corps who died on the SS Mendi, which sank in 1917, claiming 646 lives. Members of Phoenix Rising, a youth steel band based in Brent, have chosen to remember all servicemen who joined from Jamaica. Patrick McKay, 56, who has led the band for 20 years, said: We looked at the volunteer workers from South Africa and the regiments of the Caribbean, it made it very relevant. If young people cant connect, there is no interest, but when it came to the regiments of the Caribbean these were the great-grandparents of our young people. Organiser Dr Virginia Crompton said: We are delighted at the scale of the support. From the groups to the advertising industry and celebrities, everyone is getting behind this campaign. Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, minister for faith and integration, added: For too long their story has gone unnoticed. This centenary year we will rightly honour their brave sacrifice. A member of the Bahraini royal family is being sued for 35 million over claims he pulled out of an extraordinary deal to meet a string of Bollywood movie stars. Sheikh Hamad Isa Ali al-Khalifa allegedly drew up a list of 26 A-listers that he wanted to meet, including Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai. It is said he struck an agreement with Egyptian businessman Ahmed Adel Abdallah Ahmed to arrange the meetings in luxury hotels around the world. But after meeting film stars Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh and Aditya Kapoor in early 2016, the sheikh is accused of abandoning the deal. The sheikh, who is the cousin of the King of Bahrain and nephew to the deputy prime minister, admits paying more than 2.5 million for five meetings. But he denies Mr Ahmeds claim that there was a binding deal to pay 1.1 million per meeting, plus a $500,000 bonus after every third meeting. He also denies there was a long-term arrangement in place, claiming that he cut contact with Mr Ahmed after feeling pressured and threatened. The sheikh and Mr Ahmed are due to argue the claim at the High Court in London next week. Top names: Ranveer Singh, left, and Aditya Kapoor met the sheikh Mr Ahmed claims he is owed up to 35 million after the sheikh allegedly pulled out of the agreement and hired another fixer to set up the Bollywood meetings. He alleges that he was appointed as the sheikhs sole or exclusive representative, and that an all-in fee was agreed for each meeting that he set up. In court papers, he has produced a list of the 26 stars he claims the sheikh wanted to meet. He also claims to have organised for the sheikh to be a sponsor of the Times of India Film Awards, where he would mix with Bollywood stars, but says he was not paid the agreed $500,000 fee. The sheikh denies this agreement was struck. Defending the claim, the sheikh said he was very enthusiastic at the prospect of meeting Bollywood stars after first meeting Mr Ahmed in December 2015. He said he was initially told the stars charged up to $50,000 for a one-on-one meeting, and he handed over an initial $80,000. But he argues that Mr Ahmed then claimed that meetings can cost $500,000 each. The sheikh claims he cut off contact when Mr Ahmed started to put unfair pressure on him, making unwarranted demands for very large sums of money and seeking to arrange meetings which were not convenient. A selection of historic photos from the First World War are released today to mark 100 years since the end of one of Britains bloodiest wars. The photos, from the archives of the Imperial War Museum, show Britains soldiers fighting all over the world. They even include a previously unseen group shot of German and British soldiers during the famous Christmas Eve Truce. The 100-year-old images have been painstakingly brought back to life and preserved by a team at the Imperial War Museum and will feature in a new book, First World in Focus Rare Unseen Photos. The author of the book, Alan Wakefield, said it is important people see these images to mark the centenary, as it serves as a reminder about all the different aspects of war. @IWM He said: I am hoping the book will surprise people about the scope of the war. I think, sometimes, were limited t thinking it was just the Western Front that British soldiers fought on. But British people fought all over the world. He added: Pictures have an immediate impact, rather than the written word. The visual impact of these pictures is a way of getting the story across to the audience. Austro-Hungarian officers playing chess with their pet dog outside a hut on the Italian Front, c.1917 / @IWM Mr Wakefield explained he wanted to create a book that featured 100 photographs that are either rare or unseen to mark the historic anniversary. Some of the images, he said, would have only been seen by the soldiers who captured them and perhaps their family. And some may never have been seen at all, because of strict censoring laws at the time. He said some of the pictures will have been captured by soldiers legally and others may have been the result of those on the front line sneaking a camera along with them. Because these images havent been copied, I would say that it is the first time people will have seen these images, he said. The 3rd (Kenya) Battalion, Kings African Rifles (KAR) on their way to Nairobi railway station to entrain for the front, 1916. / @IWM Incredible photos show all theatres of war, Mr Wakefield said. Sombre moments, like a group of men playing cards in a public air raid, and Hungarian officers playing chess have been included in the book. There are also rare images of soldiers serving in Cameroon, Nairobi and China. A touching photo of members of the 2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, with German soldiers during the Christmas Truce, in 1914, also features. And while there are images of the lighter side of war, there are also distressing ones to of the darker moments, such as the Battle of the Somme. Mr Wakefield said: It was easy to find the pictures for the book, but it was getting it down to 100 that was the difficult task. A t least 79 students and three staff members have been kidnapped from a Presbyterian school in Cameroon. The students and staff including the headteacher were kidnapped in Nkwen, in Bamenda, part of the troubled English speaking region of the country. They were kidnapped by a group of men, calling themselves the Amba Boys, a reference to the state of Ambazonia that armed separatists want to establish in Cameroons north west and south west regions. North West Region Governor Deben Tchoffo said: It is rather unfortunate that this is happening. That 79 of our children and three of their staff can be picked up by terrorists. We have asked our military to do everything and bring back the kids alive. Video footage posted by the Amba Boys shows the kidnappers forcing several of the students to state their names and the names of their parents. The kidnappers said they would only release the students once the goal of creating a new state is achieved. They said: We shall only release you after the struggle. You will be going to school now here. There has been an increase in fighting between the military and separatists after the government clamped down on peaceful demonstrations by English-speaking teachers and lawyers protesting what they said were the marginalisation by Cameroons French-speaking majority. Hundreds of people have been killed amid the violence in the past year. The armed separatists have vowed to destabilize the regions as part of the strategy for creating a breakaway state. They have mounted attacks against civilians who do not support their cause, including teachers who were killed for disobeying orders to keep schools closed. M inisters are set to announce that foreign nationals are going to be allowed to serve in Britains armed forces without having lived in the UK before. The announcement will put forward that foreign people will be able to join the armed forces in greater numbers, as British residence requirements for service will be scrapped. It is hoped this will increase the numbers of those joining the armed forces in huge numbers. The Ministry of Defence will remove the need for Commonwealth citizens to have lived in the UK for five years before applying for service. An extra 1,350 personnel from overseas are hoped to be enlisted to the Navy, Army and Air Force every year. The move comes as the armed forces struggle to recruit enough personnel to fill a shortfall in their ranks. Applicants from nations including India, Australia, Canada and Fiji will be considered for all roles in the forces, without having lived in the UK. Until now, they had to have resided in Britain for five years and their recruitment was capped at a maximum of 200 per year. The Army will begin the admissions from early next year, while the Navy and RAF will commence the process immediately. Other than the Nepalese Gurkhas and applicants from the Republic of Ireland who can enrol under a special arrangement, those from outside the Commonwealth will still need British citizenship to apply. In April, a National Audit Office report said the full-time military was running at a 5.7% shortfall. An extra 8,200 regulars and 2,400 engineers were needed to fill the "largest gap in a decade", the report added, while intelligence analysts and pilots were also in demand. In January the Army unveiled a recruitment advertising campaign reported to have cost 1.6 million. It intended to encourage more people from different backgrounds, genders, sexualities and faiths to join up. However it was criticised for failing to target those most interested in joining the forces. Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said the main group of people considering signing up are more worried about "how they are going to face combat". He added: "This also reflects the fact that the Army, like the rest of Government, is being forced down a route of political correctness. "What is most important is that the Army recruits and is full of soldiers. It's of secondary importance that they reflect the composition of society." F ormer US President Barack Obama has traded blows with Donald Trump during the final sprint before the midterm elections. The former president and Donald Trump are putting in their closing arguments with time running out before crucial midterm elections on Tuesday. While Mr Trump urged voters to back Republicans in state-wide races, warning that Democrats favour high taxes and illegal immigration, Democrats offered former President Obama for their closing argument. Appearing in Indiana and Chicago, Mr Obama warned Democrats not to be distracted by lies and fear-mongering. "One election won't eliminate racism, sexism or homophobia," Mr Obama said during an appearance in Florida. "It's not going to happen in one election. But it'll be a start." Former U.S. President Barack Obama campaigns for Democrats / REUTERS He also labelled Mr Trumps response to the migrant caravan a political stunt", stating: They're telling us the single most grave threat to America is a bunch of poor, impoverished, broke, hungry refugees a thousand miles away. America is at a crossroads, he added in Indiana. The character of our country is on the ballot. Addressing a crowd in Georgia, Mr Trump made controversial comments when taking aim at Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is seeking to become the first black woman governor of any state in the union. He said: You put Stacey in there and you are going to get Georgia turn into Venezuela. Stacey Abrams wants to turn your wonderful state into a giant sanctuary city for criminal aliens, putting innocent Georgian families at the mercy of hardened criminals and predecessors. Mr Trump previously slammed the former president in his rally in Indianapolis, bringing up Mr Obamas speech in Miami and how many people had gathered in the audience. He said: I watched him speak today, he had a very small crowd, they dont talk about that, and they never talk about how big our crowds are. Slamming his legacy, Mr Trump added: Lie after lie, broken promise after broken promise. Thats what he did. Former U.S. President Barack Obama campaigns for Democrats at McKenzie Arena / AFP/Getty Images Voters on Tuesday will decide the $5 billion debate between President Trump's take-no-prisoners politics and the Democratic Party's super-charged campaign to end the GOP's monopoly in Washington and statehouses across the nation. There are indications that an oft-discussed "blue wave" may help Democrats seize control of at least one chamber of Congress. But two years after an election that proved polls and prognosticators wrong, nothing is certain on the eve of the first nationwide elections of the Trump presidency. "I don't think there's a Democrat in this country that doesn't have a little angst left over from 2016 deep down," said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY's List, which spent more than ever before - nearly $60 million in all - to support Democratic women this campaign season. "Everything matters and everything's at stake," Ms Schriock said. All 435 seats in the U.S. House are up for re-election and 35 Senate seats are in play, as are almost 40 governorships and the balance of power in virtually every state legislature. The US midterm election will take place on Tuesday / AFP/Getty Images While he is not on the ballot, Mr Trump himself has acknowledged that the 2018 midterms, above all, represent a referendum on his presidency. Should Democrats win control of the House, as strategists in both parties suggest is likely, they could derail Mr Trump's legislative agenda for the next two years. A n 18-month-old baby was rescued from the ocean by a New Zealand fisherman who has described thinking the toddler was a floating doll before he let out a little squeak. Fisherman Gus Hutt was at Matata Beach on North Island when he caught sight of the small boy floating in the water, which he first thought was a doll. It was only after the figure let out a small squeak that the fisherman realised it was a baby, who had escaped from his parents tent before ending up in the ocean. Speaking to the NZ Herald, Mr Hutt said: As he floated past I thought he was just a doll. So, I reached out and grabbed him by the arm, even then I still thought it was just a doll. His face looked just like porcelain with his short hair wetted down, but then he let out a little squeak and I thought oh God this is a baby and its alive. Mr Hutt, who was staying at Murphys Holiday Cam in Matata, added: "He was bloody lucky, but he just wasnt meant to go, it wasnt his time." The baby, who was not injured in the incident, was rescued at around 7.45am on October 26. Rebecca Salter, co-owner of Murphys Holiday Camp, told the BBC that apparently the baby had been very excited to be on the beach and suggested it was the couples first night in Matata. Hutt, who is a fisherman and one of our regulars, spotted the baby. We wrapped him up in towels and Sue [Mr Hutts wife] went to inform the babys parents," she said. It came as a shock to everyone. It was a very, very lucky result it could have been a very tragic accident. Its a freakish miracle. T he sole survivor of a family who drowned in devastating floods in Sicily has spoken of his "nightmare". Giuseppe Giordano, 35, was with 12 members of two families sheltering at the rustic property in Casteldaccia when a river burst its banks and swamped the house. The overall death toll from storms across Italy has now reached 32 after days of heavy rain and winds, according to ANSA news agency. Mr Giordano, whose two children, Federico, 15, and Rachael, 1, were both killed, has given a harrowing account of the night. Sole survivor: Giuseppe Giordano lost his wife, two children and parents in the floods / AFP/Getty Images He said: "The windows became dark, the lights went out, a layer of mud moved on the floor. "We moved to the other room, my son Federico reassured me: 'Dad, I'm thinking of Rachael, and he picks up his little sister. 'Let's go, let's go,' I say. Now I think my son was a hero." Nine people were found dead in this house in Casteldaccia, Sicily / EPA He said he tried to get into his car but the high waters forced the doors shut. "Out of desperation I clung to a tree. And so I survived," he added. His wife Stefania was also killed, along with his parents, sister Monia and brother Marco. His brother in law Luca Rughoo and his daughter were the only other survivors. Devastated father Luca Rughoo (centre) is pictured leaving the morgue in Casteldaccia near Palermo after floods killed three nine members of his extended family, including his wife and son / AFP/Getty Images Mr Rughoo had taken his nine-year old daughter out for dessert, and the two returned to find the destruction as Mr Giordano was still clinging to a tree. He waded through the mud to search for his wife, three-year-old son, and mother, but they were already dead, he told La Republicca. Major flooding has left more than 30 dead in Italy / AFP/Getty Images Mr Rughoo said: "I was desperate. The level was high, the debris and the water came up to my chin. I gasped and looked for hands to grasp. I shouted the names of my child, my wife, my nephews, my mother. I felt like I was in a nightmare. "In front of me was death, behind me my daughter was screaming 'Daddy come back to me. Do not leave me'. "I had to choose between life and the possibility of not making it. Without my wife and son I do not know how to go on. Francesco died because of me." Three members of the family killed in Casteldaccia are laid to rest at a service in the 'Madonna di Lourdes' Church on Monday / EPA Correre Della Sera newspaper reported that the property was branded illegal as it was built too close to the river, known to be flood-prone, and was ordered for demolition in 2008. The Italian government has declared a state of emergency as more heavy winds and rains are expected this week, mainly in the northern mainland and islands of Sardinia and Sicily. A German couple died in Sardinia and now 12 people have been killed in Sicily, and missing councillor, Alessandro Scavone, 44, was found dead, after he was dragged from his vehicle near Vicari on the island. A landslide near Belluno in the northern Veneto region cut off the area after days of storms, and floods submerged most of Venice's streets. Police are still searching countryside near the village of Corleone for paediatrician Giuseppe Liotta, 40, after his car was swept off a road on the way to Giornale di Sicilia reports. Across the island, in the town of Cammarata, near the historic tourist destination Agrigento, the fire department said divers are working to recover the bodies of two people swept away while driving on a road near the flooded Saraceno River. A motorhome is pictured off side of a flooded road in Sicily / AFP/Getty Images Also in Agrigento province, firefighters rescued 14 people from a hotel in the town of Montevago, which was threatened by floodwaters from the Belice River. T he sons of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi today told of their agony as they appealed for their fathers remains to be returned to Saudi Arabia for burial. Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi described their father as courageous, generous and very brave, and said that without his body, his family is unable to grieve. Salah, 35, told CNN: We just need to make sure that he rests in peace. Until now, I still cant believe that hes dead. Its not sinking in with me emotionally.Its not a normal situation, its not a normal death at all. All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi [cemetery] in Medina with the rest of his family. I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon. Jamal Khashoggi disappeared on October 2 / AFP/Getty Images Abdullah, 33, added: I really hope that whatever happened wasnt painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death. Washington Post columnist Mr Khashoggi, 59, a fierce critic of the Saudi regime, disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to collect documents for his wedding. Turkish prosecutors claim he was strangled and his body dismembered. Saudi authorities have admitted that US-based Mr Khashoggi was murdered in a premeditated act. Eighteen suspects have been identified and King Salman has reportedly instructed his officials to bring the perpetrators to justice. Jamal Khashoggi's fiancee on Saudi columnist's murder Turkish officials claim Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder, which Riyadh denies. Salah, who met the crown prince and king in Riyadh last week, dismissed claims that his father was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is regarded as a terrorist group by several countries, including Saudi Arabia. Prince Mohammed is alleged to have made the claim in a phone call with the White House. Asked how his father should be remembered, Salah said: As a moderate man who has common values with everyone a man who loved his country, who believed so much in it and its potential. Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy, that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. And he believed in the transformation that it is going through. The brothers said their father was like a rocknroll star when they were out with him in Saudi Arabia because of his career as a journalist. Abdullah said his fathers blossoming relationship with Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz was making him happy. He was the last of Mr Khashoggis children to see him alive He said: It was a very good opportunity for me to see him. We hung out in Istanbul, we had fun. The march is being led by Anonymous but who are they? Anonymous is a group of hacker-activists which aims to target establishment hypocrisy. It originated in 2003 from the website 4chan an online forum where users' identities are obscured by forced anonymity. Since 2008s Project Chanology, when the collective took on the Church of Scientology in a series of protests, pranks, and hacks, it has become increasingly associated with collaborative hacktivism on a number of issues. A Texas newlywed couple were killed in a helicopter crash just hours after tying the knot. Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman-Byler were killed when the helicopter they were leaving their wedding in crashed north of Uvalde on Saturday, KENS-TV reported. The couple were identified by a student-run newspaper at the Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, which both the newlyweds attended. "It is with deepest sadness that we announce the tragic passing of two Bearkats: Will Byler (Agriculture Engineering senior) & Bailee Ackerman Byler (Ag Comm senior) in a helicopter accident departing their wedding," the paper said on Twitter. "We ask that you keep the families in your thoughts and prayers." Uvalde Police received a call from an aviation monitoring centre around midnight on Saturday notifying them of a possible downed aircraft. The wreckage was located yesterday with assistance from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Border Patrol and Uvalde Fire Department, CBS reported. The US National Transport Safety Board said it was investigating the crash of a Bell 206B helicopter in Uvalde, Texas. Uvalde Fire Department reportedly told local KENS media that multiple people died in the crash. The couple are said to have grown up rodeoing and were frequently photographed together at rodeo shows. Mrs Ackerman-Byler posted on Instagram in August that they were "so in love", and friends and classmates have taken to social media to share tributes to the couple. Dakota Wells paid a tribute to the couple on Twitter and said they had just celebrated their fairytale wedding. Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman-Byler celebrating their engagement "Ive never been so heartbroken than I am right now. Rest easy Bailee and Will, you will be missed by so many," she added. Chelsea Parsons said Mrs Ackerman Byler was "the sweetest, most beautiful girl in all of Texas. A mericans are preparing to go to the polls in the high-stakes United States midterm elections. On Tuesday, US voters will decide between President Donald Trump's take-no-prisoners rhetoric and the Democratic Party's super-charged campaign to end the Republicans' monopoly in Washington and state legislatures across the nation. There are indications that a so-called "blue wave" may help Democrats seize control of at least one chamber of US congress. Here's all you need to know about the midterm elections from CNN's Sam Feist. Donald Trump has said a vote for Republican candidates is a 'vote for him' / AFP/Getty Images What are the midterm elections? Every two years, the US elects all 435 members of the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate and hundreds of local officials from governors to mayors, to state legislators. The elections happen in the middle of a presidents term when there is no presidential election, hence the title midterm. Tuesday, November 6. Most states allow early voting and absentee voting, however the majority of Americans will still cast their votes on election day. Whats at stake in Washington? All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 in the Senate. People vote at outdoor booths during early voting in Pasadena, California / AFP/Getty Images What about outside the capitol? Across the country, there are 36 governor races. There are also thousands of state legislature contests and municipal polls. In addition, there are a number of state-wide ballot initiatives that range from legalising medicinal marijuana in Utah to authorising the display of the Ten Commandments in Alabama. Whats the current state of play in Congress? Republicans have a two-seat majority in the Senate (51-49). Loading.... In the House of Representatives they have 235 seats, the Democrats have 193, and there are seven vacancies. Democrats need to pick up 23 Republican-held seats to take control. Loading.... What are the chances of the Democrats winning the House? Are we likely to see a blue wave? We dont make predictions on the outcome of elections. But our election analyst, Harry Enten, has a forecast that says the most likely scenario is that Democrats win the House with a narrow 17-seat majority. However, he also notes that there remains a possibility of a Republican-controlled House, with as much as a 29-seat majority, and in the event of a blue wave, he estimates that Democrats could have as large as an 89-seat majority. In short, we dont know what will happen, but Democrats currently have the edge. What about the Senate? Democrats are defending 26 seats and the Republicans nine seats. The maths alone gives Republicans a significant advantage. For Democrats to take control of the Senate, they would have to have an almost perfect night. Not likely but not impossible. Whats the Trump factor? Is this a referendum on the president? Donald Trump said on the campaign trail last week that a vote for Republican candidates was a vote for him. For many Americans, this election is a referendum on him. However, its important to note that each race is different and voters may cross party lines to vote for a candidate that they know or like, regardless of that candidates position on Mr Trump. How important is voter turnout? Turnout is everything. If Democrats turn out their base and Republicans dont, then the Democrats win. Typically, Republicans vote in larger numbers at midterms. This year there are signs that it could be different. Democrats will have to break the historical trends but there are certainly signs they may be able to pull it off. At least in the House of Representatives. For those watching the results come in, which are the weather-vane areas and what are the key timings? Keep an eye on the East Coast states that close early. By 7pm Eastern Time, polls will be shut in many districts in Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Results in key House races, plus some of the state-wide Senate races will be early indicators. If the Democrats have a great night, we could learn relatively early whether they will take over congress. It could also be a long night and its quite possible we might not know the final results for days. A mericans will take to the polls to vote in the all-important mid-term elections tomorrow. Speaking at a rally in Macon, Georgia, President Donald Trump told supporters to "look at what is marching up - that's an invasion" and said Democrats encouraged chaos at US borders. In a last-ditch campaign for the Democrats, Barack Obama condemned Trump and accused him of lying and "fear mongering." The Democrats have a good chance of winning the House of Representatives, currently holding a 7 point edge in overall congressional races, according to an NCB News/Wall Street Journal poll. Loading.... What are the midterm elections? The midterm elections take place every two years and determine which party controls Congress, which is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. This years midterms could be crucial for state-level policy debates, including abortion rights, the future of Medicaid expansion in some states and other issues like education, taxes and labour rights. What time do polling stations open and close for voting? Polls open on November 6, but the exact time will vary depending on the state: Alabama: 7am to 7pm CMT Alaska: 7am to 8pm AKST Arizona: 6am to 7pm MST Arkansas: 7:30am to 7:30pm CST California: 7am to 8pm PST Colorado: (All Colorado voters now receive a ballot by mail) MST Connecticut: 6am to 8pm EST Delaware: 7am to 8pm EST District of Columbia: 7am to 8pm Florida: 7am to 7pm EST Georgia: 7am to 7pm, except in Atlanta, where polling remains open until 8pm EST Hawaii: 7am to 6pm HST Idaho: 8am to 8pm MST Illinois: 6am to 7pm CST Indiana: 6am to 6pm EST Iowa 7am to 9pm CST Kansas: 7am to 7pm CST Kentucky: 6am to 6pm CST Louisiana: 6am to 8pm CST Maine: Polls open between 6 and 8am EST in municipalities with a population of at least 500. In municipalities with a population of less than 500, polls can open between 6 and 10am EST. Maryland: 7am to 8pm EST Massachusetts: 7am to 8pm EST Michigan: 7am to 8pm EST Minnesota: 7am to 8pm CST (municipalities with fewer than 500 registered voters can open polling places as late as 10am, but most do not) Mississippi: 7am to 7pm CST Missouri: 6am to 7pm CST Montana: 7am to 8pm MST. Some smaller polling places may open as late as noon. Nebraska: 8am to 8pm in the Central time zone; 7am to 7pm in the Mountain time zone Nevada: 7am to 7pm PST New Hampshire: Voting can start between 6 and 11am EST and end between 7 and 8pm EST, depending on your municipality. New Jersey: 6am to 8pm EST New Mexico: 7am to 7pm MST New York: 6am to 9pm EST North Carolina: 6:30am to 7:30pm EST North Dakota: Voting can start between 7am and noon CST and end between 7 and 8pm CST. depending on your municipality Ohio: 6:30am to 7:30pm EST Oklahoma: 7am to 7pm CST Oregon: (vote-by-mail state, ballots must be turned in by 8pm PST on Election Day) Pennsylvania: 7am to 8pm EST Rhode Island: 7am to 8pm EST South Carolina: 7am to 7pm EST South Dakota: 7am to 7pm CST Tennessee: varies by municipality Texas: 7am to 7pm CST Utah: 7amto 8pm MST Vermont: Polls open between 5 and 10am EST, depending on town. All polling places close at 7pm. Virginia: 6am to 7pm EST Washington: (vote by mail state, ballots must be turned in by 8pm PST on Election Day) West Virginia: 6:30am to 7:30am EST Wisconsin: 7am to 8pm CST Wyoming: 7am to 7pm MST When do exit polls come out? Exit polls should come out as soon as voting closes, but its best to take what they say with a pinch of salt. In the past, the exit polls have been criticised for overestimating how big a share certain groups such as non-whites and the college-educated make up of the total electorate. Exit polls are also notoriously poor at taking into account all those votes submitted through absentee voting, early voting and all-mail elections in states such as Oregon, Washington and Colorado. When can we expect results? Many results wont come out until the early hours of Wednesday morning GMT at the earliest. However, we could have an idea of who will control the House by midnight. During the 2014 midterms, the Associated Press called the Senate for the GOP at 11:25pm. How to follow Election Day P resenter Gregg Wallace is expecting a miracle baby at 54, after two years of trying with his wife. The MasterChef host, who is set to welcome a baby boy with 32-year-old Anna in May, said they found out the joyous news as they were due to start IVF. Speaking to OK! Magazine, Wallace revealed: We were due to start IVF but then it happened naturally after two years of trying. The doctor told us it was a miracle Anna was pregnant. Ive been scared and stressed since she fell pregnant but since we had the twelve-week scan recently it feels joyous. Parents-to-be: Gregg Wallace and wife Anna are expecting a baby boy next year / OK! Seeing a scan of our baby son and the strength of his heartbeat made me cry. Wallace also admitted that the couple, who tied the knot in 2016, have agreed to only have one child together, with Anna adding that they are blessed enough. They have already settled on a name for their newborn, Sid Massimo Wallace, who is due on May 9, 2019. Out now: Gregg Wallace and wife Anna revealed the news in the latest issue of OK! / OK Wallace has presented MasterChef since its revival alongside Australian chef John Torode. The duo were last seen on screen when they crowned John Partridge winner of the latest series of Celebrity MasterChef. The actor, best known for playing Christian Clarke in EastEnders, beat Made In Chelsea star Spencer Matthews and rugby player Martin Bayfield to the trophy. S pice Girls reunion excitement has hit fever pitch after the band tweeted for the first time on Monday morning. Mel C, Mel B, Emma Bunton and Geri Horner are set to reunite without Victoria Beckham, 20 years after their debut single Wannabe propelled them to international stardom. A brand new Twitter page has emerged with a photo of the four of them. Sharing a photo of what looks like a camera broadcast, they wrote: Our broadcast continues shortly...#FriendshipNeverEnds. And Bunton, also known as Baby Spice, has confirmed that exciting news will be dropping on the new page at 3pm this afternoon. Speaking to Jamie Theakston on their Heart breakfast show, Bunton said: I cant [give anything away]. Youre not going to break me this morning. TODO: define component type apester Everything will be announced just after three oclock today on social media. You can go to @SpiceGirls. Please, dont look at me anymore because I might just blurt it out. Im so excited. I just want it out there. Emma Bunton on the Spice Girls reunion tour Bunton, Horner, Mel C and Mel B are expected to announce a summer stadium tour via a mock news bulletin. A source told The Sun: This is the biggest music comeback of the decade and tickets are expected to sell like hot cakes when they go on sale at the weekend. Talk of a tour has been bandied about since the group confirmed their reunion in February at Horners house, but the group have remained tight-lipped about plans V ictoria Beckham has broken her social media silence in the wake of reports the Spice Girls are reforming but she's keeping schtum on any talk of a tour. The fashion designer has reportedly ruled herself out of a 2019 UK summer stadium tour, which is expected to be announced by Geri Horner, Mel B, Mel C and Emma Bunton this afternoon. Beckham instead posted a picture of her daughter Harper ahead of setting off for her first day back at school after the half term. She captioned the Instagram shot with a thumbs up emoji and the words: The beret is back! Bring on the winter uniform. Back to school: Harper Beckham is ready to return after a two week holiday / Instagram/ Victoria Beckham Bunton confirmed a Spice Girls announcement will drop after 3pm this afternoon after she was grilled by her Heart radio co-host Jamie Theakston. After reading out a headline from The Sun he said: Its time to get the exclusive from Emma Bunton. The truth. Its the story everyone is talking about. Look at me straight into my eyes. Tell me. Bunton replied: Dont look me in the eyes Jamie Theakston. I cant [give anything away]. Youre not going to break me this morning. Emma Bunton on the Spice Girls reunion tour Everything will be announced just after three oclock today on social media. You can go to @SpiceGirls. Please, dont look at me anymore because I might just blurt it out. Im so excited. I just want it out there. Bunton, Geri Horner, Mel C and Mel B are expected to announce a summer stadium tour via a mock news bulletin. The news will come nine months after the girl group reunited at Horners house to confirm plans to celebrate the belated 20th anniversary of their debut single Wannabe. They last hit the road for The Return of the Spice Girls world tour in 2008 before reuniting for a one-off performance at the London 2012 Olympic games which saw them perform atop black taxis. M el B confirmed a Spice Girls reunion tour but incorrectly revealed tickets go on sale on Friday. Emma Bunton aka Baby Spice revealed the new foursome would be announced on a brand new Twitter account at 3pm on Monday. But speaking on Loose Women hours before, Scary Spice appeared to confirm that the big news is a tour and fans can get their hands on tickets on Friday, when they actually go on sale on Saturday at 10:30am. The singer revealed: It must be like five, six months [that Ive known]. But now all the wheels are in motion, our tickets go on sale on Friday. Was I meant to say that? Letting slip: Mel B has revealed exciting news on Loose Women / ITV The hopes are that we go everywhere else in the world but right now its just the UK. Ruth Langsford pointed out that their last set of tickets sold out in seconds, with Mel B joking that the pressure is on. Spice Girls - In pictures 1 /48 Spice Girls - In pictures Spice Girls at Wembley in 2019 Andrew Timms Best looks Sporty, Baby, Scary, Ginger and Posh sing as The Spice Girls PA The Spice Girls reunite for tour rehearsals Spice Girls Instagram Spice Up Your Life The Spice Girls officially launch Channel Five at Marble Arch in 1997 Rex Viva Forever The Spice Girls - Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham AT 'Viva Forever!' Spice Girls musical launch in 2012 The Spice Girls reunite for the first time since 2012 Victoria Beckham/Instagram Prince Harry meets The Spice Girls PA Reuniting Victoria Beckham, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Melanie Brown pose for a photocall at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich ahead of their news conference on June 28, 2007 in London Getty Images Doppelgangers The Spice Girls with their wax doubles at The Rock Circus In The West End, London in 1999 Jeremy Selwyn Book launch The Spice Girls launch their book 'Forever Spice' PA Summer ball The Spice Girls at Capital Radio Summer Jam, Clapham Common in 1996 Rex Patriotic Geri Halliwell at The Brit Awards in 1997 wearing her famous Union Jack dress Rex Features Movie stars Spice Girls 'Spice World' Los Angeles Premiere in 1998 Rex Going for gold The Spice Girls performing at The 2012 London Olympic Games, Closing Ceremony Rex Charitable Spice Girls pose for Comic Relief Red Nose Day Launch in 1997 Alex Lentati Iconic Auction of outfits owned by Geri Halliwell. Her Spice Girls memorabilia auctioned at Sotheby's. All proceed's for The Sargent Cancer Care For Children in 1998 David Crump/Daily Mail Onset The girls filming Spice Girls: Spice World Spice Productions Undercover Ginger and Baby Spice star in Spice Girls: Spice World Spice Productions On tour British pop band, The Spice Girls, perform the first concert of the UK leg of their world tour at the O2 Arena, 15 December 2007 Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images Flying high The Spice Girls pose after naming a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 plane "Spice One" in their honor at Los Angeles International Airport, 12 December 2007 AFP/Getty Images Jet setters The Spice Girls unveiling the new name, Spice One, of a Virgin Atlantic Jet at the Flight Path Museum at Los Angeles Airport PA Model looks The Spice Girls, Emma Burton, Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham (L to R) perform during the Victoria's Secret fashion show at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California, 15 November 2007 AFP/Getty Images West End debut Melanie Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown attend the press night of 'Viva Forever', a musical based on the music of The Spice Girls at Piccadilly Theatre on December 11, 2012 in London Stuart Wilson/Getty Images Selfie stick The Spice Girls: Victoria Bekcham, Melanie Chisholm, Emman Bunton, Melanie Brown and Geri Halliwell Stage stars Spice Girls - Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham during 'Viva Forever!' musical press night at The Piccadilly Theatre, London, Britain MTV Europe Music Awards Spice Girls at the Globe Arena in Stockholm. PA Throwback The Spice Girls: Melanie Chisholm (Sporty Spice), Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) Victoria Adams (Posh Spice) Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) and Melanie Brown (Scary Spice) Girl power The Spice Girls in Spice World (1997) London calling Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls performs during the first date of their 17-date residency, part of their reunion world tour Getty Images Raising money The Spice Girls raise money for Children in Need First reunion The Spice Girls reunited in 2007 Jeremy Selwyn Fashionable flare The Spice Girls at 12th Annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles in 2007 Spice and Vinegar Gary Lineker with the Spice Girls promote Walkers Crisps with limited edition Spice Girls range Mini me's The Spice Girls Dolls hit the market in 1997 Rex Risque Victoria Beckham (Adams) and Geri Halliwell perform with The Spice Girls in Dublin in 1999 Rex One down British pop band The Spice Girls. Posh Spice (Victoria Beckham), Sporty Spice (Melanie Chisholm), Baby Spice (Emma Bunton) and Scary Spice (Melanie Brown) Virgin Records BRIT Awards The Spice Girls perform at The Brit Awards in 2000 and win an award for thier outstanding contribution to British music Back stage snaps The Spice Girls take a twitter snap at Olympic Games London 2012 Closing Ceremony. Charming the royals Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls greets Prince Charles at the Prince's Trust Charity Concert Gala at the Manchester Opera House Rex The Spice Girls meet Prince Charles Prince of Wales with the Spice Girls at the Royal Gala celebrating the Princes Trust 21st Anniversary PA The Spice Girls World Tour Melanie Chisholm, Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Brown perform The Spice Girls World Tour in 2008 Rex The Spice Girls at The MTV Europe Awards The Spice Girls at The MTV Europe Awards in Sweden IN 2000 Rex Award winners The Spice Girls at The Brit Awards in 1998 Rex Collecting gongs The Spice Girls at The Brit Awards in 1997 Rex With her majesty Queen Elizabeth II meeting Emma Bunton, Victoria Adams, Mel C, Geri Halliwell, Mel B of The Spice Girls at The Royal Variety Performance in 1997 Rex Film debut The Spice Girls take center stage in their feature film debut, the Columbia Pictures Presentation of 'Spice World' in 1997 Getty Images Meeting Mandela Spice Girls Mel B and Geri Halliwell meet Nelson Mandela in 1997 as part of the British Royal tour in 1997 Rex Pepsi promotions The Spice Girls promote Pepsi in 1997 Rex Mel B also hinted that Posh Spice Victoria Beckham could join the reunited girl group later on in their reunion. She said: Just the four of us fully confirmed but you know Vick might join us at some point. I hope so, I think it would be a shame if she didnt. Emma Bunton on the Spice Girls reunion tour I dont know why shes said no. Shes got a full on life, shes not committing just yet but. Fans were beside themselves with excitement, including Loose Women panellist Stacey Solomon, with many flocking to social media with glee. One wrote: Mel B is on #LooseWomen. OMG tickets are going out on Friday, get in there. Im so so happy. I pray I have tickets. Excited about the announcement at 3pm. While another said: Mel B just confirmed on @loosewomen that they will tour the rest of the world after the UK and that VB will be welcome to join at any point! @OfficialMelB @spicegirls. Spice Girls announce reunion tour "Tickets go on sale Friday" - Mel B #SpiceGirlsReunion #SpiceGirls2019 #spicegirls @spicegirls, added somebody else. But fans will have to wait until Saturday at 10.30am to get their hands on tickets. S usanna Reid fought back tears as she discussed knife crime with London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Good Morning Britain. The presenter, who has three teenage sons, became emotional as she grilled Khan on what he would say to parents who were worried after the recent spate of knife attacks in the capital. Reid said: On Thursday, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed.honestly, I cant talk about it without getting upset. Ive got children the same age in the same part of a London. A 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death, just gone out to buy some chicken. On Friday night, a 17-year-old boy was at a tube station [and] stabbed to death. Taking to task: Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan interviewed the London Mayor on knife crime / ITV My kids are out on Clapham Common. How can I possibly say to them its safe for you to be out? Teenagers cannot go out in that part of London without worrying that they might get hurt. Reid, who is mum to 17-year-old Sam, 14-year-old Finn and 13-year-old Jack, later posted on Twitter about rising knife crime. She wrote: Let me say I love London. Im proud to be from South London. But parents are worried about their teenagers. Too many think they have to carry knives to be safe. People are scared of grassing because of gang code. We need more and better policing @MayorofLondon @sajidjavid NOW. Reid also wrote that the senseless waste of young life breaks her heart as she came off-air from Mondays show. In response to the presenters comments, Khan said: Weve got to treat knife crime like an infection. So weve got to treat the infection, that means tough enforcement, that means more police officers on the streets like weve done. Youve got to stop the infection spreading [tackling] criminal gangs are really important [and] drugs are really important - thirdly, youve got to stop the infection happening in the first place. Thats why we are investing in preventative youth services. Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV. A t Microsofts annual Future Decoded event in London this year, accessibility was a big topic of conversation. On stage, Microsoft demonstrated some of the innovations it has made in the space this year, such as its adaptive Xbox controller designed specifically for gamers with limited mobility and a new hiring programme for people with autism who were being left behind in the traditional recruitment process. At the core of this mission to use tech to empower people with disabilities is Microsofts chief accessibility officer, Jenny Lay-Flurrie. Deaf from a young age after a bout of measles, Lay-Flurrie says disability has always been a vein in her life and shes used these experiences to promote a welcoming, collaborative space at Microsoft which has led to some incredible innovations. Accessibility is a challenge for some but also a massive opportunity, she tells the Standard. I think tech can truly empower and were at the tip of the iceberg of whats possible and the innovation possibilities are ridiculous. Lay-Flurrie has been part of Microsoft since 2005 when she came in to work on Hotmail. After getting involved with the companys group for deaf workers, Lay-Flurrie ended up chairing a wider disability group for 10 years. There were a lot of conversations in that group: how do I bring myself to work by myself, how do I talk to my manager, and I learnt an enormous amount by being part of that community, she says. As she became more and more invested in the space, she moved into focusing on accessibility full-time at Microsoft, before becoming the companys CAO three years ago. The thing about tech and accessibility, for Lay-Flurrie, is that creating accessible tech isnt just about people with disabilities, inclusive features should work for everyone. I was on the tube yesterday and when I lived in London 10 years ago, everyone was reading books. Now everyone is looking at their phones, and its amazing the number of people watching videos with captions, she says. Thats the power of accessibility it benefits everyone. Why accessibility is a major focus at Microsoft When a new product is made at Microsoft, Lay-Flurrie says its crucial that people with disabilities are included in the design, build and testing of their products. For instance, PowerPoint now includes an Accessibility Checker so that when youre building a presentation, you can ensure it is accessible for everyone, whether they have low vision, are visually impaired, or autism. But its the blockbuster projects that Microsoft has worked on recently that are truly pushing the boundary on whats possible with technology. Earlier this year, the company released a new app called Soundscape. This uses 3D audio cues to help people with visual impairments to navigate the world, providing context to their environment and lets them build a mental map of the space around them. The original vision from Amos Miller, the guy who created it, was that he could wake up on a Sunday morning and decide he wanted to go to London and visit the Natural History Museum and just do it, explains Lay-Flurrie. Instead of having to plan and understand the routes because that can take hours. Microsoft worked alongside the Guide Dogs UK to create Soundscape, which anyone can download for free from the App Store. The company also holds a yearly hackathon, which brings together people from across Microsoft to build accessible products. The first event in 2014 saw 10 projects get the green light. That increased to 250 at this year's event. The Xbox controllers came out of the accessibility hackathon as well as a new version of Soundscape, called Paddlepalooza. The team behind this set auditory beacons up on a lake and the blind community were invited to kayak around the course, using the tech to facilitate a social sport. The opportunity to ditch every meeting, hibernate in an enclosed space, and wallow in problems and solutions is really fun, says Lay-Flurrie. But for me, the bigger impact is the cultural impact. People walk in with often very little knowledge of accessibility but walk away with an understanding of how to design, how to think about it, and the language. They can then take this back to their day job. An AI-powered future The future of accessibility tech though lies in artificial intelligence (AI). This year, it established a $25 million grant programme, named AI for Accessibility, for projects that use technology to empower people with disabilities. For instance, Microsofts Translator tool uses AI to provide real-time captions for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. This speech-to-text tech is used in classrooms around the US. One student, John Adjei, said he also uses the Microsoft Translator app on his phone when talking to friends outside of class. Sometimes when we have conversations they speak too fast and I cant lip read them. So, I just grab the phone and we do it that way so I can get what is going on. Jenny Lay-Flurrie on stage at Microsoft Future Decoded this year / Microsoft Its revolutionary for me, as someone who relies on it, explains Lay-Flurrie. [But] I think we need to accelerate innovation in this space. Whether youre a small company or innovating in your garage, we want to give you access to some of that AI infrastructure to help you create the next fun thing. On stage at Microsoft Future Decoded and in person, its easy to see Lay-Flurries passion for her work. From her days as a volunteer at a special school, she says that disability has always been a part of her life. 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 Communist torturer Alexandru Visinescu died at the hospital of the Bucharest-Rahova penitentiary, head of the Federation of Trade Unions of the National Administration of Penitentiaries Sorin Dumitrascu told AGERPRES. According to a press statement released by the National Administration of Penitentiaries, on Monday, around 13:00hrs, local, the medical staff of the Bucharest-Rahova Penitentiary Hospital stepped in to provide first aid to a person in custody, while calling for the support of the 112 emergency service. "In spite of the efforts made by the specialist staff, the death of the person concerned was declared around 14:30hrs. He had been known in the unit's records as suffering from a series of chronic medical conditions, for which care was provided and treatment according to the recommendations of the specialist doctors. In accordance with the legal provisions in force, the family of the convict, the custodial judge, the Prosecutor's Office with the Bucharest Tribunal, and the INML Bucharest forensic institute were informed about the death." Agerpres The European Union Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) provides an integrated framework for riparian countries and regions, in view of developing some transnational strategic approaches, Deputy Prime Minister Paul Stanescu conveyed to the attendees of the EUSDR National Forum, through a message delivered by State Secretary Alin Chirila. The meeting marks the takeover of the EUSDR Presidency by Romania. "It is an honor for us, but also a challenge because the main task for us is transforming this area in a competitive, dynamic, thriving region, where local communities benefit a higher standard of living. I express the belief that the local authorities of the Danube riparian counties will put in all the efforts for the social-economic growth and revival of the localities with a growing potential," Paul Stanescu stated. He highlighted that "among the priorities of Romania's mandate of the Presidency of the EUSDR, the strengthening of the territorial cooperation is also included, by consolidating dialogue and developing crossborder relations." "In this regard, the competitive potential of the crossborder regions can be unblocked through investments in tourism and cultural heritage areas, which represents an opportunity for transforming the Danube region in a competitive, dynamic and thriving region," Stanescu explained. In the Deputy PM's view, "the EUSDR provides an integrated framework for riparian countries and regions, in view of developing some transnational strategic approaches of projects, networks and common solutions." Paul Stanescu also tackled the topic of funding some "relevant" projects for the EUSDR. "At the level of the Regional Development and Public Administration Ministry we intend to implement a series of relevant investments for the EUSDR, funded under the Regional Operational Programme 2014-2020, in increasing energy efficiency, urban revitalistaion and mobilisation, cultural heritage, infrastructure of county roads, tourism, regenerating small and medium-sized cities. These investments will focus on 12 Danube riparian counties," the Deputy PM showed. The EUSDR is one of the macro-regional strategies of the European Union, initiated and promoted by Romania and Austria and endorsed by the European Council in 2011. The EUSDR represents a cooperation platform of the states of the Danube basin, destined to economic and social development of the Danube macro-region and an articulation framework between the priority objectives of national development and those of "the Europe 2020" Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, assumed by the EU member states. Fourteen states participate in the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region, namely nine member states of the European Union (Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany - as a Federal State and through Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria lands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary), and five third countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine). The Strategy has four main objectives: interconnecting the Danube region, protecting the environment of the Danube region, increasing prosperity in the Danube region and strengthening the Danube region, being structured on 11 priority areas. Agerpres The estimated energy consumption for the winter of 2018-2019 will be higher by 2 percent as opposed to the previous period (2017-2018), and this is the starting point for the setting up of this year's winter Program, Secretary of State with the Ministry of Energy Doru Visan told a press conference on energy topics, on Monday. "The preparation of Romania's Winter Program represents a necessity and has always had positive results. We are among the last countries with this approach, of having a Winter Program and a winter Command centre. There are many who remember the history of this winter program, launched in 1994, during the time of Renel. The organization of the energy system by sources was the worst decision made at that time and we are constantly searching to meet these obligations, in the sense that companies function on other requirements, namely on maximum profit. We must find the measures that will not affect the budget of these companies. The obligation of the Winter Program means the correct dimensioning of consumption and covering it in the energy system's safety conditions. Evaluating consumption is a first step. We have started from the same premise as last year, in which the consumption has a rise of 2 percent for the winter of 2018-2019. The second analysis element is the legality framework, starting from the income and expense budget of each company," Visan said. According to the official with the Ministry of Energy, there are enough stock components for the preparation of the 2018-2019 Winter Program.He also added that another element in getting the Winter Program ready is represented by the district heating systems, for which at least 1,000 MW are required for optimum functioning. "The energy system has many good people, professionals and the desire is not to put out, but for the light bulb to remain permanently on, in a safe manner though," the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Energy concluded, during the event organized by the Focus Energetic. Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Monday attended the opening ceremony of the Romanian Embassy in Muscat as part of an official visit to the Sultanate of Oman. The opening ceremony was attended by ministers of the Omani government, representatives of the local diplomatic corps and members of the Romanian community in Oman. The attendees emphasised the importance of the moment for the bilateral relationship and its symbolic value in determining the Romanian side to have a permanent presence on the territory of the country, voicing conviction that the dialogue between Romania and Oman will be strengthened in the coming period, both politically and economically. In this respect, the meetings of the visiting Romanian delegation were mentioned, which were said to highlight the interest of both parties in the completion of sectoral co-operation projects. The opening of the diplomatic mission in Oman is a pragmatic implementation of the actions undertaken by the government of Romania, under governing programme 2017-2020, to deepen and strengthen bilateral relations with Arab Gulf states. Thus, the official visit of the Romanian head of the government is said to be a double first in the Romanian-Omani bilateral relations, as the opening of Romania's first diplomatic mission on the soil of Oman occurred amidst the first contact between Romania and the Sultanate of Oman at the level of the leadership of the two governments since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries on May 1, 1974. At the same time, the opening of the Muscat diplomatic mission, near the 45th anniversary of unbroken diplomatic ties in 2019, is a concrete way for the Romanian government to support the almost 300-strong Romanian community of Oman. Agerpres Romania's Prime Minister Viorica Dancila attended a business forum held in Muscat, Oman on Monday, where she said that Romania has an attractive business environment, improved by recent legislative changes. According to a press statement released by the government, at the beginning of the event Dancila pointed out that, as a member state of the EU, Romania is interested in establishing strong commercial bridges between the European Union and the Arab Gulf states that will enjoy a robust foundation to expand bilateral relations. "The head of the government presented the important investment opportunities offered by Romania, know-how in areas such as agriculture, tourism, transport, education, health, research and innovation and showed that Romania has an attractive business environment, improved by recent legislative changes, such as those in the law on public-private partnerships." Dancila also voiced satisfaction with the latest positive developments in the relations between Romania and Oman, and the firm desire to stimulate dialogue on all levels of interest. She referenced the need to develop economic relations between the two countries that will lead to visible results and increased trade. She underscored the need to promote an active and transparent dialogue between the business communities in the two countries, buttressed by the chambers of commerce and industry, and thanked for the large presence of Oman's business community in the forum. The event brought together members of the Omani government, chairs of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Special Economic Zone Duqm Authority, the Public Investment Promotion and Export Development Authority, as well as 20 prestigious Omani companies interested in developing economic cooperation with partners in Romania. A delegation of the National Liberal Party (PNL) will participate, Tuesday through Thursday, in the European People's Party (PPE) Congress to take place in Helsinki, where they will decide on who will run on behalf of this entity for the office of President of the European Commission. "On 6, 7 and 8 (November, editor's note) a delegation of the PNL will participate in the European People's Party Congress in Helsinki. (...) The Romanian Liberals are going to support Mr. Manfred Weber, currently the leader of the parliamentary group of the PPE in the European Parliament, in running to become the next President of the European Commission," PNL leader Ludovic Orban announced at the end of the meeting of the Executive Bureau of the Liberals. The PNL delegation to the EPP Congress on designating this political entity's candidate to the European Commission top job will have 30 members, 22 of whom have a right to vote. Inside the EPP Manfred Weber is running against Alexander Stubb, the other EPP member who aspires to become this entity's candidate to the European Commission top job. Alexander Stubb paid a visit to Bucharest last week, where he participated in the meeting of the Executive Bureau of the PNL. Agerpres PSD (Social Democratic Party) leader Liviu Dragnea on Monday said that two thirds of the party's National Executive Committee (CExN) members voted for the exclusion of Adrian Tutuianu and Marian Neacsu, also specifying that those who made this decision were upset by the content of the recordings featuring Tutuianu that the mass media took over and by the fact that Marian Neacsu stopped doing his job as secretary general of the PSD. Dragnea told a press conference that, after the most recent meeting of the Executive Committee, where they voted to reject a letter of some of the PSD leaders who rebelled against the leadership, they decided everyone must support the Government and the governing programme. "And these things were proposed back then precisely by those who signed or supported the letter. They agreed with my proposal - as I didn't agree at that time with any measure against the authors of the latter and I don't agree even now - that everybody should focus instead on his/her job to the benefit of the party, so that we can make it work and help it to be united, and that everybody should support the government in implementing the governing programme. Unfortunately, later on some recordings appeared from meetings chaired by Mr Adrian Tutuianu and I said: "I firmly condemn this method of recording the party's internal meetings, any party; however, those affirmations of Mr Tutuianu were the most upsetting for a large part of the party members," said Dragnea after the CExN of the PSD. The Social Democrat leader also mentioned that he discussed for many hours on Sunday with most of the presidents and vice-presidents of the party's branches "and they were all very upset with the fact that after that CExN a part of our colleagues continued to act against the party." "Today, very many colleagues reproached those statements to Mr. Tutuianu. Even if I disagree and firmly condemn the manner in which they did it there to record their own colleagues at the meeting, those affirmations remain. Mr Tutuianu, during today's meeting, said that he could apologize, if needed, but that he maintains his affirmations anyway. Our colleagues disagreed with this approach, for the serious things that happened there cannot just be deleted," said Dragnea. He also showed what were the reasons behind Marian Neacsu's exclusion, one of which was that he no longer did his job at the party. "After the CExN we all hoped, I the most, that after two-three days during which everybody will still be upset, which is natural, people will start doing their job again. Mr Neacsu should have effectively done his job as secretary general and act according to the statute. (...) Unfortunately, after that CExN, Mr Neacsu never showed up at the Kiseleff office again and never did anything related to his job. In exchange, many of our MPs and leaders of organisations continuously told us in the past week that they were invited to join a project - they did not understand very well what the project was. In the past couple of days there were certain persons representing the Opposition who talked about negotiations between Mr Neacsu and leaders of the Opposition, who were assured they will have enough votes from the PSD to pass the motion of censure against PSD-ALDE (the ruling coalition, ALDE - Alliance of Liberals and Democrats). These were the reasons, also enumerated at the PSD leadership's meeting, which led to the exclusion of the two members, according to the PSD leader. "I also heard that they will challenge this decision. It's their right to do it and it's natural to do it. In exchange, I hope that all the other colleagues will understand that our objectives remain the same and we will no longer provide topics for public debate that have nothing to do with the governing programme or with what the Romanians want," said Dragnea. Romania, alongside the Russian Federation, Poland, Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic, on Monday was welcomed into the International Telecommunications Union Council (ITU-Council) after 137 of the 179 member states attending the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2018 voted in favour, according to a press statement released by the National Communications Administration and Regulatory Authority (ANCOM). "Romania has garnered the most of votes in the election to the International Telecommunication Union Council at the Plenipotentiary Conference held in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, as 137 of the 179 attending member states voted in favour of Romania! A big success for our country, because we will have an important say in the leadership of the international telecoms organization," according to ANCOM Chairman Sorin Grindeanu. According to ANCOM, Romania participated in the election in Region C (Eastern Europe and North Asia), where seven countries applied for five seats. The final result of the electoral process was the following: Romania - 137 votes; the Russian Federation - 136 votes; Poland - 125 votes; Azerbaijan - 119 votes, the Czech Republic - 112 votes; Bulgaria - 110 votes, and Kyrgyzstan - 95 votes. Based on the votes they garnered, Romania, the Russian Federation, Poland, Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic got seats on the ITU Council. The Plenipotentiary Conference takes place every four years to elect the management of the organisation and to determine the direction of the debate until the next edition. This year, the Conference takes place in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, October 29 - November 16. At the same conference, Houlin Zhao was re-elected ITU secretary general, and Malcolm Johnson was reconfirmed as deputy secretary-general. ANCOM is the body that protects the interests of communications users in Romania by fostering competition in the communications market, managing limited resources, and by encouraging efficient investment in infrastructure and innovation. AGERPRES Two trials of MEP Tokes Laszlo will be tried at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, the one on "Black March" events (1990) - for crimes against humanity and the one on hoisting the Szeckler flag and of the Partium region, his lawyers announced on Monday. According to lawyer Menyhart Gabriella, the "Black March" file was sent to the ECHR in September 2018 to investigate, in addition to murder, also crimes against humanity. "In a separate letter, I requested in English to the person registering the files to take care of this file, since by working with other lawyers in Transylvania, we have found discrimination in the registration and filtering cases that tend to resolve the Romanian-Hungarian conflicts in Transylvania or abroad. We have asked the person to pay special attention to this very sensitive case, in order to avoid any injustice regarding the filtering and registration of the file", the lawyer told a press conference attended by Tokes Laszlo and lawyer Kincses Elod. She said that in 2017 a complaint was filed with the Military Prosecutor's Office to investigate and begin the criminal prosecution for murder and deeds against humanity. The first reply, very vague, said that the events had already received sentences in 1990-1991, but the lawyer says that the prosecutor's office did not take into account also the crimes against humanity. "We have also called for the investigation and prosecution of crimes against humanity in that black March. In response, the prosecutor's office returned through administrative way the complaint, by saying that the events are not described correctly and one cannot conclude what facts we want to be investigated by the Military Prosecutor's Office. Despite the 30 pages we have written. After the second complaint we sent it to the High Court of Cassation and Justice but it was rejected as inadmissible. In September this year, they sent the file to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg," said Menyhart Gabriella. The lawyer pointed out that, although there is evidence, there is a great contradiction between the Romanian historical opinion and the Hungarian historical opinion regarding the presentation of those events in March 1990. "Our real intention is to reach consensus or to show the reality of these events. We have evidence that Ion Iliescu and his companions directed and organized those events in Targu Mures," Menyhart Gabriella said. Lawyer Kincses Elod spoke about the trials of the flags hoisted by Tokes at his Oradea MEP office's balcony, the Szekler one and that of the Partium region, respectively. "Losing here, at the Oradea courts, the trials related to the flags, we notified the ECHR. It has been registered, but the speed there leaves to be desired. Judges are overloaded and they find any reason to reject immediately registration, without any motivation, the complaints filed. Because it is simply impossible to cope with the load of cases they receive," said Kincses Elod. AGERPRES Romania intends to reinvigorate the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), Minister Delegate for European Affairs Victor Negrescu told the EUSDR National Forum, an event organized on Monday at the Palace of Parliament, on the occasion of the launch of Romania's EUSDR Presidency. "We set ourselves as a goal to have the EUSDR Presidency go along with our Presidency of the Council of the European Union in order to promote by these means a more intense consolidation of added value to macro-regional strategies," said Negrescu. The minister said that "a first partial result" of the activity will be presented at the EUSDR European Annual Forum that will take place June 27 - 28 in Bucharest. "We seek to better capitalize on the opportunities offered by the implementation of this strategy and, particularly, take advantage on everything Danube potential, which all member states should better access. (...) We seek to reinvigorate EUSDR by working together with partner states to update the European plan of action," he said. Victor Negrescu also spoke about the challenges of the EUSDR Presidency. "Together with our colleagues from the Ministry of Development, we plan to render operational the EUSDR Secretariat because (...) I would point out that one and a half years ago, when we started approaches to take over this Presidency, only few believed in Romania's desire to revive this strategy. Our candidacy was met with skepticism, but we were able to win the Presidency, with our partners' support," Negrescu pointed out. He went on to say that "over 50 events dedicated to the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region will be organized in the year ahead". "EUSDR is also a key priority of our Presidency of the EU Council. Our ambition to organize events and meetings is to prove leadership in what this strategy means," Negrescu said. "One year ago, when I took office as Minister, not even the legal framework for the organization of the EUSDR was in place. Not even a list of projects was there. Today, it's on the Strategy's website," he said. The Minister Delegate for European Affairs also referred to the financing of the projects included in SUERD. "It would be good if more financial resources flowed in, this is why we set ourselves as a concrete goal to include this possibility in the negotiations on the future European budget, for macro-regional policy initiatives to benefit from additional access to the other resources managed directly from Brussels, whether we are talking about the Horizon Europe program or about the Connecting Europe Facility (...) and these things are not easy at all," he said. EUSDR is one of the four macro-regional strategies of the European Union, successfully initiated and promoted by Romania and Austria and endorsed by the European Council in 2011. EUSDR is a cooperation platform of the Danube states, aimed at the economic and social development of the Danube macro-region and represents a framework to articulate priority national development goals and the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth committed to by the EU member states. Fourteen states participate in the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region: nine EU member states (Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany - as a federal state and the Lander of Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary) and five other countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine). The strategy is structured on 11 priority areas and has four major goals: interconnecting the Danube region, protecting the Danube region environment, increasing prosperity in the Danube region and strengthening the Danube region. Agerpres Sanctions may indeed be coming but will they have the bite that Donald Trump is hoping for? Its a good question as we open November with a flurry of edicts from Trumps State and Treasury Departments. Lets go over them all and see just how contradictory they are while at the same time acceding to the reality of just how much the world has changed in the six years since President Obama first went nuclear on Iran with sanctions. It starts with Trumps tweet that Sanctions are Coming. Okay, fine we knew this. But sanctions dont account for much if the State Department is handing out 180 day waivers to countries. Next up was Pompeo saying on the same day that no less than eight countries would be exempt from sanctions for buying oil from Iran. A little news for Mike Pompeo, Halloween was last week. Contrast this with 2012 where India, for example, to get around the sanctions had to essentially barter to get much needed Iranian oil, because no such exemption was forthcoming. South Korea and Japan were also denied waivers then, but according to the Financial Times they are all among the countries to be exempted. Mr. Pompeo did not name the eight jurisdictions, but Turkeys energy minister said his country had been given an exemption. India, South Korea, Japan and Iraq are among other US allies that experts expect to benefit. China is also expected to be a beneficiary. The list will be announced on Monday. Mr. Pompeo pushed back on suggestions that the US was being lenient to Iran or that the Trump administration had failed to deliver a hard line in the absence of European backing. He said two of the eight jurisdictions would reduce Iranian oil imports to zero in a few weeks and the other six had agreed to greatly reduced levels. As always, believe it when you see it. What matters, ultimately, is that Turkey, India and China continue their purchases. They are some of the biggest consumers of Iranian oil. And as the competition drops for Irans production so to will the price and I wouldnt be shocked if eventually all of these countries actually increase their imports of Iranian oil rather than cut one single barrel. I mean, its not like I heard that India was now all of a sudden backing out of the new IPI India Pakistan India pipeline that Gazprom is building for it. In fact, lets get serious here. India, Iran and Russia just announced more concrete plans about opening up the North South Transport Corridor to ship goods between them. I find it funny that Turkey is no longer on Trumps bad people list once he was exposed over his relationship with Mohammed bin Salman due to laffair Khashoggi. All of a sudden there are all sorts of agreement and reciprocity happening between the two countries, but in ways that are not in line with the U.S.s previous policies. Turkey has been openly hostile to the U.S. with President Erdogan openly accusing the U.S. of trying to oust him from power in 2016 and fulminating the market turmoil in the Lira earlier in the year. Theres cooperation between the Turks and the U.S. in Manbij, Syria? Political prisoner transfers? And now Trump, the ultimate tough guy is giving Turkey a waiver on buying Iranian oil? You can bet that Turkey is not one of the two countries who have agreed to cut imports to zero. In fact, I will be surprised if Turkey cuts its imports more than a nominal amount so that Pompeo can bloviate about winning on this issue and then never bringing it up again. Do you remember who laundered Iranian oil money in the form of physical gold through their banks during the last sanctions period? Thats right it was Turkey, and Erdogan knew all about it. Because let us not forget what is really going on here. The U.S. doesnt have the same power it had to enforce these types of escalating sanctions regimes like they used to. Which brings me to the next U.S. proclamation vis a vis Iran. And that is the pressure the State Department is putting on international financial messaging service SWIFT to cut Irans financial institutions out of the their system, similar to what Obama did in 2012. In the recent past Trump dog-whistled that Iran would not be subject to SWIFT expulsion, but his Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is adamant that Iran be cut off. Apparently the argument to keep Iran in SWIFT based on being able to better monitor their activity failed to win over Mnuchin. Im not at all surprised about this as so much of this anti-Iran policy has been driven by the Israelis and the Saudis, who still feel that using the U.S. as their bully is the best path to getting what they want. In my opinion, Mnuchins loyalties lie with the U.S. They lie with Goldman-Sachs first and Israel second. The U.S. is way down on his priority list. Until I see something from Treasury other than insipid anti-Russian neocolonialism I will continue to hold that opinion. And that brings me to why I think theres, ultimately, a lot less here than meets the eye. Russias alternative to SWIFT, SPFS, is not only open for business it is now the dominant financial messaging system in Russia and its list of interested international clients include banks from all of the countries Ive already talked about India, Iran, Turkey and China. And Russia was quite savvy releasing this news at the same time as the U.S. finally had to put up or shut up about sanctions on Iran. It was a deft piece of a diplomacy if you ask me. Now, dont for a second think resistance to this situation will be easy for Iran or the Iranian people. It wont be. Its already hard and the fact that Pompeo, Trump and the rest of the gang that cant negotiate dont seem to care one whit about that tells us all we need to know about their collective moral compass. They dont have one. But, as always, when governments fight the people lose. So, unlike in 2012, Iran has a lot more friends. But those friends also have a lot more power and resources than they had back then. A Russian alternative to SWIFT is not only a viable work-around for the sanctions it is the birth of a new and parallel regional monetary system at a time when there is a growing fear of a political and financial meltdown just over the horizon in the West. These countries will need to have alternative ways to conduct and clear transactions going forward. Because you can bet that there will be more of these edicts, each one successively less effective than the last, over the next few years. Starting on Nov. 5, anyone who unloads a tanker of Iranian oil risks the wrath of Washington. The White House has announced that all the sanctions lifted under the 2015 Iran deal will be reimposed on that day in order to target critical sectors of Irans economy. This is the second, harsher round. The first was introduced in August. Aimed at more than 700 Iranian individuals and entities, this snapback affects oil, banking, shipping, and other sectors. The statement that was released claims that this will be the toughest sanctions regime ever imposed on Iran. Any company that trades with Iran has already been barred from doing business in the US. As of Nov. 5, any US company faces punishment if it does business with a company that does business with Iran. There will be waivers for some countries that have made efforts to eliminate their imports but have not been able to complete the task. The exceptions will be temporary, with six of those eight countries expected to greatly reduce their oil purchases, and two will eventually have to cut off their transactions with Iran completely. About 40% of Iran's economy is dependent on oil income. We will ultimately move Iran to zero crude oil. Thatll take us some number of months to do that, State Secretary Mike Pompeo told Fox News, describing the final goal. Since May, when the US began to pressure countries to stop buying Iranian oil, Iran's exports have dropped by more than 1 million barrels per day. The EU, the UK, France, and Germany said in a joint statement on Nov. 2 that they regretted the US decision to bring back the sanctions. Twelve consecutive reports from an independent watchdog have documented Iran's compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement. The European Union wants to create a new institution, known as a special purpose vehicle (SPV), to facilitate "legitimate financial transactions" as a way to get around the US-imposed punitive measures. The SPV could also be used by countries outside of the bloc, including Russia and China. But the new EU mechanism to facilitate payments for Iranian exports will not be operational until early next year. Iran has weathered multiple rounds of sanctions before. Its economy isn't directly reliant on the US financial system, but its Western trading partners are. Russia and China are not, however. The US policy is making Iran look eastward to fill the gap left by that lost European investment. Thus there is an opportunity to forge new links with Russia and China. Tehran is caught in a bind and Moscow is lending a helping hand. According to Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, The oil for goods mechanism, set up to boost trade between Russia and Iran, allows Tehran to use a portion of its petroleum exports to pay for Russian goods. We have historical trade ties with Iran. He called for an exploration into new mechanisms to continue that cooperation. Under the circumstances, an oil for goods deal is a win-win for both nations. The 2014 Russia-Iran oil accord might get a new lease on life. Under the terms of the five-year agreement, Russia was to help Iran coordinate oil sales, as well as cooperate in the oil-gas industry, construct power plants and grids, and supply machinery, consumer goods, and agriculture products. Under the deal Russia could have bought 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil a day, about a fifth of Irans output and half its exports at the time. But it became irrelevant after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran deal, was reached in 2015. Now the time is right to revive the plan. The unilateral imposition of the sanctions against Iran will produce more than just economic fallout it will deal a blow to the international non-proliferation regime. Last month, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano once again affirmed that Iran had fully met its commitments under the JCPOA. If Iran subsequently quits the deal, other nations will launch their own nuclear programs, triggering a chain reaction. Saudi Arabia has already issued such a warning. Japan and South Korea are mulling over this option. Why not? After all, it was US President Trump himself who that additional countries, such as Japan and South Korea, may need to develop their own nuclear weapons. It other words, he said they could forgo their commitments and contribute to the erosion of the non-proliferation regime. This is a very serious issue for the 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. Its rather symbolic that the second wave of sanctions is taking effect at a time when armed forces and observers from eight Sunni Arab countries (or the members of the Arab NATO that are being groomed to resist the Shiite powerhouse Iran) are kicking off their Shield of the Arabs 1 exercise on Nov. 3 in Egypt, which will continue until Nov. 16. Economic and military pressure is being added by Americas regime-change efforts. This new US measure has many implications all of which make the world less safe and all these problems more complicated. Its the same old story, with the US continuing to rely on its favorite foreign-policy tool of blatant pressure and intimidation. This is another example of how Americas stone age methods only serve to unite the EU, other countries of the collective West, Russia, and China in their efforts to stand up against the assault, or at least to mitigate the consequences of Washingtons downright reckless foreign-policy moves. Japan has ordered AGM-158B JASSM ER (extended range of 900 kilometers) gliding smart bombs for its F-15 fighter-bombers. These cost $1.15 million each and will be delivered by 2020. Since it entered production in 2009 over 3,000 JASSM have been ordered, including 910 of JASSM ER. Basically, JASSM delivers a GPS guided bomb long distances (beyond the range of enemy air defenses) and does it relatively inexpensively. Production of JASSM has increased quite a bit lately as more orders from American and South Korean air forces recently were placed. Now Japan is added to the list. In addition, Japan recently confirmed the purchase of the Norwegian "Joint Strike Missile" (JSM) for its F-35A fighters. Norwegian defense firm Kongsberg has been developing JSM since 2011 as an air-to-surface weapon that is not only stealthy but also designed to be launched from the internal bomb bay of the F-35 (where two can be carried). To fit into the F-35A internal bomb bay the existing JSM had to be reduced in size and that was completed in 2018. The F-35 version is a 310 kg (670 pound) missile with a 185-550 kilometer range (depending on launch altitude). All JSM versions are based on the existing Kongsberg NSM (Naval Strike Missile). That means JSM has capabilities like two-way communication, image recognition for homing in on a specific target and the ability to fly very low and take advantage of local terrain to evade detection and interception. JSM is basically a small cruise missile using a small jet engine and pop-out wings to keep itself moving. Adapting this weapon for air launch got American manufacturers and the U.S. Department of Defense involved and soon Kongsberg had made deals for integrating the JSM with the still evolving fire-control software of the F-35 as well as a U.S. partner to manufacture JSM for American users. JSM uses the NSM guidance system to hit moving targets, like ships as well as very small targets on land. Japan wants JSM because that missile would be perfect for a Japanese F-35 making a surprise attack on North Korean missile or nuclear weapons facilities. JSM is based on the older, and quite successful, NSM. This is 410 kg (900 pound) missile is designed for use from ships or land based launchers (or trucks). NSM has a 125 kg (275 pound) warhead and a range of 185 kilometers. NSM uses GPS and inertial guidance systems, as well as heat imaging system (and a database of likely targets) for picking out and hitting the intended target. NSM entered service in 2007 and work on an air-launched version led to the JSM. A major chore was the JSM's advanced electronics (especially the gear that defeats defensive jammers) and this stuff required a lot of tweaking and realistic testing. That was expected and the JSM was ready for service on schedule. Other nations see the JSM as more useful against naval targets or even specific vehicles moving along a distant road. The JSM thus becomes a very useful weapon for nations adopting the F-35. The JSM is also superior to the heavier Harpoon, which has become a standard anti-ship missile in many navies. The JSM has other competition, like the Harpoon variant, SLAM-ER, but at the moment no one weapon has a lock on future anti-ship missiles or the kind of versatile air-to-ground missile JSM has indeed evolved into. JSM completed its final tests in July 2018 and will be available for adaptation (software mods) for F-35 users as they receive their aircraft. Each nation will have the F-35 fire control system (as well as some of the other electronics) modified to handle local preferences, especially when it comes to specific bombs and missiles and other unique bits of hardware. The F-35 is armed with an internal 25mm cannon and four internal air-to-air missiles (or two missiles and two smart bombs) plus four external smart bombs and two missiles. A special bomb rack was developed which allowed the F-35 to carry eight SDBs (230 kg Small Diameter Bombs). All sensors are carried internally and max weapon load is 6.8 tons. The aircraft is very stealthy when just carrying internal weapons. The more compact (it looks like a missile) SDB was designed with the internal bomb bays of the F-22 and F-35 in mind and has proved to be a very effective smart bomb. JSM is also being adapted for use on other aircraft, especially the F-16, F-15E and F-18, which would carry it externally. The F-35 can also carry JSM (and all other bombs and missiles) externally but sacrifices a lot of its stealth protection to do so. Japan may not consider this to be a major problem with North Korea, which has an antiquated air-defense system. The official reason for arming Japanese F-35s with JSM is to deal with the threat of ballistic missile attack by North Korea. JSM is well suited to find and destroy hidden North Korea missile launch sites. But JSM would also be an excellent weapon to use against Chinese warships, which Japan does not mention but is implied. A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon carries a developmental test version of Norways Joint Strike Missile to its release point above the Utah Test and Training Range west of Salt Lake City. When development is complete, the JSM is intended for use aboard the F-35A Lighting II. The 416th Flight Test Squadron recently wrapped up JSM testing. (U.S. Air Force photo by Christopher Okula) X 0 20 Help Keep Us Soaring We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling. We need your help in reversing that trend. We would like to add 20 new subscribers this month. Each month we count on your subscriptions or contributions. You can support us in the following ways: Donor states cut their contributions to Somalia by a third in 2018 (to under $900 million) compared to 2017. The donor community is losing patience with the endless violence and self-destructive corruption that persists in Somalia. What it has come down to is that the international community is not willing to provide the food, medical and cash aid (that keeps about a third of the population from starving to death or fleeing to adjacent nations like Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen) unless Somalia proves it can govern itself. That aid pays for the current government (and its $340 million a year budget), the Somali military (still a work in progress) and peacekeeping operations. The key problem is that despite their dire situation the Somalis still cannot agree on how to govern themselves as a nation. The natural state of what we call Somalia has been, for thousands of years, a dozen or more separate entities that have never voluntarily come together to govern themselves. Unity seems to be an impossible dream. During October the fighting between various clan and regional faction (as opposed to al Shabaab violence) caused over 20,000 more people to flee their homes. Many ended up in refugee camps around Mogadishu. UN and other foreign mediators have so far been unable to get the various warring factions to settle their disputes. Somali leaders are aware of the problem and thought they could solve some of them with a federal form of government Currently there are five federal states; Puntland in the far north, Galmudug just south of Puntland, Hirshabelle (Central State), Southwest State and Jubaland on the Kenya border. Somaliland in the northwest is also considered a federal state of Somalia but refuses to cooperate and continues to consider itself an independent nation. The problem is few other nations, or the UN, will recognize that. The federal government concept was put into operation during 2016. It was agreed that the federal states would have some autonomy and the ability to elect local leaders (especially a state president). But the current de facto leaders dont trust the national government and believe the central government will interfere with the state elections and otherwise limit the autonomy of the states. The federal form of government is supposed to provide the states with a lot of autonomy. In return, the central government would provide muscle to help control bandits and warlords throughout the country. The central government also controls most of the foreign aid coming in. There was growing acceptance for the federal form of government but many politicians prefer to try and concentrate maximum power in the central government. A powerful central government is unpopular with clans and the clan leaders, who are accustomed to having no government at all ordering them around. For nearly all the last few thousand years the clans answered to no one except for the occasional empire builder. European colonial powers arrived in the 19th century and established a central government that didnt really take; nor did similar efforts by previous conquerors. Once all the colonial powers were gone by 1960, the newly established Somali government began to come apart, a process that was complete by 1991. No one has been able to get all the clans to submit to a new central government since. To make matters worse most of the educated Somalis fled in the 1990s and few have come back. Meanwhile, public education has been absent in most of Somalia for two decades and the literacy rate is under 40 percent (and under 30 percent for women). Public health has been largely missing for two decades and life expectancy is about 52 years. Outside of Somaliland and Puntland, its under 50 years. Corruption and violence eventually caused Doctors Without Borders to abandon Somalia in 2013, after trying, since the early 1990s, to operate effectively. Doctors Without Borders is famous for persisting under the most arduous and dangerous conditions. This medical charity rarely abandons an area that is in need but Somalia turned out to be one of the few situations that proved intolerable. Many other international aid organizations have given up on Somalia. Many foreigners and Somalis feel Somalia is still too corrupt and poorly governed for even a federal form of government to work. Eventually but not yet. One encouraging sign has been the relative peace and prosperity in the north (Somaliland and Puntland). However, all is not perfect in the north. Since the 1990s the two statelets that comprise northern Somalia (Puntland and Somaliland) have been having some internal problems but much less so than in Somalia. Northern Somalia has been better governed since breaking away from Somalia in 1990 to form Puntland (2.5 million people) and Somaliland (3.5 million). The other two-thirds of the Somali population to the south has been in perpetual chaos since 1990 and the establishment of a lasting central government is still a work-in-progress. The pleas from the UN and other aid organizations for donations to help Somalia are increasingly ignored and the money distributed to disaster areas where the money simply does more good. Increasingly those most willing to step up and stay involved with Somalia are neighboring countries, who have centuries of memories of violent Somalis raiding throughout the region. The neighbors would like to just ignore Somalia, like the rest of the world is increasingly doing. But when Somalia is a neighbor ignoring the problem is not an option. For nations threatened by international Islamic terror attacks originating in Somalia there is a need to stay involved, but as little as possible. And thats what the Americans and other Western counter-terror operators are doing. Concerned Kenya While most of Kenya has been free of al Shabaab violence there is still a lot of it and it is concentrated in northeastern counties (provinces) of Mandera, Garissa, Isiolo, Wajir and Marsabit that border Somalia. Kenyans in the northeast want something done. In addition to bordering Somalia, there are several other reasons for all the Somali violence in this part of Kenya. First, there is the pervasive corruption in Kenya (and Africa in general). Al Shabaab takes advantage of the police corruption in Kenya, where the largely Christian police are particularly brutal towards Kenyans who are ethnic Somalis as well as the Somali refugees. That brutality and discrimination make Kenyan Somalis reluctant to cooperate with police in finding al Shabaab terrorists. About 76 percent of the Moslems (four million people) in Kenya are ethnic Somalis who are citizens. Kenya is largely (80 percent) Christian with a Moslem minority (12 percent of the population) that has been known to harbor Islamic terrorists. Most Kenyan Moslems live in coastal cities like Mombasa (where about a third of the 1.1 million population is Moslem). A lot of ethnic Somalis and Moslems live in northeastern Kenya and that is a problem when most of the soldiers and police are Christians and non-Somali. Some Kenyans in the northeast believe the Somali violence would decline if Kenya pulled its peacekeepers out of southern Somalia. Others point out that much of the Somali violence in Kenya is financed by Somali criminal activity in Kenya. Pulling the peacekeepers out of southern Somalia would just make it more difficult for Somalia and the remaining peacekeepers to pacify the south. Moreover, pulling Kenyan peacekeepers out of Somalia would not help to persuade the many Somali refugees in Kenya to go home. Since 2014 Kenya has been trying to force all Somali refugees living outside refugee camps to move to a refugee camp. That has not been very successful. While the UN criticized this measure the government is under tremendous public pressure to reduce the Somali terrorist threat and many Somali refugees have been caught supporting or carrying out terrorist activities. Despite resistance, refugees continue to be sought and forced to go to the camps. For years there have been at least 500,000 Somali refugees, most of them in two Kenyan camps near the Somali border. The UN runs the camps but has no control over some 50,000 Somali refugees living mostly in the Somali neighborhoods of Nairobi and Mombasa. Kenya also hosts several hundred thousand other refugees from Ethiopia, Sudan, Burundi and Congo. Many Kenyans feel that the rest of the world does not appreciate what a heavy burden this places on Kenya. While Kenya has managed to reduce the number of al Shabaab attacks inside Kenya it has not been able to eliminate the al Shabaab presence. October 25, 2018: In the south (Jubaland), an American UAV missile strike killed two al Shabaab fighters. So far in 2018, the U.S. has carried out at least 28 of these air attacks in Somalia compared to 31 for all of 2017 and 15 for 2016. These air attacks are often a side effect of intel agencies (like the CIA) collecting intelligence (aerial surveillance and electronic monitoring) on Islamic terrorist activity in the region. This information is used to track changes in al Shabaab forces and capabilities and identify targets the Somali special operations forces can go after. These attacks are meant to disrupt al Shabaab operations or eliminate (capture or kill) their key leaders. These raids get noticed but the Somali special operations troops also carry out some surveillance missions which are purposely kept out of the news because these operations are mainly about future attacks. October 23, 2018: In the north (Somaliland). a major outbreak of clan warfare has left over fifty dead and over 120 wounded in three days of violence. October 22, 2018: In the southeast (Lower Shabelle region), a peacekeeper ambush killed a senior al Shabaab official (who was in charge of al Shabaab finances in Lower Shabelle). October 16, 2018: Pirates attacked a 180,000 ton bulk carrier some 430 kilometers off the coast. A speedboat full of armed pirates approached the bulk carrier from the rear and were nearly close enough to attempt boarding when the armed security detachment on the bulk carrier opened fire and after a two-minute gun battle the pirates backed off. Since the speedboat was too small to have operated so far out to sea by itself the anti-piracy patrol deployed aircraft and ships to search for the mothership the speedboat must have operated with. The next day a recon aircraft spotted the speedboat being towed by a larger fishing boat some 300 kilometers off the coast. The mothership was tracked back to its base on the Somali coast. The pirates knew how this played out and abandoned the mothership before a piracy patrol boarding party showed up on the 21st to seize the ship, tow it out to sea and blow it up. The piracy patrol checked its records and found this mothership had been sighted before but never caught in the act (towing the speedboat involved in a failed attack). October 14, 2018: Iran has been identified as a major player in the illegal charcoal exports al Shabaab controls. Because al Shabaab earns so much money from the charcoal exports (over half a million dollars a month) the exports were banned by the UN in 2012. Al Shabaab adapted by putting the charcoal in bags identifying it as coming from other parts of Africa. Iran has been found taking part in that deception as well by taking the smuggled Somali charcoal and, for a fee, putting it in bags labeled Product of Iran. October 13, 2018: In Baidoa (250 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu) two al Shabaab suicide bombers attacked a popular restaurant and a nearby hotel, leaving 19 dead and over 40 wounded. October 12, 2018: In central Somalia (Galmudug), American UAV missile strikes killed at least 60 al Shabaab men and destroyed a major base camp. The large gathering of al Shabaab members in the open was a graduation ceremony for new members of al Shabaab. October 10, 2018: In northeast Kenya (Mandera) two Christian teachers were killed by al Shabaab after being accused of spying on the Islamic terror group. The day before al Shabaab publicly executed five Somalis they had seized and accused of spying. Al Shabaab is desperate to halt the increasingly effective air strikes on their bases. These attacks not only destroy a lot of weapons and equipment but frequently kill or wound senior al Shabaab leaders. Much care is taken to keep secret the movements of al Shabaab leaders but still, they get hit by these air strikes. So Al Shabaab looks for spies. Many, if not most of those it identifies and kills are not guilty and this costs al Shabaab more good will and cooperation from locals. The Americans and Kenyans (whose warplanes carry out most of the attacks) wont reveal how they find their targets. For the Americans, much of the successes comes from aerial surveillance and analysis of data. Kenya relies more on HUMINT (human intelligence, as in spies and tips). October 9, 2018: Pakistan is no longer participating in the anti-piracy patrol off Somalia. The reason is the American refusal to pay for the fuel the Pakistani warships use while on patrol duty. That money was considered part of what the U.S. paid Pakistan to participate in counter-terror operations. All that aid has been cut because Pakistan refuses to halt support for Islamic terrorists who operate in Afghanistan, India and other nations in the region. From the soul is how Wendy Baker describes her efforts to honour and remember New Zealand soldiers who fought in World Wars. Now the former Bay of Plenty/Waikato resident has now shown her respect in a new way. Painting art onto round hay bales is her way of honouring NZs rural men and women who left their farms and properties to defend their country and had no idea what theyd face. Her respectful motive? To encourage those who live in the provinces today to honour rural folk who served in the World Wars in a commemorative creative way this coming Armistice Day, on November 11. This Armistice Day is the 100th anniversary since the end of WWI this makes it even more integral that we reflect and to try and do the best for our country like they did for us, says Wendy. Thats why I put the art on the hay bales. I want others to be innovative with their own tributes to our rural war heroes. Wendys great uncle William Torode Baker, a farmer, was killed at Passchendaele in WWI, 1917. He was only 20, it was awful. My late grandfather, Edward Victor Baker, was in WWI, and my late father Trevor William Baker was involved in WWII. Wendy was brought up on farms at Kerepehi and Waihi in the Waikato which her father Trevor owned after the war. Dad was a dedicated hardworking farmer. Kerepehi proudly sent 15 soldiers to WWI and 49 to WWII. Wendys grandfather Edward Baker farmed in Hunua. And my great uncle William was also from up that way. Wendy now wears her late fathers war medals and replica medals for her great uncle and grandfather at commemorations. And she believes the rural side of the story of the Great War needs to be told more. Young men left their wives and young children at home to keep farms going while they went to war and sometimes never returned. This side of the story does need to be told more but I know my father he didnt like to talk about it because war would not have been nice. So I think you have to pick up the emotions that come through youve just got to follow in their footsteps and make sure their history is not forgotten. Wendy Joy Bakers poem Honour and Respect, written this mark the upcoming Armistice Day. RNZ RSA national president BJ Clark approves of Wendys artistic endeavors, including her respectful war history poetry shes presented at Anzac Day services. Wendys done a lot of work off her own bat, through her poetry, ensuring her local memorials are cleaned up, and recently with her artwork on hay bales. BJ says Wendy makes us think outside of the circle when remembering those who served. Shes focused on the farmers that served, which is a great thing because the farmers and those that were back here to ensure the country kept going and were fed while all the labour had disappeared is another side of the story. And we should remember the families at home that suffered. Mothers at home worrying about husbands, fathers and sons. Children who missed out on so much because of the time they faced when their relatives were away. And we also forget about the animals that served. The large amount of horses dispatched overseas and were killed or never repatriated. Not only did those horses never come back but NZ lost a massive gene pool as the best horses were sent. Wendy agrees, saying: More than 10,000 NZ horses went overseas in WWI. With Armistice Day approaching, Wendy is passionate about the remember those who served our country. I just think its so important for people to reflect on the honour and respect our servicepeople some of whom were volunteers who gave to our country. And they did it for us. Weve just got to remember that. More information can be found at: https://ww100.govt.nz/ Wendy Joy Baker wearing some of the medals of her late relatives. Photos of Wendys great uncle William Torode Baker, and late grandfather, Edward Victor Baker. Bay of Plenty Are you sick of being the sidekick and ready to move into a consulting role? Or know you could be earning more and just... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz Bay of Plenty Have you just got your Class 2 license and are looking to get your foot in the door of a well renowned company? Read on!These... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz It's dubbed the race that stops a nation, but there are warnings about those "harmless" office sweepstakes. The glitz, glamour, and horses will be out in force at Flemington for the Melbourne Cup in Australia today. The Department of Internal Affairs has issued some reminders for businesses wanting to splash the cash. It says any prize money shouldn't be more than $500, otherwise a license would be required. Any money raised must be returned as prize winnings and the organiser can't pocket a fee for setting it up. The department says workplace sweepstakes are legal, but businesses must comply with the rules, or face a fine of up to $1000. Read the full list of rules here. However, it says it doesn't collect information about lost productivity during the few minutes the race is on. The event gets underway at 5pm. Skaneateles, N.Y. -- Welch Allyn President Alton Shader is resigning to become CEO of a company in the healthcare industry. Welch Allyn's corporate parent, Chicago-based Hill-Rom Holdings Inc., said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Friday that Shader has notified the company he will resign effective Dec. 1. The company said it expects to name a successor shortly. Hill-Rom spokesman Howard Karesh said in an emailed response to an inquiry from syracuse.com Monday that Shader is leaving to accept a position as CEO of a company "in the healthcare provider space." He did not identify the company. Shader was appointed senior vice president of Hill-Rom and president of its Front Line Care unit, which includes Skaneateles-based Welch Allyn, when Hill-Rom bought the medical equipment maker in September 2015 from the Allyn family for $2.05 billion. Shader joined Hill-Rom as a senior vice president of the company and president of its Post-Acute Care unit in July 2011 and named him its North American president in May 2012. Before joining Hill-Rom, he was general manager of renal at Baxter International Inc. Previously, he served as general manager for Baxter Ireland and held senior marketing positions in Baxter's operations in Zurich and California. Welch Allyn employs approximately 1,000 people in Skaneateles, where it makes medical diagnostic equipment. It opened a 100,000-square-foot addition to its factory off State Street earlier this year. Hill-Rom also reported Friday that in the 2018 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, it earned a profit of $252.4 million, or $3.73 a share, on revenues of $2.5 billion, an 89 percent increase from $133.6 million, or $1.99 a share, on revenue of $2.4 billion in its fiscal 2017. Excluding special items, earnings rose 23 percent to $4.75 per share from $3.86 per share in the prior-year period. The company said it is expecting earnings of $5.08 to $5.16 per share, excluding special items, in fiscal 2019. Hill-Rom is a global medical technology company with more than 10,000 employees worldwide. Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 Syracuse, NY -- A Liverpool man had choked his mother, put a towel over her face and kicked her hard enough to break nine ribs and puncture her lung. That's when "divine intervention" struck, a judge said today. The phone rang. That gave the 74-year-old woman enough time to escape her Grenadier Village apartment and drive away. She crashed her car in the neighborhood and was helped by nearby citizens, prosecutor Jordan Aiello said. The victim survived and recovered from her injuries. She can't rid herself of one thought, though: My own son tried to kill me. Today, William Tonon, 46, was sentenced to 3 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree assault and criminal obstruction of breathing. Aiello said she could not charge Tonon with anything more because his mother recovered from her injuries. Under law, that is defined as an assault causing "physical injury," or possibly "serious physical injury." Because the victim was older than 65 and the suspect was more than 10 years younger, that bumped the charge from a misdemeanor to a felony. To qualify for the much harsher first-degree assault charge, the victim would have needed to suffer permanent injuries. That didn't happen, Aiello said. But she added: "The victim will never be the same." Before the attack, the victim was still fit and active. Now, she has trouble getting around her apartment, the prosecutor said. The May 2018 attack happened after Tonon had overstayed his welcome at his mother's apartment, Aiello said. The victim wanted her son to go to state prison, but also hoped he would get mental health help while incarcerated, Aiello said. Tonon has a history of mental health issues and spent significant time on the streets in California, the judge noted today. Aiello had asked that Tonon spend about 5 years in prison. But the judge, citing Tonon's mental health history, offered him 3 years in prison. Tonon said he was sorry, but contested some of the allegations made in a police report. He did acknowledge that he'd committed the crime, though. "I feel very bad about this incident," Tonon said in court. "I feel there are exaggerations and lies here, but I feel very bad this happened and I hope to make it up." TULLY, N.Y. -- A man was critically injured Sunday morning after his Tully home caught fire. Firefighters found Larry J. Rowley on the floor of his apartment in the Meadows Apartments complex, said the New York State Police. The 66-year-old man suffered second-degree burns on his arms and third-degree burns on his face, troopers said. Rowley is in critical condition at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. But troopers said it appears Rowley may have been smoking inside the apartment while using an oxygen tank. The fire at the Meadows Apartments was reported just after 9 a.m. The Tully Fire Department rushed to the 1 Village View Drive complex and realized a man was trapped inside his burning apartment. The building, which is home to about 30 people, was evacuated. Firefighters rescued Rowley from his apartment. The fire was contained to the room he was found in, said Tully Fire Chief Steven Shahan. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A stabbing victim told Syracuse police Sunday night that two men tried to rob him before they pulled out a knife and injured him, city police said. The 27-year-old man told officers he was walking on Midland Avenue near West Onondaga Street when the the men demanded money from him. When he refused, one of the men stabbed him in the left shoulder with a pocket knife, Syracuse police spokesman Detective George Hack said in a news release. Someone drove the man to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse after he was stabbed, police said. Officers responded to the hospital for a report of the stabbing at about 8:40 p.m., Hack said. The stabbing victim's injury is considered to be non-life threatening. "There is minimal suspect information; only that they are two black males," Hack said in the release. Syracuse police ask anyone with information to call them at (315) 442-5222 or submit a tip using the "SPD Tips" app. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Customers at the Price Chopper on Erie Boulevard in Syracuse were evacuated Sunday evening after an employee called police to report a suspicious package in the parking lot, 911 officials said. The employee called the Onondaga County 911 Center at 5:45 p.m. Shortly after, customers in the store heard an announcement asking them to leave the store. When they walked outside, they saw police tape and several Syracuse police officers in the parking lot at 2515 Erie Blvd. E. "Officers responded there to investigate an item, which people thought appeared suspicious," Syracuse police spokesman Detective George Hack said in an email. "They are investigating it now." Some customers took to social media to ask about what had happened and why police weren't letting anyone in the grocery store Sunday night. "What's going on at Price Chopper on Erie?? 1/2 the parking lot taped off with police tape, not allowing anyone in the store," one person wrote on Facebook. Another customer expressed frustration after he arrived at Price Chopper on Erie Boulevard and found out he could not return cans and bottles, or get coffee creamer. He said he was going to Wegmans. Price Chopper on Erie Boulevard reopened at about 8:20 p.m. Sunday, a store employee said. Syracuse police said they were continuing to investigate the "suspicious item." "There are no injuries," Hack said, "and it is under investigation at this time." SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A 5-year-old boy and 8-year-old girl who were taken by their father Sunday evening from Elmcrest Children's Center in Syracuse have been located, Syracuse police said. Jaquan Joe Jr. and Shyla Lizana were located this morning with family members unharmed. They were safely brought back to Elmcrest Children's Center, said Det. George C. Hack, a spokesman for the city police. Jaquan Joe Sr. has not been located. He came to Elmcrest Children's Center to visit his children Sunday evening. The center has custody of the children, Hack said. While visiting the children, the father left the facility with the children without permission, Hack said. "There was no indication that the children were injured in any way, but they belonged in the facility, where their custody has been legally established," Hack said in a news release. At the onset of this investigation, members of the Syracuse Police Department conferred with the New York State Police, who determined the facts surrounding this incident did not meet the criteria to initiate an amber alert. Syracuse police are continuing to look for Jaquan Joe Sr. regarding the investigation. Police ask anyone with the whereabouts of Jaquan Joe Sr. to contact the Syracuse Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at (315) 442-5222. All calls will remain confidential. Anonymous tips may also be submitted using the "SPD Tips." SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The maker of popular gold and silver stackable charm bracelets is opening its first standalone store in Central New York. Alex and Ani will open at Destiny USA later this year. The store will be located on the second level of the Syracuse mall. "Their unique and personalized line of jewelry will arrive just in time for the gift-giving season," said Assistant Marketing Director Joanne Villegas in a news release. Alex and Ani merchandise is available at several retailers in CNY but the closest standalone store is in Victor. Syracuse, N.Y. --Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music will continue its 69th season on Saturday, Nov. 17, with a concert by the Schumann String Quartet. The concert will take place at 7:30 pm at the H.W. Smith school on Salt Springs Road in Syracuse. The three Schumann brothers - violinists Erik and Ken and cellist Mark - grew up making music together from earliest childhood in Cologne, Germany. In 2012 they were joined by Estonian violist Liisa Randalu. For their first Syracuse appearance, they will perform string quartets by Franz Josef Haydn, Leos Janacek and Johannes Brahms. The Schumann Quartet is now in its third year of residency at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. Other highlights of their current season include a tour of Israel, two in the U.S., and concerts in major musical metropolises such as London, Vienna and Berlin. "Being chosen as the resident quartet of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is about the highest distinction a gifted, early career chamber music ensemble can achieve," said SFCM Music Director Travis Newton. "Lincoln Center is the galvanizing springboard for many of the greatest careers in chamber music. I have a feeling we'll be hearing about the Schumann String Quartet for many years to come." People who hear the Shumann Quartet in performance often comment on the remarkable, almost intuitive give-and-take between members. That is understandable with the brothers, who share not only much of their DNA but also the experience of making music together since they were toddlers. But how about Liisa, the only non-family member, and the only woman? "She fit right in as if she were our sister," violinist Ken has said in interview. The Schumann Quartet loves the special energy of performing in concert. "A work really develops only in a live performance," the they say. "Then you can create a bond ... communicate in music." Nevertheless, the quartet has produced a number of award-winning albums featuring music by composers as diverse as Josef Haydn and Charles Ives. The concert by the Schumann Quartet will be the third of seven concerts presented by Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music in the 2018-2019 season. The concert is sponsored by Ernst Schuh in memory of Frederick Marvin, Emeritus professor of piano at Syracuse University. Tickets: online at SyrFCM.org or at the door. $25 Regular, $20 Senior, $15 under age 30 Full-time students are welcome free. For information: , , or 315.682.7720 SYRACUSE, N.Y. - After attending Mass Sunday, parishioners of two Syracuse area Catholic churches found fliers on their car windows urging them to not vote for state Senate Democratic candidate John Mannion because of his position on abortion. Sue Bingham, a parishioner of Immaculate Conception parish in Manlius, said the glossy fliers were on hundreds of cars in the parking lot when she left the 9 a.m. Mass. "After hearing a beautiful homily about Jesus' message to love your neighbor as yourself we all walked out to these and it was horrifying," said Bingham, a Mannion supporter. "I am OK with candidates promoting themselves, but don't go to places of worship and do this." The fliers also were distributed at Holy Family Church in Fairmount. "It was disturbing," said Donna Coloton, a Mannion campaign volunteer, who found one of the fliers on her car after the 10:30 a.m. Mass at Holy Family. Mannion is running against Republican Bob Antonacci, Onondaga County's comptroller, for the Senate 50th district seat being vacated by retiring Sen. John DeFrancisco. "It's a last-minute dirty trick," said Ian Phillips, Mannion's campaign manager. "It's a new low." While the fliers were being distributed, Mannion and his family were attending Mass at St. Patrick's Church on Tipperary Hill in Syracuse. Antonacci said neither he nor his campaign distributed the anti-Mannion fliers Sunday morning. "I'm a Roman Catholic and I would never do something like that," he said. "I don't condone these actions." The flier distributed Sunday did not mention who produced or distributed it. But it was very similar to a mailer sent out earlier in the campaign by the state Republican Senate Committee. Danielle Cummings, a spokeswoman for the Syracuse Catholic diocese, said the diocese does not allow outside groups to distribute campaign materials on church property. The headline on the flier said, "John Mannion claims to be a Catholic yet supports a radical expansion of abortion." The headline refers to the Reproductive Health Act, a state bill that would strengthen New York's abortion law written three years before the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, which affirmed a woman's right to have an abortion. Mannion supports the bill and Antonacci opposes it. The proposed bill, that's been passed in the Assembly, would incorporate protections contained in Roe into the state's law. The bill's backers say the measure will protect women if the Supreme Court overturns Roe as promised by President Trump. State law only allows abortions after 24 weeks if the mother's life is in danger. The bill would expand the law by also allowing abortions after 24 weeks if the fetus is no longer viable. The bill also would allow licensed midwives, nurse practitioners and physician assistants to provide abortions. -- Catie O'Toole also contributed to this report New York voters will go to the polls Tuesday to choose a governor, attorney general, U.S. senator, members of Congress, and members of the state Senate and Assembly in an election that will determine the balance of power in Albany and Washington. Hundreds of elected positions in cities, counties and towns are on the ballot this year too, along with some local propositions across the state. What follows is a guide to the election showing who is on the ballot, and information on how, when and where to vote. What's at stake? Democrats are trying to break Republican control of Congress and provide a check on the power of President Donald Trump. Democrats have not controlled the House since 2010 and the U.S. Senate since 2014. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to win the majority in the House, and a net gain of two seats for control of the Senate. In New York state, the political parties are fighting a tight contest for control of the Senate, where the GOP has a slim one-seat majority. Who's on the ballot? New York's ballot is topped by the race for governor, where four challengers are attempting to unseat two-term Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The challengers are Republican Marc Molinaro, Libertarian Larry Sharpe, Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins and former Syracuse mayor Stephanie Miner, an independent running under the Save America Movement banner. In other statewide races, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., faces Republican Chele Farley; Democrat Tish James and Republican Keith Wofford are competing for the open attorney general's seat; and Democratic Comptroller Tom DiNapoli faces Republican Jonathan Trichter. In Central New York, two of the most competitive House races will be decided. U.S. Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus, will try win a third term by holding off a challenge from Democrat Dana Balter of Syracuse in the 24th Congressional District. U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-New Hartford, is seeking a second term in a tightly-contested race against Democrat Anthony Brindisi in the 22nd Congressional District. Two state Senate races in Central New York also will help determine control of the chamber. In the 50th Senate District, Democrat John Mannion faces Republican Bob Antonacci for the seat left open by John DeFrancisco's retirement. In the 53rd Senate District, Democrat Rachel May and Republican Janet Burman are on the ballot for the seat that opened with May's primary election victory over David Valesky. See list of all statewide and local races on the ballot in Onondaga, Cayuga, Madison and Oswego counties. When do I vote? Polls will be open across New York state from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6. Who can vote? Any registered voter can participate in the general election. If you are not a registered voter, you can't vote on Tuesday. The last day to register to vote in this election was Oct. 12. Where do I vote? Registered voters in New York state can look up their polling places on the state Board of Elections website or call the county board of elections: Onondaga County: 315-435-8683 Oswego County: 315-349-8350 Cayuga County: 315-253-1285 Madison County: 315-366-2231 Cortland County: 607-753-5032 Wayne County: 315-946-7400 What if I need a ride to my voting place? The major political parties and some of the candidate's campaigns are offering voters a free ride to their local polling station. Among those providing rides in Central New York are: Onondaga County Democratic Committee: 315-422-0345 Onondaga County Republican Committee: 315-449-2000 U.S. Rep. John Katko's campaign: 315-314-5005 Democrat Dana Balter's campaign: 315-991-4631 U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney's campaign: 315-765-6542 or 607-205-1054 Democrat Anthony Brindisi's campaign: 315-557-6762 What about absentee ballots? Absentee ballots were available to registered voters who are physically unable or will not be in their home county to vote on Election Day. The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot by mail was Oct. 30. Monday, Nov. 5 is the last day to apply in person for an absentee ballot at your county Board of Elections office. It's also the deadline to have your absentee ballot postmarked if you're returning it by mail. The mailed ballots must be received by Nov. 13. What if I'm not permitted to vote at a polling place? If your name does not appear in the book of registered voters, but you believe you are eligible to vote, you can ask for an affidavit ballot. After the election, election officials will check their records to determine if you were eligible to vote. Your vote will be counted if election officials determine you were eligible. What you can't wear when voting Any voter wearing a candidate's name on their clothing will be asked to cover up or remove the clothing before being issued a ballot. How do I find results? Syracuse.com will have live coverage as the results are tabulated after polls close at 9 p.m. Tuesday. More election coverage The 24th Congressional District: John Katko vs. Dana Balter The 22nd Congressional District: Claudia Tenney vs. Anthony Brindisi The 50th state Senate District: Bob Antonacci vs. John Mannion The 53rd state Senate District: Janet Burman vs. Rachel May Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 SYRACUSE, N.Y. - U.S. Rep. John Katko tried to erase any doubt Sunday when asked if Central New York voters should view Tuesday's election for Congress as a referendum on his party's leader, President Donald Trump. "I want people to look at me right here, right now," Katko said, looking into the camera at a debate hosted by WSYR-TV (Channel 9). "I'm not President Trump." In the fourth and final debate of the 24th Congressional District campaign, Katko pushed back against Democrat Dana Balter's charge that the second-term congressman has been a loyal supporter of Trump's agenda. "This has been one of the central themes of my opponent...to say that I've voted with Donald Trump 90 percent of the time, so therefore I'm some kind of bad person and you must vote for her," Katko said. "What you have to understand is I am one of the most bipartisan members in all of Congress," Katko said. "Whether or not you take into account that President Trump is who he is, and whether or not you like him or not, that's perfectly understandable. But there are few people on the Republican side of the aisle who have stood up to him more." Katko, R-Camillus, aware of a potential "blue wave" on Tuesday, has gone out of his way to distance himself from Trump during the campaign. He is one of only 25 House Republicans to represent a district Hillary Clinton carried in the 2016 presidential election. At Sunday's televised debate, he reminded viewers that he didn't vote for Trump (he wrote in the name of Nikki Haley) and that he voted against the first item on the president's agenda, repealing the Affordable Care Act. Balter said she understands why some voters view the election as a referendum on both Trump's rhetoric and policies. But the Syracuse Democrat said her primary concern is to make sure that the president's policies don't harm people who live and work in the region. "When Donald Trump engages in a trade war with China, our farmers here in our district get hurt," Balter said. "They lose tremendous value in their crops. Our households have to spend more money on the things that they buy every day because that trade war is raising prices on consumer goods." Balter said Katko has largely supported the president's agenda, and that's why she has raised the issue. "From what I have found, people here are looking for somebody who is going to go to Washington and stand up to Donald Trump when he is doing things that hurt us," Balter said. The question about Trump gave both candidates a chance to cover some new ground as they made their final pitch to voters ahead of Tuesday's election. During most of Sunday's one-hour debate, Katko and Balter returned to familiar campaign themes. Katko touted his bipartisan record, and his support for the Republican tax plan. He defended his campaign ads that have cast Balter as an outsider who wants to double taxes through her support of a "Medicare for All" program. Balter said Katko helped Republicans blow a $2 trillion hole in the deficit by supporting tax cuts that disproportionately helped high-income earners and corporations. To pay for the tax cuts, Balter said, Republicans intend to cut Medicare and Social Security benefits. Katko said he would never cut benefits for those who had already paid taxes into the system. But he is open to bipartisan talks to change the programs for those who are not yet in the workforce. Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (AP) -- Police have released a New York nightclub's surveillance video showing a 5-foot-1, 125-pound woman choking a bouncer into unconsciousness after she mistakenly thought he had slapped her on the bottom. The Oct. 20 video released Thursday by Plattsburgh police shows 22-year-old Kierah Lagrave, of Plattsburgh, approaching the bouncer from behind near the Five1Eight nightclub's dance floor and putting her arms around his neck. Keep your eyes on the top right corner of the video. After a few seconds they both fall to the floor. The video also shows Lagrave dancing next to a female friend at the bar seconds earlier. The friend then slaps Lagrave's behind after she turns away. Lagrave immediately turned around and went for the much taller bouncer. Police say he didn't resist because he thought it was one of his friends playing a joke. Lagrave was charged with strangling and then released. Her lawyer isn't commenting. ATLANTA (AP) -- Georgia's online voter database morphed into a last-minute curveball in one of the nation's hottest governor's races, with Republican nominee Brian Kemp making a hacking allegation against Democrats just as reports emerged of a gaping vulnerability in a system that Kemp controls as secretary of state. Kemp's office did not detail any Democratic acts, offering no evidence for Sunday's unusual action that effectively means the state's chief elections officer began a probe of his partisan opposition days before an election. Polls suggest Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams are locked in a tight race that even before Sunday had evolved into a bitter back-and-forth over voting rights and ballot security. The state Democratic Party called Kemp's accusation "a reckless and unethical ploy" and said he was using the FBI to support "false accusations." According to interviews conducted by The Associated Press and records released by the Georgia Democratic Party, the dispute built steam quickly in the days before Kemp's statement. An attorney who represents election-security advocates already suing Kemp over his job performance said a private citizen alerted him Friday to a suspected major flaw in the voter database that is used to check in voters in Tuesday's midterm. The lawyer, David Cross, notified both the FBI and Kemp's counsel Saturday morning. But the citizen had separately informed the Georgia Democratic Party, whose voter protection chief then sent an email to two computer security officials. "If this report is accurate, it is a massive vulnerability," wrote the official, Sara Tindall Ghazal. Party officials provided the AP with the email, its recipients' names redacted. Neither Cross nor the state party went public. But reporters for the online news outlet WhoWhatWhy obtained a copy of the Ghazal email and the email that Democratic Party officials received from the private citizen who discovered the flaw, Richard Wright. They published a story Sunday just as Kemp's office released the statement accusing the Democrats of attempted hacking. "While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cybercrimes," said Candice Broce, who works for Kemp. Rebecca DeHart, executive director at the state Democratic Party, said no one from Kemp's office notified the Democratic Party or asked any question about the correspondence before issuing its public announcement of an investigation. DeHart called it a "political stunt" to cover up the weaknesses in a system Kemp runs. WhoWhatWhy's story said five security experts had reviewed the Wright complaint and independently confirmed that the database is vulnerable to hacking. One of those experts, University of Michigan computer scientist Matthew Bernhard, told the AP that anyone with access to an individual voter's personal information could alter that voter's record in the system. Another computer security professional who reviewed the vulnerability -- without attempting to probe it for fear of prosecution -- is Kris Constable of PrivaSecTech in Vancouver, Canada. "Anyone with security chops would have detected this problem," he said, "so (the system) clearly has never been audited by any computer security professional." The FBI declined to comment on the matter. A representative for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the agency had been notified, but it deferred to Georgia officials for details. Cross, the attorney who said he alerted the FBI, said Wright doesn't wish to speak publicly. Cross described Wright as a businessman with "some background in software." The Coalition for Good Governance, a plaintiff in the voting integrity lawsuit against Kemp, issued a statement decrying his outsourcing of the the voter registration database and electronic poll book voter check-in system to a third party, PCC Technologies. "There are still immediate steps that Secretary Kemp and the State Election Board can take to mitigate some, but not all, of the risk for Tuesday's vote," the group said. Efforts to reach PCC for comment have not been successful. The drama played out on a day Kemp campaigned alongside President Donald Trump in Macon. Trump made no mention of the issue at the rally and earlier, as he left the White House for Georgia, said he didn't know anything about it. The finger-pointing is the latest turn in a campaign whose final weeks have been dominated by charges of voter suppression and countercharges of attempted voter fraud. Abrams, who would be the nation's first black female governor, has called Kemp "an architect of voter suppression" and says he's used his current post to make it harder for certain voters to cast ballots. Kemp counters that he's following state and federal law and that it's Abrams and her affiliated voting advocacy groups trying to help people, including noncitizens, cast ballots illegally. The atmosphere has left partisans and good-government advocates alike worrying about the possibility that the losing side will not accept Tuesday's results as legitimate. The accusation is not the first from Kemp accusing outsiders of trying to penetrate his office. Immediately after the 2016 general election, Kemp declared that DHS tried to hack his office's network, an accusation dismissed in mid-2017 by the DHS inspector general as unfounded. Even before he was running for governor, Kemp faced criticism over Georgia's election system. Georgia's centrally managed elections system lacks a verifiable paper trail that can be audited in case of problems. The state is one of just five nationwide that continues to rely exclusively on aged electronic voting machines that computer scientists have long criticized as untrustworthy because they are easily hacked and don't leave a paper trail. In 2015, Kemp's office inadvertently released the Social Security numbers and other identifying information of millions of Georgia voters. His office blamed a clerical error. His office made headlines again last year after security experts disclosed a gaping security hole that wasn't fixed until six months after it was first reported to election authorities. Personal data was again exposed for Georgia voters -- 6.7 million at the time -- as were passwords used by county officials to access files. Kemp's office laid the blame for that breach on Kennesaw State University, which managed the system on Kemp's behalf. In the voting integrity case, a federal judge last month endorsed the plaintiff's arguments that Kemp has been derelict in his management of the state election system and that it violates voters' constitutional rights with its lack of verifiability and reliability. I live in the walls of my college. Its a beautiful old room, and Ive been very lucky: I even have windows on both sides, one onto First Court, one onto the street. First Court is a sandstone square of tranquillity, golden light twinkling on Latin mottos and a lawn mown at exceptionally regular intervals. On the little stretch of street revealed by my other window, you can see about three beggars, on most nights. This situation is what made me pause for thought when I realised that the Castle area of Cambridge had been defined as the most liberal in the country. Specifically, the Hope for Hate campaign, which characterised the area in this way, distinguishes between six different cultural attitudes, or tribes, ranging from Confident Multicultural to Active Enmity, of which Cambridge has been judged to fit into the former category, given its celebratory attitude towards ethnic diversity, low economic deprivation, and proximity to universities (Amy Batley in Varsity). Immediately eye-catching is, of course, the assertion that proximity to universities, in an area which is rather dominated by its famous University colleges, earns points on the liberal tally. After all, if the UK suffered a fascist revolution, it is reasonably likely that Cambridge, as one of the two oldest and most renowned academic institutions in the country, would be preserved in some form: the mere presence of a university does not necessarily indicate a liberal paradise. Indeed, the weight of Cambridges history, its intimate, elite community and its historical association with the upper classes certainly makes it appeal, on occasion, more to staunch traditionalists than progressive liberals. Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that low economic deprivation is seen as an essential factor of confident multicultural[ism], carrying the unfortunate implication that if an area is poor, it must be a little bit racist. It is this kind of implied thought that has shaped the rationalisations, of leavers and remainers alike, on the result of the Brexit referendum, the general idea being that poor voters, in direct competition with large numbers of immigrants for jobs, were most eager for greater control on immigration. In fact, of the 270 districts that had a lower proportion than average of people born outside the UK in 2011, in 229 (85%) the majority vote was for Leave. Of the 78 districts with a higher than average population born outside the UK, only 44% voted Leave. In other words, multicultural areas, including areas of economic deprivation, are more likely to show support for multiculturalism: poverty does not necessarily exacerbate racial tensions, but lack of exposure to different cultural groups certainly does. Cambridge is not in the position where it can pat itself on the back for its affluence alone. If these criteria seem inadequate, what, then, does it mean to be the most liberal? The most tolerant? The most in favour of individual rights? The most eager for social justice, for social reform? The Oxford English Dictionary would support all these definitions, among others, but they do not, as history has borne out, necessarily support each other. We, as students, as part of this town, generally tolerate the homeless community of Cambridge, whether or not we ever give money or time to its members, as we quickly learn is not always possible in the crowded town centre, where we may be solicited for money on multiple occasions. Were even polite: Sorry mate, I dont have any change. For the most part, we are not the sort of people who design bus-stop benches at a tilt, to prevent rough sleepers resting there overnight. But actively pressing for social reform? Part of a system constantly striving to be better? That I dont see so much. I think one of the main problems with being a student in Cambridge is that we all, more or less, share the double perspective that characterises my college room. If youre a guilty type, a deep thinker, or, lets face it, someone with even a little bit of social consciousness, you realise youre left with a choice: pretend that you dont notice and risk sounding like a clueless apolitical rich kid, or, like me, bang on about it all the time and risk sounding like a hypocrite. Champagne socialist and proud! I giggle nervously, popping my prosecco and sliding my copy of Why Marx was Right out of the way of the fizz. We invent subtle, anxious ways to define ourselves separately from the traditional, elite culture of the university. I and others have been known to state that while its acceptable to wear a gown in college, anyone wearing a gown on the street is obviously a prick. Whether you agree with me about that in particular or not, looking at the relation between the University and the town it sits in is only one way to gauge the supposed liberality of Cambridge University as a representative of Cambridge. Its hardly an original point to notice that an awkwardness around social class difference characterises relations within the University as well as outside it. For example, a couple of weeks in to my first term here last year, on visiting another college, someone expressed shock that I had been to a comprehensive, claiming that everyone shed met so far was either from a private or a grammar school background. She wasnt being nasty, or even stupid: she was expressing, albeit clumsily, something sincere about the system she had become a part of. And, as the middle class child of middle class parents, complete with postgraduate degrees and enough money for regular foreign holidays, Im hardly the poster child for social class equality in Cambridge. Its worrying, therefore, that the collective consciousness of Cambridge is often so painfully unaware that we are, not exclusively but generally, clearly a national minority within a majority less privileged than ourselves; were able students, but we didnt get here on genius alone. Those who think being liberal isnt really about social class, but an outward-looking, open attitude to other races, ethnicities, sexualities, and identities, would do well to remember that to avoid being parochial, the perspectives of our community must in themselves be diverse. We are not going to achieve this kind of balance until the University mindset stops being quite so centred on the concerns of the upper and upper-middle class. And yes: we have come far on some fronts, with the debate about racial diversity in the curriculum and student body reinvigorated by the decolonise movement and the shocking recent revelations of the proportionally extremely low number of black students admitted into Oxbridge colleges. Similarly, I feel that gender inequalities in Cambridge, such as the culture of some drinking societies in regards to sexual assault, which came under such scrutiny last academic year through the Facebook platform Grudgebridge, are constantly being challenged by engaged and passionate students and staff alike. We may have a long way to go, but at least the journey has begun. But class has become a dirty word. Perhaps the most famously entrenched but often unspoken aspect of British society, it both consciously and unconsciously shapes all of our thoughts, even those of our nice liberal family and nice liberal friends. I realised recently that, at my college, we are all in the habit of referring to The Grafton Centre, a shopping area where you might risk being out of sight of some aged sandstone for a couple of minutes, as if it were miles away. Doubtless this is part of the tiny world phenomenon which characterises a lot of the colleges in central Cambridge, where the longest we ever really have to walk to reach the place we need is about twenty minutes, but the fact remains that The Grafton Centre is not miles away. Its about a seven-minute walk from college, at the most. I think the reason that we dont realise this is that we see it as another world, perhaps even an inferior one, as made clear by the boy who I once heard refer to it as an industrial area, and who obviously wouldnt know industry if hit him round the head. But what do I know? Im also from a small southern pleasure-city covered in tourists, just like Cambridge; I havent seen much of industry either But if were all part of the problem (sometimes unwillingly, sometimes unconsciously, sometimes through no fault of our own), we must also be part of the solution. We must continue to challenge smugness, complacency and the parochialism that accompanies it. Because theres nothing wrong with coming from a posh school, or having wealthy parents, or the luxury of taking a gap yah. But there is something wrong with resting on the laurels of our own sainted liberalism when the system we are involved with is patently inequal. And if we cant manage more than that, maybe just being liberal isnt enough anymore. 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. Something to look forward to: There was an obscene number of smartphones on show at Berlins IFA event last August, but what was especially memorable about the Motorola One and One Power was how similar they looked to the iPhone X. It appeared that neither of these Android One handsets would be available in the US, but that changes this week. The Motorola One, which has already launched in international markets, will be available for $399 as a Best Buy exclusive. Itll arrive on the companys website this Friday (November 9) and hits retail stores on November 11. (Update: it's available for preorder right now) Being an Android One phone, buyers get Google's stock mobile OS experience, which means not only is there no added bloat, but it also comes with two years of software updates and three years of security updates. The Motorola One ships with Android 8.0 Oreo, so youll be good up until Android Q. The Motorola One is a solid mid-range device. It comes with a 2.0 GHz Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor, a 5.9-inch 720 x 1520 LCD screen, a 3,000mAh battery, and 64GB of expandable storage. You also get 13MP + 2MP dual rear cameras along with an 8MP front-facing snapper, a rear fingerprint reader, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is becoming increasingly rare these days. The Motorola One is a GSM unlocked phone, so youll have to look elsewhere if youre on Sprint, Verizon, or another CDMA network. Motorola is apparently a fan of the iPhone Xs looks. The Motorola One borrows heavily from the phones design, as does the One Power, though neither imitates Apples former flagship quite like the Motorola P30. Still, we all know how much Android users love notches Why it matters: Huaweis recent Mate 20 Pro has been getting rave review thanks to its numerous features and cutting-edge hardware, but it looks like this is another flagship to launch with problemsat least in some units. A number of users have reported that the phones are experiencing green-tinted light bleed around the edges. The issue is especially severe in dark environments and when the Mate 20 Pro has a dark background, which can make the entire display glow a spooky green color. While there has been no official statement from the company itself, a Huawei UK Community Forum Manager has blamed the problem on the devices curved screen and said it only appears under certain conditions. They did add, however, that users should take the handset to a customer service center if the color cast affects normal use. The Mate 20 Pro uses an industry-leading flexible OLED screen featuring special design curved edges for an enhanced visual experience and holding comfort. This may lead to slight discoloration when viewed from different angles. In extremely dim lighting conditions, when the screen brightness is too low, or when using dark wallpapers, these differences can be exaggerated. If the color cast affects your normal use, take your phone to an authorized Customer service Center for assistance. The excuse doesnt seem very convincing, especially as not every Huawei Mate 20 Pro owner is reporting the issue. Some say the problem is with the glue used to attach the screens, while others claim only the OLED panels made by LG are affected, while the ones from BOE are okay. According to GSMArena, Huawei Finland's Director of Marketing and Communications has admitted that the company has been investigating the green tinge, and that in Finland, consumers can swap affected devices for a new phone, no questions asked. With its triple camera setup, 7nm Kirin 980 processor, teardrop notch, and competitive price, the Mate 20 Pro is one of the most impressive Android phones of 2018. Sadly, neither it nor the Mate 20 are coming to the US, though you can buy international variants from certain retail sites. Hopefully, they wont come with a green hue. Why it matters: It's an ambitious project but if Elon Musk can pull it off, The Borning Company's underground tunnels could put a significant dent in traffic jams that plague major cities around the globe. Elon Musk last month said his tunnel construction company was nearly finished with its proof-of-concept, a two-mile-long tunnel that stretches from SpaceXs headquarters in Hawthorne, California, to an LA suburb. Over the weekend, Musk walked the full length of the tunnel and shared video of it on Twitter. Musk described it as disturbingly long, adding that the project is still on track to open on December 10. The company will be offering free rides to the public the following day. Musk, fed up with LAs nightmarish traffic, declared on Twitter in late 2016 that he was going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging. Many thought it was a joke but with Musk, its hard to know when to take him seriously. As it turns out, the plan was very real and now just two years later, were a month away from seeing the first prototype tunnel. It is believed that the tunnels will use autonomous, electric skates to zip passengers along a track at speeds of up to 155 mph. According to reports, as many as 16 passengers could fit on a single sled. If successful, the tunnels could help to alleviate traffic headaches in LA and other large cities. Why it matters: Amazon is far from the only tech company experimenting with physical retail. Facebook is following suit now by bringing "pop-up" stores to nine of Macy's main US locations. Each of Facebook's mini-shops will sell a small selection of products from various small businesses, including food-related items, clothing, and curated male-focused product boxes from Bespoke. More and more tech companies are breaking into physical retail, and Facebook is the latest example of that trend. According to a blog post published by the company today, the social media giant will soon begin opening up "pop-up" mini-stores in nine Macy's locations throughout the US. These pop-up stores will include small business-focused products and brands, though it's not clear precisely what items will be in stock. However, based on some of Facebook's announced product partners, customers can likely expect to see food, clothing, and other miscellaneous goods - the common thread between all of these items is that they come from smaller digital startups, many of which only offered their products online before now. The pop-ups will be located at "The Market @ Macy's" in New York City, Pittsburgh, Fort Lauderdale, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Atlanta. For the unaware, The Market is a specific in-store area where various brands can demo new services to would-be buyers, or sell their products directly. It's not clear what the end goal is for Facebook here, and it's unlikely that these small pop-up locations are going to be a significant revenue driver. However, as Engadget speculates, it's possible that the company is just experimenting with retail in general - if so, this move could merely be the first step in a much larger retail plan. Perhaps Facebook will open up its own Amazon Go-like, cashier-free stores in the future. The first FDA-approved Cannabis-based medication is now available in the United States for the treatment of two rare childhood seizure disorders. It is the first in a new category of anti-epileptic medications. First Cannabis-Based Medication Available Nationwide On Nov. 1, Epidiolex, the countrys first FDA-approved cannabis-based medication became available in the United States. It is an oral solution that is used specifically for the treatment of two epileptic conditions, namely the Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, both of which are rare and severe. The said conditions appear in young children and may persist until adulthood. It was recommended for approval last April, and was approved just last June. As a now-available drug, it may be procured through physician prescription as a treatment option for the severe conditions. Its formulation is made up of highly purified, plant-derived cannabidiol or CBD without the high that is associated with marijuana. According to Justin Gover, CEO of GW Pharmaceuticals, there has been a need for new therapies for patients of such conditions because they have not historically responded well to the available treatments. First-In-Class Treatment Having new treatment options for such conditions are actually important for the affected community, as not everyone responds to the available treatments. In fact, a 2017 survey found that 14 percent of epilepsy patients in Australia have used cannabis products to manage their condition. In particular, those who do not respond to the available medications or suffer intolerable side effects are the ones who tried cannabis products. Among them, 90 percent of adults and 71 percent of children experienced significant success. As such, members of the community are glad to have a new treatment option for the condition. Despite the use of multiple epilepsy treatments, the majority of LGS patients continue to have life-long, debilitating seizures and our community welcomes the availability of a new, first-in-class treatment option, said Christina SanInnocencio, executive director of the Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome Foundation. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Hubble Space Telescope captured a friendly face in space. NASA has released the photo of distant galaxies seemingly smiling back to the observatory. The Observatory's wide-field camera 3 took the photo of the galaxy cluster SDSS J0952+3434. It showed a number of bright lights in different shapes, colors, and sizes. The Universe Smiling Back At Hubble The photo, published by NASA on its website and social media channels, shows two yellow-hued orbs of lights just a little below the middle. Under it is another source of light arching like a little smile. According to the U.S. space agency, the lower arc is created by gravitational lensing an effect caused by light getting deformed due to the influence of a massive object on its path. In this case, a light from a far-away galaxy is being distorted by an unidentified object, causing it to look like a mouth. Hubble has taken a few photos showcasing banana-shaped arcs of light from across the universe. In some cases, gravitational lensing causes some lights from distant celestial sources to look like a ring or a bubble in space. Because of its position, the space telescope can see and capture the effect, which cannot be detected by ground-based observatories. pic.twitter.com/ZygYXeBdwW Smile, it's #HubbleFriday ! Just below the center of this image, 2 yellow-hued blobs hang atop a sweeping arc of light. The arc has the characteristic shape of a galaxy that has been gravitationally lensed causing it to become distorted and stretched: https://t.co/Nnozc5zpuv Hubble (@NASAHubble) November 2, 2018 Hubble Studying Formation Of Distant Stars The Hubble Space Telescope captured the photo while surveying the region to further understand the processes that allow the formation of new stars across the universe. Stars are born in stellar nurseries or giant clouds of interstellar clouds and dust that grow unstable and begin to collapse due to its own gravity. New stars are formed over the course of millions of years. NASA hopes to analyze the luminosity, the size, and the rate of formation of stars in different stellar nurseries from various points in time throughout the universe. The photo was published a few days after the Hubble Space Telescope had returned to its normal science operations following a gyroscope malfunction. For two weeks, the space observatory had been placed into safe mode as engineers figured out their next step of action. The Hubble Space Telescope has been in space, looking across the universe for nearly 30 years. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. (Photo : Gerd Altmann) Forgetting your password is a sticky situation, especially if its for your Windows administrator account. Luckily, the iSunshare Windows Password Genius tool will help you recover that password in no time. Password managers are all the rage these days, and its easy to see why they provide far more secure passwords than anyone can ever come up with, and can set a different password for each service. Best of all, people dont even have to remember any of the passwords it generates at all, as everything is filled automatically. Problem is, some services arent supported by these fancy schmancy password managers. The Windows login screen, for example, simply cant work via autofill. You still need to manually enter the password to access your desktop. But suppose you set it up just yesterday after a fresh install, and now forgetful you suddenly can't remember what it is and cant log in. Worse, what if that password is for an administrator account? Theres really no easy fix for this. Well, maybe there is. The iSunshare Windows Password Genius is a lifesaver when it comes to this sticky situation. Its an incredibly simple, straightforward, yet powerful tool that will let users recover forgotten passwords, including those for Windows administrator user accounts, Microsoft accounts, and domain administrator or user accounts. It works with all versions of Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP/2000 and even Windows server 2000/2003/2008/2011/2012/2016. Just to be clear, Microsoft no longer provides security updates for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, and yet iSunshare still provides support for these operating systems. Essentially, Windows Password Genius is the most reliable password recovery tool there is. Offices that are still stuck using these legacy platforms shouldnt really think twice about getting it. Key Features With the Windows Password Genius, you can: Recover Windows local administrator and other user passwords. Recover domain administrator and other domain user passwords. Instantly create a new administrator account. Safely and easily remove or reset Windows passwords. Reset Windows 8/8.1/10 Microsoft account passwords. Generating A Password Reset Disk Using Windows Password Genius is incredibly easy. In fact, it doesnt take a computer savant to get it up and running. Heres how to do it: Run the Windows Password Genius tool and then click the USB device button. If you want to create a CD/DVD password disk, choose the CD/DVD option instead. Insert the USB drive and click Begin Burning to create a password reset disk. Once finished, you can go ahead and boot the locked computer from the password reset disk. Booting From The Password Reset Disk After generating the password reset disk, its time to boot the affected computer. For USB: 1) Insert the USB password reset disk and start the locked computer. 2) When the vendor logo appears, press the Boot menu key until the Boot Menu appears, then choose either USB Disk Pro or UEFI: USB Disk Pro. Both options will let you boot the computer from the password reset disk. For CD/DVD: 1) Insert the CD/DVD password reset disk and start the locked computer. 2) When the vendor logo appears, press the Boot menu key until the Boot Menu appears, as on the USB password reset disk. Finally, choose the DVD drive to boot. Resetting Your Password After successfully booting your system up, Windows Password Genius will automatically open. 1) Choose a user account, then click the "Reset Password" button to set a new up a new password. 2) Once youve settled a new password for a particular account, click on the Reboot button to restart your computer. 3) Log in to your computer with the new password you just set. Note: If youre running Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016, Windows Password Genius generates a default password instead. As you can see, each process involves only two to three steps. Suffice it to say that the Windows Password Genius is really easy to use no complex hacking or brute forcing involved at all. Just a few clicks and youre all set. Overview Of The Different Editions You Can Get There are four editions of the Windows Password Genius you can get: Standard, Professional, Advanced, and Raid. The cheapest option is Standard, which costs $19.95. This will give you only the bare essentials, but if you dont find the extras really that necessary, this should be a fine option. Professional, on the other hand, costs, $29.95, and it lets you reset domain administrator or other domain user passwords, which isnt possible on Standard. If you have a Microsoft account, the one you really need to get is the Advanced edition, which includes a bunch of nice extras such as being able to reset your Microsoft account password and create a new domain administrator account. It costs $39.95. If you really want to go all out, go for the $79.95 Raid edition to cover all the bases. But at the end of the day, any of these versions will still help you recover your Windows password without breaking a sweat. Just dont forget it next time, okay? 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. If brains, not brawn, are the primary engine of the 21st century, then Louisiana can take heart that some 250 authors will be on hand at Satur Take a drive over any of the seven big bridges that cross the lower Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and you're typically in for a scenic view of ships, towboats and barges silently plying the muddy brown water. But the Oct. 12 crane barge crash with one of those seven bridges, the Sunshine Bridge in St. James Parish, has brought to light a critical, yet taken-for-granted responsibility of river and towboat pilots. Because of varying cargo and ship sizes, shifting river levels and different clearances depending on the bridge, pilots must use spot calculations to ensure their vessels don't hit a bridge before they pass under it, officials with shipping groups said. Often, the pilots must rely on river gauges several miles from the bridge and so must also build in a safety margin for what's known as the vertical clearance, or the "air gap," under a bridge. Key question in Sunshine Bridge crash: How did it happen with height of bridge, crane known? GONZALES A federal probe into the barge crash that has closed the Sunshine Bridge is still in its early stages but is driving toward answeri For 15 years, a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration program created after a deadly bridge crash in Tampa Bay, Florida, began placing so-called "air gap" sensors on bridges to provide the same clearance information more easily, more accurately and in real time. From the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York Bay to the Interstate 210 Bridge over the Calcasieu Ship Channel in Lake Charles, these sensors through NOAA's Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System, or PORTS, which can determine clearance measurements that are accurate to within 6 inches, officials said. More than a decade ago, as part of an array of various kinds of PORTS sensors for the Lower Mississippi, air gap sensors were installed on the Crescent City Connection in New Orleans and the Huey P. Long Bridge in Jefferson Parish, but the system was never expanded to other bridges on the Mississippi. Pilot and river commerce groups and NOAA officials are now saying the Sunshine Bridge strike highlights the need for more real-time "air gap" and other NOAA sensors on the Lower Mississippi as ships and barge cargo continue to get larger and more numerous. Its just bigger, deeper, wider. Its creating more and more challenges to actually meaningfully get them safely transiting under a fixed bridge that actually can have a change of height depending on the water levels on the river, said Tim Osborne, a regional navigation manager with NOAA's Office of Coast Survey based in Lafayette. The sensors use a combination of laser and microwave sensors to measure clearances continuously, though the data is posted on NOAA's PORTS website every six minutes. Can't see video below? Click here. Known as the Mr. Ervin, the huge barge crane that hit the Sunshine Bridge had just joined Cooper Consolidated's fleet last year and was previously used in the operations of a Columbian coal mine. The U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the collision, but the consequences of the strike are being felt throughout the river region. The Sunshine Bridge is expected to be closed until sometime in January, cutting off one of just five Mississippi crossings immediately north of New Orleans and causing extensive detours for families, farmers, businesses and industry. Workers plan to jack the damaged section of the metal cantilever truss bridge back into alignment and install a special fabricated replacement piece of steel beam. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up In a 2014 report, NOAA said its PORTS arrays, which include tidal, current, salinity and atmospheric sensors, had cut vessel groundings by 59 percent and property damage by 37 percent. A May 2016 academic paper suggested the installation of PORTS sensors at 58 U.S. seaports had produced $217 million in annual gross benefits from greater maritime efficiency, reduced pollution and avoided accidents. Even before the Sunshine Bridge strike, shipping interests had already been asking for more sensors between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, said Sean Duffy, executive vice president of the Big River Coalition, but finding the money was an issue. NOAA requires a local sponsor to cover annual maintenance fees, which can run $20,000 per year, said Brent Ache, who works in NOAA's National Ocean Service. The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, which expects to spend as much as $5 million to fix the Sunshine Bridge, says it has no funding mechanism to finance the upfront and annual costs for the sensors. Duffy said the existing Lower Mississippi PORTS system relies on shipping fees collected by the Associated Branch Pilots, the so-called "bar pilots" who steer deep draft vessels up the mouth of the river to New Orleans. It's not clear if the same group would be willing to add more fees for more bridges outside their section of the river. The group's president was out of town and not available for comment last week, but Duffy said the Sunshine Bridge collision has ignited talk again about finding a way to expand the system. "There is a renewed interest and, you know, unfortunately, we learn a lot after an incident," Duffy said. But Duffy and others said other issues would have to worked out as well. +31 Sunshine Bridge crash an 'act of negligence,' governor says; span won't reopen until 2019 CONVENT Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday the Sunshine Bridge over the Mississippi River won't reopen this year following an "act of negl Air gap sensors are typically installed over the main channel under a bridge. The Oct. 12 crash happened away from the Sunshine Bridge's main channel in a navigable route to the west. That western section of the bridge is lower than the section over the main channel. Mariners using the western channel might need to make some kind of adjustment if an air gap sensor were placed on the Sunshine Bridge in the usual location. Capt. Steve Hathorn, president of New Orleans Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association, said his group, which pilots deep draft vessels between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, had also been looking into the sensors before the collision last month. At this point in the federal investigation, he said, it is hard to say if the crash might have been avoided if the bridge had had an air gap sensor. "But anything that gives you more information allows you to do a better job," Hathorn said. "The more information you have, the better decisions you can make out there, so it would definitely be a plus to have the air draft sensors. No doubt." A man who authorities said crashed his car into a Watson convenience store in March because he believed the owners were Muslim pleaded no contest to a hate crime in Livingston Parish, although the man claims it was an accident. Chad Horsley, 27, was sentenced by 21st Judicial District Judge Jeff Johnson to two years in prison, suspended for a three-year period of probation, according to court documents. Authorities said Horsley, of Denham Springs, told investigators his reason for causing the damage to the convenience store on Springfield Road was that "the people who operate the business were the same 'ones' who killed his fellow service members overseas." "Chad was under the impression they were Muslim and was upset that they were allowed to prosper in the United States of America easier than him despite his service in the military," according to an affidavit signed by a Livingston Parish Sheriff's deputy. An employee of the Best Stop convenience store told The Advocate in March that the owners are Sikh, not Muslim. Sikhism is a religion that originated in India centuries ago and is sometimes confused with Islam, despite the two being entirely distinct. In a phone interview Friday, Horsley said deputies put words in his mouth when they interviewed him about the crash and that he does not hate Muslims. "Now I'm having to deal with all this and having people think I'm some sort of hate criminal and that's the last thing I'd ever do," said Horsley, who said he dated a Muslim woman for two years. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Horsley said he pleaded no contest to hate crimes and simple criminal damage to property on Oct. 18 because he could not afford a trial attorney. Horsley was also ordered to pay $1,500 restitution, $750 in fines and never return to a Best Stop convenience store. Denham Springs man accused of hate crime after targeting business he believed was owned by Muslims A Denham Springs man with former ties to law enforcement and the military was arrested after authorities said he committed a hate crime, targe According to police reports filed in the court record, Horsley is a former reserve deputy with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. The week prior to the crash, he allegedly pulled up to the same convenience store and claimed he worked with the Sheriff's Office. Police reports say he told an employee everyone needed to be out of the store at midnight because he would be back to search the building for drugs. Horsley was also charged with impersonation of a police officer, but that charge was dismissed. Livingston Parish Assistant District Attorney Greg Murphy prosecuted the case, according to court records. He could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon. Two Georgia men arrested this weekend are accused of selling counterfeit tickets to the LSU game outside Tiger Stadium on Saturday evening. Jordan Goodlett, 22, of Atlanta, sold someone four tickets for $1,100; officials with the LSU ticket office determined the tickets were inauthentic, according to Goodlett's arrest report. Detectives with the LSU Police Department then made contact with Goodlett and discovered he still had 16 other counterfeit tickets, according to the affidavit of probable cause. He was taken into custody. Detectives later found Goodlett was also in possession of drugs, including marijuana and prescription pills. Police said he admitted to selling the counterfeit tickets. David Fleming, 33, of Jonesboro, Georgia, is accused of selling two counterfeit tickets for $400, according to his arrest report. The purchaser informed LSU police after learning the tickets were fake. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Officers then tried to stop Fleming, who ran away. Police said he was stopped when an officer discharged his Taser and later admitted to selling the tickets. +10 LSU drops in USA Today Coaches Poll, AP Poll after 29-0 loss to Alabama LSU fell to No. 9 in the AP Top 25 Poll and No. 10 in the USA Today Coaches Poll after the Tigers were shutout by Alabama 29-0 Saturday night Both suspects were booked into Parish Prison. Goodlett was booked on one count each of theft and marijuana possession, two counts of possession of schedule II drugs, and 20 counts of illegal use of a counterfeit trademark. Fleming was booked on one count each of theft and resisting an officer and two counts of illegal use of a counterfeit trademark. A married couple is giving $10 million to the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine, the largest donation in vet school history. Herman C. Soong committed $8 million from his estate to the veterinary school, and his wife Connie Soong pledged $2 million from her estate. The money will be used to care for injured, homeless animals, pay for scholarships, support oncology research and fund forensic training to help veterinarians and law enforcement identify animal abuse. In a statement, the Soongs say their donation was inspired by a desire to help abused and injured animals. Herman Soong is an assistant professor of adult psychiatry and forensic neuropsychiatry at the Tulane University School of Medicine. He works closely with LSU on animal abuse issues. Despite concerns from state Superintendent of Education John White and others, Louisiana's top school board has approved a plan by LSU to overhaul the way teachers are trained for the classroom. The new rules stem from a policy change approved two years ago by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on a 6-5 vote. The result is that future teachers have to spend roughly one school year in a classroom called a residency working with a veteran teacher before graduation rather than just part of their final semester of college. The overhaul sparked heavy controversy in 2016, and it is not over. Much of the debate focuses on one issue: What is the right balance between real-world experience for aspiring teachers versus content knowledge and pedagogy the art and science of teaching? BESE spent over three hours last month wrestling with a plan by LSU, and a similar one by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In both cases, the panel ignored the recommendations of the state Department of Education to delay action on key parts of the proposals. White repeatedly urged BESE to put off a decision on the LSU plan, largely because he said it is woefully short of meeting the one-year teaching mandate. LSU officials envision students spending one of five days teaching in the fall semester of their senior years, and about five days per week during the spring term. "It is a question of whether 20 percent, one day per week, embodies what was passed," White said of the fall regimen and BESE's policy. Hotly debated teacher overhaul in Louisiana touted as 'model' for other states after first year A controversial overhaul of how teachers are trained for the classroom put aspiring teachers in front of more than 11,000 students in the past But school leaders said the already intensive program called Geaux Teach is so crammed with math, physics and other rigor that forcing students to spend more time in front of students could kill the entire enterprise. "The issue is a very simple one," said LSU math professor Frank Neubrander, who is director of the Gordon A. Cain Center, which promotes STEM education science, technology, engineering and math. "At LSU you cannot, you cannot, put a one-year residency in a content major on math, physics, chemistry or biology," he told White and BESE. "As simple as that." The overhaul, which White led in 2016, stemmed from what backers called a major problem that surfaced in a 2014 survey of new teachers. Teacher overhaul slow to launch in rural school districts Only nine percent of rural school districts have been able to test Louisiana's new policy that will require year-long residencies for aspiring Roughly half said they were not prepared to run a classroom when they began their careers. After a lengthy debate, BESE endorsed the one-year requirement, starting with the freshman class of 2018 for most of the 18 schools that offer teacher training. However, the panel also said LSU and other schools could offer innovative models that would get to the same goals better preparing rising teachers for their first classroom jobs. Geaux Teach, which is modeled after a program at the University of Texas, offers undergraduate degrees in biology, chemistry, math and physics to teach in grades 6-12. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up It also includes a concentration in secondary education, and full certification when students graduate. Churning out more STEM teachers is a key state priority and the subject of an ongoing task force. James Madden, who is the P.H. Bodin Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at LSU and oversees the Geaux Teach secondary teacher program, said while students would only spend 20 percent of their final fall semester with teaching duties, it is part of up to 200 hours of clinical and field experience. "We are quadrupling the amount of time they are spending at the school site," Madden told BESE. "That is a substantial change." Madden said last week, "We feel that not every single hour of every single day is critical for teachers to understand." BESE President Gary Jones, an educator for nearly half a century, echoed White's concerns. "I am sorry," Jones said. "I am just having a hard time seeing how 20 percent is a sufficient number that first (fall) semester that looks toward the model we are trying to do." He added later, "Just because you know the subject doesn't mean you know how to teach." BESE member Doris Voitier, veteran superintendent of the St. Bernard Parish School District, urged colleagues to approve the LSU proposal, not delay it in favor of more talks as White favored. Voiter said Geaux Teach graduates are highly regarded by school districts, bring a wealth of knowledge to colleagues. She also said the program is precisely what panel members had in mind when they offered colleges a chance to craft innovative models. "They are offering a rich and robust experience for these candidates, who are probably going to be the best prepared candidates that we are going to get in the state of Louisiana," she said. BESE eventually approved both the Geaux Teach plan and another one by ULL that White and the department wanted delayed. How to train a wide range of teachers, including secondary English and social studies, was initially set for delay. White and the department said aspiring teachers at ULL would not be in front of students enough during the fall semester of their senior year. The key sticking point was that students would spend considerable time learning the profession firsthand at the start and end of the semester but only two or three days per week in the middle. Nathan Roberts, dean of the College of Education at ULL, said the school's methods were successful in trial runs. Louisiana's teacher overhaul already impacts one third of prospective educators Nearly 1 of 3 college seniors statewide who plan to be teachers took part in year-long classroom residencies during the past school year, offi "We think it meets all the conditions of a residency," Roberts told BESE. "And we think it is going to produce very good teachers for Louisiana." The impasse was resolved when White and others were convinced that the two to four weeks ULL students spend watching how schools start their year before college classes begin offset concerns about the drop in student teaching during the middle of the semester. "They are there all the time, seeing all the inner workings and the first couple of weeks on how this mentor teacher that are working with planned a class," Roberts said last week. Following through on a promise made at the most recent state of the parish address, the administration of Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is developing a community disaster recovery plan. The document isn't concerned with pulling people out of flooded houses and getting the lights turned back on. Rather, the All Hazards Recovery Plan looks to the months and years after a hurricane or other disaster when the city-parish is applying for health and human services grants and performing long-term rebuilding of the local economy. Experts talk missteps, lessons learned and plans for future on flood anniversary Computer modeling that indicated a tremendous amount of rain could fall on the Capital region two years ago this month seemed so out of line w The plan looks at the types of questions that are asked after a disaster and anticipates how East Baton Rouge would respond while gathering baseline data that can be used to apply for federal aid so hospitals, schools, roads and other important facilities could be rebuilt faster. Putting these systems in place is "low-hanging fruit," Clay Rives said at a recent public meeting in Zachary. The director of the Mayor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness has invited residents to weigh in on the plan and help the parish identify priorities. Another meeting will be held at the Greenwell Springs Library on Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. A survey form is also available at brla.gov/1368/East-Baton-Rouge-Parish-Recovery-Plan. +2 Could flood insurance rate maps for south Louisiana change? Authorities to begin talks The maps that dictate how much south Louisianans pay for flood insurance could be redrawn, though Baton Rouge-area leaders have their doubts. Charlotte Thomas, a resident of the Alsen/St. Irma Lee area, said during the Zachary meeting that she's already concerned about air pollution and possible water contamination from the nearby industrial facilities, landfills and sewers; now she also worries about releases of chemicals and debris if those sites are hit by a storm. Other goals include identifying the nonprofits, state agencies, professional organizations and neighborhood groups that could help restore the community in the event of disaster like the 2016 flood. Rives said that storm emphasized the need for the All Hazards plan. When it's finished, it will anticipate scenarios in which the parish qualifies for federal aid and when East Baton Rouge may need to lead and fund it's own clean-up, he said. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up +5 What's changed in Louisiana's housing codes since 2016's epic flooding? Not much Two years after a flood ravaged the capital region, construction of new homes proceeds in much the same way. Officials are trying to gather the type of residential building data that would enable the parish to more quickly apply for federal housing aid. They're looking at the parish's capacity for homeless shelters and mental health services. The plan would even consider which bridges are most important, to make sure hospital staff can make it to work and medicine can be delivered, said Tom Donnelly, a recovery coordinator on a team sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide technical assistance. All that baseline data should help the parish to target its greatest needs and turn around grant requests more quickly. "Resilience is really the operative term we're trying to enforce," Donnelly said. What should be done about flood risk in your neighborhood? Stormwater report offers few answers East Baton Rouge's new stormwater master plan report is unlikely to satisfy residents clambering for floodplain reform, though it does indicat In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, locals are driven by adrenaline-fueled momentum, and officials are often physically located in the same room the emergency operations center said Justin Kozak, a policy analyst at the Center for Planning Excellence, a nonprofit organization that coordinates urban, rural and regional planning efforts in Louisiana. Having the All Hazards Recovery Plan in place should encourage the momentum and communication to carry forward as East Baton Rouge transitions from short-term response to long-term recovery, he said. The Pusan C, a container ship carrying 9,500 twenty-foot-equivalent units, is the largest container ship to ever call at the Port of New Orleans' Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal. The CMA CGM-operated vessel beat the previous record by 1,000 TEUs and is part of the companys direct weekly container service to Asia from the port. Attorney General Jeff Landry has something of an m.o.: Throw out some position on some red meat issue and see if it sticks. One stance that didnt stick was his initial criticism of Tuesdays major ballot question in Louisiana, whether the state should require criminal convictions to be based on unanimous jury decisions. Landry started off as an outlier on an issue that has drawn support from an astonishing array of political players, from the far left end of the spectrum to the far right. A spokesman explained his position this way: Landry believes the non-unanimous jury law has a positive effect on the criminal justice system in Louisiana. We believe it makes for quicker and easier administration of the system. Stephanie Grace: Louisiana's unanimous jury question part of broader criminal justice movement With so much going wrong in politics, so many issues on which the two sides are not only at odds but utterly unwilling to even acknowledge pot More recently, as basically nobody of any note lined up behind him, Landry moved into the no comment column, according to his office. His newfound neutrality puts him in line with some of the states prominent district attorneys, people like Orleans Parishs Leon Cannizzaro, who also benefit from the law because it lowers the bar on securing convictions. Others, such as East Baton Rouges Hillar Moore and Jeffersons Paul Connick, have endorsed Amendment 2. Theres a muscular and well-funded campaign aimed at promoting the yes position, and Landrys quiet shift removes the possibility that there will be any sort of campaign opposing the measure Tuesday. None of that will matter, of course, once the polls open and voters finally have their say. THE TEAM BEHIND FAIT THINKS IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY. Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" Louis Armstrong's "Christmas in New Orleans" Big Freedia's "Santa is a Gay Man" Vote View Results In the two years since she left Gautreaus, Sue Zemanick (@chefsuez) has been popping up around town with Indonesian-inspired menus while planning her next move. The James Beard Award-winning chef plans to open her own restaurant in the Mid-City space that formerly was home to Rue 127. Zemanick will cook an Indonesian dinner at the Auction House Market Nov. 13. The four-course dinner is inspired by rijsttafel, the Indonesian-inspired meal popular at restaurants in the Netherlands. Zemanick spoke with Gambit about Indonesian food and her restaurant. Gambit: Whats the inspiration behind the Indonesian pop-ups? Zemanick: I spent a lot of time in Amsterdam I have a lot of friends that live there and turned me on to the rijsttafel, which translated means rice table. Because there is a high population of Indonesian people in Amsterdam, I ate that when I was over there visiting. There are so many different cultures and people in Indonesia, its similar to New Orleans in that its a melting pot of different cuisines coming together. I love that the inspiration for the dishes is basically ingredient-driven and I love the flavors of kaffir lime, tamarind, ginger and galangal. There are a lot of vegetarian options too. Im not a vegetarian, but I really enjoy eating vegetables. G: What are the main components of the rijsttafel? Z: The traditional way that the (rijsttafel) is done is that you have six to 18 dishes served on the table in soup-cup sizes and you have your plate of rice and you take a scoop of each dish. As youre working through those 18 dishes, they progressively get hotter. Theyre vegetarian, seafood, meat all different varieties of things, so its actually like a big feast. G: What can you tell us about the new restaurant? Z: We are in the middle of construction and Im hoping to open in early December. It started as a turnkey and ended up being a complete renovation. There were a couple of things that made the space really small, and were trying to maximize every inch to create space for more tables, and also I want to accommodate larger parties. We took down some walls and a chimney, reconfigured the bathrooms and kitchen and were able to go from 36 seats to about 50. Were going to expand the patio out front and try to create some more seating there. I love Mid-City and I think its time for Mid-City to have more restaurants. There are so many great new additions to the neighborhood over the past couple of years that Im really excited to be a part of this area. I plan on being able to do whatever I want and not be locked down to a certain type of cuisine. I wont go full-blown Indonesian, but youll see inspiration from all different places. The menu is going to be heavy in seafood and vegetables. I will obviously have some meat dishes but Im just trying to incorporate some extra vegetable entrees and appetizers. I think that everyone is leaning more toward a healthier lifestyle, and I want to expose people to things that maybe they havent seen before. Well have a really interesting wine list. It wont be really large, just because of the limited ability to store wine. I have a great team put together and Im excited to get back in the kitchen. In honor of the Oak Street Po-Boy Festival Nov. 11, we take a look at the history of three of the oldest purveyors of the local sandwich. One po-boy landmark, Parkway Bakery and Tavern in Mid-City, was founded by Charles Goering Sr. in 1911. Henry Timothy Sr. and his sons Jake and Henry Jr. (known as Bubby) bought the bakery in 1922 and began selling po-boys soon after. Parkway became popular at lunchtime for workers at the nearby American Can Company. When it closed in the 1990s, the bakery's business suffered and it closed in 1995. Jay Nix, who lived next door to the bakery, bought and renovated the building, reopening it in 2003. His nephew Justin Kennedy later joined him as general manager. Parkway was heavily damaged by the levee failures following Hurricane Katrina but was rebuilt and famously hosted President Barack Obama and his family during a visit to the city for Katrina's fifth anniversary. Peter and Sophie Domilise originally opened a neighborhood bar on Annunciation Street around 1918. It became a sandwich spot a few years later and hit its stride once son Sam and his wife Dorothy took over in 1947. "Miss Dot," as Dorothy was better known, died in 2013 after working more than 65 years at the restaurant. "My customers are my family," she told The Times-Picayune in 2000. "I have people who came in as youngsters, then I see them come in after they've been married. They come in with their children, then they come in with their children's children." Although its menu includes more than just po-boys, Mother's Restaurant has served po-boys from its Poydras Street location for 80 years. It was opened by Simon and Mary "Mother" Landry but was sold to Jerry and John Amato in 1986. Two of the restaurant's sandwiches, the Ferdi (a roast beef and ham po-boy) and the Ralph (the same sandwich, but with cheese), are named after longtime customers. Abita Springs Mayor Greg Lemons will have a bit more competition this time for the top job in town government the third time hes run for the office. Lemons has held the post since 2013, when he became mayor after running unopposed to fill the remaining two years of the term of Louis Fitzmorris. Lemons again ran unopposed two years later, winning his own full term. But after six years in office, he has drawn four challengers, who are anything but pleased with the current administration in the growing western St. Tammany town of about 2,600. And its that issue growth, and how to deal with it that seems to be on the minds of all the candidates in Tuesday's election, with the towns population having more than doubled since 1990. Other than growth and development, topics like a new sewer system, the towns commitment to environmentalism and effective communication by the mayors office have been among the main points brought up by the candidates. Should no candidate get 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters will go to a runoff Dec. 8. The term starts Jan. 1. Greg Lemons Lemons, 71, said he didnt want to have to serve another term but felt it was necessary to finish the work he has started. He said its time for the town to develop a master plan to deal with growth partnering with urban planning experts to try to deal with the issue. He also wants to see through the construction of a new sewage system, a $6 million project that will be the largest in Abita Springs history. The project, funded through a low-interest loan from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, will completely replace the towns terra cotta sewage lines, which are in poor condition and have caused sewage to spill into the streets, Lemons said. The mayor said hes also running to keep up Abita Springs commitment to move to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. The town is one of 26 municipalities nationwide in the Sierra Clubs Ready for 100 program. We cant rely on fossil fuels forever, said Lemons, who calls himself a conservative Republican. Its about energy sustainability and fiscal responsibility. Dan Curtis Curtis said anyone running for mayor without having served first on the Board of Aldermen doesnt know what theyre in for. Curtis decided to take the first step four years ago, winning a position on the council by one vote. He said he hasnt been happy with the level of communication between Lemons administration and the Board of Aldermen and public on key issues, like the town budget. My goal is to fundamentally change how politics are done in Abita, Curtis said. Weve got a Board of Aldermen right now thats five of us who believe it or not are truly dedicated and want to be part of the solution, and not part of the problem, and yet were kept out of the loop. Were still kept out of the loop. On everything. In addition to being more open with other officials, Curtis said, if elected hed change the time the mayor is available to meet with the public at Town Hall, saying hed stay later so people could come after they get off work. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up George Long Long has been in Abita Springs a shorter time than any of the other candidates seven years yet has been involved in politics his entire life. Hes a member of the Long political dynasty, the family that dominated Louisiana politics for much of the last century. He is the son of former seven-term U.S. Rep. Gillis Long as well as Cathy Long, who also served in Congress filling out her husbands term after his death in 1985. George Long, though, is an independent, spurning his familys traditional Democratic Party affiliation and traditional northern Louisiana home. He said the small-town charm of Abita Springs has taken him in and thats something he wants to make sure is preserved, but also that the town welcomes newcomers like himself. Were growing faster than our infrastructure can handle. Its got people upset and scared, Long said. Thats not why they came here. Whether theyve been here five years or 50 years, what were about is a small-town quality of life the simplicity that can come with that, the beauty of it. Long added that he strongly supports having a master plan, saying thats exactly the kind of step the town needs to take to deal with its increasing growth. Jessica Lotspeich When Lotspeich saw that Lemons had qualified for another run, she knew she had to run for mayor herself, she said. I got tired of complaining. I told myself I could keep complaining or try to do something about it, she said. All of Lemons challengers are running on the transparency ticket, according to Lotspeich, who said theres been a lack of communication from the administration. For her, getting information on the towns sewage issue was like having to pull teeth, she said. She also said theres been a lack of compassion when it comes to the issue of water chlorination, which the town was required to start doing a few years ago after parts of Louisiana had to deal with brain-eating amoeba. Lotspeich said that on days when the lines are flushed with the chemical, her water isnt drinkable and is difficult even to bathe in. Lotspeich also said that even though managing growth is a major issue, the town needs to try to accommodate people who want to move there and enjoy the quality of life, just as she did. She has lived in Abita Springs for 14 years. John Preble In a 100-year-old cottage filled with everything from a marble machine made from thousands of popsicle sticks to a comb collection yes, a comb collection is where youll likely find John Preble, independent candidate for mayor of Abita Springs. Preble has gathered the quirky, the eccentric and the unusual over the years into the spot on La. 36 that houses his UCM Museum, also called the Abita Mystery House. Hes part of a group of artists who call Abita Springs home though his level of offbeat may be in a class by itself one that hes committed to see survive in the face of sprawling suburban growth. Abitas fragile, he said. In other words, one mayor decides to let an urban development come into town, and they didnt have to do that. And then, you know, the whole town gets twisted up. Development is inevitable, Preble admitted. But when it happens, he still wants to be able to drive from the old part of Abita Springs to whatever the new part will be without noticing a real change something he said hes seen in other towns and something he would be able to accomplish as mayor, a job he said hes well-qualified for. Ive really done more in this town than the whole town put together, Preble said. Starting early next year, Tulane University medical students will be able to care for patients at Childrens Hospital in New Orleans. The two institutions agreed last week on a partnership allowing Tulane medical faculty and residents along with the students to start seeing inpatients at the hospitals Uptown campus as well as its network of clinics in the area. As part of a research-intensive medical school, Tulane doctors are dedicated to delivering the highest-quality patient care and translating the latest medical advances into clinical practice to help patients, said Lee Hamm, senior vice president and dean of the Tulane University School of Medicine the largest pediatric research organization in Louisiana. We are excited to join Childrens Hospital in delivering comprehensive, cutting-edge pediatric care and are looking forward to working together to train the next generation of doctors in the region. Tulane is the latest university partnership for Childrens Hospital, which already had one giving LSU Health New Orleans personnel access to its facilities and patients. That partnership will continue with the new agreement, with students from both medical schools being able to access the hospital. Childrens Hospital CEO John Nickens IV praised the new partnership, saying it positions Childrens Hospital as the finest pediatric healthcare destination in the region. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up We are thrilled to welcome the well-known pediatric academic program at Tulane to an already vibrant academic community at Childrens, he said. This agreement comes about a year after construction started on the hospitals $300 million expansion, which will provide more emergency examination rooms, an improved cancer center and a noticeably renovated main building at the states only freestanding hospital for children. When the project finishes in 2020, there will be 230,000 square feet of new hospital space for the students and hospital staff to work with, along with 100,000 square feet of renovated space. Childrens Hospital, a founding member of our health system, has long shared Tulanes mission of academic excellence, said Greg Feirn, CEO of LCMC Health, the nonprofit which runs Childrens Hospital, University Medical Center and New Orleans East Hospital. Through this collaboration, we are collectively providing the best possible training experience for the next generation of pediatricians, and strengthening our community, economy and health outcomes of our state in the process. A federal appellate court has upheld the 2016 conviction of former longtime north shore District Attorney Walter Reed on 18 corruption and fraud charges, but his attorney said that he will continue to appeal, taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Its been a year and a half since U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon sentenced Reed, 72, to four years in prison. But Fallon took the unusual step of allowing Reed to remain free on bail while he appeals, apparently believing issues raised in the appeal might have merit. That means that, even after the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his arguments for overturning the district court, Reed won't be heading to prison anytime soon. Fallon also gave Reed a significantly more lenient sentence than called for by federal guidelines, saying, "I don't think I've seen a fraud case like this." Reed spent three decades as the top prosecutor in Louisiana's 22nd Judicial District, which comprises St. Tammany and Washington parishes, before deciding not to seek re-election in 2014. The appeals court's ruling also upheld the conviction of Stephen Reed, Walter Reed's son, who was convicted on three counts alongside his father. Fallon sentenced the younger Reed to five years of probation. Rick Simmons, Walter Reed's lawyer, had argued that federal prosecutors lacked jurisdiction to bring charges based on the former DA's alleged misuse of campaign funds. State law governed the proper use of that money, Simmons said, blasting the prosecution as an example of federal overreach. In addition to being convicted of improperly spending campaign money on personal items, Reed was convicted of helping himself to legal fees paid by a public hospital on the north shore that should have gone instead to the DA's Office. He was also convicted of money laundering and lying on his taxes. In his challenge to the conviction, Simmons relied heavily on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision known as McDonnell v. U.S. In that case, the high court reversed the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who was accused of taking gifts, trips and loans from a businessman who sought his help in dealing with state officials. The ruling was widely viewed as raising the bar for corruption prosecutions of public officials. But in its 33-page ruling, the three-judge panel rejected the argument that the prosecution's case hinged on what was or was not prohibited by Louisiana campaign finance law. The appellate court said the prosecution pointed to that law only to prove honest-services wire fraud and related offenses and that the jury in Fallon's court was simply tasked with deciding whether Reed and his son had committed wire fraud, not whether they broke state law. The panel also rejected arguments that the cases against Walter Reed and his son should have been tried separately, and that the counts against Walter Reed dealing with the hospital money should have been severed from those dealing with campaign spending because they involved distinct schemes. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The appeals court said that the presence of a "spillover effect," from one defendant or one charge to another, doesn't warrant severance. In the elder Reed's case, the judges agreed with the lower court that joining the charges was proper because they were "part of a common series of transactions with a singular purpose to exploit Walter Reed's influence as district attorney for personal financial betterment." The appellate panel included judges Patrick Higginbotham, who wrote the opinion, Edith Brown Clement and Jerry Smith. Clement was nominated to the 5th Circuit bench by President George H.W. Bush, while Higginbotham and Smith were nominated by President Ronald Reagan. Simmons responded to the ruling by saying that the U.S. Supreme Court has warned of constitutional concerns about federal prosecutors interfering in the relationship between state officials and their constituents and setting the prosecutors' own standards for "good government." "Today's opinion of the 5th Circuit, while acknowledging the McDonnell case and those constitutional concerns, erroneously concludes that federal prosecutors were not merely enforcing state campaign law," Simmons said in a written statement. "Clearly they were, when the attorney for the Louisiana Ethics Board was called in the prosecution's case-in-chief." Simmons said the arbitrary and capricious enforcement of state ethics laws as federal crimes "should be a concern to all." As a district attorney, Reed was famously harsh on accused criminals. During his lengthy tenure, lawyers began calling his home parish "St. Slammany" for prosecutors' routine use of habitual-offender laws and other punitive tactics against defendants. Reed reveled in the reputation and began handing out a "St. Slammany Award" to a chosen prosecutor in his office each year toward the end of his tenure. Warren Montgomery, who won election in 2014 to the office long held by Reed, declined to comment on the appellate court ruling, as did U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser. But St. Tammany Parish President Pat Brister said she was "not surprised that the 5th Circuit fulfilled their responsibilities and have provided justice for the citizens of this parish." She added: It is always disturbing when those entrusted with the serious responsibilities of serving the public would violate that trust so egregiously. Staff writer Gordon Russell contributed to this report. New Orleans police are searching for three men believed to be responsible for a racially-charged attack that happened Sunday in the 1400 block of Decatur Street on the edge of the French Quarter, according to local police. At about 3:50 a.m., the victim was reportedly driving his car in the area when he came to a stop because the three unknown men were standing in the street and refusing to move, police said. When the victim blew his horn in attempt to gain their attention so they would move, they then allegedly approached his car and started shouting racial slurs, police said. At that point, the victim got out of his car armed with a stick, police said, and the three men began to attack him, striking him with closed fists, brass knuckles and a beer bottle to the head. The first subject is described as a white man wearing a camouflage sweatshirt and khaki shorts. The second subject is described as a white male wearing a purple LSU cap, purple LSU sweatshirt and either khaki or gold pants. The third subject is described as a white man wearing a purple, grey and gold LSU shirt and khaki shorts. Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact Eighth District detectives at (504) 658-6080. MUSIC WANGARATTA FESTIVAL OF JAZZ AND BLUES November 24 America may be the birthplace of jazz, but this years Wangaratta Jazz Festival served as a reminder that the art form has firmly taken root and flourished in almost every corner of the globe. There was only a handful of US artists in the 2018 program, with the festivals international component focusing on performers from Europe and Asia. Dutch saxophonist Yuri Honing led his superbly empathetic quartet through a suite of music that flowed as effortlessly as water, Honings contemplative themes and gorgeously fluid phrasing evoking a ship gliding across a dark sea as the rhythm section swelled and subsided around him. Raju Das Baul and Matt Keegan at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues Credit:Marc Bongers Germanys Trio Elf were unashamedly extrovert, their music a fascinating blend of drum n bass rhythms, lyrical melodies, startling dynamic shifts and electronic effects. The remarkable Gerwin Eisenhauer has been described as a drum machine come to life, but machines dont radiate joy like Eisenhauer and his colleagues Walter Lang and Peter Cudek , building delicate pin pricks of sound into thumping pop euphoria in the blink of an eye. In 2007, on a lonely stretch of the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory, a lone female driver rolled her car. She remained trapped for 36 hours, unseen by fellow motorists because the car was hidden behind scrub. The woman was saved and although Brisbane-born, Darwin-based playwright Mary Anne Butler never met her, the driver inspired Butlers play Broken, in which one of a trio characters - Ash, an environmental biologist - rolls her car in the Central Desert. A paramedic, Ham, cuts Ash free, yet death lingers in the ensuing love triangle: a miscarriage and a dying relationship. Broken Credit:Pier Carthew Broken premiered in Darwin in 2015. In early 2016, the script won not only the $25,000 Victorian Premiers Prize for Drama but also Australias single richest literary prize, the Victorian Prize for Literature. Butler was the first playwright to win the $100,000 accolade, which is judged against all forms of literature. A magistrate's conduct is being examined by the territorys judicial watchdog after she gave a man an envelope containing $50 cash to help pay for the hotel he would be released on bail to stay, The Canberra Times can reveal. Was the act one of compassion towards a vulnerable member of the community who had nowhere else to go? Does it raise questions about the magistrates impartiality and the transparency of the administration of justice? On August 21 the outgoing Director of Public Prosecutions Jon White SC complained about Magistrate Bernadette Bosss conduct to the attorney-general, who has by law referred the complaint to the judicial watchdog. In the most serious cases, a complaint with the ACT Judicial Council can end in the dismissal of a magistrate or judge from their position. It is understood the complaint alleges Dr Bosss conduct that day could call into question her impartiality and the transparency of the administration of justice in this matter. Dr Boss started hearing the defendant's bail application in the ACT Magistrates Court early in the morning on July 31 this year. The DPP had opposed his release, saying there was a likelihood he would reoffend and not appear in court. Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris refused to answer when she was aware disciplinary action had been taken against whistleblower doctors, citing ongoing legal proceedings. It comes as government figures show ACT Health has referred 25 staff members to the professional standards unit since the start of 2017. ACT Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris Credit:Jamila Toderas The Canberra Times reported last week doctors who made serious allegations about the medical imaging department were subsequently accused of misconduct by ACT Health, one staff member losing a senior position. Ms Fitzharris was asked by Liberal spokeswoman for health Vicki Dunne in ACT Parliament what action she had taken to make sure Canberra Hospital or ACT Health staff had not breached the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2012 when dealing with the whistleblowers. Police are investigating after a 14-year-old boy was left injured on a road in Sydney's north-west on Monday night. The boy was found lying injured on the western side of the North Richmond Bridge on Bells Line of Road, North Richmond, by a passing motorist about 9.20pm. The motorist called police, who arrived to find the boy suffering from suspected fractures and head injuries. The boy was found on the western side of North Richmond Bridge, but police believe he was struck on the eastern side of the bridge. Credit:Google Maps The boy was treated at the roadside by paramedics, before being airlifted to The Children's Hospital at Westmead in a serious but stable condition. Junior doctors have accused Westmead Hospital of allowing a culture of intimidation, discrimination and harassment to permeate, as the alarm over bullying in NSW hospitals grows. More than half of doctors-in-training (DITs) at the western Sydney hospital reported that they had been bullied, discriminated against or harassed by a hospital staff member, and more than two-thirds witnessed the behaviour. The damning results were contained in the 2018 Hospital Health Check survey of 1351 DITs working across NSW. Trainees said they felt powerless against the attacks in almost every public hospital in NSW. A number of people have been injured after a truck crashed at a McDonald's restaurant near Wollongong on Monday morning. The crash on the Princes Highway at Fairy Meadow sparked a major response from emergency services, with seven ambulance crews on the scene and five Fire & Rescue NSW vehicles responding alongside NSW Police and Traffic and Highway Patrol Command. The truck came to rest nose-to-nose with a white SUV, which was badly crumpled and pushed backwards through the steel pole fence. Credit:Illawarra Mercury Emergency services were called about 10.45am, following reports the truck had hit a fire hydrant and several vehicles in the McDonald's car park. It came to rest nose-to-nose with a white SUV, which was badly crumpled and pushed backwards through the steel pole fence of the Northgate unit complex. The car was earlier reported to have been a sedan. Two of the countrys largest drought charities are being examined by the national charity watchdog following a Herald investigation. Australians have donated tens of millions of dollars in recent months to help farmers as they face the worst drought in decades. Now the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission has sought assurances from Aussie Helpers and Rural Aid - the charity behind the popular Buy a Bale Campaign - that donations are going to those in need. Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commissioner Gary Johns. Credit:AAP We have contacted two charities who are coordinating drought relief efforts to ensure donated goods and funds are being managed appropriately, ACNC Commissioner Gary Johns said. A man who fatally stabbed his father after being told to get off the computer didn't intend to kill him and asked afterwards if his father would be OK, a court has heard. Daniel Chapman, 22, was playing on his computer at about 8.30pm on October 2, 2016 when he told his parents he couldn't come to dinner because he was in the middle of a game. Stephen Chapman, 56, died after being stabbed by his son in 2016. Credit:Linkedin/Stephen Chapman His father Stephen became frustrated and told his son who regularly played games in his room at their home in Moorebank, south-west Sydney, from 11am until 3am to look for somewhere to rent the next day. The 56-year-old then walked into his home office and turned off the internet modem, and went into his son's room where he tried to remove cables from the computer. A man bitten by a police dog as he attempted to avoid arrest has faced court charged with assaulting a two-year-old child more than two years ago. Police went to a house in Strathmore last Thursday and arrested James Christoforou following an investigation by the Fawkner sexual offences child abuse investigation team into an alleged incident at Keilor East on Anzac Day 2016. Mr Christoforou, 32, resisted arrest and was bitten by a police dog, police spokesman Grant Condon said on Monday. Melbourne Magistrates Court heard Mr Christoforou underwent surgery to a wound on his right arm at St Vincent's Hospital. The accused man faces five charges in relation to the alleged assault on the child, including intentionally causing serious injury and reckless conduct endangering life. He is also accused of being in possession of the drug ice that day. "The vibrations are quite severe, you can feel the house vibrate even when you're upstairs. I also spent a lot of money last year to get the whole rear of the house re-painted because water was seeping through the walls from the outside and I would say the gusts from the trains had something to do with that. At this stage, were considering moving. I know my neighbour is already on the market again for the second time now, but its not a good time for selling. Mr Walker said when he noticed cracks in his walls, authorities told him the vibration levels in the area were at an acceptable level. More than 200 homes along the new Thornlie-Cockburn link will be assessed. Credit:Metronet According to Public Transport Authority documents, the planned pre-condition survey for properties impacted by the two new rail lines will establish the condition of all structures in the Metronet zone of influence - which appears from mapping to encompass 15 metres either side of the rail corridor boundary. If a property owner claims the construction or operation of the railway line has impacted their home, the state government will refer to the original report when assessing any damage. The new Thornlie-Cockburn link will be the first east-west rail connection in the city and is expected to significantly influence the way people living in the southern suburbs travel. The line will begin at Beckenham station, with three kilometres of passenger rail to be duplicated to Thornlie station. From there, 14.5 kilometres of passenger rail will be built alongside the existing freight rail with stations at Nicholson Road and Ranford Road. It will travel through the Glen Iris tunnel in between the Mandurah line tracks and end at a new platform at Cockburn Central. The new Thornlie-Cockburn link Credit:Metronet Thornlie resident Helmut Gulichs house will back onto the new line. He said the state government had been keeping him well informed about the major transport project, which will see Metronet trains pass at the back of his Nyandi Court house. When we bought this property in 2000, the (rail) plans were already in place and we were warned about them then, so we were fully coming into this knowing all about it, knowing that freight was going to be increasing slowly and that the suburban rail at some point would wind up coming past the back of our place, he said. We are under the impression that sometime next year is when they will be coming through the house (to conduct a pre-condition report). Apparently what happens is they come through your house and check theres no cracks or structural damage, they check the footings and things like that out, and put a report in, and if something does develop down the track then you can turn around and say, Hey your equipment or your machinery is damaging the property. Some of the houses within the influence zone for the Yanchep rail extension (highlighted orange and blue). Credit:PTA According to the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, the majority of the railway reservation for the Thornlie-Cockburn link was gazetted in 1963, with the Thornlie, Nicholson Road and Ranford Road station sites reserved in 2005. The original Butler to Yanchep railway corridor was reserved in 1996. The man accused of murdering 11 Jews in Pittsburgh has a lot in common with people much closer to us all those who were encouraged to resign from the National Party last month. They all from Pittsburgh-accused Robert Bowers to those former Young Nationals who are members of Antipodean Resistance harbour a focused hatred of Jews. In a mainstream political party anti-Semitism was allowed to flourish until it was outed by ABC journalist Alex Mann in October this year. The National Party refuses to release a complete list of those it banned. A makeshift memorial at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Credit:AP The Daily Telegraph says a dossier of 40 members shows extensive links to neo-Nazi, fascist and alt-Right groups such as the Antipodean Resistance; and some Nationals members have posted photographs of Nazi guards outside the Holocaust extermination camp at Auschwitz and posted comments celebrating Adolf Hitler. One female member created a National Socialist (Nazi) Womens group online. My life is shaped by being Jewish. Im not a great Jew; not even a good Jew but its who I am and I have lived with anti-Semitism my whole life. What is happening now terrifies me. Just five years ago, I wrote foolishly that anti-Semitism in Australia was finished. My synagogue was once firebombed and graffitied. People got over it, and I rarely experience anti-Semitism any more. The Barr government only found out "very recently" its signature infrastructure project had been pushed back despite questions about the deadline of light rail, one of its top officials has revealed. Canberra Metro has moved its operational commencement date from December 21 this year to January 2019, although both the consortium and Transport Canberra warned it could change. The last section of light rail was installed late last month. Credit:Jamila Toderas The delay was made public after Transport Canberra's latest annual report showed the project missed nearly all of its milestones by several months. Transport Minister Meegan Fitzharris said on Monday the government was not in a position to confirm the official start date as her directorate was still waiting on information from Canberra Metro. An ACT Legislative Assembly committee inquiry has been given just four weeks to examine the potential for widening the scope of the territory's lobbyist register to include third party and in-house lobbyists. While the inquiry was one of the measures agreed under the Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement drawn up after the 2016 election, it has taken two years for either the government or the minor party to take any action on the issue. ACT Legislative Assembly Clerk Tom Duncan urged politicians to ban contact with unregistered lobbyists. Credit:Fairfax Media It follows Assembly Clerk Tom Duncan earlier this year urging territory politicians to enact a ban on meeting with unregistered lobbyists, after more than four years of inaction on the issue since the register came into being in 2014. His message, in a submission to an inquiry into the Assembly's standing orders, followed advice on the matter from the Assembly's Ethics and Integrity Adviser Stephen Skehill. It was quite simple, he told me. "ANAO staff must report all gifts and benefits offered. In many situations, gifts are received unsolicited and in such a way that there is no opportunity to decline them at the point of offer they could be left at reception, for example." In some cases, the office puts such presents on display. "However, edible items are typically unsuitable for storage and so they would be disposed of immediately." Now, public servants do need to be careful about accepting gifts and hospitality; they can't be seen to open themselves to inducements, or to open themselves to bias in procurement decisions. At worst, if an official accepts a gift that is regarded as a bribe, they face up to 10 years in jail. Nonetheless, the Public Service Commission's advice on the matter begins with an admission that the question of whether to accept a gift "is not always straightforward". In diplomatic circles, it says, "it may cause embarrassment to reject offers of minor gifts". At the same time, "it should not be assumed ... that gifts of minor value are acceptable". The Auditor-General's staff must be particularly morally upstanding on such matters, given that they are watchdogs of government spending and probity. Earlier this year, the audit office said it was dissatisfied with other agencies' inconsistent approach to gifts, and recommended a centrally managed, government-wide gift register. So maybe the ANAO staff did throw the cupcakes in the bin after all. But most other public servants would just eat them, right? That simple question proved too difficult to answer, even when I asked the other workplaces that received cupcakes (there were a few). Loading I began with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It didn't receive cakes but it's across the road from the ANAO and, more relevantly, it has told me in the past that it allows staff to keep gifts if they are "items of little or no commercial value, including perishable items such as flowers or chocolates". I showed the department this part of its policy and asked: "What would DFAT expect one of its employees to do if, say, during a meeting with a contractor, the contractor offered the employee a sweet or similar delicacy?" It responded by sending me the policy I had already quoted. I rang again, and begged for a straightforward answer: "Please, please tell me: would DFAT allow its staff to eat a cupcake?" Alas, its spokesman wouldn't answer hypothetical cases. Which is absurd, because this is precisely how ethics has been taught for thousands of years, from Socrates on. We learn through examples, and by discussing the distinctions between them. If you refuse to do this, you're not really interested in the practice of ethics. As the cupcake was too great a conundrum for the bright minds of DFAT, I moved on. Yet whoever I asked gave me no joy. With the exception of the Auditor-General's office, the cakes proved an impossible moral dilemma for public servants. The Department of Home Affairs, for example, is Canprint's biggest government client; it received the cake greetings, too. I pleaded several times for an answer: were they eaten or thrown out? The department refused to say, though a spokeswoman eventually pointed out that its employees did "not need written approval" to keep items of low value like cupcakes. So we can assume that Home Affairs staff ate them they just don't want to say they did. Other agencies found the question similarly unanswerable. They cited lengthy statements about the need to handle gifts and hospitality appropriately, but were unwilling to confess how they handled the cakes. So, to eat or not to eat what's the right answer? Informant columnist Professor Richard Mulgan (who is, incidentally, a world-renowned scholar of Aristotle) teaches ethics to public servants here in Canberra. I asked him whether the Auditor-General's lackeys went too far; whether their snubbing of the Christmas cupcakes was too much. Not at all, he said; he lavished praise on their stringency. "It's certainly not going overboard for an audit office. It needs to be squeaky clean." Indeed, it's very much the type of case he picks apart with his public administration students at the ANU. The point of this Christmas story, though, isn't whether to eat the cake. It's the sad fact that discussing something so simple is rather too much for most public servants (at least, on the record). So pervasive is the fear of saying something "wrong" (even when there is no correct answer) that, these days, many bureaucrats refuse even to "like" mildly political Facebook posts, for example. No one dares make a mistake, which means few people learn. Canprint, no doubt mindful of causing a fuss for its clients, also wouldn't discuss many details of this story. After all, Canberra is full of tales of contractors who lose government work over some minor ruffle or imagined crisis. Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Paynes crucial visit to Beijing this week shows the Chinese government is eager to get its relationship with Australia back on a friendly footing after a year of diplomatic frostiness, China experts say. Senator Paynes planned visit - the first by an Australian foreign minister since Julie Bishop in 2016 - comes as the Trump administration cranks up pressure on Beijing over issues such as trade, intellectual property theft and the militarisation of artificial islands in the South China Sea. Marise Payne meets her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at the United Nations in New York in September. Credit:Fairfax Media Richard McGregor, a China expert at the Lowy Institute, said that in this combustible atmosphere with Washington, Beijing was looking to re-engage with countries such as Australia. China is looking for friends in the face of the onslaught of Trump, he said. They need friends and partners, particularly on trade, to reinforce their left flank. You may have heard that climate scientists have recently named 2030 as the deadline for stopping major environmental damage -- or if you get your news from alternative sources, you may have heard that climate change is a Soros-funded lie to destroy American corn. But that's all big-picture stuff. How is climate change going to affect you, personally? In some very strange ways, as it turns out ... 5 You Could Develop A Severe Allergy To Beef And Pork You probably wouldn't notice a bite from the lone star tick. And you almost certainly wouldn't make the connection between that and the hives, chills, fever, and vomiting you'd experience the next time you ate red meat. But one bite from the tick can make you severely allergic to beef, pork, and mutton, because God was in a bad mood when he invented it. So that sounds awful, but what does this have to do with climate change? Well, a decade ago, the lone star tick was limited to southeastern states ("lone star" comes from a distinctive white dot on the female, not from its love of Texas). The bizarre medical condition associated with it was also only discovered a decade ago. Before that, any Floridian who started ranting about how a tick made them vomit up hamburgers was dismissed as a lunatic. There's still a lot about the symptoms that we don't know, such as whether or not they remain for life, or if they can get nasty enough to shorten said life. Some physicians still have no idea that the condition even exists. But we do know that the lone star tick is spreading. Australian voters would cast their ballots in two federal elections in a single year under a drastic option being canvassed within the Morrison government to gain more time to restore community support and defeat Labor. While a May election remains the most likely scenario in the government discussions, some MPs are open to the idea of holding a Senate election early in the year while going to a separate election for the House of Representatives several months later. Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Credit:AAP Prime Minister Scott Morrison's office rejected the two-election scenario on Tuesday morning, saying the election was due next year and adding: The government has no plans for a dual election. Special Minister of State Alex Hawke issued the same message soon afterwards. "The government has no plans for a dual election. The election is due next year, as required," he tweeted. Last week, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr tabled an amendment to the Discrimination Act 1991 designed to close what he labelled a "legal loophole" in the territory's anti-discrimination laws, which allowed religious schools to exclude gay students and teachers. This followed his earlier comments that the religious exemptions contained in the act were not intended to "license students being kicked out of school because of their sexuality". Pointing to the ACT's recognition of the right to freedom from discrimination in the Human Rights Act 2004, Barr suggested that, to the extent that religious schools could discriminate against gay students in this manner, it was nothing more than a "loophole" in the law. To an extent, he is correct. Under the Human Rights Act, "everyone has the right to equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground". But that's not where this story ends. Andrew Barr says his draft laws will protect gay students and teachers by eliminating a "legal loophole". Credit:Rohan Thomson Section 33(2) of the Discrimination Act specifically provides that it is not unlawful to "discriminate against someone ... in relation to the provision of education ... by an educational institution that is conducted in accordance with the doctrines, tenets, beliefs or teachings of a particular religion ... if the [discrimination is] in good faith to avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents of that religion". Recently, Bill Shorten wrote to Scott Morrison proposing a "bipartisan approach" to population policy, not the "politics of division". In my jaded interpretation, he meant: let's not budge on big Australia. Instead, let's keep making unattainable promises on infrastructure and decentralisation. Is Australia's high population growth a logical fixture, endorsed by all, for the good of all? Tilting at these assumptions is the Australian Population Research Institute's report Why do we have a 'big Australia'?, released last month. Sydney's western suburbs. Sydney and Melbourne house most of Australia's migrants. Credit:Andrew Meares I define big Australia as an inordinate appeal to high migration and high population growth as headline and future economic tools, with larger regard for GDP growth and smaller regard for the environmental and social consequences. Put that way, no such program could have emerged in the aftermath of World War II. The global ascent of GDP was in its infancy. Neoliberalism was decades away. Rather, defence and development guided Arthur Calwell's pro-Briton "populate or perish" program. He wanted 2 per cent population growth; half would be natural increase, half immigration. There will be a jobs boom in health and education in the next four years, a Queensland government-commissioned report has revealed. Jobs Queensland predicted employment in the state would increase by between 7.6 per cent and 9.3 per cent by 2022. Jobs in health are expected to boom in the next four years. Credit:Louie Douvis About 2.5 million people would be working in Queensland, a rise of about 190,000 people, or 8 per cent. More than 50 per cent of all new workers were projected to be working in just three industries: healthcare and social assistance; professional, scientific and technical services; and education and training. STATE OF PLAY The campaign at a glance, Cup eve, November 5. Quotes of the weekend "There is no worse economic strategy than to impose austerity in circumstances where the economy is growing." Pyongyang: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel - both hoping to get out from under US economic sanctions - have agreed to expand and strengthen their strategic relations, North Korea's state media reported on Monday. Diaz-Canel, who is in Asia on his first international tour since assuming office in April, arrived in Pyongyang with his wife on Sunday. He was met at the airport by Kim, who joined him on the ride into the city past flower-waving and cheering crowds. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Credit:AP North Korea's state media reported the two held talks at the Paekhwawon State Guest House and stressed their shared socialist history and vowed continued solidarity. The official media offered few specifics, but said the talks proceeded in a "comradely and friendly atmosphere." The meeting with Kim could be seen as a shot across the bow for Washington, which has run into increasing difficulty in its efforts to wrest significant progress from the North on the denuclearisation issue. Halfway through American Son at the Booth Theatre, a big question starts to cross your mind: Is this new drama about an interracial couple searching for their missing 18-year-old son the wokest show on Broadway? It certainly appears that way, with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot that couldn't be more relevant, from-the-gut performances by Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale, and a staging by Kenny Leon that elicits an extremely vociferous audience response. Evidently, surface-level theatrics can sometimes be mistaken for profundity. That's especially true of American Son, a play that says a lot and nothing simultaneously, and marks the Broadway playwriting debut of Miami-based trial attorney Christopher Demos-Brown. Set in real time, the 85-minute drama opens with Kendra (Washington), a highly educated black woman, alone in a Florida police station. Her son, Jamal, has been stopped in some kind of traffic incident and isn't answering his phone. Officer Larkin (Jeremy Jordan) isn't being very forthcoming with details. Lieutenant Stokes (Eugene Lee), the community affairs liaison who could provide much-needed information, doesn't start his shift for another few hours. It's 4am and Kendra is getting desperate. Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale, and Jeremy Jordan in a scene from American Son. ( Peter Cunningham) Soon after, Scott (Pasquale), Kendra's estranged husband, arrives. A white FBI agent, Scott doesn't understand why his son whom he affectionately calls "J" would put himself in a position to be pulled over by police. Or why the young man, who scored in the high 1400s on the SATs and is getting ready for West Point, would start wearing his hair in cornrows. Or why the Lexus they got him would suddenly bear a bumper sticker that reads "Shoot Cops." Kendra knows the answers and the repercussions all too well. And that's what she's afraid of. Dramatically, American Son is strong in its depiction of parental angst, especially with Washington beautifully capturing the all-consuming fear that comes with being mother to a black child in a country that constantly makes them a target. More often, though, Demos-Brown takes the easy way out. His plot machinations are filled with textual land mines that get loaded and detonated in predictable ways, and the red herring he employs for theatrical effect isn't actually a decoy. Leon's production puts more stock in the melodramatic elements of the script (thanks to the lighting of Peter Kaczorowski and sound of Peter Fitzgerald, it's a dark and stormy night, complete with onstage rainstorm). In a play about this subject mater, we should naturally be on the edge of our seats, instead of being manipulated to get there. Eugene Lee (right) joins Washington and Pasquale onstage at the Booth Theatre. ( Peter Cunningham) Even worse is that Demos-Brown has created archetypes instead of characters. Scott represents the myopia of upper-middle-class white America; Officer Larkin is the white rookie cop who barely hides his prejudices; Lieutenant Stokes is the black elder statesman who becomes the inner conscience of the entire Fraternal Order of Police. While Demos-Brown builds some strong arguments it's particularly interesting to watch the clashing perspectives of Kendra and Lieutenant Stokes he doesn't add anything new to the conversation. At least the performances are vivid. Jordan capably indicates the callowness of a young cop who thinks he's hot stuff, while still feeling physically uncomfortable with having to deal with certain people. Lee is unapologetic in his survival tactics, both as a civilian and a veteran of the force, though his delivery is more robotic than human. Pasquale fits the Brooks Brothers suburbanite type to a T, and Dede Ayite's well-tailored costumes help build upon the play's themes of class and status. And though Washington starts at 11 and doesn't leave herself much room to build, her torment is strikingly wrought. You can see her physically carrying the weight of generations of trauma on her shoulders. If only the writing had her level of intensity. Disappointingly, American Son is very much an early work by a novice writer who's more concerned with connecting the dots than probing for subtlety. It would have been more impressive to see a writer of color particularly a female writer of color tackle this material to give it the nuance it deserves. American Son could have been a landmark Broadway play, but instead it only skims the surface. Southeast residents who hail from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have banded together to launch their very own ethno-cultural association. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/11/2018 (1112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Southeast residents who hail from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have banded together to launch their very own ethno-cultural association. The Eastman Indo-Canadian Cultural Society (EICCS) formed in August and held its first event, a Hindu Navratri festival dance and potluck, last month, said interim president Mitesh Kumar, a licensed immigration consultant and recent city council candidate. Kumar explained the associations goal is simple: to fill up the gaps between cultures with friendship. "Culture can connect us to each other," he said. Three dozen members have already joined, some of whom have waited six to 10 years for something like this to emerge in Steinbach, Kumar said. In an effort to build bridges, the group has created a special "guest member" designation for any resident of the Southeast interested in learning more about the rich cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent. While knocking on a strangers door can be difficult, Kumar said he hopes the groups events will foster a low-key environment where neighbours from different backgrounds can meet and get to know one another. With a basic constitution already drafted, Kumar is currently working with other executive members to formally register the group as a non-profit. He hopes the group can also help reduce culture shock and answer newcomers "general day-to-day life questions related to the region." "Theyll have people here who can support them in their language," he noted. "People will be more comfortable here when they know that there is an organization here to support them." The emergence of EICCS points to the South Asian communitys increasing comfort in settling outside Winnipeg. It used to be that immigrants would quickly strike out for larger centres, Kumar said, but many now feel comfortable living in Manitobas small cities and towns. "If we keep promoting this, then we can get more people coming here and living, and that would be also good for the city to have more residents," he said. One factor encouraging rural settlement is Manitobas provincial nominee program, now in its 20th year. Kumar explained an immigrant can garner additional points if they settle outside of Winnipeg, which in turn benefits their spot in the application stream. Small cities like Steinbach also offer more economical living costs, though Kumar noted one challenge that remains is the lack of Sikh and Hindu temples outside of Winnipeg. Ethnic origin data from the 2016 census suggests Steinbachs South Asian community is growing, with 170 city residents reporting East Indian, Pakistani, or Punjabi heritage. Local South Asian immigrants tend to be families or young adults, Kumar said. While Filipinos accounted for 72 percent of Asian immigration to Steinbach between 2011 and 2016, India was the second most common country of origin. Josie Fast, program director at Eastman Immigrant Services, said the emergence of another ethno-cultural association benefits everyone. "As these groups are organizing themselves, were seeing people being connected to their own ethno-cultural groups, but theyre also extending invitations into the broader community." The associations also offer practical, culturally-specific support for newcomers, Fast said. "Its really an important piece of settling in a new community, becauseyou dont feel so alone. You know that there are people whove gone before you who understand your language, your culture, and some of the things that you might need." Kumar agreed, and said preliminary discussions are underway to create an umbrella cultural organization that could speak with a unified voice on behalf of the 1,875 Steinbach residents who arent Canadian citizens. He hoped such an organization could help with everything from cross-cultural dialogue to recreation ideas to rental space bookings. In the meantime, EICCS is gearing up to mark Diwali, a Hindu festival of lights, on Nov. 7. Dolkun Isa, President of the World Uyghur Congress attends an event concerning China ahead of the Human Rights Council review in Geneva, Switzerland, on Nov. 2, 2018. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters) Activists Urge Deep Scrutiny of China at This Weeks UN Rights Gathering GENEVA Human-rights activists are calling for United Nations member states to pressure China this week to account for alleged violations, including the suspected detention of one million Muslim Uyghurs in the far-western Xinjiang region. Chinas record will be examined for the first time since 2013 by the U.N. Human Rights Council on Nov. 6, in a review expected to focus on its treatment of ethnic minorities, especially Uyghurs and Tibetans. The Chinese regime has used the excuse of potential Islamic threats, extremism, and ethnic riots to crack down on the Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang. Uyghurs and other Muslims are being held in concentration camp-like facilities, known as re-education centers, are forbidden from using Islamic greetings, must learn Mandarin Chinese, and also sing propaganda songs, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. Activists sharply criticized Beijings rights record. In the past five years, generally the human-rights situation in China has been getting worse, particularly in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) and Tibet, there has been an unimaginable deterioration, said Dolkun Isa, president of the Munich-based World Uighur Congress. Thats why we expect that the countries should be speaking loudly and strongly, he told Reuters in an interview at an activist forum on China held in Geneva on Nov. 2. Xinjiang has become a police state where his mother died in a concentration camp in May, Isa said, adding: We have never heard of people coming out from the camps. Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, told Reuters at the event: The detention of over a million ethnic Uyghurs is a tipping point for the international community. They really cant look the other way now Le Yucheng, vice minister of foreign affairs, will lead Chinas delegation to the session. Unequivocal Message The Human Rights Council must send an unequivocal message to the Chinese government that their campaign of systematic repression in the XUAR (Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region), including the arbitrary detention of up to one million people, must end, Patrick Poon, China researcher at Amnesty International, said in a statement. Lobsang Sangay, head of the Tibetan government in exile, took a swipe at Chinese leader Xi Jinpings mantra of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Socialism with Chinese characteristics means no democracy, one party dictatorship and essentially no human rights, Sangay said in a keynote speech at the Geneva event. If the U.N. Human Rights Council cannot make China accountable for human rights violations, then who will? said Golog Jigme, a Tibetan monk dressed in crimson robes, who gave testimony about three jail terms he served before escaping and gaining political asylum in Switzerland in 2015. I still have scars on my hands and feet from torture sustained in prison, he told the forum. Please review the human-rights situation in China carefully, critically. If the U.N. fails to make China accountable this time, it failed all humanity. By Stephanie Nebehay. The Epoch Times contributed to this report. China to Come Under Fire at UN Panel Over Orwellian Vocational Training Centers Chinas human-rights record will be scrutinized on Nov. 6, during a review by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that is expected to address alarming reports of the mass internment of upwards of one million Uyghurs for political re-education in Chinas northwestern Xinjiang region. Facing its third universal periodic review (UPR) in Geneva, the Chinese government is also likely to be criticized for its ongoing suppression of the civil and religious freedoms of the Chinese people. Concerns about the ruling Chinese Communist Partys (CCPs) treatment and detention of activists, journalists, and human-rights defenders across the country are also expected to be raised. All 193 U.N. member states go through the UPR process every four and a half years. Tell your Govts: Stop blindly going along w China's misleading rhetoric conflating rapid (unsustainable) economic development w progress in protection of social economic rights. Look at disparities, discrimination, forced evictions, child labor, jailed rights defenders #ChinaUPR pic.twitter.com/C2wXNXemGA CHRD (@CHRDnet) November 5, 2018 After denying the existence of the facilities for months, Xinjiang authorities moved on Oct. 9 to officially legalize the internment camps as so-called vocational training centers, which they said would be used to educate and transform those that the CCP says are at risk of extremism. But an influx of evidence, including testimonies from former camp detainees and the discovery of satellite images believed to be of the facilities, has placed increasing pressure on the international community, including the U.N., to hold Beijing to account. As many as one million predominantly Uyghurs are believed to be detained in the internment facilities, according to figures quoted by the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the U.N. In October, The Epoch Times reported that Uyghurs are allegedly being tortured, raped, and killed in Xinjiangs camps. Patrick Poon, China researcher at Amnesty International, said, The Human Rights Council must send an unequivocal message to the Chinese government that their campaign of systematic repression in the XUAR (Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region), including the arbitrary detention of up to one million people, must end. At least nine U.N. member statesthe United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, and Switzerlandpre-submitted questions pressing the Chinese government to reveal the true figures of those who have been detained involuntarily, and to allow international bodies access to the facilities. These countries have also asked specifically about the situation in Xinjiang, according to U.N. records. The United States, which announced on July 13 that it would withdraw as a member of the UNHRC, called on China, in its advance questions, to provide the duration and location of those detained, along with the grounds for detention. Washington also demands that the CCP describe the humanitarian condition in the facilities and the content of any training or political curriculum and activities. Can China provide the rights detainees have to challenge the illegality of their detention or appeal the detention; and any measures taken to ensure that their families are promptly notified of their detention? it added. Last month, then-U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley described the crisis in Xinjiang as the largest internment of civilians in the world today that is straight out of George Orwell. And the UK also pressed the CCP, asking the regime if it will halt the practice of detaining individuals who have not been lawfully charged, tried, and convicted for a criminal offense in any extra-legal detention facilities; immediately release individuals detained under these circumstances; eliminate travel restrictions that disproportionately affect members of ethnic minorities. The CCP has failed to honor its U.N. and HRC obligations, without facing any repercussions, according to the U.S. based organization China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD). In the almost five years since Chinas last UPR in October 2013, only three out of 252 recommendations made by State parties have been implemented by the Chinese government, a report compiled by the CHRD found. CHRD @weiquanwang found China only implemented 3 recommendations put forth at 2013 #UPR. All related to the abolition of Reeducation through Labor, which is not what it seems: RTL has been replaced by other forms of extralegal detention #ChinaUPR https://t.co/TBmPZg82CQ pic.twitter.com/l9CdYt9pHP CHRD (@CHRDnet) November 5, 2018 The Chinese authorities recent propaganda should fool no one. The internment camps are places where torture and other forms of ill-treatment are rife. States need to demand the truth from China in the U.N. Human Rights Council review on Tuesday, Poon remarked. But U.S.-based Uyghur scholar Tahir Imin, 38, believes little progress will be made at the event. The Chinese government has a very sophisticated manner when it comes to international pressure. If the Chinese government is honest, they should let the international bodies in to inspect the area. Maybe theyll allow some media or international organizations to go and investigate the situation but theyll arrange everything very well beforehand, he said. In this handout image provided by the U.S. Navy, the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Tuscon (SSN 770) transits the East Sea, Jul. 26, 2010 while leading a 13-ship formation. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Adam K. Thomas/U.S. Navy via Getty Images) Chinese National Who Allegedly Stole US Submarine Technology Faces New Charges A day after the U.S. Department of Justice announced a new initiative to more aggressively pursue cases of Chinese espionage, it announced that prosecutors filed new charges in a previously announced case of a Chinese national seeking to illegally export U.S. military technology to China. In a Nov. 2 press release, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced that additional charges of smuggling, money laundering, and making false statements to government officials were filed against Qin Shuren, a U.S. permanent resident living in Wellesley, Massachusetts. In June, Qin was arrested for allegedly conspiring to export U.S. anti-submarine warfare devices to a Chinese military research institute, among other charges, according to the DOJ. From 2015 to 2016, Qin exported at least 60 hydrophones, devices that can be used to monitor sound underwater, to Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU), a military research institute located in the northwestern Chinese city of Xian, thats affiliated with the Peoples Liberation Army, according to a DOJ release. Qin, 41, transferred more than $100,000 to U.S. bank accounts from Chinese accounts to facilitate his export scheme, according to court documents. Because of national security risks, the U.S. Commerce Department requires a company to obtain an export license in order to ship U.S. goods to NWPU, which works with Chinas military to advance its military capabilities. Prosecutors said that Qin exported the devices to China without obtaining the license, and purposely concealed from a U.S. supplier of hydrophones that NWPU was the recipient. He was initially charged with conspiracy to commit export violations, visa fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. In total, he faces up to 70 years in prison, in addition to more than $2 million in fines, according to the DOJ press release. Such attempts at stealing U.S. military technology for the benefit of the Chinese regime arent infrequent. Just this year, the DOJ announced two other cases of smuggling U.S. technology. In July, a Chinese national pleaded guilty to illegally exporting to China equipment related to advanced radar, military-grade communications jammers, low-noise amplifiers, and Ka-band space communications. She was able to access the technology through her role providing accounting services for aerospace companies, including U.S. defense contractors, according to the DOJ. In January, two naturalized U.S. citizens and one Canadian were charged with scheming to export computer chips used in electronic warfare and radar systems. The suspects were Taiwanese and Vietnamese nationals. The three posed as domestic customers seeking to buy the chips from a U.S. company, before exporting them to a Chinese company called Chengdu GaStone Technology Co. Other times, Chinese academics were the culprits. In 2015, two engineers who first met while studying thin-film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) technology at a university in Southern California were charged with economic espionage. They later worked for U.S. tech firms that specialized in FBAR, and conspired to steal the companies source code and other vital technologies with applications for military and national defense communications. They planned to share the trade secrets with Tianjin University in China, before opening a joint venture with the university to mass-produce FBAR equipment for Chinese commercial and military clients, according to the DOJ. The pattern of Chinese intellectual property theft in the science and tech fields has prompted the United States to shorten the length of visas issued to Chinese graduate students studying in specific fields, such as robotics, aviation, and high-tech manufacturing. The Chinese regime sees development in those fields as high-priority goals for its manufacturing sector, outlined in its 10-year economic plan, Made in China 2025. Chinese Regime Cracks Down on Tweets Posted by Chinese Netizens Chinese citizens have figured out a way to use Twitter by circumventing the Great Firewall, the nickname for the sophisticated system that the Chinese regime has built to censor and monitor online traffic in China. The way to evade the Firewall, which blocks access to certain foreign websites, such as popular social media platforms Twitter and Facebook, and to slow down cross-border internet traffic, is by using a virtual private network (VPN). That can make users appear to be located outside China, and allow connections to the internet that are undetected and hence uncensored. But recently, many Chinese netizens who circumvented the Firewall to create Twitter accounts have been targeted by Chinese authorities. The people were interrogated, detained, and arrested by local police and were forced to delete their tweets and close their accounts. Human-rights activist Bu Yongzhu, who lives in Guangdong Province, was interrogated and detained by local police. Bu posted on Twitter on Nov. 1 that on Oct. 24, while under video surveillance, he had to log into his Twitter account and delete some tweets on the spot; the police also confiscated his personal identification card. That incident involved local police and the Internal Security Bureau, a secret police force tasked with neutralizing individuals that the Chinese Communist Party deems to be political threats, Bu told The Epoch Times. After he posted about the episode on Twitter, Bu said several of his friends commented that they had also been interrogated by authorities. Bu believes that the Chinese regime is targeting many domestic netizens that have an overseas social-media account. Many Chinese Twitter accounts were intercepted in the past few days, and many users were required to delete certain posts that the Chinese regime deemed inappropriate or could undermine its authority. Lawyer Tan Yongpei, director of the Baijuming Law Firm in Guangxi Province, tweeted on Oct. 31, Since the [political] climate is especially bad, I plan to delete 800 tweets that they [the CCP] think are sensitive. Tan and his law firm have represented adherents of the spiritual practice Falun Gong who have been arrested for their faith, filed corruption allegations against officials, and handled other such sensitive cases. Former investigative journalist Wen Tao (@wentommy) wrote on Twitter that on Oct. 27, three police officers knocked on his door and demanded that he delete his Twitter account and never use the social-media platform again. While Wen said that was unacceptable, he said he had no choice but to comply so his family could avoid being constantly harassed. He was forced to tweet about his self-censorship. Veteran dissident He Depu from Beijing, who had been imprisoned for eight years, said he was interrogated by two police officers from the Internal Security Bureau on Oct. 1. They said the content of his posts on Twitter and WeChat was all negative. He was required to delete his Twitter account and was warned about his tweeting on human-rights issues. Wang Yajun, an independent current-affairs commentator, was detained for 10 days for tweeting. After he was released, Wang tweeted on Oct. 31: Dont Twitter! and attached an image Certificate of Detention. Wang was detained on charges of picking quarrels. A netizen commented, Its fine that he (Wang) said farewell to Twitter after being detained for 10 days, but he basically deleted all his tweets. He was probably under some kind of pressure. It would be difficult for people who had not experienced it to understand it Other outspoken social-media personalities such as @huadiefei and Liu Jichun from Chongqing Citywho went by the moniker wu ge fang yangwere detained for 30 days. The latter was slapped with the charge of picking quarrels on Nov. 2 and was forced to delete his account. Former Chinese lawyer Peng Yongfeng told The Epoch Times in an interview that according to the Chinese regimes own laws, police barging into citizens homes and forcing social-media users to delete their posts violates the legal process. In a broad sense, its a violation of human rights, Peng said. Peng added that the internet allows information to spread freely. The CCP is fearful about that, he said, so it intends to control information at all costs. Epoch Times staff members Luo Ya & Li Xinan contributed to this report. Christine Ford May Have Had Consensual Encounter Similar to Her Kavanaugh Claim Christine Blasey Ford may have had an encounter similar to the one she described in her claim of sexual assault by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Fords claim, which featured no evidence and was rebutted by all the witnesses she named, was a last-minute disruption to the confirmation process for Kavanaugh. Following a public hearing at which both testified and an FBI investigation into the claim, Kavanaugh was confirmed on Oct. 6 to the nations highest court. A Senate Judiciary Committee report released on Nov. 3 that said there was no evidence to support claims made by Kavanaughs accusers, the committee said two men had contacted investigators to describe consensual encounters they had with Ford in the 1980s. One man told the committee that when he was a 19-year-old college student, he visited Washington over spring break and kissed a girl he believes was Ford. He said that the kiss happened in the bedroom of a house which was about a 15-to-20 minute walk from the Van Ness Metro, that Dr. Ford was wearing a swimsuit under her clothing, and that the kissing ended when a friend jumped on them as a joke, the committee report stated. The man, whose name was redacted, added that the woman initiated the kissing and that he did not force himself on her. The encounter has several significant similarities to Fords alleged encounter with Kavanaugh, including happening in a house near the border with Montgomery County, Maryland. Ford said her encounter happened in a house in that county, though she didnt remember where exactly it was. The mans description of the girl wearing a swimsuit under her clothing matches exactly with Fords described story and the stories also share the unique detail of the situation ending when a friend jumped on them. The other man who contacted the committee told investigators that he made several trips to Washington in the summer of 1982 and during one trip he attended a house party where he kissed and made out with a woman he met who he believes could have been Dr. Ford. The man, whose name was also redacted, said that based on old photographs of Justice Kavanaugh he has seen on the news, he believes the two of them share a similar appearance, committee investigators wrote. Other individuals contacted by Committee investigators included two men who separately and independently had contacted the Committee claiming that they believed they had an encounter with Dr. Ford around the time of the alleged incident, the committee stated in its summary. Although each individual described details that in some respects seemed to fit Dr. Fords allegations against Justice Kavanaugh, both men described consensual encounters. From NTD News President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic addresses the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 26, 2018 in New York City. (John Moore/Getty Images) Croatia Says It Wont Sign UNs Global Migration Pact Joins United States, Hungary, Austria in backing away Croatia said that it will not sign the United Nations Global Compact for Migration. The country joins a growing number of countries that have not signed the agreement, including the United States, Hungary, and Austria. In a statement regarding the Global Compact for Migration (GCM), Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic wrote: Be assured I will not sign the Marrakesh Agreement,' Croatian journalist Velimir Bujanec reported on Oct. 31. The GCM (pdf), set to be signed in Marrakesh, Morocco, on Dec. 11-12, is the first of its kind to set global standards and guidelines for countries to address migration. On July 13, with the exception of the United States, all other U.N. member nationsof which there are 192had approved the GCM. However, a growing number of countries have since decided not to sign the non-binding pact, including Hungary and Austria. Croatias decision comes amid increasing tensions at its border in recent months, as thousands of illegal migrants try to cross into the country from Serbia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. The migrants hail from northern Africa, the Middle East, or Asia. Countries Pull Out The United States was the first to pull out of the compact in December 2017. Hungary withdrew from the agreement on June 18. Austria announced it would reject the migration compact on Oct. 31. A number of countries have expressed they would also like to back out of the deal, although they have yet to state their final decision. In July, Australia expressed reservations. On Nov. 1, the Czech Republic announced that it would like to back out of the deal. On the following day, Poland expressed that it is very likely that it would also not be a part of the U.N. pact. The migration compact came about following the adoption of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants on Sept. 19, 2016, by 193 U.N. member states. According to the U.N. website, the GCM provides a framework for facilitating safe and orderly migration globally, with an effort to deal with migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner. It also sets out a range of actionable commitments, which could possibly influence legislation and policymaking for member states. The compact has 23 objectives that seek to boost cooperation among countries to manage migration, and includes such aims as to strengthen the transnational response to smuggling of migrants and combat and eradicate trafficking in persons in the context of international migration. Concerns About Sovereignty The Trump administration said that the pact, which had been recognized by the Obama administration, is inconsistent with national sovereignty. The United States supports international cooperation on migration issues, but it is the primary responsibility of sovereign states to help ensure that migration is safe, orderly, and legal, the then-Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson said in a statement on Dec. 3, 2017. We simply cannot in good faith support a process that could undermine the sovereign right of the United States to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders, he said. Ambassador Nikki Haley: America is proud of our immigrant heritage and our long-standing moral leadership in providing support to migrant and refugee populations across the globeBut our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone." pic.twitter.com/By2ObmBrEy US Mission to the UN (@USUN) December 3, 2017 Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said at the time, We will decide how best to control our borders and who will be allowed to enter our country. Australia voiced similar concerns about the U.N. global migration deal in July, saying it wouldnt sign the agreement in its current form as it was not in the nations interest, their immigration minister, Peter Dutton, said. Dutton said at the time that Australia wont sign a deal that sacrifices anything in terms of our border protection policies. Were not going to surrender our sovereignty. Im not going to allow unelected bodies to dictate to us, to the Australian people, he told 2GB. Migration Cannot Become a Human Right Recently on Oct. 31, the Austrian government said it wouldnt sign the migration deal, citing, among other things, fears about a possible watering-down of the distinction between legal and illegal migration, the Epoch Times reported. Some of the contents go diametrically against our position, Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache said on Oct. 31. Migration is not and cannot become a human right, he added. It cannot be that someone receives a right to migration because of the climate or poverty. On Nov. 1, Czech prime minister Andrej Babis said he also opposed the pact. Its not clearly interpreted and it could be abused. The United States has pulled out, Hungary too, now Austria, and Poland is debating it as well, he said, according to the Irish Times. I dont like the fact that it blurs the distinction between legal and illegal migration I will propose to partners in the government that we should do the same as Austria and Hungary, he added, ahead of cabinet talks to take place in the coming week. An Encouragement to Migration When Hungary announced its withdrawal from the agreement in June, Hungarys Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said in a statement that the agreement is totally at odds with the countrys security interests. The primary issue for us is the security of Hungary and the Hungarian people, Szijjarto said in the statement. According to the governments position, the U.N. Global Compact for Migration is in conflict with common sense and also with the intent to restore European security. Hungary does not regard the goals and principles declared by the compact as valid guidelines with regard to itself. In addition, the document does not deal with the truly existing fundamental human rights of people who want nothing else than to be able to live in peace and security in their own homelands, he said. Szijjarto added that although the fundamental premise of the agreement is a good and unavoidable phenomenon, the document itself is dangerous, extremist, biased, and an encouragement to migration. It could serve as an inspiration for millions to set out from home, he said. Tom Ozimek of The Epoch Times contributed to this article. From NTD News Emirates Seeks Rolls-Royce A380 Engine Deal, Nothing Finalized DUBAI/HONG KONGEmirates is edging towards a deal with Rolls-Royce to power its latest Airbus A380 superjumbos but has not yet reached a final agreement, the Dubai-based airline said on Nov. 4. The fate of a lifeline order for up to 36 of the double-decker aircraft, of which Emirates already has over 100 in operation, has been widely questioned due to inconclusive talks over a separate deal between Emirates and engine makers. We are getting closer (to a deal with Rolls-Royce) but have not crossed the line yet, a spokesperson for the Dubai-based carrier said, asked about the status of negotiations with the British engine maker. A French newspaper recently reported the two sides had reached an agreement. Industry sources have said Emirates is unhappy with the performance of Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines on A380s already in service and that a shortfall in efficiency has meant Rolls-Royce having to pay hefty penalties. To improve performance and avoid such penalties in future, Rolls-Royce would need to put more R&D spending into the engine at a time when it is mired in delays or reliability problems on engines for the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A330neo. Engine Alliance, a joint venture between General Electric and Pratt & Whitney that until recently had provided engines for Emirates A380 fleet, has shown little interest in reviving output. Its parent companies are tackling restructuring at GE and delays on smaller Pratt & Whitney engines, industry sources say. Airline president Tim Clark has reportedly denied suggestions that the airline is slowing down taking delivery of existing A380s, saying delays are due to production problems. Unfortunately, quite a few of the A380 deliveries have slipped and they are all compressed in the back end of the year in the next two months, so we are taking them now, he told the Airline Ratings website. Reuters reported recently that there were delays in delivering some A380s to Emirates and quoted one source as saying Emirates did not need them for now and had parked a number as part of efforts to manage capacity. Durability problems affecting Roll-Royces Trent 1000 engine have resulted in premature repairs and led to as many as 40 or so Boeing 787s being idle at any time, industry sources say. The crisis has had a knock-on effect on other programs as Rolls diverts production capacity from the similar Trent 7000 engine, resulting in delays to the Airbus A330neo. By Tim Hepher & Alexander Cornwell Fisherman Spots 18-Month-Old Baby Floating by in Freakish Miracle Before he grabbed the listless body of the 18-month-old baby from the sea, fisherman Gus Hutt thought it was a doll. Until it squeaked. Hutt was returning to check his fishing lines at a New Zealand beach, when he spotted something in the water early in the morning on Oct. 26, reported the Whakaton Beacon. That was the moment that saved Malachi Reeves life. Hutt reached out and grabbed the arm of the lifeless figure. His face looked like porcelain with his short hair wetted down, Hutt said but then he let out a little squeak and I thought, Oh God, this is a baby and its alive.' It was only a stroke of luck that Hutt was walking by at that moment; he had deviated from his usual fishing spot that day. He was floating at a steady pace with a rip in the water. If I hadnt been there, or if I had just been a minute later I wouldnt have seen him, Hutt said. Man how luckygreat to be a part of a good news story. Matata Volunteer Fire Brigade He just wasnt meant to go; it wasnt his time. The childs mother, Jessica Whyte, was still asleep in their tent in a nearby holiday camp where they were taking a family break. Murphys Holiday Camp, Matata, is on the edge of the Pacific Ocean on New Zealands North Island about 100 miles from Auckland. Whyte told Stuff that at first she thought it was a sick joke, when the camp manager woke her. She was like Do you guys have a young child? Then she said hes been found in the water, said Whyte. It was horrible in between hearing that and seeing him. I dont think my heart [beat] from hearing that to seeing him. I dont think my heart worked. When she saw Malachi at the camp ground reception she said he looked purple, cold, and smaller than usual. It was scary but he was breathing, he was alive, Whyte said. Oh God, it was amazing seeing him. I gave him a big hug. When Jessica Whyte was woken to the news that her 18-month-old son had been found floating in the sea, it felt like her heart stopped beating. Stuff Emergency services attended to him for 15 minutes before he was taken to hospital. The child has fully recovered, according to reports. His mother told Stuff that he is the same playful toddler, and appears none the worse for wear. Hes himself. Maybe hell be more aware of water, not run into beaches. But hes definitely himself. She said she knows some other parents will judge her, but she is more concerned about getting out a message from her own harrowing experience: Zip your tents up. And zip them up nice and high if youve got a child that can reach. Put them on a padlock. Hutt later traced the infants steps into the sea to a spot about 15 meters from where he had been fishing. Whyte said that Malachi normally sleeps until 8 a.m., but thinks the sound of the waves might have woken him. He appears to have pulled the zipper on on the tent as his parents slept, crawled under the flap and made his way down to the beach at around 7 a.m. Rebecca Salter, the co-owner of Murphys Holiday Camp, told the BBC, It came as a shock to everyone. It was a very, very lucky result it could have been a very tragic incident. Its a freakish miracle. Clemence Bectarte, lawyer of the two French-Syrian disappeared in Syria, flanked by their brother Obeida Dabbagh arrive at the Financial courthouse in Paris, on Oct. 24, 2016. (Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images) France Issues Arrest Warrants for Senior Syrian Officials PARISFrench prosecutors have issued international arrest warrants for three senior Syrian intelligence and government officials, including security chief Ali Mamlouk, for alleged collusion in war crimes, lawyers and a judicial source said on Nov. 5. Mamlouk, one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assads most senior advisers, was targeted by the order alongside Jamil Hassan, the head of Airforce Intelligence who is already the subject of a German warrant, the sources said. Another senior Airforce Intelligence official, Abdel Salam Mahmoud, who lawyers say heads a detention facility at Mezzeh military airport in Damascus, was named in the order. The warrants stem from a long-running case involving two French-Syrian nationals, father and son Mazen and Patrick Dabbagh, who were arrested by Syrian Airforce Intelligence agents in Syria in November 2013 and subsequently disappeared. The Dabbagh family obtained documents from Syria in July 2018 indicating that Mazen died in custody in November 2017 and Patrick in January 2014, lawyers for the family said. This is a first victory and I hope the beginning of a new era of justice and accountability for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Syria, said Obeida Dabbagh, the brother and uncle of the victims, who worked with legal and human rights groups to bring the case and secure the warrants. In a statement, the rights groupsthe International Federation for Human Rights, Frances League for the Rights of Man and the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expressionsaid the warrants were issued on October 8. The international arrest warrants demonstrate that the wall of impunity surrounding Syrian officials at the highest level can indeed be broken, said lawyers Clemence Bectarte and Patrick Baudouin in a joint statement. Prosecutors in Paris had already opened a probe into the pairs disappearance, starting with a preliminary investigation in 2015, and had found that their house in Damascus had been raided by intelligence officials, the judicial source said. The French warrants bring charges including collusion in torture, forced disappearances, crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Syrian officials. All three suspects could face trial in France, whether they are arrested or not. Germanywhich has universal jurisdiction over war crimes, meaning it can prosecute and try crimes committees abroadhas also taken similar steps, issuing an arrest warrant in June for Airforce Intelligence official Hassan. Efforts to prosecute members of the Assad government have repeatedly failed because Syria is not a signatory of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. Russia and China have also vetoed attempts to give the ICC a mandate to set up a special tribunal for Syria. By Emmanuel Jarry Georgia gubernatorial candidates (L-R) Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp debate in an event that also included Libertarian Ted Metz at Georgia Public Broadcasting in Midtown in Atlanta, Georgia Oct. 23, 2018. (John Bazemore-Pool/Getty Images) Georgia Secretary of State Probing State Democratic Party for Attempted Election Hack Georgia Secretary of State and Republican candidate for governor Brian Kemp announced on Nov. 4 that his office is investigating the state Democratic Party for possible cyber crimes. Kemps office notified the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI on Nov. 3 of an attempt to hack the states voter-registration system. While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cyber crimes, Candice Broce, the spokeswoman for Kemps office, said in a statement. We can also confirm that no personal data was breached and our system remains secure. The hackers attempted to breach the My Voter Page of the online voter-registration system, according to a follow-up statement. The Office of the Secretary of State contacted private vendors and investigators to review data logs from the voting system, and Kemp requested that the FBI launch an investigation. Kemp is in a close race against Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams for the states governorship. Kemp leads by an average of 2.7 percentage points in a Real Clear Politics review of recent polls. In an act of desperation, the Democrats tried to expose vulnerabilities in Georgias voter-registration system. This was a fourth-quarter Hail Mary pass that was intercepted in the end zone, said Ryan Mahoney, the spokesman for Kemps campaign. Thanks to the systems and protocols established by Secretary of State Brian Kemp, no personal information was breached. These power-hungry radicals should be held accountable for their criminal behavior. Kemps office manages Georgias My Voter Page, which allows voters to log in using their last name, first initial, county, and date of birth. Those who log in can check the status of their voter registration, mail-in application, or ballot. Voters can also use the page to check what data is online with the county office. Rebecca DeHart, the spokeswoman for the Georgia Democratic Party, called Kemps accusations false. We were disturbed but not surprised that when Brian Kemp learned of major vulnerabilities to Georgians personal information, he didnt work to fix the problem, DeHart said in a statement. He didnt warn Georgians that their personal information may be compromised. He instead launched politically motivated accusations against his political opponents. Kemp and Abrams are competing to replace term-limited Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican. President Donald Trump endorsed Kemp in late October. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be a great governor, Trump wrote on Twitter on Oct. 20. He has been successful at whatever he has done, and has prepared for this very difficult and complex job for many years. He has my Strong Endorsement. His opponent is totally unqualified. Would destroy a great state! TV star Oprah Winfrey endorsed Abrams in late October. Winfrey was scheduled to attend a pair of town halls and go door-to-door for Abrams in the days before the election on Nov. 6. Tallahassee Police officers are stationed outside the HotYoga Studio after a gunman killed one person and injured several others inside in Tallahassee, Fla on Nov. 2, 2018. (Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images) Gunman at Florida Yoga Studio Had Been Accused of Harassment A gunman who killed two women at a Florida yoga studio and wounded five other people before taking his own life had previously been accused of harassing young women, police said on Nov. 3. Authorities said they do not know why Scott Beierle, 40, opened fire on the afternoon of Nov. 2 after posing as a customer to join the class at the Hot Yoga studio in Tallahassee. Detectives are searching for links between him and the victims. The two women who died were identified as a student and a faculty member from Florida State University. Police said Beierle was a graduate of FSU who served in the military, and that he had been the subject of calls to authorities in the Tallahassee area related to harassment of young women. In a statement, police said Beierle was staying in a local hotel at the time of the attack, and that investigators were also searching his home in Deltona, Florida, more than 200 miles southeast of Tallahassee. Police records showed he was arrested in 2012 and 2016 on charges of grabbing womens buttocks. Both cases were dismissed, the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper reported. An attorney who previously represented Beierle could not be reached for comment. Two women who were wounded in the shooting remained hospitalized in stable condition on Nov. 3, police said. Two other shooting victims and a man who was pistol-whipped by Beierle were treated and released. There were indications that several people not only fought back but tried to save other people, Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo said at a news conference. Doctor and Student One of the women killed was identified as Nancy Van Vessem, 61, a doctor specializing in internal medicine who was a member of the faculty at Florida State University College of Medicine in Tallahassee. The other was named as Maura Binkley, a 21-year-old student at FSU. Their deaths were just devastating to the FSU family, said the universitys president, John Thrasher. Van Vessem also worked as a chief medical director for Capital Health Plan, which described her in a statement as a guiding, visionary force and one of the most respected, inspiring, and accomplished medical professionals in the state and country. Binkley had attended Dunwoody High School in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, and was a senior at FSU with an English and German double major. The U.S. Army said Beierle had been a second lieutenant and served as a field artilleryman. He was on active duty from 2008 to 2010. Beierle posted several YouTube videos in 2014 in which he expressed racist and misogynist views, and identified with involuntary celibates or incels, a loose social media movement of men who blame women for their celibacy, Buzzfeed News reported. In April, a 25-year-old Canadian who said he was a soldier in an incel rebellion used a rented van to kill 10 people in Toronto. The Nov. 2 bloodshed prompted Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who is also Floridas Democratic candidate for governor, to halt his campaign temporarily. Ahead of the Nov. 6 election, the citys murder rate has been an issue in the governors race, with Gillums opponent, Republican former U.S. Representative Ron DeSantis, accusing him of being weak on crime. Gillum said on Twitter that no act of gun violence was acceptable. DeSantis said the shooting was heartbreaking. Dozens of yoga practitioners gathered early on Nov. 3 for an open-air session in front of the State Capitol. Called Yoga For A Cause, the event was in support of people affected by Hurricane Michael. The Tallahassee Police Department posted a photo of the gathering on Facebook with the quote It holds so much meaning and the hashtags #TallyStrong and #OurCityOurHome. By Brendan OBrien & Alex Dobuzinskis A woman uses her mobile phone in front of a LED display board of Huawei at Beijing International Consumer Electronics Expo in Beijing on July 9, 2018. (Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images) Huaweis Reliance on Foreign Technologies Illustrates Shortcomings in Chinas Chip-Making Industry Recent remarks by two Chinese businessmen indicate how dependent that Chinese telecoms giant Huawei is on Japanese and U.S. technologies. Michael Yu, CEO of New Orient Education and Technology Group, a publicly listed company that provides private educational services, shared what an unidentified vice president of Huawei once told him. More than half of our technologies regarding IC chips are American patented technologies. If the Americans were to refuse to allow us to use their technologies, we wouldnt be able to make a single chip. In other words, China wouldnt be able to manufacture a single smartphone, because we dont have chips, Yu recalled while speaking at an education conference in Beijing on Oct. 31, according to Chinese media that reported about his remarks. An integrated circuit (IC) chip is an electronic device with many functional elements such as transistors, capacitors, and resistors, all fabricated on a semiconductor wafer, such as silicon. IC chips are used to power virtually all computers and electronic gadgets. Yu added that he once spoke with unidentified Chinese IC engineers about Chinas semiconductor industry and whether it had the capability to manufacture chips entirely within domestic assembly lines. They told him that the chips would be too large: Electronic gadgets packaged with entirely-Chinese-made chips would require a backpack to carry them. Yus remarks came just a week after Xu Jingbo, head of a Chinese news website headquartered in Tokyo, told an audience at a manufacturing conference in China that Huaweis development in smartphone manufacturing was the result of research done by Japanese experts, according to a report by Taiwans daily newspaper the Liberty Times. As Xu explained at the conference, held in Tianjin City on Oct. 23, Huawei opened a research institute in Yokohama, the second-largest Japanese city by population, where more than 400 Japanese engineers are employed. Huaweis technological inadequacies exemplify a broader problem that China facesthe country is the worlds largest consumer of semiconductors, but continues to lag in developing domestic semiconductor technology. Chinas dependence on foreign technology is reflected in 2017 trade data provided by the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA). Last year, China imported integrated circuits worth about $260 billionmore than the value of crude oil imported by China. Huawei has also established research institutes in Europe, India, the United States, Russia, and Canada, according to an article published on the Chinese-language site of the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), an international industry association. In Canada, Huawei established research institutes in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and Waterloo, employing more than 400 researchers. Their research focus is developing 5G, the next-generation of wireless communication, according to SEMI China. Huaweis great strides in developing 2G and 3G technologies were due to the work that was done at the companys research institute in Russia, according to SEMI China. Why Is China Behind There are many reasons why China continues to lag behind traditional powerhouses in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the United Statesdespite the Chinese regimes financial support for the industry, as laid out in economic plans such as the 13th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) and Made in China 2025. Hong Kong daily newspaper, Apple Daily, in an editorial published on Nov. 2, detailed the reasons. Firstly, the United States first invented the semiconductor about 70 years ago. Since the end of World War II, the U.S. industry has built up its own top-to-bottom semiconductor supply chain. At the same time, China was in the middle of a civil war, and after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took over, the Party launched several political campaigns such as the Cultural Revolution, when intellectuals and scientists were deemed counter-revolutionary and severely persecuted. That hindered Chinas progress in technology fields. Within the multi-step production process for IC chips, which includes design, fabrication, packaging, and testing, Chinas greatest weakness lies in IC design, according to Apple Daily. China is yet unable to develop its own design software, known as electronic design automation (EDA) tools. Such software development is currently dominated by U.S. companies such as California-based Synopsys and Cadence. Without the ability to develop design software, Chinas ability to design IC chips is limited. That subsequently affects the ability to optimize the assembly process for more advanced IC chips. Chinas IC assembly process is also limited by the inability to acquire the necessary production equipment. One of the production steps is the lithography process, a way of transferring IC circuit designs to semiconductors from which components such as transistors are made. As chips become smaller, more advanced lithography tools are needed. Also, as chips get smaller, they deliver more performance-per-watt, meaning that they run at a faster speed while consuming less power. A recent innovation in lithography involves the use of extreme ultraviolet light (EUV). The only company in the world that currently makes EUV equipment is Netherlands-based company ASML, according to Apple Daily. However, ASML prioritizes producing its limited EUV equipment for its stakeholders, including Taiwan-based contract manufacturer TSMC, Samsung, and Intel. Even if China orders EUV equipment from ASML now, it would be several years before taking delivery. Dependence on US Imports Chinas dependence on U.S. tech imports is best illustrated by Chinese telecoms firm ZTE almost going out of business after the United States banned it from buying parts and technology from U.S. suppliers. The U.S. Department of Commerce slapped the ban against ZTE in April for failing to comply with stipulations, in association with violating U.S. sanctions placed on Iran and North Korea. Three of 10 of ZTEs suppliers are U.S. companies, according to an April article by South China Morning Post. For Huawei, in comparison, roughly a quarter of its 263 suppliers in 2017 are U.S. companies, compared to 41 percent of Chinese suppliers. The top two U.S. suppliers to Huawei were Flex, a contract electronics solutions provider, and U.S. semiconductor company Broadcom. Currently, ZTE is still struggling financially. Chinese media reported that the company is expected to end the year with a financial loss of about 6.2 billion (about $893 million). Future prospects for Chinas industry arent optimistic. At a technology conference held in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Oct. 11, Chang Junfeng, secretary general of a semiconductor trade association based in the neighboring city of Shenzhen, said it will take five to 10 years for China to have a major breakthrough in IC design, according to Chinese business news site Yicai. It would take about five to 10 years to narrow the gaps in assembling capabilities; and finally, 10 to 30 years to narrow the gap in semiconductor materials and equipment, he said. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Italian Ambassador to the U.S. Claudio Bisogniero unveil a Renaissance painting by Lelio Orsi called "Leda and the Swan" during a repatriation ceremony in Washington DC on April 26, 2012. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) Italian Government Cracks Down on Trafficking of Precious Historical Artifacts The Italian government aims to crack down on the theft and trafficking of historical artifacts as it seeks to fulfill its campaign promise of bolstering national identity. Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli said the government will soon ratify the Nicosia convention, an international agreement thats concerned with combating the illicit trafficking and destruction of cultural artifacts. Bonisoli made the announcement at an event in Washington to celebrate the return to Italy of three ancient treasures. They were a wine carafe, a decanter for precious oils, and a soup tureen dating back to ancient Greece, all of which had been illegally taken from an archaeological site and exported to the United States. We want to introduce laws on specific crimes so there are stiffer penalties applied to crimes against cultural heritage, which is a fundamental part of our identity, Bonisoli said at the event, according to The Telegraph. The government of the Five Star Movement (5SM) and the League party came to power on a message of Italians first. The artifacts were discovered by detectives from the Carabinieri, Italian polices paramilitary force, who were scanning online auctions and saw them being sold by a New York auction house. They then contacted the FBI. The carafe, tureen, and vase were among 16 precious historical items recovered from the United States and returned to Italy. Over the past 15 years, U.S. and Italian law enforcement agencies have collaborated to successfully return 200 treasures and priceless works of art. Today, the commercialization of online platforms for rapidly selling art and archaeological objects allows our investigators to see these objects abroad on a daily basis, Gen. Fabrizio Parrulli, the head of the Carabinieri art crime unit, told The Telegraph. Thanks to our collaborators at the Met Police and the FBI, we are developing a diplomatic culture of restitution that involves actually bringing the works back to their place of origin. Crimes Against Cultural Heritage The Nicosia convention was drafted by Cyprus to solidify penalties for offenses such as unlawful excavation, importation, and exportation; illegal acquisition; and sale of cultural artifacts. It also criminalizes the falsification of documents and the intentional destruction or damage of cultural property. The agreement has been signed by Mexico, Portugal, Greece, and Armenia. Italy is expected to ratify it in the next few months, Bonisoli said, with the draft law introducing stiffer penalties for crimes against cultural heritage. Other works that have been recovered include a rare 16th-century painting by Lelio Orsi called Leda and the Swan, a 2nd-century bronze of the god Mars, as well as frescoes from the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. One mosaic floor that was originally in a ship built by Roman emperor Caligula 2000 years ago was discovered being used as a coffee table by an antique dealer on Park Avenue in New York. These recovered works tell the story of our obligation to spare no effort in our collaboration to ensure our past survives for our kids and our grandchildren, said Armando Varricchio, Italian ambassador to the United States, reported The Telegraph. There are initiatives around the world to return looted artifacts to their places of origin. In August, 5,000-year-old objects that had been taken from Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein were returned by the UK after being identified by the British Museum. The objects had been seized from a London-based dealer in 2003 and spent 15 years in police storage. In April, Ethiopia demanded that Britain returns artifacts that are being held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A responded by suggesting the pieces could be loaned back to the African country. Joe Manchin Says He Wanted to Beat the Living Crap Out of Opponent Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Va.) said just days before the midterm elections that he wanted to physically assault his opponent. Manchin made the comments after an Oct. 31 debate with his opponent, Patrick Morrisey. You might have seen the debate the other night. I want to tell you something, Manchin told several dozen people at the George Buckley Community Center, according to audio obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. It took every bit of my discipline not to beat the living crap out of them. The audience cheered his remarks. The national media should look at so-called Mr. Civility in action. Wish @JoeManchinWV would have agreed to more than one debate. Watch as Manchin loses it as his lead slips away. I will keep outworking him until the end. #wvsen https://t.co/t8z9u7ujjR AG Patrick Morrisey (@MorriseyWV) November 3, 2018 Manchin claimed that Morrisey and President Donald Trump are spewing out horrible things, noting Trump has visited the state eight times ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections. He also said that Morrisey shouldnt be elected because he doesnt understand West Virginians. Morrisey, the states attorney general since 2013, grew up in New Jersey. Morrisey took to Twitter to slam the remarks: The national media should look at so-called Mr. Civility in action. Wish @JoeManchinWV would have agreed to more than one debate. Watch as Manchin loses it as his lead slips away. I will keep outworking him until the end. Manchin has not apologized for his comments, which came after he claimed to be civil in the debate. We can have civil debates, Manchin said, reported the Weirton Daily Times. We set an examplewords mean something. Morrisey added on the subject, saying: We always have to, as candidates for office, have to reject violence in all forms. Manchins comments are the latest in a growing list of calls for violence or unrest against Republicans made by prominent Democrats. In early October, Eric Holder, attorney general for the Obama administration, told a crowd that they should not be civil to Republicans but instead kick them. The exhortation came shortly after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Trump, saying, You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about. Thats why I believe, she said. If we are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate, thats when civility can start again. In addition, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told supporters in July to get up in the face of some congresspeople and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) told a crowd in Los Angeles in June, If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them theyre not welcome anymore, anywhere. Since then, there has been a notable uptick of prominent Republicans and members of the Trump administration being harassed in public, receiving death threats, and receiving suspicious packages in the mail. From NTD News Man-Eating Tiger Shot and Killed in India; Lured With Calvin Klein Cologne Warning: Graphic photo Authorities shot and killed a man-eating tiger on Nov. 2 that terrorized a jungle area in India that was linked to the killings of 13 people. The female tiger, called T-1 by forest rangers, was blamed for the killings of more than a dozen villagers in Maharashtra, said the Maharashtra Forest Department on Nov. 3. Hunters waited for several hours before identifying the tiger and shooting her with a tranquilizer dart, the officials said. After she was hit with the dart, the tiger charged the vehicle, and a hunter fired a lethal shot at the animal, killing it. In a reflex action of self-defense, the shooter fired from a distance of 8 to 10 meters [26 feet to 33 feet]. The tigress died on the spot, according to the statement from the Maharashtra Forest Department, reported press agency DPA. The tiger was lured out with the help of Obsession for Men, a Calvin Klein cologne popular in the 1990s, The New York Times reported. The cologne was tested with success on jaguars at the Bronx Zoo. Officials had hoped to take the animal alive as it had two 10-month-old cubs. The Supreme Court of India refused to suspend a shoot-on-sight order for the tiger that triggered protests and online petitions. Wildlife activists complained online over the weekend after the big cat was killed, DPA reported. They said rangers could have captured it instead of killing it. Avni [a local name for the tiger] was killed illegally satisfying a hunters lust for blood, said People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to DPA. It said the killing should be investigated and treated as a wildlife crime. But the tiger was linked to at least 13 killings in the area, the Times reported. DNA tests taken from tigers saliva and DNA from the corpses, images from camera traps, tiger tracks, and a number of sightings connected the animal to the deaths. It is believed that the tigress was about 5 years old, the Times reported. Man Gets Dangerously Close to Zoo Tiger A man was filmed jumping over a barrier near a tiger cage at the Oakland Zoo in Oakland, California, in October. The tiger was seen prowling near the outer edge of its cage at the zoo as the man stood outside the fence (as seen in the top video). He was on a viewing deck, and it has a 42-inch rail, said Joel Parrott, CEO and president of the Oakland Zoo, ABC7 reported. The chain-link fence keeps the tiger in, but then sometimes they think they can pet the tiger in which case the fingers go through the mesh and thats when it can get dangerous for the public. You cannot design for irresponsible and stupid behavior, concluded Parrott. Navy Veteran Who Lost Eye Responds After SNLs Pete Davidson Makes Fun of Him A Navy veteran who lost his eye while fighting in Afghanistan responded after Saturday Night Live cast member Pete Davidson made fun of him on television. In a segment on Nov. 3, Davidson, wearing a prison outfit, did a bit while a picture of Dan Crenshaws photo was broadcast on the screen. Crenshaw was wearing an eye patch, as he often does to cover his missing eye. Struggling to talk while laughing repeatedly, Davidson said that Crenshaw lost his eye in war, or whatever. The Navy vet actually lost the eye in an IED blast in Afghanistan and only regained use of his other eye after several surgeries, according to his website. You may be surprised to hear hes a congressional candidate from Texas and not a hitman in a porno movie, Davidson added. Im sorry, I know he lost his eye in war, or whatever. On NBC's Saturday Night Live, Pete Davidson mocks GOP Congressional candidate Dan Crenshaw for losing his eye in war: You may be surprised to hear hes a Congressional candidate from Texas and not a hitman in a porno movie. Im sorry, I know he lost his eye in war, or whatever. pic.twitter.com/krQwesqLAV Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 4, 2018 The bit prompted laughter from the audience but backlash from many others, including the National Republican Congressional Committee. Dan Crenshaw served 10 years as a Navy SEAL. He received two Bronze Stars, a Purple Heart, and the Navy Commendation Medal with Valor, said committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. NBC owes him an apology, we owe him our support on Tuesday. Crenshaw is running for an open congressional seat in the 2nd Congressional District in Houston. Doesnt Need Apology Crenshaw responded to Davidsons comments in an interview with TMZ and said that he doesnt need an apology. I want us to get away from this culture where we demand an apology every time someone misspeaks, Crenshaw said. I think that would be very healthy for our nation to go in that direction. We dont need to be outwardly outraged. I dont need to demand apologies from them. They can do whatever they want, you know. They are feeling the heat from around the country right now and thats fine. But he noted Davidsons mean-spirited joke wasnt even funny, adding Davidson and SNL executives should recognize that veterans across the country probably dont feel as though their wounds [that] they received in battle should be the subject of a bad punch line. Todd Litton, the Democrat running against Crenshaw, also slammed Davidsons bit. No matter what side of the aisle youre on, Dans military service and sacrifice for our country are to be admired and appreciated. Period, Litton wrote on Twitter. Neither Davidson nor NBC have responded to the intense backlash. From NTD News On a Mission to Save Languages From Extinction Daniel Bogre Udell and Wikitongues are trying to archive languages before they die NEW YORKThere are 800 different languages spoken among New Yorks 8.5 million residents, and unfortunately, that number may be decreasing. One man is on a mission to make sure the city and the world dont lose their linguistic diversity. The UNESCO Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger states that 230 languages have died since 1950. According to Ethnologue, approximately a third of extant languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers alive today. When a language becomes extinct, a community collapses. That group loses the ability to speak their mother tongue, and to pass it on to their children. A whole culture is ultimately lost. A community loses bonds to their heritage. A community loses the kind of glue that binds them together, Daniel Bogre Udell, director of Wikitongues, told The Epoch Times. Learning a Language Udell is a sixth-generation American. His mothers family came from Scotland and Hungary, and his fathers side were Ashkenazi Jews. As he was growing up, English was spoken at home in rural Pennsylvania. When Udell turned 13, he got his first job as a busboy at a local restaurant. Many of his coworkers were Spanish speakers, and Udell made an effort to learn their language. By the time he was 16, he had conversational proficiency in Spanish. Initially, he saw language as just a practical tool. I think that at that time, I still understood language as a primarily utilitarian phenomenon, something that could just get us through the day, help us in business, help us in travel, Udell said. But like most majority language speakers, I think I still understood language as something to be taken for granted, not something that was necessarily integral to my identity, my culture, who I was. During high school, Udell had the opportunity to study abroad in Zaragoza, Spain. Immersed in the Spanish-speaking city, he thought that Spanish was the only language spoken in the country. Linguistic Diversity However, when Udell arrived, he discovered that Spain actually has four official languages as well as several unofficial languages. My mind was kind of immediately blown and expanded, and I was very, very curious about what the cultural experience of Spain really was, Udell recalled. Fortunately, he had a Spanish history teacher who was also passionate about the linguistic diversity of the country. After visiting Barcelona, Udell found himself learning Catalan with the instructor; the two would speak for five minutes a day to practice. When Udell was a senior in high school, he returned to Spain as an intern for a political party in Barcelona, where he plunged himself into learning Catalan. As opposed to Zaragoza, Barcelona is a much more international city, so Udell became more involved with minority cultural and language activists throughout Europe. A minority language is spoken by less than half the population in a specific geographical area. It was during this time that I fully wrapped my head around the notions that there are 7,000 or more languages spoken in the world today, and that each of them is not just really a utilitarian phenomenon, but something that is really integral to identity, to the experience of culture, and that their preservation and sustainability is really something that we should all support, Udell explained. The Tower of Babel This realization led Udell to embark on an ambitious, noble endeavor. He had recognized a growing movement to preserve the worlds linguistic and cultural heritage, and wanted to be a part of the effort. Udell began thinking about building an open internet archive of every language in the world, because there wasnt a place he could go to listen to a certain native tongue. First, he started a YouTube channel of oral histories told in different languages. At the same time, he had been studying at the Parsons School of Design in New York, where he had access to many international students who spoke varied languages. He posted a recording of 10 different languages with a call to action on his YouTube channel to help him document every language in the world, and a handful of people replied. They began corresponding with each other to develop a plan. After Udell graduated from Parsons, his close friend and eventual co-director Frederico Andrade suggested they take their endeavor more seriously. Culture and Heritage By 2016, the duo had a team of over 100 volunteers around the world and became a nonprofit called Wikitongues. Now, they are in 70 countries and have more than 1,000 contributors, including 80 active volunteers and 13 weekly volunteers. The decentralized nature of the organization allows anyone who wants to record and preserve their language to do so. For instance, theres a linguist in Texas who is a Sicilian-American interested in the revival movements of Native American languages, so he reaches out to tribes in the Southeast who want to get involved with Wikitongues. If you have a phone with a camera, you can record oral histories. And so what that allows is people from very diverse backgrounds to participate. We have volunteers in New York City, and we have volunteers in rural Liberia, Udell explained. Many minority languages are spoken in rural or remote areas without internet access, which makes it difficult for those speakers to participate. Udell and speakers overcome this obstacle by using what he calls Creative Scrappyness. For instance, a person with internet access can go into a community without service, record their oral histories, and report back to the organization. Udell emphasized that language loss is not a natural culmination of progress. During the last 200 years, nations have spent a tremendous amount of effort to eradicate cultural minorities. One of the methods was to compel people to speak one national language, and punish them for speaking their minority language. When we look at language endangerment around the world, theres nothing natural about this process. The threats to linguistic diversity being posed now are a direct result of the past 200 years of injustice, Udell argued. For Udell, preserving languages has a larger, global impact importance beyond maintaining culture and heritage. The wisdom of humanity does not come from our homogeneity, but from our diversity. And so by surrendering to the idea of language loss as inevitable, were depriving future generations of wisdom that we dont yet know about. To find out more about Wikitongues, or to contribute, visit. www.wikitongues.org A man walks past an illuminated display outside an Apple store in Hong Kong on Nov. 20, 2012. (ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images) Smartphone Surveillance and Data-Mining: Who is Protecting Us? Commentary This article is part of a series on corporate surveillance highlighting civil liberty, privacy, cybersecurity, safety, and tech-product user exploitation threats associated with connected products that are supported by the Android (Google) OS, Apple iOS, and Microsoft Windows OS. In my last article Government Fails to Enforce Privacy, Telecommunication, and Consumer Laws Meant to Protect Citizens, I discussed how telecommunication subscribers (smartphone owners) have numerous rights and are supposed to be protected by the Constitution (U.S. citizens), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and state attorneys general from unwarranted surveillance and deceptive trade practices associated with smartphones and retail products. Ive also discussed how Verizon and T-Mobile have admitted that smartphones and connected products supported by the Android, Apple, and Microsoft Windows operating systems are not private, secure, or safe forms of telecommunications and computing, due to pre-installed surveillance and data-mining technology supported by misleading and confusing terms of use. In short, pre-installed and third-party content such as apps are nothing more than a legal form of malware supported by terms of use that are deceptive in nature due to unpublished legalese and product warnings that are hidden within the operating system (OS) of a device (e.g., smartphone), rather than being published online within terms and conditions contracts and privacy policies for users to access. The intrusive terms of use can be described as cyber-enslavement agreements, enabling the content developers to exploit the product user for financial gain at the expense of the product users civil liberties, privacy, cybersecurity, and safety. Data-Mining Onslaught As previously discussed, due to pre-installed (rooted) surveillance and data-mining technology, as many as 15 or more multinational companies, including companies from China, are enabled to monitor, track, and data mine a single smartphone user for financial gain via addictive, intrusive, exploitative, and harmful technology. Companies such as Google and Baidu, a nation-state company from China, have a partnership in which Google is distributing surveillance and data-mining technology (e.g., web browser and apps) developed by Baidu. The intrusive Android Baidu content supports telecom-related products such as smartphones, resulting in Baidu being able to monitor, track, and data mine U.S. telecom subscribers and authorized device users for financial gain, posing huge threats to the civil liberty, privacy, cybersecurity, and safety of citizens, children, and business professionals. An investigation of the terms of use on my Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone revealed uncontrollable pre-installed Baidu surveillance and data-mining technology associated with an email app. I also discussed in my last article that filing formal complaints with all companies concerned, plus the FTC, FCC, and state attorneys general, may result in obtaining some transparency in regard to some business practices, but will not result in protection against predatory surveillance and data-mining business practices employed by Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Baidu. All of this leads us to two important questions: Can we trust data-driven technology providers such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Baidu with our telecom-related personal and professional information (digital DNA)? Can we trust the FTC, FCC, and state attorneys general to enforce existing telecom and consumer laws that are meant to protect the privacy of the telecom subscriber (paying customer, both individual and business) and authorized device user (spouse, child, employee, etc.) plus protect consumers from deceptive trade practices that may result in harm to the consumer, including children? In short, no. I will explain why below. Proof of Harm People often ask me to provide proof that the predatory surveillance and data-mining business practices that I discuss pose harm to the smartphone and connected-product user, that is, you and me. People also ask me to prove that smartphone and connected-product owners are being exploited for financial gain by way of misleading, confusing, and exploitative business practices employed by data-driven technology providers. I like a good challenge, so I will address some harmful technology plus what I believe are unfair business and deceptive trade practices employed by data-driven technology providers below. It should be noted that the civil liberty, privacy, cybersecurity, safety, and tech-product user exploitation threats associated with the FacebookCambridge Analytica scandal are systemic to all smartphones and connected-product users. Dont take my word for this claim: Lets look at what other technology journalists have exposed in regard to negligence, abuse, and misuse of a persons digital DNA resulting in harm. Below are examples that have been reported in the news over the past year or so: 1. Google failed to disclose data breach associated with third-party apps regarding Google+: Intrusive third-party apps raided Google+ users personal and professional informationThe Guardian and The Wall Street Journal, October 2018 2. Apple sold its users out to Google for billions of dollars: Apple users have to accept Googles intrusive terms of use when accepting Apple terms of use due to a partnership with GoogleBusiness Insider, September 2018 3. T-Mobile, Spotify, and Yelp use apps that can track users even after the apps are uninstalled: Several companies such as Adjust, AppsFlyer, MoEngage, Localytics, and CleverTap offer uninstall trackers; the information is then used to target ads at the uninstallerBloomberg, October 2018 4. A fitness tracker apps misuse of data associated with the U.S. military resulted in the exposure of classified information, putting U.S. soldiers in harms way: Heat maps that were published online exposed confidential and protected location data, exposing the location of military installations and personnelFortune, January 2018 5. A vulnerability in Apple mobile device management (MDM) tool exposes sensitive corporate data to bad actors: Apple MDM enrollment tool exposes sensitive corporate informationThreat Post, September 2018 6. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile sold user location data to negligent databrokers, putting millions of telecom subscribers, including children and business professionals, in harms way: Customers of the LocationSmart aggregator/broker were caught misusing telecom subscribers location data, potentially violating the users due process and Fourth Amendment rights, as user location information ended up being exposed to law enforcement. Also, a flaw in LocationSmarts website was discovered that potentially enabled anyone to track a users cellphone locationBusiness Insider, June 2018 and KrebsOnSecurity, May 2018 7. Google logged in users without consent while the FTC does not investigate deceptive trade practices employed by Google: The tech giant was caught logging users into their Chrome web browser without user consent, potentially enabling tracking of users internet useCNBC, September 2018 8. Facebook data breach exposed millions of users personal and professional information to bad actors worldwide while the FTC and lawmakers accept yet another apology from Facebook: The companys failure to protect their users from harm resulted in a data breach exposing more than 50 million users personal and professional digital DNA to hackers and/or bad actorsForbes, September 2018 9. Android (Google) apps could potentially launch DDoS attacks that threaten millions of businesses, hospitals, utilities, and government agencies worldwide: Hundreds of apps distributed via Google Play were removed due to the apps ability to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacksGizmodo, August 2017 10. Google tracking Android users without consent while the FTC and state attorneys general fail to enforce existing consumer laws associated with deceptive trade practices: Google is enabled to track connected-product users even when location services are turned offQuartz, November 2017 and The Associated Press, August 2018 It is sad to say that I can continue pointing out real-world examples of harm, but we need to move on. Who Is Protecting Us? Regarding other industries besides tech, companies that market products that bring harm or even death to the product user are forced by government to recall said products while paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in claims and fines to all parties harmed. Executives of companies whose negligence results in harm to their customers and/or intentionally deceive their customers are prosecuted and sent to jail for lesser offenses than what other journalists and I have documented in this article. However, when it comes to big tech, companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook seem to be bulletproof, even though these companies are piling up a record of abuse, negligence, and harmful use of their paying customers personal and professional digital DNA. Former Alphabet Inc. executive chairman Eric Schmidt, Facebook co-founder Sean Parker, and former Google designer Tristan Harris have publicly admitted that Google and Facebook intentionally develop addictive, intrusive, and harmful technology so that each company can exploit their product users for financial gain, yet the FTC, FCC, and state attorneys general will not even enforce existing consumer laws that are meant to protect the technology users privacy while protecting consumers from deceptive trade practices. I cannot conclude that any company mentioned is actually violating any existing consumer laws, but the evidence provided might help you, as well as the FTC, FCC, state attorneys general, lawmakers, and legal professionals, decide if they are. Im just the messenger. To affirm: Losing privacy is bad enough, but to be exploited for financial gain at the expense of your civil liberties, privacy, cybersecurity, and safety should be unacceptable to anyone who has purchased a smartphone or connected product supported by the Android OS, Apple iOS, and Microsoft Windows OS. It is time to hold the executives of these companies accountable rather than treating them like rock stars when they go on stage to sell us their snake oil. Who is protecting us from predatory surveillance and data-mining business practices that can result in harm to the user? How come the FTC, FCC, state attorneys general, and lawmakers are silent in light of so many examples of harm associated with social media platforms, smartphones, and connected products? How did we get here, plus how is this legal? I think we all agree that surveillance and data-mining business practices are out of control. It is time for citizens to take action by contacting their service providers, the FTC, FCC, state attorneys general, and lawmakers to demand protection. In closing, I dont know about you, but Im tired of being exploited for financial gain at the expense of my civil liberties, privacy, cybersecurity, and safety via products of necessity such as a smartphone and PC. It would be different if there were private, secure, and safe alternatives to choose from, but according to Verizon, people cannot even purchase a private, secure, or safe smartphone, tablet PC, or even a flip phone due to predatory surveillance and data-mining business practices employed by all companies concerned. In the next three articles within this series, I will address the legality of the terms of use, privacy and cybersecurity threats associated with all products concerned, and a solution in the form of an Electronic Bill of Rights that Ive proposed to lawmakers. Rex M. Lee is a privacy and data security consultant and Blackops Partners analyst and researcher. His website is MySmartPrivacy.com Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Medical staff counsel a young woman, who asked to be called Amehlo, at a hospital in Durban, South Africa, on Oct. 9, 2018. (Darren Taylor/Special to The Epoch Times) South Africas Dangerous Blessers In poverty-stricken communities, multiple relationships between older men and younger women bring high risk of HIV infection VULINDLELA, South AfricaA jovial nurse weighs a slim 20-year-old woman in a cramped room inside a hospital in Durban, South Africa. The patient is wearing a scarlet top, her blue jeans fashionably tattered, her hair a tangle of braids. Her faux diamond earrings swing and sparkle under fluorescent tubes of white light. Amehlo, as she asks to be called, is here for a checkup, and for one of her regular HIV tests. She smiles shyly as she tells the nurse that she has two boyfriends: One her own age; the other eight years older than her. Amehlo lives in Vulindlela, a rural settlement in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal province, about 130 miles north of Durban in east of South Africa. Amehlo says what drove her to develop a relationship with her older partner was her familys poverty. She says her bad dream ended when she met her blesser. Hes married, but he has a job and thats the most important thing. He bought me a cellphone; he buys me clothes. He buys groceries for my whole family, she said. In South Africa, older men like Amehlos boyfriend are colloquially called blessers, because they bless their young girlfriends with money and other material goods. But theres real risk to having a relationship with these blessers: contracting HIV. Scientists at the citys Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), one of the most advanced HIV study facilities in the world, have found that more than six out of every 10 women older than 30 in Vulindlela have HIV. The South African government manages the biggest HIV treatment program in the world, currently giving antiretroviral pills to more than four million infected individuals. CAPRISA director Professor Salim Karim says blessers have become culturally acceptable across South Africa. If a 35-year-old man knocked on my door to ask for a date with my teenage daughter, Id kick his backside and send him packing. That person is doing something that my community does not accept, said Karim. But I had to understand in the communities that I work in, like Vulindlela, they dont have that norm. Karim says CAPRISAs research has exposed the myth that blessers are mostly wealthy middle-aged men. The centers study in Vulindlela shows blessers are usually about nine years older than their younger girlfriends. Gethwana Mahlase, an HIV counselor in KwaZulu-Natal for almost three decades, says she counsels girls as young as 13 who are involved with men in their twenties. Its another cliche that the blessers are rich. Theyre working class, like construction workers, taxi drivers, shelf packers. So they cant buy luxurious things for their young girlfriends, Mahlase said. They buy them the real basic necessities like food, sanitary pads; a little pocket money. It could be as little as 5 rands [about $0.35] a week. But, as Mahlase puts it, the blessers are rich in danger. CAPRISAs work in Vulindlela shows women of about 30 are infecting men of about the same age with HIV. This is the very age group of men most likely to be blessers. Thats how they become the bridging population, transmitting HIV from older women to younger women. And theyre a very effective bridge because they dont know they have HIV; theyve recently acquired HIV and have very high viral loads, so theyve very efficient transmitters, Karim explained. For Mahlase, the scenario in Vulindlela offers proof of the position South Africa currently occupies in the effort to stop HIV. As long as the girls are being pushed towards the blessers because of poverty, we will not prevent many new infections, she said. Texas Border Wall Project Awarded, Slated to Start in February A $145 million border wall construction project has been awarded to a company with construction slated to start in February 2019. The contract was awarded by Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to SLSCO Ltd., officials announced on Nov. 2. The RGV-03 project includes the construction and installation of tactical infrastructure including a reinforced concrete levee wall to the height of the existing levee, 18 feet tall steel bollards installed on top of the concrete wall, and vegetation removal along a 150 foot enforcement zone throughout the approximately six miles of levee wall system, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a press release. The enforcement zone will also include detection technology, lighting, video surveillance, and an all-weather patrol road parallel to the levee wall. The project sits in the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas, an area where officials see thousands of illegal aliens pour over the border every month. In Fiscal Year 2017, the enforcement agency said, agents apprehended over 137,000 illegal aliens. Agents also seized over 1,000 pounds of cocaine and hundreds of thousands of pounds of marijuana. Executive Order The levee wall system will be a persistent impediment to illegal aliens and criminal organizations, officials said. The agency said it was following President Donald Trumps Executive Order 13767. The order includes instructions to plan and construct a physical wall along the southern border of the United States. Trump has said for years he wants to build a wall along most of the border and has called it a national defense issue. On Oct. 26, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen traveled to California and stood next to two new miles of fencing along the border, declaring it the first completed section of Trumps border wall. We are looking at every possible way within the legal construct that we have to make sure that those who dont have the legal right to come to this country do not come in, Nielsen said. Trump has indicated that he expects to have higher Republican majorities in Congress and the Senate after the midterm elections, enabling quicker confirmation for funding for the wall and, in turn, leading to work on the wall progressing more quickly. Trumps proposed wall is estimated to cost $18 billion. The Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2018 included $1.6 billion for strengthening barriers that are already in place, but not the kind of wall the president is calling for. From NTD News Arron Banks, who ran the Leave.Eu pro-Brexit referendum campaign, in London on June 12, 2018. (Reuters/Simon Dawson/File Photo) The 8 Million Pound Hole in Brexit: Smoking Gun or Damp Squib? LONDONBritains serious crime agency has started an investigation into Brexit backer Arron Banks over the source of 8 million pounds ($10.4 million) in loans to groups including Leave.EU which campaigned to leave the European Union. Banks has said the investigation is part of an attempt to undermine Brexit. He has repeatedly insisted that the money came from him and that no Russian funding was involved. But if criminal offenses or foreign funding are proven, that could cast doubt on the legitimacy of the whole Brexit vote. The groups that received the loans ran emotive publicity campaigns to persuade people to vote to leave the EUand the final result was close. In the June 23, 2016 referendum, 17.4 million voters, or 51.9 percent, backed Brexit while 16.1 million, or 48.1 percent, backed staying in the bloc. The focus is 8 million pounds in loans provided to Leave.EU and Better for the Country Limited (BFTC), which Banks controls and which ran Leave.EUs campaign. Britains Electoral Commission asked the UK National Crime Agency to investigate Banks after saying it suspected the insurance entrepreneur was not the true source of the loans. It also said it had grounds to suspect that the loan arrangements had involved Bankss Rock Holding Limited, which was incorporated in the Isle of Man, a self-governing British crown dependency that is not part of the United Kingdom. British law mostly bans companies from outside the UK from making such political donations. Suspected Criminal Offenses The Electoral Commission said it suspected criminal offenses were committed, specifically relating to the transactions which led to the 8 million pounds being paid into BFTCs bank account. Banks said the money was his and came from his UK-incorporated Rock Services insurance firm and was generated from insurance business written in the UK. He has said that the Electoral Commissions issues about Rock Holdings are based on a misunderstanding about its statusthat it is a holding company that owns Rock Services and did not itself provide the loans. Rock Holdings is a company I own and control and Im a UK taxpayer, no Russian or foreign money has ever come into it, he told Reuters. Banks said he welcomed the inquiry. I am confident that a full and frank investigation will finally put an end to the ludicrous allegations leveled against me and my colleagues, he said. After the announcement of the investigation, Damian Collins, chair of the British Parliaments Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee, said it is unclear where Banks got the 8 million pounds. Collinss committee said Banks had misled it over the number of meetings he had with the Russian Embassy in London. Banks said at the time that he had no business interests in Russia and had done no business deals in Russia. Russia has denied any involvement in Brexit. It is unclear how long the National Crime Agencys investigation will take. The United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29. By Guy Faulconbridge A man walks to use a voting booth March 1, 2016, at one of the Virginia primary election polling stations at Colin Powell Elementary School, in Centreville, Va. (Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images) The Issues at Stake on November 6 On Nov. 6, Americans will go to the polls. In what is widely considered the most important midterm election in modern history, voters will determine the direction we will take as a country for the next a few years. The 2018 midterm election is important in a couple of ways. President Trump is not on the ballot, but his agenda is. If the Democrats gain control of either one or both chambers in Congress, the Resistance will run amok. Trumps reforms could be stalled. He could be impeached. For at least two years, Congress will be in constant turmoil. So will the country. More importantly, America is at a crossroads. The fight between Trump and the Resistance is not simply a political tussle. It is a war of ideas and visions for America. It is a struggle about who we are as a people. Trump wants to return to the founding principles of the republic: liberty, individual freedom, personal responsibility, and family values. He wants America to be a country of law, due process, and equal protection for all. He wants to get the government out of the way so the people can realize their maximum potential in a free market. He wants international relations and trade to be reciprocal and mutually beneficial. History has repeatedly showed us that whenever these tenets were adhered to, America prospered; whenever they were betrayed, misery and mass suffering were the result. Make no mistake: the left hates to see the progress we have made under Trump. The economy is booming. Wages are rising. More Americans are optimistic about their and their kids futures. We enjoy the lowest black, Hispanic, and Asian unemployment rates ever. Yet this become a problem for the left: a popular Trump diminishes their chances of reclaiming power. Some leftists have publicly hoped for a recession to hurt Trump politically. For them, millions of American workers losing jobs in a recession is not something that keeps them up at night, but Trump being the president is. In foreign relations, under Obamas leading from behind doctrine, turmoil and disaster ensued on a global scale. ISIS, the most violent and bloodthirsty terror organization in human history, gained control of a large swath of land and set up a caliphate. Syria, a relatively secular country under the oppressive Assad regime, plunged into a bloody civil war and created the largest refugee crisis for Europe. Obama struck a meaningless nuclear deal with Iran and returned to the Mullahs frozen assets worth hundreds of billions of dollars. In the same vein, Obama reconciled with communist Cuba without gaining any major concession. Trump reasserted Americas leadership role internationally. ISIS was destroyed. Iraq stabilized. When Assad used chemical weapon against civilians, Trump swiftly authorized missile strikes on Assads positions. The United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal which was neither effective nor enforceable and reinstituted sanctions against the rogue regime. And in the Korean peninsula, theres a glimmer of hope that peace may finally have a chance. Trump did things many his opponents claimed to be impossible. He chastised our NATO allies for not paying their fair share and demanded more defense spending. France and Germany, the two largest European economies, listened. He renegotiated NAFTA, which had resulted in a large number of job losses and factory closures in America. The new treaty, USMCA, comes with better terms for U.S. workers and businesses without causing significant disruptions. China has been put on notice: its theft of intellectual property and trade secrets will no longer be tolerated. The EU and Japan both express their willingness to negotiate bilateral trade deals with the United States, a concept they confessed to abhor. Trump promised he would put America first. He delivered. If you think the Trump-Russia collusion investigation is a Democratic conspiracy against a duly elected president, you havent seen anything yet. If the Democrats capture the House, expect witch hunts on steroids. They will throw the kitchen sink at Trump and hope something sticks. The lives of Trump, his family, and associates will be made living hells. Whats Trumps crime? His unabashed love for America and the American people. If you want to stop political persecution and criminalization of political differences, throw out the Democrats from Congress. Many things are at stake for this election. Do you want your girl friend, wife, and daughters to share locker rooms and bathrooms with grown men who claim to be women? Do you want your teen-aged kids to be taught homosexual sex in public schools? Do you want to lose the custody of your toddlers because you deny his/her transgender request? Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The Sense and Sensibility of a Virtuoso Violin Maker Jamie Lazzara's life's work FLORENCE, ItalyIf you are lucky, you may hear this workshop before you see it. Dulcet sounds have been known to waft from within this tiny workshops walls, in a way that literally stops traffic. Follow the melody and youll find Chicago-born Jamie Marie Lazzara, a master violin maker and restorer of fine stringed instruments, perfecting one of her handcrafted violins. If youre really lucky, the sound may be emanating from the violin of one of her clients, among whom are the worlds renowned violinists Itzhak Perlman, Micha Molthoff, and Sarn Oliver. Such famous clientele recognize Lazzaras high-quality traditional instruments, as does Florence. In the entrance to her workshop hangs a parchment from the Society of St. John the Baptist, an honor from the Medici family that Lazzara states is one of the highest honors an artisan can get in Florence. The paper recognizes her 40-year-old workshop as a historic shop where everything is done entirely by hand, in the spirit of art conservation, using antique procedures of the great master violin makers of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. It further acknowledges Lazzaras work of meeting the needs of soloists today. Florence is a long way from Lazzaras American roots, but the violin has always been close to her heart; she started to play at 8 years old. Yet, at 15, she knew that being a soloist was just not for her. She knew she wasnt motivated enough to study six months for a five-minute recital. With strong natural talents for the arts, such as sculpting, painting, drawing, and playing music, she realized that if she were to make violins, she could also play them. Thats when she began to become a violin maker. Researching her new career in the United States, she soon realized she needed to study in Italy. In 1980, having no knowledge of Italian, she embarked on a course in fine art restoration at the International University of Art in Florence (U.I.A.). It was a pioneering time in art conservation, when her professors were restoring masterpieces such as Giottos frescoes and Botticellis paintings, which were damaged in Florences great flood of 1966. From there, Lazzara went on to the prestigious School of Violin Making in Cremona, where 3,000 applicants applied for just 100 places. In 1985, she was one of only eight who graduated, becoming graduate number 226 in the schools 70-year history. Open, humble, and sincere, Lazzara diligently goes about her life work, and here she tells us how. The Epoch Times: Please tell us about violin making in Italy. Jamie Lazzara: I have to tell you that in Cremona, when I was studying, only two of us played violin in a town where there were some 3,000 violin makers. And so, they were making beautiful instruments that looked formally beautiful, but they didnt play them. So, I think that the majority of people are just copying from their teachers, but not many people are really trying to make the violins playable. In Cremona, I was able to learn how to make violins and also most of my tools, to be self-sufficient. As a matter of fact, I make everything except the strings. Well, I can make the E-string because thats a type of tempered steel. So, I can get the wire, calculate the calibrations, and I could actually use it as an E-string if I needed to. You have to think, back in the 1500s and 1600s, they didnt have music stores like today. There were violins makers, but its not like you could go out and get your little pack of strings. When music started, it was played in a room at court, or it couldve been performed in a pub. The first time we saw a fresco with a violin was by Gaudenzio Ferrari in the 1530s. By Niccolo Paganinis (17821840) time, musicians had to play to bigger and bigger audiences, and they didnt have amplification back then even though the theaters were very well designed. Even here in Florence, we have Theater Verdi (established in 1854), which still has all its original wood, maybe like Carnegie Hall used to be. When Carnegie Hall was renovated using cement, it changed the acoustics of the hall. My aim is to make an instrument through which artists can express their music with extreme power, and with relatively little effort. So, the musician has to figure out his side, and I have to try to make an instrument that doesnt need him to work hard for a sound. I look at things like adapting the shape of the neck to promote ease in playing. So, Im shooting for a very strong-sounding violin that you dont have to put much effort into playing. The Epoch Times: Who do you make violins for? Mrs. Lazzara: I meet with very few people, but usually theyre very fine players, people who are in their craft paving the way for the future. Itzhak Perlman ordered a violin after hed played on a copy Id made of Paganinis 1743 Cannon violin. Thats a very strong violin, and in my copy I was hoping for more strength, and he loved it. He asked me to make a copy of his 1714 Stradivari Soil. Im the only one whos ever made a violin for him. He came to my workshop, and for a couple of days I got to study his Stradivari. It was Yehudi Menuhins violin for 35 years, so its in such good shape and plays so well. Its beautiful. And it belonged to famous people, who knew what to do with it. Perlman uses my violin a lot when he plays out of doors, and when he doesnt want to take out his Stradivari. The Epoch Times: Please tell us about your commission to make a gift for the U.S. first family a few years ago. Mrs. Lazzara: I was given full artistic license, and I put a lot of thought into the project. I wanted to tie in Tuscanys contribution to the founding fathers of the United States. Not many people in America know that about five miles out of Florence there was a man called Philip Mazzei. We know a lot about him from his autobiography. He was a physician and a man of many talents. He was part of that small group of people who were thinking about how to write the Declaration of Independence. So there are letters where Mazzei writes to Jefferson. President John F. Kennedy found the original documents and included them in his book A Nation of Immigrants, which was published after his death. In America in 1980, they actually made a postage stamp of Mazzei, along with the words Patriot Remembered. On the sides of the violin I made, I wrote in gold leaf from the Declaration of Independence, All men are created equal. So when its played, the audience can see that inscription. On the other side, I wrote two lines of script: The first line is Mazzeis quote, the way he wrote it in Italian along with his signature, and then further down is written, All men are by nature equally free and independent. The Epoch Times: How long does it take to make a violin? Mrs. Lazzara: Three months to get to the white violin (without any varnish), and then it takes me four months to varnish, and that I do at home because I use oil varnishes which are very slow to dry. Quick-drying varnish is common now, as people cant stand four months of varnishing. For me, once Im varnishing, Im already starting to make a new violin anyway, so I just keep up that rhythm. I only make four violins a year. Its really complicated to understand the woods that you are working on and to hear the sounds that the wood can make; thats why it takes me such a long time. The Epoch Times: How do you select your violin wood? Mrs. Lazzara: I find using wood split in the direction of the fiber is best, as its got a natural structure and strength. There are people who actually get the trunks and saw them. The place I like the best is called the Val di Fiemme near Bolzano. Its a valley which is protected, so the wood doesnt bend from the wind and get distorted. So that wood is very harmonic. They even did some tests on Stradivaris violins, and he got wood from that area too. So, its not that I discovered it. The Epoch Times: Can you tell us about some of the processes involved in making a violin? Mrs. Lazzara: Have you ever seen people who make shoes by hand? I use a traditional type of wooden form thats like they use to make shoes, and you make the wooden foot and you build the shoe around the foot. Not many violin makers use this inside form, because this Italian technique takes longer as Im also making the actual wooden form. Im concerned about the internal part of the harmonic box and about the calculation of these proportions. The violin gets constructed around the wooden form like a skeleton. Nothing is predetermined, as I cut the shapes out really wide and work it down, and have my reference points and glue it on, and then I finish the edges. For the thin inlay called the purfling that runs around the edge of the entire violin, where other people would be using a router or something to do that, I have to make a really precise channel using knives and tiny chisels, and then I inlay within those channels with three strips of wood: black, white, and black. Some people even paint them on. The reason theyre inlaid is because when a violin gets whacked or dropped, the crack will stop here. So its an important feature. I use natural resins for my varnish: materials like dragons blood from a palm, shellac secreted from an insect, and elemi from a bush. Each one is different, because different tree saps have different characteristics. First of all, you need to understand what kind of solvent can be used to dilute the resin. Some are a little bit elastic; some will chip away. So the key to making varnish is to know the characteristics of the resins. For example, amber is very strong. Its not brittle, but its a fossilized resin, and to bind that to oil is sometimes a dangerous process that should be done by professionals. The trick is to start with the recipe and then try that varnish, and see how it reacts, how it weathers, and when youre using it, if its strong enough. Since I do everything myself, I do that. I keep notes, make changes, and see the violins Ive made after 35 years. This is my life. For me its really important. The Epoch Times: Why is it important to keep traditional craftsmanship alive? Mrs. Lazzara: A hands-on approach is like the difference between eating in your house and picking your foods from the ingredients that you know, versus buying packaged food you dont know. I know everything thats in a violin I make because Ive practically selected all the materials. Ive gone through the whole process myself, making any necessary changes according to what Im working with, so theres a big difference if somebody takes the time to do that. Im not like any other violin maker; I dont sell instruments that are not mine. Nobody can figure that out. They go, What? People cant comprehend that because most violin makers are now violin dealers. I have colleagues that have big electronic equipment to check the violin to see if it vibrates like a Stradivari. I mean, all I have to do is [hold it up to my ear]; you can hear it. Stradivari, he didnt have electronic instruments. So, with a little bit of sensibility in your hands, you get to know the piece of wood that you are using and make it react the way you want it to react. People believe in this technology today, but they dont understand that those original $20 million instruments were made without that. I take the time to do this. Im not fooling anyone in the sense that Im not telling them that Im the new Stradivari or something. Its just Ive got an aim; Im aiming toward that kind of result. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. To Deny Sex Differences Is to Harm Society Commentary Plato sowed the wind of sexual egalitarianism a long time ago. So did Karl Marx, his sugar-daddy Friedrich Engels, and Leo Tolstoy. Then came the kibbutz system of Israel. Then, the radically anti-male, anti-marriage, and anti-family feminists of the West, who jumped on that bandwagon in the mid-20th century. Now, were reaping the whirlwind. George Gilder sounded the alarm in his prescient 1992 book Men and Marriage, with a warning that is quite telling, given todays bitter war between the sexes. To wit, the prevalent sexual instinct of males the world overto the great detriment of social stabilityis to focus on their immediate gratification. Single, young men, undisciplined and unconstrained by traditional sexual mores and manners, are a distinct hazard to society and its procreative health, for many reasons. Among the reasons: They vastly prefer hit-and-run sex. They are wildly more physically and sexually aggressive than females. Although young, single men represent a low percentage of the population over the age of 14, they commit the majority of violent crimes. They drink more and have more serious car accidents than women or married men. Young bachelors are 22 times more likely to be committed for mental problemsand 10 times more likely to be hospitalized for chronic diseases than married men. Single men also are convicted of rape five times more often than married men, and have almost double the mortality rate of married menand three times that of single women. Losing Out The whole business of sexual liberation has backfired. Men have benefited sexually in the short term, but not necessarily in the long haul. Women have lost in both because they have surrendered the one sure meansthe postponement of immediate male gratificationthat enabled them to have children, provide for them, protect them, and nurture them personally at the same time. In essence, the traditional balancing equation that drew men into the powerfully attractive fertility world of the female has been surrendered and, instead, we have encouraged females to enter the frenetically sexual world of men. A direct result has been the weakening of marriage and family bonds; men abandoning women and children; and manymostly poor women and their childrenabandoning marriage altogether and cleaving unto the patriarchal state. Even worse, as Gilder explains, feminism, by default, has allowed males to create an informal system of serial (or even simultaneous) polygamyone in which the stronger (wealthier, more successful) men can enjoy many, usually younger, partners. But a woman loses out, in that, for the purposes of child-bearing, her chances of locating a strong husband and father for her children are biologically confined to a few fleeting years of her life. If she waits too long to marry, the strong males her own age get taken in a rapidly peaking, concave-sided pyramid of diminishing choices. Furthermore, in societies that choose to deny these natural sex differences and to permit liberated sex, the homosexual sub-culture vies for normalcy with the core culture, attacks traditional values, and recruits otherwise procreative (and usually younger) males. And because liberation so obviously multiplies the sexual choices for strong males, it overturns the equal apportionment of possible mates, and, in its feminist guise, sets the female ethos against the male ethos, thereby encouraging sexual resentment between men and women. In April, Alek Minassian took his rented van on a mile-long death-ride along a Toronto sidewalk, killing 10 people and injuring 13 others. His motive? He claimed allegiance to a male grievance group called incel, which stands for involuntarily celibate. He and his group were violently angry about unequal apportionment. The victims he mowed down were mostly women. Death of Marriage All of this leads to fewer marriages, something we saw first in Sweden halfway through the last century, when it enthusiastically embraced sexual liberation: Its marriage rate did a freefall to around 50 percent of its former level. And then, more people began living alone. Today, almost 60 percent of the residents of Stockholm live alonea growing pattern seen everywhere in the West. For downtown Seattle, that number is now over 70 percent. Meanwhile, easy divorceor couple dissolution as the Swedes so coyly call ithas risen drastically everywhere. Multiple mates? Easy sex? Homosexuality? Easy cohabitation and divorce? All these inevitably undermine heterosexual monogamy, which is most unfortunate, precisely because monogamy is designed to minimize the effect of sexual inequalitiesto prevent the powerful of either sex from disrupting the familial order, Gilder says. And so, as Gilder warns, because the most crucial process of civilization is the subordination of male sexual impulses and biology to the long-term horizons of female sexuality, society must be set up to tame men and their barbaric proclivities. For without the long-range reproductive goals of women, men would be content to fight, enjoy their lust, wander, make war, compete, and strive for power, glory, and dominance. The conclusion is that, in terms of the larger purposes, and indeed the very survival of human civilizationwhich depends utterly on sufficient procreation, successful child-nurturing, and strong familiesmales, in general, are inferior sexually to women, who, because of their biology, control the entirety of the sexual and procreative order (or disorder) of human life. In this sense only, males are neither sexually nor morally equal to females, and thereforeand this is surely Gilders most important pointmen must be made equal by society. Which is to say that men rely for personal meaning and success on the socially purposive roles created for them by their culture. In short, women channel and confine the generalized male sexual desire in such a way as to protect themselves and their children, and in so doing, they teach men to subordinate their impulses to the long-term cycles of female sexuality and biology on which civilization, and its survival, has always depended. When you stop to deeply consider the complex physical, emotional, and financial requirements of the average family, the seriousness of this undertaking sinks in. It requires what the anthropologist Margaret Mead called a commitment of permanence from each sex, and a deal struck between the parties, the terms of which are supplied by the culture. We have been breaking the deal at our ownand especially at our childrensperil. William Gairdner is an author living near Toronto. His latest book is The Great Divide: Why Liberals and Conservatives Will Never, Ever Agree (2015). His website is WilliamGairdner.ca Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. In this handout provided by NASA,The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA's Orion spacecraft mounted atop, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37 at 7:05 a.m. EST in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Dec. 5, 2014. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images) To the Moon and Beyond: Airbus Delivers Powerhouse for NASAs Orion Spacecraft BERLINEuropes Airbus on Nov. 2 delivered the powerhouse for NASAs new Orion Spaceship that will take astronauts to the Moon and beyond in coming years, hitting a key milestone that should lead to hundreds of millions of euros in future orders. Engineers at the Airbus plant in Bremen, Germany on TNov. 2 carefully packed the spacecraft into a special container that will fly aboard a huge Antonov cargo plane to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a first step on its way to deep space. In Florida, the module will be joined with the Orion crew module built by Lockheed Martin, followed by over a year of intensive testing before the first three-week mission orbiting the Moon is launched in 2020, albeit without people. Future production of Orion and the European module could result in billions of dollars of new orders for the companies involved in coming years, said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for human exploration and operations for NASA. This is the system that will enable humans to move sustainably into deep space and leave the Earth-Moon system for the first time ever, he said. Current plans are for a first crewed mission in 2022, but NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) then plan to launch a manned mission every year, making the Orion project both politically and economically important at a time when China and other countries are racing to gain a foothold in space. Airbuss European Service Module will provide propulsion, power, thermal control and consumables to the Orion crew module, marking the first time that NASA will use a European-built system as a critical element to power an American spacecraft. This is a very big step. The delivery and the flight to America are just the beginning of a journey that will ultimately take us to 60,000 miles beyond the moon, further than any human has ever flown before, Oliver Juckenhoefel, vice president of on-orbit services and exploration for Airbus, told Reuters. Orion is part of a growing push to put humans back on the Moon, where the unexpected discovery of water has energized scientists, with rapid technological developments such as 3D printing paving the way for lunar-based infrastructure, such as data server relay stations, in coming years. It sounds like science fiction, but Im convinced its coming, and the only question for us in Europe is whether we want to be part of it or not, Juckenhoefel said. In industry, we have to be careful that we dont miss the boat. NASAs Gerstenmaier said ESA was interested in participating in a so-called lunar gateway with an eye to landing humans on the Moon again around 2028, and providing a base for travel to Mars and beyond. Airbus won a 390 million euro ($446.12 million) contract to build the first ESM module in 2014, and is working on a second order valued at 200 million euros. Now it is negotiating with ESA for further orders that could add up to a billion euros, Juckenhoefel said. Mike Hawes, who runs the $11 billion Orion program for Lockheed, underscored the importance of the program for future exploration of deep space. He said Lockheed was negotiating with NASA for up to 12 follow-on missions that could result in billions of dollars of new orders, while working to halve the cost of future spacecraft. By Andrea Shalal Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF)'s Bayi Aerobatic Team attends a test flight ahead of the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Zhuhai Airshow in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China on Nov. 3, 2018. (Reuters) Trade War, Spy Claims Cloud Horizon for China Airshow SHANGHAI/BEIJINGTrade frictions with the United States and accusations of industrial espionage are set to cast a cloud over Chinas largest aerospace meeting this week, as suppliers consider what the countrys slowing economy could mean for booming jet demand. The biennial Airshow China, to be held in the coastal city of Zhuhai during Nov 6-11, is traditionally an event for Beijing to showcase its aviation technology in front of aerospace executives, diplomats and arms buyers from over 40 countries. But analysts say they are not expecting many headline announcements or big deals this year as a bruising trade war between Beijing and Washington and a slowing Chinese economy cause companies to be cautious. While the tarmac will be filled with planes from the likes of Airbus and Embraer, the main symbol of Chinas own commercial aviation ambitions, the Commercial Aircraft Corp of Chinas (COMAC) C919 narrowbody jet, will not be there. A senior executive said it was undergoing test flights. Boeing Co which is opening a 737 completion plant in China, will not display any of its planes but only models at its exhibition stand. Were not expecting a big turnout this year, said Chinese aviation expert Li Xiaojin. As you know the Chinese economy is not doing great this year, so companies that would normally send 10 people will only send five instead. Chinas economic growth has weakened to its slowest pace since the financial crisis and its relations with other countries have been tested by Beijings ambitions to grow its own domestic champions in industries such as aviation. So far, Beijing has avoided showing its hand in either direction as deals by Chinese leasing firms to buy foreign aircraft are either pushed back or kept private. Recent U.S. allegations in court filings that Chinese intelligence attempted to steal information on a French-U.S. turbofan engine developed for commercial jetlinersa clear reference to the Safran-General Electric LEAPcould further fray relations, analysts said. Last week, prosecutors announced an indictment against 10 defendants, including two Chinese intelligence officers and other computer hackers and co-conspirators who are all accused of breaking into American company computers to steal the data. In October, the Justice Department for the first time succeeded in extraditing a Chinese intelligence officer, Yanjun Xu, to the United States to stand trial for conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and steal trade secrets from multiple U.S. aviation and aerospace companies, including GE Aviation, a unit of General Electric. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Nov. 2 that he will likely make a deal with China on trade, adding that a lot of progress had been made to resolve the two countries differences but warning that he still may impose more tariffs on Chinese goods. By Brenda Goh & Stella Qiu Trump and Pence Rally in Chattanooga for Marsha Blackburn President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke to an estimated crowd of 12,000 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Nov. 4, urging a vote for Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), whos leaving the House and running for the Senate seat previously held by Republican Bob Corker. Warming the crowd up, Pence called Blackburn a woman of faith and conviction who has stood by Trump on increasing the military budget, cuts to taxes and regulations, and will always stand for the right to life. Trump followed with a case for his administration, promising to take his agenda to the next level. While extolling the economic boom like weve never had before going strong, Trump has started to paint a picture of an economy greater still. Ill tell you what, honestly, we havent even begun. We have such potential. We have such potential, he said. As crazy as it sounds, we have such potential. He then made a vote for Blackburn a decision between the economic boom and his administrations focus on security, and the Democrats stated goal of reversing his policies. Your next senator, Marsha Blackburn, will keep your economy thriving, your wages rising, your jobs soaring, and she will keep your families and communities safe, he said. Blackburn came on stage with a word of praise for Trump and Pence and then turned to her opponent, former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. I think Tennesseans want a U.S. Senator who is going to do exactly what she says she is going to do, Blackburn said, an apparent jab at the perceived two-facedness of Bredesen. In a state that Trump won by 26 points, Bredesen is presenting himself as a moderate. He even said he would have voted to confirm Trumps Supreme Court pick Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was pushed through the Senate with the support of only a single Democrat voteand a politically convenient vote at that. Some of Bredesens campaign staffers, however, were caught on camera saying he was lying about the Kavanaugh vote in hopes of capturing moderate voters. One staffer said Bredesen cant openly say hes running against Trump, but his staffers are clear that he does. Hell be a good Democrat, the staffer said, according to a video released by Project Veritas Action. Marsha is running against a far-left liberal and youre finding that out, finally, Trump said, calling Bredesen the handpicked candidate of [Senate Democrat leader] Chuck Schumer. Blackburn further held against Bredesen his support of the presidential run of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He gave over $33,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund PAC, according to the Nashville Post. If my opponent, Phil Bredesen, had his way, Hillary Clinton would be president and not any of these things would be happening, she said, referring to Trumps accomplishments. At that point, her speech was cut off by the crowd chanting lock her upa common response to the mention of Clinton at Trump rallies. Trump supporters commonly consider Clinton generally corrupt and criminally culpable for mishandling classified information when using a private email server during her tenure. If you want to vote no on Hillary Clinton and her cronies one more time, stand with me, Blackburn concluded. Latest polls show Blackburn either tied or slightly ahead of Bredesen. Utah Mayor, Deployed to Afghanistan, Is Killed in Attack The mayor of a Utah city was killed in the Afghan capital Kabul on Nov. 3 in an apparent insider attack, the states lieutenant governor said. The death of Brent Taylor, mayor of North Ogden and a member of the Utah National Guard, was confirmed by Utah Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox, who posted a tribute on Facebook. I hate this, Cox wrote. Im struggling for words. I love Mayor Taylor, his amazing wife Jennie and his 7 sweet kids. Taylor had left his position in North Ogden, a city of around 17,000 people about 45 miles (70 km) north of Salt Lake City, earlier this year to serve in Afghanistan. It was his fourth deployment, according to The Deseret News, a Utah newspaper. The NATO-led mission in Afghanistan said in a statement on Nov. 3 that a U.S. armed forces member was killed but did not identify him. Initial reports indicate the attacker was a member of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. Initial reports also indicate the attacker was immediately killed by other Afghan Forces, the mission said in a statement. The attack was the latest in a series of green-on-blue incidents in which members of the Afghan forces have killed U.S. or coalition advisers this year, and it followed the death of a Czech soldier in the western province of Herat last month. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said in September that training and vetting of Afghan forces was being stepped up to minimize such attacks, and that some training and advisory operations have been scaled back while security is assessed. Last month, the NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller, escaped unhurt when the bodyguard of a provincial governor opened fire on a group of U.S. and Afghan officials in the southern province of Kandahar. A week ago, Taylor urged Americans to vote in the Nov. 6 congressional elections, saying he hoped whether the Republicans or the Democrats win, that we all remember that we have far more as Americans that unites us than divides us. By Joseph Ax Wealthy Chinese Selecting US Hospitals for Expensive, but Reliable Cancer Treatment The death of Li Yong, a prominent anchor with the state-run China Central Television (CCTV), after a lengthy battle with cancer while receiving treatment in New York, has shed light on a trend that shows wealthy Chinese are increasingly traveling to the United States to seek medical care for cancer. As of the end of October, Saint Lucia Consulting, one of Chinas biggest overseas medical-care agents, had arranged U.S. treatment this year for more than 1,500 people, including 100 current patients. That compares with only two cancer clients in 2011, the year that Saint Lucia was founded, the company told Wenzhou Metro newspaper. For Chinese patients, the most preferred U.S. hospitals for cancer treatment are the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, the Childrens Hospital of Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said Tang Guangliang, general manager of Saint Lucia Consultings Shanghai branch. Tang said that larger numbers of Chinese are traveling to the United States after an early-stage cancer diagnosis, rather than resorting to treatment abroad only if local medical services in the early stages of the disease proved unsatisfactory. Chinese have made up the fastest-growing group of patients in recent years, comprising one-third of all foreign cancer patients, Eric Winter, director of the Breast Oncology Center at Dana-Farber, told Prism Press. Chinese customers see U.S. medical treatment and diagnosis as being more accurate, effective, and comfortable than treatment at hospitals in China. Yang Tao, 53, was diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer in May 2015. He was treated at hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, but his disease recurred despite several rounds of radiation therapy and chemotherapy. In July, Yang told Prism Press that he went to the United States for treatment and had 11 hours of surgery involving several departments at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Money isnt the key issue, said Yang, who runs his own business and spent $200,000 on the operation. He believes that not just the technology and the trust between hospital and patients, also the cooperation among different departments in the same hospital was hard to find in his home country. In China, no hospital can do this kind of operation. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, the overall five-year relative survival rate for U.S. cancer patients was 66.9 percent in the period from 2008 to 2014. The official China Cancer Statistics Annual Report reported more than 3.8 million Chinese newly diagnosed cancer cases in 2014, or over 10,000 new cancer patients a day. In 2010, the overall five-year relative rate of survival was 30.9 percent. While the U.S. rate of cancer survival is more than double that among patients in China, the costs are prohibitively high for most people. Websites of Chinese overseas medical-care agents typically list the fees for a U.S. cancer operation at about $150,000, as well as an additional $100,000 for travel costs, accommodation, and miscellaneous fees. Agents also charge a service fee of about 50,000 yuan (around $7,3000). Many prospective patients are willing to foot these costs, even selling their real estate to secure treatment for themselves or family members. Eguan, a Chinese think tank, said that the total market value of Chinese overseas medical care was 730 million yuan ($106 million) in 2016, which jumped 37 percent to 1 billion yuan in 2017. Aside from cancer treatment, the most popular forms of overseas care include fertility treatments and plastic surgery. Why the Chair Should Be the Symbol for Our Sedentary Age Four legs and deadly, chairs have become a public health menace Why are there no chairs in the Bible, or in all 30,000 lines of Homer? Neither are there any in Shakespeares Hamletwritten in 1599. But by the middle of the 19th century, it is a completely different story. Charles Dickenss Bleak House suddenly has 187 of them. What changed? With sitting being called the new smoking, we all know that spending too much time in chairs is bad for us. Not only are they unhealthy, but like air pollution, they are becoming almost impossible for modern humans to avoid. When I started researching my book about how the world we have made is changing our bodies, I was surprised to discover just how rare chairs used to be. Now theyre everywhere: offices, trains, cafes, restaurants, pubs, cars, trains, concert halls, doctors surgeries, hospitals, theaters, schools, university lecture halls, and all over our houses (I guarantee you have more than you think). If I was asked to make even a conservative estimate of the number of chairs in the world, Id find it hard to go lower than 8-10 per person. Applying that logic, there could be more than 60 billion of them on the planet. Surely chairs should be one of the universal signals of the arrival of the Anthropocene, or the human epoch? Just like the data required to justify the change in the name of our geological epoch, they are to be found on every continent. As to why there are suddenly so many chairs, there is no single clear reason. It is a confluence of fashion, politics, changing work habits, and the lust for comfort. The last of these requires no explanation in a culture in which ease and comfort are among the strongest drivers of consumer decision-making. A History of Chairs While chairs began to appear with a little more frequency in the early modern period, it seems that they became much more widely popular in the 18th and 19th centuries during the Industrial Revolution. Before the 18th century, a chair was relatively easily come by, but the majority of the population had little use for them. Even today, it is not easy to sit in a hard wooden chair for sustained periods and upholstered chairs were prohibitively expensive. But the fashion for a new reclining culture (imported from the French court of the 18th century) helped to popularize their early use. For centuries before, chairs had persistently been associated with power, wealth, and high status. They were about as widely used by the peasantry as a crown. There is an instructive stage direction in the First Folio of King Lear in which the monarch enters while being carried by servants in a chair. The idea of chairs as a symbol of status still persists today. The highest attainment in my own profession, academia, is called a chair. The individual that runs a meeting is called a chair. The head of a company is also a chairman or chairwoman. And it is a truth, universally acknowledged, that the best chair in any office building always belongs to the boss. Once the use of chairs was democratized (particularly after the French Revolution in France and the 1832 Great Reform Acts in the United Kingdom), this coincided with a slow change in our working patterns. The majority of work done in the Victorian period would have been understood as manual labor or factory work. But toward the end of the 19th century, the second wave of a technological revolution gathered pace with inventions such as the typewriter, telegraphy, and the expanding uses and applications of electricity. The labor market also began to change. The new category of office clerks were the fastest-growing occupational group in the latter half of the period. In 1851, the census suggests fewer than 44,000 people were performing administrative work. But in just two decades, sedentary workers had more than doubled to 91,000. A Sedentary Planet Today, sedentary workers are in the majority. And, throughout the 20th century, a forest of other sedentary activities have grown up around us to match our new working lives. Novel reading increased hugely in popularity throughout the 19th century. Further sedentary leisure activities followed in its wake: cinema, radio, and TV. More recently, gaming, streaming, and screen time generally are all activities that are hungry for sedentary bodies. The Anthropocene human needs chairs to fulfill all of these activities. If modern life presents us with a bouquet of sedentary behaviors, then chairs are the stalks. They are so necessary to leading a modern life that most of what we do seems unimaginable without them. Research conducted by the British Heart Foundation suggests that we enjoy about 9.5 hours per day of sedentary time. This means that modern humans are inactive for about 75 percent of their time. There are a few problems with this. Our bodies do their best to be the kinds of body that we need. Wolffs Law and Daviss Law can be boiled down to the adage use it or lose it for the bodys hard and soft tissues respectively. In both cases, they tell us that muscle or bone will respond either to increased load or the cessation of use. Bones become thinner or denser. Muscles, stronger or weaker. Seated so much, with most of the musculature in our backs disengaged as they recline in a chair, it is little wonder that with our weakened spines, back pain is now the number one cause of disability, globally. Just as we have an Anthropocene environment, we might equally class ourselves as Anthropocene humans. Paleolithic humans died most frequently in infancy. Violence and injury were also common causes of mortality in later life. Modern humans, though, overwhelmingly die as a result of metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancersall strongly linked with inactivity: namely, chair use. A 2012 study investigating the effects of inactivity collated behavioral data from 7,813 women and found that those that sat for ten hours a day had shorter telomeres (an indicator of cellular aging). Their sedentary habits had aged them biologically by about eight years. Some studies even suggest that the effects of sitting for sustained periods cannot be offset by a little exercise. These studies and many others attest to the fact that we should be thinking carefully about investing any further in our relatively new-found and passionate love affair with the chair. Vybarr Cregan-Reid is a reader in environmental humanities at the University of Kent in the U.K. This article was first published on The Conversation. Migrants in a caravan heading to the United States climb on a truck on the road from La Ventosa to Matias Romero, Oaxaca State, Mexico, on Nov. 1, 2018. (Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images) With Porous Latin American Borders, Risk of Terrorists Sneaking Through Southern Border Is Real The Trump administration has beefed up border security in anticipation of Central American migrant caravans heading to the U.S. border. There are currently four caravans traveling through Mexico, with some estimates putting the total number of Central American migrants taking part at 12,000, according to local reports. Concerns have been raised that the caravans may not be entirely made up of Central Americans fleeing gang violence and seeking a better life in the United States, and that there could be those from other backgrounds, including Middle Easterners, in the mix. Some, including President Donald Trump, have pointed out that whats most concerning is the risk that the caravans could include terrorists as well as MS-13 gang members. A look at reports of terrorists making their way through the porous borders of Latin American countries shows that these fears arent unsubstantiated. In border security jargon, migrants that have origins in specific nations that either promote or protect terrorist organizations, and try to come through the southern U.S. border, are referred to as special interest aliens (SIAs) by the Department of Homeland Security. In July, federal authorities arrested a Jordanian man living in Mexico who smuggled six Yemeni citizens across the U.S.Mexico border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement in April that authorities have arrested over 170 Bangladeshi nationals trying to cross the border since October 2017. Recent reports have shown that some of the SIAs attempting to cross the border have proven links to terrorists. A Texas Department of Public Safety report published by Houston Chronicle in 2015 states that members of recognized Islamist terrorist organizations have been caught at the border. Illegal aliens from countries documented by the U.S. Department of State as having a known terrorism presence continue to be smuggled into and throughout Texas and the nation on a regular basis, read the report. The report cited the case of Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane, an SIA from Somalia who crossed the Texas border. Dhakane, a Somali national, is a member of al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, which is linked with Al Qaeda. The report said Dhakene helped smuggle several potentially dangerous Somali terrorists into the United States. The mere presence of terrorist elements in Latin America so close to the U.S. border is a major risk in itself, one that is exacerbated if border security is compromised. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales revealed in October that his country has apprehended nearly 100 ISIS terrorists. Judicial Watch reported in 2016 that Mexican cartels assist terrorists in scouting out potential U.S. targets for terrorist attacks. ISIS militant Shaykh Mahmood Omar Khabir touted his ease of access across the border in an Italian newspaper, boasting that he could get in with a handful of men, and kill thousands of people in Texas or in Arizona in the space of a few hours. A declassified State Department cable received by Judicial Watch in 2016 shows that U.S. law enforcement officials had information that an al-Qaida terrorist leader that was once based in South Florida hid in a border city in Mexico close to the Arizona border along with two other terrorists in early 2000s. Whats more, law enforcement officials have said that Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, which has a close working relationship with Mexican drug cartels, use the same routes that the cartels use to smuggle drugs and traffic people into the United States, using the proceeds to finance its terrorist operations, the Washington Post reported in 2009. In 2002, Mexican authorities arrested Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, a Mexican citizen of Lebanese descent, for smuggling about 200 Lebanese citizens into the United States, including Hezbollah sympathizers. Retired assistant administrator and chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Michael Braum stated that Hezbollah uses the same criminal weapon smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels, The Washington Post reported. With Trumps Agenda on the Ballot, Americans Head to the Polls In the 22 months since taking office, President Donald Trump has methodically implemented his America first agenda that helped him win the 2016 election. The fate of that agenda is on the ballot as Americans head to the polls on Election Day. While Republican majorities in the House and Senate helped Trump deliver on the promises he made on the campaign trail, the loss of that advantage in either chamber could derail the momentum. That fact isnt lost on the president, who has campaigned across the nation for GOP candidates in the weeks leading up to Nov. 6. His cross-country Make America Great Again tour included 11 rallies in six days, with stops in Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and Montana, among other battleground states. The presidents agenda at home has centered on cutting taxes and reducing regulations, and his actions to date have fueled an economic revival unseen in decades. Trump continues to fight to secure the Southern border and fix an immigration system considered by many to be fundamentally flawed. In the meantime, Senate Republicans confirmed two conservative Supreme Court justices and are fundamentally shifting the balance in the lower courts at the fastest pace in history. Trumps speeches, while underlining the successes of his agenda, caution Americans that voting for Democrats would threaten the progress made so far. Now, we are defending the borders of our country. So, very simply, if you want more caravans and more crime, because crime comes with [caravans], vote for the Democrats. Vote for them. If you want strong borders and safe communities, vote for the Republicans. Its very simple, Trump said on Nov. 4 at a rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee. According to polls, which failed to predict Trumps victory in 2016, Republicans, who have a steady hold on the Senate, are more likely to lose the House of Representatives. Democrats are already preparing for that, with plans to swamp the president with congressional probes and to shut down an existing investigation of surveillance targeting the Trump campaign. Losing the House would also spell doom for key Trump initiatives that require congressional approval, including further tax cuts, funding the border wall, and the repeal of Obamacare. On the eve of the election, Republicans edging ahead of Democrats by one point in a generic congressional ballot survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports, the polling company that came closest to predicting the outcome of the 2016 election. The two parties are statistically tied, since the poll has a two-point margin of error. A separate Rasmussen poll measuring how outspoken Americans are about their Election Day intentions hints at the possibility of another red wave, driven by the so-called silent majority. In 2018, 60 percent of Democrats said they are more likely to tell others about how they intend to vote, compared to 49 percent of Republicans. The 11-point gap is nearly double that recorded in 2016, when 52 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of Republicans said they were likely to inform others of their voting intentions. Some analysts before and after Donald Trumps upset victory suggested that most pollsters missed his hidden support among voters who, fearful of criticism, were unwilling to say where they stood, Rasmussen said in a press release. Trumps spirited assertion of U.S. sovereignty on the global stage could also be slowed if Democrats bury the president in congressional investigations and the myriad legal issues they would entail. In less than two years, Trump countered Chinas decades-long economic-warfare offensive against the United States, secured an agreement for the denuclearization of North Korea, repeatedly punished Russia for malign activity on U.S. soil and worldwide, and exited a nuclear deal with Iran, which he and his allies view as disastrous. The president also directed the United States exit from transnational agreements which he and his allies view as one-sided. The president also asserted the United States independence from global courts and organizations, including the International Criminal Court and the Universal Postal Union. Were putting America first. It hasnt happened in a lot of decades. Were taking care of ourselves for a change, folks, Trump said at a rally in Houston on Oct. 22. But radical Democrats want to turn back the clock for the rule of corrupt power-hungry globalists, Trump added. You know what a globalist is, right? A globalist is a person that wants the globe to do wellfrankly, not caring about our country so much. And you know what? We cant have that. Whether at home or abroad, countering communism and socialism has emerged as one of the key themes unifying Trumps efforts. This agenda is on the line as well, since Republicans align with Trump on the issue. Meanwhile, some Democrats are openly running as socialists, and others, according to recent hidden-camera investigations, are concealing their far-left views to win votes. The president often has openly lambasted the twin ideologies on the world stage. In both of his speeches before the United Nations General Assembly, Trump excoriated socialism and communism as deadly and disastrous. In South Korea, the president cast communism as the definitive factor that created the stark difference between destitution in Pyongyang and prosperity in Seoul. Most recently, the Trump administration labeled Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua as the troika of tyranny and the sordid cradle of communism. At home, the Trump administration is undoing the central tenets of socialismhigh taxes and a sprawling regulatory state. In the most definitive statement against socialist policies, Trumps Council of Economic Advisers released a report in October that reviewed the opportunity costs of socialism. The report concludes that socialist policies in the United States would lead to shortages or degrade the quality of any product or service which is monopolized by the government, slowing the pace of innovation and lowering the quality of life. Communism is the past, Trump said at the White House on Oct. 4. Freedom is the future. Connecticuts roads and wastewater treatment systems are in need of major repairs costing billions over the next two decades while issues facing the states bridges and drinking water are nearly as bad. As a result state leaders and residents should consider spending more than $40 billion over the next two decades to make major repairs and upgrades. Thats what the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers determined in their inaugural 2018 Report Card for Connecticuts Infrastructure which was released Tuesday. Combine the grades for their evaluation of bridges, drinking water, rails, roads and wastewater and the state gets an overall C- on its infrastructure. Those are the five areas the engineers focused on. There are bright spots in this report, but it is clear that we must prioritize our infrastructure systems to keep our state competitive and grow our economy, said David Chapman, president of the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers. However Jim Cameron, founder of the Commuter Action Group and a Hearst Connecticut Media transportation columnist, suggested their grades should come with a dose of skepticism. "I'm always a bit suspicious of reports from a group with a strong self-interest in what they are grading. Like the construction trades, engineers are looking for work, he said. Still Cameron added, who is better qualified to comment on something like this? So let's assume they're being objective and not just priming the pump for their own profits. Perhaps surprising to some the civil engineers graded the states railroad system the highest with a B rating. They pointed out that the 41 million passengers who annually ride Metro-North have made it the busiest of its kind in the nation. They also commended the Department of Transportation for investing almost $780 million in the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield line. In addition to passengers, more than 3.6 million tons of freight pass through Connecticut every year through the 10 freight train lines that service the state. I think the grade of B is fair, especially given the state and Amtrak's huge investments since the 2013 Fairfield derailment, Cameron said. There is still much more to be done and none of it will be cheap. Slower train schedules, daily delays for things like broken rails and broken down branch-line diesels will only worsen without the kinds of investments the report cites. Meanwhile Naugatuck Valley officials and legislators are calling for money devoted to increase train service on the Waterbury line as cities like Ansonia, Derby and Shelton increase the number of rental properties in their downtowns. While rails ranked the best, the states roads and wastewater received the lowest grade of D+. The engineers maintain that at least $30 billion is needed to spent over the next 30 years to repair, refurbish and realign the 20,000 miles of road, most of which are over 55 years old. They claim the poor condition and congestion on state roads cost drivers $2.4 billion annually. They grade the states bridges at a C- even after finding 7.8 percent are structurally deficient and 59 are over 50 years old. Everyday 79 vehicles cross state bridge, according to the engineers. A D+ seems generous, as anyone who drives regularly can attest, Cameron said. Like the C- for bridges, theyre in terrible shape. We're already paying a sort of "toll" in the form of bent rims, flat tires and front end re-alignments because our vehicles take a pounding. A similar issue faces the wastewater infrastructure where the engineers found 50 of the states sewage treatment plants were high risk for flooding during major storms. They believe $4.6 billion is needed to repair, renovate and upgrade plants throughout the state. And on the flip side the engineers believe at least $4 billion must be spent through 2034 to keep the states drinking water dispensed at a high quality rating. They gave the aging systems a C-. I'm so glad drinking water and waste water treatment systems also were included, as they are often forgotten in discussions of infrastructure, Cameron said. We take them for granted until we have a drought or our beaches are closed after a heavy rain. We might be able to live with late trains and bad roads, but we cannot live without water. With the grades came recommendation and those include prioritizing investment in infrastructure during difficult budget cycles and modernizing and building resilient infrastructure to prepare for increasingly severe storms They recommend a transportation lockbox to ensure all transportation funds are used solely for transportation purposes. All of these things are fixable... if we find the money, Cameron said. So until we get serious about tolls or taxes and put a lock on the state transportation funds box, these conditions will only get worse with time. Will it take another Mianus River bridge disaster to get Hartford's attention? Chapman said the report card was created as a public service to citizens and policymakers to inform them of the infrastructure needs in their state It was modeled after the national Infrastructure Report Card, which gave Americas infrastructure a grade of D+ in 2017. A full copy of the 2018 Report Card for Connecticuts Infrastructure is available at InfrastructureReportCard.org/Connecticut. . LAWRENCE, Ind. - He has campaigned on his support for a border wall, railed against the "radical left," and quoted both Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan in his campaign ads. Joe Donnelly, trying to keep his Senate seat here in Indiana, may be a Democrat - but that's not a word that comes up a lot as he campaigns. "You have to run on a party, because you have to be on the ballot, in effect. But the night the election's over, that's over," he said in an interview outside an early voting center last week, before deploying a line he likes to repeat. "I don't serve as a Democrat senator or a Republican senator. I serve everybody in our state." Language like this has become a defining trait of Donnelly's in this re-election campaign as he runs against Mike Braun, a businessman who has aligned himself with the president. Donnelly is one of five Senate Democrats running in a state that Trump won by double digits in 2016 - a 19-point victory here. Donnelly is trying to re-create the coalition of blue-collar workers and moderate Republicans in the "doughnut" counties surrounding Indianapolis who fueled his victory in 2012 and Trump's four years later. Donnelly - like Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri, who tried to separate herself from parts of her party by saying she's not one of those "crazy Democrats" - has worked to distance himself from the far left of his party and embraced some of Trump's policies. At a recent debate, he said he was open to changing birthright citizenship, telling an audience, "We have to take a look at that legislation." He has also been a steadfast supporter of a border wall with Mexico, voting in favor of funding it three times and criticizing the upper chamber for failing to deliver the money for Trump's signature policy. Donnelly voted with his party against the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, but unlike Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota - a Democrat running in a state Trump won by 36 points - he didn't turn that into a fundraising boon. He raised $1.4 million in the first half of October. Heitkamp, whose "no" vote on Kavanaugh energized liberals, raised $12 million in the same period. In the campaign overall, Donnelly has raised $16.1 million to Braun's $17 million; the two are basically tied in the polls. The president and his surrogates, including Vice President Mike Pence, who's from Indiana, have visited the state to stump for Braun. That includes a visit by the president on Friday, when he said the Democrats want caravans "full of illegal aliens to flood into our country" Donnelly, in a statement on the rally, noted that he has voted with Trump 62 percent of the time and said, "I hope President Trump will return next year so that I can welcome him back to Indiana after I'm re-elected on Tuesday." Donnelly is also getting help from high-profile Democrats, including visits from former Vice President Joe Biden and, Sunday, one from former President Barack Obama. Pete Buttigieg, the Democratic mayor of South Bend who gets mentioned as someone who could be on a presidential ticket, said the party is better for Donnelly's presence in it. "He's got to appeal to a broad base and it's a healthy thing that our party has a lot of range in it and people who think for themselves," Buttigieg said. But, Buttigieg said, he wouldn't look to Donnelly for leadership on progressive issues. "One thing you learn quickly as mayor is you must not say one thing to one group that you would be embarrassed to have repeated to another, because you're going to see everybody in the day," he said. Until recently Indiana had a healthy crop of Democratic statewide officials and opted for moderate Republicans in the mold of six-term Sen. Richard Lugar, whom his successor, Donnelly, calls a "mentor." The state also voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Yet in 2016 Hillary Clinton won three of Indiana's 92 counties while Trump won 56 percent of the vote. Donnelly's last opponent, in 2012, was tea party candidate Richard Mourdock, who pulled off a major upset by defeating Lugar in the GOP primary - but went into a tailspin after saying rape was "something that God intended" during the campaign. That set of circumstances yielded Donnelly a victory of 150,000 votes - and a reputation among colleagues of being an "accidental" senator. A win this year may be harder, both because of Braun's candidacy and shifts in the state. "This Senate race this year is important, because either it will identify this state as more Republican than it has ever been, or it will identify as it traditionally has been: centrist, moderate and given to split-ticket voting," said Robert Schmuhl, professor emeritus of American studies at the University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana. "It's not clear what the anti-Washington, pro-Trump impulse will mean for Donnelly." Some voters reject Donnelly's efforts to adopt stances from both parties. "I'm wishy-washy, but I think politicians ought to be one thing," said Susan Lucas, 74, a retired bank official and local museum director, a Republican who voted for Donnelly in 2012. "That's what they claim to be at the beginning, 'I'm a Republican', so they should stick with the party." She said was leaning toward voting for Braun. Some accepted Donnelly's bipartisanship as necessary in the context of an increasingly Republican state. Michael Wilson, 40, a habitual ticket-splitter who owns a gourmet food store, said he's going to vote for Donnelly because he opposes Trump. "There's some things with Donnelly where I understand why he did what he did, I understand the choices he's made, but I would have been a little bit uneasy," he said. "Still, I think Donnelly's done a good job. He's in a tight spot." Others, however, said they were unsure where Donnelly's support left him politically. Eric Sexton, a truck equipment salesman who intends to vote for Braun, said: "I don't usually just vote Republican ... but at this point I just want someone who's Trump or not Trump. I want to see someone who promotes business and doesn't create obstacles. I want to vote someone who's going to be predictable; I don't think voters need that unpredictable." Outside the early voting center, Donnelly appeared unperturbed by such criticism, saying bipartisan values were Hoosier values. He said that, like Trump, he talks about jobs and issues that affect families and their ability to make ends meet. Again, he tied himself to the president, recalling a conversation with Trump on the president's plane last September. "He said, 'I hear you'll be real tough to beat.' I said, 'You bet, 100%, Mr. President, and here's why. Those voters who voted for you, the union bricklayer, the fireman, the mom at home - before they were ever Donald Trump voters, they were Joe Donnelly voters, and in 2018 they're Joe voters again," Donnelly said. One of the objectives of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was to restrict powers of the President to dissolve parliament within four and-a-half years. Was that objective successfully achieved? My reading of the constitution is the opposite. Firstly, the reader is advised to be cautious not to treat my contention as final. This is only an academic exercise to explore the true intention of the legislature on a plain reading of the relevant Articles (Sections) of the Constitution. Prior to the 19A Article 70 (1) directly dealt with the Presidents powers to dissolve the Parliament; i.e. The President may, from time to time, by Proclamation summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament:There were several provisos to the above article with restrictions. The 19A deleted the words time to time and included a proviso preventing the president from dissolving parliament until a lapse of four and-a-half years from the first meeting; 70(1) The President may by Proclamation, summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament: Provided that the President shall not dissolve Parliament until the expiration of a period of not less than four years and six months from the date appointed for its first meeting, unless Parliament requests the President to do so by a resolution passed by not less than two-thirds of the whole number of Members (including those not present), voting in its favour Very strangely, sub-article 70(5) recognizes two modes of dissolution; they are as follows:- 5 (a) A Proclamation dissolving Parliament shall fix a date or dates for the election of Members of Parliament, and shall summon the new Parliament to meet on a date not later than three months after the date of such Proclamation. The 19A deleted the words time to time and included a proviso preventing the president from dissolving parliament until a lapse of four and-a-half years from the first meeting (b) Upon the dissolution of Parliament by virtue of the provisions of Paragraph (2) of Article 62,The President shall forthwith by Proclamation fix a date or dates for the election of Members of Parliament, and shall summon the new Parliament to meet on a date not later than three months after the date of such Parliament Sub-Article 75(5) (a) refers to the mode of dissolution provided in Article 70(1) and Sub-Article 75(5)(b) recognizes the mode in Article 62(2). Then the next question is whether the Article 62(2) refers to a separate mode of dissolution. Here again we see a discrepancy between the Sinhala and English texts in the construction of this Article. The English text reads as follows; Unless Parliament is sooner dissolved, every Parliament shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer, and the expiry of the said period of five years shall operate as a dissolution of Parliament On the face of it the term dissolution refers to an automatic incident of dissolution by operation of law on expiration of a term of five years. However, the Sinhala text categorically specifies a stand alone mode of dissolution within a period of five years. This difference is resulted by drafting this Article in three separate sentences. The translation is produced (to the nearest meaning) as follows; Every Parliament shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer. However, Parliament can be dissolved before expiration of the (said) (stated) period. However on the expiry of the said period of five years Parliament to be considered as dissolved. It is to be noted that when there is an inconsistency between the texts the Sinhala Text prevails (Sec 48 of the 19th Amendment). The Literal meaning given in the Sinhala text of Article 70(5)(2) is When Parliament was dissolved by virtue of Article 62 sub Article (2).... As aforesaid the Sinhala text of 62(2) provides for a (second) mode of dissolution. Both these Articles (in the Sinhala text) are constructed to mean an act of dissolution caused upon the Parliament; but no automatic dissolution by operation of law. However, Article 62(2) does not refer to a person having the authority to do the act of dissolution (Actor). Then there should be a reference somewhere else in the Constitution to a person with powers to execute the act of dissolution. The answer is in Article 33(2)(c) of the Constitution. The 19A introduced the following sub-article (c) to Article 33(2) which deals with specific powers of the President. The new sub-article is read as follows; 33(2) In addition to the powers, duties and functions expressly conferred or imposed on or assigned to the President by the Constitution or other written law, the President shall have the power- (c) to summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament The question is whether the powers specified in Article 33(2) are stand-alone or subject to Article 70 which restricts dissolution within four and-a-half years. To answer we have to look into other powers given to the President by Article 33(2). They include (i) to make the State of Government Polity at the commencement of the parliamentary session (ii) to preside at ceremonial sittings of Parliament (iii) to appoint Ambassadors and High Commissioners (iv) Appoint Presidents Counsel (v) to Keep the public Seal of the Republic and engage in relevant functions stated therein (vi) to declare war and peace (vii) to do other things not inconsistent with the constitution and law. All these are specific powers conferred on the President in addition to the powers and duties and functions expressly conferred or imposed on or assigned by the Constitutionor any other law. The words in addition make this sub-article standalone conferring additional (specific) powers apart from those entrusted on the president by the other Articles. In the circumstances the powers given to the President to dissolve by Article 33(2)(C) are in addition to powers given by Article 70(1). Therefore on a plain reading of Article 33(2)(c) with 62(2) and 70(1) it is clear that the constitution has opened two independent avenues for the President to dissolve the parliament. On the other hand, it is also reasonable to argue that the President has powers to act on Article 33(2)(c) alone without having recourse to Article 62(2), as Article 33(2)(c) is authoritatively independent. The next issue is whether the President has a choice between the two Articles to act upon. Only few, among several, specifically refer to Article 70. One of them is Article 48(2); i.e:- If Parliament rejects the Statement of Government Policy or the Appropriation Bill or passes a vote of no-confidence in the Government, the Cabinet of Ministers shall stand dissolved, and the President shall, unless he has in the exercise of his powers under Article 70, dissolved Parliament, appoint a Prime Minister, Ministers of the Cabinet of Ministers, Ministers who are not members of the Cabinet of Ministers and Deputy Ministers in terms of Articles 42, 43, 44 and 45. The above Article compels the President to appoint a new Prime Minister upon occurrence of the three incidents (e.g. defeat of appropriation bill; i.e. budget) refers to therein; if such had happened within four and-a-half years from the first meeting of the parliament. In Sri Lanka sovereignty is in the People. Sovereignty includes powers of government (Art.3). The executive power of the people shall be exercised by the President elected by the people (Art.4(b). The President is the head of the State, head of the Executive and of the Government (Art 30(1). The Cabinet of Ministers charged with the direction and control of the Government (Art.42(1). The President shall appoint as Prime Minister the Member of Parliament, who, in the Presidents opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of Parliament (Article 42(4). In Sri Lanka sovereignty is in the People. Sovereignty includes powers of government (Art.3). The executive power of the people shall be exercised by the President elected by the people (Art.4(b) If the President cannot form an opinion as to the person commanding the confidence of Parliament to appoint as the next Prime Minister or if due to defeat of budget or for any other reason the President (being the head of the Government) finds the stability of the Government cannot be sustained or would collapse (which endangers the governance of the country), there should be an alternative mechanism provided in the constitution to uphold the sovereignty of the people and ensure national security. In such situations it would be dangerous and disastrous to run the country with an unstable government until lapse of four and-a-half years to dissolve the Parliament. The solution to this dilemma is provided in Article 33(2)(C) (read with / without Article 62(2). That is the second mode available in the constitution for the president to dissolve the parliament without waiting for four and-a-half years. Dissolution ends the life of the existing parliament. According to A.V. Dicey (a British Whig jurist / constitutional theorist) Crown has the right of dissolution in extreme circumstances. He wrote A dissolution is in its essence an appeal from the legal to the political sovereign. A dissolution is allowable, or necessary, whenever the wishes of the legislature are, or may fairly be presumed to be, different from the wishes of the nation According to him the objective of dissolution is to Ascertain that will of parliament coincides with the will of the nation. Referendum To ascertain the will of the nation and to obtain the sanction directly from the people to dissolve the parliament the President has another option. That is to hold a referendum under Article 86 of the Constitution. Under that The President may, subject to the provisions of Article 85, submit to the People by Referendum any matter which in the opinion of the President is of national importance.Referendum is a manner in which the People exercise their Sovereignty (Article 4(a) and (e). If the President (head of the Government) finds the Government is in a crisis situation, which prevents him from carrying out his executive functions (as the head of the executive) through the machinery of Government, the constitution authorizes the President to submit that matter to the people as of national importance. Finally the people will have to resolve the confusion created by the politicians. GRANITE CITY The Lowes home improvement store on Schaefer Road in Granite City is one of 20 in the United States that will soon close its doors due to poor performance, the chain announced Monday. The Granite City location, 1333 Schaefer Road, is one of two in the state and one of three in the St. Louis metro area, along with the stores in Bridgeton and Florissant, Missouri, that will wind-down as part of the companys ongoing strategic reassessment, according to a release issued Monday morning. EDWARDSVILLE The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Nursing (SON) hosted its second Biennial Alumni and Friends Celebration, Honoring the Past Empowering the Future Through Global Outreach, on Saturday, Oct. 27 in the James S. McDonnell (JSM) Planetarium in St. Louiss Forest Park. Approximately 200 alumni, faculty, clinical partners and friends gathered to celebrate the SONs past, present and future excellence in nursing education through global outreach. The all-alumni reunion also celebrated the 10-year anniversaries of the SON classes of 68, 78, 88, 98 and 08. Each of you, our partners, generous donors, and alumni, faculty and staff, values the School of Nursing and recognizes not only what the School means to you, but also to the field of healthcare, said SON Dean Laura Bernaix, PhD, RN. You are invested in the success of our School in perpetuity, and we are grateful. We love hearing how the education you obtained impacted your career trajectory, she continued, how you are proud to hire fellow SIUE SON graduates because of the exceptional preparation theyve received, and how you see your investments paying dividends in meeting the needs of students, and therefore, the region and beyond. The SONs Valerie Griffin, DNP, assistant clinical professor and global experiences coordinator, introduced the featured program which showcased global outreach initiatives and impact. Recent graduates Lorilee Sebesta, Greg Jennings and Terry Wooten shared their transformative student experiences in Haiti, Guatemala and Costa Rica. These speakers represent our strong future, not only in terms of the next generation of nurses, but also with regard to healthcare, which is multidisciplinary, collaborative and global, Bernaix said. Their stories are incredibly inspiring. This years gala was a spectacular event, added SON Senior Director of Development Patti McDonald. Clinical partners and friends of the SIUE School of Nursing generously sponsored and underwrote our evening under the night sky. Guests enjoyed virtual reality and flight simulation rides during the reception. The event finale was a JSM Planetarium Night Sky Show that educated our guests in a fun and inspiring way. The events top sponsors included Galaxy-level supporters Anderson Hospital; G & G Anesthesia, LLC; Star-level supporter Memorial Health System; and Comet-level supporters ATI Nursing; Dr. Laura Bernaix; BJC Healthcare; Dr. Pai; Carle Foundation Hospital; SSM Health DePaul St. Louis; Evolutionary Anesthesia; HSHS St. Elizabeths Hospital; Dr. Mary Ann and James Boyd; Laerdal Medical Corporation; Memorial Hospital BJC HealthCare; Gloria and Al Perry; and SSM Health. ALTON It was a freshwater rodeo in Alton on Sunday morning as kayaking cowboys corralled a wily waterfowl to begin the birds journey to the Wild West. A male pelican with an injured wing was caught by staff and volunteers with the Treehouse Wildlife Center in Dow, who descended on a small lake across from the National Great Rivers Museum with kayaks, nets, and raincoats on the wet, blustery day. The two-pronged operation to drive the animal from the water to those waiting on land had a simple strategy, according to Treehouse Rehabilitation Manager Rachael Heaton. The whole plan was to get enough kayakers to help spook the animal onto land. Of course, that doesnt always happen, a water bird will prefer to make its stand in the water, Heaton said. Thats what ended up happening, so the boats ended up catching it with one of the nets in the water and then slowly brought it to land where we were then able to grab it. That was a pretty standard rescue, you never know what the animal is going to do, Heaton said. You can set up and plan as much as you want, but eventually the animal decides the outcome. The bird has called the small body of water home for more than a year, unable to fly and migrate with other pelicans due to an apparently injured wing, Heaton said. Area residents had been calling Treehouse for quite some time, concerned that the pelican might have to spend another winter alone in the Riverbend area. It will now be flown on an airplane to Utah. Tracys Aviary in Salt Lake City has said they will provide a home for it where there is a big lake where it can live with other pelicans and have plenty of food every day, Heaton said. We were worried about him for the winter, and now we know we dont have to worry. Hell have a good life now. Rachael Heatons father, Craig Heaton of Collinsville, was one of the kayakers who herded the bird. It doubled back on the boaters several times, outmaneuvering the colorful craft several times before one kayaker was able to snare it with a net. Treehouse is really good at catching animals and we are really good at kayaking, so it was a good mix, said Craig Heaton, who has helped his daughter capture injured birds before. Wild birds are really fast. It can be a challenge just rounding them up. It feels great to see them rehabilitated, it does a little part in keeping our wildlife sustainable, Craig Heaton said. Talitha Jackson of Granite City was on shore Sunday with her family as part of the group waiting for the pelican to be driven their way. She was the caller who initially informed Treehouse about the pelican. I am honored that they called and asked us to participate, Jackson said. The Treehouse Wildlife Center is a great bunch of people and Im fixing to become a member. Jackson has mixed feelings about the pelican she has seen several times each week while driving along Illinois Route 143 to and from Alton. Its bittersweet, Jackson said. Im going to miss driving by here all the time and seeing him, but Im glad hes headed for a better life and Im glad they got him right before the heart of winter set in. Peoples Movement for Justice and Democracy yesterday held a protest at the Liberty Roundabout, demanding the political parties and the members of the house not to betray the peoples democratic rights.Pix by Kushan Pathiraja 19 hours ago The Top 3 Large-Cap Stocks to Buy Under $100 Owning Quality Large-Cap Stocks Doesn't Have to Break The Bank There are certainly a lot of advantages associated with investing in large-cap stocks. These are companies with a market capitalization of over $10 billion and play a huge role in determining the overall direction and trend of the indexes. Read Article Jetwing Symphony PLC registered a strong growth in revenues and operating profit for the July-September quarter (2Q19)an indication that the hotel chain catering to a niche luxury market is being well received by the traveller, both local and foreign. Jetwing Symphony, which runs five luxury resorts, reported 36 percent year-on-year (YoY) increase in revenues to Rs.520.4 million during the three months to September with operating profit rising by 82 percent YoY to Rs.194.3 million. However the company is yet to turn a net profit as the operating costs and heavy finance costs are weighing on the bottom line. Hefty foreign currency conversion losses also hit the profits during the quarter under review. The companys share was trading at Rs.12.10, down 90 cents on Friday. The company owns and runs five luxury properties in Yala, Dambulla, Kaduruketha, Pottuvil and Colombo Seven. Two other luxury resorts in Kandy and Uppuveli are to be launched shortly. Given the solid and consistent growth in revenues among the companys portfolio of resorts, its likely that the company will turn a net profit during the next fiscal year. The company said its earnings before interest and tax growth or the growth in the operating profits was primarily fuelled by an increase in the ARR across all operating hotels with Jetwing Kaduruketha recording the highest growth of 82 percent from the previous quarter. This is in line with the groups positioning of Jetwing Kaduruketha as a leading luxury eco-resort in Sri Lanka. Jetwing Surf and Jetwing Kaduruketha recorded profits for the quarter while the other properties performed below breakeven, primarily due to foreign exchange losses with significant depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar, a Jetwing Symphony statement said. Jetwing Surf (in Pottuvil), the groups newest venture recorded after tax profit of Rs.6 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2018 despite being in operation for less than a year, further cementing Jetwings position as a celebrated hospitality provider, it added. Jetwing Symphony Chairman Hiran Cooray said he remains positive of the future prospects of Sri Lankas hospitality sector. With Sri Lankas destination marketing campaign to be launched shortly, we are confident in the long-term growth prospect of the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, and we believe that we are well positioned to reap the benefits from the next growth wave in tourism. With an ever expanding portfolio and a focus on new initiatives for regional expansion, we believe that the Symphony group is firmly rooted in a foundation set for multi-dimensional growth, Cooray said. Meanwhile the company reported 16 cents a share or Rs.81.7 million in net losses for the three months ended September 30, 2018 compared to Rs.72.9 million net loss reported for the corresponding quarter in 2017. An exchange loss of Rs. 83.4 million was incurred during the period from conversion of a foreign currency loan. Jetwing Symphony carried out a group-wide cost controlling exercise during the first six months which paid results. Meanwhile, for the first half of the fiscal year, the company reported a loss per share of 47 cents or Rs.236.9 million net loss compared to a net loss of Rs.233. 1 million in the corresponding period last year. The revenue for the period was Rs.819 million, up 26 percent YoY. Jetwing Symphony Limited went public in December 2017 offering 50.2 million shares or 10 percent stake in the company for a consideration of Rs.753.3 million. Employees Provident Fund holds 7.06 percent stake in the company being the fourth largest shareholder. In its monthly Compass bulletin, real estate consultancy Jones Lang Lasalle examined the relevance of the Western Region Megapolis Masterplan to Sri Lankas ambitions of improving citizen wealth and rapid economic growth. The statement also questioned the sporadic nature of the progress reported by the project since March 2017, noting that a cornerstone of the governments modernization policy must be more frequently communicated to the public. The Western Megapolis Development Plan was first conceptualized in 1998 by the newly established Urban Development Authority, leading to a first version in 2002. The newest version of this plan was revealed in January 2016 under the newly established coalition government at the time, as the Western Region Megapolis Masterplan. This was pitched, and has since been floated, as a cornerstone of the governments strategy to bring Sri Lanka to upper middle and then high-income status. This ambitious plan sets targets of tripling per-capita income in the western region to USD 12,000 by 2020, creating 500,000 jobs, and making the western region one of the 10 most liveable cities in Asia to reverse current brain drain trends. For this ambition two transformations are necessary, notes JLL. Spatial transformation of the urban western region is one, the national economys structural transformation is another. The plan flagged three broad national issues: issues arising from congestion pressures being exerted on urban infrastructure, services and amenities due to messy urbanization; weak enabling environment to propel Sri Lanka to high-income status; and the lack of a framework to harness the benefits of a knowledge based, innovation driven economic environment, characterized by the new industrial revolution and smart cities. The plan aimed to address all these weaknesses. There are other institutional challenges to be overcome as well. A lack of appropriate land use policy, ad-hoc development and planning, a mono-centric urban spatial structure, and a poor public transportation system are a few of these challenges that the plan must maneuver. Transforming the western region into a world class metropolis in such sensitive times brings immense challenges in delivering the high-level goals of diversity, inclusivity and sustainability that the plan promises, says Steven Mayes, Managing Director of JLL Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. If this wish list is to be accomplished then infrastructure and public transformation will be key. If we look at public transport, developing the planned LRT (Light Rail Transit) system will be paramount. Mr Mayes also noted that the Government of Sri Lanka must carefully examine the robustness of the PPP model to underwrite the additional capital sums necessary to upgrade existing bus and rail systems and to initiate the water bus transport system, utilizing existing waterways, envisaged in the master plan. JLL also highlighted the importance of regularly updating the news portals used by the government with details on the progress of the Megapolis plan. The current website- www.megapolis.gov.lk -reveals no new entries since June 2017, while the consultations portal has not been updated since March 2017. The sustainability of this project will also depend to a significant extent on public engagement and support- communicating what the progress is, even if it is minor, will help to build ownership and awareness. More importantly its the governments duty to inform the public of the progress- or lack of- that is being made with one of Sri Lankas most ambitious development plans in recent history. The composition cannot change and must remain constant for the entire duration of that Parliament When Members elected to Parliament from one party crossover to another, for whatsoever reason, it is a violation of the mandate received at the hands of the voters, which they are honour and duty bound to protect. As for honour, there is none and for all their rhetoric of laying down their lives for the people, there is no sense of duty. Members are elected on a party ticket, and not in their individual capacity. A mere look at a ballot paper amply demonstrates this fact. See a specimen ballot paper above. Thus, you see that there are two parts. The first and the one on top is your vote. You just vote for a party or group. If you choose not to mark a preference for any candidate or candidates up to 3 from that party that you voted for, your vote is still a valid vote. On the other hand, if you did not vote for a party or group, i.e. not marking your vote in the top section, but only marked a preference for 1, 2 or 3 from the box at the bottom, yours is NOT a valid vote and will be rejected. At the close of the poll, the party or group vote is counted and the number of seats determined, first on a district basis and then totalled up to get the final composition of the Parliament. At the last General Election the party positions were as follows; UNP .. 106 UPFA .. 95 TNA 16 JVP 06 SLMC ..... 01 EPDP 01 This was how the country voted. This was the final composition of Parliament. This composition cannot change and must remain constant for the entire duration of that Parliament. If it does not, it is a distortion of the mandate of the people. Individual members do not count. If one ceases to be a member of the party, he must necessarily lose his seat to the next in line on the preference vote list. Let us see the constitutional aspect of this. Article 99(13) as amended by the 14th Amendment states Where a member of Parliament ceases, by resignation, expulsion or otherwise, to be a member of a recognised political party or independent group on whose nomination paper his name appeared at the time of his becoming a member of Parliament, his seat shall become vacant upon the expiration of a period of one month from the date of his ceasing to be such a member There, however, is a proviso where a member expelled challenges the validity of his expulsion in the Supreme Court, his seat will fall vacant only upon the Supreme Court holding that his expulsion is valid. The first test case was the expulsion of Gamini Dissanayake, Lalith Athlathmudali et al on the Impeachment Motion they brought against the then President Ranasinghe Premadasa Gamini Dissanayake vs. M.C.M. Kaleel and others. The dissidents argued that: (a) They were not given a hearing according to the principles of natural justice and (b) that they are entitled to act according to their judgment and conscience. The apex court held, inter alia, that; 1. The Constitution confers primacy to the political party as against the individual 2. The exercise of Fundamental Rights of speech and expression was subordinate to the requirements of party discipline, 3. The joining of a political party means acceptance of reciprocal obligations Limiting their freedom of speech, and 4. Dissenting opinions should be the subject of internal discussion before being articulated outside. The next case of MP, Thilak Karunaratne, expelled from the SLFP for publishing a newspaper article, was decided in his favour by a majority decision. The Supreme Court held that he had taken every possible step within the party to air his grievance before going public. The dissenting Judge held that the Court was not empowered to go into the merits of the expulsion. In the case where Sarath Amunugama et al, having endorsed the Presidential candidature of Ranil Wickremesinghe at the party convention on Sunday, went to Temple Trees on the following Monday and pledged support to the opponent and thereafter worked toward her victory. The Court held that there was a procedural impropriety in the expulsion process. The party leadership could very well have re-commenced disciplinary action, adhering to the rules of natural justice, but for unknown reasons, it failed to do so, and are now reaping the bitter fruits of that neglect. The last case of relevance is that of Basheer Segu Dawood, member of the SLMC, who formed an alliance with another party and faced the polls as the NUA. He was nominated on the National list. The NUA expelled him. The Court held that he was not a member of the NUA but of the SLMC, hence he could not have been expelled by NUA!! One can see the drift. In all instances, the members affected were in Government when disciplinary action was taken and when the cases went before the court. Somewhere down the line, we seemed to have missed the wood for the trees. A Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform has recommended a system where the majority of members are directly elected by, and responsible to, a specific electorate, which will not prevent crossovers, but will, at least ensure that the member he be personally answerable to his voters for the decision he made. A further and more radical step would be to prohibit an MP who crosses over from the Opposition to the Government from accepting Ministerial office during the remainder of the term of the Parliament. Constitutional Issues in Sri Lanka Ruana Rajapakse (2008) This committee obviously had not considered the lure of filthy lucre, which even then was not something new. Thus you will see that- let alone one member defying the party whip-if a whole bunch of them desert the party which elected them, (as is happening today), it is a gross distortion and a violation of the mandate of the people. Today, its as bad as it can get, or are we in for more and as the Americans would say, You aint seen nothing yet. Hail, our honourable political prostitutes!! Public assistance is being sought to help identify four people police want to talk to about shoplifting at Walmart in Mt. Pleasant. Security camera images were released Monday by state police troopers at the Mt. Pleasant post. They said the incident happened Friday just before 9:30 p.m. If you have any information that would assist in identifying any or all of them, please contact the Mt. Pleasant Post at 989-773-5951. UNP MP Eran stresses business of government is also business of professionals Says theres dire shortage of professionals in local political landscape Quips majority of Lankan lawmakers doesnt have sense of what they are doing By Nishel Fernando United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian Eran Wickramaratne recently urged Sri Lankan professionals to play an active role in governance to nudge the country into the right direction, stressing that the business of the government is also the business of professionals. They (politicians) are never going to ask you. If you want to change the destiny of this country, we have to have the ownership and we have to take responsibility. The system works for those who are already in it, and therefore, why should they change it? There is no point complaining about it, because complaining will not really help to change the situation. The professionals are needed in politics. Theres no point lamenting the issues that we are facing, he said. Wickramaratne was addressing construction industry professionals at the 150th anniversary celebration of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) organised by RICS Sri Lanka in Colombo, last week. He emphasised that there is a dire shortage of professionals in politics of the country, while pointing out that the majority of the lawmakers in the country dont have a sense of what they are doing. I have been often told that Im the first institutional professionalCEO of a public quoted company in the 70-year history of Sri Lankas Parliament. You (professionals) talk about policy, process and you want to make sure that there is a professional touch in that. Your professional procedures have codes of conduct, you know what conflict of interest is, and you know how you and your profession are governed. However, dont assume that these concepts are automatically accepted in the halls of governance in this country, Wickramaratne said. Commenting on the current political crisis in the country, he said that while the public were adversely impacted by it, the MPs are benefitting from the crisis. Whats the discussion in our country today? Who has benefited from the crisis that we are facing? Its only the members of the Parliament who have benefited, because our monetary value has gone up. I am ashamed to say that and its no joke. This is the culture that we must change, because its an indictment on our country, he said. Moving forward, Wickramaratne noted that the professionals can respond to the current deadlock situation in two waysignore the whole thing or support the right principles and policies. One way to respond is to walk away and say we cant do anything about it or we dont care about it. Your children will migrate, thats the result of that attitude. But if you take the responsibility, we can change it however, dark it might look. Therefore, I urge the professionals, lets resolve this in our country and lets change, he said. Speaking of the construction sector, Wickramaratne acknowledged that local construction firms have been facing unfair competition from foreign firms, who are competing with local firms with cheap imported foreign labour. The local industries have to compete with the labour coming from elsewhere, which doesnt have the same cost. Then it become unfair competition. Therefore, we have to protect our industries, not from competition, but from unfair competition. Therefore our government will take necessary steps to do so, he said. Tracing how Parliament became a marketplace for buying MPs Crossovers from one party to another have been a constant feature in Sri Lanka in recent years Many feel that Sri Lanka should have an anti-defection law to prevent political horse trading Many feel that Sri Lanka should have an anti-defection law to prevent political horse trading People feel that Rajapaksa would provide a better Government Colombo, November 5: Crossovers from one party to another in Parliament have been a constant feature in Sri Lanka in recent years. They were endemic in India till the Constitution was amended by the 52nd Amendment in 1985 and by the 91st Amendment in 2003 to make defections difficult. There are mixed feelings among political scientists about crossovers. At times, they have helped form stable Governments, and at other times they have brought down Governments creating instability. In 2001, a severe political crisis-afflicted the Sri Lankan Parliament, which had been elected only in the previous year. Numerous MPs from the ruling Peoples Alliance (PA) quit the group and joined the Opposition led by Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP). In June 2001, 11 members of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and National Unity Alliance (NUA) had quit the PA, peeved by the sacking of Minister Rauff Hakeem by President Chandrika Kumaratunga. On October 10, 2001, with the political crisis in the PA deepening, eight Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) MPs: S.B. Dissanayake, Wijepala Mendis, Ananda Moonesinghe, Bandula Nanayakkara, G.L. Peiris, Ediriweera Premaratne, Jayasundara Wijekoon and Mahinda Wijesekara and four MPs of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) crossed over to the Opposition. This created a fear in the government that it could lose a vote of no confidence. Parliament was dissolved and elections to Parliament were held in December 2001. The instability in 2000 and 2001 was due to the bad way in which the war against Tamil Tigers was going, and the poor condition of the Sri Lankan economy at that time. The Parliamentary elections held in 2004 did not give a decisive mandate. The new United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga was able to get only 105 seats in a House of 225. Being the single largest party, the UPFA formed a Minority Government. But post-election defections from the Opposition front gave the Government then headed by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, 129 supporters in Parliament, which enabled Rajapaksa to rule comfortably. However, the defections were engineered by largesse handed out in the form of Ministerial Posts and other benefits, which made the process of political accretion unsavoury. Parliament had become a marketplace for buying MPs. In the 2010 elections to Parliament, the UPFA under President Mahinda Rajapaksa won 144 seats. Even though the Rajapaksa Government was blessed with an overwhelming majority, it encouraged crossovers from the Opposition with the distribution of Ministerial posts to give Rajapaksa an aura of great power and invincibility. In the elections held in August 2015, the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) led by Ranil Wickremesinghe, won 106 seats and the UPFA, 95. However, though short of the required 113 supporters, the UNF was able to form a Government by getting various parties to support it. The apple cart was upset when on October 26, 2018, President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and his cabinet and appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as PM, even though the latter had only 95 MPs backing him. To get the required 113 seats, Rajapaksa set about catching MPs with offers of Ministerial posts and allegedly with large amounts also. President Sirisena prorogued Parliament from October 27 to November 15 allegedly to give Rajapaksa enough time to acquire a majority by engineering defections from the UNFGG. Whether Rajapaksa would succeed in getting a majority or not would be known when his Vote on Account or the No-Confident Motion is put to vote after Parliament is convened on November 14. Vocal sections of society, comprising the educated middle class mostly, are critical of the defections and the way they are engineered. But the hoi polloi appear to be keen on getting a strong, performing Government which will deliver the goods and look after the downtrodden. They feel that Rajapaksa would provide such a Government in contrast to Wickremesinghe. Therefore, there appears to be a difference between the way the elite and the middle class see defections. Many feel that Sri Lanka should have an anti-defection law to prevent political horse trading. But as seen earlier, defections have, in some situations, helped form stable governments and in some others destroyed governments and forced fresh and expensive elections on the people. However, what is truly despicable is the purchasing of MPs with money and other inducements with no connection whatsoever with policy or ideological issues. It is the purchase of MPs and their willingness to sell themselves to the highest bidder, which have made defections vulgar. About 40 countries have anti-defection laws. India has been having one since 1985. Between 1985 and 2004, 113 Indian legislators in Parliament and State Assemblies were unseated for defecting from one party to another. Under Indian law, a Legislator will be unseated if he voluntarily gives up his membership of the political party he represents; if he votes or abstains from voting in the House contrary to the direction issued by his political party or without obtaining prior permission. As per the 1985 Act, a defection by one-third of the elected members of a political party was authorized and declared legitimate. Later, in 2003, two-thirds of the MPs of a party would have to defect for the defection to be recognized as legitimate and condoned. The 2003 condition made defection more difficult than it was under the 1985 law. However, there will be no disqualification if an entire political party merges with another; if a new political party is formed by some of the elected members of a party; if he or she or other members of the party have not accepted the merger between the two parties and opted to function as a separate group from the time of such a merger. Under the 1985 Act, courts were barred from entertaining petitions against disqualification. Decisions on expulsion and unseating were left to party leaders and the Speaker or Chairman of the legislature. But this was subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court. Currently, the anti-defection law comes under Judicial Review. Critics of the anti-defection law say that it prevents free speech and allows party heads to dictate terms to members of their parties in the legislature. Bound hand and foot by their party leaders, legislators are unable to correct wrong policies and prevent political disasters. For instance, in the Maldives under Abdulla Yameens Presidency, 12 MPs of the ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) were unseated in 2017 for planning to join the Opposition in voting for the ouster of the controversial Speaker Abdullah Maseeh Mohamed. It was only after Yameens defeat in the September 23 Presidential election, that the Supreme Court reinstated them. Given the unsavoury role of the anti-defection rules in the Maldivian Oppositions struggle against Yameens autocracy, the anti-PPM parties, which now have a majority in Parliament, have repealed the anti-defection law. New Zealand has given up its anti-defection law. The US allows defections on the grounds that the law violates individual freedom. According to an Indian Supreme Court ruling in 1992, the anti-defection law does not violate any rights or freedoms, or the basic structure of Parliamentary democracy. Since the final decision on punishing defectors is subject to appeal in the High Courts and the Supreme Court, many defectors go to the courts and manage to hold on to their seats. Therefore, anti-defection laws have their upside and downside. It is also noted by scholars that while older democracies like those in the West do not feel the need to have an anti-defection law and are quite comfortable with dissenters, the younger democracies, which fear political instability, show greater eagerness to enact anti-crossover laws. National disaster chief orders Phuket officials to maintain tsunami-warning towers PHUKET: The chief of the National Disaster Warning Centre (NDWC), Suppapimit Paorik, has ordered local officials to ensure that regular maintenance is carried out on all tsunami-warning towers and related systems. disastersconstructiontourism By Chutharat Plerin Monday 5 November 2018, 03:53PM National Disaster Warning Centre (NDWC) Chief Suppapimit Paorik was in Phuket yesterday (Nov 4) to hear the Kamala tsunami-warning tower working properly. Photo: Supplied The tsunami-warning tower at Kamala Beach is now working properly. Photo: Supplied Mr Suppapimit was in Phuket yesterday (Nov 4) to witness first-hand the testing of the warning tower at Kamala Beach, which has repeatedly been reported as failing to sound the alarm during tests. Mr Suppapimit said that all warning towers in Phuket are functioning 100%. However, he added, But the system must have careful, continuous maintenance and people must be involved to check whether the signal is clear or not during testing. The warning tower came under special attention early last month after local residents reported that the national anthem could not be heard from the tower during tests. (See story here.) Mr Suppapimit yesterday confirmed that the Kamala tower is now functioning properly. Officials and maintenance technicians have already checked the tower and installed two new solar panels and batteries. Also, local administration staffers have undergone training in terms of maintenance, including making sure that tree branches are pruned to avoid obscuring the solar panel, he added. After the maintenance and testing the signal, it appears that the signal is quite clear, Mr Suppapimit said. We intended to check more than one point today (Nov 4), he added, but due to time constraints we can check only the Kamala tower. Therefore, I have ordered technicians to check and fix another point, which is expected to be finished tomorrow (Nov 5), he added. Mr Suppapimit did not identify exactly which other warning tower needed urgent attention. The tsunami warning towers can work 100%, but they needed continuous maintenance, which instructed the local administrations to do already, he said. Moreover, we ask for the people of Phuket to pay attention during the signal tests. If you notice any problems, please inform to Phuket Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (Tel: 076-218444) so they can coordinate technicians to fix the problem. Alternatively, you can contact the Emergency Coordination Center 24-hour hotline by calling 192*, Mr Suppapimit added. * For the Emergency Coordination Center Facebook page, click here. Phuket City Mayor announce formation of Phuket City Guardian Association PHUKET: The Mayor of Phuket City Municipality today held a meeting to announce the formation of the Phuket City Guardian Association, the aims of which are directly related to the National Education Act 1999. By The Phuket News Monday 5 November 2018, 12:41PM Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupana speaks at todays meeting. Photo: PR Dept Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupana held todays meeting at the Plookpanya Municipal School in Phuket Town, where she was joined by directors of schools which fall under the jurisdiction of Phuket Municipality, president of the Phuket City Guardian Association, committee members, teachers, parents and guardians of children studying at Phuket Municipality schools. Mayor Somjai said that the establishment of the association is to give parents and guardians an entity where they can express their opinion about local education and exchange ideas on the working system of the association. The aims of the club is directly related to the National Education Act 1999 which focuses on supporting local communities and managing the education system efficiently. Warner back on top of South Dakota's Class B volleyball The Monarchs used two runs, including an 8-1 surge, to open Saturday's championship with a 25-18 first-set win. UNP MP Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said today he met with President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday on an invitation extended by him. He told a media briefing that he carried a message from the President to UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. I met with President Sirisena on his invitation. Since I did not want to go alone, I invited MP John Amaratunga to accompany me. The President explained to me as to what made him appoint former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. I then explained to him how his actions have affected the country. Later, I met Mr. Wickremesinghe and briefed him about the meeting. My meeting with the President has created a positive situation as far as the country is concerned, he said indicating that the country would come through the present crisis. My meeting with the President was successful but one has to see how the outcome would be when it comes to implementing what we agreed upon. The meeting with the President is not associated with any crossover, he said. (Yohan Perera) Pix by Pradeep Pathirana For the first time since Jeremy's death in 1991, Wanda Crane, Jeremy Delle's mother has spoken out about her son, who inspired a Pearl Jam anthem. 'Jeremy', the third single from Pearl Jam's iconic Ten, is a song about a 15-year-old Texas kid named Jeremy Delle who shot himself in the head in front of his English class back in 1991. Eddie Veder read the story in the newspapers and immortalised Jeremy Delle forever in song. However Wanda wants to be clear there was more to her son than a suicide. That day that he died did not define his life, she tells WFAA in the video above. He was a son, a brother, a nephew, a cousin, a grandson. He was a friend. He was talented. Crane touched on the horrific recent influx of school shootings in America. "I think of what will be said or what opinions will be thought about the student. But it's the mothers and sisters that I want to wrap my arms around and tell them someday it'll be better." Eddie Vedder never contacted the family or Jeremy's friends before releasing the song. One of Jeremy's classamates, Britanny King has previously spoken out, sounding somewhat resentful towards Pearl Jam; "I thought, 'You dont know. You werent there. That story isnt accurate.' Vedder has also previously spoke about his decision to not research the story further than the newspaper article: "When I went to write about it, I thought of actually getting a hold of what the actual person it was written about, but then I thought that would be intruding." Watch the full interview with Wanda Crane above. HALIFAXA federal-provincial trade mission is heading to China this week with hopes of bolstering Atlantic Canadas presence in one of the worlds largest consumer markets. Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence McAulay, Treasury Board president Scott Brison, and the premiers of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, will join more than 70 businesses, universities, and organizations participating in trade shows and business-to-business meetings. The aim is to promote Atlantic Canadas food, education, clean growth, and tourism sectors. In an interview Monday, Brison said the co-operative effort is part of the Atlantic Growth Strategy launched by Ottawa and the four provinces in 2016. A regional approach, where the federal government helps support the work of our businesses in Atlantic Canada and the work of our provincial governments, can make a real difference and take the level of trade and opportunity over time to a new level, said Brison, a Nova Scotia MP. He said the goal is to build on the trust and relationships that have been established in the Chinese market. That requires face-to-face interactions and meetings, and you cant just go there once, you have to go there repeatedly over a sustained period. Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil will be travelling to China for the second time this year it will be his sixth trip overall. According to the federal government, exports to China from Atlantic Canada grew 37 per cent last year to more than $1.5 billion, with seafood exports having doubled in the past five years alone. Chinese tourism is also on the rise, while Atlantic Canadian universities currently get more than 30 per cent of their international students from the economic powerhouse. Brison said about 30 million Chinese enter the middle class every year, and that countrys consumer culture has developed tastes for such items as high-quality food and wine. He said they are trends that represent a great opportunity for Atlantic Canada, which is producing world renowned seafood, particularly lobster. We have opportunities that simply didnt exist 10 years ago in terms of the China relationship, he said. In Nova Scotias case, China is the provinces second largest trading partner after the U.S., with exports having grown from $150 million in 2012 to $494 million in 2016. McNeil said opening China to products such as lobster has been key to keeping prices at higher market levels. That has allowed the extra money received for that price to be spun around in every rural community across the province, he said. Its one of the best rural economic strategies that we have. Another key is convincing even more Chinese students to study in the region, the premier said. They currently are the largest number of international students who come here. We believe that number can grow substantially to continue to help sustain our post-secondary institutions. The trade delegation is to visit the cities of Qingdao, Shanghai, and Beijing, where it will take part in the China Fisheries and Seafood Expo, the China International Import Expo, and the Canada China Business Council Annual General Meeting and Business Forum. Read more about: Encana Corp.s founder and former chief executive officer Gwyn Morgan said hes disappointed by the drillers $5.5 billion (U.S.) purchase of Newfield Exploration Co., which moves focus to the U.S. and dashes his hopes that the company would represent Canada on the world stage. Morgan, who named the oil and gas producer Encana to evoke Energy Canada, blames the move on Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus environmental policies, which he has said are making the country irrelevant in the global energy industry. The Newfield deal extends Encanas reach into the shale fields of Oklahoma. It also moves the company toward what current CEO Doug Suttles called a headquarter-less model, with operations controlled from offices near Houston, Suttles home city of Denver and in the companys official base of Calgary. Im deeply saddened that, as a result of the disastrous policies of the Trudeau government, what was once the largest Canadian-headquartered energy producer now sees both its CEO and the core of its asset base located in the U.S., Morgan, who served as Encanas CEO from 2002 to 2005, said in an emailed statement Friday to BNN Bloomberg television. Morgan said he had envisioned that Canada should have an energy company that stood among the worlds biggest and best. Encana declined to respond to Morgans comments. Canadas Department of Natural Resources responded that Trudeaus administration has done more to support the energy industry and get its resources to market in his three years in power than the rival Conservatives did in a decade. Spokeswoman Vanessa Adams said in an emailed statement that Canada is one of the worlds most attractive destinations for investment in sustainable natural resources development and pointed to LNG Canadas decision to proceed with a $31 billion facility last month as evidence. Encanas Newfield deal does not change the fact that Canada is a great place to do business, Adams said. Read more about: The Canadian government is looking to sell a 90 per cent stake in Ridley Terminals Inc., a federal Crown corporation. The remaining 10 per cent stake will be transferred to the Lax Kwalaams Band and the Metlakatla First Nation at the close of the sale. Ridley Terminals operates on Ridley Island in Prince Rupert, B.C. It transfers bulk commodities such as coal and petroleum coke from rail cars to ocean-going vessels. Canada Development Investment Corp. says the sale will be conducted on an open and competitive basis. It says its seeking the best value from a buyer who will operate Ridley Terminals on a long-term sustainable basis and with open access. Read more about: Icelandair Group hf. reached a surprise agreement to buy discount rival Wow Air, bringing together the island nations two financially embattled airlines. The carriers will continue to operate under separate brands while aiming to better compete on routes linking Europe with North America, they said Monday. Shares of Icelandair surged on the deal, which will create a combined company with about 3.8 per cent of that market. Both airlines have struggled with slumping tourist visits to Iceland, higher oil prices and the introduction of direct low-cost trans-Atlantic flights by rivals, which have made changing planes en route less appealing. Icelandair, which dates back to the 1930s, said last week it had breached debt covenants and asked bondholders to grant a waiver. Unprofitable Wow, founded in 2011, had targeted a listing while seeking a partner to see it through the winter slump. This year in particular has been extremely challenging compared to the incredible growth and success that we enjoyed during prior years, Wows founder and chief executive officer, Skuli Mogensen, said in an email to staff obtained by Bloomberg. External conditions have continued to deteriorate and the outlook for many airlines has gotten extremely rough. Wow has been working to improve the outlook, but was faced with tough decisions, he said, acknowledging that the sale to Icelandair would come as a shock to many employees and was not part of the original game plan. Bogi Nils Bogason, CEO of Icelandair, whose shares closed 39 per cent higher at 11 krona ($1.22 U.S.) in Reykjavik, said in a statement that he sees many opportunities for synergies between the carriers. Wow investors, primarily sole owner Mogensen, will get a 5.4-per-cent stake in Icelandair, which has a market value of 55 billion krona ($455 million) after Mondays gains. That suggests a valuation of about $25 million for Wow. Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, Icelands minister for transport, said the government had been monitoring developments and wasnt surprised by the merger announcement. He said the step was positive in guaranteeing the survival of Icelands tourist economy, while adding that the country is served by 25 other airlines, so that there shouldnt be a huge impact on competition. Wows equity will account for about 3.5 per cent of Icelandair, a figure that could fluctuate between 4.8 per cent and zero depending on conditions that werent detailed. A subordinated loan will be converted to about 1.8 per cent of the equity in the buyer, the remainder of the purchase price. Icelandair developed a reputation as a backpackers airline in the 1970s, when direct trans-Atlantic trips were focused on the business market and cost far more than they do today. More recently, the carrier has sought to link cities on either side of the Atlantic that dont have direct flights, through its Keflavik hub. That market is now being eroded as major operators such as British Airways expand their networks and newer discounters led by Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA launch routes with more efficient planes. Wow Air also serves the trans-Atlantic market, but has tended to focus on major destinations, relying on its low-cost structure to attract cost conscious, time-rich travellers. With that edge disappearing and vacation visits to Iceland also stagnating after a tourism boom, Mogensen has more recently turned to the U.S.-Asia market for expansion. Flights from North America via Keflavik to New Delhi are due to start on Dec. 7, priced from $199. Mogensen founded Wow after selling mobile software company Oz Communications to Nokia Oyj in 2008. Icelandic pension funds are among Icelandairs owners, though its largest shareholder with a 14 per cent stake is Lifeyrissjour Verslunarmanna, which is operated by a retail and office workers union. BOUCHERVILLE, QUE.Lowes Companies Inc. says it plans to close 31 Canadian stores including four in the GTA and other locations as part of a plan to focus on its most profitable operations. The closures include 27 mostly Rona stores in Canada including nine in Ontario, nine in Quebec, six in Newfoundland and Labrador, two in Alberta and one in British Columbia. Lowes also plans to close its regional support centres in Mississauga, Ont., and St. Johns, N.L., as well as a truss plant in St. Johns, N.L., and a block plant in Kamloops, B.C. Sylvain Prudhomme, chief executive of Lowes Canada, said the changes will allow it to improve collaboration between its banners to better serve customers. Everything will be done to ensure a smooth transition until the stores are closed, and Lowes Canada will support impacted employees, including by transferring eligible employees to other locations within our network whenever possible, Prudhomme said in a statement. Lowes says it expects to close the impacted stores by the end of the companys 2018 financial year, Feb. 1, 2019. Read more: Jean Machine to close down all 24 of its stores by the end of February DSW Inc. to close Town Shoes brand and 38 stores in Canada by January Pier 1 Imports closing six stores in Canada as of August 4 The company is also closing 20 stores in the U.S. The U.S. retailer acquired Rona Inc. in Canada in 2016 in a deal valued at $3.2 billion. Based in Boucherville, Que., Lowes Canadian business has more than 630 corporate and independent affiliate dealer stores. It includes Lowes, Rona, Reno-Depot, Dicks Lumber, Contractor First and Ace. Canadian closures British Columbia Block plant, Kamloops Rona New Westminster (Colombia Square) Alberta Rona Calgary (Douglasdale) Reno-Depot Calgary West Ontario Regional support centre, Mississauga Rona Mississauga (Westdale Mall) Rona Mississauga (Lakeshore) Rona Sault Ste. Marie Rona Sudbury Rona Peterborough Rona Kingston (Bath Road) Rona Lakefield Lowes North York (Centerpoint Mall) Lowes Sault Ste. Marie Quebec Rona Sainte-Clotilde Rona Iberville Rona LAssomption Rona Granby Moeller Rona Sainte-Rose Rona Riviere-des-Prairies Rona Rouyn-Noranda (Mantha) Rona Ange-Gardien Rona Saint-Elzear Newfoundland and Labrador Regional support centre, St. Johns Truss plant, St. Johns Rona Conception Bay South Rona Goulds Rona St. Johns (Topsail) Rona St. Johns (OLeary) Rona St. Johns (Torbay) Rona Bay Roberts Encana Corp.s founder and former chief executive officer Gwyn Morgan said hes disappointed by the drillers $5.5 billion purchase of Newfield Exploration Co., which moves focus to the U.S. and dashes his hopes that the company would represent Canada on the world stage. Morgan, who named the oil and gas producer Encana to evoke Energy Canada, blames the move on Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus environmental policies, which he has said are making the country irrelevant in the global energy industry. The Newfield deal extends Encanas reach into the shale fields of Oklahoma. It also moves the company toward what current CEO Doug Suttles called a headquarter-less model, with operations controlled from offices near Houston, Suttles home city of Denver and in the companys official base of Calgary. Im deeply saddened that, as a result of the disastrous policies of the Trudeau government, what was once the largest Canadian-headquartered energy producer now sees both its CEO and the core of its asset base located in the U.S., Morgan, who served as Encanas CEO from 2002 to 2005, said in an emailed statement Friday to BNN Bloomberg television. Morgan said he had envisioned that Canada should have an energy company that stood among the worlds biggest and best. Encana declined to respond to Morgans comments. Trudeaus office responded that his administration has done more to support the energy industry and get its resources to market in his three years in power than the rival Conservatives did in a decade. Spokesperson Vanessa Adams said in an emailed statement that Canada is one of the worlds most attractive destinations for investment in sustainable natural resources development and pointed to LNG Canadas decision to proceed with a $31 billion facility last month as evidence. Encanas Newfield deal does not change the fact that Canada is a great place to do business, Adams said. Read more about: Encana Corp.s controversial planned acquisition of U.S. shale producer Newfield Exploration Co. in a $5.5-billion (U.S.) deal has more merit than appears. News of the agreed takeover, unveiled last Thursday, sent Encana shares plunging on the Toronto Stock Exchange as much as 18 per cent in intra-day trading the biggest such drop on record. True, this is the biggest deal in Encanas history. Its also true Encana has been a big-time disappoint for investors, with a current stock price of about $12 that is 87 per cent below its 2008 peak. The deal appears to reverse managements strategy of slimming down its assets, and gets Encana into what for it is terra incognita, in Oklahoma, North Dakota and Utah shale fields. The deal also, however, transforms an Encana with an unclear identity opting for a headquarterless model hasnt helped into a more focused enterprise, as North Americas second-largest shale explorer. This at a time when the U.S. shale industry, with its prodigious output and low-cost production, has eclipsed Saudi Arabia as the worlds largest oil producer. Its also a timely move to greatly reduce Encanas Canadian exposure at a time of transportation bottlenecks and a near-record price discount for Western Canada Select (WCS). Encana should see significant earnings growth, and soon, simply by having much more of its total production fetching the much higher West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark price. With the stock plunge, CEO Doug Suttles got a sobering reminder of just how soured Bay Street is on what could be called the old Encana. But the Newfield deal should enable Suttles to make good on his promise to boost dividends and generate cash for share buybacks. No one likes a whiner In reporting spectacular third-quarter results last week, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNR) somewhat inexplicably unloaded on all the purported culprits making its life difficult and, by extension, misery in the entire oilpatch. In an earnings call with analysts, Tim McKay, CNRs chief operating officer, excoriated Canadas dysfunctional regulatory, legal and political systems that allow endless delays to be put forward by minor distractors. By which CNR can only mean that fretful residents of B.C.s coastline, Indigenous groups, environmental experts at home and abroad, and a Federal Court of Appeal that blocked the proposed expansion of a Trans Mountain pipeline that Ottawa is striving to get built for CNR and its peers are all inconsequential. And, perforce, that the world should revolve around CNR. Its that sentiment that so powerfully works against the oilpatchs interests its tradition of blaming others for its woes. Which cant amount to all that much, given the soaring third-quarter profits for CNR, which more than doubled; for MEG Energy Inc. (up 41 per cent); and for Suncor Inc. (up 85 per cent). As an army of critics have noted, the National Energy Board (NEB) has long been super-friendly to the oilpatch, a practice that backfired when the court ruling against Trans Mountain implicitly suggested the NEB had done an insufficient job in protecting the people and the land in approving a Trans Mountain expansion. Its no ones fault but the oilpatchs that producers over-expanded in recent years in full knowledge that pipeline capacity restraints would be the result. Or that peers didnt adopt the Suncor model of dedicated pipelines and its own, Canadian, refineries. Suncors peers, by contrast, are hostage to the low prices paid by U.S. heavy oil refiners. Amazon caves to Trump This week, Amazon.com Inc. ceases its practice of e-mailing customers with stories in The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. The move has been praised by marketing experts as a step away from politics by the worlds biggest online retailer. Amazon continues to pursue similar cross-marketing opportunities at its Whole Foods Market and Internet Movie Database (IMDb) units. Amazon has long been seen as somehow jeopardized by U.S. President Donald Trumps regard for the Post as Amazons chief lobbyist. The evidence suggests, however, that Amazons robust team of real lobbyists in Washington has secured for Amazon most of what it wants by way of Amazon-friendly tax law, for instance, and intellectual property protections in the recently agreed U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The Post is routinely described as an anti-Trump attack dog. But its the New York Times that has broken most of the devastating stories about a dysfunctional Trump White House, not the Post. Which explains why Trumps Twitter rants have mostly been directed at the money-losing NYT. (Actually, the New York Times Co. has been impressively profitable for several years.) Bezos long ago broke with U.S. tech CEOs in keeping his qualms to himself about, for instance, Trumps injurious anti-immigrant outspokenness, which contributes to skills shortages in Americas high-tech industries. Most telling is that the Post stories pushed to Amazon customers were the papers best-read stories, most of which had nothing to do with Trump or politics. That suggests a Bezos whos running scared a victory of sorts for Trump, and a mild blow to a free press that Trump has called an enemy of the people. Read more about: Saptha Kanya Saptha Kanya is one of those rare popular works of art which actually stood for something: in its case, the eighties. Like the music of Clarence Wijewardena and the voice of Rookantha Gunathilaka and the dubbed cartoons of Titus Thotawatte and the television serials of Somaweera Senanayake, it was a definitive symbol of the most turbulent decade to hit this country. It was hard not to love, to be honest. Saptha Kanya enraptured me the first time I saw it as a teenager for roughly the same reason why it continues to enrapture teenagers today; it tells a story and isnt ashamed of narrating it the way we want. A surprise hit when it was released, it proved that the director, H. D. Premaratne, was a force to be reckoned with and that art and commerce, far from being polar opposites, could cohabit. You can remember Saptha Kanya for many reasons. I remember it for two. Kamal Addaraarachchi and Sangeetha Weeraratne. I have already written on Kamal. This piece, for no reason whatsoever, is for Sangeetha. I cant think of another actress, before her time, who embodied the essence of her characters and made it look like it was the easiest thing in the world Different roles I cant explain why, or for that matter how, but as an actress Sangeetha never sticks to one mould. Unlike most actresses from her generation, she does not conform to one set of characterisations. I am not sure whether she picks her performances like some of her more studious contemporaries. I wouldnt be surprised if she doesnt. She can be a free soul in one film, a fun loving girl in another, a tempestuous, wronged lover in another, a rural innocent in yet another. The closest to a summing up of these, the way I see it, is this; she likes to taste freedom and she likes to flirt, but if necessity compels it, she can, and she does, rebel. Thankfully, the fact that it is difficult to categorise her roles has the effect of making us remember all her performances; its the thin line that divides a typecast performer from a more versatile player. Call me deluded, but when I see Sangeetha act, I dont see her oozing out what shes got to bring about a great or even good performance; she doesnt struggle or knit her eyebrows to do what the script demands her to do. Part of the reason for that is her easygoing personality, and her casual, almost dismissive voice: she doesnt muster every ounce shes got for her role, but gets into it in the easiest, most effective way possible. In the history of our cinema I cant think of another actress, before her time, who embodied the essence of her characters and made it look like it was the easiest thing in the world. Theres next to no effort, in other words, and even if there is, she doesnt make it obvious. That is, I believe, her signature. Yashoda Wimaladharma, as I wrote last week, had to graduate from the stage to the screen. Owing to her family, in particular her father, Sangeetha didnt have to make such a trek. Surprisingly for her, however, she was never really interested that much in the movies. I liked maths and dancing more, she remembered for me when we met somewhere in January 2015; these she took to when she shifted from her first school, St Johns College Panadura, to her second, Methodist College Colombo. Influence of Kamal But then, her interests changed when her father, Timothy Weeraratne, entered the second phase of his career in the early eighties, and became a filmmaker. Still, she wasnt exactly moved by the idea of cinema as an art: I had a flair for accounts, so I became more fascinated with the business aspect to the movie-making process. With his connections in the industry, Timothy introduced young Sangeetha to Roy de Silva, who promptly cast her in Its a Matter of Time. She was 16. Perhaps it was more than just an irony of fate that even in her first outing, she would be paired with that most frequent collaborator and co-star of hers, Kamal Addaraarachchi, an advantage for her since I picked up a great many things about acting from him,she says. Its a Matter of Time, however, was a romantic comedy that, like most of Roys other romances and comedies, could have come from any director; for her to mature, she had to be taken aboard a more serious production. This was Nomiyena Minisun, directed by Gamini Fonseka. What was eye opening about the production was the man behind it. Fonseka had a knack for identifying the subtle nuances of his actors. This may or may not have come from his long career as our foremost and most sought after actor. In any case, he made you know wanted the best out of you. The challenge for her in Nomiyena Minisun was to play out a pregnant woman who learns that her boyfriend has died on the battlefield. How on earth could I portray a pregnant woman when I was barely 17? That she managed to pull it off on the first take, to her astonishment, didnt console her: Continuity was my biggest issue. A few weeks later, when I had to repeat my performance, I realised it was not going to be easy. To put it simply, I couldnt make myself cry. Maruthaya Gamini Fonseka being Fonseka, the solution presented itself to him in the most primitive way conceivable. Imagine me trying to emote, and imagine him coming to me, cool as a cucumber, and without even warning me, bursting a can of glycerine on my eyes. That was what he did. I didnt know how to react to it, except, of course, by crying. Which is, after all, what the director had wanted all along. From that point on, as that cliche puts it, there was no turning back. From H. D. Premaratne to Vasantha Obeyesekere, from Sumitra Peries to Benet Ratnayake, from Udayakantha Warnasuriya to Sunil Ariyaratne, she has encountered and been tutored under those who took a serious attitude towards the movies. At the same time, she has occasionally dallied with commercial outings: Kolompoor (Dinesh Priyasad), Johnson and Gonson (Roy de Silva), Sathutai Kirula Ape (Sunil Soma Peiris), and the most atrociously enjoyable of them all, Rae Daniel Dawal Migel (Roy de Silva, again). For some reason, though I cant put a finger on it, I see the same character emerging from her in these populist forays, hedonistic and fun-loving, self-indulgent, almost always bohemian: a world from her serious performances. Sangeetha is at her best when she reveals her character in glimpses, and not in gushes. I am thinking here of Saptha Kanya, Duwata Mawaka Misa, Dorakada Marawa, and Salelu Varama, as opposed to, say, Maruthaya, Sewwandi and Kinihiriya Mal. Its a subtle difference you see between these, yes, but its a difference nevertheless. I cant explain why, or for that matter how, but as an actress Sangeetha never sticks to one mould. Unlike most actresses from her generation, she does not conform to one set of characterisations As the years move on, she becomes more and more assertive from the start of the movies shes in, thereby keeping us from expecting anything new. It was difficult, for instance, to imagine Deepthi in Saptha Kanya to be anyone other than the pickpocket she is till the end, just as it was difficult to imagine Subashini in Dorakada Marawa to be anyone other than the tormented, victimised spurned lover she was until her death. But the same cannot strictly be said of her character in, say, Kinihiriya Mal, where her rebelliousness comes out (in gushes) even before she turns to prostitution. That sort of openness is what pits her against the more controlled Yashoda Wimaladharma in Guerrilla Marketing, particularly when her character learns that Yashodhas character was in love with her husband (Kamal). Its a clash between two schools of acting, not just actors, and while I wont say which one triumphs over the other, I will say that throughout this phase of her career, Sangeetha refuses to let her characters cower before the brunt of the world so much that she ends up revealing her entire self to us, warts and all. UDAKDEV1@GMAIL.COM CALGARYCanada Post workers in Calgary and Edmonton are once again off the job. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) announced early Monday morning that its workers in Calgary around 2,100 would return to the picket lines as of 8 a.m. Calgary time as negotiations between the union and Canada Post continue. Workers in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge, Alta. also went on strike, as did workers in Saguenay Lac St-Jean, Que. The unions members have been engaging in a series of rotating strikes across the country that began on Oct. 22 in Edmonton, Victoria, Windsor, Ont., and Halifax. Most are intended to last 24 hours, but Toronto-area Canada Post workers went on strike for roughly two days. Its unclear how long Mondays strikes will last. After two weeks of these strikes, Canada Post said its struggling to keep up. Canada Post has been working hard to minimize the service impact to Canadians, but the unions escalating strikes continue to cause backlogs in our national, integrated delivery network, the Crown corporation said in a statement Monday morning. As a result, customers could see delays of several days. Small businesses across Alberta havent seen much of an impact yet, according to Richard Truscott, vice-president of B.C. and Alberta for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Past strike actions in Alberta havent lasted longer than a day, but businesses especially retail are currently gearing up for the holiday rush. Its obviously a cause for concern for small businesses, as they head into the holiday season, that it may ultimately cause some disruption to their business during one of their busiest times of the year, he said. The unions concerns include pay and work discrepancies between urban mail carriers and their rural counterparts, forced overtime, and inadequate health and safety measures. Canada Post previously said it has been able to find common ground with the union on several of their major concerns, including workload and extending job security for all postal workers urban or rural. While the strike does affect retailers trying to ship their goods to customers, itll affect businesses trying to buy from other businesses more. Truscott said about half of CFIBs members pay for business-related orders by cheque, and at least two-thirds send at least 20 pieces of mail per month. Its bad news for Canada Post and its workers every time they threaten strike action or actually take strike action, Truscott said. Its giving more incentives to business owners to find alternatives and never return to Canada Post. Mail and parcels wont be delivered or picked up in Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, and Medicine Hat over the course of the rotating strikes. However, CUPW has said its members will continue to deliver critical pieces of mail such as welfare and pension checks. Read more about: EDMONTONEdmonton police are warning the public about a recently released violent offender who they believe may commit another violent act. Edmonton Police are warning that Jared Soosay, 22, has been released from custody. Soosay is a convicted violent offender, whose convictions include sexual violence. Police have reasonable grounds to believe he will commit another violence offence while residing in the Edmonton area. Soosay will be monitored by the EPS Behavioural Assessment Unit. Police say Soosays risk of reoffending increases significantly if he is under the influence of intoxicants. Soosay has been placed on several court-ordered conditions including a curfew of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily, refraining from purchasing, possessing or consuming any alcoholic beverage or drugs (including cannabis), not attending any licensed premises other than a dining room for the sole purpose of having a meal and not possessing any weapons. He is also barred from dating or entering into an intimate or sexual relationship with any person. Anyone with information on Soosay breaching his conditions is asked to contact Edmonton police at 780-423-4567. Read more about: Its far preferable for an artist to have attained mainstream success by letting the mainstream find them than to have explicitly courted the mainstream. Even then, youre caught in a strange artistic position. Do you follow your id and keep your fingers crossed that the quirks that brought you such unexpected fame and fortune dont drive the broader public away if pursued to an emboldened next level, or do you obsess over further cultivating the quirks that got you this far in the first place? Heloise Letissier, the Christine behind the multi-faceted French synth-pop project known as Christine and the Queens, went with her id. Christine and the Queens 2014 sleeper, Chaleur Humaine, was remarkably subtle, smart and slow-to-grow for a hit 21st-century pop record, which is undoubtedly why it took two years for it and the sneaky, snaky single Tilted to properly filter out of France and turn its English-language reissue into the biggest-selling debut album of 2016 on the U.K. charts. The masses came to Christine and the Queens, not the other way around. So Letissier whos kept things subtle, smart and slow-to-grow again on this falls deftly sculpted followup, Chris trusted in herself to do right the second time around by being even more herself. Or, to put it more accurately, even more Christine. She buffed up, she chopped off her hair and she embraced her pansexual nature with unprecedented authority. She became Chris. There were certain things that happened instincts and then you shape them into the pop form of an album but the idea to evolve into Chris was just, at first, something really natural, says Letissier, 30, calling from backstage before Christine and the Queens performance of Comme si on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert earlier this week. People were calling me Chris more and more and I didnt want to shield myself, and I wanted to work on something more exposed and bare and even more personal if I could, and the idea of Chris as a nickname to express that started to be really appealing to me. Even the physical evolution was just something that happened over some years of touring. My body changed and my relationship to my body changed, also. It was a kind of new-found eroticism. I was performing every night and I was onstage every night, and I was basically in control of a body in some form of abandon because when you sing and offer songs that youve written there is really something to the idea of letting go. Its both control and surrender and, I think, it just made me think of eroticism way more and I think I got a bit more confident to experiment with that. Letissier likes to use the metaphor of the Trojan horse in relation to her music, as behind her 80s-dappled pop melodies lie a lot of deeply personal lyrics presented in both French and English once again on Chris, depending upon the version you choose about the sometimes rocky road to reckoning with her queer identity. You dont have to dig any deeper than the appealing veneer, but theres a lot to process if you do. Ironically, Letissier has found that she got so big so fast at home that its only now that people are catching up to who Chris is. The queer sensitivity of my project is sometimes more understood in the U.K. or the U.S., I think, she says. I mean, Im not experiencing all the different layers of America myself. Im in, like, New York and L.A. and Im speaking to people who are educated and really get it. But in France it feels like the queer element of my project sometimes was not even perceived. I got to a point where I was really mainstream and the songs were on the radio and I think people knew me, but it was interesting because I was a Trojan horse who was not discovered. On the new album, she says, its more blatant and, actually in France, it got a bit more divided because people, I think, understood better all the layers of the project. There were more reactions to that and it was interesting to witness. Not that Letissier was terribly worried about potential reactions while she was recording Chris. Indeed, although there were some tentative sessions with Mark Ronson and Damon Albarn along the way, in the end she retreated to her basement and did all the writing and most of the production by herself. The only high-profile name in the credits is American funk maestro Dam-Funk, who contributes a little extra sexiness to the lead single, Girlfriend. Otherwise, its all Chris, all the time. I was discovering the studio process on the first album and I think I was a bit scared to take it upon myself to think of myself as a real producer, says Letissier. So it was really satisfying. And also it kind of took out the pressure. Reaction to Chris has been effusive. It ranks among the best-reviewed albums of the year to date on Metacritic with an 89 score out of 100. The current North American tour which, as usual, focuses as much on the choreography dreamed up by Letissier and French dance collective La Horde is selling briskly, too. The Christine and the Queens stop at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto on Monday sold out a long time ago. Nevertheless, Letissier isnt lying awake nights worrying whether or not she has another chart-topper on her hands. It feels like people are into it for the right reasons for now, she says. If we didnt use the word extraordinary at every turn, it would be a perfect word to describe the actions of both Anita Cenerini and Audrey Parker. Cenerini, 56, of Winnipeg, lost her soldier son to suicide in 2004. Parker, 57, from Halifax, lost her life to metastatic breast cancer in a widely publicized medically assisted death last week. Its doubtful either woman would have made it into our public consciousness if it werent for these personal tragedies that befell them. Yet it wasnt simply their tragedies that made them newsworthy. Its how, as ordinary citizens, they reacted to them. Each of them, in acting bravely and publicly, have changed the national conversation around a pivotal and painful social issue. How many of us can claim that kind of impact? Anita Cenerini, of Winnipeg, is this years Silver Cross Mother, a moving title bestowed by the Canadian Legion that means she will place a wreath at the National War Memorial in Ottawa on Remembrance Day, November 11. Read more: Thousands sharing, commenting on Audrey Parker's final public words In danger, but determined: Canadian Armed Forces help keep the peace worldwide Veterans finding that the next battle is with huge gaps in mental health care services For one year, Cenerini will represent all mothers who have lost a son or daughter to military service. What makes her honour significant is that she will be the first mother of a soldier who died by suicide to hold the title. Her son, Private Thomas Welch trained as an infantryman, served in Afghanistan in 2003, and less than three months after returning to Canada, hanged himself at the army base at Petawawa, Ontario. Thomas was 22 when he died. Cenerini, after researching symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) fought for years to have her sons death reclassified as a military death. It finally was reclassified in 2017. An investigation in the Globe and Mail revealed he was the first soldier to die by suicide after serving in Afghanistan. Cenerini made public painful details of the changes in her sons mood and demeanour after his tour of duty. Once quiet and cheerful on the job, Welch became agitated, angry and withdrawn after his stint in Afghanistan. He was never diagnosed or treated. After being named Silver Cross Mother, Cenerini issued a statement: The emotional, psychological and spiritual injuries our soldiers endure in service to their country may be injuries we have difficulty understanding or accepting but we can no longer allow fear and ignorance to deny these soldiers the honour they deserve in their deaths, and the dignity and respect for the families left to mourn. You can bet she will use her year long position to reinforce that point. Bravo to the Legion for giving her the opportunity to do so. In Halifax, on the same day Cenerini was announced as a Silver Cross Mother, Audrey Parker, 57, was getting ready to die. She had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in 2016, which had now spread to her bones and she had already been approved for a medically assisted death. There was just one problem. Parker would have liked to hang on at least until Christmas but she was worried that because the cancer had begun to invade the lining of her brain, she might not at a future point be able to give the legally required late stage consent. And so she went public with her decision to end her life before she was quite ready to do so, hoping it would spur the policy-makers to change the requirement for late stage consent in her category. Like many others who saw her being interviewed, I was struck by how cheerful and even glowing Parker looked. It unnerved me. This woman cant be ready to die, I thought. Yet die she did, surrounded by loved ones and leaving a poignant Facebook post saying I died a beautiful death. She also made the point that if it werent for a rigorous legal stipulation that she, who had a right to live and die as she wished, had to give that final late stage consent right before a lethal injection (in place no doubt to protect the vulnerable) shed still be with us, no doubt wearing her cluster of bracelets and paying fastidious attention to all the details that made her who she was. I loved her self written obituary, talking about her childhood, her education, her love of dancing (she was an underage disco queen) and chronicling her years as a businesswoman and fundraiser who never dreamed that with her dire medical diagnosis she would turn into an advocate for changes in the laws around medical assistance in dying. Dying With Dignity Canada will submit Audreys Law to the federal government, asking for an amendment that will abolish late stage consent for those like Parker already approved for a medically assisted death. This Friday Audrey Parker will be celebrated at a memorial service in Halifax. Before she died, she invited everyone to come, and even better, petition their member of parliament for changes to the law. Two days later, Silver Cross Mother Anita Cenerini will lay her wreath in Ottawa and be honoured at a luncheon. In an era in which politicians suck up so much oxygen loudly proclaiming to be doing what theyre doing good, bad or unspeakable on behalf of ordinary people, its worth saluting these two women. For their quiet heroism, and their grace and persistence in using their personal tragedies as an opportunity to change lives. Not so ordinary after all. Judith Timson is a Toronto-based writer and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @judithtimson Read more about: A paper published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests life expectancy in Canada could be threatened by the same factors that are causing it to fall in the United States. There are some signs which are pointing in the same direction, said Juergen Rehm of Torontos Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, a large teaching and research hospital. We find the same (trends), to a much lesser degree, in Canada. Rehm said life expectancy in the U.S. has begun to decline slightly something so rare in a rich nation that the last time it occurred in the U.S. was during the Second World War. Most of the new decline is due to an increase of deaths of despair: drug overdoses, suicide or alcohol abuse. The increase deaths are heavily correlated to areas with poorer and more rural people, said Rehm. Ninety per cent of whats happening with deaths of despair in the United States is happening in rural America, he said. You cannot let large parts of a country have a net loss in salary over ten to 15 years and expect those people to be as happy and as clear as before. In a commentary in the journal, Rehm said a similar trend appears to be taking hold in Canada. Read more: The worlds wealthy are buying their way to longer lives B.C.s average life expectancy drops for first time in decades due to surge in overdose deaths Overdose deaths have been increasing, to about 4,000 in 2017. They used to be under 2,000 not that long ago, Rehm said. Deaths from alcohol-related diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver are also increasing. And while Canadian income inequality is far from U.S. levels, Rehm points to World Bank figures showing it is on the rise. Our life expectancy is increasing, but its plateauing. Findings from a separate paper in the same journal back him up. The Public Health Agency of Canada says the average Canadian lifespan is 82 years still the tenth-longest in the world. But its up only slightly from 81 years in 2006. And Canadas current ranking is two notches lower than it was a decade ago. The same study finds the death rate from mental and substance use disorders increased by 11 per cent from 2006 to 2016. The agency found Canadians are generally in good health, although health issues in an aging population are shifting to disease and disability. Rehm said there are ways for Canada to avoid a decline in life expectancy driven by deaths of despair. Dont make booze cheap, for one. Rehm refers to dozens of studies linking price and availability of alcohol to its abuse. We have people speaking about one buck a beer, or nonsense like that, said Rehm, referring to a popular campaign promise by Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Rehm also suggested doctors need to re-examine why and when they prescribe opioid painkillers. While Canada has seen half the prescription opioids in the U.S., were still the second-highest country in the world. And politicians need to think about the impact of what they pass into law. We should allow those policies that are at least not worsening our gap between the rich and the poor. Rehm makes no apologies about straddling the worlds of health research and economic policy. Im a statistician, he said. Im not a member of a political party, Im not a member of anything. I look at the data. Will I convince everybody? No, but Ill do my best. Its a new condo development thats coming to the King-Spadina area, and, if it were a car, this building would be a Porsche. Set to be completed sometime around 2023, King Toronto will cost an estimated $700 million to build and will feature a pixilated design forming four mountain-like peaks. There are plans to have foliage running up the sides of the building, and units with tree-lined terraces. Its being designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, who is known for his unconventional creations. When units go on sale to the public in the first quarter of 2019 , one-bedrooms will start at $660,000 and go as high as $1.3 million. A penthouse will list for $8 million and there are three-bedroom units ranging from $2.4 million to $4 million. Luxury condos in Toronto arent a new thing, of course. We have the Shangri-La hotel/condo highrise, the Ritz-Carlton, the Four Seasons residences, to name but a few. But as politicians, including Torontos mayor John Tory, academics, activists and members of the public are grappling with what many are calling Torontos housing affordability crisis, King Toronto comes at a controversial time. King Toronto wont have any affordable units on site units at or below average market rent in Toronto, now at close to $2,000 for a one-bedroom apartment and neither will The Well, another new project, separate from but just south of King Toronto. The Well will have 1,700 condos and apartment rentals, and King Toronto, 480 units. Instead, both projects are setting aside development benefits for affordable housing elsewhere, in the case of King Toronto, $1.1 million toward affordable housing at Toronto Community Housings Alexandra Park neighbourhood near Bathurst and Dundas St. W. But housing experts ask why the massive projects wont include any affordable units on site and who will be able to afford to live there. It is good, certainly that at least investments will be made in (affordable) housing, but it would be more hopeful if there was an attempt to create more mixed communities where people with more means and those with less can actually share in a community together and make it thrive, says Peter Clutterbuck, interim executive director of Social Planning Toronto, a non-profit dedicated to improving social justice, equity, and quality of life in the city. The main reason the price points for the King Toronto condos are so high is the buildings design, explains Michael Braun, director of sales and marketing for Westbank, the Vancouver-based developer constructing the project with Allied Properties REIT. There are heritage features to the development two existing heritage properties on King are being retained and integrated into the project and the mountains or peaks of the building will be made out of glass blocks, far more expensive material than the typical concrete and glass used in condo towers. This will add to building costs, Braun explained. Our construction costs are 50 per cent higher than a typical condo building, says Braun, adding were essentially building a Porsche. He later said: I want to be careful to say that we believe good design can be affordable for everyone, adding Westbank-constructed social housing buildings in Vancouver are pretty, including one with affordable ownership opportunities, one containing city-funded artist studios and another that is a seniors building. In a separate Westbank project, the redevelopment of Mirvish Village, there will be 85 affordable units scattered among five towers and a midrise building on a site comprised entirely of purpose-built rentals about 890 units in total. Regarding King Toronto, the inspiration for Ingels, the Danish architect, was Habitat 67, the iconic, interlocking cubelike housing development designed by Canadian architect Moshe Safdie for Montreals Expo in 1967. The modular housing units there are stacked in various configurations and angles. So the King Toronto project isnt your typical condo slab tower, say Hans Ibelings, lecturer at the Daniels faculty of architecture, landscape and design at the University of Toronto, an expert on architecture and co-author of a book about condo towers in Toronto. To me the (King Toronto floor plans) look much better than the average floor plans in most regular condo towers, which are spatially challenged. Most of the regular condo towers, the units are underwhelming, especially smaller ones, Ibelings says. He argues the reason typical condo layouts arent that good is their entrances are often on one side of the shoe box with the main window at the other end. In between its always the same sequence; bathroom on one side, den on the other, followed by the kitchen, bedroom and living room space, which means the den is often just a dark place, Ibelings argues. Here (King Toronto) because most of the units are flipped 90 degrees. They are wider than deep, he says. Instead of a long box, you have a wide box with more windows, and therefore, more light, Ibelings says. When it comes to the price points at King Toronto, Ibelings uses the analogy of someone wanting to buy a big car. You can buy a Dodge Caravan or a Mercedes SUV, similarly sized vehicles but with different prices. You get something in return better styling and more well-thought-out designs, or you get something cheaper but the quality is not the same, he says. In terms of city of Toronto approvals, King Toronto got the green light after the city and those behind the project reached a settlement agreement that was approved at the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT), an adjudicative body that deals with matters pertaining to municipal planning, land and financial issues. As for the price of the units, Lynda Macdonald, director, community planning, Toronto and East York district, said that while there are policies in the citys Official Plan that speak to finding ways to ensure a full range of housing types are available in Toronto including affordable housing, housing for families, singles, and people with mobility issues we cant control the pricing. But for every major project downtown, a percentage of benefits developers pay goes to capital repairs for existing affordable housing, or construction of new affordable housing, Macdonald says. The city does take a piece of that benefit and makes sure it transfers over to help us try to create more affordable housing, somewhere downtown, she says. Correction Nov. 6, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said units at King Toronto will go on sale to the public this weekend. In fact, the units will go on sale to the public in the first quarter of 2019. Incorrect information was provided to the Star. A Toronto judge has reserved his decision in the case of a former paralegal accused of advocating genocide and promoting hatred in email and on the internet, including an open Twitter account. Rupen Balaram-Sivaram has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges, including the rare charge of advocating genocide. The charges stem in part from a series of hateful social media posts and emails he allegedly sent to public figures and media organizations that call for death to Jews, homosexuals, Westerners and Christians. He testified this past summer he did not create the social media accounts, including some under his own name, and denies putting out any information to the public to incite hatred. Last week in court, defence lawyer Jason Rabinovitch reiterated his clients position that he did not commit any of the alleged offences. Alternatively, Rabinovitch told Superior Court Justice Michael Brown if he rejects Balaram-Sivarams testimony and finds he is behind the emails and social media postings, he should consider them personal opinions that are a reaction to news events. The postings in evidence are simply people having discussions in an open forum, as distasteful and disturbing as that may be, he said in court. In Canada, people are allowed to express contrary opinions, Rabinovitch said during final arguments. He can hate the Jewish people, Crown attorney Kim Motyl said in reply. But his comments take a great leap from engaging in political discourse to actively encouraging others to carry out violent acts. In her written submissions, Motyl wrote that Balaram-Sivarams entire social media footprint is riddled with evidence of his belief that those of Jewish descent and homosexuals should be exterminated. Further, his hard devices his computer, two USB drives and his cellphone are likewise full of such sentiment. The prosecution cited several examples of how Balaram-Sivaram allegedly committed the offence of advocating or promoting genocide in emails sent to public officials and media outlets. One 2014 email attributed to Balaram-Sivaram contained the suggestion that bombs, viruses and cyber warfare are the best punishment to be delivered across America, Britain and Canada. Balaram-Sivaram sent the email to a number of individuals in power nationally and internationally who would have the practical ability to execute a campaign of genocide, the prosecutor wrote. On Twitter in January 2015, a user named Rupen Balaramsivaram without the hyphen tweeted: The more Jews/Zionists & their Western allies are hurt, killed, the better. Death to Americans, British, Canadians and Jews. Another tweet said: Many more Jews to Be Exterminated Along with Useless Christians. Motyl called such examples clear, concise calls to action. The Twitter account in his name had a handful of followers. But as the Supreme Court has noted, when one posts to the internet, one loses the ability to control where the information goes, she wrote. There are millions of users who could access that information. Further the statements were made, not in the context of a private communication but rather, in the context of an open Twitter account, accessible (to) nearly a billion users. The use of the internet to spew vitriol and fearmonger by men charged with violent crimes has been the subject of much attention recently. The Pittsburgh man accused of shooting 11 Jews to death in a synagogue and the Floridian who attempted to bomb critics of U.S. President Donald Trump both reportedly vented online before allegedly committing their crimes. Theres no evidence Balaram-Sivaram carried out any violent acts beyond promoting what the prosecution called his hateful views to the world. Balaram-Sivaram who had his paralegal licence revoked in 2011 is also charged with criminal harassment, uttering threats and impersonation relating to his ex-wife and her current partner. The Crown alleges that over nine years Balaram-Sivaram, angered by his estranged wifes new relationship, made harassing phone calls and threats to her and her new boyfriend, in addition to sending hateful emails under his name. Mr. Balaram-Sivaram used these emails to send diatribes of his own, long-held hateful beliefs to members of identifiable groups, member of government, media outlets and others knowing that their transmission was illegal and would cause discord for his ex-wifes new partner, the prosecution wrote in a factum filed with the court. Thus, he could disseminate his own views, and blame a rival for their dissemination. The Crown cited several examples: In July 2014, the Green Party of Canada reported receiving threatening emails containing hateful messages and imagery signed by his estranged wifes partners name, with a spelling error. The prosecution alleges Balaram-Sivaram wrote and sent the messages, which he denies. Brown said he would deliver his verdict in January. RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIASomewhere in this kingdom, Prince Turki bin Abdullah is locked away. Turki, 47, was once a golden scion of Saudi Arabias gilded royal family, a prominent son of former King Abdullah and a fighter pilot with advanced degrees who trained in the United States and Britain. He was the powerful governor of Riyadh province, then chief executive of the multibillion-dollar King Abdullah Foundation, which funds charitable work around the world. He is now among an unknown number of superwealthy Saudis who remain detained a full year after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman startled his country by turning Riyadhs posh Ritz-Carlton hotel into a 5-star jail for some of the nations most prominent citizens in what he called an anti-corruption sweep. Prince Turki, who officials have reportedly accused of graft related to construction of the Riyadh subway, remains detained without any formal charges. His chief of staff, Gen. Ali al-Qahtani, was also arrested and died in detention under circumstances that have never been fully explained. Early this year, the Saudi attorney general said 56 men remained locked up, some the subject of criminal investigations, with more than $106 billion in cash, real estate, businesses, securities and other assets recovered in the Ritz operation. Mohammed said in interview last month with Bloomberg only eight men were still detained. He offered no other details, except to say, Theyre with their lawyers and facing the system that we have in Saudi Arabia. Read more: Saudi investigators worked to remove evidence of Khashoggi killing, claims latest report Saudis call for Amazon boycott over anger at Washington Post The tragedy of Saudi Arabias war But other people familiar with the detentions said the number is much higher, with 45 Ritz detainees still locked up. One of those may have won his freedom Friday when Saudi authorities released Prince Khaled bin Talal, 56, a cousin of Mohammed and Prince Turki. Khaled is a businessman and noted religious conservative who reportedly opposed the crown princes decision to strip power from the countrys notorious religious police. Human rights activists and other analysts said Mohammed may be preparing to release more of the some detainees to help cool the international furor over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Oct. 2. Khashoggis murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul at the hands of Saudi agents has strained relations with Washington and Europe and drawn attention to the crown princes human rights practices, including his record of locking up scores of his critics. They dont want to do it, but they are under pressure, and they will do it to release some pressure, said Yahya Assiri, a Saudi human rights activist living in self-exile in London. But he cautioned against overstating the importance of the release of Prince Khaled, suggesting it was mainly done to shore up support for Mohammed within the royal family at a time when the crown prince and his father, the current monarch, King Salman, are under stress. I think this is trying to show family unity in the face of scrutiny, said Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch who closely monitors the kingdom. Mohammeds roundup of wealthy Saudis a year ago helped cement his control over many of the countrys most powerful individuals and neutralized potential political rivals within royal family. Its about money and power, said a person close to the Saudi royal family. Mohammed bin Salman understands that if you take away their money, you take away their power. Faced with long detentions or other punishment, some of the Ritz detainees agreed to hand over the demanded cash, which often amounted to most of their net worth, according to accounts from family, friends and human rights groups. Many Saudis and foreign observers have applauded Mohammed for what they view as a long-overdue reckoning for the clubby culture of royals and well-connected families, who have long treated Saudi Arabias land, oil and riches as their own. But others see the detentions and reports of torture at the Ritz as a brutal move by Mohammed to settle scores and solidify his personal power. Critics say that explanation fits with his record of arresting scores of human rights and womens right activists and even clerics who disagree with his policies. Saudi officials strongly deny anyone has been tortured: That is not who we are, one official said. We do not torture. That word has never been in our vocabulary in Saudi Arabia. The crown prince appears to have targeted the family of former King Abdullah in particular. Several observers said this was the product of tensions between the Salman and Abdullah wings of the family that go back many years but became especially pronounced because of Mohammeds rapid rise to power. Prince Turki in recent years had grown increasingly concerned at the signs of Mohammeds accumulation of power, especially his control of an investigative unit in the Ministry of Interior that could be used to make all sorts of accusations, said one of the people close to the royal family. In addition to jailing Prince Turki, Mohammed also arrested three of Abdullahs other sons, including Prince Muteib bin Abdullah, 65, head of the National Guard, who was fired from his job. Two other sons, Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, 40, a former head of the Saudi Arabia Red Crescent Society, and Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah, a former governor of Mecca province, were briefly detained after they complained about the death of Qahtani, 55, who had been in the peak of health, when he was arrested, according to the person close to the royal family. Also detained two months after the initial Ritz roundup was Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz bin Salman, 36, who is married to a daughter of King Abdullah. His father was also arrested, and the two remain in detention with no formal charges filed, according to his lawyer. Several people with ties to the royal family said Mohammeds focus on Abdullahs family seemed designed to sideline potential rivals for power and to seize control of the King Abdullah Foundation fund, overseen by Prince Turki, which is estimated to be worth $20 billion to $30 billion. Salman, while still governor of Riyadh province, began grooming his son for leadership roles, naming him as a top adviser while Mohammed was still in his early twenties. When Salman became crown prince in 2011, also serving as defence minister, Mohammed was again installed as a top adviser. At the time, King Abdullah was worried about Mohammeds rapid ascent, according to a former Western diplomat with decades of experience in Riyadh. King Abdullah was concerned about what kind of authority being given to the young fella, who was not even 30 yet, the diplomat said. About a decade ago, Mohammed drew King Abdullahs ire when a top economic adviser complained to the monarch about Mohammeds stock market investments, prompting the royal court to censure Mohammed, according to a person close to the royal family. Later, Mohammed again angered King Abdullah by firing a series of deputies in the defence ministry, that person said. Abdullah moved to ban Mohammed from the ministry. The resentments ran both ways. Salman became upset when King Abdullah named another of their brothers to succeed Salman as Riyadh governor, the diplomat said. Salman had held the governors post since 1963 and wanted to keep it in his family line, the diplomat said. According to numerous media reports, some of the detainees are being held in al-Hair high-security prison south of Riyadh. Others are reportedly locked in private homes and are tracked with ankle-monitors. Those being detained, according to media reports and accounts from family members, friends and others close to the royal family, include: - Adel Fakeih, 59, the former mayor of Jiddah and former minister of economy and planning. - Walid Fitaihi, 54, a prominent physician who hosted a popular television show dealing with health and wellness, founded a hospital in Jiddah and holds American citizenship. - Amr al-Dabbagh, 52, chairman of the Jiddah-based al-Dabbagh Group and former head of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, one of the top economic positions in the country - Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, 72, a Saudi-Ethiopian businessman who had a net worth of $8.1 billion last year from his diversified interests in a Swedish oil refinery, Saudi gas stations and an Ethiopian conglomerate involved in gold mining, farming and construction, according to Forbes. - Bakr bin Laden, Jiddah-based chairman of the powerful Saudi Binladin Group, a multibillion-dollar conglomerate, has been one of countrys most successful and influential companies. Beyond any bad blood between the Salman and Abdullah wings of the royal family or effort to bring wealthy Saudis to heel, some observers also see historic regional rivalries at play in the detentions, noting those locked up have been disproportionately from the Hijaz region on the Red Sea, including Jiddah and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. These are the families that helped Abdul Aziz unify and build the country in the 1920s and 30s, said Robert Lacey, a British historian who has written extensively about Saudi Arabia and the royal family. Now they are treated as criminals. Read more about: An Arizona boy fatally shot his grandmother, then killed himself Saturday, after being instructed to clean his room, his grandfather told authorities. Doyle Herbert called police at about 5 p.m. to report his wife and their 11-year-old grandson were dead in an apparent murder-suicide, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office, Joaquin Enriquez, said in a statement. Hebert told authorities the boy shot his 65-year-old grandmother, Yvonne Woodward, in the back of the head after theyd asked him repeatedly throughout the day to pick up after himself. The boy was apparently being stubborn about it, according to the statement. After killing his grandmother, the boy turned the handgun which belonged to his grandfather on himself, the statement said. The couple had just sat down in their living room in their Litchfield Park, Arizona, home, located about 20 miles west of Phoenix, to watch television when the boy approached his grandmother from behind and shot her, the statement said. Herbert told police he initially chased after his grandson but stopped to perform first aid on his wife. Moments later, he heard another gunshot, saw his grandson take a few steps, then collapse to the ground. Herbert retrieved the weapon and called 911, police said. Neighbors told a CNN affiliate that the boy was known for playing around the neighborhood and was part of a nice family. It really hasnt set in just yet. I mean this is a nice neighborhood, its really quiet as you can see its just a tragic, tragic thing, neighbor Walter Venerable told azfamily. The boys grandfather told detectives he and his wife had full custody of their grandson. Investigators have not found evidence that suggests the boy wanted to harm others or himself before this incident. MACON, GA.A Georgia sheriffs office says a man robbing a Macon McDonalds accidentally shot himself in the thigh, foiling his escape. News outlets report the Bibb County Sheriffs Office says an armed man wearing a wig entered the restaurant Saturday night and ordered a manager to take him to a safe. Deputies say the manager complied before fleeing with another employee. It says they then heard a gunshot and saw the thief flee. Witnesses told deputies they later heard a man screaming for help. Deputies say 26-year-old Donte Sherrod Grayer was found wearing only his boxers and lying near a wig, money and other clothing. Deputies say he was identified as the suspect and taken to a hospital in stable condition. They say hell be arrested upon his release. Read more: McDonalds in Alberta serves pregnant mom cleaning solution instead of a latte Baylee, the police dog who eats cheeseburgers and fights crime, is retiring Read more about: The Asian Marketing Federation (AMF) has appointed Rohan Somawansa, the past President of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), as its new President, while two other prominent marketers from SLIM have been appointed as its General Secretaries. Concurrently, the incumbent President of SLIM, Pradeep Edward along with past President of SLIM, Ruwan Liyanagamage have also been appointed to the role of General Secretary of the Asian Marketing Federation at the recently concluded Annual General Meeting held in China. The members of the Board of the Asian Marketing Federation are chosen from among many candidates from other powerful member countries, namely Sri Lanka, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Vietnam and Malaysia. The Asia Marketing Federation (AMF) is a collaboration platform for all the marketing associations in Asia. Originally founded in 1991 as the Asia Pacific Marketing Federation (APMF), it evolved into AMF in 2007. The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) is the local body affiliated to the Asia Marketing Federation. Rohan Somawansa, the new President of the AMF, is currently the Head of Marketing and Corporate Communication/Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at the DSI Samson Group, the largest footwear manufacturer and retailer in Sri Lanka. Somawansa is a marketing graduate and holds several postgraduate qualifications. He has also served as a senior member of the Education Reforms Committee of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing in the last six years and as a Chief Examiner in Marketing for CMA exams conducted by CMA Sri Lanka. He holds several professional memberships, namely Fellow Member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing, Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) and the Singapore Institute of Marketing (SIM). He is also a member of the American Marketing Association and a member of World Chief Marketing Officers forum (CMO). Somawansa has been on the Board of the Asian Marketing Federation for a while, as he was initially appointed Vice President in 2011 and then the First Vice President last year, prior to his new position at the helm of the Federation. The incumbent President of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing, Pradeep Edward, counts over two decades of experience in the field, and has spent the last eight years at Board Level in General Management /Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer capacity. He currently provides direction to Lanka Hospital Diagnostic as their Chief Executive Officer. Edward holds an MBA from Buckinghamshire University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing / Business Management and a Diploma in Finance. He is a Certified Professional Marketer (Asia Pacific), Practising Marketer (Sri Lanka) Chartered Marketer (CIM-UK), and a Fellow Member of Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM-UK). SLIM past President, Ruwan Liyanagamage, who holds the joint position of General Secretary with Pradeep Edward, is a versatile business leader with a strong foundation in Sales and Marketing. He has over two decades of experience in various disciplines that include Finance, Sales and Marketing - specializing in FMCG markets. Liyanagamage held the post of Treasurer of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing, while he was a council member, for four consecutive years, just prior to being appointed as the President of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (2015/2016). He is a Director at Chisel Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, and Head of Operations for Therighttalent.net - a leading head-hunting partner in Sri Lanka. All three new appointees have been involved with representing and guiding the local marketing body, the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing, and have served the local Marketing and Sales industry in numerous ways. The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing promotes marketing excellence around the island as a corporate business philosophy and central business function and is an organisation that creates value for its customers and stakeholders. The Lion Air plane that crashed last week had faulty airspeed readings during its last four flights, Indonesia said, asking Boeing to take corrective measures on the aircraft to prevent similar accidents. Indonesias National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) is collecting data related to the recovery efforts made during the prior malfunctions, the agency said in a statement Monday, basing its findings on preliminary data collected from one of the black boxes. A Boeing spokeswoman in Singapore declined to comment. While search teams scouring the waters managed to retrieve the flight data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder is still buried under the Java Sea where the plane plunged on Oct. 29. The audio device may be crucial to unravelling what happened during the flights final moments. In particular, the device may explain why the crew asked to return to base minutes into the journey. We have said theres a technical problem but we also want to know what they were discussing in the cockpit and what they were doing, Soerjanto Tjahjono, chief of the NTSC, told reporters on Monday. Cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder are both important to reveal the truth in this case. With the data recorder in the hands of investigators, the NTSC has recovered about 69 hours of flying data by the crashed jet during its last 19 trips. Read more: Data recovered from crashed Lion Air data recorder: official Because Flight JT610 lasted only a few minutes, the voice recorder is also likely to include at least some audio from the previous nights trip from Denpasar, Bali to Jakarta. The aircraft, which would crash the next day, experienced problems on the flight from Bali with sensors used to calculate altitude and speed. The instruments were checked by maintenance workers overnight and the plane was cleared to fly, according to Lion Air. Even with modern GPS tracking, planes need to calculate their precise speed through the air. To determine airspeed which can vary substantially compared to the speed over the ground due to winds aircraft rely on Pitot tubes which measure the air rushing into them. By comparing that pressure against the ambient air pressure which is obtained by what are known as static ports aircraft can determine airspeed. If either of the pressure sensors are blocked, it can cause erroneous readings. Indonesias rescue agency said Sunday that wreckage spotted by divers had turned out to be only the skin of the Boeing jet rather than the main fuselage. Strong underwater currents in the Java Sea off Jakarta and a muddy seabed have complicated a weeklong hunt thats involved dozens of ships and hundreds of specialist personnel. As the 270-square-mile (434.5-square-kilometre) search for debris widened over the weekend, Indonesian authorities broadened a review of Lion Airs operations, including the airlines standard operating procedures and flight-crew qualifications. That followed the discovery of defects on two other Boeing 737 Max 8 planes both operated by Lion Mentari Airlines during checks on six aircraft of that type. The inspection of plane debris indicated the aircraft didnt explode mid-air before plunging into the Java Sea, Tjahjono said earlier on Monday. The aircraft broke apart under the impact of hitting the water at high speed, and it didnt break apart mid-air, Tjahjono said. The engines were still running at high RPM. Indonesias President Joko Widodo has asked airlines to make passenger safety the highest priority, and the government had already ordered a review of Lions repair and maintenance unit and suspended several managers. The transport ministry is co-ordinating with airport authorities, navigation operators and airlines among others to ensure airworthiness at all airports in Indonesia is well-maintained, according to Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi. Bloombergs Tassia Sipahutar and Kyunghee Park contributed. Read more about: ISTANBUL, TURKEYMore than a week after Saudi agents killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Saudi Arabia sent an expert team to clean up evidence of the crime, under the guise of helping with the investigation, a senior Turkish official said Monday the latest twist in a case that has caused an international uproar. A pro-Turkish government newspaper, Sabah, published news of the Saudi cleanup team and photographs of two of its members, whom it identified as a chemist and a toxicologist, who visited the Saudi consulate where Khashoggi was killed. The senior Turkish official confirmed the main details of the report and said the Saudi team was sent with the knowledge of top Saudi officials. The two men travelled to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of the killing before Turkish police were allowed to search the premises, the official said in comments relayed by electronic message. The two men were identified as Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Jonabi, a chemist, and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani, a toxicologist, part of a team of Saudi investigators who spent several days in Turkey visiting the consulate and the consuls residence, ostensibly to help with the investigation into Khashoggis disappearance, the newspaper reported. The Turkish official confirmed the names of the two individuals and said that they were part of a cleanup team. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, according to the rules of his office. Read more: Order to kill Khashoggi came from the Saudis highest levels, says Turkeys Erdogan Khashoggis fiancee asks Trump to press Saudis for his body SoftBank CEO decries journalists death, defends Saudi fund Saudi Arabia has detained 18 people implicated in the killing of Khashoggi, but has not said who ordered what Turkish officials have characterized as the political assassination of a prominent critic of the Saudi government. Turkish and Western officials have said that it is unlikely that such a plan would have been carried out without the blessing of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is seen as the countrys de facto ruler and has been consolidating his grip on power since last year. Speaking on Monday in Geneva, the president of Saudi Arabias human rights commission, Bandar al-Aiban, vowed a full investigation and punishment of those responsible, but shed no new light on the case. His remarks, before the United Nations Human Rights Council, came in a review of the kingdoms human rights record. Turkey has demanded, to no avail, that Saudi Arabia disclose what became of Khashoggis body, that it name the local collaborator whom a Saudi official said helped dispose of the remains and that it turn over the 18 suspects to face the Turkish justice system. In the wake of the killing, international companies have come under pressure to cut ties to Saudi Arabia, but on Monday, the chief executive of SoftBank of Japan said it would continue to do business with the kingdom. The Saudi cleanup team arrived in Istanbul on Oct. 11, nine days after Khashoggis death, and visited the consulate every day from Oct. 12 to Oct. 17, according to Sabah. Turkish investigators were not allowed into the consulate, which is considered Saudi sovereign territory, until Oct. 15. Sabah published photographs of al-Jonabi and al-Zahrani emerging from the entrance of the consulate and also published photographs that the newspapers investigative editor, Abdurrahman Simsek, said were head shots from cameras at airport passport control. The men arrived on the same day as a Saudi delegation that met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Oct. 11, as Turkish officials demanded to know what had happened to Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government who lived in the United States and wrote opinion articles for The Washington Post. He had entered the consulate Oct. 2 for a pre-arranged meeting to collect papers that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancee and was never seen again. When the group identified as a cleanup team was in Turkey, Saudi officials were still insisting that Khashoggi, 59, had left the consulate safely and that they did not know where he was. They later acknowledged that he had been killed in the consulate, at first describing his death as the accidental result of a fight and later calling it premeditated. (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.) Turkey has identified a team of 15 Saudi officials that it has accused of being the perpetrators of the murder, who arrived in Turkey in the hours before Khashoggis disappearance and left the same day. Some of the 15 turned out to be security officers close to Crown Prince Mohammed and included a top forensic specialist. The Khashoggi case has worsened Saudi relations with not only Turkey, but also with the United States and some of its closest allies, particularly in Europe. It has also increased attention on Saudi Arabias role in the civil war in Yemen, where civilian casualties continue to climb, leading to calls in the West to stop arms sales to the Saudis. The UN review of Saudi Arabias human rights record included demands for a transparent investigation into the killing, but representatives of several countries took a broader approach to criticizing the kingdom. They pointed to Saudi Arabias frequent and increasing use of capital punishment, including for nonviolent offences, and accused the Saudis of executing people for political or religious dissent. Read more about: COLOMBO, SRI LANKATens of thousands of Sri Lankans marched Monday in support of a new government led by the countrys former strongman, highlighting the political polarization in the Indian Ocean island nation. The rally near Parliament came amid a constitutional crisis sparked by President Maithripala Sirisenas move to oust Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, replace him with ex-leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and suspend Parliament. Wickremesinghe has refused to vacate his official residence, insisting he is the lawful prime minister and that the president had no constitutional right to replace him. Thousands of his supporters have been keeping vigil. Supporters of Rajapaksa at the rally chanted Whose power is this? Mahindas power! As patriotic songs blared over loudspeakers, thousands shuffled through heavy rain toward a makeshift stage. Police and Sri Lankan special forces with semi-automatic rifles stood guard. Police estimated 120,000 people attended the rally. State television reported there were at least 200,000. Read more: Sri Lankas political crisis turns deadly Pradeep Kariyawasam, the head of Rajapaksas party in Colombo, said that although Wickremesinghe continues to maintain he is the countrys legitimate leader, the people are with us. Give people a chance to choose their government and not hide behind constitutional interpretations, he said. Sirisena and Rajapaksa arrived at the rally amid loud cheers. Sirisena told the crowd that the change he initiated was more than a personnel shift. I ousted a vision that is incompatible with our local culture and values, and that works according to foreign agendas, Sirisena said. For the past 3 1/2 years, poor people were suppressed by Ranil Wickremesinghes economic and political vision. Local thoughts were rejected and an extreme neo-liberal form of governance was carried out. He was referring to Wickremesinghes free-market economic policies and public-private partnerships with companies from China and India to operate strategic centres such as ports and airports. Rajapaksa supporters have accused Wickremesinghe of selling Sri Lankas assets, citing a 99-year lease agreement his government struck with Hong Kong conglomerate China Merchants Port Holdings Co. Ltd. last year to operate a failing port developed with Chinese debt during Rajapaksas decadelong presidency. Foreign countries are trying to take our resources, take our land, said Mithra Kumara Jayasinghe, a wedding photographer at the rally who said he had voted for Rajapaksa the two times he was elected president, in 2005 and 2010, and when he lost a re-election bid in 2015. Critics of Sirisenas actions say Parliament was suspended to give Rajapaksa time to gather enough support to survive a no-confidence vote when lawmakers reconvene Nov. 14. Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said on Monday that he wont recognize the new appointments until either side is able to prove it has a majority. It means that the speaker still recognizes a Wickremesinghe-led Parliament. I wish to emphasize that I am compelled to accept the status that existed previously until such time that they (the pro-Wickremesinghe lawmakers) and the new political alliance prove their majority in Parliament, he said. The statement was fuel at Rajapaksas five-hour rally. Lawmaker Susil Premjayantha told the crowd that electing a new speaker could be the first order of business when Parliament reopens, suggesting the party will bring a no-confidence motion against Jayasuriya. Wickremesinghe said in an interview with The Associated Press last week that there is credible evidence that Rajapaksas party is attempting to buy support in Parliament. Palitha Range Bandara, a United National Party lawmaker, has said that he was offered millions of dollars and a minister portfolio if he crossed over. Lawmakers from Rajapaksas party have denied the allegations. Seven members of Wickremesinghes United National Front have defected to Rajapaksas government. On Saturday, the Tamil National Alliance an ethnic minority Tamil party said it will support a no-confidence motion to be brought against Rajapaksa, after one lawmaker from their party joined Rajapaksas government. The Tamil partys 15 votes could give Wickremesinghes camp a decisive edge over Rajapaksa. Both Sirisena and Rajapaksa attempted to woo Tamil lawmakers in their speeches at the rally. Speaking in the Tamil language, Rajapaksa promised to fulfil the Tamil peoples needs. What I ask from all Tamil and (Tamil-speaking) Muslim people and their political parties is to help to build up our country. I trust you and you can always trust me, Rajapaksa said. Ethnic minority Tamils in the countrys north and east are still reeling from the effects of a 26-year civil war between Tamil Tiger separatists and government troops. Rajapaksa is seen as a hero by the ethnic Sinhalese majority for winning the conflict. Tens of thousands of civilians were reportedly killed in the final months of the war in 2009, when government troops brutally crushed the rebels. Thousands more are still missing. Sirisena came into power in 2015 promising to address the issues affecting the Tamils and investigate allegations of war crimes against both sides of the conflict, but has done little in either area. He was also critical of investigations into military personnel accused of human rights violations during the civil war. Among the crowd Monday was Basil Ros, 58, a fisherman from the village of Negombo. Ros said a local lawmaker from Rajapaksas United Peoples Freedom Alliance bused him and his wife in with many others, pledging to give them 1,000 rupees (about $5.80), food and alcohol. He said he hadnt received any money yet. You cant trust politicians, he said. They might pay; they might not. After sacking Wickremesinghe, Sirisena announced that he made the replacement in part because Wickremesinghe and a Cabinet colleague were behind an alleged assassination plot against him. Details of the alleged plot have not been disclosed and Wickremesinghe has repeatedly denied the accusation. Tensions had been building between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe for some time, as the president did not approve of economic reforms introduced by the prime minister. Sirisena said at the rally that he would not be discouraged by resistance in Parliament, civil society and the international community to his actions. Even if there are threats, pressure and forces, I will only move forward and will not take a step back, he said. Read more about: WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump says he probably won't meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris, but will meet with him at the G-20 gathering of world leaders this year in Argentina. White House national security adviser John Bolton had said previously Trump would meet Putin this week when he travels to Paris for the Armistice Day 100th anniversary. But Trump told reporters as he departed for a trio of rallies Monday that he wasn't sure the venue was right. He says of Putin: "I'm not sure that we'll have a meeting in Paris. Probably not." Still, he says they will be meeting at the G-20 gathering and have "probably plenty of meetings" after that. Trump has tried to reset relations with Russia despite the country's 2016 election meddling efforts. Read more about: Its not that hard to find the Infowars articles that Jewish groups worry about. A quick search of the site pulls up an article suggesting the U.S. government perpetrated the recent attack on the Pittsburgh synagogue as a false flag operation. (Its the latest move by the Deep State to sow civil unrest and effect [sic] the historic upcoming midterm election, the sites authors write.) Theres one calling Jewish philanthropist George Soros a Nazi collaborator and dozens of others accusing him of funding a migrant caravan in Mexico and attacks on Supreme Court justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. Thats just in the last few weeks. Jewish leaders in Britain say the site which regularly uses words such as globalist, a term the Israeli newspaper Haaretz calls an anti-Semitic slur and dog whistle for white supremacists is biased against Jews. Now, some are calling on the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) to cut ties with the website. UKIP is the far-right, Euroskeptic party responsible for pushing Britains 2016 Brexit referendum, in which a narrow majority of voters chose to leave the European Union. Last summer, the party allowed Paul Joseph Watson, an editor at large for Infowars, to join the party. He campaigned for the group, particularly among younger voters on social media. A support video he made was featured prominently on the organizations website. (Another person brought in to sell UKIP was Mark Meechan, fined earlier this year for posting a video of his girlfriends dog giving Nazi salutes in response to phrases including gas the Jews.) Jewish groups said they are concerned about UKIPs connection to Watson and Infowars. A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies of British Jews told the Guardian newspaper that Infowars is propagating conspiracy theories and dog-whistle anti-Semitism. We call on the party leadership to publicly and unequivocally disassociate themselves from these views and to expel any members who are found to hold them, he said. Read more: Conspiracy theories made Alex Jones rich, and they may bring him down Major tech companies remove Infowars Alex Jones for hate, bullying Twitter permanently bans right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for abusive video The seepage of anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories into mainstream politics encourages hatred and undermines democracy, a spokesperson for the Community Security Trust (CST), which works against anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom, told the Guardian. Rather than shunning these dangers, UKIP appears to be embracing them; and in the process is losing any claim it once had to be a respectable, mainstream party. John Mann, a Labour party politician who chairs the British parliamentary group against anti-Semitism, called Infowars vile and dangerous. In a climate of political uncertainty, conspiracy theories have been rising in popularity. Infowars is notorious for its part in feeding such conspiracies and at the root of many, if not all, of these myths is a hatred and suspicion of Jews, he told the Guardian. Any party serious about tackling anti-Semitism and racism would do well to cut all ties with Infowars. Infowars founder Alex Jones has repeatedly attacked his critics for calling him anti-Semitic. Watson has avoided publicly endorsing many of Joness most far-fetched conspiracy theories. Watson is frequently the subject of attacks by actual anti-Semites because of his vociferous support for Israel. He is no more responsible for the comments of Alex Jones than Andrew Neil is for the comments of the director general of the BBC, a spokesperson for UKIP told the Guardian. This line of questioning, built on cynical supposition and innuendo, is a clumsy attempt to smear Mr. Watson and UKIP for political gain. To comment any further would give it a credibility it does not deserve. Canadian taxpayers should rightly be wondering why they are still footing the bill for office expenses for former governor general Adrienne Clarkson, who has claimed more than $1.1 million since she left Rideau Hall. After all, Clarkson completed her term more than 13 years ago, back in February 2005. But that didnt stop her from claiming $114,803 in the most recent fiscal year alone. And thats relatively modest compared to the $169,098 she billed in the fiscal year 2007-08. How can this be? Its all par for the course under a program initiated in 1979 that allows former GGs to claim administrative expenses related to their former role for the rest of their lives. Theres no limit on how long they can dip into this well, and theres also no apparent limit on how much they can claim. Nor is there any transparency or accountability built into the program. If an expense program with no transparency, no limits and no accountability sounds like a bad idea, thats because it is. Sensibly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this week after the National Post reported on Clarksons latest expense filing that the government will review the program. He acknowledged that Canadians expect a certain level of transparency and accountability. Thats a good start. But the review should not stop there. It should also examine putting limits on how much can be expensed each year and on how many years governors general can claim costs after their time in office is over. As it now stands, former GG Edward Schreyer, who finished his term way back in 1984, is still eligible to claim expenses. So are former governors general Michaelle Jean (2010) and David Johnston (2017). Its a sweet deal that flies under the public radar because expenses are published in public account documents only if a claim exceeds more than $100,000 in a year. Anything less than that isnt even publicly reported. So far, only Clarkson and the late Romeo LeBlanc have expensed more than $100,000 in a single year. In his case it was for the two fiscal years between 2007 and 2009 (he died in June of that year). In her case its for nine of the 12 fiscal years since she left office. How much other former GGs have claimed remains unknown, although a spokesperson for the Governor Generals office, Natalie Babin Dufresne, says all have made use of the program. Further, although they must enclose original receipts and invoices when submitting claims for reimbursement, the program does not require former GGs to publicly detail what they spend the money on. In fact, Clarksons executive assistant told the Post the expense claims are a private matter between the former GG and Rideau Hall. Really? Public spending is never a private matter, and as someone who faced occasional criticism for excessive spending while she was in office, Clarkson should know that better than most. This is not the first time the program has raised hackles. Back in 2011, after the Stars Bruce Campion-Smith reported on the issue, former NDP MP Pat Martin made a point that still stands: To have an administrative assistant for the rest of your natural born days should not be part of the compensation package for anyone. Indeed. That isnt to say former governors general shouldnt be able to claim some administrative expenses for a few years after their appointment ends on top of their generous pensions (Clarksons is $143,816 a year). After all, as Babin Dufresne explained, they are regularly solicited to support various causes, take part in important events and undertake official activities. There is some public benefit in that. But it has its limits and so should this program. Its news to me that gangs of pig thieves are roaming southwestern Ontario by night, dressed in biohazard suits and sneaking into barns to snatch piglets. What they do with them, they will not say. What they want, apparently, is chickens but one night in 2016 they happened upon some sows, same difference, and a flame to a lonely human heart was lit. Being a city person, I automatically assumed their purpose was sexual I once googled dog brothels and suggest you dont but no, they are genuine animal rights activists. Star columnist Tom Walkom has written about this phenomenon and it is fascinating. These guerrillas do open rescues, which means, among other things, that they dont use balaclavas. On themselves, I hasten to add, not the pigs. Again, these are fresh pastures. The first thing dog owners say is, Hes a rescue and I dont know what that means. A stray? Was about to drown? Walkom talked to Jenny McQueen, a retired Ontario civil servant who belongs to Direct Action Everywhere it sounds like the Baader-Meinhof Gang but incompetent a group trying to free animals from their prisons. She and her crew photograph ugly scenes in industrial chicken farms and packed sow barns and send them to the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It responds that the animals living conditions meet government rules. But its still terrible to treat animals this way. Fully 60 per cent of mammals, fish, birds and reptiles have vanished worldwide since 1970. Humans are horrible. The whole human-influenced Anthropocene era has been a disaster and when climate changes kills humans, it will kill animals too. Theres no morality to it. This train will run. McQueen is right to protest and campaign. She is not right to have broken in somewhere and stolen two piglets, one she named Noel and another one she refused to name, as if its still sourcing a fake passport. She will appear in court this month claiming moral innocence, and thats what mystifies and annoys people. Cranks like her are the reason veganism in all its variations is not taken seriously. McQueen and her group plus PETA, notorious for stunts and harangues are peculiar people. They are shunned. They are proof of what happens to good-hearted people with too much time on their hands. Work expands to fill the time available and thats why little Noel and Noelle were made to do a runner. Its cruel for McQueen to withhold information on their fate. Are they huge now? Are they bacon? For one thing, cranks anthropomorphize animals. Giving water to a random pig on a transport truck from a plastic bottle and saying I love you, as a weeping woman from Toronto Pig Save did in 2017 outside a slaughterhouse, is not constructive. The pig does not want your rancid human love. It has bigger problems. The real problem is global food. Meat production is industrial and relates to climate, agriculture, drought, subsidy, and human nature. Humans will eat meat until its no longer available. Then they will eat meat bred and grown in labs like Margaret Atwoods futuristic ChickieNobs in Oryx and Crake, large bulblike objects covered with stippled whitish-yellow skin from which grow fleshy tubes tipped with more bulbs. Yes, its a food chain. Until then, animal cranks will bully small Toronto restaurants, law-abiding family pork farms, hunters who eat what they shoot, and Indigenous people who trap for their livelihood. They will steal two piglets, leaving 2,598 behind, and for what? Worst of all, they are smug about the rightness of their cause, which rather detracts from the fact that their cause is basically right. Like every group from bitcoiners to hedge-funders, they have their own private language, which makes them members of a club few want to join. I am not apologizing to animals Ive eaten. Its a dead issue. Am I to apologize for the hum of my protein energy? The hideous torment we inflict on animals will end but not by calling piglets Biggles and sending them on an animal Underground Railroad. Science will put an end to it and we will be grateful or starve. VANCOUVERAs some of the roughly 150 evacuees from the northern B.C. community displaced by a slow-moving landslide head home, a feeling of unease hangs over what should be a cause for celebration. Scott Campbell, a longtime resident of the community of Old Fort, southeast of Fort St. John, B.C., said many questions remain about the cause of the slide, even as he and his neighbours begin their move back into their community. That feeling of unfinished business, Campbell added, was not improved by the brevity of the Peace River Regional District (PRRD) special committee meeting on Sunday, during which residents were told they could begin the move back into their subdivision that afternoon. We werent allowed to ask questions, Campbell said in a phone interview. It was just a total sham. We could only question things that were on the agenda, and if it wasnt on the agenda we couldnt ask questions about it. The lifted order came after the regional governing body PRRD reviewed a provisional analysis by independent geotechnical firm Westrek, contracted to conduct a deep dive into the risks and causes of the Sept. 30 earth flow and its fallout. The recommendations to allow Old Fort residents to return home were the only items on which the committee voted, he said, and were therefore the only items the public was permitted to speak to. The analysis itself included in the agenda package and a first look at what geotechnical engineers had discovered after a month of investigation was not up for discussion, he said. According to that report, the initial massive bedrock landslide originated at the south side of the Blair Gravel Pit, at the top of the valley ridge overlooking the only access road in or out of Old Fort. This failure triggered a subsequent slow moving earth flow within a broad gully that severely impacted Old Fort Road below, the analysis report reads. Landslides were also triggered to the southeast of the gravel pit and to the west of the earth flow. The slide further west, it continues, damaged a house, a further section of Old Fort Road and the BC Hydro transmission lines which bring electricity to Fort St. John. The slide further east consisted of nearly 10 hectares of land moving 10 to 15 metres, the report adds, although this movement stopped short of reaching Old Fort itself, or damaging any of that communitys structures. While the report recommends the Oct. 7 evacuation order be lifted, it also notes more detailed investigation and monitoring is required to understand the landslide depth, type of movement and triggering mechanisms. Based on present conditions, the potential for the massive rock slide (nearest the gravel pit) to move again is high, possibly causing the earth flow and both adjacent landslides to move, the report says. And despite recent data suggesting large-scale movement has ceased, conditions on the landslide can change with little or no warning. The entire affected area, therefore, should be considered to be at imminent likelihood of movement, especially as spring thaw and accompanying runoff come to the region next year. Missing from the report, however, is any reference to what may have triggered the initial slide. Repeated statements from BC Hydro beginning as soon as the slide occurred at the end of September have said construction on the Crown corporations nearby Site C dam project played no part in the slide, which occurred just a kilometre beyond the dams eastern most security gate. Westreks senior geologist Tim Smith told residents nearly two weeks ago the slide began as a bedrock failure near the area of the gravel pit following possibly months of shifting earth an observation reaffirmed Sunday. But the provisional report goes no further in exploring a possible causal link. The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources which is responsible for permitting the gravel pit itself has ordered an investigation of the gravel pit area. And while the ministry did not respond to a request for an update by deadline last week, a statement from late October said the investigation has been effectively stalled by the standing evacuation order on the site. That evacuation order is still in effect. The report further recommends that the operators of the gravel pit develop safe work procedures to allow for stockpiled gravel to be retrieved from the collapsed edge of the escarpment. Extraction of the gravel stockpiles is likely to have a neutral or positive impact on short and long-term stability of the rock slide, the report says. But Campbell pointed out that some of the other areas still under the evacuation order hug the ridge directly above Old Fort, raising questions about how safe the community truly is. Campbell acknowledged there may be answers for his concerns, but said he wonders why, if answers exist, no one is being permitted to hear them. According to Campbell, the PRRD has committed to making Westreks full geotechnical report available to the public once the document has passed peer and legal review. According to the PRRDs special meeting agenda, the review process should be complete within a few weeks. Read more about: VANCOUVERToo often, survivors of sexual assault choose not to report their experiences. For many, experts say there are deep-rooted fears that disclosing the incident will cause more harm than benefit. The personal cost for nothing to happen was too unbalanced for me, one survivor explains anonymously in a new report. Its like theres no guarantee that Im going to be heard and listened to and believed and the skepticism that policing seems to have with sexual assault and all forms of unwanted sexual contact is a huge barrier to me. She is not an anomaly. Concerns about being blamed, stereotyped or automatically disbelieved are typical barriers women face when reporting sexual assault, according to the report released on Monday by West Coast Legal Education Action Fund, a non-profit organization. It describes the experiences of survivors who identify as women in their own words. The multi-year project conducted interviews with survivors regarding whether or not to report and 18 anonymous experiences are highlighted. Sexual assault is the most under-reported crime in Canada, according to Alana Prochuk, the report author and organizations manager of public legal education. Roughly 5 per cent of sexual assaults are reported to police and only 11 per cent of those cases lead to a conviction. We live in a culture that misplaces blame at the feet of those who have been assaulted, Prochuk said. For certain survivors, it is hugely important to seek legal recourse but huge barriers often stand in the way for them. And it does not impact everyone equally. The risk of encountering such attitudes is acute for the most marginalized, including those who are Indigenous, are racialized, have disabilities, or do sex work, the report found. For instance, Indigenous women are nearly three times more likely to be sexually assaulted. When it comes to race, its not a level playing field, one survivor said in the report. Prochuk said most women feared being retraumatized. Additional barriers included economic concerns such as financial dependence on the perpetrator, potential job loss, privacy concerns and legal consequences, such as deportation or child custody issues. Yet, several survivors wanted to report for reasons such as accountability or preventing further harm. Read more: Law society program sees spike in harassment complaints in wake of #MeToo movement Greyhound exit leaves gap for homeless, domestic violence shelters New study explores extent of brain injuries in victims of domestic violence in Canada But the reasons why people choose not to report are only deepened by the legal systems inadequate responses, she added. What happens in court and what happens in policing can be quite different from the way the law is supposed to work, Prochuk explained. There are many myths that still operate which are legally invalid. These myths are deeply-rooted in culture and based on ideas of consent or credibility. Questions such as what were you wearing or why didnt you fight back create barriers to seeking support of any kind, let alone reporting to police, the report notes. I just kind of feel like since I went on a date with him, people would, yeah, I guess blame me for it, one participant recalled. I didnt want to you know, be viewed as this kind of girl that was asking for it. And expectations about how the ideal victim should act before, during, and after assault persist in the reasoning of some judges, the report reads. For instance, judges can make negative inferences from the consensual participation in so-called rough sex or any sex with the accused after being assaulted. A review of cases involving rough sex found that in most instances evidence of past sexual history was admitted as relevant to determine consent. But Canadian law prohibits the use of sexual history that suggests the assault complainant is less credible or that they consented, Prochuck noted. She pointed to the rising public awareness in the #MeToo era, which is contributing to womens willingness to speak out. Between 2016 and 2017, the sexual assault reporting rate spiked by 8 per cent while the unfounded rate meaning the offence did not occur or was not attempted dropped from 19 to 14 per cent. Still, survivors saw strong benefits in reporting and identified how if certain things changed, it would be a more viable option. Trauma-informed training for all in the justice system and giving survivors options in how to testify or give police statements were suggested, Prochuk said. But the criminal justice system is only one of many responses necessary, said Kasari Govender, West Coast LEAF executive director, in a release. Others involve Indigenous healing opportunities, housing, counselling services and health care. For some survivors, engaging with the legal system is not part of their path to healing and justice, Govender said. Our justice system can and must prioritize the rights of complainants alongside the rights of the accused so that reporting sexual assault to police becomes a real option for all those who want to pursue it. The report was conducted in partnership with West Coast LEAF and the YWCA Metro Vancouver. Read more about: All who led the party since Sirimavo are indebted to answer By Bandaranaikes, I mean, SWRD and Madam Sirimavo and not their off-spring who interfered with the smooth operation of Party machinery and initiated its descending path making the task easier for the successive leaders to cause imminent destruction; and going by the LG election results, even cause a natural death at the next General Election. Bandaranaikes wanted a practical third route along which social justice, democracy, and development could be achieved. They respected democracy to the letter except in one instant when Sirimavo violated all norms in extending the term by two years in 1975. Bandaranaikes did not bring disrepute to the party by entertaining through back-door losers rejected by people not only to sit in Parliament but offering Cabinet Ministerial positions. When SWRD felt things in the grand old party was not in his favour he was bold enough to stand up and quit the party and create a condition that cemented a two-party system, a necessary ingredient for a proper functioning of parliamentary democracy. As Daily Mirror reported on the 22nd instant, during a ceremony held at the BMICH to commemorate four Senanayakes namely DS, Dudley, RG and FR who had played great roles in securing independence, President Maithipala Sirisena observed, The late D. S. Senanayake, did not engage in corruption, did not waste public funds. He was patriotic and adopted home-grown agricultural policies. This is why the UNP became a great party. The UNP was built upon the visions of these great men. I hope the UNP would find greatness again and become the real party which was founded by these leaders. However, the current political turmoil has changed the scenario; the SLFP is in alliance with De facto SLPP leader Rajapaksa who assumed as PM. The massive show of strength around the banks of Diyawanna on Monday with Maroons overwhelmingly disappointing the Blues speaks a lot on the future of the 68-year-old party. The Attanagalla stronghold of Bandaranaikes, which they won by majorities of over 30,000 and 45,000 was lost to a three-month-old party at February 10 Local Government election under the leadership of current President and, the SLFP organizer for the electorate, and former President Chandrika Kumaratunga. The segments of the privileged and the increasing middle class aspiring to political control were without the resources of realising their aspirations. Bandaranaike was motivated in to back their cause and his project turned out to be an instant hit. Within a few years, he travelled a long distance on a wave of popularity to control an alliance of forces on the same line of thinking and ideas. Positioned in a left-of-the-centre point on the political variety, the SLFP represented more on the aspirations of those who comprised the support base of the Marxists and the result was a rise in of progressive actions such as nationalization which carried the party close to the rural population and the urban middle class. They constituted what Bandaranaike termed the Pancha Maha Balavegaya [Bikkhus, Ayurveda physicians, teachers, peasants and labourers], which carried him to power in 1956. This political mutually beneficial association between the SLFP and Marxists remained intact for long periods. Bandaranaikes wanted a practical third route along which social justice, democracy, and development could be achieved. They respected democracy to the letter except in one instant when Sirimavo violated all norms in extending the term by two years in 1975. Bandaranaikes did not bring disrepute to the party by entertaining through back-door losers Sirimavo Bandaranaike, affectionately known by people as something, was the most charismatic and female leader in Sri Lankan politics; the male being Rajapaksa. She succeeded her husband SWRD and came to power in an era where women were not prominent in world politics. She holds the honour of the worlds first female Prime Minister. Her era in office led to the best times of Sri Lankas foreign relations. She did not accuse intelligence agencies of foreign nations of conspiring to assassinate of our leaders or plotting to change regimes. The two senior Bandaranaikes have left indelible recollections of Sri Lanka in the world map with their middle-path foreign policy. Sirimavo actively involved herself in the non-aligned summit and also mediated the peace talks at India-China border conflict in 1962; made it an easy task for both China and India to the negotiable table due to cordial affiliation she maintained with these two nations and the regard she had from leaders of both countries. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party that was formed a few months before [September 1951] scored an island-wide percentage of 15.5 votes at the 1952 May Parliamentary election. Even when it suffered its worst loss in the history in 1977, the percentage never dropped below 30 percent. However, after celebrating the 66th year in existence and ruling the country for thirty-five years the party ended with a dismal 13 percent, [both SLFP and UPFA added together]. Presidential election held on January 8, 2015, the Common Opposition candidate Sirisena who defected his party to contest against his partys nominee scored largely assisted by the 37 percent UNP plus 5 percent JVP votes. He also received 8-10 percent floating votes. While Sirisena scored heavily in North-East and upcountry constituents, which traditionally are UNP or Minority Party votes but certainly not of SLFP. Leaving out those mentioned Maithris SLFP could muster only a pathetic less than 2 percent of the total. The analysis of results reveals the outcome of both the elections held in 2015 January and August: it proves that meagre percentage of 10-12 percent SLFP vote that he was able to muster in Polonnaruwa Districts [20,000 approx.] along with some support from [about 3000 votes] he gathered from his birthplace in Gampaha electorates Yagoda. The situation has changed drastically over the past 10 months in favour of SLPP. Surely, with three years of being President and with his consolidation of power as party leader, but as per the grass-root level SLFPer, there is a significant shift in current position. The large majority of the genuine SLFP supporters of Bandaranaike fame are excitedly waiting for an occasion to teach a lesson to those who sold the party to the traditional opposition. All the SLFP top-rankers that supported Sirisena at January 8, for personal reasons lost at the August election; why did he bring back them to parliament though legitimately permitted, but in an unconvinced manner? Havent some of them back-stabbed him? Such deeds and his virtual failure to execute unwaveringly have badly watered down his influence as a leader. Clearly, the President has exposed himself as someone motivated by political convenience. If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.Dwight D Eisenhower, March 6, 1956 Where is the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of Bandaranaikes? Who can retrieve, restore and reinstate the Sri Lanka Freedom Party back to its glory? SLFP with make-shift arrangements, temporary appointment of scores of men as vice presidents or assistant secretaries for short periods and is undecided on the consummation of marriage with the United National Party which is equally inundated with its own share of tribulations, is heading for a natural death. Fallen ill following an assault it received from its own General Secretary in Nov 2014, and repeatedly thrashed by the same man on the first round held on Jan 8, 2015, who ironically became the new boss and clamped down a near-fatal blow on it by declaring just before the second round in August same year, that an off-spring of it will not be sworn in as number two even if it succeeds; and the dethroned boss adding insult to injury by proposing to a new bloom, has destroyed, disintegrated and devastated the 68 years young Party. Continuing treatment may result in prolonging the process of dying. Sri Lanka history, however, is not littered with deceased political parties. The seriously ill patients loved ones are thinking of life support systems, especially the Group-15 but the patient does not seem to wake up enough to breathe on his own. Sympathisers, if there are any, they can rescue the dying patient who now take shallow breaths with periods of no breathing for a few seconds to a minute, experiencing rapid shallow panting which are common end-of-life signs and symptoms by rushing it to a sanatorium for emergency resuscitation by the dethroned old boss who is heading the Pohottuwa. The writer can be contacted at - - kksperera1@gmail.com The Feral Detective By Jonathan Lethem Ecco. 336 pp. $26.99 --- "The Feral Detective" is a brilliant noir title - right down to its misdirection. Charles Heist, the mysterious man at the center of Jonathan Lethem's new novel, is a detective of sorts, but he isn't feral. He's Clint Eastwood-cool, all self-contained and aloof, capable of silencing a room with a glance. His native wildness hasn't been domesticated so much as chained. He also keeps a live opossum in his office, but I'm getting ahead of myself. The good news is that Lethem is back in the PI game, and there is no bad news. "The Feral Detective" is one of his nimblest novels, a plunky voyage into the traumatized soul of the Trump era. Lethem is sleuthing around as he did almost 20 years ago in "Motherless Brooklyn," but this time he's 3,000 miles away from New York in the mountains of Southern California. The city that never sleeps has been replaced by the desert that never speaks, and his celebrated parody of hard-boiled detective fiction is now distilled to a clear amber spirit. "The Feral Detective" is narrated by 30-something Phoebe Siegler, who quit the New York Times in a fit of rage over the election of Donald Trump. Regardless of the wisdom of that career move, Phoebe is now free to help an old friend who's trying to locate her missing college-age daughter, Arabella. Knowing the young woman is a Leonard Cohen fanatic, Phoebe suspects that Arabella has gone to the Mount Baldy Zen Center outside Los Angeles, where Cohen studied Buddhism. But once Phoebe arrives in California, she reaches out for professional help and gets referred to a man known as the Feral Detective. "His methods were a little unorthodox," she learns, "but he sometimes produced miraculous results for families with trails grown cold." The elements of detective fiction fit in Lethem's hands as comfortably as a snub-nose .38. He can hit an old Ross Macdonald motif at 50 yards. The moment Phoebe enters Heist's gloomy office, we feel simultaneously at home and on guard. "The blue light of his stare was the same as that sky: killing me," she thinks. "Perhaps in mercy, he broke the tension, opened a desk drawer at his right. Of course a gun could come out. Or maybe this was the part of the script where he produced a bottle and two shot glasses. Perhaps I closely resembled the woman who had broken his heart." Clearly, Phoebe is looking for something more than just her friend's daughter. "Before he found Arabella," she thinks, "he ought to find (BEGIN ITAL)me(END ITAL)." From the start, she regards Heist as "infuriating and enthralling," and she seems to cast herself and Heist in a California episode of "Moonlighting" complete with zinging dialogue, ironic asides and erotic electricity. But Heist, "with his brand of implacable, mellow intention ... and low-ebb oracular remarks" is working from a different score, closer to the grimness of "True Detective." (And come to think of it, Matthew McConaughey wouldn't be a bad choice for a TV adaptation.) "The Feral Detective" enters that darker realm as soon as Phoebe and Heist venture into the friable wilderness far outside L.A. The terrain looks depopulated by a neutron bomb, and the people who remain here live off the grid in concrete tunnels, sheet-metal huts and teepees. "They were survivors of the catastrophe that hadn't happened yet," Phoebe says. Lethem lays out a paranoid world of atavistic passions, complete with a new paganism that divides these bikers, hippies and hangers-on into warring camps: Rabbits and Bears - a DIY version of Athens and Sparta. "This mountain has a certain allure for people who like to go off and do their own thing," Heist explains. "They need bodies, extras for some of their ... ceremonies." When Heist and Phoebe find a pair of murdered teens grotesquely costumed in a pit, it's apparent that Arabella has fled into a very strange and dangerous place. But what's most unsettling about these mountain compounds is how they reflect America at large. With this uncivil war between Rabbits and Bears, Lethem suggests a frightening reflection of the mainstream culture left behind: one camp clinging to fragments of civilization, the other consumed with machismo and sexual violence - "a rustic enactment of Donald Trump and Anthony Weiner and Bill Cosby." This Jerry-rigged contraption of Sam Spade and "Mad Max" could buckle under the weight of pretension and political anger, but "The Feral Detective" is too agile for that - thanks to its narrator, Phoebe. She's sharp and sassy and always willing to confess her own contradictory feelings, which sway erratically from lust to terror. It's a pleasure to see a smart writer having so much grisly fun. Is there a shootout on a derelict Ferris wheel? Of course there is. What's more, the plot maintains its centripetal acceleration, easily soaring over those swamps of Lethemian introspection that sometimes swallowed his previous novels "Chronic City" and "A Gambler's Anatomy." Phoebe is too irreverent to tolerate ponderousness, and besides, she's got a young woman to find, a hot detective to bed and a new future to make. Watching Heist claw his way through one extraordinarily gory battle with a nasty Bear, she seems equally shocked and thrilled by the turn of her life. "(BEGIN ITAL)Oh, the Places You'll Go!(END ITAL)" she jokes as blood and viscera pool at her feet. Who can really be saved in our collapsing society is the question that rumbles below these pages, but the story races along so fast you'll barely notice you've entered such dark territory till it's too late to head back. Contested races in Cass and Pike counties are being fielded with candidates with many years of experience in law enforcement, ensuring a difficult decision for voters. In Cass County, Democratic candidate Devron Ohrn will face off against Republican candidate Ronald T. Boris in a race to see who will replace outgoing Sheriff Bob Fair who announced he would not be seeking re-election last year. Ohrn, 35, of Virginia, is an alumnus of Western Illinois University and is married to his wife Holly and they have one son, 22-month-old Kohen. He has 13 years of law enforcement experience, 11 of which have been with the Cass County Sheriffs Department. Once I started in law enforcement, I was always drawn to the sheriffs position, Ohrn said. I spoke with Sheriff Bob Fair about it several times to make sure I had his support and talked it over with my wife because she will have to face as many challenges and aspects of this job that I would. Once I had their support, I decided to move forward. The sheriff hopeful said that the position of sheriff requires a wide variety of skills, all of which he has attained in his career with the department. He has done every job at the department, he said, from payroll down to serious investigations. Ive learned to do every job in the sheriffs office because I believe to lead an organization you need to know every part of it, he said. Law enforcement is also a team effort. You can have the greatest sheriff in the world but if he doesnt have the support of the guys that work for him, they wont be successful. He said he is active in the community and hopes to utilize social media to get updates out to the community. Ohrn also attended the Drug Enforcement Agency Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and that he hopes to get down to the root of the methamphetamine problem present in Cass County. Boris, 45, originally from DeKalb, is a Governors State University alumnus married to his wife Caroline and together they have two children, Amanda, 12; and Paul, 24, as well as a grandson William, 2. He has 20 years experience in law enforcement, nine of which were in the position of chief in Virginia and the University of Benedictine. He has worked as a grant writer, homicide investigator, juvenile officer, gang specialist, and many more positions. Boris said he believes a sheriff is more than just enforcing laws. I believe we need to have a community oriented policing program with goals and objectives intended to bring our communities together within the county, Boris said. Being in a position like sheriff can enable a person to make a huge impact within their community through small steps like those Ive outlined in my community policing plan and drug elimination program. Were he elected, Boris would like to isolate known drug houses in Cass County and stymie the flow of methamphetamine. He would also like to promote community programs through doing things like increasing deputy visibility in the neighborhood watch program, promote the Cass County Explorers Program to give young adults a first-hand view of a law enforcement career, and the implementation of a Citizens Auxiliary Police who could assist the police during times of distress. He said he will also implement Fairs 24/7 coverage schedule and find ways to cut costs across the department. Cass County needs change, Boris said. We need to move the department into the 21st century but we need to so with someone that has the experience and the training to make that happen. My work history speaks for itself. In Pike County, Democratic candidate Jordan Gerard and Republican candidate David E. Greenwood vie for the seat of outgoing Sheriff Paul Petty, who announced he would not be seeking re-election last year. Gerard, 34, of Pittsfield, is an alumnus of Lincoln College and is married to Lacey and together they have a daughter, Kenley, 10, and a son, Keaton, 7. Gerard started at the Pike County Sheriffs Department in 2001 as a correction officer and was promoted to deputy in 2007. In 2012 he was assigned to the West Central Illinois Drug Task Force until 2014 when he went back to road patrol. Gerard stressed the importance of being proactive within the department and noted that he has had experience with just about every aspect of the job as sheriff. The sheriff not only has to have experience with investigation and patrol, but he also has the dispatch and has to maintain the jail, which has a lot of cost and liability, Gerard said. When I started thinking about all these things and how all these roles come together there was a fear in my mind about who would be the next sheriff. Will this sheriff be proactive? I thought about it and I felt comfortable coming forward and saying I can do this. Were he to be elected, he would look at lowering the liability of the jail by doing implementing things like video visitation with inmates. With a population of 60 inmates with 2 visits a week totaling 120 movements which can be high risk, Gerard explained, video conferencing would cut that liability drastically. Gerard said he would like to work with the community utilizing a boots on the ground approach long term and setting up educational programs that would promote a proactive approach to issues like substance abuse. We need to do a better job of educating and communicating with the public to make them aware of the signs and symptoms of substance abuse and what to do to help these people, Gerard said. Instead of that person stealing $10 from grandma and then moving into burglary, grandma can identify that her grandson has a problem and that he needs to get him help. Ultimately, Gerard said that he believes Pike County has two great candidates in the running and that no matter who wins, Pike County will be provided for. David Greenwood, 51, of Pittsfield, is an alumnus of Coast Line Community College in California and lives in Pittsfield with his wife Dana and their two children, Joshua and Brittany, both of whom attend John Wood Community College. Greenwood has been with the Pike County Sheriffs Department since 1999 and is a sergeant. What he enjoys about law enforcement is the service aspect. At the end of the night, you go home and youve helped somebody, whether its changing a tire or helping someone in a bad situation, he said. I have that service attitude. I love law enforcement and I love Pike County. He has experience in all aspects of law enforcement and is a state-certified lead homicide investigator. He said that he hopes to really tackle the drug issue and that his number one priority, should he be elected, is to reduce the liability that comes with the jail. Greenwood said that he intends to continue being active within his community and noted that while the job of sheriff would certainly add a lot of responsibility, he would still be the same person at the end of the day. Its about treating people with care, treating everybody in every instance you go into the same, Greenwood said. That just kind of who I am. I think over the years Ive been here, Ive proven myself as a deputy and am always responsible and can handle many situations, that wouldnt change. Id still be the same person. The most important thing is to get out and vote on Nov. 6. Nick Draper can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1223, or on Twitter @nick_draper. The promise of cheap, fertile land and a new start in life must have been on the mind of Samuel Gates as he guided his keelboat from Ohio toward Illinois in 1817. Accompanying the 32-year-old Gates were his wife, Susanna, their four young daughters, Harriet, Eunice, Phebe and Susanna, and an unknown family. Mrs. Gates, the former Susanna Emerson, was a cousin of the famous essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. The westward adventure took the Gateses and their companions down the Ohio River, which was then a primary route of travel for many pioneers, and then up the Mississippi River to the west side of what is now Calhoun County. Although he had lived in southern Ohio most of his life, Gates had moved across country a couple of times before. He was a sixth-generation American and a member of a family that had helped settle several New England states. Gates was born in Maine, spent about two years in Virginia [in what is now West Virginia], and then settled with his family in Washington County, Ohio, where the Gateses are listed among the early settlers. So he knew something about starting from scratch as he landed in Illinois, a year before it achieved statehood. The Gateses established their first Illinois home in a hilly, wooded area northwest of what is now Kampsville in fall 1817. In a search for more productive land, Gates again moved his family in 1819, settling across the Illinois River in what is now Jersey County. Little is known about the Gates familys life in the Illinois River valley. It is recorded that Gates bought land there in 1821 from the federal government for $1.25 an acre, and that is where his daughters attended a log cabin school with a dirt floor and bark-covered benches, according to a history of Greene and Jersey counties. After moving across the river, Mrs. Gates gave birth to three sons, Stephen, Daniel and James, and a daughter, Miriam. Daniel Gates died at the age of 10 months. The Gateses moved again in 1823, when they bought land in Bluffdale Township in Greene County, a short distance north of present-day Eldred. There, the family settled into a log cabin beneath the bluffs, where they lived for several years and quite possibly where Mrs. Gates died in 1828. The Illinois River valley in those days was home to a few Indians and an abundance of wildlife no longer found there; black bears and wolves lived in the hills and hollows near the Gates cabin. Gates last move came when he and his seven children took residence in a two-story stone house he completed about 1830. It was located on the western edge of his farm in the river bottom. The house was undoubtedly one of the finest in the area when it was completed. One of the Gates girls who lived in that house for a short time was Phebe, who, at the age of 17, married Jacob Strawn, a 32-year-old widower from rural Jacksonville who later became one of the best-known cattle raisers in the country. Gates remarried in 1836, and the farm and stone house remained in his family after his death about five years later. The property was sold around the time of the Civil War, and the Gates family moved again. Today, Samuel Gates rests beneath a tall marble gravestone in a small cemetery within sight of his old stone home, two of the only tangible reminders of the life of an Illinois pioneer. [Much of the information for this story was provided by Margaret Bellatti of Jacksonville, a descendant of Samuel and Susanna Emerson Gates.] This Way We Were story was first published Aug. 13, 2001. Three people were seriously injured Sunday in a two-car crash on Interstate 72 near New Berlin, according to Illinois State Police. Kathryn R. Hullmann, 58, of Jacksonville was going east on I-72 when her vehicle struck a deer about 5:43 a.m. Sunday, which caused the car to become disabled in the right lane. A stirring rebuke of judicial supremacy is, remarkably, posted on the Department of Justice website. Attorney General Jeff Sessions explains how fed up he is with the continued overreach by federal judges as they repeatedly encroach on Trump and Congress. The latest outrage cited by General Sessions is a district court order, affirmed on appeal, that compels Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to submit to a deposition about why he wants the census to ask people if they are American citizens. Liberals absurdly claim that it is racist for the census to ask that basic question, and demand that Secretary Ross answer impertinent questions in which he will be falsely accused of secretly harboring a racist motive. Cabinet officials should not be subjected to rude deposition questioning without any factual basis. Citizenship is not a race and immigrants come in all races, so it cannot be racist to ask people who live here, and who demand entitlements like Medicaid and public schooling, whether they are American citizens. Before Justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed, the Supreme Court seemed fine with allowing the deposition of Secretary Ross, a member of Trumps Cabinet. But days after Kavanaugh joined the High Court, it put this deposition on hold pending the submission of further briefing on the matter. President Donald Trump has successfully appointed two Supreme Court justices, 29 circuit judges, and 52 district court judges. But they are mostly in states that voted for him, while fierce pockets of resistance remain in deep blue states like California, New York and Hawaii. An example is in New York City, where a Barack Obama-appointed federal judge named Jesse Furman is hearing a major case against the Trump Administration. Furman received that prestigious lifetime appointment when he was only 39 years old, and he will probably be elevated to a higher court by a future Democratic president. In classic judicial activism, Judge Furman is trying to micromanage the governments planning for the 2020 census, which is already underway. Plaintiffs and apparently Judge Furman are unhappy with how census officials plan to include a question about citizenship in the census. It should be a no-brainer for the census to ask whether each person residing in our country is a U.S. citizen or not. That basic question was included on the main census questionnaire from 1830 to 1950, but starting in 1960 it was unfortunately demoted to a separate survey that goes to only a sample of Americans. After the Trump Administration decided to reinstate this question on the questionnaire being sent to every household, a group of leftist organizations and Democratic officials sued Wilbur Ross as the Secretary of the Department of Commerce, which supervises the census bureau. Only U.S. citizens are supposed to vote here, although there are numerous examples of non-citizens who were improperly placed on the voting rolls when they applied for a drivers license. The problem is that even when non-citizens dont vote, they are counted in the census in a way that enhances the voting power of people who do vote. If non-citizens were evenly distributed across the United States, their presence wouldnt dilute the voting power of U.S. citizens. But when they are concentrated in a handful of states such as California, whose population includes more than five million non-citizens, American citizens who live in other states are disenfranchised. Non-citizens entitle California to at least five extra seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and five extra votes in the Electoral College, all taken from states with few non-citizens. Even within California, non-citizens are concentrated in a handful of that states 53 congressional districts, such as Maxine Waters district where only half the residents are American citizens. In the 2010 census, which Obama supervised, six electoral votes were taken from the states of Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, all of which voted for Trump in 2016. That was on top of four electoral votes lost by those states in the 2000 census, plus another four lost by four other Trump states: Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are each projected to lose another seat in Congress and the Electoral College after 2020, as are Alabama and West Virginia. States where aliens live will gain seats, and retain the seats they already won in the last two census counts. General Sessions emphasized in his posted speech that the Judicial branch must show significant respect for the Executive branch and Congress. I fear, in a variety of ways, that respect has been eroding. Calling out the eroding deference by the judiciary is an understatement. So is the term judicial activism, when the better term is judicial supremacy as coined by Phyllis Schlafly to describe judicial interference with good policies like Trumps census. John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016). As many as 175 police constables, many of them women, have been dismissed from service for indulging in large-scale vandalism and violence in Patna on Friday, following the death of a female colleague, a top police official said. Inspector General of Police (IGP), Patna Zone, Naiyar Hasnain Khan said on Sunday the dismissed constables included 167 trainees. Khan, who had been entrusted with the investigation and taking departmental action against those indulging in the violence, said 23 others posted at the police line in Patna were also suspended. "Nearly half of the dismissed trainee constables are women. The suspended personnel include a head constable and two others who had the responsibility of assigning duties to trainees," the IGP said. The police personnel were dismissed and suspended after getting Khan's approval, Patna Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manu Maharaj said. Policewoman Savita Pathak (22) died at a private hospital on Friday morning, a day after she had to be taken off duty due to severe stomach pain. Blaming the senior officers for putting Pathak on duty despite ill health, trainee constables went on a rampage, vandalising the entire police line and overturning vehicles of officials on the streets on Friday. It had taken hours to bring the situation under control with top officials supervising the operations in full riot gear. The police authorities had said Pathak's death appeared to have been caused by dengue. However, the hospital later clarified that the dengue test had not been conducted on her, but she was suffering from some form of viral infection. Khan said, "During investigation, we found that Pathak was indeed ill and she had been on medical leave in October for three days. In such a situation, she should not have been asked to report to duty." The IGP added that he had also recommended action against the medical officer of the Police Hospital for his failure to take proper stock of the deceased constable's health and give appropriate advice and treatment, which might have saved her life. "I also found that more than 90 personnel were posted at the police line for more than four years. This is unacceptable and they will be transferred out of the Patna zone," he said. Khan said the departmental action was in addition to the FIRs lodged against those who had indulged in the indiscipline. Four FIRs have been lodged in connection with the incident. "One of the FIRs was lodged by Mohammad Masaluddin, the Deputy Superintendent of Police in-charge of the police line, who was assaulted and chased to his residence by a mob that ransacked his house and misbehaved with his family members," Khan said. Khan denied the allegations levelled by the agitators that the deputy SP was responsible for Pathak's death. "We suspect that the agitators were instigated by some disgruntled personnel, against whom the officer might have taken action in the past," the IGP said. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had sought a detailed report on the incident from Director General of Police (DGP) K.S. Dwivedi. At least five Maoists, including two women, were killed in an exchange of fire with security personnel in a forest in Odisha's Malkangiri district Monday, a senior police official said. Though five ultras were eliminated, their leader 'Randev', managed to escape from the area which is considered to be a naxal hotbed, police said. "Based on credible information about presence of armed CPI (Maoist) group, an anti-Maoists operation was launched on Sunday evening in Poplur Kurmanur forest (Bejangiwada Reserve Forest) under Kalimela Police Station of Malkangiri by the District and State Operations Wing by mobilising two units of Special Operations Group (SOG)," DGP R P Sharma told reporters. Stating that there was no injury or casualty among the police personnel, the DGP said death toll in the encounter could rise as search operations were still in progress in the area. The security personnel recovered two SLR rifles, 1 INSAS rifle, one .303 rifle, one grenade and other articles from the spot, Sharma said. Additional Director General of Police (Operations) R P Koche said efforts were on to track other rebels who fled the area during gun battle. Two teams of SOG had been conducting a combing operation since Sunday evening and they spotted a group of Maoists in the jungle. After noticing the security personnel, the Maoists fired and the SOG jawans retaliated leading to the encounter, police said. Three of the five deceased Maoists have been identified as Unga Sodhi, Mase Madhi and Seema Kendruka, the police said. They were all members of the Kalimela Dalam. The identity of the two other slain Maoists was yet to be ascertained, sources said. Police said Unga Sodhi and woman cadre Mase Madhi alias Sunir hailed from Rajulkonda area under Kalimela police limits in the district while another woman Seema Kendruka was from Narayanpatna in neighbouring Koraput district. Describing the operation as a "spectacular achievement" of the district and operations wing of the state police, the DGP said Kalimela Police Station area is considered to be a stronghold of CPI (Maoist). Sharma said, "We area planning to go for more deployment of central force in cut-off areas, now called Swabhiman Anchal in Malkangiri district." The DGP also said the state has already sought two more battalions of central force for deployment in Malkangiri, Koraput and some other areas bordering Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The recovery of grenade and semi-automatic weapons indicated that the rebels under the leadership of Randev, a divisional committee member (DCM), were planning a major strike in the area. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Japan the cornerstone of India's Act East policy. The word cornerstone is very important for us,'' said Japanese ambassador to India, Kenji Hiramatsu, at a special interaction organsied by the Ananta Aspen Centre on Monday. He was elaborating upon the outcomes of Modi's recent visit to Japan, which he termed the best ever. At the bilateral, several Exchange of Notes for yen loans were signed for projects in India's northeast. These include the renovation and modernisation of the Umiam-Umtru hydro-electric station in Meghalaya, northeast road network connectivity improvement project between Dhubri in Assam and Phulbari in Meghalaya (this includes a massive bridge across the Brahmaputra) and a project for sustainable catchment forest management in Tripura. At present, the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force and the Indian Army are having their first joint exercise, the Dharma Guardian, in Mizoram. The ambassador spoke on deepening the involvement of collaborative projects in the Indo-Pacific, such as developing LNG related infrastructure in Sri Lanka, synergising development efforts in Rakhine state of Myanmar and enhancing connectivity in Bangladesh. He, however, admitted that there were many areas in which the potential was not being used to the maximum. These included tourism (Indian footfalls in Japan are only in a few hundred thousands, while millions of Chinese go to Japan every year) as well as IT. The ambassador said Japan would need to revise its visa regime to facilitate entry of Indian tourist and IT personnel; the country had a huge shortfall of the latter. Modi's visit to Tokyo was preceded by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visiting Beijing. Tokyo has supported China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) since it sees potential for Japanese firms to lend their technological expertise. The ambassador, however, said the support was conditional to transparency in the financing process as well as factors like environmental clearances. Responding to a query on why there had been no movement in civil nuclear cooperation although the treaty for this had been signed two years ago, he said that Japan was trying to identify what equipment its firms could supply for India's civil nuclear projects. The adage that failures can teach many lessons seems quite... In an emotional interview with CNN, the sons of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi issued an emotional appeal for the return of their father's body. The brothers said that without their fathers body, their family is unable to grieve and deal with the emotional burden of their fathers death. "I really hope that whatever happened wasn't painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death," Abdullah Khashoggi, 33, told CNN during a sit-down interview in Washington with his brother, Salah, 35. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the Saudi government and its de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Salah and Abdullah said their father was "courageous, generous and very brave". In their first interview since their father was killed in Istanbul, the brothers narrated how they endured weeks of anguish and uncertainty following his disappearance and death. Salah said, "All what we want right now is to bury him in Al Baqi in Medina with the rest of his family," referencing a cemetery in Saudi Arabia. "I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon." Turkey's chief prosecutor said recently that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and also confirmed the body was dismembered. In article published on Friday, Yasin Aktay, an advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hinted that the body may even have been destroyed in acid. Washington, Saudi Arabia's usually strong ally, was loud in its criticism and sharp criticism of the kingdom. Khashoggi was a US citizen and had fled Saudi Arabia after he criticised the kingdom in some of his writings. Though there are allegations that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing, Riyadh has denied these allegations. Khashoggi's sons voiced worry that the work of their father, a columnist for The Washington Post, was being distorted for political reasons. "I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don't agree with," Salah told CNN. "My fear is that it's being over politicised." Asked how Khashoggi should be remembered, Salah replied, As a moderate man who has common values with everyone ... a man who loved his country, who believed so much in it and its potential. Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy, that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. And he believed in the transformation that it is going through. The speaker of Sri Lanka parliament has said he would not accept former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister until he proves his majority in parliament. Sitting Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was fired from his position by President Maithripala Sirisena on October 26. Rajapaksa was then appointed as the prime minister, an action which drew criticism from political parties and international community. "The majority of the members are of the view that the changes done in the parliament are unconstitutional and against the traditions," the speaker of parliament, Karu Jayasuriya, said in a statement. "Therefore, I am requested by the majority of the parliament to accept the position which was prior to these changes. Until the new group shows the majority, I will have to accept the status quo prior to the changes." Meanwhile, Sirisena on Sunday announced the reconvening of Parliament on November 14. According to a gazette notification, issued by his Secretary Udaya R Seneviratne on Sunday evening, the assembly would be recalled on November 14. The sacking of Wickremesinghe was a sudden development that came amid growing tensions between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe on several policy matters and the president has been critical of the prime minister and his policies, especially on economy and security. Wickremesinghe had termed the president's move as "unconstitutional and illegal" and refused to leave the official residence, claiming he was still the legally appointed prime minister. He also demanded a floor test in Parliament, following which Sirisena suspended Parliament on October 28 till November 16. Wickremasinghe's United National Party handed over a motion of no confidence against new Prime Minister Rajapaksa. Senior UNP member Lakshman Kiriella said that Secretary General of Parliament was informed of the motion. Since the suspension, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya came under pressure from political parties to defy Sirisena and reconvene the 225-member assmebly. The suspension was seen as a move to help Sirisena's prime ministerial nominee Mahinda Rajapaksa to cobble out his parliamentary majority. The Rajapaksa-Sirisena combine has 96 MPs in the 225-member assembly, which is 17 short of the 113 required working majority. But, with defection of at least nine legislators from Wickremesinghe's UNP and from the main Tamil party, TNA, Rajapaksha claims that he is just eight seats short of majority. According to parliamentary officials, it was up to the parliamentary party leaders to agree if a floor test should be included in the agenda when the House is reconvened. Foreign governments, rights groups, the United Nations have urged Sirisena to summon Parliament immediately and end the crisis. Thousands of Sri Lankans also protested in Colombo last week demanding Sirisena immediately convene Parliament. (Eds: Disclaimer: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with PR Newswire. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.) SHANGHAI, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Discovery Channels new all-access documentary series "How China Works II" hosted by world-renowned architect Danny Forster has been released. During the three-part series, he gains unprecedented access to the inner workings of China's biggest city, Shanghai. For the full multimedia release, click here: https://www.prnasia.com/mnr/discovery_201810.shtml The new anthology is deeply rooted in the work and life of Chinese entrepreneurs, scientists, officials and ordinary people, giving audiences a panoramic view of Chinese society while presenting the unique achievements and development plans of modern China. "New Ways of Life" During the first episode, audiences are presented with a visual banquet of Shanghai's new culture creation program, with young people showcasing their talents via online live-streaming and video games. Viewers can also look forward to Danny's performance in the new stage play Tomb Notes, which started life as a popular online novel, and a tour of an innovative new Mexican restaurant, highlighting how continued economic and technological development brings cultural prosperity to the city. "A Networked World" The second episode focuses on the achievements of Shanghai in the fields of scientific and technological innovation, with Danny working on a VR commercial while delving into the intricacies of this emerging technology. Acrophobes beware! Danny takes viewers on the city's first 360-degree virtual reality rollercoaster, hovering over the famous city skyline and capturing the avant-garde applications of this dynamic new technology in action. "The Power of Planning" The final episode features the unique Shanghainese community spirit, where all elements of the city come together to enhance and support the development of the city through consultation and planning. The futuristic Shanghai Zhangjiang High-technology park and its state-of-the-art Synchrotron Light Source Lab is provided as an example of the forward-thinking actions of the city authorities. How China Works II was developed with support from the Shanghai News Office in coordination with the Discovery Asia-Pacific TV Network, China Intercontinental Communication Centre and China State Council Information Office. The program, first aired in Australia and New Zealand on 29th September, is to be broadcast in Korean, Thai, Hindi, Telugu, Malay, Vietnamese, Cantonese, English, Tamil, Bengali, and additional local and regional languages. For details on the new series and local airing times, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/DiscoverySEAsia/ https://www.facebook.com/DiscoveryChannelAU/ https://www.facebook.com/DiscoveryChannelIndiaOfficial/ Video - https://cdn4.prnasia.com/002071/mnr/201810/discovery/video.mp4 Video - https://cdn4.prnasia.com/002071/mnr/201810/discovery/video1.mp4 Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20181101/2286702-1-a Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20181101/2286702-1-b Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20181101/2286702-1-c Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20181101/2286702-1-d PWR PWR Mumbai, Nov 5 (PTI) Actor Sonali Kulkarni says she is honoured and humbled that good work is coming her way in the Marathi film industry where the story is the hero of a film. Sonali will next be seen in "Madhuri", which is backed by Bollywood actor Urmila Matondkar and her husband Mohsin Akhtar. "I am extremely happy. Sometimes we say 'I'd like to be in his or her shoes' but I feel I want to remain in my shoes. There are such good roles coming my way and I'm getting to work with wonderful directors. In Marathi cinema, story is the hero and the story here is amazing," Sonali told reporters. She was speaking at the trailer launch of the film. At the event, the actor said Urmila played a pivotal role in bringing her to the project. "Sometimes you wonder what will happen next after you have done a film where you have enjoyed the process. But in this one, the process was so much fun. I am thankful to Urmila for casting me. She had a lot of options and I'm so much in awe of her. I am happy to be 'Madhuri'" she said. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Swapna Waghmare Joshi, the film also features Subodh Bhave, Sharad Kelkar and Sanhita Joshi in pivotal roles. Sonali, who is known for her performance in films like "Dil Chahta Hai", "Singham", "Deool", "The Good Road" and "Kaccha Limbu", says she never differentiates between a male and a female director as on set everything is gender neutral. "I've worked with a variety of women directors but I feel really nice when you don't realise one is a female director. A director is a director, you shouldn't sense the gender while working. I am so happy I worked with her (Swapna). She keeps everyone relaxed and the mood is reflected on screen," Sonali said. The film will mark Urmila's debut as a producer and presenter and the actor says "Madhuri" was the perfect project for her. "People are venturing into Marathi cinema because somewhere they have this faith that there are several variety of roles, scripts and subjects in Marathi cinema. We have such rich literature, culture, that we are used to watching and reading good work. I am so proud of this fact," Urmila added. PTI JUR BK BK New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) The second season of National Geographic's sci-fi series "MARS" is returning with six episodes, which envision what might happen when earthlings become the red planet's first residents. The new season, produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, premieres on National Geographic & Hotstar on November 17. The first season of the series focused on how mankind will survive one of its greatest adventure -the journey to another planet and the new season picks up after this background, and highlights the actual problems humans will face as they try to survive on a completely new planet. "In MARS, everything as simple as the quotidian, like personal hygiene and meals, requires greater effort and is exponentially more difficult in this foreign frontier of limited resources where new rules are often written on the fly," said Stephen Petranek, MARS co-executive producer, scientific advisor and award-winning author of "How We'll Live on Mars". "Leaving Earth insures long-term human survival, and we have the technology and spirit to get there, but what will it actually take to live there? MARS is a six-to-nine month trip one way... so before we get there, we better make sure we can permanently make it our own," he added. PTI BK BK BK Mumbai, Nov 5 (PTI) Priyanka Chopra's maiden Sikkimese production "Pahuna: The Little Visitors" is set to release on December 7. Produced under Priyanka and her mother Madhu Chopra's banner Purple Pebble Pictures, the film has been directed by Paakhi A Tyrewala. The film revolves around three Nepali children who get separated from their parents, escape the Maoists agitation in Nepal and flee to Sikkim. The 35-year-old actor took to Twitter to make the announcement on Monday. "The wait is finally over... 'Pahuna - The Little Visitors' releases in theatres across India on 7th Dec 2018. This is a very special film and I can't wait to share it with you all. #Pahuna7thDec," she wrote alongside the movie's poster. Paakhi said the film is a symbol of hope, something that helps people get by in a tough world. "Sometime it's easier to just give up. Hope is what we all need. Like one of the characters in the film says, 'It's never all dark, there is always light.' "Pahuna is full of hope. That is the reason it resonated with audiences young and old across the globe and now it's releasing in the country it was made and meant for," the director said in a statement. Madhu added the film is special as it addresses the far-reaching consequences for children when adults make harsh decisions. "This story is relevant globally in its appeal," she added. Last month, "Pahuna" was adjudged Best Film (Jury Choice) and Special Mention by Professional Jury in The International Feature Film Category at SCHLINGEL International Children's Film Festival in Germany. Co-produced by Children's Film Society, India (CFSI), the film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last year. PTI RDS RDS Dubai, Nov 5 (PTI) Mathematician and Super 30 founder Anand Kumar will be awarded here this week for his "pioneering" contributions to the field of education and illuminating the lives of many talented students. Kumar, 45, will be honoured with 'Global Education Award' on November 8 by 'Malabar Gold & Diamonds', flagship company of Malabar Group, a leading Indian business conglomerate. "We take pride in honouring Mr Anand Kumar who has made a positive difference in the lives of many with his meaningful innovations. Anand Kumar's life has involved a lot of struggle and his contributions to the field of education is indeed pioneering," P A Ibrahim Haji, co-chairman Malabar Group, told PTI. He said a 12-member jury shortlisted Kumar from a list of 100 names working in the field of education across the globe after a three-month research and consequent deliberations. "Hundreds of students mentored by him have made it to IITs so far and most of his students are from poor families and are first generation learners," Ibrahim said. "What Anand Kumar has done through Super 30 is bring about a generational change in those families and become an inspiration for the poor worldwide to pursue education to ward off poverty. It has underlined the power of education to transform lives," he said. Anand is a well known mathematician whose Super 30 is hailed for facilitating students from poor background crack IIT entrance exams by providing free food, lodging and teaching. More than 500 such students have made it to different IITs since inception of Super 30 in 2002. PTI CORR MRJ MRJ MRJ \R Baghdad, Nov 5 (AFP) Explosions in several Shiite-majority districts in Iraq's capital late Sunday killed six people, most of them civilians, and wounded several others, police and medical sources said. In northern Baghdad's Aden roundabout area, two civilians were killed and another six wounded by a blast near a bus stop, the sources told AFP. A bomb in the nearby Tarmiyah neighbourhood targeted an military convoy, killing a soldier and wounding two others. A government employee was killed in the southwestern area of Al-Sahha when explosives attached under his car were detonated, according to a police officer and medical source. In the eastern district of Sadr City, two people were killed and four wounded in two explosions in the conservative Shiite neighbourhood. And two other blasts went off on busses in other parts of Baghdad's northeast, wounding seven. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for any of the explosions. Sadr City is the former bastion of the Mahdi Army, which fought US troops and was blamed for the killings of thousands of Sunni Muslims. The militia was led by Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose political alliance triumphed in this year's parliamentary elections. Violence peaked in Iraq during 2006 and 2007, when sectarian tensions were at their highest. But it has fallen across Iraq and particularly Baghdad since the government declared victory over the Islamic State group in December. Clandestine jihadist cells remain across the country and have waged guerrilla-type attacks against government posts. (AFP) HMB Tehran, Nov 5 (AFP) Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic republic "will proudly bypass sanctions" by the United States that took effect on Monday targeting the country's oil and financial sectors. "I announce that we will proudly bypass your illegal, unjust sanctions because it's against international regulations," Rouhani said in a televised speech. (AFP) PMS PMS Colombo, Nov 5 (PTI) Sri Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuriya on Monday slammed President Maithripala Sirisena, saying it was "anti-democratic" to sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and suspend the Parliament, and asserted that he will not recognise Mahinda Rajapaksa as the premier unless it is proved by a floor test. The tough statement from Jayasuriya came after Sirisena announced on Sunday that parliament would reconvene on November 14, a week later than he had promised. The speaker said Sirisena had gone back on previous commitments to recall parliament on November 7. In the statement released on Monday in Sinhala, Jayasuriya said a majority of members in Parliament have submitted a petition to him stating that the changes made in Parliament recently by President Sirisena are unconstitutional. In the name of justice and fair play I have to declare my position to the world that when a majority has pointed out that rights of the MPs have been usurped by preventing the lawful convening of parliament," Jayasuriya said. A majority in parliament has requested that all changes made have been anti-constitutional and against the traditions. They have urged me to recognise the status quo which prevailed prior to these changes. As such I have to recognize the status quo which prevailed before until the new party would be able to prove their majority," Jayasuriya said, making it clear that he wants a parliamentary floor test. As a result Rajapaksa will not be given the Prime Minister seat in Parliament as the current government members will need to sit in the opposition seats. Sirisena had suspended parliamentary proceedings until November 16 after abruptly firing Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and replacing him with Rajapaksa, a controversial former president, on October 26. The Speaker had expected parliament to reconvene on November 7. However, Sirisena Sunday issued notice to reconvene Parliament on November 14. Jayasuriya said he had made several requests for Parliament to be reconvened early in order to resolve the political crisis. The civil society organisations have demanded that Jayasuriya re-summon parliament on his own. Jayasuriya, however, refused to do so saying he was powerless unless the president consented. The decision announced last night by President Maithripala Sirisena to summon the Parliament two days ahead of his scheduled opening wont lead to the resolving of the constitutional crisis, ousted prime minister Ranil Wickremsinghes United National Party (UNP) senior Vajira Abeywardena said on Monday. "We cant treat November 14 as the date on which we can settle this issue. The law has been violated. They have delayed the date for reconvening parliament so that they could buy over MPs. The public must protest the way the MPs are being brought for money," Abeywardena said. Wickremesinghe's suporters alleged that large sums of money had been offered to change sides. Wickremsinghe's United National Party (UNP) on Monday said Sirisena's decision to summon parliament on November 14 will not lead to the resolving of the constitutional crisis. "We cant treat November 14 as the date on which we can settle this issue. The law has been violated. They have delayed the date for reconvening parliament so that they could buy over MPs. The public must protest the way the MPs are being brought for money," UNP leader Vajira Abeywardena said, Wickremesinghe's supporters alleged that large sums of money had been offered to change sides. Anaylists say Sirisenas move to suspend parliament to engineer defections from the UNP and its allies appears to have succeeded. New prime minister Rajapaksas parliamentary strength has now been bolstered to 105 from 96. The UNP has lost eight of its legislators while one member from the main Tamil party TNA has defected. Rajapaksa needs 113 to prove his majority in the 225-member House. Wickremesinghe who branded Sirisenas October 26 action to sack him a constitutional coup maintains that he holds majority. The UNP has handed over a motion of no trust against Rajapaksa. GL Peiris, a leading Rajapaksa backer, however said the no confidence motion cannot be taken up in a hurry. Meanwhile, both parties organised public protests on Monday. Thousands of supporters of Rajapaksa headed for the capital on Monday to rally in support of his nomination as the prime minister. The political crisis in Sri Lanka began after Sirisena's broader front United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) announced that it has decided to quit the unity government with Wickremesinghe's UNP. The unity government was formed in 2015 when Sirisena was elected President with Wickremesinghe's support, ending a nearly decade-long rule by Rajapaksa. PTI CORR PMS AKJ PMS PMS Colombo, Nov 5 (PTI) Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday claimed he has the support of 113 parliamentarians to prove the premiership of Mahinda Rajapaksa. His comments came after Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuriya earlier in the day slammed Sirisena's "unconstitutional and undemocratic" actions to sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and suspend Parliament, saying he will not recognise Rajapaksa as the new premier unless he wins a floor test. "We have already got our 113 MPs, I will not take back the step I have taken forward...I have taken all steps in accordance with the constitution," Sirisena told a public rally, referring to his decision to sack Wickremesinghe. Sirisena suspended parliamentary proceedings until November 16 after abruptly firing Wickremesinghe and replacing him with Rajapaksa, a controversial former president, on October 26. The Speaker had expected parliament to reconvene on November 7. However, Sirisena Sunday issued notice to reconvene Parliament on November 14. Wickremesinghe, whose party dubbed the move a "constitutional coup", refused to vacate his official residence, saying he is the lawful prime minister and that the president has no constitutional right to replace him. The rally, attended by thousands of supporters, was the first public show of Sirisena and Rajapaksa together after the island nation plunged into a constitutional crisis. With eight United National Party and one Tamil National Alliance legislators defecting to Rajapaksa camp, he is now just eight seats short of the 'magic number' 113 to prove his majority in the 225-member House. While addressing the rally, Sirisena said before opting for Rajapaksa as his prime ministerial choice, he had offered the premiership position to Speaker Jayasuriya and deputy PM Sajith Premadasa. "However, both of them refused to challenge their leader," Sirisena said. PTI CORR SCY SCY Colombo, Nov 5 (AP) Thousands of Sri Lankans marched Monday in support of a new government led by the country's former strongman, highlighting the political polarization in the Indian Ocean island nation. The rally near Parliament came amid a constitutional crisis sparked by President Maithripala Sirisena's move to oust Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, replace him with ex-leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and suspend Parliament. Wickremesinghe has refused to vacate his official residence, insisting he is the lawful prime minister and that the president had no constitutional right to replace him. Thousands of his supporters have been keeping vigil. Supporters of Rajapaksa at the rally chanted "Whose power is this? Mahinda's power!" As patriotic songs blared over loudspeakers, thousands shuffled through heavy rain toward a makeshift stage. Police and Sri Lankan special forces with semi-automatic rifles stood guard. Pradeep Kariyawasam, the head of Rajapaksa's party in Colombo, said that although Wickremesinghe continues to maintain he is the country's legitimate leader, "the people are with us." "Give people a chance to choose their government and not hide behind constitutional interpretations," he said. Sirisena and Rajapaksa arrived at the rally amid loud cheers. Sirisena told the crowd that the change he initiated was more than a personnel shift. "I ousted a vision that is incompatible with our local culture and values, and that works according to foreign agendas," Sirisena said. "For the past 3 years, poor people were suppressed by Ranil Wickremesinghe's economic and political vision. Local thoughts were rejected and an extreme neo-liberal form of governance was carried out." He was referring to Wickremesinghe's free-market economic policies and public-private partnerships with companies from China and India to operate strategic centers such as ports and airports. Rajapaksa supporters have accused Wickremesinghe of selling Sri Lanka's assets, citing a 99-year lease agreement his government struck with Hong Kong conglomerate China Merchants Port Holdings Co Ltd last year to operate a failing port developed with Chinese debt during Rajapaksa's decadelong presidency. Critics of Sirisena's actions say Parliament was suspended to give Rajapaksa time to gather enough support to survive a no-confidence vote when lawmakers reconvene November 14. Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said on Monday that he won't recognize the new appointments until either side is able to prove it has a majority. It means that the speaker still recognizes a Wickremesinghe-led Parliament. "I wish to emphasize that I am compelled to accept the status that existed previously until such time that they (the pro-Wickremesinghe lawmakers) and the new political alliance prove their majority in Parliament," he said. The statement was fuel at Rajapaksa's five-hour rally. Lawmaker Susil Premjayantha told the crowd that electing a new speaker could be the first order of business when Parliament reopens, suggesting the party will bring a no-confidence motion against Jayasuriya. Wickremesinghe said in an interview with The Associated Press last week that there is credible evidence that Rajapaksa's party is attempting to buy support in Parliament. Palitha Range Bandara, a United National Party lawmaker, has said that he was offered millions of dollars and a minister portfolio if he crossed over. Lawmakers from Rajapaksa's party have denied the allegations. Seven members of Wickremesinghe's United National Front have defected to Rajapaksa's government. On Saturday, the Tamil National Alliance an ethnic minority Tamil party said it will support a no-confidence motion to be brought against Rajapaksa, after one lawmaker from their party joined Rajapaksa's government. The Tamil party's 15 votes could give Wickremesinghe's camp a decisive edge over Rajapaksa. Both Sirisena and Rajapaksa attempted to woo Tamil lawmakers in their speeches at the rally. Speaking in the Tamil language, Rajapaksa promised to fulfill the Tamil people's needs. "What I ask from all Tamil and (Tamil-speaking) Muslim people and their political parties is to help to build up our country. I trust you and you can always trust me," Rajapaksa said. Ethnic minority Tamils in the country's north and east are still reeling from the effects of a 26-year civil war between Tamil Tiger separatists and government troops. Rajapaksa is seen as a hero by the ethnic Sinhalese majority for winning the conflict. Tens of thousands of civilians were reportedly killed in the final months of the war in 2009, when government troops brutally crushed the rebels. Thousands more are still missing. Sirisena came into power in 2015 promising to address the issues affecting the Tamils and investigate allegations of war crimes against both sides of the conflict, but has done little in either area. He was also critical of investigations into military personnel accused of human rights violations during the civil war. Tensions had been building between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe for some time, as the president did not approve of economic reforms introduced by the prime minister. Sirisena said at the rally that he would not be discouraged by resistance in Parliament, civil society and the international community to his actions. "Even if there are threats, pressure and forces, I will only move forward and will not take a step back," he said. (AP) SCY SCY Former chief secy joins chorus for Mizoram CEO's ouster Aizawl, Nov 5 (PTI) Joining the chorus for Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S B Shashank's ouster, former Mizoram chief secretary Lalfak Zuala on Monday said the senior poll official was wrong in "working against Principal Secretary (home) Lalnunmawia Chuaungo". NGO Coordination Committee, an umbrella body of major civil societies and student organisations, had sought Shashank's exit from the state, shortly after the Election Commission (EC) removed principal secretary-level state officer Lalnunmawia Chuaungo. Shashank had complained to the EC that Chuaungo was interfering with the poll process. He also hinted at intrusion in electoral roll revision and deployment of central armed police forces (CAPF) in the state. Elections to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly are scheduled to be held on November 28. Lalfak Zuala, who is also a senior member of Zoram People's Forum (ZPM), said the CEO should have complained against the state government to the EC, as Chuaungo had taken the decision in coordination with the top officials. "Chuango must have consulted the state chief secretary, the home minister and the chief minister before making a move. That is usually how the state administration functions," he asserted. The subject of law and order is also in the hands of the state government, Zuala said. "The number of CAPF personnel to be deployed during the election should be determined by the state as the home department officials and the DGP are the right people to assess the requirement. "It was wrong on the part of the CEO to work against Chuaungo" he added. Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawala wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate removal of state Shashank to ensure "smooth conduct of the November 28 elections". He said people of Mizoram have lost faith in the CEO after he complained to the EC about Chuaungo. Shashank, on his part, said he was fulfilling his responsibilities in accordance with EC mandate. Talking about his fallout with Chuaungo, the CEO said he had issued a statement to the District Election Officers (DEO) and Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) on September 11 to notify that "identification slips could be used as valid documents by eligible Bru migrants in Tripura". Chuaungo, however, issued another order on September 13, asking the Bru refugees to refrain from using the identification slips, except for the purpose of repatriation, Shashank said. Thousands of people of the Bru tribe were forced to leave Mizoram and move to tripura after ethnic violence in the state in 1997. The CEO also alleged that the principal secretary and Mizoram Chief Secretary Arvind Ray did not issue any clarification on the September 13 order, despite the EC's instructions. "As the state chief electoral officer, it is my duty to intimate the EC about the developments. I can only hope that the civil societies will understand my position. I am sorry if I have hurt anybody," he told reporters. NGO Coordination Committee, however, sought Shashank's exit at the earliest and issued a statement to say it would picket the state election office from Tuesday. In the past, too, the civil society organisations had opposed the Election Commission's decision to conduct electoral revision of Bru voters in Tripura relief camps. They urged the EC to defranchise all Bru voters who chose to stay back in Tripura and did not return to Mizoram. PTI HCV RMS RMS New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate has arrested a Kolkata-based businessman in connection with its money laundering probe into the Rose Valley ponzi scam case, officials said Monday. Sudipto Roy Choudhary (44) was arrested by the agency from West Bengal capital Kolkata on Sunday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said. The officials said a Kolkata court on Monday sent Choudhary to judicial custody till November 12. They said Choudhary, who ran a consultancy business, is a suspect in connection with a number of payments made in the chit fund scam case and payments worth crores made to him are under the ED's scanner. His links with a number of people, including politicians, are under the scanner of the agency, the officials said. They said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also scrutinising transactions of Choudhary, which are linked to about a dozen bank accounts and two dozen credit cards. The agency arrested him after conducting fresh searches in the case at three premises over the last two days, the officials said. The ED had registered an FIR against the Rose Valley, its chairman Gautam Kundu and others in 2014 under the PMLA. Kundu was arrested by the agency in Kolkata in 2015. Multiple charge sheets have been filed in the courts in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar by the ED in this case. It has also attached assets worth about Rs 4,200 crore in this case till now. The group had allegedly floated a total of 27 companies for running the alleged chit fund operations out of which only half-a-dozen were active. The agency has alleged that the firm had floated the scheme promising inflated returns on investments between eight and 27 per cent to gullible investors in various states. The company had allegedly pledged astronomical returns to depositors on land properties and assets and bookings done in the real estate sector. The company has also been accused of making "cross investments" in its various sister firms to suppress its liabilities towards investors. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had probed the company before the ED and the CBI registered cases against the group. The ED has pegged the total volume of the alleged irregularities at Rs 15,000 crore, including interest and penalities. PTI NES NES ANB ANB ANB New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-sook met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and interacted with school students here on Monday, the first of her official engagements during her India visit. Kim, who arrived here Sunday on a four-day visit, will also participate in Diwali festivities and the ground-breaking ceremony of a memorial for a Korean queen in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. "Affectionate bonding. EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on the First Lady of the Republic of Korea, Mrs Kim Jung-sook. India and ROK (Republic of Korea) share a special strategic partnership since 2015 and our relations have deepened and diversified in recent years," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. After her meeting with Swaraj, the first lady visited the ASN Senior Secondary school in East Delhi where she interacted with students. The school has a tie up with South Korea's Jeonnam (Chonnam) Foreign Language High School since 2015 and the institutes have an exchange programme for their students and teachers. Addressing a group of students, Kim urged them to study hard and help in the growth of their nations. The future generation will help in further cementing the Indo-Korean ties, she said. With the political leadership in India and Korea working to strengthen ties, the students will get more opportunities to visit each others countries, she said. The Korean first lady will visit Lucknow and from there, on Tuesday, she will leave for Ayodhya where she will attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the Queen Suriratna (Heo Hwang-ok) memorial. "The First Lady's participation in the festivities in Ayodhya will showcase our close civilisational links as well as the ongoing deepening engagement between our two countries," the MEA had said last week. According to Korean legends, Princess Suriratna from Ayodhya had travelled to Korea and married King Kim Suro and became Queen Heo Hwang-ok some 2000 years ago. The South Korean First Lady will also attend the 'Deepotsav' event in the evening on Tuesday. Kim will leave for Agra on Wednesday for a visit to thee Taj Mahal before heading home. PTI ASK/PR ASK ANB ANB ANB Srinagar, Nov 5 (PTI) A ceremonial border personnel meeting (BPM) on the occasion of Diwali was held Monday between Indian and Chinese Army delegations on the Indian side of the border at Chushul in the Ladakh region. "A BPM was held on the occasion of Diwali at the Indian BPM huts at Chushul-Moldo and DBO-TWD in eastern Ladakh Monday," a defence spokesman said. He added that the Indian delegations were led by Brigadier VK Purohit and Colonel SS Lamba and the Chinese delegations by Senior Colonel Yin Hong Chen and Colonel Song Zhang Li. The ceremonial BPM was marked by the lighting of traditional lamps by the delegation leaders, followed by their ceremonial address, the defence spokesman said. He added that both sides highlighted the peace, tranquillity and understanding prevailing on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). A cultural programme showcasing the vibrant Indian culture was held with traditional grandeur, the defence spokesman said, adding that the delegations interacted with each other in a free, congenial and cordial environment and parted amidst feelings of friendship and commitment towards enhancing the existing cordial relations between both sides. PTI MIJ/AB RC Lucknow, Nov 5 (PTI) The First Lady of South Korea, Kim Jung-sook, arrived at the Amausi Airport here to a rousing reception Monday evening. She was received by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who welcomed her with a bouquet. Kim, who arrived in India Sunday on a four-day visit, is scheduled to participate in Diwali festivities and the ground-breaking ceremony of a memorial for a Korean queen in Ayodhya Tuesday. "Affectionate bonding. EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on the First Lady of the Republic of Korea, Mrs Kim Jung-sook. India and ROK (Republic of Korea) share a special strategic partnership since 2015 and our relations have deepened and diversified in recent years," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had tweeted earlier. "The First Lady's participation in the festivities in Ayodhya will showcase our close civilisational links as well as the ongoing deepening engagement between our two countries," the MEA had said last week. According to Korean legends, princess Suriratna from Ayodhya had travelled to Korea, married king Kim Suro and became queen Heo Hwang-ok some 2,000 years ago. The First Lady of South Korea will also attend the "Deepotsav" event in Ayodhya Tuesday evening. She will leave for Agra Wednesday for a visit to the Taj Mahal, before flying back home. PTI SAB SMI RC Shimla, Nov 5 (PTI) The Himachal Pradesh Assembly's winter session will be held from December 10 to 15 at Dharamshala, an official spokesperson said here Monday. The cabinet in its meeting held here Monday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur decided to recommend the governor to convene the assembly's winter session from December 10-15 at Dharamshala, he said. The session will have six sittings, the spokesman said. The cabinet also gave its approval for launching the Mukhya Mantri Nirog Yojna. The scheme will be applicable to all permanent residents, in all age groups, of the state and it aims at preventing long term illnesses by ensuring early diagnosis through basic health checkups, he said. The cabinet said no permit or pass will be required for transport of ethanol and no excise duty or export and import fee will be levied on ethanol invoiced specifically for petroleum companies for the purpose of blending into petrol and diesel, the spokesman said. It gave its nod to a few amendments in the Himachal Pradesh Lease Rules, 2013, to make it more simple so that more private investment could be attracted in the state. The amended rules will be notified for seeking any objection or suggestions from the general public, the spokesman said. It gave its nod to fill posts of various categories on contract basis through direct recruitment in the super specialty department of the Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Tanda. This includes 144 posts of nurses with a view to provide better health facilities to the people, the spokesman said. To make the Himachal Pradesh University of Health Sciences functional, the cabinet approved creation of four posts of various categories related to vice chancellor, registrar, controller of examinations and finance officer. It also approved to create and fill up other posts of various categories for the smooth functioning of the university, the spokesman said. The cabinet gave its nod to the policy for cadre building in the newly-opened medical colleges in the state. The spokesman said it was decided to allot 72 flats, constructed by HIMUDA under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) at Hamirpur, to the Dr Radhakrishanan Medical College, Hamirpur. The cabinet gave its nod to fill up 25 posts of principal (college cadre) through state public service commission through direct recruitment. It has been decided to abolish and change the designation of panchayat sahayaks to panchayat secretaries (contract) and regularise them as per the government's policy, the spokesman said. They will be provided a minimum pay of Rs 9,710 per month. It was also decided to fill up 300 posts of panchayat secretaries on contract basis in the gram panchayats, he said. Permission was granted to engage JBR Technologies Private Limited Ludhiana as service provider for setting up of the Integrated Solid Waste Management Project at Baddi in Solan district on public-private partnership mode. It approved to create and fill up 13 posts of various categories in the Directorate of Medical Education and Research for its smooth functioning, the spokesman said. The approval has also been granted to fill up 19 posts of different categories on outsource basis in the Composite Testing Laboratory Kandaghat in Solan district till these posts are filled up on regular basis, he said. It was decided that the state higher education council would be constituted to bring improvement and quality in higher education. PTI DJI PTI ANB ANB Gurgaon, Nov 5 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate the 136-km Kundli-Maneser-Palwal (KMP) expressway on November 17 or 18, said a Haryana minister Monday. PWD minister Rao Narbir Singh said the decision was taken during a meeting between Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Prime Minister Modi on Saturday. Singh said the prime minister is likely to inaugurate the expressway at Manesar where he would also address a rally on the occasion. Following the meeting, we have proposed to the PMO November 17 and 18 as tentative dates for the rally. The PMO officials will confirm the date after checking the prime minister's scheduled," Singh said. A 54-km stretch of the 135.6-km KMP Expressway between Maneser and Palwal is already operational since 2015, but its 83.6 km stretch between Kundli and Maneser ran into land acquisition hurdles, delaying the project. Once the KMP expressway is thrown open, heavy vehicles will get access to various industrial towns like Maneser, Sohna, Dharuhera, Bawal and Bhiwadi in Haryana without entering Delhi. The expressway will cut down the distance between various northern and western states. PTI CORR RAX RAX New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) A 20-year-old man was allegedly stabbed to death by three-four unidentified men after his shoulder brushed past one of the accused at Rohini's Vijay Vihar area, police said Monday. The deceased was identified as Ravi, a resident of Jalalpur in Uttar Pradesh, they added. According to the police, the incident took place on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. A police official said on his way home from work, Ravi's shoulder brushed past a man who was coming from the opposite direction. A quarrel erupted between the victim and the accused, who was accompanied by his friends, the police said. The accused subsequently took out a knife and stabbed Ravi multiple times on his chest, the official said. Ravi was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was declared brought dead, he added. The body was handed over to his family members after post-mortem, the police said, adding that a case was registered in this regard and a probe was on. PTI NIT BUN RC New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) Two men were arrested and a juvenile was apprehended for allegedly cheating people through Paytm, police said Monday. The accused were Islamuddin alias Mustkeem (20), Wasim alias Ansar (26), both residents of Mathura district in Uttar Pradesh, and a juvenile, they added. According to the police, on October 26, Vishesh Aggarwal, who ran a hardware shop in the Bharat Nagar area here, filed a complaint at the New Friends Colony police station regarding two fraudulent transactions from his Paytm account of Rs 12,999 and Rs 1,799 respectively, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said in a statement. Aggarwal alleged that on October 22, he received a call from a man, who wished to buy some hardware from his shop. He asked for Aggarwal's Paytm account details and subsequently, the two fraudulent transactions took place, the DCP said. During investigation, the police found that the accused had bought a mobile phone after transferring the money from the victim's Paytm account, the statement said. Subsequently, it was revealed that the mobile phone was to be delivered to a person near a petrol pump at Tawadu in Mewat, Biswal said. On October 27, the police laid a trap at Mewat and Islamuddin was nabbed while receiving the mobile phone from the delivery agent. He was arrested and the consignment was seized, the DCP said. During interrogation, Islamuddin disclosed that he worked for Wasim, who, along with a juvenile associate, used to make calls to people and cheat them. At the instance of Islamuddin, Wasim and the juvenile were arrested from his village, Biswal added. Wasim disclosed that he and the juvenile used to target hardware shopkeepers and gym owners and procure their phone numbers from Google, the police said. They used to make calls posing as customers and take the Paytm details of the victims, Biswal said. Once they got the details, they used to do online shopping through Paytm, he added. As Paytm asks for a one-time password (OTP) for a transaction, they used to call the victims and convince them that the OTP number was required for making payments. Seven mobile phones, eight trolley bags, three security cameras and other articles were recovered from the possession of the accused, the DCP said. PTI NIT BUN RC Varanasi, Nov 5 (PTI) A Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth student was arrested for his alleged involvement in the October 31 shooting incident in an upmarket Varanasi shopping Mall in which two persons were killed and two others injured, the police said Monday. Prime accused Alok Upadhyay was arrested from a bogey of the Farakka Express train at Cant railway station, the police said. Hiding in Ara district of Bihar after the incident, Alok was on his way to Lucknow, the police added. Soon after the shooting incident, the police had launched a manhunt to nab the miscreants and had been able to trace Alok's location by keeping his mobile phone on surveillance, they said. The police said they had earlier arrested Alok's accomplice Rohit Singh. Alok is presently being interrogated by a Crime Branch team to ascertain his exact role in the crime, they said. The police said the ongoing probe into the sensational shooting incident in the JVH Mall has revealed that Alok and Rohit along with their two other friends Kundan and Rishabh, armed with countrymade pistols, had gone to the mall to threaten a salesman, Prashant, who had misbehaved with one of their friends, working in the showroom. As Alok began abusing Prashant and others in the Mall, he was caught and overpowered by the staff members of the showroom. Seeing themselves trapped, the four started firing in which two salesmen, Gopi and Sunil, were killed while two others were injured, the police said, adding the accsued had managed to flee from the spot. PTI CORR RAX RAX 0.0 Community Rank Outperform Votes Noble has received 0 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Noble has received 0 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Noble and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe NE will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe NE will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next 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 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. 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Knopf Auto Parts L.L.C., NSK-Warner (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., NSK-Warner K.K., NSK-Warner Mexico S.A. de C.V, NSK-Warner U.S.A. Inc., New PDS Corp., Old Remco Holdings L.L.C., Old Remco International Holdings L.L.C., Remy International, SeohanWarner Turbo Systems LLC, Sevcon, Sevcon New Energy Technology (Hubei) Company Limited, and Transmission Systems AutoForm LLC. Albert Rivera announces in Alsasua an act in Madrid against possible pardons between threats of radical Eschatology of the PSOE in Alsasua "Thousands of people defend Alsasua in front of the "tort" of Spain Citizen" was the headline with which the agency EFE led the information on the act of Spain Citizen held in Alsasua in the lived moments of tension between protesters against the act, called for by Citizens, and agents of the Police and the Civil Guard deployed in the streets of the town of navarre. it Was in Alsasua, where two years ago, a group of people beat two Spanish civil guards and their partners in the bar Koxka. That's why, with about 500 followers Albert Rivera called to rebel against the aggressors, "those who are attacking democracy". Rivera made a plea against intolerance nationalist, who precisely didn't put anything easy to 'Spain Citizenship to the development of the act. The charter bus for access to the area were received with stones and insults by a group of radicals and self-styled anti-fascists who during all the interventions tried to boycott the event: sirens, whistles, insults, and even with the bells of the church next to the square, which prevented in a great extent to hear the speakers, who have intervened in the middle of a strong police deployment. Throw stones against the van, in comes Rivera pic.twitter.com/NhNc8xdGSH ? Miriam Wall Martinez (@MiriamMuroM) November 4, 2018 the president of the news agency, Fernando Garea, has been forced to apologize for the treatment given to information, as presented as an aggression to Alsasua the tribute to the Civil Guard organized by Cs, PP and Vox. Rectification of a news story from yesterday very, very unfortunate. I'm So sorry and I apologize. https://t.co/dw2DZNUg2A ? Fernando Garea (@Fgarea) November 4, 2018 RTVE picked up the ticker of EFE as they are. A teletype, which included paragraphs that have outraged many of the users of social networks. "The march has toured much of the town, the greater part in silence, only broken in a few moments to chant the slogan of protest, "Utzi Altsasu bakean-Leave in peace to Altsasu", the same that was read on the banner that leads. Already at the end of the tour you have been able to also hear other cries as "alde hemendik" ("get out of here")". Two neighbors of Alsasua have given reading a statement in basque and Spanish that emphasizes the "boredom" of a people "diverse, supportive and resilient" that "is not going to relent in the demand for respect, justice and peace". A people, the text continues, "who will stand up to injustice," which means that seven young people of the village carry two years in prison despite the fact that the sentences, some of up to nine years in prison, are not firm". The agency did not take long to realize his error and published a correction to a headline much more neutral. Demonstration in Alsasua against the act of "Spain of Citizens" (rectification of holder) https://t.co/JOpAXcSVhh ? EFE News (@EFEnoticias) November 4, 2018 The public broadcaster also fixed to the first holder in the grading of "tort" the act of Cs, PP and Vox and picked up the new owner of EFE, but no report of correction, a fact that has been criticized as "sectarian". This headline is perhaps the most sectarian that has poured RTVE. And that's saying a lot. the That "defend" without quotation marks deserves resignations. the 'Thousands of people are advocating to Alsasua in front of the "tort" of Spain Citizen - https://t.co/64GOhUTuJh' https://t.co/l3jDEdTBBD ? Juan Carlos Girauta (@GirautaOficial) November 4, 2018 The holder of EFE and RTVE on the act of Spain of Citizens in Alsasua is all petty. The first is published, the second copies it. And the response of the spokesman of the PSOE in the senate is shameful. It will be irresponsible to manifest for freedom and in defense of the FCSE. ? Castur (@carloastur) November 5, 2018 Demonstration in Alsasua against the act of "Usa Citizen" * The holder has been modified to conform to the rectification of the Agency Efe As if @rtve will use the copy paste in the news and not give them an own format... ? [MEGA] (@MtqMMEGA) November 5, 2018 RTVE and EFE say that thousands of proetarras "defend Alsasua of the tort" of Cs, PP and VOX Sure that if I had killed your father you would not be so fantastic to defend this vermin. ? Sansoncarrasco (@bachillersanson) November 5, 2018 Beautiful holders of Agency EFE and TVE : "Thousands of people are advocating to Alsasua in front of the tort of Spain, Citizen." In what country are we? ? Diego Sanchez Herrera (@disanhe) November 4, 2018 as far as the #ManipulacionRTVE to proetarras of Bildu as peaceful defenders of their people, and the constitutionalists as a threat to coexistence.https://t.co/hWPR2USBh7pic.twitter.com/vSNVnMvLUC ? Tic Tac (@_Tic_Tac_Tic) November 4, 2018 the TVE and the state agency EFE reporting on #Alsasua Journalism some call it pic.twitter.com/74d2W3H3uE ? Augustine of Grade (@a_degrado) November 4, 2018 According to the criteria of Updated Date: 05 November 2018, 20:01 Learn more Everest Re Group Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of reinsurance and insurance services. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Reinsurance, International, Bermuda, and Insurance. The U.S. Reinsurance segment writes property and casualty reinsurance and specialty lines of business, including marine, aviation, surety, and accident and health business, on both a treaty and facultative basis, through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies primarily within the U.S. The International segment offers foreign property and casualty reinsurance through Everest Re's branches in Canada and Singapore and through offices in Brazil, Miami, and New Jersey. The Bermuda segment comprises reinsurance and insurance to worldwide property and casualty markets through brokers and directly with ceding companies from its Bermuda office and reinsurance to the United Kingdom and European markets through its UK branch and Ireland Re. The Insurance segment writes property and casualty insurance directly and through brokers, surplus lines brokers, and general agents within the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartere Read More American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected]eat.com | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. Because progressive doctrine constantly shifts and the liturgy evolves, following the lefts orthodoxies du jour is extraordinarily difficult. So, in the interests of clarity and understanding, one should occasionally ask them questions like these: * In the worlds recorded history, can you name a single force that has provided greater benefits to more people than Judeo-Christianity, capitalism and America? * Do Americans really need protection from dangerous ideas, or would it be more intellectually honest to articulate persuasive explanations of why ideas are dangerous and offer better alternatives? Who will decide whats dangerous and whats not? How does deciding square with Americans First Amendment rights? * Should people really feel guilty because of their race, sex or things their ancestors did? Are all white people racist by definition, or does racist apply solely to non-virtue-signaling white people who mind their own business? * If you are a minority, is there a better place on earth to live than in America? If America is a racist country, why are so many minorities desperate to come here? * Are people automatically xenophobic for taking pride in Americas heritage and inclusive culture, or for supporting immigration law enforcement to continue time-honored normal, orderly changes to the nations cultural landscape? * Just wondering, would any number of illegal immigrants be too many for open borders advocates? Exactly how many who will become wards of Americas taxpayers should be allowed entry? * Why isnt appropriating the appealing elements of another culture a good thing? If you think cultural appropriation is bad, then why havent you condemned Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a white woman, Robert Beto ORourke, a white Irish-American, and Rachel Dolezal, another white woman, for assuming or implying, respectively, Native American, Hispanic and black identities? * What motivated Elizabeth Warren to misappropriate a Native American heritage? Are set-asides and other benefits for minorities so good that white people are incentivized to assume minority identities to exploit them? * If there really is white privilege in America, why arent people taking DNA tests to confirm their whiteness rather than black, Native American or other nonwhite, allegedly victimized groups? * When white politicians, academics and media figures evangelize about white privilege, are their messages really about white privilege or are they merely revealing their own assumed guilt and insecurities? * Why do elderly white people Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Diane Feinstein, et al hog so many Democratic Party leadership roles? Why should white septuagenarians and octogenarians be in charge? Why havent progressive Democrats already forced all their elderly whites to check their privilege and relinquish their power and influence to deserving nonwhites? * Was President Donald Trumps election responsible for inciting left-wing Democrats blind hatred, or did electing Trump merely unmask it? Who really believes that all 63 million people who voted for President Trump are stupid, Nazis or Klansmen? You do? Are you nuts? * Do you agree or disagree with George Orwell, who wrote, The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.? Contact columnist Jerry Shenk at jshenk2010@gmail.com ALBANY As New Yorkers head to the polls Tuesday and decide whether to hand Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo his third term, Republican challenger Marc Molinaro is hoping for a replay of Cuomo's father's stunning defeat as he sought a fourth term in 1994. In a whirlwind effort over the weekend, the Dutchess County executive held 16 campaign events, ending in his hometown of Tivoli. Molinaro had another dozen public appearances scheduled for Monday. Former Republican Gov. George Pataki, who beat Gov. Mario M. Cuomo with 48 percent of the vote in a political climate that favored Republicans at the time, joined Molinaro at a "get out the vote" event in Manhattan on Monday afternoon. "I've known Marc Molinaro since he was the youngest mayor in America," Pataki said. " I know his ideas and vision for the state of New York and I have no doubt that he will be a terrific governor." Molinaro's team notes that Pataki was polling 16 points behind Mario Cuomo on the closing weekend of the 1994 campaign, and the gap between the younger Cuomo and Molinaro has recently narrowed from 22 points to a 13-point lead for the incumbent, according to the latest poll from the Siena College Research Institute. Cuomo, by contrast, toned down his campaign activity, holding just a handful of rallies over the final pre-election weekend, where he touted his eight-year record and his willingness to take on President Donald J. Trump. The governor spent the final hours of the campaign on Monday without any events scheduled, his campaign said, perhaps signaling his confidence in an impending victory. At a campaign event in Colonie on Sunday, Molinaro, who has positioned himself as a moderate Republican and a problem solver, invoked Pataki's inaugural gubernatorial victory. "2018 is not 1994, but 25 years ago a man you've barely heard of came to places he'd barely visited and he told you that you needed to believe again," Molinaro said, according to news reports. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Unlike Pataki, Molinaro may have to contend with a "blue wave" of engaged Democratic voters in reaction to Trump's election, which some pundits believe will enable Democrats to regain the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The ratio of Republicans to Democrats in New York also skews much heavier in favor of Democrats than it did in 1994. A representative for Cuomo's campaign discounted the notion that Molinaro's candidacy is similar to Pataki's 1994 run. "Molinaro is an ultra-conservative, anti-choice, anti-immigrant, NRA A-rated Trump mini-me," campaign spokeswoman Abbey Collins said. "Pataki was pro-choice, pro-assault weapons ban and out-raised Mario Cuomo in a Republican wave year. Otherwise, exactly the same." Correction: An earlier version of this story indicated that Mario Cuomo served two terms, rather than three. HUDSON - A man threw a bag of dog feces at the city's mayor during a tense budget workshop debate about changing the position and duties of a youth services director. Mayor Rick Rector was interrupted while responding to protesters when a man walked in and threw a clear plastic bag containing what is believed to be dog feces at him, according to Police Chief L. Edward Moore. The bag hit Rector's arm and fell on the ground, where it was picked up by Rector's aide. Police of Friday were searching for the feces-slinging culprit. Surveillance cameras show the man was wearing white sweatpants, a grey sweatshirt and a mask. The poop toss was triggered by a heated debate about a personnel change in the youth department. Two dozen citizens packed Hudson's Common Council Chambers Thursday, sitting on the floor and blocking the doorway, to question Rector's decision to remove Nick Zachos from his current role as the city's youth director to the position of "Recreational Attendant Level Four," an administrative position, in next year's budget. Rector said he and the city's youth commissioner Mark Bryant made the "very difficult decision" to remove Zachos from his current position, which oversees the Hudson Youth Center, a gathering place for kids ages 7 to 18. The youth director is still in the budget for next year. Rector said in the meeting that "it's not a money issue" although he gave no other reasons for the change. Common Council President Tom DePietro said removing Zachos from the position right before the final budget workshop the last chance to amend next year's spending plan looked suspicious. "To wait until the final hour to make a sudden change in personnel, which is completely and utterly the Mayor's prerogative, it smells fishy," DePietro said. Half a dozen citizens interrupted the meeting, which was not a public hearing, to protest the decision and demand answers. "I have five 11-year-olds crying because Nick lost his job," said a woman on a YouTube video of the meeting, adding that there will be nothing left for the youth because "you're taking it all away" and kids are going to suffer. The woman, who identified herself as born and raised in Hudson, was visibly upset and said "this is my town." "I'm tired of your budgets. I'm tired of you taking people's jobs. I'm tired of you taking over Columbia County," she yelled. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The room burst into applause as she walked out. Another citizen who said he was working on a portrait series at the youth center for the past few days said the city's youth are already underserved. "They don't receive the funding where they deserve," the young man said. "They choose to make the decision to step in there after school. They don't have all the equipment and resources." "What they do have is someone with a real heart and a real voice with a love for them," he added, referring to Zachos. Zachos told HudsonValley360 news source last year that he was concerned about funding cuts for the youth center in the 2018 budget, and said support dropped off since the city took over the center in 2005. On Thursday, protesters demanded an official chance to voice their opinions to the mayor. Rector suggested the next youth committee meeting. A man who identified himself as the chair of the youth committee said he hadn't been made aware of any restructuring of department personnel before Thursday. Rector said there would be a budget presentation and hearing on Nov. 14 before a vote. The "Buffalo Billion" corruption trial played out in New York City last summer but one of its major players is about to come to an upstate courtroom near you. Veteran lawyer Paul Shechtman, who forced federal prosecutors in Manhattan to scramble during the bid-rigging trial of SUNY Polytechnic Institute founder Alain Kaloyeros and three upstate businessman, is leading the appeal of Saratoga County auto repair businessman John W. Cole. In March, a jury found Cole the owner of the Cole's Collision chain guilty of felony assault and alcohol-impaired driving in a March 11, 2017, crash that left Cole's backseat passenger a quadriplegic. Judge James A. Murphy III sentenced Cole to the maximum seven years in prison. Cole's trial attorney, Cheryl Coleman, managed to get Cole free on $50,000 bail as she appealed the case to the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Third Department. Shechtman, referred to Cole's case through a mutual friend, is now leading the charge. It is safe to say Saratoga County prosecutors have their hands full. The 69-year-old Shechtman, a Rhodes scholar and graduate of Harvard Law School, was a clerk for Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, was the chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan, worked as a counsel for legendary Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and was the state's criminal justice czar under Gov. George E. Pataki. Last summer, it was Shechtman who forced Manhattan federal prosecutors to reopen their case against Kaloyeros and Shechtman's client, Buffalo developer Louis Ciminelli, to establish venue and prove that wire fraud took place within Manhattan's Southern District. "Judge, they rested. They rested without proving the most basic element of a wire fraud case, that there was a wire in Manhattan. I don't know what more to say," Shechtman said at the time. "The government gets through a case and doesn't prove venue. The question is who should suffer the consequences of that." It was a rare and briefly embarrassing moment for the government which nearly led U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni to dismiss the wire fraud charges. The judge relented and allowed the prosecution to reopen its proof. "I came out here prepared to dismiss these counts," Caproni said. "This is putting into tension the issue of the public has an interest in seeing the criminal laws enforced. The public has an interest in having the jury decide this question." On July 12, jurors in U.S. District Court in Manhattan returned guilty verdicts on all counts against Kaloyeros, Ciminelli and Syracuse developers Steve Aiello and Joseph Gerardi on all counts. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Shechtman was still a thorn in the government's side. While cross-examining a federal agent, Shechtman went over what seemed like every email in the case that did not involve Ciminelli and wrote the words, "Not Lou" atop each one. Now he's the problem for prosecutors in Saratoga County on an emotional case. Cole and his wife, Regina, were in Cole's car with the victim, Dee Shapiro, and victim's husband, at the time of the crash on Sitterly Road. They had all been good friends. Leading up to the trial, Cole hired the Albany-based Baker Public Relations firm, run by former television reporter Megan Baker, to publicize his company's philanthropic efforts with some of the region's better-known charities. The judge called it an "orchestrated, conspiratorial, PR-firm-manipulated, shopped-out method." Murphy scolded Cole and threatened to revoke his bail if he ignored a court order to curtail his media outreach. Coleman had argued in her appeal that Murphy wrongly told her to "stop talking about reasonable doubt" during her summation. She highlighted the judge's comments. Now the case is in the hands of Shechtman. ALBANY If you own an expensive home in a high-tax school district you may be facing even more costs come April, thanks to the new cap on federal income tax deductions for state and local taxes, or SALT. While a number of New York's school districts initially tried to set up special funds to help taxpayers try and preserve their deductions, it appears that none of the state's nearly 700 public school systems have actually done so. Schools reversed course last summer after the federal government warned that they probably weren't going to allow such deductions above the new cap of $10,000. However, 14 municipalities, including the village of Nassau in Rensselaer County, had already set up these special funds or charitable foundations to which homeowners can donate. On Monday, the funds will likely be among the topics at federal hearings about the deductions. No matter what that outcome is, the new rules, which have already sparked one lawsuit and will likely draw others, will be a topic of debate for a long time in places like New York, New Jersey, Illinois and other states where property and school taxes are far above the national norm. President Donald Trumps tax reform bill, which was approved in late 2017, lowered income taxes but it also placed a $10,000 cap on the deductibility of state and local taxes. With homeowners in some of the Empire States wealthiest communities paying more than $10,000 in school and property taxes, capping the SALT deduction was seen by some as an assault by Trump and the Republican-led Congress on New York and other mostly Democratic high-tax states. To try and blunt the impact, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislators quickly pushed through a law that would allow school districts and municipalities to create charitable foundations or funds that people could contribute to and get deductions on their federal income tax bills. The funds would help pay for local municipalities and schools. The IRS last summer, though, said it was proposing to disallow such deductions. As a result, the states nearly 700 school districts held off on setting up the foundations. They pulled back, said Westchester Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, a democrat. Her home school district in Scarsdale started to create a foundation but halted that work after the IRS comments came out. Annual school tax bills went to out homeowners in September. Tax bills for municipalities, however, go out at different times of year and some had already set up their foundations. Those included Rye Brook in Westchester, Ithaca and Buffalo. Most were in Westchester or Long Island where taxes are high enough to potentially make a big difference to taxpayers. In the village of Nassau, the board also started up a foundation as soon as the legislation was passed last spring, said Mayor Robert Valenty. Some downstate communities with high taxes have received substantial contributions. Scarsdale got a lot of donations, said Katie Hodgdon, associate counsel at the state Association of Towns. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Scarsdale village received $495,000 from 70 people, said Paulin, who gave $10,000. Capping the SALT deductions also prompted acting Attorney General Barbara Underwood to sue the federal government, contending that the move violates the concept of states rights and limits on federal taxing power. New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland also are participating in the suit. More suits will likely be filed once the IRS makes its final ruling, unless they allow the deductions. More for you Lawmakers offer their own plans to deal with SALT "missile" There will certainly be legal challenges to those regulations should they be finalized, said Daniel Rosen, of the Baker McKenzie law firm, which is representing a coalition of mostly downstate municipalities that have banded together to fight the cap. One argument against the cap may be that in some states, such as Georgia and Alabama, there are longstanding charitable foundations for parochial schools that taxpayers use for income tax credits. That would suggest there is a precedent for such policies. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518-454-5758 @RickKarlinTU The following is from a Los Angeles Times editorial: Voters in Ireland removed the crime of blasphemy from that country's constitution, a change that the minister of justice hailed as "another reflection of the strong public support for a modern, liberal constitution." Yet despite Ireland's example, insulting God or religious figures is still a crime in more than 70 countries, in some places punishable by death. (On Wednesday Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the release of a Christian woman who had spent eight years on death row after being convicted of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.) Equally disturbing, blasphemy laws are being repackaged as prohibitions on "hate speech." Over the years there has been a campaign, led by some Muslim nations, to have the international community condemn "defamation of religion." This rhetorical sleight of hand allows defenders of blasphemy laws to portray them as protections for persecuted believers rather than the enforcement of a theological orthodoxy. On the day before Irish voters chose to remove blasphemy from the constitution, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that an Austrian woman's rights weren't violated when she was convicted of "publicly disparaging religious doctrines." While conducting a seminar on Islam, the woman had suggested that an alleged marriage between Muhammad and a 6-year-old girl amounted to pedophilia. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. In upholding the conviction, the European court deferred to the Austrian courts' conclusion that the woman's statements "had been capable of arousing justified indignation" and "could only be understood as having been aimed at demonstrating that Muhammad was not worthy of worship." The judges further concluded that the courts in Austria "carefully balanced the applicant's right to freedom of expression with the rights of others to have their religious feelings protected, and to have religious peace preserved in Austrian society." Such a ruling would be unimaginable in the United States, given the 1st Amendment. Although historically states have passed laws against blasphemy, rulings by the Supreme Court make it clear that a desire to protect religions from ridicule isn't a justification for abridging free-speech rights. As the court said in a 1952 case involving the censorship of a "sacrilegious" movie: "It is not the business of government in our nation to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a particular religious doctrine." The voters in Ireland were correct. Blasphemy laws have no place in any society that purports to value freedom of conscience. A young nursing student was honoured for her outstanding caring skills after turning to poetry to articulate the demands of the job. Maggie Hampson, 22, produced a selection of poignant, gritty and moving verses which reflected her feelings as she worked with cancer patients and people suffering from dementia. Now, after graduating from Edinburgh Napier with a Bachelor of Nursing (Adult) degree, she has been named this years winner of the universitys Simon Pullin Award. In her submission for the prize, Maggie wrote about the rapport she built with a lady suffering from Alzheimers Disease who she looked after during a placement at Edinburghs Western General Hospital. Maggie, from Clogheen, County Tipperary, Ireland, but now living in Blackburn, West Lothian, made reminder cards for the patient to explain where she was, spelled out what each of her tablets was for and walked the corridors with her, their relationship becoming so trusting that the patient often refused medication from anyone else. Speaking about her placement in general, Maggie added: Each day I was reminded that the care I delivered was appreciated, whether that was a patient grabbing my hand, giving me a hug or crying the day I said my goodbyes. She also included in her submission a selection of powerful self-penned poems, discussing in graphic detail her experiences as a carer and reflecting on the role of a nurse. Maggie wrote about caring for a young man with a brain tumour and sepsis, and also about the close personal support which a nurse gives a patient as part of their everyday working routine. Dr Stephen Smith, a senior lecturer at the university and a nurse consultant in compassionate care with NHS Lothian, said Maggie was a very worthy winner of this years Simon Pullin Award. The honour, which comes with 250 in prize money, was established to recognise the human side of nursing and midwifery. It was created in memory of Senior Nurse Simon Pullin, who played a key role in the universitys Compassionate Care Programme up until his death from cancer in July 2011. Dr Smith said: Maggies poems and lyrics added creativity to her portfolio, and reinforced the evidence of what she had learned about providing compassionate care in the real world of practice. Emma Trotter, Maggies Personal Development Tutor in the School of Health & Social Care, said she had been an outstanding student who had shown commitment and enthusiasm throughout her studies, adding: She has a warm personality and caring approach, and has especially strong values and beliefs regarding compassionate care. Maggie was thrilled to be named as this years Simon Pullin Award winner. She said: This must make me the happiest newly qualified nurse ever; Im over the moon. I would like to dedicate the award to every member of staff at Edinburgh Napier University who has supported me throughout a challenging but wonderful three years. Following graduation, Maggie is now taking up her first nursing post at St Johns Hospital in Livingston. Pictured below Maggie's poem Cashel is set to benefit from a new 'hot desk' hub promoting local enterprise, according to Cashel Chamber of Commerce President Martin Lynch. Rockshel Ltd, which opened in September last year creating 200 jobs, has announced they are in talks with a group to set up a 'hot desk' facility, similar to the Thurles Enterprise Centre. The idea is to provide high-speed broadband on site, with printing facilities and phone access to local entrepreneurs. So in theory, if you're living in Cashel, and working in Dublin, and can work from home maybe two or three days a week, their plan is to develop a hot desk area where you can go in two or three days a week, and get your business idea off the ground, said Mr Lynch. It's understood the site in question is a greenfield site adjacent to Rockshel Ltd. Rockshel is a bio-tech lifescience and pharmaceuticals company which started producing an extensive range of nutritional, herbal and health supplements in May this year. The site was formerly the property of the Sun Pharma Group, which closed in 2016. Rockshel expects to manage numerous projects in the Innovation Centre during 2018-2019 with potential global expansion, the company stated. Getting Schooled on the Need for Data Integration By Paula Bernier - Executive Editor, TMC A new study suggests that institutions of higher learning need to do cross-department data integration to remain competitive. In fact, 87 percent of administrators feel the imperative to do that within the next five years. Ellucian, which provides software and services to colleges and universities, sponsored the research. Wakefield Research conducted the study, which gathered information from 300 admissions and recruitment team members, 500 college students, and 502 alumni that have graduated in the past five years. The institutions surveyed included two- and four-year institutions, both private and public. Todays students expect seamless personalized experiences from nearly every organization they come in contact withwhether they realize it or not, says Ellucian Senior Strategic Consultant Katie Lynch-Holmes. These expectations and actual experiences influence their choice of institution, long-term loyalty, and future giving. The study also reports that: 87 percent of students who get personalized communications during the application process consider that an important factor in their school selection; 95 percent of advisors want more complete information on students academic, financial, and student life data; and 95 percent of advancement officials think they would have better alumni relationship if they had access to more data across the student lifecycle. Getting more detailed and personalized communications from their school also has a significant impact on alumni giving, the report suggests. Eighty five percent of alumni said they would donate more often if they knew their money was funding organizations or initiative they were involved with as students, Ellucian says. Fifty-one percent who receive requests say less than 10 percent of those inquiries are tied to their personal interests or past campus activities. Data integration and analysis is being important for organizations across an array of disciplines and industry verticals. For example, customer service and marketing teams are working to bring together data from different sources so they can better understand and cater to customers. And new tools, like AIOps solutions, now help IT teams collect, aggregate, visualize, analyze, and act on whats happening in enterprise networks and with business applications. Please enable JavaScript to view the Edited by Maurice Nagle [November 04, 2018] Comodo CA Rebrands as Sectigo ROSELAND, New Jersey, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Comodo CA, the world's largest commercial Certificate Authority and a leader in web security solutions, announced today that the company is rebranding to Sectigo . The company unveiled its new name to limit market confusion and better represent the breadth and direction of its solutions, timed with the one-year anniversary of its acquisition by Francisco Partners in a carve-out from Comodo Group. Sectigo provides web security solutions for small, medium, and enterprise businesses, in order to protect employees, customers, intellectual property, and brands from online threats. The company's products and services enable customers and partners to monitor and secure digital identities across all touch points. "This is an exhilarating time for our company," said Bill Holtz, CEO, Sectigo. "By rebranding as Sectigo, we are emphasizing our expansion beyond SSL to IoT and web security and announcing our commitment to making the internet more secure, as well as safe for businesses and consumers alike. We're focused on delivering solutions that rethink norms and advance the industry as a whole, and plan to become the world's most trusted, innovative, and customer-centric partner for securing every website, transaction, communication, and connected device." Sectigo has accomplished many milestones since the company was acquired in October 2017, including: Security Innovations and Standards Sectigo began expanding the company's solutions and services beyond its ore TLS/SSL digital certificate business and continued work with relevant standards bodies. IoT Manager Launched its IoT device security platform to defend devices and networks against cyberattacks through strong PKI digital identity, serving a range of industries and applications including industrial automation, medical devices, automotive, telecommunications, smart cities/smart buildings, and consumer electronics. Launched its IoT device security platform to defend devices and networks against cyberattacks through strong PKI digital identity, serving a range of industries and applications including industrial automation, medical devices, automotive, telecommunications, smart cities/smart buildings, and consumer electronics. Certificate Manager 6.0 Released advanced features for managing all enterprise certificate requirements from one interface: automated discovery and adoption of certificates issued by SSL vendors, Active Directory Certificate Services, automated enrollment, and renewals under administrator control of Public SSL, Private SSL, user, mobile device, SMIME, and IoT certificates, using industry standard protocols. Released advanced features for managing all enterprise certificate requirements from one interface: automated discovery and adoption of certificates issued by SSL vendors, Active Directory Certificate Services, automated enrollment, and renewals under administrator control of Public SSL, Private SSL, user, mobile device, SMIME, and IoT certificates, using industry standard protocols. CodeGuard, Inc. Acquired CodeGuard , a global leader in website maintenance, backup, and disaster recovery. CodeGuard, which maintains its brand, has since expanded to six locations in EMEA and APAC to meet international demand and expects to see 100 percent YoY growth. , a global leader in website maintenance, backup, and disaster recovery. CodeGuard, which maintains its brand, has since expanded to six locations in EMEA and APAC to meet international demand and expects to see 100 percent YoY growth. Standards Leadership Established global industry memberships to advance industry standards from WiMAX Forum, GSMA, Zigbee, OCF, and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. Geographic Expansion and Top Industry Talent Since its acquisition, Sectigo opened a new corporate headquarters in Roseland, NJ and a new development center in Ottawa, Canada, to accommodate additional R&D and quality assurance capabilities and deliver services in fifteen different languages. The company expanded headcount by 17% across offices globally, adding industry veterans to its leadership team and surpassing 230 employees. New Website and Online Resources As part of the rebrand, Sectigo has made significant technology investments to deliver new web properties where businesses of all sizes can conveniently buy business security products, including a full range of SSL certificates. The company's new flagship site, Sectigo.com, provides a more modern experience, with intuitive navigation, streamlined checkout, a suite of payment options, wide-ranging products and services information, and improved online support. Sectigo debuts with a YouTube channel offering a series of helpful videos, including a company introduction . The Sectigo Blog also provides answers to FAQs about what's changing, and not changing, with the company's products and services. About Sectigo Sectigo (formerly Comodo CA) provides web security products that help customers protect, monitor, recover, and manage their web presence and connected devices. As the largest commercial Certificate Authority trusted by enterprises globally for more than 20 years, with more than 100 million SSL certificates issued in over 200 countries, Sectigo has the proven performance and experience to meet the growing needs for securing today's digital landscape. For more information, visit www.sectigo.com or contact [email protected]. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/778218/Sectigo_Formerly_Comodo_CA_Logo.jpg SOURCE Sectigo; Comodo CA [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2018] Forward Leading Is Hosting Digital Marketing Leaders Summit in Hong Kong this December HONG KONG, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to inform, inspire and connect digital marketers across industries, Forward Leading is hosting the Digital Marketing Leaders Summit in Hong Kong, on December 6 & 7, at the InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong. Over the past 2 years, this summit has experienced global success, in Sydney, Singapore and Boston. The 2018 Hong Kong summit will deliver 2 action-packed days full of inspiring keynotes, interactive panel discussions and networking sessions. The speakers are hand-picked for their expertise and experience, among those speaking including Airbnb, Alipay, Mobike, UBS Bank, eBay, Invesco, Foreo, Moleskine, Sony Music, South China Morning Post and many others. The summit agenda of this year features 7 themed sessions including: Digital Marketing & Strategy As traditional marketing evolves into digital marketing, businesses need to build a battle plan on how to create successful campaigns in this new age that allows brand growth and aligns with the customers' needs. Delegates can hear how companies have adapted and kept up with an everchanging industry by attending the talks from speakers including Chris Anderson (Chief Content Officer, Game Media Asia) and Brian Mak (General Manager of Hong Kong/Macau, The Entertainer). Attendees can also hear the unbelievable growth journey of Mobike and its feasibility across industries from Mobike's VP of Marketing - Eric Tian. Brand Marketing Building a brand is more than having a name, a logo and brand colors. Through talks and case studies by companies such as Airbnb, UBS Bank, Remote Lands and HKR International, attendees will gain an insider's perspective on successful brand building process. Marketing Empowered by Data & Analytics With the rise of new technologies, business can be more informed that ever before with the huge amount of data that can be gathered. However, how does one use that information to fuel decision making, strategies or even make sense of it? Industry giants eBay and Sony Music will deliver talks on their insights and experiences. Content & Social Media In today's world, content and social media platforms are the foundations of marketing in order to reach audiences for both B2B and B2C companies. Marketing leaders from Alipay, Multek and South China Morning Post will be sharing their secrets behind their influencer marketing practices, social listening, personalizing experiences and how to turn users into customers. The other 3 sessions will cover topics including: Digital Marketing & Customer Journey, Growth Marketing, Performance Marketing. To view the full agenda, please visit the summit website here. For more information, please contact: Marketing Cooperation: [email protected] Sponsorship and Delegate Registration: [email protected] PR Newswire is the official news release distribution partner of Digital Marketing Leaders Summit. About Forward Leading Ltd. Inform. Inspire. Connect. Our vision is to break through information barriers to help you reach your objectives. Through our offline events and online content, we bring together expertise across the globe to break through information barriers between business functions, industries and regions, therefore to meet your objectives and transform your business. Working with some of the most inspirational CEOs, entrepreneurs, innovators and creative thinkers of this generation, our summits are staged in premier global locations and cover today's most advanced and progressive business subjects. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20181101/2286751-1 SOURCE Forward Leading Ltd. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2018] WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award Presented to Nanjing University at the AACSB Asia Pacific Annual Conference in Nagoya, Japan Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), the leading data research platform and business intelligence tool for corporate, academic and government institutions worldwide, is pleased to announce Nanjing University as the winner of the WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award for the Asia Pacific region. A part of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, WRDS provides global corporations, universities and regulatory agencies the thought leadership, data access and insights needed to enable impactful research. The award was created through a unique collaboration with SSRN, the world's leading research paper repository, and its parent company Elsevier, a global information analytics company. Together, WRDS and SSRN elevate the visibility, impact and credibility of an institution's research. This partnership expanded to include the WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award - honoring emerging business schools. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181104005002/en/ L to R: Bob Zarazowski, Dr. Xiaochun Li, Gregg Gordon (Photo: Business Wire) Robert Zarazowski, Managing Director of WRDS and Gregg Gordon, Managing Director of SSRN presented the award to Dr. Xiaochun Li, Special Representative of the Dean and Senior Professor from the Nanjing University Business School, during the AACSB Asia Pacific Conference in Nagoya, Japan. Three universities are selected annually from across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. Learn more about the award >> "I am delighted to offer my congratulations to Nanjing University," said Robert Zarazowski, Managing Director of WRDS. "We are always excited to celebrate the exceptional research being conducted at business schools, and Nanjing University truly deserves this recognition." Nanjing University Business School is committed to our position as a world-class business school and deeply appreciate this honor, said Kunrong Shen, Dean and Professor of Nanjing University Business School. The value of WRDS is recognized and welcomed by our faculty and students as we maintain the top academic atmosphere, broad academic vision, and an inclusive academic attitude. The WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award acknowledges the excellent work taking place at the university and provides a special opportunity to highlight our faculty and students." Gregg Gordon, Managing Director of SSRN, added: "Congratulations to the Nanjing University for this achievement. SSRN is excited to continue to partner with WRDS for this award. They are a great example of what we wanted to achieve with this innovation award and the WRDS Research Paper Series on SSRN." ABOUT SSRN SSRN is a worldwide collaborative of over 330,600 authors and more than 2.2 million users that is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of research. Fonded in 1994, it is now composed of a number of specialized research networks. Each of SSRN's networks encourages the early distribution of research results by reviewing and distributing submitted abstracts and full text papers from scholars around the world. SSRN encourages readers to communicate directly with other subscribers and authors concerning their own and other's research. Through email abstract eJournals SSRN currently reaches over 400,000 people in approximately 140 different countries. ABOUT ELSEVIER Elsevier is a global information analytics company that helps institutions and professionals progress science, advance healthcare and improve performance for the benefit of humanity. Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and professional education; including ScienceDirect, Scopus, ClinicalKey and Sherpath. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell, more than 35,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including Gray's Anatomy. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics to professionals and business customers, in a wide range of industries. www.elsevier.com ABOUT WRDS Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) provides the leading business intelligence, data analytics, and research platform to global institutions ? enabling comprehensive thought leadership, historical analysis, and insight into the latest innovations in academic research. WRDS provides researchers with one location to access over 350 terabytes of data across multiple disciplines including Accounting, Banking, Economics, ESG, Finance, Healthcare, Insurance, Marketing, and Statistics. Flexible data delivery options include a powerful web query method that reduces research time, the WRDS Cloud for executing research and strategy development, and the WRDS client server using PCSAS, Matlab, R and more. Our rigorous data review and validation give users the confidence to tailor research and create a wide range of reliable data models. WRDS unique array of Services offer access to a suite of analytics developed by our doctoral-level research team, tutorials, research support, and Classroom by WRDS -- a teaching and learning toolkit designed to introduce business concepts in the classroom. The WRDS Experience is more than just a data platform. WRDS is a leader in impactful research. Through a partnership with SSRN, WRDS is elevating the visibility of universities and researchers working across an array of fields. The WRDS Research Paper Series is a searchable repository of all papers submitted to SSRN that cite WRDS in their work. In addition, the two organizations have launched the WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award to honor emerging business schools in North America, Asia-Pacific, and EMEA. An award-winning data research platform for 50,000+ commercial, academic, and government users in 35+ countries, WRDS is the global gold standard in data management, innovative tools, analytics, and research services ? all backed by the credibility and leadership of the Wharton School. About the Wharton School Founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. With a broad global community and one of the most published business school faculties, Wharton creates economic and social value around the world. The School has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; more than 9,000 participants in executive education programs annually and a powerful alumni network of 96,000 graduates. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181104005002/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2018] GlobalBeacon(SM) Goes Live Ahead of ICAO Airline Flight Tracking Recommendations GlobalBeacon, a solution from Aireon and FlightAware, is now providing global, real-time flight tracking to airlines ahead of implementation of ICAO standards and recommended practices for flight tracking MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 4, 2018 /CNW/ -- Aireon LLC and FlightAware today announced that GlobalBeaconSM is live and providing airlines with global flight tracking ahead of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Global Aeronautical Distress Safety System (GADSS) recommendations, which will be effective November 8, 2018. GlobalBeacon provides airlines with minute-by-minute global aircraft tracking for their aircraft at all times, anywhere in the world. GlobalBeacon is a first of its kind, turnkey solution that surpasses GADSS standards and recommended practices for flight tracking. By combining FlightAware's data processing platform and web-interface, with Aireon's space-based ADS-B network, GlobalBeacon transcends borders and Flight Information Regions (FIRs) and eliminates coverage gaps in polar airspace, over deserts and in oceanic regions. At the heart of GlobalBeacon's capability is an aggregation of tracking information from Aireon's space-based ADS-B network and FlightAware's contextual flight data including origin, destination, flight plan route and estimated time of arrival (ETA). Now live, GlobalBeacon enables airlines of all sizes to proactively position themselves to respond in the event of an emergency. It facilitates communication between the aircraft operator and the controller with constant fleet monitoring, automated distress alerts and tools that make it easy to share information. "FlightAware and Aireon announced the development of GlobalBeacon back in September 2016. Now, we are days away from ICAO GADSS recommendations for flight tracking going into effect. We have a live solution that not only exceeds the recommendations for 2018, but also includes the components already ahead of the requirements for 2021," said Aireon CEO, Don Thoma. "We are extremely proud of the partnership we have cultivated with FlightAware, and through this partnership, space-bsed ADS-B is already operational through many airlines and aircraft operators." "GlobalBeacon provides a cost-effective and easy-to-deploy solution that exceeds all GADSS standards and recommended practices for flight tracking. It's designed to work in conjunction with existing processes and tools commonly used by aircraft operators, making it easy to implement and use with any airline size. By leveraging existing ADS-B technology, GlobalBeacon has a unique advantage over other potential solutions because it typically does not require any new hardware or equipment to be installed on or in the aircraft," said FlightAware CEO, Daniel Baker. In late September 2016, it was announced that Qatar Airways would be the first airline to adopt the new GlobalBeacon technology that would feed directly into their Integrated Operations Centre. From the beginning of the product development cycle, Qatar Airways has been involved in beta testing and validation of GlobalBeacon. "Right after we announced the creation of GlobalBeacon, Qatar Airways joined as GlobalBeacon's launch customer. With their involvement early on, we've been able to test and validate the product and ensure that it incorporates best practices for global flight tracking and fleet monitoring," said Baker. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: "We are thrilled to have been the first airline to use space-based ADS-B technology, and we are honoured to collaborate with both FlightAware and Aireon on the development of this solution. As one of the fastest growing leading airlines in the world, our goal is to consistently deliver the best service to all our customers. GlobalBeacon seamlessly integrates with our existing ICAO 2018 compliant flight watch technology (Total Operations System), and further enhances the safety of our operations and fleet management by providing updates every minute or less." About Aireon LLC Aireon is deploying a space-based air traffic surveillance system for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) equipped aircraft throughout the entire globe. Aireon will harness next-generation aviation surveillance technologies that are currently ground-based and, for the first time ever, extend their reach globally to significantly improve efficiency, enhance safety, reduce emissions and provide cost savings benefits to all stakeholders. Real-time ADS-B surveillance will cover oceanic, polar and remote regions, as well as augment existing ground-based systems that are limited to terrestrial airspace. In partnership with leading ANSPs from around the world, like NAV CANADA, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), Enav, NATS and Naviair, as well as Iridium Communications, Aireon will provide a global, real-time, space-based air traffic surveillance system to all aviation stakeholders. For more information about Aireon, please visit www.aireon.com. About FlightAware FlightAware is the world's largest flight tracking data company and provides over 10,000 aircraft operators and service companies as well as over 12,000,000 passengers with global flight tracking solutions. FlightAware leverages data from air traffic control systems in over 45 countries, from FlightAware's network of over 8,000 ADS-B ground stations in over 200 countries and using global datalink. For more information about FlightAware, visit: flightaware.com PRESS CONTACTS: Sara Orsi FlightAware +1 713-622-9958 [email protected] Jessie Hillenbrand Aireon +1 703-287-7452 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/globalbeaconsm-goes-live-ahead-of-icao-airline-flight-tracking-recommendations-300740810.html SOURCE Aireon [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 04, 2018] Inbound Tourism Fuels Future-Ready Cities Across Southeast Asia Mastercard, a leader in financial technology, today unveiled a report that demonstrates the transformative power of tourism in fueling the development of smarter cities and accelerating economic growth. "The ASEAN Opportunity: How City Planners and Governments Can Make Cities Even Smarter by Increasing Investments in Inbound Tourism Growth" explores how cities can leverage public-private partnerships and data analytics to optimally allocate resources to grow inbound tourism. Specifically, the report demonstrates how cities can leverage insights from anonymized and aggregated Mastercard transaction data to better reach and attract key traveler segments. Such strategic investments in inbound tourism growth will in turn deliver a higher standard of living for residents, create greater financial inclusion and jump-start economic development. Urban Vibrancy Creates Opportunity and Challenges Urbanization is gathering pace at unprecedented levels, with the UN predicting that nearly 70% of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2050, and 90% of this increase in urban population will be in Asia and Africa. With urbanization comes many benefits, including a larger workforce, higher demand for goods and services as well as increases in tourism-related inbound income, which in turn leads to a rise in GDP, as seen in Vietnam, Malaysia, and others in the region. At the same time, urbanization brings new challenges. As cities reach critical mass, growing populations mean rising demand for jobs and resources and increased pressure on healthcare, education and transportation systems. "No one entity can solve for these challenges by themselves, and Mastercard believes strategic public-private partnerships can bring rapid improvements to quality of life, deliver efficient and seamless everyday experiences and create differentiation specifically in a high visibility and high growth area such as tourism," said Rupert Naylor, Senior Vice President of Mastercard Advisors in Asia Pacific. Framing the Southeast Asian Travel Opportunity A key contributor to the impressive economic growth of Southeast Asia over the last decade is the even faster growth in inbound travel spend, driven both by major tourist destinations as well as by lesser-known locales. For example, while Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur continue to top the list for most international arrivals, Vietnamese cities Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh have risen rapidly and cracked the top 10 list this year. Phuket, Pattaya, and Chiang Mai-destinations in Thailand-have also grown in popularity, suggesting travelers are becoming more experiential and open to trying new destinations. This growing volume of visitors to lesser-known destinations reveals how governments can invest in up-and-coming destinations so as to more equitably spread the benefits (and strains) of tourism throughout the country. However, to realise the full potential of this strategy, investments in infrastructure for these lesser-known destinations will be critical, both in terms of connectivity to these locations, but also within the destinations themselves-including cleanup of public spaces, improved access to clean water, more efficient public transportation and greater financial inclusion for merchants in these cities. One exampleof unsustainable development is in the Philippines. Boracay, a popular beach destination, was temporarily closed to tourists from April till October this year due to its inability to provide the infrastructure support needed to sustainably drive tourism growth, resulting in a loss of valuable inbound traveler expenditure. While many leading destinations have already invested in such infrastructure, opportunities remain for ongoing innovation in areas such as crowd management and traveler experience to draw in new and repeat tourists. These initiatives help to create new jobs, improve standards of living for residents and ultimately drive economic growth. Inbound tourism also has the potential to spur increased economic development for countries with lower GDP growth, bringing in revenue and generating employment. Countries where there is a particular opportunity to capitalize on inbound traveler expenditure to foster greater GDP growth include the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia. Growing areas of opportunity in travel Business travel has been growing rapidly in several Southeast Asian countries, and has outperformed the overall travel market in the region over the past three years. The top 10 Southeast Asian cities that attract the most business travelers have all experienced double-digit growth in corporate expenditure, with Vietnamese cities Da Nang, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City occupying three of the top 10 spots. Another key tourist segment for the region is students. While Singapore remains the region's education hub, with more than triple the spend of the next destination, Hanoi, Khanh Hoa and Ho Chi Minh City logged the highest growth in inbound student expenditure in the past three years, in part due to Vietnam's recent boom in online education. This influx of inbound travelers driven by business and education presents an opportunity for Southeast Asian cities to diversify inbound spend beyond the leisure space. Mastercard transaction insights further show that, beyond corporate and student travel, travelers to specific Southeast Asian destinations are purpose-driven. For example, Thailand experiences higher tourist spend on healthcare, while Vietnam sees increased spend in fine dining, and Myanmar and Laos see significant spend on tour packages. Harnessing the Power of Insights For both existing and potential tourist destinations, the critical dilemma facing governments and city planners is this: How can we make the most informed decision to allocate available resources that will drive maximum impact in order to attract new tourist segments and ultimately, drive tourism spend? Inbound tourism spend insights help uncover granularity such as where tourist segments are coming from, where they travel, what the profiles of different segments look like and what different segments do in different locations. This granularity provides governments and city planners with the information they need to take action towards growing inbound tourism expenditure. For example, by leveraging Mastercard transaction insights to identify in which categories spend is the highest, cities can create category-specific tourism campaigns. Similarly, better understanding travel "corridors"-such as travelers from Russia visiting beaches in Thailand, and Bali experiencing significant inflow from visitors from Australia and India-will enable city planners to tailor their offerings to align with the preferences and needs of specific tourist segments, including implementing language support initiatives for specific countries in popular destinations. "Consumer spending in travel has a ripple effect on economies, creating jobs and opportunities for local businesses and communities. Through our deep data insights and analytics experience, Mastercard is working with governments and city planners to enable nimble, data-led decision-making and optimized planning and investment that can drive economic growth and financial inclusion. We are also building custom programs that improve access and enhance the visitor experiences while co-creating solutions that address issues such as over-tourism and over-crowding in specific locations," said Naylor. About Mastercard Mastercard (NYSE:MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. Our global payments processing network connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities - such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances - easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @ MastercardAP, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181104005034/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] In New Agreement with Arab Open University, McGraw-Hill Education Will Make Powerful Digital Learning Materials Available to Students in Nine Countries Students in all major courses will have access to McGraw-Hill Connect course materials KUWAIT CITY, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new agreement that expands the collaboration among Arab Open University (AOU), McGraw-Hill Education and Growmore will make McGraw-Hill's high quality digital content available to students at AOU's nine branches in the Middle East and Africa. Students in all major first- and second-year course areas will have access to McGraw-Hill Connect digital course materials, which research has shown help improve grades, pass rates and retention. Learning science company McGraw-Hill and Arab Open University have a longstanding relationship, having worked together in recent years towards the digital transition of the university. The two organizations have now decided to take a step further with a three-year agreement. McGraw-Hill will not only supply customized McGraw-Hill Connect materials specially designed to meet the needs of AOU's instructors and students, but will also act as a strategic partner in AOU's marketing and social responsibility initiatives. McGraw-Hill Connect uses adaptive technology to personalize the learning experience for students and help instructors become even more effective. It is used by millions of students globally, and gives educators the flexibility to teach their course their way, while providing students with affordable, engaging products that help them achieve learning outcomes. Growmore, which is McGraw-Hill's exclusive distributor in Kuwait, is amongst the largest learning solutions providers in the region with 14 campus bookstores serving federal and private higher education institutions. "Guided by the strategic vision of HRH Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz, Head of the Board of Trustees, and the other Board members, the AOU has been committed to providing quality higher education for students in all Arab countries since its establishment in 2001," said Prof. Mohammed Al-Zakari, President, AOU. "To accomplish this, the University adopts the notion of Open Learning involving high academic standards, employing state-of-the-art educational and information technologies and establishing strategic partnerships with highy reputable organizations. This partnership with McGraw-Hill is a consequence of such a strategy. The University hopes that this relationship with McGraw-Hill will be conducive to strengthening the quality and value of the educational services the AOU provides to its students." "One of the AOU strategic objectives is not only to figure out how to make the electronic educational material scalable and more widely affordable at the AOU level, but also to adopt new technologies such as Adaptive Learning to enhance the students' engagement and retention rates," said Prof. Ashraf Hussein, Vice President for Education and Information Technology, AOU. "Meanwhile, we are aiming to provide our tutors with a wide variety of interactive, digital learning tools to improve the performance of the academic delivery. This partnership will streamline the relationship between AOU and McGraw-Hill, moving further to achieve the aforementioned objective." "We're proud to extend our relationship with Arab Open University, which has become a symbol for innovation and quality education in this part of the world," said Murray St Leger, Managing Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa at McGraw-Hill International. "We work hard to create digital content and build course materials in line with what we know about learning science, tailored to the needs of institutions and students whom we support. We're excited that thousands more students will benefit from adaptive technology because of the leadership of AOU." "Growmore believes in creating a better future by delivering effective and affordable learning solutions to enhance teaching and learning experiences," said Shailendra Srivastava, CEO of Growmore. "We are ecstatic that our efforts have resulted in bringing together our strategic partners Arab Open University and McGraw-Hill into a long-term partnership for digital transformation. Our collaboration will transform the way learning resources disseminate and the region will experience a tectonic shift in the way education is getting delivered." About Arab Open University The Arab Open University (AOU) is a sustainable development and educational non-profit organization. It was founded by HRH Prince Talal Bin Abdul-Aziz, Chairman of the AOU Board of Trustees. In September 2000, AOU was officially declared in the meeting of Arab ministers of higher education where five Arab countries offered to host the headquarters of AOU. Among them was Kuwait that was chosen to be the headquarters of AOU in December 2000. Today AOU has nine branches in Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Oman, Sudan and Palestine. The AOU headquarter is located in Kuwait. The AOU has more than 30,000 students in nine countries and has celebrated graduation of more than 44,000 students; more than 50% of them are females. About McGraw-Hill Education McGraw-Hill Education is a learning science company that delivers personalized learning experiences that help students, parents, educators and professionals drive results. McGraw-Hill Education has offices across North America, India, China, Europe, the Middle East and South America, and makes its learning solutions available in more than 60 languages. Visit us at mheducation.com or find us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter. CONTACT: Tyler Reed McGraw-Hill Education [email protected] (646) 766-2951 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Credit Karma Grows International Footprint With Expansion Into U.K. Credit Karma, one of the world's highest-valued financial technology companies, makes its first move into Europe with an agreement to acquire TransUnion's Noddle business, a service that provides free, unlimited access to credit scores and reports to people in the U.K., from TransUnion. Noddle's more than 35 employees in London and Leeds will join the Credit Karma family and, over the next 12 months, Credit Karma plans to more than double the workforce in the U.K., significantly growing its presence in the country. Noddle's more than 4 million members will join Credit Karma, a technology platform that already helps more than 85 million members in North America make financial progress. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, and is expected to close in late 2018 or early 2019. "We are driven by our mission to help people make financial progress. To truly deliver on this, we knew we needed to expand beyond North America," said Nichole Mustard, Chief Revenue Officer and Co-founder of Credit Karma. "The U.K. was an obvious next step and Noddle is the ideal partner to help us get there. We look forward to welcoming its more than 35 employees to the Credit Karma family." Credit Karma will provide people in the U.K. with one of the most up-to-date and personalized experiences in the market, including complete access to their credit reports and scores from TransUnion as well as truly free services to help monitor and grow their credit. Most importantly, Credit Karma will provide members with access to financial products best suited for their financial situation. "Noddle's similar missionand history as the first provider of free credit information in the U.K. made this a clear decision for Credit Karma," said Credit Karma's Vice President of International, Valerie Wagoner. "We're confident our depth of experience working across data providers along with banks and lenders will accelerate the number of services we provide to help consumers make the most of their money." The expansion comes at a pivotal year for Credit Karma, which now serves more than 85 million members in the U.S. and Canada. Silver Lake Partners' recent $500 million secondary investment saw an increase in the company's valuation to $4 billion based on common stock and ranking it among the top fintech companies in the world based on valuation. "We are proud to have partnered with Credit Karma from its inception to empower tens of millions of consumers with the information they need to make smarter financial decisions," said John Danaher (News - Alert), TransUnion's president of Consumer Interactive. "This deal represents an expansion of our mission to the United Kingdom, and we look forward to supporting Credit Karma as they continue to expand globally." Noddle and its parent company, Callcredit, were acquired by TransUnion earlier this year. Upon completion of the deal with Credit Karma, Noddle will be wholly-owned by Credit Karma. About Credit Karma Founded in 2007 by Kenneth Lin, Nichole Mustard and Ryan Graciano, Credit Karma is a personal finance technology company with more than 85 million members in the United States and Canada, including almost half of all millennials. The company offers a suite of products for members to monitor and improve credit health, prepare and file taxes, and provides identity monitoring and auto insurance estimates. Credit Karma leverages advanced data modeling to analyze and identify the best financial products for its members and has facilitated more than $40 billion in credit lines across financial products like credit cards, personal loans, mortgage refinancing, automotive financing and student loan refinancing. Learn more about how Credit Karma members are making financial progress on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181104005018/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Houlihan Lokey Continues Expansion of Its Global Industrials Group With Experienced Sector Banker Based in Frankfurt Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI), the global investment bank, today announced that Martin Bastian will join the firm in January 2019 as a Managing Director in the Industrials Group to lead the chemicals business in Europe, based in Frankfurt. Mr. Bastian will join from Citigroup, where he was a Managing Director with senior coverage responsibilities in Germany and Switzerland, including chemicals sector clients as well as previously Head of EMEA Chemicals. Prior to Citigroup, he led the chemicals activities in Europe at Credit Suisse. Previous experience also includes a similar role at Goldman Sachs in London and Frankfurt as well as investment banking positions at Merrill Lynch in New York. "Martin has more than 20 years of extensive international transaction experience, including M&A advisory, defense and strategic advisory, and capital raising across debt and equity products. During his career he has advised a wide variety of chemicals and industrials clients in Europe," said Ulrich Graebner, Head of Corporate Finance, Germany. "This expertise, combined with his local relationships and global experience, match perfectly with Houlihan Lokey's culture and commitment to grow across Europe, its breadth of corporate and financial sponsor coverage, and its superior financing advisory capabilities, and I am excited that he will join us in Frankfurt," he added. "Over the course of my career, my approach to client service has been characterized by providing superior sectorand execution expertise, strong relationships among both corporate and financial sponsor clients, and a passionate dedication to achieving exceptional results. I'm excited to join a firm that embodies this philosophy and to contribute to the growth of the global Chemicals practice in Europe," said Mr. Bastian. "Martin's hire is representative of our efforts, and success, in adding outstanding bankers to our Industrials Group who will deliver excellent results to our clients. Further, this addition also underscores both the continued growth of the Industrials Group in Europe as well as our efforts to build a market-leading global chemicals practice in key markets around the world," said Bill Peluchiwski, Global Head of the Industrials Group. Mr. Bastian holds an M.B.A. from Duke University in the United States and a diploma in Business Administration from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. His hire follows the recent addition of David Brock to the Industrials Group to cover the building materials sector in London, announced in October. With more than 90 bankers based in London, Frankfurt, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, Houlihan Lokey's Industrials Group is among the largest in financial services, providing superior service and achieving outstanding results in M&A advisory as well as capital-raising, restructuring, and financial advisory services. In 2017, Houlihan Lokey was ranked the No. 1 M&A advisor for all U.S. industrial transactions by Thomson Reuters (News - Alert). About Houlihan Lokey Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) is a global investment bank with expertise in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, financial restructuring, valuation, and strategic consulting. The firm serves corporations, institutions, and governments worldwide with offices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region. Independent advice and intellectual rigor are hallmarks of the firm's commitment to client success across its advisory services. Houlihan Lokey is ranked as the No. 1 M&A advisor for all U.S. transactions, the No. 1 global restructuring advisor, and the No. 1 global M&A fairness opinion advisor over the past 20 years, according to Thomson Reuters. For more information, please visit www.HL.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005259/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] U.S. Businessman Issues Global, Multimillion Dollar (USD) Challenge for Innovative Alzheimer's Solutions To expand the understanding and explanation of Alzheimer's disease, United States businessman James Truchard has given a $5 million USD gift to The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) College of Sciences to establish the Oskar Fischer Project. The initiative will engage the world's brightest minds in a comprehensive literature review with the goal of synthesizing that information into one simple explanation for the cause of Alzheimer's disease. The challenge was announced today during the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting, an international gathering of nearly 30,000 scientists taking place through Nov. 7 in the United States. Truchard, retired president and chief executive officer of United States-based technology company National Instruments (News - Alert), conceptualized and established the Oskar Fischer Project to engage the world's brightest minds. The challenge will award up to $4 million USD in Oskar Fischer Prizes, including a grand prize of $2 million, two second place prizes of $500,000 each and four third place prizes of $250,000 each. Collectively, the monetary awards are the world's largest prizes of their kind. Through personal research, Truchard, 75, was introduced to the work of Oskar Fischer (1876-1942), a Jewish pioneer in neuroscience who studied dementia at the same time as Alois Alzheimer. In 1900, Fischer began working at Charles University's German University, based in Prague. His research led to the identification of senile plaques (then called neuritic plaques), the signature lesions of Alzheimer's disease. Fischer hypothesized that the plaques were associated with presbyophrenia, then characterized as a form of senile dementia marked by memory loss, memory distortions and disorientation. He published on 12 patients with plaques and tangles, protein strands that appear during Alzheimer's disease, in 1907, the same year that Alzheimer published on one patient with early onset Alzheimer's. Fischer remained at the German University until he was removed in 1939. Two years later, he was sent to Theresienstadt in Terezin, a way station for Auschwitz and Treblinka. He died in 1942, unable to survive the harsh conditions of the concentration camp. "A century has passed since Oskar Fischer's seminal work, and tens of billions have been spent around the world on research and potential cures. Over 130,000 reserch papers have been published and yet no definitive explanation and cure for Alzheimer's has been found," said Truchard. "We need to look at Alzheimer's as a big complex puzzle with a missing piece. We need a brilliant individual who can take all of the pieces and consider what each offers, and then develop one explanation that fits because it pulls all of the pieces together and makes the puzzle whole." According to the World Alzheimer Report 2018 by Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI), an estimated 50 million people worldwide are living with dementia at a cost of $1 trillion to the global economy. That population is expected to more than triple by the year 2050, according to ADI, which also reports that the global ratio of publications on neurodegenerative disorders versus cancer is just one to 12. "The Oskar Fischer Project will take a new systems approach to the research on Alzheimer's, building on the work Oskar Fischer started over a century ago," said George Perry, chief scientist of the UTSA Brain Health Consortium. "Jim Truchard's generous gift will create an international forum to assess that work and bring forward an explanation that will advance society's understanding of the disease." The University of Texas at San Antonio, a world leader in brain health research, will incubate the two-year challenge. In the UTSA Brain Health Consortium, 38 of the nation's brightest scientists are engaged in research on brain mechanisms and therapeutics. The university's researchers have expertise in neurodegenerative disease, brain circuits and electrical signaling, traumatic brain injury, regenerative medicine and stem cell therapies, medicinal chemistry and drug design, neuroinflammation, and psychology. "Through Jim Truchard's support, the Oskar Fischer Project will accelerate our shared mission of unraveling the mysteries of neurodegeneration through engagement with the smartest thinkers around the world," said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. Truchard added, "I truly believe that Alzheimer's disease is multifaceted; it's about lifestyle, heredity and brain regression. It's important to look at all possible solutions. This contest will bring together the world's best minds to consider the entire story." UTSA will work closely with an interdisciplinary committee of outstanding scientists from Texas to award the Oskar Fischer Prizes. The call for proposals will open in February 2019 and will continue through the two-year term of the project. About The University of Texas at San Antonio The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is a public urban serving university specializing in health, cybersecurity, energy, sustainability, and human and social development. With more than 32,000 students, it is the largest university in the San Antonio metropolitan region. UTSA advances knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. The university embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property-for Texas, the nation and the world. Learn more online, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram or on UTSA Today. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005017/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The New Moldova Citizenship-by-Investment Program is Open for Applications The Moldova Citizenship-by-Investment (MCBI) program - the latest and most exciting new investment migration opportunity in Europe - has been officially launched at the 12th Global Residence and Citizenship Conference in Dubai. Hosted by Henley & Partners, this annual event attracts over 400 delegates from more than 40 countries and is the largest and most important conference focused on investment migration. Earlier this year, Henley & Partners - in partnership with its consortium partner, the Moldovan Investment Company - won the public tender to assist the Government of the Moldova in designing, implementing, and promoting the much-anticipated , which is now officially accepting applications. The firm has over 20 years of experience working with governments in North America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia in this capacity. Dr. Christian Kalin, Group Chairman of Henley & Partners, says the MCBI program offers investors a foothold in Europe and access to one of the fastest growing commercial hubs in the region. "Investment migration programs give countries like Moldova the chance to attract much-needed foreign direct investment and a set of highly qualified and carefully vetted new citizens." Speaking at the launch in Dubai, His Excellency Chiril Gaburici, the Minister of Economy and Infrastructure for the Government of Moldova, said: "The MCBI program has been specifically developed with the Moldovan people in mind. Our country has come a very long way over the past few years, but to take the next step forward in our economic development, and also support the social wellbeing of all Moldovans, we need to welcome innovative new ways of generating capital. The MCBI program is part of this future-focused approach." The MCBI program requires applicants to make a defined economic contribution to the country through its Public Investment Fund. In exchange, and subject to a stringent vetting and due diligence process, applicants and their families are granted full citizenship rights that are transferrable without restrictions to future generations. They also gain a passport that facilitates travel access to 122 destinations around the world, including Russia, Turkey, and the countries in Europe's Schengen Area. The Moldovan passport is in fact one of the highest historical climbers on the Henley Passport Index, having ascended an impressive 20 places since 2008. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005059/en/ [November 05, 2018] Innovative Preemie Skincare Line, BEB Organic, Launches First Collection and E-Commerce LOS ANGELES, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BEB Organic, the first-ever skincare brand developed on the premise of the healing power of touch and specifically to meet the unique needs of preemie babies, is pleased to announce the debut of its consumer line, which are now available for purchase on www.beborganic.com. Kicking off Prematurity Awareness Month, consumers will now have easy access to a top-performing product line, which has long-served preemie families and healthcare professionals exclusively in NICUs in top hospitals across America. The website also serves as a resource for information, tips, tricks and learnings to support healthy skin and mindful touch. "I've been working with preemies since I was 19-years old and have a deep understanding on the impact that touch has on them and their delicate skin," says BEB Organic founder, Kim Walls. "BEB Organic has been a passion project of mine and I'm thrilled that it has become a vehicle for treating the special needs of preemies, educating families about the opportunity to connect through mindful touch. We also created our Ambassadors of Touch program to provide families with financial support to stay with their babies in the NICU." The BEB Organic line is comprised of a complete ritual for treating preemie challenges like baby acne, scars, dehydration and heat loss. The full product offering, ideal for any sensitive skin, includes Healing Gel, Diaper Balm, Bubbly Wash, Nourishing Oil and Silky Cream using key ingredients like rose and probiotics throughout, which are proven to help balance pH levels of skin, treat inflammation and more. BEB Organic Healing Gel - $64.00 Best used for: Preemie Baby Acne, Inflammation & Irritation Key ingredient sources: arnica, cypress, elderberry, microbiota, myrrh FDA registered to safely treat sensitive & premature baby skin problems like baby acne, inflamed, bothered skin. BEB Organic Bubbly Wash - $72.00 Best used for: Bath Time, Preemie Skincare Key ingredient sources: aloe vera, emollient-coconut, maidenhair, marigold, orange Specialized skincare for, NICU, premature babies & extra sensitive skin. BEB Organic Nourishing Oil - $52.00 Best used for: Touch, Massage, Preemies Key ingredient sources: cranberry, emollient-coconut, rosehip, sunflower Nurtures premature and extra sensitive skin with nutrient rich concentrates to support the health and recovery of a magical touch. BEB Organic Silky Cream - $68.00 Best used for: Dry Skin Commonly Seen on NICU and Premature babies Key ingredient sources: avocado, cucumber, flax, green tea, rosehip Restores & maintains healthy skin tone with specialized care for premature baby's dry, flaky skin. BEB Organic Diaper Balm - $42.00 Best used for: Rash Cream for Preemies, NICU Key ingredient sources: geranium, green tea, marigold, occlusive-coconut, sweet potato Healing protection that's specialized for extra sensitive & premature baby skin, solving rash & chafed skin problems. In addition to BEB Organic individual products, the brand will offer gift bundles for new families, including the Weekender Set, Mighty Fighter Set, We've Got This Set and Rising Star Set which all cater to varying skincare needs, and make the perfect gift for any family, but especially those in need of a NICU care package. BEB Organic offers free shipping and returns on all orders within the US. For more information on the brand, please visit www.beborganic.com. ABOUT BEB ORGANIC Over twenty years ago, while working with preemies, BEB Organic founder and longtime product formulator and skincare professional, Kim Walls, discovered a need amongst parents and NICU nurses for a line that delivered the healing power of touch needed for babies with especially sensitive skin. After Walls' extensive research and studies in touch therapy, the idea for BEB Organic came to life: to be a health-filled skincare brand that would serve preemie families by providing education to both parents and healthcare professionals. The brand has since entered a standing partnership with DandleLion Medical to offer free training to health professionals, as well as in-hospital support and access, to its specialized skincare. BEB Organic is also gearing up to work with Miracle Babies, a non-profit organization that offers financial support to NICU families throughout their hospital stays. With its new consumer endeavor, BEB Organic furthers its mission to share the healing power of touch with not only preemies and their families, but the world. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/innovative-preemie-skincare-line-beb-organic-launches-first-collection-and-e-commerce-300743420.html SOURCE BEB Organic [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] AntiCancer Inc prevails in Federal Court over Certis Oncology's attempt to dismiss AntiCancer's $28 million lawsuit On November 1, the Federal Court of the Southern District of California, denied Certis motion to dismiss AntiCancer's $28.1 million lawsuit against them. The lawsuit involves claims for trademark infringement, conversion (theft of property), quantum meruit (large unpaid fees) and fraud by Certis and it's CEO, Peter Ellman. The Court gave leave to AntiCancer to amend its trademark infringement claim; all other claims remain. "I am very satisfied with our victory in fedeal court, " said AntiCancer founder Robert Hoffman (News - Alert). "Our case has much merit, and we look forward to proving all of our claims during the law suit," said Dr. Hoffman. Attorney Matt Valenti is representing AntiCancer. AntiCancer, founded in 1984, is the developer and marketer of the leading mouse models of patient cancer, PDOX. AntiCancer is the world's leading preclinical cancer contract research organization, as well as developer of next generation cancer therapeutics. AntiCancer's world headquarters are in San Diego with subsidiaries in Japan, Korea and China. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005165/en/ [November 05, 2018] Wipro Collaborates with Check Point Software to Offer Cloud Security Services Wipro (News - Alert) Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company today announced a new partnership with Check Point Software (News - Alert) Technologies Ltd, a leading provider of cyber security solutions globally, to deliver Check Point's advanced and dynamic cloud security solution, CloudGuard IaaS. This strategic worldwide partnership will further accelerate demand for the CloudGuard comprehensive suite of cloud security products, which are focused on advanced threat prevention and safeguarding enterprise cloud applications, infrastructure, and data against the most sophisticated fifth-generation cyber-attacks threatening organizations today. CloudGuard already protects more than 2,000 enterprise cloud environments. Cloud security is a shared responsibility between the service provider and the customer, which can be a challenging model to implement. Through this partnership, Wipro and Check Point are enabling customers to maximize their investment in cloud infrastructure by defending against the most sophisticated fifth-generation cyber security threats to their cloud assets and data. Key features of Check Point CloudGuard IaaS include: Automated and dynamic policy: CloudGuard absorbs and leverages contextual information about the infrastructure to automatically adjust security policies to any changes in the cloud environment. Centralized management: With the Check Point Unified Security Management solution, users can enforce a consistent security policy for all corporate assets across both the public cloud and on-premise infrastructures - all from a single console. Rapid deployment: CloudGuard can be deployed in minutes, supporting both pay-as-you-go and bring-your-own-license pricing models. Consolidated logs and reporting: CloudGuard dramatically simplifies compliance and audits by unifying threat visibility for hybrid cloud environments and enhancin forensic analysis. Sheetal Mehta, Senior Vice President & Global Head of Cybersecurity & Risk Service, Wipro Limited, said, "I am excited about what our partnership with Check Point can bring to our joint customers. We have a shared vision of helping our customers secure their cloud workloads and assets, and our capabilities complement each other. By incorporating Check Point's cloud security solutions into our IaaS offerings, Wipro customers will now benefit from advanced fifth-generation threat prevention for virtualized cloud deployments and enterprise edge applications." Itai Greenberg, Vice President of Product Management, Check Point, said, "Enterprises increasingly want to realize the flexibility, agility, and scalability that the public cloud has to offer while incorporating deployments into their existing network infrastructures. The Check Point CloudGuard family enables organizations to do so securely and consistently, delivering comprehensive threat prevention for cloud-based IaaS and SaaS (News - Alert) applications and infrastructure workloads. We look forward to working with the hundreds of certified Check Point engineers and cloud experts at Wipro to bring these benefits to our mutual customers and keep them one step ahead of the modern threat landscape." About Wipro Limited Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. We harness the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, we have over 175,000 dedicated employees serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future. Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, intense competition in IT services, our ability to maintain our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which we make strategic investments, withdrawal of fiscal governmental incentives, political instability, war, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property, and general economic conditions affecting our business and industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005436/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] DXC Technology Extends its Leading ServiceNow Practice with Acquisitions of TESM and BusinessNow DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) today announced that it has significantly extended the reach and capability of its ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) practice with the acquisition of two leading ServiceNow (News - Alert) partners. DXC has acquired UK-based TESM, a global end-to-end ServiceNow partner, and BusinessNow, the largest independent ServiceNow partner in the Nordics. The additions of TESM and BusinessNow reflect DXC's commitment to its growing ServiceNow practice and build on the scale, reach, industry experience and skills portfolio necessary to lead in the fast-growing enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert)) market. Enterprise clients increasingly are seeking to establish better, faster and more efficient workflows and processes to improve customer and employee satisfaction and lower operating costs. Working together, DXC and ServiceNow deliver a range of cloud-based, as-a-service solutions that extend beyond IT service management (ITSM) across the enterprise to risk and compliance as well as human capital management. While solidifying DXC's position as a ServiceNow innovator and leader, today's acquisitions will accelerate DXC's ability to offer clients in a growing number of key industries an expanded range of cloud-based, as-a-service solutions to transform service management across the enterprise, including IT, operations, customer service, human resources and security operations. "TESM and BusinessNow add a unique set of skilled people, IP and aligned offerings which will further enable DXC enterprise clients to leverage the ServiceNow platform as a foundation for enterprise-wide digital transformation," said Dan Stoks, vice president, global ServiceNow practice for DXC Technology. "Our cultural match, shared vision and capabilities on the ServiceNow platform will greatly enhance our ability to address rapidly growing customer needs across Europe, the UK and around the world." TESM, a ServiceNow Gold Services Partner TESM was launched in 2013 by a team of practitioners using deep industry and technology experience to provide a practical and realistic approach to the delivery of service management projects, solutions and services. An early adopter of ServiceNow with deep experience in cloud and service automation, TESM has a growing client base that include four of the top 20 global banks that are supported by more than 200 ServiceNow experts with 88 ertifications. The TESM team include ServiceNow experts in ITSM, IT Operations Management (ITOM), Security Operations, Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) and HR Service Delivery who provide Implementation, Analytics, consulting and managed services. TESM is headquartered in London with presence in New York, Dublin, Holland, Sydney and Frankfurt. "TESM has experienced rapid growth through reputation and referral," said Patrick O'Connor, CEO and founder, TESM. "Today a number of the largest financial services and pharmaceutical companies are long-term TESM customers, and we have made significant investments in R&D to accelerate enterprise adoption of ServiceNow as clients make the shift to digital. We are excited to become part of DXC Technology, and to leverage the company's brand, global presence and scale to further grow our business and value to clients." BusinessNow, a Recognized ServiceNow Leader in the Nordics BusinessNow, founded in 2014, is the leading expert for ServiceNow advisory, implementation and training, and is the fastest growing dedicated ServiceNow Gold Services Partner in the Nordics. Across its employee base, BusinessNow holds 98 certifications and has successfully delivered more than 500 projects for a 100-plus client base in Europe. With skills in management consulting, product development, agile execution and talent management, BusinessNow will bring additional experience, depth and skill to DXC's ServiceNow practice and client base across Europe. "We have grown BusinessNow with strategic and dedicated focus on ServiceNow skills, management consulting capabilities, talent development, customer innovation and automation," said Bo Wilchen-Pedersen, CEO, BusinessNow. "As we are joining DXC Technology, the leading global ServiceNow partner, our focus and foundation becomes even stronger, while getting global presence and profound product development and innovation. We believe that we have provided the best possible future for both our customers and employees." The DXC Technology ServiceNow Practice A ServiceNow Global Strategic Partner, DXC has been a leader in the ServiceNow ecosystem for more than 12 years and has over 20 years of Enterprise Service Management Experience. With expertise in consulting, delivering and managing ServiceNow solutions, DXC offers a comprehensive portfolio of services that enable clients to harness the full power of the ServiceNow platform and accelerate beyond service management to service excellence throughout their enterprise. In addition to being a Global Strategic Partner, DXC is a Gold Sales and Services Partner within the ServiceNow ecosystem. DXC expanded its global ServiceNow practice by acquiring Fruition Partners in 2015. DXC has more than 700 people dedicated to its ServiceNow practice and has completed over 3,300 successful implementations. Our practice also manages over 300+ ServiceNow instances directly for customers helping them to keep current with ServiceNow upgrades. DXC's global delivery function leverages a ServiceNow-powered delivery and automation platform for our managed services operations. In 2018, DXC received ServiceNow's "Highest Number of New Logos Award for Global Sales Partners" for the second consecutive year and the "Highest Number of Deployments Award for Global Services Partners" for the third year in a row. ServiceNow is a DXC strategic partner and part of the DXC Partner Network. For more information on the DXC and ServiceNow strategic partnership, go here. About DXC Technology DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) is the world's leading independent, end-to-end IT services company, serving nearly 6,000 private and public-sector clients from a diverse array of industries across 70 countries. The company's technology independence, global talent and extensive partner network deliver transformative digital offerings and solutions that help clients harness the power of innovation to thrive on change. DXC Technology is recognized among the best corporate citizens globally. For more information, visit dxc.technology. About TESM TESM is a London based company, with 8 offices in 6 countries, providing global services to customers. Clients include leading organizations in multiple industry verticals with a depth of experience in financial services. Founded in 2013. TESM has grown through reputation and today count some of the largest financial services and pharmaceutical companies as long-term customers. See TESM. About BusinessNow BusinessNow is the leading expert in the Nordics for ServiceNow advisory, implementation and training. With specialized capabilities for service automation, BusinessNow has made the fastest growing dedicated ServiceNow Gold Services Partner in the Nordic region. BusinessNow has driven more than 100 clients to success and have more than 500 projects delivered, its team owns skills within management consulting, product development, agile execution and talent management. See BusinessNow. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005076/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Nebraska State Bar Association Signs Agreement for November 2018 launch of Identillect's Delivery Trust Nebraska State Bar Association partnering with Identillect Technologies as the official email security provider for the Bar Association IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Identillect Technologies Corp. (the "Company" or "Identillect") (TSX-V: ID) (OTCQB: IDTLF) (Frankfurt: 8ID), a trusted leading provider of compliant email security, announces the Nebraska State Bar Association has selected Delivery Trust as the preferred solution for association members to meet and exceed the regulatory requirements to protect their client and member sensitive communications. Identillect has seen significant growth over the past several years with many law firms and Bar Associations as the legal community has become more concerned about cyber-security attacks across the United States. The Nebraska State Bar Association (NSBA) works for Nebraska lawyers to help them achieve the highest standards of competence, ethics and professionalism and to protect and promote the administration of, and access to justice. The NSBA has built their organization around the core values of integrity, respect, accountability, and service. The same level of commitment is placed on the security provided to their members. This has created the need for the partnership with a cyber-security leader like Identillect Technologies. Sam Clinch, Associate Executive Director of the NSBA, The Nebraska State Bar takes cyber-security protection for our members as a priority, and we are excited about the partnership with Identillect in providing a robust security platform to our members and bringing additional resources for education around security and regulatory compliance. We believe Delivery Trust will be well received by our member base. Identillect CEO Todd Sexton states, Identillect is proud to be the security solutions provider for Nebraska State Bar Association, Nebraska State Bar is a well-respected Bar and has a strong legal community taking cyber-security seriosly. Identillect has taken a solid foothold with the state bar associations across the country and look forward to contributing to the ongoing benefits Nebraska bar members have come to expect from the bar. Cyber-security threats are increasing, 43% of cyber-attacks are aimed at small businesses due to the lack of security infrastructure. The damages cybercrimes create for a business has no end in sight, it is estimated businesses will incur more than $6 Trillion annually by 2021 . The best way a business can combat being another statistic is through employee education and security protocols. About Identillect Identillect Technologies is the leading provider of email encryption service Delivery Trust, empowering enterprises of all sizes to protect their business and their clients critical information against cyber security attacks. Delivery Trust is an award -winning, multi-platform plug-in, which gives users complete control of their emails, for one low price. One simple integration complies with all regulations and most importantly provides peace of mind. For more information, or your free trial, please visit www.identillect.com On Behalf of the Board of Directors of: IDENTILLECT TECHNOLOGIES CORP. Todd Sexton Chief Executive Officer Tel: (949) 468-7878 Email: [email protected] About Nebraska State Bar Association The Nebraska State Bar Association (NSBA) works for Nebraska lawyers to help them achieve the highest standards of competence, ethics and professionalism and to protect and promote the administration of and access to justice. The NSBA has built their organization around the core values of integrity, respect, accountability, and service. 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 include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] KBRA Assigns BBB/K2 Ratings to Portuguese Republic Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited (KBRA Europe) assigns a BBB issuer rating to the Portuguese Republic. KBRA also assigns K2 short-term issuer ratings to the sovereign. The ratings carry a Stable Outlook. The sovereign credit report is available here. Ratings Rating Outlook Action Foreign Currency Sovereign Rating - Long Term BBB**1 Stable Assigned Local Currency Sovereign Rating - Long Term BBB**1 Stable Assigned Foreign Currency Sovereign Rating - Short Term K2**1 Assigned Local Currency Sovereign Rating - Short Term K2**1 Assigned Main credit support factors: EU and Euro Area membership underpins institutional strengths. Improved economic structure as characterized by the growing importance of exports, efficiency and competitiveness gains, and increased participation in global value-added chains. Government commitment to fiscal discipline is strong. Active debt management has reduced refinancing risks and substantially strengthened the government debt profile. Structural improvements in the external accounts. Main credit concerns: The elevated government debt burden limits fiscal flexibility and renders the country vulnerable to shocks. Economic and income convergence to the EU average has stalled post-crisis, although is now accelerating. Potential growth is constrained by structural rigidities, regulatory burdens and demographic pressures. Portugal's sizeable net international investment position imbalance of over 100% of GDP leaves the economy vulnerable to financing risks. Remaining weaknesses in the banking sector mean further fiscal support (limited by the EU regulatory and competition framework) cannot be fully ruled out. The sovereign ratings on the Portuguese Republic are supported by the country's high degree of economic development, institutional strengths which have been further underpinned by EU and Euro area membership and the government's strong post-crisis economic management. The primary rating constraints relate to the elevated government debt burden which limits fiscal flexibility, the moderate rate of potential growth, a high level of economy-wide debt as reflected in the large negative net international investment position and banking sector weaknesses. The ratings are based on KBRA's Sovereigns Rating Methodology published on 10 May 2017. Weights used for assigning these ratings are described in the methodology used for this credit rating action. Disclosures Further disclosures relating to this rating action are available in the EU Information Disclosure Form. Additional information regarding KBRA policies, methodologies, rating scales and disclosures are available at www.kbra.com. This is an unsolicited rating. The rated entity or related third party did participate in the rating process and KBRA did not have access to the accounts and other relevant internal documents. Related Publications: (available at www.kbra.com) Sovereigns Rating Methodology Portugal Rating Report CONNECT WITH KBRA Twitter LinkedIn Download the iOS App YouTube About KBRA and KBRA Europe KBRA is a full service credit rating agency registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an NRSRO. In addition, KBRA is designated as a designated rating organization by the Ontario Securities Commission for issuers of asset-backed securities to file a short form prospectus or shelf prospectus, is recognized by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners as a Credit Rating Provider, and is a certified Credit Rating Agency (CRA) by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited is registered with ESMA as a CRA. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005147/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Bay Dynamics Achieves Elite Partner Status in Symantec Technology Integration Partner Program Company joins select group of industry titans working with Symantec to help solve some of the most complex security challenges facing enterprises today NEW YORK, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bay Dynamics , a leader in cyber risk analytics, today announced it has achieved Elite partner status in the Symantec Technology Integration Partner Program (TIPP), the highest level of the program. Symantec TIPP is a global ecosystem composed of more than 100 participating technology companies developing interoperable products and solutions to combat cyber-crime and help secure the cloud generation. Bay Dynamics joins just six other vendors Amazon, Box, IBM, Microsoft, ServiceNow and Splunk - in the Elite tier. Bay Dynamics joined the Symantec TIPP to work with Symantec to develop products and solutions which endeavor to protect against threats across virtually every control point and attack vector. Symantec TIPP was particularly compelling for Bay Dynamics based on its program goals of empowering its partners to develop deep technical integrations with Symantecs Integrated Cyber Defense Platform to help achieve these common goals. In demonstrating its proven alignment with the Symantec TIPP strategy and real-world capabilities of its products and services in combating cyber threats, Bay Dynamics was promoted to the TIP Elite program in recognition of its past achievements and future potential to advance the common goals. Data is anywhere and everywhere, which makes data protecton an integral component to our Integrated Cyber Defense approach, said Peter Doggart, vice president of business development at Symantec. Bay Dynamics offers proven behavior and risk analytics technology that helps organizations protect the most critical data wherever it resides. Together with Bay Dynamics, we help ensure that our mutual customers have the tools and technology they need to help protect against some of the most daunting security challenges today. Risk Fabric, Bay Dynamics flagship analytics platform, integrates with Symantecs data loss prevention (DLP), endpoint protection, cloud security, and encryption solutions to bring Information Centric Analytics (ICA) to enterprises. This technology integration creates a central point of behavioral analytics to assess data across on-premise, cloud, and mobile platforms, and delivers prioritized mitigation actions to keep sensitive data secure. We are honored to have been promoted to the Elite level of the Symantec Technology Integration Partner Program, as it puts us amongst true giants in the industry, said Feris Rifai, co-founder and CEO of Bay Dynamics. Our partnership with Symantec has provided us the opportunity to play a broader role in bringing analytics innovation to Symantecs product portfolio and customers worldwide. Were committed to working closely with Symantec to help enterprises protect and defend their data from malicious attacks. Through TIPP, Bay Dynamics has been provided with access to key tools and resources necessary to develop innovative and differentiated product and service offerings that complement and extend the Symantec Integrated Cyber Defense Platform, which is powered by the largest civilian threat intelligence network, robust point-to-point integrations and a broad technology ecosystem. Now, with Elite partner status, Bay Dynamics will be able to further enhance its impact to fight cyber crime through access to such additional Symantec program resources including deeper architecture review and product roadmap support, access to restricted APIs to support unique integration capabilities, customized go-to-market plans and partner enablement and training. Learn more about Symantecs Technology Integration Partner Program . About Bay Dynamics Bay Dynamics enables enterprise organizations to identify, prioritize and mitigate their most critical cyber risks based on a strategic array of real-world conditions. Our flagship User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) and risk analytics software solution, Risk Fabric, integrates and analyzes security data across the full breadth of existing security infrastructure to pinpoint emerging threats and enable rapid remediation. For more information visit Bay Dynamics or follow us on Twitter @BayDynamics . Media Contact: Kylie Heintz Bay Dynamics [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] "SC18" Inspires Next Generation to Change the World Through Supercomputing Advancements in high performance computing (HPC) continue to change our daily lives, whether it's something as simple as locking your doors with your smartphone or as impactful as advanced warnings of approaching natural disasters. Those who are pioneering this technology will gather in Dallas November 11-16 for SC18, the world's leading supercomputing conference. During the 30th annual SC conference, industry leaders will not only celebrate the contributions of high performance computing over the past three decades, but will inspire others to engage and collaborate to spark new ideas that will shape the future of supercomputing. "This year's theme of 'HPC Inspires' is truly focused on arming future leaders with the knowledge and drive to succeed, and to motivate everyone in the HPC industry to advance supercomputing to help make the world a better place," said Conference Chair Ralph A. McEldowney. Inspiring the Next Generation With the HPC industry facing a workforce shortage, igniting a passion for STEM-related careers and showing students the difference they can make through computing is more important than ever. Specific events for students will be offered throughout the conference via [email protected], including professional development sessions, a mentor-protege program and specific [email protected] programming. "By supporting and encouraging students, we help facilitate their transition into the professional community," said McEldowney. "We are excited to offer student competitions, dedicated sessions and a group of invited student volunteers that is our most diverse group ever. Selected from 27 countries, 36 percent of the group are women, 20 percent are Hispanic and 34 percent are the first in their families to attend college." Inspiring Diversity Since 2016, the SC Conference has collected demographic information from attendees during the registration pocess with a goal of achieving 20% female attendance by 2020. SC18 is committed to diversifying and expanding HPC, embracing professionals and students of all nationalities, ethnicities, genders and technical levels. Having the input of students and professionals with different backgrounds and perspectives will help energize the industry and present more opportunities to use supercomputing to effect societal change. Inspiring the World HPC is being applied to evolving science to help solve some of the biggest issues humanity faces today, from earthquake and hurricane predictions to global hunger challenges. New ideas in solving worldwide problems will be showcased and discussed in several SC18 programs, and a new competition for students will bring fresh perspectives. 16 undergraduates were chosen to compete in the inaugural Computing4Change competition, allowing them to explore the potential for computing to create positive change. Working in teams, they'll choose a societal issue, anything from the opioid crisis to gun violence or disparities in public education, and apply data analysis and computational thinking to offer a solution. The world of supercomputing is growing at breakneck speeds. Connected devices now far exceed the number of humans on this planet, linking us to the world through billions of things that sense, think, and act across a global network. The demand and potential for advancements in the field has never been greater, and the concepts and conversations at SC18 will become the reality of the future as emerging leaders in HPC are inspired to change the world. SC18 offers several registration options. You can also follow SC18 from the conference in Dallas or anywhere in world on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter using the hashtags #SC18, #HPCInspires, #HPC Connects, #SCinet, and #SCInclusivity. There will also be a newsdesk available for media interviews on the exhibit floor. About SC18 SC18 is the premier international conference showcasing the many ways high performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis lead to advances in scientific discovery, research, education, and commerce. The annual event, created and sponsored by the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and the IEEE (News - Alert) Computer Society, attracts HPC professionals and educators from around the globe to participate in its complete technical education program, workshops, tutorials, a world-class exhibit area, demonstrations, and the world's fastest temporary computer network. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005292/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Golden Leaf Holdings Reports Fiscal Third Quarter 2018 Results TORONTO, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. (Golden Leaf or the Company) (CSE:GLH) (OTCQB:GLDFF), a cannabis company with cultivation, production and retail operations built around recognized brands, today announced financial results for the fiscal third quarter ended September 30, 2018. Recent Business and Financial Highlights Record quarterly revenues of US$5.1 million for Q3 2018, compared to US$3.1 million for Q3 2017 Acquired Canadian Sales License from Health Canada via Medical Marijuana Group (MMG), its Canadian Subsidiary Hired Jeff Yapp as Chief Marketing and Sales Officer Subsequent Events: Announced non-binding letter of intent to merge with Terra Tech Corp. Announced launch of Golden Fruit Chews into the Nevada market Acquired cultivation license for its Bald Peak, Oregon facility from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission Introduced new Green Apple Flavor CBD Infused Fruit Chews into the Oregon market Mr. William Simpson, Chief Executive Officer of Golden Leaf Holdings, commented, Our third quarter revenue reached yet another record, achieving US$5.1 million, primarily driven by sale of flower in Canada after we received our Canadian Sales license from Health Canada, and seasonal improvements in our Oregon Retail revenue and the addition of two new Retail stores in Oregon when compared to the third quarter 2017. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2018 was a loss of US$2.9 million primarily driven by production costs and operating expenses. Combined with the recent legalization of cannabis in Canada and our ever expanding North American footprint in cultivation, wholesale and retail, we have set the stage for a stronger 2019. We continue our efforts to build our wholesale and retail brands, enhancing trust with our customers, and expanding market share. We are also investing in people and processes as we recognize the importance of a strong, dedicated workforce to support the market growth in the jurisdictions in which we operate, said Mr. Simpson. Fiscal Third Quarter Ended September 30, 2018 Financial Results For the quarter ended September 30, 2018 (Q3 2018), net revenue was US$5.1 million as compared to US$3.1 million for the same three-month period in 2017 (Q3 2017). The 63% year-over-year increase largely reflects the sale of flower from our Canadian operations, seasonal improvements in Oregon retail, and the addition of two new Chalice Farms stores in Oregon, when compared to the same period in 2017. Gross profit was US$0.4 million or 9% of net revenue for Q3 2018, compared with US$0.7 million or 23% of net revenue for Q3 2017. Q3 2018 gross margins decreased primarily due to non-cash valuation of biological assets. As of September 30, 2018, biological assets were newly planted and on average 13% complete. Operating expenses were US$4.7 million USD for Q3 2018, consistent with US$4.7 million in Q3 2017. Adjusted EBITDA loss was US$2.9 million for Q3 2018, a slight improvement compared with a loss of US$3.0 million for Q3 2017, primarily as a result of an increase in produt sales volume. Adjusted EBITDA is defined by the Company as earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization, less certain non-cash equity compensation expenses, including impairments, one-time transaction fees and all other non-cash items. The Company considers Adjusted EBITDA an important operational measure for the business. Net loss for Q3 2018 was US$5.5 million or US$0.01 per share loss, compared with a net loss of US$3.2 million or US$0.01 per share loss, for Q3 2017. Net loss for Q3 2018 increased primarily attributed to the effect of the changes in fair value of non-cash assets and debt, specifically, biological assets and warrant liability. As of September 30, 2018, the Company had approximately US$20.1 million in current assets, compared with US$11.6 million in current assets at December 31, 2017. The increase is largely because of the bought deal financing which was completed on January 31, 2018, in addition to proceeds from warrant exercises. Total assets increased to US$84.2 million at September 30, 2018, compared to US$75.8 million at December 31, 2017, also due primarily to the bought deal financing completed in January. Investor Conference Call Golden Leaf, led by William Simpson, Chief Executive Officer, will hold a conference call at 4:30 PM ET today, Monday, November 5th, 2018, to report its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018. The dial-in information for the conference call is as follows: Program Title: Golden Leaf Holdings Third Quarter 2018 Financial Results Call Canada & U.S.: (877) 423-9813 International: (201) 689-8573 Participants must request the Golden Leaf Holdings Call. A live audio webcast will be available online on Golden Leaf's website at goldenleafholdings.com, where it will be archived for two weeks. An audio replay of the conference call will be available through midnight November 19, 2018 by dialing +1 (844) 512-2921 from the U.S. or Canada, or +1 (412) 317-6671 from international locations, Conference ID: 13684932 To be added to the Golden Leaf email distribution list, please email [email protected] with "GLH" in the subject line. About Golden Leaf Holdings Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. is a Canadian company with operations in multiple jurisdictions including Oregon, Nevada and Canada, with cultivation, production and retail operations built around recognized brands. Golden Leaf distributes its products through its branded Chalice Farms retail dispensaries, as well as through third-party dispensaries. Golden Leafs cannabis retail operations and products are designed with the customer in mind, focused on superlative in-store experience and quality products. Visit goldenleafholdings.com to learn more. Investor Relations: Craig Eastwood Chief Financial Officer Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. 503-201-0659 [email protected] Media Relations: Anne Donohoe / Nick Opich KCSA Strategic Communications [email protected] / [email protected] 212-896-1265 / 212-896-1206 Disclaimer: This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the Companys future business operations, the establishment of, and the future scope and scale of, the Chalice Farms retail system, the level of funding needed to establish the Chalice Farms franchise model, that the Chalice Farms franchise model will be successful and generate positive cash flows, the opinions or beliefs of management and future business goals. Generally, forward looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to general business, economic and competitive uncertainties, regulatory risks including risks related to the expected timing of the Companys participation in the adult use market, market risks, risks inherent in manufacturing operations, difficulties of establishing a successful franchise model and other risks of the cannabis industry. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. Forward-looking information is provided herein for the purpose of presenting information about managements current expectations relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purpose. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. This press release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States, and such securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration or an exemption from registration. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] DrChrono Teams up with Diagnoss to Help Practices Improve Medical Coding Through Artificial Intelligence Technology Diagnoss Integration into Mobile EHR Will Help Medical Practices Improve Collections, Reimbursements and Avoid Unnecessary Audits SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DrChrono Inc., the company enabling the medical practice of the future, and Diagnoss, the company focused on reducing the administrative burden of medical practices, have partnered together to offer physician practices AI technology to help automate the medical coding process. Now physician practices using DrChronos mobile EHR platform can access Diagnoss Artificial Intelligence Engine which reads a doctors note, and suggests accurate medical codes and clinical documentation improvement points. These suggestions are autonomously delivered in real time, using artificial intelligence technology, to medical providers as well as coders and billers. Diagnoss built its natural language processing engine from the ground up to assess doctors notes, either as theyre typing them or after theyve uploaded them into DrChrono, and serves the user with actionable information in real time. Among the actionable information Diagnoss delivers to DrChrono customers is: E/M Level Meter: provides real-time feedback to users regarding the E/M level of the current patient evaluation; Clinical Documentation Improvement Suggestions: scans the doctor's notes for missing information relevant to the curren patient evaluation; ICD-10 Diagnosis Code Predictions: serves users with predictions as to which diagnosis codes could apply to this note, allowing the user to make a decision and submit those codes directly into DrChrono with one click. We are very excited to work with Diagnoss as we believe AI technology will automate tedious and complicated tasks like medical coding so practices can operate much more cost-effectively, said Daniel Kivatinos, COO and Co-Founder of DrChrono. DrChrono is committed to working with technology innovators like Diagnoss who build on our platform to give medical practices the tools they need to run profitable, successful businesses. About Diagnoss Diagnoss's artificial intelligence technology helps medical establishments improve their collections while reducing their risk of audit. Diagnoss augments the work of clinical and billing teams by driving pertinent (1) medical code suggestions and (2) clinical documentation improvement suggestions to its users, before they make a mistake. Diagnosss core technology includes a machine learning engine capable of deriving high impact inferences from unstructured medical data and delivering actionable information to healthcare teams. For more information about Diagnoss, email [email protected] or visit www.drchrono.com . About DrChrono DrChrono focuses on bringing the medical practice of the future to reality; the company built the first iPad EHR. DrChrono creates the best electronic health record, practice management, medical billing and revenue cycle management experience for physicians and patients; the health platform was built for iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch and the web. The EHR includes customizable medical forms, e-prescribing, real-time patient eligibility checks, patient portal and more. The healthcare App Directory offers a multitude of apps that a practice can select from to bundle in and a medical API for healthcare app developers. For more information about DrChrono, visit www.drchrono.com Media Contact: Kerry Metzdorf Big Swing Communications 978-463-2575 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] INVESTIGATION ALERT REMINDER: The Schall Law Firm Announces it is Investigating Claims Against NiSource Inc. and Encourages Investors with Losses in Excess of $100,000 to Contact the Firm The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of NiSource Inc. ("NiSource" or "the Company") (NYSE: NI) for violations of 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The investigation focuses on whether the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors. Dozens of gas-fueled explosions ripped through Andover, North Andover, and Lawrence, Massachusetts, on September 13, 2018. The eplosions destroyed homes, killed one person, and injured more than a dozen. The Fire Chief of Andover announced that the investigation suspected that the explosions were caused by over-pressurization of a gas main by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, a division of NiSource. Based on this news, shares of NiSource fell by almost 12% on September 14, 2018. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall, or Sherin Mahdavian, of the Schall Law Firm, 1880 Century Park East, Suite 404, Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert) 90067, at 424-303-1964, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at [email protected]. The class in this case has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005671/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Global Casino Management System Market, 2018-2025 - Market Size is Expected to Reach USD 11,726.7 Million DUBLIN, Nov. 5. 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Casino Management System Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application (Security & Surveillance, Accounting & Cash Management, Player Tracking, Property Management, Marketing) And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global casino management system market size is expected to reach USD 11,726.7 million by 2025, progressing at a CAGR of 14.8% during the forecast period. Growing demand for these establishments and increasing social acceptance are expected to emerge as crucial factors for driving the market. Increasing use of technologically advanced solutions and systems across the casino floor to boost operational efficiency will further drive growth in the casino management system market. North America emerged as the highest revenue generating segment in 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2017 to 2025. However, it is estimated that Asia Pacific will witness significant growth and will grow with the fastest CAGR of 17.0% over the forecast period. The growth of the casino gaming industry, especially in Japan, China, and India, is expected to play a major role in propelling the over the forecast period. Governments across the region are gradually legalizing casino gaming, owing to the various social and economic benefits. A rising number of these establishments and evolving customer preferences towards casino-style gaming will boost the casino management system market over the next nine years. It involves a multitude of monetary transactions which has resulted in an increase in the number of fraud and spoofing attacks. To safeguard against cheating, fraud and other crimes, operators are heavily investing in security & surveillance solutions to ensure a safe gaming environment across the casino floor. Hence, security & surveillance systems have become a vital component of a casino management system enabling casino operators to monitor and manage security threats in real time. Video analytics, license plate recognition, facial recognition and automated surveillance technologies are being implemented increasingly which is expected spur the casino management system market growth. These systems incorporate analytic toos, management systems, player tracking, and other tools. The analytics segment is expected to grow with the fastest CAGR of 16.2% over the forecast period. These systems are expected to witness high penetration as casinos become more data driven and analytical tools can help gain a competitive edge. Analytical tools offer varying insights on customer behaviour, game preferences, spending patterns, and win/loss probabilities, among others. Such insights enable operators to deliver a personalized gaming experience, enhancing customer retention rate and streamline gaming operations. However, emerging online gaming platforms are expected to gain increased market penetration owing to the evolving customer preferences which is likely to hinder the market growth. Further key findings from the study suggest: The security & surveillance segment is expected to dominate the overall market, and was valued at USD 757.6 million in 2016. Advancements in automated security solutions is further expected to drive market growth in this segment. in 2016. Advancements in automated security solutions is further expected to drive market growth in this segment. Analytics segment is expected to witness significant growth at a CAGR of over 16% from 2017 to 2025. Analytical tools are likely to witness increased adoption over the forecast period owing to varying insights offered enabling operators to remain profitable. The player tracking segment was valued at USD 512.6million in 2016. Operators are incorporating digital technologies to deliver a more personalized gaming experience and drive customer retention rate. in 2016. Operators are incorporating digital technologies to deliver a more personalized gaming experience and drive customer retention rate. Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth rate over the forecast period. Increased demand for these establishments coupled with changing consumer preferences and rising disposable income will augment the market growth. is expected to witness the highest growth rate over the forecast period. Increased demand for these establishments coupled with changing consumer preferences and rising disposable income will augment the market growth. Global players include International Game Technology (IGT), Micros Systems, Inc., Aristocrat Leisure Limited, Konami Corporation, Bally Technologies, and Honeywell International, Inc., among others. Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope 1.1. Research Methodology 1.2. Research Scope & Assumptions 1.3. List of Data Sources Chapter 2. Executive Summary 2.1. Casino Management Systems Regional Chapter 3. Casino Management Systems Industry Outlook 3.1. Market Segmentation 3.2. Market Size and Growth Prospects, 2014 - 2025 3.3. Value Chain Analysis 3.4. Market Dynamics 3.4.1. Market driver analysis 3.4.1.1. Improve operational efficiency 3.4.1.2. International tourism and higher social acceptance of casinos 3.4.1.3. Enhancing customer engagement 3.4.2. Market restraint/challenge analysis 3.4.2.1. Rise of online casinos 3.4.2.2. Cost and complexity of casino management systems 3.5. Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping 3.6. Industry Analysis - Porter's 3.7. PEST Analysis Chapter 4. Casino Management Systems Market: Application Outlook 4.1. Casino Management Systems Market Share by Application, 2016 & 2025 (USD Million) 4.2. Security & Surveillance 4.3. Analytics 4.4. Accounting & Cash Management 4.5. Player Tracking 4.6. Property Management 4.7. Marketing & Promotions 4.8. Others Chapter 5. Casino Management Systems Market: Regional Outlook 5.1. Casino Management Systems Market Share by Region, 2016 & 2025 (USD Million) Chapter 6. Competitive Landscape Konami Corporation Agilysys, Inc. Bally Technologies Casinfo Systems International Game Technology (IGT) LGS (Lodging and Gaming Systems) Micros Systems, Inc. (Oracle Corporation) Honeywell International, Inc. Next Level Security Systems, Inc. Aristocrat Leisure Limited For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9td3d4/global_casino?w=5 Did you know that we also offer Custom Research? Visit our Custom Research page to learn more and schedule a meeting with our Custom Research Manager. Media Contact: Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-casino-management-system-market-2018-2025---market-size-is-expected-to-reach-usd-11-726-7-million-300743807.html SOURCE Research and Markets [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Phoenix Life Sciences International Receives Approval for Name Change, Symbol Change, and Completion of Consolidation of Businesses DENVER, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited (OTC: PLSI) (Phoenix Life), an international adaptive healthcare solutions company, today announced it has completed the last stages the consolidation of businesses and received approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) of the corporate action completing its name change and change of stock symbol. Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited will now trade under the stock symbol PLSI. After five years of planning and hard work, we could not be more excited to have completed this consolidation to build a world changing organization, said Martin Tindall, CEO of Phoenix Life Sciences International. This marks the end of what has been a long transitional period for our company and the beginning of a new chapter of opportunity for Phoenix Life. We have made incredible progress over the past months towards our goal of creating a truly international healthcare organization. Our focus on creating global supply of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products derived from medical cannabis and other botanical compounds targeted towards treating patients across the world with a range of diseases makes me truly proud. The company has recently announced some of the following milestones: Completion of merger including retiring all convertible notes Appointment of new Board of Directors and executive team Received approval to establish operations in the country and manufacture botanial pharmaceutical products Medical Advisory Council adds Diabetes Director Tindall continued, Unlike other companies that are focused on retail or limited markets, our vision is to bring cannabinoid-based treatments to a global audience through government-supported healthcare systems. Starting in the South Pacific, we plan to create a comprehensive supply chain of cannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products that healthcare systems across the world can utilize to improve the health of their people. For more information about Phoenix Life, visit https://www.plsi.co/ . About Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited Phoenix Life Sciences International Limited is an adaptive healthcare solutions company. Our business is to advance research and integrate programs and manufacturing of products that target and treat diabetes, pain, cancer, and address psychological, gastrointestinal, autoimmune, neurological and sleep disorders. We strive to create partnerships and integrate these programs for human health into communities worldwide as part of our Global Health Initiative. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Information contained in this press release regarding Phoenix Life Sciences International, Limited and its subsidiaries, (the Companies) may constitute forward-looking statements or statements which may be deemed or construed to be forward-looking statements. The words plan, forecast, anticipates, estimate, project, intend, expect, should, believe, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve, and are subject to, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Companys actual results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements to differ from the future results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks, uncertainties and other factors are more fully discussed in the Companys filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Companies herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by the above-mentioned cautionary statement. The Companies disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this press release, except as may be required by law. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (FDA) DISCLOSURE These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and therefore the products sold by Phoenix Life Sciences International are not available on U.S. markets. LEGAL DISCLOSURE Phoenix Life Sciences International does not sell or distribute any products in the United States that are in violation of the United States Controlled Substances Act (US.CSA). This company does not grow, sell, and distribute cannabis-based products in the United States and is solely involved with the legal distribution of medical cannabis-based products within certain international markets outside of the United States. Investor Contact: Phone: 1.888.717.5655 or international +1.720.699.7222 E-mail: [email protected] Media Contact: Kathryn Reinhardt CMW Media [email protected] 619-972-3089 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Just In: DORI, Foster Farms' New Digital Mobile Platform Now Providing Thanksgiving Help That's A Scan, Call Or Click Away LIVINGSTON, Calif., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With the countdown to Thanksgiving underway, Foster Farms has expanded DORI, its in-store mobile resource, to provide recipes, tips and hacks to make it your best Thanksgiving ever. DORI is accessible through a QR code on packages of Foster Farms fresh turkey. Consumers needing help with their Thanksgiving turkey preparation can also call DORI's turkey helpline (1-833-TALKTKY or 1-833-825-5859). With DORI, Thanksgiving cooking advice is now available on-the-go, in-store or at home. The DORI mobile platform features: Time-tested turkey tips and digital cookbook Perfect roasting times, brining, carving techniques and more along with 50 delicious Thanksgiving recipes from the big bird to sides and desserts, including: Apple, Fig & Brussels Sprouts Salad; Garlic Mashed Cauliflower; Apple Brandy- and Sage-Glazed Turkey; and even a Chocolate-Glazed Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. Perfect roasting times, brining, carving techniques and more along with 50 delicious Thanksgiving recipes from the big bird to sides and desserts, including: Apple, Fig & Brussels Sprouts Salad; Garlic Mashed Cauliflower; Apple Brandy- and Sage-Glazed Turkey; and even a Chocolate-Glazed Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. Thanksgiving hacks No roasting pan? No problem. Turn any pan into a roasting pan by sitting your gobbler on a bed of onions, potatoes and carrots or placing it on a ring formed out of aluminum foil. Elevating your turkey allows the heat to circulate more evenly. Hungry for more? Try adding baking powder to mashed potatoes to make them extra fluffy. No roasting pan? No problem. Turn any pan into a roasting pan by sitting your gobbler on a bed of onions, potatoes and carrots or placing it on a ring formed out of aluminum foil. Elevating your turkey allows the heat to circulate more evenly. Hungry for more? Try adding baking powder to mashed potatoes to make them extra fluffy. A Poultrypedia A spin-the-wheel dictionary demystifies the terms on your turkey label. Learn what "cage-free," "free range" and "organic" really mean. A spin-the-wheel dictionary demystifies the terms on your turkey label. Learn what "cage-free," "free range" and "organic" really mean. Giving Back For the past decade Foster Farms has provided more than 600,000 holiday meals to families in need. DORI will connect consumers who want to join Foster Farms in fighting hunger to food banks in California , Oregon and Washington . To spread the word about the DORI mobile platform, Foster Farms is launching a social media campaign that will enable consumers to match their Thanksgiving personalities with humorous DORI emojis. Are you the Procrastinator, who puts off Thanksgiving preparations to the last minute; Trendy Wendy, who is always in search of the ltest and greatest; or the Guru of Gravy, who has the moves for the smoothest fixin's this side of Plymouth Rock? DORI emojis bring a smile to Thanksgiving festivities. "We know consumers always want their Thanksgiving to be the best ever, and DORI delivers the information in-store or at home that can help," said Ira Brill, director of communications for Foster Farms. "And, if you're a Thanksgiving rookie and run into a jam cooking your turkey, just give a quick call to the DORI holiday helpline." On weekdays from November 1 through December 24, DORI's Thanksgiving Turkey Helpline experts will be on call for turkey advice. Reach them at 1-833-TALKTKY (1-833-825-5859). Helpline hours will be: 11/1-11/9 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST 11/12-11/22 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. PST (including Thanksgiving Day) 11/23-12/24 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST Foster Farms' fresh turkey offerings include Whole Young Turkey for traditional roasts, Young Turkey breasts for shorter cooking times, and pre-marinated Savory Servings Turkey for no-fuss preparation. Foster Farms' Savory Servings pre-marinated Turkey Tenderloins are ideal for households hosting smaller feasts or for consumers who want to experience the taste of a traditional Thanksgiving meal anytime during the year. About Foster Farms Since 1939, West Coast families have depended on Foster Farms for premium quality chicken and turkey products. Family-owned and operated, the company continues its legacy of excellence and commitment to quality established by its founders, Max and Verda Foster. Foster Farms specializes in fresh, all-natural chicken and turkey products free of preservatives, additives or injected sodium enhancers. Based in California's Central Valley, with ranches in the Pacific Northwest, the company's fresh chicken and turkey are produced in or near each region served. Foster Farms also produces delicious pre-marinated, ready-to-cook and fully cooked products that meet the quality and convenience needs of today's home cooks, retailers, warehouse clubs and foodservice customers. The company's commitment to excellence, honesty, quality, service and people is a source of great pride and a longtime family tradition. Food safety is Foster Farms' highest priority and the company would like to remind consumers to always follow safe handling, preparation and storage guidelines for the preparation of fresh poultry products. All fresh poultry products should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit as measured by a meat thermometer to ensure safety. Visit www.fosterfarms.com to learn more. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/just-in-dori-foster-farms-new-digital-mobile-platform-now-providing-thanksgiving-help-thats-a-scan-call-or-click-away-300744022.html SOURCE Foster Farms [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] HS2 Solutions Announces Rebrand to Bounteous, Deepens eCommerce Capabilities, and Expands into Canada HS2 Solutions, a leading creator of big-picture digital solutions, today unveiled the new brand Bounteous, uniting its deep capabilities in strategy, customer experience, engineering, eCommerce, analytics, and digital marketing across North America. The Bounteous brand combines HS2, LunaMetrics, Infield Digital, and now, Demac Media, under an integrated offering of digital competencies, providing more comprehensive digital transformation solutions for clients than ever before. The Bounteous new brand identity, logo, and website, www.bounteous.com, celebrate the team's premier capabilities, unsurpassed talent, and expanded geographic reach. Bounteous, meaning "generously given" or "plentiful," speaks to the flow of insights, ideas, imagination, and innovation across disciplines and business functions. "The best digital brand experiences are created when we activate the abundance of data and insights across all the digital touchpoints that permeate our lives. Everything we do is designed to optimize that flow, so we can create big-picture digital solutions that drive results for our clients," said Phil Hollyer, Bounteous co-founder and CEO. Keith Schwartz, Bounteous co-founder and President added, "We are fueled by the boundless energy, passion, and pure talent that flows through our team. Now one company united by a shared set of values, we'll continue to provide top-notch client service, deep critical thinking, flawless execution, and excellent business results to our valued clients and partners." Bounteous also announced the acquisition of Demac Media, Canada's largest and most established eCommerce agency, and that it will become Bounteous Canada. Bounteous Canada leverages strategic partnerships with world-class commerce platforms including Adobe (News - Alert)/Magento, Shopify, and Workarea. Withthis acquisition, Bounteous now employs close to 400 experts across offices in Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Denver, Berlin, and Toronto. Bounteous Canada brings its expertise in digital commerce solutions to the North American enterprise, leveraging more than a decade of experience across hundreds of leading companies including Sleep Country, Staples (News - Alert) Canada, and the Government of Alberta. Bounteous Canada is the largest Magento Gold partner in Canada and one of the top Magento partners globally. "Bounteous Canada is dedicated to being the best customer experience, eCommerce, and strategic partner for clients across North America," said Mike Brown, who joins Bounteous Canada as its new president with the acquisition. Brown is the former Chief Growth Officer for ICF Olson (News - Alert) and president of its Canadian subsidiary, where he built what began as a small mobile technology startup into one of the country's top digital agencies, and subsequently guided it through two successive acquisitions. "By aligning with the strength of Bounteous, we're able to both expand the reach of our eCommerce leadership into the U.S., and also strengthen the complementary capabilities that can deliver results for our Canadian partners." In November 2016, Bounteous announced its partnership with private equity firm Mountaingate Capital to accelerate growth through acquisitions, talent additions, international expansion, and increased services. Since that time, Bounteous has acquired LunaMetrics, a Google (News - Alert) Analytics and digital marketing consulting firm, and Infield Digital, a customer experience management solutions firm partnering with Adobe, Magento, Elastic Path, and Digital River. About Bounteous Founded in 2003 in Chicago, Bounteous delivers comprehensive strategy, customer experience, engineering, eCommerce, analytics, and digital marketing solutions to leading Fortune 1000 companies. The company helped build Domino's Pizza into one of the world's most successful eCommerce brands and serves as the agency of record for Domino's Canada. It was recognized as 2018's Adobe Emerging Partner of the Year, and is an Acquia Preferred Partner and Google Marketing Platform Sales Partner. For more information, please visit www.bounteous.com. For the most up-to-date news, follow Bounteous on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005848/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Sikorsky Wins $717 Million Award to Sustain Super Stallion and Sea Dragon Aircraft for the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy STRATFORD, Conn., Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company (NYSE: LMT), was awarded a performance-based logistics contract with a value of $717 million. The contract will provide supply and logistics support to the entire fleet of in-service CH-53E Super Stallions and MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters. The H-53E is a battle proven heavy-lift helicopter continuing to support the U.S. Marine Corps and Navy in missions at home and around the world. The scope of the performance-based logistics contract includes repairs, overhauls, spares, obsolescence mitigation and asset management services over four years. Contract performance is based on material availability metrics with additional incentives added for demand reductions, maintainability enhancements and aircraft readiness contributions. The expanded comprehensve arrangement will cover additional readiness-critical components, including main and tail rotor blades, main gearbox, main rotor head, flight control components as well as accessories such as refueling probe and cargo system components. "We expect the expanded performance-based logistics to measurably improve material availability and reduce support cost while increasing overall aircraft readiness," said Pierre Garant, Sikorsky senior program manager, Marine Corps In-Service Programs. "Our support infrastructure and past performance-based logistics successes will result in Sikorsky continuing to reliably provide mission support critical to the warfighter." As the Marine Corps' heavy lift-helicopter designed for the transportation of heavy material and supplies, the CH-53E Super Stallion is compatible with most amphibious class ships. With four-and-one-half hours' endurance, the helicopter can move heavy equipment over rugged terrain in bad weather and at night. The MH-53E Sea Dragon fills the Navy's need for long-range minesweeping missions, in addition to heavy-lift duties. The H-53E has consistently proven its worth to the fleet commanders with its versatility and range. The contract will provide the vital and affordable support to the entire fleet expanding a reliable base of long-term sustainment as the aircraft continue to fully operate until the introduction of the replacement aircraft, the Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion. For additional information, visit our website: www.lockheedmartin.com/sikorsky. About Lockheed Martin Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 100,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. This year the company received three Edison Awards for ground-breaking innovations in autonomy, satellite technology and directed energy. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sikorsky-wins-717-million-award-to-sustain-super-stallion-and-sea-dragon-aircraft-for-the-us-marine-corps-and-us-navy-300744067.html SOURCE Lockheed Martin [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] AppDynamics Founder Jyoti Bansal's New Company Harness Expands R&D Center in Bangalore, Actively Recruits Engineers Former Rivigo CTO Hemant Khandelwal Tapped to be Head of R&D Center BANGALORE, India, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Harness , the industry's first Continuous Delivery-as-a-Service platform leveraging artificial intelligence, today announced plans to accelerate hiring at its recently opened R&D center in Bangalore, India. The company plans to hire over 100 engineers over the next few years. Interested applicants can apply here . The aggressive plans for the Bangalore facility mirror Harness' growth trajectory since it came out of stealth in late 2017. The company was co-founded by Jyoti Bansal after the sale of AppDynamics to Cisco for $3.7 billion, and was the first company to be spun out of Bansal's new startup studio BIG Labs. The company quickly achieved traction among both enterprise and medium-sized organizations; early customers include McAfee, NCR, New York Life, Build.com. Soulcycle, and Jobvite. The company was named a Gartner "Cool Vendor in DevOps" for 2018 and also won the Barclay "Technology Open Challenge Award" in 2018. Hemant Khandelwal has been appointed head of the facility, bringing years of experience creating and inspiring industry-acclaimed teams. Khandewal most recently served as CTO of Rivigo, where he helped the company become a unicorn in three years builing its technology platform and putting together a high performing, 100+ team from scratch. Khandelwal also had successful runs at Adobe Systems, Pramati, and Infosys. "I couldn't be more enthusiastic about taking the reins of the new Harness R&D facility in Bangalore, and I urge talented engineers to reach out to me," said Hemant Khandelwal. "Harness is on fire from both a customer acquisition and brand awareness standpoint. We all know the kinds of products that Jyoti Bansal brings to market, and Harness has already proven to have his magic touch. This is truly 'the place to be,' and I hope to bring aboard the next members of this fast-growing team very soon." "The Harness mission is to simplify the Continuous Delivery process for every engineering team on the planet, using Machine Learning to ensure that code is delivered into production safely, securely, and repeatably," said Jyoti Bansal, Harness co-founder & CEO. "Our Bangalore R&D facility is a critical component of our overall strategy, and I'm excited that an executive of Hemant's caliber will be doing for us what he has done many times in his careerbuilding legendary teams that make an immediate and lasting impact. I look forward to seeing his team grow." Harness brings the power of enterprise Continuous Delivery to every business, empowering engineering teams to move fast and ship code without the fear of failed deployments. With its Smart Automation technology, Harness provides the first ever solution to automate the entire continuous delivery process. By applying unsupervised machine learning to the process a new technology called Continuous Verification the platform understands an application's baseline environment and can initiate automatic rollbacks when irregular activity is detected, avoiding application downtime or widespread failures. To date, Harness has reduced deployment time from many weeks to a few hours, and has reduced errors by nearly 99 percent. About Harness Based in San Francisco, Harness is the industry's first Continuous Delivery-as-a-Service platform designed to provide a simple, safe and secure way for engineering and DevOps teams to release applications into production. Harness uses machine learning to detect the quality of deployments and automatically roll back failed ones, saving time and reducing the need for custom scripting and manual oversight. Harness was started and launched by Jyoti Bansal's BIG Labs, and is backed by top-tier venture capital firm Menlo Ventures; customers include NCR, Soulcycle, Jobvite, Build.com, McAfee, and New York Life. Follow us on Twitter and try for free at harness.io. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Children in Atlanta Receive Free Eye Exams and Prescription Glasses as Part of Health Event Students from Sheltering Arms locations in Atlanta with vision problems received follow-up comprehensive eye exams at no cost and, if needed, prescription glasses as part of health event at Sheltering Arms Center, Barack and Michelle Obama Academy. Certified pediatric vision screeners and optometrists from Prevent Blindness Georgia conducted the screenings and the no-cost follow-up comprehensive eye exams. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005893/en/ Victoria (age 5) admires new glasses she received during free vision screenings and comprehensive eye exams for students at Sheltering Arms schools in Atlanta. The event was part of a grant program from UnitedHealthcare to nonprofits in cities across the country to coordinate free vision screenings, comprehensive eye exams and eyeglasses donations. Prevent Blindness Georgia received a $5,000 grant for the event (Photo: Tami Chappell). The event is part of a grant program from UnitedHealthcare to nonprofits in cities across the country to coordinate free vision screenings, comprehensive eye exams and eyeglasses donations. Prevent Blindness Georgia has received a $,000 grant for the local event from UnitedHealthcare, which also donated reading stations and children's books to support the Sheltering Arms reading and education programs. About Prevent Blindness Georgia Prevent Blindness Georgia's mission is to prevent avoidable blindness and preserve sight for all Georgians. In 1965, PBGA became a state affiliate of Prevent Blindness, the nation's leading non-profit eye health and safety organization. The organization offers an array of services to children and adults with a focus on promoting a continuum of vision care through public and professional education, advocacy, vision screening, and certification training, community outreach, and patient service programs. Its children's program, Star Pupils, performs vision screenings for three, four, and five-year-old children. Its adult program, Vision Outreach, serves individuals who are low-income, underserved, uninsured, or cannot afford vision care. For more information, visit www.pbga.org. About UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter (News - Alert). Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005893/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] Validus Specialty Hires Corina Monaghan to Political Risk and Credit Team in New York Validus Specialty Underwriting Services, Inc. ("Validus Specialty") today announced the hire of Corina Monaghan to lead its U.S. Political Risk and Credit Insurance team, based in New York. Validus Specialty provides brokers and clients in the Americas with a one-stop shop to access Political Risk and Credit insurance capacity from the Lloyd's market, offering commercial counterparty, sovereign and country risks across a wide variety of sectors, geographies and structured trade finance products. Corina Monaghan has joined the company as Senior Vice President, Head of Political Risk & Trade Credit to strengthen its Political Risk and Credit insurance team, based in New York. Corina brings to Validus her expertise in political risk, both public and private sector underwriting, and broking, as well as her deep client relationship network in both North and South America, and across Europe, leveraging hr fluency in German, Spanish and Portuguese. Previously, Corina was head of Political Risks for JLT North America where she spearheaded consulting and brokerage of crisis management. With Corina's hire, Validus Specialty will build on the success of their established $255 million binding authority, as well as its own significant dedicated capacity. Jonathan Ritz, CEO of Validus Specialty, added, "Attracting a leader like Corina underscores that our entrepreneurial culture appeals to top-notch industry talent. Political Risk and Credit insurance is already an important piece in our growing product suite, she's well poised to make it more so." Commenting on her appointment, Corina said, "Validus Specialty has a strong, ambitious team in place. It's a privilege to join them and build out the company's capabilities further." About Validus Specialty Validus Specialty is the brand used by Validus Specialty Underwriting Services, Inc. Brokers and clients look to Validus Specialty for a wide range of both excess and surplus and admitted insurance solutions, with the flexibility of 'A' rated U.S. and Lloyd's paper. The company offers enhanced distribution access, excellent technical underwriting and claims management, and access to leading underwriting capacity. Validus Specialty is a member company of AIG. To learn more, visit validusspecialty.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005970/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 05, 2018] First BanCorp. Announces Payment of Dividends on Preferred Stock First BanCorp. (the "Corporation") (NYSE:FBP), the bank holding company for FirstBank Puerto Rico, announced today that its Board of Directors has declared the following monthly cash dividends on its outstanding shares of Series A through E Noncumulative Perpetual Monthly Income Preferred Stock (the "Preferred Stock"): Series Monthly Dividend Per Share Outstanding Shares Record Date Payment Date (b) (c) A $0.14843750 197,386 November 28, 2018 November 30, 2018 B $0.17395800 296,146 November 15, 2018 November 30, 2018 C $0.15416670 249,852 November 15, 2018 November 30, 2018 D $0.15104167 285,522 November 15, 2018 November 30, 2018 E $0.14583330 415,240 November 15, 2018 November 30, 2018 The Corporation's ability to continue to declare and pay dividends on the Preferred Stock is dependent on certain Federal regulatory considerations, including the guidelines of the Federal Reserve Board regarding capital adequacy and dividends and on the Corporation's agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (the "Federal Reserve") to obtain regulatory approval to pay dividends to stockholders. Although there is no assurance that any dividends will be declared on the Corporation's Preferred Stock in any future periods, the Corporation intends to continue to request the Federal Reserve's approval to enable it to continue to pay the monthly dividends on its Preferred Stock. About First BanCorp. First BanCorp. is the parent corporation of FirstBank Puerto Rico, a state-chartered commercial bank with operations in Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Florida, and of FirstBank Insurance Agency, LLC. Among the subsidiaries of FirstBank Puerto Rico are First Federal Finance Limited Liability Company and First Express, Inc., both small loan companies, and FirstBank Puerto Rico Securities Corp., a broker-dealer subsidiary. First BanCorp's shares of common stock trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "FBP." Safe Harbor This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" concerning the Corporation. The words or phrases "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "look forward," "should," "would," "believes" and similar expressions are meant to identify "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are subject to the safe harbor created by such sections. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Corporation's ability to declare dividends on the Corporation's Preferred Stock in any future periods and the Corporation's intention to request the Federal Reserve's approval to enable it to continue to pay the monthly dividends on its Preferred Stock once regulatory approvals expire. Such statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and contingencies that may cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations, intentions, beliefs, plans, estimates or predictions of the future expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and contingencies include, but are not limited to the factors described in the Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K, in its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and in other filings with the SEC (News - Alert). The Corporation does not undertake, and specifically disclaims any obligation, to update any "forward-looking statements" to reflect occurrences or unanticipated events or circumstances after the date of such statements, except as required by the federal securities laws. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105005941/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Motorola's iPhone X-lookalike is finally coming to the U.S. (Image credit: Motorola) The company announced over the weekend that its Motorola One midrange handset, launched earlier in the year in parts of Asia, Latin America and Europe, is making its way to the States November 9. The $399 device employs a Snapdragon 625 processor paired with 4GB of RAM, a 5.9-inch HD display, a 3,000-mAh battery and dual lens camera on the back. It's also an Android One device, which means it runs the stock flavor of Google's mobile OS, launches with Android 9 Pie and theoretically should receive instant updates to new software. We first learned about the Motorola One over the summer when it was launched for the Chinese market as the Motorola P30. The phone initially drew criticism for its derivative looks, which employed a notch that closely resembled the one on the front of Apple's flagship. Though, over the ensuing months, we were treated to plenty more copycat iPhones from other companies from LG to Huawei so Motorola is hardly alone in that regard. However, there appears to be a bigger issue facing the Motorola One that doesn't concern the phone's exterior at all: it just doesn't seem like a particularly great deal. Motorola is offering a $399 handset here with an outdated processor and relatively low-res display. The 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage isn't too shabby, though the Snapdragon 625 and 720p display is outpaced by the 630 CPU and 1080p panel in the Nokia 6.1. That phone typically goes for $269, but can actually be had for just $199 on Amazon right now. MORE: The Best Android Phones Right Now Perhaps there's something special about the Motorola One's cameras a 13-megapixel main sensor tied to a 3-megapixel lens purely used for depth. Yet previous Moto devices haven't taken particularly encouraging photos, and there's nothing here that would outwardly suggest the situation has improved. For what its worth, the company offers a more powerful version of the Motorola One, called the One Power, in other territories though that variant will not be making the trip to the U.S, according to Engadget. Really, it seems like Motorola One buyers will be paying for iPhone looks first and foremost. The device will be available through Best Buy starting November 9 and supports GSM networks (like T-Mobile and AT&T). You can look forward to a full review in the coming weeks. Researchers from Radboud University in The Netherlands reported today their discovery that hackers could easily bypass the encryption on Crucial and Samsung SSDs without the users passwords. The researchers also pointed at Microsoft for defaulting to using these broken encryption schemes on modern drives. The Dutch researchers reverse-engineered the firmware of multiple drives and found a pattern of critical issues." In one case, the drives master password used to decrypt data was just an empty string, which means someone would have been able to decrypt it by just pressing the Enter key on their keyboard. In another case, the researchers said the drive could be unlocked with any password because the drives password validation checks didnt work. The drives the researchers found to be plagued by these encryption issues include: Crucials MX100, MX200 and MX300 SSDs, Samsungs T3 and T5 portable SSDs and the popular Samsung 840 EVO and 850 EVO SSDs. The researchers noted that the issues likely affect many more products from the two companies SSD lineups, considering most if not all of them share the same firmware. Microsofts BitLocker Partly to Blame Its bad enough that Crucial and Samsung have done poor jobs of protecting the decryption key (or even creating one to begin with, in some cases). However, drive encryption has never been that good, and researchers suggested Microsoft should have known better. They said Microsoft shares some of the blame for Windows user data that can easily be stolen from their encrypted drives by people with access to the users laptops. Thats because Microsofts BitLocker, which is available only on Professional, Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 10, uses the drives own encryption by default instead of its own. In other words, BitLocker is mostly just an intermediary interface for modern drives own encryption. It doesn't do much else on its own. Cryptography Professor Matthew Green called Microsofts decision to trust device makers own encryption schemes the single dumbest thing that company has ever done" via Twitter. A Call for Open-Source Encryption Schemes The researchers also blamed the drive makers for using proprietary encryption schemes that tend to be much weaker in practice than well-known open source solutions. The drive makers werent even publishing their proprietary encryption schemes, which is why the researchers had to reverse-engineer the software. The researchers recommended users use the open-source and audited VeraCrypt software instead of the proprietary BitLocker or custom and unproven SSD drive encryption schemes. The researchers concluded there is no point in using the encryption options provided by these drives. They argue that's because on one hand software solutions such as VeraCrypt are simply better and more secure, and on the other hand, the encryption acceleration offered by the SSDs is unnecessary because the AES-NI encryption acceleration found on most processors has become mainstream. AES-NI offers the same hardware acceleration as the drives own crypto accelerators do. In an advisory, Samsung also told consumers to install encryption software available online to avoid potential breach of self-encrypting SSDs. Meanwhile, Micron, the owner of the Crucial SSD brand, said that it will issue a firmware update for its drives in the future, but didnt provide a schedule. Predominantly defined by its serviceable pen garage, the Lenovo Yoga C930 is a well rounded 2-in-1 laptop that takes the winning components of its predecessor and wraps them into chassis whose fine tunings are characterized by subtlety. Predominantly defined by its serviceable pen garage, the Lenovo Yoga C930 is a well rounded 2-in-1 laptop that takes the winning components of its predecessor and wraps them into chassis whose fine tunings are characterized by subtlety. As 2-in-1 laptops become more prevalent in the market, their creators are continuing to solve little problems. For those that ship with styli, for instance, where do you put the pen when its not in use to ensure you dont lose it? And if youre rotating the laptop on a 360-degree hinge, wont the sound become muffled when the bottom-mounted speaker is pressed flat against the lid? The Lenovo Yoga C930 ($1,299) answers these questions with a handful of sensible design choices that transform the Yoga series for the better. Iterative in the best sense of the word, it introduces a pen garage on its hindquarters that hides your stylus from the world when youre not doodling or jotting down notes. Whats more, the hinge is the speaker on the Yoga C930, thus audio flows naturally in any one of the laptops four distinct modes. Overall, it offers a smattering of outward improvements worthy of our praise, even if it doesnt emerge entirely unscathed. Design The overall look of the Lenovo Yoga C930 treads familiar territory for Lenovo, in that it keeps a slim metallic shell like the Yoga 920 before it. Not only does it bear a slim profile, but its also light enough to carry around in a bag without straining your shoulders. For the modern, roaming professional, its portability alone makes the Yoga C930 a worthy contender for the status of daily driver. Upon closing it, the Lenovo Yoga C930s lid is plain enough that it wont draw unwanted stares from onlookers at your local coffee shop. Its finish is a monochromatic Iron Grey, though you also have the option of a new silvery color palette the company gratuitously dubs Mica. Regardless of which outfit you choose, the word YOGA, in all caps, is etched on the upper left-hand corner of the lid, confirming any lingering suspicions you have that this is in fact a 2-in-1 notebook made by Lenovo. Because it has a convertible hinge, you can flip the Lenovo Yoga C930 inside-out for use in one of three unique modes outside of the traditional laptop mode. Turn the lid all the way back against the base of the device and its in tablet mode; rotate it a few degrees back in the direction of the keyboard and its in tent mode; with the keyboard planted on a flat surface and the screen pointed at your face, the Yoga C930 is in stand mode. While previous Lenovo Yoga laptops sported the companys signature watchband hinge, the C930 abandons it in favor of a new hinge design that houses the notebooks speakers. The speaker integrates a pair of custom tweeters along with a couple of down-firing woofers. Image 1 of 2 Image 2 of 2 The port selection on the Lenovo Yoga C930 is slim pickings. On the left side is a single USB 3.1 Type-A port sitting next to a duet of Thunderbolt 3 ports, both of which you can use for charging. To the right of those is a headphone jack. Sadly, theres no SD card slot or native HDMI port in sight. Photographers and external monitor users best prepare to live that #DongleLife. Crack open the Lenovo Yoga C930 and youll find an IPS touchscreen, with a resolution that ranges from 1920 x 1080 (FHD) to 3840 x 2160 (4K) -- I tested the FHD model. Surrounding the display are a series of relatively thin bezels and a webcam, right where it should be: centered above the panel. A small, square-shaped fingerprint reader resides just below the right side of the keyboard. At 3.1 pounds (1.4 kg) and 12.6 x 8.9 x 0.6 inches (32 x 23 x 1.5 cm), the Lenovo Yoga C930 is a little on the heavy side, weighing more than the 2.86-pound (1.3 kg) HP Spectre x360. At the same time, you might expect the 13.9-inch Lenovo Yoga C930 to weigh more than the 13.3-inch HP Spectre x360 because of the difference in screen size. Fortunately, the Yoga C930 is lighter than the 14-inch Asus ZenBook Flip 14, which weighs 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg). Otherwise, the dimensions of the Yoga C930 are about average considering its screen size. Specifications Display 13.9-inch, 1920 x 1080 (FHD) IPS CPU Intel Core i7-8550U Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 620 Memory 12GB DDR4 2,400MHz SSD 256GB PCIe NVMe Optical Networking Intel Wireless-AC 9260, Bluetooth 4.1 Video Ports USB Ports USB 3.1 Type-A, 2x Thunderbolt 3 Audio 2x Dolby Atmos speakers Camera 720p webcam Battery 60Whr Power Adapter 65W Operating System Windows 10 Home Dimensions (WxDxH) 12.6 x 8.9 x 0.6 inches (32 x 23 x 1.5 cm) Weight 3.1 pounds (1.4 kg) Other Fingerprint reader, stylus pen, TrueBlock Privacy Shutter Price (as configured) $1,299 Performance The Lenovo Yoga C930 wields an 8th-generation Intel Core i7-8550U processor with 4 cores and 8 threads. Clocking in at 1.8GHz, the CPU can accelerate all the way up to 4GHz once Turbo Boost kicks in. Furthermore, this laptop accommodates 12GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage space. Even after launching around 30 Chrome tabs, including one streaming WAKE ME UP INSIDE - Goofy Edition in 720p at max volume, I am happy to report that the slowdown was minimal and my girlfriend did not dump me. On Geekbench 4, the Lenovo Yoga C930 scored 13,952 points, higher than the premium average (12,452). By the same token, the Yoga C930 beat out the HP Spectre x360 (13,568) and the Asus ZenBook Flip 14 (12,799), although it did lose to the Dell XPS 13 9370 (14,180). Putting its SSD to the test, the Lenovo Yoga C930 took 15 seconds to transfer 4.97GB worth of files, for a rate of 339.3MBps. Thats slower than the average (489.2MBps) as well as the HP Spectre x360 (565.5MBps) and the Dell XPS 13 9370 (508MBps). Still, its faster than the Asus ZenBook Flip 14 (318.08). On our Excel Macro test, the Lenovo Yoga C930 matched 65,000 names and addresses in 1 minute and 4 seconds, eclipsing the average (1:29) and outpacing the HP Spectre x360 (1:36), the Dell XPS 13 9370 (1:08) and the Asus ZenBook Flip 14 (1:40). For our Handbrake test, we used the open source application to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. With the Lenovo Yoga C930, this process took 20 minutes and 45 seconds, longer than the average (20:42) and the Dell XPS 13 9370 (16:00). That said, the Yoga C930 was faster than the HP Spectre x360 (26:00) and the Asus ZenBook Flip 14 (25:04). To stress test the Lenovo Yoga C930, we used Cinebench R15, running it a total of 10 times while recording its performance with HWinfo. After taking a 7 percent hit from the first to the second run, the procedure was mostly without hiccups. Scores ranged from around 568 to 593 points while the average temperature of the CPU was 78.6 degrees Celsius (173.5 degrees Fahrenheit). The clock speeds never dipped below the processors base, with an average of 2.6GHz recorded throughout. Display The 13.9-inch 1080p screen on the Lenovo Yoga C930 is glossy and deceptively vibrant. At first blush, I thought I was looking at a higher resolution panel. In reality, whether you opt for the FHD or 4K model, the Yoga C930 supports Dolby Vision high-dynamic range (HDR) technology out of the box. As a result, colors are supposed to appear more vivid, and contrast is amplified between light and dark images. When I watched an episode of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix, the contrast was comparable to what Ive seen watching the series at home on my 4K HDR TV. The rest of the picture was darker and somewhat grainier on the Lenovo Yoga C930. I imagine it would look crisper on one of the 4K models of the same laptop. The Yoga C930s panel covers 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut, less than the average (112 percent) and much less than that of the Dell XPS 13 9370 (130 percent). Likewise, the Asus ZenBook Flip and HP Spectre x360 cover a wider percentage of the sRGB color gamut at 115 percent and 109 percent, respectively. Chances are the stream would be brighter on a competing laptop too, as the screen on the Yoga C930 measured an average of 273 nits in our testing, lower than the 309-nit premium laptop average. Of its main rivals, only the HP Spectre x360s display measured lower at 261 nits. The ZenBook Flip 14 and XPS 13 9370 both measured higher in the luminosity department. Keyboard, Touchpad and Stylus Despite just 1.3 millimeters of travel, the keyboard on the Lenovo Yoga C930 is snappy and comfortable. And with 75 grams of required actuation force, it falls in the middle of those keyboards offered by the Asus ZenBook Flip 14 (70g) and the HP Spectre x360 (80g), making for what I feel is an ideal balance. On the 10fastfingers.com, I managed to type 84 words per minute with an accuracy rating of 90 percent using the Lenovo Yoga C930s built-on keyboard. Thats faster than I can type with my Roccat Vulcan 120 AIMO mechanical keyboard, but I will say that my accuracy is typically higher. As for the 4.1 x 2.7-inch touchpad, Im surprised to admit that I didnt hate using it. During my time with the Lenovo Yoga C930, adjusting to the touchpad rarely interfered with the pace at which I completed my work. Unlike other notebook touchpads Ive used, pulling off Windows gestures never called for more than one attempt. Another input method that comes with the Lenovo Yoga C930 is a tiny active pen equipped with 4,096 points of pressure sensitivity. Whereas the Yoga 920s stylus could be anchored to the USB Type-A port, the Yoga C930 institutes a more practical means of securing its pen. Stationed on its right shoulder is a stylus garage, where you can fasten the pen simply by pushing it inside. Once its parked, you can press down on it to eject the pen and start writing and drawing. The pen is simple, lacking the side buttons and eraser functions you get with other active pens like the Microsoft Surface Pen and Lenovos own Active Pen 2. At any rate, its so convenient to tuck it in and take it back out whenever you want that, at least for me, its worth conceding some of the more ornamental functionality. With that in mind, actually using the Lenovo Yoga C930 pen feels like writing with a pencil thats been put through the sharpener one too many times. It gets the job done, sure, but, I cant help but wish it was a little longer and perhaps a bit thicker to accommodate my adult-sized hands. Audio Bespeckled with a congregation of pinholes, the speaker-hinge might not be as sexy as the watchband hinge, however it also carries out more than one function. In addition to performing various rotary transformations for the Lenovo Yoga C930, the speaker-hinge is responsible for handling all of the notebooks onboard audio as well. That way, no matter how you spin (or flip) it, the sound comes through crystal clear independent of laptop orientation. In the past, 2-in-1 laptop speakers were prone to muffling in their alternative, non-laptop modes due to their stationary desk-facing placement. The speakers on the Lenovo Yoga C930 are sufficiently loud. Blaring Young Thugs High (feat. Elton John) in my medium-sized living room, my roommates and I had no trouble hearing the lucid warbling of the incorporated Rocket Man sample, entrancingly echoed by the piercing auto-tuned instrumentation of Young Thugs vocals. After introducing itself with a gentle but fleeting series of piano chords, the song erupts into a thunderous orchestration of drum beats, plainly reproduced by the laptops hinge-mounted tweeters. The Yoga C930 comes pre-installed with the Dolby Atmos Speaker System software for Windows 10. This allows you to jump to one of six profiles depending on the type of audio youre working with. Of these, the most compelling is the Dynamic profile, which scans the content youre consuming and, based on what youre watching/playing, tweaks the speakers approach to projecting sound. When I tried it, my music came through clean and sharp enough, though it sounded best when I enabled the Music profile. In a similar vein, dialogue that would normally be difficult to hear over an original film score was made clearer when I turned on the Voice profile. Upgradeability If you want to access the guts of the Lenovo Yoga C930, you first have to use a Torx T4 screwdriver to remove the bottom casing. Make it that far and youll be disappointed to realize that nothing except for the PCIe NVMe SSD is easily replaceable. Nevertheless, the ability to swap out the factory installed SSD for one of your own may prove useful if you run out of storage space and would rather avoid being tied down to an external hard drive. Battery Life The Lenovo Yoga C930 trailed the premium notebook average ever-so-slightly in its efforts to survive off the charger. On our battery life test, which peruses the internet, streams videos and renders WebGL graphics at 150 nits of brightness, it took 8 hours and 9 minutes for the Yoga C930 to run out of juice. In comparison, the average for the category is 8 hours and 16 minutes. So while the Asus ZenBook Flip 14 outlasted the Yoga C930, enduring 9 hours and 27 minutes of action off the cord, its safe to say that the battery life on Lenovos 2-in-1 laptop is more in line with the norm. Heat To test how hot the Lenovo Yoga C930 gets under pressure, we used it to stream 15 minutes of HD video. The results were about average. On the bottom of the machine, and in the area separating the G and H keys, we recorded the temperature as 95.5 degrees Fahrenheit (35.3 degrees Celsius). Meanwhile, the touchpad measured 81 degrees Fahrenheit (27.2 degrees Celsius). Webcam The 720p HD webcam on the Lenovo Yoga C930 is mediocre. In the ambiently lit studio where I do most of my writing, photos taken with the Microsoft Camera app are hazy and washed out. It obscured the minutiae of my face such as the stubble that materialized from my chin after Id gone a few days without shaving. I also couldnt make out the freckles you can see on my nose when youre standing in front of me at the same distance as the laptop camera. Important elements, like the color of my shirt and the transparency of my glasses, are more apparent. With the help of a slider located immediately above the webcam, you can open and close the TrueBlock Privacy Shutter that Lenovo includes with this laptop. Rather than taping over your webcam when youre paranoid about the feds watching your every move (or you just dont want to risk inadvertently joining a conference call while youre changing your clothes), you can flip this switch and retreat to your comfort zone, free from surveillance. Software and Warranty Aside from the bloatware packaged with most Windows 10 laptops, of which Candy Crush Saga, Hidden City: Hidden Object Adventure, and Minecraft are the primary culprits, the Lenovo Yoga C930 comes preloaded with its own batch of programs as well. To name a few, Microsoft Office 365, Lenovo Vantage, Dolby Atmos, and Dolby Vision are all in place from the get-go. Moreover, theres a 30-day McAfee LiveSafe trial on board that will, rest assured, badger you with pop-ups no matter how many times you express your disinterest. Like most notebooks in its class, the Lenovo Yoga C930 ships with a one year limited warranty. Configurations Endowed with an Intel Core i7-8550U processor, 12GB of RAM and a 256GB PCIe-NVMe SSD and a 1080p display, our $1,299 review unit is the most affordable of the lot. On the other side of the fence, at the top end, the $1,959 Yoga C930 nets you a premium array of specs. The screen resolution, for example, is bumped up to 4K while the RAM escalates to 16GB and the SSD capacity amounts to 1TB. Several other configurations exist in between this and the base model, including a Build Your Own option over on Lenovos site, with the major variables being the processor, RAM, display quality and SSD space. Bottom Line Contrary to what the company is attempting to do with the Lenovo Yoga Book C930, the Lenovo Yoga C930 isnt going to inspire any fundamental shifts in the design philosophy of the 2-in-1 laptop category at large. Rather, the Yoga C930 plays it safe with a modest number of refinements that are mostly for the better. I think what I like most about it is the speaker-hinge that, unlike the built-in sound systems of some other convertible laptops, outputs decent audio regardless of how the system is folded. And as much as I scrutinized it, the shrunken stylus, too, makes sense when you think about how it relieves the pen from sticking out like a sore thumb on the notebooks side. Despite showcasing nothing new in terms of performance, the Lenovo Yoga C930 is a competent, design-focused piece of hardware that emphasizes function without compromising on form. In almost every aspect, the Lenovo Yoga C930 is on par with its highly rated adversaries, the same-priced Asus ZenBook Flip 14 and the marginally more expensive HP Spectre x360, making this 2-in-1 laptop deserving of a look. Despite the fact that the display on the ZenBook Flip demonstrates higher brightness and a wider range of colors, Im partial to the Lenovo Yoga C930s more efficient design. Then again, the HP Spectre x360 totes the better pen, but I suppose thats the trade-off we make between getting a meatier stylus and having somewhere to put it. Among these choices, the Yoga C930 comes out on top. Photo Credit: Tom's Hardware MORE: Best Gaming Laptops MORE: Gaming Laptop Previews MORE: All Laptop Content That '$80 off groceries' Hy-Vee coupon circulating on social media is a scam The company said on Twitter Sunday that stores will not honor them Another reminder that social media is packed lies . . . From consumer the good life on borrowed money enjoyed by frenemies to those cringe-y lady self-esteem pronouncements to consumer discounts. Take a peek: Limbaugh, Hannity to join Trump to campaign for Hawley in Missouri Monday President Donald Trump will make a visit to southeast Missouri on Monday, the night before voters in the Show Me State go to the polls. Right or wrong, there's no denying the trend and/or what your Dad, Grandpa and Drunk Uncle have been telling you for the past three months. Take a look at today's political tour . . . Kansas City Helping Hand Cowtown Family Time Is It All Luck?!!?! Kansas City Chiefs Win 9th Coin Toss in a Row The Kansas City Chiefs have won nine coin tosses in a row - when will it end? Soot To Democracy Lime Teams Up With Vote.org And I am a voter. To Offer Free Election Day Rides Transportation to the polls is often a challenge on Election Day, so Lime is working with Vote.org and I am a voter. to do our part to help. Dramatic Local Tribute A Liberty Playwright Preserves The Legacy Of An Early 20th Century 'Renaissance Man' A poet and playwright is working to preserve the legacy of an iconic leader in the black community of Liberty, Missouri. The poet and playwright is Shelton Classic Kansas City Theater BWW Review: MADAMA BUTTERFLY at Lyric Opera Of Kansas City Lyric Opera's 'Madama Butterfly' as performed on the stage of the Muriel Kauffman Theater is extraordinary. Puccini's music remains transcendent even after one hundred fourteen years. Fear Kansas City Snowfall More rain on the way Monday morning Keep an eye on Thursday. We might see a few snowflakes. Evening hotness inspiration . . .Closer to home, these news links are worth a peek for our most dedicated denizens of the local discourse:And this is thefor right now . . . Unsettling Democracy Key Questions The 2018 Election Will Answer In one respect, this is a typical midterm election - a race shaped as a referendum on the president and the party in power. But there are so many ways in House Control Contest In Kansas Kevin Yoder fighting newcomer Sharice Davids to keep Kansas 3rd Congressional District seat Kevin Yoder fighting newcomer Sharice Davids to keep Kansas 3rd Congressional District in Republican hands. Yoder has held the seat since 2011, and the seat has... Rolling Toward Late Democracy Election day deals: free bus rides, Uber, Lyft, Shake Shack | The Kansas City Star RideKC buses will offer free fares for midterm elections on Tuesday, Nov. 6, to help voters get to the polls. Uber and Lyft will provide discounts. Shake Shack is offering free fries with "I voted" stickers. Kansas City Voting Fare Kansas City restaurants offering Election Day deals for voters Some businesses in Kansas City, Missouri, want to give people an extra incentive to vote Tuesday. Sexiest Vote In Kansas Democrats hope to flip Kansas 2nd Congressional District Democrats hope to flip Kansas' 2nd congressional district blue in a battle that will go a long way toward determining the balance of power in the House. Democra... Courthouse Questions What's on the long Jackson County ballot? We have simple answers KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Voters in Kansas City and other parts of Jackson County may see dozens of questions on their ballots Tuesday. Kansas City Star political reporter Dave Helling talks about what those issues mean, and why Missouri voters don't have early voting like Kansas. Celebrate The Spoiler Independent Greg Orman predicted to have big impact in Kansas governor race Even though he's polling less than 10 percent, Independent candidate Greg Orman will have a big impact in the Kansas Governor race. Micheal Mahoney breaks down... Operation Overview Vote 2018: What's on the ballot in Missouri & Kansas It's going to be a busy day at the polls for Tuesday's Election Day. This 2018 midterm election is drawing a lot of interest from voters and election workers expect large turnouts. Show-Me The Big Fight Fact-checking the Josh Hawley, Claire McCaskill Senate debate Missouri Senate candidates Josh Hawley and Claire McCaskill battled in a debate last week at KMBC, and we fact checked key moments from the debate. Golden Ghetto Democracy In Action Johnson County voters turn out on last day of early voting A rainy Monday didnt stop many voters in Johnson County from casting their ballots on the final day of early voting in Kansas. Another Weed Vote Toke Voter's Guide: Missouri to vote on three medical marijuana amendments Voter's Guide: Missouri to vote on three medical marijuana amendments No Easy Way Out How To Make Sense Of Exit Polls On Election Night Exit polls can be confusing and even misleading as the deluge of data pours in. There are smarter ways to know which numbers to look for - and which to be wary of - on election night 2018. The reality is that American elections are now nothing more than a festival of identity politics and the question of racial niche marketing could determine the fate candidates across the Heartland.However, there's no denying the ballot is kinda pale and not really very interesting to people of color in Kansas City. Caveat, I guess Sharice Davids could pass for Latina.And so, we offer further reading on the topic of minority voting and how NEARLY ALL POLITICOS pretty much exploit the racial divide for their won gain.Checkit:And this gives way to ancollection of Missouri and Kansas news items worth a look . . .You decide . . . As such, a stretch of the North Western Avenue was lined up with some strange traffic signs that read "No Right Turns 12 Midnight To 7 AM". The idea is that potential customers of awaiting streetwalkers would be deterred to turn right onto residential streets to do the deeds. Buying and selling sexual favors is a business as old as the world itself. That doesnt make it, however, an illegal affair. On the contrary. L.A. has been plagued with the problem of widespread prostitution for decades, and the status quo has remained the same up to the present day. Policing the matter is difficult due to the amount of people involved - at both ends - which is why lawmakers and police looked elsewhere for a potential patchy solution. Prostitution is illegal in the state of California, but that doesnt mean it isnt a common practice across the state. This may be more evident in Los Angeles than anywhere else, where police enforced a ban on right turns during the night hours to try to stop the surge of human trafficking. Traffic signs that aim to hamper prostitution - can they work? Historically, Los Angeles has been a town associated with anything but restraint. Its easy to see why with the Hollywood sign looking down at the sprawling city from the hillside. A part of this excess can be seen in the citys ongoing problem with prostitution and other forms of human trafficking. Police are, far and wide, overwhelmed by the problem so, on the North Western Avenue, a 5-mile-long stretch of road that ends just at the footsteps of the Hollywood Hills, a different approach has been tested. Considered a streetwalking hotspot, the North Western Avenue was used as the Guinea Pig for an idea that wasnt new: banning cars from making right turns off the main street and onto residential side streets. It's an idea that was tried before on Sunset Boulevard, another area where prostitution is rampant. As Kyle Cheromcha from The Drive puts it, "the citys proximity to the border makes it a major hub for human trafficking, the citys inexorable relationship with the car means most Johns have a means of conveyance, and even though its the most populous county in America, its endless street grid offers countless dark alleys and unwatched corners". The North-Western was the proving ground for this idea because its "where, in October, police made five separate arrests of men attempting to solicit a prostitute in a single night". Prostitution levels were almost as bad as in the 70s, so something had to be done It all first emerged after a call for help from Councilman Tom LaBonges office who, by 2011, was snowed in by countless complaints from the residents of L.A.s 4th district about the problem of prostitution. "It wasnt just that people out walking their dogs or taking their children to school early in the morning confronted a barrage of four-wheeled peep shows. The trash left behindused condoms, litter, needleshad a rotting effect on the neighborhood". LaBonge "turned to the Los Angeles Police Departments Olympic Division, whose vice squads were already working around the clock to keep up with a never-ending supply of workers, clients, and pimps," according to The Drive. The Division's Senior Lead Officer, Joseph Pelayo, who was working vice in the '90s when the ban on both left and right turns on Sunset Boulevard was enforced, came with the suggestion to try the same thing on the North Western Avenue. "The idea was to discourage people from picking up a prostitute and pulling into a residential neighborhood to transact business. Theres another layer here, too, according to Pelayo, who said the law gave police probable cause for a traffic stop since plenty of people at first ignored the signs," reports The Drive. Basically, with the signs in place, police can stop any car who makes a right turn onto a residential by-street at night, and this increases the chances of finding a client of the prostitution chains. "We used to stop cars all the time with the signs in Hollywood," said Pelayo. "The majority of the time it was residents, but now and again wed hit someone who picked up a prostitute and catch them in the act." According to the officer, the tactic worked on Sunset Boulevard, and it shows signs of working on North Western. The signs were put up six years ago by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, and the data backed the proposal up. The number of arrests - on prostitution charges alone - spiked up to 707 in 2012 alone, compared to just 401 in 2011 and merely 277 in 2010. Only last year did the number of arrests fell below the 2010 mark. "It should be noted," says the Drive, "that those figures dont definitively prove the overall efficacy of the signs, since the raw numbers dont indicate whether an illegal turn was involved in individual arrests, and the signs were just one part of a multi-prong policing approach." Pelayo himself admits that it isn't a solve-everything solution, merely a way to limit the effects and not attack the root cause of the problem. "Its worked, and it hasnt worked," says the officer. "Its worked in the sense that that activity went away for a bit, but its since come back somewhat. It also just goes elsewhereyou get strict in one area, and it goes a couple miles south". "Still, it used to be really bad." He went on to add that "it was so bad, you could just drive down the street and watch all the activity." In the end, streetwalkers still roam the streets of the city, especially in "under-policed areas like Compton and South Central" and the municipality isnt considering to expand the no-right-turns-at-night policy beyond the North Western Avenue. It is, then, a way for the law enforcement and bureaucrats to show that theyre still trying to address the problem but not in a real, meaningful way. Too little and, just maybe, too late. Source: The Drive Enhancing Competitiveness of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises for National Export Development Speech by Hon. Amelia Kyambadde, Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives I welcome you to this 9th Annual Sector Review Conference of the Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Sector under the theme; Enhancing Competitiveness of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises for National Export Development. The theme emphasizes the contribution of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) towards reducing the balance of payment deficit in Uganda. At this Conference; we will highlight the achievements of the Sector for the previous Financial Year 2017/18, the challenges in implementation of policies and programs in the Sector and the planned key interventions for FY 2019/20. Actionable resolutions to inform policy formulation and implementation are expected to be made at the end of this conference. Achievements of the Sector In the Financial Year under review, the sector received UGX 77.302 billion. The received funds enabled the undertaking of the following activities; Trade development Exports in the Financial Year of 2017/18 increased by 7.23%, to US$2,890.86 million from the previous Financial Year of US$2,696.00 million; as compared to imports that increased by 16.42%, to US$ 5,489.97 million from the previous Financial Year of US$4,715.51 million; in the same period. The individual countries with which Uganda had high trade deficits in 2017/18 were: China amounting to US$ 854.82 million (representing 32.89% of the deficit); India for US$ 596.96 million (22.97%); Saudi Arabia for US$384.07 million (14.78%); United Arab Emirates for US$277.74 million (10.69%) and Japan for US$247.83 million (9.54%), out of a total deficit of US$2,599.10 million in that year. Therefore, the above five countries were responsible for approximately 80% of Ugandas trade deficit. The COMESA trading bloc remained the main destination for Ugandas formal exports with the share in total export earnings of 51.32% (US$ 1,483.72 million) in 2017/18, showing an increase of 17.48% from US$1,262.94 million in 2016/17; of which Kenya and South Sudan constituted 63.34% (US$939.81 million) of the Uganda-COMESA export earnings. The EU market ranked the second main destination for Ugandas goods and services with 19.68% (US$568.96 million) of total formal exports in 2017/18, posting a 12.26% increase from 2016/17 value of US$ 506.83 million. The Middle East bloc followed accounting for 14.32% (US$414.06 million) of the total market share in 2017/18, as compared to 18.72% (US$504.71 million) the previous year; and of which United Arab Emirates contributed 92.37% (US$382.46 million) of the Uganda-Middle East exports in 2017/1018. Asia; Rest of Africa; Rest of Europe; The Americas, group categories followed in that respective order. For the first time in history, Uganda had a surplus/favorable balance of trade with Kenya in the Financial Year 2017/18 of US$122.78 million (exports of US$628.47 million against imports of US$505.70 million) and also registered a record highest trade balance in the EAC region of US$413.86 million (exports of US$1,220.63 million against imports of US$806.77 million), in the same period. That is credited to the good integration and multilateral efforts spearheaded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives in the region. However also deficit with Tanzania has increased in the recent years which is a policy concern. Overall, coffee remained the main merchandise foreign exchange earner of the country. In the recent period, its share to total formal exports slightly reduced from 18.19% in 2016/17 to 17.04% in 2017/18. It was followed by gold and gold compounds whose earnings highly increased in the recent periods, then fish & its products, among others. However, the countrys merchandise exports are still dominated by unprocessed and or primary products. The export to import ratio in the Financial Year 2017/18 was 52.66%! In other words, today Uganda is spending US$100 on imports when it has earned an income of only US$52.66 from exports. In that effect, the country is living on borrowings. It is vitally important to halt this escalation by making reduction of the trade deficit a top national priority and galvanizing all efforts by key MDAs to expand exports on a sustainable basis. The increase in imports would be desirable and sustainable if most of the imports were used as inputs/capital into the production process. However, most of our imports are consumables rather than industrial/production inputs. Ugandas imports have been mainly fuelled by; the construction boom (imported inputs such as cement, plumbing materials, interior decor and furnishings, etc.); exploration for and development of minerals notably oil and gas; and growing incomes that demand consumer and other investment goods that the local economy is unable to fully supply. The major formal imports were Machinery equipment, Vehicles & Accessories with an import bill of US$1,081.48 million in 2017/18 representing 23.02% of imported goods composition, which was an increase of 20.08% compared to 2016/17 import bill of US$900.61 million representing 22.83% of imported goods in that year; Petroleum products closely followed at US$911.04 million (19.39%) in 2017/18, for which it was an increase of 31.31% from US$693.80 million (17.59%) in 2016/17; followed by Chemical & Related Products; Vegetable Products, Animal, Beverages, Fats & Oil; Base Metals & their Products; among others in the respective order. The Asian Continent was the main origin of Ugandas imports throughout the period depicted below (2005/06 2017/18), but its market share in Ugandas import bill slightly declined by 6.14% from 45.01% in 2016/17 to 42.25% in 2017/18. China is the leading source of Ugandan imports from Asia in the Financial Year 2017/18, accounting for 38.31% of imports from the region. The import value from China was US$888.44 million (equivalent to 16.18% of Ugandas total imports) in the same year, which is an increase of 18.22% from US$751.53 million (35.41% of Asian import bill) in 2016/17. It was followed by India, which also contributed largely (equivalent to 11.66% of total imports) to the countrys import expenditures. Indias bill totaled to US$640.18 million (27.60% of Asian imports) in 2017/18 up from US$ 607.87 million (28.64% of Asian imports) paid in 2017/18, which was a 5.31% increase. Japan (US$262.75 million), Indonesia (US$175.15 million), followed in that order among others in 2017.18. Interventions to address the deficit The Sector is employing several strategies to ensure increased value of exports while reducing import values. These include: 1. Implementation of the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS) The Strategy was approved by Cabinet on 25/08/2017. The main objective of NEDS is to increase the value of Ugandas exports of the specified products and services to the targeted markets over the next five years. It intends to narrow the trade deficit as a percentage of total exports from the current annual average of negative 96% to at most negative 35% over the next five years. The NEDS also intends To increase the value of priority products exported to the negotiated preferential markets by an average of 25%, for the regional markets (EAC & COMESA) and 40% for the EU annually over the next five years Increase the value of priority products exported to the selected unilateral preferential markets (US, India and China) by an average of 40% annually over the next five years Increase the value of priority products exported to the selected non preferential markets (Singapore, UAE and Hong Kong) by an average of 35% annually over the next five years Provide a two-way communication mechanism between the productive sectors and export markets with a view to fostering export oriented investment and production 2. Restructuring of the Inter Institutional Trade Committee (IITC) Section 11 of the External Trade Act requires the Ministry to restructure the IITC in order to create a new and stronger framework for cooperation to strengthen consultation between the Ministry and the relevant stakeholders in the Trade Sector. The restructured committee will be given a new name the National Trade Sector Advisory Council (NTSAC).This council shall consist of five, carefully selected eminent persons from both public and private sector. Functions of the NTSAC Review and advice on key National Trade Policy implementation priorities, Operate as a national consultative body for developing the countrys negotiating positions for regional and multilateral trade arrangements, Provide guidance on the commissioning of studies and consultations relating to implementation of the National, Regional and international Trade Policy. The NTSAC shall advice on the other trade supporting aspects, which are critical in the growth and development of the trade sector. 3. Promotion of Trade in Services A National Policy on Services Trade was approved by Cabinet on 19/07/2017 which is aimed at boosting trade in services and cause a reduction in the trade deficit. Successful implementation of the policy is expected to contribute significantly towards incremental growth of export values by US$500 million, annually over the next five years. The growth is expected to be realized through the implementation of the policy in the following priority sectors: tourism, transport/distribution, education, business services, construction and related engineering services, insurance, among others. 4. Implementation of Buy Uganda Build Uganda Policy Impact of Implementing BUBU On July 12, 2017, Hima Cement signed an MoU with China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) to supply 120,000 tonnes of cement for three major projects: expansion of Entebbe Airport, MubendeKakumiro-Kagadi road project and Soroti-Moroto highway Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Project has apportioned USD 750 Million to local producers and manufacturers. Hima Cement will supply 830,000 tonnes of cement towards SGR and 3 steel companies (Steel & Tube, Madhvani and Roofings) which will supply 850,000 tonnes of steel. MTIC is to work with the project to ensure that other local companies form consortiums to take advantage of the offer Sinohydro Corporation Ltd which is undertaking the construction of Karuma Hydro Power Project is now procuring all cement and iron bars from local producers MDAs have commenced procuring office furniture from Uganda Prisons Picfare signed a contract with National Medical Stores to supply uniforms to all Government hospitals The Shoprite Supermarket launched a week-long sales promotion of local products. The campaign will run monthly 5. Strengthening Commercial Extension Services in the Local Governments The Ministry has continued to support District Commercial Officers (DCOs) through the Commercial Services Conditional Grantto facilitate commercial extension services at the Local Governments. In FY 2017/18, a total of UGX 2.3 billion was released as conditional non-wage grant to all districts and municipalities countrywide. The Ministry has continued to undertake trainings for DCOs to enhance their capacity to deliver commercial services. 6. Market Expansion through Regional and International Trade Agreements The COMESA trading bloc has been the main destination for Ugandas formal exports for the last decade, with the share in total export earnings increasing on average throughout the years from 26.58% in 2005/06 to 51.32% in 2017/18. Among the COMESA member states that contributed significantly to export earnings in 2017/18 were Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda and D.R. Congo accounting for US$628.47 million, US$311.34 million, US$197.44 million and US$196.87 million respectively (90% composition of Uganda-COMESA trade). Other Regional Trade Arrangements Uganda is a signatory to a number of trade and trade-related agreements through which market opportunities have been achieved; The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) On 21st March 2018, during the 10th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of AfCFTA in Kigali, Rwanda, Uganda signed the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area. The AfCFTA involves the 55 Member States of Africa, and the worlds largest free-trade area, by number of countries. It establishes a single market of 1.2 billion people, with a combined Gross Domestic Product $3.4 trillion. How Uganda stands to benefit from the AfCFTA It provides expanded markets for our growing economic operations; attracts cross-border investment; creates employment opportunities for our young populations domestically through expansion in production of goods and services that will be demanded by the expanded markets; improves the interstate infrastructure interconnectivity to enable us harness our productive capacities; and Enhances peace and security in the continent through engaging people in gainful economic activities. Within the CFTA, the regional markets of EAC and COMESA will remain Ugandas flagship market. Chairmanship of the Continental FTA negotiations During the 6th meeting of the African Union Ministers of Trade that took place in Dakar, Senegal from 3rd to 4th June 2018, Uganda was unanimously elected to chair the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Forum for African Ministers of Trade. Uganda is expected to champion the AfCFTA for a period of one year commencing in June 2018. The election is in recognition of Ugandas active participation in the Continental Free Trade Area negotiations that started in 2016 with the aim of creating an African single market. Obligation During this tenure, Uganda will lead the conclusion of the AfCFTA negotiations. The outstanding work relates to the following; Liberalization of trade in goods and services Opening negotiations on competition Investment and intellectual property rights Other Agreements East African Community Customs Union; The African, Caribbean and Pacific European Union (ACP/EU) Partnership Agreement (Cotonou Agreement); World Trade Organization (WTO); African Union (AU); Uganda is also a beneficiary of non-reciprocal unilateral trade preferences such as Everything-But-Arms (EBA) by the European Union; EAC-SADC-COMESA Tripartite Agreement; The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) of the United States and offers by Canada, Japan and China under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP); and The ongoing EAC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations among others. 7. Promotion of Cross Border Export Zones The informal cross-border export earnings in the Financial Year 2017/18 were estimated at US$595.51 million, representing 17.08% of Ugandas exports. The main informal commodities included beans, maize, sugar, other grains, bananas, fish, among others. DR Congo was the main informal partner of the country with total informal export trade amounting to US$291.48 million in 2017/18. It was followed by Kenya at US$149.94 million; Rwanda at US$54.41 million; South Sudan at US$54.17 million and Tanzania at US$ 45.52 million, in the same period. 8. Electronic Single Window System (ESWS) This is a trade facilitation initiative aimed at reducing the time it takes to clear goods. With support from the Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA) through TradeMark East Africa, we are working to rollout the system to the following MDAs; MoFA For clearance of diplomatic cargo and registration and certification of diplomats Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development For issuance of tax exemptions NITA (U) For single sign-on and fully integrated egovernments systems Atomic Energy Council of Uganda For licensing and certification services Posta (U) For postal services and clearances Chamber of Commerce For issuance of nonpreferential Rules of Origin certificates Uganda Registration Services Bureau For e-SW system integration with One Stop Shop UIA For e-SW system integration with the One Stop Centre system Ministry of water and Sanitation For licensing of timber and timber products (regulated product in the EAC) CAA For issuance of cargo manifest Department of Immigration For immigration clearances 9. The Trade Information Portal Government with support from TMEA is set to launch a one stop portal for export, import and transit information in Uganda, expected to be launched in 2018/19. It is an online platform where all the information regarding export, import and transit of goods, in Uganda will be availed to traders, government agencies and all interested parties. While the Electronic Single Window allows traders to clear their goods online, the Trade Information Portal will provide the traders with all the necessary information to enable them undertake the transaction on E-Single Window. The two platforms are therefore complementary. Establishing the trade information portal is provided for within the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation, which Uganda ratified and came into force on 22 February 2017. 10. Development of One Stop Border Posts(OSBPs) With Support from TradeMark East Africa, construction of three OSBPs was completed; these include; Mutukula OSBP with Tanzania, Busia OSBP with Kenya, and Mirama Hills OSBP with Rwanda. All the border posts are operating under one stop control which means that a transporter or travelling clears only once, on one side of the border. Construction of OSBPs coupled with other trade facilitation programs like customs modernisation has reduced the clearance time from 8 days in 2010 to 2 hours in 2018. Construction of Elegu border post with South Sudan is underway. 11. NTB Reporting System My Ministry has continued to implement a web based Non-Tariff Barrier Reporting System that has helped in easing and enabling the reporting and resolution of NTBs among trade facilitating institutions. This, in turn has reduced on the delays and costs of moving goods in and outside of Uganda across trading member states. 86% resolution of all NTBs reported through the system reducing movement of goods from Mombasa to Kampala from 21 days in 2011 to 4 days in 2018 To report by mobile phone, the user dials USSD Code *201# and follows instructions to select the appropriate NTB to report, and then submits a complaint. The system can be accessed using any type of telephone handset on any network registered in Uganda from anywhere in the world on roaming facility. Industrial development The growth rate of the industrial sector stood at 6.2% in the Financial Year 2017/18 compared to 3.4% registered in 2016/17; and the sector contributed 19.8% of GDP in 2017/18, which was a slight increase from 19.6% registered in 2016/17. Major industries: sugar, tea, Beverage, cement, steel, cotton textiles production Potential industries: Oil and gas, Iron & Steel, gold refining, fertilizer and leather. Manufacturing Composition In particular, Manufacturing alone contributed 8.2% to GDP with a growth rate of 4.4% in the Financial Year 2017/18, as opposed to 2.2% growth registered in 2016/17. The improved performance is on account of good performance in chemical & pharmaceutical products, drinks, sugar, cement, tobacco and iron & steel. However, there was also decline recorded in the manufacture of leather & foot wear, textile and garments in 2017/18. Manufacturing value added in the country increased by 2.15% in 2017 as compared to 0.59% registered in 2016; and was valued at US$2,170.94 million in 2017 as compared to US$2,125.28 million in 2016.Manufacturing value added is a key indicator in assessing the manufacturing intensity as it captures net output from the manufacturing sector after adding up all outputs and subtracting intermediate inputs. Manufactured Exports in Total Exports Ugandas share of manufactures exports in merchandise exports has been gradually increasing. In the periods of the NDP II (2015-2017), the ratio averaged 25%. According to the requirement of the National Development Plan, manufactured exports in total exports should be increased by 25% from 2015 to 2020. However, projections based on current growth show a figure of 26.26% by the end of 2020, which will be below the target of 31.45%, in the same period. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) The MSMEs Policy provides a regulatory and institutional framework for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises development activities with a theme Sustainable MSMEs for wealth creation and socio-economic transformation as aligned with the objectives of the National Development Plan II (2015/16 2019/20). MSMEs account for 95% of the business establishments in Uganda, with a majority (57%) of these operating in the Trading sector. They also account to 42% of the countrys total employment i.e. over 3.5 million people. Key planned activities for FY2019/20 The budget for the Financial Year 2019/20 stands at shillings UGX 103.66 billion and the Sector plans to undertake the following key activities for the Financial Year: Enhance value addition and industrialization to support job creation; To revitalize the Cooperative Movement by mobilizing collective resources through cooperatives; Continue to improve the Regulatory Framework for creating an enabling environment for Trade that enhances wealth creation; Ensure implementation of the National Development Export Strategy (NEDS) and; Continue undertaking Technical Guidance, Inspections & Compliance monitoring Field Visits aimed at enhancing implementation of Industrial Development Initiatives. Sector challenges The Ministry still has challenges largely due to budget constraints. Other challenges facing the sector are; Keynote address by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, at the Africa Trade Forum 2018 I am pleased to join The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, and Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, Honourable Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment of Nigeria, to warmly welcome you all to Lagos, Nigeria. We are pleased to have you here in Lagos, Nigerias vibrant and energetic commercial nerve centre and Africas sixth largest economy. As a metaphor for the purpose of our gathering, Lagos demonstrates that economies, cities and countries that are open, grow faster and prosper more than those that are closed. And Lagos is one such example, becoming very quickly, we are told, climbing up to the 5th largest economy in Africa. Permit me to speak briefly on The Value of a Rigorous Domestic Process of Stakeholder Engagement for Trade Agreement. It is well over 7 months since the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was signed in Kigali, Rwanda, on 21st March 2018. The AFCTA is probably the most significant Pan African trade agreement in this generation. Its impact on commerce will also arguably be, the most profound of any agreement we have yet agreed to on the continent. Since establishment, the pace of outreach to improve understanding, build capacity and sharpen expertise has accelerated. The Trade Negotiators have essentially done their job, although we now enter the more crucial business of negotiating the details of tariff offers and what to safeguard in the goods schedules and the specifics for the commitments for the trade and services schedules. In the meantime, it is time for policy-makers and stakeholders, with the support of regional institutions, across the continent, to do their own job. The objective now is to improve understanding of the stakes in play, the opportunities in the agreement, and to identify the concerns and challenges of stakeholders and how to address these. My principal focus, therefore, is to share with you the stage of the on-going internal process in Nigeria and the results of outreach, sensitization and consultations with stakeholders, because everybody has been asking: so, what is Nigeria doing? So, I think it might just be very helpful to fill in the gaps. The AfCFTA is now at the stage, in many senses for us, in a plural democracy like Nigeria, of a rigorous domestic consultative process and we are doing so. We are possibly the largest market in Africa today and most likely to benefit the most or lose the most from the implementation of the agreement. We have also learned in some cases the hard way, with past international agreements. Also, we have had to bear in mind the on-going changes, particularly on trade, in the global economy. Consequently, the purpose of Nigerias domestic process of sensitization and consultations has been to engage with stakeholders, systemically, robustly and constructively. We have sought to understand their concerns and, at the same time, to build capacity, broaden the basis of consensus, and, in partnership, identify elements for a plan of engagement. So, what have we done? What have we learned? What are the current state-of-play and envisaged next steps? In March this year, we initiated nation and sector-wide stakeholder sensitization, outreach and consultations. In this exercise, the government team, led by Honourable Minister Enelamah engaged with the Decision-Making, Economic Governance and Advisory Institutions, such as the Federal Executive Council, the Economic Management Team, the Nigerian Governors Forum, as you know, we are country with a Federal Government and 36 states. Each of these has a governor. We have consulted extensively with the governors forum, the Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council; the National AfCFTA Stakeholder Forum; Industry and Sectoral Groups, Chambers of Commerce, Micro- Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Academia, Think Tanks, Policy Institutes, Civil Society; and stakeholders in all the 6 geopolitical zones of Nigeria, including visits to border communities with historic trade corridors into Central, Northern and Eastern Africa. The last major grouping was done just a few days ago, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) on 31st October. Essentially, we have touched all major bases. In this 8-month long exercise, approximately 34 groups and associations were sensitized and consulted, 3,500 natural persons were engaged directly, 5 Communiques were adopted and signed in Nigerias 5 geopolitical zones with a Factual Summary issued in Lagos, codifying the substance of the consultations for the South West Geopolitical Zones. Twelve private sector groups submitted inputs, autonomously, conveying their group positions on the AfCFTA, in response to the nation-wide call for inputs. The process has been and remains serious, diligent, transparent and the subject of democratic scrutiny of evaluation and thorough assessment. I should also say that, although the key bases have been consulted, this process of engagement has acquired a constructive and healthy momentum. This is desirable. We consider that for such a signal development on the continent, like the AfCFTA, the process must and should be subject to a democratic engagement to avoid any blowback. There are lessons on this score from the contemporary global economy. Expectedly, the sensitization made evident diverse views and positions. While most stakeholders support AfCFTA, there are some stakeholders that are concerned, especially, about the impact of the AfCFTA. They take the view that caution should be exercised with thorough preparedness for any process of trade opening and integration. Stakeholders in support, point to the market opportunities for growth for Nigerian exporters of goods and services and for industrialization through the economies of scale in a single market. They identify the mechanism for resolving trade disputes and the various platforms for trade cooperation. There were many favourable references to the Sub-committee for Customs Cooperation, Trade Facilitation and Transit, to be established and would deal with cross-border trade infractions and injurious practices. Overall, there is virtual unanimity on the benefits of promoting intra-African trade for development, job creation, poverty reduction and modernization. Across the board, all stakeholders, both those in favour and those with qualified support, pointed to issues where the policy-makers in Government are required to act and act in coordination, regionally. These specific areas requiring intervention and complementary policy action include: Effective rules-based trade remedy safeguards to ensure that third parties to the AfCFTA shall be prevented from the abuse of origin rules to trans-ship and dump. And this is a very big issue, of course, with a lot of Nigerian businesses, the abuse of origin rules especially where this could lead to dumping. Third parties to trade agreements should not benefit from the trade preferences in agreements to which their governments are not party to. And this is an issue that came up consistently. Predictable, cost-effective power supply. These are more internal issues. Expanding affordable trade finance, including micro-credits and finance for Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Fostering an Enabling Environment for Business that eliminates: Multiple taxations by government and highway tolls, Internal checkpoints, Improvements in security. Investing in trade infrastructure (seaports, inland dry ports, road and railway networks). You must, of course, understand that many in the business community took the opportunity to give knocks on what they think the government was not doing adequately. So, you will see a lot of what is mentioned here, areas where many feel more needs to be done in order to strengthen local business for what they feel will be competition. Mainstreaming into the formal economy, the informal trade along historic trade corridors. This also is another issue that was considered quite important, of course, along the traditional trade corridors, there is already a lot of trade going on and many felt that should be mainstreamed with the formal economy even as we look at the implementation of the agreement. Empowering women in intra-African trade; Harmonizing the still divergent trade policies between and amongst African countries, starting with the trade practices within Regional Economic Communities (RECs). This is another issue that was emphasized. I believe that most African policy-makers would accept these feedbacks from Nigeria as having wider validity, especially as having some validity with their own economy as well. In response to the nation-wide stakeholder engagement last week, on 22nd October, President Buhari at a meeting with stakeholders, inaugurated and established the Presidential Committee on Impact and Readiness Assessment on the African Continental Free Trade Area. The Presidential Committee is now at work, in full steam. A final report will be sent up to Mr. President in 10 weeks. As a Government, we consider that structural reforms should address the legitimate concerns raised by stakeholders. And we think that this is ongoing anyway and should not necessarily be an obstacle to the implementation of the agreement. This should be reflected in the report of the Presidential Committee. As Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Management Team (EMT), I am pleased to read and hear that fellow African countries consider Nigerias domestic consultative process with Stakeholders as an applicable model. We engaged, constructively and robustly, with stakeholders, not only on the AfCFTA, but also on Trade Policy Writ Large. I believe that what emerged is illuminating. It holds lessons with precedential value. The feedback was simple and powerful. The central message was support for the AfCFTA, based on a clear definition of increasing intra-African trade. The core feedback is to prepare thoroughly and, inter alia, ensure that the preferences of the AfCFTA would neither be abused nor be enjoyed by third parties that were not part of the negotiations. The role of the AUC and UN-ECA is commendable indeed. Last week, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, AU Chairperson undertook a visit to Nigeria with positive results. The Chairpersons visit supported efforts at broadening consensus and deepening regional integration. In closing, let me say that the process of domestic consultations in Nigeria, although stabilized and on a positive momentum, is unfinished. At the inauguration of the Presidential Committee on AFCTA last week, President Buhari emphasized, while commending the AFCTA process, as worthy and commendable, he said that the agreements we negotiate should be properly understood by those that would implement them, and be accompanied with an implementation plan. As the President said, the AfCFTA is worthy and commendable. You have a full programme today and tomorrow. I am hopeful that the outcomes from this Africa Trade Forum will contribute to the process of sensitization and domestic consultations to broaden the base of consensus, not only in Nigeria but also in all countries of the African Union. I pay tribute to the co-organizers: the UN-ECA, the AUC, the Rockefeller Foundation, and to the Nigerian Team that has contributed to organizing this activity. Not least, I would like to acknowledge the presence of our own ECOWAS Commission. Nigeria is currently Chairing ECOWAS and I am aware of the efforts and contributions of the Commission, together with ECOWAS Senior Trade Officials. So, I wish you very robust and fruitful deliberations in the coming days. Thank you all very much. Writers delving into societal inequality and social unrest have taken top honors in the competitions for the 2018 North Carolina Book Award. The struggle of women and African Americans seeking opportunity and equality resonate through-out the winning works. Since its founding in September 1900, the N.C. Literary and Historical Association has pledged to stimulate the production of literature and to collect and preserve historical material in North Carolina. The 2018 North Carolina Book Awards uphold that tradition. The Ragan Old North State Award for Nonfiction goes to Jerry Gershenho... Road To Burma is a familiarization Trip to Myanmar by Exotic Journeys International Group (TRAVPR.COM) USA - November 4th, 2018 - On this 10-day familiarization trip to Myanmar with Exotic Journeys, travel agents and their companions will visit Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay, Amarapura, Mingun, Heho, Irrawaddy River and Inle Lake. The tour starts in Yangon on May 17, 2019 and end in Yangon on May 26, 2019. The travelers will have indepth guided sightseeing tours of Yangon including famous golden Shwedagon Pagoda, explore Bagans agodas and temples, local villages, a boat ride on the Irrawaddy River, time to explore the culture of Mandalay, a trip to see the Mingun Bell, which is the worlds largest functioning bronze bell, and spend a final few days at Inle Lake. The rate includes four-star hotel accommodations for nine nights, four domestic flights, airport transfers, daily breakfast and lunch, some dinners, sightseeing, guided services, private boat cruising, entrance fees and zone fees. The rate is US$ 890.00 per agent. Single Room Supplement is US$ 350.00 and the companion rate is US$ 1190.00. Contact Exotic Journeys at fams@exoticjourneys.com for day by day detailed itinerary. ### vermaajay1968@gmail.com Sushma Group recently held a conference in Hisar to apprise its residents of the current scenario in realty sector and benefits of investing with Sushma Group. The Group offers 12% guaranteed returns on all commercial projects - Sushma Infinium, Sushma Metropol and Sushma Pristine. Israel Tourism organises roadshow in Chandigarh Israel Ministry of Tourism recently organised a road show in Chandigarh to showcase Israel as an exciting travel destination. The team interacted with over 100 key travel and tour operators in the city. The number of tourists visiting Israel has jumped from 39,529 in 2015 to 48,800 in the first nine months of 2018. This year the number of Indian tourists has grown by around 22%, said Hassan Madah, Director, Israel Ministry of Tourism - India & Philippines. NHPC employees take pledge to eradicate corruption NHPC Ltd administered vigilance pledge during Vigilance awareness week which was observed from October 29 to November 3 at its regional office in Chandigarh. All staff members took the pledge to eradicate corruption and build a new India. Union Bank of India wins Vigilance Excellence Award Union Bank of India has been awarded Vigilance Excellence Award for outstanding performance in conducting vigilance awareness activities during the year 2017. The award was received by Raj Kiran Rai G, MD & CEO, and MVSN Murthy, Chief Vigilance Officer, from President Ram Nath Kovind at a function held in New Delhi recently. Dinesh Kumar Garg takes over as ED of Union Bank of India Dinesh Kumar Garg has assumed the charge as Executive Director of Union Bank of India. Prior to his elevation, he was General Manager at Bank of India, heading business process re-engineering and systems and management department of the bank. Mobile application with unique features launched A unique mobile application KNIGHTS SOTA was launched in Chandigarh recently. Originally planned for bank cash vans, it is now available for everyone. It will help users in case of an emergency, by sending exact location to the control room of the company, which will further tie up with the local police and ensure immediate action. Learning programme for chief executives of CPSEs SCOPE and School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Washington D.C., recently organised an advanced leadership programme on "Governance & Innovation for Chief Executives of CPSEs". The programme was addressed by Ved Prakash, Chairman, SCOPE, and CMD, MMTC, and Dr MB Athreya, management adviser. Guinness World Record for largest bhangra dance A Guinness World Record for largest 'bhangra' performance was created at Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, on the occasion of Punjab Day when 4,411 LPU students from Indian and abroad performed continuously on seven steps of bhangra, attired in traditional Punjabi dresses. VIT invites applications for B.Tech courses The Vellore institute of Technology has invited applications for admission to engineering first year course through an online test to be held for the academic year 2019-2020 in Vijayawada. Application forms are available at all post offices. The last date for receiving applications is February 28, 2019. HUDCO observes Vigilance Awareness Week Dr M Ravi Kanth, CMD, HUDCO, administered the integrity pledge to staff members to observe Vigilance Awareness Week. The theme of the week this year is Eradicate Corruption Build a New India. During the week, several activities will be organised to create awareness, promote probity in public life, and achieve a corruption-free society. BSNL (Punjab) bags first prize in energy conservation Punjab Minister of Power & New Renewable Energy Gurpreet Kangar presented the first prize to BSNL, Punjab, for excellence in energy conservation at a function held recently. On behalf of BSNL, JC Menaria, Chief General Manager, Punjab Circle, AK Shukla, Chief Engineer (Electrical), and Sunil Kumar, General Manager, Jalandhar, received the prize of Rs 50,000, a trophy and an appreciation letter from PEDA. NFL profit jumps 24% to Rs 178 crore in H1 of FY19 National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) has recorded a profit of Rs 178 crore in the first half (H1) of the current fiscal (2018-19), Rs 35 crore higher than the previous year. Total income from operations also showed a significant increase of 35% at Rs 5,405 crore. The company produced 18.83 lakh MT of urea during this period with a capacity utilisation of 117%. HDFC Bank opens branch at Chandigarh University, Mohali HDFC Bank has opened a branch at Chandigarh University campus in Mohali. It was inaugurated by Nirav Shah - Group Head , Emerging Corporate Group, HDFC Bank, in the presence of Satnam Singh Sandhu, Chancellor, Chandigarh University. Other senior HDFC Bank officials were also present. Lt Gen Surinder Singh opens new premises of SBI The newly built premises of SBI at Chandimandir HQ branch was inaugurated by Lt Gen Surinder Singh, GOC-in-C, Western Command, and Rana Ashustosh Kumar Singh, CGM, State Bank of India, Chandigarh Circle, on October 31. Besides providing normal banking facilities, the branch will also house a specialised facilitation centre. Headmasters Salon opens outlet in Panipat Headmasters Salon in association with Schwarzkopf Professional has opened its outlet in Panipat. Pammy Kaul, creative director, said, Our endeavour is to offer best hair-care experience to our customers in Panipat through this partnership. Midea Group of China to invest Rs 1,350 crore in Maharashtra Midea Group of China will invest Rs 1,350 crore over five years in a Technology Park at Supa Parner in Maharashtra. The foundation stone was laid by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently in the presence of Midea Group founder Xiangjian He and Chairman Paul Fang. The park will be set up at MIDC Industrial Park II, near Pune. Sivantos opens BestSound Centre in Chandigarh Sivantos India Pvt Limited has opened its BestSound Centre Balajee Hearing Solutions in Chandigarh. The centre was inaugurated by company's CEO Avinash Pawar in the presence of Dr K Rajalakshmi, Prof of Audiology, All India Institute of Speech & Hearing, Mysore. It provides complete quality hearing care solutions for hearing loss. Elante Mall launches Gift of Love initiative on Diwali Elante Mall, Chandigarh, has launched a unique Gift of Love initiative. If you want to make your family members and friends feel special, simply buy your surprise gift from the mall and keep it at the Unbox Love counter. After producing the bill, you can create your My Happiness Moment by delighting your loved ones with those gifts and posing with them for photographs. Elante will also reward you with a gift for your gesture. BSNLs service centres to remain open on Diwali To provide continuous service to its consumers on the auspicious occasion of Diwali, BSNL has announced that its all customer service centres across the country will remain open during the Diwali holidays for the convenience of customers. Suresh Prabhu inaugurates MMTCs Festival of Gold MMTCs 39th edition of Festival of Gold was inaugurated by Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Suresh Prabhu on November 1 at Hotel Ashok, New Delhi. On offer is the companys wide range of hallmarked gold and certified studded jewellery from different states of India, gold and silver medallions in guaranteed purity, Sanchi silverware and Govt. of Indias gold coin and bullion. vinaymishra188@gmail.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 5 The crime branch of the UT police has arrested a 27-year-old notorious vehicle thief, Harpreet Singh, alias Smarty, who has 42 cases against him, and his six accomplices. Thirteen vehicles eight cars and five two-wheelers have been recovered from them. A team, led by Inspector Amanjot Singh, in-charge of the crime branch, arrested Harpreet Singh, a resident of Zirakpur, Inderjit Singh, alias Ricky (27) a resident of Ropar, Virender Pal Singh (30), a resident of Karnal, Javed Akhtar (48) and Abdul Aziz (59), both residents of Meerut, and Dilawar (59) and Mohammad Asif (40), both residents of Delhi. DSP (Crime) Pawan Kumar said all suspects were involved in vehicle thefts in Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana. The accused used to steal vehicles and sell these to scrap dealers Javed Akhtar and Abdul Aziz, who used to affix fake chassis and engine numbers on the vehicles, which were further sold to gullible people, who were unaware that the vehicles were stolen. Virender, a bank employee, used to look for customers to sell the stolen vehicles, the DSP said. While Harpreet has 42 cases of vehicle thefts registered against him in Chandigarh and other states, Dilawar has 10 cases against him. All suspects have been sent to judicial custody. vinaymishra188@gmail.com Chandigarh, November 5 A youth was killed while four others were injured when the Toyota Innova they were travelling in skidded off the Khuda Lahora-Nayagaon road on the intervening night of November 4 and 5. All victims are aged between 18 and 21. The five youths were travelling in the SUV when an animal came in front of the vehicle. Gursewak, who was driving the SUV, lost control over the vehicle, which skidded and fell into a forest area. Diljosh Brar, a resident of Faridkot, received a head injury and was taken to the PGI, where doctors declared him brought dead. Diljosh was sitting on the rear seat. Those injured are Gursewak, Hardeep, Dilshaad and Mukul, all residents of Nawanshahr. They were taken to the GMSH, Sector 16 where Mukul was admitted and the others were discharged. TNS Shyam Saran Shyam Saran Former foreign secretary In a recent speech, Indias National Security Adviser stressed the importance of India becoming a hard State rather than remaining a soft State whose weakness could be exploited by adversaries without and enemies within. The Indian State is soft, not because it lacks instruments of power, but because it is not yet effective and well-governed. The frequent recourse to coercive instruments of State is a sign of weak governance. In a State which upholds the rule of law and enjoys both popular legitimacy and credibility, citizens can seek redress of their grievances through political and legal processes. It is when such channels are blocked and subverted that economic and social grievances accumulate and erupt into violent confrontation with the State. This is the genesis of Left wing extremism (LWE) in our country. While the State may use its coercive power and security forces to contain such violence and defeat anti-State elements, the threat will persist unless the State addresses underlying grievances. Treating LWE as only a law and order issue is an abdication of political responsibility. The armed forces of the State may help create phases of relative peace, but unless these are used to deal with the causes of deep discontent in sections of the population that have been relentlessly exploited, and even brutalised, violent extremism may revive in even more virulent form, requiring a new round of more intense State-led suppression. The country then gets locked into an escalating cycle of violence, the State becomes increasingly militarised and the enemies within multiply. The recurring use of coercive instruments of State is no longer a sign of authority but of weak governance the chief characteristic of a soft State. We have seen this happen in Kashmir where the situation continues to deteriorate even as more robust security measures are deployed. A State must earn the loyalty of its citizens; it cannot compel it. Another feature of the soft State is the selective use or absence of the use of coercive instruments and power of the State. It will enjoy credibility among its citizens only when it refrains from discriminating among citizens when enforcing the rule of law. If it is partisan in law enforcement, creating categories of we versus they among equal citizens, it will become weak, even if it has powerful instruments and agents of coercion in its security forces. Its discriminatory behaviour creates potential enemies within. This translates into the very vulnerabilities which external adversaries may then exploit. In a democratic polity like India, the State acts on behalf of the people and in accordance with the rule of law. This was rightly emphasised by the NSA in his remarks. But it is not only citizens who are subject to the rule of law, but also the State. If the State privileges itself over its citizens, if it considers citizens accountable to the State rather than itself being accountable to its citizens, we end up with an insecure State, for which every citizen may be a potential enemy within, conspiring with enemies without. In such a State the security imperative trumps the rights of citizens. A State fearful of its own citizens and armed with the most powerful instruments of coercion is, in fact, a weak State. It may also become a State dangerous to its own citizens. Most of Indias security challenges arise from poor and weak governance. One aspect of this may be seen in the opportunities for large illegal profits in the arbitrage economy we have created through the widespread and persistent use of subsidies and administered prices. Weak governance and lack of capacity means ineffective implementation and enforcement of such measures. Corruption then becomes endemic and the source of illegal flow of funds into politics. Corruption is the major security threat in any country because it risks compromising the law and order machinery and even the judicial system. A corrupt State is a soft State because it can be subverted relatively easily. The adoption of strong laws and the strengthening of the machinery of State only multiplies the opportunities for corruption rather than enhancing national security. It is well known that despite being heavily militarised and comprehensively fenced with layers of barbed wire, the India-Pakistan border is regularly breached by drug smugglers and dealers in contraband through the connivance of some elements of our border guarding forces, but also the involvement of influential political interests in the border states. It should come as no surprise that these smuggling channels also create opportunities for cross-border terrorist activities. While we must condemn Pakistan for indulging in state-sponsored terrorism, we need to acknowledge the governance failures on our side which enable such activities. The willingness to retaliate with military force when such cross-border terrorism takes place is laudable but cannot be regarded as a feature of a hard State if the infirmities on our own side remain unaddressed. Any State which has the monopoly of coercive power may mutate into a predatory State unless it is constrained by the rule of law and subject to strict accountability through strong and independent institutions. But most importantly, it is the free and politically aware citizen whose constant vigilance is critical to ensuring that the State which governs on his behalf is not only strong, but also accountable. It is by empowering its citizens that a State becomes strong not by enfeebling or dividing them. Naeem Akhtar Naeem Akhtar Former Minister, J&K The killing of two brothers, one of them a senior office-bearer of the state BJP, Anil Parihar, earlier this week is a chilling reminder of all that is going wrong in Jammu and Kashmir, which is witnessing a political cul de sac following the collapse of the elected government run by the PDP-BJP coalition. Not that the elected government had been able to deliver much that the unexpected and largely unpopular coalition had set forth to do, but those who had pulled it down in the hope of turning the situation around must be more worried with the extension of militancy once again to the Jammu province. Of all the regions and sub-regions of the diverse state, the erstwhile Doda district, now divided into three and popularly called the Chenab valley for its location around the largest river of the state, is communally the most sensitive because of the demographic spread of Hindus and Muslims, the latter only marginally more in numbers. Targeted killings And, Kishtwar has been in the news previously also for communal clashes that, in fact, resulted in the polarisation of Hindu votes ahead of the 2014 elections, resulting in stunning gains for the BJP, bagging four out of six seats in the Assembly from the Muslim-majority constituencies. The killing of Parihar, known to be a soft voice of the saffron party in the hilly areas, could, therefore, not be dismissed as an isolated incident of militancy. The Kishtwar murders come close on the earlier targeting of other mainstream political workers in the Kashmir valley. Last month, two prominent workers of the National Conference were gunned down in broad daylight in the heart of Srinagar. That was followed up with another target killing of a worker belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Though the uniformity in the targeting of political workers would from a distance look inconsequential, in fact, it is not so. Militant attacks outside the Kashmir Valley are more alarming than the daily bloodshed in the Valley which by the nature of it has been routinised both in perception and actual impact. One of the few achievements of the coalition government was the calm it had achieved on the communal front in the Jammu province with the Muslim minority, in spite of its anger against the BJP and apprehensions fed by such anti-Muslim incidents as lynchings in some parts of the country, beginning to feeling secure under the dispensation. Militancy romance spreading Since the fall of the government, there have been reports of youth joining militancy in the Chenab region. The Kishtwar incident only confirms these reports and it would mean a huge challenge for the Governors administration to address this development in the absence of a political mechanism. Though militancy in the regions outside Kashmir can apparently never assume the dimensions of that in the Valley, because of its impact on the communal front, the government has to find a solution, sooner than later. These areas had in the past been cleared of high levels of militancy, but that owed itself to a change in the overall atmosphere of the state post 2002 elections and the Indo-Pak thaw. For the past three years, there was a general impression based on intelligence reports and actual combat that militancy is confined to South Kashmir, and there also, mainly in the twin districts of Pulwama and Shopian. While that remains the main battlefield, there is a feeling that the trend of youth picking up guns is no more confined to any particular area. The number of incidents reported after the imposition of Governor's rule from north and central Kashmir is disconcerting. More worrying than that is the increasing size of funeral processions on the pattern of the South in other areas, where generally the security forces' writ runs more effectively owing to proximity to the LoC. It seems that the fatigue stage is quite distant as the militancy romance is spreading rather than reducing. Governor takes strong position Governor Satya Pal Malik has, amidst a number of daily observations, been consistently holding that his target is militancy and not the militant. Most people have treated that pronouncement as a breath of fresh air from someone who has been a member of the BJP and is now occupying the hot seat here on behalf of the Central Government, currently the sole arbiter of matters in the state. But does he have the necessary wherewithal to walk the talk? If he has, there is no evidence of it either in the discourse or on the ground. Killing militants remains the single-feature strategy to bring back peace to the battered state. The impact of undue focus on local bodies' election is yet to be seen, but it has already achieved loss of faith in the democratic process and institutions, which had been the single-most important achievement of the country post the Vajpayee initiative on the internal front. After the spurning of talks offer from Pakistan by the Central Government and Governor Malik's strong position that Pakistan has no role in the Kashmir resolution, a political freeze has descended upon the state to accompany the climatic chill, with the snowfall coming almost two months in advance. But even before the security forces could indicate the nature of the attack on the BJP leader in Kishtwar, the Governor announced that he was killed by Pakistan. Most people believe here that militancy in Kashmir cannot survive without support from across the border. Pakistan maintains assets in J&K. And that is the precise reason why there is no alternative to talking to that country. The other alternative is body-bags and keeping fine fighting units of our Army and paramilitary bogged down in a zero-sum war with own, but increasingly alienated, people. harinder@tribunemail.com Finally the US sanction against Iran has been enforced, which is expected to severely hit Tehrans oil exports, shipping and banking sectors. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dubbed it the toughest sanctions-ever against Iran by the US. Countries that will face the collateral damage are those with a civilisational relationship with Tehran. India is one among them as it is the second-biggest importer of Iranian crude after China. Iran reliably supplies more than one quarter of Indias total crude imports from the Gulf, with three distinct advantages excellent quality, substantial discount and extremely liberal payment terms. Credit goes to the diplomatic efforts of the Narendra Modi-led government, which has, for the time being, successfully averted a crisis. It has been negotiating with the US authorities since May 2018 when the Trump government walked out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran and decided to reimpose sanctions against the entities engaged with Iran, including countries importing Iranian crude. Earlier this month, the US relaxed the restrictions by allowing eight countries to import Iranian crude that included India. The exemption is, however, temporary and is reportedly expected to last till May 2019. Despite its provisional nature, the breather is crucial for the ruling BJP because any disruption in energy supply could have further spiked domestic petrol and diesel rates and spoiled its poll prospects ahead of the 2019 General Election. Fortunately, after touching astronomical height, global crude oil prices are showing signs of softening. The Indian currency has also perked up after the supply uncertainty waned. This situation could have been different had New Delhi buckled under American pressure and dumped its old allies such as Iran and Russia. The greater constructive engagement with China and PM Modis recent visit to Japan also created a conducive diplomatic environment for India, which is the third largest energy importer after the US and China, and one notch ahead of Japan. India must not succumb to US pressure as it only follows UN sanctions. editorial@tribune.com Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 5 Making it clear to the Haryana Government that childcare leave cannot be denied to a woman employee, the High Court has asked the state authorities to consider the feasibility of providing the same benefit to men employees also. The assertion by Justice Ritu Bahri of the High Court came on a petition filed against the State of Haryana and other respondents by Raminder Kaur through counsel Dhruv Gupta. Referring to the Haryana Government instructions issued on February 5, 2010, Gupta submitted that childcare leave for a maximum period of 730 days could be given to a woman employee. But the benefit, in the case in hand, was denied to the petitioner on the grounds that alternative arrangement could not be made on her place. After going through the documents and the arguments, Justice Bahri asserted that a perusal of the instructions showed that the benefit of the childcare leave could only be granted to women employees. Justice Bahri observed this was so because the government was of the view that it was the woman who has to look after the children. As such, the benefit was restricted to women employees only. If it is so, then this benefit cannot be denied to women employees. The government can consider giving childcare leave to father as well, Justice Bahri added, while issuing a notice of motion to the state and other respondents. Accepting the notice on behalf of the official respondents, Deputy Advocate General Palika Monga sought time to address arguments before the Bench on the issue. The case will come up for hearing in January next year. The Haryana Government rules make it clear that childcare leave is admissible to a woman government employee for a maximum period of two years or 730 days during her entire service for taking care of her surviving children. It is permissible only for the first two children of the government employee. Their age has to be below 18 years for the mother to avail the leave. The right is considered valuable because a woman employee gets full salary for the period of childcare leave. The HC has already made it clear that childcare leave has to be applied for in advance by a woman employee working with the Haryana Government. gspannu7@gmail.com Ravi S Singh Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 5 Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Ajay Singh Chautala on Monday struck a combative note against the leadership of the party saying that he and the cadres will fight back to protect the prestige of the workers. Addressing the INLD workers for the first time after eruption of turmoil in the party leading to expulsion of his two sons, Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Singh, he warned that no one will be allowed to have monopoly on the party. He addressed the workers immediately after being released from Tihar jail on parole. Although he did not name anyone, it was more than clear that his outbursts were directed against his brother Abhay Singh, Leader of the Opposition in Haryana Assembly, who is calling the shots in the party. He lauded his father and party patriarch Om Prakash Chautala and former Deputy Prime Minister, late Devi Lal, and pledged to abide by their ideologies. The party stood vertically split at the event today with about half a dozen sitting MLAs, a good number of former legislators, incumbent office-bearers ranging from state to district level attending it and expressing solidarity with the father-son duo (Ajay Singh and Dushyant). The workers will create a situation compelling Om Prakash Chautala to invite Dushyant to take over the reins of the party, Ajay Singh said Party kisi ki bapauddi nahi hai. (No one has birth right over the party). The party belongs to workers who have nourished it with toil and blood, he added, and cautioned Abhay and his acolytes in the party to be prepared for a backlash from workers if they did not desist from autocratic ways in INLDs affairs. He announced that he would visit all district headquarters to seek opinion of workers to chart out his course of action, and ways to save the party. It will commence form tomorrow from Jhajjar and conclude at Jind on November 17. He lauded Om Prakash Chautala and Devi Lal, and asked workers not to raise any question on the family or use offensive language against any leader. He was critical of Abhay and his supporters for accusing party leaders for being in league with the Congress. He stressed that no one has authority to dissolve INSO the student wing of the party as he had founded it. Speaking on the occasion, Dushyant praised Om Prakash Chautala and Devi Lal. He said he would abide by the decision of his father. Ajay Singh is serving jail term with his father in the JBT teachers recruitment scam. The party has been rocked on account of a feud for supremacy. It came to fore at the partys October 7 rally when supporters of Dushyant demanded his projection as chief ministerial face of the party. Abhay Singhs speech was disrupted. Om Prakash Chautala was present on the dais on the occasion. Subsequently, Dushyant and Digvijay were expelled from party. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Shimla, November 5 The Cabinet today gave approval for making amendments in the Himachal Pradesh Lease Rules, 2013 so as to simplify the cumbersome process and pave way for big investment by industrialists in the state. The decision was taken by Cabinet at its meeting held here under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. Following the Cabinet nod, now the amended rules will be notified for seeking objection or suggestions from the general public. The Cabinet also decided to hold the winter session of the Vidhan Sabha at Dharamsala from December 10 to 15 with a total of six sittings. In another decision, the Cabinet decided that HP State Higher Education Council would be constituted to bring improvement and quality in the higher education sector. The Cabinet gave approval for launching the Mukhya Mantri Nirog Yojna in the state to fulfill the dream of Healthy Himachal. This scheme will be applicable to all the permanent residents of all age groups and it aims at preventing long term illnesses by ensuring early diagnosis through basic health checkups. It was also decided to abolish and change the designation of Panchayat Sahayaks to Panchayat Secretaries (contract) and regularize them as per the government policy. They will be provided minimum pay of Rs 9,710 per month. It was also decided to fill 300 posts of Panchayat Secretaries on contract basis in the Gram Panchayats. The Cabinet gave nod to fill posts of various categories on contract basis through direct recruitment in Super Specialty Departments of Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Tanda, including 144 posts of nurses. The Cabinet also approved the policy for cadre building in newly opened medical colleges in the state. It also agreed to create four posts of Vice Chancellor, Registrar, Controller of Examinations and Finance Officer to make the HP University of Health Sciences functional at Ner Chowk in Mandi district besides procedure for filling of post of Vice Chancellor. A decision was also taken made to allot 72 flats constructed by HIMUDA under Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) at Hamirpur to Dr. Radhakrishanan Medical College, Hamirpur. The Cabinet gave nod to fill up 25 posts of Principal (College Cadre) through H.P. Public Service Commission on the basis of direct recruitment. The Cabinet also gave its approval that no permit or pass will be required for transport of ethanol and no excise duty or export and import fee will be levied on ethanol invoiced specifically for the Petroleum Companies for the purpose of blending into petrol and diesel. Other key decisions editorial@tribune.com PHILLAUR: The Phillaur police allegedly seized foreign currency worth Rs 46.43 lakh from Amit Ghumber (25), a resident of Amritsar, and arrested him on Sunday afternoon. The money was recovered from the car of the accused, near the Sutlej river bridge. Amrik Singh Chahal, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Phillaur, said the accused was nabbed at a checkpoint. He was coming from Delhi and was on his way to Amritsar. The police have informed the Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate in this regard, added the DSP. OC 5 injured in road mishap Phagwara: Five persons, including three women, sustained serious injuries when an auto rickshaw, in which they were travelling in, overturned on the Phagwara-Palahai Road on Sunday evening. The injured have been identified as Jarnail Singh, Balwant Kaur, Daani, Satya Devi and Kamlesh Kumari. The victims were admitted to different hospitals in Phagwara. The accident occurred when the driver lost control over the vehicle, while saving it from a speedy vehicle, the police said. OC Illicit liquor seized Jalandhar: The police seized 15 cartons of illicit liquor from Sukhjinder Singh, alias Sonu, at the Workshop Chowk checkpoint on Sunday night and arrested him.The police said he was carrying the liquor in his Scorpio vehicle (bearing registration No. PB09 C 4150). The liquor was supplied from Arunachal Pradesh. A case under Section 420 of the Excise Act has been registered against the Sukhjinder, the police said. TNS editorial@tribune.com Jammu: Confirming that militants were behind the Kishtwar killings, Governor Satya Pal Malik said the ultras involved in the killing of BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajeet Parihar had been identified and would be caught soon. He said the security agencies were on the right track. Malik said terrorists were pressurised to target prominent political personalities to offset the impact of the four-phase peaceful municipal elections in the state. Not even a bird was hurt in the polls and this caused immense frustration to Pakistan and its agents and they pressurised the terrorists to kill to spoil the peaceful environment. People involved in the Kishtwar incident have been identified and will be caught soon, he asserted. The assassination of the BJP leaders by terrorists, he suspected, was an attempt to sabotage the panchayat elections. But I am sure the panchayat polls will be held peacefully as the security forces are prepared to meet any challenge. Only the weather god should stay kind to us, he said, fearing that the unseasonal snowfall could cause disruption in the higher reaches. The Governor also said that stone-throwing incidents and recruitment in militancy in the Kashmir valley had come down drastically in the last three months. No major incident of stone-throwing has been reported in the last three months and there has been no militant recruitment except of one boy from the state. Malik also confirmed that the process of collecting the biometric data of Rohingya had been started and it would be completed in two months. TNS Amit Khajuria Tribune News Service Jammu, November 5 Confirming it was a militant act, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik on Monday said those involved in the killing of BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajeet Parihar at Kishtwar had been identified and will be nabbed soon. The Governor said security agencies were on the right track. In his interaction with the media on the opening day of the Durbar move here on Monday, the Governor said terrorists were pressurised to go in for the killing of prominent political personalities to offset the impact of the four-phased peaceful municipal elections in the state. No loss of life was reported in these polls even as there used to be a large number of killings in previous elections. He said this caused immense frustration to Pakistan and its agents allegedly pressurised the terrorists to kill to spoil the peaceful environment. People involved in the Kishtwar incident have been identified and will be caught soon, he asserted. The assassination of the BJP leaders by terrorists, he suspected, was an attempt to sabotage the panchayat polls. But I am sure the rural polls will be held peacefully as the security forces are prepared to meet any challenge. Only weather gods should stay kind to us, he said, fearing unseasonal snowfall could cause disruption in the higher reaches. The Governor said stone-pelting incidents and youths taking to militancy in the Kashmir Valley had come down drastically over the past three months. No major incident of stone pelting has been reported in last three months and except one boy, no militant recruitment had been done from the state," he added. editorial@tribune.com Suhail A Shah Anantnag, November 4 The family of one of the two militants killed in a gunfight in Shopian district late Saturday evening has said that he was a civilian and had nothing to do with militancy. The gunfight, which began around 7.20 pm, ended late in the night with the retrieval of two bodies from the site of the encounter. The slain were identified as Shahid Manzoor Mir, a resident of the Gagren area in Shopian district and Irfan Ahmed Bhat, a resident of Meemandar in Shopian district. On Sunday morning, as the bodies were handed over to the kin, the family of Mir maintained that he was not a militant and was killed in cold blood by the security forces. He was a contactor by profession and had nothing to do with the militancy or anything related to it, the family said. The police also have not called Mir a militant in their statement but have maintained that he was involved in militancy-related activities. Mir was a part of an FIR under Section 7/25 of the Arms Act in a militancy-related incident, a police statement read. The police are also investigating the presence of a militant hideout inside the house of the slain persons. Not being a militant does not make him an innocent man. There are questions that need to be investigated like why was there a hideout in the house, why were militants hiding in his house and why didnt he come out with other family members when a cordon and search operation was launched, a senior police official told The Tribune. He said the role of Mir needed to be probed and only after a thorough investigation his involvement or innocence could be established. Prima facie, he was found involved in militancy-related activates in the past and he had militants hiding in his house, the official said. The family and relatives of Mir, however, have rubbished the police statement. They alleged the police were trying to justify his killing with an FIR registered 14 years ago. ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth was overwhelmed as he saw cars, auto-rickshaws and bikes criss-crossed causing a traffic jam in front of his car here. He described it as a beautiful chaos. Hemsworth, who famously plays Thor, is in India to shoot Netflix film Dhaka. A latest Instagram story shared by him on Sunday night shows him panning the camera to the outside scene from the backseat of his car. Beautiful chaos, he wrote along with the first Story in which he is also heard imitating the cacophony of the horns by saying: Beep beep. In another video captioned Traffic is flowing, he says, Its a good system this one... Here we are in the intersection, and no one is really moving, except our car going on the wrong side of the road... What is happening? Oh, the tuk tuks are out... The horns are on. Hemsworth flew into India last week. He started shooting for Dhaka on November 3, and shared some glimpses from on and off the sets with his Instagram followers. IANS ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Anupam Kher, who was recently in New York to shoot for the TV series New Amsterdam, has been honoured with a title by Bostons prestigious Cambridge MIT Sloan School of Management. The actor was conferred with a Distinguished Fellow title. Kher shared a picture of him with the certificate and wrote, Thank you India Global at Cambridge MIT Sloan School... This honour gives me a further sense of responsibility towards my country. A lower middle class Kashmiri boy from Shimla has come a long way. The veteran actor recently resigned from the post of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) chief. He will be soon seen in Accidental Prime Ministe. Satish K Sharma Satish K Sharma The 250 sq-ft courtyard of my ancestors stone-and-mortar house at our village in Rajasthan was simply known as chowk. It was central to the life of my grandfathers joint family. It had a roof with a 6x 6 parapet-less opening to the sky. Events like marital rites, pujas, kathas and baithaks (sittings) were held there. Sometimes, it would also become a Kurukshetra for bitter verbal duels between brothers (my uncles). And then, when the tempers had cooled, the scene would change to Ram-Bharat milan the same brothers would shed tears of contrition on each others shoulder. I enjoyed all the drama with awe and excitement as a child. Chowk was also the place to break news, for the soundwaves of anything announced there travelled easily to all nooks and crannies of the house, especially the upper quarters, where women and children spent most of their time. It was at the chowk that the beedi-smoking family midwife had announced the dozen or so childbirths of two generations in the family. And, it was from there that I first heard of death of a widowed old aunt announced by my grandfather with resignation. One hot June evening of 1964, an uncle returned from a trip to a nearby town and announced from the chowk, Lal Bahadur Shastri is Indias new Prime Minister. Lal Bahadur who? came a voice from the upper quarters. The poser echoed the surprise of the common Indians for whom the pantheon of Indian leaders, then, began with Gandhi and ended at Nehru. Then, one day during the 1965 Indo-Pak war, a telegram read aloud at the chowk broke the shattering news that my second uncle, a soldier, had gone missing-in-action. It drew a plaintive wail from my grandmother. A week of anxiety followed in which she left no Gods un-petitioned to save her son. Finally, the Gods relented and the uncle was traced in one piece. After the war, he came home on leave. Stepping into the chowk, he announced, Ma, I have returned. Children in the upper quarters rushed to the opening in the chowk roof to look at the war hero below. In the melee, a cousin all of three lost her balance and fell through the opening. Fortunately, my uncle who was standing right below caught her in his arms. Well, the family had survived two mishaps in quick succession. A thanksgiving feast to the village deity was, therefore, called for and duly offered. However, not before Dadi had a grill of steel bars installed over the gap in the roof. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Lucknow, November 5 Four gang men working on a railway line were killed when the Kolkata-Amritsar Akal Takht Express ran them over between Sandila and Umartali stations in Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh today. Those killed were identified as Kaushal (30), Rajesh (32), Ram Swarup (59) and Rajendra (28). Attached to number six Gang Engineering Department, they were working on repairing both Up and Down tracks. Angry relatives of the deceased placed the bodies near the track and demanded that senior railway officials should meet them before the bodies were sent for the post-mortem. The Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM) from Moradabad Division had reached the spot after the accident. According to Sandila circle officer Nagesh Kumar Mishra, prima facie it appears to be the fault of the Railways as the required caution was not maintained as mandated during such repairs. Railways permanent way inspector (PWI) in charge did not take the required precaution of informing the railway station or putting up red flags to alert drivers of approaching trains. A huge cutter machine was also being used that made a lot of noise. When trains came on both Up and Down tracks, the gang men could not hear anything were crushed under the train, said CO Sandila. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the deceased. The Railways announced another Rs 25 lakh each to the families. uttara@tribuneindia.com Jitendra K Srivastava Tribune News Service Patna, November 5 Bihar Government has dismissed 175 police constables for vandalism and large-scale violence at Patna Police Line three days ago over the death of a woman constable. Some 167 of those dismissed were new recruits. The development came after an inquiry into the protests by Inspector General of Police (Patna Zone) NH Khan concluded that the constables had gone on a rampage and even assaulted senior police officers. Patna IG Khan said: A detailed probe of the incident we found these constables involved in violence. Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaj has been asked to dismiss them from service. Besides, some 23 other policemen stand suspended, and 93 have been transferred out of Patna. A mob of over 400 police constables allegedly ransacked vandalised official residences of senior police officers and 20 police vehicles and even beat some senior police officers on Friday over the death of a woman constable from dengue in October. The woman constable is believed to have been refused sick leave. harinder@tribunemail.com Sarika Sharma Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 5 Two brothers, both from India, won top war honours for warring sides during World War I. Mir Dast won the Victoria Cross, the top British honour, while Mir Mast, who deserted the British Indian army, crossed over to the German lines and went on a jihadi mission to Kabul, won the Iron Cross, one of Germanys highest gallantry awards. In his new book India, Empire, and First World War Culture, historian and professor of English at Kings College, London, Santanu Das details the story of Mir Mast, whose trench notes he chanced upon at the National Archives in Delhi during his research in 2006. Das writes that on the rainy night of March 2-3, 1915, Jemadar Mir Mast, serving in the 58th Vaughans Rifles (Bareilly Brigade) at Neuve Chapelle, deserted his camp and quietly crossed over to the German side with a group of fellow Pathans. He became part of a Turko-German jihadi mission and travelled via Constantinople to Kabul. There, he trained fellow deserters and tried to foment an anti-colonial uprising. Anglo-Indian myth has it that the German emperor, Wilhelm II, decorated him with the Iron Cross. What makes his story curious is the fact that his brother, Mir Dast, was awarded a Victoria Cross for his bravery in the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. Along with Mir Masts tatty notebook, Das found a hand-drawn trench map. He says there is a possibility that Mir Mast used it to navigate his way to the German trenches. For anyone working on India and the First World War, Mir Mast is a remarkable if shadowy figure, says Das. What makes Mir Masts story striking is its contrast with that of his brothers. Subedar Mir Dast of 55th Cokes Rifles (Frontier Force) won the Victoria Cross at Ypres when attached to and fighting with 57th Wildes Rifles (Frontier Force). His citation reads: For his most conspicuous bravery and great ability at Ypres on April 26, 1915 when he led his platoon with great gallantry during the attack, and afterwards collected various parties of the regiment (when no British officers were left) and kept them under his command until the retirement was ordered. Jemadar Mir Dast subsequently on this day displayed remarkable courage in helping to carry eight British and Indian officers into safety, whilst exposed to very heavy fire. Mir Dast was wounded and sent for treatment to Brighton Pavilion hospital. George V presented him with his Victoria Cross in the grounds of the pavilion. He died in 1945 in Peshawar. Interestingly, while Mir Dast is even today celebrated in Pakistan for his contribution, Mir Mast remains largely forgotten. amansharma@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 5 The Centre's 'advice' to the media against the use of the word 'Dalit' has been challenged in the Supreme Court which is likely to take it up after Diwali vacation. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had on August 7 issued a circular 'advising' the media to refrain from using the word "Dalit" while referring to those belonging to Scheduled Castes. It had directed that the Constitutional term 'Scheduled Caste' in English, and its translation in other national languages should alone be used for all official transaction, matters, dealings, certificates etc. for denoting the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes. But the petition termed it an arbitrary, irrational, unreasonable, discriminatory decision which went against fundamental rights to equality (Article 14), non-discrimination (Article 15), various freedoms (Article 19) and life and liberty (Article 21) guaranteed under the Constitution. The word 'Dalit' is a self-chosen name, a "positive self-identifier and as a political identity", to describe the pan-Indian community of all those who have been affected by the caste system and the practice of untouchability for several centuries and thus deprived of social, economic, political and cultural rights, said the petition filed through advocate Advocate Sriram P. The embracing of the word 'Dalit', by the community, with all its rich history and context, was also an explicit rejection of the identities imposed by Caste Hindus and outsiders upon Dalits, and the accompanying imposition of hegemonic caste structure upon them, the petition contended. The 'Dalit' identity helped diverse communities of notified scheduled castes across India to unite under a common banner and associate, mobilize and gather consensus on the various common issues that need redress, it argued. Asking private TV channels not to use the term 'Dalit' and thus ensuring its removal from public consciousness, created a chilling effect on the use of the term by individuals for their self-determination, identity formation, personal autonomy and self-expression, the petition contended. The circular was issued following a June 6 order of the Bombay High Court on a PIL seeking direction to the Centre, state government and media houses restraining them from using the word 'Dalit' as it was derogatory against persons/communities so identified. But the petition contended that the "Dalit" identity was a hard won identity chosen by the community for itself. The Community identified with the word 'Dalit', pride for the history of the Community's past and ongoing struggle against the caste system and its various evils; with continued and relentless activism against oppression, discrimination and untouchability; and with the continued quest for full and equal citizenship as contemplated under the Constitution, it submitted. Earlier, the said circular was challenged before the Delhi High Court by the National Dalit Movement for Justice's (NDMJ) but the high court had said it needed to be challenged before the Supreme Court. editorial@tribune.com Vibha Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 5 As a tigress gets beaten to death by angry villagers in UPs Dudhwa Tiger Reserve area after she mauled a man just days after the controversial killing (ghastly murder as Union Minister Maneka Gandhi put it) of Avni in Maharashtra, a recent official report on the killing of another young tigress in Uttarakhand in May shows how the big cats were falling prey to revenge killings. Conservator of Forests (Research) Sanjeev Chaturvedi, who probed the death of this two-year-old tigress found dead in Shaympur village (Haridwar) adjoining Rajaji Tiger Reserve in May, called it a case of retaliation, revenge, for the livestock lost by villagers. While man-animal conflict appears to be the main reason behind the killing, there seems to be another problem. Apparently not getting timely compensated for the livestock lost in such attacks is prompting villagers to take the matters into their own hands. And this despite clear rules on compensation and rewards in case of loss of livestock. From June 2017 to January 2018, 17 cases of domesticated animals being preyed upon were reported, says the report an analysis of circumstances that led to the revenge killing of this tigress. Ruling out infighting or poaching as the cause of the death, largely because all her body parts were found intact, Chaturvedi says it is also unlikely the tigress killed buffaloes because she was still young and did not have the capacity to kill big animals. According to the postmortem report, she had suffered a fracture on skull due to trauma from a blunt instrument, had wounds on neck and front limbs, a deep puncture wound below the left ear and other bruises. However, her skin, claws and teeth were intact. The report says she was either hunted or killed in a man-animal conflict. Rahul vs Vardhan A day after the killing of Avni, a political war broke out between Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and Environment and Forest Minister Harsh Vardhan. Vardhan said the government did not need a certificate from him. Gandhi had tweeted: The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi #Avni. amansharma@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 4 A 1990-batch IFS officer, Gaddam Dharmendra, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Islamic Republic of Iran. He is presently Additional Secretary at MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) Headquarters in charge of Public Policy and Research division and will replace current envoy to Tehran Ambassador Saurabh Kumar. He previously served as Consul General in Hong Kong and Ambassador to Zambia. Dharmendra is expected to take up the assignment shortly at a time when India is under immense pressure from the United States to reduce oil imports from Iran to zero not withstanding a temporary waiver from the Trump administration to eight nations towards oil trade. Iran is the third largest supplier of crude oil to India after Iraq and Saudi. India and Iran are also closely engaged in the Chabahar Port project which provides alternate access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. editorial@tribune.com Aizawl, November 5 Mizoram Assembly Speaker Hiphei on Monday resigned from his post, the House as well as the Congress, and joined the BJP, saying its central leadership has promised to enhance powers of the state's autonomous district councils. "Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has promised amendment to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to enable greater autonomy to the autonomous district councils in Mizoram," he told the media here. Hiphei said Singh had also assured him of a provision for direct funding to these councils without routing funds through the state government. "The BJP and its coalition partners will form the government in Mizoram, " he said. Hiphei is the fifth Congress MLA in Mizoram, the only state in the northeast under the party's rule, to resign from the House since September. On Monday morning, the seven-time former Congress legislator said he had submitted his resignation letter to Deputy Speaker R Lalrinawma, who had accepted it. He then went to Congress Bhavan and resigned from primary membership. Hiphei said he fell out of favour of the CM and Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committe (MPCC) chief Lal Thanhawla as he was kept in an "uncertain situation" even after the AICC had announced his candidature for the Palak seat, his home turf, in Siaha district. He said he would now fight from Palak on the BJP ticket. In Guwahati, convener of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "He (Hiphei) is a very senior leader. His joining the saffron party will greatly strengthen the organisation." Hiphei has won the state elections six times between 1972 and 1989 from Tuipang. PTI editorial@tribune.com Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 5 Prime Minister Narendra Modis home state Gujarat is leading the beneficiary charts under the month-old Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (PMJAY) that provides financial health protection up to Rs 5 lakh to each poor family that seeks hospitalisation in any empanelled facility. All 10.74 crore families listed in the Centres socio economic caste census are beneficiaries under the ambitious programme. The PMJAY data reviewed by The Tribune reveals the following are the top six states when it comes to beneficiaries admitted to hospitals Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Assam and West Bengal. The most-sought-after procedure is ophthalmology in the single-specialty segment and general medicine and general surgery in the category of multiple specialties. Dinesh Arora, Deputy CEO of the Ayushman Bharat Mission which is monitoring the scheme progress, said, General surgery is the most used so far. In this segment, people are being admitted to empanelled hospitals for hernia, appendicitis and trauma care. In the single-specialty section, eye procedures are topping the charts. The other three most-sought procedures are orthopaedics, obstetrics and gynecology and cardiac operations. Thats not to say other surgeries are not taking place, but the ones mentioned are the most performed under the scheme so far. monicakchauhan@gmail.com Sabarimala(Ker), November 5 As the Lord Ayyappa temple opens on Monday for a special puja, a thick security cover has been put in place after violent protests were witnessed last month against entry of women of all ages into the shrine. Orders banning assembly of four or more people have been imposed in Sabarimala and nearby areas, said police. Around 2,300 personnel, including a 20-member commando team and 100 women, have been deployed to ensure smooth 'darshan' and security of devotees, a move that came in for criticism from the erstwhile royal family of Pandalam, the BJP and the Congress for such fortification. If necessary, around 30 women police personnel in the rank of circle inspector and sub inspector and above the age of 50 would be deployed at 'Sannidhanam' (temple complex) for security, they said. Pathnamthitta Superintendent of Police T Narayanan said all arrangements have been made for devotees to have smooth 'darshan.' Ayyappa devotees from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have already reached Erumeli and they will be permitted to go to 'sannidhanam' only on Monday Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPc, banning assembly of four or more people, is in force at Pamba, Nilackal, Elavungal, and Sannidhanam for 72 hours from midnight Saturday. This is the second time the hill temple would open for 'darshan' after the Supreme Court allowed entry of women of all age groups into it. The temple had witnessed high drama last month following frenzied protests leading to around a dozen women in the age group of 10-50 being prevented from reaching it and police and the agitators fighting a pitched battle over the LDF government's decision to implement the court order. The shrine would open at 5 pm on Monday for the "Sree Chitira Atta Thirunal" special puja slated for the next day, marking the birthday of last king of Travancore Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, and close at 10 pm on that day. Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru and chief priest Unnikrishnan Namboodiri would jointly open the temple doors and light the lamp at the 'Sreekovil' (sanctum sanctorum). Devaswom minister, Kadakampally Surendran, said the government would ensure complete protection to believers. So far no women in the 'barred' age group had approached police for protection to offer prayers at the hill shrine, he said. A high-level meeting of senior police officers was held to take stock of the situation. During last month's pujas, media persons were attacked by a section of protesters and police had to face criticism. Dismissing reports that media was being restrained from going to Sabarimala, Kerala Director General of Police Loknath Behara said there was no bar on entry of journalists. No restriction of any sort has been imposed on media persons, he said. "To ensure necessary protection to the media, we are not allowing them now. As soon as security arrangements are complete, media will be allowed in Sabarimala and nearby places." The Pandalam royal family, closely associated with the Ayyappa shrine, said it was "pained" at the heavy security in and around Sabarimala. "Saddened that devotees will have to offer prayers at the shrine amid thick police cover," it said. Protesting the apex court verdict, a 'prayer yagna' will be held, the family said. Meanwhile, the Sabarimala Karma Samiti, a platform of right-wing outfits, including VHP, appealed to media houses not to depute women journalists in the menstrual age group to cover the developments in Sabarimala. In its letter to editors, a copy of which was released to the media, it said even the entry of women journalists belonging to this age group as part of their job was also likely to aggravate the situation. The samiti alleged that even though the Supreme Court has decided to hear the review and writ petitions on the issue on November 13, the state government was intentionally ignoring the "mass movement" against the judgement and was trying to "hastily" enforce it using police force. "In such a situation, the devotees are left with no other choice but to continue with the peaceful agitation," it said. Objecting to the samithi's appeal, the Network of Women in Media, India said it was 'unjustified' and 'unacceptable interference' in the functioning of the media and an 'unfair obstacle' in the way of journalists who happen to be women wishing to cover an important story of public interest. "We believe that the Samithi's stand amounts to depriving women journalists of their right to respond to the call of professional duty and responsiblity. It also goes against the freedom of expression and right to information that are fundamental rights to which all citizens are entitled," it said. Meanwhile, activist Rahul Easwar, president of Ayyappa Dharma Sena that is among the outfits spearheading the protests, in a video message said, "Like police, we are also fully prepared". Easwar, belonging to the Thazhamon family of Sabarimala thantris, was arrested twice last month in connection with the protests in and and around Sabarimala against the government's decision to implement the court verdict and also for making certain remarks. He is out on bail. Noting that the situation in Sabarimala was "explosive," Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Mullapally Ramachandran accused the CPI(M)-led LDF government of 'failing' to handle it. So far, 3,731 people have been arrested and 545 cases registered in connection with last month's violence. BJP and various Hindu outfits are on a warpath against the Left-front government over its decision not to seek a review of the top court verdict. PTI gspannu7@gmail.com New Delhi, November 5 South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-sook met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday as they discussed ways to promote people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. Kim is visiting India at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi and she will be the chief guest at the Deepotsav event being organised by the Uttar Pradesh Government and the ground-breaking ceremony of the new memorial of queen Suriratna (Heo Hwang-ok) in Ayodhya on Tuesday. In their meeting on Monday, Modi and Kim discussed the deep civilisational and spiritual links between India and Korea, and exchanged views on promoting people-to-people exchanges, a statement from the Prime Ministers Office said. She also congratulated the prime minister on being awarded the Seoul Peace Prize. The prime minister said this honour truly belongs to the people of India. Modi also warmly recalled the successful visit of President Moon Jae-in to India in July 2018, which imparted fresh momentum to India-Korea Special Strategic Partnership. Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had called on Kim. The Korean first lady also interacted with school students here on Monday, the first of her official engagements during her India visit. Kim arrived here Sunday on a four-day visit. Affectionate bonding. EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on the First Lady of the Republic of Korea, Mrs Kim Jung-sook. India and ROK (Republic of Korea) share a special strategic partnership since 2015 and our relations have deepened and diversified in recent years, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. After her meeting with Swaraj, the first lady visited the ASN Senior Secondary school in east Delhi where she interacted with students. The school has a tie up with South Koreas Jeonnam (Chonnam) Foreign Language High School since 2015 and the institutes have an exchange programme for their students and teachers. Addressing a group of students, Kim urged them to study hard and help in the growth of their nations. The future generation will help in further cementing the Indo-Korean ties, she said. With the political leadership in India and Korea working to strengthen ties, the students will get more opportunities to visit each others countries, she said. The Korean first lady will visit Lucknow and from there, on Tuesday, she will leave for Ayodhya where she will attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the Queen Suriratna memorial. The First Ladys participation in the festivities in Ayodhya will showcase our close civilisational links as well as the ongoing deepening engagement between our two countries, the MEA had said last week. According to Korean legends, Princess Suriratna from Ayodhya had travelled to Korea and married King Kim Suro and became Queen Heo Hwang-ok some 2000 years ago. The South Korean First Lady will also attend the Deepotsav event in the evening on Tuesday. Kim will leave for Agra on Wednesday for a visit to the Taj Mahal before heading home. PTI amansharma@tribunemail.com London, November 5 The UK government on Monday announced a relaxation of recruitment criteria to allow Commonwealth nationals to apply for jobs in its armed forces to meet a shortage in its ranks, a move that could also benefit Indians. The decision announced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) means that people from Commonwealth countries -- including India, Australia, Kenya, Fiji and Sri Lanka -- will be considered for roles, even if they have never lived in Britain. The Commonwealth is an association of 53 independent states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire. The MoD laid out the proposals in a written ministerial statement (WMS) before Parliament, which involves a waiver of the current requirement of a minimum of five-year residency in the UK for applying to join the country's Army, Navy or Air Force. This would open up the forces to recruits who have been based in countries like India, Australia, Canada and Kenya and meet the necessary recruitment criteria for the service and role they wish to join. "We have now decided to remove the five-year UK residency criterion for Commonwealth citizens and increase recruitment to 1,350 across the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force (RAF), the MoD statement reads. "Applications will be accepted from all Commonwealth countries, although in order to mitigate the risks associated with unaccompanied minors travelling to the UK without the guarantee of a job, we will not be accepting applications from those under 18," the statement adds. A limited waiver to the residency requirement was introduced in May 2016 to recruit up to 200 Commonwealth personnel per year to fill skill shortage posts. This limited waiver has now been widened, with the RAF and Navy beginning recruitment of Commonwealth applicants right away and the Army to accept such applications from early 2019. Applications from citizens of countries outside the Commonwealth will not be accepted. "Citizens from the Commonwealth have a long tradition of serving with distinction in the Armed Forces, the MoD said. Special rules already allow citizens of Ireland and Gurkhas from Nepal to join the British armed forces. The five-year UK residency requirement for Commonwealth recruits was first waived in 1998, before being reintroduced in 2013. A National Audit Office (NAO) report had revealed in April this year that the UK's armed forces is short of around 8,200 soldiers, sailors and air personnel. Among measures to meet this shortage, women are now allowed to apply for all roles in the British military for the first time in history. Britain currently employs 4,500 Commonwealth citizens in the armed forces, with 3,940 in the Army, 480 in the Royal Navy and 80 serving in the RAF. - PTI monicakchauhan@gmail.com United Nations, November 5 The US embargo on Cuba is preventing Indian companies from sending medicines and development-related equipment to the Caribbean island nation, according to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. In his annual report to the General Assembly on the US embargo on Cuba, he said that the State Bank of India (SBI) and at least four other banks have refused to carry out transactions to enable the companies to export to that country. The report figured in last weeks General Assembly discussions on US sanctions against Cuba. By an overwhelming majority of 189 to two, the General Assembly on November 1 passed a resolution crticising the embargo and asking Washington to lift it. In his report, Guterres said that in February, the Indian company Aculife had refused to ship levofloxacin directly to Cuba because its bank would not authorise the payments made by Cuba since the shipping documents supporting the payment had a country under embargo as the final destination. Levofloxacin is a drug used to treat pneumonia, bacterial skin infections, bronchitis and other diseases, according to the report. The Ahmedabad-based Aculife said on its website that it manufactures intravenous antibiotics, including general and advanced molecules like levofloxacin. The reluctance of banks to handle payments related to Cuba has also affected a development project with a climate change dimension, Guterres said in the report. It was reported in March that Ankur Scientific Energy Technologies had said it could not export to Cuba equipment for a gasification plant that uses rice husks because five Indian banks had refused to carry out a transfer from the office of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Cuba to it, he said. The Vadodara-based company had reported that the SBI refused to receive the UNDP payment because the transaction is related to a project implemented in Cuba, the report said. It has been impossible to fulfill the payment to the supplier and the implementation of the project has been delayed. It is an ongoing development project that aims to implement measures to adapt to climate change in food production, a gasification plant that uses rice husks, the UN chief said. Ankur Scientific says on its website that its technology converts various waste products into combustible gas that can be burned to produce energy for different uses. India has opposed the US embargo on Cuba enacted after communists under Fidel Castro came to power in 1961. Guterres said in his report that India informed the UN that it "has consistently opposed any unilateral measure by countries that impinge on the sovereignty of another country. These include any attempt to extend the application of a country's laws extraterritorially to other sovereign nations". IANS harinder@tribunemail.com Tribune news service Jalandhar, November 5 The Jalandhar Police Commissionerate on Monday claimed to have solved the two-month-old blast case at the Maqsudan police station with the arrest of two BTech students of the local St Soldier College of Engineering and Technology Shahid Qayoom (22) and Fazil Bashir (23). The low-intensity explosions on September 14 were the handiwork of Kashmir-based Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) to which the arrested students were aligned, the police said. Zakir Rashid Bhatt alias Zakir Mussa, who heads the terror outfit, masterminded and guided the attacks. Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the Kashmiri students carried out the blasts after they came in contact with Mir Ravoof Ahmed alias Rouf and Mir Umar Ramzan alias Gazi, both trained AGH operatives. He said Rouf and Gazi flew to Chandigarh from Srinagar on September 13, only to carry out the attack. Bhullar said Qayoom and Bashir had links with the Kashmiri students nabbed at CT Institute of Engineering and Technology last month and they were all members of a terror module. Otherwise, the two cases are not linked. The officer said AGH recruiter Amir of Dada Sara Tral in Kashmir radicalised the students while they were in Kashmir. On reaching Chandigarh, Rouf and Gazi travelled to Jalandhar by bus where they met Qayoom and Bashir. They carried out a recce of the Maqsudan police station on September 13. Bhullar said they contemplated throwing grenades at CRPF and ITBP camps near the Bidhipur railway crossing and conducted a recce. On September 14, the four, carrying grenades and wearing masks, left for the police station at 5.30 pm, deciding to get together at the Jalandhar bus stand after the attack. At 7.40 pm, four of them hurled a grenade each at the police station and fled on two autos. They then boarded a bus for J&K and fled. Bashir was arrested by the Punjab Police from Awantipora in Kashmir on November 3 and Qayoom from Jalandhar a day later. They were produced at alocal court on Monday, which sent them to police remand for four days. Meanwhile, Anil Chopra, Director of St Soldier College said that the two students had dropped out of the college. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 5 Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal, party MP Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Akali MLAs and other senior leaders courted arrest on Monday over the alleged denigration of Sikh Gurus in the Class XII history textbook. Sukhbir and other party leaders led an unannounced protest march against the state government over the issue. The Akali Dal leaders broke through the barricades to reach right near the gate of the high-security Chief Ministers residence. Raising slogans against the CM, they staged a dharna for almost two hours before about 50 of them courted arrest and were taken away by the police. They were later released. A scuffle between the cops and Akali leaders took place when the latter tried to breach the second line of defence put up by the CMs security and the Chandigarh Police. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh accused the Akali Dal of trying to take the law in its hands and diverting public attention. Sukhbir has also been targeted by his political opponents for raking up the issue to shift the focus away from the growing rumblings within his party. Even though SAD MP Ranjit Singh Brahmpura has gone hammer and tongs after him, Sukhbir refused to comment on the matter, saying that the decision on the rebel would be taken by the partys core committee. He insisted that the issue (denigration of Gurus) was still relevant, even though the controversial book had been withdrawn by the government. We want the CMto apologise for this be-adbi (sacrilege). Does he (CM) or any of his ministers agree with what has been written against the Gurus? If not, why have they not apologised to the Sikhs or ordered legal action against those denigrating the Gurus? Sukhbir asked. Sidhu hits out at Sukhbir on dharnas Chandigarh: Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday lashed out at SAD chief Sukhbir Badal for staging a series of dharnas. Sidhu said, During his tenure as Deputy CM, Sukhbir said dharnas are either staged by vehle (idle) or gharron kadde (those ousted from their homes). Now why does he stage a dharna daily on one pretext or other? TNS gspannu7@gmail.com Tribune News Service Amritsar, November 4 Railway Safety Chief Commissioner SK Pathak on Sunday began his probe into the train tragedy here on Dusshera in which about 60 people were killed and several others injured. A big boundary wall is 16.5 metres away from the railway track, he said. He said the DMU had arrived at the accident site fraction of seconds after the 700 metres long Howrah Mail had crossed which had abundantly whistled. After conducting a mock trial, he said applying brakes at 92 km per hour, it was found that the train took about 500 metres to halt. It meant that the run off site would have still come under its impact, he said. He ruled out applying of emergency brakes at that point as it would have caused compression zone causing boggeys to ram into one another. He informed that about 20 people were interviewed today and chief secretary Punjab, Deputy Commissioner Amritsar KS Sangha and Punjab Police officials were intimated regarding the probe. He added that one civilian, Satyendra Kumar, also came to record his statement. He stated that preliminary report would be submitted within 30 days and final report within six months. gspannu7@gmail.com Amritsar, November 5 A Pakistani national was on Monday arrested by the BSF near the Border Out Post (BOP) in Ramkot near here and recovered an automatic weapon from his possession. Confirming the arrest, a Border Security Force (BSF) official said that during a routine search, the Pakistani national was apprehended and a US-made automatic gun, 24 cartridges and three mobile phones with Pakistani SIM cards were recovered from him. In a separate incident, BSF sleuths seized three kilograms of heroin at a village near the International border. According to an official, the BSF patrolling party observed some suspicious moments along the border in village Ranian and upon close inspection found that some people from Pakistan were approaching the India side. The troops ordered them to stop but as the persons kept advancing, the jawans opened fire forcing them to the return, the official said. Upon searching the site, the troopers discovered the heroin, the official added. PTI editorial@tribune.com Tribune Reporters Chandigarh/Bathinda, November 5 With paddy being rejected on the ground of high moisture content, activists of seven farmer organisations protested against the state government at 40 places in 13 districts today. They blocked traffic from noon to 3 pm. Farmers have been protesting for almost a week now, as their paddy crop is being rejected by procurement agencies for having higher than specified moisture content (up to 17 per cent is allowed by the FCI). Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, general secretary of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), said the government should raise the bar for accepting paddy with as much as 24 per cent moisture. This year, sowing was delayed by the government itself, and the rains in September, just before harvest, led to high moisture. The government had forbidden farmers to transplant paddy before June 20, though it should have been transplanted by June 1. Hence, the paddy yield is down by three quintals per acre. If their crop is not procured, the farmers will suffer huge losses, he rued. The seven organisations that led the protests besides BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) were Bhartiya Kisan Union ( Ekta Dakaunda), Kirti Kisan Union, Kisan Sangharsh Committee, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Krantikari), Azad Kisan Sangharsh Committee and Krantikari Kisan Union. In Bathinda, these outfits blocked traffic on the Bathinda-Chandigarh highway at Lehra Dhurkot village, Maur-Rampura road, Maur-Mansa road, Talwandi-Bathinda road, Badal-Bathinda road and the Muktsar-Bathinda road from noon to 3 pm. However, they later extended it by an hour after a couple of farmers sustained injuries in a road accident at Ghudda village, where they were staging a dharna. They were seeking action against the erring vehicle driver, who allegedly ran over protesting farmers. Earlier, BKU Ekta Ugrahan leader Shangara Singh Mann alleged that the farmers were being fleeced by rice shellers, who were imposing cuts under the pretext of high moisture. He demanded that the permissible moisture limit should be raised from existing 17 per cent to 24 per cent, as it was not possible for the farmers to bring it down to 17 per cent now that the weather had changed in the state. He also hit out at the government, claiming that the farmers were only getting an increased price of Rs 180 per quintal for their paddy produce as against the hike of Rs 200 announced by it. The farmers resorted to road blockade at seven spots each in Bathinda and Sangrur, six in Barnala, five spots each in Moga and Mansa, apart from one each at Muktsar, Fazilka, Faridkot and Ferozepur. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Amritsar, November 5 The city police arrested gangster Amanpreet Singh Rinka and his accomplice, Rohit Sharma, after a shootout near Fatahpur area in the wee hours of Monday. Rinka is a former aide of gangster Rajat Malhotra alias Karan Masti, who was found dead in a car in Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) on November 1. Rinka is facing seven cases of robbery and murder, including the killing of Congress councillor Gurdeep Pehalwan. He had parted ways with Masti and formed his own gang. He suffered a bullet injury in retaliatory firing by the police. He was admitted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital. Police Commissioner SS Srivastava said the CIA staff received a tip-off on Sunday that Rinka had been spotted seen in the Tarn Taran area and that he would enter the city with weapons at night to commit a major crime. Srivastava said special nakas were laid at the entry and exit points of the city. At Fatahpur, a police team headed by CIA incharge Vavinder Mahajan signalled a bike to stop, but the riders opened fire. Two shots hit a police vehicle. Rinka and Rohit surrendered after the former was hit by a bullet on the leg. The police recovered two pistols and seven rounds from their possession. Srivastva said Rinkas accomplices Deep Gill and Hrikshit were nabbed by the Delhi Police on Thursday. They will also be brought here on production warrant. Shubham Singh, Arun Chhurimar and Angrej Singh, whose names also figure in the Pehalwan murder case, are still at large. UP cops register murder case editorial@tribune.com Sumeer Singh Tribune News Service Bathinda, November 4 Buoyed by support from students of primary schools, their parents along with representatives of farmer unions, members of the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha from five districts of the Malwa region staged a protest in front of the mini-secretariat here on Sunday. Later, as many as 400 protesters took out a march and submitted a memorandum of demands to Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal. The teachers have been demanding cancellation of transfers ordered recently and regularisation of jobs without pay cut. Students raised slogans against the state government, demanded cancellation of transfers. Resham Singh, president of the Democratic Teachers Front, said, Our movement is getting the required momentum and until the government relents and revoke its decision of transfers, we will continue our stir. Harjot Singh, media coordinator of Manpreet, said, Manpreet Badal cant comment on it as the Education Department can only take action in this regard. uttara@tribuneindia.com New Delhi, November 5 Google on Monday honoured Greek professor and computer scientist Michael Dertouzos's 82nd birth anniversary with a doodle. Dertouzos foresaw how the Internet would impact everyday lives. He predicted the popularity of personal computers and helped to maximise their potential as director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Laboratory for Computer Science. "We made a big mistake 300 years ago when we separated technology and humanism. It's time to put the two back together," he wrote in Scientific American in 1997. Born in Athens in 1936, Dertouzos was the son of a concert pianist and an admiral in the Greek navy. He attended the University of Arkansas on a Fulbright Scholarship, earned a PhD from MIT and joining the faculty in 1968. "Under Dertouzos' guidance, the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science grew into a thriving research centre employing hundreds of people collaborating on innovations like distributed systems, time-sharing computers, the ArpaNet, and RSA encryption, an algorithm used to ensure secure data transmission," Google said. Dertouzos worked to make Laboratory for Computer Science the home of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an alliance of companies promoting the Web's evolution and interconnectivity. Dertouzos recruited Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, to run it. In his 1997 book What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives, he observed: "If we strip the hype away, a simple, crisp and inevitable picture emergesof an Information Marketplace where people and their computers will buy, sell and freely exchange information and information work". Dertouzos died on August 27, 2001. IANS laxmi@tribune.com Dhaka, November 5 A special Bangladesh tribunal on Monday handed down death sentences to two persons, including former leader of the ruling Awami League Liakat Ali, for crimes against humanity during the 1971 liberation war and for aiding Pakistani troops. They will be hanged by neck until they are dead, pronounced the chair of the three-judge International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh (ICT-BD) Mohammad Shahinur Islam after the trial of both convicts who are on the run. Both convicts, in their early 60s, are absconding. Islam said all charges brought against the convicts were proved beyond doubt that warranted the death penalty. Prosecution lawyers had accused them of murdering some 100 people, mostly minority Hindus, in their neighbourhood while siding with Pakistani enemy troops. PTI amansharma@tribunemail.com Islamabad, November 5 Pakistan's state-run news channel has apologised after it ran "Begging" dateline instead of "Beijing" on screen during the live broadcast of Prime Minister Imran Khan's speech at the Central Party School of the ruling Communist Party of China. Khan, who is on an official trip to China to secure an economic package for his cash-strapped country, was addressing a ceremony on Sunday at the Central Party School in Beijing which was shown live by the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). During Khan's speech, PTV had written "Begging" instead of "Beijing" in the top left corner of the screen. The word remained on screen for 20 seconds and was then changed. "Today, during a live address of the Prime Minister during his ongoing visit to China, a typographical error took place, which remained on screen for 20 seconds & later removed. This incident is regrettable. Strict action has been initiated under rules against concerned officials," the official twitter handle of PTV News tweeted. According to the local media, the gaffe has become particularly ironic since Khan is in China to secure a package from Beijing to try and stall the impending economic crisis Pakistan is facing. Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry has ordered an inquiry into the widely criticised dateline slug displayed by the PTV, The News reported. The PTV's gaffe came under criticism on social media with screenshots shared with #begging becoming a top trend on Twitter in Pakistan. During his visit, Prime Minister Khan held talks with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang mainly focussing on seeking China's loans to tide over serious financial crisis faced by Pakistan. China while stating that it would extend necessary support to Pakistan reportedly committed USD six billion funding but did not so far officially confirmed it. - PTI uttara@tribuneindia.com Colombo, November 5 Sri Lanka's speaker of parliament said on Monday he would not accept a former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, as the new prime minister until he proves he commands a majority in parliament. President Maithripala Sirisena fired the sitting prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Octover 26 and appointed Rajapaksa in his place, sparking a political crisis. Wickremesinghe has denounced his dismissal as unconstitutional and vowed to remain prime minister until parliament votes him out. "The majority of members are of the view that the changes ... are unconstitutional and against traditions," the speaker of parliament, Karu Jayasuriya, said in a statement. Sirisena suspended parliament after he appointed Rajapaksa, raising concern among political parties at home and among Sri Lanka's traditional allies such as India, the United States and European Union. Rajapaksa is known as a Sri Lankan nationalist, while being close to China. He is seen as a hero by many among Sri Lankas Buddhist majority but has been accused by diplomats of serious human rights abuses in the war against rebels from the Tamil minority, which ended during his tenure as president, in 2009. He has denied abuses and said in a statement after he was sworn in he wanted to end religious and ethnic divisions in the country of 21 million people. Jayasuriya said most members of parliament had called on him not to accept the changes. "I will have to accept the status quo prior to the changes" until a majority in parliament accepted them, he said. On Friday, 118 members of the 225-seat legislature met the speaker and called for the reconvening of parliament. On Sunday, Sirisena said parliament would be recalled on November 14. Jayasuriya said it was difficult for him to remain silent when the norms of democracy and the rights of a majority of members of parliament had been violated. Foreign Minister Sarath Amunugama told a news conference Jayasuriya was not being impartial. The European Union warned last week it will consider stripping Sri Lanka of its duty-free access if it backs off commitments on human rights, amid worries stoked by the appointment of Rajapaksa. The United States and Japan have put some aid to Sri Lanka on hold because of the political crisis, Sri Lankan government officials have said. Sirisena has said Wickremesinghe was removed after his cabinet was dissolved in line with the constitution, but Wickremesinghe loyalists say it was unconstitutional. Reuters laxmi@tribune.com Kabul, November 5 The Taliban launched an attack early Monday on a newly established joint Afghan army and police checkpoint in eastern Ghazni province, killing at least 13 soldiers and policemen, according to a provincial official. Afghan reinforcements were subsequently dispatched to the site of the attack in Khogyani district but were repeatedly ambushed along the way. The assault came as a resurgent Taliban hold nearly half of Afghanistan, with near-daily attacks on Afghan security forces. The Taliban view the US-backed government in Kabul as a dysfunctional Western puppet and have refused repeated offers to negotiate with it. Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial Governor in Ghazni, said that seven soldiers and six policemen were killed. Four soldiers were also wounded in the early morning attack at the checkpoint. According to the spokesman, six insurgents were killed and more than 10 others were wounded during the ensuing three-hour battle with Afghan forces. AP uttara@tribuneindia.com Islamabad, November 5 Twitter suspended the account of a ultra-right Pakistani cleric on Sunday following inflammatory statements targeting the judiciary, prime minister, and military after the acquittal of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy, the government said. Cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvis Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) party blocked off roads in Pakistans biggest for three days last week and threatened the Supreme Court judges who acquitted Asia Bibi on Wednesdayurging their cooks and servants to kill them. Bibi had spent eight years on death row before the court overturned her conviction and ordered her to be freed. We sent a request to Twitter that this account has been inciting hate and violence, two senior officials at the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority told Reuters. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The TLP condemned the suspension of Rizvis account, terming it a conspiracy by the opponents of the protection of prophethood and Islam. A second account that was created on Sunday was also suspended soon after. The TLP ended protests late Friday evening following negotiations with the government and an agreement to open a review of the courts decision as well as possibly putting Bibis name on an exit control list that would bar her from leaving the country. Bibis whereabouts are unknown, but Islamists have warned the authorities against taking her out of the country. There will be a war if they send Asia out of country, TLP leader Rizvi said after the deal was reached. Earlier in the week, Rizvis deputy and TLP co-founder Muhammad Afzal Qadri told supporters to kill the Supreme Court judges. Whoever, who has got any access to them, kill them before the evening, he said. The TLP was founded out of a movement that supported the bodyguard who assassinated Punjab provincial governor Salman Taseer in 2011 after he began supporting Bibi, and pushing for her acquittal. Federal minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti was also killed after calling for her release. Bibis lawyer on Saturday said he had left Pakistan, fearing a mob attack against him and his family. On Sunday, Bibis husband released a video asking for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada to help get his family out of the country. Bibi was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Islam after neighbours objected to her drinking water from their glass because she was not Muslim. She always denied having committed blasphemy. Reuters Asia Bibi, cleric, Twitter account, suspended, Supreme Court, threaten, Khadim Hussain Rizvi uttara@tribuneindia.com WASHINGTON, November 5 The United States reimposes oil and financial sanctions against Iran on Monday, significantly turning up the pressure on Tehran in order to curb its missile and nuclear programmes and counter its growing military and political influence in the Middle East. The move will restore US sanctions that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the administration of President Barack Obama, and add 300 new designations in Iran's oil, shipping, insurance and banking sectors. President Donald Trump announced in May that his administration was withdrawing from what he called the "worst ever" agreement negotiated by the United States. Other parties to the deal, including Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, have said they will not leave. Details of the sanctions will be released at a news conference scheduled for 8:30 am EST (1330 GMT) with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkeyall top importers of Iranian oilare among eight countries expected to be given temporary exemptions from the sanctions to ensure crude oil prices are not destabilised. The countries will deposit Iran's revenue in an escrow account, US officials have said. Washington has said it will ensure a well supplied global oil market, with help from ally Saudi Arabia, as Iran oil is cut back. Front-month Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $72.53 per barrel on Monday. The reimposition of the sanctions comes as the United States is focused on US congressional and gubernatorial elections on Tuesday. Campaigning in Chattanooga, Tennessee, late on Sunday, Trump said his "maximum pressure" policy against Iran was working. "Iran is a much different country than it was when I took office," said Trump, adding: "They wanted to take over the whole Middle East. Right now they just want to survive." Earlier, thousands of Iranians chanted "Death to America" at a rally to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that Iran should implement policies to safeguard its macroeconomic stability in the face of sanctions. Senior Iranian officials have dismissed concerns about the impact to its economy. "America will not be able to carry out any measure against our great and brave nation ... We have the knowledge and the capability to manage the country's economic affairs," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi told state TV on Friday. Will bypass sanctions Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the country would proudly bypass the sanctions. "I announce that we will proudly bypass your illegal, unjust sanctions because it's against international regulations," Rouhani said in a televised speech. Lawful trade China said on Monday its lawful trade cooperation with Iran should be respected and expressed regret that the United States re-imposed sanctions on the Middle Eastern country. Speaking at a daily news briefing in Beijing, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying did not directly comment on whether China had been granted exemption from the Iran sanctions by the United States. The restoration of US sanctions on Monday targeting Iran's oil sales and banking sector is part of an effort by US President Donald Trump to force Iran to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes outright, as well as its support for proxy forces in conflicts across the Middle East. Agencies Trinidad and Tobago has experienced its deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic to date, with a record 28 new deaths being recorded yesterday. Among the deceased is a child. The Ministry of Health reported the deaths in its daily update yesterday evening. Just when the country should be putting up its toughest battle against Covid-19, the mood seems to be one of surrender and exhaustion with a willingness to throw caution to the wind. With records being broken for hospitalisations and deaths, the national will to fight seems to be evaporating. "The travel time could be any of [1] Xmas holidays [2] Easter holidays [3] Summer holidays in August." Best time to visit Ankgor is in the cool dry season, November through February. March and April are unbelievably hot. August is rainy season, although it rarely rains all day and is still doable. December is okay for Hanoi / Ha Long etc. March and April will be hot and August is well into the rainy / typhoon season. December would probably be the best time of year concidering your choice of destinations. "As I am going that far in the world, prefer to include Angkor Wat too. Happy to skip Saigon/HCMC - only intending to cover North Vietnam." Understandable. Personally I could skip Tam Coc abd add the time to Angkor. "Is it possible to cover Halong Bay in a day trip or better to spend a night in a cruise ship there? I want to visit the limestone caves there too." No, not really. "For Ninh Binh, how do I travel from Hanoi and back? I don't fancy motorbike ride. Do I hire a taxi?" It would make more sense to arrange a private transfer from Ha Long to Ninh Binh and do both destinations in a loop. Very easy to get from Ninh Binh back to Hanoi by private transfer, bus or train. How many days do you actually have on the ground in Southeast Asia? Hi all, Me and my wife (30 years old) are planning to visit Vietnam in March for 17 days (15 days considering the flights). We both love nature, people, different cultures, food, and beautiful scenery. This might sound a bit extreme but we don't really like big cities, so exploring Ho Chi Minh will not be in our TODO list. We will also skip Vietnam's beaches. We love hiking and exploring areas that are not overwhelmed with tourists. I saw some videos of Halong Bay and it looked like Bumper Cars in a kayak :) (probably depends on luck) but we will probably visit there regardless. We are much more fascinated about the area of Ninh Binh. Another thing to consider is that we probably won't be able to visit Vietnam again in the nearest future. So to the debate itself, considering only 15 days. Will it be worth to explore (nature/culture/atmosphere wise) the southern part of Vietnam? The Mekong Delta is one of the places (maybe the only one because of our short stay) that make us feel uncertain about our itinerary. Considering all the things we want to do in the north, we won't be able to spend more than 4 days in the south. We need to come to a decision pretty fast because we don't know if we should book our flight to and from Hanoi or to Hanoi and back from Ho Chi Minh. Thank you, boys and girls :) Re: My First trip to Japan in Mid March 2019..Mount Koya? 4. Re: My First trip to Japan in Mid March 2019..Mount Koya? -:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:- This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one. To review the Tripadvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason. You'd be fine, lots of people in Okinawa don't speak Japanese and there has been a lot of support for other languages recently. It's becoming common to see signs in English, Chinese and Korean and some stores and attractions even have foreign language announcements. For driving some places have foreign language GPS in the rental cars and most street and road signs are in Japanese and English. -:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:- This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one. To review the Tripadvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason. Your hotel will want a security deposit as a hold on your card - this could be $200+ - this will tie up your spending capacity- something to keep in mind A fee free credit card is a much better option - have you got one? A debit card isnt the ideal option as your bank will hit you with charges that you can do without Kenyan labour laws on termination of employment are among the common laws that employees are likely to follow keenly. You would want to know if you are being treated fairly by your employer according to the directives of the law. It is also crucial for employers to understand these rules as they may save them a lot of trouble with the law in case they end up violating one unknowingly. After all, ignorance is never an excuse, and more so with the law. Check out the following laws about employment in Kenya to be on the safe side as an employer and to know what is rightfully yours if you are an employee. Whether you are an employee or employer, adhering to the rules and laws of engagement is crucial. You can only know if you are within the law if you actually know what the law says. Here are the most crucial always on employment that every person in the employment sector oughts to be familiar with. If you want to know if you have been rightfully terminated as an employee, then these always will come in handy. READ ALSO: Recruitment methods, advantages and disadvantages Labour laws in Kenya The labour laws in Kenya have an influence from the colonial rules that is the British. Everything governing the labour operations in Kenya is also ingrained in the constitution of Kenya. This means that as a Kenyan citizen, it is your responsibility to understand what the law says about your terms of employment regardless of the sector of employment that you are in. The labour laws of Kenya can be traced back to the early 19th century with first trade unions being formed in the 1940s. Over the years, labour laws have revolutionized to include a number of things including compensation and remuneration, employment contracts and terms of employment among others. Most of the changes have been effected and regulated through different acts of the constitution. This article will focus on the termination aspect of employment according to the law of Kenya. The law on employment termination in Kenya First is important to define wrongful termination which is when an employee gets fired without due process being followed. According to the employment act in Kenya, you can be fired as an employee only on the following grounds: Misconduct Poor performance Physical incapacity Retrenchment or employers operational requirements. READ ALSO: Major ethical issues in business So who initiates termination of employment? This is one of the questions that many Kenyas would want proper answers to. According to the law of Kenya. Both the employer and employee can be initiators of termination of employment. The Kenya employment act recognizes termination under the following scenarios. 1. When an employment is terminated through an agreement It is possible that an employment will come to an end when the employer and employee come to a decision to end the contract. This applies mainly in cases of internships and employment that is contract based. According to the law of contract act Kenya, an employment can cease to be when the term or duration of the said contract expires. The employee is thus expected to leave when the period elapses unless the contract is renewed. 2. Automatic termination This is another legally acceptable form of employment termination. In this case, the duration of the term of employment may not necessarily have elapsed. However, due to unavoidable or unpredictable situations, the employment comes to an end. Common cases include death of the employee or in some cases, closure of the employers business due to bankruptcy. In both cases, the situations are unavoidable. 3. Willful resignation It is also possible for employment to come to an end when the employee in question chooses to resign on their own. This is probably the most common type of termination of employment as most people choose to resign when they no longer want to be under employment of a certain employer. The reasons for this are numerous and diverse including personal reasons and better opportunities elsewhere. 4. Termination by employer This is another common way through which an employment can be terminated. Unfortunately, it is at times controversial especially when the employee does not agree. The law recognizes the need for an employer to terminate an employment as long as he or she is within the provisions of the law. The employer must have a valid reason recognized as fair in the eyes of the law. It is however not just enough to have a valid reason for terminating an employment. The employer has to follow due process for termination as stipulated in the Employment Act, section 45 (2) and section 46.). It is crucial for the employer to provide a valid reason for their termination under the law or the termination will be considered unfair under section 45(2). The procedure to be followed before terminating an employees services may differ but one thing is similar across board. The employee must be given a platform to talk and he or she must also be listened to before termination. READ ALSO: Elements of a valid contract Notice period It is important to note that an employer is allowed by law to terminate any employment without notice. However, the employment act of Kenya directs that an employee whose services have been terminated must be paid for a period within which the notice would have served. The law is not one sided. In the case that an employee quits without notice, they are to compensate the employer for the duration that they should have served notice as well. With the above knowledge about the notice, one would wonder then how the notice is to be served. The law directs that all notice of termination be done in writing. It is expected that the employer will explain the termination orally in a language and manner that the employee will understand. This is according to Section 35(3) (2). Acceptable notice period according to the law of Kenya are Notice should be given at close of day for employees working on a daily wage rate Notice should be served in writing or a weeks payment given instead, for employees who work on a week or two week contract basis. In case of employees who work on a monthly basis payment, notice should be served 28 days or an alternative of a months wage given in lieu of the notice. In case the contract of employment stipulates a longer period of notice than a month, then the notice shall be served on an agreement basis between the employer and employee. The notice duration shall be equal for both employer and employee and should be in writing. This is according to section 35(2). What about the compensation when terminated without notice? The employment act of Kenya directs that the employer should pay the same amount that he or she would have paid the employee had they worked during the notice period. This is the exact meaning of payment in lieu according to the constitutions section 36 and 38. With the above explanations of what the law says concerning the guide on termination, it is easy to tell if yours is a case law on unfair dismissal in Kenya. In the event that your employer is unfair by failing to follow due procedure when dismissing your services, you ought to take the necessary action. This can include legal action by suing. According to industrial court rules of Kenya, the law will be in your favour if the employer failed to adhere to the above mentioned procedures. The Kenyan labour laws on termination of employment are meant to provide a guiding system that will maintain sanity in the employment sector. These laws protect both employer and employee from unfair treatment and being taken advantage of. It is in the interest of every aspiring employer and employee to understand these and more laws on employment in order to safeguard their rights. READ ALSO: Advantages of self-employment Source: Tuko.co.ke - Cosmus Mutua had claimed he was abducted in Nairobi by unknown people - In his statement to police, he said the men wanted details of the deputy Chief Justice - Detectives have found out Mutua was never abducted as he had claimed An employee attached to DCJ Philomena Mwilu is set to be arraigned on Monday, November 5, to face charges of giving detectives a false testimony. Cosmas Mutua Daudi was arrested on Sunday, November 4, after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) established that an abduction report he had made to the police on Tuesday, November, 7, 2017 had been made up. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: Afueni baada ya utafiti kupata dawa ya kutibu HIV/AIDS An employee attached to DCJ Philomena Mwilu (pictured) is set to be arraigned on Monday, November 5, to answer to charges of providing detectives with false testimonies. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Supreme Court Judge's car shot at,driver injured According to DCI George Kinoti, Mutua had informed detectives that, while walking along a Nairobi street, he was abducted by unidentified people who demanded to be shown his employer's house. While walking along Makindu Road and junction of Riara Road, he alleged to have been stopped by three people who were riding on a motorcycle who stopped him and asked him to show them where his boss lived, said Kinoti. READ ALSO: Uhuru wants me out of Judiciary - DCJ Philomena Mwilu Mutua told police that the suspects bundled him on their motorcycle but he never gave in to their demands. They later dumped him at Muringa road near Adams Arcade, and before he proceeded to make a report at the police. He alleged that he was forced to board their motorbike and was taken towards Adams Arcade then joined Elgeyo Marakwet road. They later abandoned him at Muringa road after he failed to show them the residence of the deputy chief justice, the DCI's statement read. After several attempts to get to the root of the matter, the DCI established that claims by Mutua were a lie and he was never kidnapped. Investigations commenced and it was established that he gave false information and that there was no such incident, the DCI noted. Mwilu was among the Judge who ruled favour of the unprecedented verdict. Photo: UGC Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Charge sheet reveals how Philomena Mwilu received KSh 12 million bribe On Tuesday, October 24, 2017, a driver attached to the Mwilu was shot by unknown people who stole his two fire arms. Police managed to recover the stolen guns but treated the case as robbery with violence. The bloody incident came just one day shy to the largely boycotted Thursday, October 26, 2017 repeat Presidential Election. The repeat poll was prompted by the Friday, September 1, 2017, Supreme Court decision that nullified election of President Uhuru Kenyatta. In the ruling, the judged cited massive irregularities and directed the IEBC to convene a fresh poll. Mwilu was among the Judge who ruled favor of the unprecedented verdict. 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. Maasai Man Offers 1000 Cows to Mary Malia Obama | Tuko TV. Source: Tuko Newspaper - The Deputy President was in Malava constituency for an interdenominational church service - Ruto said the Jubilee administration had released millions of shillings to pay sugar farmers - He urged leaders from the region to set aside their political stands and work together - 2022 politics surfaced during the service as he urged for support in his bid Deputy President William Ruto on Sunday, November 4, enticed members of the Luhya community to support his presidential bid after assuring them the outcry over mismanagement of crucial companies in the region was being addressed by the government. Speaking in Malava constituency during an interdenominational church service, Ruto was adamant the political rivalry which saw the country divided along political affiliations was long overdue and leaders were ready to embrace development. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Afueni baada ya utafiti kupata dawa ya kutibu HIV/AIDS William Ruto entices Luhya leaders to back him in 2022 after hosting Raila Odinga Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Rutos intensified 2022 campaigns see him meet MCAs from four counties in two weeks Ruto further assured farmers that their long standing grievances over delayed pay would soon be over as the government had released funds to cater for farmers where companies had failed. ...we will unite and serve the people of Kenya. We agreed Mumias sugar company and other public companies that the government will release funds to pay farmers because the companies have failed to do so, he said. READ ALSO: Raila, Ruto put aside political differences to share lunch at deputy presidents home The DPs sentiments came just as TUKO.co.ke learnt that the government allocated KSh 2.1 billion to clear pending payments for farmers who delivered maize to National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) in 2017. Also speaking during the event, Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale took the opportunity to urge the DP to look into missing funds which were meant for the victims of the Fort Ternan accident. READ ALSO: Government sets aside KSh 2.1 billion to clear maize farmers' debts, announce new prices next week As you go back to Nairobi, tell the leaders of govt that the KSh 2.5 million brought by the president for victims of the crash were never disbursed. They must be paid that money, Khalwale pointed out. Rutos tour of the Western region was a game changer particularly in the pre-mature race for 2022 presidency as the region is largely considered to be one of the DPs weak areas. He will meet embattled Migori governor Okoth Obado on Monday, November 5 in a high profile meeting which plaudits have argued will work against the embattled governor who was only recently released on from remand on bail. TUKO.co.ke has learnt the DP will be in Suna West Sub-county before addressing a rally at the Masara trading centre. The meeting will also be Obados first public engagement since being arrested and arraigned over the murder of his former lover Sharon Otieno. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news Kenya News Today: This Is Why Jacque Maribe Was Granted Bail | Tuko TV: Source: Tuko.co.ke - The MPs claimed western Kenya region still has no muscle to front a presidential candidate - They hailed Ruto and termed him a leader destined to transform the country - By supporting the DP, the MPs believed they will be inching closer to the presidency in future A bid by Deputy President William Ruto to run in the 2022 General Election has received a major boost after 15 MPs from western Kenya region said they would campaign for him. Led by Malava MP Malalu Injendi, the legislators said Ruto had shown admirable resilience and competitiveness in his political career that could only be rewarded by clinching the top seat. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: Uzee umeanza kumlemea Raila? Tazama alivyohangaika kwenye 'gym' The MPs claim Western region still has no muscle to front a presidential candidate. Photo: DP William Ruto Source: Facebook READ ALSO: 7 smartphones recovered from KCSE candidates in Kibwezi, burnt to ashes The legislators made the remarks on Sunday, November 4, when they accompanied the DP to various events held on the same day. This time around, we have to get it right by being at the centre of the formation of the next government. And the surest route to that is supporting the deputy president. That way we will develop, said Injendi. READ ALSO: Commuters left stranded as Michuki rules roar back to life Ruto was hailed as a politician who was development minded where the MPs cited dozens of development projects he had launched across the country. Injendi claimed the region was still a political infant and could not field a presidential candidate of its own to run in the high stake elections. They have hailed Ruto and termed him a leader destined to transform the country. Photo: DP William Ruto Source: Facebook His sentiment were echoed by Bumula MP Moses Mabonga who said such a decision would only keep the region wondering in political cold for longer. It is a fact we are not strong enough to have our own presidential candidate. That is why we must rally behind someone with our interests at heart, Mabonga said. The sentiments come amid calls by a section of Jubilee allied MP's drawn from Mount Kenya asking politicians to drop early campaigns and focus on service delivery. Some have, however, claimed Mt Kenya owes the DP nothing in terms of political allegiance come the next electioneering period. READ ALSO: Nakuru pastor cancels wedding over couples HIV status By supporting Ruto, the MPs believe they will be inching closer to presidency in future. Photo: DP William Ruto Source: Facebook President Uhuru Kenyatta, whom it was largely expected would front his deputy to the seat, has however, strewn more confusion on the subject. Uhuru stated his choice for a successor would be a shock to many. Despite being an ODM elected leader, Kakmega Woman Representative Elsie Muhanda said Ruto was her preferred candidate. Muhanda said the DP was focused in launching the county on a transformative course. The legislators made the remarks on Sunday, November 4, when they accompanied the DP to various events held on the same day. Photo: DP William Ruto Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Ray of hope as study finds fully effective drug for deadly HIV/AIDS Other leaders who praised the DP and promised to whip their political backyards to dance to Ruto's tune were Justus Murunga (Matungu), Benjamin Washiali (Mumias East), Didmus Barasa (Kimilili) and Sirisia legislator John Waluke. Emmanuel Wangwe (Navakholo), Dan Wanyama (Webuye West), Benard Shinali (Ikolomani), Charles Gimose (Hamisi) and Nominate Senator Naomi Shinyonga were also present. Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka and former Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale also flanked the DP during the several stopovers he made to address the electorate. 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. William Ruto and Anne Waiguru: Will They Come To Power In Kenya in 2022 Tuko TV. Source: Tuko.co.ke - The victim lost conscious after she was given a lift by the teacher - She later woke up and found herself dumped near a borehole in Habaswein town - Medical reports confirmed there was penetration leading to arrest of the principal Police in Wajir have arrested a high school principal accused of defiling a Kenya Certificate Of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam candidate. The principal allegedly raped the 18-year-old girl who had asked him for a lift in his car on Saturday, November 3, at 3 pm in Habaswein town. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Uzee umeanza kumlemea Raila? Tazama alivyohangaika kwenye 'gym' The suspect was arrested on Sunday, November 4, after medical report showed there was a penetration. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Commuters left stranded as Michuki rules roar back to life In a report by the Daily Nation, the student lost consciousness and two hours later, woke up only to find herself dumped near a borehole within the town. The teacher was arrested on Sunday, November 4, after a medical examination was conducted on the student which indicated there was penetration. READ ALSO: Mixed reactions as Uhuru meets Chinese president after SGR-fish fallout Confirming the incident, Wajir County Police Commander Stephen Ngetich said the suspect was arraigned in court on Monday, November 5. The student was set to sit for her theory KCSE exams which commenced on Monday, November 5. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news Kenya News Today: This Is Why Jacque Maribe Was Granted Bail | Tuko TV Source: Tuko - The Opposition leader said he would be concentrating on his new appointment by the African Union - Raila was appointed as High Representative of infrastructure and development in Africa - His role would be to focus on missing links along transnational highway corridors and establishing high speed train line to link Africa - Jubilee MPs have been on record asking Raila to exit the local political scene and focus on his new role Opposition leader Raila Odinga has finally ended speculation he will be actively involved in the 2022 succession politics. In a statement by his spokesman Dennis Onyango, Raila said he would not engage in local politics but would focus on his new role in the African Union Commission. To provide the required leadership in this critical area, and in line with his previous pronouncements, Odinga wishes to reiterate that he will not engage in Kenyas succession politics ahead of 2022, the statement read. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Uzee umeanza kumlemea Raila? Tazama alivyohangaika kwenye 'gym' Opposition leader Raila Odinga has finally ended speculation he will be contesting for the presidency in 2022. Photo: Raila Odinga Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: List of prominent Kenyan personalities on radar of FBI for drug trafficking The Monday, November 5, statement said Raila would dedicate his time to building infrastructure across Africa and uniting Kenyans. ''I want to dedicate the next couple of years to building infrastructure across the continent through his new office and uniting Kenyans through the Building Bridges to the New Kenyan Nation (BBI),'' Raila said. The Opposition leader also assured Kenyans that he would be working from his office in Nairobi. The former premier would also be involved in frequent missions thus work with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) offices in the various regions to coordinate his activities. READ ALSO: Uhuru in China to sign avocado deal after row over Chinese fish imports Since his appointment by the African Union as High Representative for infrastructure and development in Africa, Jubilee leaders have urged Raila to steer clear of local politics. The leaders said he should concentrate on his new continental job instead of playing local politics which is for the "small fish". Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenya News Today: Ken Okoth Is Fighting For Marijuana Legalization | Tuko TV. Source: Tuko -Guangdong Silk-Tex Group will set up a silk factory in Athi River and also establish a mega silk farm -The venture is expected to create over 300,000 jobs for Kenyans; a much needed boost for the economy -A World Bank report last week showed Kenyas attractiveness to investors had improved 19 places -Another firm plans to construct a cancer treatment centre in Kenya in partnership with the University of Nairobi President Uhuru Kenyattas ongoing visit to China has yielded fruits after the worlds largest silk producer announced plans to set up shop in Kenya. Officials of the Guangdong Silk-Tex Group led by their Chairman Ke Huiqi met Uhuru in Shanghai, China on Sunday, November 4, 2018, and revealed the company would not only set up a silk processing factory at the Export Processing Zone in Athi River but also establish a mega silk farm. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Uzee umeanza kumlemea Raila? Tazama alivyohangaika kwenye 'gym' President Uhuru Kenyattas ongoing visit to China has yielded fruits after the worlds largest silk producer announced plans to set up shop in Kenya. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Migori governor Okoth Obado hosts Ruto days after walking out of remand The Chinese government owned company will establish a cocoon farm on an estimated 8,237 acres of land with capacity to handle the entire silk value chain covering cocoon procurement, silk reeling, weaving and trading. The venture is expected to create over 300,000 jobs for Kenyans, giving the government a much needed shot in the arm in its endeavor to fulfill the promise to create employment opportunities. READ ALSO: Expectant mother gang-raped in turns in front of child, left to deliver in bush The venture is expected to create over 300,000 jobs for Kenyans, giving the government a much needed shot in the arm in its endeavor to fulfill the promise to create employment opportunities. Source: Facebook The announcement came days after the latest World Bank business report which showed Kenyas attractiveness to investors had improved 19 places. Kenya was ranked position 61 overall out of a total of 190 economies and the seventh most improved country globally. The report released on Wednesday, October 31, showed the country had strengthened access to credit, protection of minority investors and ease of paying taxes by merging all permits into a single unified business permit. While in China, Uhuru also met officials of Cherami China-Africa Investment Management, a firm that plans to construct a cancer treatment centre in Kenya in partnership with the University of Nairobi. The proposed cancer treatment and referral centre, the largest such facility in Sub-Saharan Africa, will be built next to the University of Nairobi's Dental School. The joint venture will include exchange programmes with leading Chinese universities as well as capacity building for Kenyan cancer experts. The Kenyan delegation to the meeting included University of Nairobi Vice Chancellor Prof Peter Mbithi. Uhuru has been one of the chief guests at the China International Import Expo, the first such event in China that has attracted participants from over 130 countries, among them Kenyan horticultural farmers and traders. China is using the Expo to showcase its willingness to open up its market to other countries. While Uhuru said the trade expo provides a platform for more win-win partnerships, his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jingping said his country would take proactive measures to correct the trade imbalance between Kenya and China. The trade pact came days after Kenya reversed a move to ban tilapia fish exports from China. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenya News Today: This Is Why Jacque Maribe Was Granted Bail | Tuko TV Source: Tuko November 30th is an important date for those in this country who are vaccinated with Astraze Those responsible for the death of activist Kateryna Handziuk, an advisor to the Kherson mayor, should be held to account, British Ambassador to Ukraine Judith Gough has said. "Terribly saddened to hear that Kateryna Handziuk has died. She battled her horrific injuries with courage & dignity. Important that those responsible for this dreadful attack are held to account," she wrote on her Twitter account. A well-known activist, volunteer, member of the Kherson City Council, Handziuk, who had sulfuric acid thrown in her face last summer, died at hospital on November 4. According to preliminary reports, the reason was a blood clot. The woman was 33 years old. The attack on Handziuk occurred on July 31. Unidentified individuals poured her with sulfuric acid. She suffered chemical burns and partially lost sight. Handziuk underwent over ten operations. She has been in Kyiv's burn center since August 1. Five people are suspected of an assassination attempt on Handziuk. All of them were detained. op Ukraine has received the assistance to improve its cyber defense level within the framework of the USAI ITI agreement. To date, we have already received the assistance from the U.S. government to improve the cyber defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine within the framework of the USAI ITI agreement. Right now, the works are underway to install equipment and software in the Cyber Incident Rapid Response Center, Volodymyr Rapko, chief of the signal troops, chief of the Main Directorate for Communications and Information Systems of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in an interview with the Defense Ministrys magazine Telecom. Military communications (October 2018). In addition, he informed that a project had been developed in cooperation with Estonian colleagues to create a cyber laboratory at one of the military units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This project has been approved by majority of the NATO countries, and we are currently holding talks on funding of this project, the chief of the signal troops said. As noted, Ukraine actively cooperates with the international partners in the field of development of information protection systems and cyber defense in the information and telecommunication systems of the Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Five projects on the development of cyber defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were submitted to the NATO Headquarters for their introduction within the NATO-Ukraine Cyber Defense Trust Fund. Currently, these projects are under consideration. ol Ukraine's armed forces have become one of the ten most powerful militaries in Europe according to American news website Business Insider. The report published on the website of the edition notes that the Ukrainian army is tenth in the ranking. According to analysts, Ukraine's defense budget is estimated at $4.88 billion. The Ukrainian army consists of 1.182 million military personnel, 2,214 combat tanks, 240 military aircraft, including 39 fighter jets, and 25 naval assets. At the same time, the Russian army was called the most powerful military in Europe. The top three also includes France and the United Kingdom. Turkey is fourth, followed by Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Greece. Belgium is in the last, 25th position in the ranking. Such factors as geography, logistical capabilities, natural resources, industrial capacity, diversity of weapons and assets, national development, and manpower were taken into account to compile the rating. op Ukraine's Joint Forces have conducted exercises involving air defense units and attack aircraft, the press center of the headquarters of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) has said. According to the report, anti-aircraft missile troops were trained to detect, recognize, intercept and destroy conditional air targets. The press center noted that attack aircraft crews had trained to destroy conditional land targets. op Turkey and Ukraine agreed to sign the free trade agreement by the years end. "At this meeting [the 7th meeting of the strategic council] today we decided to complete the work on signing of the free trade agreement by the years end. We believe that we will be able to achieve our goal - balance of trade at $10 billion - thanks to this agreement," President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the press conference upon the strategic councils meeting, an Ukrinform correspondent reported. He pointed out that Turkey developed the relations with Ukraine at the level of strategic partnership and underscored the importance of the reform process in Ukraine for the entire region. We follow the process of reforms in Ukraine. Not only Ukraine but also all the countries of the region will benefit from success in this process, Erdogan said. As reported, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko made the official visit to Turkey on November 3-4. ol One of the main goals of Ukrainian reforms is to create comfortable conditions for the foreign business. One of the important priorities of the Government is to strengthen trade and economic ties with our partners, including China as one of important partners, First Vice Prime Minister - Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv said at the Hongqiao International Trade Forum in Shanghai, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. He drew attention to the fact that one of the obvious priorities of the reforms was to create the comfortable environment for foreign investors. International rankings show significant progress in this regard. For example, Ukraine moved up from 152nd to 71st spot in Doing Business ranking. It is an unequivocal signal for investors. Currently, Ukraine is extremely attractive for investments due to the balanced steps of the President, the Government and the Parliament and the consistent implementation of comprehensive reforms in the economy, banking sector, public administration, education, medicine, social sphere, etc., the First Vice Prime Minister stressed. Kubiv recalled that Ukraine was one of the first countries to support the initiative of President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping to build the economic belt of the Great Silk Road and the Sea Silk Road of the 21st century. We hope for the implementation of the strategically important projects within the framework of the signed Ukraine-China action plan on the implementation of this initiative, he said. ol The first China International Import Expo (CIIE) and the Hongqiao International Trade Forum have kicked off in Shanghai's Hong Kong metropolis. A Ukrainian delegation is taking part in these events, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "China will push forward multilateral and bilateral cooperation in pursuit of development," China's President Xi Jinping said, while opening the CIIE. He called on all countries to be supporters of openness and counteract protectionism and unilateralism in trade. The head of state said China is ready to open its markets to the world and stimulate an increase in imports. According to him, in the next 15 years, China will import goods for $30 trillion. Ukraine has a national stand at the CIIE exhibition. In total, 172 countries, regions and international organizations from five continents are demonstrating their achievements at this exhibition. The organizers hope that while the waves of protectionism and one-sidedness threaten global growth, the exhibition will promote free trade and provide confidence in the global economy. The Ukrainian official delegation at the events in Shanghai is headed by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv. It consists of representatives of the ministries of economic development and trade, agrarian policy and food, infrastructure, information policy; the supervisory board of the Ukraine Investment Promotion Office, the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving, the State Space Agency of Ukraine, the Presidential Administration, the Verkhovna Rada, Kyiv City State Administration; the Antonov State Company, Ukrgasbank, PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, JSC Ukreximbank, and a number of leading state enterprises. During the exhibition, the head of the Ukrainian delegation will hold a series of bilateral meetings, in particular, with the leadership of Pacific Construction Group, ZTE and Huawei, as well as the heads of delegations from other participating countries. It is planned to sign a memorandum on the creation of an international platform for e-commerce for the sale of Ukrainian products to the People's Republic of China between the Bohai Commodity Exchange and the Silk Link Silk Road Association of Ukraine. The delegation also plans to visit Beijing and hold a number of meetings and negotiations with the leadership of China Railway Corporation, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), China National Electric Engineering Co., Ltd. (CNEEC), and China Road and Bridge Corporation. op During the official visit to the Republic of Turkey, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko took part in the solemn opening of the Consulate of Ukraine in Antalya, the presidents press service reported on November 4. I am very glad to be here today because I am the first President of Ukraine who comes to Antalya on the occasion of such an outstanding event - the opening of the Ukrainian Consulate in Antalya. Look how modern and beautiful it is. This is a symbol of the fact that this is one of the first priorities for the Ukrainian state," he said at the opening ceremony. Poroshenko stressed that every year more and more Ukrainians visit Antalya, and the opening of the consulate will unite the Ukrainian community. Every Ukrainian arriving in Turkey, Antalya, should feel the state's concern. Every Ukrainian living in Antalya should feel the state's concernHere Ukrainians could meet, unite, discuss joint events, he said and thanked the Ukrainian community for keeping the Ukrainian traditions and culture. As reported, President Petro Poroshenko was on an official visit to Turkey on November 3-4. iy The German federal chancellor visited Kyiv and Warsaw. Russia imposed sanctions against Ukrainian individuals and legal entities. The German federal chancellor visited Kyiv and Warsaw. Petro Poroshenko had fruitful talks in Turkey. Alexander Lukashenko decided to become the number one peacemaker. Russia imposed sanctions against Ukrainian individuals and legal entities. Angela Merkel, even after the announcement of the impending resignation, remains the most powerful European politician. Her visit to Kyiv was aimed at demonstrating the strategic nature of relations between Kyiv and Berlin, despite the fact that the German capital has a poorly concealed sympathy towards the Nord Stream 2 project. The federal chancellor managed to hold talks with the Ukrainian president, prime minister, parliamentarians and meet with representatives of NGOs and students in just half a day. She seemed to give a master class of European politics to representatives of the country in transition. What is pleasant is that she stressed the need to keep Ukraine's status as a gas transit country not only in Kyiv, but also in Warsaw. Petro Poroshenko's visit to Turkey proved fruitful. And it's not just about assurances from Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Ankara will never recognize the annexation of Crimea and expectations of the signing of a free trade agreement between the two countries by the end of this year. The President of Ukraine signed a cooperation agreement with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, which created formal grounds for the granting of a tomos of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Now the decision has to be made by spiritual fathers. Meanwhile, Poroshenko is harshly criticized by Russia and representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. During the Munich Security Conference Core Group Meeting in Minsk, Alexander Lukashenko decided to continue what was started at the end of October in Gomel. The President of Belarus expressed his readiness to send Belarusian troops as peacekeepers to the Russian-Ukrainian border and to ensure the holding of elections in the occupied Donbas, and he does not throw into question the belonging of the region to Ukraine. For the last 24 years, the Belarusian leader has not been confused with the fact that his country is in the CSTO and that there is a lack of trained peacekeepers in the ranks of the Belarusian army. Lukashenko needs to constantly maneuver in order to maintain at least formal independence from the Kremlin. Russia imposed sanctions against 322 individuals and 68 legal entities in Ukraine. Usually, a similar step by persons against whom sanctions have been imposed is regarded with concern, but in this case, the situation is somewhat different. Moscow published a sanctions list in which it is difficult to find any logic and consistency, and the motivation for its compilation is to artificially strengthen the image of the "enemies of Russia" for some Ukrainian politicians. I think Moscow will not stop here. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has taken part in the solemn opening of the Ukrainian community center "Ukrainian Family" in Antalya, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "Thank you for living with Ukraine in heart, telling our Turkish friends about Ukraine. I am sure that Ukraine, which is in great need of your help, will definitely win," Poroshenko said, addressing the community. He also emphasized the importance of cooperation between the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar diasporas. "The world will never recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea. We will fight for the return of Crimea to Ukraine," Poroshenko said. op U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch has stressed the need to identify and prosecute all those responsible for the death of activist and Kherson mayor's aide Kateryna Handziuk, including those who ordered the attack on her. "We again call for Ukrainian authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice, including those who ordered the attack," the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine wrote on its Twitter account on November 4, citing Yovanovitch. The diplomat, on behalf of the U.S. Government and the American people, offered her condolences and deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the deceased. A well-known activist, volunteer, member of the Kherson City Council, Handziuk, who had sulfuric acid thrown in her face last summer, died at hospital on November 4. According to preliminary reports, the reason was a blood clot. The woman was 33 years old. President Petro Poroshenko called on law enforcement agencies to do everything necessary to bring the killers of the activist to justice. The attack on Handziuk occurred on July 31. Unidentified individuals poured her with sulfuric acid. She suffered chemical burns and partially lost sight. Handziuk underwent over ten operations. She has been in Kyiv's burn center since August 1. Five people are suspected of an assassination attempt on Handziuk. All of them were detained. op The permanent representation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which was granted the St. Andrews Church in Kyiv, will perform the functions of an embassy and help establish relations of the new church after the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church is created. Rostyslav Pavlenko, the adviser to the President of Ukraine, director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, made such a statement at a briefing, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "It is the work of a representative office, i.e., it is what we expect from an embassy: maintaining bilateral contacts, primarily with the independent Ukrainian church; where the government support is required in accordance with Ukrainian legislation - with the Ukrainian state and Ecumenical Orthodoxy; the relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and other Orthodox churches," Pavlenko said, answering the question about the mission of the permanent representation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Ukraine. According to him, the representative offices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of different levels exist in many countries that have independent Orthodox churches. November 3, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signed an agreement on cooperation and collaboration between Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. October 18, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed the law on the transfer of the St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for perpetual free of charge usage. October 11, the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate made the decision to grant a tomos of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. ol A Ukrainian woman was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Malaysian High Court after she was found guilty of trafficking cocaine three years ago. The accused, Klavdiia Lopatkina, 24, broke down in tears after Judge Datuk Abdul Wahab Mohamed meted out the sentence, New Straits Times reported. In his judgement, Abdul Wahab said the accused had plenty of time to check on the two plastic bags she brought from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur and then to Penang. Instead, she just covered her eyes and did not take the chance to check inside the bags which she claimed contained chocolates, he said. Previously, Klavdiia was released by the High Court, but the prosecution team appealed at the Court of Appeal and the court ordered the accused to enter her defence. Klavdiia, who was one-month pregnant when she was arrested, was charged with trafficking 1.5kg of cocaine at the Penang International Airport at 11am on Dec 31, 2015. For that offence, she was charged under Section 39(B) of Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which carries a death sentence if convicted. Klavdiia, who gave birth to a baby girl while she was in prison, was represented by lawyers Datuk N. Sivananthan and Low Huey while the prosecution was carried out by Deputy Public Prosecutor Naizatul Zima Tajudin. The ambassador offered her condolences and deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Kateryna Handziuk. The United States has called on the Ukrainian authorities to bring the perpetrators of Kherson activist Kateryna Handziuk's murder to justice. "On behalf of the U.S. Government and the American people, I offer my condolences and deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Kateryna Handziuk. We again call for Ukrainian authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice, including those who ordered the attack," the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv wrote on Twitter, citing U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch as saying. Amb Y: on behalf of the U.S. Government and the American people, I offer my condolences and deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Kateryna #Handziuk. We again call for Ukrainian authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice, including those who ordered the attack. U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) November 4, 2018 As UNIAN reported earlier, Kherson activist, adviser to the Mayor of Kherson and acting manager of affairs at Kherson City Council's executive committee Kateryna Handziuk on July 31 survived an act of acid throwing. Handziuk's injury was over 30% of the total body surface area, and doctors assessed her condition as serious. She was transferred to a Kyiv hospital, where died on November 4 after long treatment. She reportedly died of a blood clot. Police originally qualified the attack on the official as an attempted murder committed with extreme cruelty, then its status was changed to completed murder. Six suspects were detained, one of whom, Mykola Novikov, was later released from custody as charges against him were dropped. Three suspects Vyacheslav Vishnevsky, Volodymyr Vasyanovych, and Viktor Horbunov are now under house arrest. The alleged organizer of the assassination, Serhiy Torbin, remains in custody. His arrest has recently been extended until December 3. Mykyta Hrabchuk is also under arrest. Poroshenko said more than 1.3 million Ukrainians visit Turkey every year. Ukraine on Sunday opened its consulate in southern Turkey's Antalya province with the participation of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kiran, Ukrainian nationals living in Antalya and a large crowd of guests attended the opening ceremony that comes one day after Poroshenko's meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, Daily Sabah, a Turkish pro-government daily, has reported. Read alsoUkraine, Turkey sign bilateral cooperation documents "We reaffirmed our commitment to close relations at our meeting with President Erdogan. Turkish and Ukrainian relations will never deteriorate," Poroshenko said at the opening ceremony, adding that the consulate was significant to show that Kyiv was determined "to bring services to its citizens living in the region." Poroshenko said more than 1.3 million Ukrainians visit Turkey every year. The president stressed the importance of opening the consulate, saying not only tourists come to Antalya for holidays, but also a large number of international summits take place in the southern city and Ukrainian diplomats will be able to take active part in such events. Turkey and Ukraine signed an agreement to allow passport-free travel to their citizens last year. Turkey is among popular destinations for Ukrainian tourists who mostly prefer Antalya, a popular resort city with year-round warm weather. In 2017, some 713,000 Ukrainian tourists arrived in Antalya and this number exceeded one million this year. Adding to their flourishing relations in recent years, both countries increased the number of flights and added new routes to flights between Turkey and Ukraine. Turkey is expected to conclude a free trade agreement with Ukraine by the end of this year. Chernobuk was detained on November 3. Andriy Lysenko, the press secretary of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) of Ukraine, has said Kyiv's Holosiyivsky district court has ruled to arrest ex-head of the Court of Appeals of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Valeriy Chernobuk, who is suspected of committing high treason. Read alsoECHR may recognize Russia established control over Crimea even before occupation "At 09:00 on November 5, Kyiv's Holosiyivsky district court considered a motion filed by the [Ukrainian-based] prosecutor's office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to select a preventive measure for former Head of the Court of Appeals of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Valeriy Chernobuk. The preventive measure in the form of arrest was chosen upon review of the motion," he wrote on Facebook. As reported by UNIAN, Ukrainian law enforcement officers detained Chernobuk on November 3. The suspect accused of high treason was put on the wanted list. The operatives exposed administrators of anti-Ukrainian communities set up in social networks. In September-October, the Security Service of Ukraine blocked the activities of an inter-regional network of anti-Ukrainian online propaganists who had been acting in the interests of the aggressor state, the Russian Federation. Security operatives exposed nine pro-Russian propagandists in Odesa, Kyiv, and Severodonetsk. The culprits, who were financed by Russian intelligence, would post political news drafted in Russia and call for actions of public disobedience and mass riots. The Kremlin's information agents, in particular, spread calls for the overthrow of the constitutional system and state power in our country, as well as for supporting the 'DPR/LPR' terrorists," the SBU press service said. Read alsoRussia seeks to thwart Ukraine elections by disinformation, cyber attacks - Poroshenko It is also noted that according to the plan of their Russian curators, through manipulating public opinion of Ukrainian netizens, propagandists were supposed to meddle in the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine. In this regard, the SBU once again appeals to Ukrainian citizens to remain vigilant, not to succumb to negative informational influence by Russian intelligence-controlled propagandists, and not to assist the perpetrators in spreading fake news and propaganda. Foreign diplomats and politicians condemn attacks against civil society activists in Ukraine. British Ambassador to Ukraine Judith Gough has said those responsible for Kherson activist Kateryna Handziuk's murder should be held to account. "Terribly saddened to hear that Kateryna Handzyuk has died. She battled her horrific injuries with courage & dignity. Important that those responsible for this dreadful attack are held to account," she wrote on Twitter on November 5, 2018. Terribly saddened to hear that Kateryna Handzyuk has died. She battled her horrific injuries with courage & dignity. Important that those responsible for this dreadful attack are held to account. https://t.co/by7rWFzLAw Judith Gough (@JudithGoughFCO) November 5, 2018 Earlier, European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn also reacted to the death of Handziuk. "Very saddened by the news of the passing of the incredibly brave Kateryna Handziuk. Attacks against civil society activists are unacceptable. The perpetrators of this vicious crime must be brought to justice. My thoughts are with her family and friends," he wrote on Twitter on November 4, 2018. Very saddened by the news of the passing of the incredibly brave Kateryna #Handziuk. Attacks against #civilsociety activists are unacceptable. The perpetrators of this vicious crime must be brought to justice. My thoughts are with her family and friends. #Ukraine Johannes Hahn (@JHahnEU) November 4, 2018 As UNIAN reported earlier, Kherson activist, adviser to the Mayor of Kherson and acting manager of affairs at Kherson City Council's executive committee Kateryna Handziuk on July 31 survived an act of acid throwing. Handziuk's injury was over 30% of the total body surface area, and doctors assessed her condition as serious. She was transferred to a Kyiv hospital, where died on November 4 after long treatment. She reportedly died of a blood clot. Police originally qualified the attack on the official as an attempted murder committed with extreme cruelty, then its status was changed to completed murder. Six suspects were detained, one of whom, Mykola Novikov, was later released from custody as charges against him were dropped. Three suspects Vyacheslav Vishnevsky, Volodymyr Vasyanovych, and Viktor Horbunov are now under house arrest. The alleged organizer of the assassination, Serhiy Torbin, remains in custody. His arrest has recently been extended until December 3. Mykyta Hrabchuk is also under arrest. Bartholomew says nearly 50 million people have the right to their church's independence. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has said the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) should accept the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church. "It is difficult [for the ROC] to understand that, the same way the Ecumenical Patriarchate has made so many peoples in the Balkans free, thereby weakening itself, but having recognized their right to internal self-government, church independence, autocephaly, thus Moscow should recognize that the Ukrainian people who it took in the non-orthodox way for several centuries under its jurisdiction, or more precisely management, that these nearly 50 million people have the right to church independence, to autocephaly," Bartholomew said, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported with reference to the Greek newspaper Proto Thema. Read alsoPoroshenko, Bartholomew sign cooperation agreement between Ukraine and Ecumenical Patriarchate (Photo) As UNIAN reported earlier, on October 11, following a meeting of the Synod, a decision was announced, stating that the Ecumenical Patriarchate proceeds to granting autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine. In addition, the legal binding of the Synod's letter of 1686 was abolished, thus taking the Kyiv Metropolis from under Moscow's canonical jurisdiction. Also, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) Filaret and head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) Makariy were reinstated in their canonical status. On October 12, the UOC-KP urged the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to prepare for a special unification council. The police within their authority have questioned 367 people as witnesses, ordered 21 forensic examinations, conducted nine raids, four investigation-related experiments, 26 inspections, 100 secret investigative actions against 31 people. Ukraine's police have transferred the case against perpetrators of the assassination on Kherson activist Kateryna Handziuk to the SBU Security Service of Ukraine. "The National Police has carried out all the necessary investigative actions within their powers and by decision of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), which was taken today, November 5, have transferred the case to the Main Investigation Department of the SBU Security Service of Ukraine," the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has reported. Read alsoAmbassador Gough on Handziuk's death: Those responsible to be held to account The police within their authority have questioned 367 people as witnesses, ordered 21 forensic examinations, conducted nine raids, four investigation-related experiments, 26 inspections, 100 secret investigative actions against 31 people, it said. "The investigation against five accused has been completed these are the perpetrators and organizers of the crime. Under the PGO's decision, all materials have been transferred to the Main Investigation Department of the SBU for an objective investigation. It will continue the investigation to establish who ordered the crime," the ministry said. The ministry said this would allow the SBU investigators to combine the proceedings and conduct a pre-trial investigation from the moment of planning to its actual completion. Read alsoU.S. calls on Ukraine to bring perpetrators of Handziuk's murder to justice As UNIAN reported earlier, Kherson activist, adviser to the Mayor of Kherson and acting manager of affairs at Kherson City Council's executive committee Kateryna Handziuk on July 31 survived an act of acid throwing. Handziuk's injury was over 30% of the total body surface area, and doctors assessed her condition as serious. She was transferred to a Kyiv hospital, where died on November 4 after long treatment. She reportedly died of a blood clot. Police originally qualified the attack on the official as an attempted murder committed with extreme cruelty, then its status was changed to completed murder. Six suspects were detained, one of whom, Mykola Novikov, was later released from custody as charges against him were dropped. Three suspects Vyacheslav Vishnevsky, Volodymyr Vasyanovych, and Viktor Horbunov are now under house arrest. The alleged organizer of the assassination, Serhiy Torbin, remains in custody. His arrest has recently been extended until December 3. Mykyta Hrabchuk is also under arrest. On Sunday, November 4, Kherson city council official, activist and anti-corruption whistleblower Kateryna Handziuk, who had been doused with acid near her house four months ago, died. Despite all the assurances of high-ranking officials about their personal control of the case, law enforcers have not even transferred the case file to court. Should we hope for a fair investigation and voicing the names of not only the executioners of, but also the masterminds behind Keteryna's murder after her death? The attempt on a Kherson city council official, adviser to the mayor of Kherson and a local public activist Kateryna Handziuk took place on the morning of July 31. Right outside her house, a young man ran up to her and doused the woman with sulfuric acid. The activist suffered severe chemical burns. More than 30% of her body was affected - the head, hands, face, chest, and legs. Despite this, local law enforcers initially opened criminal proceedings into hooliganism. However, the public outcry forced them to re-qualify the crime into an intentional grievous bodily harm committed with the aim of intimidation. Later on, the crime qualification finally became more real: an attempted murder. But only after Handziuk's death did the police re-qualify the crime as a premeditated murder, committed in conspiracy, with particular cruelty, and for financial gain. In principle, suspicions that local law enforcers will try to drag the case into the oblivion arose not only because of the qualification of the crime. It's not only that Handziuk's friends and other activists hinted at the idea that the Kherson police themselves could be involved in the attempt on her. Moreover, law enforcers initially tried to put all blame on some scapegoat as they detained a man who was not even close to the crime scene on the day of the attack. Again, the innocent man was not thrown behind bars only because of the public outcry. In the summer, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko took the case under his personal control. However, the prosecutor's office did not make much progress in the search for the mastermind behind the assassination. So, on the PGO initiative, the task to find the mastermind was assigned to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). As a result, five people have been identified and arrested in the Handziuk case as of today: the executioners are Volodymyr Vasyanovych, Mykyta Hrabchuk, Vyacheslav Vyshnevsky, Viktor Horbunov, and the organizer is Serhiy Torbin. All suspects except for the latter admitted that they received for the assault on the activist a reward ranging from $500 to $800. As Handziuk's colleague, head of the Center for Political Studies and Analytics Viktor Taran told UNIAN, at the moment there is a person who calls himself a mastermind behind this crime. The person who is held in custody in the SBU detention center [Serhiy Torbin] claims he is that mastermind. He, in fact, has taken the blame, but we understand that with high probability, it was not him. And as long as he asserts this, it will be difficult to do anything to refute the claim. But yesterday, after the case was re-qualified for murder, meaning that he could spend as much as 25 years behind bars, there is a chance that we will hear the real name of the mastermind, he said. Detained executioners and organizer still persistently hide the name or the names of masterminds. This is strange. Usually, after police interrogations, people tell even more than they actually know, said criminology expert Hanna Malyar. According to her, this kind of organized attack can be carried out for two reasons - money or power. That is, Kateryna did not allow someone either to make money or abuse (or gain) authority, bypassing the law. So, the use of sulfuric acid is a perverted fantasy, which may indicate a personal deep hostility and resentment, she believes. Let me assume that the mastermind behind the crime is able to influence suspects. In addition, I assume that this is not some mediocre mastermind (or masterminds), otherwise their name would have long been voiced, taking into account the high profile of the case and the risk of social tensions, concludes Hanna Malyar. We would really like to hope that an international response will help investigate this case to the end. In particular, the European Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, has already responded to the death of the Kherson official. "Very saddened by the news of the passing of the incredibly brave Kateryna Handziuk. Attacks against civil society activists are unacceptable. The perpetrators of this vicious crime must be brought to justice. My thoughts are with her family and friends," he wrote on Twitter on November 4, 2018. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko also made a statement on the case: I'd like to ask the law enforcers to do everything possible so that the killers are found, punished, and put at the dock. We must all join our forces to make it happen, together to help law enforcement agencies, the police, to make sure that the evil is punished." In turn, a number of people's deputies are proposing to set up a Temporary Investigation Commission to investigate the Handziuk case. However, it is a big question, how it could help. When the people who have authority write that we must join forces in the investigation of the murder, it looks like a mockery. What does this 'join' mean? Who should join whom? We have law enforcement agencies. They either perform their functions or... political analyst Petro Oleschuk said, commenting on the reaction of the head of state. However, considering how various law enforcement agencies perform their functions, it is hard to believe in achieving the final result finding out the name or the names of masterminds. Thus, the police claim that they carried out their part of the investigation and, in fact, they claim they're done with this case. Since the investigation is almost complete, the entire evidence base has been collected, and in the near future we will transfer the materials of the criminal proceedings to the court. If the detainees are proven guilty, they face up to 15 years in prison or life imprisonment. That is, the police have done their work regarding the organizer and the executioners, said the head of the National Police, Serhiy Knyazev. Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko echoes the idea. The investigation by the National Police, which never stopped, will soon be completed. The established executors and the organizer will appear before the court... In order to establish the mastermind behind the crime, the suspect in the organization of the murder in late October was transferred to the detention center of the SBU's Kyiv Department, he noted. At the same time, according to Kateryna Handziuk's lawyer, Yevhenia Zakrevska, it is not enough to establish the masterminds behind the crime and bring them to justice. After all, it is the SBU, not the police, who are investigating the case against these masterminds. The thing is that the evidence in a criminal case against the executors cannot be simply added to another case against the masterminds. Legally, this can be done only by combining the two cases, otherwise law enforcers will be forced to duplicate all investigative actions. Therefore, she said, the two cases should be combined into one. If this is not done, then I see no judicial prospects of bringing the mastermind to responsibility. Just transferring to the court the case against the executors means making it impossible to bring to responsibility the mastermind behind the crime, she is convinced. In turn, a Ukrainian lawyer Masi Nayem remains skeptical about the law enforcers combining the cases and transferring all materials to the SBU, since the police have provided false information before. "Now we're seeing the case being sabotaged. I am sure that the police know the name of the mastermind perfectly well but they have no courage to admit it," he noted. We would really like to believe that law enforcers will hear the voice of reason, the criminal cases will be merged into a single probe, the mastermind will be found, their name will be announced, and they will not be able to avoid punishment. Otherwise, Ukrainians will once again see that criminals can get away even with high-profile crimes and that this is happening with the assistance of law enforcers. Tetiana Stezhar, Anastasia Zaremba If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Intelligence reports say three enemy troops were eliminated and another four were wounded. Russia's hybrid military forces mounted 18 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as killed in action and another four as wounded in action. Read alsoUkraine reports 14 enemy attacks in Donbas on Sunday "One Ukrainian soldier was killed and another four were wounded in the past day. According to intelligence reports, three occupiers were killed and another four were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on November 5, 2018. The Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire from mortars of various caliber, weapons of infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms as they were attacking the defenders of the towns of Zolote and Avdiyivka. The following villages also came under enemy fire: Krymske, Novotoshkivske, Novotroyitske, Pavlopil, Vodiane, Hnutove, and Lebedynske. The enemy resorted to 120mm mortars twice and 82mm mortars thrice to shell the Ukrainian positions near Zolote. The Ukrainian fortified positions near Novotoshkivske, Avdiyivka, Pavlopil, Vodiane, Hnutove, and Lebedynske also came under mortar fire. "Since Monday midnight, Russian-led forces have mounted two attacks on the Ukrainian positions near Pavlopil and Hnutove. No heavy weapons have been used. No Ukrainian army casualties have been reported since the start of the day," the update said. Washington also says it wants to stop what it calls Tehran's "malign" activities including cyber attacks, ballistic missile tests, and support for terror groups and militias in the Middle East. The U.S. unleashed its "toughest ever" sanctions against Iran on Monday, a move that has already sparked mass protests in the oil-rich nation. The Trump administration reinstated all sanctions removed under the 2015 nuclear deal, targeting both Iran and states that trade with it, the BBC said. Read alsoReuters: Oil prices fall as U.S. grants Iran sanction waivers to major importers They will hit oil exports, shipping and banks all core parts of the economy. Thousands of Iranians chanting "Death to America" rallied on Sunday, rejecting calls for talks. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has vowed to sell his country's oil and break the sanctions. The military was also quoted as saying it would hold air defence drills on Monday and Tuesday to prove the country's capabilities. The demonstrations took place on the 39th anniversary of the occupation of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, which led to four decades of mutual hostility. Before travelling to a campaign rally for the U.S. mid-term elections, President Donald Trump said Iran was already struggling under his administration's policies. "The Iran sanctions are very strong. They are the strongest sanctions we've ever imposed. And we'll see what happens with Iran, but they're not doing very well, I can tell you." Washington re-imposed the sanctions after Mr Trump in May pulled out of a 2015 accord aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions. Washington also says it wants to stop what it calls Tehran's "malign" activities including cyber attacks, ballistic missile tests, and support for terror groups and militias in the Middle East. The U.S. has been gradually re-imposing sanctions, but analysts say this latest round is by far the most significant. More than 700 individuals, entities, vessels and aircraft are now on the sanctions list, including major banks, oil exporters and shipping companies. More than 100 big international companies had withdrawn from Iran because of the looming sanctions. (@FahadShabbir) Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., the world's second-largest shipbuilder by orders, said Monday it has clinched a US $273 million deal to build three oil carriers for Norwegian Hunter Tankers SA SEOUL, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., the world's second-largest shipbuilder by orders, said Monday it has clinched a US $273 million deal to build three oil carriers for Norwegian Hunter Tankers SA. Daewoo Shipbuilding said it is set to deliver the very large crude carriers, which can hold 300,000 tons of oil each, to Hunter Tankers by Oct. 31, 2020. The deal raised to 10 the number of very large crude carriers that Hunter Tankers has ordered from Daewoo Shipbuilding this year. (@FahadShabbir) Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has said that unlike previous governments, suspension and transfers of health staff was not a policy of the incumbent government. LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) : Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has said that unlike previous governments, suspension and transfers of health staff was not a policy of the incumbent government She was talking to the media during her visits to various health centres in Mianwali district on Monday. First of all, she visited THQ Hospital Kalabagh and then Rural Health Centres in Daudkhail, Kamermashani, THQ Hospital Eisakhail and lastly she visited DHQ Sakina MH Hospital. "We are not supposed to create terror among the health staff but want to bring about a real change and create a patient-friendly environment in health centres," she said. However, the minister made it clear that those who would not mend their ways despite warnings would face the music. Dr Yasmin expressed her satisfaction over staff attendance and directed the hospital staff to provide patients blankets due to decreasing temperatures. While hearing complaints of patients and their attendants, she directed the medical superintendents and senior medical officers to solve their problems. The minister strictly directed the Gynae ward "not to refuse delivery cases arriving in emergency department as it may cause loss to both mother and infant". She stressed administrative officers to keep all medical equipmentfunctional. The Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Syed Ali Gilani and other Hurriyat leaders and organizations have paid rich tributes to the martyrs of Shopian of Indian occupied Kashmir. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :The Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Syed Ali Gilani and other Hurriyat leaders and organizations have paid rich tributes to the martyrs of Shopian of Indian occupied Kashmir. According to Kashmir Media Service, Syed Ali Gilani in a statement issued in Srinagar expressed concern over civilian killings in Shopian and expressed solidarity with the bereaved family of contractor and builder, Shahid Mir. He also denounced the authorities for their stubborn attitude and continued bloodshed and said for last several decades, people in the territory have been are facing war-like situation. People are facing the extreme situations, he said, adding people are facing bullets and pellets at the hands of arrogant Indian forces. Condemning the use of brute force against the civilians, the APHC chairman said on the pretext of search and cordon operations common people are deliberately targeted and victimized by the men in uniform. People are killed, harassed, tortured and threatened with dire consequences under the garb of these operations, he deplored. The Chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir, Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai in a statement, denouncing the killing, said people in Kashmir are resisting the aggression because they want a dignified and free life. He said the failure of the international community to protect Kashmiri people encourages India to commit more war crimes against Kashmiris. He appealed to the world community to exert pressure on India to immediately stop its military aggression against the Kashmiri people and to condemn such acts which are in blatant violation of international human rights and humanitarian law. The Hurriyat forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Frooq in an extraordinary meeting in Srinagar observed present situation in Kashmir is highly volatile and explosive in nature as Indian forces present at every inch of Kashmir are busy killing, maiming and harassing Kashmiris and there is an atmosphere of fear all around. The meeting said that all the basic principles of democracy and humanity are trampled in Kashmir through the military might" and every voice that is raised against the injustices is silenced through force. The participants of the meeting denounced the frequent curbs on the movement of forum chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and termed it political vendetta. Meanwhile, Tanzeem-e-Islami Azadi Jammu and Kashmir Chairman, Abdul Samad Inqilabi during his visits to different parts of the territory condemned the spate of civilian killings by Indian troops. He also paid tributes to Jammu martyrs ahead of the Jammu Martyrs Day. Senior Kashmiri leader and chief of Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP) Sardar Khalid Ibrahim, who passed away on Sunday in Islamabad due to brain hemorrhage at the age 71 years, was laid to rest in his ancestral village Kot Mehta near Rawalakot. MUZAFFARABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :Senior Kashmiri leader and chief of Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP) Sardar Khalid Ibrahim, who passed away on Sunday in Islamabad due to brain hemorrhage at the age 71 years, was laid to rest in his ancestral village Kot Mehta near Rawalakot Before burial, his funeral prayer was held at Sabir Shaheed sports Stadium in Rawalakot, which was attended by thousands of people including AJK President Sardar Masood Khan, former prime ministers, Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry, Sardar Attique Ahmad Khan, President Pakistan Peoples Party AJK, Ch Latif Akbar, ministers, members of the Legislative Assembly and government officials. Late Sardar Khalid Ibrahim was the son of Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, the founder AJK president and was elected as member of Legislative Assembly five times from Rawalakot constituency. He was known for his straightforwardness and principle standing in the politics who never compromised his principles for mere political gains rather sacrificed his seat twice by resignation on certain issues and was facilitated at large scale in political circles and general public. The government of AJK has announced two days public mourning on his demise and all government office, educational institutions and markets in Rawalakot remain closed on the occasion of his funeral. Earlier, his body was carried from Islamabad in a big caravan which was given a warmest reception at Azad Pattin ( entry point to AJK) by thousands of people. Arabian Adventures has signed a partnership agreement with HTMS International, one of the largest general sales agents in Italy. Under the agreement, HTMS will promote and sell the UAE-based destination management companys premium services in the Italian market. DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 05th Nov, 2018) Arabian Adventures has signed a partnership agreement with HTMS International, one of the largest general sales agents in Italy. Under the agreement, HTMS will promote and sell the UAE-based destination management companys premium services in the Italian market. Samir Mehta, General Manager of Arabian Adventures, said, "We are delighted to increase our investment into our international operations with this strategic partnership. Todays announcement underlines our commitment to the Italian market, where we see excellent business opportunities and solid demand for our quality services. We look forward to welcoming ever more Italian travellers in the UAE with the legendary Arabian hospitality we are renowned for. " "We are excited to partner with Arabian Adventures, a leading destination management company operating at one of our customers most preferred destinations, the UAE," said Marco Innocenti, CEO of HTMS Italy. "Following the recent celebration of our 30th anniversary, todays announcement marks another remarkable milestone at the end of a memorable year." Arabian Adventures offers its personalised services to consumers directly as well as through its extensive international partnership network, which includes the worlds most respected tour operators, incentive houses and cruise lines. Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammed Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Minister of Infrastructure Development and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Transport Authority - Land and Maritime (FTA), has received a letter from Dan Tok, Minister of Transport of the Czech Republic, regarding a request to the United Arab Emirates to nominate the Czech Republic to host the 2023 World Road Congress. ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 05th Nov, 2018) Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammed Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Minister of Infrastructure Development and Chairman of the board of Directors of the Federal Transport Authority - Land and Maritime (FTA), has received a letter from Dan Tok, Minister of Transport of the Czech Republic, regarding a request to the United Arab Emirates to nominate the Czech Republic to host the 2023 World Road Congress. While meeting with Czech Ambassador to the UAE Alexander Sporich at his office in Abu Dhabi, Al Nuaimi praised the request, which stresses the strong bilateral relations between the UAE and Czech Republic, as well as all avenues and mutual coordination in regional and international events regarding issues of mutual interest. They also discussed relations between the two countries and ways to expand cooperation in transport, land and sea transportation, as well as infrastructure fields, for the benefit of the two friendly peoples. (@FahadShabbir) Hamad Saeed Sultan Al Shamsi, UAE Ambassador to Lebanon, inaugurated the 'UAE Tank' project in the town of Badnayel Al Koura, under the patronage of Saad Al Hariri, Prime Minister of Lebanon, and funded by the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, as part of the Year of Zayed. BEIRUT, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 05th Nov, 2018) Hamad Saeed Sultan Al Shamsi, UAE Ambassador to Lebanon, inaugurated the 'UAE Tank' project in the town of Badnayel Al Koura, under the patronage of Saad Al Hariri, Prime Minister of Lebanon, and funded by the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, as part of the Year of Zayed. The project is part of the charity, development and humanitarian projects funded and supported by the UAE in Lebanon, to improve the countrys infrastructure and facilitate the lives of its citizens and fulfil their needs. The inauguration was attended by Abdulghani Kabbara, Advisor to the Lebanese Prime Minister for North Affairs, and many heads of municipalities, religious leaders and local residents. In his speech, Al Shamsi highlighted the UAEs keenness to fund development and humanitarian projects, especially in poor areas. "We launched around 100 projects, half of which are in Akar and neighbouring areas because we realised the need of local residents for these projects," he said. "The late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan loved Lebanon and exerted considerable efforts to ensure its stability. Our leadership is following his legacy, which reinforced its international position and made it an Arab and international model to follow," he added while noting that the project will supply nearly 120 residential units with water. Mahmoud Younis, Chairman of Badnayel Municipality, offered a shield to Al Shamsi, to thank the UAE and the foundation for funding the project. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Islamabad police have arrested 11 outlaws from various areas of the city and recovered narcotics, stolen bike and weapons from them, a police spokesman said here Monday. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) : Islamabad police have arrested 11 outlaws from various areas of the city and recovered narcotics, stolen bike and weapons from them, a police spokesman said here Monday. A team led by SP (Saddar Zone) Umer Khan, Sub-Inspector Ghulam Shabbir arrested two drug pushers from sector F-11/2, involved in supplying drugs at educational institutions. They have been identified as Asad Shabbir and Shahid while police team recovered 300 gram hashish, 103 gram heroin and eight gram ice from their possession. Meanwhile, SHO Tarnol Sub-Inspector Iqbal Gujar and others during special checking near `Pind Parian stop' arrested a lady Sadia Bano and recovered 10.500 gram hahish from her. Police team also arrested two drug peddlers namely Abdul Qayum and Tariq besides recovering 1.390 gram heroin from their possession. ASI Haider Ali from CIA police arrested two bootleggers namely Faisal Khan and Shaour Masih and recovered 60 liter wine from their possession. ASI Sargul Khan arrested Shahbaz Masih and recovered 30 liter wine and 80 empty bottles from him. ASI Zafar Iqbal from Koral police arrested Khawer Abbas and recovered one 30 bore pistol from him. ASI Sajjad from Sihala police arrested Ibrahim involved in selling petroleum products illegally. ASI Qasim Zia nabbed Arbab and for having one 30 bore pistol each. Cases have been registered against them and further investigation is underway from them. (@rukhshanmir) ISLAMABAD, Nov 5 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi Monday said action would be taken against all the miscreant elements involved in damaging public, private properties and vehicles during the protests across the country. Talking to private news channel, he said police had arrested over 670 persons invloved in rioting on first day of protest. The government would not allow few people to get up and shut the cities whenever they want, he asserted. Shehryar said PTI would take all possible measures to restore peace across the country with the consensus of IGs, Home Ministers and other concerned departments. To a question, he lauded the opposition parties for their mature behavior and cooperation with the government on this matter. He said the government would further strengthen all the institutions and promote democracy in the country. On the directives ANP chief, Asfandyar Wali Khan, the general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain has issued show-cause notices to its central vice president, Bushra Gohar and former KP president Afrasiab Khan Khattak for their continuous activities against the interest of the party, constitution and discipline of the party. PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :On the directives ANP chief, Asfandyar Wali Khan , the general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain has issued show-cause notices to its central vice president, Bushra Gohar and former KP president Afrasiab Khan Khattak for their continuous activities against the interest of the party, constitution and discipline of the party. The notice issued with the signature of the General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that the activities of the party vice president and former provincial president, Afrasiab Khan Khattak are causing irreparable damage to the party, which resulting in creating misunderstanding and confusion among the party workers, which is no doubt an attempt of damaging the party. On contact, Bacha Khan Markaz, the ANP headquarters confirmed the issuance of notices to both ANP leaders. Through the show-cause, both party activists have been asked for submission of written explanationwithin a period of seven days. Otherwise, disciplinary action will be initiatedagainst them for working against the party policy and discipline. Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shalwani on Monday, following the directives of the Sindh Chief Minister, visited the godowns of New Sabzi Mandi where a fire had broken out the other day. KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shalwani on Monday, following the directives of the Sindh Chief Minister , visited the godowns of New Sabzi Mandi where a fire had broken out the other day. The affected people and the association of godown/warehouse owners of New Sabzi Mandi also called on the Commissioner Karachi at his office and discussed details about the incident and the losses caused by the fire. The Commissioner Karachi assured the affected people that the government would help them and for that purpose details were being collected. He further said the government would also ensure precautionary measures to prevent such incidents. (@rukhshanmir) Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shah Frman has directed Higher Education Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to get record of all recruitment in BS-17 and below from all provincial universities made during past ten year. PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) : Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shah Frman has directed Higher Education Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to get record of all recruitment in BS-17 and below from all provincial universities made during past ten year. He issued these directives while chairing a senate meeting of the Women University Mardan at Governor House, Peshawar on Monday. He said that we have to see that how recruitments have been made during past 10 years. The recruitments on the basis of political interference and against the merit has become menace for higher educational institution and the government is committed to removing anomalies permanently. The Governor said that zero tolerance policy is being observed for higher education institution to get positive results and for the betterment of educational standards. He further said that any illegal and against the merit recruitment would not be tolerated at any cost, adding "we are against unemployment but we have to establish a merit based system in all public sector universities." Later the senate gave approval of the current fiscal budget for the University. The senate meeting was attended by the Principle Secretary toGovernor Nizam-ud-Din, Secretary Higher Education Department Manzoor Ahmad, ViceChancellor women university Mardan and others. (@FahadShabbir) National Accountability Bureau Rawalpindi on Monday has filed a reference against the management of Ministry of Commerce Employees Cooperative Housing Society and others. ISLAMABAD,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) : National Accountability Bureau Rawalpindi on Monday has filed a reference against the management of Ministry of Commerce Employees Cooperative Housing Society and others. The accused namely President Ministry of Commerce Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Rana Ghulam Farid, Ex-Vice President Syed Amir Hussain Shah, General Secretary Mazhar Hussain, former executive members Muhammad Akram Awan, Muhammad Arshad and CEO M/s Sun Shine Real Estate Marketing (Pvt) limited and Kushnawaz Property/Dealer and others, who have been already arrested from Islamabad. The arrested persons in connivance with each other have been found involved in corruption and corrupt practices in allotment of plots, embezzlement of society funds and illegal award of contracts for development work causing loss of billions of rupees to the members. The Bureau is making all out efforts to recover the looted money from corrupt elements and deposit it in national exchequer, said a press release. Multiple complaints have also been received regarding allegation of misuse of authority in award of development contracts, allotment of plots and embezzlement of society funds against the management of the society. Investigations revealed that accused Rana Ghulam Fareed, the then President of Ministry of Commerce Employees Cooperative Housing Society in connivance and collaboration with others illegally accommodated and awarded the contract of consultancy services to M/s Naveed Aslam and Associates without competitive bidding in gross violation by laws and the society. The society has received millions of rupees from members whereas the same has been embezzled by the accused persons instead of spending on purchase of land and development works of the society,Moreover, accused persons also illegally allotted plots without balloting. The investigation also revealed that Rana Ghulam Fareed the then President of Ministry of Commerce Employees Cooperative Housing Society in connivance with other accused persons transferred dozens of files amounting to millions of Rupees on bogus cheques as well as double allotments. Furthermore, Rana Ghulam Fareed in connoivance and collaboration with other accused persons also involved in transfer of 94 memberships on the basis of fake and bogus documents and without the knowledge of owners. It is also found that the accused persons, in connivance with each others have committed offence of cheating public at large and criminal breach of trust under the provision of NAO, 1999. Irfan Naeem Mangi , Director General NAB, Rawalpindi has said that NAB Rawalpindi under the directions of Chairman NAB, is committed to eradicating corruption by adopting Accountability for All policy across the board. He said NAB is making all out efforts to recover the looted money from corrupt elements and deposit in national exchequer. KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Nov, 2018 ) :Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Sunday said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government could not compromise on the accountability process as the the party had come into power with that mandate. The party would fulfill all the promises which it had made to the masses during the general election 2018 and holding the corrupt accountable was one of them, he said addressing a press conference here at the Insaaf House. He said the government would take all those, who had damaged the public property and made speeches against the state and judges of the superior judiciary, to task. By staging sit-ins, he said, hundreds of people had closed the roads at various points across the country. There were two options for the government - either to use force against the protestors or hold dialogue with them to get the roads cleared. In case of use of force, there were apprehensions of loss of both life and property, he added. The said,"We have opened the cities without using force against the protestors under a strategy." However, that was not the solution as no one should have any misunderstanding that all the damage done by the protestors to the public property would not be forgone by the state. He said the government had held talks with the protestors under a strategy, which should not be misconstrued as its weakness. All those involved in violence would be taken to task, he added. Fawad said those whose properties were damaged, would be compensated. To a question, he said during a meeting the PTI's parliamentarians belonging to Sindh had complained of political vendetta being waged by the provincial government. He said the way the PTI government was moving forward, the party would surely get two-third majority in the next election on the basis of its performance. The entire nation had full confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, he added. He said the PTI during its last government had eliminated the negative politics from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which would be replicated in rest of the country. He said the people of Karachi and interior Sindh had also trust in the PTI's Federal Government, which would strive to provide them all the facilities of life. Steps were already being taken by the Federal Government to resolve the water problem being faced by Karachiites, he added. He said Pakistan had entered into a strategic engagement with China, which was a trusted and reliable friend. Pakistan would send its first astronaut to space by 2022 under the Chinese Space Programme, he added. SIALKOT, Nov 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Nov, 2018 ) ::The Punjab government has approved a plan to establish 26 land revenue record centres in Gujranwala division. According to senior government officials, the land revenue record centers would be established at Qanoongoyi level and the revenue department officials have started to identify suitable places for the new centers. The officials added that two new land revenue record centers would be established in Tehsil Saddar Gujranwala, one each in Kamonki, Wazirabad, and Nowshera Virkan tehsils and four each land revenue record centers would be established in Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat and Hafizabad districts for providing the quick services to the people regarding the transfer of their lands' record and issuance of the 'Fard' of their lands as well. The new centers would also be helpful in saving the time of the people, the officials added. Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar on Monday inaugurated Head Marala Hydropower Project, completed with Rs 4 billion. LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) : Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar on Monday inaugurated Head Marala Hydropower Project, completed with Rs 4 billion The overall production capacity of the maiden energy project of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is 7.6 megawatts. The project would produce 43.37 gigawatts of electricity every year. Also, 1.5-KM long transmission line of 11,000-KW had also been laid to include the electricity produced by the power project in the national grid. The project has been completed under supervision of Punjab Power Management Unit of Energy Department and constructed by a Chinese company, SINOTEC-MHPC. After inauguration, the chief minister inspected the central control room and monitored power generation process there. Addressing the ceremony, he said that inauguration of first hydropower plant under the PTI government was a matter of satisfaction and happiness for him. He said that like Head Marala Hydropower Project, 5.38 megawatts of electricity can be produced from Chainwali and other 4.04 megawatts from Dig Outfall. Usman Buzdar said that due to Head Marala Hydro-power Project, Pakistan would be able to save its foreign reserves and along with it, annual revenue worth Rs 380 million would also be earned. Secretary Energy gave a briefing about the project. Talking to the media after the inauguration, the chief minister said that the government was following a composite strategy to solve problems related to masses. Usman Buzdar reiterated that he would visit every division and district of the province to serve masses. The CM also announced granting status of special economic zone to the proposed industrial zone along Lahore-SialkotMotorway. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Nov, 2018 ) :In yet another proud global recognition of its reputation as a humane and people-friendly Emirate, Sharjah was formally crowned the "Accessible City for the Physically Disabled" by the World Federation of the Disabled during the World Cities Day at the United Nations, UN, in New York. The title was conferred on Sharjah at a special ceremony at the UN Headquarters. The recognition has been hailed as "historic" and a bold step towards empowerment of physically disabled people in the Emirate under the leadership of Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah. The recognition is a reflection of the efforts and initiatives of Sharjah's leadership in supporting and caring for people with disabilities and an outcome of the initiatives to support and empower this important group of society, integrating them and granting them their full rights as equal stakeholders in the emirate's progress. Welcoming the international recognition, Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Sharjah Media Council said that it is but natural that Sharjah has been recognised as an "Accessible City for the Physically Disabled" by the World Federation of the Disabled. He pointed to the relentless efforts of the Sharjah Ruler to protect the rights of all groups in society by launching a number of initiatives to create integrated infrastructure and environment supportive of all human needs,Emirates news Agency, WAM, reported. He attributed the success and recognition of Sharjah at the global level to the hard work and sincere efforts by the emirate's leadership over the past 38 years. Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi emphasised that "Sharjah, the Emirate of Humanity" has dedicated itself to achieving the humane vision and directives of Dr. Sheikh Sultan. The global title is yet another feather in the Emirate's cap as it has already been recognised as the Age-Friendly City (2017) by the World Health Organisation, WHO, and Child-Friendly City by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, UNICEF, earlier this year. These titles yet again reinforce Sharjah's reputation and image as a humane and people-friendly emirate that really cares. Hessa Essa Buhumaid, Minister of Community Development, described the international title as a sure step towards more achievements to come for the emirate and its humanitarian record. She added, "This title deserves attention and is very important because it clearly points to other achievements to come. This is also an incentive for other cities and institutions of the emirate to get more international recognition in their service to all sections and stakeholders of society. We, at the Ministry of Community Development, value every step added to the progress and achievements of our beloved country in line with the vision of 2021 and the achievement of sustainable development agendas 2030. Our ambition is to strive towards more such achievements that benefit and directly affect the life of society. " "The achievement of the Emirate of Sharjah is an achievement for the UAE and of course for the Arabs in general. As we celebrate this honour today, we renew our commitment to making more constructive efforts in the service of our society, especially children," she added. Dr. Tariq Sultan bin Khadim, Chairman of the board of Directors of Al Thiqah Club for the Handicapped, said that the recognition of Sharjah as the 'Accessible City for the Physically Disabled' is a great honour for the Emirate and the UAE. Dr. Bin Khadim pointed to the special services and facilities offered for people with disabilities by educational institutions in the Emirate including a number of rehabilitation courses for the physically disabled. Metin Senturk, President of the World Disability Union, said, "When my team went to Sharjah, they returned to me with their observations. All the comments I received were inspiring. In today's meeting, I saw how thoroughly work has been conducted in Sharjah to make it an accessible city. And today, on the World Cities Day as designated by the UN, Sharjah should have been announced as a model city. I hope these exemplary efforts made in Sharjah will be replicated in other countries where our member organisations are registered. There's a saying that I always repeat, 'The world should not be designed for one type of person but for all humans,' and this ideal has been realised by Sharjah. I hope to travel to Sharjah ASAP to tour around and see these efforts on the ground." The Sindh government and Belgium state Agency, Wallonia Export-Investment Agency have entered into an agreement for promotion of trade, investment and jointly working on Public- Private-Partnership (PPP) in Sindh. KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :The Sindh government and Belgium state Agency, Wallonia Export-Investment Agency have entered into an agreement for promotion of trade, investment and jointly working on Public- Private-Partnership ( PPP ) in Sindh Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Ambassador of Belgium Frederic Verheydin witnessed signing ceremony, said a statement on Monday. Director Sindh board of Investment (SBI) Azeem Uqaili signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), on behalf of Sindh Government while on behalf of Chief Executive Officer, Wallonia Export-Investment Agency Mrs Pascale Delcomminette signed the MOU on behalf of its Agency. The chief minister told the trade delegation led by Ambassador of Belgium Frederic Verheydin that Sindh was seriously working on adopting new cropping patterns under which low-water crops would be sown. In this sector Sindh and Belgium traders can work on PPP mode, he said and added that there was huge potential in corporate cattle farming in Sindh. This sector has a potential of huge returns. The visiting trade delegation showed interest in renewable energy, Urban water supply in for Karachi and BRT. It was decided that the traders of Belgium and Sindh Board ofInvestment would sit together and explore the avenues for investment. (@ChaudhryMAli88) ATHENS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople called on the Russian Orthodox Church to recognize the Orthodox Church in Ukraine's right for autocephaly. "The problem in Ukraine triggered our collision with the fraternal Russian church. It is difficult for the Russian church to understand that since the Ecumenical Patriarchate has united so many peoples in the Balkans ... recognizing their right for self-government, for church independence, for autocephaly, and has issued tomos on creation of local independent churches, Moscow should recognize as well that the Ukrainian people ... has the right for church independence, for autocephaly," Bartolomew told Metropolitan of Nea Krini and Kalamaria Justin on Sunday night. The patriarch went on to say that the Russian Orthodox Church had been controlling the Ukrainian people "for several centuries," while it had received the right to do so in a "non-Orthodox manner." In October, the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate announced that it would proceed to granting independence to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which is currently split into three major churches the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, the non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate, which was created after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the so-called Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. The synod's decision has been welcomed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who seeks to establish a single independent church in the country. On October 8, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to completely "break the Eucharistic communion" with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Moscow Patriarchate called Constantinople's decision the "legalization of schism," saying that it would have catastrophic consequences and would affect millions of Christians in Ukraine and other countries. The Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church said that the synod's decision was a hostile act, interfering with the Ukrainian church's affairs, and threatened the Constantinople patriarch with anathema. Frankfurt am Main, Nov 5 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :The European Central Bank on Monday revoked the license of Malta's Pilatus Bank, which has been at the centre of a corruption scandal exposed by murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. "The ECB's governing council has decided to withdraw the authorisation of Pilatus Bank with effect from today," the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) said in a statement. The move to shut the bank had been recommended by the MFSA itself, Malta's finance watchdog added. An ECB spokesman confirmed the decision. The MFSA had already frozen the embattled bank's assets in March after its Iranian chairman Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad was arrested in the United States on charges of circumventing US sanctions against Iran. The US Justice Department accuses Nejad, who was immediately removed as head of Pilatus Bank, of secretly funnelling $115 million (93 million Euros) through the US financial system to Iranian-controlled entities in violation of sanctions. Maltese journalist Caruana Galizia had linked accounts held at the bank by a number of top government officials to corrupt dealings. Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in October 2017, and her murder sparked international outrage. She was facing a defamation suit from Pilatus Bank at the time of her death. Pilatus Bank is the latest European Union bank to come under scrutiny over alleged corrupt payments, exposing what critics have called the bloc's Achilles' heel: a lack of coordinated efforts to tackle fraud. Denmark's largest lender Danske Bank is currently being investigated over possible money laundering related to more than $200 billion transferred through the Danish lender's Estonian branch. In February, US authorities accused Latvia's third-largest lender ABLV of large-scale money laundering with connections to North Korea's nuclear weapons development programme. Finland is open to new nuclear talks to shore up the deteriorating post-Cold War non-proliferation pacts, President Sauli Niinisto said Monday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) Finland is open to new nuclear talks to shore up the deteriorating post-Cold War non-proliferation pacts, President Sauli Niinisto said Monday. "I will take up the matter with state leaders and indicate Finland's readiness to facilitate the start of new round of negotiations," he was quoted as saying by Yle, a Finnish public broadcaster. The next opportunity will be this week's Peace Forum in Paris, France, where world leaders will discuss how to minimize international tensions. Speaking at a national defense meeting in Helsinki, Niinisto warned that dissolving treaties posted huge risks to international security. "Having an arena without treaties would present enormous risks. The Cold War of our past would be surpassed by an Ice Cold War," he stressed. Niinisto spoke the same day as the United States reimposed sanctions on Iran after quitting a historic 2015 nuclear agreement, which curbed Tehran's atomic energy program. Last month, the United States threatened to abandon a Cold War era pact with Russia, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which bans both countries from building medium-range ground-based nuclear missiles. Tourism industry representatives from all over the world, including Kazakhstan, will take part in World Travel Market London, which is to take place on 5-7 November, Kazakh Embassy in the UK informed on its website ASTANA, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :Tourism industry representatives from all over the world, including Kazakhstan, will take part in World travel Market London, which is to take place on 5-7 November, Kazakh Embassy in the UK informed on its website. The history of the World Travel Market dates back to 1980. It is a landmark event for the world tourism industry. Every year 5,000 tourism industry specialists from 200 countries and regions participate in the exhibition. Since 2016, WTM London has become a three-day event during which 51,000 people attend the exhibition. This year, under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture and Sport of the Republic of Kazakhstan, tourism industry representatives will exhibit their tourist products at the united national stand to showcase Kazakh culture and show how much Kazakhstan and the UK have in common. (@rukhshanmir) KHARTOUM (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) Sudanese Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed will start on Monday his visit to the United States, where he will discuss Sudan's removal from the US list of countries funding terrorism, a source in the Sudanese Foreign Ministry told Sputnik on Monday. According to the source, the minister's visit will aim at starting the second round of talks between the countries, while these talks will center, among other issues, on "Sudan's removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. " Sudan was included into the US State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1993. The lists also includes Iran, North Korea and Syria, while Cuba, Iraq, Libya and South Yemen, which used to be on the list as well, have been removed. In 1997, Washington imposed economic, trade and financial restrictions on Sudan, accusing it of state support for terrorism, destabilizing neighboring states and violating human rights. While some of the sanctions have been revoked, a range of others still have effect. TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) It is difficult for Seoul to make decisions on its joint railway project with North Korea and Russia, connecting the Russian settlement of Khasan and the North Korean port of Rajin, even though the project is not slapped with the UN Security Council sanctions, Woo Yoon-keun, the South Korean ambassador to Moscow, told reporters on Monday. South Korea attempts to relaunch the Rajin-Khassan project amid US and UN Security Council's sanctions against North Korea. The project envisages deliveries of coal from Russia to the Rajin port via Khasan with its further shipment to South Korea by sea. According to Woo, while the project is not slapped with the UN Security Council's sanctions, it is difficult for the South Korean government to make decisions on its advancement, and it will take time, as "international community cooperation is needed for sanctions relaxation." Woo went on to praise the potential of the South Korean-Russian cooperation. "As relations between South and North [Koreas] develop, Russia will become an extremely important basis that will give us the chance to move further into the continent . .. When President Moon Jae-in came to power, the trust-based relations between South Korea and Russia have become deeper than ever, and we should use the Russian potential to the maximum," Woo added. In 2016, Seoul suspended its participation in the railway project over ballistic missiles tests conducted by Pyongyang. Before this, a consortium of three South Korean companies have been participating in the project. The Rajin-Khassan route allowed saving up to 10-15 percent of time and transportation costs compared to the direct route from Vladivostok. Relations between Seoul and Pyongyang began to improve after a historic summit between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in April, during which the two leaders signed a joint declaration agreeing to renew economic cooperation in several areas, including rebuilding cross-border railways and roads. Malaysia's Foreign Ministry has set up a humanitarian fund for Yemen and called upon the Malaysians to contribute aid to victims of the civil war. SHAH ALAM, Malaysia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :Malaysia's Foreign Ministry has set up a humanitarian fund for Yemen and called upon the Malaysians to contribute aid to victims of the civil war. Its Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said the move was necessary to ease the burden of Yemenis especially women and children who are now suffering from an ongoing crisis. "We urged all Malaysians to come forward to contribute as the assistance from the people in this country will go a long way to help the people in Yemen who are badly in need of food and health treatment. Also present were Global Peace Mission (GPM) Malaysia president Mohamad Raimi Ab Rahim and Kumpulan Media Karangkraf chairman Dr Hussamuddin Yaacub. Meanwhile, Mohamad Raimi said GPM is targeting to collect RM1 million in six months for the humanitarian fund. "An initial contribution of RM100,000 would be disbursed at the end of November for the distribution of items such as food, clean water, winter kits, baby products and medicines," he said. Romanians working abroad sent EUR 2.695 billion to the country in the first eight months of 2018, equalling the European funds and subsidies received in the first seven months. The amount of EUR 2.695 billion was sent by Romanians working under one-year or longer contracts, according to data published by the National Bank of Romania (BNR). Out of the money received from the EU in seven months (EUR 2.692 billion), over EUR 1.7 billion are money for which we need to do nothing, namely agricultural subsidies and only EUR 898 million are money obtained from structural funds for cohesion and rural development, according to data from the Ministry of European Funds. Moreover, between 2007 and July 2018, the money received from the above-mentioned funds totalled EUR 5.931 billion * Net financial balance at July 31, 2018 Amounts received under the multiannual financial framework Name achieved in 2014 achieved in 2015 achieved in 2016 achieved in 2017 achieved in 2018 (budget implementation at 31.07.2018) achieved in 2007-2018 (budget implementation at 31.07.2018) * Amounts from EU budget Structural and cohesion funds Funds for rural development and fishery European Agricultural Guarantee Fund Other (post-accession) Romanians working abroad had sent more (EUR 6.173 billion) only in the first year of the EU membership, 2007. Aboneaza-te la newsletter aici. Iti multumim ca citesti cursdeguvernare. * Amounts sent by Romanians working abroad (million euro) Year money remittance from Romanians working abroad 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Eight months of 2018 * Korea, Spain Discuss Swapping Jet Trainers for A400Ms: Report The page you requested is only available to subscribers. 1. If you are a Premium Service subscriber, please log in here to access this story: Log-in : Password : 2. If you are not a subcriber, you can: -- buy access to this page: unlimited access for seven days costs 3.00 EUR + VAT (at 20%) if applicable. Clicking on the "Ok" button below will place the item in your shopping cart and return you to our home page, where you will be able to select additional stories. -- select additional stories and services from our home page and pay for them at the same time. -- see your shopping cart. You can also see the contents of your shopping cart at any time by clicking on the "Order" tab on the navigation bar at the top of any page, or by clicking on the "Your order" light blue link in the top right-hand corner of our home page, immediately under the log-on box. Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Monday said Muslim community in Romania enjoys full rights of freedom of worship and is living in harmony with other religious cults, according to a press release of the Romanian Government. BUCHAREST, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Monday said Muslim community in Romania enjoys full rights of freedom of worship and is living in harmony with other religious cults, according to a press release of the Romanian Government. The Romanian prime minister expressed these views during a visit to the Grand Mosque of Muscat. She signed the Books of Honour of the National Museum of the Sultanate of Oman, the Grand Mosque of the Qaboos Sultanate and the Royal Opera of Muscat. According to her, one of the most beautiful modern mosques in the world that combines varied Islamic architectural styles from the middle East and Oman, the Grand Mosque of the Sultanate of Qaboos is known for the fact that it holds the largest handmade carpet, a single piece (70x60m) and the largest chandelier in the world, glistening with 24-carat gold. Established through a Royal Decree in 2013 and inaugurated on 30 of July 206, the National Museum of the Sultanate of Oman presents the history and tradition of the country, through the 7,000 exhibits, reunited in the 12 thematic galleries. The Romanian prime minister took note of the historical track of the exhibits, which present the evolution from the oldest human settlement in the Oman Peninsula, approximately 2 million years ago. She expressed the interest of the Romanian state present in the Omani cultural life, within the military and traditional music festivals, organized and hosted annually by the Royal Opera. At the end of the visit, Her Highness Sayyida Dr. Mona bint Fahad Al Said, Assistant Vice Chancellor for External Cooperation at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, offered a dinner in honour of Prime Minister Viorica Dancila. (@ChaudhryMAli88) More than 570 Syrian refugees have returned to their home country from Lebanon and Jordan over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for the Reception, Allocation and Accommodation of Refugees said in a bulletin on Monday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) More than 570 Syrian refugees have returned to their home country from Lebanon and Jordan over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for the Reception, Allocation and Accommodation of Refugees said in a bulletin on Monday. "Over the past 24 hours, 574 Syrian nationals returned to the Syrian Arab Republic from foreign countries, including 178 refugees (54 women and 90 children) returning from Lebanon via the Jeydet-Yabus and Talkalakh checkpoints, and 396 people (119 women and 202 children) coming from Jordan via the Nasib checkpoint," the bulletin read. Moreover, 220 internally displaced Syrians returned to their homes over the past 24 hours. The Russian side has also carried out one humanitarian operation in the Damascus province providing 300 food sets totaling 1. 29 tonnes to local residents. The center added that the Kadyrov Regional Public Fund had distributed one tonne of bread in Aleppo. Meanwhile, the Syrian army continues to conduct mine clearance operations and has found and defused 52 explosive devices over the last day, according to the center. 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. (@rukhshanmir) With the world witnessing the highest levels of displacement of people, Pakistan has fervently called on the international community to take steps to address the global refugee crisis that has "morphed into a catastrophe". UNITED NATIONS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :With the world witnessing the highest levels of displacement of people, Pakistan has fervently called on the international community to take steps to address the global refugee crisis that has "morphed into a catastrophe". "Wars, human rights abuses and protracted refugee situations have become endemic," Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told the General Assembly's Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural questions. "The unprecedented humanitarian challenges posed by the large-scale displacement of people warrant greater commitment by the world community to address the plight of people on the move," the Pakistan envoy said, referring to hundreds of thousands fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Myanmar, Palestine, Afghanistan and South Sudan. While low- and middle-income countries continue to shoulder the heaviest burden, hosting 85 per cent of refugees globally, many countries in the developed world are moving in the opposite direction by increasing rates of rejecting asylum applications and speeding deportations, Ambassador Lodhi said in a debate on refugees-related questions. More than 60 per cent of refugees under UNHCR's responsibility live in only 10 countries, she pointed out. On the other hand, Ambassador Lodhi said Pakistan had demonstrated "unparalleled generosity" by hosting millions of Afghan refugees for almost four decades. "We opened both our homes and hearts to what has now become the largest protracted refugee presence anywhere in the world since the Second World War," the Pakistani envoy said, adding that doing so is our humanitarian as well as religious duty. Despite the economic challenges, Pakistan continued to express solidarity and provide hospitality, thus upholding the principles of international refugee protection. The international community had an abiding responsibility to assist host countries, through burden sharing and financing, she said, rather than through innovative financial instruments or debt. Retaining the distinction between development and humanitarian assistance, the ambassador said, was critical. "Addressing the refugee crisis necessitates a comprehensive approach - one that entails resolution of conflicts and long-term political settlements to address the root causes of displacements," Ambassador Lodhi said. "Our aim should thus be to find sustainable solutions by addressing those underlying causes." Opening the debate, Pilippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that uprooted by war, today 68.5 million refugees are often branded as threats turned back at borders, left to perish at sea, or detained indefinitely in horrific conditions, and called for a return to dignity, human rights and a sense of shared humanity. The language of politics has become ruthless, giving license to discrimination, racism and xenophobia, he said. Humanity is losing ground to trends that dehumanize refugees and migrants for the purpose of immediate political gain. More often, Grandi said refugees and migrants fall prey to traffickers and smugglers, giving rise to complex security challenges. As migrants leave Libya and cross the Mediterranean, rescue at sea operations are taken hostage by politics. They must be restored underpinned by a predictable disembarkation arrangement based on shared responsibility across the region. Indeed, common purpose and multilateralism are critical in the search for solutions, he said. UNHCR's capacity to adapt to new dynamics is critical to its ability to leverage protection in displacement crises. The first phase of reform to realign Headquarters functions inn support of the field is well underway. UNHCR is moving towards a decentralized model over the next two years, building empowered country offices by moving authority closer to the point of delivery. Tackling sexual abuse, with an emphasis on ethical conduct, is a pillar of those efforts, he said. Bucharest, Nov 5 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2018 ) :The former head of one of Romania's notorious communist-era prisons who was serving time for crimes against humanity, has died in prison at the age of 93, officials said Monday. Alexandru Visinescu was serving a 20-year prison term after being found guilty of overseeing crimes at Ramnicu Sarat prison, dubbed "the prison of silence" where inmates suffered torture. Visinescu died in Rahova prison hospital, in Bucharest, where he was under supervision for "chronic medical problems". Visinescu ran the Ramnicu Sarat prison for political detainees in eastern Romania between 1956 and 1963. Prosecutors said he oversaw an "extermination regime" and that at least at least 14 prisoners died during his tenure. All prisoners were held in solitary confinement, denied the right to speak to anyone and many suffered beatings and enforced hunger. "Inmates were dying after a slow but efficient process that involved physical and psychological torture," prosecutors argued. Visinescu had expressed no regret for his actions, arguing that he was only obeying orders from his superiors and had upheld the law. In September this year, another former head of a communist-era prison camp, Ion Ficior, died in prison at the age of 90. Like Visinescu, he was also serving a 20-year jail sentence for crimes against humanity. Over 600,000 people were jailed in Romania for political reasons between 1945 and 1989, according to the Sighet Memorial Museum for the victims of communism. The most severe crackdowns took place in the 1950s. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) should take action toward Ukraine in connection with its website Mirotvorets, infamous for releasing private information of people allegedly posing a threat to Ukrainian statehood, the Russian Permanent Mission to the OSCE said on Monday, reminding the organization about the European Parliament resolution on the rise in neo-fascist violence in Europe. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) should take action toward Ukraine in connection with its website Mirotvorets, infamous for releasing private information of people allegedly posing a threat to Ukrainian statehood, the Russian Permanent Mission to the OSCE said on Monday, reminding the organization about the European Parliament resolution on the rise in neo-fascist violence in Europe "The lists of the extremist web-site 'Mirotvorets' already include articles about OSCE, Names of journalists and foreign diplomats. OSCE should pay attention to the European Parliament resolution, condemning manifestations of fascism, racism and xenophobia. We call @OSCE_SMM to prepare an appropriate thematic report," the mission wrote on Twitter, quoting Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the OSCE Dmitry Balakin. Website Mirotvorets is known for revealing personal information of people who are considered to be "enemies of Ukraine," including Ukrainian and foreign journalists who covered the military conflict in Donbas, public figures who visited Crimea and others. Following the publication of their personal data, some of these individuals faced personal threats. At least three servicemen of the Venezuelan National Bolivarian Armed Forces were killed and 10 more were injured in clashes with suspected militants of the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN), media reported. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) At least three servicemen of the Venezuelan National Bolivarian Armed Forces were killed and 10 more were injured in clashes with suspected militants of the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN), media reported. According to the Caracol radio broadcaster, the clashes took place in Amazonas state in Venezuela on the border with Colombia. "We found out that as a result of events in the city of Puerto Ayacucho in the state of Amazonas we have lost three our comrades, while ten others were injured," the Venezuelan National Guard said on Twitter. The ELN, which is the second largest guerrilla movement in the country after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is estimated to have several thousand fighters, and has been engaged in an armed confrontation with the country's authorities since 1964. In February 2017, the group engaged in peace talks with the Colombian government. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The UN Security Council voted on Monday to renew sanctions on Libya and add gender-based violence as a reason for more punitive measures, with Russia and China abstaining. UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) The UN Security Council voted on Monday to renew sanctions on Libya and add gender-based violence as a reason for more punitive measures, with Russia and China abstaining. "The UK welcomes the Security Council's agreement to renew the Libya sanctions regime. In particular, we welcome the fact that the Council has taken an important step by expanding the designation criteria to include gender-based violence," UK Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Allen said. The UK-drafted resolution was tabled in mid-October. The Netherlands and Sweden then proposed adding the act of planning, directing or committing sexual and gender-based violence as a separate and distinct criterion for listing under the sanctions. Swedish Ambassador Carl Skau cited a recent UN report which found conflict-related sexual violence to be an acute problem in the war-torn Libya. He thanked the Council for recognizing the need for this particular expertise among the panel assisting the Libya Sanctions Committee. Russia backed the initial draft resolution but rejected the changes put forth last month by the Netherlands and Sweden. Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said on Monday his objections had not been taken into account. "The gender component is unjustifiably emerging in the work of the 1970 Committee Panel of Experts. This will distract those experts from their direct obligations," the Russian envoy said. Nebenzia argued that the issue of sexual violence is considered by specialized platforms, such as the UN Human Rights Council and the Commission on the Status of Women, and underscored the need to adhere to the "relevant division of labor." The United States and Bangladesh launched a maritime military exercise on Monday as part of a series of bilateral drills planned with allied and partner nations in South and Southeast Asia, the US Navy said in a press release on Monday. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) The United States and Bangladesh launched a maritime military exercise on Monday as part of a series of bilateral drills planned with allied and partner nations in South and Southeast Asia , the US Navy said in a press release on Monday. "Sailors and Marines across five ships including a guided missile frigate and patrol craft from the Bangladesh Navy, and a maritime patrol aircraft and dry cargo ship USNS PFC Dewayne T. Williams (T-AK-3009) from the US Navy, will conduct a series of cooperative evolutions ashore and at-sea," the release said. "Joint evolutions are designed to highlight the ability for both navies to work together in ensuring maritime security, stability and prosperity." The Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercise kicked off in Chittagong, Bangladesh on Monday, the release explained. "This year marks the 24th anniversary of the CARAT exercise series with bilateral engagements between a dozen ally and partner nations including Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam," the release said. The sea phase of the US-Bangladesh exercise will encompass scenarios in the Bay of Bengal to include a tracking drills aimed at increasing both navies' ability to pursue targets through the coordinated deployment of surface ships and maritime patrol aircraft, the release said. The shore phase will involve symposiums to share knowledge ranging from gas turbine maintenance to aviation warfare, with US Marines also conducting joint training for raid operations, according to the release. The US decision to re-introduce sanctions against Iran is absurd and dangerous in its consequences, because it derails the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov told Sputnik on Monday. VIENNA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2018) The US decision to re-introduce sanctions against Iran is absurd and dangerous in its consequences, because it derails the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov told Sputnik on Monday. "The decision made by the United States is absurd and very dangerous in its consequences as it derails one the most important international agreement approved by the UN Security Council," Ulyanov said. On November 5, the second package of US sanctions, re-introduced after Washington's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and targeting in particular Iran's oil sector, takes effect. In May, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, and reimpose its sanctions against Iran that had been lifted under the agreement. The first round of the US restrictions came into force in August. In early October, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would consider waivers for the importers of Iranian oil to give them time to adjust to the new conditions, but expected all countries to eventually reduce their oil imports from Iran to zero. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th November, 2018) US and Ukrainian officials held a second cybersecurity dialogue in the capital of Kiev with a focus on strengthening the cybersecurity of election systems and critical infrastructure, the Department of State said in a press release on Monday. "The delegations reviewed proposed US cybersecurity assistance projects, developed in consultation with relevant Ukrainian agencies and stakeholders," the release said. "The projects include: strengthening the cybersecurity of election systems and critical infrastructure, supporting implementation of Ukraine's national cyber strategy, enhancing cyber defense and incident response capacity. " Ukraine's cybersecurity initiatives are being funded, in part, with $10 million pledged by the United States made at the first cybersecurity dialogue in 2017, the release explained. The United States and Ukraine also reaffirmed their commitment to promote an open and secure internet, to enhance bilateral cooperation, and to combat cyber threats of mutual concern, the release noted. CHESTER CITY- County workers helped unload the first few thousands of pounds of donated food items on Friday afternoon in Chester in what is now a 16-year endeavor to help local families fill their food insecurities as the holidays near. The food pantry at St. Pauls CME Church received the first shipment of food that has been collected at various county offices and agencies since Oct. 1. Sarah Proctor, director of outreach ministries at the church, said the approximately 3,000 pounds of food that was delivered on Friday could feed 50 families through the end of the year. Our food goes really fast, Proctor said about the pantry. This helps fill the gap. Canned soups and vegetables, cold cereals and pastas were some of the food items that were delivered to the pantry, and the same items will be delivered at a number of other pantries in the county through Dec. 7. County Council and the County Department of Human Services have been partnering with Magellan Behavioral Health for each year of the food drive to collect as many pounds of food items as possible. This years goal is 30,000 pounds. Members of the public and business community are invited to join County employees in placing donations in collection boxes, which are placed in the Government Center lobby, outside the sheriffs office in the courthouse, the Fronefield Building, Fair Acres main lobby, The Delaware County Detention Center, the 911 Center, the County Office of Services for the Aging (COSA) Children and Youth Services (CYS) offices in Eddystone, the human services offices along with many local libraries. Fridays delivery marked the halfway point of collecting donations, which will continue through Dec. 5. Food pantries will benefit through food and cash donations. Individuals who want to make donations or families who want information about the Delco Interfaith Food Assistance Network (DIFAN) food pantries can call Family and Community Service of Delaware County at 610-566-7540. For more information about how you can participate in the 2018 Holiday Food Drive contact OBH at 610-713-2365. More information is also available at www.delcohsa.org. HAVERFORD Brian Niles is selling coffee and he couldnt be happier. Niles, a founder of Target X, a college admissions software marketing company, changed direction in 2017 when he started House Cup Coffee Roasters in his Havertown garage. Niles could be seen on a recent morning roasting a bag of Columbian beans at his new work space on Eagle Road next to the Manoa Fire Station where he has recently expanded. l was looking to do something different after 50, Niles said. I could have easily started another business in education, but one day as I was walking around Llanerch Country Club, I sat down and thought I really want to do something in jeans and a black shirt, so this is it. Niles, who was born in Buffalo, N.Y., said he has always enjoyed coffee. He jokes that as a toddler he would sneak sips while sitting on his mothers lap. He graduated from Great Valley High School in Chester County in 1986 and from there went to Albright University. After Albright, he worked in marketing for a Berks County coffee roaster that gave him his first taste of that business, though Niles said coffee on the East Coast wasnt anywhere near the popular specialty product that it is today. From that first job, Niles moved into the educational technology field, culminating with Target X, and its more than 100 employees located in Conshohocken and Oakland, Calif. This is a very different business but I should be able to apply what Ive learned at Target X to this business, Niles said as the aroma of the freshly roasted coffee wafted through the building. Were wholesalers, 80 percent of our business is to restaurants, bars and coffee shops. Niles said he wont miss all the travel that his former job entailed and with a 15 month-old child, he his wife Adrienne are enjoying staying local. Niles, who was certified as a roast master at the Vermont School of Coffee, said coffee does not have to be complicated freshly roasted coffee, brewed right using the right filtration system, makes a difference. Were local it doesnt get any fresher, Niles said. And we will deliver it to you locally. Starbucks, which is just up the street, is not much of a concern for House Cup. The competition comes from large wholesale companies such as Sysco, which sells multiple product lines to area restaurants. Niles said one of their largest customers is Rosies in the Villanova train station. I think there is a lot of opportunity for restaurants to improve their coffee, Niles said. They spend so much time coming up with recipes, then serve a bad cup of coffee at the end of the meal. The job of a roaster is to select the right beans for a good blend of coffee. He workers with brokers, buying 130 pound bags typically from five different countries, Columbia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and India. Much like wine, different farms can produce different coffee flavors, Niles said. The roasting is done on a 30 pound Diedrich coffee roaster and usually takes 11-15 minutes per batch. Typically the different countrys beans are roasted separately then blended after roasting. Youve got to have a good decaf. I dont think you should sacrifice the taste, Niles said. House Cup offers a decaffeinated coffee from Brazil. Sales to the public are offered through their website, as well as a subscription service which will bring you 2 bags every two weeks. Im trying to help people choose better coffee, said Niles I love having people come in and put together a blend that is just theirs. One person looking for their own blend is Hector Villanueva of Havertown who stopped by House Cup on a recent morning and tried a nitro cold brew. A nitro coffee is a cold coffee infused with compressed nitrogen and served from a tap. This is fantastic. Im just started getting into coffee after having baby number two. Villanueva said as he peppered Niles with questions about coffee roasting. I think this is great everyone is looking for a new way of coffee. This is the smoothest nitro Ive found. In addition to the nitro coffee, Niles has experimented with a number of coffee blended drinks including a seasonal cocktail, single serving K-cups that are recyclable and coffees aged in whiskey barrels. I like to play around but Im focused on the wholesale, said Niles. Even so, House Cup Coffee welcomes visitors Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8 to 10 a.m. Bring a mug. Thousands of Tanzanian Catholics joined by that countrys President, John Magufuli and other dignitaries, on Sunday celebrated 150 years of evangelisation at Bagamoyo, a coastal district, 51 kilometres from Dar-es-Salaam. Paul Samasumo Vatican City Pope Franciss official representative at the celebrations in Tanzania, John Cardinal Njue, the Archbishop of Nairobi led the faithful in the festivities. In his homily, the Cardinal called upon various sectors of Tanzanian society to honour their various responsibilities, duties and to uphold peace in the country. Cardinal Njue calls on Tanzanians to reflect on their faith This is the time to question ourselves; whether the seeds of peace preached by the first missionaries in the early days of the Church have borne fruit and been protected, Cardinal Njue told the congregation gathered in Bagamoyo. Speaking earlier to Vatican News KiSwahili Service, the Archbishop Emeritus of Arusha, Josaphat Louis Lebulu said, the next phase of the Church in Tanzania should be dedicated to investing in sustainable pastoral strategies that would more profoundly deepen the faith of Christians. Bagamoyo: From a Port for slaves to a symbol of redemption Archbishop Lebulu said that Bagamoyo was a very significant site in the history of Catholicism in Tanzania because it was the first place where the Holy Ghost missionaries landed. Archbishop Lebulu aso said Bagamoyo was chosen for the Jubilee Celebrations because it was previously a place of pain and torture with many African slaves sold and exported from the port. However, with the arrival of the missionaries, Bagamoyo transformed into a place of redemption. We celebrate the great work done by missionaries who came to Tanzania at Bagamoyo in 1868. They installed the Holy Cross (at Bagamoyo), a Symbol of redemption from slavery, a symbol of faith to us, Archbishop Lebulu said. Old City of Jerusalem with the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock, and the Mount of Olives (AFP or licensors) The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land released a statement on 2 November responding to the Nation State Law of 19 July 2018 passed by the Israeli Knesset. By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp It is out of a spirit of dialogue that the Catholic Bishops of the Holy Land speak out in a statement responding to the issue of the Nation State Law passed by the Israeli Knesset on 19 July 2018. We are all citizens The legislation at issue limits the promotion and protection offered by the State of Israel to Jewish citizens of the State of Israel. In direct response to this, the Bishops write: We must draw the attention of the authorities to a simple fact: our faithful, the Christians, our fellow citizens, Muslim, Druze and Bahai, all of us who are Arabs, are no less citizens of this country than our Jewish brothers and sisters. Discrimination The Bishops also draw attention to the ongoing tension arising from the definition of Israels democracy being both Jewish and democratic. It is the Jewish majority who determines what this means, while the Arab minority experiences the discrimination caused by the imbalance of the Jewish element over the democratic. An ongoing struggle to protect the rights of all citizens, to guarantee as much as possible the values of equality, justice and democracy received a milestone victory with the 1992 passage of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, the statement says. Listen to our report Legal discrimination Recent passage of the new Nation State legislation is a blow to these values, the statement continues. Now there is a constitutional and legal basis for discrimination because Jewish citizens are to be privileged over and above other citizens. In addition to seriously downgrading the standing of the Arab language, the law ignores Palestinian Arabs, other major religious communities, Christians and Muslims as well as Druze and Bahai. Demand for equality The statement continues with a declaration that the above-mentioned groups demand to be treated as equal citizens. In addition, equality must incorporate civic, ethnic, and religious identities. This demand is based on the fact that Jerusalem and the whole of this Holy Land is a heritage we share with Jews and Muslims, Druze and Bahai, a heritage we are called upon to protect from division and internecine strife. Call to rescind the law In conclusion, the Bishops call on the authorities to rescind the law since it is contradictory to both the humanistic and democratic basis of Israeli legislation and international law. Thus all can be assured that the State of Israel seeks to promote and protect the welfare and the safety of all its citizens. Signatories There are 25 signatories to the statement, representing the Latin, Armenian, Melkite, Chaldean and Maronite Churches, as well as the representatives of men and women religious serving in the Holy Land. Pope Francis prays at the memorial to the Victims of the Ghetto in Vilnius, Lithuania (AFP or licensors) Pope Francis received a delegation from the ancient community of Mountain Jews to discuss Holocaust anniversaries and the problems of Anti-Semitism today. By John Waters Pope Francis on Monday held a meeting with representatives of the World Congress of Mountain Jews. It is the first time that a delegation from this community, which dates back to the 5th Century, has travelled to meet a Pope. Past and present Mountain Jews were descended from the Persian Jews, who came from modern day Iran. They were known to be great warriors and horsemen in the past. They lived in mountainous communities near the Caspian Sea for many centuries but, after the fall of the Soviet Union, are now spread across many regions, with the largest communities living in Russia and Azerbaijan. The Pope began by recalling his most recent meeting with a Jewish community during his visit to Lithuania in September. That visit commemorated the Seventy Fifth anniversary of the destruction of the Jewish ghetto in the Lithuanian capital city, Vilnius. Holocaust anniversaries Pope Francis pointed out that a number of other Holocaust related anniversaries are fast approaching. He mentioned the anniversaries of the raid on the Jewish ghetto in Rome and the anniversary of increased persecution of German Jews by the Nazis. The latter used to be known as the night of broken glass, due to the destruction of many Jewish shop fronts and synagogues, though more recently historians have preferred terms referring to the destruction of people and lives. The attempt to replace the God of goodness with the idolatry of power and the ideology of hatred ended in the folly of exterminating human beings. Consequently, religious freedom is a supreme good to be safeguarded, a fundamental human right and a bulwark against the claims of totalitarianism he said. About one and a half thousand Mountain Jews were killed during the Holocaust, mostly from Crimea. Most of the community was not affected by the Holocaust, partly because Nazi forces did not reach their territories and partly because the Nazis considered them to be religious Jews, rather than racial Jews, who were a higher priority target for the Nazi regime. Anti-Semitic attitudes The Pope went on to note that there are still anti-Semitic attitudes in society today: As I have often repeated, a Christian cannot be an anti-Semite; we share the same roots. It would be a contradiction of faith and life. Rather, we are called to commit ourselves to ensure anti-Semitism is banned from the human community. Quoting from the prophet Isaiah, Pope Francis called on all religions to help the world Turn spears into pruning hooks so that communities may experience a period of patient reconciliation. He ended his speech with a traditional Hebrew blessing: Shalom Aleichem! Ferraros Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar introduces an array of new seasonal dishes for fall along with an elegantly updated interior design. Conceived by award-winning Executive Chef Francesco DiCaudo, the fall menu selections incorporate a tempting number of new appetizers, pastas and main courses. Meanwhile, guests can still enjoy all Ferraros classic homemade pastas, famous osso buco, superior steaks and other beloved traditional dishes. Highlights of the new menu additions follow: Battuta al Coltello Piedmont-style, chopped-to-order prime beef tenderloin tartare, whipped ricotta cheese, marinated mushrooms, fresh horseradish Tonno Yellowfin tuna tartare, tomato relish, olive powder, Pantelleria capers, lemon gel Tortino di Ricotta Warm, ricotta cheese timbale, Del Re EVOO, wild forest mushroom fricassee, truffle zest, crostino Malloreddus Saffron Sardinian semolina gnochetti, wild boar ragu, fiore sardo cheese Tortellini di Coda Beef tortellini, butternut squash, Cipollini onion, lentil, veal jus, pecorino Toscano Risotto Sottobosco Acquerello risotto, porcini mushroom, pine nut crema, herb emulsion, truffle essence Brasato Braised short ribs, butternut squash-truffle roman semolina gnocchi, fontina cheese, hedgehog mushrooms Meanwhile, Ferraros new contemporary decor, featuring clean lines and soft cream walls with dark wood finishes, INSERT s its previous Old-World-inspired scheme that utilized elements such as overstuffed upholstery and heavy draperies in gold, orange and burgundy. Still visible are the ornate, Venetian-style glass chandeliers and lighting fixtures, which now appear more noticeable and striking among the simplified surroundings. Owners Gino and Rosalba Ferraros daughter, Designer Teresa Ferraro Marretti, consulted on the new design program for the restaurant. It was time to refresh the restaurant, so we sought inspiration in Italys well-established modern design traditions, explains Gino Ferraro. I think the lighter and sleeker atmosphere complements our fine-dining experience without competing with it. Major operators such as AccorHotels benefit even more from Vietnams impressive growth Firstly, congratulations on the 20th anniversary of the opening of Sofitel Saigon Plaza. What is behind the development strategy of AccorHotels in Vietnam? Patrick Basset, chief operating officer for Upper Southeast and Northeast Asia and the Maldives In Vietnam we are already the biggest hotel operator with around 45 per cent of internationally-branded hotel rooms, as many as in Bangkok. That also means that we are far ahead of our competitors in major markets such as Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Indonesia, and South Korea, as well as in Europe and Africa. We are even catching up across the American continent, and leading in South America. After 27 years we have earned much success here. The first key achievement is the aforementioned biggest operator status that we enjoy in Vietnam. Secondly, we think that we are now better known with Vietnamese partners, and we are the first choice in terms of a management company for partners. We have been developing excellent relationships with our partners whether they are the government, institutions, or particular individuals. Last but not least, I am proud to have a skilful group of more than 7,000 employees in our system in Vietnam. Many of those are Vietnamese, holding key positions in the management level. How is Vietnam important towards the strategy of AccorHotels development? Vietnam is important to us for different reasons. The country is the one of the fastest-growing economies in the Asia Pacific region, and the fourth-largest population in Asia. Vietnam has a very dynamic domestic market with total number of travellers currently at 86 million, an impressive increase of 20 per cent a year. In addition the outbound market also very big, especially people from Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and Hanoi. There are an increasing number of Vietnamese people booking via our channel to visit other countries, especially Japan, Thailand, Singapore and many others. The potential in Vietnam for Accor is very huge. We are in all major cities already but now we are beginning to develop hotels in specific destinations such as Sapa (Lao Cai province), Halong and Cat Ba (Quang Ninh province), Ninh Binh and Quang Binh provinces, Cam Ranh and Phu Quoc, and cities in the Mekong Delta. So far we have 28 hotels in operation in Vietnam - 18 more are under construction and will be put into operation in 2020. This is a very impressive recent development. You must be confident of further success here? Yes. Accor is a huge trust brand and we have been diversifying our business to all segments of the market. We have solutions for anybody with any budget, from top luxury to an affordable level. Vietnam has now a growth of 20 per cent of domestic visitors annually over recent years, compared to only 4 or 5 per cent a decade ago. Vietnam is a modernising country and it has been continuing investment in the infrastructure system, which has been supportive to tourism development. And so I believe that we can reach 16 to 17 million inbound tourists this year, and we are heading to 20 million in the near future. Vietnams business had improved remarkably over the past five years since the Government took action to cut conditions and raise national competitiveness, however, it had not yet reached its targets.-Photo vov.vn The Governments Resolution No 19 aims to tackle difficulties for businesses and create favourable conditions for investors. The aim was to raise the countrys business environment to the same level as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Speaking at the conference, head of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM)s Business Environment and Competitiveness Committee Nguyen Minh Thao said that during the first year of implementation in 2014, only the Ministry of Finances tax and customs sectors, Electricity of Vietnam and HCM City implemented the resolution. However, the number of ministries and localities involved had increased over the years, said Thao. Most business environment indicators have improved in the past five years, said Thao. The business start-up index had risen, building permits maintained good rankings, while access to electricity had increased, she added. Property ownership registration in 2018 improved for the first time in five years, and Vietnams logistics performance in 2018 had improved at its highest rate in the past decade. Thao said bankruptcy was the low point for the business environment, with the country currently ranked 133rd out of 190. "Although there have been improvements, most of the indicators have not yet reached the ASEAN 4 average in terms of scores and rankings, although the gap has been narrowing," she said. In the ten indicators for 2018, electricity access was the most impressive having risen from 66th in 2017 to 27th this year. The index of business establishment also increased from 123rd to 104th. However, the index of tax dropped from the 86th in 2017 to 131st this year. Hoang Thi Lan Anh, an official from the General Department of Taxation, said that the sectors index had fallen because many reforms had not been recognised. However, Vice Chairman of Vietnams Tax Consultants Association Nguyen Dinh Cu said there were still many problems in the taxation system, including crossover regulations and policies that made it difficult for people to keep up with the latest legislation. Nguyen Dinh Cung, director of CIEM, said although some targets had not been met, improvements had been seen. The overall business environment in Vietnam is up about 30 levels, narrowing the gap compared to the ASEAN 4. However, the results are uneven, marking a large gap among indicators in ministries and localities, said Cung. "If the agency in charge of the index is aware of the reforms and the minister is determined to change the target, we will reach it. If they hesitate and are not determined, the results will not be as expected, he added. For example, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has cut business conditions for industries such as rice and gas, and that has created new business opportunities for private firms. Regarding the business start-up index, Cung remarked that although it had risen 19 places this year, it still ranked above 100. "The problem is that this index is related to many different agencies that all are waiting for reforms. In my opinion, the Ministry of Planning and Investment should be the driving force in reforming this index, not only co-ordinating but also pushing other ministries, he said. The director also emphasised that the court played an extremely important role in the business environment, with two indices dealing with disputes and bankruptcy proceedings, because businesses would have disputes. The most important thing was to solve the problems quickly and fairly in order to strengthen investor confidence. "Weve reformed rapidly, but the world is moving faster and there is a competition in the race for prosperity by improving the business environment and enhancing national competitiveness. There is still much work to be done to sustain and promote the achievements of the past five years," said Cung. Lien made speech at the launch of LIAN On October 30, 2018, Do Thi Kim Lien, founder of AAA, announced LIAN, the very first automated insurance application in Vietnam. Buy in 1 minute Receive compensation in 30 seconds is the simple yet satisfying message that Lien would like to bring to the community. The app follows the long-term, customer-oriented, and sustainable investment and development strategy drawn up by Lien, who is also special senior advisor of Vien Dong Assurance Corporation (VASS). LIAN provides an opportunity for Vietnamese youths, officials, housewives, and students who are looking to improve their incomes by actively and independently doing business. With user-friendly and up-to-date design, LIAN has been receiving many positive feedbacks from users throughout the test period. After two months of trial, there were more than 13,000 downloads and over 1,000 insurance contracts were sold. The most popular insurance product is residential fire insurance, driven by recent serious apartment fires. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the outcome of science and technology breakthroughs and has a powerful impact on every aspect of social life. In order to reach the primary target of covering all Vietnamese families with insurance from all risks, it is essential to allow customers to approach insurance in a fast, convenient, safe, and clear way and offer competitive prices. LIAN 24/7 Insurance was designed to be compatible with Android and iOS. Users can easily download and install the app from Google Play and the App Store. Users try the new application Lien founded AAA Insurance in 2005. However, she sold the entire stake in the company to Australias IAG Group in 2012. Lien was one of the most successful business women in the field of non-life insurance. After many years of experimentation and multiple successes in other industries, she decided to return to the insurance market. In late 2013, Lien founded AAA Plus, which provides financial and M&A consultancy services, asset management, as well as business and investment brokerage. She is now also chairman of Aqua One Group, which focuses investment in clean water projects, BOT transport infrastructure projects, and seaports. Lien is also the honorary South African Consul in Ho Chi Minh City. The Vietnamese non-life insurance market recorded a turnover of VND40.5 trillion ($1.76 billion) in 2017, up 11 per cent on-year. According to the Ministry of Finances Insurance Supervisory Authority (ISA), the total assets of non-life insurance companies reached VND73.6 trillion ($3.2 billion) in 2017, of which VND38.8 trillion ($1.72 billion) was re-invested into the economy. For 2018, local insurers are expecting a turnover of VND44.7 trillion ($1.94 billion) and assets of about VND77.3 trillion ($3.36 billion). Non-life insurance giants include Bao Viet Insurance Corporation, BIDV Insurance Corporation (BIC), and Vietnam National Aviation Insurance Corporation. Insurance industry hits growth of 24pc in H1 Vietnams insurance industry achieved high year-on-year growth of 24.35 per cent in the first half of 2018, helping total revenue to reach more than VND58.65 ... Insurance firms plan to go digital Most insurance businesses planned to apply new technologies in management systems and improving customer services, and many also plan to study new products to meet ... Representatives of France and Vietnam shared their thoughts at the panel entitled "New ambitions in Vietnam" The information was stressed at The France-Vietnam Business Forum 2018 held in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday. The forum was an opportunity for exchange between French and Vietnamese companies to find solutions and partnerships in order to fulfil their new ambitions in Vietnam. The event saw the participation of more than 200 French and Vietnamese companies. Henri-Charles, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry France-Vietnam (CCIFV), said that Vietnam will witness miraculous growth so French companies are urged to accelerate investment to avail of new business opportunities in the country. He noted that South Korean and Japanese investors have already secured a strong presence in the market. CCIFV would like to accompany Vietnamese firms to deepen partnership with French businesses. Gerald Darmanin, Minister of Public Action and Accounts, lauded Vietnams extensive integration and high economic growth in the past 30 years. Vietnam is increasingly opening its doors to European countries, thus, more French businesses, including large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), will invest in Vietnam in the coming time. He highly appreciated the quality of Vietnamese companies and noted that the commitments to developing economic and trade partnerships are expected to be realised during the upcoming visit of the French President at the beginning of 2019. According to Francois Corbin, chairman of the Medef delegation, this is the 13th French business delegation paying a working visit to Vietnam in 2018. "Vietnam is going to welcome a new era of development with tremendous business opportunities for French businesses to implement their next phase of development. I believe French businesses are likely to achieve success by teaming up with Vietnamese firms." With the country's huge potential and strong economic growth, French food company Adros has made a long-term commitment to invest in Vietnam. Valentin Tran, the firm's general director, said that Adros selected Vietnam as its investment hub in the region due to the country's large population and high purchasing demand. The group plans to tap into the domestic consumption market and later expand to neighbouring countries. The France-Vietnam Business Forum was organised by CCIFV in co-operation with the French Embassy in Vietnam, the Consulate of France in Vietnam, the Conseillers du Commerce exterieur de la France (CCE French Trade advisors), as well as Business France and Medef International. The forum was one of several initiatives held in parallel with the official visit to Vietnam by French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on November 2-4. The French prime minister visited Vietnam on the occasion of a double anniversary: 45 years of diplomatic relations and 5 years of strategic partnership between France and Vietnam. The year 2018 marks an unprecedented strengthening of ties between the two countries, as evidenced by high-level visits, particularly after the visit of the Secretary General of the Vietnamese Communist Party in France. Source: The Vietnamese government Last week it was announced by the government that the budget deficit in 2019 will be lower than this year (see Table 1). It will also be far lower than the average rate of more than 5 per cent recorded over previous years. According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), it is extremely important that budget deficit be reduced in order to control the public debt, which is reducing from 62.6 per cent of GDP in 2017 to an expected 61.4 per cent of GDP this year. The ratio is expected to be 61.3 per cent of GDP next year. In order to reduce state budget deficit, the recurrent spending rate has been reduced from about 70 per cent of total budget expenditure in previous years to 64.8 per cent in 2017 and around 64.11 per cent this year. It will drop further to an expected 63.8 per cent in 2019. The low budget deficit for the next year comes amid reductions in revenue from exports, including crude oil exports, and imports under tariff cut commitments. Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung reported that revenue from taxes and fees is decreasing, from 20.1 per cent of GDP last year to about 19.7 per cent this year. For example, it is expected that Vietnam will export 11.76 million tonnes of crude oil this year, worth $1.56 billion, down from last years 13.28 million tonnes worth $1.89 billion. It is forecast that Vietnam will export 10.43 million tonnes next year. If oil price hovers at about $70 per barrel, total revenue from crude oil exports will be $730.1 million. Also in 2019, the states tax-based revenue from exports and imports is projected to be $7.78 billion, down from this years $7.83 billion. This reduction is due to tariff slashes under free trade agreements (FTAs) involving Vietnam. According to the World Bank, during 2015-2025, Vietnam will directly see a slump in import tariff revenue from $1.43 billion to $477.3 million, due to import tariff cuts under FTAs (see Table 2). Also, the indirect reduction in import tax revenue from FTAs during 2016-2025 will be $5.96 billion, with an average $591 million each year. Source: The World Bank Efforts by the Vietnamese government to reduce the budget deficit have received applause from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Nguyen Minh Cuong, principal country economist from the ADB, told VIR that the governments fiscal consolidation programme has made progress in the first half of the year. Budget revenue increased by 15.7 per cent in the first six months, reaching 28.7 per cent of the GDP. Meanwhile, expenditure increased by about 11.4 per cent, thanks partly to the spending rationalisation, though still lower than formerly planned. The budget posted a small surplus equal to 0.1 per cent of GDP in the first half of the year, making a deficit of nearly 1 per cent a year earlier. Efforts to rein in the fiscal deficit helped to lower the public debts ratio to the GDP to an estimated 58.5 per cent by the end of June 2018, from 63.7 per cent at the beginning of 2017, Cuong said. It is expected that the public debt-to-GDP ratio will be 61.4 per cent this year, lower than the 63 per cent last year. This is quite an impressive achievement by the government, he added. According to the World Bank, Vietnams fiscal consolidation is expected to contain its public debt during 2018-2020. For six straight years Nestle Vietnam has received plaudits for its business performance Nestle Vietnam, part of Swiss-based Nestle SA- one of the worlds largest food and beverage companies - last week received a certificate of merit from the Dong Nai Peoples Committee for excellent tax compliance in 2017. This was the sixth consecutive year the company championed the award for good tax adherence practices. This time, it was one of 203 individuals and corporate entities receiving the prestigious accolade for their significant contributions to the tax sector in particular, and for provincial development generally. The repeated honour is a testament to Nestle Vietnams commitment to business transparency and law compliance, on its development journey in the Vietnamese market. The award marks another milestone in the companys development this year. In July, the company received a certificate of merit from the Dong Nai Peoples Committee for outstanding production and business performance, tax contribution and philanthropic activities, helping to ensure stable employment for the labourers in the province. Then in August, the company made it onto the list of the top 100 tax contributors in Vietnam during 2016 and 2017, as announced by the Ministry of Finance. Most recently, on October 4 the company was awarded another certificate of merit from the Ministry of Planning and Investment for excellent performance among foreign-invested enterprises on the occasion of Vietnam commemorating 30 years of foreign direct investment attraction in the country. At the ceremony when Nestle Vietnams tax compliance was praised on October 26, Nguyen Quoc Hung, Deputy Chairman of the Dong Nai Peoples Committee, applauded efforts of businesses and trading households for state financial obligations fulfilment, and called on them to continue making positive contributions towards provincial and national development. To mark the occasion, Nestle Vietnam CEO Ganesan Ampalavanar thanked the active support the company has received during its past 23-year development in Vietnam and hoped for continued support from Vietnamese authorised agencies in their upcoming development journey. Nestle is committed to our purpose of enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future. We enable healthier and happier lives, drawing on more than 150 years of passion for nutrition, with popular brands such as MILO, Nescafe, Maggi, Nestea, Nesvita and NAN, Ampalavanar stressed. That journey in Vietnam dates back to 1995 through opening the first production plant in Dong Nai. Over the past two decades, the company has been constantly expanding production as well as growing investment in the province. Nestle currently operates three production facilities in Dong Nai, of which two plants producing instant NESCAFE and MILO are based in Amata Industrial Park (IP) and another plant producing NESCAFE, NESTEA, MAGGI, and MILO powder in Bien Hoa 2 IP. In July this year, the company inaugurated a new Nescafe Dolce Gusto capsule production line in Tri An Factory in Dong Nai. It is planned to process around 2,500 tonnes of quality coffee per year, using high quality coffee beans from Vietnam, and the volume is expected to increase in the coming years. In the northern region, the companys Bong Sen plant in Hung Yen province has turned out instant MILO products since last year. Nestle Vietnam has a strong contingent of more than 2,300 employees and developed an expansive agent network across the country. Wherever it operates, the company always strives for improved quality of life and healthier future of Vietnamese people. This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Nov 1, 2018 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting the construction site of the Hot Spring Tourist Area in Yangdok County, South Phyongan Province. (KCNA VIA KNS/AFP) For years, the North had pursued a "byungjin" policy of simultaneously developing its nuclear capabilities alongside the economy. In April, citing a "fresh climate of detente and peace" on the peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared the nuclear quest complete and said his country would focus on "socialist economic construction". But a statement issued by the North's foreign ministry said Pyongyang could revert to its former policy if the US does not change its stance over sanctions. "The word 'byungjin' may appear again and the change of the line could be seriously reconsidered," said the statement carried by the official KCNA news agency late Friday. At a historic summit in Singapore in June, US President Donald Trump and Kim signed a vaguely-worded statement on denuclearisation. But little progress has been made since then, with Washington pushing to maintain sanctions against the North until its "final, fully verified denuclearisation" and Pyongyang condemning US demands as "gangster-like". "The improvement of relations and sanctions are incompatible," said the statement, released under the name of the director of the foreign ministry's Institute for American Studies. "What remains to be done is the US' corresponding reply," it added. The statement is the latest sign of Pyongyang's increasing frustration with Washington. Last month, the North's state media carried a near 1,700 words long commentary accusing the US of playing a "double game", implicitly criticising Trump for his comments aimed at barring Seoul from lifting sanctions against Pyongyang. Despite a flurry of diplomacy on and around the peninsula differences are emerging between Seoul and Washington, which stations 28,500 troops in the South to protect it from its nuclear-armed neighbour. The South's dovish president Moon Jae-in has long favoured engagement with the North, which is subject to multiple UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. He has dangled large investment and joint cross-border projects as incentives for steps towards denuclearisation, while the US has been adamant pressure should be maintained on Pyongyang until it fully dismantles its weapons programmes. In an interview with Fox News on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated that sanctions will remain until Pyongyang carries out the denuclearisation commitments made in Singapore, adding that he will meet with his North Korean counterpart next week. Source: AFP/mn Tagged Topics North Korea Kim Jong Un Donald Trump state policy nuclear weapons economic sanctions Communist Cuba is one of North Korea's few remaining allies AFP/KCNA VIA KNS The visit by Miguel Diaz-Canel comes amid stalled talks between North Korea and the United States and only days after Washington imposed fresh economic restrictions on Cuba. Washington's ties with Havana were fully restored in 2015 after more than half a century of enmity, but have deteriorated since President Donald Trump took office. Communist Cuba is one of North Korea's few remaining allies. "There was an in-depth exchange of views on the crucial issues of common concern ... on the international situation and a consensus of views on all issues was reached," said the official KCNA news agency. Diaz-Canel was greeted by Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju at the Pyongyang International Airport on Sunday, KCNA reported, where he was given a 21-gun salute and later attended a banquet and enjoyed a special welcoming concert with them. Giving a toast at the banquet, Kim said his meeting with the Cuban leader "marked a watershed in demonstrating the will to carry forward forever the friendship between the two countries". In response, Diaz-Canel said he was willing to "meet all challenges by the hostile forces" while carrying forward their "traditional friendly and cooperative relations", according to KCNA. Diaz-Canel took office in April in a historic transition of power on the Caribbean island, succeeding Raul Castro, who took over from his elder brother Fidel, father of the 1959 revolution. Fidel Castro visited North Korea in 1986 to meet founder-leader Kim Il-Sung, and Pyongyang held three days of official mourning when Castro died in November 2016. North Korea sent a delegation led by Choe Ryong-Hae, a senior aide to its leader Kim Jong Un, to Havana for Castro's funeral. Cuba in the past has flouted international sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme. In 2013 Panama seized a North Korean ship carrying an undeclared Cuban arms shipment of Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets hidden under sacks of sugar. North Korea insisted the weapons were being shipped for repair, prior to their return. PM Phuc to attend China trade expo, photo source: VGP At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will attend the countrys first International Import Exposition (CIIE) during November 4-5 in Shanghai, one of Chinas most important external relations events this year. Scheduled to take place on November 5-10, the CIIE will be co-organised by the Ministry of Commerce of China and the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, with support from the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this event is of major importance for Vietnam. It is because the CIIE will help Vietnam further its co-operation with regional countries and maximise all benefits derived from the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area. Moreover, the CIIE will also help Vietnam boost exports to China and the ASEAN region, as well as boost the exports of ASEAN markets to China via Vietnams border gates. Besides, the CIIE will also help Vietnam lure more foreign direct investment, and enable domestic enterprises to seek more partners and expand export markets. At the CIIE, Vietnam will have a national booth covering 256 square metres, showcasing the countrys potential for trade, investment, and tourism. The booth will showcase the products of 25 Vietnamese enterprises, such as TH true MILK, Vinamilk, Trung Nguyen coffee, Quang Ngai Sugar, Hapro, Cuu Long An Giang, and FPT. More than 100 Vietnamese and Chinese companies will also partake in two joint trade promotion conferences on November 6-9 in Shanghai and Zhejiang province. Vietnam will officially open its trade promotion office in Zhejiangs Hangzhou city. This will be Vietnams second office in China, with the first based in Chongqing. The CIIE, expected to attract businesses from more than 130 nations and territories, will have more than 200,000sq.m of exhibition space, displaying six major categories, including smart technology equipment, home electronics, automobiles, accessories and consumer goods, farm produce and food, medical equipment, and healthcare products. According to the Vietnam General Department of Customs, bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and China has annually risen by over 20 per cent over the past five years. It hit $93.69 billion last year, up 30.2 per cent on-year. The figure reached $85 billion in the first 10 months of this year, with Vietnam spending $52.9 billion on imports and earning $32.1 billion from exports. China remains Vietnams biggest importer and also its second largest export market after the US. According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment, Chinese investment is on the increase in Vietnam. Specifically, in 2015 China had 1,284 projects in Vietnam, registered at $9.9 billion, making it the ninth-largest foreign investor. Figures have been rising since then, to 1,555 projects registered with $10.52 billion in 2016 lifting China to the eighth position and 1,883 projects with $12.44 billion in 2017 making China the seventh largest investor. In the first 10 months of 2018, China was Vietnams fifth-largest foreign investor, with 296 projects registered at $787.47 billion. If stake acquisitions and capital expansion at operational projects are taken into account, total newly-registered capital from China hit $1.63 billion during the period. As of October 20, 2018, China had 2,072 projects registered at $12.96 billion in Vietnam, making it the sixth-largest foreign investor. Currently, about 80 per cent of all engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts in Vietnam are awarded to Chinese contractors, accounting for 18.4 per cent of the total registered capital in the form of build-operate-transfer (BOT), build-transfer (BT), and build-transfer-operate (BTO) contracts, according to pan-Asia consulting firm Dezan Shira & Associates. Most Chinese projects in Vietnam are of a small scale. One of the biggest investments is the $1.76 billion Vinh Tan 1 power plant in the south-central province of Binh Thuan. Other projects include the $400 million Viet Lan Tire Plant in the southern province of Tay Ninh, and the $337.5 million Vietnam-China Mining and Metallurgy project in the northern province of Lao Cai. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) and his French counterpart Edouard Philippe at the Government Office France is Vietnams leading official development assistance (ODA) provider in Europe, and Vietnam ranks second among the recipients of Frances ODA in Asia, with a total $18.4 billion committed since 1993. In 2017, Vietnam disbursed $104 million worth of French ODA. The country is also among a few nations receiving assistance from all three financial aid channels of France: namely ODA, preferential loans of the French Development Agency (AFD) and those of the Priority Solidarity Fund (FSP). To date, France has provided Vietnam with 2.2 billion ($2.49 billion) in aid and preferential loans. For the first time in the history of Vietnamese-French ties, this year has seen enterprises from the two nations ink a raft of investment and business co-operation deals, worth nearly $23 billion. During the November 2-4 official visit to Vietnam by French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, he and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc witnessed the signing of 17 co-operation deals valued at over $10 billion, covering many sectors such as energy, education, health, e-commerce, urban management, space, technology, and environment. Notably, two big business deals were clinched, including the purchase by Vietjet, Vietnams leading private airline, of 50 Airbus A321neo planes worth $6.5 billion and CFM Leap engines worth $5.3 billion. The deals signed today are valued at over $10 billion, showing that a growing number of French businesses are entering Vietnam in many sectors. This is a striking demonstration of the Vietnamese-French relations, said PM Phuc. Earlier, during an official visit to France in March 2018 by Vietnams Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, businesses from the two nations also inked deals worth 11 billion ($12.53 billion). Last week, Vietnam and France also inaugurated the Alexandre Yersin School in Hanoi, and the French Medical Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, where construction of the French House project was also begun. Upcoming investment plans According to Vietnams Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vietnam has become a magnet for French investors, especially in the sectors of energy, gas, electricity, infrastructure, smart city, and e-government. They are also interested in projects regarding agriculture, forestry, adaptation to climate change, science and technology, education and training, and health care. Since late March 2018, when Party General Secretary Trong paid an official visit to France, doors have been opened for French businesses to invest in Vietnams infrastructure, transport, and space industries. Vietjet agreed on a $6.5 billion deal with Frances Safran Aircraft Engines, under which the latter will support the former with fleet management services, training, and research and development programmes including efficient fuel usage and technical management. Vietjet also signed a finance agreement with GECAS France on buying and leasing six A321neo aircraft valued at $800 million. Vietnams industry-real estate-finance T&T Group and Frances infrastructure developer Bouygues clinched a 250 million ($307.5 million) deal to upgrade Hanois Hang Day stadium, and another deal worth 1.4 billion ($1.72 billion) on developing the citys urban railway project No.3. Bouygues said it considers Vietnam a very important market, and wants to engage more in Vietnams infrastructure projects. The group has constructed many key infrastructure projects in Vietnam, such as Phu Luong Bridge and Hai Van Tunnel. Besides, Vietnams property developer FLC Group signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus to purchase 24 A321neo aircraft for its newly-established Bamboo Airways scheduled to start operations in 2019. FLC has completed the deposit and initial payment of the contract, fulfilling the pre-condition for handing over the 24 aircraft to Bamboo Airways. Furthermore, Vietnam Airlines and Air France Industries KLM Engineering and Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M) also clinched a contract, worth over $500 million, for maintenance of Boeing 787-9 aircraft. Under the contract, AFI KLM E&M will oversee the maintenance of 20 GEnx engines, including 16 engines fitted to eight operating aircraft and four others in reserve, for 12 years. The French company will also provide access to spare engines for Vietnam Airlines to guarantee seamless continuity in its operations. French investors also want to deploy space-related projects in Vietnam. Vietnams Ministry of Science and Technology and Airbus Defence and Space SAS inked a deal on space technology co-operation. Frances Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS) and Spatial Reference Information Systems (SIRS) are also working with the Vietnamese government about its upcoming projects in Vietnam. We provide services for agriculture, forestry, land and water related risk management, said Jean-Paul Gachelin, CEO of SIRS, which produces geographic data derived from satellite and aerial images. SIRS land services include remote control sensing, monitoring, and risk or damage assessment in case of natural, environmental or technological disaster. Each of these applications requires different image processing technologies. The use of high resolution/very high resolution time series allows a precise delineation of each parcel. Administration can include farmer identification as well as the crops cultivated as attributes in a national land parcel identification system, Gachelin said. In another case, CLS executive vice president Antoine Monsaingeon said that France has been supporting Vietnam in the space industry for a few years, and CLS will continue its co-operation with the country to master satellite technology. CLS also worked with Vietnams Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for its upcoming projects in Vietnam. French employers association MEDEF president Pierre Gattaz said that Vietnam is becoming a big tiger in Asia. The country has an attractive investment and business climate developed by the governments great reform drives. Vietnam is strongly attracting French enterprises, Gattaz said. Currently over 200 French businesses are operating in Vietnam. With its rapid economic growth, and a fast-growing middle class, many opportunities are awaiting investors, including French ones. According to Vietnams Ministry of Planning and Investment, in the first 10 months of this year, France was Vietnams ninth-largest foreign investor, with 32 new projects registered at $470.7 million. If stake acquisitions and raised capital from operational projects are included, total newly-registered French investments mounted to $517.7 million. Overall, France has 533 valid projects registered at over $3.6 billion in Vietnam, making it the 15th largest foreign investor in the Southeast Asian nation. Notably, France is Vietnams seventh-largest foreign investor in the tourism sector, with 14 projects registered at $188 million. In general, French investments in Vietnam are largely in the forms of joint venture (35 per cent), wholly-foreign investment (33 per cent), and the remaining forms include partnership, joint stock company, build-transfer-operate, build-transfer, and build-operate-transfer. The average capital of each project is $11.6 million. In terms of trade, France is the fifth largest European trade partner of Vietnam, after Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Italy. The bilateral trade turnover hit $2.3 billion in the first half of this year, and $4.6 billion last year up 11.6 per cent on-year. New commitment Last week, the two prime ministers agreed to boost co-operation between both nations in e-government development and modernisation of state administrative governance, which is a new, promising co-operation sector. They also agreed to facilitate businesses of both nations to further cement co-operation in the sectors of infrastructure, energy, aviation-space, health care, science and technology, communications, response to climate change, and smart city. PM Phuc affirmed that with its improved business and investment climate, Vietnam always welcomes and creates favourable conditions for all foreign investors, including French ones. URC Vietnam is prioritising automation and providing the workforce with essential tools Food quality and safety is of paramount importance to Vietnamese consumers. The report Whats Next in Food? by Nielsen Vietnam has revealed that 37 per cent of Vietnamese consumers considered health as their biggest concern. Thus, they are willing to proactively take action to stay healthy. Therefore, if any businesses can build a healthy image to meet this high demand, they will win the market. Due to increasing health awareness from customers, URC Vietnam has made significant investments into production with Industry 4.0 to enhance its capabilities and ensure product quality and safety. The company is gearing up for the latest Industry 4.0 technology to propel productivity and further enhance competitiveness in the Vietnamese food and beverage (F&B) market. According to Ronaldo Villanueva, IT head of URC Vietnam, the company automated the production lines with robots and automated racking systems. It is going to implement SAP manufacturing intelligence and integration (SAP MII) and Manufacturing Execution Systems to link its factory equipment with backend systems starting this year. Although URC Vietnam is in the initial stages of adoption, it has increased its readiness for Industry 4.0 by equipping the workforce with the necessary tools before accelerating the automation projects. URC Vietnam said that the automation of factories using cutting-edge technologies will enhance and streamline its operations as well as enable real-time performance monitoring and analysis. By adopting automation solutions, the company can improve the quality and availability of raw materials while reducing costs and optimising the supply chain. In addition, the SAP MII system enables the factory to reduce equipment downtime through predictive maintenance. Specifically, the SAP MII system will predict machine failures to improve maintenance schedules and reduce or eliminate unscheduled downtime. Giving real-time data visibility through business intelligence and analytics tools to the shop floor personel will help them to proactively identify problems and take necessary corrective actions before they occur.. URC Vietnam believes that not only the machines but its people are also critical to achieving high quality products. Thus, the company is well recognised for its HR practices getting high scores in its internal employee surveys and also in the HR Asia Best Employer Award. Villanueva stressed, Adoption of Industry 4.0 helps URC Vietnam to ensure the competitiveness of its businesses in the market. In particular, we can significantly cut production expenses while making its products available to consumers at a faster speed. URC Vietnam can also roll out more new products to the market with better visibility of product costs and performance. All of the initiatives to adapt to Industry 4.0 underline URCs ambitions in the Vietnamese market. It is eager to embrace Industry 4.0 technology to promote quality, safety, hygiene, and traceability, thereby boosting Made in Vietnam products in the global marketplace. URC Vietnam is actively engaging with potential customers around the world to continue exporting more locally-produced food and drinks beyond its existing eight foreign markets, making Vietnam better known globally as a producer of high-quality products. On top of that, Vietnamese consumers stand to gain more from URCs quick adoption of smart manufacturing to address growing health concerns. Specifically, customers can enjoy the highest quality and more affordable products as well as faster product recall and consumer feedback systems. They can also have access to a variety of new products with quicker delivery times. The bold move to embrace Industry 4.0 clearly demonstrates URC Vietnams unwavering commitment to go beyond simple compliance with regulations or industry benchmarks in pursuit of quality and safety. Thanks to its constant efforts, URC Vietnams VSIP 1 Beverage & Food Plant 1/2 and Hanoi Beverage Plant were ISO 9001 Quality Management System certified for many years and received the FSSC 22000 Food Safety System Certification. This certification demonstrates that URC Vietnams processes for food production are in line with international food safety and management standards. In addition, all URC Vietnam plants are certified to ISO 14001 Environment Management Systems and will shortly be certified to ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System. The recent opening of a central laboratory further bolstered URC Vietnams dedication to quality. This specialised facility is equipped with the latest and most advanced testing technologies and manned by highly qualified analysts. The laboratory is in the process of receiving the the BoA ISO 17025 Accreditation, controlled by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Since its inception in Vietnam in 2003, URC Vietnam has built three factories in Binh Duong, one in Quang Ngai, and one in Hanoi, with the total investment capital of $200 million. It is now ranked as one of the leading F&B companies in Vietnam with well-known brands like C2 and Rong Do for beverages, Cream-O and Magic for biscuits, Dynamite for candies, Jack nJill Puff Corn and Chikki for snacks. Over the past three years, the economys growth quality has been visibly improving, with governmental analysis, Photo: Le Toan Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue last week told the National Assembly (NA) that since 2016, the economy has been positively and clearly changing in terms of growth quality. The most important thing is that the economy has been growing on the right track, he stressed. According to the government, the economy has been growing qualitatively and comprehensively in all three key sectors. This year, agro-forestry-fishery is up 3.3 per cent on-year a four-fold increase against 2016 and hitting a record $41 billion in export turnover. Industry and construction meanwhile is up 7.59 per cent on-year, while services are up 7.35 per cent on-year the highest such rise since 2008. Of the industrial sectors growth, the manufacturing and processing sector is expected to witness an on-year rise to 13.6 per cent this year. Previously the rate climbed from 11.9 per cent in 2016 to 14.5 per cent last year. I would like to stress that in the agro-forestry-fishery sector, high growth can be seen comprehensively in cultivation, livestock production, and fishery. Meanwhile in the industrial sector, production is developing strongly with a gradual reduction in mining, especially exploitation and export of crude oil and coal. Also, the manufacturing and processing sector is rapidly expanding, DPM Hue said. The service sector, especially tourism, has grown spectacularly. DPM Hue further noted that growth has not only relied on investment and exports, but also on the domestic market. Encouragingly over the past three years, total revenue from selling all types of goods has enjoyed an annual rise of over 10 per cent. This year, the revenue ascension in the domestic market is also the same as the expected 11.2 per cent hike in export turnover. According to the government, labour productivity and total-factor productivity (TFP) have also risen, reflecting an economic growth improvement. Vietnam has become a nation with the highest rise in labour productivity in the region, at an average rate of 5.62 per cent within the 2016-2018 period, far outpacing the average rate of 4.3 per cent in the previous five-year period, and also exceeding the target of 5 per cent earlier set for this government term, DPM Hue said. Moreover, the TFP ratio in the economy sat at 33.58 per cent in the 2011-2015 period, and increased to 45.47 per cent last year. TFP is a measure of the efficiency of all inputs to a production process. Rises in TFP result usually from technological innovations or improvements. Also, the economys incremental capital output ratio (ICOR), which is the additional capital required to increase one unit of output, has also clearly improved. The ICOR was 6.42 in 2016, 6.11 in 2017 and expected to reach 6.46 this year. It is about 6.32 for the 2016-2018 period. The confirmation from DPM Hue followed some NA members expressing their concerns over the progress of the countrys economy. Deputy Huynh Thanh Phuong, representing the southern province of Tay Ninh, said, The economys growth quality remains problematic. For example, it largely relies on investment capital, while labour productivity increases negligibly, and TFP remains low. He, however, did not provide any figures to protect his view. Tran Tri Quang, a deputy representing the southern province of Dong Thap, also stated, The economys growth quality has failed to improve remarkably. It still relies on investment capital, natural resources, and manual labour. Like Phuong, deputy Quang did not cite any figures or examples of his views. Meanwhile, deputy Tran Hoang Ngan from Ho Chi Minh City saw the economy growing sustainably. My in-depth research on the countrys socio-economic situation since 2008 shows that this year we have reaped many good results, quantitatively and qualitatively, as well as sustainably, he said. Quantitatively, the economy grew 6.21 per cent in 2016, 6.81 per cent last year, and 6.98 per cent in the first nine months of this year the highest nine-month growth over the past 10 years, he said. Qualitatively, the average annual rise in labour productivity in the 2016-2018 period is 5.62 per cent, far higher than 4.35 per cent in the 2011 2015 period. Pulse nightclub museum gets $10M ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) Up to $10 million in local hotel tax revenue can be used to help build a museum to the 49 victims of a massacre at a gay nightclub in Florida. Orange County commissioners on Tuesday approved payments over three years to a foundation dedicated to building a museum commemorating the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. The money will be used to buy land and create designs for the museum. Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs says the museum will be sacred space that teaches visitors about the dangers of intolerance and discrimination. Officials with the onePulse Foundation say they will start developing a design for the museum and memorial in the coming months. In recent times, most of Vietnams famers have been facing difficulties in making ends meet with isolated and scattered farming practices. They were also at the mercy of unfortunate market mechanisms, such as low yields or good crop, bad price or unproductive post-harvest practices when prices were piteously low. "Thom RVT" rice seeds - a popular product of Vinaseed - has the advantage of rice quality, salinity tolerance and alum resistance. As a member of The PAN Group aleading company in agriculture and the food industry Vinaseed is a leading scientific and technological corporation operating in agricultural production, with a strong focus on research, production, and trade in agro-forestry plant seeds. 50 years after its establishment, Vinaseed has become one of the leading enterprises in the Vietnamese seed industry, achieving more than VND1.5 trillion ($65.2 million) in sales, 80 per cent of which stems from patented seeds. The company has 29 members located in different ecological regions across the country, especially the Red River Delta and the Mekong Delta, with nearly 2 million hectares of cultivation area. At its 50-year anniversary ceremony, chairwoman and general director Tran Kim Lien officially announced renaming the company to Vietnam National Seed Group (Vinaseed Group) and launched the new Corporate Identity Programme (CIP), setting the company on course towards new heights, with the particular goal of becoming Vietnams leading corporation providing sustainable agricultural development solutions to the international market. Vinaseed officially changed its name to "Vietnam Seed Corporation" and launched a new corporate identity. Thanks to its extensive network with farmers and intensive experience in production organisation, Vinaseed has created a full value chain to differentiate itself from other seed businesses. The companys process includes seed cultivation post-harvest preservation product brand building consumption. Taking advantage of this closed-loop value chain, Vinaseed is able to generate traceable, quality products as well as to control its large-scale production process both for domestic consumption and export. The company is now focusing on high-margin segments by providing good-quality agricultural products with a lot of added value gained from science and technology, such as premium rice, jasmine rice, and Japonica rice. To set itself apart, Vinaseed has been evading extensive investments while concentrating on predominant fields and products based on crop seeds. In 2018-2021, Vinaseed intends to mainly develop two key value chains for organic rice and fresh vegetables together with the value chain of the holding company, The PAN Group. Utilising its 50 years of experience in agricultural production and local know-how, together with its nationwide crop seed production network, Vinaseed has selected a number of locations that could serve as farming zones for its organic rice. Vinaseed introduces new high-grade VJ Pearl Rice produced by Japanese technology Vinaseed has been constantly improving its patented seeds by keeping advantageous and purebred traits. Also, the company has ensured stable productivity and quality, implemented its farming management process to guarantee traceability, and built farming zones meeting Viet-gap standards and specialised production zones in different ecological areas. Farmers in the companys chain can access interest-free loans to fund their production and their incomes have been stabilised via associated production. Their productivity has been largely enhanced by mechanisation, which also helped reduce costs. To develop the value chain of agricultural products and high-quality vegetables, Vinaseed has set up a 21.59-hectare greenhouse for Japanese melons at Hanam Hitech (wholly owned by Vinaseed) utilising high-tech facilities from Japan and Israel. The company has gradually created a value chain for its premium agricultural products in the Red River Delta. This has led the firm to become a regional pioneer in research, the application and transfer of high-tech agricultural technology within the closed value chain of holding company Farm Food Family. In 2018, Vinaseed has also developed the VND260 billion ($11.3 million) Industrial Center project of seeds and agricultural products processing mill (Dong Thap province). This Industrial Centre is expected to be the largest and most modern centre for seeds and agricultural product preservation in Vietnam. It will take up 5.2 hectares and process 30,000 tonnes of seeds and 100,000 tonnes of rice per year, with the total investment capital of VND216-230 billion ($9.39-10 million). The project will come into operation in 2020 and become a model at the Mekong Delta region, while at the same time transferring farmers into the companys value chain in order to build large-scale production hubs for high-quality seeds and first-rate rice. Vinaseeds Industrial Center project of seeds and agricultural products processing at Thap Muoi Village, Dong Thap province With its strategy and actions closely aligned with the closed Farm Food Family value chain of The PAN Group, Vinaseed aims to dominate the Vietnamese plant seed sector and to sustain an average pace of growth at 20-25 per cent per year until 2021. Models like Vinaseed are a necessity in Vietnamese agriculture as they can potentially rule out bumper devaluation. This will lead to higher economic value for farmers and members of co-operative farms. The optimal way to develop Vietnamese agriculture is to proceed from quality seeds and advanced technological production towards world-standard outputs. The VLCA 2018 judging utilised new classifications in order to highlight more performances from smaller businesses The Vietnam Listed Company Awards 2018 are co-organised by the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HSX), the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), and Vietnam Investment Review under the sole sponsorship of Dragon Capital Group. The awards are an extension of the Vietnam Annual Reports Awards, which has accompanied the growth of the Vietnamese stock market and listed companies throughout the past 10 years. The VLCA Award Ceremony last Friday welcomed the attendance of senior leaders from the State Securities Commission of Vietnam, the two stock exchanges, the Vietnam Securities Depository and representatives from 200 listed companies, securities brokerages, investment funds and other financial institutions in the market. The Vietnam Listed Company Awards (VLCA) 2018, which traces its roots back to the 10-year-old Annual Reporting Awards, concluded its four-month journey with an awards event last Friday. During the ceremony, the Organising Committee and the Selection Panel reflected on the years most significant changes, including a different set of voting and eligibility criteria. Unlike previous years, the VLCA 2018 classified participants into three groups based on their market capitalisation. By doing this, small- to medium-sized companies have been given the opportunity to compete and shine at the event, besides the large-cap companies which usually dominated the winners list. According to the Selection Panel, as expected, large-cap businesses showed superior performance with higher scores across the varying criteria. The quality of annual reports by mid-cap companies is also consistent. The small-cap group, however, has much room for improvement in comparison. The quality gap among smaller companies themselves was also remarkable, said the judges. On one hand, some scored 92 over 104 points, which shows that small-cap companies are becoming more serious about annual reporting and information transparency. However, half of small-cap companies have incomplete annual reports that lack crucial information, and these companies are in dire need of supervision and encouragement from policymakers and other market participants to improve their reporting standards. As the VCLA this year classified participants based on their market capitalisation, there has been stiff competition among large-cap businesses, most of which have a proven track record of outstanding reports, noted the judges. Due to the smaller number of available awards for the large-cap category, some previous winners were unfortunately not granted an award this year. In terms of eligibility criteria, to improve the quality of participants, the VLCA this year only selected companies in the VNX-Allshare Index, which meant that all 440 participants had to meet strict requirements on market capitalisation, free-float and liquidity level of stocks. Previously, the competition invited all businesses listed on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HSX). This change has been well-received by the market but, subsequently, a number of companies were not eligible to compete this year because their stocks suffered from low liquidity and they were not part of the VNX-Allshare Index. The Selection Panel acknowledged, This is an unfortunate situation, because some of these companies have strong annual reports in terms of both content and presentation, and they also met information disclosure requirements by the authorities. Corporate governance continue to triumph The VLCA 2018 had separate award categories for corporate governance and sustainability reporting, highlighting the importance of these two activities in Vietnams increasingly-open stock market. Investors around the world are placing a heavier emphasis on responsible investing, which presents opportunities and challenges for listed companies in Vietnam. To raise new capital from international investors, Vietnamese companies must provide complete financial reports and other non-financial information, such as sustainability reporting or corporate governance, said Le Hai Tra, acting chairman of the HSX, and head of the Organising Committee and the Selection Panel. According to Tra, this is the greatest goal for the VLCA and Vietnams entire stock market. To boost the credibility of VLCAs corporate governance awards, the Organising Committee developed in-depth criteria based on the Corporate Governance Scorecard by OECD and Vietnamese laws. Independent judges, who have experience implementing corporate governance standards in the ASEAN, were also invited. Similar to 2017, all reports in the final round were audited by the four largest auditing companies - Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC. This was seen as a positive move that contributes to the impartiality and professionalism of the VLCA. Based on the results from the event, the Organising Committee will release a detailed report on the current state of corporate governance at Vietnamese-listed companies. The report will link corporate governance to a companys business success and help them understand the importance of corporate governance, as well as changes that need to be made on the company level. At the same time, this report will also become a reliable document for Vietnamese policymakers, providing an overview of corporate governance in Vietnam in general, and a closer look at the three company groups based on market capitalisation. From there, lawmakers can build new legal frameworks that address the most critical issues, and improve the level of transparency and corporate governance standards for the entire market. Judges were happy with the overall standards of corporate governance this year, but remarked that in general, the implementation process at individual companies is still lacking. Specifically, although a lot of companies scored high in some criteria, the standard on the market level, spanning all aspects of corporate governance, remains low. In this years VLCA, 133 reports, or more than one-fourth of the participants, scored worse than average. This means there is a lot of work to be done in the coming years, said the Selection Panel. Highlights on sustainability reporting and report designs The Organising Committee noted that there were 10 separate reports on sustainability reporting this year, which means businesses are increasingly aware of their environmental and social responsibilities. Reports in the final round were built on the Global Reporting Initiative standards and the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals, together with Vietnams Circular No.155/2015/TT-BTC, with a high level of reliability and complexity. Even companies that incorporate their sustainability section into the overall report have done well in terms of content and presentation, said the judges. These reports are presented in a compelling and easy-to-understand way, and previous high-achievers have maintained their outstanding track record. Were particularly impressed with Bao Viet Holdings the company that has provided a creative and comprehensive report on sustainability, which is not often expected of a financial firm, said the judges. Besides these significant changes, the VLCA 2018 also placed higher importance on presentation than previous years, and introduced more detailed criteria on layout, storytelling, and designs. The Selection Panel explained that winners often scored very high in terms of presentation, thus the VLCA this year wanted to prioritise those that told a compelling story about their business via a skilful combination of words, figures, illustrations and charts. Scores for the business and financial reporting section increased this year, as companies begin to understand how to tell their stories, including achievements, challenges and detailed explanations of future goals. The VLCA is one effort among various initiatives that participants in Vietnams stock market are carrying out, in order to foster stronger listed companies in the country within the next decade. This will help improve Vietnams standing in international capital markets, said Le Trong Minh, editor-in-chief of VIR and co-head of the Organising Committee. Chief executive of AFD Remy Rioux speaking at the conference On November 3 in Hanoi, the French Development Agency (AFD) in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union organised a conference themed Youth and climate change: Challenges today and solutions for future, on the occasion of the official visit of French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to Vietnam between November 2 and 4, one month before the 24th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). We have no plan B and Earth B, so we must act to prevent climate change, confirmed French Minister of Public Action and Accounts Gerald Darmanin. That is why France always promotes and holds numerous events on climate change, such as COP 21 in Paris 2015. Minister Darmanin emphasised the role of youth and said: The decisions and actions of todays youth will be a turning point in history, because you are the first generation who are educated and fully aware of climate change, as well as directly affected by climate change. Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, so young people need to proactively learn about the phenomenon and related solutions. France commits to actively support Vietnam's youth according to the joint statement made on the occasion of the General Secretary of the Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong's official visit to France in March," added Darmanin. Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Vu Dai Thang also emphasised the role of youth, which is a significant driving force behind the implementation of Vietnam's National Strategy on Climate Change and green growth programmes. Vietnam and France's representatives also confirmed that the deployment of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and raising the youth's awareness are key tasks of the bilateral co-operation. The award ceremony for the contest on "Resilience" Also in the framework of the conference, the winners of the contest on making infographic and video clips placing the term "Resilience" into a distinct Vietnamese context, which was launched by AFD and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in August, were announced. The contest received nearly 390 entries of all kinds from young people and students nationwide. The contest has contributed to raising the Vietnamese youths awareness of the impact of environmental and social changes in Vietnam, thus calling for the communitys joint efforts to overcome environmental issues and promoting sustainable development. Some 150 years ago, the Bahai faith was born in Iran, making it one of the youngest religions in the world. Last year, the first Bahai temple opened in Cambodias Battambang province, where hundreds of worshipers now congregate. Bahais believe in the unity of God, religion, and humanity and that these core principles are revealed through divine messengers, or prophets, including Moses, Muhammad, and Jesus Christ. Bahaullah, who founded the religion in Iran in the 1860s, declared himself the latest manifestation of these messengers. There are an estimated 6 million Bahais worldwide, including several thousand in Cambodia, where the faith first carved out a foothold in the 1920s. Hou Sopheap, the Bahai House of Worships director, said the temple was established to promote respect for all faiths. The temple is built to signify the unity of various religions. To show that all religion can enter and pray according to their beliefs in this sacred temple without discriminating against anyone, he said. He added that Battambang province was chosen because of the receptiveness of the locals and local authorities. Situated amid rice fields and meadows some seven kilometers from Battambang city center, the temple is built with nine sides to represent Bahaullah, the ninth messenger of God. Ing Sothearat, 25, is a long-time devotee to the Bahai faith, having spent more than six years studying its texts and administering the temple. When she was 18 years old, Sothearat was introduced to the Bahai faith through workshops run by local Bahai leaders. If I had not studied spirituality and its effect on society, I might not be myself now, because some of my friends go around, drink recklessly and so on. So, I am happy where I am now, she said. She read the seven core texts Bahais study, finding that the fifth book, which touches on adolescence, struck a chord with her. I think its very special. They teach young people to learn how to find their innate talent. The book focuses on helping young people to make use of their talents to realize their dreams. I see that its important because people in my community seem to not know about what they want to do in life. Originally a Buddhist, Sothearat said her faith does not forbid her from observing other religious practices, which she said was important for her Buddhist family and community. The religion does not forbid us from going to a pagoda. So, when my parents asked me to join them at the pagoda during Pchum Ben, a festival when Cambodians gather to pay respect to the dead ... I can still go. As long as I go with respect. She says that the Bahai faith has taught her something that formal education tends to miss out on. While academic education focuses on materialistic issues, the Bahai faith stresses the importance of spirituality. San Sopheak, a Bahai coordinator from Takeo province, became similarly immersed in the Bahai faith about 12 years ago. He says he has become more charitable since becoming a follower of Bahaullah after developing a love of teaching. Through his Bahai education, he learned about a comparative religious study, but also about the sciences. The religion teaches us that spirituality and science go together, he said. When you become a believer in this religion, you feel that all religions are the same, and we are leading the world as one family, one society, one humanity. Bahaullah tells us to live scientifically, regardless of your religion; that is with moral, human dignity. We cant be too dogmatic, we must be scientific. In order to worship a religion, we dont have t be cut off completely from material things. We must be conscious of how we create those material elements and whether it will affect other people around us or not. Sopeap, the temple director, hopes that more temples can be built in other areas of Cambodia and that the Battambang temple can expand to serve the people with a training center, schools for children, a university and care homes for the elderly. A federal judge in Boston heard closing arguments Friday in a highly publicized lawsuit alleging that elite Harvard discriminates against Asian-Americans. Much of the spotlight has been on affluent Chinese-Americans with stellar academic scores who say the college rejects Asians in favor of lesser-qualified applicants. They say factoring in race hurts Asian-Americans. But others in the Asian community say that a race-blind process relying solely on academic scores would also hurt Asian-Americans. Southeast Asians, for example, who largely came over as refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, are underrepresented in higher education. The narrative right now is very focused on a very specific segment within the Asian-American community that does not represent the larger Asian-American community, said Quyen Dinh, executive director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center. The center signed on to a friend of the court brief by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, siding with Harvards use of what the university calls a holistic review of an applicant. The case brought by Students for Fair Admissions could wind up before a newly reconstituted and more conservative U.S. Supreme Court, which only narrowly re-affirmed the use of race in college admissions two years ago. Here are some of the issues surrounding Asian-Americans and affirmative action: Who are Asian-Americans? There are at least 18 million people in the U.S. who are of Asian descent from about 20 countries. Asian-Americans are about 6 percent of the U.S. population, but make up nearly 23 percent of this years freshman class at Harvard, 22 percent of the same class at Princeton, and are the fastest growing minority in the country. Chinese-Americans are the largest sub-group with at least 4.3 million people, followed by Indian-Americans at 4 million and Filipino-Americans at 3 million. Chinese started migrating to the country in the 19th century as labor for the growing West. More recent waves include refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, as well as highly skilled workers from China and India. The term Asian-American was coined by young civil rights activists marching alongside Latinos and African Americans for social justice in the 1960s. Ellen D. Wu, a history professor and director of the Asian American Studies Program at Indiana University in Bloomington, says that political identity has now evolved largely into a demographic designation for a very diverse group. What is the Asian American Coalition for Education? Students for Fair Admissions filed the lawsuit against Harvard in 2014. Actively supporting it is the Asian American Coalition for Education, which filed federal complaints in 2015 alleging discrimination. The coalitions president is Yukong Zhao, a corporate strategist who immigrated to the U.S. from China in 1992 to pursue a masters degree in business. Zhao is part of a new generation of wealthier Chinese immigrants who are active on social media and opposed to affirmative action. Conservative strategist Edward Blum, who is president of Students for Fair Admissions, was behind the last affirmative action admissions case, which accused the University of Texas of discriminating against white students. Blum lost that case at the U.S. Supreme Court. Does affirmative action help or hurt Asian-Americans? Depends on whom you ask. Julie J. Park, author of Race on Campus: Debunking Myths with Data and past consultant to Harvard in the lawsuit, says underrepresented Asians such as Cambodians and Hmong can get a boost from a review that goes beyond test scores. The same goes for lower-income Asian-Americans whose grades may not reflect their potential. Park also says colleges want students with different backgrounds so Asian-Americans may be more coveted in fields or colleges with few Asians. It depends on the situation. Students for Fair Admissions, on the other hand, argues the system in place at Harvard puts unfair weight on race, primarily at the expense of academically talented Asian-Americans. It also alleges that Harvard intentionally uses a vague personal rating to reject Asian-American applicants in favor of students from other racial backgrounds. Supporters of affirmative action say its possible that Harvard is biased against Asian-Americans, but that doesnt mean race-conscious policies should be scrapped. Why are Asians called the model minority? The stereotype of Asian-Americans as hard-working, educated and free of societal problems started in the 1960s. Wu, the history professor, says it was a way for whites to establish a racial order that was defined, most importantly, by not being black. Asian-Americans were also responsible for perpetuating the myth, she said, adding that the consequences of that have long functioned to justify anti-black racism and anti-black policies. Is there any truth to the model minority myth? Overall, the numbers look good for Asian-Americans. Their household median income is $83,000, compared with $60,000 for the U.S. More than 50 percent have a bachelors degree or higher, compared with 32 percent for the country, according to the 2017 American Community Survey put out by the U.S. Census Bureau. But there are large disparities within the group. For example, while 75 percent of Indians held a bachelors degree or higher, only 16 percent of Laotians and 20 percent of Cambodians had done so. Among Chinese, the figure is 55 percent. Indian households have the highest median income at $114,000 while at the other end are Burmese households, at $40,000. About 6 percent of Filipino individuals live in poverty, compared with 21 percent of Nepalese and 31 percent of Burmese. Bopha Malone set out to win the race to represent residents of the Massachusetts 3rd Congressional District in Massachusetts, filing papers and meeting deadlines throughout the summer. The September 4 Democratic primary to fill the seat vacated by Democrat Niki Tsongas, 71, who opted out of seeking re-election, was a nine-way contest notable for its ethnic and gender diversity. Malone and Juana Matias are both immigrants, Rufus Gifford is gay, Alexandra Chandler is a transgender woman, Daniel Koh and Beej Das are the sons of immigrants.The field included a former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, a senior aide to former President Barack ObamaBut Malone, and a Naval Intelligence veteran. "I think we got sick of others, especially white men making decisions for us, in regards to our body and the ways we live," said Malone, a vice president at the Enterprise Bank in Lowell, Massachusetts, which has one of the largest Cambodian-American enclaves in the United States. I feel that is one of the reasons why a lot of women, [including myself], are running. They all lost to Lori Trahan, a 40-year resident of the district who described the field, including Malone, as having in common a core belief that now more than ever, we need more voices in Washington who are going to stand up to Donald Trump. She faces Republican Rick Green and Independent Mike Mullen on election day, November 6. Malone, married to an American and the mother of two children, describes her primary loss as a positive family event because it taught a good lesson. Or as her daughter, Taevy Malone, said to VOA Khmer about her mother, Shes always told me to be confident, and that I can do amazing things when I grow up. I feel like every day she likes to help people and it makes me feel that I want to be like her. And just having a Cambodia-American in the primary race benefited the community. I think the advantage of having a Cambodian member running for a seat encourages people to go out and vote, said Sovanna Pouv, executive director of Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association in Lowell. She is part of a movement and that is something to celebrate as well. Malones district reflects something happening throughout the United States. She and Trahan belong to a spike in the number of women running for U.S. Congress this year, candidates women such as Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American running in Minnesota, Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib, who was the first Muslim woman to serve in the Michigan Legislature, and Gina Ortiz Jones in Texas, the daughter of an immigrant. "We've never seen anything like this," said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY's List, which recruits and trains female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, told NPR in February. The phenomenon is particularly evident in the Democratic Party, which has nominated 183 women for the House of Representatives and 15 for the Senate, 12 for governorships and 2,380 for state legislatures. Some of what Schriock called this might be a reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump, whose candidacy survived the revelation of past lewd comments about women. Trump's election and inauguration kicked off a nationwide movement. Women took to the streets the day after his inauguration January 20, 2017, many wearing "pussy hats," which referred to Trumps taped bragging about sexual assault. More recently, in the final weeks of the current campaign season, Trump has mocked a victim of sexual assault, and called another woman horse-face. "Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving in terms of motivation to stay engaged and stay involved and not lose your enthusiasm," said Deborah Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in an interview with NPR. The 3rd Congressional District in Massachusetts is quirky, said Boston University professor Thomas Whalen in an interview with the Boston Globe, the states leading newspaper. He explained this meant the voters back candidates who have been active in the community, and local issues--- jobs, health care, education and opioid epidemic---take precedence over national ones. The district includes 37 cities or towns that moderately reflect a diverse community 78 percent white, 16 percent Hispanic, 7 percent Asian with a median household income of $75,654, according to U.S. Census data. For a first-time candidate like Malone, a vice president of Enterprise Bank in Lowell, the primary race was scary at times. Although Malone lost--- of 85,570 votes cast, 1,365 votes were for her---fellow candidates admired her grit. She is incredibly smart, passionate, and caring about making the world a better place and investing in people, said Koh, a Korean-American first-time candidate who came second after Trahan. It was an honor to run alongside her for the campaign, Koh told VOA Khmer. No matter how scary it was, Malone says she ran because I wanted to make sure that everyone has the same equal opportunity to thrive just like I did, and that means education and health care. Lura Smith, who has lived in Lowell for more than four decades, is one of Malones mentors. She recognizes Malones leadership commitment and willingness to help others in the community. Ive seen her touch the life of so many people, taking time to help others along the way, Smith told VOA. Over the past 10 years, Malone has participated in numerous leadership initiatives at various organizations including Women Working Wonders, Working Cities Challenge, Community Teamwork Inc., Middlesex Community College and Lowell General Hospital. Even though Malone lost, shes taking steps to be part of change in the community, Smith said. And here Im speaking of Bopha, who says whether or not I got into the Congress or not, Im going to maintain my position to be a part of the change that I want to see happen, said Smith. I mean that is who she is. Born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 1980, Malone grew up in a household that valued hard work. She and her parents survived the Khmer Rouge genocide that took place between 1975 and 1979, claiming more than 1.7 million people. When Malone was about 9 years old, her family landed in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. That was in 1989, when as refugees whod spent the past six years in Thailand topped off by six months in the Philippines, they had nothing but a bag of clothing. But they built a life in America, and that is another part of why Malone ran for office. She tells her story: 2005 graduate of Lesley University in nearby Lynn, Massachusetts, Malone used her business management degree to land her first post-graduation job at Enterprise Bank. Trump administration policies on refugees, like her family, and other immigrant groups are inhumane, she said. When he was first elected, one of his first policies was the travel ban, said Malone. Even though we were here legally, my mother heard about this, and she was scared to leave the country. There I was, explaining to her that she didnt do anything wrong and that she is going to be fine, she recalled. Our nation was so divided. There are a lot of anti-immigration rhetoric. As a refugee and immigrant myself, I want to make sure that we are able to show that immigrants are people that help make our economy and country strong, said Malone. Thats what the value of who we are. Malone says young Cambodian-American women have reached out to her and told her: Your story has really inspired me and has helped me realized that I, too, can do this. To me, said Malone. That was winning. Villagers in this rural rice-growing area are eager to discuss and debate the meaning of Julys landslide election victory for the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party, which left them living in what is essentially a one-party state. They are especially anxious about the prospect of losing duty-free trade access to the European Union, a process set in motion after the election due to what the EU said were abuses of political and human rights in Cambodia. But they are afraid to talk about these issues openly. Chea Run, 68, was preparing fried fish and bitter-melon soup to sell at a local food stall one recent morning. Her two daughters, who both work at a shoe factory in Kandal province, alternate taking days off to help cook for the family business. One of them, Meng Pheary, 34, said that although everyone in her village was seriously concerned after the election, they knew better than to discuss politics in public. They dont dare to talk. It has been silent since the CNRP was dissolved, she said. The CNRP was the countrys largest and most popular opposition party up until last year, when its leader, Kem Sokha, was arrested and charged with treason, and the party was dissolved by court order in November. Although the CNRP won Champey commune in local elections last June, its seats were taken away after the partys dissolution and redistributed to the ruling CPPwhich then swept this years national elections in the absence of serious competition. The CPP won around 3,000 of 3,500 valid votes in Champey, according to results from the CPP-dominated National Election Committee. Around 300 voters also spoiled their ballots, part of a national trend in which nearly 10 percent of voters chose to show up at the polls but not make a choice. Run said she was worried about publicly telling the truth about how she had voted. Phorn Thlang, the former commune chief for the CNRP, who lost his job when the party was dissolved, said local authorities had pressured and threatened villagers to head to the polls. He also claimed people were paid $5 in exchange for their votes. One villager, Phorn Un, 72, confirmed she was given $5 ahead by local authorities ahead of the election and was also given a lesson by local officials in how to vote for the ruling CPP. We had a meeting ahead of the election and they taught me to tick the ballot for number 20, she said, referring to the CPPs place on the ballot. Un added that she was given a card by local CPP local officials, and thought that meant she had to vote for them. In fact, the cards are issued by the supposedly non-partisan National Election Committee and grant voters entry to the polls. They gave me a voting pass. So I needed to vote for them, she said. How could the CPP gave us the pass and we vote for the other party? Chin Choy, the Champey commune chief, denied that local authorities forced or threatened people to vote. He admitted that the CPP had distributed cash to villagers in the area, but said this was a legitimate way of rewarding registered CPP members and not a bribe. Pushing for Benefits Without an Opposition Champey is around 40 kilometers from Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, and many of its residents are migrant workers in the city for work in garment factories or construction sites. But it still has many problems common to rural areas. There is no state-run health center, although one is urgently needed. When medical emergencies arise, residents need to travel to another district. It also suffers from poor roads and a lack of clean water and irrigation. The previous commune leadership dominated by the CPP was broadly unpopular for its failure to provide these services and was voted out in June 2017. But the subsequent opposition government barely had a chance to begin work before the party was dissolved. Now there is no opposition at all. Keo Soeung, a 39-year-old construction worker, said he feared the new CPP commune leadership, backed by a one-party state with no opposition members in parliament, would not be responsive to the concerns of people in Champey. I am worried since there are no CNRP officials like before. There are no opposition ideas. How can the country progress? he asked. He said he was earning around 25,000 to 35,000 riel per day ($6.25-$8.75). His wife, a garment worker, recently gave birth to a baby, and he had to drive to a distant health center to get her care. Local CPP authorities promised villagers they would build a commune health center only if the CPP were voted in. The CPP also said it would build a new road if it won a certain percentage of votes. These are both things Soeung desperately needs. Still, he said the situation seemed wrong to him. I dont want just one party like it is now. It is not right, he said. Commune chief Choy is a former CNRP member who defected to the CPP late last year under pressure after the opposition party was dissolved. But he is now a stalwart defender of the ruling party. He confirmed villagers claims that the ruling party offered a road and health center to the commune if the CPP won a certain percentage of votes therebut said this was a good thing. The villages where the [CPP] won more than 80 percent, they get a concrete road. And we will also help other villages who also increased votes, he said. He promised that his local government would be more responsive than the previous commune leaders. And he explained that living in a one-party state will actually make villagers better off because the ruling party will be more motivated to help people who voted for them. This also seems to be the perspective of the countrys top leadership. After Julys election, in which the CPP won every single parliamentary seat, Prime Minister Hun Sen said that his new government would serve the people by doing double work. But this is easier said than done. Neither the health center nor the road has been built yet, despite the pre-election promises. Sophal Ear, an associate professor of world affairs at Occidental College who studies Cambodia, said that no matter how good the intentions of ruling-party officials were, the lack of pressure at the polls meant there was little motivation for them to get things done. The lack of accountability that comes from a one-party state means there is no one to turn to when the party in charge ignores you, he wrote in an email. In Takeo, as in the Soviet Union, the party chief of the commune may not bother, as his or her job is secure regardless of what he or she does. The people who were forced to elect this person, having no choice but to do so, are not actually his or her boss. The boss is someone outside Takeo, where the concerns of the people on the ground are distant and meaningless. The Plight of the Poorest and the Fear of Sanctions Phorn Un, the elderly woman who voted for the CPP because she thought she was required to, certainly does not feel like a boss. Un says she is in dire need of a local health center, as well as a poverty card that would entitle her to free medical treatment, which can only be issued by commune authorities. The road in front of her house is still unpaved, and she spends $1.50 a week to buy pond water for drinking and washing. She says she does not know who is responsible for the poor state of the villages infrastructureor who could improve things for her. There is no tap water and clean water here, she says. Like an estimated 70 percent of householders in this commune, Un is supported by children working in garment factories. She sold her tiny rice field years ago to afford medical care for her sick husband, who died anyway. Now she cares for her 13-year-old granddaughter while her daughters live closer to the factories and send home money when they can. But she is afraid that she will not be able to afford the childs books and expenses if she wants to continue on to high school. Sometimes I cant even buy food to eat, the grandmother said. Both Un and her neighbor, Run, the food vendor, said they were terrified at the prospect of their children losing their factory jobs due to potential trade sanctions. But they seemed unsure who was to blame for the situation, or how to get more information about the threat. In fact, the EU has now initiated a formal process to eliminate Cambodias preferential access to its markets because of what EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said was the clear deterioration of human rights and labor rights in recent years, as well as harassment and intimidation surrounding Julys election. In a statement last month, Malmstrom said that only the Cambodian government could bring itself back from the brink through initiating clear and evident improvements on the ground. If the factories are closed, [my daughters] wont know what to do. We now depend on factories, said Run as she prepared her lunch. Having no factory is like having no air to breathe, said her daughter Pheary. Choy, the commune chief, said the matter was up to the government in Phnom Penh. He declined to discuss the connection to the political situation on the ground. It is the affairs of upper-level officials, he said. There is one party, so there is not any protest After losing his position as CNRP Champey commune chief and being forced out of politics last year, Thlang ekes out a small income from farming rice and doing local construction jobs. He said he was often followed and harassed by agents of the CPP, who are still pressuring him to defect to the ruling party. He has also been summoned several times to meet with higher-level officials over his refusal to join the party. People inside the country cant do anything. Only people outside can do something, he said. Choy confirmed the ex-officials claims but said he was just being given the opportunity to change his mind. More than 40 local and international non-governmental organizations have called on the Cambodian government to end impunity against journalists and rights activists. The 42 NGOs made the statement on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, on Friday. The NGOs highlighted the 13 Cambodian journalists killed in recent years as a result of reporting on corruption and criticism of the government. They said that in 11 of the 13 cases no-one was brought to trial while in seven cases no suspects were arrested for the crimes. When journalists are targeted by violence for what they write or report, freedom of expression is stifled and replaced by self-censorship and fear; the public is denied information, and the powerful cannot be held to account. When the state fails to investigate and punish violence against journalists, it sends the chilling message that attacks on journalists are permissible, the statement reads. Over the past two years, no Cambodian reporters have been killed, however, the groups added, journalists still remain at the forefront of legal threats and media outlets have been targeted in politically motivated cases. We call upon the authorities to prosecute perpetrators of crimes committed against journalists and human rights defenders by undertaking effective, independent, and transparent investigations and prosecutions in accordance with international human rights standards. Nop Vy, broadcast director at the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, one of the signatories, said on Friday that continued impunity in Cambodia was having a negative impact on Cambodian journalism. When such crimes continue, reporters cannot play their role in observing and reporting the truth. When there are no consequences for the offenders, this will cause long-term effects on society. Khieu Sopheak, an interior ministry spokesman, told VOA that the police and courts had investigated criminal offenses related to the cases highlighted by the NGOs and welcomed the call for justice to be served to the perpetrators. He added that in some cases the suspects had fled the country and sought asylum overseas, without providing details. China talks about free trade as it hosts an expo for international companies. Talks continue with North Korea. Asian Americans prepare to vote. New Caledonia votes no for independence. Fathers' health influence on kids, and fighting fake social media. Refugees have helped some cities to rebound but as new arrivals slow, cities feel a pinch Big cities like San Diego and Dallas accept more refugees, but new people have a bigger impact in smaller, shrinking cities like Buffalo and Syracuse. By MICHAEL HILL Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. When thousands of others fled the struggling Rust Belt city of Buffalo, refugees poured in to fill the void and invigorate the economy. Blighted blocks were tidied up by new arrivals from Iraq. Shops selling Ethiopian cuisine opened, and employers snapped up workers from Myanmar and South Sudan. More than 12,000 refugees arrived in the area in 10 years, helping stymie decades of dizzying population loss. But as the Trump administration throttles the flow of refugees into the United States and the president increases his anti-immigration rhetoric ahead of the midterm elections, Buffalo and other cities that rely on the new arrivals are beginning to feel the pinch. The number of refugees coming into Buffalo now is stalled and that hurts not only my business, but other businesses in town, said Larry Christ, chief operating officer of lighting manufacturer LiteLab, where six languages are spoken on the assembly floor. Like a car, you need gas to fuel movement forward. Big, burgeoning cities like San Diego and Dallas accept more refugees, but their arrival can resonate more in smaller, shrinking cities like Buffalo and Syracuse. Buffalo, an old steel and shipping hub, had been locked in a long, losing struggle to keep people from leaving for places with less snow and more jobs. Enter refugees and immigrants. Refugees relocated with the help of four separate agencies settle into empty homes and fill jobs at hotels, restaurants and factories. Buffalo, which had lost more than half its population since its postwar peak of around 580,000, is now hovering close to 260,000 people. We buy a house that is very old, so we get it cheaper in this way, said Nadeen Yousef, who fled from Iraq with her husband and four children in 2006. And we fix it every year. Yousef spoke from her booth at the West Side Bazaar, a retail space that was packed on a recent day with a lunchtime crowd buying halal food, bubble tea and dim sum served by refugee operators. The bazaar serves as an incubator for refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs, some of whom open their own shops selling food from Laos or clothes from Africa. Yousef comes in after her 5 a.m. shift at a supermarket bakery to spend the afternoon selling handcrafted macrame products and international clothes. The refugee reduction comes as some 7,200 Central American migrants in Mexico continue their trek toward the U.S. border. President Donald Trump has seized on the moment to renewed Twitter attacks against Democrats on for what he has called pathetic immigration laws. Trump last year cited national security in slashing the annual cap on refugee arrivals to the U.S. from 110,000 to a historically low 45,000. Only 22,491 refugees entered the country last year amid a tougher review process. The effect in the Buffalo region has been dramatic. A metropolitan area that welcomed 1,934 refugees two years ago took in 686 last year and is on track to receive fewer than 450 people this year, according to an analysis of refugee placement data by the Fiscal Policy Institute. Arrivals could dip more this coming year now that the Trump administration lowered the refugee cap again for this budget year, to 30,000. Refugees can cost money for localities in the short term, though there's research showing they pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits over years. Some local politicians have criticized refugees' cost and the potential security risk of hosting people from Syria. But support for refugees is broad in Buffalo, a Democrat-dominated city. The Buffalo metropolitan area's growth rate has lagged behind the national average. But more single-family homes are selling for more money compared to earlier this decade. There are multiple reasons for the uptick, but many see refugees as a crucial cog for growth. We need this influx of refugees or we just become a flat economy again, said Democratic state Assemblyman Sean Ryan. The agencies in Buffalo help refugees learn English, find housing and land jobs. At the International Institute of Buffalo, Caitlin Monan recently prepped a room full of recent arrivals for questions they might face during job interviews. She handed out a worksheet that listed such questions as: Tell me about yourself? Do you have transportation? These are questions that every single interviewer will ask, Monan told the class. These are good to practice. Employers like Christ at Litelab and Avanti Advanced Manufacturing owner Jim Wei say they've had success with the refugees they hired. Christ recalled one applicant who was so committed, he biked to a job interview in snowy February. And more than a quarter of the high-end lighting company's 153 employees are refugees. Litelab assembly floor worker Majid Al Iessa once helped the U.S. Army in Iraq before fleeing the war-torn country. Now his two children are in school and he has a home in the suburbs. I like Buffalo, he said, then laughs. Just the snow is too hard. Wei and Christ, who volunteers as chairman of the board of the International Institute, are among city employers having a tougher time filling jobs. Landlord Michael Maywalt, who credits refugees with helping renew the city's Black Rock neighborhood, is noticing fewer refugee families seeking to rent his properties. Christ is still filling jobs and Maywalt is still renting apartments. But there's a palpable sense of concern among refugee advocates about the sustainability of Buffalo's modest resurgence. What I worry about is, said International Institute executive director Eva Hassett, Where are the people who are going to take the jobs, start the businesses and buy the houses? Media rights organizations are calling on authorities in Cameroon to release five journalists detained without charges in the past month after reporting on the countrys unrest. TV host Mimi Mefo is the latest journalist believed to be targeted by Cameroon authorities for her critical reporting. A Cameroonian gendarme summoned popular TV host Mimi Mefo, who heads English news for privately-owned Equinoxe broadcasting. Mefo was called Monday to appear before the military legal body after several threats were made on her life. But Mefo believes authorities are trying to intimidate her because of her reporting. "I contacted my lawyer, barrister Tamfu Richard, who told me that an investigation has been opened against me on propagation of false information and cyber criminality. The problem here actually are my reports, my debates, my social media reports and my day to day, minute by minute updates on my website and social media on political and social issues in Cameroon. When you report the atrocities, you are threatened and considered as an enemy," said Mefo. Media rights groups say Cameroon authorities have targeted several journalists for critical and detailed reporting on the countrys insurgencies. Cameroon police detained journalist Michel Biem Tong on October 23. Tong is known for critical reporting of the militarys atrocities in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists in the north and Anglophone separatists in the west. Publisher Gustave Flaubert Kengne, whose publication Orientation Hebdo specializes in human rights reporting, was among those detained in October. While Cameroon authorities accused the reporters of propagating false information, none of them have been officially charged. Cameroon Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma says everyone should stop publishing information that jeopardizes Cameroons unity. "As far as the fight, the battle against the terrorism is concerned, whoever respects the law will be at peace in our nation. What is unacceptable is the fact that the journalists would lie [to] the international community to exert influence on President Biya to get the journalist released," said Tchiroma. The Union of Cameroon Journalists is calling for authorities to immediately release the reporters. Union President Charlie Ndi Chia says the government is persecuting journalists. "Journalists have the right to receive information, any information. They are wrong and it is intimidating," he said. "The government is just deceiving the world to thinking that there is press freedom in Cameroon." The Committee to Protect Journalists has criticized the attacks and also asked charges against the journalists to be dropped for those detained to regain freedom. CPJ says since 2016 Cameroon has repeatedly jailed journalists for reporting on unrest in the western regions of the country. Reporters Without Borders 2018 World Press Freedom Index ranks Cameroon 129 out of 180 countries in the world. China has agreed to carry out bilateral trade with Pakistan in the Chinese yuan instead of the U.S. dollar to help ease the South Asian ally's financial and economic woes. The unprecedented Chinese concession, officials and economists said, would go a long way in addressing Islamabads massive 87-percent trade deficit with Beijing and reducing pressure on Pakistan's depleting foreign currency reserves. "The agreement is part of practical steps being taken [by China] to support our [foreign] currency [reserves], said Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry. He told reporters in Islamabad the historic deal was concluded along with more than a dozen others during Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khans four-day official visit to Beijing, which ended Monday. The annual trade volume between the two countries is about $15 billion, of which Chinese exports to Pakistan are estimated at around $13 billion. Pakistans foreign exchange reserves have lately fallen to less than $8 billion and the country urgently needs about $12 billion to service foreign debts and pay for imports. The central State Bank of Pakistan has already declared Yuan as an approved foreign exchange for all purposes in the country. Information Minister Chaudhry said the Chinese government separately has also offered an economic package to Pakistan, and its details will be announced Tuesday when Khan's delegation returns home. Reports said the proposed package includes $3 billion in Chinese grants and loans, while another $3 billion will be given for investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure building project, a centerpiece of Beijings global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Chinese financial relief is being negotiated amid U.S.-led criticism and skepticism that unfair loans under CPEC are contributing to Pakistans balance of payments crisis. China and Pakistan reject the criticism as baseless and part of propaganda against both CPEC andBRI. Khans nascent government last month secured a financial package of more than $6 billion from Pakistans staunch ally Saudi Arabia. Under the deal, Saudis will lend $3 billion and would allow Islamabad to import oil worth more than $3 billion on deferred payments over the next three years. Officials say the United Arab Emirates is also considering economic relief to Pakistan similar to what Saudi Arabia has pledged. Prime Minister Khan has said the funds being secured from the three friendly countries will enable Pakistan not to seek a major bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to meet the countrys immediately liabilities. An IMF team is due to arrive in Islamabad later this week to open formal talks with the Pakistani government on the subject. Using Air Force One as a campaign shuttle, U.S. President Donald Trump traveled to Ohio, Indiana and Missouri on Monday, the eve of midterm balloting that is perceived as the biggest referendum yet on his presidency. Trump acknowledged as much earlier in the day on a conference call with supporters, saying the media views Tuesday's election as a referendum on him. "If we don't have a good day, they will make it like it's the end of the world," Trump said. "Don't worry. If we do have a good day, they won't give us any credit." There were 200,000 people listening on the call, according to Brad Parscale, the Trump/Pence campaign manager. "There's a great electricity in the air," Trump told reporters just before boarding Air Force One for the flight to Ohio. "I think we're going to do very well." Speaking in Cleveland where he labeled candidates of the Democratic Party as socialists Trump told the crowd that Tuesday is their chance to send a message to the Democrat mob and stop the radical resistance in its tracks. At a second rally of the day in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the president continued that theme, asserting that if the radical Democrats take power, they will take a wrecking ball to the economy and the future of our country." He also called on the attendees to vote for Republicans to end the assault on Americas sovereignty by Democrats. Trump then traveled to Cape Girardeau in the state of Missouri for a third, similar political event. "You can stop them with your vote tomorrow," the president said of the opposition candidates, accusing them of the politics of "anger, division and destruction. "It really is unprecedented," said political science professor David Cohen at the University of Akron in Ohio. "No president has ever campaigned as much in the midterms as Trump has." Cohen told VOA that Trump's strategy is unwise. "His controversial remarks all it does is energize the base of the Democrats and the independents to get out there and vote against him," Cohen said. Others see the Trump events where Air Force One serves as the backdrop for appearances in airport hangars of significant value to the governing party. "The kind of people that come to them are not typical Republicans. They are Trumpsters. Getting that segment of the electorate out in 2016 was critical to Trump's win in 2016, and getting them out to vote in 2018 can only help Republicans," said University of New Hampshire political science professor Andrew Smith. "Midterm elections are all about differential turnout," Smith, who is also director of the UNH Survey Center, told VOA. "Democrats have been motivated to vote ever since Trump won in 2016, while Republicans have been far less motivated. Anytime Trump goes anywhere, he commands media attention and is therefore driving the news cycle." Obama appearances Trump has been getting some competition for media attention in recent days from his predecessor, Barack Obama. The two-term Democrat has been making campaign appearances on behalf of state and congressional candidates, a break with tradition where former presidents are rarely active in midterm elections so soon after leaving office. "President George W. Bush has been largely absent from all politics, as was his father. And Bill Clinton waited some time after he left office before he got on the campaign trail. And when he did, it had the additional benefit of helping his wife's campaign," Smith noted. "Obama's barnstorming is something that we have not seen, and I think it is an indication that he takes the Trump presidency as a rebuff of his own performance as president." In northern Virginia on Monday, Obama said "how we conduct ourselves in public life is on the ballot," a lightly veiled criticism of Trump and some prominent Republican candidates. "What I'm seeing all across the country is this great awakening," Obama added, standing alongside incumbent Senator Tim Kaine and congressional nominee Jennifer Wexton in a campaign office. "In that great awakening, I feel hopeful." WATCH: Trump rally Predictions Prominent pollsters predict the Republicans will retain control of the Senate. While cautioning some key congressional races are statistical dead heats, pollsters note more House districts trending toward the Democrats in recent days and expect Republicans will lose their majority in that chamber. Such an outcome would halt the president's ability to get key legislation approved, and would put the chairpersons' gavels of committees in the hands of Democrats certain to launch an array of investigations into the Trump administration. While Obama will deserve some of the credit for helping to drive turnout for the Democrats, according to Cohen, "it was going to be a bad election, anyway, for the president just based on his unpopularity throughout the country." Thus, if Republicans lose control of the House on Tuesday, Cohen contends, "the blame should fall squarely on Trump's shoulders." The trial of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman on drug trafficking and conspiracy charges, which is expected to last four months, began Monday with the selection of jurors in Brooklyn federal court. U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, prosecutors and defense lawyers on Monday morning questioned 20 potential jurors, and have so far ruled out five. The jurors were called into the courtroom wearing stickers identifying them by number, their names withheld to protect their safety. Guzman, sitting in the courtroom wearing a navy blue suit and an open-collared white shirt, could see them, though he seemed to pay them little attention. Guzman, 61, formerly led the Sinaloa Cartel, named after its base in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, which became one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world. Guzman's nickname, a reference to his five-foot, six-inch (1.67 meters) height, is often translated in English as "Shorty." He was extradited to the United States from Mexico on Jan. 19, 2017, after escaping twice from Mexican prisons before being captured again. U.S. prosecutors say that as the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, Guzman directed the movement of multi-ton shipments of drugs including heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine across borders and into the United States. If convicted, he faces life in prison. Jury Selection The potential jurors had previously filled out written questionnaires, and much of the questioning on Monday concerned their responses. One of those dismissed was a woman who had written on her questionnaire, "Drugs are bad for you." "I feel very badly about drugs," she said, when Cogan asked about the answer. Another man was sent away after admitting that he had read about the case on Wikipedia after receiving his jury summons. Others were excused because of personal ties to law enforcement, scheduling conflicts and concerns about lost income. Those still in the running include a self-described professional impersonator of the late pop star Michael Jackson. Prosecutors have asked that he be excused because his job could make him easy to identify. Jury selection is expected to continue in the afternoon. Many of the questions were routine in any criminal case, including whether jurors had strong feelings about law enforcement or witnesses testifying under cooperation agreements with prosecutors. One recurring theme was the legalization of marijuana: several jurors said they supported it, but when questioned said they could be impartial when weighing marijuana charges. Their pain has long gone. No odor from the gas warfare they endured remains. There are no echoes of the thump of artillery, no reverberation of the clash of arms, no sound of fusillades or the rat-a-tat of the machine guns. The trenches have long been filled; the entanglements of harsh wire gone, too. All is quiet on the Western Front. But the memory remains of the industrial slaughter that was World War I. It echoes for later generations in fading black-and-white photographs, letters home stained with foxing and the poems of war poets like Wilfred Owen. And it echoes in the thoughts of the few surviving sons and daughters, frail and aged themselves, of the fathers who never came home. And this week in the days leading up to November 11, the centenary of the end of World War I, one of the deadliest conflicts in the history of the human race, testimonies to the carnage are being pored over, discussed and debated. On Sunday, hundreds of mourners turned up in the French village of Ors some from as far away as the United States and New Zealand to retrace the fateful last steps of Wilfred Owen, who died a week before Armistice Day along with hundreds of his fellows trying to cross a canal. They heard the plaintive notes of the Last Post being played on a bugle Owen retrieved from the battlefield. His last letter home, written while he and his men rested before battle, included this final line: You could not be visited by a band of friends half so fine as surround me. How best to commemorate the "band of friends"? Was it so sweet and fitting to die for ones country in World War I? Should the victors of the war strike triumphant tones or downplay military victory in order to avoid offending vanquished European neighbors who are now allies? Some 80 leaders from around the world, including U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will fly into France this week to attend remembrance events marking a century since the guns fell silent on the Western Front. The culmination of the commemorations in France will come with a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron has been keen to avoid any triumphalism. The tone of Macrons speech at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier will be respectful of the millions, regardless of nationality, who died in the four-year conflict, say his officials. That order has sparked disgruntlement from some military veterans, including Michel Goya, a historian and former colonel, who accused Macron of insulting the soldiers of 1918. Military historian Benedicte Cheron told Frances French Le Figaro newspaper recently that Macron and his ministers misunderstand the continuity between the engagement of 1914-18 soldiers, and that of soldiers today. Nearly 37 million soldiers and civilians are estimated to have been killed in World War I and Macrons aides say that many people view the 1914-1918 war as an unnecessary slaughter rather than a victory that should be celebrated with too much military pomp. Many in France and across Europe seem to agree with him. They include veterans like retired British general Richard Dannatt. Triumphalism, victory, those sort of notions are inappropriate.There is no need for jingoistic reaction at all. Britain will also mark the centenary with a week of commemorations, small and large. including a display of 10,000 flames illuminating the moat at the Tower of London and a remembrance at Westminster Abbey. British Prime Minister Theresa May has also struck a note of reconciliation in the run-up to the centenary. The killing fields of France and Belgium are scarred by the horrors of war, but the strength and closeness of our relationship today is a testament to the journey our countries have traveled together, she said last week. How to remember the Great War and its war dead have long been issues, going back even to the conflict itself and its immediate aftermath. The issues have been debated heatedly not only in France but the allied countries of Britain, Belgium, Italy and Russia as well as in the vanquished nations of Germany and Austria. The sheer scale of the casualties meant that hardly a European household was left untouched by the war. The industrial nature of the killing, which saw young men scythed down by machine guns and obliterated by artillery barrages as well as being poisoned by clouds of noxious fumes, prompted rising despair and, as more men were hurled into the killing machine, accusations of massive miscalculation by national leaders and the senselessness of the fighting mounted. As the war unfolded in all its horror, many wondered why they had been thrust into such a consuming, barbaric conflict by an assassination in a far-flung country in the Balkans. They questioned what the war was about. For some it was a case of imperial rivalry that had got out of hand. Others countered that right or wrong, one had to defend ones country. In Russia, World War I triggered the Bolshevik revolution. In other European countries fury over the carnage fueled the post-war rise of organized labor and parties of the far right and far left. The memory of the war was one of the prompts for Oxford Universitys influential debating Union to approve the famous 1933 motion that this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country. And there were disputes about the plans for formal remembrance of the conflict. In Britain, the authorities decided that there should be "equality of remembrance," a revolutionary idea, and that all the men should be buried where they fell in war cemeteries on the battlefields of France and Belgium, ordinary soldiers laid to rest beside officers. Other nations followed suit. Many applauded the idea. But many grief-stricken wives, inconsolable in their bereavement, disagreed with the decision not to repatriate, says historian Alison Fell. They wanted their husbands to be buried near to them in their local cemeteries at home and they organized a letter-writing campaign. They pointed to the offer by the U.S. government to bereaved Americans to bear the costs of shipping bodies back to America, if families so wished. More than 300,000 of Frances dead were returned to their families. In Britain the government ignored repatriation demands. One British widow wrote that perhaps it is not everyones wish to have their dead husbands repatriated, she noted, but I do. She wrote: The country took him and the country should bring him back. The husband of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman acquitted for blasphemy after eight years on death row, says it is not safe for the family to remain in Pakistan and has applied for asylum in Europe. Ashiq Masih told VOA Urdu Service that the family has requested asylum in Spain and France, and is waiting for a response. He said his wife has not been allowed to return home following last week's landmark decision by Pakistan's Supreme Court to overturn her 2010 conviction for insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The acquittal sparked three days of widespread protests by Islamists who demanded that Bibi's death sentence be reinstated. Members of the militant Islamist group Tehreek e-Labbaik ya Rasool Allah (TLYR) blocked main roads in Pakistan's largest cities and called for the deaths of the Supreme Court judges who acquitted Bibi. A government team negotiated a deal to end the protests, agreeing to take "legal measures" to prevent Bibi from leaving the country while the Supreme Court hears a petition against the verdict. Masih said he has not been able to contact his wife, and said he does not know where she is being held. He said despite the end of the protests, the security risks for his family continue unabated. He said his children are in a state of fear. Masih said even the security staff posted outside his home is a threat to the family because their presence could let others know where the family's house is located. On Monday, the militant Islamist group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) vowed revenge for the Supreme Court acquittal and urged Muslims to wage jihad. The threat was reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist threats and communications. Bibi's lawyer, Saiful Mulook, has already left Pakistan due to the security concerns. Mulook told Reuters in a WhatsApp message that he had gone to another country "just to save [my] life from [an] angry mob" and because of fears for the safety of his family. "I consulted, and everybody is of this opinion [that I should leave]." He added that he would return to the country to continue his work on the case if he is given protection by security forces. Masih said he is concerned that the lawyer has already fled the country, saying that if an appeal against the Supreme Court ruling goes forward there will be no one to plead his wife's case. According to Bibi, she was falsely accused after a heated argument with other women who refused to drink water she had given them because she was Christian. During the protests following Bibi's acquittal, Pakistan's government banned television coverage of the demonstrations and suspended cellphone service in several cities to contain the crowds. Schools across the country were closed, and many workers stayed home. In the United States, Bibi's acquittal has provided a sense of hope for Christians of Pakistani origin. A church in the city of Detroit arranged a special prayer session on Sunday to mark the acquittal. Father Shafiq told VOA Urdu Service that this was the first court decision that went in favor of the minority community in Pakistan, which consoled the Christian community as a whole. He said the community has been praying for the judges who gave the verdict. Georgia's online voter database morphed into a last-minute curveball in one of the nation's hottest governor's races, with Republican nominee Brian Kemp making a hacking allegation against Democrats just as reports emerged of a gaping vulnerability in a system that Kemp controls as secretary of state. Kemp's office did not detail any Democratic acts, offering no evidence for Sunday's unusual action that effectively means the state's chief elections officer began a probe of his partisan opposition days before an election. Polls suggest Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams are locked in a tight race that even before Sunday had evolved into a bitter back-and-forth over voting rights and ballot security. The state Democratic Party called Kemp's accusation a reckless and unethical ploy and said he was using the FBI to support false accusations. According to interviews conducted by The Associated Press and records released by the Georgia Democratic Party, the dispute built steam quickly in the days before Kemp's statement. An attorney who represents election-security advocates already suing Kemp over his job performance said a private citizen alerted him Friday to a suspected major flaw in the voter database that is used to check in voters in Tuesday's midterm. The lawyer, David Cross, notified both the FBI and Kemp's counsel Saturday morning. But the citizen had separately informed the Georgia Democratic Party, whose voter protection chief then sent an email to two computer security officials. If this report is accurate, it is a massive vulnerability, wrote the official, Sara Tindall Ghazal. Party officials provided the AP with the email, its recipients' names redacted. Neither Cross nor the state party went public. But reporters for the online news outlet WhoWhatWhy obtained a copy of the Ghazal email and the email that Democratic Party officials received from the private citizen who discovered the flaw, Richard Wright. They published a story Sunday just as Kemp's office released the statement accusing the Democrats of attempted hacking. While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cybercrimes, said Candice Broce, who works for Kemp. Rebecca DeHart, executive director at the state Democratic Party, said no one from Kemp's office notified the Democratic Party or asked any question about the correspondence before issuing its public announcement of an investigation. DeHart called it a political stunt to cover up the weaknesses in a system Kemp runs. WhoWhatWhy's story said five security experts had reviewed the Wright complaint and independently confirmed that the database is vulnerable to hacking. One of those experts, University of Michigan computer scientist Matthew Bernhard, told the AP that anyone with access to an individual voter's personal information could alter that voter's record in the system. Another computer security professional who reviewed the vulnerability - without attempting to probe it for fear of prosecution - is Kris Constable of PrivaSecTech in Vancouver, Canada. Anyone with security chops would have detected this problem, he said, so (the system) clearly has never been audited by any computer security professional. The FBI declined to comment on the matter. A representative for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the agency had been notified, but it deferred to Georgia officials for details. Cross, the attorney who said he alerted the FBI, said Wright doesn't wish to speak publicly. Cross described Wright as a businessman with some background in software. The Coalition for Good Governance, a plaintiff in the voting integrity lawsuit against Kemp, issued a statement decrying his outsourcing of the the voter registration database and electronic poll book voter check-in system to a third party, PCC Technologies. There are still immediate steps that Secretary Kemp and the State Election Board can take to mitigate some, but not all, of the risk for Tuesday's vote, the group said. Efforts to reach PCC for comment have not been successful. The drama played out on a day Kemp campaigned alongside President Donald Trump in Macon. Trump made no mention of the issue at the rally and earlier, as he left the White House for Georgia, said he didn't know anything about it. The finger-pointing is the latest turn in a campaign whose final weeks have been dominated by charges of voter suppression and countercharges of attempted voter fraud. Abrams, who would be the nation's first black female governor, has called Kemp an architect of voter suppression and says he's used his current post to make it harder for certain voters to cast ballots. Kemp counters that he's following state and federal law and that it's Abrams and her affiliated voting advocacy groups trying to help people, including noncitizens, cast ballots illegally. The atmosphere has left partisans and good-government advocates alike worrying about the possibility that the losing side will not accept Tuesday's results as legitimate. The accusation is not the first from Kemp accusing outsiders of trying to penetrate his office. Immediately after the 2016 general election, Kemp declared that DHS tried to hack his office's network, an accusation dismissed in mid-2017 by the DHS inspector general as unfounded. Even before he was running for governor, Kemp faced criticism over Georgia's election system. Georgia's centrally managed elections system lacks a verifiable paper trail that can be audited in case of problems. The state is one of just five nationwide that continues to rely exclusively on aged electronic voting machines that computer scientists have long criticized as untrustworthy because they are easily hacked and don't leave a paper trail. In 2015, Kemp's office inadvertently released the Social Security numbers and other identifying information of millions of Georgia voters. His office blamed a clerical error. His office made headlines again last year after security experts disclosed a gaping security hole that wasn't fixed until six months after it was first reported to election authorities. Personal data was again exposed for Georgia voters - 6.7 million at the time - as were passwords used by county officials to access files. Kemp's office laid the blame for that breach on Kennesaw State University, which managed the system on Kemp's behalf. In the voting integrity case, a federal judge last month endorsed the plaintiff's arguments that Kemp has been derelict in his management of the state election system and that it violates voters' constitutional rights with its lack of verifiability and reliability. Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that China would take steps to widen access to its markets as he opened a huge trade fair amid criticism from other countries about China's economic and business practices. Xi said China would lower tariffs, take more action to punish violations of intellectual property rights, and work to boost domestic consumption of imported goods. Speaking at the trade expo in Shanghai, Xi pledged to "embrace the world" as China promotes the growing consumer market in the world's second-largest economy. He did not mention U.S. President Donald Trump by name, but alluded to Trump's "America first" economic policies by criticizing isolationism and citing a need to defend multilateral trade. The United States and China are locked in a battle over trade, with Trump complaining about the trade gap between the two countries and accusing China of stealing intellectual property and imposing policies that make it more difficult for U.S. companies to access the Chinese market. Trump has announced boosted tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods, while China has countered with $110 billion in tariffs on U.S. products. Xi and Trump are expected to meet later this month. The European Union has also complained about China's trade policies, including criticizing Xi for not following through on earlier reform pledges. The EU called last week for Xi to present concrete steps to opening its market. Mosques in the Midwest U.S. state of Minnesota are urging worshipers and people of color to vote in Tuesday's midterm elections. The move is part of a last pitch to voters as local candidates try to swing voter support to help reshape the country. Officials with Connecticut's Bradley International Airport say an early morning power outage that left travelers stranded in the dark has been partially restored. The airport tweeted at 7 a.m. Monday that some lights are now on. Power was on and off since about 3 a.m. At 7:30 a.m., the airport said in a tweet that TSA screening had fully resumed and passengers were being processed. Inbound roadway access remains closed. The airport tweeted around 5 a.m. that the main source of power was out and that Terminal A was operating on back-up power. Power was restored shortly after but around 6 a.m., officials tweeted again that the airport lost power. Travelers are still encouraged to check with their airlines regarding the status of their flights. An email was left with an airport spokeswoman. Subscriber content preview Major projects are gearing up in the oil, gas and construction sectors in the state, requiring thousands of workers in the next few years. ANCHORAGE (AP) Alaska could soon face a labor shortage in some of its key industries, state workforce development officials said. Several major projects are gearing up in the oil, gas and construction sectors in the state, requiring thousands of workers in the next few years, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. . . . Chinas offer to share data from its weather stations in the disputed Spratly Islands with other countries could ease but not eliminate criticism over its military expansion at sea. The governments Meteorological Administration said Wednesday it had opened weather observation stations on three reefs on the Spratly archipelago, a centerpiece in the broader South China Sea dispute. China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or parts of the same 3.5 million-square-kilometer waterway including pieces of the Spratly chain. The stations on Mischief, Subi and Fiery Cross reefs will provide weather services to fishermen, other ships and neighboring countries, Chinas official Xinhua News Agency said, quoting the administration. The rare offer to share shows that China -- pressed by the United States and others to play fairer in the maritime dispute -- hopes to improve its image among other countries that claim the Spratlys, analysts say. China has the region's strongest military as well as the most ambitious maritime expansion record. The driving objectives for China are establishing administrative control and projecting a benevolent image, said Denny Roy, senior fellow at the East-West Center, a research organization in Honolulu. Apparently, Beijing thinks it can convince the international community that Chinese control of the South China Sea will be an international public good, and that the Americans are the villains for trying to obstruct free weather data, Roy said. Stormy weather warnings Weather observations will be used for real-time monitoring and forecasting of disastrous weather to help guide ship traffic and rescue work, Xinhua said. Scholars expect the data to be more localized than what ship captains could get online from any national weather service. Chinas Ministry of Ecology and Environment said separately last week it would set up a Spratly Islands station to monitor air quality, temperature, visibility and any signs of climate change. The Spratly Islands see occasional typhoons from June through November. The storms threaten millions of fishing boats and commercial shipping vessels. Marine shipping in the South China Sea comes to about one-third or the worlds total. Other countries will say China is using the weather stations as an excuse to build up islets in the sea, said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. But they won't ignore China's climate data, he said. Flashing out the rhetoric about building these facilities to assist in search and rescue, nontraditional security, you know the works, and climate change of course is a concern across the Asia Pacific, Chong said. The South China Sea might be a good place to monitor the weather conditions. So in that sense, you get this very fortunate coincidence of trends, which favor the Chinese. More goodwill moves Weather data would follow Chinas deployment in July of a search-and-rescue ship in the Spratly Islands. An official in Beijing said the ship would provide public services. Analysts say China will probably make more gestures like these to ease hostilities. I think the neighboring countries shouldnt strongly oppose it, because this is rather like functional cooperation, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei. This kind of soft cooperation in the South China Sea I think actually shouldnt meet too much resistance. China has alarmed other maritime claimants and the United States over the past decade by adding an estimated 1,294 hectares of landfill to reefs and atolls. It has installed military infrastructure on some islets. The United States periodically sends naval vessels to check Chinas activities in the sea, prompting angry responses in Beijing. China is extending goodwill as well as aid around Southeast Asia to cast itself as a reliable neighbor that does not need U.S. surveillance, scholars believe. Fear of tighter control China still butts heads with Vietnam over undersea fuel exploration, while many in the Philippines fret over Chinese military activity in the Spratly chain. In Malaysia, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is reexamining his countrys economic support from China. Taiwan has its own sovereignty issues with China and the two sides havent formally talked since 2016. Countries near China may suspect the Chinese weather stations will store military equipment, Huang said. That discovery would violate Chinas informal understanding with its maritime neighbors, he said. Chinese officials hope their island infrastructure will help open parts of the sea to tourists and restrict the mobility of U.S. vessels, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapores public policy school. Facilities such as weather stations, he said, are no longer news, because its expected as part of the land reclamation and island building exercise." Sri Lanka's speaker of parliament said he cannot accept Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country's former president and strongman, as the new prime minister. Karu Jayasuriya said Rajapaksa needs to prove he commands a majority in parliament. "The majority of the members are of the view that the changes done in the parliament are unconstitutional and against the traditions," Jayasuriya said in a statement. "Therefore, I am requested by the majority of the parliament to accept the position which was prior to these changes. Until the new group shows the majority, I will have to accept the status quo prior to the changes." President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his entire cabinet last month and appointed Rajapaksa prime minister. The next day, Sirisena suspended parliament until November 16. Thursday, in an apparent nod to international pressure to resolve the political crisis, Sirisena moved the date of the recall to November 5. Analysts believe he suspended parliament to give Rajapaksa time to garner enough support to survive a no-confidence vote. Sirisena said he fired Wickremesinghe after an informant told police that a Cabinet minister was part of a plot to assassinate him. He did not reveal the minister's name. Gunmen in Cameroon have kidnapped 80 students and their principal from a Presbyterian school in the country's restive northwestern region. A video of the kidnapped children was released on social media in which the kidnappers identify themselves as "Amba boys," a reference to the English-speaking region of Ambazonia where armed separatists are fighting for independence. Students in the video appear frightened and sit in a dark room constructed with locally made bricks. The kidnappers force several students to give their names and the names of their parents. The kidnappers say the children can return to school only when the gunmen have achieved their dream of independence. Governor Deben Tchoffo confirmed the kidnapping in the village of Nkwen in Bamenda, capital of the English-speaking region of the country. He said the military is doing everything possible to bring the children home safely. "The state, the government, will not surrender. We are going to make sure the students, the people that were abducted, are brought back to the classrooms." Sixteen-year-old student Ericka Lum said the gunmen arrived early Monday at the students' dorm rooms. "They knocked on our doors, so we felt that maybe it was our classmates from other dormitories. So, somebody went and opened the door," he said. Lum said the kidnappers were at the door and pointed guns at the students, who tried to hide under their beds. School discipline mistress Maureen Njei said the attackers took students from the boys' and girls' dormitories. In September, separatists abducted six students from the Presbyterian School of Science and Technology in Bafut, near Bamenda, and later freed them after their families paid a ransom. Conflicts began in the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon in 2016 when teachers and lawyers complained of discrimination from the French-speaking majority in education and the justice system. The government responded with a crackdown, and separatists responded with violence. The separatists have burned schools and forced other schools to close, saying they are a part of a French-speaking education system that marginalizes anglophone students. President Donald Trump says he probably won't meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris, but will meet with him at the G-20 gathering of world leaders this year in Argentina. White House national security adviser John Bolton had said previously Trump would meet Putin this week when he travels to Paris for the Armistice Day 100th anniversary. But Trump told reporters as he departed for a trio of rallies Monday that he wasn't sure the venue was right. He says of Putin: "I'm not sure that we'll have a meeting in Paris. Probably not." Still, he says they will be meeting at the G-20 gathering and have "probably plenty of meetings" after that. Trump has tried to reset relations with Russia despite the country's 2016 election meddling efforts. Turkey is accusing Saudi Arabia of dispatching agents to Istanbul last month with the express aim of covering up the killing of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi inside Riyadh's consulate. A Turkish official, speaking anonymously, confirmed a report in Sabah, a newspaper close to Turkey's government, that chemicals expert Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were part of a team sent from Saudi Arabia, supposedly to investigate Khashoggi's October 2 killing. The Sabah report said the two experts visited the consulate every day from their arrival on October 11 until October 17, with Saudi authorities allowing Turkish investigators to search the consulate on October 15. "We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of Jamal Khashoggi's murder before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises," the Turkish official said. Turkey said last week that Khashoggi, a U.S.-based journalist who had written columns for The Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate, his body dismembered and then destroyed, possibly dissolved in acid. Khashoggi had scheduled a visit to the consulate to pick up documents for his planned marriage to his fiancee, who waited outside in vain for his return. No trace of Khashoggi's remains has turned up, even as the 59-year-old journalist's sons appealed on the U.S. television news network CNN on Sunday for the Saudis to return his body so he can be buried in the major Islamic pilgrimage city of Medina with the rest of his family. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia told a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva that it would prosecute those responsible for Khashoggi's death, but continued to deflect reporters' questions about Riyadh's ongoing investigation. The kingdom's public prosecutor has called the killing premeditated, but has not said who planned or approved it. Initially, Saudi Arabia said Khashoggi walked out of the consulate and that his whereabouts were unknown, then that he died in a fist fight and still later that he had died in a chokehold. Bandar Al Aiban, the head of Riyadh's delegation, told the U.N. hearing that King Salman had instructed the Saudi public prosecutor to "proceed with the investigation into this case according to the applicable laws," and "bringing all the perpetrators to justice." Saudi Arabia has detained 18 Saudi nationals in connection with Khashoggi's death, but Aiban gave no details on their status or whereabouts. "The case is still under investigation, as you know ... I think my statement was very clear," Aiban said. More than 40 nations, including the United States, called for a thorough investigation of Khashoggi's death and human rights reforms in Saudi Arabia. Numerous Western nations called for the abolition of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, an end to the system of male guardianship over women and a loosening of the definition of "terrorism" in the kingdom so that peaceful critics are not prosecuted. The Saudis have until Friday to report back on whether they will accept any of the recommendations. The United States pulled out of the 47-member Human Rights Council in June, accusing it of anti-Israel bias. But U.S. Charge d'Affaires Mark Cassayre appeared at the meeting in an observer status, saying that a "thorough, conclusive and transparent investigation (of Khashoggi's death) carried out in accordance with due process with results made public is essential." U.S. congressional candidates and high-profile advocates are using their final full day of campaigning Monday to try to attract voters as the nation's major political parties battle for control of the Senate and House of Representatives in midterm elections. President Donald Trump wants his fellow Republicans to hold their Senate and House majorities, while Democrats seek to take control of at least one of the chambers. Political analysts and opinion poll results give the Democrats a better chance at winning back a majority in the House than in the Senate. Voters on Tuesday will choose who will fill all 435 seats in the House and 35 of the 100 Senate seats. Trump has campaign events Monday in Ohio, where there is a tight contest for the state's governorship, and in Indiana and Missouri, where there are too-close-to-call elections for Senate seats. Before heading out on the campaign trail, Trump assailed a new poll by news network CNN about which party voters intend to support in Tuesday's balloting. The survey showed voters favored Democrats over Republicans by a 55 percent to 42 percent margin. Other polls have shown Democrats with a smaller edge on the generic ballot question, in which specific candidates are not named. "So funny to see the CNN Fake Suppression Polls and false rhetoric," Trump said on Twitter. He also warned about possible voter fraud. "Law Enforcement has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place in Tuesday's Election," Trump said. The Justice Department announced it is sending personnel to 35 jurisdictions in 19 of the country's 50 states to monitor compliance with voting laws. Before traveling to rallies Sunday in Georgia and Tennessee, Trump expressed optimism about his party's prospects. "I think we're going to do well in the House. But as you know, my primary focus has been on the Senate, and I think we're doing really well in the Senate," he said. Trump told those at a rally in Georgia that voters have to decide whether to build on what he called the "extraordinary prosperity that we've created" or allow Democrats to "take a giant wrecking ball to our economy and to our future." Former President Barack Obama campaigned Sunday in support of Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly in Indiana, telling the crowd there it was his administration that started the economic recovery after the severe recession that hit the country in 2008. Obama accused the Republican-controlled Congress of trying to turn back the policies and progress made during his eight years in office. He also mocked Trump for saying he wants to help regular people after signing huge tax cuts for the wealthy. At another campaign stop in Chicago, Obama talked more generally about Tuesday's vote, saying it might be the "most important election of our lifetimes." "There is a contest of ideas going on right now, about who we are and what kind of country we are going to be. Healthcare for millions is on the ballot. A fair shake for working families is on the ballot. And most importantly the character of our nation is on the ballot," Obama said. In addition to the congressional races, 36 of the 50 U.S. states are electing governors Tuesday. Currently there are 33 Republican governors, 16 Democrats and one independent. Voters will also be asked to pick sides on a number of state ballot initiatives. Those include issues such as whether to legalize marijuana, allow felons to have their voting rights restored, expand Medicaid coverage, and determine what identification should be required to vote. The United States reimposed sanctions on Iran's oil industry and financial sector Monday, following through on President Donald Trump's pledge to roll back relief Iran received as part of the international agreement to limit its nuclear program. But as Trump left the White House for a campaign event Monday, he told reporters he wants to go a little bit slower on sanctioning major importers of Iranian oil. WATCH: US sanctions on Iran "This has nothing to do with Iran ... I could get the Iran oil down to zero immediately, but it would cause a shock to the market," he said. "I don't want to lift oil prices." Earlier Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters at a news conference with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that the Iranian regime has a choice. It can either do a 180-degree turn from its outlaw course of action and act like a normal country, or it can see its economy crumble, Pompeo said. The measures bring back bans on the purchase of Iranian oil, which is a major part of the country's economy. Trump administration officials have said eight countries are being given short-term waivers to allow them time to completely wind down their existing Iranian oil imports. Those receiving waivers are Turkey, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Italy and Greece. Those represent the majority of Iran's oil exports. It is unclear when the short-term waivers are scheduled to expire. Pompeo also said the waivers are intended to avoid any disruption of the global oil market and to give those countries more time to cut off their imports. The reimposed sanctions also target Iran's central bank and the country's shipping and shipbuilding sectors. Mnuchin outlined the scope of the sanctions: Today we sanctioned more than 700 individuals, entities, aircraft and vessels as part of Treasurys largest ever single day action targeting Iran. A reporter asked why the U.S. is sanctioning Iran for bad behavior and not Saudi Arabia. Pompeo said the difference in the behavior of the countries is remarkable, adding, Iran is the No. 1 destabilizing force in the Middle East today. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech Monday that Iran will break the U.S. sanctions and continue to sell oil. The Iranian government also sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemning what it called illegal sanctions," and calling for a response from the international community. The irresponsible conduct of the United States necessitates a collective response by the international community in order to uphold the rule of law, to prevent undermining diplomacy and to protect multilateralism, Iran said. The Iranian letter argues that the Islamic Republic of Iran has not violated the so-called Iran nuclear deal, known as the JPCOA, saying it has instead "scrupulously fulfilled its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA, as has been repeatedly and consistently verified by the consecutive reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency."Trump said in a statement Friday that the purpose of the sanctions is to force Iran's leaders to choose either to abandon what he calls Iran's "destructive behavior" or to "continue down the path toward economic disaster." The U.S. president abandoned the nuclear agreement in May, accusing Iran of violating the deal. He said Iran was continuing its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and that the sanctions relief gave Iran cash to carry out destabilizing activities in the Middle East. Iran denied its nuclear program was directed at producing nuclear weapons as it reached the 2015 agreement with the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany. The U.N.'s atomic energy agency, which was tasked with monitoring the implementation of the agreement, has certified in multiple reports that Iran is in compliance. All of the other signatories have argued the agreement is the best way to ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons. Iranian officials have pledged to remain a party as long as the other non-U.S. parties continue observing it. On Saturday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced the reimposition of U.S. sanctions, saying Trump had hurt U.S. standing in the world and that Iran would ultimately come out as the winner. Bob Corker, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, praised the sanctions. The Trump administration deserves credit for reimposing sanctions and dramatically reducing Irans oil exports and revenues. Corker said he supported the administrations pursuit of a better Iran nuclear deal. Its disinterest. Its selfishness. Its preoccupation with avocado toast. For Americans under 30 who only recently became the largest voting bloc in the U.S. and are oft-maligned for lack of civic participation the largest barrier to voting might be 3.9 square centimeters (0.6 square inches) of aging technology. The finding-a-stamp thing is sometimes considered a joke, but a lot of young people have never had to mail anything because everything is done online, said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Or they have nice parents who have done everything for them, she added. College students and young adults comprised 30 percent of eligible U.S. voters in 2016, but only half of them showed up on Election Day. A slightly bigger turnout of younger voters in a handful of battleground states could have altered the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Instead, Gen Xers ages 36 to 51 combined with Baby Boomers ages 52 to 70 drove the political agenda with their votes. Our youngest voters are transitional by design, moving from the reliability of their parents home to a series of change-of-address cards that continues long after graduation for many. Young people dont begin to vote until their lives basically settle in one place and get some stability, said Kawashima-Ginsberg. When you ask why they dont vote, especially from less affluent backgrounds, they tend to report more barriers. Small but significant barriers are often overlooked by complaining elders. In addition to moving each year, younger voters might not have a car or other transportation to the polls, Kawashima-Ginsberg explained, and that poll might be hours or time zones away if the voter is registered at their parents out-of-state address. Other young voters might be afraid to ask for time off from work to vote, especially if they are hourly workers. Unfamiliarity with polling places such as schools or community centers might be just enough a hurdle to make a voter shrug off Election Day. And not every young person has a driver's license or other essential identification acquired through birth certificates and other legal documentation typically kept safe by parents. Absentee ballots, too, are not always user-friendly to students born into a generation that has always enjoyed the ease and efficiency of online transactions. Many of our students are tech-savvy and are more used to Amazon, the behemoth, online shopping site that can facilitate transactions in one click, said Alison Nabatoff, a program officer in the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students at Princeton University. Going to paper is a challenge. Madeleine Marr, a sophomore at Princeton University from suburban Philadelphia, laments the process. While there has been a vocal criticism of college students for our historically low voter turnout rates, not much attention has been paid to how difficult it is for college students to actually get their ballots to the voting box, Marr writes in the Daily Princetonian. It is important that college students increase their voter turnout, yet absentee voting is antiquated and prevents college students from fully participating in the electoral process. Absentee voting differs from state to state. Procrastinators take note: Most states require the ballot be received not just postmarked by Election Day. The ballot request varies state to state, according to Vote.org, from 21 days before the election to one day before. Some states allow balloting by fax. (That is an electronic transmission that might be as familiar to younger voters as the telegraph is to middle-age voters.) And while you can register to vote online, you cannot cast a vote online unless you are out of the country and fall within the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). But that process is not without barriers, either, and states have increasingly expressed concern with the security risk of voting online. The idea of conducting elections entirely via the internet is not something states are considering now or in the near future, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some voting factors are typical of every generation, not just Millennials. What usually sparks investment in the civic process is graduating from college, getting married, having a child, and buying not renting property, Kawashima-Ginsberg said. But many Millennials lament having to postpone some of those lifetime milestones, unlike their Baby Boomer parents and grandparents. As a consequence, many feel less of a connection to local and national politics and issues. Our total debt for credit cards and student loans combined is almost $150,000, said Matt Porter, 32, who lives with his fiance in Lowell, Massachusetts. Its absolutely insane and makes it really hard to move forward with life goals. Because the average cost of an undergraduate degree from a college and university has risen $63,973, or roughly 161 percent since 1987, many young people say they cant afford a mortgage while paying off student debt. Some say they feel they cannot afford marriage or children, either, while they are paying student loans, nevermind a monthly mortgage. College graduates will be saddled with so much debt that many will have less purchasing power to afford homes, and may significantly delay marriages and childbearing, wrote Brialle D. Ringer in the McNair Scholars Research Journal at Eastern Michigan University in 2015. While those obstacles might hold young people back from the polls, recent social issues that affect their generation like gun violence and climate change can be drivers. Although young people are often accused of slacktivism, for engaging online but not in person, that criticism is not quite warranted, Kawashima-Ginsberg said. Young people are responding to those issues through voter participation, said Kawashima-Ginsberg. CIRCLEs recent polling found that 34 percent of young people ages 18 to 24 are extremely likely to vote in the midterms. A poll by Harvards Institute of Politics say that number is closer to 40 percent, with 54 percent of Democrats, 43 percent of Republicans and 24 percent of Independents considered likely voters. As young Republicans have become more engaged, the preference among likely voters for Democrats to control Congress has decreased from a 41-point advantage in the IOP April 2018 poll to a 34-point lead today," according to a summary of the poll. Voters 18 to 21 who were not yet eligible to vote in 2016 said they were extremely likely to cast ballots this election cycle. And that, in part, is because of high schoolers from Parkland, Florida, who survived a mass shooting in February, and organized a march on Washington a month later that drew 200,000 participants and sparked a voter registration campaign nationwide targeted to new voters. Young people who report being actively engaged with the post-Parkland movement for gun violence prevention are even more likely (50 percent) to say that theyre extremely likely to vote, Kawashima-Ginsberg said. As the world marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I in 1918, some in the Middle East mourn the fate of nations and peoples who came out losers in the ultimate dissection of the region and the division of the Ottoman Empire. Armenians mourn their dead during a World War I genocide in which close to a million-and-a-half people were killed. Other peoples who suffered from that war, including Greeks, Assyrians, and Kurds, recall its memory with bitterness. As the war ended, the Ottoman Empire was divided, leaving communities shattered and broken by ethnic cleansing. University of Oklahoma Middle East program director Joshua Landis says the Ottoman Empire had allowed many ethnic communities to govern themselves. "The Ottoman Empire was a Sunni dynastic empire, and it was a multi-religious, multi-ethnic empire," he said. "The various religious and ethnic communities were not equal, but there was a stability and they got along within a framework of Ottoman authority. Once that was destroyed and the French and British imposed national identities and chopped the place up to nation states, many of these nation states included peoples who did not want to live together, and this has led to the recent civil wars." Minorities like Armenians and Kurds, who were not awarded nation states, paid a heavy price, as Haigazian University President Paul Haidostian tells VOA. "World War I really changed the demographic picture so quickly. Twenty years after World War I, if you looked at the demography of many of the regions of Asia Minor and the Middle East and so on, they had been impacted, moved, deported and changed in dramatic ways, and there was no protection and there was no logic to what happened, except for the consequences of alliances, of wars, and so on," he said. But some minorities like Lebanon's Maronite Christians or Syria's Alawites, gained prominence in the period after World War I during the destruction of the old world order, says Landis. "Both the French and the British pursued a minority policy, and in order to help them rule during the inter-war period, they gave a leg up to minorities across the Middle East," he said. "In Lebanon it was the Maronites, in Syria it was the Alawites, in Iraq it was the Sunni minority, 20 percent, In Israel-Palestine, it was the Jews, who were only 14 percent of the population at World War I." Haidostian says despite the war's aftermath, Armenians, Kurds, Jews and other minorities rebuilt their communities and struggled once again to flourish. "So many nations, despite the major losses of land, homes, human lives, in the hundreds of thousands, in the case of the Armenians a million-and-a-half, the story of resilience is really very particular. No matter what some nations may do, minorities, ethnic or religious groups find a way of surviving," he said. A key lesson of World War I, concludes Paul Haidostian, "is the intersection of the interests of the major powers, the mightier powers, versus those of the smaller powers," which he argues "ultimately pay the price." Subscriber content preview MCALLEN, Texas (AP) Federal authorities have awarded a $145 million contract to a Texas company to build 6 miles (9.5 kilometers) of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said Friday that SLSCO will begin construction of an 18-foot (5.5-meter) reinforced concrete levee wall in February in the agency's McAllen Station region. The company will also increase the height of existing fences. . . . The case of a teenager accused of murdering a Georgia man behind a Publix in Limestone County was continued for a second time. The capital murder trial of 19-year-old Jakobe Carter was set to begin Monday morning, but was continued, according to the Limestone County District Attorneys Office. The teen from Phenix City, Alabama, is charged with the capital murder of 61-year-old Van Johnson. Back on August 14, 2017, Johnson was doing some exterior construction work behind the Publix in Madison-annexed Limestone County when investigators said he and 18-year-old Aaron Jones struck him in the head with tools and killed him. The crime was investigated as capital murder because prosecutors said the teens also stole Johnsons cell phone, keys and cash. Both teens were indicted on charges of capital murder and second-degree burglary in October 2017. WAAY 31 reported at the time that both teenagers were runaways from the juvenile facility Sequel TSI also known as Three Springs. A new trial date has not been set for Carter and a reason for the continuance was not available Monday morning. According to court records, Carter was indicted on October 18, 2018 on the charge of destruction of state property. The indictment states Carter destroyed the cell door glass window. Jones is scheduled to be in court on November 14 for a hearing on his application for youthful offender status. Jones was 17 years old when investigators said he helped kill Johnson. Police in Florence want your help finding a vandal who mocked president Trump, and what was written could be considered hate speech. On this billboard on Tennessee Street and Florence Boulevard, you can see someone painted a caricature of the president, wrote the words "DACA, "ILLEGALS" and MISSED THE CURVE". We blurred out the expletive written in Spanish. The owner of the billboard asked we don't identify them because it's not involved in the crime. But police have a strong message for the criminal. "It sends a negative message to visitirs when you see graffiti up everywhere you kind of think of a trashy area. No matter how pretty or artistic the work is, you still think of it in a negative light," Sargeant Greg Cobb told WAAY 31. The billboard has already been taken down. Police told us painting negative comments or pictures about someone can be considered a hate crime. According to the Huntsville Police Department, a vehicle wrecked around 7p.m. Sunday while pulling out of a shopping center onto University Drive near Waddell Drive. The passenger in the vehicle that pulled out, 70-year-old Rosemary Norland, was killed. No other information is available about other injuries from the driver of either vehicle. The crash is under investigation President Trump has declared that a major disaster exists in four Alabama counties, Geneva, Henry, Houston and Mobile Counties, after Hurricane Michael barrelled through the Gulf Coast. This is in response to Governor Ivey's request that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Public Assistance Program provide assistance to the affected areas. FEMA helps to reimburse local governments, state agencies and other eligible organizations for some expenses they have incurred during hurricane relief. State and affected local governments can apply to be reimbursed for up to 75 percent of approved costs, like debris removal and road repair, through the Public Assistance Program. Alabama did not take the brunt of the storm damage, but many people in our state were affected. This public assistance will be very beneficial, especially to the small communities in the Wiregrass that have worked very hard to clear the debris and get power service back up for residents," Ivey said. WAAY 31 spoke with the Hampton Cove Middle School student who last week told her parent she thought there was a gun at school, which turned out to be a false alarm. "I was just scared, and they're going to suspend me for being scared," Savannah Goss said. Goss and her mom want to set the record straight and explain their side of the story. "I see and I hear about something, and I say something, and then I get suspended for it," Goss said. 12-year-old Savannah Goss is having a hard time understanding how her fear turned into a five-day suspension. Goss said she had no idea there was a gun-rumor at Hampton Cove Middle School until she heard it from a friend. "She told me that she was going to text her mom about it, and I asked if I could text my mom about it too," Goss said. Goss and her family had only been in their new house for two weeks before they turned the corner and found themselves in crisis mode on Savannah's second day at her new school. "He kept going to his locker. She kept saying hey he's going to his locker. Every time he came back he had something bulky in his pocket, so I guess that's what made her and I freak out a lot. He kind of just kept looking around the classroom," Goss said. Goss insists she told only her mom about what she saw and heard. "I'm thinking all of these things I've seen on TV with all of these gunman and mass shootings and children running, and I'm freaking out," Meagan Carpenter said. Meagan Carpenter, Goss's mom, told her husband what was happening. He was away on a work trip, and he called the Huntsville Police non-emergency line. It didn't take long for first responders to show up at the school. They looked, but there was no gun. "I didn't go to a teacher because it was my second day there," Goss said. At a new school, not knowing any adults there, Goss turned to her parents. She was scared the boy might have a gun. "The teachers were at the front of the room, as was the guy. I know he didn't have a gun, but if he did and he were to start the shooting there I'd have one of the biggest chances of getting hurt," Goss said. Her family is convinced Goss avoided overreacting. "We want this taken off of her record completely and to resume school like normal, because she did nothing wrong," Carpenter said. Goss goes back to school on the 8th, and she still faces an in-school suspension until a hearing on the 13th to decide if she'll be expelled. Carpenter said her daughter was the only student punished after the false alarm even though Goss said she heard the rumor from another student. WAAY 31 reached out to the school district spokesman to figure out why, and is working to get answers. Subscriber content preview ISSAQUAH Issaquah-based Lakeside Industries donated 5.32-acres to expand Lake Sammamish State Park, Washington State Parks said in a press release. The property is just east of the park, and includes 1,200 feet along Issaquah Creek. . . . Subscriber content preview JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) The U.S. Forest Service has proposed cutting down a huge swath of old growth timber in southeast Alaska. The agency published its draft decision Friday on logging as much as 225 million board feet (53,000 cubic meters) in Tongass National Forest on Prince of Wales Island, opening up a 45-day period for people to raise objections, KTOO Public Media in Juneau reported Thursday. . . . The momentum of independent commissions first used in Arizona and California this decade comes as a decade of contentious redistricting wraps up. In Colorado, a state congressman was banned from Senate floors and chamber for the 2011 session for losing his temper during a redistricting discussion. In Michigan, where redistricting maps were first approved in 2011, there is still ongoing litigation over partisan gerrymanders. The trial does not begin until next February. The next of district lines will be drawn in 2021, using new Census figures and in time for the 2022 midterms. This variety is reflected in what shes cooking today, too. Sitting alongside the braised chicken and the rice is a recipe for walnut-size chickpea-and-lamb meatballs she got from a friend in Isfahan, a city in the middle of the country. She plops them in a bath of tomato sauce and cooks them there for an hour. They emerge light and pillowy. The key, she cautions, is not to overmix them when you blend, and not to roll them too vigorously with your hands so that they become too dense. Veterans Day also reflects a new meaning from the original Armistice Day, which honored all who served in World War I, but especially those who died. By 1954, the United States had fought in World War II and the Korean War. Lawmakers decided to rename the day to honor all American military, past and present, whether they served in war or peace. The evolution of the name is a bracing reminder of how different D.C.s history and its present has been for various groups of Washingtonians. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson ordered a small obelisk placed a mile and a half north of the White House to serve as a longitudinal meridian for the new capital city. An owner who acquired the land after the War of 1812 was the first to call it Meridian Hill. The park itself was the brainchild of Mary Foote Henderson, the wife of a senator in post-Civil War Washington who lived nearby. She wanted the federal government to move the White House and the monuments to her neighborhood. She ultimately settled on convincing federal officials to build an Italian Renaissance-style park. To execute her vision, Henderson evicted the residents, a community of working-class African Americans. (Now, The Henderson is the name of a nearby boutique condo building whose website uses Meridian Hill Park.) Turnout had been slow on the rainy Saturday afternoon, but a steady trickle of people kept appearing in the doorway. Uzick was still thinking about one person in particular an older man she had met days before at an outreach event. He told her that he had come to the United States decades before as a young migrant worker, and eventually became a citizen and registered to vote but never did. He couldnt read, he explained, and he couldnt speak English well. Uzick told him where he could find her during early voting and promised to help him if he went there and asked for her. This works beautifully for Trump, who gets to point to the collective media freakout as clear proof of their leaning left. (As Sarah Sanders scolded last month in a press briefing, 90 percent of the stories about Trump are negative, as if there should be some expectation that 50 percent of all stories should be positive, no matter whats going on.) Eurostat has published the most recent data of EU member states on median net income by household. Romania ranks last in 2017, with only EUR 2,742, much behind Bulgaria (EUR 3,588) and at a far distance from the European average (EUR 16,359). * Dictionary: Median net income by household refers to the amounts earned by a given household in a given region where half of these households earn more and the other half less. It can be used instead of average income or median income because it better reflects the economic situation in the area. The indicator is used to determine to what extent a family can afford living expenses. * The picture based on this indicator is very different from the one offered by GDP per capita at the parity of standard purchasing power compared to the EU average, the average reference level generally used to describe the relative economic situation of the population in a particular country. This is what we can see, very revealing if we make a comparison with Bulgaria. * Median net income by household (VMNG) in Romania and Bulgaria (euro, 2017) Total Single person Single person with one child Single person + children GDP/inhabitant (% EU average) Romania Bulgaria Difference * Of course, it can be argued that there are problems with the methodology, maybe our neighbours from the south of the Danube are better than us to look good in statistics (otherwise, only as a colourful element, their compatriot Mariana Kotzeva is right the general manager of Eurostat). Children disadvantaged compared to voting segments However, even so, let us thoroughly look at the negligible difference that remains for us between single people and how a reverse gap in terms of living standards is shaped (theoretically, resulting from GDP per capita) in the category of most vulnerable people, singles with children. In the context of an excessive concern for retired voters in, we managed to reach a catastrophic percentage of 46.8% of children being at risk of poverty or social exclusion, plus the unwanted position of champions in terms of maximum risk of poverty difference between children and the overall population (along with Hungary, with 7 percentage points, of course, according to Eurostat). Although we are better in terms of GDP per capita (where we have already exceeded Croatia and left Bulgaria much behind), we are successful in the counter performance to systematically position ourselves last by poverty indicators regardless of the economic performance. From where it is visible that it is not enough to make money, it also matters what you do with them, how you organize them, for what and for whom you use them. And others, also from East As a reference and in order for us to not feel alone in this game of figures showing where waters split between the richest and the poorest half in former socialist states, we also present a comparison that includes the other EU states positioned below the threshold of EUR 10,000 in terms of median net income by household (VMNG), in parallel with the much more publicized adjusted to country price levels. * VMNG GDP /capita Hungary Poland Lithuania Croatia Latvia Slovakia Czech Republic Estonia * If we recover 82% we catch up with Hungarians, with a 117% leap we reach Poles, with an advance of +126% we meet with the Croatians whom we surpassed in terms of GDP per capita and with an advance of + 162% we can get in line, in terms of poverty and social inequalities, with Slovaks, who have, like us, many cars and joined the Eurozone around 2009. In 2016, the living standard in Bucharest-Ilfov region was 139% of the EU average (based on definitive GDP data), according to GDP per capita at the parity of purchasing power standards (adjusted to national price levels). Our capital city area surpassed metropolitan areas of Europe such as Madrid (125%), Berlin (118%), Rome (110%) or Lisbon (102%), in comparable terms. Aboneaza-te la newsletter aici. Iti multumim ca citesti cursdeguvernare. If we make the correlations needed to obtain the national average, we can notice that in some limited areas we are better even than many Western states, while in others there are very large areas of abject poverty. A reason why (also in Eurostat data) we are present (surprise?) with the highest poverty risk of (25.3% in our case compared to 22.9% for Bulgarians). Under these circumstances, does it still make sense to ask ourselves how we stand with social cohesion, why Romanians leave the country and why, despite the fact they generate overall enough wealth, we do not quite modernize our attitude in organizing the society and placing a country on a sustainable basis by following a Western European model? Subscriber content preview SEATTLE An industrial property at 9220-9400 Eighth Ave. S. has sold for $6.1 million, according to King County records. The seller was HTL Properties LLC, which acquired the property in 2005 for $3.6 million. . . . Montessori education is marked by considerable freedom but within prescribed limits. Children choose their own activities, which are referred to as work rather than play. They work independently, at their own pace and over long blocks of uninterrupted time, with teachers steering children to the next lesson when they seem ready. The classrooms use prescribed materials, mostly wooden, designed to help children learn certain concepts. Children are in classes spanning a three-year age range. Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Email address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy In Montgomery County, a woman said she was sexually assaulted about 6:10 a.m. Thursday in Rockville. Police said she was walking on the sidewalk on Shady Grove Road between Key West Avenue and Blackwell Road when a man came up from behind her. About 15 minutes after the police-involved shooting, two men were found shot and killed inside a car in the 16800 block of Brandy Moor Loop in the Woodbridge area. The men were in a car that had been driven over a curb and into a wooded area, according to authorities. Two officers returned fire. The suspect was hit in the upper body and then detained. He was flown to a hospital with serious injuries, the police said. He was not named, but police said he was 29 and reportedly lived in the house from which the call came. When Flash opens, officials said, riders will be able to use their SmarTrip card to pay fares and board through all three doors of the 60-foot-long buses. Fare ticket machines will be available at the station for people paying with cash. The station platforms will be elevated to allow passengers to step onto the bus just as they do in the Metro. Buses will be equipped with WiFi and charging portals, they said. The popular ex-presidents appearance was mainly meant to boost Wexton in her race against Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) in the 10th congressional district that stretches from McLean toward the West Virginia border. The seat has been in Republican hands for nearly 40 years and the serious challenge from Wexton has made it one of the most closely watched contests in the country. Subscriber content preview SAMMAMISH The retail portion of the new Sky Sammamish apartments, at 22256 S.E. Fourth St. in Sammamish Village, has sold for a little under $3.9 million, according to King County records. The seller was an LLC associated with MainStreet Property Group, which acquired the land in 2017 and developed it. . . . When she finally got a vacation from her job in August, she went to Washington to see what it was all about, eventually joining the protests at the White House. She wore suffragist white, had the purple-white-gold sash of the movement and was photographed Aug. 17 as she was arrested outside the White House, in what has become an iconic photo of the moment, McDonald said. Woman in viral racist rant faces charges Authorities say a white woman in North Carolina whose racist rant against two black women having car trouble in an affluent area went viral is facing charges of communicating threats and misusing the 911 network. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police told news outlets that Susan Westwood, 51, was served with outstanding warrants Saturday after contacting police in coastal Sunset Beach. Westwood disappeared after the Oct. 19 incident in a parking lot of her Charlotte apartment complex. It wasn't immediately known whether she had a lawyer. A video went viral of her berating black neighbors she didn't recognize while they waited for AAA. Leisa and Mary Garris called police twice to report that Westwood was harassing them. Westwood also called 911, telling the dispatcher that she would pay $2,500 "to get them out of here," authorities said. Gunmen in attack on Christians are slain, Egyptian officials say: Egypt said security forces killed 19 militants in a shootout, including the gunmen suspected of killing seven Christians in an attack on pilgrims traveling to a remote desert monastery. The Interior Ministry said the militants were tracked to a hideout in the desert west of the central province of Minya, the site of Friday's attack, which also wounded 19 people. The ministry said the militants opened fire when they realized they were being besieged by security forces. It did not say when the shootout took place or explain how it had determined that the perpetrators of Friday's attack were among the 19 killed. German media reported that, in the manuscript of a farewell speech to European counterparts in mid-October, Maassen alleged that radical left-wing forces within the Social Democrats wanted to use his comments as an excuse to end a governing coalition they never wanted to join. He also said he was known as a critic of idealistic, naive and left-wing policy on foreigners and security. Seehofer said those remarks crossed a line. Without question, the European skeptics are right to raise questions about this dual-use research, meaning the program could be adapted, in theory, for malign intent. But much research in biology is dual-use by its very nature. Research facilities that produce lifesaving drugs and therapies can be used to create harmful agents and weapons. In the United States, a good amount of attention has been focused in recent years on oversight, including rules for government-funded work. (And there are legitimate concerns, such as earlier this year when researchers in Canada assembled bits of genetic material to resurrect a cousin of the virus that causes smallpox. It should not have been attempted.) Globally, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention of 1975 prohibits the research, development or deployment of germ weapons or their delivery systems, though it has rather weak enforcement mechanisms. Donnelly, born in New York but an Indianan since college and law school at Notre Dame, is an old-fashioned retail politician with a knack for casting complex issues in understandable human terms. He represented the north-central section of the state in Congress for three terms before beating Richard Mourdock, a tea party Republican who had upset incumbent moderate Richard G. Lugar in the GOP primary, for Senate in 2012. Donnelly may be the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, an avowed pro-life legislator who has earned past A ratings from the National Rifle Association. He brags of voting for a border wall and, in the final days of the campaign, refused to rule out a law to change birthright citizenship. The Mueller investigation has two areas of primary focus: Russian interference with the 2016 election and possible involvement of members of the Trump campaign; and potential obstruction of justice by the president through such actions as firing then-FBI Director James B. Comey. What news there has been in recent weeks has focused on the Russia conspiracy angle, and in particular on former Trump adviser Roger Stone. Muellers investigators reportedly have interviewed a number of witnesses concerning whether Stone may have had advance notice of, or perhaps even direct involvement in, the strategically timed release of stolen Democratic emails in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. If Stone was involved, it could just be sleazy politics or it could open him up to charges such as conspiracy to defraud the United States through illegally influencing the election. If you believe that our dynamic market economy has so devalued the labor of low-skill workers that we need bigger government, the conviction that we ought to freely admit foreign low-skill workers looking for a better life leads to an uncomfortable conclusion. We are poised to greatly expand the ranks of those who find themselves stuck at the bottom of our stratified society, and who will therefore have a claim to our public resources. One is that, because the party enforced a one-child-per-family rule for so long, the nation is locked onto a demographic path that guarantees far fewer people of working age and far more old people who need support. Eberstadt, a demographer, said by 2040, China will contain a quarter-billion more people over the age of 50 than it does today and a quarter-billion fewer who are under 50. Unlike any country before it, China will be old before it is rich. Soon, the president will rid himself of obstinate aides who might thwart him. Gary Cohn and H.R. McMaster are already gone. Yes men are on the way. Yet, Jim Mattis remains at the Pentagon. Hes a stabilizing influence, but he is not beloved by Trump, and he is not at all liked by national security adviser John Bolton and Boltons deputy. Mattis has told friends he has no intention of leaving. But ultimately he will, and then Trump, like the brat running Saudi Arabia, will be free to do as he pleases. Except for Trumps short-lived policy of separating asylum-seeking parents from their children, the GOP has been content to go along with Trumps general program of demonizing Latino immigrants. Republicans know that illegal border crossings are far down from their peak; that undocumented immigrants are not responsible for any kind of crime wave; and that most asylum seekers who are provisionally admitted to the country dutifully report for their court hearings. But when Trump lies about all of this, Republicans just smile. Even among his supporters, many know there is something badly defective about his approach to leadership. A Public Religion Research Institute poll released last week found that 69 percent of Americans see Trump as having damaged the dignity of the presidency. The same proportion said they would like it if his speech and behavior were more consistent with the conduct of other presidents. On that question, 57 percent of Republicans agreed. But the precise number of Democratic pickups is being viewed as a crucial test of the partys message in swing states, especially when it comes to voter concerns about health care and public schools. The gubernatorial races also are being seen as a test of Democratic efforts to rebuild at the local level after they received a surge of volunteers following Trumps election. Republicans, meanwhile, are hoping the nations improving economy overpowers the electorates continued anti-incumbency mood. Lawyers for a company that wants to extract what is said to be the nations largest untapped deposit of uranium, in southern Virginia, urged the court to look behind the lawmakers actions. If legislators acted because of concerns about radiological safety, they said, that could violate the Atomic Energy Act, which places such responsibility not with the state but with federal regulators. The road to recovery has been a long one for David Morales, who was injured during the al-Qaeda attack on the USS Cole 18 years ago last month. And he knew it would be difficult to collect the nearly $315 million that he and others wounded in the attack were awarded in their suit against the Republic of Sudan. The latest came Friday, when a man with a history of posting misogynistic and racist material online charged into a yoga studio in Tallahassee and allegedly shot and killed two women and wounded others before killing himself. That comes two weeks after the arrest of Cesar Sayoc, a former stripper living in a van in Broward County, whom authorities have accused of mailing pipe bombs to people and organizations criticized by President Trump. And many are still dealing with the aftereffects of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in February that killed 17 students and staff members. These ideas are mostly stunts that serve to act as a semaphore, said Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law and a former chief speechwriter in the Clinton White House. The executive order is flatly unconstitutional. The tax cut that is going to be passed by Election Day is nonexistent. And the generated panic over the caravan and sending up to 15,000 troops to the border is expensive political theater and not much more. The president has not said that he wants it just to be about the caravan, she said, speaking on ABCs This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Hes saying, Lets look at the record, and are you better off than you were two years ago? Hes talking about the economy. Its just not getting the same coverage. The economy should be first and foremost in a lot of peoples minds when theyre going to the polls. The Trump administration is bracing for a massive staff shake-up in the weeks following the midterm elections, as the fates of a number of Cabinet secretaries and top White House aides are increasingly uncertain heading into a potentially perilous time for President Trump. Some embattled officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, are expected to be fired or actively pushed out by Trump after months of bitter recriminations. Others, notably Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, may leave amid a mutual recognition that their relationship with the president has become too strained. And more still plan to take top roles on Trumps 2020 reelection campaign or seek lucrative jobs in the private sector after nearly two years in government. The expected midterm exodus would bring fresh uncertainty and churn to a White House already plagued by high turnover and internal chaos. Many in Trumps orbit worry that the administration will face challenges filling the vacancies especially if Democrats win the House majority and use their oversight powers to investigate the administration and issue subpoenas to top officials. Trumps allies, however, note that some turnover at the two-year mark is normal in any administration. They also say that any departures would give the president a chance to reshape the White House more fully in his own image. I dont think he likes people leaving him, said Marc Short, a former White House director of legislative affairs. But it does provide the president with an opportunity to reset, he added. When he came in during the transition, Washington was new to him. I think he has a better idea of the talent he wants around him. Short added that, more than previous Oval Office occupants, Trump does function as his own chief of staff in a lot ways and might welcome the chance to bring in a new crop of aides more aligned with his vision. He may not even know what all those people do, Short said, referring to some members of the current staff. This portrait of the White House preparing for post-midterm staff changes comes from interviews with 14 senior White House officials, administration aides and Republican operatives, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss internal deliberations. Among those most vulnerable to being dismissed are Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs Russia investigation after Sessions recused himself. Trump has routinely berated Sessions, whom he faults for the Russia investigation, but he and Rosenstein have forged an improved rapport in recent months. Allies of Sessions and some in the Justice Department believe the attorney general could be fired in humiliating fashion in the days immediately following Tuesdays elections. The White House has begun considering replacements, while Trump aides and confidants have cautioned the president he would face a backlash if he fired either of the top two Justice officials, particularly before the midterms. Other Cabinet officials including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Nielsen also face uncertain futures. Mattis and Trump have long had an uncomfortable working relationship, in the words of one former White House official. The two have clashed on a range of issues, including transgender people serving in the military, the Iran nuclear deal, military exercises with South Korea and conflicts in Afghanistan and Syria. Mattis has made securing military alliances a priority, and he has often found himself assuaging European and Asian allies rattled by Trumps comments. But Trump is unlikely to fire Mattis, and Mattis who has backed Trump on his controversial deployment of troops to the U.S. border is unlikely to resign, according to people familiar with the dynamic. Trump has been skeptical of Nielsen because of her service in the George W. Bush administration, and the two have feuded over an influx of migrants on the southern border, which the president does not believe Nielsen is addressing forcefully enough. As with Sessions, the White House also has been discussing possible replacements for her. Nielsens primary protector has been White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, another potential departure who has at times clashed with the president but has been asked by Trump to stay through 2020. If Kelly does leave, however, many say Nielsen is likely to follow. On Zinke, the president started complaining in recent days to aides about news reports that the Justice Department is scrutinizing the interior secretarys real estate dealings in Montana. Trump has apparently asked how problematic Zinkes conduct has become. Other top figures, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and press secretary Sarah Sanders, also have been mentioned as possible departures in the coming months, though if they leave, they seem likely to do so of their own accord. Sanders has a strong relationship with Trump and is expected to leave only if the right opportunity arises. In recent weeks, she has held increasingly infrequent briefings with the media, all but eliminating one of her most fraught responsibilities. Other West Wing aides intend to transition to Trumps reelection effort. Justin Clark, who heads the Office of Public Liaison, is expected to leave in the coming months to work on the campaign in a senior adviser role. Nick Ayers, chief of staff to Vice President Pence, is also mentioned as a possible departure. He has a young family and has told those close to him that he is eager to return to his home state of Georgia. If he leaves, he may work on the reelection campaign, but he could stay in the West Wing, especially for a new job with more responsibility. Deputy Chief of Staff Johnny DeStefano, newly married and starting a family, is similarly expected to exit soon. Trumps White House has weathered an extraordinary amount of turnover. In its first year, the Trump administration far outpaced its modern predecessors for turnover with a rate of 34 percent, and its current overall rate is 58 percent, said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has been studying White House personnel patterns for more than two decades. Some turnover around the two-year mark is natural, Dunn Tenpas said, but the number of people resigning under pressure far exceeds that of any other administration. The turnover, she added, makes it that much more difficult to implement your agenda, when youre constantly hiring and rehiring and having to train and retrain people. In 2006, then-President George W. Bush fired Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld after Democrats seized control of both chambers of Congress, in part because of deepening public opposition to the Iraq War. After the 2010 elections, which then-President Barack Obama called a shellacking because Republicans took over control of the House, several top White House staffers left their posts. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel resigned to pursue a run for mayor in his hometown of Chicago, Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina left to manage Obamas reelection campaign, and press secretary Robert Gibbs departed a few months later. A poor performance by Republicans at the polls Tuesday could also complicate the calculation inside Trumps White House. David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski, former campaign officials who informally advise the president from outside the administration, are publishing a book the last week in November titled Trumps Enemies: How the Deep State Is Undermining the Presidency. The book has caused consternation in Trumps circle among those who believe the duo might name aides and appointees who they think are not serving the president well. It is fair to say that we outline in the book the challenges that he faces, both external to his administration and internal to his administration, Lewandowski said. A poor Election Day showing also would magnify the administrations existing challenge of recruiting and retaining top talent, especially in senior positions. The task is so difficult that Trumps aides are waiting until after the elections in the hopes of poaching Republican operatives who find themselves suddenly jobless, either because they worked on failed campaigns or lost their jobs in congressional leadership offices if Democrats take over. Trump has cast himself as a magnet for talent. Believe me, everybody wants to work in the White House, he said in March. But Chris Whipple, author of The Gatekeepers, a history of White House chiefs of staff, said the absence in Trumps orbit of experienced staffers who command respect is striking. Referring to two White House chiefs of staff from the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, Whipple said: The bad news for Trump is that there are not a lot of Jim Bakers or Leon Panettas around, much less anybody of that ability who would be willing to work with him. Just take a look. All you have to do is go around, take a look at whats happened over the years, and youll see, he told reporters before boarding Air Force One in Washington. There are a lot of people, a lot of people my opinion, and based on proof that try and get in illegally and actually vote illegally. So we just want to let them know that there will be prosecutions at the highest level. Take a look, he said. Take a look at her past. Take a look at her history. Take a look at what she wants to do and what she has in mind for the state. That state will be in big, big trouble very quickly. And the people of Georgia dont want that. We are talking about this in every single one of these races, Bustos said in late October on MSNBC. Maybe its not coming from Washington, D.C. constantly, but it is here in Peoria, Illinois, it is in Dubuque, Iowa, it is in Kentucky, it is in southern Illinois. Its all over the place. We are talking about it loudly and clearly. The Republican chairmen of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees are retiring in January, opening the partys top spots on two panels uniquely equipped to harangue the executive branch authority they leveraged this year to doggedly scrutinize FBI and Justice Department officials investigating allegations Trumps campaign conspired with Moscow to influence the 2016 presidential election. As a member of both panels, Jordan has been an influential force in that probe. But he and other Trump allies in Congress are frustrated at party leaders reluctance to bring the full weight of congressional censure upon those in law enforcement who they assert are biased against the president. My arguments been about what needs to be done and whos the best person to get it done, she said. Nobody is indispensable. But I do think that I am best qualified to take us into the future, protect the Affordable Care Act, to do our infrastructure bill and the rest. Stepping down this path, I know the ropes. Josh Hawley has decided in this campaign that he is going to win or lose by being 100 percent, never wavering from President Trump, McCaskill said. Im running this campaign on, Im not here to fight the president, Im here to fight for you. And if that means I agree with the president, great. If not, Im not afraid. In addition to jailing Turki, Mohammed also arrested three of Abdullahs other sons, including Prince Muteib bin Abdullah, 65, head of the national guard, who was fired from his job. Two other sons, Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, 40, a former head of the Saudi Red Crescent Authority,and Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah, a former governor of Mecca province, were briefly detained after they complained about the death of Qahtani, 55, who had been in the peak of health when he was arrested, according to the person close to the royal family. For instance, the United States, Europe and Japan have taken issue with aspects of Chinas industrial policy that prop up its domestic industries while blocking foreign firms, such as high-tech and Internet companies, in its bid for self-reliance. And many foreign governments have professed frustration with the alleged theft of trade secrets. The U.S. Department of Justice said last week it would launch an initiative to name and shame Chinese spies. We should look at today as the first day of an escalating maximum-pressure campaign, not a new status quo, said Richard Goldberg, an adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Were going to see an enormous amount of pressure brought to bear on the regime, to the point where it may have to consider negotiating with the Trump administration or the regime will collapse. The regional rivalry between Turkey and Saudi Arabia has captured the spotlight in the weeks since the killing of Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post. The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to prod Saudi leaders to acknowledge what he says is their role in the death. The Saudi government refused to comment for weeks but, in the face of international outrage, finally conceded that Khashoggi was killed in their consulate, even as they blamed it on rogue Saudi agents. Although Jarbas friends and relatives have had no contact with him, they have been able to piece together some details of his journey after he was taken into custody in the upscale Abdoun neighborhood in Amman. Following his arrest, Jarba was briefly held in the Saudi Embassy in Amman before being escorted to the border. Once in Saudi Arabia, he spent several weeks in Jiddah, which serves as the governments capital during the summer months. At some point, he was taken to Turkis house and asked to open secured vaults inside. There were conflicting accounts about whether Jarba was able to do so. Hearing aid Cochlear has copped a spray from an American court as it suffered a major reversal in a patent dispute that will mean the company will now have to lodge a $US335 million ($465 million) bond to secure the right to appeal the judgment. Cochlear told the ASX on Monday morning it intended to fight the judgment, which awarded $US268 million in damages to the Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Scientific Research (AMF) and Advanced Bionics (AB). The judgment found Cochlear had willfully infringed on patents. Cochlear president Dig Howitt said the company is willing to fight years to resolve the patent infringement case. Credit:Daniel Munoz In response to the latest development on the long-running case, investors hammered the company at the market opening driving its share price down almost 4 per cent. With its shares trading at $172.99 at that time the company had about $380 million wiped from its market capitalisation on Monday. The stock recovered slightly over the morning before sinking again to be 3.76 per cent down by mid-afternoon. The judge hearing the case lashed Cochlear's conduct criticising its "kitchen-sink approach" approach to the litigation. Teenagers now see sexting as a social norm and its dangers need to be addressed directly in classrooms as part of the sex education curriculum, a leading researcher has warned. Wendy Craig, a professor in psychology at Canada's Queen's University, has told a bullying conference in Sydney that children as young as 13 believe all their friends are sexting and that nearly 40 per cent of them say they are actually engaging in the practice. "Is [sexting] a problem? Is it normal? There's a real debate around this," Wendy Craig, a professor of psychology at Queen's University told an anti-bullying conference in Sydney. Credit:Shutterstock She said along with it being taught with schools, parents should also be prepared to have a discussion about sexting with their children. "Is it a problem? Is it normal? Theres a real debate around this," Professor Craig told the NSW governments Care. Respect. Support Anti-Bullying Strategy conference last week. Rose has a kindred spirit of sorts in sardonic colleague Alastair (Jonathan Creek's Alan Davies), but the rest of their outfit is little help. Nitin (Himesh Patel) is a priggish ex-cop with a strange terror of authority; receptionist Nat (Isy Suttie) is a ditz with a difference but a ditz nonetheless; and boss Denise (Georgie Glen) is tough as old boots. Telephones trill unanswered in the background throughout, and those phones that do get answered pipe in sad things, whether they be complaints about neighbours being Muslims, or enquiries about the recommended daily alcohol allowance for a 12-year-old. The home visits and frustrating bureaucratic meetings that Rose and Alastair eventually get around to serve to highlight multiple facets of thorny real-life problems, and the inadequacy of available options. There's even a bit of sympathy for the likes of Denise, charged with implementing unjust decisions handed down from on high. It all stays quite funny, though. Watch Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil on Netflix. Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil Netflix An odd but thoroughly enjoyable Basque horror movie based, evidently, on an imaginative Basque legend. It's the 19th century, and a blacksmith has sold his soul to a demon - only to renege on the deal and keep the demon locked up in a cage in his workshop. When a girl orphaned by her mother's suicide blunders into the shop, she sets off a chain of events that could lead her to the very gates of hell. It's all quite entrancing, in a delightfully bonkers way. The Teach is on SBS On Demand. The Teach SBS On Demand An immediately engrossing Polish mystery series in which a teacher named Pawel (Maciej Stuhr) arrives in a small town and begins investigating the murder of a teenage girl who would have been one of his students. The list of suspects immediately seems to encompass the whole town, from her boyfriend and other classmates to a creepy PE teacher and corrupt businessmen. It's astutely written and performed, and certain Polish idiosyncrasies (enormous indoor plants, frequent slugs of vodka) give it a real sense of place. Comedian Celia Pacquola. Live at the Apollo Stan There's quite the Australian contingent in this season of the British comedy showcase series. The ebullient Celia Pacquola steals her episode with a performance that will encourage viewers to check out her barnstorming special Celia Pacquola: The Looking Glass, which is also on Stan. Adam Hills and Sam Simmons are as good as you'd expect, and the format gives them a reasonable amount of time to establish a point of view and actually deliver some material. Non-Australian highlights include Gina Yashere and Michelle Wolf. Johnny Cash. Credit:AP Remastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black Netflix, from Friday, November 2 In 1970, US president Richard Nixon invited country-music legend Johnny Cash to perform at the White House. It was no random invitation. The Republican Party was working hard to co-opt country music as part of its "Southern Strategy" to peel racist Southern voters away from the Democrats. To this end Nixon himself had travelled to Nashville's Grand Ole Opry to play the piano on stage. Cash's own innate conservatism all but ensured he would accept Nixon's invitation. But, as this absorbing instalment of Netflix's music documentary series shows, things didn't go according to Nixon's plan. Documentary makers Sara Doser and Barbara Kopple enlist an impressive cast of Cash intimates - including his sister Joanne, brother Tommy, son John and manager Lou Robin - to explain how Cash had come to be a very different man to the one that Nixon imagined him to be. Nixon's personal request that Cash play songs disparaging anti-war protesters and welfare recipients upped the ante. This fine little film provides absorbing biographical and historical context before turning its focus to that one awkward evening. Catch Chasing Ice on Docplay and Netflix. Chasing Ice Netflix, Docplay Last year filmmaker Jeff Orlowski brought us the stunning feature-length documentary Chasing Coral (Netflix), which brought home the shocking scale of mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. Five years earlier he brought us this spectacular but depressing documentary following the work of photographer James Balog in chronicling the rapid retreat of glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, Alaska and Montana. I recently asked a work colleague about his holiday. He replied it was fantastic, and listed a few things he did. And, I thought, that was that. Sounds yummy! Yum! Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks, Google. Credit:Theresa Ambrose Silly me. Google joined the conversation. It suggested, without actually saying it, that instead of my wanting to think for myself, I could just clock onto its three suggestions that perhaps Id like to email back to my friend: Sounds yummy! Yum! Glad you enjoyed it! Curious. I wasnt thinking that all. Indeed, anyone who knows me, or even anyone who has crossed my path, would know that Sounds yummy!, Yum! or Yum, glad you enjoyed it! are not really my type of expression. But there you go. Its a grave new world. When he emailed back on something else, my helpful new friend Google suggested I reply, No worries. Copy that. No worries, thanks for the heads up. A father of two boys, Mr McGrath had visited psychiatrist Dr Peter Marriot weekly since 2007, including the day before his tragic death. Dean McGrath. "My mood varies from sadness to tears to anger. I experience flashbacks of bloodied, dead bodies. I feel anxious all the time. I suffer from headaches. I am hyper-vigilant. I feel naked without a gun. I have little enjoyment in life," Mr McGrath said in an affidavit to the Victorian Workcover Authority. He traced his mental health problems back to a siege in Hampton in August 2002, less than a year after he joined the elite taskforce often referred by other police as the "Sons of God". Waiting for instructions, he watched as a man killed his 10-week-old daughter by smashing her against a wall. "I was at the front window of the flat and watched it happen." Vivid memories of the incident would haunt his dreams. "I saw the young girl who would now be a toddler in a white dress with red blotches. My wife said I was grinding my teeth heavily at night and I began to lose a fair amount of my hair," he said in the affidavit. In February 2005, Mr McGrath was involved in the mobile intercept of Wayne Joannou, who was wanted over the murder of a man in Sydenham the previous year. Joannou, sitting in a car parked in a South Melbourne street, levelled a shotgun at SOG officers and was met with a volley of gunfire. "I remember seeing his bullet-riddled body with blood." A talented artist, Mr McGrath was asked to sketch the scene. He said part of a damaged window from Joannou's car was mounted at the SOG office as a grim souvenir of the mission. The officers involved also signed a front-page story from the Herald Sun that was put on display. A few months later, in April 2005, Mr McGrath was first through the door of the Brooklyn home of the notorious Chaouk family. Mohamed Chaouk, 29, died when he was shot in the neck by another SOG member. "It was dark and men were yelling and torch lights moved rapidly. There were four loud shots above me and I thought I had been shot. A man had been shot dead at the top of the stairs by an SOG member. I felt sick, guilty, ashamed and distressed," Mr McGrath stated. He said formal debriefing sessions or counselling were rarely offered. Usually members would head to the nearest pub. Mr McGrath's growing reliance on alcohol had come to the attention of colleagues, who would place empty beer bottles and bottle tops in his locker. On another occasion, a .45 calibre bullet was also placed on the locker's top shelf. He failed an internal psychiatric examination, which was immediately spread among his colleagues and triggered further bullying and taunts. He was called "Magoo" by workmates, who would shout: "Magoo, it's medication time." A self portrait by Mr McGrath. He claimed a senior-ranking officer would also sneak up and punch him from behind. "I can take pain, but sometimes my ribs would hurt for a couple of days, but I could not complain or (I would) face further ridicule," Mr McGrath stated. After filing a WorkCover claim in 2008, a superintendent and an inspector visited Mr McGrath at his home. Increasingly paranoid, Mr McGrath covertly recorded the conversation, during which the senior officers conceded there were problems within the hyper-masculine ranks of the SOG. "They've got a jungle mentality, in all aspects they eat their own, that's their culture," one officer said to Mr McGrath and his wife. He was later found to have a permanent impairment of 50 per cent and received a significant ex-gratia payment from the force. Last week, the owner of the plumbing factory in Governor Road, David Grierson, 46, was acquitted by a Supreme Court jury of the attempted murder of Mr McGrath. The decision devastated his family and friends. The charge had already been downgraded from murder after Justice Michael Croucher found the cause of Mr McGrath' s death could not be established. Mr Grierson had claimed he acted in self-defence, because Mr McGrath entered his plumbing factory armed with a sawn-off shotgun. He demanded drugs and money from Mr Grierson, before hitting him with the butt of the gun. Mr McGrath found drugs and money, but was not satisfied, the court was told. He put down the gun, picked up a 47-kilogram statue and walked towards Mr Grierson, before losing balance and stumbling. "When he fell to the ground there was a loud thump," prosecutor Peter Chadwick said during his opening. David Grierson leaves the County Court last week. Credit:AAP Mr Grierson was alleged to have grabbed the gun and repeatedly struck the barrel on Mr McGrath's head and neck. The jury heard Mr Grierson ignored calls to stop, saying: "F--- him. You can't rob me. You can't do this to me." The gun used to bludgeon Mr McGrath was never recovered. Jurors had to weigh up what caused Mr McGrath's death and could only find Mr Grierson guilty if they believed beyond reasonable doubt that he, and not the crushing blow of the statue, was to blame. Alan McGrath is bitterly disappointed with the police investigation. "The police never went to the factory. It took the killer to hand himself in before they entered and found Dean's lifeless body ... The homicide squad thanked us for causing a commotion otherwise they may have never recovered his body," Mr McGrath said. Ann McGrath said several convicted criminals had entered the factory in the hours after Mr McGrath's death and smoked the drug ice, while a small child related to one of the men was fed fish and chips. "They tied up his body, wrapped him in plastic and placed him into an airconditioning unit that was sealed at one end, and then they had a cement truck waiting on standby to dump him. Does this sound like self-defence?" Ms McGrath asked. A man on the run from police for five days has been charged over a shooting in Maddington which occurred on Halloween night. Anthony Valentino, 41, evaded police for five days after a man in his 30s was shot in the neck at a residence in Hibiscus Street. Anthony John Valentino Credit:WA Police Police allege around 6.30pm on October 31, Mr Valentino was involved in an altercation with the man, who is known to him. The victim was shot in the neck and rushed to hospital where he later underwent surgery in a critical condition. Ireland Bord Bia's campaign to promote meat in Asia receives funding from EU The EU Commission will provide EUR3.16 million (US$3.6 million) in the support of the Bord Bia Irish Food Board's EUR3.9 million (US$4.44 million) campaign that would promote European pork and beef over three years in the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam. The move was welcomed by Michael Creed, Ireland's Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The minister had recently concluded a trade mission to Indonesia and Malaysia, where he focused on expanding opportunities for Irish meat and dairy in South and East Asia. The campaign, called "European pork and beef - Excellence in quality and production standards", will begin in early 2019 and will reach out to the combined population of South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines, which stands at 250 million people. As it seeks to win over Asians into consuming European pork and beef - thus, stimulating exports from Europe to these countries - the campaign would also bolster awareness of meat products from Ireland. Ireland's beef and pork found a significant place in the Philippines since market access opened in 2014. As for Vietnam and South Korea, these markets - which already avail access for Irish pork - are regarded as "high priority..., both with prospects that have been identified within the top five potential meat markets by Bord Bia," according to Creed. "Food Wise 2025 our industry led plan for the agri-food sector foresees a sector that acts more strategically and achieves a competitive critical mass in the international marketplace," he said. "I commend the Irish meat industry for their positive input and for their collaboration in the co-funding of the national element of this programme." With the campaign, Bord Bia will focus on "more than 500 key trade and decision makers to attend technical seminars," said Tara McCarthy, Bord Bia's chief executive. In addition, more than 300,000 buyers will be accessible to Irish meat exporters at international trade shows. Bord Bia will also invite 90 foreign trade representatives to visit Irish farms and producers. - AgriLand GREENWICH The deadline to register to vote in Tuesdays elections in Connecticut has passed, but residents who arent signed up still have one more chance to make their votes count. On Election Day, unregistered voters and voters who are registered in another town but now live in Greenwich can go to the second floor of Town Hall between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. The voter must bring both proof of identity and residence, which can include a drivers license, learners permit or non-drivers license, to cast a ballot. Other valid proofs of identity include a birth certificate, college ID with photo or a Social Security card. For proof of residence, a voter can show a current paycheck or bank statement, a lease, naturalization documents, a passport with a current address, a property tax bill or an electronic copy of a recent utility bill. The voter must not be registered in any other municipality. If they are registered elsewhere, the election official must telephone that municipalitys registrar to confirm the voter has not cast a ballot there, which can be a lengthy process. Election Day registration can be completed only at Town Hall not at neighborhood polling locations. The number of people who use the same-day registration varies depending on turnout, Greenwich Republican Registrar of Voters Fred DeCaro III said. It could be about 60 in a municipal election and up to 350 in a presidential year, he said. According to the towns Registrars of Voters office, unaffiliated voters are the biggest block in Greenwich. They surpassed the Republican Party in town last year. Greenwich now has a total of 37,960 registered voters, with 14,070 unaffiliated. There are 12,857 registered Republicans and 10,390 registered Democrats, according to the final numbers after the Oct. 30 deadline to register for the Nov. 6 elections. At the time of the last midterm election in 2014, Greenwich Republicans had the most registered voters at 12,421, followed by 11,851 unaffiliated voters and 7,894 Democratic voters. There are also 643 registered voters in Greenwich who are listed for other parties, including the Green Party, Libertarian, Independent and Working Families. It is unclear what the registration numbers will mean for Tuesdays election, which includes three of Greenwichs seats in the state legislature along with the race for governor, U.S. senator and congressman. But one thing the registrars are hoping to see is high voter turnout. In 2016, Greenwich won the Democracy Cup, which is a state honor for the municipalities that have the highest voter turnout. DeCaro wants the town to defend that title. Typically, turnout is in the 60 percent range for midterm elections, but DeCaro said the town has enough ballots to handle a turnout of more than 80 percent. DeCaro did not try to predict the turnout, but he said it was clear there was excitement in town for the election. Both sides have been doing a good job exciting their base, he said Friday. And you especially have that kind of excitement in a year when you have local candidates who are on the ballot. I think were going to do pretty well in terms of turnout, and we are ready to handle what we might see in a presidential election year. Three Greenwich residents are part of the major races on Tuesdays ballot. Town resident Ned Lamont, a former member of Greenwichs Board of Selectmen and Board of Estimate and Taxation, is the Democratic candidate for governor. U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, and his Republican opponent Harry Arora are from town as well. Outgoing town Democratic Registrar of Voters Michael Aurelia could not be reached for comment, but he recently said there could be an upswing in voter turnout this year. Both DeCaro, who is seeking his sixth two-year term, and soon-to-be-new Democratic Registrar Mary Hegarty are on the ballot on Tuesday as well. The registrars are the only municipal offices that are part of this years election, but they are not competitive races. There are two positions, one from each major party, and DeCaro and Hegarty are running unopposed. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com Hearst Connecticut Media / Tara ONeill MILFORD Erratic driving led police to pull over a city man who is accused of being in possession of heroin, police said Friday. Christopher Carr, 26, of Hickory Avenue in Milford, was charged with possession of narcotics and possession of drug paraphernalia. Its about getting the Government to wake up or there wont be any farming families Wexford IFA to attend protest march in Dublin Hawaii, US starts programme to develop West Hawaii's aquaculture sector The US state of Hawaii has revealed a plan to bring in big ideas and significant investment to West Hawaii through aquaculture, Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported. A partnership between several state agencies had already begun, with the objective of creating an aquaculture accelerator programme - coupled with a complementary investment fund - which would be based at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority. This initiative was described by Karl Fooks, president of the Hawaii Strategic Development Corporation, as a move to affirm Hawaii's focus to develop the state's aquaculture sector "and to focus entrepreneur and investor interest on Hawaii as a location for globally relevant aquaculture companies." The state hopes to draw the attention of startups which could deliver innovative aquaculture concepts and technologies. It also intends to develop a cohort of companies, and then elevate that cohort to a place where investment is viable. Through the project, Hawaii attempts to fulfill the goal of job creation, economic diversification and sustainability, as well as the development of technical and intellectual property. Along with UH-Manoa, partners UH Ventures LLC, HSDC and NELHA recently released a request for information on the Hawaii state government website, the first step in a bidding process that will end with the selection of an entity to manage the venture. The chosen entity will run the accelerator programme while working with other partners to raise capital from private investors. According to Vassilis Syrmos, vice president for Research and Innovation at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the monetary goal of the raise has a floor of US$2 million and a ceiling of US$20 million. NELHA will host the accelerator programme, which executive director Greg Barbour said partners hope will exist for a minimum of three years and include a cohort of at least 5-10 companies. He added NELHA was the natural choice for the programme site as nothing needs to be built. Along with an investment of US$500,000 to help a selected entity get started, NELHA will repurpose existing infrastructure for use as part of the accelerator programme. In light of the current and projected global food climate, the accelerator is perceived by partners as potentially able to deliver massive dividends. "People believe the sustainability aspect of global aquaculture will cause it to grow dramatically over the next 50 years," said Greg Barbour, executive director of NELHA. He added that aquaculture has been increasing steadily in protein production for years, and has surpassed production offered the wild catch of marine fish, which mostly stagnates for the past two decades. Barbour also highlighted the aquaculture industry's efficiency as its key advantage - One gram of protein will equal one gram of seafood while six grams of protein are required to create one gram of beef. Over half of the world's shrimp brood stock was reported to have originated from NELHA. Due to its worldwide prevalence and the positive history of NELHA, partners are especially paying attention to the shrimp industry, Syrmos said. "I don't think we're at the forefront (of aquaculture), we're somewhere in the middle," he remarked, referencing programmes in Alaska, Maine and Norway. Barbour added partners hope to select a managing entity by early spring and would like to open the first participating businesses at NELHA by next summer. - Hawaii Tribune-Herald On Thursday, The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) disclosed that it has completed its acquisition of Greystone Capital Management, the parent company of Greystone Managed Investments. This formalization comes less than four months after the announcement of plan to purchase was made. "Greystone's real asset expertise and innovative suite of investment solutions perfectly complement TDAM's award-winning portfolio management capabilities," said Leo Salom, Group Head, Wealth Management and TD Insurance, TD Bank Group. "Uniting our organizations will allow us to deliver a unique and powerful value proposition to clients while continuing to grow the TD Wealth business across Canada," he added. As initially reported, shareholders of Greystone will receive 30% of the net purchase price in TD common shares, with the remaining balance payable in cash. GCMI shareholders, meanwhile, were permitted to take up to 20% of the net purchase price in TD common shares, for a maximum of 50% TD share. The transaction makes TD Asset Management, combined with Greystone, the largest money manager in Canada. Greystone will operate as TD Greystone Asset Management with offices in Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto and Hong Kong. Greystone was bought by TD for $792 million, including $730 million of enterprise value and approximately $105 million seed capital, as well as other net adjustments. By Fox News , Nov. 3, 2018 An intern for Democratic Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum has been arrested and charged with battery after she threw chocolate milk on a group of College Republicans tabling on campus. The far-left student activist who had the profanity-laced meltdown, Shelby Shoup, is listed as an intern for the Andrew Gillum for Florida Governor Campaign on LinkedIn and a member of FSU Students for Justice in Palestine. Gillum's campaign did not return a Fox News request for comment. Read More: Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter "Like" Larry Elder on Facebook Alice Fay Pullin Audio Article Alice Fay Pullin, 83, of Floresville and Taft, Texas, went to be with her Lord and Savior on Tuesday, Nov.... Ernesto Silvas Guerrero Audio Article Ernesto Silvas Guerrero passed away on Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021, in San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 40 years,... By Reuters , Nov. 3, 2018 California big, bounteous, beautiful is pretty much used to irrelevancy come election day. (Reuters) - Fourteen staff at an Idaho primary school who dressed up as a border wall and as Mexicans for Halloween were put on administrative leave on Saturday for the insensitive and inappropriate costumes, a school superintendent said. Photos of the group wearing stereotypical U.S. and Mexican costumes appeared this week on the Idaho school districts Facebook page, drawing complaints from parents, civil rights groups and members of the states large Hispanic population. Sure, the state has produced many leaders of national import and helped countless more finance their political pursuits. But its been two decades since California was a presidential battleground, and longer still since the state played a meaningful role choosing a major party presidential nominee. Read More: Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter "Like" Larry Elder on Facebook TORONTO There is so much to ask Dr. Gurdas Dass, president and CEO of the American Sikh Council, about his turban its history, what it means, why he wears it. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/11/2018 (1111 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO There is so much to ask Dr. Gurdas Dass, president and CEO of the American Sikh Council, about his turban its history, what it means, why he wears it. But I really want to know is: does he take it off to sleep, and what does the Cleveland resident do in winter? SUPPLIED John Longhurst (left) with Dr. Gurdas Dass, president and CEO of the American Sikh Council. Im at the councils booth at the World Parliament of Religions in Toronto. Its in a hall filled with booths and displays from dozens and dozens of religions, including many Ive never heard of before. At the council booth, they are offering to wrap the heads of anyone who wants to try a turban. I plan to ask them to do that for me. When I ask Dass about sleep and winter, he laughs. Its not the first time hes heard those questions. Yes, he says, Sikh men take off their turbans to sleep, replacing them with a smaller cap. They dont wear them in the shower, either. As for winter, he doesnt need a tuque or a cloth hat in his case, since the word "tuque" is new to him, as an American. "It keeps me warm," he says, adding that in summer its the opposite his turban helps keep his head cool. The turbans history in Sikhism dates back to the 17th century, when the 10th guru of Sikhism, Guru Gobind Singh, commanded his followers to wear a turban so they would be easily identifiable to others. "I wear it as part of my Sikh identity," Dass says, adding it shows his pride in and commitment to his religion. But doesnt that also make him a target for racists? After 9/11, Sikhs in the U.S. were mistaken for Muslims and attacked. Dass says hes never been attacked but has "heard slurs." "I am not afraid," he says. "We want the world to know who we are." Sikhs are required to help people who need assistance or are in danger, including defending someone being attacked. Wearing turbans allows Sikhs to be identified when people are looking for someone to help them. "Sikhs are saints and warriors," Dass says. The turban also performs a practical function. Since Sikh men are forbidden to cut their hair; the turban keeps it clean and controlled. Dass says it takes him between five to 10 minutes each morning to wrap the seven-metre-long piece of cloth around his head. As for colour, there is no significance to what people choose to wear. Sometimes, its a matter of matching whatever else they are wearing. There are different kinds and sizes of turbans, too. Its all a matter of personal preference. The piece of cloth Jasbir Bhullar, from Youngstown, Ohio, uses to wrap my head is three metres long. While she does the wrapping, I ask why she wears a turban. Most Sikh women Ive seen wear a scarf over their heads. "I was often mistaken for being a Muslim," she says of wearing a scarf. She quickly notes she has nothing against Islam she just wanted people to know who she was, a Sikh. Its also a sign of her commitment to her faith. "You may be born into a Sikh family, but you are not born a Sikh," she says. "You have to choose it." Wearing a turban, she says, is one way to show that. After shes done, I pose for a photo with Dr. Dass. Its readily apparent he wears a turban much better than me and looks way better in one, too. Do you appreciate the extensive faith coverage by the Free Press? Become a supporter of the Religion in the News project! Your contribution of $10, $25 or more can help us keep offering trusted coverage of faith in Manitoba. Become a supporter Click here to learn more about the project. I ask Bhullar if it might fall off. "It can," she says. "But only if it is poorly tied." I decide to take myself and my turban for a walk around the exhibit hall. I have to admit, it feels strange. But after about 10 minutes, it feels normal, even comfortable. And it doesnt fall off. Jdl562000@yahoo.com Bradley Mackenzie enjoys a good challenge, so volunteering at Hands of Hope is perfect for him. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/11/2018 (1111 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Bradley Mackenzie enjoys a good challenge, so volunteering at Hands of Hope is perfect for him. Mackenzie volunteers three days a week, fixing donated furniture. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Bradley Mackenzie (left) and Augustine Ahishakiye both volunteer their time at Hands of Hope, fixing donated furniture and household goods that later go to people in need. "You never find two things broken the exact same way, so its a new challenge every day," the 66-year-old says. "For me, thats the thrill: figuring out how to fix (something) and then having it look brand new again." Founded in 2002, Hands of Hope provides free furniture and household goods to people in need. Last year, the organization served 1,000 families. To do that work, Hands of Hope relies on about 60 volunteers annually, in addition to its small staff. Mackenzie, a retired Winnipeg School Division custodian, started volunteering last year after original Hands of Hope co-ordinator Charles Norris invited him to get involved. Occasionally, when hes working on a tricky fix, Mackenzie will take the work home with him. "Its a lot of fun," he says. "Its challenging fixing furniture you think is broken beyond repair, but it keeps me busy and occupied, and I enjoy it." Like Mackenzie, Augustine Ahishakiye got involved at Hands of Hope thanks to a friends suggestion. Ahishakiye was born in Burundi. His experience living in a refugee camp in Tanzania for 22 years before immigrating to Winnipeg in March 2015 inspired him to help others. "In the camp of refugees, I used to help people because life was very difficult," the 30-year-old says. It was only natural, then, that he would continue to help people once he settled in Canada. Ahishakiye spent four months in the summer volunteering with one of the delivery teams at Hands of Hope. "Its a good company," he says. "I got to know many areas of Winnipeg, and I got to know people." "I enjoy making new friends," Ahishakiye adds. "Its like a new family for me." In addition to volunteering at Hands of Hope, Ahishakiye has benefitted from its services. As a newcomer getting established in Canada, Ahishakiye has received furniture from the organization that he estimates would have cost him $3,000 if he had bought it new. "My friends come over and they say, This is nice," Ahishakiye says. "I say Yeah, its from Hands of Hope. Theyre doing a good job." Volunteers are crucial to the charitys work, executive director John van Leeuwen says. "We have some dedicated volunteers that work with us regularly, but (more) volunteers are always needed," he says. "Theres a point where you almost cant have too many." Volunteers help by answering phones, sorting items in the warehouse and delivering furniture. Anyone interested can call 204-261-8607 or email info@handsofhope.ca. "Theres a definite need in Winnipeg," van Leeuwen says. "Were coming nowhere near to meeting our waiting list." At the same time, he appreciates the generosity of Hands of Hope supporters. "Winnipeg is a generous city," van Leeuwen says. "We need more, but were thankful for what has been given to us, for sure." If you know a special volunteer, please contact aaron.epp@gmail.com. By Reuters , Nov. 1, 2018 DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran called on Saturday for European assurances of support in the face of Washingtons intent to reimpose sanctions on vital Iranian oil sales to force Tehran to curb its nuclear, missile and regional activities. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke by telephone with the European Unions foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and his counterparts from Germany, Sweden and Denmark about European measures to counter the U.S. sanctions, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported. Read More: Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter "Like" Larry Elder on Facebook Mayor Brian Bowman announced the makeup of his inner circle Monday, making room for three newly-elected councillors along with the returning officials. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/11/2018 (1111 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Mayor Brian Bowman announced the makeup of his inner circle Monday, making room for three newly-elected councillors along with the returning officials. Returning to executive policy committee, considered the mayors cabinet or inner circle, are councillors Cindy Gilroy, Scott Gillingham, Matt Allard, Brian Mayes and John Orlikow. Joining that group is Sherri Rollins, the outgoing chairwoman of the Winnipeg School Division. Bowman also appointed newcomers Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) as deputy mayor and Vivian Santos (Point Douglas) as acting deputy mayor. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Mayor Brian Bowman announces his appointments to the executive policy committee, and his selections for Deputy Mayor and Acting Deputy Mayor at City Hall Monday afternoon. "A critical part of being an effective EPC member is being willing to build a unified city rather than focusing on regional divisions and differences," Bowman told reporters during a news conference outside his office, adding he met individually with each of the councillors before making his appointments. Gillingham (St. James) retains his portfolio as chairman of councils finance committee and Allard (St. Boniface) returns as chairman of public works, a post he was assigned to only in the spring. Bowman shuffled the other EPC members: Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre), moves from innovation to water and waste, riverbank management and the environment; Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry) moves from property and development to innovation; and Mayes (St. Vital) moves from the environment committee to property and development. Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) was appointed chair of protection, community services and parks, replacing Mike Pagtakhan, who did not seek re-election. Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) was appointed chair of protection, community services and parks, replacing Mike Pagtakhan, who did not seek re-election. The post of deputy mayor and acting deputy mayor are not part of EPC but Bowman said he would continue the controversial practise of inviting those to two individuals to attend closed-door briefings by the senior administration to EPC a move questioned previously by the non-EPC members, who dismissed it as a blatant attempt to secure a majority of votes on the 16-member council. A councillors regular salary is currently $93,895.63. Members of EPC and the deputy mayor have their salaries topped up to $106,307.47. While the role of deputy mayor and acting deputy mayor has traditionally been viewed as essentially ceremonial (attending functions the mayor is unable or unwilling to attend), Bowman said it was important they be regularly briefed on issues in the event he was unable to carry out his duties. Bowman said he was comfortable in appointing Rollins to EPC, pointing out that she had been chairwoman of the Winnipeg School Division but also added that she had been supportive and helpful in his reconciliation moves with the citys Indigenous community. "She was one of the strongest promoters of inclusion and reconciliation over the last four years," Bowman said. "She demonstrated to me she has the capacity to lead and collaborate." Rollins is one of five labour-endorsed candidates elected to city hall; three of them (including Allard and Mayes) are part of Bowman's inner circle. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Three new council members, Sherri Rollins, Vivian Santos and Markus Chambers pose for photo at City Hall Monday afternoon after mayor Brian Bowman announces EPC members. Chambers, who was a senior manager with the provincial government, said he believes he is the first black Manitoban elected to city council, the legislature or to the House of Commons. "It's about working with everyone," Chambers said, adding he hopes he can play a role helping the city's black community move the city in a progressive fashion. Santos, a Chinese-Canadian, said the colour of a person's skin shouldn't be a factor in politics, adding her appointment, along with Chambers and Rollins, who identifies with the Indigenous community, reflects the diverse makeup of the city. "It shows that our young citizens can aspire to be whatever they want to be when they grow up," she said. Santos is no stranger to city hall she had been Pagtakhans executive assistant and worked briefly before that in Bowmans office immediately following the 2014 election. Chambers said he was surprised to be appointed deputy mayor. "My interest was just to work with the residents who elected me to city hall," he told reporters. "I'm completely honoured by the mayor's appointment." Rollins said she believes she's qualified to be on EPC, explaining that in addition to being chairwoman of the city's largest school board, she had spent 20 years as a senior policy analyst, most recently with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. "I'm really humbled to be on EPC," she said. "I ran to be a protective ward voice but also to play that citywide role. I'm really honoured to a member of this team." The official swearing in of all members of council elected Oct. 24 takes place Tuesday night in council chambers. Bowman said his appointments to civic boards and council liaison positions would be announced at the Nov. 14 organizational meeting of council, when the makeup of all committees will also be announced. aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca Finally, unequivocal good news for the West and for Canada: what is arguably the most important trade agreement for future growth the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has been ratified by Parliament. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/11/2018 (1111 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Finally, unequivocal good news for the West and for Canada: what is arguably the most important trade agreement for future growth the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has been ratified by Parliament. While the U.S-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is of clear importance, its greatest advance turned out to be making concessions to simply hold onto what we already had. The CPTPP, on the other hand, is about opening new and growing markets, and better ways to increase and diversify trade. For Asia-facing Canada (that is, the West), where trade with Asia is important, the CPTPP gives exporters preferential access in 10 markets that rim the Pacific Ocean, six of them in Asia, including Japan, Vietnam and Malaysia. Given that Canada has only one trade agreement in Asia, gaining the equivalent of six new agreements at once is in itself a huge win. For Canadian businesses, this represents hundreds of millions in potential tariff savings alone. It also puts exporters on the same playing field as competitors in Australia and ahead of the Americans, who are not part of the pact. This agreement is about much more than cattle and canola; it is also an agreement with huge benefits for smaller businesses. With one set of rules for 10 markets, it allows companies to accumulate inputs from any member of the agreement to make products alone or with companies in other member countries to sell anywhere inside the agreement. This one set of rules is what made the original NAFTA so special. But with more members, the CPTPP improves on what Canadian firms have had in North America by offering more sources of inputs and more markets into which to sell. And, unlike the USMCA, the CPTPP will grow even larger as new countries join, as early as next year. China is reportedly suddenly showing interest in joining the CPTPP. If true, this would give Canada a much-needed, and much better, alternative than negotiating one-on-one with China, or worse, negotiating alongside the Trump administration. Instead, we could negotiate as part of a team with Australia, Japan, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore that actually wants more in trade and better agreements. Speaking of the Americans, one benefit of the CPTPP is the lack of American competition. When U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the original Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), he essentially put U.S. market share in these countries on the table for Canadian firms. And thanks to the Americans having been part of the original negotiations, there was more market share on the table as countries made concessions with the Americans at the table that Canada would never have achieved negotiating on its own. All of this seems like a no-brainer for Canada to join, but it has been anything but. When the Americans pulled out, business, governments and especially unions in Ontario and Quebec said the agreement was dead, no benefit remained for Canada and participating in the trade deal would harm negotiations for a new North American trade pact. None of this was true. The Canada West Foundation modelled the economic impact of the agreement without the U.S., and to no ones surprise, found that Canada did better with the Americans out of the agreement. But the government and, reportedly, the prime minister, with an eye to the 2019 election, appeared focused on a different set of calculations. It looked as if Canada would join the U.S., and leave. It took years and a long, persistent and uphill fight by producer associations, agricultural export groups and organizations, including the Canada West Foundation, to make the case. In the end, the Trudeau government, to its credit, went from almost pulling out and causing the agreement to collapse, to reversing course and shepherding the agreement through Parliament in record time. Dealing with the Trump administration may have facilitated the governments change of heart. But it was also hard behind-the-scenes work by groups working to defend western and Canadian interests. Either way, ratification is a rare and much-needed win for the West. As we prepare for the hard work of gearing up to take advantage of the agreement, the Canada West Foundation has prepared an upcoming guide for western business on how to do this. We also need to remember the effort it took to get this good news; hopefully, we can also gain confidence that there is still room in Canada for the West to win on things that are important to our nation. Carlo Dade is director of the Trade & Investment Centre at the Canada West Foundation. On Oct. 19, thousands of Central American migrants tried to cross the bridge between Guatemala and Mexico, seeking safety up north. News outlets broadcast the painful moans of people being crushed one against the other and the screams of children. We saw the desperate looks of mothers as authorities in Mexico tried to push back the crowd with batons and pepper spray. The following day they were permitted to cross over. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/11/2018 (1111 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion On Oct. 19, thousands of Central American migrants tried to cross the bridge between Guatemala and Mexico, seeking safety up north. News outlets broadcast the painful moans of people being crushed one against the other and the screams of children. We saw the desperate looks of mothers as authorities in Mexico tried to push back the crowd with batons and pepper spray. The following day they were permitted to cross over. The caravan of 7,000, mostly from Guatemala and Honduras, is heading for the United States. Once news of the caravan was presented to U.S. President Donald Trump, he said the flow of people contained "dangerous criminals," and he pressured the Mexican government to stop the "invasion." Trump also threatened to cut humanitarian aid to Central American countries. He also announced he was sending more than 5,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. As the caravan began to receive more attention, people asked: "Why are these people coming to the U.S.?" Necessity obliges us to leave The answer is complex. "Una necesidad nos obliga," a 20-year-old man told the Washington Post. Necessity obliges us to leave. As a professor, sociologist and father whose own family once crossed the border of Mexico for a better life in the U.S., I reflected on this. Poverty and violence are the main factors driving the caravan. The proliferation of gangs, narcotics trafficking, corruption and impunity are all endemic problems in Honduras and Guatemala. Honduras is one of the worlds deadliest places that isnt a war zone. Droughts and floods have also had devastating consequences on agricultural economies. These people are travelling in a caravan for their own protection, to avoid having to pay a smuggler and to minimize the risk of crime. A deadly history of U.S. involvement But the roots of their plight are connected to larger issues and hemispheric politics played out over decades. Rage and threats will not make the caravan go away, as noted in a recent report by research and advocacy group, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). Governments cannot prevent citizens from leaving their own countries. Guatemala provides a great case for how U.S. involvement has contributed to political instability and economic inequality in Central America. The country of 17 million, many of whom are of Indigenous descent, elected their first democratically chosen president in 1951. President Jacobo Arbenz passed a series of populist policies that included land redistribution and expanding access to education for the neediest people in Guatemala. This angered U.S.-owned companies like the United Fruit Company. In 1954 the U.S. CIA orchestrated a coup and installed a series of military dictators who enforced a crackdown against all government opposition. This crackdown included dropping napalm on Indigenous villages thought to contain guerrilla fighters. Additionally, military soldiers were ordered to "desaparecer" or "disappear" anyone suspected of opposing the government. About 200,000 people, mostly Indigenous, were killed in the country. These issues continue to reverberate today as the political class colludes with and protects criminal groups. Honduras also has a long history of U.S. involvement, both economic and military. The U.S. presence began in the late 1890s, when U.S.-based banana companies first became active there. The U.S. military intervened in 1907 and 1911 to protect U.S. interests and further cement the ruling class dependency on Washington. Honduras has undergone political turmoil since a 2009 military coup against populist president Manuel Zelaya. The U.S. froze aid but it was restored shortly thereafter. Similarly in the 2018 election, the results were contested and the country was once again plunged into a political crisis. At least 30 were killed, most of them opponents of U.S.-backed President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was accused of rigging the vote. Migrants deserve a fair chance The caravan of desperate and hungry migrants from Central America did not create itself. It was created by meddling governments and indifferent neighbours. While about 1,600 migrants have made official asylum claims in Mexico, many are continuing their journey north and Mexican authorities have not tried to stop the caravan. In a video message posted to social media, President Enrique Pena Nieto announced a plan called "Estas en tu Casa" (You are at home). The government offered shelter, medical attention, schooling and jobs to the migrants on the condition they seek asylum with the National Immigration Institute and remain in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. However, it is unsurprising that Central Americans do not trust their chances for a fair asylum process in Mexico, a country with a high homicide rate and a history of discrimination against migrants. Just a few days ago, a photo was published on social media of a group of racist skinheads in Mexico City leading an anti-Central American caravan campaign. We need to address the key factors that allowed this caravan to exist. We need to prevent powerful governments from meddling in the affairs of other nations. And we need to sanction those who do. These migrants deserve a fair hearing, a chance to ask for protection in the U.S. and a timely and fair resolution of their claims. And we need to stop state-sponsored violence. Jerry Flores is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca. Vomar Industries, headquartered in La Salle and with Tank Trader locations across Canada, recently entered the U.S. market. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 5/11/2018 (1111 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Vomar Industries, headquartered in La Salle and with Tank Trader locations across Canada, recently entered the U.S. market. Vomar president Marcel Vouriot was excited on Oct. 30 as his company had just completed the purchase of a tank exchange company in Missouri. Vouriot sees this as the first step in duplicating his success in the Canadian market. Tank Traders is a national propane tank exchange program. It provides filled propane tanks for gas barbecues when a buyer returns their empty tank. Filled cylinders can also be purchased for about $20 more if a buyer doesnt have an empty tank. "Were going to do what weve done in Canada," he said. "We are currently operating from Vancouver Island to Truro, Nova Scotia." He was also recently honoured when his company was a finalist for a Manitoba Chambers of Commerce award in the medium-sized business category. Vouriot is staying close to his roots, as he runs his business from the farm that belonged to his parents, Eugene and Denise. The youngest of nine children, Vouriot attended school in La Salle and graduated from Winnipegs Tec Voc high school with a welders certificate. He said he fully intended to take over the familys hog operation. "I was on my own, but the hog operation was fully automated," he said. After investing in some Winnipeg properties, including Winnipegs Kings Head Pub, he established Vomar Industries. Vouriot said he was always on the look-out for business opportunities and first offered sandblasting and painting service for bulk tank owners as well as reconditioning tire rims for automotive and farm machinery companies. He also rebuilt and resold vehicles. "I call myself a business junkie," he joked. When Vomar began refurbishing propane cylinders for another company, Vouriot saw a new business opportunity and established Tank Traders in 2002. At that time, his was the only tank exchange program in Manitoba. "There was such a program in the U.S. that a friend told me about." Starting slowly, he piloted the tank exchange program in La Salle then moved into the Winnipeg market. He partnered with hardware and grocery stores and gas stations to set up outdoor displays with 24 filled 20-pound cylinders in a metal cage. People wanting to get a cylinder would pay inside the store. Vouriot said about 85 per cent of sales involve tank exchanges. "Once youre in our program, you never have to buy another tank." Unlike other companies offering a similar service, Tank Traders does everything from filling new cylinders to using their own trucks to transport the cylinders to customers, picking up used cylinders and reconditioning them for reuse or stripping them down to recycle the steel and brass. "Safeway was one of my first customers," Vouriot said, adding through his contract with Safeway, he entered the Alberta market in 2005. In 2008 he was able to take over an Ontario tank exchange companys customers. "We are now the largest recycler of propane cylinders in the country," he said, with approximately 200,000 passing through the company each year. Reconditioning tanks keeps them out of the landfill. Each used tank is inspected, the valve is replaced and a sticker with the date is added, since a cylinder has a 10-year lifespan. Any propane remaining in the tank is drawn out and added to the supply kept in bulk tanks on Vomar Industries site near the western edge of La Salle. Vouriot said propane isnt a volatile gas and is heavier than air. Hes able to purchase the majority of his propane from a transfer station located next to the intersection of the South Perimeter Highway and PTH 330 about 10 kilometres from La Salle. Because the Canadian demand for propane peaks in the winter when its used for heating and grain drying, Vouriot said hes able to negotiate on the price to some extent as Tank Traders busy season is in the warm months. "Ninety per cent of our sales are in the summer. Thats our advantage." Tank Traders now has nine distribution and refurbishment centres across Canada with about 160 employees in the busy months and 100 in the off-season. Approximately 35 employees work at the La Salle headquarters. As well as beginning to expand in the U.S. market, Vouriot also has his sights set on growing his business in other areas. He believes that the financial, logistical and administrative expertise that exists within his company can be turned to other business ventures that have the potential of becoming national enterprises. "Were very versatile very lean," he said. As a marker of the companys success and plans for continuing expansion, Vomar Industries will soon be moving into the new building being constructed on La Salles Main Street. The three-storey building will have retail tenants on the main floor, company headquarters on the second floor, and Vouriots living quarters on the top floor. Asked why he decided to build the new headquarters in La Salle, Vouriot said, "La Salle is home." He added that he wants to help the community prosper. For more information on Tank Traders, see https://tanktraders.com Pepping up the players for a trip to the UNI Dome The Winterset High School competition gym was filled with good cheer from freshmen to seniors and boosters in between. They gathered on game day to Pep Up the coaches and players of the Husky football team, who would soon depart for their journey to the... Winterset falls in semifinals Winterset advanced to the Class 4A semifinals on Thursday night to face the Xavier Saints at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls. Despite a valiant effort by the Huskies, Xavier defeated Winterset 40-14. Our boys fought hard, said head coach Zach Sweeney. We ran into... Concord Medical Services Holding Ltd. engages in the operation of radiotherapy and diagnostic imaging centers. It provides radiotherapy and diagnostic equipment leasing services to hospitals; and sale of medical equipment and the provision of radiotherapy and diagnostic equipment leasing and management services to hospitals, It operates through Network Business and Hospital Business segments. The company was founded on November 27, 2007 and is headquartered in Beijing, China. Read More William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November, 6th. The construction company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks' consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.07. The construction company had revenue of $466.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $487.15 million. William Lyon Homes had a net margin of 3.04% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 6.98%. The firm's revenue was down 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.68 EPS. View William Lyon Homes' earnings history. TCF Financial Corporation operates as the financial holding company for TCF National Bank that provides various financial products and services in the United States and Canada. It operates through Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Enterprise Services segments. The company offers checking, savings, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; individual retirement accounts; debit and credit cards; and check cashing and remittance services. It also provides investment management and custodial services, trust services, financial and estate planning, and retirement planning and employee benefit programs; residential, consumer, and small business lending products; and consumer real estate secured lending, consumer loans, loans secured by personal property, and unsecured personal loans. In addition, the company offers loans and lines of credit, deposits, cash management, capital market products, international trade finance, letters of credit, foreign exchange management services, and loan syndication services. Further, it provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate banking, and lease financing; and treasury services comprising investment and borrowing portfolios, as well as manages capital, debt, and market risks. As of December 31, 2020, the company operated 478 branches, including 373 traditional branches, 102 supermarket branches, and three campus branches located in Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona, and South Dakota; and 1,062 ATMs. TCF Financial Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Cigna: Accredo Health Group, Accredo Health Incorporated, Alegis Care, Allegiance Life & Health Insurance Company, Allegiance Re, American Retirement Life Insurance Company, Benefits Management Corp., Bravo Health Mid-Atlantic, Bravo Health Pennsylvania, Brighter, CareAllies, CareCore National LLC, Central Reserve Life Insurance Company, Ceres Sales of Ohio, Choicelinx, Cigna & CMB Life Insurance Company Limited, Cigna Apac Holdings Limited, Cigna Arbor Life Insurance Company, Cigna Beechwood Holdings, Cigna Behavioral Health, Cigna Behavioral Health of California, Cigna Behavioral Health of Texas, Cigna Bellevue Alpha, Cigna Benefits Financing, Cigna Brokerage & Marketing (Thailand) Limited, Cigna Cedar Holdings, Cigna Chestnut Holdings, Cigna Corporate Services, Cigna Data Services (Shanghai) Company Limited, Cigna Dental Health, Cigna Dental Health Plan of Arizona, Cigna Dental Health of California, Cigna Dental Health of Colorado, Cigna Dental Health of Delaware, Cigna Dental Health of Florida, Cigna Dental Health of Illinois, Cigna Dental Health of Kansas, Cigna Dental Health of Kentucky, Cigna Dental Health of Maryland, Cigna Dental Health of Missouri, Cigna Dental Health of New Jersey, Cigna Dental Health of North Carolina, Cigna Dental Health of Ohio, Cigna Dental Health of Pennsylvania, Cigna Dental Health of Texas, Cigna Dental Health of Virginia, Cigna Elmwood Holdings, Cigna Europe Insurance Company S.A.-N.V., Cigna European Services (UK) Limited, Cigna Finans Emeklilik ve Hayat A.S., Cigna Global Holdings, Cigna Global Insurance Company Limited, Cigna Global Reinsurance Company, Cigna Global Wellbeing Holdings Limited, Cigna Global Wellbeing Solutions Limited, Cigna HLA Technology Services Company Limited, Cigna Health Corporation, Cigna Health Management, Cigna Health Solutions India Pvt. Ltd., Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Cigna HealthSpring, Cigna Healthcare Holdings, Cigna Healthcare Mid-Atlantic, Cigna Healthcare of Arizona, Cigna Healthcare of California, Cigna Healthcare of Colorado, Cigna Healthcare of Connecticut, Cigna Healthcare of Florida, Cigna Healthcare of Georgia, Cigna Healthcare of Illinois, Cigna Healthcare of Indiana, Cigna Healthcare of Maine, Cigna Healthcare of Massachusetts, Cigna Healthcare of New Hampshire, Cigna Healthcare of New Jersey, Cigna Healthcare of North Carolina, Cigna Healthcare of Pennsylvania, Cigna Healthcare of South Carolina, Cigna Healthcare of St. Louis, Cigna Healthcare of Tennessee, Cigna Healthcare of Texas, Cigna Healthcare of Utah, Cigna Holding Company, Cigna Holdings, Cigna Holdings Overseas, Cigna Hong Kong Holdings Company Limited, Cigna Insurance Middle East S.A., Cigna Insurance Public Company Limited, Cigna Insurance Services (Europe) Limited, Cigna Intellectual Property, Cigna International Corporation, Cigna International Health Services, Cigna International Health Services BVBA, Cigna International Health Services Kenya Limited, Cigna International Health Services SDN BHD, Cigna International Services, Cigna International Services Australia Pty. Ltd., Cigna Investment Group, Cigna Investments, Cigna Korean Chusik Hoesa, Cigna Laurel Holdings, Cigna Legal Protection UK Ltd., Cigna Life Insurance Company of Canada, Cigna Life Insurance Company of Europe S.A.- N.V., Cigna Life Insurance Company of New York, Cigna Life Insurance New Zealand Limited, Cigna Linden Holdings, Cigna Magnolia Holdings, Cigna Myrtle Holdings, Cigna Nederland Alpha Cooperatief U.A., Cigna Nederland Beta B.V., Cigna Nederland Gamma B.V., Cigna Oak Holdings, Cigna Palmetto Holdings, Cigna Poplar Holdings, Cigna Sequoia Holdings, Cigna Spruce Holdings GmbH, Cigna Taiwan Life Assurance Company Limited, Cigna Walnut Holdings, Cigna Willow Holdings, Cigna Worldwide General Insurance Company Limited, Cigna Worldwide Insurance Company, Cigna Worldwide Life Insurance Company Limited, CignaTTK Health Insurance Company Limited, Connecticut General Corporation, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, CuraScript Inc., E-2 CIGNA CORPORATION - 2018 Form 10-K, ESI Mail Pharmacy Service Inc., ESI Partnership, ESI Resources Inc., Express Scripts Holding Company, Express Scripts Inc., Express Scripts Pharmaceutical LLC, Express Scripts Pharmacy Inc., Express Scripts Strategic Development Inc., FirstAssist Administration Limited, Firstassist Insurance Services Ltd, Great-West Healthcare of Illinois, Grown Ups New Zealand Limited, Health-Lynx LLC, HealthSource, HealthSpring, HealthSpring Life & Health Insurance Company, HealthSpring of Alabama, HealthSpring of Florida, HealthSpring of Tennessee, KDM Thailand Limited, LINA Financial Services, LINA Life Insurance Company of Korea, Life Insurance Company of North America, Loyal American Life Insurance Company, MCC Independent Practice Association of New York, Manipal Cigna Health Insurance Company Limited, Medco Containment Life Insurance Company, Medco Health Services Inc., Medco Health Solutions Inc., NewQuest, NewQuest Management Northeast, Olympic Health Management Services, Oz Parent, PT Asuransi Cigna, Provident American Life and Health Insurance Company, Qualcare, Qualcare Alliance Networks, Qualcare Captive Insurance Company Inc. PCC, Qualcare Management Resources Limited Liability Company, RHP (Thailand) Limited, Scibal Associates, Sterling Life Insurance Company, Tel-Drug, Tel-Drug of Pennsylvania, Temple Insurance Company Limited, United Benefit Life Insurance Company, Verity Solutions Group, Zurich Insurance Middle East, and eviCore 1 LLC. American Water Works Co., Inc. engages in the provision of complementary water and wastewater services. It operates through the following segments: Regulated Businesses; Market-Based Businesses; and Other. The Regulated Businesses segment provides water and wastewater services to customers. The Market-Based Businesses segment is responsible for Military Services Group, Contract Operations Group, Homeowner Services Group, and Keystone Operations. The Other segment includes corporate costs that are not allocated to the Company's operating segments, eliminations of inter-segment transactions, fair value adjustments and associated income and deductions related to the acquisitions that have not been allocated to the operating segments for evaluation of performance and allocation of resource purposes. The company was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Camden, NJ. Read More Anadarko Petroleum Corporation engages in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of oil and gas properties. It operates through three segments: Exploration and Production, WES Midstream, and Other Midstream. The company explores for and produces oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs). It is also involved in gathering, processing, treating, and transporting oil, natural-gas, and NGLs production, as well as the gathering and disposal of produced water. The company's oil and natural gas properties are located in the United States onshore and deepwater Gulf of Mexico; and Algeria, Ghana, Mozambique, Colombia, Peru, and other countries. As of December 31, 2018, it had approximately 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent of proved reserves. The company was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Molina Healthcare: Aetna & Humana - Medicare Advantage, Affinity Health Plan, AmericanWork Inc., Better Health Network, Camelot Care Centers Inc, Children's Behavioral Health Inc., Choices Group Inc., College Community Services, Dockside Services Inc, Family Preservation Services Inc., Family Preservation Services of Florida Inc., Family Preservation Services of North Carolina Inc., Family Preservation Services of Washington D.C. Inc., Family Preservation Services of West Virginia Inc., Florida NetPASS LLC, Hclb Inc., Magellan Complete Care, Maple Star Nevada Inc., Maple Star Oregon Inc., Mercy CarePlus, Molina Clinical Services LLC, Molina Healthcare Data Center Inc., Molina Healthcare of Arizona Inc., Molina Healthcare of California, Molina Healthcare of Florida Inc., Molina Healthcare of Georgia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Molina Healthcare of Iowa Inc., Molina Healthcare of Louisiana Inc., Molina Healthcare of Maryland Inc., Molina Healthcare of Michigan Inc., Molina Healthcare of Mississippi Inc., Molina Healthcare of Nevada Inc., Molina Healthcare of New Mexico Inc., Molina Healthcare of New York Inc., Molina Healthcare of North Carolina Inc., Molina Healthcare of Ohio Inc., Molina Healthcare of Oklahoma Inc., Molina Healthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., Molina Healthcare of Puerto Rico Inc., Molina Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, Molina Healthcare of Texas Inc., Molina Healthcare of Texas Insurance Company, Molina Healthcare of Utah Inc., Molina Healthcare of Virginia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Washington Inc., Molina Healthcare of Wisconsin Inc., Molina Holdings Corporation, Molina Hospital Management LLC, Molina Information Systems LLC dba Molina Medicaid Solutions, Molina Medical Management Inc., Molina Pathways LLC, Molina Pathways of Texas Inc., Molina Youth Academy, NextLevel Health Illinois, Pathways Community Corrections Inc., Pathways Community Services LLC, Pathways Community Support of Texas Inc., Pathways Health and Community Support LLC, Pathways Human Services LLC., Pathways of Arizona Inc., Pathways of Delaware Inc., Pathways of Idaho LLC, Pathways of Maine Inc., Pathways of Massachusetts LLC, Pathways of Oklahoma Inc., Pathways of Washington Inc., Providence Community Services, Providence Human Services, Raystown Developmental Services Inc., The Game of Work LLC, The RedCo Group Inc., Total Care Medicaid plan, Transitional Family Services Inc., Unisys -Health Information Management, and YourCare Health Plan. BBA Aviation plc provides aviation support and aftermarket services to the business and general aviation (B&GA) markets in the United Kingdom, Mainland Europe, North America, and internationally. It operates through Signature and Ontic segments. The company operates Signature Flight Support, a fixed base operation network that offers service support for B&GA travel, including fueling, ground handling, passenger and pilot services, and amenities; hangarage for overnight parking and home based aircraft storage; technical support, line and heavy maintenance, inspection, and aircraft on ground (AoG) services through Signature TECHNICAir; Signature ELITE class that provides Signature service and accommodation to commercial travelers; and aircraft management and charter services through Gama Aviation Signature Aircraft Management for passengers, operators, and pilots of the B&GA fleet. It also provides a portfolio of licensed parts and MRO services, including equipment, components, and spare parts for maturing and legacy platforms; transition of non-core products from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs); and maintenance, repair, and overhaul for commercial, B&GA, and military fixed wing and rotorcraft platforms to OEMs and their customers. The company was founded in 1879 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More There is not enough analysis data for BlueRock Diamonds. 4.8 Community Rank Outperform Votes BlueRock Diamonds has received 123 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes BlueRock Diamonds has received 46 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment BlueRock Diamonds has received 72.78% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about BlueRock Diamonds and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe BRD will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe BRD will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next There is not enough analysis data for Bonavista Energy Co. (BNP.TO). 3.6 Community Rank Outperform Votes Bonavista Energy Co. (BNP.TO) has received 352 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Bonavista Energy Co. (BNP.TO) has received 298 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Bonavista Energy Co. (BNP.TO) has received 54.15% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Bonavista Energy Co. (BNP.TO) and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe BNP will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe BNP will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next The following companies are subsidiares of Iron Mountain: AB Archyvu Centras, AB Archyvu Sistemos, AB Archyvu Sistemos Estonia Branch, AKTATRADE Iratendezo Selejtezo es Megsemmisito Bt., AS Archivu Serviss, Accutrac Software Inc, Administradora de Informacion Ltda, ArchivesOne, Archyvu sistemos, Ausdoc Group Pty Limited, Ausdoc Holdings Pty Limited, Bonded Services Group, Box Butler, Britannia Data Management Limited, Connected Corporation, Cornerstone Records Management, Crozier Fine Arts, Crozier Philadelphia LLC, Custodia S.O.S. SA, Custodia de Documentos Limitada, Data Outsourcing Centre doo, Data Security Services Pty Limited, DigiGuard, Docu-File Cape Town Proprietary Limited, Docu-File Durban Proprietary Limited, Docu-File JHB Proprietary Limited, DocuTar Iratrendezo es Tarolo Szolgaltato Kft., DocuVault, Docufile (Pty) Ltd, Docufile Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, Docufile Lesotho Proprietary Limited, Docufile Services Proprietary Limited, Docugroup Papir Szolgatato Kft., Document Holdings Sweden AB, Docuscan Cape Town Proprietary Limited, Docuscan Proprietary Limited, EAC Invest, Endless Document Storage Services LLC, EvoSwitch, File Express Limited, Fine Paper Recyclers Sydney Pty Ltd, Fontis International GmbH, Fontis International Inc., Fortrust, G4S Secure Data Solutions Colombia, Hays IMS, Horanross Limited, IBEX IM Limited, IBEX Information Management Limited, IG2 Data Security, IMSA Peru SRL, IO.com, Information Storage Consolidation Co, Interfile Participacoes S.A., Intradis SA, Iron Mountain (Deutschland) Service GmbH, Iron Mountain (Espana) Services S.L, Iron Mountain (Gibraltar) Holdings Limited, Iron Mountain (Ireland) Services Limited, Iron Mountain (Nederland) Services BV, Iron Mountain (UK) EES Holdings Limited, Iron Mountain (UK) Limited, Iron Mountain (UK) Services Limited, Iron Mountain A/S, Iron Mountain Acquisition Holdings Pty. Ltd., Iron Mountain Argentina S.A., Iron Mountain Arsivleme Hizmetleri A.S., Iron Mountain Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd, Iron Mountain Australia Group Pty. Ltd., Iron Mountain Australia Group Services Pty. Ltd., Iron Mountain Australia Holdings Inc., Iron Mountain Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd, Iron Mountain Austria Archivierung Gmbh, Iron Mountain BPM International S.a.r.l., Iron Mountain BPM SPRL, Iron Mountain Belgium NV, Iron Mountain CIS LLC, Iron Mountain Canada Operations ULC, Iron Mountain Ceska Republika S.R.O., Iron Mountain Chile S.A., Iron Mountain Chile Servicios S.A., Iron Mountain Colombia S.A.S., Iron Mountain DIMS Limited, Iron Mountain Deutschland GmbH, Iron Mountain Do Brasil Ltda, Iron Mountain EES Holdings Ltd., Iron Mountain EES Sp. z.o.o., Iron Mountain Espana SA, Iron Mountain Europe (Group) Limited, Iron Mountain Europe PLC (fka Iron Mountain Europe Limited), Iron Mountain Finland OY, Iron Mountain France S.A.S., Iron Mountain Fulfillment Services Inc., Iron Mountain Global Holdings Inc., Iron Mountain Global LLC, Iron Mountain Global Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Iron Mountain Group (Europe) Limited, Iron Mountain Hellas SA, Iron Mountain Holdings (Europe) Limited, Iron Mountain Holdings (France) SNC, Iron Mountain Incorporated, Iron Mountain India Private Ltd, Iron Mountain Information Management LLC, Iron Mountain Information Management Services Canada Inc., Iron Mountain Information Management Services Inc., Iron Mountain Intellectual Property Management Inc., Iron Mountain International (Holdings) Limited, Iron Mountain International Holdings BV, Iron Mountain International Information Management Co. Ltd., Iron Mountain Ireland Holdings Limited, Iron Mountain Ireland Limited, Iron Mountain Latin America Holdings Sociedad Limitada, Iron Mountain Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Iron Mountain Luxembourg Services S.a.r.l., Iron Mountain Luxembourg Services S.a.r.l. Schaffhausen Branch, Iron Mountain MDM Limited, Iron Mountain Magyarorszag Kereskedelmi es Szolgaltato Kft., Iron Mountain Management Services GmbH, Iron Mountain Mayflower Limited, Iron Mountain Mexico Holding S. de RL de CV, Iron Mountain Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Iron Mountain Mexico Servicios S. de RL de CV, Iron Mountain Mortgage Finance Holdings LLC, Iron Mountain Mortgage Finance I LLC, Iron Mountain Nederland B.V., Iron Mountain Nederland Holdings B.V., Iron Mountain New Zealand Limited (fka Recall New Zealand Ltd), Iron Mountain Norge AS, Iron Mountain Participations SA, Iron Mountain Peru S.A., Iron Mountain Poland Holdings Ltd, Iron Mountain Polska Services Sp z.o.o., Iron Mountain Polska Sp. z.o.o., Iron Mountain Receivables QRS LLC, Iron Mountain Receivables TRS LLC, Iron Mountain Records Management (Puerto Rico) Inc., Iron Mountain Records Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Iron Mountain SRL, Iron Mountain Secure Shredding Canada, Iron Mountain Secure Shredding Inc., Iron Mountain Services Private Ltd, Iron Mountain Services S.A.S., Iron Mountain Shanghai Co Ltd, Iron Mountain Slovakia s.r.o., Iron Mountain South America S.a.r.l., Iron Mountain Southeast Asia Holdings Limited, Iron Mountain Switzerland GmbH, Iron Mountain UK Services (Holdings) Limited, Iron Mountain US Holdings Inc., Iron Mountain Ukraine LLC, Iron Mountain Vietnam Company Limited, Iron Mountain d.o.o. Beograd, Jin Shan Limited, KDM Spectrumdata Pty Ltd, KH Data Capital Development Land LLC, Kestrel Data (Canada) Ltd, Kestrel Data Services Limited, Kestrel Information Management Pty. Ltd., Livevault, Marshgate Morangis S.a.r.l., Mimosa Systems, Mobilshred Inc., Navbharat Archive Xpress Private Limited, Nettlebed Acquisition Corp., Pipax Security S.A., Preferred Media Limited, Prism Integrated Sdn Bhd, Recall, Recall (London) Limited, Recall (Schweiz) AG, Recall (Shanghai) Ltd., Recall A/S, Recall AS, Recall Asia Pte Limited, Recall Corporation Sdn. Bhd., Recall Enterprises (Thailand) Limited, Recall Enterprises Sdn. Bhd., Recall Europe Finance Ltd. (fka Recall Europe Finance Plc), Recall Europe Limited, Recall Finance Limited, Recall Finland OY, Recall France SA, Recall France SA Belgium Branch, Recall France SAS, Recall GQ Limited, Recall Holdings, Recall Holdings Limited, Recall Holdings Sweden AB, Recall Hong Kong Ltd., Recall India Information Management Pvt. Ltd., Recall Information Services SRL, Recall International Pty Limited, Recall Italia SRL, Recall Limited, Recall Overseas Holdings Pty Limited, Recall Shredding Limited, Recall Sweden AB, Recall Taiwan Ltd., Recall Technology Pty. Ltd., Recall Total Information Management India Pvt. Ltd., Recall Total Information Mgt Pte Ltd, Recall do Brasil Ltda, Record Data Limited, Royal Seal S.R.O., Safehouse Information Management Solutions Private Limited, Secur Archiv SA, Secure Paper Services Pty Ltd, Shuttle SRL, Silver Sky Limited, Sispace AG, Startify, Storbox SA, The Coding Company Pty. Ltd., The Imaging Centre Pty Ltd, UAB Confidento, Upper Providence Venture I L.P., Venues Australia Pty Ltd, and Xepa Digital. The following companies are subsidiares of Sealed Air: A.P.S. (Holdings) Limited, AFP Trading (China) Co. Ltd., AFPTOH LTD, APS Automated Packaging Systems GmbH & Co. KG, APS Verwaltungs-GmbH, Air Ride Pallets Hong Kong Limited, Austin Foam Plastics Inc. (dba AFP Inc.), Automated Packaging Systems, Automated Packaging Systems Asia Holding Company Limited, Automated Packaging Systems Comerciale Importacao do Brasil Ltda., Automated Packaging Systems Europe, Automated Packaging Systems LLC, Automated Packaging Systems Limited, Automated Packaging Systems Southeast Asia Co. Ltd., B+ Equipment, B+ Equipment SAS, Beacon Holdings LLC, Biosphere Industries, BluPack (New Zealand), Blue Dot Packaging Pty Ltd., Cactus (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Cryovac (Malaysia) SDN. BHD, Cryovac Brasil Ltda., Cryovac Holdings II LLC, Cryovac International Holdings Inc., Cryovac LLC*, Cryovac Leasing Corporation, Cryovac Londrina Ltda., Cryovac Packaging Portugal Embalagens Ltda., Cryovac-Sealed Air de Costa Rica S.R.L., DELTAPLAM Embalagens Industria e Comercio, Diversey, Diversey J Trustee Limited, Diversey Trustee Limited, Entapack Pty. Ltd., Fagerdala (Chengdu) Packaging Co. Ltd, Fagerdala (Shanghai) Foams Co. Ltd., Fagerdala (Shanghai) Polymer Co. Ltd., Fagerdala (Suzhou) Packaging Co. Ltd., Fagerdala (Thailand) Limited, Fagerdala (Xiamen) Packaging Co. Ltd., Fagerdala Leamchabung Limited, Fagerdala Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Fagerdala Mexico S.A. de C.V., Fagerdala Mexico Supply Chain S.A. de C.V., Fagerdala Packaging Inc. (Indiana), Fagerdala Singapore Pte Ltd, Fagerdala Singapore Pte. Ltd., Getpacking.com GmbH, Invertol S. de R.L. de C.V., JSC Sealed Air Kaustik, KRIS Automated Packaging Systems Holding Company, Kevothermal LLC, Kevothermal Limited, Nelipak Holdings, Pack-Tiger GmbH, Polyrol Limited, Polyrol Packaging Systems LLC, ProAseptic Technologies S.L., Producembal- Producao de Embalagens LTDA, Reflectix Inc., SLD Air Packaging Paketleme Malzemeleri Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Saddle Brook Insurance Company, Sealed Air (Asia) Holdings BV, Sealed Air (Barbados) S.R.L., Sealed Air (Canada) Co./CIE, Sealed Air (Canada) Holdings B.V., Sealed Air (China) Co. Ltd., Sealed Air (China) Limited, Sealed Air (Israel) Ltd., Sealed Air (Korea) Limited, Sealed Air (Latin America) Holdings II LLC, Sealed Air (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sealed Air (New Zealand), Sealed Air (Philippines) Inc., Sealed Air (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Sealed Air (Ukraine) Limited, Sealed Air Africa (Pty.) Limited, Sealed Air Americas Manufacturing S. de R.L. de C.V., Sealed Air Argentina S.A., Sealed Air Australia (Holdings) Pty. Limited, Sealed Air Australia Pty. Limited, Sealed Air Australia Real Estate Pty Ltd, Sealed Air B.V., Sealed Air Belgium N.V., Sealed Air Central America S.A., Sealed Air Chile SpA, Sealed Air Colombia Ltda., Sealed Air Corporation (US), Sealed Air Cyprus Ltd., Sealed Air Denmark A/S, Sealed Air Finance B.V., Sealed Air Finance II LLC, Sealed Air Finance Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Sealed Air Funding LLC, Sealed Air General Trading LLC, Sealed Air GmbH (Germany), Sealed Air GmbH (Switzerland), Sealed Air Hellas SA, Sealed Air Holding France SAS, Sealed Air Holdings (New Zealand) Pty. Ltd., Sealed Air Holdings South Africa Proprietary Limited, Sealed Air Holdings UK I Limited, Sealed Air Holdings UK Limited, Sealed Air Hong Kong Limited, Sealed Air Hungary Ltd., Sealed Air Investment and Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Sealed Air Japan G.K., Sealed Air LLC, Sealed Air Limited (Ireland), Sealed Air Limited (UK), Sealed Air Luxembourg (I) S.a.r.l., Sealed Air Luxembourg (II) S.a.r.l., Sealed Air Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Sealed Air Management Holding Verwaltungs GmbH, Sealed Air Multiflex GmbH, Sealed Air Netherlands (Holdings) I B.V., Sealed Air Netherlands (Holdings) II B.V., Sealed Air Netherlands Holdings V B.V., Sealed Air Norge AS, Sealed Air OY, Sealed Air Packaging (India) Private Limited, Sealed Air Packaging (Shanghai) Co. Limited, Sealed Air Packaging (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Sealed Air Packaging LLC, Sealed Air Packaging Materials (India) LLP, Sealed Air Packaging S.L.U., Sealed Air Peru S.A.C., Sealed Air Polska Sp. Zoo, Sealed Air Pty Limited, Sealed Air S.A S., Sealed Air S.r.l., Sealed Air South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., Sealed Air Svenska AB, Sealed Air Taiwan Limited, Sealed Air UK Limited Partnership, Sealed Air US Holdings (Thailand) LLC, Sealed Air Uruguay S.A., Sealed Air Verpackungen GmbH, Sealed Air de Mexico Operations S. de RL. de C.V., Sealed Air de Venezuela S.A., Sealed Air s.r.o., Shanklin Corp, Shanklin Corporation, TTS-Ciptec, TXAFP Asia Pacific Ltd., TXAFP GP LLC, and Trigon Industries. CMC Markets plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides online retail financial services to retail, professional, stockbroking, and institutional clients in Australia, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company provides its clients with the ability to trade contracts for difference and financial spread betting on a range of underlying shares, indices, foreign currencies, commodities, and treasuries through its trading platform. It also offers Australian clients the opportunity to trade Australian and selected international instruments, including shares, options, managed funds, warrants, and exchange traded funds. In addition, the company provides its clients a range of education opportunities through weekly and monthly webinars and seminars, as well as Trader Development programme, which provides a range of in-platform, on-demand education, and tailored market commentary. CMC Markets plc was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More Fraport AG operates airports in Germany, rest of Europe, Asia, and the United States. The company primarily focuses on the operation of Frankfurt Main airport. It operates through four segments: Aviation, Retail & Real Estate, Ground Handling, and International Activities & Services. The Aviation segment operates landside and airside infrastructure, which covers the area of airport charges. The Retail & Real Estate segment engages in retail activities, including marketing of real estate properties and land. This segment also manages buildings and facilities, and parking and retail areas; and rents advertising space. The Ground Handling segment provides loading, baggage, and passenger services through airmail and luggage transport to freight handling. The International Activities & Services segment acquires, operates, maintains, develops, and expands airports and infrastructure facilities. This segment also offers integrated facility and corporate infrastructure management, airport expansion south, and information and telecommunication services. Fraport AG was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Read More Ensonhaber warns: Dont go to the Czech Republic One can travel all around Europe with just a Schengen visa. While it is so easy entering the countries with just one visa, Czech Republic is known for its obstructiveness towards its visitors. This article that looks like a manifesto will explain the reasons why you shouldnt go to the Czech Republic, or why you cannot go Czechoslovakia was created with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I. The Dissolution of Czechoslovakia was an event that saw the self-determined split of the federal state of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, entities that had arisen before as the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic in 1969 within the framework of a federal republic. Today, the Czech Republic is one of the most selected countries in Europe. But still, it is not so easy to go to the country, of course for Turkish people. The main reason for that is that you are not an EU citizen. Even though geographically Turkey is a European country, the country is still a non-member state. So Turkey is being factionalized by the Czech Republic. Bureaucratic procedures and obstacles are being practiced against Turkish citizens by Czech officials. Paperwork is the first biggest obstacle that they want from you to tackle. PROBLEMATIC VISA PROCEDURES For example, if you are married and your spouse is an EU citizen, the country asks you to take the original marriage papers from the mentioned country itself. They do not accept the true copy of the original. So just think about it, you or your spouse need to go the foreign country to take the original papers and then come back to Tukey and continue the visa procedures in the consulate! BUREAUCRATIC OBSTACLES Sadly, the precedent case mentioned above had been experienced and it is just one tiny reason. Even if you are an experienced traveler and got a visa for many countries before, such as USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Holland, Russia, Germany, France etc., be sure that Czech officials will behave you as is you are an illiterate person and will ignore your passport/visa history. So even if youre a traveler, youre just not good enough for them! INFORMATION SYSTEM IS A MESS Its just a matter of time that you being rejected even if you waited in the application line for hours and all of your papers is as required. INFERIOR TREATMENT FOR TURKISH CITIZENS While the other lines which are for other citizens work perfectly, the lines for Turkish citizens just remain stopped. The main reason for that is the bureaucratic intimidation, again. THE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULDNT GO Here are the pieces of travel advice from the UK to its citizens who want to travel to the Czech Republic; always exchange currency at a currency exchange office or bank, never on the street as this money is often counterfeit avoid contact with women and men acting as street prostitutes as they are often pickpockets take care when using cash machines the sale and distribution of drugs are illegal and the drugs are often hazardous counterfeits be aware of consumption charges in nightclubs; they are often high. Be careful with consumption cards, which carry high financial penalties if they are lost before the bill is paid. TERROR ATTACKS There may be increased security in place over the Christmas and New Year period, including at Christmas markets and other major events that might attract large crowds. You should remain vigilant and follow the advice of local authorities. In conclusion, mind yourself, do not think to go to the Czech Republic without considering these circumstances twice. The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates through Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Banking and Markets, and Global Wealth Management segments. The company offers financial advice and solutions, and day-to-day banking products, including debit and credit cards, chequing and saving accounts, investments, mortgages, loans, and insurance to individuals; and business banking solutions comprising lending, deposit, cash management, and trade finance solutions to small businesses and commercial customers, including automotive financing solutions to dealers and their customers. It also provides wealth management advice and solutions, including online brokerage, mobile investment, full-service brokerage, trust, private banking, and private investment counsel services; and retail mutual funds, exchange traded funds, liquid alternative funds, and institutional funds. In addition, the company offers international banking services for retail, corporate, and commercial customers; and lending and transaction, investment banking advisory, and capital markets access services to corporate customers. Further, it provides Internet, mobile, and telephone banking services. The company operates a network of 952 branches and approximately 3,540 automated banking machines in Canada; and approximately 1,400 branches, 5,200 ATMs, and 22 contact centers internationally. The Bank of Nova Scotia was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Halifax, Canada. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of 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. The following companies are subsidiares of EnerSys: ABSL Power Solutions Inc., ABSL Power Solutions Ltd., Acumuladores Industriales EnerSys SA, Alpha Alternative Energy Inc., Alpha Broadband Services Inc., Alpha Innovations Industria e Comercio de Produtos Eletronicos Ltda., Alpha Innovations Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Alpha Mexico Network Power S.A. de C.V., Alpha Tech Energy Solutions India Private Limited, Alpha Technical Services Ltd., Alpha Technologies Ltd., Alpha Technologies Pty. Ltd., Alpha Technologies Services Inc., Alphatec Technologies (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Argus Research Ltd., Batterias Hawker de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Battery Power International Pte Ltd., Coppervale Enterprises Inc., DCPM Engineering Sdn Bhd, EH Batterien AG, EH Europe GmbH, EH Global Holdings GmbH, EH Swiss Holdings GmbH, ENAS Industrial Batteries Morocco Sarl, EnerSys (Chaozhou) Huada Batteries Company Limited, EnerSys (China) Huada Batteries Company Limited, EnerSys (Chongqing) Huada Batteries Company Limited, EnerSys (Jiangsu) Huada Batteries Company Limited (94.7%) *, EnerSys (Luxembourg) Finance Sarl, EnerSys (Yangzhou) Huada Batteries Co. Ltd., EnerSys A/S, EnerSys AB, EnerSys AD, EnerSys AE, EnerSys AS, EnerSys Advanced Systems Inc., EnerSys Argentina S.A., EnerSys Asia Limited, EnerSys Australia Pty Ltd., EnerSys BV, EnerSys BVBA, EnerSys Battery Private Limited, EnerSys Brasil Ltda., EnerSys Bulgaria EOOD, EnerSys Canada Inc., EnerSys Capital Inc., EnerSys Cayman Euro L.P., EnerSys Cayman Holdings L.P., EnerSys Cayman Inc., EnerSys Delaware Inc., EnerSys Delaware LLC I, EnerSys Delaware LLC II, EnerSys Delaware LLC III, EnerSys Delaware LLC IV, EnerSys Delaware LLC V, EnerSys Energy Products Inc., EnerSys Europe Oy, EnerSys European Holding Co., EnerSys GmbH, EnerSys Holdings (Luxembourg) Sarl, EnerSys Holdings UK Ltd., EnerSys Hungaria Kft., EnerSys India Batteries Private Ltd., EnerSys JSC, EnerSys LLC, EnerSys Ltd., EnerSys Malaysia Sdn Bhd, EnerSys Mexico Holdings LLC, EnerSys Mexico Management LLC, EnerSys Participacoes Ltda., EnerSys Reserve Power Pte. Ltd., EnerSys S.r.l., EnerSys SARL, EnerSys SNC, EnerSys South East Asia Pte. Ltd., EnerSys de Mexico II S de R.L. de CV, EnerSys de Mexico S de R.L. de CV, EnerSys s.r.o., EnerSys sp. z o.o., EnerSystem Chile Ltda., Enersys Aku Sanaya Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Esfinco LLC, Hawker GmbH, Hawker Power Systems Inc., Hawker Powersource Inc., Hawker Systems GmbH & Co. KG., ICS Industries Pty Ltd, ICS Industries Pty Ltd., ICS Sheet Metal Pty Ltd., Industrial Battery Holding Ltda., International Communication Shelters Australasia Pty Ltd., Lancord Pty Ltd., Lenmic Pty Ltd., MIB Energy Sdn Bhd, N Holding AB, National Infrastructure Pty Ltd., National Infrastructure Services Pty Ltd., NaviSemi Energy Pte Ltd., NaviSemi Inc., New Pacifico Realty Inc., NorthStar Battery Company LLC, NorthStar Battery Company LLC, NorthStar Battery DMCC, Outback Power Technologies Inc., Powercom (NSW) Pty Ltd., Powersonic S de R.L. de CV, Purcell Systems, Purcell Systems Inc., Purcell Systems International AB, Quallion LLC, Riverfront Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., Shenzhen Huada Power Supply Mechanical & Electrical Co. Ltd. , SiteTel Shanghai Co Ltd., SiteTel Sweden AB, Telecomponents & Supply (Hong Kong) Ltd., The Enser Corporation, UTS Holdings Sdn Bhd, UTS Technology (JB) Sdn Bhd, UTS Technology (PG) Sdn Bhd, YCI Inc., and Yecoltd S. de R.L. de CV. Avient Corp. engages in the business of thermoplastic compounds. It specializes in polymer materials, services, and solutions with operations in specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, plastic sheet and packaging solutions and polymer distribution. The firm is also involved in the development and manufacturing of performance enhancing additives, liquid colorants, fluoropolymers and silicone colorants. It operates through the following segments: Color, Additives and Inks; Specialty Engineered Materials; and Distribution. The Color, Additives and Inks segment provides custom color and additive concentrates in solid and liquid form for thermoplastics, dispersions for thermosets, speciality inks, plasticols, and vinyl slush molding solutions. The Specialty Engineered Materials segment makes polymer formulations, services, and solutions for designers, assemblers, and processors of thermoplastic materials. The Distribution segment distributes engineering and commodity grade resins, including PolyOne-produced solutions, principally to the North American, Central American, and Asian markets. The firm's products include polymer distribution, screen printing inks, and thermoplastic elastomers. Its services include IQ design and color services. The company was founded on August 31, 2000 and is headquartered in Avon Lake, OH. 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 Iran starts mass-producing locally designed fighter jet Iran has unveiled a new fighter jet domestically designed and built. The announcement of the new fighter jet Kowsar came right before the inurement of the US sanctions. Iran has developed a domestic arms industry as international sanctions have prevented it from importing weapons. On Tuesday, Iranian state television screened images of President Hassan Rouhani sitting in the "Kowsar" fighter aircraft. Designed and manufactured solely by Iranian military experts, the Kowsar is described as a fourth-generation fighter jet, which classifies it among military fighters in service from approximately 1980 to the present day. "We have learned in the war that we cannot rely on anyone but ourselves. Our resources are limited and we are committed to establishing security at a minimum cost," Defence Minister Amir Hatami said on Saturday at a ceremony launching the plane's production. Iran starts mass-producing locally designed fighter jet WATCH The US has sold hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons to Iran's regional rivals but has demanded that Tehran curb its defense programmes, and is in the process of reimposing crippling sanctions in a bid to force its capitulation. There is not enough analysis data for Gramercy Property Trust. 4.3 Community Rank Outperform Votes Gramercy Property Trust has received 269 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Gramercy Property Trust has received 147 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Gramercy Property Trust has received 64.66% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Gramercy Property Trust and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe GPT will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe GPT will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next The following companies are subsidiares of 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. There is not enough analysis data for Dewey Electronics. 4.3 Community Rank Outperform Votes Dewey Electronics has received 43 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Dewey Electronics has received 24 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Dewey Electronics has received 64.18% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Dewey Electronics and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe DEWY will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe DEWY will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Revolutionary steps were taken for the disabled population says Erdogan President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 513,000 disabled individuals benefit from home care services in Turkey. President Erdogan on Monday said Turkey took revolutionary steps over the last 16 years for the disabled population to increase their participation in the society. Today, 513,000 disabled individuals benefit from home care services in Turkey, Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of a special needs school serving children with mental and physical disabilities in Istanbul. THE 2023 VISION At 97 rehabilitation and care centers throughout the country, 7,000 disabled people are being looked after, said Erdogan. The President said the number of disabled people being looked after at private care centers has reached 16,000. On Turkeys 2023 vision, which marks the centenary of the Republic of Turkey, Erdogan said: All kinds of plots were set up to distract us from these goals. Despite all, we have never given up our determination to walk towards our goals, Turkey's 2023 Vision sets specific targets for improvements in the areas of economic activity, energy, healthcare, education, and transport. We see Turkeys 2053 and 2071 visions, which we will build on the basis of 2023 goals, as the greatest legacy that we will leave for our children, Erdogan added. iShares MSCI South Africa ETF's stock was trading at $36.43 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EZA stock has increased by 27.1% and is now trading at $46.29. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. The following companies are subsidiares of Hyatt Hotels: CHANCELLOR STREET CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION INC., GLENDALE HOTEL PROPERTIES L.L.C., HT-SEATTLE HOLDINGS LLC, 1379919 ALBERTA INC., 319168 ONTARIO LIMITED, 3385434 CANADA INC., ADMINISTRACION DE PERSONAL ANDARES S. DE R.L. DE C.V., AIC HOLDING CO., AIRPORT PLAZA ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, AIRPORT PLAZA HOTEL LLC, AIRPORT PLAZA OFFICE BUILDING LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, AMERISUITES FRANCHISING L.L.C., ARANCIA LIMITED, ARUBA BEACHFRONT RESORTS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, ARUBA BEACHFRONT RESORTS N.V., ASIA HOSPITALITY INC., ASIA HOSPITALITY INVESTORS B.V., ASIAN HOTEL N.V., ATRIUM HOTEL L.L.C., AUSTIN RESORT BEVERAGE LLC, AmeriSuites Hotel, BAKU HOTEL COMPANY - AZERI, BAKU HOTEL COMPANY - CAYMAN, BASTROP MARKETING L.L.C., BAY II INVESTOR INC., BELLEVUE ASSOCIATES, BH PLAZA LLC, BRE/AMERISUITES PROPERTIES L.L.C., BRE/AMERISUITES TXNC GP L.L.C., BRE/AMERISUITES TXNC PROPERTIES L.P., BURVAN HOTEL ASSOCIATES, CAL-HARBOR SO. PIER URBAN RENEWAL ASSOCIATES L.P., CELAYA RESORTS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., CHESAPEAKE COMMUNITIES LLC, CHESAPEAKE RESORT LLC, CIUDAD DEL CARMEN DIAMANTE RESORT S. DE R.L. DE C.V, COAST BEACH L.L.C., COMPAGNIE HOTELIERE DE LAGON BLEU, CPM SEATTLE HOTELS L.L.C., CRW INVESTMENT LLC, CTR INTEREST HOLDCO INC., DALLAS REGENCY LLC, DENVER DOWNTOWN HOTEL PARTNERS LLC, DESARROLLADORA HOTELERA ACUEDUCTO S. DE R.L. DE C.V., DH BEVERAGE LLC, DIAMANTE RESORT LA PAZ S. DE R.L. DE C.V., DISTRICT HOTEL PARTNERS LLC, EXHALE ENTERPRISES GIFT SERVICES COMPANY, EXHALE ENTERPRISES II L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES III INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES IV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES V L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES VIII INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES X INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XIV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XIX L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XV TCI LTD., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XVI L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XVII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XVIII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XX L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXI INC., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXIV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXV L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXVI L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXVII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXVIII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXXI L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXXII L.L.C., EXHALE ENTERPRISES XXXIII INC., FAN PIER L.L.C., FAR EAST HOTELS INC., G.E.H. PROPERTIES LIMITED, GAINEY DRIVE ASSOCIATES, GALAXY AEROSPACE COMPANY LLC, GHE HOLDINGS LIMITED, GRAND HYATT BERLIN GMBH, GRAND HYATT DFW BEVERAGE LLC, GRAND HYATT SAN ANTONIO L.L.C., GRAND HYATT SF L.L.C., GRAND RIVERWALK BEVERAGE LLC, GRAND TORONTO CORP., GRAND TORONTO VENTURE L.P., GREENWICH HOTEL LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, H.E. ATLANTA CENTENNIAL PARK HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. AUSTIN L.L.C., H.E. BERMUDA L.L.C., H.E. CAP CANA L.L.C., H.E. DRISKILL LLC, H.E. GRAND CYPRESS L.L.C., H.E. IRVINE L.L.C., H.E. KANSAS CITY L.L.C., H.E. LENOX L.L.C., H.E. NASHVILLE L.L.C., H.E. NEWPORT L.L.C., H.E. ORLANDO L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC HOTEL L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC PARKING L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC RETAIL L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA SANSOM L.L.C., H.E. PORTLAND HC L.L.C., H.E. PORTLAND L.L.C., H.E. PROPERTIES HOLDING L.L.C., H.E. PROPERTIES L.L.C., H.E. SAN ANTONIO I L.L.C., H.E. SAN ANTONIO L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON JV L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON OWNER L.L.C., HAPP INVESTOR LTD., HARBORSIDE HOTEL LLC, HARBORSIDE LAND LLC, HC PORTLAND JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HC ROYAL PALMS L.L.C., HCV CINCINNATI HOTEL L.L.C., HE ORLANDO HOTEL LLC, HGP (TRAVEL) LIMITED, HH NASHVILLE HOLDINGS L.L.C., HH NASHVILLE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HH PORTLAND L.L.C., HHMA BURLINGTON BEVERAGE L.L.C., HI HOLDINGS (SWITZERLAND) GMBH, HI HOLDINGS BAJA B.V., HI HOLDINGS BRAZIL S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS CELAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS CIUDAD DEL CARMEN B.V., HI HOLDINGS CYPRUS LIMITED, HI HOLDINGS CYPRUS-INDIA LIMITED, HI HOLDINGS GUADALAJARA B.V., HI HOLDINGS HP CABO B.V., HI HOLDINGS HP TIJUANA HOTEL B.V., HI HOLDINGS KYOTO CO., HI HOLDINGS LA PAZ B.V., HI HOLDINGS LATIN AMERICA B.V., HI HOLDINGS NETHERLANDS B.V., HI HOLDINGS PLAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS RIO S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS RIVIERA MAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS VIENNA S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS ZURICH S.A.R.L., HI HOTEL ADVISORY SERVICES GMBH, HI HOTEL INVESTORS CYPRUS LIMITED, HIHCL AMSTERDAM B.V., HIHCL HP AMSTERDAM AIRPORT B.V., HIHCL HR AMSTERDAM B.V., HILP HOTEL SERVICE PROVIDER LLC, HOTEL AM BELVEDERE HOLDING GMBH, HOTEL AM BELVEDERE HOLDING GMBH & CO KG, HOTEL INVESTMENTS HOLDING CO LLC, HOTEL INVESTMENTS L.L.C., HOTEL INVESTORS I INC., HOTEL INVESTORS II INC., HOTEL PROJECT SYSTEMS PTE LTD, HOTEL SERVICES CIUDAD DEL CARMEN S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HOTELS CS CELAYA S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HP ATLANTA CENTENNIAL PARK JV LLC, HP AUSTIN L.L.C., HP BEVERAGE DALLAS DFW AIRPORT LLC, HP BEVERAGE SUGAR LAND LLC, HP BOSTON HOLDINGS L.L.C., HP GLENDALE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HP GLENDALE L.L.C., HP INDIA HOLDINGS LIMITED, HP LAS VEGAS BEVERAGE L.L.C., HP M STREET L.L.C., HP ROUTE 46 TEXAS LLC, HP SAN FRANCISCO L.L.C., HP SAN JUAN L.L.C., HP TEN TEXAS LLC, HPHH ATLANTA L.L.C., HPHH DENVER L.L.C., HPHH SAN JOSE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HPHH SAN JOSE L.L.C., HQ CHESAPEAKE LLC, HR LOST PINES RESORT LLC, HR MC HOTEL COMPANY S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HR MC SERVICES II S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HR MC SERVICES S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HRHC LLC, HT- WAILEA LLC, HT-AVENDRA GROUP HOLDINGS L.L.C., HT-AVENDRA L.L.C., HT-CHESAPEAKE COMMUNITIES INC., HT-CHESAPEAKE RESORT INC., HT-HOTEL EQUITIES INC., HT-HUNTINGTON BEACH INC., HT-JERSEY PIER INC., HT-JERSEY PIER L.P., HT-JERSEY PIER LLC, HT-LONG BEACH L.L.C., HT-MIAMI BEACH L.L.C., HT-PARK 57 INC., HT-SEATTLE LLC, HT-SIERRA L.L.C., HT-VANCOUVER INC., HTLB L.L.C., HTS - NS L.L.C., HTS - NY L.L.C., HTS-ASPEN L.L.C., HTS-BC INC., HTS-INVESTMENT L L.C., HTSF L.L.C., HTW BEVERAGE LLC, HY LONG BEACH HOTEL LLC, HYATT (BARBADOS) CORPORATION, HYATT (JAPAN) CO. LTD., HYATT (THAILAND) LIMITED, HYATT ARUBA N.V., HYATT ASIA PACIFIC HOLDINGS LIMITED, HYATT AUSTRALIA HOTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LIMITED, HYATT AUSTRIA GMBH, HYATT BEACH FRONT N.V., HYATT BORNEO MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED, HYATT BRITANNIA CORPORATION LTD., HYATT CC OFFICE CORP., HYATT CHAIN SERVICES LIMITED, HYATT CRYSTAL CITY LLC., HYATT CURACAO N.V., HYATT DISASTER RELIEF FUND, HYATT DO BRASIL PARTICIPACOES LTDA, HYATT EQUITIES L.L.C., HYATT FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT SERVICES INC., HYATT FRANCHISING CANADA CORP., HYATT FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT FRANCHISING LATIN AMERICA L.L.C., HYATT FULFILLMENT OF MARYLAND INC., HYATT GLOBAL SERVICES INC., HYATT GTLD L.L.C., HYATT HOC INC., HYATT HOLDINGS (UK) LIMITED, HYATT HOSPITALITY SERVICES L.L.C., HYATT HOTEL MANAGEMENT LIMITED, HYATT HOTELS CONSULTANCY SERVICES ASIA PACIFIC LIMITED, HYATT HOTELS CORPORATION OF KANSAS, HYATT HOTELS CORPORATION OF MARYLAND, HYATT HOTELS FOUNDATION, HYATT HOTELS MANAGEMENT CORPORATION, HYATT HOTELS OF CANADA INC., HYATT HOTELS OF FLORIDA INC., HYATT HOTELS OF PUERTO RICO INC., HYATT HOUSE CANADA INC., HYATT HOUSE FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT HOUSE HOTEL HOLDING COMPANY L.L.C., HYATT INDIA CONSULTANCY PRIVATE LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL (ASIA) LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL (EUROPE AFRICA MIDDLE EAST) LLC, HYATT INTERNATIONAL - JAPAN LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL - SOUTHWEST ASIA LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL -ASIA PACIFIC LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL -SEA (PTE) LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, HYATT INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS CO., HYATT INTERNATIONAL HOTEL MANAGEMENT (BEIJING) CO. LTD., HYATT INTERNATIONAL MILAN L.L.C., HYATT INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (BEIJING) CO. LTD., HYATT INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL SERVICES INC., HYATT JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HYATT LACSA SERVICES INC., HYATT LOUISIANA L.L.C., HYATT MAINZ GMBH, HYATT MARKETING SERVICES INC., HYATT MARKETING SERVICES NIGERIA COMPANY LIMITED, HYATT MINNEAPOLIS LLC, HYATT MINORITY INVESTMENTS INC., HYATT MSS L.L.C., HYATT NORTH AMERICA MANAGEMENT SERVICES INC., HYATT OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, HYATT OF BAJA S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HYATT OF CHINA LIMITED, HYATT OF FRANCE S.A.R.L., HYATT OF GUAM LIMITED, HYATT OF ITALY S.R.L., HYATT OF LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN L.L.C., HYATT OF LATIN AMERICA S.A. DE C.V., HYATT OF MACAU LIMITED, HYATT OF MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., HYATT OF PHILIPPINES LIMITED, HYATT PARTNERSHIP INTERESTS L.L.C., HYATT PLACE ANNE ARUNDEL BEVERAGE INC., HYATT PLACE CANADA CORPORATION, HYATT PLACE FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT PLACE OF MARYLAND INC., HYATT REGENCY COLOGNE GMBH, HYATT REGENCY CORPORATION PTY. LIMITED, HYATT SERVICES AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED, HYATT SERVICES CANADA INC., HYATT SERVICES CARIBBEAN L.L.C., HYATT SERVICES GMBH, HYATT SERVICES INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, HYATT SHARED SERVICE CENTER L.L.C., HYATT TRINIDAD LIMITED, HYCANADA INC., HYCARD INC., HYSTAR L.L.C., Hyatt Corporation, INFORMATION SERVICES LIMITED, INTERNATIONAL RESERVATIONS LIMITED, JOINT VENTURE ITALKYR CLOSED JOINT STOCK COMPANY, JUNIPER HOTELS PRIVATE LIMITED, KSA MANAGEMENT INC., KYOTO HOLDING CO., LHR-PARTNERS LTD., LORING PARK ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, LOST PINES BEVERAGE LLC, MACAE PARTNERS S.A.R.L., MAHIMA HOLDINGS PRIVATE LIMITED, MARION RESERVATION CENTER L.L.C., MEXICO CITY HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V., MILAN HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V., MIRAVAL ARIZONA GUARANTOR LLC, MIRAVAL GROUP LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA HOLDINGS LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA OPERATING CO. INC., MIRAVAL RESORT TUCSON LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS I LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS II LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS III LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS TRUST, MRG ATX BEVERAGE HOLDINGS LLC, MRG ATX HOLDINGS II LLC, MRG ATX HOLDINGS LLC, MRG ATX INVESTMENT LLC, MRG ATX MANAGEMENT I LLC, MRG ATX MANAGEMENT II LLC, MRG ATX OPERATIONS LLC, MRG CRW HOLDINGS LLC, MRG CRW MANAGEMENT I LLC, MRG CRW MANAGEMENT II LLC, MRG CRW OPERATIONS LLC, MUNICH OPCO GMBH, Miraval Resort, OASIS LUXURY RENTALS INCORPORATED, PARIS HOTEL COMPANY B.V., PARK HYATT HAMBURG GMBH, PARK HYATT HOTEL GMBH, PARK HYATT WATER TOWER ASSOCIATES L.L.C., PH NEW YORK L.L.C., PHMC RESIDENCIAS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., POLK SMITH REGENCY LLC, PT HYATT INDONESIA, PVD INVESTMENT COMPANY S.A.R.L., Peabody Hotels & Resort, RCG PROPERTIES LLC, REGENCY BEVERAGE COMPANY LLC, REGENCY RIVERWALK BEVERAGE LLC, RESERVATIONS CENTER L.L.C., RIO JV PARTNERS PARTICIPACOES LTDA., RIO PRETO PARTNERS HOTEIS LTDA., RIO PRETO PARTNERS S.A.R.L., ROSEMONT PROJECT MANAGEMENT L.L.C., ROUTE 46 MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES CORP., RUNWAY HOLDING L.L.C., RUNWAY L.L.C., SAO PAULO INVESTMENT COMPANY INC., SAO PAULO INVESTORS LIMITED, SASIH, SDI EQUITIES INVESTOR L.L.C., SDI INC., SDI SECURITIES 11 LLC, SDI SECURITIES 6 LLC, SELECT HOTELS GROUP L.L.C., SELECT JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., SEOUL MIRAMAR CORPORATION, SERVICIOS DE HOTELERIA SAN JOSE S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SERVICIOS HOTELEROS LA PAZ S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SETTLEMENT INVESTORS INC., SHG PUERTO RICO INC., SIERRA HEALTHSTYLES LLC, SJC DESARROLLOS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SKS CORP. N.V., SMC HOTELS B.V., SOROCABA PARTNERS HOTEIS LTDA, SOROCABA PARTNERS S.A.R.L., STANHOPE L.L.C., STARHILL LORING PARK L.L.C., SUGAR LAND/HP LLC, THE GREAT EASTERN HOTEL COMPANY LIMITED, THE GREAT EASTERN HOTEL HOLDING COMPANY LIMITED, TIJUANA PARTNERS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., TR MANAGEMENT INVESTMENT LLC, TUCSON VILLAS HOLDINGS LLC, TUCSON VILLAS LLC, TWO SEAS HOLDINGS LIMITED, Two Roads Hospitality, WAILEA HOTEL & BEACH RESORT L.L.C., WAILEA HOTEL HOLDINGS L.L.C., WAILEA MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION L.L.C., WAILEA RESORT VILLAS HOLDINGS L.L.C., WAILEA RESORT VILLAS L.L.C., WEST END RESIDENCES L.L.C., XENIA ASSURANCE COMPANY INC., XENIA ASSURANCE COMPANY OF ILLINOIS, ZURICH ESCHERWIESE HOTEL GMBH, and ZURICH HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V.. Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF's stock was trading at $52.24 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, SPLV stock has increased by 23.3% and is now trading at $64.41. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Maxar Technologies Inc. provides earth intelligence and space infrastructure solutions in the United States, Asia, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Canada, and internationally. It operates through Earth Intelligence and Space Infrastructure segments. The Earth Intelligence segment offers earth imagery products, including orthorectified imagery, imagery basemap, 3D and elevation, and information products; and SecureWatch, a subscription offering that provides online access to imagery and geospatial intelligence platform. This segment also offers geospatial information, application, and analytic services. It serves U.S. and other international government agencies, such as defense and intelligence agencies, as well as commercial customers in various markets. The Space Infrastructure segment provides space based infrastructure, robotics, sub-systems, and information solutions, including communication and imaging satellites and payloads; platforms for space exploration and hosting instruments for earth science; space subsystems for power, propulsion, and communication; satellite ground systems and support services; space-based remote sensory solutions; space robotics; and defense systems. This segment serves government agencies and satellite operators. Maxar Technologies Inc. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Westminster, Colorado. Read More American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected].com | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. After they put up a Trump yard sign, their HOA targeted them By Rachel Alexander In the 2000s, the Parkers thought they were buying their dream home. It was advertised at an excellent price and came with customizable options. The home was located in Peoria, Arizona, adjacent to Phoenix. The development was new, with an HOA managed by a management company. While the Parkers were viewing the house, they asked the salesperson if they would be able to expand their three-car garage to a four-car garage. The sales person said yes, that would be no problem. In 2016, the Parkers proudly put up a campaign sign in their front yard for Donald Trump, the only homeowners in the development to do so. Mr. Parker was elected to the HOA board for awhile, but left after getting frustrated. But while there, the family learned the rules for additional building on the property and complied when they started their garage addition. This meant sending a letter requesting permission to the HOA board along with a copy of the plans and the permit from the city. Per the HOA rules, if the HOA board doesnt respond to a request within 45 days, its deemed approved. A few weeks later, the city asked them to change their building plan slightly. They made the changes and submitted the revised plans to the HOA. Again, the HOA board did not respond within 45 days, so the Parkers thought everything was fine. They resumed construction of the garage. On January 9, 2017, when the garage was close to completion, the Parkers received a Notice of Violation in the mail from the management company. It did not specify any offense. They were then contacted by the Architectural Review Committee, a subsidiary of the HOA. The ARC chairman CCd two neighbors on an email to them. The Parkers figured out he had put two of his neighbors on the ARC but there hadnt been a meeting, necessary to vote in officers, since October 2016. They were apparently put on the ARC illegally. An HOA board member was also later added illegally, to replace the president of the board who moved out of the development. The HOA justified it by claiming that A.R.S. 10-3821 applied, allowing them to take action without a meeting. But that law applies to nonprofits, not HOA boards. HOAs are different because they include homeowners who have a right to vote. They are governed by Title 33 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. The HOA board next sent the Parkers a letter refusing permission to build the additional garage despite the fact that it was already built at this point. The ARC claimed that one corner was too close to the fence. This was because the city had them move the garage back, which changed the distance from 10 feet to 8.2 feet. The Parkers thought they could submit a variance to take care of the problem. Instead, they received a letter from an HOA lawyer on April 20, 2017. There still hadnt been any HOA board meetings since October, so the legal action appeared to be illegal. On May 5, the law firm sent them another letter, selectively quoting the CC&Rs. The HOA finally sent out a letter announcing a board meeting in August, almost a year after the last meeting but it was executive session only, so residents werent allowed to attend. The HOA lawyer attended along with the illegally elected board members. The Parkers asked for mediation. It took place in September. At the mediation, one member on the HOA board suggested fining the Parkers as much as $35,000, as a deterrent to others. The HOA finally scheduled a board meeting for residents to attend on December 17. It was chaotic, with other residents angry at the way the HOA was treating them. An election was scheduled for January to elect new officers. Mr. Parker ran for president, but the HOA pulled some slick maneuvers to keep him from being elected. The Parkers finally could not handle any more stress, it was having an effect on Kens health. They were told that even if they were to eventually win, they would have to go through a lengthy appeals process that would cost them $50,000. They worked out a settlement of paying the HOA $10,000. They spent another $13,000 on legal fees. They essentially paid a lot of money to make it go away. The management company was started in the 1990s. It has expanded to manage 700 HOAs. It operates in five states. There are thousands of employees. They collect payments, bank them, keep records, pay for insurance, hire vendors, manage the property, fix sprinklers, pay for a community manager to be on call, manage meetings and make filings at court. They also manage pools and common areas in the HOAs that have them. Officially, the management company receives nominal reimbursement from homeowners fees. But they actually make their money from secret affiliate fee arrangements. In order to bid on projects in the development, vendors must join the Community Association Institute. That requires them to give a hefty kickback of 20 to 30 percent to the management company on each project. That money is how they are able to litigate against homeowners. The management company also makes money suing homeowners over HOA fines. If they dont keep up with the fines, they foreclose on their homes and flip them, making a profit. Free market proponents dont want to regulate HOAs because they consider them private associations. But several court decisions have held that they are quasi-governmental. Phoenix lawyer Jon Dessaules, who represents homeowners in lawsuits against HOAs, observed, "Homeowners associations really are privatized government without accountability. We can control everything from what you paint your home to when you cut your yard, but we arent accountable to you and dont have to respond to you." They are similar to Public-Private Partnerships, which entail government granting monopolies to favored corporations which no longer act like free market entities and are controlled substantially by government. Local governments authorize developers to include HOAs. Since 90 percent of the new houses in Maricopa County are located within an HOA, it is almost impossible to avoid them. The Parkers believe they were originally targeted because of their Trump yard sign. Many of the people attracted to serve on HOA boards are little Napoleons, eager to flaunt their power over others. This totalitarian mindset should not be allowed to abuse people for their politics. Fortunately, Arizonas Governor Doug Ducey is cracking down on HOA abuse. One bill would have helped the Parkers, requiring HOAs to treat all of their meetings as open meetings. But its too late for them. Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative. She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, and other publications. Home Xcel Energy, Inc. operates as a holding company, which engages in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity. It operates through the following three segments: Regulated Electric Utility, Regulated Natural Gas Utility and All Others. The Regulated Electric Utility segment generates, transmits and distributes electricity primarily in portions of generates, transmits and distributes electricity in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico. In addition, this segment includes sales for resale and provides wholesale transmission service to various entities in the United States. It also includes commodity trading operations. The Regulated Natural Gas Utility segment transports, stores, and distributes natural gas primarily in portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Michigan and Colorado. The All Others segment engages in steam, appliance repair services, nonutility real estate activities, processing solid waste into refuse-derived fuel and investments in rental housing projects that qualify for low-income housing tax credits. The company was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. Read More Oshkosh Corp. engages in the design, manufacture, and market of specialty vehicles and vehicle bodies. It operates through the following segments: Access Equipment, Defense, Fire & Emergency, and Commercial. The Access Equipment segment consists of JerrDan and JLG, which manufactures aerial work platforms; and telehandlers that are used in construction, industrial, institutional, and general maintenance applications to position workers and materials at elevated heights. The Defense segment produces tactical wheeled vehicles; and supply parts and services for the United States military and other militaries around the world. The Fire and Emergency segment sells commercial and custom fire vehicles; simulators and emergency vehicles primarily for fire departments, airports and other governmental units; and broadcast vehicles for broadcasters and television stations. The Commercial segment includes McNeilus, CON-E-CO, London, Iowa Mold Tooling Co., Inc (IMT), and Oshkosh Commercial. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Oshkosh, WI. Read More BTG plc acquires, develops, manufactures, and commercializes pharmaceutical products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Interventional Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, and Licensing. The Interventional Medicine segment offers interventional oncology products and systems, such as beads and TheraSphere for treatment of liver cancer; and GALIL medical system, a cryoablation technology for use in kidney cancer and other indications. This segment also provides interventional vascular products consisting of EKOS system, an ultrasonic catheter drug delivery device used in the treatment of blood clots; Varithena for the treatment of varicose veins; and PneumRx Coil for the treatment of emphysema, a debilitating lung disease. The Pharmaceuticals segment offers antidote products, such as CroFab for the treatment of crotalid snake envenomations; DigiFab for the treatment of digoxin toxicity; and Voraxaze for high-dose methotrexate toxicity. The Licensing segment provides Zytiga for treatment of prostate cancer; Two-Part Hip Cup; and Lemtrada. The company also manufactures and commercializes therapeutic ultrasound devices, and roxwood systems, as well as develops venous thrombus management devices. The company was formerly known as British Technology Group International plc and changed its name to BTG plc in March 1995. BTG plc was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More In their own faces By Daniel M. Ryan Eight months ago, the Dems got the idea that the 2018 midterm elections would be a Blue Wave.? It would switch not just the House but the Senate into Democrat hands. A favourable turnover ratio for Dems in state-level special elections was magnified into nothing less than 2010 in reverse. More than! The coalition of the ascendant would rise up, flip no less than both houses of Congress, and put President Trump in the same awkward position that a certain recent President had to occupy. The election of 2016 will be avenged! But now? All thats left of the Blue Wave narrative is high turnout election.? As this is written, the handicappers and narrative-spinners say that the Dems might win the House or they might not. The Pubbies have a solid chance at adding to their majority in the Senate. Instead of seeing lib pundits chortling over anxious Republicans distancing themselves from President Trump, we see more than a few Democrats distancing themselves from their own party. Just like 2010, right? Unless the Dems get-out-the-vote efforts wreak a near-marvel, the Blue Wave will prove to be a Blue Mirage. This despite the fact that Dems had not one but two October Surprises. The first one was the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation, which wasnt all that hard to see through. Remember the demands for an unprecedentedly huge volume of documents, much more than any other nominee in history? Kamala Harris grandstanding? The grandstanding of T-Bone Spartacus? The blatant disparity between the way the Dems treated Justice Kavanaugh and the way the Pubbies treated Justices Kagan in 10 and Ginsberg in 93? The Kavanaugh nomination had turned into a raucous clown show when the only Washington folks who knew Christine Blasey-Ford were Dianne Feinstein, her staffers, and a few reporters at the Washington Post. At minimum, the timing of the unveiling of her accusations was suspect. Even more suspect was the dropping of her case like yesterdays clickbait after Justice Kavanaugh was confirmed. Its no surprise that a recent poll shows that ~55% of women believed that the Democrats were "just using the allegations" to block Kavanaugh. Two copycat accusations, one from Julie Swetnick and the other from a mysterious Jane Doe whose real name is Judy Munro-Leighton, faded into hot air when both women backed away. Ms. Munro-Leighton, the second very credible accuser handled by Michael Avenatti, admitted that her accusation had been a tactic.? She also admitted that she had never so much as met Justice Kavanaugh. Thanks to Chuck Grassley, we had the unusual experience of seeing politically-motivated accusations fall apart in real time. The second October Surprise was the so-called migrant caravan (now three or four of them.) Although it was definitely organized, and perhaps orchestrated to coincide with the midterms, it was not stage-managed in the way the Kavanaugh circus was. Again, the puff-pieces were disseminated; again, embedded with emotional manipulation calculated to make us feel awful about border control. And again, the narrative fell apart. Independent journalists found signs that some of them were just plain economic migrants, belying the cries about asylum. More seriously impugning those claims was the migrants rejection of asylum from Mexico. This put them on the wrong side of common sense, which says that safety in Mexico is a lot better than being hunted down in Honduras. It also put them on the wrong side of U.S. law, which says that the United States is fully within its rights to reject claims of asylum after the claimants reject another countrys offer. See U.S. Code 1158 (a) 2, which sets a lower bar for rejection than applicants spurned an offer from another country which would have saved them from travelling another thousand miles.? If youre choosy, you aint begging. Moving to horrific lawbreaking, the rabbi of the Tree of Life synagogue, Jeffrey Myers, graciously invited President Trump to visit the synagogue after the horrid slaughter of eleven elderly Jews in the middle of Saturday worship. After Trumps visit. Rabbi Myers said he was surprised and pleased? to see President Trump consoling him and listening to him. President Trump remembered that he was not going to a political event, not even a state event. He remembered that he was going to listen to and console a man suffering a horrible loss. Contrast that to the pols who tried to blame Trump for the murders. As with Dr. Blasey-Ford, we see a pattern of treating someones personal loss as nothing more than a tool for sabotaging Trump. Theres a pattern to recognize: a pattern of manipulation thats become blatant and more inept. It isnt just we who are noticing. The progs have ticked off self-identified centre-leftist Tim Pool. He has to explain, again and again, that hes not a Trump supporter, Republican, or Conservative: hes just a street liberal who cant stand what the gated-community SJWs have done to his side. As of this writing, the polls and other augurs are inconclusive with respect to the House. The only thing clear is the huge early-voter turnout, which very much includes Republicans righteously angered by all of the above. Some prog-inclined pundit are still hoping for huge turnout from the so-called coalition of the ascendant to swing the House to the Dems. But all of them, to my knowledge, have given up on the Senate. The Perfect Hedge, And What Went Wrong An old, long-retired stockbroker had a saying: If you found the perfect hedge, somethings wrong.? He retired long before the pre-08 bubble climaxed. Even if he hadnt, he wouldnt have been listened to. He knew jack-all about advanced statistics. He only knew how Mr. Market whaps folks around, especially people who think theyve fenced off Major Murphy. The Dems strategy was to bank on the coalition of the ascendant, strengthened in numbers by mass legal and illegal immigration, and demography. They dreamed of a United States that was California writ large: a one-and-a-half party state in which ascendant Democrats routinely clobbered me-too Republicans. They dared to dream of political hegemony. Note that this audacious hope was rooted in demographic extrapolation, and it depends upon millions of illegal immigrants being given both amnesty and voting rights. Never mind that this plan involves a government choosing an electorate more to its liking: the opposite of consent-of-the-governed democracy. If they thought at all of this implication, they werent bothered by it. When looked at with sober eyes, this plan has two flaws. The first flaw is that the demographic extrapolation, like an extrapolation of time past, would fall apart because the real world doesnt co-operate with it. The second flaw is its dependence upon amnesty. It depends upon someone like President Bush offering a 1986-style amnesty to all those illegal immigrants, an amnesty that would make the original 86 amnesty an actionable precedent going forward. Actionable enough to give future Dems the power to dissolve the people and elect a new one. To cover these two flaws, the progs relied on their perfect hedge. In a nutshell, their perfect hedge is character assassination, reinforced in more than a few cases by de-platforming, de-jobbing and other jargon terms which mean ruining lives. If movement Republicans put ascendant? and California together, they were castigated as racist.? If ordinary folks saw their very citizenship being eroded, they were called a variety of bad names. We all know the process; some of us know it overly well. Remember the Bush years and the libs who ventured from their gated community to lecture Middle Americans about their real interests?? Since those lecturers defined real interests? to mean pocketbook issues, the 2016 election sure saw allegorical Kansans voting their real interests. Trump promised to use tariffs to bring back jobs to hollowed-out heartlands. He promised to bring back coal. He promised to crack down in illegal immigrants so as to raise wages. As the economic stats show, the unemployment rate and jobless claims are now at decades lows. Real wages are rising, mostso for people with high-school educations. Youd think that those lecturers wouldve acknowledged that Trump voters voted their real interests,? even if that acknowledgement were grudging. Instead, Joe Normal got slapped in the face. He heard his real interests? portrayed as xenophobia,? nativism?, just plain silly, and of course as racist.? He was chided when he didnt and damned when he did. At micro level, this encapsulates the workings of the hedge: the supposedly perfect hedge. So what went wrong? Simply put, the progs believe their own malarkey. They get high on their own supply. Crucial to those lecturers lectures was the notion that Joe Normal was bewitched by electro-magic radiation from Fox News. This is not propaganda; they really believe it. Believe it to the point where they think that Joe is more manipulable than he actually is. Ensconced in their self-created bubble, they did not realize that they were treating the political culture like Lt. Calley treated Vietnam villages. Fixated on blaming President Trump, even under circumstances that were plainly absurd, they forgot the common-sense wisdom which says a successful politician is not the creator of a democratic uprising: hes the effect of one. To the extent that progs grasped this, with few exceptions, they concluded that they should punish Trumps supporters too. As we know, punish? means deploying character assassination and in some cases worse. Take a moment to think about how this dovetails with dissolving the people and electing a new one.? They overused the hedge, above and beyond the point of overbearing. To the point where Dem candidates in trouble have been obliged to distance themselves from their own party. Have you had the experience of watching CNN or MSNBC, and instead of feeling triggered you feel bewildered? Instead of your blood pressure rising, did your eyes widen and your neck swivel as if you were looking for a convenient exit? Afterwards, instead of ruminating, did you look for something to distract yourself from what you just saw? In sum, did you act like you just stepped in and out of a loony bin? If so, youve experienced at gut level the prog media delegitimizing themselves. If this goes on, therell be a point where a prog pundit calling you racist? will affect you no more than Triumph the Insult Comic Dog or NPC Guy. Therell be a point where youll laugh along to a Bill Maher special because youre laughing at Mr. Maher. Instead of being disciplined and controlled by increasingly blatant manipulation, were becoming cauterized by it. Like Donald Trump himself, we can be heart-rent by the synagogue shooting and yet grasp that Racist is Used to Describe Every Republican Thats Winning. Thats why the perfect hedge is going wrong. By all means, get to the polls. Even if your vote doesnt count,? it counts enough to say that youre fed up with being insulted. That counts a lot more than calculating whether your vote will lead to a Red Wave. Little ballots joining together make a formidable Black Swan. Daniel M. Ryan, as Nxtblg, is spinning his wheels at Steemit. 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Pittsburgh massacre and the breathtaking hypocrisy of the left By Greg Strange Guess what? Hollywood celebrities, in a retched orgy of self-indulgent Trump hate, have blamed, and continue to blame, the president and everyone who voted for him for the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. Well, knock me over with a feather! Who would have guessed that a bunch of punk-ass actors most of whom dont even think the country of Israel has a right to exist would mindlessly blame this massacre of Jews on Trump? I wont quote any of their vile and stupid tweets here, but instead pose a simple question: Who has been more supportive of the country of Israel and Jews in general, President Trump or the beloved Barack Hussein Obama? Trump had Israels back from the moment he set foot in office. He quickly recognized reality and moved the American embassy to Israels actual capital city of Jerusalem. Obama, on the other hand, thwarted Israel at every turn and then totally sold them out (and America as well) in the storied Iran deal to maniacs whose fondest wish in life is to orchestrate another holocaust. Trump then scrapped that deal which would have paved the way for Irans nuclear ambitions and reimposed sanctions on the terror-supporting country. Case closed. Trump wins, Obama loses. But the leftist twits of Hollywood have the unmitigated gall/stupidity to blame the massacre on Trump, even though the killer hated Trump because Trump surrounded himself with too many kikes. And then theres that other inconvenient fact that people have been irrationally hating Jews for literally thousands of years, which Trump cant really be held responsible for. Of course, its not just Hollywood. All day long and late into the night, roundtables of political commentators on left-wing cable news channels call Trump a Nazi and a white supremacist while simultaneously demanding that he tone down his rhetoric. Seriously? How is it humanly possible to be this unselfconsciously hypocritical? And all their reckless Nazi and white supremacy talk gets generalized to all Republicans, which is all the excuse unhinged leftists need to attack Republicans in public, as has happened countless times. Care to take any responsibility for that, left-wing news? But getting back to Barack Hussein O. for just a moment . . . This guy, who spends his time now going around lambasting Trump and the Republicans for divisiveness, is completely unselfaware that he is the single most towering figure in the institutionalizing of destructive identity politics in America. Consequently, it is his Democrat Party that has honed nearly to a science the weaponization of identity politics, all to the detriment of the United States. And lets not forget that virtually all the carping leftists blaming Trump for the synagogue massacre invariably defend the worlds most blatantly Jew-hating people: Muslims. In the minds of those leftists, Muslims, who make absolutely no secret about their obsessive hatred of Jews, are the poor victimized people of color and the Jews in Israel are the white interlopers who have committed genocide and occupied their land. (In other words, fake history.) The left has even made up a weasel word intended to stymie criticism of the people for whom Jew-hatred is almost as natural as breathing: Islamophobia. Its a totally fake, made-up word with the totalitarian purpose of muzzling criticism of one of the lefts pet victim groups. And lets also not forget that on American campuses, where the left reigns supreme, Israel and Jew hatred is practically on parade with near universal support for BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel and near unconditional support for Palestinians and all their associated terrorist groups. So, lets just say that the outrage being displayed by leftist Trump-haters over the synagogue massacre is as fake as it gets. What its really about is Trump hatred and a lust for gun control, not concern about Jews. In the meantime, the glorious caravan of Central American people of color continues its relentless march to the United States, even though the destination of their dreams, according to the left, is ruthlessly governed by a white supremacist whose only equal in all of history is Adolph Hitler. Are the Central Americans stupid or do they know something that our own homegrown leftists dont? Like, for instance, that there is no other place on earth where they are more likely to be able to build a decent life, and that all the rhetoric about white supremacy is total garbage? Please, Hollywood, Democrats and fake news media! Please tell us why this caravan of color would be trying to break into the equivalent of Nazi Germany! Please enlighten us! Of course, we cant just let them march into the country like they own the place, but that doesnt mean we are racist, xenophobic or anti-immigration. It means that immigration into this country needs to be legal and, ideally, based on merit and in reasonable numbers. If we just open up the borders like the left wants, we would be completely overrun by Latin America and then become indistinguishable from what the immigrants are trying to escape. Anyone who cant understand that (the left) is incapable of rational thought and you do not want them wielding political power. By the way, think about how convenient it is for the left that America, the greatest and most prosperous country in history, has as its neighbor(s) a vast region of failed or nearly failed states that are populated by people of color who all desperately want to be here instead. The left despicably exploits that fact with endless charges of racism against rational people who rightfully want to control Americas borders. But imagine if all those poor countries south of our border were predominantly white. Would conservatives be okay with letting them overrun the country? Of course not! But neither would the left be demanding that they be let in (like they do with Latinos) because in their minds the last thing we need is more white people. President Trump is right. The fake news media is the enemy of the people. Whether were talking about immigration or a synagogue shooting, youre not going to get the unbiased truth from these people. They are blatant advocates for the Democrat Party and left-wing ideology and they lie, twist and distort reality in order to promote their political agenda. They have no interest in fairness or honesty and they see conservative white Americans as more of a threat than the limitless hordes of poor, uneducated, low-skilled Latinos who would overrun this country if we let them. Trump is known as a deal maker. Heres one that he should offer the Hollywood crowd: For every leftist celebrity who agrees to permanently leave the country, he would let in ten Central Americans (fully vetted, of course). Imagine how much America would be improved if he could just empty out most of Hollywood with such a trade. Now that would be the art of the deal! Greg Strange can be reached at gpstrange30341@yahoo.com. (c) 2018 Greg Strange. Home Systemax Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a direct marketer of brand name and private label industrial and business equipment and supplies in North America. It sells a range of maintenance, repair, and operation products, including storage and shelving, material handling, janitorial and maintenance products, furniture and office products, workbenches and shop desks, HVAC/R and fans, safety and security products, outdoor and grounds maintenance products, tools and instruments, and office and school supplies. The company also sells plumbing products and pumps, packaging products and supplies, electrical and lighting products, food service products and appliances, raw materials and building supplies, motors and power transmission products, pneumatics and hydraulics, medical and laboratory equipment, metalworking and cutting tools, vehicle maintenance products, and fasteners and hardware. It offers its products under the Global, GlobalIndustrial.com, Nexel Paramount, and Interion brand names. The company offers its products to businesses, educational organizations, and government entities through relationship marketers, catalogs, and e-commerce sites. Systemax Inc. was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Port Washington, New York. Read More Versum Materials, Inc. develops, manufactures, transports, and handles specialty materials for the semiconductor and display industries in the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Europe, and rest of Asia. The company operates through two segments, Materials, and Delivery Systems and Services (DS&S). The Materials segment provides specialty chemicals and materials used in semiconductors, as well as specialty gases used in the semiconductor manufacturing process, including high purity process materials for deposition, metallization, chamber cleaning, and etching; chemicals mechanical planarization slurries; organosilanes; organometallics and liquid dopants for thin film deposition; and formulated chemical products for post-etch cleaning primarily for the manufacture of silicon and compound semiconductors, and thin film transistor liquid crystal displays. The DS&S segment develops, designs, manufactures, and sells bulk gas, specialty gas, and specialty chemical cabinets and systems, which are used to manage the delivery of key materials into the semiconductor manufacturing process; and flow and temperature control systems and analytical systems to capture data. It is also involved in the project management for installation and startup of the gas and chemical delivery systems, and inventory management; and provision of spare parts, equipment upgrades, equipment maintenance, and training services. In addition, this segment offers on-site services to assist customers in managing the inventory of gases and chemicals comprising ordering, product changes and monitoring, quality assurance, operation of delivery systems, and managing the bulk gas and specialty gas operations. Versum Materials, Inc. was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona. Read More The Trump administration's extraordinary midterm record By Mark Alexander Donald Trumps now famous 2016 "Make America Great Again" promise was, and remains, much more than a campaign slogan. Even The New York Times conceded after President Trump's first year in office, "A wave of optimism has swept over American business leaders, and it is beginning to translate into the sort of investment in new plants, equipment and factory upgrades that bolsters economic growth, spurs job creation and may finally raise wages significantly." That optimism, economic expansion, and job and wage growth have accelerated in the nine months since his first inaugural address "Our New American Moment." The indisputable results of Trump's domestic policy successes, combined with his administration's considerable foreign policy achievements, have ensured that all Americans are better off today than we were two years ago. But those stuck in Democrat echo chambers and afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome are so clinically depressed that they believe this to be the most miserable era in our nation's history. In the depths of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt famously declared in his first inaugural address, "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. ... We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity." But today's Democrat Party "leaders," in their insatiable and increasingly irrational quest to recover power, have nothing to offer their constituents but fear and disunity. This midterm election has, as President Trump has repeatedly framed it, become a contest between jobs and mobs. The once-left-of-center Democrats have moved to the far Left, with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and the 2016 runner-up to Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders (S-VT), leading the charge toward their new socialist political platform. To be clear, and as a public service notice for those who don't know their history, the terminus of democratic socialism is Marxist communism and statist tyranny. In other words, most Democrat constituents are easy marks for such delusional political charades. Ahead of next tomorrows midterm elections, the two most formidable instruments of influence the Democrats have in their campaign strategy armory are their Leftmedia propaganda machine and their toxic femininity movement, the latter having weaponized a range of emotional issues. Majorities of women voters have elected every Democrat president since 1960 and have been a major force in midterm elections. Democrats are thus counting on their perennial gender gap political calculus that a majority of their female voters are emotionally incontinent dupes, lacking the discernment to avoid being co-opted by the Left's three main emotive appeals: so-called "reproductive rights," gender dysphoria, and the plight of illegal immigrant families. Democrats' disgraceful effort to derail the Supreme Court nomination of now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh was a bust, and their contrived Russia collusion farce has been withering for months. (Hypocrisy alert: Democrats have spent almost two years insisting that the Russians helped Trump defeat Clinton but their Leftmedia outlets exercise infinitely more corrupting influence on the electoral process than a handful of Russian hackers.) In short, this election is a referendum on Demo voter IQ and whether some Democrat constituents can rise above the Leftmedia chokehold on their opinion in order to see that our nation is much, much, much better off now than it was two years ago, when Donald Trump succeeded Barack Obama. It's doubtful that many of the Left's low-information and low-expectation voters will make that leap, especially if 50 years of public school "education" has reached critical mass. The trend indicates most Democrats will vote against peace and prosperity. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is to be credited with shepherding significant Trump-agenda legislation through a divided chamber, observed this week: "My Democratic colleagues have grown desperate. In the two years their party has sat on the sidelines, our nation has thrived under Republican leadership. That must be why, month after month, on issue after issue, Democrats and their far-left allies have tried to replace inconvenient facts with pure partisan scare tactics. When facts fail, the far Left ratchets up the fear." At this time two years ago, I wrote to you in the midst of a contentious presidential election cycle that resulted in perhaps the most remarkable electoral upset in American history. And now, as we approach the 2018 midterms, I hope the so-called "blue wave" has been overstated, just as the inevitability of Hillary Clinton was in 2016. On the Demo/MSM threat to Republican majorities in the House and Senate, President Trump warned, "We have made so much progress. We don't want to give up that progress. We can't allow that to happen. Under Republican leadership, America is booming like never before because we are finally putting America first. More Americans are working today than at any point in the history of our country." What follows is a brief record of this administration's considerable domestic and foreign policy achievements, which should be reason enough for every rational American to vote to sustain Republican majorities in the House and Senate. On the judiciary: In 2016, when endorsing Donald Trump, I wrote that my vote was for the Supreme Court. Indeed, President Trump has kept his commitment to nominate constructionist jurists, the two most prominent being Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. But Trump has also nominated and received confirmation for a record number of conservative judges to the lower courts, and he has a slate of additional conservative judges on deck for Senate confirmation. In addition to his two SCOTUS confirmations, Republicans have confirmed 53 district court judges and 29 appellate court judges. Republicans have reshaped the judiciary and returned it to a majority who will abide by their oaths "to support and defend" our Constitution, and thus, the Rule of Law it enshrines, not the Left's so-called "living constitution." On the economy and regulation: You can read a comprehensive list of more than 280 Trump promises kept to date, but the most tangible results are substantial increases in jobs and wages. The Trump administration launched the best first-term economy of any administration in three decades, with GDP growing at a very healthy 3.5% annual rate last quarter, up from 1.8% in Trump's first quarter. That growth is in large measure due to considerable tax cuts included in the The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act passed by Congress. It is also attributable to the most substantial cuts in bureaucratic red tape and government deregulation in decades. Since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed, the U.S. added 1,875,000 jobs in 2018, 23% more than the same period in 2017, and 65% of taxpayers received an average tax cut of $2,200 dollars. Household income is at an all-time high, with wages increasing steadily. The House has passed additional tax cuts, which are now before the Senate. Consumer confidence is at an 18-year high. The U.S. economy is now ranked the world's most competitive for the first time in a decade. Unemployment is at its lowest level in nearly half a century. Record-high job openings have exceeded the unemployed roles for five months. Blue-collar optimism is soaring. Black Americans are among the major beneficiaries of the Trump economy. Hispanic Americans are also reaping the benefits of the Trump economy. New entrepreneurship and small-business records are being set. Small-business optimism is at a record high. The Trump administration has also undone many of Obama's so-called "Affordable Care Act" mandates, because that grossly misnamed regulatory behemoth was choking the U.S. economy. While endeavoring to bring more competition to health care markets, the administration is improving long-term health care and patient care through the Raise Family Caregiver Act, the FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017, the Protecting Patient Access to Emergency Medications Act of 2017, and the Right to Try Act of 2017. But make no mistake: All these achievements are at risk. There will be a necessary readjustment from this economic expansion if Democrats win control of even one chamber of Congress. If Republicans retain congressional majorities, however, this economic boom is poised to continue. On national defense and foreign policy: The Trump administration is rebuilding our military capabilities, which were dangerously neglected during the Obama years. The administration is decommissioning Democrat efforts to convert our nation's military into a social-engineering laboratory. Trump's promise to right the ship at the Department of Veterans Affairs is well underway with passage of the VA Mission Act, the Veterans Appeals Improvement And Modernization Act, the VA Choice And Quality Employment Act, and the Veterans Accountability And Whistleblower Protection Act. Trump's tough stance on terrorism has resulted in the containment or outright defeat of Islamic State strongholds around the world. Trump's Middle East policies have restored stability in Iraq not seen in three decades. We are out of Obama's absurd and disastrous Iran "nuke deal. Trump opened a dialogue with Red China's NoKo puppet dictator, Kim Jong-un, and is making progress toward disarming the Korean Peninsula. The administration has implemented strong sanctions against Russia for its repeated international transgressions. Indeed, even NPR admits that the Trump administration has been tougher on Russia than any previous presidential administration. We exited Obama's statist Paris Agreement on climate rather than being unfairly hamstrung by it. And notably, previous administrations have promised for decades to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. But only Donald Trump followed through on that promise. On migrant invasion: There has been considerable progress on immigration and border security, slowing the catch and release rates, and ending the visa lottery and chain migration. There have been significant resources directed to combat violent immigrant gangs and drug networks. The administration also has plans to stop sanctuary cities and is still seeking congressional approval for a border wall. How did the Trump administration make such extraordinary progress toward the betterment of all Americans? A friend in the Senate, one who's been a critic of Donald Trump since his election, conceded recently that, looking back over the last 20 months, it took a brazen and brash outsider like Trump to actually move the political policy needle from the left back to the center. As I noted last year, "The day Trump arrived in DC, he dropped a bomb on the status quo in Congress and its special interests. He dropped a bomb on the regulatory behemoths and their bureaucratic bottlenecks. He dropped a bomb on the trade and national security institutions and alliances that failed miserably over the previous eight years. And he dropped a bomb on all the pundits and mainstream media outlets." So ... why are leftists intent on voting against peace and prosperity? That question brings us full circle. This election is a referendum on Demo voter IQ and whether some Democrat constituents can rise above the Leftmedia chokehold on their opinion in order to see that our nation is MUCH better off now than it was two years ago. Let's hope enough of them can make that leap in order to retain the Senate and House. Mark Alexander is the executive editor of the Patriot Post. The following companies are subsidiares of TransDigm Group: 1711 Waterview Pkwy LLC, ARA Deutschland GmbH, ARA Holding GmbH, Acme Aerospace, Adams Rite Aerospace GmbH, Adams Rite Aerospace Inc., Advanced Inflatable Products Limited, Aero-Instruments, AeroControlex Group Inc., Aerosonic, Aerosonic LLC, Air-Sea Survival Equipment Trustee Limited, Airborne Acquisition Inc., Airborne Global Inc., Airborne Holdings Inc., Airborne Systems, Airborne Systems Canada Ltd., Airborne Systems Group Limited, Airborne Systems Holdings Limited, Airborne Systems Limited, Airborne Systems NA Inc., Airborne Systems North America Inc., Airborne Systems North America of CA Inc., Airborne Systems North America of NJ Inc., Airborne Systems Pension Trust Limited, Airborne UK Acquisition Limited, Airborne UK Parent Limited, Aircraft Materials Limited, AmSafe, AmSafe Aviation (Chongqing) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Private) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport Ltd., AmSafe Global Holdings Inc., AmSafe Global Services (Private) Limited, AmSafe Inc., Angus Electronics Co., Arkwin Industries, Arkwin Industries Inc., Auxitrol SAS, Auxitrol Weston Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Auxitrol Weston Singapore Pte. Ltd., Auxitrol Weston USA Inc., Aviation Technologies, Aviation Technologies Inc., Avionic Instruments LLC, Avionics Instruments, Avionics Specialties Inc., AvtechTyee Inc., Beta Transformer Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Beta Transformer Technology Corporation, Beta Transformer Technology LLC, Breeze-Eastern Corporation, Breeze-Eastern LLC, Bridport Erie Aviation Inc., Bridport Holdings Inc., Bridport Ltd., Bridport-Air Carrier Inc., Bruce Aerospace Inc., Bruce Industries, CDA InterCorp LLC, CEF Industries LLC, CMC Electronics Inc., CMC Electronics ME Inc., Champion Aerospace LLC, Cobham, DDC Electronics K.K., DDC Electronics Ltd., DDC Electronics Private Limited, DDC Electronique S.A.R.L., DDC Elektronik GmbH, Darchem Engineering Limited, Darchem Holdings Limited, Data Device Corp., Data Device Corporation, Dukes Aerospace Inc., EST Defence Company UK Limited, Edlaw Limited, Electromech Technologies LLC, Elektro-Metall Export GmbH, Elektro-Metall Paks KFT, Esterline, Esterline Acquisition Ltd, Esterline Europe Company LLC, Esterline Foreign Sales Corporation, Esterline International Company, Esterline Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Esterline Services China Ltd., Esterline Technologies Acquisition Ltd, Esterline Technologies Corporation, Esterline Technologies Europe Limited, Esterline Technologies France Holding SAS, Esterline Technologies French Acquisition Limited, Esterline Technologies Global Limited, Esterline Technologies Holdings Limited, Esterline Technologies Management France SAS, Esterline Technologies SGIP LLC, Esterline Technologies Unlimited, Esterline do Brasil Assessoria e Intermediacao Ltda, Extant Components Group Holdings Inc., Extant Components Group Intermediate Inc., GQ Parachutes Limited, Guizhou Leach-Tianyi Aviation Electrical Company Ltd, Harco, HarcoSemco LLC, Hartwell Corporation, ILC Holdings Inc., Irvin Aerospace Limited, IrvinGQ France SAS, IrvinGQ Limited, Janco Corporation, Johnson Liverpool LLC, Jupiter SAS, Kirkhill Elastomers, Kirkhill Inc., Kunshan Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., Leach Holding Corporation, Leach International Asia-Pacific Ltd, Leach International Europe S.A.S., Leach International Mexico S. de R. L. de C. V., Leach International UK Ltd, Leach Technology Group Inc., MarathonNorco Aerospace Inc., McKechnie Aerospace, McKechnie Aerospace (Europe) Ltd., McKechnie Aerospace DE Inc., McKechnie Aerospace DE LP, McKechnie Aerospace Holdings Inc., McKechnie Aerospace US LLC, Mecanismos de Matamoros S.A. de C.V., Militair Aviation Ltd., Norco, Nordisk Asia Pacific Limited, Nordisk Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Nordisk Aviation Products (Kunshan) Ltd., Nordisk Aviation Products AS, North Hills Signal Processing Corp., North Hills Signal Processing Overseas Corp., Norwich Aero Products Inc., Pascall Electronics Limited, Pexco Aerospace, Pexco Aerospace Inc., PneuDraulics, PneuDraulics Inc., Pressure Systems International Ltd, Racal Acoustics Inc., Racal Acoustics Limited, Rancho TransTechnology Corporation, Retainers Inc., SSP Industries, Schneller, Schneller Asia Pte. Ltd., Schneller LLC, Schneller S.A.R.L., Schroth Safety Products, ScioTeq LLC, ScioTeq Ltd., ScioTeq Pte. Ltd., ScioTeq SAS, ScioTeq bvba, Semco Instruments, Semco Instruments Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., Signal Processing Matamoros S.A. de C.V., Skandia, Skandia Inc., Skurka Aerospace, Skurka Aerospace Inc., Symetrics Industries, Symetrics Industries LLC, Symetrics Technology Group LLC, TA Mfg Limited, TDG ESL Holdings Inc., TDG France Ultimate Parent SAS, TDG Germany GmbH, TEAC Aerospace Holdings Inc., TEAC Aerospace Technologies Inc., TREALITY SVS LLC, TTERUSA Inc., Tactair Fluid Controls Inc., Takata Protection Systems, Technical Airborne Components Industries SPRL, Telair International, Telair International AB, Telair International GmbH, Telair International LLC, Telair International Services PTE Ltd, Telair US LLC, Texas Rotronics Inc., TransDigm (Barbados) SRL, TransDigm Canada ULC, TransDigm European Holdings Limited, TransDigm Ireland Ltd., TransDigm Receivables LLC, TransDigm UK Holdings plc, Transicoil (Malaysia) Sendirian Berhad, Transicoil LLC, Wallop Industries Limited, Weston Aerospace Ltd, Whippany Actuation Systems, Whippany Actuation Systems LLC, XCEL Power Systems Ltd., Young & Franklin, and Young & Franklin Inc.. Deutsche BArse AG operates as an exchange organization in Europe, the United States, and the Asia-Pacific. The company operates through seven segments: Eurex (Financial Derivatives), EEX (Commodities), 360T (Foreign Exchange), Xetra (Cash Equities), Clearstream (Post-Trading), IFS (Investment Fund Services), and Qontigo (index and analytics business). The company engages in the electronic trading of derivatives, electricity and gas products, emission rights, and foreign exchange; operating of Eurex Repo over the counter (OTC) trading platform and electronic clearing architecture; and operating as a central counterparty for on-and-off exchange derivatives, repo transactions, and OTC and exchange-traded derivatives. It also operates in the cash market through Xetra, BArse Frankfurt, and Tradegate trading venues; operates as a central counterparty for equities and bonds; and provides listing services. In addition, the company offers custody and settlement services for securities; investment fund services; global securities financing services; and global securities finance and collateral management, as well as secured money, market transaction, and repos and securities lending transaction services. Further, it develops and markets indices, as well as portfolio management and risk analysis software; markets licenses for trading and market signals; provides technology and reporting solutions for external customers; and offers link-up of trading participants. Deutsche BArse AG was founded in 1585 and is headquartered in Eschborn, Germany. Read More EVRAZ Plc is a holding company, which engages in the production and distribution of steel, vanadium, and coal products. It operates through the following segments: Steel, Steel North America, Coal, and Other Operations. The Steel segment offers steel and related products; vanadium products; extraction of vanadium ore; and iron ore mining. The Steel North America segment produces steel and related products in the US and Canada. The Coal segment covers coal mining and enrichment. The Other Operations segment consists of energy-generating, shipping, and railway transportation firms. The company was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More MVC Capital, Inc. is a business development company specializing in equity, acquisition financing, mezzanine financing, management buyouts, leveraged buildups, corporate partnerships, PIPE transactions, going private transactions, private company recapitalizations, operational turnarounds, and growth and expansion capital transaction financing. The company seeks to invest in mature, small, and middle-market companies. It seeks to invest in companies in the consumer products, business services, industrial manufacturing and services, automotive retailing, energy, food and food service, financial services, insurance, industrial distribution and value-added distribution, medical devices and equipment, specialty chemicals, and security sectors. The company prefers to invest in companies based in the United States. The firm typically invests between $3 million and $25 million for control and non-control stakes in companies with revenues between $10 million and $150 million and EBITDA between $3 million and $25 million. It prefers to be the lead investor in transactions and also co-invests in companies with other private equity sponsors. The company invests in the form of preferred and common equity, and warrants or rights to acquire equity interests; bridge loans; term loans; debt; cash flow loans; senior and subordinated loans; convertible securities; venture capital; mezzanine; and private equity investments. It exits its investments in the form of maturity of loan, public offering, sale, mergers and acquisitions, and financial recapitalizations. It prefers to take majority stake in companies. Read More With high-stakes midterm elections looming, US President Donald Trump has placed immigration front and center, doubling down on his claims in speeches and campaign ads tying immigrants to crime. But many researchers argue that immigrants are, in fact, less likely to commit crimes. Here's a look at some key statistics, where they come from and what people on different sides of the debate say about them. 11.3 million That's the latest estimate of the number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center. That's less than 4% of the total US population. 105,736 The number of immigrants ICE arrested in fiscal year 2017 who were convicted criminals. ICE says it's committed to targeting "criminal aliens" for arrest and removal. Advocates accuse ICE of inflating statistics about criminals by including minor charges such as traffic offenses in its tally. 83,573 The number of inmates in state and federal prisons who are not US citizens, according to the latest prison population report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. That's less than 6% of the total prison population. The report says that the total number of inmates who are not US citizens could, in fact, be higher, noting that some states may have undercounted this figure and others did not provide information. A past report from the bureau cautioned that different jurisdictions use different definitions for "noncitizens," at times basing the statistic on where people were born regardless of their citizenship status. 21% Administration officials have noted that roughly one in five inmates in federal prison are foreign-born, and that the vast majority of those people are in the United States illegally. They argue such statistics show the dangers illegal immigration poses to society. "The illegal immigrant crime rate in this country should be zero," US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement earlier this year. "Every crime committed by an illegal alien is, by definition, a crime that should have been prevented." Advocates have slammed statistics released by the administration. "The vast majority of immigrants in federal prison are there for crimes that only immigrants can be charged with -- illegal entry and illegal entry after removal," Tom Jawetz, the vice president for immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, told The New York Times last year. "When you cook the books you shouldn't pretend to be surprised by the results." 719 The criminal conviction rate per 100,000 immigrants in Texas. This number comes from a study by the Cato Institute, which uses figures from Texas in 2015 as a case study to look at how crime rates compare among immigrant and native-born populations. "The criminal conviction and arrest rates for immigrants were well below those of native-born Americans," Cato's Alex Nowrasteh wrote. According to the libertarian think tank's analysis, the rate per 100,000 residents in each subpopulation was 899 for undocumented immigrants, 611 for legal immigrants and 1,797 for native-born Americans. 142% This is how much more likely undocumented immigrants are to be convicted of a crime than other Arizonans, according to a study of data in that state by economist John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center. This study has been pointed to by the Justice Department and by a number of politicians and organizations who favor restricting immigration. It's also drawn sharp criticism from the Cato Institute and other researchers, who argue that the study misinterpreted data. Lott has stood by his research. An analysis of the study and critiques by The Washington Post's Fact Checker was inconclusive. 25 The number of years of crime and immigration data researchers looked at in a recent study published in the journal Criminology. "Increases in the undocumented immigrant population within states are associated with significant decreases in the prevalence of violence," authors Michael Light and Ty Miller wrote. An analysis of data from 1990-2014, they said, suggests "undocumented immigration over this period is generally associated with decreasing violent crime." The authors noted that more research needs to be done, and that it's possible the data could be interpreted differently. "Because we are using official crime statistics," they wrote, "there is a plausible alternative interpretation: Increased unauthorized immigration results in fewer crimes reported to the police." In a release from the University of Wisconsin-Madison announcing the study's findings, Light, a sociology professor, said it's important to look at data as the immigration debate continues. "I think public debate divorced entirely from data is problematic," he said. "There are reasons to think undocumented immigrants would increase crime, but the data doesn't support those arguments. It's telling us that has not been the case." Clinton, NY--The Physics students at Hamilton college have been working towards this moment for a little over a year. All of the hard work and tests has finally built up to this moment, launch day. Students launched their weather balloon on campus in Dunham Green surrounded by curious students and proud staff members. "Oh, this is just so cool, its fun to see the culmination of all the work that has gone into this all of these troubleshooting pieces that have happened in the background that I can help with, but really the students have taken the lead on. So, its really gratifying to see all of their work just coming together in this launch." said Kristen Burson, the Advisor to the Society of Physics students at Hamilton College. Hamilton College has always been known for having a commitment to studying science. That commitment dates back to 1854 when the college founded the 2nd largest observatory at the time, the Litchfield Observatory. The curiosity about physics and what lies beyond our atmosphere has ultimately led to this launch an estimated 160 years later. The launch was just a test. But they did place a camera in the box along with a GPS transmitter to track it. After a few hours of flight time and reaching a peak altitude of 60,000 feet, it landed nowhere near the area they launched in, but in New Hampshire. The students are very excited about the result and plan on traveling to find the box carrying the camera and GPS the following weekend. GEDDES, N.Y. (AP) - The new Exposition Center at the New York State Fair will be hosting the first drone racing competition ever held in upstate New York. State officials say the Empire Drone Expo and Racing Competition will be held Nov. 17-18 at the fairgrounds in the Syracuse suburb of Geddes. The event will feature a micro-drone race, drone pilot training classes and exhibits highlighting upstate drone technology companies. Local groups including Finger Lakes Drone Racing are organizing the event. Admission is free. Drone races will be held in the 110,000-square-foot Exposition Center, which opened in August. New York state has invested more than $40 million into developing the area between Syracuse and Rome into a drone testing corridor for high-tech companies developing new uses for unmanned aerial technology. (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) On 23 October, the national authorities of Bulgaria and Spain, supported from a coordination centre at Eurojust, arrested 13 people (four in Bulgaria and nine in Spain) and searched 17 properties. More than 30 600 pieces of cultural heritage artefacts, mostly comprising real and counterfeit coins, were seized from an organised crime group (OCG) involved in the looting and illegal trafficking of cultural goods from Bulgarian archaeological sites as well as the online sale of counterfeit goods in Spain. Approximately EUR 180 000 in cash was also seized. The action day was supported by Eurojust and Europol. The Specialised Prosecution Office of Bulgaria, together with the Investigative Court 1 of Torrent (Valencia), supported by the Provincial Prosecutor's Office in Valencia, coordinated the work of the Spanish Guardia Civil Operational Central Unit and the Bulgarian Investigative Department at the Specialised Prosecution Office, the General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime of Bulgaria, and the General Directorate National Police of Bulgaria, in an action day on 23 October. As discovered during the investigation, the leaders of the OCG in Spain were living in Valencia; they had links with others in the provinces of Alicante, Murcia, Segovia and Zaragoza, as well as Bulgaria. Eurojust and Europol were asked to assist in both the Bulgarian and the Spanish proceedings, coordinating judicial and police actions requested from Spain. This cross-border cooperation also led to the arrest of the OCG members residing in Bulgaria. Eurojust held one coordination meeting to share information, discuss jurisdictional issues and plan the action day to take place within just three weeks. All of those arrested are accused of membership in a criminal organisation, crimes against protected historical heritage, illegal trafficking of cultural goods, swindling, money laundering, forgery of official documents and alteration in prices in public tenders and auctions. Seized during the searches were more than 20 000 authentic and forged coins, several vehicles, laptops and other IT equipment, as well as 36 machine dies to produce counterfeit coins, as well as Greek and Roman ceramics and sculptures, helmets, funeral urns, brooches, chandeliers, rings, amulets, arrowheads and spears. In addition, metal detectors were seized, along with other devices used to manufacture coins and other objects and manipulate them to look antique so that they could to be sold online. Due to the volume of seized items, other objects still need to be evaluated. During the action day, European Arrest Warrants, European Investigation Orders and freezing orders were exchanged and executed. GREATER LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) -- Calvary Chapel in Lafayette is looking for your help in donating coats to veterans and other homeless members of the community for its 4th annual coat drive. Tippecanoe County has nearly 1,000 homeless members, many of them being veterans. Douglas Kiser, Calvary Chapel Outreach Coordinator, is working to get them clothed as we head into the colder season. When it's zero, minus ten, minus 20 degrees, these people are sleeping outside in this kind of weather and you wonder how they make it, said Kiser. In the past, the only donation box was located at the church, this year they've expanded their drop of locations to Dunkin Donuts and Culver's in Lafayette. This is to get out as many coats as possible. There's lots of homeless people that are living out there in the streets, sleeping in the snow on park benches and it's extremely cold so just a small part that we can do is to provide them with something warm to wear, said Kiser. Brennan Sprague, Dunkin Donuts General Manager and Lafayette native said hes happy he can use his business to help the homeless community. I've been here my whole life and it just seems like it's a really good city as far as giving back to the community and just really trying to help out, and I'm just happy that we can help out with coats, scarves, gloves anything that's possible for, you know, anybody getting cold this winter, said Sprague. William, a local homeless veteran who served as an Army Ranger for 15 years, said shelters do what they can to help but they often run out clothing. If you get too many people, then they run out of stuff, you know, sometimes they might have a jacket but sometimes it may not fit one guy compared to the other guy, said William. William said he's grateful that this drive is in our community. I can't get into shelters so I have to stay outside and, you know, this coat drive, I think it's great cause, you know, if I need a new coat... I just go get me another coat, said William. Kiser said that this coat drive is also taking place in Kokomo and at a church in Tennessee. This is actually multi-state now, after three years we go to different places and the Lord's just blessing it, it's growing each year, said Kiser. The Calvary Chapel coat drive has given out more than 1,500 coats through the years. The church will be collecting coats the entire month of November. Coats will be distributed December 3rd and 7th at Transitional Housing and LUM. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) The FBI is on scene at the Nanshan America Advanced Aluminum Technologies plant in Lafayette, according to assistant HR manager Nicki Huerta. Multiple employees from the finance department reached out to News 18 Tuesday morning and said they had been released for the day, although the FBI has not confirmed anything. Huerta told News 18's Kayla Sullivan she isn't sure why the FBI is there, but the production line is still working. Nanshan America is a 600,000 square foot facility on U.S. 52 in the southern portion of Tippecanoe County. It specializes in aluminum casting and extrusion, according to its website. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Craig Moringiello said the bureau was in the area doing law enforcement activity this morning. However, he would not say why agents were at the China-based aluminum extrusion manufacturing company. He told News 18 he could not add any more information, even if arrests are made at the facility. The Tippecanoe Sheriff's Office confirmed it played a small role in the FBI's visit to Nanshan. Deputies secured the scene for about 15 minutes upon the FBI's arrival while some employees were sent home. However, the sheriff's office says it doesn't know what the investigation was about. The warrant was sealed. Nanshan said it has no comment on the matter at this time. An 11-year-old boy shot and killed his grandmother after she told him to clean his room. It happened in Litchfield Park, Arizona, where police say the boy shot his grandma in the back of the head while she was watching TV with her husband on Sunday. The boy's grandfather says he ran after him at first but then returned to help his wife. Seconds later, he says he heard another gunshot when the boy fatally shot himself. Authorities say there had been no prior concern that the boy would do something like this. According to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, the handgun belonged to the grandfather. The incident is currently under investigation. The day after the DOJ announced FCPA and money-laundering conspiracy charges against Jho Low and two former Goldman Sachs bankers, Goldman itself published an update about the 1MDB case and ongoing investigations. Goldmans update appeared Friday in an SEC filing under the disclosure heading 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB)-Related Matters. The disclosure a model of clear and concise writing is balanced. Perhaps previewing the basis for an eventual FCPA settlement with the feds, Goldman describes among other things its own weak internal controls and sick business culture. Goldman doesnt mention that it earned about $600 million in fees from the bribery-tainted 1MDB bond work. (Would the firm disgorge that amount to reach an FCPA resolution with the SEC or DOJ or both?) And Goldman doesnt say who earned bonuses from the 1MDB windfall. Still, the disclosure is dense with facts and tells the story well, albeit from Goldmans perspective. Heres Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.s full 1MDB disclosure from its November 2, 2018 Form 10-Q, courtesy of FCPA Tracker: * * * 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB)-Related Matters The firm has received subpoenas and requests for documents and information from various governmental and regulatory bodies and self-regulatory organizations as part of investigations and reviews relating to financing transactions and other matters involving 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund in Malaysia. Subsidiaries of the firm acted as arrangers or purchasers of approximately $6.5 billion of debt securities of 1MDB. On November 1, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed a criminal information and guilty plea by Tim Leissner, a former participating managing director of the firm, and an indictment against Ng Chong Hwa, a former managing director of the firm, and Low Taek Jho. Leissner pleaded guilty to a two-count criminal information charging him with conspiring to launder money and conspiring to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Acts (FCPA) anti-bribery and internal accounting controls provisions. Low and Ng were charged in a three-count indictment with conspiring to launder money and conspiring to violate the FCPAs anti-bribery provisions. Ng was also charged in this indictment with conspiring to violate the FCPAs internal accounting controls provisions. The charging documents state, among other things, that Leissner and Ng participated in a conspiracy to misappropriate proceeds of the 1MDB offerings for themselves and to pay bribes to various government officials to obtain and retain 1MDB business for the firm. The plea and charging documents indicate that Leissner and Ng knowingly and willfully circumvented the firms system of internal accounting controls, in part by repeatedly lying to control personnel and internal committees that reviewed these offerings. The indictment of Ng and Low alleges that the firms system of internal accounting controls could be easily circumvented and that the firms business culture, particularly in Southeast Asia, at times prioritized consummation of deals ahead of the proper operation of its compliance functions. In addition, an unnamed participating managing director of the firm is alleged to have been aware of the bribery scheme and to have agreed not to disclose this information to the firms compliance and control personnel. That employee, who was identified as a co-conspirator, has been put on leave. The firm is cooperating with the DOJ and all other governmental and regulatory investigations relating to 1MDB. The firm is unable to predict the outcome of the DOJs investigation. However, any proceedings by the DOJ or other governmental or regulatory authorities could result in the imposition of significant fines, penalties and other sanctions against the firm. ____ Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. Deputies are looking for an 18 year old they say forced themselves into a home and stole several items. Kanawha County Deputies are searching for Daniel Hunter Walke, 18, after they say he broke into a home on Empire Drive in St. Albans, and stole several items back in September. Walke faces charges of burglary and grand larceny. Investigators say they have been able to recover some of the stolen items. If you have any information on Walke or his whereabouts you're asked to call the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department. Two workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore, Maryland died late Friday after a partial building collapse triggered by a severe weather event. Both workers were trapped under a layer of rubble after a 50-foot wall fell. The first man was found during debris removal Friday night and transferred to a hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. Firefighters found the second mans body Saturday morning. The two men were identified Saturday as Andrew Lindsey, 54, and Israel Espana Argote, 37. Amazon officials revealed that neither of the victims were actual employees, but rather third-party contractors. Lindsey, the first man found, had been a material handling technician for real estate consulting firm JLL. The second, Espana Argote, owned one of the many small truck companies contracted by Amazon. Espana, a father of three, had immigrated to the US from Bolivia a decade ago. According to the National Weather Service, a tornado hit Baltimore and Baltimore County on Friday. The tornado struck the Amazon building shortly after making landfall at 9:42 p.m., pulling off part of the roof as well as the iron rafters. Once the wall came off, the eight-inch concrete panels within destabilized and collapsed. The storm also knocked over a light pole and filled the surrounding roads with debris that smashed car windows. The tornado then lifted briefly before touching down again, striking a nearby apartment complex and pulling off the roof of one of its buildings. No injuries were reported, but several tenants were displaced. The tornado was an EF-1 with a maximum wind speed of 105 mph. It is the first deadly tornado to strike the greater Baltimore/DC area since 2002. An EF-1, under what is known as the Enhanced Fujita Scale, is considered weak in strengthabove only that of an EF-0. In other words, the disaster was entirely preventable had proper construction methods and safety measures been employed. According to several news reports, workers had taken refuge in their cars outside in the parking lot during the storm while debris flew overhead. An article posted on USTornadoes.com, a website published by a meteorologist and the information lead for the Washington Post s Capital Weather Gang, titled Weak tornadoes are deadly, too states: [T]he deadliest weak tornadoes tend to strike those who are not in well constructed[sic] buildings. Examining the period since 1991 one finds that the lion-share of weak tornado deaths occurred in mobile homes, a vehicle, or outside. The article concludes: If underground shelter is not available, the odds of surviving any tornado greatly increase by putting as much sturdy structure between lives and the wind. This is particularly the case with weak tornadoes, as they are generally quite survivable if the right preparations are taken. Amazons market capitalization reached over $1 trillion in value in September, making it the second company to do so in US history after Apple. Amazons share value has soared by 108 percent in the past year alone. A massive operation, Amazon is international in nature, employing 566,000 people across five continents. It utilizes state-of-the-art technology and information systems to mobilize and integrate the worldwide distribution of millions of goods. But the immense profits produced on the backs of its workforce are not used to improve conditions for the masses of people treated as nothing more than fodder for the profits of the super-rich. Amazon whistleblower Shannon Allen, who attracted worldwide attention when she began posting videos on YouTube documenting her descent into homelessness after being injured at Amazon, spoke with the International Amazon Workers Voice on the tragedy. As a resident of Texas, Allen is familiar with what to do in case of a tornado. What youre supposed to do is to get in the stairwell during any inclement weather like that, she explained. Why these people were out in the warehouse during tornadic activity is beyond me. Somebody dropped the ball on this. Their first concern is not safety. Im telling you that now. Their only concern is covering their asses because of course theyre gonna blame the contractor. Theyre gonna blame the employee. Everybodys gonna get the blame but Amazon. She went on to detail the lack of any type of emergency response regimen at Amazon facilities. We never had a fire drill, we never had a safety drill, anything! She said. We didnt even know if they had alarms to get to a safe area. I dont even know if theyre gonna warn employees about something like that. Its so loud at the warehouse, it really does sound like a tornado in there anyway! Allen continued describing the effect of such conditions at the web giant, once described as a great example of whats possible by then-president Barack Obama in 2013. OSHA came into their warehouse a month ago and wanted to do hearing tests on people and discovered workers were getting hearing damage. So then it became mandatory that everybody in the warehouse wear earplugs. So even if there was an alarm going on, how would they hear it? They need some type of light also to warn employees! I could believe that [this happened], she said. My friend who works in Moreno Valley in California was an employee when those fires had gotten out of control and were getting closer and closer. They never let the employees off work, even when the whole facility was filled with smoke. They wouldnt even let employees go home to save their homes, let alone save themselves! They still had to come to work every day in that smoke filled warehouse. It is likewise significant that the tragedy occurred in Maryland. Considered to be in the top of the running as a location for the corporations second headquarters HQ2 project, the state offered Amazon an $8.5 billion tax break earlier this year in an effort to entice the company to choose Montgomery County, in the Washington, DC suburbs, as the site for its new facility. The tax break package, which is the largest offer in the country so far, will serve to further siphon off funds from the very infrastructure programs needed to prevent the loss of life and damage that occurred Friday night. The German Social Democrats (SPD) hope that a right-wing candidate will become the new leader of their coalition partner, the Christian Democrats (CDU), after Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she will not stand for re-election as party leader at the CDU congress in December. The SPD argues that a shift to the right by the CDU would give the SPD the necessary leeway to regenerate and regain support. Kevin Kuhnert, chair of the SPD youth organisation, has called Angela Merkels withdrawal from the CDU presidency an opportunity for the SPD. In recent years, many people have had the feeling that the CDU/CSU and the SPD were two wings of a party moderated by Merkel, he told the ARD morning show. That is why he favours a conservative candidate as successor. In this way, the contrast between the two parties would become clearer, he said. Kuhnert would prefer if the CDU/CSU gave a clear signal that it was returning to conservatism in a broad way. He said he was convinced that many rank-and-file members of the CDU/CSU want this. It is hard to say whether the cynicism or the arrogance of this reasoning is more repulsive. A further shift to the right by the CDU/CSU would be accompanied by stepped-up attacks on democratic rights and social programs and would lead to the inclusion of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the government, sooner or later. The three candidates most likely to succeed Merkel are Friedrich Merz, Jens Spahn and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. Merz embodies the amalgamation of finance capital and social reaction in its purest form. This Catholic from the Sauerland region takes an ultra-conservative stance on socio-political issues and is head of BlackRock Germany, the worlds largest asset manager. Spahn, together with Alexander Dobrindt, the CSUs regional group chairman, is striving for a conservative revolution modelled on the extreme right in the Weimar Republic. He is friends with Trump confidante Richard Grenell, the US ambassador in Berlin, and with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who governs in alliance with the extreme right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPO). Kramp-Karrenbauer is Merkels favourite. If she is elected, Merkel might possibly remain Chancellor for some time and continue the much-hated policies that have been repeatedly rejected by the electorate. The election of either Merz or Spahn, which would lead to a rapid end to Merkels chancellorship, and the continuation of the grand coalition in its present form, would have devastating social and political consequences for the vast majority of the population. But that does not concern the SPD. It is not interested in renewal, but rather in preventing a broader mobilisation against the political shift to the right at all costs. Both Kuhnert and other SPD politicians emphasize that the SPD will remain loyal to the grand coalition to the last and that it does not want new elections under any circumstances. On the ARD morning show, Kuhnert, who had led the #NoGroKo campaign against the continuation of the grand coalition in the spring, said, although he did not assume the grand coalition would last its full term until 2021, the question was who will find a shrewd exit option at some point. Sigmar Gabriel, who led the SPD from 2009 to 2017, expressed himself more clearly in a guest article for the weekly Die Zeit. He assumes that Merkel will vacate the chancellery after the European elections in May 2019 at the latest and clear the way for a Jamaica coalition of the CDU/CSU, FDP and Greens. Nevertheless, Gabriel insists the SPD should not leave the grand coalition of its own volition and should support it until the CDU/CSU has put together a new, more right-wing government. Simply running away panic-stricken from the government out of fear of the voters would not make the SPD stronger, writes Gabriel. He openly admits that this puts the SPD in a tricky position: While the CDU is on its way to personnel and programmatic renewal with the change at the top after 18 years, for the time being, everything must remain the same with the SPD. Keeping the government stable in order to give the political competitor time to renew itself, and then probably be replaced as a coalition partner: That is pretty much the most ungrateful and uncomfortable situation you can get into in politics. Nevertheless, Gabriel recommends his party follow this path. The reason is his fear of new elections, which he calls an existential danger for the SPD. In other words, the SPD is willing to pave the way for Merz or Spahn to become Chancellor and for the AfD to join the government to prevent new elections. New elections would allow broad sections of the population to intervene in political events. The SPD, the CDU and all other parties would have to justify themselves for the policies of social austerity, state armament and militarism that they are currently pursuing in a conspiracy behind the scenes. The socialist perspective of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) would be heard. The SPD wants to avoid this at all costs. Not because, as Gabriel writes, it is afraid of the strengthening of the right-wing populist AfD, but because it fears a mobilization against right-wing politics, which the SPD not only supported, but decisively advanced. All the social measures of the past two decades bear the signature of the SPDAgenda 2010, the Hartz IV labour and welfare reforms, the raising of the pension age to 67, etc. The SPD has also played a leading role in the return of German militarism. Gabriel himself pioneered the view that Germany must see the supposed retreat of the USA as an opportunity to once again become a world power itself. And in refugee policy, the grand coalition has already adopted the AfDs line, not least at the instigation of the SPD. The coming weeks will mark the one hundredth anniversary of the November Revolution in Germany. After the slaughter of the First World War, millions of sailors, soldiers and workers rose up against the Kaisers regime. At the time, the SPD under Friedrich Ebert, Philipp Scheidemann and Gustav Noske allied itself with the most reactionary forces in the military to defeat the revolutionary workers who aspired to a socialist society. Under the pseudo-democratic guise of the Weimar Republic, the SPD preserved the basis of existence of the finance and big business barons, the landowners and military caste who, 15 years later, then helped Hitler to power. One hundred years later, the SPD stands just as far to the right. The time when it could combine the defence of capitalism with social concessions has long since passed. But unlike 1918, the SPD no longer has a mass base and is in free-fall. The growing popular repudiation of the SPD can only be mobilized into a struggle against the resurgence of fascism, militarism and war if it is armed with a socialist perspective. This means building a genuine socialist mass party of the working classthe Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei. The London Metropolitan Police have announced a criminal investigation into allegations of anti-Semitism by Labour Party members. The investigation, announced Friday, follows months in which the partys Blairite right-wing has falsely tarred Jeremy Corbyn as an anti-Semite. The Mets police investigation marks an escalation of the destabilisation campaign aimed at undemocratically removing the twice-elected party leader. The Mets investigation bears all the hallmarks of a dirty tricks operation. On September 4, Met Commissioner Cressida Dick gave an interview at the London-based LBC radio station in a Call the Commissioner show. Afterwards, LBC passed her a dossier of an internal Labour Party report containing 45 cases of alleged anti-Semitism by party members. The LBC had already passed the leaked material to a former leading police officer, Mark Chishty. Chishty reportedly concluded that the dossier includes 17 instances that should have been reported to the police for investigation, with another four potential race hate crimes. It is on this dubious basis that a criminal investigation has been launched, with Corbyns name once again dragged through the mud. Cressida Dick announced the opening of a formal investigation on BBC Radio 4s Today programme, rather than a press conference, thereby evading public scrutiny. She said, We have been assessing some material that was passed to me, in a radio studio of all things, about two months ago and we are now investigating some of that material because it appears there may have been a crime committed. We are liaising immediately with the Crown Prosecution Service and I hope we will be able to clear that up very quickly. The Mets investigation has resuscitated the right-wings bogus anti-Semitism campaign against Corbyn, notwithstanding Dicks telling the BBC that we are not going to investigate the Labour Party. As with the entire slanderous campaign against Corbyn and his supporters, led by right-wing fanatics, nothing about the dossier can be taken at face value. Virtually none of the contents of the leaked documents have been made public and those which have do not state whether the alleged accusations of anti-Semitism by individuals cited have already been dealt with, as is appropriate, by either the party or the police. One case that has been cited by the press would appear to have little to do with anti-Jewish prejudice, even if the accusations were to prove true. According to reports, a serving Labour councillor put a child through 10 years of hell and referred to him as Jew boy. The councillor is alleged to have chased a girl, aged six or seven, around with air freshener, saying she smelled of curry and calling her a chocolate monkey. The councillor in question, Jim Dempster, was already named eight months ago over allegations relating to his time as a shop owner in the late 1980s and early 1990s and comments made against two Muslims. Dempster has denied ever making the comments. He was already suspended from the Labour Party for making Islamophobic comments about Scottish National Party Transport Minister Humza Yousa, questioning his commitment to the local area by saying no-one would have seen him during a visit under his burka. Despite virtually nothing being made available to the public regarding the dossier, a number of key players in the campaign against Corbyn leapt in with further scurrilous claims that he represents a threat to Jewish people. Joe Glasman is head of political and government investigations at the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which has charitable status but is almost exclusively occupied with waging a political campaign against Corbyn. He made clear his own familiarity with the leaked document, asserting, The secret internal dossier contains over 80 pages of anti-Semitic hatred by Labour Party members, including numerous admissions of guilt, but the Labour Party kept the dossier secret and did not even tell Jewish Labour MPs who were directly threatened within it, despite police considering threats to their safety to be so severe as to warrant special police protection. It is absolutely right that police officers have opened a criminal investigation, which we hope will encompass both the anti-Semitic hate crimes and the Labour Partys complicity by concealing its evidence. Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite, he added, whose leadership the once fiercely anti-racist Labour Party has become institutionally anti-Semitic and an existential threat to British Jews. Blairite Margaret Hodge, who helped initiate the failed right-wing 2016 coup against Corbyn and who screamed in his face in Parliament earlier this year that he was a f---ing anti-Semite and a racist, said that Labour should have called in the police itself, adding For me as a Jewish Labour MP ... there is a feeling of fear about and that is why firm action taken by the police and the party is so important. Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson said, I am not surprised, and that he hoped the Met investigation would silence a very small number of people who believe that anti-Semitism doesnt exist in my party, or in other parties. Over the weekend, the anti-Semitism campaign went into overdrive with the pro-Tory Daily Express reporting under a headline Brussels conference to make Labour Party anti-semitism KEY ISSUE, that the investigation would be central to discussion at an event hosted by the European Jewish Association (EJA) tomorrow. Among those speaking will be Gideon Falter, a businessman and chair of the Campaign Against Antisemitism. Other speakers are Tory MP Matthew Offord and a journalist from the Sunday Express, reported the newspaper. The event will hear from representatives from European countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Hungary. In all these countries there is a growth of far-right and anti-Semitic movements. The aim of the British participants is to falsely conflate Corbyn and his backers with movements that are genuinely fascistic and anti-Semitic. In the lead up to the June 2017 general election, Falter made numerous slanderous anti-Corbyn statements, including one on April 5, 2017 that Todays Labour Party is doing more to bait Jews and normalise antisemitism than the [fascist] BNP [British National Party] ever dreamed of. It is time to abandon it. The pro-Zionist fanatics have only been able to pursue their campaign because of the refusal of Corbyn and his key supporters to oppose them. The impact of this refusal to fight is already having a chilling effect. At the University of Sheffield, the Sheffield Labour Students (SLS) society responded to the Mets announcement by cancelling an event it was due to host with Labour MP Chris Williamson. Williamson is a leading supporter of Corbyn and previously served as his Shadow Fire and Emergency Services Minister. He was due to speak at a meeting backed by the Stop The War coalition, Why we need an anti-war Government. This was cancelled last Thursday, with SLS voting to postpone the event indefinitely until the current Scotland Yard police investigation into allegations of antisemitism has been resolved. Cancelling the event came after the Union of Jewish Students targeted Williamson as an anti-Semite because he described the slanders against Corbyn as part of a dirty lowdown trick used for political ends. It is reported that the SLS decision was backed by some supporters of Momentum, the pro-Corbyn group set up after his election as leader, whose leader Jon Lansman has since been instrumental in facilitating the anti-Semitism campaign against Corbyn. The author also recommends: Retreat by Corbynites on anti-Semitism definition emboldens UK right wing [6 September 2018] Washingtons imposition of sweeping new sanctions on Iranaimed at strangling its economy and precipitating regime change in Tehranis roiling world geopolitics. As of today, the US is embargoing all Iranian energy exports and freezing Iran out of the US-dominated world financial system, so as to cripple the remainder of its trade and deny it access to machinery, spare parts and even basic foodstuffs and medicine. In doing so, American imperialism is once again acting as a law unto itself. The sanctions are patently illegal and under international law tantamount to a declaration of war. They violate the UN Security Council-backed 2015 Iran nuclear accord, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement that was negotiated at the behest of Washington and under its duress, including war threats. All the other parties to the JCPOA (Russia, China, Britain, France, Germany and the EU) and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is charged with verifying Iranian compliance, are adamant that Iran has fulfilled its obligations under the accord to the letter. This includes dismantling much of its civil nuclear program and curtailing the rest. Yet, having reneged on its support for the JCPOA, Washington is now wielding the club of secondary sanctions to compel the rest of the world into joining its illegal embargo and abetting its regime-change offensive. Companies and countries that trade with Iran or even trade with those that do will be excluded from the US market and subject to massive fines and other penalties. Similarly, banks and shipping insurers that have any dealings with companies that trade with Iran or even with other financial institutions that facilitate trade with Iran will be subject to punishing US secondary sanctions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who like US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran and ordered military strikes on Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard forces in Syria, has hailed the US sanctions as historic. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two other US client states, are pledging to ramp up oil production to make up for the shortfalls caused by Washingtons embargoing of Iranian oil exports. But Americas economic war against Iran is not just exacerbating tensions in the Middle East. It is also roiling relations between the US and the other great powers, especially Europe. On Friday, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany and European Union Foreign Policy Chief Frederica Mogherini issued a statement reaffirming their support for the JCPOA and vowing to circumvent and defy the US sanctions. It is our aim, they declared, to protect European economic operators engaged in legitimate business with Iran, in accordance with EU law and with UN Security Council resolution 2231. They declared their commitment to preserving financial channels with Iran, enabling it to continue exporting oil and gas, and working with Russia, China and other countries interested in supporting the JCPOA to do so. The statement emphasized the European powers unwavering collective resolve to assert their right to pursue legitimate trade and, toward that end, to proceed with the establishment of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that will enable European businesses and those of other countries, including potentially Russia and China, to conduct trade with Iran using the euro or some other non-US dollar medium of exchange, outside the US-dominated world financial system. Fridays statement was in response to a series of menacing pronouncements from Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other top administration officials earlier the same day. These fleshed out the new US sanctions and reiterated Washingtons resolve to crash Irans economy and aggressively sanction any company or country that fails to fall into line with the US sanctions. In reply to a question about the European SPV, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, said he had no expectation it will prove to be a conduit for significant trade. But if there are transactions that have the intent of evading our sanctions, we will aggressively pursue our remedies. Trump officials also served notice that they will sanction SWIFT, the Brussels-based network that facilitates secure inter-bank communications, and the European bankers who comprise the majority of its directors if they do not expeditiously expel all Iranian financial institutions from the network. And in a step intended to demonstratively underscore Washingtons disdain for the Europeans, the Trump administration included no EU state among the eight countries that will be granted temporary waivers on the full application of the US embargo on oil imports. Germany, Britain, France and the EU are no less rapacious than Washington. Europes great powers are frantically rearming, have helped spearhead NATOs war build-up against Russia. Over the past three decades they have waged numerous wars and neocolonial interventions in the Middle East and North Africa, from Afghanistan and Libya to Mali. But they resent and fear the consequences of the Trump administrations reckless and provocative offensive against Iran. They resent it because Washingtons scuttling of the nuclear deal has pulled the rug out from under European capitals plans to capture a leading position in Irans domestic market and exploit Iranian offers of massive oil and natural gas concessions. They fear it, because the US confrontation with Iran threatens to ignite a war that would invariably set the entire Mideast ablaze, triggering a new refugee crisis, a massive spike in oil prices and, last but not least, a repartition of the region under conditions where the European powers as of yet lack the military means to independently determine the outcome. To date, the Trump administration has taken a haughty, even cavalier, attitude to the European avowals of opposition to the US sanctions. Trump and the other Iran war-hawks like Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton who lead the administration are buoyed by the fact that numerous European businesses have voted with their feet and cut off ties with Iran, for fear of running afoul of the US sanctions. The Financial Times reported last week that due to fear of US reprisals, no European state has agreed to house the SPV, which, according to the latest EU statements, will not even be operational until the new year. The European difficulties and hesitations are real. But they also speak to the enormity and explosiveness of the geopolitical shifts that are now underway. Whilst European corporate leaders, whose focus is on maximizing market share and investor profit in the next few business quarters, have bowed to the US sanctions threat, the political leaders, those charged with developing and implementing imperialist strategy, have concluded that they must push back against Washington. This is about Iran, but also about developing the means to prevent the US using unilateral sanctions to dictate Europes foreign policy, including potentially trying to thwart Nord Stream 2 (the pipeline project that will transport Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea and which Trump has repeatedly denounced.) As Washingtons ability to impose unilateral sanctions is bound up with the role of the US dollar as the worlds reserve currency and US domination of the world banking system, the European challenge to Americas sanctions weapon necessarily involves a challenge to these key elements of US global power. The European imperialist powers are taking this road because they, like all the great powers, are locked in a frenzied struggle for markets, profits and strategic advantage under conditions of a systemic breakdown of world capitalism. Finding themselves squeezed between the rise of new powers and an America that is ever more reliant on war to counter the erosion of its economic might and that is ruthlessly pursing its own interests at the expense of foe and ostensible friend alike, the Europeans, led by German imperialism, are seeking to develop the economic and military means to assert their own predatory interests independently of, and when necessary against, the United States. Those developing the SPV are acutely conscious of this and have publicly declared that it is not Iran-specific. Speaking last month, only a few weeks after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker used his State of the EU address to called for measures to ensure that the euro plays a greater global role, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire declared the crisis with Iran to be a chance for Europe to have its own independent financial institutions, so we can trade with whomever we want. The SPV, adds French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Agnes Von der Muhl, aims to create an economic sovereignty tool for the European Union that will protect European companies in the future from the effect of illegal extraterritorial sanctions. The strategists of US imperialism are also aware that the SPV is a challenge to more than the Trump administrations Iran policy. Writing in Foreign Affairs last month, former Obama administration official Elizabeth Rosenberg expressed grave concerns that the Trump administrations unilateral sanctions are causing the EU to collaborate with Russia and China in defying Washington, and are inciting a European challenge to US financial dominance. Under conditions where Russia and China are already seeking to develop payments systems that bypass Western banks, and the future promises further challenges to dollar-supremacy and the US-led global financial system, it is worrying, laments Rosenberg, that the United States is accelerating this trend. With its drive to crash Irans economy and further impoverish its people, the Trump administration has let loose the dogs of war. Whatever the sanctions impact, Washington has committed its prestige and power to bringing Tehran to heel and making the rest of the world complicit in its crimes. The danger of another catastrophic Mideast war thus looms ever larger, while the growing antagonism between Europe and America and descent of global inter-state relations into a madhouse of one against all is setting the stageabsent the revolutionary intervention of the international working classfor a global conflagration that would dwarf even the world wars of the last century. Israels government has sought to capitalize on the murder of 11 Jews in Pittsburgh as another opportunity to conflate anti-Semitism as anti-Israel. It has defended US President Donald Trump against accusations that his poisonous anti-Muslim and xenophobic rants helped lay the basis for the massacre in Pittsburgh. Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu declared, When Jews are murdered in Pittsburgh, the people of Israel feel the pain, and thanked Trump for unequivocally condemning this heinous crime and for pledging to fight those who seek to destroy the Jewish people. The gunman Robert Bowers message on social media, posted shortly before walking into the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, and shooting worshippers at Saturday morning services, in fact made clear he had targeted that synagogue because it participates in HIAS, an organization that helps settle refugees from Syria and Central America in the Pittsburgh areathe very same people that were Trumps first targets when he became president last year. Bowers regularly posted on the far-right social media platform Gab, where he accused Jewish people of trying to bring evil Muslims into the US. His final post read, I cant sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, Im going in. His language, including the use of invaders to refer to migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America caused by US imperialism, was taken straight from the Trump administrations lexicon. Trump called the caravan of migrants heading for the US border an assault on our country. It was, he said, an invasion that threatened to destroy your neighbourhoods, your hospitals, your schools. He used anti-Semitic and fascistic tropes to denounce those who want to turn the clock back and restore power to corrupt, power-hungry globalists Trump notoriously called neo-Nazis protestors fine people in the wake of the murder of Heather Heyer, the anti-fascist protester, by a white supremacist during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 2017. Many American Jews have concluded correctly that Trump was politically responsible for inciting the Pittsburgh gunmans murderous actions, as well as the wave of mail bombs sent last week by Trump supporter Cesar Sayoc to prominent Democrats and Trump critics, with more than 35,000 signing a letter by members of Pittsburghs Jewish community telling Trump he was not welcome there until he denounced white nationalism. The massacre also evoked a powerful response from Americas Muslim community with an Iranian immigrant raising $650,000 from nearly 12,000 people in two days and two Muslim-American organizations raising more than $150,000 to cover the costs of the funerals of those killed. Such spontaneous outpourings of solidarity across Jewish and Muslim communities are anathema to Netanyahus Likud-led coalition government and the fascistic parties on which it rests. Netanyahus dispatch of Education and Diaspora Minister Naftali Bennett to Pittsburgh to attend the commemoration event for the murdered Jews was an insult to the memory of those who were slain. The leader of the far-right Jewish Home Party, which represents the extremist settler movement, has been at the forefront of the attacks on NGOs such as the New Israel Fund that help refugees, claiming that it is contributing to the rise in crime in Tel Aviv. His call for Jewish voters to vote for Jewish Home in the recent municipal elections sought to whip up anti-Arab sentiment, warning of a takeover by the sectora reference to Israels Palestinian citizens. Bennett said, Only the party of the Jewish Home can protect Jewish Ramleha mixed Palestinian-Jewish city near Tel Avivand posted a picture of a young woman dressed in a hijab with the headline, TOMORROW THIS COULD BE YOUR DAUGHTER. Speaking at the commemoration event, Bennett sought to draw a parallel between Palestinians firing rockets from Gaza and the fascist murders in Pittsburgh. From Sderot [an Israeli town close to Gaza] to Pittsburgh, the hand that fires missiles is the same hand that shoots worshippers, he said. Bennett specifically rejected any link between the synagogue killings and Trumps fascistic rants, denouncing anyone using this horrific anti-Semitic act to attack President Trump as unfair and wrong and calling Trump a true friend of the State of Israel and to the Jewish people. With President Trump we never have to worry if he has our backs He is fighting terror worldwide including Israels greatest enemy, the murderous regime of Tehran. He recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital and kept his promise to move the embassy there. Some 100 Jewish activists held a protest against Bennett, led by IfNotNow, a group that opposes Israels illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories. Moriah Ella Mason told the rally that Bennetts policies are the same types of policies and rhetoric espoused by Trump, and the same types of policies and rhetoric that have unleashed violence against my community. Ron Dermer, Israels ambassador to the US, took up Bennetts theme, declaring, I see a lot of people who attack Jews on both sides, left and right, thereby equating violent white supremacists who chant Jews will not replace us with left-wing studentsincluding Jewish studentswho demand justice for the Palestinians. Netanyahus own Likud party reportedly described HIAS as a left-wing Jewish group that promotes immigration to the US and works against Trump. His coalition government recently oversaw the passage of the Nation-State Law enshrining Jewish supremacy. Netanyahus government has demonized George Soros, the Hungarian-born Jewish financier who is a frequent target of anti-Semitic attacks in the US and Europe, for supporting pro-democracy and human rights groups that oppose its policies. Netanyahus son Yair even posted a meme attacking Soros with anti-Semitic imagery that elicited praise from David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Netanyahu has repeatedly solidarized himself with far-right and fascistic forces in Europe, including Hungary and Poland, to the extent that last July, Yad Vashem, Israels Holocaust museum, accused Netanyahu of whitewashing Holocaust history over an agreement he signed with Poland. He was noticeably silent after reports emerged of some German Jews forming their own group within the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), because of their support for its incitement against Arabs and opposition to Muslim immigration. Netanyahu recently hosted the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who has praised and helped organize vigilante death squads, and Azerbaijans Ilham Aliyev, not to mention the coterie of far-right figures from the US who attended the opening ceremony of the US embassy in Jerusalem earlier this year. He welcomed the election of Jair Bolsonaro, who has pledged to move the Brazilian Embassy to Jerusalem, to the presidency of Brazil and is expected to make a state visit to Israel. As far as Netanyahu and Israels political elite is concerned, the far-right is not a problem so long as it is not explicitly anti-Semitic, targets Muslims and backs Zionism and Israel. The backing for Trump by Netanyaha is a quid pro quo for the US presidents support for Israels brutal attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. These continued in recent days with an attack on the 32nd Great March of Return demonstration in the Gaza Strip, at which protesters demanded an end to Israels blockade and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Israel troops again fired on the protesters, injuring 32. Since the protests began on March 30, according to Gazas health ministry, 218 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 23,000 others have been wounded. The return of Anwar Ibrahim, former opposition leader, to parliament last month will only heighten tensions within the unstable ruling five-party coalition, Pakatan Harapan (PH), which presented its first state budget last week. Anwar was jailed on trumped up charges by the previous United Malays National Organisation (UMNO)-led government, which suffered a historic defeat in the May 9 general election. UMNO had clung to power since formal independence from Britain in 1957 as a result of an electoral gerrymander and its use of police state measures against its opponents. Anwar returned to parliament after winning a by-election on October 13 in the west coast town of Port Dickson with 72 percent of the vote. He was able to stand after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad obtained a pardon from the head of state, King Sultan Muhammad V, for his conviction on sodomy charges. The pardon was part of a deal worked out in January, in which, if the PH won the election, Anwar, now 71, would enter parliament, and then in the latter half of 2020, succeed the 93-year-old Mahathir as prime minister. Anwar has made clear that, for now, he was sticking to the deal. He told the media he was not seeking a cabinet post and that Mahathir should be given the space and latitude to continue unaffected by the constraints of time or pressure. Anwar added that the decisions that have to be made by Doctor Mahathir must have total unequivocal support by Pakatan Harapan, and that includes me. Such effusive expressions of loyalty should not be accepted at face value. After all it was Doctor Mahathir who first framed-up and jailed Anwar on sodomy and corruption charges in 1999 after the two fell out over how to respond to the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998. Anwar was physically beaten by the countrys police chief while in custody leaving him with lifelong injuries. The differences over economic policy that erupted in 1998 remain. Both were members of the UMNO-led government at the timeMahathir as prime minister and Anwar as deputy prime minister and finance minister. Mahathir, who was intent on imposing currency and capital controls to protect the crony businesses associated with UMNO, expelled Anwar and his supporters after Anwar sought to follow the International Monetary Funds demands for an opening up of the Malaysian economy. The defeat of UMNO this year was driven by widespread concerns over the cost of living, low wages and salaries, housing, and hostility towards corrupt and anti-democratic government and its racialist policies of preference for the ethnic Malay elite. UNMOs policy, which Mahathir had long supported, was pursued at the expense of the countrys Chinese and Indian minorities and the working people as a whole. Anwar and the parties closest to him in the ruling coalitionhis own Peoples Justice Party (PKR) and the ethnic Chinese based Democratic Action Party (DAP)represent layers of the ruling class more oriented to international investors and markets that are seeking an end to preferences for Malays in jobs, business and education, and pro-market policies. In the May election, the PKR gained support from urban Malays on the more developed west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and in Johore, while DAP depended largely on the votes of ethnic Chinese. Mahathir and his United Malaysian Indigenous Party (PPBM) won support among rural Malays in more economically backward areas. The new government has made limited economic concessions aimed at defusing anger over deteriorating living conditions. It has abolished the floating price for RON95 petrol and diesel and fixed prices at 2.20 Malaysian Ringgit (RM) and RM2.18 per litre until the end of the year when it will move to implement the fuel subsidy policy in the PH manifesto. In addition, the government has replaced the goods and services tax, which hit lower-income families hard, with a sales and service tax, and changed the arrangements for student loan repayments. At the same time, it is reviewing all expenditures on unpopular mega-infrastructure projects connected to Chinas Belt and Road Initiative. In an interview in September, Mahathir warned that the 2019 budget would entail sacrifices due to the RM1 trillion in debts and liabilities incurred under Prime Minister Najib Razak which include up to $US6 billion allegedly looted by Najib and his cronies from the 1MDB state investment fund. Everyone will have to sacrifice. We cant spend more than our earnings. Mahathir declared. While the financial elite was expecting the government to rein in spending after Najibs 2018 election budget of RM280.25 billion ($US67.35 billion), Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng handed down a budget last week with a record expenditure of RM314.5 billion, with some limited assistance to low income households. As a result, the budget deficit is set to rise to 3.8 percent of GDP, up from 2.8 percent. Prior to the budget, Ramon Navaratnam, chairman of the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institutes Centre of Public Policy Studies, told the media that he agreed with budget restraint and helping the poor. But what was needed, he said, was to ensure qualitative growth was the reduction of, or better, the elimination of, monopolies, protective policies and race-based programs. This is the program favoured by the PKR and DAP and the more competitive sections of Malaysian capital which is likely to bring about conflict with Mahathir, who retired as prime minister in 2003 after 22 years in the job. However, he re-entered politics in 2014 and ended his support for Najib after the government signed up to the Obama administrations Trans-Pacific Partnership. Mahathir declared that it would turn Malaysia into an economic colony of the United States. Mahathir latched onto the 1MDB scandal in which Najib was directly implicated to build an alliance to topple the UMNO-led government. He offered Anwar and the opposition coalition a common platform to exploit the mass discontent, and formed his United Malaysian Indigenous Party (PPBM) to garner enough Malay votes from traditional UMNO voters to defeat the gerrymander. These offers were accepted in January by the PKR and DAP and the Muslim based Amanah at Anwars insistence. A deal done by Mahathir brought the Sabah-based Warisan party into PH before the election. As well as his economic concessions, Mahathir has sought to appease mass discontent by prosecuting Najib and his cronies in the courts. At the same time, he has presented his purge of hundreds of senior police officials and public servants with close connections to UMNO as democratic reforms. In reality, these moves are to strengthen Mahathirs position both against UMNO and also Anwar and his supporters. While there is an uneasy truce in the ruling coalition, factional warfare is likely to break out, sooner rather than later, as the contradictions inherent in the deal struck between Mahathir and Anwar are by worsening global economic instability and sharpening geopolitical rivalry, particularly between the US and China. An extraordinary public conflict last week between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his ousted predecessor Malcolm Turnbull highlighted the rifts wracking the ruling Liberal-National Coalition. Morrison accused Turnbull of violating his instructions while representing the government at a conference in Indonesia. In response, Turnbull essentially branded Morrison a liar. Within hours, Morrison was forced to retract his charge, fuelling recriminations by his hard right supporters in the Liberal and National Party leaderships. Significantly, last Thursdays clash erupted over a major issue of foreign policy, triggered by Morrisons efforts to align the country even more closely with Washington. The previous month, Morrison proposed to follow the Trump administration in its incendiary decisions to move the US Israeli embassy to the contested city of Jerusalem and to tear up the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. Without consulting Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne or her department, Morrison declared that both policies would be reviewed, and made clear his support for taking Trumps lead. The corporate media depicted Morrisons announcement as an electoral ploya cynical bid to pick up Jewish votes for the October 20 by-election in the seat of Wentworth. While crass electoral calculations were no doubt involved, the move was far more significant. Morrisons proposals, if implemented, would make Australia one of the few countries in the world to follow Trumps aggressive path in stoking the danger of a new conflict with Iran in the Middle East. They would also reverse policies reaffirmed by Turnbull before he was removed, via an internal Liberal Party coup, on August 24. While Turnbull had bent over backward to ingratiate himself with Trump and accommodate to the US presidents America First drive to assert global supremacy, he had drawn the line on those two issues, adhering to the position of the European and other powers, including China. Just before he was removed, Turnbull also tried to reset relations with China, Australias largest export market, while still maintaining the primacy of the post-World War II military and strategic alliance with the US. In what initially appeared to be a surprise move, just after the governments disastrous loss of Turnbulls former seat in the Wentworth by-election, Morrison appointed Turnbull to head a delegation to an Our Oceans conference in Bali. That appointment caused an outcry in the Liberal Partys most right-wing faction, with another deposed former prime minister, Tony Abbott, protesting that Turnbull had refused to support the partys candidate for the by-election. As last weeks events revealed, Morrison specifically asked Turnbull to attend the conference in an attempt to mend relations with President Joko Widodos government. Joko had expressed concern at the mooted shift of Australias Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, reflecting widespread outrage in Indonesia. Last weeks open fight began when Morrison told Alan Jones, a right-wing talkback radio host, that the former prime minister had exceeded his brief in Bali. After a meeting with Joko, Turnbull said the Indonesian president had expressed to me, as he has done to Prime Minister Morrison, the very serious concern held in Indonesia about the prospect of the Australian embassy in Israel being moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. For good measure, the ex-prime minister added that his government had seriously considered such a step, but rejected it on expert advice. Morrison told Jones he would never send Turnbull on a diplomatic mission again, because those issues were not really part of the brief. Beating a nationalist drum, he declared that the determining factor in the embassy decision would be Australias national interests, not those of any other country. Turnbull soon took to Twitter. A few facts. @ScottMorrisonMP asked me to discuss trade and the embassy issue in Bali and we had a call before I left to confirm his messages which I duly relayed to @jokowi, he tweeted. There was a detailed paper on the issue in my official brief as well. Morrison had to beat an embarrassing retreat. He issued a three-line statement, conceding that Turnbull was briefed on, and approved to discuss, trade and the Israeli embassy at the Bali gathering, if they were raised in direct conversations. Nevertheless, Morrison insisted that an official review of the policies on Israel and Iran would proceed, pointing to his anxiety to not upset the Trump administration. The official sensitivity to Indonesias reaction partly relates to the fact that an Indonesia-Australia comprehensive economic partnership agreement, which has taken eight years to negotiate, is due to be signed within weeks, and then must be ratified by the Indonesian parliament. Beyond the prospect of Australian corporate profits, however, the Indonesian regime is pivotal to the US drive to counter Chinas growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region, and to Australian efforts class to forge other alliances as the US-China conflict intensifies. These anxieties found expression in an October 30 Australian Financial Review editorial. Right now Australia is facing its biggest foreign policy challenges in generations, as our two largest partners are increasingly at loggerheads, it warned. Australia seeks to hedge a more assertive China with closer relations with others in south-east Asia who share concern at Beijings powerand who also worry at the reliability of Washingtons 70-year hegemony in the region. The Morrison-Turnbull clash further points to the pressures behind Turnbulls ouster. It marked a lurch to the right, both to seek to stir up nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment to divert growing working class discontent, and to prepare for a US-led war against China. While the potentially devastating consequences for Australian capitalism of a war between its two largest partners is causing worry and schisms in ruling circles, Turnbulls replacement by Morrison signals a turn to reinforce the US alliance. Yesterday, just hours after his conflict with Turnbull, Morrison delivered his first prime ministerial speech on foreign policy. In it, he ticked all the boxes required by Washington, outlining a militarist agenda, and also made clear he intended to pursue Australian imperialisms own predatory activities in the region. Inevitably, in the period ahead, we will be navigating a higher degree of US-China strategic competition, Morrison said. He then emphasised that the alliance with the United States is a choice we make about how best to pursue our security interests as China exercises unprecedented influence in the Indo-Pacific. The prime minister foreshadowed challenging China in the South China Sea, reiterating Australias enduring interest in ensuring that freedom of navigation and overflight are respected by all states. He boasted of undertaking the largest regeneration of the Royal Australian Navy since the Second World War and vowed to make the Pacific one of my highest foreign policy priorities. Morrison confirmed a pact with Australias former colony, Papua New Guinea, to construct a joint naval base on the strategically located Manus Island, formalising an earlier announcement designed to cut across Chinese hopes of developing such a base. Turnbull, who reflects the interests of sections of the financial and corporate elite that depend heavily on China, is not going away, however. He will appear in an hour-long special episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporations Q&A program next Thursday nighthis first major media interview since he lost the prime ministership. There is no possibility that Turnbull will discuss, or even be asked about, the real domestic and global factors behind his knifing. His very appearance, however, will exacerbate the differences tearing apart the Coalition. The author also recommends: Trump and Jerusalem: The end of the Mideast peacecharade [8 December 2017] The US midterm elections are being held under conditions of escalating political crisis. Whatever the outcome, the elections will set the stage for a further shift of US politics to the right. In the weeks leading up to the election, Trump has intensified his drive to develop a far-right movement, making an increasingly open fascistic appeal. He has delivered a series of speeches attacking migrants fleeing the consequences of US imperialist oppression and capitalist exploitation in Central America. Some 15,000 troops are being deployed to the US-Mexico border, in violation of US law, amidst threats by Trump that the military will meet the refugees with murderous violence. The president has declared his administrations determination to abolish birthright citizenship, guaranteed by the 14th amendment of the US Constitution, enacted after the Civil War to ensure full rights for freed slaves and their children. The Trump administrations appeals to violence have already had horrific consequences. The pipe bombs sent by a Trump supporter to prominent Democrats and supporters of the Democratic Party were followed just over a week ago by the mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, leaving 11 people deadthe worst act of violence against Jews in US history. In justifying his rampage, the accused killer used language drawn directly from Trumps campaign speeches, combining anti-Semitism with anti-immigrant chauvinism. Trump brings to a head a combination of protracted processes. His administration is the political outcome of a quarter-century of unending war in the Middle East and Central Asia, and all of the crimestorture, rendition, drone assassinationswith which these wars are associated. It is the product of decades of rising social inequality, financial parasitism and government criminality. It is the vomiting up of the undigested barbarism of American capitalism. That Trump is not an aberration in an otherwise healthy political system is demonstrated by how the Democrats have conducted their own campaignwhat they say and do not say, and who they are running. The Democrats are going out of their way to adapt themselves at every stage to the Trump administration, while the media downplays the significance of Trumps actions and the dangers they present. As Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi explained, they want to show voters that Democrats are a governing party, not the leftist mob that Mr. Trump describesand to extend an arm of cooperation to the president after an electoral rebuke. They hope, as they have hoped throughout the two years of Trumps administration, to reach an accommodation on foreign policy, the better to pursue the basic agenda of the ruling class at home and abroad. They are working to cover up the far-reaching significance of Trumps actions and declarations. Top Democrats, from Pelosi to the nominally independent Bernie Sanders, have refused to say anything about the fascistic attack on immigrants, with Sanders declaring of the Pittsburgh shooting: Im not going to sit here and blame the president. Sanders, who in 2016 claimed to be leading a political revolution against the billionaire class, has been campaigning in recent weeks for right-wing establishment candidates. As for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Socialists of America member who won a Democratic Party congressional primary in the summer, she has dropped her previous call to abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), following the Democratic Partys line of not talking about Trumps police-state moves against immigrants. If the Democrats win the House, the balance of power in that body will be in the hands of the unprecedented number of Democratic candidates drawn from the intelligence and military apparatus. If they were to win the Senate, their agenda would be set by individuals like Joe Manchin (West Virginia), who has said he favors the building of 700 to 900 miles of a wall on the US-Mexico border; Joe Donnelly (Indiana), who supports rescinding birthright citizenship; and Claire McCaskill (Missouri), who has said she 100 percent supports Trumps attack on the caravan of Central American immigrants making their way through Mexico to the US border. Whatever the rhetoric, and however the seats of the Senate and House of Representatives are allocated, the basic factors that drive American politics will persist. These are: 1. The determination of the ruling class to maintain the global position of American capitalism through military force, including world war: This central strategy has dominated American policy for decades. Seventeen years of the war on terror, including wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, have devastated entire countries and left more than one million people dead. The Trump administration has officially announced the end of the war on terror and ordered the military to begin preparing for great power conflict with Russia or China. In the weeks leading up to the elections, the administration withdrew from a key Cold War-era nuclear arms agreement (the INF Treaty) and threatened to launch preemptive strikes against Russia. At the same time, it effectively declared a new cold war against China. With no public discussion and on a bipartisan basis, the administration has initiated the largest military buildup since the end of the Cold War. Opposition to the unending and expanding wars of American imperialism has been completely excluded from the election campaigns of both the Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats fully support the strategic aim of the American ruling class to maintain its global supremacy through military force. From the beginning of the Trump administration, the Democrats, channeling powerful sections of the military and intelligence apparatus, have centered their opposition to Trump on the concern that he was pulling back from war in the Middle East and confrontation with Russia. 2. The staggering levels of social inequality, which cannot be changed by any election, and which infect every institution of the capitalist state: Ten years after the 2008 financial crisis, social inequality is at historic highs. Three individuals now possess more wealth than the bottom half of the population, and just three families have a combined fortune of $348.7 billion, four million times the median family wealth. The vast majority of the population confronts the many manifestations of social crisisdeclining wages, soaring health care costs, a drug overdose epidemic and decaying social infrastructure. These conditions are the product of the policies of the Obama administration, which supported and oversaw the bailout of the banks following the financial meltdown in 2008. Since Trumps election, the Democrats have collaborated in the implementation of massive tax cuts for the rich, which they have no intention of rolling back whatever the outcome of the elections. The Democrats represent a political alliance of Wall Street and privileged sections of the middle class. Over the past two years, their central focus, in addition to the anti-Russia campaign, has been the promotion of the politics of race and gender, particularly through the #MeToo campaign. The aim has been to divide the working class while advancing the interests of factions within the top 10 percent that are competing over positions of power, money and privilege. 3. The crisis of democratic forms of rule and the turn to authoritarianism: The crisis of American democracy, of which the Trump administration is an extreme expression, expresses the alignment of political forms with the oligarchical character of American society. While Trump pursues his strategy of developing an authoritarian movement, the Democrats likewise support the destruction of democratic rights, but in a different way. They have focused on demands that social media companies censor the internet, under the guise of combating fake news and blocking organizations that sow discontent. In the course of their conflict with Trump, they have hailed such enemies of democratic rights as former CIA Director John Brennan, responsible for torture and domestic spying. Trump is himself the product of a protracted decay of democratic forms of rule. Nodal points in this process were the Clinton impeachment in 1998, the theft of the 2000 election, the launching of the war on terror after the 9/11 attacks, accompanied by the erection of a massive apparatus of domestic spying, and the Obama administrations policy of drone assassination, including of US citizens. The political strategy of the working class A solution to all of the great problems confronting mankindthe growth of social inequality, the attack on immigrant workers and refugees, the expansion of global conflict, the destruction of democratic rightsdepends on the independent organization and intervention of the working class. It is not through the rearrangement of seats in Congress and the phony battles within the ruling class that a way forward will be found, but through an open struggle between opposed social classes. The same capitalist crisis that is producing the rise of fascism and the far-right, in the United States and internationally, is also producing growing resistance and opposition from the working class, the broad mass of the population, which is completely excluded from official political life. In its June 13, 2017 statement, Palace coup or class struggle: The political crisis in Washington and the strategy of the working class, the Political Committee of the Socialist Equality Party (US) stated: The interaction of objective conditions of crisis, both within the United States and internationally, and the radicalization of mass social consciousness will find expression in the eruption of class struggle. The decades-long suppression of the class struggle by the trade union bureaucracy, the Democratic Party and the affluent sponsors of various forms of identity politics is coming to an end. The social counterrevolution of the ruling elites is about to encounter an upsurge of the American working class. Since this statement was written, there have been many signs of growing working class struggle in the US and internationally, including the strike wave by US teachers in the spring, the mass opposition among UPS workers to a concessions contract backed by the Teamsters, and huge strike authorization votes by steel workers, postal workers and other sections of the working class. Anger and unrest among all sections of the working class are mounting. These struggles must be expanded and unified through the construction of new organizations of working class struggle, independent of the unions, including rank-and-file workplace, factory and neighborhood committees. The Socialist Equality Party is spearheading the fight to arm the developing objective movement of workers and youth with a revolutionary program and perspective. In the 2018 elections, it has run Niles Niemuth in Michigans 12th Congressional District to bring a socialist program to workers throughout the region and beyond. The future of humanity depends on the overthrow of the existing social system and all its political institutions, and the democratic reorganization of economic life based on equality and the satisfaction of social needs. The alternative to international socialist revolution is a return to the worst forms of barbarism of the 20th century. Whatever happens tomorrow, the basic task is the same: Joining and building the SEP, its sister parties in the International Committee of the Fourth International, and its youth movement, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality. 25 years ago: Castro speech, We are becoming bourgeois Fidel Castro In a speech to an audience of foreign businessmen on November 6, 1993, Cuban President Fidel Castro declared that his government was learning the ways of the capitalist world but still had extensive work to do in enforcing discipline on the Cuban working class. We are becoming bourgeois, he told his approving audience at an international trade fair in Havana, not because we are getting rich as people, but because we are learning to do business. We are doing many new things with your experience. Castro acknowledged that the Cuban government needed to correct certain defects, chief among them, the undisciplined character of the Cuban labor force. Its necessary to impose discipline, to be more demanding, if we want productivity and efficiency. The Cuban regime was facing increasing economic difficulties because of the collapse of its principal trading partners and financial sponsors, in the Soviet Union and the Stalinist bureaucracies in Eastern Europe, exacerbated by the tightening US economic embargo of the island country. The Castro government responded with an unprecedented opening to foreign capital, mainly from Spain and other Western European countries. It legalized private possession of foreign currency for the first time in 30 years, and sought to encourage both foreign tourism and increased travel to the country by Cuban exiles and their descendants. Castro sought to cover up these openings to the imperialist rivals of the US, like Spain and France, with demagogic speeches pledging his endless devotion to socialism. A few days after his overture to the foreign capitalists, he told a meeting of the Cuban Communist Party leadership, Nobody in the world should be confused and think we are renouncing socialism because we are setting up mixed enterprises, foreign investments, corporations, and we authorize work for ones own account, because this is socialism. The Castro regime was never socialist, but represented the most radical form of bourgeois nationalist opposition to imperialism under conditions of a US blockade and constant threat of invasion. After coming to power at the head of a petty-bourgeois guerrilla movement based in the rural areas, with little support in the working class, what Castro defined as socialism was the unchallenged domination his political clique. His speech was a warning that to preserve its political rule, the Castro regime was prepared to make continued inroads into the social gains of the Cuban workers and peasants after the 1959 revolution, essentially offering the Cuban working class as a tightly policed source of cheap labor for the multinational corporations, on the model of China. 50 years ago: Nixon wins US presidential election Nixon Republican nominee Richard Nixon won the US presidential election held on November 5, 1968, with only a narrow margin in the popular vote, but with a comfortable margin of 301 to 191 in the Electoral College. Nixon received 31,783,783 votes overall, while Democrat Hubert Humphrey received 31,271,839 votes. George Wallace, a third-party candidate and segregationist, received 9,901,118 votes and carried five southern states, winning 46 electoral votes Leading up to Nixons victory was a series of events that contributed to popular disaffection with the Democratic Party, which controlled both houses of Congress as well as the White House, the most central of these issues being the Vietnam War, launched, escalated and defended by successive Democratic Party administrations. Support for the Democrats fell to a low point after the 1968 Democratic National Convention. As Humphrey was being nominated inside the convention hall, Chicago police were mobilized to violently suppress anti-war demonstrations outside. For much of the campaign, Humphrey lagged far behind Nixon in the polls. But as support for George Wallace faded after his running mate suggested using nuclear weapons in Vietnam, Humphrey began to close the gap with Nixon. In particular, Humphrey sought to promote himself as the candidate for peace in Vietnam. He called for the bombings of North Vietnam to stop and supported the peace talks that opened just before the election. But Humphrey never called for an immediate end to the war. Nixons election strategy was to make a limited appeal to antiwar sentimentor at least seek to neutralize the issueby claiming to have a secret plan to end the war. In response to Humphreys surge in the polls with the prospect of a negotiated settlement in Vietnam, Nixon worked behind the scenes to sabotage the peace talks with the North. He made a deal with the South Vietnamese government to block negotiation. In return, Nixon promised the South better concessions than they would get from the Democrats. On domestic policy, Nixon sought to co-opt the ultra-right program of Wallace, appealing to right-wing sentiments with the slogan of law and order, claiming to represent the silent majority that opposed student demonstrations, urban riots, and social protest in general. While ceding the Deep South to Wallace, Nixon carried the rest of that region, including Texas, Florida and the Border States, with his less brazen appeal to white racism. He was developing what came to be known as the southern strategy, in which the Republican Party sought to recruit white Democratic Party officeholders and activists throughout that region on the basis of a tacit appeal to racism. 75 years ago: Soviet Red Army liberates Kiev Kiev in ruins after the Nazi retreat On November 6, 1943, the Red Army took control of decisive sections of Kiev, Ukraines capital, amid heavy fighting with German forces which had occupied the city for the previous three years. The liberation of Kiev was a major strategic and political blow to the Nazi regime, and restored to the Soviet Union its third-largest city. Soviet troops had succeeded in encircling Kiev over the preceding two months as part of the Battle of the Dnieper, a broader offensive aimed at recapturing the bulk of Ukraine. The advances they made came at a heavy cost, with an estimated 450,000 casualties. Early on November 3, Soviet forces launched a massive artillery and aerial bombardment, directed against Germanys 4th Panzer Army, which was in occupation of Kiev. Over the following three days, Soviet troops moved en masse into the city. They encountered strong resistance, and were forced to engage in close combat to take key positions. German forces carried out a scorched earth policy, setting fire to much of the city, and destroying its critical infrastructure, as they were forced to retreat. The Soviets then sought to use the city as a base from which to launch an offensive aimed at recapturing other Ukrainian towns, including Fastov, Zhitomir, Korosten and Berdichev. Hitler responded by releasing the 48th Panzer Corps and launching a counter-offensive, which retook cities earlier captured by Soviet forces, including Zhitomir and Brusilov. By early December, after the 48th Corps began making significant eastward advances, the Soviets dispatched tank and infantry reinforcements, which successfully repelled the German invaders. Kiev had been the scene of horrific crimes by the Nazis and their local collaborators in the Ukrainian fascist organisations. In two days, from April 29-30, 1941, they murdered an estimated 34,000 Jews at the Babi Yar ravine in the city. Throughout the German occupation, between 100,000 and 150,000 Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, Roma and communists were killed by the Nazis at the site. 100 years ago: Germany signs armistice with Allies, ending the First World War Allied officials pose outside the railway car where the Armistice agreement was signed. On November 11, 1918, the German government, now a republic led by Friedrich Ebert, a Social Democrat who had supported the war aims of German imperialism, capitulated to the overwhelming power of an Allied offensive on the Western Front and signed a formal surrender. The signing took place in a railroad car in the forest of Compiegne about 37 miles north of Paris, with the leader of the Catholic Center Party, Matthias Erzberger, leading the German delegation and Marshall Ferdinand Foch, supreme commander of the Allied military, leading the Allied delegation. While the Allied offensive had driven back German forces all along the line from Switzerland to the English Channel, the decisive event was the eruption of revolution in Germany, beginning with a mutiny by sailors at the end of October. The German high command placed the Social-Democrats in power to take responsibly for Germanys military defeat and to organize the suppression of the revolution. The Kaiser abdicated on November 9. Germanys allies, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Turkish Ottoman Empire had already signed their own armistices with the Allied imperialists by the end of October. Fighting was to cease within six hours of the signing. The Armistice gave highly unfavorable conditions to Germany. Within two weeks German troops were to evacuate France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Alsace-Lorraine (a border area historically contested by Germany and France), Romania, Africa, and areas that belonged to the Ottoman Empire, including what is now Syria. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia was declared invalid and German troops were to evacuate the Ukraine, although the Allies continued to support German-sponsored anti-Bolshevik armies. The Germans were to turn over thousands of heavy weapons, aircraft and warships, and the Allies were to occupy Germanys most important industrial center, the Ruhr valley. Allied prisoners of war were to be repatriated much sooner than their German counterparts, and the Allies did not agree to immediately lift their naval blockade on Germany. It was agreed that the Germans would pay war reparations, but the exact terms of these were not worked out until the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The Armistice ended the deadliest war in history until that time. Approximately 9-10 million solders had died since August 1914, among all the warring countries, and 8 million civilians. About 23 million soldiers were wounded, some so seriously that they could not resume normal life. In the immediate aftermath of the war, a wave of workers revolutions would sweep central Europe. By Ben Barkley Snyder Daily News Managing Editor The rest of the country just learned what Snyder residents already knew. Last month, 24/7 WalI Street, a Delaware-based corporation that runs an online financial news and opinion company, ranked Snyder as the 48th best American city to live in. "I think it is great that we are ranked No. 48 in the top 50," said Snyder Chamber of Commerce board chair Hope Heaton. ''That proves that we are a hidden gem in West Texas." Development Corporation of Snyder Executive Director Brooke Proctor said being ranked in the top 50 will help her when recruiting businesses. "This will be a great marketing tool for all of us to use in Snyder. It will help us promote economic growth,'' she said. Mayor Tony Wofford was equally as excited about the ranking. "We are No. 48 today working our way into the Top 20," he said. ''This just goes to show that all of the hard work the community has been doing is paying off." The online news agency description stated Snyder was originally known as "Hide Town'' for its early buffalo hide dwellings, and "Robber's Roost'' for the criminals that would often pass through it in the late 19th century. "After the discovery of oil in the surrounding Scurry County in 1948, the town's population peaked to roughly 16,000 before dropping to its current level," the report stated. The report also noted Snyder's poverty rate as a reason for being on the Iist. ''Though Snyder residents do not have especially high incomes - the typical household earns $50,325 a year - the area's poverty rate of 9.3 percent is lower than both national and state rates," the report stated. "The relative lack of financial hardship is due in large part to a low cost of living. Goods and services are 11 percent less expensive in Snyder than they are nationwide, on average." Other Texas cities in the top 50 were Storm, Lake (No. 47), Buda (No. 36), Highland Park (No. 34), Trophy Club (No. 17), Dumas (No. 4)., Perryton (No. 3) and West University Place (No. 1). The news agency created a weighted index of more than two dozen measures to identify the best American cities in which to live. The communities on the list span the country, but are disproportionately concentrated in the Midwest. Though every city on this list is relatively small -home to fewer than 25,000 people - many are located within a major metropolitan area and are well within commuting distance of a large city. Republished with permission from the Snyder Daily News, Snyder, Texas. "Why are you here?" That was the question that echoed when I visited COP Keating in 2009. Back then, it was just another American outpost stuck between two Taliban-infested hills in the middle of nowhere strategically important. Now, it's the subject of Hollywood movies, books, two Medals of Honor (the highest award the US military can give) and a history lesson the United States is teaching itself about a war that it's still fighting. At the time, the war in Afghanistan was reaching a climax as the Obama administration's surge began to get underway. During the few days I was on the base, it was repeatedly attacked by the Taliban, who would crawl down the hills in the shrubbery to fire through the fence. On one patrol, only meters outside the base's gates, I remember seeing Taliban bullets literally landing as puffs of dust, slowly moving toward me. Fifty-two days after I filmed a report, back then for the UK's Channel Four News, the base experienced a 13-hour long, almost overwhelming attack. Seven Americans died defending the the base, and another succumbed to his injuries later. A massive internal military review was launched. Why put a base there, in the Pakistani border regions, in the first place? Who overlooked the burned-out shells of Soviet-era tanks that lined the base -- a dark message from the valley's previous occupants that things did not end well? Why did the US seem to value a display of its reach over what its fist could actually punch that far away? It turned out all these questions, as COP Keating (Combat Outpost Keating -- named after a soldier, Ben Keating, who died when his vehicle overturned nearby) had already been addressed. Keating was scheduled to close six days after it was attacked. Exactly nine years later, I find myself standing in COP Keating again. Yet this time it's in Bulgaria. A short drive from Sofia, Millennium Films has painstakingly recreated the base. It is larger in scale, which at first bewilders me, and without the deadly hills -- they would have to be added later by CGI. The tiny place that had seemed so forlorn in person now comes across as the stuff of painful legend. Orlando Bloom, Scott Eastwood and Caleb Landry Jones lead a cast that contains actual survivors from the battle: some playing themselves, others their platoon colleagues. A West Point graduate, Rod Lurie, is even directing the film. It is more than a little jarring to see it all again. At one point, fake Taliban pop up from behind rocks and pretend to opened fire on us. It's difficult to resist the instinct to duck down. In truth, I had put the entire COP Keating episode in a box and dropped it deep in my subconscious. You can't linger over every story you cover or you will lose yourself. And after Keating was hit, I had been told the unit we had spent time with had left before the attack. That was wrong. Our Channel Four News report, I discovered only recently, contained some of the last pictures of some of the eight who died. There is a scene where I ask 1st Lt. Andrew Bundermann, who led the unit in the base's defense and survived, why they are there. He says: "We don't ask questions." He turns to Staff Sgt. Joshua Hardt: "Right, Hardt? You don't ask the question why are we here?" Hardt replies: "F**k no. We don't ask any questions, we get in trouble for asking questions." Hardt was found dead on the base after the battle, with three bullet wounds in his skull. The battle -- its aftermath and the errors that preceded it -- were the topic of a book by CNN's Jake Tapper, who accompanies us on the visit to the set. "This battle happened in October 2009," he says, "and here we are at the end of 2018 and I am sure the average American still has no idea how many troops we have in Afghanistan, why they are there, what they are accomplishing, what they are doing." He describes writing "The Outpost" as the most intense work he has ever done, stemming from the obligation to get the facts right for the families of those killed. That same sense of duty hangs over the set. In the words of producer Jonathan Yunger: "The weight of telling this story is insane. I feel it every day". Scott Eastwood, who plays Clint Romesha, one of the two recipients of the Medal of Honor for his valiant acts during the fight for Keating, says: "It's a lot of responsibility to try and make sure everything's right ... Definitely more pressure. We're still in Afghanistan." The other Medal of Honor recipient, Ty Carter, who made five selflessly brave runs across the base during the battle to help others, is played by Caleb Landry Jones. The night before, we trawled Sofia's bars with Jones and Carter, who make an odd couple, one trying still to absorb the battle he survived, and the other trying to absorb that Keating survivor. But during the long night in Sofia, Jones doesn't mention one fact: that his brother, Staff Sgt. John Jones, lost both legs in Iraq as a Marine. The role seems intensely personal to him, further burdened by the need to get Carter right on screen. It is likely to be a startling performance. "When I received the script," says Jones, "my older brother was visiting for Thanksgiving and I asked him to read it. He read it and said 'you are doing this.' I got to meet Ty..." he sighs. "And now we are here. But..." Much of what Jones says is punctuated by him rubbing his palm over his shaven head, and exhaling hard. I ask what the movie means to him. "I don't want to talk about that ... We are halfway done, there's a lot more to do. It feels like we have shot a week even though it's really been four. It's hard to talk about it in that kind of way. I don't know if I'll understand how to answer that question [of whether their role has been hard work] maybe two years from now." For Carter, who plays another soldier, but also technically advises on set to bolster authenticity, being here may be part of the recovery process. "I got so uncomfortable when I first came on the COP or set," he says, "and I think that's a good feeling. It's going to make me stronger." The set is a bewildering mix of Hollywood's ridiculous priorities -- the fake smoke, special chairs, walkie-talkies and trailers -- and fragments of the tiny part of an American generation that has been at war for about 17 years, and is still recovering. Two Hollywood movies will address the battle next year -- the other with Casey Affleck -- as America teaches itself a history lesson, about valor and love, from a war that's still raging, arguably at its most violent peak. "You think, in a battle like COP Keating," says Tapper, "that they'd be motivated by their hatred of the enemy, their anger. And the truth of the matter is they are motivated by the love they have for their brothers in arms. The desire to save each other. There's such a chasm between the 1% of the country who serve and the 99% who don't -- of which I am in the latter group -- there's such an inability to understand why they do what they do. But every one of the eight guys who was killed was killed in a mission of trying to help somebody else." The war in Afghanistan is the only part of President Trump's foreign policy he has devoted a singular and lengthy speech to -- pledging victory. Yet it remains far from most America TV screens. And so, when the movie is released -- likely on the 10th anniversary of the Keating assault, October 3, 2019 -- it's likely the war will still be going on then, and that the movie becomes how many Americans learn that's the case. The last word goes to Daniel Rodriguez, who is a Keating survivor and plays himself in the movie. "If you think of the Vietnam-era films and the WWII films, you do them after the war has already been done. But we live in a here-and-now generation. Let's show the world how horrific it is, yet still leave our people over there at the same time." Update 12/05/18 3:44 p.m. Golden Triangle Crime Stoppers is offering cash rewards up to $1,000 for tips leading to arrests. This armed robbery happened on November 5 at the Sprint Mart on Academy Callers remain anonymous: 1-800-530-7151. See the original post below. STARKVILLE, Miss. (WTVA) - The search is on for a person accused of robbing a Starkville gas station at gunpoint. The robbery happened Monday morning at the Sprint Mart on Academy Road. The stores workers say the robber walked through the doors, pushed a clerk to the floor and held another person at gunpoint while stealing money. Workers described the robber as having a mask. The person got away with an unknown amount of money. Workers say no one was seriously injured during the incident. This marks the second armed robbery of a gas station in the past few weeks. The previous one happened on October 25 at Quality Fuels on Highway 12 West. RELATED: Video released of Starkville armed robbery That suspect is still on the run. Starkville police are encouraging the public to assist in identifying the suspect. They are saying to contact the Starkville Police Department at 662-323-4131 or Golden Triangle Crime Stoppers at 1-800-530-7151. Domio, a NYC-based technology hospitality company focused on the apartment hotel, acquired Chicago-based Reserve Rentals, for $1.4M. The acquisition will enalbe Domio to expand its apart-hotel accommodations to Chicago. The acquisition will give the company instant access to its eighth market in America. Reserve Rentals 32 multi-room, units will join existing properties on its platform in Austin, Nashville, San Diego, Boston, New Orleans, New York City and Honolulu, which have hosted more than 80,000 guests to date. The Reserve Rentals real estate team, led by co-founders Grant Hosking and George Savaricas, which primarily offers two and three-bedroom leisure and business travel rentals in the Loop, South Loop and Gold Coast, will also join the Domio team with the goal of expanding its presence in Chicago to 500 units by early 2020. Led by CEO Jay Roberts, Domio is a travel technology platform providing a branded apartment-hotel concept. The acquisition comes a week after the company announced a $12m investment from Tribeca Venture Partners, with participation from SoftBank Capital NY and Loric Ventures. FinSMEs 05/11/2018 Over the past few years, journalists, pundits and think-tankers have touched down at Denver International Airport with hopes that the Centennial State can be their crystal ball. Their lofty ponderings range from wondering if Colorado congeniality can straight up save the entire country, to coronating it with premier bellwether status and, as long as theyre here, seeing if the weed is any good. Like Ohio in the 2000s, Colorado maintains a certain amount of swing state swagger. But is the state still as purple as all these people want you to believe? In the Denver-Boulder corridor, shiny Subarus clog the highways, 20-somethings fill the breweries in overhauled urban neighborhoods and luxury apartment cranes litter the thin air. And even though the onslaught has abated, the diverse, youthful presence is more than just anecdotal. The states population has boomed, increasing by 11.5 percent in just seven years. There are plenty of intriguing contests in Colorado during the 2018 midterms. In Congress, Jason Crow looks likely to unseat incumbent Mike Coffman, flipping the sixth congressional district from red to blue for the first time ever a drastic turn from Tom I Swear Im Not Racist Tancredos decade in the seat. A statewide ballot initiative, Amendment 73, seeks to bolster public school funds through income taxes on corporations and on well-off citizens, some of whom are, in Paul Ryan-esque fashion, describing $150,000-plus salaries as middle class. And then theres Proposition 112, a fracking initiative aiming to increase minimum distance requirements for vulnerable nearby areas, which has brought just about every Colorado politician with a pulse out of the woodwork, and even inspired a fatuous ad starring John Elway: Come for the doublespeak, stay for the science teacher who inexplicably dissolves into the ether! Perhaps most captivating of all is the gubernatorial contest between Jared Polis and Walker Stapleton. Polis is gay and Jewish, but perhaps what might draw the most ire of an Infowars-watching ring-winger is his home and district of Boulder, an almost cartoonishly liberal college town. On Thursday, President Trump weighed in on the race, tweeting his support of Stapleton and, stop us if youve heard this one before, claiming Polis is weak on crime and weak on borders. Story continues Whats great about our state is that the unaffiliated voters control our destiny, Polis tells Rolling Stone when asked if he thinks Colorado is now a blue state. Were in Boulder at the tail-end of a meet-and-greet in late October. In typical Boulder fashion, the event is staged at a hippie brewpub where they only take cash, the tips are pooled and they serve tempeh reubens under a mural of a meditating woman who is feeding deer while sitting in the lap of a dragon. Polis is wearing a salmon polo shirt thats tucked into khaki pants that shelter his well-worn blue sneakers. Theres roughly equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans, Polis continues. The likely successor of his congressional seat, Joe Neguse, speaks with voters a few feet away. Its all about courting independent voters and showing that we have a better plan to move our state forward, Polis says. The five-term congressman looks drained from the trail, where he estimates theyve done over 300 of these gatherings in every corner of the state. For the past three days, Polis and his bus a big, blue Gray Line that idles outside have been in Alamosa, Durango and Grand Junction. Polis is running ahead of his Republican opponent recent numbers have him up seven-to-12 points. Im most excited about cutting the income tax for small businesses and residents, he says, uttering words you might not expect from someone that the GOP wants to paint as malignantly liberal, even socialist. But, Polis is a businessman, a massively wealthy entrepreneur who you may have bought flowers from at some point. During the interview hes frequently distracted by the cell phone in his hand. He often returns to talking points: universal healthcare, free full-day preschool and kindergarten and a state run on renewable energy by 2040. Stapletons agenda, on the other hand, is boilerplate Republican. The scion of complicated conservative Colorado royalty, his website contains a smattering of resentful platitudes. Like much of the Trump-led GOP, Stapletons views are less for something than against: Hes anti-single-payer, anti-sanctuary cities and anti-taxes. The current State Treasurer does love guns and oil, though. (His campaign did not reply to repeated requests for comment for this piece.) Our state has always looked to the person, not the party, Polis says. Michael Fields, executive director of Colorado Rising Action, a conservative political action group, echoes this point when reached by Rolling Stone. The quality of candidates makes a big difference in a state like this. Cory Gardner beat an incumbent senator in 2014 because he was a good, smart candidate. Sen. Gardner headlines a Colorado GOP that also, for now, controls the State Senate. There are three Dems, including Polis, and four Republicans, representing Colorado on Capitol Hill. Theres only been one Republican governor in Colorado in 44 years. Trumps disapproval in the state is just a hair under 60 percent. Over the past 26 years, Coloradans have voted to elect Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama (twice), George W. Bush (twice), Bob Dole and Bill Clinton for president. So, what to make of it all? I still think were a purple state, Gov. John Hickenlooper tells Rolling Stone. Hes at the Des Moines airport, flying back to Denver, where he was attending something called the World Food Prize while also lets be serious, really testing the waters for a 2020 presidential run. We may be a little more blue, the term-limited Hickenlooper concedes. Polis has run a strong campaign. I dont think hes gone way to the left. And I certainly dont see him as anti-business in any way. Colorado has been trending more and more blue for a while thanks in large part to the influx of out-of-staters into Denver and the surrounding areas, says Tim Miller, a Jeb Bush campaign alum who hails from the state. That trend has been exacerbated as the cultural grievance message that Trump successfully campaigned on in the Upper Midwest doesnt resonate in a state that is 20 percent Hispanic, and where the real unemployment rate is essentially zero. Beyond his Bush clan association, Miller is a GOP strategist and frequent Trump critic. Republicans arent dead in Colorado though, Miller asserts, before bringing up the political C-word. The state is not yet California. As Fields attests, Since Coloradans pride themselves on being independent, our state will never be all blue or all red. Our biggest political party is unaffiliated, and its only growing. Its true and even if unaffiliated, or independent, voters may not show up in the same percentages as partisans, they are a topic Polis returns to time and again that day in Boulder. For the first time, unaffiliated voters were allowed to vote in the primaries and more voted for Democrats than Republicans. We, of course, want to turn out voters that will vote for me, both Democrats and some moderate Republicans, but the people that are unaffiliated are the people that will determine who the next governor will be, Polis says. I point to a fellow seated at the bar nearby. He has a gray ponytail and is wearing a Trump 2020 T-shirt. This is a Democratic event in Boulder; the outfit this man pulled from his closet is emblematic of the independent, idiosyncratic and often contrarian ways of the West. What would Polis, the candidate, say to him? In an election season, it seems like the political divide looms large, Polis begins. Theres divides between the Western Slope and the Front Range, between urban and rural Colorado, between ag and industry. And we want to be the bridge that helps bring Coloradans together to make our state even more amazing. Polis and his staffers show off a tool theyve developed: a running, real-time, tally of ballots that have already been collected. On this day, there is already over 200,000 each of Republican and Democratic votes in the bank. The program also shows just under 200,000 unaffiliated votes have also been counted. We have every color in the spectrum, Hickenlooper, who knows more about the Colorado voter than most, says. The question, it seems, isnt whether or not Colorado is a blue state now its whether or not unaffiliated voters will make it a blue state for now. Colorado has long been attractive to people on the fringe, the outlaw ways of the Old West endemic to its appeal. Coloradans dont like to be told what to do, whether theyre ripping a bong full of Granola Funk yes, thats a real weed strain name or blasting a 12-gauge at an empty can of Coors. What happens Tuesday is anyones guess. This article has been updated to clarify the role of Colorado Rising Action and the fact that Republicans in Colorado control the State Senate, not the State House. We regret the error. Driver jailed on suspicion of being intoxicated in crash that killed 3 Wisconsin Girl Scouts and an adult picking up highway trash: Jail official originally appeared on abcnews.go.com As a community mourned three Girl Scouts and an adult supervisor who were killed when a pickup truck struck them as they were picking up trash alongside a Wisconsin highway, the suspected driver was in custody Sunday on suspicion of being intoxicated when he allegedly ran them over, officials said. The suspect, Colten Treu, 21, is expected to appear in court on Monday, officials said. He was being held in jail on suspicion of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and homicide by negligent use of a vehicle, an official at the Chippewa County Jail in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, told ABC News on Sunday. He graduated from a school within the Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District, Superintendent Dr. Heidi Eliopolous told reporters Sunday afternoon. Eliopolous, who lives near the highway where the victims were struck, first saw the emergency response vehicles and then was informed by a neighbor that "younger children were involved" in the accident. "And our instincts kicked in, knowing that if there was an accident in our community, there was a very good chance it was our students," she said. Two of the students who were killed attended Halmstead Elementary School, while the third student attended Southview Elementary School, Eliopolous said, adding that the adult supervisor who was killed was the mother of the Southview student. The names of those killed will be released Monday, Eliopolous said. Local residents were planning to hold a candlelight vigil for the victims Sunday night at Halmstad Elementary School in Chippewa Falls, where the three girls were all in the fourth grade. A fourth Girl Scout struck by the truck remained in the hospital Sunday in critical condition, officials said. She attends Halmstead Elementary, Eliopolous said. Story continues PHOTO: Three Girl Scouts and an adult were killed when a man allegedly hit them and drove off in Chippewa Falls, Wis., on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018. Colton Treu, 21, later surrendered to police in the incident. (WAOW) "Our hearts are broken for the girls and families of the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes," Sylvia Acevedo, the chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts of the USA, said in a statement Sunday to ABC News. "The Girl Scout movement everywhere stands with our sister Girl Scouts in Wisconsin to grieve and comfort one another in the wake of this terrible tragedy." The girls were picking up garbage at 11:41 a.m. on Saturday near the village of Lake Hallie, about 95 miles east of Minneapolis, Minnesota, when a Ford F-150 pickup truck allegedly driven by Treu veered off a roadway and into the ditch, striking the four girls and an adult who was overseeing their volunteer work, said Sgt. Daniel Sokup of the Lake Hallie Police Department. Treu allegedly left the scene after hitting the group, Sokup said. Treu surrendered to police Saturday night and was placed under arrest, Sokup said. It was not immediately clear whether Treu had retained an attorney. (MORE: Driver charged with reckless homicide in crash at school bus stop that killed 3 siblings) The incident came at the end of a particularly deadly week for children hit by cars throughout the U.S. In another deadly crash, three siblings died when they were hit by a pickup truck while boarding a bus in Rochester, Indiana, on Tuesday. A 9-year-old boy was struck and killed while crossing the street to board a bus in northern Mississippi on Wednesday, and a second-grader in Pennsylvania was killed when struck by a vehicle at a bus stop on Thursday. (MORE: 5 children, 2 adults hit by car at bus stop in Tampa, Florida: Police) Five children and two adults were struck by a car at a bus stop in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday as well, though none of the injuries were considering life-threatening. The school district is providing counseling and therapy dogs in the aftermath of the tragedy, Eliopolous said. "This is a difficult time for our students, our families and our staff," she said. "Well provide ongoing support as long as its needed." In a joint statement, Halmstead Elementary School Principal Wade Pilloud and Southview Elementary School Principal Sara Denure thanked the community for the "outpouring of support." "Please join us by continuing to support our grieving families with your thoughts and prayers," the statement read. "We have received an overwhelming outpouring of support from our community, from around the state and from around the nation." ABC News' Julia Jacobo contributed to this report. Father speaks at vigil for 3 siblings fatally struck at school bus stop: 'I don't get to watch my baby grow up' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com A grief-stricken community in northern Indiana held a vigil Friday night for the three young siblings who were struck and killed while crossing the street to their school bus earlier this week. Xzavier and Mason Ingle, 6-year-old twin boys, and their 9-year-old sister Alivia Stahl were killed Tuesday morning on a rural road near Rochester. The children's classmate and neighbor, 11-year-old Maverik Lowe, was also hit and suffered multiple broken bones, according to Sgt. Tony Slocum, the public information officer for the Indiana State Police. Michael Stahl, Alivia's dad, was visibly distraught as he spoke about his daughter during the candlelight vigil at Mentone Youth League. "I don't get to watch my baby grow up," he told dozens who attended. "I don't get to watch her have her Sweet 16, I don't get to watch her have prom, I don't get to take her and walk her down the aisle to get married. That's all gone. It's gone. I don't get that, she doesn't get to live that." PHOTO: People attend a vigil for the young children killed at a bus stop in Rochester, Ind., Nov. 2, 2018. (WBND) The woman allegedly at the wheel of the pickup truck that hit the children, identified as 24-year-old Alyssa Shepherd, was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon and charged with three counts of reckless homicide, as well as one misdemeanor count of disregarding a stop sign and causing injury, officials said. She was not injured in the crash, which damaged the front-end of her 2017 Toyota Tacoma. "I asked God that day, 'Why?' And to see the impact our kids have made with everybody out there, that's what the purpose was that maybe God had intended," Michael Stahl said at the vigil. "It means their lives weren't taken in vain." (MORE: Driver charged with reckless homicide in crash at school bus stop that killed identical twin brothers and sister) Story continues PHOTO: Michael Stahl, father of 9-year-old Alivia Stahl who was struck and killed while crossing the street to her school bus, speaks at a community vigil at Mentone Youth League in Indiana, Nov. 2, 2018. (WBND) Shepherd was taken to the Fulton County Jail but was released that night on a $15,000 surety bond, Adam Roop, an evening supervising officer at the jail, told ABC News. Shepherd told an Indiana State Police detective that she saw flashing emergency lights on the two-lane highway but didn't realize it was a school bus picking up children until it was too late, according to an audio recording obtained by ABC News of what the detective said at Shepherd's probable cause hearing Wednesday. The detective said Shepherd also told her she typically did not drive on the route where the crash occurred and that she had three children in the backseat of her pickup truck at the time. (MORE: Driver who hit and killed 3 siblings saw flashing lights, but didn't realize it was a school bus picking up the children, police say) PHOTO: Twin six-year-old brothers Mason and Xzavier Ingle are pictured with their nine-year-old sister Alivia Stahl in an undated family photo. The three were struck and killed by a car near Rochester, Ind., on Oct. 30, 2018. (Courtesy Elgin Ingle) Michael Stahl said he another daughter, who is 11 years old, stayed home from school that day for a doctor's appointment. He described the heart-wrenching moment he had to tell her that Alivia, Xzavier and Mason were never coming home. "She asked me, 'Why am I still here? Why did they only take them and not me?'" he said. "What do you tell an 11-year-old child?" ABC News' Bill Hutchinson, Rachel Katz and Alex Perez contributed to this report. 'This is not how I raised him,' mother of mail bombing suspect Cesar Sayoc wrote in exclusive letter to ABC News 'This is not how I raised him,' mother of mail bombing suspect Cesar Sayoc wrote in exclusive letter to ABC News originally appeared on abcnews.go.com The mother of the man suspected of mailing more than a dozen suspicious packages to prominent politicians, media figures and celebrities said she did not raise her children to incite fear, describing her accused son as having been mentally ill "for a long time." Madeline Sayoc, the mother of 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc, told ABC News in an exclusive letter sent by her attorney that she awoke from surgery last week to learn that he had been accused of mailing at least 14 suspicious packages addressed to liberal politicians and others who support liberal policies, such as Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Robert De Niro. (MORE: Mail bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc to be transferred to New York for trial) "While I have not lived with my son for 35 years or even heard from him in over four years, I cannot express how deeply hurt, sad, shocked and confused I am to hear that my son may have caused so many people to be put in fear for their safety," Madeline Sayoc wrote. "This is not how I raised him or my children." PHOTO: A photo of the device recovered from CNN by the NYPD bomb squad on Oct. 24, 2018, as confirmed by two law enforcement officials. (Obtained by ABC News) Madeline Sayoc said her son has struggled with mental illness for some time, adding that the nation has work to do in how it deals with mental health. "My son has been ill for a long time and my family and I have tried, over and over again, without success to urge him to get the help he needs," she wrote. "We, in America, have a mental health crisis in this country and need to change laws to allow families to compel and require mental health treatment for those in need of such treatment before their illness worsens to where it is too late." Sayoc's current attorneys have not commented on Sayoc's mental health. PHOTO: Cesar Sayoc is seen in this undated booking photo, released by the Broward County Sheriff's office and provided by the Associated Press, in Miami. (Broward County Sheriff's Office via AP) The mother also called upon President Donald Trump and other leaders to consider how their words can be viewed by some as "license to violently act out in our country." Story continues (MORE: Mail bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc planned 'domestic terrorist attack' since July, prosecutors say) "...Our political leaders, like our President Donald Trump, need to recognize that there are many sick people in this country who take their rhetoric and words of 'War with the Media' and 'War with the Democrats' to heart," she said. "...I beg President Trump and others to refrain from talk of War with fellow Americans and remembers, as Senator McCain taught us, that we may politically disagree but we are all patriotic Americans and all we want is a safe country for all Americans." PHOTO: Local and federal authorities remove a suspicious package found at a US postal facility in Wilmington, Del., Oct. 25, 2018. A law enforcement official said suspicious packages addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden were intercepted. (David Swanson/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP) Daniel Lurvey, Sayoc's former attorney who represented him in his grand theft and petty theft charges in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, expressed surprise that he was arrested for the string of suspicious packages, describing him as "a gentleman" with "no political agenda." "Hes as regular, non-political as can be," Lurvey told ABC News after Sayoc was arrested, adding also that he is "somewhat gregarious and friendly." PHOTO: A member of the New York Police Department bomb squad is pictured outside the Time Warner Center in Manahattan, Oct. 24, 2018, after a suspicious package was found inside the CNN Headquarters in New York. (Kevin Coombs/Reuters) Sayoc was arrested on Oct. 26 after investigators tracked his cell phone to a parking lot in Plantation, Florida. Authorities identified him as the suspect after finding a fingerprint on one of the packages sent to Rep. Maxine Waters and matched it to a print Sayoc provided during one of his previous arrests. Although he had not lived with his mother for years, his official residence is listed as her Florida, home. He had primarily been living in a white van covered in political stickers that is now being investigated. PHOTO: The vehicle belonging to the suspect in custody for an apparent mass mail bombing plot is in the process of being taken away by authorities in Plantation, Fla., Oct. 26, 2018. (ABC News ) On Friday, Sayoc appeared briefly in federal court in Miami but waived his right to a pretrial detention hearing and agreed to be transferred to New York, where he will be tried for federal criminal charges including interstate transportation of an explosive, illegal mailing of explosives, threats against former presidents and certain other persons, threatening interstate communications and assaulting current and former federal officers. "The magnitude of what has happened does weigh on him," Daniel Aaronson, one of Sayoc's private attorneys in Florida, told ABC News on Friday after the hearing. "He was the most respectful client that I have ever represented. When I heard his name in connection to this, I just stuttered and stammered that he could possibly be involved. It's just not the person that I know." (MORE: Suspected mail bomber Cesar Sayoc had a list of names and addresses) Another one of Sayoc's former attorneys, Miami-based lawyer Ronald Lowy, told ABC News after his arrest that Sayoc's mother is a committed democrat and that his alleged behavior is inconsistent with her political views. ABC News' Santina Leuci, Justin Weaver and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report. So youve decided to take the plunge and dive into the world of online business. Buying an already established business is great way to hit the ground running and get into the marketplace as fast as possible. Buying an established business means time intensive tasks such as creating a business model, customer base, and supply chain have already been done. Once purchased, the business is all yours to fine-tune and hopefully increase the customer base and profits. Taking the first step when embarking on any task is usually the hardest part of the journey. Finding an ideal online business and buying one can be a bamboozling transaction if you havent done so before. First, you have to know where to find one, then there is the process of vetting the business to ensure that its profitable, and finally sealing the deal and purchasing the business. The process sounds easy enough, right? Find a business, see if its viable, and then purchase it. There are four different channels you can go through to find and buy an online business and in this post we will have a look at each channel in a bit finer detail. Website Broker A website broker is basically a real estate agent for online businesses. They will help you find, vet, and purchase your online business. They act as the middleman between the business and you, the purchaser. They do charge a fee, but for this fee will guide you through the whole process until the deal is done. They get paid a commission, so its in their best interests to hold your hand until the deal is closed. A website broker will vet the business and ensure it is legitimate and producing the figures that it displays to the public. They do this by using tools such as Alexa. Alexa is a market analytics tool used to quantify web traffic and global website ranking. The global rank, also known as the Alexa rank, can be used to monitor the popularity of a website and also compare the popularity of different websites. Its a very handy tool to utilize when buying and running an online business. Online Marketplaces Online marketplaces where people trade in online businesses also abound. You can check out Exchange, Shopifys marketplace to buy or sell businesses. There are many other marketplaces to browse around and some, such as Flippa, specialize in categories such as online gambling where many six-figure sites are on sale. Marketplaces generally allow you to search for businesses by category, price, revenue, age, and industry. Each listing contains information on the traffic and performance of the business, such as profit, revenue, inventory, sales, and profit margin. The listing will also have a detailed overview of the business and its social media presence. If you do decide to purchase a business through an online marketplace, the vetting process is up to you. Youll need to make sure the business is legit and producing the numbers shown on the listing. On Exchange, all the data comes from Shopify and cannot be altered by the seller, allowing buyers some peace of mind knowing that the figures are accurate and a correct representation of the business. Online marketplaces are a great place to start and allow the purchaser flexible search options to narrow down the field and find an online business tailored to their needs. Auction Sites Auction sites are similar to online marketplaces except they allow you to place a bid on an online business. Auction sites give the buyer the opportunity to place a bid and possibly get a great price on an undervalued business. This can work to the advantage of the seller too, as it allows them to create more interest and the possibility of getting a better price. Auction sites have come under scrutiny in the past, due to sellers using shilling techniques, such as ghost bids, to drive up the price of their website. Also, the vetting process has been accused of not being as thorough and is at the buyers discretion to do this. If youre not experienced in the vetting process it is advisable to avoid auction sites and stick with reputable online marketplaces or website brokers. Direct Sale You can always directly approach an online business that you wish to acquire by contacting them and making an offer although this can be very hit and miss; most of the time miss! If a business is willing to sell, they will usually be listed on an online marketplace. But you never know and it cant hurt to try. Your offer may be just the incentive the owner needs to sell! Always ensure to vet the business thoroughly before making an offer and go through the appropriate channels needed to make a legally binding contract for the sale. Before buying an online business, you should also be aware of your involvement in the business and how many hours of work are required for you to maintain its current profits and traffic flow. Of course you will have to put more time and effort in if you want your traffic and profits to grow. With more and more consumers looking for products and services online, it makes owning an online business an attractive notion. Just like a physical business, an online business should be analysed before making the purchase, using tools such as Alexa. Out of the four buying channels available, online marketplaces are the most popular, using options like Shopifys Exchange marketplace or Flippa. Auctions are riskier, although you may be able to jag the deal of a century if you know how to properly vet the company using the tools available. Direct sales are harder to find, although money talks and serious offers may just get the attention of the owner and prompt them to sell. A website broker will aid in the finding, vetting and buying of a business but will take a commission upon sale. An online business can be a great investment and project but always remember to do as much research as possible before closing the deal. In West Virginia, Ojeda shows how to campaign as a Democrat in Trump Country originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Almost 60 years ago, a brash newcomer to the Democratic Party named John F. Kennedy campaigned across the hilly coalfields of West Virginia and helped shed light on Appalachian people and poverty. His connection to the state helped put him over the top in the 1960 Democratic primary, and eventually helped him win the presidency. "He's the first president that came down here and spoke of West Virginia in a positive light," said Richard Ojeda, a Democratic candidate in West Virginia's competitive 3rd District. "The sun doesn't always shine in West Virginia, but the people do." Trump admits Republicans could lose the House at rally in West Virginia As a tattooed, retired paratrooper with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and currently a state senator, Ojeda was launched into the national spotlight during West Virginia teacher strikes and his campaign for U.S. Congress. Ojeda, who campaigns in his Army fatigues, is unlike the blue-blood Kennedy except that he, too, is a brash political newcomer, and he understands the power of a Democrat showing up and listening. Ojeda's race in the southern portion of the state, a district where Trump won 73 percent of the vote, could pave a pathway for Democrats hoping to run competitive races in Trump country. Ojeda, who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, said he thinks the Democratic party -- the party that once helped put Kennedy over the top -- has lost its way in Appalachia. "It's about finding the people in the areas that can relate to those people and supporting them. It's got to stop being about the most money," Ojeda told ABC News. "You know, you find the person that everyone in that area can relate to, that cares about the people in that area, and then support that person. And if we do that, make no mistake about it, we can go back to blue." Story continues PHOTO: Supporters are seen before the start of a rally by President Donald Trump at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, West Virginia on September 29, 2018. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images) Ojeda and his campaign have been working around the clock to ensure that happens. Wearing Army boots and speaking in an intense voice with a West Virginia twang, Ojeda knocked on doors and made his case in every county of the district. "People canvassing for us are telling us literally out of 30 doors, 21 will say Ojeda, two will say my opponent and the rest will be undecided," Ojeda said. "So I think that we are looking really good. I think we are going to win this." His race against Republican Carol Miller is considered one of the most competitive in the country. President Trump at center of only West Virginia Senate debate between Joe Manchin, Patrick Morrisey Since the primary, Trump has campaigned three times in the state for Miller, and has lashed out at Ojeda as a "total whacko." "I've seen that person -- you cant have that person in Congress, he's stone-cold crazy," Trump said at a rally in Wheeling, West Virginia. It's a label Ojeda's embraced. "If I'm stone-cold crazy because I have a hard time going to sleep at night because we have kids that go to bed hungry, then I'll be stone-cold crazy, and I'm OK with that," Ojeda said. For Ojeda, it's personal. He said his campaign team is made up of people who have been affected by opioid epidemic. "My political director lost both mother and father to overdose. My financial person, he found his brother dead with a syringe sticking out of his arm and just recently lost a nephew. My media person has spent literally her whole life with her aunt and uncle because of opioids," Ojeda said. In 2016, West Virginia had the highest rate of opioid-related overdose deaths in the country, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "None of us come from areas where wealth is really part of life," Ojeda said. "We come up in these areas, and we've watched people struggle our whole lives. We've struggled. And that's why everyone is so committed to this. I've got people who literally couldn't even tell you how many hours that they've put into this campaign, how many miles they have walked, how many doors they have knocked on, how many phone calls they have made. But they have done it, and they have done it with a smile on their face because they know that we are trying our best to be able to finally shed a positive light and bring positive light back to southern West Virginia." Ojeda is running on a populist, pro-coal, pro-Second Amendment platform that's focused on working families, veterans, fighting the opioid epidemic and protecting social services. He's raised almost twice as much money as his opponent, Miller, who's running on a pro-Trump platform and largely shied away from the media or any public debate. "This is such an important election, to continue the job that our president has done for the past two years, we need to make America great again, Miller told ABC News. "There are so many different issues, the economy is starting to really roll, and we really need to keep it moving forward. Of course, in southern West Virginia we care a lot about coal, and infrastructure and all those other issues that are important to the entire country." As a Democrat, Ojeda has found a way to appeal to Trump supporters, Democrats, and those who have shied away from politics. He's made a personal brand out of being loud, outspoken, and authtenic. Supporters said he's just more like the kind of West Virginian you know. With @Ojeda4congress and @HuntingtonMayor getting to visit Jims Steak & Spaghetti House in person. Grateful for the family connection here. Proud to be on the trail with Richard in the final stretch. pic.twitter.com/Zh2uG8Ek9f Joe Kennedy (@joekennedy) November 2, 2018 Just days before the election, as Trump made his final appeal to the state in Huntington, the Ojeda campaign's home base, Democratic Congressman Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., came out to support Ojeda and tour the downtown. Kennedy, tall, young, and part of the newer generation of the Democratic Party, bounded into Ojeda's campaign headquarters. For the occasion, Ojeda, who's normally dressed in his fatigues, changed into a suit and tie. "Glad to see you here," Ojeda said. "My honor, my honor," Kennedy said with a handshake. Kennedy, the great nephew of John F. Kennedy, has been crisscrossing the country in support of new Democratic candidates. He said he was most excited to come to West Virginia. It's places like this, he says, where the stakes of this election are "crystal clear." "This one is personal. My family has a very deep history here, one that we are proud of, and one that I've heard stories about ever since I was a very little kid," Kennedy said. "You have an opportunity to actually send a message to West Virginia and to our entire country about what politics can be and about what service can be." "I sure wish I could cast that vote," Kennedy said. Ojeda and Kennedy spent time at Jim's Steak and Spaghetti, an old family-owned restaurant in the heart of downtown Huntington. Framed above them was a black-and-white photo of John F. Kennedy, sitting in the same green vinyl benches, being served coffee in 1960. Like many West Virginians, Ojeda said his family remembers when the young political hopeful came to town. "When President Kennedy come to West Virginia, he spoke about West Virginia and the people that gave the people here pride. And my family, my father remembers when President Kennedy was in Logan county and at places like the smokehouse standing on chairs, talking to people," Ojeda said. "I think it's about service and serving the people, and that's exactly what President Kennedy did. And that's exactly what I want to do." Youd expect to toast Ziveli! with a drink in hand on one of the famous splavs, or floating clubs, in Serbias capital, Belgrade. What you might not expect is that some travelers are toasting in Serbian monasteries with Serbian monks. There are over 400 monasteries of the Orthodox faith in Serbia including a few that are UNESCO World Heritage sites with approximately 200 still actively in use and managed by monks and nuns. Many of these monasteries are open to the public for religious and historical tours and close-up views of magnificent medieval frescoes. Unless youre a fan of history, a monastery tour in Serbia may not sound like the most exciting time, but that's where youd be wrong. See, theres one interesting aspect of these monasteries that most people dont know about: in Serbia, monks sell homemade alcohol. While religion and alcohol may seem like two things at odds, monks making alcohol is not a new thing. Dom Perignon isnt just a brand of champagne, its the name of a French Benedictine monk who invented the bubbly drink. Even in North America, priests and friars have been making wine since the late 1500's at places like Casa Madero, the oldest winery in Mexico. Similarly, Serbian monks have been self-sufficient for centuries, from growing food to harvesting honey, and like those in other parts of the world, theyve made their own spirits and continue to do so, selling it to locals and tourists to fund the upkeep of their homes. Wine lovers will want to head to eastern Serbia to the region of Negotin. Their local monastery, Bukovo Monastery, was established in the 14th century and offers an idyllic setting surrounded by woods and a rich soil perfect for growing grapes. They have a long tradition of viticulture, boasting the first vineyard school in the region in 1887. The monks are widely known for creating a unique and ancient variety of wine with black muscadine grapes. After thoroughly tasting the wines of the Bukovo monks, head north to Kovilj Monastery, which is said to have been founded by Saint Sava, a prince and the first archbishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church, in the 13th century. The monks at this monastery are known for making rakija, a Serbian fruit brandy that comes in flavors of peach, quince (a tart winter fruit), plum and blackberry, among many others. Their quince rakija is especially beloved and is distilled in the old practice of smashing the quince, letting them ferment in the cellars of the monastery for a few weeks and then aged in oak barrels. Story continues The monasteries of Bukovo and Kovilj arent the only Serbian monasteries to produce alcohol. Many of the monasteries, even some of the most well-known, like Kosovo's Gracanica Monastery, sell bottles of homemade brews in their gift shop. All it takes to buy one of these souvenir-worthy bottles is to rent a car or book a local guide Explore Belgrade is extremely knowledgeable and drive to them. Once there, dont be shy to ask one of the monks to join you for a glass of rakija or wine. You might be surprised by the stories they tell like the adventurous tales of a Kovilj monk who used to live in New York City. Whatever you do, don't forget to cheers, Ziveli! Yaounde (AFP) - Gunmen kidnapped 79 school students on Monday in an English-speaking region of Cameroon where separatists are fighting an armed campaign for independence, security and government sources said. The abductions, the worst incident so far in 13 months of unrest, came just a day before longtime President Paul Biya was to be sworn in for a seventh term in office. "Seventy-nine pupils and three supervisors" were seized, Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who is also government spokesman, told AFP. A government official said the three comprised the school's principal, a teacher and a driver. A source close to the school said the abducted students "are mainly boys." A six-minute video seen by AFP, but which could not be immediately confirmed independently, showed 11 boys apparently aged about 15 giving their identity and name of the school in English, and adding that they were abducted by the "Amba Boys" -- the name for anglophone separatists. The first mass abduction in Cameroon follows two major such incidents in neighbouring Nigeria, where the Islamist group Boko Haram snatched more than 200 schoolgirls from the Borno state town of Chibok in April 2014. Some 107 girls have since been released or found, but the Islamist group abducted scores more schoolgirls from neighbouring Yobe state in February this year. The students kidnapped Monday were enrolled at the Presbyterian Secondary School in Bamenda, capital of Cameroon's Northwest Region -- one of two regions hit by attacks by anglophone militants that have met with a brutal crackdown by the authorities. "The search for the hostages has been launched -- every man has been called in," the government source said, speaking after a crisis meeting. Elsewhere in the region, a high-ranking local official was also seized, a security official told AFP. The school's website says that the student body numbers more than 700, drawn from "all the religious and linguistic origins of Cameroon." Story continues - Tension - The kidnappings coincide with an upsurge of political tensions in the majority French-speaking country. It comes after elections on October 7 in which 85-year-old Biya, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for 35 years, was credited with 71.3 percent of the vote. The polls however were marred by allegations of widespread fraud, low voter turnout and violence. Around a fifth of Cameroon's 22 million people are English-speaking -- a minority whose presence dates back to the colonial period. Cameroon, once a German colony, was divided between Britain and France after World War I. The French colony gained independence in 1960, becoming Cameroon. The following year, the British-ruled Southern Cameroons was amalgamated into it, giving rise to the Northwest and Southwest regions. But resentment at perceived discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority, especially in education and the judiciary, began to build. In 2016, demands for greater autonomy grew but have been rebuffed by Biya. - 'Republic of Ambazonia' - As radicals took the ascendancy, the anglophone movement declared the creation of the "Republic of Ambazonia" in the Northwest and neighbouring Southwest Region on October 1, 2017. No country has recognised the self-declared state. The separatists have gunned down troops and police, boycotted and torched schools and attacked other perceived symbols of the Cameroonian state. They have decreed a boycott of schools, saying that the French-speaking education system marginalises anglophone students. At the start of the school year in September, several secondary schools were attacked, a headmaster was killed and a teacher was badly mutilated. The authorities have responded with a massive crackdown by police and troops. At least 400 civilians have been killed this year as well as more than 175 members of the security forces, according to a toll compiled by non-governmental organisations. The conflict has seen a resurgence in the Northwest region after several months of calm while fighting was worse in the Southwest region. More than 300,000 people have fled the violence, many of them living hand-to-mouth in the forests, and some across the border into Nigeria. In the October 7 election, turnout was a meagre five percent in the Northwest and 15 percent in the Southwest -- but Biya won more than two-thirds of the vote in both regions. An Afghan delegation will attend international talks on the war-torn country in Russia this month, officials said Monday, as the Taliban consider whether to participate. Moscow announced Saturday it would host the event on November 9 in the Russian capital -- even as the United States engages the Taliban in nascent bilateral talks to end the 17-year conflict. Afghanistan's High Peace Council, a government body responsible for reconciliation efforts with the militants, would send four representatives to the meeting, spokesman Sayed Ihsan Taheri told AFP. The Afghan foreign ministry, however, remained evasive about whether it would dispatch a delegation to the conference, which will focus on kickstarting peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban. "We are still negotiating with the Russian officials," spokesman Sebaghtullah Ahmadi said. "We welcome any peace effort that is Afghan-led." Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the militant group was still mulling whether to go. Moscow has also invited representatives from the United States as well as India, Iran, China, Pakistan and five former Soviet republics in Central Asia. Pakistan, which has long been accused of providing support to the Afghan Taliban, would "definitely" attend, foreign ministry spokesman Muhammad Faisal told AFP. The US embassy in Kabul did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Moscow meeting was initially scheduled to take place in September, but was postponed after Kabul insisted that the process should be Afghan-led. The meeting comes at a sensitive time. Newly appointed US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been trying to convince the Taliban to agree to negotiate an end to the war and there are fears the Russian multi-lateral meeting could derail those efforts. A US government watchdog last week said Kabul's control of Afghanistan had slipped in recent months as local security forces suffered record casualties while making minimal or no progress against the Taliban. (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is in late-stage talks with Dallas, New York, the Crystal City area of northern Virginia and a few other candidates for the location of its second headquarters, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Talks with the leading contenders are likely in different phases, while discussions with some of the others on Amazon's shortlist have cooled, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The world's largest retailer may announce plans to place smaller operations in cities that come in as runner-ups, sources told the WSJ. Seattle-based Amazon is in talks with JBG Smith Properties about the real estate it owns in Crystal City, while negotiating with Virginia officials on incentives, the report said. Amazon's final decision could be announced this month, the WSJ reported. The retailer previously announced 20 finalists in North America for its planned investment of $5 billion and 50,000 jobs. In September, Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said the company would announce a decision on where it would build a second headquarters before the end of the year. Amazon did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. (Reporting by Ishita Chigilli Palli in Bengaluru; Editing by Paul Simao) Armed bands of civilian militia members are traveling to the southern U.S. border, where President Donald Trump has ordered thousands of active-duty troops to rebuff the approaching migrant caravan. About 200 unregulated armed militia members [are] currently operating along the southwest border, says a planning document for Army commanders leading the 5,200 troops Trump has deployed at the border, according to Newsweek. The groups operate under the guise of citizen patrols supporting border officials, the document says, pointing out reported incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments. Oxygen The brutal murder of a nine-year-old girl in 1959 has finally been solved, marking an end to one of Washington states oldest cold cases. Candice Candy Rogers disappeared while selling Camp Fire Mints a fundraiser for the Camp Fire Girls, a Girl Scout-like organization in her Spokane neighborhood on March 6, 1959, according to a press release issued by the Spokane City Police Department. Searchers found boxes of mints strewn along the street; it was the only indication of which direction s Brent Taylor of the Utah National Guard and former mayor of North Ogden, died in Afghanistan on 3 Nov 2018: AP A Utah mayor who also served in the army has been killed by one of his trainees in Afghanistan. Major Brent Taylor, 39, who had taken leave from office to serve a 12-month deployment with the Utah National Guard in Kabul, was fatally shot on 3 November. The gunman was identified as a member of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. A statement from Nato said the attacker was killed by Afghan forces. Major general Jefferson S Burton, of the Utah National Guard, told reporters Taylor's mission was to build the capacity of the Afghan national army as part of the advisory team. "He was with folks he was helping and training. That's what's so painful about this. It's bitter," Mr Burton said. "I do believe that Major Taylor felt he was among friends, with people he was working with." Officials said another US military member whose name was not immediately made public was wounded in Saturdays attack. The Pentagon confirmed it had launched an investigation into the incident, but released no further details. Taylor was elected as mayor of North Ogden, north of Salt Lake City, in 2013 and was expected to return to the job in January. He had served two tours in Iraq and was on his second tour in Afghanistan at the time of his death. Paying tribute on Twitter, US senator Orrin Hatch of Utah said: Brent was a hero, a patriot, a wonderful father, and a dear friend. News of his death in Afghanistan is devastating. My prayers and love are with Jennie and his seven young children. His service will always be remembered. Taylor's remains are scheduled to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday evening. Additional reporting by AP Brexit secretary Dominic Raabs position on the Irish backstop has caused fresh concerns over the chances of a deal (Reuters) Dominic Raabs hopes of sealing a deal with the EU within the month have faded after the Brexit secretary sparked another public spat over the Irish border issue. Raab has set the ambitious target of getting the UKs divorce arrangements signed-off by EU leaders by 21 November, which would require outstanding issues to be resolved this week. Expectations were raised further on Sunday by reports that EU concessions on the Irish border backstop have paved the way for an imminent agreement. But the mood turned sour on Monday when tensions over the Irish border broke into the open. The Daily Telegraph reported that Raab had taken a hardline stance on the issue, insisting that the UK has the right to pull out of the EUs Irish backstop after three months. Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney hit back, accusing Raab of rowing back on the UK governments commitment to a backstop unless and until a new free trade deal that eliminated the need for border checks kicks-in. He said any time limit meant Raabs proposal was not a backstop at all and would never be agreed by the EU. The Irish position remains consistent and v clear that a time-limited backstop or a backstop that could be ended by UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by IRE or EU. These ideas are not backstops at all + dont deliver on previous UK commitments #Brexit pic.twitter.com/y7AQ8V1jMo Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) November 5, 2018 Sabine Weyand, the deputy of EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, immediately backed-up his position in a tweet which suggested frustration over the UKs position. Still necessary to repeat this, it seems. https://t.co/fnZHvuPNp6 Sabine Weyand (@WeyandSabine) November 5, 2018 Frances ambassador to Ireland branded Raabs suggested of a time limited backstop an oxymoron. Story continues Fully agree. A time-limited backstop is an oxymoron https://t.co/HAAA9jtDRU Stephane Crouzat (@stephanecrouzat) November 5, 2018 In a sign that Raab is not out of step with the rest of the Cabinet, a spokesperson for the prime minister said: We dont want the backstop to be in place indefinitely and (we have said) that we would be looking to a mechanism to achieve that. Theresa May spoke to her Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar, about the idea of a review mechanism for the border backstop during a phone call on Monday morning. Varadkar indicated an openness to consider proposals for a review, provided that it was clear that the outcome of any such review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop, said a spokesperson for the Irish government. There are no Brexit talks scheduled for Monday but the mechanism will be at the top of the agenda when Weyand and Olly Robbins, Theresa Mays Brexit adviser, meet in Brussels later this week. The European Commissions chief spokesperson said technical works is ongoing to find a solution to the backstop stand-off, but stressed: Were not there yet. Barnier is set to make a speech in Brussels on Monday evening but an EU source said: There wont be any Brexit news, because there isnt any. If a breakthrough is made at a technical level between Weyand and Robbins, Raab will travel to Brussels to meet Barnier to see if the deal achieves a political level agreement. That is not a formality minutes of a meeting of the European parliaments leadership confirm that Raab vetoed a suggested deal before last months European Council. Even if agreement can be found, Barniers packed schedule this week leaves little time for him to sit down with Raab this week. The EUs chief negotiator is in Slovakia on Tuesday and Finland on Wednesday and Thursday. That means a meeting between Barnier and Raab is more likely to go ahead on Monday if theres white smoke from the commission headquarters this week. An emergency summit of EU leaders would then be called between November 21 and 25 to sign-off any deal before it goes to the UK and European parliaments. Any deal should also be subject to a Peoples Vote, more than 1,500 lawyers have said in an open letter to the prime minister which says it is the most credible and democratic way to ensure the legitimacy of a decision that will profoundly impact generations to come. MORE: EU still spooked by no-deal as Brexit talks come back from the dead Delta passenger felt dehumanized when forced to fly in a seat full of feces. (Photo: Matthew Meehan) A diamond medallion Delta passenger had a dehumanizing experience when forced to either sit in feces or miss his flight. Matthew Meehan was on the last flight from Atlanta to Miami on Nov. 1, when he realized the plane hadnt been cleaned properly. But what he thought would be just another stinky flight turned out to be much worse. I sit in my seat and I immediately smell something, and I thought, Not another flight that smells bad, Meehan tells Yahoo Lifestyle. And he wasnt the only one who noticed. I realized the person next to me also had their nose covered, he says. And then I went to take my charger out, bent down completely to charge my phone and realized its not just a smell, its actually feces and its all over the back of my legs, its all over the floor, all over the wall of the plane. And I sat in it, he recalls. He and his seatmate went to the front of the plane to notify the flight crew. As if the excrement werent shocking enough, what was even more surprising was the response they got. The flight crew said, Are you kidding me? We turned that in. I cant believe they didnt clean it. They knew it was there, Meehan says. Meehan knows for a fact that Delta planes are required to have a biohazard kit onboard for situations like this. The Delta representative that spoke with me after the fact told me their protocol is to have a biohazard kit onboard, he says. The fact that they either didnt take it down and offer me something from it to clean myself properly or it was absent completely from the plane broke protocol either way, Meehan says. They said they didnt have one. Instead of calling the gate and asking for sanitizing products, Meehan alleges the flight attendant gave him two paper towels and a bottle of gin to clean himself with in the lavatory. She wanted me to clean myself with regular alcohol, drinking alcohol, he says. At this point, Meehan wasnt sure where the diarrhea had come from dog or human; he just wanted it off him. We didnt know if it was a person whod gotten sick, an animal whod gotten sick. Originally, the flight crew said that it was a German shepherd. And then the gate agent said in his paperwork that it was an older man who got sick upon landing. And now Delta Corporate is saying that it was a golden retriever puppy, he says. But to me, it doesnt matter. Its feces; it carries disease any way you look at it. Story continues So, Meehan took the meager cleaning materials into the bathroom hoping that when he came out, his seat would be cleaned. It got all over my bare ankles, he says. They didnt give me gloves. I had to take my pants off because its on the back of my pants, so feces, at this point, is transferring to my hands, with no kind of sanitizing solution to be able to clean anything with, and only one tiny bottle of gin. When he exited from the bathroom, to his surprise, they were still boarding as if there werent excrement coating parts of the plane. The Delta representative also told Meehan that Delta broke protocol in continuing the boarding process once the biohazard was identified and reported by him. Once a passenger brings a contagion or biohazard to staffs attention, youre supposed to stop boarding entirely, Meehan says he was told. And youre supposed to deboard if possible so that the contagion or biohazard can be properly cleaned without spreading or contaminating others. But they just kept boarding the plane. Yahoo Lifestyle asked Delta about its specific protocol for dealing with contagions but has not yet received a response with that information. When Meehan asked the flight crew for an update, he alleges they said, If they didnt clean, thats not our responsibility, someone from the gate needs to take care of that. We are in the middle of an active boarding. Were busy. If you want, you can get off the plane and talk to somebody. So he did. The gate agent called a manager, who Meehan described as confrontational, while he was trying to remain calm and not get kicked off the plane. I tell her what happened and she said, If the cleaning crew didnt do their job, thats not my problem. What do you want me to do about it? Meehan alleges. Very confrontational, like, so what? So I said, Can we get that cleaned up so I can sit down? So she says, Sir, its almost time for that plane to leave. You can sit in your seat or you can be left behind. Meehan and the manager realized he wasnt the only passenger upset about this. At that point, four or five other passengers had gotten up and out of their seats as well, standing at the flight attendant area in front in protest and wouldnt sit until it was cleaned, he says. To avoid causing a commotion, the manager had someone clean that area with paper towels. To my knowledge, they did not use any kind of sanitizing solution, and I was supposed to be OK with that because she quote unquote, cleaned it. In situations like these, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends staff remove any visible contamination and clean and disinfect the area with products approved by your company. After the flight, the CDC instructs staff to notify cleaning crew of areas contaminated with diarrhea, vomit, blood, or other body fluids, needing more than routine cleaning or possible removal. Meehan tried one more time to ask for the area to be sanitized, but he got the same answer: She said, We are pushing this plane back, you can either sit in your seat or you can stay behind. Meehan had to be somewhere the next morning and this was the only flight that could get him there in time. So he had no choice but to fester in feces for two hours. It felt like I was an animal tied up, forced to lay in their own feces that you see sometimes in PETA videos, he says. It was dehumanizing to be spoken to like that, demanded to sit in a seat full of feces with no care. They care more about getting a plane out on time than the safety and health of the passengers on the plane. Since the flight was oversold, he didnt even have the option of sitting elsewhere. So we sat there during the entire flight, my row, the rows around me, it still smelled horrific. There was still feces caked into the carpet. They asked for blankets and covered the seats and floors to try to protect themselves from contact with the excrements. Meehan took this story to social media, and local news outlets have since picked it up. Delta has addressed the issue, as well. In a statement to Yahoo Lifestyle, Delta said: On Nov. 1, an aircraft operating flight 1949 from Atlanta to Miami was boarded before cleaning was completed following an incident from a previous flight with an ill service animal. Delta apologizes to customers impacted by the incident and has reached out to make it right, offering a refund and additional compensation. The safety and health of our customers and employees is our top priority, and we are conducting a full investigation while following up with the right teams to prevent this from happening again. Delta also stated that the aircraft was taken out of service to be deep cleaned and disinfected upon landing in Miami. The airline offered Meehan 50,000 miles in compensation. Thats what Im worth to them? 50,000 miles? After putting my health at risk along with everyone else on the plane? Thats what people get for signing up for a credit card. Its not even enough for a flight, he points out. Their offer was insult to injury. I wanted to know definitively if it was an animal or person, if it was sick, had they gone to a doctor, why was it diarrhea? What was it? Do I need to go get hepatitis shots? Do I need to get inoculated? And they wont give me the answers. Meehan said he would have appreciated a heartfelt, genuine response, but instead got a scripted, corporate heres 50K, now go away. That interaction happened last Friday afternoon, and he hasnt heard from Delta since, he says. Im a diamond medallion and a million miler, Meehan says. If this is how they treat their top tier, I cant even imagine how they treat people who arent part of the SkyMiles program. He may take legal action. I am waiting for Delta to give me the answers Ive asked for and to make things right, he says. If they dont, I will absolutely take action. After landing in Miami, Meehan was supposed to then fly to Tampa, but says he took a four-hour Uber instead. Im just not ready to get back on a plane. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Ahdel Ali, 31, was reportedly attacked in prison (Pictures: SWNS) The ringleader of a child grooming gang has been left scarred for life in a prison knife attack, it has been reported. Ahdel Ali, 31, required 40 stitches after being injured in an attack by another inmate using a makeshift knife at Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire, the Sun reported. Ali, who is serving 18 years in prison for running a child sex gang in Telford, Shropshire, was left with a deep wound from his neck to his shoulder and was taken to hospital, the newspaper said. Ali was the ringleader of a child grooming gang that preyed on girls as young as 13 in Telford, Shropshire (Picture: SWNS) Sources told the newspaper the attacker used two razor blades in a strip of cardboard to attack Ali on October 21. One said the attack happened after a row between Ali and another inmate. MORE: UK business leaders sign letter calling for second Brexit referendum MORE: Former racing driver, 102, dies after being trapped on his roof for three days The source told the Sun: Ali and the other lad had a bit of a ruck earlier in the day. Prison officers split them up but they were still furious with each other. The other inmate went back to his cell later on and it had been covered in excrement. He flipped, blamed Ali and went straight back for him with the blade. It was a really nasty wound Ali lost a lot of blood. Ali required dozens of stitches after the prison attack, it was reported (Picture: SWNS) He went to hospital and had around 40 stitches before being taken back to prison. Ali was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2013, while his brother Mubarek, 35, was given a 14-year sentence. The pair sold teenage girls, some as young as 13, for sex above an Indian restaurant in Telford after grooming them. A Prison Service spokeswoman said: A prisoner at HMP Wakefield was assaulted on October 21 by a fellow prisoner and this is now being investigated by police. Santiago (AFP) - Chile announced on Sunday that it will ask the British Museum in London to return the remains of a mylodon, an extinct mammal that lived in Patagonia about 10,000 years ago. Minister of National Assets Felipe Ward will travel in two weeks to London for talks over the remains of the ground sloth that roamed in the southern region shared by Argentina and Chile. "We hope to have talks with the museum authorities... and seek to repatriate the mylodon's remains; these are bones and skin that are in storage, not even being exhibited," Ward told reporters. The remains of the mylodon were taken to Britain in 1897 for research but were never returned to Chile, according to officials. The mylodon was an ancestor of the sloth that measured about 2.5 meters (more than eight feet) and weighed about 3 tons. German settlers discovered in 1896 remains of the mammal in a cave now known as "the cave of the mylodon," in the region of Magallanes, about 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles) south of Santiago On the trip to London, Ward will be joined by a delegation seeking the return of a statue important to the indigenous people of Easter Island, part of Chile. They want to sculpt a replacement for the museum and recover the original, which was stolen from the island in 1868 by the English ship Topaze. It is estimated that this moai, as the statues are known, was created between the year 1,000 and 1,600. Chile also plans to ask the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo to return a large collection of historical pieces from Easter Island. CNN on Saturday defended its decision not to air President Donald Trumps anti-immigration ad, saying the spot was racist and not fit to broadcast. A tweet on the CNN Communications Twitter account responded to Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son who was upset CNN wouldnt show the ad, by saying the network has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist. When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined, the tweet said. CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist. When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts. CNN Communications (@CNNPR) November 3, 2018 Trump Jr. had criticized the network hours earlier in a tweet that included the ad. I guess they only run fake news and wont talk about real threats that dont suit their agenda, he wrote. Remember this on Tuesday, he added, referring to Election Day. He had previously told followers to vote on the wrong day. Trump first shared the anti-immigration ad on Wednesday. It likens the Central American migrant caravan bound for the U.S. border to undocumented immigrant Luis Bracamontes, the Mexican citizen who killed two police officers in 2014, to stir up fearful sentiment before the midterm elections. The 53-second ad accuses Democrats of allowing Bracamontes to enter the country. Bracamontes was first deported back to Mexico under the Clinton administration, however, and returned to the U.S. under former President George W. Bush. It has drawn comparisons to former President George H.W. Bushs notoriously racist 1988 Willie Horton ad, which was about a black man who committed violent crimes against white people while on a furlough program in place under Bushs opponent. The ad played on some white voters fears about Americans of color while painting Democrats as soft on crime, just as Trump now appears to be doing. Story continues The president has propagated fear surrounding immigration in the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections, falsely claiming on a number of occasions that the Central American caravan contains many gang members and Middle Eastern terrorists. He has also voiced support for a right-wing conspiracy theory against Jewish billionaire George Soros, suggesting without evidence that the progressive donor was somehow financing the caravan. Related Coverage Arkansas Radio Ads Invoke Lynchings To Scare Black Voters Away From Democratic Candidate Trump Compares Migrants In Caravan To Cop Killer In Fearmongering Ad Donald Trumps Racist Midterm Pitch Is His 'Swing Around The Circle' Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a Get Out The Vote Bus Tour rally on Saturday in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) BARTONVILLE, Texas The crowd inside Marty Bs barbecue place here in Denton County, north of Dallas, began practicing its Ted Cruz chants long before the candidate arrived here Sunday afternoon for an outdoor rally. It used be that audiences would yell a drawn-out Crooooooz! when the junior senator from Texas arrived on the stage. But some Republicans, including members of Cruzs own team, had started to worry lately that the chants sounded too much like Boooooo!, especially on television. And that wasnt the best soundtrack for Cruz, now engaged in what he has described as the political fight of his life against Democrat Beto ORourke in the states surprisingly close Senate race. So Jane Nelson, a bubbly state senator and former teacher, took the stage here and tried something new. When I say Ted, you say Cruz! she yelled in a sing-song voice. Ted! Cruz! the crowd responded. Ted! she yelled. Cruz! they replied. When Cruz arrived a few minutes later, there were no Crooooooz! chants, just wild cheers from a crowd of 1,000 or so Republican faithful, many of whom showed up in what has become the uniform of Cruz events lately bright red Make America Great Again hats and Trump 2020 shirts. There were just a handful of Cruz campaign signs, including one held by a man who said he brought it from home because Cruz paraphernalia has been so hard to find at the senators events. I am here to celebrate prosperity, to celebrate peace through strength, to celebrate hope and to celebrate the great state of Texas, Cruz began. I am here today to talk about victories victories that we are winning together for the people of Texas. Veto Beto! a woman shouted. Cruz paused and nodded with a smile, as the crowd cheered. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, greets a supporter during a Get Out The Vote Bus Tour rally on Saturday in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) While the mood was jubilant, many voters here expressed anxiety about the election, where polls have shown Cruz and ORourke in a dead heat heading into the campaigns final stretch. While Denton County has voted reliably Republican in recent elections, not unlike other suburban counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, ORourke has attracted huge crowds, voter registration had surged and turnout in early voting had been more than double what it was in the last midterm elections the enthusiasm pproaching that of a presidential election. And Republicans, while hopeful, were starting to worry. Story continues Asked if he thought Cruz would pull out a victory, one local GOP official here clasped his hands and took a deep breath before replying. I think so, but I honestly dont know, he said. The other side is so fired up. All I can do is pray that every single person on our side shows up, if they havent already. While Cruz firmly reassured his supporters here that we will win this election, there have been signs of uncertainty. Last week, Republicans close to the campaign said internal GOP polling showed Cruz leading ORourke by 6 or 7 points, but in recent days, those officials have acknowledged turnout models, while still favorable to Cruz, may not be fully reflective of the potential number of young voters and non-voters that ORourke has been courting and who are believed to be behind the massive surge in early turnout. Cruz has always said the race would be close, urging Republican voters not to be complacent. If conservatives show up, we will win, he has said. But in recent days, hes shuffled from message to message, seemingly trying to find the right one to appeal to the voters he needs for victory. Last week, Cruz campaigned heavily on immigration linking ORourke to the much-publicized caravan of Central American migrants making its way north through Mexico en route to the U.S. southern border. He told voters ORourke had encouraged the group to come and joked that migrants knew where to go for help: houses with ORourke campaign signs out front. Senate candidate and Rep. Beto ORourke, D-Texas, pumps his fist for a cheering crowd before departing a campaign rally at the Alamo City Music Hall on Sunday in San Antonio, Texas. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) But on Friday, he hit that message even harder, accusing ORourke of using campaign contributions to help fund the caravan, which is still thousands of miles from the U.S. He based his allegations on a video posted by the conservative activist group Project Veritas that suggested staffers of ORourkes campaign had used campaign funds to help migrants. I thought it was a joke until video broke this morning of his campaign staffers taking campaign money and apparently using it to give to people coming here illegally, Cruz said at a campaign event in Fort Worth. In a subsequent message on Twitter, he called on ORourke to answer whether the caravan should be allowed to cross into the U.S., and if his campaign dollars had helped them. ORourkes campaign said the money had gone to an El Paso charity, and accused Cruz of scare tactics. Cruz pushes fear and paranoia because he wants to divide and mislead Texans four days before this election, ORourke said Friday. Over the weekend, Cruz appeared to have retooled his stump speech, dropping his accusations about the caravan. Making his closing pitch for another six years in the Senate, Cruz argued that jobs, freedom and security are on the line in Tuesdays election and warned that ORourkes radical approach to policymaking is a threat to all three. But while Cruz hammered his Democratic opponent, his message was largely more positive and more focused on casting him as a team player with Trump, and emphasizing the booming economy in Texas and other incredible victories that Republicans have delivered in the last six years. We have a good thing going, he declared. Who in their right mind would want to screw it up? _____ Read more Yahoo News midterms coverage: Floridas Republican candidate for governor, Ron DeSantis, on Monday dismissed polls showing him lagging behind his Democratic opponent, Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum. When the president won Florida in 2016, Republicans were down significantly going into Election Day, DeSantis said on Fox & Friends. The three-term congressman trails Gillum by seven points, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Monday. With the absentee and early [ballots], and I dont have the final data, but we are either ahead or close going to Election Day and today on Monday, the Panhandle still has early voting because of the storm, DeSantis said. I think the momentum is on our side. I dont think we could have asked for a better turnout for Republicans. And we know we are going to get a good turnout on Election Day. The midterms, including the Florida gubernatorial race, are widely seen as a referendum on President Trump and his policies. DeSantis has been a vocal defender of Trump, even releasing an ad showing him reading the presidents book, The Art of the Deal, to his children and building a border wall of blocks with them. Gillum supports impeaching Trump, who he says promotes policies of hate and separation. Wouldnt it be something to have a governor whos prepared to stand up to Donald Trump? Gillum asked supporters in Miami on Sunday. Senator Marco Rubio, who stumped for DeSantis on Monday in Jacksonville, predicted a red wave of Republican voters in Tuesdays midterms rather than the blue wave Democrats have claimed is coming. On Mondays Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski revealed details from an apparent private conversation she and co-host, Joe Scarborough, had with Donald Trump about his birther comments. We confronted him about the birtherism, Brzezinski said. We said, its bad, its wrong and he said in a low voice, I know its bad but it works. Trumps attacks on former president Barack Obamas birthplace began in 2011 and, despite the release of Obamas birth certificate that same year, he didnt concede until September of 2016. And Trumps constant racist undertones such is that, is why Scarborough thinks democrats will have an edge at the polls on Tuesday. Donald Trump has reminded [voters] of Charlottesville every day over the last couple weeks and what does that do? Scarborough said. That inspires Democrats, independents, moderate and suburban Republicans to vote democratic. But Brzezinski, who along with Scarboroguh was known to be friendly with Trump before he ran for president, seems to think that Trump knows exactly what hes doing when it comes to pushing the racial divide. Racism, in his mind, works, Brzezinski said about Trump. Thats what he told us. Morning Joe airs weekdays at 6 a.m. on MSNBC. Check out what Fox News host Laura Ingraham had to say about Oprah Winfreys support of Stacey Abrams: Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or leave your comments below. A woman is lead away by police after a 2009 human trafficking rescue operation in Belfast. Photo: PA Almost as many victims of human trafficking have been rescued by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in the current financial year as in the whole of the previous year. Some 34 victims were rescued in the first six months of the 2018/19 financial year, compared with 36 in in the whole of 2017/18, according to the BBC. The PSNI has rescued dozens of victims since it established a specialist modern slavery human trafficking unit, with a view to disrupting the criminal gangs involved in this crime, in April 2015. Because human trafficking is most often a hidden crime, the total number of victims in Northern Ireland is not known. A new one-off drama special, focusing on the true story of a woman trafficked from London to Ireland, will be broadcast at 9pm on Monday on BBC Two. It was mainly filmed in Belfast. The woman, known as Ana for security reasons, told her story to Northern Irish politicians at the Stormont Assembly, and her testimony helped contribute to the passing of new human trafficking and exploitation legislation in Northern Irelandthe first new UK law against slavery in nearly 200 years. Ana was held as a sex slave for 10 months and trafficked around both Northern Ireland and Ireland. In 2016, both the PSNI and the Northern Ireland Department of Justice launched a campaign and a dedicated modern slavery hotline, with a view to raising awareness of the crime in the region. Modern slavery is happening in Northern Ireland and the Department of Justice (DoJ) is calling on everyone across society to be aware of the possible signs that someone may need help and to report suspicions quickly and confidentially, it said. Worldwide, it is thought that nearly 5 million women and girls were forced to endure sexual exploitation in 2017, about 20% of the estimated 24.9 million victims who were trapped in forms of modern-day slavery. For support relating to modern slavery, contact the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700 or visit this website. (Reuters) - A 21-year-old driver was inhaling chemical vapors, or "huffing," just before he is suspected of striking and killing three Girl Scouts and a woman as they picked up roadside litter on Saturday in a hit-and-run crash, police said on Monday. Another girl was critically injured in the collision near Lake Hallie, around 90 miles (145 km) east of Minneapolis. The woman killed was the mother of one of the girls killed, Lake Hallie Police Department said in a statement. The suspect, Colten Treu, sped off after the crash but turned himself in later after police tracked leaking vehicle fluids from his black Ford F-150 pickup to a home about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the incident, police said. Both Treu and his passenger gave statements that they had been huffing chemical vapors shortly before the crash. "This is a horrible reminder of our nation's epidemic of self-indulging with substance abuse without regard of the consequences," Lake Hallie Police Department Chief Cal Smokowicz said in a statement. At about 11:40 a.m. on Saturday, Treu's 2-ton truck veered over the center line of a county road, crossed the gravel shoulder and plowed into a ditch where the Chippewa Falls Girl Scouts Troop were doing a highway cleanup project. All the girls were wearing fluorescent green safety vests and were accompanied by several adults. Jayna Kelley, 9, Autum Helgeson, 10, Haylee Hickle, 10, and her mother Sara Jo Schneider, 32, were killed. The injured 10-year-old girl was in stable condition on Monday, police said. Treu was arrested on four counts of homicide by negligent use of a vehicle, five counts of hit and run and four counts of homicide while intoxicated and held at the Chippewa County Jail, police said. Treu's bond was set at $25,000 at his first court appearance on Monday. He does not yet have an attorney. Hundreds of community members held a candlelight vigil on Sunday night outside Halmstad Elementary, the school the victims had attended. Girl Scouts sang songs and a memorial of teddy bears, photos and balloons was set up. "Our hearts are broken for the girls and families of the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes," Girl Scouts of the USA Chief Executive Sylvia Acevedo said in a statement. "The Girl Scout Movement everywhere stands with our sister Girl Scouts in Wisconsin to grieve and comfort one another in the wake of this terrible tragedy." (Reporting by Andrew Hay; Editing by Bill Berkrot) MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) Irish trained five-year-old Yucatan will likely start favorite in Australia's Melbourne Cup, expected to be run on a soft track at Flemington racecourse. Trained at Tipperary by regular Cup campaigner Aidan O'Brien, Yucatan became favorite for the 158th running of the two-mile handicap on Tuesday when he easily won the Herbert Power Handicap over 1 miles at his last start. Yucatan, by the Irish sire Galileo out of the French mare Six Perfections, leads a strong foreign challenge for the 2018 Cup in which 11 of 24 runners are from the northern hemisphere. While foreign-trained, Yucatan is the property of a five-time Cup-winning owner, Australian Lloyd Williams. O'Brien, who has yet to win the Melbourne Cup, had to settle for second place last year with Johannes Vermeer finishing behind Rekindling, trained by his son, Joseph. He has three runners in the 7.3 million Australian dollars ($5.3 million) race this year; Yucatan is joined by its stablemates Rostropovich and Cliff of Moher. Australia's main hope in the event, known as "the race that stops a nation," may be the lightly-weighted four-year-old mare Youngstar, which comes from the Sydney stables of Chris Waller, trainer of the history-making mare Winx which is unbeaten at its last 29 starts. Yucatan was quoted by bookmakers around 6-1 while Youngstar was at 15-1 on early markets Monday. However, rain may have an influence on the race which has been held at Flemington since 1861. So important did the race become that Melbourne Cup Day has been a public holiday in Victoria state since 1877. Showers Monday and forecast rain on Tuesday morning will likely result in a soft track which is not ideal for Yucatan. "He loves fast ground," O'Brien said, "the better the ground, the better his chances." Foreign horses have won several of the key leadup races to this year. Topweight Best Solution, from the Godolphin stable of Saeed Bin Suroor, posted his third consecutive Group One victory in the Caulfield Cup over 1 miles. The Melbourne Cup is one of the few trophies in world racing which has eluded its owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Story continues British-trained Magic Circle, a stayer which has won its last two starts by a combined margin of 12 lengths, has been well-backed at 9-1 and is a two-mile specialist but will be having its first start since May. Magic Cirle was a nine-lengths winner over Prince of Arran which won another important leadup race, the Hotham Handicap, on Saturday. Its owner, Dr. Marwan Koukash, who is known for flamboyant victory celebrations, has reportedly promised to strip in front on an expected crowd of around 100,000 if his horse wins. Other British chances include Muntahaa, quoted at 11-1 on Monday, and Marmelo, at 15-1, which will be ridden by Winx's regular rider Hugh Bowman. Cross Counter, trained by Charlie Appleby and quoted at 10-1, gets in at a light weight but will be having only its eighth start. Japan's main hope is Chestnut Coat, trained by Yoshito Yahagi. History shows that betting markets may not be the best guide; only eight favorites have won the race in the last 30 years and nine of the past 12 winners have been at better than 10-1. Georgia Secretary of State and Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp opened an investigation into the states Democratic Party Sunday, alleging a failed attempt to hack the Georgia voter registration system. While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cyber crimes, Press Secretary of the Georgia Secretary of State Candice Broce said in a statement. We can also confirm that no personal data was breached and our system remains secure. The Secretary of States office opened the investigation on Saturday night and alerted the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. Two days before election day, Kemp is locked in a fiercely-contested race with Democratic candidate, Stacey Abrams. If elected, Abrams will be the first-ever American black female governor. In a statement to TIME, the Abrams campaign called the investigation, a political stunt. This is yet another example of abuse of power by an unethical Secretary of State, Abrams campaign Press Secretary Caitlin Highland said. To be very clear, Brian Kemps scurrilous claims are 100% false, and this so-called investigation was unknown to the Democratic Party of Georgia until a campaign operative in Kemps official office released a statement this morning. Abrams herself called the investigation desperate and characterized it as politically motivated in an appearance on CNNs State of the Union on Sunday morning. The Georgia Secretary of States office has not released any evidence of a cyberattack or the assertion that the state Democratic Party is behind it. The Secretary of State office has not responded to TIMEs request for comment. Democratic Party of Georgia Executive Director Rebecca DeHart cast the investigation as an attempt by Kemp to deflect blame for his failures in a statement to TIME. She accused Kemp of abandoning his responsibility to protect the security of Georgias election systems, citing his 2016 refusal to accept election security assistance from the Department of Homeland Security and his offices alleged leak of 6 million Georgians personal information in 2017. Story continues Georgians of all political stripes are very concerned about election security and the security of Georgians personal information, DeHart wrote. The Democratic Party of Georgia shares that concern, but we did not create, discover or attempt to take advantage of the deeply vulnerable system used by the Secretary of States office. Kemp and the Georgia Secretary of States office have recently come under fire for what DeHart has called voter suppression efforts, referring to Kemps enforcement of the states exact match voter law. A federal judge issued an injunction against Kemps office on Friday, ordering the Secretary of State to allow 3,141 people previously marked as ineligible to vote to cast their ballots on Tuesdays midterm elections if they present proof of citizenship to country election officials. These individuals will suffer irreparable harm if they lose the right to vote, this harm outweighs any harm to the Defendant, and granting an injunction is in the publics interest, read the ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross. In 2016, Kemp accused the Department of Homeland Security under the Obama administration of cyber attacks against Georgias Secretary of State office. Inspector General John Roth determined last year that there was no abnormal activity from Homeland Security against Georgia. Over a quarter of all non-elderly adults, 27%, have pre-existing conditions. Americans consider keeping all of these people with medical needs insured to be a major priority. According to Kaiser Family Foundation, its the single-most important health care issue for Americans of all parties. Ahead of the midterm elections, President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers have repeatedly stressed in tweets and speeches that he and Republicans care deeply about protecting the health care for these vulnerable populations. Under current Obamacare law, insurers are not allowed to raise prices on health plans for people with pre-existing conditions or deny someone seeking a plan. The most common pre-existing conditions? Acne, anxiety, diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea, depression, COPD, obesity, atherosclerosis, and cancer are the most common ones, according to a CNN analysis. In some cases, pregnancy has even been considered a pre-existing condition. Should protections for pre-existing conditions be thrown out, 100 million people could be affected, according to analysis from consulting firm Avalere. Capitol Hill police officers prepare to arrest a group protesting the Republican healthcare bill outside the offices of Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, July 17, 2017. The Senate has been forced to put the republicans health care bill on hold for as much as two weeks until Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., can return from surgery. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) But the actions of Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have not been consistent with trying to protect pre-existing conditions. Despite loud pre-election support of protecting pre-existing conditions, the Republican party has failed to support them. In other words, Trump is fibbing. The 2017 ACA repeal effort The repeal efforts centered around the American Health Care Act, which were pushed back by Sen. John McCains nay vote in 2017, would have put pre-existing conditions in doubt for a significant number of Americans. First off, House Republicans amended the bill to allow certain states to get waivers to eliminate community rating for people who had a gap in coverage. This is a key provision of the ACA that prevents older people with more health expenses from being charged more than three times what younger people get charged. So while consumers couldnt be denied insurance, it could be prohibitively expensive for some. Story continues The waivers would have also covered the elimination of essential health benefits, which would mean that while a person with a disease or pre-existing condition could obtain coverage, they might not have their medications covered. Furthermore, the GOPs singular efforts to erase the individual mandate would have a similar effect on people with pre-existing conditions. With younger, healthier people able to opt out of insurance with no penalty, people with pre-existing conditions unable to opt out would be left in insurance pools on their own, something that would result in higher premiums or the famous death spiral situation for a pool. In this situation, insurers would drop out of certain markets as they became less lucrative, leaving people with pre-existing conditions with pricier, less competitive plans with fewer options. Short-term plans The Trump administration has also opened up another type of insurance called short-term plans that provide a skinny option for coverage that is noncompliant with the ACAs provisions. Under these plans, insurers dont have to cover pre-existing conditions. By covering primarily people who are healthy at the time they apply, short-term plans have much lower claims costs than ACA-compliant plans and can charge substantially lower premiums, the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-partisan health care policy group, wrote about these plans. This, like the removal of the individual mandate, has the effect of destabilizing the markets that still accept people with pre-existing conditions. By letting healthy consumers go without insurance and raising the concentration of people with pre-existing conditions, insurance premiums will rise. Obamacare lawsuits supported by the Trump administration The most damning proof showing the fake commitment to the protection of those with pre-existing conditions, as many other reports have noted, is the fact that the Trump administration is literally supporting the fight against the protection of pre-existing conditions and the mandate in court through a brief and by not defending the law of the land. Twenty GOP attorneys general are fighting these measures in Obamacare, despite what the politicians are saying. As Voxs Sarah Kliff noted, Missouri Senate candidate Josh Hawley is part of this lawsuit, but has released ads that say, Im Josh Hawley. I support forcing insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions. The evidence is clear and incontrovertible: These politicians actions do not support keeping protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann. Confidential tip line: FinanceTips[at]oath[.com]. Trump is fibbing on pre-existing conditions Lawyers want the British public to have their say on any Brexit deal (Picture: PA) The UKs top lawyers have urged Theresa May and MPs to back a second Brexit referendum. 1,400 lawyers have called for another vote on EU membership, including Labour peer Baroness Kennedy QC, former Court of Appeal judge Konrad Schiemann and David Edward, a former judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities. In a letter to the prime minister, they say parliament should not be bound by the 2016 vote any more than it should be by the 1975 referendum that took Britain into the EU, especially when there are question marks over its validity. Baroness Helena Kennedy is one of the lawyers calling for a second referendum on Brexit (Picture: PA) The letter reads: There was a key difference between 1975 and 2016. The earlier referendum was held after negotiations were complete, so voters knew what they were voting for. In 2016, the nature of the negotiation process and its outcome were unknown. Voters faced a choice between a known reality and an unknown alternative. MORE: UK business leaders sign letter calling for second Brexit referendum MORE: Former racing driver, 102, dies after being trapped on his roof for three days In the campaign, untestable claims took the place of facts and reality. Human rights specialist Jonathan Cooper, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers said: The current state of the Brexit negotiations is worrying people throughout the UK and the legal profession is no exception to that. About 1,400 lawyers signed a letter to prime minister Theresa May (Picture: PA) We represent people from across industry and society and we see every day the way the prospect of a catastrophic Brexit deal is already causing real harm. This letter to the prime minister has been signed by over a thousand of my colleagues who are convinced that not only is a Peoples Vote the right thing to do, it is the most democratic thing to do as well. Mrs May has insisted numerous times that a second referendum is not on the cards. A Department for Exiting the EU spokeswoman said: The people of the United Kingdom have already had their say in one of the biggest democratic exercises this country has ever seen and the prime minister has made it clear that there is not going to be a second referendum. Story continues We remain confident we will agree a mutually advantageous deal with the EU. Brexit discussions are entering a crucial period this week as time runs out to secure a deal. The UK and EU are still split over the issue of the Irish backstop, with Britain insisting they must be able to unilaterally pull out of the agreement. The EU has said it will never agree to this condition. The husband of a Pakistani Christian woman at the centre of a divisive blasphemy case has pleaded for international help to leave the country, saying he feared for his family's safety. The request by Asia Bibi's husband Ashiq Masih came a day after he criticised a government deal with hardline Islamists that left her in legal limbo, and called on authorities to protect her. Bibi -- who had been on death row since 2010 on blasphemy charges -- was acquitted by the Supreme Court Wednesday, triggering large street protests by ultra-conservative Islamists who paralysed Pakistan for three days, blocking roads and disrupting traffic. The government reached a deal Friday to end the protests by agreeing to a travel ban preventing Bibi from leaving the country, and saying it would not object to hardline movements appealing the verdict. An appeal has now been filed with the court against Bibi's release. Masih criticised the government deal, saying it was "wrong". "I request President Donald Trump to help us to leave (the country), and I request the prime minister of the UK to do their level best to help us, to grant us freedom," said Masih, in a video message, seen by AFP, also requesting help from the Canadian prime minister. Wilson Chowdhry, of the British Pakistani Christian Association, told AFP that the family was resting its hopes on the US, Britain or Canada to grant them asylum and help them reach a place of safety. "These nations have the largest Pakistani Christian communities," Chowdhry said, added that Masih also wants asylum for some members of the extended family and those who have helped with his wife's case, one of whom could speak English. "If Asia Bibi leaves the country, every family member, every person associated to her, will be killed," he said. - 'Totally shattered' - Chowdhry said the family's initial relief at Bibi's acquittal has turned into anguish. Story continues "The daughters are weeping. They still haven't seen their mother. The family is totally shattered," he said. "They absolutely don't know when they will see their mother. Since (the court decision), with the violence and the protests, it is too dangerous for them to see their mother in jail." Blasphemy is a hugely inflammatory charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unproven allegations of insulting Islam can spark attacks and killings at the hands of vigilante mobs. Masih Saturday told German Deutsche Welle radio the court had been "very courageous" to acquit his wife, an illiterate mother in her 50s who was accused of blasphemy a decade ago. "The current situation is very dangerous for us. We have no security and are hiding here and there, frequently changing our location," he told the German radio station, saying he was worried his wife would be attacked in prison. The case began in June 2009 when Bibi was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. Muslim women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Muslim, she should not touch the water bowl, and reportedly a fight erupted. A local imam then claimed Bibi insulted the Prophet Mohammed -- a charge she has consistently denied. Bibi's lawyer fled Pakistan on Saturday, fearing for his life. "In the current scenario, it's not possible for me to live in Pakistan," Saif-ul-Mulook, 62, told AFP before boarding a plane to Europe. Masih demanded the government reinforce Bibi's protection in prison, worrying that she may be attacked. He cited the case of two Christian men who were shot dead after a court acquitted them in another blasphemy case. Over a dozen Idaho elementary school teachers and staff members were suspended Saturday after the group dressed up as Mexicans and President Donald Trumps Mexico-U.S. border wall for Halloween. Middleton School District superintendent Dr. Josh Middleton announced during a Saturday morning school board meeting that 14 employees of the school districts Heights Elementary school were put on paid administrative leave following the controversial costumes. After Middletons announcement, a statement from the school districts board of trustees was read aloud, the Idaho Statesman reports. This type of behavior has no place in education and certainly is not tolerated here at Middleton School District, the statement read. This situation is being taken very seriously. We are in full support of our superintendent and administrative staff as a full investigation is being conducted, and are awaiting the results of the investigation, the statement continued. This is an unfortunate incident of very poor judgment. Yet it is not indicative of the Middleton School District or our teachers as a whole. The photos of staffers were posted to the Middleton School Districts Facebook page the day after Halloween and quickly went viral after people from the district and other social media users expressed outrage over the racist costumes. In the photos, half the group is dressed as the border wall, which reads Make America Great Again, while the other half are holding maracas while dressed in ponchos and sombreros. Another day, another racist costume. This is from Middletown School District in Idaho. Please call (208) 585-3027 to say 1) racism is unacceptable 2) they are creating and promoting a hostile learning environment to children 3) what is their plan to make it right? pic.twitter.com/DqUwvP3ROL unholy heidi (@heidiheilig) November 2, 2018 Superintendent Middleton offered his sincerest and deepest apologies in a Facebook Live video published to the school districts Facebook page Friday morning. That video, and the entire districts Facebook page, has been taken down, as well as the administration section of Middleton Heights website. Story continues The Idaho DACA Students Facebook group denounced the Halloween costumes in a Facebook post on Friday, writing: These photos are extremely disheartening. ALL children should have the right to a learning environment that celebrates all backgrounds... This is heartbreaking. Students deserve better. The ACLU of Idaho also published a statement Saturday morning condemning the controversial costumes. Regardless of the intent of a teachers actions in the classroom, we must focus on and give weight to the impact of such actions on the students who rely on teachers and other school officials for guidance and support throughout their educational experience, the statement read. School districts, their staff and other agents have obligations under federal law, state law, and district policies to prevent and protect students, staff, and others from discrimination, bullying, intimidation, and harassment. The Heights Elementary school website is still available and upon access, readers receive a pop-up box which contains the board of trustees above statement in full and information about other actions the school is taking to prevent incidents like this from occurring again. According to a note signed by Middleton, the elementary school will receive heightened security, offer a crisis team to support the social-emotional well-being, for students, staff and parents, and there will be cultural sensitivity training for all staff members that will continue annually. The events of this week we take very seriously, Middleton wrote. As hard as these events are for ALL involved, we must learn from this and be better as an entire staff for our students, parents, and the community we represent. The Middleton Police Department released a statement Friday writing that theyve been made aware of the incident and they are increasing police presence at the elementary school to ensure safety, security, and hope for a peaceful resolution. A petition calling for a safer and more progressive educational environment for Middleton school district has been signed by over 9,000 people. Middleton said in his statement to the school district that the situation is still being investigated. Related Coverage A History Of Donald Trump's Racist Rhetoric Over The Years Kentucky Dad Apologizes For Father-Son Nazi Halloween Costumes Idaho Elementary Teachers Dressed Up As Mexicans And The Border Wall For Halloween Teachers' Trump Border Wall Costume Leaves Don Lemon Temporarily Lost For Words Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. President Hassan Rouhani of Iran has vowed that his country will defy sanctions reimposed on Monday by the U.S. after the Trump administration scrapped the nuclear deal struck by President Obama earlier this year. We will proudly break the sanctions, Rouhani said Monday, calling them unfair and against the law, U.N. resolutions, and international accords. The new sanctions were lifted under the Obama administrations 2015 nuclear deal, which was also signed by the U.K., France, Germany, China, and Russia. The deal gave Tehran billions of dollars in relief from sanctions in exchange for a promise to curb its nuclear program. President Trump pulled out of the deal in May, allowing two periods of 9o and 180 days to let companies phase out their business with Iran. After the first period, which ended in August, the U.S. reimposed sanctions affecting transactions with U.S. dollar banknotes and trade in gold and precious metals, graphite, and cars. On Monday, the administration reimposed the second batch of sanctions, affecting the energy, shipping, shipbuilding, and financial sectors, including 50 Iranian banks and subsidiaries and the countrys airline, Iran Air. The U.S. has granted temporary exemptions from these latter sanctions to eight countries that purchase Iranian oil: China, India, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey, and South Korea. More than 20 other countries have already canceled their oil business with Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. The Islamic Republic can sell its oil, and even if these eight countries werent exempted, we would have still sold our oil, Rouhani claimed. Isnt that success? Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the sanctions bullying that is backfiring by making Washington more isolated. Pompeo said Sunday that he is very confident the sanctions will have the intended effect: to alter the Iranian regimes behavior. Thats our expectation. Its the reason for President Trumps policy, he said. Washington (AFP) - The United States vowed Monday to be "relentless" in countering Iran as sweeping sanctions took effect, but the Islamic republic defiantly promised to stand up to the "bullying" by Washington. President Donald Trump's administration nonetheless issued eight exemptions from its demand on all countries to stop buying Iran's oil, its largest export, amid widespread global opposition to the unilateral US sanctions. Six months after Trump pulled out of an international agreement on ending Tehran's nuclear program, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the ultimate US goal was for Iran to make a "180-degree turn" and abandon its "current revolutionary course." While stopping short of urging regime change, he reiterated his demands for Iran to end policies rooted in the 1979 Islamic revolution including its support for regional proxies such as the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and its development of missiles. "We hope a new agreement with Iran is possible, but until Iran makes changes in the 12 ways I listed in May, we will be relentless in exerting pressure on the regime," Pompeo said. He said the sanctions -- which took effect on the 39th anniversary of Iranian zealots' seizure of the US embassy following the ouster of the pro-US shah -- intended to "starve the Iranian regime of the funds it uses to fund violent activity throughout the Middle East and around the world." UN inspectors say Iran is abiding by an agreement reached with Trump's predecessor Barack Obama to draw down its nuclear program. That deal was backed by European powers, Russia and China and sealed by a UN Security Council resolution. "I announce that we will proudly bypass your illegal, unjust sanctions because it's against international regulations," Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech as the sanctions took effect. "We are in a situation of economic war, confronting a bullying power. I don't think that in the history of America, someone has entered the White House who is so against law and international conventions," he added. Story continues In one of Tehran's bazaars, there was anxiety over the future. "The shadow of the sanctions has already affected the economy in a disastrous way, people's purchasing power has plunged," said Ehsan Attar in his herbal remedy shop. - 'Act on your commitments' - Rouhani said four countries had approached him during his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly in September offering to mediate with the US, but he turned them down. "There is no need for mediation. There is no need for all these messages. Act on your commitments, and we will sit and talk," he said. Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Gholamali Khoshroo, asked the world body Monday to hold the United States to account, although there was no indication that member-states would take up the issue. The latest tranche of US sanctions aims to significantly cut Iran's oil exports -- which have already fallen by up to one million barrels a day since May -- and cut off its banks from international finance. The Belgian-based SWIFT banking network, the backbone for international monetary transfers, said Monday it had suspended several Iranian banks from its service. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that US sanctions will cause Iran's economy to contract 1.5 percent this year and 3.6 percent next year -- pain that Trump has boasted about as he touts his record ahead of Tuesday's congressional elections. Iran's economy was already suffering major structural problems -- including widespread corruption, weak investment and a banking sector laden with toxic assets -- before Trump walked out of the deal. Rouhani's plan since his election in 2013 was to boost the economy by rebuilding ties with the world and attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment -- a strategy that now looks in tatters. - Exemptions to sanctions - The United States issued eight waivers to its ban on buying Iranian oil -- to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. Trump said he wanted to go "a little bit slower" on oil sanctions to avoid a price hike, which is especially sensitive in the United States. "I'm not looking to be a great hero and bring it down to zero immediately," Trump told reporters, saying the move "would cause a shock to the market." And despite Trump's repeated declarations that the Iran deal has been a "disaster," the United States announced exemptions that preserve civilian nuclear cooperation started under the accord. The activities at Bushehr, Iran's only nuclear power station, as well as the Fordow enrichment plant and the Arak heavy water reactor, will be allowed "to continue under the strictest scrutiny to ensure transparency and maintain constraints on Iran," a State Department statement said. The other parties to the nuclear deal -- Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia -- have vehemently opposed the US move and vowed to keep alive the accord, technically known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The only support for the US position has come from Iran's regional rivals, notably Saudi Arabia and Israel, whose prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hailed the start of sanctions as "a historic day." Foreign companies and banks are largely unwilling to make enemies of the US Treasury, and most international firms that set up in Iran after the 2015 deal have been forced to leave, including France's Total, Peugeot and Renault, and Germany's Siemens. "Unfortunately, we were treated dishonorably by both the American and Iranian governments," said Fereshteh Safarnezhad, a 43-year-old teacher, on the streets of Tehran. "The Americans never really committed to the deal and the Iranian government did not spend the cash it got from the deal on the people." Women hold placards reading 'Down With USA' in Tehran during a demonstration on the anniversary of the US embassy seizure - Bloomberg Thousands of Iranians chanted "death to America" at a rally in Tehran on Sunday as the country's leaders remained defiant in the last hours before fresh US sanctions came into force. Students at the government-organised march in the capital burned pictures of Donald Trump, the US President, and the US flag to mark the seizure of the US Embassy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Anti-US rhetoric from the Iranian government is familiar from the Iranian government, but relations between the two countries are at a particular low over the Trump administration's hard line on Tehran's nuclear and military ambitions. After unilaterally pulling out of the deal intended to curb Iran's nuclear capabilities earlier this year, the White House said it would reapply sanctions on the countrys energy, financial and shipping sectors. Iranian leaders have remained defiant over the move, and have appeared confident in their ability to absorb the impact of a reduction in oil sales. After initially promising to drive the country to zero exports of oil, the US has offered a waiver to eight buyers of Iranian crude, a move that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended on Sunday. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei took to Twitter on Saturday to say US President Donald Trump has disgraced the remnant of Americas prestige and that of liberal democracy. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, used Instagram to respond to Mr Trump's Game of Thrones inspired meme with his own, reading: I will stand against you. The post had been removed by Sunday morning. The rhetoric was in stark contrast to concerns voiced by Iranians, fearful over the impact of further sanctions on an already pressured economy. "All the prices are going higher every day ... I cannot imagine what will happen after 13 Aban (Nov. 4). I am scared. I am worried. I am desperate," elementary school teacher Pejman Sarafnejad, 43, a father of three in Tehran told Reuters. Story continues "I cannot even buy rice to feed my children or pay my rent." Of Irans 81 million citizens, it will likely be the poor and middle class whose lives are made most uncomfortable. Young Iranians face a markedly different future to the one they had hoped for when sanctions were rolled back as part of the 2015 nuclear deal. "I'm worried about the future," said Erfan Yusufi, the 30-year-old owner of a Tehran coffee shop that is struggling to stay afloat amidst rising prices and falling incomes. "Our generation starts each day not knowing what will become of us." By Tsvetelia Tsolova and Dan Williams SOFIA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel on Friday condemned the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, but said cooperating with Riyadh against Iran was a greater priority. In his first public reaction, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Khashoggi's death, which has caused global outrage, was "horrendous" and must be dealt with. "Yet at the same time I say that it's very important for the stability of the world, for the region and of the world, that Saudi Arabia remain stable," Netanyahu said. "I think that a way must be found to achieve both goals. Because I think that the larger problem is Iran." He spoke to reporters after a meeting in the Bulgarian city of Varna with the leaders of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Serbia. The Saudi government initially denied Khashoggi had been killed, then that he had died in an unplanned "rogue operation", before the kingdom's public prosecutor last week said the attack had been premeditated. Earlier, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz had said Khashoggi's killing was outweighed by the existential threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, and that "Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, are our allies in recent years against the spread of Iran and against the Iranian nuclear threat". Iran denies that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons. The Netanyahu government has reported semi-official Israel-Saudi contacts - never confirmed, and sometimes denied, by Riyadh - since 2014. Netanyahu made a surprise visit last week to Oman, whose foreign minister then told Gulf neighbors that Israel should be accepted in the region. Other Israeli delegates this week visited the United Arab Emirates. The Trump administration, which has brought U.S. policy sharply in line with Israel's, has also sought closer relations with Saudi Arabia. U.S. envoys see Riyadh and other Gulf powers as possible partners in a broad peace deal with Israel that would overtake its long-stalled bilateral negotiations with the Palestinians. (Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Kevin Liffey) By Parisa Hafezi DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's top leader said on Saturday U.S. President Donald Trump's policies face opposition across the world as Washington prepared to reimpose sanctions on Iran's vital oil-exporting and financial sectors, state television reported. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said Iran's arch-adversary the United States had failed to reassert its domination over Iran since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah. "The world opposes every decision made by Trump," Iranian state television quoted Khamenei, a Shi'ite cleric with ultimate authority in Iran, as saying during a meeting with thousands of students. "America's goal has been to re-establish the domination it had (before 1979) but it has failed. America has been defeated by the Islamic Republic over the past 40 years." Washington will on Monday reintroduce far-reaching sanctions on Iran's vital oil sales and banking sectors to try to force the Islamic Republic into negotiations to scrap its nuclear energy and ballistic missile programs and end its support for proxies in conflicts across the Middle East. However, the Trump administration said on Friday that eight importing countries would temporarily be allowed to keep buying Iranian oil when sanctions come back into effect. Iran is the world's No. 3 oil exporter. Turkey said on Saturday that Ankara had received initial indications from Washington that it would be granted a waiver, but is awaiting clarification on Monday. Indian Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said his country and other leading oil importers would benefit from the U.S. waivers. Most international sanctions on Iran were lifted in early 2016 under a deal Iran signed with world powers the year before under which it curbed its uranium enrichment program, widely seen abroad as a disguised effort to develop an atomic bomb. But Trump denounced the nuclear deal, approved by his predecessor Barack Obama, as flawed in Iran's favor and withdrew Washington from the pact in May. Trump's decision was welcomed by Washingtons Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab allies, involved in proxy conflict with Shi'ite Iran for decades. The United Arab Emirates' minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said on Saturday that Iran's "aggressive policies" were "largely responsible" for the reimposition of U.S. sanctions on Tehran. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif spoke by telephone with the European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and his counterparts from Germany, Sweden and Denmark about pending European measures to counter the U.S. sanctions, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported. GAME OF THRONES General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force that oversees its operations abroad, responded to Trump's Game of Thrones-inspired tweet on Friday that warned, "Sanctions are Coming." "I will stand against you," Soleimani said on Instagram, posting a similarly themed photo and repeating remarks made in July. The EU, France, Germany and Britain - all co-signatories, along with Russia and China, to the nuclear deal with Iran - said in a joint statement on Friday they regretted Trump's decision to restore sanctions on Iran. Diplomats told Reuters last week that the new EU mechanism to facilitate payments for Iranian exports should be legally in place by Nov. 4 but not operational until early next year. They cautioned, however, that no country had volunteered to host the entity, which was delaying the process. A senior French diplomat said on Saturday there was no way any trade with this mechanism could be conducted before the end of 2018. For now no other countries, including China, would be part of it although that could change over time. The other parties to the nuclear deal see it as an important bulwark against the risk of wider war in the Middle East and have reaffirmed their commitment to it. Iran has said it could leave the pact if the EU cannot protect its economic benefits. With the sanctions clampdown, Trump is seeking to push Iran to end uranium enrichment outright, and halt its ballistic missile development and support for proxy forces in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East. "Iran ... will not permit the Trump regime, which has made American foreign policy devoid of any principles, to reach its illegitimate goals," the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by IRNA. (Additional reporting by Maher Chmaytelli, Dubai newsroom, John Irish in Paris, Nevzat Devranoglu in Ankara and Nidhi Verma in New Delhi; Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Washington (AFP) - The sons of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi have asked Saudi authorities to return the body of their father so the family can properly grieve, they told CNN in an interview aired Sunday. Khashoggi was killed inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul by a team sent from Riyadh on October 2, a murder Turkey's president said was ordered from "the highest levels" of Saudi Arabia's government. "I really hope that whatever happened wasn't painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death," Abdullah Khashoggi told the US network during the interview in Washington. His brother Salah said "all what we want right now is to bury him in Al Baqi in Medina with the rest of his family," referencing a cemetery in Saudi Arabia. "I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon." Turkey's chief prosecutor said recently that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and also confirmed the body was dismembered. Yasin Aktay, an advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hinted in an article published on Friday that the body may even have been destroyed in acid. Khashoggi's killing has provoked widespread outrage and sharp criticism from Washington, usually the staunchest of allies. Khashoggi's sons voiced worry that the work of their father, a columnist for The Washington Post, was being distorted for political reasons. "I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don't agree with," Salah told CNN. "My fear is that it's being over politicized." "Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy, that it is the thing that is keeping the country together." The brothers said they have relied primarily on news reports to piece together an understanding of their father's death. Story continues "There's a lot of ups and downs.... We're trying to get the story -- bits and pieces of the story to complete the whole picture," Abdullah said. "It's confusing and difficult." "It's not a normal situation and not a normal death." Salah emphasized that "the King has stressed that everybody will be brought to justice. And I have faith in that." The murdered journalist's fiancee meanwhile has called on US President Donald Trump to back Turkey's efforts to probe the death. WASHINGTON (AP) The Latest on President Donald Trump and midterm elections (all times local): 11:10 p.m. President Donald Trump says he's hoping a supporter will be fine after a medical incident at his final rally ahead of Tuesday's midterm election. Trump paused his stump speech for roughly five minutes after being alerted to a medical emergency in the crowd of thousands. As emergency workers made their way to the woman, Trump said: "Take your time. Take your time. Relax." After several minutes the audience broke into the hymn "Amazing Grace." Resuming his speech after the supporter was taken out of the arena, Trump said of the singing, "That was beautiful." He adds: "Hopefully she'll be OK." Medical emergencies are common at presidential rallies, where security requires attendees to be in place for hours ahead of time. ___ 10:40 p.m. President Donald Trump is holding his final rally of the 2018 midterm election campaign. Trump appeared Monday night in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, his third rally of the day and 11th in his final sprint before Election Day. He is in the Mississippi River town to tout Missouri's Republican attorney general, Josh Hawley, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill. But first he appeared with some of his favorite conservative commentators, radio host and Cape Girardeau native Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro. The outcome of the midterm elections has become a referendum on Trump's presidency and is likely to alter its course. ___ 7:20 p.m. President Donald Trump is featuring a trio of women who work for his administration at one of his last get-out-the-vote rallies. Trump's daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump made her second appearance of the day alongside the president in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on Monday. Trump invited White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and counselor Kellyanne Conway on stage to speak as well. Story continues Sanders opened her remarks with a dig at the media, joking that she wasn't used to addressing friendly crowds. Women are expected to play a critical role in Tuesday's midterm elections that will determine which party controls Congress. The latest NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll found 49 percent of women disapprove of Trump's performance, compared with 44 percent of men. ___ 7:15 p.m. President Donald Trump has been interrupted multiple times by protesters during his Indiana rally on his final midterm sprint. On three occasions Monday, demonstrators began to chant against Trump, only to be drowned out by a crowd of Trump supporters in a downtown Fort Wayne coliseum. The protesters were escorted out. Trump told one demonstrator to "go home to mommy." Protesters were a common sight at Trump's 2016 campaign rallies, with the occasional brief bouts of violence between the demonstrators and Trump supporters. They have become a far rarer sight since Trump took office, which the president noted Monday. He wryly mused that he was "not surprised" they would be a factor in Indiana, but it wasn't clear what he meant. ___ 6:45 p.m. President Donald Trump is making a final elections argument by claiming that Democrats will take a "wrecking ball to our economy and to the future of our country." Trump made the second of his final three rally stops on Monday in front of a loud, packed crowd in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He says, "A vote for Republicans is a vote to continue our extraordinary prosperity." He says, "A vote for Democrats is a vote to bring this economic boom crashing down very rapidly." The president went on to declare that a Democratic victory would produce "a socialist nightmare." Trump was in Indiana to back Republican Senate candidate Rep. Mike Braun, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Joe Donnelly. ___ 6:20 p.m. President Donald Trump has penned an election-eve op-ed running on the Fox News website. The piece on the president's favorite news channel's website urges voters to keep Republicans in power to keep the economy growing. Trump writes that "America faces a critical choice" in Tuesday's midterm elections and claims that, if Democrats win control of Congress, they will "take a giant wrecking ball to your economy and your future." The message has been part of the president's closing argument, but it has been overshadowed by his focus on hard-line immigration issues in the final days of the campaign. Some Republicans worry that Trump's decision not to focus more on the economy has been detrimental, especially among suburban, college-educated women who could determine control of the House. ___ 4:15 p.m. President Donald Trump is urging Republicans to turn out for the midterm elections in order to keep his "political movement going." Trump on Monday in Cleveland repeatedly drew stark contests between Republicans and Democrats, saying the opposition party was for "open borders" and for "rising" crime. He also invoked the final days of the 2016 campaign, comparing his upset victory then to Republicans defying the polls now and potentially keeping both houses of Congress. Most polls suggest that the GOP will maintain control of the Senate but could lose the House. In Ohio, Trump went through some of his campaign greatest hits, including a swipe at his 2016 general election foe, Hillary Clinton. Trump is set to do rallies in Indiana and Missouri later Monday. ___ 3:30 p.m. First daughter Ivanka Trump is joining her father during his final campaign blitz before the midterm elections. Ivanka Trump, who is also a senior White House adviser, rarely makes campaign appearances, but she traveled with President Donald Trump for his Cleveland rally on Monday. The president appeared to mock the #MeToo movement when he introduced his daughter, saying, "You're not allowed to use the word 'beautiful' anymore when you talk about women. It's politically incorrect." Trump vowed to never use that word again. His daughter then promoted the White House's economic policies and its strong jobs record. ___ 3:15 p.m. President Donald Trump is kicking off his final campaign blitz before the midterm elections by declaring that "everything is at stake." Trump's first stop Monday was in Cleveland, where he stumped for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, the Republican candidate for governor. He bashed DeWine's Democratic opponent, Richard Cordray, whom he declared "a bad person" who "has hurt a lot of people." The midterm elections have become a referendum on Trump, who urged the crowd to maintain Republican control in both the House and the Senate. He says, "In a sense, I am on the ticket." But in recent days, Trump has distanced himself from Republican efforts to hold the House, which most pollsters believe could flip to the Democrats. After Ohio, Trump will travel to Indiana and Missouri. ___ 2:35 p.m. President Donald Trump is forecasting Cabinet changes after the election, calling such adjustments "very customary" but offering no timeline for them. Still, Trump says Monday that he's supported by "some really talented people" and that "for the most part, I love my Cabinet." The president answered questions from reporters before he boarded Air Force One for a flight to Ohio for the first of three closing campaign rallies. Trump replied that he was "surprised" by a question about whether he planned to replace Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. He also said Ryan Zinke has done a "very good job" as Interior secretary despite a series of inquiries into his conduct, including one matter that's been referred to the Justice Department for further investigation. Trump says he'll review any reports about Zinke's conduct. ____ 11:30 a.m. President Donald Trump is imploring his supporters to vote on Tuesday, saying the media will treat the midterm results as a referendum on his presidency. Trump is telling supporters on a tele-town hall organized by his re-election campaign that, even though he's not on the ballot, "in a certain way I am on the ballot." He adds that, "whether we consider it or not, the press is very much considering it a referendum on me and us as a movement." Trump is also making the case that, if Democrats win control of Congress, they will work to roll back everything he's tried to achieve, saying "it's all fragile." Also joining the call were Trump's son, Eric Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders. Trump is holding three get-out-the-vote rallies Monday in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri. ____ 11:20 a.m. President Donald Trump is stoking anxiety about illegal voting a practice found to be rare on the eve of Tuesday's elections. Trump tweeted Monday that "Law Enforcement has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place in Tuesday's Election (or Early Voting). Anyone caught will be subject to the Maximum Criminal Penalties allowed by law. Thank you!" Trump repeatedly claimed after taking office and without evidence that 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally in 2016. He claims that's why Democrat Hillary Clinton received nearly 3 million more votes than Trump nationwide. Studies have found voter fraud in the U.S. to be rare. The Brennan Center for Justice found that most reported cases can be traced to other sources, such as clerical errors. ____ 12:30 a.m. The president and a former president are putting in their closing arguments with time running out before crucial midterm elections. President Donald Trump urged voters in Tennessee and Georgia Sunday to back Republicans in statewide races, warning that Democrats favor high taxes and illegal immigration. Democrats offered former President Barack Obama for their closing argument. Appearing in Indiana, and later in Chicago, Obama warned Democrats not to be distracted by lies and fear-mongering. Trump appeared to distance himself from the fate of House Republican candidates as he devotes his final time before Tuesday's midterm elections to helping Senate and gubernatorial candidates. Mac Miller died in early September at his home in Los Angeles. (Photo: Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP) Rapper Mac Miller died in early September from mixed drug toxicity an accidental overdose of various drugs, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner has ruled. Miller was found unresponsive at his San Fernando Valley home on Sept. 7, and in a toxicology report released Monday the coroners office said he had ingested fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol. The rapper, whose real name was Malcolm James Myers McCormick, was discovered unconscious in a praying position on his bed by a personal assistant, TMZ reported. The assistant performed CPR on him and alerted authorities, who arrived at Millers home shortly thereafter. The rapper was pronounced dead less than 20 minutes later. An empty bottle of alcohol on the nightstand and white powder residue on a rolled up $20 dollar bill in his pocket were found, in addition to a slew of prescription pills in his bathroom. Miller, who had a history of drug and alcohol abuse, often rapped about partying. His fifth and most recent album, Swimming, also explored his struggle with depression. Less than a month before his death, Miller crashed his car into a utility pole and fled the scene. Police arrested the rapper at his home hours later, and he reportedly registered twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system. Friends of the rapper and fellow performers, including SZA, Travis Scott, Ty Dolla $ign and John Mayer, hosted an all-star concert benefitting the Mac Miller Circles Fund in Los Angeles last week. Ex-girlfriend Ariana Grande also recently paid tribute to Miller, referring to him as an angel on a new song. Miller was buried in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Photo credit: John Minchillo/AP/REX/Shutterstock From Esquire Millions of Ohioans will flock to the polls on Tuesday. They will wait in line, shuffle to the front, and give their name. Most of them will cast a ballot and carry on with their day. But thousands of others will be told theyre not on the list. They might think theyve gone to the wrong polling place. If they havent voted in a while, they may assume theyve been purged from the rolls. According to Ohio Voter Project, a nonprofit that collects and shares data about voting in the state, between five and ten thousand Ohioans are removed from the rolls every week. Maybe they dont know much about the laws around voting, and dont know they can ask for a provisional ballot. And anyway, they have to return to work or pick up their kid from school. Theyve already been here a while, and they cant afford to spend any more of their day at a polling station. Maybe they leave without casting a ballot. Election security experts consider this one of many nightmare scenarios facing the American voting public-and thus, American democracy itself-on the eve of the 2018 midterm elections. Photo credit: Getty Images Ohio is a ground zero for their concerns because it has the most punitive voter-purge laws in the nation, which allow the state to remove registered voters from the rolls if they do not vote in three consecutive elections with a federal office on the ballot and fail to respond to a mailer. That's faster than anywhere else, and the Supreme Court's conservative wing upheld the "use it or lose it" measure, 5-4, in June. But thats the mechanism to purge Ohioans legally. What concerns election-security types is the potential for something far more sinister. There's a chance, and not a particularly small one, that citizens could be struck from the voter rolls not by any legal or official mechanism, but by a hacker. "I'm concerned that an effort to attack the voter registration system would go unnoticed," says Allison Berke, executive director of the Stanford [University] Cyber Initiative. "If some people showed up to a polling place, and they thought they were registered, and they're turned away, the assumption would be that they were unaware of these new requirements [like voter ID], or that they had been purged from the rolls through one of these other efforts to remove duplicate voters or voters who haven't voted in a long time. And so it wouldn't necessarily be immediately obvious that that was the result of a cyber attack." Story continues Photo credit: Getty Images Ohio has opted into the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, a scheme of laws and regulations developed by Kris Kobach-the Kansas secretary of state, now running for governor, who has distinguished himself as perhaps the countrys premier vote suppressor. Republican-controlled states across the country have adopted a swathe of policies to try to depress turnout, particularly among groups-people of color, younger people-who tend to vote for Democrats. All were enacted under the guise of combatting supposedly widespread voter fraud, of which there is no evidence. Among these are voter-ID laws, including exact-match policies like the one in Georgia ; North Dakotas residential-address statute, which targets Native American communities; and aggressive voter-purge programs like Ohios. In a sick twist, these efforts may actually provide some of the very best cover for potential election hackers. Were you targeted by a Republican legislator, or, as the president has said, a 400-pound guy sitting on a bed somewhere ? The Ohio system also does not provide publicly available information on why a voter was removed from the rolls, according to the Ohio Voter Project, and removed voters are not informed of their change in status before Election Day. This lack of transparency only adds to the risk someone will be struck unjustly. When the right to the franchise is under assault by vandals both foreign and domestic, legislative and digital, it's hard to know just who ratfucked you. And make no mistake: the digital vandals are coming. They might already be here. Russia's influence campaign in the 2016 election cost a few million bucks . That's some return on investment, and other actors-nation-states and otherwise-will have taken note. More than one analyst has stated publicly that hackers could have embedded themselves in our election systems months ago, forming sleeper cells in voting systems or voter registration databases. According to The Boston Globe, hackers have targeted "voter registration databases, election officials, and networks across the country" more than 160 times since August 1. "In the 2016 election, adversaries only realized quite late in the year that maybe they should [interfere], says Andrew Appel, a Princeton University professor who co-authored a report from the National Academy of Sciences focused on America's election-system vulnerabilities, released this September as a guide for policymakers. They didn't have a lot of time to prepare their attacks, and they only got a little bit into a few states' voter registration systems, for example, and not necessarily even into the systems that count up the votes. But now they've had a full two years." Photo credit: Getty Images At least one House races in Ohio is considered a toss-up, according to The New York Times: the 12th district contest between Troy Balderson and Danny O'Connor. The same two candidates faced off in a special election just last month that remained too close to call for three weeks afterwards. Eventually, Balderson was declared the winner-by a margin of barely more than 1,500 votes. That is razor-thin, and the sad fact is that the results of an election do not even need to be changed, or that change does not need to be proven, in order for an election hack to prove effective. For some, including Russia in 2016, fomenting chaos and undermining the American public's faith in democracy would be a victory in itself. The voter-registration systems are just one potential target, of course. The election hacking story thats earned the most headlines is the possibility that the voting machines themselves could be hacked. Any actor with sufficient resources could probably pull it off, according to election security experts. They could program the machines to spit out a pre-ordained set of vote tallies, or to stop counting votes for a certain candidate at a certain threshold, or ensure the result falls outside the window that triggers an automatic recount. And theyll have plenty of opportunity to do it. Election administrators like to claim machines are not connected to the internet, but thats not exactly true. They have to be programmed before the election with the candidates and layout of the ballot, which administrators often do by inserting a memory stick. "The computers they use for programming these ballot definition files [on the memory cards] are typically just Windows laptops that are often connected to the internet, Appel says. Photo credit: Getty Images Another vulnerability emerges when it's time for machines to "phone home" the results of an election. Some voting machines will send the final results over a cell phone modem, which administrators claim is fine because it's not the internet. But the phone system is connected to the internet. (Hello, dial-up sound.) And finally, there's the possibility that someone could go up to the physical voting machine, unscrew the back panel, and mess with it. Voting machines are delivered to polling places days before the election. They sit in that school or church or municipal building until they're picked up shortly after the election. If they're left unsecured at any point, they could be compromised. All these scenarios can be remedied as long as voting machines include some kind of paper ballots-which is somehow still not universal, including in Georgia, but has been widely adopted as the standard-so local officials can conduct audits of results. In the scheme of election hacks, a direct assault on voting machines might be the easier variety to detect. The far more diabolical, and less detectable, route could be to mess with the voter rolls-the list of names in a poll book that, depending on the state, may also include information such as your address. If you tamper with the rolls, people could be unjustly turned away when they show up to their local polling place. And it might not even be that a person is directly removed from the list. They could change the data in any way you could imagine, Appel tells me. Hackers could change the polling place to which youre assigned, according to Appel. They could alter your address so it doesnt match the one listed on your ID-the same ID you might need to present to vote, if your state is run by Republicans whove taken an interest in voter suppression. For that matter, they could tweak your name in some way, such that it doesnt match. They could change anything. Any of these inconveniences might cause people to leave without voting at all. Or it might cause huge numbers of people to file provisional ballots, which take much longer to complete. Most polling places are equipped to deal with a dozen-or-two provisional-ballot requests at most. What if they get several hundred? Even if they can handle that, it will lead to longer lines. People may then leave without casting a ballot, or look at the line and keep on driving. All of that creates a perception of chaos, which undermines faith in the process and the results. To make things worse, the voter registration hack could go down as the election is happening. In some jurisdictions, election officials use an iPad or other electronic tablet to access the voter rolls. Those devices would be connected to the internet, which means they could be hacked. If theres no physical voter roll as backup, theres no way to know until its too late. In fact, the biggest problem facing the voter registration systems is that they are connected to the web. Unlike with voting machines, this is absolutely necessary, because voters should be able to check their registration status online. They should even be able to register to vote online, although that isnt available everywhere. But a jurisdiction that only uses electronic voter rolls, via tablet or other means-and doesnt have paper records of those files-is playing with fire. And as it stands, the private companies that supply the voter registration databases are not always legally required to report when they are hacked. It mostly went unnoticed in the public consciousness, but these systems-like the one run by VR Systems , for example-were attacked in 2016. Photo credit: Getty Images There are ways to secure the voter-registration systems. First and foremost, states have to aggressively defend their systems on the cybersecurity front, and hold the private companies that create and maintain the systems accountable when they fall short. That should include compelling vendors to report hacking incidents by law. The chances that states can keep up with the escalating capabilities of hackers-a constant demand in cyber warfare-are not high. So, as a contingency, experts recommend that administrators continually take snapshots of their voter rolls at various points, particularly as the election fast approaches and most voter-registration periods end. They should then use these lists, whose accuracy they can be sure of, on Election Day, and have paper copies available in case any electronic database goes haywire. None of these practices, however, are standard across the nation. You can also play an active role yourself by checking your registration online, to be sure your status or polling place hasnt changed. Then, above all, show up-and do whatever it takes to vote. If youre told you cant, demand a provisional ballot. A wide-scale election attack could lead to a high volume of provisional ballots, and it would then be ruthlessly litigated in the courts whether they should be included in the vote tallies. But thats better than having no voice at all. The state of Ohio announced a $12.2 million investment in election security initiatives in September. The money, acquired through the Help Americans Vote Act, or HAVA, which Congress introduced after the Florida recount debacle in 2000, will pay for an update of the states voter registration database, bolster cybersecurity for county boards of elections, and carry out audits after Election Day, according to a press release . The Ohio secretary of states office declined to comment beyond that release, but a report from the left-leaning Center for American Progress suggests the states audit requirements do not test election outcomes with a high degree of confidence, and that the states voter registration system is around 10 years old. Thats a lifetime in the cyber wars, and if its accurate, its a serious problem. For its part, the Department of Homeland Security is attempting to help state and local election officials grapple with a series of unprecedented demands. American elections are now a battleground for international combat. The best argument for federal intervention in elections is that its a vital national security issue. Consequently, election infrastructure should fall under the purview of the federal government, which is bound by the Constitution to protect the homeland from foreign adversaries. Photo credit: Getty Images Thats what President Obamas Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson, tried to do in the run-up to 2016- except he faced a volcanic response from Republican state officials , who called it an attempt at federal overreach. (Brian Kemp, now running for Georgia governor in a closely watched election, was one of 11 secretaries of state to reject federal cybersecurity assistance of any kind . In related news, Kemps office purged 1.5 million Georgia voters from the rolls between 2012 and 2016.) After the intelligence communitys January 2017 assessment determining that Russia had meddled in the election, however, the critical infrastructure designation was granted. That was part of a larger softening from Republicans towards the federal government involving itself in election security. In Congress, they acquiesced to a funding boost to the tune of $380 million. States have gotten to work spending that, too, but its how its spent that matters. In Ohio, its not clear that the money will prevent someone, or some country, from tampering with voter rolls. Photo credit: Getty Images Its also unclear whether the DHS, which declined to comment for this article, has the resources to put out all the fires that may flare up around Election Day. There are surely scores of people dedicated to protecting free and fair elections in America, but the agency at large has a host of other issues to which it must attend. Often, these problems are more politically volatile-or, in some cases, valuable-to the head of the Executive Branch. Certainly, whats happening at the border, for instance, gets far more daily scrutiny from outside, including from the media, than does the security of our elections. And that, in the end, is the dark undercurrent of all this. Even after an election in 2016 that was critically marred by foreign interference, the avalanche of shiny objects cascading daily into Our National Dialogue in the Trump Era has all but obscured the vital threats awaiting our election system. Some candidates could be buffeted by an influence campaign. Voting machines could be hacked. Or, perhaps most perniciously, people could be robbed of their registration-and thus, their voting rights-and never even know it. The core of our democracy is at stake in this election, and not just because the Republican Party has embarked on a shameless campaign to limit the ability of Certain People to vote, and to dilute the power of those votes through structural tools like gerrymandering. There is a legitimacy crisis throughout the many institutions of our democratic republic, as Americans lose faith in Congress, the courts, the media-pretty much anything that isnt the military. If they lose the faith that our elections are free and fair, you cant help but despair for a nation already teetering on the brink. It could happen-and not with a bang, but a whimper. ('You Might Also Like',) There are three possible outcomes in the upcoming midterm elections: Republicans retain control of both houses of Congress, Democrats take control of one chamber, or Democrats win big and seize control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. A split Congress is the most likely outcome, with Democrats winning the House but not the Senate. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to take the House, a margin of victory well within the norm for midterms, when the presidents party typically loses ground. In the 2010 midterms, President Obamas Democrats lost 63 seats. In the 2006 midterms, President Bushs Republicans lost 27 seats. In both cases, the presidents party lost control of the House. On the eve of the elections, the University of Virginias Center for Politics rates 212 House seats as likely Democratic wins, with 21 toss-up elections. Since it takes 218 seats to control the House, Democrats would only need to win one-third of the toss-ups to take the House. Stats site FiveThirtyEight gives Dems an 87% chance of winning the House, but just a 16% chance of taking the Senate. Even if Democrats win both houses, President Trump would be able to veto Democratic legislation, and theres no chance Democrats will have a veto-proof majority. So there arent likely to be major policy changes emanating from Congress for the next two years. The Trump tax cuts and other GOP measures affecting business and markets will stay in place. Democrat Beto ORourke hopes to unseat Republican Ted Cruz in a Texas Senate race. (Photo by Tom Fox-Pool/Getty Images) But the outcome in November could still trigger changes that will affect workers and investors. Heres the outlook for six pocketbook issues, plus the controversial investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller: The overall direction of stocks. Markets have probably priced in a Democratic victory in the House, and split control of Congress. If so, there might be a traditional relief rally once the election is over. Stocks typically struggle in the weeks before a midterm which has certainly been the case this yearthen rise once the voting is over. If Republicans surprise by keeping control of Congress, that opens the door to further tax cuts and other business-friendly measures, which would probably give stocks an added boost. But if Democrats sweep both houses, markets could take it as a sign voters want a rollback of the Trump tax cuts, more regulation and more costly social programs. That could ding stocks. Story continues [See why a Democratic sweep in November could hurt stocks] Taxes. Republicans say theyre not done cutting taxes. They still want to make permanent some of the temporary tax cuts that went into effect this year, while also perhaps cutting the capital gains tax. And President Trump has now floated an additional 10% tax cut for middle-class families, as a last-minute sop to voters. If Republicans keep both houses of Congress, more tax cuts are plausible. And if tax cuts are limited to the middle class, some Democrats might get on board. In a split Congress, however, Dems would block any further tax cuts for businesses or the wealthy. What Democrats wont be able to do is roll back the Trump tax cuts, since Trump would enthusiastically wield his veto. Trade. Trump is waging his protectionist trade wars with little input from Congress, but he will need a Congressional vote of approval to enact the newly negotiated United States Mexico Canada Act, which modestly updated the old North American Free Trade Agreement. Getting Congressional approval might be harder if Democrats control one or both houses, but Dems will probably go along eventually, since theres not much to gain by imperiling trade with Canada and Mexico. Trumps trade war with China is a different matter. That has been intensifying, with Trump expanding the list of Chinese imports subject to new tariffs. By early next year, Trump may impose new tariffs on substantially all imports from China, and theres little Congress could do to stop him. Health care. Theres a slim chance a split Congress could pass a bipartisan health care law, along the lines of one introduced last year, that would shore up the Affordable Care Act and provide a few additional options for people struggling with high out-of-pocket costs. But that would require Republicans and Democrats to get along, in what could be an even more toxic political environment than weve seen this year. If Republicans control Congress, they may try again to repeal the ACA, even though the move was unpopular with voters and Republicans lacked a backup plan. If Democrats control both houses, they could start pushing elements of Bernie Sanders Medicare for all plan, which Trump would veto if anything passed. But Dems are trying out Medicare for all as a 2020 offering, so you could hear a lot more about it. Nancy Pelosi will become Speaker of the Houseagainif Democrats retake the Senate. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) Drug prices. Many Democrats favor new laws to cap or reduce prescription drug pricessomething Trump has advocated. But Trumps moves, so far, have had minimal impact, and he has avoided calling for a new law allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with drugmakers, a priority for many Democrats. The drug industry is a formidable lobbying power, and has held off efforts to give Medicare more negotiating muscle, and lower prices in other ways. With a split Congress, Republicans would probably kill any new drug-pricing legislation. But a fully Democratic Congress could pass legislation to lower drug prices, and dare Trump to sign it. Infrastructure. Many Democrats support new infrastructure spending, as Trump does. So this is one area where a split Congress might be able to agree on legislation. The problem is, theres no money, and Congress may be unwilling to add even more to annual deficits that are approaching $1 trillion per year. So meaningful action is unlikely, under any election scenario. The Mueller probe. The outcome of the 2018 midterms could have momentous implications for special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, and other things. If Republicans pull a surprise upset and hold onto both houses of Congress, that could embolden Trump to fire Mueller, as he has tacitly threatened to do for months, since a Republican Congress would be less inclined to hold hearings or further investigate. But if Democrats take at least one house, they seem likely to launch investigations into nearly every Trump controversy. Trump might be less likely to fire Mueller if he knew Democrats with subpoena power would pounce. That suggests a modest Democratic win in November may be the best path to an orderly conclusion to the Mueller investigation, and whatever comes next. But 2019 looks uproarious, no matter who wins. Editors note: This is an updated version of a story originally published on Sept. 7, 2018. Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Click here to get Ricks stories by email. Read more: Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman A directional sign in various languages is placed to point voters to a polling station in New York: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images Just hours away from polls opening in the midterms, it is clear Asian-American voters are having a coming of age election moment across the US and particularly reliably red Republican states like Texas, Nevada, and Georgia. Overall, the Asian-American population in the US has grew by 72 per cent - from 11m to 20m - between 2000 and 2015. In 2018, they count as approximately four per cent of voters and more in terms of campaign contributions. According to the Pew Research Centre it is the fastest growing racial and ethnic group in the country, and both Republicans and Democrats are now paying attention to getting thoe voters to the polls. Maggie Tsai, communications manager for Nevada-based voter education and outreach group One APIA, told The Independent this new political power is due to a few reasons, with population growth key. The Asian-American population in the state is approximately 10 per cent, a figure which represents rapid and massive growth and with that, influence. As Duy Nguyen, the Director of One APIA, said to The Independent the Asian Pacific Islander American vote may determine the race [The Senate race in Nevada]. For too long, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans have marginalised and invisible in the political discourse. While there are those who have worked on voter outreach and education for close to two decades, Asian-Americans were largely not seen as an influential bloc on the national stage. Despite local political groups existence for decades where there were strongholds of Asian populations like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, it was not until the late 2000s when groups like South Asians for Obama made an appearance in a larger context. Ms Tsai also said increased engagement by Asian-American voters - and campaigns as well as national political parties - could also be attributed to a large number of young people who are the generation born or at least raised mostly in the US. Story continues There are also issues particularly salient to the community at large. Suman Raghunathan, Executive Director of the advocacy group South Asian Americans Leading Together (Saalt), agrees. Her group covers mostly voter education rather than direct engagement but she told The Independent she notices both the Republican and Democrat parties devoting resources and attention to sort of reach out to, and motivate, South Asian and Asian-American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. I think our communities are realising these external dynamics, policies, and forces are deeply impacting us, particularly on immigration," she said. Outreach and voter education take different forms in the Asian-American community depending on the organisation carrying it out but Ms Tsai pointed out In Nevada, the goal of her group and others is to reflect the diversity of our population. The community is comprised of Americans hailing from 20 different countries, speaking dozens of different languages, ranging from the uber-wealthy to those living on public assistance - approximately 12 per cent of those in poverty in the US are Asian-Americans. An important factor to take into account as voter engagement becomes more visible is the model minority myth, according to Ms Tsai. This stereotype has plagued the Asian American community as a whole, leading to mental health issues, experts have argued. It also contributes to the idea of merit-based immigration Donald Trump and Republicans have touted, implying only these types of educated and financially successful immigrants have a place in America rather than allowing for a more diverse population. The president has been pushing this idea of late particularly in relation to the migrant caravan travelling through Mexico from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Many are fleeing rampant gang violence and poverty, seeking asylum and work in the US, but may potentially enter the country illegally. Ms Tsai said it is also destructive because it can often separate Asian Americans from other minority groups, though we have many of the same [political] concerns of healthcare, public education, and good jobs. Ms Tsai said One APIA has been working with other groups reaching out to voters of colour and it has been super helpful. If we get all the people of color to vote, we can change the state...building power together [because] we have so much issue areas that overlap, Ms Tsai said. Groups like hers across the US have been banding together with groups like the NAACP, MiJente in Georgia, and others on issues of immigration reform in particular, which disproportionately affect Asian American and Latin American populations. Ms Tsai also said the model minority issue plays into masking other issues within the Asian American community as well. Southeast Asian immigrants or those from poorer or more marginalised communities in the region may have a very different immigration history than Chinese, Indian, and Filipino Americans who make up the majority of the community. For instance, refugees from Myanmar or further back in US history, those fleeing the Vietnam War, may have different experiences than for instance, people who came to the US to attend graduate school from India or China. She said it is finally time for the younger generation of Asian-Americans to bring to light this diversity of experiences by controlling the narrative rather than letting the majority do that. That translates in voter engagement terms as literature outlining ballot initiatives and various candidates positions in five different languages in Nevada - English, Tagalog, Mandarin, Korean, and Vietnamese. Texas Democratic House candidate Sri Preston Kulkarni, a former US Foreign Service member, conducts phone bank operations asking for votes in 13 different languages including Hindi, Mandarin, Tamil, Gujarati, Urdu, Vietnamese, Korean, Malayalam, Telegu, Bengali, and others. His district is the second most diverse in the US and operations have been tailored to reach new voters who were never thought of before by candidates or parties. In New York City, Democratic candidate for the US House Alexandria Ocasio Cortez reflects changing demographics in her district extending into the borough of Queens by issuing campaign literature in Bengali. Mobilising Asian-American voters also means canvassing from door-to-door in different languages. Ms Tsai said when she speaks to older Chinese Americans, it helps to do the cultural work and share her own immigration story with them in a shared tongue. Increased engagement in the 2018 midterms has also meant overcoming an immigrants perception of politics from their native country as well. For many South Asian-American communities the familiarity with leveraging party politics is new, we come from communities and a culture where politics is a dirty business, where it's usually associated with corruption, Ms Raghunathan pointed out. Their agency as US voters may not be fully realised until they are reached out to from someone in their own community who can explain the power they have in terms to which they can relate. We have been building that muscle, and frankly demanding more accountability from members and candidates in a far more sophisticated way and I think we've gotten much better at it but it is still a growing level of understanding, Ms Raghunathan said. It all also speaks to a shift in thinking that political parties cannot take Asian-American voters for granted. As more US House members like Washington states Pramila Jayapal, Californias Ro Khanna, Senators Mazie Hirono and Tammy Duckworth, or White House staffers from the Barack Obama and Donald Trump administrations win races and enter debates on national issues, the conversations about Asian-American voters will likely have to change as well. Most Asian-Americans now skew Democratic, particularly after Mr Obamas 2008 election. According to data compiled by AAPI Data, a service at the University of California-Riverside, voting skewed Republican until then but by 2016 came about an overwhelming 72 per cent of the group voted for Hillary Clinton, while 27 per cent went for Mr Trump However, having Asian-Americans in office is no guarantee issues important to the majority of the community are addressed, which is why some voter advocacy and education groups are taking a non-partisan, diverse approach to reach voters in their specific communities. Ms Raghunathan argued: what is really critical to developing a more sophisticated level of understanding in our communities about politics and policies is to really make sure that we are not letting any one party rest on its laurels. A candidate forum at the Ismaili Jamatkhana, or place of worship for Shia Ismaili Muslims, in Norcross, Georgia, featured a debate between eight Democrats and their Republican opponents. Farida Nurani, who volunteers there and helped organise the event, told The Independent in todays trying times, it is all the more important for all of us to be able to come together at such places that provide opportunities for dialogue, for inclusive conversations and for understanding diverse perspectives. Having a diverse population is an opportunity to be embraced. Different people, different viewpoints, different perspectives can inform our outlook, she said. Ms Nurani noted none of the candidates on either side of the political aisle turned the invitation down either, another sign of a recognition of the most diverse county in the state and the growing Asian-American population there. Ms Raghunathan also said Saalt has remained non-partisan since the organisation is a registered charity group in the US and requires it. But, it has not hindered the groups efforts to educate voters, Ms Raghunathan noted it gave them far more leeway to really double-down on where the candidates are on the issues. Saalt has issued a comprehensive voter guide outlining where candidates in key US House races stand on issues important to South Asian-Americans. We've never done that before[but] we always feel that our communities are very sophisticated and we believe it's really important for voters to look at any manner of potential candidates for both parties to be able to transcend politics and policies based upon partisan affiliation and base it on really where they fall on the issues, she explained. This will be a trend going forward according to Mr Nguyen. "This cycle, our organisation is speaking in one voice, across almost 40 different languages, and we are making ourselves heard and that will translate to real political power come Tuesday and beyond. Well be here, after the election, to ensure turnout for next years local races and for 2020. Continued engagement is the key to continued turnout. It is near impossible to avoid the 2018 midterm elections in southern Florida, where one of the most expensive Senate races in US history is coming down to the wire with both candidates in an all-out sprint to convince voters to send them to Washington. Outside most polling places, virtually every inch of grass is packed full of wire signs with names voters will see up and down the ballot. Nearby, volunteers have been setting up shop beyond the required one hundred foot perimeter from the doors that lead to the polls to hand out pamphlets and urge voters to support ballot initiatives to end things like greyhound dog racing or to give voting rights back to felons who have completed their court sentences. Flooding the airwaves are adverts featuring Governor Rick Scott and Senator Bill Nelson as they battle for the latters seat in Congress. Warnings and praise are also ubiquitous for gubernatorial candidates Ron DeSantis a Republican and former US representative and Andrew Gillum the Democrat and current mayor of Tallahassee. If you live live anywhere in the Miami metropolitan area, you would be hard pressed not to encounter a call to civic responsibility towering on billboards above your morning commute: Vote November 6. Those adverts are a costly endeavour in Floridas expensive media markets, and has made the Senate race one of the most expensive contest in history as the candidates try to negotiate through difficult political issues in the state from the devastation caused by Hurricane Michael, state expansion of Medicaid, and the concerns created by red tide algae blooms that have touched coastlines in both Republican and Democratic precincts this year. Thats not to mention the long shadow that President Donald Trump has cast on the midterms. Hes a breath of fresh air. I like everything hes been doing, William Johnson, a boat vibration analyst from Fort Lauderdale, said when asked about the president. He voted for Mr Scott, he said, alongside other Republicans on the ballot. Story continues Meanwhile: I hate the son of a b****. Ive hated him all my life, said Brent Nichelin, a property manager in Fort Lauderdale who voted for Democratic candidates, said of the 45th president after voting. Hes a professional liar. Not just pathological. Professional. All told, a record $181 million has been spent in the Florida Senate race, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission reporting by the Centre for Responsive Politics. That includes over $91 million spent by the candidates themselves, and another $90 million spent by outside groups on the election. That figure is only rivalled by the spending in the Texas Senate race, where the battle between Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O'Rourke has racked up a $117 million tab. That spending in Florida is fuelled in part by Mr Scott, who has spent nearly $40 million of his own money to support his campaign. All told, the Scott campaign has outspent the Nelson campaign $66 million to $25 million, according to CRP data. The spending in Florida is coming close to the $188 million spent on the Pennsylvania Senate race in 2016 which is widely seen as the most expensive such race in history. The election has come to be seen, as many races in the 2018 midterms have, as something of a referendum on Mr Trumps first two years in office. Mr Scott has appeared alongside the president at rallies in the state, praising him for his help after Michael made landfall in the Florida panhandle last month. Mr Nelson, meanwhile, has aligned with the most recent Democratic administration a frequent bogeyman of Mr Trumps. Were at an important inflection point right now, Mr Nelson said at a recent rally in Orlando with former Vice President Joe Biden. Now more than ever folks in Florida need somebody they can trust. They need public servants that know right from wrong. Heading into the final days of the campaign, the two have remained neck and neck in the polls with Mr Nelson a third term senator leading by just 1.4 points in averages compiled by Real Clear Politics. Mr Scott is currently the governor of Florida, and is term limited to that job. Either way, voters understand why so much dough has been spent in the Sunshine State: The American political climate that elevated a contentious figure like Mr Trump to the White House has done anything but heal in the two years since November 2016. Right now, unfortunately, our country is divided, and I think people are only thinking Democrat or Republican, Jeanette, a Republican voter and insurance professional who asked that her last name not be published, said. Jeanette, referring to the presidents frequent attacks on the news media and the confusion that has been planted as a result, said that people are thinking in a non-existent binary things are more complicated than pro-Trump or anti-Trump, she said. There is no black and white, she said. Theres a lot of grey. With just two days until the midterm elections that could decide the fate of the last two years of President Donald Trumps first term in office, Democrats have retained a sizeable but shrinking advantage in their quest to retake at least one chamber of the US congress a result that would impact important debates on healthcare, taxes, and immigration policies in Washington. The rosier outlook for Republicans comes as a result of an increasingly optimistic outlook on the economy, and Mr Trumps harsh focus on immigration and border security issues that have historically energised GOP voters. With that tightening as a backdrop, the president released a flurry of retweets of himself on Sunday morning, amplifying once again the candidates and issues he has tweeted support for in the past including Senate candidate Martha McSally in Arizona, gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis in Florida, and the misleading story of an undocumented immigrant cop killer who the president has identified as a false signal of Democrats weakness on immigration. Even though several races are considered to be in dead heats across the country, Democrats have retained an 8-point advantage in the general congressional ballot, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll. The poll shows American voters preferring Democrats over Republicans 50 per cent to 43 per cent a slight decline from last month when they were preferred by 11 points, and in August when they led by 14 points. While those numbers are reason for optimism for Democrats hoping to retake control of the House of Representatives come January a majority that would allow them to effectively kneecap the presidents agenda during the second half of his first term it is not possible to determine how that general voter preference will translate in individual districts where contentious battles are being waged throughout the country. Democrats need 23 seats to take control of the House, and both parties have been spending at record levels to try and ensure their control of the peoples chamber. Story continues Campaigns, parties and outside groups have spent a record-setting $4.7bn on congressional races and that figure may jump to $5.2bn by the time the election is over. That record sum has been buoyed by Democratic spending as they seek to secure those 23 districts while defending the few races where Democratic incumbents are threatened. The Cook Political Report a leading handicapper for American political races has identified 73 of the 435 House seats as as competitive this year. Thats good news for Democrats, as 69 of those seats are currently in Republican hands. Republicans have a considerable advantage in the Senate, where the majority of seats up for grabs this year have Democrats on the defensive. The current Senate makeup gives Republicans a 51-49 advantage, and, of the seats up for grabs, Democrats are defending 10 seats in states where Mr Trump won in 2016. If Democrats manage to wrestle control of the House or Senate or both then that could have a dramatic impact on Mr Trumps legislative agenda over the next two years. The president has already found it difficult to push through some of his legislative priorities with Republican control of both chambers. His first two years in office have seen a high profile failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and those efforts have become a major campaign talking point for Democrats who note that Republican votes on that effort would have removed protections for people with pre-existing conditions that is in spite of Republican assurances that they do not want to repeal those protections. Other legislative priorities including immigration reform, a topic that has been a cornerstone of the presidents rhetoric since the first day of his 2016 election campaign. Mr Trump has sought to frame the midterms as a referendum on himself, and on what to do about immigrants coming to the US seeking refuge or new lives. But, he has also been unable to move any significant legislation on immigration through congress with Republican control there. One area in which he has had notable success is on the issue of taxes, where he pushed through cuts that have impacted primarily the richest Americans. The president had promised another set of tax cuts in the final stretch before the midterms but that promise was not anything more than a political stunt, as congress had already gone to recess for the remainder of time before the midterms. Voters in Georgia have been receiving racist and anti-semitic automated phone calls ahead of the midterm elections which will see Democrat Stacey Abrams attempt to become the US state's first black governor. The racist robo-call impersonates talk show host Oprah Winfrey who campaigned for Ms Abrams last week ahead of the 6 November ballot. It appears to have been paid for by a white supremacist group. Using racial slurs to describe both Winfrey and Ms Adams it asked people to make her the governor of Georgia. It also describes Ms Abrams as a poor mans Aunt Jemima, referring to the woman on the popular pancake mix box, an image now frequently condemned as racist. The narrator later explains that the message that it was paid for by The Road to Power, a white supremacist and antisemitic group with a history of support for neo-Nazi candidates. It is run by Scott Rhodes of Idaho, who has been linked to several other racist robo-calls, including one sent out recently to voters in Florida, where Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum is also aiming to become the first black governor in his states history. The calls in Georgia were condemned by Ms Abrams and her Republican rival Brian Kemp but it has put racism at the centre of a fraught, closely-fought contest dominated by accusations of voter suppression. Mr Kemp, who oversees elections in Georgia as the current secretary of state, has strongly denied Ms Abrams claims he has a history of using his office to make it more difficult for minorities to vote. Stacey Abrams on the campaign trail (Getty) He issued a statement calling the Oprah-related robo-call contrary to the highest ideals of our state and country. The Abrams camp also made clear its disgust. It is not surprising that in a race that has consistently been very close, weve seen several weeks of increasing desperation from many dark corners trying to steal the election, cheat, lie, and prey on peoples fears rather than having the respect to listen to voters and speak to their hopes, said her spokeswoman Abigail Collazo. Story continues Secretary of State Brian Kemp campaigns in Georgia (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images) She also condemned President Donald Trump for promoting a political climate that celebrates this kind of vile, poisonous thinking. Much of the final stretch of the race in Georgia has been consumed by a bitter battle over access to the polls. In early October the Associated Press reported that more than 53,000 voter applications nearly 70 per cent from black applicants were on hold with Mr Kemps office ahead of the election. Many of the applications were flagged for failing to pass the states exact match verification process, which requires that ID on voter registration applications precisely match information already on file. Mr Kemps office says that eligible voters on the pending list can still vote if they bring a proper ID that substantially matches their registration information. He called the controversy manufactured. In response to a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups, federal judges have ruled the state unfairly burdens about 3,000 possible voters whose registration was flagged for citizenship issues. Last week's court rulings means Georgia must start allowing poll managers to clear flagged voters who show proof of citizenship. Over the weekend, one of Mr Kemps campaign stops was disrupted protesters. Two men protesting his immigration policy were forcibly removed from a Cuban restaurant in Atlanta. Another person wearing a giant chicken suit held a sign that read too chicken to debate, alluding to Mr Kemp withdrawing from a debate scheduled for Sunday in favour of appearing alongside President Trump. Additional reporting by agencies Donald Trump and Barack Obama the president and his predecessor have hit the campaign trail in a final effort to energise and inspire their supporters, delivering very different visions of the nation on the eve of the midterm elections. Having spent the weekend criss-crossing the country and exchanging barbs with Mr Trump, Mr Obama, 57, appeared at a small event at the offices of Democratic senator Tim Kaine in northern Virginia. Meanwhile, Mr Trump, 72, was holding hold rallies in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri, a final blitz of heartland appearances that echoed his tactics in 2016, when he won the White House. Urging party workers and others listening to ensure they voted for the man who had been Hillary Clintons pick for her vice presidential candidate in 2016, Mr Obama said people had become disenchanted after his own 2008 win and found things did not become perfect overnight. He said that by electing people such as Mr Kaine and Jennifer Wexton, a Democratic candidate for congress, progress would be made. How we talk to each other gets better. Better is good. Better is a start, he said. When you do that everything is going to shine. Meanwhile, as Mr Trump left Washington for his rallies in the midwest, he told reporters: I think were going to have a good day ... I think were gonna do very well. Shortly afterwards, speaking in Cleveland for the best part of an hour, the president stumped for Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine and said the Democratic candidate, Richard Cordray, was a radical socialist ... [and] not a good person. He told the crowd when they cast their ballots, they should imagine him on the ticket. In a sense, I am on the ticket, youve gotta go out to vote, he said. You have to protect your rights and your freedoms. Mr Trump then repeated a catchline he has made before, saying Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs, and telling the crowd: If crying Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and the legendary Maxine Waters gain the majority, they will try to raise your taxes, restore job-killing regulations, shut down your coal mines and your steel mills ... take away your healthcare. Story continues There is a lot at stake on Tuesday. Most analysts predict that while Republicans will do enough to hold the Senate and may even add a seat two, there appears to be a consensus that the Democrats are in a strong enough position to flip the 23 seats they need to win the House. It is the lower chamber of congress where any effort to impeach the president would start out, an issue that Democrats have for tactical reasons played down during the campaign season, but which would likely reemerge if they win. Campaigning for Democrat Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Mr Obama said: America is at a crossroads. In two days, you get to vote in what I believe will be the most important election of our lifetimes. I know politicians always say that, but this time its really true. Change is gonna happen. Hope is gonna happen. With each new step we take, hope will spread. Goodness will spread. And you will be the ones who will have done it. It starts with you. Lets go vote. Lets go make change. Lets go make hope. By contrast, Mr Trump told supporters that Mr Obama represented the past. In remarks that drew attention to Mr Obamas middle name, Hussein, a tactic that over the years many such as Mr Trump have used to suggest the 44th president was not born in the US, he said: Its no surprise that Joe Donnelly is holding a rally this weekend with Barack H Obama. CNN said the crowd at an Indianapolis high school booed as Mr Trump added: We dont want to go back to the Obama days. Mike Fraioli, a veteran Democratic strategist and fundraiser, told The Independent people were holding tight for the next 36 hours. Yet said he believed Democrats had done enough to win the house. He said Mr Trumps approval rating was very low, perhaps just 39 or 40 or 41. Then you look at the generic vote there is an advantage of between eight to 13 points. A lead that is in the high single digits or low double digits, is very good for Democrats, he said. Mr Trumps approval rating has been historically low during his presidency, but has bumped up in recent weeks. CNN suggests the presidents approval rating stands at 41 points; others put it higher, while some polls place it even lower. Mr Obamas was at around 45 per cent at this stage in 2010. In the 2010 midterms, the Democrats went on to lose both the House and the Senate. The website Axios said strategists from both parties had predicted the Democrats would win up to 35 House seats. If so, that would be a better than history predicts for Mr Trump; presidents with approval ratings below 50 points for a midterm election, lose an average of 37 House seats, it said. Georgia is on the brink of history ahead of November's midterm elections. Democrat Stacey Abrams, 44, is seeking to become the state's first black female governor but faces a tough challenge in the shape of Georgia's secretary of state, Brian Kemp. Heres our introduction to one of the defining election races of the autumn. Who are the candidates? The significance of a Stacey Adams victory in a state once at the centre of slavery and segregation cannot be understated. Achieving it will depend on her winning the votes of liberal residents of Atlanta, the birthplace of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Much of the rest of Georgia remains fiercely Republican. Actually hailing from Madison, Wisconsin, and raised in Gulfport, Mississippi, Ms Abrams is a Yale law graduate and the author of eight romance novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery. Her opponent is the unabashedly Trumpian Mr Kemp, 55, Georgias secretary of state, who has called the contest a battle for literally the soul of our state. A self-styled politically incorrect conservative, Mr Kemp has proudly brandished a shotgun in a TV spot for his campaign and boasted of owning a big truck, just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take em home myself. His appeal to knee-jerk right-wingers as the antidote to the progressive force represented by Ms Abrams is clear. If she can inspire the African-American vote, a Democratic victory would echo that pulled off in last years special election when scandal-hit Republican Roy Moore was toppled by Doug Jones. What are the key issues? Education, immigration, gun control and healthcare are all at the heart of the contest in Georgia, particularly the lack of hospitals and jobs in rural areas. Stacey Abrams (Getty) Another cause of particularly pressing concern is voting itself, with the states exact match law seeing 534,000 registrations scrubbed from the electoral roll since 2016. According to the Palast Investigative Fund, 340,000 were improperly removed on the mistaken assumption that the person concerned had moved house. Story continues The purging process also means that 53,000 registrations are currently pending with less than two weeks to go before the vote, often as a result of typos or minor grammatical technicalities, 70 per cent of which relate to black voters who might be expected to turn out for Stacey Abrams, according to The New York Times. Civil rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit over the issue but Mr Kemp whom Ms Abrams called the architect of voter suppression on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - has insisted the matter is a diversionary tactic on behalf of her supporters to distract from her extreme agenda. The right to vote is a right. My father was arrested helping people to register, she has retaliated. Critics of the Ms Abrams have attacked her over what they characterise as her tax and spend approach to policy, particularly in light of the revelation that she herself owes $50,000 (38,680) to the Internal Revenue Service and more than $170,000 (131,500) in debt from credit cards and student loans, incurred supporting her parents after they suffered losses because of Hurricane Katrina and suffered serious illness. I have paid my taxes, unlike Ms Abrams, when they were due, Mr Kemp jibed in a recent debate in front of the Atlanta Press Club. President Trump has made his opinions known here too, telling his Twitter followers: Brian Kemp will be a GREAT Governor of Georgia. Abrams will destroy the State. Mexico City (AFP) - A caravan of Central American migrants that has drawn near-daily Twitter tirades from President Donald Trump ahead of the US mid-term elections rested and regrouped Monday at a stadium-turned-shelter in Mexico City before pressing on. With their sights set on reaching the United States, some 5,000 migrants, mainly from violence-plagued Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, are expected to converge on Mexico City in the coming days and then continue their northward trek, authorities said. The first 470 arrived Sunday in Mexico City and spent the night at a stadium on the capital's east side, where authorities have set up a large camp to host them and provide food and water. By late Monday morning, some 2,000 people had arrived at the camp, with 3,000 more expected to arrive by Wednesday as the fragmented caravan regroups after dispersing across the states of Puebla in central Mexico and Veracruz in the east, according to Mexico's National Human Rights Commission. The migrants are sleeping mainly in tents, on the ground or on the cement bleachers of the stadium, in frigid nightime temperatures of around 12 degrees Celsius (54 Fahrenheit) this time of year in the high altitude of Mexico City. Many were nursing colds or mangled feet after a trek of more than 1,600 kilometers (some 1,000 miles) that began on October 13 in the city of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. "I couldn't sleep. I was cold and coughing all night," said Honduran migrant Karla Membreno, 23, who is making the trek with her husband and brother-in-law. But "we have to be strong. God gives us strength to carry on," she told AFP. Two other large groups of Central American migrants comprising between 3,000 and 4,000 people in all are currently making their way across the southern Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, the National Human Rights Commission said. Another 3,230 Central Americans who were traveling in caravans have requested asylum in Mexico, according to the interior ministry. Trump has made immigration a key issue ahead of Tuesday's clutch mid-term vote, seen as a referendum on his presidency so far. Calling the caravan a "national emergency," he has ordered some 7,000 troops to the border, and threatened to deploy as many as 15,000. Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called the start of new US sanctions against his country's main enemy Iran a "historic day" that will reduce Tehran's "aggression" in the region. "Today is a historic day," Netanyahu told lawmakers from his Likud party, according to his office. "Today is the day the US under President (Donald) Trump's leadership imposed extremely harsh sanctions on Iran, the harshest sanctions imposed on Iran since the effort to curb its aggression began." Earlier Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman called the new sanctions a "critical" blow to Iran's actions in the region. The measures described by Washington as "the toughest sanctions ever" follow Trump's controversial decision in May to abandon the multi-nation nuclear deal with Tehran. They aim to significantly reduce Iran's oil exports -- which have already fallen by around one million barrels a day since May -- and cut it off from international finance. Israel had long opposed the Iran nuclear deal, saying it was too limited in scope and timeframe. It also said the lifting of sanctions allowed Iran to finance militant groups and its own military activity. Israel is particularly concerned with Iran's involvement in neighbouring Syria and has pledged to keep it from entrenching itself militarily there. The other parties to the nuclear deal -- Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia -- opposed the US move and say the accord is working as intended in keeping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons for now. By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices were mixed on Monday after a steep five-day fall, as the United States formally imposed punitive sanctions on Iran but granted eight countries temporary waivers allowing them to keep buying oil from the Islamic Republic. The sanctions are part of U.S. President Donald Trump's effort to curb Iran's missile and nuclear programs and diminish its influence in the Middle East. Oil markets have been anticipating the sanctions for months. Prices have been under pressure as major producers, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, have ramped up output to near-record levels, while weak economic figures in China have cast doubt on the demand outlook. News of waivers on the sanctions weighed on prices, analysts said. "There are a lot of questions about the sanctions, about waivers," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. "There's some doubt that the sanctions are going to have the bite the market originally thought." Brent crude (LCOc1) futures rose 34 cents to settle at $73.17 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude (CLc1) futures fell 4 cents to settle at $63.10 a barrel. Both oil benchmarks have slid more than 15 percent since hitting four-year highs in early October. Hedge funds have cut bullish bets on crude to a one-year low. The United States has granted exemptions to China, India, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey and South Korea, allowing them to continue buying Iranian oil temporarily, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday. Some of the countries are OPEC member Iran's top customers. Trump on Monday said he wants to impose sanctions on Iran's oil gradually, citing concerns about shocking energy markets and causing global price spikes. U.S. officials have said the aim of the sanctions is eventually to stop all Iran's oil exports. Pompeo said more than 20 countries have already cut oil imports from Iran, reducing purchases by more than 1 million barrels per day. Story continues Sanctions have already cost Iran billions of dollars in oil revenue since May, U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook told reporters on a call on Monday. Iran said on Monday it would break the sanctions and continue to sell oil abroad. China's foreign ministry expressed regret at the U.S. move. Combined output from Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia rose above 33 million bpd for the first time in October, up 10 million bpd since 2010, with all three pumping at or near record volumes. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co plans to boost oil production capacity to 4 million bpd by the end of 2020 and to 5 million bpd by 2030, it said on Sunday, from output of just over 3 million bpd. Data from analysis firm Kayrros showed Iranian crude production was broadly unchanged in October from September, with barrels still hitting the market alongside additional production from Saudi Arabia and Russia. (Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York, Christopher Johnson in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; editing by Susan Thomas and Dan Grebler) Photographer documents once-vibrant industrial operations now abandoned As automation becomes ever-more common, this determined photographer has traveled thousands of miles to document the eerie beauty of abandoned industrial operations. (Photo: Freaktography/Caters News) As automation becomes ever-more common, this determined photographer has traveled thousands of miles to document the eerie beauty of abandoned industrial operations. In the works of a photographer named Dave who goes by Freaktography and never gives out his full name haunting abandonment leaps from images of discarded machinery, tools and factory essentials. On his travels, the photographer has visited the likes of power plants, automotive assembly lines and distilleries, carrying out extensive research to discover each site. Though he is willing to reveal that the sites are dotted across North America specifically Canada and the United States the photographer never discloses the exact locations. (Caters News) See more news-related photo galleries , and follow us on Yahoo News Photos Twitter and Tumblr. Iran braces for fresh US sanctions including oil embargo Trump secretary of state says move is about support for terror Mike Pompeo speaks in New York. Photograph: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has defended the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran, saying the new tough controls on oil, shipping and banking that start on Sunday at midnight will force Tehran to stop sponsoring terrorism. Speaking to Fox News Sunday hours before the new sanctions went into effect, Pompeo said the move would cut off Iran from its oil market and target 600 individuals and companies in the finance sector. He insisted the penalties would not hurt the Iranian people. These sanctions are the toughest ever put in place on the Republic of Iran, he said. The top diplomat in the US said the new sanctions were designed to alter Irans behavior and protect Israel and other countries. The re-imposition of sanctions follows Donald Trumps withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which provided economic incentives in exchange for a verifiable end to Irans nuclear program. The unilateral rejection of the deal has gained very few supporters, though Pompeo claimed we have built an enormous coalition to keep this world safe. The European Union in particular is setting up a route to bypass US sanctions in return for persuading Iran to continue on its non-nuclear path. The assertion that renewed sanctions will not hurt ordinary Iranians has been questioned. There are signs the Iranian people are on tenterhooks about the impact on their daily lives. Medical groups have warned that the penalties will lead to severe shortages of essential medicines, endangering thousands of lives. Pompeos belligerent tone was matched by Trump, who announced the new sanctions on Friday with a tweeted picture in the style of Game of Thrones. It said: Sanctions Are Coming November 5. As he left the White House on Sunday for an election rally in Macon, Georgia, Trump said the sanctions would damage the Iranian regime. Story continues They are not doing very well, let me tell you, he told reporters. Its a big difference. When I came in office it looked like Iran would take over the Middle East, it was a question of literally less than years, very quickly, and now nobody is talking about that. The Trump administration has agreed to grant eight nations exemptions to allow them temporarily to continue buying Iranian oil, without naming the countries. It is widely suspected that the list includes some of the biggest importers of Iranian crude, such as China and India. Asked to confirm the presence of those two nations on the list of exemptions, Pompeo sidestepped the question. Watch what we do, he said. We have already taken more crude oil off the market than at any time and the march to zero continues. The Senate is the upper chamber of the US Congress - AFP The US Senate is the upper chamber on Capitol Hill. There are 100 Senators, two from each state, and Republicans currently hold a razor thin majority with 51 seats. The US Senate writes and passes laws but has a number of other powers and responsibilities, from ratifying treaties with other countries to overseeing investigations of officials and public bodies. Senators have six-year terms and just 35 seats are up for re-election. Most of these are currently held by Democrats, making it hard for them to make gains. The president's party could increase their hold of the Senate, since 10 of the Democratic seats are in states carried by Donald Trump in 2016 - five of which he won by double digits. Mr Trump has begun an intensive campaign tour designed to make the midterms a referendum on his presidency in the hope of maintaining swing seats. While the US economy is booming, Mr Trump's approval rating is hovering around 40 per cent - a worrying sign for Republicans. The Democrats are holding out hope that a "blue wave" of supporters energised by opposition to the Trump presidency can lead to a string of unexpected victories. The powers and responsibilities of the US Senate The Senate chamber during a vote Credit: Senate TV The Senate and the House of Representatives are considered equal but different partners in the legislative branch of government. Their most important power is the authority to make laws. They also share the ability to declare war, raise an army and establish rules of immigration and naturalisation, among others. Each also has unique responsibilities. In the case of the Senate, these include confirming by majority vote the appointment of federal judges, ambassadors and Cabinet posts and approving (by a two thirds vote) treaties with other nations. And while it is the House that votes to impeach an elected official, it is the Senate where the hearing is conducted. A two-thirds majority is needed for conviction and removal from office. Story continues Why a Senate term is longer than in the House Donald Trump on the campaign trail in Missouri Credit: Neeta Satam/Bloomberg Congress was established in article one of the US constitution, part of the great American experiment as the nations founding fathers tried to build a country and democracy almost from scratch. It set up a bicameral structure with states electing representatives proportionate to population to a lower house plus two senators regardless of size to the upper chamber, (protecting the interests of smaller states). Representatives serve two-year terms and face re-election every two years. The short span and frequent elections are meant to keep them closely aligned with public will. However, the founders also feared mob rule and structured the Senate as an antidote. Its longer, six-year terms are designed to isolate members from short-lived whims and create a more contemplative atmosphere. What would losing the Senate mean for Donald Trump? A Democratic controlled House and Senate could launch impeachment hearings - but it would still require bipartisan support to pass, which is extremely unlikely. A more pressing problem for Mr Trump would be the ability to have his judicial nominees approved, which is done by a vote of the full Senate. The importance of that has been proved by the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The Senate voted 50 to 48 for him to be approved - the tightest of margins. One major talking point in these midterm elections is the 'I' word - impeachment. It is the House of Representatives that launches articles of impeachment, but any trial would be held in the Senate and its outcome voted on by its members. Donald Trump has put himself front and centre of the Republican campaign in the midterms Credit: AP Republicans have been eager to bring up impeachment on the campaign trail - arguing a Democrat-controlled Congress would attempt to impeach Mr Trump. Democratic leaders have largely played down the claims, aware that there is little public appetite for it. However a handful of prominent Democrats, including Maxine Waters, have suggested the president should be impeached. Mr Trump has brought it up himself on his campaign tour, telling supporters at a rally it will be "your fault" if he gets impeached. "You didn't go out to vote - that's the only way it could happen," the president said during a rally in Montana. "I'll be the only President in history they'll say: 'What a job he's done! By the way, we're impeaching him'. "This election, you aren't just voting for a candidate, you are voting for which party controls Congress," he said. Seats to watch Nevada Senator Dean Heller's election fight is an interesting one to watch. He is the only Republican senator up for re-election in a state that Hillary Clinton won in 2016. Mr Trump has travelled to Nevada to support Mr Heller's re-election campaign Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images Senator Heller's Democratic opponent, Congresswoman Jacky Rosen, has support from anti-Trump female voters. She is also hoping Nevada's growing Hispanic population will help her to victory in November. However she faces an uphill battle in encouraging voter turnout, and Republicans are relying on white rural voters to come out to support Mr Heller. North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp, who is facing re-election in a state Mr Trump won by nearly 40 points in 2016, is considered the most endangered Democrat in the Senate. Democrat Heidi Heitkamp's seat is the Republican's top target Credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg Ms Heitkamp faces pressure from conservative voters after voting against Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination, a move she admitted was not a "smart political vote". However, Democrat donors have injected around $13 million into her campaign since her no vote. Her opponent, Kevin Crammer, has the backing of the president. Mr Trump headlined a fundraiser for the Republican in early September which brought in more than $1 million in donations to his campaign. Florida The race between Democratic Senator Bill Nelson and his Republican challenger Rick Scott is one of the most expensive of the year. Mr Scott, Florida's governor, has challenged Mr Nelson's record in Washington and distanced himself from the president so as not to lose out on Puerto Rican voters. Florida Governor Rick Scott is now running for the US Senate Credit: AFP Republicans see the seat as one of their most promising chances of picking up an extra Senate seat and have spent heavily in the race. Polls show the two almost neck and neck - an interesting race to tune into on election night. Texas Despite being a presidential candidate in 2016, Republican Senator Ted Cruz is now fighting for his political life in Texas. His Democratic challenger - Bete O'Rourke - has brought Mr Cruz's lead in the deeply red state down to single digits, shocking political pundits. Beto O'Rourke has brought Republican senator Ted Cruz's majority down to single digits Credit: Reuters Mr Trump has overcome his previous animosity with the Senator to lend his support to his campaign. Donald Jnr has already been deployed to campaign for Mr Cruz and the president himself made an appearance late in October in a bid to bolster support. Mr O'Rourke, a 45-year-old congressman, has campaigned on a platform of inclusion and optimism, particularly on issues such as immigration. It is a message that chimes with the state's growing Hispanic population, which currently stands at 39 per cent. Pollsters still predict a Cruz victory but Mr O'Rourke's popularity and upbeat campaign rallies have left Republican operatives deeply troubled. Losing a Republican seat in Texas would be a big political upset. Juba (AFP) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has been appointed to mediate peace talks between Khartoum and rebels in the Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur conflict zones. Tut Kew, Kiir's security advisor, told journalists on Monday that the president had agreed "to mediate between the Khartoum government and the armed opposition in Sudan." South Sudan achieved independence from Sudan in 2011, but the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan -- which both have large ethnic minority populations who fought alongside the south -- were left north of the border. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), which had been part of Kiir's SPLM, launched an insurgency against Khartoum in the two states that same year. Juba and Khartoum have traded allegations of supporting each other's rebels on their territory, charges which both countries deny. Successive rounds of peace talks between Khartoum and the rebels have ended without a deal. The SPLM-N also has a loose alliance with rebels in Darfur, who have waged an older conflict since 2003 which the UN estimates has killed 300,000 people and displaced more than 2.5 million. Sudanese officials say the conflict in Darfur has ended, but with media access restricted, reports of fighting there cannot be independently verified. Kew said Kiir's mediation will involve all rebel groups fighting Khartoum, including those in Blue Nile, Southern Kordofan and Darfur, which all complain of economic and political neglect by President Omar al-Bashir's government. "Next week mediation will start in Juba where the (Sudanese) opposition delegations and government delegations will begin peace talks," he said. The SPLM-N has split into two factions, and one of its leaders, Malik Agar, welcomed the move to "unify the SPLM", through his spokesman Mubarak Ardol. Kiir's mediation comes after Sudan, which is gripped by an economic crisis and is keen to see oil flowing again from South Sudan, has taken an active role in mediating an end to the civil war which broke out in the south in 2013. Kiir and his rival Riek Machar inked a peace deal in September, which led to Machar returning to Juba for the first time since fleeing in a hail of gunfire in 2016 -- albeit for a brief visit -- in the latest bid to end that conflict, which has killed an estimated 380,000 people. The Duke of Cambridge made a joke about his drink containing Jagermeister, rather than rum, at the Submariners Remembrance Service on Sunday. Following the laying of wreaths, Prince William joined the Toast to Absent Friends, with a swig from a hip flask. During the reception in Middle Temple Hall, the 36-year-old royal appeared to suggest that his flask had been tampered with. When asked if he had bought one along, the prince said: Ill never be asked twice about drinking, its very important. They tried to put a Jagerbomb in it! Imagine my surprise; burnt my throat! The Duke of Cambridge drinks from a hipflask during the Submariners Remembrance Service and Parade, at Middle Temple, London (PA) He recounted the story again later, saying: They tried to put Jagerbomb instead of rum that would have sorted me out was expecting rum and got a Jagerbomb. This service and parade is held each year to honour submariners of all generations who have Crossed the Bar in service to their country. The Duke is Commodore-in-Chief of the Submarine Service and paid his respects to fallen servicemen at the service. The Duke of Cambridge lays a wreath during the Submariners Remembrance Service and Parade (PA) The annual ceremony, which is held every year a week before Remembrance Sunday, was first held in 1923 after the National Submarine Memorial was unveiled on the nearby Victoria Embankment in 1922. Williams brother, the Duke of Sussex will visit the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey on Thursday 8 November. The Queen and other members of the Royal Family will attend the annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall and the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph, the following day. 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: How Prince William and Prince Harry will fit into Charles plans for the new modern monarchy Prince Charles on climate change: I dont really see any value in saying, I told you so Prince Williams furious phone call to Princess Diana: Ill never forgive you The image we have of John Elway, general manager, is painted by his playing days and first few years on the job. Hes usually described as endlessly competitive, like he was as a player, and impatient, which he was early on as Denver Broncos general manager as he built a Super Bowl champion with plenty of free-agent moves. ROME (AP) Storm-related floods killed at least 12 people in Sicily, Italian authorities said Sunday, including nine members of two families who were spending a long weekend together when water and mud from a swollen river overran their rented villa. After surveying the stricken Mediterranean island by helicopter, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte identified two more of the victims as a German couple whose car was swept away by flood waters near Agrigento, a tourist town known for its ancient Greek temples. Italian news reports said a 1-year--old, a 3-year-old and a teenager were among the flood victims from the family get-together in Casteldaccia. A survivor, Giuseppe Giordano, lost his wife, two of his children, his parents and a brother, Italian news agency ANSA said. State broadcaster RaiNews24 said Giordano was stepping outside on Saturday night when the torrent rushed in and described him as the sole person to made it out alive. When he opened the door, "there was a river of water, I was knocked down and grabbed hold of a tree," Giordano told reporters between sobs. "I was yelling, 'Help, help.'" "My son Federico tried to save his little sister, but both died," Giordano said, telling reporters he heard his son call out "I handle" about the girl's rescue. Then "I saw the windows go dark, the light go out, a layer of mud was moving across the floor," Giordano said, Then, he said he was swept away from the house by the force of the water. The two families had gathered in the villa during Italy's long weekend centering on the Nov. 1 All Saint's Day national holiday. Although Italian news reports originally described him of the house's owner, Giordano said he was renting the villa. Casteldaccia Mayor Giovanni Di Giacinto told Sky TG24 that the flood water reached 2 meters (move than 6 feet) high inside the home. Rescuers retrieved the bodies from the home. A Sicilian prosecutor opened an investigation to determine if neglect, such as possible inadequate drainage of the river, played a role in the deaths or if the home was built illegally close to the river. Story continues The latter might be the case. Pino Virga, the mayor of the neighboring town of Altavilla Milicia, told SkyTG24 TV that other local authorities told him the house was slated for demolition because it stood too near the river. Separately, Di Giacinto told reporters the homeowner had blocked the demolition by challenging it in a local tribunal. A nursing home up the road was spared any damage, ANSA reported. Only days earlier, other storms battered much of northern Italy, killing at least 15 people, uprooting millions of trees near Alpine valleys and leaving several Italian villages without electricity or road access for days. Conte said a special Cabinet meeting could be in the coming days to deliberate aid for storm-ravaged communities, as well as to approve 1 billion euros ($1.15 billion) to ensure safe hydrogeological conditions in Italy, including proper cleaning of riverbeds. The other known casualty in Sicily was a man whose body was also found on a guardrail along a Palermo-area road after floodwaters swept away his car, Italian news reports said. Across the island, in the town of Cammarata, near Agrigento, the fire department said its divers worked to recover the bodies of the couple whose car was caught up in the flooding waters of the Saraceno River. Also in Agrigento province, firefighters rescued 14 people from a hotel in the town of Montevago, which was threatened by floodwaters from the Belice River. Elsewhere in Sicily, at least two other people were missing Sunday after floodwaters swept away their cars, including a doctor heading to the hospital in the hill town of Corleone. In Casteldaccia, Maria Concetta Alfano said she, her husband and their adult disabled daughter fled after barking dogs drew their attention to the rising waters in the Milicia River. ANSA quoted the husband, Andrea Cardenale, as saying he drove away as "water was up to the hood of the car." ___ Frances D'Emilio is on twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio. Robert Pattinson nearly punched a director Robert Pattinson seems like one of the most chill guys in Hollywood but even he has his limits. The actor admitted as much during an interview with Willem Dafoe for Interview magazine, in which he recalled the time he nearly hit a director. The director in question was Robert Eggers who directed both Pattinson and Dafoe in upcoming drama The Lighthouse about an aging lighthouse keeper named Old (Dafoe) who lives in early 20th-century Maine. Dafoe recalled a particular aspect of the production where they were both being constantly sprayed with water. Thats the closest Ive come to punching a director, Pattinson responded. However much I love Robert [Eggers], there was a point where I did five takes walking across the beach, and after a while I was like, What the f**k is going on? I feel like youre just spraying a fire hose in my face. Robert Eggers put Robert Pattinson through the mill on The Lighthouse set And he was like, I am spraying a fire hose in your face,' he added. It was like some kind of torture. Eggers famously wrote and directed the critically-acclaimed horror The Witch (starring Anya Taylor-Joy) and The Lighthouse is his sophomore feature. The script was co-written with his brother Max Eggers and shot in April, on location in Nova Scotia, Canada, on black and white 35 mm film. Its set in 1890, and were shooting on 35mm black and white stock, virtually unheard of nowadays, said the films editor Louise Ford. Most black and white movies are shot in colour, and then converted to black and white in post. The dailies look beautiful; its very exciting. High Life is Pattinsons next film to be released High Life is the next film Pattinson can be seen in, from French director Claire Denis and co-starring Andre Benjamin, Mia Goth and Juliette Binoche. The sci-fi thriller follows criminals sent to space to work, in a bid to reduce their sentences, only to suffer terrible consequences during their trip. Its the first time Denis has made an English language film and it has earned rave reviews since it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. High Life will be released in 2019. READ MORE Rebel Wilson accused of blocking critics of colour Pamela Anderson says #MeToo is too much Claire Foy has sex scenes cut from Dragon Tattoo movie United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Russia and China on Monday refused to back a UN resolution that will allow the Security Council to slap sanctions on perpetrators of rape and sexual violence in Libya. The British-drafted resolution renewing sanctions on Libya was adopted by a vote of 13 in favor in the 15-member council. Russia and China abstained but did not use their veto power to block the measure that expanded the criteria for applying sanctions to include gender-based violence. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the Netherlands and Sweden, which pushed for the new sanctions criteria, of trying to score political points at home. "This is populism distilled in its purest form," Nebenzia told the council, who noted that preventing sex crimes in Sweden and the Netherlands "is the remit of the national governments." "Sexual and gender-based violence are part of crime in any specific country," said the ambassador, adding that the council should focus on threats to international security. The council has added sexual violence as a criteria for sanctions in recent resolutions on the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Swedish Deputy Ambassador Carl Skau said he hoped that adding the new sanctions criteria will have a "deterrent effect and that there will be accountability for such crimes." Dutch Ambassador Karel van Oosterom said it was "an important step forward" for the UN council to slap sanctions on perpetrators of sexual violence "for instance in the refugee camps that rape women refugees." UN officials have warned that militia members, migrant smugglers and criminal gangs often resort to rape in Libya, which has descended into chaos since the ouster of Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. The council in June for the first time imposed sanctions on six individuals linked to Libyan migrant trafficking networks. Aden (AFP) - Saudi Arabia and its allies said Monday they are committed to de-escalating hostilities in Yemen, only days after launching a renewed offensive on a port crucial for humanitarian aid. "The coalition is committed to de-escalating hostilities in Yemen and is strongly supportive of the UN envoy's political process," a source in the Saudi-led coalition told AFP on condition of anonymity. Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the conflict in 2015, aiming to bolster the standing of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi as he fought an insurgency by the Shiite Huthis from northern Yemen. On Thursday, the Saudi-led alliance restarted its military campaign to capture Hodeida, the rebel-held Red Sea city that is home to a strategic port. It had suspended the offensive ahead of UN efforts to hold peace talks in Geneva that eventually collapsed in September. The UN-sponsored process fell apart after the rebels refused to travel to the Swiss city unless the United Nations guaranteed both their delegation's safe return to Sanaa and the evacuation of wounded fighters. The UN envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, now hopes to schedule talks between the government and the Huthis this month. Government coalition warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes on Sunday to support pro-government forces in fighting that appears to be edging further into Hodeida, approaching the city's main university. - Dozens dead - Dozens of rebels and soldiers were killed in battles and the raids, according to sources in hospitals across the areas. The source in the Saudi-led coalition said the current clashes were not "offensive operations", adding that the alliance was "committed to keeping the Hodeida port open". "If the Huthis fail to show up for peace talks again, this might lead (us) to restart the offensive operation in Hodeida," the source said. "The humanitarian situation in Yemen is unacceptable. We are committed to ending the conflict as soon as possible. Story continues "If the Huthis show up, we will continue our humanitarian efforts," he said. "If they don't, we will also continue those efforts." The UN children's fund, UNICEF, on Sunday warned an assault on Hodeida city would jeopardise the lives of Yemenis across the country who depend on its port for humanitarian aid. The World Health Organization estimates nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the Saudi-led camp joined the war in 2015. Human rights groups say the toll could be five times higher. Fourteen million people now stand at the brink of famine in Yemen, which the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Jamal Khashoggi's sons are appealing for his body to be found - AP Members of a Saudi team sent to Turkey to help investigate the murder of Jamal Khashoggi instead worked to cover up evidence of the Washington Post columnists death, Turkish officials said Monday. The officials alleged that senior Saudi leaders sent a chemist and a toxicologist to Istanbul with the task of cleaning the scene of the Saudi Arabian consulate before Turkish detectives could investigate. "We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of Jamal Khashoggi's murder before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises," a senior Turkish official said. If the Turkish allegations is confirmed, it raises questions over whether the Saudi leadership was secretly authorising a cover up at a time when it was still publicly insisting that Mr Khashoggi had walked out of the consulate alive. Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to the latest allegation. Jamal Khashoggi's sons are appealing for his body to be found Credit: AP Photo/Hasan Jamali, File Meanwhile, Mr Khashoggis two adult sons spoke publicly for the first time since their fathers death and appealed for his body to be found so that it could be buried in the family plot in Medina, the second holiest city in the Islamic faith. "All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi [cemetery] in Medina with the rest of his family," Salah Khashoggi told CNN. "I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon. Mr Khashoggis body has still not been found, and Turkish officials have expressed disbelief at Saudi claims that they do not know where it is. Salah Khashoggi was summoned to the royal palace in Saudi Arabia where he met with King Salman and Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince who is alleged to have ordered his fathers death. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, shakes hands with Salah Khashoggi Credit: Saudi Press Agency via AP The younger Mr Khashoggi said he had faith in the kings promise to find everyone responsible for killing his father. "The king has stressed that everybody involved will be brought to justice. And I have faith in that. This will happen. Otherwise Saudi wouldn't have started an internal investigation," he said. Story continues Saudi Arabia claims that Mr Khashoggis death was a rogue operation and was not authorised by Crown Prince Mohammed or other senior Saudi figures. A Saudi delegate told a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday that the kingdom was committed to reaching all facts and bringing all the perpetrators to justice. News of the alleged Saudi cover up effort was first reported in the Daily Sabah, a pro-government Turkish newspaper to which Turkish officials have often leaked details of their investigation. Turkish officials later confirmed the report to Western media. They identified the two men as Ahmed Abdulaziz Al-Janobi, a chemist, and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani, a toxicology expert. The officials allegedly cleaned the scene at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul Credit: OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images The two men were part of a Saudi team which arrived in Istanbul on October 11, nine days after Mr Khashoggi was murdered on October 2. The team was officially sent to Istanbul as part of a joint investigation but Turkish officials claimed that at least two members of the team were secretly working to sabotage the search for the truth. The two men allegedly visited the consulate every day from October 11 until October 17 to destroy evidence. Turkish police were only allowed inside the consulate on October 15. Saudi Arabia did not admit that Mr Khashoggi had been killed until October 20. Prior to that the kingdom maintained that he had safely left the consulate. If the Turkish allegations are true, it would appear that Saudi officials were secretly covering up evidence of a murder while publicly insisting that Mr Khashoggi had not been harmed inside the consulate. By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia told the United Nations on Monday it would prosecute those responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its Istanbul consulate, as Western states pressed it for a credible investigation. Bandar Al Aiban, the head of the Saudi government delegation at the first U.N. review of the kingdom's record in five years, heard calls from more than 40 nations, including the United States, for a thorough inquiry and a string of rights reforms. He told the hearing that King Salman had instructed the Saudi public prosecutor to "proceed with the investigation into this case according to the applicable laws" with a view to establishing the facts and "bringing all the perpetrators to justice". "As regards the passing of citizen Khashoggi, our country is committed to carrying out a fair investigation and all persons involved with that crime will be prosecuted in the justice system," Aiban said at the end of the half-day session. Aiban gave no details on the status or whereabouts of the 18 Saudi nationals detained in connection with the case and repeatedly declined to answer journalists' questions about them, saying: "The case is still under investigation, as you know...I think my statement was very clear." Khashoggi's sons on Monday demanded the return of the body of the Washington Post columnist and critic of the Saudi government, who disappeared at the consulate on Oct. 2. Saudi officials initially insisted Khashoggi had left the consulate, then said he died in an unplanned "rogue operation". The kingdom's public prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb later said he was killed in a premeditated attack. "We condemn this premeditated killing," U.S. charge d'affaires Mark Cassayre told the Geneva talks. "A thorough, conclusive and transparent investigation carried out in accordance with due process with results made public is essential," he said. "ARBITRARY ARRESTS" Many Western delegations called on Riyadh to abolish the death penalty and the system of male guardianship over women, and to narrow the definition of "terrorism" in law so that peaceful critics are not prosecuted. France's ambassador Francois Rivasseau called on Saudi Arabia to "immediate halt imprisonment and arbitrary arrests" of journalists and activists, and to guarantee freedom of religion. The Saudi delegation is due to report back on Friday on which recommendations from states it has accepted. Aiban, who is president of the official Human Rights Commission of Saudi Arabia, said the kingdom was constantly striving to promote and protect human rights "driven by the honorable principles and provisions of Islamic sharia and the traditional values of our society." Freedom of opinion and expression were guaranteed, but was limited by laws that protect the rights of others as well as the "prerequisites of national security and public order", he said. Women had seen a series of reforms over the last five years, Aiban added. Women were allowed to vote and stand as candidates in municipal councils and driving licenses have been issued to women since June. No Arab country raised the Khashoggi case. Egypt's ambassador Alaa Youssef praised Saudi Arabia's efforts to confront terrorism and radicalism, while Kuwait welcomed its creation of training centers for judges. (Editing by Andrew Heavens) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an international businessman from the kingdom, said on Sunday that an official investigation into the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi will exonerate the country's leader. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the Saudi government and its de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in early October. Saudi Arabia should publicly release the findings of the murder investigation which would surely exonerate Saudi Arabia's leader, Prince Alwaleed said on Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures." "I ask Saudi Arabia now publicly, through your program, to have the investigation made public as soon as possible," he said. "I believe the Saudi crown prince will be 100 percent vindicated and exonerated." Prince Alwaleed was detained last year with dozens of other wealthy Saudis in a move by the crown prince to consolidate power and reform the country. On Sunday, Prince Alwaleed said his detention was "forgiven and forgotten." The crown prince's allies have said last year's crackdown was a fight against corruption and Prince Alwaleed agreed. "Thank God that, after this incident, many of those that were detained had a big cleaning process," he said. Prince Alwaleed was freed from Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton Hotel along with other royals, senior officials and businessmen, most of whom reached financial settlements with the authorities. Prince Alwaleed denied reports that he had been tortured in custody and that officials stripped him of his wealth. (Reporting by Patrick Rucker; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Lisa Shumaker and Susan Thomas) Geneva (AFP) - Saudi Arabia insisted at the UN Monday that its investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi would be "fair", amid a barrage of criticism from countries over the brutal murder. The half-day public debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva comes just over a month after the royal insider-turned-critic was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkey confirmed last week that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate on October 2 as part of a planned hit, and his body was then dismembered and destroyed. The so-called Universal Periodic Review -- which all 193 UN countries must undergo approximately every four years -- came as a Turkish official charged Monday that Saudi Arabia had sent experts to Turkey to cover up the journalist's murder before allowing Turkish police in to search the consulate. The murder has placed huge strains on Saudi Arabia's relationship with the United States and other western countries and has tarnished the image of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler. During Monday's review, Western countries especially voiced outrage at the killing, with many calling for a "credible" and "transparent" investigation, and some, like Iceland and Costa Rica, going further and demanding an international probe. - 'Gravely concerned' - British Ambassador Julien Braithwaite told the council his country was "gravely concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in Saudi Arabia," pointing to women's rights, mass arrests of rights defenders and extensive use of the death penalty. "But most concerning is the murder of Jamal Khashoggi," he said, urging Saudi Arabia to "ensure comprehensive and transparent investigations into the murder" and to make sure "those responsible are held to account, and that measures are put in place to prevent any possibility of recurrence." Story continues The US representative, Mark Cassayre, meanwhile said his country strongly condemned "this premeditated killing." "A thorough, conclusive and transparent investigation carried out in accordance with due process with results made public is essential," he insisted. The Saudi delegation meanwhile barely mentioned the case, choosing instead to highlight the "progress made towards the protection and promotion of human rights", including reforms that among other things have allowed women to drive in the ultra-conservative country. But the delegation chief and head of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, Bandar Al Aiban, did touch on the case briefly, stressing at the end of the review that "our country is committed to carry out a fair investigation." "All persons involved in that crime will be prosecuted," he said, stressing that "the investigation is continuing in line with our domestic laws." Diplomats urged Saudi Arabia Monday to take concrete steps to promote freedom of expression and protect human rights defenders and journalists. - Death penalty - The review also focused heavily on the use of the death penalty in the country, especially for alleged crimes committed when the perpetrator was under the age of 18. The kingdom has one of the world's highest rates of execution, with suspects convicted of terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking facing the death penalty. Many countries urged Saudi Arabia to introduce a moratorium on the death penalty or to abolish it altogether, and to explicitly ban its use for juvenile offenders. Women's rights were also high on the agenda. While many countries hailed some progress in this area, including the fact that the country now permits women to drive, they warned that much more reform was needed. The country especially faced criticism over its male guardianship system which allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives. Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's brutal civil war also faced criticism, with a number of countries urging it to halt the devastating bombing campaign there. The Saudi delegation meanwhile highlighted that it has provided more than $11 billion in aid to Yemen since it and its allies intervened in the war in 2015 to bolster Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Huthi rebels took over the capital Sanaa. According to the UN, nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has also created the world's biggest humanitarian crisis and left millions of people on the brink of famine. Scenes from the Texas Senate race Houston (Photo: Holly Bailey/Yahoo News) When Beto ORourke announced his long-shot bid to unseat Texas Sen. Ted Cruz well over a year ago, no one would have predicted the race would emerge as one of the most closely watched elections in the country. But with Election Day now in sight, polls suggest Cruz, the one-term junior senator who hails from Houston, is locked in a dead heat with ORourke, a little-known congressman from El Paso whose unlikely bid to be the first Democrat elected statewide in Texas since 1994 has been fueled by massive crowds, intense national media attention and record-breaking fundraising. In theory, the race is still Cruzs to lose. Texas is a deeply red state that has moved further and further to the right since George W. Bush defeated Ann Richards, the sitting Democratic governor, in a stunning upset that put Republicans firmly in control of the Lone Star State 24 years ago. But what has given ORourke an opening in 2018 isnt just the changing demographics of the state including the growing number of Latinos (who are expected to outnumber whites in the state by 2020) or even the influx of residents from states such as California and New York who, moving to Texas for affordable homes and good jobs, have introduced more liberal views into the voting electorate. ORourke introduced his candidacy at a moment when Texas has become a microcosm of the political tensions that have divided the rest of the country; among them are the battle over the border, the disconnect between urban and rural voters, and the sense of many people that politics has been reduced to unending partisan combat driven by extreme ideology that is not reflective of the voting electorate. ORourke has sought to win over Republicans who are angry about the direction of the country, and to activate people he describes as nonvoters in a state where many eligible voters do not turn out to the polls. In a place where most statewide elections are battled out and decided in the big cities, ORourke has fought to expand the map making a point of visiting all of Texass 254 counties, including deeply rural towns where residents rarely met politicians who werent local and often didnt vote in state races. That was not an easy undertaking in the second-largest state in the country, where it can take more than 11 hours to drive from one end to the other. Story continues In recent months, as the race tightened, Cruz followed traveling through towns like Longview, Amarillo and Wichita Falls, seeking to shore up his base in strongly Republican areas where ORourke has attracted large crowds. The senator, who was elected in 2012 as part of the so-called Tea Party revolution, sought to win back Republicans, some of whom were angered that he began seeking the 2016 presidential nomination almost as soon as he was elected. In a race where there are stark contrasts on issues such as immigration and health care, Cruz and ORourke agree on one thing: The election, both have said, is a battle for Texass future. Photography by Holly Bailey/Yahoo News _____ See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr. Tokyo (AFP) - The head of Japanese firm SoftBank on Monday condemned the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but indicated he would continue to do business with Saudi Arabia. The hotly awaited comments by Masayoshi Son, whose conglomerate has close ties to the kingdom, threatened to overshadow the firm's results, which saw an eight-fold jump in net profits. Under the tycoon Son, SoftBank -- originally a software giant -- has increasingly become an investment firm, ploughing funds into a broad range of companies and projects outside its core business. Using the SoftBank Vision Fund, worth an estimated $100 billion, Son has taken stakes in some of the hottest firms in the tech sector, including Uber, Slack, WeWork and Nvidia. Nearly half of the money in the fund comes from Saudi Arabia and there has been a pledge of another $45 billion this year. Son said SoftBank was "deeply saddened" by the news of Khashoggi's murder, which he condemned as "a horrific and deeply regrettable act". However, he added: "As horrible as this event was, we cannot turn our backs on the Saudi people as we work to help them in their continued efforts to reform and modernise their society." Son confirmed he boycotted a high-profile Saudi investment forum last month along with dozens of global business titans after reports emerged that Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. And he said he had sought explanations from senior Saudi officials over the killing, stressing: "We want to see those responsible held accountable." He said he had raised his concerns about the killing with Saudi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, among others. "I felt they received them sincerely," he said. Asked if the prince provided any hint of his involvement, Son said: "No, of course not." - Profitable investments - Despite the condemnation, Son said the firm took seriously its "obligation" to help the Saudi people "manage their financial resources and diversify their economy". Story continues The company's ties with the Middle Eastern kingdom have come into sharp relief with the Khashoggi scandal, and SoftBank shares dropped sharply when the news broke. There has been speculation about whether the incident could damage the relationship, and Son said it was too early to say whether he would pursue a second round of Saudi funding. "I want to think carefully again after they ascertain the truth and explain," he said. After a long period of silence, Son wasted no time tackling the subject, addressing the issue at the start of a news conference to present the company's results. SoftBank logged an eight-fold jump in net profit in the six months to September -- thanks mainly to strong returns from its investment funds. Net profit rose to 840 billion yen ($7.4 billion) from 103 billion yen during the same period last year. The rise was largely driven by gains of 649 billion yen from the SoftBank Vision Fund, which compared with 194 billion yen in the previous period. Operating profit shot up 62 percent to 1.42 trillion yen on revenue of 4.65 trillion yen, up 5.5 percent. SoftBank has also made high-profile investments in the autonomous vehicles sector, announcing last month a tie-up with car giant Toyota for "new mobility services" such as meal deliveries. Earlier this year, General Motors said the Japanese firm was investing $2.25 billion in GM's autonomous car programme in exchange for a stake in the venture. Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse rallied tens of thousands of supporters in a show of strength Monday even as the parliament's speaker refused to recognise his controversial appointment as prime minister. Busloads of men and women from around the country descended on the capital as Rajapakse thanked President Maithriapala Sirisena for sacking Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointing him in his place. The move on October 26 triggered an unprecedented constitutional crisis, plunging the island into political turmoil. "We have united to work for the people," Rajapakse said, referring to their previous rivalry when Sirisena defeated him for the presidency in 2015. Sirisena was supported by Wickremesinghe three years ago but the two men have gradually drifted apart, leading to Wickremesinghe's shock sacking last month. Sirisena has suspended parliament, allowing Rajapakse time to tempt defectors from other parties and prove his majority. But parliament's speaker Karu Jayasuriya warned Monday the president's actions were illegal and he would not recognise Rajapakse as prime minister. "Until the new faction (of Rajapakse) is able to prove a majority in parliament, I will recognise the situation that prevailed prior to October 26," Jayasuriya said in his strongest statement yet on the crisis. Former strongman Rajapakse remains a popular but polarising figure in Sri Lanka. In 2009 his iron-fisted rule ended a long and bloody civil war that claimed 100,000 lives. His decade in power was also marred by serious allegations of rights abuses, corruption, forced disappearances and the persecution of the island's sizeable Tamil minority. During Monday's rally Rajapakse urged smaller parties, which have emerged as kingmakers, to support him over Wickremesinghe. Minority Tamils and a small leftist group have indicated that they will oppose Rajapakse, however. Sirisena's suspension has prevented Wickremesinghe from proving his majority on the floor of the house. Story continues "I have to agree with the majority of parliament who believe that the president's actions are undemocratic, unconstitutional and against all norms of parliamentary procedure," Jayasuriya, who holds a neutral position in parliament, said Monday. - Severe violations - Sirisena announced on Sunday that parliament would reconvene on November 14, a week later than he had promised, prolonging the power struggle that has crippled the country. Addressing his first public rally with Rajapakse since triggering the crisis, Sirisena vowed not to retreat from his hardline position. "I will not take a step back, I will keep moving forward," he said, telling opponents to accept his decision. Sirisena has pressed ahead with forming a new government, naming an ally to a senior leadership post in parliament, despite opposition. "Assumed the Office of Leader of the House in Sri Lanka parliament," Dinesh Gunawardena said on Twitter on Monday. Rajapakse has also already assumed duties as Finance Minister, announcing last week a slew of tax concessions and price cuts in a move seen as a sop to voters. The Rajapakse family still wields enormous power and influence in Sri Lanka, despite members and close officials being accused of siphoning off billions of dollars before his ouster in 2015. But powerful forces oppose his appointment, suggesting his grip on power could be tenuous and the rift between the rivals could widen. Most Colombo-based diplomats have studiously avoided meeting Rajapakse until the leadership battle is resolved. Last week, Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya joined the speaker in refusing to endorse Sirisena's sacking of Wickremesinghe for Rajapakse. Nairobi (AFP) - Tanzania says that a plan to hunt down and arrest suspected homosexuals in the country's economic capital was not official policy, distancing itself from a citywide crackdown slammed by rights groups. Dar es Salaam's powerful governor, Paul Makonda, urged citizens last Monday to begin reporting homosexuals for round-ups in a country where anti-gay rhetoric has soared in recent years. "The government of the United Republic of Tanzania would like to clarify that these are (Makonda's) personal views and not the position of the government," the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement released Sunday evening. It added that the government would "continue to respect all international human rights conventions which it subscribes to". A fervent Christian and loyal ally of President John Magufuli, Makonda had said homosexual behaviour "tramples on the moral values of Tanzanians and our two Christian and Muslim religions". His remarks drew strong criticism including from Amnesty International and the United Nations. Under British colonial-era laws, homosexuality is illegal in Tanzania and same-sex acts between men are punishable by a maximum life sentence. Anti-gay sentiment has increased since Magufuli's 2015 election, forcing most gays, lesbians and other sexual minorities to live in secrecy. Last year, the president said that everybody should condemn homosexuality, "even cows" and soon after his government threatened to arrest or deport gay rights activists. Three South Africans were subsequently expelled for allegedly advocating for same-sex marriage. AIDS clinics have also been shut down under Magufuli, accused of "promoting" homosexuality, while he has encouraged women to abandon birth control and have more babies. On Saturday, the European Union said it had recalled its chief representative to Brussels for discussions, following reports he had been asked to leave by the government. CNNs Don Lemon called out the elementary school teachers in Idaho who donned Mexican clothes and also pretended to be President Donald Trumps proposed southern border wall this Halloween. The CNN Tonight host was at a temporary loss for words Friday night when fellow anchor Chris Cuomo asked him to explain why the costumes had crossed the line. I dont know what to say. Its a sign of the times, said Lemon, who claimed the outfits worn by the Middleton School District educators were overtly and blatantly political. Another day, another racist costume. This is from Middletown School District in Idaho. Please call (208) 585-3027 to say 1) racism is unacceptable 2) they are creating and promoting a hostile learning environment to children 3) what is their plan to make it right? pic.twitter.com/DqUwvP3ROL unholy heidi (@heidiheilig) November 2, 2018 The districts superintendent has since apologized for the clearly insensitive and inappropriate stunt. But Lemon asked, What is the wall meant to do? Meant to keep out a certain group of people from coming into the country. If youre educated you should know better, he added. Check out the clip here: Related Coverage Donald Trump Said The GOP Is The 'Party Of All Americans' And Got Savaged Seth Meyers Turns Ted Cruz's Past Words About Birthright Citizenship Against Him Michael Moore Has A Message For The 'Angry White Men' Of America Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. A newlywed couple were killed an hour and a half after tying the knot after the helicopter they left the ceremony in crashed. Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman, both university students, had their fairytale wedding at a ranch in Texas. They departed from the venue, which is owned by a member of the grooms family, by helicopter and the aircraft went down just over a mile away. It is not clear if they were flying to another location or taking a tour of the area. The crash was confirmed by authorities and the wreckage was located by Ulvade Country Sherrifs Office, the San Antonio Express-News reported. Baliee Ackerman and Will Byler were both students at Sam Houston State University: Facebook/Bailee Ackerman The pilot also died in the incident. Many friends and family who attended the event paid tributes to the couple on social media. Jessica Stilley, the brides maid of honour said: My sweet Bailee Raye, my heart is broken in a million little pieces as I sit here and think of the rest of my life without my best friend. These two spent their last day on this earth celebrating with their most cherished loved ones I believe it truly was the best day of their lives Madi Wagner, friend of the couple I'm so sad to even be captioning these pictures with this, but you know I just have to share with everyone how beautiful you looked on your wedding day like I normally would have. Another friend of the couple, Madi Wagner, said: "I am having a hard time comprehending this whole situation, but I have not once asked why. "These two spent their last day on this earth celebrating with their most cherished loved ones I believe it truly was the best day of their lives." Both Mr Byler and Ms Ackerman were students at Sam Houston State University and had grown up together. They were frequently photographed together at rodeo shows. The student newspaper from the university, the Houstonian, paid tribute to the couple. "It is with the deepest sadness that we announce the tragic passing of two Bearkats Will Byler (Agriculture Engineering senior) and Bailee Ackerman Byler (Agricultural Communication senior) in a helicopter accident departing their wedding," the paper wrote. Theresa May is battling to secure a Brexit deal this week (Getty Images) Theresa May will be able to persuade her Cabinet to support her preferred Brexit deal but only after more of her ministers resign, according to a government source. ITVs political editor Robert Peston reports that a government official predicted the Prime Minister would be able to win over her cabinet this week, but not without saying goodbye to some colleagues. Boris Johnson and David Davis both resigned from the cabinet in July in protest against her Brexit strategy. Another government figure speculated that Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab could resign over the issue of the Irish backstop. Mrs May will meet with her cabinet tomorrow to brief ministers on the status of Brexit negotiations, and to persuade them to rally round her solution to the Irish border issue. The EU agreed to a compromise on the backstop agreement to keep the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland last week, signalling they would accept keeping the whole of the UK in a customs union until both sides sign up to a deal that would prevent the need for a hard border. Brexit secretary Dominic Raabs position on the Irish backstop has caused fresh concerns over the chances of a deal (Reuters) But ministers are now insisting that the backstop agreement must contain a mechanism for the UK to terminate the backstop without the agreement of the EU. Mr Raab stoked tensions again by insisting the UK must be able to pull out of the backstop after three months, according to the Daily Telegraph. Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney responded by insisting that the EU would never sign up to a backstop deal that gave the UK the ability to pull out any time it chose. The Irish position remains consistent and v clear that a time-limited backstop or a backstop that could be ended by UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by IRE or EU. These ideas are not backstops at all + dont deliver on previous UK commitments #Brexit pic.twitter.com/y7AQ8V1jMo Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) November 5, 2018 Brexiteers insist that the UK must be able to unilaterally end the backstop to avoid the possibility of the EU keeping Britain bound to its rules forever. The UK cannot negotiate its own trade agreement while it is signed up the the customs union. Story continues Therefore in order to get the current iteration of the backstop through cabinet, the PM must persuade ministers that the EU has no intention to trap the UK in a customs union in perpetuity. Former Brexit minister Steve Baker, a leading member of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Conservatives, told the Today programme that EU withdrawal must mean departure from the customs union in a timely way. Mr Baker said: If we are going to regulate our own economy, if we are going to have our own independent trade policy, if we are going to be a normal independent country which is what I understood the referendum result to have decided then we need to be out of the customs union and we need to get out of the customs union in a timely way. BEIJING (AP) Chinese authorities have begun deploying a new surveillance tool: "gait recognition" software that uses people's body shapes and how they walk to identify them, even when their faces are hidden from cameras. Already used by police on the streets of Beijing and Shanghai, "gait recognition" is part of a push across China to develop artificial-intelligence and data-driven surveillance that is raising concern about how far the technology will go. Huang Yongzhen, the CEO of Watrix, said that its system can identify people from up to 50 meters (165 feet) away, even with their back turned or face covered. WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) A New Zealand fisherman plucked a toddler from the ocean in a "miraculous" rescue after thinking he was watching a doll float past. Gus Hutt was at the beach checking his fishing lines at about 7:15 a.m. on Oct. 26 when he spotted the 18-month-old boy and reached out and grabbed his arm. "Even then, I still thought it was just a doll," he told local newspaper the Whakatane Beacon. "His face looked just like porcelain with his short hair wetted down. But then he let out a little squeak and I thought 'Oh god, this is a baby and it's alive.'" The boy, Malachi Reeve, had escaped from his parent's tent while they were sleeping while the family was camping at Matata Beach on the North Island during the quiet spring season. TOKYO (AP) Turkey's top diplomat has criticized the U.S. resumption of sanctions on Iran as unilateral, not wise and dangerous, calling for a dialogue and engagement instead. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Tokyo for talks with Japanese leaders, told reporters Tuesday that Turkey opposes sanctions because they don't achieve results. He said cornering Iran is not wise, isolating Iran is dangerous and punishing the Iranians is unfair. President Donald Trump's administration's resumption of sanctions on Iran took effect Monday, though eight major importers of Iranian oil, including Turkey and Japan, are spared temporarily from immediate penalties. Cavusoglu also urged Saudi Arabia to fully cooperate in the investigation of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month, demanding the country locate his missing body and hand over suspected collaborators. Story continues YANGON, Myanmar (AP) Myanmar's ruling party led by Aung San Suu Kyi won just over half the seats in by-elections to fill 13 of the 1,171 seats in national, regional and state parliaments, according to complete preliminary results. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy took seven of the 13 seats made vacant by death or resignation. Initial results for 12 races showed it had won six seats, and the delayed result for the 13th race, for a lower house constitutency in western Chin State, gave it its seventh victory. The results for Saturday's polls showed the NLD generally retaining support in the country's heartland, but yielding seats to parties representing ethnic minorities in the areas where they live, mostly in border regions. WASHINGTON (AP) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be traveling to New York on Thursday to meet with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yong Chol. The State Department says the top U.S. envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, will join Pompeo and Kim to discuss efforts toward what it calls "achieving the final, fully verified denuclearization" of North Korea. Over the weekend, North Korea criticized the U.S. for its continued support of sanctions and hinted it may resume nuclear development. Pyongyang accused Washington of derailing commitments made by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump at their June summit in Singapore. KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (AP) A sprawling complex of four theaters billed as the biggest performing arts center in the world has opened in southern Taiwan. The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts houses a 1,981-seat concert hall, a 2,236-seat opera house, a play house and a recital hall under a single roof covering 3.3 hectares (8.2 acres). The opening season offers a range of artistic performances. The debut installation opera "Paradise Interrupted" is an international co-production with New York's Lincoln Center Festival, the Spoleto Festival USA and the Singapore International Festival of Arts. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel, who conducts in Taiwan for the first time, will perform in the venue's vineyard-style concert hall. JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) The "black box" data recorder from a crashed Lion Air jet shows its airspeed indicator malfunctioned on its last four flights, investigators said Monday, just hours after distraught relatives of victims confronted the airline's co-founder at a meeting organized by officials. National Transportation Safety Committee chairman Soerjanto Tjahjono said the problem was similar on each of the four flights, including the fatal flight on Oct. 29 in which the plane plunged into the Java Sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. Erratic speed and altitude on the plane's previous flight, from Denpasar on Bali to Jakarta, were widely reported and "when we opened the black box, yes indeed the technical problem was the airspeed or the speed of the plane," Tjahjono told a news conference. KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The Taliban launched an attack early Monday on a newly established joint Afghan army and police checkpoint in eastern Ghazni province, killing at least 13 soldiers and policemen, according to a provincial official. Afghan reinforcements were subsequently dispatched to the site of the attack in Khogyani district but were repeatedly ambushed along the way. And late on Sunday night, a Taliban attack in southern Kandahar province killed at least four policemen. The assaults came as a resurgent Taliban hold nearly half of Afghanistan, with near-daily attacks on Afghan security forces. The Taliban view the U.S.-backed government in Kabul as a dysfunctional Western puppet and have refused repeated offers to negotiate with it. YANGON, Myanmar (AP) Lawyers for two Reuters journalists sentenced to seven years in prison in Myanmar for possession of official documents are appealing the verdict, the news agency said Monday. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been reporting on a military-led brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority when they were arrested and charged with violating Myanmar's colonial-era Official Secrets Act. They pleaded not guilty, saying they were framed by police. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape what U.N. officials and others charged was ethnic cleansing, or even genocide, by Myanmar security forces. The military denies the accusations. COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans marched Monday in support of a new government led by the country's former strongman, highlighting the political polarization in the Indian Ocean island nation. The rally near Parliament came amid a constitutional crisis sparked by President Maithripala Sirisena's move to oust Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, replace him with ex-leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and suspend Parliament. Wickremesinghe has refused to vacate his official residence, insisting he is the lawful prime minister and that the president had no constitutional right to replace him. Thousands of his supporters have been keeping vigil. Supporters of Rajapaksa at the rally chanted "Whose power is this? Trump administration provides details on sanctions against Iran that snapped back into place on Monday. The measures, suspended in 2016, largely target Iran's oil exports by seeking to block dealings with Iran's banks, as well as its shipping and aviation industries. The administration says China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey will be allowed to continue importing Iranian oil for a limited time. The Trump administration on Monday released a list of sanctions against hundreds of entities throughout Iran's economy, promising to exert more pressure on the nation's regime. "The Iranian regime has a choice, it can either do a 180-degree turn from its outlaw course of action and act like a normal country or it can see its economy crumble," said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a press conference. A new round of punishing sanctions on Iran's energy, banking and shipping sectors went into force overnight on Monday. The list targets more than 700 entities, including individuals, banks, aircraft and vessels. President Donald Trump announced in May he was withdrawing the United States from a 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, which lifted wide-ranging sanctions on the Iranian economy. Trump gave foreign companies 90 to 180 days to wind down their business with Iran. The 180-day period came to a close this week, restoring a heavier slate of sanctions on Iran than a first round that went into effect after the 90-day grace period. The latest round largely targets oil exports from Iran, OPEC's third-largest crude producer. Pompeo announced on Friday that the administration would allow several countries to continue importing Iranian oil beyond its Nov. 4 deadline. On Monday, he revealed those countries include Iran's top two customers, China and India, as well as Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. The waivers will allow the countries to continue reducing their purchases over the coming weeks and months. Story continues Monday's actions designate 50 Iranian banks and their subsidiaries, more than 200 individuals and vessels in Iran's energy and shipping sector and an Iranian airline and its 65 aircraft. "Treasury's imposition of unprecedented financial pressure on Iran should make clear to the Iranian regime that they will face mounting financial isolation and economic stagnation until they fundamentally change their destabilizing behavior," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement. "The maximum pressure exerted by the United States is only going to mount from here. We are intent on making sure the Iranian regime stops siphoning its hard currency reserves into corrupt investments and the hands of terrorists." This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates. More From CNBC Trumps presidency may be at stake if Democrats reclaim the House in the midterm elections and gain ability to thwart his agenda Donald Trump speaks at a rally for the Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp on 4 November. Photograph: John Bazemore/AP Donald Trump delivered his closing argument on Monday, embarking on a three-stop tour of the midwest before the most consequential midterm elections in a generation. Continuing an approach established in recent weeks, the president used campaign rallies, his Twitter account and press interviews to warn of an invasion by a caravan of migrants approaching the southern border, and of the supposed threat posed by leftwing mobs. It was an effort to energize his conservative base in the final days of an election season roiled by fear, division and racial anxiety which reportedly left the House speaker, Paul Ryan, pleading with Trump to focus on the roaring economy instead. According to the website Politico, the president demurred. Trumps presidency may be at stake. If Democrats reclaim the House, as they are favored to do and party leadership has said it expects, they will be empowered to thwart his agenda. If Republicans maintain control of the House as well as the Senate, their expected prize, they could be emboldened to press home Trumps policies. As Barack Obama delivered his own closing arguments against Trump telling Democrats in Virginia the character of this country is on the ballot, who we are is on the ballot the president spent Monday morning tweeting endorsements of Republicans, before moving on to rallies in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri. He also reprised his baseless claim of widespread voter fraud. Law Enforcement has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place in Tuesdays Election (or Early Voting). Anyone caught will be subject to the Maximum Criminal Penalties allowed by law. Thank you! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2018 Law Enforcement has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place in Tuesdays Election (or Early Voting), Trump tweeted. Anyone caught will be subject to the Maximum Criminal Penalties allowed by law. Thank you! Story continues The issue has flared up in Georgia, where the secretary of state, Brian Kemp, who is also the Republican gubernatorial candidate, oversaw a purge of more than half a million voters from the states rolls. Democrats and civil rights groups have called this voter suppression in one of the most closely watched governors races. Kemp has denied the charge. Over the weekend, Kemp announced an unexplained investigation into alleged cybercrime by the Georgia Democratic party. The Democratic candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, said on Monday her opponent had abused his power. If elected, Abrams would be the first non-white, non-male governor of Georgia and the first female African American governor in US history. The justice department announced it would send personnel to 35 jurisdictions in 19 states to monitor compliance with the federal voting rights laws. Across the US, campaigns were making their final pitches amid reports of sky-high enthusiasm and record turnout among early voters. According to new polling from NextGen America, a liberal advocacy group led by the billionaire Tom Steyer, youth turnout in the midterms is expected to surge. Turnout among 18- to 35-year-olds traditionally lags behind other age groups, a gap that grows wider during midterms. But data shared with the Guardian suggested this year may be different. Among such voters in six key states, 37% said they would definitely vote or had already voted. In the 2014 midterms, only 23% voted. The data indicated that such voters lean heavily Democratic, preferring a Democrat to a Republican on a generic ballot by 59% to 33%. Trump has made the midterms a referendum on his presidency. Though he has happily claimed credit for the humming economy and positive employment figures, he has forced immigration, race and nationalism to the fore. At a campaign rally last month, he declared himself a nationalist. On Monday he also returned to another familiar target: the media. In a tweet, Trump appeared to make the argument that public opinion polling, which has consistently forecast a Democratic takeover in the House, was intended to suppress Republican turnout. So funny to see the CNN Fake Suppression Polls and false rhetoric Trump tweeted. Watch for real results Tuesday. We are lucky CNNs ratings are so low. Dont fall for the Suppression Game. Go out & VOTE. Remember, we now have perhaps the greatest Economy (JOBS) in the history of our Country! However, most such polling predicted Trump would lose the presidency to Hillary Clinton in 2016, only for a string of wins in post-industrial, rust belt states to hand him the White House via the electoral college. On Monday, Trump was scheduled to travel back to some such areas. He would fly to Cleveland, to campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine. He was then due in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to campaign for the Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun, who is trying to unseat Democrat Joe Donnelly. Trump was to end the day in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, with a rally for Republican Josh Hawley, the state attorney general who is mounting a strong challenge to the Democratic senator Claire McCaskill. As Trump prepared to leave Washington, the weather turned against him. The president was grounded, forced to travel from the White House to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland by motorcade, instead of flying high on Marine One. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he was unsure if he would meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin during a visit to Paris next week, but he will meet him at the summit of the Group of 20 nations in Argentina at the end of the month. "We haven't set anything up yet. We don't know that that's going to be the right place. I'm going to be in Paris for other reasons. But we will be meeting at the G20," Trump said at Joint Base Andrews before leaving on a campaign trip. "I'm not sure we'll have a meeting in Paris. Probably not." Trump and Putin had planned to hold a bilateral meeting in Paris on Nov. 11 on the sidelines of events to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War One. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA news agency that Putin and Trump were bound to meet, but will not hold "substantive" talks. "That's true that the circumstances have been slightly changed. The multilateral format of events to commemorate the centenary of World War One does not allow the two presidents to have substantive meetings," RIA cited Peskov as saying. He said the two would have "standing talks" in Paris to make a decision on a further formal meeting. Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, said last month the Paris meeting would be brief and more of "a base-touching exercise" during which the two leaders will discuss whether Putin would accept Trump's invitation to come to Washington. On Friday, a Kremlin aide said Putin and Trump would meet for a long session on the sidelines of the Nov. 30-Dec. 1 G20 summit in Argentina. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, editional reporting by Denis Pinchuk in Moscow; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Dan Grebler and Ed Osmond) WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) President Donald Trump attacked Democrats in one corner of Florida on Saturday, while Margaritaville king Jimmy Buffett took musical shots at him and Gov. Rick Scott in another as the state's tight Senate and gubernatorial races reached the final weekend of campaigning. Both sides went to strongholds, with Trump holding a rally in conservative Pensacola with Scott, who is challenging U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, and former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, who is running for governor. He praised both Republicans, called Gillum a "radical socialist" and said Nelson never calls him to push programs that would benefit Florida. Buffett performed at a Democratic campaign rally in liberal West Palm Beach for Nelson and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who is running for governor, urging the audience to vote for the pair by tweaking the lyrics of two of his most popular songs. Buffett, taking a dig at Trump, changed the wording of "Come Monday" to "Come Tuesday, things will change. Come Tuesday, we're making a change. It's been two insane years and it's time to really switch gears." The performance was 3 miles (5 kilometers) from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and frequent winter hangout. Then, using "Margaritaville," he criticized Scott for the state's environmental problems: "Some people say that there's a red tide to blame, but I know that it's all Rick Scott's fault." Red tide algae have killed millions of fish off the southern Florida coasts over the last several months it occurs naturally but some scientists say pollution makes it worse. Buffett, who lives in Palm Beach, is an outspoken environmentalist, founding the charity "Save the Manatee" in 1981. Both Scott and Gillum resumed campaigning Saturday after briefly returning to Tallahassee to visit victims and their families of Friday night's mass shooting at a yoga studio that left two women and the gunman dead and five injured. Story continues Gillum referenced the shooting in his West Palm Beach address, first asking the crowd to keep the victims in their prayers. He then said such mass shootings have become "too familiar" in Florida. In February, 17 died in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in nearby Parkland. In 2017, five died at Fort Lauderdale's airport. And in 2016, 49 died at an Orlando nightclub. Gillum said voters need to "send an unapologetic message to the NRA that their time is up in Florida" and called for tighter gun laws, including tougher background checks and a ban on convicted domestic abusers owning guns. "We can celebrate what it means to have the Second Amendment and celebrate safety and security in our homes, in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in our houses of worship at the same time," Gillum said. Trump takes frequent digs at Gillum in speeches and on Twitter, saying Saturday that Gillum wants open borders and runs a violent city. DeSantis won the Republican nomination after receiving Trump's endorsement, in large part for his appearances on Fox News praising the president's policies and denouncing the probe led by Robert Mueller into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump said if Gillum wins, "he'll destroy Florida in one year or two years" and illegal immigrants will be camping on Floridians' lawns. DeSantis praised Trump, saying he kept his promises on taxes, judges and Iran, and said Gillum, who has called for banning assault rifles, will raise taxes and ban most guns. He joked that he would try to lure the Trump Organization from New York City to Florida, where there are lower taxes. "Are we going to build on the success Florida has had or are we going to put a far-left, Bernie Sanders, anti-law enforcement, tax-raising radical in the governor's mansion? I don't think so," DeSantis said. Scott is a longtime friend of the president, entering politics in 2010 as a tea party opponent of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Polls show both races to be close and the campaigns targeted their bases Saturday. Palm Beach County is heavily Democratic, a legacy of its history attracting retirees from New York and elsewhere in the Northeast. The party has a 3-to-2 margin over Republicans and Hillary Clinton beat Trump 56 to 41 percent there in 2016. Pensacola's Escambia County, near the Alabama border, has a large population of active and retired military members and is heavily Republican. The party holds a 4-to-3 margin over Democrats, and Trump beat Clinton 57 to 37 percent there in 2016. ___ For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics A senior Turkish official said Monday that investigators sent by Saudi Arabia to help Turkey investigate the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi actively worked to cover up evidence instead. Two of the team of 11 investigators, which included chemistry and toxicology specialists, came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence, said the official. The team was sent nine days after Khashoggis October 2 killing and before Turkish officials could investigate the scene of the crime, the Saudi consulate, proving the murder was within the knowledge of top Saudi officials, the official added. The Washington Post columnist was murdered after he went into the Saudi consulate in Turkey to finalize divorce paperwork so he could marry his fiance. Khashoggi, a former advisor to Saudi intelligence, had been living in the U.S. in voluntary exile after he began heavily criticizing Saudi Arabias royal family and government. We know the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an op-ed for the Washington Post last week, adding that we must reveal the identities of the puppetmasters behind Khashoggis killing, and demanding that Khashoggis body to be recovered. Government-linked Turkish media reported that Khashoggis body was dismembered and removed from the consulate. Saudi Arabias explanation of the killing has gone through a metamorphosis from denying the government knew anything about the murder to acknowledging that it was premeditated but claiming the killers were rogue operatives. Turkey has requested to be allowed to prosecute 18 suspects, including 15 alleged members of the team of killers, who are currently detained in Saudi Arabia. The international heat on Saudi Arabia over the murder has complicated the relationship between the U.S. and the country, a longtime ally. President Trump has rejected the possibility of cancelling billion-dollar arms deals with Saudi Arabia over the situation, but did warn of very severe consequences if the Saudi government is found to be responsible for Khashoggis death. By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused a request by the Trump administration and the telecommunications industry to wipe away a lower court decision that had upheld Obama-era net neutrality rules aimed at ensuring a free and open internet, though the justices' action does not undo the 2017 repeal of the policy. The high court decision not to throw out the 2016 U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling leaves a legal precedent in place that could help net neutrality supporters in any future legal battle if that policy is ever re-introduced. The rules championed by Democratic former President Barack Obama, intended to safeguard equal access to content on the internet, were opposed by President Donald Trump, a Republican. The Trump administration and the telecom industry had wanted to erase the 2016 ruling even though the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission in December voted to repeal the net neutrality rules. The policy reversal went into effect in June. The Supreme Court's brief order noted that three of the court's conservative justices - Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch - would have thrown out the appeals court decision. Neither Chief Justice John Roberts nor new Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh participated in the decision. Industry trade group USTelecom, one of the groups that challenged the 2015 net neutrality rules, said the high court's action was "not surprising." USTelecom said it would "continue to support" the repeal "from challenges in Washington, D.C. and state capitals." FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat who backed the net neutrality order in 2015, said on Twitter that the commission had "actually petitioned the Supreme Court to erase history and wipe out an earlier court decision upholding open internet policies. But today the Supreme Court refused to do so." Story continues The Justice Department also has filed suit to block California's state net neutrality law from taking effect in January. The state agreed in October to delay enforcement of the law pending appeals of the net neutrality reversal. Video: California Agrees to Pause Implementation of Its Net Neutrality Law For more news videos visit Yahoo View. The FCC voted 3-2 in December along party lines to reverse the rules adopted under Obama that had barred internet service providers from blocking or throttling traffic, or offering paid fast lanes, also known as paid prioritization. The new rules, which gave internet service providers greater power to regulate the content that customers access, are now the subject of a separate legal fight after being challenged by many of the groups that backed net neutrality. The net neutrality repeal was a win for providers like Comcast Corp, AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc. It was opposed by internet companies like Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc, which have said the repeal could lead to higher costs. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Will Dunham) By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland is willing to examine ways in which a "backstop" to keep the Irish border open after Brexit could be reviewed so long as it does not permit Britain to unilaterally walk away from it, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Monday. The sides in the negotiations on the terms of Britain's exit from the European Union have signaled progress on agreeing customs arrangements for an emergency Irish border fix but differences persist on the lifespan of the so-called "backstop". British Prime Minister Theresa May raised the possibility of a review mechanism for the backstop in a phone call on Monday with Varadkar that she had sought to update him on the current state of the talks, the Irish government said in a statement. "The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) indicated an openness to consider proposals for a review, provided that it was clear that the outcome of any such review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop," the statement said. "He recalled the prior commitments made that the backstop must apply 'unless and until' alternative arrangements are agreed." May told Varadkar that there would need to be a mechanism through which the backstop could be brought to an end, a spokesman from her office said in a statement. The phone call followed a report by Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper that May's Brexit Minister Dominic Raab had privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the backstop after three months. Varadkar separately told reporters that an expiry date of that nature would not be worth the paper it is written on. With just five months until Britain is due to leave the EU, May has yet to nail down a divorce deal, with the insurance arrangement to keep open the border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU member state Ireland still the outstanding issue. An open frontier is seen as crucial to preserving the 1998 Good Friday peace accord that ended decades of Irish sectarian bloodshed. But that goal has been complicated by May's intention to take Britain out of the EU customs union and single market. Cautious optimism that a deal may be in the offing has also been dampened by uncertainty over whether it would pass the British parliament, deeply split between eurosceptic and pro-EU lawmakers, even within May's Conservative Party. May later reiterated to Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz that she believed a withdrawal accord was 95 percent complete, and was "confident" of a deal on the Northern Irish backstop. But, highlighting the political complexities of Brexit, a large Survation poll for Channel 4 found Britons would vote to stay in the European Union if there were another ballot, backing "Remain" by 54 percent to 46 percent. In the 2016 referendum, Britons voted 52-48 percent in favor of Brexit. [L8N1XG5G8] "NOT THERE YET" Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney had earlier said that neither Ireland nor the EU would ever sign up to an agreement that could be ended unilaterally. Coveney was later quoted as saying a "middle-ground position" on the backstop arrangement could be found, but added it must be legally watertight. The latest proposal on the backstop, according to sources in Brussels, would keep all of the United Kingdom in a customs arrangement with the EU, as May has sought. That would include Northern Ireland, as the bloc has insisted. But London and the EU have still not agreed how long such an insurance policy would last. Britain wants to limit it while the EU says any clear cut-off date attached to the backstop would defeat its purpose. A senior EU official told Reuters the bloc's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has yet to inform the 27 states that "decisive progress" has been made in the talks. Such a recommendation from Barnier is needed for European Council President Donald Tusk to call a special summit of EU leaders to endorse any Brexit deal. After a meeting in Dublin on Friday with Britain's Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, May's de facto deputy, both Coveney and Lidington said the two sides were "very close" to resolving differences on the border issue. Lidington also said London would stand by the written commitments it had already made on the backstop, which include the agreement that it would apply unless and until a better solution is found. The EU has suggested that the tweaked "two-tier" backstop covering all of the UK could give mainland Britain some scope to set its own trade rules - a central demand of Brexiteers - while keeping Northern Ireland aligned with the EU. (Additional reporting and writing by Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Dublin (AFP) - The British and Irish leaders on Monday discussed a possible compromise on the fraught issue of the Northern Irish border, which is holding up Brexit talks, Dublin said. In a phone call, Prime Minister Theresa May raised the possibility of a review mechanism for the so-called backstop arrangement intended to keep open the border between British Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Varadkar indicated he would consider the idea, but rejected any suggestion Britain be allowed to unilaterally pull out of the arrangement, according to a statement issued by his office. In their call, May "raised the possibility of a review mechanism for the backstop", the Irish leader's office said. "The Taoiseach (Varadkar) indicated an openness to consider proposals for a review, provided that it was clear that the outcome of any such review could not involve a unilateral decision to end the backstop," it said. Brexit talks are stalled over how to avoid frontier checks on the Irish border if Britain leaves the EU's customs union and single market as planned when it quits the bloc next March. Both sides agree to a "backstop" or insurance arrangement to avoid checks if and until they can strike a wider trade deal that resolves the issue. The EU wants to Northern Ireland to continue to follow its trade rules, but London is instead pressing for the whole of the UK to stay temporarily aligned. The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Monday that Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab is pushing for Britain to be able to pull out of the backstop unilaterally after three months. Varadkar told reporters in Dublin this was something his government "can't countenance", saying: "A backstop with a three-month limit on it or expiry date of that nature isn't worth the paper it's written on." Earlier, both London and Brussels played down suggestions of an imminent breakthrough in the Brexit talks, after a weekend report in Britain suggesting a deal was close. "I would say that we continue to make good progress in the negotiations but there's work still to do," May's spokesman said in London. In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters: "We're not there yet." Closing the gap: IBM CEO Ginni Rometty is one of the most senior women in tech, an industry where women actually have an edge when it comes to executive pay. Photo: Christophe Morin/IP3/Getty Images The US is close to eliminating the gender pay gap for senior executives, according to new research. Executive pay benchmarking service the Pay Index, which is owned by headhunters Leathwaite, said on Monday that the gender pay gap at executive level in the US has fallen from 7.9% to 2% over the last six months. It means the US is close to achieving parity on gender when it comes to senior executive pay. Globally, the report said the gender pay gap for senior execs halved over the last six months, falling from 17.1% to 8.7%. The results are based on a survey of over 7,700 executives earning over $100,000 (76,810) a year. While the UK saw a bigger drop in its exec pay gap in absolute terms, the gap between what men and women get paid in the boardroom remains stubbornly high. In the six months to March it fell from 21.5% to 12.2%. New rules that came into force in April force UK companies that employ more than 250 people to publish their gender pay gap. Legislation introduced in New York and California in 2017 prohibits employers from asking prospective employers about their salary history, in a bid to create fairer market for offers. James Rust, the founder and managing director of The Pay Index, said: These laws have put gender pay firmly under the spotlight. However, there is still much work to be done to create parity, but the speed and direction of the trend is a very positive sign. Were hopeful that in a further six months, the size of the gap were seeing in the UK will gravitate much more closely to those figures in the US. The Pay Index also published numbers for specific roles and industries. Globally, male CEOs still receive an average of 30.5% than their female counterparts. It is the biggest gender pay gap in the boardroom. Interestingly, the Pay Index said that the gender pay gap for tech roles in the boardroom in fact favours women. Globally female technology execs receive an average of 9.2% more than men. High-profile female tech execs include Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Facebooks VP for EMEA Nicola Mendelsohn, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. While the US is making progress narrowing the gender pay gap in the board room, the Pew Research Centre earlier this year found women earn 18% less than men on average across the US and the gap has been largely unchanged for the last decade. Trump and the Republican party hope to maintain their majority in both houses, but polls indicate the Democrats may take the House of Representatives. - AFP America will go to the polls tomorrow, 6 November, to elect members for each of the 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats in Congress. Donald Trump and the Republicans will hope to maintain their majority in both houses during these midterm elections, but with the Democrats having a healthy lead in the polls, it is believed that they have a decent chance of taking the House of Representatives. A Democrat victory in either chamber would grant powers to potentially open investigations into President Trump as well as affording them more scope to oppose the president's agenda. The stakes are high. The latest polling and forecasts indicate that Donald Trump and the Republicans are favourites to hold on to the Senate, while the House of Representatives looks likely to fall to the Democrats. However, as with the 2016 presidential race, the polls could swing in the final days of campaigning - particularly as Trump ramps up campaigning and heightens his rhetoric around the topic of migration. General ballot between Republicans and Democrats The latest polls show that the Democrats are around eight percentage points ahead of the Republicans, standing at an average of 48.4 per cent compared to the Republicans 42.2 per cent. This is an average of the last eight polls, and has indicated a consistent lead for the Democrats on a national level. While the Democrats are ahead in the general ballot, both the House of Representatives and the Senate are decided by a series of local elections, which means that the Republicans may still hold both houses. The Democrats need 24 seats to flip the House of Representatives, and two to flip the Senate. But to make matters harder, the Democrats are defending 26 of the 35 seats up for election in the Senate this time. House of Representatives forecast: Democrats knocking on the door Of the 435 seats up for re-election in the House of Representatives, the Democrats need to flip 24 seats - something that should be within reach for the party. Story continues The latest forecast, from the Cook Report, has the Democrats on a likely 209 seats and the Republicans on 197. This means that the remaining 29 "toss-up" seats, which are too close to call, will be incredibly important for the outcome of the election. Senate forecast: A tough Republican nut to crack Only needing two seats to take the Senate, it would at first seem that the Democrats should be able to take control. But there is an issue with this: Of the 35 seats up for election, 26 are currently defended by the Democrats. That means that the Democrats need to claim two seats from the remaining eight Republican-defended seats. According to the Cook Report forecast, this seems unlikely, as there are only 43 seats that are marked as "leaning" Democrat or stronger. To claim a majority, the party would have to pick up a further six seats that are either toss-ups or leaning towards the Republicans. Key seats to watch In the 2016 presidential election, Trump won big in rural and working class communities. This helped him flip - albeit with small margins - traditionally Democrat states in the rust belt, including Wisconsin and Michigan. If the Democrats are to have hope of taking the House of Representatives from the Republicans, they need to ensure that they retain seats in these areas, before moving onto Republican territory in others. A series of both Republican and Democrat seats are currently classed as a "toss-up" by the Cook Report, indicating that there could be turnovers for both parts in the mid terms. The Republicans will hope to hold onto their under siege seats in places like Tennessee and West Virginia, while making inroads in Democrat areas that Trump claimed with huge majorites in the 2016 presidential election. Seats in Indiana and North Dakota are among those places where the Republicans will hope that Trump's base will help them flip seats. Does President Trump's approval rating matter? Donald Trump's approval ratings are at relatively healthy and stable levels as the mid-terms according to The Telegraph's poll tracker. The tracker, which takes an average of the last eight polls, puts Trump's approval rating on 44 per cent at the end of October. While this level is quite high for Trump, it is relatively low for sitting presidents - and this is important, as presidential approval ratings are a good indicator of net losses at mid term elections. Only two presidents - Truman (1946 and 1950), and Bush (2006) - had a lower approval rating than Trump when going into their respective mid term elections. All three of these ended up losing over 28 seats in the House of Representatives and over five in the Senate. The Telegraph's poll tracker takes an average of the last eight polls in order to take a full picture of the broad movements in the polling environment and not put too much weight on individual polls. Polls used are nationally representative with adequate sample sizes. Donald Trump was making his last plea to the American people on Monday, attending three rallies in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri just hours ahead of polls opening in crucial midterm elections. With control of Congress at stake, former President Barack Obama was also out at an event in Fairfax, Virginia, to try and give the Democrats a boost. Voters will go to the polls on Tuesday with all 435 seats of the House of Representatives up for re-election as well as 35 Senate seats, hundreds of state legislature, local mayoral races, and special ballot provisions. Republicans currently control both the houses of the US congress, although Mr Trump has warned about what a change would mean or his agenda. It's all fragile. Everything I told you about, it can be undone and changed by the Democrats if they get in, Mr Trump told supporters in a conference call. He has also admitted Republicans could lose control of the lower House, but has not shown anything but his characteristic bombastic confidence at his numerous political rallies. Some of the key races are also the most expensive in what is the most expensive overall election in US history, clocking at $5bn plus in spending. In Texas, Democrat Beto O'Rourke and Republican incumbent Ted Cruz face off for a US Senate seat. In Florida there are two races of note: Republican Governor Rick Scott vies for a US Senate seat against Democrat Bill Nelson and Democratic Mayor of Tallahassee Andrew Gillum looks to become the state's first African-American governor against Republican Ron DeSantis. In Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams looks to become the country's first African-American female governor as she runs against Republican Brian Kemp. Mr Kemp has been called to resign from his state government post of secretary of state since his office is tasked with monitoring elections, particularly should neither of them garner 50 per cent of the vote and a runoff occurs. Mr Kemp has been accused of voter suppression and is also investing Democrats over a possible cybersecurity vulnerability of the state's voter registration page they reported to his office. Story continues Republican Mike DeWine was joined by the president in Ohio as he runs against a former director in Barack Obama's administration, Richard Cordray. There are numerous tight House races across the Midwest as well. Democrats will need to pick up 24 more seats in order to "flip" control to them. You can see how the events of the last day of campaigning before the midterms unfolded in our live blog below Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load Dakar (AFP) - A two-day African security forum was set to open in Dakar on Monday amid concerns about funding for a much-trumpeted initiative to bind five Sahel countries into an anti-terror force. Less than a quarter of the roughly 400 million euros ($455 million) pledged for the G5 Sahel force has been forthcoming, French Defence Minister Florence Parly said on Sunday. "At the moment, (pledges) are materialising very slowly," Parly told reporters in the plane taking her to the forum in Dakar. Only "10 to 25 percent of the funds" have been disbursed, she said. The G5 Sahel is a French-backed scheme conceived in 2015 to roll back jihadism and lawlessness in five states on the Sahara's southern rim. Bringing together Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, it aims to become a 5,000-man joint force to restore authority in areas grappling with jihadi raiders and brutal gangs. But the project, which brings together five of the world's poorest and most fragile countries, has run into problems of financing, poor equipment and lack of training. In February, an international donors' conference in Brussels pledged about 420 million euros ($478 million). Saudi Arabia made the biggest single promise, totalling 100 million euros in the form of equipment, but it has yet to be delivered, Parly said. The Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security, launched in 2013, is a French-supported initiative gathering several hundred political leaders, military officials, international organisations and think tanks, mainly from West Africa and Europe. It was due to be opened on Monday by Senegalese President Macky Sall. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Drian is expected for the final day on Tuesday. - Problems - Since late last year, the G5 Sahel has carried out only six operations, with three more in the works. It also has yet to win over civilians who fear retribution from the rebels if they provide support. Story continues On June 29, the G5's then headquarters, in the central Malian town of Sevare, came under suicide attack, causing three deaths, two of them Malian soldiers. Its commanding officer, Malian General Didier Dacko, was replaced by a Mauritanian, Hanena Ould Sidi, who in September ordered the HQ be moved to Bamako, Mali's capital. "The goal (of the Dakar Forum) is firstly to maintain the priorities on (G5 Sahel) operations... The joint force... is not equipped as it should be," Parly said. "The rainy season is coming to an end, so it's important to get operations going again. Some have already been planned." The five Sahel states are struggling against a jihadist revolt that began with a Tuareg separatist uprising in northern Mali in 2012. The extremists were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013. But large stretches of Mali remain out of the control of Malian, French and UN forces, which are frequent targets of attacks. Jihadist violence, meanwhile, has spread from northern Mali to the centre and south and spilt into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, often exacerbating communal conflicts. Parly added that a spate of recent attacks in Burkina Faso -- for which the country twice had to call on support from French troops last month -- was a cause of "much concern." Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Waymos plan to put fully self-driving test vehicles on public roads in Silicon Valley underscores how quickly the technology may be arriving. It also calls attention to the growing need for independent research to establish whether the technology is safe enough. Moving too fast too soonbefore people have the confidence that theyre not guinea pigs in some sort of experimentis a big risk to the entire industry, auto experts and safety advocates say. They stress that a serious crash tied to not-quite-ready driverless technology could compound public fears and set back real-world testing and the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs) for decades. There were immediate repercussions last March when an Uber test vehicle struck and killed a woman in Arizona who was walking her bike across an unlit road. Arizona and Pennsylvania immediately revoked Ubers permission to test on their roads. Pennsylvania later toughened its testing rules. To ensure that new autonomous vehicle technology operates according to a set of common standards, AVs should undergo the same type of trials that pharmaceutical companies face when seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a new drug, says Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The government is best equipped to evaluate costs and benefits, he argues, while companies have more expertise about technology developments. Should we be permitting Waymo to deploy tens of thousands of automated vehicles on public roads without some public understanding of the cost-benefit model? says Reimer, who runs MIT's Advanced Vehicle Technology Consortium, a forum of companies, industry groups, and researchers that includes Consumer Reports. Last week Waymo became the first company to obtain a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test AVs without a driver inside on roads in certain areas of the state. Story continues Waymo vehicles with human backup drivers have been involved in 12 crashes in California so far this year, according to reports filed with the state DMV. Almost all of them have been low-speed fender-benders where the test car was struck by a human-driven vehicle. In Arizona, Waymo vehicles have been involved in two crashes so far this year. The police didn't fault the Waymo vehicle in either case. Experts Push Third-Party Checks Automakers arent doing anything comparable to what the FDA does now, Reimer points out. Hes calling for a public-private partnership made up of those in the industry, independent researchers, and regulators to set standards and evaluate data from companies making AVs. Reimer has proposed a plan under which companies would provide data that can be verified by independent researchers before states and the federal government give approval for any AVs. Consumer Reports has recommended that testing data be shared with public and federal regulators, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and state governments, all of which are responsible for safety on the highways. The bigger picture is that self-driving technologies are moving really fast, and they have significant potential to improve safety and mobility, says William Wallace, a policy analyst in Washington for Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports. But were concerned that companies may be racing to be the first instead of racing to be the safest. Phil Koopman, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who specializes in testing automotive software, backs a similar concept. Regulators and automakers should be working toward a system where companies deploying new technology submit data to a third party that performs some sort of independent verification, he says. Thats the model used by industries with safety-critical missions, such as aviation and chemical plants, Koopman says. In every case, were relying on the designers to tell us that they did it right, he says. There are no external checks and balances. Waymos going to deploy these vehicles, and were basically taking their word for it that its safe. Relying on the Honor System Regulators for now appear all too willing to take the industrys word on safety claims, Reimer says. Waymo said in an emailed statement that it has consulted with external experts in developing its safety program. It says it has consulted with both state and federal regulators as well as outside organizations like the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, and the American Center for Mobility, about developing guidance and standards about driverless-car technology. Waymo has been testing self-driving cars for almost a decade, and we have developed extensive knowledge and expertise in gathering data and designing tests to evaluate safe performance, the company said. Safety is the core of Waymos mission and everything we do, and we are committed to educating the public and working closely with policymakers to inform them about our technology and the rigorous process weve put in place to test it. The hands-off approach to self-driving cars has been underscored by the Transportation Departments formal policies, which were updated earlier this year. Federal regulators say they dont think regulation is the right approach to deal with quickly evolving technology. Theyre relying on companies to submit reports that outline steps they have taken on their own to verify the cars are safe. But these reports are voluntary, and only five companies have submitted them so far: Waymo, GM, Ford, Nvidia, and Nuro. Also, the reports have been criticized for providing very little data to demonstrate how companies are evaluating safety, such as how crashes and near-misses have declined over time, or detailing which factors are baked into computerized simulations. Consumers Union has called for NHTSA to take a more active role in ensuring that automated vehicle technology is developed with safety in mind. The agency should ensure that companies don't oversell these capabilities, fail to appropriately communicate their limitations, or design systems without appropriate checks on foreseeable use and misuse, CU has said. CU has also called on NHTSA to upgrade crash reporting to help safety investigations, and to set binding minimum standards to protect data security and the functioning of a car's electronics and software systems. Legislation that has passed the House and is pending in the Senate would, for the most part, solidify the federal governments hands-off approach. Lawmakers and regulators consistently say they want to do what they can to promote potentially life-saving technology, and theyre fearful that a heavy hand will seriously slow innovation. Waymos Next Step Waymoowned by Alphabet, which is also the parent company of Googleclaims its cars have tens of millions of miles of real-world testing validation and more than 3 billion miles of simulated driving to demonstrate safety. The company has continuous closed-track testing at a former Air Force base in Atwater, Calif., and it has been operating a limited self-driving shuttle service with real consumers in suburban Phoenix for about a year. Still, all that testing is a drop in the bucket as far as whats actually needed, says Sam Abuelsamid, a senior analyst with Navigant Research who tracks the industry. On average, drivers in the U.S. have a reportable accident every 500,000 miles, and serious or challenging situations occur even more frequently. Thats why companies need to run a lot more simulated miles, he says. Of course, this is only as good as the scenarios or models that are being simulated, Abuelsamid says. We have no information about exactly what Waymo is testing. California regulators began accepting applications for driverless test vehicles in April. Theyre requiring companies to verify that their vehicles are capable of driving without a human operator. Companies also must confirm that vehicles have been tested in controlled conditions similar to where they're going to be used. Each company must carry $5 million in insurance (in total, not per vehicle) and notify local governments about their testing plans. AV companies must also agree to continuously monitor their vehicles and provide two-way communications with any passengers. They must report any crashes to the California Department of Motor Vehicles within 10 days and submit an annual report on disengagementssituations where a human takes over or a driverless car shuts down to avoid a crash. In its blog outlining the California testing program, Waymo says it will begin operating vehicles with employees inside, just not in the drivers seat. Thats not very different from what it's doing in Arizona. Still, the California permit allows the company to run the cars without an employee in the vehicle to monitor whats going on. Waymo doesnt have a timetable for when it will pull its employees and operate the vehicles in a truly driverless fashion. It hasnt released any details about how many vehicles it plans to run in California. Its expected that the cars will be modified Chrysler Pacifica minivansthe same kind of vehicle Waymo is operating in Arizona, a spokesperson said. The company also plans to outfit some Jaguar I-Pace electric crossovers in the future. (The I-Pace is not yet on sale in the U.S.) Arizona regulators say they arent aware of anything that would cause concern about Waymos safety on their public roads, the state Department of Transportation said in an email replying to Consumer Reports questions. The state doesnt have any special reporting requirements, but it has found the companies it is working with to be very open about progress in testing these new technologies, the email said. More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples 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. Internet Security If you were asked to write down all of the places online that have your personal information, could you do it? Between signing up for a free demo of an app here, or getting access to a flash-in-the-pan social network there, chances are it would be nearly impossible to track the whereabouts of all that information down. According to a recent survey, you wouldnt be alone in having a tough time. Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs asked 7,000 Europeans about their personal security online, and found that 64 per cent of people did not know all the places where their personal data was stored on the web. Somewhat more concerningly, 39 per cent of parents said they dont know what information about their children is shared online. With the advent of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, many companies operating in Europe and globally have elected for more disclosure when they collect your personal information, or leave cookies on your computer so a site knows youve been there previously. MORE ON CYBERSECURITY: Apple fixes bug that lets hackers shut down your device But as GDPR was only implemented in 2018, there is years worth of information collection that has already transpired. Users can leave a digital footprint everywhere they go on the web, leaving information like your IP address, your approximate location, and information about the computer youre using wherever you go. To see whats exposed on your computer, you can check out the Webkay website, which will highlight the information accessible on your device. And those are just places that youve willingly gone to. In the era of data breaches, your information could be in places online that you wouldnt even know about. As our world becomes increasingly connected through the internet of things, there are more reasons for Canadians to learn how to protect themselves and their data, said Laurie Pezzente, Chief Security Officer & Senior Vice-President of Global Cyber Security, RBC, in a press release. Story continues What to do about it As it turns out, despite the fact that the report showed people were concerned about what happened to their personal data online, not everyone was taking a proactive approach to protect it. Twenty per cent of respondents werent bothering to password protect their home wireless networks, while 31 per cent said they had never updated the security options on their Wifi. If youre looking to clean up your digital footprint, you can look into sites that can audit your appearances online. You may also want to take steps to manually review your digital presence, using something like this checklist to review where you show up on the web. But ultimately, everyone is tracked online its how websites save your preferences or information for future visits, or improve their products. If you really want to minimize the digital footprint you leave, look into browser extensions or VPN services, like the ones laid out in this Gizmodo article, to find more solutions to prevent tracking while youre connected to the internet. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android. Turbines have a cascade effect by removing top predators, say researchers - Phil Noble Wind turbines act like super predators changing ecosystems by removing birds of prey from the top of the food chain, a new study has found. Although previous research has shown that turbines can be deadly for birds and bats, it is the first time scientists have studied the knock-on effects for other animals. Indian scientists looked at a wind farm in the Unesco World Heritage Site of the Western Ghats, a 62,000-square mile mountain range that runs along the western coast of the sub-continent. The study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution compared populations of raptors and lizards on a plateaus with and without turbines. They found areas with wind farms had four times fewer buzzards, hawks and kites, but an over-abundance of fan-throated lizards which are normally eaten by the birds. The reptile also had lower levels of the stress hormone corticosterone and this changed how it lived, allowing humans to get much closer than usual before they ran away. Not only to turbines kill raptors, but over time the birds learn to stay away from areas which have wind farms. Earlier this year a study looking at wind farms in the English channel showed seabirds went out of their way to avoid them, even if meant changing usual migratory patterns. The RSPB has previously warned that turbines threaten sea eagles Credit: RSPB According to lead author, Professor Maria Thaker, wind farms are akin to adding a top predator to the ecosystem, creating greater disruption than previously feared. Although the new study was carried out in India, it has implications for wind farms around the globe. In Britain wind turbines have been blamed for the deaths of top predators such as bats, eagles, hawks, owls and falcons which keep rodents at bay. Prof Thaker added: Every time a top predator is removed or added, unexpected effects trickle through the ecosystem. We find wind farms reduce the abundance and activity of predatory birds - for example buzzards, hawks and kites - which consequently increases the density of lizards. Story continues We find wind farms have emerging impacts that are greatly underestimated. Prof Thaker said the findings demonstrated an unexpected conflict between combating climate change using green energy and protecting wildlife. There is a strong need for an ecosystem-wide view when aligning green-energy goals with environment protection, she added. The Western Ghats is home to at least 325 globally-threatened flora, fauna, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish species and it is recognised as one of the worlds most important spots of biological diversity. Doctoral student, Amod Zambre, the second author of the paper, said: Sometimes taking a closer look at small and often overlooked taxa like the fan-throated lizards can provide extremely useful insights into how ecosystems are responding to anthropogenic pressure. Organizers hope to have another meeting soon in Yakima County about missing Native women in Washington state. Approximately 225 people attended a meeting this week at the Yakima Convention Center. A date hasnt been set for a second meeting but it would take place soon, said Capt. Monica Alexander of the Washington State Patrol, who hosted Mondays meeting with Craig Bill, director of the Governors Office of Indian Affairs. The Yakama Nation invited them back for another meeting in Toppenish, Alexander said. It likely will take place at the Legends Casino event center. We want to make sure that we have a good turnout again, she said, mentioning it will happen before the start of the legislative session in January. We really want to come back; we really do. A meeting is scheduled in Shelton on Thursday at the Little Creek Casino, Sa-Heh-WA-Mish Room, 91 West State Route 108. Along with adding a meeting in Toppenish, organizers want to have a meeting in Seattle as well. Were working on that. ... Were really trying to schedule for Seattle because we want to do something urban, Alexander said. Meetings have been happening around the state as a result of Washington House Bill 2951, which requires the State Patrol to work with the Office of Indian Affairs, federally recognized tribes, tribal and other law enforcement and tribal leaders to determine how to increase reporting and investigation of missing Native American women. The legislation also requires the state to collect data, for the first time, on the numbers of missing Native women. The State Patrol must report the results of its study to the Legislature by June 1. This must include data and analysis on the number of missing Native American women in the state, identification of barriers in providing state resources to address the issue, and recommendations to improve safety and reporting. Alexander, the state patrols legislative liaison, is preparing the report, which will be ready before the Legislature heads into session on Jan. 14. Here is how I envision it being formatted I plan on putting it together based on each meeting, each meeting to have its own flavor. Every meeting has been different, she said. The meeting in Yakima on Monday was the best attended by far, Alexander said. So many people came that organizers had to double the size of the room by moving a wall. We anticipated between 50 and 75 people and then, as I saw people coming in early, (she realized) were going to outgrow this room, she said. We were very excited; it was a good problem to have. The audience filled most of 28 rows of 10 chairs as some stood along the walls. Alexander and Bill sat at a table at the front of the room with state Rep. Gina Mosbrucker, R-Goldendale; and the four members of the Yakama Nation Tribal Councils Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Committee, Charlene Tillequots, Athena Sanchey-Yallup, Esther Moses-Hyipeer and Lottie Sam. We had a pretty good-sized turnout in Spokane at The Native Project. ... (but that was) less than half of what we had (in Yakima); we had maybe 60 people at Spokane, Alexander said. No one knows exactly how many Native girls and women have gone missing on or near the 1.3-million-acre Yakama reservation. Many cases of missing people or mysterious deaths of women and men remain unsolved. During a two-year FBI investigation spurred by rumors of a serial killer, investigators found as many as 32 cases dating back to 1980. Alexander mentioned a few of the many women who spoke with emotion during Mondays meeting. One, Nesha Jackson, said she was glad that it was no longer a secret and that women are no longer being silent, she said. It was very impactful. These meetings have been extremely emotional for me, Alexander said. I go back to my home or my hotel room and I cant help but process slowly the things that I heard; the courage that was exhibited. Some issues have come up at every meeting. Prominent among them is the complaint from family members that authorities arent taking their reports when a loved one goes missing, she said. Theyll tell them they have to wait 48 hours, 72 hours before they can file a report, that theyre not being taken seriously, Alexander said. That has been every meeting weve gone to. ... What they have said is they try to file a report, they wont take a report, then the person has been found dead. ... Thats not everyone; there have been people that have returned home. The bottom line is they arent being taken seriously, she added. They believe it is because they are Native that they are being treated that way. While being mindful of jurisdictional issues, Alexander hopes to improve communication among law enforcement agencies and possibly resources. Everybodys concerned about stepping on everyones toes. State Patrol doesnt want to tell Yakama police what to do. What we can do hopefully is do a better job at communicating, she said. How we do that? How we bridge that gap? Its not about telling them what to do, its about offering them resources. ... How can we make them available to you? And then we have to follow up. Her report will have recommendations, along with stories from some whose loved ones have gone missing. I want to put words on paper that are going to get peoples attention, she said. Weve got to get this work done. The two men in their 30s killed in a car explosion in southern Tel Aviv on Sunday night were "known figures in the criminal world," police said. The Israel Police is investigating whether the explosion was a criminal assassination. WASHINGTON - The United States reimposes oil and financial sanctions against Iran on Monday, significantly turning up the pressure on Tehran in order to curb its missile and nuclear programs and counter its growing military and political influence in the Middle East. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The move will restore US sanctions that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the administration of President Barack Obama, and add 300 new designations in Iran's oil, shipping, insurance and banking sectors. President Donald Trump announced in May that his administration was withdrawing from what he called the "worst ever" agreement negotiated by the United States. Other parties to the deal, including Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, have said they will not leave. Meme posted on President Donald Trump's official Twitter page Details of the sanctions will be released at a news conference scheduled for 8:30am EST with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkeyall top importers of Iranian oilare among eight countries expected to be given temporary exemptions from the sanctions to ensure crude oil prices are not destabilized. Iranians burning Israeli and American flags in Tehran to mark US Embassy takeover during 1979 Revolution (Photo: AP) The countries will deposit Iran's revenue in an escrow account, US officials have said. Washington has said it will ensure a well supplied global oil market, with help from ally Saudi Arabia, as Iran oil is cut back. Front-month Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $72.53 per barrel on Monday. Iranians burning Israeli and American flags in Tehran to mark US Embassy takeover during 1979 Revolution (Photo: EPA) The reimposition of the sanctions comes as the United States is focused on congressional and gubernatorial elections on Tuesday. Campaigning in Chattanooga, Tennessee, late on Sunday, Trump said his "maximum pressure" policy against Iran was working. "Iran is a much different country than it was when I took office," said Trump, adding: "They wanted to take over the whole Middle East. Right now they just want to survive." Protests in Tehran to mark US Embassy takeover during 1979 Revolution (Photo: EPA) Earlier, thousands of Iranians chanted "Death to America" at a rally to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that Iran should implement policies to safeguard its macroeconomic stability in the face of sanctions. Protests in Tehran to mark US Embassy takeover during 1979 Revolution (Photo: AP) Senior Iranian officials have dismissed concerns about the impact to its economy. "America will not be able to carry out any measure against our great and brave nation ... We have the knowledge and the capability to manage the country's economic affairs," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi told state TV on Friday. Chaim Herzog's childhood home in Belfast is surrounded by Palestinian flags that are hanging all across the neighborhood. In the past, the Irish put up a plaque in his memory there, but it was vandalized during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge and subsequently removed. Not far from that neighborhood are the city's walls, which are covered in graffiti, including posters calling for a boycott of Israel. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Nevertheless, Ireland has shown great respect to Israel's sixth president Chaim Herzog, the son of Ireland's chief rabbi, who later himself became Israel's first chief rabbi. Chaim Herzog making his famous UN speech against a resolution equating Zionism with racism (Photo courtesy of the Herzog family) To mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, an Israeli delegation led by the Herzog familyand in cooperation with the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agencywent to Belfast, Dublin and London for a journey in Herzog's footsteps. Herzog's childhood home becomes memorial site Herzog's home has been made an official state site in Ireland. The owners of the home, the Gillespies, are journalists who bought the property from the Herzog family and turned the living room and stair room into a museum of sorts. The walls are adorned with Herzog's photographs, old letters, and even a newspaper clip from 1988 of an interview owner Paul Gillespie did with Herzog, even before he bought the apartment from him. "I even kept the notes I made in my little notebook from that interview as a keepsake," the elderly Gillespie says. The plaque that was removed from the Herzog family home in Belfast after it was vandalized Chaim Herzoga lawyer, diplomat, rhetorician, politician and authorwas born in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, but he grew up and received his education in Dublin. Under the tutelage of his father, Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzogwho was awarded the Israel Prize in Rabbinical literaturehe became a man who believed in dialogue over war. His childrenJewish Agency head Isaac Herzog, Brig. Gen. (res.) Mike Herzog and Dr. Ronit Herzogand their families were very emotional upon arrival in Belfast. The journey began at the Belfast Parliament building, where the Herzog siblings met with MPs to discuss their father's legacy, as well as the long religious conflict in Ireland and its similarities to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There they also met Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, who noted that "just like everyone has views on what's happening in Northern Ireland, everyone has views on Israel as well." Isaac Herzog and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party Arlene Foster (Photo: Meshi Ayad) 'Celebrating Zionism' The small but united Jewish community in Belfast convened at the city's synagogue to pay respect to the Belfast-born man who had left his mark. "We grew up in Belfast through dad's stories," Mike Herzog recalls. "This is our first time here together and it's very emotional. He must be looking down at us from heaven, happy we came here." Dennis Coppel, the head of the Jewish community in Belfast, praised the ties between Israel and Northern Ireland and the important connection between Chaim Herzog's heritage and family and the Jewish community. Chaim Herzog's 'Zionism is not racism' speech X Lord-Lieutenant Mrs Fionnuala Jay-OBoyle CBE, representing the Queen in Belfast, praised Chaim Herzog's life and work. She also thanked Chaim's mother, Sara Herzog, for raising him to be the great man he was. The chairman of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, Paul Charney, was joyful to note that "Zionism is celebrated today, by the fact we're marking Chaim Herzog's birthday and in the way the Jewish community came together today in his honor." Much was said about the sixth president of Israel. Steven Jaffe, from the Jewish Leadership Council, lamented the loss of a truly unique politicians, while Mark Regev, Israel's Ambassador to Britain, said it was "a great pride to celebrate a man who was born here, in Belfast. A man whose heritage is a source of inspiration. He had a personal influence on me." Eli Cohen, the director-general of the World Zionist Organization, noted that "Herzog made a significant contribution to building the State of Israel." Blair: He would've been proud of today's Israel When Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog became the rabbi of the Jewish community in Dublin, the family moved to the Irish capital. The first stop the delegation made in the city was the school Chaim Herzog attended. During an emotional ceremony, they told the students about Herzog, concluding the event with Hebrew poetry about the Land of Israel. Tony Blair talks about Herzog (: ) X Nearby is Herzog Park, at the center of which there is a rock bearing Chaim Herzog's name. It symbolizes stability, strength and courage. "Since one of the main goals of the World Zionist Organization is to create Aliyah and encourage Zionism, we viewed this project as one of the organizations' biggest missionstaking a Zionist figure from a small community, who turned into a military man and a president and whose family is a dynasty of Zionist leaders," and honoring him, said WZO head Yitzhak Sonnenschein. The Herzog family at the Herzog Park in Dublin (Photo: Meshi Ayad) Later, Irish President Michael Higgins, who is known for his pro-Palestinian positions, opened his door to the delegation, despite the political disagreements. "I didn't expect this," admits Isaac Herzog. "I couldn't imagine this would be the respect given to my father in Ireland, mainly because of the murky relationship, the hostility and the incessant (condemnations) on the diplomatic arena. It was very special, and proper from a historical point of view." Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney also hosted the Israeli delegation at his home. He spoke about Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, Chaim Herzog and Abba Ebanalso a relative of the Herzog familyas men with giant careers in different fields, saying it was impossible not to admire them. In their conversation with Higgins and Coveney, Chaim Herzog's sons Isaac and Mike stressed the importance of opposing legislation from the Irish Parliament that could promote the BDS Movement. "It's clear to me we'll rather quickly return to arguments and condemnations and to concerns over hostile legislations, but at least they listened," Isaac Herzog said afterwards. Lord Jacob Rothschild speaking at the event at Spencer House (Photo: Meshi Ayad) At the end of the journey, the delegation arrived at Spencer House in London, where Lord Jacob Rothschild organized an event in Chaim Herzog's honor. Among the invitees was also former British premier Tony Blair, who told Ynet that "Chaim Herzog is one of the iconic statesmen of the 20th century. He was a great man, a great intellectual, a great leader. I think of how proud he would be if he could see Israel today." The defense minister is welcoming newly restored US sanctions against Iran, saying they will deal a "critical blow" to Iran's military presence around the Middle East. Avigdor Lieberman said in a tweet on Monday that the Trump administration's decision to restore sanctions "is the sea change the Middle East has been waiting for." Israel has been a fierce opponent of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal from which the United States withdrew this year, saying the deal didn't rein in Iran's regional military activities. TEHRAN - Iran greeted the re-imposition of US sanctions on Monday with air defense drills and an acknowledgement from President Hassan Rouhani the nation faces a "war situation," raising Mideast tensions as America's maximalist approach to the Islamic Republic takes hold. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The sanctions end all the economic benefits America granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, though Iran for now continues to abide by the accord that saw it limit its enrichment of uranium. While for now not threatening to resume higher enrichment, Iranian officials in recent months have made a point to threaten that could resume at any time faster than before. The new American sanctions particularly hurt Iran's vital oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency for its anemic economy. Its national currency has plummeted over the last year, sending prices for everything from mobile phones to medicine skyrocketing. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (Photo: AFP) "Today, Iran is able to sell its oil, and it will sell," Rouhani vowed Monday as the sanctions kicked in. Iranian state television aired footage of air defense systems and anti-aircraft batteries in two-day military maneuvers underway across a vast stretch of the country's north. It included surface-to-air missiles shooting down a drone. The drill was to continue through Tuesday. Iranian army Gen. Habibillah Sayyari said both the national army and the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard were taking part in the exercise. Rouhani, meanwhile, pledged to government officials in comments aired on state TV that Iran would overcome the sanctions. "We are in the war situation, " Rouhani said. "We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win." Iran launches two-day military drill He further stepped up the rhetoric, comparing Iran's situation in the 1980s war against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with the current one and President Donald Trump's move to reinstate US sanctions. "Yesterday, Saddam was in front of us, today Trump is front of us. There is no difference. We must resist and win," he said. Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis. Its national currency, the rial, now trades at 145,000 to one US dollar, down from when it traded 40,500 to $1 a year ago. The economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year which resulted in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Sporadic demonstrations still continue. Rouhani separately said leaders from "four powers" met with Iran on the sidelines of the September meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to try to save the deal, including brokering a possible meeting with Trump. He did not name those countries, but was likely referring to China, France, Russia and Britain, which along with Germany made up the world powers involved in the 2015 nuclear deal. "This issue does not require a mediator," Rouhani said, blaming America for unilaterally pulling out of the accord. Protests in Tehran to mark US Embassy takeover during 1979 Revolution (Photo: EPA) Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi also predicted the sanctions will actually work against America's interests. "Many countries from Europe to Russia and China have opposed the sanctions," Ghasemi told journalists, adding that Iranians "have experienced more extensive sanctions" and that they are "not a new issue." The United States says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. However, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton, the president's national security adviser, both have made public statements supporting overthrowing Iran's theocratic government. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman welcomed the newly restored US sanctions in a tweet on Monday, saying they will deal a "critical blow" to Iran's military presence around the Middle East. The Trump administration's decision to restore sanctions "is the sea change the Middle East has been waiting for," he said. Israel has been a fierce opponent of the 2015 nuclear deal from which the US withdrew in May , saying the accord failed to rein in Iran's regional military threat. The phrase Kill all Jews appeared on Twitters most popular trending hashtags having gathered over 6,000 retweets Friday after a synagogue in New York was vandalized and defaced with the anti-Semitic slur, reports BuzzFeedNews. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The incident comes after a series of anti-Semitic attacks in the United States, the most serious of which was the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh that left 11 people dead. 'Kill all Jews' trends on Twitter (Photo: Twitter) Fridays incident occurred at Brooklyns Union Temple ahead of a political event organized by comedienne Ilana Glazerwho cancelled the event following the attack. The extensive media coverage of the incident and consequent social media discussions resulted in the algorithms recognition of the slur as a trending topic, therefore promoting it on the social networks trending list for nearly 10 minutes. The spokesperson for Twitter issued an official response, calling the appearance of the phrase a mistake. This phrase should not have appeared in trends, and were sorry for this mistake. This was trending as a result of coverage and horrified reactions to the vandalism against a synagogue in New York. Regardless, it should not have appeared as a trend, the statement concluded. Parents of kindergarten children blame parents who do not vaccinate their children for the spreading measles epidemic, often using offensive language. Many wonder how to stop non-vaccinated children from attending schools, and debate whether to go on strike and stop kindergarten studies altogether. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Last Thursday a 1.5 year-old toddler died of Measles in Jerusalem. Over 1,200 patients were diagnosed with the disease over the last eight months600 of which in the past month. Around half of the patients are children under the age of four. Following these developments, the Knesset is working on a vaccine bill that will compel parents to vaccinate their children. Roni Golani, the 1.5 year-old daughter of Ezer and Doris from Rishon LeZion, caught Measles six months agoa week before her scheduled vaccination. We had a very difficult two weeks, with a fever that wouldnt go down, a rash all over her body, headaches and ear pain, the parents said. Roni couldnt eat, drink or sleep, she was hospitalized in isolation and her birthday party was cancelled. The scariest part was fear of possible complications. This epidemic would not have started if it werent for parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. We are asking the government and the health ministry to pass this law," she stressed. A vaccination bill has already been initiated by MK Yoel Hasson (Zionist Union) and MK Shuli Mualem-Rafaeli (Bayit Yehudi). This is the first time that the Knesset is set to discuss a national strategy for dealing with the problem. The bill includes keeping track of non-vaccinated children through health ministry registries, sending parents notices, and finally inviting parents to an educational meeting, after which they will have to sign a waiver if they still refuse to vaccinate their children, and could receive tax sanctions or have their children removed of educational institutions in case of an outbreak. I cant understand parents who are precarious about their childrens health and dont vaccinate them in the year 2018, said Michal, a mother of two. She is part of a mothers group that has decided not to send their children to school on September 1st, and went on strike so that the anti-vaccine issue will be addressed. Roni Golani, the 1.5 year-old daughter of Ezer and Doris from Rishon LeZion, caught the Measles six months agoa week before her scheduled vaccination We do hear of the occasional kindergarten teacher who decides not to allow enrollment unless parents present a vaccination registry. But thats not the way it should be, Michal said. Behind every child theres a story, and I think its horrible that we boycott children when they did nothing wrongit's the parents who make choices that endanger their child's health and safety choices that come with a social price. In recent years, refusing to vaccinate children has become a trend. Parents have many explanations: vaccinations cause autism, development problems and the diseases themselves, like Measles for example. The trend is more popular in the center of Israel, especially in anthroposophical kindergartens, where up to a quarter of children are not vaccinated. It is also a trend in the ultra-Orthodox community. The toddler that passed away on Thursday was born to a Neturei Karta family, an anti-Zionist group of extreme orthodox Jews in Jerusalem. Experts explain that once even a few percentages of the population are not vaccinated for Measles, an outbreak can occur which also jeopardizes vaccinated children. In private kindergartens for children under the age of three, which are not under government supervision, some teachers have already started preventing non-vaccinated children from enrolling in their schools unless parents present a vaccination registry. However, this demand is illegal in state kindergartens, pre-schools and schools for ages three and above. Therefore, non-vaccinated children cannot be prevented from entering state kindergartens and schools. I caused a general parents mutiny, said Hani, a mother of a 2.5-year-old. Once I realized that there is a non-vaccinated child attending the kindergarten, I made a huge mess for the teacher. I caused quite a stir in the parents' WhatsApp group. The teacher had no choice but to remove the non-vaccinated child from the class. Thank heavens that its a private institution, so she had no legal problem to do so," she added. The childs mother tried to fight back, she said she will have to quit her job on my account, but with all due respectyou dont mess with the childrens health. I heard that the child later found an anthroposophical kindergarten, where no one asks questions. Thats crazy, next year my son is going to attend a state kindergarten, where anyone can decide whatever they think fit and not vaccinate their child, and theres no way to fight it. We absolutely need a law against this, what are they waiting for? more children to die?" Hani continued exclaimed. "Parents who dont vaccinate their kids are actually counting on the vaccinated children immunity system, said Sarit, a teacher aid in a kindergarten in the center region. Thank god, in our kindergarten most children are vaccinated. There is also a growing awareness among parents now about the Flu vaccine. Parents who dont vaccinate are not only exposing the other children to diseases, but also the staff," she added. Sarit went on to criticize the pouring outrage of some parents, who shift the blame towards non-vaccinated children and their parents. This isnt the way to handle anti-vaccine parents, even though a non-vaccinated child does expose me and my children to disease. The health and education ministries are the ones that should act. Not the parents, and not on a designated WhatsApp group against this or that childtoday its the non-vaccinated children and tomorrow its whoever has lice," she continued. Up until the 60s it was clear that everyone is going to get Measles. Parents even organized infection parties, because it was believed it is better to get the disease as a child. Once, Measles was a given, said Dr. Erez Garty, of the Davidson Institute of Science Education. Mortality stood on 1:500-1:1000, depending on the healthcare system in a respective country. Its a mean disease, complications can be serious, one of which might only appear seven years after the infection. An infected person can also get SSPE syndrome that causes degeneration of the brain and nerve system," he explained. Measles could have already been eradicated, say experts, if not for recent year's anti-vaccine trend. According to Dr. Garty, in the 60s, when Measles vaccine came out, infection percentages dropped dramatically. It cleaned out hospitals. The vaccine also protects those who cannot be vaccinated, like children under one, cancer patients and others, said Garty. The vaccine is not only a personal but also a social defense mechanism. When you vaccinate your children you are also taking care of the newborn who has not yet been vaccinated, and the 80-year-old grandmother. In the west Measles was almost eradicated, but has returned due to anti-vaccine parents. In Europe 41,000 have been infected, its like a raging fire, he bemoaned. Right now, Measles is far from being eradicated, said Prof. Itzik Levy of the Schneider Children's Medical Center Infectious Diseases Unit. Its a viral and highly contagious disease and it's airborneone of the only diseases that one can catch from simply being in the same room with an infected person. The first signs of Measles are fever, cough and an eye infection, followed by a rash four days later that travels from the upper to the lower body. This stage lasts five days, after which the patient enters the recovery stage. Possible complications include pneumonia, meningitis, brain encephalitis and ear infections, added Prof. Levy. From the early 70s onwards, one-year-olds babies in Israel receive a vaccine and a booster at the age of six. The vaccine is called MMRV, and contains a weakened live virus, along with vaccines for Mumps, Rubella and Chickenpox, said Prof. Levy. Its highly effectiveover 95%and also highly safe. Side Effects can include a light swelling in the injection area and sometimes fever in the next week, but nothing else," he continued. In recent years, the number of parents who choose not to vaccinate their children is growing. They each have their reasons. Theres an ultra-Orthodox population who doesnt vaccinate on principal, and other populations who oppose the vaccine since they fear it isn't safe. Theres a rumor running around that the vaccine can cause autism, even though it has been tested on thousands of children and no link has been proven. In these populations we see outbreaks," Prof. Levy concluded. Its not only a case or two in the ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta neighborhood, said Galit, a mother of three from the Sharon area. We received a phone call from our general physician to come and get examined, along with everyone that was on a Turkish Airline flight to Israel. Apparently there was a sick person on board who exposed us all to the disease. It resonated with me since I was also wondering whether to vaccinate my eighth-grader for the Papillomavirus, continued Galit. It was the talk of town among friends and on parents WhatsApp groups, but once I got that scary phone call about being exposed to Measles on the flightmy doubts were gone. I signed the form and told my daughter she is getting the vaccine, and theres no question about it. Egyptian intelligence officials arrived in the Gaza Strip on Monday in order to continue discussions with Hamas regarding the easing of the blockade and the arrangement with Israel. Nazareth Illit Mayor Ronen Plot declared Sunday that he intends to rename the city, which is located next to the biblical town of Nazareth, to avoid the confusion among its visitors. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter "The time has come for Nazareth Illit to receive it own independent identity, and put an end to the chronic confusion between us and the neighboring Nazareth," stressed Plot, who won last weeks municipal election since he was the only candidate in the running. "This coming Christmas will be the last time foreigners headed for the Nazareth municipality will end up at my office," he said smiling. Nazareth Illit (Photo: Nazareth Illit Municipality spokesperson) According to Christian belief, the family of Jesus Christ hails from the city of Nazarethwhere his mother received the news of her pregnancy, and where Jesus himself spent most of his life. The Nazareth Illit municipality said it has been suffering from the name confusion since 1956, when Israel's first prime minister David Ben-Gurion decided to call the newly established settlement Kiryat Nazarethwhich was later changed to Nazareth Illit (Upper Nazareth). The residents make it clear that these are two completely separate cities, despite the geographical proximity and a similar name. Nazareth (Photo: Assaf Rozen) "Nazareth is the largest Arab city in Israel and Nazareth Illit is the largest Jewish city in the Galilee These are separate authorities with a completely different identity and character," emphasized Plot, adding that even though it has been 62 years since the city was established, Israeli citizens still havent grasped there is a difference, making the potential name change inevitable. We need to fix this mistake once and for all, the mayor added. The municipality added in a statement that various MKs, ministers and even the prime minister himself had erred in the past and referred to the city as Nazareth. "Ben-Gurion himself wrote Nazareth in some of his documents when referring to Nazareth Illit, said the municipalitys statement. Nazareth Illit Mayor Ronen Plot Plot intends to submit an official proposal to change the citys name during the first city council meeting. Britain said on Monday it regretted a US decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran. "We regret the reimposition of sanctions by the US We continue to believe that the Iran nuclear deal makes the world a safer place and our position remains that as long as Iran continues to meet its obligations under the deal by respecting strict limits on its nuclear activity, we will be committed to it too," Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said. "As such we continue to fully support expanding our trade relationship with Iran and encourage UK businesses to take advantage of commercial opportunities that arise." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed on Monday what he called US President Donald Trump's courageous decision in reimposing US sanctions on Iran. "This day is an historic day," Netanyahu said in public remarks to legislators from his Likud party. "I would like to again thank US President Donald Trump for the courageous, determined and important decision. I think this contributes to stability and security and peace." There's a strong link between the new US sanctions on Iran that went into effect on Monday and the midterm elections taking place the next day. The new and harsh sanctions the Trump administration is imposing on the Iranian oil and gas industry are meant to further exacerbate the economic crisis in the Islamic Republic and consequently increase the public pressure on the leadership in Tehran. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Unlike the sanctions that preceded the 2015 nuclear agreement, which were imposed by all world powersincluding Russia and Chinathis time the US stands alone. Moreover, the European Union and the other world powers are making every effort to torpedo the American sanctions. The export of oil and gas is Iran's main source of foreign income, and the loss of even a part of it could be critical, especially in the midst of the economic crisis Tehran is experiencing, which is only getting worse. US President Trump at campaign rally in Florida (Photo: Reuters) The US is hoping the yoke of the sanctions will pose a threat to the ayatollahs regime, intensify the mass protests against the government, or at the very least lead to negotiations over a new nuclear agreement, which will do away with the flaws of the existing deal (that the US has already pulled out of). The new agreement, Washington hopes, will address issues that were left out of the original one, including the testing of long-range missiles that can carry nuclear payloads and Iran's aggression across the Middle East. The Iranians are very worried by the destructive ramifications of the new sanctions. They therefore hope for a Republican loss in the midterm elections, working under the assumption that if the Democrats manage to regain control of at least one house of Congress, Trump would have a hard time governing and would have to invest a lot more efforts into passing budgets, laws and decisions. If the Democrats gain control of the House of Representatives, the regime in Tehran hopes, they may launch a process to impeach the president, which could, at the very least, hurt his chances to be elected for a second term in 2020. Former US President Obama with Senate candidates in Nevada (Photo: EPA) In any case, the Iranian leadership believes that if the Democrats win the midterm elections, they would limit new possible initiatives Trump might wish to take against the Islamic Republic, and so Tehran would only have to hold on for two years against the sanctions. After that, a Democrat might get elected to the White House and completely change the American attitude towards Iran, returning it to what it was in the Obama era. If the Republicans win and maintain control over both houses of Congressconsequently bolstering Trump ahead of the 2020 presidential electionsIran would have to turn to other options. A Democratic win could also harm US-Israel ties. Trump is the most pro-Israeli American president since Ronald Reagan. The Democratic Party, meanwhile, is moving towards the radical left, which will affect the midterms as well. Israel support among Democrats has plummeted over the past decade, which is evident in public opinion polls, the party's platform, and the positions of some of its veteran representatives as well as of those who might join them in the coming election. The fight between Israel and Iran will move to Washington with the midterm elections. Just as Iran hopes for a Democratic victory, Israel wishes for a Republican win, which will allow Trump to continue his pressure on Iran and his pro-Israel moves. And so, the midterm elections' results could have a significant impact on Israel's security and welfare. Eytan Gilboa is an expert on the US, the Director of the Center for International Communication and a senior research associate at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. DUBAI - Iran's telecommunications minister accused Israel on Monday of a new cyber attack on its telecommunications infrastructure, and vowed to respond with legal action. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter This followed comments from another official last week that Iran had uncovered a new generation of Stuxnet , a virus which was used against the country's nuclear program more than a decade ago. "The Zionist regime (Israel), with its record of using cyber weapons such as Stuxnet computer virus, launched a cyber attack on Iran on Monday to harm Iran's communication infrastructures," Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi said. File photo (: shutterstock) "Thanks to our vigilant technical teams, it failed," he said on Twitter. Iran would take legal action against Israel at international bodies, he added, without giving details. His deputy Hamid Fattahi said more details would be revealed in the coming days, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Today, Some of our communication infrastructures have been attacked by some sources in an illegal regime. It was such an EASY TO DEFEAT THEM! They showed to the Int'l community that their accusation against Iran for #CyberAttacks was just a ridiculous delusion. Remember Stuxnet. Hamid Fatahi (@fatahi_ir) November 5, 2018 Stuxnet, which is widely believed to have been developed by the United States and Israel, was discovered in 2010 after it was used to attack a uranium enrichment facility at Iran's Natanz underground nuclear site. It was the first publicly known example of a virus being used to attack industrial machinery. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani at a government meeting about US sanctions (Photo: AFP) Last week, Gholamreza Jalali, head of Iran's civil defense agency, said Iran had neutralized a version of Stuxnet. "Recently we discovered a new generation of Stuxnet which consisted of several parts ... and was trying to enter our systems," Jalali was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency. He gave no further details. Protests in Tehran to mark US Embassy takeover during 1979 Revolution (Photo: AP) In 2013, researchers at Symantec Corp uncovered a version of the Stuxnet that was used to attack the Iranian nuclear program in November 2007. Tehran agreed under a 2015 deal with world powers to curb the program but President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of it in May, with Israel's backing. Washington fully restored sanctions on Tehran on Monday. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week called for stepped up efforts to fight enemy "infiltration" in a speech to officials in charge of cyber defense, state television reported. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday in Jerusalem with James F. Jeffrey, US Secretary's Special Representative for Syria Engagement. The two discussed recent developments in Syria and joint efforts to battle Iranian aggression. The prime minister thanked Jeffrey for his efforts and congratulated US President Trump upon the beginning of its government's sanctions against Iran's fuel exports. WASHINGTONUS President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton said there will be additional US sanctions on Iran after the Trump administration on Monday re-imposed oil and economic sanctions, but gave no other details. "We're going to have sanctions that even go beyond this. We're not simply going to be content with the level of sanctions that existed under (former US President Barack) Obama in 2015," Bolton said in an interview on Fox Business Network, according to a transcript. "More are coming." The Magistrate's Court in Rishon LeZion extended on Monday in nine days the remand of all six suspects in the "Black Diamond" case, in which police is investigating the smuggling of NIS 300 million worth of diamonds. The Police believe that an employee of one of Lev Leviev's factories allegedly smuggled a large quantity of diamonds into Israel when he arrived six years ago as a returning resident. In a police raid conducted by the detectives of the Unit of International Crime Investigations, hundreds of delivery note related to diamond shipping was found. US Trump administration's tough new sanctions on Iran took effect on Monday but eight major importers of Iranian oil were spared from immediate penalties. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The sanctions target Iran's energy, financial and shipping sectors and are aimed at crippling the country's economy following US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal. The measures restore all the US sanctions that had been lifted under the accord that gave Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. Iran's President Rouhani and US President Trump (Photo: AFP, Getty Images) The sanctions freeze any assets that those targeted have in US jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them. They will also affect non-Iranian companies that deal with sanctioned Iranian firms and officials. In what the US said was the largest-single sanctions designation, US Treasury imposed penalties on more than 700 Iranian and Iranian-linked individuals, entities, aircraft and vessels. The move brought to more than 900 the number of Iran-related targets sanctioned by the Trump administration in less than two years. Among those are 50 Iranian banks and subsidiaries, more than 200 people and ships, Iran's state-run airline Iran Air and more than 65 of its planes. "Treasury's imposition of unprecedented financial pressure on Iran should make clear to the Iranian regime that they will face mounting financial isolation and economic stagnation until they fundamentally change their destabilizing behavior. The maximum pressure exerted by the United States is only going to mount from here. We are intent on making sure the Iranian regime stops siphoning its hard currency reserves into corrupt investments and the hands of terrorists," said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Yet as the administration seeks to cut off Iran's oil revenue completely it is allowing some of its closest allies Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and rival China to continue to purchase Iranian oil as long as they work to reduce imports to zero. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Photo: AP) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the waivers, which expire in six months, were necessary to avoid disruption of world oil markets and to give the eight countries more time to eliminate their imports. During those six months, the importing country can buy Iranian oil but must deposit Iran's revenue in an escrow account. Iran can spend the money but only on a narrow range of humanitarian items. Seeking to deflect criticism from some Iran hawks concerned that the sanctions don't go far enough, Pompeo stressed that US pressure on countries to stop buying Iranian oil had already reduced its exports by more than a million barrels of crude per day. "Rest assured, Iran will never get close to obtaining a nuclear weapon under President Trump's watch," he said. Pompeo also said limited waivers had been issued to allow European and other firms to continue conversion work on two of Iran's nuclear facilities. Trump has repeatedly denounced the 2015 deal, one of former President Barack Obama's biggest diplomatic achievements, as the "worst ever" negotiated by the United States, saying it gave Iran too much in return for too little. But proponents as well as the other parties to the deal Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union have vehemently defended it. The Europeans have mounted a drive to save the agreement without the US, fearing that the new sanctions will drive Iran to pull out and resume all of its nuclear work.' Meanwhile, Iran greeted the re-imposition of US sanctions on Monday with air defense drills and a statement from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that the nation faces a "war situation," raising Mideast tensions as America's maximalist approach to the Islamic Republic takes hold. US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt referred Monday to the visit of Minister of Transportation and Minister of Intelligence Yisrael Katz in Oman, and promoted the "Milestones for Peace" program, which the minister is set to present during his visit. "Today Transportation & Intelligence Minister @Israel_Katz is in Oman at an international transportation event. He will present a plan for the construction of a railway between Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia & the Gulf. Lets keep the dialogue going. These efforts support our efforts," he tweeted. The Knesset plenum approved Monday in its second and third readings a bill that that excludes terrorists from receiving early release. According to the proposal, initiated by MK Yoav Kish (Likud), security prisoners will not be eligible for early release. Days ahead of a contentious US national election in which immigration has become a central issue, racist fliers saying "It's okay to be white" have been reported on university campuses in five states, while synagogues in New York and California have been sprayed with antisemitic graffiti. The phrase on the fliers is associated with the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan. The fliers have been reported at campuses including Duke University in North Carolina, Tufts University in Massachusetts, the University of Delaware, the University of Vermont and Iowa State University. In some cases, vandals attached the fliers to posters encouraging people to vote on Nov. 6. Meanwhile, after a gunman killed 11 worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last weekend, graffiti saying "Kill all Jews" was sprayed at the Union Temple synagogue in New York City on Thursday night. Similar graffiti was found on an Irvine, California, synagogue earlier this week. During the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue last weekend, the worst ever on the US Jewish community, the man accused of the massacre yelled "All Jews must die." Robert Bowers, 46, an avowed anti-Semite, pleaded not guilty on Thursday in federal court to all 44 counts against him in the attack. A post on controversial online image board 4chan last week called on participants to put the fliers up in public places. Some participants this week posted pictures of themselves with the fliers. The universities affected condemned the fliers. Jaffa Military Court charged an IDF combat soldier from the Home Front with aggravated assault on Monday, after a Military Police investigation revealed that the soldier kicked and punched a Palestinian detainee who was bound with his eyes covered at a military post in the West Bank. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The incident took place in May at the Shaked outpost in Samaria when the detained Palestinian was brought in along with two other Palestinian detainees to the base's detention cell. Detention cell, file photo (Photo: Roni Schutzer) According to the indictment, at one point, the soldier entered the cell and mocked the three Palestinian prisoners: "When did you last shower?" when did you last put water on your body?" he taunted them. One man replied that he did not understand what he was saying. Later, the soldier returned to the room after allegedly hearing the prisoners cursing him in Arabic. The investigation of the Military Police Investigation Unit (MPCID) revealed that the defendant repeatedly beat the Palestinian detainee with his fists and kicked him several times; causing bleeding and injuries to his head and back. File photo (Photo: Gadi Kabalo) While he was hitting the Palestinian, the soldier cursed his victim and only when another soldier intervened did he stop and left the cell. He was also charged with inappropriate conduct. "Hurting detainees is a serious matter that is not taken lightly. The IDF is working on discipline and adherence to rules in this matter," The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that the Israeli attacks in Syria would not solve its security problems, but would increase tensions in the region. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Lavrov added that Israel risked the lives of Russian soldiers on Syrian soil when it violated its commitments and did not inform Moscow in advance about its planned attacks, "as in the attack in Tadmor in March 2017." By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] Hurley Iron County voters will join voters around Wisconsin in heading to the polls Tuesday to decide a number of national, state and local races. State races At the state level, Tuesdays ballot features the race for governor and lieutenant governor, where Republican incumbents Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch are looking for another term in office. They are being challenged by Democrats Tony Evers and Mandela Barnes, Libertarians Phillip Anderson and Patrick Baird, Wisconsin Green Party candidates Michael J. White and Tiffany Anderson, independents Maggie Turnbull and Wil Losch, and Wisconsin Party candidate Arnie Enz. Incumbent Republican Brad Schimel is facing off with Democrat Josh Kaul and Constitution candidate Terry Larson for the office of attorney general, while Republican Jay Schroeder and incumbent Democrat Doug La Follette are vying to be secretary of state. With Republican Matt Adamczyk not seeking another term, Republican Travis Hartwig, Democrat Sarah Godlewski and Consitution Party candidate Andrew Zuelke are vying to see who will be Wisconsins next state treasurer. Democrat Janet Bewley hopes to continue representing District 25 in the state senate, while James Bolen is hoping to flip the seat for the Republicans. Democrat Beth Meyers is looking to defeat Republican Jeffrey Fahl to win another term in the state assembly representing District 74 National races The areas U.S. Senate and House seats are also up for grabs Tuesday. Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin and Republican Leah Vukmir are vying for one of the states two U.S. Senate seats, while Republican U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy is defending his 7th Congressional District seat against Democrat Margaret Engebretson and independent Ken Driessen. Local races While the winners of the state and national races on the ballot wont be known until the votes are counted, the local Iron County races on the ballot include three candidates who are running unopposed. Paul Samardich is seeking his first term as Iron County sheriff, while Diane Simonich and Karen Ransanici are seeking reelection as Iron Countys coroner and clerk of courts, respectively. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. News Phoenix, Arizona - First Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth A. Strange announced today that Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Todd M. Allison will lead the efforts of the U.S. Attorneys Office in conjunction with the Department of Justices nationwide Election Day Program for the upcoming general elections on November 6, 2018. AUSA Allison has been appointed to serve as the District Election Officer for Arizona. In that capacity, he is responsible for overseeing the District of Arizonas handling of complaints of election fraud and voting rights abuses in consultation with DOJ in Washington, D.C. Our democracy relies upon free and fair elections, and we are asking for community support to help us ensure that every eligible voter can freely exercise his or her right to vote, stated First Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth A. Strange. It is imperative that anyone who has knowledge of suspected voter intimidation, discrimination, or election fraud report that information immediately to our Office, the FBI, or DOJs Civil Rights Division. The Department of Justice has an important role in deterring election fraud, voter intimidation, and discrimination at the polls, and combating these violations whenever and wherever they occur. The Departments long-standing Election Day Program furthers these goals, and also seeks to ensure public confidence in the integrity of the election process by providing local points of contact within the Department for the public to report possible election fraud and voting rights violations while the polls are open on election day. Federal law protects against such crimes as intimidating or bribing voters, buying and selling votes, impersonating voters, altering vote tallies, stuffing ballot boxes, and marking ballots for voters against their wishes or without their input. It also contains special protections for the rights of voters and provides that they can vote free from acts that intimidate or harass them. For example, persons attempting to interrupt or intimidate voters by questioning, challenging, photographing or videotaping them at polling places especially under the guise of uncovering illegal voting may be violating federal voting rights law. Further, federal law protects the right of voters to mark their own ballot or to be assisted by a person of their choice. The right to vote is the cornerstone of American democracy. We all must ensure that those who are entitled to the electoral franchise exercise it if they choose, and that those who seek to corrupt it are brought to justice. In order to respond to complaints of election fraud or voting rights abuses on Nov. 6, 2018, and to ensure that such complaints are directed to the appropriate authorities, AUSA Allison will be on duty in this District the entire time that the polls are open. He can be reached by the public at the following telephone number: (602) 595-2866. In addition, the FBI will have special agents available in each field office and resident agency throughout the country to receive allegations of election fraud and any other election abuses on election day. The local FBI field office can be reached by the public at (623) 466-1999. Complaints about possible violations of the federal voting rights laws can be made directly to the Civil Rights Divisions Voting Section in Washington, D.C. by phone at 1-800-253-3931 or (202) 307-2767, by fax at (202) 307-3961, by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (link sends e-mail) by complaint format at http://www.justice.gov/crt/complaint/votintake/index.php. 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. There is not enough analysis data for Botswana Diamonds. 4.1 Community Rank Outperform Votes Botswana Diamonds has received 231 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Botswana Diamonds has received 140 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Botswana Diamonds has received 62.26% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Botswana Diamonds and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe BOD will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe BOD will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Nevsun Resources Ltd. engages in the mining and development of mineral properties in Europe, Africa, and North America. It explores for gold, copper, zinc, and silver deposits. The company's principal assets include Timok project, a copper-gold development project in Serbia; and Bisha copper- zinc mine in Eritrea. It also holds exploration licenses and permits in Serbia and Macedonia, as well as in the Bisha mining district. The company was incorporated in 1965 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. As of January 7, 2019, Nevsun Resources Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited. Read More - A wedding ceremony that was supposed to hold on November 3, 2018, was reportedly called off on the set date - The father of the bride allegedly called off the wedding because the groom failed to honour a meeting he had called for - There was confusion as the groom claimed not to have any prior altercation with his father-in-law or wife to be It is common knowledge that a number of ladies cannot wait to get married to the love of their lives as they look forward to the big day. However, a big event such as a wedding can be cancelled at the last moment despite elaborate preparations. YEN.com.gh has gathered reports that a wedding was cancelled just a few hours to its commencement by the father of the bride. The sad occurrence which reportedly took place on November 3, 2018, at Ibadan, Oyo state caused a lot of confusion. READ ALSO: Funeral poster of slay queen Charlotte Abena Woodey who died because of an iPhone pops up and it's sad (Photo) The groom, Tunji Curtis, explained that he and his wife-to-be, Oluwaseun Adugbe, had no prior issues and he was surprised that his father-in-law would take such a drastic decision. This is shocking. I dont believe this is truly happening, because my wife and I had no issues at all and I cant remember having any issue with her father. In fact, I sent money to her father last week Thursday as part of my contributions towards the wedding Grooms family. Photo source: Nigerian Tribune Oluwaseuns father reportedly cancelled the wedding because the groom had failed to honour a meeting he had called for on Friday, November 2, a day to the wedding. READ ALSO: I seduced my boss by not wearing pants to the office for 3 weeks - NSS girl wildly confesses Speaking to Sunday Tribune, the distraught groom explained that he missed the meeting because he was busy making sure things went smoothly for the wedding. Some of the food prepared for the wedding. Photo source: Nigerian Tribune He said: I asked my father-in-law what went wrong; he told me that I failed to honour a meeting yesterday. I tried to explain to him that I was extremely busy making sure that everything was in place so that we could have a smooth celebration. READ ALSO: Huge 'melons' of D-Black's 'girl' Nina Ricchie causes stir at DJ Mensah's party (Photos) The groom's sister, identified as Abibat, who had travelled to the venue with a number of friends, expressed her disappointment at how things turned out. Wedding guest. Photo source: Nigerian Tribune She lamented: "You can imagine the excuse that they gave for the cancellation of the wedding. I have never seen any family that is as irresponsible as this. I dont blame them; I blame our son, who took the wrong step. The wedding is over and we will be going back to Lagos anytime from now." The cancellation of this wedding comes after YEN.com.gh reported that a wedding in Awka, the capital of the Nigerian state of Anambra had been cancelled. The wedding, according to the report, was cancelled after the bride was caught making love with another man right in the hotel where her wedding was supposed to be held the next morning. Xandy Kamel Interview on Star Gist: 'Benedicta Gafah Has No Womb' Xandy Drops Bombshell| #Yencomgh: Share your views on this with us in the comments section below. Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook/Instagram page and we could feature your story. To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on Google Play today Source: Yen.com.gh President Akufo-Addo has aimed a dig at the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) insisting he government is clearing the mess that the previous administration left behind. Speaking at the swearing in ceremony of some seven Ministers of State approved by Parliament last week, the President admonished all his appointees to work hard towards the development of Ghana. READ ALSO: 20 banks meet new minimum capital requirement - Elsie Awadzi He said the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has already delivered some of its campaign promises and will continue to work hard to achieve the remaining ones. We have to work together so that the things that we told the Ghanaian people that got them to give us their confidence and trust we can deliver them. Weve delivered some; there are still others to go. But if we all continue to work hard and keep our eyes on the ball, Im very confident that when the 4 years are over we will be able to give a good account of ourselves to the people of Ghana, he stated. President Akufo-Addo went on to take a swipe at the NDC, saying his government is clearing the mess created by the erstwhile John Mahama administration. His comments come following several criticisms of his government by former president Mahama. The ex-president maintains that the NPP came to power by selling lies and lofty promises to the people of Ghana. Recently, Mahama took a swipe at the Nana government over its inability to deliver on a campaign promise to give each constituency $1 million per year. READ ALSO: Photo of George Andahs mangled V8 after accident Addressing delegates in the Upper East Region, he said: The worse one[promise] is the $1 million, per constituency, per year. Now we are almost two years gone, so $2 million. But weve now been told that the money [for 2017 has] expired. Ask Agalga, they called the Minister [of Special initiatives, Hawa Koomson] to Parliament and asked her about last years money and she said that one has expired. I know rice, cooking oil, corned beef, sardine, they have expiry date, but Ive never seen money with expiry date. If we use her logic about 2017 one, then it means that 20" Xandy Kamel Interview on Star Gist: 'Benedicta Gafah Has No Womb' Xandy Drops Bombshell| #Yencomgh READ ALSO: Mariam Owusu-Poku emerges winner of Miss Malaika 2018 Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: Yen.com.gh - Preliminary diagnosis has disclosed that Deputy Minister of Communications, George Andah, has a bone fracture and will soon undergo surgery - George Andah was involved in an accident on Saturday, November 3, 2018 and was rushed to the 37 Military Hospital Doctors at the 37 Military Hospital have reportedly revealed new facts about the injuries sustained by Deputy Communications Minister, George Andah. YEN.com.gh understands that Andah has a bone fracture and will undergo surgery soon. According to his special aide, Emmanuel Oscar, Andah is in a stable condition and is responding to treatment. READ ALSO: Maid poisons boss and 4 grandchildren for not giving her food YEN.com.gh earlier reported that the deputy minister was involved in an accident on Saturday, November 5, 2018. The accident occurred at Bawjiase in the Awutu Senya West constituency, where Andah serves as a Member of Parliament (MP). He was transported with a helicopter to the 37 Military Hospital soon after the accident occurred. Oscar revealed that three persons who were traveling with the minister have different level of minor injuries. "The bodyguard is doing well and the driver as well as Honourable (Andah) are stable," he said. Meanwhile, government officials have denied claims that the minister has been flown to the UK for medical treatment. READ ALSO: Drama as bride's father cancel's wedding on D-day Xandy Kamel Interview on Star Gist: 'Benedicta Gafah Has No Womb' Xandy Drops Bombshell| #Yencomgh Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos Source: Yen.com.gh - Lil Win has been honoured at the national Private School Awards -He received the Most Promising Proprietor Of The Year Kumawood star, Kwadwo Nkansah, popularly known as "Lil Win" has been honoured for his outstanding service for the country. The actor was honoured during the maiden edition of the National Private School Awards. The awards ceremony came off over the weekend at the Golden Tulip hotel in Kumasi. READ ALSO: Purfcie Conna outshines Moesha Boduong in latest photo Lil Win, the founder of Great Minds International School was given the Most Promising Proprietor of The Year. The Kumasi-based actor received the prestigious award for his outstanding service for the country. READ ALSO: Salma Mumin drops wild bikini photo According to Mr. Enoch Kwasi Gyetuah, National Executive Director of Ghana National Council of Private School, the awards scheme remained a significant step in recognizing He said, it was an honour to celebrate Educational Personalities who are helping to the growth of education in the country. READ ALSO: Nikki Samonas wows fans in new photos However, the National Best Proprietor of the Year Aeard was given to the Director for Manner International School, Mr. Micheal Mensah, while National Best Private School of the Year went to Potters International School. Lil Win was in the news recently after he was enstooled as the Nkosuohene of Duaponko in the Ashanti Region. Lilwin became the obvious choice to be honoured by the Chief of the Town, Nana Akwesi Gyabaa, for his massive impact on the lives of the people across the region. Xandy Kamel Interview on Star Gist: 'Benedicta Gafah Has No Womb' Xandy Drops Bombshell| #Yencomgh Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YEN's official Facebook page. Source: Yen Work with your past self, create paradoxes to use to your advantage, and defeat an evil wizard (easy, right?) - A man has been arrested by the police for posing as an employee of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) - Richard Appiah, a former employee of Ghana Electronics, allegedly took GHc1,900 from a paper mill business - He earlier accused them of illegal power connections and proceeded to demand GHc2000 from them The Ashanti Regional branch of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has caused the arrest of a fake staff member. According to a report by MyNewsGH.com, 38-year-old Richard Appiah took GHc1,900 from unsuspecting customers of the company. Shedding light on the matter, Erasmus Kyere Baidoo, the Ashanti Regional Public Relations Manager of ECG, revealed that often accused people of illegal power connections. The suspect, Richard Appiah Source: MyNewsGH.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: 37 Military Hospital doctors reveal fresh facts about George Andah's injuries He will then blackmail them into either paying various amounts of cash or risk being punished by the company. Baidoo added that Appiah used to work with Ghana Electronics, but was sacked two months ago for stealing electricity meters. He has therefore never been a staff of the ECG, but goes round posing as a worker of the company and uses a ECG-branded motor bicycle Baidoo revealed that Richard set off on Saturday, November 3, 2018, on his usual operations to a pepper mill at Bantama. and took out all three phases of the power lines he claimed they were illegally connected to. The workers subsequently took his phone number and gave it to their boss who was not around at the time to talk to Appiah. The suspect initially demanded GHc2000, but later settled on GHC1,900 after extensive bargaining. The owner of the pepper mill consequently collaborated with the ECG office to effect Richards arrest. READ ALSO: Otabil,. ICGC and others sued for causing financial loss Yenkasa Kumasi: What is the Biggest Challenge Confronting the People of Kumasi? Use the comments section below to share your views on this story. Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook or Instagram Source: Yen Newspaper Ghana-based Gambian actress, Princess Shyngle has set social media on fire with a new photo. YEN.com.gh is in possession of a photo of the actress which social media users are talking about it. In the photo posted by Princess on Instagram, the controversial actress is seen wearing a red outfit and the way her dress is designed one can see her cleavage. READ ALSO: Fuse ODG unhappy over Prince Charles' visit to Ghana The dress also displayed her shapely body. She captioned the photo, Dont fight meaningless battles. Not every opinion is worth your energy. Know who you are and thats enough. You dont have to explain yourself to people who arent adding any value in your life. Princess known for sharing saucy photos and videos, her followers couldnt mute as they expressed their views with respect to her latest photo. READ ALSO: Nakuru pastor cancels wedding over couples HIV status @michael.sremsai dropped the first comment admiring Princess endowed body. He wrote: hot and rocking with a nice shape. @bigjem9 commented: You are so fine from every angle .. that dress is so damn Hot." @wijnrage screamed over Princess beauty. He wrote: Omg this i never saw in my life before, you are unreal beautiful, you are totaly AMAZING how perfect you are. Despite the compliments other followers expressed their displeasure by criticizing the actress. @fitboy_sam_jnr wrote: Keep doing this ...You will realize life when you are at your 40s . Thank me later. @amoako210 commented: We are tired of u, don't u have anything new to show?. READ ALSO: Stonebwoy, others win big at Ghana Music Awards staged in South Africa Princess was recently in the news after dropping two awesome photos. In the photos, she flaunted her hot body as she wore a decorated bikini. Watch: Xandy Kamel Interview on Star Gist: 'Benedicta Gafah Has No Womb' Xandy Drops Bombshell| #Yencomgh Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YEN's official Facebook page. Source: Yen.com.gh Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak, is set to back his words with action by riding a bicycle to Parliament from Tuesday, October 6, 2018, in protest of the high cost of fuel and the economic conditions under the Akufo-Addo administration. According to a report sighted by YEN.com.gh on Citinewsroom.com, the legislator revealed his plans to do a 17-kilometer bike ride in protest of the hardships Ghanaians were facing. The MPs National Democratic Congress (NDC) has not relented in its criticism of the governments handling of the company, and the MP indicated that it was time for a different manifestation of peoples frustrations. Ras Mubarak. Credit: Supplied Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Dzidzor Mensah displays her oranges in latest wild bedroom video With the 2019 budget set to be delivered later in November, Mr. Mubarak indicated that he was expecting it to actually deliver the hope President Nana Akufo-Addo has promised and also offer relief to Ghanaians. The prices of both petrol and diesel have risen by about 2.76 percent. The price of petrol and diesel is currently pegged at about GH5.21 per litre, up from the previous price of GH5.07 per litre, despite a reduction in the price of crude oil on the international market. Fuel prices keep going up. Prices of commodities keep going up and there seems to be no end in sight in respect of the suffering that ordinary Ghanaians who do not have free fuel and free vehicles maintained by the state, Mr. Mubarak said. The MP said he expected some legislators and Ghanaians in general, to join him in his protest. READ ALSO: 1 dead, 4 hospitalised as housemaid poisons food (Video) The honorable Dr. Clement Apaak has indicated he is interested in joining the cause, and I am sure once we get started, we might have not only members of Parliament, but ordinary Ghanaians who are feeling the pressure joining in the expression of frustration. On how long this protest will go, he said lets get started and see how things unravel. If there is the need to sustain it as long as can be, I will be happy to sustain it. Mr. Mubarak said his protest was a way of 'killing two birds with one stone' as he said the deteriorating state of the environment was also a major concern to him. First of all, it [riding a bicycle] is a healthy thing to do. Secondly, there are concerns about the environment and there are no better means of preserving the planet than using means of transport that are environmentally friendly, he added. READ ALSO: Metro TV lays off 45 employees Watch: Xandy Kamel Interview on Star Gist| #Yencomgh Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: Yen You can bet on who will win the 2018 Iowa Government race at Bookmaker where it's Fred Hubbell (D) vs. Kim Reynolds (R). *Bets Need to be Placed Early Hubbell vs. Reynolds This is a tightly contested Governor's race in Iowa with the Democrat now favored to win. Hubbell had a thin 2-point lead as of Sunday. Forty-six percent of likely voters say they support Hubbell, and 44 percent say they support Reynolds. Hubbell also holds a 13 percentage-point lead among women, 52 percent to 39 percent. Iowa gamblers are welcome to place their bets online with Bookmaker . - Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com You can bet on who will win the 2018 Nevada Senate race at Bookmaker where it's Jacky Rosen (D) vs. Dean Heller (R). *Bets Need to be Placed Early Rosen vs. Heller Dean Heller is among the most endangered Republicans on the Senate map. He definitely has value as some polls show him up . Real Clear Politics notes: Against the odds, Dean Heller has opened up a lead. Polls tend to overstate Democratic performance in Nevada, but the early vote (which is actually meaningful here) is more balanced than many would expect. This is a close race right now. Nevada gamblers are welcome to place their bets online with Bookmaker . - Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com Wreckage and human bones : Police secure bones discovered on banks of Rhine UNKEL Low water levels disclosed the remains of a plane from World War II and human bones. Experts were at the location on the banks of the Rhine on Sunday. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken The story about the discovery of the wreck of a Junkers (Ju) 87 (a German dive bomber used during World War II) and human bones in the Rhine because of the low water levels continues. The criminal police and other experts were at the banks of the Rhine in Unkel on Sunday to recover the bones found in the wreck of the Ju. Linz police confirmed this in response to a GA enquiry. Experts from the State Office for Archaeology were also called in. The next steps are to be decided at the start of the week. Based on current information, the location will not be declared a current crime scene. As reported, the low Rhine levels in Unkel may have brought to light a human drama that occurred during the battle for the bridge at Remagen in March 1945. The archaeologist Oliver Kessler, who works at Bonn University and lives in Unkel, discovered the wreck of a Junkers (Ju) 87 and a water canteen in the river and on the bank during a walk, as well as some burnt human bones, which he told the GA he believes could be those of the two occupants of the plane. Nearby were the remains of two boats that may have been part of the American pontoon bridge over the Rhine. Kessler believes that he found the remains of a German plane shot down near Unkel on 8 March 1945. According to Kesslers research, the two pilots have been missing since then. Kessler wants to make his findings and photos available to the historical preservation authorities in Koblenz. He has also contacted the German Red Cross to let them know of the possible fate of the two soldiers, as he is certain the bones are human remains. The GA report about Kesslers discoveries triggered a big response in the media, said Veit Doll, the deputy head of Linz police station. The recovery of the bones was arranged at short notice at the weekend, not least because of this interest. Further investigations are still pending. In the meantime, someone has lit a candle on the Rhine in memory of the war victims. Bonn Shines and Streetfood Festival : Positive round up after Sunday shopping Bonn Bonn shines appealed to all the senses this year. In addition to the colourfully illuminated buildings, visitors were offered a musical and culinary spectacle and the shops were open on Sunday. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken The Old Town Hall, the University, the Beethovenhaus, the Sterntor and many other buildings in Bonns city centre were bathed in colour from Friday evening. Green, red, blue, yellow and pink spotlights illuminated the buildings and provided a unique backdrop to shopping spree, a visit to the Streetfood Festival or to the Euromarche, a market for European specialities. The lighting effects, put together by Wolfgang Flammersfeld, attracted many photography enthusiasts and others into the city. Yvette Schwarz thought that more buildings were illuminated last year. The Munster was not lit up for technical reasons. The opera, which organises the illuminations, could not take part this year because of timing constraints. But its great that theres so much life in the city this evening, said Schwarz. Streetfood Festival Maike Reinhardt, managing director of City-Marketing, was also completely satisfied. The city centre was still packed long after the shops closed, she said delightedly. But for the future she would like more support. Many retailers have benefited from the event. It would be nice if we could get them on board. The Streetfood Festival with delicacies from around the world and the Euromarche, with European specialities, were spread across the Munsterplatz, Marktplatz and Friedensplatz. Visitor Werner Kolb thought it was a successful combination. His wife, Dorothea, thought it was missing some of the international street food flair. We have already visited several places in the world. Unfortunately, this festival cannot compare with the flair on the streets in other countries. She would have liked to see more on-site cooking. The Bonn brass band Druckluft brought a dance atmosphere to the front of the Old Town Hall, with confetti cannons and popular classics. The band has existed since the band members school days at the Beuel Kardinal Frings secondary school. The 14 musicians, aged between 18 and 25, make about 220 appearances a year. We have never done anything like this evening, said trombonist Flo. The band mostly performs during Carnival season. Its a great chance to introduce yourself to another audience, added the 22-year-old. Retailers were happy with the Sunday shopping. We have, by comparison, not quite reached the levels of a Saturday, but we had higher sales than on a working day, said Alfred Westenhofer, owner of the Puppenkonig toyshop. Sinn managing director Erich Beyersdorff also looked back on a successful weekend. The bridging day and the large event made it worthwhile. Sadness written on faces on these Ambaeans taken previously at Sarabulu Church MONTREAL, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AM Resources Corp. (TSXV:AMR) (Frankfurt:76A) announces today that it has entered into a mineral right acquisition agreement (the Agreement) with 7779534 Canada Inc. (7779534), a related party controlled by an officer of the Corporation, pursuant to which AM will acquire, through its Colombian subsidiary, AM Resources SAS, a 60% interest (the Interest) in the La Esperanza property (the Property) from Asfaltitas Colombiana SAS, a Colombian subsidiary of 7779534 (the Acquisition) Under the terms of the Agreement, the Corporation will issue 4,700,000 common shares (each a Share) of the Corporation to 7779534 as consideration for the Interest. La Esperanza Property The Property is composed of a unique mineral concession covering an area of 298ha and is located in the western portion of the department of Norte de Santander. It is accessible by rural roads some 70km NNW of the Colombian city of Bucaramanga in north-central Colombia. The Property lies between the La Tigra and Lebrija faults and is part of the Upper Magdalena, a geological basin having heavy oil and natural bitumen deposits. The area of the La Esperaza property is well known for its asphaltite occurrences and significant production took place on the property from an open pit operation that lasted a few years although discontinuously (before AMR acquired the title). The vein that was mined out in the open pit appears to be still open at depth. It is believed that production at La Tigra, neighbour of La Esperanza, reaches 3,000 tonnes per month. Exploration work through geophysics and one drill hole indicated that more veins could be discovered on the property. The Acquisition remains subject to the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. All Shares issued under the Agreement will be subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day from the date of issuance. Related Party Disclosure The Acquisition is considered to be a related party transaction for purposes of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101). The Corporation is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements available under MI 61-101. The Corporation is exempt from the formal valuation requirement in section 5.4 of MI 61-101 in reliance on sections 5.5(a) and (b) of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the transaction is not more than the 25% of the Corporations market capitalization, and no securities of the Corporation are listed or quoted for trading on prescribed stock exchanges or stock markets. Additionally, the Corporation is exempt from minority shareholder approval requirement in section 5.6 of MI 61-101 in reliance on section 5.7(b) as the fair market value of the transaction is not more than the 25% of the Corporations market capitalization. The board of directors of the Corporation approved the Acquisition, with Adriana Shaw having declared a conflict of interest in, and abstaining from voting on, the matters being considered. Quality Assurance / Quality Control The scientific and/or technical information presented in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Pierre ODowd, P. Geo. Mr. ODowd is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. ABOUT AM RESOURCES CORP. AM Resources Corp. is a mining exploration Corporation with interests in coal and natural bitumen projects in Colombia. AM is betting on Colombia's excellent mineral potential and favourable climate to pursue its new Colombian venture. The Corporation is also engaged in gold brokerage activities in Colombia through its subsidiary, AM Resources Trading Corp. For more information, please contact: Dominic Voyer President and Chief Executive Officer 1-514-360-0576 1-844-988-2632 www.am-resources.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. MANALAPAN, N.J, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sun Pacific Holding Corp. (OTCQB: SNPW) announces that its wholly owned subsidiary MedRecyclerRI, Inc has received an Inducement Resolution from the Rhode Island Industrial Facilities Corporation relating to its proposed bond financing for up to $13.5 Million. The Rhode Island Industrial Facilities Corporation (the Issuer) is a public corporation of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations organized and existing under Chapter 37.1 of Title 45 of The Rhode Island General Laws. The Issuer has determined that there exists a need for the abatement or control of pollution of the environment of the State of Rhode Island. The Issuer has affirmed a resolution that has resolved that it will authorize, issue and sell in one or more series of development revenue Bonds in an aggregate principal amount of up to $13,500,000 to finance the MedRecycler-RI, Inc medical waste to energy facility to be located in Johnston, Rhode Island. Nicholas Campanella, CEO of Sun Pacific Holdeing Corp, stated, We are pleased with the progress we have made towards the launch of this project. With the inducement resolution completed we have moved forward with the selection of counsel and have continued to work expiditionsly with NW Financial Group, LLC in completing the financing of this leading edge medical waste facility that can service the demand of the medical community of Rhode Island and the greater New England area. Sun Pacifics Medical Waste to Energy opportunity in Rhode Island is the Companys first response in targeting a global medical waste market place that is expected to reach $33.4 billion by 2025. Sun Pacifics goal is to target and build out other strategic Waste to Energy opportunities in North America in support of its high efficiency gasification technologies. The Company looks forward to keeping its stakeholders aware of its progress as it moves forward with the launch of this faciltiy in Rhode Island. We will be updating our progress as we complete our next milestones in this very exciting project. About Sun Pacific Holding Corp. Sun Pacific Holding Corp. (OTCQB: SNPW) uses management's knowledge and experience to serve its customers and now its shareholders through quality service and equipment, working to keep customers satisfied, and by doing our part in protecting the environment with smart green technology. For more information, visit www.sunpacificholding.com . Safe Harbor and Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions (such as those relating to future expansion or financial results) and other factors discussed from time to time in the Company's OTC Markets filings. These statements are forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties, so actual results may vary materially. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as "may," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend," "plan" and other similar expressions. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors not within the control of the company. The company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events. English Lithuanian Energijos Skirstymo Operatorius (hereinafter the Company), identification code 304151376, registered office at Aguonu str. 24, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania. The total number of registered ordinary shares issued by company is 894,630,333; ISIN code LT0000130023. On 5 November 2018, the Supervisory Board of Energijos Skirstymo Operatorius adopted a decision to approve the initiation of public selection of four Board members for the following areas of oversight: finance and administration, customer experience and services, network development, and network operation. The term of office of the current Board of Energijos Skirstymo Operatorius expires on 2 December 2019. The selection of Board members is announced with regard to the fact that the Company revises its long-term operation strategy the implementation whereof will require sustainable decisions by the Companys management. One year is left before expiry of the term of office of the current Board of the Company. The selection of the new board ought to be initiated already in the middle of next year; therefore, preliminary initiation of the selection is a rational decision aimed at synergy of the Companys long-term strategy and management decisions. Currently, the Companys members holding the office of the Companys Board members will further hold the office of the Companys Board members until the Companys Supervisory Board adopts respective decisions on the withdrawal of individual Board members or of the Board in corpore, or expiry of the Boards term of office, depending which is earlier. The Companys Board currently consists of the Companys CEO and Chairman of the Board Mindaugas Keizeris, Director of the Finance and Administration Division Augustas Dragunas, Director of the Network Operations Division Saulius Vaicekauskas and Director of the Network Development Division Ovidijus Martinonis. The Company will inform on its further actions after the selection results of the Board members under the procedure laid down in the legal acts. Information is not confidential. Person for contacts: Representative for Public Relations Tomas Kavaliauskas, tel. +370 617 51616. The Bradley Cooper-Lady Gaga remake ofisn't the only thing from the 1970s making a comeback this year. After most states passed laws blocking rent control in the 1980s and '90s, there's now a push to reintroduce it from coast to coast.In the Nov. 6 election, Californians sensibly rejected a ballot measure that would have repealed a state law prohibiting cities from expanding rent control. But the issue is still very much alive in California and elsewhere. In Illinois, for instance, the state legislature is contemplating eliminating a ban on rent control and creating six boards to manage rents statewide. Meanwhile, the New York city council is considering a potentially unconstitutional commercial rent-control proposal that would limit property owners' ability to increase rents for office, industrial and retail space.This resurgence comes in the face of escalating pressure to "do something" about sharply rising rents in urban areas. Yet economists of all political persuasions are highly skeptical that rent controls can be successfully re-imagined. Indeed, it is difficult to think of another policy where conservative economist Thomas Sowell, who once observed that "the goals of rent control and its actual consequences are at opposite poles," can agree with liberal economist Paul Krugman. As Krugman, acolumnist, explained in 2000 , introductory economics teaches that artificially compressing rents results in a shortage of rentable properties. The lower fixed price increases the demand for rental housing while reducing the quantity of it offered for rent.That's because landlords confronted with the regulation are incentivized to convert properties to other, higher-return uses. Developers, meanwhile, find new rentable accommodations less profitable to build, compounding the scarcity-of-supply problem that often drives high rental prices in the first place.This is not just theory. Following a 1994 rent-control expansion in San Francisco, research found that landlords converted rental properties to owner-occupied apartments and condos better suited to higher-income families to avoid being subject to the regulation. The supply of new rentable housing fell too, increasing underlying market rents by over 5 percent. Rent control both increased the cost of non-controlled rental accommodations and accelerated gentrification.Tenants with rent-controlled apartments benefit financially, but there are tradeoffs for them as well. Landlords under rent control have strong incentives to neglect maintenance or upkeep, allowing properties to fall into disrepair until the market price for the unit reflects the rent-controlled price. And property owners can become more discerning about the types of tenants they want to rent to, making potential tenants jump through administrative hoops to capture the prize. This can also discourage tenants from moving to new jobs or more appropriately-sized housing. It's been estimated, for example, that 21 percent of rent-controlled tenants in New York City live in properties with the wrong number of rooms for their needs.Faced with this historical evidence, advocates today instead emphasize the benefits of rent control on tenant security. They advocate regulations that limit price hikes in fixed tenancy periods, but with rents free to adjust when a tenancy ends. This is said to protect tenants against so-called "economic eviction" -- huge unforeseen jumps in rent that force a tenant to move out.No doubt tenants value security. But that such contracts are not widespread in free markets suggests that landlords value the flexibility to adjust rents to market conditions and their experience with tenants. Changing the balance of risks in favor of tenants would require higher rents to compensate.All of this indicates that tenancy rent controls and security regulation will -- at best -- lead landlords to front-load rent hikes, select tenants likely to stay for short periods, or provide poor service during tenancies if underlying market rents are rising rapidly. At worst, tenancy rent controls would increase overall market rents by raising risks to landlords and reducing investment in new stock, particularly if the controls are perceived as a precursor of more-onerous regulation.The truth about housing affordability is that high rental prices communicate that the supply of rentable property in the market is scarce relative to demand. The urgent message emanating from many desirable U.S. cities is that too few rentable units have been produced over long periods. But crude rent controls will worsen this shortage. And more flexible rent regulation amounts to just suppressing this price message for a lucky few tenants in the short term, in ways likely to worsen affordability more broadly.Rent control can't overcome the structural challenges to affordability that high-cost cities face, and a rent-control revival diverts attention from pro-development reforms that matter. Policymakers who care about housing affordability should leave rent control where it belongs: in the past. 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. Last week, the Trump administration approved a fifth state's request to add work requirements to Medicaid, the nation's health insurance program for the poor. Wisconsin is also the first state to receive approval for work requirements since a federal court struck them down in Kentucky.Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), addressed the pushback in her approval letter to Wisconsin."I recognize that there are people who disagree with this approach. We will not retreat from this position," she wrote, adding that requiring Medicaid recipients to have some form of employment can "help lift individuals out of the shadows of opportunity and into its light."Under Wisconsin's new rules, childless adults between the ages of 19 and 49 will be required to work, volunteer, be in school or in a job training program for at least 80 hours a month. Medicaid recipients who dont comply after 48 months will get kicked off their health insurance. The state is also allowed now to charge premiums for what is normally freeand to raise those premiums for people with riskier health behaviors, such as smoking.CMS took a stand, however, against Wisconsin's controversial proposal to drug test Medicaid users.Of the four other states CMS has given the greenlight to, only Arkansas has implemented work requirements. Indiana and New Hampshire will start enforcing them in January, and Kentucky's have been sent back to CMS for review.Since the experiment took effect in June in Arkansas, more than 8,000 people have lost health coverage because of work requirements and can't reapply for them until January. Health care experts are warning of similar losses in Indiana and New Hampshire."This is what we predicted. It shows that a lot of eligible people are getting caught up in this. It's not that they don't qualify, it's that they don't know,"says Jennifer Wagner, policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.More than 4,000 Arkansans lost their benefits in September, followed by another 4,000 this month. Of 73,266 Medicaid users, 74 percent were exempt or complied with the work requirement in September. But 23 percent didnt report their activities at all, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation While Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is expected to win reelection this week, said in September that he doesnt "like that number" of suddenly uninsured people, he said the work requirement is working as intended and called it "a proper balance of those values that we hold important."Like Arkansas, Indiana and New Hampshire mandate Medicaid users to prove their compliance with the work requirements through a website, which experts say is problematic."Theres not even a phone number on the letter [beneficiaries received notifying them of work requirements]. Everything is being driven to a website, which isnt sufficient. We know the population we serve has trouble accessing technology," says Dawn McKinney, policy director of New Hampshire Legal Assistance.Furthermore, experts like Kosali Simon, a health policy professor with Indiana University, point out that policy changes like these require technical and administrative changes, which can be glitchy."The devil is in the details. I just hope the process is set up in a way that there can be a mid-course correction if needed," says Simon. "Or if something isnt working as intended, theres flexibility there [and] constant feedback coming back to the state."New Hampshire, however, will allow in-person reporting. Wagner will be watching to see if that helps lower income and older people who lack access to technology.The exact rules vary in Indiana and New Hampshire, and are slightly different from Arkansas', but experts say they will still result in coverage loss. Arkansas and Indianas rules exempt people 50 and older, but not New Hampshires. New Hampshire also doesnt exempt parents like the other two states do. New Hampshire requires people to work or volunteer 100 hours per month, 20 more than Arkansas, but Indiana only requires 20 hours total. Indianas changes will be rolled out more slowly, with a six-month grace period before people start losing insurance, while New Hampshire beneficiaries will only have two months to comply. Arkansas has a three-monthgrace period.Kentucky's stuck-down rules required nondisabled adults ages 19 to 64 to work, volunteer or be in school at least 80 hours a month. Pregnant women, primary caregivers, former foster children and those unable to work for medical reasons were exempt. The state also required recipients to report income changes, and to pay premiums if they gained coverage under Medicaid expansion.In Indiana, the state has been charging premiums for Medicaid since 2015, which has resulted in more than 25,000 people being dropped from their insurance. Because Indianas new rules apply to fewer people -- and the state has already kicked off people who werent paying their premiums -- there isnt expected to be a huge wave of losses there, says Simon.As January approaches, New Hampshire is working to educate the public about whats coming. Theyre creating print materials, social media outreach and doing trainings with providers on how to talk to their Medicaid patients."Doctors are going to have to have these conversations with their patients. To tell them Im treating you for diabetes, and I need to continue to keep treating you. Theres a work requirement now, are you meeting those hours? Let's figure out if you meet an exemption," says Holly Stevens, health policy coordinator for New Futures, a New Hampshire-based health nonprofit.But given the inherently complicated nature of Medicaid, and work requirements, it's going to be an uphill battle to make sure patients don't lose their health care -- even if they are eligible."The complexities of all of these different rules makes even my head spin," says Wagner. "So even when you have these guardrails in place, people dont know about them, so they dont take advantage of them." Voters in six Western states Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nevada and Washington will head to the polls Nov. 6 with the chance to decide on hotly contested, statewide ballot measures that propose sweeping changes to environmental regulations.Standing to lose billions in future profits, oil, gas and mining companies are opening deep pocketbooks to throw their substantial weight against those initiatives that impact topics ranging from renewable energy to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Supporters of the measures are being badly outspent but are weighing in with millions of dollars, as well.While groups on both sides claim to be grassroots coalitions of local residents or in-state businesses, in reality much of the cash is coming from out of state.Groups leading the opposition against those six environmentally focused ballot measures have raised more than $107 million combined this election cycle, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of state campaign finance records.All told, as of Oct. 26, oil, gas and mining interests account for 99 percent of contributions to political committees opposing four of the ballot measures. Many of those donors are headquartered in Houston or Canada. While the Nevada measure has minimal opposition, in the sixth state, Arizona, the fight against a proposed renewable energy standard has received 98 percent of its funding from the states largest utility company. Local governments are always concerned about Census undercounts. If all their residents dont show up in the official tallies, they can lose political power in legislatures and Congress and millions in federal funding grants. This year, there are a couple of reasons localities are more nervous than usual.The first has gotten a lot of attention. A question about citizenship that the Trump administration wants to add to the Census form has communities worried that immigrants and refugees will be much less likely to participate. That question is being challenged in court, but local governments are already thinking about ways to reassure residents that their citizenship response wont be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Cities are also seeking clarity from the Census Bureau about whether forms on which the citizenship question is left blank will be counted anyway.The other issue is manpower. The Census is a massive undertaking, with somewhere in the neighborhood of half a million people hired to help. Back in 2010, the Census Bureau had a hard time filling those slots. That was with an unemployment rate of nearly 10 percent. Now, its under 4 percent. Cities and states are working with local institutions to figure out how they can assist the feds in their recruiting process.At this early stage, its all about getting prepared. The National League of Cities (NLC) is recommending that its members make sure their master address files are up to date. If a city has grown over the course of the decade, that includes adding the addresses of new buildings and residences to the right databases. Some cities are sending out teams with clipboards, writing down the addresses of backyard dwellings and other hard-to-spot housing units. One of the easiest ways not to get counted is for the Census Bureau not to know where you live, says Alex Jones, manager of NLCs local democracy initiative.This will be the first true digital Census. Respondents will be able to fill out forms online by using a unique identifying number theyll receive in the mail. Cities and counties will be talking with managers of libraries, post offices and other public buildings about installing kiosks for filing internet responses.Even now, not everyone has a computer or smartphone. There are always hard-to-reach communities with which local governments have to work hardest to ensure accurate counts. Salt Lake City is used to that, with a majority of residences occupied by renters and 20 percent of the population living in poverty. The city is hiring a full-time coordinator to make sure agencies are working together when it comes to operations and outreach efforts.Salt Lake and other cities in Utah always feel shortchanged, having found that Mormon missionaries living overseas at the time of the Census get overlooked. Todays more diverse population will present new challenges, especially if theres a citizenship question, but at root the goals remain the same. From our standpoint, theres very little difference, says Matthew Rojas, Salt Lake Citys communications director. Everyone should be counted, whether youre a missionary serving on a mission or an immigrant living in Salt Lake City. Images Sorry, there are no recent results for popular images. An election official in St. Louis County said Thursday night that officials mistakenly sent letters to 253 voters telling them they were ineligible to vote on Nov. 6.The Board of Elections revised the number on Thursday night after saying earlier in the day that the number had been 600.The problem was first discovered about Oct. 15, when some voters who received the letter called to say they had received it in error, Democratic Director Eric Fey said Thursday night.Fey said about 150 people who had called to point out the error over the past few weeks had been added back to the rolls, but the problem did not trigger any additional investigation by the board until a reporter asked about it on Thursday.Fey said the board for the first time on Thursday looked into the 1,500 letters it had sent, and generated a list of voters who should not have received the letter. Republican Director Rick Stream called the newspaper back to say that number was 600, and that the board still needed to contact almost all of them.But Fey called later to say that the number Stream provided had been an estimate, not an actual count, and the real number was 253.Fey said that meant there were still 103 people in St. Louis County who still did not know they had received a letter in error. And he said he was "99 percent" sure that was the full extent of the problem. Any voter who received the letter was asked to call the election board at 314-615-1800.Stream said earlier Thursday that the board should have acted more quickly to notify voters of the mistake. He said the error was committed while processing voter registration forms that came in after Missouri's Oct. 10 deadline.The board sent letters to 1,500 voters indicating that their registrations had been received too late for the Nov. 6 election but that their names would be added to the rolls for future elections.Fey said the problem was attributable to a single election worker who did not know that voter registration forms postmarked or signed by Oct. 10 should be counted, even if they arrived at the board office a few days later.Stream said Thursday morning that the board had not issued voter registration cards to voters who got letters in error. The cards are usually issued as part of an automatic system, "and we didn't ensure that those changes were put into that automated system," Stream said.But Fey said later Thursday night that the board had actually issued voter registration cards to the 150 voters who had called in and had been identified as receiving a letter in error.After a Post-Dispatch story about the problem was published online Thursday, one St. Louis County voter said she contacted the board to express her outrage.And another voter took to social media to post a picture of the letter, suggesting it was fake and an attempt to suppress voters.The letter wasn't fake, it was just wrong, Stream said.It was the second snafu at the election board in recent days. Last week, the board acknowledged it had to reissue sample ballots to 12 percent of registered voters because the first version had errors.In 2016, issues that plagued voting at more than 60 polling places led to a two-week suspension for Fey and the resignation of Republican Gary Fuhr. The board did not accept Fuhr's resignation, and he retired later that year. On Friday, in the morning, at Longreach, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC visited Fernhurst, the property of Mr Tim Rayner and Mrs Sandy Rayner, and the Governor inspected drought relief infrastructure. Following, at Longreach, His Excellency attended the unveiling of The Drovers public art, and the Governor unveiled a plaque, and addressed guests. Following, at Longreach, His Excellency undertook a walking tour of Eagle Street, and the Governor called on local business owners. Following, at Longreach, His Excellency visited Longreach State School, and the Governor unveiled a plaque and planted a tree to commemorate the schools 125th anniversary, and addressed students and guests. Following, at the ABC Western Queensland studios, Longreach, His Excellency undertook a media interview with presenter Russell Varley. In the afternoon, at the Longreach Motor Inn, Longreach, His Excellency received a briefing from Longreach Regional Council representatives. Following, at the Longreach Motor Inn, Longreach, His Excellency hosted a luncheon for stakeholders involved in the drought assistance package, and the Governor addressed guests. Following, His Excellency returned to Government House following official travel to Winton and Longreach. In the evening, at Government House, His Excellency and Mrs Kaye de Jersey hosted a reception for Boys Brigade Australia, Queensland and Girls Brigade Australia, Queensland, and the Governor presented Queens Badges and Queens Awards, and addressed guests. Description GIS - 05 November, 2018 : Government is fully committed to supporting future development for the Chagossian community and improving their overall well-being, emphasised the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, at the wreath laying ceremony held on 03 November 2018 at Quay C in Port Louis to commemorate the deportation of Chagossians. The Minister Mentor, Minister of Defence, Minister for Rodrigues, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, the Chairman and Leader of the Chagos Refugees Group, Mr Olivier Bancoult, as well as several other ministers and eminent personalities were present at the event, organised by the Ministry of Defence and Rodrigues, the Chagossian Welfare Fund in collaboration with the Mauritius Ports Authority. Prime Minister Jugnauth highlighted that the Chagos issue is one among the main priorities of the Government who remains sensitive to the plight of Chagossians. National unity, he highlighted, will pave the way for the development of a stronger nation which will in turn contribute to the fight for a social cause against the injustice made to Mauritians, especially those of Chagossian origins. He underscored that the forceful expulsion of Chagossians from their homeland has perpetrated a historic injustice that must be remedied. He emphasised that the denial of the right of Chagossians to resettle in the Chagos Archipelago is a manifest breach of international law and a violation of their basic rights. Prime Minister Jugnauth recalled that the United Nations General Assembly had sought for an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legal consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, to which some 94 countries reacted favourably. He pointed out that the oral statements and presentations of Chagossians at the ICJ during the public proceedings in September 2018 have shed light on various aspects which have initiated further reflection as well as thoughtful discussions. On this score, the Prime Minister expressed the gratitude of the Government and the people of Mauritius towards the African Union Member States, for their support in the struggle to complete the decolonisation process and uphold the legitimate rights of the Chagossian community. The Minister Mentor, Minister of Defence, Minister for Rodrigues, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, on his part, expressed great hope on the Chagos issue for fruitful outcomes in favour of Mauritius, particularly of Chagossians. He underlined that the public hearings of the ICJ mark a milestone moment in the long-lasting struggle of Chagossians against the disrespect of their rights to resettling on their native place. Mauritius, he said, has benefited from international cooperation of several countries such as India, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, Thailand and Marshall Islands amongst others in the support of the respect of territorial integrity and sovereignty of Mauritius. The Minister Mentor commended the efforts and patience of the Chagossian community in their struggle to return to their homeland and reaffirmed Governments determination to relentlessly pursue its initiatives in conformity with international law to effectively exercise sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago. For his part, Mr Olivier Bancoult, underpinned that the Chagos Monument at Quay C is symbolical of all the misery, hardship and suffering that the community underwent during their deportation from their native place to Mauritius, especially when they were deprived of their legitimate rights on the land of Chagos. 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. (TNS) Washington State Patrol has rolled out a new system for sexual assault victims to easily track rape kits as theyre processed through different government agencies, similar to how a UPS package is tracked online.This system is something different, said Larry Hebert, director at the WSP Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau. Its essentially for the benefit of the survivors.Those who have kits currently in the system will be given an ID card with a log-in ID and a password at the time the kit is collected at the hospital. Each kit will have a bar code thats scanned as it makes its way through the police department, the property rooms, the crime laboratories, the forensic scientists and back to the property rooms, and the victims will be able to track the progress online.Before the tracking system was introduced, if the case wasnt picked up by prosecutors, the victims would often experience radio silence.There was a kind of mystery for the survivors around what would happen to the kits and if they would every see it again, said Erin Williams Hueter, volunteer coordinator and victim advocate for Lutheran Community Services NW.Theyre asking, What happened? she said. Now they can follow up and get answers. Its important (to) have that information. Its their information.Sexual assault survivors can get an examination at any of the six local hospitals, but it may take some time for the hospitals staff to use the system properly, Williams Hueter said.Providence Health and Services and MultiCare Deaconess Hospital confirmed they are using the new tracking system.Every kit is being tracked, said Kevin Maloney, spokesman for MultiCare Deaconess.The system has been used in Canada, where the company that developed the software, STACS DNA, is based. WSP, which deals with all the sexual assault testing in the state, signed the contract in July 2017, and the costs for the contract will total $771,922.47 until it expires in 2021.Hebert said theres no certainty as to how long it will take to process the kits, and it depends on the priority of the case, but his goal is for kits to be processed in 30 days, he said.The new tracking system isnt a response to the Washington State Attorney Generals audit of law enforcement agencies storage facilities that found almost 6,500 sexual assault kits were at a standstill. It will help, said Hebert, but it could take two to three years to fully process all the old backlog kits. Some kits have been sitting around for 30 years while WSP waits for federal funding, and the state is contracting with private companies to process all the old kits.WSP launched a pilot program in February with Tacoma Police Department, Lakewood Police Department and Pierce County Sheriffs Department, and it was successful, Hebert said. North Carolina and Michigan are using a similar system, and Arizona and Texas are in the process of signing a contract with STACS DNA, Hebert said. Let this factoid be your guide on the most recent allegations:Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp accused the Department of Homeland Security of attempting to hack his office's systems, which include the Georgia voter registration database. Six months later, the DHS inspector general concluded that the allegations were unfounded ; someone on a DHS computer had simply visited the Georgia Secretary of State website. Now, two days before an election in which Kemp himself is the Republican candidate for governor, he has levied similarly unsupported charges this time against his Democratic opponents. (TNS) Thomas Scheuerman wants to vote Tuesday. He'd really, really like to cast a ballot.To do so, he's planning on having a colleague cover part of his shift while Scheuerman votes at 7 a.m., right when the polls open, before rushing to work."If he says no, I'm kind of buggered, I'm kind of stuck," Scheuerman said. "If there's a situation and someone says no has child-care issues or something I'm stuck, I won't vote this year."The problem is that Scheuerman, 29, is an emergency medical technician with the Philadelphia Fire Department, driving an ambulance around the city in response to 911 calls. He's not exactly free to take a break and vote in the middle of a 12-hour shift, and he lives across the city from where he's stationed.Scheuerman and most of his 500 or so fellow first responders working Election Day in the city also aren't eligible for absentee ballots, which are limited to very specific circumstances by Pennsylvania law; early in-person voting is not allowed in the state."We're not allowed to vote, basically," said Jack Eltman, a 15-year firefighter with the Philadelphia Fire Department and union official who lived in Northeast Philadelphia before recently moving outside the city.The plight of Philly's first responders, experts said, demonstrates how restrictive election laws create barriers to to voting.Because while other states have expanded their voting options over the last two decades, Pennsylvania's election laws have remained largely trapped in amber, a remnant of an earlier age.Pennsylvania law does allow absentee voting if someone is working on Election Day if they'll be outside the town where they live. But Philly's firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs are required to live in the city for their first years on the job, and a spokesperson for the union, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 22, said the majority of members remain in Philadelphia after the residency requirement expires."This completely disenfranchises them," said Robin Kolodny, a Temple University political science professor, when told of the situation. "People should be outraged by that, it's completely inappropriate."In contrast to Pennsylvania, a movement over the last decade or two to open up the voting process has expanded access in other statesToday, 37 states allow early voting and 27 states including New Jersey allow absentee voting without needing to state a reason. (Washington, D.C., allows both.)As those reforms have been implemented, the number of votes cast in some way other than in person on Election Day has continued to rise; in the 2016 presidential election, 16 states had a majority of votes cast early or by mail.Pennsylvania has no early voting and is explicit about the circumstances that allow absentee voting. Absentee ballots are for people who will "be absent from the municipality of their residence, because their duties, occupation or business require them to be elsewhere" or are unable to vote in person because of illness, physical disability or religious holiday.So while two in five votes cast nationwide in 2016 were by some method other than the polls on Election Day, that number was just 5 percent in Pennsylvania.First responders in Philly are scheduled to work 12-hour shifts, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. or vice versa, though in practice that differs. That means they have to either get to the polls when they open at 7, or rush there just before they close if they get out of work before 8 p.m.If they have a long commute across the city, or traffic is bad that day, or they wake up late, too bad. If they receive a last-minute call emergencies don't follow a set schedule and get out late, too bad.And with absentee voting off the table for Philly's firefighters and EMS workers who live in the city, it all comes down to the in-person vote.There's no guarantee about that, either."You've got somebody who lives in the Northeast section of the city, works in the Southwest section of the city, there's absolutely zero chance that person's going to be able to vote before or after their shift. And they're unable to fill out an absentee ballot," Eltman said.Multiple members of the Philadelphia Fire Department described individual arrangements they have to make, similar to what Scheuerman hopes to do Tuesday. It's all about working things out with colleagues, trying to cover an hour or two of your shift."It's not an official solution, it's not a systemic solution," said Noah Turkewitz, 31, an EMT who lives in Fairmount and works in South Philly.Turkewitz managed to make it just in time to vote in person after his day shift in 2016, he said, "only because I happened to get off on time. It was really a toss-up whether I was going to be able to vote."Firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs aren't the only people who face barriers to voting, of course. They happen to be in a uniquely difficult situation, but there are others who work long hours nurses, say or multiple jobs and just can't vote on Election Day.That's one reason, along with potential cost savings, that early voting and no-excuse absentee voting have become popular in other states.But it's hard, in polarized Pennsylvania, to get lawmakers to open up the election code. Each side worries that the other will take advantage.And there's an additional wrench: The language allowing absentee voting for people who work outside the municipality where they live is written into the state constitution.It's a multi-year process to amend the constitution. But it ought to be done, and in a bipartisan fashion, said State Rep. Martina White, a Republican who represents Northeast Philadelphia, where many firefighters live. She said her office wants to take on the issue in the next legislative session."There is an opportunity for us to help [first-responders] and give them what every other citizen gets to do, and be able to vote," White said.Scheurman said he hopes the system will get fixed."I work Christmas, I work Thanksgiving. I work holidays, nights, weekends," Scheuerman said, and that's OK because "that's the job I've chosen, that's the job I love."He is more than willing to make sacrifices, but, "I don't think voting should be one of them."2018 The Philadelphia InquirerVisit The Philadelphia Inquirer at www.philly.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. A helicopter crash. A civilian copter suffers engine failure and crashes in a remote field. Rescue teams descend on the area to look for survivors and recover evidence. A nuclear detonation. An improvised device at a nuclear facility yields a regional electric grid failure, a bio-hazard spill and multiple casualties. The area is off-limits to anyone without protective HAZMAT gear so drones and IoT sensors are used. Active shooter. Involves a shooter and a bomb. Hurricane. A Cat-5 storm hits urban coastal areas, and leads to horrific flooding, prompting efforts to rescue survivors from homes. Interstate pileup. Bad weather causes a multi-car crash on a rural interstate A nuclear detonation; a magnitude 9.1 earthquake; an active shooter. Subway terror attack. Verizon will host state and local first responders, police and SWAT teams this week to test some bleeding-edge technology that could soon be on the front lines.Operation Convergent Response will showcase dozens of technology elements, including delivery drones, gunshot detectors, a mobile surgical center and IoT sensors. The event will be at the Guardian Centers in Perry, Ga., Nov. 5 through 8.It will be the second annual event and features several simulated scenarios, including a hurricane, nuclear detonation, active shooter/hostage situation, and utilizes some of the new and featured technology, like a robotic snake that can climb a wall.It moves like a snake across the floor and climbs a steel beam, said Rob LeGrande, a Verizon consultant. Its a robotic drone that can climb a wall and you wouldnt even know its there.Some of the scenarios that will take place are:The subway terror attack is a simulation of a man who releases a chemical into the air and tries to detonate an explosive in his vest. As the bomb goes off, so does the power, and people in the area are victims of chemical dispersal. As people try to evacuate, their path to safety is blocked by a destroyed rail car.Some of the technology used will be software used to locate victims and responders, the robotic snake, inflatable tents for mobile decontamination, video surveillance and others.You need to measure and optimize the network and the best way to do that is through simulated scenarios, LeGrande said. Public safety demands that you exercise your solution and optimize communications.Though the technology on display during these exercises is an exciting and important piece, getting first responders together and simulating disasters provides another important element.Its figuring out how are we going to communicate with each other and what were going to do, said Verizon consultant Ken Morckel. We have local first responders volunteering their time and theyre going to get some benefit out of it. The regional Codex for NASWP experts met at Le Lagon in Port Vila for web tool training and parallel sessions on Noni and Kava standards. Cka Ka Qellus kacamak, the ultimate comfort food. Photo: Melissa Hom Although the Underground Gourmet has dined at countless Albanian restaurants over the years, we havent eaten much Albanian food. How, you ask, while drawing air circles with your index finger next to the side of your head, can this be? Every other Italian restaurant in New York is owned by Albanians, explains Ismer Mjeku, publisher of the Bronx-based Albanian Yellow Pages, which bills itself as the only Albanian-business directory in the USA. And hes not entirely joking. In one of New Yorks more interesting ethnoculinary developments, Albanian immigrants have spent the past several decades working their way up the rungs of the citys Italian-restaurant-world ladder, learning the food, speaking the language, becoming generally indispensable, until eventually getting the chance to buy the joint or open a place of their own. There is geographic logic in this: The two countries are separated only by the Strait of Otranto, and Italy is the route by which Albanians have historically emigrated here, which gives them an immersion course in the food culture. Take a close look behind the scenes at some of the places we have come to think of as Italian (or Italian-American) through and through Patsys of East Harlem and V&T Pizzeria included and you will likely find an enterprising Albanian holding down the fort. Pizzerias, in fact, were and remain gateway businesses for this phenomenon. Perhaps making the transition easier was the existence of Albanias own national pie, the flaky pastry packets called burek, a legacy of Ottoman rule. Gradually bureks began appearing alongside pepperoni pizzas at slice joints around town, especially in the Bronx, where they became an attraction not only for homesick expats but for exotica-seeking chowhounds, a bit of national pride poking out from beneath the lid of the familiar FRESH HOT DELICIOUS takeout box. One such pizzeria, Tradita, opened in the Norwood section of the Bronx in early 2017 but with a bit of a twist: Owner Ramiz Kukaj, an ethnic Albanian from Kosovo, supplemented the pizzas and bureks with a handful of Albanian specialties and, in a departure from the prevailing custom of cloaking ones identity under a neon-and-Formica facade, adorned the humble premises with imported antiques and photos of the homeland. And that was just the beginning. Last December, he shrugged off the security blanket, opening a full-fledged Albanian restaurant without a trace of either pizza or burek on its extensive menu. He called it Cka Ka Qellu, an old expression of hospitality in a country long impoverished by decades of communist rule. Cka Ka Qellu. Photo: Melissa Hom Located in Belmont, right behind the landmark Arthur Avenue Retail Market, Cka Ka Qellu seems as much living museum exhibit as modern-day Bronx restaurant a rare ambassador of an often-obscured culinary heritage. The look could be called medieval farmhouse, with ancient cooking implements and formidable tools hung on the walls beneath the wood-beamed ceiling. One glass-encased alcove holds a mannequin clad in traditional garb that wouldnt seem out of place at the Met Costume Institute. On weekends, the wait staff are similarly attired, with busboys wearing tunic shirts and rustic cummerbunds and the waitress, a commanding presence named Ilona, sporting a long, silver-hemmed skirt and festive blouse. The bill of fare reads, Most of our dishes contain egg, flour, and dairies, and truer words were never spoken, or, in this case, printed in a tiny font at the bottom of a menu. The lactose intolerant and gluten free might want to think twice before reserving a table. Vegans too: The selection of grilled sausages and meats seems fairly representative of the greater Balkan peninsula. This is a bready, meaty, dairy-rich part of the world, if the Cka Ka Qellu menu is any indication, and during the course of an evening, a mixed-grill meat platter will inevitably make its way to every table, accompanied by baskets of puffy round loaves of warm Albanian bread. By all means, sample the skinless qebapa sausages and the chile-flecked kofte, preferably with Balkan condiments like the red-pepper-based ajvar and the tzatzikilike tarator. But the real delights are things youre unlikely to find elsewhere. Chef Afrim Kaliqani has a knack for the type of food long-simmered stews and labor-intensive baked dishes and savory pies you imagine doting Albanian grandmas serve their extended families for Sunday supper. The crepe-like layers of dough brushed with melted cheese called fli. Photo: Melissa Hom Clockwise from left, mixed grill platter; mantia dumplings in yogurt sauce; and a feta-shaved shop salad. Photo: Melissa Horn. Clockwise from left, mixed grill platter; mantia dumplings in yogurt sauce; and a feta-shaved shop salad. Photo: Melissa Horn. The brumat (savory dishes) section of the menu is loaded with hard-to-pronounce but easy-to-love oddities, such as leqenik (squares of salty corn bread speckled with spinach) and fli (crepelike layers of dough brushed with melted cheese, cooked in a round pan, and served in pielike slabs with pickled green tomato and a wedge of goat or feta cheese). Mantia are described here as dumplings, but they turn out to look more like little Parker House rolls filled with a layer of oniony ground beef. They might remind you of mini bureks or, in their distinctive allium-forward flavor profile, White Castle sliders. Of course, this being the kitchen that never met a food it didnt think could be improved by a dose of dairy, you can get your mantia luxuriating in a creamy bath of garlic-spiked yogurt sauce, an upgrade you might think needlessly extravagant until you try it. The clay-pot tava are the rare kind of restaurant dishes that focus all their energies on substance over style. Veal stew is hearty and satisfying, brightened by the flavor of red peppers, and stuffed cabbage is meaty, tender, and everything a stuffed cabbage should be. But if theres one tava dish you shouldnt miss, its the kacamak, a fine-grained white polenta cooked with milk and water and larded with kaymak, the clotted cream of the Balkans. It arrives at the table piping hot, and although it may look like a convalescent pile of mush, it is epic: gorgeously rich and tangy and about as light and fluffy as a La Grenouille souffle. If, heaven forbid, the Underground Gourmet should ever end up on death row, with no hope of a last-minute reprieve from the governor or Ms. UG coming through with the file concealed in the cake, a supersized tava of kacamak would surely be the No. 1 item on the last-meal-request order form. It is the comfort food to end all comfort foods. After that, cold pastries, such as a hefty wedge of baklava, seem a bit anticlimactic. But its still a pleasure to linger over strong Turkish-style coffee poured from a copper ibrik into a tiny cup. Its ceremonial and celebratory, a final gesture of hospitality in a restaurant brimming over with it. Clockwise from top, mantia dumplings stuffed with ground veal; the red-pepper spread called ajvar; and legenik, an Albanian cornbread of sorts. Photo: Melissa Horn. Clockwise from top, mantia dumplings stuffed with ground veal; the red-pepper spread called ajvar; and legenik, an Albanian cornbread of sorts. Photo:... more Clockwise from top, mantia dumplings stuffed with ground veal; the red-pepper spread called ajvar; and legenik, an Albanian cornbread of sorts. Photo: Melissa Horn. Photo: Melissa Hom Rating: 3 stars Cka Ka Qellu 2321 Hughes Ave., nr. Crescent Ave., Belmont; 718-933-6194; ckakaqellu.com Open: Daily for lunch and dinner. Prices: $2.50 to $29. Ideal Meal: Tradita salad, ajvar, tarator, mixed grill, mantia tava, kacamak. Note: A beer-and-wine license is pending. Scratchpad: One star for spotlighting an underrepresented cuisine, one for the welcoming environment, and one more for the kacamak alone. *This article appears in the November 12, 2018, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now! It Will Not Work Silencing Women South Sudanese "Those days when you use to be able to win with the vigana defence are over...so dont piss on me and tell me it is raining!" Nyanyuon Bany I would bet any outspoken South Sudanese woman has had someone try to shame her into silence by innuendos and insinuation of either dating them, sleeping with them or some idea of bitterness by being heartbroken. These men cant accept that their ideas are just crap and that one is simply pulling them up on their public records of bad behaviour or utter uselessness at their job. So they bring in the vagina defence - attempting to belittle the woman idea s by attacking their moral character - which they know carries a lot of cultural advantage in favour of men. I have seen all kind of South Sudanese men doing this, even those who will next day talk about equal representation of women, women rights and their wives and daughters. I saw it with Nyandeng Garang being called Riek Machar s wife, have seen one man weaponised the sexual assault of a woman to claim she is only critical of him because she experienced that abuse and was now bitter against all men. I have seen it used against another woman who broke off an engagement. I have seen it used against me even by men I have never been in any private setting with (I am not sure whether we slept by osmosis). Whatever the accusation, the idea is all the same: make the woman look emotional, hysterical or even worse make her look like a slut, a sharmutha. Only weak and pathetic men do this. And it will not work anymore. We will continue to speak, debate. We will not give up our voices. Even if I was Mary Magdalene, and had slept with the whole of Christendom, aint none of Jesus (business) to tell me to keep quiet, because a woman is no less of a human because she had a relationship with a man, sexual or otherwise. We dont think with our private parts but with our brains. Those days when you use to be able to win with the vigana defence are over. Get better ideas instead attempting to humiliate women into silence. I for once will not even feel a slim guilt when men try to pull this. And any decent man will not buy it. Ps: I am actually a nice person but I am not soft because I am a woman, a wife or mother; so dont piss on me and tell me it is raining! Shout out: To all those South Sudanese men who stand by women, who cheer us on, who are not afraid of strong women. We will always need your support. UNMISS In Yambio Promotes Road Safety By Asking Boda Boda Drivers To Ride For Peace Motorcycles account for a large proportion of traffic accidents in South Sudan, with drivers and passengers of commercial motorcycle taxis, boda bodas, running a particularly high risk of injuries and death. Gbudue Governor, Daniel Badagbu in dark blue and two of his minister lead the ride for peace on bodaboda [Photo credit| UNMISS] By Felix Francis Katie YAMBIO, 05 November 2018 [Gurtong]-in an attempt to promote road safety and minimize accidents, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, under the theme Ride for Peace, has distributed helmets and reflector jackets to 200 boda boda drivers in the Gbudue area. The helmets and jackets have peace messages written on them, and we [boda boda drivers] are mobile and carry different categories of people. When they are reading these things I am sure it can contribute to bringing peace to our country, said Geoffrey Joseph Waure, chairperson of the local Boda Boda Association, echoing the visible excitement experienced by his colleagues as they put on their new gear. The handing out of the protective equipment took place on Wednesday 24 October, thus making it part of the 73rd anniversary of the UN. Margaret Mama, the only female boda boda driver in the area, may also have been the happiest about her new attire. The safety helmet and reflector jacket will help me do a better job, Ms. Mama beamed. Christopher Murenga, head of the UNMISS Field Office in the Western Equatoria region, urged the boda boda riders to use their business as a platform to spread the message of peace as they carry their passengers around. This program is called Ride for Peace for a very simple reason: it is not our mandate to bring peace to South Sudan on our own, it is the responsibility of every South Sudanese person to bring sustainable, inclusive and durable peace to South Sudan, and as boda boda riders and as people who are very close to the community who move around everywhere it is your responsibility as well. The distribution of the helmets and reflector jackets in Gbudue was the first of its kind in the Western Equatoria region. (HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a former registered representative and investment adviser in Altoona, Pennsylvania, with operating a long-running offering fraud. The SECs complaint alleges that Douglas P. Simanski raised over $3.9 million from approximately 27 of his brokerage customers and investment advisory clients, many of them retired or elderly, by telling them that he would invest their money in either a tax free fixed rate investment, a rental car company, or one of two coal mining companies in which Simanski claimed to have an ownership interest. He allegedly told the investors to write checks payable to personal bank and brokerage accounts he opened in his wifes name. The complaint alleges that instead of investing the money as he promised, Simanski largely used the money to repay other investors and for his personal use. According to the complaint, Simanskis scheme collapsed when one of his clients contacted the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Simanski admitted his scheme to his employer. This matter highlights the need for retail investors and retirees and elderly individuals in particular to remain skeptical of investments that sound too good to be true and confirm that investments recommended by brokers and investment advisers are approved for sale by their respective brokerage or advisory firms before transferring funds, said Kelly L. Gibson, Associate Regional Director for Enforcement in the SECs Philadelphia Regional Office. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania today announced that Simanski pleaded guilty to criminal charges. The SECs complaint, filed in federal court in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, charges Simanski with violating antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. Simanski has agreed to settle the charges against him. The settlement, which is subject to court approval, orders injunctive relief and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus interest. Simanski also agreed to the entry of an SEC order that, when entered, will bar him from the securities industry for the rest of his life. The number of students receiving student financial aid for studies overseas, on the other hand, increased by five per cent to roughly 9,600. The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) has reported that the number of student financial aid recipients decreased by approximately five per cent year-on-year to 276,000 in the academic year of 20172018. Kela on Friday revealed that the vast majority (85%) of those receiving student financial aid overseas were studying in the European Union: Sweden, the United Kingdom and Estonia, for example, together accounted for almost 60 per cent of those receiving student financial aid overseas. Almost two-thirds, or 171,000, of all student financial aid recipients were in higher education and the remaining 102,000 in upper secondary education. Consisting of the study grant, housing supplement and government guarantee for student loan, the average student financial aid was 736 euros in December 2017. Students in universities received an average of 883 euros, those in universities of applied sciences 876 euros, those in vocational schools 497 euros and those in general upper-secondary schools 213 euros in student financial aid. The number of students receiving the housing supplement fell by 90 per cent to 19,400 in 20172018, after students were transferred under the general housing allowance on 1 August 2017. Kela also reported that the number of students who took out a government-guaranteed student loan increased by 12 per cent year-on-year to over 151,000 in the academic year of 20172018, bringing the total number of people with outstanding student loan debt to 408,500 and the value of outstanding student loans to 3.1 billion euros. The average student loan debt burden was 7,630 euros. The number of students taking out a student loan has roughly doubled over the past 10 years, from less than 80,000 in 20072008 to 151,000 in 20172018, according to statistics compiled by Kela. Aleksi Teivainen HT As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! 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